On this week's episode of The Megyn Kelly Show, Megyn sits down with her mom to talk about her love of the late, great Linda Thompson. She talks about how she got her start in the entertainment business, and how she and her family have been through a lot in the last few decades. She also talks about what it's like growing up in a media family and how her mom has kept her humble.
00:03:34.000No, last week, our show is crushing it right now, thanks to you.
00:03:38.620Right now, we remain the number two podcast in all of news, second only to The New York Times' The Daily, which has something like 12 million subscribers.
00:03:47.780So we're on fire right now, thanks to you guys.
00:06:18.140Now, today, remember last week we told you about the New York Times saying, like, in the sixth paragraph,
00:06:24.020because even the New York Times seemed embarrassed to be doing the Fox News dirty work.
00:06:28.800Um, those references to video the New York Times had obtained of Tucker, in one instance, referring to a woman as yummy, circumstances unclear, and in another referring to his post-menopausal audience.
00:06:42.380It was clearly styled as though this was going to be an insult to women.
00:06:47.280This is going to be an example of Tucker's misogyny.
00:09:08.520He knew, he knew even in the moment that there might be somebody working against him, making sure that the camera that's on you during the commercial breaks and whatever gets fed to it, some nefarious person inside Fox could use it against him.
00:09:21.380So he had the presence of mind to know who they might leak to and to tell him to fuck right off.
00:38:35.360So you guys mentioned losing your jobs because you're posting conservative commentary on YouTube and figuring out that it's okay to be conservative.
00:38:52.460You can say it, you know, you might get fired, but there could be greener pastures on the other side of that truth.
00:38:57.820And I know that Larry Elder was influential and, you know, you're realizing some of that stuff.
00:40:25.980It's totally fine to say you want to erase a Black man, one of the most accomplished in U.S. history, as long as it's Clarence Thomas, because he's conservative.
00:40:40.480It's like the Democrats are the party that's where they realize that if they lose, well, they get 90 percent of the Black vote and they just try to keep that.
00:40:51.020Like when they picked the vice president and the Supreme Court justice, a Black woman, it's because she's actually a token.
00:41:43.940I find it so disheartening to hear Black people, especially people in his position, to put other Black people down just because they might have a different opinion.
00:43:31.340Not in a rational, logical civil society.
00:43:34.540No, and that moment became like a defining moment in this culture war battle where you have a Supreme Court justice who obviously knows exactly what a woman is, afraid, too afraid to say what's real because she didn't want to offend this tiny segment of the population that's denying biological realities.
00:43:51.460OK, let's talk about the Met Gala for a minute.
00:43:55.860I'm not spending any time on Kim Kardashian.
00:44:58.140The LGBTQ community, I mean, they've been, you know, they've had it hard, like a lot of other demographic people have had it hard, like women, blacks.
00:45:35.980But like most gay men I know wouldn't be caught dead in that ridiculous cat suit going up the butt, like showing, you know, there's a lot of cheek, a lot of frontal exposure.
00:46:59.680Lastly, um, Gabrielle Union spoke to the cameras before she went in last night about her decision, along with her, uh, former basketball player, husband's, uh, child to leave Florida because she has a stepchild.
00:47:14.120It's his biological child who says that they are trans.
00:47:17.140I think it's a boy who transitioned to girl.
00:47:19.980We had to think about where every member of our household would be comfortable and welcome and celebrated.
00:47:28.120Of course, all of our friends in Miami, they're like, when are you coming back?
00:47:30.820And, and I was thinking, well, where would our children, where would Kavia James go to school where they're open to teaching facts and actually accurate and, you know, accurate history?
00:47:43.740And, and where can they say gay, much less trans?
00:47:47.120And where would we maybe not get arrested for, uh, affirming, uh, our child's identity right now, not looking like Florida.
00:48:41.040I mean, and the mother, the biological mother in that case, tried to fight in the court saying, I don't want my kid transitioning before age 18.
00:48:47.480And the, the husband, forgive me, I'm not into basketball, but it's a famous basketball player.
00:48:55.540He fought and won to get the kid to be able to change his name legally to a female name to change his actual gender or like on whatever documents he had to make it female.
00:49:06.620And now she's saying they can't live in Florida because you can't say gay.
