KY AG Daniel Cameron, on COVID restrictions, the Breonna Taylor case, and Trump. | Ep. 39
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 4 minutes
Words per Minute
177.06255
Summary
On this episode of The Megyn Kelly Show, Megynne talks to Kentucky's attorney general, Daniel Cameron, about the controversial Breonna Taylor case and why he refused to indict three white police officers in the death of a black woman.
Transcript
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Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.
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Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.
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Today on the program we've got Daniel Cameron, and this is going to be a treat.
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You may know him better as the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Kentucky,
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and he became a national star this past year through his Republican National Convention speech,
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and also because he is the AG who handled the Breonna Taylor case.
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This is one of the cases that was made a very big national news story by Black Lives Matter activists
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and others who wanted to see three police officers indicted for murder after a young woman,
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Breonna Taylor, was tragically killed inside of her own apartment after the cops executed a warrant.
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We'll get into the details of that case in a minute, but the grand jury basically did not
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recommend charging the officers with murder. Daniel Cameron, the Attorney General, did not
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recommend that they return charges and indictment against the officers because there was a boyfriend
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inside the apartment who admitted he fired the first shot against the cops and actually got one of them.
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in the femoral artery, that they were only returning fire, not starting it. And he was promptly
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demonized. Daniel Cameron happens to be Black. That made people attack him as some sort of a race
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traitor for not making sure there was an indictment. And he stood strong in the face of those attacks
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and did not back down at all. He always expressed empathy for Breonna Taylor and her family,
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but followed the law and did it in a situation that was really tough and very fraught, very fraught,
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of course, as you know, given what the country's going through. So I admire him because he seems
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strong to me. If you have the time, go back and YouTube his RNC convention speech because it was
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great. And he's definitely a rising star in the Republican Party. He's only 35 years old.
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Um, he's married, his wife's a school teacher. He's from Louisville. That's how you got to say
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it. Louisville, not Lewis. You probably knew that. And, um, I think you're going to enjoy our
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conversation. But first, this holiday season is about celebrating and spreading joy to those we
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slash MK to save 25% off. Now we're going to get to Daniel Cameron in one second, but I do want to
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tell you just quickly first that we're new at the podcasting business here. All right. I haven't done
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this before. It's my first Christmas season as a podcaster. And we were saying to each other,
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what are we going to do over the Christmas break? And I was like, well, we're going to put out
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new shows. And then we said, what did the competitors do? And do you know that I found
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that a lot of these podcasters do nothing? They just leave you hanging. So they get you hooked
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on your favorite podcast and then they go away and you have nothing for two or three weeks or they run
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best of or they, you know, they sort of phone it in. Not us, folks. I got you. We are running all new
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episodes with really interesting people throughout the entire holiday season. So if you're into the show,
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you never have to worry that you're going to get something stale or that's not new or just a bunch
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of like repeats. We're not doing any repeats. You're just going to get all new content from us
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all the way through January. And, uh, you know, we'll just keep it rolling. So I've got you and I
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appreciate your loyalty to me. Our numbers have been skyrocketing. We're going up, up, up the charts.
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The downloads have been amazing. The subscriptions, amazing. Very grateful to all of you. And, uh,
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we'll show it by keeping the fresh content coming. And now without further ado, Daniel Cameron.
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Let's kick it off with some politics coverage because this is the week that the electoral
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college made it official, uh, that Biden's going to be the 46th president of the United States.
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Let me ask you as a lawyer. Okay. I forget, obviously you're a Trump supporter. You spoke
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at the RNC and so on, but legally, legally, do you have any problem with that?
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Well, look, I, I think, uh, you know, I certainly am, uh, the biggest supporter of
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president Trump and have been grateful for the way, uh, that he poured into me and invested in
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the Commonwealth. Um, and certainly, uh, respect, uh, the process that was undertaken in terms of,
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uh, our court systems and, and, uh, really trying to expose, uh, any sort of fraud that might have
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been undertaken during the election, but, uh, the process has played itself out again. I have,
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uh, just been grateful for the way that, uh, president Trump has worked for the American people
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over the last four years. Uh, uh, I was with him, uh, on Thursday and he continues to, uh, be an advocate
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and proponent of the working men and women of this country. And I think he has, uh, shaped the
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Republican party for years to come, will continue to have a substantial, uh, influence and will
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continue to be a contributing, uh, factor in, uh, the, uh, the years to come. And I can't say enough
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great things, uh, about, uh, his leadership, but obviously, you know, I think as, uh, as it was
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and is his right, uh, to, uh, pursue, uh, the legal system to just make sure, uh, that the, uh, the
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ballots and the integrity of our election systems were upheld. And, uh, I certainly, uh, think that
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was his right to do that, but it, it looks like the electors will be, uh, making the decision for
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Joe Biden. When you got up and spoke at the RNC, I mean, President Trump gave you that opportunity.
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And, um, I know that you were also reportedly, well, not reportedly, I think it was
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confirmed on his short list for the Supreme court, which is pretty amazing because you're a young
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guy. Um, so, you know, president Trump actually has, of course, some people say he's a racist,
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a white super, all the stuff, but when it comes to actually giving opportunities to people of color,
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um, you're an example of him being pretty open-minded to that. And I wonder what you think of all the
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claims that he's racist and he, you know, he's a white supremacist.
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Oh, it's completely absurd. It's a, it's an absurd notion. Look, president Trump has been,
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uh, Megan, as you've said, uh, uh, terrific to me, uh, but he's been terrific, uh, to the black
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community in terms of, uh, you talk about opportunity zones with Tim Scott and the efforts
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undertaken there to get those off the ground. Uh, you talk about some of the, uh, increases in
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funding, uh, for historically black colleges that came through this president. Uh, you talk about the
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economy just in general, how the economy, uh, before the pandemic, uh, was, was gangbusters in
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many ways and increased exponentially and increased opportunities, uh, for black Americans all across
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the country. Uh, and you saw the, uh, decrease in the unemployment rate for African-Americans. So,
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uh, this president, uh, also passed the first step act, which, uh, was something that had been
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around in terms of an idea, in terms of a legislative proposal, uh, for a while, but he
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was the first president to be able to get it on, to get it done. Uh, yes, ma'am. In, in order to
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reverse some of the, uh, decisions that were made in the, uh, crime bill of 1994. And so this president,
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uh, look, you know, it's one thing, uh, to, to criticize someone for their rhetoric. Uh, but with
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president Trump, you have to watch and look at his actions. Uh, and that's why at the RNC, uh, during
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the convention at the speech, uh, I was so complimentary of him because he has again, been
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a staunch advocate for the black community, but for all Americans. And that's what you should want
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in a president, someone who is going to fight, uh, daily for the working men and women in this
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country. I talk about, uh, my mom who, uh, has been a, uh, an, an advocate of the president and a
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supporter of the president. Uh, she, you know, look, she, she lives in, uh, Elizabethtown,
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Kentucky E-Town for short, right, right outside of Louisville. Um, you know, she sees, uh, every
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day, the men and women of this country, uh, in Hardin County that are, are working every
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day, uh, and, uh, you know, making decisions about where to put money, uh, when they're around
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the dinner table. Uh, and so president, uh, tapped into something and resonated with, uh, millions
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of Americans. How do you feel about Biden? You know, I know at the RNC, you said, you
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said no one's excited about Joe Biden. And I, uh, in fairness, I think that's true. They,
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they elected him, but I think even the Democrats weren't all that excited about him, but they
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got him over the finish line. And, you know, he, of course the media likes to ignore it,
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but he has said some controversial things about race. Like there's no diversity of thought
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in the black community. That was one of the comments you raised, uh, at your, during your
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speech. And I know people just like to brush past that because he's a Democrat and they
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wanted him to win. The media did and the Democrats did, but how insulting, I mean, as a black Republican,
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Well, it's, it's disheartening, uh, when you see a major candidate for one of the parties,
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uh, talk in those sorts of terms about, uh, there being no diversity of thought within
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the black community or, uh, you ain't black if you, uh, don't vote for, for Joe Biden. Those comments
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missed the mark. Uh, they were disparaging. I mean, it, it, it is, um, incredibly ironic,
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uh, that, you know, the democratic party off often talks about diversity, but really they only care
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about diversity if you have views that are consistent, uh, with their priorities. And I, and I,
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what I hope my, my speech reflected and what I've tried to convey is that, you know, black folks,
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uh, and black Republicans in, in specifically, uh, should say enough is enough. Um, look, there are
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black men and women all across this country, uh, that have views that are separate and distinct and
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apart from the democratic party. Uh, and we should be past a point, uh, where we should be afraid of,
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uh, to express our views. And so every time I get an opportunity, one to say, I support president
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Trump to, to say, I am a Republican and three, uh, to say that this party is big enough, uh, to,
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to, to embrace and welcome those, uh, that again, believe in those core values that I think most
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Americans hold dear, which is, uh, we're going to stand up for our constitutional rights and liberties.
