00:01:23.300And President Trump is back on the campaign trail, heading to San Antonio today to campaign for embattled Republican Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton.
00:01:33.220The president's going to all red states, which is somewhat disturbing if you are a Republican, because he shouldn't really be needed in Texas or Nebraska or some of these other states that he's having to go to.
00:02:10.060Obviously, he doesn't think it will behoove him to appear in Texas with President Trump.
00:02:17.060That this is the problem for. I mean, it's not really Trump's immediate problem. It's really the problem of the GOP. But once the House and or the Senate go dem, it's going to be Trump's problem, which is why he's chosen to campaign hard for them in the last few weeks.
00:02:32.160And last night, there was a Senate debate. If you'd like to sit and look at this pen for the next two hours, you'd probably be more entertained than if you watch this debate in Maine between Democrat Troy Jackson and Republican incumbent Susan Collins.
00:02:47.140Just just look at it. It's pretty. Has some blue marks on it. Silver.
00:02:51.740Okay. That was more exciting than what we saw in Maine last night. We thoroughly went through this thing to try to find anything to show you what's going on between these two. We found a couple of sad options, and I'm going to show you one. The race is super tight. I mean, it is razor tight, which is saying something since Troy Jackson is schtipping his cousin.
00:03:13.580I don't. Is it me? I feel like that should be a deal breaker when you're reproducing with your
00:03:22.740cousin. But I guess not because it's super tight in Maine, according to the Real Clear Politics
00:03:30.460average of polls. Susan Collins last night emphasizing that she has opposed President
00:03:36.580Trump's tariffs. I'm sorry. I don't say I didn't warn you. They started arguing about road salt.
00:03:43.720Troy mocked it, but I was successful in getting concrete, pulp, and road salt removed from the tariff list.
00:03:56.340Well, look, Mainers can't afford to pay their bills with a press release or a strongly worded letter like Senator Collins keeps talking about.
00:04:05.960I didn't mock the fact that she got road salt back.
00:04:08.960I mocked the fact that what about everything else?
00:04:10.920I mean, we can't eat road salt. And the thing about it is, is that everything that she's doing
00:04:17.100with Iran war and stuff like that, there's going to be so many less people that'll be able to afford
00:04:21.000to drive that I'm not even sure the road salt is going to be worth anything either.
00:04:25.980How's your cousin? Joining me now for an NR day, the guys from National Review, Editor-in-Chief
00:04:32.160Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cook, a senior editor and host of the Charles C.W. Cook podcast. Become
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00:05:57.040We're trying to get excited about Maine.
00:05:59.440Like really trying. I got salt accepted. I guess I get what she's saying. I get it. But this is so boring. And honestly, like, what is it? Why a state that's elected Susan Collins five terms now? Why would they be eyeballing the guy who's stupping the cousin rich?
00:06:17.720Well, it's a Democratic year. It's basically a blue state. If you just listen to Susan Collins or look at her in isolation, nothing would suggest that she's a good politician at all. In fact, she's not a good politician. But she's really fortunate, independent brand there, a real survivor. I think she's probably going to win this year.
00:06:39.200You know, she won six years ago when she was behind eight points in the polls.
00:07:08.360I'm over it. It is disturbing for Republican voters, Charlie, that the president is now in his last minute swoop going not to swing states, not to blue states where Republicans are running competitively, but to red states like Nebraska to help my friend Pete Ricketts and to Texas where he's getting the Heisman from Greg Abbott,
00:07:36.300who does not want to be seen with him.
00:07:38.720This as Ken Paxton was caught on tape telling donors
00:07:44.020he knows why he's struggling against the man Trump refers to as James Talafrico.
00:07:50.900Listen to this tape via Axios from October 7.
00:10:46.080I think that's true for most of us, just because the numbers are so eye-popping.
00:10:52.280I was always told that I could just fill my car up with the regular unleaded, so that's what I do.
00:10:58.680But then somebody recently told me that for my car, I should be having the nicer, you know, the Super.
00:11:03.880So I was at the gas pump yesterday, and it was showing for the regular $4.99, for the Super, $5.50.
00:11:14.300$5.50 a gallon, Rich. I mean, this is like, these are big numbers. And the average consumer is
00:11:21.720already suffering at the grocery store, on the rent or the mortgage, the insurance, the health,
00:11:27.460the medical payments, health insurance, so on. Then you get to the gas pump and you're like,
00:11:32.200now that one I didn't have to have. That shouldn't be there. We had low gas prices. We went and fought
00:11:38.460this war in Iran, which is very unpopular, very unpopular now. And, you know, the president and
00:11:47.100the Republican Party that doesn't stand up to him is getting blamed. It has Harry Enten,
00:11:53.600who did a little back look at the feelings about the war in Iran, wasn't favorable,
00:11:59.700reporting the following on CNN today. Well, Kim Paxton kind of had it right. You know,0.98
00:12:04.360Look at look at these numbers. OK, this is on gas prices. This is among 2024 Trump voters.
00:12:09.380Remember, 100 percent of these folks voted for Donald Trump. But in the key Senate state average, look at this.
00:12:14.840The net approval rating for Trump, the best you can do is one point.
00:12:18.100That is just one point more of Trump voters approved than disapproved among gas prices.
00:12:23.020100 percent of these voters went for Donald Trump. And nationwide, look at this.
00:12:26.620Among the Trump voters, he's actually underwater. He's underwater.
00:12:29.960The line is dragging the Trump voters underwater and taking them away from the Republican Party.
00:12:37.640He looked at the Senate and the House and found the same, that Trump voters were preparing to leave and not vote GOP, in part, large part, according to Enten, because they're so angry about those gas prices.
00:13:37.260I would have thought if you told me five months ago or whatever it was that price of gas 450
00:13:44.000going into arriving season with midterm election coming, I would have thought Trump would have
00:13:47.800look for an exit ramp. But instead, he's he's demonstrated incredible stick to it in this year
00:13:53.920where he just seemingly doesn't care. He says he doesn't care. I think he does care.
00:13:57.920There isn't one in Iran. He tried that. He tried that last spring with J.D. Vance and the, you1.00
00:14:03.020know, Memorandum of Understanding. It collapsed in about two minutes. Like it's you can't. There's
00:14:07.960no exit ramp when the enemy is dug in and obstinate as the Iranians. Yeah, they wouldn't1.00
00:14:14.140and let them have it. So look, Republican pollsters I talk to, I don't know whether they're right,
00:14:18.420but they're convinced that there's a big polling era in the Midwest because there's just no way
00:14:23.140to get rural voters to answer these polls. So some of them legitimately think, you know,
00:14:28.440Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, these are mirages for Democrats. Maybe they're right. But if they're
00:14:33.500not right and or you get even more of a Democratic tilt at the end, sometimes these elections,
00:14:38.160they tilt one way or at the end, it's going to be a debacle. Now, if they're right and or there's a
00:14:43.080little bit of a Republican tilt or coming home in the Midwest right before the election, then they
00:14:47.680can hold the Senate. I think a win for Republicans in this context, you lose the House and you hold
00:14:53.240the Senate. That that would be a good night at this point. Totally agree with you. Latest polling
00:14:58.880out today from YouGov, Charlie. They just released a new round in the seven key states show Democrats
00:15:04.980leading Republicans in five of the Senate races, Texas, New Hampshire, Ohio. We didn't mention
00:15:11.340that. That's supposed to be a red state now, not according to these polls. Kansas and Michigan,
00:15:17.380the poll conducted September 18th through October 5th. They show in Texas, Tallarico's over Paxton,
00:15:23.060six points. Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown leads Republican John Husted by four points. Kansas,
00:15:31.940the Democrat Adam Hamilton, leading Republican Senator Roger Marshall by three points.
00:15:37.200In Michigan, they have El Syed up over Mike Rogers, one point.
00:15:42.260But our pals over at the Real Clear Politics podcast, you know, Bevin, Cannon, and Walworth say that in Michigan, El Syed has been ahead in every poll, like the whole time.
00:15:55.660He's up one, but he's been up in every poll.
00:15:59.960Now, in my experience as a political journalist, when that happens, that person wins.
00:16:04.580I don't remember an instance in which the person was up. It could be one point, could be two in every poll prior to the vote who then went on to loss. That's just anecdotal. But I always pay attention to that. Then there's Nebraska, which I mentioned. Pete Ricketts down one point. I don't know. I feel like he could pull that out. New Hampshire. This is a bad one. The Democrat Chris Pappas is leading the Republican John Sununu by eight points. That one seems gone.
00:16:29.680And in Florida, the Republican Ashley Moody is leading the Democrat Nixon by five points.
