The Megyn Kelly Show - A Wuhan Lab Admission and White House Coordination Against Parents, with Hugh Hewitt, Melissa Francis, Allie Beth Stuckey, and Nicki Neily | Ep. 187

Episode Date: October 22, 2021

Megyn Kelly is joined by Hugh Hewitt, syndicated radio host, Nicki Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, Melissa Francis, former Fox and CNBC host, and Allie Beth Stuckey, host of Relatable on BlazeTV, to talk about, President Biden's vaccine mandate push aimed at first responders, his border crisis dodge, a stunning admission about gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, proof of coordination between the White House and a group fighting against parents speaking out, VP Kamala Harris' awkward birthday celebration, the tragic Alec Baldwin movie set shooting, Putin vs. a CNBC reporter, and more.Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations. Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show. We have a big Friday show for you today. Turns out there was a ton of news overnight, and we've got it all for you, including the latest on emails that show the Biden administration knew about and may have helped coordinate that letter from the National School Boards Association about parents being described as domestic terrorists. Remember when I said that? Remember when I said this looks coordinated, doesn't look organic, like it just came from the school boards? Well, now we know it's true. They've been working with the White House to make it happen. We'll get into that and. They did fund it. And the proof already came out thanks to The Intercept, you know, weeks ago. But now it's in writing admitted by the National

Institution of Health. So we'll go over that. Plus, my friends Melissa Francis and Ali Beth Stuckey are both here. That's gonna be fun to talk Kamala Harris and her surprise party. Alec Baldwin, did you hear about this bizarreness? And there's news actually just breaking on what happened as he shot two people accidentally, one of whom died on the set of his new movie. So we've got all of that covered for you. But we want to begin today with the latest from President Joe Biden's town hall last night, where he made news on the southern border, the filibuster and his desire to eliminate it and vaccine mandates. Joining me now for all of it, syndicated radio host Hugh Hewitt. Hugh, great to have you here. Thanks for having me back, Megan. Good Friday to you.

And to you. All right. Let's start with this on first responders and Anderson Cooper of CNN asking him about the fact that it looks like about one in three first responders, cops, firefighters, paramedics and so on. And that doesn't even encompass prison guards, corrections officers and so on are not getting the vaccine, even though vaccine mandates are already kicking in in their respective cities. They don't want to do it. And we've seen every day more and more stories of folks just leaving the job at a time when we need we need our cops and so on. Anyway, so he decides to do Anderson Cooper decides to ask him about it. This is soundbite four. And here's how Biden responded. I'm wondering where you stand on that. Should police officers, emergency responders be mandated to get vaccines? And if not, should they be stay at home or let go? Yes and yes. By the way, I waited until July to talk about mandating because i tried everything else possible the mandates are

working i have the freedom to kill you with my coven i mean come on freedom oh so callous it was incredible hugh right it's like we're talking about cops and and already nurses and so on have been included in this he couldn't care less that these guys got us through a pandemic. The cops dealt with the riots, so on and so forth. Now their kids at Christmas will have nothing thanks to this. And he doesn't care. I was pretty stunned by that, Megan. Now I'm fully vaccinated and I've had a booster.

I'm over 65, so I get to get the booster with the Pfizer. So I'm a big believer in it. The first question the president should answer is, does he have the authority to say anything directly to local and state police officers? The answer is no. You know that. You're a lawyer. I know that too. He can't issue an edict that they've got to be vaccinated. He can only encourage governors and local authorities to the extent that they don't conflict with collective bargaining agreements to do that. But the throw off at the end, freedom, give me a break, come on, whatever it was,

the classic Joe Biden diversion from actually explaining what he has on his mind. That is so contemptuous, even of people who have been vaccinated like me. We used our freedom to make a choice. And I think we had a lot of bad moments last night. He had a couple of good moments, but he had a lot of bad moments last night. He had a couple of good moments, but he had a lot of bad moments. That was one of them. I have the right to kill you with my covid as if that's what unvaccinated people are saying. If you don't want to die from covid, you get vaccinated like you did, like I did. If I choose not to do it, it is not me killing you

with my covid. The people who are not vaccinated are not vaccinated because they don't want to be or because they're kids at this point. Right. And kids are at absolutely no risk, seriously, no risk from dying from covid. More kids were killed by the flu last year than they were from covid. So that's a misstatement. And it's so callous to the thousands of Americans who just recovering from this devastated economy we had during the shutdown, are now about to get fired thanks to his unlawful edict. It's callous. It is also extraordinarily tinier because some of the reason that people have not gotten vaccinated is because Conal Harris and Joe Biden said they would hesitate to take a vaccine

produced by Donald Trump, which these vaccines were under Operation Warp Speed. It's because of a completely bollocked up messaging machine over at the CDC and the FDA, which really does not know how to send out easy to follow guidance, something that will get people in line and the failure to use nonpolitical, highly effective communicators. I mean, I would have lined up everyone from Oprah to Megan. I would have gotten, you know, if you're aiming for a demographic, use the demographic. If you're aiming for older people, go find John Voight, go find people like that to make a pitch for it. But to blame people for not getting vaccinated without having any idea what the deal is, is not the president's job. And it's so amazing to hear him talk about like, you know, look, I held off on the mandates

as if this is a power. This is a tool in his arsenal. He had it all along and he knew it. You know, he just he held off until the children really wouldn't behave in the back of the car. And then he really just had to turn the car around like he didn't want to do it. But the vacations off, he doesn't have this authority. He talks about it like it's very well accepted.

And we talked about this on the show yesterday, but he intentionally appears to have withheld having OSHA issue that regulation that's actually going to impose the mandate because that would prevent a legal challenge. There's nothing to challenge when the regulation's not in place. And so all these corporations have been doing it and doing it and doing it. And there's been no legal challenge. Meanwhile, when one is filed, I believe it will fall apart. I do, too.

And that's because we are a federal government of limited and expressed powers. And one of those powers is not the police power, which is what state and local governments use in a plague or something like that to get people to stay inside Scarlet Fever quarantine. What President Biden can mandate, he has. Federal employees and militarylet fever quarantine. What president Biden can mandate. He has federal employees and military work for the federal government. He can mandate that. That's his job. He's allowed to do that. He can't issue this sweeping edict.

It's sort of like, I know you'll get to the filibuster. He also implied in the town hall last night, he has anything to do with the filibuster. He doesn't. It's the Senate. It's wild. I thought the same. I'm like, does he know he's not in the Senate anymore? Like he's become vice

president since then. He's been president. I thought the same. And I do want to turn the page to that because, you know, the word I was thinking, the word filibuster sounds kind of boring, like filibuster. I don't know. It's like you have the images of people standing there droning on and on. But it's really important. It's important for minority rights in the Senate. And basically, the Senate is where, you know, the hot cup of tea goes to cool and the saucer. I can't remember the exact saying. That's it. It's right. It's there's a reason that they have these longer terms versus their colleagues over in the House that have to run for office every two years. It's supposed to be the more, I don't know, austere,

thoughtful, reserved body that cools the tempers, that fire off in the House where you got to go face your constituents and give them red meat every two years. And the filibuster is part of it. And it's a way for letting the minority in the Senate stop legislation that doesn't have sweeping support in the Senate from going forward. And they already got rid of it when it comes to judicial nominees. The Democrats started it, the Republicans took it further. And now they're talking about to take it next level. It was already big to get rid of it for judicial nominees, but to take it next level and get rid of it altogether, which some have proposed, or to get rid of it for, he mentioned last night, voting rights. But there's a couple of other wish list items that we'll talk about in a minute that he seems open-minded on. So here he is speaking about his newfound position on the filibuster.

This is Soundbite One. Are you saying once you get this current agenda passed on spending and social programs that you would be open to fundamentally altering the filibuster or doing away with it? Well, that remains to be seen. Exactly what that means in terms of fundamentally altering it, whether or not we just end the filibuster straight up. There are certain things that are just sacred rights. One's a sacred obligation that we never renege on a debt. We're the only nation in the world and we have never, ever reneged on a single debt. But when it comes to voting rights... Voting rights is equally as consequential. When it comes to voting rights, just so I'm clear, though, you would entertain the notion of doing away with the filibuster on that one issue? Is that correct?

And maybe more. And maybe more. So what's he talking about? Well, the big pushes in the Democratic Party are to eliminate it when it comes to immigration reform, prison reform, and climate change. And their justification here is, and I quote, this is a thing from the Washington Post write-up, quote, if the filibuster remains intact, these are Democrats explaining themselves, Mr. Biden will leave office with half his priorities unmet. Right. That's that's what it's doing.

Yeah. The thing about the filibuster, I'll come back to it. It's a it's a rule of the Senate. So it's up to the Senate to make or break it. They haven't broken it for, I think, 140 years on legislative matters. They brought it broke it with, I think, 140 years on legislative matters. They broke it with Harry Reid on nominations, advising consent in 2013. Leader McConnell warned them at the time, don't do it, you'll regret it. Amy Coney Barrett is on the Supreme Court because of Harry Reid. People should remember that. The unintended consequences of what you end up with is you've got to live with whatever rule you make.

