The Megyn Kelly Show - Is Newsom Done? California Recall, with Larry Elder and Caitlyn Jenner | Ep. 155

Episode Date: September 8, 2021

Megyn Kelly is joined by two candidates for California's recall gubernatorial election, radio host Larry Elder and former Olympian and TV personality Caitlyn Jenner, to talk about the state of the race, whether Governor Gavin Newsom will really be recalled, COVID in California, media critiques of Elder and his past comments, the problems with the education system and homelessness in the state, Jenner's family and fame, the "woke" Olympics, and more. Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: Twitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at:https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations. Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show. We are airing live now, five days a week, on Sirius XM Triumph Channel 111. And you will find me here live from noon to 2 p.m. Eastern. We are also making the show available later in the day as a podcast, available on any and all podcast platforms, if that's how you prefer to get your news. And by the way, here's a third option for you. The full show is going to be available at YouTube.com slash Megyn Kelly. All right, so we got you covered.

However you choose to consume your news, it's the future of news programming. On today's show, we have great guests. Larry Elder and Caitlyn Jenner are both here. Both are running for governor of California, trying to boot Gavin Newsom out of his job, and both have a lot of opinions on how to fix their state and what it means for the rest of us. We are going to start with Larry. Here's the situation. California is a blue state. Very, very blue. Just as blue as you think it is. It's even bluer than that. Biden clobbered Trump in California by nearly 30 percentage points. Democrats outnumber Republicans there by nearly two to one. There are five million more Democrats than there are Republicans in that state. No

Republican there holds state office. So it's a blue, blue state. And that leads a lot of people to say, how can a Republican, any Republican, oust a sitting Democratic governor? And that's my first question. Larry, how you doing? And how could any Republican oust Gavin Newsom given the huge advantage that you have as a Dem just by being a Dem in California? Well, Megan, nice to talk to you. You know, I've learned a number of things being a Dem in California. Well, Megan, nice to talk to you. You know, I've learned a number of things being a politician now for six weeks. You lose your voice, you gain weight. And if you look like me and think like me,

the Los Angeles Times calls you the black face of white supremacy. But to answer your question, we have in our constitution a recall, as do I believe around 20 other states. And it allows Californians to say, you've done a bad job. And if a certain percentage of people sign a recall, as do, I believe, around 20 other states. And it allows Californians to say, you've done a bad job. And if a certain percentage of people sign a petition, you can be recalled. This is the second time in about 20 years Californians have done this.

Gray Davis, the previous Democrat governor, was recalled. And so many people are angry, nearly 2 million people that can sign the petition to recall this man, about a third of whom voted for him just two years earlier. Sixty-three percent of Hispanics voted for him two years earlier. Now the majority of Hispanics want him gone. The majority of independents want him gone. And there are many reasons, but most notably, the hypocrisy. He was up at the famous French laundry restaurant, yucking it up with lobbyists, incurring a $12,000 wine tab that taxpayers paid for. But more insultingly, he was sitting there with the very people that drafted the mandates that they were not abiding by.

They were not engaging in social distancing. They were not wearing face masks after just mandating that everybody else do the same thing. His own kids were enjoying in-person private education. And the reason that's important is because in-person education for the kids educated in government schools were denied. Now, before the pandemic, Megan, the quality of the education kids were getting in government schools was already bad. We're near the bottom in test scores of all 50 states. Only about 17 or 18 spend more money per capita than we do.

And before the pandemic, 75 percent of black boys could not read at state levels of proficiency. And those levels are not high. The math scores are even worse. Nearly half of all third graders could not read at state levels of proficiency. Again, math scores worse. And 80 percent of the kids educated in our government schools are black and brown. And I mention their race only because people like Gavin Newsom pride themselves on caring about black and brown people. Well, the number one route to leave poverty to get to the middle class, of course, is to finish high school. And all too often, kids graduating from our urban high schools cannot read, write, and compute at grade level. They're getting ripped off. And what they're

afraid of, why I'm so terrified to them, is because I came from the inner city, I went to a public high school, I know firsthand about the deteriorating quality of public high schools, and I can speak to people in ways that other Republicans have not in the past. So I'm going to break that stranglehold that Democrats have had on black voters and brown voters. And one of the big reasons is going to be because of the issue of school choice. I believe that money should follow the child rather than the other way around. And I'm supporting education savings accounts, which is going to be a ballot initiative probably sometime in November of this year. So the parent can put a child into a charter school, a religious school, a home school, or if they choose, a private school.

And the teachers' union is deathly afraid of that because, of course, the teachers would not be union members and they would not get those automatic dues. So for all those reasons, Californians want Governor Gavin Newsom out. And also, he shut down the state to the point, Megan, where a third of all small businesses are now gone forever. Many of these small businesses owned by, again, Black and brown and Asian American people that Gavin Newsom prides himself on caring about. For the first time in our state's history, and we're 170 years old, Megan, people are leaving California. Middle class people cite the number one reason, the cost of housing. The average price of a home just hit $800,000.

That is anywhere from 150 percent to 250 percent above the national average, largely because the environmental extremists have had a stranglehold over Gavin Newsom and have had a stranglehold over Sacramento the last 20 or 30 years. And there are many other reasons, but those are probably the top two reasons. The way he shut down the state, denied business owners and employees an opportunity to continue their craft, and the way he shut down schools, and the way he ignored science while mandating that everybody else abide by the science he was ignoring. One more thing. He also mandated to wear face masks outdoors. Well, he had his own kids in summer camp not wearing face masks. So it's the hypocrisy that angered so many people. And in my opinion, come September the 14th, we're going to have a brand new governor, and that governor's name is going to be Larry Elder. You lay it out so clearly, Larry. I mean, it's like, so the LA Times in this absurd piece calls

the black face of white supremacy because of comments that you've made because of positions that you have that are that are pretty conservative Republican positions. You know, not even you're not even that conservative. It's more like a libertarian. You don't like a lot of government interference in our lives. of educating his own kids while all these black and brown kids, as you point out, are sitting at home getting no education because of this teachers union that absolutely refused to go back into the classroom for the entire year last year. There was a stunning interview that the head of the L.A. teachers union gave to Los Angeles magazine and Cecily Meyer Cruz. OK, she says, first of all, there's no such thing as learning loss. There's no such thing. So the kids, they didn't miss any learning last year. Well, what does that say about our teachers, first of all? But second of all, it's not true. We know

that's baloney. But she she came out and said, look, you can recall the governor, right? Go ahead and recall the governor. You can recall the school board, but you're not going to recall me. I'm the head of the teachers union. And what she's basically saying is here's here's a middle finger to all the parents out there who think that anything is going to change, even if they put Larry Elder in there, because she's not going to let the dollars follow the children. She's not going to let there be charter schools. She's going to maintain her stranglehold on the California public education system. Well, that's right. And let me read you

the quote from from L.A. magazine, which you just now referred, quote, Our kids didn't lose anything. It's OK that our babies may not have learned their times tables. They learned resilience. They learned survival. They learned critical thinking skills. They know the difference between a riot and a protest. They know the words insurrection and coup. She even went so far as to say learning loss was a fake crisis marketed by those who want to take over the state. the time they were shut down and when black and brown parents were yelling and screaming in the streets, she said, well, we'll consider going back if we have single payer and if we defund the police. What those have to do with K through 12 is beyond me. It's insulting. It's outrageous. And that is why now the majority of Hispanics, again, 63% of whom voted for him just two years ago, now want him gone. They know that they're the ones being disproportionately hurt by the quality of public education. Yeah. And they're they're very worried. The Gavin Newsom campaign is worried about the Hispanic vote,

which more and more seems to be siding with elder. You've got a lot of Latino support because Latinos are not voting just as a voting bloc like we're Democrats and therefore we support Gavin Newsom. And they're worried about pocketbook issues and school issues. And the schooling is just outrageous. Yeah, this this woman last year, I guess not only did they want the things that you listed, they wanted a wealth tax. This is in order to go back into school. They wanted a wealth tax, Medicare for all, a ban on charter schools, of course. And so I just wonder whether people are sick enough of that kind of attitude when it comes to their children, that they'll do something crazy in the eyes of blue California, which is bounce out the Republican, I mean, bounce out the Democrat from office. Here are the stats. You tell me what I should make of these. The latest poll, it's called Public Policy Institute of California. This is, I guess, very well respected out there. It typically underestimates the Dems in polling. They say 58% say they're going to vote no on recall, which would save him. They say the odds are overwhelmingly against you. And this is a poll that I guess it understated Democrat support in the 2020 presidential race by three points and California gubernatorial race by 11 percentage points. So why should we believe you can still do this?

