The Megyn Kelly Show - Mismanagement Leading to Devastating LA Wildfires, and Trump's Serious About Buying Greenland, with The Fifth Column ｜ Ep. 978

00:00:00.000 Your business doesn't move in a straight line.

00:00:02.840 Make sure your team is taken care of through every twist and turn

00:00:05.980 with Canada Life Savings, Retirement and Benefits Plans.

00:00:09.660 Whether you want to grow your team, support your employees at every stage

00:00:13.120 or build a workplace people want to be a part of,

00:00:16.200 Canada Life has flexible plans for companies of all sizes

00:00:19.400 so it's easy to find a solution that works for you.

00:00:22.840 Visit canadalife.com slash employee benefits to learn more.

00:00:26.540 Canada Life Insurance, Investments, Advice.

00:00:31.160 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at New East.

00:00:42.920 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:00:46.500 It is unbelievable what is happening in California right now.

00:00:50.720 An American jewel of a city is in ashes.

00:00:53.400 The Palisades area of Los Angeles is burning.

00:00:58.660 House after house after house of one of our most precious areas is on fire.

00:01:07.140 And residents have been under a mandatory evacuation order,

00:01:10.980 including, I mean, folks who are my dear friends.

00:01:14.160 One of my best friends is out there.

00:01:16.380 Her house is gone.

00:01:18.080 Brian Friedman, who was on the show yesterday, evacuated.

00:01:21.240 These are our fellow Americans who have been forced out of their homes

00:01:25.920 because these predictable Santa Ana winds came

00:01:28.680 and the local officials apparently would not do what was necessary to be done

00:01:36.100 to protect the residents from the foreseeable risk of fire.

00:01:40.600 There are three massive wildfires burning right now,

00:01:43.800 being flamed by Santa Ana winds topping 60 miles an hour.

00:01:47.100 It is so windy that firefighting aircraft are not able to fly in many cases.

00:01:54.260 Nearly 100,000 people are under these mandatory evacuation orders.

00:01:59.220 At least 13,000 structures are under threat.

00:02:03.020 The video is absolutely horrifying.

00:02:06.800 Take a look at this tape here as a fire swarmed a home in Los Angeles.

00:02:11.480 For the listening audience, it is right outside this guy's patio.

00:02:19.140 I mean, he's inside his living room.

00:02:21.180 And the flames are right on the other side of floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding glass doors.

00:02:26.920 Are you okay?

00:02:27.620 Are you going to be okay?

00:02:28.700 Hi.

00:02:29.180 There's your dog.

00:02:29.820 Are you going to be okay? 1.00

00:02:33.520 Oh, shit. 1.00

00:02:35.300 Want me to the park? 1.00

00:02:36.860 Don't worry about that, dude.

00:02:38.060 Look at that. 1.00

00:02:43.280 Oh, shit. 1.00

00:02:49.980 It's scary, Paul. 1.00

00:02:51.020 Yeah.

00:02:54.140 The plastic is gone, dude.

00:02:58.040 Yeah. 1.00

00:02:58.800 Fuck. 1.00

00:02:59.380 The plastic is the least of their concerns at this moment. 1.00

00:03:02.200 Okay, that gives you the flavor.

00:03:03.580 But it is an incredibly dangerous thing to have been in that home at that moment.

00:03:09.260 The person who shared the clip goes by Kevin Dalton.

00:03:13.700 That's his name on X.

00:03:15.800 That clip's already been seen more than 2 million times by early Wednesday.

00:03:19.440 It was also used by the Daily Mail as their lead this morning.

00:03:22.840 Kevin said in an update,

00:03:23.760 I am told the dog and both of his humans were able to safely evacuate the property.

00:03:27.900 That's as much as we know there.

00:03:29.260 Let's hope Kevin is correct.

00:03:31.240 When you see the video, for the listening audience,

00:03:34.080 you don't even know where these two folks who are talking inside and that dog are going to run. 1.00

00:03:38.700 The house seems to be engulfed.

00:03:40.360 One side seems a little less engulfed than the other.

00:03:43.080 But it makes you wonder how on earth this happened.

00:03:46.420 But the winds take the fire so quickly from home to home,

00:03:49.840 it can happen in an instant,

00:03:51.280 which is why the cities issue these mandatory evacuation orders.

00:03:55.040 The wildfires began so quickly that many, many people were caught off guard.

00:03:59.940 And when the roadways became impassable,

00:04:02.420 people just abandoned their cars to flee on foot.

00:04:06.300 Look at this tape here.

00:04:08.420 You see a bulldozer bulldozing the vehicles that were just left in the road out of the way

00:04:15.340 so that, you know, emergency vehicles and others can get through.

00:04:18.860 One woman who abandoned her car told News Nation that police came up to her and said,

00:04:23.120 get out of your car, run for your life, and head toward the ocean.

00:04:28.820 You can believe it.

00:04:30.020 Going back to that first video we showed,

00:04:31.760 and if you're just listening, go check us out on youtube.com later.

00:04:34.380 You'll see it right at the top of the show.

00:04:35.960 You wonder, all I could think was just at least open the doors and let the dog run for his life.

00:04:40.900 Because a dog would know what to do.

00:04:42.540 His instincts would take him away from the fire,

00:04:44.220 and he could probably outrun some extent of it.

00:04:47.100 Run toward the ocean seems like a good idea.

00:04:48.860 Fox's Charles Payne tweeted out this photo and wrote,

00:04:53.340 I'm descending into LAX right now, and I can smell the fire.

00:04:57.260 Many on this flight in panic or heartbroken, knowing their homes are already gone.

00:05:01.640 And listening, audience, what you see here is an aerial of Los Angeles up against the water.

00:05:06.960 And the top third of the photo is in flames.

00:05:11.100 The top third.

00:05:13.120 You know, if you've been to LA, and I know we all rip on California for all sorts of good reasons,

00:05:17.040 but these, we actually love our brothers and sisters in California,

00:05:21.440 and absolutely don't want to see this kind of danger or carnage unleashed on them.

00:05:25.880 And what you're seeing right now is part of one of our jewels, yes, Los Angeles,

00:05:30.000 which has got a long history and a beautiful one in many ways in this country,

00:05:34.380 on fire and burning to the ground.

00:05:38.460 It's the Palisades neighborhood.

00:05:40.480 You got Venice, you got Santa Monica, you got Palisades.

00:05:43.200 And the Palisades, I don't know whether they will still be there when this is done.

00:05:47.840 In Pasadena, senior citizens were rushed out of a senior living facility.

00:05:52.460 Imagine this, some still in their hospital beds.

00:05:55.800 What were they going to do?

00:05:57.080 What was the alternative?

00:05:58.380 They had to get them out.

00:06:00.200 As this fire rages, so does the anger among the residents,

00:06:03.600 who are saying that while wildfires are not uncommon in California,

00:06:08.060 the state's disgusting mismanagement going back for decades is indeed partly to blame here

00:06:15.940 for these fires not being better contained.

00:06:18.980 The city's mayor, Karen Bass, is in Ghana right now.

00:06:25.100 She's on her way back now, but she's not even in the country.

00:06:29.200 The LA Times reporting that firefighters have been radioing their stations

00:06:34.960 with reports that the hydrants were dry in the Pacific Palisades.

00:06:40.940 Fire fighters couldn't get water.

00:06:44.000 It makes it really tough to fight the fires, especially when the winds are so bad

00:06:47.980 that you can't take the aircraft up to do it from overhead.

00:06:52.540 The fire hydrants were dry, which was a risk they reportedly knew about,

00:06:58.220 a problem the city reportedly knew about, but failed to fix.

00:07:01.480 Real estate developer Rick Caruso, who ran against Karen Bass for mayor,

00:07:06.860 he called himself a dem, but it was pretty clear this guy was about as close as you could get

00:07:10.700 to a Republican in California running for office, right?

00:07:13.640 You have to say you're a dem to win for Los Angeles and mayor.

00:07:16.500 So he called himself a dem, but he was an independent, basically.

00:07:20.120 He was an outsider.

00:07:21.740 And the way he talked sounded much more red than it did blue.

00:07:25.160 And he lost.

00:07:26.080 Uh, Elon Musk had endorsed him, but that union vote came in late in the game.

00:07:32.220 And before he knew it, Karen Bass had pulled out a victory. 0.93

00:07:35.200 So Rick Caruso went on local TV and raged about this fire hydrant issue.

00:07:40.120 Take a listen.

00:07:41.420 They can't fight a fire without water and the resources that are needed.

00:07:45.820 Everybody knew these winds were coming.

00:07:47.860 The real issue to me is twofold.

00:07:49.720 We've had decades to go remove the brush in these hills that spread so quickly.

00:07:57.620 And the second is, you've got to have water.

00:08:00.840 And my understanding is the reservoir was not refilled in time and in a timely manner

00:08:06.300 to keep the hydrants going.

00:08:08.020 And it's all about leadership and management that we're seeing a failure of.

00:08:12.100 And all of these residents are paying the ultimate price for that.

00:08:15.920 The LA Times reported that in November, right?

00:08:23.780 We're beginning of January.

00:08:24.740 In November, the lack of water from hydrants was also to blame for the difficult efforts

00:08:30.300 combating the mountain fire in Ventura County.

00:08:32.620 They have been aware that there's an issue with the water not being in the fire hydrants.

00:08:41.220 And what did the LA mayor do to protect her citizens? 0.94

00:08:45.260 Well, we'll get back to you when she gets back from Ghana. 0.97

00:08:49.540 And someone has the chance to ask her.

00:08:52.460 As if all of this is not enough, it turns out that in recent years, LA's fire chief has

00:08:58.340 made not filling the fire hydrants top priority, but diversity.

00:09:03.900 Diversity is at least among the top priorities for the department.

00:09:09.140 Her name is Kristen Crowley.

00:09:11.020 She's been fire chief since 2022.

00:09:13.180 And in an interview shortly after she was elevated to this position, she talked about being super

00:09:19.160 inspired to make the fire department more diverse.

00:09:23.820 I am super inspired.

00:09:26.240 She took time out of her already busy schedule to tell us about her vision for the department's

00:09:30.940 future.

00:09:31.460 One that includes a three-year strategic plan to increase diversity.

00:09:35.680 People ask me, well, what number are you looking for?

00:09:37.880 I'm not looking for a number.

00:09:39.120 It's never enough.

00:09:39.960 Out of 3,300 city firefighters, only 115 are women right now.

00:09:45.220 When it comes to inclusivity and diversity at this department, she's a proud member of

00:09:50.040 the LGBTQ community.

00:09:52.020 Oh my God.

00:09:52.440 That just kind of opens the door of people that thought, wow, I didn't even know that that

00:09:56.540 was an opportunity for me. 1.00

00:09:58.900 Who gives a shit if the fire chief is gay? 1.00

00:10:03.660 I'm sorry, but who gives a flying fig about who she likes to sleep with? 1.00

00:10:08.800 Can you fight the fucking fires, madam? 1.00

00:10:11.300 That's the relevant question. 1.00

00:10:14.180 We don't care about your lady parts and we don't care who you want having access to them. 1.00

00:10:20.480 Can you fight fires?

00:10:21.760 Can you make sure there's water in the fire hydrants?

00:10:25.140 When you realize in Ventura County, this is a massive problem.

00:10:29.320 When you realize that California is going through a drought where they haven't had rain in weeks

00:10:34.100 and months is I don't care who turns you on.

00:10:38.600 And you know why they have only 100 women in a squad of 3,300? 0.96

00:10:44.180 Because women tend to be smaller and not as strong. 1.00

00:10:47.120 And unless you lower the requirements to become a firefighter, most women can't pass the test. 1.00

00:10:52.580 Trust me when I tell you that someone my size cannot run into a building and rescue someone

00:10:58.820 even Doug's size, never mind an Arnold Schwarzenegger who actually happens to live in LA or California

00:11:04.740 at least.

00:11:05.360 This is an absurdity.

00:11:07.160 This is just like the Secret Service and what happened with Trump.

00:11:10.620 We needed all these women in there who weren't even tall enough to protect the six foot three 1.00

00:11:15.080 president.

00:11:17.360 Under this woman, Ms. Crowley, the department created a diversity, equity, and inclusion

00:11:22.500 bureau to train firefighters not on refilling the hydrants or what to do when they're empty,

00:11:28.700 but on the importance of DEI.

00:11:31.960 Our diversity, equity, and inclusion bureau.

00:11:34.220 Now we actually have the staff to do the work when it comes to doing a deep dive in regard to

00:11:39.880 how we do business, how we take care of one another in the fire stations and in our work environment.

00:11:45.860 We don't care.

00:11:46.820 We don't care about any of that. 0.99

00:11:47.880 I don't give a shit about how you're taking care of somebody inside the firehouse. 0.97

00:11:50.600 Take care of me and my home and my kids and my animals when the fires hit. 0.99

00:11:55.700 That's your real job, madam. 0.98

00:11:59.020 Joining me now are our pals from the fifth column, Camille Foster, Michael Moynihan, and

00:12:03.220 Matt Welsh, who you can find at wethefifth.com.

00:12:05.880 Guys, welcome back to the show.

00:12:07.800 For those of us holding our breath for the past several months, we can finally exhale.

00:12:12.100 Work can at last be done on the major issues this country's facing, one of the most significant

00:12:16.480 being our national debt.

00:12:18.560 The fact is our nation's broke, and that debt is a house of cards that cannot be quickly

00:12:22.360 dismantled no matter who's the president.

00:12:24.160 So the strategy now remains the same.

00:12:25.980 You might want to diversify your savings.

00:12:28.140 This is why I want to tell you about Birch Gold.

00:12:30.400 So many things are out of our control, out of our president's control, so it can be important

00:12:34.480 to have a safe haven for your savings.

00:12:37.260 Birch Gold Group can help you convert an IRA or 401k in whole or just in part into an IRA

00:12:43.960 and physical gold.

00:12:45.220 And the best news is it does not cost you one penny out of pocket.

00:12:48.560 Just text MK to 989898 to get your free info kit on gold.

00:12:53.280 Plus, right now you will receive a free one-ounce silver Eagle coin for every $5,000 purchased.

00:12:59.900 Protect your savings with Birch Gold.

00:13:01.960 Text MK to 989898 and claim your eligibility for free silver today.

00:13:07.400 This is unbelievable.