00:16:39.800But that's the point is simply that's Florida.
00:24:21.800You've got to choose one or the other.
00:24:23.480And he chose the other because he really believes in tariffs.
00:24:26.820This is 110 percent conviction on his part.
00:24:29.980But they increase prices at the margins.
00:24:33.140So people are going to be disappointed by the other promise.
00:24:37.180And if it's a horrible Republican night, that's going to be a huge reason why.
00:24:40.580OK, now, now, shockingly, gentlemen, you've never heard me do this before.
00:24:44.700But I may get a little blue, a little blue on the program in my language, but it's not my fault.
00:24:49.320It is the fault of Carl Cannon of Real Clear Politics, the sweetest guy you'll ever meet in your life, who told a very dirty story on their podcast, which airs on the MK channel on Sirius XM.
00:25:03.860And it's about the following soundbite.
00:25:05.920All right. First, I heard you guys on the editors railing about this.
00:25:08.620Charlie, I'm very interested in your take.
00:25:10.160This is the Trump soundbite that's being used to batter the president by saying he basically
00:25:15.340invited Iran to bomb Los Angeles and bomb San Diego and telegraphed.0.99
00:25:40.160That's this is a very small price to pay. And it's going to be over very soon. It's essentially
00:25:46.540almost over with. Okay. Now, to me, it's very clear he's saying, what do you mean Iran's not
00:25:53.220a threat? Let him tell us that when they take out L.A. or they take out San Diego. I've been0.99
00:25:58.840covering the president very, very closely for a long, long time. To me, it's very clear that
00:26:01.980that's what he's saying. If he wanted to say, let's bomb Los Angeles, he would have owned it.
00:26:06.740He would have leaned in. He would have had fun with it. That crowd would have loved it.
00:26:10.620You know, like and he wouldn't have said San Diego, which is more red.
00:26:13.480But OK, so that makes no sense. But here's some of the freak out.
00:26:16.920Governor Newsom, Trump is now saying our foreign enemies should take out L.A. and San Diego.0.79
00:26:21.000He's deranged and dangerous. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, keep L.A. out your damn mouth.1.00
00:26:26.440The Atlantic's Jemele Hill. When Trump eventually passes away as an L.A. resident, I'm going to keep that same energy.0.99
00:26:32.840Blah, blah, blah. Joe Scarborough, his crowd cheering on the possibility of nuclear destruction of two American cities and the killing of millions of Americans.
00:26:41.400Maria Shriver and so on. You are failing to feel outraged. Tell us why.
00:26:48.620Because it's a lie. I think everyone you just mentioned, except perhaps Jameel Hill, knows that it's a lie.
00:26:57.400Gavin Newsom knows exactly what he's doing. Maria Shriver knows what she's doing. These people all
00:27:04.160know what they're doing. They know that's not what Trump said. Trump meanders. Trump is unclear.
00:27:11.580Trump talks in a way that I don't like. I spend a lot of my time, Megan, as you know, criticizing
00:27:15.920Trump. I'm hardly a Trump whisperer, Trump defender, Trump apologist. I'm not even a Trump
00:27:20.960voter. But he very clearly, in any construction of the English
00:27:26.420language, said the precise opposite in that section than
00:27:31.200what he's being accused of having said. And it's not just
00:27:34.580the opposite of what he plainly said, given the literal words
00:27:38.300of the transcript. But it's the opposite of what he's been
00:27:41.580saying now for six months. I mean, the knock on Trump, the
00:27:45.420criticism of Trump, is that he was a guy who ran saying that
00:27:50.780he would focus on domestic issues that he wouldn't get involved in the Middle East now I know that's
00:27:55.900not always the case because he has been hawkish on Iran but that has been a vibe that he's put
00:28:01.580out there and then the hit is like every other Republican president he thought the Middle East0.56
00:28:06.600was more important and he says that himself I mean that's his case every time is Iran can't
00:28:12.200get a nuclear weapon it's it's worth having high gas prices because Iran can't get a nuclear weapon
00:28:18.080and what he was doing there. And I don't know whether this is geopolitically likely, so I don't0.53
00:28:23.300know whether he's scaremongering or not. But what he is doing there is saying, yes, prices are high,
00:28:29.640gas prices are high. It's artificially high, though, because we're currently engaged in a conflict to
00:28:35.760prevent Iran from being able to strike an American city. And what he's saying is this isn't a
00:28:40.460structural problem with the American economy. It's not that we're not producing gasoline. It's that
00:28:45.320we're fighting this war. He's making a case for war being more important than domestic policy.
00:28:50.920Again, you can criticize that. You can say he betrayed his voters. You can absolutely say that
00:28:55.680he doesn't speak clearly enough and should do better as president. You can even criticize the
00:28:59.360crowd. I'm not quite sure what the crowd thinks it's doing there. People behave weirdly at political
00:29:03.580events. Maybe the crowd was cheering that. But that's just not what Trump was saying. And I think
00:29:09.500we all know that's not what Trump was saying. So what's happened here is this. Trump said what he
00:29:14.300said in the course of about a one or two minute speech where he waves around the point. Someone,
00:29:21.120Aaron Rupa probably, but someone like that has clipped that little part of it. That then went
00:29:26.260out across the internet. Lots of people got outraged about it. They're addicted to being
00:29:30.260outraged. They didn't check it. They didn't clip it. You're right. It was him. Yeah. So they then
00:29:34.740start talking this up and they get into high dungeon. I cannot believe that the president
00:29:39.360said this. Then someone says, I don't actually think that he said that. In this case, by the way,
00:29:43.920That included people like Daniel Dale, you know, fact checker at CNN, who doesn't fact check Trump ever in a positive light, suddenly says, I don't think he really said that.
00:29:54.700You had all these people, including me, who are very critical of Trump, including on Iran, saying he didn't say that.
00:29:59.480And then instead of those people saying, yeah, actually, I think we got this one wrong.
00:30:03.460They attacked the motives of the people who had heard what Trump said and weren't going to play the same game.
00:30:10.000And then you've got Gavin Newsom, who's just loathsome, who's not only did he get all upset about it and start the political game, he started to think he was going to have briefings with the California defense organizations to make sure that the president, come on, we all know what happened here.
00:30:28.960And it just drives me crazy because, look, this is why no one trusts the press.
00:30:32.680And it's also why Trump's won in 2024, because Trump does say outrageous things that need condemning.
00:30:37.980But just no one believes it because no one in the media is capable of distinguishing between what he actually did and what he didn't do.
00:30:46.540Right. All right. So Carl Cannon said, Rich, that except he was he was saying the actual words, which is very unusual for him.
00:30:54.460He said the problem here is not exactly is not that Trump was threatening, you know, we should blow up a couple of American cities or encouraging Iran to do it.
00:31:03.320The problem was that he was in Nebraska trying to get buzz going for Pete Ricketts in this, you know, senatorial run.
00:31:10.140And instead, all the buzz is about whether Trump wants two American cities bombed.
00:31:13.820And he said he stepped on his D word and then then Bevin said, well, if you're going to say that, you've got to tell everybody the story about Haley Barber.
00:31:24.460And so Carl told this story about Haley Barber, who apparently said once to Carl, the public understands that you as a politician are out there all the time talking so much every once in a while, you're going to step on your D.
00:31:49.820so is that what the president did here not quite i don't think it was uh jumping up and down on it
00:32:00.540he caught himself right he he shouldn't have said if he could go back he wouldn't have said let them
00:32:05.940right let them nuke los angeles or san diego but it's absolutely clear what he meant and and he
00:32:11.000began to say that's a small price to pay as though you know getting la and san diego nuked would be
00:32:16.680a small price to pay for something. And then he goes to this, corrects himself, this is a small
00:32:21.240price to pay, which actually connects to what he was saying earlier about gas prices. So this faux
00:32:27.000outrage reminds me very much of the coverage of the Madison Square Garden rally towards the end
00:32:32.280of the 2024 election, where because there was one ethnic joke told two hours before Trump took the
00:32:39.140stage, and because once, like 40 years ago, the American Nazi Party had a rally at Madison Square
00:32:45.500Garden. Put aside that Democrats had political conventions there. JFK had events there. The
00:32:50.800famous Marilyn Monroe, happy birthday, Mr. President, was at Madison Square Garden.
00:32:54.980They said this was basically a Nazi rally. And if you actually watch the thing and watch Trump's
00:32:59.980speech, it was the most upbeat, I think it was the best speech he gave the whole campaign,
00:33:04.020totally disconnected from what you heard on Morning Joe and places like this. So in part,
00:33:10.500you know, obviously they're dishonest and cynical. They also think they're clever.0.79
00:33:13.980They also kind of feed off each other and they're kind of going for the headline or the news clip that an ordinary person who's only paying a quarter attention because he or she has more important things to do says, oh, OK, Trump threatened to nuke Los Angeles.
