Piers Morgan Uncensored - Piers Morgan Uncensored: Woke Worm is Turning, Robert Kennedy Jr, Jerry Springer

Episode Date: April 27, 2023

On tonight's episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored, Piers discusses how the woke worm may be turning after public backlash on a trans marathon runner and an attack on the late Barry Humphries. Piers spea...ks to democrat candidate Robert Kennedy Jr as his surge in the polls continue. Piers pays tribute to the late great, Jerry Springer. Watch Piers Morgan Uncensored at 8 pm on TalkTV on Sky 522, Virgin Media 606, Freeview 237 and Freesat 217. Listen on DAB+ and the app.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Let's get over with you. I'm Biz Morgan. Unsensit tonight, the stunning arrogance, the hypocrisy of cancel culture. There's public backlash to a trans marathon runner and an attack on the late Barry Humphreys, so the woke worm may finally be turning. We'll debate. Another presidential candidate is on Sancensored. Robert Kennedy Jr., yes, one of the Kennedys, known as the Black Sheep, perhaps,
Starting point is 00:00:23 of America's most famous political dynasty, but could he put a serious dent in Biden's bid for re-election? All numbers are surging, and he joins me live. And a final thought on a cultural icon and a great friend of mine, legendary talk show host Jerry Springer, who is on America's Got Talent with me and Sharon Osborne will be on the show tonight. And we're going to pay tribute to the late great Jerry Springer. Live from the news building in London, this is Pierce Morgan Unsensate. Well, good evening from London.
Starting point is 00:01:00 Welcome to Pierce Morgan Unsensit. It's impossible to read a newspaper, turn on the TV, browse any social media without running headfirst into a wall of virtue signaling babble. It's engineered to make you feel like a terrible person at the hands of a condescending mob policing their own private rulebook on integrity and ethics, and most of them are stinking hypocrites. Take the late great Barry Humphreys. The Melbourne International Comedy Festival and his native Australia has announced it will arrange a fitting tribute to a man they now call a comic genius. Okay, so far so good.
Starting point is 00:01:34 He was. But then you remember that a few years ago, the very same organisation publicly disowned him. Barry Humphreys had had the temerity to say he was worried about the way gender ideology was now being pushed on young kids and schools. So the festival's director, Susan Provan, who this week hailed Barry Humphreys as an incredible artist, led the original charge against him, snootly condemning his unhelpful opinions. After that, he was, of course, Brayleyshaping. branded a fascist transphobe as anyone that raises any questions about all this is immediately branded. And the festival stripped his name from the Barry Award they created in his honour. They cancelled him. And that decision hurt Barry Humphreys personally, as his closest friends have attested. How couldn't it? This was his world, the comedy world, in his country.
Starting point is 00:02:27 And they stripped it away from it. And now the very same people who did that to Barry Humphreys want us to forget they ever did this. Forget that they chucked him under the wheels of their warp morality bus to score a few cheat points at their smug dinner parties and bags and validation on Twitter. Well, frankly, they can shove it. They can shove their endorsement of Barry Humphreys now that he's dead.
Starting point is 00:02:50 They never uncannselled him when he was alive and they shouldn't be allowed to do it now. And then we come to this. Clinique here, not your first marathon, I believe. No, this will be 17. And I'm doing the six majors. So I've just done Tokyo and New York last year. And then this year, Chicago, Berlin, 2024 will be the number six.
Starting point is 00:03:15 And then that's a week before London. So a week rest. But girl power. Yeah, that's actually the first marathon, though, that that particular guest on the BBC had run as a woman. Of the 40,000 athletes running the London Marathon, the BBC decided to interview Glenique, Frank, an apparently transgender woman, who, unsurprisingly, placed ahead of 14,000 biological females in the race, because Glenique ran the New York Marathon in November last year as Glenn, a man. Now, all week we've been hectic about why this is progressive and wonderful.
Starting point is 00:03:55 The rest of us who question this are wicked biggers and transphodes, are suggesting there might be a fairness issue here with somebody who has run as a male through to their 50s, including only a few weeks ago in New York, and is now identifying as female and demolishing a lot of the field. Well, now the runner in question has apologised. Glenique, Glenn, Glenique, has offered to hand back their medal and said they will run in the male category in future as Glenn, so no longer at Glenique. And so the mob has, of course, dispersed. The facts don't fit their agenda anymore, and nothing
Starting point is 00:04:34 better spells out, doesn't it, the intransigence of this culture, than the transgender swim in America, Leah Thomas, who far from being cowed by the perfectly justified criticism from fair and unminded people who think it's just plainly wrong that a six-foot-four-inch
Starting point is 00:04:50 biological male who was unsuccessful competing against men in swimming competitions is now demolishing biological females after identifying as a woman. Well, not only apparently are we all wrong for questioning that, says Leah Thomas, but we're also all of us, male and female, bad feminists. You can't really have that sort of half support where you're like, oh, I respect her as a woman here, but not here.
