Megyn Kelly on the Meltdown and Hypocrisy at CBS News Over Coates Interview and ＂60 Minutes＂ Edits ｜ Ep. 912
Episode Stats
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Summary
CBS edited Kamala Harris' answer to a question about whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is listening to us. What happened? And why did they edit it so badly that it was scrubbed out of the final version of the piece?
Transcript
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Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM channel 111 every weekday at New East.
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Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show in our Thursday AM special
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episode and I'm excited about this one. We got to talk about CBS. They are having a week over there.
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We brought you the story last week about CBS host Tony DaCopal's challenging interview with author
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Ta-Nehisi Coates, who's one of those pillars of the liberal elite that you're supposed to only praise
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and never ever question. Well, there have been some crazy updates to the story this week. And before we
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get to that, we've got to talk about what happened with the 60 Minutes interview that we went through in
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great detail on Tuesday. It turns out we should have been even more attentive to what 60 had done to
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that interview. It was very obviously edited, but we didn't quite put it together that they had edited
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the answer they put out as their tease on Sunday and Monday by the time the piece aired on Monday night.
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And it was a pretty shocking scrubbing of a word salad answer by Kamala Harris. So here's what I think
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happened. They put out this Q&A, just like a quick Q&A about whether Netanyahu's listening to us. And they
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included in their tease her word salad answer, or at least part of it. And they, because they're liberals, don't see
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her answers as word salad. They're like, yeah, that's our girl. Look at her. She's saying tough
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things. And, and no one realized that this was going to make her look bad because they would not
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have released it this way. Had they done that? Had they realized that? Well, then the internet went crazy
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over this clip because she sounds terrible for this audience. It's the common terribleness. It's the stuff
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you've heard a million times. She's so wordy. She takes 50 words to say what could be said in five.
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It's the typical annoying Kamala Harris stuff. So by the time they aired the interview in full
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on Monday night, they had cleaned up the answer. They had pulled a much shorter, tighter, but still
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inane phrase from a different part of her answer. And they whitewashed the word salad and sort of got
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rid of all the word salad and boiled it down to like one green pepper. It's no longer a salad.
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It was just one green pepper, which you could understand and eat easily. Um, so there is a
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Twitter account, Maze Moore, that put together the answer that CBS put out as part of its tease
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next to the answer that aired in the actual 60 minutes piece. And the, you know, the, the toss is
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about Netanyahu watch. But it seems that, uh, prime minister Netanyahu is not listening. Well, Bill,
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the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were
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very much prompted by, or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen
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in the region. But it seems that, uh, prime minister Netanyahu is not listening. We're not going to stop
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pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need
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for this war to end. Oh my God. I mean, you see what they did, don't you? It's so nakedly partisan
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and desperate to save her. That first answer is just classic Kamala Harris, isn't it? The,
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the work that we have done has resulted in movements. What I'm already lost. Even the answer
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she gave was somewhat classic Kamala, but the first one was beyond. And so this is, this is CBS running
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cover for Kamala Harris. I'm amazed they had the guts to do it given that they had released the
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tease. Normally you'd have a discussion behind closed doors saying, well, now we've got to live
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with it. We put it out as the tease guys. We're going to get hit if we clean it up and try to make
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look better. We've already released the real answer. Uh, but nobody did that. And, um, now we
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know, but I mean like that, that first answer, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of
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movements, but already, right, right. By Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of
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many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region. It's so bad. It's particularly
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bad. I mean, at least 10 clauses in there in what should have been a one clause answer. So they're
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getting hit by that, but only by the right on line. And it's kind of a fun story to enjoy. So now the
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other controversy is the meltdown that's happening inside this very unbiased, truly journalistic
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outlet. When it comes to this interview we discussed last week on the CBS morning show,
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which is hosted by three people, Gail King and two other guys, including the guy we're about to show
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you, Tony de Coppola, whose last name I didn't even know until this. Um, and some other guy whose name
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I still don't know. So they had on Ta-Nehisi Coates, right? He's like a Kendi type. They all
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love him on the left. If you criticize him, you're going to get it because he must be praised because
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he literally wrote the case for reparations. And he really, really, really wants people like the two
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white guys on the set to be paying reparations to people like him. Um, notwithstanding the fact that
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they may not have been here. Their ancestors may not have been here when any of the slavery went
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down. None of that's irrelevant to people like Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ta-Nehisi, whatever. Um,
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so he wrote this book. He decided to meander over into the Israeli Palestinian conflict because what
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we really needed was his take. You'll be shocked to learn. He reduced it to skin color, shocked to
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learn. It's about colonialism for him. So he wrote this piece, which he has absolutely no knowledge of
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or expertise in this region. Who would have the hubris to try to write a book on this region?
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That's a Johnny come lately to it. I mean, that's just so absurd, but he's so used to universal praise.
