The Megyn Kelly Show - What Democrat Panic Means for Biden and Trump, and San Francisco Suddenly Cleans Up, with the Ruthless Podcast Hosts ｜ Ep. 669

00:00:00.600 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at New East.

00:00:12.140 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:00:15.320 Sometimes when we wake up in the morning, we are faced with a slow news day,

00:00:18.960 and then there are days like today, where we need eight hours for this show.

00:00:23.320 We have San Francisco miraculously cleaning up its homelessness problem and its crime problem

00:00:29.400 just ahead of President Biden and President Xi's visit.

00:00:33.960 Oh, amazing how they were able to do that.

00:00:37.040 Meantime, there are new reports about Mr. Biden's inability to run a normal 2024 campaign.

00:00:43.260 Wait until you hear what Politico is saying about that.

00:00:46.700 And we have updates on just about every GOP 2024 candidate.

00:00:51.280 Oh, it's getting uncomfortable between Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley.

00:00:56.520 It's like a little drama, a little drama for you today.

00:00:59.760 Plus, Megan Rapinoe thinks her career-ending injury is proof there is not a God.

00:01:07.920 The fact that she's leaving the national scene proves there is.

00:01:12.300 Thankfully, we have the perfect guest for it all here with me for the full show today.

00:01:16.620 Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook,

00:01:19.260 and the man known to his minions as Comfortably Smug Together.

00:01:23.000 They are the Ruthless Program.

00:01:26.340 The program can be found now on video at youtube.com slash ruthless podcast.

00:01:33.800 Guys, welcome back.

00:01:35.440 Great to have the whole gang back together today.

00:01:37.780 I know.

00:01:38.120 Look at this full house.

00:01:39.580 Well, we have such a big shot now that somebody is hosting debates and things like that.

00:01:43.640 Yeah.

00:01:44.060 Thanks for having us.

00:01:45.400 We're happy we got on.

00:01:47.280 Are you in a suit?

00:01:49.180 I am.

00:01:49.840 Does it look bad on me?

00:01:50.920 No, what's going on?

00:01:52.680 Did you have to do your day job today or something?

00:01:55.040 Yeah.

00:01:55.600 Job interviews.

00:01:59.380 So, Dapper, you got to listen to the Ruthless Program to find out what these mean, mean men,

00:02:04.960 Ashbrook in particular, did to poor Michael Duncan, who forgot his jacket before the last debate.

00:02:09.980 Men are mean to one another.

00:02:12.540 That's how we show one another we love each other.

00:02:14.400 Yeah, that's true.

00:02:15.420 That's right.

00:02:16.100 I'm also, um, I'm a little brother and I can't, so like, I, they do it to me because

00:02:22.560 they know I'm a little brother and I always take the bait and it always makes the joke

00:02:26.220 funnier.

00:02:26.700 I can't help it.

00:02:27.440 It's in my DNA.

00:02:28.340 Michael, what's from a jacket, Michael?

00:02:31.680 Let's just say, um, instead of a jacket store, he may have been redirected to, I heard

00:02:37.560 the word girdles on your program, which, what are they, 70?

00:02:43.640 What's, what?

00:02:44.960 I don't know.

00:02:45.940 South Florida, Megan, you never know what you're going to get.

00:02:48.840 You don't.

00:02:50.220 Okay.

00:02:50.760 Let's get into it.

00:02:51.460 There's so much to get through.

00:02:52.580 All right.

00:02:52.780 Let's start with politics.

00:02:53.700 I heard you guys were interested in this story and so am I.

00:02:56.020 Politico.

00:02:56.940 Politico takes a, uh, hard look at how Biden can turn around his terrible poll numbers.

00:03:02.380 All these polls, New York times, Siena, CNN, Bloomberg, the coming out, showing him losing

00:03:07.560 in these swing States and other terrible news, losing with black men.

00:03:11.260 I mean, since when does a Democrat lose to the Republican when it comes to black men?

00:03:15.700 In any event, um, this is Jonathan Martin at Politico with the advice for president Biden

00:03:21.840 on how he can turn this around saying it will be an extraordinary election and it demands

00:03:26.300 extraordinary measures.

00:03:28.400 That's in part for reasons.

00:03:29.620 Biden refuses to accept his capacity to do the job.

00:03:33.980 The oldest president in history, when he first took the oath, Biden will not be able

00:03:38.720 to govern and campaign in the manner of previous incumbents.

00:03:43.080 He simply does not have the capacity to do it.

00:03:45.640 And his staff does not trust him to even try as they make clear by blocking him from the

00:03:51.340 press.

00:03:52.200 Biden's bid will give new meaning to a Rose Garden campaign and it requires accommodation

00:03:57.020 to that unavoidable fact of life.

00:04:00.320 In response to which Charles C.W.

00:04:02.120 Cook of National Review writes, I must stop Martin right here.

00:04:05.900 This is not extraordinary.

00:04:07.780 It is disqualifying.

00:04:10.040 He does not have the capacity to run or govern as a normal man.

00:04:17.420 They're giving it up.

00:04:18.680 I guess in any other sane world, they'd be saying you really need to step aside.

00:04:23.160 But the fear is so great of what will happen with Trump.

00:04:26.700 I don't know.

00:04:27.680 What are the Democrats thinking?

00:04:28.600 That Biden's their man, notwithstanding all these swing state polls.

00:04:31.120 Why is Jonathan Martin trying to save him?

00:04:33.560 I mean, you got what you have to love is the point that you just pointed out, which is like,

00:04:37.700 oh, man, we got a candidate.

00:04:38.760 He actually can't speak.

00:04:40.720 He's like a Roomba in a room when he gets out of it.

00:04:43.740 He can't.

00:04:44.340 He doesn't know up from down.

00:04:45.520 We only get about half an hour a good time.

00:04:47.860 How are we going to reelect him?

00:04:49.360 Yeah.

00:04:49.720 How are we going to make sure that this guy serves the American people?

00:04:53.100 We're going to have to be innovative.

00:04:54.640 They're like, well, we have to make sure that the American people don't realize he's

00:04:57.500 incapable of performing the job.

00:04:59.720 That's how we're going to run this.

00:05:01.840 I'm going to band together.

00:05:03.320 Yeah.

00:05:03.460 Well, you guys talk about how he's like the Roomba in, you know, bumping into the walls 0.91

00:05:08.860 and the legs of the chair, as you said.

00:05:11.220 And it's true. 0.56

00:05:12.840 And we saw that when he was trying.

00:05:14.460 All he had to do was go to the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington the other day.

00:05:17.780 It's like every president does it.

00:05:19.300 Just go up there.

00:05:20.080 You do it.

00:05:20.400 And then you leave.

00:05:21.320 He couldn't even do that.

00:05:22.280 Look at this.

00:05:23.240 He doesn't know where to go.

00:05:25.200 Stutter steps.

00:05:26.460 Turns around.

00:05:27.100 Nope.

00:05:27.360 Back over here, sir.

00:05:28.380 Over here.

00:05:29.540 All I can think of is, again, again, back and forth.

00:05:33.700 All I can think of is my cousin Vinny.

00:05:36.080 Over here, dear. 0.99

00:05:37.400 Over here, dear. 0.99

00:05:37.960 Yeah, but to the point you made earlier, Megan, I think the only thing keeping him in

00:05:45.020 this race and keeping Democrats hopeful that they have some shot to pull an inside straight

00:05:49.920 here and re-elect Joe Biden is Donald Trump's up by 40 points in the Republican primary.

00:05:55.500 And, you know, him being there, the 800-pound gorilla in the room is, I think, the only thing

00:05:59.500 keeping Biden in this race because Democrats think they still have a shot.

00:06:03.080 Didn't they look at those polls I just mentioned?

00:06:07.180 Yeah, but I think they look at everything coming off their side of the ledger, whether

00:06:10.160 it's black men, right, or black voters or Hispanic voters, and they think we can bring

00:06:15.680 those people home if Donald Trump's the nominee, that it's just like a lack of enthusiasm

00:06:19.880 for their choice in the Democratic primary.

00:06:23.340 They don't have one.

00:06:24.240 And so they're expressing their displeasure in the polling and saying, I'm not going to

00:06:27.580 support Joe Biden.

00:06:28.820 But if you look at the rest of the polling there, when they test generic Republican or

00:06:33.500 Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis, they're winning, too.

00:06:36.840 In fact, generic Republican leads Biden in all of those swing states.

00:06:40.580 He's the big winner.

00:06:41.540 15 points.

00:06:42.280 15 points.

00:06:43.660 We got to get that guy.

00:06:44.860 Yeah.

00:06:45.160 Yeah.

00:06:45.420 Who is that guy?

00:06:46.700 Very stout.

00:06:47.760 Draft generic Republican.

00:06:49.100 Well, of course, but that's it's all, of course, a farce because there is no such thing

00:06:54.500 or person and once a real person steps into the suit of generic Republican, he or she

00:06:59.260 has problems and inconsistencies in their past and those numbers come down.

00:07:03.860 So it's fine to sort of say generic Republican, but there's got to be a body.

00:07:07.580 I mean, I feel like Mitt Romney was as generic a Republican back then, not today, as you could

00:07:12.180 get.

00:07:13.080 And he lost.

00:07:13.320 A little bit accurate.

00:07:14.080 No, it's very true.

00:07:17.740 But I think the point of Jonathan Martin's piece, which I'm glad other people are picking

00:07:22.240 up on at this point, is when you're running a campaign, every single person of any sort

00:07:27.300 of consequence has moments of high negatives across the board.

00:07:31.500 And then you got to look at your policy matrix and you got to look at your candidate.

00:07:35.220 You have to figure out a game plan to try to win people back over.

00:07:39.060 I mean, I'll remind people of 2012 when you looked at Barack Obama.

00:07:41.820 His numbers were not dissimilar from where Joe Biden's are now.

00:07:44.680 They were very, very tough.

00:07:46.400 But Barack Obama, you knew you could barnstorm the country and he was pretty compelling speaker

00:07:51.340 and he could make the case to the American people that he deserved reelection with Joe

00:07:55.980 Biden.

00:07:56.420 What Democrats are doing is looking at this and being like, well, whatever hole he's

00:08:00.200 dug for himself, there's no chance that he can dig himself back out of it.

00:08:05.180 So literally, the only thing we can do at this point is try to draw the Republican down

00:08:08.820 to where Biden is.

00:08:09.840 And I think to Michael's point, they see that with Trump right away.

00:08:14.940 They think that almost no matter what, they could run a cadaver against Donald Trump and

00:08:20.740 have an even odd shot at winning.

00:08:22.440 So I think that's the calculus.

00:08:24.300 I think that's what was captured in that Politico piece.

00:08:26.360 And at the very least, this might be the first election in history for president where the

00:08:31.740 party out of power, the candidate out of power, the election is a referendum on them because

00:08:36.700 Donald Trump is going to spend the whole next year battling these various court cases.

00:08:41.760 And so like, in a weird way, it's kind of like 2020 and Biden's basement campaign.

00:08:46.040 It's like, actually let Donald Trump suck up all the oxygen because all that oxygen ends

00:08:50.420 up being negative for him.

00:08:52.500 I think that's the fact that-

00:08:53.300 He doesn't think so.

00:08:54.260 Did you guys see he went into-

00:08:55.800 The Georgia trial is going to be televised because it's a state case in Georgia and they

00:09:01.160 allow cameras in the courtroom, but federal trials are not televised.

00:09:04.480 They don't allow cameras in for federal courts.

00:09:06.760 And he went into that DC courtroom with that judge who can't stand him, Tanya Chutkin, in

00:09:11.580 the Jack Smith case on January 6th.

00:09:14.400 And Trump is asking for cameras in the courtroom, which I predict will be denied as it would

00:09:19.720 be by virtually any federal court judge.

00:09:22.020 But he's asking for cameras there.

00:09:24.500 He definitely thinks the trials, the persecution is helping him.

00:09:29.840 And so far, he's been proven right on that.

00:09:33.600 Well, I mean, look, what he does best is put on a show.

00:09:37.120 That's what he's done best for 50 years is put on a show.

00:09:40.960 And, you know, I mean, he's had the number one show on television.

00:09:43.920 I would argue for the last six years, he's had the number one show on television still.

00:09:48.660 It's just everyone's channel.

00:09:50.740 So, of course, he wants to do this.

00:09:52.360 He wants to make a big show out of all of it.

00:09:55.020 I don't think it's going to help him in a lot of these cases, however, because, look,

00:09:59.500 their court reporters are going to get an even readout of what's happening there, even

00:10:03.460 from the conservative side of the ledger.

00:10:05.840 It's tough.

00:10:06.820 I mean, there's not a lot he can do but try to make it a show.

00:10:10.420 So, in particular, as Duncan always talks about, that documents case, which I think

00:10:14.420 is the one that's the toughest one.

00:10:16.400 And in that poll that we were talking about earlier, they asked if Donald Trump is convicted

00:10:20.340 of one of these cases, does that change your opinion of him?

00:10:24.120 It's a 20-point swing against Donald Trump with independent voters, a general election

00:10:28.300 audience.

00:10:29.160 So, yeah, I mean, clearly, it's helped him a lot to be the guy fighting in this primary.

00:10:33.700 It's helped all of his bowl numbers.

00:10:35.420 But it's, I mean, it's a general election suicide.

00:10:37.720 Yeah, I mean, I think it's incredibly important to reiterate that point, is that independent

00:10:42.560 voters are incredibly shaky on Donald Trump.

00:10:45.800 If he's so much as, I mean, there's, what, 50 charges, 70 charges that he's facing right

00:10:50.540 now?

00:10:50.720 I think 91.

00:10:51.280 91.

00:10:52.080 92.

00:10:52.540 Yeah, 92 counts.

00:10:54.040 If he's convicted as so much as one of them, independent voters are gone and the election's

00:10:58.800 lost.

00:10:59.920 Well, because he's just going to say, I mean, the Dems are going to say convicted felon,

00:11:02.820 convicted felon, convicted felon.

00:11:04.300 And Biden's going to say, I'm not debating a convicted felon.

00:11:07.040 Hell no.

00:11:07.860 I'm going to stay in my basement or the Rose Garden, what have you.

00:11:10.760 And it's definitely a plus.

00:11:12.880 But I don't know.

00:11:13.680 Everything in the criminal lane has helped Donald Trump so far.

