The Megyn Kelly Show - AOC Pretends to Get Handcuffed, and Border Chaos, with Dan Abrams, Ali Bradley, and Sasha Stone | Ep. 361

Episode Date: July 20, 2022

Megyn Kelly is joined by Dan Abrams, host of the new show "On Patrol: Live," to talk about AOC and Ilhan Omar pretending to get handcuffed while protesting yesterday, the media's efforts to amplify protests, protests outside Supreme Court Justices' homes vs. in front of Supreme Court, the status of the Supreme Court leaker, the enormous success of "Live PD" and abrupt cancelation, "cancel culture" leading to the demise, the resurrection of the show now, the demonization of police, and more. Then Ali Bradley, a journalist for NewsNation, joins the show to talk about the record-breaking illegal immigration crisis in America, the reality of the problem becoming clearer in NYC and DC, the way drugs are being smuggled across the border, the absurd response from the Biden administration, the ongoing shameful response to the Uvalde school shooting, the Uvalde shooter's family's story, and more. And then Sasha Stone, journalist and Awards Daily founder, joins to discuss to talk about her shift from the Democratic party to a more independent route, how January 6 coverage serves to divide the country, the push to highlight the "far right" by the press, "ideological compliance," 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 begin today with a cringe-worthy display outside the U.S. Supreme Court by members of the so-called S.Q.U.A.D. Have you heard about this? 17 lawmakers among those arrested at an abortion rally, and that indeed appeared to be the point, because they blocked traffic, which is not lawful. But what caught everyone's attention was the phony display by squad members AOC and Ilhan Omar. The two women pretending, it's amazing, Capitol Police had handcuffed them.

For the listening audience, I'll describe what we're seeing on this video. AOC can be seen with her hands behind her back being led away by police. But at one point she breaks roll. She forgets about her role as handcuffed maiden and her imaginary cuffs and raises her arm. Not to be outdone, fellow squad woman, Congresswoman Omar, and really you cannot make this up, walks by herself with her fake cuffs. You have to see it. Come watch us on YouTube later.

She's walking by herself with her fake cuffs, no police officer anywhere near her. And then she too forgets about her imaginary handcuffs and raises her hand. I love it. Then she even proceeds to tweet video evidence of herself pretending to be cuffed. Remember, these are women who have made it their mission to demonize law enforcement. Next, we'll be hearing about how the police were unnecessarily rough in putting on the handcuffs. That is until they feel threatened and then they demand that you and I pay for their security at every turn. We're going to get to all of this and much, much more with my

first guest today. Dan Abrams is a very busy guy with his own show right here on Sirius XM and various hosting gigs on TV, not to mention an online empire. But today he's here to talk about something exciting that you're going to be happy about. And that is the resurrection of his real time, hugely successful police series used to be known as Live PD. Now it's been rebranded as On Patrol Live, which debuts this weekend on Reels. Dan, welcome back. How are you doing? Nathan, great to be back with you. I love it. I love the fake. Now, how would you guys on Live PD or on Patrol cover the police behavior in this case?

Well, what you'd probably get is you'd get an officer, right, talking to camera. What happens is the officers will then sort of speak to the camera about what just happened, right? And you probably would have an officer saying, you know, we were moving them and I don't know, they looked like we're and, you know, we were we were just pushing them out of the out of the way. And I don't know why they had their hands behind their back. And, you know, and so they would be talking to camera sort of in this very monotone way that police tend to do explaining exactly what what did and didn't happen there. It's unbelievable. It's like, do they not know

the magic of videotape will show whether you have the cuffs on you or they're just only planning on shots from afar that might just capture the arms backward and the wrist crossed. Like we can see that there are no handcuffs. It's ridiculous. But, you know, I have to say that when I first saw this, right, like the first time I heard about the protest, I didn't even know where they were, right? And I got nervous that they were actually at the justices' homes. And so I have been much more concerned about protests at the justices' homes than I am about a people who are protesting at the court, right? Meaning go for it. You want to protest at the Supreme Court, that's the place you should be doing it. You want to block traffic. You're going to get arrested. OK, that all happens there. I've been much more concerned about the protests at the

justices homes, which I think is just downright dangerous. Yeah, same. And they can protest us at the Supreme Court all they want. There is a law against blocking traffic. That's why the police got involved in the police tweeted out repeatedly. You're blocking traffic. Our policy is who you are. You get three warnings and then you get arrested. Oh, yeah. They put it in writing. They announced it before the fact. I'll find out. But they made no doubt about it. This is part of the branding exercise is getting arrested. And I say that having making no judgment on the cause. i'm talking about the method the method that's being used here right and is it effective right and and it just doesn't seem to me to be particularly effective right and and that's the question i think should be asked right is if you care

about abortion rights or whatever the issue is that she's protesting on. Ask yourself, is this effective? Is this working? Right. And the answer has to be with regard to these sort of orchestrated arrests. Certainly, I think, again, the protests at the homes of the justices, that the impact isn't there that you would hope that it would have. The one congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, she's a Democrat from Minnesota. Her office said in a press release ahead of the demonstration, quote, these types of protests have led to arrests of lawmakers in the past. They're titillating people with it. They're trying to say, tune in to see if she'll get arrested.

And then the police were so respectful and non-confrontational, they had to make up the drama with the fake cuffs. One reporter at the scene, Jennifer Shutt of States Newsroom, reports that the handcuffs, that there were no handcuffs, there were no zip ties, that they were quietly and politely brought to a shaded area to be processed. There was music in the background. One of the officers told all those detained that they were quietly and politely brought to a shaded area to be processed. There was music in the background. One of the officers told all those detained that they were getting them all water. They were chatting it up and that it had turned into something of a media row with several interviews happening at once with the press.

Like they want us to believe they're basically George Floyd out there encountering Derek Chauvin. Well, you know, one of the things that always sort of irks me, and this is sort of related, is you sometimes see protests, right, going on. I'm not saying in this particular example, but you'll see 10 people at a, quote, protest, right? And they'll say there were protests outside the courthouse today. And they're literally 10 people in a circle and 15 to 50 members of the media there, right? Surrounding these 10 people, 10 people with signs being held up because they announced they were going to hold a protest. And almost no one shows up except for the media, right? And then you see on the air, just the focus on the 10 people there, right? And it says,

protest today outside the courthouse. And it's like, no, there weren't protests. There were 10 people with signs who told everyone that they were gonna go there. It's like somebody's knitting club. Yeah, yeah. But I will say, like you, I feel differently when it's outside

of Justice Kavanaugh's house. You know, 10, 12, that's different. It's different. It's different. And it's, you know, I've been very concerned about the the the protests and the doxing of the justices, et cetera, that has been going on outside their homes, which is why, you know, I'm inclined to stay when it comes to what's happening at the Supreme Court. Go for it. Right. Cause a mess over there. That's your spot. Make all sorts of problems you want to make it the Supreme Court. Just don't go to their homes. Don't attack them at restaurants, et cetera. What did you make of the AOC bit? Because she was very defensive of protest, as she has been all along of the justices and had no problem with Justice Kavanaugh being harassed

right out of Morton Steakhouse and, you know, kind of sent out a tweet saying, oh, boo hoo. He didn't get to have his dessert. Spare me. I don't care. And then seemed very upset when she was on Capitol Hill and some loser heckled her and called her a big booty Latina and got very mad at the Capitol Hill police for not stopping him. They can't stop him. That's not nice, but it's free speech. So, you know, that kind of protest. Oh, no, the cops need to get involved. Justice Kavanaugh at his home or at Morton's fair game. I get very, very nervous about lawmakers who encourage people. Maxine Waters did it, encourage people in 2018 to sort of go up, approach, confront these people in private

settings. And the reason is because no matter where you are on the political spectrum, we all agree that there are real mental health issues in this country. And we're seeing that day after day after day. And I get very concerned about people who are encouraging folks to approach these leaders in their private lives because of what may happen. these people where we look back and we say, well, this is a guy who was consuming this kind of media and was listening to people saying that it's okay to go and approach people in public places, et cetera. Again, there's a place for this stuff to happen. You want to protest, go to the Supreme Court. You want to protest, go to a place of employment. The minute, and again, it's not even just the justices. Think about the neighbors and others in private areas.

