The Megyn Kelly Show - Parenting in Today's Society, and Hunter Biden Laptop Latest, with Dr. Laura and Ken LaCorte

00:00:00.460 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.

00:00:11.940 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show and happy Friday.

00:00:17.140 I am so excited for today. In just a bit, in our second hour, we're going to be joined by my old

00:00:24.260 pal Ken LaCorte, former Fox News executive and founder of the Media Action Network. We're going

00:00:31.100 to get into the latest on Hunter Biden's laptop and what role the FBI may have had in trying to

00:00:36.200 actively spread the lie that it was Russian disinformation. A whistleblower has just come

00:00:40.720 forward. Ken was in on this on this laptop early on, and we'll ask him what he thinks about the

00:00:47.100 latest. But first, joining me now, one of my all time favorites, somebody I respect and love so

00:00:52.740 much. Her name is not unfamiliar to any of you listening. It's Dr. Laura, host of the Dr. Laura

00:00:59.420 program on SiriusXM, which airs right after our program on Triumph 111. She is author of 13 best

00:01:08.000 selling books, and we are so excited to have her here with us today. Dr. Laura, welcome back.

00:01:17.220 Good morning. Good morning. I'm telling you, the last week I've been so popular because everybody

00:01:23.940 said, you're doing Megyn Kelly. After you came on the last time, you have been by far our most

00:01:33.140 requested repeat guest. Everybody's like, when is it happening? When is it happening? And I've been

00:01:37.660 saying the same. And my only hesitation was, we had you booked for the day my son got injured when I

00:01:46.000 was in Montana, that back in March. And I didn't do the show at all that day. I had to cancel the

00:01:51.300 whole show because he was in the ICU. And I was like, there's no way I can rebook Dr. Laura for any

00:01:57.980 day that I'm even close to wobbly, you know, and not being able to appear or breaking news might, you

00:02:04.400 know. So you know me better than that. Come on. I know. But I just out of respect, there's so much

00:02:10.680 I want to talk to you about. And this is a weird place to start it. So forgive me. But it's been on

00:02:14.820 my mind a lot lately, lately, coming on the air and reading up on the news of the day. All I see,

00:02:22.100 and I don't mean to sound 200, but all I see in the news is debauchery. I mean, truly, you're just

00:02:28.320 scrolling through the news headlines. What do I see? A Kourtney Kardashian and Megan Fox,

00:02:32.680 half naked, fondling each other over a toilet to try to promote something that Kardashians are

00:02:39.180 selling. It happens every day where you see basically naked people trying to shove some

00:02:47.260 body part in our faces as we're just trying to consume the news. What news site are you looking

00:02:51.660 at? It's all over. It's all over. Daily Mail. I've got my computer on here. Tell me what site.

00:02:58.920 Seriously. Daily Mail has got most of these headlines, but New York Post has got a lot of

00:03:03.980 wait a minute. Daily Mail. That's British, right? Well, they have American, too. They have the

00:03:08.940 American. Yeah, but they're very into that sort of scandalous stuff. So, you know, no. Well,

00:03:15.100 I just got me thinking about something that I know you wrote and you've talked about before about how

00:03:18.820 where are all the role models? You know where I've heard you say before, when I was a kid,

00:03:23.140 it was like Shirley Temple. And the kids today have half naked women all over the magazines and

00:03:29.360 Instagram and are really being led to believe that unless you show a boob, you can't get any

00:03:34.440 attention. Well, you know. A couple of decades ago, I got in trouble and I was astounded.

00:03:45.080 So, I was there in the beginning of this going downhill, frankly, with respect to kids. My kid was

00:03:52.160 very young and he was trying to do skateboarding. Okay, so we're at a mall and I went into a store

00:03:59.860 that was a skateboarding store. And he's looking at skateboards, shoes, helmets. And I figure, okay,

00:04:09.640 he'll break something, you know, it's an initiation into adulthood. And I pick up a magazine. Now, if I

00:04:17.280 say it again, I don't want my life to go down the tubes for a week again. It had, these are for

00:04:24.520 adolescents. The store was all for adolescents. And they had a magazine done by Hustler.

00:04:32.700 That was the parent company of this magazine. And it had all terrible things in it. And a male

00:04:41.020 putting a sparkler in a girl's rectum. Oh, boy. So, I go to the manager, throw a fit. I go on the air,

00:04:50.020 throw a fit. Next thing I know, I'm in a courtroom and the judge is saying I was wrong.

00:04:57.080 Hmm. And I had to pay six figures out of my own pocket. And to that, to this day, I have been

00:05:07.080 stunned by that. I am protecting kids. And they were all for, this is fine for kids. Now, you would

00:05:15.800 ask, why would this whole trend start where we're trying to take kids off a track, which leads them to

00:05:24.940 more family success, success in life, better mental, physical health, family health. That's

00:05:32.420 because it's part of a bigger, and I sound like some kind of conspiracy nutcase, but it's been

00:05:37.560 growing. I mean, we don't have male and female. There are no more mothers. It's just people who

00:05:42.060 birth. And the whole trend away from family. Now, when you look at dictatorial countries in the

00:05:50.060 history, in the history that you can read, one of the things you did was to eliminate

00:05:56.640 differences and to eliminate family. Think about it. So, this is just a small part. And if you

00:06:06.240 keep showing kids naked pictures and, as you said, debauchery, then what are they distracted from?

00:06:12.840 Everything that's of value. So, who takes over? A ruling class. So, these small incremental things

00:06:19.140 that we've seen in history so many times before are happening, and it's like we're missing it

00:06:24.480 because nobody's getting educated about history. So, you look at these things and you say,

00:06:31.040 who stands to gain? You distract people from things that matter. You unravel the things that give them

00:06:38.660 anchors. And who stands to gain? I said when it was over 20 years ago that this was a trend and this

00:06:47.880 was intent. And you look at our colleges now, our public schools, and you can see. So, I was a bit

00:06:55.180 prescient, I'm sad to say. Mm-hmm. It is a mission by some group to destroy the nuclear family. I mean,

00:07:03.900 that was in the stated mission statement of Black Lives Matter until they got some blowback on it and

00:07:09.520 took it off of their website. But there are definitely some far-left groups who don't believe in the

00:07:13.940 nuclear family and want to see it torn down. I think a far-left progressive ideology in general

00:07:19.200 just believes we should, you know, we should have the throuples. I did a story on that when I was at

00:07:23.520 NBC. And they don't believe in, you know, male-female headed families. And they really want to see it

00:07:31.900 torn down. And even, you mentioned the trans thing, like the acceptance of, you know, people who are,

00:07:38.880 they're being told that they're little girls when they're, in fact, little boys. I mean, that's

00:07:42.380 actually happening. It happened at my son's school, which is one of the reasons we pulled them.

00:07:45.920 But even in the news this week, we've been talking about Demi Lovato, who last year declared that

00:07:52.160 she was not a she, she was a they. And now this year, this week, just declared she's back to she,

00:07:58.880 because she's really feeling her feminine energy. And all of it's part of the same problem,

00:08:02.940 which is a gross extension from what we used to consider norms and just stable, stable behavior.

00:08:09.740 That's correct. Stability is it. The more you can unstable the family and society, then the more,

00:08:16.960 the more it can, the easier it can be totally taken over.

00:08:24.860 I mean, everybody acts like, you know, this hasn't happened in history, and it's not happening in any

00:08:29.740 other part of the world. I mean, please. Come on. What do you think everybody wants to ignore it? And I'm

00:08:35.820 75 and a half. So I'm going to live 25 more years. So unfortunately, I'm going to see more of this.

00:08:41.980 Well, God willing, and I hope that's right. You've been taking good enough care of yourself,

00:08:45.260 that it's actually realistic. What do you think the end goal is, though? I mean, I wonder about it

00:08:51.260 sometimes. Like, who is sitting where making these decisions? It's not some centralized power. It's more

00:08:56.960 diffused than that. But what do you think Soros is about? What do you think Soros is about?

00:09:03.320 Yeah. I mean, he wants violent criminals on the streets and for people who are victimized by that

00:09:11.780 to shut up and go away. What is that about? I mean, I want I'm going to sound silly now. What about

00:09:19.800 the movies where they sort of train people to be evil? That way, they can keep a lid on the good

00:09:24.880 people? That way, they dominate. That way, they control. We're getting into politics and stuff. And

00:09:31.840 you know, I'm not sure everybody wants to hear us talk about that. But I know I see a definite trend

00:09:37.180 to tyranny. I just feel it in our culture in a way that's unavoidable. You know, I see these messages

00:09:42.960 being spoon fed to my kids on the magazine racks in the stores, in their actual classrooms. And,

00:09:50.580 you know, their biggest role models, I know I've heard you say this, are us, the parents. So I have

00:09:56.760 stock in the fact that if I live a, you know, a good life, if I provide a good example, my husband,

00:10:03.040 too, they'll be fine. And so far, they seem fine. But they are surrounded by very unwell people in the

00:10:11.040 public arena. And it's exhausting trying to tell them, no, it's not really a good idea to show your

00:10:16.940 genitals at the Super Bowl halftime show, no matter what. Everybody is doing it. It's on TV. It must be

00:10:22.720 right. It must be OK. You're a fuddy daddy. Right. And I, of course, you know, I don't care.

00:10:28.940 I'm more like they always try that. My daughter really wanted her ears pierced before she turned

00:10:31.980 12. No, she wanted a phone. No, I'm the last one. I don't care. You know, but you do have to be

00:10:38.280 hard line. Yes, you have to actually be a responsible parent. And frankly, Megan, I'm

00:10:43.880 seeing less and less and less of that. I ask people who have 20 something year old snowflakes

00:10:49.540 can't function by themselves at all, have to be totally financially in every other way supported

00:10:54.800 and never have consequences and to their actions and never have to deal with failure. And I ask them,

00:11:01.500 would your grandparents have done any of this? And they all say, well, no. Well, then why are you doing

00:11:06.520 it? And it's this blank stare that you get over the radio. Blank stare. I can feel it's a blankness

00:11:13.780 that comes over the face. But you're doing it in spite of the fact you know it is not

00:11:17.800 in your kid's best interest, which means you're intentionally being a bad parent.

00:11:22.300 What's the gain? Well, the gain is less stress, less confrontation, more I'm just liked,

00:11:28.740 more peace in my life. I get to feel like a hero. I can be connected to my kid in a way I'm not

00:11:35.000 connected to a spouse or friends or my own parents. So there are a lot of untoward reasons

00:11:39.740 for it. I have a question for you on this front. So just to remind the audience, I have three kids

00:11:46.340 and you, a 12 year old boy, an 11 year old girl and a now nine year old boy. And my 11 year old

00:11:52.240 daughter is mature beyond her 11 years. You know, she's more like an early teenager. She looks like

00:11:59.000 an early teenager and she acts like an early teenager and she's awesome. But there are moments

00:12:03.900 there are moments, Dr. Laura, where I'm getting I'm getting the sass, I'm getting the talk back,

00:12:09.860 I'm getting the inappropriate tone and I'm getting the defiance, you know, of like, well, I won't.