But if you watch the video of that, I watched it a few times. Anderson Cooper sets it up with a very, you know, you've hosted these things forever. You heard that set up. He led him right to where he wanted him to go. And the president wandered off to talk about something else without looking and not making eye contact, wandering around the state. Anderson Cooper brings him back to the subject. And then he says, he wanders off again. And in the course of it, assumes an authority over the Senate that his hundred buddies up there could say, well, you know, maybe he could lean on Kamala Harris as president of the Senate in a 50-50 deadlock to change the rule of vote. Yes. But even that isn't guaranteed to him by the Constitution.

Joe Biden struck me as grandpa at Thanksgiving a lot this week. Who sits next to grandpa at Thanksgiving? Who's going to hear him talk about how he would be running the world if he were king, not queen, not duke, not earl? Abby is objecting on behalf of her grandpa who listens to this show every day, Hugh. What are you saying about grandpa? Well, I'm a grandpa. I'm a grandpa. And I know that in 15 years, I'll be the one that my grandkids are all in single digits. Now they're going to be asking my daughter, do we have to sit next to grandpa? You know, we don't want to do that. He's going to tell us about all the debates he moderated. No, I get it. I get it. But he's wandering again,

right? Right. The same stuff that was classy. He's not impaired. He's 79 years old. And it was just, wow. Wait, I have another example. So we'll get back to the filibuster, but I do have another soundbite of that. This is number five of him appearing to get confused, losing words, and getting an assist from the anchor. Watch. 40% of all products coming into the United States of America on the West Coast, go through Los Angeles and what am I doing here? The Long Beach? The Long Beach. Thank you.

Now, look, Megan, I do this. I'm 65. I do it every day on my show. Yesterday, I could not remember David Axelrod's last name. I was talking about his book Believer. I was talking about excerpts from it. But when you get to be 65, the elevator stops at a couple of floors on the way up. So Joe Biden's elevator, he's not losing it. It's just stuck. But Anderson Cooper, we call that a basket catch in baseball

or a one-hand OBJ Jarvis Landry catch in football. You don't have to bail out the president. You shouldn't have to bail out. Would you have bailed out the president there, Megan? No, sadly, you got to let him twist out the president. You shouldn't have to bail out. Would you have bailed out the president there, Megan? No, sadly, you got to let him twist in the wind. You're not his assistant. That's exactly right. Silence is a wonderful thing. Yes, let it play out. How long is it going to take him? How is he going to recover? You're making news just by letting it play out. I laugh because my mom's 80 and she loves when I tell these stories, but she's she's taken to doing this.

You know, you know what I'm saying? You know what I'm what am I saying? That she wants you to tell her what she's actually saying, which usually you can. But, you know, she doesn't have access to the nuclear codes. So back on the filibuster, he's confused about the fact that he can change it, but he can he can lean on them. And he he mentioned he mentioned three senators who he he has to sort of get the reconciliation bill on the filibuster. I mean, in the infrastructure bill through before we can sort of go to them for support. I think that's what he was trying to say on getting rid of the filibuster. We know Manchin. We know Sinema. Not sure who the third was there. But can I make a guess? Yeah. I think if Senator Hassan of New Hampshire votes to abolish the

filibuster, she's out of a job. She's already facing a tough uphill challenge from Governor Sununu in that state. And that state is a deeply culturally conservative and very educated state that follows constitutional stuff. David Souter came out of New Hampshire when he went down to the court and everybody talked about what a Yankee is. If Maggie Hassan votes to do away with the filibuster, she's done. She's retiring. And so and Dianne Feinstein is also allegedly, but we don't know how much she's involved in the day to day work of her office. She has also allegedly dead set against him. Well, he he this is a complete, complete reversal on for Joe Biden, because when he's been in the Senate for most of his career and what he has said in the past is that this is

this would be a naked power grab. The abolition of the filibuster would show the senators don't understand that they're merely temporary custodians of the Senate, said it would be catastrophic to do and it would destroy America's sense of fair play. Now, he says he's had a change of heart because he feels it's been abused for the past 20 years and that it's a relic of Jim Crow. Okay, it's racist too. And you heard him mention maybe the debt ceiling. You heard him mention voting rights, which is a, you know, that has real concerns, right? He wants to get rid of these laws that we're seeing in places like Georgia and Texas and elsewhere that let states set their own voting priorities. He wants it to be a federal matter, which would basically preempt the states from having control.

He hasn't been able to pass it so far. The Senate's been saying, no, they're all 50 Republicans are aligned, saying you're not doing that to get rid of the filibuster. He's got control of that. And I just wonder whether people are paying attention to like how sweeping the changes could be if they go ahead and get rid of the filibuster on those things or never mind climate change or immigration. Yeah, they should never get rid of the filibuster, in my view, because it adds to the world's greatest deliberative body aspect of the Senate. But you're right.

They would have a 51 to 50 vote on the most sweeping legislative changes. One of the reasons the filibuster has worked so well for the Senate. But you're right. They would have a 51 to 50 vote on the most sweeping legislative changes. One of the reasons the filibuster has worked so well for the country, it was broken when it needed to be broken for the Civil Rights Act in 1964. And it took a big effort and people, the Republican Party led that effort and some Democrats came with them. But the reason you want 60 votes on massive big policy changes is it reflects that this isn't a small group of people advocating from a position of power within one of the two parties, which it would be with climate change legislation that is this sweeping he's proposing, which it would be with theoting Rights Act that they've been putting forward is not. It divests states of their authorities over their elections. And it's just the filibuster has provided a very useful obstacle to rapid partisan advances on the back of a very narrow legislative majority. We know Nancy Pelosi is going to lose.

We know the House is going to become Republican. So they're trying to rush through in 15 months because the House will change over in January 23, 16 months. They're trying to rush through in 16 months on the basis of one vote in the Senate and five in the House changes to the fundamental architecture of the laws of the United States. It's not- They better watch it because 2024 is around the corner. And so he may get things through. But as was warned when the Republicans were in the minority, you mentioned that Mitch McConnell moment, he warned that the Republicans would one day take control of that chamber back and Harry Reid would rue the day he got rid of the filibuster on lower court judges. And indeed, that's what happened. The Republicans got rid

of it for Supreme Court nominees. And as you point out, that's why we have a Justice Amy Coney Barrett, which the liberals hate. They hate the fact that she's on that court. Okay, before we squeeze in a break, I want to talk quickly about the southern border. It was a speaking of the wandering grandpa again, with all due respect to grandpas. He went, oh, I'll just let it play. You can see where he went. When Cooper asked him about the crisis at our southern border right now. Do you have plans to visit the southern border? I've been there before. I haven't. I mean, I know it well. I guess I should go down. But the whole point of it is I haven't had a whole hell of a lot of time to get down. I've been spending time going around looking at the $900 billion worth of damage done by hurricanes and floods and weather and traveling around the world.

But I plan on – now, my wife, Jill, has been down. She's been on both sides of the river. She's seen the circumstances there. She's looked into those places you notice you're not seeing a lot of pictures of kids lying on top of one another with uh you know with with with blind with uh um you know uh looks like tarps on top of them so the wife's been well the wife somehow got kids out from under those tarps i what it is the wandering grandpa. Look, you've come up with the name for the syndrome I want, which is wandering grandpa. And I'm a grandpa. So people can understand. I can say this with a little bit less self-consciousness. He started, I should probably

go down there, which is what? Now we've got a Joe Biden on the clock when he should go down there. Second, he ends up, this is a week in the week where the news came out that American authorities have taken into custody 1.7 million people on the southern border in fiscal year 2021, the highest number ever recorded, ever recorded. So it's the worst year for unpermitted immigration. I no longer call it illegal immigration because I don't want to get off top i just unpermitted unlawful entry into the united states ever is this year and he's and he's talking about i'm too busy it's it's an epic crisis megan it's so weird what you're talking about like oh there's been hurricanes and stuff like what what are you listing your agenda for if you wanted to go you would have gone you didn't want to go and by the way fox news apparently asked the white

house if biden actually has ever been to border, as he claimed in the beginning of that soundbite. You know, I've been like in the past. I just haven't been recently. And the White House so far has refused to answer. So I don't even know if Biden's ever been to the border. But rest easy, because Jill's been there and the wife's got all sorts of reports about tarps. I mean, as you point out, tell that to the people along the southern border who are dealing with this massive influx of illegal immigrants who at least 160,000 are said to have been released by the Biden administration into the country so far. That's that's such a generous estimate to them. I think it's way higher than that. The arrests, I didn't hear that it was highest ever. I heard it was at a 35 year high since 1986. And I actually just for kicks went back and looked at what was happening in 1986. I was 15 years old. The number one song in the country is that's what friends are for. But Dionne Warwick and friends, the Oprah show launched nationally. This is how long ago it's been. It was the challenger exploded and so did Chernobyl. So that's the last time we got anywhere near 1.7 million arrests at the southern border. And that's just the number arrested, never mind those who

actually crossed and made it without being detected. He's talking about tarps and Jill and apparently misleading us about whether he's ever been there. Yeah, I have subsequently read that in 1986, I was working in the White House with Ronald Reagan. So I was a young lawyer. So I can remember this very well. The amnesty year, that was not the number. They've gone back and found that that 1986 was not 1.7. It was under 1.7. And so I'm pretty confident when I say that.

