00:00:49.200In fact, it seems to not want them, but then kind of telegraphs maybe it's going to show.
00:00:54.200We don't know whether they're going to show up.
00:00:55.580At first, they refused to negotiate, saying the U.S. was, quote, insisting on some unreasonable and unrealistic positions, including the ongoing naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
00:01:07.580The U.S. over the weekend even seizing an Iranian flagged cargo ship as part of the blockade.
00:01:12.700It was trying to flout the blockade and found out the hard way that we meant what we said when we said we're not going to lift it yet.
00:01:19.060But then Reuters today reporting that the regime is now, quote, positively reviewing whether to go to Islamabad. Part of this is because you've got like the one guy who's the speaker of like their parliament, who's more reasonable in the way he talks about negotiations and so on.
00:01:35.460and you have the IRGC that's also running the country and the messaging. We really don't know
00:01:42.440which one is more in control. My money would be on the militarized IRGC. And they have a very
00:01:48.120different agenda and very different messaging. Don't know who's really in control. At some point,
00:01:53.520I guess we'll find out. President Trump also brushing off the Iranian threats, telling the
00:01:58.360New York Post that talks with Vice President Vance, Special Envoy Steve Wyckoff, and Advisor
00:02:02.740Jared Kushner and the Iranians will happen and that if it's necessary, President Trump would
00:02:08.480meet with the Iranians himself. Look, it's become very clear, very clear, especially thanks to a
00:02:14.100very in-depth Wall Street Journal report over the weekend, which you should all read. I mean,
00:02:18.780it was a stop. I've been in news a long time, 25 years. I have never seen a report that in-depth
00:02:25.100on the number of issues that have been in debate in the public eye on one specific issue,
00:02:31.900namely the Iran war. It's, I have to say, an incredible piece of reporting. It's by Josh
00:02:36.260Dossley and Annie Linsky, and it was published on the 18th. It's stunning. But that makes clear
00:02:42.460that Trump is, I think their word is desperate to bring this thing to a close. It talks all about
00:02:48.500how he overestimated how quickly he could get in and get out based on the word of Benjamin Netanyahu
00:02:56.000and the assurances. We learned that in the New York Times last week. It's reiterated here in
00:03:01.140the Wall Street Journal. He thought he could get in and get out. He was enamored with what
00:03:05.520happened in Venezuela, exactly as we surmised here on this program, and was surprised and stunned
00:03:12.880to see how the Iranians would not roll over. He believed that they could not take over the
00:03:18.860Strait of Hormuz. He was surprised and stunned to see that they did, that just one simple drone
00:03:25.220could potentially stop traffic in the strait. And he is learning the hard way how difficult
00:03:59.860They isolated him and ignored him because they thought he might queer the deal somehow.
00:04:06.920And he was so on edge about his political fortunes, depending on finding this co-pilot or the WIZO, that they then cut the president of the United States out of the ongoing information flow.
00:04:19.640It's just, it's a stunning report all around and makes very clear what the New York Times
00:04:25.960made clear last week, which is President Trump was told a bunch of things by Netanyahu.
00:04:30.280Our own security team told him very different things when he met with them, saying, don't
00:04:44.740He believed Netanyahu and he believed in his own, I don't know, virality.
00:04:49.640based on what happened in Venezuela, based on what happened with those June nuclear
00:04:54.080plant strikes in Iran. And, you know, he said, let's go for it. And he learned the hard way,
00:05:01.340just like every American president who starts a war in the Middle East learns,
00:05:05.140it's not that simple. The bomb dropping phase of the war, as General McChrystal suggested,
00:05:11.380is the most enjoyable phase for the ones dropping the bombs. And everything after that is downhill,
00:05:16.980especially in the Middle East where they're motherfuckers and they love quagmire and they
00:05:22.420know how to do it. And that's what we're dealing with right now. President Trump is telling the
00:05:28.060Post that there is one non-negotiable demand, quote, get rid of their nuclear weapons. That's
00:05:32.640all very simple. There will be no nuclear weapon. That's a great demand. We should be praising that
00:05:37.700if President Trump will stay there, we can end this thing relatively quickly. It's all these
00:05:43.340other things that the Israelis are demanding, like we've got to get the nuclear dust
00:05:47.400that are posing problems, right? The Iranians are like the nuclear dust is 60 feet underground
00:05:54.460at Natanz and Fordo and these other sites that we struck back in June covered in layers and
00:06:01.680layers of rubble. Like we can't get it. We don't want to get it. It's not safe to get it. And we're
00:06:07.480certainly not going to be enriching it further. And that is something President Trump said himself
00:06:13.240two weeks ago. You remember Mark Levin did a big show on Sunday night saying we got to get the
00:06:18.940dust. We got to go in there and get the enriched uranium. And President Trump posted on True
00:06:24.040Social right around there that we don't have to worry about that because it's so underground and
00:06:29.260because he said, President Trump said, we have satellites that have eyes on this stuff and we
00:06:33.820will know if anybody tries to retrieve it. Well, now it's changed into like this non-negotiable
00:06:39.200deal term, at least in last week's iteration. And it's one that the Israelis want. It's one
00:06:43.540that Levin wants. And President Trump had earlier told us it was an unnecessary one,
00:06:47.760but it wound up in our non-negotiables. Well, now today he sounds a little different
00:06:53.460because the Iranians have dug in on that saying we're not we're not doing that,
00:06:57.120not getting any nuclear dust. That's a no. But we believe that there is room to agree on no
00:07:07.200nuclear weapons. And a negotiation started last week on just how long, how long before they can
00:07:13.940do enrichment again. They say it's for an energy program. We say, no, it's not. But either way,
00:07:19.320our main goal is just to delay it, get them to write down and obey with ideally third-party
00:07:24.660monitoring, although that's not been explicitly discussed, but it must be part of the deal.