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And I think Joe Biden and elements of the democratic party are always trying to push the
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envelope, uh, to restrict freedoms, uh, to change, uh, transform. I mean, you heard Chuck Schumer,
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uh, talk a few weeks ago that, you know, first we're going to take Georgia and then we're going
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to change America. Uh, those sorts of comments should be anathema to most Americans. Um, this country,
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you know, we've always had challenges and, and, and we'll continue to have challenges. Uh,
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but the trajectory that our founding fathers put us on was the right trajectory. Uh, and so I,
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I'm going to continue to be a strong advocate, uh, for those foundational views, uh, that,
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that began this country, uh, and that, uh, I believe the majority of Americans value and appreciate.
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Now you've taken far too much guff for the, the sin of being a black man who supports president Trump
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and who pushes back on some of these narratives. And I've seen it happen to so many men and women
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like you. It makes me want to, it makes me want to put somebody like you on and give you a microphone
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more and more and more, because the more they tell you, you can't say something or be something,
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the more you want to say it and be it and, and say it and be it openly. Right. It's like,
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who says I can't, who says I can't support president Trump as a black man. Who says I can't be
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pushed back on the me too movement as a woman who actually came out as somebody who had been
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targeted by a sexual, uh, harasser. You know, it's like these narratives get started. And then
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if you push back at all, if you're supposed to be in the alleged victim group, you're some sort of a
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turncoat, right? Like they call you an uncle Tom or they'll call me. I don't know what they call me.
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Not nothing nice, but I don't care. I don't care what they call me. Well, and, and I, you're exactly
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right. I mean, I think at some point you have to, um, and I, I talk with, you know, my wife about this
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and, and, and others, you just have to be in the business of doing the right thing. And as the
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attorney general, um, you know, my, the, the, the value set, uh, that, that I'm responsible for
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upholding is our Kentucky constitution or our United States constitution. And that is a responsibility,
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uh, that I take seriously. Um, and as it relates to being Republican, look, I, I, I proudly support,
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uh, the, the virtues and the platform of the Republican party. And again, another thing that
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I'll just reiterate is, um, president Trump, again, uh, yeah, I've been reading over the last,
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uh, uh, a couple of weeks, a, a, a, a new biography about, uh, uh, president Ronald Reagan. And during the,
00:14:35.120
the fifties, uh, and maybe the early sixties, you know, this, he was a spokesman for GE. Um,
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and one of the things that he did during that time in GE is he'd go around to the, the factories
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and plants and talk to the folks that were on the line, that were working in these assembly lines
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and working in these plants. Uh, and that really informed his thought process, uh, as he began his,
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uh, political career. I think the same thing with president Trump. I mean, you know, what may,
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as a man in, in the construction and real estate business, having, you know, soaked up all that
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knowledge and information from folks that working in the respective, uh, industries that, uh, he
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affiliated and associated with, he learned a lot and was informed. His thinking has been informed by
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that. Um, and he tapped again into something, uh, in terms of the working men and women in this
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country, uh, that I think will resonate, uh, and have lasting staying power within the Republican
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party. And I'm glad, uh, because we talk about being a big tent party, uh, and, uh, president Trump
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made that a reality. And, uh, I think it's important that we have folks that look like me,
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uh, uh, represented in the party that we have, uh, folks that, um, uh, uh, you know, look like my mom,
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that look like you, that look like, uh, uh, you know, Asian, Hispanic, everyone, Cuban Americans,
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uh, everyone needs a seat at the table and the Republican party, uh, is big enough, uh, to,
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to make that a reality. All right. Let me ask you a tough question. As you mentioned Ronald Reagan
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and I, I loved Ronald Reagan. My mother did not love Ronald Reagan, but I, I loved Ronald Reagan.
00:16:15.360
It came out not long ago that he, he made some very racist comments in his time. It came out on
00:16:21.120
the Nixon tapes, uh, that Nixon was taping their conversations as he was known to do. And, um, the
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one I remember just off the top of my head was they were looking at some UN event and Reagan referred
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to people from African countries as monkeys. And it's uncomfortable to read and to know occurred.
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And I just wonder, you know, on the outside, I'm a white woman. It doesn't make me hate Reagan.
00:16:53.940
It makes me understand he was flawed and he was a man of a different time, but I'm not the targeted
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group there. I have been on the targeted group when I read things, some of the old presidents say
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about women. Um, but how's that, how do you square that, right? You're reading the book about the guy
00:17:08.480
and you know, this, that this is a comment he's made and I'm sure it wasn't the only one.