Starting point is 00:05:16 They're using the guise of feminism to sort of push transphobic beliefs. And I think a lot of people in that camp sort of carry an implicit biolitan. against trans people, but don't want to, I guess, fully manifest or speak that out. And so they try to just play it off as this sort of half support. Hmm. One day you could be thinking about is sort of half in, half out. As my friend Martine and I battle over, a legendary, legendary gay feminist sportswoman, put it, stop explaining feminism to feminists.
Starting point is 00:05:51 But of course, Leah Thomas won't care. Leah Thomas is winning races that she would not be winning if she was still completely. competing as a man, making a ton of money, appearing on all the top media, all the magazine covers. There's a lot of money being made in this area right now. And they don't think they're right, they know they're right. We're the ones that are wrong. And if we dare raise a scintilla of an issue about any of this, we are transphobic. We're the bad guys and gals.
Starting point is 00:06:21 And they attack like a swarm of locust, don't they, on social media, for a fleeting moment of self-righteous thrill, because as they're so fond of telling us, they are on the right side of history. And tell us with Barry Humphreys, it turns out actually they're not. That actually they were on the wrong side of history after all. And they just want us to pretend we never knew. Well, I'm joined now by the British Olympic marathon runner,
Starting point is 00:06:47 Mara Yamauchi, and by rapper and podcast host Zubi, great to see you here, Zubi, who once took part in a weightlifting competition four years ago as a woman to kind of prove a point. And guess what? He won. And by talk TV contributor to Paul or wrote Adrian, who will still be attempting to defend the indefensible on this issue. Well, Glenique Frank, just to be clear, or Glenn Frank, whichever Glenn or Glenick is identifying as this week, was invited to appear but pulled out this morning.
Starting point is 00:07:15 And like I say, Glenn Eke or Glenn, again, we don't know because Glenn's going back to being Glenn in future races and has always run, as Glenn before, did say it was wrong. but you are asked when you enter the London Marathon which category do you want to run in male or female or non-binary it's ridiculous the whole thing is ridiculous as I keep saying but there are still people who think this is perfectly fair and equal and we should all just stop
Starting point is 00:07:45 making such a fuss about it so let's have a little chat about this well Zuby let me start with you because you come all the way in here great to see you in London I love the fact that you tested all this four years ago, and you did it to raise the problem as an issue. And of course, you demolished all the females that you were up against, because physically, as a biological male, you're simply more powerful. But you expose the futility, if you like, and unfairness and inequality
Starting point is 00:08:12 of self-identity, if it becomes limitless like this. Yeah, absolutely. I've been talking for more than five years at this point, but especially the past four publicly about the absurdity of the issue. And that's why back in February 2019, I had that tweet I put out there with a video of me breaking the British women's deadlift record while claiming I identified as a woman. You literally broke the women's record? Yeah. So
Starting point is 00:08:35 to be clear, it wasn't in a sanctioned competition but it was from one of my training sessions just showing how easily I could lift a weight that's many kilos. Well, we're looking at it now. This is you as a woman. Yeah, it wasn't exactly difficult. Lifting about 17 paula Roan Adrian, I would imagine. And I know you're like a bit of weightlifting pool. So why don't you try
Starting point is 00:08:51 and lift a bit of that later in your gym? See how you get on. Here's a spoiler alert. You won't be able to. Not because you're not a very strong lady and not because you're not a very committed athlete in your own right. Because of the biological differences. Now, do you get it?
Starting point is 00:09:05 Is the penny dropping? So I get it, but what I wonder is whether you get it, peers. What am I missing? What I wonder is, why it is you're struggling with the fact that some people are different. I don't. And the people who have decided that they are different and who want to live a different life.
Starting point is 00:09:23 Some of them have the capacity to do that medically and legally, and they should be permitted to do that. Always have done. Always supported trans people's rights to fairness and equality. Right to the point, it clearly erodes women's rights. That's my only concern about it. So where the absurdity comes, I worry, is where we've got this example of the marathon runner.
Starting point is 00:09:49 And this was a fun run. It's the marathon. It's a great example. It's a great example. No, no, no. Tens of thousands of people raise a ton of money and it's a serious competitive race. It's a great example of people getting an opportunity
Starting point is 00:10:04 to push themselves, not only personally, but also in terms of their charities. And this is a person who did that. And they are now so fearful this person. They're so fearful. They've had to apologise. They've had to offer to hand back their medal. Well, they weren't that fearful.
Starting point is 00:10:20 Because Glenn entered as Glenn Eke, and Glenn Eke finished a lot further in the race in the women's field than Glenn would have done in the men's field. And how relevant is that to you, Peas? Actually, to everyone I know, to everybody I know that races in London Marathon, every position counts. They all want to improve their time.
Starting point is 00:10:40 It wasn't a gold medal in the Olympics. Actually, the ones... The front runners in the London Olympics... It was about taking part. So you think it's meaningless, a London Marathon? No, absolutely not. I've completed in the London Marathon and I see, and people running past me,
Starting point is 00:10:53 I see people running past me of all different sizes, shapes, running for all different types of causes. And that's what it's all about. It's inclusivity. But let me bring in an actual Olympian rather than somebody who sounds like she thinks she ought to be one. Mara, you've been listening very patiently to all this. You've been a proper athlete here.