00:07:29.740How long? We want 20 years. They want five. So that's somewhat, you know, that's some progress.
00:07:34.880If they're giving a number and we're giving a number, negotiation practices would dictate we're going to wind up someplace in the middle.
00:07:43.020And this thing could come to an end if we're going to stick to no nuclear weapon, no nuclear enrichment and forget the damn dust.
00:07:51.200There were some discussions last week, possibly we'll get the dust.
00:07:55.420And then we wanted them to give it to us.
00:07:57.680And then they said, no, we're going to keep it.
00:07:59.880And then there was like maybe a third party will get it.
00:08:02.580And that's what President Trump suggested.
00:08:04.200And then the Iranians said, F that. No, we keep the dust. We don't know where the dust stands. Where has the dust settled? We don't know. One of the many things that they will be arguing over, hopefully not, but looks like yes. We'll see based on Trump's elitist messaging. We don't know this week.
00:08:22.800okay um it needs to come to an end for so many reasons even if you're in favor of the war you
00:08:29.300must see that because this war is undoubtedly hurting the gop's already bleak chances in the
00:08:33.780midterms i mean seriously hurting president trump's not on the ballot but would you like to
00:08:40.180if you're a republican or a right-leaning independent keep i mean the house seems gone
00:08:45.180but there's no point in endangering the senate for the love of god we do not want to endanger
00:08:50.700of the Senate. And we don't want to even lose unnecessary Senate seats. Like even if we don't
00:08:55.820lose it on the right, you don't want to lose two seats that you wouldn't otherwise have lost
00:09:00.220because of Israel and Iran. All right. And this conflict, because we're not set up to do any
00:09:06.220better in 2028. In fact, the GOP has many more seats to defend in 2028. So it'd be nice if they
00:09:11.700could stem the tide of losses, at least on the Senate side come November. All right. Now there's
00:09:17.380one issue that could have galvanized Republicans, and that would have been the retirement of Supreme
00:09:24.440Court Justice Samuel Alito. Like if Samuel Alito were to retire and a political battle unfolded
00:09:33.500to replace him with a strong conservative who needed to get confirmed by the Senate, that's
00:09:39.160how things work. The House is irrelevant, but the Senate has to confirm the president's choices by
00:09:44.36051% vote. It could be 50, 50 in the Senate, and then the vice president would cast the deciding
00:09:48.840vote. So that has a way, especially with the right of galvanizing voters. The right is very
00:09:55.140motivated by the Supreme Court fights. We'll see if the left is as motivated. Abortion was always
00:09:59.780their biggest thing, and they lost that. They lost that thanks to the Dobbs decision, which overturned
00:10:04.420Roe. But will we have a Supreme Court fight over an open seat that might lead conservatives to
00:10:13.420pressure President Trump to wrap up the Iran war, to protect the Senate at all costs,
00:10:18.380to get Alito's replacement confirmed as soon as humanly possible before the midterms,
00:10:23.980doesn't look like it. Fox News reporting today that the 76-year-old Samuel Alito is not
00:10:29.580planning to retire this year. The reporting is also this term. They use it interchangeably.
00:10:36.680It's not the same. The term will end in June and the new term will begin in October.
00:10:41.640He is said to have been already interviewing and hiring his clerks for next term, which would take us into October, and Alito certainly would not retire in October with the midterms one month away because the Democrats could win control of the Senate, and there's no way he's going to retire thinking the Democrats have a shot at stymieing Trump's choice for his replacement.
00:11:06.940I think he'd either do it now or he would do it after the midterms based on whatever
00:13:21.520So people have been speculating that Justice Alito is definitely going to retire at the end
00:13:26.320of this term. They've been doing this for about a year. And I keep telling people I don't actually
00:13:31.160see that happening. I don't know for sure anything is possible, but the reporting that just came out
00:13:37.960from Fox News and also Jan Crawford at CBS, it matches with my understanding as well. He's not
00:13:43.800inclined to retire and people should be prepared for that. It's very interesting because I have
00:13:51.540pretty solid reporting the other way that at least as of about six weeks ago, he was planning to step
00:13:57.720down, that he wanted to do it. So it's possible he was talked out of it. It's possible he's
00:14:02.160reconsidering it, or it's possible this is all a head fake. I don't know.
