Candace Owens and Erica Kirk's feud heats up. Nick Reiner is soon expected to be formally charged with the murder of his parents, legendary movie director Rob Reiner and his photographer mother, Michelle Reiner. Meanwhile, a killer is still on the loose after a gunman killed two and wounded nine at Brown University. We ll get to the latest on how he and now the attorney general are contradicting each other. And we are definitely going to get into this.
00:02:10.220It's a very long two-part article written by Vanity Fair with the cooperation of and with several interviews over the course of a year of President Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and the entire cabinet.
00:02:41.000I guess the reporter has done all these profiles on chiefs of staff over the years.
00:02:45.860Okay, that shouldn't do it because Vanity Fair hates conservatives, right?
00:02:52.660So, you kind of should know what you're going to get.
00:02:56.340I think Susie Wiles is a very smart, very savvy woman, but, um, you know, it's not a surprise that Vanity Fair did an incredibly unfair piece on Susie Wiles that does not make her or anyone in the cabinet look good.
00:03:11.360And she's already trying to, like, tamp down some of the admissions.
00:03:23.380They're coming on in just a couple minutes, but I just want to start quickly with this.
00:03:28.160I've been telling you as this, I don't know if you want to call it a feud or what between Candace Owens and Erica Kirk has been heating up, that I would have something to say on it in the coming days, and I do.
00:03:39.400Um, it's been going on now for a while where Candace, I had that exchange with Ben Shapiro out on the tour where he said she'd accused Erica of orchestrating Charlie's murder.
00:04:09.400But somebody asked me about it the very next night, and I actually told them, because I'd been planning on saying something on the show since Ben had made the accusation.
00:04:16.780And if it was not true, I did not want to be having something that heavy hanging out there.
00:04:22.100Um, someone asked about it, and I said, that's actually not true.
00:04:57.860It may seem to you like a distinction without a difference, but we really do care about facts being precise here on the program.
00:05:03.760We don't always get it right, but that's a big one to get wrong.
00:05:06.400Well, since then, Candace has been more focused on Erica Kirk.
00:05:14.380And I think that's because Erica Kirk went on a media tour and started clearly speaking out about Candace.
00:05:20.660And so, you know, it was, it turned into a rather explosive situation last week where Erica went on with Harris Faulkner on Fox News and said very clearly she wants these, quote, conspiracy theories to stop, especially about Turning Point USA, which she called her Turning Point family.
00:05:40.620And she was clearly upset, you know, we played the soundbite for you.
00:05:45.380She was clearly, you know, she's had it.
00:05:47.680And then, um, she went on with Barry Weiss on CBS for a town hall.
00:05:52.980They had aired the preview, saw it, and then the actual exchange aired on Saturday night with, with Barry, where, um, Erica told Candace to just stop.
00:06:45.340And that was a clear play on words, if you will, because Candace, when she had started down the Turning Point narrative, had said, only my husband or Erica Kirk can tell me to stop this.
00:06:57.580And, you know, like, one word from Erica will stop this.
00:07:01.600And Erica didn't say anything about this.
00:07:04.240She hasn't really been commenting on podcasts and so on.
00:07:06.860But she did, as you saw in that clip, say stop.
00:07:12.080And it was not taken as the command to stop.
00:07:18.600I think Candace felt she was saying stop lying.
00:07:22.780And Candace, her defense was she's not lying.
00:07:25.460She's actually trying to do an investigation into the true killer of Charlie Kirk.
00:07:29.820I've said before, and I will say again, I think they have the true killer of Charlie Kirk.
00:07:43.420Many people believe there's more to this story that we're being lied to by our FBI, that there are too many inconsistencies around the official story.
00:07:49.800And those people are more than entitled to that belief.
00:10:23.040Someone from their own respective teams.
00:10:25.020I'll let them disclose the specifics of that.
00:10:27.480But they made a lot of progress, according to them.
00:10:31.180And this is what they tweeted out yesterday after the meeting.
00:10:33.980Candace said, Erica and I wrote, had an extremely productive four and a half hour meeting that I think we both feel should have taken place a lot earlier than it did.
00:10:42.960We agreed much more than I had anticipated.
00:10:45.420Of course, we also disagreed on various points and people as well.
00:10:49.360Most importantly, we were able to share intel and clarify intent.
00:10:52.440I will, of course, have a full rundown for you all tomorrow, as I am currently exhausted.
00:10:57.220But I wanted to quickly let you guys know that absolutely nothing was held back.
00:11:00.780And the immediate result was that tensions were thawed.
00:11:22.440So, I will let Erica and the Turning Point crew and Candace Owens fill you in on what happened at that meeting and so on.
