The Megyn Kelly Show - RFK Confirmed, Trump Makes Kennedy Center ＂Hot＂ Again, and Unearthed Blake Lively Video, with Ruthless Podcast ｜ Ep. 1007

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00:00:30.980 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at New East.

00:00:42.720 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:00:45.860 As President Trump declared on Truth Social, three great weeks.

00:00:50.180 Perhaps the best ever.

00:00:52.020 And it honestly might be, at least when it comes to presidential politics.

00:00:55.500 And this morning, an incredible win for the Make America Healthy Again movement.

00:01:00.860 The Senate voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

00:01:08.380 This just happened on the Senate floor.

00:01:10.880 On this vote, the yeas are 52.

00:01:12.320 The nays are 48.

00:01:13.680 The confirmation is confirmed.

00:01:15.620 Yes!

00:01:19.460 There was one holdout on the Republican side.

00:01:23.920 Again, former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

00:01:26.780 Now he's gone against Hegseth, he's gone against Tulsi, and he's gone against RFKJ, even when here with RFKJ, Murkowski and Collins, and with Tulsi, those two, voted for her.

00:01:44.140 So he's become the chief antagonist to Trump among Republicans, but nobody's following him.

00:01:51.160 I mean, he's voting like a Democrat.

00:01:52.880 And I'm not sure exactly what he's up to.

00:01:55.840 We have the perfect guest to ask, though, today.

00:01:57.860 Yesterday, Tulsi Gabbard was sworn in as the president's director of national intelligence.

00:02:03.720 We mentioned that to you.

00:02:05.480 We will get into the Trump cabinet, plus an insurrection at the Kennedy Center as Trump makes America hot again.

00:02:12.720 We'll explain with the fellas from Ruthless today, Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook.

00:02:21.200 You can find all of their work at RuthlessPodcast.com.

00:02:24.780 And congratulations are in order.

00:02:26.780 Ruthless is taping its 500th episode live on February 19th in Washington, D.C.

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00:03:37.480 Guys, welcome back.

00:03:39.080 Oh, it's so good to be with you, Megan.

00:03:40.600 Thank you for having us.

00:03:41.740 Very, very excited.

00:03:43.720 Now, wasn't Smug late the last time?

00:03:46.940 Wasn't he late the last time?

00:03:48.700 Yeah.

00:03:48.900 Can you believe it?

00:03:50.040 Every time.

00:03:50.800 After all you've done for us.

00:03:52.940 I think you should close in.

00:03:54.560 Seriously.

00:03:55.200 I love it.

00:03:55.640 He can.

00:03:56.100 This is disrespectful.

00:03:57.460 Holmes, you should move on over. 1.00

00:03:58.860 We'll just shoot the three of you. 1.00

00:04:00.400 Fuck Smug. 1.00

00:04:01.180 He can come to the next one. 1.00

00:04:05.100 Here he comes.

00:04:06.020 Hold on.

00:04:06.480 Here's our chairman of standards and ethics here at the Ruthless Variety Program.

00:04:10.940 Okay, Smug.

00:04:11.520 Really, Smug.

00:04:12.880 Let's wait until he gets his ears in.

00:04:14.140 And then now we're going to figure out why he's late again.

00:04:17.440 Now, Smug.

00:04:17.860 Do you understand that the Megyn Kelly Show has millions, millions of listeners and we're

00:04:23.220 one of the top shows in the country, both overall and certainly within news.

00:04:27.360 What is it about making the 12 o'clock deadline that seems impossible for you?

00:04:31.820 So one of the reasons I chose to get a house in North Carolina is I don't have to deal with

00:04:37.100 D.C.

00:04:38.400 And D.C. won't stop dealing with me.

00:04:40.080 But I do apologize for being late.

00:04:43.460 Again.

00:04:44.300 Again.

00:04:45.000 I don't get mad after the first time.

00:04:46.660 But like this is a pattern.

00:04:48.080 Next time, you're banned.

00:04:49.560 That's it.

00:04:50.620 We have banned people for not making their heads. 0.99

00:04:53.640 They're very popular people who continue to fuck us over. 0.98

00:04:56.480 Sorry. 0.98

00:04:57.100 I'm in a mood today.

00:04:59.360 It's crazy.

00:05:00.300 I'm actually not irritated at you, Smug.

00:05:02.060 I love you.

00:05:02.980 I'm irritated at the lawfare that is being unleashed against Trump's agenda at every turn.

00:05:12.240 And now it's like this administration is having to play whack-a-mole in the courts.

00:05:16.200 Instead of just enacting the people's will.

00:05:18.460 Every day it's another lawsuit to try to stop what Trump clearly has the power to do. 0.99

00:05:23.340 And what I see after the whole morning researching this bullshit. 0.99

00:05:27.020 Okay. 0.99

00:05:27.340 That's like three swears within the first three minutes.

00:05:30.040 My apologies to the people who have their kids watching this.

00:05:33.380 Is that Trump's winning.

00:05:35.500 He's winning these cases.

00:05:36.680 Right.

00:05:37.420 But think of the distraction by his lawyers, by his federal agencies, everything Elon's doing.

00:05:43.740 They're trying to stop bit by bit.

00:05:45.420 We can't.

00:05:45.760 And all Elon's doing right now is trying to get information.

00:05:49.500 What is the Treasury paying out?

00:05:51.220 To whom?

00:05:52.220 All of Trump's cabinet heads, like Treasury, EPA out there.

00:05:57.120 Like, what grants have we given in the waning days of the Biden administration?

00:06:02.620 And to whom?

00:06:03.780 Against the taxpayers' wish.

00:06:05.720 It's just boondoggle.

00:06:07.140 They've just been like throwing money off of a sinking ship.

00:06:10.840 The Biden administration, Trump and Elon are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's hold on.

00:06:15.540 Let's just see.

00:06:17.180 We don't approve this and we can stop it.

00:06:19.180 That the Democrats sue them saying you have to allot the funds because Biden said so or

00:06:24.300 Congress said so.

00:06:25.500 And you're not even allowed to access who's getting paid what by whom in some of these

00:06:31.040 agencies.

00:06:31.920 And bit by bit, Trump is winning and will continue to win. 0.99

00:06:35.060 But this is the most subversive shit. 0.99

00:06:38.160 Okay, that's that's four. 0.99

00:06:39.280 That's four within the first four minutes.

00:06:40.840 So keep it rolling.

00:06:42.920 Who would like to kick it off on that?

00:06:45.920 Well, look, Megan, I think on one hand, you're absolutely right. 0.51

00:06:49.500 It is completely nonsense.

00:06:50.860 And the fact that there is a cottage industry of liberal funded think tanks and 501C4s,

00:06:58.340 they're going to make a mess out of everything.

00:07:00.620 It's just a reality.

00:07:01.740 And when you can't win politically, Democrats try to do it through the courts.

00:07:05.280 I mean, that's why the first Trump administration was so important that they reshaped an awful

00:07:09.520 lot of courts.

00:07:10.020 But of course, they're venue shopping here and they're trying to find the last vestiges

00:07:14.000 of liberal courtship.

00:07:16.120 Yeah, I mean, there's there is a cottage industry of NGOs and libs, but there's also a mindset

00:07:22.700 in Washington, D.C. that this money somehow belongs to them.

00:07:28.000 They forget that people work so hard for what they earn and they're it's taken from them

00:07:33.360 at gunpoint every April 15th.

00:07:35.520 And they're people are just hoping that somebody in government will spend it wisely.

00:07:40.340 And what we've seen over the last few decades is that it hasn't been spent wisely.

00:07:45.020 And Elon Musk and President Trump are doing everything they can to expose the waste, fraud

00:07:49.920 and abuse that is rampant in our government.

00:07:52.140 And if they weren't doing that right now, I mean, I shudder to think about what would be

00:07:56.480 happening this year and how much more of of everybody's who's listening to this show's

00:08:02.180 money that they turn in.

00:08:04.220 Ashbrook brings up a really good point about, you know, what really is the deep state?

00:08:08.940 You know, I think in the common vernacular, we've come to think of the deep state as like

00:08:13.420 this intelligence apparatus or this blob that really impeded the success of Donald Trump

00:08:18.420 in his first administration.

00:08:19.780 But it's wider than that.

00:08:21.160 It's this permanent bureaucracy that exists in Washington, D.C. to stop progress, to stop

00:08:27.220 the government from being efficient or any change, any change at all.

00:08:31.300 Right.

00:08:31.800 And so, I mean, that's what Elon Musk and Donald Trump are up against is all of these

00:08:36.240 bureaucrats who've suckled at the teat of government for their entire lives.

00:08:40.360 And they don't want that to change.

00:08:42.160 Wow.

00:08:42.520 We got a little like R-rated there.

00:08:44.900 Yeah.

00:08:45.540 I thought you'd appreciate that.

00:08:47.620 Following your lead, Megan.

00:08:49.660 We're keeping it very spicy. 0.99

00:08:51.840 Suckled at the teat. 0.88

00:08:53.120 OK. 0.99

00:08:55.420 I feel like I'm following Kanye West's X feed.

00:09:01.300 OK.

00:09:04.020 My eyes have not recovered from what I saw over the weekend.

00:09:07.580 Here are just a couple of examples.

00:09:09.660 OK.

00:09:09.960 I'm going to give you.

00:09:10.600 You recall that they sued to stop Elon, his so-called fork in the road offering, saying

00:09:21.560 to all these federal fat employees, some are skinny. 0.96

00:09:24.840 I mean, fat cat. 0.98

00:09:25.820 I mean, like sitting there on the taxpayer dime.

00:09:27.600 There are many not doing much, you know, just sort of getting to be an aging bureaucrat

00:09:32.400 on our dime.

00:09:33.240 Said, if you guys want to leave the federal government, go with God.

00:09:36.100 Hey, there's your off ramp.

00:09:38.320 Go.

00:09:39.000 And we'll actually give you a nice little package.

00:09:41.380 Goodbye.

00:09:41.820 We'll pay you through March, eight months of payment, which is more than you would normally

00:09:45.180 get.

00:09:45.740 And, you know, peace out.

00:09:47.560 And it turns out now, the final number is 75,000 bureaucrats took the deal.

00:09:53.320 So we're 75,000 people slimmer in the federal bureaucracy ranks.

00:09:58.080 But not before they tried to sue him, this federal employees union sued him to say, you

00:10:04.340 can't offer that. 0.95

00:10:05.920 I mean, it's ridiculous. 0.90

00:10:06.940 No one's being forced to take it.

00:10:08.580 It was a voluntary thing.

00:10:10.080 You can't offer that because you don't technically have funding through March or past March, whatever,

00:10:16.660 to get us to eight months.

00:10:17.640 That was the argument.

00:10:19.160 Anyway, they just lost that.

00:10:20.940 Now, a federal judge is allowing it.

00:10:22.920 The so-called fork in the road offer stands.

00:10:26.180 The final number of retirees is 75,000.

00:10:30.380 And Elon won that fight.

00:10:31.860 Then there was the next one where they sued the Trump administration.

00:10:36.200 20 blue states challenged this OMB directive.

00:10:39.100 They're the ones who kind of run personnel at the federal level.

00:10:43.020 They challenged the OMB directive to freeze federal funding.

00:10:47.120 OMB said, we're not just going to stop paying like all this money out into all these plans.

00:10:52.380 Um, until we can figure out what we're spending money on.

00:10:54.880 And he got sued, uh, for doing that.

00:10:57.460 And then the Trump administration just won that one too, because they issued a TRA, TRO stopping

00:11:04.760 the, the, they stopping the stopping of the funding.

00:11:08.100 So it had to resume.

00:11:09.640 And at the next hearing, the judge said, nevermind, I'm going to lift my temporary restraining order.

00:11:15.100 You can do what you want.

00:11:16.300 So that's going to stop as well.

00:11:18.060 You can't force Trump to spend money on programs that he doesn't know what's in them or whether

00:11:24.580 he approves of them.

00:11:25.660 This is all within the executive branch, all within the executive branch.

00:11:28.940 So he, they lost that one too.

00:11:30.800 And, you know, bit by bit, they're going to lose most of these.

00:11:33.780 I said the other day, I think it'll be nine out of 10.

00:11:35.860 They won't lose all, but they're losing most of them.

00:11:38.920 Meanwhile, they're slow rolling the Trump agenda.

00:11:41.700 And, you know, Trump's irritated.

00:11:45.360 He, oh, there's the other thing.

00:11:47.140 So he went and, uh, he, he clawed back that, what was it?

00:11:51.220 59 million that we gave to New York city to, to pay for the illegal immigrants to enjoy their 0.99

00:11:56.520 stay at the Roosevelt hotel.

00:11:57.620 And otherwise we caught it back.

00:12:00.480 Christy Noem got it out of the New York city coffers and said, we're taking it back.

00:12:05.100 Now, New York's going to sue the federal government for quote, stealing our money, our New York

00:12:12.540 city taxpayers.

00:12:13.440 That's our money.

00:12:14.720 That's the federal government.

00:12:15.980 It's just, it's not going to be nonstop lawfare. 1.00

00:12:19.440 And you guys know how mired that shit can get. 0.99

00:12:22.180 It can just take up all of your energy. 1.00

00:12:24.160 Yeah.

00:12:24.700 No question about it.

00:12:25.620 And that money, by the way, was FEMA money and tell the people of Western North Carolina,

00:12:30.000 right?

00:12:30.160 Smug.

00:12:30.400 That's the thing is we've gone through four years of a federal government that completely

00:12:35.620 ignored its own citizens.

00:12:37.120 I mean, American citizens and all this money is being shoveled to Manhattan.

00:12:41.060 Some of the most expensive real estate on earth to house illegal aliens in hotels that 1.00

00:12:46.380 are charging 700 a night at full occupancy.

00:12:48.860 So the hotel owners love this deal.

