The Megyn Kelly Show - September 12, 2022


Trump Associates Raided, and Victimhood in America, with Sharyl Attkisson and Vivek Ramaswamy | Ep. 389


Episode Stats

Length

1 hour and 34 minutes

Words per Minute

190.59306

Word Count

18,016

Sentence Count

923

Misogynist Sentences

35

Hate Speech Sentences

45


Summary

Megan and her husband went to see Pearl Jam at the Apollo Theater, and it was a blast. They also talk about the latest in the Trump administration, and why it s time to get out and see some live music.


Transcript

00:00:00.620 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.
00:00:11.660 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show and happy Monday.
00:00:16.300 How's your Monday going so far? You know, at least we're getting it over with.
00:00:19.000 That's the bright side. Here in Connecticut, it's kind of rainy. It's kind of like,
00:00:23.540 it's just overcast. That's how it looks. Overcast is almost worse than rain, isn't it?
00:00:27.740 It's just sort of like a bummer. Anyway, it's nice to be doing the news with you and be talking about
00:00:32.220 what's going on. Let me start with this. Can I tell you? Last week, we celebrated our one-year
00:00:36.480 anniversary on Sirius. The podcast launched two years ago, but the radio show launched one year
00:00:41.940 ago. And the partnership with Sirius, as it turns out, has some lovely perks. Like they invited me
00:00:48.940 and my husband this past weekend to the Apollo Theater and we saw Pearl Jam. And it was
00:00:57.140 unbelievable. My God, they were so good. Eddie Vedder is unbelievable. He's incredible. He
00:01:05.820 hasn't lost a step. And we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. And I'll tell you, one of the best
00:01:11.160 parts of it was the guys right in front of us because they take the most ardent fans. And as you
00:01:17.800 know, if you listen to Sirius XM, they engage in like a competition or a lottery and you have to call
00:01:22.240 in and so on. And if you get the tickets, if you're lucky enough, you get great tickets. I mean,
00:01:26.620 there's not a bad seat in the house at the Apollo Theater. But these guys, and it was actually very
00:01:32.080 nice, I will say of Sirius, because these guys won these tickets in March of 2020. But then, as you
00:01:37.780 know, that concert would have had to be canceled, right? Because everything was canceled in March of
00:01:42.060 2020. And they were telling me, the guys right in front of me, they just assumed Sirius forgot about
00:01:46.820 them. You know, two years later, Pearl Jam comes back. They're like, okay. And the guys,
00:01:51.600 this one guy, CJ, right in front of me, diehard fan. This is his 32nd concert of Pearl Jam. He's
00:01:56.960 like, I knew they weren't going to call. So I just kept calling, trying to win again. And he couldn't
00:02:01.340 get through that time. He didn't win this time. And then his phone rang and he just assumed,
00:02:04.860 you know, it was like a solicitation or it was like, hey, where's your money for your bill?
00:02:09.720 And the guy from Sirius is like, don't hang up. This is something good.
00:02:13.560 He's like, what is it? He says, you, we want to give you your tickets. They're common.
00:02:17.020 Anyway, so there was this guy right front and center, CJ and his buddies. And they made the
00:02:22.280 thing even better because, you know, when you're around that kind of almost a religious fervor in
00:02:26.840 a good way for a band or a show of any kind, it's contagious, right? And the dancing and that just
00:02:33.980 like they knew every lyric and the whole thing start to finish was totally enjoyable. It was a
00:02:40.100 reminder to me to get out and see live music more and of how much I love Pearl Jam. My God,
00:02:45.140 it's so good. Learned, heard a lot of new music of theirs. There was one period where
00:02:48.960 they had to reboot the computer. They had some sort of an issue. And, um, that was my favorite
00:02:54.500 part. Eddie Vedder just got out there and acapella, you know, unplugged, started singing
00:02:59.840 really good songs. And the one I'd never heard before anyway, enough about that. But I just
00:03:05.120 wanted to tell you Pearl Jam is amazing. Loving the partnership with Sirius and get out there
00:03:09.020 and see some live music because it is like church in a way. You stand, you sit, you sway,
00:03:13.580 you sing with your fellow human beings and you feel just a little bit more connected than you did
00:03:18.520 before. Um, in any event, let's put that connection aside and start to bashing others.
00:03:26.540 The nature of news. No, just kidding. But there is some, some new darkness to talk about. And that is
00:03:32.100 the weirdness surrounding the feds and Donald Trump right now. It's getting, it's getting even
00:03:37.600 weirder. Uh, Steve Bannon, who's in his own separate world of pain right now, thanks to the
00:03:43.980 New York state attorney general, he got pardoned on these charges by Trump, but that doesn't,
00:03:48.880 that doesn't mean that the locals, the state officials can't come after you. And that's what
00:03:52.260 he's dealing with right now and an alleged fraud, but he was giving interviews about it, uh, last
00:03:57.620 Friday. And he alleged, he alleged that nearly three dozen Trump associates that day or within
00:04:04.200 recent days had also been targeted by the FBI via subpoena, via search warrant. This isn't the kind
00:04:11.520 of thing that people always run to the cameras to report. So we don't know what the numbers are,
00:04:16.260 but Harmeet Dillon, frequent guest of this program, brilliant lawyer. She verified it in part on Tucker
00:04:21.840 that same night saying she had at least three clients who were swept up in this thing.
00:04:26.240 So we don't know how big the numbers are or what the feds are up to or what specific thing they're
00:04:31.880 targeting, but it seems to relate to election denials and quote unquote fake electors and push
00:04:40.920 back over January 6th with Harmeet, which Harmeet is pointing out in the media. That sounds like a
00:04:45.620 first amendment issue. You're allowed to have whatever belief you want. You know, you can, you can come up
00:04:50.060 with cockamamie plans on elections that are never implemented and that's your business.
00:04:55.340 So this is somewhat troubling and it's relates to the trouble that's been around President Trump
00:05:02.500 and his reaction to the election. Meanwhile, it comes amid wild speculation about Trump and his
00:05:08.560 current whereabouts and why we, we think we know where he is, but why is the question? He was spotted
00:05:14.940 near Washington DC late yesterday and the internet has lost its mind. They think the guy's going to jail.
00:05:22.220 That's what they think. All right, we're going to get into all of this in just one second.
00:05:26.060 A little bit later in the show, we're going to be joined by Vivek Ramaswamy.
00:05:29.400 His new book brilliantly analyzes how our society has fallen into a state of victimhood,
00:05:35.100 perpetual victimhood, and how, guess what? That doesn't end well for the victims.
00:05:39.140 You may be the victim today, tomorrow you won't be, and he's got thoughts on how to solve it.
00:05:43.480 But we start today with Cheryl Atkinson, an investigative reporter and host of Full Measure
00:05:49.960 with Cheryl Atkinson.
00:05:55.300 Cheryl, so good to have you back on the program. How are you doing?
00:05:57.880 Thank you. Good to be here, Megan.
00:05:59.800 Great to see you. So the media is a flutter. I guess I should say social media is a flutter right
00:06:06.920 now about President Trump being spotted on the runway. I want to get it right in any event. He's
00:06:14.440 tweeting about it right now at Dulles. Okay. He's spotted on the runway at Dulles Airport,
00:06:20.760 and he had his white golf sneakers on or tennis sneakers of some sort, and he didn't look like
00:06:29.060 President Trump normally looks like in his suit. So cue the Twitter lunatics who are like,
00:06:34.640 he's surrendering himself right now. He's in Washington to surrender himself to the federal
00:06:38.460 authorities. Meanwhile, today he tweets out from his offices saying he's at the Trump Tower down in
00:06:44.240 that area. And hold on, this is exactly what he said. Working today at Trump Washington, D.C. on the
00:06:51.280 Potomac River. What an incredible place. Hasn't responded to this video. And so we have no idea what's
00:06:56.920 going on, but Cheryl, the Twitterati has him arrested and surrendering right now to Merrick Garland on God
00:07:03.060 knows what. You know, I think if one thing we've learned, it's that all the leaks about Donald Trump,
00:07:09.120 particularly the ones where he was about to be arrested, indicted, you know, taken as a Russian
00:07:15.080 spy, the tape recordings that supposedly had him saying things that he never said. I think we learn
00:07:20.880 that more often than not, in fact, up until now, almost every time, what is said or what is
00:07:26.900 leak turns out not to be true. So it signals to me when you hear a leak of something that's pretty damaging
00:07:32.700 against Donald Trump from prosecutors or prosecutorial authority, it usually means to me they're trying
00:07:38.920 to make the most out of something because they know in the end they're not going to have anything, but they
00:07:42.580 want to create the swirl and the bad publicity and sort of this chatter in the meantime, because I think
00:07:47.900 they think they can get something out of that.
00:07:50.380 Mm hmm. There's not I mean, so far as we can tell, there's absolutely nothing going on. And President Trump has no
00:07:55.280 obligation to tell us why he's in the D.C. area. It could be for a medical appointment, for all we
00:07:59.760 know, and maybe doesn't want to broadcast it out to the world because it's none of our business because
00:08:03.700 he's not the sitting president anymore. Be nice if we could get some more transparency into the
00:08:07.780 current president's well-being. That's a different matter, however. So it's just for me, it's an
00:08:13.300 interesting just look at the media and social media in particular about how they can get something
00:08:19.340 going out of nothing, out of nothing. Right. And also, Cheryl, as you know, as you just point out,
00:08:25.500 this is wishful thinking. This is this is just the latest chapter in this is going to be the thing
00:08:31.200 that brings Trump down. Right. It's their wishful thinking of now the downfall begins. The cuffs will
00:08:37.240 be on soon. Well, don't you think prosecutors, if you step back and not study this from a minutiae
00:08:45.360 standpoint, but step back and say, haven't they lost all moral and ethical authority to prosecute
00:08:53.320 Trump and those around him based on their recent past, what they've done? I mean, they've never
00:08:58.700 cleaned house after we know they were on the wrong trail, leaking false information. The FBI attorney
00:09:04.900 that doctored a document, and yet they never got anybody else around it who also knew about that,
00:09:11.420 didn't speak out when it became public. House has never been cleaned. And that same core group is
00:09:16.620 still going after Trump and anybody surrounding him. And in the big picture, it seems to me that
00:09:21.580 the whole thing lacks moral authority and and also legitimate justice authority because of the recent
00:09:28.280 past. I don't know how you would get an independent person that could look at this instead,
00:09:32.740 because look what happened when Mueller was appointed. People hoping that was an independent
00:09:36.620 investigation turned out not to be. But I think that there's very little credence behind anything
00:09:42.180 going on now. That's exactly it. That that's why. And I don't know what Trump actually had down at
00:09:48.820 Mar-a-Lago and what he didn't. And I I've listened to lawyers that I respect, like Mike Davis, say
00:09:53.460 whatever he had, he could have it. He can as long as they were duplicates and not the actual
00:09:58.720 originals. He was allowed to have whatever he wanted and he was allowed to declassify whatever
00:10:04.060 he wanted. And this is all made up. And I've heard other lawyers I respect say, no, he crossed lines.
00:10:09.160 He shouldn't have had those documents. It's problematic. But Merrick Garland shouldn't be
00:10:13.760 doing this for some of the reasons you just outlined. And then there are lawyers on the left
00:10:17.600 who are like full bore. Get him. He's a criminal. You know, he's a spy and so on. I'm not exactly sure
00:10:24.660 where I fall legally on that. But I'm with you on the even if this is the worst of the worst and he
00:10:29.780 didn't have the right to have the documents down there, they've lost the moral authority to do it.
00:10:34.000 They truly have been persecuting the guy for the past five or six years. And I'm done giving them
00:10:39.400 the benefit of the doubt. Well, they certainly don't deserve the benefit of the doubt. And I think
00:10:44.660 this is the problem that comes with them not addressing problems as they go. We can go back decades.
00:10:50.520 Actually, we can go back to the spying on me, the spying on others that took place that the
00:10:56.200 Department of Justice never took care of to this day. My case against the government is in discovery.
00:11:01.500 They're still defending the guilty agents instead of saying this is wrong. Let's root it out. Let's
00:11:06.640 issue an apology and make sure it doesn't happen again. So decades of not cleaning up their business
00:11:12.540 and giving false information to Congress and doing things that are unethical and illegal
00:11:17.180 have led to where we are today, where there is at least half of the country that has
00:11:22.540 no faith in the credibility of our top justice officials. And also when you go down to the state
00:11:28.960 level and you see what crimes or alleged crimes they're prosecuting and paying attention to versus
00:11:33.220 the ones that they're not. I know there are so many people saying this is not a balanced sense of
00:11:39.240 justice in any respect going on in this country right now. So, you know, they've lost people have lost
00:11:45.100 faith in their institutions, including the top prosecutors in this country.
00:11:49.560 Let's talk about what Steve Bannon's claiming is going on now, separate and apart from his
00:11:53.420 prosecution, which he's going to have to deal with, with, you know, the New York State Attorney
00:11:56.720 General. The huge sweep, you know, the dragnet trying to get all these Trump associates caught up
00:12:04.660 in the criminal justice system because they had questions about the January, sorry, the 2020 election,
00:12:10.640 November 2020 election. That's, that's potentially deeply problematic as well. Here's what Steve said
00:12:17.580 on Charlie Kirk's show on Friday.
00:12:21.100 There were 35 senior members of MAGA, uh, Republicans supporters of Donald Trump, uh, that
00:12:28.200 were role, you know, the FBI rolled in on, right. When they didn't need to do it. Remember all these
00:12:32.780 people have lawyers, all their lawyers are very well known. No, the Jack booted Gestapo has got to show up
00:12:37.900 their door and, uh, and make a big display of this. The FBI is the Gestapo right now. I know they hate
00:12:43.480 when I say that, but they're the Gestapo. We're not going to back off call them the Gestapo because
00:12:46.740 they have Gestapo like tactics. Okay. Now I don't know whether that's true or not. I have no idea
00:12:53.700 what he's basing that on. And even though Steve Bannon's connected to MAGA world, that doesn't mean
00:12:59.060 everybody calls Steve Bannon when they get a subpoena, you know, like, I don't know how he would know
00:13:02.980 those numbers. But as I pointed out earlier, Harmeet Dillon, she does represent a fair amount
00:13:08.360 of folks connected to this, you know, Trump inner circle. And she confirmed that she had at least
00:13:13.520 two or three clients who received subpoenas or search warrants or something along this. So
00:13:17.880 something's going on. And, um, again, related to what we don't know, a federal grand jury,
00:13:24.240 according to the Washington post sent subpoenas on Wednesday to a wide range of former campaign
00:13:29.820 and white house staffers asking for information about the save America pack. According to people
00:13:36.240 who spoke on condition of anonymity, this, they described the subpoenas as broad seeking all
00:13:42.500 documents and communications about opening the save America pack and every dollar raised and spent.
00:13:48.920 At least one of the subpoenas also demanded information about the plan to submit slates of
00:13:53.820 phony electors quoting here, claiming Trump won pivotal states, including all communications with
00:14:00.380 several key lawyers and advisors, including Giuliani, Boris Epstein, Bruce Marx, Victoria Tunsing and
00:14:06.780 Joseph DeGeneva. At least one, two, three of those are lawyers. I don't know about Bruce, uh, Boris. No,
00:14:13.720 I don't think. And, uh, the Washington post concludes this week's subpoenas were also the latest
00:14:18.780 science that justice has intensified its own parallel probe into January 6th. Again, this is
00:14:25.740 troubling. This is troubling. If it's fraud, if it's financial fraud, that's one thing. Fine. Get
00:14:30.480 them. I don't care who you are, Republican or Democrat. Sick them if they're committing a financial
00:14:33.980 fraud. However, if we are once again, criminalizing the belief that Donald Trump won, that's a different
00:14:40.260 story. Well, you know, we only have recent history to go by. And based on that, this sure looks like
00:14:48.720 political enemies of Donald Trump are going after him and everybody connected to and surrounding him
00:14:55.420 prior to him potentially announcing his next run for president. And I've spoken to some old time
00:15:00.700 FBI officials. These are people who worked under various administrations over the decades who say
