The Megyn Kelly Show - Unhinged Media Reaction to Trump Arrest, and Don Lemon's Misogyny, with the Ruthless Podcast Hosts ｜ Ep. 523

00:00:00.260 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.

00:00:11.700 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:00:15.640 CNN's Don Lemon denying an explosive story in Variety detailing his alleged misogyny towards several female colleagues going back years.

00:00:26.800 The stories are awful, and they have several women on the record with quotes about him.

00:00:33.720 The network's response? Equally horrifying. We'll get into it.

00:00:38.380 Plus, we'll tackle what the Wisconsin Supreme Court election means for 2024.

00:00:42.500 I listened to The New York Times The Daily two days ago, and they said this is the single most important election in America this year, and the Democrats just won it handily.

00:00:51.280 The guys had a great podcast on why and what it means and where the GOP went wrong, so we'll delve into their analysis.

00:00:59.720 And by the guys, I mean Ruthless, who are coming on in two seconds.

00:01:02.960 And Dylan Mulvaney scoring yet another high-profile endorsement.

00:01:08.120 This time, I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear it's Nike previously so reliable when it came to standing up against the woke mob, right?

00:01:17.800 Oh, wait. No, that wasn't them.

00:01:19.100 Here to break it all down, John Ashbrook, Michael Duncan, Josh Holmes, and the man known as Comfortably Smug.

00:01:26.480 Together, they are Ruthless, the hosts of The Great Podcast, which you must be downloading if you're not already,

00:01:32.900 and happy to tell you they were my dinner companions this time last week in Washington, D.C.

00:01:37.980 Great to see you guys.

00:01:39.420 Oh, great to see you.

00:01:40.500 Good to see you again.

00:01:40.920 What a blast that was.

00:01:41.960 I can't believe you were willing to be seen in public with us.

00:01:45.280 I felt like the bell of the ball.

00:01:49.340 It was so, it was exciting.

00:01:50.540 I was like a little, you know, gobsmacked by the celebrity surrounding me at the table.

00:01:54.180 Oh, for sure.

00:01:55.800 Certainly.

00:01:58.120 Got to see Smug without his disguise, quote unquote.

00:02:00.920 Got to see the real Smug. 0.55

00:02:02.460 And all I could think was, why does he want to cover up that face?

00:02:04.800 Very handsome man.

00:02:06.860 Exactly.

00:02:07.380 We've been saying that for years, Megan.

00:02:08.820 I'm glad you've taken note of that.

00:02:10.180 He's a very handsome man.

00:02:11.140 Oh, we had a lot of fun.

00:02:12.800 We got to know each other personally because we see each other on the show all the time.

00:02:15.180 We never get to hang out.

00:02:16.520 And I want to tell the audience, even more charming behind the scenes than they are on

00:02:20.540 cam.

00:02:20.980 So if you ever get the chance to spend more time with Ruthless, either via podcast or

00:02:24.660 their live events, do it.

00:02:27.280 Okay.

00:02:27.800 So let's jump in on, we'll kick it out with Trump.

00:02:30.600 And then we got to get into what happened in Wisconsin, what happened in Chicago.

00:02:33.520 Some big electoral events happened this week while we're all focused on the indictment.

00:02:37.480 But I'm sorry, I've got to start with this.

00:02:39.420 I don't think I've ever said this before.

00:02:43.920 We begin today with Stormy Daniels.

00:02:51.580 She's, of course, at the center of the Trump indictment.

00:02:54.280 She's the one who took the hush money payout that Trump's alleged to have given the payout

00:02:59.720 itself, whatever, Alvin Bragg saying it's all illegal.

00:03:02.960 He couldn't have done the payout and it was a campaign contribution and he should have registered

00:03:07.080 it on his books differently and we can go down the line.

00:03:10.020 But she testified before the grand jury and now she's given a sit down to Piers Morgan,

00:03:13.900 which is airing later today.

00:03:15.820 And I'll let you be the judge on her, how she's going to come across to a jury.

00:03:21.480 Here's a clip that Piers released in advance.

00:03:23.980 Would it give you any kind of closure with your time involving Donald Trump to see him jailed?

00:03:33.360 Specific to my case, I don't think that his crimes against me are worthy of incarceration.

00:03:40.480 I feel like the other things that he has done, if he is found guilty, absolutely, because

00:03:47.140 a bigger problem is that if these allegations against him or whatever else that we don't

00:03:52.900 know yet, he is found guilty or the evidence suggests that he is or whatever, and he doesn't,

00:03:59.100 that it's going to just basically, I mean, it opens the door for other people to think they

00:04:05.220 can get away with doing that.

00:04:06.160 I mean, it's like listening to Elena Kagan, right?

00:04:10.720 Sandra Day O'Connor.

00:04:14.060 One of the brilliant minds of our time and an orator.

00:04:18.020 I mean, wow, was that well-spoken, fellas.

00:04:20.320 I feel like we just learned something here.

00:04:22.440 The allegations, allegations, allegations.

00:04:26.080 Yeah.

00:04:26.600 I also like with the crimes against me.

00:04:29.020 What was the, what was the crime against you?

00:04:31.700 Taking all of the money?

00:04:33.100 That was the crime.

00:04:34.060 I think you want to ask a lot of questions about what the crime against their life.

00:04:38.680 That's exactly right, Duncan.

00:04:40.080 What are the crimes against you?

00:04:41.700 Aren't you the one who had an affair with a married man after a lifetime, starring in

00:04:45.940 flicks like Summer Hummer, and then tried to extort the man before he ran for president 0.95

00:04:51.800 10 years after your alleged interlude?

00:04:54.580 Your research staff is really top notch.

00:04:57.460 We are.

00:04:58.380 They're browsing the stormy catalog before you go on air.

00:05:01.840 I had some volunteers to actually go back and go in depth and actually get some scenes

00:05:06.180 and some click, some clips, clips, clips, cut.

00:05:13.140 Well, I don't think we'll cut away to any of that.

00:05:16.640 Said no.

00:05:18.740 But it is amazing, right?

00:05:20.160 Like she's now being, it appears interviewed her, but the left is celebrating this woman

00:05:24.620 like she's Joan of Arc.

00:05:26.120 I mean, they are like her bravery.

00:05:29.480 She's I just tweeted this out today.

00:05:31.580 Is it what magazine is it that featured her?

00:05:34.740 Hold on a second.

00:05:35.280 Miranda Devine had it.

00:05:36.860 It's Vogue.

00:05:37.840 Vogue does the.

00:05:40.220 With Annie Leibovitz shooting the piece, does this in-depth glamour, you know, photo spread,

00:05:47.020 pardon the pun of Stormy Daniels.

00:05:50.140 I like Melania Trump never got in Vogue, who had been a supermodel prior to her time as 1.00

00:05:54.400 first lady.

00:05:55.240 She never got featured by Vogue, but Stormy Daniels is in there as though this woman hasn't

00:05:59.780 spent a lifetime contributing to the degradation of women. 0.73

00:06:04.240 Yeah.

00:06:04.760 The key qualification for a feature in one of those outlets is what are you doing for

00:06:09.540 the Democratic Party?

00:06:10.880 I mean, literally, that's the only thing they care about.

00:06:14.300 It is a remark.

00:06:14.740 John, you're not wrong.

00:06:15.740 Look who look.

00:06:16.700 Vanity Fair came calling to me after that August 15 debate.

00:06:21.220 Right.

00:06:21.680 That's when they did an in-depth profile of me and I was on their cover.

00:06:24.740 And I like you're exactly right.

00:06:26.920 It's when if you find yourself on the opposite side of someone they hate, you're their cover

00:06:30.720 girl, you're their glamour girl, even if, as I point out, your name is Stormy Daniels

00:06:35.220 and this is the way you've spent your life, extorting people, taking payoff monies.

00:06:39.640 I mean, how could they be so pleased with her?

00:06:41.000 She did keep her mouth shut. 0.87

00:06:42.000 She didn't come forward after, you know, before the election.

00:06:44.420 She took the money and then violated the deal. 1.00

00:06:46.760 And by the way, just found a court just found she had to pay Trump's legal fees for a BS 0.93

00:06:52.160 defamation case.

00:06:53.500 She tried to file against him.

00:06:54.860 So this is now the left's poster girl for what?

00:06:57.680 This New York case.

00:06:58.520 It's just the whole thing is so if you just take like a half step back, it feels like

00:07:04.300 we seamlessly just transition back into this bizarre reality show where it's like filled 0.99

00:07:09.740 with incomprehensible idiocy. 0.99

00:07:11.540 And like, if you were to tell yourself five years ago that we're having a serious discussion 1.00

00:07:16.460 about a porn star appearing on the cover of Vogue and like determining the course of

00:07:21.700 our politics, we'd have been like, what are you kidding me?

00:07:25.000 But that's like where we're at, right?

00:07:26.880 Yeah, it's day to day is wild.

00:07:28.460 It's like a like a TV show that's really seeing the ratings plummet and they got to bring back

00:07:32.600 a character from season one.

00:07:34.820 Yeah, you know, I mean, it is.

00:07:36.840 It's like we're living, you know, 2017 over again, like Groundhog Day.

00:07:41.540 Totally.

00:07:42.560 I mean, I think a little bit of a different take is, I mean, as you mentioned, Megan,

00:07:46.240 she just, you know, the Ninth Circuit ruled she has to pay another hundred thousand something 1.00

00:07:49.740 to President Trump on top of the roughly five hundred thousand.

00:07:53.900 So if she was paid by President Trump, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and now has

00:07:58.260 to pay President Trump six hundred thousand.

00:08:00.720 I think it shows yet again what a successful businessman he times his initial investment.

00:08:07.660 That's another qualification.

00:08:08.800 And honestly, if you look at her like Twitter feed, I mean, it's you can't if you're under 0.96

00:08:13.700 18, but it's filthy. 0.99

00:08:16.820 And the name she's calling Trump, absolutely filthy. 0.70

00:08:21.200 And he gives as good as he gets, as you know, he's not nice to her either. 0.66

00:08:24.280 But like this is their star witness, this person and Michael Cohen, his so-called fixer, who's 0.99

00:08:31.160 a convicted felon, convicted liar. 0.98

00:08:33.100 I get it. 0.99

00:08:33.720 These are the people Trump chose to have in his orbit.

00:08:36.240 But it's not bad for him that these are his lead accusers.

00:08:40.060 And the third character in the triumvirate is David Pecker.

00:08:43.020 Pecker, sorry, I actually worked with a man named Harry Johnson.

00:08:46.340 We talked about this at work at dinner.

00:08:48.680 Harry Johnson.

00:08:50.440 David, I don't.

00:08:51.620 Why would you keep the last name Pecker?

00:08:53.260 If we have any listeners whose last name is Pecker, could you call in?

00:08:55.840 Why would you keep that last name?

00:08:57.440 Short it to Peck.

00:08:59.240 They're proud of their family.

00:09:00.820 Also, it's a long line of Peckers. 1.00

00:09:03.700 Also, I want to know their experience in middle school.

00:09:05.980 So anyway, this is the cast of characters.

00:09:14.040 Now, in the meantime, oh, by the way, this from my team, it's not just Summer Hummer.

00:09:20.200 These are some of her greatest hits.

00:09:22.320 Dirty Minds, Forbidden, Happy Endings, Kink, Nymphos, Price of Lust, and we could go on.

00:09:32.040 So there you go.

00:09:32.720 There's a little homework for you guys.

00:09:34.380 It's better than saving Ryan's privates, but it's only a half step.

00:09:40.100 Casabanga.

00:09:44.240 I can't remember what the question was.

00:09:47.960 It's irrelevant.

00:09:49.500 So she's not the only like the lionization of Stormy Daniels is not the only thing that's happening on the left right now.

00:09:55.700 You've got people who are losing their minds over Trump remaining a free man after he allegedly, it depends on your view, violated the judge's admonition not to say anything that would lead to incitement or civil unrest.

00:10:14.300 He didn't want anything.

00:10:15.300 Don't make comments that will lead to violence, he said, or civil unrest.

00:10:19.200 And then Trump went down to Mar-a-Lago and he made the comments about the judge's daughter being a Trump hater and having worked for Kamala Harris.

00:10:27.380 Alvin Bragg, the DA's wife, sending out mean tweets about Trump and celebrating her husband was going to get him something to that effect and then shutting down her Twitter account. 1.00

00:10:37.720 I don't think we're there.

00:10:38.640 I have to say, I don't think Trump, it wasn't good.

00:10:40.600 I'm not saying he should have crossed those lines after the judge said what he said, but I don't think he incited violence or civil unrest.

00:10:47.820 And I think we know that because it didn't happen.

00:10:50.260 There was no civil unrest, et cetera.

00:10:53.180 Keith Olbermann sees it differently.

00:10:55.800 Here's just a little sampling, because I know you guys love to hear from Keith, of how he's reacting.

00:11:01.820 What more does the defendant have to do, Judge Merchan?

00:11:07.020 He already threatened death and destruction.

00:11:09.800 He already reposted an article with a photo of him wielding a baseball bat next to a photo of the head of the district attorney.

00:11:18.120 And yesterday, as you were warning him, but also as you were bending over backwards to protect his First Amendment rights, as you were saying those things to him, 0.99

00:11:31.320 his idiot sons, Junior and Fredo, were doxing your own daughter on every social media site they could find. 0.98

00:11:39.100 And if you don't put them under a gag order, what exactly does the rule of law mean in this country? 1.00

00:11:46.420 What exactly is the point of having laws in this country?

00:11:50.040 What exactly, Your Honor, is the point of having judges and district attorneys and cops if their words mean nothing? 1.00

00:11:57.860 And a psychotic, narcissistic piece of shit criminal like Donald Trump can leave your courtroom and go down on his private jet and go to his private club and pick up right where he left off. 0.99

00:12:09.100 Not merely endangering you and your wife and your daughter and the DA and his wife and everybody connected with law enforcement in New York and Washington and America, 1.00

00:12:18.240 but endangering, as you yourself phrased it, the rule of law by, as you yourself also phrased it, making statements that are likely to incite violence or civil unrest.