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He's like, sure, I'll put this in perspective for you. Um, it's about Israel being the bad guy by now
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I'll sell, you know, number one on the bestseller list. I'll for sure. I'll make the times. So he put
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that out. He admits it's an entirely one-sided view of the conflict. He admits it. So he shows
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up in the CBS morning show. We showed you some of this before, but I'm going to show it to you just
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to set up what's since happened. So you can see what has caused an all out meltdown inside of CBS
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news involving the very top executives involving Sherry Redstone, the owner of CBS Viacom. Um,
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it's not done now. We've gotten a very unfortunate update in it today involving the anchor himself.
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I'm going to walk you through it, but here is the thing that set it all off in the original
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exchange in part between coats and this anchor, Tony. I have to say when I, when I read the book,
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I imagine if I took your name out of it, took away the awards and the acclaim, took the cover off the
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book, the publishing house goes away. The content of that section would not be out of place in the
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backpack of an extremist. Why leave out that Israel deals with terror groups that want to eliminate it?
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Why not detail anything of the first and the second intifada, the cafe bombings, the bus bombings,
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the little kids blown to bits? And is it because you just don't believe that Israel in any condition
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has a right to exist? Well, I would say the perspective that you just outlined, um, there is
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no shortage of that perspective in American media. I have asked repeatedly in my interviews whether
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there is a single network mainstream organization in America with a Palestinian American bureau chief
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or correspondent who actually has a voice to articulate their part of the world. Um,
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I've been a reporter for 20 years. Um, the reporters of those who believe more sympathetically
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about Israel, um, and its right to exist don't have a problem getting their voice out.
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It's what I struggled with throughout this book. What is it that so particularly offends you
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about the existence of a Jewish state that is a Jewish safe place and not any of the other
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states out there? There's nothing that offends me about a Jewish state. I am offended by the idea
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of states built on ethnocracy no matter where they are. I'm the child of people that were born into a
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country where that was exactly the case of American apartheid. I walk over there and I walk through
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the occupied territories and I walk down a street in Hebron and a guy says to me, I can't walk down
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the street unless I profess my religion. I'm with another path. No, no, no, no, no. I want to go.
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This is very, very important. It is extremely important. Let me lay it down. I'm working with
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the person that is guiding me is a Palestinian whose father, whose grandfather and grandmother was
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born in this town. And I have more freedom to walk than he does. Why is that? Why is that okay?
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Why is that? Why is there no agency in this book for the Palestinians? They exist in your narrative
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merely as victims of the Israelis, as though they were not offered peace at any juncture,
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as though they don't have a stake in this as well. What is their role in the lack of a
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I have a very, very, very, very moral compass about this. And again, perhaps it's because of my
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ancestry. Either apartheid is right or it's wrong. It's really, really simple. Even
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he's got a very, very, very moral compass about this. What, I mean, what Tony de Coppola was trying
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to do was to say, um, there's another side of the story. There's a reason the Palestinians rights
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are somewhat abridged inside of Israel. There's a history there. You see of them attacking Israel
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over and over and over. Even the peaceful civilians who tried to give them jobs, who tried to drive their
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kids to doctors for them, who tried to have a peaceful existence living next to them only to
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get bombed over and over and over again. That's what he was trying to say. And Coates saw it a
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different way. Fine. What this anchor was trying to do was offer the other side of the story.
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That's what led to the meltdown because that's not allowed. And I'm telling you,
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if it hadn't been Ta-Nehisi Coates, if it hadn't been this revered black writer who is like a Kendi
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type to these leftists who are inside these media organizations, they would not be having the
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meltdown. They would see exactly what had happened there. But you know, for these leftists, race
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colors everything. It does. It colors everything. It's like the rose colored glasses, only it doesn't
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make them see things in a more rosy way. It makes them see a very dark, sad world in which we're all
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to skin color. And any white who questions somebody who is black in anything approaching
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a confrontational manner is bad. Remember white chicks for Kamala? God forbid you think about
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correcting a person of color. That woman was nuts, but she speaks for these leftists. That's how they
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see these exchanges. And it's playing out right now inside of CBS. You'd think a news organization
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would understand that's nonsense. This is what we do for a living. That's not what happened.
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So on Monday, this happened like a week or so ago on Monday, 10, seven, the one year mark after
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the worst terrorist attack in Israel, Monday, 10, seven CBS decided to hold an all hands on deck
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staff meeting. And it was an editorial meeting and somebody taped it because people were allowed to
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participate via zoom, which promptly got canceled after they realized somebody had leaked this.
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They're not going to be having any more on zoom. And it included, uh, Wendy McMahon, the head of CBS news
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and Adrian Rourke, who's in charge of news gathering at the network. And they kicked this thing off by
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apologizing to the staff for that interview. Listen to Adrian Rourke in charge of news gathering at CBS news
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and what she said sought to 20. And as hard as this is, that means we set our personal feelings and
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beliefs aside. We will still ask tough questions. We will still hold people accountable. That's part of
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our job too, but we will do so objectively. And that means very plainly, we have to check our bias
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and opinions at the door. Many of you have reached out to express concerns over recent reporting
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specifically about the CBS morning's codes interview from last week, as well as comments made coming out
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of some of our correspondence reporting. This has been addressed and it will continue to be in the future
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because this goes way beyond one interview, one comment, one story. This is about preserving the
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legacy of neutrality and objectivity. That is CBS news. Wow. Legacy of neutrality and objectivity.