00:12:16.520 And it's, you know, something she's committed to doing, you know, showing up at like a sailing

00:12:20.260 race or what have you. I know you're a sailor. She's an aspiring sailor. And I say, well, you have

00:12:24.160 that. You said you'd be there. Well, I'm not doing it. And I've been asking myself for the

00:12:29.160 first time. Now, what? Because it's a power showdown. I don't know what to do. What's my

00:12:35.860 next move? Well, give me one. Give me one example. Describe it as best you can, as though you were

00:12:41.920 giving me a video. And let me recommend what you might say at that moment. OK, so she said

00:12:47.580 there's a regatta tomorrow. Yes. And we signed you up because you said you wanted to do it.

00:12:52.980 I don't want to do it. Well, you said you'd do it and you're doing it. I'm not going. You are going

00:12:59.840 because you said you wanted to do it. We signed you up and we paid. You can't make me. And then,

00:13:05.560 OK, I confess, I think I went wrong here. You can stop. No, you went wrong already. So don't worry

00:13:10.300 about the rest of it. You. OK, I don't know your daughter, but I can hear your daughter. OK,

00:13:20.680 so here's how you handle that. The first thing you do is laugh. And you must laugh because it

00:13:26.940 does two things. It takes the power back from her. She has the power when you're struggling.

00:13:32.920 Yes, you will. Yes, you will. And I, you know, I signed it up. You said you wanted to do it.

00:13:38.360 The minute you do that, they have the power because no wins. Try to put food in infant's mouth. No

00:13:44.260 wins. So what do you do? You tickle them. You laugh. You do all kinds of cool things and they

00:13:49.420 relax. And then they're enjoying the moment with you. So here's what I would have recommended at

00:13:55.220 that moment. So what sandwiches do you want me to bring tomorrow? Do you want me to do your hair

00:14:02.000 before we go? Stuff like that. I'm not going. No, she wouldn't need a sandwich. You would have

00:14:09.920 confused her. Confusion is a very powerful therapeutic tool. When you confuse somebody

00:14:16.880 by not behaving at all the way they were anticipating, she's anticipating an arm wrestle

00:14:22.560 and you gave her an arm wrestle. But if you gave her the giggles and you kissed her and said,

00:14:28.600 I can't wait, it's going to be so much fun. By the way, what kind of sandwich? And you walk out

00:14:32.420 of the room and she's left to herself thinking, I, yeah. So confusion and cuteness, hug, kiss on the

00:14:43.120 cheek. You want to put your hair up tomorrow? It's going to be windy. And, but you escape from the room

00:14:48.720 and it's just a complete, it's going to happen. If you give her an opportunity to say no, you lost.

00:14:55.780 Now, if you're a hardliner type, you can say, so you don't want to go because, and what do you have

00:15:05.120 planned to do instead? Well, I'm going to, yeah, I don't think so. No. No. And when your phone is

00:15:16.660 gone for two months, are you going to learn smoke signals? So in other words, you're sort of being

00:15:23.520 sarcastically cute, but you're not arguing. You're just saying, well, what are you going to do

00:15:28.080 without your phone for two months? How is that going to work out for you? And not being able to

00:15:32.440 see your friends for a month and a half. Well, how is that going to work for you? But you don't have

00:15:37.300 to go tomorrow. It's okay. But just, you know, let me know how are you going to handle the next two

00:15:41.780 months? I'm kind of curious. So that is another technique. That's another technique.

00:15:46.960 I wound up going with, I'm embarrassed to confess where it went, but I was like, she said, I can't

00:15:54.160 make you. I said, oh, or you can't make me. I said, oh, I can, I can. You can, you can not have

00:15:58.860 another sleepover this summer. You cannot see this. You can not do this. And you, she of course was

00:16:03.700 like, fine, fine, fine, fine. Because you did it in an argumentative way. But if the way I did it is,

00:16:11.940 so what are you going to be doing for the two months that you won't have on the phone? I'm just,

00:16:15.960 just curious. How are you going to, so you think you'll make phone calls on the house phone?

00:16:21.560 So you're just inquiring. You're not going to war. Everything you did was going to war. You have

00:16:29.040 to avoid that because you cannot win war with an adolescent or a teenager. You can't win the war.

00:16:34.000 Right. So the first thing you have to do is, like, you don't care, laugh a lot, smile, give her hugs

00:16:41.260 and kisses. It'll confuse the hell out of her. I got there eventually. I did go back. We separated.

00:16:49.480 I went back into her bathroom when she was doing her hair. And I said, I'm sorry. I said, I'm not

00:16:55.000 going to take those things away from you. If you don't want to go to the regatta tomorrow, you don't

00:16:57.740 have to. And she said, I'll go. What time is it? And, you know, we left it on a good note.

00:17:02.180 You didn't win that. No, I did not win. No, you did not win that. She bequeathed it to you. She

00:17:08.800 never had any intention of not going. It's getting more complicated. It was easier when

00:17:16.780 they were toddlers. Now that they're closer to, you know, thinking, really smart, interactive

00:17:24.040 human beings, I'm on my heels a lot more, you know. And one of the here's another issue

00:17:29.500 I wanted to ask you about. One of the issue is their friends. Right. Most of their friends

00:17:35.480 I absolutely adore one or two. I don't know. And they're fine unless I hear that they're

00:17:41.360 treating my child badly and that I know you're a mother. When you find out that the friend

00:17:46.100 has treated your child badly, your back gets up and you think maybe this isn't a nice kid.

00:17:51.500 And then my other side says, stay out of it. It's not your friend. It's their friend.

00:17:57.620 But what do you, how do you navigate that when your child's friends are nasty to them?

00:18:06.600 Nasty consistently or have ratty moments?

00:18:10.320 Have bratty moments. Yeah. Say, you know, you and I have bratty moments. Come on. Not with

00:18:15.640 each other. But everybody has bratty moments. So your daughter has bratty moments. You just

00:18:22.420 told me of some. So bratty moments happen. If it's a pattern, then you get concerned. If

00:18:29.880 there's a bratty moment, ignore it. But what do you do when you're trying to raise your child

00:18:37.320 to understand they do need to self-respect? You know, they need to if it becomes a pattern

00:18:42.960 because you don't know it's a pattern until a lot of time has passed and you have a bunch

00:18:46.360 of examples. You know, I want them to remember to stand up for themselves, to it's not OK to

00:18:51.580 be with somebody repeatedly who is constantly putting you down. And yet I also don't know

00:18:56.380 that I should even be getting involved. You know, it's like they're young, so they deem

00:18:59.180 me to be involved. Well, it's not older. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. If I may say it

00:19:03.260 has nothing to do with going in between and moderating it. What it has to do with part of

00:19:09.160 parenting is teaching. The major part of parenting is teaching children how to cope with life, their

00:19:14.200 feelings, other people, morals, values, principles and ethics. That's your job. So if you see that

00:19:19.820 there's a pattern of taking poop, then you have to sit and say, you know, I noticed that

00:19:23.760 Mary does this, this, this and this and this and this. And you embrace her in your life

00:19:28.340 anyway. I guess you're very compassionate and giving her all these choices and opportunities.

00:19:35.060 And so you're giving her sort of a semi compliment, but she doesn't understand it's not a compliment.

00:19:40.020 And I was wondering what makes you hold on. So instead of saying this person's bad, dump

00:19:46.200 them, you're, you're asking questions to understand her way of thinking and feeling.

00:19:50.220 Well, if I'm, if I, she'll say bad things about me and then nobody will be my friend.

00:19:55.080 These days, that's a real concern because you have the net. In the old days, when I was a kid,

00:20:01.120 people actually just had to talk to each other, but they couldn't accumulate too many bodies that way.

00:20:06.100 So you, you inquire, your, your role is to teach her how to think and to respond to things that are

00:20:15.060 upsetting or bad in a brave, but rational way. Sorry. Rational way.

00:20:21.580 Mm-hmm. I know. I like that. It's like, what do you, what are your thoughts in general on the

00:20:29.260 difference of parenting at this age? You know, these tender ages versus 18, 20, and 22, right?

00:20:36.480 At some point. Well, 18, 20, and 22, you drop, kick them out of your house and then all their

00:20:41.260 decisions and the consequences are theirs. So you're free at last. But when they're this young,

00:20:47.220 they don't know who the hell they are. That's the main problem. I feel, you know, I'm menstruating.

00:20:52.540 Therefore, I'm a grownup. And if it's a girl, it's always not menstruating in spite of what

00:20:57.200 they teach in school. So, you know, so their hormones are up and down. Their identities are

00:21:04.500 not formed. They want to be accepted as the number one thing with their peer group. They want to be

00:21:10.040 accepted, which means holding onto morals, values, and principles, and ethics thwarts being accepted

00:21:16.120 in certain areas at certain times with certain people. And it's crazy making. In addition, your

00:21:20.520 parents have notes in their brain as to what they want you to do. They give you rules and

00:21:27.980 expectations. You have family life and you want to be involved in family life. But on the other hand,

00:21:32.500 you want to be with your peers. I mean, it's the craziest time. Do you ever want to go back to be that

00:21:37.340 age? Hell no. Hell no, baby. Hell no. So that's why you have to be patient and understanding,

00:21:44.640 have a strong line with a lot of compassion. Yeah. My daughter and my little guy had an argument

00:21:51.760 and she got out of the car and I was still in the car with him. And he said, you know,

00:21:56.700 she makes me so mad sometimes. I said, I understand. I said, you know, part of it is she's in puberty

00:22:02.200 and she's got these hormones and she's kind of going crazy at times. And you'll go through it too a

00:22:06.980 little bit. Later on that day, they made up and she said, Thatcher, I'm sorry. I was mean in the car.

00:22:13.460 And he said, I'm sorry, too. It's not your fault. It's your hormones.

00:22:18.940 And he'll be saying that to his woman for the rest of his life.

00:22:26.760 Early training, baby. All right. I got another one I want to run by you.

00:22:30.880 And that is politics and owning them in 2022 America, in one's friendships, in one's life.

00:22:39.360 Now, I have an intern sitting here on the couch next to me named Gwendolyn. And Gwendolyn is right

00:22:45.280 leaning and has had to navigate a school system that is far left her entire life and is now off

00:22:52.160 to college where it will be far left and they will try to indoctrinate her into far left thinking.

00:22:56.360 And my observations of her have been she's always done it rather deftly. She's she doesn't hide the

00:23:03.460 fact that she's right leaning and she's unlike most of her peers, but she has taken a fair amount

00:23:07.900 of abuse because of it. And I get emails from listeners and viewers all the time saying, you

00:23:13.180 know, how do I befriend people who don't share my politics? How do I get along with superiors,

00:23:19.380 whether it's a teacher or a boss who whose politics are very different than mine when my

00:23:25.360 politics might be out there? They might be out there on Facebook or Insta, what what have you?

00:23:29.380 It's a tricky situation, especially now we're so divided.

00:23:33.580 Well, you put a lot of things on my list here. I hope my brain can remember them one by one. First

00:23:38.340 of all, don't be putting your stuff on the net. That's just stupid and asking for problems. There's

00:23:42.200 no reason for you to be on the net explaining what you feel and think about anything political. Who

00:23:48.420 cares? It doesn't change the world. If you want to be elected to something and try to make things

00:23:53.340 happen in a different way. If you want to be an activist out there trying to educate and inform,

00:23:58.060 I get that. But just this idol putting stuff on Facebook to me is just useless and absurd. And it

00:24:04.120 opens you up to problems. Number two, I race a sailboat and I have a crew, seven, eight guys. I am sure

00:24:12.840 from certain little tiny things, we all have different politics. One time, one time in all the almost 10

00:24:21.380 years, we've been together. One time, somebody started to make a comment. And I said, nope,

00:24:28.240 no politics on this boat ever, ever stops right now. I'm a skipper. That was it. It stopped.