Well, not too surprisingly, I don't buy that. We also have our own internal polling, which shows the pro-recall side versus the anti-recall side is within the margin of error. And on the who will replace him side, I'm far, far ahead of my Republican rivals. So I'm not worried about that, but I am worried about the first part. And it's my job in the waning days of this campaign to remind people of why nearly 2 million people signed that petition. I've already talked about the way he shut down the state. We talked about the decline in the quality of public education when his own kids were enjoying in-person private education. We have not talked about the rise in crime. Crime is up. Violent crime is up in Oakland, in San Francisco,

in Los Angeles, in San Diego, in LA, where I am, Megan. Shootings and homicides are up 41%. And that is up from the year before, which was also up, largely because during the coronavirus pandemic, under this governor, 20,000 convicted felons were released early, many of them violent offenders. And based on history, the majority of them are likely to reoffend. Just the other day in Oakland, Barbara Boxer, the former senator, was mugged. Her cell phone was taken. And a few days earlier than that, the Oakland police chief complained about money being diverted from his police department because of this defund the police movement. We also have two soft on crime DAs. One is in San Francisco, one is in Los Angeles, and Gavin Newsom's fingerprints are on both of them. The one in LA is named George Gascon.

He's facing a recall election. So is the one in San Francisco. And his name is George Gascon, rather. And Gavin Newsom appointed him police chief of San Francisco, appointed him DA of San Francisco, and then supported him when he became a DA of Los Angeles. And both these DAs support cashless bail, meaning if you're a bad guy, you have a court date and you don't show up for your court date, there are no real consequences.

And so for all these reasons, crime is going up. And disproportionately, the victims of crime are the very Black and Brown and Asian American people, again, that people like Gavin Newsom claim that they care about. And the price of a home in California, Megan, is just at $800,000. That is anywhere from 150% to 250% above the national average, depending upon what study you read. That is why middle-class people are average, depending upon what study you read. That is why middle class people are leaving, working class people are leaving. And when they do leave, the number one reason they cite is they cannot afford the price of a home. So declining quality of schools, crime up, can't find a home.

And the way this guy hypocritically imposed mandates, he didn't violate themselves. It's my job to remind people of all of that. Plus bad forest management. We have five seasons here in California now, Megan. The fifth one is now fire season because of the poor management of our forests. We also have rolling brownouts because of the poor way we've been investing in our energy grid, forcing utilities to depend upon weather-dependent, unreliable so-called renewables like wind and solar and underinvesting in our power grid. There's no front where this man, in my opinion, has done an acceptable job. $30 billion were stolen from our education development department. This is the department that's supposed to administer unemployment benefits for the very people in California who couldn't go back to work. A million people were waiting for their unemployment checks, while $30 billion were given to criminals who applied for

unemployment benefits from San Quentin and criminals who applied for California unemployment benefits from Nigeria. I'm not making this up. $30 billion. I did not know that. Well, so you tell me then, Larry, why, given all those things you just listed, why does it appear that the early vote is going for him? Now, that's not atypical that the Democrat would get more in the early vote because the Republicans tend to go day of. But this is what I read. 6.4 million ballots have been turned in as of Tuesday, yesterday. The Democrats accounted for more than half, according to the L.A. Times, Republicans just under a quarter. The the guy who heads up the data collection firm who looked at this said the higher the turnout, the greater Newsom's chances are of staving off this recall, given the way the state's voter registration goes. He said the Democrats needed a one point three million ballot cushion going into Election Day. They currently have one point eight four million more ballots returned than Republicans.

So those are not good numbers. It seems like you need a huge Republican surge on Election Day. How do you get that? Well, I guess I have a couple of responses. Just because Democrats turned in their ballot doesn't mean they vote for Gavin Newsom. You know, I'm on the campaign trail. I've been on the campaign trail for for six weeks. I cannot tell you how many Democrats have come up to me and told me you're the first Republican I'm voting for because I am fed up. You know, this rise in homelessness doesn't have a party. The rise in the cost of living in California doesn't have a party. The decline in the quality of public schools doesn't have a party. So I think did you just get a former The decline in the quality of public schools doesn't have a party. So I think a lot of Democrats-

Did you just get a former Democratic leader in the state who endorsed you? What happened? Who was that? It was a woman. Her name is Gloria Romero. And she was a state senator, not just a state senator. She was the Senate majority leader, a Hispanic. And she is very angry about what I said about the schools being shut down and about Gavin Newsom and the teachers' union opposing school choice, which the overwhelming majority of Hispanics want. It was a big deal. She crossed party lines. She's not renounced her party. She still is a registered Democrat, but she has incurred the wrath of the party that she is

still affiliated with because she dared to suggest that she's concerned about the quality of education, concerned about the crime, concerned about the shutdown of a third of all small businesses. Many of them are owned by Hispanics. So for all those reasons, Gloria Romero has crossed party lines and has supported me. But as I was saying, the assumption is just because a Democrat has turned in the ballot, the Democrat's going to vote for Gavin Newsom. I think there's going to be a lot of red faces come September 14th when they add up the ballots. And the other part is what you just now said. Republicans tend to wait later. They don't trust the mail. They'd rather drop off the ballot in person. And so there's going to be a

huge surge over the next several days, I believe, of independents and Republicans turning in their ballots. So there's going to be a lot of surprises come September the 14th, in my opinion. Well, here's something interesting. You know, so I read all those statistics, which I just laid out before you, how what the what kind of advantage the Democrats have in terms of registration, no Democrat holding statewide office and the early vote, how it appears. But you tell me if that were the case, why are both the president and the vice president heading out to California to try to help Gavin Newsom now with less than a week to go in this race? Kamala Harris is there today. She's going to be out there in an hour, a couple hours from now. The president himself

is said to go out early next week. Bernie Sanders cut an ad for Gavin Newsom. They, to me, seem like they're getting a little nervous. Senator Warren cut an ad for him,om, they, to me, seem like they're getting a little nervous. Senator Warren cut an ad for him, too. And in both the Bernie Sanders ad and the Senator Warren ad, none of them said anything like this. Gavin Newsom has done a good job for California. They never came close to saying that. They all said this is a Republican takeover because that's all they got. You can't defend his record on forests. You can't defend his record on water. We're running out of water because we haven't added to our water infrastructure system in any real way in about 40 years when the state was half its size. They can't defend his record on rolling brownouts. They can't defend his record on the economy. We've only recovered about half of our jobs compared to two thirds national average.

They can't defend his record on the quality of schools. They can't defend his record on anything. So all they're doing is saying Republican, Republican, Republican. And I was on CNN recently, and I was identified as a Trump Republican. Nobody calls Gavin Newsom a Hillary or Biden Democrat. You know, I'm a Republican. I haven't voted for a Democrat since 1976. And that was Jimmy Carter, Megan. And I regret that. You learned your lesson. Yeah. So they don't call me a Mitt Romney Republican. They don't call me a George Herbert Walker Bush Republican or George W. Bush Republican. They call me a Trump Republican because they want to federalize this election because they cannot defend his record. They are scared to death. That's where I want to pick up because the press has come out for you. And I heard you, I know you're friends with Dave Rubin. I love Dave, too. And he was saying that he had been a fundraiser with you recently. He was like, this is great. You know, the press is coming after you.

It just means that they see you as a threat. And that is I totally agree with that. But man, they have been so nasty, Larry. The L.A. Times, this woman, Erica D. Smith, can't stand you. She is the one who called you the black face of white supremacy. But it's not just them. It's CNN and some other reporting. And so we're going to get into what the press is trying to do to you. And even Caitlyn Jenner took a shot at you saying you should drop out. She's going to be here later.

So I'll ask you about that in two minutes. Stay with us. Back with me now is California gubernatorial candidate and radio talk show host larry elder larry thank you again for being here all right so erica d smith a diversity writer for the la times was also a social justice correspondent for the sacramento b not surprisingly doesn't like you because she doesn't like any conservative or republican period uh but she calls you the black face of white supremacy. She says you're skinfolk, but not kinfolk. And I ask you whether Erica D. Smith sounds an awful lot like

a racist. Well, you know, I really haven't attacked her for attacking me like that. It's just a silly thing. And it's not even worth, you know, the energy to even have an opinion about it. But some people feel that if you are a black conservative, somehow you're a traitor to the race. By the way, the kinfolk, skinfolk line isn't even original. And I've been called everything from a tax cheat to a woman hater to somebody who waved a loaded revolver at somebody. I mean, almost every day something more ridiculous happens.

And regarding the woman-hating thing, which is interesting, Megan, because when I got into this race, I started to ask myself, now, what kinds of things have you said or done that would come back to haunt you? And I've been on radio for 27 years. Before that, I was in television for about 10 years. And so, I had well over 27,000 hours of radio broadcasting because for the first half of my radio career, I was on four hours a day, not three hours a day. Oh my goodness. I've written a column once a week since April of 1998, roughly 1,200 columns. And out of all the columns, out of all the things I've ever said, this is the best that they've ever come up with. And regarding the woman-hating thing, I wrote a column 21 years ago that was published in a number of publications, including a commentary magazine in which I was quoting a study that was done by University of Pennsylvania.

Okay, wait, wait, wait. Let me set it up. Can I set it up? Because I, of course, you know me. I looked into all of it. I'm like, okay, let's see. What do they have against Larry? Because I know Larry.