00:15:07.520 there was a time when they would stay way far away from anything that potentially looked political. Even
00:15:13.760 if they thought there was something there, they would be so careful and tread so lightly. So as
00:15:18.600 not to be accused of or appear as though they're doing some sort of political prosecution or
00:15:23.740 investigation, that's all been thrown out the window. I mean, it appears exactly like that. So
00:15:28.980 even if there is a there there, people will ask the question, well, have they ignored similar alleged
00:15:34.940 infractions by other people if they weren't surrounding Trump? And are they treating and handling this the
00:15:40.280 same way that they have or would treat anybody else? And the answer so far has been absolutely not.
00:15:45.620 So I think this is a problem for them aesthetically, even if there is something there, it's going to
00:15:52.300 be a hard sell to a great number of people in the American public based on what the FBI and
00:15:58.020 intelligence agencies have done in the past few years. Well, I also think it's a it's very important
00:16:03.400 if Steve Bannon stole funds from donors and misuse them. OK, go after him. And then let's make very
00:16:11.820 sure that when we have a Republican administration again, we do the very same thing to all the Democrat
00:16:18.880 fundraisers who are misleading their donors because in no way am I defending this practice. But this has
00:16:25.720 been going on in Washington for time in memoriam. And great. Let's crack down on any alleged fraud,
00:16:32.820 but it must be bipartisan. And I really hope the Democrats who are really enjoying what's happening
00:16:37.820 to Steve Bannon have their checkbooks completely balanced and their accounting completely in order
00:16:44.640 because turnabouts fair play. I think Vivek Ramaswamy, he's going to come on and say the Republicans
00:16:49.480 can't use all the same tactics that the Democrats use because, you know, somebody's got to take the
00:16:54.940 high road. I don't know if I agree. Maybe it is high road to just go after everybody who's got
00:17:00.280 accounting issues. But my point is, be careful what you wish for. Well, you know, we'll see,
00:17:06.280 I suppose. But even when Republicans run things, it seems to me, if you're talking about I used to
00:17:11.620 not believe in what they call the deep state, I now do. The deep state of it fairly consistently
00:17:17.060 controlled. And I think they were universally, by and large, anti Trump, even those who may have been
00:17:24.560 pro Republican, you know, Trump would have a position where his enemies were among Democrats
00:17:30.080 and also among Republicans, my view, because he was not elected by or beholden to the big money
00:17:36.260 interests that we're used to having the direct pipeline to the president of the United States.
00:17:40.160 They didn't have the same access. They didn't want Trump in power. So there this giant campaign
00:17:45.580 was launched against him in part because of that. And I think that's an issue of what's been at play.
00:17:51.140 Mm hmm. Meanwhile, the vice president of the United States has very good news. And I wanted
00:17:57.080 to ask you about this because I know you've recently been to and done an in-depth report
00:18:01.540 on the border. Yes, I know. The dog does not like the vice president. I understand. You're not alone,
00:18:06.900 sweetheart. He's adorable, by the way. So Kamala Harris goes on meet the press and like like the
00:18:16.700 Homeland Security Secretary not long before her pronounced that the border is secure. Here's
00:18:23.040 what she said. This is SOT6. Would you call the border secure? I think that there is no question
00:18:31.120 that we have to do what the president and I asked Congress to do is the first request we make
00:18:37.240 pass a bill to create a pathway to citizenship. The border is secure, but we also have a broken
00:18:47.360 immigration system, in particular over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be
00:18:52.400 fixed. We're going to have two million people cross this border for the first time ever.
00:18:55.520 You're confident this border is secure?
00:18:56.760 We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation, including ours and our administration.
00:19:08.480 But there are still a lot of problems that we are trying to fix, given the deterioration that
00:19:15.580 happened over the last four years. We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation.
00:19:23.120 What? So we don't. It's a priority, but we don't actually have one. Good for Chuck Topp for at least
00:19:30.760 pushing back a bit. And then she tries to blame whatever problems are there on Trump. For all of
00:19:38.160 Trump's controversies, not securing the border isn't really one you can lay on him. Go ahead,
00:19:43.820 Cheryl. What do you think? What do you make of it having just been there?
00:19:45.540 Well, I go to the border a couple of times a year just to see what's really going on. I just got back
00:19:49.880 from Eagle Pass, Texas, where I interviewed. Usually I interview the officials from these areas
00:19:55.380 in the border towns. Primarily, they are Democrats and Hispanic. And they would say and did say these
00:20:00.900 statements that claim the border is secure are delusional. It's objectively false. You can see that
00:20:07.900 they're overrun in their own words. They can't handle the influx. They have begged for visits from
00:20:14.840 Vice President Harris, from Biden, from any representatives that would come and take a look
00:20:20.020 and try to provide some assistance. I've never seen the border this open. Well, that makes sense
00:20:24.480 because this is a record setting time. But in all my visits to the border, the border kind of has a
00:20:30.360 personality. It changes a lot based on policies that are at play and what's going on from the highest
00:20:36.080 level in Washington, D.C. And this is just unbelievable. But I hate to harp on these stories from the poor
00:20:43.980 illegal immigrants because I know that's only a piece of this problem. But I spoke in great detail
00:20:50.620 to the Venezuelans and others who are coming here now and making these perilous trips and how they
00:20:56.720 have to cross through a jungle to get through Colombia and are almost all attacked by what they
00:21:03.640 call the indigenous peoples who now have a pipeline in the jungle that they rob and rape people. I heard
00:21:09.860 stories that I believe from the illegal immigrants saying that they watched 12-year-olds getting
00:21:14.580 raped, that when the men interfered and tried to protect the girl in one case, the men were raped.
00:21:20.680 These people are robbed, so then they don't have the money to pay the checkpoints of the cartels to be
00:21:25.260 allowed to progress to the Mexico-U.S. border, so they have to keep working. Family members may be
00:21:30.800 kidnapped and tortured until they can come up with additional money to pay the cartels. We are making the
00:21:35.780 cartels rich beyond our wildest imagination by allowing all of this. And then hundreds of them
00:21:42.020 have drowned and died, a record number, trying to cross into the U.S. once they get that far. It is a
00:21:47.480 disaster in every sense of the word for them, for the border towns, and for the United States. I urge
00:21:54.260 people, if they're interested, go to fullmeasure.news. My story that I aired on Sunday on my TV program
00:22:00.420 lays out all of this in great detail and has the video evidence, too. Well, and one of the things
00:22:06.660 addressed is, where's the wall and where's the effort to stop the people from walking into the
00:22:14.560 town? Like, why aren't we trying to stop that anymore? Because Border Patrol's not.
00:22:22.700 You know, one of the interesting things I found, I was there to see how the Texas state efforts were
00:22:28.600 working because Texas deployed 1,400 National Guard troops and all kinds of rangers and resources of
00:22:35.620 their own. And they've built 100 miles of their own barrier at their own expense to try to secure
00:22:41.660 the border. What did I learn? All of that money and effort simply goes to help process those who come
00:22:47.900 in because they don't have the authority legally to turn them back or arrest them. They have to turn
00:22:52.940 them over to Border Patrol. So all of that effort has resulted not in turning anybody away or
00:22:58.400 quelling the numbers, but in a helping hand, as it was called when I did an interview with an
00:23:03.560 official there, all the resources just providing more hands to process more people to come into
00:23:08.980 the United States. We have that. Actually, we have a soundbite from that. And again, we should check
00:23:13.840 it out at fullmeasure.news as well. But here's a bit. This is soundbite 8 from Cheryl's reporting.
00:23:18.060 So there's nothing that can be done technically right now to keep the numbers down, to keep people
00:23:25.720 from coming. No, ma'am. They have a free open range coming across the river right now. Do they
00:23:31.600 climb over the fence? No, they let them through. Border Patrol lets them through? Yeah. Like right now,
00:23:38.220 they've still got places where they haven't finished the fence. And they got gates. They let them
00:23:43.060 through. I've never seen anything like that. This has been here all my life. What do you attribute
00:23:50.000 that to? Mr. Biden. They're just letting them in. I'm very disappointed in the federal government,
00:24:01.000 to be honest. And I've opened the invitation to anyone in the administration, whether it be
00:24:06.840 president, vice president or one of his representatives to please come to Eagle Pass,
00:24:12.820 Texas. We are part of the United States. Here in Eagle Pass, you know, before our local firefighters
00:24:18.780 would have to deal with around 20, 25 drownings a year. Now they're dealing with over 30 drownings a
00:24:25.500 month. You know, pulling babies out of the water is not normal. My God. And can we just hear again,
00:24:34.220 this is the vice president of the United States who's been placed in charge
00:24:37.160 of securing the border. Here's her take on what's happening. Listen to it one more time.
00:24:43.300 Would you call the border secure?
00:24:45.940 I think that there is no question that we have to do what the president and I asked Congress to do is
00:24:53.060 the first request we make pass a bill to create a pathway to citizenship. The border is secure,
00:25:02.600 but we also have a broken immigration system in particular over the last four years before we
00:25:08.000 came in and it needs to be fixed. We're going to have 2 million people cross this border for the
00:25:12.060 first time ever. You're confident this border is secure?
00:25:16.220 We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation, including ours in our administration.
00:25:25.380 But there are still a lot of problems that we are trying to fix, given the deterioration that
00:25:32.880 happened over the last four years. What specifically? I mean, truly, what what is she talking about?
00:25:39.400 What did Trump do to make the border less secure? Her answer is basically what we need is amnesty,
00:25:45.160 which doesn't decrease immigration across the southern border. And we need to get rid of Trump,
00:25:52.440 which we did. Right. So she's blaming the four year four years prior. And it's secure in that it's
00:25:57.760 a priority. There's zero evidence that it's a priority. He's trying to undo the ability to turn
00:26:02.680 people back under the covid regulation right now. The only reason he hasn't done that is because of
00:26:06.080 the courts. You know, Trump's last year in office, those numbers came way down. They were still bad,
00:26:12.880 but something like four hundred thousand border encounters. Biden's first year in office,
00:26:17.300 one point two million. We're working on two million already this year with time left in the fiscal
00:26:23.040 year. And I can tell you, based on my investigation, one of the biggest immediate things that would make
00:26:28.360 a difference and did make a difference under President Trump was that remain in Mexico policy,
00:26:33.420 which said that if people wanted to claim asylum, they would wait for their court date in Mexico.
00:26:38.440 And Mexico agreed to that to take them. And that immediately stopped a lot of traffic because
00:26:43.360 nobody wants to go through what these poor people go through and pay the thousands of dollars and risk
00:26:48.660 their lives only to have to sit in Mexico. So immediately there was an effect with people not
00:26:54.280 trying to come and risk their lives and pay the cartels to come to the United States.
00:26:59.260 So that's that's a huge. People ask me what could be done. That is something that would have an
00:27:04.180 immediate impact based on what we've seen in the recent past that has made a big difference when
00:27:09.700 President Biden decided to stop that program. That's what Stephen Miller really believed in as
00:27:13.720 well. He was on the program saying that that was incredibly effective, the remain in Mexico.
00:27:18.300 Now you've got the Arizona governor, the Texas governor shipping busloads of immigrants to places
00:27:25.040 like Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York. And it's really been amazing to see the Democratic
00:27:30.980 politician reaction to this from those running these cities, which, like Chicago, declared itself a
00:27:36.940 sanctuary city. So what's its problem? Why doesn't it why doesn't it want all of these illegal
00:27:42.060 immigrants? You're supposed to say you love them. It's fine. You know, when they're down in Texas,
00:27:46.340 it's fine. When they're actually in Chicago on Mag Mile, they feel differently. There was the D.C.
00:27:52.340 council member who said, oh, what do you say? She's turning us into a border town. They're turning us
00:27:58.600 into a border town. Oh, how do you like it now? I mean, that's the whole point. Like, how do you see
00:28:03.840 federal policy when you are a border town, when you don't have the protection of the mass heartland
00:28:11.800 between you and this problem? Well, to me, it only makes rational sense to place the illegal
00:28:18.660 immigrants or the illegal border crossers who are waiting for a court date. It only makes sense to
00:28:23.340 place them in the sanctuary cities that have said that that they are welcome. I mean, that just
00:28:28.420 makes common sense to me. So it's hard to understand why they're so upset by it. But I will also tell
00:28:34.340 you, I spoke to for a story that will be airing soon, quite a few of the illegal border crossers who
00:28:40.520 came in, most of them from Venezuela, as it happens right now. And they want to go to these big cities.
00:28:46.960 I thought Texas was just sending them there or maybe kind of convincing them to go there. But when I
00:28:52.480 ask where they want to go, they say, New York, Chicago, big cities like that. And I asked why
00:28:58.920 it's well, something they've heard of, they know, they have friends and family who are already here
00:29:03.540 that they want to be around. So a lot of them want to go to the big cities. And for years,
00:29:07.900 as I've covered the border, and I've spoken to officials from towns along the border, they have
00:29:12.280 said exactly this, Megan, that every state in this country is technically a border town or becomes a
00:29:19.160 border town because they don't stay in Arizona and Texas. They fan out throughout the United States.
00:29:25.420 The numbers are no longer, as you know, insignificant when we're talking about millions
00:29:29.160 of people over a couple of years going to key regions and areas in this country. That is something
00:29:35.460 that's going to be felt in terms of resources and impact on schools and jobs and pretty much everything.
00:29:42.980 I'm telling you, if you are a Republican politician and you really want to stop this problem,
00:29:49.160 your main goal right now should be to get all of those people somehow working for Republican
00:29:55.760 politicians, for Republican policies. That is the only way the Democrats will crack down on this
00:30:00.940 problem. The only way to convince the Democrats to stop this because it's not crime that they may
00:30:08.500 commit or that may be committed against them. The loss of life with the drownings or the rapes
00:30:13.600 against these young girls. They don't care. All they care about is votes. And I'm telling you,
00:30:19.420 if I were a Republican politician, I'd say, great, let's do amnesty. And then I get every Republican
00:30:23.560 working for me to get these people registered Republicans and the problem would stop. Cynical,
00:30:28.880 but and somewhat humorous, tongue in cheek, but not a hundred percent. Cheryl, stand by. So much more
00:30:34.020 to get to. I want to talk about what happened with this Duke volleyball player who now who has accused
00:30:41.340 BYU fans of calling her the N word. The story has fallen apart and those in support of this player
00:30:49.260 are doubling down. So we'll get to that in just one second. Cheryl, Randy Weingarten is at it again
00:31:01.120 in an incredible burst of dishonesty, which she's been on a runoff lately when it comes to her role
00:31:07.680 and the teachers union's role in keeping schools closed during the pandemic. Whereas my kids made
00:31:13.460 me watch this movie Me Time over the weekend, which was hysterical with Kevin Hart, Mark Wahlberg,
00:31:19.940 the big pandy. That's how they referred to it during the big pandy. Okay. She tweets out yesterday.
00:31:27.240 Teachers want to teach. We have always known in-person is best. In the midst of great uncertainty,
00:31:36.120 we fought for safe in-person schooling. Now we're focused on helping kids recover and thrive,
00:31:43.880 regardless of what is thrown at us. That is who teachers are. Okay. Then she goes on to add
00:31:51.880 in this article that's being written about her. The charge of being pro-closure is complete
