The Megyn Kelly Show - Charlie Kirk's Legacy of Compassion, and Kamala and Katie Porter's Inauthenticity, with Jack Posobiec and Ana Kasparian | Ep. 1172

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

Megyn Kelly opens the show by discussing her trip to DC to attend the Charlie Kirk Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony held yesterday, the powerful moments with President Trump and Erika Kirk, and ...more. Then Jack Posobiec, TPUSA contributor, joins to discuss the wide array of people who came together to honor Charlie at yesterday’s ceremony, how Charlie served as a “bridge” uniting people across the movement, the truth about why the left is terrified of his legacy, how Charlie brought the two of them together, the growing division in America because of the absence of God in our culture, the truth about Charlie's compassion toward all, and more. Then Ana Kasparian, host and executive producer of "The Young Turks," joins to discuss Katie Porter once again proving she’s not ready to be a real leader, her struggle to explain away her bad media moments in a new interview, her lack of authenticity and honesty, Kamala Harris’s inability to speak coherently in public about her policy views, her increasingly strange behavior, reports of Bari Weiss already facing backlash from CBS News staff following her recent takeover, what it reveals about today’s newsroom culture, and more. Posobiec- https://x.com/JackPosobiecKasparian- https://kasparian.substack.com/ Done with Debt: https://www.DoneWithDebt.com & tell them Megyn Kelly sent you!Incogni: Take your personal data back with Incogni! Get 60% off an annual plan at https://incogni.com/MEGYNcode MEGYN at checkout.Cowboy Colostrum: Get 25% Off Cowboy Colostrum with code MK at https://www.cowboycolostrum.com/MKUnplugged: Switching is simple, Visit https://Unplugged.com/MK and order your UP phone today!  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 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Megan Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon east. Hey, everyone, I'm Megan Kelly. Welcome to the Megan Kelly show. Yesterday would have been Charlie Kirk's 32nd birthday. It still doesn't seem real that he was taken from us by an assassin's bullet in Utah just over a month ago. And now there's nothing we wouldn't do to bring him back. But what we can do is, continue to honor his legacy. And wow, what a powerful example we had yesterday of how he lived his incredible life. I mean, his wife, Erica Kirk, standing up there in the Rose Garden. I don't know where she gets her superhuman strength from. You know, it was much as when I saw her in Arizona last month, like nonstop tears, but a strength that got her through it. And she wrote that speech herself. I'll get to it one second. President Trump standing up in the Rose Garden, a beautiful. beautiful rose garden, by the way. The roses are nowhere to be found, but the garden's now been
Starting point is 00:01:06 paved over. It's got like a patio floor on it. And it's a beautiful, absolutely stunning gathering space now for ceremonies like this one. And President Trump made beautiful use of it. It was one of these mornings and afternoons, I guess I should say, where the sun was rising. You know, we saw the president standing in front of us. And just behind him was, I think it was the old, executive office building behind him with the three flags, two a little lower, one a little higher above him. And the sun was starting to come down in the sky just beyond him. So those of us who were in the audience had the sun on our faces. And it was maybe 70 degrees. It was warm. It was beautiful. We originally were scheduled to be inside, but the president moved it outside.
Starting point is 00:01:51 It ended up being such a beautiful day. And President Trump wanted to show off the newly revamped Rose Garden. It was his idea. And there was just something, I don't know, ethereal about it with the sunlight on us and the warmth hitting our faces, as the president talked about Charlie. The president was in a good mood. You know, he'd been on a whirlwind tour the past 48 hours prior to that. Somebody, the Babylon Bee did one of its funny cartoons saying, press asks president to call a lid after 96 hours straight of following him. That's about right. Call a lid when they can. close-up shop, and they know the president's not doing any other events for the day. I mean, Egypt and Israel, the Israeli parliament,
Starting point is 00:02:38 President Trump was everywhere and did some really important things while over there. And then high-tailed it out in the Middle East, as he said to us yesterday. Missing what he said, something to the effect of would have been some very powerful meetings with some very rich countries who really wanted FaceTime with him. But the answer was no, because he needed to get home to honor his. friend Charlie Kirk, awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian honor any American can receive. Trump was looking at the good weather and said what I said, you know, that originally thought it would be inside, but they moved it outside. And as the sun was
Starting point is 00:03:19 on our faces, he said, God was watching. I think God wanted to give us this gift. Trump was in Rare for him, you know, he was laughing. He was smiling. He paid perfect homage to Charlie. He made a joke at one point about fighting crime in D.C. And then sirens went off nearby, you know, police sirens. And he said, that's a beautiful sound. That's a beautiful sound. That's them fighting crime. That's what you want to hear. It's beautiful. The only people to speak were Trump, a serviceman who read the actual resolution giving Charlie the medal. and Charlie's now widow, still getting used to that word, Erica Kirk, who accepted the award, the award on his behalf. I don't think his team would mind me telling you that somebody on the team took a shot at writing a speech for her. And she said, I just, I can't do it. I've got to write it myself. It doesn't sound like me. I've got to say what's in my heart. And she wrote that speech. It's amazing when you hear her talk. It's almost like, one of Charlie's colleagues said this to me when I went out there to host a show
Starting point is 00:04:32 that they were, they were feeling comfort in being around Erica because it was like being around Charlie. And I have to say, I totally get it. Spending time with her or even watching her speak, it does give you, she's not the same as Charlie. Their style is different, but the messaging is really spot on. She was completely together. She was the picture of, class and strength and resilience, but she was once again nonstop in tears. And she made it through. Here's a bit of what she said. The very existence of the Presidential Medal of Freedom reminds us that the national interests of the United States has always been freedom. Our founders etched it into the preamble of our Constitution. And those words are not relics on parchment. They are a living
Starting point is 00:05:27 covenant. The blessings of liberty are not man's invention. They are God's endowment. Charlie lived for those blessings, not as abstract words, but as sacred promises. Honestly, President Trump, I have spent seven and a half years trying to find the perfect birthday gift for Charlie. Now I can say with confidence, Mr. President, that you have given him the best birthday gift he could ever have. Obviously, it was bittersweet. You know, I remember in the first term, Trump awarded this same medal to Rush Limbaugh, and he did it at the State of the Union. Do you guys remember that?
Starting point is 00:06:08 And Rush was suffering with terminal cancer at the time. And he knew his life was coming to an end on this side. And it was great that Rush got to receive that honor and, you know, just be recognized for a lifetime of contributions that were really meaningful. I mean, Rush Limbaugh. changed conservatism, fundamentally changed the way we talk about issues as conservatives in this country. He was the godfather, the OG, in showing people how it was done. He was a huge influence over Charlie Kirk, too. Huge influence. This kid growing up in Illinois said he listened to
Starting point is 00:06:45 Rush all the time that he would sneak out in the middle of class, like in the middle of the day when other kids might be taking a break or, you know, kicking the soccer ball around, what have you. Charlie was listening to Rush Limbaugh. And, Charlie, you know, of course, didn't receive this honor while still alive. We all thought there'd be time. Everyone thought Charlie would have time to run for and become and be president. I mean, literally everybody I've spoken to believe that would happen. And then you get your honors late in life generally. You know, that's just generally how it works. Rush Limbaugh, God love him, and rest him, died older. And it's not, he died. He died. He died.
Starting point is 00:07:27 too soon. He was too young for us, but he had lived his full life, and Charlie hadn't. So, you know, the award amazingly was appropriate. Like Charlie earned it. You think of all Charlie did in his 13 years of turning point. And good gracious, did he earn it? But it wasn't given to him until he was gone. And so there was something bittersweet about it because Erica, of course, had to accept it for him. She reminded everyone, of course, that Charlie lived by his Christian beliefs that he was committed,
Starting point is 00:08:02 notwithstanding what President Trump had said moments earlier. Trump said, I know, you know, Erica suggested that he likes to, he would pray for his enemies, and he loved his enemies, and Trump was like, I'm not so sure if that's true. I spend some time with Charlie.
Starting point is 00:08:18 And then in a very funny moment, Trump again joked that that doesn't come as easily for him. Here's a bit. This is Erica speaking about Charlie in response and Trump's in the background. Surprisingly enough, he did pray for his enemies, which is very hard, but he did. He did. He throws his hands up. He's smiling. No one else. I mean, I saw him do it. No, he never did it in front of anyone else. but I can attest to that. But he also loved people when it was inconvenient. I love when Trump gets the big smile.
Starting point is 00:09:00 You know, he doesn't give us the huge smile that often. But that's him being self-deprecating, you know, laughing that, you know, I saw what I saw. Eric has seen what she's seen. But he's being gracious. You know, she's kind of saying, no, I swear he really did pray for his enemies. And Trump's kind of like, did he? It was sweet. President Trump was so good to Erica. He went to her. He walked her out. He stood with her. He stood behind her the whole time. I mean, you know, not for nothing, but Trump's 79 years old. And as I said, it's just coming off this whirlwind tour of the Middle East, not to mention what happened the week prior. I mean, he's been working on this nonstop. And he stood there the whole time. I was thinking to myself, is there any way President Biden would have been standing here for the full remarks of Erica Kirk? I mean, his own remarks went on for nearly 45 minutes, I'd say.
Starting point is 00:09:50 did the weave. And then Erica stood there the whole time. And then when she was done speaking and we had the service person read the actual proclamation, stood there. And then Trump went over and stood right in front of her and was comforting her as Amazing Grace was played among other songs. He paid homage to Charlie's parents who were there. They too were stoic. You could see the grief on their face, but they were stoic and held it together to their credit. I don't know how they're functioning. And Trump gave, he gave a lot of himself. Just making it back and standing there in front of them, it was his way of honoring Charlie. It was his way of saying this person mattered to me. Trump takes a lot of guff for not being the kind of griever or mourner in chief
Starting point is 00:10:43 or, you know, emotor that many people want him to be. You know, he doesn't have empathy in the same way most people have it in a way that you would recognize it instantly. But he does have it. This has actually been a lifelong question of mine since I've known Trump. Does he have empathy? And now having studied Trump for many years and known him for many years, he does have empathy.