I don't want to put you in the box of not having read what I read. But I am confident that it's the worst year ever in any event. It's a terrible year. We had hundreds of Haitians, thousands of Haitians under a bridge in Texas two weeks ago. They didn't have tarps over them. They had nothing over. Right. And then they vanished. Right. Like we just saw that those images are burned into our minds. And he's like, oh, no, the kids aren't under the tarps. Well, no, they're under a bridge and there's no clean water.

And they're there because of your messaging that the border is basically open. Yeah. You know, they announced this morning that Neera Tanden, a very competent, very effective, progressive staffer who had been nominated to be the OMB director, is going to be over the staff secretary. That's like being the OMB director. Arguably, it's more powerful than being the OMB director without the honorable in front of your name. Neera is going to bring message discipline. I think she is being brought in to help the president stop doing this. And they're going to have to figure out a difference. That's a friendly audience and a friendly host. That is not what the president should be trying to do. Neera Tanden, the one who couldn't get confirmed because of her divisive Twitter fights and the

fact that she clearly hates anybody who is a Republican in this country is now getting another position and it's in charge of White House messaging. Yeah, it's they'll say the comms director is, but the staff secretary sees every piece of paper. Look, I've gotten a number of saber strikes from Nero over the years from Twitter. I never would vote not to confirm something, someone for somebody because of because of their Twitter account. I know, but you didn't win the presidency by promising unity, unity. She hates Republicans. She hates Sanders liberals. Like she basically only likes the Joe Biden lane of Democrats.

And this is why she couldn't get confirmed. But I wouldn't promise unity and then put somebody like that in charge of messaging. I can't wait to see what she has to say to unify us all. Yeah, well, I do get along with Neera. I'm one of those Republicans that don't take anyone too seriously. But yeah, I do think it's better to have competent people than incompetent people inside the White House. She's competent. And I think that will help the president.

I have no doubt she'll be very competent in her nasty messages about half the country. All right, more with you, Hewitt, after the break, because we got to get to this explosive admission. Admission by the National Institute of Health about gain of function research in that Wuhan lab, right? Dr. Fauci said, no, no, no, no, never, never, never to Rand Paul. Well, we knew it was true after the Intercept released those documents. And now the National Institute of Health is admitting it. We'll get you up to speed next. Let's talk about Fauci and so-called gain of function research. This is research where they take a coronavirus and they actually work to make it more transmissible and or lethal. And it was being done in that Wuhan lab funded by our government, which gave 600 plus

thousand dollars to EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit. This is a taxpayer funded organization run by this guy, Peter Daszak, who is not a good guy. This guy stinks to high heaven, his behavior in this whole thing. And he really had his knees cut out by 60 minutes in a great report by them. I'll give them credit where it's due. But he needs to be ousted from that job. And there's a push for it because he doesn't appear to be an honest man. Anyway, we did find this research. He's connected with Fauci. Fauci's basically the guy who got him the money. Fauci's been denying all along that Daszak or anybody else did this so-called gain-of-function research because that would not be good given that we have several million people dead now from a coronavirus that came from bats. All right, so that's the setup. What happens now

is the National Institute of Health, that's the oversight, that's the umbrella group under which Fauci works, is now admitting in a letter that it did fund gain of function research through EcoHealth Alliance. But what they're claiming, Hugh, and you tell me, because my take on this is it's the CYA. They're saying we did it. We did it through EcoHealth Alliance and Peter Daszak, but we didn't know. EcoHealth Alliance did it and they were supposed to get back to us on whether that kind of thing happened and they never did. And we just learned this past August that in fact, gain of function had happened and poor Peter Daszak, you know, he never got back to us. So that was bad. And now we're going to EcoHealth Alliance saying, give us all your documents because, you know, now we don't know

if we can trust you. This is all a huge CYA. The Intercept got them. They got the documents. They proved it happened. Now this is these guys being like, shit, it happened, but oh, maybe we'll go with, we didn't know. You tell me. The other part of the letter, which was the second CYA is, and the gain of function research we funded was on a different coronavirus, not the one that caused COVID-19. And therefore we're, our hands are clean. It's not how it works. If you fund a lab in one part, you're funding the lab in all parts. It's like taking a part off of an airplane. The lab works when everything is funded. So we gave all this money to the Wuhan Institute for Virology. I have myself asked Dr. Francis Collins, who I cannot

overstate my admiration for, the head of NIH, and Dr. Fauci here on the show, on my radio show, about gain of function months ago. Both of them told me with great vigor, as the Kennedys would say, that that had never happened. There were rules against gain of function. We would never have done it. I personally believe that neither man actually had a clue, but their staff told them, and it was a deputy director that signed that letter, Megan, their staff told them, don't worry about it, doc. We didn't do that. And Rand Paul came after them. You brought it up. I've talked about it on the air. Many responsible people have said, wait, this doesn't add up. So they've gone back and done the third check. And the third check proves

that the first denials were all wrong. They learned about it in August by their own admission. It is October. And so they have, again, impeded the operations of the Congress to provide oversight and, I believe, the intelligence community to come to conclusions about Wuhan. I'm stuck. But I got to jump in. That is the most generous interpretation one could possibly give to Fauci, Collins, and the NIH. The most generous possible. Because, as you know, Rand Paul in Congress has been pushing Fauci on gain of function because lots of respected scientists have taken a look at what we know happened in Wuhan, never mind what we don't know, and said it was gain of function. And then the Intercept got those documents showing that it looked very much like gain of function. And Rand Paul got Fauci again. It said it's gain of function. And Fauci keeps saying, no, you're telling me at that point, that man had an obligation if he hadn't already done so to go to Peter Daszak and EcoHealth, because that's how we're saying that we funded it through his group and say, do I have everything? Show me everything. This is not some small deal.

We get six million people dead. I need to see the documents and know everything you did and we funded. This is not like, OK, by now, the third time we'll go back and check. I don't believe that for one second, Hugh. Yeah, here's where I think you might be underestimating the duplicity of EcoHealth Alliance. I believe they have probably filed report after report with the NIH saying, we didn't do anything wrong. We didn't do anything wrong. And the NIH believed them. If they're bad guys, and I sense that your intuition is my intuition about this place, whatever gets us the money and whatever establishes it, sometimes research institutions

become this way and grant dependent organizations become this way. What do they need? Don't tell them anything. And so they have sent back and forth, fraught with ambiguity, lawyer's letters that I read that one that came from the NIH yesterday. It's just a marvelous lawyer's letter. It's been in the general counsel's office for a month. And it doesn't admit or deny. It being as kind of Fauci as one can possibly be. There were huge gaps in oversight of a U.S. government funded projects in the Wuhan lab, which, of course, we have the CCP in there. We've got we've got the military, the Chinese military in there. they were focused on digging up dangerous viruses. And that's Fauci. That's on him. That's the best case scenario is that he was grossly negligent or reckless in his oversight of this group. And that when red flags were all over Daszak, thanks to 60 Minutes and others, he didn't he didn't do his homework. He still testified before Congress with certainty rather than saying, I have to be honest, if I am basing this on the word of Peter Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance,

I have had a good history with him, but I don't know that at this point whether we can try. That's not what he said. Watch him with Rand Paul. We have the zombie. Watch. Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11th where you claimed that the NIH never funded gain of function research in Wuhan. Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress. But all the evidence is pointing that it came from the lab. There will be responsibility for those who funded the lab, including yourself. I totally resent. This committee will allow the witness to respond.

I totally resent the lie that you are now propagating. No one's saying those virus caused it. It is molecularly. Those virus caused the pandemic. What we're alleging is that gain of function research was going on in that lab and NIH funded it. That is not. Get away from it. It meets your definition and you are obfuscating the truth.

And you are implying that what we did was responsible for the deaths of individual i totally resent that and if anybody is lying here senator it is you no no okay let me make the argument for dr fauci lassitudinous uh recklessness and his absolute moral indignation tells me from my evidence class, the witness believes his own story. Dr. Fauci often believes his own story. I don't come to that conclusion at all. Sometimes you're more of a syphilis when you're guilty and you know it. I mean, I know that from my own investigations as a lawyer.

When I threw a bunch of real allegations up against people I was investigating, they'd say, no, no, no. When I threw one that was made up, then the personality would totally change. You can tell. It could go either way. But I'm telling you, that was not a guy trying to hedge because he had reason to believe

he didn't know all the facts there, as you're positing. He should have allowed for the ambiguity. And Rand Paul was making a much bigger argument than he was answering. Rand Paul was saying, we sent money to a gain-of-function researching institution in China, and you should have known that. He was saying, whatever we did a gain of function researching institution in China.

And you should have known that he was saying whatever we did, it didn't cause the Wuhan coronavirus. Nineteen. They can both be true. But what is that? Rand Paul seeded that you heard him seed that in the argument. No one's saying that he's saying, but you did do you did fund gain of function research and Fauci wouldn't admit it. And now some underling at his shop without Fauci's name on it is admitting that they did do it. But it's only because we already knew that we found that out in September. They were publicly humiliated. And these guys look around now, Hugh, and say, why doesn't anybody believe us? Why is the vaccine hesitancy? Freedom my ass, right? Like Joe Biden. No, we don't trust

them. The erosion in trust of our public health officials is directly linked to testimony like that. Certainty proposed, you know, supposed certainty like that by Dr. Fauci under really high stakes where people's lives are at risk. We don't trust them anymore. And they they are to blame. You are exactly. And this is an important point. This is why the CDC and the NIH have forfeited decades of credibility is pseudo certainty, as we have in talk radio, frequently wrong, never in doubt. That's fine for pundits. That's OK for journalists. It is not OK for the CDC, the NIH to be frequently wrong, never in doubt. That's fine for pundits. That's okay for journalists. It is not okay for the CDC, the NIH to be frequently wrong, never in doubt. It takes away the ability of them to persuade us in a that the CDC blew the testing originally. We're going to look at bad guidance en masse that they knew to be wrong. We're going to look at the funding of gain-of-function research.

We're going to look at the failure to fund ivermectin efficacy. We're going to look at the fact that they've changed their messaging 30 different times. You could not be more right, Megan. And here's the scary ending. Well, it's not the ending, but it's the ending for this segment. The overarching group that actually gives the funds, the U.S. Agency for International Development. We've given 65 million of taxpayer dollars to ecohealth over the years as part of like an effort to study pandemics and so on. We continue to or that USAID continues, according to Josh Rogin of The Washington Post, who's reporting is impeccable, continues to ignore congressional requests for documents about its extensive

collaborations with the Wuhan lab. All right. So they're not going to this is they're not giving us information. And yet the USAID sees no problem announcing this month that it intends to spend an additional one hundred and twenty five million to expand its work hunting viruses and bringing them back to labs all over the world. You know, you just you just prompted me, I'm going to go online and pull up the 990 form for EcoHealth Alliance and find out how much their top three executives that's got to be disclosed on a form 990 for any not for profit, how much their top three executives are making. That's an astonishing amount of money. I would like to know that too. And I think we've done

enough of pulling the bats out of their caves and seeing how we can make them more lethal to us. I think that really needs to stop. It doesn't need another $125 million until we get to the bottom of exactly how this thing started and whether it was linked to somebody doing exactly what Peter Daszak was doing in that lab. So good to talk to you, Hugh. Always fun sparring. Thank you, Megan. Good to see you. Look forward to doing it again.

Okay, coming up, we're going to be joined by Nikki Neely. Her organization, Parents Defending Education, you probably heard me talk about it. I love these guys. They're helping parents in the K-12 system fight all this crazy CRT stuff and trans stuff and blah, blah, blah. Filed a bunch of lawsuits. Nikki Neely got the idea of FOIA-ing the National School Boards Association to see exactly who they talked to about that letter trying to target parents as domestic terrorists. And boy, oh boy, did she hit the motherlode. She's here to talk about the links to the White House that she uncovered right after this. Joining me now is Nikki Neely, the president and founder of Parents Defending Education.

And if you haven't checked out this group online, you need to. They're on the side of the good guys. Her organization obtained emails from members of the National School Board Association. You remember, this is the group that wrote to the White House saying, parents, they are domestic terrorists. Help us. And sure enough, the FBI got involved. Well, her organization got emails from them that revealed the National School Boards Association had been working with the Biden White House before that group would wind up submitting its letter and setting off what's become a national firestorm. Ultimately, this led to Attorney General Merrick Garland enlisting the help of

the FBI to monitor parents' activities at school board meetings, or at least to threaten that they're going to go after parents they deemed inappropriate in some way. Once again, Nikki, great to see you. Once again, very questionable about whether the DOJ has any jurisdiction here whatsoever to go after parents in this way or to try to criminalize, quote, threats that aren't inciting immediate lawless action. You know, just going to your school board saying, you know, if you continue this,

I'll show up here every day. You know, not getting out of the room when they tell them to. This is sort of what the school board association was listing. Like we told them to leave and they wouldn't. They had masks on or they wouldn't put masks on and we objected.

Okay, anyway, so let's start with, so you get the idea to FOIA the group, the school board association. And what did you find? Right, so you get the idea to FOIA the group, the School Board Association, and what did you find? Right. So NSBA is actually a private entity. We didn't FOIA them. I FOIA'd every single board member on their personal district email accounts.

So those are all public. Those are all publicly accessible. And so I reached out to all 24 members of their board, their ex officio members, and those are still coming in. But yeah, from that, we got a correspondence that was sent by Chip Slavin, who is the executive director of NSBA, informing everybody on September 29th, after the letter was sent, just a heads up, guys, this is what's going on. And he notes that in talks over the last several weeks with White House staff, they requested additional information on some of the specific threats. And so this started to smell a lot like there was a pretext and that, you know,

if the White House is requesting specific information that, you know, the cake was already baked. You know, the fact that the Department of Justice turned around five days later, I mean, the Department of Justice moves at the speed of molasses. And so there is just a lot of this smells very, very bad. All right. I'm going to give myself credit. I'm giving myself credit. This soundbite number eight, because when this broke, here's what I said. There's a reason there's that expression. Well, I'm not going to make a federal case out of it because that's an elevation. That's an elevation. And normally the DOJ would absolutely laugh at this kind of a thing. And the fact that they're taking it on makes me wonder how it was orchestrated in the first place. Did the DOJ request a letter like this? Right. Were they

just the innocent recipients or did they orchestrate the Biden administration, the whole thing? And now we know the answer. They did. This wasn't organic from the school boards. This is the White House saying, send us a letter, put the specifics in there. And it seems to me the fix was in that Merrick Garland did this because the White House wanted him to do it. And the White House had absolutely no problem, according to what your documents show, with labeling parents as potential domestic terrorists. Right. I mean, let's look at the NSBA letter cited interstate commerce is like, well, that's not just the magic bullet that you can drop in to have the federal government get involved in anything they want. We also reached out to all of the state school board associations that are members of NSBA asking, did you know about this? Did you have any input on this? They're all appalled. And at this point, over 20 of them have distanced themselves saying, you know, this is a local issue.

We want local involvement. We want parent and citizen involvement. We've been clamoring for this for years. And so this blindsided the state chapters, it blindsided the board members. And as you said, the fix is in. So there's definitely further investigation is merited. And the White House was so cagey about any association with the school board letter or connection to it. Peter Doocy of Fox News pressed Jen Psaki on, look, this letter came, domestic terrorists and so on. And she just kept saying, well, you know, I don't speak for the school board association. Meanwhile, the White House had been coordinating with them from the very beginning on this letter. And Merrick Garland, the attorney general, gave it up yesterday and admitted the association.

Here's we've put together sort of a longer butted soundbite that sort of shows the progression in the story. Watch National School Boards Association wrote to the president to say that their teachers feel like some parents protesting recently could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism. And then the attorney general put the FBI in the case. The National School Board Association is not a part of the U.S. government. The Department of Justice does not have the FBI on this. Something that the School Boards Association is not a part of the U.S. government. The Department of Justice does not have the FBI on this. It's something that the School Boards Association is asking for. I don't speak on behalf of the National School Board Association. I speak on behalf of this government. Very first sentence, you said in recent months, there's been a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, threats of violence. Yes. When did you first review the data showing this so-called disturbing uptick?

So I read the letter and we have been seeing over time threats. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn't ask you. So you read the letter. That's that's your source. Is there some study, some effort, some investigation someone did that said there's been a disturbing uptick or you just take the words of the National School Board Association? Well, the National School Board Association, which represents thousands of school boards and school board members, says that there are these kind of threats. When we read in the newspapers reports of threats of violence, when that is in the context of threats of violence. The source for this, for the very first line in your in your mouth. Time of the gentleman has expired. Was the school.