00:13:08.480 I realize certain natural disasters hit, and that's life in the world and in America and

00:13:15.580 in California.

00:13:17.240 But this was foreseeable, and I think we're seeing largely preventable.

00:13:21.920 Your take.

00:13:24.500 You're going to have this happen in Southern California.

00:13:27.560 I mean, the Santa Ana winds blow.

00:13:28.940 There was going to be a fire yesterday, no matter what.

00:13:31.320 Some people are like, oh, is it a gender reveal party that sparked it?

00:13:34.740 Was it this?

00:13:35.200 Was it that?

00:13:35.600 Was it a homeless encampment?

00:13:37.020 Probably one of them was.

00:13:39.660 But on days when there's 100 mile per hour Santa Ana winds coming down from the canyons

00:13:45.120 and there's no humidity, there's going to be a fire, especially if there's some brush

00:13:49.340 in the hills.

00:13:50.040 So the question is, what do you do to prepare for it?

00:13:52.060 There's a couple of things that California has done very, very badly, not just in terms

00:13:57.320 of fighting the fire.

00:13:59.300 But you're going to hear in the coming days people talking about how, oh, it's weird.

00:14:03.420 I don't have insurance for my home.

00:14:05.820 Fire insurance companies or home insurance companies have been fleeing the state because

00:14:10.220 of California's price controls on the insurance industry for years.

00:14:14.800 So California tells people who live in fire prone areas like, let's say, Malibu, which is

00:14:19.840 going to be evacuated if it hasn't been already today.

00:14:22.640 I'm very, very fire prone, steep canyons, drought conditions, wind comes through.

00:14:28.800 So your fire insurance, your homeowner's insurance should be more expensive.

00:14:32.740 California says, oh, we don't want that.

00:14:34.520 We're going to put a price cap on it.

00:14:36.420 And meanwhile, they're going to also raid from the money of the home insurance companies

00:14:41.380 to have their state managed lender of last resort insurance, the fair insurance, fair

00:14:47.860 access to insurance requirements, so that it basically encourages people to build in dangerous

00:14:51.800 places with subsidized insurance that they steal from insurance companies.

00:14:54.800 So what do you do if you're a state farm?

00:14:55.900 You leave.

00:14:56.820 So they've been leaving the state, broadly speaking, because they can't make insurance

00:15:02.340 pay because we're not allowed in a price control situation to let insurance markets tell

00:15:07.920 us how dangerous it is to leave in places.

00:15:10.020 And so there's a lot of people who are going to have their homes burned down who are not going

00:15:13.120 to be able to rebuild at all, or maybe don't have insurance to begin with.

00:15:16.900 All that is a state managed problem.

00:15:18.560 It shows that people don't have a basic sense of economics of how to deal with a predictable

00:15:25.980 risk.

00:15:26.460 And again, this risk has been predictable since the time of the Tongva and the Chumash sitting 1.00

00:15:31.460 on the hills.

00:15:32.880 We have a fire ecology in Southern California, where I'm from, and we all have dear friends

00:15:39.200 who we're worried right now and crossing our fingers that their homes haven't been

00:15:42.940 destroyed in the Palisades and also in the foothills.

00:15:45.900 And it breaks my heart.

00:15:47.720 And we need to do a better job.

00:15:49.040 California needs to do a much better job of mitigating and planning for these very, very

00:15:54.020 predictable catastrophes that happen.

00:15:57.980 This Trump, by the way, has weighed in via Truth Social saying as follows.

00:16:04.560 Governor Gavin Newsom refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that

00:16:11.660 would have allowed millions of gallons of water from excess rain and snow melt from the

00:16:15.980 north to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning

00:16:23.600 in a virtually apocalyptic way.

00:16:26.460 It goes on from there.

00:16:27.760 Camille, what do you make of what's happening here?

00:16:32.020 Well, I mean, I was thinking a lot about Mayor Bass today and the reporting that I just saw that she had cut the fire

00:16:38.120 department's budget by like $17 million this year, which is not a great look for her.

00:16:44.040 All of the stuff that Matt underscored being a good California boy, and I currently reside in California, are all things that I'm pretty

00:16:50.240 familiar with as well.

00:16:51.160 I mean, there was a huge piece back in 2020, and we see this every once in a while about the Forest Management

00:16:56.260 Service and various other government agencies.

00:16:58.680 So it's, you know, federal, state and local who are fully aware of these problems, who have not nearly done enough to get

00:17:04.700 rid of a lot of this, like, undergrowth, this fuel, this dry fuel that is just waiting to burn.

00:17:10.060 I think that what had been recommended back in 2020 was that they'd be burning something like a million acres per year,

00:17:15.180 and they're not anywhere close to that and haven't really gotten much closer to that.

00:17:19.300 At the same time, as you underscored, I mean, the fire chief talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

00:17:24.280 L.A. is cutting its budget for the fire department while they continue to spend money on things like these

00:17:29.400 reparations, exploration committees, and all kinds of other insane nonsense.

00:17:34.180 I mean, your heart goes out to the people who are affected by this.

00:17:37.900 It's also the case that you have to wonder about just the systematic, routine failure by every level of government

00:17:46.900 with respect to California.

00:17:50.180 And I think the, not so much subsidized, but the state-mandated policies there are a huge problem.

00:17:57.140 That program has nearly tripled over the course of the last couple of years.

00:18:00.760 So this is a massive problem that isn't going away anytime soon,

00:18:05.120 and it's certainly not going to get better if they continue to prioritize all of these kind of social programs

00:18:11.100 over the actual things that you need in order to live in this region at all.

00:18:17.520 All right, Moynihan, now I've added a cough drop to my approach to the show, which I never do.

00:18:23.400 It's rude. Sorry for my listening audience.

00:18:24.980 I was going to say, it's a cough drop, yeah.

00:18:27.120 I've had such a nasty cold this week.

00:18:29.420 I took six steroids yesterday and five steroids this morning.

00:18:33.840 You know how they give you the packs, and it dwindles?

00:18:36.160 So I take like two in the morning, two in the afternoon.

00:18:37.900 I took them all before yesterday's show, and I took five.

00:18:41.120 I got my roid rage going.

00:18:43.060 Wow, you're like the RFK of SiriusXM.

00:18:47.640 I'm here, and I'm doing the job.

00:18:50.500 But this is what I wanted to say.

00:18:51.580 But L.A. Times, excuse me, New York Post reporting that L.A. Fire Department had its budget cut by a staggering $17.6 million this financial year.

00:19:02.260 Drastic decrease in funding for the fire department was the second largest cut to come out of this mayor's fiscal year budget.

00:19:10.720 She had initially wanted to cut it even more to $23 million.

00:19:14.480 I mean, look, on these issues, I cede everything to Matt Welch, who is a Southern California boy, hasn't lived there in a long time, but never stops talking about it.

00:19:27.220 Matt should maybe go back.

00:19:28.980 Former L.A. Times employee, and Camille actually lives in California.

00:19:32.660 But I see things like this, and I see something, you know, like a $17 million budget cut.

00:19:37.560 And, you know, as somebody from the outside who has no particular expertise in the fires that are always afflicting Southern California, one would presume that, you know, beefing up the fire department and not cutting $17 million from the budget would be the first thing that one might do, particularly considering that California has one of the heaviest tax burdens of any country in the state, in the union.

00:20:00.900 I mean, you look at how much money that they're gathering in taxes, and where is it going?

00:20:05.600 I mean, that's what I would love to see of, like, where in L.A. County is that money going otherwise.

00:20:11.620 I mean, obviously, they have an enormous amount of money in their hands to deal with a homelessness problem, which has not, you know, been dealt with.

00:20:20.680 So maybe we should reroute some of that money towards the fire department.

00:20:25.040 A couple of other small things is that, one, I mean, Matt said, you know, we have friends, and, you know, she did tweet about it.

00:20:32.980 So, you know, I feel okay saying it, is that our friend Kennedy has a house in the Palisades.

00:20:38.440 And Matt and I were talking before this, like, we were looking at videos, and we're like, oh, my God, is that Kennedy's house?

00:20:42.860 Because we've all been there.

00:20:44.460 And, you know, so we have friends that are just on the front lines of this.

00:20:47.200 And the second thing is, is because of the unbelievable silliness of the fire chief that you showed clips of, it's like, I don't, why are you telling me about staffing?

00:20:59.020 Nobody cares about the staffing of the post office in California.

00:21:02.560 What are you telling me about your staffing policies?

00:21:04.720 We don't need to know.

00:21:05.580 But they're telling you that because they want you to think, look, they're such great people. 0.75

00:21:09.180 But let's move away from her for a second, who seems like a thoroughly ridiculous individual, and, you know, just praise the firefighters. 0.73

00:21:18.280 I mean, two people have died. 0.91

00:21:20.120 Look at that photograph from the plane.

00:21:22.140 That looks like CGI from an apocalyptic Hollywood movie.

00:21:27.240 And I looked this morning in terror, and I say, I don't, this must have killed X number of people.

00:21:35.080 Well, God knows that that number is unfortunately going to increase, but I saw that we have a confirmed two people died in a fire that big.

00:21:42.760 They should have never gotten that big.

00:21:44.100 It should have been contained.

00:21:45.460 There should have been policy.

00:21:46.340 We know that this is what happens in Southern California.

00:21:48.680 But on the positive side, if we can find a small silver lining, is that, you know, the people that are fighting this fire are, you know, doing, you know, yeoman's work here.

00:21:58.980 They're doing quite a job that they should be praised for.

00:22:01.540 So, I am just reading now.

00:22:07.320 This is unbelievable.

00:22:08.860 This is today.

00:22:11.200 Karen Bass has sent out a tweet, here she comes, underdog to save the day, that reads as follows.

00:22:18.980 As Angelenos start their Wednesday morning, there will be notable impacts to air quality with winds pushing smoke across the L.A. area.

00:22:26.300 Please limit your exposure by remaining indoors with windows and doors closed and wearing a properly fitted mask.

00:22:35.460 Oh, my God.

00:22:38.020 That's her messaging.

00:22:39.760 That's underdog. 0.97

00:22:41.500 And what she's going to do?

00:22:43.080 Where's the tweet about the fire hydrants?

00:22:46.580 Tell us about what the plan is to save the lives of your citizens.

00:22:51.760 Stay inside and wear a mask.

00:22:53.880 Matt Welsh, I don't.

00:22:55.960 All over the world right now, we are seeing people push back on these leftist politicians and the messes they've created.

00:23:03.160 Is this going to happen even in California after something as disastrous as this?

00:23:08.520 California has had ample opportunity to push back against leftist politicians over the past X number of years, including the aforementioned Rick Caruso.

00:23:16.640 I think back to a guy who was a friend of mine who was an actual Republican mayor of California, Richard Reardon.

00:23:23.120 He, unlike Karen Bass, responded to the many tragedies that unfolded in Southern California in the early 1990s.

00:23:32.460 And I'm not just talking about the OJ trial, but especially to the Northridge earthquake.

00:23:37.220 That's where he found his footing as mayor.

00:23:39.800 And, you know, that damage is way beyond the city limits of L.A.

00:23:43.380 And let's remember that L.A. County is a much more important, like, entity, government entity than the city council and the mayorship.

00:23:52.400 And they handled twice as much of the fire action, for example.

00:23:55.460 But Richard Reardon went out and he helped and he led and he stood in the rubble and he did stuff to help rebuild the area.

00:24:04.260 Karen Bass being out of the country is inexcusable. 0.93

00:24:06.740 As soon as you know it's a red flag day with 80 to 100 mile per hour winds, you turn the plane around.

00:24:11.820 You just do.

00:24:12.560 There are things for you to do, if nothing else, than to show your face and to be with your people who are actually fighting these fires.

00:24:20.400 She was in Ghana at the request of President Joe Biden to honor an inauguration ceremony of some sort.

00:24:27.580 Why does a mayor of any city need to go to a federal inauguration at the behest of the federal government?

00:24:35.440 Don't we have, like, a federal government to do that kind of stuff and some ceremonial people? 0.96

00:24:39.660 You've got business to do.

00:24:40.940 I mean, for generations we've known that you don't leave, if you're a mayor or a governor of Southern California area or California, you don't leave in October.

00:24:50.600 October is when these fires usually happen.

00:24:52.320 It's when the Santa Ana season comes.

00:24:54.360 She should have turned that thing around. 0.95

00:24:55.920 It's infuriating.

00:24:56.980 The mask, I understand.

00:24:58.440 This is not a COVID situation.

00:25:00.300 If I was in California today, I would...

00:25:01.780 You know what, though?

00:25:02.680 Can I tell you something?

00:25:03.000 I would wear a mask.

00:25:04.180 Let me tell you something.

00:25:05.060 We actually went through this in Connecticut.

00:25:07.400 I don't remember the month.

00:25:08.320 It was, like, over the past 12 months where we had bad fires from Canada that were blowing smoke.

00:25:14.780 And it was bad.

00:25:15.900 Like, it smelled.

00:25:16.580 It must have been in the summer.

00:25:17.580 I don't know.

00:25:17.780 It was close enough to the summer that the kids were in the pool.

00:25:20.500 In any event.

00:25:20.920 And the instinct was actually to put on a mask because it was like, oh, my God, I can smell it.

00:25:26.120 I can smell it strongly.

00:25:27.400 And then we consulted with some doctors who were like, it does absolutely nothing.

00:25:31.640 No.

00:25:31.980 Oh, really?

00:25:32.480 Once again, unless you have, like, a real hazmat mask, that mask will do nothing for you.

00:25:37.920 The point is, if it's bad enough, you should get out.

00:25:40.260 Get out.

00:25:40.820 And they can't get out at this point, many of the residents, because of those streets the way they are.

00:25:45.880 The car is backed up.

00:25:47.360 The smoke and the fire everywhere.

00:25:48.920 And it leaps quickly from place to place.

00:25:52.300 But let's just go back, okay?

00:25:53.580 Because, number one, you raised a very good point about the insurance.

00:25:57.200 This is, and I want to tell the audience, I know it sounds like this is all rich people, but it's not.

00:26:02.500 You know, you just hear the word Malibu or, you know, Pacific Palisades.

00:26:06.260 It's not.

00:26:06.780 Trust me.

00:26:07.560 My friend who's in the middle of this is far from rich.

00:26:11.100 And her neighbors are far from rich.