00:33:29.720Right. They're deliberately trying to lie to people.
00:39:34.660J.D. Vance was the first to say he's obviously running for president.
00:39:37.440and Cruz did not let his actual loyalty towards Trump or feigned loyalty towards Trump stop him
00:39:45.660from taking a shot at Trump's vice president. What do you make of the exchange? So Cruz clearly
00:39:51.160running for president. It's not that he's prematurely eyeing presidency now. He's been
00:39:55.340eyeing the presidency for decades and decades. These two guys, they don't like each other.
00:39:59.680They have disdain for each other. There's also deep substantive differences between them. So
00:40:05.220So this is going to be – this is just the start of what will be a really fierce fight between the two ideologically, personally, everything, beginning soon.
00:40:18.000I think there are two things we may not be fully realizing about these midterms.
00:40:21.920After these midterms happen, the grains of sand and the hourglass on the Trump presidency, one, will begin moving down real fast.
00:40:29.600You know, within a couple of months, it's going to be less than two years. And a mixed metaphor. The starting gun begins in the presidential race to try to be a successor immediately.
00:40:39.240So Cruz is in this. Obviously, J.D. is going to run. I could be another senator or two. And, you know, I think Rand Paul might run a Glenn. Glenn Youngkin or Brian Kemp might run a couple others.
00:40:52.520But these races are always contested. Even coronations end up being contested at some point. So I think J.D. will have a race at some point here. But obviously, he's the heavy favorite at this moment.
00:41:04.080But, Rich, the other the other possibility is that if Charlie is not correct about the economy over the next two years and it continues to struggle, the American people continue to struggle, then J.D. is he is going to have to fight for it.
00:41:21.500Right. Because if Trump's poll numbers stay down where they are or, God forbid, for him and his party go lower, the challengers to J.D. and or Marco are going to be coming out of the woodwork.
00:41:33.740Are they not? It will not it will not be a passing of the torch.
00:41:38.100It will be lots of torches running toward the podiums to debate and to fight for it.
00:41:44.040Yeah, I think it's going to be contested no matter what.
00:41:46.960It's still hard for me to see, even with a catastrophic midterm, say loss of six or seven
00:41:52.260Senate seats, that everyone in this race or most people in this race wouldn't still be
00:41:57.420running for a version of Trump's legacy, right?
00:42:01.620J.D. would be emphasizing the populist aspect, Ted Cruz would be emphasizing the more traditional
00:42:06.860Republican aspect, and both would have something, you know, have evidence, right?
00:42:10.980Trump kind of straddles this divide, but it's hard for me to see where it'd be so bad that you have
00:42:17.640Republicans say, you know what, screw it. We need something totally different. We need to turn our
00:42:23.100backs on this guy. That's very hard for me to see happening. Yeah, especially with Trump still
00:42:29.200in the White House and with the bully pulpit. Okay, no longer in the White House, I think much
00:42:34.940to all of our relief is Kamala Harris, but she's out there, Charlie, and she's talking and she is
00:42:41.020inspiring. She had this to offer on the Democrats go TV live stream where she was asked to participate
00:42:48.920and seems to have been working on coming up with more substantive messaging. Here's the latest
00:42:56.740top 13. There's so much power in this and there's so much power in each of you. And, you know, I
00:43:03.360have a saying i have many sayings but one of them is you know when you feel powerless
00:43:06.980you are powerless when you feel powerful you are powerful and we are powerful
00:43:14.360that's her saying that's her special her special so why does she need to vote why do they need to
00:43:24.300elect anyone because she could just feel powerful then she is right just that's a terrible message
00:43:30.980to get people out right what's the name of she's the best the actress from best in show jennifer
00:43:39.020uh you know just gonna sit here until i get another message myself in any event she's back
00:43:48.220charlie and there's a big debate about whether by the way that was democrat get out the vote
00:43:53.480live stream. There's a big debate about whether she can, should and will. More and more, you're
00:44:02.540starting to see think pieces from, you know, so-called mainstream outlets, allegedly speaking
00:44:07.920with her own team saying she's not going to. No, she's not going to. It's not going to happen. And
00:44:12.920yet the Dems start in South Carolina for a reason. That's exactly her constituency.0.99
00:44:18.940Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom, your friend, is saying if she runs, he won't, which, you know, if you believe that, I don't know.
00:44:25.280But so what do you make of her chances of actually running?
00:44:29.820I think she thinks she's going to run, but I think she's going to be disabused of this notion early on, whether it's by people not giving her money or polling or the entrance of other people.
00:44:44.020i don't know but i think she still thinks she should be president and that she should have
00:44:51.160beaten trump in 2024 and we're obviously that clip confirmed it once again talking about somebody
00:44:59.020who doesn't know what she doesn't know i mean she doesn't know that she's a joke she doesn't know
00:45:05.000that she comes across like that she doesn't know that these pearls of wisdom that she puts out are
00:45:11.860badly read fortune cookies she thinks that she is someone and it's going to be quite hard to
00:45:17.440disabuse her of that notion at this stage in her career she's failed upwards for so long
00:45:22.780but i think she's not going to actually run for president because i think she's
00:45:27.120going to be told by people who don't share those delusions uh externally that it's a no-go
00:45:34.560i don't know i had to bring the fortune cookie in it i mean unlike kamala harris the chinese0.70
00:45:39.580tend to be smart so it's gratuitous insult by cook over there i'm insulting the chinese i'm0.68
00:45:46.040insulting the people who write fortune cookie messages which might for all i know be kamala0.79
00:45:50.120in fact that would be a great that'd be a great restaurant i go there just for the cookie1.00
00:45:56.900only kamala harris profundities in the cookies here's another one for you rich she had some
00:46:02.540thoughts about Kevin Kiley. Watch Sat 12. Well, this guy who was that guy and is still this guy
00:46:09.640and that guy. Come on now. Voted for that big, bad bill. Oh, my God. This is a politician in
00:46:25.540California who's trying to go from a Republican to an independent. This is so that's I think
00:46:31.620the problem is she genuinely thinks she's funny and she's not. They're never laughing with her.
00:46:39.160Yeah. Total lack of self-awareness. And it's a weird combination of she's saying nothing at the
00:46:44.040same time. It bends your mind at the same time, right? Just trying to follow these vague,
00:46:49.080contradictory tautologies. So look, usually you lose a presidential race. Your party never wants
00:46:54.040to hear from you again. I don't think we've seen that reaction to her yet. Maybe it's coming and
00:46:58.960everyone's just kind of being nice to her. But what else is she going to do if she doesn't run
00:47:03.660for president? So I think she's definitely going to run. Maybe Charlie's right. She flames out0.99
00:47:08.980earlier like she did the first time around in 2020. But, you know, she has some appeal to black0.98
00:47:15.120voters, really important in South Carolina. I think the candidate I fear most on the Democratic
00:47:20.400side at the moment is John Ossoff. I think he has some appeal to black voters, right? He's one in a
00:47:25.600purplish state. He's not as crazily woke as some of these other candidates. At the same time,
00:47:31.400he's fiercely anti-Trump, which might be a way to appeal to the base without getting an insane
00:47:37.620cultural territory. He's going to win a pretty big victory in November, and he's a pretty good
00:47:42.380communicator, and I think he's going to run. So I think he's a real serious, probably top
00:47:48.320three contender for their nomination, I'm guessing. Is there anybody you fear on the Dem side,
00:47:53.500Charlie? Well, I do fear him as well. And I would say, as an aside, that this is one reason you
00:47:59.460don't want to lose in, say, Texas. Not because James Tallarico is Ossoff, but because when you
00:48:05.880break streaks, then people get into habits. And those habits are now that they're voting for
00:48:12.620Democrats in places like Georgia and Arizona when they hadn't for a long time. So it's really
00:48:17.680important not to lose your hold on states that you win every time. The problem John Ossoff has,
00:48:22.780I think I'm right in saying he's Jewish.1.00
00:48:25.820And the Democratic primary electorate right now is really not very comfortable with Jewish
00:48:32.540politicians, as we've seen also in Pennsylvania with Josh Shapiro.
00:48:37.760So it's possible that they'll overcome that and pick someone more palatable.
00:48:43.280But that would worry me if I were John Ossoff, because his party's gone crazy.
00:48:47.960Senator, Democratic senator from Georgia.
00:48:50.480Rich, I saw you tweet this out just before the show.