Starting point is 00:11:07 Absolutely, he does. He just doesn't show it in the same way as the rest of us. You know, he's extremely strong emotionally. extremely. And this is him showing it. The fact that he made it back, the fact that he escorted her out, the fact that he stood there, the fact that he went back over to her, the fact that he stood with the family after the ceremony for Amazing Grace and spent time with him immediately after the ceremony as well. That is his empathy. The fact that we were there in this ceremony honoring Charlie, that's Trump's empathy. That's him expressing his love and care and admiration
Starting point is 00:11:43 for a young man who truly changed the country. He also declared yesterday National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk. It was Charlie's 32nd birthday, with a proclamation reading quote on the American people to assemble on this day in their respective places of worship there to pay homage to Charlie's memory. Now, every major network took the event live yesterday. I mean, it was an event. It was a thing. And it was, Charlie's murder was something that, of course, captured the attention of the world, except one, MSNBC, which apparently thought its viewers wanted to hear Nicole Wallace jabber on instead of witness a historic event for the listening audience.
Starting point is 00:12:31 We're showing the screen grabs from literally every channel. They all have President Trump in the background on a lower third that's appropriate. And then there's one in the middle with Nicole Wallace, just her, just her mug. on camera spitting out a bunch of bullshit, as she always does, on MSNBC. So that's what you got there, the refusal to even acknowledge Charlie, because they couldn't have President Trump's words about Charlie and what he actually did and who he actually was, or Erica Kirk's words about her husband and what he stood for. They couldn't have that heard by the MSNBC audience, you see, because they're all part
Starting point is 00:13:06 of the Nicole Hannah-Jones pack of lies. it's important to them to continue misleading some faction of the left into thinking Charlie was the devil incarnate. So they really can't have you looking at Erica Kirk. They really can't have you seeing a charming, empathetic, loving Donald Trump honor his friend. It's a hard no. There was nothing offensive.
Starting point is 00:13:31 They couldn't get out of it on their bullshit. Oh, he tells lies. So we have to cut away. You know, they've been pulling that nonsense since January. No, there was no excuse not to show it other than their own inhumanity and refusal to show truth to their audience. It would put the lie to everything they've been saying about Charlie and Turning Point for that matter. Join me now for reaction is Jack Posobic. He's host of Human Events Daily. He's a Turning Point USA contributor. He was a dear friend of Charlie's and stood up
Starting point is 00:14:06 and eulogized him at Charlie's Memorial, and he was at the Rose Garden event, along with yours truly yesterday as well. When you are buried in credit card and loan debt, it's human nature to put it off and say, I'll deal with it later. If that is you, here's something you need to know. Done with debt discovered a little-known strategy
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Starting point is 00:14:52 new loans. In fact, most clients end up with more money in their pocket the first month. Get started now while you still have time. Go to donewithdebt.com. Speak with one of their specialists for free. Visit done with debt.com. Jack, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for being here. Give me your overall thoughts on yesterday and what you experienced. Well, Megan, thanks for having me on. And thanks as well for you making the trip out and being there with us the entire day yesterday. And so many people who really came, it was so remarkable to see such a day for Charlie and such a day to really remember and reflect on his legacy and his impact on America and our culture going forward.
Starting point is 00:15:34 And, you know, there's something that just, you know, it struck me. We've had this terrible weather the last couple of days that I've been in D.C. And it's been rainy. There was a nor'easter that came through. And there was this moment right before, I think, the president and Erica came out
Starting point is 00:15:53 and they had been in the Oval Office, and they had been a meeting and talking. And there was this moment where suddenly the sun just sort of peaked above you were just kind of talking about it peaked above the executive office building and the Eisenhower office building and it was like the whole rose garden lit up it was like the sun just hit the entire patio there when we hadn't seen sun all week and it was it was quite possibly the most beautiful day I've ever seen at the white house and I've been there many times and it may have been the most beautiful day and I just really think that was that was for
Starting point is 00:16:31 Erica. That was God shining a light down or I don't know, maybe even maybe even letting Charlie be there in a sense in that in that ray of light because even in a time of so much darkness and so much pain and anger that we've all gone through in the wake of all of this, that it just takes one candle shining to illuminate an entire sea of darkness. It's so true. And it was not just the light and the beauty, but the warmth, right? It was like something about that warmth hitting our faces and actually warming us up as we're hearing about Charlie. It was so appropriate. The other dynamic about it, Jack, that jumped out at me was, in a way, it was classic Charlie. Because what did Charlie do at like the turning point events like Amfest and the Student Summit? He brought us all together. He would have, loved to have seen us altogether like that, like people in our lane, in the digital lane, you, me, Benny, and then people from the more traditional media, like all, most of my Fox News, former colleagues were there, Jesse Waters, Tucker was there, he's now in our lane
Starting point is 00:17:47 too, O'Reilly was there, Hannity was there, Judge Janine, Laura Ingram, it was just like the two worlds of the conservative ecosphere when it comes to broadcasting and the people who really are changing this world for the better, this country in particular, for the better together. And there's a bit of a rivalry
Starting point is 00:18:07 between us and them. You know, we think they're old and we're new and they're kind of over and we're the future. They would disagree. But there was none of that yesterday. There was just togetherness
Starting point is 00:18:18 and like a softness and kind of a love. I would even say a grace. You know, just a, just a, just a grace and that's who charlie was charlie was about bridging that that you know gap between worlds charlie was the bridge he was the bridge between and in so many ways you know you mentioned rush limbaugh who charlie was a huge fan of i was a huge fan of and uh the very last event that rush limbaugh ever spoke at publicly was actually a turning point event down in 2019
Starting point is 00:18:50 before he got sick down and rush of course because of his um you know because of his personal health He didn't do a lot of the event. He actually did really have quite bad hearing for anyone who met him. They would know this. And, you know, he did the show, but he actually did have really bad hearing issues. And even after the implant and everything. And so he did that event for Charlie because he very quietly. And Charlie never even said this or acknowledged it publicly.
Starting point is 00:19:13 And this was Rush's, you know, Russia's wish that Charlie would never tell anyone until, you know, after the fact that Rush had been a major donor to turning point during his lifetime that. he was all in on charlie kirk he was all in on the mission and so that was this sort of incredible parallel because you mentioned how um you know you mentioned how it was the bridge between sort of like the traditional media and the new media but rush was really the first he was sort of the first guy to say we can do a different kind of media and he did it with a m radio he did it with the you know the blow torch uh coming up on broadband and then eventually you're coming up on on clear channel and then eventually to broadcast and get it out larger. But he was the first one to say,
Starting point is 00:19:59 we can talk about the news in a different way. And we can build an audience. And he built this incredible audience. And then so Charlie would always say, Charlie would always say his biggest dream wasn't necessarily to be an organizer and wasn't to do turning point. He wanted all of the things. But he said, you know, I'd love to have a radio show like Rush Limbaugh.
Starting point is 00:20:19 That's what he used to always say. And, you know, I think the podcast is in many ways a new form. of radio, but it was that. It was that idea of new media and just using that to connect directly with people that really drove so much for Charlie. Yeah, it was. I completely agree, and he loved Rush, as we
Starting point is 00:20:36 all loved Rush. I mean, he was the OG. There's only one Rush Limbaugh we miss him to this day. They're together now. They're together now, you know? He's with his mentor among others. I think that there is something bittersweet, Jack, about the fact that
Starting point is 00:20:52 Charlie gets this medal posthumously. Charlie's podcast has been number one on the podcast charts since he died. It's amazing, like the interest in him and the people around him and the messaging that they knew would be blessed by him. Like, people are coming to him who didn't know him before just to, like, hear clips and get to know him better and hear the people who knew him best talk about him. His books have all shot up to the top of the charts, all of them. people, like the 122,000 plus now, young people, new chapters of Turning Point on high school and college campuses, there's like a desperate thirst for more of Charlie right now. And thank God there's hours and hours and hours of tape of Charlie, but it's, it's just so encouraging
Starting point is 00:21:41 to see. And I do think that's why MSNBC had to go dark on it. Like they, they feel very threatened by this. well so in msnbc right their their entire structure is built on this inverted hierarchy of victimhood whereby in all of society is controlled by the victimization so uh women are victimized minorities are victimized and white christian males are always the you know like charlie kirk especially successful uh you know white christian male like charlie he's literally married to a beauty queen he's got, you know, incredible children, incredible families, successful by every metric. And so he must be the enemy. And so you can't ever allow anyone like that to look sympathetic. You can't ever look
Starting point is 00:22:29 like there might be someone who victimized him. Because if he were to become a victor, then it would in fact repudiate everything that they stand for. It would repudate everything that they're doing. And that's why they're doubling down. Not only did they cut away from that, I believe they said they're doubling Rachel Maddose. They're given her two shifts this week. So she's going to come back and now do two shows. They're holding another No Kings rally. And you look, they're doing everything they can to load up news stories and release things to be able to kind of muddy the waters and find different stories they can talk about other
Starting point is 00:23:02 than the fact that, you know, unfortunately, it was one of their guys. It was this crazy leftist up on top of that roof that came out there and said, look, we can't beat this, you know, we can't be the right at the ballot box, can't beat Trump. We can't beat Charlie Kirk in the debate sphere. So what are we going to do? we're going to try to silence him with a bullet. And as you say, they certainly failed in terms of that because his message is now larger than ever.
Starting point is 00:23:24 People are paying more attention to Charlie more than ever. Turning point is taking off more than ever. But what they did do is that they robbed Charlie not only from all of us and the, you know, the decades and future of whatever Charlie would have become. And I think we all have, you know, ideas about probably how that would have gone. But, but it's also, you know, you sit there with Erica. And this is what, you know, personally, I have trouble with still. And I had some, you know, yesterday was rough.