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She went on to say, there are times we fail our audiences and each other. We're in one of those times
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right now. She threw this guy under the bus. What he did was somehow morally wrong. And that was obvious
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to this person, Adrian Rourke, that he had somehow besmirched CBS news's pristine journalistic legacy.
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There was a time when that was the case, when uncle Walter was doing the evening news, Walter Cronkite,
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that time has passed and they know it. So Jan Crawford, who is an excellent reporter. She was
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at the Supreme court covering SCOTUS when I was, uh, and she's been their justice correspondent for,
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you know, 15 years. I think she was on that morning editorial call and defended the interview
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and her colleague here. Listen to that in part. Our commitment was to truth. And when someone comes
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on our air with a one-sided account, uh, of a very complex situation, uh, as codes himself
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acknowledges that he has, it's my understanding that as journalists, we are obligated to challenge
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that worldview so that our viewers can have that access to the truth or a fuller account,
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a more balanced account. And to me, that is what Tony did. He prevented a one-sided account
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from being broadcast on our network as journalists. It seems to me, that's what we have an obligation
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to do. And as someone that does a lot of interviews, including on controversial topics with public
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figures, you know, I'm not really sure now how to proceed, uh, in challenging, uh, viewpoints that
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are obviously one-sided and devoid of fact or history. Good for her. She's exactly right.
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How is he being chastised when you're presenting somebody who's only got one side of the story on
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a very controversial topic on a news program that purports to be straight down the middle,
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straight news, not taking a side here. How is she supposed to navigate that when you're not allowed
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to ask challenging questions? You're not allowed to press him with even provocative questions.
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That's ridiculous. That is the legacy of CBS news decades ago. Obviously they've gotten far
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afield of that. As you know, they recently let Catherine Herridge go because even though she's
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a great reporter when it comes to the intelligence field, she was getting a little too close to the
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truth. I mean, it's no shock. You all saw what CBS news did during that vice presidential debate.
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They literally cut the mic of the Republican vice presidential candidate when he was trying to
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correct a fake news fact check that was being brought down upon him in a debate. They said they
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wouldn't fact check, cut his mic so he couldn't make his point and on and on it goes. That's,
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that's who they are today. And this woman trying to cloak herself in sanctimony. He's like, Oh,
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our, our legacy, you know, I mean, please, who are you kidding? You only got upset when one of your
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leftist idols was challenged meaningfully by one of the morning hosts. So now they're in a full on
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struggle session over there, full on struggle session to the point where they, they decided
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they invited according to Dylan Byers, who's a media critic and reporter, he writes for puck news
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to invite, they invited to self-describe mental health expert, DEI strategist and trauma trainer,
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Dr. Donald Grant to moderate conversation on this issue within CBS in an all staff meeting the next
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day. Well, people started to look up who is this guy, Dr. Donald Grant, self-described trauma trainer.
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And if you look at his Instagram, this is, uh, at Jerry Dunleavy on X posted this, uh, you see
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a graphic, this trainer posted called magicide, a noun, death of a nation caused by injuring said
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nation with the intent to destroy through the adoption of insidious policies, the normalization
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of divisive practices and the installation of sociopathic people. A magicide attempt is when
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a subpopulation of a nation harms that nation with the intent to destroy. Even worse, even worse than
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that, their chosen expert who's going to help them heal after Tony's cardinal sins is someone, uh, is,
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is someone who posted a photo of what he captioned uncle Tim's cabin. It is a photo with Senator Tim
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Scott's face photoshopped on the faces of black people outside of a cabin. And they threw in Candace
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Owens for good measure. Um, this is unbelievable. Tim Scott, to his credit, retweeted this news that
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they were going to use this guy as their trauma counselor with a, the message, a message that read
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you good CBS. Perfect. Perfectly done. You, you, you guys. Okay. There was also a graphic on this
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trainer's Instagram of how to pronounce Kamala's name. He got very angry because he said it's only
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racist and sexist because these names just roll off your tongue. Federer scars guard. He's
00:20:55.000
Djokovic, which let's face it. That took all of us forever to pronounce Galifianakis. Same. Uh,
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we put an extra effort to get some people's names, right? Not because they're tricky, but because we
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care. You see, we only care about the whites like Djokovic and we don't care about Kamala because she's
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black. Then there was one about, uh, that had a photo of a black man holding a sign that reads,
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Dear white people, stop using Dr. King as an example of a peaceful protest. You shot him too.
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So this was going to be the healing character that they brought into CBS news to hear, to heal
00:21:37.520
the rift. And you know what? There's some honesty in it because it was turning into a racial thing.
