This is Gavin Newsom - And, This Is The End Of The Free Press With Don Lemon

00:00:00.120 We're going to lose the First Amendment.

00:00:02.560 We're going to lose the freedom of the press.

00:00:03.980 My opinion is that they targeted me

00:00:06.240 because they have been after me for a long time.

00:00:09.380 Sorry.

00:00:11.420 This is Gavin Newsom.

00:00:14.000 And this is Don Lemon.

00:00:17.940 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:20.820 Guaranteed human.

00:00:22.760 Let's go!

00:00:23.620 Our iHeart Radio Music Awards are coming back.

00:00:26.860 Thursday, March 26th, live on Fox.

00:00:30.180 Watch as we honor the biggest stars from all genres of music

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00:00:38.380 Hosted by Ludacris.

00:00:40.040 Icon Award recipient, John Mellencamp.

00:00:42.200 Innovator Award recipient, Miley Cyrus.

00:00:44.720 With performances by Alex Warren, Kehlani, Lainey Wilson,

00:00:48.280 Ludacris, Ray, TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and En Vogue.

00:00:51.960 What a man, what a man, what a man, what a man, what a body could say.

00:00:55.380 Plus, Taylor Swift makes her first award show appearance this year.

00:01:02.320 Also, gold medal Olympian Alyssa Liu, Neo, Nicole Scherzinger, Nikki Glaser, Somber,

00:01:12.760 Weiser, and more.

00:01:13.880 Watch live on Fox, Thursday, March 26th at 8, 7 central.

00:01:18.420 And listen on iHeartRadio stations across America and the free iHeart app.

00:01:22.000 Hey there, this is Josh from Stuff You Should Know

00:01:27.740 with a message that could change your life.

00:01:30.720 The Stuff You Should Know Think Spring podcast playlist

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00:01:35.100 Whether spring has sprung in your neck of the woods yet or not,

00:01:38.520 the Stuff You Should Know Think Spring playlist

00:01:40.520 will make you want to get your overalls on,

00:01:42.800 get outside, and get your hands in the dirt. 0.97

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00:01:53.320 Good people. What's up? What's up? It's Questlove.

00:01:55.380 So recently I had the incredible opportunity to have a real conversation

00:01:59.200 with actress and producer Jamie Lee Curtis from Routines to Recovery,

00:02:03.980 True Lies, and a certain Jermaine Jackson music video.

00:02:07.800 Jamie's real and raw, and it's something I really admire about her. 0.97

00:02:12.060 I am so happy that I'm the head bitch in charge at 67, 0.92

00:02:17.960 that I have the perspective that I have at my age 0.96

00:02:22.580 to really be able to put all of this into context.

00:02:27.200 Listen to The Questlove Show on the iHeartRadio app,

00:02:30.420 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:02:34.440 In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd

00:02:37.440 was accused of fathering twins,

00:02:39.400 but the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax.

00:02:41.800 You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct?

00:02:45.340 I doctored the test once.

00:02:46.640 It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern.

00:02:52.000 Two more men who'd been through the same thing.

00:02:54.260 Greg Gillespie and Michael Mancini.

00:02:56.260 My mind was blown.

00:02:57.920 I'm Stephanie Young.

00:02:59.280 This is Love Trapped.

00:03:00.660 Laura, Scottsdale Police.

00:03:02.520 As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. 1.00

00:03:07.220 Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:03:12.380 this women's history month the podcast keep it positive sweetie celebrates the power of women

00:03:18.160 choosing healing purpose and faith even when life gets messy love it's not a destination you have to

00:03:24.180 work on it every day keep it positive sweetie creates space for honest conversations on self

00:03:28.740 worth love growth and navigating life with grace and grit led by women who uplift inspire and tell

00:03:35.540 the truth out loud i have several conversations with god and i know why it took 20 years to hear

00:03:43.040 this and more listen to keep it positive sweetie on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever

00:03:48.080 you get your podcasts don lemon my friend governor newsom the young republican the young republican

00:03:56.820 tell me that's true is that true you were a young republican that was years ago i was uh yeah

00:04:05.220 I think it was a freshman in college. It was around the, it was the eighties.

00:04:08.340 Everybody was doing it.

00:04:10.340 I was a young Republican. I thought it was cool. You know,

00:04:14.340 I liked the clothes. I like, you know,

00:04:15.720 I went to LSU and there was lots of khakis and blue jackets and, you know,

00:04:18.800 I wanted to fit in, but it was the Reagan days and opulence and dynasty.

00:04:23.620 And, you know, and I don't know. I just, you know,

00:04:28.080 I have some conservative leanings and I still, I mean,

00:04:32.160 had some and i still do now but uh i've matured and i've grown a bit so yeah i was a young

00:04:38.840 republican it's true and you were like member of the young republican club were you out there like

00:04:43.380 advocating no i was young and a republican i wasn't there was no club i was young and a republican

00:04:49.020 but my mom look respectfully gavin when i was um i liked ronald reagan and it was weird and um

00:05:00.260 I wrote a letter to the White House to the president, and then they wrote back.

00:05:05.800 I think it was maybe an auto pen, but anyway, he signed it, and they wrote a letter to me.

00:05:09.760 And I have it somewhere in my memorabilia.

00:05:12.600 And I remember coming home one day, and my mom said, you got a piece of mail?

00:05:15.980 And I said, where?

00:05:16.840 And she said, the White House.

00:05:18.480 And she goes, why is the White House writing you?

00:05:21.840 And then I opened it up, and I said, oh, it's from the president. 1.00

00:05:23.860 And she said, you are out of your damn mind, because she did not like Ronald Reagan. 0.99

00:05:28.420 And then quickly I became, I came to realize like, you know, what he was, you know, around the AIDS crisis and, you know, all the hysteria and hypocrisy around that. 0.99

00:05:38.260 I just, that's when I, you know, fell out of favor with Ronald Reagan and with the Republican Party.

00:05:45.200 Were your parents politically active in any way, shape or form?

00:05:48.780 Did they get you agitated early on in terms of just what's going on in the world?

00:05:52.680 Or did that come naturally for you?

00:05:54.620 Well, my dad, interestingly enough, my dad retired, I think around 1980 or so, around that same time he retired. He worked at Exxon for 30 some years as my stepdad. And he became one of those people who started listening to radio all day. And it was Rush Limbaugh back in the 80s.

00:06:16.400 Right. He would hear Rush Limbaugh. And my mom would come home from work and said, have you been sitting in your workshop all day working on stuff and listening to Rush Limbaugh?

00:06:24.280 So my dad would, you know, talk about all this conservative stuff. And then my mom was always liberal.

00:06:33.720 And but so we didn't really talk about it that much. But my real dad, who was an attorney, was involved in a civil rights action in Baton Rouge.

00:06:44.600 he changed the way public transportation laws worked and where black people could sit on buses

00:06:52.060 and public transportation. So my dad, who was an attorney, my real father, who died when my mom

00:06:57.940 remarried, remarried my stepdad, but he was more of an activist than anybody else. But I didn't get

00:07:04.280 to know him. I was seven when he died. Yeah, just seven. God bless. And your foreign

00:07:11.860 into journalism? Was it, you know, was it as a student? I mean, how young did you really start

00:07:16.600 looking through the prism of trying to tell stories and, and, and, and to communicate them

00:07:22.300 or, you know, what was that evolution like? Well, I was a journalist before I even knew

00:07:27.100 what the word was. And according to my mother, I would, when I was a kid, you know, just old

00:07:36.620 enough to walk and talk, she said, I would go over to people, you know, if we were on vacation

00:07:41.520 or if we were in a restaurant and I would just wander over to someone's table or just go talk

00:07:45.940 to people and say, where are you from? What are you doing? And my mom would say, come back. And

00:07:49.820 my dad would say to my mom, according to my mother, don't teach that boy to be afraid of people.

00:07:55.020 Just let him do his thing. And if, you know, if he goes too far or if they don't want him over

00:07:59.900 there or whatever, then we'll take care of it, but just let him go and do his thing. And so I was,

00:08:03.940 I've always been curious. I've always asked questions since I can remember. I've always

00:08:08.480 wanted to know, but it wasn't until around high school, maybe early in college, there was

00:08:15.680 a woman in, on my local news station, her name was Jean West. And she was this black woman and 1.00

00:08:22.660 she was, you know, articulate, I hate that word, but she, you know, spoke the King's English.

00:08:30.680 She dressed to the nines and, you know, nothing against good times or J.J. Walker or any of

00:08:38.920 those things, because those people were doing what they had to do in order to survive.

00:08:42.340 But those were the only role models we had on television pretty much in the 70s was like,

00:08:46.340 that oh my, and that kind of thing.

00:08:48.380 And so I turned on the TV and I was like, oh, look, this person looks and sounds like

00:08:53.900 my family.

00:08:55.080 And I said, that's what I want to do.

00:08:56.940 And ever since then, you know, I started pursuing it.

00:08:59.800 So you were how old at the time when you really I mean I mean was it that indelible that you said that's what I want to do or ultimately you sort of look back and realize there was sort of subtext that it influenced you or did you really just sort of have that magical moment where you just one night were watching her and said boy boom that's that's me.

00:09:19.880 I think it, I think it was a combination of both, but it didn't really solidify or cement until I had a friend who was a local weatherman. And this was, so this was probably my freshman or sophomore year at LSU. And he was a local weatherman. He's this handsome dude. And he was in the closet then. Now he's not, you know, anymore.

00:09:42.120 And I was like, oh, I want to be on TV.

00:09:44.460 That's what I want to do.

00:09:45.300 But it was a combination of those two people, I think, who were the woman who I really admired

00:09:51.200 from afar, and I did not know her then.

00:09:53.360 And then my friend, who was a local weatherman, who I would go visit him at the station.

00:09:58.000 And so I kind of got the bug for it.

00:10:01.340 So I think that's when I fell in love with it.

00:10:03.960 And then I started pursuing it.

00:10:05.140 Because initially, I wanted to be an attorney.

00:10:07.280 I studied economics, and I was going to do pre-law.

00:10:10.240 And then I hated it and wasn't doing well.

00:10:13.100 And the moment I started doing, you know, the journalism things, the TV, radio things,

00:10:17.420 the writing, I was like, this is it.

00:10:18.720 It clicked for me.

00:10:20.020 You remember that first job, first paycheck in journalism?

00:10:22.860 What was it?

00:10:23.720 Oh, yeah.

00:10:24.680 Yeah.

00:10:25.420 The first job I got in journalism, I dropped out of LSU, by the way, because my journalism

00:10:32.160 professor told me I would never make it as a journalist.

00:10:34.860 And I did not understand why he was saying that.

00:10:38.160 He said, well, I, we had to do, we had to, you know, our exams, we had to take exams.

00:10:44.440 And so the writing and the on camera and all of that, I was really great, but I never could

00:10:49.580 edit videotape.