00:12:31.560 What more does Trump have to do? 0.91

00:12:34.580 Pull out a gun on Fifth Avenue and shoot you? 0.99

00:12:37.760 Or say something like that again? 1.00

00:12:39.680 Or inspire one of his brainwashed, gun-fetishizing, hate-filled, fascist mob to attack your daughter? 0.98

00:12:47.280 Trump is in contempt of court right now. 1.00

00:12:51.320 Jail him!

00:12:53.480 He is, in fact, in contempt of America.

00:12:56.820 He is always and will forever be in contempt of America.

00:13:02.060 America means nothing to him.

00:13:04.200 Your words mean nothing to him.

00:13:06.180 The law means nothing to him.

00:13:08.360 He will understand only punishment. 0.99

00:13:11.360 Punish him! 0.66

00:13:13.620 Debbie Murphy really fell in love with that clip.

00:13:15.840 I was like, cut a clip of this.

00:13:16.820 She went on.

00:13:17.120 We went on for three minutes.

00:13:18.700 He's upset.

00:13:20.600 Well, this guy is melodramatic.

00:13:22.680 I mean, he missed his calling.

00:13:23.880 He really should have been a high school drama teacher.

00:13:26.340 I mean, I've never in my life listened to a clip where a guy overacted more than that.

00:13:33.060 Probably mix in a comma, too.

00:13:35.100 I mean, it was like one wrong sentence of exclamation points.

00:13:39.100 I think it's the example of literally spitting mad, Holmes.

00:13:43.260 Yeah.

00:13:43.560 I mean, he just like threw a piston somewhere in his head a few years ago, and it has just

00:13:48.060 gone so far off the road.

00:13:49.120 So imagine the kind of person, by the way, that just wakes up in the morning, they pour

00:13:52.960 a cup of coffee, and they're like, yeah, I'm just going to throw Obermann on for a

00:13:56.120 couple of hours, just get a nice, you know, like relaxing day started.

00:14:01.220 I mean, I think something that he said is very critical, though, is he repeatedly says

00:14:06.300 that, oh, my goodness, this is another example of the threat of violence.

00:14:10.940 You know, people could die.

00:14:12.600 This has now become a standard part of the left's toolkit of any disagreement with them

00:14:17.400 is people are going to die.

00:14:19.640 This is going to kill people.

00:14:21.320 Specifically, you know, the irony of this situation is for well over a year now, there

00:14:26.820 have been protesters, a violent, you know, enraged mob marching around the homes of our

00:14:32.840 Supreme Court justices day and night.

00:14:34.800 You know, they're outside of ACB's house shouting that she's a murderer and she has school

00:14:40.480 aged children in her home.

00:14:42.240 That doesn't concern them at all.

00:14:44.860 Now, when it's brought up by numerous news outlets that this judge in New York's daughter

00:14:50.440 worked on Biden and Kamala's campaigns and proudly presents herself as being, you know,

00:14:57.240 a previous director on Kamala's campaign, she now runs a Democrat campaign firm.

00:15:03.680 Maybe that could be germane.

00:15:05.880 How is it germane, though, to shout that ACB is a murderer and terrorize her children for

00:15:12.160 over a year?

00:15:13.040 Well, yeah, I mean, the idea that Donald Trump should have to abide by a gag order during 0.95

00:15:18.460 a political prosecution is just fundamentally ridiculous and unenforceable. 0.60

00:15:22.120 The guy's running for president of the United States.

00:15:24.500 The idea that he's not allowed to talk.

00:15:26.260 I mean, I don't know how you could possibly ask that guy or any person who's running for

00:15:30.540 office under an indictment that's clearly a political prosecution and be like, no, you

00:15:34.880 know, you can't say anything about that.

00:15:36.420 You know, and Don Jr.

00:15:38.880 was posting an article like these were articles.

00:15:41.560 These were news reports about the D.A.'s daughter working for a Democrat consulting firm

00:15:46.800 working for Kamala Harris.

00:15:48.160 He didn't dox her like, you know, I mean, like this is public information.

00:15:52.480 And the idea that Donald Trump doesn't get to use public information in his own defense 0.92

00:15:56.460 is just ridiculous.

00:15:57.760 Well, it's completely absurd. 0.77

00:15:58.800 But also, if you look at the timeline, right, I mean, when they scheduled this thing for

00:16:02.200 December, they're within spitting distance of the Iowa caucus.

00:16:06.700 The idea that a guy running for president can't defend himself about a very public allegation

00:16:13.500 that's going on, that the D.A. honestly made very public, right, is insane.

00:16:19.080 And you're right.

00:16:19.500 It's totally unenforceable.

00:16:20.680 I feel like that's the most irresponsible part of this is like acting as though you could

00:16:25.560 put gag on a guy running for president of the United States.

00:16:29.700 It's nuts.

00:16:30.580 And honestly, like he didn't really he didn't violate the judge's admonition.

00:16:34.720 Like you may not like it, but this D.A. has crossed a line no one crossed before in

00:16:41.780 nearly 250 years.

00:16:43.940 So, of course, the reaction is going to be, why did he do that?

00:16:47.740 Could it be political?

00:16:49.160 What has he said in the past?

00:16:50.800 What are the political biases of Alvin Bragg and those he surrounds himself with or in

00:16:55.560 his ear every night?

00:16:56.760 Yes, it's relevant.

00:16:57.740 Now, with respect to the judge, he's overseen another whole case against Donald Trump and

00:17:02.560 Trump hasn't gotten very favorable rulings.

00:17:04.240 And he's allowed to say, I think he's a hack. 0.89

00:17:06.180 I think he's a partisan animal like that. 0.92

00:17:08.180 He is allowed to say that.

00:17:09.980 And I think his daughter's evidence of that, of the family politics.

00:17:13.840 And this is what I'm up against.

00:17:15.460 He said it in more frank terms than I just did.

00:17:18.000 But I don't think he did cross the line.

00:17:20.380 Makes me squirm a little, but no more so than Alvin Bragg's indictment did.

00:17:25.100 That's for sure.

00:17:25.660 Now, while we're on the subject of the left's reaction, right, we've talked about Stormy,

00:17:30.900 we've talked about Olbermann.

00:17:33.040 And now I want to talk about the media.

00:17:36.400 So I, after the show on Tuesday, as Trump was in this hearing, was driving up to see

00:17:41.080 my mom and she lives in upstate New York still in Albany.

00:17:43.860 So I'm going up the suburb.

00:17:45.020 I was going up to see her and I'm trying to get, you know, the right channels and I'm

00:17:49.520 listening and I'm sort of scrolling across this channel and the other, whatever, hear all

00:17:52.600 the different reaction on the right and the left.

00:17:54.780 And by the time I actually got to my mother's, I was in the midst of listening to Nicole

00:17:59.520 Wallace on MSNBC because I couldn't read my ears.

00:18:02.440 Sorry about that.

00:18:03.740 Naturally, I don't watch or listen to this show.

00:18:05.960 However, in this context, I got a piece of it.

00:18:08.700 So I got, I'm like, I got to turn this on, Ma.

00:18:10.640 So I turn it on.

00:18:12.100 And this is just a sampling.

00:18:13.380 This clip, like the Keith Olbermann clip, could have gone on for three minutes.

00:18:16.960 We kept it to about a minute.

00:18:18.860 But this is what was happening.

00:18:20.660 And the four o'clock hour of MSNBC as Trump was being indicted.

00:18:25.120 Listen to this.

00:18:26.180 He's going to take off in his plane, fly to Mar-a-Lago, blah, blah, blah.

00:18:29.480 She's over there with her pen.

00:18:30.620 I can't wait to hear what she's underlined.

00:18:32.600 So I've asked you about the IRS as though you, you know, have a direct line to them.

00:18:41.800 You have to check it so that.

00:18:44.540 So they can either come after you in a rough.

00:18:49.040 And I'm sure Fox is leading with it.

00:18:51.140 Absolutely.

00:18:52.000 Of course.

00:18:53.080 Would that be admitted?

00:18:54.480 Oh, yeah.

00:18:55.160 That's what's called.

00:18:56.240 So his whole, I don't know anything about it.

00:18:58.100 But he says, he says, can't you pay cash?

00:19:00.120 I mean, he's involved in the, he's involved in the, they call it a scheme.

00:19:03.380 It's really hard to do it in twenties and tens.

00:19:11.840 Oh my God.

00:19:13.600 Who is the gremlin at the end of the table?

00:19:16.220 I don't even know who that is.

00:19:17.020 I don't know who that is.

00:19:18.180 But man, just laughing and having the time of their lives.

00:19:21.120 Downright giddy.

00:19:22.340 And I think that's so unprofessional.

00:19:23.540 They enjoy, this is become a hallmark of, of how the left wants to act is they want to humiliate their opponents.

00:19:31.100 They're enjoying and reveling the fact that, you know, they're essentially just making a mockery of the constitution.

00:19:36.180 And now they have the power to just punish their political opponents.

00:19:41.940 It's, it's like, uh, PBS had some articles saying that, you know, there are actually many countries around the world who try to form our presidents.

00:19:49.460 And they give the examples of like Venezuela.

00:19:52.880 You know, maybe we should model ourselves after places that have had their governments collapse a few times.

00:19:57.820 Yeah.

00:19:57.940 Burma's had a little trouble over the years.

00:19:59.700 Maybe we should model it over that.

00:20:00.880 It's incredible, but it's very key because they want to show they have absolute control.

00:20:05.860 Whether it's with the corporations, um, whether it's the institutions of the school, higher learning.

00:20:11.120 And this is another example of, yes, they have the ability, uh, politically to make their opponents suffer and they're going to exercise it.

00:20:19.580 Everyone knows it's widely known that this case is extremely thin.

00:20:23.460 There's no grounds for it.

00:20:24.760 This, this district attorney has over 50% of the time turned felonies into misdemeanors.

00:20:30.000 And this is an example of him turning a misdemeanor to a felony.

00:20:33.260 And there's a very specific reason for that is because it's politically motivated.

00:20:35.860 Turning it into a felony, the justification of which is that these alleged crimes were in service of another crime, which they do not name.

00:20:44.300 An unnamed crime in the indictment, which is unusual.

00:20:47.960 No, it's in the tail on the felony.

00:20:49.780 Oh, yeah.

00:20:50.060 And, and, and so I think it's important for listeners to understand that they revel in violating the rules.

00:20:57.820 Like they, they, they're, you can't, they're shameless.

00:21:00.980 You cannot convince them they're wrong by showing them the truth.

00:21:04.660 They know they're not telling the truth and they don't care.

00:21:07.160 Exactly.

00:21:08.040 Exactly.

00:21:08.640 Think about it.

00:21:09.120 Like this is a sad day.

00:21:10.540 Yeah.

00:21:10.720 Go ahead, Ashbrook.

00:21:11.360 Go ahead.

00:21:11.580 Well, I was just going to ask you, I mean, you, you're obviously the, the legal expert among us.

00:21:16.300 And if you look into your crystal ball, I mean, how do you see this playing out over the next, you know, year?

00:21:21.760 I think they have the grounds, very solid, strong grounds to get this dismissed on the papers, but I don't think the judge is going to have the courage to do it because he's an elected official that, that New York state Supreme, which is what we call our trial courts here is an elected judgeship.

00:21:37.320 And he's, you know, in a democratic community, you know, I believe that Nicole Wallace and Keith Olbermann are also Manhattanites.

00:21:45.100 That's Trump's jury pool right there.

00:21:47.100 That's Trump's jury pool.

00:21:48.800 Okay.

00:21:48.900 So this, this borough of Manhattan went almost 90% for Joe Biden.

00:21:53.560 And this judge was elected in this borough to sit on the trial court.

00:21:57.120 And so you tell me who's going to have that kind of a steely spine to throw out the case against Donald Trump on the papers.

00:22:03.460 He's going to look for any excuse he can not to do that.

00:22:06.140 Punt it to the jury.

00:22:07.400 Again, a jury pool like those two and say, oh, the jury had its say.

00:22:11.140 But I think if Trump gets to this point where he gets to file an appeal, he may also have a trouble on the immediate appellate court, which is another elected court.

00:22:19.880 But once he gets up to the New York State Court of Appeals, that's our highest court, he'll win.

00:22:24.540 He'll win because there is no case on the papers.

00:22:26.660 If you follow the law, we went in depth on it yesterday in a podcast.

00:22:29.980 I have to tell you, I'm actually really proud of.

00:22:31.900 I really hope people go back and listen to it because we really broke it down for people with an election law expert guy who used to head the FEC under Clinton.

00:22:38.880 They're not some hard partisan guy.

00:22:40.980 And what he essentially said was, unless you can prove that the so-called campaign expense that Alvin Bragg is basing this all on, you know, the payoff to Stormy, unless you can prove that that's an expense, not just that Donald Trump would never have made in the absence of the election, but that no one would ever make in the absence of an election.

00:22:57.320 It's not a campaign contribution.

00:22:58.400 In other words, some people try to use a $2,000 payment for a fancy suit that they wear to a presidential or a senatorial debate as a campaign expense, and they have the campaign pay for it, right?

00:23:10.880 Then they don't have to pay for it out of their pocket.

00:23:12.300 They say, oh, I never would have bought a $2,000 suit for the debate.

00:23:15.100 That's campaign expenditure.

00:23:16.680 And the FEC says, nice try, but no.

00:23:19.780 Unless no one would ever buy this suit under any circumstances, you can't make that argument.

00:23:25.620 And, of course, somebody would buy that $2,000 suit.

00:23:28.300 And that's so he was saying very, very small field of things that qualify as a campaign expenditure, like setting up field offices, hiring a campaign manager, you know, hiring a speechwriter to write your campaign speech.

00:23:39.300 Yes, now we're there.

00:23:40.260 But hush money in a multitude of instances can be paid for things having nothing to do with the campaign.

00:23:45.880 So it doesn't have to do with even if in Donald Trump's mind he was doing it to pay or off so he'd win an election.

00:23:53.520 Irrelevant.

00:23:53.920 The payor or the payee's state of mind, irrelevant.

00:23:56.980 It only looks at Zoom out in any circumstance.

00:24:00.300 Could somebody have paid the monies for these for a non-electoral purpose?

00:24:03.460 And if the answer is yes, it's not a campaign contribution.

00:24:05.960 There's my two-minute synopsis of what the expert said.