00:14:06.140I do think there's this thing with Justice Alito in that he's clearly the person on the court who
00:14:11.080least enjoys the trappings of having that position of authority. And so people, I think,
00:14:16.720frequently perceive that as his just disdain for Washington, D.C. That's real. He really does not
00:14:23.760think Washington, D.C. is as great of a place as people seem to think it is. Now, I do want to say
00:14:29.140one of the many things we love about him. I do want to say that people should not assume that
00:14:34.780just because the word is that Justice Thomas and Justice Alito are not retiring, that that means
00:14:40.820there will be no retirements. I, again, don't have inside information, but I would not put it outside
00:14:47.780the realm of possibility that there might be a retirement at the end of this term. I'll leave it
00:14:52.880that. Wait, can you say that again? I would not say it's outside the realm of possibility that
00:14:57.960there will be a retirement at the end of this term, even if it's not going to be Justice Alita
00:15:02.680or Justice Thomas. Okay. All right. Well, we definitely don't want it to be Justice Alita
00:15:07.080or Justice Thomas, unless it would cost the GOP the seat, in which case, sadly, they do have to
00:15:11.960go. This is like a parlor game that we have to play here. I don't really think the Senate is
00:15:18.140in jeopardy in the midterms. It's just it suddenly could be, given what's happening with the Iran
00:15:23.620war. That's what's disconcerting. But if the GOP can hold on to the Senate, then President Trump
00:15:28.700has another three years, just short of, to find a replacement or, you know, for a conservative
00:15:34.300justice to step down and for President Trump to nominate and then get confirmed a replacement.
00:15:38.100So there is time unless the worst happens in November. Well, and let's just point out, too,
00:15:42.280a lot of the reasons why people are focusing on Justice Thomas and Alito is because they are the
00:15:46.760two oldest members, the Republican-appointed members of the court. But Justice Roberts,
00:15:52.180Chief Justice Roberts, is also in his 70s. And so if people want to speculate about people retiring,
00:15:58.720I mean, David Souter retired when he was younger than Chief Justice Roberts. He had served,
00:16:04.500I think, less long, about the same time as Chief Justice Roberts has. So I will also say that being
00:16:12.320that thomas and alito are the most consistently conservative or libertarian justices on the court
00:16:18.220conservatives who want to replace them should maybe seek other people who might be better to
00:16:24.300replace yes no those i always say if you're voting any way other than how especially alito is voting
00:16:31.060you're voting the wrong way like he those two are almost in lockstep all the time they should be
00:16:36.640your guide it whatever they're doing justice barrett you do it that's why trump put you on
00:16:42.080the high court but this is very interesting news you're you're suggesting uh you know is that
00:16:46.840because it's not going to be kavanaugh gorsuch or barrett they're brand new those are all trump
00:16:50.620appointees and they're they're supreme court young um so the only other conservative would be the
00:16:56.400chief justice who's less young and probably ready to like sail in the mediterranean with his like
00:17:04.800he's had 20 years now, like literally, I think it was 2006, right, that he was
00:17:08.480appointed by Bush, probably would like some family time.
00:17:12.920Well, in my book, I go through each of the justices and how their jurisprudence compares
00:17:17.120with Justice Alito's. And Chief Justice Roberts, you kind of have to understand at least some of
00:17:22.420his frustration. He's the only one of the Republican appointed justices who flat out
00:17:26.980admits he doesn't really have a judicial philosophy when he comes onto the court.
00:17:30.780He proves that when he saves Obamacare by rewriting the law.
00:17:35.920But his big overarching goal as chief justice has been to get the justices to all kind of work together, to have more opinions from the court being handed down as opinions from the court rather than everybody writing their own opinion or concurrence or dissent.
00:17:52.920And instead, you know, things have kind of gotten a little harried recently, right?
00:17:58.400You've had the leak of the Dobbs decision.
00:18:00.700You had just this weekend another leak dating back to 2016 that was totally unnecessary and gratuitous.
00:18:07.420You have, you know, in my book, I tell the story about how some of the justices, knowing that their colleagues' lives were under threat, knowing that their colleagues' children's lives were under threat, intentionally slow-walked the Dobbs decision by two months, including not just not getting it done,
00:18:26.340not getting their dissent done so that it could be released, but also including in that dissent
00:18:31.580a footnote to a decision that was still being worked on by both sides. So they knew that that
00:18:37.960decision wouldn't come out until quite near the end of the term. Now, this is the opposite of
00:18:43.700collegiality, when you are knowing that your colleagues' lives are being threatened and you
00:18:48.800are just slow walking something that could put that all away, because, you know, to explain.
00:18:53.640That is that is a piece of stunning news. I want to get into that. The title of the book we're talking with Molly Hemingway is Alito, the justice who reshaped the Supreme Court and restored the Constitution. Hardcover comes out tomorrow. Get your copy today before they're all gone, because trust me, these publishing companies, they always underestimate where a conservative's book is going to go.
00:19:14.460So you got to go. It doesn't matter who it is. They underestimate. So get your copy now. Order it today, Monday, before it hits on Tuesday. Alito by Molly Hemingway of The Federalist.
00:19:22.720So can you walk us through that? Because everyone remembers when the Dobbs, the draft Dobbs decision overturning Roe was leaked in 2022. And it was a stunning, stunning moment.
00:19:35.700but we'd never seen a Supreme Court opinion leaked before,
00:19:38.740nevermind one as consequential as that.
00:22:03.040So that meant that Roberts wasn't in the majority.