00:10:51.320 It was just like, it's something that I was just like, God, this is just way too much.

00:10:55.720 It's too complicated for me.

00:10:58.020 And, and so, you know, A's and everything like, and I find, I found myself performing

00:11:03.680 better than anyone in the class.

00:11:05.320 And I never understood why he would not embrace me.

00:11:07.840 And then when he told me that, that's when it clicked for me because I wasn't getting into the business to be an editor.

00:11:15.720 I did not want to be a technician.

00:11:17.260 I wanted to be the person who was reporting the story.

00:11:20.520 And so I left LSU.

00:11:22.080 I packed up my 87 Jeep Wrangler, moved to New York City, and then took a job as holiday relief, Christmas and New Year's help at Macy's, Herald Square.

00:11:34.880 and then eventually got a job at the local Fox station in New York City, WNYW, 205 East 67th

00:11:43.380 Street on the Upper East Side. And I became a news trainee, which was $5 an hour below the poverty

00:11:52.200 level for six months. And then I was like, I got to make this work. And I worked my butt off to

00:11:59.140 impress everyone. And then I got a job as a production assistant and then a desk assistant

00:12:04.260 satellite feed coordinator writer field producer and then i became the assignment editor and then

00:12:09.700 i started sending my tape out and got a job and left and what was that first job you got after

00:12:16.740 you sent those tapes out the first on-air job because i worked in that newsroom for five years

00:12:21.480 i worked in that newsroom it was like graduate school for journalism um at channel five and this

00:12:26.640 was gavin this was pre fox news this was a fox ono which is an owned and operated station and it was

00:12:33.920 one of the main ones. And there was this thing called the Fox News Exchange, which was all of

00:12:40.420 the owned and operated stations would put their things on a feed and they'd send it out for the

00:12:44.520 rest of the country. So it was like their little mini network. This was before Fox News. And then

00:12:48.340 the Fox News Exchange eventually became Fox News, which was with Shepard Smith and all those guys.

00:12:54.280 And I, you know, they were all on the Fox News Exchange. And then the people who were there

00:12:57.320 became anchors and talent on Fox News. But so I worked there for five years, just behind the

00:13:02.840 scenes doing everything I could. I learned every job in the newsroom. And then finally, uh, I sent

00:13:09.080 my tape out and my news director helped me to get an agent. Um, and my first job was in Birmingham,

00:13:16.480 Alabama at the Fox station in Birmingham, Alabama. And, um, I never looked back as a weekend anchor

00:13:23.560 and then a reporter during the week and then fill in anchor during the week. And then that was,

00:13:27.700 yeah i never looked back i love it was your mom was this the parents were cheering you on or they

00:13:33.980 scared us to hell at five bucks an hour five years of your life and what the hell is he doing and 0.96

00:13:39.920 why does he come back home law school damn it yeah yeah there was some of that but then you 0.93

00:13:46.800 know my mom would say that and then my dad would say let him do what he wants and um and then my 0.90

00:13:52.420 mom would secretly send me money because i couldn't pay rent i mean i had a you know after

00:13:57.440 after the the news trainee job which was you know solid pay for a certain amount of time

00:14:03.240 for a limited amount of time I had to as a production assistant I worked freelance I was

00:14:09.920 per diem so there weren't always hours for me to work and so when there weren't any hours I'd have

00:14:16.120 to go and back to the Macy's and say can you give me a couple of hours and then eventually I got a

00:14:21.540 job um in a signed company as kind of the office manager and um and then finally you know wnyw said

00:14:32.280 we're going to hire you as a permanent um employee and then i could quit that but that was that was

00:14:38.100 back in the day do you remember marie povich and a current affair and all those things yeah i was

00:14:42.700 shot in that building and i was just bill o'reilly doing that you bill remember o'reilly was doing

00:14:47.680 that kind of stuff before he was on the o'reilly factor i think o'reilly was hard copy yeah the

00:14:53.980 version of that yeah crazy what so was that what were you trying we did you want to be the guy

00:15:00.840 reading the script or you were a journalist you were doing investigative reports too right

00:15:05.000 i mean you you kind of you got into every aspect of journalism no i wanted to be look my my my

00:15:12.280 mentors, the people I loved were Max Robinson and, um, and Brian Gumbel, um, and, and Peter

00:15:19.220 Jennings. And it's interesting, you know, fast forward, you know, Brian and I have become great

00:15:25.120 friends. And so the people that I grew up admiring on television have become people I know in my,

00:15:31.220 that are in my real life. And it's just kind of weird to be in that position. I'm very grateful

00:15:35.220 that I, that I'm in that position, but I always wanted to be the guy out reporting the news.

00:15:42.280 I didn't necessarily have to be the anchor.

00:15:44.240 If I was going to anchor, I said I would like to do field anchoring because back in the day, I don't know if you remember, Peter Jennings was always out like in some war zone or whatever.

00:15:53.620 And then sometimes they returned to the studio or whatever.

00:15:57.160 So that's what I wanted to do.

00:16:00.160 But everyone, all of my news directors, everybody saw me as an anchor.

00:16:04.700 And I was like, God, why are these people seeing me as an anchor?

00:16:07.220 Because I'm a much better reporter.

00:16:08.620 and um finally you know i went to work eventually i went to work for i got my lucky break and went

00:16:15.540 to work for nbc news very early on in my career and um you know and got my writing and reporting

00:16:23.480 stripes from going to correspondent school in new york city that's what they did they they would set

00:16:28.400 you up with a a producer that had been at the network for a long time and basically it was

00:16:32.440 like correspondent academy that you went to and you learned how to write and and how to pitch

00:16:36.760 every show. This is how you pitch nightly. This is how you pitch the today show. This is how you

00:16:42.200 pitch, you know, this other show. MSNBC was going to want you to do live all the time. So it was

00:16:47.200 just like, I was like, I was going to school, but they didn't just call you and say, we need to

00:16:51.540 report. You had to pitch a story to get yourself on. And so, um, yeah, and it wasn't until I got

00:16:58.300 to CNN and I went out on, uh, I think it was a bridge collapse for my first big assignment in 0.75

00:17:05.420 the field and someone said, damn it, you're a much better reporter than you are on Anchor. And I said, 0.95

00:17:11.040 yeah, I've been trying to tell people that for like 10, 15 years and nobody will listen to me.

00:17:15.700 And then that's when they realized and my career started to take off at CNN.

00:17:19.680 I love it. You started what, in 2006 at CNN, right?

00:17:24.360 I started CNN in 2006 after leaving, after going through the NBC system, I went to network first

00:17:31.180 and then see how they keep pushing me into being an anchor.

00:17:35.720 The anchor was sick in Chicago, the main anchor.

00:17:39.200 This guy's name is Warner Saunders.

00:17:41.900 He had cancer and they weren't sure what was going to happen

00:17:45.180 and they needed a replacement.

00:17:47.560 And so they brought me in to anchor the five o'clock news

00:17:49.960 from the network in New York.

00:17:53.640 And so I went to Chicago for three years

00:17:55.420 and then I hated doing local news.

00:17:58.720 chicago was great but i just didn't want to be in local news anymore and so um i um faxed my

00:18:06.660 resignation in the middle of the night fax machines and um and then moved on to cnn

00:18:13.100 do you remember your first do you remember the story for you even before cnn perhaps

00:18:18.620 where you just knew that you've got the kind of recognition or even recognized in yourself

00:18:24.160 that i could be great at this do you remember the story i mean you mentioned obviously the

00:18:28.580 bridge as an example. And that moment where it was that you may have been discovered, but when

00:18:34.200 did you discover yourself in this role? Was there something that broke in your mind where you're

00:18:38.920 like, man, I'm going to be good at this built confidence story. That's more indelible than

00:18:44.240 that journalistic journey. I don't know if there was one story governor, but I just remember

00:18:51.300 when I gained my confidence. And that confidence didn't come through someone putting me in a

00:19:02.680 position to be able to do something. It came through hard work. And so when I was in Philadelphia

00:19:08.300 at the NBC station, I'm skipping over a lot of my career because when I worked at the Fox station

00:19:12.780 in Birmingham, and then I eventually went to St. Louis, and then NBC discovered me and pulled me

00:19:17.620 away and said, we're going to send you to Philadelphia for a year and let you train

00:19:21.400 there. And then we're going to bring you the network. And I'm like, bullshit, you're not

00:19:23.840 going to do that. And then surely after three years, they called me up and said, we want you 0.99

00:19:27.620 to come to the network. But when I was working in Philadelphia, we would have a breaking news.

00:19:33.820 Like, so, so the assignment desk would assign you a story at night. And I was always a nighttime

00:19:38.400 reporter. It was always the like primetime reporter. And so the assignment desk would

00:19:42.380 assign stories and then they would leave one reporter to do just breaking and so i that meant

00:19:48.740 you went and got in a satellite truck for those vans and you would just drive around the city

00:19:54.540 and look for breaking news and so on the assignment desk would say uh all right look there's a fire

00:20:01.160 at 57th and wherever and tenley go check it out or um police are chasing some guy at such and such

00:20:07.980 go check it out. Or one night, Dikembe Mutombo's truck SUV was stolen and police are looking for

00:20:14.800 it. Guess who found it? On a street in South Philadelphia. Yours truly. Riding around in a

00:20:23.260 NBC5 microwave van. It wasn't a satellite truck, sorry. It was a microwave van, microwave truck.

00:20:31.740 And so I just remember because I would be thrown into those situations, and it wasn't years before I'd be frightened if they said, oh my gosh, you got to go out and do this story. It's breaking. My heart would be racing. And finally, I got to a point where it was just like sitting in my living room.

00:20:51.420 And so I remember showing up at scenes 30 seconds or a couple of minutes before the show would start.

00:20:59.000 And then we didn't have the satellite and the microwave or whatever the signal set until like 30 seconds before the newscast.

00:21:07.740 And they would say, Don, are you set? This is my hairbrush, right?

00:21:11.440 They'd say, Don, are you set? And I would say, I guess so. I don't know what I'm going to talk about.

00:21:16.180 And then they'd say, I'll be going to go to the break on the scene. Don Lemon now.

00:21:19.220 and I'd say, that's right, Renee and Larry, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I would talk

00:21:22.960 and they would go rap. And I was like, why'd you guys rap me so early? They'd say, you talked for

00:21:27.240 three minutes. We wanted a two minute report. And so, and I realized like, okay, I can do this.

00:21:33.660 So it wasn't, I don't know if it was one single story, but then I realized I had the confidence

00:21:37.320 to do it. And once that confidence came, I very quickly went to the network. And then I just,

00:21:41.980 again never really looked back and you were what at cnn that career from 06 that was 17 years

00:21:50.480 at cnn almost 17 years from 06 to 23 close to 17 years yeah yeah what was that in that journey

00:21:58.440 i mean what did you i mean sort of the fits and starts cable the competition in cable cnn being

00:22:04.120 you know with that such you know i mean iconic cnn international audience msnbcs now starting

00:22:11.660 here, obviously Fox begins to dominate. What was your, you know, those sort of fits and what was

00:22:16.880 your experience, the tensions in the context of what was happening surrounding CNN and everyone

00:22:22.540 trying to take CNN down, be more competitive? I mean, what was that journey like over those 17

00:22:27.880 years? Were there any sort of trend lines that you would look back sort of that broad strokes

00:22:34.100 would sort of define those 17 years?