00:17:12.420
Well, look, I look, none of us, uh, are perfect people and can make, uh, you know, rash, uh, comments
00:17:20.200
or abrasive comments. And look, I, all of us, uh, fall short of, uh, the, uh, the top standards,
00:17:29.400
which is, uh, you know, the, you know, there, there was only one perfect, uh, individual and
00:17:36.120
that was in the form of Jesus Christ. And so all of us in some way, uh, have fallen short of that
00:17:42.460
standard. And, um, you know, I, with, with president Reagan, um, I think, you know, from the point of
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perhaps when he made those comments in, uh, with, uh, uh, president Nixon, uh, to the point where he was a
00:17:58.500
president, you know, there was obviously some time between there. So I don't want to, uh, comment too
00:18:03.680
specifically. Obviously I don't think that was an appropriate comment to make. Uh, but a lot of time
00:18:08.800
passed between, uh, when he probably made those comments and when he was president. But again,
00:18:12.920
we've all, uh, in our respective lives probably said things, uh, that we wish we shouldn't have said
00:18:19.860
or, or, or, uh, wish that we could take back. Uh, but the fact of the matter is, is that we said them,
00:18:25.800
uh, all we can do is repent and, and move forward. Uh, there are, uh, instances in which, um,
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you know, I, again, even in this, uh, in, in this job, you say things that you, you wish you
00:18:40.500
wouldn't have said. So I, uh, can, uh, obviously look at that comment and say, no, that's not
00:18:46.220
appropriate. Uh, that's not right. Uh, but again, Ronald Reagan was a great president, uh, and,
00:18:53.120
you know, his, that, that the, the, the, the, the fight that he led against, uh, uh, communism and
00:19:02.900
the fight that he led, uh, against, uh, the Soviet union's, uh, view of what this world should look
00:19:11.900
like. Um, uh, the cold war ended, um, because that, uh, of the way that he touted American greatness
00:19:20.320
and democracy and freedom. Again, no one is perfect, uh, but I certainly appreciate, um,
00:19:27.780
the, the, that the mark that he left on the presidency, uh, and the way that he shaped the
00:19:33.700
Republican party again, in the same way that president Trump has shaped the Republican party.
00:19:38.340
Uh, but, uh, there's none of us that, uh, I think have lived a perfect life. And, uh, I think, uh,
00:19:45.060
whether it be Ronald Reagan or myself or, or, or, or any of us, uh, we've all fallen short in some
00:19:51.600
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I think you try to judge the full measure of the man. And it's like to look back at somebody like
00:21:44.560
Winston Churchill, you know, who, who fought Hitler, um, and Ronald Reagan, who fought the
00:21:50.080
communists and say anything other than they, they were great men who did great things. And like all
00:21:55.740
men and women were flawed, deeply flawed is to deny reality. As you point out, it's, it's true of too
00:22:03.600
many of us. All of us are flawed. Some of us are not great. Um, but anyway, I just wanted to get your
00:22:08.200
perspective. He said, you're reading the Reagan book as we now go back into shutdown mode, city
00:22:14.360
after city, state after state, as COVID is ramping up again. Um, I, what I see is mayors and some
00:22:21.640
governors getting drunk on their own power. I understand that there's a pandemic and that
00:22:27.440
they need to do something, but the willingness to just impose these sweeping shutdowns to the great
00:22:35.980
detriment of business owners and children, children in particular, who are not super spreaders. The
00:22:42.340
schools have been overwhelmingly safe. They can be kept safe and separated from elderly relatives by
00:22:49.020
their parents. You know, the whole shutdown of schools assumes zero personal responsibility when it
00:22:54.060
comes to the kids and their parents. Anyway, um, I, I wonder if you think we're going to see more and
00:22:59.160
more legal challenges over the next six to 10 to 12 months before the vaccine is widespread. And
00:23:05.200
hopefully we've achieved herd immunity, um, because it's not shutting, it's not slowing down. It's
00:23:11.080
ramping up the shutdown mania. I think you are certainly going to continue to see, um, more and
00:23:18.780
more, um, interested parties, meaning, um, you know, restaurants and, uh, schools and, uh, religious
00:23:27.880
institutions, um, and, and, uh, you know, folks out here that have just got tired of, uh, of, of being
00:23:35.760
told, uh, what they can and cannot do. I think you're going to continue to see more and more of
00:23:40.460
those folks, uh, enter into, uh, the, the justice system and in the legal context, uh, to push back
00:23:49.200
against some of these really arbitrary, uh, orders. I mean, I, I, before our governor shut down our
00:23:55.760
restaurants for three weeks, they're fortunately able to open back up, but he shut them down for
00:24:00.620
three weeks. This was after a period where they were allowed to be open, but even before that they
00:24:04.020
were closed. Um, and you know, a lot of these decisions, the decision-making process, uh, that
00:24:10.960
has occurred during this has really been arbitrary. I mean, we had, uh, at the beginning of, of this
00:24:17.100
pandemic, our governor had essentially tried to shut down all travel outside of Kentucky, um,
00:24:22.240
in-person worship services. He tried to, you know, uh, uh, shut that down as well. Uh, we,
00:24:28.640
in both instances, you know, pushed back pretty strongly against those either in, in court challenges
00:24:33.140
or, um, supporting court challenges. Uh, and so it, and, and we were fortunate to have federal
00:24:39.480
courts that agreed, uh, with our position and agreed with other interested parties that, you
00:24:45.060
know, he was intruding upon constitutional rights. Uh, but to your point about a lot of these
00:24:50.740
governors either because they've appreciated the limelight and attention that they, that
00:24:56.040
this has given them or, uh, have really made some arbitrary decision-making. Look, I, I've
00:25:01.820
said from the beginning, I completely understand a governor, uh, President Trump's, our local
00:25:07.260
officials' responsibilities to keep people safe. Uh, but we have to balance that with, um,
00:25:14.020
the, the needs and interests of our citizens. And we have to balance it with the constitutionally
00:25:19.540
protected rights of our citizens. Again, I, I talked at length earlier about, um, the working
00:25:25.880
men and women of this country. Um, some of the decisions that are made here in our, our state's
00:25:31.400
capitals, in our Commonwealth's capital really are devoid of the, the perspective of, of somebody
00:25:37.940
that's sitting at home at the end of a busy day, trying to figure out how they're going to,
00:25:42.060
you know, keep the lights on in their house, how they're going to pay their bills. Uh, a lot of
00:25:46.820
decisions that, that are made here in Frankfurt, um, just again, are, don't take into consideration
00:25:54.180
or account, uh, the unintended long-term, not short-term, long-term consequences of some
00:26:02.100
of these decisions that are made. I, I, I know of countless, countless restaurants, um, that
00:26:07.780
have had to, to shutter or close their doors, uh, and, and will not be opening back up again,
00:26:14.400
because of some of the visions that are made here in Frankfurt. And that's not a, a story that is
00:26:19.440
unique to the Commonwealth. That, that's a story, Megan, that can be told all across, uh, this
00:26:24.260
country. And it is a sad, unfortunate, unfortunate story because, uh, not only are you, uh, affecting,
00:26:30.140
uh, the, the business owners themselves, but you're also, uh, there, there are a lot of downstream
00:26:36.240