00:11:17.420 You know, Molly Hemingway over at the Federalist posted this graph of what happened the day

00:11:22.760 Alvin Bragg indicted him.

00:11:24.680 That was the first one in New York.

00:11:26.380 And it was just, you know, he and DeSantis were like this, with Trump a bit above DeSantis,

00:11:31.740 but it was still, you know, it was a ballgame.

00:11:34.160 And I mean, as of that day, Trump went off the map, Biden started going down, and those

00:11:39.620 two trajectories have never changed since.

00:11:42.880 But wait, I'll get to more of that in one second.

00:11:44.600 I just want to stay on the political piece for one more minute, because I love this.

00:11:49.720 I love this piece of it.

00:11:51.620 So this is why we need more people who are right-leaning to write pieces in places like

00:11:57.560 Politico, because, OK, I think most of us, Dem, Republican, Independent, can agree on

00:12:01.760 what he's saying here about how Biden does not have the capacity.

00:12:05.280 OK, but then they get to the solutions.

00:12:07.940 Here's it.

00:12:08.300 This is him advising Biden.

00:12:10.500 I spoke with dozens of Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans about what the president can do

00:12:16.580 to improve his prospects.

00:12:19.060 The level of despair was striking.

00:12:21.900 Here's a sample of what Biden can do.

00:12:25.620 OK, number one.

00:12:28.260 Get Liz Cheney. 1.00

00:12:31.020 Liz Cheney must be deployed and do all she can to bring other prominent figures with her, 1.00

00:12:38.940 including Dick Cheney, her father, and former President George W. Bush.

00:12:46.020 Liz Cheney is the answer to their problem. 1.00

00:12:50.580 That's solution number one they have here.

00:12:53.420 Number two, Rahm Emanuel.

00:12:56.840 Bring him back.

00:12:58.420 He's Biden's envoy to Japan.

00:13:00.920 He needs to come back and chair the re-election.

00:13:03.580 As for the Mideast, you have to bring in Bill and Hillary Clinton because Biden cannot handle

00:13:11.660 it all.

00:13:13.260 And the last two I actually agree with, heave Bidenomics into the dumpster, correct, and

00:13:19.180 talk about abortion every day. 0.60

00:13:20.700 Those two things will help them.

00:13:22.200 But what do you make of the Liz Cheney rescue plan?

00:13:25.360 Does that work, Johnny?

00:13:26.360 I'm not buying it.

00:13:27.420 I mean, just to put it bluntly, if his plan is to call Liz Cheney and then call the Clintons,

00:13:37.140 I really think that Joe Biden has a tougher road to re-election, even against Donald Trump.

00:13:42.480 He has a tougher road to re-election than these early polls suggest about what happens

00:13:48.660 if Donald Trump is actually convicted.

00:13:51.020 People are fed up with Biden.

00:13:52.920 They're fed up with the economy.

00:13:54.040 They're fed up with what they're seeing on a global stage and they want something different.

00:13:58.480 And this could be a different election than we've seen in a long time with new candidates

00:14:02.920 injected into the conversation.

00:14:04.860 You know, there's, you know, RFK, how many states is he going to be on the ballot?

00:14:09.180 Will that have an impact?

00:14:10.540 Would Joe Manchin be on a ballot?

00:14:12.360 Will that have an impact?

00:14:13.540 I mean, we could see a very different cycle this year than we've ever seen before, simply

00:14:19.980 because people are so dissatisfied left, right and center with Joe Biden.

00:14:25.640 I don't know if you saw this poll that came out just yesterday.

00:14:28.660 Maybe it was two days ago that showed just how dissatisfied people are with the state of

00:14:33.620 the economy.

00:14:34.420 There were more Democrats, Democrats, more Democrats said that they were extremely dissatisfied

00:14:40.640 with their state of their own financial affairs than Democrats who said they were extremely

00:14:45.680 satisfied.

00:14:46.280 Democrats are fed up with Biden.

00:14:49.420 And so I just think that we are in a situation like we've never seen before.

00:14:53.720 You also notice here is like, let me give you just a little flavor and then I'll let you

00:14:58.060 take it home.

00:14:59.260 Biden's comms director is speaking to this, the problem with the economy, the problem with

00:15:03.780 Bidenomics.

00:15:04.940 And here's how the team at the White House sees the issue.

00:15:10.380 Listen to South 15.

00:15:11.020 Labor Department numbers came out for the third quarter.

00:15:14.880 Nearly 8.4 million people in this country are working at least two jobs.

00:15:19.720 That's the highest number since 2019.

00:15:22.480 So when people are looking for that economic shift, they don't feel it.

00:15:26.980 To that woman, you say what?

00:15:30.560 Yeah, I'd say that that's precisely why we need another four years to continue to finish

00:15:34.120 the job, right?

00:15:35.120 I think it's important, too, that the president, of course, wants to get all of this done.

00:15:39.020 But we have to be honest about the brick wall of MAGA extremism that we continue to run

00:15:42.420 into when we're trying to get things done for the American people.

00:15:46.760 Wow.

00:15:47.740 It's so good.

00:15:49.200 It's like somebody who goes in for like a nose job and it comes out all messed up.

00:15:53.680 It's on the other side of your face.

00:15:54.920 And this plastic surgeon says, I just need another try.

00:15:57.640 That's all.

00:15:58.140 Just give me more time.

00:15:59.780 You can get back under the anesthesia.

00:16:01.380 I swear it's all going to go great next time around.

00:16:03.740 No, thanks.

00:16:05.100 Yeah, that's why you need another nose job. 0.77

00:16:07.060 No question about it.

00:16:08.260 I was going to let who broke it fix it.

00:16:11.980 I think that's a fair point, a reasonable point.

00:16:14.840 I think one that most Americans can follow along logically, fairly clearly and easily.

00:16:19.680 I was going to say to your point about the Cheney and Rahm Emanuel and the Clinton thing.

00:16:25.000 You guys notice that everything that happens in the democratic world sort of like stopped in

00:16:30.220 the second term of the Clinton administration.

00:16:32.640 There's not a single name that's ever surfaced in democratic hierarchy that's not like, well,

00:16:38.160 he was second chair at the Department of Labor in 1998, so I think he knows what he's talking

00:16:43.200 about.

00:16:43.860 You know what I mean?

00:16:44.760 Yeah, exactly.

00:16:45.240 It's incredible to me that they've not surfaced a fresh face anywhere in the apparatus from the

00:16:52.400 candidate on through the entire operative selection process.

00:16:55.700 The only new thing they ever brought to the table was a geriatric named Bernie Sanders,

00:17:00.660 and they dispatched him quickly, as quickly as they took him off stage.

00:17:05.460 And they're like, no, more Clinton people.

00:17:07.920 So back to the subject of Trump and his legal challenges, he gave an interview to Univision

00:17:14.440 this week and made some news.

00:17:17.120 He's been news about him, and this plan has been circulating in a few different publications,

00:17:22.060 so he was asked whether he has sort of a revenge plan in mind if he is to win a second term.

00:17:29.100 And in classic Trump fashion, he kind of said, yeah, yeah.

00:17:33.820 Yeah, he didn't really run from it.

00:17:36.060 Here's what he said in SOT 6.

00:17:38.980 You say they've weaponized the Justice Department.

00:17:41.660 They weaponized the FBI.

00:17:43.080 Would you do the same if you're reelected?

00:17:45.140 Well, if they do this, they've already done it.

00:17:47.460 But if they want to follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse.

00:17:53.380 It could certainly happen in reverse.

00:17:55.000 What they've done is they've released the genie out of the box.

00:17:58.740 You understand that.

00:17:59.760 They've done something that nobody thought would happen.

00:18:02.440 And they've taken a president who is very popular.

00:18:05.120 I got 75 million votes, much more than that, I believe, done indictments in order to win an election.

00:18:11.540 They call it weaponization.

00:18:13.960 And the people aren't going to stand for it.

00:18:16.180 But, yeah, they have done something that allows the next party.

00:18:19.540 I mean, if somebody, if I happen to be president and I see somebody who's doing well and beating me very badly,

00:18:24.740 I say, go down and indict them.

00:18:28.000 Mostly that would be, you know, they would be out of business.

00:18:32.440 I have to say, I love his honesty.

00:18:38.780 I do.

00:18:39.620 Like, I love how he'll say, yes, I'm going to do that.

00:18:42.580 Obviously, it's in the context of, hello, that is what they're doing to me.

00:18:47.180 And these are the risks of doing this to me.

00:18:49.220 That's very, very clearly what he's trying to say.

00:18:52.120 But what's great about this, obviously them putting out in the press and then him saying it on camera here,

00:18:58.460 is it did exactly what he thought it would do.

00:19:02.020 The Democrats melted down.

00:19:05.680 Completely clueless, unselfaware reaction to this alleged plan as they're like, what?

00:19:16.260 Who would weaponize the Justice Department against a political foe?

00:19:21.260 It's un-American. 0.82

00:19:22.740 This is absolutely wrong.

00:19:24.180 Here's just a sampling of that in Sot 5.

00:19:29.020 A bunch of fat, white, pink boys, a bunch of phony populists that are going around talking tough

00:19:36.000 and unfortunately making threats that we, those of us who love democracy,

00:19:42.660 those of us who actually believe in the American experiment all these years later, have to be worried about.

00:19:48.420 We try to either call him out on the lies that he puts out there or not cover just frivolous stuff that he says that is lies.

00:19:56.900 But in this case, you have to look.

00:19:59.020 Guess what?

00:19:59.880 Joe Biden isn't perfect.

00:20:01.260 No candidate is, by the way.

00:20:03.280 But we have to understand what the alternative is here.

00:20:05.700 If elected to a second term, Donald Trump would prosecute anyone he deems an enemy, unleash troops on protesters,

00:20:12.680 and essentially unravel the rule of law as we know it.

00:20:15.220 But sure, Joe Biden is three years older and occasionally trips over things.

00:20:18.680 So what would a second term look like?

00:20:20.720 It would look a lot like Vladimir Putin in Russia.

00:20:22.920 It would look a lot like Viktor Orban in Hungary.

00:20:25.800 If he's weaponizing government against his opponents, boy, are we in trouble.

00:20:30.220 He's already said he's going to come after people like General John Kelly.

00:20:33.640 What about us?

00:20:34.140 Try it.

00:20:34.780 Go ahead.

00:20:35.160 Try it.

00:20:35.560 We have this show every day.

00:20:37.020 OK, Donald?

00:20:38.980 Jeez.

00:20:40.020 OK, Joy.

00:20:40.940 What a fool.

00:20:41.700 I wish you had.

00:20:43.560 You know, honestly, so I have a kind of a wild opinion on this.

00:20:48.640 My greatest criticism of Trump is he never did the stuff the media accused him of.

00:20:52.680 I think they've created this monster of Trump who's like this incredibly capable guy who crushes his foes

00:20:58.680 and will use whatever lovers of power are available to him to do what he needs to get done.

00:21:04.140 And, you know, that might not have been the worst thing.

00:21:07.200 And I mean, for so long, we can like complain about hypocrisy.

00:21:10.640 Like, wow, can you imagine if a Republican did this?

00:21:13.640 And like, at what point is it that we're going to be like, you know what?

00:21:16.480 Let's just give them what they've given us.

00:21:18.760 You know, I think there has to be a point where it's just like, you know,

00:21:21.720 mutually assured destruction was the way that you dealt with the USSR, with the Soviet Union. 0.82

00:21:28.840 Give the Dems. 0.98

00:21:29.460 I mean, they're essentially the communists now at this point.

00:21:31.500 Give them a taste of their own medicine.

00:21:32.680 I'll never forget right after he won in 2016.

00:21:34.820 He sort of made up with Hillary Clinton.

00:21:36.840 Like after all the locker ups talk and everything, then there was no follow through on any of that.

00:21:42.100 What I think is most interesting about all those clips you played, like Jen Psaki and everything, is what you see in this when, you know, if Donald Trump is the nominee,

00:21:51.280 you can already see the blueprint for how mainstream media, liberal media, the Democrat Party has to have a therapy session with their voters to get these people back on board.

00:22:03.040 I mean, they're showing you exactly what they're going to do all next year.

00:22:05.560 A hundred percent.

00:22:07.360 But that's always been their cheat code in these elections.

00:22:11.420 You can have a party that's ruining the economy, that's diminishing America overseas, that's creating chaos in the Middle East, 1.00

00:22:18.720 that's doing like basically everything you would not want them to do, and yet they win in elections.

00:22:24.960 That's the reason, because they're really, really capable.

00:22:27.980 And right now the Democratic hierarchy is really good at manipulating a Democratic voter into believing that Trump is the worst of the worst.

00:22:37.560 And look at like John Fetterman in Pennsylvania.

00:22:41.220 I mean, this guy couldn't put a sentence together at the end of his campaign, and yet all those polling things that we talked about with the Biden,

00:22:48.240 what he's losing with black voters and young voters and all these other things, same was true of Fetterman on Election Day.

00:22:53.080 What happened?

00:22:53.840 They voted for him.

00:22:55.060 They voted for him.

00:22:55.840 Same is going to be true again in this exact circumstance because of what you're seeing play out.

00:23:02.420 But I just can't get over how clueless these Democrats sound and these media figures sound.

00:23:09.400 Like, do they?

00:23:10.140 We've been following the news.

00:23:11.580 Trump is under four criminal indictments.

00:23:14.760 He's facing two civil fraud trials.

00:23:17.660 Like, who do you think you're kidding?

00:23:20.000 And then you've got, like, Kristen Welker out there on Meet the Press, like, well, I'll let you listen to it in Sot7.

00:23:26.680 He essentially threatened to indict his political enemies if he wins a second term.

00:23:33.020 Does that essentially make the Republican Party take a stance of the Republican Party's stance for revenge?

00:23:41.160 What do you think of that messaging?

00:23:42.400 You know, I'm not going to get involved in rhetoric that's happening during a contested campaign for our presidential nominee.

00:23:48.100 I will say, a lot of Republicans, Kirsten, feel like there's a two-tier system of justice, that Republicans are getting prosecuted or persecuted through prosecution.

00:23:59.400 And they see it with President Trump.

00:24:00.960 Bob Menendez has been indicted.

00:24:03.340 The New York Democratic Mayor, Eric Adams, just had his phone searched by the FBI.

00:24:07.540 How can you guys continue to make that argument?