00:48:52.780The Athletic, which is the offshoot of the New York Times, it's their sort of sports website, has a piece just out, shifting gears here, entitled, Fever Should Part With Sophie Cunningham.
00:49:05.720She's too turbulent to be paired with Caitlin Clark.
00:49:09.560It begins, this season, Royce White showed up to an Indiana Fever game while wearing a long blonde wig.
00:49:14.720Ennis Cantor Freedom, in a shirt that defined the word woman, got into a yelling match with an opposing player at another Fever game.
00:49:21.920Indiana Attorney General Todd Rakita not wearing a wig and Riley Gaines posted a video together inside the fieldhouse, essentially rehearsing a political ad before taking in a fever game.
00:49:35.300They all showed up to be a part of a circus, not to enjoy a WNBA game.
00:49:39.200They attended solely to antagonize and amplify a nonexistent issue in this basketball league, all because of Sophie Cunningham.
00:49:46.460This was the season when the Fever and even the whole Kaitlin Clark experience took a backseat to a bench player with big opinions.
00:49:53.280So if the Fever ever want to go back to being a basketball team again and follow the lead of rivals openly clashing with the forces trying to hijack their lead, then Cunningham has to go.
00:50:06.440It was an aside in an ESPN profile, which just said men shouldn't compete against females in top-level athletics because they have inherent physical advantages, right?
00:50:16.020The WNBA is not actually going to let any men play in the league.
00:50:19.540Players actually haven't been critical of her, most of them, because they know the truth themselves.
00:50:24.160But it's such a woke league run by such woke people.
00:50:27.380They believe this is something controversial.
00:50:29.600And if this pressure campaign succeeds in getting the fever not to re-sign her, she's not getting signed by anyone else for political and ideological reasons.0.73
00:50:50.300But they want to be done with her just because she said something that everyone knows is true but offends the political sensibility of a politicized league.0.93
00:50:59.860Not only this, but this columnist, Candace Buckner, writes, she's too combustible, too combustible.0.96
00:51:06.420Her take's too turbulent to be paired with Caitlin Clark.0.97
00:51:09.360On the same team, it's too much. Clark, by her presence alone, already can't get through a season without being thrown into gutter debates that pit white against black.0.97
00:51:19.740Hate that appears even in the DMs of her own teammates. Cunningham, with only a few words, introduced new divisions.
00:51:26.740So the racial divide within the WNBA is her fault, too. We all know where this is going.
00:51:33.420Standby. We're going to a break, but we will be right back with the guys.
00:53:51.960If you or someone you know has concerns about gambling,
00:53:53.560visit ConnexOntario.ca or call 1-866-531-2600. Terms and conditions apply.
00:54:01.620We are back now with our pals from National Review, where you should definitely go and become
00:54:06.500a subscriber, a member, Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cook. So guys, I know you've been covering
00:54:12.180the Cornell 7, who I think we might need to start calling the Cornell 8, since the accuser herself
00:54:18.140has now been accused of being a sexual molester, a harasser, and assaulter by defendant number one,
00:54:27.720a guy whose name we now know is Matthew Ingalls. He's alleged in this proceeding that if the
00:54:34.120standard is you were intoxicated and someone had sex with you, notwithstanding that fact,
00:54:40.200very intoxicated, then she is an accuser. She is an assaulter as well because he was the defendant
00:54:46.680who was passing out repeatedly during the course of threesome number one,
00:54:51.460which was between Matt Ingalls, John Newell, and Jane Doe.
00:54:55.120And she was aware of that, that he could not stay awake
00:54:58.320and was continuing to perform sex acts at least in bed next to him shortly thereafter.
00:55:05.320And according to her own allegations, kept trying to wake him up.
00:55:09.000According to his allegations, which he might not remember because he was asleep,
00:55:13.320But John Newell is one of his besties, so much so he asked him to join their threesome, may have told him.
00:55:21.700But Ingalls testified during the course of the Title IX proceedings on Cornell's campus that she was performing oral sex on him while he, Matt Ingalls, was in and out of consciousness, trying to stay awake from all the drugs he'd taken and the drinks he'd had.0.84
00:56:07.480he is not originally named Matt. He's got a different name. I'm trying to find it here.
00:56:16.060And he's from the UAE, Omar. His name is Omar. And he is from the UAE. So Matt Ingalls appears
00:56:27.020to be a Muslim from the UAE, where the Daily Mail reports he has returned to Dubai.
00:56:37.480in the wake of all of this. Who could blame him? I looked it up to see if they have an1.00
00:56:41.980extradition treaty with the United States, and they don't. They don't. So Matt Ingalls is out
00:56:49.140of here. He got expelled from Cornell, along with Newell, and Jane Doe proceeds forward. But now,0.93
00:56:56.380the reason it's a real twist, Rich, is not just because we're throwing Muslims into the mix for0.60
00:57:00.000no reason, but the four men who had sex with Jane Doe, according to Jane Doe, against her will now,0.85
00:57:06.220that's not what she was always saying, are a Muslim, a black kid, an Asian, and someone from,
00:57:14.220I believe, Portugal or who's Portuguese. So you got four guys who fit squarely within
00:57:21.980Tish James's identity politics, which will elevate them in the world of Tish James over
00:57:28.920a white young woman from the Deep South who uses terms like y'all regularly.
00:57:37.160And I do think it's interesting. I do actually think this could tip the balance
00:57:41.660in the minds of somebody like Tish James. John Newell is clearly black or mixed race. He has
00:57:48.620an afro. And now the other main perpetrator is Muslim. This is getting very interesting.1.00
00:57:53.680So what do you make of the racial identity piece of it and the fact that it turns out Matt Newell or Matt Ingalls accused her of sexual assault if we're using her standards?
00:58:07.140I think it's going to be hard for him to make that case just because he was the initiator in so many ways.
00:58:14.500And when he woke back up, what's the first thing he says?
00:58:19.100And then when the guy who did the right thing shows up and clears out the room, he takes her to another room with another guy to have yet another threesome.0.79
01:00:00.940And then after the room is cleared out, she goes with Ingalls for the other threesome because she's into Ingalls.0.93
01:00:06.480And as you pointed out, the most pathetic statement in the whole thing is what happened to you and me, right?0.78
01:00:10.820Because she was so into him when he clearly was not into her except for as an object.
01:00:18.520So she said in the Cornell University investigation that we're now seeing heavily redacted, but she is pretty responsible and fair as far as I can tell.
01:00:26.820She said that he had a chokehold on her and not a literal chokehold.
01:00:30.260That's the one thing that didn't happen in that room, right?
01:00:32.540But an emotional chokehold, and she would do anything to please him.
01:00:36.740So that's clearly the motive in what was going on here.
01:00:50.200Like, let's throw out all the text and say, you know, she was just trying to make a light
01:00:53.260of something she was having a hard time processing, whatever.
01:00:55.520Her sworn statement that she attested to, that she corrected, that she apparently said in the transcript, I'm 100% certain about this, didn't allege any coercion, didn't say at any point she said no, and she was ignored.
01:01:08.480And that seems to jibe with this heavily redacted Cornell University report that says the first threesome that got everything started, she consented to it.
01:01:17.260And then it goes into great detail in unredacted parts about the ketamine and who was taking it and why and how, et cetera.
01:01:25.520but in that, when we're past the second threesome as well, she's talking to these guys, right?
01:01:31.680She's having conversations with them. They're asking, can we do it off your body? She says,
01:01:36.160yes. That's something she says by her own account as well. So clearly this is all consensual to this
01:01:41.440point. And then let's say that the third threesome is a black box for the moment. It involved
01:01:46.960Ingalls. So you're going to tend to say, yeah, she did that willingly as well. The only thing
01:01:52.320that's different is the the civil suit two years later right and what are we supposed to believe
01:01:58.240a much more contemporaneous account that accords with other documentation or something she's come
01:02:03.860up with after people worked on her for years after she's probably told herself now i regret this it
01:02:10.060must have been assault and there's a lot of financial rewards potentially on the table
01:02:13.800as well obviously you believe the first the first document so i'm not saying this thing is case
01:02:18.400closed, but everything points to consensual incidents that night.
01:02:25.540I just think this is a very interesting twist, Charlie, because this guy, Matt Ingalls, is
01:02:32.420really forcing the system, or tried to, and if he gets indicted, could potentially have
01:02:38.560to try again, to make them look at the double standard here.
01:02:43.260Because what we have, this is Jane Doe in her own words, okay?
01:02:47.440the police officer did an interview with her, campus cops, when she first reported it after
01:02:51.380she got rejected from their Halloween party. That was the day she turned. She was with them.