effects as well. You've got vendors who, uh, aren't able to, to transport to that local mom and pop
00:26:42.520
business because that business is closed and they've got employees and they've got to lay
00:26:46.920
those employees off. And they're waiting on, you know, dollars from the federal government that
00:26:51.380
may or may not get back to the States. And, and, you know, the allocations can be slow. Um, so again,
00:26:57.680
it, it is, um, it is, um, uh, a very, uh, difficult and strenuous time for a lot of folks across this
00:27:06.340
country. And when you look at, on the other side, the death rate, I mean, you look at the sheer
00:27:10.380
numbers and they're, they're bad. No one's going to argue that, that we're satisfied with the
00:27:15.880
fatalities that have happened in this country, thanks to COVID. But the risk, the risk of dying,
00:27:21.860
if you get COVID is actually incredibly small, if you are under age 65 and really low, if you're under
00:27:28.940
age 60 and, you know, there, there's a very strong case to be made. We had the great Barrington,
00:27:33.780
um, doctors on who submitted a proposal for some, you know, for limited risk-taking to be
00:27:40.160
allowed in order to let the country get, get going again, economically. I feel for the restaurant
00:27:45.180
owners here in New York, they spent thousands and thousands of dollars getting heating lamps
00:27:49.960
so that, um, they could make meaningful outdoor seating, but now it's getting too cold or expecting
00:27:55.200
a huge snowstorm on Wednesday. You can't sit outside with the heating lamp and then inside making,
00:28:00.260
you know, cutting back to 25% and cutting back on waitstaff and, you know, getting rid of extra
00:28:06.000
tables and now it's all shut down. Can't, can't do any of it. Um, anyway, you know,
00:28:11.420
your point, well, your point about New York is I was speaking to somebody this past weekend about,
00:28:15.980
you know, a lot of these restaurants, they don't make sort of their, their, their orders for food
00:28:20.860
and, and, and what have you, they don't make it the week of, they make it a tough couple of weeks
00:28:25.760
in advance. And so they already made those allocations and, and, and made those, you know,
00:28:31.340
payments for, uh, different, uh, from different vendors and then to be told that they have to
00:28:36.100
shut down. I mean that, you know, that's, again, that is short-term thinking that is not utilizing
00:28:41.480
a larger, um, sort of, uh, analysis and not bringing in for input restaurant owners and other
00:28:50.520
small business owners, uh, because you, you just have the limited view of, of government and,
00:28:56.720
you know, you know, the, uh, an attorney general or a governor, um, you know, they, we, we get
00:29:03.460
paychecks. The government folks will get their paychecks, but men and women, uh, who are, again,
00:29:08.460
on the front lines working at these restaurants or working, um, in these small businesses, you know,
00:29:14.400
rely on foot traffic. And, uh, it is, again, um, really painful to see some of these decisions
00:29:20.600
that are making, being made. And even, and even those of us who are willing to assume some risk,
00:29:25.640
you know, I don't, I don't go and intermingle that much with, with the society here in New York
00:29:31.700
in a time like this during COVID, but I'm certainly capable of walking down the sidewalk with my
00:29:37.300
husband, walking into a restaurant, staying six feet away from the other patrons, sitting at a
00:29:41.760
socially distanced table, having a meal and walking back home. The government's basically saying,
00:29:46.420
we don't care that you're going to do that. And you're going to be responsible in doing it. We,
00:29:50.380
you can't do it. You can't let the restaurant owner have your money because there's
00:29:55.460
some chance you're going to press an elevator button in some building that somebody is going
00:29:59.620
to touch and somehow get COVID, even though there's zero proof that that's ever happened.
00:30:02.740
You know, it's like, it's just the, the government control and the big brother approach to this
00:30:08.020
problem is, uh, it's just getting out of control. And we're seeing it again as the weather gets bad
00:30:12.780
and the numbers shoot back up. Back to Kentucky AG, Daniel Cameron, in just one second, we're going
00:30:18.920
to get into the Breonna Taylor case next and the ridiculous and awful racial backlash against him
00:30:26.780
as a result of what happened with the grand jury proceedings there. But first, you know how, when
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That's code radio at hometitlelock.com. And now we want to bring to you quickly a feature we call
00:31:45.980
Asked and Answered here on the program where we answer some of our listener questions and we bring
00:31:50.920
in our executive producer, Steve Krakauer. For this, Steve, what's the latest question?
00:31:55.940
Yeah, Megan, we're getting lots of great questions at questions at devilmaycaremedia.com. Also lots of
00:32:01.320
just general emails that are really nice. But we also like these nice, concise questions that we
00:32:06.600
sometimes get from Instagram, from Twitter, Facebook, at Megan Kelly Show on all those platforms.
00:32:12.300
This one came to us from Kyle Haynes on Instagram, and wants to know who is your biggest influence?
00:32:18.840
Thank you, Kyle. It's my mother, for sure, Linda, who is larger than life and hilarious. If you want
00:32:27.520
to know about my mother, you should read my book, Settle for More, because I made a conscious effort
00:32:31.560
to include some stories in there that would reveal who she is. And everyone fell in love with her.
00:32:36.180
Everybody stops me on the street to say, Oh, my God, I love you. I want to meet your mother,
00:32:39.560
though. That's that's who I really want to meet because she's just so funny. Sometimes intentionally,
00:32:44.540
sometimes not. Like I was talking to her over the quarantine, you know, in last whatever, March,
00:32:51.720
April. And she said, How are you doing? I said, Oh, good. I said, You know, we're in Montana pretty
00:32:56.080
soon that the bears are gonna start waking up and start walking around. She said, Oh, I'd be much
00:33:00.380
more worried about the bears than I would covert 12. What mom? What? What? I said covert 12. She said,
00:33:08.100
I don't know what the hell it's called. It's got 50 different names. I said, Mom,
00:33:11.500
no, it literally has only two and covert 12 is not one of them. That just I was talking to her last
00:33:17.220
week, and she was like, Oh, that Dr. Fawcett, he'd never stop. I'm like, No, wrong again.
00:33:23.720
Anyway, she's funny. And she never takes herself too seriously. And that's a gift she passed on to me
00:33:29.860
to not take myself too seriously, never get drunk on my own wine. And if I screw up, I'm pretty quick to
00:33:34.980
get over it. Because you know, I realized this is fun and all. But this isn't brain surgery. We don't
00:33:40.100
have somebody's lives in our hands the way a doctor does in the OR. And so you got to keep things in
00:33:45.160
perspective. I have been thinking about her though, this week, because December 15. It's the anniversary
00:33:53.220
of my dad's death. And he died when I was 15. And he was 45. I have a massive heart attack 10 days
00:34:01.180
before Christmas, 1985. And my mom was only 44 years old. And she had two kids in college. And
00:34:08.820
then there was me, I was a sophomore in high school at the time. And there had been no warning,
00:34:13.440
not no previous heart troubles, nothing. So to say we were surprised and shocked and not prepared is
00:34:19.620
an understatement. But my mom, somehow she kept it together. And I think in the way a parent has the
00:34:27.660
ability to make her kid an erotic, you know, like, don't touch that. That's dangerous. That's awful.