00:49:50.420My team was reminding me that little Nas X wore this ridiculous cat outfit to the Met Gala last night, which is just, by the way, it's over.
01:03:39.340So she and the other parents of color were as mad as we were where they were saying, you know,
01:03:44.740as I've told you the world before about the white kids in every classroom where white children learn there's a future killer cop and teaching that there are 100 genders and refusing to refer to the boys as boys now or as your sons as sons.
01:04:39.700Yeah, this again, you know, for me, sometimes when I was younger and I had a bad idea or let's just say a dumb idea and I would go to my dad and I would say, Dad, I want to do this.
01:05:15.960I'm like, yeah, I'm not going to give you a hundred thousand dollar budget, but here's 10 grand and go see at the lowest level and see what you can do.
01:07:26.860You know, obviously the biological mother didn't support it.
01:07:28.860But, you know, Dwayne Wade, more power to you.
01:07:31.220But in 10 years, when that kid is 25 years old, in 20 years when that kid is 35 years old, that kid is going to say, why did you let me do that as a 13, 14?
01:07:45.800Then we are all going to realize whether that decision that was made in 2023 or 2022, it was a bad decision.
01:07:54.820And unfortunately, Megan, this is the problem.
01:07:57.700Unfortunately, some of these shitty ideas these guys are coming up with that are seeming like they're such noble people, it's going to take 10 to 20 years to realize they were horrible ideas.
01:08:08.100And a lot of people, especially helpless people like kids, are going to suffer the consequences.
01:08:12.940So as loud as many of us are going to be, as much as we're going to go out there and present common sense, unfortunately, some of these bad ideas are creating momentum and it's hurting the people that are helpless.
01:08:23.860We talked about, of course, Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union, his wife, they're mad at Ron DeSantis.
01:08:29.340They're mad about the allegedly don't say gay bill.
01:08:42.420Governor DeSantis, let's talk politics for a minute.
01:08:44.480It's been kind of interesting what's happening with him.
01:08:47.020He went on this book tour, which I thought was pretty lackluster.
01:08:51.480I mean, he didn't make like a big splash.
01:08:53.400It didn't really help his poll numbers.
01:08:55.320He went into like only super friendly places and really didn't make a lot of news.
01:09:00.020Then he went on this little world tour where he went on five.
01:09:03.900He went to visit five different countries.
01:09:06.480And I don't know what to make of it, Pat, because there was this very nasty report in Politico about how that went, in particular, this appearance he made in Great Britain.
01:09:30.500They said he met with more than 50 representatives of major U.K. firms and business lobbying groups.
01:09:35.620I mean, duh, he's, of course, running.
01:09:37.200Like, I love how we all have to pretend he hasn't announced yet he might not be running.
01:09:40.020Why the hell would the governor of Florida be doing any of this one one one U.K.
01:09:45.700business figure said DeSantis, quote, looked bored and, quote, stared at his feet, quote, he had been to five different countries in five days and he definitely looks spent.
01:09:57.460A second business figure who's in the room said it was a, quote, low wattage performance that, quote, nobody in the room was left thinking this man's going places.
01:10:07.360They said it felt really a bit like we were watching a state level politician.
01:10:11.740I wouldn't be surprised if people in attendance came out thinking that's not the guy.
01:11:29.900I don't understand the marketing side.
01:11:32.500I don't think they have a strength when it comes on to the marketing side.
01:11:34.780See, in a company, if I were to hire Ron DeSantis as a president of a company, okay, say a GE hires him, say a company that's about driving initiatives, recruiting, hitting markers, quarterly numbers, doing quarterly calls, I think he would totally crush it.
01:11:53.060Right. Because Tim Cook, Tim Cook's not a personality guy.
01:11:55.980You don't go to Tim Cook and say, well, Tim Cook, if he was only a little bit more charismatic, Apple would have done better.
01:12:01.580No, Tim Cook took Apple when Steve Jobs died from a hundred billion dollar company to nearly a three trillion dollar company.
01:12:08.260That's 30 X-ing a hundred billion dollar company.
01:12:11.820And nobody, not one person in the world is going to get up there and say, here's 10 keys to, you know, Tim, you know, his Tim Cook's charismatic personality.
01:13:31.380In the book, they give the formula of how companies and individuals, us, can go compete against somebody that's big in the marketplace and not get on a red ocean.