00:24:09.260 So that's the law.

00:24:10.440 So he should win on the law.

00:24:11.940 But the politics are as big, if not a bigger factor.

00:24:15.560 And that's why, John, he's in trouble.

00:24:17.380 Well, that'll teach you to listen to the Megyn Kelly podcast every day. 1.00

00:24:21.600 Yeah.

00:24:22.020 I mean, good Lord.

00:24:23.620 That was an excellent summary.

00:24:25.820 I feel like I actually got a full download now of exactly how this thing is going to play out.

00:24:30.640 But I mean, look, the thing that I worry most about here, Megan, is the precedent that this sets going forward.

00:24:37.360 Right.

00:24:38.800 We have been resistant for the history of our country of prosecuting the previous president.

00:24:47.060 Right.

00:24:47.580 Granted, there haven't been allegations that have given rise to it most occasions.

00:24:52.020 But, you know, like Ford pardoned Nixon, for example.

00:24:55.160 And the reason you do that is because you don't want to live in a banana republic where political opposition is constantly using the long arm of the law to try to put down their opponents.

00:25:04.420 But going forward, to me, it's impossible to see how an enterprising young attorney general conservative, for example, if they have any case to make against Joe Biden or Hunter Biden or anything else, they're going to bring it.

00:25:21.100 They're going to bring it.

00:25:22.540 And this is going to go on in perpetuity.

00:25:25.160 The problem with this at the very outset is it's the weakest dang case in the world. 0.95

00:25:31.240 If you're going to break that precedent, you better damn well make sure that you've got fire in addition to smoke.

00:25:37.080 And he doesn't even have smoke.

00:25:38.860 This is going to be a huge problem that will set a terrible precedent.

00:25:42.980 I'm not sure how you undo it at this point.

00:25:45.480 So here's my question for you guys as the political analysts.

00:25:48.320 Was this a good week for the Republican Party wanting to take back the White House and the Senate in 2024 or a bad week?

00:25:57.580 Yeah, I don't think it's a good week for some of what I just explained.

00:26:04.280 But politically speaking, I mean, look, we also had an election in Wisconsin that was in the backdrop of all this on Tuesday.

00:26:10.160 It didn't go so well for Republicans.

00:26:12.300 Right. There's a myriad of reasons for that.

00:26:14.020 The old man's got himself worked up and he'll be able to talk about that with more detail.

00:26:17.960 But I just think any time that we're stuck in this tabloid version of lawmaking and news, we're in a bad spot as a party.

00:26:29.960 Because if you look at the policies themselves, and Wisconsin is a good example of this, but even the exit polls in 2022, people want conservative policy.

00:26:39.240 They deeply believe in the economic policies that the Republican Party put in place under Trump.

00:26:46.040 And they believe that conservative governance going forward is exactly what they want.

00:26:50.200 And they're still not voting Republican.

00:26:52.640 Yeah. If you look at Wisconsin, for example, there were two tough on crime questions on the ballot.

00:26:57.240 They both.

00:26:57.740 Wait, wait, Duncan, just set up Wisconsin for the audience because we haven't talked about Wisconsin at all yet in the Supreme Court race and why you're talking about ballot initiatives.

00:27:04.100 Yeah, sure. So so Daniel Kelly was the Republican.

00:27:07.520 This is Janet P. I don't know how to pronounce her last name.

00:27:10.160 Pro to say, what's pro to say, what's pro to say, what's pro to say, what's was the liberal judge on the in the in the race?

00:27:18.600 And Janet won by 11 points in this special election.

00:27:24.040 She was an avowed. I mean, she was not like, well, you know, I'm going to use the law for liberal good.

00:27:29.280 She was basically like, no, I'm going to overturn abortion laws and throw your election laws out. 1.00

00:27:33.300 Yeah. Yeah. And so the conservative judge, this Daniel Kelly, lost by 11 points.

00:27:39.600 But in the backdrop of that, there were three ballot questions on the ballot as well.

00:27:43.880 Statewide for every voter in Wisconsin, there were two that were tough on crime, one on cash bail, one on pretrial detention.

00:27:50.020 They won by 66, 67 percent of the electorate.

00:27:52.780 Two thirds of the electorate was like, yes, we like those conservative ideas.

00:27:56.980 There was also a looking for work requirement to getting welfare for able bodied and you don't have kids

00:28:02.060 and you want to receive welfare. You have to prove that you're looking for work.

00:28:04.940 That one almost 80, 20, 80, 20.

00:28:09.260 These are like rock red conservative policies.

00:28:12.960 And the voters of Wisconsin were like, yes.

00:28:15.660 And then they pulled the lever for a liberal judge.

00:28:19.040 Now, why is that? There's a couple of reasons.

00:28:21.300 I mean, I think we've done a really bad job messaging on the issue of abortion.

00:28:24.800 I think when Donald Trump is going into a courthouse in Manhattan, he sucks up all the oxygen in the room, not to mention the fact that this Daniel Kelly guy was endorsed by him in 2020.

00:28:35.900 He went along with the fake electorate scheme for Donald Trump, which suddenly now every independent voter is completely turned off by all of that.

00:28:42.940 And so they're not even you can't even persuade those people.

00:28:45.280 So you've locked in the fact that you're going to lose.

00:28:47.160 He was endorsed by Donald Trump in 2020, lost by 11 points.

00:28:51.380 Now, Donald Trump, who didn't who didn't get his endorsement in this 2023 race, is saying, oh, well, you know, if if only Dan Kelly, you know, had had gotten my endorsement, wanted my endorsement, he would have won. 0.99

00:29:03.640 Bullshit. It's absolute bullshit. 1.00

00:29:05.920 Donald Trump sucks up all the oxygen and the base loses focus. 1.00

00:29:09.660 The Republican Party is adrift and we lose races.

00:29:12.080 We'll continue losing until that changes.

00:29:14.780 Simple as that.

00:29:15.740 It's so telling.

00:29:16.440 So it's basically those two same things that haunted the Republican Party on the ballot the last time, which is election denialism and abortion.

00:29:25.060 Yeah, well, and we talked a little bit about this previously, but we also have a just a base turnout problem in midterms and special elections in that, you know, sometime about 2017, the base of the Republican Party changed from a largely suburban base for the 75, 76 percent turnout.

00:29:42.080 Percentage to a largely rural party.

00:29:44.740 And on paper, one for one, it makes perfect sense.

00:29:48.100 It's just a swap out of voters.

00:29:49.460 But when you look at special elections and and midterms, the propensity of those voters is like 55, 56 percent.

00:29:57.520 And what you saw was in the Wisconsin election, those suburban voters that we're talking about here all supported all of those conservative policies on the ballot question.

00:30:07.640 Yes.

00:30:08.260 But they are still, as they were in 2022, very shy about backing anything close to the Republican Party.

00:30:15.560 Yeah.

00:30:15.700 I mean, that's really my long term fear is like, look, this case in in New York is obviously a joke and I don't think it's really going to end up being anything.

00:30:23.680 It's going to be obviously a distraction for the Republican Party and Donald Trump's going to raise a lot of money on it.

00:30:29.720 But then you're going to have stuff like the Georgia case or like the Mar-a-Lago documents case.

00:30:35.200 And there's going to be a lot sort of swirling there constantly in the new cycle.

00:30:40.280 And if the Republican Party is more interested in defending Trump from all of these allegations than winning on the conservative issues that 80 percent of Wisconsinites agree with us on, we're going to lose it again.

00:30:53.540 We just are.

00:30:54.560 And like you said, it's going to dominate the conversation.

00:30:56.120 The exact same thing happened in 2022.

00:30:57.880 Yeah, it's going to dominate the conversation in a way that it doesn't allow for those other issues to be ferreted out.

00:31:04.000 But before we go back to the Trump thing, you know, Ann Coulter, she's not a Trump fan, but she she is a Republican fan.

00:31:11.400 I love the story about Ann Coulter.

00:31:13.060 I saw her one year.

00:31:13.820 It was 2012 because it was the Republican National Convention in 2012.

00:31:17.680 And I saw her and I know her loosely.

00:31:20.100 And I said, Ann, how are you doing?

00:31:21.920 And she goes, I'm great.

00:31:24.200 I'm in a sea of Republicans.

00:31:28.700 She was so happy, you know.

00:31:30.140 So she is, of course, conservative and Republican through and through.

00:31:33.640 So she's got stories back to her middle school years of how hard, hard she was charging on the right.

00:31:38.820 She's like, for the love of God, stop with the overzealous abortion restrictions. 1.00

00:31:44.620 Would you just let, you know, understand your audience in states like Wisconsin and stop making like the reason they think that liberal judge won again,

00:31:56.320 Proto-Sewitz, is because after Roe fell, there was this old provision that kicked in from the 1800s that basically outlawed abortion and essentially outlawed it.

00:32:08.200 And so, you know what?

00:32:09.560 And I know a lot of conservative leaning women who would have gone to the polls and voted for that liberal judge to say today I'm I'm voting liberal because that is an issue that is important to me.

00:32:20.980 I maybe I only want a six week ban.

00:32:22.880 Maybe I want a 15 week ban, but I don't want an entire ban.

00:32:25.520 And I will fight.

00:32:26.380 I'll march in the streets to stop an entire ban.

00:32:28.600 And I got a daughter and college age, you know, a son.

00:32:32.020 I don't want that.

00:32:33.060 And but the Republican Party has, let's face it, done a piss poor job since Dobbs of coming up with a national strategy, which means state by state.

00:32:43.440 You know, you can't go one uniform policy like just banned, banned, banned everywhere.

00:32:49.280 That's that's not going to work.

00:32:50.480 Fifty, you know, state by state.

00:32:51.840 What are the politics in each state?

00:32:53.280 What what will be acceptable that won't drive voters to the left side?

00:32:57.400 And they didn't do it.

00:32:59.060 And they're still paying the price.

00:33:00.200 Am I wrong?

00:33:01.440 Well, I think that's part of it.

00:33:02.660 You know, it is obviously the politics of every state matters.

00:33:05.280 And, you know, with the issue kicked back to the states, we have to be better at messaging the issue of abortion in all of these states.

00:33:10.140 I think that's absolutely true.

00:33:13.100 But like, look at a guy like Brian Kemp.

00:33:15.260 You know, he gets attacked by Donald Trump.

00:33:17.480 They try to run a primary opponent against him.

00:33:19.780 Kemp wins by 50 points in that primary.

00:33:22.920 Goes on against Stacey Abrams.

00:33:24.180 Very, very well funded general election candidate.

00:33:26.680 Had a huge PAC slush fund raising millions and millions of dollars for.

00:33:30.660 He he had a a very restrictive pro-life bill.

00:33:35.620 And then he won by nine points in Georgia, a state that we can't seem to win win anymore.

00:33:39.940 So it is.

00:33:40.940 I think you hit the nail on the head with you have to know your state and you got to be able to message this issue and speak honestly about our position on the issue of life.

00:33:49.620 It's as simple as that.

00:33:50.860 Well, the other the other complicating factor in this, and we saw this in twenty twenty two post Dobbs and you saw it again in the Supreme Court race in Technicolor, is that it is a very mobilizing thing for liberals.

00:34:02.560 And the entire abortion issue is probably the most the biggest driver of financing to campaigns on the Democratic side that there is in politics.

00:34:12.840 Right. I mean, we're talking about millions and millions and millions of dollars in small dollar increments that flow in to anything that looks like a referendum on the issue of abortion.

00:34:23.940 And a lot of our candidates get really flat footed with that.

00:34:28.180 The complication factor with with this in Wisconsin is, you know, this guy's not a great candidate for starters.

00:34:35.020 But when you get outspent seven to one because of the dynamic I just explained, it's a pretty tough road.

00:34:41.600 Right.

00:34:43.200 And then but the thing is that the reason that people need to be paying it, I mean, OK, it's what people might be like.

00:34:48.840 It's a Wisconsin court race.

00:34:50.320 Who cares?

00:34:51.200 But it's actually huge.

00:34:52.380 It's huge that she won and that the Democrats are now going to be in charge of this court.

00:34:57.120 You correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is it means the redistricting that the Republicans did that led to them winning elections like Trump winning in 16 is going out the window.

00:35:07.300 It's going to now go in the other way to help Democrats win elections.

00:35:11.280 I mean, I heard speculation on the left that the Republicans will be lucky as a result of this if they win another election at all in Wisconsin in the foreseeable future.

00:35:21.640 Is that too much?

00:35:23.260 It really really depends on how they ultimately present what they're trying to do.

00:35:28.220 But things as as common sense as voter I.D. are in jeopardy with this particular judge redistricting, as you mentioned.

00:35:36.560 Yeah.

00:35:36.740 I think any sort of voter integrity at this point, this lady has basically said during her campaign that she's going to try to take out. 1.00

00:35:44.520 So, yeah, I mean, if you if you believe that that an election that's conducted fairly is one that benefits Republicans, which I happen to believe, then, yeah, this is going to be a real bad thing for Republicans because it's certainly opening a Pandora's box.

00:35:58.400 A left wing group has already announced that the day after this new judge is seated, they're going to present a case to have the lines redrawn for redistricting.

00:36:08.100 And those lines would effectively remove two Republican members of the House from the state of Wisconsin. 0.73

00:36:14.420 That's they're already making a move on this.

00:36:16.480 It's very much in focus for what they want to accomplish.

00:36:19.100 And she said smug during the campaign.

00:36:21.480 The lines are wrong.

00:36:22.700 They're unfair.

00:36:23.300 The lines need to be redrawn.

00:36:24.440 And that was another thing is extraordinary to hear this judge who's supposed to be nonpartisan, supposed to be a nonpartisan election coming out and saying something like that explicitly.

00:36:32.600 So we know what we're going to get.

00:36:34.460 Well, they and they've been playing the long game on this, this Wisconsin fight for a while.

00:36:39.200 I mean, it's not just that they won the general election.

00:36:42.920 They picked their general election opponent.

00:36:45.140 Yep.

00:36:45.280 Liberal groups spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to boost Daniel Kelly in the Republican primary so that he would win because they already knew the guy lost by line.

00:36:54.440 11 points in 2020.

00:36:55.600 They beat him again.

00:36:56.620 Right.