00:34:31.760
Oh, my God, it's terrible. This that, you know, they also have the ability to be a calming port in
00:34:38.700
a storm. And my mom was that my mom was upset. My mom was, at times a wreck. But she always managed to
00:34:46.900
find a way to laugh, to get dinner on the table, to be there to listen, counsel, support. And the
00:34:54.920
message I got from her, and it was just the two of us living in the house by ourselves for the
00:34:59.260
remainder of my sophomore year, my junior and senior, was that it's okay. You know, tragedy
00:35:06.640
comes, sadness comes, overwhelmingly awful things can happen to you suddenly and unfairly. But you're
00:35:14.080
okay. You've always got people in your life you can hold on to that matter, the people who help define
00:35:19.060
you. And it's certainly not anybody you're reading on the internet, you know, but the people who know
00:35:23.140
you. And those are the places you retreat when difficult times come and they matter. And, you
00:35:29.800
know, I still got her, thank God, she'll be 80 in July. She's still making me laugh. And I just think
00:35:37.060
like, if you have that one guiding force in your life to to remind you that you're fine, this life is
00:35:42.780
difficult, but it's fine. It can be a real gift. And if you don't have that real force, find it. That's
00:35:50.240
where the internet is helpful, right? To find more calming voices. Or we had Sam Harris on talking
00:35:54.560
about meditation. My sister-in-law, Diane, who I love, Doug's sister, she's always saying,
00:35:58.900
Meg, you, you never do meditation. You never do this stuff because you're, you've never been
00:36:03.680
somebody who needs that. Like this stuff has always come naturally to you, this perspective and this
00:36:07.680
ability to calm your mind and so on, which is true. I will say, and that's all from my mom.
00:36:11.900
My mom just never telegraphed emergency, panic, nerves, you know, breakdowns. My mom just took
00:36:21.420
punch after punch and kept rolling. You know, she just kept rolling. So it's just something to think
00:36:27.040
about for everybody this holiday season, which I know gets a lot of people down. Some, some people
00:36:31.300
are totally joyful. Some people are really down. Sometimes you feel lonely. You feel like disconnected
00:36:36.240
and like, you're not going to make it through. And, uh, just, just kind of remember that if you
00:36:41.540
don't have that support system, you can find it, can find it online. You can find it in line at the
00:36:46.360
grocery store. If you just smile at the cashier and she smiles back and you remember that there is
00:36:52.000
human connection in this world, sometimes small, sometimes large, but it all matters. You know,
00:36:57.080
you can get it for yourself or someone might deliver it to your doorstep. Anyway, it's her. And I hope at
00:37:02.320
one point on this show, uh, you will get the pleasure of listening to Linda, Hurricane Linda,
00:37:09.200
as we like to call her. I hope you take this holiday season as, as a good excuse to reconnect
00:37:14.080
with somebody who loves you and who you love and who makes you feel the way my mom makes me feel.
00:37:22.840
Let's talk about the case that made you a household name, if you don't mind. And that is the Breonna
00:37:27.120
Taylor case. So this case we all watched play out this year. Uh, she was the only woman who Oprah
00:37:34.500
ever put on the cover of O magazine other than Oprah, who, um, always put herself on. And Breonna
00:37:43.740
was killed in her apartment on March 13th by police, uh, three police officers who had come into the
00:37:52.100
department executing, uh, an, a warrant in a drug case. And they believe that she had been helping.
00:37:58.240
She may have been helping her ex-boyfriend in some way in his drug business. Um, so you get the case
00:38:05.940
because the local prosecutor recused himself. And so they call you up the attorney general and say,
00:38:11.720
here you go. It's, it's a case completely fraught. Um, it's in the middle of, you know,
00:38:19.100
Black Lives Matter existed prior to this and would ramp up during this. And I'm wondering if you,
00:38:23.480
as a guy with a very bright political future in front of you, what were, whether you were at all
00:38:27.720
worried about taking this and whether they said to you here, will you try this? Were you thinking,
00:38:33.660
Well, look, let me, let me say, um, you've got, uh, you've got the timeline down, uh, pretty well.
00:38:40.240
Um, when this happened, uh, on the morning of March 13th, it was, uh, and still continues to be
00:38:49.080
a tragedy. I mean, there's no, no other way to say it. Um, and, uh, it is deeply saddening that,
00:38:57.140
uh, that Breonna Taylor lost her life. Um, there's just, again, no other way to say it. Uh,
00:39:04.400
the local prosecutor, uh, was conflicted out of the case. And so what happens is that at that point,
00:39:11.700
um, it then goes to the attorney general to make a decision about who should be the special
00:39:17.500
prosecutor. And so this office has its own special prosecutions unit, or you can, uh, farm the, uh,
00:39:26.120
the case out to another office. The reason, and, and I, I, I made the decision very quickly. Uh,
00:39:32.320
and the, and the reason we did so is because I understood, uh, that this office had the bandwidth
00:39:40.340
and the resources and the level of experience to handle this case.
00:39:46.560
This is what I want to ask you. This is going back to what you said earlier. You just have to be in
00:39:50.780
the business of doing the right thing. I get it. It's, it was the right thing given all the reasons
00:39:55.540
you have, but I'm thinking as a rising political star, was there any part of you that was thinking,
00:40:00.900
Oh God, there's just no winning on this one. There's just no great outcome I can achieve in
00:40:09.220
this role on a case like this. You know, I honestly, Megan, it didn't. And, and, and,
00:40:14.380
and I'll point you back at this didn't get much coverage, but when I, when I was sworn in, I was
00:40:19.380
actually sworn in a little bit earlier because my, my predecessor became, uh, the governor. And so
00:40:25.220
his term started a little early. Uh, so the week after he was sworn in, he actually appointed me to
00:40:30.260
start on December 17th. So he was sworn in December 10th. I started December 17th and I had a little,
00:40:36.380
uh, small, um, uh, swearing in, if you will. And the comments that I made after the swearing in were
00:40:44.740
there will never be, I cannot promise any easy answers, um, in this office and there will be
00:40:50.360
challenges. Um, and I hope people would respect that, that there will be challenges and that there
00:40:57.960
won't always be easy answers from this, this office. And that is, is clear as day from this
00:41:04.080
case. I mean, look, they, when we took it, um, again, it, I knew it would be challenging. Uh, but
00:41:11.260
as I've, I've mentioned at the beginning here is that my responsibility is to the law. Um, and I have
00:41:18.400
to do that without fear or favor. And regardless of what the long-term, uh, prospects for me are,
00:41:23.980
or what the consequences are, uh, for me, my, my responsibility is to do what I'm charged to do
00:41:30.240
in this job, uh, that I was, uh, was given the chance to, to do, and then was bestowed upon me by
00:41:37.960
the citizens here, uh, in Kentucky. And so when, when our investigators and our prosecutors looked at
00:41:44.500
the case, um, it became very, uh, clear now, and I'll make the point that this was a fact intensive
00:41:51.140
investigation because we didn't, uh, like what occurred with, uh, uh, Mr. Floyd in Minnesota or,
00:41:57.640
or others, uh, we did not have the, the fortune of, of body camera footage, uh, from the actual
00:42:05.620
incident itself. So there might've been footage from after, um, um, um, the incident or before,
00:42:12.400
but none of the actual shooting or the exchange of fire, uh, tragic loss of Ms. Taylor.
00:42:18.340
Let me just, let me just interrupt you for one second so I can get the listeners up to speed
00:42:22.820
because I don't want to go too far down this path without them knowing what the facts are,
00:42:26.600
if they didn't pay attention to this. Um, so the, the three police officers went over there to execute
00:42:32.160
what, what we were told initially was a no knock warrant, but they had been told after they received
00:42:39.760
the warrant, you, you should serve it, um, as, as if it's not a no knock warrant, go over there,
00:42:47.000
knock and announce yourself. And so the police say, that's exactly what we did. We got to Brianna
00:42:51.380
Taylor's apartment looking for evidence in the ex-boyfriend's, uh, alleged drug, drug trafficking
00:42:56.780
syndicate. We knocked repeatedly. We shouted police warrant open up. Um, they say they, it was at least
00:43:04.440
six times. Um, then they, they busted down the door, went inside. As soon as they got inside Brianna
00:43:11.640
and her current boyfriend of the time, Kenneth Walker were standing there at the end of a hallway.
