The Megyn Kelly Show - What Are ＂Objects＂ We're Shooting Down, Woke Super Bowl Ads, and State of the Media, with Rick Leventhal ｜ Ep. 492

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00:00:30.580 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:00:32.540 Your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.

00:00:41.940 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly.

00:00:43.660 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show and happy Monday.

00:00:46.620 Millions of Americans tune in to watch the Super Bowl

00:00:49.720 while simultaneously wondering if we are being invaded by aliens.

00:00:53.760 That is the actual headline today.

00:00:56.600 Would have been the perfect time for President Biden

00:00:58.860 to possibly, I don't know, appear for an actual news interview

00:01:02.340 and address the bizarre but very real growing concerns

00:01:07.700 about possible alien life over the continental United States

00:01:12.540 and oceans around us as well.

00:01:14.860 And Canada, by the way.

00:01:16.660 Even CNN is taking the president to task for being too silent on this.

00:01:21.220 There is a lot to discuss today and I am so happy to be joined by an old Fox News pal

00:01:25.480 to discuss it all.

00:01:26.860 This is going to be fun.

00:01:29.120 Rick Leventhal is here.

00:01:30.740 He is the author of the new book, Chasing Catastrophe.

00:01:34.580 He's also co-host of The Rick and Kelly Show

00:01:37.700 and The Daily Smash with his wife, Kelly Dodd, of Real Housewives fame.

00:01:43.700 Rick, it's so good to see you.

00:01:44.980 How are you?

00:01:45.960 You too, Megan.

00:01:46.680 I'm doing fantastic.

00:01:47.860 And I'm so proud of you and all that you've done.

00:01:50.520 And I'm following your career and your success and it's amazing.

00:01:54.440 So good for you.

00:01:55.500 Oh my gosh.

00:01:56.180 It's wonderful to lay eyes on you.

00:01:57.740 We go way, way back, you and I.

00:01:59.460 And I'm so happy to see this book.

00:02:00.700 And I was like, oh, great.

00:02:01.320 This is a great excuse to get the band back together

00:02:03.800 and talk about old times and Fox and media.

00:02:06.840 But let's kick it off with the news because it's so plentiful today, Rick.

00:02:11.000 My God.

00:02:12.680 The thing about the aliens.

00:02:15.220 I mean, it's crazy to me.

00:02:16.540 This is real.

00:02:17.360 Like we're actually having serious discussions about whether we're,

00:02:20.520 being invaded and why over the past eight days,

00:02:25.260 we've had to shoot down by my count now for unidentified aerial projectiles.

00:02:32.800 I can't remember what we call them, Steve.

00:02:34.000 You at UAPs phenomenon phenomenon.

00:02:36.320 That's that's the official term.

00:02:37.920 Not not UFOs anymore.

00:02:40.300 So just to get the audience up to speed, we've had.

00:02:43.500 OK, so there's there was the one off the South Carolina coast last Saturday,

00:02:46.960 you know, a week, 10 days ago.

00:02:49.020 Then on Friday, we shot one down smaller balloon or object.

00:02:54.940 The military is calling it an object over Alaska.

00:02:59.280 Then on Saturday, we shot one down over Canada.

00:03:03.120 Then yesterday, we shot one down over Lake Huron.

00:03:07.360 They're everywhere.

00:03:07.960 These things are everywhere.

00:03:11.380 And here's what the military is saying.

00:03:13.300 OK, the Air Force commander who's running NORAD.

00:03:16.020 This is the same guy who said, well, we, you know, there were a few during the Trump administration,

00:03:19.060 too, that we didn't know about because we have a domain awareness gap,

00:03:22.940 which now apparently they've solved and they're everywhere.

00:03:26.000 And he said when asked by a reporter if extraterrestrials might be involved,

00:03:30.420 General Van Herc responded.

00:03:32.080 He would leave that to the intel agencies, but, quote, I haven't ruled anything out.

00:03:38.100 He says, I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence.

00:03:40.740 Right.

00:03:41.040 He says, I'll let them figure that out.

00:03:42.260 I haven't ruled out anything at this point.

00:03:43.880 We continue to assess every threat or potential threat unknown that that approaches North America

00:03:49.780 with an attempt to identify it.

00:03:51.940 He said, unlike the Chinese spy balloon, all three UFOs or AEPs gunned down over the weekend

00:03:59.920 were of a similar size and speed.

00:04:01.560 We're calling them objects, not balloons for a reason.

00:04:04.700 This is the first time within United States or American airspace that NORAD has taken this

00:04:11.060 kind of kinetic action against an airborne object.

00:04:14.940 So what do you make of it as a seasoned reporter who's covered a lot of breaking news over your time,

00:04:19.720 including military news?

00:04:21.160 What do you make of it?

00:04:22.480 It's bizarre, first and foremost.

00:04:24.980 And I think the reason why people are freaking out is because the military isn't giving a whole lot of information.

00:04:30.200 It would seem as if if they knew that these were some sort of alien spacecraft that they would.

00:04:40.400 If they knew it, then they should share that information.

00:04:43.540 If they knew it, then they would be tracking that.

00:04:47.840 Spaceship to the ground and then collecting it.

00:04:51.000 And I don't know.

00:04:51.780 Do they take it to what is it?

00:04:52.980 Area 52?

00:04:54.000 What's the what's the place in Nevada?

00:04:55.960 Right.

00:04:56.520 51.

00:04:57.840 Thank you.

00:04:58.460 51.

00:04:58.920 Maybe 52 is the next one they're going to open up.

00:05:01.260 But we need something.

00:05:02.180 I mean, it's as hard as it is to believe that that might actually be the case.

00:05:06.860 And it's also kind of it would be presumptuous to assume that we're the only intelligent life forms in this universe.

00:05:14.900 And it's only a matter of time before we do have spaceships buzzing overhead.

00:05:18.820 But if they were alien spaceships, why would they shoot them down?

00:05:22.900 You know, why wouldn't they just sort of corral them somehow or try to bring them to the ground so they could talk to the alien pilots on board?

00:05:31.200 The whole thing is so bizarre, Megan.

00:05:33.800 There were no pilots.

00:05:34.480 But but they were.

00:05:36.380 I mean, we are getting conflicting reports now.

00:05:38.600 It's actually kind of creepy.

00:05:39.560 Let me let me read you what they're saying.

00:05:40.980 OK, please, that we're getting we're getting differing descriptions of the objects and whether like how problematic they were.

00:05:49.500 Hold on.

00:05:49.740 I'm checking my notes just to get the latest, because some some pilots said that they seem to have some sort of control or that they were they were messing with our control, our controls.

00:05:58.960 And other pilots said, no, they didn't see that.

00:06:01.700 Here it is.

00:06:03.220 Pilots gave different accounts of what they observed coming near the object.

00:06:06.700 A source briefed on the intel told CNN.

00:06:08.560 Some pilots said it interfered with their sensors.

00:06:10.540 Our pilot sensors.

00:06:11.940 Other pilots said they did not experience that a little bit more.

00:06:17.040 The the latest object, I think this is the one that they got on Saturday, appeared to be a small metallic balloon with a tethered payload.

00:06:26.040 Who knows what that means?

00:06:27.620 What what the hell is a tethered payload?

00:06:29.140 OK, so just to be more realistic.

00:06:32.260 What?

00:06:32.580 In all likelihood, these are probably similar to the balloon that China flew over the U.S.

00:06:37.460 Their intelligence gathering UAVs.

00:06:40.140 Right.

00:06:40.540 So they send them up over our airspace to suck whatever they can out of our out of our air that might help them with their spying.

00:06:49.640 Yeah.

00:06:50.040 And we do the same thing.

00:06:51.360 So these are unmanned aerial vehicles that they fly way high in the sky to try and gather as much intelligence as they can.

00:06:56.780 Why all of a sudden we're finding them.

00:06:58.800 Sorry, my earpiece is falling out.

00:07:00.320 Why all of a sudden now the military is finding them and shooting them down is a good question.

00:07:04.320 I think you mentioned something about how they they plug the hole in their and their systems and now they're seeing them.

00:07:11.000 It's good news, I guess.

00:07:12.700 But why did it take this long?

00:07:14.100 We kind of know why.

00:07:15.580 Yeah, because this guy, again, who who this in his name correctly, General Van Herc again, domain awareness gap prior to right now.

00:07:26.380 He came out and told the New York Times after the transit of the Chinese spy balloon last week, NORAD adjusted its radar system to make it more sensitive.

00:07:37.700 Way to go, NORAD.

00:07:38.720 As a result, the number of objects it detected increased sharply.

00:07:44.280 In other words, NORAD is picking up more incursions because it is looking for them.

00:07:50.680 Right.

00:07:50.780 I mean, this is crazy.

00:07:51.660 So how many have there been all this time over the past 10 years?

00:07:56.520 Right.

00:07:56.740 And like, is it true that we're just now picking up on things that have been there all along?

00:08:01.240 Or is it the case that actually there is an an uptick in what's coming over the United States because it's coming?

00:08:09.120 I don't know from where.

00:08:10.740 Well, it certainly seems as if now they're seeing them because they're trying to see them, whereas before they were most likely there.

00:08:17.340 And we just weren't either looking for them or we weren't properly applying the technology we have to find them.

00:08:23.400 So I think what this tells you is that we've been spied on for a very long time by who knows who.

00:08:29.060 And now we're starting to see those those the spy technology and we're shooting them down, which is great if you don't want to be spied on.

00:08:40.340 But it's also a reminder that there's a lot of stuff that we probably have already given them and we've been exposed for a long time.

00:08:48.700 Yeah.

00:08:48.960 And you pointed out that, you know, what do we have over there that made us reluctant to shoot down spy balloon number one?

00:08:57.200 Right. Is that was that playing into our reluctance to shoot this thing down and let it cross over the entire United States before we did anything about it?

00:09:04.820 Now, this is GOP representative Mike Turner of Ohio.

00:09:08.280 Now he says we're trigger happy.

00:09:09.980 Look, we're shooting down everything.

00:09:12.520 He says, look, it's preferable.

00:09:14.940 I'm fully I fully support it as long as there's no one on board and it's not ours.

00:09:19.440 It doesn't belong here.

00:09:20.440 They're violating our airspace.

00:09:21.780 So get them out of here waiting for him to cross the entire country seems to be like shooting yourself in the foot because you're letting them get everything they can possibly get.

00:09:29.460 And by the way, I'm sure they're real time streaming that to whatever base they have somewhere.

00:09:34.880 Exactly right.

00:09:35.500 It's not like it needs to get back home for it to deliver all the information.

00:09:38.660 It seems like it is transmitting.

00:09:40.120 So why would we let it go all the way across the United States?

00:09:42.600 Even the Democratic senator, John Tester of Montana, which has been the site of at least one of these, comes out and says, this is craziness.

00:09:51.540 He says, what's gone on the last two weeks or so last 10 days has been nothing short of craziness.

00:09:56.000 The military needs a plan to determine what's out there and then determine the dangers that go with it.

00:10:01.620 So this is, you know, a bipartisan concern.

00:10:04.400 And is it weird, do you think, Rick, that like now we've got four, OK, we got four in eight days that the president hasn't addressed this at all?

00:10:15.180 I mean, because Americans already were a little freaked out about UFOs or UAPs.

00:10:20.400 Remember, we had the whole big report last year about what's really out there and are they being transparent with us?

00:10:25.140 And the answer is, no, they're not.

00:10:28.040 It's almost more like it's only going to add to the conspiracy theories or the concerns about aliens the longer he stays silent.

00:10:36.340 Well, let me just say this.

00:10:38.180 If President Trump were still in office, you know, he'd be talking about it and he'd be like, we're going to shoot down everything in the sky that's not ours.

00:10:45.640 We're going after all these things.

00:10:47.320 You know, he would not be hiding in the White House, not doing a Super Bowl interview and not talking about aircraft being shot down or unmanned aircraft being shot down over the United States.

00:10:58.680 He'd be out front on it.

00:11:00.300 And I think the American people deserve that.

00:11:02.880 You know, right now, citizens from the West Coast to the East Coast are out there with their binoculars.

00:11:08.280 Like every citizen NORAD wannabe is out there like, I see it.

00:11:13.160 I see it.

00:11:14.020 Yeah.

00:11:14.520 Yeah.

00:11:15.100 There's another one.

00:11:16.020 There was a great meme online.

00:11:17.520 Debbie Murphy, my producer, sent it to me of this person.

00:11:19.900 Megan, there could be hundreds of them.

00:11:21.800 There could be hundreds of them up there.

00:11:23.220 We don't know, do we?

00:11:25.040 NORAD's probably identifying multiple right now.

00:11:27.740 We're going to shoot them all.

00:11:28.820 I'm going to get my little slingshot and see what I can do.

00:11:31.280 There was one.

00:11:31.840 She sent me this meme of this person.

00:11:33.200 I was like, I see it.

00:11:33.780 I see it.

00:11:34.320 I turned out to be bird poop on their window, which could easily be confused for it.

00:11:37.840 It looks similar to the balloon.

00:11:39.740 But this is our future.

00:11:40.480 I think it was the first one, the balloon they said was like three times the size of a school

00:11:45.940 bus.

00:11:46.860 So I kind of get why they wouldn't want to just shoot it down randomly.

00:11:49.960 But the odds of it hitting something, as long as it's not over a major city or populated

00:11:53.820 area, the odds of it hitting something meaningful are pretty slim when you think about how spread

00:11:57.660 out everything is across most of America.

00:12:00.460 Well, in that one, they first spotted it over Alaska.

00:12:03.940 So why didn't they just shoot it down over Alaska, which they've now proven is completely safe

00:12:08.800 and they can do right there.

00:12:09.980 They spent eight days telling us, oh, well, there's that the other thing.

00:12:13.920 They're perfectly capable of shooting these things down over Alaska because they they then

00:12:17.600 did that with one of these smaller, quote, objects.

00:12:20.760 Uh huh.

00:12:22.480 Well, I'd like to talk to the pilots who are flying up that high, who are targeting these

00:12:29.500 things.

00:12:30.120 Oh, my God.

00:12:30.820 You know, they they they got a good look at it.

00:12:32.740 I'd like to know what they saw.

00:12:34.360 And I think that the military, well, I understand the Pentagon is tight lipped and, you know,

00:12:38.580 a lot of this stuff is classified.

00:12:39.860 But give us a little more, you know, give give us a little better sense of what it is

00:12:44.940 exactly that's flying over the United States, a little better sense of what it is that you're

00:12:49.540 shooting down and why you're shooting it down.

00:12:51.720 I think they could give us a better picture of what's going on.

00:12:56.400 Something's happened in Montana, too, because like I say, we had the one off the South Carolina

00:13:00.240 coast, started in Alaska, spotted in Montana.

00:13:03.240 Then we shot it down.

00:13:04.640 The Chinese spy balloon last two Saturdays ago.

00:13:07.360 Then we get another thing in Alaska, which we shoot down.