00:22:39.040 Well, I feel like I kind of rode a wave of, you know,

00:22:46.060 what is it, ebbs and flows or whatever.

00:22:48.620 I felt like I kind of high tides and low tides at CNN.

00:22:51.500 And when I came in, I think CNN was at a sort of a low tide period.

00:22:56.220 And I was stationed in Atlanta and doing the afternoon CNN newsroom.

00:23:04.100 with don lemon and kira phillips and i would do you know the afternoon news and then i went to i

00:23:09.380 did and then i started doing weekend prime time but um you know it was cnn was then not it was

00:23:17.060 sort of in dissent when i first started the ratings were very low um the shows were not very

00:23:25.020 interesting people were sort of throwing things against the wall and a lot of it was not working

00:23:29.640 And, you know, the primetime anchors and times kept changing. And the only constant was, I think, at that time. And he hadn't been, I don't think there, you know, for a very long time was Anderson. And that was about it. It was Anderson. And then, gosh, what was his name? Aaron Brown. I don't know if you remember Aaron Brown was there.

00:23:50.560 And so there was this sort of tug of war about what CNN should be and what its identity should be. And, you know, I had this great respect for CNN and just the facts.

00:24:03.980 and so i i sat there for a while you know in that atlanta newsroom doing the weekend news for a

00:24:12.120 long time and then i i came to the conclusion that um this is not what i wanted my career to

00:24:17.960 be i did not want to be the weekend anchor i didn't want to be in the weekend ghetto which 0.66

00:24:21.440 is where they put seriously at one point all of the anchors of color were on the weekend

00:24:26.760 and there were no um black anchors in prime time and um yeah in prime time and all every single

00:24:38.100 anchor on the weekend was either black or maybe Asian and so I said this is not what I wanted to 1.00

00:24:43.960 do and so they hired Jessica to become the head of CNN and I took a trip to New York to meet him

00:24:51.500 and I said he said why did you want to meet with me and I said because um I really admire and

00:24:58.180 respect you but I so I wanted to tell you in person that I don't want to work here anymore

00:25:02.480 and he said why not I said because I don't want to waste away on the weekends and I am uh I can't

00:25:09.800 live in Atlanta anymore it's just not for me and I said so you know thank you for the opportunity

00:25:15.060 I hope that you do do well here and he said well you don't have to live in Atlanta and I said yeah

00:25:20.940 I know that. And he goes, no, no, no. I mean, you don't have to live in Atlanta. You can still work

00:25:24.100 for CNN. Sorry. I didn't know I would do this. Moved to New York. And I said, what? Because no

00:25:36.240 one had ever spoken to me that way. And he said, you know, I really believe in you. And I've been

00:25:42.040 watching your coverage. This was during Newtown. And he said, you were the best correspondent that

00:25:50.260 we had an anchor in the field because you you station yourself right in front of the um

00:25:54.760 the memorial and you're the best thing that we have and he said and during the whitney houston

00:26:01.220 coverage you're the best reporter in the country and he said i really want you to stay here and i

00:26:05.960 promise you you'll have opportunities and i moved and i became the 10 p.m anchor for eight years

00:26:15.260 almost nine years so yeah sorry but when someone believes in you know it's someone believes in you

00:26:24.400 like that it's just um it means a lot i love that i love that sorry how and you jeff jeff was there

00:26:33.860 for how many years when did that when did that shift i think jeff started in 13 and he was there

00:26:39.200 till 22, 21, 22?

00:26:44.100 Yeah.

00:26:44.920 22.

00:26:46.520 Yeah, and you lasted another year or so at CNN,

00:26:51.640 and we don't need to tread over that.

00:26:55.180 But, you know, it-

00:26:56.540 You can ask me whatever you want, Gavin.

00:26:58.680 No, man, because, I mean, you know,

00:27:01.720 but so much reporting,

00:27:03.140 you've talked about it on so many occasions,

00:27:05.160 but I mean, you know, just reinforcing,

00:27:07.220 for that, for you, that, I mean,

00:27:08.780 that was a big surprise right i mean you objectively didn't see that necessarily coming

00:27:12.960 no i didn't see it coming um he he tried to give me um jeff and i became very close

00:27:22.620 um and but i think he tried to give me a hint that something um was stirring and i didn't pick

00:27:30.740 up on it i remember having a conversation with him about something i wanted some advice and i said

00:27:35.640 I just need to know about this. And he said, well, there's something that has caused me some

00:27:43.420 trouble lately. And I just wasn't paying attention to it. And then, you know, within a week or two,

00:27:49.380 he resigned. And, you know, and, you know, the first call, I'm not sure if he called me,

00:27:55.760 if I called him and I said, you know, nothing changes. I still love you. And he said, yes,

00:28:00.640 same here. And that was that. And, um, they told me I was told not to say anything about it on the

00:28:08.600 air. And so, you know, me, right. You told me not to do something. So, um, the person who has,

00:28:18.380 look, when I said, I rode the ups and downs of CNN, by the time Jeff left CNN, we had had the

00:28:26.600 highest ratings we'd ever had in the history of the network and the biggest profits that we'd had

00:28:31.780 in the history of the network. And it was because it was through his leadership. And, um, so

00:28:38.540 because he had, what he had done for me and what the, what he had created at that network where

00:28:45.060 people are extremely, usually in television, people are extremely competitive. It's very

00:28:49.880 political. And, you know, this person doesn't like that person and whatever. We all had our

00:28:54.460 own thing like Don you do 10 to midnight Anderson you do 8 or 8 to 10 or whatever and we had our

00:29:01.020 own thing and nobody I didn't you know I wasn't um jealous of Anderson I didn't want his spot he

00:29:06.320 didn't want my spot or you know none of that but we all had our own lane and we all liked working

00:29:11.860 with each other it's just a great working environment and I had been at Fox and NBC and

00:29:17.260 I knew like this was something that was unusual and people did not if you had not been through

00:29:24.220 a sort of traditional background where you went from station to station to station to, you know,

00:29:29.800 work your way up, then you wouldn't know this. You would just think that it's like this all the

00:29:33.300 time. And, um, and so when, um, when they said, don't say anything, I didn't, I didn't write it

00:29:39.640 in the teleprompter, but you know, before the show, 10 seconds before the show, I hit click

00:29:44.620 enter and I put it in the teleprompter and it was my goodbye to Jeff. And I said that we lost

00:29:50.200 the heart of this network and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I said, now we'll do what

00:29:56.240 Jeff wants us to do. And that is go on and tell the news without fear or favor, however I worded

00:30:01.240 it. And then I went on to do the news. And, um, because I just, I'm a very loyal person. And I

00:30:06.540 think that, um, especially if someone dedicates their life and, um, to a company that they deserve

00:30:14.180 to get credit for it because nobody is perfect. And, um, Jeff had looked out for so many people

00:30:19.820 And to have no one stand up for him or say anything about him, just have him disappear, I just think it was untoward, unprofessional, inhumane, and just lacking of any heart or any integrity.

00:30:38.100 And then a year or so later, the same thing happened to me.

00:30:42.260 They just said, okay, goodbye, and I didn't even get to say goodbye.

00:30:45.100 I never got to say goodbye to my audience or anything, even my coworkers.

00:30:49.820 Do you think, I mean, was it, do you think that night and the reason you're highlighting it besides the loyalty is that was the seed that, you know, ultimately was planted in terms of just the distrust, perhaps the new leadership had ultimately in you or did, or did you, or did they, that they were already in that mindset of transition beyond just Jeff looking at the talent, even you earlier?

00:31:14.540 yeah i think that they i don't think they wanted me there from the beginning and as a matter of

00:31:20.940 fact you know i think for a while they were okay uh they were going to try to figure out what to do

00:31:27.980 with me but i i know for a fact that they did not want me and there were other people at the

00:31:35.620 network that they weren't happy with and so i did know that um but i think it was harder to get rid

00:31:43.620 of me than anyone else because um how do you get rid of the gay black guy without getting all kinds 1.00

00:31:51.200 of you know criticism so what you have to do then is destroy someone's reputation and i think that 0.90

00:32:01.320 and not that i think i know that's what they did because reporters would call me and saying we're

00:32:05.100 getting all these news stories negative news stories about you that we have never heard um

00:32:10.460 about you and all the years that you've been at cnn and the calls are coming from inside the house

00:32:15.100 and so these people were you know leaking stuff to reporters false information and the reporters

00:32:21.960 would call me up and say hey don heads up i'm not going to tell you who it is but because that would

00:32:28.100 you know wouldn't be it would go against journalistic integrity or or just being a good

00:32:32.760 journalist but um you better watch your back because the calls are coming from inside the

00:32:37.680 house. And I would say, thank you very much for that. And they, you know, again, I can't tell you

00:32:42.820 who, but yeah. And then, and then later after I left, I found out that it was true, like 100%

00:32:49.980 true from the source, one of the sources who was inside the house. And so they were just looking

00:32:56.760 for that moment, whatever it might be. And obviously the Nikki Haley comment became that

00:33:02.220 moment or do you feel it was that or i mean obviously they wanted you to move on but did you

00:33:07.800 were you i mean that you when you made that comment which you know you didn't even think

00:33:13.320 twice about it right did you no no i when i made the comment i didn't think twice about it because

00:33:18.480 i said if you actually go back and look at the video and read the transcript i said i'm not saying

00:33:23.840 i believe that yeah and so what i was trying to say in that moment i could have been clearer about

00:33:28.280 it but you know it's on tv and everything was you know you're going and they're like oh you got to

00:33:31.680 get to the break or whatever. But what I was saying is that is how society treats women, 1.00

00:33:36.100 but that's not what I believe. And so they took that and used it as a pretext. And I told,

00:33:43.200 I explained to them what I meant. And they wanted to write an apology. I said, why am I apologizing

00:33:49.600 for something that I didn't really say? And then, but hey, it is what it is. And it was a blessing

00:33:58.500 in disguise i believe but um what i what the the most disheartening thing about it was that i knew

00:34:04.360 nikki haley and we had a pretty good relationship and she immediately fundraised off of it rather

00:34:09.200 than saying don what did you say what did you mean and so she used it for political expediency

00:34:14.380 which was to me it was like wow does she have any integrity at all because if nikki haley or

00:34:20.480 someone that i knew even just sort of tangentially had said something about me i would call them up

00:34:25.600 and say what do you mean by that um and but she never did that yeah well i mean i don't want to

00:34:34.900 fast forward i'm just thinking about the fundraising we see with donald trump off the

00:34:38.320 death of an american soldier in this iranian war and the lengths to which dare i say politicians

00:34:44.200 will go to exploit those things don when you when also i mean look at the look at how the

00:34:50.100 over the death of charlie kirk there were a lot of people who grifted off of his death i do i

00:34:54.380 believe in the republican party a lot of people made money fundraising off of his death yeah sorry

00:34:59.100 to interrupt no hardly in in i want to get to all that but i want to go back to this you know i love

00:35:04.220 this you know notion of confidence and you know and shaping on your journey and how every sort of

00:35:10.020 level and every sort of relationship to newsrooms journalism local uh state national on the field

00:35:16.880 um in um you know running your own shows different different moments in different times and networks

00:35:22.400 But so you're all of a sudden now, man, you're out after all these years, sort of midstream your career, sort of peaked on lemon.