01:02:56.180Nothing illegal happened. People are going to have to get used to this. Attitudes about sex
01:03:00.140and sexuality are changing. Maybe I'm just really open-minded, but love you, King. That's what she
01:03:05.560had texted to Matt Ingalls prior to being rejected. She was eager to attend the Chi-Fi
01:03:11.100Halloween party with her alleged gang rapists. And then when the president of the fraternity
01:03:16.660pulled her invitation. He told her allegedly for her own good. That's when she turned 180.
01:03:23.120I was raped. Then came the rape test. Then came the visit to campus cops. Then came the calls to0.99
01:03:28.380the guys trying to set them up on November 3rd that were getting leaked out now, where she got
01:03:32.900at least two of them on the phone being recorded, including Matt Ingalls and Winston Lee,
01:03:40.100two of the men who did have sex with her. Okay, but this is Matt Ingalls, who's fled to UAE.
01:04:48.240But as for Trist number one that we were a part of, I asked and she consented, and you
01:04:53.840need look no further than her six-page statement to the Cornell cops, which she then read and
01:04:59.080verified under penalties of perjury and added 20 handwritten notes to in order to know this.0.97
01:05:04.560This is what she wrote about Trist number one, that she agreed to a threesome.
01:05:11.440quote, due to how attracted she was to male number one, who's Matt Ingalls, on top of her drunken
01:05:19.180curiousness. That's the word she used. When she learned that male number two, John Newell,
01:05:24.680would be the third participant, Jane Doe, quote, remembered being, this is her words I'm quoting,
01:05:30.280remembered being excited because she thought that Matt Ingalls and John Newell wanting to0.99
01:05:37.340have a threesome meant that they were gay. She was excited. So there's just no question that0.90
01:05:44.500Trist number one was proposed and accepted. Her lawyer's now arguing she showed up drunk with 10
01:05:51.360drinks in her. There's a dispute. Matt Ingle says on that phone call released by ABC that
01:05:56.640she told him she was sober and hadn't been drinking when she got there. The frat house
01:06:02.180gave her one beer, and she claims to remember doing some ketamine at some point between
01:06:08.740Arrival and Trist No. 2 before she did it off of the guy's member. Anyway, my point is simply,
01:06:15.880they're all intoxicated off of some or multiple substances for Trist No. 1. And by the time we
01:06:22.840get to Trist No. 3 that this guy, Matt, was also a part of, he's done the same amount of ketamine
01:06:30.200as she has. We don't know that he was the supplier. It may have been Newell. Not that
01:06:35.920it's relevant. If she takes it willingly, it's irrelevant that he provided it. And what we have,
01:06:45.480as Rich alluded to in the rest of her written statement, which is why the DA didn't charge
01:06:50.300this case, is her outlining the number of times she consciously said yes or no to what was being
01:06:58.240proposed. I'm going to give you just a couple of examples and I'll give you the floor. Male number
01:07:01.380one said he was going to take, that's Matt, he was going to take a nap and refresh himself and
01:07:05.300would eventually stumble his way from the couch to the bed. So he gets off, they're fooling around
01:07:08.760on the couch. So he leaves, he goes to the bed. Then while he slept, Jane Doe and John Newell
01:07:16.200would start making out for a very short amount of time. While they were making out, male number two,
01:07:21.280Newell, reached for the area near her vag several times. And each time he did, she would swat her0.78
01:07:27.340hand away. This is her in her testimonial. It's quote, I would swat his hand away. She's making
01:07:32.840conscious decisions. I don't want to do this. I'll do this, but not this other thing. Mail number
01:07:37.820three, that's, um, Jillio Lopes, who's from Portugal or Portuguese heritage. He then knocks
01:07:46.160on the door of the room. Jane Doe, this is in her words, quote, decided to let him in because it was
01:07:53.100his room. She, quote, opened the door. She has made, now it's all a gang rape, but according
01:07:59.560to her lawyer, but she decided to let him in. She decided to get up out of the bed. She opened the
01:08:06.060door after she had been swatting the other guy's hands away saying, I didn't want that particular1.00
01:08:11.960sex act being done to me. Male number three introduced himself to Jane Doe, reached out to0.87
01:08:16.760shake her hand. When Jane Doe made contact with his hand, male number three, Lopes pulled Jane Doe
01:08:22.140into him and they began making out. While Lopes was kissing her, Newell came back over and, quote,
01:08:27.980began groping her. Eventually, Newell, Lopes, and Jane Doe would end up in the bed next to where
01:08:35.660male number one, Matt Ingalls, was sleeping. They began to have a threesome. He wakes up,
01:08:41.860male number one, Ingalls, and said he wanted to take part and asked if they could make it a
01:08:46.940foursome, Jane Doe replied, this is in her words, hell no. She rejected this in her words, quote,
01:08:53.400because I knew that a foursome meant that I would have to take part in anal sex, end quote.1.00
01:09:00.140Jane Doe then remembered that Matt Ingalls left the room. And I could go on because there are0.99
01:09:05.780multiple decisions she makes in connection with the behavior thereafter that show a consciousness
01:09:11.600of thought. At 3.05 a.m., she texted her roommate who said, are you coming home? She's like, I'm
01:09:16.140not sure yet. So my point is simply, where do we draw this distinction between what she did to Matt
01:09:22.640Ingalls and what he did to her? Why is he the Cornell 7, number one, and she is just alleged
01:09:30.120victim survivor? Yeah, I find it very hard to pause that, too. I mean, my overarching thought,
01:09:35.880if I'm honest, is all of these people should be pushed out of a helicopter. But that notwithstanding,
01:09:40.520the problem is less of a double standard which was the phrase you used and it's more of no standard
01:09:47.540and if you if you look at the clear ways that you could approach this you could take what for
01:09:56.180wonder of a better well it might be a christian approach and say right or church approved approach
01:10:01.480and say well this shouldn't have happened in the first place therefore it's wrong right uh well
01:10:05.660that line was breached. Or you could say that men should be chivalrous, which they weren't here.
01:10:15.520Once you get into consent, it's a fine standard if everyone involved is a pure libertarian.
01:10:23.120The problem is, this standard is still being held up as the key one. But what we're doing now is
01:10:28.600We're all arguing over at what point it was given, at what point it was withdrawn.
01:10:37.360It seems to me that this argument assumes that it can be given and then withdrawn and then given again and withdrawn, and in some circumstances given and withdrawn.
01:10:45.940I mean, you know, there are seven people here, eight, if you include the supposed victim.
01:10:51.900I don't know where to grab onto this and I'm not sure Megan that the people who are calling for
01:10:58.400bloodhead know either a lot of this seems to me to be driven by vibes people who depending on the
01:11:07.900details that they saw come across tiktok are either sex positive or are appalled by this
01:11:16.680people who will not apply the same standard to men as they would to women, people who won't treat intoxication as having the same effects on some people as others.
01:11:30.420I mean, the racial angle is interesting insofar as some of the initial reports were assuming that everyone here was white.
01:11:40.420And so you've got people on the left saying, oh, look, more white male entitlement or white male privilege.0.90
01:11:46.980Well, and ask yourself, Charlie, whether Tish James wants to go after a young black man for allegedly raping a young white woman from the Deep South under these circumstances.
01:11:57.080And that's where it also does become interesting, because, I mean, if you go back to the dear colleague letters that the Obama administration put out, the Obama administration, and in following it, the institutional left, became very comfortable with the idea that men should have absolutely no recourse on college campuses whatsoever.
01:12:16.620ever. If they were accused, they were accused, even if it was long after the fact, even if there
01:12:20.560was no evidence. And it was pointed out to them that the majority of people that this ended up
01:12:26.240hurting were black men. And there was a little bit of pushback. I've interviewed many of them.0.65
01:12:31.180Yeah, and it was true. But I mean, there was a little bit of pushback, but they sort of ignored
01:12:34.960that when it didn't suit them. And this is what I'm getting at. I know that it sounds like I'm
01:12:39.440not sitting here as you and Rich have done and parse every single detail. But I've become a
01:12:43.800little bit nihilistic on this one because I don't actually think, A, that this can be pushed through
01:12:50.200our justice system. I just don't think our justice system and the laws that we have are set up to deal
01:12:56.520with this circumstance. I don't think that a court or a jury can be expected to make factual
01:13:03.940determinations as to what constituted consent based on this testimony long after the fact when
01:13:10.560that testimony has changed i don't think that could possibly lead to justice is point one but
01:13:14.980point two again i'm not talking about you or rich here or those who have written about it but the
01:13:19.580people who are getting in high dungeon about this and want to see what they call justice
01:13:24.000i don't think that they are on the level i don't think that you can persuade them i don't think
01:13:30.920that you could have a debate or a conversation about the facts that wouldn't lead to the goal
01:13:37.140posts just being moved. I think that they would see consent differently based on who was supposed
01:13:45.080to be consenting. I think they would see intoxication differently based on who was
01:13:49.560supposed to be intoxicated. I don't think that this is anywhere within the realm of what we might
01:13:57.760usually consider to be, you know, American notions of logic or American notions of fairness.