00:24:36.540 We get along great. Why? Because we don't have any maniac on the boat who thinks his or her

00:24:43.920 opinion is the be in and end all of how everybody should think, feel and do. And as long as you're

00:24:50.660 not trying to impose on other people, everybody's going to get along that has a different point of

00:24:55.460 view. Not so in public schools, not so in colleges and universities, very dangerous places, because

00:25:02.180 you have to shut up. If you don't shut up, you're going to be bullied and you're probably not going

00:25:06.740 to get good grades. This is an insane situation. So when people are okay in families, for example,

00:25:14.580 families, somebody at the dinner table, well, I just can't understand why you think that that's it.

00:25:18.900 It's over for that family. Sorry. But if everybody can just eat their dinner and talk about other

00:25:23.720 things and even go into those areas. And I always tell people to say, that's very interesting. I'll

00:25:29.480 give that some thought. That usually shuts the other person up because, oh, you're going to give

00:25:34.880 it some thought. You're not arguing. So I give people tools to handle that within the family. But in

00:25:39.800 the university, in the public schools, I, every day for 20 years, I've been begging people to take

00:25:45.820 their kids out of public school and either homeschool them or find private schools that

00:25:50.640 actually educate, not doctrinate. Yeah. Yeah. I have to say, I do the same myself. I have tons of

00:25:58.360 friends whose politics are diametrically opposed to my own. And people ask me all the time, how do you

00:26:04.260 maintain those friendships? And my answer is the same. We don't talk about politics. Right. We have lots

00:26:08.820 of other things we can talk about. Right. And I'm not about to lose a good friendship knowing that

00:26:14.080 they think this way or that way, because how they think doesn't change the world. How one person,

00:26:20.580 you know, I don't care. Yeah. Yeah. There are so many more important things you can talk about. And

00:26:26.260 it's one of the reasons why I like I like having people who have different politics in my own life,

00:26:31.600 because when I cover the news, it reminds me not to demonize everyone on the other side because I'd

00:26:38.420 be demonizing my friends. You know, they're not all awful people. Some of them are. Some of them

00:26:42.640 aren't. But it's just a good reminder that, you know, it's the politics with which you have an issue.

00:26:47.080 It's not necessarily the humans who support them. Right.

00:26:52.040 Okay. So now you are still sailing. That's great. I love that. Racing. Yeah. Racing. I hear you talking

00:27:00.100 about it. And you are also doing something else that I want to spend some time on. So tell me about

00:27:06.020 the resin jewelry and who this is helping, because it's it's awesome. Well, I just started working in

00:27:14.100 making resin foundation jewelry with embedded flowers and other inclusions, you know, to make them very

00:27:20.680 elegant. And I used to do glass fusing work, knitting, putting together jewelry and necklaces and

00:27:32.420 earrings and bracelets that had to do with semi-precious stones. I've sort of moved from

00:27:37.700 thing to thing. And lately I'm into the resin because people think of it as kind of a hobby

00:27:41.940 thing. But it's it. I mean, it's that, too. But you can also do it on a very complex that I've been

00:27:47.700 learning level, which is frustrating because it's a big learning curve. That's okay. I'll be

00:27:52.560 perseverant. And I do this all to have three or four boutiques a year through my radio program to

00:27:59.800 raise funds for the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation. And the kids who are in families,

00:28:06.280 the Gold Star families, where a parent has died in the line of duty, they're going to have a hard time

00:28:11.560 with educational funds. So that's what we help. So 100% of the sale price. So there, I think there

00:28:17.580 were five or six adorable pieces left. We started Monday at 66 pieces. And it's drlauradesigns.com.

00:28:26.780 If you don't wish to purchase a particular bracelets are left, there's some bracelets left,

00:28:31.380 all the necklaces went. And you can just go to fallenpatriots.org and just donate. And you don't

00:28:41.700 have to buy a bracelet from me. It's okay.

00:28:46.560 Well, you've got to make more in all your spare time. That's in between the racing and the show

00:28:52.060 and the working out. You've got to make more. We need America wants it. It's absolutely beautiful.

00:28:58.040 The pieces are absolutely gorgeous. I went and looked myself before we came on the air. So it's

00:29:02.720 good. You can get something for yourself where 100% of the sales proceeds go to help a child in

00:29:07.800 need from a Gold Star family, or just donate as Dr. Laura points out. And can you just give us the

00:29:12.340 website one more time so people know? Drlauradesigns.com. And we have the link to

00:29:19.160 Fallen Patriots on the website. By the way, if you looked at everything, I'd like to make you something.

00:29:25.120 Oh, what particular thing caught your fancy?

00:29:29.460 Well, I love the bracelets. And I'm not just saying that because you have them left over.

00:29:33.840 But I love the bracelets and any color.

00:29:37.300 Oh, any color. All right. Yeah. I'll make you something nice.

00:29:40.480 I would love that. Thank you so much. And thanks for taking care of the Gold Star families. That is a

00:29:45.340 that is a cause that we can all get behind. Doesn't matter what your politics are.

00:29:48.600 That's correct. People are hurting. And we move on too quickly. Once they are left without a parent,

00:29:54.440 we spend a day saying we're sorry. And then we forget to think, you know, and do something about

00:30:00.380 it. All right. So listen, there's something I want to do with you next. And I don't even know if my

00:30:04.980 team told you this, but I have a very dear friend. She is well known. Her name is Melissa Francis.

00:30:11.140 And she was Melissa Francis. Isn't that Little House on the Prairie?

00:30:16.600 Yes, exactly. She was brought in as the next wave of Ingalls children when the first round aged out

00:30:24.840 and she and Jason Bateman acted together as Charles and Carolyn's new adopted children.

00:30:30.440 So then she went on. She was very successful child actress. She went to Harvard. She got an econ

00:30:35.780 degree. She went on to be on CNBC for a time and then came over to Fox Business, which is where I

00:30:41.680 met her when I was on Fox News Channel. We became very good friends and still are. Oh,

00:30:45.480 and she listens to this show and she listens to your show. And she asked me, she said, the next time

00:30:52.560 Dr. Laura comes on, may I please call in because I have something I need to tell her. And it's an

00:31:00.120 amazing it's an amazing thing that I know you're going to want to hear. So that's a tease. We'll take a

00:31:05.240 quick break and we'll be back with Dr. Laura and Melissa Francis.

00:31:15.220 Joining us now by phone is another dear friend of mine, Melissa Francis, who I mentioned before the

00:31:19.880 break. And Melissa, in addition to being a great broadcaster, a great actor, wickedly funny,

00:31:26.560 is also an incredible mother. And I've seen that myself. She has three children. She has a happy

00:31:31.740 marriage. But it wasn't always thus in her family of origin. She had a mother who was not quite as

00:31:40.680 great as Melissa, to put it mildly. And it's amazing that Melissa managed to break this cycle.

00:31:46.000 I mean, it's not easy to break the cycle when you when you come from a parent like Melissa did.

00:31:50.520 And the reason I know all this is not just our friendship, but she wrote a book years ago called

00:31:54.040 Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter. So I read the book. I know Melissa well. And she asked me next

00:32:00.140 time I had Dr. Laura on if she could come on and talk to her just a little bit about her own background

00:32:05.140 and Dr. Laura's surprise role in Melissa's life. Melissa, thank you so much for calling in lady. How

00:32:11.580 are you? Oh, my goodness. I'm so nervous. I've never been this nervous. I love Dr. Laura. This is

00:32:18.000 so exciting. I'm just going to fangirl out on you right here. Two of the most impressive ladies

00:32:25.420 on the planet. First of all, I heard the top of the show. I couldn't wait to get in.

00:32:30.380 Megan's children are perfect. By the way, recently, my husband and I were over at her house,

00:32:34.940 and they were sitting in the dining room, the three of them by themselves eating vegetables and grilled

00:32:41.260 chicken, talking politely with napkins in their lap having dinner. And my husband and I have not stopped

00:32:48.000 talking about it because we were so horrified for what it looks like inside our own house

00:32:52.440 that we were like, well, now Megan and Doug can never see our children again. So that's too bad.

00:32:57.920 When I hear her talking, telling this story, I'm just dying laughing because her children are

00:33:03.220 phenomenal specimens of human beings. So anyway, but I'm so excited to talk to you because

00:33:11.100 the first time I listened to your program was about 25 years ago. And before that time,

00:33:18.000 as Megan said, you know, in a nutshell, I was, my mother is a sociopath. And that made growing up

00:33:26.440 really tricky, kind of difficult. There were a lot of challenges along the way. But before I listened

00:33:33.640 to you, it never occurred to me that I could walk away. Never. I never thought, I thought the family

00:33:42.900 that you were born into that. That's it. You know, that's, that's what you got. That's what you got

00:33:47.780 built. And I spent the first, you know, 20 years of my life trying to solve that problem and trying

00:33:56.560 to live within the problem, trying to deal with the problem, trying to understand the problem.

00:34:01.140 It never, ever occurred to me that I could for my own sanity, walk away. And it took a while of

00:34:10.960 listening to you to get the courage together to do it the right way. You know, to say in my sister,

00:34:16.400 anyone who's read my book, as Megan said, you know, knows the story, but it wasn't until my sister was

00:34:22.280 greatly ill, you know, that I really realized I could physically see the damage that she had done.

00:34:29.020 I mean, I should have seen it sooner, but it was at this point in life that I could see it

00:34:32.920 and was able to say, you know, we could start fresh, but we're not continuing like this at all.

00:34:42.320 You know, this, all of these things have to change. You need to get help. Like you need help.

00:34:48.220 Of course, she wasn't willing to. Of course, I knew that was going to be what she was going to say.

00:34:53.180 But, you know, I wanted to be clear that I wasn't going to go on and continue to let her create

00:35:02.480 Mishigas in my life without getting help for herself. If I hadn't listened to you and I hadn't

00:35:09.240 gotten that courage together, I never would have had children. I know that I never had any intention

00:35:14.920 of getting married or having children. And, you know, I met my husband first. And that's when I

00:35:20.820 started listening to you because I thought I need, I know what not to do. Now there's an entire

00:35:27.800 spectrum of choices out there. How in the world am I ever going to figure out what to do?

00:35:34.480 And, you know, some people take issue with your approach. And if you have a brain in your head,

00:35:40.140 you understand that what you're doing is laying down a way of thinking, you know, and if you listen

00:35:46.720 to you consistently over a period of time, you get the gist of the idea of, you know, living to a

00:35:53.680 certain moral standard yourself and holding people in your life to that. And also when you just don't

00:35:59.100 need to go around fixing other people's problems. In any case, that's a very long way of saying,

00:36:04.400 you know, that the therapist that I have now said, I don't know how you and your husband

00:36:10.480 managed to create such a loving family. He's, you know, met my children. And he said, I just,

00:36:17.940 I don't know. He's like, someday you're going to have to tell me how you, how you were able to figure

00:36:21.940 it out. And it started with you. It started with you. You know, I just said, this is over now.