00:35:29.540 Everybody knows you. You've branded yourself in pretty remarkable and iconic ways.

00:35:34.320 And now you're out in those moments, you know, not having a chance, as you say, to even talk to your audience and, you know, say goodbye.

00:35:42.240 I mean, so how just on a personal level? I mean, was that I mean, how shattering was that to your confidence?

00:35:47.700 forget your brand forget your professional life but just to you as a person you're like

00:35:52.160 was there a lot of introspection was there you know what any you know were you moments of real

00:35:56.980 doubt and did you feel you weren't declined personally in terms of just you know feeling

00:36:01.300 depressed anxious what i mean or you know what tell us a little bit about that journey

00:36:05.080 the immediate aftermath aftermath god that's so much that's a lot how much time do you have

00:36:10.900 um uh i um look i i know that nothing lasts forever i mean you know you think you have

00:36:21.000 term limits we have term limits and when we when we hold jobs is i never thought that the cnn job

00:36:27.140 would be forever but i thought that i would be treated with way more respect and and kindness

00:36:32.380 um after dedicating so much of my life and career and you know there were years and years where i

00:36:39.820 did not take vacations. I don't think I took a vacation for 10 years. And finally they said,

00:36:44.280 Don, you got to take a vacation. Like you have to take a couple of days off. And so I just thought

00:36:49.100 that I would, you know, I did not like my exit from CNN, but I got to be honest with you when

00:36:55.600 my agent Jay Sewers called me and there was a little bit of relief. I got to be honest because

00:37:02.860 I did not like the direction the network was going and it did not feel the same. And people

00:37:07.420 were not happy working there and people were afraid to even say things and you know like i

00:37:12.520 don't know we may be being bugged and it was just really weird it was a weird time to be there

00:37:16.320 seriously and so um there was a little bit of a relief but then um but also you know i was i was 0.64

00:37:22.780 like you know what the fuck like guys you know i've been a big part of this network and there 0.94

00:37:28.560 are people there who i really love and who really love me and what about all the people who you 0.99

00:37:32.660 know dedicated night after night watching me like I don't get to say goodbye and um you know and you

00:37:38.320 don't trust me enough to go on air live and and be like you know and and what do you expect me to

00:37:43.860 say like you expect me to tell the you're worried that I'm going to tell the truth about what you

00:37:47.780 were doing is that then and how you want it you railroaded me is that what you wanted um is that

00:37:54.220 what you were afraid of so look but afterwards um I never felt diminished because my mama raised me

00:38:01.580 right? And I've never seen a righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. So I never thought

00:38:06.720 that I was diminished. And every single day I was reminded of, and I am now, in the beginning,

00:38:15.080 it was, we miss you on CNN. I can't believe that you're gone. Oh gosh, we miss you. And I still

00:38:21.140 hear that now, but more so I hear, oh my God, I love what you're doing. I love what you're doing

00:38:25.820 now. This is so great. I love you even more than when you were on CNN. So some things are a blessing

00:38:30.800 in disguise and um so it was for a while it was um it felt weird not being at the matrix of every

00:38:42.140 big story that happens in the world as I always was and so that part was a little disconcerting

00:38:50.080 and then like what am I going to do with my day because I had so many responsibilities

00:38:53.660 and then I said just said I'm going to take a year off and then in that year I'm going to decide what

00:39:00.160 I want to do. And at the end of that year, if I, if there is no passion to do anything, then I'll

00:39:05.540 take some more time off. But I had the luxury to do that because, you know, I got fired without

00:39:10.940 cause. So they had to pay me and I had three and a half more years left on my contract. So I was

00:39:14.900 like, I didn't, I want to sit here with my feet up for a long time. I can do it. Um, so yeah,

00:39:25.560 But more than anything, it was insulting the way that they that that my exit was insulting.

00:39:34.860 And many of the people I respected who were in leadership positions at the network showed their true colors and their their lack of the backbone and any sort of morals.

00:39:45.560 They were everybody's is pretty much a survivor.

00:39:47.920 I just you know, I just got to keep my job.

00:39:49.960 I can't speak up.

00:39:50.760 And it's like, oh, God.

00:39:52.220 So that part, you know, was a little bit tough. And the other part is, too, that the only thing that there's one other thing that really gets to me, and that is people believing some of the things that they read about me that are not true, that I am a misogynist or anti-woman.

00:40:10.640 And that really hurts, especially growing up in a family of all women being the only boy and having my mom and my grandmother and my sisters and, you know, all the women in my neighborhood raise me. 0.99

00:40:21.540 It's like, hmm.

00:40:23.220 And then having every, like every single opportunity pretty much for a young woman talent or correspondent came through my show.

00:40:36.080 My show and my showrunner, executive producer Maria Spinella, a woman, we would look for those opportunities to invite new people on. 0.50

00:40:45.320 And many of those new people were women starting at the network.

00:40:48.220 And we were like, we need more women. 1.00

00:40:49.840 If you want to get something done, you hire a woman. 1.00

00:40:51.720 So we would bring them on.

00:40:53.160 And so a number of the people that I gave opportunities to, you know, it was kind of disappointing.

00:41:00.880 But other than that, I don't look back.

00:41:06.080 And I just had to figure out what was next in my life.

00:41:09.300 And I figured that out.

00:41:11.160 And you figured it out, though, first by...

00:41:14.120 With therapy, too.

00:41:14.960 Don't forget that part is very important.

00:41:17.220 Therapy and some good antidepressants.

00:41:20.940 Wow.

00:41:21.640 Look at that.

00:41:22.700 Appreciate.

00:41:23.580 Yeah.

00:41:24.220 I appreciate the honesty.

00:41:27.080 I don't believe...

00:41:28.200 I like to take the stigma off of mental health.

00:41:30.500 And I did not want to do antidepressants for a long time.

00:41:34.360 when I left CNN, but I did have a therapist and I knew I'm smart enough and I'd been around enough

00:41:44.660 to know that you need to talk about those things. And even if you don't get on antidepressants or

00:41:48.780 whatever it is, you need to discuss it. And finally, my therapist said, I said, I don't

00:41:53.620 think I need it right now. I don't think I really need it. And he says, the Lord helps those who

00:41:57.920 help themselves. And I said, okay, send me a prescription. And it was weird because I was

00:42:04.920 okay, but then all of a sudden life came back in living color, vivid. Yeah. And even the sessions,

00:42:14.560 the talk sessions with my therapist, I got more out of it. They became more productive. And

00:42:19.760 I started to enjoy being at home and spending time with my husband and cooking for a lot of

00:42:27.920 him like, Hey, I made a great dish. When you get home, wait, you're going to see this. And then

00:42:32.100 spending time with my dogs, I was like, this is really an opportunity that I may not get until

00:42:36.320 finally one day when I retire. And so, yeah, that after all that, did I go through all of those

00:42:41.920 things? Yes. But I want everybody out there to know I went through it, not alone. I had help.

00:42:47.400 I had friends around me. I had therapists. And I also was open to, you know, if I needed a little

00:42:54.040 help from an antidepressant, I did it. I love it. I love the honesty. I love the transparency

00:43:01.180 and for others that are on those journeys. Canadian women are looking for more, more

00:43:06.040 to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. And that's

00:43:10.360 why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine

00:43:15.580 Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists,

00:43:21.020 athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:43:25.660 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:43:28.880 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:43:35.900 Hey there, this is Josh from Stuff You Should Know with a message that could change your life.

00:43:41.800 The Stuff You Should Know Think Spring podcast playlist is available now.

00:43:46.160 Whether spring has sprung in your neck of the woods yet or not,

00:43:49.380 The Stuff You Should Know Think Spring playlist will make you want to get your overalls on, get outside, and get your hands in the dirt.

00:43:56.380 You can get the Stuff You Should Know Think Spring playlist on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:44:04.480 Let's go!

00:44:05.120 Our iHeartRadio Music Awards are coming back Thursday, March 26th, live on Fox.

00:44:11.820 Watch as we honor the biggest stars from all genres of music that you loved listening to all year long on your favorite iHeartRadio station and the iHeartRadio app.

00:44:20.200 Hosted by Ludacris.

00:44:21.860 Icon Award Recipient John Mellencamp.

00:44:24.000 Innovator Award Recipient Miley Cyrus.

00:44:26.540 With performances by Alex Warren, Kehlani, Lainey Wilson, Ludacris, Ray, TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and En Vogue.

00:44:37.520 Plus, Taylor Swift makes her first award show appearance this year.

00:44:41.640 I cry high, eyes dry, Elizabeth Taylor.

00:44:45.760 Tell me for real, do you think it's forever?

00:44:48.440 Also, gold medal Olympian Alyssa Liu, Neo, Nicole Scherzinger, Nikki Glaser, Somber, Weiser, and more.

00:44:55.840 Watch live on Fox Thursday, March 26th at 8, 7 central.

00:45:00.220 And listen on iHeartRadio stations across America and the free iHeart app.

00:45:05.100 Good people, what's up, what's up? It's Questlove.

00:45:07.760 So recently, I had the incredible opportunity to have a real conversation

00:45:11.580 with actress and producer Jamie Lee Curtis

00:45:14.460 ahead of the release of her new thriller series, Scarpetta.

00:45:18.540 I can honestly say I've never done an interview like that before.

00:45:21.960 You know, at one point, I shut my laptop down,

00:45:24.760 and we just started chatting as old friends, recent Oscar recipient.

00:45:30.480 So we have some commonality there.

00:45:32.840 I predicted that, by the way.

00:45:34.660 And you said these words to me.

00:45:37.160 dust off your mantle yes and i looked at you and i said what and you said dust off your mantle

00:45:46.080 and then i left and that was it and then when all of that happened i remember the next morning i

00:45:52.900 i think i wanted to like write you and go how did you know listen to the quest love show on

00:45:58.760 the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts

00:46:07.160 In 2023, former Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal.

00:46:13.280 The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story.

00:46:18.840 This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth.

00:46:22.180 You doctored this particular test twice in so long, correct?

00:46:25.680 I doctored the test once.