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The reports were that the black staffers were very upset at Tony and very angry that he didn't allow
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Gail to speak, not to mention the other guy who was white, a white man. They felt like, you know,
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Gail should have been allowed more. And now it's everything boils down to like, how much airtime
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did the black woman get versus this white guy, this white Jewish guy, God forbid, who's by the way,
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not only is he Jewish, but he has an ex-wife who lives in Israel with his children.
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So he's got a lot of knowledge about this region and has standing, if you will, to object to the
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one-sided nature of Coates's book and was totally within the bounds of reason in doing so. All right.
00:22:25.220
So they decide after Jerry Donleavy does his homework and post this online, maybe we shouldn't
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invite this so-called doctor, uh, Dr. Donald Grant to moderate this conversation might not really be
00:22:37.340
the best choice. Um, so we're not sure who, if anybody moderated said conversation, but in the
00:22:44.520
meantime, on the subject of Gail King, the following trailer drops, you see, um, Coates decided to go as
00:22:54.280
he's promoting this book on Trevor Noah's podcast, the guy who used to host the daily show. And they
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released a lengthy trailer for Ta-Nehisi Coates's appearance with Trevor Noah. And would you listen
00:23:10.420
to how he, Coates describes his conversation with Gail King backstage right before the interview we just
00:23:21.480
And I know she's getting a lot of stuff right now. So I really want to say this. Gail King is a great
00:23:27.360
journalist and a great interviewer. And, um, Gail came behind the stage before we went and she had
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gone through the book. And I'm not saying she like agreed with the book. She was like, I'm gonna ask
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you about this. I'm gonna ask you about that. I want you. It was like, Gail was considered.
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If there's one thing Gail King is, it's considered. But she didn't speak.
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It was her handwritten notes. Her handwritten notes were there. You know what I mean? She had
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all these things. And I think while on the one hand, he probably did me a service, you know what
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I mean? By just kind of take comment during that interview. I don't think he did Nate and Gail a
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service. And I'm really, really sorry for them.
00:24:07.460
Okay. First of all, a correction. The third anchor on the set, Steve Krakauer tells me his name,
00:24:15.720
Nate Burleson. And he's not white. He's black. I didn't know. I never watched this channel. I
00:24:20.560
have no idea of this, but I guess that's a double sin because now you not only didn't let Gail speak,
00:24:25.220
who is black, you didn't let Nate Burleson speak and he's black too. So double sin by their co-host,
00:24:30.920
Tony DeCopal. So you hear, you hear Ta-Nehisi Coates there saying that Gail,
00:24:37.460
King went over what she was going to be asking him before the interview. She had all of her notes
00:24:46.340
there and she went over it in advance. That is not okay. That is not okay at any news organization,
00:24:54.520
not before an interview where the guy is coming on, on a subject like this, a dicey, this isn't like
00:25:00.280
two girlfriends sitting down like, Hey, what kind of wine do you like? Or even like Stephen Colbert
00:25:06.880
saying, we're going to ask her about beer, you know, that he's not a journalist, but I'm just
00:25:11.460
saying that kind of lightheaded thing. Like what kind of beer does she like? What should we, that's
00:25:15.920
fine. Going to a guest who is controversial, who's written a very controversial book and saying,
00:25:22.780
these are the points I'm going to raise. And I don't know how far that went. Did she give actual
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questions, but even telling him this is where we're going to go together. I'm going to ask you this.
00:25:32.500
Then we're going to go over this. I'm going to zero in on this. That's not okay. And you heard
00:25:37.660
it straight from the horse's mouth. He's saying the guest is saying she did it. Is Gail King going
00:25:44.400
to be dragged in front of the rest of the staff and chastised by this woman, this editorial boss,
00:25:51.820
uh, and Adrian Rourke about meeting the editorial standards of CBS news that they need to lean into
00:26:00.880
their objectivity and checking their biases and their opinions. And that sometimes we fail our
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audiences and we're in one of those times. Don't hold your breath. I mean, what an embarrassment.
00:26:14.080
And it's to the point now where she hasn't even come out and spoken to it. It's like,
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she doesn't feel the need to defend herself. It's fine. No one expected anything more of her.
00:26:21.720
And she knows that because she's at CBS, because she's Gail King, Oprah's best friend and a black woman,
00:26:28.280
no one's going to give her a hard time about it. We're not going to give her her. She's the victim
00:26:31.760
in this. You see, because she didn't get to ask her questions that she'd already gone over with
00:26:35.320
coats. She's the victim. So here's the last chapter in this, at least for now. Um, wait,
00:26:43.460
one thing before I get to the last chapter, Tony's sin was allegedly showing bias on a subject that is
00:26:50.160
near and dear to him. That's not okay. It's CBS news. That's what they want us to believe.
00:26:54.360
But the free press, our friends over at the free press took a deep dive into this and they pointed
00:26:59.820
out the hypocrisy of this, the double standard, because after central park, Karen, remember Amy
00:27:07.300
Cooper had her dust up with the birdwatching guy who was so nasty to her about her dog.