00:31:58.800 bullshit, she says, blaming Trump for not reopening the schools. She says this charge is completely
00:32:06.160 false and it's the kind of propaganda and demonization that they like to do. Pointing out
00:32:12.560 her union, the AFT first released reopening guidelines in April, 2020, including stipulations
00:32:18.260 like six feet of space, blah, blah, blah. We did the best we could. Okay. And then she goes on,
00:32:23.380 by the way, to add, I understand what the right wing is doing here. They hate public schools and
00:32:27.940 they hate unions. They always have. Okay. So this is just a blatant lie. Just a fact check. This is a
00:32:35.920 lie. We all lived it. Those of us who wanted to see the schools open for our children know exactly
00:32:40.880 who's to blame. And she is very high on that list. Here's just a couple of things. Okay. A couple of,
00:32:47.200 um, a couple of fact checks for yahoo.com that did a piece on her and a good example on how
00:32:54.560 cross-examination of a source who's misleading you might work. Um, September, 2020,
00:33:00.960 Weingarten said schools need guidelines like mandatory face coverings and strict social
00:33:05.060 distancing rules to reopen safely. If community spread is too high as it is in Missouri and
00:33:09.860 Mississippi, if you don't have the infrastructure of testing, if you don't have the safeguards that
00:33:13.500 prevent the spread of viruses in the school, we believe that you cannot reopen in person. Okay.
00:33:18.000 No one can prevent the spread of viruses period, right? So she's basically saying they cannot
00:33:21.920 reopen period January, 2021. She said along with the New York state United teachers president
00:33:26.960 joint statement, New York must return to remote learning. We have a moral duty to follow the
00:33:32.540 science and reopening. That's why New York schools should immediately go to remote learning. She goes
00:33:37.040 on the positive positivity triggers for a closing must be upheld. If they're exceeded, we must close
00:33:42.800 buildings and then redouble our efforts to crush community spread so they can reopening. She goes on
00:33:47.640 and on lobbying the CDC to tighten their policy on school reopenings. She thought they were too liberal
00:33:51.820 managing to include an opt out for schools in high transmission areas time and time again, Cheryl,
00:33:58.260 she was on the side of closing the schools, making them go remote unless they could meet impossible
00:34:05.640 standards that she knew very well they could never meet and that the children were the ones who would
00:34:11.580 suffer. And now she has the nerve to look us in the eye and tell us it was Trump. She was in favor
00:34:17.060 of reopening all along. Well, one of the most successful and incredible propaganda feats among many,
00:34:23.980 I think, in the last couple of years was this transformation. Because in the very beginning,
00:34:29.140 even government scientists and public health officials who later turned around were saying
00:34:34.000 kids were at least risk of having any serious effects that we really didn't need to worry about
00:34:40.060 them. We didn't need to shut the schools. That would be harmful. And the independent scientists who
00:34:44.860 proved to be more correct in the long run than many of these other public health officials
00:34:48.680 said that the schools never should have been shut down. We would have all been better off
00:34:52.780 if they had remained open. So there was this turnabout all of a sudden that happened in the
00:34:58.100 course of really just a couple of week period where all of the dialogue publicly went from saying
00:35:03.780 kids need not worry to all of a sudden kids were at this huge risk and we had to be frightened and
00:35:09.540 scared for the children. And out of that was born, of course, the school closings and a lot more.
00:35:14.540 I will point out, Megan, there are a lot of places that didn't shut the schools down. And I visited some
00:35:20.000 of them and did stories on them that had no ill effects or certainly nothing worse than what
00:35:25.340 happened when people shut the schools down. And yet they stayed open and didn't do the harm to the
00:35:31.560 kids. And there was no effort, it seemed to me, from some of these other school systems to look at
00:35:36.380 those results and see how much harmful disease did or didn't spread so that they had some hard facts
00:35:41.620 to go on. But there are places in America that didn't shut down their schools and did quite well.
00:35:46.420 Mm hmm. And now she because she was one of that crowd saying kids are resilient. They'll be fine.
00:35:54.320 Kids are resilient as though them not being a bunch of whiners who even necessarily have the words to
00:36:00.480 express how being socially alienated, being forced to wear the masks all the time, being forced to undergo
00:36:08.280 vaccines that they didn't need and so on. They didn't even have the words half of these kids to
00:36:12.560 express how it was damaging them as though their silence meant something for her side. She now comes
00:36:18.600 out and says, kids need a sense of joy. What they need right now, what's keeping me up at night
00:36:24.520 is, is that this year needs to be as joyful and as normal a year as possible. They need a sense
00:36:32.380 of normalcy. Some of us knew that all along. And she was a massive impediment to our ability to bring
00:36:42.920 that to the children. And it wasn't because we didn't care about their safety as their mothers.
00:36:48.460 It was because we understood that she was following some weird political line that had her supporting
00:36:54.580 teachers in Chicago who were totally able bodied, refusing to teach, even when the far left mayor
00:37:03.440 there said, get back into the classroom and do your jobs. And especially with kids of underprivileged
00:37:10.920 neighborhoods, black, brown kids, get in there and teach them. And these totally fine teachers who she
00:37:16.140 supported were out there dancing, Cheryl, doing interpretive dance to show us how they couldn't
00:37:22.080 possibly return to the classroom because it was just too risky to their health. We have the video
00:37:27.120 because I love it. Here it is.
00:37:32.440 Make it make sense.
00:37:38.100 Safety
00:37:38.500 is essential.
00:37:43.420 Oh my God.
00:37:44.060 Keep our students
00:37:46.100 and our teachers
00:37:48.220 safe.
00:37:52.080 They wouldn't go in.
00:37:56.280 They danced.
00:37:57.160 They wouldn't go in.
00:37:58.000 And people like Randy, that's her union, supported them.
00:38:01.660 And now she wants to lecture us about how the kids need normalcy and joy.
00:38:05.860 Well, and to try to dial back from all of that,
00:38:09.060 I fairly recently have seen kids
00:38:11.580 doing outdoor cross-country running,
00:38:14.340 wearing masks.
00:38:15.820 And I think some of them are wearing them
00:38:17.340 voluntarily now, not even required to do so.
00:38:19.860 How do you dial back from the fear
00:38:21.940 that was instilled in children needlessly
00:38:24.920 and then suddenly you turn around and try to tell them
00:38:27.640 or convince them that none of that was necessary?
00:38:30.280 I think that's going to be really hard to dial back from
00:38:33.200 for a lot of kids whose lives have been changed by the rhetoric
00:38:36.180 and the false information, really,
00:38:38.300 that was put out in some cases by public health officials.
00:38:41.240 Our pediatrician, who's as mainstream as they come,
00:38:44.460 told us that is dangerous.
00:38:46.440 Do not let your child run outdoors wearing a mask.
00:38:49.360 Period.
00:38:50.140 I haven't let it happen yet
00:38:51.440 and I wouldn't let it happen.
00:38:52.360 I don't think people, other people should let it happen.
00:38:54.140 That's insane.
00:38:55.720 All right.
00:38:56.300 Speaking of young people making big mistakes,
00:39:00.160 this BYU-Duke game
00:39:04.120 has turned into a massive national story
00:39:06.160 and there's just been an update.
00:39:07.300 So there was a BYU versus Duke University women's volleyball match
00:39:11.780 on August 26th, not quite a month ago,
00:39:16.140 a couple of weeks ago, actually,
00:39:17.540 and a Duke player reported hearing the N-word yelled at her,
00:39:21.660 she is black, while she served,
00:39:24.220 coming from the student section during two different sets.
00:39:26.820 So she says it happened repeatedly.
00:39:31.580 Let's see.
00:39:33.000 Okay.
00:39:33.120 So Lisa Pamplin tweeted that her goddaughter,
00:39:38.240 Duke outside hitter Rachel Richardson,
00:39:40.100 was called a racial slur every time she served during the match.
00:39:44.020 And Rachel Richardson has come out now
00:39:45.760 and said she was the one who allegedly heard this against her.
00:39:49.600 Lisa Pamplin has been her biggest supporter.
00:39:52.180 That's the godmother.
00:39:53.340 She also said Richardson was, quote,
00:39:54.960 threatened by a white male
00:39:56.640 who told her to watch her back going to the team bus.
00:40:00.000 Richardson's father said a student was yelling racial slurs
00:40:03.680 towards his daughter,
00:40:04.760 but was allowed to remain at the match.
00:40:06.800 BYU initially apologized to Duke,
00:40:09.120 banned the student,
00:40:10.240 who was accused of yelling the racial slurs,
00:40:12.400 and then Rachel Richardson later posted a three-page slide
00:40:15.380 describing the incident on Twitter
00:40:16.800 with a hashtag,
00:40:18.300 more than a volleyball player,
00:40:20.460 talking about how her fellow African-American teammates
00:40:23.000 and she were targeted,
00:40:24.380 they were racially heckled,
00:40:25.620 and they felt unsafe.
00:40:27.560 Both the officials and BYU coaching staff
00:40:30.140 were made aware, she says,
00:40:31.460 but failed to take the necessary steps
00:40:34.160 to stop the behavior.
00:40:36.040 So the officials and the coaching staff.
00:40:38.060 Then she goes on to say the BYU athletic director,
00:40:40.400 he did the right thing.
00:40:42.720 He was quick to act respectfully and genuinely.
00:40:46.200 He's at the forefront of ensuring
00:40:47.320 the BYU athletic staff and players
00:40:49.280 undergo education now
00:40:51.260 and training to better handle
00:40:53.720 and prevent the racist, ignorant,
00:40:56.180 and asinine behaviors
00:40:57.140 that were exhibited by their fans during the match.
00:40:59.940 So now the players and the staff,
00:41:02.620 according to her,
00:41:03.200 have to undergo training
00:41:05.580 to better handle racist fans.
00:41:08.880 Well, guess what?
00:41:09.940 BYU did a comprehensive investigation.
00:41:11.900 They spoke with the man
00:41:12.580 who allegedly yelled the racial slurs.
00:41:14.240 They looked at every single video
00:41:15.480 they could get their hands on.
00:41:16.420 They watched the man during the entire time
00:41:18.040 this young woman was serving.
00:41:19.080 Both times, all times.
00:41:21.020 They spoke with witnesses,
00:41:22.400 black, white, everyone.
00:41:23.660 They spoke with Duke fans
00:41:24.520 who were right near the guy.
00:41:26.160 Exhaustive.
00:41:27.420 And they say,
00:41:28.960 the video shows this banned fan
00:41:30.580 scrolling his phone and not talking
00:41:32.080 during Richardson's serving
00:41:34.740 when she said the Rachel taunts began.
00:41:38.560 They did not find any evidence
00:41:40.760 of racial slurs being yelled
00:41:44.060 at this woman whatsoever,
00:41:46.060 nor toward any Blue Devils player.
00:41:48.360 That's the Duke mascot,
00:41:49.860 basically saying this didn't happen.
00:41:52.360 She was either confused
00:41:53.280 or she made it up,
00:41:54.720 but it didn't happen.
00:41:56.480 They've apologized to the fan now
00:41:58.260 who was, you know,
00:41:59.820 being said to be the perpetrator.
00:42:02.760 And everybody's standing by their story.
00:42:05.540 The woman hasn't backed down.
00:42:07.100 Her aunt has come out.
00:42:08.200 The godmother has come out and said,
00:42:10.000 I expected this.
00:42:11.680 You know, of course,
00:42:12.280 they're going to stand by
00:42:13.340 and they're not going to recognize racism
00:42:14.740 when it's right there.
00:42:15.360 Like, there's no more fact finding, Cheryl.
00:42:18.240 It's just, no, I believe it.
00:42:20.620 And even though the evidence shows
00:42:23.240 it did not happen,
00:42:24.600 we can't let go of the narrative.
00:42:27.040 Well, the canonization of people
00:42:29.500 who claim to be victims of something
00:42:31.220 has led to more people,
00:42:32.800 I think, claiming to be victims of something.
00:42:35.240 And they're rewarded for it,
00:42:36.820 whether or not it's true or not.
00:42:38.520 In the end,
00:42:39.280 let me read you a couple of examples,
00:42:40.540 which I put on my website.
00:42:43.180 A week before Trump was elected,
00:42:45.160 Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church
00:42:46.580 in Mississippi was torched
00:42:47.840 and the words Vote Trump
00:42:48.900 found painted on the outside.
00:42:50.980 Mayor condemned the incident
00:42:51.940 as a hate crime,
00:42:53.360 but skip ahead that
00:42:54.660 that it turns out to be
00:42:56.900 that that was a staged attack
00:42:59.140 to look like an attack
00:43:00.680 by Trump supporters
00:43:01.700 staged by a member of the church
00:43:03.760 who happened to be black.
00:43:05.180 The day after Trump was elected,
00:43:06.940 there was an incident
00:43:07.680 in North Carolina
00:43:08.780 made national news.
00:43:09.700 Hispanic students found
00:43:10.620 a hateful note
00:43:11.240 written on the classroom whiteboard
00:43:12.840 reading bye-bye Latinos.
00:43:15.060 After the story made national news,
00:43:17.000 it was learned that a Latino student
00:43:18.720 wrote the message on the board.
00:43:21.380 He was upset about
00:43:22.140 the results of the election.
00:43:23.440 I have a whole list of these.
00:43:25.540 Sadly, the assumption
00:43:27.340 almost has to be today
00:43:28.760 that when somebody claims
00:43:30.140 to be a victim
00:43:30.840 of something like that,
00:43:32.360 absent clear evidence,
00:43:34.040 you have to consider the possibility
00:43:36.300 that it's not true
00:43:37.240 because so often it's not.
00:43:39.920 And again, like you say,
00:43:41.500 people standing by their story
00:43:43.220 in the face of lack of evidence
00:43:46.180 or evidence to the contrary,
00:43:48.500 you know,
00:43:49.540 it's just a sad time, really.
00:43:52.220 Yeah, it is a very sad time.
00:43:53.800 And meanwhile,
00:43:54.160 this godmother
00:43:54.840 has had so many,
00:43:57.860 so many racist,
00:43:59.340 racist tweets of her own
00:44:00.880 calling white people
00:44:02.620 crappy ass crackers
00:44:04.200 and they're scary
00:44:05.440 talking about,
00:44:07.320 it was about the
00:44:08.420 Uvalde shooting
00:44:09.440 saying,
00:44:10.660 faux news,
00:44:11.800 breathing a sigh of relief.
00:44:12.700 It's not a white kid.
00:44:13.660 You poor white mother effers
00:44:15.520 can't take it.
00:44:17.560 Ain't watching this
00:44:18.780 Cracker Barrel bullshit.
00:44:21.200 Why does CNN
00:44:22.340 constantly interview
00:44:23.100 these dumbass white women?
00:44:25.520 I mean, I could keep going.
00:44:27.020 Like this,
00:44:27.820 this,
00:44:28.320 this is the person
00:44:28.980 who's speaking
00:44:29.540 on behalf of the alleged victim.
00:44:32.140 And by the way,
00:44:34.020 they,
00:44:34.380 they did find
00:44:35.260 that,
00:44:35.860 um,
00:44:36.800 the students
00:44:37.480 who were yelling
00:44:38.280 screamed at every Duke player
00:44:39.820 as college kids do
00:44:40.820 at all the ball games,
00:44:42.020 trying to distract,
00:44:42.880 trying to make you
00:44:43.360 not make it.
00:44:44.820 And,
00:44:45.340 um,
00:44:45.560 not a racial slur,
00:44:46.960 but they were reportedly
00:44:48.880 yelling
00:44:49.420 the Duke players
00:44:50.800 first names.
00:44:51.720 Like if you were up there,
00:44:52.820 they'd be like,
00:44:53.480 choke,
00:44:54.900 Cheryl,
00:44:55.520 you know,
00:44:55.880 you can't do it,
00:44:56.600 Cheryl,
00:44:57.040 you stink.
00:44:57.980 And there was one
00:44:59.240 whose name was Nikki.
00:45:01.180 Nikki.
00:45:02.500 And so there's some speculation
00:45:04.260 about whether she
00:45:05.420 heard Nikki
00:45:06.780 and instead
00:45:08.040 mistook that
00:45:09.060 for the N word
00:45:10.200 in some crazy way.
00:45:11.880 But look,
00:45:13.700 when they come to you
00:45:15.000 and say,
00:45:15.380 look at all the videos,
00:45:16.580 we have video
00:45:17.460 of the people
00:45:17.940 you say were doing it.
00:45:19.220 He's literally
00:45:20.080 scrolling his phone
00:45:20.760 the whole time.
00:45:21.980 There is no one,
00:45:22.920 including black Duke fans
00:45:24.760 who were seated,
00:45:25.700 who seated
00:45:26.060 right next to these people
00:45:27.360 who heard what you heard.
00:45:29.180 Okay.
00:45:29.500 So it didn't happen.
00:45:32.040 You're going to have
00:45:32.620 to get over it.
00:45:33.600 We understand you believed it.
00:45:34.860 We're going to accept
00:45:35.420 that you had a good faith belief,
00:45:36.680 but no,
00:45:37.760 you can't do that.
00:45:38.440 And the media,
00:45:39.440 Cheryl,
00:45:39.880 as usual,
00:45:40.700 is no better.
00:45:42.200 Looking at how the media
00:45:43.360 handled this,
00:45:44.700 like in the
00:45:45.360 Jussie Smollett story,
00:45:47.780 they just ran with it.
00:45:49.240 They loved it.
00:45:49.960 And what they did
00:45:51.320 was assume it was true
00:45:53.160 and continue repeating
00:45:55.280 what an awful racist
00:45:56.500 incident had happened
00:45:57.820 at,
00:45:58.900 you know,
00:46:00.480 from BYU,
00:46:01.520 MSNBC.
00:46:02.480 Racism on display
00:46:03.260 at Brigham Young Friday
00:46:04.200 fits a historical pattern.
00:46:06.960 USA Today's
00:46:07.820 race and inequity editor,
00:46:09.700 Mike Freeman,
00:46:10.560 he wrote that
00:46:11.380 Richardson was a hero
00:46:12.440 surrounded by a lot of people