00:36:29.760 I'm not going to carry this. And it's been a long journey, but I have a wonderful husband who I've

00:36:36.320 been married to for 25 years and almost, we're a little shy of that. But I always tease him about

00:36:43.740 not knowing for sure what year our anniversary is. And then I just did it. But we've, we've been

00:36:48.240 together for 25 years. We've been married for 23 years. And, you know, of course it all started with

00:36:55.020 that. And then even beyond that, just, you know, taking it one day at a time and listening to your

00:37:00.700 show, but it started with the idea, which I had never considered, which was that I don't have to

00:37:07.480 put up with this for my whole entire life. And now it sounds silly, but without you, I never would

00:37:13.180 have thought of it. So thank you. Oh, bless you. And you're very welcome. And it's, you know, you can

00:37:19.140 put an idea out there, but it takes a lot of courage on the other side, your side to wrap yourself in it

00:37:25.240 and move forward. As you said, I know now what not to do. What the heck do I do? So it takes a lot of

00:37:31.680 guts and a lot of perseverance and a lot of heart to make the transition you made. I'm very impressed

00:37:37.480 with you. And just jumping in, if you read Melissa's book, you'll know, I mean, she had a toxic

00:37:45.460 mother. She had a mother who was physically abusive, emotionally abusive to Melissa's sister,

00:37:50.380 to Melissa, who stole from her and so on. Okay, Megan, please, I'm going to have to correct

00:37:54.880 you. Toxic refers to chemicals. Her mother was a bitch. Okay. Psycho bitch. You know, that's my

00:38:02.820 diagnosis. And all this toxic, that's, that's about chemicals. So I'm going to read Melissa's book.

00:38:10.460 I'm sorry, I hadn't up to this point, but I I'm going to get it as soon as we hang up.

00:38:14.480 So I'm going to go get it. Well, let me can I please send you my own copy, because I'm so honored

00:38:21.660 to have you read it and look at it or whatever. But I think that it's I would love to send that to

00:38:29.360 you. And I have been begging Megan to come on. Because I wanted to know and I loved your advice

00:38:35.180 also about the kids because my husband does that all the time, where he will start laughing to diffuse

00:38:40.700 the situation. And he has taught our kids to do that when somebody tries to tease them to bully

00:38:48.440 them. And it's amazing that the other side just becomes completely confused, just like you said.

00:38:53.980 So I knew he was brilliant. But to hear it confirmed by you is just amazing. And I have so much fun

00:39:02.220 listening to you. And you're just the perfect person to have on next to Megan, because you guys are both

00:39:06.720 brilliant, strong, powerful women. Yeah, we are. Now we've got these kids right where we want to,

00:39:14.260 Melissa. We are new skills. They are not going to stand a chance. But wait, just to round back,

00:39:21.260 because I want to say this. It's I I pulled your book up, Melissa, because this is really important.

00:39:27.380 And Dr. Laura, you've talked openly about, you know, separating from your own mother, who also was a

00:39:32.620 bitch. And yes, thank you. It's not easy. It's not easy for a lot of people. When it's family, you

00:39:38.480 think you can't you think you shouldn't you think you'll regret. And in Melissa's book, she talks

00:39:42.720 about how she saw the effects that the abuse was happening on her sister. And then her sister,

00:39:48.280 Tiffany, died. And you remembered you write in the book about how you remembered your sister,

00:39:53.040 Tiffany, saying it would be so nice to have a mom. And you write, I closed the door on my mother

00:40:00.500 forever. She had never called. She had never returned the money she took from you,

00:40:04.320 never opened her heart to the daughter who needed her. There was nothing to forgive and nothing to

00:40:08.140 salvage. Our bond was just wiped away, gone. I told my dad that I would take care of telling mom,

00:40:14.920 meaning about Tiffany's death. It had been more than a year since I had given her the choice of

00:40:19.080 coming back to help Tiffany or losing us both forever. And she had chosen to throw all of us away.

00:40:23.940 13 months of silence. I wrote her a letter. I sent it to this house where she was,

00:40:28.160 you thought she was staying. I informed her that her oldest daughter was dead. And the window of

00:40:33.320 opportunity with me was now closed forever. She had made her choice. And now she would have to live

00:40:38.780 with it. Her chance to make things right on this earth was gone. This cycle of madness, this pain,

00:40:45.760 it ends with me. Oh, Melissa, my heart. It's hard to hear. I love it. It's hard to hear.

00:40:53.180 But that last line's exactly it. That's exactly it. And that's the why it's so important to do.

00:40:57.580 Yep.

00:41:01.920 It is. And, and, you know, I was, um, I, now, now you're gonna make me feel emotional,

00:41:06.860 negative. It's hard to hear those words. Um, you know, I was afraid to have children, of course.

00:41:12.680 And I was really afraid to have a daughter and, and I do have a daughter now. She's our youngest and

00:41:18.280 she's seven. And it's amazing. It's so much easier than I thought it was going to be.

00:41:22.660 Like all of it has been so much easier if you're honest and open and, um, you know, reach out and

00:41:31.300 ask for help when you need it. And, and what has stuck out to me over time was that all of the,

00:41:36.080 everything that happened didn't have to happen. Um, you know, there was no genetic reason. There was

00:41:41.940 no situational reason. You have so much more control than you think you do. And I think that that is one

00:41:47.420 of actually both of you. I mean, that's, that's something that I think both of you are always

00:41:52.080 driving home to your audiences is that you may feel, and, and it's why you resist the victim

00:41:59.000 movement as well. You may feel like you have no power, you have no control that, that people are

00:42:03.580 doing things to you. And yes, they are, but you don't have to sit there and, and continue to take

00:42:10.140 it, that you can make a different choice, that you can take a different path. And it's never too late

00:42:14.500 to do that. I would say that, you know, I, my mother came and confronted me when I was on my

00:42:19.800 book tour for that book. Um, it was really something cause I, I hadn't seen her for a long

00:42:27.560 time and she came 30 seconds before I went live on the air. I had the governor of California there.

00:42:32.720 I was there for a book tour, book tour. We had security. She had gotten past security,

00:42:37.480 telling the security she was my mother. Meanwhile, we had told the security when we set up the show,

00:42:42.160 the only person we were trying to make sure didn't come in was my mother. So there you go. You can do

00:42:47.920 anything. Um, and I was, I was, you know, it was, um, what happened traumatic. She, she just came up

00:42:58.320 and, and she said, uh, she grabbed me by the arm and, um, you know, said, I, I do love you. Um, cause that

00:43:07.220 was one of the things that I said in the book and just the way she grabbed me, you know, you go right

00:43:13.440 back to that place of physical abuse. And, um, I just stood up. I said, what do you want me to do

00:43:21.080 with that? And I, I stood up and I walked to the set and I sat down and I really had been about 15

00:43:27.440 seconds. And, uh, luckily the producer that was with me had never seen her, didn't know who she was,

00:43:32.840 but instantly knew what the heck was going on. My wonderful producer, Jill Frangie, you know,

00:43:37.840 we all have those people in our lives who just know, and, you know, she got security and I did

00:43:44.300 a whole hour live show, you know, 15 seconds after that. And then that was that I never heard from her

00:43:49.660 again. And recently someone called me from California and, and was crying and said that

00:43:55.060 she has moved on. And she apparently, this is according to this woman that she, you know,

00:43:59.620 moved in with someone else and then he died in suspicious circumstances. Um, and, and, you know,

00:44:06.060 she was really devastated and, you know, she said she wants justice. And I said, I, you know, I did

00:44:11.820 everything I could. I wrote a book. I went on national, I went on the today show everywhere telling

00:44:17.760 people to be aware of this person. There's only, you know, you can't, you can't, you really can't

00:44:24.040 stop people. You can, you know, but it's so, it's so rare. And in both of your cases, Melissa and

00:44:30.340 yours, Dr. Laura, you managed to, you did stop the cycle. Mine was not anything close to hers.

00:44:36.240 Yeah. Yeah. Mine was before kindergarten compared to her and postgraduate school with that.

00:44:42.040 Mm-hmm. Well, listen, I'm so glad that we had this moment, this healing moment, this moment of

00:44:47.760 gratitude. I've been listening to Melissa talk about her love for you and me as well, Dr. Laura, for a long

00:44:53.220 time now. I'm glad that we made that happen. Melissa, thank you for calling in. Me too. I'm

00:44:57.300 so grateful. Thank you. And, and Dr. Laura, I'm going to send you the book and I'm going to write

00:45:01.500 something funny in it because I'm normally funny. This is not okay. She is very funny.

00:45:05.580 My normal, very serious self. Add a family picture for me, okay? I will. I will. I will.

00:45:11.960 Absolutely. Thank you so much. My love you both. Thank you. To be continued, lady. Now, Dr. Laura,

00:45:16.560 don't go away. One, I have to tell you, um, I want to ask you because you're still going strong.

00:45:21.160 You're still racing. You're still doing the jewelry. You're doing the show. How are you?

00:45:25.900 How's everything? Great. It is. It sounds great. But I always want to check because, you know,

00:45:31.240 I, I, I care about you and I want to make sure you're doing well and, and just, I think I speak

00:45:36.360 on behalf of your fans. Thank you. I have a few complaints. I want to be five, five, so I don't

00:45:40.660 have to hem anything. You know, things like that. That's about the height of my misery.

00:45:44.900 That's pretty good. Right? Now, is there any time you're coming to the East Coast? Because

00:45:51.760 I would love to see you in person. Never. I escaped that.

00:45:55.900 Oh, damn. So I'm going to have to come to California.

00:45:59.540 I live where it's summer, spring all year long. That's where I belong. I used to like to come

00:46:03.420 to New York once, once a year to go to Sirius XM, to go to the theater, to have tons of food

00:46:11.360 and go shopping. But it's too dangerous now. And people are getting soccer punched on the

00:46:16.820 streets, shot, run over. The crime is crazy. It's like one of those dystopian New York movies.

00:46:25.460 Yes. I forget. Escape from New York. Yeah, that was it. It's like, that's what it is now. So I'm not

00:46:33.920 going back. I don't blame you. I mean, California's got its own problems, but the crime in New York

00:46:39.920 City is just, it's awful. It's disgraceful. And it's going to take decades to get us back to where

00:46:45.720 we were. Well, you're optimistic, aren't you? Been accused of worse. You're amazing. I love you.

00:46:54.400 Thank you for being here. And please come back soon.

00:46:59.360 Oh, anytime. And don't worry about timing or any of that. I love talking to you.

00:47:03.820 You're the greatest. I listen to your call of the day. You just like go to podcasts. I listen to you.

00:47:08.520 I listen to you when I turn off the show. Like I, I've taken a lot of my life wisdom from you. And

00:47:13.460 for that, I am. And remember, laugh.

00:47:17.000 Laugh.

00:47:17.180 That's discipline. Laugh.

00:47:18.880 Be weird, which I can do.

00:47:20.560 Be weird. Yes.

00:47:22.220 Even better than laugh, be weird.

00:47:24.400 Lots of love to be continued.

00:47:26.060 Lots of love back at you. Thanks for having me.

00:47:28.160 The FBI is in the hot seat today following whistleblower allegations that biased agents

00:47:38.940 actively worked to discredit and cover up negative information about Hunter Biden.

00:47:44.720 Ken LaCourte is a former Fox News executive and host of Ken LaCourte Big Pod, which you can find

00:47:51.100 on YouTube and your favorite podcast platforms. Ken, it's so nice to have you here. How are you?