00:27:13.040
They allowed Gail King to go on the air and do the following. So 24, I am speechless. I'm really,
00:27:22.540
really speechless about what we're seeing on television this morning. It feels to me like
00:27:26.860
a open season and that it's just a, not sometimes a safe place to be in this country for black men.
00:27:32.740
And today is too much for me. She personalized it. She editorialized. She offered her opinion
00:27:41.300
on a very controversial case that was in the news. She spoke to it as a black woman. Totally fine.
00:27:48.620
Totally fine. But this guy, Tony speaking to a very controversial issue that's in the news and a
00:27:56.640
one-sided presentation of it happened on his air. He may not speak to his personal opinion as a Jewish
00:28:02.780
man with kids living in Israel that violates CBS's editorial standards. F you CBS. You're disgusting.
00:28:11.800
You know exactly what you did. His view needed to be silenced because it was in defense of Israel
00:28:18.400
and because the staffers on board in particular, according to the reports, the minority staffers,
00:28:24.960
probably the young kids through a fit about equity and centering black and brown people.
00:28:31.280
And you caved because that's what these networks do. They also appear to have made Tony
00:28:37.680
duck a pool, have a private meeting with Nate and Gail in his office. And here is the final chapter for
00:28:47.140
now. This is from the New York post in an exclusive. Tony spoke at Tuesday's staff only meeting. The one
00:28:55.380
from which the trauma trainer got booted. It was not attended by Gail and Nate said a source with
00:29:02.460
knowledge. He said he regretted putting his colleagues in that position, especially those
00:29:08.040
who are overseas and in danger as if CBS is like choosing a side. Bullshit. What a lie. There were
00:29:14.820
tears. People were very upset. Staffers are divided on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We know that's
00:29:21.120
why he was right to offer the other side. And they were troubled by how he challenged coats last week.
00:29:28.180
They say he did not back down from his questioning of coats. Um, but some black staffers who attended
00:29:35.680
the meeting were critical that Nate Burleson and King have remained tight lipped about the matter.
00:29:43.820
Dokopol held a private meeting Monday with his co-host in his office. And, um, now he's out there
00:29:51.900
offering his regrets. He regrets putting his colleagues in that position. So that's as close
00:29:58.860
as we're going to get to, I guess, his apology, which is what they really want or his head on a
00:30:04.340
stake that that will satisfy them. Look, I'm just going to tell you something. I like, I went through
00:30:09.000
this. I've, I've been in this guy's exact position where the staff at one of these woke leftist media
00:30:15.220
organizations goes into full meltdown because they didn't like something factual that you said.
00:30:22.280
And then you're forced to talk to your colleagues about it, to have these struggle sessions with
00:30:28.560
these woke asshole young producers who don't know shit. One of whom I, I gave this guy so many
00:30:35.300
opportunities at NBC news. Nobody knew who this guy was. I gave him so many opportunities and he stuck
00:30:41.100
the knife in me just as soon as I ran into trouble there and then had the nerve to come begging me
00:30:45.840
for a job after NBC fired his ass. It was so fun telling him to pound sand. Really, I just ignored
00:30:52.400
him, which is the best response, but I did see your request and you know who you are and you've got
00:30:57.380
nerve, nerve asking me to hire you. Anyway, karma has a way of settling things in that way, but I'm sure
00:31:05.900
this is stressful for this poor guy who's never in the news. Let's face it. Nobody knows who this is.
00:31:09.540
And, um, suddenly all of his colleagues turn on him except for Jan, Jan Crawford. And he got the,
00:31:16.480
the bosses of his whole network calling all hands on deck meetings to embarrass you and publicly
00:31:21.260
pretend like you've committed some terrible sin. It's traumatic. And I'm sure he's very on his heels
00:31:27.380
right now and wondering if somehow he did something wrong or he's got to make amends somehow. And I
00:31:33.120
certainly hope that his two co-hosts went in there and said, you did nothing wrong. I certainly hope they
00:31:39.120
did that. And you know what? They should say that publicly. They should have his back publicly.