00:46:13.540 who failed her.
00:46:15.020 ESPN
00:46:15.620 said that
00:46:16.860 Richardson endured
00:46:17.640 racial abuse
00:46:18.420 from the fans.
00:46:19.620 She has the term
00:46:20.440 anti-racist
00:46:21.080 in her Twitter bio,
00:46:21.780 by the way.
00:46:22.500 The media piles on
00:46:23.400 because they
00:46:23.960 love stories like this.
00:46:27.080 Well,
00:46:27.200 the accusations,
00:46:28.480 the false accusations
00:46:29.600 are themselves
00:46:30.860 racist in nature
00:46:32.180 and certainly
00:46:33.300 deserve some sort
00:46:34.260 of mitigation
00:46:34.720 or apology
00:46:35.420 when it's revealed
00:46:36.220 that they were not true.
00:46:38.300 And yet,
00:46:38.700 it's hardly ever
00:46:39.720 followed by that
00:46:40.520 kind of response.
00:46:42.260 Mm-hmm.
00:46:42.780 Yeah,
00:46:42.940 the media won't be
00:46:43.620 apologizing the same way
00:46:45.100 this godmother
00:46:45.920 won't be apologizing.
00:46:47.600 And so she's just
00:46:48.740 going to continue
00:46:49.240 saying it happened.
00:46:50.300 And this poor guy,
00:46:51.320 who was accused,
00:46:52.820 is going to have
00:46:53.360 to live under this.
00:46:54.120 If I were this guy,
00:46:55.020 I'd be filing a lawsuit
00:46:56.100 ASAP.
00:46:57.660 Cheryl,
00:46:58.060 thank you so great,
00:46:58.960 so much.
00:46:59.380 It's been so great
00:47:00.060 speaking with you
00:47:00.620 and seeing you again.
00:47:02.220 Thank you for having me.
00:47:04.140 We're going to have
00:47:04.700 more on victimhood
00:47:05.440 coming up
00:47:05.920 by the guy
00:47:06.420 who's literally
00:47:06.920 just written the book
00:47:07.640 on it,
00:47:07.960 Vivek Ramaswamy.
00:47:09.260 And remember,
00:47:10.160 you can find
00:47:10.600 The Megyn Kelly Show
00:47:11.340 live on SiriusXM
00:47:12.420 Triumph Channel 111
00:47:13.540 every weekday at noon east
00:47:14.780 in the full video show
00:47:15.600 and clips
00:47:15.980 by subscribing
00:47:17.000 to our YouTube channel,
00:47:18.160 youtube.com
00:47:18.980 slash Megyn Kelly.
00:47:19.780 If you prefer
00:47:20.820 an audio podcast,
00:47:22.280 go ahead and follow us
00:47:23.180 and download the show
00:47:24.200 on Apple,
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00:47:26.100 or wherever you get
00:47:26.820 your podcasts
00:47:27.340 for free.
00:47:28.620 And there you'll find
00:47:29.340 our full archives,
00:47:30.560 more than 385 shows.
00:47:32.940 Our next guest is
00:47:38.500 Vivek Ramaswamy,
00:47:39.980 tech entrepreneur
00:47:40.680 and author of the new book
00:47:42.060 Nation of Victims,
00:47:44.260 Identity Politics,
00:47:45.780 The Death of Merit,
00:47:47.140 and The Path
00:47:47.900 Back to Excellence,
00:47:49.720 which is out tomorrow.
00:47:51.420 Please support Vivek
00:47:52.880 and buy this book.
00:47:54.600 Welcome back to the show,
00:47:55.520 Vivek.
00:47:55.760 Great to have you.
00:47:56.700 Good to be on, Megan.
00:47:57.280 How are you?
00:47:58.500 I'm very well.
00:47:59.780 It's not that you need
00:48:00.800 the money,
00:48:01.280 it's that the viewers
00:48:02.540 need to listen
00:48:03.380 to the message.
00:48:04.380 That's what's important
00:48:05.540 because you outline
00:48:06.660 the problem brilliantly,
00:48:09.060 brilliantly,
00:48:09.860 calling people out
00:48:10.740 on their nonsense
00:48:11.200 and sort of diagnosing
00:48:13.040 how we got here
00:48:14.400 and how it needs to stop,
00:48:17.200 how it needs to stop.
00:48:18.160 Give us an overview.
00:48:19.340 So my basic thesis
00:48:20.300 in the book
00:48:20.680 is I actually pick up
00:48:21.560 where I left off
00:48:22.500 my last book,
00:48:23.520 Woke Inc.,
00:48:24.200 which was about
00:48:25.320 the curious merger
00:48:26.440 of political and social agendas
00:48:27.980 with corporate America's interests.
00:48:29.540 But the conclusion
00:48:31.220 I came to the end of the book
00:48:32.000 is it takes two to tango, right?
00:48:33.600 Companies cannot get away
00:48:35.080 with politicizing their agendas
00:48:36.460 if their customer bases
00:48:38.120 don't ultimately want
00:48:39.160 to go along with them.
00:48:40.740 And so what I do
00:48:41.160 in the new book
00:48:41.620 is I ask the question
00:48:42.660 of what's actually going on
00:48:43.780 in our culture.
00:48:45.140 And I think where I left
00:48:46.140 Woke Inc. off
00:48:46.740 was with the idea
00:48:47.840 that there is a vacuum
00:48:48.960 of national identity
00:48:50.420 in America.
00:48:51.380 There is a hunger
00:48:52.280 for purpose
00:48:53.400 and meaning
00:48:53.920 and identity
00:48:54.520 that isn't filled
00:48:55.720 by the cheap fast food
00:48:57.820 that corporations feed us.
00:48:59.140 But what can we fill
00:49:01.120 that void with instead?
00:49:02.860 Well, right now,
00:49:03.300 the case I make in the book
00:49:04.140 is victimhood narratives.
00:49:05.960 One's identity as a victim
00:49:07.220 has become America's
00:49:08.620 new national identity.
00:49:10.360 Black victims,
00:49:11.400 white victims,
00:49:12.820 liberal victims,
00:49:13.660 conservative victims.
00:49:15.040 As a first generation American,
00:49:16.460 I see it in second generation
00:49:17.740 Asian Americans
00:49:18.660 and Indian Americans too.
00:49:20.180 Victimhood has become
00:49:21.080 America's new national identity.
00:49:22.900 It's a currency.
00:49:24.020 It's like a currency
00:49:24.960 that's trading at a bubble
00:49:26.060 and people are cashing in
00:49:27.460 while the bubble is trading
00:49:28.300 at an all-time high.
00:49:29.840 But the case I make
00:49:30.560 in the book
00:49:31.060 is that what we really need
00:49:32.520 is to fill that void
00:49:33.500 with a different
00:49:34.880 national identity instead,
00:49:36.260 a national identity
00:49:36.960 based on the shared
00:49:38.020 pursuit of excellence.
00:49:40.060 It is the reason
00:49:40.680 why most immigrants
00:49:41.440 come to this country.
00:49:42.360 It is the reason
00:49:42.880 why my parents
00:49:43.740 came to this country.
00:49:45.240 But the path
00:49:45.940 from one to the other
00:49:46.880 is a complicated one
00:49:48.180 and it runs through
00:49:49.260 some uncomfortable places.
00:49:51.000 And that's a big part
00:49:51.900 of what it took
00:49:52.800 a book to explore.
00:49:54.400 And that's why
00:49:54.940 I chose to write it.
00:49:56.260 I didn't think
00:49:56.600 I was going to write
00:49:56.980 a second book this soon,
00:49:58.140 but I think of it
00:49:58.820 as a sort of sequel
00:49:59.640 to Woke Ink,
00:50:00.780 asking ourselves
00:50:01.620 how we can fill
00:50:02.500 that vacuum
00:50:03.080 of national identity
00:50:03.900 with something
00:50:04.900 more meaningful
00:50:05.620 that doesn't just
00:50:06.340 criticize the poison,
00:50:07.840 but hopefully dilutes
00:50:08.900 it to irrelevance
00:50:09.900 by filling it
00:50:10.560 with something
00:50:11.000 I think far more rich
00:50:11.940 and meaningful instead,
00:50:13.540 which is this
00:50:14.160 shared national identity
00:50:15.600 that I propose built
00:50:16.540 on the shared
00:50:17.340 pursuit of excellence.
00:50:18.940 I'm thinking about
00:50:19.380 Sheryl Sandberg
00:50:20.100 and her book Lean In,
00:50:21.260 which encouraged people
00:50:22.160 to work hard
00:50:22.960 and go for it
00:50:23.640 and make sure
00:50:24.580 you have a seat
00:50:25.080 at the table
00:50:25.520 and don't just say
00:50:26.400 like, oh, I can't
00:50:27.480 or, you know,
00:50:28.180 force yourself
00:50:28.600 to raise your hand
00:50:29.420 and be the one.
00:50:30.480 And then Michelle Obama
00:50:31.360 coming out and saying,
00:50:32.380 you know, basically,
00:50:33.080 you know, that shit
00:50:33.680 that doesn't work.
00:50:34.900 Like sort of speaking
00:50:36.320 that pushing back
00:50:37.100 on behalf of people
00:50:38.340 of color, like,
00:50:39.560 OK, rich white lady,
00:50:40.760 you don't understand
00:50:41.780 that that doesn't work.
00:50:42.540 Meanwhile, Sheryl,
00:50:43.380 I think her dad
00:50:43.860 was an orthodontist.
00:50:44.700 It wasn't like she was
00:50:45.460 she couldn't pay
00:50:46.260 her family bills
00:50:46.880 when she was growing up,
00:50:47.620 but she's gone on
00:50:48.180 to become one of
00:50:49.700 the richest women
00:50:50.340 in the world.
00:50:51.080 Thanks for her own
00:50:52.080 hard work.
00:50:53.040 All right.
00:50:53.220 And with all due respect
00:50:54.120 to Michelle Obama,
00:50:55.120 she wound up
00:50:55.940 at Harvard Law School.
00:50:57.720 She was Princeton undergrad.
00:50:59.200 She was at a white shoe
00:51:00.460 firm in Chicago.
00:51:02.040 She did pretty well
00:51:02.760 for herself in America, too.
00:51:05.140 But, you know,
00:51:06.200 she sort of tried
00:51:07.000 to push back
00:51:07.620 on the push for excellence
00:51:08.580 being like it's harder
00:51:10.200 if your skin
00:51:11.780 is a certain color.
00:51:13.540 Well, the problem is
00:51:14.500 it's what I call
00:51:15.240 kind of the Heisenberg
00:51:16.200 principle in quantum physics.
00:51:18.240 It's the social
00:51:19.160 equivalent of that.
00:51:20.160 So what does the Heisenberg
00:51:21.060 principle in quantum physics say?
00:51:22.800 It says that you can't
00:51:23.600 measure a phenomenon
00:51:24.720 like the spin of an electron
00:51:26.060 while also actually
00:51:28.280 not changing the way
00:51:29.840 the electron itself spins.
00:51:31.340 So the two are
00:51:32.080 inextricably linked
00:51:33.360 to one another.
00:51:33.840 This is what we learned
00:51:34.420 from in quantum mechanics.
00:51:35.900 The principle
00:51:36.340 in the social world
00:51:37.400 is effectively
00:51:38.040 you cannot at once
00:51:39.760 describe the social world
00:51:41.500 without actually affecting
00:51:43.000 the way that social reality works.
00:51:45.380 And so that's a long way
00:51:46.480 of saying that
00:51:46.940 when we describe ourselves
00:51:48.220 as victims,
00:51:49.440 victims defined
00:51:50.220 in the form of
00:51:50.800 racial identity politics
00:51:51.880 or gender identity politics
00:51:53.760 or even partisan politics
00:51:55.020 that actually contributes
00:51:56.560 to the world you create.
00:51:58.580 And so in some ways
00:51:59.320 what Michelle Obama says
00:52:01.480 may become true
00:52:02.640 because the people
00:52:03.400 who listen to her
00:52:04.060 and she herself
00:52:04.660 think of herself that way
00:52:06.020 and they are a victim
00:52:06.740 of their own self-conception,
00:52:09.440 of their own vision,
00:52:10.400 of their own identity.
00:52:11.660 And I think if you deny
00:52:12.640 yourself human agency,
00:52:14.080 then indeed you lack
00:52:14.960 human agency.
00:52:16.120 It's not because
00:52:16.580 somebody else shackled you though.
00:52:17.760 It's because you were
00:52:18.320 shackled by your own
00:52:20.080 psychological need
00:52:21.540 to view yourself
00:52:22.820 as a victim.
00:52:23.640 So one way or another
00:52:24.640 as I say in the book,
00:52:26.080 we see ourselves
00:52:26.660 as victims of one another
00:52:27.620 but the reality is
00:52:28.540 we're victims of ourselves.
00:52:30.540 And I think it's the
00:52:31.220 question of human agency
00:52:32.960 that's at the heart
00:52:33.780 of the book,
00:52:34.200 at the heart of identity
00:52:34.960 is to say that
00:52:35.720 either you are
00:52:36.680 an immutable agent
00:52:38.240 on a tectonic plate
00:52:39.440 of group identity,
00:52:40.640 a prisoner of whatever direction
00:52:42.020 that tectonic plate moves,
00:52:43.380 or you're an agent
00:52:44.440 that can define for yourself
00:52:46.240 your destiny in the world
00:52:47.780 through your own hard work,
00:52:49.400 your own commitment,
00:52:50.660 your own dedication.
00:52:52.160 That's the path, right?
00:52:53.200 That's the case for identity
00:52:54.280 I make in the book.
00:52:54.920 It's the case for American identity
00:52:55.980 I make in the book.
00:52:57.260 I think that's actually
00:52:58.000 the vision that unites us
00:52:59.620 or once united us
00:53:00.500 as Americans.
00:53:01.440 I think it can be so again,
00:53:03.180 but the path to get there
00:53:04.420 isn't going to be easy
00:53:05.080 from where we're starting today.
00:53:06.480 Well, while I'm on Michelle Obama,
00:53:07.580 she's kind of a good example
00:53:08.540 of all this
00:53:09.140 because she,
00:53:10.500 so she claimed
00:53:12.580 that she was the victim of racism
00:53:13.820 sort of infamously
00:53:15.540 while she was first lady.
00:53:17.260 She said that she was in a store
00:53:18.740 and that somebody
00:53:19.900 didn't recognize
00:53:20.620 that she was the first lady
00:53:21.700 and thinking she was a staffer
00:53:24.520 at what was like a Walmart
00:53:25.940 or something like that,
00:53:27.220 asked her to get the person
00:53:28.760 something off the top shelf.
00:53:30.420 Meanwhile,
00:53:31.280 it's Michelle Obama is tall
00:53:33.300 and she described this woman
00:53:34.320 as short
00:53:34.880 and it was completely reasonable
00:53:37.100 that the person saw
00:53:37.960 a taller person
00:53:38.900 and said,
00:53:39.240 hey, would you help me out
00:53:40.000 as many of us have done over time?
00:53:42.860 And Michelle Obama
00:53:43.500 had already told that story
00:53:44.780 in a funny, lighthearted way
00:53:46.340 and apparently forgotten,
00:53:47.600 not claiming to be the victim
00:53:48.900 of racism
00:53:49.820 on a late night show.
00:53:51.380 But she got in front of
00:53:52.360 one of the historically
00:53:53.640 black college audience
00:53:54.660 for a graduation speech
00:53:55.620 and told it like,
00:53:56.580 I too am a victim.
00:53:58.340 I have been the victim of racism.
00:54:00.120 And the media
00:54:00.940 on the right wing start,
00:54:02.020 you know,
00:54:02.160 are like who had long memories
00:54:03.540 were like,
00:54:04.340 no,
00:54:05.660 you can't get away with that.
00:54:07.000 And honestly,
00:54:07.740 remember,
00:54:08.080 she she had some negative pushback
00:54:10.300 because she said
00:54:11.760 when her husband
00:54:12.360 got nominated
00:54:13.080 or when he won,
00:54:13.920 it was the first time
00:54:14.540 in her adult life
00:54:15.660 she was truly proud
00:54:16.440 of her country.
00:54:17.220 And even on Friday,
00:54:19.020 Vivek,
00:54:19.380 even on Friday,
00:54:20.240 Thursday or Friday,
00:54:20.860 whichever it was,
00:54:21.380 when they unveiled
00:54:22.020 the Obama's official portraits,
00:54:24.760 you know,
00:54:25.360 his his painting and hers,
00:54:27.040 even in that setting,
00:54:28.400 she's been first lady twice.
00:54:30.380 Her husband was reelected.
00:54:31.720 He was elected.
00:54:32.220 He was reelected.
00:54:32.940 People want her
00:54:33.680 to be the next president
00:54:35.400 in large numbers.
00:54:37.360 She had to go there
00:54:38.560 about herself
00:54:40.040 and our country.
00:54:41.760 Here she is.
00:54:42.280 This is SOT 13.
00:54:44.620 So for me,
00:54:45.720 this day is not just about
00:54:47.560 what has happened.
00:54:49.200 It's also about
00:54:50.580 what could happen
00:54:51.760 because a girl like me,
00:54:54.780 she was never supposed
00:54:56.780 to be up there
00:54:57.880 next to Jacqueline
00:54:58.880 Kennedy and Dolly Madison.
00:55:01.500 She was never supposed
00:55:02.780 to live in this house
00:55:04.040 and she definitely
00:55:05.220 wasn't supposed to serve
00:55:06.560 as first lady.
00:55:09.040 To me,
00:55:09.840 it felt unseemly to go.
00:55:11.500 It's an America bash.
00:55:12.460 That's what it is.
00:55:13.020 It was on Wednesday.
00:55:14.180 Well,
00:55:14.640 the thing that she misses
00:55:15.560 is that the woman
00:55:17.120 that looks like her
00:55:18.100 did live in the White House
00:55:19.520 for eight years.
00:55:20.500 And at some point,
00:55:21.460 there may have been
00:55:22.320 a point in our history,
00:55:23.420 somewhere measured
00:55:24.200 in centuries
00:55:25.280 plus decades ago,
00:55:27.000 where that may have been
00:55:27.820 an appropriate conversation
00:55:28.940 to reckon with the past.
00:55:30.480 But at some point,
00:55:31.520 we ultimately have to engage
00:55:33.380 in mutual forgiveness
00:55:34.840 and decide that
00:55:35.680 we are going to move on.
00:55:36.820 That's actually the heart
00:55:37.300 of the case I make in the book.
00:55:38.500 The path from victimhood
00:55:39.640 to excellence
00:55:40.700 runs through forgiveness.
00:55:42.880 And that's uncomfortable terrain
00:55:44.000 for a lot of people,
00:55:45.320 but it's very difficult
00:55:46.080 to give up your status
00:55:47.820 as a victim.
00:55:48.940 So there's a game theory
00:55:49.840 problem here even.
00:55:50.860 I don't mean to be
00:55:51.700 too philosophical about this,
00:55:52.980 but one of the cases
00:55:54.220 I make in the book
00:55:54.740 is Immanuel Kant
00:55:56.040 actually talked about
00:55:57.300 a paradox of fishermen
00:55:58.640 where at the end of the day,
00:56:00.780 if you want to fish,
00:56:02.060 if you have a community
00:56:02.580 of fishermen,
00:56:03.140 if you overfish,
00:56:04.580 everyone ends up
00:56:05.320 with less fish.
00:56:06.500 But every fisherman
00:56:07.660 still has an incentive
00:56:08.980 to be able to overfish himself.
00:56:11.640 But his reason
00:56:12.480 for not doing it
00:56:13.380 is that ultimately
00:56:14.480 the whole community
00:56:15.240 would suffer
00:56:16.040 if he took advantage
00:56:16.800 of that for himself.
00:56:18.160 I draw an analogy
00:56:19.280 to the tales of victimhood
00:56:21.300 that we now tell
00:56:22.220 because when somebody
00:56:23.020 gets a competitive advantage
00:56:24.380 from seeing themselves
00:56:25.580 or describing themselves
00:56:26.660 and holding themselves
00:56:27.460 out as a victim
00:56:28.060 through an affirmative action program
00:56:29.580 to get into college,
00:56:30.480 whatever the case may be,
00:56:31.600 everyone loses out.
00:56:33.080 Our national identity
00:56:33.980 is the air is sucked out of it.
00:56:36.360 The size of our economic pie
00:56:37.780 is reduced.
00:56:38.260 So everyone is left
00:56:40.140 as a net loser
00:56:41.040 in the collective
00:56:42.100 when we each individually
00:56:43.300 describe ourselves
00:56:43.960 as a victim.
00:56:44.800 But when you have
00:56:45.360 the incentive structure
00:56:46.180 culturally that's been set up
00:56:47.320 that at the end of the day,
00:56:48.280 victimhood is what
00:56:48.920 gives you cultural power.
00:56:50.560 It is what gives you
00:56:51.300 cultural relevance.
00:56:52.260 Sometimes it actually pays
00:56:53.260 literally,
00:56:53.960 quite literally,
00:56:54.520 financially
00:56:54.800 to be a victim,
00:56:56.240 then it's a collective
00:56:57.620 action problem
00:56:58.240 where everyone
00:56:58.860 has an incentive
00:56:59.660 to describe themselves
00:57:00.420 as a victim.
00:57:01.360 But at the end of the day,
00:57:02.520 it's our national identity
00:57:03.920 and the decline
00:57:05.140 of our nation as a whole
00:57:06.160 that we see
00:57:06.940 as the net result
00:57:07.820 of that game theory problem.
00:57:10.040 And so there's numerous ways
00:57:11.660 to surface this.
00:57:12.360 And you see it,
00:57:12.880 by the way,
00:57:13.100 it's not just Michelle Obama.
00:57:14.100 You see Kamala Harris.
00:57:14.960 I was even just listening
00:57:15.640 to that clip, Megan.
00:57:16.440 I was remembering the moment
00:57:17.340 where she was in that debate
00:57:18.520 with Joe Biden
00:57:19.260 and described herself
00:57:20.480 as that girl
00:57:21.960 in the context
00:57:22.840 of busing
00:57:23.580 and desegregation.
00:57:25.520 People forget
00:57:26.120 this is a woman
00:57:27.020 whose two parents
00:57:27.960 were both tenured professors
00:57:29.680 in the United States
00:57:31.380 and her own
00:57:32.640 academic achievements,
00:57:33.480 unfortunately,
00:57:34.600 did not match up
00:57:35.380 to actually what
00:57:35.960 the cards that she was dealt
00:57:37.700 is, you know,
00:57:38.600 that wasn't supposed
00:57:39.520 to be a woman
00:57:40.640 that ended up
00:57:42.440 in the White House.
00:57:42.940 Michelle Obama says,
00:57:43.780 look at Kamala Harris.
00:57:44.740 That was supposed to be
00:57:45.800 a woman that actually
00:57:46.520 was well-educated
00:57:47.320 and performed academically well
00:57:48.680 like her older sister
00:57:49.460 did going to Stanford Law School.
00:57:50.540 I mean, unfortunately,
00:57:52.300 Kamala could not actually
00:57:53.140 step into those same shoes herself
00:57:54.360 so she had to invent
00:57:55.500 this victimhood narrative
00:57:56.560 instead,
00:57:57.600 reinventing the idea
00:57:58.200 as though she weren't
00:57:59.340 children of two tenured
00:58:00.700 professors of liberal arts
00:58:02.020 universities,
00:58:02.700 of top tier liberal arts
00:58:03.420 universities.
00:58:03.960 And so, you know,
00:58:04.860 one of the things
00:58:05.200 that I talk about
00:58:06.240 in the book,
00:58:06.680 you were just talking
00:58:07.200 about the Duke-BYU
00:58:08.100 example earlier,
00:58:09.080 that's going to get
00:58:09.720 dismissed soon
00:58:10.320 as a conservative
00:58:10.920 talking point.
00:58:12.140 There's just a small
00:58:12.900 fake hate crime hoax
00:58:14.380 that was dismissed
00:58:15.200 as a conservative
00:58:16.340 talking point.
00:58:17.500 Actually, in the first
00:58:18.220 chapter of the book,
00:58:18.840 one of the things
00:58:19.220 I detail is
00:58:19.840 how many countless
00:58:21.040 examples we have seen
00:58:22.620 of these alleged
00:58:23.860 hate crime hoaxes
00:58:25.120 of academics
00:58:26.040 who claim to fake
00:58:27.580 their race,
00:58:28.280 who claim to be one race
00:58:29.460 but not be another.
00:58:31.120 This is an epidemic.
00:58:32.380 And I think the question
00:58:33.340 we have to ask
00:58:33.920 is not to just
00:58:34.460 partisanize it
00:58:35.140 and point fingers,
00:58:36.380 but just psychologically.
00:58:37.660 What is going on
00:58:38.600 in the national psyche
00:58:39.580 that makes this
00:58:40.420 not a one-off incident,
00:58:41.880 but a repeatable pattern,
00:58:43.440 a psychological epidemic
00:58:44.860 of people going
00:58:45.580 to the full length
00:58:46.260 of falsely reporting
00:58:47.440 what happened to them
00:58:48.700 as a victim
00:58:49.540 of a hate crime
00:58:50.220 or falsely reporting
00:58:51.380 their racial identity?
00:58:52.640 It's an interesting
00:58:53.380 moment to take a step
00:58:54.360 back and just reflect
00:58:55.180 on what is it
00:58:56.300 in our national psyche
00:58:57.240 and our collective
00:58:58.200 incentive structure
00:58:58.900 that we've set up
00:58:59.600 that causes this type
00:59:00.920 of behavior
00:59:01.280 to repeat itself
00:59:02.160 over the last several years.
00:59:03.840 It's hate.
00:59:04.120 They prefer the fakers
00:59:05.180 to the people
00:59:06.360 who actually glom
00:59:09.380 onto something
00:59:10.040 that's real
00:59:10.620 and start cutting
00:59:11.440 off their breasts
00:59:12.380 to seem special.
00:59:14.420 You know,
00:59:14.620 I mean,
00:59:14.900 they're not actually trans,
00:59:16.340 but they're going
00:59:16.700 to say they are
00:59:17.360 because they think
00:59:17.880 they're going to get snaps
00:59:18.740 if they're trans.
00:59:19.540 Like, I'd rather somebody
00:59:20.600 just fake it.
00:59:21.360 Like, I'm black.
00:59:21.920 Yes, I am.
00:59:22.500 What do you mean?
00:59:23.140 You know,
00:59:23.460 that works better.
00:59:24.820 I prefer neither,
00:59:25.500 but I can see
00:59:26.500 where you're coming from.
00:59:28.140 So one of the things
00:59:29.300 I discovered, Megan,
00:59:30.040 though,
00:59:30.960 in the culture
00:59:31.560 we live in right now,
00:59:32.860 it is very difficult
00:59:33.960 to persuade someone
00:59:35.400 of a point of view
00:59:36.360 that they do not
00:59:37.120 already hold.
00:59:38.020 So one of my methods
00:59:39.460 that I try to bring
00:59:40.180 to bear in this book
00:59:40.940 to accomplish that otherwise,
00:59:42.640 for me at least,
00:59:43.280 lofty goal
00:59:43.880 is to actually look
00:59:45.140 to history.
00:59:46.500 History dating back
00:59:47.300 to the U.S. Civil War,
00:59:48.240 heading to the Reconstruction Era,
00:59:50.300 heck,
00:59:50.500 even going back
00:59:51.000 to Roman history.
00:59:51.820 And one of the stories
00:59:52.780 I tell in the book
00:59:53.480 is the story
00:59:54.960 of Septimius Severus.
00:59:56.320 Okay, so he was famously known,
00:59:58.100 I studied him in high school
00:59:59.280 as the Black Emperor.
01:00:01.140 That's what he was known as.
01:00:02.440 Turns out,
01:00:03.000 it was only in the last,
01:00:03.960 half century
01:00:04.740 that he started actually
01:00:05.780 becoming described
01:00:06.900 as the Black Emperor
01:00:08.020 where there was a TV series
01:00:09.320 that they were launching
01:00:10.400 that said,
01:00:11.200 it was the advertisement
01:00:11.940 for the TV series
01:00:12.700 was the first Black man
01:00:13.960 to walk England
01:00:14.860 came not as a slave
01:00:16.660 but as a conqueror.
01:00:17.980 And then they got people
01:00:18.640 all riled up
01:00:19.340 about this Black conquest
01:00:21.440 of this Black Emperor.
01:00:23.080 In reality,
01:00:23.820 if you go back
01:00:24.380 to the Roman era,
01:00:25.100 to the era
01:00:25.380 of his contemporaries,
01:00:26.800 people could see,
01:00:27.560 they had eyes,
01:00:28.280 they could see
01:00:28.640 he was dark-skinned,
01:00:29.940 but they never thought of him
01:00:31.320 as a Black Emperor,
01:00:32.360 any different
01:00:33.140 than the color
01:00:33.740 of someone's eyes
01:00:34.660 or the color
01:00:35.600 of someone's hair.
01:00:37.140 Now, the funny cherry
01:00:38.260 on top to this story though
01:00:39.620 is that actually,
01:00:40.780 he happened to be
01:00:41.740 one of the worst emperors
01:00:43.800 in a very long time.
01:00:45.260 He enslaved
01:00:45.820 a lot of people
01:00:46.560 in Africa.
01:00:47.420 He was brutal
01:00:48.020 as a tyrant
01:00:48.920 and he needed to do it
01:00:50.200 because he had devalued
01:00:51.360 the currency so much
01:00:52.700 that he needed
01:00:53.420 to plunder
01:00:53.980 other places
01:00:54.800 in order to actually
01:00:55.740 replenish the silver
01:00:56.940 that had otherwise
01:00:57.520 been diluted
01:00:58.100 in the denarius,
01:00:58.760 the Roman currency.
01:00:59.960 So one of the things,
01:01:00.800 okay, we can talk
01:01:01.240 about that incident,
01:01:01.940 that's pretty interesting,
01:01:02.940 but I hope
01:01:03.820 that's a way
01:01:04.300 of bringing insights
01:01:05.820 into the present
01:01:06.560 to say that,
01:01:07.020 look, we can actually
01:01:07.520 talk about what is
01:01:08.180 important about this guy,
01:01:09.440 what his accomplishments
01:01:10.180 might have been
01:01:10.760 and what his failures
01:01:11.440 might have been
01:01:11.980 if we stop having
01:01:13.200 to describe him
01:01:13.900 as the Black Emperor
01:01:14.860 because then we're
01:01:15.440 committed to one narrative
01:01:16.780 that is a product
01:01:18.180 of our anachronistic
01:01:19.940 retrospective view
01:01:21.520 through racial identity
01:01:22.740 when, in fact,
01:01:23.780 the Romans didn't see
01:01:24.540 someone through
01:01:24.900 the color of their skin.
01:01:25.780 They saw them
01:01:26.200 as the basis
01:01:26.640 of either being citizens
01:01:27.640 or not of that nation.
01:01:29.220 Not like they didn't
01:01:29.680 have a hierarchy,
01:01:30.660 but it was a hierarchy
01:01:31.300 based on national identity
01:01:32.460 rather than racial identity.
01:01:34.180 And so my hope
01:01:35.180 is we can use
01:01:35.940 our study of history
01:01:37.400 to at least be a way
01:01:38.960 to break through
01:01:40.100 the otherwise seemingly
01:01:41.740 codified barriers
01:01:42.900 in our dialogue
01:01:43.500 where you can,
01:01:44.180 very rare anymore,
01:01:45.780 persuade someone
01:01:46.540 who already has,
01:01:47.640 who had a different
01:01:48.080 point of view
01:01:48.720 any more so than
01:01:49.740 you can at least,
01:01:50.540 you know,
01:01:51.040 galvanize the people
01:01:51.800 who already agree with you.
01:01:52.700 And one of my goals
01:01:53.280 with this book
01:01:53.780 is to, you know,
01:01:55.180 hopefully do something
01:01:55.700 that I'm not sure
01:01:56.460 I was able to do
01:01:57.100 with Woke Inc,
01:01:57.840 which is to convince
01:01:59.040 someone on the other side.
01:02:00.860 I hope history
01:02:01.760 is a tool
01:02:03.080 and a vehicle
01:02:03.460 to get there
01:02:03.920 with this one.
01:02:04.920 You know,
01:02:05.040 we'll see if that's
01:02:05.580 successful or not.
01:02:06.400 Well, I think the discussion
01:02:07.040 of Rome in the book
01:02:07.780 is very interesting
01:02:08.380 and I definitely
01:02:09.260 want to get to that
01:02:09.860 just to touch on two things
01:02:10.860 before we leave them.
01:02:12.720 The BYU Duke investigation.
01:02:14.860 Now I mentioned
01:02:15.400 the aunt,
01:02:16.120 the godmother,
01:02:17.000 the aunt Richardson's
01:02:17.860 godmother,
01:02:18.740 Lisa Pamplin.
01:02:20.420 She,
01:02:21.040 she refuses to accept
01:02:22.640 BYU's finding.
01:02:23.460 So now they've done
01:02:24.540 a comprehensive investigation.
01:02:26.620 And again,
01:02:27.140 BYU's initial instinct
01:02:28.180 was to apologize.
01:02:29.820 They felt awful.
01:02:30.660 They believed her.
01:02:31.760 But they said,
01:02:32.260 we're going to investigate
01:02:33.120 to be fair.
01:02:34.580 And this comprehensive investigation
01:02:36.960 has found that it didn't happen.
01:02:38.020 There's absolutely
01:02:38.380 no evidence of it
01:02:39.200 to the contrary.
01:02:40.680 So she comes out
01:02:41.640 and says,
01:02:42.460 BYU's statement
01:02:43.280 does not change my position.
01:02:44.700 In fact,
01:02:45.040 the statement
01:02:45.400 and the findings
01:02:46.140 are in keeping
01:02:47.140 with what I
01:02:48.020 and many others
01:02:49.200 anticipated.
01:02:49.920 Keep in mind,
01:02:50.860 Vivek,
01:02:51.200 this godmother,
01:02:52.120 Lisa,
01:02:52.880 likes to refer
01:02:53.540 to white people
01:02:54.040 as crackers
01:02:54.560 and has got several,
01:02:55.860 several racist tweets
01:02:56.680 of her own,
01:02:57.160 which now she's made
01:02:57.760 her account private.
01:02:59.240 Daily across America,
01:03:00.260 she continues,
01:03:01.300 the burden of proof
01:03:02.680 in instances like these
01:03:04.500 involving people of color
01:03:05.540 as well as marginalized people,
01:03:06.920 economically disadvantaged people
01:03:08.140 and disempowered people
01:03:09.440 is shifted unfairly
01:03:12.560 and without hesitation.
01:03:14.560 She feels the burden
01:03:16.120 of proof
01:03:17.000 was shifted
01:03:17.740 upon her goddaughter
01:03:19.940 who,
01:03:20.580 so far as I can tell,
01:03:21.620 wasn't required
01:03:22.180 to do much,
01:03:23.420 if anything,
01:03:24.180 in this investigation.
01:03:25.620 They just sat
01:03:26.600 and reviewed
01:03:27.040 hours and hours
01:03:27.800 of videotapes,
01:03:28.500 talked to everybody
01:03:29.060 who was nearby.
01:03:30.120 Maybe they took
01:03:30.620 her testimonial as well.
01:03:32.200 But the point is
01:03:33.680 she crosses her arms
01:03:35.080 and says,
01:03:36.020 no,
01:03:36.680 no.
01:03:37.240 And if it comes out
01:03:37.940 against me,
01:03:38.620 you've unfairly shifted
01:03:39.840 the burden of proof
01:03:40.660 on me.
01:03:42.260 So one of the things
01:03:43.680 that I reject wholesale
01:03:45.440 is this post-Foucault worldview
01:03:47.840 of defining
01:03:49.000 all human relations
01:03:50.140 in terms of power structures,
01:03:51.700 okay?
01:03:51.960 And she used the word
01:03:52.500 disempowered.
01:03:53.600 So I reject that worldview.
01:03:54.840 But in this situation,
01:03:56.240 if you're going to embrace
01:03:57.640 a power structure-based
01:03:59.140 description of what happened there,
01:04:01.080 the disempowered person
01:04:02.500 was actually the person
01:04:03.580 who was accused.
01:04:04.960 There's no doubt about it.
01:04:06.260 And that might be different.
01:04:07.180 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago,
01:04:08.720 a century ago,
01:04:09.720 the tables may have been turned
01:04:10.660 in a very different direction.
01:04:11.540 But today,
01:04:12.120 in the year 2022,
01:04:13.320 there's a little doubt
01:04:13.940 in my mind that the person
01:04:14.800 who was in the disempowered
01:04:16.000 position was no doubt
01:04:17.700 the accused.
01:04:18.700 And even still,
01:04:19.980 with the tilt
01:04:21.120 of that investigation
01:04:22.000 and BYU's initial posture
01:04:23.260 going into it,
01:04:24.280 already ruining
01:04:25.100 that person's life
01:04:25.900 in many measures,
01:04:26.700 still could not find
01:04:27.520 a shred of evidence
01:04:28.220 to support it.
01:04:29.540 What does it remind me of?
01:04:30.720 It reminds me of
01:04:31.320 at the end of
01:04:31.900 the Jussie Smollett case,
01:04:33.380 okay?
01:04:33.640 So this is a guy
01:04:34.440 who faked a hate crime hoax.
01:04:36.760 The prosecutors initially
01:04:38.520 actually closed off the case
01:04:40.120 because it looked
01:04:40.800 like it smelled really rotten,
01:04:42.160 but actually had to be reopened
01:04:43.900 by federal prosecutors.
01:04:45.220 Speaking of Michelle Obama,
01:04:46.000 by the way,
01:04:46.520 I can't resist bringing this back in.
01:04:48.300 She was a friend
01:04:49.000 of Jussie Smollett's
01:04:49.800 and it was an acquaintance,
01:04:51.240 a chief of staff,
01:04:51.960 I believe,
01:04:52.720 of Michelle Obama
01:04:53.360 who contacted
01:04:54.260 the initial prosecutors
01:04:55.640 in the case
01:04:56.180 to get them to drop charges.
01:04:57.720 It was only after
01:04:58.340 President Trump
01:04:58.860 then directed federal officials
01:05:00.260 to reopen the investigation
01:05:01.840 that any of this
01:05:03.040 even came to bear,
01:05:03.860 came to light.
01:05:04.720 We found a guy
01:05:05.340 who literally
01:05:06.520 was paying
01:05:08.400 two other black men,
01:05:09.840 with one of whom
01:05:10.780 he had a homosexual
01:05:11.280 intimate relationship,
01:05:12.560 to pose as white supremacists.
01:05:15.500 That is how hard it is
01:05:16.480 to find a white supremacist
01:05:17.480 to beat up a famous Hollywood actor
01:05:18.780 is to have to pay them
01:05:20.420 to be able to,
01:05:21.060 and you have to be
01:05:21.300 in an intimate relationship
01:05:22.020 with one of them.
01:05:23.000 But the funny thing,
01:05:23.620 the cherry on top is,
01:05:24.740 so I don't know
01:05:25.440 if that's the full extent
01:05:26.180 of what happened here
01:05:26.720 in the BYU case or not,
01:05:28.200 but the part that reminded me of it
01:05:29.780 is when the godmother's quote
01:05:31.080 you described
01:05:31.640 reminds me of the defense attorney
01:05:33.220 in the Smollett case
01:05:34.840 who at the end of the case,
01:05:36.140 she was losing really badly.
01:05:37.660 I mean,
01:05:37.760 the trial was embarrassing,
01:05:39.040 if you're in the defense side here,
01:05:42.140 this is Jussie Smollett
01:05:42.960 is defendant
01:05:43.360 for faking the hate crime hoax,
01:05:45.260 that she then claims racism
01:05:47.160 on the part of the judge
01:05:48.640 who she claimed
01:05:49.820 began to lunge at her
01:05:51.760 because she was a woman of color
01:05:53.500 in the courtroom.
01:05:55.140 You remember that?
01:05:57.120 It's amazing how this story,
01:05:58.760 if that were a one-off incident
01:05:59.940 that I don't think
01:06:00.500 it would be worth talking about,
01:06:01.580 right?
01:06:01.800 A lot of people
01:06:02.900 do a lot of stupid things.
01:06:04.120 They're not all worth commenting on.
01:06:05.740 This is different.
01:06:07.080 This is part of a pattern
01:06:08.860 that repeats itself.
01:06:10.580 And I think it's more interesting
01:06:11.840 if we bring this up
01:06:12.720 not to embarrass
01:06:14.160 or call out