00:26:13.320 And, you know, they're just regular people who have regular jobs trying to make a living

00:26:17.700 and who cannot get insurance because of the reasons that you just stated, that the insurance companies did want to raise the rates.

00:26:23.640 And Gavin Newsom said no, you know, supposedly as this champion of the people, you know, I'm going to keep the rates low.

00:26:31.600 But the insurance companies did what they are always going to do in that situation, which is they took their ball and went home.

00:26:37.400 Like, F off.

00:26:38.580 We're not required to insure you.

00:26:40.160 The same thing happened up in Montana.

00:26:42.620 It's happened in state after state across the union when it comes to things like flood insurance, fire insurance, and other massive disaster insurance situations that these insurers are afraid of.

00:26:55.660 It costs a lot.

00:26:57.180 So they want to jack up rates.

00:26:58.580 There's a federal policy associated with this.

00:27:01.440 That's why it happens in Montana as well, which has different governance in general than the California does.

00:27:06.740 And it's a classic unintended consequences story.

00:27:11.000 The FAIR requirement, FAIR, Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, came as a result of the riots of 1968.

00:27:18.660 It was basically a response post-Martin Luther King assassination when there's inner city riots that you could see the scars from space in Washington, D.C., along K Street and 14th.

00:27:28.720 So they said we need to pass this so government will be the lender of last resorts in inner cities that the insurance companies are too scared of.

00:27:36.460 That was the initial purpose of it.

00:27:39.080 The practical effect of it is that it ended up subsidizing because of bad management, hurricane beachside residences in Florida, foothills residences in California, and people who live in floodplains in Texas and in Central Valley of California.

00:27:55.760 So this federal requirement is at the heart of some of this.

00:27:59.380 Then if you have some price controls on top of it, then it's a disaster.

00:28:02.720 But I really want to, in case that there's anybody out there listening or watching this and doing the, oh, it's rich people in Pacific Palisades, boo-hoo.

00:28:10.640 And already I've seen some people come at me and other people about that.

00:28:14.360 But if you really want to go that way, which you shouldn't, because that's not American at all. 0.90

00:28:19.120 So knock it off.

00:28:19.920 I wouldn't do that to anybody in this country.

00:28:22.740 But the other, there's four fires currently going on, at least, that have names.

00:28:27.120 But there's a couple of others.

00:28:28.900 But one of the biggest ones is the Eastern Fire, which is happening around the Altadena, Pasadena area.

00:28:33.960 La Cunada, Flintridge, Altadena, Pasadena.

00:28:37.040 This is where my friends go to buy houses because they can't afford it anywhere else in Los Angeles.

00:28:42.060 This is the place where people who are schoolteachers buy houses, and they are all in evacuation zones, too.

00:28:49.320 It's a really ugly tendency we saw during COVID from blue states towards Florida of saying, oh, you know, it serves you right. 0.98

00:28:56.980 You're going to die because you don't take the stupid measures that we're doing in blue states. 0.99

00:29:02.840 Don't do it in the reverse way. 1.00

00:29:05.440 There are people who are really, really suffering.

00:29:07.540 There are difficult public policy questions that California and L.A. need to do a hell of a lot better job.

00:29:12.720 But be empathetic towards your fellow Americans, for crying out loud.

00:29:16.600 Let me just tell you something.

00:29:17.760 My friend who just found out that her house is gone is a divorced single mom. 1.00

00:29:24.540 She's got two young daughters and a dog.

00:29:27.080 She just told me I asked I asked her what describe your neighbors, mainly elderly, retired flight attendant, a retired family practice doctor, a real estate agent, a retired social worker, retired college professor.

00:29:44.380 These are normal Americans.

00:29:46.200 They're not rich.

00:29:47.780 They're not at the bottom.

00:29:49.520 They're just normal.

00:29:50.860 You know, this is a middle class neighborhood that is gone, gone. 0.99

00:29:55.040 And I guarantee you not one of them had insurance.

00:29:58.800 And they're elderly, too.

00:30:00.100 So how exactly is it that, you know, the retired flight attendant is now going to rebuild her life and get her things back together? 0.95

00:30:09.460 This is a nightmare that was foreseeable.

00:30:12.660 And let me just tell you, because what Trump, he hates Gavin Newsom, totally understandably.

00:30:19.980 It's fine.

00:30:21.220 I agree with him.

00:30:22.400 I understand why he calls him that.

00:30:24.000 And I have no issue.

00:30:25.780 But he and Gavin Newsom have been fighting over things like this for quite some time now about a disagreement on how to prevent against this.

00:30:35.260 And there's a clip that's going viral on X right now from 2018 when Trump was president.

00:30:39.100 He was standing in a forest with Newsom.

00:30:42.840 Look at this.

00:30:43.280 There's been a lot of study going on over the last little while.

00:30:46.800 And I will say, I think you're going to have, hopefully, this is going to be the last of these, because this was a really, really bad one.

00:30:56.220 And I know Gavin's committed.

00:30:58.780 We're all committed.

00:30:59.480 I'm committed to make sure that we get all of this cleaned out and protected.

00:31:05.100 We've got to take care of the floors.

00:31:06.620 You know, the floors of the forest.

00:31:08.120 It's very important.

00:31:09.280 That's right.

00:31:09.600 You look at other countries where they do it differently, and it's a whole different story.

00:31:16.340 I was with the president of Finland that he said, we have a much different, we're a forest nation.

00:31:21.880 He called it a forest nation.

00:31:23.680 And they spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things, and they don't have any problems.

00:31:29.940 I mean, it's a fair point, and it's a debate that's been had many, many times, with mostly conservatives on the one side saying, get in there and do the advanced cleanup and the culling of the trees and the forest that needs to be done to keep people safe.

00:31:45.840 And left-wingers like Gavin Newsom, pretending that they're just such tree huggers, they don't want to do it.

00:31:53.900 But meanwhile, how many trees just burned?

00:31:55.720 How many homes just burned?

00:31:57.100 How many people just lost everything, not to mention potentially their lives, because we wanted to let those little, that 50 feet worth of trees stand instead of culling the area?

00:32:08.180 If I can go backwards on one small thing, which is, I think, a really important thing.

00:32:16.440 Matt said something that I very rarely hear him say, because I've known him for a very long time, is that something is un-American.

00:32:24.600 And I think that he's right about that, because I want to just point out that, as you said, Megan, and as Matt said about his friends in the kind of Pasadena area, not all these people are rich.

00:32:34.560 But my response to that is, yes, that's clearly true.

00:32:38.260 But also, who cares?

00:32:40.380 What if they all were rich?

00:32:42.340 That is fine.

00:32:43.260 I didn't grow up rich.

00:32:44.280 I'm not rich now.

00:32:45.420 I have no special fealty to a class of, you know, a social and economic class of people.

00:32:51.000 That's not my concern.

00:32:52.760 But I mentioned our friend Kennedy.

00:32:55.440 And on Twitter, someone responded to her, talking about her house potentially burning down. 0.98

00:33:01.080 And someone responded, sucks to be rich. 1.00

00:33:04.560 And to which Kennedy responded, go fuck yourself, which is an appropriate tweet, by the way. 1.00

00:33:09.100 That's about right. 1.00

00:33:09.460 Her normal is eat a bag of dicks. 1.00

00:33:11.300 So that's clean for her. 1.00

00:33:13.040 I think that's the next one.

00:33:14.420 That's just us.

00:33:15.100 That's queued up.

00:33:17.120 This is a bit of that, you know, Luigi Mangione kind of class warfare that we have kind of accepting these days.

00:33:25.380 Like, well, if it's rich people, then who cares?

00:33:28.020 They can pay for it.

00:33:29.300 Well, that's what I heard when I was in Wisconsin, you know, the day that Donald Trump was there after the riots, burning down swaths of cities in Wisconsin.

00:33:40.660 And people say, well, you know, they have insurance.

00:33:42.300 It turned out a lot of them didn't have insurance.

00:33:43.840 But even if that were the case, there are memories there.

00:33:47.460 There are, you know, family photos.

00:33:50.080 There's your entire life.

00:33:52.120 And for someone to say, well, you're in a high tax bracket, so it doesn't matter as much. 1.00

00:33:57.720 I agree with Kennedy that these people should go fuck themselves. 0.99

00:34:02.420 So, you know, I keep thinking about the fact that California is a place where they plan to do things like outlaw cars that run on gasoline, like these really sweeping, ambitious prohibitions that are aimed at transforming the nature of the state itself and trying to capture the future. 1.00

00:34:19.300 It would be wonderful if they adopted that sort of approach to fire mitigation, like something audacious and aggressive that they continue to talk about year over year.

00:34:30.400 I mean, California is, I mean, we, I live in Mill Valley, California now.

00:34:34.500 Mill Valley is similarly at very high risk of fire and actually has a pretty aggressive approach to these things, but is subject to a lot of the same sort of concerns.

00:34:43.620 We certainly have our fire season every single year, so it's something that is on people's minds regularly.

00:34:49.260 But there is obviously a need for much more than what's being done currently.

00:34:53.900 And I think a lot of people hear talk of sort of climate change in the context of these conversations about wildfires and imagine that that mitigating climate change is kind of enough to address this, in which case doing something about fossil fuels will perhaps help to mitigate this problem.

00:35:08.200 And it just, it does not.

00:35:09.740 It is not nearly the same thing.

00:35:11.360 And you actually do need more of a serious focus on this.

00:35:14.100 The other thing that I think a lot about now is at what point, if they don't do something dramatic and audacious, they have to just stop rebuilding in certain places.

00:35:23.540 Because if you won't do the things that are necessary to make it feasible to live there in the long run, then perhaps you just kind of give this space back to the wild and allow it to have this natural process.

00:35:37.120 These fires rage annually.

00:35:39.440 It's crazy to think about.

00:35:41.360 Have you guys been around the Palisades?

00:35:44.120 Like, it's absolutely beautiful.

00:35:46.780 The thing that I love about it, and I've spent a little time in like Malibu, which is a lot fancier and on the ocean.

00:35:53.040 But the thing I love about the Palisades is it's all these really cute, charming little homes.

00:35:58.620 You know, there are a couple of the grand estates and so on.

00:36:01.420 But like, for the most part, my experience there is it's these really pretty homes.

00:36:07.140 Some of them have the Mediterranean roofs.

00:36:09.880 It's the stuff you read about when you think about L.A. from like the 1950s and how people had these little haciendas.

00:36:16.020 And they were just it's so much Americana there, just utter charm around every corner and not just the just burned to the ground like some dystopian horror film seems impossible.

00:36:31.560 Go ahead, Matt.

00:36:33.320 Palisades also has a historical role in the 1930s, especially.

00:36:39.280 It was home to a bunch of Jewish refugees of Central Europe and Adolf Hitler in particular.

00:36:45.980 So it became a great and grand and important refuge, as did Southern California and the film industry and a couple of other industries as well, which greatly enriched the culture of America.

00:36:57.780 But also is just sort of a beautiful gesture because it wasn't, you know, started it was started as a Methodist refuge.

00:37:03.940 And then and then it just became in this grand American style, a melting pot style, a place where people could flee bad situations and then create something new and beautiful and small.

00:37:14.820 And that's Pali higher that we're talking about here.

00:37:16.780 This isn't just any high school that was burning yesterday.

00:37:19.060 You know, how many how many movies have been shot at that at that place?

00:37:22.060 It's a really lovely, lovely area.

00:37:24.900 And also, let's remember that the fire jumped PCH.

00:37:28.220 So PCH Pacific Coast Highway, which we all mostly know from Nick Nolte mugshots, is the artery that goes through Malibu.

00:37:36.380 Look on a map, look on a topographical map of Southern California.

00:37:39.860 What are you going to see?

00:37:40.920 There's only six ways in and out of that place.

00:37:42.980 Right.

00:37:43.380 There are so many huge, tall, steep mountains around the Southland and PCH is one of them.

00:37:51.560 And when the fire starts jumping these things, people can get hemmed in pretty darn quick.

00:37:56.680 I've always looked at that topographical map with sort of a paranoid eye and imagine what would happen if there was a ne'er-do-well on a red flag day.

00:38:06.140 It's pretty easy for people to get boxed in in a hurry.

00:38:09.180 So if anyone's out there still, like, wondering whether they should evacuate, I would say evacuate, dude.

00:38:15.900 Well, I mean.

00:38:16.960 Because it goes really, really, really fast and the fire will jump.

00:38:19.540 I think about this because you were saying, you know, Moynihan, you're not rich.

00:38:25.600 I was not raised rich, but now I'm pretty rich.

00:38:29.120 And I think about, like, God forbid this happened, you know, of course, life, the life of my family and my pets would be my number one thought.

00:38:39.020 But then just think about it, rich or poor, what would you grab if you had a moment?

00:38:43.780 You know, it would not be your fancy clothes or your, you know, designer car.

00:38:51.360 It would be, like, your wedding album or, like, the photos of your kids when they were little before we had the iCloud in some of our cases.

00:39:00.300 And it's not re-gettable.

00:39:02.420 You know, for me, it would be, like, pictures of my dad who died in 1985 that aren't – I can't recreate them.

00:39:10.060 And, like, those losses would burn deep, and it doesn't matter what's in your wallet.

00:39:15.200 And there are so many people out there.

00:39:18.000 It's all gone.

00:39:19.120 It's all literally up in smoke.

00:39:22.420 Not in some remote country, but in one of the busiest, most urban, most lived-in cities, one of the jewels, yes, of America, in the whole world.

00:39:35.940 It seems almost impossible that they could have let this happen.

00:39:40.800 I mean, I realize, yes, Mother Nature, too, but there were too many hands involved in this that let this happen, from the refusal to cull appropriately to protect these folks in the first place, to the focus on DEI at a fire department that had other needs.

00:39:59.080 You know, you live in Norway, where we went in June.

00:40:05.040 You're probably good on the water supply.

00:40:07.320 Like, you're probably – everything is surrounded by water.

00:40:09.700 There's a fjord out everybody's window.

00:40:12.160 I don't know.

00:40:13.020 You're – yes, you're in Los Angeles.

00:40:14.900 There's an ocean there.

00:40:16.420 But they have not been adequately sourcing the water for some time now, and they know it.

00:40:22.760 So there's multiple problems out there that let this happen.

00:40:26.520 Here's one thing that just came in, as follows.

00:40:32.480 Standby.