01:14:04.980I think this is all vibes and so what I hope happens is that and I have no no confidence in
01:14:14.920this at all given her past conduct but what I hope happens is that Letitia James sits in her office
01:14:20.480with all of these documents and throws them up in the air and says you know what I simply cannot
01:14:26.220as a supposedly impartial member of the government in the United States I cannot evaluate this
01:14:33.540um because i i think this is just so far beyond and and so what it what it becomes in my mind
01:14:40.300and i hope this doesn't sound like a cop-out what it becomes in my mind uh is a moral warning i hope
01:14:46.260that there are people out there men and women who read this who think don't do this right like do
01:14:54.260not mix ketamine alcohol and orgies in college or preferably anywhere else it's not going to end
01:15:04.120well for you it's not going to uh help your reputation you said this guy's had to go back
01:15:10.140to the uae that means he's no longer studying you know i'm not a prude i'm far from it i i'm he got
01:15:14.600expelled right i am not a prude uh but this isn't about prudishness um this is the sort of story
01:15:21.760that i think almost everyone in the country republican or democrat man or woman religious
01:15:25.980or not religious would read and go sorry what the hell are you talking about um and as such it's an
01:15:30.940outlier and uh i i feel as if what's going to happen is that people are going to project their
01:15:35.800own desires onto this and eventually it's going to fade away because there is no satisfying answer
01:15:39.900to it i don't know i don't know rich i i think we are playing with fire we're playing with fire
01:15:45.360right now by trying to shove this into the criminal justice system which absolutely tish1.00
01:15:49.160James is going to do. I mean, among I think you probably like this guy, as do I, Ellie Honig of
01:15:55.820CNN. He's their legal analyst and he's a straight shooter. He's very smart. He's a former federal
01:16:00.940prosecutor. He just wrote a piece in New York Mag ripping Tish James as a special prosecutor in this
01:16:06.680case, saying her she prejudged the case and what she posted online on X and Facebook, talking about
01:16:12.180how I stand with survivors like Jane Doe, poor Jane Doe. All of that is disqualifying. Tish James
01:16:18.720wouldn't speak to it. She's too busy sharpening her pitchfork. And I truly feel, Rich, that the1.00
01:16:25.400only hope these young men have now is the fact that they all four of them appear to be men of0.98
01:16:31.000color, which is the only language Tish James understands. I don't think it's going to matter1.00
01:16:35.160because the analogy I would make is how much does it matter when when when those of us who are
01:16:39.260pushing back against a left wing narrative on a police shooting when we say, oh, well, a couple
01:16:45.160the cops were black or that this guy was Asian or this guy was Hispanic never matters because
01:16:49.460the narrative is, yes, the left is obsessed with race, but the narrative always triumphs over that
01:16:54.780if it's most convenient. Wait, let me just challenge you on that. Let me challenge you on
01:16:58.460that. What did Oprah do? What did Oprah do when it was Obama versus Hillary? She went with the1.00
01:17:05.180skin color. She prioritized getting a black man elected. And do you really think Tish James is1.00
01:17:12.260going to look at this white Southern woman and say, that's the one I'm going to protect over this1.00
01:17:19.840black boy who got into Cornell and the Muslim boy. She won't care about the Asian, but the context0.99
01:17:26.360here is she is inherently, she is by definition, the victim. That's the narrative. So the race
01:17:32.980isn't going to matter. Maybe she'll be convinced it's going to be an abysmal failure if she tries0.94
01:17:38.180to do that i do this i think that's the only hope but i think she's she's gonna she's gonna do it
01:17:43.240and the people who are most committed about this case know nothing about it they don't even care
01:17:49.880about well by the way i bet you she didn't know the race of the defendants when she weighed in
01:17:54.200on x and face i guarantee you tish james did not know she'd be prosecuting a young black man who
01:17:59.500got into an ivy league university but i don't think it will when she first said i agree i agree
01:18:04.200with that go ahead i agree with you rich about the narrative but i don't think you can just downplay
01:18:08.920the the caveat which is well maybe she'll be convinced because she she's not a dictator
01:18:13.700like if this were england and the king got to decide this there's a moment we'll be dead right1.00
01:18:19.120but uh this would have to go through the the justice system and the law doesn't sustain1.00
01:18:25.580uh what the tiktok ladies want it to which is why uh hochel came out and suggested that it be
01:18:32.600changed if it were already in place it wouldn't need changing i i don't know if the race has
01:18:38.220anything to do with it but i have a lot of confidence in american juries and if you look
01:18:42.560at for example in the middle of what was it was a massive national moral panic uh the kyle
01:18:48.480rittenhouse trial uh the kyle rittenhouse trial came out as it did because on the law and the
01:18:55.240facts that intersected with that law rittenhouse was not guilty of what he'd been accused of
01:18:59.820i i think that latisha james might well try to bring this i think she'll crucify those people
01:19:05.020i think they will struggle in their future i'm don't i don't think that this would be as simple
01:19:10.320in a court i'm not sure i wouldn't say oh i totally agree with that yeah yeah oh no she's
01:19:15.600going to get destroyed but doesn't that matter i could do it but that matters right easily without
01:19:21.560without any prep never mind these season trial lawyers maybe we don't disagree with that and
01:19:26.180It matters, but my only, look, I'm not, I don't, I don't think they're in the clear by any stretch of the imagination. A New York, this is going to be a New York jury. Now on the bright side, they tend to be no nonsense and they don't, they're not a bunch of bleeding hearts in New York, but they are liberal, they're leftist.
01:19:41.700And so if they think this is coming down, you know, along sort of political lines, they're more likely to lean towards Tish James.
01:19:47.940I just think this is the first glimmer of hope I've seen for them.
01:19:50.860I did not realize until this report came out over the weekend about Matt Ingalls being Muslim and from the UAE that all four of the defendants who actually had sex with her are minorities.0.74
01:20:01.640That's a good fact in trying to prevent this from going forward, because in our world, no one gives a damn what your skin color is or your religion.
01:20:09.900In Tish James' world, it's the first thing she wants to know about you.
01:20:13.900I mean, that determines whether you're a good person or bad.0.93
01:20:17.180If something stays her hand, it's going to be realizing this case will end in humiliation if she brings charges and will actually hurt her ambitions one day to be governor of New York.
01:20:53.240And Cornell, as far as we can tell, did the right thing.
01:20:56.260Now, of course, you wouldn't think they want to sweep rape under the rug as being alleged.
01:21:01.960But they produced this investigation, more than 50 interviews, 32 people, 1,000 pages of documents.
01:21:07.980What we've seen of the report seems detailed and reasonable and fair-minded.
01:21:13.280And they punished these students not because it concluded they were guilty of sexual assault, but because they violated various university rules, right?
01:21:21.540And these were harsh punishments in that context, as you're pointing out, Megan.
01:21:25.600So the system has worked to this point.
01:21:27.180The question now is whether the system will stop working, at least stop working enough for Tish James to bring politicized charges that would have have a we can hope have a strong chance of failing.
01:21:39.020Here's the law, just once again, as stated by the D.A., who's now been pulled from the case.
01:21:42.960The law in New York State is clear that if you are voluntarily intoxicated or under the influence of drugs such that your judgment is impaired, that does not legally under the penal law constitute your inability to consent.
01:21:59.440You have to prove physical helplessness. If you were physically helpless, then the law doesn't care whether you ingested the substances voluntarily or whether you were slipped a mickey.
01:22:12.960But she has not alleged physical helplessness.
01:22:16.660And Matt Ingalls, by her account, may have physical helplessness.
01:22:22.960I mean, that's what's really interesting about this.
01:26:11.980Yeah, it's like listening to Kamala Harris captured the mindset, though, perfectly where it's if you want to focus on the facts and what the actual law is, that's kind of a thought crime.
01:26:21.320It shows you're a bad person, right? You don't care about rape if you just look at her statement and say there's rape not alleged here. So that's how you get the lynch mob going. The appointment of Tish James is a function of that lynch mob. The press conference that Hochul gave when she was announcing the appointment was all about the lynch mob. It's all like this is a terrible injustice that's been done and these guys have to be punished.
