The Highwire with Del Bigtree - KENNEDY ON FREEDOM’S EROSION AND BRIDGING THE DIVIDE

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

Fox News contributor, podcast host, and Freedom Fest emcee Lisa Kennedy joins Del live from Palm Springs to expose how government overreach, particularly in California, is steadily chipping away at American freedoms. She also offers insights on finding common ground to heal the nation’s growing political rift.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-highwire-with-del-bigtree--3620606/support.

Here at Freedom Fest, there just really is no Freedom Fest if you do not have like those voices crying in the wilderness, crying for truth, crying for transparency, crying for smaller government and nobody, you know, really gets to the heart of it with more passion than Kennedy. Take a look at this. You're watching Alternative Nation with Kennedy. A very funny, Kennedy. Kennedy, America's sweetheart, TV and radio icon. For me, you were the face of MTV.

I didn't watch it, so I had no concept of how it looked. Hello, Commander Kennedy, reporting. You're on the front lines of the music revolution of the 90s. Kennedy, you are no Martha Quinn. I was voted MTV's least favorite VJ. And for those of you who voted, I'd just like to say, people would be like, you sell out, you suck. And I was like, oh, it hurts my feelings.

But then I kind of leaned into it. Our old politically incorrect friend, Kennedy is back here with us. You're Republican? And you're on MTV? Why? It was sort of controversial to be, you know, in favor of the Republicans at the time. Yeah, no, it really was. And it was something that was cute until it became more serious. Hello, America. I'm Kennedy, and this is Fox News Saturday night.

Some could say that you were acting like Christopher Steel. That you were abstracting information. and because... You've got to be kidding me. I was acting like Christopher Steele. That's what it sounds like. When you better apologize.

You better apologize for that. And by the way, Obama has completely bastardized his business on the military. Let's deal with... Wait a second. And he's increased military spending. It has doubled since 2000.

I realized as time went on, I wasn't a Bush conservative. I was really a libertarian. Kurt Loder has always been there. He was the one, the first person to tell me I was a libertarian. You think you're a Republican, but there are some things

the Republican Party does. The government's too big. They're too war-hungry, and they're anti-gay. That's not you. And I was like, oh, my garden. What is this whole new world? The president's student loan plan will cost taxpayers at least $400 billion.

Republicans rightly blasting him as a big spender. He says, that's a load of malarkey. I'm going to hug a ghost. I'm so sick of Republicans saying we're the big spenders. Give me a break. What if government just meant? roads, cops, firefighters and hospitals, and taking care of little old ladies.

It's all the extra government that you pay for that you don't enjoy the benefit of, that's what causes the most problem. When I go out on the road and talk to people, they wanna hear dirty jokes, they wanna laugh, they wanna say things that you've been told not to say. Comedy will be the thing that saves us. It's okay to fight against the status quo,

but the status quo exists on both sides. When you're talking about freedom, for me, me, you got to be all in. You know, otherwise you're just paying lip service to a word that becomes meaningless. All right. Well, she's the voice of Freedom Fest and we're here again. Kennedy, thank you for joining us. I'm so good. How are you doing? I'm doing great. All right, good. How's the festival ramping up? You just got started last night. I think it's doing beautifully. I think, you know, there is no more necessary place to have an ongoing discussion about freedom than the state where it is being taken away every single day,

just chipped away a scalpel, a cleaver, any way they can cut away freedom and leave you with less. Leave it up to the idiots who run California to do it. Oh my God, I want to get into that. Before we do, before we do, though, I mean, I just want to reflect. We just saw we were here together last year. We were prior to an election that was just right around the corner. Are we doing better? Do you feel like we're in a better position? I mean, I know

it's the Republican Party and libertarians. I mean, I think, you know, I consider myself politically marooned. Of course, I worked with Robert Kennedy Jr. had some part of his being there. But how do you, what is the state of the state in your mind right now? It depends to who you're talking to. Yeah. And that's why we're so fractured. Because

if you ask some people, they'll say, this, is like the Weimar Republican, in 1938. Like, you know, this is, this is actually awful. We're on the precipice of authoritarianism. Trump is worse than Hitler, and what we're about to experience will be worse than the Civil War. Yeah.

And then you talk to people like, job supports came out. That looked pretty good. Stock market's doing well. You know, it's like my grandma's 401K money is doing. Hold on one second. I'm being told your mic, which isn't a, can you get pointed up towards you somehow? There we go. Let's see how that does.

There we are. There we are. It's a directional microphone. It was pointed at you guys. As you say, stock market. Yeah, but if you talk to people, especially people who are fans of President Trump, they're like, no, this is what we signed up for. This is great. You know, we want violent criminals and trial rapists deported, and we want the border

secure. We want less fentanyl inside. So for them, it's a bang-up success. Yeah. But if you talk to other people who, you know, are, freedom for them is transitory. They care about it when they feel that what they care about most is infringed upon, but the rest of it, they couldn't give a squat, as it were, I'm keeping it clean. I saw you speaking recently about a study. I didn't read the study, but it was something about the fact that they were looking at mental health across the country.

And what they found, you know, here is why depression rates are higher among liberals. What is your thought on that? It is clear that liberals right now are, you know, they can be,

they're so fragile that they can be convinced that they should go out and bomb a Tesla, which used to be their favorite car on the planet within moments. Is this just the nature of,

you know, the Republicans got their guy and they didn't get their guy? Would we be that outraged and depressed if, you know, Kamala Harris was president right now? No, I mean, it's part for the course for me because I'm an unaffiliated voter in California. I'm an ideological libertarian, not a member of the Libertarian Party,

but I don't see any ideological libertarians who really have a great chance of winning in 2028. Yep. President Trump did, to his benefit, really reach out to libertarians and try to say, like, here's my agenda and here's how it dovetails with what you believe, and at least try. I haven't seen Democrats do that for years and years and years. There used to be a few during the Tea Party resurgence. But you don't see that now.

But, you know, it's like I'm always on the side of freedom. Well, you know, it's amazing too because, I mean, I grew up. We've talked about this before. I was a progressive liberal most of my life until I started investigating the vaccine space. And as a libertarian friend right before I got in that discussion that said to me, one day the Democrats are going to step on an issue. that you care about, and then you'll know why, you know, I have the thoughts that I have. And sure enough, I got in the vaccine issue, saw all that corruption.

But the Democratic Party, I mean, let's talk about Robert Kennedy, Jr. for a moment. I mean, he was a Democrat. You have to be very happy about it. I mean, I'm incredibly, incredibly happy. I got to stand in the Oval Office, watched him get sworn in, which was one of the great honors of my life. And I stood there thinking, this is better than had he won the presidency. because the truth is,

is we were just trying to get him the presidency so he could change out HHS and get the regulatory agencies cleaned up. So there he is. He can be focused on it. So spectacular. But when I was sitting in the Senate watching the vote come in for him

and it was just every Democrat, no. I mean, it was shocking because I would think, hey, he's a Democrat, you know. He's better than any Republican you're going to get. Why are you voting against him? You know? You may disagree with him about certain things, But there are other things where, you know, like Trump, he has been consistent his entire career.

Right. Like, he hasn't changed. He's shown you what is most important to him and has made the case. This is why it should be so important for everybody. Right. And you would think that Democrats would have respect for that because he took his values and his morals and he jumped on the Democrat bandwagon because that's what his family had done. And, you know, here's the guy who, his,

Family means something. Right. And unfortunately, they abandoned him. His family abandoned him. I know. It's amazing. When he said he was going to run for president because he got in the way of the Democrat establishment. And then you see where people's values really lie.

It's like, you know, you are shilling for people who are propping up a vegetable. And it was this massive lie that was sold to the country. And people within the Democrat Party, members of RFK Jr.'s family and a lot of the legacy media, they were all doing the same thing. Yeah. And, you know, without apology, without remorse,

and then they started bombing Tesla dealerships, not all of them, but the unwell, and those are the people who they're appealing to. There has to be hysteria. That's the only thing that sells when you run out of ideas. But the problem is, when you are capitalizing on people like that, you are fomenting their pain,

You are making their pain worse. You aren't offering them a better way of life or a series of choices. You are essentially imprisoning them in your political agenda. And it's a really messed up thing they're doing. And that's why you're seeing so many liberals reporting high incidences of mental illness. And these people, especially the progressives, who are fanning the flames, they have no desire to help people get better. And that is a damn shame.

Well, I mean, and they talk, they're even talking about it themselves. Bill Maher, I mean, so many people that are reaching out, but even on CNN, they're discussing over and over again. They have no platform. They have no ideas. So you have people that are waking up in the morning in a scary world. We're all scared. AI, all of these things. But they have no ideas.

They have no thoughts. They have no plan. You know, so to be living in only fear. That's all you got is what you're against. It's a totally negative perspective to try and live in. What gets you up in the morning? I hate Trump. I hate, you know, the way immigration is being handled.

I hate and I cannot be happy until this is finally changed. Well, when it's changed, what would you do? Oh, I don't know. Nobody's even given us a single idea. I got a hollow, like we're hollow on that. I mean, no wonder they're depressed. You're not a fully well-rounded human being. At least have an idea and a plan.

So speaking of, I mean, we're seeing images right now. They've been pretty shocking, just right down the hill from us in Los Angeles. I'll be honest, like I'm kind of on the fence here. On the one hand, you know, I absolutely believe you've got to clean up the immigration situation. I think that, you know, obviously our borders have been wide open. There's no way to run a country. But then when I see, you know, National Guard and you're bringing in troops and marching on streets and then it reflects on my parents talking about Chicago in the 1960s, is this, is it libertarian?

to have a federal government bring in, you know, federal employees to handle a state issue. I'm kind of, I guess, I mean, what is your thought on that? No, I think you're absolutely right. It is much more complex than it's our side or it's their side, and they are the devil, because you have two all or nothing systems that are now clashing because they've been on a collision course with this issue.

Yeah. So you've got places like California that are sanctuary cities and sanctuary states. But unfortunately for the people who live here, the states and the cities are offering sanctuary to really bad people. So maybe there has to be a more nuanced way of taking the people out of this country who mean the most harm and who are the most recidivists. Right. Why are you protecting them? Right. Like, I don't have a problem with people coming here and working their asses off and putting their kids through school and making a better life for themselves because if they're doing that, you know, I don't.

I've seen the multiplier effect, and it's a phenomenal thing. My family came over, my mom came over from Romania, and they all worked as hard as they possibly could. Both my grandparents worked in order to put my mom and her brothers into a good school so they would be safe and they could realize the American dream. So that's what people in Southern California are kind of pushing back against is, you know, we can't say it's all or nothing, because there is a big difference between people who come here and people who work hard, who deserve.

the freedom to associate and people who come here and harm children and traffic children and murder people and assault people I don't want those people in our country no one does but why should we accept that because California happens to be a sanctuary city so yes you have you know this over permissiveness with you know something that's on the precipice of authoritarianism and for libertarians it's okay to look at both sides and go something here all of it doesn't feel right to me. Yeah, I agree. I just feel like, I mean, it's indicative and it really gets down to media. I mean, it's one of the things that really bothers me. You've weaved your way

in a very beautiful way. You've been really honest in a lot of mainstream media platforms, but I just wonder what our world is if we went through like a network moment. I'm mad as hell. I'm not going to take this anymore. We just threw our televisions out the window. You know, I think we would find each other again. I would think we would start having conversations again. I think we would just start recognizing each other's as neighbors and as human beings and say, we may have some disagreements, but let's talk it out. But you go back to that television and it's just hate fear, hate fear, hate fear of whichever side you're on. It's truly, I mean, Robert Kennedy Jr. is trying to run his president. It's like heal the divide.

Are we ever going to heal? I mean, is that, is that even, is it possible? We just feel so totally. No, not without curiosity. Not without curiosity. Not without curiosity. empathy, not unless you're able to talk to someone that you disagree with it, without worrying that you're going to be canceled or shut down or ignored or ghosted because there are differences of opinion between you. That's okay. Like, that's supposed to be American. You know, we're supposed to live in an intellectually Byzantine culture where we come from different places. We have different motivations and inspirations and ideas, and if we had curiosity and empathy, we might be able to see where someone is coming from. It doesn't mean we have to walk that path. It doesn't mean that you

have to be a big government status, but instead of condemning someone before you hear a single idea out of their mouth, just listen to them. And I think, you know, that's what I like about Freedom Fest, because there are a lot of people within the liberty community who disagree with each other. And we have some pretty big fundamental disagreements, and that's okay. That is not something to be feared, but it is this fear and anger that continues to drive us apart. And until we work on ourselves and overcome that, we're not going to do it as a society. The perfect word is curiosity. It's what you said. It's what makes America great. We're diverse. We should be curious about each other's cultures, curious about each other's ideas. How did you

come to those ideas? I say it all the time. I mean, if I could have an interview with, you know, Paul Offid or Anthony Fauci, it wouldn't be what people would expect. I'm really curious. I want to know, you know, Tony, what makes you tick? You know, how is it? It felt like it was okay to make people social distance six feet

and shut down their businesses and you made it up. Like, how did you... I'm just curious. Like, what, obviously, was it a fear of something that if you didn't do that? Like, what was the actual motivation? I mean, those are the, you know, I'm curious. You know, I don't want to just

judge you. I don't like how it turned out, but maybe I didn't see the whole picture, but that is what Freedom Fest is about. I mean, like I've said it before, you can see a 10-gallon half with the giant belt buckle, standing across some dreaded out, you know, marijuana, smoking person, and, you know, it's sort of like,

I won't touch your guns if you don't touch my weed, you know what I mean? It's like, deal. That's what seems to be going on here. What is what are you most excited about this year at Freedom Fest? At Freedom Fest, seeing where we're going after the election, because last Last year, you know, last year at Freedom Fest, that Saturday was the day there was the assassination

attempt on President's time. Oh, my God. So Emily Campaño and I, Emily spoke here last year, one of my Fox News colleagues, we were ready to go to the pool. And I was like, you know, what time do you want to meet? She's like, I'm coming to your room right now. Someone just tried to kill the president. He's been shot.

And I was like, well, you know, well, he was, you could tell the Burdome's president. It wasn't reelected. But so she came in my room and we couldn't believe what we were seeing. And that's, you know, before that moment, we were like, this whole thing is up in the air. Like, we do not know what's going to happen with this election. And then when he insisted on standing up with the blood coming down his face, raising his fist and saying, fight, fight, fight, I don't care who you are. If you were not moved by that moment, there might be something wrong with you.

I'll be honest. I was, amen. I saw that moment. I had a little bit of a different experience because I had a little bit of a different experience because I had candidate that cared very much about running for president and I just said who spoke that day yeah I watched Donald Trump and I said that image that's the next president of the United States it's over but it also means you realize like yeah why doesn't RFK Jr. have secret service protection I mean it was what are we doing here it was so amazing just to sort of sum it up you know it's a move libertarianism this idea of really you know trying to establish freedom not getting sucked

into this, you know, my way or the highway. It tries to find some space in the middle, some truth, I think, that you hope would be logical to everybody. As little government is necessary to keep us from killing each other. And like you said, can I have some roads in a hospital and then just get out of our way? Are you worried at all? Is there a concern that now that Trump's in

and everyone kind of like heavy-lifted and got in there, that's like, okay, job done, you know, that there's going to be a relaxation around these issues, and around our Constitution and our rights? Yes, I think there's always that, but one thing that we've seen, our country is very dynamic. It ebbs and flows, and the pendulum swings, and you have to just be a straight shooter right up the middle and tell the truth.

And then what the pendulum is doing doesn't really matter because it doesn't affect your moral compass. Well, that's what you do best. You keep telling the truth. I love the work that you do. I love the guidance you've given, and thank you for making Freedom Fest so much fun. And thank you, you're the best.

Thank you, Del. All right, we'll take care.