Starting point is 00:23:51 I'll just say that. And I'll sit there with my boys and we could just be having a family moment or sitting at church and watching or watching a movie or something. And I'll feel this profound anger come over me that Charlie will never have that with his children ever again, that those children will never have those moments with their father that Erica will never have those moments with her husband and that I don't know why but this phrase keeps kind of repeating in my mind it's that every single moment was stolen from them every single one and look I there is a debt there is a debt that has to be paid for every single
Starting point is 00:24:30 moment that was stolen from those people this you and I talked about this at the reception afterward this both got us both Erica getting personal at the end here it is soft five And before I close, I'll share with you that I asked our daughter what she would like to say to Daddy for his birthday. Excuse me. Happy birthday, Daddy. I want to give you a stuffed animal. I want you to eat a cupcake with ice cream, and I want you to go have a birthday surprise. I love you, is what she said.
Starting point is 00:25:26 And while our son is precious, he can't yet speak, in classic Kirk family fashion, his actions spoke louder than his words, and his gift to you, Charlie and myself, for that matter, was deciding to become the man of the house and be fully potty trained at 16 months. But Charlie, baby, I know that you're celebrating in heaven today, but gosh, I miss you. It's so unfair. It's so deeply unfair, Jack. It's horrible. It's absolutely horrible. And to the people that were celebrating this, to the people that were laughing about this, it's, it's, it's unbearable. And, you know, I kept it together. I would say pretty well yesterday, pretty much right up until that much. And then right afterwards, when the violins were playing amazing grace and a few other songs afterwards, where, you know, there I am thinking, you know, when you think about going to the White House, you think you're, you know, you're in for a, you know, a real, all-inspiring session. And then you think about the history that's going on there. And never did I think I'd be sitting there at the White House and thank God my wife was there because, Tanya, because, I mean, I just couldn't keep it together. I just got, I just got so upset. Because the people laughing about this, the people who want to continue to do this to any conservative out there, you post something about him even on X and you'll get comment after comment saying you're next or, you know, we're coming for you soon or and not just me, but you know, everybody, everyone who's a conservative, you know, have a target on your back. And we've had this target on our back. And you sit there and think, this can't go unanswered. I'm sorry, it just can't go unanswered. Now today, the left is making a big deal out of this story that some no-name, so-called young Republicans, literally who none of us has ever heard of, were on some derelict text chain
Starting point is 00:27:27 using racial slurs and bad-taste jokes about, I'll be Hitler, if it's going to get me more right-wing votes, whatever. And you can feel them thrilled that this story has emerged because they're now this is oh it's both sides you know our side says some unfortunate things but look at the republicans as we all know they're terrible and they they're racists and so you know you really just have to vote for us because we're going to get you better economic policies we're going to get you a bigger social safety net but it's totally both sidesism look at these texts from these losers none of you has ever heard from before i mean your thoughts on that yeah it was i mean i saw that story, I guess, as we were walking into the White House and someone had sent it over. And I said,
Starting point is 00:28:17 wow, of course, they timed it perfectly so that it would drop immediately when Charlie's memorial service happened for just that purpose. And also, obviously, to try to respond to this insanity out of the Attorney General candidate in Virginia and some of the horrifying, violent things that he said specifically, and by the way, not just over text, but calling this woman and berating her saying violent things to her. And so it's so obvious. And, you know, nobody's saying that this thing was a, you know, was like an urgent story that needed to get out. No, it was timed directly to try to bracket. It's a typical media strategy. It's also a political strategy known as bracketing where when you can't defeat your opponent, what you try to do is muddy the waters
Starting point is 00:29:04 at least. So there's multiple things going on at the same time. So they released that story so that juxtaposed every time, if you're going on social media yesterday, you'll see, here's Erica, here's the widow, here's the tears, here's the friends, but then also, up, Republicans bad, Republicans bad, don't remember, Republicans bad, you have to see it at the same time. And it's so patently obvious and Orwellian that I'm actually surprised that they would try something so cheap. Actually, I blame my last, I'm not surprised that they would try something so cheap but it's it's it's just really sad it's really sad that we couldn't take one day to be able to say you know what let's put down all of the attacks let's put down all of it to say this was a good
Starting point is 00:29:49 guy and he didn't serve what happened yeah it's so i mean it's like there is a difference between some loser republicans who are not in power the like somebody at one point ran for office and lost is the most i can see here um and and like the chair and vice vice chair of various states young Republicans. Okay, well, we've never heard of these people. I've been in covering Republican politics for 25 years. I've never heard
Starting point is 00:30:16 of these people. And they want to pin it around the right's neck as though it's an attorney general candidate who's within a whisker of actually becoming the top law enforcement officer of Virginia. Yeah, and you know what? Fine. Okay, so we've seen
Starting point is 00:30:32 those texts. Let's see all the young Democrats text messages about Charlie Kirk now. Because I saw what all against the young Democrats and the public Democrats were saying publicly. And I saw Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi come out and do the yes, but. Remember that you know the yes, but that's what they said. They said, yes, it's sad that Charlie Kirk died, but. And then Barack Obama, who is for all intents and purposes, the leader of Democrat Party, went on this litany of smears and attacks against Charlie saying, oh, well, what about MLK?
Starting point is 00:30:58 He said something about MLK. He said some of the Civil Rights Act and wokeness and all the rest. And it's stop. Stop. Don't do the yes, but it's so insidious. and it's so poisonous and toxic to our country. And that's obviously why they're doing it. They can't stop.
Starting point is 00:31:11 So let's go ahead. Let's say we're going to release text messages. Let's release all the text messages from the young Democrats about Charlie Kirk. And let's go back, by the way, to September 10th. And let's see what they were saying in the group chat back then. More than happy to. Yeah, you're so right. Of course, they do smear Charlie in the political article.
Starting point is 00:31:28 One of these guys, we've never heard of this Junta. We don't, again, I don't know who these people are. but there's some guy named Junta, who sounds like a douchebag, first name Peter, who is, let's see, there's the William Hendricks, who's the Kansas Young Republicans Vice Chair, and then there's this Peter Junta,
Starting point is 00:31:48 who was the chair at the time of that organization. And apparently he said, Junta said, people who did not vote for him to become chair of the Young Republican National Federation needed to go to the gas chamber. Okay. They think that, like in some stupid, young guys text chain is the same thing as the Virginia AG, like, tripling down, texting he wants to put two bullets in the brain of the Republican House Speaker in Virginia, calling a Republican
Starting point is 00:32:14 to say, no, no, I really meant it. And his children, too. And then tripling down with more text saying, this is why I've thought it out. I really think people need to feel the pain in order to change their political. Like, if this guy stood by it repeatedly, these are a bunch of knuckleheads in a stupid text chain behaving badly. I mean, there's something they never wanted to be public. something they weren't really standing by. But wait, I just want to give you this. So they attack Charlie in the political piece. This Junta, part of his messages read, if your pilot is a she and she looks 10 shades darker than someone from Sicily, just end it there. Scream the no, no word. And they write as follows. Junta's line on this darker skinned pilot, for example,
Starting point is 00:32:58 echoes one used by slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year when he said, if I see a black pilot. I'm going to be like, boy, I hope he's qualified. Kirk was discussing how diversity hiring invites unwholesome thinking. Again, they just pull these snippets, Jack, without giving you the full context of what Charlie was trying to say to start a thoughtful discussion about what these terrible policies are going to make people feel, right? Like, he doesn't, he was saying openly, I don't want to feel like that. I want to look at every pilot, no matter of the skin color, and say, I know he's here because he's qualified. He was saying their quotas, which it was wasn't Delta, I think it was United, was saying we had to have 50% black pilots and female pilots.
Starting point is 00:33:39 With black people only, black men are only 6%, black people only 13% of the U.S. population. Like, that's going to be a real tough bar to pass. That was his point. They love to smear him. None of this is an accident. Go ahead. None of this. And I was on that podcast discussion with him where we were having that discussion.
Starting point is 00:33:58 That's exactly what we were talking about. We said the only way, just mathematically speaking, the only way, just mathematically speaking, the only way that you could ever achieve those numbers is by lowering standards. The same, and by the way, it's in the context of the lowering of standards that we've seen across the board, whether it be in the military where Pete Heggseth is addressing this or in medical fields or in medical schools, et cetera, et cetera. But to go back to the context of the Virginia candidate versus this group chat, I do think you need to put this in context because the context here is very direct. the bullets are only going in one direction in this country, and we've been seeing it now for two
Starting point is 00:34:37 years. Thomas Matthew Crooks was up on that roof in Butler, Pennsylvania. We saw this guy who just was convicted down in West Palm Beach trying to kill President Trump on the golf course. We saw, again, Luigi Maggioni, right? This crazed, you know, just Marxist, anti-CEO killer up in New York City. And then we see what happened to Charlie here. So don't sit there and tell me that the context is anywhere near the same because it's just not we know there's political violence in this country we know that people are doing it we know who's doing it we know where it's coming from and i don't care what junk science you know reuters wants to cite or they're going to go to some professor out of ruckers the guy who's like an antifa supporter and say oh well he
Starting point is 00:35:20 says the violence is all right way and say well what's this guy what's what's he done well he's got this book called the antifa handbook and it it's it's so ridiculous to me when i sit there and i sit there and i say, I can point to off the top of my head, multiple cases where violence was used against my friends, against people I know, against cases, and they celebrate it, Megan. This is the difference, too. They celebrate it. You just mentioned how in the wake of Charlie's murder, we had prayer vigils. We had people sign up. We had students sign up, 122,000 across the, 122,000 across the country. We've had these tours come out. You did a fantastic job down at Virginia Tech, right? And we had a ton. Glenn Beck was up in Montana. Then we had a lot. Glenn Beck was up in
Starting point is 00:35:59 Montana then we had North Dakota we went back to Utah got six thousand where you know he didn't see you didn't see violence you didn't see a single person raised a fist in anger you didn't see a single person on the right come out and say I'm gonna I'm gonna go do something violent and retaliation for Charlie Coo it just didn't happen I said this reporter on from the Atlantic the other day who's you know was um you know doing a piece on me or something I was just like you know what you know what show me one please show me one where you can find it and and by the way I wouldn't celebrate it if it did happen but it didn't it didn't happen because we are not those people. You guys on the other side, you got a real problem,
Starting point is 00:36:35 and they refuse to address it. I can't help but feel that a large part of it is godlessness. You and I have been talking. I mean, it's actually kind of funny that you and I are friends now because Charlie helped bring us together too. You and I used to fight on Twitter. We didn't like each other years ago. And then slowly but surely, you know, the environment changed. I was following you on Twitter. I'm like, this guy makes so much sense. You sent me a nice DM about my Twitter one time. Then we got together backstage at a turning point event with Charlie right there. That was Charlie. Had a hug and like things change. You know, he helped bring us together too. But my point was simply that, you know, the environments shifted underneath our feet and
Starting point is 00:37:15 they really are shooting our people now. I mean, I've been pointing out to the audience, remembering four Republicans, including Trump, were shot at that Butler rally. Four MAGA faithful were shot at that rally. Then they tried to shoot Trump again. the next month, this guy who just was found guilty down in Florida. And by the way, fired shots of Secret Service. It almost got away with killing Trump at that. I mean, thank God the Secret Service found that guy. So yeah, you're right. It's our people who are in danger. And I think it's godlessness, Jack, because, and like I watched you at Charlie's Memorial with those rosary beads in hand. It was so powerful. You and I have talked privately about, you know, the devil and
Starting point is 00:37:57 trying to stave him off. And I do think being steeped in faith is of comfort to us. And I think the fact that so many on the left have lost all connection to it is what's driving some of that madness. That's exactly right. You lose God or even worse, you hate God. You become resentful at God for creating you, for creating the world, for creating society. And so that resentment breeds envy, it breeds anger, it breeds dissociation, it breeds disaffectedness. And Charlie talked about this all the time. He said, he would said the biggest problem in America right now is disenfranchised young men. And he said, if we can get that question right, and that's that's economics, that's the demonization of young men in America. That's, you know, immigration obviously plays a huge role in
Starting point is 00:38:51 that housing, all of it. If you can get that right, you can actually fix so much of the problem in society because there's no path for a lot of these people. But even if they have great grades, and by the way, many of the people I just mentioned who have turned to this violence did have great grades, 1,500 SATs or a member of the robotics team, different things like this. And it's that lack of God, that lack of humanity, that lack of understanding that we're all given certain talents. We're all given different talents. It makes us different. And yes, that's totally fine, but we can all be united in the fact that we're all from the same country. We all have one creator. We all have those shared values.