The children who are there. There's a reason that regardless of the constitutionality, there's a reason these laws were put on the books against this stuff at private homes. And it's because it can be just downright dangerous. And and it makes me very nervous. Twitter finally suspended the account of Ruth sent us, which is the one that had published the justices home addresses and encouraged people to go protest there. Took him two months. I think it was the Daily Caller might have been the Daily Wire. Forgive me. One of those two reached out and said, why did it take you two months to suspend this account, which, you know, is stirring up all sorts of trouble for these justices? No response. You know, they're very quick to suspend people like Jordan Peterson, who made a not nice comment about Elliot Page, formerly Ellen Page, but really slow to shut down publication of the justices home addresses housing their children. Yeah, I don't know. I don't I don't know about the timing,

but I completely agree that when you are doxing the justices and putting their home addresses and information out there, that that that's a real it's a real concern and it should be a concern to everyone when that happens. What do you make of the Supreme Court leaker? Where's the Supreme Court leaker, Dan? You're a lawyer. Your dad's a famous, famous First Amendment lawyer. Love, Floyd. So you've been connected to the law and the justices, and you know how this game works

from your time in the cradle. So where is the Supreme Court leaker? Yeah, I mean, look, you know, they obviously haven't found the person, right? We don't know exactly sort of how much of an investigation has gone on. I'll bet there has been one. I mean, they were really upset about this. I mean, the justices, etc. You know, the fundamental question comes down to this, right? It was obviously an activist on one side, or the other. And by the way, I happen to think that there are legitimate arguments on both sides for why someone would have wanted this out. But

it's what the fundamental question that has to be asked is, was it someone who had access to the opinion or was it someone peripheral who happened by accident to get access to it? And if it was someone who did it on purpose, someone who was one of the clerks, someone who worked at the court, we do need to know that. I mean, that is dangerous business. The other possibility is person goes to their house. Someone at the house happens to see opinion there and, you know, makes it public. I think it's a less likely scenario. But that's the key question, because forget about what happened in the past. I'm concerned about what happens in the future. And it really does so much to undermine the faith in the court. And I say this all the time. I don't care what your view is of the Supreme Court. I don't care if you disagree with opinions, if you agree with them. There are ways to criticize opinions of the court without trying to completely delegitimize the court. We need a court that is going to make the final calls, even if you totally disagree with a lot of them. But, you know, you see sometimes the court,

you know, will come down with an opinion recently every once in a while with an opinion that liberals may like. And they'll say, well, you know, in this case, OK, it's like, no, no, no. You don't get to pick and choose when the court gets to be legitimized. Yes. Criticize the court. Yes. Explain why you disagree with it. Yes. Explain why you think the ruling is disingenuous. No, don't suggest that the entire court is delegitimate, is illegitimate, because that's dangerous. Here's a question for you. Is there any chance they know who it is? The marshal has discovered who it is, and it's being covered up because, for example, it's a justice, and Chief Justice Roberts doesn't want that getting out. Is there any chance something that nefarious could be afoot? You know, it's funny before you before you finished your sentence, I was going to say the only kind of person that

could happen for would be one of the justices. And then you said if it were one of the justices, because, you know, Roberts is so concerned about the integrity of the court, you know, an institutionalist, blah, blah, blah. It would get out. It would get out. There's just no way you can. It's too big a secret. Right. Meaning meaning that in this day and age, keeping that secret. Wow. That would be astonishing to suggest that the chief justice knew about it. I mean, you know, again, some people say, well, maybe it was the chief justice himself. You know, but I don't think it was one of the justices. I think that there's too much risk.

And I think that that even if one of the only way a justice could do it. Right. I'm just like thinking it out. They'd have to do it directly. Right. It couldn't be through somebody else. Right. Because we all know when you hire a hitman, they always get caught because the hiring process always gets exposed. Right. Because we all know when you hire a hit man, they always get caught because the hiring process always gets exposed.

Right. So in a case like this, you can't like have someone else do it. If it was one of the justices, they would have had to have done it directly. And I just think it's so far fetched to to believe that. And I guess I probably don't want to believe it either. It's just so strange that we don't know yet. It seems to me a rather simple investigation. You know, you get the cell phone people there and get them to sign this. Where's the sworn statement? Get up, get all the clerks and everybody with access to sign a foreign statement. And you know it. If somebody won't do it, that's a red flag. And B, if they all do it, and then you keep digging and you find

out the person's done it, and you've got them, you've got them on a crime. But it just seems to me that, I've been saying my pal, Phil Houston, who wrote Spy the Lie, he was at the CIA for 25 years, he could figure this out in a day. I don't have that much faith in the US marshal running the clerk or the court. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think it's quite, I guess I don't have that much faith in the U.S. marshal running the clerk. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think it's quite. I guess I don't think it's as easy as you do, meaning that you've got enough people who have access to it that if they take it and they were unprepared for something like this to happen. Right. Meaning in terms of like keeping track of everything. I think before this happened, there wasn't a particularly effective system

of tracking exactly who would have access. So I think there were enough people. Dan, it's like the line from Animal House. You effed up. You trusted us. But I think that there are enough people that if they take it outside of their, you know, the work, you know, their work phone, their work email, et cetera, that there's certainly a way to, you know, to go hand deliver something like this and and not get caught. I mean, look, think about how long it took us to find out who Deep Throat was. You would think that, but you narrowed it down. Yeah, but you have a collectible pool of suspects. And so that's why you need an expert,

like a professional lie detector like Phil, to come in and he can see your body language. He knows, like right now, I can tell you're telling me the truth because you're not doing any of the things. No hands above the midline, no touching your face, in particular your nose or your ears.

You're not repeating the question. You're not engaging in convincing behavior. There are all sorts of things that a true expert can use to tell whether you are lying and they can do it across cultures. They can do it with professional spies. They can do it with terrorists. So they could certainly do it with these Supreme Court clerks who are ivory tower types. I mean, there's no way they could fool Phil. I just feel like they're phoning it in and there must be a reason they're phoning it in. And that's why I'm getting slightly conspiratorial. What does the marshal know? And when did she know? All right, let's move on to you and the resurrection of the hottest show on cable. You and I used to talk about this

because we're friends about how your your live PD was crushing like the prime time lineups of Fox, CNN, MSNBC. It was crazy how this thing took off. And just for people who didn't watch it, tell us what it was before we get to its demise and its resurrection. So it was a show that followed police in real time, numerous departments around the country with multiple cameras in each city

and bouncing between departments depending on what was happening. There would be in-studio analysis from two former police officers, one former, one current at the time, providing perspective on what they were doing and why they were doing it, etc. And look, the show was a massive, a massive hit, I think, for a number of reasons that, A, I think people are interested in policing. But B, I think that there was also the uncertainty, the same way that police officers are uncertain about what happens next, right? When you're a police officer, you don't know what's going to happen when you pull over a vehicle. You get a 911 call about a suspect who is waving a gun. Very often, that initial call doesn't provide you with the perspective. So you

arrive at a scene pretty uncertain as to who's where and what's happening, et cetera. And that's what this show, what Live PD showed in the past and what this new show will show, which is being able to see it from the perspective of a police officer in real time. Now you have somewhat of a delay just to be responsible and make sure you're not showing very graphic something that people shouldn't have in their homes and sitting there watching with kids, what have you. But other than that, people are there. They're sort of they're live on the scene watching the cops a few minutes after it happens as it happens. Right. So I'm I'm shooting it in real time, meaning as the host, et cetera, we're doing it live, as if it's live. There is a delay,

as you point out, to ensure, for example, there isn't an undercover cop who's in the shot or a child or someone makes some incredibly libelous allegation about somebody else without any proof, et cetera. Those are all the sorts of things that we need to have a delay for. But as you point out, it's just a few minute delay, but I'm not really impacted by it as the host because I'm still filming it in real time. Yeah. OK, so you're it was hugely successful. People bonded with it. They loved the show Cops. They loved the show Live PD. There's obviously a huge audience for it. And both of those shows, Cops and Live PD, which is on A&E, got canceled despite being the number one show on A&E and many times number one in cable. Canceled at the height of its popularity. There was no controversy about it. There was

one story they were like, oh, you know, we can get into the one cop misbehavior. But really, it wasn't immersed in a controversy at all. It was in the wake of the George Floyd death and the shitstorm that ran down on police officers. And it was decided by the woke left, you can't have a show that they, I think they called it copaganda. That's in any way they viewed it as glorifying police. Yeah. No, look, there was a real movement. And it wasn't just, as you know, in terms of police shows. Right. It was even procedurals on TV. People didn't want TV shows, movies to in any way, quote unquote, glorify police.

That's part of the problem in our society. And, you know, look where we are today. Cops have been demonized across the country. We are facing a real crisis with police departments around the country not having enough cops. That's because they're retiring. They're having problems with recruiting. Why? Well, high crime is sure part of it, but part of it is the fact that police officers just aren't being appreciated for what they do every day. You know, people forget. A lot of people who don't cover police have this sense of cops being out there with their guns. The vast majority of police officers in this country never fire their weapon in the line of duty ever, ever in their entire

careers. Right. So now let's talk about what everyone else, what the what the majority of police officers do every day in this country. And that's what this show on Patrol Live is is showing people is going to be showing what it's like to be a police officer in a variety of different kinds of departments. We've got city police departments like Patterson, New Jersey. We've got sheriff's departments like Richland County, South Carolina. We're throughout the country in eight departments bouncing between them. But most importantly, it allows you to see it through the lens of an officer. And by the way, there may be things that people see on the show where they watch it and they say, I disagree.

I don't think a police officer should have done that. OK, that's that's that's for them to decide. But but it is really important, I think, in providing perspective on what it's like to be a police officer in America. As I saw Live PD and I assume on patrol will be the same. There was no agenda. There was no pro cop or anti cop. It was like, here's what cops do. Watch this. We're there to show you what's happening. And then we're there to provide some perspective on, you know, what's happening and why it's happening. And, and again, yeah, there'll be people who watch it and say, oh, you know,

that cop shouldn't have done that. I saw that on on patrol live. Okay. Fair enough. But that should be a reason to support the show. Meaning people support body cams. I support body cams. People on both sides seem to support body cams. Body cams help protect officers as well. And so I think part of the beauty of body cams is it allows people to see it after the fact. This just allows you to see it in real time as it's happening. So how hard was it to get a carrier? It's going on Reels, R-E-E-L-Z, and people can check their cable provider to see what channel that is for you. But it's got a little less distribution than A&E. But I would think people would have been clamoring to resurrect this show, like the cable providers or cable stations. So how hard was it to find a taker?

So I will say that I was approached by a number of networks about the show. And in some cases, the folks who made the decisions were too woke to allow it on the air. That was the problem in certain times. But with other places, it was actually the logistical issue, which is that this show is a big investment. And I don't just mean it financially. I mean, this community who has followed Live PD and now I hope will come with us on Patrol Live is really invested in what we're doing. And we didn't want a partner who was going to say, oh, you know what?

We'll sign up for eight episodes or 10 episodes, and then we'll see how it does in the ratings. We're very confident it's going to rate well. But we wanted a network who was really all in, who was going to say, let's do this together. Let's not go in halfway on this thing. And Reels was that network. It's privately owned by Hubbard Communications. They don't care if people don't like it. And they're in. And so that's what we were really looking for in a partner and ended up finding it with Reels. And it's been pretty cool. I have to say on social media,

all these people who didn't know about Reels before suddenly saying, all right, how do I get it? I got to sign up for Sling or Philo and have it added. No, it is in basic cable throughout the country in most major markets. But as you point out, not quite as widely distributed as some others, but now a lot of people are looking for it because that community is so invested in the show. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I know it's going to be a hit and it's probably going to help

reels grow and get more distribution, which is good. And then hopefully next time around, there'll be a huge bidding war. And Dan Abrams, the king of all media, will just add it to the top of this huge already building Sunday. Now, one of the things that you mentioned is look what's happened with police, you know, and the rising crime rates and the depression of cops. And there was just a piece on Fox News dot com actually there right now about the number of police who have committed suicide over this past year. Three Chicago cops just committed suicide in July alone. So this this whole narrative about the cops has been very damaging in profound ways. But the crime rate has been profoundly damaging to communities as well,

communities of color and none. And there was news over the past couple of weeks in your city and until recently, my New York about this bodega worker. You know, you go to New York City, you see these guys on the corner, they sell the gum, they sell the soda, they sell a water, a magazine, that's a bodega. And this one worker, Jose Alba, got into this confrontation with this, a woman who was trying to buy, I think,

I don't know, a snack for her 10-year-old daughter. Turned out the woman didn't have the money. Jose, that sounds like not entirely politely pulled the snack out of the daughter's hands and you know they didn't have the money so he pulled it out and the woman started threatening him saying my boyfriend's coming back to f you up lo and behold the boyfriend came back um his name was austin simon and the the worker jose Alba, said, Papa, I don't want a problem. I don't want a problem, Papa. But Papa, Austin Simon, got behind the employees only area. We're showing it now. And I mean, you can see he's towering over Jose Alba and threatened him, held him by the collar, pushed him up against the shelves, pushed him out of the employee area, and Alba grabbed a knife from the shelf and stabbed Austin Simon, killing him. So the DA in New York who prosecutes no crime, Alvin Bragg, comparatively, decides this is one he wants to go after. And he charged, he charged Jose Alba. And there was outrage in New York, including from Eric Adams, former cop, now new, relatively

mayor of New York. And this week, we learned that Alvin Bragg was pressured into dropping the charges against this bodega worker. What do you make of it? Because I think there's so much about our society built into the story. First of all, let me add one more detail to that, which is that the D.A. asked for five hundred thousand dollars bail to make sure that he wouldn't be released pending trial at Rikers Island. Right. So it starts even worse, which is that he's that they want to make sure that he stays in Rikers pending this quote unquote investigation, right? Because now the DA puts out this statement, making it sound like, well, we've concluded an investigation and we've concluded that we couldn't prove this case

beyond a reasonable doubt. Okay. Well then what the heck were you doing insisting during your investigation that this guy had to stay behind bars at Riker without bail? I mean, if you want to tell me you're going to investigate, fair enough. Investigate. You want to charge him? Charge him, but at least let him be free in the meantime while you're doing your quote unquote investigation. Yeah, this case was a real problem. And the reason it was a problem is because we haven't learned anything new between the time that he was charged and the time that he decided not to charge him. Right. So, you know, you try and explain like, what is the explanation for this apart from he got pressured and shamed

into into not doing it? Is there any possible legal explanation? I can't think of one because they've had the videos, which you just showed, which make it clear. And there are multiple angles, by the way, too. At one point,

Alba's even being attacked by Simon's girlfriend at the same time. So, you know, this poor guy is back there. And as you know this from having been in New York, these bodegas are tiny. They're tiny. I don't even know that the video does it justice in how small an area this is, that this confrontation occurs. And this guy doesn't have anywhere to run or to go. And so the fact that he was immediately charged, it really, we deserve some

answers on why they were so aggressive against him, not just in the charge, but also in the bail in connection with this case. And all I can say is, thank goodness they came to their senses. Very, very good point. I mean, it's the Alba 61 and five foot seven. And Simon was in his mid 30s and six feet tall. And obviously, the aggressor, as it turns out, Alvin was also on parole for assaulting a cop. So there'd been a history there. And Alvin Bragg, the D.A., not only does he not like prosecuting crimes like this, he doesn't like bail. So that's the other thing, right? Is Mr. Mr. No or low bail suddenly demands this half a million dollars for this guy. And so so, you know, we can say that all is well that ends well. OK, but this guy spent five nights at Rikers as a result of this.

Yeah, exactly. And in this case, there was videotape evidence. Can you imagine what would have happened to Jose Alba if this were not on tape? I shudder to think. Listen, that's why we're in favor of tape and cameras and live now called on patrol live. And you should support Dan and this program because they really got the short end for absolutely no reason and a very successful, beloved show. I'm so happy it's coming back. Happy for you and happy for everyone involved, Dan. All the best with it.

We'll check it out this weekend, Friday and Saturday night, live on Reels. What time does it start? 9 p.m. to midnight, Fridays and Saturday nights. Dan Abrams has no life. All he does is work. That's true. This is unfortunately true. Yeah, but somehow he has managed to create a beautiful family too. Dan Abrams has no life. All he does is work. That's it.

This is unfortunately true. Yeah, but somehow he has managed to create a beautiful family too. Talk to you soon, my friend. Thank you, Megan. Appreciate it. All right, coming up next, we're going to dig into the crisis at the border with some real numbers and some videotape with someone who's been there. Don't go away. There is a crisis at the southern border. You might not know it if you watch the mainstream media, but we have more illegal immigrants pouring in to the country this year than ever before. So what is the administration doing about it? This is a federal responsibility. And how does it affect all Americans? Ali Bradley is an independent journalist who has been covering it very closely,

and she's been there and joins me now. Welcome, Ali. Hi, Megan. Thanks so much for having me. OK, so let's let's start with the numbers, because it took a while to get the June numbers. May was a record bad month when it comes to illegal immigrants trying to sneak across the southern border and having these interactions with law enforcement. And June wasn't quite as bad as May, but record setting in its own right. So put it in perspective for us. Yeah, you're exactly right. You said it took a little bit of time to get these numbers.

It always takes a little bit of time. And all of my intel within CBP tell me that DHS has these numbers weeks in advance, that basically the media pushing on them is what gets these numbers released on top of a court case that that really makes them do it by the 15th of every month. So it is something that we kind of have to push on every month to to get released. But when you said these numbers are record setting, you're exactly right. June put us over the threshold from last year, the whole entire fiscal year of 2021. We saw about 1.734 million encounters. Now we still have three months left of reporting for fiscal year 22.

We're already at 1.746 million. That means it's about 11,000 more than all of last year. So we still have some time, like you said, and it is very problematic right now because the resources just aren't there. And you look at how many people they returned under Title 42 last year, and you compare that with this year, there's a stark contrast there as well. While we have surpassed last year's numbers, we've sent substantially less back under Title 42. We're talking to the tune of about 215,000 people less than what we sent back under the health code last year. Well, what does that mean to people? And Title 42 is the title that allows you to say we're not listening to any asylum or other claims. Get out. It's a covid emergency.

So the Trump administration put it into place and we used it to great effect. And then Joe Biden's administration was effectively forced by the courts to continue it for now. But what does that mean that we're not using it as much or as robustly? Yeah. So the Biden administration has obviously come out openly saying that they're going to actively appeal Title 42. We've seen this happen over the course of the last few months under this administration. But what it really breaks down to is we're seeing more people and we're seeing less people being returned, right? So under this administration, it's very clear what the idea is and what the, I hate the word agenda, but what the agenda is, because if you're having more people come in and you're returning less and you're also detaining less and you're also going more lackadaisical on your approach when it comes to tracking people, that has a really wide impact. And we're seeing it in New York. We're seeing it

in Washington, D.C., where the mayors there are both calling out for additional resources, which is just kind of a whole bag of hypocrisy because these border communities have been calling for help for two years. They've been calling on the Biden administration to simply call this a crisis. And that hasn't happened still to this day. They've been calling on the Biden administration to simply call this a crisis. And that hasn't happened still to this day. They haven't even deemed it a crisis. And so it's one of those things where these numbers all break down and you see it. And how do you deny that it is a crisis? I have to say, and take this in the proper way, I love what's happening in New York with the undocumented workers trying to come in because for so long, I mean, all my years on Fox, this was a southern border problem.