01:26:44.980that is tish james's job to go try to punish them maybe there's some small chance she doesn't do it
01:26:51.880but i think she will and it's it's an outrage and the you know it's not as though this uh this
01:26:58.000actress said oh let's discuss the law maybe you're right but i i view it differently no it's just
01:27:03.400wrong to even think it yeah i'm sure that empathy only for one side of the equation too
01:27:10.080the believe all women crowd will only allow empathy for the accuser go ahead also i i'm
01:27:14.640sure you know she doesn't realize this but i'm afraid that is such an indictment of what it's
01:27:19.560like to talk to progressives if you don't spend two or three minutes before you make any case that
01:27:26.800makes anyone feel even slightly uncomfortable communicating to them that you are also a nice
01:27:33.540person or you also have empathy or they just they can't hear the fact that you then and and they get
01:27:41.280so upset when you point that out to them they think it's mean but it's so true that is that's
01:27:46.160an admission of of what we have all noticed which is that unless you say you know a gun control case
01:27:52.620right where someone gets shot and and you say actually the the facts of this case have literally
01:27:58.460nothing to do with the law you're proposing if you don't spend two minutes telling them that you are
01:28:04.200also upset when people get shot which should be obvious they won't hear the the next bit so what
01:28:10.220she's saying here is that her friend called her from paris and told her that the the statement
01:28:15.720she made about the law as a lawyer discussing the law was lost on her because she didn't lead
01:28:21.660with a bunch of mushy nonsense god that is an indictment of progressivism i also i don't think
01:28:27.700this is a mcdonald's man this is mcdonald's like we're we're discussing the law get out what are
01:28:32.820you saying this we're not in on the therapist couch we're discussing whether the da made a
01:28:37.960good decision or a bad decision, but Cynthia Erivo of Wicked has thoughts. I'll give you the last
01:28:43.820word, Rich. Yeah, I was just going to say, I don't think you need to go to this law to decide not to
01:28:47.500charge, because I think based on her sworn statement, based on what we've seen in the
01:28:50.580Cornell report, she wasn't, she didn't say she was unconscious in any of this, right? It's
01:28:55.480interacting with these guys. That's it. Okay, so I'm going to steal a last word after your last
01:29:00.960word, because I did want to get to that third tryst, because now, so this is the one they really
01:29:05.880want you to hang your hat on, okay? After the third trist that she had, again, with Matt Ingalls,0.98
01:29:10.080she texted him, I love you, King. I mean, this is, okay, so this is her alleged gang rapist.1.00
01:29:14.820But let me read you what she said about trist number three, where keep in mind that the legal
01:29:22.200standard right now in New York is you must prove physical helplessness. That's the only way she's0.85
01:29:29.440going to successfully argue that all the ketamine she did and the booze she voluntarily drank0.99
01:29:35.320got her to the point where no one could have sex with her.0.57
01:29:38.260She's going to have to prove that those things led to her being physically helpless.0.72
01:29:47.000Ingalls and Lee ushered me out of the room, brought me upstairs to a small room.
01:29:52.980Ingalls stated, quote, let's do more ketamine.
01:29:54.900I remembered snorting more ketamine and I remembered feeling extremely high.
01:30:01.340Ingalls said he wanted to have sex again because he wanted redemption for passing out earlier in the night.
01:30:07.720Jane Doe initially stated that she was tired and asked Ingalls, quote, this is the line, Rich, what happened to just you and me?0.98
01:30:16.820Jane Doe could only remember or Jane Doe could not remember how it started, but she did then engage in a threesome with Ingalls and Lee involving oral sex and vaginal sex.0.96
01:30:29.760This is her remembering all of this. These are the guys I did it with. At first I objected. This is the line I said to Ingalls. Then I had sex. This is exactly the kind of sex that I had and with whom, who did what and when to me and vice versa.0.99
01:30:42.460She described her level of intoxication as an 8 out of 10 because she remembered it.
01:30:48.920At that point, the threesome continued until at some point around 5.45 a.m., Jane Doe said, quote, she was tired and needed to turn in.
01:31:00.880At that point, both guys stopped, and that was what she could remember.
01:34:31.660Well, I'll tell you, the other headline that I didn't get to out of the case today was found in the Title IX investigatory documents where there is a defendant last name, Kretschmar Scott,
01:34:44.680who he did not, he didn't do anything to Jane Doe from what we can see other than walk into the
01:34:50.900room. And he was found guilty of attempted sexual exploitation because he walked in there
01:34:56.500and he appealed, he sued, he said, this is such a railroad. But in his court documents,
01:35:03.300it emerges that at some point, Jane Doe allegedly got out of the bed and did, this is when multiple
01:35:12.760men were in there just sort of seeing what was going on, and did a bodybuilder's pose.
01:35:18.020So the quote was, he did not recall who poured the ketamine on Jane Doe or how much they
01:35:25.320He also indicated that Jane Doe, quote, got up out of the bed and started doing like a
01:35:30.600bodybuilder pose while blank men, I guess, were in the room with her.
01:35:36.980I'm sorry, James, but somebody online was tweeting out this.
01:35:41.800This will be the only gang rape in history that was paused by the victim so she could get up and do bodybuilding poses only to then let the gang rape continue.
01:35:51.020I mean, the absurdity of it is laid bare by that moment, which was well into the evening.
01:35:56.780OK, so let me say this. And you and I am not dodging it by saying this.
01:36:02.360because after the Lindsay Clancy trial and the behavior of her lawyer, I've come to the conclusion
01:36:11.820that you really have to wait till these things are fully adjudicated in a court of law. And you
01:36:19.760have to make sure that the court of law is going to be fair and unbiased. We've already got a
01:36:26.620situation which I think is more important and relevant to this case, which is that Letitia
01:36:31.220James, a notorious political activist, has now been appointed the special prosecutor. Already,
01:36:38.500somebody is going to get a raw deal in this situation. Because let's just say, I'm going
01:36:44.800to give you a hypothetical. Let's say the woman in our hypothetical equal situation
01:36:49.460was actually the liar. Or let's say that the perpetrators really were the rapists. Either way,
01:36:59.600if whatever the judgment would be from the trial is overturned on appeal because of an act as
01:37:07.120prosecutor, somebody is going to be denied justice. And the problem you have in this whole situation
01:37:14.340is that automatically it's become a political and therefore judicial circus because the person
01:37:20.760who's been appointed to deal with all of these facts that you're bringing up has already made
01:37:27.160a decision. When you call the woman in this situation, and by the way, I lived in a time
01:37:33.380when feminism started and the pill was invented and so on, and it was going to make men and women
01:37:40.420equal. And the idea was that people, regardless of their sex, are going to be able to behave as
01:37:49.680they chose to behave and not with a sign on cultural roles. But the problem with that is
01:37:55.860they got to act equally unaccountably, you know. So, you know, a lot of women discovered acting1.00
01:38:04.260like a man is not necessarily to their benefit. And a lot of men realized that they had to think
01:38:10.020back of what their fathers may have told them, as my father did. He said, let me make this really
01:38:14.500clear to you. If you take a girl out on a date, and at some point in the evening, it's clear that
01:38:19.920she is the slightest bit intoxicated, you are taking her home, you're going to drop her on her
01:38:26.380doorstep, you're going to give her a very gentle kiss goodnight, and you are going to say, I'll
01:38:30.440call you tomorrow, and you will call her tomorrow. But you will not take advantage of that situation.
01:38:36.780That is not what a, then he said, a gentleman does. But now we understand that's not what,
01:38:41.880you know, that's what a gentleman should do. But the way, here's what the situation was in
01:38:48.320this Cornell thing. If you stop, if it were on some kind of magical video, and in the middle of
01:38:56.040it, you stopped and you said to every one of those people, not the men and the women, like she gets
01:39:02.480to be Jane Doe, but their lives are already ruined because they've been named. So wrong. Okay. But if
01:39:08.300you were to say to them, what on earth are you thinking? And you can look back and say, what were
01:39:14.580you thinking you were risking your entire life on one night how fulfilling could it have been
01:39:22.100first of all i mean it's not not at all that's all and and you know look the the alcohol culture
01:39:28.600has has has destroyed the college experience more than made it fun i can tell you that because
01:39:35.840you know i went to school and i mean i was in the class of 69 at mit we're in boston they were
01:39:40.940boozing it up at MIT? Oh, well, the thing is, you would go to these mixers. We were in Cambridge,
01:39:47.520right across the bridge to have these mixers at every college. And, you know, you'd go to them0.54
01:39:53.240and everybody was drinking in those days. Drugs weren't big yet. Pot was big. It was starting to
01:39:59.860be. And people would drink. But like, I don't think anybody in that culture certainly heard
01:40:06.120about cocaine at that time or did cocaine and those things but you know alcohol you know there
01:40:13.880used to be jokes back in the 40s you know back when it was back in the baby it's cold outside
01:40:19.340era you know candy is dandy but liquor is quicker i mean liquor has been uh has has has been a
01:40:27.060destructive element in our culture culture for as long as it can possibly uh as long as i can
01:40:34.060remember. And now. Well, there's a there's a piece in New York Mag today saying, why don't colleges
01:40:39.440just ban fraternities, saying they're just drinking in social clubs. And simultaneously,
01:40:46.160the New York Times reports that the University of Arizona has suspended all fraternity activities,
01:40:52.760citing earlier misconduct that the university said it was persisting despite warnings. So now
01:40:59.540this whole thing is going to lead to a crackdown on fraternities and sororities, probably coast to
01:41:07.020coast. Well, the irony is at MIT, we didn't have enough student housing back in the 60s. So a third
01:41:14.300of the students were in fraternities and the fraternities were great. I was in a fraternity
01:41:20.180because the older brothers actually guided the younger brothers on their behavior. They helped
01:41:25.380I mean, MIT was really hard, and they helped you with, you know, your studies and courses that were really challenging.