00:31:45.440
They should make sure that they get asked that question at their next media appearance and they
00:31:50.160
should have his back. I was in a worse position because my anchors were publicly attacking me
00:31:56.640
everywhere on the air, on the today show, uh, all over Twitter publicly attacking me. Um,
00:32:03.480
he's not quite in that position, but certainly nobody defended me, including Gail King, by the way,
00:32:09.220
who I was friends with. Did she defend? No, she didn't. No. Um, so in any event, I don't think
00:32:15.580
we can expect great things from her, uh, or the co-host. I don't know him and I don't know anything
00:32:20.560
about him, but so far they're letting this guy twist and CBS is fine with ruining his reputation,
00:32:25.860
letting him just seem like he's committed some journalistic sin and letting people like Jan twist
00:32:29.960
wondering what exactly am I expected to do here at this news organization? All right. We're going
00:32:39.340
to get to your questions in a minute. Uh, we're going to do a little asked and answered on this
00:32:44.100
show, but first I want to bring you another edition of a franchise in this show that we call
00:32:48.980
you can't say that where we highlight something you can't say or do or think you're just not allowed
00:32:54.240
to in 2024 America. Today's topic is personal, not for me, but for my producer, Lauren, who we snatched
00:33:02.480
up a couple of years ago out of the beautiful state of California. Now we love, we love the weather
00:33:09.120
in California and we love Lauren. However, you know, it's, it's basically the people's Republic
00:33:13.920
of California. And so we got lucky and found Lauren in orange County. That was smart. Um, we got her
00:33:23.720
and now she is a producer working for the Megan Kelly show. But before that she was a member of
00:33:30.460
the USC song girl team. You probably never heard of the song girls unless you're from Southern
00:33:36.520
California. Well, let me tell you about them. The song girls, they're not cheerleaders. They have
00:33:41.140
those two at the university of Southern California, but these girls are more of a dance squad and they
00:33:46.100
work hard. Essentially athletes themselves who perform at all the big football games and the other big
00:33:51.680
university events. Here you see them. The USC song girl team is known for its rich history tradition
00:33:57.560
and is recognized as an iconic symbol of the university spirit. The song girls, according
00:34:02.540
to the website are quote, often referred to as the ambassadors of the university of Southern
00:34:07.860
California. The dedication, the loyalty, the quest for continual improvement are hallmarks of the team.
00:34:14.420
Says the website. That sounds great. But then something strange happened. It happened quietly just a couple
00:34:20.940
of weeks ago. The U S song girls, you see were renamed. What happened to the USC song girls? Why were they
00:34:28.060
renamed? There wasn't a big announcement. Instead, the song girls website and social media accounts were
00:34:34.240
just edited. The new name, the USC song leaders. In fact, the website URL just says USC song. Now just
00:34:47.440
song. What's noticeably absent? Well, girls, of course. And the USC song girls are a team made up solely
00:34:56.340
of girls and have been for each of the past 50 plus years in their existence. But suddenly the girls
00:35:03.520
are gone. And now they are the song leaders. In fact, you can look throughout the team's website
00:35:13.080
and social media posts and the word girls doesn't appear at all. It has been scrubbed. So what happened?
00:35:21.160
Well, we got a statement from USC's assistant director of spirit programs who told us spirit programs,
00:35:27.560
which include the song team, spirit leaders and mascots, and the Trojan marching band,
00:35:33.520
were brought together as the spirit of Troy in 2022. The spirit of Troy is actively enhancing
00:35:42.360
a welcoming and positive team environment. To include all students, the song team recently adopted
00:35:51.960
the name song leaders, a name they held in the early 2000s. Ah, there it is. Welcoming, include,
00:36:02.020
you know where this is going and you know why this happened. Lauren may have been a song girl,
00:36:07.740
but going forward, the future members of this team are going to be leaders only with no gendered
00:36:15.140
phrases. So as not to offend the LGBTQ crowd, they are the ones for whom this was undoubtedly changed.
00:36:24.300
And undoubtedly there will be a song boy who we just refer to as a song leader on the team sometime
00:36:31.780
soon. If there isn't already, the next debate will be debate will be about what preferred pronouns
00:36:37.580
we should be using for the song leaders. Do we say the song leaders would like to use the
00:36:44.820
non-gendered bathroom? Oh, this is the captain of the song leaders. She, the leader would like to ask
00:36:55.660
for your support. Let's watch how this works for them. Because when you erase women and you erase
00:37:04.020
girls, you're playing with fire. You are setting us down a path that is very, very dangerous for women
00:37:11.240
in America. We don't count. Our testimonials don't count. Womanhood doesn't count is no longer a thing.
00:37:19.400
And the next thing you know, you've got babies being born and grown in incubators and you've got
00:37:25.700
chest feeding. If you're not able to say what a woman is, what a girl is without finding those terms
00:37:33.080
offensive enough that they must be scrubbed right out of existence. USC who continues to believe that
00:37:42.380
if you have a bunch of women on a dance team and you want to call them song girls, well, you can't
00:37:49.440
say that. Oh, wait, this is America coming up. I answer some of your questions. There's a lot at stake
00:37:56.440
in this upcoming election, but regardless of who is sitting in the white house, the fuse on the economy
00:38:01.740
has already been lit. Even four years of a conservative presidency will not be enough to
00:38:07.120
turn the tide on our $35 trillion national debt. And if the left wins, it will be like throwing gas
00:38:13.200
on a dumpster fire. What can you do? Well, you do have options. You could protect your savings by
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diversifying into gold with the help of Birch Gold Group. Gold has stood firm in the face of greedy
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of the U.S. dollar has declined, while the price of gold has increased 40%. Coincidence? Text MK to
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98989898. Get your free info kit on gold. Text MK to the number 989898 today.
00:39:03.960
Now we have an edition of Asked and Answered, which is where we answer some of our viewer
00:39:08.700
mail. If you want to email me, you can do it now. It's megan, M-E-G-Y-N, at megankelly.com.
00:39:16.280
And we will go through them every week, as we always do, and pull a few to address on the air,
00:39:21.740
and we will read your emails privately. So that always happens, only if you get selected.