00:36:57.300 And so Republicans, you know, if you're listening to this, you've got to wake up to what's going on in our Republican primaries.

00:37:03.780 When the left is trying to pick the person who wins our primary, there is a reason why.

00:37:07.880 Yep.

00:37:08.300 Yeah.

00:37:08.480 They know this.

00:37:09.560 This was not the first instance of them doing that, by the way.

00:37:12.100 They did that to the tune of 13 races last cycle.

00:37:16.340 They spent over 50 million dollars trying to pick a Republican governor's opponent in Illinois.

00:37:22.900 They tried to pick the Republican candidate in New Hampshire.

00:37:25.820 They tried to pick the Republican candidate in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Michigan.

00:37:29.100 And these are all races where Democrats ultimately won.

00:37:33.160 Yeah, it worked.

00:37:34.000 You know, it works.

00:37:36.160 13 and 0.

00:37:37.180 I mean, that's the top line of it.

00:37:38.840 Every time they did it, they got exactly who they wanted and they beat the hell out of them.

00:37:42.460 And just remember, just remember every time you hear on the media from these Democrats about how, you know, the sanctity of democracy and how, you know, there's these radical extreme MAGA elements that are going to destroy democracy and and usher in fascism, that they raise millions and millions and millions of dollars to make sure those candidates that they say those things about win primaries.

00:38:01.340 Bingo.

00:38:01.600 And are the worst possible representative of what they say they want.

00:38:06.180 Right.

00:38:06.420 Right.

00:38:06.860 Right.

00:38:07.120 I mean, that's what they spend their money. 0.97

00:38:08.300 They just make a mockery of the entire system and then they have the balls to be like, we're on Democratic.

00:38:13.860 Of course, it's just it's dishonest, but it's it's effective, you know, and it is really like as guys who advise Republicans running for office, should should the Republican Party be doing the same thing? 0.92

00:38:23.700 Oh, hell yes.

00:38:24.420 Absolutely.

00:38:25.040 It's not it's not a novel strategy.

00:38:27.380 You guys probably all remember Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos from 2008 when he told everybody to vote for Hillary so that they would have a fight in the Democratic primary for president.

00:38:36.440 I mean, so it's it's something that we have known that we should be doing.

00:38:40.000 We need to be doing more.

00:38:40.940 Well, we just need to be a lot more active in primaries in general, Republican primaries or Democratic primaries like these campaigns don't start in the middle of July of an election year, as we pretended that they did in 2022.

00:38:53.780 Just gross mismanagement of a whole bunch of different election electioneering systems within the Republican Party.

00:38:59.860 But I just think we have to be much more aggressive all the way through.

00:39:03.020 We just have to be because if you leave anything to doubt at this point, Democrats are going to exploit it.

00:39:08.280 We're going to get the same results.

00:39:09.920 Yeah, we're in the aftermath of Dobbs right now.

00:39:12.000 And it's you know, I know a lot of people who are pro-life are saying it's worth it.

00:39:15.760 It's worth it.

00:39:16.260 The ground's going to settle eventually and the Republicans will be listened to in a more fair way.

00:39:20.900 But right now, with abortion on the ballot in the way it is, it's going to be a lot of GOP losses unless they get a better, better message.

00:39:28.480 You can't have a total ban of abortion in a state like Wisconsin. 0.85

00:39:32.960 And the voters just said so.

00:39:36.280 We didn't even get to Chicago or the absolute meltdown going on right now in San Francisco when it comes to crime.

00:39:42.500 We're going to pick it up there with the guys from Ruthless right after this.

00:39:46.260 There's a court officer, I believe, who enters before him, doesn't hold the door open for him.

00:39:53.380 And the former president actually has to push the door open for himself, which is probably the first time he's had to do that in quite some time.

00:40:00.660 That alone, knowing Donald Trump will stick with him in a way, just a symbolic way of noticing that the difference, the lack of pomp and circumstance, the lack of sort of, you know, service being provided for him. 1.00

00:40:13.640 What I mean, what an idiot that's going to stick. 0.99

00:40:16.260 I believe that was Alyssa Farah from The Sound of It with her insightful political analysis is going to stick with him. 1.00

00:40:22.860 They didn't open the door in the courtroom.

00:40:24.900 My God, it passes for political analysis, but it's truly Trump derangement syndrome that's being masqueraded around his political analysis.

00:40:33.240 That was just for fun.

00:40:34.360 Let's go to Chicago.

00:40:36.240 Chicago.

00:40:36.980 My God, I have to say I'm sad.

00:40:39.240 I'm sad for the city I spent five years of my adult life in.

00:40:42.600 I thought when they booted Lightfoot and my friend John Cass, who's written so beautifully about what's happening to his beautiful city time and time again.

00:40:49.760 Check it out at John Cass News.

00:40:50.900 They had a relatively moderate candidate right there for the taking, which, you know, the hope was that this guy could have taken Chicago back to the mayor daily years.

00:41:03.520 That's when I lived there.

00:41:04.360 When you could eat off the sidewalks, they were so clean.

00:41:07.040 It was a well-oiled machine.

00:41:09.820 And instead of going with this moderate candidate, Paul Vallis, they elected what the editors over at National Review are calling a dream candidate for national progressives.

00:41:20.140 Brandon Johnson, there's this is their description.

00:41:23.000 African-American lobbyists for the powerful and radical Chicago Teachers Union, in addition to his nominal duties as Cook County Commissioner, which fund the Cook County CTU, Chicago Teachers Union, funded 90 percent of his campaign.

00:41:35.100 Um, he promised to immediately raise 800 million in city taxes, not just on high earners, but on tourists and commuters who live outside of the city.

00:41:43.500 In an election fought primarily on the issue of crime, the murder rate in Chicago has skyrocketed since 16.

00:41:48.900 Johnson was a candidate whose most moderate position was retreating from his original position of defund the police to a no additional funding for police stance that he regards as a compromise.

00:42:01.100 Instead, he wants to hire social workers to replace the missing police manpower in Chicago's most crime and gang ridden communities.

00:42:11.440 Oh, my God.

00:42:13.000 I've actually gone right into the heart of some of those communities, um, a number of times.

00:42:18.340 And most recently, while I was at NBC, to do an in-depth piece on this wonderful nun who's trying to help these communities with social programs and help some of the moms who are grieving their sons who are in prison or their husbands who got shot and so on.

00:42:30.400 Um, no social worker is going to do it.

00:42:33.280 OK, little boys who are eight are being shot in their living rooms.

00:42:38.100 Moms have their children have their children on all on their stomachs trying to dodge crossfire. 1.00

00:42:43.220 That happens in the late afternoon just to get to this nuns community center, um, to go meet with her for counseling session. 0.98

00:42:51.080 You have to be afraid for your life. 0.93

00:42:53.060 No social worker is going to be able to go in there and make one damn bit of difference. 1.00

00:42:57.860 Um, but nonetheless, this city, guys, has elected the dream candidate for national progressives, Brandon Johnson.

00:43:04.740 My God, what do we make of it?

00:43:05.860 I think we're sort of at the precipice of losing most great American cities, to be honest with you.

00:43:14.260 Megan, I'm truly depressed about it because, you know, you just rattled off the statistics.

00:43:18.360 I don't think if you can live, if you live in Chicago, you're unaware of the fact that it is entirely a different city that you feel unsafe in.

00:43:25.840 Right. I mean, that's just to state the obvious.

00:43:28.360 It's like San Francisco, the same thing, right?

00:43:30.460 When you can't have a Walgreens downtown because it gets looted twice a day, uh, you know, maybe we should change your policies.

00:43:36.140 But the progressive infrastructure in all of these cities is so strong that it just overwhelms any amount of common sense that anyone could effectuate on any of it.

00:43:47.260 And so election after election, this same thing happens, right?

00:43:51.400 Occasionally you get something where they, so they get thrown out. Uh, occasionally people will walk back a touch from the whole defund the police deal.

00:43:59.580 But what they mean is that they don't want to enforce the law. That's what they mean.

00:44:03.540 I mean, that is the core of their ethos as it, as it applies to all policing within a city.

00:44:09.760 Like they believe that not enforcing the law is somehow a civil rights issue.

00:44:14.200 They become entirely captured by the ideal ideological project of the left, irrationally against their own self-interest.

00:44:23.380 Um, I mean, it makes as much sense as Bud Light, you know, an American working class beer trigger making transgender Dylan Mulvaney, a spokesperson like they know it's not in their best interest. 0.97

00:44:36.940 But they do it anyway because they're committed to an ideological project. It's, I think it's obviously tragic, but don't you think, I mean, I really do believe that we are on the precipice of losing these cities.

00:44:46.940 Sure. And I think a lot of it is that, you know, when you speak about the progressive machine that exists in these cities, New York and Chicago, it's when they propose that, uh, they want 800 million more raised.

00:44:58.820 They know that's not going to stop crime.

00:45:01.100 They know that the social workers that they hire is the same thing that they do in all institutions where they'll bring in as many left-wing ideological people to, you know, make sure that the idea DEI essentially is, you know, from top to bottom in every single organization that controls any budget.

00:45:17.960 So it's basically just a payoff. It's, it's a, it's a, it's a patronage system that exists within these left-wing cities.

00:45:24.100 And that's why they do it is because the money's that great is, you know, my friends have no qualifications, but they're ideologues like me. So why don't we just have the taxpayer give us all their money?

00:45:35.060 That teacher's union. That's who's going to get the money. Um, and then look at San Francisco. Look what happened today. The, the creator of cash app. I don't know. You guys hear, you guys hear about this horrific, disturbing murder, uh, happened early Tuesday morning.

00:45:49.360 He's a top Silicon Valley entrepreneur stabbed to death in San Francisco was just 43 years old. They think it may have been a random attack, really uncertain at this point too early to tell, but that city was once one of the crown jewels of America. And now it is a criminal hell hole. I would never go to San Francisco. I don't want to step foot in that town. And most normal people don't either.

00:46:12.960 It's completely heartbreaking. And my understanding is he had just moved his family to Florida because of the state of San Francisco. And he just went back for a quick business visit and this tragedy occurred.

00:46:26.060 Oh man. But it's just, I hate to be so blackpilled about it, but I don't know what you can do. Right. I mean, can you have any more evidence of a problem and still not do anything about it than this? I don't know.

00:46:35.520 Um, I think you can, right. Cause we've seen criminal, like they, the crime was one of the main issues, if not the main issue in Chicago and still they elected this guy. It was tight. It was, uh, I think 52, 48. And my heart goes out to the 48 right now. They must feel so disheartened that their city's not only going to remain on this Lori Lightfoot path, but double down, triple down. It's going to go even farther left.

00:46:57.360 And it's just depressing. San Fran, Chicago, New York, uh, not to get started on the deeper blue, like Baltimore and so on. Standby. Ruthless. Uh, we'll do some fun next. You mentioned Dylan Mulvaney. Uh, we're going there and we'll get to Don Lemon. Uh, apparently according to Variety with a long history of misogyny. Didn't I say this? I said this. Uh, we'll get to that in one second.

00:47:20.540 So back in February, I was out in Vegas, um, for a business slash pleasure, uh, adventure out there and met some of my girlfriends and did sort of a public appearance and so on. And the story about Don Lemon and Nikki Haley broke, you know, women are past their prime when they're, uh, you know, third thirties, maybe 40, maybe 40. And this was in response to Nikki Haley. Um, so women, 0.57

00:47:50.540 women everywhere on the left and the right. And a lot of men too said like, you're an idiot. Um, it was, it wound up going into the speech of the best actress winner at the Oscars who said, don't let anyone tell you that you're past your prime. This is a 60 year old woman. Um, she, he got criticized by Karine Jean-Pierre at the white house, uh, podium. He got criticized from, uh, Anna Quinlan famed left wing, amazing writer. She's written so many great books. Um, and of course people like me and women on the right as well. Nikki Haley spoke out. 1.00

00:48:20.300 I go down the list. Um, I, this was not his first foray into misogyny. There, there had been a list, a considerable list prior to that moment from him saying that one of Bill Cosby's rape victims should have just bitten down to prevent herself from being orally raped. Cause that's, that's really, that reflects the power and physical dynamics between a rape victim and her rapist. Um, what he said to S E cup on the air, when she forgot her words, Oh, is that your mommy brain? That's your mommy brain, right?

00:48:49.300 S E cup was noticeably visibly irritated and said, no, Don, I just forgot my words. We could go down the list. So at the time I said this on the air on the air, watch this. This is a pattern of him diminishing. I'm telling you, look into it. If any reporter worth their salt would actually do some digging, call CNN, do it, call their HR right now. Find out whether he's got a history of harassing his female colleagues. We did, by the way, call CNN and asked about whether there was, there's been any history of problems with Don Lemon.

00:49:19.300 And women at CNN. And they ignored us. It blew us off. You're not going to be able to avoid it forever. Like if he's got some history, we're going to find out about it. And then you're going to look stupid. By the way, Chris licked. I know you're new. You should look into it right now before you give him another pass.

00:49:32.300 Wow. Yes, Megan. Get on it.

00:49:36.540 Nostradamus.

00:49:37.300 Nostradamus.

00:49:37.900 Okay. Can I tell you? And now Variety dropping this article by Tatiana Siegel. Don Lemon's misogyny at CNN exposed malicious texts, mocking female coworkers and diva like behavior. And I just want to tell you, this is what we actually went to CNN and asked at the time, because this ain't my first rodeo. I have been through these things with men who have a series of patterns against women many, many times. And I've called it out on the left and the right repeatedly. Check the record.

00:50:05.980 Right. So I asked the following questions, my team of CNN at the time. This is what they blew off. Has Don Lemon ever been the subject of a human resources complaint by a female anchor or correspondent? Has he been accused of harassment or other improper behavior by any CNN employee? How are such complaints, if any, resolved? Has he faced any disciplinary action or demotions in the wake of any such complaints from the beginning of his employment with CNN to present day? And they blew them all off. Okay. I guess those weren't relevant.

00:50:32.300 But Variety forced them to respond on some of this stuff because I didn't even touch on the harassment he's been doing, or I don't know what word you'd use. I'd say harassment, but just mistreatment of his female co-anchors, which has been making news for months now.

00:50:46.060 We forced at least one of them crying into the bathroom. One ran off the set upset. He keeps interrupting. He keeps getting upset that he's getting interrupted.

