The Megyn Kelly Show - U.S. Women Soccer's World Cup Fail, and Consequences of Criminal Behavior, with Clay Travis and Dana Loesch ｜ Ep. 602

00:00:00.480 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.

00:00:11.820 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:00:15.020 We begin with something I rarely say on this show, and that is our lead is sports news.

00:00:21.460 The U.S. women's national soccer team lost in the World Cup yesterday in the round of 16 against Sweden.

00:00:28.420 The first time in the team's history that they are out before the quarterfinals.

00:00:34.660 Longtime team leader and activist Megan Rapinoe was smiling and laughing to herself after missing the crucial penalty kick.

00:00:42.820 It was overall just an embarrassing performance for this team from the start.

00:00:47.940 They donned the uniforms of the United States of America, but they refused to honor anything we stand for.

00:00:55.460 And therefore, I'm thrilled they lost.

00:00:59.300 Good. I'm glad you went down.

00:01:02.300 You don't support America. I don't support you.

00:01:05.440 And I know I'm not alone.

00:01:07.400 Joining me right now to discuss that more, Clay Travis, co-host of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show and author of the new book, American Playbook.

00:01:15.460 American Playbook. Get it? Playbook. He's all about sports, but he also loves America and writes all about it.

00:01:21.020 A guide to winning back the country from the Democrats, which is out tomorrow.

00:01:26.620 Clay, great to have you here, especially on a day like this.

00:01:29.680 I couldn't care less about the loss. Couldn't care less.

00:01:33.280 I hope that they took a lesson from losing that we all want our kids to learn when things go down, which is be introspective, figure out how it happened.

00:01:42.700 And in this case, they didn't have their eye on the ball.

00:01:45.120 They had their eye on their woke activism, which has been this way for a while.

00:01:50.060 But Megan Rapinoe and her imprint on the team has now really made its mark. 0.80

00:01:54.560 And I'm thrilled she's gone. I feel like this is there's a future now for this team, potentially without this woman at the helm. 1.00

00:02:00.980 But how do you see it as a guy who is immersed in sports for a living?

00:02:05.000 Thanks for having me on, Megan.

00:02:07.140 Look, I was with my family in 2015 in Vancouver when the U.S.

00:02:13.700 women's team beat Japan to win the World Cup.

00:02:17.320 And in 2015, all of America loved these U.S.

00:02:22.480 women. Most of them were relatively anonymous at that time. 1.00

00:02:26.320 They were incredibly likable.

00:02:28.320 They were completely without partisanship.

00:02:31.000 And certainly they hadn't gone overboard with the woke agenda.

00:02:35.180 And then, Megan, something crazy happened.

00:02:38.280 Donald Trump got elected.

00:02:39.540 And I feel like people need to remember this.

00:02:42.260 Trump offered for the U.S.

00:02:44.360 women when they won their title in France in 2019 to come to the White House and be celebrated, as is commonplace. 0.51

00:02:52.480 So with champion sports teams and the U.S.

00:02:55.400 women turned their back on that offer. 0.98

00:02:58.160 And from that point forward, they allowed, I think, the woke instincts of Megan Rapinoe to direct every decision they made.

00:03:06.220 They became polarizing.

00:03:07.860 They became, frankly, quite unlikable.

00:03:10.060 And ultimately, that led to, and I think this is important, the single worst performance by the U.S.

00:03:17.860 women's World Cup team ever.

00:03:21.060 And yet, Joe Biden puts out a tweet praising them, talking about how beloved they are and how proud of him, how proud of them he was.

00:03:30.160 And to me, Megan, when you look at Rapinoe and the way that she shanked that penalty kick, it went to the far right, ironically.

00:03:38.580 But her reaction, where she's smiling and kind of laughing, to me, it epitomized the way the U.S.

00:03:43.520 women played this entire World Cup.

00:03:45.480 They were awful. 0.95

00:03:46.240 Stand by on that.

00:03:47.200 Stand by.

00:03:47.580 Let's just show it.

00:03:48.700 There she goes.

00:03:49.220 Didn't come anywhere close.

00:03:52.480 She puts her head down.

00:03:54.120 It's so weird.

00:03:54.840 I mean, I'll give her a pass on the smile.

00:03:57.000 I mean, I'm sure she wasn't happy about it.

00:03:59.200 I don't know what went on there, but her overall behavior is really the issue.

00:04:03.080 Keep going.

00:04:04.260 Yeah.

00:04:04.460 And what it ultimately came to represent is this team performed woefully and they performed like a group of individuals.

00:04:13.700 And unfortunately, I think that's what the culture was that was created in the space between 2015 when they won that first World Cup, 2019 when they repeated.

00:04:24.280 And then this, again, they scored one goal, Megan, in the final three games that they played in the World Cup.

00:04:29.760 They were atrocious.

00:04:31.000 They did not live up to their individual talents.

00:04:34.080 They were the overall favorite, expected to win for a third straight year.

00:04:38.920 And remember, they were very fortunate to even make the knockout stage.

00:04:42.780 And so as a result, I saw it.

00:04:46.100 I'm sure you did.

00:04:46.980 The OutKick audience as a group said, we put up a poll.

00:04:50.220 Are you rooting for the U.S. women? 1.00

00:04:52.320 You have to be really unlikable for United States sports fans to decide that they aren't rooting for the United States to win.

00:05:00.680 And yet that is what the Megan Rapinoe-led U.S. women's soccer team managed to create. 0.94

00:05:05.540 Now, to be fair, Megan, it's not everybody on the soccer team, right?

00:05:08.260 There are a lot of people on the soccer team who disagree with Megan Rapinoe.

00:05:12.140 But let me just say this.

00:05:13.220 It's not everybody on the soccer team.

00:05:15.240 But now we've watched them game after game.

00:05:18.020 And at most, Clay, at most, what I see is from the ones who are like phoning it in, maybe a couple put their hand over their heart.

00:05:24.560 They're like, yeah.

00:05:26.580 Oh, there is not a one who is actually singing and who looks proud to be there.

00:05:33.880 Not one, not one.

00:05:36.700 So get off.

00:05:38.280 Get out of there.

00:05:39.480 You know how many young girls would give anything to represent the United States of America on the world stage in this fashion and would be thrilled to say that they're American and they're representing our values?

00:05:51.660 Screw these girls for not even phoning it in. 0.99

00:05:54.800 Though even the ones who are like kind of trying are embarrassed.

00:05:57.600 Yeah, look, and I think tying this in with the book, Megan, this is what Democrat politics leads to.

00:06:07.740 I really do believe this because this is a belief.

00:06:12.400 Why are the U.S. women behaving in this way? 1.00

00:06:15.200 Because they don't believe in American exceptionalism because they aren't proud of the country they live in because they are buying into this left wing ideal, which has taken root in the Democrat Party and I think has led us to a really awful place where there is a legitimate argument.

00:06:31.340 And it's not a coincidence, especially with younger people in this country.

00:06:34.960 They aren't proud of America, and that's because they're being taught that America's history is one of of tragedy and not triumph of of exploitation and not of what I believe.

00:06:47.300 And I think what most of your listeners will believe of the story of the greatest country that's ever been founded in the history of the world.

00:06:53.380 If you are embarrassed by some of your country's history, which is what a lot of these kids are being taught, then you aren't that excited to represent the United States.

00:07:01.060 Then don't play for America.

00:07:02.160 Then don't.

00:07:02.900 Don't play for America.

00:07:03.840 Go find another team.

00:07:04.560 Good.

00:07:05.140 Get out.

00:07:05.760 We don't.

00:07:06.060 We don't need you.

00:07:06.840 It's fine.

00:07:07.140 We certainly don't need Megan Rapinoe. 0.84

00:07:09.140 She was an embarrassment throughout these games.

00:07:11.020 And they put the final penalty kick in her hands and we saw how that went.

00:07:14.840 And to your point, here she is admitting.

00:07:18.220 So Carly Lloyd spoke out. 1.00

00:07:19.820 You saw this on Fox Sports saying, I don't know what this team stands for anymore.

00:07:23.780 Essentially, you know, that they used to stand for something is to play great soccer.

00:07:26.780 And then right around 2020, it shifted.

00:07:29.320 And that's when they got more about their woke ism and their sort of social values. 1.00

00:07:33.700 Just play the damn soccer. 1.00

00:07:35.440 All right. 1.00

00:07:35.820 Shut the F up. 1.00

00:07:37.080 Play the damn soccer. 1.00

00:07:39.180 And maybe you could continue winning World Cups. 1.00

00:07:41.280 No one gives a shit what your personal and political views are. 0.99

00:07:43.680 No one cares. 0.99

00:07:45.060 If we if we cared about that, we'd have you run for office. 1.00

00:07:47.700 Go ahead.

00:07:48.040 Become, you know, be Vivek Ramaswamy.

00:07:50.180 Run for office as a private citizen.

00:07:51.920 Get your name on the world stage and say what you believe.

00:07:53.920 That's fine on the soccer field. 1.00

00:07:55.760 Shut up. 0.95

00:07:56.780 But here's Megan Rapinoe talking about how she sees the whole loss and her place in it 0.98

00:08:02.340 after the big L the other day.

00:08:05.220 Sot to.

00:08:05.560 I thought we played really well.

00:08:07.340 I'm so happy for us that we went out like that, playing the way that we did.

00:08:13.420 I mean, this is like a sick joke for me personally.

00:08:17.020 I'm just like, this is dark comedy.

00:08:18.560 I missed a penalty.

00:08:19.740 But when you reflect on the impact you've made on this team, is there a memory that stands

00:08:25.780 out to you right now in this moment?

00:08:27.800 Probably equal pay chance.

00:08:29.280 I think this team is always fought for so much more.

00:08:33.540 And that's been the most rewarding part for me to know that we've used our really special

00:08:40.180 talent to do something, you know, that's really like changed the world forever.

00:08:45.720 I think that means it most to me.

00:08:47.820 OK, it would be nice if we could just get back to the day and age where they focused on

00:08:51.440 the sporting event.

00:08:52.720 Yeah.

00:08:53.360 Well, this has been my argument for a long time, Megan, that when you decide to share

00:08:57.380 your political opinions, you become divisive, right?

00:09:00.560 And that's fine if you're in the business of sharing your political opinions like you

00:09:04.760 or I might be or like other people out there who are in media.

00:09:08.100 But if you're in the business of trying to appeal to the entire country, you shouldn't

00:09:12.000 do this.

00:09:12.480 And look, Megan Rapinoe also said that she was most proud of equal pay.

00:09:18.040 And let me just talk about this for a sec because I think it's important.

00:09:21.820 I wish if the U.S. women wanted to be political, Megan, they could have gotten on the global 1.00

00:09:27.280 stage in 2019 and in 2023 and they could have said, look, we don't agree with everything

00:09:33.440 that goes on in our country, just like every person on the planet doesn't agree with everything

00:09:37.940 that goes on in their country.

00:09:39.780 But you know what the lesson of the Women's World Cup is, Megan?

00:09:42.700 Overwhelmingly, you can almost pick the winner of every women's soccer match in the world

00:09:48.660 just by ranking the countries on how much they allow women to have basic human rights. 0.94

00:09:54.260 And this is the story that I think would have been really compelling for the U.S. women

00:09:58.900 to share. 0.97

00:09:59.480 Hey, the reason why we kick ass, the reason why we are dominant is guess what? 0.94

00:10:04.560 Because women can wear shorts in America and play soccer starting at four years old. 0.93

00:10:09.520 Because women can go to soccer matches. 1.00

00:10:12.460 Because women can drive cars. 1.00

00:10:14.800 Because women have basic human rights which don't. 1.00

00:10:17.280 It can choose how many children they want to have.

00:10:19.360 Women have basic human rights in America that do not exist anywhere in the rest of the world. 0.96

00:10:24.500 And as a result, we are not only exceptional at soccer, we are exceptional when it comes

00:10:29.800 to having talents everywhere.

00:10:31.780 They could have used America as an example of a bright and shiny city on a hill that represents

00:10:39.380 the full fruition, by and large, in the world of what women are able to accomplish. 0.99

00:10:44.980 Instead, they denigrated America on the global stage.

00:10:49.800 I think that's why.

00:10:50.380 And here's what Rick Grinnell said.

00:10:51.660 I thought he captured a piece of this very well. 0.91

00:10:53.840 Rick Grinnell, of course, openly gay.

00:10:55.580 First openly gay cabinet member under President Trump, who tweets out the following. 0.94

00:11:00.120 Rapinoe made herself the face of women's soccer while pretending like America was a terrible 1.00

00:11:03.920 place to live.

00:11:05.100 She's left a wake of chaos and destruction for the women's team with her selfish antics. 1.00

00:11:10.160 She's an out green haired lesbian who has made millions pitching Subway, among other 1.00

00:11:15.980 things.

00:11:16.320 I add she fails to understand that she would get imprisoned in 69 countries around the world 0.99

00:11:21.440 for simply being gay and nine countries would kill her for being gay. 0.99

00:11:25.300 America is the greatest country in the world for lesbians. 1.00

00:11:28.100 She's been ungrateful for what she was given by God.

00:11:31.580 President Trump goes on to say the shocking and totally unexpected loss by the U.S.

00:11:35.240 women's soccer team to Sweden is fully emblematic of what's happening to our once great 0.97

00:11:39.820 nation under crooked Joe Biden.

00:11:42.040 Many of our players were openly hostile to America.

00:11:45.060 No other country behaved in such a manner or even close.

00:11:48.100 Woke equals failure.

00:11:50.040 Nice shot, Megan. 1.00

00:11:50.840 The USA is going to hell. 0.97

00:11:52.220 MAGA.

00:11:52.920 So but they're both getting at the same point, Clay.

00:11:55.140 Yeah, I think both of those are incredibly well said, Megan.

00:11:58.680 And look, this is my last book.

00:12:01.260 Ironically, Republicans buy sneakers, too, which I think is an amazing quote, but it really goes

00:12:05.440 to the essence of what you're talking about.

00:12:07.160 That was Michael Jordan.

00:12:08.040 They asked him why he didn't get political while he was playing for the Chicago Bulls

00:12:12.440 and winning six championships in eight years.

00:12:14.620 And he said Republicans buy sneakers, too.

00:12:16.620 And as a result, Megan, you know, Michael Jordan's shoe still outsells every single current

00:12:22.540 NBA player combined.

00:12:24.540 And here's a crazy stat for you.

00:12:25.900 It's also in this book.

00:12:27.720 Do you remember?

00:12:28.140 Did you watch?

00:12:28.800 You may have even watched because it became such a huge hit.

00:12:31.360 Did you watch the documentary that they showed during COVID about the Chicago Bulls?

00:12:35.520 Yes, yes.

00:12:37.240 It was amazing, right?

00:12:38.580 It was great about MJ. 0.78

00:12:39.780 He was he was crazy.

00:12:40.840 I actually like that is one piece of sports.

00:12:43.120 I follow because I lived in Chicago when that incredible team was playing and I saw them play

00:12:46.960 and it was like magic.