00:39:27.000
Steve Krakauer is here in the Red Studio with me today.
00:39:30.940
This is our executive producer. You guys, you usually, sometimes he comes on,
00:39:34.040
but you never get to see like the actual man sitting here.
00:39:40.520
It's good to be here. I know we're talking election, getting ready for election night.
00:39:46.520
People don't know there's a whole other side of the studio over there,
00:39:49.180
which we will be showing you on election night. And we're using
00:39:51.760
lots of different places here for our coverage.
00:39:54.480
It's going to be big. It's going to be a big night. Yeah.
00:39:57.200
Well, that actually kind of dovetails with the first question here. This is from Matthew,
00:40:00.220
who wants to know that they say Kamala Harris is not coming on this show. Probably not.
00:40:04.760
We've made the request, I should say. But if she did, what would be one question you would want to ask her?
00:40:10.660
Hmm. What is a woman? I mean, I asked, or can a woman become a man? What I asked Trump? Let's see how she does.
00:40:21.860
Can you imagine if I asked her that? Can a woman become a man? She would be so uncomfortable. That's why she will never come.
00:40:27.780
No, no. It would be about dreams and aspirations.
00:40:30.000
I'd really also like to ask her, you say that you proposed a border bill from day one of your
00:40:35.880
administration. If you really wanted to crack down on the border, why did you reverse remain in Mexico?
00:40:42.520
You know, all of the asylum policies. I'd go through those executive orders that we've been
00:40:46.000
reading on the show. Can you imagine? Right. I'd love to hear her answer that question.
00:40:51.300
It's like asking the border question in a way that actually gets an answer.
00:40:56.380
Yes. All right. Here's another one. This is from Elizabeth. It's kind of a personal one. She says
00:41:00.200
she's a 24 year old graduate student at a university that claims to be Christian. It's interesting.
00:41:04.800
In her classes, she's being instructed on how to support trans students taking tests on how she
00:41:10.040
can advocate for them. She wants to be a school psychologist, but she's feeling discouraged.
00:41:14.560
What do you think? Should she continue in this career or what should she do?
00:41:17.900
That is very tough because that industry has been captured by woke leftists, you know,
00:41:24.920
from the American Psychiatry Association to the American Academy of Pediatrics. And the standard
00:41:29.600
in that industry is to affirm. And you actually could lose your license potentially if you don't
00:41:34.820
do what they want you to do. In some states, it's considered conversion therapy.
00:41:39.300
So I think I would be really sure what the regulations were in my chosen state. I'd probably
00:41:46.240
stay to red states where you are allowed to explore issues thoughtfully and like with
00:41:53.940
love as opposed to just know you can only affirm and find out whether you could potentially lose
00:41:59.800
your license over that. Because how could you do it if you can't do it honestly? If you can't
00:42:03.260
actually help these kids, how could you become part of that machine? It doesn't sound like you
00:42:07.040
could live with that. And I don't blame you. You shouldn't live with that. So if that doesn't
00:42:11.200
work out, you could always do. We've had a couple of people on this show like Miriam Grossman who have
00:42:16.180
an outside counseling business for families and kids. And she's now gotten very bold about being
00:42:21.340
a resource for families who want honest counseling in these situations. You could go that lane and
00:42:26.340
actually you should like connect with her. I think we actually have a contact for her.
00:42:31.320
Yeah. Maybe we can hook her up. Yeah. Elizabeth, by the way, I don't know. Elizabeth. Maybe we can
00:42:35.400
hook Elizabeth up so she can ask somebody who's already doing this kind of work on what the lanes
00:42:40.660
available to her are. Elizabeth, we're going to do that for you. Excellent. All right. Last one. This
00:42:45.860
is from Hallie. And she wants to know, you've spoken about your friendships over the years.
00:42:50.400
She wants to know if you keep in touch with friends from high school, college, law school,
00:42:53.180
and from which period of your life are your closest friends? That's so sweet. They're spread out a bit.
00:42:59.140
So my closest friend in high school and for middle school, like for just a long period of my
00:43:05.420
adolescence was Kelly McGinnis. I've mentioned her on the show many times. It was Megan Kelly,
00:43:11.020
Kelly McGinnis. We were freaking frack. We dressed alike. We did everything together. We were inseparable
00:43:14.760
and she and I are still in touch. She's great. She still lives near my hometown. Um, and then in college,
00:43:22.060
I really kind of was with my boyfriend. Most of the time I wound up deactivating from my sorority
00:43:28.540
because I was just so into my boyfriend who is a lacrosse player and couldn't go to any of the
00:43:32.740
fraternity things or the, the mixers in the Greek system that I was supposed to go to. And he and I
00:43:38.240
were just absolutely mad for one another. And so he was the main figure of that period for me. And no,
00:43:43.800
we are no longer in touch. It didn't end badly. It actually ended really sweetly, but it's, I wrote
00:43:48.820
about it in my book. You can read it there. It's, he's the one ex of mine that Doug really likes,
00:43:54.200
you know, like when Doug hears the stories, Sean Ryan also, right? I think I remember that story.