00:24:09.880 I think when you look at what's happened with the Biden family and what's been uncovered since we've taken the House—

00:24:14.940 Well, Hunter Biden's been indicted, too.

00:24:16.220 I always think if this were Donald Trump Jr. getting that money, there'd be a big issue.

00:24:22.660 Good for Ronna McDaniel, by the way. 1.00

00:24:24.260 100% right.

00:24:25.260 Oh, Hunter Biden's been indicted.

00:24:26.740 You've got to be kidding me.

00:24:28.080 Anybody paying two minutes of attention to the news understands no one in the Biden Justice Department wanted to do that.

00:24:34.540 They were forced—their hand was forced by that one federal judge who caught them trying to give him immunity.

00:24:41.020 Yeah, it would be so nice if we could just stop the dumb fuckery for, like, five seconds.

00:24:47.160 Yes.

00:24:47.680 You know, it would be so great if there was a Democrat out there that was like, you know, that is a really scary proposition to totally prosecute your political enemies, to make an entirely two-system tiered of justice.

00:25:01.040 But what are we doing that could—oh, wait a minute.

00:25:04.260 We might have a problem with that here.

00:25:06.620 You know, come to think of it, maybe it's what we've created.

00:25:10.960 They talk about how brilliant Jack Smith is.

00:25:14.080 They defend all the players involved in the prosecution against Trump.

00:25:16.880 They make a hero out of Letitia James, the New York State Attorney General, who ran for office.

00:25:22.740 Here she is.

00:25:23.720 Here's just a little—Hannity put this together.

00:25:25.400 It was very good.

00:25:26.120 Look at Sod 8. 0.83

00:25:26.720 I will never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate president when our fundamental rights are at stake.

00:25:34.660 I believe that the president of these United States can be indicted for criminal offenses.

00:25:39.460 Will you sue him for us?

00:25:41.000 Oh, we're going to sue him.

00:25:42.140 We're going to be a real table.

00:25:43.780 I know my name personally.

00:25:45.440 That man in the White House.

00:25:46.900 Yeah!

00:25:48.600 Who can't go a day without threatening our fundamental rights.

00:25:55.860 Yes, we need to focus on Donald Trump and his abuses.

00:25:59.100 We need to follow his money.

00:26:01.180 We need to find out where he's laundered money.

00:26:04.100 We need to find out whether or not he's engaged in conspiracy.

00:26:06.980 It's important that everyone understand that the days of Donald Trump are coming to an end.

00:26:10.600 I look forward to going into the office of Attorney General every day, suing him, defending your rights, and then going home.

00:26:20.040 What kind of a party would use the courts as political revenge, guys?

00:26:28.780 The Democrat Party.

00:26:29.720 I think this is honestly central to their DNA at this point, is they are no longer interested in competent leadership or making lives better for Americans.

00:26:40.560 That's very clear when you look at the economic data and the communications director says, yeah, well, we need four more years of this.

00:26:46.840 But if you look across the board, whether it's all these prosecutors that left-wing dark money groups George Soros has funded to essentially unleash just legalizing crime coast to coast across this country, or you look at how they're trying to pack the courts.

00:27:00.460 They're trying to get rid of Justice Thomas.

00:27:02.780 This is what their party is about, lawlessness.

00:27:04.880 They want to have total control, and they can't do that if voters are standing in their way.

00:27:09.840 They can't get these policies done like loan forgiveness, which the Supreme Court had to step in and say, wait a minute, you can't just use taxpayer money to pay off kids' student loans.

00:27:17.780 That's not allowed.

00:27:19.440 Any policy that the Democrats want does not pass muster at the ballot, so they have to take power by any means, and they're using the legal system to do it.

00:27:26.820 Democrats are always guilty of what they accuse Trump of, and they have been since the beginning.

00:27:32.080 When they accused Trump of working with foreign actors to influence the election, it was actually Democrats in the Hillary Clinton campaign working with foreigners to influence the election.

00:27:41.160 Now they're accusing Trump of going after his enemies, and every single day, that's all that Democrats do is they go after Republicans.

00:27:47.900 I just love the idea that protecting your fundamental rights includes investigating Donald Trump and whether he inflated the value of Mar-a-Locker.

00:27:57.780 Right.

00:27:59.340 Defending your idea.

00:28:01.400 It's got a lot to do with inflation.

00:28:03.200 So they're pivoting off of, in part, this Washington Post report from November 5th, saying that what he wants to do is use the federal government, if he gets reelected, to punish not just his opponents with the DOJ, somebody who might be giving him a challenge electorally, but to go after people who he thinks betrayed him, like John Kelly, Bill Barr and Mark Milley.

00:28:27.040 I don't believe for one minute Trump's actually going to do that. I really don't. I think he will actually go after somebody in the way that they're coming after, like a Biden type or a Hunter Biden type.

00:28:36.640 But does anybody really believe he's going to actually sick the DOJ on John Kelly? Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I'll be proven wrong.

00:28:43.900 But this is what they're reacting to, because these are people that's a different like those.

00:28:48.260 You go after Joe Biden and try to get him, whatever, criminally prosecuted. That's tit for tat.

00:28:55.100 You go after Bill Barr, your former attorney general, like some weird trumped up criminal charge. That's a different story.

00:29:00.980 I just don't, to your point before, Smug, I don't actually think Trump would ever actually do that.

00:29:05.360 I think he likes to say that stuff because it makes him feel good.

00:29:09.300 Yeah, I mean, I think if we're all being completely honest of what a second Trump presidency would look like is it would look a lot like the first in terms of what gets done.

00:29:18.800 All of a sudden, you know, all these world leaders realize they can't essentially just do whatever they want.

00:29:25.520 The United States, it's the irony of when the Biden administration came, they said, oh, finally, the adults are back in charge.

00:29:31.380 And essentially, carnage was unleashed across the entire planet.

00:29:34.620 The Afghanistan withdrawal, the botched Afghanistan withdrawal that Biden was responsible for, let the world know that, OK, these guys, you know, Biden clearly does not know what he's doing.

00:29:44.260 You saw Ukraine then gets invaded. You see what's happening in Israel with the terrorist attack.

00:29:48.600 And now you have a State Department telling Israel to stop defending itself from terrorists.

00:29:53.300 You know, it's free reign for bad actors across the planet.

00:29:56.780 You never saw that under the Trump presidency because, you know, it's a lot like Nixon with the madman theory of world leaders don't know what this guy is capable of.

00:30:05.340 And that fear keeps them in line. And for the rest of the policy, OK, the border is going to be secured again.

00:30:11.440 I don't think there's any indication that we have that, oh, my gosh, he's going to turn like, you know, this country into a fascist dictatorship.

00:30:20.160 And he's going to show up and arrest Joy Behar while she's recording the view.

00:30:23.940 Like, how unserious are these people when when Americans right now are suffering economically?

00:30:29.780 Inflation is going through the roof. People can't buy a house like the American dream is being choked out in front of our eyes.

00:30:35.740 And they're trying to say that, well, we got to worry about the price of Mar-a-Lago and is Joy Behar going to be able to have her TV show?

00:30:42.240 Yeah. Yeah.

00:30:44.340 Heaven forbid. Now, here's the other thing.

00:30:46.580 People are worried about the economy. It's obviously the number one issue.

00:30:49.680 But a close second, maybe not a close second, but the second is immigration.

00:30:53.960 And they're not totally unrelated either.

00:30:55.840 But immigration in all the polls for all Americans, they care.

00:30:59.320 But Republicans really care about what's happening at the southern border.

00:31:02.280 And so in the midst of this, Trump, through his old pal Stephen Miller, who ran immigration policy while he was in the White House and now is running the America First legal, where they're filing all these really good lawsuits, I have to say.

00:31:13.920 Stephen Miller's been kind of on fire.

00:31:16.820 He gives an interview to The New York Times talking about what Trump plans to do to shore up our border and deal with the illegal immigration problem.

00:31:27.000 Now, I feel the need to say, because I do read in Coulter's Substack, she'd be here saying, bullshit, you didn't do it the first time.

00:31:34.780 You're not going to do it this time. That's why she turned on Trump.

00:31:37.760 So take that for what it is.

00:31:39.740 But this is what they say he's planning.

00:31:42.080 He's going to round up undocumented people already in the United States. 0.95

00:31:47.380 He will revive banning entry by people from certain Muslim-majority nations. 0.57

00:31:52.820 He will reimpose COVID-19-era policy of refusing asylum claims, bring back Title 42.

00:31:58.520 He will scour the country for unauthorized immigrants and deport people by the millions per year.

00:32:03.680 He will reassign other federal agents and deputize local police officers and National Guard soldiers to help ICE carry out sweeping raids.

00:32:12.180 He wants to build huge camps to detain people while their cases are processed and as they await deportation flights.

00:32:19.600 Because right now we just send them right out into America and we never track them or anything.

00:32:23.960 He wants to revoke the visas of foreign students who participated in the anti-Israel protests.

00:32:28.440 He wants to end birthright citizenship.

00:32:30.840 He already said he would do that and he's saying he'll do it again.

00:32:33.020 But when I interviewed him, he said the lawyers told him he couldn't do it.

00:32:36.060 So that one's got a bigger question mark on it.

00:32:38.440 Um, and he will expel suspected members of drug cartels and criminal gangs, uh, quote, without due process, says the New York Times.

00:32:48.000 I obviously see this as a New York Times hit piece.

00:32:51.580 Like they're, they're excited to tell their audience how extreme he is.

00:32:55.740 Have you heard of a more motivating plan for the Republican base when it comes to this very important issue?

00:33:01.140 What I was going to say is, wow, this sounds like a pretty great plan.

00:33:05.300 The border, the border has been, we've talked about this before, Megan, the border has been a disaster for a very, very long time.

00:33:11.720 And it is way, way overdue for a fix.

00:33:15.060 And everything that he laid out, he talks about camps.

00:33:18.240 I don't know if you've seen where Eric Adams has immigrants up in New York, but he's got giant tents and camps where he's put these migrants.

00:33:25.840 And the New York Times is acting like, oh, well, you, if, if, if a Republican does something similar to that, that's a problem.

00:33:33.660 What Trump is talking about doing is shutting down the border.

00:33:36.680 Now it has to happen.

00:33:38.540 He's talking about removing people who aren't supposed to be here, that aren't here legally.

00:33:43.860 He's talking about getting the terrorists out of this country.

00:33:47.140 And anybody who saw with horror what happened in Israel on October 7th, when these terrorists came over the border and into the country, and the same people know that Hamas is here now. 0.87

00:33:59.420 They want to terrorize American people. 0.83

00:34:02.420 People are afraid.

00:34:04.280 They're scared and they want the government to do something about it.

00:34:07.640 Democrats aren't doing anything about it.

00:34:09.780 And Donald Trump is saying that he's going to get serious.

00:34:11.940 And I think that a lot of Republicans are eager for that sort of thing.

00:34:16.240 I think I'm kind of with Ann Coulter on this, though.

00:34:18.940 And I think I hear you.

00:34:20.780 Here's the thing is, like, we saw what happened in 2020 when BLM and these rioters and these anarchists were burning down American cities.

00:34:29.440 And, you know, you talked earlier about, you know, deputizing the National Guard.

00:34:33.840 Like, Donald Trump tweeted Law & Order a bunch of times and took his advice on crime from Kim Kardashian, not Tom Cotton.

00:34:42.220 Like, that's the reality.

00:34:43.700 That's the reality.

00:34:44.780 It's like when push came to shove and he had to make hard choices for Law & Order, he didn't do it.

00:34:50.480 I mean, that's the thing that I keep picking up on on all this.

00:34:53.020 I mean, look, the plan, some of it's executable, some of it's not.

00:34:56.520 The problem that I have with everyone saying, like, well, Trump is the only one that can do it, is that he actually had the opportunity to do all of those things.

00:35:02.760 And he didn't.

00:35:03.660 Part of it is because they didn't think about it.

00:35:06.900 Part of it is because they couldn't build consensus around the things that required legislative activity, like, I don't know, funding borders and things like that, which require Congress.

00:35:16.800 Heads up, everybody.

00:35:17.980 You can't just roll into the White House and sort of tip your cap.

00:35:20.920 You're going to get the exact same treatment out of the Supreme Court that Joe Biden has for forgiving student loans.

00:35:26.160 Like, all of this stuff requires a know-how and consensus building to actually get done.

00:35:30.100 The funny thing is, I think there's tons of consensus over two-thirds of that list that you just talked about.

00:35:35.300 There is a massive amount of Americans, center, left, and right, that believe we have to secure this border and you have to do extraordinary things to get it done.

00:35:44.160 Could you put that kind of thing in front of Congress if you actually worked with Congress to do it?

00:35:49.440 Yeah, I bet you could.

00:35:50.540 I bet you could figure out how to do that.

00:35:52.400 Problem is, is that there's not been any demonstration at this point of the ability to do that.

00:35:58.100 Lastly, we keep talking about the deep state and who's going to eliminate the deep state.

00:36:02.260 And it seems like the number one talking point of the Trump campaign is this is the guy to eliminate the deep state.

00:36:08.400 Has there ever been in the history of this country a greater victim of the deep state than Donald Trump?

00:36:15.100 I know a lot of presidents, Republican presidents that have come in who have been victimized in one form or another by a deep state.

00:36:23.600 And they've made some changes and tried to figure it out.

00:36:25.640 But I've never seen anybody who's been completely thwarted by the deep state.

00:36:30.500 That happened.

00:36:32.300 It happened for four years.

00:36:34.500 So now we're revisiting all of this and planning on this guy being the guy who's able to do it,

00:36:40.320 except he's the only one in the field who's demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt he couldn't.

00:36:45.300 That's my problem.

00:36:46.660 One thing I actually want to rebut something that Duncan said of, you know, taking Kim Kardashian's advice on the law.

00:36:52.940 Well, I think that's more like Trump 90 chess.

00:36:56.000 He was like, you know, maybe if I do some felony criminal reform, this might help me out later down the road.

00:37:01.280 And that might help me out on the election.

00:37:03.640 He'll be glad he did that.

00:37:06.480 Well, honestly, that could be true because Jared Kushner was pushing it.

00:37:10.320 He's looking out for his father-in-law.

00:37:12.540 Jared Kushner partnered with Van Jones and Kim Kardashian.

00:37:15.180 And before we knew it, we let a bunch of felons out of prison.