00:12:50.760 The people of New York who have suffered, I've had multiple friends.

00:12:53.820 I've had family members who left New York city because of all the crime that's going on

00:12:57.720 there.

00:12:57.960 So the, the citizens weren't the concern of the government.

00:13:00.400 And now you actually have a president who cares about the citizens.

00:13:03.260 And what you're seeing is these entrenched interests trying to keep the status quo that

00:13:07.720 they've had of American citizens being ignored.

00:13:10.460 Western North Carolina is a prime example of how FEMA pretty much abandoned those people.

00:13:14.240 And we have examples of, for political reasons, they were abandoned, but they want the 59 million

00:13:19.100 to be paid to people who broke the law and entered the country.

00:13:21.500 It doesn't make sense.

00:13:22.260 Yeah.

00:13:22.380 All these liberal entrenched NGOs are like a JG Wentworth commercial.

00:13:26.700 They're like, it's my money and I want it now.

00:13:29.580 Can you guys explain those as, as Washington insiders?

00:13:34.440 Can you explain the NGO graft?

00:13:38.020 Oh, it's, it's fantastic.

00:13:39.300 I mean, this is, this is one of the progressive left's biggest big multi-decade victories in

00:13:45.300 the world.

00:13:46.160 NGOs and, and what you do through like USAID, which has come under great scrutiny over the

00:13:51.300 last two years or last two weeks, I should say.

00:13:54.540 The initial intent behind all of it is, is sort of soft power, right?

00:13:59.060 Whereas the United States can exert economic leverage against people who may not have our

00:14:05.880 best interests in mind in a bunch of regions throughout the world where we need some help,

00:14:10.880 whether it's a footprint from the United States is against terrorism as it was for much of

00:14:15.160 the first 20 years, I guess, of this, of this century, you could have programs that were set

00:14:22.020 up to basically buy some influence within a, a country that could be helpful or unhelpful.

00:14:29.120 The intent was right.

00:14:29.900 What happened over time is the progressive left took this as a pot of money to social engineer

00:14:37.920 internationally and it, because it was so not prescriptive in terms of where they were

00:14:44.820 awarding this money, they have these NGOs that are like in Tanzania doing transgender studies.

00:14:49.820 Right.

00:14:50.200 And it's true. 0.56

00:14:51.420 It's literally, you know, literally, literally.

00:14:54.540 And if the more you dig into it, the more you find out that the use of this money is not

00:15:00.240 about keeping the American people safe at all.

00:15:02.340 There is some of that.

00:15:03.320 And those people, unfortunately, have to suffer the same result as everybody else because of what

00:15:09.480 the progressive left has done and perverted this entire program to a point where, I mean,

00:15:15.380 there's not a single American taxpayer that would agree with nine-tenths of what Elon Musk

00:15:21.380 has talked about in terms of where this USAID money is going.

00:15:26.600 Right.

00:15:27.320 Oh, for sure.

00:15:28.000 These cuts are going to have majority support.

00:15:30.060 And so far, the polling shows they have majority support.

00:15:33.320 Elon's struggling somewhat in his approval ratings, depending on who you ask, which pollster

00:15:37.840 you ask.

00:15:38.400 But people like Doge and they like cuts and they're not on the side of the federal bureaucrats

00:15:44.060 and they love Trump.

00:15:45.380 I mean, his numbers are great.

00:15:46.840 I mean, Elon's the forward facing, you know, sort of picture of all this.

00:15:50.300 So he's a controversial guy just because of X and so on.

00:15:53.580 So liberals don't like him.

00:15:55.480 To your point, Smug, Trump said something very similar yesterday.

00:15:58.780 Like, he's had enough of the nonsense of funneling all this money to these left-wing causes, to

00:16:04.280 these illegal immigrants, and not to actual Americans who are suffering.

00:16:08.560 Here is SOT 6.

00:16:10.440 Because there's a massive fraud that's taken place.

00:16:13.340 And then you have judges that are activists and they sit there and they say, oh, as an example,

00:16:18.000 $59 million going to a little small group in New York City.

00:16:24.480 You get nothing going to North Carolina to help, nothing.

00:16:27.860 They say, we don't have any money because they've given it away on the border.

00:16:31.780 But you have nothing.

00:16:33.000 What they did to North Carolina is a shame.

00:16:35.100 And then they sent $59 million to New York City for a hotel for a little bit of what they've done.

00:16:43.480 A hotel that was not luxury, that's getting luxury rates for migrants, where they're making a fortune. 1.00

00:16:50.440 And we catch them.

00:16:52.500 We catch them.

00:16:54.060 But a judge says, well, even though it may be a fraud, you have to send the money in anyway.

00:16:59.620 Send the money.

00:17:00.200 I said, wait a minute, we have money that shouldn't go because we caught it before it was sent out.

00:17:05.980 But they want the money to go anyway.

00:17:08.780 And I think you're going to have a lot of things to look at, Pam.

00:17:14.920 Pam Bondi, who's starting her own offensive lawfare against some of these excesses. 1.00

00:17:21.900 Go ahead, Ashbrek.

00:17:23.100 I was just going to say, I think that's a fight that the president welcomes.

00:17:26.240 You know, you have these NGOs protecting their money.

00:17:30.060 And the way Josh said it is exactly right.

00:17:32.860 Something that started out in the right direction was corrupted by the left.

00:17:36.820 And that's how you get these ridiculous things like $75,000 for a trans musical in Ireland. 0.99

00:17:46.180 They already have Riverdance. 0.83

00:17:48.400 I don't know why we're supposed to be spending American taxpayer dollars for a trans musical. 0.98

00:17:54.940 And every single one of these things that the left is fighting, like the surgeries in Nicaragua, we don't need a sex change, pay for a sex change for Nicaraguans.

00:18:06.100 You know what I mean?

00:18:06.600 People in North Carolina could use the money.

00:18:09.060 That's a whole new connotation on the Sandinistas, isn't it?

00:18:13.060 That's a really good point about Riverdance.

00:18:15.360 And then we have that for free.

00:18:16.520 We didn't even have to subsidize that.

00:18:18.600 All right.

00:18:18.760 I want to play one other soundbite.

00:18:21.800 Caroline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, was getting into some of this yesterday.

00:18:25.280 Here she is in side eight. 0.54

00:18:28.600 Many outlets in this room have been fear mongering the American people into believing there is a constitutional crisis taking place here at the White House.

00:18:37.600 I've been hearing those words a lot lately.

00:18:39.520 But in fact, the real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch, where district court judges and liberal districts across the country are abusing their power to unilaterally block President Trump's basic executive authority.

00:18:55.360 We believe these judges are acting as judicial activists rather than honest arbiters of the law.

00:19:02.040 And they have issued at least 12 injunctions against this administration in the past 14 days, often without citing any evidence or grounds for their lawsuits.

00:19:11.660 This is part of a larger concerted effort by Democrat activists and nothing more than the continuation of the weaponization of justice against President Trump.

00:19:20.540 Quick newsflash to these liberal judges who are supporting their obstructionist efforts.

00:19:25.660 77 million Americans voted to elect this president.

00:19:30.280 And each injunction is an abuse of the rule of law and an attempt to thwart the will of the people.

00:19:35.500 As the president clearly stated in the Oval Office yesterday, we will comply with the law in the courts.

00:19:41.560 But we will also continue to seek every legal remedy to ultimately overturn these radical injunctions and ensure President Trump's policies can be enacted.

00:19:51.020 Okay, now here's where I want to go on this point.

00:19:55.820 They are winning the law fair.

00:19:57.660 But with every injunction saying you can't review spending, you can't review personnel, you have to restore trans web pages at the CDC.

00:20:12.440 I mean, it's crazy the micromanaging that these federal courts are trying to do of the executive branch.

00:20:18.880 We are getting closer to the executive branch really being forced to consider telling the judicial branch to pound sand.

00:20:29.700 That's I mean, that is potential crisis.

00:20:31.760 I don't know.

00:20:32.300 It's I don't consider it constitutional crisis until we get to the Supreme Court.

00:20:35.820 But how much does the Trump administration need to take?

00:20:40.520 Like, how how do they have to listen to these federal judges saying, put that web page back up?

00:20:49.340 What in the actual F?

00:20:52.040 And it's happening.

00:20:53.600 There's over 50 lawsuits filed so far.

00:20:56.620 Lots of these judges are Obama appointees, Clinton appointees who are Biden appointees who are far left activists who are just having some fun trying to thwart the Trump agenda.

00:21:08.600 And I I do think at some point the Trump administration may be even though Trump saying I will abide by the rulings, I'm not looking to thwart the rule of law in any way, either directly with a written statute or if it's issued against me by a judge.

00:21:24.060 But at some point, if this continues, it's almost like the Trump administration is not going to have a choice.

00:21:29.220 Are they I'll give you another example.

00:21:31.400 Over the weekend, the Treasury Department got issued a temporary restraining order, which you can get you get like that.

00:21:38.320 You go into you don't even need opposing counsel.

00:21:40.300 What happens is you go into court and you say Elon is letting big balls take a look at people's, you know, financial information. 0.59

00:21:49.440 And big balls doesn't have the security clearances.

00:21:51.900 And judge, you need to stop that right now. 0.95

00:21:53.560 The judge doesn't say, oh, get Elon and Trump's and Treasury's lawyer in here.

00:21:57.620 The judge just says, OK, I issue a temporary restraining order.

00:22:00.960 You can always get a temporary restraining order without opposing counsel.

00:22:03.560 That's how you normally do it.

00:22:05.040 And then that just stays in place for like 48 hours or 72 hours until both parties can get in.

00:22:10.660 It just sort of preserves the status quo until you can get to the preliminary hearing.

00:22:14.620 So the judge issued this TRO.

00:22:17.600 But in this TRO, the judge said, OK, stop, stop letting big balls and anybody else look at the Treasury information and shred all documents you've gotten already.

00:22:28.040 Shred everything.

00:22:29.280 So this judge, who, by the way, wasn't even the real assigned judge on this case, just like a temporary filling and a lefty appointed by, I think, Obama,

00:22:36.500 tells them you have to undermine all the work you've done and undo everything you've done by pulling records that you're going to use to figure out where we're spending the people's money before we even have a real hearing on the case,

00:22:49.740 before your lawyers really had had any chance whatsoever to defend you.

00:22:53.420 Right.

00:22:53.980 That's activism.

00:22:55.080 And in the why should the Trump administration actually be forced to start shredding documents before it's even had a lawyer appear before a judge like they're trying to create a constitutional crisis is, I guess, the point I'm making.

00:23:09.680 So here's something that we've been warning about on the show for years.

00:23:13.560 It's been widely reported that the left, Soros, you know, even overseas billionaire donors to the left have put in place prosecutors across the country,

00:23:22.860 the Soros prosecutors that have been widely reported.

00:23:25.060 But there's been a similar problem with judges.

00:23:27.420 A prime example, one of the judges at the forefront of trying to subvert the will of the American people and fight President Trump is Jack McConnell in Rhode Island.

00:23:35.480 Now, Jack McConnell was a major donor to both senators from Rhode Island, including Sheldon Whitehouse, who, after he donated the money, then nominated him to be a judge.

00:23:44.560 So they have their own patronage system, and they've used that to capture a significant portion of the judgeships in this country.

00:23:51.360 So when you see this kind of behavior, like you said, it's blatantly against the Constitution, what they're trying to do here.

00:23:57.700 They're subverting the will of the American people.

00:23:59.480 But that patronage system is almost like the failsafe that the Democrats have put in control, that if there's ever a Republican in office, if someone ever tries to stop the gravy train that we've been rolling with, we have this as our last line of defense.

00:24:12.960 Yeah. Yeah.

00:24:13.900 I mean, look, a big part of the progressive left's agenda and what they've tried to accomplish basically since 1960 is institutional capture.

00:24:21.400 And it goes everywhere from corporate America, entertainment industry, higher education to, in this case, one of the three branches of the federal government.

00:24:31.040 And this is why it was so important that what happened from 2017 to 2021 in terms of appellate court judges and the Supreme Court is ultimately what they've been trying to do at this federal court level, district court level, is have what you're seeing playing out in front of everybody right now, which is just a leftist agenda with no basis in law.

00:24:53.260 Now, because of the work that Donald Trump did the first four years, this is going to run up against a real life problem for the left in that they've got a whole bunch of courts throughout this country at the appellate level that actually interpret the law.

00:25:09.120 Right. And I think to your point, it's a good one, Megan. Like, yes, it just it delays the process in it.

00:25:15.540 It makes everybody focused on the wrong things here. But I mean, your audience should have at least a little bit of confidence in that because of the first four years of work that the Trump administration has done, we will ultimately get to the right place.

00:25:29.420 I mean, the idea that you can't actually look to see if one hundred and seventy five year old American is still receiving Social Security and not, I don't know, blow the whistle on that for fear that a 40 year old somewhere is probably not going to get their Social Security because they've been exhausted by fraud for generations before them.

00:25:47.100 Like that is the kind of thing that is the reason you elect presidents. And it's going to be thrown out, actually, actually punted out of court at some level. But it doesn't completely alleviate the discomfort at the front end.

00:26:00.460 And it's so annoying listening to the press coverage of it because they just say, oh, constitutional crisis, you know, because of that tweet and because they just don't like Trump and because Trump's not rolling over in these court proceedings.

00:26:11.260 But what's what's really happened here is we've had a dereliction of duty and overstepping of the authority by the Biden administration and other, I'm sure, leftist administrations prior.

00:26:22.000 We know that happened during Obama and Trump got smart by by, you know, Trump two point oh, when it comes to fighting the administrative state and bit by bit, he is undoing their soft power agenda.

00:26:33.660 He's he now knows, like, where the soft spot in the belly is and he's sticking the knife in and trying to get back our funds and stop this crazy agenda that nobody voted for.