01:06:15.020 any particular individual
01:06:16.160 from a partisan perspective,
01:06:18.200 from Michelle Obama
01:06:18.780 to Kamala Harris
01:06:19.500 to this attorney,
01:06:20.760 to this godmother.
01:06:22.060 It's more interesting
01:06:23.540 if we're just curious
01:06:25.600 about what is the psychological,
01:06:28.320 pathological state of mind
01:06:30.200 of an entire country
01:06:31.140 that produces
01:06:32.400 this same narrative
01:06:33.860 time and again.
01:06:35.320 And one of the things
01:06:36.180 that's uncomfortable
01:06:37.180 for some of us on the right,
01:06:38.560 I don't know how you feel
01:06:39.260 about this, Megan,
01:06:39.720 is that I actually see
01:06:41.520 that pathology
01:06:42.900 spreading to the right,
01:06:46.360 actually,
01:06:46.720 through the narratives
01:06:47.240 of white victimhood identity
01:06:48.860 or conservative victimhood identity.
01:06:50.520 And that's how,
01:06:51.320 I think that's how
01:06:52.240 the woke left wins
01:06:53.340 is not with a bang,
01:06:55.120 but with a whimper,
01:06:56.260 where, you know,
01:06:56.840 I think conservatives
01:06:57.320 fall into the narrative
01:06:58.100 of saying,
01:06:58.560 well, you're a victim.
01:07:00.300 Well, guess what?
01:07:00.660 I'm an even bigger victim
01:07:01.800 and we're going to fight
01:07:02.480 out the victim of the Olympics.
01:07:05.120 Wait, I have to say,
01:07:06.280 but just one other point,
01:07:07.080 because let's get into that next.
01:07:08.560 But just one other point,
01:07:09.540 because you mentioned
01:07:10.180 how you list in the,
01:07:12.160 I think it's the first chapter
01:07:13.260 of the book,
01:07:14.320 cases like Rachel Dolezal,
01:07:16.660 where people pretend
01:07:17.520 to be sort of
01:07:19.560 a marginalized group,
01:07:20.740 a member of it,
01:07:21.560 in order to get
01:07:22.220 the same status.
01:07:23.000 And you mentioned one
01:07:23.900 who I'd never heard of,
01:07:24.960 just so people know,
01:07:25.780 this is a book full
01:07:26.840 of interesting nuggets
01:07:27.820 like this one.
01:07:29.360 Neuroscientist
01:07:29.760 Beth Ann McLaughlin,
01:07:31.700 founder of Me Too STEM,
01:07:34.980 I guess like everything
01:07:35.940 gets Me Too'd,
01:07:36.940 Me Too STEM organization,
01:07:38.880 used a similar excuse
01:07:40.960 or tactic
01:07:41.460 when she admitted
01:07:42.420 to having created,
01:07:44.040 this is amazing, Vivek.
01:07:44.960 Do you want to tell
01:07:45.440 the story of what she did?
01:07:46.200 Do you remember?
01:07:46.560 Do you want me to just read it?
01:07:47.320 I actually got the,
01:07:48.340 I was just opening up
01:07:49.300 to the page myself,
01:07:50.160 but you go ahead.
01:07:50.600 You've got the page.
01:07:51.140 Go for it.
01:07:51.400 It's amazing.
01:07:52.180 Okay.
01:07:52.440 When she admitted
01:07:53.420 to having created
01:07:54.860 a fake Native American
01:07:57.400 adjunct professor
01:07:59.260 to defend her,
01:08:01.340 Beth Ann,
01:08:02.040 on Twitter.
01:08:02.940 So she didn't pretend
01:08:04.560 to be the Native American
01:08:05.520 like Elizabeth Warren.
01:08:06.700 She created a fake
01:08:08.260 Native American friend
01:08:09.700 to defend her on Twitter.
01:08:12.620 McLaughlin's followers
01:08:13.820 became suspicious
01:08:15.480 that her defender
01:08:16.960 was not real.
01:08:18.840 When?
01:08:19.480 Do you want to tell us
01:08:20.040 what Beth Ann decided to do
01:08:21.700 to her fake Indian friend?
01:08:23.780 So this is during the pandemic.
01:08:25.140 So she created a Zoom memorial
01:08:27.420 for her fake friend
01:08:28.760 who she had managed
01:08:29.600 to kill off
01:08:30.400 with COVID-19.
01:08:33.000 And Megan,
01:08:33.680 this is part of the book
01:08:34.480 where there are literally
01:08:35.400 like seven examples
01:08:36.360 of these back-to-back.
01:08:37.720 I mean,
01:08:37.880 this is not a one-off incident,
01:08:39.960 right?
01:08:41.020 The Jussie Smollett thing,
01:08:42.240 you bring that up,
01:08:42.880 they'll say that's
01:08:43.260 a conservative talking point.
01:08:44.660 By the way,
01:08:45.260 questioning his narrative
01:08:46.040 immediately after
01:08:46.740 was victimizing
01:08:47.500 the victim all over again,
01:08:48.980 talking about it afterwards,
01:08:49.840 a conservative talking point.
01:08:51.360 This isn't a conservative
01:08:52.400 or a liberal issue.
01:08:53.260 This is,
01:08:54.300 it's a bizarre
01:08:55.500 pathological state of mind
01:08:57.880 that just repeats itself.
01:08:59.540 I kid you not,
01:09:00.500 actually,
01:09:00.720 in the editing process,
01:09:02.040 we had to cut
01:09:03.220 about half of the cases
01:09:04.860 that I initially
01:09:05.540 included in Texas,
01:09:06.220 which is too many of them
01:09:07.200 to include.
01:09:08.540 Something's going on
01:09:09.480 in the country.
01:09:10.220 Something's in the water.
01:09:11.760 So you talk about
01:09:13.720 these institutions
01:09:14.420 in the first book
01:09:15.500 and in this book
01:09:16.240 and how sort of
01:09:18.560 they've been taken over
01:09:19.660 by people who are
01:09:20.600 just committed
01:09:21.180 to this victimhood
01:09:22.440 and it's very tightly
01:09:23.700 related to this DEI
01:09:25.000 initiative that we see
01:09:25.900 getting pushed
01:09:26.640 from corporate America
01:09:28.140 to education.
01:09:29.680 Last week on the show,
01:09:30.740 we talked about
01:09:31.400 Trinity School
01:09:32.200 and some of these
01:09:33.660 public schools as well
01:09:34.700 that James O'Keefe
01:09:35.400 has been getting on camera,
01:09:37.140 certain teachers
01:09:37.760 or administrators
01:09:38.400 from them
01:09:39.020 talking about how
01:09:40.000 at Trinity School,
01:09:40.820 the woman wanted to hire,
01:09:42.140 she was joking,
01:09:43.700 but to even have said
01:09:44.980 the thought,
01:09:45.680 a serial killer
01:09:46.520 to come take out
01:09:47.440 the white boys
01:09:48.180 at her school
01:09:48.620 who she thought
01:09:49.100 were horrible,
01:09:49.800 especially the conservative
01:09:51.040 white boys
01:09:51.640 who she wanted dead.
01:09:53.040 It's not funny
01:09:53.700 and I've had a kid
01:09:54.840 in a school
01:09:55.320 just like Trinity
01:09:56.040 in New York City
01:09:56.640 where they had teachers
01:09:57.440 who are insane like that
01:09:59.200 when it comes to
01:09:59.680 identity politics,
01:10:01.480 although I love
01:10:02.960 most of our teachers
01:10:03.780 at Collegiate,
01:10:04.320 I'll tell the truth.
01:10:05.440 It was the administrators
01:10:06.380 who started pushing
01:10:07.100 this nonsense.
01:10:08.020 In any event,
01:10:08.440 at Trinity,
01:10:08.840 we covered it.
01:10:09.780 There were some people
01:10:10.760 who came to me
01:10:11.300 and said,
01:10:11.680 MK,
01:10:12.700 don't pretend
01:10:13.180 that it's an individual
01:10:14.140 school issue.
01:10:15.360 You know,
01:10:15.580 the National Association
01:10:18.180 of Independent Schools,
01:10:19.620 they're pushing this.
01:10:21.060 You can't even join now
01:10:22.300 unless you submit
01:10:22.960 to their DEI agenda.
01:10:24.800 Same is true
01:10:25.520 at the college level
01:10:26.380 and there was a tweet
01:10:27.700 that I saw you tweeted about
01:10:29.120 that also caught my eye
01:10:30.540 on Twitter
01:10:30.900 that brings home the point.
01:10:32.640 All right,
01:10:32.840 this is about Ohio State
01:10:34.680 and what it's doing now
01:10:36.100 to address racism
01:10:37.560 and racial inequality.
01:10:38.820 Let's just give an example
01:10:39.680 of what we're dealing with here.
01:10:42.740 This is a guy named
01:10:43.640 John Saylor
01:10:44.500 who's a fellow
01:10:45.020 at the National Association
01:10:45.920 of Scholars
01:10:46.400 who had a whole thread
01:10:47.660 on what Ohio State's doing.
01:10:48.840 Okay.
01:10:49.460 They recently released
01:10:50.520 the report
01:10:51.140 from their Task Force
01:10:52.060 on Racism and Racial Inequities,
01:10:53.760 which recommends
01:10:54.460 far-reaching changes
01:10:55.480 throughout the university.
01:10:57.300 They'll likely be adopted.
01:10:59.060 The first step
01:10:59.760 is to create
01:11:01.100 a university-wide DEI plan.
01:11:03.180 Okay, of course.
01:11:04.120 They want increased
01:11:04.900 mandatory DEI,
01:11:06.260 diversity, equity,
01:11:06.840 and inclusion training
01:11:08.140 throughout the university.
01:11:10.000 Also,
01:11:10.620 they want added
01:11:12.200 DEI metrics
01:11:13.400 to promotion
01:11:14.420 and tenure evaluations.
01:11:16.320 So,
01:11:16.740 I don't know
01:11:17.360 how you're supposed
01:11:17.820 to get into the DEI group
01:11:19.240 if you're not already
01:11:20.040 for your tenure application,
01:11:21.740 but okay, good luck.
01:11:23.540 They are doing things
01:11:25.560 like at the College of Engineering,
01:11:27.000 they've already added
01:11:27.860 a DEI assessment
01:11:28.760 to annual reviews
01:11:29.660 and removed mandatory
01:11:30.820 ACT and SAT math scores.
01:11:32.520 Those are gone.
01:11:33.580 College of Education
01:11:34.540 and Human Ecology
01:11:35.720 has issued
01:11:36.480 a Racial Justice
01:11:37.500 and Equity Action Plan
01:11:38.440 promising a curriculum overhaul
01:11:40.140 and department-level DEI plans.
01:11:42.580 The university
01:11:43.380 began a massive hiring initiative
01:11:45.020 aimed almost exclusively
01:11:46.460 at faculty
01:11:46.940 whose research addresses
01:11:48.040 diversity,
01:11:49.440 equity,
01:11:49.740 and inclusion.
01:11:51.020 Every faculty job
01:11:52.180 listed by the College
01:11:52.900 of Arts and Sciences
01:11:53.920 includes this statement.
01:11:55.660 Over the next few years,
01:11:56.560 the Ohio State University
01:11:57.480 is committed
01:11:57.880 to welcoming
01:11:58.380 350 new faculty hires.
01:12:00.700 Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
01:12:01.640 We want people
01:12:02.200 who are committed
01:12:03.260 to equality
01:12:04.420 and inclusion.
01:12:05.800 Diversity statement.
01:12:07.040 I could go on, Vivek.
01:12:08.220 It's exhausting.
01:12:09.980 It's exhausting,
01:12:10.880 but it's required now
01:12:13.140 to be an independent school,
01:12:14.540 to be a public school,
01:12:15.600 to be a university,
01:12:16.600 to get anybody
01:12:17.720 to apply to you.
01:12:18.880 We could go on.
01:12:20.100 It's the source
01:12:20.840 of our national decline.
01:12:22.040 I mean, that's ultimately
01:12:23.120 the case I make
01:12:23.860 in the book
01:12:24.560 is that, look,
01:12:26.060 at the end of the day,
01:12:26.920 China actually believes
01:12:28.400 in hiring based on merit.
01:12:30.240 So the American culture
01:12:31.380 of meritocracy
01:12:32.420 has left oceans
01:12:34.140 to lift up places
01:12:35.140 like China
01:12:35.860 while it's their
01:12:36.760 Maoist victimhood complexes
01:12:38.260 that have in turn
01:12:39.180 come back
01:12:39.720 and left oceans
01:12:40.360 to depress
01:12:41.280 the United States.
01:12:42.620 So true.
01:12:44.220 I mean, this is
01:12:45.180 a very pragmatic effect.
01:12:46.420 And in some sense,
01:12:47.340 Megan, I'm actually
01:12:47.960 weirdly optimistic
01:12:49.800 that it will be
01:12:51.000 the rise of China
01:12:51.800 that forces a reckoning
01:12:53.280 here in the United States
01:12:54.320 to revive
01:12:55.240 the pursuit of excellence,
01:12:56.280 not because we wanted to,
01:12:57.460 but because it was necessary
01:12:58.660 for our very self-preservation
01:13:00.780 because that's what's going to
01:13:01.440 come back down to
01:13:02.600 when we ask ourselves
01:13:03.760 20 years from now,
01:13:04.700 what were we doing
01:13:05.860 when we were selecting
01:13:07.220 our engineers
01:13:08.080 and our doctors
01:13:09.020 based on DEI quota systems
01:13:11.460 rather than based on SAT scores
01:13:13.560 or MCAT scores
01:13:14.800 or ACT scores
01:13:15.600 or based on their competence.
01:13:17.360 And if you want
01:13:18.000 any further evidence
01:13:18.780 for this,
01:13:19.200 not a lot of people
01:13:19.860 talk about this, Megan,
01:13:20.660 but let's talk about,
01:13:22.180 let's just take one
01:13:22.740 of these stories
01:13:23.400 all the way through
01:13:24.300 of a student, okay,
01:13:25.640 who then to get into college
01:13:26.860 did not have to take
01:13:27.640 the SAT or ACT math
01:13:29.040 that was forgiven
01:13:29.820 and you're filling
01:13:30.600 a quota system into college.
01:13:32.240 Then that person
01:13:32.920 goes to law school
01:13:33.860 where they have
01:13:34.500 the same systems again.
01:13:36.260 Now, or the,
01:13:36.780 oh, let's take medical school
01:13:37.620 as an example
01:13:38.060 where the MCAT
01:13:39.500 may be evaluated differently
01:13:40.840 on the base of race.
01:13:41.780 So now you have already
01:13:42.760 twice selected, okay?
01:13:45.120 You already have
01:13:45.500 a 400 point differential.
01:13:46.720 That's a lot on the SATs
01:13:47.980 for people who aren't familiar
01:13:48.640 with it between the average
01:13:49.760 Asian score required
01:13:51.060 to enter a top school
01:13:51.720 versus the average Black students
01:13:52.900 score required
01:13:53.660 to enter a top school.
01:13:54.560 You already got it
01:13:55.000 on college once.
01:13:56.400 Double count number one
01:13:57.540 is then you do the same thing
01:13:59.340 in medical school.
01:14:00.620 Double count becomes
01:14:01.460 a triple count
01:14:02.200 when you do the same thing
01:14:02.980 with USMLE step one,
01:14:04.760 which is the test required
01:14:06.320 to get your medical certification.
01:14:08.420 The first of three steps
01:14:09.180 required to get
01:14:09.560 your medical certification,
01:14:10.200 which just switched
01:14:10.860 to pass fail recently,
01:14:12.220 again, on account
01:14:13.260 of racial equity.
01:14:15.020 So you now count it thrice over.
01:14:16.760 So there was a really,
01:14:18.200 there's a really interesting story
01:14:20.680 that I saw published recently,
01:14:22.040 which found that
01:14:23.560 among residency programs,
01:14:25.780 there was rampant racism,
01:14:28.080 supposedly,
01:14:28.560 amongst engineering,
01:14:31.380 amongst the fellows
01:14:33.060 and amongst the attending physicians
01:14:35.140 who were cutting
01:14:36.420 the Black residents
01:14:38.920 at a higher rate
01:14:40.320 than white residents.
01:14:41.940 So I wrote a note
01:14:42.760 to the author of this story.
01:14:44.420 It relates exactly
01:14:45.040 to the kinds of themes
01:14:45.580 I talk about in my book.
01:14:46.320 I thought it was fitting
01:14:46.760 to ask the author.
01:14:47.600 Have you considered
01:14:48.480 the possibility
01:14:49.260 that perhaps what's happening
01:14:51.320 when these residents
01:14:52.340 are actually responsible
01:14:53.240 for treating patients
01:14:54.320 in the hospital,
01:14:55.480 that the thing
01:14:56.080 that might be happening
01:14:56.820 is that they're cutting out
01:14:57.940 the residents
01:14:58.560 who are underperforming,
01:15:00.300 who correlate
01:15:00.880 with the very residents
01:15:02.120 who scored most poorly,
01:15:04.200 starting with their SAT
01:15:05.140 to their MCAT
01:15:06.060 to their USMLE
01:15:07.040 that were underprepared
01:15:08.420 for their jobs.
01:15:09.200 Might that be
01:15:09.980 a different explanation
01:15:11.260 for what's happening
01:15:12.000 rather than systemic racism
01:15:13.720 which suddenly popped up
01:15:14.980 only in the residency
01:15:16.260 part of the system
01:15:16.920 when Black residents
01:15:18.020 were being systematically cut
01:15:19.040 at a higher rate
01:15:20.180 than white residents?
01:15:20.980 I kid you not,
01:15:21.660 she hadn't thought
01:15:22.520 of that possibility.
01:15:23.620 So this is somebody
01:15:24.120 who was earnestly curious.
01:15:25.500 She's like,
01:15:25.680 I'm going to have to study that.
01:15:26.440 That's a really interesting point.
01:15:27.700 Oh my God,
01:15:28.260 it's so on the nose.
01:15:29.620 Which is staggering.
01:15:30.940 But this is the tortured framework
01:15:33.760 within which we live
01:15:34.520 that any racial disparity
01:15:36.000 has to be attributed
01:15:37.800 to some type of invidious
01:15:39.480 form of intention
01:15:40.960 without recognizing
01:15:42.140 that actually we created
01:15:43.320 the very system
01:15:44.180 that selects for that type
01:15:46.200 of apparently disparate behavior.
01:15:48.560 At the end of the day,
01:15:49.280 how are we going to figure this out?
01:15:50.460 It's going to be
01:15:50.820 how many lives are lost
01:15:51.960 at the bedside?
01:15:53.980 How much less competitive
01:15:55.040 are we going to be?
01:15:56.120 In the semiconductor industry,
01:15:57.580 in any other area
01:15:59.140 of technology
01:15:59.680 where we're going to be
01:16:00.340 quickly falling behind China
01:16:01.520 and other parts of the world?
01:16:02.940 I hope it doesn't come to that
01:16:04.200 before we wake up.
01:16:05.160 But at the end of the day,
01:16:05.820 we may be so far down the path
01:16:07.360 that one of the things
01:16:08.120 I predict in the book,
01:16:08.920 and this is part of
01:16:09.480 when I trace the parts
01:16:10.480 of Roman history as well,
01:16:12.000 you know,
01:16:12.120 the optimistic part of this,
01:16:13.220 Megan,
01:16:13.300 is that we often think
01:16:14.860 about the fact
01:16:15.340 that there was one fall of Rome.
01:16:17.180 You know,
01:16:17.300 I think the optimistic
01:16:17.960 silver lining here is
01:16:19.100 actually that's a false
01:16:19.920 narrative of history.
01:16:21.160 There were many rises
01:16:22.200 and many falls of Rome.
01:16:23.900 And I think for the folks
01:16:24.620 who say that we're now
01:16:25.720 at the fall of the
01:16:26.420 American experiment,
01:16:27.280 I would say not so fast.
01:16:29.020 I hope that there will be
01:16:29.820 many rises and many falls
01:16:31.040 before our experiment is done.
01:16:33.120 But we're going to have to,
01:16:34.340 we're going to have to have