00:43:17.760
Walker was allegedly in the firing stance, legs apart, gun at the police officers. And according
00:43:24.620
to you, Walker admitted that he fired on them, that he fired first. He shot, uh, Sergeant Mattingly.
00:43:31.200
There were Sergeant Mattingly and two detectives in there as well. He shot Sergeant Mattingly in the
00:43:35.460
femoral artery. Uh, and then the officers returned fire. Ken Walker, the boyfriend was not,
00:43:42.020
I don't think he was even shot. He wasn't killed. Brianna Taylor, unfortunately was shot and killed
00:43:47.500
that night. And this whole case was about whether the police had committed the crime of murder or some
00:43:54.800
other lesser crime in executing this warrant in the way they did. There was a dispute about whether
00:44:00.540
they did in fact identify themselves as police, whether they yelled it. Um, 11 people in the,
00:44:05.500
in the apartment area said they didn't hear that. One witness said he did hear them identify
00:44:10.580
themselves. Uh, the police themselves said, of course, that they did it. Kenneth Walker said he
00:44:15.660
didn't hear it. Uh, and so you had, there were credibility issues to decide. Uh, there was, I,
00:44:22.180
I think very little doubt that Kenneth Walker shot first and that the cops, you know, had been
00:44:27.620
injured and one of them had been potentially fatally. It could have been in the femoral artery
00:44:32.360
injured and shot back. So this is all fraught. I think the viewers can understand. These are three
00:44:38.120
white cops. Um, and Brianna Taylor was black. And so it plays in, even though there's no explicit
00:44:46.460
evidence of racism here, it just plays into this ongoing alleged narrative that the police are
00:44:51.540
reckless when it comes to black lives. And too many of them have been taken unjustifiably. And what,
00:44:57.180
what her family wanted was murder charges against those officers, which did not happen. One,
00:45:03.660
just as an aside, one of the officers was charged with wanton endangerment for randomly firing into
00:45:08.440
a neighboring apartment where there wasn't young family. Uh, no one was hurt. And the other two,
00:45:13.800
the ones who had been responsible for the firing inside of Brianna's apartment did not get charged with
00:45:18.220
anything. Um, so after that whole thing happened and you came out and gave a really strong press
00:45:27.100
conference, I watched the whole thing and thought you were very brave, very brave. You didn't make
00:45:33.080
excuses for the, the grand jurors decision or anything. The grand jury came out and they seemed
00:45:41.480
angry. They seemed angry with you. They said, um, he said that we agreed with our call not to charge
00:45:51.160
those other officers. That's not true. We weren't given the option to charge those other officers.
00:45:57.580
We were only presented with that one possible wanton endangerment charge for the third officer.
00:46:03.660
We, we never heard about self-defense or justification. We didn't have homicide offenses
00:46:08.020
explained to us. And, um, they kind of, a couple of them turned the table back on you. So
00:46:13.960
what was your response when you saw extremely unusual for the grand jurors to get a motion to unseal the
00:46:19.540
proceedings and to sort of come after you in the wake of that? Well, look, I, I was, um, I, I still,
00:46:26.700
uh, am very confident and, and, and proud of the work that, uh, our career prosecutors and
00:46:34.740
investigators did and the presentation, uh, that they gave to the grand jury. They presented all of the
00:46:41.080
facts. Um, the, in terms of the recommendation that we gave, the recommendation, uh, was for wanton
00:46:48.900
endangerment as it relates to this third officer. Um, you know, at the time of the press conference,
00:46:55.500
obviously there were certain things that could be said and couldn't be said. And, um, after, uh, the
00:47:01.880
unusual, uh, and all in really unprecedented decision, uh, to disclose all of the information
00:47:11.420
related to the grand jury proceeding, uh, came out, we felt a little more comfortable, uh, in talking
00:47:16.740
about what that recommendation was. Um, but I've never hid from the fact that that was our recommendation.
00:47:22.840
I, I, again, you've eloquently put forth, uh, the facts, uh, of that evening, uh, or the early
00:47:30.480
morning of March 13th, as it relates to what happened. Um, again, uh, Mr. Walker, uh, upon, uh,
00:47:37.780
the officers entering into or attempting to enter into, um, Ms. Taylor's apartment, uh, Kenneth Walker
00:47:46.780
fired the first shot. And as you noted, hit, uh, uh, uh, Sergeant Mattingly, um, and Sergeant Mattingly
00:47:54.800
and Detective Cosgrove returned fire. And the tragedy here is that Ms. Taylor was hit, uh, and,
00:48:01.600
and died because of, of, of, of being shot. And I've never, uh, disputed that, but they
00:48:07.540
were justified in returning fire, uh, because they were fired upon. Now there's a third officer
00:48:13.140
that was at the scene and we have, uh, moved forward in prosecuting that officer because,
00:48:19.460
uh, of, of, of, uh, wanton endangerment. And I can't speak any more specifically on that. Uh,
00:48:27.500
but everything that we did as it relates to the decision and recommendation, uh, was based
00:48:35.020
on the law and nothing else. And again, that is, I hope what people want and in their attorney
00:48:40.260
general, frankly, I have, uh, no concerns about what the grand jurors, uh, said and have never,
00:48:47.160
uh, been, uh, concerned about what they might say when, when all of this, uh, became apparent
00:48:56.980
in terms of the decision to allow these grand jurors to speak. Um, it was initially our
00:49:02.840
responsibility, uh, to stand up for, uh, the grand jury process and the confidential nature
00:49:10.040
of the process. And we had other prosecutors across the Commonwealth who wrote a letter, uh,
00:49:16.240
encouraging, uh, the, the judge to abide by what had been, uh, historically the process,
00:49:24.100
uh, which is to make sure all these things are, are closed. Um, that has been the way that grand
00:49:30.060
jury proceedings have occurred, uh, for as long as any of us can remember. And so, uh, the prosecutors,
00:49:37.920
uh, and myself, uh, were standing up for the institution, but it didn't matter to me what those
00:49:44.120
grand jurors said because we were, and I, again, continue to be confident in the process that we
00:49:48.920
undertook. In fact, all of the information is out there about the case now. Yeah, no, you can see,
00:49:54.920
you can see it for yourself, but let me ask you, cause I have a couple of questions I want to get
00:49:57.880
through with you. We don't have too much time today with you. Um, if it had been served as a no knock
00:50:02.380
warrant, like they received a no knock warrant, they received the approval for that. So if they had
00:50:06.900
served it as a no knock warrant, which is given, people don't understand sometimes that's given
00:50:10.560
out of concern for the officers. The officers can prove to a court with an affidavit that they are
00:50:15.440
worried that if they give the person inside of what may be a dangerous apartment, um, a heads up
00:50:21.720
that the cops are about to storm in, they're going to get shot. Right. And that's, and that I guess
00:50:26.740
there was concern about who else might be in Brianna's apartment. They got it. If, if the cops had
00:50:33.840