01:14:39.640We're going to increase social media presence because no one's using it.
01:14:43.900We're going to create an environment to target women because women can talk to other women who are the decision makes about life insurance because typically mothers and wives are more concerned about life insurance than husbands and fathers are.
01:14:57.460So today, if we put a convention to get at August with 15,000 people there, the average agent is going to be a 34-year-old Hispanic female.
01:15:33.360Everything he does needs to be at a military unit because he served in the military, and he was a JAG lawyer for Navy SEAL unit, all this stuff.
01:17:04.560Because these were all, at one point, cream of the crop, right?
01:17:08.180There is wisdom in calling somebody else that's gone through what you've gone through.
01:17:14.320Do I think Governor Ron DeSantis has called others to ask for wisdom of what to do, or do I think their camp thinks they know exactly what they're doing?
01:17:25.520But if I'm a betting man, I'm more betting on them thinking they know what they're doing rather than leaning on others who have been through this before to say,
01:17:34.120what should we do with our marketing strategy?
01:17:48.720Look, in about two weeks when he's going to be making the announcement that he's running because, you know, he's got a lock in his governor position,
01:17:53.640maybe in two weeks when he comes out, Megan, he's going to shock the hell out of all of us.
01:17:57.000He's going to take the gloves and say, ready?
01:18:30.320I mean, that's how he made most of his money before the celebrity apprentice was just marketing out his name and getting paid license fees.
01:18:35.560You know, he didn't actually run these buildings.
01:18:37.020He let them use the Trump name, which, you know, used to be not that controversial.
01:19:01.340If I were DeSantis, I'm going to say this because I complained that he didn't come on the show and give me an interview because I really think he should have done that.
01:19:07.220But I actually if I were if I were DeSantis, I would say go on with somebody, whether it's me or somebody else who can help you own your foibles, your weaknesses, who can help you make fun of yourself.
01:19:20.000Like I would ask him, what's with weird the weird held head bob?
01:20:17.260I mean, you know, when you when you think about boxing, UFC, MMA, we like fights.
01:20:22.520You got to love the guy that's willing to go anywhere, anytime to brawl and fight.
01:20:27.140There's something about that that's very attractive and appealing with Trump wanting to go on CNN strategically, logically on 70 different points.
01:20:35.080We can say, don't do this. It doesn't make any sense.
01:20:37.800But what's he going to do? Is Trump going to wait for Fox to flip their positions from DeSantis to Trump?
01:20:41.840Because, you know, a lot of times you're hearing about the news that, you know, Fox is taking a position with DeSantis over Trump.
01:20:48.420And even the poll that came out is a Fox poll that's showing Trump ahead of DeSantis.
01:20:52.180So Trump's not going to be the one that's going to wait for Fox to want to support him.
01:20:55.320That's not his play. He will go find a media.
01:20:57.180You know why? Because there's certain people in the world that when you put the camera in front of them, they get eyeballs.
01:21:03.240People want to know what they have to say. There's not too many of them.
01:21:06.380He's at the top of that list. When he talks, people show up.
01:21:10.400And CNN knows financially they're making the right move to get him on there.
01:21:14.680But I know you're saying, is there going to be anybody to flip there?
01:21:17.960I think you and I may be surprised how many people are sitting there and saying, really, I have to choose between this guy and Joe Biden.
01:21:27.800I mean, I so many people that are not politically conservative or libertarian or independent.
01:21:37.860Megan, Joe Rogan just said if he had to choose between Biden and Trump, he's going Trump.
01:21:43.940If you would have said Joe's going to say this, he's a lefty.
01:21:47.920He wanted Bernie Sanders last time around. He wanted Bernie Sanders.
01:21:50.480So Elon Musk is now sitting there saying anything but Biden.
01:21:54.120So, you know, I think you don't need as big of an audience as we think we need.
01:22:00.560You need a small percentage of people to flip.
01:22:02.820And if CNN is willing to host it, you know what he's going to do.
01:22:05.380He's going to troll them. He's going to mock a lot of people.
01:22:08.940He's going to tell a couple of jokes. He's going to call out and push his agenda.
01:22:12.460And they're going to ask him tough questions. He's going to flip it on them.