00:26:45.780 That's been rolling forward. Administration under administration doesn't matter whether it's a Republican or Dem at the top.

00:26:51.480 And man, are they pissed now? They're like, now it's on.

00:26:55.540 You know, now you're you're actually going to things we care about, which is like our slush funds.

00:27:00.160 So I think he will prevail prevail on the law front on the law fair.

00:27:06.440 But man, it's going to be a slugfest. And in the meantime, they are staying on the offense, which is good.

00:27:11.680 Like Pam Bondi yesterday, she announced on the heels of announcing they're suing Illinois for being a sanctuary state and Chicago as sanctuary city saying you you can't do that.

00:27:22.500 There's you know, thanks to the supremacy clause, you actually do have to work with us on federal laws.

00:27:27.220 You can't actively undermine us on housing illegals and not turning over illegals that, you know, are illegals.

00:27:33.280 Now she filed a lawsuit against New York state, including Governor Kathy Hochul for similar reasons when it comes to illegals. 0.99

00:27:41.740 In particular, she's taking issue with the fact that they're issuing illegals driver's licenses. 0.90

00:27:46.800 And then when the feds call up saying, do you have an illegal immigrant by the name of whatever, Julio something instead of saying, oh, yeah, we have him right here at the Roosevelt Hotel, which is where Laken Riley's would be murderer stayed on the taxpayers dime.

00:28:08.160 Instead of saying, yeah, he's at the Roosevelt will, you know, go ahead over or even in New York jail, you know, Rikers for having committed a crime.

00:28:17.640 They say, we're not going to tell you. And then they notify the illegal.

00:28:23.380 New York then calls the illegal at the Roosevelt or or notifies him at Rikers to say, hey, FYI, the feds are looking for you.

00:28:31.900 So if they can flee, they do. And what happened with Laken Riley's murder?

00:28:35.700 I don't know that that notification happened with him, but he was staying at the Roosevelt on our dime.

00:28:40.900 And then on our dime, we flew him down south and that's where he murdered Laken Riley in Georgia, all funded by us.

00:28:51.120 So she is trying Pam Bondi now to stay on offense. 0.98

00:28:55.000 In addition to having she's the one who's going to have to defend all this bullshit happening against Elon, against Treasury, against all these programs that they're trying to look into. 0.54

00:29:02.500 Now she's also trying to stay on offense by going after Illinois, by going after New York. 1.00

00:29:07.560 And she's going to have these other battles on her hand on her hands as they continue in places like Maine and Minnesota. 0.99

00:29:15.620 And there's a third state that I can't remember right now that are saying they're not going to comply with the gender executive orders or President Trump's California or even the federal district court judges ruling, which applies nationwide, that Biden's changes to Title IX are void and illegal, which means boys cannot play in girls sports in K through 12 education because it's a discriminate.

00:29:44.100 And that's a statute that protects girls in sports and their right to equal participation. 1.00

00:29:48.100 Anyway, what we have is open flouting of the law by the Democrats.

00:29:51.740 I mean, it's ubiquitous flouting coast to coast.

00:29:55.500 And I mean, it's I guess it's a great thing.

00:29:57.340 It's being exposed in the way it is.

00:29:59.140 But I think most people you guys tell me, the audience will tell me are like, it's a lot.

00:30:04.260 My head hurts.

00:30:06.260 Well, Megan, the worst thing about it is that these bureaucrats are continuing to flout the law. 1.00

00:30:13.100 I don't know if you saw it, but there is a story about some people working in the FBI who tipped off a bunch of Venezuelan gang members in California that ICE is coming after you.

00:30:25.320 They want to remove gang members from this country.

00:30:28.680 Here is the date they're going to be there.

00:30:30.220 Here is where they're going to go.

00:30:31.660 You guys should get out of there.

00:30:33.160 Now, I'm telling you, like, for the Biden administration to do that, that is what we expect.

00:30:39.000 But like the thought that people who are working for this government, working for taxpayers are are tipping off gang members in California and telling them that they should get out of there before ICE can move them out of the country.

00:30:53.540 I mean, Pam Bondi has been unequivocal on this, and I hope to God she wins, and I hope to God she roots out all of these problems within our own government that exist today that are stopping the progress to keep Americans safe.

00:31:10.120 And I hope Trump wins.

00:31:11.420 I mean, it's it is so important that they win this fight.

00:31:15.100 I think there's good news on that, Megan.

00:31:16.800 And I mean, look, all this stuff, everything is hard.

00:31:20.380 And they make their whole goal on the left is try to make any change extremely hard.

00:31:25.440 Here's the good news.

00:31:26.900 If you just do these things, these are things that the American people want done.

00:31:30.380 But when you have a vocal opposition, then the American people make a political choice.

00:31:35.160 Right. And what you've seen over the first three and a half weeks of this administration is everything they've done from trans transgender sports to securing the border to deporting illegals to you name it.

00:31:47.140 It is a 60 percent proposition in this country in terms of where the American people are.

00:31:52.740 And I think you're seeing a real life realignment as a result.

00:31:56.300 Democrats have always, always been able to rely on a split, totally partisan country in order to safeguard what they want to do.

00:32:04.400 But now that they're having this fight, all these fights out in public, they're losing traction.

00:32:09.740 And you can see it when you've got a bunch of public employees who are in the middle of a Tuesday out singing union chants about how they're being treated unfairly, being paid eight months for free to leave with a full retirement and everything else.

00:32:25.480 Like that's exactly what the American people were talking about when they wanted this whole thing shaken up.

00:32:30.540 But now they get to see it.

00:32:32.000 Now they get to see it.

00:32:32.860 It's in technicolor for everyone that creates political realignment in a way that I don't think we've seen, at least not my career in politics.

00:32:42.400 Yeah, it could be generational.

00:32:43.880 That's a very good point.

00:32:44.660 By the way, since we are relentlessly factual here at the MK show, the trans opera was in Columbia.

00:32:50.720 The DEI musical was in Ireland.

00:32:53.200 Just to your point, DEI musical in Ireland is really now we're getting even closer to what we see on Riverdance.

00:32:59.880 But yeah, OK, so that that covers like the landscape, which I hope the audience appreciates is a confusing landscape.

00:33:08.920 But hopefully we've summarized it to a level you can grasp.

00:33:12.460 It's hard work to figure out what's happening with the law fair and doge and all the cutting and so on.

00:33:17.700 But the bottom line is Trump's winning.

00:33:19.720 His executive powers will be affirmed, as they have been bit by bit in these lower courts.

00:33:25.040 And I think if this thing goes up to the Supreme Court, any of these things, testing what Trump has the power to do, only in the most extreme cases are they going to slap his hand.

00:33:34.240 Because the Supreme Court has no enforcement mechanism.

00:33:37.400 This has been the truth about the Article III courts from the dawn of the Constitution.

00:33:41.740 It they're all afraid because they really don't have any real way of making the executive branch comply.

00:33:49.120 It's kind of like a because we said so a situation for a parent.

00:33:54.340 And because of separation of powers, everybody has obeyed the courts since the dawn of time.

00:34:00.180 I mean, that's for the most part, that's that's just the respect that we have.

00:34:03.740 But all those Article III judges need to be very careful because if they push the executive too far, especially this executive, they they will trigger a constitutional crisis that will leave them feckless and powerless in a dangerous and provocative way. 0.81

00:34:21.240 And while some of these federal district court judges are truly too stupid to understand that, I mean, we saw all these DEI hires under Obama. 0.81

00:34:29.980 We saw some of these confirmation hearings that get through. 1.00

00:34:32.380 These judges were absolute idiots. 1.00

00:34:34.140 They didn't understand anything about the Constitution, but they had the right DEI profile. 1.00

00:34:37.920 And so they got confirmed by a Democrat controlled Senate. 1.00

00:34:41.380 So some are idiots. 1.00

00:34:42.920 But the Supreme Court is not idiotic and it is still controlled by the conservatives and they will do the right thing in the end. 1.00

00:34:49.140 So proceed at your own peril. 0.97

00:34:50.480 Proceed at your own peril, lower court judges and Democrats, you will rue the day in the end.

00:34:56.880 And that leads me.

00:34:59.680 OK, first, I wanted to say this because I'm about to go to McConnell, your your old boss.

00:35:03.880 But I did want to make the point about the FBI leaking, maybe, according to, you know, Kristi Noem and Tom Homan.

00:35:12.040 They think that was the FBI who leaked that they were about to raid that Colorado apartment complex, Ashbrook, that we were talking about and gave a heads up to gang members so they could get out.

00:35:23.440 And Tom Homan couldn't get them.

00:35:24.500 Aren't you so glad that we have Kash Patel coming in as the head of the FBI now?

00:35:30.280 Yes.

00:35:30.480 Every soundbite I've ever heard from him.

00:35:33.100 I'm now like, shoot it into my veins.

00:35:35.760 Right. 0.87

00:35:36.180 It's got swagger. 1.00

00:35:38.460 He can be kind of an asshole, but like in a good way. 1.00

00:35:40.900 And he won't take crap from anybody. 1.00

00:35:44.100 I'm like, run, run, don't walk to FBI HQ, Kash Patel here. 0.96

00:35:49.580 Oh, we actually wait.

00:35:50.200 We have for the audience members who don't know him as well.

00:35:53.660 Here's a little bit of Kash Patel on Sean Ryan.

00:35:56.780 And the biggest problem the FBI has had has come out of its Intel shops.

00:36:00.480 I'd break that component out of it.

00:36:01.880 I'd shut down the FBI Hoover building on day one and reopening the next day as a museum of the deep state.

00:36:07.800 And I'd take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals.

00:36:13.280 Go be cops.

00:36:14.160 You're cops.

00:36:15.020 Go be cops. 0.61

00:36:15.860 Go chase down murderers and drug dealers and violent offenders.

00:36:18.820 What do you need 7,000 people there for?

00:36:20.560 Same thing with DOJ.

00:36:21.760 What are all these people doing here?

00:36:23.500 Looking for their next government promotion.

00:36:25.040 Looking for their next fancy government title.

00:36:26.740 Looking for their parachute out of government.

00:36:28.240 So while you're bringing in the right people, you also have to shrink government.

00:36:32.280 I love it.

00:36:33.060 Yes.

00:36:33.940 Right?

00:36:34.200 I love it.

00:36:35.040 Yeah.

00:36:35.620 Yeah.

00:36:35.800 It's so good.

00:36:36.520 Listen, he is a breath of fresh air.

00:36:38.860 I mean, he's been on the show with us before, too.

00:36:41.760 And there's never been a time, I think, in America's history that needed just a jarring shakeup like the FBI does right now.

00:36:51.540 I mean, we've seen, obviously, how they handled everything during the first four years of Trump and then everything thereafter and all the lawfare that sort of sparked within the FBI.

00:37:01.080 But it requires somebody like Cash, right?

00:37:03.320 I mean, this is not like a bureaucrat job where you can go push some paper around and hope that it all turns out okay.

00:37:09.440 You need somebody who's going to break some China. 0.97

00:37:11.420 And that is very clearly what I think he's going to be up to.

00:37:14.780 And I mean, I think he brings up a really good point is the incentive structure in D.C. is push paper around, gun for the next promotion.

00:37:23.120 Why aren't those 7,000 people out in the field?

00:37:25.840 They're in D.C. trying to, you know, work their little networks and be buddy-buddy by tipping off gang members in Colorado.

00:37:32.300 They should be in Colorado handcuffing them.

00:37:34.700 It makes no sense.

00:37:35.780 And I think Cash tells the right person to shake it up.

00:37:37.240 And they're probably not prepared for it.

00:37:38.820 I mean, they built the FBI in this current iteration under the wrong pretenses.

00:37:43.500 I mean, we saw it play out during the course of the terrorist attack down in New Orleans where the first FBI special agent in charge rolled up and was like, well, there's no terrorism here.

00:37:52.640 Yeah. And like 12 hours later, they're like, no, it's absolutely terrorism here.

00:37:56.540 The guy's like, hello, Akbar.

00:37:58.580 What are you doing here?

00:38:01.880 You know, who's the authority?

00:38:04.200 Yeah.

00:38:05.200 OK, so let's switch to McConnell because I have to say I'm not one of those rabid McConnell haters.

00:38:13.040 I'm not. And I know there are a lot on Team Trump and I get I get it.

00:38:16.020 Totally get it.

00:38:16.600 But I like I personally, I can't get over all the good he did for the country when it comes to Article three judges and the Supreme Court.

00:38:24.760 Like we would not have the Supreme Court that we have if it weren't for Mitch McConnell.

00:38:28.780 He is a true blue conservative, dyed in the wool Republican.

00:38:32.860 He really but he hates Trump and Trump hates him.

00:38:36.960 And this has turned into a problem for Republicans and Trump in the country.

00:38:41.280 And now he's voted against Hegseth, Tulsi and RFKJ, which leads us where on Mitch McConnell, guys?

00:38:49.940 I hate to put you on the crosshairs because I know, you know, you know, I mean, it's a fair question.

00:38:54.380 I mean, first off, I should say the last time I provided him any advice on how to vote was in 2014, 11, 11 long years ago.

00:39:02.120 But look, I think where this is, the first my first takeaway is the Trump administration and John Thune and Barrasso in the Senate have done an incredible job to get nominees who entered into the public discussion in a very controversial place where there was some concern inside of a traditional Republican Party about how RFK, for example,

00:39:29.180 who've said, you know, sort of famously liberal positions on a whole bunch of health care issues would fare in that in that context.

00:39:36.800 And throughout the course of the nomination process, these folks work together in a way that I don't you know, we haven't really seen a lot of even Democrats are really not as good as what I've seen over the last three weeks in repairing those, getting face to face conversations and getting people to a point where they're not going to lose any of these people.

00:39:55.260 Right. I mean, every single piece of the confirmation puzzle has has come together.