Starting point is 00:39:30 But if you lose God at the center of all of this, and that's why I believe that the social reformers and cultural Marxists, what they did in the 1960s, the very first thing they did was they made it, you know, disreputable to cite God in public, disreputable to talk about the Ten Commandments, disreputable to say, oh, you know, I read my favorite, what's your favorite book, the Bible, right? People would laugh. It's a lot's your favorite books, but that's the Bible. Charlie would send me Bible verse every single morning. He would just do this to a bunch of people. Whatever he was reading, you know, he just, just texted off before we even, you know, it didn't matter what, you know, hit piece was coming out or what political scheme we were working on. And not that we had any schemes. I have no idea we were talking about. I completely deny all with that. And, you know, it would, we would start every day like that. Every single day would start with a verse from scripture and it would just be whatever he was reading. Or sometimes, you know, because I was East Coast, he was West Coast. You know, I might wake up earlier. And we would share that back and forth. And that was just at the center. That was just the center of everything that we do. And so to so many people who said, I don't understand how you guys can can go on and how come you're doing all this. And, you know, are you just, are you making?
Starting point is 00:40:35 a lady but I said, no, no, no, no, we're not. It's that we know that Charlie is with his creator. And in fact, when we've, you know, I've gotten the show together and we have all the guys and myself and Tyler and Andrew and Blake and, you know, we get there, we always leave that, that one chair and when you came as well, you know, we left the chair empty. And we say, we say Charlie's on assignment with God. He's just on assignment with God and he's going to be on assignment because God has a higher purpose for him. God always has a purpose for all of us. In this case, he's got a different purpose for Charlie and you know it's it's it's tough to accept that it's tough to understand that in some way this is a higher will this is God's will I have trouble with it
Starting point is 00:41:17 it's obviously a challenge you know because you sit there and you think you know why you know just one inch to the you know one inch to the right God maybe that would have been enough but it is what it is why didn't Charlie turn his head like trumped it why didn't Charlie just turn his head for that yeah and and honestly I I try really hard not to go down that path because, you know, when you go down that path, you just, it's the self-recriminations and the over and over, and it's, it's, it's recursive thinking and it's, it's, it's not good. It's just, it's not good thinking.
Starting point is 00:41:48 It's not a good path to be down. The much better path is the one that Charlie always focused on was put God at the center, put God at the center and understand that there is a reason for everything that happens. And even in a case like this, there is a reason. And I remember when, you know, when it happened and people were asking me, you know, could I do media? Could I be out there and sort of just be a face while people are dealing with the arrangements and hospitals and, you know, everything that goes attendant with someone's passing? I said, you know what? I could hear this little voice of Charlie in the back of my head that said, Jack, go do it.
Starting point is 00:42:24 Go do all of it. That's what I want you to do. And I said, okay. So I just sat, you know, I'm right here in my home studio and I just sat. and did media for about 24 hours straight and then hop to plane. Of course he wanted you to do it. That's Charlie saying keep going.
Starting point is 00:42:40 He would be so proud of you and the way that you've handled yourself in the wake of this terrible tragedy. You've been just perfect, Jack. You've been strong, but you've been honest about your emotions. You've called back to faith many times and reminded us at every turn
Starting point is 00:42:53 who Charlie really was and what was one of the many reasons I wanted to have you on today. The connection to faith, the importance of it, and the leaning in, is something that's resonating beyond right now, thanks to him. And my team pulled this clip of Charlie talking about Faith.
Starting point is 00:43:10 I hadn't seen this one, but I love it. I'm going to play it now. Here it is. I don't go to UT, and I'm not the legal age to vote yet. And my parents are divorced, and both of my parents have separate political views. My mom's conservative and my dad's a liberal. And my mom is always kind of pushing me to bring politics into my life. And I was wondering, A, should I care and if I should, why, and which parent
Starting point is 00:43:32 Should I lean more towards that? I see you have a shirt here that says, whom shall I send? Here I am. By the way, the most important thing is to bring Jesus into your life. Let me just make sure I say that. Most important thing. So the scriptures are very clear about this.
Starting point is 00:43:47 Christianity has a heavy emphasis on honoring your parents. Now, to contrast that with the prior questioner, I don't think she's doing a good job of honoring her parents because she's accusing them of being an occult. Even, this is very important, everybody, even if your parents share values and views and a worldview that you do not have, you are biblically obligated to honor them, which means to spend time with them and to love on them and to go visit them.
Starting point is 00:44:12 Even if they are wearing a Black Lives Matter and in this home that we have no hate and trans lives, you still go and spend time with your parents. Because if you are incapable, in this case, of honoring your earthly father, you will never honor your heavenly father. And it's very clear. In the Ten Commandments, and I'll get down to the specific advice, in the Ten Commandments, it is the only commandment, honor your mother and father so that you may live long in the land of which you are in. It is the only commandment that deals with a promise and your country.
Starting point is 00:44:47 You will cease to have a strong country, America, if we do not have kids honoring their parents. Now to your personal advice, find out what you believe and why you believe it. If a parent ever tells you to do something that is sinful or goes against God, that is a violation of what it means to honor them. It doesn't mean you have to blindly obey them, but you must honor them, which really means to treat them heavily, basically to treat that with a lot of weight. I would instead be close to both of them. It's a very difficult situation. You're going to grow up a lot quicker because of it and come to your own independent political views and let them be known to each appropriate parent. Jack, it's so stunning because Charlie was saying, basically, to conservatives, no matter how far to the left your parents are, love them, honor them, don't abandon them.
Starting point is 00:45:37 Like, this is the man. That, not the caricature that you read in the New York Times. They keep doubling down. They continue to run hip pieces on him. They cannot get enough bad ink spilled on Charlie. I don't know if it's willful, right? Like they, they know who he was, but they, they know who he was. but they just want to lie about it, or if it's fear and they just have to interpret the limited clips they've seen in the most negative way? What are your thoughts? Yeah, no, it's, it's, it is an interesting sense, you know, and I do think about some of the New York Times, the newsroom uproar that we saw over the past couple of years, where, you know, again, they've just been completely beholden in so many of these cases to people who have that particular belief system that is so woke, so far left, and I mean, it sounds cliched, so captured, that they're not willing to look at the, look deeper at these clips.
Starting point is 00:46:31 Look, and you saw right there, Charlie, when, when someone would come up and, you know, I didn't really catch this, this person's politics, but let's say this is someone on the left, Charlie would go to them and say, I care about you. I actually care about you personally, and he did, by the way, and he would try to reach out to them and say, what are your personal beliefs. What are your values? What drives you? What do you care about? What are your interests? And so he would sidestep the political, you know, and I know that, you know, the headlines of the clips, you know, Charlie Kirk dunks on or Charlie just, but, but he wasn't like that. And, and, you know, maybe, you know, maybe, you know, that's, that's, you know, the algorithm us playing
Starting point is 00:47:08 and do it a little too much. But it's, it, Charlie was not like that. Charlie would say, I care about you as a person. And yet we may disagree, but hopefully we can come to the same place or at least come to some agreement or clarity on that which we want, which is a better life for ourselves, a better life for our families and a better life for others. And by the way, you don't see that on the conservative side of shunning family members. You don't see that of cutting people off, of ostracizing. That is one, again, it's one direction. It always comes from the left. These are the people who say, we won't show up for Thanksgiving. We won't show up for Christmas. We won't, you know, celebrate birthdays, et cetera, et cetera. I won't be in the same room
Starting point is 00:47:46 as that person. Whereas the conservatives that I know, they'll say, yeah, we'll just talk about something else. We'll talk about, you know, we'll talk about like, well, I'm from Philadelphia, so we'll say we'll talk about the Eagles, you know, whatever. It's not going so well for them so far. I mean, it could be a little bit better, but much better than the Phillies lately. Doug loves the Eagles, too, and I just know we've had a lot of shouting coming from the family room.