00:50:53.840 He refused to go to break one time so that he could correct one of his female co-anchors interviews and try to lecture her on how it ought to be done. I mean, it's just it's been ongoing. So it's very clear. So now Variety takes this deep dive. And there are many instances. All right. Soledad O'Brien is on the record. Nancy Grace, someone close to Nancy, gives an incendiary quote. I'll get to all of this.

00:51:15.960 But here's the first story. Kira Phillips, who was at CNN for years and now is at ABC Digital, in 2008 was Don Lemon's co-anchor. They had a show that they shared. And this is from the piece.

00:51:31.080 Tensions between the pair kept mounting. By the way, that's exactly what's happening right now between Lemon and his two co-hosts, female co-hosts, Poppy Harlow and Caitlin Collins, which is the first show he's co-anchored with a woman since Kira Phillips. Now we know why.

00:51:45.940 Tensions between the pair kept mounting. A producer and a newsroom supervisor had to pull Don Lemon off the air during a commercial break because of the anchor's provocative antics.

00:51:54.860 Kira Phillips was on assignment in Iraq. And while she was there, it was a high-profile gig that Lemon coveted. He vented his disappointment at being passed over by tearing up pictures and notes on top of and inside of Phillips's desk in the news pod they shared.

00:52:14.340 I mean, that's, if that's true, that's crazy ass, like single white female behavior, right? Like that's, that's like, what? According to two sources who worked there at the time, I should say here, Don Lemon denies this and I'll read his denial in full. 0.98

00:52:29.220 One night while dining with members of the news team, Kira Phillips received the first of two threatening text messages from an unknown number.

00:52:37.980 So now it's elevated from ripping up photos and documents and leaving them on top of her desk, her photos and documents, to text messages that are threatening from an unknown number on her flip phone, warning, quote, now you've crossed the line and you're going to pay for it, end quote.

00:52:54.720 So Phillips was visibly rattled and quickly enlisted CNN's higher ups to identify the sender. 0.96

00:53:00.580 She's like, who's my crazy ass stalker? Remarkably, reports Variety, the texts were traced back to Lemon, according to these same sources. 0.89

00:53:10.820 A human resources investigation was launched. And while the findings were never disclosed to the growing pool of staffers who are aware of the situation, Lemon was abruptly pulled from his co-anchor duties with Phillips and was moved to the weekends.

00:53:23.680 It was a demotion by any objective measure and understood to be some kind of disciplinary action.

00:53:29.400 It appears to be the last time he was paired with a female anchor until his most recent assignment on the morning show with Poppy and Caitlin.

00:53:35.980 Phillips declined comment. And now here's the capper.

00:53:38.640 A spokesperson for CNN said to Variety, quote, Don says, Don says, as if CNN must rely on Don's word to know whether this happened.

00:53:50.260 Don says the alleged incident never occurred and that he was never notified of any investigation.

00:53:56.980 CNN cannot corroborate the alleged events from 15 years ago.

00:54:01.880 What kind of an HR hellhole is this?

00:54:09.300 No, keep going, Duncan. I missed it. What'd you say?

00:54:11.740 It sounds like a real top-notch newsgathering organization.

00:54:14.820 They can't corroborate anything.

00:54:16.280 It's their own stuff.

00:54:18.660 They can't, you know, we really tried.

00:54:20.800 We couldn't find any reporter corroborating this at a news station, you know?

00:54:24.620 Like, think about that.

00:54:25.780 I mean, the guy, the intimidation that you listed out there, and it's gone back, what, 15 years?

00:54:30.900 I mean, it shouldn't be Don Lemon.

00:54:32.240 It's guys like Don Corleone.

00:54:33.580 Well, what Don says.

00:54:34.940 Yeah.

00:54:35.320 Don says it's not a problem.

00:54:37.000 Don says it's not true.

00:54:38.700 Like, you can't find any other people at CNN who were there and on that team from 15 years ago.

00:54:45.020 Where are your HR records?

00:54:46.880 Because this is the reason why companies keep HR records.

00:54:50.140 For this very, right?

00:54:50.920 Like, this is how you know if you have a problematic employee. 0.91

00:54:53.500 You check the HR file and you figure out, oh my God, holy shit, maybe we shouldn't pair 0.96

00:54:56.940 him with Caitlin Collins and Poppy Harlow, unless we've really assured ourselves he's 0.95

00:55:00.360 had no interim problems with women.

00:55:01.920 Oh, wait, check the record.

00:55:02.780 He's had a lot of them.

00:55:03.820 He's said a lot of controversial things about a lot of his female colleagues.

00:55:06.460 If you read this piece, my main takeaway is no one likes Don Lemon.

00:55:09.700 No one. 0.98

00:55:10.940 There's no person, like, the women who are quoted in here are all like, he's a prick. 1.00

00:55:16.140 He's a jerk. 1.00

00:55:17.100 He's been a jerk for a long time. 1.00

00:55:19.120 And this incident for CNN, just be like, oh, the records don't. 1.00

00:55:21.980 You know what?

00:55:22.940 If the records don't corroborate, you can't find any records on this, then let's figure

00:55:27.300 out whether Kira Phillips has an NDA because she must not have one, right?

00:55:31.000 You can't find the records.

00:55:32.400 Let her speak. 0.94

00:55:33.620 CNN, will you go on the record right now and say, Kira Phillips, if you signed an NDA

00:55:37.660 in connection with this incident, you may speak publicly about it because we have no

00:55:42.320 information suggesting that it happened or that you were gagged, right?

00:55:46.660 I don't know what the truth is there, but I'd love to find out.

00:55:50.800 Let's see if they do that, right?

00:55:52.440 Let's hear CNN.

00:55:53.440 You'd love to speak.

00:55:54.120 You spoke to Variety.

00:55:55.140 Speak to me.

00:55:56.020 Answer my questions.

00:55:57.200 I'd love to know your answer.

00:55:58.320 I have a sneaking suspicion CNN's being a little coy with this and that old Don Lemon's on

00:56:04.860 his way out.

00:56:06.020 And Ashbrook talks about this all the time in media reports with regard to Democrats.

00:56:09.980 And I think with media hosts, it's the exact same.

00:56:12.620 And that is when the media starts writing these stories about somebody, the calls come

00:56:16.080 from inside the house.

00:56:17.020 Like when you see a hit piece on a Democrat, it's because it benefits another Democrat.

00:56:21.960 When you see, you know, a story about a CNN host, it's because CNN is trying to get rid

00:56:27.080 of them.

00:56:27.400 I think that's a very astute observation.

00:56:29.160 I mean, obviously, the guy's ratings are terrible.

00:56:31.220 They've moved him around.

00:56:32.140 Nothing seems to work.

00:56:33.180 And this has been going on internally for 15 years.

00:56:35.780 And Megan, you know, as well as anybody else, these major media organizations can be very

00:56:40.820 tough on the inside.

00:56:41.920 And for somebody to have that sort of track record and have that many women talking about 1.00

00:56:48.080 how horrible he is to work with, I think what Duncan saying might be right.

00:56:51.720 Maybe they're well, I don't need to offload should say so.

00:56:55.080 I mean, what do you have to do to get fired around there?

00:56:57.680 It's incredible. 0.99

00:56:58.460 This dude, I'm beginning to think he has naked pictures of Chris licked. 0.98

00:57:01.460 Like how in the world? 0.98

00:57:03.340 First of all, he had the most horrible show on television that practically nobody watched.

00:57:07.120 And then recall memory was advising a subject of the news of how to handle the news and

00:57:11.680 that Jussie Smollett.

00:57:12.620 Yeah.

00:57:12.940 Jussie Smollett, right?

00:57:14.460 Yeah.

00:57:14.860 You know what that was?

00:57:15.460 That's that's detailed in here that she goes back through that.

00:57:18.760 And it's worse than I remember.

00:57:20.380 She writes some colleagues question his journalistic ethics in 2021 when disgraced actor Jussie Smollett

00:57:26.840 testified in court that Jussie first learned that Chicago police doubted his story about

00:57:32.380 being the victim of this MAGA inspired attack after receiving a text message warning him from

00:57:38.600 Don Lemon.

00:57:39.320 That's how Jussie first found out the cops doubted him.

00:57:42.980 Don Lemon warned him.

00:57:45.400 And they quote a Washington State University journalism professor, Ryan Thomas, saying,

00:57:50.760 involving yourself in a story invoking a public figure, whether to warn advisor coach is as

00:57:55.820 clear and bright and flashing an ethical red line as it gets in journalism.

00:58:00.840 A freshman journalism student would clearly recognize the problems inherent.

00:58:05.360 That's that's just one on the long list.

00:58:07.860 I'll give you a couple of others.

00:58:10.340 They say he called one of his producers fat to her face, that he mocked Nancy Grace on

00:58:18.540 the air by mimicking her in a way that shocked fellow colleagues.

00:58:22.180 Grace declined comment. 0.99

00:58:23.060 But a close a person close to her told Variety, quote, she thinks he's an ass and that he was 0.98

00:58:27.740 always, quote, rude, dismissive and really unfamiliar with the news content being discussed. 0.98

00:58:32.220 Then a witness to the incident said that was the beginning of when you knew he was volatile

00:58:37.440 and didn't say good things about women.

00:58:39.400 Then sold it at O'Brien.

00:58:40.800 She was chosen to host Black in America, that docuseries on CNN.

00:58:45.160 He reportedly wasn't happy.

00:58:47.500 Quote from a colleague, he always wanted to be front and center on anything high profile,

00:58:51.300 especially involving race. 1.00

00:58:53.160 O'Brien, who was not present, tells Variety, quote, Don has long had a habit of saying idiotic 1.00

00:58:59.040 and inaccurate things. 1.00

00:59:00.400 So it sounds pretty on brand for him.

00:59:02.920 It's the first time in my life I say, go, Soledad, go.

00:59:05.380 I totally agree with everything you just said.

00:59:07.720 Yeah, the guy spent the last 10 years trying to be front and center on everything in the

00:59:11.560 network.

00:59:12.120 And it turns out he's actually front and center on its decline.

00:59:15.500 I mean, he is the worst host on television.

00:59:18.620 And I'm just I'm blown away that he's still around.

00:59:21.340 And especially with all of this news, you got it.

00:59:23.900 You got to think I really think that Michael's on to something.

00:59:26.320 I think that's a good point.

00:59:27.460 Because, you know, I read the article and there was a part where it said that Lemon would

00:59:31.480 always make sure everyone knew how litigious he was, saying that he'd won a lawsuit against

00:59:35.680 Tower Records, that he'd won a lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department.

00:59:39.500 And so I think he's kind of used that that, you know, are of I sue people frequently to

00:59:45.420 keep himself safe.

00:59:46.900 And Chris Lick, fearful of that, of like, OK, what kind of lawsuits, what kind of problems

00:59:51.320 would I face trying to get rid of him?

00:59:52.560 He knows that and says, you know, maybe if we have an article like this appear, can start

00:59:57.720 making the case for why this guy needs to go.

00:59:59.840 Yeah.

00:59:59.980 If his intimidation fails in person, he'll get a little wine drunk, go to Cricket Wireless

01:00:04.180 and buy a burner so he can send threatening text messages to you.

01:00:07.580 Let's see if he if he sues Variety, the first person who's going to get subpoenaed is Kira

01:00:14.100 Phillips.

01:00:14.740 And then we will know one way or another.

01:00:16.800 And then CNN will have to check its records because it will be under subpoena and it will

01:00:22.440 have to find out, you know, what's in that file.

01:00:25.220 And we all know what's going to be in there.

01:00:27.080 I mean, come on.

01:00:27.760 They didn't throw that record out if they've got that.

01:00:30.960 Hold on one second.

01:00:31.920 OK, now we're seeing.

01:00:34.420 Oh, OK.

01:00:35.600 From the New York Post, CNN's Don Lemon is reportedly weighing a possible lawsuit over

01:00:40.400 the report in Variety.

01:00:42.140 A source close to Lemon said that he's outwardly playing it cool and that CNN's defense of the

01:00:47.380 anchor in the press shows that they are standing behind him.

01:00:51.340 We'll see.

01:00:52.320 We'll see if he sues Variety. 0.96

01:00:54.900 We're going to hear from Kira Phillips and then we'll know one way or the other.

01:00:57.780 And we're going to pour through those records.

01:00:59.500 Let me read you his response.

01:01:00.740 In fairness to Don, he says, OK, in a statement delivered to Mediaite, which was writing up

01:01:06.600 her report on behalf of Don Lemon, a spokesperson strenuously denied wrongdoing.

01:01:11.300 The story, which is riddled with patently false anecdotes and no concrete evidence, is

01:01:16.960 entirely based on unsourced, unsubstantiated, 15-year-old anonymous gossip.

01:01:21.840 It is amazing and disappointing that Variety would be so reckless.

01:01:25.260 A CNN spokesperson issued the following statement on the allegations against Lemon.

01:01:28.920 The Variety story provides no actual proof.

01:01:33.720 Hello, CNN.

01:01:35.120 You are the ones who would have that.

01:01:37.500 Whatever.

01:01:38.640 The Variety story provides no actual proof and instead relies on anonymous sources and

01:01:42.880 unsubstantiated claims from 10 to 15 years ago.

01:01:45.920 CNN is unable to corroborate the alleged accounts.

01:01:49.160 Again, unable, unable or unwilling.

01:01:51.420 I love that.

01:01:53.600 We happen to have absolutely no evidence presented in this article.

01:01:56.860 Frankly, we've withhold it.

01:01:59.060 She flushed it.

01:02:00.100 And I also love that every one of his colleagues is like, well, I just I couldn't comment on

01:02:04.940 the record on that. 1.00

01:02:05.740 But as a person close to myself, I can say I think he's a complete asshole. 0.99

01:02:11.900 There's something there's something particularly funny about CNN after years and years and years 1.00

01:02:16.380 of trying to get Donald Trump with bullshit now complaining about anonymous sources. 0.89

01:02:20.260 But stuff just hasn't been corroborated. 0.96

01:02:22.980 It's really a shame that Variety would do something like this.

01:02:26.400 Some might even call it a witch hunt.

01:02:28.640 I don't feel bad for Don Lemon.