00:37:17.220 Go ahead.

00:37:17.480 Jared was like, listen, I have a dad who's been in jail.

00:37:19.660 Let's make sure it doesn't happen to you, Tom.

00:37:21.480 You want to hear the inverse of 9D chess is the criminal penalties for taking national security documents and mishandling them have been increased, right?

00:37:34.280 Do you know who increased them?

00:37:36.700 President Donald Trump.

00:37:39.020 President Donald Trump was a campaign promise after he beat Hillary Clinton because remember Hillary Clinton with the server and 30,000 emails.

00:37:45.400 Donald Trump increased the penalties for mishandling classified information.

00:37:48.740 And then did the thing.

00:37:49.360 And then did the thing.

00:37:50.060 Allegedly, allegedly, it'll all play out.

00:37:53.920 Maybe you can't.

00:37:55.320 All right, stand by.

00:37:56.120 I'm going to squeeze in a quick break.

00:37:57.280 And then there's so much more to go over.

00:37:58.780 My God, we have just an embarrassment of riches to talk about today.

00:38:02.300 More with the Ruthless fellas straight ahead. 0.99

00:38:04.360 So fear not, because if you are not a Donald Trump fan, he has committed the gaffe of all gaffes.

00:38:15.340 This is the one that's really going to stop him.

00:38:17.500 If you just tune into Morning Joe and The View, they will make clear to you how this is the thing.

00:38:22.940 It's going to put voters over the top because he's really crossed the line this time by referring to his enemies as vermin.

00:38:31.840 In honor of our great veterans on Veterans Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections.

00:38:53.300 The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within.

00:39:02.900 So, I mean, cue virtually every left-wing critic's comment that that is, quote, straight-up Nazi talk.

00:39:12.000 He's dehumanizing people, dehumanizing presidential historian Joe Meacham on MSNBC, Morning Joe, because to call your opponents vermin.

00:39:21.000 Now, he said they were like vermin, but in any event, to dehumanize them is to not only open the door, but to walk through the door toward the most ghastly kinds of crimes.

00:39:32.600 Trump campaign spokesman says, these people are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they're suffering from Trump derangement syndrome.

00:39:41.420 So, I'm amazed that they still cover comments like that with the breathlessness, but they do.

00:39:46.740 So, what do you guys think?

00:39:47.640 I mean, these people are in no position to lecture us when they've been trying to say from the river to the sea is actually a very friendly thing to say.

00:39:54.740 Right, right.

00:39:55.380 It's just outrageous.

00:39:56.580 It's aspirational.

00:39:57.160 Yeah.

00:39:57.500 The left is literally marching in the streets saying, kill the Jews, but Donald Trump said vermin, so let's stop the presses and let's start talking about that.

00:40:05.660 Such a good point.

00:40:08.100 And I think Donald Trump knows this plays into his hands, right?

00:40:11.240 Like, he's been doing this since 2015.

00:40:14.080 He's like, he will ramp up the rhetoric to suck up all the oxygen to get the media to write and light their hair on fire.

00:40:20.720 And it always benefits him in the end.

00:40:22.700 It's also amazing that the media uses this decoder ring to be like, well, what they really meant was.

00:40:29.080 Every time Donald Trump does something, it's like, well, what he really meant was Nazis are great. 0.91

00:40:33.580 And what he really meant in here was genocide, except then you got, like, a substantial part of the left that was like, Nazis were great. 0.83

00:40:43.800 Genocide.

00:40:44.680 And then you have the White House that's out looking at, like, well, I don't know, there's a lot of anti-Semitism around.

00:40:49.700 What we need is a commission to study all this anti-Islam.

00:40:53.720 That's what we need.

00:40:54.580 The New York Times is doing hit pieces on him for his Nazi-like rhetoric in referring to people as vermin.

00:41:04.480 They literally just hired somebody who said, Hitler is great. 0.83

00:41:09.380 Love Hitler. 0.87

00:41:10.480 Yes.

00:41:11.280 Go, Hitler, go. 0.75

00:41:12.680 But Donald Trump's saying, like, vermin, that's a bridge too far.

00:41:16.540 They've given up the whole gig.

00:41:19.160 So, meanwhile, like we saw in 1516 when he won, Trump is not particularly obsessed with what the Times or anybody else is writing about him.

00:41:28.100 Trump is doing what Trump does.

00:41:29.700 And he showed up at the UFC.

00:41:32.100 I don't follow sports, and I certainly don't follow UFC.

00:41:34.960 But UFC fighting, I don't know.

00:41:36.540 Madison Square Garden.

00:41:37.460 There was some sort of a fight run by UFC.

00:41:39.600 I don't understand what it is.

00:41:40.660 It's mixed martial arts.

00:41:42.180 Forget it.

00:41:42.520 I'm already off on a limb.

00:41:43.660 I don't know what I'm saying.

00:41:44.680 But they fought, and he was there.

00:41:46.760 And look at him come in.

00:41:49.160 He's with Kid Rock, Tucker Carlson, and Dana White, who is the UFC.

00:42:00.560 Okay, so that would be what we call a bass play.

00:42:28.060 A bass play, right?

00:42:29.560 Like, does Cora Maga want to see people any more than they want to see Kid Rock, Tucker, and Trump together?

00:42:35.920 Like, I'm not sure who you could throw in there to make them even happier.

00:42:40.320 But what do you make of it?

00:42:41.520 Because it seems smart to me.

00:42:43.460 I know it's like suburban wine moms, maybe not so much, but Cora Maga, yeah.

00:42:47.860 This is Trump at his most entertaining, because one thing he has realized and revolutionized in American politics is the WWF aspect to what politics can be.

00:42:58.300 The pomp and the circumstance that you haven't seen from a lot of candidates.

00:43:02.040 It's a little bit different, and it's way outside of the mainstream, way outside of anything you saw from Romney and Bush and Clinton and everybody before him.

00:43:10.380 This sort of state approach to office, and a lot of people argue that's the right approach.

00:43:14.480 But he gets people excited.

00:43:16.920 He's very entertaining, and to the extent that he can continue to entertain people, they want to see more.

00:43:24.000 I mean, the energy levels were off the charts in that clip, and everyone was talking about it when it happened.

00:43:29.480 And it's like this level of mania that he can generate, where people are like, does this mean Tucker's going to be the vice president candidate?

00:43:37.420 Like, people lose their minds in that excitement, and that's a very powerful thing for when he runs for election.

00:43:43.080 And he's always had this way of putting himself in cultural space to make himself relevant.

00:43:49.480 I don't know if people realize this, but, like, Donald Trump did, I think, like, WrestleMania, like, 25 years ago, and it's still rated one of, like, the highest WWE programs of all time, of all time.

00:44:01.580 So, like, very early, Donald Trump realized where his audience was.

00:44:06.160 They, you know, weren't people that read white papers.

00:44:08.880 They cared about politics on a cultural level that was totally different and adjacent to conservative values of the Republican Party, but wasn't it.

00:44:16.900 Wasn't the same thing that the other candidates are going for.

00:44:19.480 And so all of these things he benefits from when he shows up at a place like that.

00:44:22.940 Yeah, I also think part of the allure to it is the utter shock from the left who had, you know, probably not encountered anybody who's voted Republican in 30 years to see a stadium full of people yelling and screaming for Donald Trump.

00:44:39.380 Like, they're probably like, oh, my God, what is this?

00:44:43.000 Who are these monsters?

00:44:44.380 Morning Joe said this wouldn't happen.

00:44:45.540 Yeah, in New York City, no less.

00:44:47.300 It feels like they're, you know, like they're watching zoo animals at some level.

00:44:51.680 It's like, this is a culture I don't understand. 1.00

00:44:53.920 And I think it's that, that combination of him understanding, like you said, the stadium culture and all of that with the reaction from the left.

00:45:02.240 It's like, my God, we've got big trouble.

00:45:04.840 To me, like a part of what I see here is how feckless the mainstream media is, how they just, they're irrelevant.

00:45:15.320 They just don't drive opinions anymore.

00:45:17.800 Are there any two individuals in America that they have tried to convince us more are horrible, racist, misogynistic assholes than Trump and Tucker?

00:45:27.220 Like, it's a fail.

00:45:30.440 It didn't go so well.

00:45:32.240 I'm sure there, I know there is a core piece of the left wing base that believes that, but that was a hero's welcome.

00:45:38.780 And I realize it's UFC, it's a certain niche.

00:45:41.040 But as he pointed out in that interview, 75 million Americans voted for him.

00:45:45.260 The New York Times does not drive the opinion of the mainstream or even the center anymore.

00:45:51.240 Well, remember, they tried to convince the entire country that Mitt Romney was a misogynist in the middle of that campaign.

00:45:59.020 And I think that that's one of the, that was just like one step on this like long, slow trajectory to people not believing anything they read or anything that they see on television.

00:46:09.660 They're just looking, that's why people are looking for alternate media, because they're looking for something that's actually the truth, not the lies that they keep hearing over and over again.

00:46:16.740 I get that.

00:46:17.940 But then like, I look back at 2022 and realize like a lot of these races, these Senate races and swing states across the country are really decided by not people that watch UFC, but like suburban women and stuff like that.

00:46:32.240 And it is still a concern.

00:46:34.060 I mean, like.

00:46:34.780 Yeah, I don't want to fly by that.

00:46:37.300 And like, no, this means he'll win.

00:46:38.720 We haven't won, truly won an election since 2016.

00:46:42.460 I don't think any of us should.

00:46:43.420 There is that pesky fact.

00:46:44.480 Well, you know, gosh, it's just that everybody loves him so much.

00:46:49.440 All right, wait, I want to, I do want to pick this up because I'm interested in this and the wine moms and what they're going to do. 0.72

00:46:55.220 I love that it's been changed from soccer to wine because I will say there's going to be a certain group that looks at that and says toxic masculinity.

00:47:05.500 And they're not all Dems.

00:47:07.180 They're not all lefties.

00:47:08.160 So we'll pick it up there and we'll talk about the attacks on Trump because now he's made a few gaffes.

00:47:13.340 The Biden team's picking up on it.

00:47:14.980 The DeSantis team is picking up on it.

00:47:16.440 And we'll get into the between Vivek and Nikki next as the guys from Ruthless stay with us for the full show.

00:47:24.460 Don't forget, you can check out more of our show at YouTube dot com slash Megan Kelly.

00:47:27.620 If you'd like to watch all these wonderful clips that you're listening to, check it out.

00:47:32.500 Okay, so the wine moms, the soccer moms, maybe they're not having the same reaction, right?

00:47:43.340 As you say, you say it as the UFC fans to Trump, maybe not even to the immigration plan.

00:47:50.600 You know, let's face it.

00:47:51.400 They are a bit more moderate Republican voters.

00:47:54.380 That's why he didn't do as well with them.

00:47:57.220 And Biden did a little better with them enough to make a difference in the 2020 election.

00:48:02.420 So I think the conventional thinking is they're so fed up with this Biden economy and the open border and all the bullshit.

00:48:09.920 They're ready to pull the lever for him anyway.

00:48:12.420 Are we are we losing something?

00:48:14.440 Are we not seeing the truth if we jump to that conclusion?

00:48:17.720 Yeah, no, I mean, we are not seeing the truth if we come to that conclusion.

00:48:21.760 The reality is in 2022, you know, the best measure of all of this is the exit polls that came out after the election, where it showed definitively that Republicans won the argument over the economy.

00:48:33.120 They won the argument over crime.

00:48:35.080 They won the argument over immigration.

00:48:37.740 They won the argument over this administration's excesses and periodic tilt off the left hand side towards socialism.

00:48:46.400 Suburban moms, I mean, they they bought it just as well as anybody else. 1.00

00:48:51.080 And you know what else they did?

00:48:52.220 They voted Democrat.

00:48:53.940 They voted Democrat.

00:48:55.480 And part of the reason for that is that they don't trust the Republican Party under Trump, that they are concerned about a whole range of issues dealing with how he conducts himself, whether there's fealty to Trump over the Constitution, all kinds of different sort of nuances.

00:49:13.460 But underlying it is this tonal problem that they will believe and do believe strongly that Republicans have a better policy prescription for this country than Democrats do.

00:49:28.720 And they still do not trust it.

00:49:32.220 You got to ask yourself at that at that point, is this a brand problem?

00:49:35.860 And what is that brand?

00:49:37.040 I don't know how you come to a different set of conclusions.

00:49:40.100 I mean, literally, we just had an election last week.

00:49:42.400 You have a president at 33 percent and you granted, I think Republicans did better than is being portrayed in the in the media.

00:49:50.540 But they didn't wipe out the Democrats.

00:49:53.200 Typically, over the last 20 years, when presented with those kind of numbers, there's a wipe out one way or another.

00:49:58.740 It didn't happen.

00:49:59.600 Didn't happen in 2022 with very similar circumstances.

00:50:02.180 Again, if we're being serious about this and we're just looking at outcomes and poll numbers, I don't know how you come to a different conclusion.

00:50:11.240 And we must be serious about this.

00:50:13.540 Keep going.

00:50:14.140 I mean, yeah, I mean, that's dire, but I think that's just gospel.

00:50:17.820 That's God's honest truth.

00:50:18.560 All of it.

00:50:19.140 I mean, I'm a difficult thing that we're facing.

00:50:21.020 And I remember in 2022, like I saw some of the ads and some of the commentary from mainstream media about, you know, January 6th or the threats to our democracy and all of these sort of things.

00:50:29.740 And like, you know, hand up, I was wrong.

00:50:32.920 It was persuasive to those suburban moms and those independent voters, those moderate voters that live in the suburbs of this country.

00:50:39.460 And they vote a lot, you know, like they vote in every election.

00:50:43.480 And if you can't win those people back, you do not have a majority.

00:50:48.700 You can't make it up with black men growing vote of Hispanic. 1.00

00:50:51.880 I'm just thinking of typical Dem groups that are migrating red. 0.77

00:50:57.000 Yeah.

00:50:57.140 But I mean, look, that was tried in 2020 by Donald Trump.

00:51:00.820 Remember, the first Super Bowl ad in 2020 was Alice Johnson and criminal justice reform.

00:51:06.540 And the Trump people said, like, Donald Trump has this unique swagger and he's going to attract minority voters.

00:51:11.980 And it didn't happen.

00:51:13.260 It didn't happen in 2020.