And Larry's not a sexist jerk. But, okay, let's see what they have. And this is OK. First, they said he once promoted an article encouraging women to be 1950s housewives. I'm like, what's that about? So I go click on it and it says the article attacking you says you can find that Web page by going to the Wayback Machine on the Internet, which finds old articles and then click satire when you get to his website, which will delete deliver you to this article. I'm like, hello, you just owned yourself. He says it's satire when you get to his website, which will deliver you to this article. I'm like, hello, you just owned yourself.

He says it's satire. Okay, so that's number one. Then it says he says women are not as smart as men. I'm like, really? That doesn't really sound like him. I don't know. What is that? What is that about?

So I go back and I search through and I clicked on your original article. I'm like, okay, what did he say? In fact, what I saw was Larry Elder citing an Annenberg study, which was coming out yearly and provided actual data saying women at the time survey did not know as much as as men did about politics in 2000. The studies have been cited and analyzed by many female scholars then and thereafter by name, women whose names I recognized saying, why is this? And they got into sort of the cultural differences and how women consume their news and they blame some local news issues and so on and so forth. You are not the only one, but they make it sound like you're just this

Neanderthal sexist pig who just thinks women are a bunch of dumbasses. That, by the way, is why Caitlyn Jenner said you should drop out and you are not what California wants, let alone what we need. You're as bad as Gavin Newsom, she says, towards women. What do you say to Caitlyn Jenner, who's coming up in about 10 minutes? Well, and she wasn't the only one who said that. Another one of my Republican rivals

also said that I should drop out because of my hatred towards women. It was during a debate and someone said, Larry Elder says women are dumber than men. Well, if Larry Elder had said that, I would respond in the same way that Jenner did. But Jenner didn't read the article that you just now read, and so she simply

responded to what somebody said that I said. That was unfortunate. And by the way, the headline was the she issues, and it turns out in that column I said women care more about Social Security, health care, and education than did men. And I quoted a woman who's still at the Annenberg School. She's a left-wing professor. And she said, the reason for the difference in knowledge is that women primarily get their source from local news and, quote, watching local news makes you dumber, close quote. I didn't say that. She did. And so now, all of a sudden, that's been translated into Larry Elder thinks women are dumber than men. The average IQ of a man is 100. The average IQ of a woman is 100. I've also written that there are more women in college than men, that women, young women make more money now than

young men do. Can you just not, like, don't even defend yourself on those comments to me. I looked at it. They don't have you. They don't have you there. That was a bullshit claim, and people ought to know it was a bullshit claim. I'll ask you about the ones that I actually like. All right. Well, I'd like to love I'd love to hear his response on this one. This was one. OK, San Francisco Chronicle, because the press is coming out. L.A. Times, CNN, San Francisco Chronicle, Politico, they're all coming after you. Not so much on Gavin Newsom. San Francisco Chronicle reported on a section of your 2000 book. Sexual harassment in the workplace doesn't hold women back.

And that you said, smart women simply overlook some boorish behavior by men. Off-color jokes and stupid remarks may be irritating, but a smart woman deals with this. So your thoughts on that now in, you know, 21 years later in the wake of the Me Too movement? Well, I still pretty much feel that way. I think a lot of men say a lot of stupid things at work, and a lot of them should just be ignored. But there's no evidence, in my opinion, that women are being held back by these kinds of stupid comments, particularly in the wake of the Me Too movement. There's less toleration for that. Look, there are more women now in college than men, as I was about ready to say. The numbers of women and men in medical school and in law school are now equal. I think

women are just kicking butt. There are more women CEOs than ever before, more women heads of colleges than ever before, and more women elected to high elected officials, senators and governors than ever before. So, I mean, can we just get off of this? I don't think sexism is a major factor in America life anymore than I think racism is. I'm not saying that they're gone away, but they are relatively minor factors in America. You work hard, bust your butt, invest in yourself, whether you're a male or female, gay or straight. Okay, but let me ask you about the sexual harassment. So you wrote that in 2000. This is since then, Les Moonves was running CBS and at the helm of power out there. So was Harvey Weinstein. You can't honestly say that their sexual harassment and abuse of women in the workplace did not hold them back. I mean, that was pervasive in their respective industries. out. It took a while, but they were purged out. Look what happened to Matt Lauer. Look what happened to a lot of these people that engaged in that kind of behavior. It is not tolerated anymore, nor should it be tolerated anymore. So I still believe that women have just as good a chance as men do in succeeding in life. Are there jerks? Yes, there are jerks. There are also female jerks, too. I just don't believe it's a major factor in America.

Are any party to this conversation? For me? Are any party to this conversation? The present company excluded, of course. a nasty article in Politico and it's citing your ex-fiance. You bring it up. So I'm going to ask you about it. Alexander Dadeg, who says you waved a gun at her while you were high on marijuana. She said you took it out of a out of like an end table and you check to see if it was loaded. She said she was terrified that she ran for her life, that you then pressured her to sign an NDA. She called it a, quote, Phil Spector moment. BS, absolute total BS. I've already responded to that. Beyond that, I won't even dignify it. It's ridiculous. What people don't quote is the letter that was written by Father John Bacchus, who is a priest of a major Greek church here in Los Angeles,

and where she lived, one of the apartments owned by the church. He put out a statement about her and denied that she ever told him anything like this. I urge you to read it. And also, there have been other men and women who've been asked by the LA Times and other people about my character. At least 20, 25 of them have called me and said, I was on for a half hour, 45 minutes, 15 minutes. I talked about your character. I talked about how you've never, ever, ever done anything like that. And all of a sudden you never hear any of these quotes from all these people that the LA Times tracked out. I would say at least 25 or 30 people that I've known for anywhere from 20, 25, 15 years have been contacted by the L.A. Times, all of whom denied knowing or hearing anything like that about me and all of whom vouch for my character. Yet none of those names appear in any of the articles. They're looking for dirt. They're looking for something to smear me because, again, they can't defend Gavin Newsom's record on crime,

on homelessness, on their outrageous cost of living, on the fact that our schools are declining, on his bad forest management, on the rolling brownouts we're having, on the fact that we haven't added to our water infrastructure in about 40 or 50 years, so we're running out of water. The infrastructure was designed for a state half the size. Nobody's defending his record. All they're doing is attacking me and trying to find something to undermine me because they're scared to death. God forbid a blue state like California elects a common sense Republican. And God forbid I should do something about the homelessness problem. Well, it's got to do something about the school, about the schools. And if I make an appreciable difference in the quality of people's lives, they're afraid that people are going to rethink their allegiance to the Democratic Party,

particularly black and brown people. So therefore, I'm a direct threat to them. And I understand that. So that's the thing, because you're a black man from South Central Los Angeles who made your own way in this world. You know, your dad's got a story that belongs in the front page of every newspaper. You're his son. You brought up by a guy raised in the Jim Crow South, the real Jim Crow South, and you're self-made entirely. And now you get accused by a white woman of a crime of abuse. And at the point she accused you, she had never filed a police report or something and so on and so forth. You would think if you had a Democrat after your name, you were going after a sitting white Republican governor. I just I can't help but feel the L.A. Times coverage of

this entire story would look very different. I do want to say that this woman now now she filed a report with the LAPD over these allegations. She was alleging basically a misdemeanor gun violation. They have declined to prosecute, saying even under her allegations, it happened six years ago. It's a one year statute of limitations for a misdemeanor. That's that. Less coverage, again, of Gavin Newsom's affair with his then appointment secretary who was married to his campaign manager. Not to mention everything that went on with Arnold Schwarzenegger and so on, that the California voters seemed fine looking past. I don't know. You tell me, because I feel like it's character assassination and every one of these publications, if it were just the one

woman coming forward, that's one. But everything I read now is trying to come after you as a white supremacist, as a sexist pig, as a as a domestic abuser. I mean, Larry, it's like, does it bother you? It's a lot. No, no. You know, Of course, it's not pleasant to read that stuff. But Megan, when I started to run, I knew it was going to happen. I know how vicious they can be. I know what a threat I am. I undermine the whole narrative that systemic racism is a major problem in America. I undermine the critical race theory narrative. I undermine the reparations narrative. So I am a threat. I've always been a threat. I've been a public figure for almost 40 years now. And all sorts of vicious, nasty things have been said about me, some even more vicious and nasty than some of the ones you

just now mentioned. So I knew that was coming. I was ready for it. You know, I wasn't born yesterday. I've been following politics all my life. I knew it was coming, all because they don't want to face the fact that this man, Gavin Newsom, has trashed California. People are leaving California for the very first time. There's a net migration out of California. It's never happened before. And the rate at which businesses are leaving California in 2021 is twice the rate at which they've left the last three years, and more businesses have left so far in 2021 than have left all of last year. The LA Times doesn't want to deal with that. They don't want to deal with the rise of

homelessness. They don't want to deal with the rise in the cost of living. So let's attack Larry Elder as being, quote, the black face of white supremacy. It's ludicrous, and it's insulting to the people that signed this petition. Nearly two million of them did, and about a quarter of them are independents and Democrats who just voted for him two years earlier. The majority of Hispanics now want him gone, even though 63% of them voted for him two years ago. So this is what's going on. They see the ground shifting underneath them, and they are scared to death. That's why Kamala Harris is coming here. And Joe Biden is coming here. And Warren is coming here. And Bernie Sanders, again, none of them defending Gavin Newsom on the record, all trashing this as a Republican takeover, close quote. Well, let's not forget about Di-Fi, because that's that's the other