00:22:05.540Now, if he were, he would assign who writes the opinion.
00:22:08.540But this meant that Thomas was the most senior justice, so he assigned the opinion, and he knew it had to be done perfectly.
00:22:16.800Well, Justice Alito, who's been on the court now for close to 20 years at this time, he knew how to keep fragile majorities together.
00:22:24.660And that's important because, you know, again, we just we talked about the Obamacare decision.
00:22:28.980That was a majority that flipped because the majority wasn't, you know, it didn't stay together.
00:22:34.160And Thomas knew that Alito could keep that majority together, incorporate everything that each justice wanted and write it in a way that didn't force anyone out.
00:22:44.000And so he assigns it to Alito and Alito gets it done in such a short period of time.
00:22:48.560It's unbelievable. You know, this is a this is a landmark case.
00:22:52.480This is one of the most important decisions in Supreme Court history, and he has a draft
00:26:19.640Well, Breyer is a stalwart liberal, but he also is a gentleman.
00:26:25.740And he was concerned about what was happening to his colleagues.
00:26:29.980And Kagan reportedly screamed at him not to accommodate any kind of early, you know, any kind of getting that dissent done so that the decision could be released.
00:26:45.520and then they finally agree. I'll just say one more thing that I think is just interesting about
00:26:52.100the inside of the court. When they meet in conference, they actually rate the decisions
00:26:58.880that have yet to come out as A, B, or C. A means they're totally ready to come out. B means that,
00:27:05.880you know, you're just wrapping up the final bits, and C means nowhere near done. And in that first
00:27:11.520conference after the leak, Roberts says that the Dobbs decision is a C. A C. Now, the guys who had
00:27:20.300the really hard work got everything done by early February, but the dissenters had made it a C.
00:27:27.140So they finally agree that they're going to get the decision done by June 1st. And they do.
00:27:33.840Their dissent, I should say, by June 1st. And they do. But when they do it, they put this little
00:27:39.020like, evil Easter egg in there. They put a footnote to a decision that was not yet ready to
00:27:46.420come out. Knowing that you can't reveal the outcome of a case that has not yet been publicly
00:27:54.480announced, it delayed the announcement of Dobbs for another three-plus weeks.
00:28:00.940Oh, you know those liberals are like, just a few more babies. If we could just give time for a few
00:28:07.060more babies to be aborted, we'll be heroes. I mean, that's truly how they look at it.
00:28:11.740The drama around this is reason enough to buy the book. Again, it's called Alito,
00:28:16.160the justice who reshaped the Supreme court and restored the constitution by our friend,
00:28:20.260Molly Hemingway. But this, I just want to read a little bit of when, when Alito wrote the decision
00:28:26.780from your book, um, you write over his decades on the court, justice Alito, he had learned
00:28:31.680to be as bold as prudence allows. Alito is not upset when another justice wants to include
00:28:37.280something that he believes is unnecessary or that tinkers with his prose. Alito had to write
00:28:41.680in such a way that the holders of these disparate opinions could all sign on to the majority
00:28:46.760decision. On February 10th, Justice Alito formally distributed his 98 page draft opinion to the eight
00:28:52.460other justices. About five minutes later, Justice Gorsuch announced he had no edits and would sign
00:28:58.180the opinion. A few hours later, Justice Thomas said the same. Justice Barrett signed on. And a
00:29:03.460few days later, Justice Kavanaugh rounded out the five. It was obvious to the other justices that
00:29:08.360the draft had been circulated before the formal distribution. They were not prepared for how
00:29:13.180powerful it was and were shocked by how devastating the opinion was to the Roe and Casey regime.
00:29:19.940It's amazing. My God, that's so powerful just to think about the five of them behind the scenes
00:29:24.580knowing what they were about to do, something that conservatives had wanted for 50 years and
00:29:30.960could never cobble together five justices to actually do it or get the right case into the
00:29:37.920bloodstream, working its way up to the right Supreme Court to do it. Even when Casey went
00:29:42.620up there, they were betrayed by Sandra Day O'Connor, Kennedy. And so they kept getting even
00:29:47.780conservatives to betray them until we had Alito and Thomas and the Supreme Court justices appointed
00:29:55.240by Trump to do the right thing, to finally say, no, this is an abomination of a decision.
00:30:04.020There is no constitutional right to an abortion, obviously. And we are going to have the temerity
00:30:10.860and courage to overturn this decision. It's very exciting to read the behind the scenes on it.
00:30:15.680And then your point about the disgusting media who were just as bad as those dissenters and Kagan who didn't care at all about endangering the lives of the majority.
00:30:25.340You point out many for scorn, including, of course, before we get to the media, Merrick Garland, Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, all of whom they would prefer to see the justices endangered.
00:30:35.660But then there was Jen Psaki, who you remind us.
00:30:40.180This is just disgusting because she was Biden's press secretary at the time.
00:30:44.280In 2022, Merrick Garland was backed up by the White House in terms of we don't care about the protests.
00:30:49.920We don't care about what's happening outside of their private homes, backed up by the White House, which consistently refused to condemn protests outside of the justices' private homes or even to discourage them.
00:31:02.320So I know that there's an outrage right now, I guess, about protests that have been peaceful to date.