00:40:01.280 Now, where does that leave McConnell? I think that's more indicative of the change in the Republican Party and his sort of the lack of pressure that he feels personally.

00:40:13.440 You have a whole bunch of Republicans. And this is for this is for real, like people don't know.

00:40:17.760 There's probably a third of that Senate conference. There's a little concerned about the way that Tulsi has talked about intelligence apparatus over the last at her hearing 10 years.

00:40:28.000 Right. And they're more than a little concerned. If she was a Democratic nominee, they would have voted to absolutely crush that nomination.

00:40:34.720 Agreed. But the power, the political power of Trump and part of what he's done over the last three weeks in terms of picking issues and having 60 percent of the American people on side of it is forcing everybody to a position to reevaluate this.

00:40:48.320 Ultimately, they work for Donald Trump. And that's what it is that they're voting to support.

00:40:52.400 Do they have misgivings about Tulsi Gabbard or maybe RFK in the way that he's going to handle the question of abortion in HHS?

00:40:59.580 Yes. Sure. They do. They're going to have issues with that. But ultimately, they trust Donald Trump.

00:41:04.920 Where McConnell is comes into all of that is he's just sort of traditionally where he's always been.

00:41:11.320 But the party has moved and the party is very much a Trump party. He is a Reagan Republican.

00:41:18.260 And I think if you were to go back in time in some kind of like a Marty McFly DeLorean and look at the way a Republican Party, you know, 20 years ago would have evaluated these nominations.

00:41:29.540 It looks very much like the way that he has. I don't think that he's doing what he's doing out of spite for Donald Trump.

00:41:37.900 It's just a lot. He doesn't feel the same political. If it were spiteful, Holmes, if it were spiteful, he would have voted against Rubio.

00:41:45.600 Yeah, exactly right. And he's obviously not going to do that. He thinks that Rubio is a terrific nomination from what I read in his statements.

00:41:52.920 But but I also think he's going to be I think he's going to be a force for good in terms of the team as you get into these thorny issues of reconciliation and budget and taxes and all of these things.

00:42:03.760 Because his ideology hasn't changed a lick. It is just not reflected when you get into that more libertarian area of defense and foreign affairs in particular, where a lot of Republicans still have issues with that.

00:42:19.020 He just doesn't feel the same political pressures as everybody else who's going to vote.

00:42:21.880 Yeah, he's more like a National Review Republican still like that's right. Those guys, that's right.

00:42:26.260 They they don't they actually some have TDS, but like Rich Lowry, he's great. He doesn't have TDS.

00:42:31.420 He actually can see Trump pretty clearly, but he disagrees with them on a few things and he's constantly defending him on many other things.

00:42:37.760 But yeah, I don't think he's a Tulsi fan. I don't know. I actually don't remember.

00:42:41.360 But I know the editors have not backed Tulsi and they have not backed RFKJ.

00:42:44.640 So I take your point. I actually think that's pretty interesting. And that's a position he's allowed to have.

00:42:49.440 I mean, he's he's how many years of public services the guy have.

00:42:52.020 But when you get find yourself on the opposite end of Trump, especially as a Republican like he is, you know, the party will turn on you.

00:42:58.760 That's what's happening to him. And I hate to see it because I think he's a good man.

00:43:02.760 I think he's a principled man. And the party apparatus is just like turned on him because he seems like a Trump antagonist, even though like Trump said all the mean things about his wife.

00:43:12.980 I mean, it's like it's complicated.

00:43:15.680 It's gone both ways. But but I think the story is not told yet, Megan.

00:43:19.700 And I think what's going to happen very quickly is we're going to get into a legislative discussion where the the crux of the Trump agenda has to be litigated.

00:43:29.360 And this is the hardest part. What he's done so far has been unbelievably great.

00:43:33.940 But ultimately, you're going to need Congress to try to work some of these things through.

00:43:38.160 And your taxes are going up five grand for your average American if they don't.

00:43:42.140 So there's real consequences here. I think somebody like McConnell, ultimately, there may be a point where he actually does have a significant amount of influence in trying to get people on board for the big win on the things that we actually come to define.

00:43:56.580 Thank you on that. We try very hard to avoid getting too deep into the budget here on the MK show for all sorts of reasons.

00:44:04.560 I refer you back to my high school guidance counselors. College recommendation for me.

00:44:09.600 It was my college recommendation. Megan does well in English and social studies. 0.87

00:44:15.300 Math and science aren't Meg's thing in my recommendation.

00:44:20.140 Who writes that anyway? So I try to avoid the math when I can.

00:44:24.520 But what's going to happen with the budget is going to be probably the most consequential thing of the Trump presidency.

00:44:32.040 And the thing about, you know, the reconciliation about budget reconciliation is the Democrats can't block that.

00:44:40.760 They don't need 60 votes. The Republicans don't need 60 votes to get a vote on basically financial matters on the budget.

00:44:49.500 They only need a majority of 51 and they have that. They have 53 Republican senators so they can afford to lose, you know, a couple.

00:44:58.800 They actually only need 50 because they have J.D. Vance who could break a tie, but they've got a majority.

00:45:03.060 So they should be able to get the budget through that the Republicans want unless some go rogue.

00:45:09.260 And you're saying Mitch McConnell could be the stalwart that keeps because it will be controversial.

00:45:14.940 They'll be shoving a lot into that reconciliation bill because they don't need a 60 vote, you know, 60 votes in the Senate to get cloture, meaning a vote on it at all.

00:45:25.300 They have a low threshold to pass it. So they're going to shove a lot of stuff in there that they want.

00:45:29.340 It's going to be controversial, which will cause some more moderate Republicans to try to peel off.

00:45:35.040 And your point is, it's in that moment in which Mitch McConnell's true influence in the Senate could prove pivotal.

00:45:41.180 Yeah, I think I think it is. I should warn your your viewers and listeners that the last math class I took was actually called math.

00:45:48.960 So, you know, this is this is not my area of expertise, but I do know how the process works.

00:45:54.040 And ultimately, any time you're you're working with razor thin margins, three votes in the Senate to until April in the House of Representatives, every single member that matters, matters.

00:46:05.860 And ultimately, where these things get settled out is if you get somebody who, you know, look, they haven't been on the team.

00:46:11.240 They're not like a partisan stall where they're always going to vote for the Trump agenda, no matter what's in it.

00:46:16.280 When those kind of people end up coming to the rest of their colleagues and saying, look, this is really important for the country, it has added weight to it, particularly in somebody who led the Republican Party for, you know, years and years, the longest serving leader in history.

00:46:31.200 So I think it is going to. And I and I also ultimately believe that he's going to dig his heels in and try to try to provide as much legislative heft as he can on issues like that, where at the end of the day, the Trump administration will be judged based on the outcome of those reconciliation bills.

00:46:50.100 Hmm. Well, that is very interesting. Do you see? I don't really want to get too deep into it, but everyone's debating. Should there be two bills or one?

00:46:59.840 I don't understand really what that's about. And I don't really want to. But could you explain it to me like I'm a third grader, what that debate is about?

00:47:08.620 It's the difference in the two chambers, right? The House of Representatives views one bite at the apple.

00:47:14.200 They think that in order to get a whole bunch of fiscal conservatives who are concerned about debt and deficits on board with extending the Trump 2017 tax cuts, which has a deficit number, according to how CBO scores all these things, in order to get them on board with that.

00:47:29.840 They need extra incentives. They need immigration, border security stuff, probably need some energy provisions, certainly like, you know, all the way to things like spectrum.

00:47:37.740 They need incentives to get on board with something that makes them a little queasy from a deficit perspective. In the Senate, it's a very different deal.

00:47:46.520 They have more unanimity around the issue that you don't have to pay for tax cuts.

00:47:54.580 Like every time we've made tax cuts in this country, our revenue has exceeded what the revenue was before you cut the taxes in the first place.

00:48:02.760 And the way that Congress scores the thing, they always say it's a big deficit, never turns out that way, but they have a longer view on all of that.

00:48:10.180 And so they're not as concerned about it. They can wrap their mind around taxes.

00:48:13.440 They also believe that this administration, first and foremost, will be most successful if you have a good, stable economy where businesses can actually plan over the long term.

00:48:23.420 And we can end up with an economic boom like the likes of which we saw in 2017.

00:48:28.700 And the only way you get that is if you do the tax piece and you get that part done.

00:48:33.460 The other piece is no less important, but they're very confident that that that is something that they can negotiate in and of itself because there's a lot of moving parts in it that have nothing to do with the core issue of taxes.

00:48:43.900 So that's the two differences of views between the House and the Senate.

00:48:48.500 Now, ultimately, they're gonna have to come together on this might end up being one big thing that the Senate takes two parts in. 0.98

00:48:54.560 But because of what's happened with these confirmation hearings and because of the unanimous sort of Republican support within the Senate, I think the Senate's probably going to take the lead on some of this stuff because the House has been, you know, they've been arguing a little bit about amongst each other about how they go forward.

00:49:11.120 Wow. There's so much coming our way. All right. I'm going to take a pause, take a break.

00:49:16.200 We're going to come back. There's a lot to discuss. RFKJ confirmed this morning by the full Senate.

00:49:21.340 He is now about to be sworn in as our Secretary of Health and Human Services.

00:49:26.920 What a momentous event in our in our country.

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00:49:33.240 Trump on his way toward pursuing peace with Russia and Ukraine and much, much more.

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00:50:45.880 RFKJ is confirmed, and I'm thrilled about this.

00:50:50.000 I couldn't care less about his stance on abortion or even the trans issue, 1.00

00:50:54.660 because I think he will not undermine Trump's stance on those issues.

00:50:58.340 I believe he wants this job very badly and does not want to get fired.

00:51:02.780 So he's not going to undermine Trump's agenda on those items, and Trump's been really clear on those items.

00:51:09.220 I do care about chronic disease, our children, our food supply, conflicts of interest at the FDA, the disgusting CDC, FDA, NIH,

00:51:20.060 and he's going to run roughshod over all those in a great way.

00:51:23.800 He's the Kash Patel.

00:51:25.240 He is to these organizations what Kash Patel is to the FBI, and we desperately need it.

00:51:30.260 And I have to say, there's something, I don't know, kind of sweet and kind of emotional about it for me,

00:51:36.920 because I'm just going to take you back to spring of 2022.

00:51:44.460 All right.

00:51:44.640 First, actually, I'm going to go back further.

00:51:46.500 Joe Biden, during the COVID pandemic, when he was censoring us all, right,

00:51:51.680 those of us on the right who had questions about anything got censored, how COVID started,

00:51:55.400 are the vaccines safe, all that stuff, and there was this crazy-ass day at the White House

00:52:01.400 where they read a list of the so-called disinformation dozen,

00:52:07.060 and it was people who were questioning his dogma, you know, at his, the CDCs, the NIHs,

00:52:14.600 almost all of which turned out to be false, and big tech went along with the censorship.

00:52:19.960 Here is a clip of that day.

00:52:21.800 Facebook pointed out, it was pointed out that Facebook, of all the misinformation,

00:52:28.760 60% of the misinformation came from 12 individuals.

00:52:33.040 Facebook isn't killing people.

00:52:34.420 These 12 people are out there giving misinformation.

00:52:38.380 Anyone listening to it is getting hurt by it.

00:52:41.000 It's killing people.

00:52:42.500 It's bad information.

00:52:44.880 Okay.

00:52:45.800 So RFKJ was at the top of the disinformation dozen list.

00:52:51.960 And that was July of 2021.

00:52:54.260 He dropped his book on the real Anthony Fauci, which even I was like, I don't trust him.

00:53:00.280 I'm not going to read that book.

00:53:01.300 And then my friend in this great moment when we were skiing was like, you know,

00:53:05.200 you might want to give it a try.

00:53:06.120 And I was like, well, you might want to be careful because garbage in, garbage out.

00:53:09.860 And she's like, oh, I mean, I love this woman. 0.98

00:53:11.920 She's very smart and she's not some nutcase.

00:53:14.900 And she was like, you know, maybe just take a look.

00:53:17.020 So I trusted her.

00:53:17.900 I did start to take a look.

00:53:18.720 And I was like, well, this is actually kind of interesting.

00:53:20.340 Like, no, I don't like Fauci.

00:53:22.220 So I'm kind of open minded to it.

00:53:24.000 One thing led to another.

00:53:25.220 And I asked my team to take a look at this book and then start taking a look at RFKJ.

00:53:29.960 And then what we did was we started calling all of his worst critics and hearing all the

00:53:34.820 terrible things they had to say about him and then calling other people like going down

00:53:38.180 the line, try to figure out whether they sounded like people, you know, we trust and we

00:53:41.900 should listen to or not.

00:53:42.680 And long story short, they sounded much more like agenda driven Biden supporters who didn't

00:53:48.580 want discussions about lab leaks and so on.

00:53:52.140 And we decided to invite him on the show.

00:53:54.460 So it was the spring of 2022, March of 2022, I was going through this terrible thing where

00:54:01.880 my son at the time we were skiing, tore his spleen in three places.

00:54:08.780 He was only eight.

00:54:10.820 Yeah.

00:54:11.080 And it was like serious.

00:54:12.520 He was in the ICU for a week.

00:54:14.960 It was this whole, it's still my number one or number two most watched video ever.

00:54:20.260 I went on the air.

00:54:21.160 I just had to talk about it because it was like, I'm in the midst of this.

00:54:23.360 I'm just going to share with you what's happening.

00:54:25.180 And that was the week I had to tape the wraps for the RFKJ interview that we had done, but

00:54:30.960 we did it and we got it out there and he came out.

00:54:34.160 He sounded so reasonable.

00:54:35.680 All right.

00:54:35.880 So here's how he sounded that day.

00:54:38.000 And I remember we talked about like his voice issue and he was like, oh, I have this condition

00:54:41.600 and I'm sorry.