01:22:15.440And the interviewer is going to be just as scared as anybody else to interview him because he knows the interview is going to flip very, very quickly when you interview somebody like Trump.
01:22:23.820And he's going to handle it. But, you know, again, the question is conversion.
01:22:27.460You're asking the right question. We're going to find out 16 months from now, whatever the timeline is, 15 months from now, 17 months from now, if it's going to work or not.
01:22:35.200It is an interesting strategy because, you know, you've got it.
01:22:37.840I realize Fox has gone pro DeSantis, though. I mean, I really think they need to be open minded.
01:22:42.040It's like DeSantis isn't doing very well right now.
01:22:44.500I know he hasn't declared, but so far it's been a stumble out of the starting gate.
01:22:47.980I think that's fair to say. You got Tim Scott, who's about to declare.
01:22:51.340You got Asa Hutchinson, who doesn't really have much going on.
01:22:54.080You got Nikki Haley. Mike Pence is probably going to throw his hat in soon.
01:22:57.460You got Vivek, who is very interesting. I really hope people are open minded to him.
01:23:02.260I think Vivek's biggest problem is he kind of looks like the smartest kid in the class who's always correcting everybody.
01:23:08.780Like, be careful. You don't want to be that annoying kid.
01:23:11.460But he does know more about virtually everything than anyone.
01:23:15.440I mean, like there's a reason he's so confident.
01:23:19.600So they have to keep an open mind because this is a primary process and it plays out for over a long period of months for a reason.
01:23:25.620If you went back and looked at who is in the lead in April or May of 2015, which would be the equivalent of where we are now, I believe it was Jed Bush.
01:23:34.780I'm pretty sure it was Jed Bush. I went out. I interviewed him at Liberty University.
01:23:38.620It did not go well. And he soon fell out of the first position.
01:23:42.400And before we knew it, Donald Trump was number one by that August debate.
01:23:48.080Yeah. And by the way, Jeff had one hundred forty million dollars to start off with.
01:23:50.860And remember, we used to talk about Walker. Oh, Walker, you know, Walker, you know, Walker is going to be the president.
01:23:55.660And the note numbers just came back for Florida.
01:23:58.580I think Wall Street Journal article came out yesterday talking about the fact that DeSantis is starting off with eighty six million dollars, which is a good amount of money to start off with as well.
01:24:08.040Give or take maybe a million dollars off, but he's starting off with some money as well.
01:24:11.680This is more than just money. You're going to need more than money to win this one here.
01:24:15.440This is going to be ugly. It's going to be nasty.
01:24:17.720It's going to be manipulative. It's going to be deceptive. It's going to be strange.
01:24:24.600It's going to be like one of those games that you watch where, you know, great football game or great playoffs game where the score changed 17 different times.
01:24:32.420There was 16 ties. And I think this is going to be that.
01:24:35.700I think it's going to come down. Well, here's here's here's the real capper.
01:24:40.380Trump could be in jail. Republicans need to be open minded to who else is in the field, whether you like DeSantis or not,
01:24:46.420because he's got, by my count, at least four prosecutors coming for him.
01:24:51.120I don't think much of these prosecutions, but that's not to say a jury will agree with me.
01:24:54.680So things could get really wacky over the next couple of years as we get it.
01:24:59.460All right. Stand by another side. I mean, you know, there's there the president's granddaughter right now is not being helped.
01:25:06.660You know which one I'm talking about? Hunter's Hunter's daughter.
01:25:09.500This is not a this is not a good look, but I think the scorecard is going to change many, many times.
01:25:15.200I think it's going to be nasty. I think it's going to be ugly.
01:25:17.700I think there's a lot of different possibilities. What happens?
01:25:20.680I do believe the debates are going to be some of the most viewed ever, you know, ratings we're ever going to see.
01:25:28.540This is going to be a in the media space. And listen, if I think about, oh, David versus Goliath.
01:25:33.760First of all, Joe Biden is not a Goliath in any way. He got elected for many different reasons.
01:25:39.740But I think this is going to be if you like the game of politics and you're in that space, which are selling ideas.
01:25:46.740Man, I am so curious to know these strategic people behind closed doors, what they're going to do.
01:25:52.480But is is there is the left going to leverage like you saw what he said at the dinner?
01:25:57.100He says, well, you know, hey, there's a lot of media owners here.