00:12:48.380 So what's interesting is more people watched a documentary about the Chicago Bulls championship

00:12:56.120 1998 season.

00:12:57.700 That's called The Last Dance, by the way.

00:12:59.540 I think it's up on Netflix.

00:13:00.700 It's fantastic.

00:13:02.080 More people watched that on ESPN than watched the NBA finals that year with LeBron James.

00:13:10.000 Think about that for a minute.

00:13:11.240 People were more interested in watching a documentary about Jordan than they were LeBron playing a

00:13:16.780 current game.

00:13:17.400 My little boys love Michael Jordan.

00:13:19.140 They love Michael Jordan.

00:13:20.100 They love Steph Curry.

00:13:21.240 They don't look up to LeBron.

00:13:22.480 They never talk about him, but they they say that Michael Jordan is the goat.

00:13:26.940 They want his shoes like I mean, still here in 2023.

00:13:29.560 And they're right.

00:13:30.820 My boys are the same.

00:13:31.780 And one's 13.

00:13:32.360 So it's I'm sorry to root against the United States of America team, but I have to say

00:13:39.760 this is even worse than, as you point out, MJ didn't get political, but this is worse

00:13:45.300 than a basketball player on some random professional team taking a political stance that you're

00:13:50.160 representing America. 1.00

00:13:52.000 If you cannot do that pridefully, get out, get off the team, sit on your stupid loser 1.00

00:13:59.940 bench at home and go pursue your woke activism. 1.00

00:14:03.280 Why wouldn't she?

00:14:04.540 Why doesn't Megan Rapinoe or all these other activists who she's infected the team with? 1.00

00:14:08.620 Why don't they do that?

00:14:09.760 Because they want to cash in, Clay.

00:14:12.180 They're making money for all of her bitching about equal pay. 1.00

00:14:15.040 This is a multimillionaire, a multimillionaire who wants men to come onto the women's team 1.00

00:14:19.360 now that she's leaving it.

00:14:20.540 She thinks it's just fine for my daughter, right, to have to compete against males out 0.99

00:14:25.240 there.

00:14:25.540 She won't have to endure the safety risks or the heartbreak from losing to a biological 1.00

00:14:31.660 man or losing your spot to one.

00:14:34.020 So it's because of that, right, because they're they're more interested in making money and

00:14:39.220 pushing their politics than they are in winning.

00:14:43.260 It just gets to the heart of so much of what's wrong with these leftists now in our country.

00:14:49.360 The only reason people care about the U.S. 0.55

00:14:51.620 women's soccer team at all is because they win. 0.89

00:14:54.460 If they start to lose, the platform vanishes, right?

00:14:57.880 And they don't seem to recognize that.

00:15:00.120 And on the equal pay thing, which they made a big show of and Megan Rapinoe says she's

00:15:05.620 most proud of, the reason why the U.S.

00:15:08.100 women got paid less, Megan, was because FIFA pays way less for the Women's World Cup rights 1.00

00:15:15.220 than it does for the Men's World Cup, because most countries around the world don't support

00:15:20.840 women's athletes like the United States does. 1.00

00:15:24.140 And I think we got to hammer this home.

00:15:26.560 Megan Rapinoe retired.

00:15:28.000 And on her way out, she said, I'd be fine with a man representing the U.S.

00:15:34.540 women's soccer team.

00:15:36.040 Look, they are very talented soccer players.

00:15:39.000 A man would dominate them. 0.77

00:15:40.620 People make fun of the U.S.

00:15:41.980 men's soccer team, even though they got eliminated at the same stage of the World Cup as the women.

00:15:46.240 The U.S.

00:15:46.780 men's soccer team, if they played a match against the U.S.

00:15:49.580 women's team, would win 50 to nothing. 0.86

00:15:52.200 They might win 100 to nothing.

00:15:54.020 They are infinitely better, right?

00:15:55.860 The U.S.

00:15:56.440 women, Megan Rapinoe was on this team. 1.00

00:15:58.820 Megan, they lost 5-2 to an under-15 boys team in Dallas in prep for the 2019 World Cup.

00:16:08.060 This is not the best 15-year-old boys in America.

00:16:11.660 It's the best 15-year-old boys in Dallas, Texas.

00:16:15.500 They crushed 15-year-old boys.

00:16:17.420 You got young boys.

00:16:18.160 They're not fully grown men.

00:16:19.600 They crushed the women, all right? 1.00

00:16:21.580 Most people in the world watch way more men's sports than they do women.

00:16:26.120 Again, it's a sign of American exceptionalism that our women have the fan base that they do, 0.99

00:16:32.360 and yet they turn their back on the opportunities and the exceptionalism of America.

00:16:36.180 You know, somebody was showing this video online of the U.S.

00:16:39.580 women's team leaving their hotel after the debut or to go to the debut game, and they

00:16:44.820 were wearing custom-made suits by Nike.

00:16:47.680 And you can see in some of the shots that they're dancing and they're full of just hubris and

00:16:55.220 they're playing it up.

00:16:56.140 And some of the comments online were that, you know, you can wear the suit and you can

00:17:02.800 dance like Megan Rapinoe was dancing in the suit. 0.99

00:17:05.600 You got to win.

00:17:06.620 You can't.

00:17:07.100 Like, that's what Carly Lloyd was pointing out.

00:17:08.600 Like, they were over there celebrating in the stands with the fans after their loss or

00:17:14.800 after their tie.

00:17:15.880 You know, when that post saved them from losing.

00:17:17.740 100% right.

00:17:18.320 As if they had just won the entire thing.

00:17:20.840 But, like, the hubris on this team from the beginning, because to your point, and this

00:17:25.940 is made in your book as well, it is all about them and their egos.

00:17:30.980 There was no humility.

00:17:32.700 There was no nose to the grindstone.

00:17:34.840 Just get the job done.

00:17:35.900 You celebrate once it's done.

00:17:38.020 Once it's done.

00:17:38.480 And on that front, Clay, Jim Craig, you know, great goalie for the, you know, Miracle on

00:17:44.740 Ice hockey team, just tweeted out a couple days ago, happy birthday in heaven to Herb

00:17:49.220 Brooks, who would have been, I think, 81.

00:17:51.660 He would have still been a young man had he lived over the weekend his posthumous birthday

00:17:56.920 hit.

00:17:58.060 And can you imagine Herb Brooks allowing his team to be dancing on their way, celebrating

00:18:05.240 themselves, doing selfies after a tie that they almost lost?

00:18:12.820 Here's what's coming, Megan.

00:18:14.240 And I don't know if your staff can grab this or not, but I bet you haven't seen it yet.

00:18:20.080 ESPN SportsCenter began their coverage of the U.S. women losing by talking about what 0.99

00:18:26.280 a hero Megan Rapinoe was.

00:18:28.260 And it's emblematic of the propaganda that I think our kids are being shared.

00:18:31.500 Because you sit and watch SportsCenter to watch and see American athletes succeed at

00:18:37.020 an incredibly high level.

00:18:38.800 And to your point, if a men's team was as cocky and outspoken and polarizing as this

00:18:47.400 U.S. women's team, and they lost, it would be catastrophic.

00:18:53.000 I mean, everybody on the planet who talks about sports would be going after this team with

00:18:58.900 everything they've got.

00:18:59.820 I'm telling you what's coming, Megan, is there's going to be a, oh, it's sexist for the women 1.00

00:19:06.260 to be held to this standard and for people to be talking about them in the way that they

00:19:10.680 are.

00:19:11.440 And my thing is, look, if you want the money and you want the equal pay, when men's athletes,

00:19:18.380 when their teams perform, and let's be honest, totally choke like the U.S. women did, it is 1.00

00:19:25.120 absolutely a, they get destroyed.

00:19:28.740 I mean, I've done, I did sports talk radio for a long time.

00:19:31.560 A lot of these women's players want to be paid like the men, but they don't want to have to 1.00

00:19:36.940 handle the criticism that comes with those paychecks.

00:19:40.220 Just wait.

00:19:41.040 I guarantee you by the end of today, there will be sexism, racism, whatever it is, they'll all be

00:19:47.560 arguing that that's the reason why the U.S. women are being criticized, not their performance. 1.00

00:19:51.920 I'm telling you it's coming.

00:19:53.320 Homophobia.

00:19:54.020 We'll throw that one in for good measure.

00:19:56.000 Good point.

00:19:56.520 That's exactly right.

00:19:57.380 Yeah.

00:19:57.760 Yes.

00:19:58.380 No, you're totally right.

00:19:59.780 And I mean, it's absurd.

00:20:01.220 You act like you've been there before.

00:20:03.320 OK, that's fine.

00:20:03.960 You can keep your head held high.

00:20:05.640 Don't don't celebrate before you get the W.

00:20:07.460 The W is the only reason that you get the accolades and you failed.

00:20:11.280 You failed in a way that no other team has failed before.

00:20:13.940 So you ought to.

00:20:15.780 Yeah, they ought to be ashamed, really.

00:20:17.400 They ought to be ashamed of their own behavior from start to finish in this in this game.

00:20:20.420 And I really in this whatever World Cup and I really hope that the next team learns, learns.

00:20:27.140 You can be as woke as you want in your private life.

00:20:29.260 And you're out there representing us.

00:20:30.560 You hold your head high.

00:20:31.520 You honor America, her fallen heroes who have sacrificed everything so that you can have

00:20:36.400 that stars and stripes on your back and you represent the country or you get out, get

00:20:41.180 off the team. 1.00

00:20:42.300 Otherwise, we will celebrate your loss because you are losers in more ways than one. 1.00

00:20:46.760 All right. 0.99

00:20:47.300 On the subject of sports and we will get to the book and talk about a sports talk radio

00:20:53.180 show this morning, you're firing.

00:20:55.340 I bet harder on this than almost any man will.

00:20:58.380 Who's doing sports talk radio this morning.

00:21:00.180 I love it.

00:21:01.000 I'm I'm outraged.

00:21:01.940 I'm ashamed of these.

00:21:02.780 I'm ashamed of these young women, especially Rapinoe.

00:21:05.400 OK, on the subject, we talked about how Megan Rapinoe on her way out is all fine with the

00:21:10.520 men coming in and playing against her, her successors.

00:21:13.280 Well, thankfully, Martina Navarrola, with whom I have absolutely nothing in common when

00:21:18.420 it comes to our politics.

00:21:19.340 I mean, she's out there on other days complaining that she's had too many conservatives forced 0.85

00:21:23.680 upon her by Elon Musk in her Twitter feed and she can't handle it.

00:21:26.520 So she and I have gone toe to toe on Twitter once or twice.

00:21:30.460 However, I'm with her on the trance thing in women's sports and she has been bold on 0.76

00:21:36.780 that.

00:21:37.200 She was initially bold.

00:21:38.740 Then she got shamed and she kind of backtracked.

00:21:40.960 But now she's back on track.

00:21:42.280 So I like where she is and I salute her for speaking up.

00:21:45.180 So it's happening, Clay.

00:21:46.700 U.S.

00:21:47.220 Women's Tennis.

00:21:48.220 I didn't realize this, but the U.S.

00:21:49.860 Tennis Association and they I guess they oversee.

00:21:53.940 They set the rules on U.S. 0.69

00:21:55.840 tennis.

00:21:56.280 And this is with respect to all is it's a league and recreational tennis.

00:22:01.340 So it's not the women's like U.S. 0.95

00:22:04.200 Open.

00:22:05.340 The rules are a man can compete against the women, period. 1.00

00:22:09.920 All he has to do is self-identify.

00:22:12.120 No, not that the hormone, not that they change anything.

00:22:15.980 They really don't.

00:22:16.680 I mean, you go through male puberty, you have an advantage, period. 0.91

00:22:19.140 End of report.

00:22:19.660 That's why men are now banned in the cycling world.

00:22:22.320 Um, they're banned in most of the international events in, uh, the, the track and field now.

00:22:29.000 Uh, just recently all this happened, but tennis has said at the professional level, you have

00:22:34.840 to like have some hormone manipulation for some period of time, but that's kind of it.

00:22:38.440 But at the league and recreational level, you just have to say you're a woman.

00:22:43.680 And guess what happened?

00:22:45.240 Guess what happened?

00:22:46.140 Um, transgender tennis star, Alicia Rowley, who's a man, uh, is now the latest to win

00:22:53.980 a women's national tennis championship and the coveted golden ball.

00:22:59.960 I didn't know what the golden ball was, but apparently when you win a super national tournament,

00:23:03.080 you get a gold ball.

00:23:04.040 It's extremely hard to get one.

00:23:05.380 And this guy got it posing as a woman, um, recently won the women's 55 plus grass court

00:23:13.700 national championship and national indoor singles and doubles championship.

00:23:17.480 It's unbelievable.

00:23:18.520 So Martina, uh, thankfully spoke out about this saying, uh, let me get the quote.

00:23:24.820 Come on, USTA.

00:23:28.240 She tweets women's tennis is not for failed male athletes, whatever age, this is not right.

00:23:33.860 And it is not fair.

00:23:35.260 Would this be allowed at the U S open this month just with self ID?

00:23:38.660 I don't think so.

00:23:40.340 So it's happening clay.

00:23:42.100 It's happening where maybe not at the tip top level, but at every level they're under

00:23:48.040 the men are taking over women's in your women's tennis. 0.91

00:23:50.860 It's starting to happen.

00:23:52.120 This is a big part of my book, Megan.

00:23:53.600 I really go after this because I think it epitomizes what we're being forced to do,

00:23:59.380 which is why any person out there who says that a man is not bigger, stronger, faster

00:24:06.940 than a woman and should not be able to compete in women's athletics is lying to you. 0.92

00:24:12.280 And I mean, I, this is happening in athletics.

00:24:15.800 I know you've talked about this crazy Wyoming sorority, which has university of Wyoming sorority, 0.99

00:24:21.040 which has, I mean, a dude who's a member of the sorority.

00:24:24.720 I don't understand.

00:24:26.260 I'm sorry.

00:24:26.480 And not to, not to put too fine a point on it, but like an aroused man sitting there in

00:24:31.720 the sorority claiming he's a woman getting off.

00:24:34.300 As a heterosexual man probably would be, I've dreamed much of my life, Megan, about being

00:24:39.100 able to live in a sorority house.

00:24:40.480 I mean, every, every guy goes off to college, you know, would like to have lived in the Kappa 1.00

00:24:44.660 Kappa Kappa house if he'd had the opportunity to, like, that's what heterosexual men think

00:24:48.400 about.

00:24:48.680 Right.

00:24:48.980 So this is only the deviants actually try to do it.

00:24:52.520 Go ahead.

00:24:52.800 Yeah.

00:24:53.160 Well, yeah, of course.

00:24:54.240 I mean, but what is, and by the way, I mean, living there as an actual guy, I don't mean

00:24:59.480 living there as a pretend woman.

00:25:01.440 Yeah.

00:25:01.880 So like all of this is crazy.

00:25:04.100 And I think what's happening here and your audience is overwhelmed.

00:25:07.620 My wife loves your show.

00:25:08.700 You know, you've met her.