00:13:11.000 Then we get something over Canada, which NORAD shoots down.

00:13:14.160 Then we get the thing over Lake Huron, which we shoot down.

00:13:17.040 But in the midst of all this, in the midst of all this, yet another report out of Montana.

00:13:22.200 This is Saturday.

00:13:23.340 Airspace briefly closed over Montana before being quickly reopened after a radar anomaly prompted

00:13:30.000 a jet to investigate.

00:13:32.080 Fighter jets were scrambled and airspace over a town.

00:13:36.080 Havre, forgive me, I don't know how to pronounce it, Havre, H-A-V-R-E, a town of 10,000 people,

00:13:41.220 30 miles south of the Canadian border, was shut.

00:13:44.180 The airspace shut at 7.50 p.m.

00:13:46.200 before being reopened about 50 minutes later.

00:13:50.920 They're saying that, let's see, Montana Congressman Matt Rosendale said he told he was told the

00:13:56.140 Pentagon would follow the object. 0.89

00:13:57.680 But they were unable to shoot it down because it was dark.

00:14:01.680 Then NORAD issued a statement shortly after, leaving it unclear whether there was indeed

00:14:06.500 an object at all or whether it was a false alarm.

00:14:09.840 My God, I'm sorry, Rick, but I'm going to have to do it.

00:14:12.380 It reminds one of this famous scene.

00:14:15.920 Now, watch.

00:14:16.740 It's a scene from Independence Day.

00:14:45.680 As the aliens invade, that guy's reaction about sums it up.

00:14:49.580 That's next, Megan.

00:14:50.480 That's next.

00:14:52.440 Got to wonder, like, let's just spend a minute on what if it isn't from the Chinese?

00:14:57.620 Okay.

00:14:57.900 Like, what?

00:14:59.140 There's a reason this guy wouldn't rule it out, right?

00:15:02.320 The NORAD commander wouldn't rule it out.

00:15:04.160 I'm not ruling anything out.

00:15:05.740 What if it is from another planet?

00:15:09.680 And they're like doing some recon.

00:15:11.400 You know, it'd be kind of cool if it was, let's be honest.

00:15:16.700 It'd be a lot more sexy if it was from another world than if it's from China or some other 1.00

00:15:24.120 country that wants to spy on us.

00:15:25.660 The likelihood is, it's another UAV of some kind of spy technology.

00:15:32.760 And they're gathering all of the electronic intelligence they can every chance they get.

00:15:37.940 What's in Montana?

00:15:39.300 I don't know, but something good must be in Montana because they're spending a lot of time over there.

00:15:44.380 Yes.

00:15:44.720 I think that, you know, the question remains is how many more are there?

00:15:50.320 Are there really that many that they can shoot down that many in a short amount of time?

00:15:55.200 And who knows?

00:15:57.720 I mean, it probably doesn't take that much to build these things.

00:16:00.920 And we know how far the technology has advanced over the last few years.

00:16:04.140 So, I mean, I don't know.

00:16:07.200 But aliens?

00:16:08.240 This isn't over.

00:16:09.020 This isn't over.

00:16:09.720 We're going to get more and more reports now that NORAD's paying attention.

00:16:12.200 But here's a couple, here's an interesting twist.

00:16:14.500 So, I've been mentioning Air Force General Glenn Van Herc, right, of NORAD.

00:16:17.940 And he's saying we haven't ruled anything out.

00:16:20.020 We haven't ruled anything out.

00:16:22.180 We continue to assess.

00:16:24.460 Okay.

00:16:24.940 So, that got people's attention, right?

00:16:26.540 It appeared in the New York Times.

00:16:28.440 And this is courtesy of Mediaite, which is paying attention to the reporting on this.

00:16:32.500 So, he doesn't rule out aliens.

00:16:34.620 And the New York Times reports that.

00:16:36.800 And the original quote included the quote I read to you from Glenn Van Herc, right?

00:16:40.820 But then, then, okay, let me just read from the Mediaite report.

00:16:47.280 So, the New York Times Pentagon correspondent, Helene Cooper, who co-wrote the article, asked

00:16:51.460 about this tidbit, right?

00:16:52.520 You can't rule anything out during the presser with Van Herc.

00:16:56.160 And she says, because you still haven't been able to tell us what these things are that

00:17:00.400 we're shooting out of the sky, that raises the question, have you ruled out aliens or

00:17:03.660 extraterrestrial or ETs?

00:17:06.640 And if so, why?

00:17:07.680 Because that's what everyone's asking right now.

00:17:09.080 And that's where he goes on to say, I haven't ruled anything out.

00:17:12.000 We continue to assess every threat.

00:17:14.000 After the presser, the article of the New York Times was changed.

00:17:17.640 And that paragraph I read to you was removed.

00:17:20.740 At a different point in the article, it now has this added.

00:17:24.300 Asked during a news conference on Sunday whether he had ruled out ET origins.

00:17:28.540 General Glenn Van Herc, the commander of the Air Force's Northern Command, said,

00:17:32.560 I haven't ruled out anything at this point.

00:17:35.020 And now the New York Times reports it this way, Rick.

00:17:36.820 But in interview Sunday, national security officials discounted any thoughts that what

00:17:42.600 the Air Force shot out of the sky represented any sort of alien visitors.

00:17:46.640 No one, one senior official said, thinks these things are anything other than devices fashioned

00:17:52.200 here on Earth.

00:17:53.920 And the report goes on to say, although this is the Mediate report, although that does update

00:17:58.340 and add to the story on the subject of the public's imagination regarding UFOs, it leaves

00:18:02.560 out entirely the news earlier reported by the Times that the Biden administration was making

00:18:08.140 private assurances to people that we were not being invaded from space, reporting that

00:18:13.240 no longer appears anywhere in the article.

00:18:16.200 I have to say, Megan, in my 35 year reporting career, I don't believe I ever asked a question

00:18:24.140 of any official about whether or not something was an alien life form or an alien spaceship.

00:18:30.360 I don't think I ever asked that question.

00:18:33.040 I think perhaps the person who was answering the question was just trying to cover all his

00:18:37.520 bases and didn't know if he was authorized to say, in fact, that it wasn't that.

00:18:42.460 So maybe he was just trying to keep all options open or keep people guessing.

00:18:47.160 But I think it's most likely not.

00:18:51.140 It sounds like they probably pulled the New York Times aside after the press conference

00:18:54.960 said, listen, guys, you know, I appreciate the question.

00:18:57.880 But this was not a UFO.

00:18:59.860 Don't fan those fires.

00:19:01.020 OK, the fact that you never asked anybody, hashtag part of the problem, Rick, hashtag

00:19:04.260 part of the problem.

00:19:05.600 Why weren't you on this?

00:19:07.360 OK, but here's the best.

00:19:08.520 Here's the best, best piece of this whole story.

00:19:10.820 OK, so, OK, we did we did shoot one down.

00:19:14.080 NORAD shot down, you know, the Air Force shot down all the ones in the United States and

00:19:17.960 NORAD, which is a North American group that targets any sort of air threats, worked with

00:19:25.280 Canada to shoot down the one over Canadian airspace.

00:19:27.840 And that what we're told is that this is approved per a White House statement by both

00:19:31.380 President Biden and Justin Trudeau.

00:19:33.140 They both approved the shoot.

00:19:34.440 I mean, I'm sorry, but I can't think of two more feckless leaders sitting there like,

00:19:37.700 what do you think?

00:19:38.240 What do you think?

00:19:39.180 What do you think?

00:19:40.140 OK, sorry.

00:19:41.480 But Justin Trudeau, like the fact that he had to approve anything.

00:19:44.020 OK, I'm sure we made the decision.

00:19:46.780 So Karine Jean-Pierre gets asked about it on MSNBC over the weekend.

00:19:54.480 NORAD shot it down over Canadian airspace.

00:19:56.480 What's going on?

00:19:57.920 Oh, my God.

00:19:59.000 Rick Levinthal.

00:20:00.040 Please listen to this soundbite and listen to the last word in particular that she says.

00:20:04.660 Why is why is the American military shooting something out of the sky over Canada?

00:20:12.180 Because it's part of NORAD.

00:20:14.120 There is the NORAD is part of like a part of it's a it's a what you call a coalition.

00:20:20.000 Of course.

00:20:20.220 Of course.

00:20:20.240 So a pact, exactly.

00:20:22.360 And so that's why we were able to do that again.

00:20:24.380 We didn't do it on our own.

00:20:25.780 We did it in in clearly in step with Canada. 0.68

00:20:34.080 What's it called?

00:20:34.800 A coalition?

00:20:36.700 Canada?

00:20:37.900 Canada?

00:20:38.180 Canada literally sounds like a disease you get in college if you're not careful.

00:20:44.420 Not for the record.

00:20:45.240 I've never had Canada.

00:20:46.660 Never.

00:20:47.120 But I have.

00:20:47.620 I have been to Canada.

00:20:49.440 But, you know, you've been with the military overseas, right?

00:20:51.720 It sounds like, oh, my God, he needs some antibiotics for his Canada.

00:20:54.120 You got it over there in Iraq.

00:20:55.900 What the hell is that?

00:20:57.180 I mean, what is going on?

00:20:59.240 This is why I never wanted to cover politics in Washington, Megan.

00:21:02.120 This is why I stayed in New York City for most of my career.

00:21:04.700 I didn't want anything to do with those knuckleheads on Capitol Hill.

00:21:08.800 Okay?

00:21:10.220 Isn't it terrifying that her job is to be an effective communicator, Rick? 0.82

00:21:15.760 She's kind of one step away from our business.

00:21:18.120 It's literally her job to communicate clearly.

00:21:21.900 Yeah.

00:21:22.680 How's that going?

00:21:24.340 How's she doing?

00:21:26.160 Horrifying.

00:21:27.740 I miss John Spicer.

00:21:30.640 Me too, actually.

00:21:32.160 I mean, I can't even watch those news conferences anymore at the White House.

00:21:36.460 I can't.

00:21:37.020 I can't watch it.

00:21:37.980 It's just so ridiculous.

00:21:41.120 It's embarrassing, right?

00:21:42.400 I have secondhand embarrassment.

00:21:43.700 I think so.

00:21:44.420 I think that's a good word.

00:21:45.940 She never heard of NORAD.

00:21:47.300 And once again, because it's a pattern with her, refused to do her homework before making

00:21:52.020 an appearance about it, right?

00:21:53.080 Like, I recognize most of us aren't talking about NORAD every day.

00:21:57.120 I was saying the other day, it's like, to me, it makes me think of War Games.

00:21:59.920 We're now at DEF CON 1.

00:22:00.820 But I don't have her job. 0.64

00:22:03.220 And I wasn't about to go on all the Sunday shows talking about the three or four, however

00:22:06.700 many had been at that point, unmanned aerial vehicles that we had shot down, including one

00:22:11.540 with Canada, which was done by NORAD.

00:22:13.340 Like, do your damn homework.

00:22:15.420 Try a little.

00:22:16.860 Stop embarrassing yourself, womankind, and the American people by being so inarticulate 1.00

00:22:22.820 and obviously uninformed.

00:22:24.900 You'd think that you would be fully briefed, fully read up.

00:22:30.360 I mean, I'm sure they gave her talking points, but maybe practice it a little bit.

00:22:34.400 Maybe rehearse it.

00:22:35.120 Get to know your information better.

00:22:37.180 Get to know the subject you're talking about and then talk about it.

00:22:41.500 Do we think that she knows it's Canada?

00:22:44.160 And not Canadia?

00:22:51.280 Where is Canadia?

00:22:53.040 I'm scared.

00:22:54.060 I'm scared.

00:22:56.020 Okay.

00:22:56.540 So that was my favorite story.

00:22:57.900 All right.

00:22:58.040 So let's switch to the Super Bowl because there were things coming down from the sky and there

00:23:02.920 were balls being thrown across the sky at a much lower altitude.

00:23:07.020 By the way, just FYI, the objects we shot down were reportedly around 20,000 feet.

00:23:11.240 The Chinese spy balloon was more like 40,000 feet.

00:23:13.240 That's why the Biden administration is saying it was fine to shoot down.

00:23:15.960 Like, we had to shoot it down because it was a potential airplane airspace.

00:23:20.480 Unlike that Chinese balloon, we got all this heat for not shooting until it got over South 0.98

00:23:24.120 Carolina waters.

00:23:25.240 Okay.

00:23:25.660 So Super Bowl last night.

00:23:26.540 Did you watch it?

00:23:27.820 Of course.

00:23:28.880 Yeah.

00:23:29.440 I watched the whole game.

00:23:30.820 Who were you rooting for?

00:23:31.960 I was rooting for the Chiefs.

00:23:32.980 I love the Chiefs.

00:23:33.920 And I grew up in the D.C. area when we used to have a team called the Redskins, and they

00:23:38.300 were my team.

00:23:39.280 And the Redskins are in the same division as the Eagles.

00:23:42.380 So I hated the Eagles, hated the Giants, and I can't root for the Eagles because they

00:23:47.280 were one of the enemies of the Redskins.

00:23:49.440 So, of course, I rooted for the Chiefs, and I was very happy to see them win.

00:23:52.780 I wasn't happy that I didn't hit any of my squares.

00:23:55.380 You know, I had some Super Bowl box squares.

00:23:57.720 Yep.

00:23:58.260 You know, those pools.

00:23:59.880 And I haven't won in, like, I don't know, five or six years.

00:24:03.000 So I was very disappointed in that.

00:24:05.580 But the game itself was terrific.

00:24:08.640 I mean, this was one of the best Super Bowls I think most of us have ever seen.

00:24:12.280 It was a really good game.

00:24:14.780 It was.

00:24:15.140 It was exciting.

00:24:15.860 Even for the non-sports person like me.

00:24:18.180 My husband, he's on a guy's weekend with his buddies, all from Philly.

00:24:21.900 So they watched it together, but I watched it with my kids.

00:24:24.500 We did the box thing.

00:24:26.120 It was funny because we had to fill some in because we didn't have enough people.

00:24:30.220 Anyway, and we filled it in with, like, if it's this score at the end of the first quarter,

00:24:34.360 you have to say the, everybody in the family has to say the alphabet backward, which is what happened.

00:24:38.200 If it's this, you've got to run around.

00:24:39.560 I can actually do that.

00:24:40.740 It's hard.

00:24:41.580 It's more challenging than I would have thought.

00:24:44.700 Anyway, so I will tell you I won them all.

00:24:46.660 Would you like me to demonstrate?

00:24:47.620 Can you actually do it right now?

00:24:48.960 You won all the boxes?

00:24:49.980 I won them all.

00:24:50.800 I won every single one.

00:24:51.820 Wow.

00:24:52.120 I was nice.

00:24:53.400 I didn't take their money.

00:24:54.600 I told them they're going to have to do whatever I said this week, which is a better payment

00:24:57.320 to me.