not identified themselves, you know, if, if you had concluded, I don't believe you when you say I
00:50:39.660
yelled police coming in police. And if they hadn't knocked as, you know, Brianna Taylor's
00:50:45.440
family and Kenneth Walker's family and he were claiming, no, they didn't identify. No, they
00:50:50.500
didn't knock. Would it have been a possible manslaughter or murder situation? Well, I, I,
00:50:58.400
I hate to speculate. And as obviously as a part prosecutor, you don't want to be in the position
00:51:04.360
of speculating on, on a case, but what I'll say, look, the, the FBI is still conducting, uh,
00:51:11.720
its own investigation until, into the warrant process. Um, and so the, but the, the, the
00:51:17.660
warrant itself was the, the function of, um, you know, information that was provided to a judge
00:51:25.540
and the judge ultimately decided to, uh, issue a no knock warrant. And so, um, whether that would
00:51:35.480
have changed the analysis after a judge had given the okay for a no knock warrant, I, I'm, I, I,
00:51:43.120
again, don't want to speculate. No, I'll speculate though. You have a good point. If the judge says
00:51:48.180
it's okay, how are you going to hold the police officers officers liable for them doing it? I mean,
00:51:52.840
that's, that's a tough road to hope. I mean, the, the, the pushback in general has been no more,
00:51:58.280
no knock warrants, even though this one does not appear to have been executed as a no knock warrant,
00:52:04.820
which people sort of skip over. They just decide to disbelieve the officers say, but like,
00:52:09.380
are, are they done by the way, are they done now in Kentucky as a result of this case, no knock
00:52:13.520
warrants? Um, so, uh, I think there's an effort underway in Louisville, uh, Jefferson County where,
00:52:19.420
where, where Ms. Taylor lost her life in this incident, um, to, um, to really reform the no knock
00:52:26.600
warrant process. And, uh, and then there are in our, in our legislature, our general assembly,
00:52:32.300
there are some pre-filed bills. They don't actually begin their session until January,
00:52:35.680
um, to look at, uh, perhaps curtailing no knock warrants. There'll, there'll be a large conversation
00:52:41.500
about this. I know, uh, our office is going to, uh, uh, assemble a, a, a committee or a task force,
00:52:49.700
if you will, to look into just warrants generally, because I think it's important for an attorney general
00:52:54.540
to be a part of this conversation. Um, but, uh, you know, you, look, you, you talk to, to law
00:52:59.460
enforcement and your point about, um, you know, protecting, um, uh, those involved in executing,
00:53:07.280
uh, a warrant and, and, uh, you know, really it can be for the benefit of those, uh, that are,
00:53:15.700
uh, the subjects of a warrant as well. And so it'll be a, uh, a, a very robust conversation.
00:53:22.480
I imagine, uh, beginning in January. Uh, and I know there are a lot of, uh, uh, constituencies
00:53:29.080
on both sides, uh, that are well-meaning and, and, and want to talk about these things in good
00:53:35.300
faith. And I'll be curious to see how this all, uh, plays out, uh, uh, when the session concludes.
00:53:42.620
But the problem here too, is not only did Breonna Taylor suffer her family and, and she lost her
00:53:48.280
life suffer terribly, but Sergeant Mattingly got shot in the leg for executing a warrant on a case
00:53:55.540
that wasn't his. He was just doing his job as a cop, walked into this house, got shot, and now has
00:54:01.580
been vilified, vilified by the press, by Breonna's family, by Black Lives Matter supporters. And it's
00:54:11.740
to the point where not only is he getting death threats, his son has been threatened with, uh,
00:54:17.600
kidnapping and torture. And that's, that's the other piece of this is, you know, what's going to
00:54:22.900
happen to the morale of police officers who go in, they're executing a warrant, they get shot and they
00:54:31.360
shoot in return. And in response, they get vilified by the press, their children's lives get threatened.
00:54:37.400
You know, I just, I'm worried about them too. As you should be. And as, as all Americans should be,
00:54:43.840
I mean, look, you, you talked about Joe Biden earlier. I mean, it's going to be interesting,
00:54:48.360
um, to say the least as to how he, you know, will stand up to, uh, the elements of his party that are
00:54:55.460
talking about defunding the police when morale, uh, has already been low. And, you know, some of the
00:55:01.760
rhetoric that he has, has put forth and, and, uh, uh, Kamala Harris as well, I've put forth, uh, that
00:55:08.820
has really enabled some of this, uh, just violent, um, uh, activity that we saw over the summer and,
00:55:16.400
and, and, into, uh, the fall. So I, I am concerned and, uh, look, all I can do is the attorney general,
00:55:23.980
uh, is tell, you know, our, our law enforcement community that, uh, you know, we've, we, we
00:55:30.940
obviously, um, you know, appreciate and, and value, uh, those that, you know, put on the uniform
00:55:37.920
every day to keep our community safe. And, uh, uh, we, we've got to do everything we can to respect
00:55:44.440
the, their commitment to serving our communities and, and keeping people safe.
00:55:48.760
Mm-hmm. By the way, were those allegations about Breonna Taylor's ex-boyfriend,
00:55:54.500
you know, because the reason they got the warrant was they thought that she was helping him,
00:55:57.680
um, like passing FedEx envelopes and so on and letting him use her house as a mailing station.
00:56:03.440
Were those true? Do you, do you believe those were true that she was doing that or no,
00:56:07.220
is that not true? Well, we had a very limited, you know, uh, scope in terms of our analysis as it
00:56:13.800
relates to like what happened at the scene of her death. And so, um, really that was our focus and
00:56:20.420
we never really got beyond that. I know the FBI and, uh, as they take the lead on the, the warrant
00:56:27.100
and civil rights issues here are really looking into, uh, those specific questions. Uh, but, um,
00:56:34.700
you know, I, I'll leave others to, to answer those specific questions.
00:56:38.640
Well, that's a good point. That's a good point because, you know, I, I've heard that said about
00:56:42.300
her many times and I've heard some folks defending the cops say she was, she was part of a crime
00:56:47.460
syndicate or she was at least helping a guy who was part of a crime syndicate. But that's,
00:56:50.780
that's an important point to know. We don't know whether that's true. That's what the police were
00:56:54.400
alleging to get the warrant. And that's going to play out. Um, quickly, let me ask you about the
00:56:59.200
pushback you got. It was ridiculous. And you got attacked, not just as a prosecutor, which that's
00:57:04.980
fair game. That's, you know, you know, you know, you're going to get that, but of course they had to go
00:57:08.720
after your skin color. I mean, it was like, I, here's just a sampling of what we heard. Um,
00:57:14.020
Tameka Mallory, who's an activist, she's a BLM supporter. She said, you're wicked and an upholder
00:57:18.780
of white supremacy. She said, he's no different than the sellout Negroes that sold our people into
00:57:24.360
slavery and helped white men capture our people, abuse them and traffic them. That is who you are,
00:57:29.500
Daniel Cameron, a coward and a sellout. Uh, Alicia Keys called the whole thing rotten to the core.