00:40:33.400 California's Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan in 2022 emphasized that, quote,

00:40:40.260 rare plants and species diversity must be protected when clearing forest floors.

00:40:47.320 Now, why, why, Camille, why must the rare plants and species diversity be protected, right?

00:40:55.140 The whole point in clearing a forest is to protect human life.

00:41:00.440 Yeah, I mean, it's obviously not an illegitimate concern to be worried about the diversity of the forest, obviously.

00:41:10.320 But it is a matter of having some sort of qualified concern for those things and actually attacking the issue in a very serious way.

00:41:19.000 And unfortunately, this is a decades-old problem, as Matt already alluded to.

00:41:23.760 And it's not something that has only become an issue since 2014.

00:41:28.900 So the fact that there are these particular moments where the current thing is some unique set of social concerns, whether it be environmental concerns or it be something related to race and racial justice,

00:41:42.040 the fact that there are all of these other distractions is important and noteworthy, but it's also the case that they manage to find these distractions because it is easier to govern by expressing this continuous concern for these peripheral issues that don't have any meaningful consequence for most people's lives

00:41:59.760 than it is to actually be held accountable for trying to address the tangible concerns that these communities face, whether it be homelessness or the persistent threat of wildfires, as the folks of L.A. are finding out right now.

00:42:13.800 Can I follow up on that?

00:42:15.320 The following, guys, is—let me just jump in for one second.

00:42:17.720 James Woods has been on the program multiple times.

00:42:19.620 He's a friend of the show and of mine personally.

00:42:22.320 He's been posting on X prolifically about this as the fire came right up to his home.

00:42:27.380 Here he is speaking about it.

00:42:29.520 This just aired on CNN.

00:42:32.080 Like an inferno.

00:42:34.120 Every house was on fire around us.

00:42:36.620 And, you know, he got him out and the house burned down about an hour later.

00:42:41.620 He would have been in there alone.

00:42:43.400 It was just—and then Robert called us and told us that that house had gone and the house below that.

00:42:50.960 And then the house on the other side.

00:42:52.280 And then at 1149 last night, all the smoke alarms in our house alerted our phones at our house that we had just renovated for three years.

00:43:06.180 And it had just finally moved into about three months ago.

00:43:10.640 You know, all the smoke alarms are going off.

00:43:14.240 So I'm not clear.

00:43:15.500 I think James may have lost his house.

00:43:18.100 He may have lost his house.

00:43:19.180 No, he just tweeted,

00:43:22.960 We renovated a home after COVID and just finished last month.

00:43:25.700 To all the lovely people offering care and love, I'll say this.

00:43:28.600 There is no possession as priceless as friends and good neighbors during a tragedy.

00:43:31.800 I can't believe the blessings we enjoy.

00:43:34.160 And I am humbly grateful.

00:43:35.680 Oh, God bless him.

00:43:36.800 God bless him.

00:43:38.920 There he was talking about his 94-year-old neighbor barely escaping, being burned alive.

00:43:45.300 Here is video that was posted publicly.

00:43:50.780 This is my friend's neighborhood, the one who lost everything, the two young daughters.

00:43:55.000 Look at this, you guys.

00:43:57.240 Oof.

00:43:57.560 For the listening audience, it is burned trees.

00:44:02.580 It is home after home of just a shell.

00:44:06.360 You can see just like a shell of a home.

00:44:09.520 It reminds me, guys, of...

00:44:10.920 Look at that.

00:44:12.420 Look at this.

00:44:14.340 It reminds me of what you see after a tornado goes through.

00:44:18.240 And the tornado, you know, that is something you cannot do anything about.

00:44:23.220 You know, like there are certain parts of the country where the tornadoes hit and people

00:44:28.500 have been raised.

00:44:29.200 Look at this.

00:44:29.800 For blocks and blocks and blocks.

00:44:34.660 I cannot believe my eyes.

00:44:37.040 This was lost to fire.

00:44:38.160 You can see how dense, densely populated the area was.

00:44:41.460 And the picket white fence in front of a dystopian nightmare again.

00:44:47.400 Burned trees, nothing left of homes.

00:44:50.000 This is just a person tooling around, seeing it firsthand.

00:44:53.100 It happens to be my friend's neighborhood where she lost everything.

00:44:58.180 We have Mayor Karen Bass with the following tweet just out.

00:45:02.940 She's giving the number for power outages. 0.99

00:45:07.460 This woman's utterly useless. 1.00

00:45:09.020 My friend and others are sitting there with absolutely nothing. 1.00

00:45:12.420 Absolutely nothing.

00:45:13.540 Trying to find somebody to take them in so they can be under a roof.

00:45:18.240 And they don't need a number for a power outage.

00:45:20.900 That's not what they need right now.

00:45:22.740 I don't know what else she's doing, but I have zero hope that this woman will run hurt 1.00

00:45:27.300 on this.

00:45:27.740 Just like I don't think Gavin Newsom did either.

00:45:31.060 He just canceled his trip to Washington, D.C. for the Jimmy Carter funeral to deal with

00:45:37.800 the fire as well.

00:45:38.320 Thank you for that.

00:45:39.160 Thank you for your service, Governor.

00:45:40.860 I don't know.

00:45:41.500 I don't, you know, on the political question, you guys, I don't know.

00:45:48.180 I think there's a policy.

00:45:49.720 The Californians are so left wing.

00:45:51.120 They're so left wing for the most part.

00:45:53.160 But so are the Canadians. 0.89

00:45:54.720 And Justin Trudeau was just forced to step down.

00:45:57.060 And they are looking at this Pierre Polyev very seriously.

00:46:00.140 And he's the favorite, even according to the New York Times, to win now.

00:46:03.680 That the Canadians, the Canadians are going to elect Aikens conservative. 1.00

00:46:08.960 You know, watching what's happening in Germany, watching the rebellion in the UK.

00:46:13.380 Like what we did here, electing a two time impeached, convicted, whatever, you know, how the left

00:46:21.300 says about Trump.

00:46:22.600 People have had it.

00:46:24.200 They've had it with these left wing policies that are, yes, deadly, deadly.

00:46:31.440 Megan, I think that, I mean, and you're right about Canada.

00:46:33.840 I mean, the conservatives have about 44, 45 percent in the last opinion polls.

00:46:38.380 And that's just marching towards the next prime ministership.

00:46:42.720 But I think you're right about this.

00:46:44.200 And I think it's a kind of global thing, because I think people are very tired of the politics

00:46:49.440 of symbolism, because the politics of symbolism oftentimes have very destructive consequences.

00:46:56.080 So, for instance, Camille says, you know, rightfully so, you know, what,

00:47:00.400 why not just tell us what the plan is, lay out the plan for dealing with these fires, go

00:47:05.860 until, well, there's no, what is the incentive for that?

00:47:08.800 There's no incentive for that.

00:47:10.100 The incentive for people like the fire chief in L.A.

00:47:13.680 County is to come out and you will get on TV because of the people who are controlling

00:47:18.640 these news networks and newspapers, et cetera, will put you on the front cover if you tell

00:47:24.180 them how many one-legged transgender Albanians are going to be fighting fires. 1.00

00:47:29.760 Like, this is symbolism that is destructive.

00:47:33.440 That's a tough constituency to find.

00:47:35.220 But they do have one, by the way.

00:47:37.460 But no, that is the same thing about immigration, is that, you know, we talk about immigration

00:47:42.980 in these kind of philosophical ways and accuse the people who are opposed to sort of unmitigated

00:47:50.820 illegal immigration and say, well, you know, if you disagree with that, this is kind of a

00:47:55.680 racist kind of Trumpian thing.

00:47:57.240 And then people in New York City and L.A. and, bless you, in L.A., but New York City

00:48:01.480 especially, you know, are dealing with this crisis and saying, oh, yeah, that's just not

00:48:07.520 a talking point.

00:48:08.240 It's not like, you know, something that we argue about in the opinion sections of newspapers.

00:48:12.660 It actually has practical consequences.

00:48:14.240 But the incentives are totally wrong.

00:48:17.600 I mean, there is no incentive to go out there and say, this is our plan for fires.

00:48:22.180 But there is an incentive to go out and say, look at how great I am.

00:48:25.980 Pat me on the back for what I'm doing for some political issue inside the fire department

00:48:31.360 that no one cares about and affects no one, but affects them negatively.

00:48:35.560 But it's about that person.

00:48:37.400 It's about that fire chief.

00:48:39.080 Look at how great I am and look at how I'm following the sort of precepts of modern politics.

00:48:44.460 No one cares.

00:48:44.940 You see it in Hollywood, too.

00:48:45.840 Think about the interview.

00:48:46.760 Like, you know, this could be solved if you would just put the things out loud that you're

00:48:50.300 actually saying in your head and you're dressing up with fancy letters.

00:48:53.760 You know, think about it.

00:48:54.580 You know, Camille, I come in to interview with you as I want to be the fire chief and

00:48:58.720 you're the mayor.

00:48:59.480 And you say to me, let's just go over some basics. 1.00

00:49:02.820 Do you have a vagina? 1.00

00:49:04.960 Okay, excellent. 1.00

00:49:05.880 Okay, you've already moved up.

00:49:08.040 And who...

00:49:09.280 What color is it?

00:49:10.580 Who has access to it?

00:49:12.040 Who has access to it?

00:49:13.240 Exactly. 0.99

00:49:14.080 I don't see vagina color. 1.00

00:49:16.280 Camille. 1.00

00:49:16.940 I don't see vagina color. 1.00

00:49:18.260 What color is the vagina? 1.00

00:49:19.800 A couple words too long there, Matt. 0.99

00:49:22.740 Seriously, right?

00:49:23.500 Like, the absurdity.

00:49:25.720 It's bad enough that they're like, she's a woman. 1.00

00:49:28.100 But they were supposed to celebrate the fact that she's a lesbian. 1.00

00:49:30.720 Who gives a shit? 1.00

00:49:33.540 Better firefighters, I think. 0.99

00:49:36.180 According to all the data.

00:49:37.380 I don't...

00:49:37.700 I wanted to make one quick, quick point about electricity and power outages.

00:49:47.680 There is a reason why that's interesting.

00:49:49.400 That's interesting.

00:49:50.860 I had to.

00:49:52.740 Is that if you're going to do, as Camille was saying, a mandate that everyone must have

00:49:57.280 an electric guitar.

00:49:58.320 I'd like a guitar.

00:49:59.180 That'd be excellent.

00:50:00.500 The Jimi Hendrix mandate.

00:50:01.960 No, that everyone must have electric cars.

00:50:05.000 You better have an electrical grid that works.

00:50:07.620 And they don't.

00:50:08.900 And also, who's the biggest contributor to wildfires in California over the last 20 years?

00:50:13.880 Hmm.

00:50:14.260 Let's guess.

00:50:14.900 It's the people who have electrical lines.

00:50:17.800 That is what sparks so many of the wildfires, because they spark literally, and then they

00:50:22.180 go poof.

00:50:23.060 So people need to think this stuff through a little bit more.

00:50:26.020 Oh my God.

00:50:27.100 Our hearts and prayers and thoughts go out to the people suffering right now, praying

00:50:31.260 for lives to be saved at this point.

00:50:33.740 Um, we'll be right back more with the guys from the fifth column who are here for the

00:50:36.560 whole show.

00:50:37.020 Some therapists say that debt can make people feel desperate and helpless.

00:50:40.680 It can ruin your sleep, creep into your relationships.

00:50:43.380 It can wreck your happiness, but there are ways to get help.

00:50:46.800 Let me tell you about done with debt.

00:50:49.100 They have aggressive new strategies to end your debt fast.

00:50:52.860 Done with debt stands between you and the bill collectors.

00:50:55.680 They tirelessly negotiate to slash balances, eliminate interest, and stop the crushing penalties,

00:51:01.080 all without loans or bankruptcy.

00:51:02.260 Done with debt has one goal to wipe out your debt for good.

00:51:06.880 Before you make another payment, consider a visit to donewithdebt.com.

00:51:10.360 Speak with one of their strategy strategists for free and tell them that I sent you, but

00:51:14.940 you do need to hurry because some debt solutions are time sensitive and you do not want to miss

00:51:19.520 out.

00:51:20.040 Go to donewithdebt.com.

00:51:22.620 That's donewithdebt.com.

00:51:24.400 The human body is incredible, capable of repair and growth that amazes scientists, even in

00:51:29.720 2025, but as the years passed, natural healing and building processes slow down.

00:51:35.600 While this is normal, there is a way to support your body.

00:51:38.740 A collagen supplement from Ancient Nutrition can help you look and feel your best.

00:51:44.280 For centuries, people have searched for a mythical fountain of youth.

00:51:47.420 Spoiler alert, it does not exist.

00:51:49.440 However, collagen is a proven way to promote youthful health and appearance.

00:51:53.080 And this is why I want to tell you about Ancient Nutrition's multi-collagen advanced lean.

00:51:59.220 Ancient Nutrition combines ancient wisdom with modern science to create high quality supplements.

00:52:05.240 It's delicious and easy to incorporate into daily routines.

00:52:08.260 You can just mix it into coffee, matcha, or smoothies.

00:52:11.540 Right now, enjoy 25% off your first order at ancientnutrition.com slash Megan.

00:52:16.300 That's ancientnutrition.com slash Megan for 25% off. 0.92

00:52:21.760 Support your body and fill your best with Ancient Nutrition.

00:52:26.180 Your business doesn't move in a straight line.

00:52:29.020 Some days bring growth.

00:52:30.540 Others bring challenges.

00:52:32.160 But what if you or a partner needs to step away?

00:52:35.060 When the unexpected happens, count on Canada Life's flexible life and health insurance

00:52:39.880 to help your business keep working, even when you can't.

00:52:43.220 Don't let life's challenges stand in the way of your success.

00:52:46.660 Protect what you've built today.

00:52:48.700 Visit canadalife.com slash businessprotection to learn more.

00:52:52.840 Canada Life.

00:52:53.920 Insurance.

00:52:54.880 Investments.

00:52:55.700 Advice.

00:52:59.260 My friend just sent me a picture of what's left of her house in the Palisades.

00:53:03.700 Would you look at this?

00:53:05.540 Oh, God.

00:53:06.460 Oh, God.

00:53:07.360 Dear God.

00:53:07.520 Only the chimney.

00:53:08.880 Oh, wow.