00:24:58.100 Well, you know what I was doing?

00:24:59.240 It was like, okay, if each team scores a field goal before the end of the quarter,

00:25:03.860 then we'll hit our numbers.

00:25:05.740 All right.

00:25:06.040 Now this team has to score a touchdown and a safety and then miss the extra point.

00:25:11.840 You know, stuff like that.

00:25:13.280 None of it worked out.

00:25:14.520 It's funny how it's, it does stop you from rooting for your actual team.

00:25:18.020 It becomes all about what your chart is and whether you're going to hit your bet.

00:25:22.120 Right.

00:25:22.420 It's like, yeah, I couldn't care less about your, the team you're rooting for.

00:25:25.140 It's like when I played fantasy football, you know, all I cared about was if my running

00:25:29.020 back on the chiefs got over a hundred yards and scored two touchdowns, I didn't care what

00:25:34.160 the game was happening in the game at all.

00:25:36.300 And, you know, I'm rooting for the receiver on the other side because he's on my team too.

00:25:39.740 So it just changes the game completely.

00:25:42.360 But, you know, I do love football and I, and I, I love the spectacle of it.

00:25:46.220 And, uh, we, we were at a party here in, uh, Newport beach and had a great time, slightly

00:25:51.580 hungover.

00:25:52.520 Can you really do the alphabet, say the alphabet backwards?

00:25:55.160 Can I hear that?

00:25:55.660 Oh yeah.

00:25:56.360 Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L K G I H G F U D C V A. 1.00

00:26:00.740 Why do you have that skill?

00:26:05.200 You know, we were, uh, driving cross country.

00:26:07.500 My family was when I was like 15 years old and I'm sitting in the backseat of our old

00:26:10.940 and be a cutlass Supreme.

00:26:13.040 I'm bored out of my mind.

00:26:14.680 So I just wrote down the alphabet on a piece of paper and then just started practicing,

00:26:18.000 reading it backwards.

00:26:18.920 I don't know why I did that, but since the age of 15, I've been able to say it pretty

00:26:22.760 much as fast as I can say it forward.

00:26:24.180 I can say it backwards.

00:26:25.320 Oh my God.

00:26:25.960 That was amazing.

00:26:27.340 And that is a skill I've never revealed before, Megan.

00:26:29.900 I'm breaking news for you.

00:26:32.000 Thank you right here, right now.

00:26:33.460 I mean, honestly, like we, we used to sing, we used to sing songs in the back of my parents

00:26:37.380 station wagon.

00:26:38.040 We didn't do anything useful.

00:26:39.780 That's useful.

00:26:41.120 I taught myself something.

00:26:43.660 I encourage all young people today to do the same thing.

00:26:46.880 You never know when it'll come in handy.

00:26:48.840 Yeah.

00:26:49.060 They're learning absolutely nothing.

00:26:50.240 They're playing games on the iPad, but now I'm resolved to try harder.

00:26:53.500 Remember all those songs you'd sing.

00:26:54.800 It was like the 99 bottles of beer on the ball and give God your glory, glory.

00:26:58.900 It was like all those camp songs in the backseat of the big station wagon, which was so unsafe.

00:27:04.020 Did you have the one where like you were in the way, way back?

00:27:06.360 We're like, we did have, ours didn't have that seat.

00:27:10.080 Ours didn't have the seat in the, in the way back, but we did have a country sedan, a

00:27:14.140 Ford country sedan.

00:27:14.940 And sometimes we'd sit in the way back, but there were, you know, no seatbelts, obviously.

00:27:19.880 We're just rolling around back there.

00:27:21.780 We, we were like high class.

00:27:23.700 We had the little like living room in the back of the way, way back of the station wagon.

00:27:28.920 That's fancy.

00:27:29.560 We could sit the little, it would open up and they were like, there was a little seat

00:27:32.340 there, a little seat there.

00:27:33.000 Oh yeah.

00:27:33.140 I remember that.

00:27:33.960 Did you have a conversation on the side?

00:27:35.740 Yes, of course, of course, how many people died that didn't have to as a result of that?

00:27:43.600 You were living large.

00:27:46.240 Dangerously, right?

00:27:47.320 Dangerous.

00:27:47.860 Good God.

00:27:48.560 One small fender bender and you're a goner.

00:27:51.380 Oh, perhaps.

00:27:52.260 Who would put their child back there.

00:27:53.100 Speaking of which.

00:27:54.680 So Superbowl.

00:27:56.420 All right.

00:27:56.640 So back to the Superbowl.

00:27:57.420 So I had to, I, I know the rule is if you love like the giants or in the same league,

00:28:02.120 you're supposed to root against them, but I had to root for the Eagles.

00:28:05.740 Even though they're part of the same league as the giants, because of my husband, we

00:28:09.480 have a rivalry anyway.

00:28:10.440 I like the giants and he likes the Eagles and we're fighting over our children.

00:28:14.020 So I rooted for them because Doug loved them.

00:28:16.700 And I really did want them to win by the end.

00:28:19.140 And then I will tell you, it was like the chiefs played well.

00:28:21.520 And I think my homes is really cool.

00:28:22.940 He's such an interesting player.

00:28:24.180 Like he's such a, like, how does he make those short little surprising shots everywhere?

00:28:28.780 He misses nothing.

00:28:29.880 It's like, he wants the ball to go in a certain spot and he makes it under against all odds.

00:28:34.380 However, I was not a big fan of Travis Kelsey, right?

00:28:40.220 From the chiefs.

00:28:41.600 He's got the brother on the Eagles.

00:28:43.880 He was fine during the game, but what was with his bitterness after the game?

00:28:48.280 I'll play you the sock.

00:28:49.100 Man, one of y'all said the chiefs were going to take it home this year.

00:28:53.900 Not a single one.

00:28:55.680 Feel that.

00:28:56.920 Feel it.

00:28:57.620 And on top of that, next time the chiefs say something, put some respect on our name.

00:29:01.000 We had an unbelievable run.

00:29:02.320 And man, it feels good.

00:29:03.260 Not man.

00:29:04.000 One of y'all said the chiefs were going to win it.

00:29:07.000 And look at us now.

00:29:07.900 Oh my God.

00:29:11.280 Come on.

00:29:12.600 Be a good winner.

00:29:13.560 No one said they were going to win.

00:29:14.720 Really?

00:29:16.400 I think probably half of America at least thought the chiefs were going to win.

00:29:20.220 Why would he say that?

00:29:21.540 Why so bitter after winning?

00:29:23.700 It was the pregame.

00:29:24.480 One of them was the pregame show.

00:29:25.660 One of them was the postgame.

00:29:27.060 I don't know.

00:29:27.520 Steve is telling me right now.

00:29:28.440 One of the winningest teams in the NFL over the last few years.

00:29:31.460 And by the way, I'm a big fan of Travis Kelsey on the field.

00:29:34.440 The guy is amazing.

00:29:35.900 And Mahomes too, playing through injury.

00:29:37.740 You know, ankle injuries are tough.

00:29:39.500 And he hurt his ankle again in that game.

00:29:42.880 But he stayed in the game.

00:29:44.320 And he actually scrambled for, I don't know, 20, 30 yards at one point on his bad ankle.

00:29:49.660 And never showed any sign that he would.

00:29:52.300 I guarantee you that guy is hurting today and will be.

00:29:55.720 But he knew that he would have plenty of time to recover once the game was over.

00:29:59.940 And I love the fact that he just sucked it up and played hard until the end of the game.

00:30:05.860 And Kelsey's a monster, right? 1.00

00:30:08.520 I've had that guy.

00:30:09.280 He was on my fantasy team like two or three years in a row.

00:30:11.740 I picked him every year because I knew he would produce.

00:30:14.960 And he's awesome.

00:30:16.360 I think he's second in all time in touchdowns and Super Bowls.

00:30:20.300 He's a really good player.

00:30:21.840 But saying that nobody picked him is ridiculous.

00:30:23.680 I guess Steve Krakar is telling me it was during the, I guess, Fox pre-show game.

00:30:28.980 Nobody picked them.

00:30:29.620 But who cares?

00:30:31.180 Like, who that then proves everybody wrong doesn't just go out there and say, like, yeah, you know, they didn't believe we could do it, but we did it.

00:30:37.580 And thanks and love everybody.

00:30:39.340 Like, he's bitter.

00:30:40.240 Like, he's mad about the pre-game predictions.

00:30:41.860 I thought it was a low moment for him.

00:30:44.960 He should stay classy like his mama, who had a boy on the Eagles and a boy on the Chiefs and wore a great jersey that was split right down the middle.

00:30:55.620 Chiefs and Eagles.

00:30:57.480 What did you say, Abs?

00:30:58.560 Yeah.

00:30:59.120 She needs to know where she got it because we have to do this in my family since we're Giants and Eagles fans.

00:31:03.280 We tried to create that in my family.

00:31:05.400 But anyway, that was a nice storyline.

00:31:06.980 Just one down there.

00:31:07.900 All right.

00:31:08.020 So there's a lot more to go through with the Super Bowl.

00:31:09.960 The Rihanna halftime show, the old female flyover, the Joe Biden stiff arm to the Fox interviewers.

00:31:18.580 We're going to pause, do a quick break, and pick it up there with so many more Super Bowl storylines.

00:31:22.900 What did you think of the Super Bowl?

00:31:24.120 Did you like it?

00:31:24.740 Did you like the halftime show?

00:31:25.860 Did you like the commercials?

00:31:27.640 Email me, Megan, at MeganKelley.com.

00:31:30.240 Now streaming on Paramount+.

00:31:32.840 Someone is trying to frame us.

00:31:35.820 Until our names are cleared.

00:31:38.340 We're fugitives from interval.

00:31:40.140 Like Bonnie and Clyde with better snacks.

00:31:43.600 Espionage.

00:31:44.200 You still as good a shot as you used to be?

00:31:47.300 Better.

00:31:48.040 Is there love language?

00:31:49.500 We like to walk that fine line between techno-thriller and romantic comedy.

00:31:54.800 We make up our own rules.

00:31:56.580 NCIS Tony and Ziva.

00:31:58.320 Now streaming on Paramount+.

00:32:00.060 Can I tell you, like, it wasn't as bad as it's been in years past, but it was a woke Super Bowl, and it was annoying.

00:32:10.380 Why did we need the all-female flyover? 1.00

00:32:12.980 Which they, Fox, I mean, even on Fox, they were sure to highlight it's an all-female flyover. 1.00

00:32:16.880 Oh, okay.

00:32:17.600 All right.

00:32:17.920 Thank you for reminding me that women can be pilots. 1.00

00:32:19.660 I didn't know that.

00:32:20.760 And then, of course, we had to have the Black National Anthem in addition to the regular National Anthem, which is totally divisive.

00:32:26.680 There is no reason to have a Black National Anthem sung before the Super Bowl. 0.77

00:32:30.580 But there's one National Anthem.

00:32:31.820 It unites us all.

00:32:32.820 It's about love of country.

00:32:34.360 There's no point in dividing us by race, going into something that is already unifying as a country.

00:32:39.340 And then we had a parade of left-wing celebrities all over the ads, from Amy Schumer to Ben Affleck, who won't even act with a Republican.

00:32:51.620 He refuses to act across anybody who's openly Republican.

00:32:54.140 To Serena Williams, like, you could go down the list.

00:32:58.200 And all I could think was, like, they don't get it, right?

00:33:01.700 The people who put together the entertainment, who put together the ads, they're not even trying to, like, think about the other half of the country.

00:33:08.780 They're just pandering.

00:33:09.800 They just want to pander, pander, pander.

00:33:11.860 And it's fine.

00:33:12.460 The game is great.

00:33:13.040 But it is a slight irritant as you're watching the game.

00:33:16.140 I have to agree.

00:33:16.980 And I wonder why that is, why this keeps happening.

00:33:20.840 Why can't we be united?

00:33:22.620 Why can't we all be included in anything and everything entertainment-wise?

00:33:28.760 I didn't know that Ben Affleck wouldn't act with Republicans.

00:33:32.160 I never heard that before.

00:33:33.560 I do know that there are a lot of actors in Hollywood who are afraid to be honest about their political leanings because they're concerned about being canceled.

00:33:42.420 And that's happening in every industry.

00:33:46.980 So I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed.

00:33:51.020 Yeah.

00:33:51.580 And didn't you hear, so we'll get to your family and all that, but you married a real housewife from Orange County. 1.00

00:33:57.980 Yeah.

00:33:58.280 And she's no longer on the show.

00:33:59.480 But my understanding is there was some blowback against her for pushing back on some of, like, the mask mandates and some of the overreaches by the Fauci administration.

00:34:10.860 Like, even as a real housewife, she was getting blowback for just taking positions which are very accepted now.

00:34:16.980 And she has a lot of fans who are convinced that the only reason she's no longer a housewife is because she didn't agree politically with the leanings, the left leanings of Bravo and Andy Cohen, who runs that franchise.

00:34:28.700 She believes, and many of her, most of her supporters believe that the only reason she's off the show is because she dared to voice her opposition to mask mandates, to schools closing, to businesses closing, and questioned the efficacy of masks and the other things that people were doing to allegedly try and protect us.

00:34:49.120 And, Megan, I'm sure you saw that study that came out recently that said that masks, it turns out, were only about 5% effective in keeping people from getting COVID, 5%, which is negligible.

00:34:58.980 So Kelly was right.

00:35:00.180 She was really right all along about how ridiculous it was, right about shutting down.

00:35:04.880 Why would you shut down schools?

00:35:06.260 Why would you make little kids wear masks when they're the least likely to suffer any kind of consequences from it?

00:35:11.860 And, you know, she was willing to put herself out there, and she was too real for the real housewives. 1.00

00:35:17.660 Right, right, exactly.

00:35:19.060 You can't be real on the real housewives or elsewhere if you're a Republican or if you're at all conservative or even just heterodox in your views when it comes to their sacred cows, whether it's COVID and the vaccines and the masks or BLM or the trans, you know, radical trans ideology. 0.60

00:35:36.340 These are certain things you're not allowed to know.

00:35:38.260 There will be no divergence of opinion on these sacred cows.

00:35:40.860 Right.

00:35:41.520 You have to toe the line.

00:35:43.060 You have to agree with what the government is telling you or else.

00:35:46.800 You know, if you dare to speak up, and I've never seen anything like this.

00:35:50.060 I'm sorry, Mike.

00:35:50.800 In the last two years, this whole world, the whole environment has changed so dramatically where any alternative voices are being silenced or ridiculed.

00:36:00.600 I mean, the world has just turned on its side, and I really don't understand why, and I don't get where we're going.

00:36:09.400 And I hope that it doesn't continue.

00:36:10.860 Well, it's ironic to me because Fox ran promos for Greg Gutfeld and his late night show, which is doing great, and I love to see it.

00:36:20.380 I mean, this guy who worked so hard started Red Eye.