So that's it. There's been no independent investigation of any of this. This is basically the school board's word coordinated pregame with the White House and Merrick Garland doing what he's been told to do. Yeah. And America First Legal actually just sent a letter to the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General asking them to look into this because they have insider information that between the White House as well as the Department of Justice, there was concern that parental involvement was going to have political implications. And so looking at a very tight race in November in Virginia, as well as looking ahead to 2022, if you are trying to actively discourage parents from being involved in the political process, that is a damning indictment. And it is something that the American people deserve answers to. And Merrick Garland's come under fire, too, because it turns out his son-in-law is the head of some big organization that's pushing CRT in schools, critical race theory in schools, and has made something,

the organization, something like 27 million bucks. So the way it works is the son-in-law pushes this sort of agenda into the schools. Then Merrick Garland, whose daughter is married to this guy, sends a threatening, you know, issues a threatening statement saying parents who are objecting to this stuff in any way that we find threatening are going to have to deal with me and the FBI. I'm not saying he actually did it for that reason. Seems like he had more pressure from the White House on this than from his son in law. How do I know? But at least it's the appearance of impropriety and it's grossly irresponsible. Yeah, I mean, it's small wonder that people have lost faith in our federal government when things like this happen. That was another tip

that we received from somebody who was very concerned about the surveying and the data mining taking place in schools, really without parental knowledge or consent. And so the fact that this is something that came out, it just again, it raises so many questions about how these decisions were made, why they were made. And, you know, as you said, the fix is in. So can I ask you on a larger scale about parents defending education? Because we've seen so many disturbing headlines lately. And I know that you guys have been involved in pushing some lawsuits that have been successful. One, you just filed a lawsuit against the Wellesley Public Schools. This is Wellesley Mass. Can you tell us about that one? Sure. We sued them on Tuesday because they have maintained a policy of having racially segregated affinity groups where they have

allowed or not invited students to attend or not attend groups based on the color of their skin. I mean, this is in direct violation of Brown versus Board of Education. The fact that this is taking place in American schools in 2021 should appall and sicken everyone. I mean, this is not a political issue. This is like an American civil rights issue. And the school also has what a lot of parents in the district have started to call a snitch line. They have a biased speech policy where they encourage students and teachers to report on each other for biased speech. And so somewhat surprisingly, students out of an abundance of caution, self-censor because they don't want to be, they don't want to be dragged into a star chamber. They can be referred to the Wellesley police as well as punished by the by the school.

So they just they just don't talk about anything remotely controversial at all. This is so insane. So is it a federal court lawsuit or state court? Federal court. Yeah. And it's based on free speech, right? Like they're not allowed to do. The students have free speech rights on campus. They can say things that are offensive, shocking, but they're allowed by the Constitution. Yeah, not up to the school to decide what is or is not OK. And then on the segregated affinity groups, we're saying that that's a violation, both of Title six of the Civil Rights Act, as well as of the Equal Protection Clause. All right. Now there's this Fairfax County, that's Virginia lawsuit, or at least not a lawsuit,

but a controversy where the public schools there are apparently asking kids as young as 10 if they had sex, if they identify as trans, if they've attempted suicide. I don't I don't know if you guys are involved in this, but yeah, you are. You are because you guys that's how I know about it. You obtained the survey. So what on earth is happening in Fairfax County? Yeah. And these are the surveys that are taking place by companies like Panorama Education and others. Merrick Garland's son-in-law. Yes. Gathering all this information on our children. Parents don't know that these surveys are taking place. This is deeply, deeply intrusive information, obviously, that's being gathered. And, you know, one concern that it raises is,

aside from parents not knowing about it, is who owns this information? Where is it going? And then just looking at statistics about leaks and data breaches that take place. On average, last year, there were two data breaches a day in schools or their vendors across the country. And so, you know, do we want this kind of information getting out onto the dark web or being used against us and our children in the future? Absolutely not. Data breaches of what? Like what information could they get? Personal information, social security information. Last year, the Broward County schools, I think there was a ransom for several million dollars because they gained a bunch of student information. And so there's not only the social security numbers, but information like this that's

out there. I mean, how will that be used against our children in the future? I'm so glad that there are people like you out there, Nikki, doing. I'm telling you, Parents Defending Education is a great organization. Check them out. A lot of parents don't know where to go. Great first place to start. They can help on a number of fronts. I've known you guys from the beginning, so stay with it and thank you. Up next, going to be joined by my pals, Melissa Francis and Allie Beth Stuckey. We're talking about the horrific breaking news about Alec Baldwin accidentally killing someone on a movie set, Vice President Harris's cringeworthy birthday celebration, and much more. Joining me now are my old friend, Melissa Francis, and my new friend,

Allie Beth Stuckey, host of Relatable on Blaze TV. Ladies, so good to have you here. My gosh, there's a lot to go over. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. I think you just called me old. Was that it? It was a reference to the length of our friendship, as you well know. All right.

So news involving an actor who's found himself yet again in trouble. And so I'll start with you, Melissa, because you are a recovering actor yourself. People may know that you had a starring role in Little House on the Prairie as little Cassandra Cooper Ingalls next to Jason Bateman as the second round of Ingalls kids when the first round aged out

in addition to your news career. But that's where I first fell in love with you. So this is horrifying. Alec Baldwin shot two people, one of whom is now dead, on the set of a movie called Rust in New Mexico yesterday. He killed the film's director of photography, one of whom is now dead on the set of a movie called rust in new mexico yesterday that he killed the film's director of photography um and he wounded the movie's director uh the director

of photography also referred to the cinematographer helena hutchins was 42 and the director joel suza 48 was wounded he's apparently okay because i think he's been released from the hospital so melissa what do we make of it well i think there's a lot we don't know about this story, because like you said, I'm I am back in the entertainment industry now, actually, but behind the camera, but I was an actor in my past life. And I was actually on a show called the gun in the house where we had guns on the set. And we were always told that these weapons were lethal, even with blanks in them, that just by virtue of how much gunpowder is loaded into the prop itself, it still is lethal.

So if I know that, Alec Baldwin certainly knows that. So I think we're just missing a lot of details about this horrific accident right now. It doesn't make any sense to me because any prop master goes out on the set and hands out a gun for this purpose warns everybody in the vicinity how dangerous it was. So I have to think that this was some sort of horrific accident and not, you know, some people are thinking, was it a prank? Did he do something, you know, wild with the gun? It's hard for me to imagine that's true because we all know that even as props, they're very dangerous. The only evidence I could say toward that at this point is the fact that it was the cinematographer and this other crew member, the director, who was killed. I mean, the cinematographer was killed and the other guy got shot. Because I would think if it were just a pure accident, a weird freak thing, wouldn't it be the person on the receiving end of the fake shot? It doesn't seem strange. Unless he's shooting at the camera.

I mean, what if he was shooting at the camera? If you think about how many different times you've seen that shot, you know, where they're sort of aiming right at you. So to me, that seems possible as well. I think we just don't know enough details about what this, it has happened before. I mean, if you look it up, this has happened before where prop guns have killed people and there's been other times when you know there was a bullet inside of what was supposed to be a prop gun but um that's what they're saying right now melissa they're saying a local union because of course i'm sure that you know the tech unions that represent these guys who work on the sets the prop masters and so on

local union that covers prop masters according to indire, sent an email to its members Friday morning saying that the gun Baldwin fired, I'm quoting here, contained a live round, meaning a live bullet. And that's bizarre. You know, no idea why that would be the case. Ali Beth, he put out, but Alec Baldwin just put out a statement. It reads as follows. There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Helena Hutchins, a wife, mother, and deeply admired colleague of ours. I am fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred. And I'm in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family.

My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Helena. It's like, it's just stunning because it's Alec Baldwin. It just seems like a cloud follows the guy. There's always some sort of news around him that's explosive in some way. Yeah, that's true. Gosh, hearing that she is a mother, I just can't even fathom what her family is feeling right now. And of course, Alec Baldwin, I can't imagine what he's feeling. I saw that Pierce Morgan tweeted out a couple pictures of him. He's on the phone. He is doubled over, distraught. Can't imagine what he's going through right now. Some people, however, bringing up some previous tweets, he tweeted out something in 2017, trying to kind of,

I don't know, snarkily come at this police officer who apparently accidentally fired his firearm and killed a suspect and said, oh, imagine what it's like to feel like you're responsible for someone's death accidentally. People are pointing out that, okay, well, maybe Alec Baldwin and all of us need to have a little bit of humility when it comes to situations with police officers or situations that we don't really understand because you never know what can happen. Alex Baldwin obviously didn't intend for this to happen. So there's a lesson there in humility. There's a lesson there also, obviously, in the most practical sense in firearm safety. I'm thankful for Melissa's insight. I don't know

what goes on behind the scenes there, but I would think that there would be firearm experts. That is their specific job when it comes to being on set and making sure that there is not a live round in these firearms and making sure that those safety precautions are being taken beforehand.

I just can't imagine how something like this happens. I guess apparently it does. The people responsible for that, like if it's the prop master, I mean, those people could wind up getting charged potentially.

Certainly if there was a live round in a gun they handed to an actor in a scene that was supposed to have blanks and guns, Melissa, because now aren't, they're saying that CGI is usually used in a lot of these movies to just make it look like a gun was fired, you know, where they just sort of lay it in graphically later.

And very few people are actually using blanks and guns anyway. Yeah, I mean, maybe after this, they will go ahead and change, you know, the way that they operate. I know there's always the thought, you know, crossed my mind that this is supposed to be a Western, you know, they may be looking for an older sort of authenticity. Maybe the actor wants to have a blank in there so that they can, you know, react properly. And, and I don't know, I'm not an expert in shooting guns. But certainly, it seems like this would cause a lot of productions to change the

way that they operate when they're using guns, for sure. Yeah, it seems like in modern day America, you just don't you don't need it. And now that we've had, you know, this tragedy happened, not to mention Brandon Lee back in 1993, he was shot by a gun that was supposed to have blanks in it, the son of Oh, God, who's the bruce lee bruce lee thank you um yeah and he died at a young age from this sort of weird accident so we'll continue to follow it they said it happened during a scene the county sheriff's office spokesman said this shooting happened quote during a scene that was either being rehearsed or filmed the authorities are interviewing people on the set to figure out how the pair had been shot according to the new york

times uh okay so uh thoughts with her family and think that at least the one guy is doing better. Let's switch to politics and talk about Kamala Harris. So she had a birthday, and they threw her a birthday party, and she was turning 57 years old. Melissa threw me a surprise birthday party for my 50th birthday last year. Thanks to Melissa and her husband, Ray, and my husband, Doug. We had a great celebration. And when I walked in, they did yell surprise. And it was super fun. And I was stunned. I was stunned. I genuinely did not expect it. And that's the way it's supposed to work. The guests say surprise. And then you say, oh, and yet it's happened a little differently with Kamala Harris, who seems to be awkward in virtually every situation. Watch. She, for the listeners right now, she walks in and yells surprise.

Now she's kissing her husband with both of them wearing masks. Can we just, I wonder if we can re-rack it i really i want to see it again i don't need to hear the song i wonder if we can re-rack this thought so that people can hear her yelling surprise alissa i mean just did it again i love mask theater just as much as the next girl i mean we all love some good mask theater and clearly that's what this was. I haven't consumed politics for about a year since I left Fox, which I'll talk about in great detail at another point, not today. So I haven't been consuming politics. It's like when you grow up in California, when I was growing up, they had this program where you could, if you're, it was

aversion therapy. And if you were trying to get over something, they would lock you in a room, like with a mountain of chocolate and you would eat all of it until you vomited. That's how I felt about politics after the last political cycle. So I haven't watched any politics for about a year. Like most of the American public, it sort of makes me vomit.

So I wasn't even sure who was the vice president at this point. When I watched the clip, I still didn't know because everyone's in masks. It could be anyone. But I have never seen the person who's being surprised yell surprise. Lots of confusing things about this clip. I like that. Yeah, I'm sorry. She's a very, you know, she's a very strange person. Like you said, she's awkward in almost every situation. And she comes across as very unsure of herself and insecure because it's one thing to be awkward. You don't know what to do with your hands. I understand that that's not

everyone's gift, but she always does the exact opposite of what you're supposed to do in a certain situation. So in this situation, she says surprise when everyone else is supposed to say surprise. A few weeks ago when she was asked by a reporter, hey, have you visited the border? And this is when we really have a spotlight on the humanitarian disaster that was going down there. What's her first response to cackle? She says, it's so strange. I think that she does have some kind of a personality issue going on there. She just doesn't know how to react in normal interactions. It's relevant because she's probably going to be the Democratic nominee next time around. Melissa, just to clue you in on what's going to happen. Joe Biden said he's probably going to be the Democratic nominee next time around. Melissa, just to clue you in on what's going to happen.

Joe Biden said he's only going to be one term president. She's only joking. She hasn't done a lot of politics, but I understand the need to cleanse. And Kamala Harris, maybe, you know, she's obviously the sort of front runner for the job. OK, let's switch over to this. Now, I'm going to get you up to speed. Rachel Levine is with HHS. Rachel Levine is a trans woman.

She is the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health. Most of us have never heard of a lot of these positions, so I'm just going to walk you through it. She is the first openly transgender official to have been confirmed by the Senate. She already got that feather in her cap. And she's just been named to the U.S. Public Health Services Commissioned Corps and says she says, OK, so at the ceremony, follow, I'm going someplace with this. So she gets a ceremonial title of four-star admiral when they announced this. OK. And listen to how she described this moment in her career and sort of the barrier breaking that went on. I stand before you in this uniform, ready to be a beacon in these dark days of COVID-19, working to serve you and this great nation.

I am honored to serve as the first female four-star officer of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. And then she goes on to say, and the first female four-star officer of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. And then she goes on to say in the first transgender person, but to celebrate herself as the first female, as the first woman, right, to hold this role, to me, it was very jarring. And I support trans people and I support trans rights. But Rachel Levine lived 54 years as a man. She was born in 1957. In 2011, she transitioned 54 years as a man, became a doctor as a man, went to Harvard as a man, went to med school as a man, residency and fellowship at Mount Sinai as a man, and grew up in a time in the medical profession when there were very few women

and it was very tough on women. That's why if she had been a biological woman appointed to this position, it would have been a perfect time to spike the ball and say, yeah, women, right? That's what she was basically doing. For me, this was a bridge too far. This was not a powerful woman moment. This was a powerful moment for a trans woman. And I don't mean to be nasty, but to me, there was a falsity in it because the women who actually came up during those times had it really damn hard. They were expected to take care of their kids. They were expected to go to med school. They were in a small minority. There were newspaper articles written about how hard it was for women in the medical profession at the time. She went through none of that because

she was a man who dominated medicine. So I just had a strong reaction to it, which is unusual for me on trans stuff. But this one brought something out. And I wonder what you think of it. Ali Beth, I'll give that one to you. Yeah, I'm gonna do my best not to get you kicked off YouTube, because I think I'm probably a little bit more conservative, even than you, which I agree with everything that you just said. So let me be as charitable as I possibly can. I agree with you. Not only has Levine not had the experiences that we have as women, and they're almost unquantifiable. You can't even list all of the different experiences you have when you're growing up as a girl and as a woman, whether it's today or 50 years ago when Levine was growing up. But it's offensive in the sense that apparently a woman is now reduced to growing your hair

out, putting lipstick on, and that now gets you this high honor of being the first. Is that really what it means to be a woman? Just pronouns, just declaration, just self-identification. Our biology doesn't matter. Our experiences don't matter. Our trials and triumphs don't matter, which are unique to women because of our biology. None of that matters. You have a really good deal. You can be a white man. One second, you can be part of the so-called cis-hetero patriarchy that's oppressing women. The next minute, you're a moment of the oppressed class, and you get the highest honors because you now have declared that you are a woman. It's certainly not fair. Yeah, it just feels Melissa, like, the reason we say first female, you know, vice

president, first female Supreme Court justice, whatever is because the the achievement is emblematic of overcoming the struggle that women have had historically, not present day so much, but historically in our society, some present day. And so we sort of recognize that, wow, you overcame the odds. That's why Ruth Bader Ginsburg story was so amazing, right? She was like one of only nine women at Harvard Law School. And there was massive misogyny toward her at the time. And it's been well documented. So you celebrate that. But this woman, with all due respect, Rachel Levine has not gone through any of that. She's gone through, I'm sure a lot as a trans person. And that's great. We can mark that. But this is not this is not a celebration of women sort of pushing through to the powerful positions,

despite the odds against them. I don't know, this might be one where I disagree with you both, because as I watch Levine make this speech, all I can think of is no matter what, this person has been through a lot and is breaking some kind of a barrier. So I don't know. I mean, I almost feel like by parsing it, we're getting trapped in that, who's the biggest victim? You know, that whole mentality as opposed to just celebrating someone who's obviously gotten through something huge in their own life. So I don't know. I like disagreement. I'm going to be the odd man out on this week. No, I like that. I like disagreement, but I just think it's it's not to sort of lean into victimhood. It's that she she chose to say she was a woman. She chose to claim the accomplishment. And I suppose at

some point we're going to have another woman, biological woman who's a four-star admiral who actually will be the first cis woman um to achieve this role and i guess she's not going to be able to say she's the first woman to do it because rachel came before her after 54 years as a man i don't okay i'm gonna steal the last word on it um because there's much much more to go over including uh while we're on the subject of trans backlash and so on, Margaret Atwood of Handmaid's Tale, which I love. She tweeted out an article that asked why we can't say the word women anymore. The article begins by replacing well-known lyrics with that have the word women in them with ridiculous substitutes like you make me feel like a natural person with a vagina. And there was backlash against Margaret Atwood, who just yesterday basically was a liberal icon. But now Melissa, she's out because she tweeted this article. segment with all of the different terms that you used there. I know I'm just tongue tied anytime I try and talk about gender at this point, because I have no idea what we're supposed to say about

anyone anymore. And it is so easy to get off track. I do know that I like to call people jackass when they cut me off in traffic. I don't know, that's probably male sensitive. So I probably can't say that. I've never been able to say the C word. So I don't know much about that. And also my kids are listening. So, you know, I can't say it, but are we supposed to say, what do you say for fishermen now? Is it fisher person? This is all getting so confusing to me. So I don't know.

Woman is sort of the least of my concerns. I know that we can't call the book Moby Dick anymore. I have a sister-in-law who is an oyster. I say oyster fisherman on Cape Cod cod maybe i'm misgendering i don't know i still say oyster fisherman maybe so i'm not sure but margaret atwood is she's standing her ground right now ollie beth like she got a bunch of bad and she's defending herself saying deal with it she's going jk rowling yeah well margaret atwood obviously is um a leftist like if you go to her Twitter timeline, she's talking about climate change and all that good stuff. And she just asked the question,

you know, why can't we say woman anymore? And you had all these people slamming her saying you're a TERF, which is trans exclusionary, radical feminist, and you're a bigot and you're this bad person, this person who has been hoisted up as a, you know, anti-Trump liberal feminist icon, certainly for the past few years. It's interesting that you're not even, it's like the thing that cannot be asked, the thing that cannot be talked about. Why can't we use certain words? It's so funny. I mean, this news speak that now we're saying, oh, people with a uterus, people without a uterus, Teen Vogue did something like people without a prostate. It's like, that's so funny.

There used to be a word for that. There used to be a word for people with a uterus and people without a uterus. OK, but let me ask you, as somebody who's who's been outspoken on this issue, the argument from the trans activists is, no, it's about inclusivity that you can say you can still say woman. Nobody's taking away the word woman. But when it comes to things that trans women also do, or even trans men also do, you got to use language that's more inclusive, so that you're more sensitive. That's basically the I'm sure they could make it better than I just did. But I gave

it a shot. Yeah. Yeah. Well, of course I don't agree with that because I don't agree with this idea that gender identity is detached from sex and that you can change your gender just by declaration and self-identification. For all of human history, most of the world today agrees with this, that there is male and female that is fixed, that doesn't change by what you say. And so I just don't play around with the language games at all. I don't really even worry about trying to keep up with it because there is male and female. That doesn't mean that someone shouldn't be legally free to quote, identify how they want to identify. But women have certain anatomy, men have certain

anatomy, therefore women have certain function, men have certain function. I like to celebrate these differences, but I'm not going to play along with the language game. Culture follows language. Policy follows culture. So how do you handle that? If I don't like some of the policies, if I don't like some of the policies, If you met somebody.

Earlier this week. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Sorry. Well, I don't think that, no, that's fine. You talked earlier this week though about the policies and, you know, prison, women's prisons,

and they're being put in unsafe situations because of these self declarations of men identifying as women. If I don't like those policies, because they make women unsafe, well, I'm not going to change my language, which then changes the culture, which then changes the policy. And if I'm interacting with someone, I don't typically use their pronouns, I'm not going to go out of my way to offend them, of course. See, so I'll use somebody's pronouns. but we talked about this with Dave Rubin. I get really hung up on they. Demi Lovato goes by they now, and I just feel like that one's taken, and that's confusing, and it's improper English, and so it's like the brakes are hit. No, I can't.

I got to find another. So I just kept saying Demi Lovato, Demi Lovato, because I actually don't want to misgender somebody. I don't want to be disrespectful. And yet it's not appropriate grammar. OK, is one actress too smart for Hollywood? I could be talking about Melissa, but I'm not. I'm not in this particular instance. The gals are staying with us to talk about who claims she is the one. Let's kick it off with Kate Beckinsckinsdale because melissa actually is the hardest

hardest working person and the smartest person to ever grace hollywood um but kate beckinsdale says it she is the one she says she has a 152 iq i looked up uh the average is apparently between 85 and 115. And so she's claiming she's a Mensa member and that this has made her life very think she would be able to do that. But seriously, that's a joke. I don't know why this would be such a handicap to be a smart woman in Hollywood right now. As I said, I'm pitching Andromedy and you know, you, you go into these meetings and they're asking you questions from every single side. It's like my husband's in finance and it's like being on a roadshow. When you're bringing a company out, you have to know absolutely everything. I understand that's a writer and a creator. You're the writer, the creator, the showrunner. She's an actress. She's dealing with other actors. I understand. I just don't think it's a dumb business. So I don't know what she could possibly be talking about. I mean,

who's asking her to be dumb? She's smarter than her coworkers. It just seems like I've never seen it. It wasn't my experience growing up. You and Ray are both so smart. Melissa and her husband both went to Harvard and just having known them for so long, they're really smart people. They get it before you get it. And your little brain is like, wait, so I'll be there in one second. And so you have you never felt the frustration separate and apart from our dinners of the person you're with just not being there yet? Like, come on, come like, I think that's what she's talking about. Then she's ahead of everyone who's around her, then she's outsmarting them. She's out thinking them. I just don't know where I've never seen it as a disadvantage to be smart unless you're trying to use that

to as an excuse for some other sort of failure. I don't know, I don't understand it at all. I mean, if she really feels like it's necessary to not intimidate people, then she could tone it down and perhaps not tell people she has 152 IQ. I mean, maybe you start there if you feel like it's such an impediment to be so bloody smart. But also, I mean, maybe you start there if you feel like it's such an impediment to be so bloody smart. But also, I mean, this was like, it wasn't in an interview with Howard Stern. I mean, this is, he once attacked me and said that, you know, he thought I was a stripper. And I don't know, like these things get called, they get way out of context by the time they come off Howard's show. So, so I don't know. Well, attack. Attack may be too strong.

He might have been trying to pay you a compliment. I'd have to know more. Maybe. I mean, yeah. I definitely took it that way. What do you make of it? Because she's saying she, he was asking her whether she's had difficulty

like in the dating world and that she thinks it's been, it might, if she can find somebody who's funny, she thinks that helps. But she says every single doctor, every single person I've ever come across has said, you'd be so much happier if you were 30% less smart. Yeah, I don't think that the thing that's holding her back is that she's smart, but that she thinks about the fact that she's smart, and that she talks about the fact that

she's smart, and that she knows and shares her IQ. I don't think most smart people do that. They're pretty secure in their intellect. I think that I don't actually think that this has been an impediment for her. I think that this is a seemingly humble way for her to bring up the fact that she is smart. It's a humble brag. So it's just a tactic for her. She's not actually sad about it. She's been very successful in Hollywood.

So obviously it didn't hold her back that much. Or it a way to try maybe she feels like she's less successful than she should be in hollywood so her reason for it isn't that she isn't as talented maybe as other actresses but that she's just too dang smart and we need to talk about anti-smart bias that is the real discrimination happening in this country and kate beckinsale is our new spokesperson maybe melissa can join it too because she is uh she's one of those brilliant people but unlike him she never talks about it and she never talks about any of her accomplishments it's so annoying when she got to fox and i was such a diehard little house fan i was like oh my god holy shit it's melissa francis it's cassandra she's here and they were like she doesn't like to talk about it i'm like she, she was at the most successful show in the nation for years.

What do you mean she doesn't like to talk about it? And then I found out years after knowing she went to Harvard. I'm like, if I went to Harvard, I'd be telling everybody. I'd be like, you're 152 at Harvard. How do you like me now? Stop. You're embarrassing me. You have to stop this, Megan.

All right. Let's talk about Gwyneth Paltrow, who really thinks she's found the secret of sleeping well. And you tell me, Melissa, what does she say we should do? I know she had a whole bunch of really smart things. One thing that she said was that having an orgasm helps her sleep better. Now, this is where I need my son, Grayson, to turn this off. But come on.

Having an orgasm helps her sleep. Duh. I mean, I hope nobody paid her for that tip. Wow. Talk about a rocket scientist. That is really revolutionary. She also said that she sleeps better after she does this regimen with like 500 million scrubs and oils and all these different things. Well, because she's exhausted. I mean, the routine that she's talking about before bed, it sounds like it's completely tedious and it would take me about 10 hours. I don't know how she's getting any sleep. Of course she falls asleep when she gets in bed after her 10 hour bleeding regimen and a nice orgasm. I bet she doesn't wake up for days. I think Allie, I'm going to parlay what you said in the last bit onto her because I don't know

if she's really having orgasms every night before she has a good sleep I think this is her trying to titillate to sort of sound sexy and get people to pay attention to her yeah probably so I think it's just a way to sell her products maybe not them part, but the part about all of her creams. I think I read that it was like $400 worth of facial stuff that she puts on every night. And of course, this is stuff I think that you can mostly buy from her brand. And so I was thinking the same thing Melissa said. She probably starts this at 10 p.m. She's not done until about 6 a.m. going through all of this.

So of course, you're super tired after that. But I think it's, it's brilliant marketing. It's brilliant marketing. This is the woman who I guess sold out candles that smelled like her genitalia. So I feel like we can't even criticize her if this kind of thing works for her to sell goop products. Go for it. It's so great. I have to tell you, no, she tries so hard. And she it shows but literally, literally, when I get ready for bed at night, I wash my face with either Dove moisturizing soap or this SkinCeuticals cleanser, which is very gentle. And then I use Almay oil pads to take off my heavy eye makeup.

And then I use a washcloth as my exfoliator. And then I put on some random moisturizing cream. That's it. And then I sleep like a baby because I'm exhausted for just from living my life and having three kids and having a job and not because I had an orgasm and I slept on a copper pillow and I made naked cuddles and was sober. Those are the things she wants us to do. I don't know. I have a sneaking suspicion that she's also selling vibrators on her website that would be my bet she is a hundred percent have you ever seen the goop website my god oh yeah that's i mean she's like she was like oh i don't those ladies don't have to go to sharper

image anymore pretending that they want to massage her i got them um okay now there's a scandal involving um a reporter who works where you used to work mel Melissa, CNBC. I had never heard of this woman before, I'm going to confess. I guess she's based in Abu Dhabi. Her name is Hadley Gamble. And she did something I too have done, which is she went overseas to interview Vladimir Putin. It wasn't like a one-on-one. It was sort of on a stage in front of a group of people at his energy forum in moscow he does it every year so okay that's normal that happens but what's not that normal is um the response so he made a comment about her looks in the interview he did that with me too that's kind of his thing he gets he tries to get you off her game he insinuated she couldn't comprehend what he was telling her because she's a beautiful woman. I tell her one thing and she tells me the opposite if she didn as a sex object in order to distract him. Host Olga Skabiva, and there's a bunch of folks who said similar things, claim Gamble was taking part in an American special operation and went through all she'd done.

And I'll have more on her quote in a minute. But you tell me whether as pro-Kremlin propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov said, Gamble, quote, worked her body language to the fullest by playing with her hair, rolling out her tongue, concluding that she behaved boldly, opening, positioning herself as a sexual object. Your thoughts on that, Ali Beth? Man, what I'm thinking when I'm listening to this is how different the rest of the world is from the West and specifically from America. Like we are so Americanized when we think about the when we think about feminism or we think about the women's movement or all of these different political and cultural issues that we're dealing with. Talking about, you know, Rachel Levine in most places in the world, people are not thinking that way. They don't see men and women, feminism, all of our cultural issues the same way that we do.

Anyone who says that America isn't progressive enough, we are so progressive, so pro-woman compared to the rest of the world. It's almost like, I mean, they are speaking a different language, but they're speaking a different cultural, political language, something that is so unfamiliar to most Americans in the 21st century. It's pretty crazy. That's funny. Well, I was actually looking.

I'm like, this is what's going on. Then you look at some of the video. I don't like we'll run it. So, by the way, if you're just listening to this, you can check out the show on YouTube dot com forward slash Megyn Kelly because we're putting it out. We usually put it out around four o'clock Eastern, the video of the show. And you can see this woman. We've queued it up. Like, I will say she's really close to him with the leg. It's like her leg is,

it's like she's trying to touch him with her leg across that leg turn. I don't know. It's it makes me feel a little uncomfortable. I'm all for the nice outfits. And I don't mind showing some skin as an anchor. Don't know that I would have done it in that particular setting, Melissa. Well, I don't know. I mean, I sat on the outnumbered pervy couch for quite some time. So far be it for me to talk to anyone about how they're sitting wearing a skirt and a show. Regardless, I was a little bit afraid to click the link when you sent it to me, Megan, because when it says Putin, you know,'re going to click through and see him shirtless, wrestling a saber-toothed tiger. He is the strongest man alive. So I don't know how a mere woman's legs could possibly distract him. And he is used to,

if you ever watch those press conferences, so we used to watch them at the business channel at Fox Business and roar with laughter at the end of the day when they were on, because he would go on for hours and he would take questions like, how handsome are you, Vladimir Putin? I mean, he's just so, yeah. I mean, the questions were ridiculous and that's what he's used to. So I don't know. I think he got the headlines he wanted by making this comment. And I think that like you, Megan, I had no idea who this woman was. I don't even know Hadley Gamble. Is that her real name? I mean, it sounds like it could be like Poison Ivy or Villanelle or or one of the red herring. I mean, I have a couple of good names for her to get in there as the villain. But, you know, nobody knew who she was before. And now they do. So I don't know.

This situation was a win for everyone involved. Well, I'll tell you. So I this guy, this gal host Olga Skabiva, Ali Beth says, OK, she was part of an American special operation, adding, quote, Let me remind you, only a short time Aha, here I come. Look at Megyn Kelly. She is the woman the Americans brought last time. She was a blonde. This time it's a brunette. They are the same age and weight category. They keep trying to get to Putin. What? Wait, what? Is that a real quote? Yes, that's a real quote. That's not you adding something to that? No, I swear to God. That's it. End quote. Oh my oh my goodness well i don't i mean i don't know about the the pr propaganda team for russia it sounds super weird to me i don't know

what is the point and i'm curious what you guys think like what is the point of them saying something like this is it just to try to like slam americans is it trying to make americans look bad in russia that we're the America's the real spies, not the Kremlin, not the Russia, or not the Russians. We're the ones who are actually sketchy and launching these kinds of, I don't know, I mean, I think that Russian state TV, they pivot off of his cue. So he made a comment about the looks. And I think that's sort of like, this is where he wants us to go. Because I mean, it is state TV. And so the you know, he gave the marching order essentially, and then they reacted, although I did it did remind me I went over there when I went over there a couple of times and

interviewed him in St. Petersburg for his economic forum, and interviewed him one on one. And then I went back. And we met in Kaliningrad and Moscow, Kaliningrad is where they keep their nukes. And but this you can see a picture here of me sitting with Vladimir Putin. There's a translator there. And there's India Prime Minister Modi. And there I have a saucy dress on and a slit, which made international news. And let me and people are like, look what she wore to interview Vladimir Putin. And I was like, yo, dumbasses.

That is not what I wore to interview Vladimir Putin. Every time I interviewed Vladimir Putin, I had my body entirely covered and the pictures will prove it. That was a crazy situation where there I am in my long pants and my long shirt for the actual interview. So that was a situation where he invited me to go meet with Prime Minister Modi, who was also going to be part of the economic conference at this at his palace in St. Petersburg. So I went and they said it was a state dinner and that was going to be sort of the economic conference at his palace in St. Petersburg. So I went and they said it was

a state dinner and that it was going to be sort of this big festive thing. So that's why I wore a dress. It was supposed to be like dancing, I thought, and like a party cocktail party. Then I realized, crazy story, I get there and they're not there yet. Putin and Modi are not yet there. And all the handlers are there and they're like okay you need to stand right here oh they're coming they're coming okay get her get her get her and they're like they place me in front of the door of the palace i'm like holy shit i'm the welcoming committee like i that i don't know what's being done here but they're relying on me to like host these guys am i the state dinner am i on the menu what's happening

so they come in it It was very nice. I practiced how to properly greet Putin, which is you have to say his name. Like it's you have to say Vladimir Vladimirovich. And he was very gracious. It was fine. I agreed to Prime Minister Modi and said something stupid about, oh, you're on Twitter because he said he follows me or something. And then it turns out he's got like 400 million followers.

Like, oh, never mind. Speaking of awkward moments and um then putin's like would you like to sit down and join us for tea i'm like what the fuck is going on here is it tea is it a state dinner is this the interview i don't know what's happening we sat down on this little tiny table reflected in that photo and we had a lovely social time and it was not a state dinner and uh anyway the whole thing thing was awkward, but awesome. And the press got it wrong, because I wasn't actually dressing for an interview. I don't know that they've got it wrong in the case of the Abu Dhabi Hadley gamble. But Melissa, fake news in my case. Fake news, definitely. I think that it is all about trying to diminish the interviewer or

whatever they have to say, of course. I mean, it's a reporter, in all honesty, we all know this, that he's not used to facing reporters that he can't control. So when he is sitting with someone he can't control, he has to diminish them in some way. And that's how he did it with this woman. I was glad that they mentioned you in the article, because actually, to be honest, when I read it at first, I said, Megan went to see him and she's much prettier than this woman. I was glad that they mentioned you in the article, because actually, to be honest, when I read it at first, I said, Megan went to see him and she's much prettier than this woman. But that's okay. Anyway, they did mention the whole thing. And, you know, this is just the way that he likes to spin things so that he can insult whoever it is that he's with.

Yeah, well, I mean, it was, I guess, you know, the thought that you'd be using your sex appeal to sort of disarm him, A, is not that complimentary of you, but B, is an impossible task anyway. He's Vladimir Putin. He was in the KGB. He cannot be disarmed by beauty. He's a man. He might appreciate it, but you know nothing about him if you think that he's so weak that he's going to give you a, you give you a good answer that you wouldn't have otherwise gotten because you put some self-tanner on your legs. Ladies, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much, Megan. For the record, I thought you looked great. Thank you very much and have a great weekend. All right. Monday, Dr. Lisa Littman will be here. She was most recently a physician scientist at Brown University, and she is really the expert on rapid onset gender dysphoria. This sort of craze, the contagion that she says is sweeping teenage girls when it comes to trans issues. Well, now she's left Brown. Why is that?

Join us to find out. I'm really looking forward to this. Download the show, Megyn Kelly, on Apple, Pandora, Spotify and Stitcher. Go to YouTube and have a great weekend. Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.