01:02:30.880 I feel bad for Caitlin Collins and Poppy Harlow.

01:02:33.060 I feel bad that these two young women have been placed next to this guy where CNN definitely

01:02:38.480 knew all or some of this and didn't have a thought for their well-being or their future

01:02:43.580 careers.

01:02:44.540 And if you look through the list of this, I mean, like, may I refer you to what happened

01:02:47.500 to M.K. Ham, who came on the show, Mary Catherine Ham, and talked about how she was told she

01:02:52.780 was made to go on the air to talk about everyone's Me Too problem from, you know, Bill O'Reilly

01:02:57.620 then cross over to the CNN world, Jeffrey Toobin jerking off and not losing his job at CNN and

01:03:04.000 all the Me Too problems up and down the board there and elsewhere.

01:03:07.580 And then when she said something on Twitter about Toobin, they benched her.

01:03:12.720 They benched her for shooting inside the tent.

01:03:14.360 And it's like, wait a minute, why don't you want to shoot inside the tent at Jeffrey Toobin?

01:03:18.640 That's a real question.

01:03:19.820 They benched her. 0.98

01:03:20.840 And ultimately, she separated from CNN under less than favorable circumstances.

01:03:25.300 So that's what happens to M.K.

01:03:26.840 Ham, who had the nerve just to send out one tweet about Jeffrey Toobin.

01:03:30.460 But this guy can can stick with the stuff that we know, right, that we've reported even before

01:03:35.880 the Variety report.

01:03:37.800 He he can get away with murder.

01:03:40.420 And then they put him with the two female colleagues and sort of say, like, well, you

01:03:44.360 know, we're going to put him through a reeducation training.

01:03:46.200 Remember that was going to be like half day reeducation training.

01:03:49.020 How's that going? 0.94

01:03:50.960 Yeah, it's just ridiculous.

01:03:52.460 I don't think anybody wants to shoot anything anywhere with Jeffrey Toobin inside the tent 0.74

01:03:56.520 for that matter.

01:03:58.880 Avert your eyes.

01:04:00.560 No, exactly.

01:04:02.380 By the way, did you remember how they handled that when he came back on the air?

01:04:05.840 Yeah, it was awesome.

01:04:06.920 And they had him sit there and recount kind of like moment by moment what he had actually

01:04:11.840 done to find like that was the most uncomfortable form of it's in television I've ever seen.

01:04:16.560 They did that to Alison Camerata.

01:04:18.280 Yeah.

01:04:18.880 Yeah.

01:04:19.300 And that was another sin that they did to her.

01:04:21.660 That was the point I was going to make is they put Alison Camerata next to him to help 0.95

01:04:26.840 him recount all of this.

01:04:28.740 I mean, my God, let's say you've got a real short sighted view of how that may impact somebody's

01:04:34.080 career is a real understatement.

01:04:36.700 The report I again, I don't know anything about this, but the report suggests that Lemon

01:04:40.720 had a very close relationship with a guy named Phil Kent, who was then Turner Broadcasting

01:04:45.360 System chairman and CEO.

01:04:47.900 And that would have been a level above the CNN CEO.

01:04:52.720 And so that guy is the one who brought in Jeff Zucker.

01:04:56.260 And so Lemon, you know, how close was the friendship?

01:04:58.920 I don't they say that he was appearing at like basketball games with him and so on, sporting

01:05:02.940 events alongside him in the Turner box.

01:05:05.700 And so if he's tight with that guy who hired Jeff Zucker and then Jeff Zucker ran cover for

01:05:11.820 him all these years, was the one who put him in prime time.

01:05:15.040 And we know now that Jeff Zucker had his own Me Too issue going with an underling having

01:05:19.840 an alleged affair with a staffer.

01:05:22.300 Our reporting put it had started years ago.

01:05:25.940 And you can't, as the CEO, have an alleged romantic affair with an underling.

01:05:31.340 You can't.

01:05:31.740 Every promotion becomes suspect and so on.

01:05:33.580 Anyway, they're all compromised over there.

01:05:35.860 You know, it's like this is it's such a toxic stew. 1.00

01:05:39.140 Media is a disgusting, toxic stew. 1.00

01:05:40.820 I say that every day. 0.95

01:05:41.700 I much rather broadcast from my third floor like I'm doing now.

01:05:47.320 Incidentally, I think those HR files are in that dude's fireplace.

01:05:52.400 The one connection to all of this mess, right?

01:05:55.460 Yeah.

01:05:55.900 Who's who's fireplace?

01:05:57.520 The guy, the guy, the chairman guy who hired.

01:05:59.700 Oh, Phil Kent.

01:06:01.160 Yeah.

01:06:02.280 I mean, that's the guy.

01:06:03.580 He's like, hey, you know, I don't see any problems.

01:06:05.680 What's the problem?

01:06:06.860 I'll tell you what.

01:06:07.820 If there's one more incident with Caitlin or Poppy is done is done.

01:06:12.860 And if I were and by the way, there was a report recently that Caitlin had to fire the

01:06:17.360 shared agent that she and Don both had.

01:06:20.560 Right.

01:06:21.000 Because she felt reportedly that this guy was looking out for Don's interests and not for

01:06:26.220 hers.

01:06:26.780 And so you can see.

01:06:28.940 I mean, I just feel like these women were were like lambs being fed to the slaughter. 1.00

01:06:33.800 And it's happened time and time again.

01:06:35.020 And frankly, it happened at Fox with Roger Ailes time and time again.

01:06:38.320 And Bill O'Reilly were like the company has knowledge that someone is a problem and they always side

01:06:45.300 with the problem, especially if the problem has power, has money, has something they can

01:06:50.560 hold over you or the threat of a litigation, whatever it is that they're using.

01:06:54.040 And the women up until the Me Too movement always lost, always lost. 0.85

01:06:58.880 Then Me Too was totally an overreach and got disgusting and weird and political.

01:07:03.220 We started just emerging with scalps without any probing and facts.

01:07:06.920 And it fell apart thanks to the left, frankly, and what they did to Kavanaugh and Time's Up

01:07:11.560 and how dishonest.

01:07:12.400 And now we're in this position where like we're kind of back to where we started.

01:07:15.800 We're like we've the progress has kind of been eroded.

01:07:19.520 The Me Too movement has been exploded and women really have nowhere to turn. 1.00

01:07:24.340 Because you can leave the set in tears after having been screamed at by this guy who I

01:07:29.080 bet does have a long HR personnel file.

01:07:31.320 And they just kind of say reeducation training by not good enough. 0.95

01:07:36.860 No, it's ridiculous.

01:07:37.920 And if you put yourself in the shoes of somebody like Poppy Harlow, who I actually do not know 0.97

01:07:42.340 her personally, but I'm familiar with her career and she's done every difficult, shitty 0.97

01:07:47.200 job on air that you could do, like every feature, any time of day.

01:07:51.500 She's done the weather.

01:07:52.560 She's done everything.

01:07:53.680 And she's worked her way up.

01:07:56.220 And here she is sitting at a table with a guy who just gets a pass after pass after

01:07:59.800 pass.

01:08:00.760 And I just putting yourself in her shoes, it's got to be demoralizing that like this

01:08:05.000 guy gets away with everything.

01:08:06.160 And here I am just busting my tail on a daily basis.

01:08:09.060 And, you know, the network has its ideological bents and there are a lot of reasons why people

01:08:15.120 aren't watching it as much anymore.

01:08:16.600 But I mean, that is the internal toxicity is just one of the Achilles heels of major broadcast

01:08:23.960 media.

01:08:24.940 And I hate to be even more cynical about it.

01:08:28.060 But like you were saying, Megan, you know, these accusations have been going on for 15

01:08:32.560 years.

01:08:33.060 It's only now that we're really hearing about it because he doesn't rate anymore.

01:08:37.420 You can't get ratings.

01:08:38.600 They don't know where to put them.

01:08:39.540 And so now the media will turn a page on him and he will be, you know, we didn't know.

01:08:46.000 We just we didn't know.

01:08:47.060 And it's like they knew and they didn't care.

01:08:48.880 And now they can't because it's convenient.

01:08:51.720 I feel like, look, it's it's hard to root for somebody to lose their job, especially because

01:08:56.220 I was treated unfairly by an employer, not over anything like this.

01:09:00.600 Good God.

01:09:01.280 I mean, like this is a crazy pattern he's got.

01:09:05.120 But I just think, why?

01:09:06.660 Why are they so determined to save this guy?

01:09:08.960 Right.

01:09:09.120 Like this kind of a pattern like Utah, like I'm interested in knowing exactly what's

01:09:14.400 behind the knee jerk effort to protect it.

01:09:17.760 Chris Cuomo was fired for less than this.

01:09:19.780 He was definitely less than this.

01:09:21.780 Right.

01:09:21.980 So I'm close.

01:09:23.300 I mean, they got rid of like four or five people for way less than this.

01:09:27.220 Yeah.

01:09:28.280 OK, so moving on, because I have a couple of things I want to get to.

01:09:31.420 And number one is Dr.

01:09:33.300 Jill Biden has stepped in it.

01:09:34.520 Dr.

01:09:34.840 Jill, Dr.

01:09:35.980 Jill.

01:09:36.660 Now, I don't really follow sports, as people know.

01:09:39.080 So, like, I haven't weighed in on this whole dust up with LSU and Iowa and the star players.

01:09:44.520 And they were kind of doing face, facial, whatever signals, rude signals to one another.

01:09:49.220 To me, that's like sports.

01:09:50.480 Whatever.

01:09:50.840 I didn't.

01:09:51.140 I find it hard to get upset about these two women going at it with the facial, whatever 1.00

01:09:55.140 the hand signals.

01:09:56.140 Go for it. 1.00

01:09:56.800 You know, women can be we can be bitches, too. 1.00

01:09:59.260 We can be sportsman like we can do we can do all the things that the men can. 0.98

01:10:02.960 However, I do think it's interesting what's happening between the star from LSU and Dr.

01:10:08.780 Jill.

01:10:09.380 Dr. 1.00

01:10:09.860 Jill Biden did something so stupid. 1.00

01:10:12.520 She's so stupid. 1.00

01:10:14.300 LSU won. 1.00

01:10:15.020 And they're supposed to go to the White House, like all the winning teams.

01:10:18.540 And instead, she said, yes, you should come, but also Iowa, too.

01:10:22.160 And then people were like, that's because I was white.

01:10:25.360 And then people were like, well, that's because I was Iowa first in the nation caucuses.

01:10:29.340 You're thinking about 2024.

01:10:30.480 I don't know why she said it, but her team seemed to be saying everyone gets a trophy.

01:10:35.020 Right.

01:10:35.180 Like, it's just that's sportsman like to invite the winner and the loser.

01:10:40.920 And then the star player Angel Reese from LSU had the following response.

01:10:47.700 She was not happy and said the following in South 13.

01:10:50.320 I don't accept the apology because of you said what you said.

01:10:56.780 Jill Biden.

01:10:57.180 Yeah.

01:10:57.820 First lady.

01:10:58.520 The wife. 0.68

01:10:59.020 Yeah.

01:10:59.320 First lady.

01:11:00.280 I said what I said.

01:11:01.700 And like, you can't go back on certain things that you say.

01:11:04.700 I mean, you felt like they should have came because of sportsmanship, right?

01:11:08.900 They can have that spot.

01:11:09.880 Like, we'll go to the Obamas.

01:11:11.540 We'll see Michelle.

01:11:13.500 We'll see Barack.

01:11:15.580 Hmm.

01:11:16.600 So she says we'll go to the Obamas.

01:11:18.980 Because Jill Biden... 1.00

01:11:20.320 Her spokesperson kind of tried to take it back, like, oh, never mind.

01:11:24.380 Iowa won't come.

01:11:25.240 It'll just be you guys.

01:11:26.380 And even the star of Iowa, Caitlin, help me out.

01:11:30.960 Clark.

01:11:31.320 Clark.

01:11:31.980 Clark.

01:11:32.220 I could only get Collins in my head.

01:11:34.220 Clark said, we should not go.

01:11:36.320 The White House trip is for the winners and we didn't win.

01:11:38.340 So good for her.

01:11:40.800 And so Angel Reese has now revealed that they also rejected seeing Jill Biden come to their

01:11:47.320 locker room before the game.

01:11:48.440 And there was a real question about whether LSU would go to the White House at all.

01:11:52.460 Angel Reese said, we're talking about it.

01:11:54.140 We'll see.

01:11:54.900 You know, we may not go.

01:11:55.960 They were mad.

01:11:57.400 And here's Shannon Sharp, who had a bit of a freak out over the whole thing that is kind

01:12:03.140 of interesting.

01:12:03.680 Listen to him.

01:12:04.060 That's the part of winning a national championship.

01:12:07.760 We get invited to the White House.

01:12:09.620 The losers don't get anything. 0.92

01:12:11.760 This is not a participation award.

01:12:13.880 The number one trending topic.

01:12:15.520 What was it?

01:12:16.140 It wasn't that LSU won.

01:12:18.000 It was Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.

01:12:20.580 Yep.

01:12:20.860 And so she was, she's a doctor.

01:12:24.000 If she didn't know, she should have known.

01:12:26.440 Does Dr. Jill Biden understand how this looks?

01:12:29.820 She, white America. 0.92

01:12:31.920 Yep. 0.98

01:12:32.460 The losing side is white America. 0.88

01:12:35.080 Come on, Dr. Biden.

01:12:37.140 You know better than this.

01:12:38.820 Did you forget who helped put your husband in the White House?

01:12:42.320 You're going to find out a very seriously hard lesson in 24.

01:12:46.640 You'll be like a Kentucky or Duke freshman.

01:12:48.680 You'll be one and done.

01:12:49.820 You see how probably your husband is?

01:12:51.400 I tell you what, he'll drop another 5% if he do this.

01:12:55.460 Oh, boy. 0.84

01:12:56.480 He's awful. 0.79

01:12:58.020 Now he's talking your language. 0.94

01:13:00.040 He's getting into electoral politics.

01:13:02.160 Go ahead, John.

01:13:02.480 It's not a participation award.

01:13:04.140 I mean, you work your entire season long hoping that you can win.

01:13:07.620 And what you get is to go to the White House, no matter who the president is.

01:13:10.700 Sometimes there's politics involved.

01:13:12.340 And some people don't want to see Trump.

01:13:13.840 Some people don't want to see Obama, whatever you work, you earn it.

01:13:17.320 You get that trophy.

01:13:18.440 You get to go to the White House.

01:13:20.000 And I bet you Jill Biden and her team saw all of the Twitter activity praising Caitlin

01:13:25.340 Clark right around the right around the game.

01:13:27.800 She had a couple of big nights and she's a great player.

01:13:30.780 But in a thought that, OK, well, we invite Iowa, too, and then we'll get the plot.

01:13:35.260 It's on Twitter and we're going to have everybody's going to be happy.

01:13:37.740 Well, she just she just screwed up.

01:13:39.100 She really did.

01:13:39.620 Right. I mean, the backdrop to all of this is not totally unimportant, which is Caitlin

01:13:43.840 Clark in this Iowa team at a real special run.

01:13:46.480 She is an incredible player, I might add.

01:13:48.360 But they also had this incredible boom to ratings for the first time in the tournament's

01:13:53.460 history. The women's tournament was routinely getting higher ratings than NBA games.

01:13:59.320 Right.

01:13:59.480 Which doesn't normally happen.

01:14:00.860 And in large part, that was because of Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes.

01:14:05.360 They go into this game.

01:14:06.800 I think a lot of players from a lot of teams resent the heck out of the fact that this one

01:14:10.540 player on Iowa is getting all the attention and, you know, all this mass media attention

01:14:16.300 in the process.

01:14:17.560 And so they sort of made a point of going after her.

01:14:20.280 And after the game, typically when you see everybody celebrating and, you know, enjoying

01:14:25.300 their teammates on a huge accomplishment, the star player at LSU is in the face of of Caitlin

01:14:31.160 Clark.

01:14:32.000 And so I bet you that Joe Biden looks at this and she's like, oh, well, you know, let's

01:14:36.300 just have a let's just get along type moment.

01:14:38.560 Right.

01:14:39.100 You recall like the beer summit.

01:14:40.780 Yeah.

01:14:41.240 All right. 0.94

01:14:41.920 But it's basically that kind of like ridiculous thinking. 0.97

01:14:45.340 It's pandering. 0.98

01:14:46.140 It's what it is.

01:14:46.740 It's pandering, but without looking at how that looks to the outside world who had been

01:14:52.160 actually going through this entire emotional process with the players as they were watching.

01:14:56.660 Right.

01:14:57.080 Right.

01:14:57.680 So, I mean, it just could not have been a worse mistake.

01:15:02.080 It just was awful.

01:15:03.540 I doubt the people advising Dr. Jill Biden had played competitive sports in their life.

01:15:08.520 No chance.

01:15:08.780 Because they would understand that this is like pandering of the worst kind.

01:15:12.160 And yeah, I mean, it is like the beer summit, but like they're going to heal America, you

01:15:15.640 know, a black athlete, white athlete and elevate these women's voices at the White House. 1.00

01:15:20.360 That's not how it works.

01:15:21.400 Like, you know, do that.

01:15:22.560 If you want to do that, do that during the context of a political campaign.

01:15:25.920 So, I mean, I think it was incredibly cynical.

01:15:28.340 It was a mistake and a very cynical pandering mistake.

01:15:31.300 But you got to tip the hat to Caitlin Clark because her response to that was exactly right.

01:15:36.100 Right.

01:15:36.320 We didn't win.

01:15:37.380 The winner goes to the White House.

01:15:38.680 Like her response, that's that's good sportsmanship.

01:15:41.420 She is a star, you know, I think, you know, it was like she was so go ahead, smug.

01:15:46.000 Yeah.

01:15:46.640 Oh, no, I think, you know, the problem here is Dr.

01:15:48.720 Jill Biden tried to just like, you know, call an audible and and say that this needs to 1.00

01:15:53.640 be done.

01:15:54.020 Stuff sticking to the standard playbook of inviting a women's team and Dylan Mulvaney to talk

01:15:59.340 about Dylan will definitely be there.

01:16:04.660 We don't know whether LSU will show up.

01:16:06.200 Wait, can I tell you, though, I thought it was such a fail by Jill Biden because Dr. 1.00

01:16:10.300 Jill, I love how Shannon's like, she's a doctor.

01:16:13.080 She should know better.

01:16:15.260 But it was such a fail, such a fail by by her, because what we had here was actually a great

01:16:23.280 moment for women. 0.98

01:16:25.040 The women's NBA NCAA tournament was dominating male NBA team playoffs and games.

01:16:33.700 And it was but like by a lot, right, like 10 million viewers, something crazy.

01:16:38.420 So it was and I personally I almost kind of liked the fierceness of the women, like with 1.00

01:16:44.080 the face thing.

01:16:44.920 And like I part of me was like, yeah, sick on me, you know, like back and forth, like,

01:16:49.500 you know, women can be fiery and they can get pissed off and they can have low moments, 1.00

01:16:53.060 not like the greatest moment of sportsmanship.

01:16:54.340 But I get.

01:16:55.140 But the point was simply like, I didn't feel offended.

01:16:57.740 I felt like, yeah, I get it.

01:16:58.940 Your heart's in it.

01:16:59.800 You're fierce competitors.

01:17:00.640 And so we turned off that tournament thinking like, yes, frickin you go women's sports. 1.00

01:17:07.040 This is a great moment.

01:17:08.140 They're not the most popular.

01:17:09.540 So this was a new chapter in their narrative.

01:17:12.400 And then what do you have?

01:17:13.660 You have one of the most visible women in America with like her weak need, like like 1.00

01:17:19.620 like this, the female stereotype of like there are no winners or losers. 1.00

01:17:25.240 We're all getting a participation trophy.

01:17:28.640 Yay.

01:17:29.380 No, we need fierceness fierceness at this moment.

01:17:32.300 We need the little hand face.

01:17:33.900 We need a little bit of that angel recess and the Caitlin Collins, like or we're not Collins,

01:17:38.320 whatever her now is.

01:17:39.820 Yeah.

01:17:40.360 Clark, like I rise above it all. 0.99

01:17:42.100 Losers don't go. 0.94

01:17:43.020 I'll be the winner next year. 0.99

01:17:44.300 Right.

01:17:44.560 Like and then you have Jill Biden, like everyone group hug.

01:17:48.140 It was just it was just pop in the balloon.

01:17:50.920 It's it's insulting.

01:17:52.520 It's insulting because those girls earned the eyeballs. 1.00

01:17:55.540 They earned the audience because the competition was that great.

01:17:58.280 The score, the stories, the background stories were that great.

01:18:02.040 And everybody wanted to watch because you had two great teams going at it.

01:18:05.060 And that's what people saw.

01:18:06.140 I mean, it was exactly what sports is supposed to be.

01:18:09.660 Yeah.

01:18:09.800 And it's not like John Ashbrook's Cincinnati Bengals got to go to the White House when they

01:18:13.840 lost the Super Bowl.

01:18:14.900 Oh, it's a little salty.

01:18:20.300 Violent.

01:18:21.460 You're also like a sports fan, Megan.

01:18:23.740 Like this is this.

01:18:24.900 You could become a sports fan here with that.

01:18:26.960 I, you know, I only cover sports when it crosses over into my lane of news.

01:18:31.560 That's generally my approach.

01:18:32.680 And this one crossed over to my lane and I started watching and I was like, what am I

01:18:36.420 feeling?

01:18:37.040 I don't know anything about anything.

01:18:39.480 I'm just going to watch the story play out.

01:18:41.180 And after a week of this, that's where I landed that the women on the teams did nothing 1.00

01:18:45.540 wrong.

01:18:46.420 They were pretty fierce and pretty awesome and good for them for making this headway.

01:18:49.940 Dr.

01:18:50.800 Jill Biden, another fail.

01:18:52.980 Do better.

01:18:53.560 But they should go to the White House.

01:18:54.660 And now they're saying that the team is going to go to the White House and hopefully everybody

01:18:57.860 will behave well, be classy.

01:19:00.400 Right now, it's time to put it behind you and, you know, be above board.

01:19:04.760 Um, I'll leave you with this because, uh, I know you got to go.

01:19:08.360 This is the New York Post today.

01:19:10.700 Oh, the headline is lemon harangue with a picture.

01:19:18.680 They are second to none.

01:19:20.500 How do they think of it?

01:19:21.840 Put it.

01:19:22.820 Put it in a museum.

01:19:24.620 CNN, the most busted name in news.

01:19:28.380 Coworkers on Load on Don. 0.98

01:19:29.640 Anchor is a sexist diva. 0.96

01:19:31.540 OK, so we'll keep following that. 0.97

01:19:33.140 Let you know whether there are any updates.

01:19:34.560 You guys, always great to talk to you.

01:19:37.140 Oh, so fun, Megan.

01:19:38.140 Always.

01:19:38.480 Thanks for having us.

01:19:39.240 It was a blast.

01:19:40.460 Thank you.

01:19:40.880 I'm taking your calls right now.

01:19:46.400 Good week or bad week.

01:19:47.400 Trump, the GOP, America.

01:19:49.760 Want to kick it off with a couple of emails we got in our MK mailbag.

01:19:53.000 You can email me at Megan, M-E-G-Y-N, at MeganKelley.com.

01:19:58.760 And go to MeganKelley.com, by the way, if you want to sign up for our American News Minute.

01:20:02.160 It comes out every Friday, so you'll get an email from me tomorrow.

01:20:05.000 And it's always super fun.

01:20:06.680 Jeanette writes in, when Trump announced his candidacy for 2024, I groaned.

01:20:10.880 But for our country to continue to exist, this political persecution has to stop.

01:20:15.160 And I believe Trump's the only person on the planet who has what it takes to handle this.

01:20:18.560 I am more in his corner now than I ever was before.

01:20:23.160 Joe writes in, this is the first time I've donated to Trump's campaign,

01:20:27.100 and I would do the same to Biden if he was in Trump's shoes.

01:20:31.220 There's a total double standard that is taking place, and it is not good for our republic.

01:20:37.160 Lastly, Bob writes in about the gag order.

01:20:39.300 There isn't one, but the possibility.

01:20:41.940 On the point of threatening a judge, maybe you can.

01:20:44.200 I'm thinking about Chuck Schumer talking about Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch

01:20:47.400 and the lack of law enforcement against people at the justices' homes.

01:20:50.780 Good point, Bob.

01:20:53.320 Yeah, very good point.

01:20:54.460 All right, let's get to some callers.

01:20:55.640 Let's see the lines are lighting up.

01:20:57.360 And we'll go to Marvin down in Florida, where the top two GOP contenders happen to live right now.

01:21:04.780 Hi, Marvin.

01:21:05.160 What's on your mind?

01:21:06.300 What's on my mind is that I love Donald Trump.

01:21:09.200 He cannot win.

01:21:10.400 And the Republicans must win in 2024.

01:21:13.360 Why can't he win?

01:21:17.680 Because he doesn't have a positive outcome.

01:21:21.220 He doesn't speak the way forward.

01:21:23.340 He only speaks of revenge, of what they've done to him.

01:21:27.740 Yes, they've done a lot of things to him.

01:21:29.920 But you know what?

01:21:30.880 He has to move forward.

01:21:32.260 He has to present a positive message.

01:21:34.640 And I don't believe that he can do this, because it's not within him.

01:21:39.180 We think he's too full of grievance.

01:21:41.560 We love Donald.

01:21:42.800 We love Donald.

01:21:44.020 But I want to tell you, in Florida, we love Ron DeSantis also.

01:21:48.040 And he's Donald in a different kind of package.

01:21:51.120 And I have a little concerns about him being a Bush and a Karl Rove protege somewhat,

01:21:56.700 or them helping in his campaign.

01:21:58.820 But we must win 2024.

01:22:03.340 Do you agree?

01:22:05.220 Well, I mean, the Republicans, if they lose 2024,

01:22:08.320 and they don't recapture the Senate, I mean, I just don't know.

01:22:11.320 Like, look at what's happening with the legislation that the left is pushing.

01:22:14.660 I don't know when it could ever be reclaimed.

01:22:16.400 I don't know how much of the country, how different we're going to look,

01:22:19.480 if they ever do manage to.

01:22:21.880 All these electoral changes they've done on the vote, the mail,

01:22:24.820 and now the redistricting in places like Wisconsin, that's about to happen.

01:22:30.280 You need a winner.

01:22:31.180 I don't know.

01:22:32.340 Smarter than people and I have said Trump could win it now,

01:22:35.920 because he's the only one who knows how to.

01:22:37.420 And he's got so much support within the GOP.

01:22:39.640 But I don't know if those independents who rejected him in 20 are gettable.

01:22:43.880 That's the big question.

01:22:45.260 Marvin, thank you for weighing in with your thoughts on it.

01:22:47.680 Let's go to Jenny in Tennessee. 0.66

01:22:50.140 Jenny, I've got your number.

01:22:51.980 What's on your mind?

01:22:52.820 I'm wondering about the guy that just said that.

01:22:56.500 I think Trump's message has changed.

01:22:57.820 I agree with the ruthless guys.

01:22:58.900 He's not talking about the election any longer.

01:23:00.860 I think he is talking about a positive message.

01:23:03.020 But as a Trump supporter, if he doesn't get it, I'm really interested in RFK.

01:23:07.320 He just got into the mix of it, and my vote will go for him.

01:23:11.320 I don't trust DeSantis.

01:23:12.460 DeSantis wasn't a Trump kind of bombastic guy from the get-go.

01:23:16.820 He did it because it was a winner.

01:23:17.900 And if he gets in, I think he's going to resort back to an establishment kind of person.

01:23:22.880 And I'd rather have RFK.

01:23:24.880 I know what you mean.

01:23:26.180 One great thing about RFK Jr. is he doesn't give a damn what you say about him.

01:23:32.440 He will stay on his mission.

01:23:34.340 And he has been that from the get-go.

01:23:36.760 Because DeSantis has it.

01:23:37.920 DeSantis went and became a Trump-like candidate because it was a winner.

01:23:41.780 He did not win that way in the beginning.

01:23:44.440 Trump had to come on and pull him.

01:23:45.900 And then he saw that that's what his constituency wanted.