00:57:35.820
George Clooney said he was ashamed. Viola Davis called as a bullshit decision. Black Lives Matter,
00:57:40.540
she said. And then you had the infamous woman on MSNBC, uh, Cheryl Dorsey, retired LAPD sergeant say
00:57:48.040
Daniel Cameron is skin folk, but not kin folk and should be ashamed of himself. What did you think
00:57:54.380
when you heard it get personal on this, the color of your skin? Well, look, Megan, it's all trash and
00:58:01.460
it's disgusting. And, um, those comments are utterly ridiculous. Uh, you know, I wake up every
00:58:08.360
morning, uh, as a black man and am a black man. Uh, I, you know, I, I, I think what you have seen,
00:58:16.740
and again, I, I alluded to this earlier is the level, the unbelievable level of intolerance that comes
00:58:24.960
out of those who affiliate, uh, with the far, uh, left of the democratic party and, uh, is often
00:58:34.140
enabled by comments made by, uh, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Uh, the fact that, um, I am a black
00:58:41.560
Republican has weighed and figured heavily in these comments that have been made. If you get on my social
00:58:47.900
media, Megan, I'm sure you've done this. You've seen comments that have been directed at me, comments
00:58:52.580
that have been, uh, directed at my wife, at my, my mother. Uh, it has been, um, incredibly, uh, uh,
00:59:03.200
disheartening to see some of those comments. I, look, I've, I, I've seen comments made by people
00:59:08.400
that, uh, a year ago, a year ago, uh, uh, uh, these people were attending UofL, uh, University of
00:59:15.780
Louisville football games with me. Uh, and so it is, um, it is par for the course that anyone who
00:59:23.020
stands up for, uh, the law, who stands up for facts and truth, uh, if it is in any way, or if you have
00:59:34.680
a different political philosophy, uh, if they are in any way, just an inkling, uh, of, uh, inconsistent with,
00:59:44.860
um, with the, the convention or what is, uh, told the way that black folks have to think,
00:59:54.020
uh, then you are a pariah. Uh, you will be attacked, uh, and you will be, uh, dismissed as
01:00:01.920
an uncle Tom or all the other, uh, disparaging comments, but you can have this conversation with
01:00:07.620
me. You can have this conversation with, uh, Clarence Thomas. You can have this conversation
01:00:12.660
with Tim Scott. Uh, again, if you choose to have a view that is inconsistent with what, uh,
01:00:21.260
black liberals, uh, and those in the Democratic Party tell you you should have, uh, then you are
01:00:27.520
targeted as public enemy number one. Again, I think, and I hope that my continuing to speak out
01:00:35.720
in opposition, uh, to this, uh, this trash and this filth emboldens other black conservatives.
01:00:43.840
I'm not even talking about black Republicans, just black conservatives to say that, hey, it's okay.
01:00:49.240
We can stand up and not be afraid, uh, of what, uh, those in, in, in black liberal elite circles might
01:00:57.420
say about us. Uh, it's okay for us to stand up for truth and for law and for liberty. Uh, and that's
01:01:04.340
what I'm going to continue to do, uh, regardless of whether I have a position of, of, uh, political
01:01:11.440
stature or not. It is my responsibility, uh, to make sure that I stand up for the views that I believe
01:01:18.240
in, that I stand up for the views, uh, that are consistent with the Republican Party and, uh, and, um,
01:01:25.340
and left the chips fall where they may. Uh, at the end of the day, I think this says much more
01:01:31.100
about those that have made these disparaging comments, uh, than it says about me. I have
01:01:38.060
consistently tried, um, to, um, not speak ill of people. That's, uh, just my faith, uh, tells me to
01:01:46.520
do that. Uh, and, uh, and I, and I won't, uh, speak ill of people, but it has been, uh, disgusting to
01:01:53.640
see these comments. And, um, I hope it is exposing, uh, the, the far left for what they really are,
01:01:59.900
which is intolerant, uh, to be quite frank. This is wrong. I got to ask you before I let
01:02:05.660
you go. Last question. Where do you take all of this as a future politician, right? I mean,
01:02:12.020
the governorship of Kentucky, which you point out as a commonwealth, by the way, fun fact,
01:02:16.480
uh, four commonwealths in the country, Kentucky, Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania. It's always
01:02:22.860
so fun. It's like, what, what? It's so weird. Google it. But anyway, Kentucky is one of them. So
01:02:26.480
the governorship, or do we, do we go straight for the big office and throw our hat into the
01:02:31.020
2024 presidential ring? Well, I'm just trying to get out of year one of this office. Uh, and I've,
01:02:37.200
look, I've, I've been so honored and fortunate to, to be the 51st attorney general of the commonwealth
01:02:42.940
of Kentucky and to be, uh, the first African-American independently elected to the statewide office here
01:02:49.500
in the commonwealth. And the great opportunity that's been bestowed upon me, uh, by the men and
01:02:55.320
women of all 120 counties here in Kentucky is one that I, I, I, I take seriously and, and hold
01:03:02.280
responsibly. Uh, and it's an honor to be in this role as you, as you noted, uh, over the course of
01:03:08.780
this conversation, uh, there are incredibly important issues that come across this desk. And so I, I look
01:03:14.280
forward to continuing to, to work here, to stand up for religious liberty and to stand up, uh, for the
01:03:19.200
rule of law and, and, and truth. Um, and, uh, and, uh, we'll see what the Lord, uh, has in store down
01:03:26.900
the road. You are strong. I've been watching you. You are one strong guy and you don't fold when they
01:03:32.660
come for you, which they have. And you said it, this is who you are. You just have to be in the
01:03:37.680
business of doing the right thing. I admire you. Can't wait to see where this goes. Daniel,
01:03:41.740
such a pleasure to meet you. Likewise, Megan. Thank you so much.
01:03:44.520
Today's episode was brought to you in part by Norton 360 with LifeLock. Protect yourself from
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cybercrime with the top trusted ally in today's connected world. Go to norton.com slash MK to
01:03:56.460
learn more. I want to tell you next Monday, this upcoming Monday on the program, we've got Jason
01:04:02.460
Whitlock, who I'm really excited to talk to, former ESPN, uh, journalist. Now he's with Outkick
01:04:07.540
with, uh, our friend, Clay Travis, and those guys are shaking things up in the sports world.
01:04:12.260
But Jason is going to talk to us in part about faith and the role it's played in his life and
01:04:19.400
the role you might consider letting it play in yours. Um, we talk about, you know, sort of my
01:04:24.400
approach to it. And I have to tell you, he inspired me. He inspired me to try a little harder and sort
01:04:28.840
of rethink about the role faith plays in my life and how, how I should be prioritizing it, not just in
01:04:35.020
the Christmas season, but all year round. Uh, so the sage of Outkick sports, um, Jason Whitlock will
01:04:43.660
come and join us. And I think you're going to love him. So have a great weekend and we'll talk to you
01:04:47.580
Monday. Thanks for listening to the Megan Kelly show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear. The Megan Kelly
01:04:55.340
show is a devil may care media production in collaboration with red seat ventures.