00:25:10.020 But I think you're speaking to a really important audience on this subject because I think there

00:25:16.360 are many women out there, moms in particular, who are being taken advantage of here because 1.00

00:25:22.020 women are supposed to be nice and they're supposed to be kind and they're supposed to be welcoming. 1.00

00:25:26.980 You know what?

00:25:27.440 This doesn't happen.

00:25:28.680 Men.

00:25:29.560 And I just want to hammer this home and I want you to think about it and all the women out 1.00

00:25:32.900 there listening to think about what you're, how you're being taken advantage of here.

00:25:35.920 Can you name a single woman who has began to identify as a man and become rich by doing

00:25:45.240 it?

00:25:45.900 There isn't a single person.

00:25:47.700 Now, some people can say, oh, Ellen, Elliot, Paige, whatever.

00:25:50.400 Like that guy, girl, whatever, the career ended, right?

00:25:55.300 Because men just look at this and think, I feel really sorry for you, but you do not

00:26:02.020 represent masculinity.

00:26:03.660 In no way am I going to buy something from a woman who used to be a man that is advertising 1.00

00:26:11.080 a product.

00:26:11.800 Look at what happened with Bud Light. 1.00

00:26:13.200 This was mostly men saying, fuck this. 1.00

00:26:15.920 I'm not going to go buy a beer that's trying to tell me that even a fake chick. 1.00

00:26:19.720 Imagine even somebody trying to be a man. 0.63

00:26:21.460 That's just a fake chick, right? 1.00

00:26:23.260 But to talk about March Madness, men won't stand for it.

00:26:26.980 And there's not any like overt hostility by and large that I see.

00:26:30.660 It's just like, hey, if you're a woman and you decide to identify as a man, you're just 0.82

00:26:35.160 kind of a wimpy man, right?

00:26:36.820 You're not, you're not very strong.

00:26:38.600 You're not going to succeed athletically.

00:26:40.300 Most men look to men who are bigger, stronger, and faster as someone that we hope to aspire

00:26:47.400 to be, right?

00:26:48.040 This is what the story is of why men, I think, love athletics so much.

00:26:52.100 Most men aspire to be bigger, stronger, faster versions of ourselves, right?

00:26:56.640 That is sort of masculinity defined.

00:26:59.740 Smarter to, it's a very competitive mindset.

00:27:02.620 Women are being taken advantage of here. 1.00

00:27:04.320 There's no woman who becomes a man and then the next year gets voted man of the year. 0.99

00:27:10.160 That doesn't happen.

00:27:11.560 It happens all the time with women. 1.00

00:27:14.100 So I think it's going to take a lot of moms, a lot of people who are listening to you right

00:27:18.680 now in the suburbs who are going to be up early this morning, driving their daughters

00:27:22.960 to go to compete in women's swimming.

00:27:25.920 And then they're going to say, and I give credit to Riley Gaines, who now works with us

00:27:29.600 at OutKick.

00:27:30.240 And now they're going to say, wait a minute, when you get to be 20 and you're competing

00:27:34.140 for a championship after 15 years of working as hard as you can, a six foot four dude who 0.97

00:27:39.780 still has a cock and balls is going to be changing in the locker room with you and putting on a 0.99

00:27:45.220 swimsuit and beating your, uh, and, and beating your daughter in women's sports. 1.00

00:27:50.680 And you're going to nominate as the Ivy league did Megan, that guy for women's athlete of the

00:27:57.160 year.

00:28:00.560 And they're going to put a hagiography on ESPN and your kid's going to be sitting down eating

00:28:02.300 breakfast to start the day. 0.99

00:28:03.980 And they're going to hear, Oh, the best women's athlete of the year is a fucking dude with, 1.00

00:28:09.740 with, with a dick and with balls. 1.00

00:28:11.320 I mean, I'm sorry. 1.00

00:28:12.520 You know, you mentioned that, that guy.

00:28:14.340 No, here's the answer.

00:28:15.580 Stand by.

00:28:16.240 Here's the answer to that.

00:28:17.620 It's a no.

00:28:18.740 It's a no.

00:28:19.700 It's a hard no.

00:28:20.720 Hard no. 1.00

00:28:22.060 Yeah.

00:28:22.300 That's the answer.

00:28:23.300 It's a hard no clay.

00:28:24.940 Even just listening to you do that, the diatribe, my, my blood was boiling.

00:28:29.140 Like I could feel the water rising in my neck.

00:28:30.940 It's infuriating.

00:28:32.800 And I feel like I'm the only person in sports who even says it.

00:28:37.300 And I, I look around and it's like, my head is exploding.

00:28:41.220 And that's why we're, uh, you know, uh, going and hiring people.

00:28:45.140 I mean, ESPN is, is out there saying that Leah Thomas is a woman of the year.

00:28:52.440 And again, I just would say, women, think about it. 1.00

00:28:55.880 Men don't stand for this.

00:28:57.640 And, and your, your, your, your willingness to be open, your willingness to be embracing.

00:29:04.480 I'm not saying I don't have any issue at all.

00:29:06.580 Somebody who's an adult.

00:29:07.640 And again, I say an adult, because I think it's a big difference between giving kids these

00:29:10.920 treatments, but if you're an adult and you decide that you want to identify as a different

00:29:15.540 sex, I'm fine with it.

00:29:17.640 Whatever.

00:29:18.060 If it makes you happier, but also Megan, and this is in the book, I spend a lot of time

00:29:22.860 on this.

00:29:23.620 I think we have to start calling out not only the trans thing in sports, but also you can't 1.00

00:29:28.640 be transracial.

00:29:29.900 Like if I came on this morning and I was like, Hey Megan, I've decided to be a Filipino woman

00:29:34.900 today.

00:29:35.740 People would say, Oh, it's brave of clay to be a woman, but he can't be Filipino. 1.00

00:29:39.900 That's racist.

00:29:41.080 Well, hold on.

00:29:42.180 It's way easier to identify as a different race.

00:29:45.240 Look at Sean King.

00:29:46.180 Look at Rachel Dolezal. 0.99

00:29:47.580 They pretended to be black. 0.57

00:29:49.120 I think Sean King.

00:29:49.940 All the people pretending to be native Americans. 1.00

00:29:52.780 Elizabeth Warren, Pocahontas herself.

00:29:55.080 It's way.

00:29:55.720 She flies a lot. 0.94

00:29:56.620 Forget this.

00:29:57.700 She wrote a book.

00:29:59.120 She gave a food recipe to a native American cookbook that was called powwow chow, Megan.

00:30:06.240 She got her start in the practice of law by claiming to be a minority so that she could 0.74

00:30:13.080 get a job that she otherwise would not have gotten.

00:30:16.180 But people didn't call her on it because it's hard to know.

00:30:20.220 Yeah, no, that's absolutely right.

00:30:22.760 I love all of that.

00:30:24.440 I will say this.

00:30:26.300 It's incredible.

00:30:27.600 I'll say this.

00:30:28.300 I love the way that this group put it.

00:30:30.560 There's this group called Icons, the Independent Council on Women's Sports, and they've been

00:30:33.780 great on all of this stuff.

00:30:35.500 And they called attention to this man winning the women's tournament, as I just outlined.

00:30:40.120 And here's what they said.

00:30:41.460 So they called it to Martina's attention, to Chris Everett's attention, to USTA's attention

00:30:45.920 and so on.

00:30:46.440 And this is what they wrote.

00:30:48.840 The co-founder of that group, Kim Chasby Jones, she writes as follows.

00:30:52.720 Women's tennis is turning into a laughingstock because of these terrible policies. 1.00

00:30:56.600 Here's where she gets to it.

00:30:59.440 Prioritizing the mental health and identity of men over women who have discovered a love

00:31:05.960 of tennis.

00:31:07.140 That's if we can just talk about it in real terms.

00:31:09.560 These are men.

00:31:10.220 These are men.

00:31:11.440 And what we're saying when we say that, oh, we have to be inclusive, you know, don't be

00:31:16.200 a bigot.

00:31:16.820 We're saying that the mental health and identity of men is more important than that of women 1.00

00:31:22.860 like Riley Gaines or anybody who objects to them coming into our spaces and stealing our

00:31:28.400 sports.

00:31:28.640 And this one's particularly galling to yours truly, because while I'm not a particularly

00:31:32.900 sporty gal, my daughter is. 0.62

00:31:35.700 She plays tennis and she plays soccer.

00:31:37.820 These are both her sports that we're talking about right here.

00:31:40.180 And though she's incredibly strong for a 12 year old and athletically talented, she she 0.99

00:31:46.120 cannot compete against a man or a boy who is as developed as a 12 year old as she is.

00:31:53.720 Look, this is the way that I would sum it up.

00:31:56.340 And I think that's well said to inclusion at some point becomes exclusion.

00:32:02.560 And that's where we are, because when you include a man pretending to be a woman, you 0.98

00:32:08.700 are excluding a woman from being able to compete.

00:32:11.780 Look, that Leah Thomas ridiculousness in swimming not only did his and I'm just going to say his

00:32:18.660 championship.

00:32:19.320 Yes, not a woman out of being able to win a championship. 1.00

00:32:22.200 But Megan, getting to qualify for the NCAA swimming championship is a goal that almost every swimmer

00:32:30.340 would have in women's swimming. 1.00

00:32:32.580 And I just come back to we talked to one of the UPenn players and we covered this one of

00:32:37.200 the swimmers that was on that team with with Leah Thomas.

00:32:41.520 And I'm paraphrasing her quote.

00:32:42.860 But she said, speaking on what you said, she said, I hope one day when I when I grow up and

00:32:47.880 I get married that I have boys because if I have girls right now, there's only one on this 0.96

00:32:55.440 team, but eventually they will knock out all women from women's sports.

00:33:00.920 And and I just think that was so profoundly said, but also so incredibly sad.

00:33:06.080 She's rooting for having boys so that they can be able to go out and compete fairly in

00:33:11.920 athletics.

00:33:12.400 And for people out there who say this isn't happening, it's amazing how many examples of

00:33:16.520 it happening.

00:33:17.180 That is right.

00:33:18.100 We move from that doesn't actually happen to.

00:33:20.960 Well, it may happen a little bit and we're rapidly moving towards where the Democrat

00:33:25.900 position is going to be.

00:33:27.260 Not only is it happening, it's a good thing.

00:33:29.280 I disagree.

00:33:29.940 We have to draw the line.

00:33:31.460 This is the limit of inclusion where it becomes exclusion for actual women. 1.00

00:33:36.740 I know it's infuriating to me.

00:33:38.280 I mean, I'm really not at the point where it's just like, get out, get out, get out of

00:33:42.160 our locker rooms, get out of our bathrooms, get out of our sports, get out of our sororities, 0.70

00:33:45.440 get out, get out, get out, get back into your lane. 1.00

00:33:48.080 Only a sick, sick man would want into those female facilities. 1.00

00:33:53.920 And therefore, the mere desire to do it is grounds for stopping it from happening, right? 0.94

00:33:59.220 Like that's that's that.

00:34:00.500 And you're right, because we've covered Nicole Wallace on MSNBC.

00:34:04.480 We covered Megan Rapinoe a couple of weeks ago, as you point out, saying, where are these 0.72

00:34:09.440 men who are taking advantage of women's sports?

00:34:11.680 Where are they?

00:34:12.440 Well, pay attention.

00:34:13.380 Open your eyes.

00:34:13.880 They're everywhere.

00:34:14.500 Every day there's another story.

00:34:15.540 They just refuse to cover it because I guess it's not going to be them.

00:34:18.560 It's not going to be Nicole Wallace out on the field having to deal with this. 1.00

00:34:21.500 And now it's not going to be Megan Rapinoe.

00:34:23.480 So, yeah, exclusion, I think, to win this battle, because I could point out the absurdity

00:34:28.400 of it.

00:34:29.160 But Megan, you saying it and so many women out there hearing it, you have to understand

00:34:34.220 that it's not it's not mean to demand that there be a standard.

00:34:38.660 That's the reason we divide men's and women's sports. 0.97

00:34:41.200 If we just had unisex sports and let's say we only gave one gold medal at the Olympics,

00:34:47.220 women would never win a gold medal. 0.93

00:34:49.000 Right.

00:34:49.200 And that's not an attack on women's athletes. 1.00

00:34:51.360 It's because biology is real.

00:34:53.720 In fact, I flagged this because I knew we were going to be talking about it, Megan.

00:34:56.920 And I thought it was so interesting.

00:34:59.160 You know, women are only seven percent on average smaller in terms of height than men. 1.00

00:35:05.720 And that makes sense.

00:35:06.520 You sit around and you're like, oh, I know a lot of tall women. 1.00

00:35:08.360 Men have on average 57 percent more grip strength, 65 percent more leg strength, 90 percent more

00:35:17.340 total upper body strength and 162 percent more punching power.

00:35:23.820 Like this doesn't stun anybody who actually has been involved in athletics.

00:35:27.380 But those numbers are staggering because, again, men are only seven percent taller on average than women.

00:35:35.840 This is the amount of bigger, stronger, faster that men bring to bear is is something that I think a lot of people just really don't contemplate.

00:35:45.340 Because you mentioned tennis earlier.

00:35:47.320 Do you remember when John McEnroe, there was a huge controversy because he said Serena Williams was the best women's tennis player of all time?

00:35:53.240 And his CNN interviewer said, why wouldn't you say she's the best tennis player of all time?

00:35:57.460 And he was like, well, because she'd be like the 700th best men's player.

00:36:01.120 And that's probably an exaggeration.

00:36:02.880 But again, that doesn't mean Serena Williams is not excellent.

00:36:05.640 It just speaks to how much biology matters in terms of athletic excellence.

00:36:09.880 It's not sexist.

00:36:11.940 It's there's something in particular about sports that requires physicality that makes this important in news anchoring, in acting, in science, math.

00:36:22.600 The gender is doesn't play a role. 0.95

00:36:24.980 The brain is the brain.

00:36:25.900 You can do it or you can't.

00:36:26.920 Right.

00:36:27.520 But in athletics, it's different.

00:36:29.740 It's special.

00:36:30.400 Given those natural physical disadvantages that women have, it's not we have some advantages. 0.99

00:36:35.000 We have some very special things about us, which men are also trying to co-opt these trans men or fake, fake women, actual men like breastfeeding and giving birth to babies.

00:36:43.800 And they're now talking about womb transplants.

00:36:45.860 OK.

00:36:46.600 All right.

00:36:47.080 Yeah, sure.

00:36:47.680 That's not going to happen in any event.

00:36:49.880 All right.

00:36:50.200 Let's take a quick break.

00:36:51.600 All fired up this morning.

00:36:52.880 Clay Travis.

00:36:53.840 Much more to discuss with him.

00:36:55.300 We'll come back.

00:36:55.760 How do you like to start your day with our F bombs and the C and D words?

00:37:00.880 You know what?

00:37:01.600 It's a Monday.

00:37:02.180 We're spicing things up.

00:37:03.180 Stand by more with Clay right after this.

00:37:05.000 Here with me today, Clay Travis, founder of OutKick, which I love.