01:16:34.940 something that wakes us up.
01:16:36.260 And usually it's either a war,
01:16:38.040 the rise of a rival,
01:16:39.480 an economic calamity
01:16:40.580 or collapse.
01:16:41.300 But whatever that shock
01:16:42.480 to the system may be,
01:16:43.980 I hope it doesn't come to it,
01:16:45.340 but I predict it might
01:16:46.280 before we have that kind
01:16:47.620 of wake up call
01:16:48.320 that revives
01:16:49.120 our defining culture
01:16:50.520 of excellence
01:16:51.280 and merit in this country.
01:16:52.940 Yeah, because you're
01:16:53.660 also predicting,
01:16:54.560 guess what?
01:16:55.300 We may not be Rome.
01:16:56.840 China may be Rome.
01:16:58.320 We may be playing
01:16:59.340 a bit part.
01:17:00.360 And that may become
01:17:01.440 all too clear very soon.
01:17:03.040 We'll pick it up there
01:17:03.580 because I love the discussion
01:17:04.800 about Rome in the book.
01:17:05.920 It was very illuminating to me
01:17:07.440 and I don't really love
01:17:08.660 our supporting role.
01:17:09.540 I hope it's not China,
01:17:11.920 but we'll pick it up there
01:17:12.660 in two minutes.
01:17:13.680 Don't go away.
01:17:14.120 More with Vic
01:17:14.720 right after this quick break.
01:17:15.980 So let's spend a moment
01:17:20.800 on Republican victimhood,
01:17:22.380 which we touched on
01:17:23.500 a minute ago.
01:17:24.680 I try to stay objective
01:17:26.820 on these things,
01:17:27.620 but, you know,
01:17:28.500 maybe I'm not.
01:17:29.800 You'll tell me.
01:17:31.200 I actually see
01:17:32.240 a lot of these Republicans,
01:17:33.620 forget election deniers,
01:17:35.020 that's a thing
01:17:35.540 in and of itself, okay?
01:17:36.700 But like,
01:17:37.620 I see them as like
01:17:39.400 actual victims.
01:17:40.380 I really do think
01:17:41.120 that the Republicans
01:17:41.720 have been wrongly silenced
01:17:43.720 and excluded
01:17:44.600 from the public square,
01:17:45.720 whether it's media
01:17:47.060 or, you know,
01:17:47.720 having their voices silenced
01:17:48.680 or social media.
01:17:49.900 Hollywood,
01:17:50.380 they can't get any
01:17:51.160 sort of, you know,
01:17:51.980 purchase whatsoever.
01:17:53.480 Corporate America now
01:17:54.520 doesn't like their worldview.
01:17:56.400 You're considered a bigot
01:17:57.300 if you're pro-life.
01:17:58.680 You know,
01:17:58.820 it could go down the list
01:17:59.520 and it's not to say
01:18:00.660 that there's no racism
01:18:01.480 on the side of the wokesters
01:18:02.540 or sexism
01:18:03.520 and all that stuff.
01:18:04.640 I acknowledge
01:18:05.180 that that still exists
01:18:05.980 in the country.
01:18:06.520 It's just nowhere near
01:18:07.340 as massive and widespread
01:18:08.840 as they claim.
01:18:10.040 So I won't say
01:18:10.560 that they're fakers
01:18:11.280 when they have their claims
01:18:13.020 of victimhood.
01:18:13.660 I just think
01:18:14.160 there are a lot of fakers
01:18:15.720 who are sort of glomming
01:18:17.000 on to a dark past history
01:18:18.820 to try to make the problem
01:18:21.020 seem much worse
01:18:21.620 than it is.
01:18:23.000 But I know,
01:18:23.500 so where am I going wrong?
01:18:24.800 Because I know
01:18:25.120 you have an issue
01:18:25.600 with Republicans.
01:18:26.200 I don't think you're going wrong,
01:18:26.860 Megan.
01:18:27.140 I mean,
01:18:27.400 there's 11 chapters
01:18:28.400 in the book.
01:18:29.160 One of them is dedicated
01:18:30.320 to conservative victimhood.
01:18:32.320 I think that,
01:18:32.900 you know,
01:18:33.360 the ratio,
01:18:34.380 is it asymmetric
01:18:35.680 in the world
01:18:36.120 the way that you,
01:18:36.920 the way that exactly
01:18:37.760 that you described?
01:18:38.420 I think absolutely it is.
01:18:39.340 I mean,
01:18:39.460 I've been a vocal critic
01:18:40.500 of woke culture
01:18:41.720 through Woke Inc
01:18:42.840 and my other work
01:18:43.540 over the course
01:18:43.960 of the last year.
01:18:44.460 But if I'm writing a book
01:18:45.080 about victimhood culture,
01:18:46.100 it was going to be incomplete
01:18:47.740 without putting a finger
01:18:48.800 on,
01:18:49.260 I think,
01:18:49.440 a rising tide of,
01:18:51.520 you know,
01:18:51.680 if you want to frame it
01:18:52.700 in a racial lens,
01:18:53.400 which I prefer not to,
01:18:54.260 but the counterpart
01:18:55.460 to black victimhood
01:18:56.320 is,
01:18:56.860 I think,
01:18:56.960 a rising narrative
01:18:57.700 of white victimhood.
01:18:58.980 And I think
01:18:59.180 a conservative victimhood
01:19:00.180 responds to liberal victimhood
01:19:02.020 as well.
01:19:02.780 I think it would have been incomplete
01:19:03.980 without staring at that problem
01:19:05.940 with clear eyes.
01:19:06.760 And I think that there's two ways
01:19:07.760 to take this discussion.
01:19:08.860 One is a relative case
01:19:10.820 for justification
01:19:11.660 for victimhood,
01:19:12.580 which is,
01:19:13.640 I think,
01:19:13.760 an interesting place to go.
01:19:15.540 I think where I prefer
01:19:16.660 to go with the discussion
01:19:17.460 is where we move from here,
01:19:19.860 whether or not
01:19:20.680 you have a legitimate grievance.
01:19:22.920 What does one do
01:19:23.980 when everyone has a grievance
01:19:25.700 emanating in 360 degrees,
01:19:27.820 in a 360-degree direction?
01:19:29.980 I think that that puts us
01:19:31.040 in a permanently,
01:19:32.420 it's an ossified place.
01:19:34.100 We're effectively flash frozen
01:19:35.980 in a web of,
01:19:37.600 tangled web of victimhood.
01:19:39.200 And the case I make
01:19:40.060 in the heart of the book
01:19:41.020 is a case for forgiveness.
01:19:44.080 The path from victimhood
01:19:45.740 to excellence
01:19:46.800 runs through forgiveness.
01:19:49.140 And at the end of the day,
01:19:49.880 I see a greater opportunity.
01:19:51.880 Why do I write that chapter?
01:19:52.500 I see a greater opportunity
01:19:53.400 for the Republican Party,
01:19:54.700 for conservatives
01:19:55.460 to be the party,
01:19:57.220 the only one
01:19:57.960 of the two major parties
01:19:59.400 that defines itself
01:20:01.040 based on
01:20:01.760 the unapologetic pursuit
01:20:03.160 of excellence,
01:20:03.760 based on the rejection
01:20:04.660 of victimhood identities,
01:20:06.560 based on the revival
01:20:07.420 of meritocracy.
01:20:08.440 And I trace in that chapter
01:20:09.520 many of the ways
01:20:10.520 in which, look,
01:20:11.360 I think a lot of the
01:20:12.460 industrial victimhood narratives,
01:20:14.760 white victimhood narratives,
01:20:16.800 populist conservative
01:20:17.680 victimhood narratives
01:20:18.500 are grounded
01:20:19.340 in some real
01:20:20.600 economic realities.
01:20:22.240 Look, there are
01:20:22.720 some policy choices
01:20:23.680 we have made
01:20:24.260 in this country
01:20:24.840 over the course
01:20:26.060 of the last couple
01:20:27.080 of decades
01:20:27.560 that Donald Trump
01:20:28.280 had his finger out correctly
01:20:30.080 on the finger
01:20:30.660 on the pulse of.
01:20:31.400 Look, did free trade
01:20:32.600 grow the size
01:20:33.360 of the overall economic pie
01:20:34.560 globally?
01:20:35.300 It did.
01:20:36.160 Was it arguably
01:20:36.820 the right policy course
01:20:37.960 for the United States
01:20:38.580 to have taken
01:20:38.980 at a certain point in time?
01:20:40.300 Absolutely it was.
01:20:41.640 But it also contributed
01:20:42.820 to a world
01:20:43.520 in which the dollar
01:20:44.620 was the reserve currency
01:20:46.040 of the world.
01:20:46.680 That's a good thing
01:20:47.440 for many,
01:20:47.940 it is for the United States
01:20:49.160 for reasons I can get into.
01:20:50.460 But one effect
01:20:51.160 of the dollar
01:20:51.700 being the reserve currency
01:20:52.540 of the world
01:20:53.040 is that that makes
01:20:54.300 United States exports
01:20:55.700 incrementally higher
01:20:56.760 than the actual
01:20:57.500 market clearing price
01:20:58.400 would have made them
01:20:59.040 if you didn't have
01:21:00.240 the dollar
01:21:00.620 as the reserve currency
01:21:01.560 of the world
01:21:02.020 where there's
01:21:02.860 a certain base
01:21:03.800 including manufacturers
01:21:04.620 in the United States
01:21:05.300 who are left
01:21:06.220 holding the ban.
01:21:07.600 You layer on
01:21:08.280 subsidies to knowledge
01:21:09.320 based industries
01:21:10.020 through intellectual property
01:21:11.000 in my former industry
01:21:11.880 in biotech
01:21:12.720 for that matter.
01:21:13.700 That's again
01:21:14.160 a subsidy
01:21:14.840 from manufacturing industries
01:21:15.980 to knowledge based industries
01:21:17.080 and then you look
01:21:17.620 at disproportionate representation
01:21:18.720 in the military,
01:21:19.420 whatever.
01:21:20.080 There are strong facts
01:21:21.420 to justify
01:21:22.360 a strong case
01:21:23.420 for conservative victimhood
01:21:25.180 even in the dimensions
01:21:27.000 that I just described
01:21:27.960 economically
01:21:28.500 that go beyond
01:21:29.340 the elitist discrimination
01:21:31.660 that you laid out.
01:21:33.360 But where from here
01:21:34.460 is the question
01:21:35.280 that I ultimately
01:21:35.800 come to, Megan,
01:21:36.580 is do we want
01:21:37.600 to prove a point
01:21:38.500 or do we actually
01:21:39.700 have a nation
01:21:40.480 left at the end of it?
01:21:42.080 And I make a case
01:21:43.080 for the revival
01:21:43.940 of a shared national identity
01:21:45.860 because without that
01:21:46.800 we're just a bunch of,
01:21:48.180 you know,
01:21:48.940 we're just a bunch
01:21:49.520 of human automatons,
01:21:51.120 pounds of flesh
01:21:51.900 roaming the plains
01:21:53.460 of North America.
01:21:54.820 I get it.
01:21:55.320 But we're talking
01:21:57.220 about tactics right now.
01:21:58.320 We're talking about tactics.
01:21:59.360 OK, so why
01:22:00.920 like we've been
01:22:01.860 having this debate
01:22:02.500 at Nation
01:22:03.140 and Nationwide
01:22:04.020 and on the show
01:22:04.700 as well about,
01:22:05.960 for example,
01:22:06.400 cancel culture,
01:22:07.800 which I know
01:22:08.220 you're 100% against
01:22:09.420 and you've defended
01:22:10.160 a lot of people
01:22:10.660 who have been swept up in it.
01:22:13.380 Why not fight fire with fire?
01:22:15.020 Why not go after
01:22:16.220 the cancelers?
01:22:17.280 Why not celebrate
01:22:18.020 when Chrissy Teigen
01:22:19.080 gets canceled
01:22:19.700 because she celebrated
01:22:20.780 the downfall of everybody
01:22:22.280 on the right
01:22:22.920 who went down?
01:22:23.480 Like, here's a taste
01:22:24.380 of your own medicine.
01:22:25.160 How do you like it
01:22:25.980 when one of yours goes down?
01:22:27.640 Who's Chrissy Teigen
01:22:28.600 going to try to cancel now?
01:22:30.220 No one, right?
01:22:31.200 Like, how are we going
01:22:32.700 to get them to see
01:22:33.400 the error of their ways
01:22:34.440 without fighting fire with fire?
01:22:36.320 I see the appeal
01:22:37.060 of fighting fire with fire.
01:22:38.440 I just tend to find
01:22:39.440 that water is often
01:22:40.560 more effective
01:22:41.200 than fighting fire.
01:22:42.420 And at the end of the day,
01:22:44.480 you know,
01:22:44.820 if we engage
01:22:45.460 in this victimhood Olympics
01:22:46.700 that I was referring to earlier,
01:22:48.020 this oppression Olympics,
01:22:49.020 victimhood Olympics,
01:22:50.720 there is no gold medalist
01:22:52.300 in the end.
01:22:53.160 It is America
01:22:53.840 that loses as a nation.
01:22:55.920 And at the end of the day,
01:22:57.080 it's going to fall on someone.
01:22:58.580 We have a vacuum of leadership.
01:23:00.360 I think the best fighting chance
01:23:01.580 is for conservatives
01:23:02.200 in this country
01:23:02.760 to lead the way
01:23:03.700 to filling that void
01:23:05.460 of national identity
01:23:06.560 with something
01:23:07.340 far more meaningful
01:23:08.260 than just an impeachment
01:23:09.760 of the other side
01:23:10.640 by hypocrisy.
01:23:11.380 Because I can tell you
01:23:12.320 from the couple of years
01:23:13.200 of doing that myself,
01:23:14.360 I mean,
01:23:14.560 I'm talking to myself
01:23:16.180 and preaching to myself
01:23:17.060 as much as you're
01:23:17.900 preaching to anyone else.
01:23:19.020 If I look at even much
01:23:19.980 of what I didn't walk in
01:23:20.780 was impeachment by hypocrisy.
01:23:22.320 Where does that leave us?
01:23:23.640 Are we actually
01:23:24.160 that much better off
01:23:25.220 as a nation
01:23:25.920 without laying out
01:23:27.680 a path forward?
01:23:28.520 And so I make some cases
01:23:29.760 for some provocative ideas
01:23:30.640 in the book.
01:23:31.180 A revival of civic duty.
01:23:33.500 I think that we talk
01:23:34.400 a lot about freedom
01:23:35.280 and liberty
01:23:35.740 and I talk a lot about
01:23:36.840 reviving the path
01:23:37.960 to excellence
01:23:38.600 through the system
01:23:39.180 of free market capitalism
01:23:40.200 where everyone can
01:23:41.420 be the best version
01:23:42.480 of their individual self.
01:23:43.620 But I think we're missing
01:23:44.740 half the discussion
01:23:45.620 if we don't also talk
01:23:47.260 about the revival
01:23:48.200 of civic duty
01:23:49.500 and civic identity
01:23:50.440 and the revival
01:23:51.120 of the idea
01:23:51.600 of what it means
01:23:52.220 to be a citizen
01:23:52.920 and the obligations
01:23:54.040 and civic duties
01:23:54.920 that come with that.
01:23:56.040 The title of the book
01:23:56.860 is entitled
01:23:57.560 A Theory of Duty.
01:23:59.220 It's a play on John Rawls'
01:24:00.860 famous A Theory of Justice.
01:24:02.800 That was a North Star
01:24:03.900 for much of the liberal movement
01:24:04.960 for much of the latter
01:24:05.800 20th century.
01:24:06.540 I think that
01:24:08.060 A Theory of Duty
01:24:09.100 might be
01:24:09.740 as I call in the book
01:24:10.800 to borrow from an expression
01:24:12.080 of David Hume
01:24:12.740 our missing shade of red
01:24:14.780 in the conservative movement.
01:24:16.480 It is easy
01:24:17.280 to tear something down.
01:24:18.900 It is a lot harder
01:24:19.920 to fill
01:24:20.600 what we've torn down
01:24:21.820 with an affirmative
01:24:22.440 new vision instead.
01:24:24.260 I don't promise
01:24:24.960 to have
01:24:25.480 how could I
01:24:26.520 to have all the answers
01:24:27.740 in this particular book
01:24:29.440 but I do think
01:24:30.440 that that's at least
01:24:31.000 the conversation
01:24:31.800 we need to start
01:24:32.520 having more
01:24:33.200 on the right
01:24:33.880 or else
01:24:34.340 the thing
01:24:34.880 that we actually
01:24:35.400 care about
01:24:35.940 preserving
01:24:36.620 and having a nation
01:24:37.440 left at the end of it
01:24:38.300 we may have won
01:24:39.120 the argument
01:24:39.600 on the
01:24:39.980 what should we say
01:24:42.980 the fallen shackles
01:24:44.520 of a Pyrrhic victory
01:24:45.820 and I think that
01:24:46.960 at the end of the day
01:24:48.000 that's not what I think
01:24:48.740 any of us want
01:24:49.400 in our capacity
01:24:50.040 not as conservatives
01:24:50.740 but as Americans
01:24:51.500 that's going to have to start
01:24:52.740 at some point
01:24:53.280 I figured we might as well
01:24:54.020 start today.
01:24:55.400 What you mentioned
01:24:56.200 forgiveness
01:24:56.700 you know
01:24:57.140 how does
01:24:57.980 you write in the book
01:24:58.520 about a young
01:24:59.940 Indian friend of yours
01:25:00.900 who had like
01:25:01.760 the greatest grades
01:25:02.480 and the perfect SATs
01:25:03.760 and got rejected
01:25:04.520 from everybody
01:25:05.120 I mean for all
01:25:05.820 the top institutions
01:25:06.700 how does this person
01:25:08.460 forgive
01:25:08.760 how does this person
01:25:09.660 become part of the solution
01:25:10.900 like what
01:25:11.380 what is that person
01:25:12.560 supposed
01:25:12.920 elaborate on the story
01:25:13.940 if you don't mind
01:25:14.480 and then tell us
01:25:15.180 what
01:25:15.300 what is that person
01:25:16.180 supposed to do
01:25:16.520 he's a young guy
01:25:17.780 entering college now
01:25:18.800 so he's a guy
01:25:19.880 who had whatever
01:25:20.400 I forget the exact score
01:25:21.680 1550 let's call it
01:25:22.860 in the SAT
01:25:23.320 and above 4.0 GPA
01:25:24.760 call it a 4.5 plus GPA
01:25:26.920 great extracurricular
01:25:28.460 activities appear to be
01:25:29.500 a good writer
01:25:30.180 and there's
01:25:31.300 and I'll preface this
01:25:32.140 by saying as best
01:25:32.760 somebody can tell
01:25:33.300 there's nothing wrong
01:25:33.880 with this kid
01:25:34.500 applies to 15
01:25:35.740 of the top 30
01:25:36.640 universities in the country
01:25:37.980 gets rejected
01:25:38.800 from every single
01:25:40.040 one of them
01:25:40.700 now put yourself
01:25:41.920 in the shoes
01:25:42.400 of somebody
01:25:42.840 who's getting
01:25:43.280 that rejection
01:25:43.980 one after another
01:25:45.080 I mean at a certain point
01:25:46.580 the question is
01:25:46.980 what's wrong with me
01:25:48.140 and we've set up
01:25:48.940 the system to work that way
01:25:50.000 because Harvard
01:25:50.940 for example
01:25:51.480 my alma mater
01:25:52.060 and I think
01:25:53.300 one of the worst
01:25:53.660 perpetrators
01:25:54.120 of this anti-Asian
01:25:55.320 discrimination
01:25:55.740 has set itself up
01:25:57.300 to justify
01:25:58.060 and meet the standards
01:25:59.080 of historical
01:25:59.540 affirmative action laws
01:26:00.360 to say that
01:26:00.880 they're not
01:26:01.500 discriminating based
01:26:02.240 on race
01:26:02.760 they're just using
01:26:03.720 other attributes
01:26:04.500 like personality scores
01:26:05.800 it's your personality
01:26:06.540 it's amazing
01:26:08.320 it's actually just codified
01:26:09.500 you thought you were
01:26:10.380 making the problem better
01:26:11.120 you made it 10 times worse
01:26:12.420 and it's the same thing
01:26:13.780 they did with respect
01:26:14.400 to the so-called
01:26:15.240 Harvard's words
01:26:16.180 not mine
01:26:16.700 the Jewish problem
01:26:17.840 that Harvard had
01:26:18.760 only decades ago