00:53:10.460 Only the chimney remains.

00:53:12.880 That's it.

00:53:13.640 This is, I mean, my poor friend.

00:53:16.960 She's like, I don't know what they're going to do.

00:53:19.200 You know what I'm saying?

00:53:19.960 Like, she's just in the same position as all of her neighbors from that video that we 0.96

00:53:26.160 played here where the person was just going down the street.

00:53:28.160 They're all homeless now.

00:53:29.620 All of them.

00:53:30.200 I mean, there's not enough taxpayer money in the state of California to take care of all

00:53:36.620 this damage.

00:53:37.240 And I don't know about the insurance situation.

00:53:39.760 No.

00:53:40.660 Maybe we can get Greenland to pay for it once they become the 51st state.

00:53:44.100 All right.

00:53:45.580 Well, I'll get to Greenland in a second.

00:53:47.460 I'll get to Greenland.

00:53:49.280 But talk about the perfect segue.

00:53:53.840 A couple of years ago, John Stossel, friend of all of ours and former Fox host, he's been

00:54:02.180 doing great on YouTube.

00:54:02.980 He has a very, very interesting show that he does there, and he posts the best clips.

00:54:06.860 He does these in-depth, like, 8 to 11-minute pieces that get up and down on a story very

00:54:12.100 clearly in the way only Stossel can.

00:54:14.920 And he did one on California wildfires and the ridiculous environmental concerns that

00:54:24.120 help contribute to them.

00:54:26.120 And guess what happened to his very well-researched and presented and produced video?

00:54:32.120 It got censored by Facebook, which is one of the other big stories in the news today,

00:54:38.280 as Mark Zuckerberg is now saying he's going to finally stop doing that.

00:54:44.900 But before we get to the resolution and Mark Zuckerberg's come-to-Jesus moment, we cut—my

00:54:51.420 team knows that I have basically a rule that we don't do soundbites over 60 seconds just

00:54:56.720 because it drones on for the audience.

00:54:59.060 But this one's two minutes, and there's a reason.

00:55:02.480 Like, watch this.

00:55:03.360 It's very compelling.

00:55:04.780 We condensed Stossel's report that Facebook found so objectionable it had to be censored.

00:55:13.320 What?

00:55:14.500 Looking at Facebook, I was shocked to see this big notice on my page.

00:55:18.840 Missing context.

00:55:20.360 It's posted on my video that calls California's fires government-fueled.

00:55:25.000 Because Facebook says this information could mislead people.

00:55:31.000 What's worse is that now Facebook says it will show my content to fewer people.

00:55:36.480 Yikes! 1.00

00:55:37.500 My news model is based on social media companies showing you videos.

00:55:42.300 Why did Facebook penalize me?

00:55:44.720 I click the button that says, see why.

00:55:47.220 It goes to a page from a group called Climate Feedback that writes about climate change and

00:55:53.580 claims to sort fact from fiction.

00:55:56.280 Facebook gives this little group power to cut me off?

00:56:00.620 Yeah.

00:56:01.380 Climate Feedback posted this statement in quotes, as if it's something I said, and calls that

00:56:06.820 statement misleading, saying it misrepresents a complex reality.

00:56:11.020 Well, it does.

00:56:13.480 But I never said that.

00:56:15.140 I actually said, climate change has made things worse.

00:56:18.560 California's warm three degrees over 50 years.

00:56:22.140 Facebook's letting activists restrict my views based on things I never said.

00:56:27.040 I tried.

00:56:28.500 I emailed the editor.

00:56:30.060 She didn't respond.

00:56:31.640 But two of three scientists listed as reviewers did agree to interviews.

00:56:36.500 You're smearing me based on something I didn't say.

00:56:40.020 Yeah, I mean, I've never commented on your article.

00:56:42.980 That was a shock.

00:56:44.240 He hadn't even seen my video.

00:56:46.140 If this is implying that we have reviewed the video, then this is clearly wrong.

00:56:50.880 There's something wrong with the system.

00:56:52.020 He said my video was probably flagged because I interviewed environmentalist Michael Schellenberger.

00:56:58.240 And you're not allowed to do that.

00:57:00.140 You can't talk to Michael Schellenberger and have your video live on Facebook.

00:57:04.860 And if memory serves, it's been a couple of years since I saw the original piece.

00:57:08.140 But they admitted that they made a mistake, and then they still wouldn't back down on the censorship.

00:57:17.140 Like, he caught them in fake censorship, you know, based on nothing, mistakes of theirs.

00:57:22.100 And then they still refused to let the video, you know, have the full circulation and not be censored.

00:57:30.560 So it was an absurdity.

00:57:33.060 It's things like that that, in part, got us into this mess in California.

00:57:38.020 It's yet another thing that the left has said over the past 10-plus years we're not allowed to discuss.

00:57:43.200 You can't listen to Michael Schellenberger, former Greenpeace activist, former Obama administration partner on the Solyndra Green Window deal,

00:57:56.080 which he learned firsthand was a disaster, which is what turned him more into, I don't want to call him a man of the right, 0.98

00:58:03.040 but just a man of reason saying, these policies suck. 0.90

00:58:06.680 Like, what are we doing? 0.70

00:58:07.540 We're ruining the earth in the name of green energy, and it's having the opposite effect.

00:58:12.060 So he gets banned, Stossel gets banned, we can't have honest discussions about wildfires,

00:58:16.620 and now my friend's home is burned to the ground.

00:58:21.160 So, you know, great, Mark Zuckerberg, cool.

00:58:24.920 Mark Zuckerberg, welcome to our free speech party.

00:58:28.040 But you're a day late and a dollar short.

00:58:30.120 Well, I mean, let's be honest that he has also been as browbeaten as any executive in the country for the last,

00:58:39.900 basically since November or whatever the day it was after the election in 2016,

00:58:43.900 because the left absolutely freaked out and blamed Russia and Cambridge Analytica

00:58:49.460 and Vladimir Putin and the cookie monster living under their bed for Donald Trump winning,

00:58:55.240 which is a very huge and horrible shock to him.

00:58:57.920 And by that point, Facebook was large enough that it did what large companies tend to do,

00:59:04.040 which is don't kick me too much and don't do anything that gets rid of my dominant position in the market.

00:59:09.880 And, oh, do you want some regulations?

00:59:11.120 I'll help you write them.

00:59:12.640 That's what big incumbents tend to do. 0.97

00:59:14.700 And so he played ball because he was pressured to play ball,

00:59:17.880 but also that it was sort of expedient for him.

00:59:20.600 I'm happy that he turned.

00:59:22.140 Everyone should go watch that video if you haven't,

00:59:23.580 and I'm sure you played some of it yesterday or will play some of it soon.

00:59:26.520 No, I'll show some of it in a minute.

00:59:27.920 His hair, if nothing else, is just fantastic, and I applaud him for it.

00:59:34.740 And he's been describing himself more as a libertarian over the years, which is very good.

00:59:38.820 And this is a moment where it's kind of crystallizing a certain cultural vibe shift, if nothing else.

00:59:46.080 But I would caution people, and that cultural vibe shift to me is that the culture of free speech is reasserting itself,

00:59:53.240 whether the institutions of free speech are doing that, whether the incoming administration is going to be good for free speech.

01:00:00.400 There's many reasons to think that it won't be good for free speech, just in the way that the FCC incoming chairman or going to be chairman has talked about a couple of things.

01:00:09.580 But table that for a second.

01:00:11.020 That's an important thing.

01:00:11.840 The cultural free speech is crucial to what all of us do.

01:00:14.240 And to have social media companies now coming around to where Elon Musk has already been, and he's a weird person, too, on some of these issues.

01:00:20.660 But broadly speaking, he has thrown open rather than restricted the amount of speech on his platform.

01:00:26.780 And Zuckerberg even said that he's going to adopt the same kind of community notes system that Musk has on Twitter, which is probably the greatest innovation in the Musk era.

01:00:36.160 It's just a, like, real-time fact-checking what Wikipedia was supposed to be back in the day on some level.

01:00:41.300 But it's so funny.

01:00:42.600 It's so funny that you should say he's playing ball.

01:00:44.220 He's playing ball in the free speech, you know, pond, the same way Steve Martin's son, Kevin Buckman, was playing ball in the movie Parenthood when Steve Martin made him.

01:00:56.060 Remember?

01:00:56.500 Play third base or whatever it was.

01:00:58.760 And, like, it was a disaster.

01:01:00.560 Poor Kevin Buckman was humiliated, but he had to do it because his dad made him.

01:01:04.200 There was a happy ending, ultimately.

01:01:05.700 But he was made.

01:01:07.340 You're right.

01:01:07.720 He was brought to heel, which is great.

01:01:09.160 We'll take him however we can get him.

01:01:11.260 I feel like it's more genuine.

01:01:13.800 Looking at the video, it feels kind of more genuine.

01:01:16.480 I don't actually want him to be responding to, like, government pressure in any direction, whether it's in a way that's positive or negative.

01:01:23.180 I don't think it's government pressure.

01:01:24.880 I don't think so either.

01:01:25.920 But I'm just saying I wouldn't want that to happen.

01:01:28.680 That's what the left is now describing this, that he's capitulating and he's being brought to heel.

01:01:33.420 I don't necessarily think that that is the case.

01:01:35.340 He's being brought to heel by us, not Trump.

01:01:38.760 I absolutely hope so.

01:01:40.480 And I would commend people briefly to go and read Matt Taibbi on this, who's been obviously one of the best chroniclers of the way that governments, especially in the Biden era, has put unholy amounts of pressure on social media companies to ban things.

01:01:54.020 I mean, Rand Paul couldn't go on YouTube to say that, hey, you know, masking studies are not really all that.

01:01:59.700 They would ban it for six months after that.

01:02:01.140 It's crazy what take play.

01:02:03.000 We're still, like, unraveling that.

01:02:04.760 But what Taibbi argues is that perhaps Zuckerberg, in the way that he's talking about this, wants to partner with Donald Trump in a way that is actually good and not bad.

01:02:13.360 And that is there's a lot of Western European and other country efforts to make a sort of transnational anti-speech or sort of anti-misinformation regime.

01:02:27.360 And so if Zuckerberg is leading or being part of the solution to fight against that and to encourage Trump, because now Trump has a lot of Silicon Valley people have his ear in ways that they didn't five years ago at all.

01:02:41.660 If they can encourage him to resist any American cooperation and, in fact, active American resistance to any attempts to be as horribly anti-free speech as the U.K. has become, then that can be a really good thing, I think.

01:02:57.140 Which Zuckerberg actually mentions, too.

01:02:59.280 Yes.

01:02:59.760 Let me play a little bit of the Zuckerberg mea culpa admission announcement of the end of his censorship regime.

01:03:08.180 It's a lot of here.

01:03:38.180 has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it's gone too far.

01:03:45.860 YouTube, your move.

01:03:48.420 Your move.

01:03:49.060 C-3PO is on the right side of speech. 0.55

01:03:51.120 I want to do the things.

01:03:53.900 It's like, what?

01:03:54.560 He's a robot.

01:03:56.420 This is, by the way, there's a lot of people trying to read Mark Zuckerberg here, and it's like, now he's bowing down to Trump.

01:04:03.720 If it's any indication of the people I think that Matt and Camille and I have talked to, and Megan, I'm sure this is true of you, too, that after the kind of Me Too movement, after the so-called racial reckoning, all of these things that companies were doing, after the 2016 election of Donald Trump, and when they kind of unwound those things, the number, I'm thinking of very specific people in my mind right now, too, who have come to me and said, yeah, no, we never believed that.

01:04:27.620 It was just like, we kind of had to do that in the moment, and they're admitting to their own cowardice, and it's not a great position to be in, but it could very well be true, and I can't look into his brain and figure out why he's doing this, but it could very well be true that Mark Zuckerberg never believed the stuff that he was implementing on Facebook.

01:04:43.760 And then we had something like COVID, and COVID is a really key component here, because when it comes to trust in the media, it's been low for a long time.

01:04:53.060 Its lowest ebb has been after COVID.

01:04:55.860 Incredibly low trust in media, because people were actually paying attention.

01:05:00.480 Like, you have to wear masks.

01:05:01.660 You have to stay inside.

01:05:02.540 Your kids can't go to school.

01:05:03.520 So you're actually checking this stuff, rather than it only being left to a very narrow band of people who care about this stuff, and whether the fact checkers and whether the experts are right about this stuff.

01:05:13.700 So that kind of buckled people's impression of what these experts are.

01:05:17.540 And so when experts, quote unquote, are coming onto Facebook and saying, no, the expert says this isn't true.

01:05:22.360 We don't have that trust anymore.

01:05:24.080 But to the Stossel thing, one final point, is that look at the way they did this.

01:05:28.940 It omits context.

01:05:30.680 Has anyone here ever written an editorial?

01:05:34.680 I know all of us have.

01:05:36.120 What do you do when you write an editorial?

01:05:38.680 Why is the newspaper not this big, but this big?

01:05:41.540 Because you have to, by nature, omit context in everything that you do.

01:05:46.100 So therefore, it is a weapon to wield against anyone at any time.

01:05:49.780 Of course, it's not going to have context for everything.

01:05:52.020 You have to leave certain things out and say, hey, the general narrative is this.

01:05:55.500 I'm going to inform you about some other opinions.

01:05:58.600 And then the fact checker comes in and says, well, why didn't you include the initial narrative?

01:06:04.180 That is unbalanced, as it were.

01:06:07.060 And this is the kind of nonsense game that these people were playing.

01:06:10.140 And people were wising up to it.

01:06:11.780 And that's the other reason that they backed away from it.

01:06:14.200 Yeah, I think there's plenty of reasons.

01:06:15.460 You know, I'll never forget the day that Facebook announced they were going to start fact checking presidential ads.

01:06:18.140 This was years ago.

01:06:20.300 This isn't this election cycle.

01:06:21.560 And I remember standing there in my kitchen saying, this is a huge mistake.

01:06:24.660 This will not end well.

01:06:26.300 They are not in a position to do this.

01:06:28.120 Let the candidates slug it out and call each other liars.

01:06:30.740 Let community notes pop up.

01:06:32.300 However, but Facebook cannot do this.

01:06:35.200 And it was the beginning of the end for Facebook's political feed, you know, the news feed, which they don't really do anymore.