00:51:14.440 And when they look at that poll that we mentioned at the top of the show, Megan, where like he's leading Biden, all these swing states, they will also make the argument.

00:51:22.240 He does really well with Hispanics because he's different. 0.95

00:51:24.480 He's not a conventional Republican.

00:51:26.040 But again, we talked about it.

00:51:28.260 Nikki Haley's numbers are even better than his.

00:51:30.360 Ron DeSantis is right there with him in the same place.

00:51:32.500 Generic Republican is winning by 15 points in all these swing states.

00:51:35.460 So it isn't like Donald Trump has this unique prescription that if like Waka Flock of Flame endorses him and like all these other rappers come out, that suddenly he's going to do a lot better than Republican.

00:51:46.920 I mean, it's I hate to I feel like I'm the bringer of all the bad news.

00:51:51.260 I'm sorry.

00:51:51.880 No, we need truth.

00:51:53.160 It's just I think that's just reality.

00:51:55.240 Is Waka Flock of Flame an actual rapper?

00:51:58.240 Yeah, seriously.

00:51:59.240 Yeah, seriously.

00:51:59.740 Megan, I thought that would be on your playlist.

00:52:02.360 Harden the paint.

00:52:02.900 I thought that was a joke.

00:52:03.600 I think your audience would love it.

00:52:05.300 No, it's real.

00:52:05.880 And he and I think he actually did endorse Donald Trump.

00:52:08.080 Yeah, he did.

00:52:08.780 For sure.

00:52:09.860 Excellent.

00:52:10.780 Well, I think the bigger problem, though, is if it's anybody other than Trump, the Trump people are probably going to stay home.

00:52:17.300 Right.

00:52:17.500 I mean, isn't that the biggest the biggest challenge the GOP is facing right now?

00:52:20.560 If they if they decide to dump him.

00:52:23.340 Not only is the Trump base not going to want the new person, but he Trump will make sure that the new person fails.

00:52:28.180 I so I don't buy into this thought that Republicans, unlike any other rational human will be like, you know what, everything is terrible.

00:52:38.520 Well, over 80 percent of Americans in that poll, which is conducted by the Ross School of Business at Michigan, over 80 percent of Americans said that they are economically worse off today than when Joe Biden became president.

00:52:50.360 That is going to be motivating to a ton of voters.

00:52:53.820 My worry specifically about the, you know, the the white the wine mom demographic is this is like a very hardened leftist group.

00:53:01.840 Like you will not find more committed leftists in a lot of these instances in in the middle of Brooklyn than you have in parts of this country where I mean, you look at the cost like when there were the BLM marches going around this country.

00:53:13.860 It was about 75 percent suburban wine moms. 1.00

00:53:17.960 I know half of them.

00:53:19.800 Yeah, but I think it's I mean, look, it's easy.

00:53:23.100 There is that for sure.

00:53:24.740 But then you also have suburban demographics and people who voted for 20 years for Republicans that all of a sudden stopped and are the ones I was talking about that believe in all of these Republican policies.

00:53:36.640 And, you know, it's easy on a piece of paper or just rhetorically to be like, well, we traded out the suburban wine moms for a growing Hispanic voter base or a growing African-American voter base, neither of which are particularly true.

00:53:47.880 By the way, there are places where multigenerational Hispanic voting blocks have increased for sure.

00:53:52.360 But if you look at the states that matter in the context of a presidential election, you're dealing with trading out a population that is far larger, far more frequent to vote than everything else that you're talking about here.

00:54:06.200 Right. We're talking about just Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin.

00:54:13.880 I mean, all of these put Georgia, all of these places.

00:54:16.540 We're talking about trading out a population that literally makes it possible to get to 51 Arizona.

00:54:24.280 I mean, like 75 percent of the vote will be in Maricopa County in one county, one county outside.

00:54:29.000 And what are they?

00:54:30.180 They are McCain voters.

00:54:31.600 Is it like Scottsdale?

00:54:33.100 Yeah.

00:54:33.620 Is that suburban?

00:54:34.340 Yeah, that's suburban.

00:54:36.280 So I like to wonder what is that you could win a state for 35 years and then all of a sudden lose it in four straight election cycles.

00:54:44.620 Like, I don't think this is particularly difficult.

00:54:47.280 It's like just putting blinders over your eyes, pretending you're going to have a different outcome.

00:54:51.920 Well, here is the other problem emerging with the GOP frontrunner.

00:54:56.400 Not to say he's in Biden's league, but he is not in DeSantis or Vivek's or Nikki Haley's league when it comes to mental acuity.

00:55:06.860 That's just the reality for most guys who are 77, not all.

00:55:10.640 Dershowitz, I'd put up again, Dershowitz has better mental acuity than I do.

00:55:14.600 And he's 85.

00:55:15.800 But in any event, Trump, for sure, he's lost a couple steps.

00:55:19.800 And Ron DeSantis is pointing it out.

00:55:22.860 He's getting a little bolder and, you know, calling it out.

00:55:26.080 Ron DeSantis tweeted out this video of Trump falling down on the job with it when it came to the word things.

00:55:31.460 And Biden retweeted it.

00:55:33.860 The Biden campaign retweeted it.

00:55:36.060 My God.

00:55:36.700 I mean, that's an interesting dynamic.

00:55:38.800 Here's a mashup of Trump.

00:55:41.640 He keeps calling Biden Obama.

00:55:43.860 The first time I thought it was a genuine like slam, you know, like Obama's the puppeteer and Biden is his puppet.

00:55:51.200 But you can tell in the context of listening to these clips, it's it's not intentional.

00:55:55.320 It's a slip.

00:55:56.420 He's messing up sort of where he is.

00:55:58.440 That can happen.

00:55:59.180 But just if you look at the greater context of the number of times this keeps happening, you know, you start to pay attention.

00:56:05.400 Here it is.

00:56:06.680 And we did with Obama.

00:56:08.740 We won an election that everyone said couldn't be won.

00:56:11.580 Almost 500 miles of wall.

00:56:13.500 Even the Obama administration says it in their stats.

00:56:16.980 Fauci became big in the Bush administration in the it's almost the same thing in the Biden administration.

00:56:24.320 You would order the Defense Department to use special forces to inflict maximum damage.

00:56:29.740 I didn't say that.

00:56:30.820 People said I said that.

00:56:32.140 Why would I say that?

00:56:33.040 I didn't say that.

00:56:33.880 Furthermore, I will order the Department of Defense to make appropriate use of special forces to inflict maximum damage.

00:56:41.460 OK, you would send special forces and, quote, other military assets to Mexico.

00:56:47.080 I didn't say that.

00:56:48.680 I somebody said I said that he was when I came here.

00:56:51.960 Everyone thought Bush was going to win.

00:56:53.480 They thought Bush because Bush supposedly was a military person.

00:56:56.120 Great.

00:56:56.580 You know what?

00:56:56.920 He was a Miller. 0.91

00:56:57.440 He got us into the he got us into the Middle East.

00:57:00.460 How did that work out?

00:57:01.420 We would be.

00:57:02.240 In World War Two.

00:57:05.340 Very quickly.

00:57:06.560 Big hello to a place where we've done very well.

00:57:09.400 Sioux Falls.

00:57:10.100 Thank you very much, Sioux Falls.

00:57:12.160 Thank you.

00:57:12.880 Oh, it's.

00:57:14.760 Oh, it's.

00:57:19.240 So, Sioux City, let me ask you.

00:57:22.320 OK, so you confuse Sioux Falls, South Dakota for Sioux City, Iowa.

00:57:25.660 So what do you guys make of the montage and whether this is a problem?

00:57:32.100 Because one of the biggest issues with Joe Biden is his age and, yes, infirmity.

00:57:38.920 So I think it falls into the category of you live by the sword, you die by the sword, right?

00:57:43.260 When you when you have made over a period of time somebody else's mental acuity the focus of all of your attacks, yours comes under greater scrutiny as a result.

00:57:54.000 Now, I think that there is a massive difference between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

00:57:59.460 And I would take Donald Trump 10 times out of 10 in any sort of mental.

00:58:03.500 Trump is not a Roomba.

00:58:04.980 Yeah, exactly.

00:58:06.300 He is not a Roomba.

00:58:07.860 I wouldn't want to be held to the same standard of having to be perfect on stage all of the time, which unfortunately that is where he is when you make that a center of your attacks.

00:58:19.600 But as to the age thing itself, look, that's part of the deal.

00:58:24.320 I mean, he's not going to erase his chronological age.

00:58:26.660 And that has been a core critique of all of his primary opponents.

00:58:30.440 It's going to be an issue.

00:58:31.840 And I think he's going to have to overcome that a little bit in order to keep that alive for Joe Biden.

00:58:37.280 I think part of the other issue for Donald Trump right now isn't the acuity.

00:58:42.100 It's the focus.

00:58:43.100 I mean, I think this is a guy who's distracted.

00:58:44.620 He's indicted 91 times.

00:58:46.100 If you just want to see how distracted he is, go to his true social page.

00:58:50.600 And like he's up at all hours of the night arguing with Letitia James about, you know, the value of Mar-a-Lago and then arguing about documents or arguing about January 6th and all that stuff.

00:59:00.880 And it's like that takes a toll.

00:59:02.620 That takes a toll on any human being having their time divided on all these other things that you want to attack and not be focused on the job at hand, which is like winning the election.

00:59:10.620 The other thing I think that's worth pointing out here is that his primary opponents need to be doing more of this stuff more often if they want any chance at closing this giant gap he's opened up.

00:59:22.800 And it's kind of wild to me that more of his opponents didn't do this stuff early on.

00:59:27.680 I mean, maybe Trump's rise wouldn't have been as rapid through the summer and through the fall if these primary opponents had taken him to task in such a clear way as Ron DeSantis is doing right now.

00:59:40.960 And I think that he's going to have to do a whole lot more of that if he wants to close the gap in Iowa.

00:59:45.920 No, there's a real question about whether it's it's too little too late.

00:59:50.580 We saw Tim Scott bail out of the race.

00:59:53.960 And I mean, there's I don't think there's another nicer guy in politics, but he did not resonate this time around.

01:00:00.160 It was actually kind of a stunning exchange.

01:00:01.800 I'm sure you guys saw the clip when he was on with Trey Gowdy on Fox.

01:00:04.900 And according to reports, even Tim Scott's campaign staffers or at least some healthy collection of them did not know he was going to announce he was, quote, suspending his campaign.

01:00:14.500 That's how they say it. Now they're dropping out. So we have the clip. Take a look.

01:00:18.860 I love America more today than I did on May 22nd.

01:00:23.580 But when I go back to Iowa, it will not be as a presidential candidate.

01:00:29.480 I am suspending my campaign.

01:00:31.640 I think the voters who are the most remarkable people on the planet have been really clear that they're telling me not now, Tim.

01:00:41.160 I don't think they're saying, Trey, no, but I do think they're saying not now.

01:00:46.340 And so I'm going to respect the voters and I'm going to hold on and keep working really hard and look forward to another opportunity.

01:00:52.220 Hmm. I, you know, I feel a pang of sadness.

01:00:59.440 Such a good guy and a good guy like that should be able to make it in American politics, in the GOP primary race.

01:01:07.080 And yet he obviously couldn't.

01:01:10.540 What do you guys think of it?

01:01:11.580 I saw Charles, again, C.W. Cook.

01:01:13.180 He's getting a lot of mentions this week because he's brilliant, saying he bailed out because he actually was running for president.

01:01:18.280 And he, this is not an ego play for him or a vanity play for him.

01:01:22.740 Yeah. I mean, look, I think it's one of the differences between this field and the 2016 field in a lot of different ways is that people, when they chose to run for president, knew that it was going to be an uphill task, but thought it was an important one.

01:01:32.600 And thought that voters deserved a very real choice against a former president that they see the world differently from.

01:01:37.860 You saw this happen in former vice president Mike Pence.

01:01:40.700 You've now seen it with Tim Scott.

01:01:42.020 The field is beginning to winnow here much quicker than it did in 2016.

01:01:46.500 Does it ever get down to that one-on-one point where this is actually a real race?

01:01:49.800 I don't know, but there's at least a chance of that because of people like Tim Scott who were running to try to win this thing.

01:01:57.760 And when they knew it wasn't their time, they think enough of the Republican primary electorate to give them a real choice in that regard.

01:02:06.420 That's such a patriotic thing to do.

01:02:08.860 But meanwhile, not everybody feels that way.

01:02:11.520 I mean, we all know Chris Christie has virtually no chance, you know, with all due respect to the former New Jersey governor.

01:02:16.120 I realize he's playing a different role.

01:02:18.320 He's sort of being a Trump antagonist, but, you know, there are just no numbers behind his campaign.

01:02:23.280 Even in New Hampshire, where he's supposed to be putting most of his stock, he's not looking that good.

01:02:28.980 And you can't win by just winning New Hampshire, right?

01:02:32.180 You got like, anyway, he's still in it.

01:02:35.040 And as far as we can tell, no plans to bail before he gets to New Hampshire.

01:02:39.540 And then you've got Haley DeSantis and Vivek.

01:02:42.420 Now, things are getting interesting because really right now at the top of that triad are Haley and DeSantis.

01:02:51.680 And Vivek is considerably lower than those two in the polls.

01:02:54.800 But the fighting right now at the debates and elsewhere has been between Vivek and Nikki Haley.

01:03:00.960 And DeSantis is kind of like trying to stay out of it.

01:03:02.900 And they're not really coming for him.

01:03:04.200 She's tried to come for him a little.

01:03:05.500 He hasn't really engaged.

01:03:07.240 It's kept him out of the fray.

01:03:09.060 I don't know if that's good or bad, but I want to bring you up to speed on what's happened between Nikki and Vivek as of late.

01:03:17.280 You saw the third debate, right, where they had their back and forth.

01:03:21.360 She called him scum.

01:03:22.400 He brought up her daughter.

01:03:24.080 It was unpleasant.

01:03:25.760 He went on, Vivek Ramaswamy, with Clay and Buck.

01:03:30.000 And Clay, Travis, put it to him very frankly, like, she doesn't like you.

01:03:34.760 Why doesn't she like you? 0.99

01:03:35.980 Because she definitely doesn't like you.

01:03:37.580 And it led to a very interesting answer.

01:03:39.460 Take a listen to it in part.

01:03:42.160 Why do you think she dislikes you so much?