00:11:31.040I just wanted to note, because many of my viewers have been wondering why I haven't said anything, given my previous statements about Erica.
00:11:40.160Erica, and the reason is that I have been working behind the scenes to try to foster a detente between them.
00:11:51.080Erica called me weeks ago and asked me if I would be part of this sit-down with them, which originally they had contemplated might be for consumption by the public.
00:12:06.240My air in some way, shape, or form, and asked if I would facilitate that meeting between the two of them.
00:12:14.460And I said, yes, immediately, of course I would.
00:13:06.000And I understand my core audience knows who I am and would never have assumed the worst about me, that I was just abandoning Erica or getting ready to pounce on Candace and, you know, insert myself into this on one side.
00:13:19.920I'm not getting ready to do that, and I don't want that.
00:13:22.860I don't think that's God's role for me here.
00:13:25.340I really fully believe God's role for me here is to possibly play a role in getting this whole thing to a better place.
00:13:35.840I think I might be in a position to help construct that.
00:13:41.520But sitting here in my studio in Connecticut just slinging mud at one side or the other or tearing people down or, you know, expressing my disgust, my outrage, that is pointless.
00:13:54.940Here, my goal and my job here, I think, is to try to understand, yes, where Candace is coming from on this.
00:14:04.500I know you're not supposed to say it, you're supposed to just immediately condemn her.
00:14:08.640But I love the turning point, guys, and I don't believe for one second any of them had anything to do with Charlie's murder.
00:14:16.620So people who care about Candace and love Erica have been in a tough position as this whole thing has escalated.
00:14:24.780And care about turning point, which I deeply do.
00:14:26.860And I will make sure that their legacy is not destroyed.
00:14:29.840And I will do everything within my power to help them thrive, including supporting my own kids in forming a turning point chapter.
00:14:37.180And going out to AmFest and helping headline that event and encouraging everyone I know within the conservative movement to go and support them and to donate.
00:14:46.960But that doesn't mean I need to sling mud at somebody who sees it differently than I do.
00:14:54.020And it especially doesn't mean I should remove myself from a position that I think few hold where I might be able to actually help this thing go away if I can.
00:15:19.120And definitely for the conservative movement.
00:15:21.880There are so many really important battles that we're going to have to fight together against the radical left.
00:15:28.500And if there's any way that strain of argument and contention can be dissipated, can be managed to a place where it's not quite as upsetting, awful, tough on a lot of people I love, then I would like to be that person if I can.
00:16:36.000You know, she's been ripping on Turning Point, an organization that Charlie built that Erica's running mercilessly for weeks now.
00:16:42.980And she'd been coming under fire for not accepting the invite of the Turning Point guys to join their live stream, which was supposed to take place yesterday, responding to her claims.
00:16:54.200And then, you know, the big kahuna, the CEO, Erica Kirk herself and Charlie's widow, she's got a couple of roles in this whole story, reaches out to her and says, I will come sit with you directly.
00:17:07.160And so, you know, she could have run for that from that.
00:17:10.260She could have found 10,000 excuses not to do it.
00:17:13.380You know, I'm just happy to sit here on my set and hurl allegations without saying them to your face.
00:17:34.100To the hateful people whom I used to call friends who have been all over the internet trying to shame me and say that no one should ever listen to this program again because I haven't spoken out on the Erica, Candace conflict.
00:17:48.960And there's no, I don't have any pearls of wisdom other than go fuck yourselves.
00:17:55.980You have no fucking clue what's going on.
00:17:58.960You don't know what I do behind the scenes.
00:18:02.080And your world is so myopically online, you fail to understand there are real humans involved here.
00:18:08.400And actually being able to touch grass and have relationships with them, which is something I'm, I'm doing, could prove to actually benefit all involved.
00:18:17.560Maybe it won't, maybe it, maybe it won't at all, but it's at least got a shot.
00:18:22.120I'm not sure your Twitter shame game has gotten anything of value done.
00:18:31.460More on that tomorrow after both women, I think we'll have spoken out about it in more detail or their teams.
00:18:37.340Joining me now, the fellas from Ruthless, one of the greatest programs on earth, Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook, and Comfortably Smug.
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00:32:18.820We talked about how he quotes her saying Trump's got sort of an alcoholic's personality.
00:32:25.160He also includes the detail that back in 2016, Trump berated her in front of a gaggle of cronies.
00:32:31.340Wiles told him, quote, it was a horrific hour plus at midnight, and I don't think I've seen him that angry since.
00:32:38.440He was ranting and raving, and I didn't know whether to argue back or whether to be stoic.
00:32:42.960What I really wanted to do was cry, and then she kind of stood him down.
00:32:47.400Like, okay, again, I'm sure these aren't, like, her favorite details to read and print.