00:46:27.260 It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case.

00:46:30.540 I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for.

00:46:34.600 Sunlight's the greatest disinfectant.

00:46:37.160 they would uncover a disturbing pattern.

00:46:39.360 Two more men who'd been through the same thing.

00:46:41.460 Greg Gillespie and Michael Marancini.

00:46:43.540 My mind was blown.

00:46:45.580 I'm Stephanie Young.

00:46:47.060 This is Love Trap.

00:46:48.980 Laura, Scottsdale Police.

00:46:50.840 As the season continues,

00:46:52.600 Laura Owens finally faces consequences. 0.93

00:46:55.260 Ladies and gentlemen,

00:46:56.180 breaking news at Americopa County

00:46:58.100 as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges.

00:47:01.540 This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona.

00:47:05.340 listen to love trapped podcast on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get

00:47:11.340 your podcasts that journey though you took a call from twitter took a call from us took a call first

00:47:20.660 let's let's not forget a little bit of elon musk don lemon come on what was that so you you landed

00:47:27.880 on you know the lemon drop we'll get to all this you know don lemon show your network and

00:47:32.480 everything you're doing now and how you're crushing it, but you took a little bit of a detour

00:47:37.540 hoping, you know, to, to build a network platform or at least platform on, on their network. Right.

00:47:44.400 Did Elon Musk call you? You called him. I, well, it was, it was basically, it was basically the

00:47:51.700 only thing that I could do because I was still contractually obligated to CNN, right. I had

00:47:56.080 contractual obligations, so I couldn't take a job in cable unless I just wanted to lose all my money,

00:48:00.700 but or get sued so i couldn't do that and um broadcast there were stipulations on any anything

00:48:07.460 that i did there were stipulations on it and so i had to renegotiate my exit with cnn and i finally

00:48:14.120 got them to agree to digital and and which was i smart at the time i didn't realize how smart it

00:48:20.580 was because that's where everything was going so as all this was happening i started to realize

00:48:25.800 like why why do i want to go back to traditional television because it's on the decline and um

00:48:31.720 you know elon musk had put out there that he wanted to you know i should bring my show there

00:48:37.020 like tucker did and um and then i got a call from um uh um ari emmanuel who said um wait which one 0.92

00:48:46.840 i forget bar yeah ari ari yeah um rom is the brother in chicago and saying you know yeah you

00:48:53.960 you should try this with, and Ari was not my agent. He was friends with Elon. And I said,

00:48:58.760 okay, well, I'll take his phone call. You know, I'll take his phone call. And we talked for a

00:49:02.280 little bit. And then I talked to him one or two times. And once it was a long conversation,

00:49:06.840 they were in Paris, he and his mom, his mom was sitting at the table. And as we were talking,

00:49:10.960 it was a nice conversation. And then, but I decided that I wanted to wait. I knew that Elon

00:49:16.880 was kind of an erratic person. Like, you know, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way, but

00:49:21.140 you know, right. And so I said, um, they were going to hire this woman from NBC. God, I can't 0.89

00:49:27.760 remember her name now. And, um, who had to run, to run their new platform, to run their new platform.

00:49:33.980 And I said, I'll wait till, you know, another adult comes on board and someone who's, you know,

00:49:38.640 who knows how to deal with these things. And then, uh, the, the conversations picked back up and

00:49:43.220 eventually she convinced me to do it under the, with the agreement that I would have complete

00:49:53.500 editorial control and that I would have to, at some times, at some points, criticize even the

00:49:58.620 owner of that platform. And she said, yes, that's great. We love it. That's what he wants. That's

00:50:03.100 what we want. And then, you know, the first interview. That's not what he wanted. Or with

00:50:10.980 elon musk for those that don't know you you sat down and you interviewed your boss elon musk and

00:50:16.780 that was a hell of an interview i mean you came in you know what would you let me ask you would

00:50:22.460 you what'd you make of the interview you thought no were you i mean clearly he wasn't prepared for

00:50:31.040 your line of questioning um were you prepared for his response you knew what you were doing

00:50:36.460 i mean you knew what you were doing of course you knew what you were doing

00:50:39.440 um I was I prepared for his response um look I never know what someone's going to say I never

00:50:47.800 assume but yes I'm prepared in the sense that I can just sit there and listen to it or um and or

00:50:55.200 I can you know challenge or question or follow up on certain things because that's what journalists

00:51:01.940 do. And so, but during the interview, I asked him about most of the things, 90 some percent of the

00:51:10.160 time of that interview, I asked him about things that he had said publicly or things that he had

00:51:14.880 done publicly. And so I didn't, you know, you should be able to answer that. And I didn't think

00:51:20.920 that I, you know, attacked him in any way. That wasn't the intent at all. And I was, the intent

00:51:27.480 was to, one is just to be a journalist, to ask him questions, and in a way to show people that

00:51:35.320 two people who come from different backgrounds and who have different sort of political beliefs

00:51:41.000 and ideologies, that we could actually sit and have a conversation and disagree with each other,

00:51:45.920 and it would be good for the platform, which is exactly what he wanted, to sort of moderate the

00:51:49.980 platform so that it wasn't so far right and it wasn't so extreme. And that was it. That was the

00:51:56.760 only goal was to have a great conversation with him and say, Hey, see, this is what I'm trying

00:52:01.220 to do here. I'm not going to change what, who I am or what I believe, because I'm going on a,

00:52:06.000 you know, I'm doing business with Elon Musk and you see him as a sort of right-wing radical or

00:52:10.300 whatever it is. I'm still going to be done, but I'm going to go on that platform and try to do

00:52:15.080 what he said, what he wanted. And what I wanted is to try to moderate it a little bit. That was it,

00:52:20.860 but didn't work out that way. Did it? Did you, did you feel the pressure? I mean,

00:52:26.080 i imagine you got a lot of input people saying what the hell are you doing over there don you're

00:52:31.620 don't sell out yeah so you i mean you must have then i mean i'm just curious did you i mean you

00:52:38.040 must have then come in you came in that interview with a little bit of you know you're gonna have

00:52:42.040 to overcompensate for that right you're gonna have to demonstrate that in that interview no

00:52:45.440 i mean did you feel like you didn't feel that you just i don't feel that kind of pressure

00:52:49.560 you never felt that no you can't no you can't feel that pressure when you if you're a journalist

00:52:53.940 you can't feel that pressure because really the truth is i i know you can't but i don't i'm asking

00:52:59.260 did not feel that pressure my north star is my north star number one facts and um and i live in

00:53:07.860 reality and i in a way i wanted people to understand him and i wanted to understand him

00:53:13.660 because i didn't you know i i don't i'm not a tech reporter i don't sit down and study elon musk

00:53:19.000 So these were just honest questions about him and what he said. And I was like, and I thought it was, as I mentioned to you in this interview, you know, about mental health and all of that. And when he said that he took ketamine because it helped him, I was like, that's great.

00:53:35.920 people should know about that. And perhaps it could help someone else. And I had been doing

00:53:40.520 stories on drug therapy, which included, I mean, where it was where members of our military had

00:53:48.640 had PSD and they started doing drug guided drug therapy and boom, it got rid of it faster than

00:53:53.840 talk therapy and it changed their lives. So I thought that was important, but I guess he or

00:53:58.780 some people thought that I was digging into things that were personal, but he's the one who talked

00:54:03.280 about it. And so I was just trying to illuminate the situation and, you know, broaden it so that

00:54:08.300 people could understand him more and perhaps he would make a difference. So no, I did not feel

00:54:12.900 that pressure. I feel that, I don't think that, um, I had been around long enough to know that

00:54:19.320 from one interview that you should not feel pressure to sort of make your bones in one

00:54:25.960 interview. You make your bones over time with the body of your work and not necessarily one single

00:54:31.640 thing so i wasn't really trying to prove a point there there was no there was no need for me to

00:54:36.020 prove a point because i feel like after 17 years at cnn and however long i was at nbc um that i

00:54:41.980 think people know that i'm a journalist and they know what my beliefs are and they certainly knew

00:54:47.120 it after watching that interview which went talk about but that interview was prescient

00:54:51.940 governor everything in that interview um that came out of that interview about the great

00:54:59.820 replacement theory yeah um about donating money to candidates about um diversity equity and

00:55:08.120 inclusion every single one of those things yeah became huge topics almost like eight months or a

00:55:17.920 year after i did the interview so i was sort of like looking around the corner trying to show

00:55:22.840 people what might happen and if that is not an indication of good journalism then i don't know

00:55:28.320 what it is. Look at you. Well done. I like the spike is spiking that, but that's spiking the

00:55:33.580 mic in that respect. Yeah. No, I mean, no argument for me. What, what in that context though, what,

00:55:39.200 so what did you get the call 10 minutes later saying you're out of here, man? What, I mean,

00:55:44.140 what happened after that? I got a call. Were there other interviews that we never saw that

00:55:49.880 were canned? I mean, what happened? No, another call from Jay, my agent. Oh Jesus, poor Jay.

00:55:58.320 It was a rainy night.

00:56:00.280 It was a rainy night in Georgia.

00:56:01.740 No, it was a rainy night at Newark Airport.

00:56:03.660 We had just landed from Austin where we interviewed him.

00:56:06.620 I think we interviewed him on a Friday.

00:56:12.260 And then we had a Saturday off or something like that.

00:56:16.460 Or we interviewed him on a Saturday.

00:56:17.720 I forget.

00:56:18.380 And then Sunday night when we landed, I got a call.

00:56:23.240 I think I got a call from Jay and he said,

00:56:25.920 Elon just called or something.

00:56:27.600 he's canceled the, the contract. And I said, okay, I'm taxing. I'm going to have to call you

00:56:34.580 back. And so as soon as we, you know, as soon as we could use the phone, my, my executive

00:56:39.480 producer, Jonathan was sitting with me and we took the call and we were like, okay, I don't know

00:56:45.620 why it was, it was an interview, but it was tough. We've had tougher interviews. You know,

00:56:51.320 I've interviewed politicians. And as you know, you guys don't always like the questions that

00:56:56.720 we ask and it can be very contentious that's why i like this don that's why i like on this side

00:57:01.860 this is more like it keep going yes yes and so um uh i we didn't think that there was anything

00:57:10.500 that unusual and so uh but he did and so that was that and then we've dealt with it you know ever

00:57:15.860 since i mean we've dealt with it and as you know i'm still in active litigation with him of course

00:57:19.740 so i can't say much talk more but um i think you know except all of this is public knowledge

00:57:24.400 Everyone knows we've already talked about this, everything that I've shared with you.

00:57:28.060 But you know that back and forth is something that adults, I believe, understand.

00:57:34.660 I mean, I'm going to share a little bit.

00:57:38.180 I have those conversations with you over text, like, man, you interviewed this person and

00:57:43.400 you should have pushed him more on this and more on that and this.

00:57:50.180 And then you can go, well, that's not, I was trying to do something else, whatever.