00:37:13.360 I love OutKick even as a non-sports person.

00:37:15.260 I love OutKick dot com and author of the new book, American Playbook, a guide to winning back the country from the Democrats.

00:37:22.740 Well, I mean, we we could use that guide right now because, you know, I don't know about you, but politics is starting to depress me.

00:37:29.740 It's like Trump is incredibly strong, which, you know, he's obviously the favorite to win the nomination.

00:37:36.280 He's neck and neck with Biden.

00:37:37.540 That New York Times poll showed him tied with Biden, which one would think would default to the Republicans when the actual voting happens, since Republicans tend to under poll a bit.

00:37:45.960 However, by the time we actually get to the voting in November of 2024, Trump's going to have probably four indictments around him in the news every day will be things like Jan 6th, which independents do not want to hear about, do not support, cannot forgive.

00:38:00.080 You know, so. The four more years of Joe Biden in this White House, Clay, I, I, I, I'm not going to say the country can't survive it because that's what lefties talk like, you know, I mean, I honestly, but like I deeply worry for the country.

00:38:13.880 I deeply worry what we're going to do if we have four more years of that man in the White House and his policies.

00:38:17.900 I deeply worry that he wouldn't survive and Kamala Harris would end up president and she would be the most unqualified, just frankly, disaster of a president we've ever seen. 0.97

00:38:31.500 And my. She would be the Harriet Meyers of presidents.

00:38:34.960 Remember how Bush tried to nominate Harriet Meyers for the Supreme Court and she was so unqualified he had to withdraw it.

00:38:40.820 That would be Kamala Harris. 0.99

00:38:41.680 My concern is what happens if China invades Taiwan and you have President Kamala Harris trying to decide how to deal with that kind of geopolitical struggle?

00:38:54.100 Oh, my God.

00:38:54.580 I just I just I feel like Kamala Harris represents and there's a huge part of the book where I discuss this, the failure of diversity in general.

00:39:03.280 Diversity, in my opinion, is not a strength.

00:39:05.320 Now, diversity of thought is a strength because it strengthens your ability to actually reach the right decision.

00:39:13.620 You practice law, Megan.

00:39:14.860 The luxury that I feel like I have and I bet you feel like you have is sometimes you had a client and you're like, man, this is a really big, bad side of the case to have.

00:39:23.040 Right. If you're a lawyer, you'll look at it.

00:39:25.620 I'd a lot rather argue the other side than this one.

00:39:28.300 But you're an advocate. You have to advocate for what you are being paid to advocate for.

00:39:33.020 So I feel like so much of what we do is we look at all the facts out there and we just say, OK, I'm going to pick the side of which that I'm going to advocate for and apply my legal training as a result to make a strong argument for why my side is the right one.

00:39:47.940 And I feel like Kamala Harris represents this this cosmetic diversity idea that everything needs to be perfectly representative of the the United States.

00:40:00.460 In fact, there's an excerpt up on today on Fox News dot com making this argument.

00:40:06.320 You know, Megan, the men's basketball teams, 12 black guys, that's not remotely diverse relative to the United States population.

00:40:14.980 Right. The only six percent or so of the United States population is black men.

00:40:19.420 But those 12 black guys happen to be the best 12 players in all of America.

00:40:24.360 Right. If we said they need to perfectly represent America and we wanted them all to be men, we'd have to fire like 10 black guys. 1.00

00:40:32.500 We'd have to put white guys, Hispanic guys and Asian guys on the U.S. men's basketball team. 0.96

00:40:38.160 And we'd be a lot worse. But it would be perfectly representative of the nation's racial diversity. 1.00

00:40:44.720 I don't want that. I want the meritocracy. Right.

00:40:47.120 Right. Kamala Harris is, to me, a perfect approximation of cosmetic diversity.

00:40:53.080 She's gotten where she is, not because of her talent, but because of her race and her gender.

00:40:58.880 And she's being exposed because she's been promoted above her talent level, frankly, and her ability to do the job.

00:41:06.340 Roger Ailes used to call it failing upward. That's what she's doing.

00:41:09.280 She's failing upward. She's not qualified for these jobs, and she certainly isn't qualified to be president of the United States. 1.00

00:41:14.240 But the guy who's in there isn't all that that qualified to be president of the United States.

00:41:18.220 And have you seen now like they've they've embraced Bidenomics, Bidenomics.

00:41:22.580 And the New York Times podcast, The Daily, had this celebratory discussion of Bidenomics today,

00:41:29.740 talking about how inflation is going down and how Biden's really owning it now.

00:41:36.060 It's as his economy. And he's really trying to change the narrative on this before November 2024,

00:41:41.260 because it's it's the thing around his neck. Right. It's the albatross.

00:41:45.120 Even the New York Times poll last week showed I think it was 20 percent of the country feels somewhat good about the about the economy.

00:41:53.240 It's it's the vast, vast majority, some 70 percent say the economy is a nightmare.

00:41:57.240 And, you know, we think it's poor. We think it's going terribly.

00:42:00.440 And almost I think it's 65 percent don't believe in the direction of the country right now.

00:42:04.280 So he's trying to change it. And one of the ways in which he's trying to change the narrative is totally political.

00:42:09.020 Clay is he's now posting this infrastructure project is thanks to President Biden in places like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

00:42:17.300 It's going to be all swing states. Mark my word. They're not going to do that in California, New York.

00:42:20.780 It's going to be all swing states. And you and I are paying for this shit. 1.00

00:42:23.480 Why am I paying for the Joe Biden celebratory sign for what for an infrastructure plan that helped drive up the inflation that I'm now supposed to be giving him credit for helping drive back down a little? 1.00

00:42:34.980 Like, how do we get to the inflation to begin with, President Biden? 0.97

00:42:38.240 Why do I have to pay for your damn sign when I can't pay for my milk? 0.98

00:42:41.000 That's what most Americans are asking. 0.99

00:42:43.260 Yeah. And you asked, you know, I'm incredibly concerned about what's going to happen in 24.

00:42:48.680 And Megan, I think it's your audience that's going to end up deciding this election, because when I go out with my wife and her friends, there are a lot of people, women in particular, suburban women, moms.

00:43:01.700 They just don't like Trump personally. And what I would say is you have to give up on personal.

00:43:08.760 Right. You have to give up on the personal and just look at the policy, because Biden's policies are disastrous for your kids and for your for your community and for your economy.

00:43:21.060 And and I also think a part of this and Trump may be able to address this better than a lot of Republicans can.

00:43:26.520 Megan, I've heard you talk about this. I think Republicans have to talk about abortion.

00:43:30.200 And I think they have to talk about abortion in a way directly to address the suburban moms. 1.00

00:43:36.540 My my theory and look, I understand people have very serious opinions on this.

00:43:41.840 But when I look at the data, there are about 10 percent of the population that says there should be no abortions for rape, incest, life of the mother, that stuff like that's about 10 percent of population.

00:43:52.840 Overwhelmingly, that's Republican. There's about 10 percent of the population that says you should basically be able to have an abortion up to the ninth month. 0.60

00:44:00.980 And that is overwhelmingly Democrat. The rest of us and I'm in this camp are somewhere in the 80 percent.

00:44:06.780 We're somewhere in the middle. And I've been almost everybody listening to us is somewhere in that 80 percent.

00:44:12.420 Republicans need to be able to address this issue, because I think the overturning of Roe v.

00:44:17.320 Wade has created a huge opportunity that Democrats exploited in 2022 that Republicans haven't addressed.

00:44:26.160 And the idea is that they are selling and it's effective.

00:44:29.400 Hey, if you're 14 or 15 year old daughter gets pregnant, Republicans are going to make her have to have that baby. 1.00

00:44:36.880 And that is, I think, for a lot of moms out there and dads, but particularly for moms,

00:44:42.160 that is a very resonant fear that Democrats are exploiting.

00:44:47.360 And frankly, I think Republicans are doing a really bad job of addressing it.

00:44:52.240 And I think it may. They're afraid to talk about it.

00:44:54.920 Yeah, they're afraid to talk about it. I think you have to address it.

00:44:56.960 I think you have to address it. I think you have to take that on.

00:44:59.360 I think that you had there's a piece in the book.

00:45:02.460 It was a chapter three that you said something that really caught my attention.

00:45:05.740 I was like, I want to I want to talk about this because there's so much pessimism in the news and there's and there's, you know, Republicans who are very angry, for example, about what's happening to Trump, but really just what's happening to the country.

00:45:16.760 You know, forget Trump for a minute. It's it's wrong what's happening to him, but it's really wrong what's happening to the rest of us.

00:45:21.680 And you write as follows. And I you got to explain this because you were writing about how you used to be a Democrat.

00:45:26.900 But the craziness that some of which we've been discussing pushed you more to the right.

00:45:32.580 I can relate to that. I mean, it's been a long time since I was a registered Democrat.

00:45:36.640 I've been a registered independent for some 20 years, but I've also been pushed to the right by the ground shifting beneath me.

00:45:42.120 I didn't move. The ground moved. But you say as follows.

00:45:45.860 I believe America is poised to reject the left wing woke overreach of our modern era, just like happened in the 1960s.

00:45:52.800 I believe we are set to rebound with an America is awesome era beginning with the 2024 election.

00:45:59.160 I believe that era will extend all the way into the 2050s and may well extend through the rest of my own lifetime.

00:46:06.020 Sing it, Clay Travis. Why? Tell us why.

00:46:09.200 I'm an optimist and I'm a history nerd.

00:46:12.180 My wife likes to make fun of me because I went to Civil War history sleepaway camp when I was in high school.

00:46:17.540 I can't believe that I married somebody who went to Civil War history sleepaway camp.

00:46:22.320 And so I'm a huge history nerd.

00:46:26.560 And if you look at history, it doesn't really repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

00:46:32.020 And so I'll use an example that I used in this book.

00:46:35.660 Top Gun Maverick came out last year, Megan, and it absolutely dominated.

00:46:39.980 It destroyed at the box office.

00:46:42.460 And I believe that there is a huge segment of Americans that grew up in the 80s, that grew up in the 90s, that grew up in the early 2000s, and they want that America back.

00:46:54.440 And I feel fortunate that I grew up in that era because what did you tend to do?

00:46:59.320 You tended to be fairly happy.

00:47:01.300 You were optimistic.

00:47:02.660 And even if you disagreed with somebody politically, you could go have a beer with them.

00:47:06.680 You could interact with them.

00:47:08.080 There wasn't this idea of good and evil.

00:47:10.340 And I think that what we are going to see is, out of the tumult of the 1960s, you ended up, so let me give you my historical analogy here.

00:47:20.540 Out of the tumult of the 60s, you went to Richard Nixon.

00:47:23.600 Nixon basically sold, hey, I'm going to make America normal again in some way.

00:47:28.420 And then he got removed for Watergate.

00:47:31.460 Jimmy Carter got elected.

00:47:33.440 I really think that Joe Biden is Jimmy Carter.

00:47:36.120 And instead of Watergate, COVID was the reason that Joe Biden got elected, because Democrats managed to terrify enough people out there that their kids were going to die, that there was going to be some massive, significant impact.

00:47:50.400 And what happened after that?

00:47:51.700 Reagan.

00:47:52.340 And then Clinton, who was, in many ways, a Reagan-like figure, led from the middle.

00:47:58.240 Even Barack Obama 2008, Megan, if you look at Barack Obama 2008, it's basically a Republican campaign.

00:48:05.440 It's America's so awesome that me, a single child of a mixed-race family, can rise to be president of the United States.

00:48:15.420 I think that's what's going to happen next.

00:48:17.160 We're going to have a Reagan, and he's going to lead us back to the era that we all grew up in.

00:48:22.120 Oh, my God.

00:48:24.540 Sounds so nice.

00:48:25.500 I'm just going to marinate in that for the next day or so.

00:48:28.660 And you can marinate in it, too, if you buy and support Clay Travis by buying his book.

00:48:34.060 Clay, so great to see you.

00:48:35.000 The new book is out tomorrow.

00:48:36.440 It's called American Playbook, a guide to winning back the country from the Democrats.

00:48:42.200 Thank you, my friend.

00:48:42.840 See you soon.

00:48:43.860 Appreciate it.

00:48:44.360 Keep up the good work, Megan.

00:48:45.920 You as well.

00:48:46.840 And we'll be right back with Dana Lash.

00:48:49.340 Looking forward to talking to her, too.

00:48:50.460 Don't forget, folks, you can find The Megyn Kelly Show live on Sirius XM Triumph Channel, 111, every weekday at noon east.

00:48:56.340 Full video show by subscribing to our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Megyn Kelly.

00:49:00.900 And you can get clips there as well.

00:49:02.900 Love the clips.

00:49:04.220 We'll be right back.

00:49:08.240 You are not going to believe what is going on in California right now with respect to crime.

00:49:13.400 We're going to get into it with the host of The Dana Show, Dana Lash, who's up to speed on all things involving your personal safety.

00:49:22.560 Dana, it's great to have you back on the show.

00:49:24.320 How are you doing?

00:49:25.060 Good.

00:49:25.420 I'm doing well.

00:49:26.140 Good to see you.

00:49:26.940 Thanks for having me back.

00:49:27.600 Oh, it's great.

00:49:28.340 It's great to see you.

00:49:29.540 So you this is unbelievable to me.

00:49:31.720 So we last week we we did a story on Oakland, California and that the the rising in crime out there, just a rash of crimes from carjackings to I mean, you name it.

00:49:43.820 And they're dealing with it right now to the point where the NAACP, they came on the show to speak out saying defund the police was a mistake.

00:49:52.040 Soft on crime prosecutors are a mistake. 0.92

00:49:54.400 Black and brown people are getting killed and hurt at exponential rates. 0.95

00:49:57.740 Something must be done and calling everybody in the community to speak out about all of this.

00:50:02.460 Well, about 72 miles east northeast of Oakland, California, where this is happening, is Stockton, California.

00:50:09.600 And Stockton, California, has the distinguished honor of being one of the top 10 crime ridden cities in America.

00:50:16.940 And that's a I mean, that's a distinguished list right now, Dana, because there's a lot of competition for it, as you know, Stockton, California is not doing that well.

00:50:23.940 And what happened?

00:50:25.140 I'm sure you covered this on your show last week when a couple of thugs went in to rob a 7-Eleven for the third time in recent days.

00:50:35.220 They were robbing it.

00:50:36.680 They were taking all the stuff off the shelves.

00:50:38.320 And finally, the clerk said, I've had about enough of this.

00:50:43.440 And he took out a stick and started beating the robber, called the cops, got the cops there.

00:50:50.340 They were there belatedly.

00:50:51.260 The guy was dealing with it on his own, unfortunately.

00:50:53.840 In a videotape that we showed our audience.

00:50:55.860 Do we have it now?

00:50:56.560 Let's show them the original incident.

00:50:59.760 That now, as you watch this, understand now, of course, the clerk is in trouble with the law.

00:51:06.980 Watch this. 0.99

00:51:08.320 God damn. 0.99

00:51:10.480 Ain't nothing you can do, though. 1.00

00:51:12.000 There's nothing you can do, man.