00:32:52.540It is in here that she worked for DeSantis and got him elected governor in 2018, and then he turned on her, denouncing Wiles publicly and badmouthing her privately.
00:33:01.420To this day, Wiles doesn't know what triggered the governor's vendetta, quote,
00:33:04.460I think he thought I was getting too much attention, which is ironic.
00:33:07.920I don't ever seek attention, which is true of her.
00:33:10.600But, I mean, 11 interviews with Vanity Fair, you know, kind of cuts against the narrative.
00:33:14.900By the way, I do know she can't stand Ron DeSantis, cannot stand.
00:33:20.420Whatever he did to her burned a serious bridge, and he royally effed that up.
00:33:26.880She would be a much better friend than foe to have.
00:34:40.980The challenge with Elon is keeping up with him, she told me.
00:34:44.260He's an avowed ketamine user, and he sleeps in a sleeping bag in the executive office building in the daytime, and he's an odd, odd duck, as I think geniuses are.
00:34:53.380You know, it's not helpful, but he is his own person.
00:34:56.280Then she goes on to say that she was shocked when he eviscerated USAID.
00:35:56.220She writes, she says, I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this.
00:36:04.780She's talking about the social media influencers who she invited to the White House only to embarrass them with those binders full of nothing.
00:36:12.180She completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this.
00:36:17.360First, she gave them binders full of nothingness.
00:36:21.640And then she said that the witness list or the client list was on her desk.
00:36:27.580And it sure as hell was not on her desk.
00:36:30.540Then she goes on about Epstein to correct Trump.
00:36:33.240Now, Trump has claimed, writes the author, without evidence that Bill Clinton visited Epstein's infamous private island, Little St. James, supposedly 28 times.
00:37:18.640So I, what is, what is happening here?
00:37:21.400Do you think Susie Wiles, who's, sorry, she's Wiley, she's very clever, she has universally good reviews of what a smart, savvy person she is, that she just got, like, had by the author of this, or what?
00:37:36.360Yeah, you know, I mean, what's interesting is there's never been a chief of staff for President Trump in either his first term or anywhere around him, really,
00:37:45.080who can get into this situation where immediately the entirety of the organization circles the wagons around him?
00:37:52.120That's what you saw all morning, this morning, which was Don, everybody from Don Jr., the vice president, and Mark, everybody sort of saying, like, she's the best and shut this down.
00:38:02.320And what gave rise to all of it, I don't know entirely why, you know, you do 11 sit-downs with Vanity Fair when they have a pretty private, you know, internal dialogue about an awful lot of this stuff.
00:38:16.140But if you remove, at least from my perspective, if you remove, like, the left-wing fanaticism in terms of the framing and you remove, you know, just the kind of hyperbolic soap opera-like working that Vanity Fair is doing, there's some really interesting stuff in there.
00:38:35.100We talked about it a lot, Megan, on your show and on ours about, like, is everybody on the same page with some of this stuff?
00:38:41.360Because it feels like everybody is sort of in a different place, and Elon was sort of marching forward.
00:38:45.900And, you know, we, I think, had broad agreement about the goals, but, like, to see that there was some internal discussion about that, like, that's valuable news information, right?
00:38:54.760That's the kind of thing you lead an article about, you know?
00:38:58.020And so, you know, there's a couple of different pieces of this, and you mentioned the ballroom, but that are newsworthy and interesting and probably good for the public to sort of understand and get underneath the hood.
00:39:09.520But it's completely masked by this effort to make her look bad, the administration look bad, Republicans look bad, and in chaos, which, you know, according to the Trump administration, they're not having it today.
00:39:22.260Let me give you a couple more pieces of bias that are obvious on the pages of this profile.
00:39:27.860They're talking about RFKJ, and he writes that, in Wiles' view, RFK Jr.'s shock treatment of HHS is warranted.
00:39:48.680In December, Kennedy's federal vaccine panel voted to end the decades-long recommendation for newborn vaccinations against hepatitis B, which is highly infectious and causes liver failure.
00:40:00.120So nothing, none of the reasons why they said you don't have to get that for your baby if you don't want, and the mother isn't hep B positive or has an unknown status of hep B.
00:40:15.120None of that, none of like, well, there's aluminum in the vaccines.
00:40:19.380Well, maybe we're giving these kids a sexually transmitted disease vaccination a little early in life.
00:40:27.320Some parents where the mother doesn't have the disease might wait until we give like the HPV vaccine, which is like 12, assuming that kids might become sexually active sometime in their teens and you want to get ahead of it.
00:40:40.080Yeah, so that particular thing is very infuriating for me.
00:40:50.340I've talked to a lot of folks about this one specifically, especially those who work in healthcare.