Starting point is 00:48:12 Yeah, the Giants game was just a little, a little, we don't need to talk about that. we don't need to go there. We had enough upsetting news happen lately. I've got to ask you before you go, because I know that you are working very hard to get the Republican elected in New Jersey in the governor's race, Chittarelli. And he's got a real shot. The Republican has a real shot of taking down this Democrat, this woman named Mikey Cheryl, in part because she's not that compelling, but also because she's got this scandal around her. From her time at the U.S. Naval Academy, there was a a cheating scandal, the year that she graduated. And we're now seeing her excuses start to change about why she personally was not allowed to walk in the graduation. Now, earlier, she said, I knew people who were implicated in it and I didn't come forward with the information. That's why I didn't walk. But now, just on October 8th, she said, this is the reason she didn't walk. Sot 41. There were hundreds of people in my class. that spoke to investigators.
Starting point is 00:49:17 When I did, I told him what I knew. So now it's, I spoke to the investigators and I told them what I knew. So which is it? And why do you think she's running so tightly with the Republican in a very blue state? Well, look, I mean, this is because the Democrat policies are just so completely abhorrent
Starting point is 00:49:36 in New Jersey. You look at her, she's got that, she lied about her insider training, the $7 million that she raised while a member of Congress. And the 94 cheating scandal is very infamous within the Navy and within the Navy Academy. I certainly remember hearing about it. And they talk about it all the time, even when we still take officer tests and things like that.
Starting point is 00:49:54 And look, it's very simple. Release the records. Why are your records sealed? She could release them today if she wanted to put this to bed, but she won't do it. And there's a reason for that. And her husband as well, there's a reason they've lawyered up rather than simply say, look, I have nothing to hide. Here's my records.
Starting point is 00:50:09 Why not? It's fascinating. I mean, I spend the summers in New Jersey. I would be so thrilled if we managed to get a Republican governor. I mean, between the nightmare windmills they've been doing there, the energy policies in general, the taxes, the most tax state in the union, it's time for a change. And I think New Jersey residents know it.
Starting point is 00:50:29 Do the right thing. Jack Posobic, thank you so much for being here. It's great to see you. Thank you, Megan. And God bless. Yeah, you too. Wow. Okay, coming up next, Democrat Anna Casparian is here.
Starting point is 00:50:42 Lots to go over with her. Looking forward to that. don't go away. If you have ever Googled yourself, you know how many results contain your personal information. Stuff you did not know is online. And it's not by chance. Your info is available. Your name, your address, phone number, financial info, income legal, and health history. What? It can be sold and shared publicly without your consent. There are real risks here, including financial scams, identity theft, unfair targeting by insurance companies, and general safety risks. But I want to tell you about incogny.
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Starting point is 00:51:40 It's risk-free with their 30-day money-back guarantee. Take your personal data back with incogni. Get 60% off an annual plan at incogni.com slash Megan. Code Megan at checkout. We absolutely have to keep talking. It's more important now than ever. To cower, to hide, to go silent is not the answer. And all I can tell you is there is no fucking way I am canceling one stop on this tour. Not one stop. I'm going.
Starting point is 00:52:16 I'm going to stand on these stages and I'm going to say all the things that we say all the time on this show. We're going to make it safe for me. We're going to make it safe for my team and my guests and you. We're going coast to coast and do something really important,
Starting point is 00:52:30 which is say what's true and what's real to honor him. I really now more than ever would love to see you all face to face. God, I would love to see you face to face. I need to see you face to face. I am doing this tour, and I would love for you to join me. Megan Kelly.com for the tickets.
Starting point is 00:52:54 California Democratic candidate for governor Katie Porter is back on camera. I mean, you got to give her credit for courage after her disastrous press last week, following a brutal interview and resurface videos of her. berating her staff. Plus, Kamala Harris continues her book tour with more incoherent jumble. Joining me now to discuss all of it, Anna Kasparian, host and executive producer of the Young Turks. Anna, welcome back. How you doing? I'm doing well. Thank you for having me. You're absolutely killing it lately with some of the things that you've been willing to defend yourself on, and I just want to commend you for that
Starting point is 00:53:35 right off the bat. Oh, thank you. You're so sweet. Thank you. Another day in the life, right? I mean, this is the business we're in. This is the business we've chosen. Okay, the media gods have given us an array of riches today. So we'll kick it off with Katie Porter. Every day I wake up refreshing my ex-feed for another Katie Porter video. And the heavens lately really have been providing. She's not going underground. She decided to sit down with yet another interviewer. This is Nextar's Inside California Politics Show. and it almost looked like she was going to snap again, but she managed to hold it together,
Starting point is 00:54:13 but it did get a little tense. Let's start with SOT 27. Should California voters feel confident that there aren't any more Katie Porter videos out there? Well, what I know is that I could have done better in those moments. I'm going to be focused on earning their votes and earning their trust. That's true in every election. But not just the CBS interview, the interview with the staffer.
Starting point is 00:54:35 Can voters be confident that there won't be another one of those videos that's going to come to light? What I do know is that I could have done better on that situation. That's not a no. So is there potentially another video that we're going to see? Nikki, I'm going to be honest with you. I know that that video and that video was several years ago, as you know, and apologize to the staffer. That's super important to me and will continue to try to hold myself to do better. That's what I can promise. but not that there's not going to be any more videos because that's what people are wondering,
Starting point is 00:55:09 are we going to see something else like that? I can tell you what I've told you, which is that I am taking responsibility for this situation, and I'm also not going to back down from fighting back for California, from being tough. Oh boy, there was not a no there, Anna, and I think we both know why. Right. I mean, I can't say I'm sure. I wouldn't be surprised if other videos, start to leak. And, you know, it's interesting because I'm going to be fully honest about the fact that I used to actually be a pretty big supporter of Katie Porter when she was in Congress, you know, during some of the hearings with bankers, with, you know, corporate executives, you know,
Starting point is 00:55:51 she'd pull out her whiteboard. She would ask difficult questions. But I realized in retrospect that a lot of that was just political theater because when push came to shove and the question of money and politics came up, she was actually very defensive about citizens united, corporate pack money, and all of that. So that was when I personally started to sour on her. There had been allegations from members of her staff, previous members of her staff, of course, and she has a lot of turnover where they accused her of being abusive. I believe her ex-husband also made similar allegations.
Starting point is 00:56:23 Yes, incendiary ones in the Daily Mail. Exactly, exactly. And then the final, like, nail in the coffin for me, was the fact that she is running for governor of California. So obviously she was asked about a proposition that two, I'm sorry, three-fourths of Californians voted in favor of, and that was Prop 36, which sought to roll back some of the soft-on-crime policies that actually really hurt this state. And one of the biggest issues right now is that our Democratic legislature, along with
Starting point is 00:56:58 Governor Gavin Newsom, refused to provide the adequate. funding in order to make sure we are holding people accountable when they commit crimes over and over and over again. It appears that Katie Porter is not in favor of that proposition, but it doesn't matter what she's in favor of. You should be supportive of what the people of California want, especially if you're running to be the chief executive of this state, right? And so substantively on policy, I have soured on her, but also her behavior is just unacceptable. You should be expecting difficult questions and follow-ups when you're doing these interviews, the fact that she was upset at follow-up questions really doesn't inspire, or it doesn't make me inspired by her,
Starting point is 00:57:46 and it doesn't really show that she's a real leader, you know? Yeah. I mean, like, you're going to face a lot more tough challenges as governor of California than some follow-up questions by a nice reporter, the CBS reporter, that was not going for the jugular. it looked, if you watched the interview, almost like they had given Katie Porter the questions in advance, which in this case might not have been bad because this is an investigative reporter who's like, this is my thing, I'm going to ask these same 10 questions to all candidates. So, you know, perhaps they were very open by saying, here are the 10 questions,
Starting point is 00:58:20 go ahead, do your homework. We want to hear what your answers are. But Katie seemed to be familiar with this woman's list. And she's very irritated that she just didn't leave it at the surface level list. I think everybody's seen it by now, but we can watch a little bit of it here in SOT 29. Do you think you need any of those 40% of California voters to win? And you're saying, no, you don't. No, I'm saying, I'm going to try to win every vote I can. And what I'm saying to you is that well, to those voters. Okay, so you. I don't want to keep doing this. I'm going to call it. Thank you. Jesus. You're not going to do the interview with us. Nope, not like this. I'm not. Not with seven follow-ups to every single question you ask. Every other
Starting point is 00:58:59 candidate has answered. I don't care. I don't care. I want to have a pleasant, positive conversation, which you ask me about every issue on this list. This is news, ma'am. And if every question, you're going to make up a follow-up question, then we're never going to get there. And we're just going to circle around. I am an investigative reporter. I have never had to do this before, ever. You've never had to have a conversation with a reporter. Okay, but every other candidate has done this. What part of, I'm me, I'm running for governor because I'm a leader. I don't want to have. I'm a leader. I'm a leader. I'm a leader. happy experience with you. And I don't want this all on camera. I don't want to have an unhappy
Starting point is 00:59:33 experience with you either. Ladies, this is news. It's the vast majority of experiences will be unpleasant and unhappy. That's so crazy. Like, that whole exchange was so insane to me. You know, I'm not a politician, but as someone who works in media, as someone who openly shares her opinion, of course, I'm going to find myself in hostile environments, in hostile conversations and debates. I literally in the middle of a debate this year had a tampon thrown at me by a man. And I did not. I didn't run away from the debate because look, your little stunt, whatever, I'm going to ignore it. I'm here to debate the substance. So this was an opportunity for Katie Porter to show that she is a strong leader, a woman of substance. It is hilarious to me that she
Starting point is 01:00:21 referred to herself as a leader. As she was threatening to run away from a, from, from, a conversation from an interview. It's crazy. I'm a leader. I'm a leader. It's crazy. So you know I'm a leader or is I run. It was so... Leaders don't run. No. And they don't call themselves leaders. I mean, like, that's the thing, right? Like, they don't run around saying, I'm a leader. I lead. What, that's what I do. People follow and they lead. And when I lead. Here's a little bit more from that same new interview with NextStars inside California politics happened Tuesday. It's not 28. So this is your first time speaking publicly since the now two viral videos.