00:51:13.060 Tell you to call the police.

00:51:14.440 Showing the guy stealing.

00:51:16.040 Ain't nothing you can do, man.

00:51:17.060 Tell the police to come in.

00:51:19.840 Tell the clerk there's nothing you can do.

00:51:21.780 Ain't nothing you can do, man.

00:51:22.800 Don't do that.

00:51:23.700 Don't do that, man.

00:51:24.840 Don't do that.

00:51:25.460 There you go.

00:51:30.320 The clerk comes over with some sort of a stick and starts beating the guy, which most normal Americans are totally fine with.

00:51:41.380 Dana, the guy was fine.

00:51:45.120 He was hurt a little.

00:51:46.180 He was like lagging his arm.

00:51:47.480 But he was asking for a soda when it was done.

00:51:49.840 I mean, he was not like this is this is not a the guy got killed situation.

00:51:53.620 The one guy, the one clerk tried to wrestle him down, you know, just with his hands and he was struggling and he wasn't submitting.

00:52:00.660 And then the other clerk comes in with the with the what?

00:52:03.260 I don't know what that was.

00:52:04.140 It was some sort of a stick.

00:52:04.940 And now, as if on cue, the Stockton cops are investigating, yes, the robbery suspect for robbing, but also the assault, quoting here, of the robbery suspect by the two workers.

00:52:17.920 They actually might put those two workers in jail. 1.00

00:52:22.980 They deserve a medal.

00:52:24.560 What do you make of it?

00:52:25.240 I think that the people who are considering jailing the the workers who came in to to stop this guy, they ought to be thrown in jail.

00:52:33.900 I love that this guy like he he came in with this epic melee attack.

00:52:37.640 It looked like a push broomstick and he just took it.

00:52:40.640 I don't know what that was.

00:52:41.380 One of the hazards, Megan, of being a burglar is that you, you know, you F-A-F-O and everybody knows, you know, you mess around.

00:52:49.580 You could probably find out.

00:52:51.640 And it looks like they found out that guy should be.

00:52:53.440 I mean, get him into MMA.

00:52:55.300 My gosh.

00:52:56.000 I mean, I'm sure that they could find him some sponsors.

00:52:58.040 I mean, that was pretty epic.

00:52:58.960 He went in and and handled it.

00:53:00.520 And I got to say, that's I mean, I know some people, you know, bleeding hearts, whatever.

00:53:04.800 They're like, oh, that's an assault.

00:53:05.880 That was so mean what he did.

00:53:07.300 But honestly, like some of us who grew up like in southern Missouri, we got like whoopings that were worse than that from our grandmas if we messed up.

00:53:14.040 So, I mean, I feel to see where the problem is here.

00:53:17.360 And so here's the thing.

00:53:18.960 This guy deserves a key to the city.

00:53:20.500 These two guys who stopped him.

00:53:21.880 They had been robbed by this man now, according to KCRA reporting that at least two to two other times within the same 24 hour period.

00:53:32.600 The same guy.

00:53:33.620 They are reporting that the day before at 3.41 a.m., which, of course, is like a sketchy time for these poor workers in the 7-Eleven.

00:53:42.980 You got to worry somebody coming in there at 3.41 a.m. who's up to no good, who's threatening you might come back.

00:53:49.720 Right.

00:53:49.900 So that's what happened.

00:53:50.580 So the 7-Eleven worker the day before reported this suspect going behind the counter and threatening to shoot the clerk if he intervened in his robbery attempt.

00:54:01.300 The suspect then took several packs of cigarettes and a large garbage bag before fleeing.

00:54:05.720 Then the next day at 12.27 a.m., a 7-Eleven worker, same place, reported the suspect demanding money at the store while suggesting that he had a handgun.

00:54:18.600 When the worker didn't comply, the suspect grabbed the items, put in a garbage bag before leaving.

00:54:23.340 At some point later in the morning, the man's believed to have returned to the store, and that's when the beating captured in the viral video took place.

00:54:31.260 So this is and they described his his medical injuries as a result of the beatdown, his pain in his leg and shoulder, pain in his leg and shoulder.

00:54:38.620 This guy.

00:54:39.720 So three times in 24 hours, he comes in there.

00:54:41.920 He threatens them.

00:54:42.860 He suggests he has a gun. 1.00

00:54:44.420 He says he's going to shoot them if they intervene. 0.68

00:54:48.000 And then finally, on the third time, they try to stop and do what the police have not done.

00:54:52.500 And now now the police are interested, Dana.

00:54:55.180 Now they're super interested.

00:54:57.060 They should have been super interested the first time the guys came in there and were robbing the place or the second time the guys came in there or the third time the guys came in there.

00:55:04.680 And maybe the store owners could have been concerned the first time because, you know, they review the CCTV footage.

00:55:09.580 I'm not I'm not an attorney, but I just feel like, Megan, there's maybe grounds for a countersuit for these staff members, because clearly they're working in a very unsafe and hostile environment.

00:55:21.220 And there's no protection afforded to them by the owners of this convenience store.

00:55:25.520 So, you know, their their safety and security is just supposed to be at the discretion of, you know, maybe if police decide to show up and enforce the law or if the store owner decide to allow them the means of self-defense.

00:55:38.220 I mean, I feel bad for these people because, I mean, they're business owners to a lot of these a lot of these entities, you know, they're franchisees.

00:55:44.720 And I feel bad for a lot of these these these staffers.

00:55:47.580 They work the graveyard shift.

00:55:49.240 That doesn't mean that they should be any less protected.

00:55:51.280 But I just got to go back for a minute because, I mean, that was pretty that was a pretty stellar beatdown.

00:55:56.120 And I like to see criminals get theirs because when you when you stick it to a criminal, when you stick it to a bully, they kind of stop bullying.

00:56:03.280 They kind of, you know, maybe learn their lesson.

00:56:04.960 Maybe this place will get robbed less if they think that there's going to be pushback.

00:56:09.080 I mean, the brains and act going there and the guy was making a mess, just like shoving this stuff from the shelves into this bucket.

00:56:16.180 And he didn't even care what he was getting.

00:56:17.860 He was just making a mess.

00:56:18.880 Just he was just doing it to do it.

00:56:20.880 Maybe he suggested that he was armed.

00:56:24.020 Right.

00:56:24.500 And so these two guys got to worry that potentially their lives are in danger.

00:56:27.860 Meanwhile, the guy, the guy when he was on the ground was definitely kicking and moving.

00:56:32.540 He was fine, but he was not subdued.

00:56:35.140 So these two now, having confronted him, really have to worry.

00:56:39.160 Look, I have absolutely no problem with what they did.

00:56:42.460 Most Americans have absolutely no problem with what they did.

00:56:44.500 But this reminds me of the Daniel Penny situation, you know, in New York with the subway rider who, you know, he was the guy was down there threatening everybody.

00:56:53.140 And then thank God he was subdued.

00:56:55.960 Now, in that case, he died.

00:56:57.340 But that that good Samaritan is now facing criminal charges as well.

00:57:01.920 Which is also a crazy story because that I mean, that individual, the whole thing that came out about Reddit having a threat on this guy was true.

00:57:09.980 I mean, apparently for years, people were aware of that Michael Jackson impersonator in city.

00:57:16.120 Yeah, his propensity for violence.

00:57:17.520 And they're like, oh, he's not just some Michael Jackson impersonator.

00:57:19.820 He gave that up years ago.

00:57:20.860 And they were other Redditors were warning each other about, you know, this guy could pop off on this platform.

00:57:25.840 So just kind of be aware of your surroundings.

00:57:27.740 But Megan, you bring up something interesting here because it's really about the idea of self-defense being considered bad now.

00:57:35.900 It's apparently virtuous to make yourself more acceptable to victims or more or more acceptable to attackers.

00:57:42.980 It's apparently more virtuous to be a victim than it is to defend yourself because apparently you may hurt the victim's feelings or they may have pains in their legs if you kick them back or something to that effect.

00:57:54.640 But this is this they're trying to I feel like this restorative justice movement has been trying to mainstream this concept for some time.

00:58:02.420 And that's a very dangerous thing when you cause people who have this in their gut feeling that their safety and security is under threat and maybe they should do something or maybe, you know, when you cause people to second guess what they're seeing and what they're feeling and make themselves more vulnerable to attack.

00:58:19.660 That's a really dangerous thing, especially when you're not providing greater security or protection by way of enforcement because restorative justice also, I mean, really goes after an attacks enforcement of existing law.

00:58:31.920 So it's self-defense that's under attack here and it's trying to shame people out of defending themselves.

00:58:36.340 This goes back to the McClefskys in St. Louis who had, I mean, granted horrible trigger discipline and one of them didn't even have an off firearm, but, you know, they were on their private property. 0.56

00:58:45.940 I used to live blocks away from that exact neighborhood.

00:58:48.480 That's private property.

00:58:49.620 People broke a fence and trespass.

00:58:51.800 That was their private property.

00:58:53.020 They take care of their sewer.

00:58:54.620 They take it.

00:58:55.120 They literally have to pour the concrete for their own sidewalk.

00:58:57.260 It's a weird area, but that's all their land.

00:58:59.200 And so when you have people who are like busting down your property or the fence, getting on your property, trespassing, yelling threats, et cetera, I mean, yeah, you have every right to, you know, to fear for your life, especially seeing the rights that took place days earlier.

00:59:11.720 But the point is that they were shamed and attacked for merely defending themselves on their own property, the way that Daniel Penny was attacked for defending himself and other passengers.

00:59:22.020 Nobody took into account, Megan, the passengers who came forward and said, yeah, we were terrified.

00:59:25.660 This guy said he was going to kill us.

00:59:26.900 And now we have this situation with these convenience store workers.

00:59:29.960 This is a trend in America, this restorative justice that's trying to mainstream this denial of self-defense.

00:59:37.920 And this has got to stop because it creates more victims and it powers it powers the criminals and the criminals keep getting out.

00:59:44.640 Yeah, that's exactly right.

00:59:45.560 So this the subways, by the way, have not gotten any better.

00:59:48.460 This went viral over the weekend where there was an Asian family on the New York City subway.

00:59:53.100 I think it was two adults and two kids sitting there and these and I should point out for the listening audience in that 7-Eleven video, the robber was black and the two guys who took him down were Sikh.

01:00:03.540 And so, I mean, it's just a matter of time before Black Lives Matter gets involved and says this is like a potential George Floyd situation.

01:00:11.800 Yeah, right.

01:00:12.360 So so what happened on the New York City subway, which I mean, I want you to look at this video.

01:00:17.600 You tell me what would have happened if the if the ones who are bullying and threatening were white and the ones being targeted were black.

01:00:25.300 What actually happened was the ones being targeted were Asian and the ones bullying them and harassing them were three young black girls. 0.84

01:00:34.160 And then another person on the subway took the video and post it and it was reposted by an Asian woman who's running for Congress as a Republican in New York.

01:00:43.800 But the subways have gotten no better. And this is what you're subjected to if you go down there and no one cares.

01:00:49.580 The media has zero interest in this. It went viral on Twitter from conservatives, but the media has no interest in this.

01:00:55.920 Notwithstanding its minorities being bullied, I believe, because of the race of the people bullying them and threatening to assault them and harass them. 0.99

01:01:02.900 So here's what happened.

01:01:04.160 OK, now you have to watch the longer video because the longer video, those three girls notice that there's a woman down the train who's videotaping them and they come over and appear to beat the hell out of her. 1.00

01:01:33.520 The woman with the woman with the video camera. They don't want. Oh, you don't you don't want your crime documented.

01:01:38.100 Try not committing one. And now the police, thankfully, are they have an APB out for these girls who are harassing this family with a young kid. 1.00

01:01:47.240 You could see what looked like a daughter, just young, screaming at them, threatening them and then allegedly assaulting the person taking the videotape.

01:01:55.260 But this is life in America. It will get no, no time at all on CNN or MSNBC.

01:02:02.160 You know, I believe for the reasons I stated.

01:02:04.940 Yeah. And I think also, too, Megan, there's this people like to be Internet famous for fights.

01:02:09.840 I mean, they they like to be Internet famous for acting like hard asses, especially youth in America, which is sad.

01:02:15.120 But the sad sadder thing is, is that sometime maybe one day they step up to somebody who's like Daniel Penny. 0.89

01:02:20.280 See, that's the thing. When people push back, when they've messed with the wrong person, when they when they scare the wrong passengers and people actually push back,

01:02:28.600 then suddenly the antagonists turn into the victims. And then you get all the you know, you get all of these activists involved.

01:02:35.500 And you have PR companies that get involved, like in the situation of the penny case.

01:02:39.700 But that's again, that's a consequence of pulling stuff like this in public places and threatening people.

01:02:45.820 And the sad thing is, you know, I mean, there's all of these like what is it that I think it was maybe the New Jersey was at the New Jersey mayor.

01:02:52.020 There was a mayor, I think it's on the East Coast that got upset.

01:02:54.340 No, Chicago's Chicago's new mayor, Megan, who got upset last weekend because after a mob of and they were young adults, they weren't all teenagers.

01:03:01.980 I mean, when you're 20, 22 years old, you're an adult, you're not a teenager anymore.

01:03:06.080 And they were busting into stores and having riots and all this other stuff.

01:03:10.700 And someone asked this this mayor a question and phrased it as, oh, well, this was a mob.

01:03:16.680 And the mayor took offense at the word mob that was used, even though it was stand by, stand by.

01:03:21.140 Well, we have that. Let's play it. And then you take it back.

01:03:23.380 I know you're not aware of some of these large gatherings.

01:03:27.200 You're talking about the mob.

01:03:29.580 No, that's that's that's that's that's not appropriate.

01:03:33.300 We're not talking about mob actions. I didn't say that respectfully.

01:03:36.960 These large gatherings.

01:03:40.280 These large gatherings. Just hold on a second, you know, I promise you we have time to talk.

01:03:47.100 It's important that we speak of these dynamics in an appropriate way.

01:03:50.940 This is not to obfuscate what is actually taking place.

01:03:55.040 But we have to be very careful when we use language to describe certain behavior.

01:04:00.240 There's history in this city.

01:04:03.160 I mean, to refer to children as like baby Al Capone's is not appropriate.

01:04:08.860 Oh, there's a mob.

01:04:11.140 It was legally accurate. 0.71

01:04:13.020 I mean, it was a large gathering, Dana.

01:04:14.920 It was Thanksgiving in the South Loop.

01:04:16.680 Yeah. When you have get togethers, Megan, do you do you refer to them as that's like calling them mobs?

01:04:23.320 Like you had a mob of people over your house.

01:04:24.980 I mean, this is so insane to say, well, it was a large gathering.

01:04:29.280 It was a mob.

01:04:30.580 It was a bunch of people, whether they got together and then committed crimes as, you know, a huge group of people or whether it was organized.

01:04:37.900 And they decided to come together as a huge group of people to commit crimes.

01:04:41.700 Regardless, it's irrelevant.

01:04:42.880 It was a mob of people who decided to commit crimes while in a mob.

01:04:48.740 I mean, that's it.

01:04:49.360 To sit here and say, well, you know, you're talking about baby Al Capone.

01:04:52.960 A 20-year-old is not a baby Al Capone.

01:04:54.800 A 20-year-old is a grown-ass individual who also can stand for the consequences of their criminal behavior.

01:04:59.920 And that's what these individuals chose.

01:05:01.800 And for this mayor to get up there, what he should have said, Megan, is that, you know what, look, if you're 20 years old and you're out doing this stuff, you need a job.

01:05:09.860 You need a J-O-B. 1.00

01:05:11.460 Go and get a job. 1.00

01:05:12.600 If you're a teenager and you're out doing this kind of stuff, you need your ass beat. 0.99

01:05:16.580 You need your mom and dad involved in your life raising you so that you know better than to go out on the street and raise hell. 0.99

01:05:24.500 That's what this mayor should have been saying.

01:05:26.640 That's a message that parents, that everyone would have understood.

01:05:29.780 And instead he does this and then they act shocked, Megan, that crime continues because he enables it.

01:05:34.920 They're enablers.

01:05:36.620 Yeah.

01:05:36.820 Instead, he wants to police the language of the reporter referring to the people causing the chaos as the mob of people.

01:05:44.320 Oh, no, this is important.

01:05:45.340 This is this is the far left guy who replaced Lori Lightfoot.

01:05:49.020 When these crazy people in Chicago had the chance to get a more moderate person in there, not somebody in the far left, they went further to the left.

01:05:57.860 And this is what you have.

01:05:58.860 You have mob violence and the new mayor wants to argue over the language used to describe it as opposed to what actually happened on the subject of the media blacking out the things they don't like.

01:06:12.500 Right.

01:06:13.040 Whether it's, you know, black on Asian crime in the subway or the word mob, I guess that's something we need to worry about. 0.98

01:06:19.940 Memphis, this you and I've talked how many times over the past 15 years about school shootings and other mass shootings.

01:06:28.420 There's no bigger expert on guns in America than you.

01:06:31.520 And now if you would be hard pressed to find the story of the Memphis school and what what didn't happen the other day because it doesn't work with the media's narrative.

01:06:43.440 In fact, they don't think that fortification of schools to protect children is a good idea at all.

01:06:49.420 They get upset when you talk about fortifying the schools.

01:06:52.840 They think you're off point and that that's sort of ignoring the actual problem, notwithstanding the fact that we have 400 million guns in America.

01:06:59.560 They somehow think we're going to get rid of them all.

01:07:01.420 So why don't you tell us what happened in Memphis, because I know you've been covering it.

01:07:05.580 Oh, yeah, Megan, this story is a story of a school that turned itself into a hardened entity, which is, you know, you were talking about how there's a lot of criticism from the left about this because they say, well, you're turning the facility into a prison.

01:07:18.880 You're making schools like prisons.

01:07:20.260 But when you go to a concert or you go to a ballgame, I mean, it doesn't feel like you're in a prison and they have great security.

01:07:26.100 I mean, they have multi layers of security and that's what this school, this Jewish school in Memphis had, Megan.

01:07:31.300 They had multiple layers of security, including, you know, the locked door system where you could go into one set of doors, but you're sort of locked in this vestibule area unless someone buzzes you in through a second set of doors.

01:07:42.640 They had their their CCTV.

01:07:44.260 They had everything.

01:07:44.980 And so what ended up happening and there's a lot more to this story that the media immediately ran away from is this this individual at the 33 year old individual showed up at the school, had a handgun, had it out, pulled up in a red pickup truck, showed up at the school, entered into that vestibule area and then couldn't get into the rest of that couldn't get into the school because they had the door locking system.

01:08:08.760 So thick glass, etc. So as far as he could get was in this this this foyer, this entrance area when he realized he couldn't get in any further, he decided to leave.

01:08:18.680 He fled. He got back into his pickup truck.

01:08:20.780 But at this time, school officials were watching through their CCTV.

01:08:24.260 They were watching. They got the image of the guy's truck.

01:08:27.220 They got his license plate.

01:08:28.580 They got his image.

01:08:29.620 They immediately contacted police who I think no fewer than three miles away from the school.

01:08:34.680 Police engaged this individual and he immediately got out of his pickup truck, brandishing his handgun and cops shot shot him and he was in critical condition in an area hospital.

01:08:44.000 So this is where, Megan, the story gets even weirder, because thankfully this school was locked down.

01:08:49.360 They were aware. Also, thankfully, it was it was summer.

01:08:51.640 Kids aren't back yet. Faculty.

01:08:53.400 There were some faculty present on the premises, but not everyone was back.

01:08:57.540 But this individual was apparently a former student of the school.

01:09:01.460 And then the more of the story came out, his classmates started speaking out. 0.79

01:09:05.300 He has a history of mental illness.

01:09:06.540 And also 20 years ago, he had previously seen his father be his father was killed by Memphis police because his mother had called 9-1-1 20 years ago.

01:09:16.480 The dad, who also had mental illness issues, had a had a gun, was brandishing it, putting it to his head.

01:09:22.620 The mother was upset.

01:09:23.440 She called 9-1-1, told police what was happening, said that he had a gun.

01:09:26.440 When police showed up, he was waving the gun around and police shot and killed him.

01:09:31.120 And apparently the son saw that.

01:09:32.900 And it's horrifically tragic.

01:09:34.640 But at the same time, it kind of speaks to maybe whether there were whether or not there was a motive or what else was at play with this.

01:09:40.980 But there's always a bigger issue that the media immediately wants to discount.

01:09:44.420 The moment that there is something that invalidates the narrative, whether it's the race or the ethnicity or the beliefs or the political affiliation of the suspect involved, the media runs the other way.

01:09:54.840 In this case, a couple of different instances.

01:09:56.620 I mean, you had clearly what looks like it could be a very well-defined motive, but also additionally, you have this hardened school.

01:10:03.640 This is what we've been talking about with schools for the past decade.

01:10:06.920 Make sure that you at least have a locking door.

01:10:08.980 Parkland, the fence was open.

01:10:10.940 The door was open.

01:10:12.000 And, Megan, at that school, this was even after a retired Secret Service agent went in because they had a child at that school.

01:10:18.360 They walked through the school, Megan, with a stack of post-it notes in an experiment to show the staff and the administrators at the school how dangerous it was that their school wasn't secure.

01:10:28.300 And they walked through the hallway for a good couple of minutes and they put post-it notes on the back of every student they could touch.

01:10:33.920 And then they went into the administrator's office and said, that's how many kids that could have been killed in a shooting because your school's not locked down.

01:10:39.560 This happened months before the massacre at Parkland actually took place.

01:10:43.900 Media never wanted to talk about that.

01:10:45.760 The Stoneman Douglas, the parental and the Security Council that came together in the wake of that tragedy, they discussed it.

01:10:51.440 Media wouldn't have anything to do with it.

01:10:52.940 They kept with the narrative, Megan, that it was turning schools into prisons.

01:10:56.420 Sometimes all it takes is a locked door or an aware staff member who's like, why is someone who is not a member of the school coming in with a giant duffel bag?

01:11:04.380 Why is someone in the parking lot surveying the school?

01:11:06.840 And then an immediate reach out and touch someone, let them know that you're watching them and you're not afraid to go up and engage.

01:11:12.720 And with this individual, he met that locked door and he fled because it seems like he realized that that school was on to him and that he, you know, he was immediately thwarted.

01:11:20.620 He was probably going to be arrested.

01:11:23.160 He was I don't know if he was a prohibitive possessor.

01:11:25.660 Nobody knows how he has his gun.

01:11:26.940 Those are things media never wants to find out.

01:11:28.840 But thankfully, this was an instance of cops reacting really fast, school officials being aware and a tragedy that didn't happen.

01:11:36.840 Wow. I did not know that story about the ex-Secret Service guy or gal going through Dome and Douglas High School before the shooting and doing that.

01:11:47.000 That's chilling.

01:11:48.160 It is a good reminder, though, for parents.

01:11:50.880 Just ask, ask your kids school, ask the administrators what fortification they have.

01:11:57.500 What are the security measures to stop a lunatic from getting in?

01:11:59.980 Because we cannot get rid of even if we could get rid of all the guns, we cannot get rid of all the crazy people.

01:12:04.420 And so like there has to be a way of keeping them out.

01:12:08.240 When we went and we when we moved to Texas and my kids were homeschooled and we transitioned them to a Christian school and I was interviewing, I was taught I was interviewing the school.

01:12:17.280 They weren't interviewing us.

01:12:18.260 I was like, OK, I'm going to sit down.

01:12:19.440 Let's talk to you.

01:12:20.280 And one of the first questions I asked after their curriculum was, what are your what security measures do you have in place?

01:12:25.520 I see your double locking door, but I want to know what else.

01:12:27.460 And the principal looked at me and he goes, well, I built my own AR-15 and it was apparently in a locked thing in his desk and he had special allowance to be able to carry.

01:12:34.960 And he does all this training and everything.

01:12:36.320 And I thought, OK, can I come to this school, too?

01:12:38.180 Because I also here.

01:12:40.220 It's amazing.

01:12:41.520 God bless.

01:12:43.140 That's hilarious.

01:12:44.080 You and Chris must have been doing high fives when you when you walked out of that one.

01:12:47.660 Oh, that was so.

01:12:48.420 Yeah, we're like, we love this school now.

01:12:49.720 We want to be here.

01:12:50.740 It was great.

01:12:51.440 Oh, that's that's a great call.

01:12:53.240 All right.

01:12:53.640 So now on the subject of weapons, it doesn't have to be a gun.

01:12:55.880 It can be a dog, as it turns out.

01:12:58.020 Let's go to the White House, where apparently there is a killer dog protecting Joe Biden and it continues biting.

01:13:04.600 Speaking of Secret Service, Secret Service personnel. 0.99

01:13:07.960 Joe Biden just sounds like a douchebag here. 0.99

01:13:10.220 I'm sorry, but this sounds like a really shitty thing to do to the guys and women who are paid to protect you, which is to leave them constantly exposed to a German shepherd who's a biter. 0.99

01:13:21.880 And it's not like getting bitten by, you know, a little chihuahua, which also is unpleasant. 0.54

01:13:27.260 A German shepherd could really hurt you.

01:13:29.360 So this is Commander, the Biden family German shepherd.

01:13:33.180 And finally, Politico did a good article on it, I have to say.

01:13:36.420 And their headline was, don't blame the dog.

01:13:38.880 Blame Joe Biden.

01:13:40.020 So good for Politico for covering this because not a lot of people have.

01:13:42.940 They write about how the dog has bitten, what is it, seven people trying to get my number here, saying that there was one agent who for 10 seconds was attacked by the dog.

01:13:54.260 He was left bruised and bleeding, but not in need of further medical attention.

01:13:58.580 That agent was actually lucky because there is a 196 page trove of internal communications that they obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

01:14:08.100 Judicial Watch got them, revealing a slew of incidents where members of the agency assigned to take a bullet for the president wind up taking a German shepherd's teeth instead.

01:14:15.940 Quoting here from Politico.

01:14:17.400 In November, a uniformed division officer was transported to the hospital after Commander Unleashed bounded down a flight of stairs and charged.

01:14:25.440 One of the White House ushers warned the officer not to back, not to get back up too late.

01:14:29.660 He did.

01:14:30.040 He was pit.

01:14:30.580 He was bitten twice, once on the tricep, once on the leg, needed to use a nearby steel cart as a shield against further attack.

01:14:38.220 The dog was trying to kill him.

01:14:39.680 Not the first family's first round of bad dog news.

01:14:42.360 They had another German shepherd named Champ, who after a long separate string of biting incidents had to go.

01:14:49.080 Then Commander came on scene and they talk about how.

01:14:53.620 OK, here's here's as follows.

01:14:56.220 What's remarkable about the incidents of the dog at the White House is how the same set of facts with a different political figure might have led to an entirely different sort of coverage and perhaps to a story that didn't just pop up and then disappear during a summer news cycle.

01:15:10.180 Consider the most powerful family in the country appeared to sit by as their dog repeatedly menaced scores of anonymous people who work for them.

01:15:18.020 The dog lives in the executive mansion with the custodial staff who come with it.

01:15:21.700 He has access to all sorts of training regiments and presumably to doors with pet proof latches.

01:15:27.060 And yet a frightened Secret Service agent had to wield a chair like a lion tamer to protect against another bite.

01:15:33.740 And then Politico says, can you imagine if this dog had belonged to, say, Nancy Reagan?

01:15:39.140 The Marie Antoinette narrative would have written itself.

01:15:42.420 Fair point.

01:15:42.840 Yeah, that I can only imagine if that had been a Republican dog, Megan, owned by a Republican president.

01:15:50.320 My first thought when I because this is like I think they're yeah, their second German shepherd that they've had issues with.

01:15:55.740 And they've they've they had to send that one.

01:15:57.820 They said a family farm, which makes me wonder what that means.

01:16:00.900 But my first thought was, well, when you look at the kids, did you expect anything different with the dogs?

01:16:06.600 That was my first thought.

01:16:07.780 Maybe the nicest, but it's true and factual.

01:16:10.460 But that was, you know, I mean, you saw what their kids were like. 0.99

01:16:13.860 I'm just surprised that the dog doesn't have like hookers and blow all over in the White House the way that, you know, Hunter Biden does. 0.99

01:16:19.800 That's kind of it. 0.88

01:16:20.680 But I mean, this is it's a German shepherd that I guess I don't know who they have trained it.

01:16:27.280 It seems irresponsible.

01:16:28.400 Like I love dogs.

01:16:30.360 But what I hate are irresponsible dog owners.

01:16:33.300 And he doesn't get a pass because he's president of the United States.

01:16:36.080 I mean, if anything, he should have a higher bar that he rises to a higher bar.

01:16:40.180 He's got trained killers protecting him.

01:16:42.260 He doesn't need killer dogs.

01:16:43.300 You don't need a dog to do it.

01:16:45.260 And they and they also have trained canine.

01:16:47.780 They have canine that they work with that do all of this anyway.

01:16:51.420 They don't need German shepherds to act as some like security avatar for Joe Biden and Jill Biden.

01:16:57.080 They don't need that.

01:16:58.020 So it just seems like it's it's excessive.

01:17:01.460 And it's it also puts Secret Service in, you know, obviously dangerous positions.

01:17:05.780 But why?

01:17:06.920 It's just more chaos to the already chaotic White House.

01:17:10.260 You know what?

01:17:10.540 This also reminds me of.

01:17:11.900 So National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

01:17:14.260 And it's the it's the Quaid brother, Cousin Eddie, when he's got his dog under the table.

01:17:19.140 And he's just yeah, he's just choking on a bone, Clark.

01:17:21.480 It's all right.

01:17:22.000 Or he probably just got in the trash.

01:17:23.440 I mean, that's like the same vibe here. 1.00

01:17:25.800 I just think it's the white trash family that's in the White House. 1.00

01:17:28.920 And they got their dogs that they cannot keep trained, that they that doesn't listen to commands, that goes off and just rains hell all over the White House premises. 1.00

01:17:37.860 I mean, it's just more unnecessary chaos from this family.