00:47:56.380 Oh, Megan. Thank you. I am good. And we haven't spoken for years. And I'm, I'm happy we are.

00:48:02.000 I know. We go back a long way, though. I mean, when, what years were you at Fox in total? Obviously,

00:48:06.380 we had a lot of crossover, but what were your years?

00:48:08.060 I was there from like the beginning of 99 through, uh, through the Trump election. So I remember you

00:48:13.880 and I would talk occasionally, not as much after you got your show, but, but more so when you were

00:48:18.140 a reporter down in, down in DC. Yeah, yeah, of course. And you were legendary within the halls of

00:48:23.280 Fox News and everybody who works at Fox knows Ken LaCourte. So it's great to have you on now. Now

00:48:27.860 you're out on your own. You have your own independent media gig going. Uh, and I read that John

00:48:32.640 Moody is involved in it too. Are you, are you and Moody together? He, he, he was, and, and I just

00:48:37.740 talked to him, uh, last week and he said to say hello. Um, you know, look, when I left Fox, I saw

00:48:43.680 that what was happening to the media, it was getting ripped apart. And I actually tried to do something

00:48:47.580 that was fair and balanced and, and I got wiped out, lost a ton of money. And, and that didn't work

00:48:52.800 at all. It was a, it was a combination of, it's really, really hard to, to have news that doesn't

00:48:59.020 say, Oh, this side is evil and this side is wonderful. You know, that stuff doesn't get

00:49:04.480 shared on social media. And they still painted me as a right wing crazy person and, uh, and banned

00:49:09.380 me from Facebook and did all that fun stuff. So, so now I'm, I'm concentrating on, on a podcast

00:49:13.940 because I actually think that this long format, this long format conversations is the best thing

00:49:20.080 to have come out of the internet news wise. I mean, the internet, I think helped drive everyone to

00:49:24.740 the extremes, but this is a way that you don't have to do that. I mean, and Joe Rogan, I think

00:49:29.600 is like a perfect example of that. And he was the first guy that I saw was like, I don't know if he's

00:49:34.200 a Republican or a Democrat. He seems to be telling the truth and he's just talking and he admits when

00:49:38.160 he doesn't know things and he's, he's grabbed an audience now, sometimes bigger than Fox or MSNBC

00:49:43.460 on his shows. Yeah. So I, I think, I don't know what Joe is. My guess is he's a non woke

00:49:49.720 center lefty. That's my guess just based on, you know, what I get shoved more to the right

00:49:55.620 every time they attack him for a wrong thing. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's the thing. It's like,

00:49:59.880 what does it mean? You know, back 10 years ago, I used to say, well, I, maybe I'm more socially

00:50:03.340 liberal on some of this. I wouldn't say that about myself now. I don't, I don't even know what that

00:50:07.780 is like the, or the center of gravity is moved beneath us. Right. Cause back then being socially

00:50:12.260 liberal, let meant let gay guys kiss each other. I don't care or, or do this. Now it means

00:50:17.780 use this exact language or you're worse than Hitler. I mean, the center has changed. And I

00:50:24.040 think there's a whole lot of people who thought they were on the left and are now like, that's

00:50:29.040 kind of weird. I'm voting for people I wouldn't have liked five years ago. Yeah. And now they're

00:50:33.100 actually registered Republicans and you know, they're, they're coming to grips with what that

00:50:36.700 means or they actually voted for Trump last time around. Right. Um, so let's talk politics for a

00:50:40.860 minute. Cause then I want to get into news cause there's a lot I want to pick your brain on in our,

00:50:44.060 in our business. Um, the Hunter Biden thing. So you, you had some sort of a connection to the

00:50:49.140 laptop. I think you were like one of the first people to actually be willing to report on it is

00:50:53.280 my understanding, even though everybody was saying disinformation, but you tell me.

00:50:58.480 So I kind of had a bit role in that. Um, so, so the guy who owned that, that Delaware,

00:51:04.640 that Delaware computer repair shop, guy named John Paul McIsaac,

00:51:08.060 the legally blind guy, but yes, the legally blind guy, kind of an odd duck. He'd wear his

00:51:13.760 tamashanter and he, you know, he just kind of, he was an interesting guy. Well, he had like a year

00:51:20.080 earlier, given this to the FBI. He first had his dad do it cause his dad had some government

00:51:24.620 connections out in Arizona. Then he had the FBI show up. They took the laptop. They gave him a receipt

00:51:30.700 for the laptop, which, which, which he kept, um, during that time or prior to that time that he gave

00:51:35.340 it to the FBI, he looked on it. And when he looked on it, he not only saw all of, you know,

00:51:39.880 cause he legally owned it at that point when, when Hunter dropped it off and then, and then never came

00:51:44.280 back, which wasn't the first time he'd lost a Mac laptop. It was kind of ironic and, or whatever word

00:51:50.600 that would be. And so this guy waited and waited to have something happen. Nothing happened for a

00:51:56.820 long time. So he eventually called up Rudy's people, Rudy Giuliani, and, and gave it them a copy of

00:52:03.100 it. And then still a month or so had gone by. They said that they were going to shop it out,

00:52:07.520 uh, to, to various publications. And the guy found himself like three or four weeks before the

00:52:11.320 election. He's like, nobody's getting back to me and nothing's going on what's going on. So

00:52:15.340 through a bizarre connection, uh, the former, a former weather and helicopter reporter from Los

00:52:22.220 Angeles knew me from back in the day. And he knew, he knew John Paul's dad. And so that's how it came to

00:52:28.300 me. And he came to me and gave me a subset of them, a very small subset, few dozen of, of the emails,

00:52:34.940 and then said like, you know, what do I do here? And first thing I did was, was read into them. And

00:52:40.280 it was very, very obvious that these were real emails and these were real documents. I mean, it

00:52:45.040 was things like they were with, with PR firms a lot. This was mainly centered around Burisma and,

00:52:51.380 uh, the, the Ukrainian gas company, you know, the slimy Ukrainian gas company on which Hunter served

00:52:56.660 on their board and they were clearly authentic. Now that didn't necessarily mean that he was

00:53:02.100 authentic or that they came the way he said it. Cause it was a weird story. I mean, the blind guys

00:53:06.500 getting it from Hunter who comes in fumbles around then doesn't get it, give it, you know, it was a

00:53:11.900 weird story, you know, but the documents were just, it was obvious that they, they were, there was

00:53:17.020 something real there. Cause they were, they were things that had phone numbers and, and CCs with

00:53:21.460 multiple people in law firms and PR firms and all that. So I tried to help them. You know,

00:53:26.180 I was a nobody at that point. Uh, you know, my, my, I get under a million people a month looking at

00:53:31.860 my stuff. I was trying to help shop that out to some things. What I found during that time was,

00:53:36.500 was that, uh, that the New York post had it and they were actually going to start working on

00:53:41.140 something. I gave a few of them to, uh, to, to a couple of Fox news shows and help get that out

00:53:46.820 there. And then when the post came out, I think we saw the worst case of, of medium malpractice.

00:53:53.140 I think that I can cite in my lifetime. I mean, if the media were lawyers, they should be disbarred

00:53:58.820 after that. It was all they did was attack him hardcore. We had a bunch of people from former,

00:54:04.980 you know, former serious, real guys and gals from the NSA and the FBI. I remember they signed that

00:54:10.340 big letter. It has all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation and that's all that the mainstream

00:54:15.060 media needed to, to kind of, kind of pretend that that doesn't exist. You still go look up this

00:54:20.020 information on Wikipedia and it's like, Nope, with no evidence on this and, and the Ukraine conspiracy,

00:54:26.820 they did their best. I mean, look, the media had completely stopped being referees by the time,

00:54:33.300 by the time Trump came up for reelection, they really stopped by the time he came for election.

00:54:37.620 They started being players, not referees. And their only goal was to get,

00:54:42.980 get, get Joe Biden elected at that point. Yeah. And I think what you also saw was that,

00:54:47.940 that, that laptop was sitting on in somebody's desk and gathering dust for months and months and

00:54:53.220 months. And the FBI was clearly going to sit on their thumbs and let that, let that slide.

00:54:58.180 It was in their Delaware division too. It was in their Delaware division where he still had a lot

00:55:02.660 of power there. So it was media were used to, you know, as Bernie, uh, Bernard, uh, Goldberg would say

00:55:10.020 the, the slobbering love affair that the media has been having with the Democrats, Obama and so on.

00:55:14.420 But the FBI's partisan role in this was truly shocking to, to me at the time. Um, I was shocked.

00:55:21.540 I did not, I think a lot of people had faith in like the FBI and CIA that was unraveled over the

00:55:26.580 course of the Trump years. And then this story in particular, and the news today is that

00:55:31.460 now, uh, Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, he sent, uh, this is according to Chuck Ross at

00:55:35.940 the Washington free beacon posted this story last week, um, that he sent the justice department and

00:55:42.180 FBI a letter and says an analyst at the FBI named Brian Otten was named by whistleblowers as the

00:55:49.060 person behind an August, 2020 report that the FBI used to falsely suggest the Hunter Biden information

00:55:55.380 was fake. It was disinformation that that bad information about him was disinformation.

00:55:59.700 And, um, this is the same guy who had failed to advise others at the FBI about inconsistencies

00:56:06.740 in the Steele dossier. This guy, Brian Otten pushed the Steele dossier, totally discredited.

00:56:11.300 Now, um, he pushed aggressively for surveillance warrants against Carter Page, then Trump advisor.

00:56:17.380 I mean, this guy's, this is the guy, like when we talk about what the FBI did to Carter Page,

00:56:22.020 to Trump on Hunter Biden, this, this is the one according to the whistleblowers who did it,

00:56:26.660 uh, not fired yet, by the way. And then let me just finish the, the, let me just finish on him.

00:56:30.900 He, um, in addition to him, there's another guy named, uh, Timothy Tibault, I think Tibault,

00:56:38.100 and he was an FBI assistant special agent in charge. What is it, Cal?

00:56:43.380 T-Bault. Okay. Uh, in charge of the Washington field office who shut down a line of inquiry into

00:56:48.820 Hunter Biden when the laptop came out October, 2020. Um, he wanted the laptop to be labeled

00:56:55.300 disinformation, despite he knew that some of the details were true. And if you look at his social

00:57:01.300 media, it's all anti-Trump, anti-Bill Barr. And just today, before we got on the air,

00:57:06.820 Ken, uh, news broke that this guy, T-Bault has been removed from his leadership post,

00:57:12.500 not fired, but removed, placed in another unspecified job. Brian Otten, apparently not,

00:57:18.420 apparently still sitting there as they investigate these allegations.

00:57:21.460 You know, I, I was one of those people who used to trust the FBI too. And, and maybe,

00:57:27.700 maybe our trust was overplaced 10 years ago, 20 years ago. I mean, let's be honest in the, in the

00:57:32.660 late sixties, when, when everybody loved the FBI, they were doing their best to, to discredit and, and

00:57:39.300 Martin Luther King and tapped his house and tapped his, tapped his work and sent him letters encouraging

00:57:43.620 him to kill himself. I mean, the FBI has always had some of that undertoning, but I kind of didn't see

00:57:48.660 it in, in, in the last decade. But when you see, you combine this with, with some of the emails and

00:57:53.780 texts with the, those two agents who were having the affair and, and we're going to stop him. And

00:57:58.260 these were high level people. This wasn't low, low sells on that. They clearly politicized it.