01:26:00.080There's CNBC in here, which they own NBC.
01:26:03.160You know, the NBC on CNBC. And there is a Dominion here, which owns Fox News.
01:26:08.020You know, those jokes, those are jokes that the writer wrote.
01:26:10.780That's a very good joke for the writer to write.
01:26:12.700It's like those moments where you're going to see, hey, if this is you keep talking about Fox News, you know, you keep talking about fake news.
01:26:19.760You know, how about Fox? The fact that they paid a record break in seven eighty seven to demand.
01:26:24.200These things are going to get the audience to be thinking about, well, record breaking, man, maybe Fox is the one that.
01:26:30.360So people, you know, again, if the left uses that Roe v. Wade, this percentage of America was not for it.
01:26:37.040But look what they did. There's a lot of different ways that you're going to have to.
01:26:42.820The political strategists are going to be talking about. Talk about this. Avoid talking this.
01:26:46.360That was not a good timing. That is something we should avoid. Don't address that.
01:26:48.960There is no winning in that argument. We don't need to touch that argument. Touch this argument.
01:26:52.780Push this even harder. That's what Trump did so eloquently and abruptly in 2015 and 2016 that worked for him.
01:27:00.060So it's going to be a very unpredictable 15, 16, 17 months.
01:27:02.720Well, that's the thing. So Trump is slippery on a lot of the really tough issues, which is a skill in a politician.
01:27:09.740You know, DeSantis has the advantage or disadvantage, depending on the issue and how you look at it, of actually being in command right now down in Florida.
01:27:18.220So, you know, he just signed off on that bill that moved the abortion limit back to six weeks.
01:27:23.160That's going to be controversial in the general election.
01:27:26.060This has been a very animating issue for the left, for women who are in the center.
01:27:31.700Even some, you know, center right women who are pro-choice for whom this is an important issue might hold that against him.
01:27:39.760Trump is. Yes, he gave us the three Supreme Court justices who overturned Dobbs, but he's slippery on this stuff and can't necessarily be pinned down as well as you would like him to.
01:27:52.120All right. Stand by. P.B.D. stays with us. Don't go away.
01:28:00.240Pat, so I understand that you've got some breaking news about Tucker Carlson. Tell us what it is.
01:28:05.180Well, yeah, you know, we were about to make the announcement after your live show.
01:28:09.660I was going to tweet it up, but I said, you know what? Let me just make this announcement here.
01:28:13.220What better place to make it than Megyn Kelly show, Just Cross a Million Subscriber?
01:28:17.780You know, one of the greatest ever to do it. So, Megyn, here's what we made a decision to do.
01:28:23.400For me, Valuetainment, when we started Valuetainment after I went through the insurance industry, haven't been in it for 20 years, I said I'm going to be in the financial industry 20 years.
01:28:31.720After that, it's going to be 40 years of media because I truly believe we need a media company to fight the fight that we have today in America and worldwide.
01:28:39.800As a guy that's an immigrant from Iran and saw what it was like living in Iran to a mother whose family was a communist, to a father whose family was an imperialist.
01:28:48.580And then I lived in Germany in the refugee camp for a couple of years and I came to the States, went to the 101st Airborne Division, and I've been blessed through the system of capitalism to make good money.
01:28:57.500And now, knowing we want to compete in the media space with all the stuff that's going on, BuzzFeed, you hear the announcement, you know, a vice from a $5.7 billion company to now, you know, they're going through bankruptcy.
01:29:08.920Don Lemon, Tucker, you know, and a couple other names that are soon to come.
01:29:13.060We would like to make a public announcement offer to Tucker Carlson.
01:29:16.980This is the first place I'm making this announcement because I believe Tucker's voice is one of the most necessary voices in America, and I believe he, at a place he is right now, we have a feeling of what would be important to somebody like that that's at the top of the game to get the kind of eyeballs that he was getting.
01:29:35.280From 3 million views to a week later, 1.33 million views, we know the world needs to hear that voice, and I know a lot of different offers and companies that are talking and offers they're making.
01:29:47.320We're willing to make a, on record, I'll be tweeting this right after I'm done here, and it'll be on Twitter, it'll be on YouTube, it'll be on all over the place, a $100 million five-year offer, equity position in the company, a president position, and a board seat to make decisions on what we want to do with docs, movies, specials, any other shows, and whatever else he wants to talk about.