00:36:23.260 It was like this middle of the night thing, and Greg toiled away on it when nobody was watching, and then it became a cult hit, and now he really is the king of late night.

00:36:32.240 He's crushing Colbert and Fallon and Kimmel, and you love to see it.

00:36:37.360 So Fox gave him promos.

00:36:39.020 But on the same program, right?

00:36:40.560 So why did he become number one?

00:36:42.420 Because he's doing comedy.

00:36:44.780 He's not afraid to push back against the Biden administration or some of these things we're talking about.

00:36:50.380 And it's working.

00:36:51.520 But still, we're supposed to celebrate Amy Schumer and Ben Affleck and the all-female thing and the national black. 0.71

00:37:00.040 And it's like they don't get it.

00:37:01.520 The American people are not into this.

00:37:03.100 Well, a lot of people needed someone like Gutfeld to do a late night show because the others were cookie cutter, and they were all appealing to the same audience.

00:37:12.680 And there are a lot of conservatives out there who felt like they were being made fun of every night on the late shows, and why would they watch that?

00:37:19.860 But, you know, Gutfeld's actually telling jokes that they can laugh at.

00:37:24.040 So he's doing very well.

00:37:25.440 I was on Red Eye with him many, many times.

00:37:27.200 In fact, I did Gutfeld to promote my book, Chasing Catastrophe, a couple of weeks ago.

00:37:31.000 So the guy is really clever and really funny.

00:37:33.440 And it was a great little promo, and I was really happy to see that.

00:37:36.440 And I'm happy for his success as well.

00:37:38.620 But, you know, again, it's just sort of this trend to ignore anyone who doesn't agree with, I don't know, the current administration.

00:37:50.120 And he's funny.

00:37:51.220 I mean, he's always been clever, and he's generous with his guests, too.

00:37:54.040 I had some early appearances on Red Eye, which were really fun in my career.

00:37:59.560 How about Rihanna?

00:38:00.580 I will say, Rihanna came back for the first time since 2016.

00:38:04.940 She hasn't dropped an album since 2016.

00:38:07.380 And I was excited to see what would happen.

00:38:10.160 I'm not going to lie.

00:38:11.700 I was kind of underwhelmed.

00:38:14.700 Well, I was wondering how much of the music she was actually singing.

00:38:20.360 It appeared to me that she was lip syncing for most of it.

00:38:24.600 She might have sang some pieces of one of the first couple of songs, and maybe at the end, a little bit.

00:38:31.060 But honestly, Megan, all I kept focusing on was how you kept hearing her voice, even when she wasn't opening her mouth or holding the microphone near her mouth.

00:38:40.300 I saw the same thing.

00:38:41.980 So, you know, it's like, it's a lip sync show.

00:38:44.240 It's not like an actual concert.

00:38:46.080 I don't know.

00:38:46.940 I love those floating platforms.

00:38:48.940 Those things were really cool.

00:38:50.820 And I saw there was some kind of tether.

00:38:52.960 Like, they were locked in.

00:38:54.300 Or she had something holding her from behind just in case something went wrong.

00:38:58.040 Of course.

00:38:58.320 It looked like to me.

00:38:59.520 But, I mean, to be surfing above the field like that on some plastic shield when you're pregnant, as it turns out, you know, that was pretty ballsy. 0.95

00:39:10.580 I laughed.

00:39:11.520 Somebody online, somebody online was, like, put in the Donkey Kong guy, you know, like, because you know how Donkey Kong, you go up and down the platform.

00:39:20.520 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:39:22.320 It didn't kind of look like that, didn't it?

00:39:24.420 Listen, she's got great music.

00:39:26.500 You know, I do like her music, or at least some of it.

00:39:30.520 But my whole thing is, you know, I appreciate real artistry, and I want artists to sing.

00:39:36.440 And I get that the acoustics might be bad, or it might, you know, that she wants to sound good.

00:39:41.300 She wants to sell more records. 1.00

00:39:43.060 But, you know, just, I don't know, just sing.

00:39:45.900 Don't pretend to sing.

00:39:47.900 Well, and dance, too.

00:39:49.640 It would be nice if she would dance.

00:39:50.700 People are like, oh, well, she was pregnant. 0.84

00:39:52.400 Well, you can dance when you're pregnant. 1.00

00:39:53.520 Why are we pretending that that's not a possibility?

00:39:55.220 Like, of course, everybody was like, did she not lose her baby weight?

00:39:59.240 Because she had a baby in May.

00:40:01.300 She was nine months postpartum.

00:40:02.920 Because you could tell she had a baby bump.

00:40:04.500 And it was like, well, that's nine months is a little far to be looking, like, pregnant still.

00:40:08.980 But wait, I thought she was pregnant.

00:40:10.960 Didn't they say that she actually is pregnant? 0.93

00:40:13.060 Yes, but before she revealed that, like, her spokesperson didn't come out and say she's pregnant until after the performance. 0.99

00:40:17.720 So everybody was looking at the baby bump being like, is she just celebrating, like, the old baby bump?

00:40:22.340 Is this a new baby bump?

00:40:23.360 What is happening with the baby bump?

00:40:25.400 Well, I can tell you that my wife and her girlfriends at this party last night were all focused on the baby bump.

00:40:30.440 They all noticed it.

00:40:31.700 And they said, she's pregnant. 0.98

00:40:33.120 Looks like she's pregnant. 1.00

00:40:34.460 So that was, you know, the buzz at halftime.

00:40:36.820 I will say tip of the hat to her for the tease because she said something like, I might bring a special guest, which is kind of cute. 0.99

00:40:43.600 But I mean, she didn't bring any, you know, normally they they'll bring in some other stars, like a surprise.

00:40:49.240 She wasn't really dancing.

00:40:50.740 And I just got to say, like, to me, it felt a little phoned in.

00:40:54.460 Even the New York Times had a review out today saying she got up there.

00:40:57.800 She kind of phoned it in.

00:40:58.920 She made sure to promote her makeup brand while she did her.

00:41:01.700 Oh, yeah.

00:41:02.180 That was clever.

00:41:03.860 That was kind of clever.

00:41:05.800 Try a little harder.

00:41:08.060 I don't know.

00:41:08.660 You know, she she she boy she said she was boycotting the Super Bowl a few years ago over the whole Colin Kaepernick thing.

00:41:17.180 She was asked to do the Super Bowl, I think, in 2019 and turned it down.

00:41:21.260 And there are a lot of people who are questioning her commitment to whatever cause it was that she was trying to promote by saying, oh, you sold out.

00:41:29.000 Why did you do the Super Bowl now when you wouldn't do it four years ago?

00:41:33.020 That's a good question, because she said, what kind of a person would I be if I didn't stand with Colin Kaepernick?

00:41:37.820 And that if I sold out and did this the Super Bowl show and now I was like, well, you tell us, what kind of a person are you?

00:41:43.760 Because you're out there doing it.

00:41:44.960 The person who wants to make money on their makeup line.

00:41:47.340 Right.

00:41:48.720 Exactly.

00:41:50.000 So.

00:41:50.560 Hey.

00:41:51.720 Hey.

00:41:52.800 Buy this.

00:41:54.460 I'm not sure.

00:41:55.200 I feel like when The New York Times is kind of discussing it as lackluster, I don't know.

00:42:00.600 I thought the notwithstanding the fact that Ben Affleck is kind of a jerk and won't act with Republicans,

00:42:05.720 I thought his Dunkin' Donuts commercial was kind of cute.

00:42:08.240 I'm not going to lie with J-Lo.

00:42:09.960 It was cute how she was like, what are you doing here?

00:42:11.520 I don't know if people have saw it, but we have the we have a little bit of it.

00:42:15.840 What are you doing here?

00:42:18.200 Ask me if I'm my friends.

00:42:18.920 Is this what you do when you say you want to work all day?

00:42:21.160 I got to go, guys.

00:42:23.420 Grab me a glaze.

00:42:24.920 It was kind of cute.

00:42:26.720 Those two.

00:42:27.460 I don't know.

00:42:28.200 What's the over under on that marriage? 0.87

00:42:30.640 12, 18 months.

00:42:31.200 Well, actually, we talked about that on our podcast, The Rick and Kelly Show, and The Daily Smash on YouTube.

00:42:36.740 Kelly and I talked about that, and I think I gave them two years.

00:42:40.200 I think she gave them a year and a half.

00:42:42.300 I think that's about right.

00:42:43.380 I think I'll take the under on even 18 months.

00:42:47.020 We were having a good time with that video from the Grammys when she shushed him. 0.61

00:42:50.740 You know, like she said, like, show some, like, smile.

00:42:53.880 Like, don't act like because because he became this meme and everyone was talking about how miserable he was at the Grammys.

00:43:00.440 And he never, like, woke up.

00:43:02.240 It didn't look like he ever really put a smile on his face.

00:43:04.460 He just wanted to sit there and look unhappy.

00:43:06.540 And she was not happy with him being unhappy.

00:43:09.400 This looks like one of the problems of this relationship.

00:43:11.560 He's obviously got a massive problem with alcohol that I don't know whether it's under control at the moment or not.

00:43:17.160 But he's struggled with it over the years.

00:43:19.060 I think he's sober now.

00:43:20.300 But she doesn't drink at all.

00:43:22.840 She's very driven.

00:43:23.900 She seems very organized.

00:43:25.100 She seems like an A personality.

00:43:27.100 He's more like curmudgeonly, kind of dour.

00:43:31.800 He is.

00:43:32.600 Like, this is that clip at the Grammys.

00:43:35.280 To me, it was emblematic of what we know about their relationship.

00:43:39.160 And I maintain the reason that they reunited in the first place was not out of love.

00:43:43.140 It was a PR move on her part because she got cheated on by A-Rod. 0.97

00:43:49.440 And J-Lo wasn't going to sit there being the victim of A-Rod.

00:43:52.340 She went out there, reunited with somebody to change the narrative.

00:43:55.160 That's how PR works.

00:43:56.480 And the next thing you know, you saw Ben Affleck and J-Lo on this yacht.

00:44:00.060 And suddenly, in like two seconds, they're back in love.

00:44:03.500 Meanwhile, she was engaged to A-Rod, like, you know, the day before.

00:44:07.520 And now they went ahead and got married.

00:44:09.260 And I just not, I don't think so, Rick.

00:44:11.560 You know, there's a reason why you break up with someone.

00:44:14.720 Everyone's had a breakup.

00:44:15.680 And everyone, a lot of people probably have gone back to the ex and then remembered why they broke up in the first place.

00:44:22.740 And then they broke up again.

00:44:24.440 So to think that, you know, this is going to last a really long time would, I think, be, I mean, you're kidding yourself if you think it's going to last.

00:44:33.820 And I'm not, no disrespect.

00:44:34.980 If they do last, great.

00:44:36.380 I'm happy for them.

00:44:37.760 Maybe they were meant to be all along.

00:44:40.300 But typically, when you have a relationship and it doesn't work out, it's because of issues between the two people that are not going to resolve themselves by being apart for a few months, typically.

00:44:52.280 I'm not saying it can't happen.

00:44:53.680 I just don't think it will.

00:44:56.020 All right.

00:44:56.140 I got to ask you something sports related, which I almost never do, but I am kind of curious.

00:44:59.800 So a lot of Eagles fans are very angry about that one last penalty against the Eagles guy that cost them, what was it, 15 yards?

00:45:08.300 And then before he knew it, the Chiefs were close enough to, you know, score the last time.

00:45:12.500 Did you think that was BS?

00:45:13.800 Like he, that he held him, like he touched his jersey.

00:45:16.260 It seemed like nothing to me, but I don't know anything about football.

00:45:19.680 But I do think it was kind of an aggressive call by the ref and it may have cost the Eagles the game.

00:45:23.820 Well, if it's the one that I think you're talking about, I saw that defender grab him two or three times.

00:45:29.120 As he was trying to make his way down the field.

00:45:30.920 And that kind of stuff goes on.

00:45:33.460 If it's the same play I saw to me, it looked like a hold, but you know, they, they, sometimes they call it, sometimes they don't.

00:45:41.400 But at that key moment in the game, if you're holding the guy and he can't get to the ball, well, then I'm, I support them calling that penalty.

00:45:48.140 I mean, it's one of those things where it's sour grapes, right?

00:45:50.540 Because it's like the Eagles had many chance to win that thing last night, many chances.

00:45:55.120 And they didn't make it happen.

00:45:57.120 They were up by a lot, you know, at the half and this is slowly, but surely their lead was eroded.

00:46:02.960 And that guy, Mahomes just pulled a rabbit out of a hat.

00:46:05.020 It was, it was like magic watching him.

00:46:07.740 And I also think, you know, that's, that's experienced too.

00:46:10.660 Now, those guys have been in the Superbowl.

00:46:12.180 I don't know how many times in the last few years.

00:46:13.800 And so they're used to being there on that stage and the Eagles hadn't been there in a while.

00:46:19.100 And these players have probably never been there.

00:46:21.440 Forgive me.

00:46:22.020 I don't know the background of every player, but experience is, is one of the best things you can have going on to the, you know, into the Superbowl.

00:46:32.220 Any, any sporting contest, if you've been there before, you're better off than the guy who hasn't.

00:46:38.080 Now, last but not least, uh, one thing we did not see on that Superbowl was Joe Biden.

00:46:43.240 He, after all this back and forth, he was going to sit.

00:46:46.640 Well, he never said he was going to sit, but typically he would sit with the FNC anchors, Fox News Channel.

00:46:51.840 They said they extended the invitation.

00:46:53.900 He stiff-armed them.

00:46:55.240 Then suddenly the White House comes out and says, we agreed to an interview with Fox Soul, which literally nobody has ever heard of.

00:47:02.540 It's some like streaming platform related to Fox.

00:47:05.440 Nobody, nobody knows about Fox Soul.

00:47:07.860 And after some, and they said that Vivica Fox was one of the interviewers and Mike Hill.

00:47:13.460 Vivica Fox is an actress who was literally a Biden surrogate during the campaign.

00:47:20.000 So he was going to sit with her, but not with Bret Baier.

00:47:24.220 And Fox was going to allow it, Rick.

00:47:27.880 They were going to allow it.

00:47:29.720 And apparently the White House pulled the plug on it.

00:47:32.060 For some reason, Vivica Fox and Mike Smith were traveling to D.C.

00:47:35.380 They said they were, they were there waiting for him.

00:47:37.260 In any event, to me, this is, this is a disaster for Fox.

00:47:41.520 They never should have agreed to an interview with Fox Soul, much less with somebody who was actually a surrogate for Biden over the FNC anchors.

00:47:49.720 They didn't treat Bret Baier correctly, I think, Fox.

00:47:53.040 And Joe Biden was, I don't, you know, he was, shall we say, chicken.

00:47:59.240 He was too chicken to sit with the real news anchors.

00:48:02.140 And it's, it's to his chagrin.

00:48:03.920 He should be embarrassed.

00:48:04.880 What do you think?

00:48:05.280 Well, obviously, I think he should have done an interview with Fox and he should have done an interview with, with Fox anchors.

00:48:12.060 It could have been Bret Baier.

00:48:12.960 It could have been any one of the news anchors at Fox News Channel.

00:48:16.800 He should have sat down with them.

00:48:18.280 That's what presidents do every Super Bowl.

00:48:20.440 It's a terrific opportunity to talk about your agenda, to talk about what's happening in the world.

00:48:24.400 That would have been an opportunity for him to talk about the things that are flying over our heads, that our military keeps shooting out of the sky.

00:48:29.800 What's going on?

00:48:32.140 And to not, to, to, to say, I can't do that, ask, answer real questions.

00:48:37.120 And we all know why he can't sit down and answer questions.

00:48:40.680 And then to say, okay, I'll do it with Fox Soul.

00:48:42.700 And then to cancel again is just emblematic of the administration, hiding and deflecting and ignoring the, the, the, what America wants to know.

00:48:56.580 It really was.

00:48:57.640 It was a missed opportunity for Biden.

00:49:00.600 I know that FNC tried hard to get it.

00:49:03.140 And when there was that period of time where they were saying that he would sit with Fox Soul, but not with Fox News Channel and Fox corporate was going to air it, which they were reportedly prepared to do.

00:49:12.980 All I could think was Roger Ailes is turning over in his grave right now.

00:49:16.600 He would.

00:49:17.000 Why do you have to work hard to get that interview with the president on the Super Bowl when there's a hundred million people watching?

00:49:23.540 Why would you have to work hard for that?

00:49:24.940 Right.

00:49:25.900 He, but he, he would never, never have allowed Fox corporate to sell his anchors up the river like that.

00:49:33.540 He had that kind of power within the Fox organization and Fox should be grateful.

00:49:37.280 This did not go forward.

00:49:38.240 They should be grateful that there was not some absurd sit down between an actress who actively campaigned for him.

00:49:44.900 Forget Mike Smith.

00:49:46.620 I mean, whatever, but just her mere presence there would have ruined the whole thing for those reasons.

00:49:52.100 Instead of its main anchors, they should be glad it didn't happen.

00:49:54.740 And Joe Biden missed a great opportunity.

00:49:56.720 All right.

00:49:57.140 Well, stand by quick break.

00:49:58.120 And then much, much more with Rick Leventhal.

00:49:59.860 When we come back, we will talk about his new book, Chasing Catastrophe, which he really has done to some huge measure of success in his life.

00:50:08.000 Now streaming on Paramount Plus.

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00:50:36.740 Now streaming on Paramount Plus.

00:50:42.380 Rick, on the subject of the president refusing to sit with Fox for the Super Bowl interview, this news just coming across the transom.

00:50:50.800 They had some thoughts on it over at the CNN morning show, which no one is watching.

00:50:55.160 I mean, truly.

00:50:55.900 Like, I think more people might watch Fox Soul.

00:50:58.100 And listen, listen to that crew, including Don Lemon, reacting to that news, plus the fact that there was a shot at the Super Bowl of Rupert Murdoch sitting next to Elon Musk in one of the boxes in one of the boxes of the Super Bowl.

00:51:16.040 Listen to the horror.

00:51:17.200 When you talk about reshaping truth in the media ecosystem and you see Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch sitting there together, that gets people to wonder.

00:51:26.520 And for some, it is confirmation that, see, that's why he shouldn't have done the interview with Fox.

00:51:30.300 It's all they're all in collusion out to get Joe Biden and liberals and the administration.

00:51:36.560 Were you that surprised, though, to see them sitting next to each other?

00:51:39.540 I really I don't think I was that surprised.

00:51:41.300 It stood out, but it wasn't like, oh, wow.

00:51:43.840 No, it seems like the most predictable thing in the world.

00:51:45.640 I was kind of surprised that they actually like, wow, they actually did it because it's a little frightening, I must say.

00:51:54.600 It's frightening.

00:51:55.700 Really?

00:51:56.480 Really?

00:51:57.120 Collusion?

00:51:58.600 Collusion.

00:51:59.820 To see the head of Fox News Channel and The Wall Street Journal and New York Post and other media conglomerates sitting next to Elon Musk, the head of Twitter.

00:52:07.280 It's a little frightening.

00:52:07.760 I have news.

00:52:08.420 I have news for Don Lemon.

00:52:09.740 All of these major billionaires always hang out together.

00:52:14.100 OK.

00:52:14.440 All the time.

00:52:14.900 They go to they go to Davos.

00:52:16.680 They go to Montana.

00:52:18.240 They go to all these other.

00:52:19.600 Aspen.

00:52:21.200 And they hang out because who else are you going to hang out with?

00:52:24.740 You're going to hang out with the mega rich like you.

00:52:27.800 So it's not it's not collusion.

00:52:30.940 I mean, there was collusion going on.

00:52:33.280 I think you brought it up earlier, Megan.

00:52:34.760 There was a lot of collusion going on with the entertainment situation and with the people who are being featured on the advertising.

00:52:43.540 But I don't think that was collusion.

00:52:45.360 I think that was just a couple of guys who are very, very wealthy hanging out and watching the Super Bowl.

00:52:50.100 It's so crazy, like how the left gets scared.

00:52:53.180 They get scared of the fact that Elon runs Twitter.

00:52:56.080 I can see why they might be scared because, you know, Twitter was doing the bidding of the Biden administration and was going after Trump every day of his tenure.

00:53:05.520 And now, oh, my God, Elon Musk took over Twitter.

00:53:08.780 So, oh, OK, now it's collusion.

00:53:11.960 And now, like, so his reasoning is Biden was right not to sit with the Fox News Channel anchors because the man who owns FNC knows Elon Musk.

00:53:24.200 Wait a minute.

00:53:25.120 What's the what is like?

00:53:26.580 Follow that logic through.

00:53:27.840 So why would you know what with news anchors whose boss knows the guy who runs Twitter with his Twitter?

00:53:34.940 What it's mean to Joe Biden?

00:53:36.700 Is that what he thinks now?

00:53:38.020 Say what you will about Donald Trump, whether you loved him or hated him.

00:53:41.480 He didn't dodge reporter questions.

00:53:44.440 Well, he didn't shy away from any one time.

00:53:47.100 Well, listen, he was he had he had press conferences pretty much every day when he was coming to and from the helicopter.

00:53:55.620 He didn't just wave.

00:53:56.560 He would stop and talk and he would answer a lot of questions.

00:54:00.340 I mean, the guy was was transparent in that regard.

00:54:03.880 He was accessible.

00:54:05.900 Very accessible and very entertaining.

00:54:07.820 And now we have a guy who, as far as I can tell, can't really finish a sentence, loses his train of thought, gets names wrong and forgets where he is.

00:54:18.120 It's it's a sad situation, in my opinion.

00:54:21.120 It's probably why he didn't want to sit down and do an interview with a Fox anchor, because he would have been exposed as someone who can't carry on a meaningful conversation and can't answer questions for 15 minutes straight without help.

00:54:34.160 He's one step above his moronic press secretary, secretary, secretary, canadia.

00:54:41.640 Right. He's like one step above her to to be charitable, like his communication skills are about where hers are.

00:54:48.460 Miss noble prize, noble prize, his word search, his stumbling around his loss of train of thought.

00:54:58.420 Remember when he confused, I think it was title 42 with the covid lockdowns, like he was all over the Supreme Court case.

00:55:05.320 He does like he loses his train of thought in a way that's really disturbing for the leader of the free world.

00:55:09.800 So I'm sure that's the reason it would be funny if it weren't so sad.

00:55:16.440 I mean, it's sad for us, right, because we're heading now into an election where they're saying he's going to announce and he's going to announce soon.

00:55:23.580 And he's the Democrats last best hope, like there's not a real second comer there.

00:55:29.660 And if the Republicans run Trump, we could be right back to where we started.

00:55:33.760 This is why I don't like covering politics, because it's just ridiculous what's going on.

00:55:39.300 I don't I don't know how people do it.

00:55:41.840 I don't know how journalists do it.

00:55:43.620 My whole thing when I was working as a correspondent, senior correspondent at Fox News Channel, I wanted to cover real news.

00:55:50.140 I wanted to go where the action was. I wanted to go to the front lines of war.

00:55:53.860 I wanted to go where the hurricane was supposed to hit.

00:55:55.940 If there was a terror attack or a plane crash, I want to get as close to the scene as I can and then tell viewers about it.

00:56:01.420 I don't want to go down to Washington and sit there and press conferences and congressional hearings and listen to people listen to themselves talk.

00:56:09.260 I wanted to cover stuff that actually mattered to people.

00:56:11.960 And, you know, even though you'd like to think the government matters, maybe eventually it does.

00:56:17.180 There's so much nonsense between the inception to the to the conclusion of whatever it is they're trying to get done that I just I couldn't see myself being in that situation.

00:56:27.420 So what about that? So this is interesting to me because you really are like a war correspondent.

00:56:31.080 You're you're a rugged guy. One of the very great things about you.

00:56:34.920 But when we were all at FNC together and you're watching Carl Cameron, right, campaign Carl Cameron, who was great at what he did, neck deep in politics all the time.

00:56:45.000 Are you thinking, yeah, thank God that's not my job.

00:56:47.500 Yeah. But, you know, he was perfect for it because he was a big nerd and he was a wonk and he knew all the ins and outs of of everything congressional.

00:56:57.400 So he was the right guy for it. Plus, you know, he almost had that I don't give a damn attitude to go along with it.

00:57:04.000 So he took it with a grain of salt, a big one, and put a great spin, not a spin, but, you know, the way he reported it wasn't a typical congressional reporter.

00:57:14.560 He made it he made it fun and interesting and was real.

00:57:18.940 And that's the thing that I think any reporter should should be first and foremost is as real as possible, because always and you know if you're talking, you know, if you're not being honest with them.

00:57:29.000 And my whole thing was always to just tell it like it is.

00:57:32.780 You could never tell with Carl Cameron what side of the aisle he favored.

00:57:36.520 You really couldn't. He broke news that was I mean, he broke that President Bush like drunk.

00:57:42.960 Remember when President Bush was running the first time, George W. Bush and oh.

00:57:47.400 God, my God, I'm testing my own memory now in 2000, he broke the story about his drinking.

00:57:52.820 Anyway, my point is, he's done lots of breaking news on Republicans and Democrats,

00:57:57.280 and I could never tell where he stood politically until Trump.

00:58:00.940 And then he left Fox and he got very, very hardcore anti-Trump.

00:58:04.220 And it was surprising to me to see him come out so strongly against the channel, against Trump.

00:58:08.700 I never I never knew. I never knew. Well, I worked with him.

00:58:12.220 The only other thing I knew about Carl was that he liked to drive fast like I do.

00:58:15.940 Like he was he was really a madman behind the wheel.

00:58:18.480 Yeah, madman. Everyone talked about him.

00:58:20.420 But they would talk about me and him in the same sentence because we both like to drive fast.

00:58:23.620 OK, so here's the thing about that. We knew about you, Rick, was that, yes, wherever it was dangerous, you'd go.

00:58:30.480 You were the first, you know, number number one with your hand up.

00:58:33.800 But also you had a history with the ladies.

00:58:37.080 You're like you were known as a bit of a ladies man.

00:58:39.760 The ladies love Rick Leventhal. I'm sorry to break it to you here.

00:58:43.660 I know you're happily married, man, but you always had lovely ladies who are after you or on your arm.

00:58:49.760 Confirm or deny.

00:58:50.380 Well, I mean, I I guess I'm I'm grateful and I was I've been blessed.

00:59:02.060 I've been busy. I'm not sure what you want me to say about this, except that I'm finally actually lucky in love.

00:59:11.440 I have the most amazing woman in my life. Kelly is just everything I've ever wanted.

00:59:18.240 I mean, she is stunning. She is funny.

00:59:21.620 She's smarter than anyone knows.

00:59:23.740 And she is super sexy and she is a hard worker. 1.00

00:59:28.000 She is an amazing cook. 1.00

00:59:29.880 Like this woman makes me meals every day and they are one is better than the than the rest. 0.99

00:59:35.420 And we have the best time together. And I just I'm just so happy.

00:59:40.300 I I was never going to move to California ever in my life until I met Kelly.

00:59:45.420 And it took five minutes and I'm like, I'm moving to California.

00:59:48.440 I'll do it. Right.

00:59:49.440 I had to be with her.

00:59:50.960 You both seem very much in love.

00:59:52.960 It seems like very fireworky in a good way.

00:59:55.860 Not in the JLo Ben Affleck scolding each other openly way.

00:59:59.400 And I have to say, I'm very happy to see it because I know there have been like ups and downs in the love life and so on, as there are for most people.

01:00:07.040 But you've always been such a solid, nice guy.

01:00:10.200 So as your friend, I wanted to see you well settled.

01:00:13.260 I'm so happy to see you well settled.

01:00:15.860 Yeah, I mean, settled is one way to put it.

01:00:18.180 You know, our life is still, you know, kind of chaotic.

01:00:20.340 We're all over the place.

01:00:21.520 You know, we're doing shows from home.

01:00:23.160 We built a house, remodeled a house in Palm Desert.

01:00:26.040 We're back and forth to that all the time.

01:00:27.720 We're launching a pickleball line.

01:00:29.400 We've got paddles and balls that we're about to start selling online.

01:00:32.580 And, you know, I'm not even sure what's next, but we're always busy.

01:00:37.580 We're doing a lot of different things and having a great time doing it.

01:00:40.960 How does your lifelong need for adrenaline factor in?

01:00:45.560 Because, you know, I mentioned some of the things that you've reported on.

01:00:49.520 It's no accident.

01:00:50.260 You were one of the first in Afghanistan and Iraq and, you know, all these hurricanes.

01:00:54.080 Like, it's no accident.

01:00:55.600 It's no accident you were down at ground zero on 9-11.

01:00:57.180 But, like, there's something in you that's both a combination of lucky as a reporter, but also just, I don't know, an adrenaline junkie?

01:01:04.600 Well, that for sure.

01:01:05.720 I got a great rush out of being there and racing to scenes and being first on the air and being in the middle of a Cat 4 or Cat 5 or a war zone.

01:01:18.520 You know, I really did feed off of it.

01:01:23.000 And to me, it was such an honor and a privilege to be in Iraq, where I am right there, with Marines.

01:01:30.120 The 20-year anniversary, that's Christian Galdivini, my cameraman in Iraq, when we were embedded with the third LAR and the 223 Marines.

01:01:37.300 It's been 20 years.

01:01:38.100 I'm going to a couple of reunions in the next couple of months because these guys, you know, they invited me, and I'm definitely going to go.

01:01:45.320 But it was something that I definitely needed to do.

01:01:49.900 I wanted to be the guy who was there.

01:01:52.420 I wanted to tell those stories, and I was so glad that I had a chance to do it.

01:01:55.880 But, Megan, you know how it is.

01:01:57.440 After 35 years as a journalist, there came a time when I kind of didn't want to have to leave home on a moment's notice again for a day, a week, or a month.

01:02:08.180 I didn't want to have to do that for another three years.

01:02:12.520 I guess I felt like I'd been rained on enough, that I'd been out the door enough, that I'd paid my dues.

01:02:18.360 And it was – I felt like it was time for me to just take a little step back or maybe a big step back and just, I don't know, write a book.

01:02:27.480 So I did.

01:02:28.320 I wrote Chasing Catastrophe, and, you know, it's some of the greatest stories I covered behind the scenes, stuff that people didn't know happened, stories that I never told before that occurred during some of these big events.

01:02:42.060 And I'm proud of the book.

01:02:43.920 It's – I think it's a good read.

01:02:46.160 Everyone who I've spoken with who's read it seems to think so.

01:02:50.420 And I also recorded the audio version of the book.

01:02:52.740 So it's my voice reading my book.

01:02:54.940 I don't know if you've done that, Megan, but it's not easy to read a book out loud that you didn't write intending to read out loud.

01:03:00.880 It's not like a TV script.

01:03:02.740 I mean, some of these sentences are – it pays long.

01:03:05.700 I did the audio on my book, Settle for More, and I – what I remember about it was like holding back tears in the sad scenes.

01:03:13.760 You know, it was emotional for me.

01:03:16.160 Well, you know, it's funny you say that because my first chapter is about 9-11, and I was, I believe, the first reporter to go live nationally at the scene.

01:03:26.140 And that experience the whole day was – in the weeks and months that followed was so devastating and so just difficult to handle.

01:03:36.300 I poured my heart into the chapter on 9-11, and at the end of the chapter when I was reading it in the audio booth, I broke down.

01:03:44.760 I couldn't finish the end of the chapter.

01:03:47.700 I started sobbing in the audio booth, and the guys that were in there were like, whoa, what do we do about this?

01:03:54.720 And I just – I was like – I just needed a minute to compose myself.

01:03:57.820 And I did, and then it took me a couple tries to get through it.

01:04:02.500 But, I mean, it was – I still get chills when I see video from that day or talk about it or read about it.

01:04:09.960 I mean, it's part of me.

01:04:11.620 I definitely suffered PTSD from being in the dust cloud, from watching the towers fall, and from, you know, trying to make sense out of what was happening around us that day.

01:04:21.080 It was just so awful.

01:04:22.980 But it was important for me to put it on paper, and I think it's a powerful chapter.

01:04:29.980 Oh, you are one of the reasons we know exactly what happened on 9-11.

01:04:34.860 You were one of the few reporters actually there when the towers fell with the dust cloud, not knowing if you were about to live or die.

01:04:43.960 And every year on FNC and all the channels, there would be a 9-11 retrospective.

01:04:48.640 And your reporting was always featured heavily.

01:04:51.280 I'm sure it still is.

01:04:52.720 You with the dust all over you.

01:04:54.320 We have a little bit of that.

01:04:55.260 Let's show the audience.

01:04:56.200 It's SOT2.

01:04:58.100 How close were you to the building when I was in front of the door of five World Trade Center evacuating the people out of the building?

01:05:04.400 And we got a lot out.

01:05:06.100 And then it just blew.

01:05:07.180 Back it up!

01:05:07.940 Back it up!

01:05:09.300 All right, here we go again.

01:05:11.900 Here we go again.

01:05:13.440 I don't know what's going on, but this, the second building is collapsing, I believe.

01:05:20.260 I don't know.

01:05:21.460 I don't know, but this happened before.

01:05:24.400 We can see the top of the building from here.

01:05:27.300 Oh, yeah.

01:05:29.740 Oh, there it goes.

01:05:30.560 There it goes.

01:05:30.940 There it goes.

01:05:31.660 There it goes.

01:05:32.820 Oh.

01:05:33.220 When it comes down, we're here.

01:05:34.680 All right.

01:05:35.440 We do need to put it down now.

01:05:36.900 I think we need to put it down now.

01:05:38.020 Here we go.

01:05:38.500 Awesome.

01:05:38.860 Oh, my God, Rick.

01:05:59.920 Chills watching that.

01:06:01.220 That we had a tape rolling in the truck that day.

01:06:08.020 One of the big one-hour, three-quarter-inch videotapes, I think it was, or a half-inch.

01:06:14.520 And it recorded that whole thing that you just watched and everything else that happened.

01:06:19.740 And somehow, Meg and I managed to hang on to that tape.

01:06:23.580 And Fox is probably going to be knocking on my door for it.

01:06:25.420 And I don't know where it is right now.

01:06:28.380 But I was able to transcribe it.

01:06:31.480 And on that tape are the four and a half minutes that Pat Butler, the engineer, and I spent inside the truck when we ran from the first cloud, from the first tower when it fell.

01:06:40.900 Our conversation, you know, what the F is going on?

01:06:44.360 And the phones don't work.

01:06:46.500 And Pat's trying to call and call and call and cursing and cursing.

01:06:49.320 And we're like, what are we going to do?

01:06:51.000 What are we going to do?

01:06:51.720 Like, just this sheer chaos and confusion.

01:06:54.160 And then we go back outside when the smoke starts to clear.

01:06:58.280 And it's a whole different landscape with that moon dust all over everything.

01:07:01.960 And anyway, I had the whole thing.

01:07:04.900 And I was able to transcribe it.

01:07:06.000 And that's in the book.

01:07:06.840 And this is the first time that that conversation has been shared with the world.

01:07:13.180 And I don't know.

01:07:13.980 I mean, I just think it's compelling and it's a representation of just how insane that day was.

01:07:23.720 The instincts of a reporter come into direct conflict of the instincts of a man to survive, right?

01:07:31.840 The reporter is told to stay in the midst of the danger and get the story.

01:07:35.140 And a human's instinct is to run and preserve your life, which you understood was definitely potentially in jeopardy in that moment.

01:07:44.800 But I wasn't going anywhere.

01:07:47.500 I knew what my job was that day.

01:07:49.620 And I knew that we were in a unique position to be able to report on what was the biggest story in the world at that moment.

01:07:57.180 And we didn't go anywhere except to hide in an alley when the second tower came down.

01:08:03.720 And then we went right back out into the street and resumed our reporting.

01:08:07.280 I mean, this was I knew I knew the importance.

01:08:11.220 I knew the what we needed to do.

01:08:13.820 And I and I just had to brace myself.

01:08:15.460 You know, I had to put up that emotional wall and not let myself get caught up in in what a normal reaction would be.

01:08:23.560 And just started to focus on what my job was, which was to try and separate rumor and fiction from fact and relate to viewers what exactly was going on around us, which I did for, I don't know, 14 or 16 hours that day.

01:08:35.580 And then, you know, every pretty much every day after that until I packed up and went off to Afghanistan.

01:08:40.200 But, you know, I do give a lot of credit to to the crews who were down there seeing the most awful things that they could have imagined seeing.

01:08:47.960 And obviously the most credit goes to the firefighters and police officers who were brave enough to rush toward the fire, trying to save lives.

01:08:55.940 And so many of them lost theirs.

01:08:57.740 It was just it was the worst day I've ever experienced.

01:09:03.560 And, you know, obviously the first chapter in my book.

01:09:08.620 Oh, the last piece of that tape where you you guys have clearly put the camera down, but you turn it off and you can see.

01:09:17.600 Eerie silence where you hear a siren and like, that's it.

01:09:21.340 And this is lower Manhattan.

01:09:22.580 I mean, you know, that's a bustling area with, you know, typically you'd have thousands of people on the street.

01:09:29.000 And, you know, where we were, our satellite truck was parked at Church and Warren and Church is basically 6th Avenue when it gets all the way downtown.

01:09:35.580 And so we were about five blocks from the World Trade Center site, just up the street and a jet engine and a big gear had fallen into the street from when the plane hit the tower.

01:09:49.240 It was sitting right in that intersection just across the street from us.

01:09:52.040 And the I think it was the FBI had put up some crime scene tape and we're taking photos of it when the first tower fell.

01:09:59.260 And after we came back outside and there was that moon dust all over, all over everything, the tape was still there and the engine and gear were still there.

01:10:06.960 But now it's covered in that dust.

01:10:08.520 And my recollection is the agents came back out and they started taking more pictures because now the crime scene has changed.

01:10:14.580 But it was all right there. It was all right around us.

01:10:18.360 And the people who were coming out of that cloud who I, you know, my job was to try and interview people.

01:10:25.740 Most of them I didn't want to try and stop because they were clearly in shock.

01:10:31.120 But I wanted to try and get a sense of what they had seen and interview them if I could.

01:10:36.540 So I was very tentative. I did try to talk to people.

01:10:38.940 And some people willingly talked to me and told me some of the most insane stories I'd ever heard in my life.

01:10:45.480 You know, and I didn't have follow up questions because I'd say, what did you see?

01:10:48.740 What did you hear? And they're like, I was on the 80th story and I came down 80 flights and or I saw the plane hit the tower.

01:10:54.220 And it was just.

01:10:57.720 The greatest test I think any journalist could ever face.

01:11:00.980 Absolutely. Extraordinary.

01:11:03.020 And the reporting that you guys all did that day, that's the reason I became a reporter.

01:11:07.540 I was a lawyer on 9-11 in Chicago watching the coverage riveting.

01:11:14.080 I mean, as a as a reporting matter, it was just stellar what you and others were doing.

01:11:18.640 And it was the day I thought this is what I want to do.

01:11:21.500 I want to provide this kind of public service to my country.

01:11:25.340 I can do it and I want to do it.

01:11:27.160 And what I'm doing isn't anywhere near this important.

01:11:29.980 And and just like, I don't know, Rick, when there was danger, of course, in the moment.

01:11:36.140 But there were there were lurking dangers that you probably weren't even aware of, like the toxins from that soot and the smoke.

01:11:43.060 And you were down there for weeks.

01:11:44.780 You know, I talk about this with J.D. all the time.

01:11:47.060 Janice Dean, one of my closest friends, because her husband, Sean, was a firefighter who lost all of his fellow firefighters on 9-11.

01:11:54.460 And and they worry about it every day, you know, if he's going to come down with one of the cancers that the guys got working at ground zero.

01:12:02.380 And you were right there.

01:12:03.580 Do you worry about that?

01:12:04.600 I think I was fortunate in that they kept pushing the media further and further back hour by hour and then day by day.

01:12:12.800 So eventually we were a few blocks north of the smoking pile.

01:12:17.020 So we weren't breathing that air up close every day like some of those firefighters were.

01:12:21.860 I did wake up with a cough three days after 9-11, like a bad cough.

01:12:27.200 So two or three days after.

01:12:29.080 But that was the only symptom that I recognized.

01:12:33.200 And fortunately, I haven't had any health issues that I'm aware of that I could blame on on what I breathed that day.

01:12:40.580 But you're right that so many people suffered deeply.

01:12:44.200 So many people lost their lives after the fact because of, you know, awful cancers and other things that they contracted from from being in that toxic environment.

01:12:53.320 Can I just ask you, because we just heard this from President Biden, the State of the Union talking about how January 6th was the worst threat to democracy since the Civil War.

01:13:03.580 And it makes me so angry, Rick, to hear him and others talk about January 6th that way without I mean, in that instance, he's ignoring World War One, World War Two, but ignoring 9-11.

01:13:18.080 These these these morons, these pundits who actually talk about January 6th explicitly in terms of 9-11 saying this was worse.

01:13:26.920 January 6th was worse than 9-11.

01:13:29.020 They don't. Is it just is it ignorance?

01:13:33.120 If there's something inhumane about that comment.

01:13:37.160 A hundred percent.

01:13:38.700 But the thing that struck me when January 6th happened and I don't support what happened on January 6th, but I also didn't support the burning and looting of buildings across America during the protests that went on for months and months and months leading up to January 6th.

01:13:54.160 And all the rest of the mainstream media was saying, oh, this is just isolated fires.

01:13:59.260 Oh, these are peaceful, mostly peaceful protests.

01:14:02.920 Where was the outrage when people were burning buildings and destroying businesses and rioting and looting across America?

01:14:12.760 Where was the outrage when that was going on?

01:14:15.400 All of a sudden that was OK because people were expressing their First Amendment rights or that was OK.

01:14:21.640 But then when when a group stormed the Capitol building, all of a sudden it's a threat to democracy.

01:14:26.320 Why? Because it's the Capitol.

01:14:27.700 What about storming the mom and pop grocery store that that was forced to close forever?

01:14:32.100 What about taking over downtown of so many major metropolitan areas?

01:14:37.220 What about, you know, the crime that was rampant?

01:14:39.480 That, to me, was a much bigger threat to democracy, a much bigger threat to the quality of life that we all enjoy here in the United States.

01:14:47.600 That's what bothered me, that that all of a sudden the media is like, oh, see, they're bad people.

01:14:52.660 But what about the other bad people who were doing all that stuff for the last six, eight, 10 months?

01:14:57.400 I just I couldn't wrap my head around why one thing mattered and the other thing did.

01:15:02.100 You've waived your moral authority because you didn't speak up when these horrific behaviors were happening.

01:15:09.140 You didn't care because, you know, BLM, you just wanted a virtue signal. 0.88

01:15:13.900 And now you want us to take you seriously as our moral arbiters.

01:15:17.220 Arbiters. Well, we don't. That's what happened. 1.00

01:15:19.280 We don't. And spare us your indignation over January 6th when you didn't care at all.

01:15:24.880 When cops are being shot and attacked and killed in some instances in some of these protests.

01:15:31.780 And you're going to lecture us about the Constitution, the constitutional rights.

01:15:34.920 What about when the BLM protesters got in people's faces and said, say it, put your fist up right now.

01:15:40.300 Say it. Say BLM. What about that?

01:15:42.940 Did that offend your dignity as a promoter of First Amendment and constitutional rights?

01:15:47.980 Because it did for many of us.

01:15:49.880 My wife was fined $16,000 by Bravo for unnamed, unspecified reasons, which primarily we think was because she wore a hat that said drunk wives matter as a joke that someone gave her at her wedding shower. 0.98

01:16:06.480 She had put it on for a photo for, you know, 20 seconds and Bravo forced her to make a public apology.

01:16:14.320 She was like, of course, Black Lives Matter. 0.99

01:16:17.540 I don't have to support the organization.

01:16:20.420 And this hat is a parody.

01:16:24.620 It's a joke.

01:16:25.560 Right.

01:16:25.720 It's I'm I'm often drunk and I'm a wife.

01:16:29.100 I'm a housewife.

01:16:30.180 So what's the big deal?

01:16:32.540 Like, right.

01:16:34.240 And as it turned out, BLM was was a sham.

01:16:38.140 And, you know, allegedly there was a lot of fishy stuff going on.

01:16:42.580 Where did all those millions of dollars go?

01:16:44.620 But besides buying homes for some of the people who were in charge.

01:16:48.520 Yeah.

01:16:49.280 You know, the whole thing was just so ridiculous and so twisted.

01:16:53.540 And we were all forced to toe the line that someone else drew because they said that's what that's what we needed to do.

01:17:02.140 It was also disappointing to me.

01:17:05.000 No, I saw you guys got hit, too.

01:17:06.840 I mean, I know what this is like, but you got hit over Halloween where you you dressed as Alec Baldwin.

01:17:14.000 And then if you got blowback because it was like not sensitive to the victim, it's like it's Halloween.

01:17:21.280 It's about insensitivity.

01:17:23.820 And this Halloween is not a it's not a holiday for PC mongers. 0.87

01:17:29.420 Let me just say this.

01:17:30.740 OK, the original intent was to be a cowboy and an Indian.

01:17:35.220 Right.

01:17:35.820 As correct as that might be.

01:17:38.420 My wife happens to be 20, I think, 28 or 29 percent Native American.

01:17:42.080 So she was going to be a Native American and I was going to be a cowboy.

01:17:46.620 And then at the very last minute, because Alec Baldwin had been in the news because he had just shot someone on the set of his film.

01:17:54.160 Someone said, well, why don't you put a little blood right here and you could be Alec Baldwin.

01:17:57.460 And like an idiot, I did it.

01:18:00.020 And I'm not proud of it because I wasn't considering that a woman died and that people would say, what are you doing?

01:18:10.620 He killed someone.

01:18:12.240 Like, I'm amazed that you're still in the apologetic posture on this.

01:18:15.440 It's Halloween.

01:18:16.860 People go as Jeffrey Dahmer.

01:18:18.920 They go as Jeffrey Dahmer.

01:18:20.480 I know.

01:18:21.700 But I should have just gone as a cowboy and everything would have been fine.

01:18:25.220 But, you know, I never meant any disrespect to the victim's family.

01:18:29.180 I also am not a fan of Alec Baldwin.

01:18:31.040 So that came into play because I used to play softball with him in the artist writers charity game.

01:18:35.800 And he's Hampton every summer.

01:18:37.200 And the guy was kind of a jerk.

01:18:39.500 So I was like, oh, yeah, I'll be Alec Baldwin because, you know, he's on the hot seat right now.

01:18:43.620 And I'm so jaded from covering news for 35 years that I didn't really think twice about what other people might think about what I was doing.

01:18:52.060 And it was only after the fact that it made every – I mean, it was a news week, okay, that I was Alec Baldwin on Halloween.

01:18:59.220 My God.

01:19:00.100 It's just like – of course, the sensitivity, the extreme sensitivity over what you can and cannot do on Halloween is just –

01:19:07.080 Yeah, you can't do anything.

01:19:07.740 It's absurd.

01:19:08.360 I mean, there was a college not long ago that was recommending that its students, to avoid risk of offending anybody, just dress up as letters of the alphabet.

01:19:26.540 Halloween itself is going to be canceled soon, right?

01:19:29.060 Like you're not – just costumes are going to be banned.

01:19:31.340 Any attempt at fun.

01:19:32.740 Halloween is there to provoke.

01:19:34.600 It's really not about just dressing up as a letter.

01:19:36.860 I mean, if you could see some of the costumes people used to wear at Syracuse where I went, you'd be horrified by today's standards.

01:19:42.400 That was back 88 to 92.

01:19:44.860 But it was funny and nobody took offense.

01:19:46.680 They understood this is part of the baked-in nature of the holiday.

01:19:50.280 Right.

01:19:50.760 But the world has changed, hasn't it?

01:19:52.380 And you can't offend anyone.

01:19:54.440 Halloween was always my favorite holiday.

01:19:56.680 I used to dress up as a character from Rollerball.

01:19:58.860 Remember the movie Rollerball?

01:20:00.000 Yeah.

01:20:00.320 I think James Conn was in the original.

01:20:02.000 Yes, yes.

01:20:02.400 And I would wear roller skates and I had a jersey and, you know, pads and shoulder pads.

01:20:07.700 And I would go down to Georgetown because I grew up in the D.C. area.

01:20:10.840 And I'd skate around Georgetown on Halloween night.

01:20:13.300 They closed the streets.

01:20:14.120 It was a blast.

01:20:16.100 That wasn't really offensive.

01:20:18.400 I think I could get away with that costume today.

01:20:21.820 Yeah.

01:20:22.000 But cowboy and Indian? 0.98

01:20:24.220 Kelly got all kinds of flack for dressing up as a Native American. 0.92

01:20:27.020 Even though she's part Native American? 0.99

01:20:27.800 You can't wear that headdress.

01:20:29.340 It's cultural appropriation.

01:20:30.720 I mean, she's Native American. 0.61

01:20:32.520 It's her culture.

01:20:33.880 29 percent.

01:20:35.620 OK, I'm sorry she's not 50 or 100 percent.

01:20:38.000 But come on.

01:20:39.120 Like you said, like, why can't we just dress up as whatever we want?

01:20:44.020 Because that's what you do on Halloween.

01:20:45.980 Yeah, I know.

01:20:46.960 It's absurd.

01:20:47.680 It's like the whole thing was that that.

01:20:50.500 Anyway, the whole thing is just ridiculous.

01:20:52.240 And I'm sick of it.

01:20:53.120 And I refuse to live like this.

01:20:54.220 I'm just not I don't accept these absurd standards that other people are imposing on us.

01:20:59.120 And it's fun to push back.

01:21:00.780 You know, it's like if you don't push back, then they're going to win.

01:21:03.880 Then they will get rid of Halloween.

01:21:05.360 And I don't know what will go next.

01:21:07.140 But I don't want to live like this.

01:21:08.740 And so and even if it the Alec Baldwin thing, OK, no, it wasn't in good taste.

01:21:13.780 It's Halloween.

01:21:15.160 You're not supposed to be a good taste.

01:21:16.920 But half of the costumes out there are like these inappropriate jokes that are turns on

01:21:22.360 what's in the news.

01:21:23.660 And nine times out of 10, it's only funny if it's somewhat gruesome.

01:21:26.360 Like it's almost a coping mechanism.

01:21:28.560 It's sort of like what comics do where they take something out of the headlines and try

01:21:32.480 to find a funny slant on it.

01:21:34.420 You you get offended.

01:21:35.720 Stay inside.

01:21:36.580 Don't go outside on Halloween.

01:21:37.880 Stay inside and watch, you know, Stephen Colbert.

01:21:40.960 And you're going to be perfectly happy or just as miserable as you always are.

01:21:44.540 But you're not going to be our problem.

01:21:45.580 All right, let me pause it there.

01:21:47.320 So much more to get to with Rick Leventhal, the one and only.

01:21:49.720 It's so great to catch up.

01:21:51.040 We'll be right back in two minutes.

01:21:53.480 Now streaming on Paramount Plus.

01:21:56.320 Someone is trying to frame us.

01:21:58.580 Until our names are cleared.

01:22:01.020 We're fugitives from interval.

01:22:02.860 Like Bonnie and Clyde with better snacks.

01:22:06.340 Espionage.

01:22:06.900 You still as good a shot as you used to be.

01:22:10.060 Better.

01:22:10.720 Is there love language?

01:22:12.200 We like to walk that fine line between techno thriller.

01:22:15.580 And romantic comedy.

01:22:17.480 We make up our own rules.

01:22:19.400 NCIS Tony and Ziva.

01:22:21.000 Now streaming on Paramount Plus.

01:22:22.740 So Rick, in addition to your war reporting, which the book goes into in just vivid and very telling detail, including the sort of the embed training that you had and how Geraldo didn't take it and went over there and blew it.

01:22:37.700 Remember when he revealed the location of our troops, that whole thing?

01:22:40.360 There's a great behind the scenes stories on all of this.

01:22:42.440 But let me take you to some of your hurricane reporting.

01:22:46.360 I learned some new facts about you and your hurricane reporting.

01:22:49.220 You used to go, no matter how dangerous the hurricanes were.

01:22:52.420 And here's just a little taste of this for the audience.

01:22:55.320 The kind of things you'd have to do so that you could manage the reporting.

01:22:58.220 This is SOT 5.

01:22:59.140 And I had to upgrade my eyewear to some swimming goggles because we're really in it now.

01:23:05.500 The beach is right over there.

01:23:07.080 And this is Atlantic Avenue.

01:23:08.920 And it is whipping off of there now.

01:23:14.920 Oh, my God.

01:23:17.020 I was at the anchor desk for a lot of that reporting when you were out there.

01:23:19.880 I was, you know, snug and cozy in my 72 degrees studio.

01:23:25.300 But you were out there.

01:23:26.420 I mean, was there ever a moment doing the hurricane stuff that you were scared?

01:23:31.320 Yeah, the first one, Hurricane Hugo in 1989 in Charleston, South Carolina.

01:23:36.360 It started as a five.

01:23:37.840 I think when it hit us, it was a really strong three or four.

01:23:42.880 And I was in 120 to 130 mile an hour winds, hugging a brick wall, trying to make my way back

01:23:49.640 to our room to take shelter until the worst of it passed.

01:23:54.960 That whole story is in the book.

01:23:57.680 It was definitely a moment where I prayed and thought that I was about to die.

01:24:03.500 But I did love covering hurricanes.

01:24:06.300 I had my hand up for every single one of them.

01:24:08.720 I wanted to be there.

01:24:10.840 What you just showed was from Daytona when we came around a corner and it was like a wind

01:24:15.600 tunnel coming off the beach.

01:24:17.440 And it just blasted us.

01:24:19.240 Paul Celeste was the cameraman.

01:24:20.580 It almost knocked the camera off his shoulder.

01:24:22.320 But that kind of stuff was, you know, it was thrilling.

01:24:25.000 It was also really difficult because no matter how many layers of raincoats and rain pants

01:24:29.740 you have on, you're going to get soaked.

01:24:31.600 And you're going out there for 10, 15 minutes at a time, coming back in, trying to warm up,

01:24:35.800 going back out again.

01:24:37.180 It's a grueling, exhausting experience.

01:24:39.740 But it was also really exciting.

01:24:41.340 And I loved it.

01:24:42.580 There was a funny story in there about your baseball cap and Roger Ailes.

01:24:47.080 Oh, yeah.

01:24:47.420 Tell us.

01:24:48.920 Another story that I never told.

01:24:51.240 We were covering a hurricane.

01:24:52.520 I think it was on an island down in Georgia.

01:24:56.420 No, Alabama.

01:24:57.300 And I had my Fox News baseball cap.

01:25:01.180 But if you face the wind in a baseball cap, you probably know, if you've ever done it,

01:25:05.180 high winds, it's going to blow your hat right off.

01:25:07.280 But if you turn it around, you can keep it on your head.

01:25:10.780 And when your hair is wet, as you probably know, your hair doesn't look good when you

01:25:14.840 take your hat off.

01:25:15.740 So, you know, maybe a little vain.

01:25:17.740 So I turned my hat around backwards, which I've done many times.

01:25:20.820 And I did the news.

01:25:22.060 I was on Shepard Smith's Studio B show.

01:25:25.880 And I see my producer on the phone.

01:25:28.540 And as soon as I get off the air, he goes, Roger called the control room.

01:25:34.200 And I was like, yeah.

01:25:35.840 And he goes, and this is relayed by the producer.

01:25:39.700 He said, if you ever wear your hat backwards on the air again, it'll be the last time you're

01:25:45.280 on Fox News.

01:25:48.260 And I was like, what?

01:25:50.160 I can't wear my hat backwards.

01:25:53.180 It would have blown off my head.

01:25:55.840 For whatever reason, Roger did not like the look, that backwards hat look.

01:26:00.240 And I never wore my hat backwards on the air again until, God rest his soul, Roger Ailes

01:26:05.560 died.

01:26:06.380 And then I did another hurricane and I turned my hat around because I didn't want to lose

01:26:10.060 it.

01:26:11.020 I can relate fully to this.

01:26:13.760 I did not do hurricane coverage for Fox, but a couple things.

01:26:17.140 So he never wanted me, I would be outside of the Supreme court and it'd be so hot.

01:26:22.480 It would be when all the big decisions break in June in DC, that's, that's hot.

01:26:27.360 And you'd bake in front of those white buildings with the camera on you and the Klieg lights.

01:26:32.320 I mean, you'd just be baking.

01:26:33.280 And so I'd want to put my hair up like just back or whatever, because, you know, you don't

01:26:38.340 want your hair all over your face.

01:26:39.540 So I just stuff it back in two bobby pins.

01:26:41.720 That's all I ever do.

01:26:42.460 And when my hair is up in the back of my head, it's just two bobby pins.

01:26:44.780 I have very thin hair, so it's easy to shove.

01:26:47.080 And he called down immediately and he was like, get your hair down.

01:26:50.500 I'm like, what do you mean?

01:26:51.800 He's like, it looks too elegant.

01:26:53.300 It's alienating.

01:26:54.320 I'm like, elegant.

01:26:55.360 It's two bobby pins.

01:26:57.180 What do you, how it's, there's nothing elegant about it.

01:26:58.520 You want me to turn around and show the audience what I'm doing?

01:27:00.280 And he never went, and now I see sometimes like Dana Perino will wear her hair up on

01:27:04.500 Fox News Channel.

01:27:05.240 I think Roger Ailes would never have allowed that.

01:27:08.580 The only reason she's getting away with that is he's not there anymore.

01:27:11.860 Yeah, I'll tell you.

01:27:12.900 I know the guy took, I know he took a lot of heat and I know that there are a lot of stories

01:27:17.140 about things he did that he shouldn't have done, but he was always, you know, a great

01:27:21.440 boss to me.

01:27:22.520 I know that, that everyone who worked at Fox when he, when he was running the place, respected

01:27:26.860 him.

01:27:27.160 I mean, his, his state of the state of the network addresses, as you may remember, he

01:27:31.720 would do them quarterly in the newsroom.

01:27:33.860 You could hear a pin drop.

01:27:34.940 It would be packed in there.

01:27:36.200 And the guy was a genius and he was an innovator and he created a really special network.

01:27:43.520 Yeah.

01:27:44.160 I'm not, I'm not supporting anything that if any of those stories are true, you know,

01:27:49.220 they are, he shouldn't have gone there.

01:27:51.360 And, and I don't support that, but I do appreciate his genius and I appreciate the way he treated

01:27:58.540 me because he was always really, really good to me.

01:28:00.820 I know it's confusing.

01:28:02.800 It's, it's complicated because he was the greatest leader of Fox news ever had and ever will have.

01:28:09.720 And he's the reason Fox news exists.

01:28:13.160 And he kept, you know, he kept his hand on the steer, his hands on the steering wheel in a way

01:28:17.860 that really led Fox to become the force that it did.

01:28:20.640 And, you know, with all due respect to the current leadership, it's just, it hasn't been the same

01:28:24.420 since, since he left.