00:54:43.000 My voice actually isn't doing that well today has good days and bad days.

00:54:46.180 And then he kind of made a point about how he was still a Democrat, but he was a bit

00:54:51.080 of a disaffected Democrat when he looked around at his own party.

00:54:54.780 Listen here.

00:54:56.280 My political party, I saw a Gallup poll recently.

00:55:00.940 It was either Gallup or Rasmussen that said that something like a 70% of Democrats support

00:55:07.620 government restricting the speech.

00:55:11.540 And, you know, it's almost inexplicable to me that we could be in that place right now.

00:55:21.520 I believe my political party was a party that would go to the mat to protect people's right

00:55:30.160 to say what they want.

00:55:31.520 And that's so critical for our democracy.

00:55:33.720 And it also is critical of public health.

00:55:36.760 Well, listen, I may be wrong about the things that I talk about, but, you know, why can't

00:55:43.660 we debate him?

00:55:46.260 He had been banned from all social media platforms, virtually all.

00:55:49.460 I think maybe one allowed him at that point.

00:55:51.580 Nobody would talk to him.

00:55:53.700 I think Tucker had spoken to him and nobody else.

00:55:56.920 He he specifically complained that he couldn't get on Joe Rogan.

00:56:00.380 He just wasn't getting any doors open because it like my own bias, most people were looking

00:56:05.940 at him thinking he's a kook.

00:56:07.940 That's all we ever heard about him.

00:56:09.300 And it seemed universal.

00:56:11.600 So, you know, people have busy lives.

00:56:13.800 They don't really spend a lot of time trying to rehabilitate some random figure.

00:56:17.400 And we had a very contentious but robust and great four hours together, half about vaccines,

00:56:24.680 half about personal.

00:56:25.640 And I really came to like and respect him.

00:56:27.760 And shortly thereafter, doors started to open for him.

00:56:32.600 People felt like they could put him on.

00:56:34.720 And that that interview lived on all platforms.

00:56:36.720 It didn't get deplatformed or demonetized or clipped anywhere, not on TikTok, not on Insta,

00:56:43.200 not on YouTube, nowhere.

00:56:44.920 It lived everywhere.

00:56:46.540 And it was the beginning of a resurgence for him that ultimately resulted in him running

00:56:52.480 for president.

00:56:54.120 Two years later, he came back on the show.

00:56:57.360 He had been on, he's been on a few, many times now, but, and this is what he said.

00:57:03.100 Thanks for putting me on back in, um, was it, was it March of 2022?

00:57:08.900 Yeah, that's right.

00:57:10.200 Yeah.

00:57:10.720 Because you were one of the first people to let me on at a time when it was, you know,

00:57:14.540 very dangerous to, or other outlets, um, to give me a platform.

00:57:20.680 And I'm, I've always been very grateful to you for that. 0.89

00:57:24.100 Oh, that was all so silly.

00:57:25.920 And I'm thrilled to see you out there with your message and doing so well as, as you should 0.82

00:57:30.420 be.

00:57:30.660 That whole thing was so not nonsensical.

00:57:32.720 And now here we are in February of 2025.

00:57:38.000 And that man has just been confirmed by a majority of the Senate losing only Mitch McConnell on

00:57:43.080 the Republican side, 52, 48 to be our next, not just any position, but secretary of health

00:57:50.520 and human services.

00:57:52.620 It's been a monumental comeback for him.

00:57:57.360 And he did it through his own hard work and refusal to stay quiet and refusal to stay down

00:58:04.040 when they, he was blacklisted by the white house as a disinformation officer.

00:58:09.620 And, you know, I really think I feel so hopeful you guys, because this whole movement, this

00:58:14.900 Maha movement is his. 0.90

00:58:17.160 And that's why Trump put him in this position.

00:58:18.960 I think he really did help Trump get elected.

00:58:20.680 And I'm thrilled he has the green light to start enacting true reform.

00:58:27.180 What do you guys make?

00:58:27.780 Yeah.

00:58:28.060 And Megan, I don't think he's the only one who's grateful that you put him on.

00:58:32.680 I think there are people all over this country who are grateful that you gave voice to what

00:58:36.560 so many people are thinking.

00:58:37.960 And what happened to him is really an object lesson in how the left reacts when anybody

00:58:43.280 dares to think differently than they do.

00:58:45.420 When anybody questions an assumption, you have so many people in this country who are like,

00:58:49.620 wait a minute, that doesn't make sense.

00:58:51.760 Why am I not allowed to ask questions?

00:58:53.680 Because you know that the best information, the best science comes from asking questions,

00:58:59.740 from testing hypotheses.

00:59:01.520 And this guy has done it over and over in the face of retribution from not only his own

00:59:08.200 party, but his own family.

00:59:09.300 The things that his own family has said about him is just terrible.

00:59:12.760 And I'm, I'm, I mean, I'm grateful that you put him on.

00:59:16.380 There's, there's plenty of things that, you know, RFK has said that I might not agree with,

00:59:20.860 but I don't think he's crazy.

00:59:22.740 I think the world in which we were living in during COVID was crazy.

00:59:26.780 If you said, hmm, maybe it's likely that if we have a level five lab studying coronaviruses 0.85

00:59:33.840 in Wuhan, China, that maybe the virus leaked out of the lab, you were crazy.

00:59:39.220 If you suggested perhaps that instead of getting a vaccine, if you got natural immunity, you

00:59:44.800 might be covered.

00:59:45.900 That was supposed to be crazy.

00:59:47.560 If you question the fact that you had to be six feet from everyone and wear a mask on your

00:59:51.700 face around, you know, living your life, like that was going to stop anything. 0.99

00:59:56.040 You were crazy. 0.99

00:59:57.400 Kids had to be vaccinated. 0.98

00:59:58.860 Kids with robust, you know, immunities had to be vaccinated. 0.99

01:00:02.700 You were crazy.

01:00:03.660 So yeah, in that world, RFK is one of the sanest people on the planet. 0.96

01:00:06.980 Yeah, totally.

01:00:07.540 I also think it's a perfect object lesson to the power of independent media and particularly

01:00:13.220 you, Megan, and what you have done with your show and this incredible run that you've had

01:00:19.440 that I think everybody in our line of work admires deeply and admire because you've helped

01:00:24.380 us out in the process.

01:00:25.380 But your decision based on reading a book and talking with people and trying to get a real

01:00:31.800 sense of the facts led you to a point where you're like, no, it's a conversation that's

01:00:36.280 worthy of happening when the entire media industrial complex was saying, nope, you can't hear from

01:00:42.000 them.

01:00:42.140 You'll get banned.

01:00:42.960 Don't do it.

01:00:43.920 Your decision to do that very likely triggered a larger conversation amongst the American

01:00:49.000 people that ultimately led him to be confirmed health and human health services secretary.

01:00:54.080 It's an incredible domino, isn't it?

01:00:56.620 He's got ideas.

01:00:57.580 Maybe we should test them, kick them around a bit.

01:01:00.800 I was going to say, it's not just him, but I don't think Tulsi would have been confirmed

01:01:05.620 if it weren't for digital media, independent media.

01:01:07.840 No question.

01:01:08.420 I don't know about Cash.

01:01:09.780 Maybe not him either.

01:01:10.760 And definitely not RFKJ.

01:01:13.580 Even, you know, Tucker had him on his podcast that he was doing over on Fox Nation, but

01:01:18.900 they wouldn't let him on Fox News Channel.

01:01:20.820 Like RFKJ would still be in the, you know, off to the sidelines if it weren't for independent

01:01:27.640 media.

01:01:28.000 And there was no way he could rehabilitate himself without independent media.

01:01:31.740 And I think the same is true of Tulsi, where she was, you know, rejected by the Republican

01:01:36.060 establishment.

01:01:36.980 It's it's amazing.

01:01:38.100 This is a victory, I think, for, you know, people, anybody who supports Maha and the revolutionary

01:01:42.940 things happening in when it comes to public health.

01:01:45.900 But it's also it's a victory for people in our lane.

01:01:48.680 And thank you for saying the nice things about me helping you guys at Ruthless.

01:01:51.960 But here's the truth.

01:01:53.120 I have helped and promoted a lot of podcasts and podcasters.

01:01:57.900 And not everybody takes off, guys.

01:01:59.940 You guys are celebrating this great 500th episode and have so many fans because you're amazing.

01:02:06.280 People love the way you tackle the news and your good humor and what a camaraderie you have

01:02:12.560 between the four of you.

01:02:13.660 And I'm one of them.

01:02:15.080 So I'm happy to have helped in any small way.

01:02:18.280 But you deserve every ounce of success you've earned yourselves.

01:02:21.700 Thank you.

01:02:22.360 I mean, you are too kind.

01:02:23.400 But I mean, we would be remiss if we didn't bring up that in this entire media sphere,

01:02:28.360 you're probably been the most generous with everyone on the right, elevating voices.

01:02:31.940 And in a more macro image of RFK success, when you saw the Democrats on the left focus on

01:02:38.640 deep platforming and trying to shut down voices and trying to shut down discussions, all that

01:02:44.320 led to is this massive blowback we saw last year where now you have Democrats scrambling

01:02:48.580 saying, why don't we have our own Joe Rogan?

01:02:50.640 Why don't we have our own independent?

01:02:51.940 Yeah, because they took over.

01:02:53.880 They captured the institution because you're tools of the state.

01:02:57.320 That's why.

01:02:57.960 So when folks like you put up their own shingle and start this own massive audience and have

01:03:02.560 this tremendous influence and opportunity for people to have these discussions, that's

01:03:07.180 where this victory came from in 2024.

01:03:09.580 Well, you need the Democrats helped more than that, even because, you know, when I was at

01:03:15.080 Fox and then for that year at NBC, I was more in the center.

01:03:20.080 I was like definitely center right.

01:03:22.860 Now I think I'm I'm pretty conservative.

01:03:26.000 I mean, I just am now.

01:03:27.380 I mean, the earth has shifted such that I think I have to say, yes, I by today's standards,

01:03:32.540 you'd call me conservative, but that's thanks to them that, you know, they what they did

01:03:37.640 to me.

01:03:38.260 I I they were vicious. 1.00

01:03:40.660 They're complete assholes. 1.00

01:03:42.940 Their woke ideology completely radicalized me against them. 1.00

01:03:46.460 And I love I love that.

01:03:47.920 It empowered me in a way that allowed me to see the truth about them.

01:03:52.420 You know, that was very helpful to me.

01:03:54.380 I like I wouldn't undo it if I could, because it really helped me understand who I was dealing

01:03:59.260 with over there.

01:03:59.900 Yeah.

01:04:00.840 And your in your power is in your authenticity and what you do so well, Megan.

01:04:06.240 And we said this from the first moment that we came on your first show.

01:04:10.020 This is not Megan trying to figure out how to tell a story.

01:04:13.640 She's telling you exactly what it is that she thinks.

01:04:16.020 And for people who saw you on on Fox or saw you on NBC, like they had an image of you.

01:04:21.800 And then all of a sudden they got the raw, uncut Megyn Kelly. 1.00

01:04:25.000 And they were like, whoa, I'm turning into that.

01:04:27.380 Yeah, I got to get some of that.

01:04:29.660 Like, that sounds fantastic.

01:04:30.880 And it's interesting, provocative conversations, the kind of which we should have at every dinner

01:04:35.440 table across this country that the left has been saying, like, don't do it.

01:04:39.160 It's dangerous.

01:04:39.760 And I think it is right.

01:04:40.960 Like, I think this is the discussion that people are having at dinners across this country.

01:04:45.280 And like her experience of being somebody who's like, I'm kind of in the middle.

01:04:49.100 Maybe I have some conservative opinions.

01:04:50.920 And then the world changed and the left changed.

01:04:53.620 I feel like that is a view reflected across this country.

01:04:57.200 And we saw that on election day.

01:04:58.760 You know, there are I know people in my personal life who didn't consider themselves Republicans,

01:05:03.820 big are Republicans.

01:05:05.360 But like they came out and voted early for up or down the ballot.

01:05:08.980 Right.

01:05:09.220 Like, right.

01:05:09.900 It's what they did to the world.

01:05:11.980 And it's covid.

01:05:13.540 It's censorship.

01:05:14.060 It's everything that I think has really moved, not just the Megyn Kellys of the world, but 0.88

01:05:19.240 like, you know, just moms and dads across the country.

01:05:21.920 Totally.

01:05:22.100 But it's the fearlessness of people like Megan who can give people the confidence to know

01:05:27.440 I'm not crazy.

01:05:28.640 I've not I've not shifted myself.

01:05:31.220 I like she gets it.

01:05:32.780 She knows what it is that I'm talking about.

01:05:34.740 And if she can do that, well, let's have that conversation at the dinner table.

01:05:38.080 All right.

01:05:39.200 Now, Abby did find my my recommendation, my high school recommendation.

01:05:44.320 OK, so you guys, I'll just read you this one.

01:05:47.040 It's literally just a little paragraph at the end.

01:05:49.600 Truly, this is all I had.

01:05:50.860 Nobody wrote anything else.

01:05:52.340 I look at the way we get our kids into college these days.

01:05:54.900 I haven't yet had to fight this battle.

01:05:56.240 But, you know, soon, I'm sure, because I have a freshman and folks go to jail to get

01:06:00.380 their kids in college these days.

01:06:02.260 Right.

01:06:03.060 Right.

01:06:03.560 And literally, I don't know how to write a private letter.

01:06:06.060 There was no there was nothing.

01:06:07.200 It's my guidance counselor.

01:06:09.120 He had to write it.

01:06:10.800 And here I'm going to read to you the first paragraph of this thing.

01:06:15.160 The rest is just perfunctory.

01:06:16.440 But he writes, Meg Kelly is a solid student who has taken a strong program in high school.

01:06:23.620 Her areas of strength seem to be in language arts and social studies.

01:06:28.240 Meg loves to write and has a real interest in politics and government.

01:06:32.460 Currently, her goal is to become a political journalist.

01:06:36.120 OMG.

01:06:37.580 Wow.

01:06:37.800 Megan has had to work much harder and achieved less success in math and science.

01:06:44.200 Oh, my God.

01:06:46.260 This is in my recommendation.

01:06:48.480 He begged you.

01:06:49.280 What is happening, Mr. Villa?

01:06:53.200 He says, however, her willingness to struggle with these subjects, which are difficult for

01:06:59.220 her, is positive, as is the way she handles herself when she experiences difficulty.

01:07:03.740 Meg knows how to ask for help or take appropriate steps when she encounters a problem.

01:07:06.860 She perseveres in situations and bounces back from adversity.

01:07:10.760 All right, Mr. Villa, you landed it.

01:07:12.480 But I mean, did we have to point out the math and science problems in the recommendation letter?

01:07:18.820 I love that so much.

01:07:20.720 Also, clearly, she was a better student than we were.

01:07:23.860 Yeah.

01:07:24.160 You know, like my math and science or English or whatever was like, who's the hot girl I

01:07:28.700 can sit next to in first period?

01:07:30.500 That was basically the sum and substance of my academic portfolio.

01:07:36.860 So you were normal.

01:07:38.760 It's good.

01:07:39.340 I like a red-blooded American man with a bunch of testosterone.

01:07:42.520 They're back.

01:07:43.140 We're back, baby.

01:07:44.580 We're back.

01:07:45.320 So speaking of red-blooded American men with testosterone, Trump, in the news for many

01:07:50.820 things, including he is now the chair of the Kennedy Center Board, which is this like cultural

01:07:59.060 arts institution that is so far as I can tell, I don't really know what they do.

01:08:04.080 But every year you get like the awards and you see all these old musicians and actors and

01:08:09.220 other people who you may or may not like.

01:08:11.480 But they're usually on the left getting some sort of recognition by this institution.

01:08:17.260 And Trump fired half of the people who are involved in it and replaced them with Trump

01:08:24.040 loyalists.

01:08:25.500 And like Usha Vance is now on the board, which is great.

01:08:28.680 I'm thrilled she's there.

01:08:30.960 And then declared himself having won unanimous support to become the new chairman.

01:08:39.920 Yeah.

01:08:40.700 Yeah.

01:08:41.360 And CNN airs last night their exclusive audio of Trump speaking to the Kennedy Center Board,

01:08:50.540 trying to, you know, get everybody psyched up because it's not all Trump loyalists now.

01:08:54.160 He didn't fire everybody.

01:08:54.940 There's still some like old timers still sitting on it.

01:08:58.360 I don't know what led to the firing of some of the firing and the non firing of others.

01:09:02.600 But here's Trump describing how things are about to change over there.

01:09:06.380 SOT 17.

01:09:07.980 It's a very exciting development.

01:09:10.640 It's going to be great.

01:09:11.720 I think we're going to do something very special.

01:09:14.280 It got very wokey and some people were not happy with it and some people refuse to go and

01:09:20.200 we're not going to have that.

01:09:21.100 We're going to have something that will be very, very exciting and we'll do things both

01:09:25.840 physically and in every other way to make the building look even better.

01:09:30.400 I think we're going to make it hot.

01:09:32.220 We made the presidency hot.

01:09:34.220 So this should be easy.

01:09:35.960 And it's just really, it's great to have all the names.

01:09:40.320 It's great to have all of you with us.

01:09:42.940 We're going to add a few more to get up to the, whatever the number is that we're supposed

01:09:46.600 to be up to, but it's going to be really exciting, really fun.

01:09:51.040 I think you're going to enjoy yourselves and you're going to have a lot of good nights

01:09:53.680 also, nights and days watching performances of great artists.

01:09:58.380 So thank you all very much for your time and for being willing to do it.

01:10:03.120 But I think it's, again, it's something a lot of people want and I think it's something

01:10:07.240 you're going to enjoy for a long time to come.

01:10:09.760 And thank you all very much.

01:10:10.980 That's so awesome.

01:10:13.960 Yeah, I just love that so much.

01:10:15.940 And think about the person who was on that call and it was like, I'm recording it.

01:10:20.440 CNN, I got to get you this audio.

01:10:22.420 And Trump sounds like a normal person who's talking about making change in an organization.

01:10:27.000 You know, he is not the first guy to fire people from the Kennedy Center.

01:10:30.480 I don't know if you remember, Megan, but during COVID, the Kennedy Center worked with their

01:10:35.560 pal, Nancy Pelosi, to get a bailout because they said that if we don't get a bailout from 0.99

01:10:40.240 taxpayers, we're not going to be able to continue to operate.

01:10:43.140 And you know what happened right after they got that bailout from Nancy Pelosi, they fired

01:10:48.240 a bunch of people in the organization who were probably sweeping up after the performances.

01:10:52.900 And what I really hope that Donald Trump is able to do is brave life back into that building,

01:10:58.480 bring some acts that people actually want to see, something that's interesting to everybody,

01:11:03.080 not the same old woke stuff that we've seen out of that.

01:11:05.380 Yeah.

01:11:05.620 And Donald Trump has a soft spot for theater and theatricality.

01:11:09.780 Oh, man.

01:11:10.280 I do.

01:11:10.680 I mean, well, Trump's the only guy I know who, when he plays golf, listens to Andrea Bocelli

01:11:14.960 and Pavarotti, you know, so he clearly has a soft spot for the arts and I can appreciate

01:11:19.820 that.

01:11:20.280 And I would like to highlight that the Kennedy Center is showing Les Mis coming this summer.

01:11:24.120 And I think that's a fantastic production.

01:11:26.080 But the thing that really grinds my gears about the Kennedy Center is, you know, it's surrounded

01:11:34.180 by some of the wealthiest zip codes in America, all of America, and a community that does

01:11:39.580 a lot of philanthropic activity.

01:11:43.560 Why is it that the Kennedy Center needs to be funded by Congress in any way, shape or form?

01:11:47.440 Great point.

01:11:48.040 You know, if everybody agrees that it's this great cultural testament to the United States

01:11:52.180 of America, raise the money from private sources.

01:11:55.500 We've had harder fundraising experiences than it would be to raise money for the Kennedy

01:12:00.140 Center.

01:12:00.340 Exactly.

01:12:00.760 Unquestionably.

01:12:01.180 Everyone would donate to that. 0.96

01:12:02.220 All those rich, fat cats.

01:12:03.360 But, you know, you're not wrong, Duncan. 0.51

01:12:04.840 Trump is very culturally astute and experienced.

01:12:08.560 We pulled just one example.

01:12:10.120 It's from the 2005 Emmy Awards featuring Donald Trump and actress Megan Mullally.

01:12:15.660 Green Acres is the place to be.

01:12:27.300 Far living is the life for me.

01:12:31.620 Land's written out so far and wide.

01:12:35.300 Keep Manhattan.

01:12:36.160 Just give me that countryside.

01:12:38.260 He's really singing.

01:12:39.160 For sure.

01:12:42.320 Trump Tower.

01:12:43.800 You are my wife.

01:12:45.020 Goodbye, sweetheart.

01:12:46.980 We did it.

01:12:48.080 We are there.

01:12:51.920 I mean.

01:12:52.980 It's just so great.

01:12:54.260 Amming it up.

01:12:55.300 What a showman.

01:12:56.220 People don't, like, appreciate what a sense of humor Donald Trump has.

01:13:01.000 And he's willing to make fun of himself.

01:13:03.100 And all these liberals in Hollywood and stuff used to love that about him.

01:13:06.180 If you ever see the SNL clip of Trump Wings when he's doing the Wings promotion, it's hysterical.

01:13:12.520 We have something from SNL.

01:13:14.000 Stand by.

01:13:14.440 It's from 2015.

01:13:15.320 I don't think that's the one.

01:13:16.360 But it's him doing a parody of Drake's Hotline Bling.

01:13:20.760 Okay.

01:13:21.120 Tax guy's getting in on this land.

01:13:24.820 He's doing the truck dance.

01:13:25.620 He used to call me on the cell phone.

01:13:27.800 Call me on the cell phone.

01:13:36.420 So good.

01:13:46.740 So he is more than qualified to chair the Kennedy Center.

01:13:51.700 Yeah, for sure.

01:13:53.380 And, you know, for those of you who haven't been in D.C., like, that place has been lit up in a rainbow flag for the last four years.

01:13:59.460 Literally, every night it's lit up like a rainbow flag.

01:14:01.560 So that explains what's happening.

01:14:02.940 Because what's happening is people are resigning.

01:14:05.800 Like, the remaining riffraff are, you know, taking their ball and going home. 0.98

01:14:10.460 Because they don't, they wouldn't be on any board.

01:14:13.440 Of which Donald Trump was the chair.

01:14:16.500 Sandra Rimes.

01:14:18.120 You know, she created Grey's Anatomy. 0.99

01:14:19.960 Bridgerton.

01:14:21.240 Super woke.

01:14:21.960 She was treasurer.

01:14:23.380 For the Kennedy Center board.

01:14:24.580 No kidding.

01:14:24.920 Appointed by Obama.

01:14:26.720 And she resigned.

01:14:28.320 She resigned shortly after Trump was elected as head.

01:14:32.080 Saying, please be advised that as of today, Chandra Rimes has resigned from the board of the Kennedy Center.

01:14:38.360 Meanwhile, she did not, she did not express any outrage whatsoever when the Kennedy Center was doing drag shows.

01:14:45.520 That was all just fine with her.

01:14:46.620 This is the same woman who expressed her public empathy for Jussie Smollett.

01:14:51.880 Very, very, very upset.

01:14:53.440 So she tweeted, sending love, healing, and support for Jussie Smollett.

01:14:58.840 We all have a responsibility to rise up against the ignorance and hate out there.

01:15:04.300 If you know who did this, report them to the police.

01:15:08.100 She's got a long history of cutting tail and running. 1.00

01:15:10.960 When Elon took over X, she left, not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned.

01:15:16.600 Bye.

01:15:17.000 Well, we don't miss you, Chandra.

01:15:19.160 She was on the board of Time's Up, that organization, which imploded because it would only help women who'd been harassed by Republicans, but not anyone who'd been harassed by a Democrat.

01:15:31.000 So that's Chandra.

01:15:33.160 She's decided to leave, as has singer and songwriter Ben Folds.

01:15:38.580 You guys might not remember Ben Folds, but he was the lead singer of Ben Folds 5, and he did sing a song, which I love, called The Luckiest, which I sang to Doug when he turned 40 at his 40th birthday party, believe it or not.

01:15:51.640 Amazing.

01:15:52.560 I learned how to play it on the guitar.

01:15:54.240 I had secret lessons in my office at night, and then I sang it to him.

01:15:58.680 And I'm not a singer, but I loved Doug a lot, as I still do.

01:16:01.620 And Ben is all about, you know, when you don't like something, get out of it, because he's been divorced five times, but really has a judgment on Trump's morality and is peacing out of the Kennedy Center.

01:16:16.640 What do you guys make of it?

01:16:17.740 A real cut and runner.

01:16:20.020 Yeah.

01:16:20.260 Ben Folds 5.

01:16:22.380 Ben does fold.

01:16:22.940 Yeah, you know, you get it five times, now that I think about it.

01:16:27.020 That's right.

01:16:27.880 Maybe he was just trying to, like, amp the brand a little bit.

01:16:30.460 I don't know.

01:16:31.200 I mean, but you get the sense that all of these people who are resigning are the same kind of people that posted the black box on Instagram.

01:16:38.680 Yeah.

01:16:39.080 Everything is a virtue signal.

01:16:40.560 Yep.

01:16:40.680 Like, the interest in making sure that fine arts are preserved become very secondary to whether you can virtue signal your empathy for something.

01:16:49.840 You know? 0.99

01:16:50.540 It's just so pathetic. 0.99

01:16:51.760 Oh, it's like, they're like, what's going to happen? 0.96

01:16:53.460 We're going to be giving Lifetime Achievement Awards to, like, Clint Eastwood and Sly Stallone and, you know, Jon Voight.

01:16:59.980 I'm out.

01:17:00.800 Like, hard pass.

01:17:02.400 Right.

01:17:02.700 All because of their politics.

01:17:03.880 You can do that all day long to somebody on the left, and the right will just suck it up and say, fine, he sings good music.

01:17:08.960 It's fine.

01:17:09.300 I don't care.

01:17:10.060 But you do that.

01:17:10.760 You honor somebody who's actually campaigned for Trump or expressed openly that they're a conservative, and it's a hard no.

01:17:16.920 Ben does fold.

01:17:18.040 And Shonda Rhimes, too.

01:17:19.940 He's a brick, and he's drowning slowly.

01:17:21.720 So I can't wait to see what happens at the Kennedy Center.

01:17:27.260 I think it could be actually super fun.

01:17:29.340 Yeah.

01:17:29.780 Now, speaking of celebrities, Jimmy Kimmel was very upset that Donald Trump took a shot at Taylor Swift.

01:17:38.040 Trump was making fun of the fact that she got booed openly at the Super Bowl, and he got cheered to the high heavens.

01:17:42.780 And Jimmy Kimmel didn't much like that and had the following to say.

01:17:46.980 Trump was at the game.

01:17:49.440 He got a big thrill because some of the crowd booed Taylor Swift when they put her up on the Jumbotron, which, of course, made Harry Conman Sr. very happy.

01:17:58.480 He posted three times about this.

01:18:00.480 After the game, he wrote, the only one that had a tougher night than the Chiefs was Taylor Swift.

01:18:04.500 She got booed out of the stadium.

01:18:06.300 MAGA is very unforgiving.

01:18:08.180 Well, she didn't get booed out of the stadium. 1.00

01:18:10.720 Unlike you, she stayed for the whole game.

01:18:12.580 And it was the Eagles fans who were booing her.

01:18:14.820 But you're right.

01:18:15.580 It's all about you.

01:18:17.020 It's always all.

01:18:18.400 Trump's just jealous of Taylor Swift because she has more followers and more money and no kids than he does.

01:18:27.080 Okay.

01:18:27.920 By the way, I was there all the way through, and she was gone.

01:18:31.500 Like, she was missing in action for most of the second half.

01:18:34.380 So I don't know what he's talking about.

01:18:35.900 Trump left at his previously designated time, which was, I think, 8.02.

01:18:39.980 That had been scheduled, and that is when he left.

01:18:41.760 And it's a little harder, Jimmy, when you're the president of the United States, because if you leave when everybody else is leaving, you completely F them over because no one can move anywhere.

01:18:51.900 It's total gridlock in the city.

01:18:53.980 Hello?

01:18:55.660 Yeah.

01:18:56.140 Where are the jokes in his late night show?

01:18:58.480 That's the thing.

01:18:58.960 That's what I want to know.

01:19:00.400 You know, I mean, like, I think Taylor Swift got out pretty easily.

01:19:03.040 Usually when Philly fans show up, they bring batteries.

01:19:05.340 You know, the other thing he definitely wasn't doing there is hitching his wagon onto the Taylor Swift following.

01:19:13.680 Yeah.

01:19:14.000 He definitely wasn't influenced trolling at all by mentioning her name.

01:19:18.240 Right?

01:19:18.760 Like, please like me, Taylor.

01:19:20.660 Please pat me on the head like a good little boy.

01:19:23.480 I don't know.

01:19:24.020 I really think that Taylor Swift's magic has left the building.

01:19:27.720 I think people are over her. 0.79

01:19:28.940 It's not that she doesn't have any fans left.

01:19:30.540 She does.

01:19:31.080 She'll still sell lots of records. 1.00

01:19:32.380 But I think she peaked and is already on her way down because of overexposure and she got political. 1.00

01:19:39.100 Those two things really hurt her.

01:19:41.060 It's too much.

01:19:42.300 Like, there's a reason you don't see everyday pictures of Angelina Jolie going to Starbucks or going to work out.

01:19:48.360 It's not because she never does those things.

01:19:50.200 It's because she doesn't call the paparazzi and have them photograph every time she does. 1.00

01:19:53.960 Or Julia Roberts, for that matter, who I don't love, but she doesn't do this to herself. 1.00

01:19:58.220 J-Lo, every turn.

01:20:00.360 She got overexposed and she damaged her own brand.

01:20:03.640 And the same happened to Taylor.

01:20:05.220 She said yes to everything.

01:20:06.900 She was too out there at the Ares Tour, in your face at every turn, every Chiefs game dominating the NFL. 0.69

01:20:13.500 She didn't have to sit at every Chiefs game right in the front row when she knew the cameras would get her. 0.86

01:20:17.420 Truly.

01:20:17.980 I mean, I was just in one of these suites.

01:20:19.440 You can sit toward the back and you don't have to be on the camera if you don't want to.

01:20:22.080 She wanted, she wanted to be in the spot.

01:20:25.020 She wanted the cameras to cut to her.

01:20:26.680 They did.

01:20:27.400 She ate it up.

01:20:28.540 And now we're sick of her. 1.00

01:20:30.840 She ruined football and we're pissed off she got political.

01:20:35.560 It's not just about the Eagles fans who are very vocal and do hate her, but it's beyond that.

01:20:41.020 Well, incidentally, as a very famous person yourself, Megan, maybe you could tell us here at the Ruthless Variety Program who we need to call to get TMZ to show up and photograph us on a day-to-day basis.

01:20:52.360 I don't know if you know, but we now have a White House correspondent sitting here at the Ares Dietz, a very famous man.

01:20:57.460 I can't believe we haven't talked about that.

01:20:59.440 It wouldn't kill any of us.

01:21:00.300 He's the Sam Donaldson of the Ruthless crowd.

01:21:03.100 That's exactly right.

01:21:04.380 And it wouldn't kill if he got a little bit of FaceTime out there.

01:21:07.140 That's all I'm saying.

01:21:08.320 Okay.

01:21:08.940 I'll see what I can do.

01:21:10.080 I know some people who are able to make this happen.

01:21:12.640 Yeah.

01:21:12.860 I mean, the world does want more Ashbrook.

01:21:14.540 Who are we kidding?

01:21:15.540 They do.

01:21:15.900 So how was that, Ashbrook?

01:21:16.880 You were the first.

01:21:18.460 Well, it's not just podcaster.

01:21:20.260 It's like digital media, you know, independent media who now officially have a seat in the White House press briefing room, the most relevant seat there is.

01:21:28.160 And you were the very first one there and the very first person in the seat to ask a question.

01:21:34.440 You did it great.

01:21:36.020 You stood up.

01:21:37.080 You went for it.

01:21:37.880 You were merciless.

01:21:39.400 How did it feel?

01:21:41.160 It felt great, Megan.

01:21:42.760 And, you know, I wasn't nervous going into it because the entire time all I was thinking about was I cannot wait to see the looks on the reporter's faces when I walk into this room.

01:21:53.300 I can't wait to see him.

01:21:54.200 I can't wait to see him.

01:21:54.900 They opened the door and it didn't disappoint.

01:21:56.840 I mean, people were literally rolling their eyes.

01:22:00.100 They were laughing.

01:22:01.360 And it was so funny because they were like, you got to be kidding me.

01:22:04.900 You're coming in to ask a question.

01:22:06.660 And you know what?

01:22:07.480 I asked a serious question and she made serious news.

01:22:10.620 They had to report immediately.

01:22:13.080 And so it was just it was a triumph.

01:22:15.660 It was just a career triumph.

01:22:17.600 The funniest part about it for your audience, Megan, is that this guy has made a 20 year career in Washington, D.C. as being the person that all of those journos have to call to get what the story is.

01:22:29.020 Right.

01:22:29.240 They all call Ashbrook for 20 years.

01:22:31.380 It's like the first call of, all right, how do I start this story out?

01:22:35.160 And then for all of them, you know, dedicated their careers to it, to have to watch him march into the White House briefing and do their job, too, was just hilarious.

01:22:44.500 I mean, that is like what Ruthless is in a nutshell.

01:22:46.960 And then to ask, is the media out of touch?

01:22:49.380 So they're all just like, I got a lot of text.

01:22:54.000 We'll drop the sod in for the podcast when I have it here.

01:22:56.540 The media went after this administration for supporting illegal immigrants they claimed were not criminals.

01:23:04.840 The question is, do you think they're out of touch with Americans demanding action on our border crisis?

01:23:10.740 The media out of touch?

01:23:12.120 I think the media certainly is out of touch.

01:23:15.500 And I think that's proven by a number of things, John.

01:23:17.660 To me, it's like the the nerve of that press corps to have any arrogance whatsoever.

01:23:24.820 Right. To think they're better than as Ashbrook.

01:23:28.160 Exactly. The nerve.

01:23:29.280 You look at you look at that front row and it's people who represent gigantic corporations, Paramount, Comcast, Disney.

01:23:36.440 They all get questions.

01:23:38.360 So why can't everybody else ask a question?

01:23:40.020 That's right. That's right.

01:23:41.680 Absolute shills.

01:23:42.880 It's a new day in Washington.

01:23:45.240 The Ruthless fellas are everywhere. 1.00

01:23:47.700 All right. Stand by.

01:23:48.800 We're going to take a quick break.

01:23:49.900 We'll be right back.

01:23:50.580 I'm Megan Kelly, host of The Megan Kelly Show on Sirius XM.

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01:24:53.960 Guys, a couple of things in cultural news.

01:24:58.280 Some like shocking news from Teddy Mellencamp, who's the daughter of John Mellencamp.

01:25:04.700 And she happens to be one of the stars of Real Housewives of Los Angeles, Beverly Hills.

01:25:11.540 And I'm sure you guys are not big fans of the franchise, but I am.

01:25:16.280 And she's one of the sweet ones.

01:25:18.900 She's not like, of course, she gets drawn into these fights that they all get drawn into.

01:25:22.920 But she's been one of the more sensible characters on this show for many years now.

01:25:27.340 And I, you know, John Mellencamp is definitely a leftist.

01:25:30.440 But, you know, I don't care.

01:25:31.600 I love his music.

01:25:32.440 I think he made great songs and I love his sound.

01:25:35.580 And this poor woman, who is the mother of three young children, has been battling melanoma now for many years.

01:25:43.260 And I always pay attention, I mean, to anybody's, you know, health stories.

01:25:47.620 But melanoma, I live in fear of because I, too, am very fair.

01:25:52.120 Thank God I've never had melanoma.

01:25:53.820 But, you know, you got to worry about it if you're fair at all.

01:25:57.140 And she's been battling melanoma for a number of years now.

01:26:01.020 Now, she posted publicly not long ago a picture of her back, which has a, like, almost a Z-shaped scar across the whole back.

01:26:10.300 Look at this.

01:26:10.580 Oh, my God, man.

01:26:11.700 Yikes.

01:26:11.980 From the numerous melanomas that she's had to have removed time and time again.

01:26:18.800 And, you know, you don't mess around with melanoma, right? 1.00

01:26:21.100 Like, that's, you got to get very serious about that shit. 1.00

01:26:24.000 And she has been. 1.00

01:26:25.240 She's been all over it.

01:26:26.740 And she's been very vocal about checking, having your skin checks and all that.

01:26:30.620 And, unfortunately, this week she revealed that she was in the hospital, as of yesterday.

01:26:39.200 She said, I'm in the hospital because I had very bad headaches.

01:26:42.160 And it turns out they found five brain tumors, two of which they were going to remove surgically and three of which were smaller and they were going to attack with radiation.

01:26:53.640 And they did not reveal whether these, and I think they just did the surgery yesterday or the day before.

01:26:58.100 So they didn't say whether these are malignant brain tumors, but, you know, she's had 17 or 18 or 19 melanomas and they're going to use radiation to get the other three.

01:27:09.920 So it doesn't sound great.

01:27:12.160 And I guess I just wanted to mention it because I do think, like, skin cancer is one of the few cancers.

01:27:20.920 There are a couple of others, but, like, you can potentially catch this one early with skin checks.

01:27:28.240 And that's in no way shaming anybody who hasn't caught it early.

01:27:30.700 I just want to remind people, like, it's so easy to get caught up in your daily life and you don't want to think about these things.

01:27:36.160 Because whenever you think about these things, whether it's you guys getting a prostate check or us going to the OBGYN, you know, it makes you think about the bad things that could happen.

01:27:45.060 And you kind of either skip it or postpone it or try not to do it.

01:27:48.460 And skin checks are also compromising because you're naked and you're in front of some doctor who's checking out all your parts and, like, the really good ones really get up in there.

01:28:01.720 And it's a little like, whoa, whoa, I think the doc and I are married.

01:28:07.180 But it's important to do because that stuff, you really can potentially find it early and then you get it cut out.

01:28:15.900 You know, when it's still localized, you can get it cut out.

01:28:19.760 And I've said this before.

01:28:20.960 I've never had a melanoma, thank God.

01:28:22.460 But I did have a basal cell right here on my left temple.

01:28:26.780 And they, yeah, it was in the beginning.

01:28:29.940 And I always, I'm vigilant about these skin checks. 0.88

01:28:31.860 They found it early.

01:28:32.640 They took it off.

01:28:33.200 And now I just have a small scar there.

01:28:36.120 But anyway, life is short.

01:28:38.440 You know, the mother of three kids, very public figure in a profession that, you know, yes, contentious and sort of fun, but like kind of joyous.

01:28:46.540 You know, I think she has generally a good life.

01:28:48.580 And it's just so sad.

01:28:49.720 And our days are just, you know, you get reminded the time is limited.

01:28:53.120 Make the most of it.

01:28:54.680 Totally.

01:28:54.920 Yeah.

01:28:55.300 I mean, it can happen to anybody.

01:28:57.300 Megan, I've had cancer, thankfully.

01:28:59.540 And, you know, it was radiated in remission.

01:29:01.180 But, like, you've got to start early.

01:29:03.180 You've got to go see the doctor.

01:29:04.400 No guy ever wants to go to the doctor.

01:29:06.920 Well, I think you got married to your doctor this week, didn't you?

01:29:09.860 I did.

01:29:10.680 Thanks.

01:29:11.100 You did?

01:29:11.860 Cancer-free once again.

01:29:13.080 Oh, in the way I've gotten married to mine.

01:29:14.720 Got it.

01:29:15.260 Okay.

01:29:17.520 But, I mean, guys especially.

01:29:19.660 No guy wants to go to the doctor.

01:29:21.300 I mean, I'm sitting at a table full of guys who would be like, no way, honey, I'm not going to the doctor.

01:29:25.980 But you got to go.

01:29:27.520 You got to bite the lip.

01:29:28.680 And you got to go in.

01:29:29.520 You got to get the checks.

01:29:30.740 You got to take it seriously because it can happen to anybody.

01:29:33.460 We collectively forced each other to do it.

01:29:35.780 Because, like, just like you are talking about, Megan, like, the last thing.

01:29:39.460 If you're feeling good, you're fine and you don't need to worry about it.

01:29:41.820 But, like, we collectively as a group forced each other to have annual executive physicals for this reason, right?

01:29:48.220 Because, you know, it would be a pretty damn shame if somebody on Roof was a three-man show.

01:29:53.620 Yeah.

01:29:53.900 I don't think we would recover for something like that.

01:29:55.780 Yeah.

01:29:55.960 We haven't invested enough in key man insurance, so we got to stay alive, you know?

01:30:01.860 But, like, look, I guess what I'd say to your audience, anybody listening, is, you know, there's no better feeling than peace of mind, especially when, you know, you have people relying on you, like children and stuff.