thing that's getting a lot of press interest. I mean, that's why one of the reasons they're worried about you and why the National Democrats are worried about this race, because Dianne Feinstein is 88 years old and she could retire at any moment or, God forbid, worse. And the sitting governor of California, if she were not to finish out her term, would have the ability to appoint her replacement. And we have a 50 50 tie in the Senate right now. And the the Democrats can't afford to lose a seat. And the Republicans would absolutely love to gain one. You've tried to make that an issue. They've tried to make that an issue. And that is something that I would think that the Democrats in California would be paying attention

to. OK, can I ask you about this soundbite from Gavin Newsom? Because he decided to weigh in on all of this. To me, he sounds in messaging a little bit like Justin Trudeau of California. But here's what he had to say. Listen, the idea that we have someone on the other side of this ballot that could be sworn in in a matter of weeks that not only doesn't believe a woman has the right to choose, not only doesn't believe, as the senator said, women are as smart as men. By the way, I don't know if you've seen Senator Warren cross-examine folks on Wall Street. Apparently Larry Elder has not. Women are are smarter in politics smarter in civics they're smarter in economics women rule oh my god i meant to say just Canada oh my god larry

i i like the the patronization you know i don't need g Gavin Newsom to tell me I'm smarter than any given man. In his case, it's absolutely 100 percent true. But just the pandering, it's so stomach turning. Sorry, I stole the word. You you tell me what you thought of that. Well, again, he's not talked about his record. He's always just maligned the other side. I've challenged Gavin Newsom to debate. I'd like to hear him defend his record on crime, defend his record on the declining quality of schools, defend his record on how he sat up there at the French laundry restaurant with the people who drafted the mandates while he was not wearing masks, while he was not engaging in social distancing. In 2004, when he ran for mayor of San Francisco, Megan, he promised to deal in the homeless problem in San Francisco in 10 years. That would have been 2014. Have you been to San Francisco recently? And when he became lieutenant governor, he sat around, banged the table and said, I have nothing to do. And I suggested that maybe, just maybe, he might want to fulfill the campaign promise he made in 2004 to address the homeless problem in San Francisco. He's got no record.

He's got nothing to say. All he has to do is call this a Republican takeover and make stupid comments about me. If he really feels strongly about his record, I urge him to debate me. I'll happen to debate him anywhere, anytime, on a stage, in the back of a gym, on a hot air balloon, whenever he wants to set the terms, let's debate. He wouldn't do that because it would mess up his hair. What about the other thing that they're throwing at you is a comment you made to Candace Owens, our mutual friend, saying slave owners should have been the ones getting reparations, should be the ones getting reparations or whatever for the loss of their property. This has got the LA Times upset. I mean, to me, I listen to him like it's classic Larry. He loves to be provocative in a humorous way. But you tell me whether you stand

by the statement that slave owners should have been given reparations for the loss of their property. Again, what that has to do with all the issues facing California is beyond me. But as I recall, I was talking about reparations in general. And I think what I was saying was one of the reasons there was no civil war over slavery in the UK is because slave owners, those who were running slave trade, were given, quote, reparations, close quote, for the taking of their property. And it's all I said. And I said, really want to play this game. Yeah, it's true. If you really want to play this game about reparations, we ought to be getting reparations from African chieftains who sold Africans en masse to Arab and European slavers. We can have this kind of cross-migration of money all over the place because slavery,

unfortunately, has been a feature of human history since the very beginning. Asians enslaved Asians, Europeans enslaved Europeans, Africans enslaved Africans. Unfortunately, that's been a feature of human history. And that's all I was saying. But what would that have to do with why schools are bad in California? What that has to do with why we're running out of water in California? What that has to do with why a third of all small businesses in California have been shut down because this man ignored science is beyond me. Again, it's a distraction because they cannot defend his record. Well, it's a distraction because they cannot defend his record.

Well, it's back to this LA Times columnist who I mentioned who doesn't like you, who says, this is a quote from her, I do believe a wealthy white man, she means like Newsom, will do less damage to black Californians than elder, a black man who rose from poverty. And they cite comments like that, you know, whatever happened in Europe, whatever happened in other parts of the world, what happened in this country was white people enslaved black people. And, you know, it's caused massive damage to the psyche, to the black descendants of slaves and so on. And they hear a comment like that and think you're insensitive to that plight. Well, one more time, what any of that has to do with any of the issues that we're talking about is beyond me. Michael Medved, my colleague at Salem, said that only 5% of white people today have any sort of generational connection to slavery. We had a

war over the abolition of slavery. A whole bunch of white people lost their lives, lost their limbs in order to end slavery. It is over right now. Slavery is ended. There's something called the 13th Amendment. Maybe you've heard about it. It's done. Can we move on now? What we need to do is make sure our schools are strong. What we need to do is make sure our streets are safe. What we need to do is make sure that people have jobs in this increasingly competitive economy of ours. That's what we ought to be talking about. And they don't want to talk about that for all the reasons that I mentioned. They're scared to death. If California, a blue state, elects a common sense Republican like Larry Elder, and if I can make an appreciable improvement in

people's lives, then people all over the country are going to rethink their attitude toward the Republican Party and rethink their allegiance toward the Democratic Party. And that's what they're afraid of. And I don't blame them. Man, you're so smart. My gosh, the amount of information you have is just it's it's lethal. It's scary for people to be your opponent. That's why he doesn't want to get on a debate stage with you, Larry. I would love to see it. But listen, OK, we have less than a week left and people are going to have to show up on the GOP and independent side and Dem side if they want you. So in 30 seconds or less, your closing message to those who are listening to this. My closing message is please go to electelder.com because my opponent has raised already about $75

million. He's going to outspend me by a factor of almost 10 to 1 from the usual suspects, the teachers union, the public sector unions, Hollywood, and big tech. So I'm urging people to vote, vote now, vote yes on the recall, make sure you sign your ballot. If you don't trust the mail, you can track it online, or you can drop it off at a voting center. And then on the replacement side, of course, I want you to vote for Larry Elder. But remember why 2 million people signed that petition, because of the rise of crime, because of the way he shut down the economy, because only half of our jobs have now been recovered pre-pandemic level versus two-thirds of jobs nationwide, that people are leaving for the first time, that our forests are being mismanaged, that our water infrastructure system is being

mismanaged, that we're having rolling brownouts. For all those reasons, just remember, this man has been utterly, utterly incompetent. He was born on third base, thought he hit a triple. I'm from the hood. My dad came here without two nickels to rub together after the war and rose from poverty to the middle class by working hard and by investing in himself and by not believing he's a victim. The Democrats want black people and brown people to think of themselves as victims. I'm a unifier. I'm going to bring people together and I'm going to make California a better, I'm going to restore the California dream for the 40 million Californians who are here, half of whom have said, Megan,

that they've considered leaving the state. All right. Larry Elder, always a pleasure. We're going to be watching over the next week. You got it. Thank you so much for having me. All right. And up next, Caitlyn Jenner. When she announced her candidacy, she was attacked by the left, of course, but she also touched off an important debate within the Republican Party, especially for some conservatives like Candace Owens. We're going to ask her about it. Plus, our phone lines are open. You got a question about my time at Sirius, my time at Fox News, about cancel culture, about the collapsing, dishonest, disgusting media? Give us a call at 833-44-MEGYN. That's 833-446-3496. Welcome back to The Megyn Kelly Show, everyone. Here with me now,

Caitlyn Jenner, gubernatorial candidate out in California as well. She's a Republican, and she's on the Larry Elder side of the ticket trying to get Gavin Newsom booted out. If a majority of Californians answer yes to that question, do you want Newsom gone? Then they vote on the Republicans who are on the other side or the candidates who are on the other side and figure out which one of those folks should take over. Caitlin is one of them. Caitlin, such a pleasure to have you here. Thanks for being with me. Megan, I haven't seen you in a while. We haven't talked.

It's a pleasure to be with you again. Aw, thank you so much. All right, so let me start with this, because I just had Larry Elder, and he's leading the pack on the GOP side as the most likely, if there's a recall, to win. The latest numbers on you were not so good. It showed you polling

at just 1%. So do you think you still have a chance? Well, put it this way. The polling has been all over the place. Just like a week or two ago, another poll had me in second place. And so it's been all over the place. So to be honest with you, I really don't worry about the polls. I have started this campaign months and months ago. And for the last almost month, I have been all over this state. My campaign has been about talking to the people. I've been the homeless issue down in ground zero in California for the homeless issue is Venice Beach. I've been down there speaking with the local people, finding out what we can do. The programs that they're doing, they're actually doing a very good job right now in Venice Beach. The sheriff's department came in and a homeless person's one of their first contacts they're going to have is going to be with law enforcement. And they've been on the ground there working really hard and do an amazing job with Alex Villanueva's, they have a host program, they call it, and doing a wonderful job. You know what?