01:06:40.280 Like, we've been on Facebook for years, and I never used it as a big tool to promote the show, so I wasn't as hurt by this as some others in this sphere.

01:06:53.520 But they basically completely, what's the word, like, depressed any and all circulation of news, like, about a year ago.

01:07:03.100 And it seriously hurt a lot of right-wing podcasts, which had been using Facebook to promote their brand.

01:07:10.760 And that was, like, a culmination, too, of just their fact-checking attempts and how poorly they were going.

01:07:15.940 And, like, once you step a foot in this lane, it's just a freaking disaster. 1.00

01:07:20.200 In the United States of America, this shit doesn't work. 1.00

01:07:23.060 But, Camille, you wouldn't know that from the reactions to Zuckerberg's announcement. 1.00

01:07:28.740 I'll just give you one, which is my favorite.

01:07:30.400 Here's the headline.

01:07:31.060 Um, okay.

01:07:34.840 Uh, okay.

01:07:36.020 Fact-checker condemns Facebook for cutting ties with first responders of the internet.

01:07:42.760 What?

01:07:43.720 Like, yeah.

01:07:45.380 Describing themselves as the first responders.

01:07:47.360 Yes, yes.

01:07:48.100 Yes.

01:07:48.460 The greatest heroes, the greatest champions of internet freedom are the fact-checkers.

01:07:53.560 You know what's funny?

01:07:54.740 I haven't talked to Mark.

01:07:56.420 I haven't talked to, like, Jeff Bezos.

01:07:57.800 But I have traveled in a lot of circles with some of the people that they've been friendly with.

01:08:02.580 Mark Andreessen and, um, uh, Peter Thiel are people who have known, um, Zuckerberg for years.

01:08:08.120 Been early, were early involved in Facebook and were on the board for years.

01:08:11.460 I think there's plenty of reasons to believe that a lot of people have, over the course of the recent years, done many things that they didn't really believe that they should be doing.

01:08:22.080 But they did it out of fear or concern that they simply couldn't get away with pushing back against certain things.

01:08:27.740 And they feel newly liberated to actually push back and assert a bit of, a bit of power, um, and say, yeah, we're not going to do those things anymore.

01:08:36.700 Um, and I think, Megan, you were correct to flag early on that there was not a, it was not a good idea for Facebook to begin fact-checking political ads.

01:08:45.280 Um, not a good idea for them to outsource responsibility for trying to fact-check the videos that Stossel or anyone else is posting, um, and then flagging them formally, corporately.

01:08:54.620 Um, because there's just way too much opportunity for that to go badly for you.

01:08:58.880 But when you're guided by people internal to you who are interested in wielding power towards political ends, not merely in the interest of fairness and policing misinformation and disinformation, nearly always with a particular political slant, um, it's going to result in plenty of bad things for you.

01:09:15.840 It'll hurt your brand in the long run.

01:09:17.400 And that is actually what folks have seen in recent years.

01:09:20.300 Um, so it is, it is nice to see the pendulum swing back.

01:09:22.960 I do suspect a lot of that happens, happens to be related to culture.

01:09:26.060 And I hope that we can actually do this in a way that's a bit more stable.

01:09:30.320 I think there are plenty of criticisms that one can raise with respect to something like community notes.

01:09:35.120 Um, but it does seem to me that it is infinitely better, um, than what Facebook chose to do when they, again, outsource responsibility for this to these ostensibly independent organizations that in many instances have these political biases.

01:09:48.440 It is far better to have a transparent process that actually gives people the sensibility that about what those underlying concerns are related to the articles and to, to make it broadly available and open.

01:09:59.880 And just like in the last election, if we saw some of these betting markets give us some of the best, um, information about where the election was likely to go, community notes processes work something like that.

01:10:11.740 Um, so there's plenty of reason to think that that could be a very healthy thing.

01:10:15.700 Um, and I think reasons for optimism with respect to the kind of culture of free speech reasserting itself.

01:10:21.020 Um, although I've been assured by some people that that, that isn't a thing that exists, but I beg to definitely.

01:10:25.920 But it's so great because as I listen to you talk, all I can think is we're winning, we're winning, you know, this free speech fight, you know, you guys have been in it neck deep.

01:10:36.520 We're winning.

01:10:37.720 This is a sign of that.

01:10:39.160 And the second thing I was thinking about was my friend because her house burned, her car burned and think about the other thing that, that is generally, you know, in your car and in your house, all your birth certificates, you know, your kid's birth certificates, your car registration, you know, you're like all of that.

01:10:58.400 That's like, just think of the number of hours, you know, it's going to take you to try to reproduce those items.

01:11:07.000 How the hell, like, how do you even start to go find your car registration data?

01:11:13.980 I don't like, yeah.

01:11:15.900 DMV that's, that may be burned too.

01:11:17.800 I just, whatever.

01:11:18.400 I'm back and forth on these two stories, but on the, on the happier note, we're winning.

01:11:23.300 Although Brian Stelter is very upset, which is another sign we are winning.

01:11:28.400 Yet the right side is winning.

01:11:29.980 Brian Stelter quote, Meta's framing in its PR blog post is more speech and fewer mistakes.

01:11:37.020 An alternate title could be more lies and more confusion.

01:11:43.000 That's probably not it.

01:11:45.660 And then there's the New York Times headline that everybody mocked yesterday on X.

01:11:49.800 Meta says fact checkers were the problem.

01:11:52.260 Fact checkers rule that false.

01:11:55.720 Ruled.

01:11:56.840 Ruled.

01:11:57.320 That's the great, great answer.

01:11:59.860 I wrote, I think my first long piece about, uh, how the fact checking industry, which deserves scare quotes, uh, was, uh, not all that.

01:12:09.400 It was more than a dozen years ago or a dozen years ago or so for reason, because of the way that it was being applied.

01:12:14.780 It's so in, uh, uh, lopsidedly, uh, in the Obama era, right?

01:12:20.360 You had PolitiFact giving lie of the year about Obamacare.

01:12:23.000 Okay.

01:12:23.240 That makes sense.

01:12:23.960 Except it was about Sarah Palin making a Facebook post, um, about death panels.

01:12:29.840 It wasn't about whether you could keep your doctor.

01:12:32.100 It wasn't about whether, uh, you know, you've taken on the drug lobby and finally won or many of the other things that, but it wasn't about like.

01:12:39.400 Did you see their lie of the year this year, Matt?

01:12:41.560 Yeah.

01:12:41.860 Uh, it was not Joe Biden's, the best Joe Biden or it was, uh, cats and dogs, it's the, it's the cats and dogs, the dogs.

01:12:52.420 I mean, that's like, even take out the politics of this, even take out the, it's obvious that you're more upset about Republican and MAGA Republican in particular rhetoric than you are about democratic.

01:13:05.880 Take that out.

01:13:06.840 Actually look at the difference between, uh, and this is, was true 12 years ago is true today.

01:13:11.620 Um, they want to fact check political rhetoric.

01:13:14.740 They don't want to fact check the lies that government are telling you in the name of making bad policy.

01:13:20.960 How many, I mean, this goes hand in hand.

01:13:23.160 We've had this crackdown on quote unquote misinformation hand in hand with the government serially lying to us about policies relating, especially to COVID.

01:13:32.220 And Michael's right to point to that.

01:13:34.060 Huh?

01:13:34.400 That's an interesting thing.

01:13:35.500 Why are we like actually using government pressure?

01:13:38.220 I would say in violation of the first amendment, it's being a sort of adjudicated as we speak, but, uh, government pressure about this at the same time that the government is doing is making brand new kind of bold, uh, uh, stakes of its own misinformation.

01:13:54.100 I would say that those two things go hand in hand and journalism made a really bad departure, uh, 10 years ago or so where it decided to be the referee of rhetoric, as opposed to covering policy.

01:14:05.180 Policy matters much, much more, uh, and democratic policy, uh, in democratic places has, has produced really bad results.

01:14:12.680 Republican policy sometimes does as well.

01:14:14.540 Um, but, uh, you should actually follow the way that that works and they don't, they are more naturally inclined to be upset with Sarah Palin's rhetoric than what would actually, uh, Barack Obama did when passing and implementing Obamacare.

01:14:28.360 And this goes on and on and on the biggest lie of a really long time was Biden's age.

01:14:33.700 Um, that, that is not lie of the year is, is fundamentally enraging to at least half of the country.

01:14:41.520 It is a lie itself.

01:14:43.560 I don't, we'll find out what the people of Greenland think.

01:14:46.180 Um, Charles CW cook writes it up as follows.

01:14:50.400 And I love this.

01:14:51.420 This is it for more than a decade.

01:14:53.400 Now, many people within both social media and legacy media in quotes have attempted to use their power to end debate on a host of important democratic issues.

01:15:01.480 This has failed and spectacularly.

01:15:03.780 So even if one regards Zuckerberg's shift as a purely cynical surrender performed by a malleable and amoral cipher, one ought to be pleased at the impetus that provoked it.

01:15:14.720 Something is changing out there and changing for the better right on.

01:15:19.980 And I know Matt, um, you just wrote an article on Charlie Hebdo.

01:15:24.380 So it's amazing that we're at the 10 year anniversary of that massacre, which was about free speech and whether as that magazine did, you can depict the so-called prophet Muhammad or you will be murdered.

01:15:41.180 And some segment of the population will say, yeah, right.

01:15:44.760 You were offensive, right?

01:15:45.880 I mean, we kind of touched on this a little bit earlier this week when I was going off on the movie, um, conclave because it makes a total mockery of Catholicism and the Cardinals and the Pope by spoiler alert.

01:15:59.200 They make the new Pope intersex. 0.99

01:16:03.940 Okay. 0.95

01:16:04.720 I think the LA fire department would be thrilled.

01:16:07.120 But in any event, I was saying they would never do that.

01:16:10.400 Never do that to Islam or Muslims or even potentially Jewish people, but the Catholics Christians total fair game.

01:16:18.740 In any event, the free speech debate has been raging for the better part of 10 years.

01:16:23.940 And that Charlie Hebdo moment was one of the most important parts. 1.00

01:16:28.020 And we look like we were losing, but we're not.

01:16:31.320 Well, I worry.

01:16:32.920 I think we are winning in the culture and you're right to, to point that out.

01:16:36.440 Um, but we are not going to, uh, it's, we're not going to find a lot of winning within the kind of legacy cultural institutions.

01:16:44.480 Even yesterday, you know, I was just doing a last quick little Google news search before I hit publish on, uh, piece about Charlie Hebdo.

01:16:51.120 And here's the Columbia journalism review, right?

01:16:53.660 Uh, institutional kind of organ of the media industry talking to itself, you know, talking about the mixed legacy and the, and the free speech is more complicated and nuanced than all of that.

01:17:03.740 And like, we're talking about the murder of 12 people, beloved cartoonists, cartoonists who mocked, uh, first and mostly, uh, actually the Pope.

01:17:14.480 And every single French leader, I mean, they're an anti-clerical, uh, satirical weekly stretching way back, very anti-authoritarian.

01:17:23.720 Um, there isn't the mixed, uh, record here is only the performance of the media, which made Charlie Hebdo lonely.

01:17:30.480 And it shouldn't have been.

01:17:31.700 And this is something that Michael and I in particular have talked about and written about many times, not just over the last 10 years, but over the last 35, since the fatwa was, was placed on, uh, Salman Rushdie for satanic verses.

01:17:43.600 There was a moment there where there was a time for choosing among Western intellectuals and they chose badly.

01:17:48.800 They chose intersectionally.

01:17:50.500 They said, well, you know, Rushdie and Jimmy Carter's, uh, words in an op-ed that he wrote for the New York times, just three weeks after the fatwa, uh, you know, Rushdie is guilty of insulting Islam, you know, because, uh, people from Muslim countries.

01:18:04.500 Uh, are, uh, more oppressed than, uh, Catholics or than, uh, people from, uh, a majority opinion.

01:18:10.960 Uh, this was like a new introduction of cowardice on the part of the West kind of judging it in this way.

01:18:17.200 And when the Danish cartoon crisis happened in 2006, which Danish newspapers published cartoons of Mohammed, no one cared.

01:18:23.460 And then a bunch of imams in the middle East started publicizing them months later. 0.97

01:18:27.540 Um, and then it led to a bunch of riots.

01:18:29.620 That was the moment when, uh, the West writ large should have print reprinted those cartoons.

01:18:35.760 I advocated for such when I worked for the LA times very strenuously.

01:18:39.040 And I lost very narrowly in the opinion section.

01:18:41.840 And I feel a shame to this day that I didn't win that argument, um, because Charlie Hebdo was one of the only places that did that.

01:18:48.580 And once you become, uh, an outlier, then you become a target and they became an outlier because of the cowardice of the West and not just, uh, about reprinting cartoons about in the case of the New York times.

01:19:01.440 At one point, writing a file story about a statue of Mohammed that appeared on top of a New York courthouse for a half a century that no one cared about.

01:19:11.660 They wrote an article about this in the wake of, uh, one of the Charlie Hebdo controversies and didn't even run a file photo of the statue that existed.

01:19:21.160 Oh my Lord.

01:19:21.820 The historical photo.

01:19:23.020 But you can make the Pope intersex. 0.97

01:19:25.160 The Pope, the male Pope can have lady reproductive parts and it wins awards at the Golden Globes. 0.98

01:19:31.440 And elsewhere. 0.99

01:19:32.020 Right.

01:19:32.300 But what color, what color?

01:19:33.480 That's the real question.

01:19:34.680 Um, you mentioned Matt Taibbi.

01:19:36.400 He's got a substat called racket.

01:19:38.400 He just posted this in response to Zuckerberg saying in his video yesterday, he cited press pressure as part of the reason for proposed changes.

01:19:47.500 After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy.

01:19:54.920 Meta tried to address such concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth.

01:19:59.500 Okay.

01:19:59.680 That's not true.

01:20:00.380 One would think legacy media, writes Taibbi, outlets covering Zuckerberg's video address might mention this.

01:20:08.140 In other words, that it was their pressure that led him to implement these bad changes years ago in the first place.

01:20:13.680 No luck, writes Matt.

01:20:15.560 Neither the Washington Post nor the New York Times mentioned the legacy media comments by Zuckerberg.

01:20:20.740 Both papers, readers, in other words, were served a curated version of reality that snipped out uncomfortable details.

01:20:27.420 And God, do they wish the whole world could be like that.