00:57:53.880 And it's like, OK, all right, great. But we're still friendly. We're still friends. It doesn't you know, we don't have to fight or hate each other because we disagree with something the other person has done. I don't agree. I love my my mom and my husband the most in the world. And I don't agree with them 100 percent of the time, especially being in a marriage. Do you know, there are very few times that we agree on shit.

00:58:15.960 So, well, I, I, look you, so that was, so, but that's the journey you talked about, you know, 0.98

00:58:26.240 just, you know, the, the worst of times, the best of times, things reveal themselves,

00:58:30.760 opportunities present themselves. And so you then went from that to this, or did you try

00:58:38.100 something in between the, in terms of, no, I went from that network. You went right to this.

00:58:43.480 So I went from, yeah, this was, well, this was part, that was part of this.

00:58:47.580 That was supposed to be the start of this.

00:58:49.460 That was going to be the, you know, my sort of seed money or first client was this, this,

00:58:54.940 you know, and that, that was the agreement that we had.

00:58:57.800 And so I was like, well, just because that happened, it doesn't mean that I'm going to

00:59:00.960 give up.

00:59:01.500 I mean, come on, I'm Don Lemon. 1.00

00:59:02.840 I'm not doing that shit. 0.99

00:59:04.120 And so, um, I just leaned into it and I did what were I, I did what I did best. 0.99

00:59:10.400 And that was to be a journalist, to be an on-air person, to go out and talk to people or invite them in an environment or situation like this and to discuss and to have interesting conversations and to serve, you know, the public.

00:59:28.120 And in many ways, I'm serving my constituents similarly to what you do.

00:59:33.600 So, yeah, and I just said, I was just dogged about in my pursuit of doing this.

00:59:39.440 And so that's where the Don Lemon show has taken me to, to right where we are now.

00:59:45.560 How many years now is the Don Lemon show?

00:59:47.860 I mean, this current format, I mean, you keep iterating, you know, the hot takes and

00:59:52.880 Lemon Drops and, you know, you're doing the five o'clock every day hit.

00:59:57.920 You're doing, I mean, this, in the current format, how long have you been?

01:00:01.460 It's a lot of work.

01:00:02.700 It's a lot of work.

01:00:04.960 It is a lot of work.

01:00:06.220 i think the uh i i'm trying to find out the exact date of our show yeah um let me see the don lemon

01:00:13.000 show i'm actually googling it around right now i think it will be two years i think it was like

01:00:18.020 two years what is today it may be two years today our first show may have dropped come on on st

01:00:25.300 patrick's day two years ago i think it may have been like march 17 i forget somewhere around but

01:00:30.980 this is the two-year mark of the Don Lemon show.

01:00:34.160 And has it been, what's been the most,

01:00:36.320 what's been the most, I mean, for you,

01:00:39.080 the most interesting part of it?

01:00:40.340 What's been the biggest surprise?

01:00:42.400 Is it, I mean, has it been harder?

01:00:44.180 Has it been easier?

01:00:45.200 Has it been more rewarding, less rewarding?

01:00:47.460 You say it's a grind, I mean, it's a lot of work.

01:00:50.220 What's, you know, what's been that journey the last two years?

01:00:53.000 It's more rewarding, Gavin, in a real human sense.

01:00:58.920 you know um you know having someone do your makeup every day and you know fancy clothes and all that

01:01:04.820 stuff and i mean that has its you know perks or whatever but it has been more rewarding in as i

01:01:12.100 say in a real way because it's me and there's very little artifice about it there are fewer barriers

01:01:19.800 between me and the people who are relying on me to convey the news to them they it you know i'm

01:01:27.900 sitting in my home right now and so they people feel like they know me and if they feel like they

01:01:33.640 know me um they feel like it's easier for them to trust me right and so i started off in a studio

01:01:43.960 uh in midtown that i was spending way too much money on and um it was doing okay

01:01:51.820 but there was no connection there and the audience kept saying to me you know you're doing cable news

01:01:59.280 light they didn't put it that way but that's what it felt like and i and i i decided like i was

01:02:04.620 sitting one day and i said you know i'm doing the same thing i did at cnn except just a bit different

01:02:09.980 why am i doing this i'm going to sit in my living room every day and i'm going to do a show called

01:02:14.820 live at five and steal it from chuck scarborough and sue simmons here in new york back in the day

01:02:19.120 and i said i'm just gonna go and i'm gonna build a community not just gonna like a station this is

01:02:24.160 a community and i sat here every day and sometimes there would be hundreds watching and then a thousand

01:02:29.140 watching two thousand watching three thousand and four thousand then now we're up to like if we get

01:02:33.800 below you know 15 000 or so we're like oh we're not doing or 20 you know we're not doing great

01:02:39.900 and so that every day and then eventually on the total watches and views hundreds of thousands of

01:02:45.880 people watch over time and um and and i've created quite honestly the lemon nation and so the the

01:02:53.920 thing that's been the most rewarding would you steal that from michael savage didn't he do savage

01:02:58.360 nation back in the day oh no i didn't even i never thought about that no savage nation oh my god 0.88

01:03:03.180 michael savage you're really going i'm just saying no interesting no i just i don't know how i got

01:03:09.820 elimination it just sort of came out elimination at first and then i was saying how am i going to

01:03:14.000 do it is it going to be two n's or one is it l-e-m-o-n and then n-a-t-i-o-n or is it l-e-m-o-n-a-t-i-o-n 0.51

01:03:21.920 so anyways i digress um but it has been look when i left uh cnn i didn't know if anybody would care

01:03:28.640 if i'd ever be back on a major platform um or have the voice that i had before and um but then the

01:03:36.820 moment i let that go yeah it just kind of came and i feel like i'm more popular now than when i

01:03:45.900 was on cnn i get recognized more on the streets now than when i was on cnn um people show up to

01:03:51.160 my events more now and my speaking engagements more than when i was on cnn it's an it's an it's

01:03:56.320 a really odd thing that's happened and rewarding and rewarding and and so just you know as you now

01:04:04.240 start, you know, new media, old media, legacy media, however you want to call it, fake news,

01:04:09.380 you know, as others pejorative, you may frame it, this notion of independent, you know, you're being

01:04:13.680 your own boss, you can, you know, your own routines, your own opportunities to continue to iterate in

01:04:19.940 terms of you're building this network and this platform. I mean, what do you make just jumping

01:04:23.900 right into the sort of anxiety that I imagine must be just, you know, universal over at CNN today

01:04:30.020 with the changes that are about to take shape

01:04:33.440 when this merger is advanced?

01:04:37.940 What do you think is going to become of your old stomping grounds?

01:04:44.380 Oof.

01:04:46.420 That is a very good question.

01:04:50.240 I'm afraid for them.

01:04:53.960 I know this is going to sound weird and condescending,

01:04:56.440 but in a way, I feel bad for them

01:04:58.620 because they're in a tough position um when i saw it i laughed when i saw that they were gonna

01:05:06.000 buy it and i laughed but i didn't mean it to like i'm laughing at them i laughed because

01:05:11.780 i was thinking what a blessing in disguise this was for me and then at the same time i felt like

01:05:18.020 man the best journalists in the world aren't going to be able to be their best because

01:05:23.060 someone is going to try to influence a news network politically with ideology and that should

01:05:31.720 never happen to cnn and so um i i know that uh there's a lot of freaking out going on at cnn

01:05:41.520 right now people not knowing what's going to happen um i do know as well i mean we're not 0.97

01:05:47.360 neither of us is stupid and nobody watching this is stupid there are going to be layoffs 0.98

01:05:51.180 A lot of journalists are going to lose their jobs. They're going to end up having to do, you know, something very similar to what I'm doing. And they are in for a very rude awakening about just how easy or how hard this is to make happen. 1.00

01:06:05.960 um but mostly i just felt bad for for journalism and for freedom of the press after that happened

01:06:14.080 um because the consolidation of media right now is troubling but the consolidation of conservative

01:06:23.660 media is even more troubling than that if you look at you know the ellison's out control you

01:06:28.940 know some of tiktok and the algorithm they have cbs they're soon going to have cnn um rupert

01:06:35.560 Murdoch has Fox News. The folks at the other networks are a little bit neutered because

01:06:43.160 they're afraid of Donald Trump. Donald Trump has sued ABC. He often talks crap about NBC,

01:06:52.800 and he insults reporters and all those things. So I can't imagine, well, I can't imagine the 0.94

01:06:58.760 consternation that's happening at CNN. And I'm lucky not to be a part of it, but I feel bad

01:07:03.860 that it's happening to them.

01:07:05.720 Canadian women are looking for more, 1.00

01:07:07.860 more out of themselves, their businesses,

01:07:09.880 their elected leaders, and the world around them.

01:07:12.060 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce

01:07:13.660 the Honest Talk podcast.

01:07:15.780 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

01:07:16.980 And I'm Catherine Clark.

01:07:18.200 And in this podcast,

01:07:19.340 we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

01:07:21.920 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians,

01:07:24.580 and newsmakers,

01:07:25.500 all at different stages of their journey.

01:07:27.680 So if you're looking to connect,

01:07:29.500 then we hope you'll join us.

01:07:30.680 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio

01:07:33.300 or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

01:08:03.300 TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and In Vogue.

01:08:09.200 Plus, Taylor Swift makes her first award show appearance this year.

01:08:20.100 Also, gold medal Olympian Alyssa Liu, Neo, Nicole Scherzinger, Nikki Glaser, Somber,

01:08:26.560 Weiser, and more.

01:08:27.840 Watch live on Fox Thursday, March 26th at 8, 7 central.

01:08:32.020 And listen on iHeart Radio stations across America and the free iHeart app.

01:08:38.660 Hey there, this is Josh from Stuff You Should Know with a message that could change your life.

01:08:44.540 The Stuff You Should Know Think Spring podcast playlist is available now.

01:08:48.920 Whether spring has sprung in your neck of the woods yet or not,

01:08:52.320 the Stuff You Should Know Think Spring playlist will make you want to get your overalls on,

01:08:56.600 get outside, and get your hands in the dirt. 0.97

01:08:58.780 You can get the Stuff You Should Know Think Spring playlist on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:09:07.140 Good people. What's up? What's up? It's Questlove.

01:09:09.720 So recently I had the incredible opportunity to have a real conversation with actress and producer Jamie Lee Curtis ahead of the release of her new thriller series, Scarpetta.

01:09:20.540 I can honestly say I've never done an interview like that before.

01:09:23.540 Or, you know, at one point I shut my laptop down and we just started chatting as old friends, recent Oscar recipient.

01:09:32.400 So we have some commonality there.

01:09:34.880 I predicted that, by the way.

01:09:36.340 And you said these words to me, dust off your mantle.

01:09:42.220 Yes.

01:09:42.660 And I looked at you and I said, what?

01:09:45.060 And you said, dust off your mantle.