Starting point is 01:00:57 What do you want people to know about you? And do you have the temperament to be the next governor of California? When I look at those videos, I want people to know that I understand that I could have handled things better. I think I'm known as someone who's able to handle tough questions, who's willing to answer questions. And I want people to know that I really value the incredible work that my staff can do. I think people who know me know I can be tough. But I need to do a better job expressing appreciation for the, amazing work that my team does.
Starting point is 01:01:29 Okay, so let's, can we just spend a minute discussing all the ways in which that was ineffective? Like, there's not an authentic thing about one word she spoke, right? That's not how an authentic truth teller speaks. They would just be much more casual. Those are rehearsed, written down lines that her team has given to her. And it's just obvious. It's obvious if you're like a media personality like you and I are, or if you're a civilian at home, just because your gut will tell you, eh, eh, it's off.
Starting point is 01:02:00 Well, I mean, the problem is her authentic self is what has gotten her in trouble. And so what you're seeing on that screen right now is, you know, Katie Porter trying to kind of suppress who she really is and give people what she thinks they want. Just calm, I'm going to be calm, I'm going to be calm. Like, as I watch that exchange, you're right, it doesn't come across as authentic because it seems like she's trying to convince herself to not lose it, to remain calm. And again, because of all of this drama over her behavior, it gives Californians less of an opportunity to learn about her substance or lack of substance, right? And so, look, I've been talking about this very, very vocally. I've been very vocal about the situation on the ground in California.
Starting point is 01:02:51 we're in a lot of trouble. You know, liberals get really upset when one of their own or someone center left calls this out, but it needs to be called out because people in the state are suffering. We pay the highest taxes. Jobs are leaving the state at record numbers. People are suffering. We have a housing crisis that hasn't been adequately dealt with. Crime has gotten a little better, but the fact of the matter is we have overcrowded prisons because our governor decided to prematurely shut down four of our state prisons, which is honestly the big story that gets ignored. The reason why so many people get let out early when they're violent criminals, the reason why so many repeat offenders never see a prison cell is because we don't have any
Starting point is 01:03:36 room for them. And that is a disaster that was created by Gavin Newsom, a Democratic governor. So I want to know, what is Katie Porter going to do about that if she wins this election? Now, I don't think she's going to win this election. But, you know, when I look at this race, I really don't know if there's anyone running who can adequately address the very serious issues that we have in the state. Steve Hilton's running out there as a Republican. I mean, last I checked, Katie Porter was number one and he was number two. So it's not like your typical race in which he'd have no chance.
Starting point is 01:04:11 I guess it's not really a Democrat primary we're looking at right now. You guys vote for governor in a weird way out there, right? It's like, I don't know. You kind of shake up all the puzzle pieces in whichever top two are standing, those are the two that go against each other. Well, yeah. And what I'm curious about is whether Rick Caruso,
Starting point is 01:04:30 who ran for mayor in Los Angeles and was, you know, beaten by Karen Bass, if he's going to put his, you know, name in the race because I actually think he has, in the mayoral race, he provided very detailed plans to address the series. issues in Los Angeles. And, you know, there were some rumors that he was considering a gubernatorial running California. I would actually like to see that, to be honest with you, because I want to
Starting point is 01:04:57 see what his possible solutions could be on a state level as opposed to just a Los Angeles city level. I'm sure you, along with most Californians, are feeling forlorn about the fact that Kamala decided not to go for the top job in the state, given her political prowess, which has been on full display as she promotes her book, 107 days. She most recently went on with Kara Swisher. And Swisher seemed to be asking her why wasn't 107 days enough time. And you tell me whether you can figure out what the answer is here in SOT 21. But for example, I discuss in the timeline, we had policy work to do that was about letting people know where I stood on the fact that I wanted to make sure that, for example, it was my intention. And I know there are a lot of beautiful public servants
Starting point is 01:05:57 here today, some of who are not, have been let go over the last several months and some of who are furloughed. And I thank you all for your service and everything that you do. And if we can just applaud those who are here. But, for example, one of the things that I intended to do was as the president, we then have the largest workforce, right, is the federal government. And I intended to figure out a way to reclassify job descriptions by skill, not just by college degree. I just tried to write it down. It was my intention. For example, lots of public policy.
Starting point is 01:06:47 Ben laid off, applaud. One of the things I intended to do, we have the largest workforce. This is so classic Kamala, where she uses so many words to say absolutely nothing. I don't know what happened to her. Because even if you disagree with her politics, she used to be able to speak, right? I mean, am I misremembering? Because I remember during...
Starting point is 01:07:13 She was like a rising star when she became AG in California. There was all this buzz around this like next-gen rising star. But I never really bothered to kick the tires back then because it was state politics. Yeah, that's a good point.
Starting point is 01:07:25 I mean, one of the, I guess, national issues that she was involved in as senator was the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. Now, put the substance of those hearings aside for a minute. regardless of where you stood on Brett Kavanaugh. When she was grilling him,
Starting point is 01:07:41 she came across as someone who was able to speak, someone who was able to ask difficult questions, someone who was able to get her point across pretty quickly. I don't know how you rise to the level of a prominent prosecutor, you know, and don't know how to make an argument, don't know how to just speak concisely, clearly, directly. I don't know. I just feel like, especially during the Biden administration, something happened with her.
Starting point is 01:08:09 I don't know if she's just nervous. I don't know if she's on Xanax. It sounds like she's on some sort of prescription drug, right? She slurs a little bit. Often. She doesn't, yeah, she doesn't make her point clearly. So I don't know. I don't know what's going on with her.
Starting point is 01:08:24 I'm just really happy she's not running for governor of California. You raise an interesting point because I will tell you some of that is familiar to me as like from my Fox years, because when I first started off as an anchor, you'd say things on the air, you know, you'd do an interview. I wasn't in the business of giving my opinion back then. I was a straight news anchor there. But, you know, well, like all of Fox, you're a little on the edge, even when you're on the straight news side. So, you know, you'd kind of go there a little bit, but not too much. But anyway, you learned fast that you'd get your hand slapped hard by all of the media if you said things they didn't like.
Starting point is 01:09:02 And of course, on Fox, you did that a lot. And so there was a point in my career in which I felt like I'd been so battered by like, oh, I can't say that. And I can't say the other thing because I'm going to get battered by the press. And I still am in this place in my career where that matters to me. Like, I seem to care what the left wing press, meaning the press says about me.
Starting point is 01:09:20 So I remember sounding something like that. It was never quite as bad as she is. But like, every phrase had to be qualified, had to be a catchphrase. If you said something bold, you had to quickly follow it up with something that, suggested, but I don't really mean it. And I understand I need to qualify it because you're so battered by, you know, you want to be loved. And eventually, of course, I got past that.
Starting point is 01:09:40 Thank God, while I was still at Fox and certainly now. And then you can be a clear, honest communicator. But I almost see somebody who's got that handicap where it's like, I'm going to get in trouble there and there. And also I got, and then you, they disassemble. Yeah. You know what? You make a really good point. And for anyone, who's in the public eye and who wants to be admired and validated by everyone, you are digging yourself into a hole. You just have to be yourself and you have to be authentic and you have to expect that you are going to have views and say things that one group or another is just not going to like. But what people appreciate, and this is like one of the best things about
Starting point is 01:10:24 Americans, they love authenticity. I think that's actually what was appealing about Donald Trump when he first ran in the Republican primary in 2015, right? He said all sorts of things that people didn't like, but they knew he was actually telling them what he really thinks. And that authenticity in the environment of all these fake politicians was very appealing. When you look at members of the Democratic Party right now, they have not gotten that message yet, save for a few people. And look, even on the Republican side,
Starting point is 01:10:56 you have someone like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, who is saying things that are considered like sacrilege when it comes to the Republican Party. But she is garnering a lot of positive attention from rank and file Republicans, but also people who are center left who are like, oh my God, I totally agree with her on what she's saying here. Maybe there's a way to work together.
Starting point is 01:11:21 For the first time in my adult life, I'm seeing opportunities for people on both sides of the political aisle to work together for a common cause. And that's a wonderful thing. But I think the establishment, the Democratic establishment, is still very much in the mindset of everything as a left versus right paradigm.
Starting point is 01:11:39 There are enemies because they identify as Republicans and we're never going to give them credit when they agree with us on things. We're going to continue feeding into division and divisive rhetoric. And I think rank and file Americans, ordinary American voters are sick of it. So we'll see how this plays out.
Starting point is 01:11:57 the effort to lower the cost of prescription drugs. That was the one thing I really wanted to talk to you about because you were on the show like a year ago saying, why isn't anybody doing anything about this? And then Trump actually said, I'm actually going to try to do something about this. And I was waiting for the chorus of leftist to be like, actually, this is great.
Starting point is 01:12:13 You know, this is good. This is a step in the right direction. No, it didn't happen because of the TDS. But wait, something you just said reminded me something. Katie Porter, you were right that her authentic self is not that likable. but you're also right that you fail if you're not authentic. So, like, I think Katie Porter actually probably would have done better if she had come out and said,
Starting point is 01:12:36 the woman was annoying. Let me tell you how that exchange was built to me. They said it's going to be 10 straight questions, and everyone just gets to ask these 10 straight, and I thought I'd do it. You know, she was mildly antagonistic. Go look at the interview. I think you can give me that point. And, you know, I was annoyed.
Starting point is 01:12:52 I do a lot of these interviews. She was fucking annoying, and I'm not sorry. No. Like, she probably would have been so much better off as she did that. I have to agree with you. Yeah. I actually think that is the case. The fact that she became defensive, apologetic. Now, look, I don't think that would convince all of her critics to then support her, you know, after those videos came out after that interview was a complete utter disaster for her. But I do think that for those who are kind of on the fence, seeing her be apologetic as opposed to defend herself. I think worked against her. It is true. We're just living in that culture right now. If I had been Katie Porter, the video where she's telling the staffer,
Starting point is 01:13:35 you're in my fucking shot, get in my fucking shot. I think I would have said if I were Katie Port, I would have been like, she was in the shot. I don't know how to explain TV to you, but it's a hard no. I'm doing a taped piece with Kathleen Sebelius. Your staff should know. Do not get in the shot and really don't get into the shot to correct something I've just said. so yeah, it was irritated. And when I'm irritated, sometimes I use the effort. And too bad if you don't like it. Don't vote for me if you don't like that. It's the least of what you'd hear from Donald Trump behind the scenes. You know, like something like that if I were Katie, Katie Brown. That would have been so much better than this fake act of like, I'll do better. And I've told my staff that it's like everyone know she's going to yell at her for an on an ongoing basis. The staff is terrified of her. They're all leaking to every publication about how awful she is. Might as well just lean in. Just be like, eh, this is. is me. Yeah. I mean, again, I don't think it'll convince everyone, but it would probably work better than how she has handled this. You just reminded me of this moment. It's actually a pretty viral video from Trump's first term. He's in the Oval Office. He's about to be interviewed. And I think it was George Stephanopoulos. He was coughing, like off screen, off camera. And Trump didn't curse him out or anything, but he said something a little curt, you know, just basically like, can we do something about this? Like, you know, And it was hilarious. It was funny, right?
Starting point is 01:14:57 And so he never apologized for it. He never really made a big deal about it. And it was just a human moment of a prominent politician. You can maybe spin it that way. But again, it goes back to the issue of, are you a savvy and crafty political figure? And I just don't think that Katie Porter serves that role at all. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:15:22 She just kind of projects hot mess. that's part of her problem. Yeah, there was that one Trump interview when he was just civilian Trump, businessman Trump, many years ago on Larry King where he's sitting across from Larry King in that CNN studio
Starting point is 01:15:34 with like the highlight, you know, like the game highlight where you put the pegs in the wall and they light up, light bright, that's what it was. It looks like a light bright display behind him. And Trump goes, oh my God, your breath is terrible.
Starting point is 01:15:46 You have really bad things. Oh, I remember that. Oh, my God. You know, it's not nice, but it was a human moment. Yeah, and I think, again, most Americans are just so sick of fake politicians. They really are. So if you can take a moment that maybe doesn't look great for you and spin it as, this is me,
Starting point is 01:16:08 I'm being authentic, I'm human, you have your human moments too. I think that's probably the best way of, you know, wiggling your way out of a bad situation. That's what she should have. She should have been like, she shouldn't have been in the shot. now it wasn't the nicest language to be honest that's how i talk i talk that way to everyone i talked that way to the people i love the i don't like whatever but this this little act of like i'm actually a polyana and those were just a couple of weird random bad moments but i won't swear off on there being no more videos because i damn well know there are it's not working okay let's keep going there's
Starting point is 01:16:43 one more kamla sot um this one seems to be a reference to the they're eating the dogs they're eating the cat's moment at that one debate between Kamala and Trump. Here we go. The debate, look, I mean, okay, so part of it is, so what happened was. Oh, God. Oh, no. The cat. So, okay, so part of what I do talk about is that, so debate camp, which was really intense, and then we get to, to Philly. And my team, team and it's Kirsten Allen who many people here may know and Brian Fallon and they're getting me ready and they're like hey boss so we saw Donald Trump coming off the plane coming to the debate and Laura Lumer was on the plane with that no and so they basically say to me we didn't
Starting point is 01:17:41 tell you but she's been talking about people eating cats and dogs they said we think we need to tell you because his propensity is to say the last thing he heard. Oh. And sure enough on the debate stage, he said it. He said it.
Starting point is 01:18:03 I couldn't believe it. Yeah. I was prepped, but not really. Unhinged. Okay. I I mean, look, I'm going to be honest about the fact that the attention to that issue, I think, actually hurt Republicans who were, who had more of a moral high ground on the issue of immigration at that time. And so it gave Democrats something to attack the Trump administration on legitimately at a time when I think, I'm not the Trump administration, the Trump campaign, at a time when I think the Trump campaign actually did have a legitimate. point about what had happened with the border and undocumented immigration under the Biden administration.
Starting point is 01:18:55 You hear what I'm saying? And this is the thing that drives me crazy about like some, not all, but some democratic voters where they will latch on to one lie, right, about people eating cats and dogs to delegitimize a very legitimate issue that various communities across the country were grappling with without any real support or help from the federal government under the Biden administration. So again, I thought that was a bad move by the Trump campaign. That being said, okay, so you got briefed on it. I don't remember her having an incredibly powerful response to Trump's statement there.
Starting point is 01:19:33 No, I think it was the moderators. Right, exactly. The moderators were the ones who, if I remember correctly, weighed in on that. But I think what made Kamala Harris lucky in that one and only debate against Donald Trump was I remember Trump having very. very low energy for whatever reason during that debate. And so I remember conservative voters being upset about that, people thinking that maybe Kamala really has a shot.
Starting point is 01:19:57 But then after that debate, things really fell apart for her campaign because she didn't really know what her message was or what she was representing or what she was fighting for. You know, she started off with some economic populism. Then she meets with her brother-in-law, who's an executive over at Uber, and then starts pushing pro-tech policies, pro-corporate policies. And so the base that she had started to abandon her. She read a terrible campaign. Let's just keep it real.
Starting point is 01:20:27 The problem is, like, whether she had points or didn't have points on the dogs and the cats and all that and the memes that were spiked as a result of, or started as a result are one of the most memorable things with all the cats dancing and, like, with Trump is their savior. It's just epic. But the problem is embodied in. the answer, the cackling, the fake accent, she slipped into her street accent there. Show enough. She doesn't talk like that, right? Like, one day she was Puerto Rican, the next she was Indian,
Starting point is 01:20:59 the next she was Latina, then she had her preacher accent. It was like, you don't know who you are. Forget whether I know who you are. You don't know who you are. It's like Sybil, like one, like the movie Sybil, Sally Field all in one sitting with the cackle and the leg, bouncing out of nerves. You know, that's a nervous body response that she's in. And the weird references to the names of the campaign staffers, which no one gives a shit about. Like, that's a stall tactic because she's feeling nervous. All of it, same thing is like media personalities can dissect it and digest it. The civilian consumers at home going, I don't like it. She's not comfortable. She doesn't feel like a strong leader. And I mean, I'll tell you, and I look at her,
Starting point is 01:21:41 I'm like, thank God. We did not get saddled with that woman. Thank God, does anyone think that woman would have accomplished the peace deal that they just signed in the Middle East or anything that Trump has done? I mean, I don't know what her leadership would look like, to be honest with you, because she was VP for four years and I didn't see any leadership from her during those four years at all. In fact, you know, the one area where I think Biden kind of set her up to fail, quite frankly, as the immigration czar, it was a disaster for her. I mean, it was subversive. I mean, it was such a disaster that during the 2024 election, the Democrats were pretending like Biden didn't name her the immigration czar. She absolutely was named
Starting point is 01:22:30 that. Come on. She went to Guatemala and basically her big play was to tell people, do not come. Well, they didn't listen. Okay. The world didn't listen. And so, you know, to your point about the way that she presents herself and how she does do a little bit. of code switching. But to be fair, I see a lot of politicians who engage in that. The problem with that is it's more identity politics theater as opposed to real, substantive, detailed solutions to problems that Americans at that time especially were really suffering from, right? So immigration was a problem. In fact, poll after poll after poll indicated that the vast majority of Americans had that as one of their policy priorities, along with the
Starting point is 01:23:17 cost of living. And so if you don't have a real policy that you're going to promote as part of your campaign and you're just going to lean into more of the identity politics, I got, I got some news for you. Like, American voters are sick of that. They're sick of the theater. They need real solutions. And I think that Trump did run on policy proposals, what he wants to do, whether it's the tariffs, immigration, you know, cost of living situation, not looking very great right now under the Trump administration. But at least he paid attention to it during his campaign, whereas with the Harris campaign or even the Biden campaign, there was this weird, stubborn way of promoting something that
Starting point is 01:24:03 didn't exist, which was supposedly a great economy. It wasn't a great economy. Yeah. You can't keep pointing to the GDP. Exactly. No, and it was like, don't believe your lying eyes. Believe my words. And we were like, you're so right, though, about that moment with the cats and the dogs. If she had pivoted that to, okay, that's not happening. But you know what? The underlying issue is a real one. And I haven't
Starting point is 01:24:26 been in the top job for these past four years. But let me tell you what I would do about the southern border because it does need to be closed. We do need to. People are suffering. And there has been too much migration into the United States legal and illegal. And here's what I'll do. She's not capable of it. She would have answered all the questions of that campaign differently if she were capable of that. Anyway, it was the first time my ever life I actually felt for Kara Swisher. It's one and done. I'll move on quickly, back to loathing her. All right, stand by. We have to take a quick break, but we will be back. There's a lot more to discuss. I'm dying to get Anna's take on what's happening with Barry Weiss already over at CBS. Stand by.
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Starting point is 01:28:20 Here with me today, Anna Kasparian, she's host and executive producer of the Young Turks. So Anna, Michelle Obama has a podcast, and near as I can tell, she devotes some 90% of it to telling us why she can't stand Barack Obama. Wait, she has a podcast? She does. No one is watching it. Yeah, literally, I think we are the only ones who watch it. Oh my gosh, I didn't know that. That's amazing.
Starting point is 01:28:48 Yeah, she has a podcast. And all she does is rip on her husband. I mean, truly, every show has got a new update on how she can't stand him. The latest was she cannot stand watching him chew at the dinner table. And, like, her blood is boiling as she sits across him like, I want to smack his face for the chewing. She doesn't like motherhood. She's like zero to 13.
Starting point is 01:29:12 We're traumatic and horrible. Meanwhile, that's basically all of motherhood. You know, it's like all you have after that is high school. And now here she's out. Again, honestly, you can't stop her. Every single episode, there's something more. Here was the latest that just happened yesterday. We're doing all the college stuff.