01:03:44.640 Because it does seem personal.

01:03:46.240 Like, the way that she's gone after you.

01:03:48.420 I mean, you raised the point that her daughter is on TikTok.

01:03:51.220 Her daughter's grown.

01:03:53.120 And she was, I mean, she, this is not acting, right?

01:03:56.200 She seems to genuinely not like you.

01:03:58.660 Where do you think that comes from?

01:04:00.700 I think it comes from a deep-seated envy of sorts, actually.

01:04:05.980 I mean, there's a woman who's never made an honest dime in the private sector, but clearly aspires to be wealthy. 1.00

01:04:11.180 And sees me as, I think, a young buck who has not, I didn't mean that in the buck sense of buck.

01:04:17.260 I get you.

01:04:17.800 I get you.

01:04:18.480 Yeah.

01:04:19.780 A young buck who, you know, I think hasn't put in the kind of, earned the kind of stripes that someone like her has. 0.98

01:04:26.800 And, you know, funny story, the first time we met was actually her reaching out to me.

01:04:30.380 And there was something striking about it.

01:04:32.140 I mean, it was a very calculating move, right?

01:04:34.700 This guy could be a player.

01:04:36.480 I want to be the first person probably to reach out.

01:04:39.080 To make sure I'm getting him on my side, he ends up blurbing the back of the book.

01:04:43.680 So this is somebody who, for her entire career, has proven she will do literally.

01:04:49.440 You can look at the full extent of her past in South Carolina.

01:04:53.540 She will do literally whatever is required to get ahead. 0.59

01:04:56.800 To her now to say that out of turn to challenge her past the power, I think that she does take that very personally.

01:05:03.460 But, you know, frankly, even in this conversation, I think we've spent too much airtime on somebody who is really just another manifestation of a modern Dick Cheney that has no place in the modern Republican Party.

01:05:13.100 What do you make of that?

01:05:17.460 He is so he's just so annoying.

01:05:19.320 I mean, just so pompous and narcissistic.

01:05:22.860 And Nikki has, what, three times the poll numbers he does?

01:05:26.400 And he sits there and talks down to her like he's the future of the Republican Party.

01:05:31.120 Pal, you got five points in the polls.

01:05:33.540 Five points.

01:05:34.200 And he had a little boomer after the first debate because people were like, wow, this guy's interesting and he seems really, really smart and articulate.

01:05:39.720 And then his poll numbers cratered because he's the kid in the first chair in the classroom begging for more homework from teacher.

01:05:47.860 It is just annoying.

01:05:49.360 It's like I just don't think I mean, people call me after these debates, you know, family, extended family.

01:05:55.620 I have not heard a positive thing about Vivek since the first debate.

01:05:58.760 What did you think, Michael, about his criticism on the honest dollar piece of it?

01:06:04.560 Well, I mean, Vivek Ramaswamy, you know, he he bought a pharmaceutical drug that had failed clinical trials like four or five times and then repackaged it and IPO the drug made like a ton, a ton of money.

01:06:19.340 And the thing failed again.

01:06:20.880 And he's going to lecture everyone on business acumen.

01:06:23.940 It's patently absurd.

01:06:25.340 Like, I mean, he has hundreds of millions of dollars.

01:06:27.960 I mean, yes, he doesn't make money.

01:06:29.520 He does.

01:06:29.880 And you know what?

01:06:30.460 Tim Scott had all the money in the world to keep in this race. 1.00

01:06:33.820 And he's a patriot who was like, it's not my time.

01:06:36.620 The voters have said that guy's got like twenty five million dollars of candidate money.

01:06:40.020 And he got out of the race because he wants to do the right thing.

01:06:42.060 Let me ask you this, Duncan.

01:06:43.180 I see him at this point.

01:06:45.240 Vivek knows he's not going to win the nomination.

01:06:47.060 I see him more like a Ron Paul.

01:06:50.000 Remember how Ron Paul used to stay in it just because he wanted us to hear his libertarian views.

01:06:54.240 And it was just a platform to sort of get his thoughts out into the mainstream and get them discussed and considered.

01:06:59.460 Don't you think Vivek is doing something like that?

01:07:02.420 I'm so glad you said that because I think it has reconstituted.

01:07:06.140 I think it's reconstituted the very online Ron Paul world of 2012.

01:07:10.360 That was like brigading drudge polls to make it look like Ron Paul was going to be the nominee.

01:07:15.080 But it just hits different, Megan, when it comes from nice grandpa who looks like a teddy bear than when it comes from Vivek.

01:07:22.240 Because Vivek is just grating and he feels like he's it feels like he's lecturing you and he tilts his head and points his finger in the air.

01:07:27.680 And I just think the visual representation of that is just annoying.

01:07:32.340 Also, I think it's a wild thing that Ron Paul's policies sound more sane than Vivek's.

01:07:38.840 When Vivek is like, I'll find everyone in the government.

01:07:41.260 We'll see who has an odd social security number at the end.

01:07:44.220 If it ends in an odd number, you're fired.

01:07:45.640 It's an awful approach.

01:07:46.860 I said at the time it sounded like the Cato Institute was being run by Anton Chigurh. 0.56

01:07:51.600 Like we're just going to flip a coin and some sociopath is going to decide whether you have a job or not.

01:07:57.360 Well, I'm I'm fine because mine ends in an even.

01:07:59.800 So I don't know about the rest of you.

01:08:00.860 I also have a job.

01:08:02.440 So I'm so I'm pro.

01:08:03.900 But I do think like the words he was using were very interesting that she has a deep seated envy of him because he's so wealthy that if you listen to a whole clip, he says she came to me.

01:08:15.140 He talked about a little bit there where he says I was putting woke ink out and she called me up and she saw me.

01:08:21.400 He says in that, that, oh, he could be a player.

01:08:23.460 He said I was a rising star and she came to me and like sort of tries to schmooze him, wound up blurbing his book.

01:08:32.020 She doesn't look wonderful if you hear the full context of, you know, the clip. 0.80

01:08:35.740 And then you tell me what he's implying at the end, because he says she will do literally whatever is required to get ahead.

01:08:43.700 He's trying to do the thing.

01:08:45.140 He's trying to do what he said at first.

01:08:46.740 He said, but let me just finish because he said Boeing.

01:08:48.280 She she scratched their back.

01:08:51.520 Then they put her on the board.

01:08:53.260 He named another company.

01:08:54.620 She scratched their back.

01:08:55.940 Then they put her on the board or they did something for her.

01:08:58.360 Then he said, even personally, and I'll let you go do your research on that.

01:09:03.180 It was like this is pretty explosive stuff.

01:09:07.100 Yeah, I just it's so bad, though.

01:09:09.480 I mean, to act like, oh, she was this huge up and comer.

01:09:12.780 And that's why that she went to go see him.

01:09:15.540 No, no, no, no, no.

01:09:16.420 She was running for president, son. 0.68

01:09:18.340 And you have a billion dollars and she would like your support.

01:09:21.760 That is the way that this works.

01:09:24.540 I am very, very surprised that you've gotten into this line of work without doing that one

01:09:29.300 on one homework, which is basically what your friends.

01:09:32.960 Surprise.

01:09:33.360 Oh, but I mean, look, beyond all of that, we had Nikki on the program today for your

01:09:40.260 listeners who want to check that out.

01:09:41.820 And we asked her a similar line of questioning about why it is that she's got this thing going

01:09:46.640 on.

01:09:47.200 And she's like, I'll be honest with you.

01:09:48.480 I went into this debate intending not to look even look at him.

01:09:51.260 But she's like, I just can't I can't help it.

01:09:54.240 And he what he tries to do to engage her over and over and over again is is on his side of

01:10:00.960 the ledger, not really hers.

01:10:02.800 And when you invoke somebody's daughter and that daughter is sitting in the front row and

01:10:07.560 you know that, you know, you're going to get a reaction.

01:10:10.360 Right.

01:10:10.600 So that's what he's doing.

01:10:12.240 Look, he's a talented guy in a lot of different respects.

01:10:15.400 Is he wholly unqualified to be on that campaign stage?

01:10:20.560 Unequivocally, yes.

01:10:22.120 Unequivocally, he has absolutely no business being on that campaign stage.

01:10:25.960 But if you like a little top hat and cane routine every once in a while, a little different

01:10:30.940 version of events that doesn't actually exist in facts here in the United States of America,

01:10:35.700 he's a great one to look for.

01:10:37.620 But don't you think that he's reinvented himself since the beginning of this campaign?

01:10:42.800 You know, I knew Vivek prior to any prior to him getting close to politics when he wrote

01:10:49.200 his books and he was writing op eds for The Wall Street Journal with a friend of mine from

01:10:54.940 Yale Law School and he was interesting and he was a woke anti-woke warrior.

01:10:59.860 So he was very interesting and he kind of came into this with a much different message.

01:11:04.000 Then it seems like he found a lane in trying to be like sort of like a Trump junior or a

01:11:09.620 Tucker junior and got a lot of clicks, got a lot of attention.

01:11:14.180 And now he's like firmly in that camp, but it doesn't really match up with the way he

01:11:17.940 entered.

01:11:18.400 I don't know.

01:11:18.740 Am I wrong?

01:11:19.240 That's that's the strangest thing about it, Megan.

01:11:21.340 And that is why I am so angry about it is like I read Woke Inc and we met Vivek before

01:11:27.520 he ran for president.

01:11:28.720 And just go back and read that book.

01:11:30.600 I mean, like he has flip flopped on all the positions that he had in that book.

01:11:33.840 Look, in particular, the way that he describes January 6th and Donald Trump's role in it

01:11:37.520 and what he should have done after 2020.

01:11:38.780 And then compare it to what he's saying on the campaign trail.

01:11:41.960 Now, it's like it's night and day.

01:11:44.080 The guy's totally reinvented himself because he thinks there's this lane to get clicks,

01:11:48.100 to be an influencer, to not really try to run for president, but basically be on a troll,

01:11:52.560 be a troll on the debate stage against Nikki Haley.

01:11:55.160 It's just like it just seems so dishonest.

01:11:57.260 And like, that's what really upsets me.

01:11:59.800 I mean, you seem to like Nikki Haley.

01:12:02.340 You seem to like Haley DeSantis.

01:12:04.360 We used to like Vivek.

01:12:06.540 I know.

01:12:06.980 OK, but he's representing a wing of the party that is important, that needs to be brought

01:12:11.800 along.

01:12:12.740 You know, that diehard Trump crew, they don't really like Nikki Haley and they don't really

01:12:16.780 like Ron DeSantis.

01:12:17.700 And like, I see him up there serving a purpose.

01:12:20.920 You know, like I'm always looking at these guys like, do you serve a purpose still in this

01:12:23.280 race?

01:12:23.500 And I see the purpose he's serving in addition to those libertarian things that we talked

01:12:27.460 about, like that Trump lane.

01:12:29.180 They cheer everything he does.

01:12:30.700 They're like, yes, sicker.

01:12:31.920 Get him.

01:12:32.760 Neocons fight. 0.98

01:12:34.920 So I've actually noticed kind of a sea change which has happened.

01:12:37.300 I think this somewhat indicates the reason that his poll number first started faltering

01:12:41.220 is Trump folks have started going after Vivek being like, oh, you know, he's a part of

01:12:46.720 the whole Davos crew.

01:12:48.000 He's got this whole history of saying that Trump was a horrible person because of January

01:12:52.260 6th.

01:12:52.780 So they are starting to take notice.

01:12:54.260 And I think that's starting to hurt him.

01:12:55.560 It's kind of like catching up to him.

01:12:56.800 Like Duncan said long ago, like anyone who'd actually read the book would know these things.

01:13:01.000 And I've noticed a lot of the Trump folks are trying to put that message out because

01:13:03.900 they're like, we don't want this guy to try to, you know, ride our coattails and try

01:13:07.280 to steal our message.

01:13:08.260 Right.

01:13:08.440 He was like a fun toy for the Trump voters to pretend like they supported him because

01:13:13.580 they knew he was a stalking horse for Donald Trump and he hurt the other candidates

01:13:16.240 in the race.

01:13:16.960 But I think the joke is weird than even on the Trump people.

01:13:19.300 But Donald Trump is not as simplistic as what Vivek is talking about.

01:13:24.160 Like the idea that you just sort of abandon Israel in the middle of a conflict.

01:13:27.540 I mean, one of the other reasons that in addition to what you just said, Smug, that his poll

01:13:31.200 numbers are having a problem is because the world's really coming into focus over the last

01:13:34.640 six weeks.

01:13:35.100 And it requires a president that knows how to deal with these kind of things.

01:13:38.940 And you mentioned Nikki Haley.

01:13:40.120 She obviously does.

01:13:40.960 I think Ron DeSantis does as well.

01:13:43.180 I think Chris Christie can figure that out pretty quickly.

01:13:46.460 I know and everyone knows who's ever spent a minute listening to Vivek Ramaswamy that that

01:13:53.160 would be a catastrophe if he was sitting in the Oval Office amidst the crisis that we're

01:13:57.620 facing.

01:13:58.060 It just you need some experience to deal with it.

01:14:00.420 It's not about ideology.

01:14:01.420 The ideology that he's sort of ascribing to Donald Trump and the America First people

01:14:06.140 is not one that was effectuated in the four years that the president was president.

01:14:10.540 He's the guy who dropped the Moab.

01:14:12.640 He's the guy who took out Soleimani.

01:14:15.080 He's the guy that was threatening North Korea and Russia with any sort of aggravation around

01:14:19.340 the world.

01:14:19.980 Like that is not some isolationist.

01:14:22.200 That is what he has prescribed to Donald Trump that actually didn't happen.

01:14:27.200 That's very interesting.

01:14:28.180 Let me ask you about Christie because I want to move on without mentioning him.

01:14:32.160 He is in danger of not making the next debate.

01:14:37.100 You got to have, according to the RNC, they keep raising the requirements to make the debate

01:14:41.400 and it's working in winnowing the field.

01:14:44.620 Mike Pence was not going to make the last debate and he announced it.

01:14:47.260 He was dropping out.

01:14:48.540 I don't know about Tim Scott.

01:14:49.660 He did it right after the last debate, not not right before the fourth.

01:14:52.620 But now we're going into the fourth and it happens on 12-6 and in order for Chris Christie

01:14:59.660 to make it, the other three I think are going to make it, but in order for Chris Christie

01:15:02.200 to make it, he's got to have 6% in a national poll.