01:23:48.860 But I think if he got up there, he would go back to the, like you said,

01:23:52.900 Call Road-type establishment.

01:23:55.260 And he would not be that.

01:23:56.380 He would not be the bombastic firehouse that we need.

01:24:00.120 RFK will.

01:24:00.760 He took on, you know, Big Pharma and didn't care.

01:24:05.780 Yeah.

01:24:06.260 And told the truth.

01:24:06.940 It's true.

01:24:07.460 He took on his own party and didn't care.

01:24:08.940 So he's now, for the viewers, just-

01:24:10.560 And so if Trump doesn't get it, and as the Republicans, if we can't get behind one person,

01:24:14.400 that's why Democrats win.

01:24:16.100 Because they will hold their nose and they will put their person in office.

01:24:19.200 We don't do that.

01:24:20.340 And so if we don't do that, then I'm putting someone that'll be the truth teller.

01:24:23.500 And that'll be RFK.

01:24:25.000 So interesting, Jenny.

01:24:26.080 We got to talk more about the RFK junior presidency or the run candidacy taking on Joe Biden.

01:24:31.860 He's running as a Democrat, which he is.

01:24:33.060 And if you want to go back and listen to our interview, he explains why.

01:24:35.720 Had him on a few times.

01:24:36.740 Thank you, Jenny, for calling.

01:24:37.960 Let's go out further west.

01:24:39.820 Howard in California.

01:24:40.960 What's on your mind?

01:24:41.540 Yeah, hi, Megan.

01:24:43.820 Yeah, I just wanted to say the whole thing with Trump right now, being front and center

01:24:49.020 on the news almost looks like it's something right out of the Democratic Party playbook.

01:24:53.280 Because now all the news and all the major media networks are talking only about Trump.

01:24:57.740 It's all Trump, Trump, Trump.

01:24:59.700 Nothing about the fentanyl crisis.

01:25:01.580 Nothing about the southern border crisis.

01:25:03.920 Nothing about the banking crisis.

01:25:05.400 Nothing about the terrible economic crisis overseas or the bad foreign policy decisions

01:25:12.500 that have been made, sending hundreds of billions of dollars overseas to Ukraine and elsewhere.

01:25:17.480 It's just all Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, and nothing else.

01:25:21.620 You're right.

01:25:22.100 Look at this week, Howard.

01:25:23.180 The one of the big stories.

01:25:24.640 And I'm embarrassed to tell you we didn't get to it either.

01:25:27.040 And I want to in more depth was the spy balloon news.

01:25:30.100 You know, that the spy balloon, the Chinese spy balloon was spying on us and managed to

01:25:33.400 collect a fair amount of intel from our military sites, despite what the administration told

01:25:38.900 us.

01:25:39.260 It's all Trump.

01:25:39.900 All Trump all week.

01:25:41.020 They're taking they're showing his motorcade leaving Palm Desert, Palm Beach.

01:25:45.180 They're showing his airplane taking off. 0.81

01:25:47.440 I mean, it was just silly because it's all Trump.

01:25:50.560 We've seen this movie before.

01:25:53.240 Yeah, they're going to give him hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free advertising.

01:25:56.820 They're going to help him get the nomination because they know they can beat him, or at

01:26:00.320 least they feel strongly that they can.

01:26:02.600 And they're worried about other potential candidates that may talk about the issues that

01:26:06.700 they can't beat.

01:26:07.800 So it's right out of the Democratic Party playbook in my mind.

01:26:11.080 But as your last listener said, I am also a huge fan of Robert F. Kennedy.

01:26:16.560 And although I've never particularly voted Democrat, in fact, that's not something that's been

01:26:23.120 in my DNA since my father in his will said, since I have no cash bequest to leave you, I leave

01:26:30.600 you, my children, the proud memory that I never voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

01:26:38.360 So you're open minded now.

01:26:40.120 Yeah, but RFK Jr.

01:26:41.240 is not your typical Democrat.

01:26:42.480 He's what a strong, ethical man.

01:26:45.260 He really is.

01:26:45.940 I really feel like I got to know him very well in preparing for those in-depth interviews

01:26:49.100 and doing them.

01:26:50.300 And I'm excited to see him throw his hat in the ring, too.

01:26:52.340 It's going to make it a lot more interesting.

01:26:53.860 Howard, thanks.

01:26:54.440 Thanks for calling in.

01:26:55.600 Let's head out.

01:26:56.240 Let's let's go to Stephen in New York, not far from where I am.

01:26:59.080 Hi, Stephen.

01:26:59.540 What are you thinking?

01:27:01.160 Hi, Megan.

01:27:01.900 Thank you for taking my call.

01:27:03.220 It's such an honor to speak with you.

01:27:05.380 Oh, thank you.

01:27:07.620 You know, I just wanted to say, registered Republican, born and raised New Yorker, you know, watching

01:27:14.000 Donald Trump growing up in my life.

01:27:16.460 He helped build New York City with the woman rink. 1.00

01:27:19.900 He's done some incredible things.

01:27:21.440 He's gave a lot of people jobs.

01:27:23.360 And everybody I know got behind that.

01:27:27.060 We're feeling unheard.

01:27:28.820 We're feeling unrepresented.

01:27:31.100 With that said, this was a terrible week for him.

01:27:34.500 Nobody wants to get arrested.

01:27:36.320 Look what they did to him.

01:27:38.080 Family's embarrassed.

01:27:39.480 You can't even they say, oh, Melania didn't even show up. 0.97

01:27:42.220 Why would she?

01:27:42.940 She probably felt terrible for him.

01:27:46.460 Nobody wants to see that.

01:27:48.400 So with that said, I had stopped giving and contributing to the Republican Party or to

01:27:54.740 the Trump campaign.

01:27:55.800 But you know what?

01:27:56.820 I felt so guilty.

01:27:58.120 I had to.

01:27:59.760 Doesn't mean you donated to Trump reporting and I'm still on the fence.

01:28:03.300 I'm sorry.

01:28:04.340 You donated to Trump in the wake of his indictment.

01:28:07.300 That's right.

01:28:07.840 I donated to him after stopping, after the whole impeachment and just the chaos and need

01:28:14.460 not even, you know, has a lot to do with him.

01:28:16.580 Let's be honest.

01:28:17.120 He makes some terrible choices.

01:28:18.780 He's made some terrible cabinet choices.

01:28:21.400 There's a lot of things, but he's a fighter.

01:28:23.880 And as much as we like as a New Yorker, like of Ron DeSantis and the stability, who's fighting,

01:28:32.120 who's punching back?

01:28:33.960 You know, it's really starting to feel we're starting to feel deflated.

01:28:38.380 I won't say defeated because we can't be defeated, but we're deflated.

01:28:42.620 And I understand you don't you don't want you're worried about electing somebody who's

01:28:47.380 going to go into the White House and turn out to be like a Chief Justice John Roberts

01:28:51.720 who got very squishy despite a lifetime of conservatism because he just saw his role very

01:28:57.720 differently than we anticipated he would.

01:29:00.700 So I get it.

01:29:01.440 And Trump is whatever you say about Trump.

01:29:04.180 You cannot say the man doesn't know how to fight.

01:29:05.900 He does.

01:29:06.380 Stephen, thank you.

01:29:07.160 Interesting thoughts.

01:29:08.540 OK, let's go out to David in North Carolina down.

01:29:12.620 To David in North Carolina.

01:29:13.900 Hi, David.

01:29:14.300 What are you thinking?

01:29:15.840 Hi, Megan.

01:29:16.440 Look, the Democrats have been doing this stuff since they ran Tom DeLay out of the Congress.

01:29:25.080 The D.A. in Austin basically prosecuted him for practicing politics.

01:29:32.040 He did the same thing to Rick Perry.

01:29:34.960 Local Democrat liberal D.A.s have been doing this.

01:29:38.860 And Republicans, they just stand around and stamp at all feet and write a strongly worded 0.99

01:29:45.620 letter and say, oh, what a horrible person you are. 0.96

01:29:48.820 And then we don't do anything about it. 0.95

01:29:51.060 I heard your show with Charles C.W.

01:29:53.540 Cook.

01:29:53.820 And I think he made the comment, you know, when this happens, you know, it's just tempting.

01:29:58.640 He what did he say?

01:29:59.680 He said it's tempting to, you know, turn the tables and do the same thing.

01:30:03.680 But then, you know, as usual, the National Review crowd, they're going.

01:30:07.240 But you know what?

01:30:07.940 That that's that's not what we are.

01:30:09.820 And you know what?

01:30:11.280 We need to be that.

01:30:13.120 So give them a take on their own medicine because it's the only thing that'll stop them.

01:30:16.900 And sometimes low road is the only thing people understand.

01:30:20.100 You mentioned Tom DeLay.

01:30:21.220 It takes me back, David, to when I was a junior at Fox and they sent me down to cover one of

01:30:27.160 those court proceedings against him.

01:30:29.260 And the protesters were out there and they sort of hijacked my live shot.

01:30:33.580 And the anchor back at the desk said, what are they saying?

01:30:36.160 What are they chanting?

01:30:36.960 And I I remember trying to be taken seriously. 0.96

01:30:39.380 I was very young and saying they are chanting Tom DeLay is a stinker.

01:30:44.680 He'll be headed to the clinker.

01:30:46.900 Back to you in the studio.

01:30:49.520 But you're right.

01:30:50.360 They've been fighting these fights for a long time and viciously.

01:30:53.400 David, thanks.

01:30:53.960 Thank you for calling.

01:30:55.120 Let's go to Roxy in Chicago, Illinois.

01:30:57.960 Roxy.

01:30:58.540 Oh, I'm sorry for what's happened to your city.

01:31:00.940 I don't know how you voted, but gosh, that was a close election.

01:31:05.280 And I don't I don't like where it's going.

01:31:08.100 Yeah, it's been a little interesting this past couple of months.

01:31:11.460 But I just want to say that I think that your influence on women is really amazing.

01:31:18.180 And I think what you're doing right now is awesome.

01:31:21.420 Oh, thank you so much.

01:31:22.980 You sound young, Roxy.

01:31:24.160 Maybe you were too young to vote.

01:31:26.240 Oh, yeah, just a little bit.

01:31:28.460 Oh, well, thank you so much for calling.

01:31:30.200 I'm glad you listen.

01:31:31.780 And my hat goes off to you because it's not it's not the easiest time to be a young woman

01:31:36.520 in America, but it's still awesome.

01:31:39.660 I highly recommend staying in our lane.

01:31:42.100 Womanhood is a net benefit as you age and you embrace it and you get married and you have 0.98

01:31:47.180 kids and all the goodness or just embrace your career.

01:31:49.480 And I hope if you listen to the show, you know, all of the goodness that's available

01:31:53.340 and waiting for you.

01:31:55.680 Thank you.

01:31:56.900 Thanks for calling.

01:31:57.700 OK, so let's go to let's see, J.R., J.R.

01:32:02.220 in Ohio.

01:32:03.720 Hi, J.R.

01:32:04.160 What are you thinking?

01:32:05.980 I just wanted to talk about Trump's comments about the judge and his daughter the other day.

01:32:11.560 I think it was the initial reaction was somewhat negative, but I think it was a very strategically

01:32:16.640 smart because he's trying to send a message out to the country that this is really the

01:32:22.480 elite versus everybody else and that this judge, he can make a phone call and get his

01:32:27.740 daughter a job with the vice president or, you know, on her campaign or whatever.

01:32:32.840 The average person can't do that.

01:32:34.600 And it sends a signal that he is against the elites.

01:32:38.980 You know, there's a group of people that are on the inside.

01:32:40.980 He's on the outside and it's very subtle, but it's more than just a personal attack.

01:32:48.200 And it's very much consistent with what you've been covering, where we have this distrust of

01:32:52.780 institutions because of covid, because of the lies, because of the lockdowns and all these

01:32:57.540 things.

01:32:58.500 And and it it breeds a distrust of elites and the currency of, you know, Harvard pedigree that

01:33:05.040 used to engender trust.

01:33:07.440 That's gone.

01:33:08.700 I mean, that's a good point.

01:33:09.720 Large segments of the country that is gone.

01:33:12.540 And I think that's a good point trying to plant that seed, you know, he does a great

01:33:16.920 job of calling out the elites and the establishment and the us against them.

01:33:21.180 And they play right into the narrative.

01:33:24.040 J.R., thanks for your thoughts.

01:33:25.000 Quickly, before we go, Jessica in Indiana, what's on your mind?

01:33:30.520 Hey, Megan, thank you for taking my call.

01:33:32.360 Um, I just had a quick question or sort of what advice would you have for kind of center

01:33:39.560 center right women that just graduated college in their mid 20s for finding just a good guy? 1.00

01:33:48.020 Honestly, I have so many girlfriends that are single that don't want to be on the app.

01:33:53.340 So what advice would you have?

01:33:55.760 OK, I've got I've got thoughts on that.

01:33:57.840 I'm I'll give them to you quickly because we're ending the show.

01:34:00.400 But make all the deposits you can into yourself.

01:34:03.460 Join a book club.

01:34:04.340 Join a music lesson.

01:34:06.400 Make yourself as full as you can emotionally, spiritually, intellectually.

01:34:11.200 And the good man will come.

01:34:13.600 You will meet him in one of these settings.

01:34:15.380 Could be church.

01:34:15.960 Could be any place.

01:34:16.740 Probably not going to be the bar, but the more interesting, strong, dynamic and fascinating

01:34:21.640 you are, the better man you will attract.

01:34:25.220 And then we will be talking about how you're going to beat them, beat them off with a stick

01:34:28.420 because you have so many great options available to you.

01:34:31.220 And it's just a question of choosing.

01:34:33.440 And I hope that happens for you.

01:34:34.920 More on that.

01:34:35.640 Another show, Jessica.

01:34:36.360 Thanks for calling in.

01:34:37.440 All right.

01:34:37.600 We've got to go because the show's over, but hope you'll tune in again tomorrow.

01:34:43.260 Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. 0.94

01:34:45.140 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

The Megyn Kelly Show - April 06, 2023

Unhinged Media Reaction to Trump Arrest, and Don Lemon's Misogyny, with the Ruthless Podcast Hosts ｜ Ep. 523

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