Starting point is 01:29:29 I'm, you know, making her bed because whenever they went to camp or somewhere, I said, I'll make your bed once and I'll make it really neat and nice. And then that's it. you. Got her room all set up. You could tell Barack was totally clueless. He didn't know where to be. We gave him a lamp from IKEA and said, put it together. Here, you take this box. You put it together. There was nothing to put together. But he was over there with his lamp for like two hours. We had to get in this motorcade and leave the baby behind, you know, and to watch her standing at that restaurant, ugh, waving goodbye. So I'm crying.
Starting point is 01:30:05 Yes. rockets in the car. You know, we're driving back to the Air Force One in the motorcade. You know, we're a little quiet, and I hear this. That was literally the sign. I had to look over and be like, the agents are like, sir, are you okay? And he's like, it's like, just, man, just do it. Just cry. Let it go. Okay. I'm sorry, but she never misses a chance to try to emasculate him. or make him look like a doofus.
Starting point is 01:30:39 You know, there's a complaint among many conservatives, Anna, that, like, I've heard them rip on the show Modern Family, which I love. I think it's hysterical. It's so funny. My family watches it all the time. But I accept the legitimate criticism that the thing that some conservatives don't like about it is they make Phil Dunphy, the patriarch of the whole family, an absolute moron. You know, he looks weak and dumb and really in no way like us.
Starting point is 01:31:05 strong, you know, male role model. He's a loving, sweet guy who's a doofus. And honestly, she tries so hard to make Barack Obama go from, like, this towering figure. And it's well past, like, oh, we'll be a little self-deprecating so people can relate to us. It's every episode, something insulting about him. And never the opposite. He can't even put together the IKEA lamp. The imitation of the way he sounded while he was crying, like an intimate family moment that she now wants to repeat in front of the national audience. I'm telling you, she loathes him it's really clear i she has also the the casual references to air first one and the motorcade and the secret service just last week she was bitching about how famous she is
Starting point is 01:31:48 and how she can't stand it she doesn't like going out to dinner because she's always the topic of conversation of the next table she and baroque but now she just wants to remind us about all the accoutrements around them that make them super special this woman i she gets on my last nerve she's doing a podcast meaning like you're putting yourself out there as a public figure and so I get by the way I totally understand the downsides of being a public figure and how uncomfortable it can be at times but if you want that to kind of fade away you don't do a podcast now I thought I thought she had done like a few episodes of a podcast and I remember seeing that like I don't know last year a few months ago who knows but
Starting point is 01:32:33 I can understand why it doesn't have the viewership that you would expect as someone who's a former first lady. Because think about how Democratic voters really put Obama on a pedestal, right? He's like, in their minds, the ideal Democratic leader. And they have, in their minds, like great memories of the eight years Obama was in charge. And so to listen to a podcast or watch a podcast in which his wife is trashing him all the time, they're not going to appreciate that. In fact, every time we at the Young Turks do a video where we're critical of something Obama has done recently, we always lose subscribers, always, because they don't want to hear it. They want to look back on those eight years and only think of the positives. And again,
Starting point is 01:33:18 having Michelle Obama, the former first lady, you know, insult former President Obama is probably not something that they find very appealing. But what's also interesting is, you know, she had been urged to put her name in the ring. in the 2024 election, and the reporting indicated that she doesn't like it. She doesn't like being in the public eye. It seems like she likes being in the public eye, maybe in a different capacity. Yeah. That's right. Although she's not that much in the public eye because her average video gets between 1,000 and 5,000 views. Yes. That's wild. That is so wild. Man, it's bad. That's bad. I know. My assistant Abigail Feining could start a podcast today and draw
Starting point is 01:34:03 well above that. She's very entertaining and very funny. And she was never first lady for eight years. So that's how it's going over Michelle Obama land. All right, I want to talk about what's happening with Barry Weiss at CBS because it's ridiculous. So Barry Weiss sent out one of those doge kind of emails to the staff at CBS saying, let me know what you do all day. Like what projects are you currently working on? It wasn't quite as aggressive as the Elon one, but it was like, I'm new. I'm the editor-in-chief. Can you send me an email letting me know what projects you're working on and what you're up to? Well, they went in a meltdown over at CBS. It was like, all these meetings had to be called. The union got involved. And now there's
Starting point is 01:34:47 been an official, like they, the union responded to Barry. Exactly. Why do you want this? For what purpose? What will be done with the answers? Will people be subject to do, to discipline or some sort of suspension or punishment if you don't like their answers? It was, so finally the union has assessed the situation, and now CBS had to respond to the union that, okay, you will not be disciplined if you don't respond, that you will not be, this will not be the basis for discipline, discharge, or layoff. And of course, there's also, you don't need to respond at all. You don't have to respond. There's no penalty whatsoever for entirely blowing her off. To me, this is funny because I love Barry, but it's not going to go well. These organizations
Starting point is 01:35:33 cannot be changed from the top down. They can only be changed from the bottom up. And they will never, ever, ever, ever, accept somebody who didn't grow up next to them in the CBS ranks. Ever. You have, and I mean, like, you can't even go laterally. Like, Catherine Harwich went there from Fox News,
Starting point is 01:35:48 who was a very respected reporter on the Intel beat. I mean, completely had her chops. And she was a legit reporter. She could never be dismissed as like some Fox, whatever. No, they didn't accept her. They will never accept. And that's a report. order, never mind an editor and chief who gets helicoptered in. And so this is just to me the first sign of trouble. There will be many. It will probably, in my estimation, last a couple of years before Barry says, F this toxic environment. I'm piecing out of here. But this is sort of chapter one. Your thoughts on it. Okay. I actually have strong thoughts on this. So let me just say that the email asking, you know, what are you working on? I don't find that particularly offensive. In fact,
Starting point is 01:36:33 I'm not represented by a union, but when TYT had hired a president for the first time, this is back in 2016 or 2017, she called everyone into her office because she wanted to get to know them and wanted to get to know what their role is within the company, what they're working on. And I didn't find that threatening in any way. I think the reason why the workers at CBS found it threatening is because of all of the reporting that came out prior to Barry Weiss being brought in. And the Financial Times in particular had noted that David Ellison, after this merger with Paramount Sundance, with CBS and all of that, had said that he was considering purchasing the free press
Starting point is 01:37:17 for a lot of money, by the way. It ended up being $150 million. Originally, there were rumors that it was going to be as much as $250 million. But the financial times had reported that... For a company that was bringing in $15 million a year. So, I mean, the financials were largely inflated. Yes. So I want to get back to that in just a minute. But in regard to David Ellison, the Financial Times reported that he liked that the free press had a pro-Israel bias. And so you have the reporters and some of the workers over at CBS worried that she's going to be brought on specifically to sway the reporting in a way that's more favorable to Israel and not necessarily fair or accurate. So when the entire situation starts from that place, place, it's just, it's really hard to like recover from that.
Starting point is 01:38:07 You get what I'm saying because they're worried that their reputation as reporters, their reputation as a news organization is going to tank as a result of that. But on top of that, look, I also think David Ellison wanted to bring her on because in his mind, this is a way to marry digital independent media to legacy media, which is dying. Let's keep it real. But I'm going to say from my personal experience, you can't make that transition. It doesn't transition well because people who have sworn off corporate legacy media are never going back. They just don't trust it.
Starting point is 01:38:47 They don't trust these institutions. No, I totally agree with you. That's the problem. Like I get what he's trying to do. It's just not possible. You can't, you know, the other patient has expired. And you cannot take like the working brain and working hard. of a still alive person and put them in this corpse.
Starting point is 01:39:06 It just, that's not going to bring them back. They've expired. They've been expired for too long. The window of reviving them has passed. And as talented as Barry is, she's not that talented. No one is. No one can do it. But I also think that, like, I know, trust me, I know, because I've been in television
Starting point is 01:39:24 for a long time. They, I guarantee you are over there saying, she's never even worked in TV. their noses will be turned up as high as humanly possible at the fact that this print reporter and they don't even see Barry as a reporter like opinion, opinion person from the New York Times has the nerve to come over here and try to tell us about editorial at the vaunted CBS news
Starting point is 01:39:54 and she's never even done TV. I guarantee you. Those are the comments that are happening behind this. scenes. And as nice as Barry is and as reasonable and as talented, they're just not open-minded to it. They're jealous. She has it and they don't. And they resent the fact that she got put in this position without having to pay her dues the way they did. I just think they're two completely different forms of media, right? Like, I know that both, whether you're talking about the free press or CBS, they're in the news business to some capacity. But the format on television is not
Starting point is 01:40:30 conducive to informing people, to be quite honest with you. You're so right. Yeah, I mean, like long-form conversations like this, when I think about my own media consumption, and I really like to listen to podcasts or various voices from across the political spectrum, I want long-form. I don't want to go to a commercial break every five minutes. I want to hear what different voices have to say about any particular issue, and I want them to speak at length. You're not going to get that on CBS or ABC, on network news, on cable news. It's just not conducive to a real conversation. I know it's a frustration in watching it now that we're used to this other medium.
Starting point is 01:41:08 When you turn on cable, you're like, what is it? My God, it's so annoying. And you have to be sitting there at a certain time. And you have to sit there and watch the commercials. And of course, the networks all have an agenda that you may or may not know about because they may or may not disclose it. I mean, there's all sorts of handicaps to the forum that have made it irrelevant and obsolete. In any event, I'm still wishing her luck. And I, you know, kind of just feel like take the money and run, do it for a couple of years and then come back to where you belong, which is this free independent lane that has been so valuable to all of us. Anna is one of the pioneers in this space. Thank you so much for coming on. I love talking to you.
Starting point is 01:41:45 Thank you for having me, Megan. All right, to be continued. And we are back tomorrow with our pals from the fifth column. I got a lot of goodness in store for those guys. They better buckle up because we're going to have a fun time together. Love the fifth column. Okay, see you guys. Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show, no BS, no agenda, and no fear.

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