Starting point is 00:11:13 Just try and explain to me, well, to Paula, really, why this is so unfair. So males and females have, there's a massive difference in our physical abilities. In upper body strength, like in Zubi's bench press and deadlift women's world records, you know, there's a massive, massive difference in running. It's about 10%. Therefore, we must have sex-based categories, male and female. Otherwise, females would be entirely absent from sport.
Starting point is 00:11:44 And to answer Paula's point about it being a fun run, yes, a lot of people enjoy it and do great things like raising money. but Glenn could have done that in the men's category and not caused unfairness for the 20,000 odd females who ran in the mass race. I have to also clarify that Glenn ran as Glenn in the Tokyo Marathon last month but in the women's category as he did in London. And you can say, well, the mass race is just a bit of fun,
Starting point is 00:12:13 the mass race at the London Marathon. But an event like that is either a sports competition or it isn't. If you're going to say it's just a fun run, then why do they have a measured course? Why do they have timing equipment and a referee to enforce the rules? Even if people enjoy themselves and raise money for charity, it still is a competition. Rules matter, and people have to respect the rules. And Glenn on G.B. News gave an interview last night.
Starting point is 00:12:42 It was clear he had no idea what the rules are. He was talking about surgery and passports. but the rules, British athletics rules, which apply to the London Marathon, required testosterone suppression to under five nanomoles for 12 months to become eligible and then continue suppression to remain eligible. He was talking about hormone therapy in the future tense, so it's clear he's done no testosterone suppression at all. He wasn't eligible for the female category.
Starting point is 00:13:11 And therefore, my view is he should be disqualified because he hasn't, he's just not eligible. Well, no question. No question of that. I mean, what's interesting to me, two things about you in particular. One, your courage and speaking out about this, because you were, of course, immediately bombarded with insults and abuse and threats called a transphobe, a turf, their favorite phrase for stating what a simple biological facts. But also, you are, by your own admission, you're slightly left-leaning. You're not on the right. You're not trying to score some political point against the left. And like a lot of people, I mean, I've always probably politically been slightly left-to-cented, maybe center.
Starting point is 00:13:48 really a journalist. I don't really care about an ideology either way, to be honest with you. But I'm certainly not on the right. But like a lot of people like you, like me, like Bill Maher, interviewed last week in America, we find ourselves completely bemused that people so-called liberals on this ultra-woke side of the spectrum have lost their minds. Yeah. I mean, I've been a centre-left voter all my life. But for me, this isn't about left or right. For me, this is about the rights to safety, dignity, privacy, and in sport, fair competition and safety for 51% of the population. And people say, oh, Glenique only finished 6,100 and something, you know, get a life. But nearly 14,000 women suffered a worse finish position.
Starting point is 00:14:36 What I would say to people who say that is, okay, how many women do you think it's okay to suffer to indulge the feelings of one male competing in the field? Well, what about, okay. Give us a number. I totally agree. And what about, I mean, I said to Paula, what about Laurel Hubber, the New Zealand weightlifter, who qualified for the first Olympics a couple of years ago, having set records in the women's field.
Starting point is 00:15:02 But she took the place of a woman weightlifter. The average age for the weightlifters in that competition was about half Laurel Hubbard's age. She'd been very unsuccessful as a male weightlifter by comparison. But she deprived a biological female of an overall. Olympic place in that team. That to me is completely wrong. Now, someone said it'd be on TV in America last week, a female congresswoman. Well, what would you do about it then? I went, well, fine, I want trans athletes to be better compete fairly and to be able to compete. So they either compete
Starting point is 00:15:31 against their biological sex, which seems to me physically fair, or they have a completely new category of transport. Why not? So there's two things here. Just getting back to the marathon, If Glenique wasn't eligible, then there's no discussion here. Because absolutely, if she wasn't eligible, then she wasn't eligible. What I'm talking about in terms of the marathon is, when I ran the marathon, I was running with men and women, young people, old people, all running together. And what I'm saying is, is this fear that the headline around this is bringing up.
Starting point is 00:16:10 It's bringing up a fear. It's making very vulnerable, people and we know that they're very vulnerable because we're told by the stats that they are the most likely group of people to commit suicide. So this is not just about a fun run. This is not just about women who require vulnerable spaces. This is not what we're talking about. But Zubisubi, I would say to that, of course, I'm very aware of the issues that trans people have had and continue to have. But I think people like Leah Thomas, people like Glenique here, they cause massive bigger price. problems with the trans community. They make the whole thing look like a mockery.
Starting point is 00:16:48 They make a mockery of being trans. And when you put your hand up as a 6'4-inch biological man and say, I am now competing against women in swimming ball, no trans person who doesn't want that attention is doing anything other than saying, this is making my life hell. Why are you doing this? Yeah, you're absolutely right in that the so-called activists are harming the group that they're claiming to advocate for, as well as harming 51% of the whole human population, because let's be real, all of this stuff,
Starting point is 00:17:13 all the negative downstream impacts are on girls on women. They are not on boys and men at all. I'd say this whole thing is incredibly misogynistic, and I don't like to throw that word around too much. To take the conversation up a level as well, I have a question, and the whole thing is, why are we trying to force people and why are so many people entertaining the denial of reality itself?
Starting point is 00:17:33 Yeah. Women's rights are incredibly important. Fairness in sports is important. Safety and security and privacy. All of these things are very important. The fundamental problem at the root of this is everyone dancing around, pretending that a man can truly be a woman and a woman can truly be a man.
Starting point is 00:17:48 This is not me being transphobic or hateful or being a bigot, anything like that. It's simply that reality exists. Biology is real. And is that reality illegal one, because in this country it is, it is a legal reality, Zubi, that you can change your gender. You cannot change your biological sex. It's physically impossible. I'm saying to you, it's a legal reality that you can.
Starting point is 00:18:11 Can you change your biological sex? We can talk about biology and we can talk about the legality of it. We're talking about biology, though. This thing is about sport. This is about males and females. Well, the problem when we talk about biology is neither are us a scientist. You don't need to be a scientist to know male and woman. You and I both know that it's a lot more complicated than that.
Starting point is 00:18:29 What's the complication? It's not as simple as. For me, it's very simple. Can I become? Can I become? Can I think we're being, I think we're indulging and ignorance by not suggesting that there's more to it than that. Can you become male? I don't want to be a male.
Starting point is 00:18:44 But can you become male? Is there anything that could be done that could turn you into a male in the way that I'm male and peers as a male? Is that possible? Now, do you see how you've qualified your question? So you first asked me, can I become a male? And I would suggest probably, yes, in terms of medically. But then you said, then you said like you and peers, and that's where we start to get complicated.
Starting point is 00:19:09 Paula, I hope we would have taken you a little further down your journey. I fear when you say you think you can become male, you can't because male is a sex. I can have gender recognition, aren't I? I can legally become a male. We've got to leave it there, but you can't actually become a biological male. Nor can I. I don't know how much testosterone I would need to come from view for that. Nor can I, you'll be relieved to here, become a biological female.
Starting point is 00:19:33 Because I'm quite tempted right now to start entering the cricket competition, right? And smashing female biological bowlers all over the place and feeling good about myself. Only I wouldn't. I'd feel ashamed. I think it's embarrassing. I think you're pumping above your weight there. Female cricketers. As I say, wait till you, wait till you, insane, bold goes,
Starting point is 00:19:51 I'm identifying as a woman and runs in the 100 metre final at the Olympics. And you lot all go, well done, well done, Usaini. More done, Usaini. It's a joke. Anyway, Paula, lovely to see you. Mara, thank you very much indeed for joining us.
Starting point is 00:20:03 Zumi, great to have you here in London. Really appreciate you coming into. And go follow this guy on Twitter. He just passed a million followers on Twitter. So only seven and a half million to count. Catch me. Which I know he's keen to do. Unsensored next, tributes to a true legend. The original king of talk television, a great guy, a great friend of mine, Jerry Springer, who sadly died today at age 79.
Starting point is 00:20:24 What a life and what a guy. I'll talk live to Sharon Osborne, who worked with me and Jerry on America's Got Talent. And to still Steve Wilco is, of course, his great colleague from his show, which became the Springer show, one of the biggest shows on the entire planet. It's after the break. Well, welcome back. Jerry Springer. was the undisputed king of the talk show. Smart, intelligent, a TV icon. He was also a politician, a lawyer, an actor.
Starting point is 00:21:15 He could do it all. I spent nearly every day for two years with him on the set of America's Got Talent. We stayed in the same hotel at Beverly Wilshire in Los Angeles. We used to sit by the pool talking about politics. We'd have dinner talking about politics. He loved arguing about politics. He'd been a mayor before he ever became a TV star.
Starting point is 00:21:31 And he was most definitely uncensored. Jerry has more ass than you do. Good evening, good evening, good evening, good evening, good evening. Very much, welcome to the show. Thank you and welcome to America's Got Talent. I mean she said we'd like to get our dairy bees. I care about people. I care about people who watch television.
Starting point is 00:22:01 And on that note, take care of yourself and each other. Well, today Jerry's family said Jerry's ability to connect with people was at the heart of his success and everything he tried, whether that was politics, broadcasting, or just joking with people on the street in one of the photo or a word. He's irreplaceable, and his loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, his heart,
Starting point is 00:22:21 and his humour will live on. And he brought his usual warmth and energy as a regular guest on all my shows that I did ever since we did that talent show together. Do you think Matthew McConaughey and this extraordinary speech could actually affect change? Certainly it'll have some impact,
Starting point is 00:22:38 but the fact is, the American people are virtually all or pretty close to all in agreement on the major idea of some kind of gun control. What can Trump do to try and persuade you now that he's a unifier and not a destroyer? Well, just personally, I will do everything I can to see that he becomes a successful president. I think I may stop because there are the things I want to do. I want to spend more time with Richard, my grandson, and follow him. baseball and basketball and do things like that. So it's more that decision, more than a medical decision.
Starting point is 00:23:16 Jerry could talk about anything, and he could talk about it for hours, and he was always entertaining, always funny, and always razor smart, always knew exactly what was going on. It was also a great friend, and I'll give you just two little examples of that. One, he was doing, I think it was Richard and Judy, a few years ago, with Amanda Holden, who was doing Britain's Got Talent with me. And Amanda put me on the phone to it, and I said, Jerry, what are you doing tonight? He said, nothing.
Starting point is 00:23:39 I said, do you want to come to my middle son's school? They're doing sound of music. And Amanda's host, and me and Michael Gray, is a big media mogul in Britain, we're dressing up as nuns, and we need a Catholic priest to dress up as a Catholic priest. He went, I'm Jewish. I went, I know you are.
Starting point is 00:23:56 He said, my rabbi would be fine with it. And he came down, and he went on stage as a Catholic priest with me as a nun. And we sang Sound and Music songs. And then a little later after that, I have an annual cricket match again. It's my little village down in East Sussex. And I said, Jerry, what are you doing on Sunday?
Starting point is 00:24:12 He went, nothing. I went, fancy a game of cricket. He went, I'd love one. And he came all the way down to the south coast of England and we play cricket. And the villagers absolutely loved them. And in fact, on our village WhatsApp chat today, a lot of sadness because they all remembered how down to earth this TV legend was. Everyone knew Jerry Springer.
Starting point is 00:24:31 So that was the real guy away from TV. There were no flies on Jerry. What you saw was what you got. and he was one of the great guys. Well, joining me on the phone now is my fellow talk TV presenter and my fellow former America's Got Talent Judge Sharon Osbourne
Starting point is 00:24:46 and the former Director of Security, of course, on the Jerry Springer show turned talk show host himself now, Steve Wilcoz. Well, Sharon, let me start with you. You know, Jerry, we worked with him, didn't we? Handing Gloverly for two years. It's very intense on those shows.
Starting point is 00:25:01 You get to know each other really, really well. I remember, and I'm sure you two, the time we all first met each other was a dinner thrown by NBC where you lost your rag I knew you were going to start go on let's start where do we mean to go on
Starting point is 00:25:16 because it was so fitting because we'd all had this quiet dinner and then you lost your rag with me and began to actually physically throttle me and at that point Jerry got up and said this reminds me of one of my shows and led you away he did he took me outside
Starting point is 00:25:32 and he said take some breath now I want you to go home home and think about this and I said yes, Jerry. And he was just amazing with me. He, I mean, listen, in our religion we call him a mench and that's
Starting point is 00:25:47 what he is. I mean, just a fantastic human being. He, I loved the way he always ended his show on a great speech, you know, morally, it was always a takeaway from
Starting point is 00:26:03 his show. So it wasn't just, you know, people going crazy at each other, throwing things and whatever. There was always a good moral at the end of his show. And you know what? Sorry, Joan. Go on. No, I'm just saying that he will be missed. He was a pioneer on daytime TV. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:24 Yeah, and he used to say, he used to joke, it's the worst show in the world, but it was also one of the most popular and one of the most lucrative, made him extremely rich. But he always had a great warmth and was very protective towards all. the people that came on. And let me go to Steve now. Steve, I'm so sorry for your loss because you were so closely aligned
Starting point is 00:26:44 with Jerry Vissalong and you made a very moving statement today. How are you doing today since you heard the news? It's tough. I love Jerry and one of my closest friends and, you know, I still can't believe that I'm never going to talk with him again.
Starting point is 00:27:03 You know, he used to talk jokerly about the show, but obviously it became this complete phenomenon. What did you make of why it was so popular? How much of that was the guess? How much of that was Jerry? Was it just the combination, really? Yeah, I think it was just a crazy point in time.
Starting point is 00:27:22 You know, when I watched the opening year show today and you were talking about cancer culture, I wonder how far we would have got today in the landscape of today with that show. Listen, you know, I think Jerry was just a natural draw. are drawn to him. He's very kind. People loved Jerry.
Starting point is 00:27:39 I mean, loved him. And, you know, the craziness on the show. We were doing stories and things that, you know, you couldn't see anywhere else on TV at the time. So I think it was confluence of things. And the show just took off like a rocket. And I've been saying, you're probably never going to see anything like that again because, you know, when we, the show was so popular,
Starting point is 00:28:04 it wasn't Internet. there wasn't streaming. You know, nowadays, if something's big and huge, it's big and huge for five minutes. Right. And there's something else where back then, you know, he was the zina for two years. We're beating Oprah and everything else.
Starting point is 00:28:21 So to be around him, I felt like it must have been like hanging around Elvis Presley. Well, what about this, Steve? What about this, Annie Da Otele, which was I had dinner with Jerry in L.A. Soon after we began working together. and he told me a story that Muhammad Ali was an avid fan of the show. And I've got to be honest, I didn't know Jerry that well. I just didn't believe him. I thought it was Hollywood bullcrack, to be honest.
Starting point is 00:28:45 And we walked back from Mr. Charles in Beverly Hills to the Beverly Walsh Hotel, about a five, ten minute walk. And we get to the valet parking area to go to the back wing where we both had rooms. And a limousine pulls up. I swear this is true, I wrote about it in my diary at the time. A limousine pulls up and out gets Muhammad Ali and his wife. I'd never met Muhammad Ali in my life. And as they get out of the door, she sees Jerry, Muhammad's wife, and she just shouted,
Starting point is 00:29:11 oh my God, Jerry Springer. Pause. He's still watching the show. And Muhammad Ali came over. Jerry introduced me to the greatest. And I said, I hear you love the Springer show. He went, I love it. I love all the fighting.
Starting point is 00:29:26 And then we all laughed. And I said, please tell me you love America's Got Talent too. It was kind of a little bit less committal on that. But it just showed me, A, I could always trust Jerry Springer after that, but B, that everyone and anyone used to watch the Springer show. Yeah, not a lot of people admitted it, but everybody did watch it. And, you know, I met Mohamed too. And, you know, Mohammed told me he was a big fan, so I know that for a fact.
Starting point is 00:29:51 But, you know, you're just to have a show that peaked so highly, where everybody talked about it. You know, most young people won't understand what we say about water cooler show. Everybody talked about that show. And I feel very fortunate to be around Jerry
Starting point is 00:30:12 and got to share that incredible ride with him. Just, you know, we were doing movies and, you know, Leto and Letterman and... Everything, yeah. Just traveling all over the world with him. Yeah. And, you know, to get to experience that with him.
Starting point is 00:30:27 And you couldn't do it with a nicer guy No, I was about to bring Sharon back for that, Steve. I want to show a little clip from America's Got Talent because we had such a laugh on that show together. This is back in like 2007-8, I think. But let's take a look at this. Well, Pierce, the Ex-is here, but please tell me we're not going to be hearing those buzzers tonight.
Starting point is 00:30:49 There's no point having them, is there, Jerry, if you can't have the fun of actually pressing them. We've all got itchy fingers tonight. We'll have to see. Have to see. All right. But you'll be nice. But we'll try. be nice. Sharon, what
Starting point is 00:31:01 do tonight's act have to do in order to kind of impress you, impress America? Oh my goodness. Where do we begin, Jerry? They were great days, Sharon. And the thing about Jerry Springer, one, he was one of the nicest people I've ever worked with, no question. And secondly, just the most professional. He never
Starting point is 00:31:19 turned up a minute late. He was always did his job, whatever the hours. Just a great guy. Do you remember he is when he fell off the stage and he was hurt himself badly. The show went on. I mean, he just carried on. Never missed a beat.
Starting point is 00:31:35 And, you know, his show was like a guilty pleasure. You got hooked into it. And you know what? People, there aren't many people left in the industry like Jerry, who was all hard, real people person. Yeah, and what people don't know about Jerry probably, and they'll find out when they read the obituaries, is the very life he led before he did the Springer show.
Starting point is 00:31:59 He was a news anchor of a big TV news show for 10 years. He was the mayor of Cincinnati for a year. That ended in a bit of a scandal, which we won't go into. But he had this extraordinary life. And even at the end, nearly 80, there he was, still doing loads of staff, doing podcasts, doing interviews and so on. But he did say in the final interview that we did with him only last month, He was looking forward as he reached 80 to spend more time with his family,
Starting point is 00:32:28 which was something he was very pleased to be doing. He was always doing charity events too. I mean, he had such a big heart. Yeah. Well, it's a massive loss. And he's irreplaceable. Yeah, he really is. He was a total one-off and we loved him, didn't we?
Starting point is 00:32:45 Sharon, thank you so much for joining me from L.A. And Steve, thank you. Thank you, my deepest condolences to you, Steve, because you and he were intertwined for so long. I can only imagine how you're feeling today. So I'm so glad to have you on the show. It's an honor to have you, and it was an honor for all of us to work with Jerry.
Starting point is 00:33:02 Thanks, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Thanks, Steve. The great Jerry Springer, who died today aged 79. But Uncensored next tonight, a conspiracy theorist, a Kennedy and a presidential contender, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., joins me live
Starting point is 00:33:16 as he's surging in the polls. Welcome back to Beersball and Unsensitive. Kennedy's an American political dynasty, of course, and my next guest is, will be the Fourth Kennedy to run for the US presidency, both his father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, were tragically assassinated. Well, Robert Kennedy, Jr., has been described as the black sheep of this formidable family,
Starting point is 00:33:52 including by some of his own family, was incendiary views on vaccines and a populist slant on economic policy. But he could become a genuine headache for President Biden. He surged at 19% in a new Fox News poll of Democratic candidates for nominee for to be president, and 21% in a new Emerson, poll published today. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joins me now. Well, thank you very much indeed for joining me. I guess
Starting point is 00:34:16 my first question, Robert, is this, these polls, they're pretty striking to everybody else. Are you surprised about how well you're doing? Am I surprised? You know, we've been looking at the polls for
Starting point is 00:34:35 about a year and they're, you know, it's pretty consistent. So I'm not that surprised. I'm happy. You obviously come from the most famous political family, arguably in the world. And I want to take you back because I think for our wider global audience, it's just an extraordinary part of your story, obviously, that you were just nine years old when your uncle, John F. Kennedy, his president, was assassinated. You were 14 when your father, who was tipped to be, and I'm sure he would have
Starting point is 00:35:06 been one of the great presidents if he'd lived, you were 14 when your father died. You had to be one of the pool bearers there. These are huge things to happen to any child of that age. But to do it when both your uncle and your father were so globally famous and to have their death so widely reported, what impact do you think that had on you? And what impact has it had on you now as a politician now running for president? Well, I think it had an impact on the world. I think my father and uncle were fighting against this emergence of a military industrial complex and their deaths really marked a fork in a road for our country and for the rest of the world where we started down this road towards corporatism, which I, what I call them, the merger, this
Starting point is 00:35:59 corrupt merger of state and corporate power that is driven by large industries like pharmaceutical oil and coal industries, the pesticide industry, the pesticide industry. But the spear tip, of course, is what Eisenhower warned us about four days before my uncle took office, which was the rise of the military industrial complex, which has turned America into a warfare state at abroad and a surveillance state at home, and which has gutted the middle class in this country. We spent $8 trillion on wars since the war in Iraq, and we've got nothing in return, literally, actually worse than nothing. We've undermined our own position in the world. We've destabilized the Mideast. We've driven two million refugees into Europe where they have destabilized democracy all over Europe and probably account for Brexit, the success of Brexit. And at home, you know, we've hollowed out the middle class.
Starting point is 00:37:04 And then you add another $16 trillion that we spent on COVID and again on the lockdowns and got nothing in return for that. And you have a $24 trillion bill that is paid by the American middle class. And the United States is printing money. You know, like we're borrowing $6 billion a day from the Chinese and Japanese to pay that, the interest on those debts. And it's no wonder we don't have a middle class left in America. And when you have a configuration now where it's increasingly looked like these large concentrations of wealth
Starting point is 00:37:40 among the growing oligarchy of billionaires and then widespread poverty below, you cannot have democracy for very long. Well, listen, there's no doubt, just to jump in, there's no doubt that your message is resonating with a lot of people. I mean, I think if you're Joe Biden, you just announced you're running again for president
Starting point is 00:38:00 and you see that you're near, nearest competitor suddenly is you at 21% in these polls. And you know that a lot of Democrats don't want you to run again. A lot of Democrats think Joe Biden is simply too old. I mean, could the unthinkable happen? Do you genuinely think you could actually prevent Joe Biden becoming the nominee? Well, my objective, Pierce, is not to prevent him from becoming the nominee. My objective is to make myself the nominee.
Starting point is 00:38:31 And do I think that's possible? Yeah. And I'll tell you, my wife. If I had not been able to persuade the earth that it was possible would not be going along with this enterprise. It would be a startling thing. There are two question marks about here. A lot of people give you great credit for a lifetime of work with the environment, for example, with poverty, you've done a lot of great things.
Starting point is 00:38:55 There are two contentious things from my perspective. And I'll come to the vaccine part in a minute because that's been a 15-year mission by you, which I want to discuss. But one thing in particular I'm surprised about. You are a Democrat, and you come from a family of great Democrats. And yet, for some reason, you've gone along with this Donald Trump line about stolen elections and so on. Why? I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't.
Starting point is 00:39:25 I mean, you've associated yourself with people. Well, you've been seen on podiums with people who are completely intransent, you know, they think that Donald Trump have the election stolen, that January 6th was justified and so on. Why would you be around people like that? Pierce. Well, if you're asking me another question, because what you're saying about me complaining about stolen election, I complained about a stolen election at 2001, and I wrote an award-winning article about the theft of the 2004 election, but I have not spoken out about this election.
Starting point is 00:40:03 I don't believe it was stolen about Trump's election. No, no, I'm talking, yeah. Or, I think I'm talking about the wider. You're asking me. Yeah, let me rephrase the question. You're asking me. Comparing, I just don't think it's healthy for any democracy, whether you're talking about the one that you claim a stolen,
Starting point is 00:40:19 the one that Trump does, that people talk about elections being stolen in a democracy like America, because it makes people disbelieve the democratic process. That's really the point I was making. Well, you, I mean, otherwise you're manipulating people if you don't tell the truth. I mean, a job of the press, the job of an advocate like me is to tell the truth whether the truth is unpleasant for people or not. And, you know, I documented, I mean, I don't think any Democrat believes that the 2001 election was not, it was legit. You know, that was Bush v. Gore.
Starting point is 00:40:57 And the New York Times, nobody else. You know, they ultimately concluded, yeah, it was stolen. So I don't think what I said is radical or is, you know, is causing revolution. But let me ask the other question. Let me ask the other question. Why do I appear? Why do I talk to Republicans? Why do I go on Fox News?
Starting point is 00:41:18 And my reason for that, I do those. I talk to people who don't agree with me. And I believe that is critical for a democracy. we have a toxic polarization in this country right now that is more dangerous than the American Civil War. If we don't talk to people who don't agree with us, how are we going to persuade them, how are we going to find common ground,
Starting point is 00:41:40 how are we going to end this polarization? I have always talked. I agree with you on that. My opponents on the other side. I agree with you on that. And by the way, I talk to them, but I do not compromise my values. I believe in all the democratic values
Starting point is 00:41:53 that I was raised with, but I believe that we should talk to people from all the sides. OK, so let's just move quickly, if we may, just to this issue of vaccines. If you were to become president, you've been opposed to vaccines now for a long time, very heavily critical of the COVID vaccine. That's not true.
Starting point is 00:42:09 Well, you're not a vaccine denier, but you are a very, very skeptical, very public voice of skepticism about the efficacy of vaccines. Would that be fair? What I've said is vaccines. I'm not anti-vaccine. I think vaccines should be subject the same level rigorous testing as other medications.
Starting point is 00:42:32 And that is the only thing, my only position. Listen, I fought to get mercury out of fish for 40 years, and nobody called me anti-fish. I'm not anti-vaccines just because I want safe vaccines. And I think everybody wants safe vaccines. And as we all now recognize, the COVID vaccines were neither safe nor effective. Well, that is, but that is,
Starting point is 00:42:55 but as you know, Hang on, hang on. That is, as you know, heavily disputed by a lot of top scientists who say that comparative to other vaccines, it was very safe. Obviously, like all vaccines, it's had issues. Obviously, they had to move at the speed of light because it was a novel virus that was killing a lot of people. But it wasn't an unsafe vaccine, but all vaccines, unfortunately, have side effects for a certain percentage of people that take them. Well, I mean, that, of course, the question appears. The side effects on this vaccine, vaccine number one, they avert more problems than they cause. I would argue that the science is very clear right now that they cause a lot more problems than they averted. And if you look at the countries that did not vaccinate, they had the lowest death rates. They had the lowest COVID and infection rates. And if you look at the Johns Hopkins data, which is the data everybody relies on,
Starting point is 00:43:53 there's a direct correlation between excess deaths in the nations and the Western nations and the level of COVID vaccination. So if you look at excess deaths, how many people died that shouldn't have died at the end of the year, the vaccine caught is associated because we don't know. We can't say cause because it's a correlation. but the big, the deaths in the nations that heavily vaccinated, which were much higher than those, I'll give you an example. We in our country,
Starting point is 00:44:28 one of the most heavily vaccinated countries in the world, we also had the highest COVID death rate in the world. So we had, we have 4.2% of the global population. We have 16% of the COVID deaths. That's not a success story. How can anybody point to that? I certainly, listen, unfortunately, you know, the vaccines were a benefit.
Starting point is 00:44:46 Listen, we've run out of time. I certainly don't. Look, listen, I've got to end of it there, but I definitely don't think America was a success story, and that's for another time. We've unfortunately run out of time, Robert. I do really enjoy talking to you. I think you're a fascinating candidate in this whole race,
Starting point is 00:45:01 and the fact you're doing so well means what you're saying about a number of issues is resonating, and it'll be very interesting to see how you go. So thank you very much indeed for joining me. Thanks for having me, peers, anytime. Well, once has the next. A person who produces, sperm is now the new description of a boy or a man in America.
Starting point is 00:45:19 We'll discuss that next. Well, I'll join my talk to the international editor, Isabel Oakeshott. I'm talking to contributor to Richard Tyson. Welcome to both. Thank you for being patient. Sorry, we haven't got much time. Let's talk about sperm, shall we? I love talking about sperm.
Starting point is 00:45:42 So, apparently, have we got the phrase there for the sperm? This is absolutely unbelievable. Give me the phrase again? A person who produces sperm. is now what a school district in America has called a boy or man. Thoughts. And a person who produces eggs is what they're calling a person that is otherwise. What is this about?
Starting point is 00:46:07 As a woman. What are they scared of? And this is aimed at 10-year-old. It's ridiculous. I have a 10-year-old. They would just laugh at that and be bewildered. I mean, why make sex education so much more complicated? How have we got to this, Richard?
Starting point is 00:46:20 How has language got to this? I've no idea. This sort of political correctness. But the most terrifying thing, peers, it actually confuses children. It causes anxiety. My view is it's therefore damaging children, particularly with this gender ideology stuff. And in that sense, it's actually a safeguarding issue. No ifs, no buts in my view.
Starting point is 00:46:40 We just shouldn't be going on my list. I've done my anti-woke manifesto for the sun tomorrow because somebody wrote to them saying I should be ministered for anti-wokery. So I've done my 20-point. And it's quite easy to do a 20-point manifesto. You just basically restore common sense. I mean, you asked how we've got to this because parents are accepting it.
Starting point is 00:46:57 Parents, I would take my child out of a school that was going to insist on that kind of nonsense. I agree. And the other parents should actually just rebel against it. Don't accept it. But actually, many parents weren't aware of it until it's been highlighted on these shows and suddenly I think parents are rebelling.
Starting point is 00:47:13 People I'm talking to... I think the woke worm is turning. And we're helping to turn it. That's all we've got time for. I've blown it with you two tonight. I'm sorry. We only got to talk about sperm. But it was a great chat about sperm.
Starting point is 00:47:23 Thank you both very much. Keep it unsensitive. Good night.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.