Gavin Newsom has never been to Venice Beach. I was shocked. He's never come here. Look what's happened as far as the homeless issue in San Francisco, his former city. The homeless issue, he has spent about 13 billion dollars on the homeless issue over the last few years. And has it gotten any better? Not at all. It is only gotten worse. Why has that happened? Gavin Newsom is about special interests. He's about nonprofits. These nonprofits have taken this money and about 90% of the money goes to the nonprofit. Very high salaries, a lot of employees, only about 10% actually goes to helping the homeless. And plus the nonprofits are not interested in solving the homeless crisis. Why?

Because if they do, they're going to be out of a job. I want the taxpayer in California to get a good return on their investment. And right now, as far as the homeless issue is concerned, they're getting a horrible return on their investment. If you take the host program, the sheriff's department's program in Venice, all they have is one lieutenant, one sergeant and three deputies, and they work that beach. That is a good return on your investment. We have to take a more aggressive look at the homeless issue. It's a hot mess out there. But let me ask you too about the teachers unions, because that's another problem, right? They take all this money and they negotiate away the students' rights. They don't care about the students at all. It's all about lining the teachers' pockets. The teachers just got a huge increase in their budget. The budget for students, individual students, allegedly for them, went up 69 percent versus two years ago. But the students aren't going to see any of it. It's all going to be new,ires that'll go into the teachers' union, making them more

powerful. So what do you do about that if you're elected? You know what? I thought about that. When I first thought about doing this, I said, oh my God, I'd have to go up against the teacher's union. And that's kind of a tough job, very powerful organization. And then I thought back, you know what? When I first came to California in 1973, I came here to surround myself with some of the greatest athletes in the world. And I did. And I took on the biggest athletic machine in the world, the Soviet Union. And you know what? Me and my friends and we trained hard and outworked them and we beat the Soviet Union. And I thought, if I can do that, you know what? I can go to Sacramento. I can surround myself with really, really good people and I can take on the teacher's union. But this time I want to win for your kids. We need to change our education system in this state.

I am for school choice. I am for charter. I am for charter schools. I am for private schools. And also I'm a big advocate of technical schools. Not every kid should go to college. They spend an awful lot of money. And then when they get out, they wind up working at McDonald's. It isn't right. What we need is really good technical schools. Now the budget is $80 billion for schools in California, plus about another $10 billion with local and city funds. And the problem is that money doesn't follow the student. All right, wait, let me stand you by there. Forgive me, because we've got to squeeze in a quick break. But we're going to pick it back up with Caitlin on the other side.

We're going to talk about how the left ruined the Olympics. Don't go away. Back with me now, Caitlyn Jenner. Caitlyn, I'm embarrassed to admit to you during the break, I said to my staff, does anyone know what's in the decathlon? And we came up with 10 events. Can you help us? Yeah, if they want to learn about the decathlon, Netflix just recently, about a month ago, came out with a show called Untold. It's kind of the Untold stories. One of the best documentaries I've ever seen on that performance way back then. Footage I had never even seen before. And it's really, really, really well done. I saw you talking about it saying,

well, you were talking, this is a whole other subject, but you were saying when you see the old you, that version of you, Bruce Jenner, winning the decathlon, winning the gold medal, that that was a character you created to sort of deal with some of your gender dysphoria issues and so on. I thought that was so interesting

that Bruce Jenner was a creation of yours. Yeah. You know what? Little Caitlin's always lived inside me growing up. I've had to deal with her all my life. Every person who deals with gender dysphoria deals with it differently. Every story is a different story and you have to kind of pick your own path. I was very fortunate. After the games are over with, I got into work. I got into raising a family. I'm so proud to raise 10 children, life at the age of 65 that I've never really dealt with myself. And honestly, it was the best decision I ever made. I just wake up in the morning, be myself. I don't have any secrets. I did a book called The Secrets of My Life. I told every secret there is out there. That's one thing I'm very happy about. I'm probably have I don't have any secrets. And being in politics, it's tough because everybody has secrets in politics.

That's right. I don't have any. I'm very open on me. I just wake up in the morning and be myself all day. Must be very liberating. I like not to have any. I don't know. I think one thing I mean, we can get into your your transition and the gender thing. But I do think one thing I respected about you but i realized it may have been very very hard is that you you did wait your children were raised by the time you decided to transition and i i maybe this is my own personal issue but we we had this happen in my own family and um i i don't get too specific about it because i'm not at liberty with those involved have not given me the liberty to share this story publicly. But my point is, there's somebody very close to us in that's part of my family who transitioned male to female. And they did it

when the children were young and really of pubescent age. And I think it was very hard on the kids really, really hard. I don't know, was that a conscious choice on your side, on your end, or did you just come to terms with it later? You know, little Bruce honestly still lives inside me. I mean, you still have the fight and the vigor to run for governor. I mean, you've got to have a lot of fight in you. You've got to be able to have great work ethics. And I still have all of those things, but I just live my life authentically. So, no, life is very good. And it's great to be in a position where I can kind of go to the next chapter. I've always been very politically involved. I've done a lot of lobbying. I go

to Washington, D.C. on sometimes LGBT issues, but other issues. And for the first time, I decided to get it on the inside. And it's been quite a ride for the last five months. I mean, I see the politics of politics when you're on the inside. And it's a tough business. You got to be tough in here. California is in trouble. I mean, you can't have a healthy America with a sick California and California is sick as you can be. What would you say is tougher? He's got to go. Competing and winning gold in the Olympics, being a television star, which you know, keeping up with the Kardashians, among other programs, or running for political office? Running for political office is the toughest thing you can do. It's the hardest I've ever worked.

Every day up early. Yesterday, I was doing things at 530 in the morning, going all day. I'm doing this because, to be honest with you, Meg, I don't have to do this. I'm doing it because, number one, I love this state and I love the people of this state. And we do not deserve to go through what we have gone through over the last 20, 30 years of Democratic majority in Sacramento. They have destroyed this state. And this is kind of I think of it as kind of the turning point. Obviously, the Democrats are in control in Washington, D.C. Everybody talks about 2022 and for the races in the House and the Senate.

But to be honest with you, to take this state, take this country back, it starts right now here in the last week going into this recall election. It starts right now. If we can recall Gavin Newsom and replace him with a conservative Republican like myself, that will be major when it comes to 2022. We have to turn this country around. Honestly, I feel right now if Gavin Newsom, and it's tough, it's mail in ballots and Democrats. It's going to be tough. But if he stays in, honestly, I think that's kind of the they will be so emboldened. I think it's kind of the end of the state. It's just I don't know if it can recover from this. Would you leave if that happened? Would you ever consider leaving? Oh, I thought about it. Well? Oh, I thought about it. Well, honestly, I thought about leaving. So many of my friends have left California.

Here in LA County, where I'm at right now, they did a survey and 10% of the population said they will be gone in one year. Housing prices are out of the roof. Rent is out of the roof. Jobs are scarce because Gavin Newsom keeps closing the economy down. We've lost 33% of all restaurants in California closed, never to come back. And crime is through the roof. In L.A. County, homicides are up 90%. And Gavin Newsom doesn't want to take any credit for that whatsoever. Every time crime comes up, he just pivots and goes the other direction. A good example, a couple of weeks ago, you may have seen it, in Oakland, there was an Asian lady who was

attacked by two thugs trying to get her purse. Two young Asian boys came up, tried to help her. One got shot, fortunately not fatally. And so the next day, the head of the Asian community in Oakland, he gets up, does a press conference and says, Gavin Newsom, please, you know, put a state of emergency in, in Oakland, bring in the state police. We need help. We need protection. You know what? He didn't even do it. He said, oh, we'll send some funds down there. That's exactly what he does. Just throw money at the problem. And that's exactly the way he is on almost every issue. You know, when I was at the border, Megan, this shocked me. When I was at the border a couple of weeks ago with some of the

great border patrol agents down there working in tough situations, back when I was standing there doing the interviews, four immigrants came across our border in a hole, came right up to them. There were four from Brazil. They only spoke Portuguese. I'm thinking, this is our immigration system? But the first things the border patrol said was, I want to thank you for coming down here. Gavin Newsom has never been to the southern border. Wow. Is that true? I didn't know that. I didn't. The border agents are telling me this. And I go, you know, talk about Kamala Harris not going to the border.

Gavin Newsom, the southern border is such an issue. We need to close that border. We need legal immigration to this country. What about COVID? Because I was surprised to see that in recent polls, the voters in California are apparently giving him strong marks on how he has handled the pandemic even better than his overall approval rating,

which I have to say, Kaylin, shocked me, given that California has been locked down heaven or hell, depending on your POV. The schools didn't open all year long. He's flouted his own policies over and over. How can he be polling well on his handling of the pandemic. Well, first of all, the pandemic here in California has been used as a political tool to shut this state down, shut schools down. Other governors have done it different ways and been very successful. There is that delicate balance between the pandemic and the economy and public health. He used it as a tool to shut everything down. Honestly, the teachers union was controlling as far as keeping the schools closed.

It wasn't Gavin Newsom as much as it was the teachers union. They got paid all year long. They, schools were not open in this 22 2.2 million people voted on this recall wrote in for this recall and i guarantee you the majority of them were mothers and parents fathers of kids who have been locked out of school for a year who lost a year of education lost a year of socializing a year of education, lost a year of socializing, a year of sports. Those are the greatest times in your life. And the kids are the least vulnerable to this disease.

But he used it as a political tool. Why? Because the teachers union said he needed to do that. And that's what he does. He's all about, you know, they shut our schools down while he's dining at the French Laundry with all his special interest people. The hypocrisy of Gavin Newsom is just unbelievable. So you're not in favor of vaccine mandates, mask mandates, or you tell me, are you? Yes, this is the way I would handle mask mandates. As governor, there would be no statewide mask mandates. I would leave that decision up to the counties on the local level. I am sure the conditions in Los Angeles County are a lot different than

a county up near Mount Shasta. I think the local counties can decide what they want to do when it comes to mask mandates. And I also believe in the freedom of a business that they have the right to choose whether they want to have mask mandates in their facility or not. That is their decision. And I respect that.

They may find out that, let's say it was a restaurant, if there's mask mandates there, some people might feel more comfortable, might be better for business there. Others feel like, well, we don't need a mask mandate. That's their decision. And people might feel more comfortable and they get more business that way. But I leave that up to the businesses to decide. Speaking of choice, on the issue of choice, you gave an interview the other day where you were saying you support a woman's right to choose, but you also support the Texas law that's been in the news this week, effectively banning abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy,

with no exceptions for the health or for the for a rape or incest. So how can you square those two positions? Well, I square the two positions is one is a political issue. And I believe in state rights. I think that's extremely important in our in our Democratic Republic. We have. I think that's extremely important. So I respect their right to do what they think is right for Texas. I have because I've been on the campaign trail, I haven't really read the whole thing. I've just seen newscasts and who knows how that is. But I respect their right to do something. As far as my own personal, I am.

I am for a woman's right to choose. I think that's really important here in California. In the future, I see no change to our abortion policies and we move on kind of to the next subject. So you think it should be decided on a state by state basis? Yes, I certainly it should be in the hands of the state. So would you like to see Roe versus Wade overturned? Yeah. Would you then like to see Roe versus Wade overturned, which effectively recognized it as a federal issue? I don't want to even get into that right now.

Well, you have to. You have to. You're right. No, no, no. I am fine with Roe v. Wade as it is. And so we'll leave it at that. But if an individual state, state rights are important. No, but if it's a federal right, then the states don't have the right to change it. If you have a federal right to have an abortion prior to when the child is viable, you can't have a state law like Texas's. That's at the heart of the legal issue going up. We will see how that one turns out. I'm sure this one's going to be in court for a long time. What about, you know, you've been mentioning you went down to the border and

you and you, you know, been traveling the state. You've been getting hit for also traveling out to Australia to star in Celebrity Big Brother. And I know you've said it's it's a commitment that you made professionally that you made professionally that you felt the need to honor. But boy, people have made a lot of that in the press, saying she doesn't really want to be governor. This is a publicity stunt. Here's, of course, yeah, the press is amazing.

Everybody has a job who's running for governor. I mean, Gavin Newsom's out there campaigning every day, but actually actually has got a job in Sacramento. Larry Elder is still on the air. Yeah, everybody has a job. And I have a job. And I've been in the entertainment business for a very long time. I made this commitment a long time ago before I decided to run for governor. I went to Australia. I was in constant contact with my campaign. I did interviews from down there. The only time I was out is actually I went for a week. And while I was in the house, obviously, you could have no phones. But that was the only time I was not in contact. I got out after a week, got on the first plane out of town, got back here two weeks before balance dropped. And I haven't, I have not stopped, uh, since that, since I came back. How, how did it go? Who else was in the big brother house with you? Are you allowed to tell us? Ooh, Amorosa.

Oh, she's always fun. Oh, boy. Yes. It was very interesting having Omarosa in there. Yes. OMG. Oh, she can make her points clear. Let's put it that way. I've interviewed her many times. Yeah. Spent some time. Yeah. The people in Australia, because it's only shown in Australia, will have to watch. It's, yeah, it's actually pretty funny. All right. So I want to ask you about your call for Larry Elder to drop out since we had him on the show.

I want to get into the Olympics and how woke these athletes have gotten. And then I want to ask you whether you think it was a good idea to tell your own children, all of whom, most of whom are very, very, very famous and popular, not to get out there and campaign for you. We're going to pick it up there. All right, Caitlin, so let me start with Larry Elder, because you tweeted out women know less than men about political issues, economics and current events. You're quoting him at Larry Elder. Drop out now. You are not what California wants, let alone what we need. I'm the proud father of very powerful, intelligent, successful women. You're as bad as Gavin Newsom towards women. Do you stand by that? A little shot across his bow. There has been things that have come out about Larry. To be honest with you, really honest,

I think in a lot of ways, and I'll explain this, Larry Elder kind of helps Gavin Newsom win the recall. If you see the ads that are going on right now in California, it's the Republican recall. And with the right wing, hard right wing, you know, Larry Elder, we can't do this. And we have so many under a couple of weeks ago, it's like 53 percent of the voters were undecided. Out of that, about 90 percent of them were Democrats and about 10 percent independents. Certainly, Larry Elder could get the hard right

wing side of it. But I can't see Democrats voting for Larry Elder. I can't see independents voting for Larry Elder. He's too far right. That's why I come in as a moderate Republican, because I have conservative economic values. That's why I'm a Republican. But also being moderate, I'm inclusive to all people when it comes to social issues. I think that's the way more Californians think California should be. I mean, we all want a vibrant economy. We all want jobs. Every Democrat, independent, Republican doesn't make any difference. We want a vibrant economy and that's what we need to build. But we also have to be inclusive to all people. So if a lot of the allegations that these women have come up against Larry Elder, yeah,

I think he should seriously look at what he's doing right now. If he were to get in, oh my gosh. I mean, look what happened to Trump for four years of allegations that weren't even true. They led all the way to impeachment over a phone call. Larry Elder brings in a lot of baggage. Well, so do you. So does everyone. They all have baggage. Everybody has baggage. I think they would destroy. If you got in. But let me ask you about about that particular comment. Right. Women know less than men about political issues, economics and current events.

That's what you said led you to say dropout. I mean, do you know why he said that? Or did you go back and look at the article in which he said that? No, I just saw a lady on camera, a former girlfriend or fiance saying not good things about Larry. I don't know if it's true. I mean, obviously that has to be investigated. But if it is true. Yeah, personally, he's he's he's got some things I think that it could be damaging to him. Yeah. But are you doing to him what, you know, these woke warriors do to virtually everybody? Doesn't matter if you're a Republican or Democrat, frankly, they'll come for you just if an allegation gets swung your way. And and I'll tell you,

I don't know whether this woman, the ex-girlfriend's allegations are true or not. She's making them in the context of a political campaign in which she she supports one of his opponents on the GOP side. And she waited until now to file this police report, which is not being prosecuted because the statute of limitations has expired. But he's denied it. And basically, what she alleges was a misdemeanor in showing her a gun. But the comment that you cited, women know less than men about political issues, economics and current events. And I just went over this with him and I looked at it myself. it's from a study at the Annenberg School of the University of Pennsylvania that came out regularly and that was authored by a woman

and that has been cited by many, many women trying to take a hard look at why there are gender gaps in political knowledge. And it's an issue. It's been an issue over the years. It doesn't make it sexist for him to repeat what a study concluded. It doesn't mean he was celebrating it. It was him saying, this is a thing. And let me tell you why. And he cited a woman saying it's because they're too reliant on local news, which you cannot trust. So to me, this is you sort of swung and maybe missed on this because I don't know that this one's a fair attack. Does that sound fair or what?

Yes, it does sound fair. First of all, me as an individual, I am 100 percent for women's rights. I think women honestly have always been with very strong women. You have. That is true. We know that. That's true. Yes. And my children are all very strong, entrepreneurial. I encouraged that when they were growing up. I always told them the ability to grow is directly related to the amount of insecurity you can take in your life. And I love that statement. I like that too. You've got to take chances in life. And my kids took chances in business, personally, all of that.

They've always taken chances. And I applaud them for that. And I think they can learn, all women can learn a lesson from that. So yeah, I am all for women's rights. I have 100% respect for these women and what they've been able to accomplish. And also for the individual. Right now, we have more private citizens running for public office than ever in history. And honestly, I think that's a good thing. I'm an outsider. I'm not responsible for one tax. We're the highest case,

the highest tax rates in the nation. I'm not responsible for that. And we have most, we have 21.2 million words of regulations in the state of California. We're the most regulated state in the nation where we were 49th out of 50 as a business friendly environment, but good old Gavin Newsom got us to 50. And so now we're the worst state in the nation to do business in this state. And honestly, it just shouldn't be that way. We have to change it. We have the greatest workforce out here.

We've got the greatest weather out here. We've got, you know, the greatest beaches, you name it. I mean, California is the place to live, but unfortunately it's become unlivable and, and impossible to do business in this state. Now, speaking of your daughters and beauty, at least two by my count of your children are now billionaires, according to the magazines, Forbes, Fortune, and so on. So I wonder whether this relieves any of the burden you feel when it comes to possible elder care in your life.