00:40:57.240The hepatitis B vaccine for expectant mothers and for newborns was specifically for mothers who are prostitutes and are at high risk for STDs and babies who may be exposed to those STDs because their mothers are prostitutes.
00:41:14.200Yeah, and so they figured, why not give this to every American instead of the small group of people who are doing heroin and are prostitutes?
00:41:23.400That seems like, yes, HHS has absolutely gone way too far.
00:41:28.320That specific vaccine, you talk to the number of mothers who are outraged that they were not told that information, that this is specifically has been designed for mothers who are at risk because they're prostitutes or they're taking heroin.
00:41:41.400It's unbelievable, and kudos to RFK Jr. for getting on top of that.
00:41:45.680Well, because two things could be true.
00:41:47.080Like, you could say, I believe in the efficacy of the hep B vaccine, and you can also say, maybe it's not necessary my newborn gets it immediately.
00:41:56.820But, like, in the nuance of that, you lose it, right?
00:42:00.700Because no left-wing reporter wants to talk about that because that's way too complicated.
00:42:06.360You're either pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine.
00:42:08.400And you know what they were basically trying to do with the hep B vaccine?
00:42:12.040They were trying to do what they were doing with all of us on the COVID vaccine, which is try to get some sort of herd immunity so that nobody would have hep B, and they wanted to use your baby to make sure that that was the case.
00:42:26.360But then some of the studies showed that that hep B vaccine that you've given to your baby actually doesn't last.
00:42:35.640So by the time, you know, I mean, we're saying, like, with the HPV, they give it to 12-year-olds because, let's face it, in some countries, you know, whatever, sadly, some kids get active very early.
00:42:45.640But the thing with the hep B vaccine is, over the course of decades, it doesn't last.
00:42:54.440So by the time the average person gets sexually active, which is probably more like college age, it might not even be working.
00:43:01.140So there's really no reason to be giving it to a baby who wasn't born to a hep B positive mother, none whatsoever.
00:43:10.420And yet RFKJ still says, if you want to get it for your baby, you can.
00:43:14.920We're just not, like, we just want you to know you don't have to.
00:43:18.560This shouldn't be on, like, the we really recommend you do this for people who are perfectly healthy.
00:43:23.180Yeah, and I think, Megan, what you were just talking about, what these fellows were just talking about, and the lack of critical context in stories like this over the last few decades has led to an inflection point in media that you're living through, that we're living through, that will continue.
00:43:40.580In that, the media used to write the first draft of history, and today it's written by those who are making it.
00:43:46.720And that's why this story doesn't bother me at all.
00:43:49.100Because I know what Susie Wiles has done for this last year.
00:43:52.520She has brought order to a second term that did not exist in the first term.
00:43:57.980And that's what everybody has watched with their own eyes.
00:44:00.880They don't need to read 35 pages from a guy in Vanity Fair.
00:44:10.440What does she have to be afraid of talking to the guy?
00:44:12.220So he lies about her in some story that's 35 pages long.
00:44:15.780Okay, she knows what the truth is, and so does everybody else.
00:44:19.080And this guy, as talented as he is and as widespread as Vanity Fair is, he doesn't write the truth about Susie Wiles because she is making something very special happen in the White House, and nothing can change that.
00:44:32.900I agree with everything you said, and I admire her, but I don't see what the upside of this was.
00:44:36.900Like, the photography alone evidences the hatred that this magazine has for all of the Trump administration.
00:44:48.520I'm going to show you a couple of the up-close photos.
00:44:51.160You pose for a photo for Vanity Fair, you know, a headshot.
00:44:55.220I think the common understanding would be that you're going to get a three-quarter, like a top third of your body, you know, portrait, like from the chest up.
00:46:01.840I don't get my lips done, but I do get a bunch of needles in my face so they can inject a bunch of botulism in there and poison my forehead muscles.
00:46:11.500I don't think I'd appreciate it if that were close-up on camera in Vanity Fair.
00:46:34.440What I'm telling you is that Vanity Fair can throw their absolute worst at Caroline Levitt and at Susie Wiles, and they are going to go to work today and impress everybody in the country.
00:46:46.680The 77 million people who voted for President Trump are well-served by people like them.
00:46:51.100Yeah, I just kind of think it doesn't matter anymore.
00:49:01.120I mean, just any day of the week, pick up the Daily Beast, and you'll see yet another hit piece on me saying, like,
00:49:07.040I should be canceled, my career should be over.
00:49:08.980How'd that work out for you, Daily Beast?
00:49:11.140Anyway, it's like you just get used to it.
00:49:14.080So I am of the mind that if you willingly go into the belly of the beast, like I sat with the New York Times six months ago, whenever that was, you've got to be ready.