00:58:04.900 You know, I hate to say people should go to jail, but man, people should go to jail.

00:58:08.420 How about getting fired?

00:58:08.900 That's such a misuse of things.

00:58:09.780 Getting fired would be nice.

00:58:10.660 At a minimum. Yeah.

00:58:12.100 Right. So yeah, that, that will be ongoing. Look, they, they did what they wanted to do. They,

00:58:17.140 they got Joe Biden in the white house. The media has done its level bus to ignore all allegations

00:58:22.340 about Hunter Biden, whether it's corruption or his weird, you know, drug and gun habits,

00:58:27.780 which appear to have broken more laws than I can count. And I think soon this will all go away with

00:58:33.060 either just a slap on the wrist or a plea deal, something, something small, something minor,

00:58:38.020 which we all know would have looked very different had this guy been named Donald Trump Jr.

00:58:42.660 But it's part of the FBI's unraveling and the media's unraveling. Right. And what's interesting

00:58:47.700 about it to me now, Ken, is that you're seeing places like CNN now try to find Jesus, right?

00:58:56.500 Like CNN has a new boss. You were in executive management at Fox. You know, they brought in a

00:59:01.300 new boss, Chris Lick, who is a nice guy. He comes from CBS. He was doing the morning show there.

00:59:05.940 Then he got promoted to do the Colbert show. That doesn't say necessarily those are his politics,

00:59:10.420 but he was a successful executive running shows and so on. Then he got pulled over to run all of CNN.

00:59:16.020 And now the new mission is reportedly to convince people that CNN can be fair, including to Republicans.

00:59:24.260 And I just don't know whether there's any chance of them convincing the public of that.

00:59:28.260 Yeah. Or whether they're telling the truth. I mean, I mean, I read those same reports,

00:59:34.980 but then I also read reports that he wants to bring Morning Joe over to them. So it's like,

00:59:39.060 OK, well, you can't have both. I don't believe that.

00:59:41.860 You can't believe that. I believe that was planted by Morning Joe. That was definitely

00:59:44.980 that might have been 100 percent.

00:59:46.740 We'll see. Let's you know, the proof will be in the pudding. You know, CNN is pretty public about

00:59:51.060 that. You know, they put up a 24 seven news feed. And if they stop being a hardcore Democratic pipe

00:59:57.940 organ, we will we will we will find out. But it'd be nice if they would. And I hate to say this,

01:00:04.900 they would lose ratings probably in the short term. I mean, because look, when we started Fox,

01:00:10.020 CNN was always to the left, but not, you know, but they were 20 degrees to the left and we were

01:00:15.300 20 degrees to the right. It wasn't the kind of crazed stuff that you have now. If you get off

01:00:20.340 script and say something negative or positive about Donald Trump, your show gets gets blown up.

01:00:25.940 I mean, the world has changed and and all of the news outlets have kind of gone to the mattresses and

01:00:31.620 gone to a more extreme versions of themselves ideologically. And and that's that's not just

01:00:38.500 politics because they're they're lefties. It's it's also driven by money. And that stuff works.

01:00:44.180 That stuff sells when when when CNN pounds the table and tells you that orange man is going to

01:00:50.420 be a dictator. Their ratings increase on that. They're those are the stories that get retweeted

01:00:56.180 and Facebooked around and a modest, moderate voice. There might be a burgeoning increased

01:01:04.340 population and audience for that, but I'm not sure it exists right now.

01:01:09.060 Their ratings are in the tank. They the New York Times did a big piece on CNN earlier this

01:01:14.020 week. They've drawn an average of six hundred and thirty nine thousand in prime time this quarter.

01:01:21.140 That is like just over half a million in the overall. Ken, that's that's the overall. That's

01:01:26.260 not the key demo of the younger people, which is always a lower number, but the only one that

01:01:29.860 advertisers really care about. That's twenty five to fifty four. But six hundred and thirty nine

01:01:34.900 thousand. Like I was getting that in the demo. If I got that in the overall, my ass would have been

01:01:39.700 fired. Like I can't believe that that anybody is still employed in the CNN primetime with those

01:01:45.620 numbers. But, you know, if if Donald Trump becomes the nominee, those numbers will double.

01:01:50.900 I mean, look where their numbers were last October. I mean, you know, when you're when

01:01:56.020 you've decided that, OK, we're going to be the Yankees, you're going to be the Mets and the Mets

01:01:59.460 are having a terrible season. What happens? All your numbers go down. If not at the Fox News channel.

01:02:04.580 Well, Fox does Fox does better than most. You're right. They keep there. But don't forget,

01:02:10.420 CNN has to fight with, you know, Fox had to compete against kind of the Internet and and

01:02:16.740 and not really OAN or or Newsmax because they're just not off the table yet. But CNN has to compete

01:02:22.820 with the rest of the liberal media because they all think the same way. Yeah, that's true. So,

01:02:26.740 yeah, they're down. They're still profiting. Their profits are down, but still a billion dollars

01:02:31.300 a year for for kind of crappy journalism. You know, so they're they're still making a ton of

01:02:36.740 money. So I'm not counting them out. Most of their money, I believe most of their money comes

01:02:40.580 from their digital property and not their cable news operation. The New York Times report was that

01:02:46.580 for the first time since 2016, they dipped below one billion in profit. They're going in the wrong

01:02:51.380 direction and they've they have yet to make any major personnel changes. Right. Like Zucker got fired.

01:02:57.460 Um, Cuomo got fired for reasons not related to ratings. Um, but you look at that. It's like

01:03:03.860 you still have Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon can Don Lemon. They really want us like

01:03:09.380 Chris Licht, the new CEO, the new the new head went around to all these Republican senators on Capitol

01:03:14.820 Hill reportedly saying, please, please come back. Please give us a chance on CNN. You know,

01:03:19.380 we would love to get more Republicans on what Republican would ever go on Don Lemon show. He.

01:03:26.020 Yeah. I mean, and that's why you can't believe Chris unless he makes some changes there. You

01:03:30.180 can't just say we've got a fresh new face and then have Don come out and say the Republican

01:03:34.900 Party should be treated like terrorists. I mean, that's, uh, you know, that's just not good.

01:03:38.820 And you're a Nazi if you voted for Trump, like you're at, you're an actual white supremacist,

01:03:43.300 period. It doesn't matter if you care about unborn babies. It doesn't matter if you care about

01:03:47.940 corporate taxes, whatever. You're a Nazi. Yeah, it's, um, you know, they, they, they,

01:03:54.820 they've dug a hole now for themselves and I'll be interested to see whether they really,

01:03:58.740 really try to find more of a center ground. And that's look, that's a five year. You don't spend

01:04:03.860 five years destroying your credibility with half of America and then just say, well, I've changed

01:04:08.740 my mind. Let's, let's change it all around now where, you know, please trust us and come back now.

01:04:13.140 If they take, if they decide to take that middle path, not sure, not sure whether they can,

01:04:18.660 it would take years and years of them. I mean, do you remember when Fox launched back in the day?

01:04:23.140 I mean, it was like we had Hannity sitting right next to Alan Combs, you know, we had Greta who,

01:04:28.740 I don't even know who Greta voted for. She was no conservative. And then we had Sean Hannity in the,

01:04:32.980 I mean, even Fox news had like a balanced lineup in, in prime time. And that's almost a quaint notion now.

01:04:40.260 Yeah. Well, I mean, Fox is an interesting case study too, because ultimately they, you know,

01:04:46.660 Roger got rid of Combs on the Hannity and Combs show. But there was balance, but yeah,

01:04:52.020 there was balance. I mean, like when I was in the prime time lineup, I was an independent.

01:04:55.460 I'm, I'm right leaning, but my politics are kind of all over the place and really were back then.

01:05:01.940 Greta was there who I think is a Democrat. I mean, I don't know, but I think she's a Democrat.

01:05:05.940 They were Clinton supporters for some time. Hannity, who's a conservative and O'Reilly,

01:05:09.460 who was always a populist. He was a populist before being a populist was cool. So there was balance.

01:05:14.740 Now I'd say it's more consistently right wing, their, their prime time lineup.

01:05:18.660 And, and you also see, I mean, back in the day, Fox's early morning show had opinion.

01:05:24.820 Sometimes that 1 PM show, your, your hour, they allowed you to kind of, kind of you,

01:05:29.140 you were at the forefront of bringing some opinion into the middle of the day. And then it was like

01:05:32.900 kind of straight news in, until you hit eight o'clock at night. And then it was, and then it was,

01:05:37.540 okay, these are this, these are now people's takes on it. You pop into almost every hour of the day at

01:05:42.900 Fox and you're going to hear the anchor saying, and then what I think is that, I mean, you're going

01:05:46.500 to hear them injecting kind of their personal beliefs and, and their opinion into, you know,

01:05:52.020 they, they still actually have a pretty strong news division. Um, um, that is, that is, I, I truly think

01:05:56.900 is fair and is out there not trying to spin things. Um, but most of the shows now have all decided,

01:06:03.460 have all gone to the way of, of opinion. You know, it just rates better and, and, and they are driven by

01:06:09.300 ratings and they are driven by money from the.com to the, to the evening shows, to the afternoon

01:06:14.340 shows. And you come up with a Hannity and Combs. I just don't think it's going to click as well as

01:06:20.180 it used to. What about, um, the speculation that the Murdochs have turned on Trump? There's been a

01:06:28.340 lot of pieces written lately about some Trump attack pieces in the wall street journal, which the Murdochs

01:06:33.620 own in the New York post, which the Murdochs own not so much in the prime time of Fox where Trump's

01:06:39.300 got some, you know, real loyalists and Hannity and Laura Tucker's more of his own independent

01:06:44.180 Island, but I'm sure he'd take Trump over Joe Biden. Um, so anyway, there's speculation that

01:06:50.580 the Murdochs have turned on Trump and that you would not have been seeing these harsh pieces on

01:06:54.820 the January 6th hearings and how much they've exposed what a bad man Trump is in the journal,

01:06:59.700 in the post. If Rupert or Lachlan hadn't made clear, they're not behind him anymore.

01:07:06.580 I think, I think two things happened in the, in the last three months that were very,

01:07:10.180 very interesting. What, you know, as, as Fox watchers and as, and as observers,

01:07:14.420 I was in many meetings with, with Rupert less so with the kids, but you kind of knew that the kids,

01:07:19.620 or you kind of believe that the kids didn't like Fox didn't like it at all. Right. Certainly the

01:07:23.780 daughter, both of them, I was going to say, not, not Lachlan, James Lachlan, Lachlan was an unknown

01:07:28.900 quality quantity until then. That's the first thing I was going to talk about until a couple

01:07:32.420 months ago. I mean, Lachlan was always the guy, he never came out and talk politics. He, you know,

01:07:38.500 Lachlan was the cool kid who like always had the tan, had the beautiful wife, had the, you know,

01:07:42.900 was, was buying the bigger and bigger mansions. He kind of seemed to be really living the Murdoch life.