01:09:48.300 And then I left and that was it.

01:09:50.240 And then when all of that happened, I remember the next morning, I think I wanted to, like, write you and go, how did you know?

01:09:59.440 Listen to The Questlove Show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:10:08.760 In 2023, former Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal.

01:10:15.320 The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story.

01:10:20.880 This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth.

01:10:24.220 You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Ellens, correct?

01:10:27.720 I doctored the test once.

01:10:29.300 It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case.

01:10:32.580 I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for.

01:10:36.600 Sunlight's the greatest disinfectant.

01:10:38.860 They would uncover a disturbing pattern.

01:10:41.380 Two more men who'd been through the same thing.

01:10:43.400 Greg Gillespie and Michael Maricini.

01:10:45.320 My mind was blown.

01:10:47.640 I'm Stephanie Young.

01:10:49.020 This is Love Trap.

01:10:50.920 Laura, Scottsdale Police.

01:10:52.860 As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. 1.00

01:10:57.300 Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news out of Maricopa County

01:11:00.140 as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges.

01:11:03.560 This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona.

01:11:08.840 Listen to the Love Trapped podcast on the iHeartRadio app,

01:11:11.640 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:11:15.320 But when you, did you anticipate, I mean, a scenario, honestly, you know, you're looking back in your career, did it ever even enter your mind, the prospects that you'd be arrested for doing your job?

01:11:31.280 Honestly, I mean, like, no, I mean, passing, you just were like, you know, there's a scenario, you know, you made a joke, you know, a late night dinner or something, you know, did you ever really believe that possible?

01:11:41.920 no i didn't think it would be possible i thought the only time that anything like that was possible

01:11:47.420 as if you are um which is a very similar scenario to what happened but you know if you're at a

01:11:52.780 protest right and and the powers that be your authorities or police or whatever it is are

01:11:58.700 trying to push people back and you get caught up in a scrum or something you know i thought it's

01:12:03.920 possible that could happen i've seen my colleagues um get um arrested on television it almost

01:12:10.340 happened to me in ferguson uh if it had not been for um another officer i was on with wolf blitzer

01:12:18.240 and they were moving us back and i was trying to move and the cop was going to push me and he tried

01:12:22.960 to grab me um and i i forget the it's been a while ago 2014 or so and um and so i you know i thought

01:12:33.260 that that sort of thing that possibly it could happen but then i had a giant network behind me

01:12:37.260 it would just be like, okay, we'll, we'll take care of this. Um, you'll be out by the time your

01:12:41.960 show, whatever, blah, blah, blah. But this is a whole different sort of thing that's happened now.

01:12:46.580 And so the answer to your question is in, um, an emphatic, no, never, never. When you saw what

01:12:54.360 happened, the Washington post, the FBI going in, I mean, was that, what, what, what was your first

01:13:00.800 reaction to that? That the attack on institutions that we need in this country in order for this

01:13:11.520 democracy to work, in order for this republic to work, that those institutions, the attacks on

01:13:16.300 them are starting to diminish those institutions. I thought that the very people who love to tout

01:13:27.940 the constitution all the time didn't doesn't believe in the constitution nor the bill of

01:13:32.880 rights nor the the first amendment the free speech absolutists somehow don't believe in

01:13:40.060 free speech absolutism and especially as it relates to the press it's only if people are

01:13:46.000 saying favorable things about you i mean look at what pete hexeth said about you know uh this is

01:13:51.840 how the headlines should be written and i can't wait for david ellison to take over cnn which was

01:13:56.080 yep than any other time that would have been outrage a non-stop story headlines right

01:14:05.880 correct and then for donald trump to tweet out look at how i changed the media and all the people

01:14:10.840 he got fired and he sued and all it's like it's crazy times and then arresting reporters

01:14:16.620 i'm just saying wait give me your question again what was that did i answer your question

01:14:23.440 yeah no i mean in in just you know the seed that was planted as it relates to the fbi raid at the

01:14:29.060 washington post but this notion yes with miss nathan nathanson the reporter i mean look she's

01:14:36.000 still fighting for her phone i still don't have a phone at this point but she's i don't have my phone

01:14:41.000 yeah they took my phone they still have it i mean that's that's public knowledge and uh that came

01:14:46.080 out in the in the court proceedings the first one my first court appearance um and um they took her

01:14:52.820 phone as well and her attorneys are fighting for that but you know there's there's reporters have

01:14:58.840 privilege you know for it's like an attorney and so um you have to be very careful about those

01:15:05.640 things and we cannot lose those things otherwise we are going to lose the we're going to lose the

01:15:12.060 the first amendment we're going to lose the freedom of the press because part of that is

01:15:15.880 having sources and being able to be trusted by those sources that you're not going to give any

01:15:23.900 information away that they give you. Reporters go to jail over they have over refusing to give up a

01:15:30.720 source. And then usually it ends up working out for them saying they don't have to and they get

01:15:35.680 out but still um so we cannot lose uh those norms and those traditions because otherwise we're no

01:15:45.940 better than a country that we're at war with right now and we are saying you know that iran shoots

01:15:53.540 protesters well so do we and you know we're over there because iran um you know uh jails reporters

01:16:03.540 or doesn't have free speech,

01:16:06.660 and that makes us no better than them

01:16:08.500 if we are acting and doing the very same things

01:16:10.960 that they're doing,

01:16:11.580 then what sort of moral authority do we have

01:16:14.660 to be able to be there in a war

01:16:17.460 and, quite frankly, killing people?

01:16:20.620 You were arrested in Los Angeles.

01:16:23.860 You were covering the Grammys.

01:16:28.040 Why do you think they targeted you?

01:16:30.880 Why you?

01:16:31.400 I think they thought that they I was gonna make a joke sorry that I was a fashion crime that they

01:16:40.100 sent the fashion police it was a Grammys I'm joking it's a red carpet joke why do you think

01:16:44.200 I think they targeted me um I can't you'll have to ask them that but my my opinion is that they

01:16:51.420 targeted me because they have been after me for a long time I mean Donald Trump has been

01:16:56.400 tweeting about me and talking about me for quite some time. And I, you know, from one day to the

01:17:04.800 other, I would rather not think about Donald Trump. And when I was at CNN, I asked him,

01:17:09.380 do I have to cover Donald Trump every night? Because I'm tired of talking about him. I'm not

01:17:13.400 interested in anything that he says or does because none of it makes sense. So I think it's

01:17:19.760 Because, number one, you know, I worked for CNN and I was very outspoken about how I felt about him and the administration and what this MAGA movement meant and what they were doing and how they were trampling on our Constitution.

01:17:37.640 And also, you know, I'm black.

01:17:40.380 If you look at all the people, most of the indictments of the people who have been indicted in a lot of them are brown.

01:17:46.620 A lot of them look like me.

01:17:47.740 um and i think he's a racist and um and um i think that also quite frankly part of it is that i was

01:17:57.880 the biggest name you know in that whole sort of church arrest thing and perhaps if i was not there

01:18:04.660 maybe none of this would be happening to the other people i feel a little guilt about that

01:18:09.140 um so that's it yeah yeah so why well i think it's why because he's going the same reason that

01:18:15.860 he's going after, you know, Tish James or Lisa Cook or James Comey or any of, I mean, because he can

01:18:23.740 and because he doesn't like that, he doesn't like it when people don't agree with him, when you're

01:18:29.780 not part of his cult. Were you done, were you humbled, grateful by the outrage that came out

01:18:42.480 of your arrest or did you feel like folks even in your profession were a little bit timid didn't

01:18:48.860 you know some you know i'm talking in the aggregate did you feel was sufficient the level

01:18:56.080 of outrage that came from that arrest or were are people a little too complicit this moment

01:19:03.620 um well it's a combination i was very humbled by the support that i got and um and uh

01:19:12.460 surprised, especially in the beginning, but because there's so much going on, uh, in the world,

01:19:19.700 um, as it relates to the Trump administration, pardon me, I think people are a bit, um, worn

01:19:27.160 worn down. And, um, I think that journalists now in, in, at many, um, organizations are nervous

01:19:38.480 and worried about keeping their jobs,

01:19:42.260 especially now that broadcast and cable are diminishing

01:19:45.620 and there aren't really any jobs, many jobs left,

01:19:48.840 if any, and people are getting laid off.

01:19:50.540 I think they're worried about that.

01:19:51.680 So they don't want to speak up

01:19:52.760 and they don't want to say anything.

01:19:54.720 So, but I can't believe that this story is not on,

01:19:59.140 not one of the major headlines almost every single day

01:20:02.140 because they arrested me,

01:20:05.680 they arrested the other reporter,

01:20:07.020 then pete hexa says i can't wait for someone to take over and then donald trump says this thing

01:20:12.100 and then they're you know the the well how about brendan car how about brendan car saying basically

01:20:17.260 they're not going to renew broadcasting licenses unless you do the our war bidding quote unquote

01:20:21.480 whatever the propagandists want to yeah i mean that that's a hell of a statement huh yes and we

01:20:26.960 we're all in the same fight and and we should all be on the same team and this should be they

01:20:33.080 the folks the journalists the news organizations they have the ability to um to prioritize this

01:20:41.180 and right now they're not they just say you know they'll do a couple of segments on it and then

01:20:46.120 they forget about it but this has repercussions for almost everything we do without the first

01:20:50.960 amendment governor all of the other amendments nothing else nothing else stands and so um this

01:20:57.340 affects journalists. It affects hosts on television shows, late night hosts. Look at what

01:21:03.260 happened to Jimmy Kimmel. Look at what's happening with Stephen Colbert. All of it. This affects

01:21:07.440 the publishing industry, books. This is long reaching ramifications. And I think people need

01:21:15.240 to start really thinking about it, especially the news organizations who are really in a way

01:21:20.460 hastening their own demise by bending the knee to this administration, because if they stood up to 0.98

01:21:26.760 him more people would watch the ratings would be better because they would say well yeah damn it 0.88

01:21:32.440 they are standing up to him but now they are being bullied by donald trump who's threatening

01:21:36.920 to take them off the air and threatening to you know snatch their licenses and then the people

01:21:42.680 at home are going i'm not gonna watch you so like wake up people but it's hard when you have people

01:21:48.500 who own the networks who believe in the same ideology and donald trump is their you know

01:21:54.300 they're god king so it's you know what do you do well i'm trying to sell those knee pads you see

01:22:02.520 behind me uh the signature series trump knee pads uh by the way as you know the old ones sold out

01:22:10.180 just like a lot of the folks you just mentioned and sold out but these uh these just came in fresh

01:22:14.740 batch so they're available in pairs you can you can sell them you can sell them to some and in

01:22:21.060 book. Well, you should sell them to some of the parent companies of the news organization because

01:22:25.880 they need them. Oh, amen. Look, I could spend hours with you, Don. I just think, I hope it's

01:22:33.360 Don and everybody what we're up against. I mean, this is code red. What you've gone through, and

01:22:39.880 I appreciate your levity around all this and how you've been able to personally deal with this

01:22:44.100 because you're in litigation. You've got lawyers. I mean, this thing, this is a financial toll.