00:49:25.520You know, you've got to make sure when they're on, when they're bringing you to the thin ice, you know you're there and you don't just sink.
00:49:31.560Like, make sure you get your points in and ideally record it yourself so that you can fight back if the piece drops and think about what the point of doing it is.
00:49:39.720You know, like, I sat with the New York Times because I actually thought it would be valuable for their listeners, their readers, to hear what I had to say about the Times and the state of media.
00:49:49.120Like, I actually thought they should listen to me.
00:49:52.000I can explain a few things to them about why they're so clueless on things like Joe Biden's mental acuity.
00:49:57.440But you have to do it eyes open and not thinking this is going to be a nice piece.
00:50:04.720This this biased writer, he writes about how the deportations, many who have been who they've grabbed in these raids have been U.S. citizens or were entitled to be here.
00:50:18.260Not long after the El Salvador deportation fiasco in Louisiana, ICE agents arrested and deported to two mothers, along with their children, ages seven, four and two to Honduras.
00:50:27.440The children were U.S. citizens and the four year old was being treated for cancer.
00:50:56.680So anyway, not a fair author, not a fair piece.
00:51:00.200I got to take a quick break and there's a lot more coming up on the other side with the fellas after this.
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00:54:00.620Nick Reiner was, quote, not medically cleared to appear in court today, which he was supposed to do.
00:54:07.760His lawyer, Alan Jackson, that's the guy who represented Karen Reed and got an acquittal for her.
00:54:13.380He's got a much tougher battle on this one.
00:54:17.320Right, saying, quote, he is not medically cleared to be transported to the court.
00:54:21.540That's an obvious reference to his mental health.
00:54:23.660Nick, 32, did not appear before a judge on Tuesday.
00:54:25.920The first time he was scheduled to appear since the bodies of Rob and Michelle were discovered.
00:54:29.820Tuesday's hearing was postponed for another date.
00:54:33.600Now, there's reporting about what happened at his hotel room, how those who checked him in said they didn't see blood all over him or cuts on him.
00:54:41.340There was nothing obviously wrong with him.
00:54:43.420But when the police made their way over to his hotel, they found a lot of blood on early Sunday morning in Santa Monica.
00:54:51.160He was staying at a place called The Pier Side.
00:54:53.460And he checked in around 4 a.m. Sunday.
00:54:57.060So the murder apparently was already done using his credit card.
00:55:01.260His check-in came hours after the heated argument at Conan O'Brien's Christmas party.
00:55:05.740Eyewitnesses said he did seem tweaked out when he checked in, but no visible signs he'd been in a violent confrontation.
00:55:11.600No blood, stains, or cuts on his body.
00:55:14.340The reservation was made for just one day, but he never formally checked out.
00:55:17.380Quote, when the staff came into his room later Sunday morning, they found the shower full of blood, blood on the bed.
00:55:22.920The window in the room was covered by bed sheets, and the cops eventually went and gathered evidence there.
00:55:30.160The report on the argument at Conan's party, many people noticed he was behaving strangely.
00:55:35.200He was, quote, freaking everyone out, acting crazy.
00:55:38.540He kept asking people if they were famous, a source told People magazine.
00:55:42.340Per TMZ, after Rob Reiner and Nick got into a, quote, very loud argument, the director and Michelle left,
00:55:49.000that his behavior at Conan's house alarmed the guests because it was so bizarre.
00:55:57.480One of the guests recalled Rob Reiner telling his son his behavior was inappropriate.
00:56:02.640Nick Reiner's behavior looked, he looked anxious.
00:56:05.420He looked uncomfortable in a way that deeply unsettled one guest and another attendee.
00:56:12.340So, then you have this from Billy Bush, who, of course, is a great entertainment reporter in particular,
00:56:19.500weighing in on the fact that Romy Reiner, who is, I think, only 19 or 20,
00:56:25.460she's the one who found her parents with her throats slit and bodies stabbed multiple times.
00:56:33.180And there's new information in this soundbite.
00:59:32.140You know, and that's the scary thing because there are so many Americans who struggle with this that don't have all of the resources of a Reiner family, which only really does –
00:59:41.940Right, which only really does emphasize how destructive this is to life of a family.
00:59:48.020I mean, I have to say, I read out a report on page six of the New York Post today that brought up a quote from Nick Reiner from a few years back where he admits that he lost his virginity at age 14 to a prostitute.
01:00:03.280Only now you're supposed to call them sex workers.
01:00:06.080He called – the report is that he called a sex worker to come over for $200 and lost his virginity to her, and that he got the idea, reports the Post, from someone he met who was also in some, like, post-rehab.
01:00:21.760Like, they met in rehab, and now they were both post-rehab.
01:00:24.400I thought he only went to rehab for the first time when he was 15.
01:00:27.640This would put it even earlier, at age 14.
01:00:30.400And I'm sorry, like, I do have to ask, how does a 14-year-old get so addicted to drugs that at least at 14 or 15 they already have to go into rehab, and they're calling sex workers to come to the house in the middle of the night?
01:00:46.820He said he borrowed the money from his parents without telling them what it was for.
01:00:49.760I just have to ask because I'd like to believe that if any of these behaviors were happening in my home, I would know because I am also a very busy professional, but I have a very close eye on my children.
01:01:06.500I'm not blaming Michelle and Rob, but I do think we have to be honest about the fact that this level of drug addiction at this young an age may involve parents who were focused on the wrong thing, like careers, instead of their kid.
01:01:24.360And while it looks like Michelle and Rob did everything within their power once they realized their kid was an addict to try to help him, that's not good enough.
01:01:45.260I mean, look, I deeply troubled young man, obviously, and drug addiction.
01:01:49.900Probably did the paddling on that, but, you know, there's probably some psychological issues there, too.
01:01:54.760I also think, like, you don't know what the lifestyle is like, you know?
01:01:58.680I mean, you can watch the Charlie Sheen documentary to find out what it's like to be young and rich in Hollywood and find out.
01:02:04.600And the Hollywood component of this is what I would say is, like, don't raise your kids around Hollywood.
01:02:11.520I think this is a degenerate place that's full of drugs and prostitution and manipulating young people.
01:02:19.060And I just can't imagine having to raise a young family in that environment, even if you are involved in movies and film and that sort of thing.
01:02:53.520But it's also interesting in that, at least in recent years, since 2015, they did an enormous amount of things as a family.
01:03:01.320And I think it was, you know, it seems from the outside looking in, I don't have any firsthand knowledge, but it looks to me like they were trying the four of them with, was it Romy was the daughter's name?
01:03:30.860And so if you see all of this over the last few years where he's just a part of every picture, like they were at a Spinal Tap 2 September premiere that he was at.
01:03:43.100Now, did he have anything to do with it?
01:04:05.020But I do think we all, as parents, we have to take an honest look at where did this thing go sideways?
01:04:12.920Because yesterday we talked a lot about the yoga instructor who Michelle and Rob brought in to teach young Nick yoga when I think he was as young as 10 because his behavior was so strange.
01:04:24.680I don't think he was on drugs at age 10.
01:04:28.280I think this kid had a mental health issue from a very young age according to the yoga instructor who said he would like scream at that age when he wasn't getting the attention he needed.
01:04:38.540So I think drugs were sort of a way of addressing what was probably a previous mental health issue.
01:04:45.560But I also really think, especially if you've got a kid who you know is going to be special needs like that, yeah, I would get out of a place like Hollywood.
01:04:53.040I keep thinking of Matthew McConaughey who came on this show.
01:05:09.740And they went back to Texas and they have raised good kids.
01:05:13.140And his son is actually getting into acting now, but seems very together by all rights.
01:05:16.740But as an adult, as like an 18 or 19 year old, but they raised their kids in Texas because they did not want anything like this to happen to them.
01:05:28.240And he also put limits on his career, like how much he'd be away from his family.
01:05:47.880Like there are, like the people who make sure, like the kids are protected, notwithstanding the huge trappings of wealth, success, and the fast lane that is Hollywood tend to do a lot better.
01:06:09.060And a series of choices, some which may be very difficult from a career perspective, but choices that, an understanding that the most precious commodity you have in your family are your kids.
01:07:03.440We talked about what it meant to be part of a family with a serious addict, to be a parent, to be a sibling, to be the addict themselves.
01:07:10.180The meal was a decade ago, but alive in front of me.
01:07:13.180Directed by Rob and co-written by Nick, being Charlie, they were there to promote their movie that they did together, which we discussed yesterday.
01:07:19.840Focuses on David, an accomplished actor now running for governor, clearly a Rob Reiner stand-in, and his drug-addicted son,
01:07:26.400who feels like he's being pushed hard to get clean so as not to be an embarrassment to his famous father.
01:07:50.760From the start, a kind of fatherly pushing was evident.
01:07:54.860Rob wanted this story told, wanted, not surprisingly for a man steeped in show business, for the movie to succeed where therapy had failed.
01:13:57.140The final bit writes as follows, reads as follows.
01:14:01.580Reiner was all about sorting through the complexity of parents and offspring and coming out okay on the other side.
01:14:07.300He's the one who taught us how hard it was, but that we could get through it just as he did with his own famous father, with whom he had bonded over baseball.
01:14:14.960He just couldn't enact the lesson with his own son.
01:14:20.060At the dinner, we pushed back our chairs and stood up.
01:14:50.760That business about he wanted the story written in a way that willed the best outcome into being.
01:14:58.040That's what I'm talking about, you guys.
01:14:59.560You know, that movie, like, that's what he was trying to do, to use the best and most familiar tool he had, movie making, to will that outcome into being.
01:15:10.880And one does wonder, like, now, as the son is clearly on suicide watch and now facing a massive legal trial, will he be able to use Rob Reiner's fortune to defend himself with this very fancy lawyer against charges that he killed his own dad?
01:15:36.040Did Rob and Michelle keep him in their will?
01:15:38.760Well, so many parents who have a drug-addled child will remove the child from the will and tell the child that for their own preservation.
01:15:48.180And also the thought of poor Rob and Michelle in the moments right before they died, knowing it had come to this.
01:15:58.180They didn't die with a bullet to the back of the head.
01:16:38.320I mean, look, I think if there's a piece, a silver lining, a productivity of a conversation that you can have publicly about any of this, we don't know the circumstances of any of their relationships with each other or what led him to drug abuse or, you know, if he was relapsing and back onto it.
01:16:57.020But spend time with your kids, you know?
01:17:44.660Time with you, the parents, the family, more important than friends, more important than sports, more important than academics.
01:17:50.800Like there's so much pressure on these kids.
01:17:52.780This has to be prevented before the drug problem and the 15 or 18 rehabs.
01:18:01.280Like at that point, and I've talked to so many parents of like seriously drug-addled kids.
01:18:06.280I don't know how to say this without sounding really brutal, but like at that point, the kid becomes like a nightmare.
01:18:16.580Like you're saddled with them because they're yours and they're not capable of supporting themselves and they're out there in society.
01:18:24.320And you can't just say they're society's problem.
01:18:26.320You have some obligation to society to do something to protect society from them and make sure that they're not just, you know, in a tent on the street that you walk past.
01:18:35.140But a lot of these parents know they're dangerous.
01:18:39.740They're actually, if not just suicidal, homicidal.
01:19:01.920And I'll say, I don't know how many of your, I imagine a fair number of your listeners know, but I mean, you really are a role model in this regard.
01:19:09.640You and Doug, and we've met your kids, well-adjusted young, young people who understand family dynamic and have access to their family.
01:19:18.680And, you know, we've looked at that and, and anybody in this line of work, there is always somebody asking for something.
01:19:24.980But for a lot of your listeners, it doesn't matter what line of work you're in.
01:19:28.860Somebody's always asking for something.
01:19:30.540There's always something else you can do.
01:19:32.920And you have to rattle around the opportunity cost of each time you go to dinner or each time you go away or what does this get me?
01:19:51.780That's another problem with Hollywood is like as talented as Rob Reiner was and made so many movies that we all love.
01:19:57.980Now I look back and I wonder who paid the price for all the time he spent on those films that I loved.
01:20:04.600You know, where was Nick during those years?
01:20:08.700You know, what, what, how much time was he putting it at home?
01:20:12.220I'm not, again, not blaming him, but I, I think it's a fair inquiry to say all of us, all of us should be reminded now of the, the cost, the potential cost to not putting the hours in, in raising our kids.
01:20:25.040Um, and while they seem to have done Herculean work later in life when they realized he was really struggling, it's really hard to stop that addiction train once it started so hard.
01:20:36.260Um, I want to keep going, but I'm gonna take a quick break, not on Reiner, but I do want to get to what's happening at Brown University.
01:20:41.880You guys, it's going from bad to worse there.
01:20:44.020I like it, I'm sorry to use the overused Keystone thing, but it is starting to feel like Keystone cops there with dismay.
01:20:51.220Um, stand by more with the fellas right after this.
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01:23:33.420I now have my very own channel on Sirius XM.
01:23:36.560It's called the Megyn Kelly Channel, and it is where you will hear the truth, unfiltered, with no agenda, and no apologies.
01:23:42.700Along with the Megyn Kelly Show, you're going to hear from people like Mark Halperin, Link Lauren, Maureen Callahan, Emily Jashinsky, Jesse Kelly, Real Clear Politics, and many more.
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01:23:58.700The fellas from Ruthless are back with me now.
01:24:06.740So I want to go now to Brown University where there is still a killer on the loose,
01:24:11.700and one does not take any comfort from what's happening with the local authorities.
01:24:17.500I want to give you what Mayor Brett Smiley said on an interview with Good Morning America.
01:28:20.840I don't know why on earth he would say such a thing, but yeah, he did say such a thing.
01:28:26.400And by the way, just in case you're feeling confident about the attorney general, who apparently set the record straight by saying, oh, no, no, the guy has been cleared.