And everybody where I lived in New York could just be like, oh, it's America. We accept immigrants, illegal, legal. What's the problem? They take the jobs that nobody else wants. Right. That was that's the line up in the northeast. And now people like Governor Greg Abbott of Texas are getting smart and shipping the immigrants, the illegal immigrants to places like Washington, D.C. and New York City and saying, here's what the problem is.

You live with this and then you tell us what a non-problem it is in New York City. The homeless shelters right now are being overrun with asylum seeking migrants. There are nearly 3000 who've arrived in just recent weeks, says the mayor, Eric Adams. He's calling on President Biden to send additional federal resources immediately so that they can handle the overflow, saying if we don't get these resources, we're not going to be able to provide the level of support that anybody here deserves. And he says, look, the burden included families arriving on buses sent by the Texas and Arizona governments. And he says, actually, the federal government sent some here, too. And the feds haven't the White House didn't respond to a request for comment. But, you know, we heard those stories early on by The Post and others about all these migrants being blown up to Westchester County, New York, and then driven off somewhere we didn't know where.

I think it's good that non-southern border towns are having to experience this. Well, and that's the idea, too. When I asked Governor Greg Abbott, what is the difference between you sending buses of migrants, you know, to anywhere USA versus the NGOs doing it, both with taxpayer dollars? What's the difference, really? And he said it's really to move these people out of the communities along the border and to bring them to the back, you know, to the backyards and the doorsteps of Washington, D.C. And I think it's really interesting that the mayor in New York brings up that these buses are coming from Texas and Arizona. They're not. The buses are strictly going to Washington, D.C. I talked to the governor's spokesperson last night. They sent 135 buses, roughly about 5,100 people to Washington, D.C.

NGOs, they all boast about how grateful they are for these free bus tickets, because if they have a destination in the Northeast, Washington, D.C. is close and it's a good option. So they voluntarily get on this bus, which Muriel Bowser had said that they were being tricked into, but they're voluntarily getting on these buses. They get asked. They aren't forced on any buses from what these NGOs tell me. And they literally post on their social media pages. Thank you. We're incredibly grateful for these free buses to Washington, DC and to the East coast. So these people that they're seeing in New York are from ICE releases. They are from people not staying in Washington, D.C. either and migrating up to New York and to other

northeastern states. So it's really interesting. But we do know that NGOs are busing people all over as well. They're bringing them to San Antonio. From San Antonio, they get on a Greyhound bus from there and they go somewhere else. And that is all through government contracts. These NGOs are non-government organizations, but they work directly with CBP, which is Customs and Border Protection. As soon as they're processed, they're brought to these NGOs and dropped off. Now, ICE releases are a little bit different. They're in a detention facility. Then the ICE buses will basically take them to San Antonio as well. They'll drop them off at the airport. I've witnessed this several times where they drop off busloads. 75 single adult men get off, mostly Venezuelans,

the one that I saw, and they were all going to Chicago, right? So we're seeing all of this happen and there's always the finger pointing in the blame game. But Governor Abbott has maintained and has always said, every community is a border community. Now they're just feeling it. And you know, everybody's been talking about the financial impacts of this and what this will look like. Governor Abbott saying every single migrant costs, costs the state of Texas $30,000 a year. That's for any kind of medical care. That's for schooling. That's for all of the, you know, access that they have to things once they're here. And so that is going to be felt throughout

the nation, but they're just seeing it right now. It's kind of more of a tangible thing with all of these people showing up and maxing out their shelters, like what the border communities have been dealing with for years now. So what's the story? And I'll get to what Mayorkas, the head of DHS, is saying on this. It's unbelievably disconnected. But what's the story with the drugs? Because if if all all these people are just getting on the buses and going left, right, you know, north, south and so on. What's the story with all the fentanyl and all the cocaine in particular that we saw is up now in record numbers in June in terms of what they're bringing across the southern border?

How does that happen? I understand that the southern border is essentially run by the cartels now. But like, how do they get how do they get those drugs in? I assume they're not packed in like a little to me suitcase on the bottom of the Greyhound. But how is that? How is that working? So there's a couple of ways that this is happening. Number one, it's happening a lot with with a drug smuggling option. So they're using vehicles, things like that. And they're going through and they're catching the majority of them at these checkpoints because they have the technology. They have drug sniffing canines. They have, you know, these x-ray machines that they drive through where they can see the drugs taped up in the wheel wells. They can see all these things. The thing

that the governor, he's proud of that. He's, you know, proud that the state of Texas stops all those drugs from coming in, but that's not through Operation Lone Star. Operation Lone Star is his own kind of operation that he implemented a few years ago, about two years ago now, where it's additional resources from the state of Texas that basically go after drug smugglers. They have the right to arrest for trespassing, things like that. And they, again, deployed additional resources. So what the governor talks about often, and we're seeing this right now, I actually have a friend of mine and another journalist who's in the Big Ben sector right now. And what's happening with a lot of the drug smuggling is it's coming in through the holes when these borders are unmanned, which we know that they are right now because

they're so maxed out processing and transporting these hundreds of migrants that are coming over every day. They're coming over in groups of 500. So when that happens and you're already short-staffed along the border, all of your resources go to that. That's a humanitarian crisis in its own. Just like we see them force families across with little ones when the river's high because Amistad Lake Dam is out. And so they've got very, very inhumane conditions that they have to cross in. Cartel and Coyotes, you said they run the border. They know these things. So what they're doing is they're forcing across these families to create a humanitarian crisis so that over here, we can

sneak in drugs and we can sneak in people and we can force people across over here while they're distracted with this shiny object over here. And that's happening every day. And they are, they are getting caught. They are getting caught with bundles of weed of fentanyl of, of cocaine on their backpacks, 50 pound packs that these people are carrying. And that's happening in more of these remote areas in the middle of the desert. And again, when you don't have the resources to stop all of that, you don't have the resources to plug the holes because the wall is not done. Contrary to stop all of that, you don't have the resources to plug the holes because the wall is not done. Contrary to most people's beliefs, you've got problems and you're going to have drugs getting in and a lot of gotaways. We're 490,000 known gotaways for last

year or for this year. Excuse me. That is the ones that they see on cameras or the ones that they see in a bailout pursuit and And they are not caught. By the way, let me interrupt you. That's that the gotaways are not counted in the one point seven million that we're at thus far and counting three years, three months before the end of the fiscal year. No, they are not. They are completely separate. And again, every single Border Patrol agent, every single law enforcement agent I've talked to over the last year in my coverage tells me that numbers at least double. They say, they say for every one that we catch to get by us. So, you know, when they have a pursuit and the car crashes, like what happened in Kinney County

last night, they had another pursuit, which they get pursuits regularly because it's a thoroughfare that human smugglers and drug smugglers use to get through to, you know, get through and evade law enforcement. So they go through there because there's not a lot of active checkpoints. And so last night, they had a bailout pursuit, a rollover, and they confiscated an AK-47, Megan. So right now, what they're dealing with in these border communities is what the sheriff told me, he said, it's getting serious, as if it wasn't already enough for them. You know, the sheriff there has said that they're under siege. There's a picture of that gun there that

they confiscated. They also confiscated a 40 caliber Glock on that same driver who they arrested. And that is going to be their, their priority is the driver. They're going to go after the driver who is 99.9% a U S citizen. And we're seeing more and more teenagers that were recruited off Snapchat or Instagram or whatever it might be. But they're recruited off these social media platforms by cartel and coyotes, and they're used as smugglers. And so they go after the driver first, and then they get lucky if they can catch all the people that ultimately, what they say is bail out. As soon as a car stops, everybody jumps out of the car and runs. And so that's what they say is bail out. As soon as a car stops, everybody jumps out of the car and runs. And so that's what they're up against in a lot of these counties that don't necessarily

their border counties, but they don't line the Rio Grande. They only have 14 miles along the river. So their county pursues. We have we have an update on the bailouts and how they've affected things like even the Uvalde school shooting. We'll get to that in one minute with Ali. But the thought of the damage that's being done to the migrants and being brought across the border by the cartels, we had the story down south of over 50 people dead in the back of that truck, the way that the women are raped repeatedly and put into sex trafficking. We had the story, remember the story of the 10- raped repeatedly and put into sex trafficking. We had the story.

Remember the story of the 10-year-old girl in Ohio who may or may not have gotten pregnant and had an abortion? Well, it turns out that story was true. And she did get pregnant and she did wind up having an abortion across state lines. And the person who impregnated her was a 26-year-old illegal immigrant living potentially with the mother who then defended him. Right. So that he's not here legally and he's raping 10 year olds. And then you think about your kid. You got a kid who goes to high school, is going off to college and God forbid gets offered a pill

that's laced with fentanyl from one of these guys who brought it across in a backpack or what have you. I mean, the death and the carnage that results from that open border is untold and it will remain untold because the media has almost no interest in it. Stand by because there's more with Ali, including the reaction from the head of DHS about this. It's stunningly tone deaf and we will get to it in one second. so secretary mayorkas comes out in the wake of these and he's aware of the devastating june numbers at the time he makes these comments and again like this is two animal house references in one show like kevin bacon at the end when all hell has broken loose on the streets of the campus basically tells the rampant crowd, all is well.

Remain calm. All is well. All is well. Here he is. Speaking of the border, is the border safe? Now I was watching a news channel and they were talking about an invasion was happening and I got a little concerned. Look. The border is secure. The border, we are working to make the border more secure. That has been a historic challenge. I have said to a number of legislators who expressed to me that we need to address the challenge at the border before they pass legislation.

And I take issue with the math of holding the solution hostage until the problem is resolved. There is work to be done. When you, safe and secure are two different words. There are smugglers that operate on the Mexican side of the border and placing one's life in their hands. OK, he goes on. So it's secure. Just in case you didn't know, it is secure. Remain calm. It's I mean, that is far from the truth. If you talk to anybody along the border, there's a woman in Kinney County I was just talking to you about last month, Megan, she was just driving down the street between Del Rio and Brackettville, home from getting groceries, her normal trip to Del Rio, she was a school teacher in Del Rio, so that was her normal commute,

gets shot at by a smuggler driving down the highway trying to evade law enforcement during a pursuit. So go ahead, Mayorkas, you tell me again that the border is secure and that we have operational control. Right now, I actually just got a message from one of my ICE sources that I talk to regularly. And Megan, they've actually posted on Dilley's PureSol online sale and trade. So now they're taking to these, you know, garage sale website pages on Facebook to ask for help. They're literally posting from one of their facilities, the ICE detention facility in Dilley, asking people to volunteer and to step up and to take these jobs that are available. So if that's operational control, then I don't want to see

what chaos looks like. Yeah. I hate to see what true invasion is. So I mentioned it in our last segment, but one of the problems of these so-called bailouts that you just referenced, where the migrants get chased, it never ends well, but then they bail out of their cars and run in all different directions when the cops get too close or when they have a car accident and they all just run in different directions is a boy who cried wolf resistance by the local community in Uvalde in particular by the school to the real threat. This has already come out now that this I mean, it's it's a southern border town that they had had so many of these watch out, bail out, you know, emergency strangers on campus alerts. They had become immune to them. It's yet another of the many real life consequences. It's not to say that they could have stopped this madman who came into the school and killed 19 fourth graders, but it certainly might have helped if they had taken the threat more seriously right from the get go, because they weren't dealing with I think it was 50 of them in one year alone. Between February and May. That's it. 50 between that time frame.

That's from school teachers and Megan, all of the journalists that responded. I mean, I was already on the way because I was already covering the Southern border. So I was one of the first American journalists on the ground. There was a Reuters there from Mexico and, and a television station from Mexico as well. There wasn't even a perimeter set up, but when I was in route, what the reports were was that it was a bailout, that it was a smuggling pursuit. And so everybody thought that that's what it was in the beginning was another bailout, that it was a smuggling pursuit. And so everybody thought that that's what it was in the beginning was another bailout. And when you talk about these people, kind of the boy who cried wolf, I've been reporting this since the day this happened, that there's a real thing called

alert fatigue. I talked to a lot of parents in that area. Every parent, there's a parent that is a wife to one of my sources. They have a third grader that goes to Rob elementary and they got the email, legitimately thought it was another bailout, did not think anything of it. Now that email did come about 20 minutes after the shooter was already firing shots. And then they didn't know it was an active shooter until about 12, 11. So it was about 40 minutes from the time the shooter actually got there, that parents knew what was happening. So there was a lot of obviously, things that fell fell short. We know that that's no secret. But the alert fatigue thing is very real. I will say the only saving grace to it being a border crisis down there right now is how many border patrol agents were around and were present during that time and able

to respond out didn't the manpower didn't really matter because it still took them 77 minutes to go in and it still took time for that BORTAC agent to actually arrive. But that response comes from not because there was a school full of migrants, right? It's because they're deployed along the southern border already and have been because of the crisis. I did not realize that Aranda, the guy who was supposed to be in control, Aranda, he was supposed to be in charge of the response, had not yet been fired or resigned. I mean, honestly, I just assumed that guy had been turfed in the wake of his disastrous failure. With all due respect to this man, he's a fellow human being. I get it. He's become the face of cowardice in America. And he's still employed in the job. He was the one who wrote the crisis response plan

for the school and then failed to execute it and walked around that day as if somebody else were in charge, even though he knew very well that he was the one supposed to be running this. Now the parents are outraged. The family members are outraged. You're about to hear from a man who I believe is the uncle of one of the victims. Hold on. His name is Brett Cross. His niece died during the shooting, and he addressed the school board about the fact that they have not fired this guy yet. Take a listen. I literally just gave you proof that he knew that the doors were unlocked, didn't do nothing about it. You're still standing by paying him to take a vacation, correct?

No. We were going to wait for investigative information to come forward to help us in our decision-making process. And I will stick to that. All right. Well, I'll tell you this. If he's not fired by noon tomorrow, then I want your resignation and every single one of you board members because y'all do not give a damn about our children or us. That's stunning. Powerful words.

So what do you make of it? I mean, do you think he's likely to go? I think the meeting might be this Saturday. But I mean, this is not liberal Portland, Oregon, which, you know, like this is Texas. I feel like this guy is gone. He will be forced to resign or they will fire him within days. So he immediately stepped down from the city council, which he was already elected in that role before the shooting happened. Then he got sworn in a day after the shooting. So that was a big controversy as well. Now he did step down from that role on the city council. He, again, as you mentioned, has not been fired though, or relieved from his role as a chief of the school police. But the mayor tells me and confirms with me that they do have a special meeting set for Saturday. He says, quote, I have heard that it's true that they sent him a notice for Saturday's special meeting. Word is he will be fired. The mayor does go on, though, to tell me he hasn't heard that from school

officials. But the mayor is pretty confident as well that that they are going to relieve him of his duties again. And I mean, most people feel like this should have come days after the shooting, not nearly two months. Because now what's happened is we've gotten the Uvalde shooting report, you know, the assessment of how things went so wrong down there. The Washington Post reporting in all 376 law enforcement officers, nearly 400 law enforcement officers were on scene there, a greater number than previously known. 149 Border Patrol officers,

91 Texas State Troopers, and the guy who was supposed to be in charge was Pete Arradondo, the school district police chief who wrote the active shooter response plan. What's insane about the fact that he's still there, if I understand the facts correctly, is God forbid they were to have another school shooting this week. He would be the man in charge. He would be the lead commander in terms

of response. He would be the lead commander in terms of response for any kind of situation, right? Luckily, they're on summer break right now and they've pushed the start to the school year. So that won't be anytime soon. But it is wildly problematic to know that he walked around and said, I didn't title myself. I just looked at myself as another police officer that was responding. But as you mentioned, he literally wrote the policy.

He's the top of the chain of command. No one else felt like they could come in and take over, but they should have. The sheriff has every jurisdictional right to come in and to take over because he is a top law enforcement individual in that county. He could have done that. The feds could have done that. The other issue, Megan, is that out of all of those officers, 376 respondents, not one took it upon themselves to ask the questions or to implement a command post. That in this report, that was an egregious error as well, because there was nobody there to streamline and coordinate efforts. We know radios weren't necessarily working. We know that Arredondo

was on the other side of the classroom while the congregate group was kind of, you know, where we saw the cameras that were closer back. So how are they even communicating? You know, and that's another big problem is that there wasn't a command post and there wasn't a central command person that was outside of the building making sure that things were going on. When I arrived on scene, no one knew what was going on. There were troopers with blood on their shirts. There was no perimeter line set.

There was no PIO, which is a public information officer, to give me any information. We knew nothing. And it was so chaotic still when I showed up and the gunman was already subdued. He was already dead by the time I got there. But when I got there, I was watching the airlifting helicopters leave and the truck was still in the spot that it was crashed in. And again, there was no caution tape up, no perimeter set at all, at least an hour after this started. And so, you know, you look at this situation, you look at this botched response, and you look at how these families are reeling, and they have to. And, you know, I've asked a lot of my sources along the border that are sheriffs, that are law enforcement

individuals that are border patrol, and they all say that the only way forward is to actually basically start from the bottom and clean house, just work your way through it. And you have to start over because these people in this community aren't going to have confidence in these law enforcement individuals. They said, this is a community of 15,000 people. How are they going to restaff? We already know that staffing police is almost an impossible task. And these sheriffs and these law enforcement individuals tell me, Megan, they would rather have nobody than, than officers who aren't going to act. You know, they aren't going to know we're on our own. Yeah. Then the citizens know we're on our own. OK, got it. I mean, these are Texans.

They would have it there. A lot of them are armed. I'm sure they would have had it. I think I think if I can really quickly, we bring up the three hundred seventy six people. The thing that this report does not break down is when they arrived. That is important. We talk about 376 officers. We think they were all just standing outside while children were just horrifyingly being massacred. That might not necessarily be the case, right? We know like Val Verde County, they had two people there, but those people were not there until after the shooter was already subdued. So there are things like that that still need to be sifted through. And we need to find out who really was on scene that could have acted and didn't. It's too horrifying to think. And it just

completely shatters your notion of law enforcement as, you know, your next backdrop, you know, the people you call when you're really in trouble, when your most vulnerable loved ones are in trouble, the guys with the gun, the good guys with the guns are supposed to run in to help. And they just didn't. But I was going to say the failures in Uvalde, the failures of the children, the 19 fourth graders and the two teachers who were killed began well before the day of the shooting. And that, too, has been exposed by this report in in as much as we're learning more about the shooter whose name we're not going to say. But this guy had been so vocal about his unhappiness, about his alleged bullying,

about his terrible fourth grade experience in the very classroom years earlier that he would ultimately return to Target. Some of his family members were aware that he would ultimately return to target. Some of his family members were aware that he bought guns and ordered them to remove them from the house where he was living. So they knew they knew this kid should not have guns. They wanted the guns removed, but that's about all they did. And I wasn't surprised to see it, Ali. I've talked about it many times. It's the reason we haven't and I haven't for decades said the names of school shooters.

Quote, the report says the gunman was driven by a desire for notoriety and fame, notoriety and fame. And what happens over and over is the media assists after the person shoots up the school, whether the person winds up dead or alive himself. We we in effect glorify them. We plaster their name and their images all over television. And they go from a nobody loser sitting inside of the grandparents house, not going to school to somebody whose name is known by virtually everyone in America. It's wrong. And we we're not going to learn. I've got I've gone through enough enough of these to realize we won't learn. Doesn't matter how many times the media learns this lesson. They just keep blaming guns. That's the only thing they can see is the problem. But that report was very illuminating. Yeah. Megan, I have to say thank you for doing that because I do the same thing.

I know his name, but it takes me a minute to think of it because I haven't said it. And, you know, the focus does need to be on the kids and on this act, what happened, but not to glorify this person. And, you know, I've talked to, I sat down with the grandfather the next day after the shooting for an hour, he invited me into his home and I was able to talk with him and ask him about this situation. And the family members that knew he had guns, it wasn't necessarily that they thought that he was going to use them to harm people. But the grandfather could not have guns in that home because he has a previous conviction. And so if he were to have guns in his home, he would go back to jail for 15 years.

So they couldn't have guns in that home. So there are several reasons why they wanted the guns out. It wasn't that the family necessarily saw all of these red flags and just ignored them. And that is from the conversations I had with the grandparents and the grandfather had no idea about the guns. What I'm learning is it was the grandmother and an aunt, an aunt of the shooter. But it wasn't necessarily the grandfather that knew. And he didn't have a lot of conversations with the shooter. He would go to work and he would come home and the shooter would be on the couch sleeping or whatever. And the guy, the grandfather, I mean, he was distraught.

He would tell me he would try to read his Bible out loud and hope that the gunman would hear him, just hope that it would kind of trickle in. And he said that he obviously wasn't a God fearing man. And, you know, obviously wasn't necessarily the person that he thought he was. And sadly, the grandparents took a lot of this on because he had been living with them periodically since about March, so a few months, but you know, their grandparents, and what kind of conversations are you really having with your grandparents? How much should they really know? But it is very normal in very small rural communities for grandparents to take on kind of being the guardian for a lot of these kids that maybe, you know, don't have don't

have a standard home or don't have a stable home. Because the parents were losers. That's that's the truth. The parents were losers and abandoned, abandoned their parental responsibilities. And it's not that they're that they caused the school shooting, but they certainly caused in part an unstable young man. And the unstable young men are the problem we're facing when it comes to school and mass shootings. You can take it to the book. They have a profile. So I don't actually I'm not as forgiving of the grim grandfather as you are, because, you know, I saw him on TV saying, oh, what are you going to do? You know, you dropped out of school. You can't make him go. You can make him go. And the school district didn't come back and try to make him

go. As I understand it, he dropped out in the ninth grade. He was effectively pushed out after missing 100 days of school and so on. Now, the community failed him. His parents failed him. And then he failed all of us. And that was in part the responsibility of adults who should have intervened earlier, who should have seen the warning signs. It's not OK to just say, oh, well, what are you going to do? He's out of school and he just sits on the couch all day. That's the same profile of the shooter in Newtown. Yeah. But the grandfather did tell me that he did that. He knew that he was failing, that he was not going to teach him how to drive. He wasn't going to do all those things if he wasn't going to be motivated.

So, you know, I think there's different different parts of the interviews that we probably see and take, but he did tell me that he wasn't going to trade, teach him to drive or give him any extra benefits, you know, in life, if he wasn't going to be advocating for himself too. So the grandfather did push back a little bit, but I said, why aren't you talking to him? Why aren't you on these hour long car drives you guys are taking because he started working for his grandpa. Why aren't you talking? And he just, that's not his culture. That's not how he is. That's not who he is. But now, in hindsight, 2020, right, I bet you he wishes he would have had a lot more of those conversations with his grandson. We all do. Gavin DeBecker was on the show two weeks ago, you know, world international recognized security expert was saying that the one common denominator amongst all these shooters is misery, misery.

And what they what can make the difference in one case versus another is the intervention of anyone with a kindness, a caring word, some some cause for concern and inquiry. It doesn't always work, but it gives us the rest of us a fighting chance if somebody would show kindness and concern. I do want to show the audience that you had an extraordinary interview, as you were mentioning, and went inside the house. And let's not forget,

this shooter in Uvalde shot his grandmother first and actually got video, where, as I understand it, there's still blood inside the house as you were in it. Here's a little bit of that for the watching audience. If you're listening, you can see it on YouTube in just a bit. It's soundbite 10. Did you have bullet holes in the house when you came home?

No. No. Okay. Praise God. No, no. A key right here. I think the way I see it, I don't know. But there's blood all over.

Oh, wow. And I don't know. Key shot her's blood all over. Oh, wow. I had to clean that out. And I don't know if he shot her from here to there. Oh, wow. Because it is. Or maybe from there. Because there was a pool of blood here. Really?

And you had to clean it up? My sister and this friend of mine, her cousin cleaned it up. Wait. So this is all from... Uh-huh. Some of her skin or whatever. Oh, my gosh, look at Roland. It's all the way up here.

Yes. Wow. Oh my gosh, that's chilling, Ellie. It was being in that house was a feeling I'll never be able to recreate and hope I never have to. You know, you saw those two bedrooms and the grandfather and his wife slept in separate rooms. The gunman slept on the floor in the living room, which he also showed me. And there was a pile of blankets, basically. And then every day when the grandfather would leave to work, he would wake up the gunman and tell him to go into the bedroom and sleep. And that's common,

too. You know, people are like, oh, why don't they share a room? It's not for us to pick that part apart. But the gunman was sleeping on the floor in the living room, you know? So this was a temporary thing, but we know that before he shot his grandmother, they were arguing about the cell phone plan, which you talk about misery. And this guy lived on the internet. The mom apparently couldn't pay the wifi, which is one of the reasons why he moved in with the grandparents because the mom brought in some boyfriend and they were doing drugs, moving drugs throughout the house. And so he moved in with the grandparents. Well, then the grandmother says, it's time for you to get on your own cell phone plan. And now you're threatening his livelihood,

basically, right? Everything that fuels him is what's on social media because he obviously didn't have any friends. He didn't have people that he hung out with or did, did any activities with. So you're getting that side where, okay, you're going to cut off his access to anyone. And that was kind of the triggering point. He waited for the grandfather to leave. The grandmother told the grandfather, I think he was waiting for you to leave because you probably would have stopped him. And if you didn't stop him, you would have been shot too. And so, you know, and the grandpa tells me he wishes that would have happened. He wishes that he would have been able to lay his life down and save those kids. So it is a lot of different moving parts here, but we can piece together exactly what happened. And a lot of

people want to know how he got the money, but there's a lot of ways that you can get that money. If you don't have any bills, you don't have any rent, you don't have a vehicle, you are working. He then, after he quit Wendy's, he picked up shifts working with his grandfather at his HVAC company. And his grandpa actually had cash lying around the house because that's how he got paid in a lot of jobs.

So this grandson could have been skimming off the top for months. He had this plan for months. So, you know, there is a way that you can get fifty five hundred dollars when you have no bills and nothing else to pay for. Wow. Thank you for getting down there, for being down there, for doing the investigative reporting. It's we need reporters like you who are not afraid to get into the mix, whether it's the southern border and the story is not being told or sometimes, you know, you get, pardon the term, lucky on a story like Uvalde when you're nearby and you can get right in there and get up close

with the witnesses. It's extraordinary that the grandmother lived. I mean, that's just like, that's going to be one of the many things that gets investigated. Allie, Allie Bradley, everybody, thank you so much for being here. All the best to you. Thank you, Megan. Thank you so much. And we should note that I'm starting my role at News Nation as a network correspondent. So you can catch better doing all of our coverage there as well. Oh, that's awesome. Congrats to you. When when do you start there? I kind of soft started on the 18th. So the official official start is on the 15th of August, but I'm already working. I've been working for them contributing to them for about nine months because they were interested in my border coverage. And they're one of the only networks that really was. And it's a beautiful thing to

be able to continue what I'm doing on such an amazing platform. So you can catch me there. And I hope you do. All right. We definitely will check it out. All the best to you. Good luck. Thank you, Megan. You too. All right. And coming up, I'm going to be joined by a writer whose columns I have loved, loved, loved on Substack. I'm like, I need to know her. You will meet her when I meet her. And we'll talk about, among other things, her drift, slow drift from the Democratic Party as her eyes began to open to their growing insanity. Next. my next guest is sasha stone founder of free thinking through the fourth turning on substack she was once a democrat now an independent and shares a refreshing take on the current state of politics including the january 6th show trials and why the left has lost it sasha i am so so happy to meet you. I love your thinking. I love your writing. I love your podcast. I love it all. I mean, I feel like I'm in some sort of parallel universe where Megyn Kelly is telling me that she not only reads what I write, but likes what I

write. That is such a mind blowing experience. I'm such a big fan. I, I, you know, I listened to your podcast before you moved to Sirius. And then I, um, I thought that, uh, when you moved to Sirius, that it was going to lose the intimacy of it. You know, I was like, we're going to lose our best friend, but it didn't though. It actually expanded. It's still as intimate as it was. And it's also, um, including your incredible, um, investigative reporting and everything. And I do have to tell you that you're really the reason why I sort of think the way that I do on a lot of this stuff. Because at one point, you were being attacked viciously for some stupid thing. And you just said on your podcast, you know what, I'm sick of it. I'm just going to say

what I want to say. And, you know, people can attack me all they want, but that matters to me more. And that is really what I've been doing. I actually copied you. So because I wanted to, you know, well, no wonder I like you so much. Now that I hear the backstory, it's no wonder we connected in the way we did. But it is liberating, you know, and now when I see people being so careful and so self-censorious, I think, oh, remember what it was like to be over there? That's so sad. I understand. I get it. But it's so liberating to be on the other side. Oh, it is. So it feels so good. And as much as it kind of hurts to lose people in your life and to have

your friends and family kind of look at you in a strange way, it's sort of like you were an Amish person and then you left for the big city, but you're so happy in the big city, but you feel bad because your Amish friends are still back there and they're so sad that you left. And if only you could still be an Amish person, that's not to insult the Amish community. I'm just saying, but, um, but it is, it is incredibly talk about your background so we can understand, you know, the, let's put some meat on those bones there. Okay. Um, yeah, so I, uh, you know, I, I started my business online. I run a website about the Oscars, awardsdaily.com. And I got online in 1994. And so I've been online half my life. And I started getting into politics in around 2015, when the, you know, just before the primary, the Democratic primary, and I became a very, very devoted Hillary Clinton supporter. A lot of people know me online as being a blue check Democrat that used to fight with the

Bernie bros and the Trump supporters quite viciously, actually. And I was every bit the thing that I no longer can stand anymore. I was that person. I was the worst. I even came after you at one point over the Tara Reid thing. And now I realize that, you know, you were doing good journalism and that was the right thing to do. And asking you to suppress that in order for Biden to do better was wrong. But it took me a while to get there, you know? So what what were the beginnings? Like how did this start to percolate? Because I have so many Democratic friends who have gone through this, you know, sort of a I don't know if it's a deprogramming, but just like something pierces through and you're like, wait, wait a minute. There's a different way of thinking or they get alienated on this or that. So how did that start for you? Well, the first way that that started was I had been reading the Never Trumpers, actually, because I thought the Democrats couldn't pull in the elections. I was reading people like Rick Wilson and listening to the Bulwark guys. And Joe Walsh

became my friend on Twitter. And already I could see that they weren't what I thought they were. And they weren't what people were telling me they were and screaming at me about being friends with them. They're terrible racists. It wasn't true. And so then I began wondering what else isn't true? What else don't I know? How is this happening? I was so certain. And then really it was like everybody else. It was the 2020 protests slash riots, that was such a red pill moment because the media wasn't talking about it. They weren't because they were invested in the narrative that it all had to be Trump's fault. And so, you know, a lot of us were looking for the truth and looking for people to talk about what we knew was happening. And they weren't. They were gaslighting us. And worse than that, I had a really personal period of sort of despair in 2020, like a lot of people did because of COVID and lockdowns. And I was all alone. And every time I got online to

connect with my friends, it was just this bottomless, unfiltered hatred aimed at Trump, his family, his supporters. And I just got a chill down my spine. I thought, you know what? I am part of a group that's dehumanizing another group. And I know that's wrong. I know enough about history to know that that takes us to a really dark place. That's a red line you don't cross. And so I decided to get to know Trump world. And I watched every single one of Trump's rallies. I started watching Tucker Carlson. I'd listened to all the sort of right wing is is has turned into and how I think it's really destroyed the Democrats and destroyed the left in their hatred of him and trying to take him down for six years when there are so many better ways that they could have been spending their time and energy. Well, thank you for sharing that background. I mean, I, I can relate to a lot of what you said. I wasn't a Democrat, but, um, I remember one of my favorite doctors in New York, she's a diehard Upper West Side liberal. And we talked about Trump when he

was running the first time and he'd been attacking me. So she was angry with him for that too. She didn't like Trump anyway, but you know, I wasn't too pleased with Trump back then myself. And we kind of talked about him privately, like, oh, Trump, what's he doing? Why is he doing this? And then I saw her, you know, a couple of years later and she was still in the same place. And I was defending him. And, you know, his he had become president. He had had the chance to implement policy. He was still, you know, his same self in terms of his rhetoric and the way he talks about things. So but he when you looked at Trump on paper, he was doing a lot of objectively good things. And I started to make these points to her and she started looking at me kind of funny.

And I was like, oh, no, I'm going to lose her because I love her. And I don't I don't want this moment where it crumbles between us. And she goes, you know what this tells me about you? And I said, what? And she goes that you have principles. And she was like, I appreciate that. Like she didn't turn on me. She was this delightful, total partisan, but kind and warm and able to see even somebody who she could see wasn't agreeing with her and someone she found the devil as awful just for that. You know, so there are good people there and there are people on like you and like me, where if you stay open-minded to facts, performance, and a media agenda, because that's what I see you talking about a lot. You, you've become very, very good at spotting it. You could, you, there's a way of finding truth.

Yeah. Well, like the last, your last guest, what a great reporter right getting the story she was she told a side of that story I have not heard before and it wasn't that she was empathizing or sympathizing with the gunman but she was painting a picture that really did fill in the gaps of the bigger picture and that's what our media doesn't do. In fact, it's kind of odd to watch, for instance, Jamie Raskin and the January 6th committee talking about Trump or Steve Bannon or any of these guys. It's like, I don't understand why they didn't look at it the way I did, why they haven't tried to understand that world and who they are and what drives them and why they have such a strong grassroots movement. They never did that.

They're just selling this bizarre delusion that's been driven by the media that America was attacked by a white supremacist army that is upset that black and brown people are rising to power. That's actually what they believe. I don't know if they believe it or if they're just taking their cue from the media and they're taking their cue from Twitter. But it has created a really bizarre like they don't sound like they're living in the same world as everybody else when they speak about Trump world. You know, and I think a lot more people understand that. When you talk about January 6th, I think it's fascinating to hear you say that was sort of your moment when you didn't, you know, the way that the Democrats were handling the January 6th investigation and the coverage of it and so on, because their whole goal, I think, and they've telegraphed as much in The New York Times, is to make people feel exactly the opposite, you know, to shore up Democratic support and anger, to pull over more moderate Republicans who might still be supporting Trump into hating him and realizing, you know, hashtag never again.

And it's interesting to me that you were somebody who was more left leaning, who was like, no, this is having exactly the opposite effect on me. So what is it? Because so the audience knows we're going into the last big hearing, the primetime last big hearing, the January 6th committee is tomorrow night in primetime. And they expect to call two former White House aides. I'm just looking at my notes here. Pair of Trump White House officials who quit on the spot over the Capitol insurrection. They just use that word now in every news report. They are then deputy national security advisor Matthew Pottinger, then White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews. And the understanding is they are going to speak to

Trump's 2.24 p.m. tweet attacking Vice President Mike Pence for not having the courage to go along with overturning the election. The committee has played relatively little of their prior videotaped testimony, but each witness weighed in on this event and the portions that have been shown so far. We expect more of that. Again, I think this is from either Washington Post or CNN. I'm quoting. Forgive me. I don't have the source in front of me. But in any event, the big finish is tomorrow. So how was it that that coverage changed your mind?

Well, I had just gone on a cross- country drive by myself, which I do every year. And I, you know, it had cleared my head. It got me offline. I wasn't as, as you know, cause I listened to a lot of, you know, right wing channels or whatever. And that does trigger you, you know, you get upset. You're just like, I can't believe they did that. I can't get it. But I was, you know, I had cleared my head and I was like, yeah, you know, I need to, I need to start getting back to my, you know, my roots. And maybe, you know, the Democrats seem like they're focusing on something else. And then I hear they're doing a prime time hearing with a television producer that was basically a, they were coming into it with a guilty verdict already. And we don't do that in America, right? You have presumption of innocence. And that isn't what they did. We already know because the minute Trump took office, now, okay, finally they got him. But it's like, sure, if this was Watergate, everything would have gone fine. They would have treated Trump like

an actual president, which they didn't do, not for one minute, not for four years. And then they found January 6th, okay, maybe that seems like a valid thing. But after, you know, after so many endless prosecutions of him every single day in this country, even though it's Trump, even though it's someone people really hate. It's still not a precedent that we want to set. Whatever happened on January 6th should be dealt with as what happened. And just because they don't approve of Trump supporters, they still deserve to have their questions answered, you know, that everybody in America does. So on your sub stack, you you write the following. I thought this is so insightful. Cassidy Hutchinson, that was their last big star witness.

The woman who worked for the chief of staff. This is the one who claimed Trump grabbed the wheel of the beast or the SUV and tried to basically strangle a Secret Service agent. She writes, you write, Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony is somewhat reminiscent of Amber Heard's. It is sincere, but overly dramatic. She's pretty with a husky voice and definitely someone most people would want to believe. But of course, her story is starting to fall apart. For Hutchinson, she essentially had no career left. Trump would not hire her after he left office. Her resume wasn't going to get her much work. Ah, but to be a star witness for the left, she'll get the Liz Cheney treatment.

She'll get a golden ticket into the land of the special people, the ruling class, MSNBC. She might even make the cover of Time. This, as opposed to starting out her political career as Mark Meadows' aide, she would have been tainted forever. Now she's a star. So insightful. That's exactly right. And she got exactly, I mean, you heard the rhetoric about her, like, your grandchildren will be asking you about the name Cassidy Hutchinson and the day she testified on Capitol Hill. Okay. I don't understand what happened to the media. I don't understand how they slipped over into this kind of crazy propaganda movement that they exist only to sort of bolster the Democrats. Like, when did that become?

I mean, I kind of know we all know right in the last four years of Trump calling, you know, antagonizing them, calling them the enemy of the people. They took a side, you know, but you're not supposed to take a side. You're supposed to get the story. And yet on it goes. And now we're facing another election, the midterms coming up 2024. And I thought it was pretty astute in your more recent piece on the left. You pointed out about how. Hold on a second. We continue to hear the narrative about far right nationalism, far right nationalism, you know, super MAGA.

Joe Biden might talk about it. The reason that stood out to me was just this past weekend or, I don't know, a short time ago, a couple weekends. The New York Times had a piece on, quote, the rise election, and abortion. That's what makes you far right in the eyes of the New York Times. And there's got to be something wrong with you, obviously, because no Latino self-respecting minority of any kind would vote Republican. So this is what they do, right? It doesn't matter what your identity credentials are. As soon as you start to sound like a right winger, you're a loon. That's right. And for the side that supposedly cares about equity, it's always interesting to watch them really go after people like Larry Elder, all the terrible things that Obama said about him. And so it isn't even about that. And they pretend that it is, but it's not. It's about ideological compliance. And that's frankly a scary place to be in this country, and especially on the

left. We used to stand up for free expression, subversive art, freedom of speech. And now look at the entire left. It's just they're living in a climate of fear. No one can say anything. That's why I'm out there saying these things that will get me screamed at, attacked. I've been called everything. Nothing like what you have experienced, Megan. But look at you now. Look at you now. So they can take you down.

My friend was just visiting with me, and she's going through a trauma. And she was teary, and we were holding each other saying goodbye. And I had some parting thoughts for her. And she said something like, OK, you know, how do you know the thing to say or something to that effect? It was a nice compliment. And I said, oh, a lot of trauma. That's good. You know, it's not pleasant in the moment, but it's truly like if you pay attention and try to glean some lessons from it, it's the key to wisdom, ultimately, or at least some semblance of it. So what has happened in your personal life? You know, because one of my dear, dear friends has been completely red pilled in New York, and she is losing friends left and right. She's being kicked out of groups. Her friends, I mean, her kids' friends are kind of looking askance at her kids. I mean, it's been alarming. Yeah. Well, it's funny because my close friends and family, and they're all of them,

I call it the Trump line, right? If you join them in their hatred and fear and hysteria over Trump, then you can say whatever you want, right? So many people that we know in the sort of free-thinking, sub-stack world, they'll never cross the Trump line. They always have to say, oh, well, Trump is a white supremacist, domestic terrorist threat to democracy itself. That is such a good point. But if you humanize, you know, if you humanize Trump and you, like I do, you listen to Steve

Bannon's podcast and, you know, it horrifies them and you can hear it in their voice. And I say, it doesn't make me a Trump supporter. Oh, yes, it does. Yes, it does. You're a Trump supporter. And I'm like, well, I'm not. But I'm curious about this culture, these people that I don't know that you're telling me I have to treat like human garbage. And you know what? I'm not going to do that. So if it bothers them, I don't

know what to do about that. My personal life, well, I'm very much alone. I'm making new friends, though. That's the good thing. You know, I am making friends and some of my friends will tolerate this as long as we don't talk about politics. Where do you live? I live in Burbank, California. I can't set you up with my New York friend of, you know, ex-Democrats. They're like, they're questioning, I guess the LGBTQ community might call it questioning what they've been spoon fed. And of course, the truth is that the Democratic Party has changed so dramatically that who the hell knows what it even means in today's day and age to be a Democrat or to be a liberal. It's very unclear.

No, and they've been sort of overtaken by, I think, a kind of religion. You know, they they they believe what they believe and they demand that you believe it too. And if you don't, they will punish you. So I think this is the problem. Like, I think there actually are some reasonable Democrats, but this is why they're going to have a problem in 2024 and November, is that not a single one of them will stand up to the insanity that everybody in America sees except except this small group of like Twitter blue checks who influence the media and the media, you know, puts it on their show and it trickles down into some people's homes. But less people are watching those shows.

And so they're, you know, they're painting themselves into a corner. Even Gavin Newsom, someone like that, he's not going to go against the doctrine of the left. He's going to continue because they somehow believe that Generation Z is going to be on their side and turn out to vote. And they better not upset Generation Z, but they're leaving the majority behind. It's the same old story. It's the silent majority. Any Democrat who came out and pushed back in a really strong way, they would do extremely well with the public. They just haven't figured that out yet. They don't want the bad headlines and they don't want to get attacked on Twitter. Is it true even in California amongst the bluest of the blue states? I don't ever have a conversation with a single person here who is pleased with what the Democrats have become. Not a single person. I see a lot of people in the street. They'll probably, you know, you were talking about the Dobbs thing, and that could be a dividing line for people. I could see that happening. They say, well, I hate both parties, but I want a woman to be able to choose whether

to have an abortion or not. So I'm going to vote Democrat, whoever it is. I don't care who it is, because that's the line for me. I could see that happening. On the other hand, the Democrats, in their complete and total insanity, have somehow switched the conversation from pro-choice, which it was throughout my whole life, to abortion, right? We all knew in the 80s and 90s that you fight this fight without drawing attention to abortion. And now it's like,

abortion, abortion, abortion, come to California and get your abortions. I'm proud of my abortion, my abortion, my abortion. And you're just like, you know, pro-abortion. We're just pro-choice. A lot of us would never have an abortion. We just want to make sure that a choice is available for people. And I think a lot of Americans feel that way. But it's crossed over. They wear that pro-abortion label quite proudly, like with the women at the Supreme Court with the nine month pregnant belly and the

circle drawn around it that reads, this is not a baby. All right, lunatic. Who exactly are you shoring up on your side with that? No, that is especially as, you know, infertility is, you know, women are having trouble with that. And everybody knows what a miracle it is to be pregnant. Everybody loves their kids. And for them to go into this sort of mass hysteria over, you know, overturning gay marriage or the loving decision, abortion or, you know, that's a different thing because it involves another human being, you know, and people aren't stupid. They know that. But the Democrats are clinging to that. They have they have only fear to sell and they hope that it brings out the voters. And that makes me really sad. You know, they need stronger leadership. They need to offer people. Look, for all the negativity at Trump, his rallies, they were pure love fests. You know, people dancing to credence, having a good time. It was like a pocket of joy in a really miserable season. He made them feel good. They were happy. You know, in any Trump rally you watch now,

you'll see that same vibe. Well, so much so that they're still getting the band together. You know, you'll see Trump rallies just randomly on the corner. It's like, wait, he's not there. It's just, you know, they love him. So yeah, there's something very joyful about it. I will say, I think it's great that you started by listening to people on the other side of the aisle. There was a young woman. She's young and new. She's a producer and she's definitely from the left wing. And she talked to me about her future. And I said, here's the first thing you need to do every morning. You should do what I do. Listen to NPR's

little morning podcast and listen to Morning Wire, which is from The Daily Wire. And just start, just start chipping away at the bias that's been indoctrinated inside of you for the first 22 years of your life. Sasha, I got to run your amazing sashastone.substack.com. What a pleasure. Thank you, Megan. Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.