01:28:26.460 However, and it's, for me, it's, it's complicated too, because he shouldn't have had that job given

01:28:31.800 what he was doing to women.

01:28:33.520 And it, and it's not just my own situation.

01:28:35.480 I've spoken with younger girls who he really hurt.

01:28:38.920 So it's like, he, he abused his power, you know, he abused his power and he, and he, he never should

01:28:43.960 have been allowed to hold that post for as long as he did.

01:28:45.740 We just were also scared of him that we didn't come out with it, you know?

01:28:49.320 And so even now, like I can talk about how he would not have allowed Fox soul to embarrass

01:28:54.740 Fox news channel the way that they were almost allowed.

01:28:58.060 Never.

01:28:58.540 That's because of a strong leadership, but it's like what he was doing behind the scenes.

01:29:01.800 Made him unfit to lead.

01:29:05.400 Well, and unfortunately that, that sort of thing happens in corporations, uh, across

01:29:09.660 America and around the world.

01:29:11.040 Uh, he was not alone in his abuse of power and, you know, he's not the only network boss

01:29:17.040 to abuse his power.

01:29:18.200 I mean, from what I've heard, pretty much all of them did.

01:29:20.780 Yeah.

01:29:21.800 Studio bosses, corporate leaders, you know, it's, it's unfortunate, but it happens.

01:29:26.920 And, and so, uh, yeah, it shouldn't be tolerated.

01:29:30.120 Uh, but he wasn't alone in his alleged, that was one, that was one good thing about the

01:29:36.960 Me Too movement is that, you know, there's that period where Ailes fell and, uh, that

01:29:42.840 was, oh God, it was summer of 16.

01:29:47.640 And, um, it took another year for the New York times to break the Harvey Weinstein scandal

01:29:54.100 that NBC refused to air, even though they had it and they just refused, uh, because

01:29:58.560 they had their own predator running around NBC, a couple of them.

01:30:01.540 Um, and, um, it took a year.

01:30:04.540 So all these news organizations were looking at Fox, like disgusting, filthy place to work,

01:30:10.620 toxic for women, which it wasn't toxic for women.

01:30:13.440 There was one guy who was out of line and it happened to be the CEO, but it wasn't like,

01:30:17.620 oh my God, what a terrible place to work.

01:30:19.780 And then they started falling, like, you know, dropping like flies, Rick, right?

01:30:23.240 It was like, oh, how's it, what's it like working for Matt Lauer?

01:30:26.320 That seems like a, like a joy.

01:30:27.860 How about Charlie Rose?

01:30:29.400 How's that going?

01:30:30.460 Or, um, uh, who am I?

01:30:33.300 I'm not thinking of the name over at CBS, the guy CBS, uh, yes, Les Moonves, Les Moonves.

01:30:39.700 My God, the story's about him, right?

01:30:41.700 We could go down the list and suddenly these other news organizations were a little less

01:30:45.340 interested in covering the me too stories.

01:30:47.620 Uh, anyway, it's all, all water under the bridge, but it's complicated with Roger brings

01:30:51.800 up a lot of feelings for me too.

01:30:52.940 And I understand your love for him and respect for the way he treated you.

01:30:56.640 And I, I share in that too.

01:30:58.340 Ironically and weirdly, um, one of the other big stories that you, that you broke, people

01:31:03.240 may not know this cause you had to break it via Twitter, which is kind of weird why they

01:31:06.700 didn't just pop you up on the FNC when you had this news.

01:31:09.560 I actually don't totally understand to this day, but you broke the news of Hillary Clinton's

01:31:13.280 collapse down at ground zero in 2016, like two months before the election.

01:31:18.540 You had that story because you'd been working your sources for years in New York city and

01:31:23.640 somebody gave it to you.

01:31:24.460 You had it solid.

01:31:25.180 I had a great, so I had a lot of great sources, you know, my, my time overseas with Marines,

01:31:32.080 uh, all the terror attacks I covered.

01:31:34.180 I gained a lot of respect from law enforcement, federal agents, state, local police.

01:31:38.400 You know, I had a great network of, of guys I could turn to a lot of them were members

01:31:43.740 of the joint terrorism task force.

01:31:45.240 So when, when stuff would hit the fan, I would just start texting my boys and like, Hey,

01:31:49.380 what's going on?

01:31:49.980 What do you know?

01:31:50.580 In this case, a guy called me, um, a high ranking, uh, I don't want to say who he was

01:31:57.780 or where he worked to this day, but he was down at ground zero in uniform where the dignitaries

01:32:04.440 would arrive and then depart after the ceremony, uh, the memorial ceremony on nine 11.

01:32:10.880 And he called me because Hillary Clinton came stumbling past him with two secret service

01:32:16.780 agents, holding her up and, and helped her get into her van at a half hour before she 1.00

01:32:22.900 was scheduled to depart.

01:32:24.500 And he called me and goes, where are you right now?

01:32:27.260 I'm like, I'm down at ground zero covering nine 11.

01:32:29.480 What are you doing?

01:32:30.040 He goes, you're not going to believe what I just saw.

01:32:32.160 And I'm like, what's up?

01:32:33.080 And he goes, Hillary Clinton looked like she was about to die. 1.00

01:32:36.740 And he went into detail about what, what she looked like and what had happened.

01:32:40.540 And I was hearing a story that no one was reporting.

01:32:44.520 And my producer at the time was like, you can't go on the air with that.

01:32:49.560 No one else is reporting it.

01:32:50.600 I'm like, yeah, but this guy saw it firsthand.

01:32:52.440 He just, she's like, call him back, confirm it.

01:32:54.640 So I called back my guy.

01:32:56.280 He's like, buddy, her shoe came off and her follow on detail had to pick up her shoe off

01:33:02.020 the ground and jump in the car behind her to, to, to take her to the hospital. 0.96

01:33:05.940 I think they're on their way to the hospital right now, which they were.

01:33:08.640 And then they diverted to, to Chelsea's apartment and I had it.

01:33:14.260 No one else did because my guy called me and gave me all the details.

01:33:19.040 And so I had a live shot coming up with John Scott at the top of the hour.

01:33:23.300 But prior to that, yeah, I put it on Twitter.

01:33:25.220 I tweeted out like three or four tweets about Hillary Clinton having some sort of medical episode. 0.84

01:33:30.000 I went with a single source because my source was as solid as sources can be.

01:33:35.060 And my tweet got, I don't know if you can see it there, but that tweet got thousands and

01:33:39.820 thousands of retweets and shares.

01:33:42.200 And I had never had a tweet go viral before, but I, but these did.

01:33:46.440 And I was told, and this is in the book, Chasing Catastrophe, that Trump at the time running

01:33:52.960 for president was down there at the ceremony, sitting next to Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani

01:33:57.620 and Bernard Carrick.

01:33:59.400 And I think it was Carrick who saw the tweet, pass it to Giuliani, who passed it to Christie,

01:34:04.580 who passed it to Trump.

01:34:05.420 And they all read it at round zero that I, my reporting that Hillary had just left.

01:34:09.800 And they were kind of like, my understanding is like chuckling amongst themselves.

01:34:13.240 Like that's two months before election day.

01:34:15.320 Oh yeah.

01:34:16.240 And it could have swung the election and the Hillary campaign would not answer our questions. 1.00

01:34:21.520 Did it happen?

01:34:22.480 What happened?

01:34:23.180 Where is she?

01:34:23.740 How is she?

01:34:24.680 It took them, I think eight hours before they finally came out with a statement and it didn't

01:34:28.820 help her at all.

01:34:30.600 And it wasn't that I hated Hillary and had to break this.

01:34:33.960 It was news.

01:34:35.080 It's news.

01:34:35.860 CNN went on the air and started criticizing my reporting for the next two hours saying,

01:34:40.340 Oh, Fox is the only one saying it.

01:34:42.260 You can't trust with anything they say.

01:34:44.300 Of course it was Fox reporting this until that firefighter, God bless his soul, who happened

01:34:49.300 to be near my guy.

01:34:50.360 And she shot a 22nd video of Hillary stumbling and, and happy to get. 1.00

01:34:54.440 And that's, that's, I think that's the video right there is the video.

01:34:57.320 You can see them holding her up and it matched exactly what my guy told me and what I reported.

01:35:04.320 And because of this, but you see her, she almost fell because of this video, they had to stop

01:35:09.520 criticizing me and turn their attention to the Hillary campaign and say, what, what's going 0.99

01:35:13.620 on with your candidate?

01:35:14.540 And then they were forced to tell the truth or, or their version of it.

01:35:19.040 Oh my God, the media.

01:35:20.680 It's just so disgusting and so biased in so many ways.

01:35:24.220 It's not to say there aren't great moments like the reporting you did all those years.

01:35:28.440 I mean, I have similar, again, back to conflicted feelings about it because I love the job.

01:35:34.240 I love what the press is capable of.

01:35:36.680 And I love my own history in it.

01:35:38.040 You know, we talked about the nine 11 thing, watching you watching Ashley, Ashley Banfield

01:35:42.440 on nine 11 within three years, I was at the Fox news channel reporting on nine 11 that

01:35:48.700 the anniversary made a very fast rise.

01:35:51.040 You did.

01:35:51.540 Yeah.

01:35:52.140 But it was because I accurately sort of aligned with something that I knew would be good for

01:35:57.860 me and that I would be good at, you know, like figuring out where to, where your talents

01:36:02.000 lie and how to best use them.

01:36:03.280 That's half the battle of doing well at a job.

01:36:05.200 But I remember on the five year anniversary of nine 11, Rick's, I was dating Doug.

01:36:10.720 I just met Doug and, uh, I had to go to the Pentagon to do reporting as part of our, you

01:36:17.200 know, team coverage.

01:36:18.120 I was a young correspondent and it's just like something about nine 11 and reporting.

01:36:21.880 That's always stayed with me and your role in it has always been hugely important.

01:36:24.840 And those things that my point is, that's what I think of when I think of what's good

01:36:28.360 about the press, what does the press do?

01:36:30.340 That's important.

01:36:31.040 Is it just a disgusting organization?

01:36:33.120 No, the answer is no, they're, there's still honest reporters out there and there's a history

01:36:37.820 to be proud of, but man, less and less of it by the day, by the day.

01:36:43.140 Right.

01:36:43.320 I mean, when you look around at the landscape today, how do you feel about journalism in

01:36:47.660 America?

01:36:48.300 I've never seen the environment so fractured.

01:36:50.940 I've never seen so many shortcuts being taken.

01:36:53.480 It bothers me immensely.

01:36:55.820 Uh, the, the, the way things are being reported, the way stories are being told.

01:36:59.680 Um, I was always about doing it straight up, being real with the, with the viewers, getting

01:37:05.420 as many facts as possible on the air, uh, being aggressive and telling the truth.

01:37:10.140 And I think that there are a lot of, there are a lot of corners being cut and, um, it,

01:37:14.980 it bothers me that we're not getting the news that we should be getting.

01:37:19.020 And I would encourage people to watch our show every day on YouTube, the Rick and Kelly

01:37:23.260 show.

01:37:23.520 If there's room for more than one podcast in your life, the daily smash on YouTube and

01:37:27.380 the Rick and Kelly show on patrion.com where Kelly and I tell it like it is uncensored and

01:37:32.080 unfiltered.

01:37:32.980 Um, so, you know, that's how I'm still being a journalist, Megan, by working with my wife

01:37:37.580 now, but, but telling stories the way, the way they should be told.

01:37:41.260 Well, I think that's amazing.

01:37:42.440 Cause one of the themes of the book and our conversation today is that you, yes, you have

01:37:46.960 chased catastrophe.

01:37:48.860 Um, but you weren't, you never found the one, like truly the one, but then you found

01:37:54.340 Kelly and I don't think it's any accident.

01:37:56.480 You stepped away from your time at FNC.

01:37:58.760 Once that happened, you stepped away from New York, something you thought you wouldn't

01:38:01.860 do.

01:38:02.580 And now you found a different way to be a part of the news, but also service your soul,

01:38:09.200 right?

01:38:09.520 Like nurture your love and be with this person who certainly sounds like your soulmate.

01:38:14.700 So I feel like now nailed it.

01:38:17.380 Well done.

01:38:18.320 Thank you.

01:38:18.840 Thank you for that.

01:38:19.580 I feel very fortunate to a founder.

01:38:21.740 I feel very fortunate to be where I am.

01:38:23.640 I still love, uh, the, I still love being a journalist.

01:38:27.320 I consider myself a journalist still to this day.

01:38:29.440 And I, and I love the stories that we tell.

01:38:31.480 Um, I'm very proud of my book and I think people will really get a kick out of reading

01:38:35.000 it.

01:38:35.560 I am doing a book signing, Megan, this, uh, this coming Saturday at, um, Fashion Island,

01:38:40.460 the Barnes and Noble at Fashion Island in Newport beach.

01:38:42.560 If anyone's in that area wants to come down.

01:38:44.700 Um, noon on Saturday, it's going to be a good time.

01:38:47.400 Uh, Jeff Lewis and his crew are coming down from LA and, uh, we have some special guests

01:38:52.680 coming and, um, I never heard anybody say a book signing is going to be a good time.

01:38:56.460 What are you offering?

01:38:56.980 Like it's going to be drinks.

01:38:58.160 Well, uh, we, we have a very, really fun host.

01:39:00.940 Uh, we're gonna do some Q and a and, and, uh, this, I encourage people to show up.

01:39:06.160 I think they're going to really enjoy it.

01:39:07.180 And I encourage them to buy the book, of course.

01:39:09.100 All right.

01:39:09.380 Well, let me, let me know when you're out here on the East coast.

01:39:11.120 And I definitely will come if you're out there in, uh, in LA with the beautiful weather

01:39:14.820 and the beautiful people, check out Rick and his wife, Kelly.

01:39:18.640 So good to see you, my friend.

01:39:19.900 All the best to you, Rick Leventhal.

01:39:21.880 Thank you, Megan.

01:39:22.740 Thanks for having me on your show.

01:39:24.200 I'm proud of you too.

01:39:25.660 My earpiece keeps falling.

01:39:26.660 Next time I'll get better.

01:39:27.540 I'll get better headphones.

01:39:29.640 Next time.

01:39:30.620 No worries.

01:39:31.220 And don't forget folks, the book is called Chasing Catastrophe and it is well worth your

01:39:36.180 time.

01:39:38.280 Thanks for listening to the Megan Kelly show.

01:39:40.180 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

01:40:01.220 Espionage.

01:40:02.960 You're still as good a shot as you used to be.

01:40:06.140 Better.

01:40:06.800 Is there love language.

01:40:08.280 We like to walk that fine line between techno thriller and romantic comedy.

01:40:13.580 We make up our own rules.

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The Megyn Kelly Show - February 13, 2023

What Are ＂Objects＂ We're Shooting Down, Woke Super Bowl Ads, and State of the Media, with Rick Leventhal ｜ Ep. 492

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