What is that like for you? You look around at the amazing kids that you've raised and to see that level of success. Well, I'm extraordinarily proud. They did it with being really smart and a lot of hard work. All my kids. Is Kylie 20, 21? How old is she now?

I don't know. She's actually now 23. Such an old lady. But she was a billionaire before 21. Hold it. We just had the birthday. She just turned 24. I can't keep them all straight.

Yeah. She just turned 24. And yeah, she's done very well for herself. She's worked very hard, been very smart. And I couldn't be more proud of her. Yes. It's amazing. And she's expecting a new baby like that. You know, Kim started working when she was like 17, 18 years old. She was starting her own businesses. She's done's done that all her life. Uh, uh, she's, you know, a phenomenal, phenomenal person. Now, Kylie's expecting a new baby, which she did come out and announce, uh, yesterday officially, but I'm told you may have, you may have let that cat

out of the bag inadvertently a few days beforehand. No, I didn't let it out of the bag. I have another one. As I travel around the state, I was up with the Forest Service up at the fires and talking about fire prevention and what's wrong with our forests and why are they burning and what are the resources you have, what more do you need, and spent a day and a half up there. And it was really great. I was walking through the woods, some reporters going with me and says, you know, what about all your grandkids? I said, yeah. And I said, I got another one on the way, meaning my other son. Ah, okay. Okay.

Meaning my other son. But of course, TMZ got ahold of that. And yeah, sometimes you get in trouble because she had not announced it yet. And I didn't know she I wasn't even referring to her. So, OK, well, as you say, 10 children, there's there's a lot to keep track of. OK, so let me ask you, let's let's shift gears and talk about the Olympics, because you reference your time taking on the Russians as, you know, evidence that you can take on the teachers union. And you did. You made us all proud in 1976 and won gold and set all sorts of world records that just were stunning, stunning. So I wonder, because what I read is that you were the person

who started the tradition of running with an American flag after a win. And I thought of you as I watch people like Gwen Berry turn her back on the flag when she was in the Olympic trials. And as I see people like Megan Rapinoe, Neil disrespecting the flag and how the flag has now become a partisan, a political thing. And it's, oh yeah, the dog doesn't agree with any of this. Somebody came to the door. Keep going. So what's your feeling on the woke Olympians and athletes who are who are disrespecting our flag? Yeah. You know what?

I was I was disappointed. I have a couple of friends that were going to the games. And when I competed back in 1976, the games were just so special. I mean, patriotism was at its height. You're right. I was the first person to ever have an American flag at the finish line. And because I'm so proud of my country and I was proud of the accomplishment. But to see, I felt so sorry for Tokyo. I don't think it was their fault. It was supposed to be in 2020. It was going to be a great Olympic Games, but obviously COVID hit and that didn't happen. And with empty

stands, it just, I felt sorry for a lot of the athletes. And it's certainly this woke thing is disappointing. I'm so proud of my country. I love this country. I'm proud of my flag. I'm proud of our military. Proud of the people of not only California, but this entire country. And to see people disrespect that. Yeah, that really bothers me. And we are the greatest nation in the world. No question about it. We are not only the greatest nation in the world. No question about it. We are not only the greatest nation in the world, California is the greatest state and it's just crumbling. And I hate to see that happen. I don't want that to happen. And that's why I'm running for governor. I want to change things.

I want to be an inspiration to people. You know what, If you don't like what's happening in your school system, don't just go to the school board meeting. And we see a lot of these videos out there and complain what's happening. Run for the school board. Get in a position of power. If you don't like what's happening here in town, run for city council, run for mayor. Get in a position of power so you can change something here. And don't just sit back and complain about it. I don't want to move from California. You know, I may be forced to move at some point. I don't know. But I don't want to move from California. This is my home. I've been here for 48 years. So many of my friends have left. And honestly, I can't blame them. And so many of my

friends' business have failed because of Gavin Newsom shutting this state down for the last over a year now. I don't want that to happen. We need to change things and people need to stand up and I'm standing up. Well, this is why I respect you because as you pointed out earlier, you don't have to do this. You had a lot of success in your life, a lot of wealth. You could be sitting back just enjoying. I mean, it's unbelievable to me that you're now like 71. It's like incredible. You look amazing. You've achieved a lot, but you're kind of like Trump in this way, right? He didn't have to do it. You don't have to do this. You obviously want to make a difference. Honestly, it goes for a love of country. My grandfather fought in World War One.

It was honestly he was in the dead pile. They thought he was dead. And a guy goes walking by and he hears a moan. He says, oh, my God, there's somebody still alive in here. Dug him out. He went on to live a good life. My father, same way. My dad, when he was 19 years old, World War Two was breaking out and he wanted to fight. And he joined the Army Fifth Ranger Battalion, went to England to fight and he joined the army uh fifth range of battalion uh went to england to train and was the first boats on omaha beach uh 360 port guys in his division 60 came back alive not just injured alive he got purple hearts um and he's buried at arlington uh this you know is the reason why they call that generation the greatest generation, because they were.

And he's buried at Arlington with all his war buddies. And to be honest with you, if he could see what is happening, not just to this state, but what's happening to this country, he would be absolutely devastated when everybody around him died for our freedom. And that was a big reason for me saying, hey, maybe it's my turn to stand up. I still got a lot of life left in me. I think I have what California is looking for with a moderate Republican. And, you know, I'm excited to do this. It's been, I've met some of the greatest people out on the campaign trail. I mean, really good, solid Americans, solid Californians, and people that I want to associate with and hang out with. And it's been an amazing process, no matter what happens.

Most important thing is we got to get Gavin Newsom out of there. If we don't get him out of there, they will be emboldened, and they'll crack down on us even harder. I mean, I've watched you all along and I've seen you've taken so much guff from from various pockets. Right. And I've heard you say you've taken more flack for being a conservative Republican than for being a transgender person. And I have no trouble believing that. How is that manifested in your life? Well, you know, I have my own beliefs. I'm a strong person.

I have been around a long time. I study a lot of different things. And I have my beliefs. And I've always been that way. And I've always been on the Republican Republican side just because of my economic values. I believe in less government and business and in our own personal life. And that's changing so quickly here, especially over the last few years. It's accelerating. And I want my kids, not only my children, but right now I got 18 grandchildren.

Oh, my goodness. I've got two on the way. And I want them to grow up in the America I grew up with. You know, the other day I went to a meeting with what's called the New Majority. It's a Republican group down in Orange County. And when I went there, the first thing we did is they put the American flag up and we put our hands on our heart and we said the Pledge of Allegiance. And I'm standing there saying the Pledge of Allegiance and I'm thinking to myself, I have not said the Pledge of Allegiance in so long. When I grew up in school, you used to stand up and say the Pledge of Allegiance in so long. When I grew up in school, you used to stand up and say the Pledge of Allegiance, you know? Me too. And you know what? It just felt so good. I wound

up joining the organization. I says, hey, you got me. I'm on your team. We need that. We are the greatest nation in the world, and we are the greatest people in the world. And we need to be really proud of that. You know, I wonder whether you think, I don't know, is the world ready? Is California ready for a transgender governor? Is that an issue? Because I saw Candace Owens say that, I'm quoting here, I cannot support Caitlyn Jenner for governor because Caitlyn believes in the deception that men can be women and women can be men.

There's no bigger lie right now going around in society. I love Candace Owens, but I understand she she feels this way. And there are a fair amount of conservatives who share that view. Yeah, I think I need to do her show every time I'm around anybody. I've never met her. I watch her all the time. I think she's great, very conservative. But I think I need to do her show because every time I'm around people, people get such a different impression of who I am.

And even the issues that I've had to deal with all my life, they get a very different feeling about me. And once they get to know me, their thoughts change. I'm like, everybody's, I put it this way. Everybody's got stuff in life. Everybody's got things they have to deal with. This just happens to be my stuff. And this is how I dealt with it. To make this short journey we have on this earth

the best it can possibly be. And not only for myself, but number one, for my family. And in this case, for the state of California. I want to help. I want to make things better. So yeah, once they meet me, I need to do Candace's show. I think you've been very brave. I mean, you've been pretty outspoken on the, you know, trans girls. It's not fair for them to compete against biological girls, uh, in a lot of these circumstances and that, and you get hit by the LGBTQ community. Sometimes you get hit by Democrats.

Sometimes you get hit by Republicans, but you know what? You must be doing something right. Cause you're getting hit by all those people. You're stirring up pots. Well, Megan, unfortunately, I have wide shoulders. I have broad shoulders. It's a whole other story, Megan. But yeah, they're going to come out. I thought about that. I mean, California has never had a woman governor, let alone a trans woman. And maybe and so maybe I can kind of help that bridge and get a good woman up in Sacramento. That's what we need to fix this state. Well, we are going to be watching over the next week as we close in now on the final days of this race. Caitlyn Jenner, what a pleasure.

Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure talking to you, Megan. All right. Up next, we're taking calls. Is your school skipping the pledge like Caitlin just talked about? Is your school saying the pledge? That's probably a better way to put it in today's day and age. Let us know by calling us at 833-44-MEGYN. That's 833-446-3496. And we're still taking calls. So you can get in the queue right now and we'll talk. I want to bring a feature we have here on the MK show called Real Talk, where we just kick around an issue that's in the news that we want to talk to you about. And today, that's the NFL, because we're about to get into NFL season again. The first game is on Thursday. And Steve Krakauer,

my executive producer, is with me. So we're going to talk about it. But the plan now, Steve, this year is that they're going to allow six social justice messages on players' helmets. And they have to choose from one of the following six. End racism. Stop hate. It takes all of us. Black Lives Matter, inspire change, and say their stories. So all of these are, for the most part, are race-based. A little different from last season when they were allowed to display messages like Stop Hate and Black Lives Matter on their helmets, and they were allowed to have the names of Black people who'd been killed by police, such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor on their helmets. They can also have slogans in the end zone. I feel like this is still not going to go over well. I don't think people want politics in their sports. I think that's why the NBA has taken such a hit and learned from its prior experience. The NFL doesn't seem to be learning quite as quickly. Right. In 2020, they had the names on the jerseys. They changed the players' names to right across their jersey. Now, you know, then they went away from that the next season, the entire season that we just went through, no, you know, none of those social justice messages on the players jerseys, NFL sort of trailing that a little bit. But what's interesting about the NFL, I think is that as a league,

they have not necessarily embraced all of these sort of the social justice, I would say more divisiveness as the NBA has as a league, you know, certainly certain players have, but not as I think for that reason. I mean, the ratings are crushing in the NFL. And I would imagine starting tomorrow night with the Cowboys and, and the Bucks and Tom Brady, it's going to be crushing it again. I'm sure they've been doing better than like the, the NBA did. That's for sure. But I also think that the people are holding their noses and and stomaching this i don't think that the average american black or

white wants to hear the black national anthem before they hear the national anthem i really don't and it's no and it's no offense against people of color it's we're one country we're one country we don't need separate anthems it's a it's a chance to come together, celebrate America, all of it, good, bad, warts and all, and then play a sports game and not to shove politics or divisive cultural issues down the throats of the viewers who are looking for a getaway. Right. And I think that we've seen that in some of the polling as well. I wonder a lot, you know, NFL, you think of, yes, people like to watch their teams.

There's definitely that. Fantasy football, gambling. I wonder how much of it, as you talk about kind of holding your nose, is like, look, I don't care about anything else other than how are my players doing? Let me just, you know, see what the, if I'm betting on this game, how they're doing. It's an insane industry. Gambling has been rising across the nation. I think now up to 20 states have legalized it or are on the track to legalize it.

So how much of it is kind of like, yeah, we're not supportive of this kind of messaging, and we're just going to really kind of laser focus on the game that we care most about. You know, it's funny because I talked to Clay Travis on this show one time about his love of sports. And I love Outkick.com. Even though I'm not a sports person, I love to read Outkick. Great interview, by the way, on Outkick. Thank you very much. Yeah, I sat with Bobby Barak and we got into everything yesterday. But he was explaining to me why so many men in particular, but women too, love, love, love sports. And he was saying, it's like, it's Sunday. I've had a tough week. I sit down in front

of the tube. I got a beer. For two hours, I just get to sit and enjoy myself and all my troubles melt away. And I was like, this is an aha moment for me. This is that's how I feel when I watch The Real Housewives. That's just like the same thing. And I do not want to see little messages about the Me Too movement in front of my Real Housewives programming. I don't want those women talking about politics at all. Right, right.

Totally. And that's also the thing is like, look, basketball players, even I think basketball players, I believe the stat was somewhere like eight or nine of the top 10 most followed on social media athletes are NBA players. So the athletes themselves have made themselves in the NBA part of the story, part of, if you will, kind of the soap opera, like they're real housewives. Whereas the NFL, Major League Baseball, even much less so than that. It's really about the team. It's really about the game. And obviously, players want to have a voice also, and they're certainly on social

media. But you talk about it as, yeah, people just want to sit back and watch the game. They want to watch their stories. And for many sports fans, myself included, who likes to dabble a little daily fantasy fantasy football as well. That's what we're into for it. Oh, can I tell you, we were in, as you know, I was at the Jersey Shore for the summer and we went to Atlantic City a couple of times. And I one time I went with my brother and my brother has a system when he plays blackjack. It was amazing, Steve. So we had to go to a $15 minimum table because that's all that was open you know they they don't they don't make it easy it's not like the five dollar tables are everywhere

they were nowhere frankly but anyway so 15 bucks down then if he wins the next bet is 30 down then if he wins that you take half so it's another 15 so it's 45 down then if he wins that it's another half of that down and the pile just continues to grow if you're doing it, you know, if you're lucky and you're doing it right. I leave the table because I was losing for 20 minutes, 25 minutes. I come back. He's had 13 straight hands in a row winning. And the table had a $500 minimum.

So he couldn't actually follow through his system or maximum. So he couldn't follow. But he won $3,700. Oh,700 bucks. I'm just saying, like, I was like, I'm going to take gambling a little bit more seriously. I'm going to try harder fantasy football. I'm in whatever it is. I'm going to, I'm in good. We can do this together. You know, I, I, in New Jersey, I'm so jealous. You've got Atlantic city right there in Texas. We have to cross the border up to Oklahoma in order to gamble. Uh, we have Texas has, you know, you think, Oh, free Texas. No, no casinos here. We have to go up to Oklahoma in order to gamble. We in Texas, you think, oh, free Texas. No, no casinos here.

We have to go up to Oklahoma, right across the border. Some nice casinos, but I can't do it around here. All right. Now, stand by because we're going to take some calls now. And I think the first caller is Andrew. Andrew in Virginia. Andrew, how you doing? Hey, I'm here, Megan.

I'm so excited to talk to you. What's on your mind? You don't understand. You and I, I am a work at home parent, have three daughters. I've been following you since you were with Hemmer. I don't know how many times I grabbed my daughters and I said, watch this segment. See how she comes loaded for bear. She's not just a talking head. She does a research. She knows what she's going to interview this person about. And she knows where to push them back. And I have a rule with my daughters, because we kind of span the political spectrum. You can have your opinion,

just back it up. Yes. I love that. You're teaching them to be critical thinkers, not ideologues. Perfect. I call them thinking warriors. That's what I do. You know, and, you know, we're having a tough time now. And I and I left you a message earlier. I hope you do a little more, not just on woke, but I call it the woke dope situation because I think there's too much dope that is helping these young people get into the woke mentality. So hopefully you'll bring more people on who can interview that. But I think this connects with your two interviews, because I am and always have been very impressed with both of those candidates. But Caitlin does But Caitlyn does not come with the breadth of knowledge to take on the sixth largest economy in the world. So you're not buying that because she won. She took on the Russians at the Olympics. She can take on the teachers union. No, just listen. Just listen to how the two approached your questions. And Larry had the facts. Larry has obviously thought about these

things. He's really critically thought and worked through these for years. And Caitlin is kind of coming in on her celebrity and she's a great representative for the conservative movement. But I just, why do you think you can take on this role? It just wasn't there in the interview, kind of exposed it. Republican Party to have all different stripes and folks inside of it, right? Because they always get painted as just this white male party. And it's not, you know, yes, there are a lot of white people who are Republican. Yes, there are a lot of men who are Republican. But there are also a lot of people of color, a lot of Hispanics, a lot of trans people. It's it's not monolithic. And I think she's sort of a good example of it. Anyway, thank you for calling. I hope I talked to you again. And now we're going to call her number five. I don't know, call her number five's name. What is his name? Chris? Oh,

her name. Kristen. Hey, how you doing? How are you, Megan? Good. How are you? Oh, good. I'm so excited to get on. Congratulations on the new serious show. But I, you know, was very involved in working to get the kids back to school last year with COVID. And I just found it fascinating that, you know, in that movement, just how much else, you know, parents discovered was actually going on in the classroom. So just kind of wanted to hear your opinion on, you know, how much you think, you know, things will change now that people are really paying attention or, you know, I just think it's been really great. And, you know, politically, I would say in our town, a lot of parents come from very different sides of that, but have kind of united and are at least having the conversation.

Yep. That's a great question. And first of all, thank you for getting involved and paying attention because too few parents are doing it. It's one upside question. And first of all, thank you for getting involved and paying attention because too few parents are doing it. It's one upside of the COVID, you know, homeschooling, whatever you want to call it, remote learning is that we got to see, we got to pick the dress up a little and see what was under there. And it was a little horrifying to see how much indoctrination was going on. So I think to pick up, you know, on our guest point earlier, run for the school board on Caitlin's point, run for the school board, stay involved.

And I think it's going to go on because for these schools, a lot of them, it's ideological. So if we don't fight back, we're going to lose. Anyway, thank you for your call. And thank you for listening. And thank you all for listening today. Tomorrow on the show, don't miss the program. We've got Senator Rand Paul. He is fired up over a newly leaked documents about Dr. Fauci and whether he lied to him. Have a great day.