01:07:47.620 And about three months ago, he gave a speech down in, uh, down in Australia about, about,

01:07:53.220 about values, about, and specifically Australia, but, but he, he brought up a lot of the things

01:07:58.740 that, that the right would say. He talked about the rising censorship and how wrong that was. I

01:08:03.140 think he might've even talked about the Hunter Biden issue. He gave a speech that, that DeSantis

01:08:09.540 could have given. It was, it was intelligent. It was, it was a smart overview of, and again,

01:08:15.860 what he pegged it off of was, was a poll that showed a large percentage of Americans, if they were

01:08:21.060 attacked a la Ukraine would, would run away instead of fight. And he used that as there.

01:08:25.700 And it was the first time that said he actually believes in the cause, but, but to answer your,

01:08:30.260 your specific question, I think that you certainly have seen a change. I mean, you're right. I don't

01:08:37.540 very few, I mean, and you know this perhaps better than others, and maybe you had a lot of,

01:08:41.460 a lot of executives from above, but you know, I talked to, I talked to, to Sean or I'll talk to,

01:08:46.500 to Tucker and you know, they claim up and down that they don't get that much

01:08:50.900 feedback or pushback or, Hey, do this, or don't do that from, from executives there.

01:08:55.620 They both say, you know, it's been hands off. And Tucker was kind of like,

01:08:58.500 they kind of hardly ever call me. Um, so I, I think that those, those primetime shows,

01:09:03.540 especially are, are given that flexibility, but I suspect you're a hundred percent right.

01:09:08.260 And look, I'm one of them. I was, I, I, I voted for Trump proudly. And I think, and I'm one that

01:09:14.500 looks at the one six commission and, and knows that it's, it's kind of a sham in one way,

01:09:19.940 but also he did enough bad things in there that I'm like, yeah, that was not defending

01:09:25.140 the constitution. He violated his oath on that. So I'm one of those conservatives who like, you know,

01:09:30.580 I was happy to support them, but I really hope somebody like DeSantis or somebody with

01:09:35.940 fewer personality problems that, that, you know, Trump was always a flawed,

01:09:40.500 a flawed hero to, to most of the right, um, with, with a sense of humor that kind of overcame that

01:09:45.460 sometimes. So no, I think you're right. And I, and I think that they're giving a nod that

01:09:49.460 this will be an open primary. I, I mean, I can honestly say there were all sorts of

01:09:55.140 books written and so on about the alleged instructions I got from the Murdochs to take

01:09:59.220 out Trump in that debate. It's all a lie. It's all a lie. I never ran those debate questions by

01:10:03.700 anybody in management and not Roger, not the Murdochs and never got editorial guidance from

01:10:09.380 anybody named Murdoch ever. You know, after the fact, Roger, if you did something he didn't like,

01:10:14.820 or did like, he'd call you in there and tell you, but never, never once in all my 14 years there,

01:10:19.780 did he ever sit me down and say, this is the way I want you to cover it ever. Um, so yeah,

01:10:23.860 I think there's more autonomy, but I don't know how it works at the journal. I don't know how it

01:10:26.980 works at the post. And I see the point that, you know, for both of those papers to be coming out

01:10:30.980 with very harsh anti-Trump pieces, you know, right around the same time. Yeah. My, it puts my spidey

01:10:37.380 sentences up as well that maybe Murdoch has turned on Trump. The thing is though, and I don't know that it

01:10:43.460 matters because the Murdochs were not pro Trump first time around either. And he bent all of

01:10:49.540 their properties to his will that they will effectively back the Republican nominee. I mean,

01:10:54.820 the editorials coming out of the journal and the post are not going to be pro Biden when 2024 gins up.

01:11:02.820 And so if Trump manages to rest the nomination from DeSantis, or, you know, I don't know who else

01:11:09.700 is going to be a serious contender. Maybe the Virginia governor. We'll see. But if,

01:11:14.580 if Trump manages to emerge as the leader, they'll back him. I think that's probably true. I think,

01:11:19.940 I think, I think, but that's a, that's a long time until that September or whenever that, that,

01:11:25.780 that convention is. Um, and, and you know, the, the thing about those other two papers is those

01:11:31.220 were the editorial boards. So it wasn't just like an individual there or the news board there.

01:11:35.780 I mean, the editorial boards, which Fox doesn't have a, an official voice, the editorial boards are,

01:11:41.140 are their official voice. And so one would expect the owner to say, all right, if we're going to have

01:11:46.580 an official voice of the newspaper I own, I should have some input into that. So I, I wouldn't be

01:11:51.140 surprised if they get a little bit more guidance or encouragement from, from that. Whereas at Fox,

01:11:56.100 you know, you're not going to say, Hey Sean, you need to believe this and report this or, or Megan,

01:12:01.300 don't, uh, you know, don't believe that. So, and there is no like kind of official stance of Fox

01:12:06.420 news as much as everybody always tries to pretend there is. No, I mean, but look, I don't know how

01:12:10.900 it works now, but back when Roger was in charge and I was there, Roger wanted television personalities

01:12:17.460 and journalists in his lineup who people wanted to watch. That's what he wanted. He wanted somebody

01:12:23.300 who could penetrate the lens, who was a good communicator, who had sort of an, an it factor.

01:12:27.460 And it's not like he was going to go put Rachel Maddow on the Fox news primetime lineup. He,

01:12:32.980 we understood who the audience was, but there was never any litmus test for your politics. You know,

01:12:37.700 he'd watch you, he sort of see you, he'd decide whether you were somebody who met all those

01:12:42.340 things I just said. And if so, he'd try you out and maybe in a lower role and move you up the line.

01:12:47.940 But it was never a litmus test for ideology. And I don't think, I don't think that's how it is. I

01:12:53.060 think that's, that continues to be how it is. They want people who will rate. They don't necessarily

01:12:56.740 want people who are just going to back Trump or back the Republicans. They want sensible

01:13:01.460 opinion. Well, we'll see. We'll see. I mean, it'll be fascinating to watch the primetime lineup

01:13:06.180 when it, when it's DeSantis versus Trump and you've got these two 800 pound gorillas,

01:13:10.260 because you know, more and more DeSantis is becoming a gorilla of his own.

01:13:14.580 They're going to be in a, in an interesting position over there.

01:13:16.820 So Ken, you mentioned January 6th, the committee and Liz Cheney has been at the helm of that whole

01:13:28.580 thing. Her dad, Dick Cheney used to be vice president of the United States and has put out

01:13:34.020 a campaign ad for her. I mean, she is dying on the vine on her campaign, but this is

01:13:40.420 Dick Cheney's contribution, which has now been uniformly condemned by both sides. But watch.

01:13:46.180 In our nation's 246 year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our

01:13:51.940 republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep

01:13:58.020 himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He is a coward. A real man wouldn't lie to his

01:14:03.780 supporters. He lost his election and he lost big. I know it. He knows it. And deep down,

01:14:09.700 I think most Republicans know it. Lynn and I are so proud of Liz for standing up for the truth,

01:14:15.860 doing what's right, honoring her oath to the constitution, when so many in our party

01:14:21.620 are too scared to do so. Hmm. Of course, the right wing is on team Trump. I mean, the vast

01:14:30.020 the majority of Republicans agree with Trump's claim of his stolen election. The polls show that

01:14:34.580 and the left. Is there a figure besides Trump who they hate more than Dick Cheney? He's not the

01:14:41.460 messenger. I don't get like I'm not sure who this is appealing to. It was certainly aimed to the right,

01:14:46.580 not the left. It's a Republican primary in God's country out west. And you're right. The crux of it

01:14:53.940 all comes down to one sentence that he was wrong in. Deep in their hearts, most Republicans think

01:14:59.940 this election was stolen. And that's because Trump said it was multiple times. It's because

01:15:09.220 also that the media abdicated its responsibility in kind of looking into that in a fair way. I mean,

01:15:15.220 you had you had the left media who, even if it was stolen, was going to be cheering it.

01:15:19.060 And the right media didn't look into it all that much because, you know, if you're Fox or if you're

01:15:25.060 somebody on the right, you don't get a whole lot of pats on the back for saying, hey, we looked into

01:15:29.140 all these claims and there was some little stealing and some little stupid stuff around. But no,

01:15:32.980 the election wasn't stolen. I mean, if you and your heart believe that as a primetime anchor on Fox,

01:15:39.860 it's not going to help your ratings to talk about that. So so the media on both sides have allowed

01:15:44.660 that that divide in America. The left doesn't care, doesn't think it happened. And the right

01:15:51.060 believes that strongly. I can tell you every time I've deep dived and looked into either a lawsuit or

01:15:57.780 or one of the one of the allegations, I've still never found any kind of evidence that showed

01:16:02.580 anything besides minor things that would not have affected the election.

01:16:06.500 No, I know. Same. I mean, there's been like red flags, but nothing that would change the actual

01:16:10.500 results. People believe it. Whatever. The point is, Liz Cheney, she's done. She's she's done in

01:16:16.260 Republican politics. And the savior of that future is not Dick Cheney. I mean, like, just I'm amazed

01:16:23.060 she's running again. Why didn't she just say, you know what? I did what I thought was the honorable

01:16:27.540 thing. Off I go. I realize it's created too big a gulf between me and my party. They've been

01:16:32.260 trying to tell her that for the past year. I guess she wants to go down in flames, which I think is

01:16:36.660 where this is going to end. Yeah, I think you're right. I think I think she failed at being able

01:16:42.580 to convince her base that she was right. And and unfortunately, that there might be a way to do

01:16:48.980 that. But certainly that committee wasn't the way to do it. You know, once once the once the

01:16:54.900 Republicans were rejected by by the left and the Republicans decided to basically boycott,

01:16:59.540 except for those two, boycott that that hearing, they couldn't make the claim that this is any kind

01:17:05.220 of a fair trial. It's a trial without a defense. And, you know, you would never lose a case, Megan,

01:17:10.340 if you were if you just had one side, despite whatever the facts might be.

01:17:14.500 Yeah, of course. And she's I mean, they've manipulated evidence. They've manipulated

01:17:18.580 videotapes. They've they've put out witness testimony and talked about taking the Fifth

01:17:22.260 Amendment in a way that's very deceptive and inappropriate. So I really have no sympathy

01:17:27.140 for Liz Cheney or the position which she finds herself. I do not think this has been an honest

01:17:30.740 hearing. It certainly hasn't been a fair one. Now, back on Capitol. The irony is, though,

01:17:35.220 I would love to see a fair hearing on this because I think that I think that most of my friends on this

01:17:40.900 on the right are just wrong. They just they saw too many headlines. They saw too many.

01:17:45.060 There's a lot of smoke. Don't get me wrong. But I think they're all wrong. And this wasn't the way

01:17:48.980 to convince them. Back over on Capitol Hill, we have a relatively new press secretary, Corrine Jean-Pierre,

01:17:56.820 who's just been absolutely dreadful. I mean, she just knows nothing. She's not ready for primetime.

01:18:00.420 And I think it was the RNC put together a budded soundbite showing a trend that they noticed in

01:18:08.420 the way she handled handles the press. Here's a little bit of that. Can watch.

01:18:13.620 I don't have anything. I don't have anything. I don't have anything. I don't have anything. I don't have anything.

01:18:17.620 i don't have anything. I just don't have anything. I don't have anything. I don't have anything.

01:18:39.540 wait, i don't have anything. So, i don't have anything. We don't have anything. i don't have anything.

01:18:43.620 I don't have anything. I just don't have anything. I don't have anything.

01:18:47.420 A hundred times.

01:18:49.740 Truer words were never spoken.

01:18:52.020 Well, she certainly doesn't have anything.

01:18:55.520 She's made that point.

01:18:57.840 How would you like being the press spokesperson for this 747?

01:19:01.720 I would never do it.

01:19:02.880 With its wings on fire, people leaping out of it, people running for president, pretending not to run for president.

01:19:10.380 I mean, that's not the easiest job, and she's probably not the pilot you wanted.

01:19:15.500 So I would never do this job because you get paid to lie.

01:19:18.700 I mean, that's the truth. You get paid to lie.

01:19:20.200 So you can only—the people who take that job, you automatically have to ask yourself,

01:19:25.060 what is it in that person's character that's making them take the job?

01:19:28.540 But secondly, it's not because he's such a dumpster fire in terms of the polls and policy.

01:19:34.180 It's because she's a dumpster fire in terms of her ability to spin and stick with facts that are helpful

01:19:40.600 and do what we learn to do as lawyers, which is bridge, bridge away from negative information.

01:19:45.220 You can find a way of defending his policies.

01:19:47.460 If I were a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, I could defend every single thing he's doing.

01:19:50.720 I could do it right now if I wanted to, if I had the heart to do it,

01:19:54.420 and then bridge to something, you know, sort of answer the question, ask them, bridge to something.

01:19:58.080 She's not capable, and yet they keep her out there, and now they've backdrafted in John Kirby

01:20:02.940 from the Pentagon, who's a white guy, and there's backup because she's black and he's white,

01:20:08.440 and they're saying, why are you bringing in a man?

01:20:10.260 And it's like, why don't you just admit that skin color aside, gender aside,

01:20:15.100 this woman is not ready for primetime.

01:20:17.060 You need somebody else.

01:20:19.020 As annoying as the I'll circle back was with Jen Psaki,

01:20:22.220 she was light years ahead of Karine Jean-Pierre, and it's not—the message is really the problem,

01:20:27.760 but the messenger is also deeply flawed.

01:20:30.880 Yeah, that's true, and they will move slowly on that, and you know why.

01:20:34.960 You just said it.

01:20:36.500 Yeah.

01:20:36.820 But, you know, what I find is so many people on both the left and the right,

01:20:39.720 they're so kind of in their own ecosphere, they don't know how to bridge to the other side.

01:20:44.760 They don't know how to find those reasonable things,

01:20:47.140 because if you really believe 50% of the world is—50% of America is Nazis,

01:20:51.800 you kind of don't want to find that middle ground between a normal person and a Nazi.

01:20:56.560 So it's—you know, I kind of enjoy it.

01:20:59.100 I live in the San Francisco area where, you know, I can count Republicans on one or two fingers.

01:21:06.580 And it gives you better practice to be able to make your points and explain why you think things

01:21:13.700 when you're explaining those to those on the other side.

01:21:16.000 It just puts you in a different mindset.

01:21:18.300 I don't think she ever had to do that.

01:21:19.680 I think she wasn't hired because she understood kind of where the center or right of America was at all.

01:21:25.220 She was hardcore on the left, and they cheered that on.

01:21:28.600 Yeah, that's right.

01:21:29.160 She made her positions perfectly clear on MSNBC for years about how much she hated the right

01:21:33.200 and what she thought of the right and certainly what she thought of Trump and so on.

01:21:35.980 Those are requirements now to get this job if you want to work under a Democratic president.

01:21:39.960 Speaking politically, we've had an interesting phenomenon this week where virtually all of the

01:21:46.040 Trump-endorsed candidates won, or all—might have been all.

01:21:49.380 He's saying eight no in these primaries that we've been seeing.

01:21:53.360 And a lot of my Republican pals are saying,

01:21:55.620 I feel good this week, but I'm not going to feel so good when the actual election comes in November

01:21:59.600 because the more, quote, extreme right-wingers won, who are less likely to win in a general.

01:22:07.060 I see the concern, but I also see the bias against a candidate like Carrie Lake, who we had on the show.

01:22:13.720 Yes, she believes the election was stolen, but she's a star.

01:22:17.340 I mean, this woman, she's a star.

01:22:18.860 She made a good point.

01:22:19.500 She's been in the homes of Arizonans for 30 years.

01:22:21.460 They know her.

01:22:21.980 They like her.

01:22:22.480 She's beautiful.

01:22:23.140 She's articulate.

01:22:24.020 She's saying all the right things that the Republicans want to hear on things like immigration and homelessness.

01:22:28.240 I don't know.

01:22:29.720 I see a media bias in dismissing them too quickly, like the way they did with Trump.

01:22:34.200 But I wonder what your take is on it.

01:22:36.340 Did the Republicans shoot themselves in the foot this week by going too far right or not?

01:22:40.360 You know, they always—I mean, the opposing side, because the Democrats actually helped some of those candidates.

01:22:46.980 They gave them money.

01:22:47.740 They pushed them along.

01:22:49.040 They encouraged them.

01:22:49.780 That's right.

01:22:50.320 And as an observer, a close observer for politics for 40 years, that never works.

01:22:55.660 You always—I mean, when Ronald Reagan got nominated, Democrats were giddy because he was just too far out there, too far to the right, and he was going to be an easy, crazy cowboy boy to beat.

01:23:07.800 You know, you go back to Trump, and when he started moving through the ranks in the primary, people were laughing their rear ends off at the concept that he might be the nominee, and they were actively encouraging him.

01:23:22.380 And what you generally find is—and this is almost always the case—sometimes they nominate somebody who's too extreme, but 98% of the time, the person who wins the primary is the best candidate that that party could offer forward.

01:23:35.160 And maybe they have some extreme views, but they're also, as you say, more articulate, attractive, have other platforms.

01:23:40.580 They have a reason for winning, not just because they're crazy.

01:23:43.460 And so—and I see it on both sides.

01:23:46.460 It's like the person who won the primary is, by and large, the best person who has a chance of winning.

01:23:51.880 So I don't think the Republicans should worry about that at all.

01:23:54.520 They might have some nutty people in there, but they're probably nutty people who had a better chance to win than the opposing person.

01:24:01.200 Mm-hmm.

01:24:02.000 These are the ones that the voters found inspirational for whatever reason, and inspirational is important on general election day.

01:24:10.460 You want to get people up and out to go down on a midterm election.

01:24:14.260 It's not a presidential election.

01:24:15.880 It doesn't have the turnout.

01:24:17.440 So I think you raise a good point.

01:24:18.860 I mean, the Democrats are playing with fire here in helping get the Trump-nominated or backed candidates ahead and in the victor circle on these primaries.

01:24:29.900 We'll see.

01:24:30.760 We don't have that long to wait.

01:24:32.240 Now, meantime, you mentioned that you live in San Francisco, and in your wonderful home state of California, Gavin Newsom is reaching out to Hollywood filmmakers now, Ken, begging them to come home.

01:24:43.680 Please come home.

01:24:44.700 He says it's about values.

01:24:46.840 It's time to choose.

01:24:48.880 They're going places like Georgia and Oklahoma to make their movies because they get tax breaks and they don't get bothered by the government.

01:24:54.820 And he says they have waged a cruel assault on essential rights.

01:25:00.840 And he's talking about things like the Dobbs decision, the Supreme Court trying to tell people, come home to California.

01:25:06.940 And he's expressing his support for new legislation that would provide $1.65 billion in tax credits for TV movie creators.

01:25:14.280 Even Hollywood is leaving Hollywood.

01:25:17.020 What do you make of it?

01:25:17.620 Well, two things.

01:25:19.700 One is encouraging another boycott is probably not the best thing for California.

01:25:25.600 The city of San Francisco has a boycott against 27 American states.

01:25:32.020 Sometimes it's gay stuff.

01:25:33.080 Sometimes it's abortion.

01:25:33.920 And it's creating all sorts of problems because it's like, well, they can't travel to those states.

01:25:38.400 They can't procure unless it's emergency type of goods.

01:25:41.840 And it's just created this nightmare that it's not affecting, you know, no states out there.

01:25:46.220 Gee, California is not buying from us.

01:25:48.200 So we'll change our position on something.

01:25:50.520 And it created all sorts of problems for San Francisco, which is one of the worst managed cities in America.

01:25:55.800 The flip side, though, is Gavin is by far being the smartest national person out there who is running for president, pretending that he's not, saying it's ridiculous, and doing a decent job of getting himself out of California and into the national conversation.

01:26:13.820 The first one was hilarious.

01:26:15.220 He went after DeSantis.

01:26:17.380 Remember, he put some ads in against DeSantis in Florida.

01:26:21.640 And then later they were like, well, why did you do that?

01:26:23.580 And he couldn't say the truth, which is because I'm running against an old man who can't finish his sentences and people will get mad at me in the meantime, especially the powers that be.

01:26:31.740 So I have to pretend that I'm not doing what I'm doing.

01:26:34.680 And he came up and he I don't know if you remember this or saw this because it was it was a couple of days after this.

01:26:40.000 He said, well, it was when DeSantis went after the went after the Special Olympics and and and their mass mandate.

01:26:47.000 And I just couldn't handle that.

01:26:48.300 So he literally wrapped himself around mentally disabled kids to lie about why he was pushing these these these these things out there.

01:26:56.880 That said, he's effective.

01:26:58.200 He's a pretty boy.

01:26:59.160 And I wouldn't be surprised if he's the nominee.

01:27:01.560 And these actions right now that he's taken, even if you and I roll our eyes at him and know they're stupid, are smart for him politically.

01:27:08.640 Mm hmm. That's the Turning Points USA Youth Summit in Florida this past week or last week.

01:27:15.760 They were asked, you know, some more right leaning group, who do you most fear running on the Democratic side?

01:27:20.680 And he was by far and away the number one candidate, Gavin Newsom.

01:27:24.720 It would be I mean, a Newsom DeSantis matchup would be I mean, a Newsom Trump matchup.

01:27:29.560 It would just be I would buy a ticket to that.

01:27:32.600 Can I would buy a ticket to that?

01:27:34.340 And your rate, your ratings are going to go up, Megan.

01:27:37.460 I guarantee it.

01:27:38.560 I look forward to that.

01:27:39.980 Ken, such a pleasure to be back in touch.

01:27:41.640 Good luck with the new pod.

01:27:43.100 Thank you very much.

01:27:43.980 I appreciate it.

01:27:44.600 And good chat with you again.

01:27:45.840 I hope to do it.

01:27:46.280 All the best.

01:27:46.880 Yeah, we'll do it again soon.

01:27:48.100 Thanks to all of you.

01:27:48.860 And I hope you have a great, great weekend.

01:27:50.200 And in the meantime, be sure to subscribe to the show.

01:27:52.400 Download the show.

01:27:53.600 The podcast.

01:27:54.740 It's free.

01:27:55.940 And also at YouTube dot com slash Megan Kelly, if you would like the visual component.

01:28:00.620 In the meantime, thanks for listening and have a great, great weekend.

01:28:03.260 We'll see you Monday.

01:28:04.340 Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show.

01:28:08.140 No BS, no agenda and no fear.

The Megyn Kelly Show - August 05, 2022

Parenting in Today's Society, and Hunter Biden Laptop Latest, with Dr. Laura and Ken LaCorte ｜ Ep. 368

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