01:30:12.060A podcast, show, all of it on OTT, but that is an offer we're making to Tucker.
01:30:17.060Tucker knows how to get a hold of me, and we feel he's a one-centered generation type of a voice, and we would love to have him be here with Valuetainment.
01:30:25.940We may not be the biggest, obviously there's a lot of bigger names out there, but if you want to team up with somebody that's got the vision in place, the cause in place,
01:30:33.840and it's a true believer on how great of a country America is that it's worth fighting for, and a fight is a real fight because the enemy is real, we feel we're the right fit to partner with somebody like Tucker Carlson.
01:30:46.480So you are the first place I'm making this offer, Tucker Carlson.
01:31:04.460No one's going to censor you, and you'll have the promotion and support of somebody who's already got a huge, huge following, which does make a difference.
01:31:11.440I mean, I'm sure, I've said this before, but I'm sure Tucker's probably going to get a million followers as soon as he goes online because he's gumming straight off of the success of his primetime show.
01:31:21.040So that'll be a boon to him, but to partner with a guy who's got 4 million subscribers would be wonderful, and you're a great guy.
01:32:23.540It's not because he presents himself as a person that knows everything, but he's not willing to back down.
01:32:29.300He will fight, and it's very hard to find fighters nowadays.
01:32:31.680Now, Pat, I'm not sure you're aware of the Media Matters videos that have just dropped on it.
01:32:36.260Perhaps you'd like to update yourself before you extend this on the quote, quote, per Media Matters, creepy videos that someone, Irina, may have obtained of Tucker and miraculously released just today,
01:32:52.160showing him referring to someone he's never met as yummy, which he makes clear as a joke, having a discussion with Piers Morgan about whether they're going to discuss sex on the air, and if so, how that's going to go, and another video in which he refers to as post-menopausal fans.
01:33:33.080I don't have a problem with how he is behind closed doors.
01:33:35.880Again, we're not expecting somebody to be perfect, but if it is somebody that sees our proposition here, our offer here, and when I hear my story and I go and talk all over the place,
01:33:47.620I build an insurance company with 44,000 different agents, so I've worked with a lot of different personalities.
01:33:52.160I work with families that come with money.
01:33:56.140I work with guys that went to Ivy League schools.
01:33:58.080I work with guys that are high school dropout.
01:34:00.060I work with guys that come from a regular welfare family making $7.20 an hour to people that have done well for themselves from other professions.
01:34:14.560The standard to have people to have a perfect day on a daily basis, you are living in la-la land.
01:34:18.600No, we're ready to do the fight, and if Tucker wants to come and partner and go out there, like I said, this whole game about doing something big in life is about running mates.
01:34:30.000And your running mates you choose have to be true believers.
01:34:32.960If you have a running mate that's not a true believer, it's just because of money, there's a time.
01:34:38.940We were having a conference call this morning with seven of my executives, and I told them something.
01:34:43.520I said, you know what's the best indicator to find out who was all about money and who was all about a true vision and a cause?
01:35:01.320But when you make money and fame and accolades and you get stopped in the streets, everywhere you go, at the airport, in private airports, and you still get up in the morning with the same fire in your belly to go out there and do the fight, it was never about money for you.
01:35:15.280There are very few people left in America at that level who have made the money.
01:35:26.780It's, you know, I was talking about Jocko Willink right at the beginning of the hour, and it takes a certain constitution to become a Navy SEAL, to become that kind of soldier, to become an Army Ranger.
01:35:36.120There's just these certain things, and you have to be built that way.
01:35:40.560And not to aggrandize the news profession because it doesn't deserve it.
01:35:44.500But somebody like Tucker, who really does go against the grain and doesn't care, you have to be built that way.
01:35:50.620I don't want to compare him to Trump, but Trump's kind of built that way, too.
01:35:54.100I mean, I'm a little bit built that way in a different kind of way myself, so I can relate to it, and I admire it for similar reasons.
01:35:59.940But he is a unique talent, and I think he could only ever partner with somebody who got it and appreciates it and doesn't expect that version of commentary to color within the lines.
01:36:09.780And Patrick, David, thank you for being here, and thanks for believing in our mutual friend.