01:17:40.980 Why do they have to keep having chaos for this for no reason at all?

01:17:44.540 They keep giving themselves problems. 0.99

01:17:46.400 It's it's ridiculous. 0.69

01:17:47.380 And I also I love dogs. 0.51

01:17:49.360 I really feel like that dog would just do a lot better with a different owner.

01:17:52.900 Of course, because obviously the dog is aggressive and probably shouldn't be placed around a family in which you're going to see a lot of armed personnel coming in and out.

01:18:02.480 And there could be threats.

01:18:03.380 And so like that, that's that's not a good place for that dog commander.

01:18:06.680 He should go command someplace else.

01:18:08.680 But you you raise an interesting point.

01:18:10.700 I mean, it is remember when Mitt Romney ran for president, it was a national news story that he put his dog in a crate on the top of his car, which was effed up.

01:18:19.040 It was that is bizarre.

01:18:20.800 I don't under he's like the dog liked it.

01:18:22.680 Oh, really?

01:18:23.080 I doubt it.

01:18:23.620 Going 70 miles down the highway.

01:18:25.420 Whatever.

01:18:26.160 That was weird.

01:18:27.260 But the media cared.

01:18:29.080 They cared.

01:18:29.480 But like here, the question is, do you care about Secret Service?

01:18:32.720 Do you care that there's an animal involved who's actually hurting Secret Service people who are just doing their jobs, putting their lives on the line?

01:18:40.200 But this is not one of the accepted risks to be bitten by the president's dog.

01:18:44.660 And think about it.

01:18:45.880 If you were this dog owner, if you were Joe Biden, you would do something about it.

01:18:49.500 You would say, I love these guys.

01:18:51.020 These guys are willing to lay down their lives for me.

01:18:52.780 I'm not going to let them live like this.

01:18:54.800 We got to get rid of the dog.

01:18:55.840 I love the dog, but the dog's got to go.

01:18:58.160 And he would recognize, too, Megan, that clearly his dog is stressed out because it's not normal behavior to be that aggressive towards absolutely everyone and everything.

01:19:07.880 He's he's not trained for the environment.

01:19:09.640 He's not trained to deal with that many different people.

01:19:12.440 So, I mean, clearly he's not paying attention to the signals that his dog's sending.

01:19:16.280 I mean, the animal's stressed out.

01:19:17.720 The animal needs some help.

01:19:19.660 And they're just, oh, well, you know, just do what dog's doing.

01:19:22.180 No, he he either needs to be trained and learn how to deal with these situations, learn how to deal with this.

01:19:28.180 I mean, it's like with horses.

01:19:28.980 You know, you don't take a horse out, you know, on public streets and out in crowds until horses have gone through a lot of training to deal with that because they can be easily startled.

01:19:36.440 You know, with dogs like German Shepherds, very active, very hyper alert, hyper aware dogs for situations like this.

01:19:43.180 They also need training.

01:19:44.400 So it's actually animal cruelty for them to have let this gone on for this long.

01:19:49.260 And the fact that they just swap the dogs out, Megan, that's the other thing.

01:19:52.260 So the other dog had this exact same problem.

01:19:54.260 Then they swap it out for this dog that also has the same problem.

01:19:57.220 Maybe it's not the dog.

01:19:58.940 Well, you know, that that was a fascinating parallel you drew between because, you know, Joe Biden, of course, has been running on Uncle Joe and what a family man he is and how family is so important.

01:20:09.740 And look, it's not to say that if you have somebody who's addicted to drugs in your family, you're necessarily a bad parent.

01:20:14.400 A lot of people have dealt with this who are loving, kind parents.

01:20:18.640 But yeah, that's the thing.

01:20:19.580 With the Joe Biden family, he's got like he's got a lot of a lot of issues in there. 1.00

01:20:24.400 And now it trickles right down to the damn dog. 1.00

01:20:27.240 Say again. 1.00

01:20:27.840 And the dogs.

01:20:28.940 The nieces and nephews apparently have issues and the brother and the dog like the whole fam family has issues down to their animals.

01:20:35.540 It's systemic.

01:20:37.040 This is systemic.

01:20:38.920 It's systemic.

01:20:39.760 It kind of is systemic.

01:20:41.280 I stand by my comment. 0.71

01:20:42.880 It's a douchebag move to let your killer dog continue biting the men who are charged and women with laying down their lives for you to protect you against actual backup bad guys. 0.98

01:20:52.160 Do better. 0.97

01:20:53.060 Be more respectful.

01:20:54.060 Stand by.

01:20:54.480 Dana last days with us.

01:20:55.600 And we have plenty more to get to on this busy Monday.

01:20:58.240 Don't go away.

01:20:58.740 This is not news.

01:21:03.260 This is a personal story.

01:21:04.420 But I've been kind of wanting to discuss it.

01:21:06.880 And you're the perfect person to discuss it with.

01:21:08.720 We're both professionals.

01:21:10.100 We're both happily married.

01:21:11.440 We both have kids.

01:21:12.380 And parenting can pose some tricky problems every once in a while that you really have to stop and pause and figure out how to handle.

01:21:20.960 So let me tell you about the one that we dealt with last week.

01:21:24.260 It's not a big deal.

01:21:25.140 It's just like one of those little moments where you're like, oh, this is a tough one.

01:21:28.060 So we're here at the Jersey Shore, Dana.

01:21:30.680 And we spend our summers here.

01:21:32.340 My husband grew up going here as a kid because he grew up in Philly.

01:21:36.020 And this is nearby.

01:21:37.480 And our kids are involved in this.

01:21:40.460 Like they take sailing lessons and tennis lessons at this camp they go to.

01:21:44.820 And none of the kids likes the sailing lessons because sailing is scary when you're learning.

01:21:49.580 You know, you can get hit in the head with a boom.

01:21:51.760 You can capsize.

01:21:53.220 You know, all sorts of things can go wrong.

01:21:54.660 The waves are scary.

01:21:56.120 And our little guy, Thatcher, who just turned 10, doesn't enjoy it.

01:22:01.080 But we're making him do it.

01:22:02.940 You know, he has to do it.

01:22:04.680 They're little boats.

01:22:05.660 They're little opti boats, which are, you know, relatively easy to sail.

01:22:08.880 Easy for me to say.

01:22:09.540 I don't know how to sail anything.

01:22:10.860 But in any event, so he he's got to do these.

01:22:14.880 They're called interclubs where like our club competes against other clubs.

01:22:18.520 And when you go to those, there's tons of boats, tons.

01:22:21.160 So it's the stress level goes up even more.

01:22:23.900 You could easily get hit.

01:22:25.580 Anything could happen.

01:22:26.720 And the day before he was supposed to go to one of these interclubs, there was an incident at our club, a smaller club, where he got hit by his boat, got hit by a bigger boat.

01:22:38.400 Older kids who are not where they were supposed to be and inadvertently rammed into his boat.

01:22:43.280 He was hit in the head with their boom and ejected into the water.

01:22:48.940 He was fine.

01:22:49.780 Thank God.

01:22:50.520 He had a little knot on his head.

01:22:52.140 He got back into the, you know, he didn't get back in the boat.

01:22:54.900 They took him in.

01:22:55.980 But so the night before the big interclub, Dana, he's saying to me, I don't want to do it.

01:23:02.820 I don't want to go to the interclub tomorrow.

01:23:04.920 And I said to him, is this because of what happened today?

01:23:08.080 And he said, no, I just hate the interclubs. 0.90

01:23:10.680 I hate them.

01:23:11.440 They're big and they're stressful and I don't want to go.

01:23:14.460 And normally I'd be like, don't go.

01:23:16.320 I mean, this is not, we're not preparing you to be a professional sailor.

01:23:19.300 But earlier that day, the coaches had come to him and said, Thatcher, are you going to go to the interclub?

01:23:24.000 And he said, yes, I'll do it.

01:23:25.080 So the instructors packed up his boat, which is a hassle, and his sail, and they drove along with the other little opties.

01:23:32.860 They got the boat there and they were counting on him to represent.

01:23:37.040 And so that changed it.

01:23:38.700 He said he would be there.

01:23:40.480 He told the coaches.

01:23:41.620 They worked on his behalf.

01:23:43.220 The team was counting on him showing up to represent.

01:23:46.020 And he had been given the chance to bow out and he passed on it.

01:23:49.620 So now I'm in a situation where he's begging me not to make him go, but I really want him to understand that doing what you said you are going to do is important in life.

01:24:02.680 And he's fine.

01:24:03.860 He didn't get a concussion.

01:24:04.880 It's not like it's not safe for him to be out there.

01:24:07.660 But he's crying, Dana.

01:24:09.440 He's my sweet babe.

01:24:11.060 He doesn't want to go.

01:24:12.400 He's like, Mom, don't make me go.

01:24:14.120 So I landed with, you don't have to.

01:24:18.180 I'm not going to make you.

01:24:19.800 But.

01:24:21.780 You you told everyone you were going to you're going to be there.

01:24:25.280 You need to understand you're letting down your team, you're letting down your coaches, and you're not living up to your word.

01:24:30.660 So I'm I'm not going to make you feel bad.

01:24:32.460 I'm not going to say a word about it if you bail.

01:24:35.180 But you need to understand in making this decision what the stakes are.

01:24:39.060 And then I went down to my bedroom and I prayed.

01:24:41.580 I prayed that he would make the right decision.

01:24:44.460 Right.

01:24:44.900 It's like, what if he says I'm not going?

01:24:47.500 What if he spends the day sitting at home watching TV, letting the people down and failing to overcome his fear?

01:24:55.960 Right.

01:24:56.240 Like that's those are the stakes.

01:24:57.840 It's like these are the moments in which you make a man.

01:24:59.840 Right.

01:25:00.280 Like when you make a good person anyway, he said he would do it.

01:25:05.960 Thank God my prayers were answered.

01:25:08.240 And the story does not end with him going and win winning the Interclub.

01:25:12.020 He was basically at the middling mark.

01:25:14.920 He was halfway in the in the pack.

01:25:16.840 Fine.

01:25:17.640 He did it.

01:25:19.060 And truly, it was just one of those moments where you're like, it could have gone either way in the moment.

01:25:23.760 I didn't know if we were handling it right as parents.

01:25:25.900 But now with retrospect, it feels like it, you know, it landed where it should. 0.98

01:25:28.700 But you do you have those moments where like it's not existential, but you realize there's more riding on it than a stupid game or sporting event or what have you. 0.98

01:25:38.780 Right. Like the stakes go up for you as a parent and your kid as a developing adult. 0.98

01:25:43.860 Yeah, it's a it's a character building exercise because it might seem inconsequential at the time, but it actually goes into making the fiber of the future man.

01:25:53.780 And I mean, we don't have I mean, in Texas, you know, we're here in Dallas, so we don't really have any sailing.

01:25:58.340 We have we have late grapevine, but I think there's Gators maybe in it.

01:26:01.180 I don't know. That's the rumor.

01:26:02.620 But no, we have football.

01:26:03.860 So football is the big thing here.

01:26:05.300 And my husband was a jock in all throughout school.

01:26:08.220 I was a jock all throughout school.

01:26:09.480 Our youngest is like who's going to be a mad scientist.

01:26:13.080 I mean, he's the guy who's, you know, he got scholarships to college for coding and tech and STEM and all this other stuff.

01:26:21.520 But he did sports up until, you know, he was in high school and he did football.

01:26:26.640 He committed to football.

01:26:27.660 All his friends were playing football.

01:26:28.720 He played football for two seasons.

01:26:30.480 All his friends were in football.

01:26:31.320 The second season, he wasn't feeling it.

01:26:33.480 He didn't want to do it.

01:26:34.280 He had a growth spurt.

01:26:35.120 And when boys, you know, go through growth spurt, it's awkward because especially if they're tall and they're lanky and they're trying to, you know, motor funk, motor skills, they're trying to control their arms and legs.

01:26:43.060 And so he was having a little bit of a tough time and he did not want to do it.

01:26:46.440 He did not want to go.

01:26:47.200 He did not want to show up for football.

01:26:48.280 And they, you know, they, they're, they're, they take very, you know, great care with how they play in school, football and school in Texas.

01:26:55.840 And he didn't want to do it, but he had promised, he told the team and we told him, you know, if you commit to this, you're going to show up for every practice in the morning because they practice morning and afternoon.

01:27:06.220 You're going to show up for every practice in the afternoon.

01:27:08.100 You're going to be at every game.

01:27:10.020 There's not going to be an excuse unless you're vomiting.

01:27:12.380 You got broken bones or you got a fever because there's a difference between hurt and injured.

01:27:16.520 So that's, you got to show up.

01:27:18.300 You sit and you show up.

01:27:19.800 And he did not want to fulfill his end of the promise.

01:27:24.700 And we told him, we're like, we're, you know, you made this commitment.

01:27:29.060 Feel free.

01:27:29.760 If this is what you want to do, you can go in front of your whole team and your coaches and you can tell them why you're going to be the one kid that lets everybody down because that's what it is in truth.

01:27:38.960 So you can go in front of all of them and you can tell all of them yourself because mom and dad are doing it for you.

01:27:44.200 You can tell them why you're going to let them down and, and why you're going to, why you're not going to uphold your end of the, of the bargain.

01:27:49.800 And he thought about it and he stayed with it and he wasn't, you know, he's not a great football player.

01:27:54.440 We had no, we were operating under no illusion that he was going to be some great football player, but it was about more than just being a good athlete.

01:28:01.980 It was, and that's, and that's one of the things that I hope people realize about sports and, you know, things that you're talking about that you're doing is because this is, it's about more than just the, the athletic skill or the prowess or the brawn or the stature.

01:28:14.400 It is about building that character.

01:28:16.860 You committed to something.

01:28:18.220 And even if it's uncomfortable, even if you don't want to do it, even if it's hard, even if it seems like everything is against you, you made a commitment and you're going to see it through.

01:28:27.220 And that is one of the characteristics of a great adult.

01:28:30.280 And so kids having gone through that, I think they have their metal tested and they come out stronger on the other end.

01:28:36.100 And it is so hard to watch as parents.

01:28:39.340 It is so terrible second guess yourself because you know, you, it doesn't help when you got grandmas in your ear going, well, it might seem a little harsh.

01:28:48.140 Maybe let them know, no, no, no, no.

01:28:50.420 They got to do it.

01:28:51.100 They got to do it.

01:28:51.700 They got to see it through and they come out all the better for it.

01:28:54.320 And then when they tackle like serious, seriously big things in their lives, they, they can rely on that past experience to guide them through the next challenge.

01:29:04.160 And that's what they have to fall back on.

01:29:05.980 And so I, I, I've been, I've been in that same position and it's hard to watch, but thankfully they make the right ones.

01:29:12.820 It's so, it's like such an interesting challenge parenting, isn't it?

01:29:16.340 It's like you have all these opportunities to just around the edges, change things for them and maybe weigh in on their future.