01:41:34.660And we had all sorts of rules at our fraternity about how you were to treat lady guests.
01:41:45.140And we didn't have drunken parties at our fraternity.0.77
01:45:26.540Jesse Kelly, Real Clear Politics, and many more.
01:45:29.480It's bold, no BS news, only on the Megyn Kelly channel, Sirius XM 111, and on the Sirius XM app.
01:45:59.480There it is right there, The Killer's Wife.
01:46:16.600This is the latest album by James Woods, our guest today, along with Bob Wayne, whose voice you heard there, produced by his partner, Shooter Jennings in business.
01:46:26.900who we met when we were all together out in California.
01:49:37.920And the last, there's an epilogue to it, and the epilogue I actually speak in cadence through
01:49:45.100the music, and it goes like this, come sit with me on the quiet shore, light breaking through the
01:49:52.600cloud. Feel his hand upon your shoulder, his son beneath the shroud. That sacrifice shall be there
01:50:01.520always, when the hearts of men grow cold. And if indeed that shall happen, again, let this story be
01:50:08.840told. And we are right there, right now. And I'm telling you, we have made certain decisions
01:50:15.080politically in this country, and I'm a fanatic about this, and I know I'm right. When you let
01:50:20.860in 30 million or more illegal aliens during a pandemic that you make guys on a paddleboard0.76
01:50:31.760wear their masks, but you let in millions of people, unvaccinated, unvetted. You don't know
01:50:36.240what their political affiliations are, their madness, their crazy religions that wants to1.00
01:50:41.180kill anybody that doesn't believe in it. You are welcoming a rot gut cancer into your society.1.00
01:50:48.500And then when you have a civilization based on dating apps that are basically just hookup apps, when you have a culture based on drugs and not just illegal drugs, when you watch television commercials, there's nothing but pharmaceutical ads.
01:51:06.180And every ad has 50 side effects and they're always suicidal ideation and violence.
01:51:11.860And, you know, and by the way, if that first one doesn't work to help your depression, here's another one that's even more dangerous.
01:51:18.280And take that one and watch out again for those suicidal impulses.
01:51:22.120And then you see people who are cutting off their breasts to become a man.0.99
01:51:28.140And, you know, this whole thing with these transvestites and so on, taking these drugs, acting crazy, dying and then shooting up schools.0.98
01:51:35.480you know it's it's the the culture has literally i i use a lot of imagery in my writing and two of1.00
01:51:43.600the images i use a lot are standing on the edge of the abyss or a descent into the maelstrom
01:51:50.260because it's my way poetically i was saying that we really have we're not just fighting for
01:51:57.520a culture or our nation we're fighting for the survival of the species you know you look at
01:52:04.380countries, Egypt, all these other countries that are now primarily Muslim, they weren't before,1.00
01:52:12.380I guarantee you within 10 to 20 years, if it doesn't go unbaited, UK, Germany, France,1.00
01:52:20.240they'll be Muslim. Because the average reproduction rate is something like 1.81.00
01:52:26.840uh children per indigenous french population and the comparative muslim uh reproduction rate is1.00
01:52:35.400like 8.2 children they're just going to beat us with arithmetic but i mean that's fine if you want
01:52:41.740that culture but the most number one baby name in the uk last year muhammad yeah i mean it's i mean0.52
01:52:47.780it's shocking how their culture has changed so dramatically and it's like this is one of those
01:52:52.660things where you're not allowed to say, look, no offense to Muslims, but this is a Christian0.95
01:52:58.280country and we kind of want to keep it that way. We want to keep it with the foundation that it
01:53:03.000was based upon and the fundamental principles that we all shared. And, you know, with women
01:53:07.900having equal rights and not being subjugated and with free speech and all the things and freedom
01:53:12.520of religion, none of which are huge on the list of Islam's tenets. But of course, you're not allowed0.52
01:53:18.040say that because then you're a racist, Islamophobe, bigot, whatever.
01:53:21.900No, I just like to go for the facts. Facts are friendly. And it's just simple. If you want to
01:53:27.820believe in Shintoism, Judaism, Catholicism, Islam, whatever, you're entitled to. That's one of the
01:53:36.220great, great aspects of living in this beloved country of freedoms guaranteed by the First
01:53:42.940Amendment. But if you believe in a religion whose fundamental tenet is anybody who doesn't0.97
01:53:50.340believe in this religion is an infidel and must be killed. It's a problem. I mean, there's kind1.00
01:53:58.020of a built-in problem there. So all I ever want is for people to do whatever they want to do and
01:54:06.940believe in their religion, in their bedrooms, whatever, as long as it doesn't involve damage
01:54:13.460or hurt to other people or to innocent people, obviously children and so on. So when your culture
01:54:23.460has ignored that, look, I thought, gee, I'm going to do the Megyn Kelly show. I'm really looking
01:54:29.240forward to this, but it's going to be on October 7th. And I thought, you know, that invariably
01:54:35.360will come up, and you have to have something to say. And you know, people are fanatics about this.
01:54:40.980All I can say is I can look back to 1970, I think it was 77 or 78, when Meryl Streep and I were
01:54:49.240doing, we were both unknown then, doing a fantastic miniseries called Holocaust, which was based on
01:54:55.580the Holocaust. We filmed in Europe, and we filmed primarily in the Motthausen concentration camp.
01:54:59.860I remember Meryl and I standing in the gas chamber, literally, at Mauthausen, 15, 20 feet from the ovens, which are still there.
01:55:10.680It's the most intact of all of the Holocaust museums in the surviving death camps.
01:55:19.640and thinking, we're standing in a room where 140,000 people were murdered because of their
01:55:27.900religion or because of their politics. And I thought, this can never happen again. And now
01:55:33.660I hear people in colleges, I hear, I'm sorry, but idiot people in my former business screaming1.00
01:55:42.360about the Jews and wanting them to be eradicated. And I'm thinking, have we completely ignored1.00
01:55:51.180George Santayana or whomever else, paraphrased, basically, if we forget the lessons of history,
01:55:56.920we're condemned to repeat them. And, you know, at some point...
01:55:59.660Never again, never again. That's at Dachau, too.
01:56:01.880Well, but here's the problem. We don't teach history in our schools anymore. We teach politics.
01:56:06.760It's like, oh, we spend, you know, 300 pages on Margaret Sanger, who, of course, was a eugenicist and wanted, ironically, that people who celebrate her don't realize that she wanted to eradicate black Americans.0.95
01:56:21.480I mean, she was a horrible racist, but you can't convince these people of anything.0.98
01:56:26.200Yeah, we'll celebrate her because she gave people the ability to kill their little babies.0.99
01:56:30.400She expanded the ability, didn't give it, but she expanded, certainly.
01:57:55.240And she said, what's going on with the Cornell case? And I said, well, do you know anything at all about it? And she said, well, I just saw a couple of reports like online on my phone, you know, from whatever came up in the feed. And I said, why don't you tell me what you know about it just to start?
01:58:12.240And it was, I mean, it was basically every allegation made by the accuser with absolutely none of the bad facts for her and all of the bad facts for the young men, but none of the good facts for them.
01:58:25.780It was as biased as, you know, the accuser's lawyer could ever hope to make its way into the feed of somebody who didn't know anything about it.
01:58:32.740And she was like, you know, it sounds really horrible.
02:06:38.920And honestly, I can feel your emotionality behind it because it does take somebody with a deep intellect and soul to write something like this, James.
02:06:50.180So I got to run, but I love talking to you.
02:06:52.540Thank you so much for coming on and promoting it.