01:15:07.500 You can either do it in two national polls, 6%, or one national poll and one from an early

01:15:14.940 primary state.

01:15:15.720 So if he's pulling 6% in New Hampshire plus one national poll, he's good.

01:15:20.560 We looked it up.

01:15:21.480 The national poll has to have happened, I think we said, after September 15th.

01:15:25.460 And so he just needs one.

01:15:27.500 But that's actually a tall order for Chris Christie.

01:15:30.220 You also need 80,000, at least 80,000 unique donors.

01:15:35.160 And we believe he has that.

01:15:37.200 So it's really the polling that could keep him out.

01:15:40.260 So if he does not make the debate, first of all, do you think he'll get that?

01:15:44.380 Tim Scott's out.

01:15:45.340 I don't know if he gets any of Tim Scott's support and it drives up his poll numbers enough

01:15:48.700 to 6%.

01:15:49.440 Do you think he'll get it?

01:15:51.340 And do you think he'll stay in if he doesn't debate?

01:15:54.480 I mean, technically, I think Asa Hutchinson's still in.

01:15:56.820 Isn't Doug Burgum still in?

01:15:58.500 Even though they didn't make the, right?

01:16:00.500 So what do you think?

01:16:01.540 Well, Chris Christie is not Asa Hutchinson.

01:16:04.640 He's in it for a serious reason.

01:16:06.420 I think he got into it for a serious reason.

01:16:07.940 I actually think that he falls into the category of former Vice President Mike Pence and Tim

01:16:13.820 Scott in that he does want an ultimate choice.

01:16:15.680 This isn't like a narcissistic adventure for Chris Christie at all.

01:16:19.980 If you look at the polling, he's got at least one state poll in New Hampshire where he would

01:16:24.420 help to qualify there in the national polls.

01:16:26.660 I don't know what that looks like.

01:16:28.220 I think you're probably right that that's going to be a stretch.

01:16:30.940 But I think it's a chance that he could be on that stage for sure.

01:16:33.800 And he has had some popularity with small dollar donors.

01:16:36.140 So I think that part of it is there.

01:16:39.140 But more importantly, he has a serious conversation with people even when they don't want to hear

01:16:44.940 it, which I think is an admirable trait.

01:16:47.760 You watch candidates roll around, and I've been very critical of some of them, where I

01:16:52.040 know that they're saying things that they don't believe.

01:16:54.780 And they're afraid of the electorate that they're speaking to.

01:16:57.780 And that's not Chris.

01:16:58.780 And as long as that's what Chris is doing, and he can qualify for these debates, I don't

01:17:04.340 see any problem in him being on that stage.

01:17:06.420 Now, you may not agree with him, and the polls would suggest a vast majority of Republican

01:17:10.080 voters do not agree with him and do not like him.

01:17:13.060 But just because of that doesn't mean that he needs to immediately get out.

01:17:17.260 I think Chris would make that decision if he came to the conclusion that he could not

01:17:21.840 compete to win New Hampshire.

01:17:23.780 Will that happen next week?

01:17:25.020 Will that happen after Iowa?

01:17:26.200 I don't know, but that's my guess.

01:17:28.740 And I think also, I think Christie's decision's informed by what he sees the other primary

01:17:32.880 candidates doing.

01:17:34.200 And we played that video earlier of Ron DeSantis putting out the missteps of Donald Trump.

01:17:40.000 Like, I think Chris Christie really wants this primary to be a referendum on what Donald

01:17:45.440 Trump did and did not do when he was president.

01:17:47.520 But he's not mentioning him that much.

01:17:50.080 He's not mentioning that?

01:17:51.100 He's mentioning him a lot more than the other candidates are.

01:17:53.500 That's why he's calling them to keep going down.

01:17:54.960 I don't remember Christie mentioning Trump at all at this third debate.

01:17:57.960 I'd go back and look at it.

01:17:59.320 Isn't the first kind of abandoned it.

01:18:01.700 So, well, he was asked it specifically.

01:18:03.500 That's why.

01:18:04.520 Yeah.

01:18:04.680 I think bringing up Christie and the debates is critical to understanding the situation

01:18:10.460 is because ahead of the first debate, he had that reputation of like, OK, when Christie's

01:18:15.120 on stage, he could kill somebody like, you know, this guy's dangerous and people want

01:18:19.780 to see the fireworks of like, who is he going to fight?

01:18:22.000 This is going to be entertaining because people love like the Coliseum aspect of a debate.

01:18:26.600 Like we're going to see blood.

01:18:27.700 This is going to be awesome.

01:18:28.640 And he's had three shots on that debate stage and he hasn't bodied anybody.

01:18:33.760 And I think that's led to a lot of disappointment.

01:18:35.680 I think he has a lot of some of those small donors probably are giving it giving money because

01:18:40.180 they're like, we want to see him, you know, go after somebody on stage.

01:18:43.600 We want to be entertained by this.

01:18:45.240 And I think he's had three shots at, you know, making his presence felt and bringing back,

01:18:50.880 you know, what he did to Marco Rubio the last time he was on that debate stage.

01:18:54.300 And it hasn't materialized.

01:18:55.480 And I think that could be a big problem.

01:18:56.940 Donald Trump's not on the stage.

01:18:58.380 Right.

01:18:58.640 And I think that's ultimately the issue is Chris has been sort of defanged by the fact

01:19:02.600 that the guy that he wants to ultimately attack is not in the room.

01:19:05.780 And I agree with you, Megan.

01:19:07.100 I think the national poll may be the ultimate problem here.

01:19:09.880 Like, I don't know if he's going to qualify because of that issue.

01:19:12.200 I think he will, obviously, in New Hampshire.

01:19:13.960 But it's that national poll that's going to be the issue for him.

01:19:17.240 We looked at the polls so far for him.

01:19:20.340 Uh, so far, real clear politics average in Iowa, nothing about 5%.

01:19:25.160 New Hampshire, USA Today, Suffolk poll released October 4th, did have him at 6%.

01:19:29.640 South Carolina, there was one Trafalgar poll released in mid-August.

01:19:33.740 That's too long ago at 7%.

01:19:35.640 So he'll probably get one in New Hampshire.

01:19:39.340 Uh, but whether he can get at the national level, we do not know.

01:19:42.080 We'll find out together.

01:19:42.860 All right.

01:19:43.300 Now, wait, I am going to take a break.

01:19:44.420 But before we do that, we should talk about DeSantis and Haley.

01:19:47.860 Hello.

01:19:48.100 So, um, they're in a death match.

01:19:51.020 That's the real match right now.

01:19:52.660 Of course, we've talked about Trump.

01:19:54.980 But she's on an upward trajectory in her poll. 1.00

01:19:59.000 I heard you guys saying she kind of peaked at just the right time.

01:20:01.260 You know, when you go to Saratoga, that's right by where I grew up.

01:20:04.580 And you bet the horse.

01:20:05.620 You don't want the horse to be first when it comes out of the gate.

01:20:08.560 You want it to hang back.

01:20:09.720 And then when you're almost at the end, you want it to be in third.

01:20:12.120 And then, boom, he takes off right at the end.

01:20:14.260 That's literally what she's done.

01:20:16.020 And DeSantis has been stagnant.

01:20:19.180 He's not kind of he's not going down anymore, exactly.

01:20:22.260 But he's kind of stagnant.

01:20:24.240 So, you know, if you're at Saratoga, do you put your money on this DeSantis horse that's

01:20:29.260 kind of in the not totally the middle of the pack, but not leading the pack exactly?

01:20:33.440 Or do you put it on this other horse that like is super fast?

01:20:36.120 It's in third and it's moving up towards now tied for second, first in some places.

01:20:41.060 You guys tell me she she is on the rise and it's very interesting to watch.

01:20:46.340 And I just I sort of have a little bit of a different take on this whole thing.

01:20:50.180 Megan, to be honest with you, like I think it's actually going to make Iowa an interesting

01:20:54.820 race to watch from here on out, because if you look at the history of Iowa, it has for

01:21:00.220 the last 20 years finished as a very close race.

01:21:02.860 Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz, all of them won by very, very slim margins.

01:21:08.760 And when Ted Cruz won in Iowa, Trump was leading him in the polls the entire time.

01:21:14.120 And then Cruz snuck it out and won at the caucuses.

01:21:17.120 What's different this time is the ground game that the Trump campaign has for 2024 that they

01:21:23.200 didn't have in 2016.

01:21:25.880 But he's not the only one with a ground game.

01:21:28.280 Ron DeSantis has a very smart operative leading the way in Iowa.

01:21:32.540 He has the endorsement of Kim Reynolds, the governor in that state.

01:21:35.620 That's that is very, very good for him ahead of a caucus that is traditionally a very sort

01:21:41.980 of inside.

01:21:43.580 Who are you talking to type deal?

01:21:45.480 But Ronnie D is not the only guy who has people on the ground in Iowa.

01:21:50.920 If you look at some of the latest announcements from Nikki Haley, she actually has Kim Reynolds, 0.77

01:21:57.880 campaign manager running her program in Iowa.

01:22:00.920 She has endorsements from a lot of Ohio of of Iowa luminaries.

01:22:05.200 So it's going to come down.

01:22:06.740 It could really come down to the wire in that state.

01:22:09.920 The last president who finished above 40 in Iowa was George Bush in 1999, 2000.

01:22:17.780 And didn't Nikki Haley just buy 10 million dollars worth of ads? 1.00

01:22:20.420 And it was it is it Iowa and New Hampshire?

01:22:22.980 Yeah.

01:22:23.200 Spread apart, spread across the two states is what she told us.

01:22:25.840 Yeah, I think ultimately, you know, what the DeSantis people will tell you is he's the

01:22:30.520 only candidate with crossover appeal into the MAGA base.

01:22:33.780 And if you don't have that crossover appeal, you can't actually beat Donald Trump in a

01:22:37.200 one one to one, you know, heads up match.

01:22:39.980 And that Nikki Haley's electorate is, you know, primarily made up of more moderate voters,

01:22:44.660 independent voters, suburban women, and that their propensity to actually turn out in a 1.00

01:22:48.440 complicated system like a caucus may actually be lower than the more conservative voters

01:22:52.200 that support Ron DeSantis.

01:22:53.220 And he has an incredible organization on the ground in Iowa.

01:22:56.060 I agree with you, Ashbrook, and that probably does benefit him as we get closer to the

01:23:00.380 night of the caucuses.

01:23:01.620 But like, you know, the the map gets a lot better for Nikki Haley in New Hampshire.

01:23:06.240 Right.

01:23:07.200 Especially if Chris Christie gets out of this race.

01:23:10.120 And then the third is South Carolina, which is her home state.

01:23:13.680 Right.

01:23:13.880 So like you could see a scenario where her trajectory go up. 0.78

01:23:17.300 And Tim Scott's gone.

01:23:18.240 Right.

01:23:18.760 So you can understand that.

01:23:20.580 And then also, like on Nikki's side here, wouldn't it be great if we did better with

01:23:24.960 suburban women, independent voters and moderate voters? 0.99

01:23:27.500 And I feel like everybody looks like the candidates who aren't named Donald Trump.

01:23:30.460 Look at all of this.

01:23:31.140 It's like a static thing where like if as consolidation happens, you know, their voters

01:23:36.320 become my voters.

01:23:37.080 And it's like that's not always how it works.

01:23:38.740 Like what happens if those independent voters or moderate voters decide to stay home because

01:23:42.220 no longer is Nikki Haley in the race.

01:23:44.680 Right.

01:23:44.860 And so it's like the math isn't perfect there.

01:23:47.560 It's it's you know, it's tough odds for both of them.

01:23:50.420 But they both have an argument to make.

01:23:53.560 Yeah.

01:23:53.900 But what what how does Ron DeSantis do it if he wins Iowa?

01:23:57.960 Let's say I mean, honestly, like Trump is crushing them all in all these states.

01:24:02.200 I feel the need to reiterate that lest anybody out there who's voting for a non Trumper get 0.98

01:24:07.440 excited.

01:24:08.240 He's crushing them in all these places.

01:24:09.780 But who knows?

01:24:11.060 So let's say DeSantis wins Iowa.

01:24:14.400 He's not going to win New Hampshire and South Carolina, is he?

01:24:17.060 Like he's he's not polling particularly well there.

01:24:19.220 So it looks like maybe Nikki Haley will win will win New Hampshire. 0.97

01:24:22.900 I mean, I guess maybe Chris Christie.

01:24:25.100 But OK, not win.

01:24:27.180 I guess I'm saying win amongst the undercard, you know, come in second.

01:24:31.360 Then you go to South Carolina.

01:24:32.740 Yes, she'll probably win. 0.97

01:24:33.740 She could win South Carolina.

01:24:34.720 So like then then where are we?

01:24:36.660 It all gets decided in Super Tuesday.

01:24:38.000 Well, there's a lot of things that happen when you start counting votes, right?

01:24:42.720 I mean, it has a way of focusing the mind.

01:24:44.200 If you look at the last few presidential elections, including the Democrats back in 2020, I mean,

01:24:48.640 Bernie Sanders won by massive margins in Iowa, New Hampshire until Democrats got their act

01:24:52.820 together was like, you know, maybe it's not a great idea if we nominate a socialist against

01:24:56.420 Donald Trump.

01:24:57.520 And they began the consolidation process and endorsements and got behind Joe Biden.

01:25:01.680 Like Democrats are better at that than Republicans.

01:25:03.440 I don't expect that to happen here.

01:25:05.560 But you're getting into a scenario after the first two states, after New Hampshire, where

01:25:10.060 it's like, you know, three, three go in, one comes out.

01:25:12.820 It's like a cage match situation.

01:25:14.840 There is not going to be a lot of tolerance amongst a Republican.

01:25:20.820 And there's at least half of this electorate that doesn't want Donald Trump to be renominated.

01:25:26.600 There's not going to be a lot of tolerance for the John Kasich routine from somebody who's

01:25:31.040 just sort of hanging around with no prayer to win this.

01:25:33.980 I think like if I'm a strategist here and I'm Ron DeSantis camp, I got to get second in

01:25:39.240 Iowa, whether I'm third or even fourth in New Hampshire, sort of immaterial.

01:25:43.620 I got to have a really strong showing, maybe just behind Nikki in South Carolina.