01:29:23.180 You know, like these are character defining moments.

01:29:25.920 You can't change their natural temperament, I think, but you can certainly give character building lessons and it requires some thought, some, some reflection.

01:29:35.480 You can't phone it in and it does require you to be there.

01:29:38.240 You know, Doug and I were talking about this the other day that there was this one kid who was behaving very badly on the tennis court and just being a bad sport.

01:29:45.460 And the parents were nowhere to be found.

01:29:48.300 And I said to Doug, cause he loves tennis.

01:29:50.620 So that's how he likes the fact that all of our kids are into tennis and it's fun to watch for me.

01:29:55.020 And I said, what would you have done if that had been Yates, who's our eldest and he's big time into tennis?

01:30:00.720 And he said, I just would have said Yates and he would have looked at me and it would have been a look.

01:30:07.580 I wouldn't have embarrassed him on the court, just would have been a word, you know, his name and a look and he would have understood.

01:30:14.020 But that to me spoke to like the importance of being there.

01:30:19.680 You know, you cannot outsource everything to a nanny or, you know, a camp or a coach or whatever.

01:30:25.240 Like the actual presence of the actual parent as often as possible matters, you know, because we noticed that we had a nanny when they were little.

01:30:34.180 The nanny won't discipline the kid. 1.00

01:30:35.440 And even if she does, it doesn't mean the same thing as the parent being there registering his or her disapproval.

01:30:43.160 Yeah.

01:30:44.100 Imagine anyone other than the parent going, well, I'm disappointed in you.

01:30:48.260 That's that is my oldest.

01:30:50.220 That is the meanest thing you can say to a child.

01:30:52.240 He's like that.

01:30:53.240 He goes, there's no threat of spankings or anything that got me as much as like your dad looking at me and going, I'm really disappointed in you.

01:31:01.120 He was like, that just makes me stop in my tracks.

01:31:04.220 And that is a power that only parents have because of that presence.

01:31:08.280 And, you know, that you have that presence in your life.

01:31:10.220 And I love the look, just saying the name and a look, because there's just this unspoken thing between parent and child and all the parent has to do.

01:31:17.600 My mom looks like when she would get mad, I was trying to think of the name of that.

01:31:20.940 Sam the Eagle from the Muppets.

01:31:22.920 OK, so she when she gets mad, she looks like an eagle.

01:31:26.680 She looks like the meanest woman on God's green earth. 1.00

01:31:29.940 And if I just acted up or did something that was inappropriate or untoward, all she would do is say my name real love, Dana, and then just give me a look. 0.99

01:31:38.660 And then I swear her nose turned into a beak and her eyes narrowed and talons came up and it was just like terrifying.

01:31:45.280 But that's all she had to do.

01:31:46.640 And then I knew that death was probably imminent and I should straighten up, you know, behavior.

01:31:50.840 And our kids are kind of the same way, like if they were acting up, which our kids were pretty good.

01:31:55.700 Most of the time they would act up towards each other.

01:31:58.280 But all we would have to do is, you know, give them a look or count to three.

01:32:01.920 I only had to count.

01:32:02.660 I only got to three once in my life as a mother.

01:32:05.420 We were at a playground and my oldest wanted to do something dangerous.

01:32:09.760 He was trying to climb on this retaining wall and I knew he was going to fall over, crack his head open.

01:32:13.500 It was terrifying.

01:32:13.960 And so, you know, I'd tell him, I'm like, look, I'm going to count to three.

01:32:17.700 And if I get to three, we are leaving and that's it.

01:32:20.300 No more playground for the rest of the week.

01:32:22.260 And he just thought that he was it was going to be a standoff.

01:32:25.260 But we're not playing that game.

01:32:26.400 So I got to three, packed him up, took him kicking and screaming.

01:32:28.840 And he like at one point screamed, you're not my mom.

01:32:31.580 That was a whole other conversation.

01:32:32.700 Like he was pulling on every stop.

01:32:34.640 But then he never got to three again.

01:32:38.300 Like he knew that I was going to follow through.

01:32:40.460 And, you know, to that point to Megan, it's a character building exercise for us as parents.

01:32:43.960 Too, when stuff like this happens, because we got to follow through, even if we don't want to.

01:32:49.360 We got to play ground because I remember it was a gorgeous day.

01:32:53.040 It was like a beautiful fall day.

01:32:54.240 It was like 70 degrees when we still lived in Missouri.

01:32:56.740 It wasn't humid, which was rare.

01:32:58.940 And I didn't want to leave and go back to the house.

01:33:02.180 I wanted to stay outside.

01:33:02.980 But my kid was not behaving.

01:33:04.560 So we all got punished, but never got to three again.

01:33:07.200 And I mean, I use that literally.

01:33:08.620 It's terrifying to get to three.

01:33:10.120 You start to start finding fractions you never knew existed.

01:33:13.300 But two and three eighths, two and yes, one and a half.

01:33:17.720 I mean, just getting all the way up.

01:33:19.280 But no, he yeah, never ever.

01:33:21.300 I never got past two ever.

01:33:23.640 That was it.

01:33:24.360 That last seven.

01:33:26.020 And, you know, the other lesson is not to threaten anything you actually can't follow through on, like leaving the park.

01:33:30.600 You can follow.

01:33:30.980 You may not want to, but you can follow through.

01:33:32.380 But one time when our kids were little, Doug, we had a trip to Disney planned.

01:33:37.760 And Doug was like, do it right now or no Disney.

01:33:40.800 I was like, oh, we had the tickets purchased.

01:33:44.900 Like, oh, and he was like, oh, my God.

01:33:47.120 He knew immediately when he said it was the wrong thing to say.

01:33:49.420 It was like, please let them do the thing.

01:33:52.360 Let them do the thing.

01:33:53.600 Let them do.

01:33:54.100 I don't remember what it was.

01:33:55.400 But we didn't actually have to follow through on no Disney.

01:33:57.540 Thank God.

01:33:58.760 But, you know, you can get so mad that, of course, it can drive you, you know, to the nth degree.

01:34:02.160 So you've got to, like, regulate your personality and your anger.

01:34:05.740 My mom, I don't have a memory of my mom ever yelling at me. 0.97

01:34:10.600 Like, she was stern.

01:34:12.080 She was always the one we were afraid of.

01:34:14.720 But, like, she just kind of did it in a calm manner.

01:34:19.400 I remember being the bratty teenager, like the freaking nightmare.

01:34:24.040 I was mad.

01:34:25.060 I wasn't getting enough money for school clothes.

01:34:28.080 That's what I was upset about, Dana.

01:34:29.580 I wanted more.

01:34:31.460 And it's embarrassing.

01:34:33.480 But I was yelling at her.

01:34:34.860 And it turned into this argument where she was just like, no.

01:34:38.080 And I was like, but, you know, this isn't enough.

01:34:40.380 I can get nothing.

01:34:41.300 I need, you know, new looks.

01:34:42.800 And she was like, the answer is still no. 0.88

01:34:45.200 And I said to her, I hate you. 0.91

01:34:48.400 And she said to me, Megan, you are my daughter.

01:34:51.760 And I will always love you.

01:34:53.260 But I don't like you very much right now.

01:34:55.400 I'm like, you are cool as a cucumber lady. 0.98

01:34:58.020 How?

01:34:58.900 I hope to emulate her someday.

01:35:01.560 I'm not there yet.

01:35:03.640 Oh, one time, I think one of the worst things I ever did, I was in eighth grade.

01:35:09.000 And I wanted to get my ear pierced up in the corner in the cartilage.

01:35:12.500 I wanted to do it so bad.

01:35:14.060 And I wanted to go to the mall.

01:35:14.980 Remember, my kids don't know this.

01:35:17.360 Back in the, we used to do fun things.

01:35:18.920 They go to the mall and our kids are like, what?

01:35:21.060 And they had like one of the little pagodas in the middle where you could go and you could

01:35:24.720 get your ear pierced.

01:35:25.500 And I was like, I want to go and do that.

01:35:26.600 My mom's like, no, that's unnecessary. 0.99

01:35:27.940 You don't need to do it.

01:35:29.360 I'll find I'll do it myself.

01:35:30.700 So my cousin and I, we were in my bedroom and I'm like, I'm going to pierce my own

01:35:33.760 ear and she's just going to have to deal with it. 1.00

01:35:35.520 So I did it.

01:35:37.440 It hurt.

01:35:38.160 It was horrible.

01:35:38.980 And my ear was all red and I was putting eosporin on it.

01:35:41.540 And she, I hid my hair.

01:35:43.240 I was like covering, I was covering my face so she couldn't see it.

01:35:46.080 And then she finally realized what was up because, you know, you can't fool your mother

01:35:48.820 forever.

01:35:49.500 And I thought she's going to rip my ear off and beat me with it. 1.00

01:35:51.820 Something's going to happen.

01:35:52.620 And she looked right in my face and she goes, if you ever do anything like this again, I'll

01:35:56.400 rip it out myself.

01:35:58.340 And then that was it.

01:35:59.900 That was all she said.

01:36:01.080 And I'm like, so I never did anything else again like that because it scared me.

01:36:05.100 I'm like, she really will rip it out.

01:36:06.920 I have turned into an evil.

01:36:08.560 No doubt in my mind.

01:36:10.000 I'm going to be a Van Gogh.

01:36:11.620 Yeah.

01:36:11.800 No.

01:36:12.000 And when I was little, my mom, she did spank us. 1.00

01:36:14.580 I turned this into a whole segment.

01:36:16.080 On Fox News one time, she would spank us. 1.00

01:36:18.240 Not hard.

01:36:18.980 We were never hurt.

01:36:19.600 But like now she denies it.

01:36:21.620 Now she's like, that never happened.

01:36:22.940 So I actually had my brother call in for a phoner and we can we indicted my mother and

01:36:27.480 she was totally convicted.

01:36:28.600 I mean, she definitely spanked us. 1.00

01:36:30.080 She used to do the old where like you had the one hand up here and she would use her other 0.99

01:36:33.640 hand to spank your bottom. 1.00

01:36:34.780 And you're trying to cover the bottom with. 0.98

01:36:36.940 Right.

01:36:37.400 Yeah.

01:36:37.900 I know it's the 70s.

01:36:38.920 It was just a different kind of standard.

01:36:40.980 Tricky.

01:36:42.000 I know she actually she was quite talented.

01:36:44.580 But for the most part, I remember even keel.

01:36:47.980 What did you did you did she just use her hand or I had a wooden spin. 1.00

01:36:51.320 It would never hurt.

01:36:52.220 I was terrified of wooden spins.

01:36:54.960 Yeah, we grew up differently.

01:36:56.040 I mean, people don't understand these kids today.

01:36:58.220 I'm convinced that the reason they need to invent their fake victimization at every turn

01:37:02.320 is because there's no actual victimization going on.

01:37:04.740 Try growing up in the 70s, for God's sake.

01:37:06.480 Like, yes, I mean, exactly.

01:37:09.000 Yeah.

01:37:09.200 Try growing up like in a time when I mean, you were told like my grandmother, the only

01:37:13.560 other time, the only time she ever whooped me, she had a willow tree that we all killed

01:37:17.180 as grandkids.

01:37:17.780 She had 23 grandkids and she would be she would say, go cut a switch is what she would 0.51

01:37:21.940 tell us and hand us.

01:37:23.440 Go cut a switch because she was we would have to actually cut our own instrument of discipline. 0.88

01:37:30.560 And we were out there looking for the thinnest little like the one that was, you know, not

01:37:35.480 going to hurt at all.

01:37:36.240 That would look like it was the softest.

01:37:38.300 Yes.

01:37:38.720 And if we came back with something that was too soft and she'd say, go cut another one.

01:37:42.860 I want two of them.

01:37:44.120 Oh, my gosh.

01:37:45.380 I only ever had to do it once.

01:37:46.600 But I have had cousins that had to do it repeatedly. 0.99

01:37:48.700 And at one point we killed that damn tree because we cut everything off. 0.99

01:37:52.520 No wonder. 0.99

01:37:53.260 I mean, I'm positive that's what did it.

01:37:55.380 I was thinking you would be like intentionally poisoning the tree after all that.

01:37:59.220 Like the tree needs to go.

01:38:00.500 We got to get rid of this weapon.

01:38:01.860 She's going to have to rely on her hand after this.

01:38:04.300 It was different times for sure.

01:38:05.940 We turned out OK.

01:38:06.860 You know what?

01:38:07.260 We turned out OK.

01:38:08.320 Listen, it's so fun talking about you to you about just our lives.

01:38:11.320 We never do that.

01:38:12.760 And I was feeling the need today.

01:38:15.200 It was very good.

01:38:15.940 It's good.

01:38:16.460 It's good to catch up and good to talk about fun stuff because heaven knows we got enough

01:38:19.980 serious out there in the world.

01:38:21.260 I know.

01:38:22.840 100%.

01:38:23.160 All right.

01:38:23.620 Well, come on again soon.

01:38:24.700 It's great to see you, my friend.

01:38:26.060 Yes.

01:38:26.340 We'd love to have you on as well.

01:38:27.860 Good to see you.

01:38:28.540 Yeah.

01:38:28.700 Anytime.

01:38:29.360 All the best.

01:38:31.040 And thanks to all of you for joining us today.

01:38:32.840 It was fun, right?

01:38:33.680 Every like I don't know.

01:38:34.420 Sometimes you just there's a bunch of news that we didn't get to, but I don't care.

01:38:37.440 I just was feeling the need to discuss it.

01:38:39.760 Moms, dads, are you out there?

01:38:41.540 Can you relate?

01:38:42.680 Right.

01:38:42.900 I would love to hear about some of your tricky parenting decisions and how you handled it

01:38:47.680 and whether it worked or didn't work.

01:38:49.060 In this particular case with Thatcher, it worked, but it could easily have gone the other

01:38:53.140 way.

01:38:54.100 So it's like there's not.

01:38:55.480 How do you learn?

01:38:56.340 It's just trial and error.

01:38:57.340 That's parenthood, right?

01:38:58.380 And like you're creating damage.

01:38:59.760 You're creating character flaws or you're not.

01:39:02.380 Could go either way.

01:39:03.560 Email me.

01:39:04.640 It's Megan, M-E-G-Y-N at Megan Kelly dot com.

01:39:08.540 We're all in this together because the the offspring of my decisions and the offspring

01:39:13.480 of yours are going to take over this world one day.

01:39:16.080 And then we got to make sure we're not effed tomorrow.

01:39:20.200 It's National Review Day.

01:39:21.840 Rich Lowry and MBD back on the program.

01:39:25.820 Looking forward to that.

01:39:27.200 We didn't get to any of the Trump indictment news or the latest fights with Jack Smith.

01:39:31.140 We'll get into some of that tomorrow.

01:39:32.520 Stay tuned to see that.

01:39:36.620 Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show.

01:39:38.540 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

The Megyn Kelly Show - August 07, 2023

U.S. Women Soccer's World Cup Fail, and Consequences of Criminal Behavior, with Clay Travis and Dana Loesch ｜ Ep. 602

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