01:30:13.660 And so if you're not doing it for yourself, do it for them.

01:30:16.260 Yeah.

01:30:16.520 Great point.

01:30:16.980 Yeah.

01:30:17.760 Absolutely.

01:30:18.600 Okay.

01:30:19.400 So sorry to bring the room down, but all the best to her and her family and I'm 100% praying for her.

01:30:24.920 And I hope that they can bring her back to good health.

01:30:28.320 Even her messages this week have been positive and not woe is me.

01:30:33.340 And, like, I just, I've always liked her.

01:30:35.940 She just always seemed like somebody who was more on the sunny side and less vituperative than some of the women who get cast on that show. 0.95

01:30:42.280 And her dad's brought us all a lot of joy in his songs, so on and so forth.

01:30:46.160 All the best to her and her family in this journey.

01:30:49.320 Okay.

01:30:49.860 On a much lighter note, we got to spend a minute on Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively.

01:30:54.800 Okay?

01:30:55.300 I know the Ruthless fellas have been all up in this business. 1.00

01:30:59.520 And, I mean, no, but seriously, have you followed it at all?

01:31:02.360 A little bit.

01:31:03.120 I mean, it's all over the tabloids, so you got to see it a little bit.

01:31:06.420 I don't know if we're an expert.

01:31:07.160 All over the tabloids.

01:31:08.360 Yeah.

01:31:08.700 Exactly.

01:31:09.560 Okay.

01:31:09.780 So she, for those of you, just a quick two-liner for those of you not following it.

01:31:13.920 They start in this movie, it ends with us, about domestic violence.

01:31:16.720 It was his movie that he bought the rights for from the woman who wrote the book, Colleen Hoover.

01:31:21.640 Then he managed to convince Blake Lively to star in it with him.

01:31:24.500 And all hell broke loose.

01:31:27.260 She claims he sexual harassed her.

01:31:29.260 And then by the time they premiered the movie, they weren't even speaking to each other.

01:31:32.540 She made him stay in the basement.

01:31:33.940 And Ryan Reynolds turned on him, too.

01:31:35.660 And then she claimed that he unleashed a bad PR campaign against her.

01:31:40.200 And he claims none of that is true.

01:31:42.760 There was absolutely no harassment.

01:31:44.140 Those are made-up claims.

01:31:45.520 She wrested his movie away from him and decided to try to hurt him with petty, made-up, out-of-context 1.00

01:31:54.180 complaints when he pushed back, even in the mildest way, and that she and her husband are

01:31:59.860 bullies, and now it's resulted in vicious cross-litigations against both of them.

01:32:05.320 The New York Times is being sued for defamation by Baldoni through his lawyer, Brian Friedman,

01:32:09.180 who's also my attorney, who's been on the show.

01:32:10.860 And it's as vicious as it can get in Hollywood.

01:32:14.840 My own position is she's absolutely ruined her brand. 0.98

01:32:17.860 She has started a fight she cannot win.

01:32:19.880 She does appear like an amber herd to me. 0.99

01:32:22.040 I have yet to see one of her complaints borne out.

01:32:24.100 In fact, all of the ones I've seen have been undermined by his hardcore proof in text messaging

01:32:28.800 and so on that puts a totally different light on her horrific allegations.

01:32:32.720 Then you see what she actually said and wrote.

01:32:34.820 It's very different.

01:32:35.960 She called herself Khaleesi and said, Ryan Reynolds and we believe Taylor Swift were her

01:32:40.780 dragons.

01:32:42.040 And she's got the best dragons because they'll fight on the other friends, too. 0.99

01:32:46.820 Now she and Taylor are reportedly on the outs because Taylor Swift is like, bitch, I'm 1.00

01:32:51.220 nobody's dragon. 0.99

01:32:51.880 That's unconfirmed, but it's out there.

01:32:55.140 And today we see some evidence now that Blake Lively may have a history of not being up front

01:33:04.680 when she gets cast in a movie of her secret desires to actually play a much bigger role

01:33:10.540 than that of lead actress.

01:33:13.380 Here she is at the 2022 Forbes Power Women's Summit.

01:33:18.680 I would show up on a set.

01:33:20.560 I knew that they just wanted me to show up and look cute and stand on a little pink sticker

01:33:25.160 where I'm supposed to go and say what I'm supposed to say.

01:33:27.480 But I also knew that like that wasn't fulfilling for me, that I wanted to be a part of the storytelling,

01:33:32.280 that I wanted to be a part of the narrative, whether that be in the writing, in the costume

01:33:36.120 design and creating the character.

01:33:38.100 And sometimes I had directors or producers or writers who would welcome that and invite

01:33:42.480 that once they saw that I was able to offer that.

01:33:45.140 And sometimes I would have people who really resented that because they were like, we just

01:33:49.160 hired you to be an actor.

01:33:51.080 Yet when I went in the meetings, I would just seem like I'm just there to be the actor and

01:33:54.900 ready to get the gig.

01:33:56.220 I wouldn't reveal that I actually need to have authorship in order to feel fulfilled.

01:34:00.980 So I think that for them, sometimes that might have felt like a rug pull because you're like,

01:34:04.580 you're trying to assert yourself into something that we didn't hire you to do. 0.80

01:34:11.200 So she's a serial fraudster. 1.00

01:34:14.220 She's that's that's called fraud. 1.00

01:34:16.140 When you pretend you want to do the one thing and you'll do the thing they're hiring you for.

01:34:20.460 But all along, you have secret plans to do something very, very different that's above

01:34:24.700 your pay grade.

01:34:25.660 And she finally bumped into someone who was weak enough and not famous enough to stop her.

01:34:32.340 Right.

01:34:32.460 This Justin Baldoni, most people had never even heard of him.

01:34:35.040 He'd been in like one series.

01:34:36.740 He certainly wasn't at Ryan Reynolds level fame, never mind Blake Lively.

01:34:40.720 And and she bullied him into giving her the movie where she did her own cut. 1.00

01:34:46.960 They released the cut of the movie.

01:34:48.440 He didn't even get to see it.

01:34:49.700 He was the director of the film, the producer of the film, the guy who got the rights to

01:34:53.500 the film, the one who's supposed to be in control.

01:34:55.700 He didn't even get to see it.

01:34:56.540 He was in the basement of his own movie premiere.

01:34:58.040 And then she had the nerve because she had a like two minutes of bad publicity when the 0.99

01:35:02.580 film hit to come out and try to blame it all on him. 0.99

01:35:06.960 None of it was just due to the fact that she seems like a rather shitty person. 0.98

01:35:11.160 Your thoughts? 0.99

01:35:12.900 I mean, it's it's wild.

01:35:14.320 She just pretty much said the whole problem here.

01:35:16.060 It's like if you hire the plumber and he climbs up from under the sink and says, now let's talk

01:35:19.220 about how you've decorated the plate.

01:35:20.440 What are you talking about, man?

01:35:24.080 I gave you a job.

01:35:25.240 How dare they hire an actor to act?

01:35:27.220 You know, right.

01:35:29.240 Deal with a little bit.

01:35:29.980 She tries to make it sound like a like a female empowerment thing. 1.00

01:35:32.480 You know, like they just wanted me to be an actor.

01:35:35.300 Well, yes.

01:35:35.880 I mean, maybe someday you could be a producer or a screenwriter, but you no one contracted

01:35:41.500 with you for to do that here.

01:35:43.360 And that's another allegation, Holmes, is that she she started to rewrite scenes that nobody

01:35:47.720 had asked her to rewrite.

01:35:48.820 What?

01:35:50.460 That's just wild to me.

01:35:52.140 I mean, that is for the plumber thing is absolutely perfect.

01:35:54.680 I mean, you hire somebody to do a job and they're like, well, hold on a second.

01:35:58.080 I've got a different vision for your toilet that I'd like to create a bidet. 0.54

01:36:02.900 Here's the other piece of it.

01:36:04.300 One other piece of it.

01:36:05.360 So she is accused of having turned the whole cast of It Ends With Us against Justin.

01:36:13.980 By the time they premiered the movie, Ryan Reynolds had unfollowed him on Insta.

01:36:18.820 So had Blake.

01:36:19.840 So had the rest of the cast.

01:36:21.280 Now, you tell me if you're an unknown actor in this film and you know that Blake and Ryan

01:36:26.140 have turned on the no name Justin Baldoni.

01:36:29.460 What do you who are you going to follow? 0.70

01:36:30.880 You know, these are weak, feckless people out in Hollywood. 0.97

01:36:33.600 They have no spine.

01:36:34.960 So, of course, they all unfollowed him and chose team Blake, including, by the way, Colleen

01:36:39.000 Hoover, the one who really owed him a debt of gratitude because he bought the rights

01:36:42.280 to her book.

01:36:43.240 She she went team Blake. 0.77

01:36:44.940 Well, guess what?

01:36:45.400 She just did this week.

01:36:46.320 She scrubbed her all of her social media of Blake Lively.

01:36:50.200 She she had already stepped away from Justin.

01:36:52.360 Now she's scrubbed all of her social media from Blake Lively because I think she's starting 0.97

01:36:55.800 to realize she made a mistake.

01:36:57.100 OK, but here's the other piece of news that came out this week, a 2009 Glamour UK interview

01:37:04.180 by Blake Lively.

01:37:05.940 She was on the cover at the time.

01:37:07.500 And in her interview, she admitted to trying to poison the cast of Gossip Girl, which is 0.75

01:37:13.900 where she made her name against her co-star Penn Badgley, who played her love interest,

01:37:19.660 Dan Humphrey, on the show.

01:37:21.100 She wrote she said, at first, I was so upset that they had hired him.

01:37:24.140 I actually poisoned the whole cast against him. 0.78

01:37:28.220 And she goes on to say, but then they noticed that he wasn't a jerk and was actually a nice, 0.64

01:37:32.060 charming person.

01:37:32.680 And almost immediately, I realized it, too.

01:37:34.780 But it took me about a week to admit it.

01:37:38.160 And here's the thing.

01:37:41.100 Reports were that Blake Lively and Leighton Meester, who played best friends on that show,

01:37:46.660 were not friends during the six season run of the show.

01:37:49.800 Leighton Meester and Penn Badgley and other Gossip Girl co-stars have remained silent in

01:37:56.160 the wake of the Baldoni legal drama.

01:37:59.300 Neither Meester nor Badgley follow lively on Instagram.

01:38:04.140 Members of the jury, what does this lead you to conclude?

01:38:08.020 I think the real victim in all of this is Ryan Reynolds.

01:38:11.900 I was going to say the same thing.

01:38:13.660 Like, he's coming home.

01:38:14.720 He's trying to sell some cell phone plans.

01:38:16.580 He's trying to sell some gin and she's like, I need your help, little dragon.

01:38:20.460 We're going to ruin people today.

01:38:21.840 It's like, all I do is buy soccer teams that win, sell to Kegel that people like or vodka

01:38:26.720 or whatever it is.

01:38:27.500 And he's like, generally stayed above.

01:38:29.060 And all of a sudden, he is in the dirt with this.

01:38:31.100 She's like, I need you to get on a Zumba Taylor Swift. 0.59

01:38:33.020 We're ruining lives tonight.

01:38:34.380 Be very, very careful with your marriages, folks.

01:38:36.940 This is the kind of thing that can happen.

01:38:39.920 To your point, Megan, I mean, the silence of the people who worked with her the longest on

01:38:44.680 the previous show tells you everything you need to know.

01:38:47.080 It reminds me a little bit of that stand-up special that Dave Chappelle did, talking about

01:38:51.180 Juicy Smalley, when the gay community was mad at the black community for not defending

01:38:55.540 Juicy enough.

01:38:56.920 And Dave Chappelle says, we were defending him with our silence because we didn't believe

01:39:03.100 him.

01:39:03.540 We didn't believe him.

01:39:05.000 And I think all the people from Gossip Girl know that she can be a lot. 0.70

01:39:09.900 And that's probably why they stayed silent.

01:39:12.660 That's right.

01:39:13.360 You know, it reminds me of when I was at NBC, and this is before everyone hated Meghan 0.62

01:39:18.560 Markle.

01:39:19.220 You know, this is the honeymoon phase where everybody loved her before she decided she 0.95

01:39:22.580 was a victim.

01:39:23.520 And all the cast of Suits came on to talk about her.

01:39:27.920 And behind the scenes, let's just say they weren't quite as cheery and smiley about this

01:39:33.100 person with whom they'd spent years on the set as they were with the outward-facing

01:39:38.080 interviews.

01:39:38.600 And talking to the hair and makeup crew about what they said behind the scenes was very

01:39:43.260 enlightening.

01:39:44.200 I'll just leave it at that.

01:39:45.460 That's awesome.

01:39:46.680 Megan's dishing some hot goss.

01:39:48.200 Yeah.

01:39:48.420 Hot goss.

01:39:49.260 You know, that's good.

01:39:50.800 At this point, like, let's talk tea.

01:39:53.520 Let's do it.

01:39:56.140 Guys, congrats on the 500th episode.

01:39:59.360 500 more.

01:40:00.320 Lots of love.

01:40:01.520 Thank you so very much.

01:40:02.500 Thank you.

01:40:03.660 All right.

01:40:04.140 Let's see you soon.

01:40:05.220 All right.

01:40:05.520 Coming up tomorrow, we are spending Valentine's Day with Chamath and Jason from the All In Podcast. 0.75

01:40:10.960 You know, Jason's first time back since I called him a prick.

01:40:13.080 That'll be fun.

01:40:13.680 See you then.

01:40:17.060 Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show.

01:40:18.900 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

01:40:28.780 Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show.

The Megyn Kelly Show - February 13, 2025

RFK Confirmed, Trump Makes Kennedy Center ＂Hot＂ Again, and Unearthed Blake Lively Video, with Ruthless Podcast ｜ Ep. 1007

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