01:20:30.960 Yeah.

01:20:31.200 As usual, well said by Matt.

01:20:34.680 It's very well said, but yeah.

01:20:36.660 What do you think the people in Greenland are going to think about it?

01:20:39.320 Are they free speech at?

01:20:41.140 I mean, like, I don't know if they're leftists or rightists.

01:20:43.920 Trump seems to be saying they're pro-MAGA, but like, they're Denmark people.

01:20:49.220 They're kind of owned by Denmark.

01:20:50.380 I mean, Denmark does own, and like, they are as left as you can get.

01:20:54.340 So I'm not sure, guys.

01:20:55.240 Do we want this as a 51st state?

01:20:56.900 Go ahead, Moynihan.

01:20:58.460 Well, I don't even know where to start with this.

01:21:01.040 The people of Greenland as a duchy of the days.

01:21:05.380 Wait, wait. Start with this.

01:21:06.500 Greenland is mostly icy, and Iceland is mostly green.

01:21:11.660 Discuss.

01:21:11.940 Yeah, that's true.

01:21:13.760 So they're obviously very confused as to who they are.

01:21:16.440 They might be sort of intersex as a country.

01:21:19.200 They don't know.

01:21:20.620 They're the intersex of potential territories.

01:21:23.100 Yeah, that's going to be a lot for us to take on.

01:21:26.380 Okay, I am going to give you the floor.

01:21:27.700 Forgive me.

01:21:28.100 But just to set it up, Trump is indeed saying, he had a news conference the other day,

01:21:31.840 that he would potentially like to buy Greenland.

01:21:36.480 Greenland is owned by Denmark, and it's like one of their territories,

01:21:40.820 and he's saying, well, we want it.

01:21:43.460 And then he got asked, well, like, it's got a bunch of natural resources

01:21:47.340 that are amazing and now accessible thanks to some of the global warming.

01:21:50.600 It's not just completely covered by the Arctic.

01:21:52.480 So we're interested because we don't have as much national resources as China does.

01:21:56.700 They've got way more than we do.

01:21:58.300 So we're eyeballing, you know, Greenland is like, well, that could be quite helpful.

01:22:01.900 And Trump proposed this, and then he was asked to that presser, like, would you?

01:22:06.500 Oh, and he also wants to reclaim the Panama Canal, which, okay, we gave it to Panama under Jimmy Carter.

01:22:15.060 It's no longer ours, but he's saying, well, we're taking it back. 0.99

01:22:17.620 This is bullshit. 0.96

01:22:18.560 You're charging us too much to go through it, and we want it. 1.00

01:22:21.520 He's also saying we're going to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

01:22:25.500 He's saber-rattling about making Canada a state.

01:22:28.500 I don't think that one's real, but I think the other ones are real.

01:22:31.040 So he got asked on the Panama Canal and Greenland whether he would use military or economic might to make it happen.

01:22:44.360 Would you rule that out right now, Mr. President?

01:22:46.580 And he said, no, I won't rule it out.

01:22:48.780 Take a listen.

01:22:50.580 Can you assure the world that as you try to get control of these areas,

01:22:57.160 you are not going to use military or economic coercion?

01:23:01.040 No.

01:23:01.600 We need them for economic security.

01:23:05.700 Well, do we really want Greenland?

01:23:10.820 I mean, I see the natural resource.

01:23:13.000 They're a NATO country.

01:23:14.160 I'm not sure we can just go in there and get them.

01:23:17.120 I mean, do we want Italy?

01:23:19.680 I mean, you can want a lot of things.

01:23:21.480 Yes, that we do want.

01:23:22.940 No, you can't just take Greenland.

01:23:25.820 You can't buy Greenland.

01:23:27.340 You can't take the Panama Canal back from the Panamanians. 1.00

01:23:31.040 I mean, there was a debate.

01:23:32.460 There was actually a really interesting debate.

01:23:34.780 And viewers, let's just go check this out.

01:23:37.160 In the 1970s, amongst conservatives, actually, about the situation in Panama.

01:23:42.740 And there's a very famous debate between Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley.

01:23:46.280 And Ronald Reagan said we should retain control of the canal because we built it.

01:23:50.600 Actually, the French started building it.

01:23:52.420 We finished building it.

01:23:53.960 And William F. Buckley said it's not a conservative position.

01:23:56.920 We should give it back to the Panamanians, which we did under certain conditions when it 1.00

01:24:01.760 turned over to full control in 1999.

01:24:03.900 And the Panamanians have reacted to this recently saying, no, we're absolutely not.

01:24:09.220 And look, the thing about Trump is he shoots from the hip and he says things that sometimes

01:24:14.180 the facts need to catch up with him.

01:24:15.820 This idea that he said with the Panama Canal, he's like, you know, our ships are charged

01:24:20.860 more to go through.

01:24:22.560 That's not true.

01:24:23.740 And it has become more expensive, of course, because the water levels have been lower and

01:24:28.600 it costs more and it's slower to get ships through.

01:24:30.980 So they've been raising prices, but that kind of thing is just that, you know, the kind

01:24:34.940 of natural market of these things.

01:24:36.920 I thought he was kidding about Greenland.

01:24:38.520 And the more that I've watched this, he's like, well, we need it for national security

01:24:42.900 and we need it for economic security, which I have to say is just completely bonkers.

01:24:47.800 And I don't think this will go anywhere, but it is totally insane to say that we want to

01:24:54.300 become like a local imperial power in the next four years.

01:24:57.680 Like what?

01:24:58.560 Seriously?

01:24:58.720 It's surprising.

01:24:59.760 Like some of the rhetoric at the conference didn't sound exactly isolationist, you know,

01:25:04.380 like as much as I loved his, like, you know, you're going to F off Hamas. 0.93

01:25:08.720 I better get those hostages back before, before the inauguration.

01:25:12.580 Loved it.

01:25:13.000 It's a little like, well, what, or, or what?

01:25:15.100 Cause like most MAGA people do not want to get involved in World War III.

01:25:19.000 So there was that.

01:25:20.400 Then there was, yeah, I kind of do want Greenland.

01:25:23.320 And if I have to potentially involve the military, I'm not going to rule it out.

01:25:26.400 And same for Panama and maybe, maybe Canada.

01:25:29.720 We'll have to, we'll have to see.

01:25:31.180 I'm joking.

01:25:32.080 He wasn't quite that bad.

01:25:33.360 But, um, I do wonder because he sent Don Jr.

01:25:38.080 and Charlie Kirk and others on Trump Force One to Greenland.

01:25:44.980 Yeah.

01:25:45.180 And then Trump called in.

01:25:46.760 Here's a little soundbite of that visit.

01:25:49.060 Take a look.

01:25:49.780 Take a listen.

01:25:51.860 Tourists.

01:25:52.540 Seeing it looks like an incredible place.

01:25:54.200 We've been talking about going for a while.

01:25:55.460 I was really excited to be here.

01:25:57.120 Awesome country.

01:25:57.980 The scenery coming in was just spectacular.

01:26:00.380 So just very excited to be here.

01:26:02.180 Thank you.

01:26:03.960 He says hello.

01:26:06.300 We were talking to him yesterday.

01:26:08.040 So he says hello to everyone in Greenland.

01:26:11.660 Trump tweeted out, make Greenland, Greenland great again.

01:26:14.840 And he called in when Don Jr.

01:26:17.460 was at a restaurant and he spoke with the people.

01:26:19.840 And Trump says, Greenland, I hear is very MAGA.

01:26:22.260 I don't know if Greenland is MAGA.

01:26:24.900 Can we start with that?

01:26:25.760 I don't want to be adopting another California or Oregon.

01:26:31.280 I don't know.

01:26:32.920 I don't know if Greenland is particularly MAGA.

01:26:34.840 And I don't suspect that statehood is actually in the cards here.

01:26:38.180 But there are some legitimate forward policy and economic issues here.

01:26:43.380 I mean, China and Russia both have a lot of interests in the Arctic region.

01:26:47.440 China has a lot of cutters and can get into the ice and can go look for stuff. 1.00

01:26:51.300 And there's been essentially this competition to see who can get out there and stake claim

01:26:58.060 to as much space as possible, or at least kind of clog up the routes so that it's difficult

01:27:02.480 for the United States to have access.

01:27:03.860 And the United States is interested in having access to a bunch of rare earth metals that

01:27:07.800 you can kind of only get in places like China and Pakistan or India, Pakistan, actually.

01:27:13.360 And the fact that some of this stuff happens to be in Iceland as well is of unique interest

01:27:17.520 to the United States.

01:27:18.420 So if what Trump is doing here, and I actually purchased a copy of Art of the Deal in the

01:27:23.960 last 24 hours and I've been going through it to try and understand.

01:27:27.600 Ten years later.

01:27:28.300 To try and understand.

01:27:29.360 Listen, I'm a little late, but I mean, there's maybe a little game here.

01:27:33.060 Better late than never.

01:27:33.340 Gotta understand that ghostwriter.

01:27:35.720 Trump seems, listen, you could have a ghostwriter and still have particular ideas and he's running

01:27:41.140 the playbook.

01:27:42.240 I mean, these are grandiose, kind of over-the-top statements.

01:27:45.640 Oh, we're going to annex them.

01:27:47.020 I won't rule those other things out.

01:27:49.300 But if what you really want is a strategic partnership to the exclusion of the Chinese 0.75

01:27:55.160 and the Russians, and you want to build up kind of public concern and interest in this

01:27:59.620 issue, you can try to go about this strategically behind closed doors and be very diplomatic.

01:28:04.740 And it won't even be below the fold in the New York Times.

01:28:08.100 Right now, everyone is talking about Trump's interest in Iceland or Greenland.

01:28:13.480 And excuse me, it's easy to confuse the two because of the silly way that they've named

01:28:17.000 them.

01:28:17.760 Yes.

01:28:18.220 And the fact that we are talking about it at this point and that it's not just him insisting,

01:28:24.300 I want to control it.

01:28:25.580 And if I don't get it, I'm going to start to put tariffs on Norway.

01:28:29.380 He's also saying we're open to other things.

01:28:31.540 And he's sending his envoys.

01:28:33.160 And the envoys are having more strategic, substantive conversations.

01:28:36.520 And the hope here is clearly to try and get some sort of strategic deal.

01:28:40.320 I mean, Trump has been talking about this since 2018, 2019.

01:28:43.300 And as soon as he gets back to the White House, or at least within striking distance of being

01:28:47.240 in the White House again, he's talking about it again.

01:28:49.340 This is a serious issue for him.

01:28:50.820 I don't know.

01:28:51.160 And similarly with Panama.

01:28:51.900 The king of Denmark?

01:28:52.300 Similarly with Panama.

01:28:53.320 Was it the king of Denmark or the prime?

01:28:55.100 Anyway, it was the prime minister.

01:28:56.360 The king of Denmark like added, suddenly added Greenland to their crest over there as like a

01:29:03.560 middle finger to Trump.

01:29:04.460 So, meanwhile, I was just in Denmark.

01:29:06.520 I was there in June.

01:29:08.360 And let me tell you, one of the big things they're proud about about their king is that

01:29:11.560 he rides his little bicycle with his basket in the front to work.

01:29:14.520 I'm like, I'm not, no, not intimidated.

01:29:17.980 The fact that there's a king in Denmark and in Sweden and in Norway is believably hilarious

01:29:23.720 because they don't do anything and no one cares.

01:29:27.420 But I just want to say that it was interesting to come on the show today and find out that 1.00

01:29:33.160 my partner in the FIFCOM, Camille Foster, has completely lost his fucking mind. 0.99

01:29:37.620 No. 0.99

01:29:38.520 I'm saying that there are legitimate issues.

01:29:40.420 What do you mean?

01:29:40.680 There's the searches.

01:29:41.580 Imperialist Camille?

01:29:42.640 Let me say this.

01:29:43.300 That's not imperialism.

01:29:44.580 As a sort of moderate student of the Cold War, the way that you do this is not threatening

01:29:51.020 to take people over or by them.

01:29:54.240 And they say, no, what is happening in Iceland?

01:29:57.320 Not Greenland.

01:29:57.740 Let me write that down.

01:29:59.200 If you try, this is the art of Moynihan's deal.

01:30:01.960 Military.

01:30:02.200 Stop threatening to invade people if you want to have a coalition with them.

01:30:06.420 In Iceland.

01:30:07.600 Playing with your name on the side of it, Moynihan.

01:30:09.100 I'm not sure if I'm going to take your view.

01:30:11.800 In fairness, we don't know what that means.

01:30:13.760 Here's a John Fetterman.

01:30:15.420 John Fetterman and Camille could be a joint ticket.

01:30:18.060 Yes.

01:30:18.640 Let's go.

01:30:19.360 Running on the independent side.

01:30:19.720 I don't know, but they're sounding an awful lot alike.

01:30:23.040 Take a listen.

01:30:24.360 A lot of freak outs.

01:30:25.660 And of course, I would never support taking it by force.

01:30:28.440 But I do think it's a responsible conversation if they were open to acquiring it and whether

01:30:34.820 they're just buying it outright.

01:30:35.880 I mean, if anyone think that's bonkers, it's like, well, remember the Louisiana Purchase?

01:30:41.140 I think Alaska was a pretty great deal, too.

01:30:44.060 $50 million, I think it was.

01:30:45.600 It was referred to as Seward's Folly.

01:30:49.920 And now that was Alaska now.

01:30:51.320 So, I mean, you know, open to having all kinds of conversations.

01:30:54.360 He hasn't even taken office in two weeks.

01:30:57.340 And, you know, we really need to pace ourselves if we're going to freak out over every last

01:31:01.680 tweet or every last conversation or press conference.

01:31:05.920 Oh, but Moynihan's against Alaska.

01:31:09.800 He wishes we didn't have that state either.

01:31:11.260 I mean, it's a slightly different situation than Louisiana Purchase.

01:31:14.740 We were talking about Greenland, which is not contiguous with America.

01:31:18.900 But we have a military base in Iceland, in Keflavik, because we kind of talked to the Icelanders and

01:31:25.060 they were like, OK, what do we get out of this?

01:31:26.780 And it was just a deal.

01:31:27.720 We didn't say we're going to invade you or give us access to your hot springs.

01:31:33.340 He hasn't said that exactly.

01:31:35.120 He hasn't said that exactly.

01:31:36.560 And again, he's just implied it.