01:34:49.320People are telling me that the family of Ella Cook, the Alabama young woman who was a sophomore, has been told that she was the target of what happened at Brown.
01:35:01.440There's other theories about why the person did what they did.
01:35:04.200But now that we don't know who the assailant is, it's going to be harder to say.
01:35:08.160He admits this is not something he would put in the New York Times if he worked there.
01:35:12.880He doesn't feel the reporting is shorn up to the level of, like, you'd put it in print in a major newspaper, although we can debate what the standards are at the New York Times.
01:35:19.780But in any event, he's saying that he is being told by a reliable source that that's what Ella Cook's family has been told.
01:35:26.260She was the vice president of the college Republicans on campus.
01:35:29.600The other man who was killed was a naturalized U.S. citizen from Uzbekistan who had dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon who, I mean, for what it's worth, appears to have brown skin and didn't match, like, the same profile as the young white Ella Cook, who was the college Republican.
01:35:49.100Just for what it's worth, I mean, there were many other people who were shot, but the reporting that Mark is getting is that Ella was the one who was targeted, and she and this other young man are the ones who were killed.
01:36:01.620It's just one of the many reasons why we need to find this guy, you guys, because, of course, people, if this is some sort of a Republican targeting, no matter what kind of targeting it is, we need to know.
01:36:11.900It's bad enough if it's the worst case scenario if it's targeting of young adults.
01:36:16.080I mean, does that mean other universities need to be on alert?
01:36:26.960Well, and there's also, I mean, what happened at Bondi Beach, the bust that happened out in California of that, I don't even know how you classify those psychopaths that were trying to bomb New Year's Eve.
01:36:37.360Oh, the Turtle Island Liberation Front or whatever?
01:36:53.600They're pointing fingers at each other.
01:36:54.920The FBI definitely wants you to know that this is being handled locally and that the FBI is just in an assisting supportive role.
01:37:04.120And the locals were very sure to tell us that it was the FBI who told them the guy in the hotel is indeed a person of interest and that its cell phone analysis unit had zeroed in on him.
01:37:18.940So there's definitely one of these things going where they're each pointing at each other.
01:37:22.040Yeah, I mean, look at a time like this, I don't think that's acceptable at all.
01:37:27.480I mean, this is all hands on deck situation.
01:37:30.340Also, I don't want to blackpill on this, but let's say it is a Republican who is targeted.
01:37:35.420And let's say it is radical left-wing violence.
01:39:19.660We're getting an update out of California on Nick Reiner and the status.
01:39:22.300Again, we began that segment by noting they said he was not physically capable of showing up at the court appearance.
01:39:28.160Now there's two breaking pieces of news, unrelated, we think.
01:39:32.780President Trump just released that he is going to address the nation tomorrow night, Wednesday night at 9 p.m. Eastern.
01:39:39.860All he writes is, my fellow Americans, I'll be giving an address to the nation tomorrow night, live from the White House at 9 p.m. Eastern.
01:39:45.180I look forward to, quote, seeing you then.
01:39:47.880It has been a great year for our country, and the best is yet to come.
01:39:55.140And last but not least, J.D. Vance, who was just giving some public remarks, was asked the first question about whether he is a conspiracy theorist referencing that piece in Vanity Fair.
01:40:08.240The White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, gave to Vanity Fair, in which she's quoted as referring to you as, excuse me, and again, not my words, sir, but a conspiracy theorist of a decade.
01:40:22.080Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true.
01:40:28.180And by the way, Susie and I have joked in private and in public about that for a long time.
01:40:32.960For example, I believed in the crazy conspiracy theory back in 2020 that it was stupid to mask three-year-olds at the height of the COVID pandemic.
01:40:42.320You know, I believed in this crazy conspiracy theory that the media and the government were covering up the fact that Joe Biden was clearly unable to do the job.
01:40:50.860And I believed in the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was trying to throw his political opponents in jail rather than win an argument against his political opponents.
01:40:58.940So, at least on some of these conspiracy theories, it turns out that a conspiracy theory is just something that was true six months before the media admitted it.
01:41:44.260But it's also why I don't think this piece does any damage beyond the, you know, 48 hours where everybody in D.C. sort of fumbles around with their accusations.
01:41:53.080It's because the commentary, almost all of it, is relatable internally in the way that they interact with each other, which is the only thing that matters.
01:42:01.080The design of that piece was to try to pull them apart.
01:42:22.600It's more important now than ever when you've got a Democratic Party that woke up from ruining our economy over four years and all of a sudden have concerns about affordability.
01:42:29.980You might want to reset the dial on that and reset the narrative going into 2026.
01:43:20.920Please play responsibly, 19 plus and physically located in Ontario.
01:43:24.400If you have questions or concern about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.