01:25:47.980 But then I got to make the case that my donors haven't abandoned me, that I've got money to

01:25:52.360 spend and I'm ready to go hit Super Tuesday hard to try to winnow that field even further

01:25:58.120 to a point where you've got something close to a mano a mano for Super Tuesday.

01:26:02.520 In that scenario, weird things have happened, right?

01:26:05.220 I mean, you saw in 2016 where, you know, somebody like Marco Rubio, who they lost everything

01:26:11.420 by massive numbers, ended up picking up delegates and winning a couple of states on Super Tuesday.

01:26:16.680 It widens the aperture from what it is that we've been looking at to a bunch of different

01:26:20.780 states that we don't have quite as close a handle on.

01:26:24.360 That's what I would be looking at if I was in Ron DeSantis camp.

01:26:27.420 With Nikki, I think, you know, if she's like second in Iowa and she's in second in New Hampshire

01:26:33.640 and she's going into her home state, I think she's thinking like, how can I choke this guy

01:26:38.060 out?

01:26:38.540 He may not make it to Super Tuesday.

01:26:40.880 That's what my strategy would be.

01:26:42.600 I mean, the thing is, is if everyone were, or to be honest, would you rather be with the

01:26:47.480 Haley campaign right now or the DeSantis campaign?

01:26:49.580 Because I think the really unfortunate thing-

01:26:52.200 Wait, can I see that?

01:26:52.800 Can they make them answer that smug?

01:26:54.660 Raise your hand if you'd rather be with Haley.

01:26:57.920 Raise your hand if you'd rather be with Haley.

01:26:59.100 I just don't know how to ballpark that right now.

01:27:01.160 No one's raising.

01:27:01.840 No, no, no.

01:27:02.580 Come on, you have to do it.

01:27:03.820 This is the end of the ring.

01:27:04.520 Presidential debate.

01:27:05.300 Raise your hand.

01:27:05.780 I would say Haley because expectations are very, very low.

01:27:09.480 For Ron DeSantis in Iowa, expectations couldn't be higher.

01:27:12.880 If he doesn't finish close to Trump, they're going to, you know, very close to Trump.

01:27:17.400 It's harder to meet that bar.

01:27:18.880 You're right about that.

01:27:20.240 It's much harder.

01:27:21.520 DeSantis actually needs a second place in Iowa.

01:27:24.420 He does.

01:27:25.000 Nicky doesn't.

01:27:25.600 Yeah.

01:27:26.160 That's the thing.

01:27:26.840 His cam-

01:27:27.480 It's so unfortunate for him.

01:27:29.040 But Duncan's kind of raising his hand.

01:27:30.520 Are you raising your hand to speak or are you raising your hand?

01:27:32.840 Yeah.

01:27:33.380 I would also want to, I would prefer to be Nicky in this scenario for one other reason,

01:27:38.220 is there's nobody in the field who's done more with less.

01:27:40.820 She's had less money than everybody else in this race up to probably now this moment in

01:27:45.580 all of these debates where she's gained all of this momentum.

01:27:48.160 So like Ron DeSantis has $150 million super PAC, right?

01:27:51.700 And I know that the Trump people have been attacking him.

01:27:53.760 They've spent like 20, $25 million attacking him.

01:27:56.320 So his numbers have taken a hit.

01:27:57.800 But like Nicky has gained all this momentum and traction.

01:28:00.800 And now she's going to have the resources to go out and tell her story more.

01:28:04.920 So I have to think like the momentum is a little more with her on that.

01:28:08.360 The one caveat I've got to this, and I think you saw it last week in this debate, is that

01:28:14.380 it feels to me like Ron DeSantis for the first time in this campaign has found his authentic

01:28:20.260 voice.

01:28:21.060 He does not seem hesitant.

01:28:22.960 He does not seem like he's searching for how to find an opinion somewhere.

01:28:28.260 It feels to me like he is doing everything he's doing because that's where he is.

01:28:33.260 And that's what everybody fell in love with in a Republican primary electorate some a year ago.

01:28:40.000 If he can recapture some of that, you can see where he could start building back up.

01:28:44.120 It's like your racehorse analogy.

01:28:45.860 When a horse is leading in the final stretch, sometimes a horse just needs to see another

01:28:50.600 horse before he takes off again.

01:28:53.040 And that could happen here.

01:28:54.980 I just think it's incredibly unfortunate, the situation that he's found himself in, where

01:28:58.860 I think as a candidate, he's incredibly strong.

01:29:02.220 He's got a great track record and Republicans love him.

01:29:04.800 He got that big win in Florida, really energized people that, okay, we're heading in a good

01:29:08.740 direction.

01:29:09.580 But I think his campaign has done him a tremendous disservice until he's been allowed to have

01:29:15.120 an authentic voice where he's not being overcoached or he has Jeff Rowe leaking memos to the press

01:29:20.180 of being like, here's what Ron DeSantis needs to do with the debate.

01:29:22.680 It's been a mess that he's dealt with and it hasn't actually had anything to do with the

01:29:27.000 candidate, which is the problem.

01:29:28.420 And I think that's why with the momentum that Haley has.

01:29:31.020 Yeah, he's the CEO.

01:29:32.240 He's the CEO.

01:29:33.140 He said that, you know, I mean, my number one piece of advice around DeSantis, not that

01:29:36.640 he needs my political advice, but he could he could use it.

01:29:40.120 He should stop doing that weird little smile at the end of his answer.

01:29:43.400 I totally agree.

01:29:45.180 I totally agree.

01:29:46.320 It makes me uncomfortable.

01:29:47.900 Nobody likes it.

01:29:48.880 It seems affected.

01:29:50.940 It doesn't seem sincere.

01:29:52.380 It's unnecessary.

01:29:53.480 You don't have to be smiley.

01:29:54.660 We don't need smiley.

01:29:55.780 We we need competent.

01:29:56.940 Don't make it.

01:29:57.560 He's got one consultant saying you need to smile and one consultant saying, remember,

01:30:03.740 don't smile at the end.

01:30:04.740 And then he's thinking of both.

01:30:05.760 He's going to smile.

01:30:07.020 Smile if it's natural.

01:30:08.960 If you actually feel like smiling, then smile.

01:30:11.460 Otherwise, don't force it.

01:30:13.220 Somebody hasn't.

01:30:13.920 Somebody told him you do not have a convincing fake smile.

01:30:17.660 Well, yes, you're not exactly like the happy warrior.

01:30:21.460 You're the guy who's supposed to tell like hard truths and be like, I win and this guy

01:30:25.680 lost and you should nominate me like that doesn't have to end in a smile like you can

01:30:29.600 be real and authentic to the voters.

01:30:31.320 And also, if you're going to force a smile, do it instantaneously.

01:30:35.840 The thing that kills me is the.

01:30:37.500 You got to commit to it.

01:30:38.780 Yeah.

01:30:39.040 The pause in between the end of the answer and then the smile is like and I saw and they're

01:30:45.340 going to be stone cold dead.

01:30:47.780 And so now he's going to be like, OK, I have one consultant saying smile, one consultant

01:30:55.100 saying don't smile.

01:30:56.060 Megyn Kelly saying just do it fast.

01:30:57.980 And so he's going to do the smile.

01:30:58.960 Listen to me.

01:30:59.940 In half as much time.

01:31:01.160 No.

01:31:01.640 Here's my rule to go.

01:31:02.960 Number one, don't do it.

01:31:04.640 Number two, only smile if it's genuine.

01:31:07.440 Oh, look, we have the video.

01:31:08.440 Oh, no, they got the.

01:31:09.260 Come on.

01:31:09.860 Come on.

01:31:11.000 If it's genuine.

01:31:13.200 Let's see.

01:31:13.960 He sees he's holding his pen.

01:31:15.740 He's making his.

01:31:16.460 Here it goes.

01:31:17.180 I'm so right.

01:31:23.960 That's so tough.

01:31:25.020 We're never going to run for president, man.

01:31:26.840 I know.

01:31:27.600 Everyone's going to call it out when you mess up.

01:31:29.220 I am helping him.

01:31:30.500 I bet I have a million weird affectations that I don't know about.

01:31:33.680 But if I were to run for president, I would know.

01:31:36.060 You smug, not a one.

01:31:38.020 You'd be good.

01:31:38.640 You're going to be like, smug, you're not wearing pants.

01:31:40.460 I don't know if you do that.

01:31:41.780 No one told me.

01:31:42.520 Bunk is something not to.

01:31:43.540 Look at these gams.

01:31:47.180 All right.

01:31:47.540 Stand by.

01:31:48.100 Quick break.

01:31:48.660 Back with the fellas in two seconds. 0.91

01:31:50.960 Hey, everyone.

01:31:52.020 It's me, Megan Kelly.

01:31:53.140 Mark your calendars.

01:31:54.520 News Nation.

01:31:55.160 Sirius XM.

01:31:56.260 December 6th.

01:31:57.140 In a live primetime event.

01:31:59.060 The News Nation Republican primary debate.

01:32:01.660 Sirius XM's Megan Kelly returns to the moderator seat.

01:32:05.040 I'll ask the questions you want to hear.

01:32:07.200 Real issues.

01:32:08.160 Tough questions.

01:32:09.180 Every contender.

01:32:10.380 Because if you want to be the leader of the free world, you better be ready to give America the answers they're looking for.

01:32:15.460 Live from the University of Alabama, the News Nation Republican primary debate.

01:32:20.380 Moderated by Sirius XM's Megan Kelly and News Nation's Elizabeth Vargas.

01:32:24.740 December 6th, 8 p.m. Eastern.

01:32:26.820 Watch it on News Nation, America's fastest growing cable news network.

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01:32:36.760 Go to SiriusXM.com slash mkshow to subscribe and get three months free.

01:32:42.060 Offer details apply.

01:32:43.320 The News Nation Republican primary debate.

01:32:45.800 See you on the debate stage.

01:32:47.100 To find News Nation on your TV, go to joinnn.com.

01:32:53.720 City leaders are making sure the city shines.

01:32:56.600 Caltrans repaving major roadways like the Harrison Street off-ramp from the I-80.

01:33:01.280 BART doubling down by deep cleaning their stations overnight more often.

01:33:05.000 Scrubbing and power washing is happening all over the city.

01:33:08.900 Yeah, the bottom of my shoes look clean.

01:33:10.700 It's noticeable how clear the streets look and how few homeless encampments there are on major thoroughfares.

01:33:16.880 Public Works is installing decorative crosswalks in North Beach and Chinatown.

01:33:21.040 And the Webster Street pedestrian bridge in Japantown was recently repainted.

01:33:25.720 The Yerba Buena Gardens at the Moscone Center are decked out with new colorful landscaping and murals.

01:33:30.780 Paid for by the Clean California Grant.

01:33:33.400 Just in time for the 20,000 high-profile CEOs and heads of state coming into town.

01:33:40.080 Unbelievable.

01:33:41.560 Gavin Newsom and San Francisco, London Breed, clean up the city just in time for the Chinese leader to show up there with Joe Biden.

01:33:50.380 I mean, they're important, but the actual residents of San Francisco can pound sand.

01:33:55.900 When Gavin Newsom was asked whether this is, in fact, what you've done, he, well, said the following.

01:34:02.360 Listen.

01:34:02.520 Any time you put on an event, by definition, you know, you have people over your house, you're going to clean up the house.

01:34:10.400 You have 21 world leaders, you've got tens of thousands of people coming from all around the globe.

01:34:15.260 What an opportunity to showcase the world's most extraordinary place.

01:34:19.780 Folks say, oh, they're just cleaning up this place because all those fancy leaders are coming into town.

01:34:24.080 So that's true because it's true.

01:34:29.240 But it's also true for months and months and months prior to APEC.

01:34:33.900 We've been having different conversations.

01:34:37.500 So what do you guys make of it?

01:34:41.180 I mean, I had a bit on our show today about how it was sort of like when my wife would clean up the house. 0.63

01:34:46.340 But unlike our show, she actually listens to yours.

01:34:49.940 So I'm not going to do that bit.

01:34:51.300 I'm just going to thank Gavin Newsom for proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's not that they can't clean up the cities in America.

01:34:58.660 It's that they choose not to.

01:35:00.740 In one week, he can make that city hospitable for all the citizens there.

01:35:07.120 And he chooses not to.

01:35:08.840 With all the money that we owe to China, you got to make sure their investment looks good when they get in.

01:35:14.260 And you think this is the before picture, by the way.

01:35:16.960 Why wouldn't he leave Xi's customers there who are on fentanyl?

01:35:19.860 I mean, you want to be like, yeah, you're doing a great job.

01:35:21.900 You know, yeah, this is his real work.

01:35:25.240 This is Xi's real work in the city of San Francisco.

01:35:27.420 All the people hooked on fentanyl and drugs.

01:35:29.480 It is so offensive.

01:35:31.080 But yeah, when somebody comes over to the house, you clean up the house.

01:35:33.340 Yes, most of us don't live in a pigsty day to day.

01:35:35.840 We have some small clutter to clean up.

01:35:38.260 It's not a complete overhaul of where we choose to raise our children.

01:35:42.420 That's what's needed in San Francisco.

01:35:44.140 He doesn't give two shits about the children there, Ashbrook.

01:35:47.280 None.

01:35:47.560 He doesn't care about him at all.

01:35:49.100 I think we know that he's proven it over and over and over again.

01:35:51.920 And look, we know who he likes better than people in California.

01:35:56.300 It's Xi.

01:35:57.980 Yeah, apparently.

01:35:59.240 It's so offensive.

01:36:00.280 And I love that he just gave it up.

01:36:02.340 That's true, because that's true.

01:36:04.760 He's been taking speech writing from Kamala Harris.

01:36:07.280 He's been in competition for the job of president.

01:36:09.720 Guys, what a pleasure.

01:36:11.400 Thank you so much.

01:36:12.420 You were awesome, as always.

01:36:13.940 It's great to talk to you.

01:36:15.220 You're the best, Megan.

01:36:16.140 Thank you for having us.

01:36:17.540 Thank you so much.

01:36:19.420 Ruthless.

01:36:20.260 Variety program.

01:36:22.820 Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show.

01:36:24.720 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

The Megyn Kelly Show - November 14, 2023

What Democrat Panic Means for Biden and Trump, and San Francisco Suddenly Cleans Up, with the Ruthless Podcast Hosts ｜ Ep. 669

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