01:22:48.860 this is serious he's sending a message it wasn't just coming after you it was sending a message to

01:22:53.580 everybody else it's time for all of you to shut up and self-censor and we cannot afford that we'll

01:22:58.780 lose this country as you suggest we'll lose our republic we will we will lose it in real time

01:23:03.320 this is exactly what putin did this is what orban did erdogan this it's real it's happening it's

01:23:08.200 happening a faster clip than on those other countries and it could happen here in the united

01:23:12.860 States unless we call it out. And so the fact that you're not giving up and you continue to

01:23:19.020 punch back, man, is an inspiration. I just personally want to thank you. I've asked my kids

01:23:23.780 also on behalf of, you know, why the damn founding fathers lived and died. We're celebrating 1.00

01:23:29.960 Radiant's 250th anniversary of at least that declaration. And, you know, this is what it was

01:23:34.640 all about. This is what they lived and died for. And so it's so important that we call this out

01:23:40.760 And you continue to do that on an hourly basis, not just a daily basis.

01:23:46.000 Thank you. May I, as a journalist, ask you a question that I really want to know?

01:23:50.360 I don't know. It's not a curveball.

01:23:51.400 I can edit you right out since it's my podcast.

01:23:53.120 It's not a curveball.

01:23:54.460 So having said what you said and having heard Donald Trump talk about nationalizing the elections and having Republicans take over the election,

01:24:04.880 are you confident that we'll have a free and fair election in 2026 for the midterms

01:24:11.300 um that's an open-ended question one thing i'm absolutely confident of we won't

01:24:17.200 will not have a fair free election in 2028 unless we take back the house of representatives

01:24:22.140 in 2026 um this guy's not screwing around look you saw what happened in la he sent out bortac

01:24:28.540 teams the day of the election in Los Angeles on election day on Prop 50 in order to chill

01:24:35.200 free expression. Sent out a tweet that morning on True Social saying the election was rigged.

01:24:40.220 Sent out his Department of Justice monitors and then ultimately try to litigate and get to the

01:24:44.800 Supreme Court to say the election was fraudulently decided. He's not screwing around. You saw what

01:24:50.060 happened in Fulton County and how he's taking over that board in Fulton County. That's still

01:24:54.560 active and it's happening. He talked about the nationalization of the election. Then he said,

01:24:58.860 no, just 15 blue states. Save Act, it's next level what the Save Act is all about. That's about

01:25:05.580 deciding who can vote. It's not about voter IDs trying to purge the voting rolls. We are in

01:25:11.720 litigation on that here. He's been doing that in other states. This guy is not screwing around.

01:25:16.900 So our state of mind has to be, I think, very mindful that we are hardly out of the woods,

01:25:23.400 Even if we're, you know, successful in neutralizing the election rigging that he tried to do with the midterm redistricting, we are getting these fights are happening.

01:25:35.220 These battles, these fronts are continuing to expand all across the United States.

01:25:40.080 And the media cannot be complicit in that respect.

01:25:43.860 Corporate leaders can't be complicit in that respect.

01:25:46.820 Lawyers can't be complicit in law firms anymore. 0.97

01:25:49.180 our universities need to call it back to these damn, forgive me, you're triggering me, but to 0.94

01:25:54.200 why I have these knee pads and, and, and we can't be compulsive. What the hell happened to you? 0.99

01:25:58.120 You got arrested, Don. This is madness, man. That's insane. That happened in the United States, 0.99

01:26:03.800 America. They detained you FBI in the morning, handcuffed you. It's sick. This is a cancer.

01:26:10.500 And we got to call it out. So anyway, I, yeah, I worry about it. And that's why we're fighting.

01:26:14.500 We're litigation. We're winning more than we're losing in court. But it's about the court of public opinion. It's about waking people up. It's about people continuing to show up for each other and for this country and for you and others that, you know, are these targets.

01:26:29.480 And yeah, I'll end on this. You know, you mentioned five or six people. I couldn't believe the phone call I got from my friend, governor of Minnesota. And, you know, Walz calls and he says, look, pal, he goes, need a little bit of help. I said, whatever you need, I'm happy to be there on this.

01:26:45.360 I don't know. I need some help me with my litigation fund because he's trying to criminally prosecute me and I have to raise personal money.

01:26:55.360 The hell is that? Don't I know. It's happening. You intimately know.

01:27:01.240 Yeah, I know. I mean, look, fighting, getting a good lawyer costs money.

01:27:06.440 Fighting the Department of Justice costs a lot of money because the government never runs out of money.

01:27:12.000 Nope. Right. They don't have to worry about that.

01:27:14.100 the billable hours and here's the sad thing the billable hours from whatever law firm whatever

01:27:19.660 guess who's paying for that the taxpayers yeah we are i'm paying for my own prosecution so you know

01:27:27.400 it's it's a bizarre place to be in and so you're right about that i just thank you for answering

01:27:32.520 that question because i'm not so sure i saw um you know the honorable nancy pelosi and she 0.99

01:27:37.680 she said that she's confident i spoke with hakeem jeffries and you know this was before all the talk

01:27:43.240 about the, well, actually Nancy Pelosi was, but this is, and after was Hakeem Jeffries. And he

01:27:51.440 said he was confident, but I just, I think that they will try anything, anything, anything. I

01:27:57.120 would not put anything past this administration and that's why I'm nervous about it. You better

01:28:01.440 be nervous and you should be nervous. And I'm nervous about it as well, but it's like, I mean,

01:28:05.580 you were quoting a lot of scripture earlier in this conversation. I'll say my piece, it's faith

01:28:11.160 and works. As we pray, we got to move our feet, right? So I'm not, it's not, we ain't holding

01:28:15.720 hands having a candlelight vigil. We got to get out there and we got to expose all this. We got

01:28:20.600 to make people conscious that it's not one thing. It's all of these things stacked together. And

01:28:27.540 again, no shame. It's the rule of Don, not the rule of law. And we have no co-equal branch of

01:28:34.160 government. These guys are supine, they're complicit. And so, yeah, you're right. All those

01:28:39.280 things stacked against us and ai and mis and disinformation all these relationships with

01:28:43.980 overseas uh you know with with antagonistic governments that can also be you know i just

01:28:49.960 don't trust any of these guys and and the great grip the great corruption story and you know how 0.61

01:28:55.460 everybody's sort of you know i anyway we can unpack all that that's a whole nother damn podcast when

01:29:01.200 you come on my show you gotta tell your team tell your team that you should come on i think they're

01:29:06.780 afraid of me i'm like come on well after that elon musk interview jesus no no one's ever coming

01:29:12.440 oh my gosh again i'm not i don't do i'm not gonna do i'm joking jesus just don't be sensitive about

01:29:19.780 that uh i'm looking forward to coming on your show and uh all right and uh and by the way i

01:29:26.120 appreciate you coming on the this is gavin newsom show so i appreciate you and uh and i appreciate

01:29:32.980 everything you're doing and the your good fight and i'm sorry you have to deal with this stuff

01:29:37.860 on such a personal professional level uh with this administration that ain't right thank you

01:29:43.840 thank you uh president i mean governor i appreciate it that's what the good the president

01:29:49.380 himself called me president yesterday the hell is that no i'm just saying i'm just i'm not going to

01:29:57.300 ask you the question i'll wait till you're on my show to ask you all those other questions but i

01:30:00.680 appreciate you having me on thank you and say hello to the first lady please i appreciate that

01:30:05.780 take care thanks thank you man thank you

01:30:08.620 hey there this is josh from stuff you should know with a message that could change your life

01:30:19.740 the stuff you should know think spring podcast playlist is available now whether spring has

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01:30:38.700 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:30:42.740 Let's go!

01:30:43.360 Our iHeartRadio Music Awards are coming back Thursday, March 26th, live on Fox.

01:30:50.220 Watch as we honor the biggest stars from all genres of music that you loved listening to

01:30:54.860 all year long on your favorite iHeartRadio station and the iHeartRadio app.

01:30:58.360 Hosted by Ludacris.

01:30:59.880 Icon Award Recipient, John Mellencamp.

01:31:02.240 Innovator Award Recipient, Miley Cyrus.

01:31:04.800 With performances by Alex Warren, Kehlani, Lainey Wilson, Ludacris, Ray, TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and En Vogue.

01:31:15.760 Plus, Taylor Swift makes her first award show appearance this year.

01:31:19.880 I cry, my eyes dry, Elizabeth Taylor.

01:31:23.980 Tell me for real, do you think it's forever?

01:31:26.680 Also, gold medal Olympian, Alyssa Liu.

01:31:28.980 neo nicole scherzinger nikki glazer somber weiser and more watch live on fox thursday march 26th 0.61

01:31:37.160 at 8 7 central and listen on i heart radio stations across america and the free i heart app

01:31:42.100 good people what's up what's up it's quest love so recently i had the incredible opportunity to

01:31:47.980 have a real conversation with uh actress and producer jamie lee curtis from routines to

01:31:53.020 Recovery, True Lies, and a certain Jermaine Jackson music video.

01:31:57.800 Jamie's real and raw, and it's something I really admire about her. 0.97

01:32:02.060 I am so happy that I'm the head bitch in charge at 67, 0.92

01:32:08.560 that I have the perspective that I have at my age 0.96

01:32:12.580 to really be able to put all of this into context.

01:32:17.560 Listen to The Questlove Show on the iHeartRadio app,

01:32:20.100 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:32:24.440 In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins,

01:32:29.380 but the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax.

01:32:31.820 You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct?

01:32:35.340 I doctored the test once.

01:32:37.140 It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern.

01:32:41.660 Two more men who'd been through the same thing.

01:32:44.260 Greg Gillespie and Michael Mancini.

01:32:46.260 My mind was blown.

01:32:47.840 I'm Stephanie Young.

01:32:49.280 This is Love Trapped.

01:32:50.700 Laura, Scottsdale Police.

01:32:52.520 As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. 1.00

01:32:57.240 Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:33:03.380 This Women's History Month, the podcast Keep It Positive, Sweetie celebrates the power of women choosing healing, purpose, and faith, even when life gets messy.

01:33:12.260 Love, it's not a destination.

01:33:13.740 You have to work on it every day.

01:33:15.020 Keep It Positive, sweetie, creates space for honest conversations on self-worth, love, growth, and navigating life with grace and grit, led by women who uplift, inspire, and tell the truth out loud.

01:33:26.860 I have several conversations with God, and I know why it took 20 years.

01:33:32.760 To hear this and more, listen to Keep It Positive, sweetie, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:33:40.200 This is an iHeart Podcast.

01:33:42.780 Guaranteed human.

This is Gavin Newsom - March 20, 2026

And, This Is The End Of The Free Press With Don Lemon

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