00:31:08.460And we certainly continue to encourage that outside of judges' homes.
00:31:13.060And that's the president's position, said Jen Psaki, Biden's press secretary.
00:31:17.840We covered that at the time, Molly, but I had forgotten about how low she and the White House sunk when the justices' lives were in danger.
00:31:27.940Well, and this is a really big issue nationwide is intimidation of federal judges.
00:31:33.500There are laws that say you cannot try to change an opinion by protesting or threatening a judge or a justice.
00:31:42.500Merrick Garland had many tools at his disposal.
00:31:45.780The Biden White House could have said, we think it's disgusting that you're posting the home address of this justice who lives with his wife and children.
00:31:53.720And as you alluded to earlier, Kavanaugh and his family were faced with an assassin on their street who was trying to murder him and his family.
00:32:04.660But also, he said he wanted to get two other justices as well, presumably the three Trump-appointed justices.
00:32:13.260This is not just like a light, ha-ha, funny thing, oh, they got protested, they deserve it.
00:32:18.900This is about people murderous with rage being incited by incredibly irresponsible people.
00:32:25.960And the media did play a major role in that, both by underplaying the seriousness of these threats, but also lying about what the Dobbs decision did.
00:32:37.740It said it's not in the Constitution, and we all know it.
00:32:41.620And so we should return this issue to the people and their legislatures.
00:32:46.220That's actually a very modest approach to abortion, certainly much less than what pro-lifers would like to see.
00:32:52.680But they lied about it and acted like it was this, you know, horrific situation that would lead the country into the handmaid's tale immediately or something like that.
00:33:02.520Things had sunk so low between the justices and they remain they remain not great.
00:33:08.800And you report that in the book, citing Justice Thomas, who was asked about court friendships, you point out, speaking to an audience in Dallas.
00:33:19.060You say a member of the audience pointing to the friendships between liberal and conservative justices asked how that same type of friendship could be fostered in Congress or in the general population.
00:33:29.980Quote, well, said Thomas, I'm just worried about keeping it at the court now.
00:33:35.780Noting the former colleagues with whom he had friendships, he said, quote, this is not the court of that era.
00:33:41.880Yeah. So things, I mean, was it Dobbs? Was that the point at which things flipped from what had
00:33:48.960been a more cordial court to one that's more fractured now? And over and over, we see the
00:33:53.800liberal justices openly in more casual forums attacking the conservatives.
00:33:59.760Right. I would say that my reporting did indicate that there had been previous times where things
00:34:03.840were a little rough, namely after the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision, the clerks had trouble. There's
00:34:10.440so much clerk interaction across chambers normally, but they had trouble in that era as well. And I
00:34:16.680think the Dobbs decision combined with what the liberal justices were saying both before and
00:34:22.600after that. So it is true that justices strongly fight with each other in their opinions and
00:34:28.560dissents. They'll make fun of each other. Scalia, Justice Scalia, was really good at this. He once
00:34:34.280accused Clarence Thomas of drafting a freedom-destroying cocktail, which, to show how
00:34:41.100little people worried about these types of broadsides in opinions, the next time Thomas
00:34:45.920and Alito went for a drink, Thomas ordered a freedom-destroying cocktail. You know, so they
00:34:51.100have fun with each other in their opinions and dissents. But there has been a norm that you do
00:34:59.080not attack the integrity of the court itself when speaking publicly. And that norm has completely
00:35:05.820been blown through, unfortunately, by many of the liberal justices who will say that-
00:37:08.120We've seen what he's had to go through. But the other justices, I think, were truly appalled by
00:37:12.500that. It was good that she apologized for that. But it's also true. One thing I try to, in the
00:37:19.320book also be balanced about things. And one of the things I think is worth noting is that each
00:37:25.500and every one of these justices could be making a tremendous amount of money off the court.
00:37:32.160They are sacrificing a lot to serve in this role. Justice Alito is the only one who's been a public
00:37:38.840servant his entire life, I think. Maybe Sotomayor, too. But these are people who really could,
00:37:47.240like in Alito's case, I'm sure he could be making tens of millions of dollars outside the court.
00:37:51.820And it's a big sacrifice. And so just it's not appropriate to speak this way about any of your
00:37:58.520colleagues knowing what people are going through. Not that they don't have positions of immense
00:38:02.260power that also mean something. Yeah, no, it's, I mean, Alito, Kavanaugh, they've all been treated
00:38:08.540so horribly. Thomas, Alito and Kavanaugh, I'm sorry, Alito and Thomas both attacked for their
00:38:14.720wives' behavior. You know, just a year or so ago, Justice Alito was in the news because his wife
00:38:20.100had a don't tread on me flag. Like that was considered horrible and offensive and another
00:38:26.180flag. I mean, it's like that that's what you've got on Justice Alito, the flags. His wife is
00:38:30.520flying. I was there when he was confirmed and they reduced his wife to tears because they had been
00:38:37.760so rough on him over. I think it was like a country club. This is just a screen grab of her
00:38:42.480in the background or video of her in the background starting to tear up. She was tearing up when
00:38:46.480finally a senator, a Republican was trying to rehabilitate her husband because the Democrats
00:38:52.560have been suggesting he was a member of the Klan because some country club he had membership in
00:38:57.700wasn't like diverse enough. It's like only leftists will go through your country club and count up
00:39:03.000like on the number of Hispanics, the number of black people. It's like clubs are based on
00:39:07.400demographics of a town or a community. Like what are you supposed to if you move to the town and
00:39:11.840there aren't a bunch of Hispanics and they don't join your club. What are you supposed to do? Say,
00:39:15.500I'm not going to join the club. My kids can't play tennis. It's absurd, but that's what they do.
00:39:20.400They did it back then to him. His wife was reduced to tears when, to his credit, it was Lindsey Graham
00:39:24.640who finally got the mic and started to say, you know, are any of these things true? And her love
00:39:30.340for her husband brought her to tears. Of course, what's been just done to Justice Kavanaugh dwarfs
00:39:35.620anything that's happened to any of them. Just today, Molly, there's a piece in The Atlantic
00:39:41.800ripping on Kash Patel, suggesting he's a raging alcoholic who can't do his job. I mean, really
00:39:47.780incendiary stuff. And apparently they didn't bother to speak to the people around Kash who
00:39:54.200are closest to him, who have spent the most time with him. They were so excited about their
00:39:58.500narrative that he's just, you know, some ne'er-do-well. The Atlantic, that's the same
00:40:03.160publication. It's the same reporter who published the bullshit claims of Julie Swetnick against
00:40:10.880Justice Kavanaugh, that he was a gang rapist represented by Michael Avenatti, who is in jail.
00:40:18.140He's on, I think, work release right now for his fraud. And that the same like the patterns
00:40:25.020continue, which is why the Federalist exists. Well, The Atlantic, I was thinking about it
00:40:31.200when this story came out and how Kash Patel has responded by suing them. And it is wise to take
00:40:38.920their information operations seriously. Lorene Powell Jobs reportedly loses $10 to $20 million
00:40:45.860a year on The Atlantic. And Trump has made fun of her for that. And I'm thinking, losing $10 to $20
00:40:51.820million a year when you're a billionaire in order to control elections and run information ops is
00:40:57.980not really that big of a deal for her, probably. They did the Russia collusion hoax. They did the
00:41:02.940Kavanaugh rape smear. They've been involved in pretty much every major hoax and info op that
00:41:09.080we've seen. They invented the suckers and losers op. And you do have to push back against this
00:41:15.540strongly. And you do want to have journalism where you're actually citing your sources.
00:41:21.040I understand. I mean, I just have a book where I recorded or I reported everything on background
00:41:26.940because I'm interviewing justices and clerks and that.
00:41:29.740But I think you have to have a reputation for telling the truth.
00:41:33.580And if you don't, like this reporter who pushed the Julie Swetnick story, as you note,
00:41:38.740then you have to have better sourcing than what she provided there.
00:41:42.720And the claim with Julie Swetnick, I always remember, is she said that Justice Kavanaugh
00:41:48.240was the leader of a serial gang rape cartel roaming the streets of suburban Maryland.
00:41:54.320And then last week, they tell us, well, we couldn't run down any of the Eric Swalwell information. We know what your standards are, friends, and we know that these far exceeded those standards that you displayed during the Kavanaugh confirmation.
00:42:06.420That's so true. Julie Swetnick gets purchased in the Atlantic, but none of Eric Swalwell accusers were of interest to them. We got it. We know who you are.
00:42:14.240All right, let's shift gears because there's something else that's up your alley. You at The Federalist, and if you're not reading The Federalist, everybody, you should be. They've got so many great reporters over there.
00:42:22.120Um, Julie Kelly now reporting the latest on the Trump administration's pushback into the Russiagate reporting against Trump back in term 1.0.
00:42:35.640And this is important because there's never been real accountability for what was done to the president on his first term, the effective ruination of his first term, certainly the attempted ruination of him as a leader, as a politician, as a president.
00:42:48.240So now he's been having many in the intel community take a look at the files, right?
00:42:54.360Like Tulsi Gabbard and the CIA, the FBI, like check your files, see what you're finding
00:43:01.880And we have found quite a bit on how much collusion there was, how much planning there
00:43:06.920was to undermine Trump based on nothing, based on absolutely made up nothingness.
00:43:12.340And here's what Julie Kelly just posted today.
00:43:14.180CBS News reporting accelerated activity into the Russiagate investigation, quote, former senior intelligence and FBI officials who are cooperating with the DOJ's criminal probe into whether former CIA director John Brennan lied to Congress were subpoenaed over the weekend to testify before a grand jury in D.C.
00:43:35.200Multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS the subpoenas went out shortly after the Justice Department appointed conservative Trump ally Joe DiGenova to formally take over the criminal investigation into Brennan after the career prosecutor handling the case was removed late last week.
00:43:51.960So what this tells me in a nutshell is, while they haven't been able to make the case criminally
00:43:57.260against former CIA director John Brennan, who I think may have been, I mean, he's one of the top
00:44:02.580three worst who tried to screw Trump. They haven't been able to get him criminally yet.
00:44:09.560They're getting closer. That's what that tells me. How do you see it? Because you've been
00:44:13.100really in depth on this situation. I've been on this story for 10 years.
00:44:17.160It's been almost 10 years since I wrote my very first story on the Russia collusion hoax.
00:44:22.100And there are challenges with holding people accountable.
00:49:24.740So you tell me whether a party that's going to get D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood plus court packing, whether that party would hesitate in any way to get rid of the filibuster so they could shove everything through with a 51 vote majority and whether that changes any of the calculations we're watching right now in the U.S. Senate.
00:49:42.420It's not just James Carville. It's a ton of Democrats who are advocating getting rid of
00:49:46.960the filibuster. The big problem, as a fan of the filibuster, because it protects minority
00:49:53.380viewpoints, and I feel like I always have minority viewpoints, the frustration is,
00:49:58.080why wouldn't the Republicans in the Senate nuke the filibuster and then do all sorts of good
00:50:03.780things with it? You know, there are all sorts of things that should be done by the Senate that
00:50:08.280they claim they can't do because they can't pass this 60-vote threshold. But if they were to nuke
00:50:14.680the filibuster and then actually get something done, I would be much more in favor of them doing
00:50:18.420it. But regardless, they should be debating. They should get back to the Senate being that great
00:50:23.320body that debates, like we always were told when we were kids, this is the great debating
00:50:27.480group of the country. They never debate anymore. And they should be doing that with the Save
00:50:32.880America Act, and they should be discussing why they don't want to have people prove that they
00:50:38.780are citizens of the country and have, and that they are who they claim they are when it comes
00:50:42.860to voting. Well, there may be a way of forcing that actual speaking filibusters, which will
00:50:49.400change it. And whatever has to be done, we got to get the Save Act passed. Molly, great to see you.
00:50:54.860The book is Alito, The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution by
00:50:59.720Molly Hemingway. Go buy it right now before everybody else tries to get it tomorrow.
00:51:04.380Great to see you. Good luck with it. Coming up next, Rob Shooter on some Hollywood Inside Dish.
00:51:10.460Traditional home security companies can make the whole process a headache.
00:51:14.200Expensive monthly fees, long contracts that lock you in for years, and systems that require a
00:51:19.760technician to come install everything. It can feel overly complicated, but let me tell you about
00:51:25.220SimpliSafe. They make protecting your home straightforward, and the system is designed
00:51:29.940to cover everything that matters. What stands out about SimpliSafe is that it's not just
00:51:34.300one device, it's a complete security system. And it's all backed by SimpliSafe's 24-7
00:51:39.580professional monitoring agents who are ready to respond and dispatch emergency help if
00:51:44.640something happens. Over 5 million people trust SimpliSafe every day, and U.S. News and World
00:51:50.380report ranks them the best home security system of 2026. Consider experiencing peace of mind
00:51:57.880with SimpliSafe and this exclusive discount. Listen to this right now. You can get 50% off
00:52:04.620your new system, five zero by visiting simplisafe.com slash Megan. That's simply spelled
00:52:10.220with an I S I M P L I safe.com slash Megan, where you will get half off. There is no safe
01:02:09.180So we're not surprised at how this story has unraveled, how it's going to end up.
01:02:14.520But as far as moving to another country, my sources are saying absolutely.
01:02:18.960And the reason is she just can't understand why Americans don't adore her anymore.
01:02:24.440And Blake can't live anywhere. She can't be around people that don't adore her. So Blake has really closed her circle. She has this very, very small inner circle who all tell her how brilliant she is, how beautiful, how smart she is, including her husband. Her husband's part of this sort of fan group around Blake.
01:02:44.280That has been shattered by this lawsuit. And I think the most damage Blake has done is maybe not to others or maybe not to her friendships, but to herself here, because Blake, for the first time, as long as I've been covering her, has had to really wake up and smell the coffee, which is people don't like me.
01:03:02.320Now, if you know that, if you acknowledge that, you're okay.
01:03:07.100But if you've gone through your life thinking everybody loves you and you're really special,
01:03:11.340to be told otherwise has shook her to her core.
01:03:14.080So out of America, we don't deserve Blake.
01:03:16.700She needs to be somewhere where really they love her.
01:03:20.760No, well, we don't want her right in America the same.
01:03:23.820But we wound up with Harry and Meghan and nobody likes them either.
01:03:59.640And it kind of like took the wind out of the sails of that scandal.
01:04:03.300People laughed that he could laugh about it, and he kind of shared it with us, and we all kind of moved on.
01:04:08.520It's not like that for Blake Lively because she's tried to ruin someone, you know?
01:04:14.300And she almost got away with it, except he hired a very effective PR and legal team to fight back on his behalf.
01:04:24.260And she kind of got caught once we saw in Discovery all of her texts and so on.
01:04:28.980And so there's no way out of it for her at this point, Rob. Even if she decides to settle this case before they go to trial next month, it's happening May 19th, which reports are she doesn't want to. No one's in the mind of like, forgive her and move on. I think people are angry over what she's done to him.
01:04:47.320Yeah, I think you're right. And I would argue, too, it's not just that he's hired a really great team. He has. And so I tip my hat to that. He has the truth on his side, Megan. So this was always hopefully going to come out. I'm still a believer. I want to believe that the truth does prevail. We can disguise it for a while. I've worked with celebrities where we've done a good job of covering stuff up for years, maybe even decades. But ultimately, the truth comes out. And I think that truth is coming out now for Blake.