00:43:58.540
Yeah. The lacrosse player and the lesson about how, you know, he was the one who was practicing
00:44:02.880
and the other team was watching them. Yeah. He just gave me such self-confidence in a way I didn't
00:44:08.000
have before. He looked at me so differently. He taught me how to look at myself differently. And,
00:44:11.920
uh, I have nothing but affection for this guy. I think his life ran into some serious trouble
00:44:17.920
after we broke up, not, not because we broke up, but just later. And, uh, we were in touch maybe once
00:44:24.780
10 years after that, just by phone, but still, I, I've got a soft spot for the guy and I wish him
00:44:30.040
well. So that's kind of why I don't have a ton of college friends that I'm still in touch with.
00:44:34.500
But my closest law school friend, Donna, you know, Donna. Yeah. How, how do we know Donna?
00:44:40.220
Donna's a regular, uh, listener and viewer, I guess, listener probably, right? She listens live.
00:44:45.220
She listens that you live on the SiriusXM app. She literally never misses a show.
00:44:49.020
No, she's, she's taken in every minute of content we've ever done. And right after the show,
00:44:54.440
she gives me her thoughts. Like today we're, we're taping this on yesterday, Wednesday.
00:44:59.800
Let's see what she texted me every day. She gives me one. Um, she said, LOL,
00:45:05.160
re Kamala doing her Harry Belafonte imitation. Have you no empathy, mon?
00:45:11.120
And she went on from there, but I love my Donna reviews. If she doesn't like the show,
00:45:15.660
she'll tell me that too. But this is, this woman is so smart. She was a vice president at one of
00:45:20.360
these big investment banks before she even got to law school. She was already so accomplished.
00:45:24.540
And I was like, Oh my God, this seems amazing. She already had a kid. She had a second kid in law
00:45:28.800
school and she still graduated at the top of our class on time. She was always a gunner. She went on
00:45:34.720
to have a brilliant legal career. And now she's also back in my hometown and we're, we're in daily touch.
00:45:40.500
I mean, we, we text about the show, blah, blah, blah. So in terms of my past life, uh, she's
00:45:46.380
definitely my closest friend. And then, you know, now it's basically all the people I knew in New
00:45:50.320
York and the people I'm meeting here in Connecticut, I'm already developing some great friendships out
00:45:54.520
here and it's great. You know, I wouldn't say I'm the greatest at like, if I had like a huge party
00:46:00.980
to celebrate a birthday, you wouldn't see like 15 people from this era, 15 people. I'm not like that.
00:46:06.260
I'm not, life's too busy, but I have a couple who are really important to me.
00:46:09.940
That's great. Excellent. We'll keep the questions coming. Megan, Megan Kelly.com.
00:46:13.660
That's right. And when you go to me, you should go to Megan Kelly.com and just type in your email.
00:46:19.860
We don't sell the emails. We don't do any of that nonsense. And we don't barrage you on Fridays.
00:46:23.340
We send you one email. It's just like, uh, we call it the American news minute because in 60 seconds
00:46:28.060
or less, less, we'll give you all the week, the news you need to know from the week. And we'll give you
00:46:31.860
some highlights from the show, some fun updates behind the scenes stuff. And always the Strudwick file
00:46:37.200
remains the most clicked on item on the newsletter. It's amazing.
00:46:43.540
Yeah. They love him. I didn't see him earlier. I know that's because he goes to doggy daycare
00:46:49.760
We got Strud so that Thunder would have a buddy. And then he became such a handful and so naughty.
00:46:57.100
We had to ship him off to doggy daycare three days of the week. So Thunder is still sitting
00:47:00.820
there alone and our house is also being destroyed.
00:47:04.200
Right, right, right. I saw some of those pumpkins you were talking about a couple of days ago.
00:47:08.860
I came up today. He's eating all the pumpkins outside of my house and like the big squash
00:47:14.060
things. I don't know, even know what they are. And, um, he eats off the top. And so like the exposed
00:47:18.940
flesh of the pumpkin or squash, whatever is, is there. And now I came up, it was like animal kingdom,
00:47:23.660
the number of squirrels that were on my front porch. I'm like, Oh my God. I'm like, get out of
00:47:28.140
here. Get out of here. The squirrels didn't even scurry. They were like, we're good. I'm like,
00:47:32.400
get out of here. You rodents. Then finally they got off. Cause I was like, move,
00:47:35.860
they move and it's covered in bugs. There's bugs everywhere. I'm like,
00:47:40.980
that's what he does. That's like his third huge squash he's eaten is squash locale.
00:47:47.760
I don't know. We have to ask, uh, Casey means it's not going well, Steve. Anyway, thank you.
00:47:55.240
And thanks to all of you for watching and listening. Check it out. Megan Kelly.com
00:48:01.980
Thanks for listening to the Megan Kelly show. No BS, no agenda and no fear.