01:26:20.480 and so
01:26:21.240 at the end of the day
01:26:22.220 put yourself in the shoes
01:26:23.020 of this kid
01:26:23.460 you know
01:26:24.080 it's not the end of the world
01:26:24.720 he's gonna get into
01:26:25.160 a perfectly fine state school
01:26:26.280 he's gonna go on
01:26:27.040 and get a great education
01:26:28.280 and live a normal life
01:26:29.540 well
01:26:29.960 look
01:26:30.620 if you're in his shoes
01:26:31.260 he's still the same talent
01:26:32.440 that should have gotten
01:26:34.040 into one of the nation's
01:26:35.060 top schools
01:26:36.100 maybe we can even
01:26:37.160 reinvent our definition
01:26:38.080 of what it means
01:26:38.740 to be a top school
01:26:39.760 the top schools
01:26:40.540 or the schools
01:26:40.980 that we call the top schools
01:26:42.360 30 years ago
01:26:43.020 aren't meritocratic institutions
01:26:44.220 why on earth
01:26:45.160 should the places
01:26:45.860 that I went
01:26:46.280 Harvard and Yale
01:26:46.860 be permanently
01:26:48.280 crowned
01:26:49.700 as the top schools
01:26:50.740 for the next century
01:26:51.400 when they're not actually
01:26:51.940 behaving that way
01:26:52.660 good question
01:26:53.260 so what do we do from here
01:26:54.980 part of
01:26:55.360 it's not just forgiveness
01:26:56.200 and some sort of passivity
01:26:57.340 and some sort of
01:26:58.060 you know
01:26:58.380 you know
01:26:58.900 I'm not
01:26:59.280 I don't aim to be
01:27:00.340 a theological figure here
01:27:01.780 by my mind
01:27:02.800 that's beyond my pay grade
01:27:04.580 but I mean
01:27:04.960 in terms of
01:27:05.820 I use forgiveness
01:27:06.560 more as a self-interested
01:27:07.720 form of that forgiveness
01:27:08.900 that's the sort of
01:27:09.620 Kantian case
01:27:10.480 the Immanuel Kant
01:27:11.660 self-interested rationality
01:27:13.600 people miss that
01:27:14.320 Immanuel Kant's version
01:27:15.760 of the golden rule
01:27:16.580 came not from
01:27:17.440 a belief in Christ
01:27:18.940 or a belief in God
01:27:19.780 but a belief in
01:27:20.960 cold-hearted rationality
01:27:22.660 that rationality demanded
01:27:24.080 that you treat others
01:27:24.940 as you want to be treated
01:27:25.840 because that's ultimately
01:27:27.460 what empowers him
01:27:28.320 to say that
01:27:28.740 you know what
01:27:29.020 I might have gone
01:27:29.440 to that state school
01:27:30.060 but you know what
01:27:30.440 the state school
01:27:31.060 might actually become
01:27:32.140 what it means
01:27:32.700 to have gone to a good school
01:27:33.640 because they were smart
01:27:34.300 enough to accept me
01:27:35.040 and I was smart enough
01:27:36.240 to be able to work hard
01:27:36.960 and still make my own way
01:27:38.220 in this world
01:27:38.780 and so that story
01:27:40.060 is still yet to be written
01:27:40.940 so the story isn't over yet
01:27:42.340 but I would prefer
01:27:43.580 to see it go in that direction
01:27:45.000 through the revival
01:27:45.760 of meritocracy
01:27:46.540 through new structures
01:27:47.740 through new institutions
01:27:48.640 rather than to wallow
01:27:50.720 in one's own victimhood
01:27:51.940 and expect recompense
01:27:53.880 or sorrow
01:27:54.500 as a consequence
01:27:55.640 yeah the answer
01:27:56.640 is to reject victimhood
01:27:57.980 at every turn
01:27:58.520 by the way
01:27:59.060 tell that guy
01:27:59.540 if he wants a job
01:28:00.260 in media to call me
01:28:01.120 when he's done
01:28:01.600 with his state school
01:28:02.500 be happy to talk to him
01:28:04.940 so that leads us to
01:28:07.240 what if we don't
01:28:08.100 what if we go
01:28:09.040 the wrong way
01:28:10.020 what if we stay
01:28:10.820 wallowing in victimhood
01:28:11.840 I mentioned this
01:28:12.660 the other day
01:28:13.040 I heard a great quote
01:28:13.940 in a book
01:28:14.420 I'm reading
01:28:14.980 it was
01:28:17.580 suffering is universal
01:28:19.180 victimhood is a choice
01:28:20.320 and so if we decide
01:28:23.580 to choose victimhood
01:28:24.520 more and more
01:28:25.660 and more on both sides
01:28:26.740 we wind up changing
01:28:28.760 the whole American experiment
01:28:29.960 we find out
01:28:30.980 very soon
01:28:31.800 we were never Rome
01:28:33.920 we were something else
01:28:35.480 entirely
01:28:36.080 we were Carthage
01:28:38.000 which I
01:28:38.920 I didn't go to Harvard
01:28:40.660 so explain Carthage
01:28:41.720 and how we might be Carthage
01:28:43.680 instead of Rome
01:28:44.300 and China might be Rome
01:28:45.280 well so I draw
01:28:46.780 an extended
01:28:47.320 allegory in the book
01:28:49.280 between the Punic Wars
01:28:50.700 between
01:28:51.260 between Rome and Carthage
01:28:53.120 the two great empires
01:28:53.940 of their day
01:28:54.520 we indulge ourselves
01:28:56.080 by asking ourselves
01:28:57.020 whether we were Rome
01:28:58.360 Greg Popovich
01:28:59.980 of the San Antonio Spurs
01:29:01.300 famously said
01:29:02.320 you know
01:29:02.640 in a way that was supposed
01:29:03.460 to be a critical
01:29:04.600 assessment of America
01:29:05.420 that we might be Rome
01:29:06.240 referring to the fall
01:29:07.000 I think I say in the book
01:29:07.740 because the Roman Empire
01:29:08.460 lasted thousands of years
01:29:09.800 we should be so lucky
01:29:11.100 as to be Rome
01:29:12.200 we might actually be Carthage
01:29:13.600 one of the other empires
01:29:14.520 that Rome went on to defeat
01:29:15.800 at many points
01:29:16.900 along the way
01:29:17.480 this was one of them
01:29:18.420 and one of the
01:29:19.720 one of the islands
01:29:21.060 that drew them into conflict
01:29:22.020 was Sicily
01:29:22.640 I worry that Taiwan
01:29:24.000 might be our modern version
01:29:26.000 of Sicily
01:29:26.840 and that if
01:29:27.920 you know
01:29:28.280 there's the famous
01:29:29.000 thought experiment
01:29:29.880 of Thucydides trap
01:29:31.160 Graham Allison popularized it
01:29:32.540 which said that
01:29:33.060 effectively when you have
01:29:34.260 an empire in decline
01:29:35.740 another rising empire
01:29:36.760 they're inevitably
01:29:37.480 destined to enter
01:29:39.200 into physical conflict
01:29:40.620 well that maps on
01:29:42.000 pretty well to where we are
01:29:42.900 not only with Rome and Carthage
01:29:44.040 you know a couple thousand
01:29:45.060 years ago
01:29:45.480 but with America
01:29:47.160 and China today
01:29:48.320 and so I do spend some time
01:29:49.720 going into the book
01:29:50.260 into some detail
01:29:51.040 on what's at stake
01:29:52.220 I mean
01:29:52.680 why does China care
01:29:53.900 about invading Taiwan
01:29:54.640 it's not just about
01:29:55.720 national pride
01:29:56.340 it's not just about hubris
01:29:57.280 people
01:29:57.560 this is not
01:29:58.480 Putin invading Ukraine
01:30:00.200 people miss this
01:30:01.280 about Xi Jinping
01:30:01.940 they're playing a long game
01:30:03.740 Taiwan
01:30:04.600 is the
01:30:05.840 mothership
01:30:07.200 of the global
01:30:08.420 semiconductor industry
01:30:09.720 Taiwan Semiconductor Company
01:30:10.820 and many other
01:30:11.740 Taiwan
01:30:11.960 TSMC
01:30:12.800 as well as many
01:30:14.200 other companies
01:30:15.040 in Taiwan
01:30:15.700 these are the world's
01:30:16.680 leaders
01:30:16.940 in producing
01:30:18.080 the semiconductors
01:30:18.920 that power
01:30:19.840 our iPhones
01:30:20.600 that power
01:30:21.180 our computers
01:30:21.580 that power
01:30:21.960 our refrigerators
01:30:22.800 that power
01:30:23.540 our modern
01:30:24.080 way of life
01:30:24.800 and the United States
01:30:26.280 is decades behind
01:30:27.740 China has
01:30:28.380 for their part
01:30:28.980 been decades behind too
01:30:30.220 so people forget this
01:30:31.480 is you know
01:30:32.380 as much as
01:30:32.840 we might worry about
01:30:33.580 the Chinese revival
01:30:34.400 of meritocracy
01:30:35.160 and they don't have
01:30:35.720 DEI over there
01:30:36.560 that's a competitive
01:30:37.080 advantage for them
01:30:37.760 and their engineers
01:30:38.380 you know
01:30:39.040 they do have
01:30:39.340 a command and control
01:30:40.060 system
01:30:40.500 that doesn't
01:30:41.000 actually work
01:30:41.520 to spawn
01:30:41.920 innovation either
01:30:42.520 but one of the
01:30:43.000 things they do have
01:30:43.780 increasingly is
01:30:44.680 military might
01:30:45.500 they might use
01:30:46.480 that I predict
01:30:47.200 starting
01:30:47.780 actually next month
01:30:49.080 starts the clock
01:30:49.980 Megan
01:30:50.340 I've long said this
01:30:51.540 Xi Jinping
01:30:52.300 takes his third
01:30:53.440 term
01:30:53.920 unprecedented third
01:30:54.880 term
01:30:55.220 as leader
01:30:55.940 of the Chinese
01:30:56.340 Communist Party
01:30:56.940 it's a two-term
01:30:57.540 system otherwise
01:30:58.180 he wasn't going
01:30:59.200 to rock the boat
01:30:59.920 before that
01:31:00.520 he wasn't going
01:31:00.980 to take the risk
01:31:01.500 of going to Taiwan
01:31:02.060 before that
01:31:02.620 but I think the
01:31:03.500 window between
01:31:04.040 next month
01:31:04.700 and say January
01:31:05.420 2025
01:31:06.000 when the next
01:31:07.320 U.S.
01:31:07.580 president could
01:31:08.100 take office
01:31:08.620 that's the
01:31:09.560 window we're
01:31:10.160 talking about
01:31:10.660 here
01:31:10.900 when I think
01:31:11.960 China is likely
01:31:12.520 to make a move
01:31:12.960 for Taiwan
01:31:13.360 and that I think
01:31:15.200 may call America's
01:31:16.580 bluff over the
01:31:17.440 course of the
01:31:17.960 last several years
01:31:18.860 our bluff
01:31:19.580 militarily
01:31:20.200 I go through
01:31:21.020 some naval
01:31:21.480 analysis in
01:31:22.140 terms of
01:31:22.480 comparing our
01:31:22.920 strength of our
01:31:23.440 navy versus
01:31:24.380 China's and
01:31:25.060 comparing how
01:31:25.500 that might come
01:31:26.000 to a head
01:31:26.420 over Taiwan
01:31:27.180 but even our
01:31:28.380 educational bluff
01:31:29.320 in terms of
01:31:29.980 whether or not
01:31:30.400 we were prepared
01:31:31.120 with the technical
01:31:31.840 and technological
01:31:32.520 talent and prowess
01:31:33.560 to be able to
01:31:34.380 compete in a
01:31:34.820 world where China
01:31:35.520 has full control
01:31:36.460 of the global
01:31:36.820 Senate conductor
01:31:37.280 supply chain
01:31:37.920 rather than
01:31:38.740 the United
01:31:39.100 States
01:31:39.640 and so
01:31:40.140 what's at stake
01:31:41.360 what if we
01:31:41.940 don't what if
01:31:42.600 we remain
01:31:43.220 committed to
01:31:43.720 victimhood
01:31:44.140 that's our
01:31:44.900 path to
01:31:45.400 a millennium
01:31:47.140 from now
01:31:47.560 being a bunch
01:31:48.240 of maybe
01:31:48.620 five centuries
01:31:49.820 from now
01:31:50.140 maybe two
01:31:50.520 centuries
01:31:50.800 from now
01:31:51.120 being a bunch
01:31:51.800 of Chinese
01:31:52.120 slaves that
01:31:52.580 look like
01:31:52.840 the ones
01:31:53.120 in Shenzhen
01:31:53.580 today
01:31:54.000 Shenzhen may
01:31:55.080 be a preview
01:31:55.500 of what's
01:31:55.840 to come
01:31:56.160 in the
01:31:56.560 state of
01:31:56.840 Indiana
01:31:57.100 or the
01:31:57.400 state of
01:31:57.640 California
01:31:58.100 I say
01:31:59.500 that to
01:31:59.720 be provocative
01:32:00.220 but not
01:32:00.720 because it's
01:32:01.480 actually so
01:32:02.000 preposterous
01:32:02.640 and at the
01:32:03.320 end of the
01:32:03.620 day
01:32:03.820 I said this
01:32:05.100 before I'll
01:32:05.400 say it again
01:32:05.700 it may be
01:32:06.520 necessity
01:32:07.060 that compels
01:32:08.080 us to
01:32:08.800 actually get
01:32:10.240 our act
01:32:10.540 together
01:32:10.860 to revive
01:32:11.660 merit
01:32:11.980 to revive
01:32:12.440 that shared
01:32:12.800 pursuit of
01:32:13.460 excellence
01:32:13.900 I hope
01:32:14.680 that my
01:32:15.060 book
01:32:15.320 or other
01:32:16.160 speakers
01:32:16.620 on this
01:32:17.060 topic
01:32:17.380 I hope
01:32:18.180 efforts
01:32:18.580 through the
01:32:18.900 private sector
01:32:19.480 like what I'm
01:32:19.900 trying to do
01:32:20.240 through strive
01:32:20.840 in our
01:32:21.080 economy
01:32:21.460 through others
01:32:22.280 I hope
01:32:22.620 brave leaders
01:32:23.040 who step
01:32:23.400 up in our
01:32:23.700 different
01:32:23.900 institutions
01:32:24.400 can compel
01:32:25.560 a better
01:32:26.580 return to
01:32:27.180 our path
01:32:27.620 towards excellence
01:32:28.680 in the meantime
01:32:29.400 but if it's
01:32:29.940 not going to
01:32:30.320 happen
01:32:30.600 organically
01:32:31.280 it's going
01:32:32.000 to happen
01:32:32.380 out of
01:32:32.900 necessity
01:32:33.300 and I
01:32:34.100 predict
01:32:34.580 that that
01:32:35.000 biggest
01:32:35.320 catalyst
01:32:35.760 that I
01:32:36.100 can see
01:32:36.320 in the next
01:32:36.620 couple of
01:32:37.000 years
01:32:37.280 is the
01:32:37.860 rise of
01:32:38.220 China
01:32:38.500 particularly
01:32:39.140 catalyzed
01:32:40.300 by its
01:32:41.080 intentions
01:32:41.540 coming to
01:32:42.040 a head
01:32:42.460 through its
01:32:42.960 invasion
01:32:43.380 or else
01:32:43.840 a blockade
01:32:44.400 of Taiwan
01:32:44.860 which is
01:32:45.260 going to
01:32:45.420 hit us
01:32:45.680 here at
01:32:45.980 home
01:32:46.240 far harder
01:32:47.100 than
01:32:47.540 Vladimir Putin's
01:32:48.280 invasion of
01:32:48.760 Ukraine
01:32:49.000 ever did
01:32:49.460 I mean
01:32:50.980 if God
01:32:51.560 forbid we
01:32:51.960 ever find
01:32:52.340 ourselves
01:32:52.620 in a
01:32:52.880 military
01:32:53.140 conflict
01:32:53.520 with China
01:32:53.960 we'll be
01:32:54.340 well served
01:32:54.840 if we can
01:32:55.220 do more
01:32:55.520 than just
01:32:59.400 well
01:33:00.280 they don't
01:33:01.180 have as
01:33:01.460 many people
01:33:01.940 of color
01:33:02.340 or trans
01:33:03.000 soldiers
01:33:03.940 as we
01:33:04.360 do
01:33:04.540 so we
01:33:04.880 should
01:33:05.080 well
01:33:05.420 no
01:33:05.740 Vivek
01:33:06.860 you have
01:33:07.040 a way
01:33:07.220 of shining
01:33:07.580 a light
01:33:07.860 on all
01:33:08.140 these
01:33:08.300 issues
01:33:08.600 that's
01:33:09.220 unlike
01:33:09.460 anybody
01:33:09.820 else
01:33:10.080 it's
01:33:10.280 nice
01:33:10.500 and
01:33:10.680 clear
01:33:11.060 I'm
01:33:11.460 sad
01:33:11.720 we didn't
01:33:11.960 even
01:33:12.120 get to
01:33:12.380 the
01:33:12.500 ESG
01:33:12.940 corporate
01:33:13.440 war
01:33:14.040 that
01:33:14.240 Vivek
01:33:14.520 is
01:33:14.660 single
01:33:14.860 handedly
01:33:15.140 fighting
01:33:15.480 but buy
01:33:16.440 the book
01:33:16.840 and support
01:33:17.400 him
01:33:17.620 for reasons
01:33:18.120 that should
01:33:18.460 be
01:33:18.600 obvious
01:33:18.920 to you
01:33:19.200 having
01:33:19.400 listened
01:33:19.680 to him
01:33:20.040 this
01:33:21.580 just
01:33:21.840 in
01:33:22.060 breaking
01:33:22.380 news
01:33:22.800 CNN
01:33:23.160 reporting
01:33:23.720 that
01:33:29.400 golf
01:33:30.020 so
01:33:32.080 everyone
01:33:33.280 who freaked
01:33:33.800 out
01:33:34.160 can
01:33:34.440 sim
01:33:35.140 the
01:33:35.380 mer
01:33:35.660 calm
01:33:36.860 down
01:33:37.320 he's
01:33:38.080 golfing
01:33:38.600 not
01:33:39.040 getting
01:33:39.260 indicted
01:33:39.640 what a
01:33:41.080 shock
01:33:41.360 listen
01:33:42.080 before we
01:33:42.480 go
01:33:42.580 I want
01:33:42.780 to give
01:33:42.920 you a
01:33:43.100 preview
01:33:43.340 of what
01:33:43.660 we have
01:33:43.880 coming up
01:33:44.240 this
01:33:44.400 month
01:33:44.620 on the
01:33:44.820 show
01:33:44.960 because
01:33:45.200 we have
01:33:45.480 some
01:33:45.620 great
01:33:46.020 ones
01:33:46.280 to
01:33:46.440 celebrate
01:33:46.700 our
01:33:46.860 two
01:33:47.080 year
01:33:47.260 anniversary
01:33:47.640 as a
01:33:47.980 show
01:33:48.240 and
01:33:48.380 our
01:33:48.480 one
01:33:48.660 year
01:33:48.820 on
01:33:48.960 Sirius
01:33:49.240 we
01:33:49.680 got
01:33:49.840 Malcolm
01:33:50.240 Gladwell
01:33:50.800 on
01:33:51.100 Thursday
01:33:51.720 his
01:33:52.360 first
01:33:52.580 time
01:33:52.760 on
01:33:52.840 the
01:33:52.920 show
01:33:53.100 since
01:33:53.320 our
01:33:53.440 move
01:33:53.580 to
01:33:53.700 Sirius
01:33:59.400 excited
01:33:59.680 for
01:33:59.840 that
01:34:00.060 cannot
01:34:00.420 wait
01:34:00.780 it'll
01:34:01.380 take
01:34:01.580 place
01:34:01.760 live
01:34:02.180 in
01:34:02.380 person
01:34:02.620 at
01:34:02.780 the
01:34:02.880 Sirius
01:34:03.160 XM
01:34:03.440 studios
01:34:03.980 later
01:34:04.660 this
01:34:04.860 month
01:34:05.040 we're
01:34:05.200 going to
01:34:05.340 celebrate
01:34:05.580 our
01:34:05.760 two
01:34:05.920 year
01:34:06.080 anniversary
01:34:06.460 with
01:34:06.820 a
01:34:07.160 guest
01:34:07.360 like
01:34:07.580 British
01:34:07.980 Bridget
01:34:08.540 Phetasy
01:34:09.020 who's
01:34:09.380 not
01:34:09.540 been
01:34:09.680 on
01:34:09.860 since
01:34:10.000 December
01:34:10.340 2020
01:34:10.740 everybody
01:34:11.120 loved
01:34:11.360 that
01:34:11.500 interview
01:34:11.800 old
01:34:12.580 pals
01:34:12.880 like
01:34:13.060 Ben
01:34:13.320 Shapiro
01:34:13.720 Dave
01:34:14.040 Rubin
01:34:14.420 Rubin
01:34:14.900 will be
01:34:15.180 back
01:34:15.420 just
01:34:15.620 a
01:34:15.780 taste
01:34:16.100 of
01:34:16.240 what
01:34:16.340 we've
01:34:16.520 got
01:34:16.760 stored
01:34:17.500 up
01:34:17.680 for
01:34:17.800 you
01:34:17.880 you
01:34:17.900 you
01:34:17.980 gonna
01:34:18.180 love
01:34:18.520 it
01:34:18.660 please
01:34:18.960 subscribe
01:34:19.360 in the
01:34:19.580 meantime
01:34:19.980 youtube.com
01:34:21.060 slash
01:34:21.260 Megan
01:34:21.500 Kelly
01:34:21.820 or
01:34:22.020 anywhere
01:34:22.380 you
01:34:22.580 get
01:34:22.720 your
01:34:22.860 podcast
01:34:23.220 for
01:34:23.420 free
01:34:23.720 we'll
01:34:24.040 talk
01:34:24.240 tomorrow
01:34:24.560 thanks
01:34:27.260 for
01:34:27.400 listening
01:34:27.680 to
01:34:27.860 the
01:34:27.980 Megan
01:34:28.160 Kelly
01:34:28.400 show
01:34:28.780 no
01:34:29.240 BS
01:34:29.660 no
01:34:30.040 agenda
01:34:30.420 and
01:34:31.080 no
01:34:31.280 fear