01:11:42.320talking about like a legitimate celebrity out in Hollywood could not garner
01:11:46.140this kind of a crowd and attract attention to walk with them on the beach
01:11:51.960or into an event if they asked for it.
01:11:55.520Right. Like literally all of them, even the B listers could easily get crowds to follow them and make it look like they are just sort of these world ambassadors.
01:12:05.340What this is showing us is not that they're these universally beloved people.
01:12:09.580It's that people really know Harry, have some affinity, probably for the 12 year old version of him and certainly for his deceased mother, maybe some extent his brother and his father.
01:12:21.680But it's about celebrity and people being interested in it.
01:12:26.560It's just they're the only ones who do it.
01:12:29.880There are not, for the most part, Hollywood celebrities who could gather a crowd who are this thirsty.
01:13:46.580But Harry is going to be somebody that we're always going to be interested in. And he's just figured out now that he doesn't need the royals family to be a part time royal. He is a part time royal. He will be now for the rest of his life.
01:13:59.600And so I'm told from my palace insiders is that they were really angry about this, that they don't want it.
01:14:05.940But now they're at the point where they're sort of like, let them. What can we do? Let them.
01:14:10.480They're going to do this again. They're going to repeat this Australia trip in different countries,
01:14:15.560probably Commonwealth countries, where there will be affection towards Harry and crowds will turn up.
01:14:21.060And then at the end of it, she'll sell you a pot of jam. But there's nothing the royals can do.
01:14:25.960you can't stop him from going to a hospital. You can't stop him from going to a women's shelter.
01:14:31.880And so I think, though, this is going to become boring. This is going to become old news really,
01:14:36.560really fast. Because once again, the only thing that makes them interesting is the one thing that
01:14:40.980they are running away from, or at least say they're running away from.
01:14:44.620So they, but they keep breaking open the same act. She gets in front of this group of women
01:14:50.440who gathered to celebrate her at $1,700 a pop
01:14:54.220and decided to tell them how terrible her life was,
01:26:03.060We're going to talk about the failing Met Gala and the latest, speaking of morning TV, which his book is about, the latest from what's happening over at NBC.
01:26:13.280When the dollar's convertibility into gold ended in 1971, gold was fixed at $35 an ounce.
01:26:21.080Fast forward to today and the U.S. dollar has lost more than 85% of its purchasing power.
01:26:26.180Gold, on the other hand, has increased in value by over 12,000%.
01:26:29.640That's why major firms like Vanguard and BlackRock hold significant positions in gold.
01:26:35.220And that's why you may want to consider diversifying your savings with physical gold
01:28:29.240I now have my very own channel on Sirius XM.
01:28:32.400It's called the Megan Kelly Channel, and it is where you will hear the truth, unfiltered, with no agenda and no apologies.
01:28:38.540Along with the Megan Kelly Show, you're going to hear from people like Mark Halperin, Link Lauren, Maureen Callahan, Emily Jashinsky, Jesse Kelly, Real Clear Politics, and many more.
01:28:47.520It's bold, no BS news, only on the Megyn Kelly channel, Sirius XM 111, and on the Sirius XM app.
01:37:49.800You know, Rob, it's because I put my relationship up with my audience or with my audience up against the relationship that Today Show anchors have with theirs any day of the week.
01:38:42.960If you're if you're going to say, OK, come here first to promote your book and you don't do them the courtesy of actually reading it and knowing what's in there, then, you know, then you're the Today Show.
01:38:51.800Then you give the person three minutes.
01:39:11.280OK, I want to go back to one of the things.
01:39:12.760So in your reporting, you write about how there's tension now between Savannah and Hoda on the set.
01:39:22.980And I think that this is very interesting to me because they've been trying to pitch us for a very long time now about how it's all a family and those two are so close.
01:39:31.600And we saw Hoda make it all about herself when she interviewed Savannah on her first interview back.
01:39:36.240And that you are getting to the actual truth, which is it is not a family.
01:39:40.680It is a cutthroat, very nasty industry where everyone's trying to oust everyone.
01:40:36.900And the first few episodes, it's not Hoda.
01:40:38.840It's Willie, but nobody watched. And so that's why that's why she got the job. So she got the job despite Savannah. These two are not friends. They don't even really like each other. You're never going to see them hanging out. There's tension. There's real tension.
01:40:51.760Yeah, that's, I mean, one of the many pieces of drama is to see if they can pull off the act. And let me tell you, they did not do it in that interview with Hoden or fake tears that anybody could see. Willie Geist is a fine reporter, but he is as exciting as this piece of blank paper. So it was never going to happen. Unlike our friend Rob Shooter, who's amazing. You've got to check out his debut novel. It is so fun. Truly, trust me, I promise you, you will enjoy it. It's out tomorrow. It's called It Started.
01:41:21.760the whisper. Rob, thanks so much for being here. And we'll hear you again soon here and on The
01:41:26.540Nerve. I can't wait to be back. Thank you for being so kind. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
01:41:30.860Oh, lots of love. That was so fun. What a great Monday. Okay, we're back tomorrow with our pals
01:41:35.860from National Review. We will see you all then. Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show.