01:31:38.120 Like China is spending a tremendous amount of money in Africa, in South America.

01:31:42.940 Exactly.

01:31:43.340 Red China. 0.87

01:31:43.960 And they're trying their very best to have influence there.

01:31:46.700 They have private, well, not private companies, but Chinese owned or linked companies who have

01:31:50.560 some interest in the Panama Canal or at least in the surrounding area.

01:31:54.240 To the extent that the United States is expressing concerns about this stuff in formal ways and

01:31:59.120 in grandiose circus-like theatrical ways is probably not a bad thing on net.

01:32:05.280 And as strange as it is to have to acknowledge if the end result of Trump saying what seemed

01:32:11.300 like completely ridiculous things about acquiring or annexing some other country is that we do

01:32:17.540 end up with a strategic partnership of some kind that is to the advantage of the United States

01:32:22.460 and to the disadvantage of our international adversaries, that's kind of a good thing.

01:32:26.780 It's the first rule they teach you when you take negotiations in law school.

01:32:29.880 The first rule.

01:32:30.820 You ask for way more than you want to settle for.

01:32:33.300 You know, if you need to settle the case for a million bucks, you do not go in there and

01:32:37.080 say, I want a million bucks or a million two.

01:32:40.900 You go in there and say, I want four million dollars and then I'll make this case in my way.

01:32:45.220 And then you negotiate down.

01:32:47.960 It could be that international relations are a little bit different.

01:32:52.460 It could be different than a two-sided legal dispute.

01:32:54.940 Well, is that true for Trump?

01:32:57.060 I don't, I'm not really meaning that.

01:33:00.080 Hold on, do we have the exact quote?

01:33:01.420 I want to read you the exact Trump quote because he did not say invade.

01:33:05.720 I think we should be careful.

01:33:06.440 He did not.

01:33:07.220 No.

01:33:07.560 He said he wouldn't rule it out.

01:33:08.900 Yeah.

01:33:09.360 Let's see.

01:33:10.060 Yeah.

01:33:10.860 The question was, okay.

01:33:13.580 Asked by a reporter if he could assure world leaders that his rhetoric about the Panama

01:33:16.900 Canal and Greenland would not amount to, quote, military or economic coercion.

01:33:22.940 So, okay, military coercion.

01:33:25.560 Once he takes office, Trump responded with a simple, no.

01:33:29.460 So, he said, we need them for economic security.

01:33:33.240 Quote, I'm not going to commit to that.

01:33:35.600 No.

01:33:36.200 It might be that you'll have to do something.

01:33:39.080 Look, that Panama Canal is vital to our country.

01:33:42.200 It's being operated by China.

01:33:43.960 China.

01:33:44.780 And we gave the Panama Canal to Panama.

01:33:46.920 We didn't give it to China.

01:33:48.240 And they've abused it.

01:33:49.720 They've abused that gift.

01:33:51.560 Giving the Panama Canal to Panama was a very big mistake.

01:33:54.220 So, he focused mostly on Panama, but he said he would not reassure that he is not prepared

01:34:02.480 to use military or economic coercion with respect to Greenland.

01:34:09.940 That's not a great quote, but we don't know exactly.

01:34:12.700 I think the right answer there, if you're asked that question, is, yeah, we can maybe

01:34:15.820 turn the screws economically, but we're not going to invade.

01:34:18.380 I mean, that would maybe be the right answer for me.

01:34:20.580 But, Megan, you raised a point, which I think is a really interesting one, is that the number

01:34:24.140 of people kind of on the isolationist right and the people who say, you know, the Buchananites

01:34:29.060 of yesteryear who are kind of in the Trump coalition now, I've seen a lot of them freaking

01:34:34.740 out on Twitter because what Camille is saying is, you know, the China's Belt and Road policy

01:34:38.840 going across the world, going into Africa and pushing their influence everywhere, that

01:34:43.040 we need to respond to that.

01:34:44.700 And, you know, that is something that a lot of these people don't like, this idea of being

01:34:48.880 an imperial power or this idea of, you know, threatening military action, whether it's

01:34:53.780 dropping, you know, American troops or whatever it might be, or saying we need to station weapons

01:34:58.440 here.

01:34:58.740 That's exactly the opposite of the rhetoric that you get from so many of the people that

01:35:03.160 are on the kind of isolationist MAGA right.

01:35:05.840 And it's really interesting because I think what happens with Donald Trump is that there's

01:35:09.840 a lot of projection that people project what they want him to be.

01:35:13.800 And so I've had conversations with people that totally forget that he sent, what, 56

01:35:18.040 Tomahawk missiles into Syria, which in what, the first or second, first year of his administration.

01:35:24.760 And like that, that was the night he became president.

01:35:26.600 Is that right?

01:35:27.300 Oh, yeah.

01:35:27.600 That was Van Van Jones, right?

01:35:29.140 Who said that the night became a great Van Jones.

01:35:32.560 But that kind of thing is there's a lot of projection.

01:35:34.340 And it's really funny to watch the response from people who say we're going to look inward,

01:35:38.700 a kind of Ron Paul vision of the world.

01:35:40.200 And he's like, who are we going to invade locally?

01:35:43.500 We're invading Greenland and Panama, maybe Canada. 0.93

01:35:48.160 And also we're annihilating Hamas.

01:35:50.720 But they already invaded Panama in 1989.

01:35:53.200 So this would be a second go.

01:35:54.980 So he formally ruled out Canada.

01:35:56.040 Most people do think it's rhetoric about Canada that we don't really want them.

01:36:00.360 I mean, let's be honest.

01:36:01.420 We don't really want them.

01:36:02.580 I think they're going to be in better hands with Pierre Polyev.

01:36:05.360 I hope they do the right thing.

01:36:06.960 And that our little top hat to the north becomes less evil.

01:36:09.380 Under Pierre.

01:36:11.560 Wait, where is that quote, you guys?

01:36:13.000 Debbie Murphy, where is that quote from our friends in the Canadian right-wing news?

01:36:19.660 Okay, it's Ezra Levant.

01:36:21.020 You guys got to hear this.

01:36:22.200 You've got to hear this.

01:36:22.940 We love this guy.

01:36:24.600 He's been on the show.

01:36:25.820 He's a more conservative pundit up there in Canada.

01:36:29.280 And he explained why Canadians are reacting favorably, many Canadians, to the Trump rhetoric about, we'll take them.

01:36:40.420 We're taking Canada too.

01:36:41.660 We're taking it all.

01:36:42.940 Okay.

01:36:43.260 Here is what he said.

01:36:46.600 It was a thread on X.

01:36:48.640 Why are Trump's 51st state comments resonating so loudly in Canada?

01:36:52.200 Because of Trudeau himself.

01:36:54.580 When Justin Trudeau first won election in 2015, he told an American newspaper, there is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada.

01:37:01.440 He said, we're the first post-national state.

01:37:04.980 Such gross left-wing rhetoric.

01:37:06.480 Okay, he goes on.

01:37:07.600 Since then, he's taken our founding prime minister off the $10 bill.

01:37:10.660 He's altered our national anthem.

01:37:12.360 He's accused Canada of committing genocide against our indigenous people, but he won't say that about China and the Uyghurs.

01:37:17.740 He regularly accuses Canadians of being racist and sexist, even as he dresses up in blackface.

01:37:22.660 He's denuded our military to the point where we can't even participate in NATO war games because we lack modern equipment.

01:37:30.160 But he can't afford tampon dispensers in mail bathrooms and military bases.

01:37:34.800 His Veterans Affairs Department now recommends assisted suicide to vets with PTSD.

01:37:41.000 This is why Trump's statements about becoming the 51st state sting.

01:37:45.180 That's why they hit home.

01:37:46.640 Because for a decade, Trudeau and every institution in the country, the regime media, the universities, the courts, the parliament, has said Canada means nothing.

01:37:53.920 Every one of Trudeau's actions say Canada means nothing.

01:37:57.320 It's really just a hotel.

01:37:59.020 Well, Trump knows about hotels.

01:38:00.700 Why wouldn't he try to buy one, especially one that's so dilapidated?

01:38:05.800 Oh, so good.

01:38:07.080 Wow.

01:38:07.960 A fact check, though.

01:38:08.880 I think it was brownface and not blackface, but, you know.

01:38:11.560 That was true.

01:38:11.900 No, no.

01:38:12.320 There was one that was very blackface.

01:38:13.620 It was true, blackface. 1.00

01:38:14.580 He did the minstrel show, Blackface.

01:38:17.280 Full on.

01:38:18.300 He was like the Canadian Al Jolson.

01:38:20.500 It was like...

01:38:21.040 He totally was.

01:38:22.720 Yeah.

01:38:23.040 But I always thought on this topic, I don't know if you've heard.

01:38:26.640 Yeah.

01:38:27.040 Yes.

01:38:27.460 You've waded into this debate before, haven't you, Megan?

01:38:32.460 I love Tropic Thunder, for the record.

01:38:34.460 I have to take a break.

01:38:35.160 It was a great movie.

01:38:35.740 All right.

01:38:36.780 Thank God.

01:38:37.700 I'll be right back.

01:38:38.760 Don't go away.

01:38:39.580 Are you overwhelmed with back taxes or unfiled returns?

01:38:42.660 Well, get ready, because since COVID relief ended, the IRS hired 20,000 new enforcement

01:38:47.160 agents proposing millions of pay-up notices for 2025.

01:38:50.220 If you're worried about IRS collection tactics, you don't have to face them alone.

01:38:55.760 Tax Network USA can help you.

01:38:57.840 Tax Network USA is the nation's premier tax relief firm.

01:39:01.020 They've negotiated over $1 billion in tax relief for clients.

01:39:04.620 Their services include penalty forgiveness and hardship programs.

01:39:08.180 Whether you owe $10,000 or $10 million, their experts are ready to assist you.

01:39:13.040 Even if you're behind on taxes, Tax Network USA can guide you through the process.

01:39:17.840 Contact them for personalized support.

01:39:20.220 Handling IRS matters without professional help is risky.

01:39:23.820 Protect your financial security with guidance from Tax Network USA.

01:39:27.620 To schedule a complimentary consultation, call 1-800-958-1000 or visit tnusa.com slash Megan.

01:39:36.100 Don't let the IRS's aggressive tactics control your life.

01:39:39.860 Empower yourself.

01:39:40.980 With Tax Network USA's support and take charge of your financial future.

01:39:45.180 Visit tnusa.com slash Megan today.

01:39:50.220 I'm Megan Kelly, host of The Megan Kelly Show on Sirius XM.

01:39:54.640 It's your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations with the most interesting and important political, legal, and cultural figures today.

01:40:02.220 You can catch The Megan Kelly Show on Triumph, a Sirius XM channel featuring lots of hosts you may know and probably love.

01:40:10.020 Great people like Dr. Laura, Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, Dave Ramsey, and yours truly, Megan Kelly.

01:40:16.900 You can stream The Megan Kelly Show on Sirius XM at home or anywhere you are.

01:40:21.440 No car required.

01:40:23.100 I do it all the time.

01:40:23.980 I love the Sirius XM app.

01:40:26.760 It has ad-free music coverage of every major sport, comedy, talk, podcast, and more.

01:40:32.460 Subscribe now.

01:40:33.180 Get your first three months for free.

01:40:35.440 Go to SiriusXM.com slash MKShow to subscribe and get three months free.

01:40:41.400 That's SiriusXM.com slash MKShow and get three months free.

01:40:47.260 Offer details apply.

01:40:48.300 Listen to this, you guys.

01:40:54.480 This is just tweeted out by the New York Times.

01:40:56.360 Things are getting tense in L.A. as fire hydrants and reservoirs in the Palisades begin to run low.

01:41:02.500 At the crest of Sunset Boulevard, a desperate man dropped to his knees in front of a firefighter

01:41:06.840 who was battling a blaze consuming the home next door, begging him to turn the water on the flames threatening his own home.

01:41:13.240 Another firefighter warned, we're down to 25%.

01:41:16.660 Hold off.

01:41:18.300 They're having to basically ration what's left of the water in the hydrants, given how low the supply is.

01:41:25.720 I don't mean they too live on water.

01:41:27.980 Why is this so hard?

01:41:28.960 That is mismanagement to me.

01:41:31.240 It seems pretty clear.

01:41:32.020 There's a – I just retweeted out Joel Pollack from Breitbart who lives, I believe, in Brentwood, but he's definitely local.

01:41:41.420 He just had a really good informative thread about a variety of issues, including reservoirs and fire management and brush management specific to the Palisades.

01:41:50.400 I recommend it, and hopefully people will tune in to wherever he's talking.

01:41:55.800 Guys, thank you.

01:41:56.920 It's been a pleasure spending the past two hours with you.

01:41:59.380 Prayers go out to our friends in California for a better result and for better leaders.

01:42:04.480 I really hope they help themselves.

01:42:06.540 See you guys soon.

01:42:08.060 Thanks, Megan.

01:42:08.500 Debbie Murphy, Canadian Debbie, lets me know that this is how they changed Canada's anthem in 2018 under Trudeau.

01:42:14.420 It used to say,

01:42:14.980 Oh, Canada, our home and native land, true patriot love in all thy sons' command.

01:42:19.380 And he changed it to in all of us' command because you can't have sons in anything associated with Trudeau.

01:42:27.980 Like in, you know, America the Beautiful, you can't have thy brotherhood.

01:42:31.920 You'd have to change it to brotherhood and sisterhood and personhood and they be hood. 0.90

01:42:37.540 It's ridiculous. 0.75

01:42:38.660 Goodbye. 0.69

01:42:39.100 No one will miss you.

01:42:40.320 Even the left hates you, Justin Trudeau.

01:42:42.060 So before we go, I want to tell you that tomorrow on the show, we have a different Californian, Bill Maher.

01:42:48.800 We'll be back on the show and we'll ask him whether he's experiencing any of this devastation firsthand

01:42:54.340 and what his reaction is to whether California will wake up and try to find some better leaders to help them with these tragedies, among others out West.

01:43:06.440 Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show.

01:43:08.700 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

01:43:12.060 Thank you.

01:43:12.580 Thanks for listening.

The Megyn Kelly Show - January 08, 2025

Mismanagement Leading to Devastating LA Wildfires, and Trump's Serious About Buying Greenland, with The Fifth Column ｜ Ep. 978

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript