The Megyn Kelly Show - Shady California Vote Counting, and Dems' Platner Hypocrisy, with Sohrab Ahmari and Sean Davis, Plus James Patterson on Patriotism | Ep. 1333

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

Megyn Kelly is joined by Sohrab Ahmari, U.S. editor of Unherd, and Sean Davis, CEO of The Federalist, to discuss shocking delays in California’s vote-counting process that could still last weeks, governor candidate Steve Hilton and LA mayor candidate Spencer Pratt slowly losing ground as more late votes come in, concerns about election integrity and public trust, whether it's really possible for Nithya Raman to surpass Spencer Pratt in the mayor runoff, the latest New York Times report on allegations against Graham Platner, fallout from past controversies including a sexting scandal and Nazi tattoo, the latest NYT allegations about Platner's past relationships, the Democrat hypocrisy when it comes to Brett Kavanaugh and Platner, how past personal conduct should factor into political candidates, Karmelo Anthony’s "imperfect self-defense" argument in the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf, the legal challenges facing Anthony’s defense team, and more. Then James Patterson and Matt Eversmann, authors of "Rocket's Red Glare," join to discuss the threats facing the United States today, what a major attack on the homeland could look like, the sad decline in patriotism and the need to come together as a country, Patterson's journey from advertising executive to bestselling author, his humble beginnings growing up, and more.     Davis- https://thefederalist.com/ Ahmari-https://unherd.com/ Patterson- https://www.jamespatterson.com/ Eversmann- https://www.jamespatterson.com/titles/james-patterson/rockets-red-glare/9780316600118/   Supersure Insurance: Simplify your business insurance and get a free coverage report at https://Supersure.com/Megyn ARMRA: go to https://tryarmra.com/MEGYN to get 30% off your first subscription order The Wellness Company: Don’t let a sudden illness derail your summer—secure your peace of mind and save $45 on a Medical Emergency Kit today by visiting https://UrgentCareKit.com/MK and using promo code MK. SimpliSafe: Visit https://simplisafe.com/MEGYN to claim 50% off any new system!     Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKelly Twitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShow Instagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShow Facebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow  Find out more information at:https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to The Megan Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at New East. Hey, everyone, I'm Megan Kelly. Welcome to the Megan Kelly show and happy Friday. The weekend is near, but the news is not slowing down. Except in California where the vote count from Tuesday's primaries isn't anywhere close to wrapping up. This is ridiculous. The only thing that has changed is that the numbers keep getting worse for Republicans. and somehow the number of votes still outstanding to be counted continues to go up.

I guess maybe this is because they keep receiving imaginary new ballots. I mean, actual new ballots. I don't know. Today's Friday. So I would presume that the ballot inflow should be kind of over since everyone there should be mailing it for the most part from California to California. And they had to be postmarked by Tuesday. But yeah, the updates are uniformly bad for Spencer Pratt and Steve Hilton. What a shock.

And no one's going to trust this. No one is going to trust this outcome if those two are eliminated from the general election, given the leads that we've seen. I'm going to when the panel's here, yesterday we didn't get to it with Maureen. Today I'm going to get to the actual numbers as we know them so far and get on the record as we go on the weekend with where we think the vote is. If you look at the betting markets, and they don't know anything more than we do, I mean, well, generally they don't. They're all now voting against Spencer Pratt and Steve Hilton, even making it into the top two. They don't believe at all that Californians are going to let that happen in one way, shape, or form. So what we're seeing is the Republicans do well on the day of, and then we slowly watch their leads evaporate as the massive mail-in vote from more left-leaning districts gets tabulated.

That's such a nice insurance policy, isn't it? Such a nice insurance policy. Don't you worry if you don't make it in the day of vote. We got you covered. I mean, we saw that here in Connecticut. There was a film of these Democrat operatives literally stuffing mailboxes full of ballots that they'd managed to get their hands on to try to get that in there.

Let's shove it in there. And it just undermines the face. in integrity of elections to allow this kind of voting. I don't care how convenient you want to make it for people. Do we really want to make it that convenient? I mean, these are lazy-ass people if they can't get off their fat asses and get to election polling stations on election day. Then we don't want you. Okay, we don't want it. We don't want your vote. Who gives a shit about you? You're too lazy. You're too busy, sure. To make it down to the polling station on election day, then get out. Good. Goodbye. You don't get to vote. That's how it always has been. Why wasn't that system

okay because we needed to widen the field so we could get people too lazy to get down there to have their ballot counted. I mean, it's just absurd. If you don't prioritize the vote, your vote shouldn't be prioritized. So what we know today is that decision desk is projecting the former California Attorney General and HHS Secretary under Biden, Javier Becerra, is moving on to the general election. So Becerra, who was in no man's land in this entire election until Swalwell bit it and then rocket it up is now secure. His place is secure. Republican Steve Hilton, who's been leading the pack from the start, less certain. Yeah. It turns out that the far left loser Tom Steyer never seen a tranny,

I don't want to throw my arms around or allow into girl sports, is searching. Oh, it's so convenient for Tom Steyer and his billions. Technically right now, Steve Hilton still leads the vote total, but the betting markets, they have these two hovering around 50% each. They have Steyer slightly above Steve Hilton last week looked, but only by a couple points. And these things are even worse if you look in Los Angeles. Incumbent mayor, Karen Bass, she's made it.

She's, how can we help the Californians? We can't. And honestly, we shouldn't. She's moving on. You remember, it's like the top two get to move on. If somebody got 50% or more, they'd win. That's not happening. So we expected that there'd be top two and the top two move on to the general election in

November. And she's made it. Her place is secure. You people are gluttons for punishment. And now Spencer Pratt might not be. Again, back to the betting market. It's Kalshi, betting that Nithya Rahman will make it over Bass. They say she's got about an 80% chance to be the candidate to take on Karen Bass.

At noon on the day after the election, it was Pratt who had a 65% plus chance to prevail. But of course, what was happening? And again, the betting markets, it's not the same as a poll. It's like how people are reading the data so far. But they're seeing what we're seeing, that it's an incredibly slow vote count and that miraculously, they all seem to be going for the most outlandish, outrageous, unlikable Democrats possible. I mean, just no one's going to have confidence in these results if they squeeze out, especially in the gubernatorial race, the guy who's been in number one all along,

and now it doesn't even make it. That's just, I don't think it's going to happen. I think Steve Hilton will be, you know, one of the final two, but I don't trust these people. I have no faith in them. I have no faith in the vote counters. I have no faith in these California Democrat politicians in their machines not to try to cheat and to exploit that mail-in balloting. And I have only to await the forensic examination that I'm sure Trump is going to rain down on them because he's already talking about it. And we have Steve Hilton

begging the Trump administration to step in to do something. Unfortunately, votes like this are generally states provinces. I mean, it's not generally considered up to the federal government. And so I query how much they can actually do. Not everything is going to the Democrats. way, however, today? Just take a look at what's going on in Maine. So this is one of those seats that has become a favorite for Democrats to pick up. Like many of these political prognosticators think that this guy, Graham Platner, can do it. He's definitely the heavy favorite to win the Democrat Senate primary on Tuesday because the Maine governor dropped out. She ran out of money and he was too formidable a candidate. I mean, she's still on the ballot and she's kind of

jumping up and down saying, hey, yo, remember, I'm still on the ballot as Plattner seems to be having some major campaign problems. And the polls currently show him with a slight lead over Republican incumbent longtime Maine Senator Susan Collins in this general election. Well, you know, politics is going to do what politics is going to do. And he's taking it on the chin these days. He's been leading her, even though he has a Nazi tattoo. That's, that's our world. The Democrats who ran for a year calling Trump a Nazi, calling everyone within Trump's orbit a Nazi. Now they're like, Nazi tattoo, it's not a big deal. Get over your side.

Do we care about Nazi stuff or don't we? Can someone shoot me a text or a memo so I know on Team Blue? He's also had many incendiary posts online. The Democrats were like, it was a long time ago. It was like literally 2019. So it's like, we're not talking like 2000, 26 years. We're talking about like five, six years ago. It's not that long, but you do you, Democrat Party.

Then we told you about his sexting scandal that emerged over the weekend, where he was accused by his wife of sending sexually explicit messages to some reportedly six women while he was married. again, he only got married in 23. This is not ancient history. And it also emerged that he was using a messaging app called Kick, which is known predominantly

for its popularity among child predators. Not to give any sickos, any ideas, but we don't have any of those listening to this show. But that's kind of where you go if you want to exploit a child, and he's been on there. He registered. He had an account that was active for years. Okay,

so now the latest iteration is last night, the New York Times dropping a piece detailing the accounts of three women who were romantically involved with Plattner before he got married, with the Times describing their relationships as volatile and toxic, and including examples of physical altercations. An anonymous woman who had a long-distance relationship with Plattner as recently as 2016 said he drank heavily and womanized, telling the time she felt like, quote, collateral damage to the world that is his. And the most serious allegation coming from Lindsay Fifeield, a 20-year-old conservative, sorry, 40-year-old conservative, who has worked on Republican campaigns.

Now, she's dated Plattner from around 2013 to 2015, and she told the times that he resurfaced or that his resurfaced online posts, which diminish women and many other groups, reminded me, she wrote, of just how much he hated. women. While she confirmed that Platner never hit or punched her, it seems like all these women so far are saying that, that he didn't go that far, she said the Senate candidate would regularly grab her by the shoulders hard enough to leave marks, and on one occasion yanked her out of a car by her wrist after an argument. Another time, she says he shoved her behind a door against her will, like physically, and then locked the door and kept her in there against her will until she could, quote, calm down. That was his instruction. Technically, that would be a kidnapping. Doesn't sound like she's wanting to put press charges so much as just

tell people that this is not a stable person who's running for a Senate seat. And in a stunning turn of events, now today, Lindsay on X has turned on the New York Times with whom she entrusted her story, saying the paper left out key parts of it. She, she, she, She issued a post that reads in part, quote, The Times failed to include any mention that I did confide in multiple friends through the years that Graham had been abusive long before he was running for office. Those friends confirm they told the Times so. It dawned on me that this really was a setup all along, meaning by the Times. The journalists I trusted who convinced me to share a story I never wanted to tell methodically delayed and twisted this into a,

gift to the Platner campaign, violating the trust of his victims, shattering the trust I placed in them with the most vulnerable story of my life, unquote. So she's saying that this was essentially a whitewash by the Times, which felt the need to get on record with the story, but to not really go guns ablazing the way they might say if your last name were like Donald Trump or something like that. Lindsay also writing on X this morning that she's connected to two women who claim Plattner is responsible for their sexual abuse. Abuse is the word, writing, quote, we're deciding what to do next. So there could be another shoe to drop here. The Platner campaign vehemently denying and Plattner himself that he ever engaged in any violent act against any woman and sort of pushing this story under

the same banner as a lot of his controversies. When I got back from fighting overseas for my country, I had PTSD, I was an angry guy, and I said and I did things that I wish I hadn't, but I'm better now. That's my paraphrase. There's a lot to unpack here. So we're going to bring in our panel, Sorab and Sean. Aramari, he's U.S. editor of Unheard and Sean Davis, who's CEO and co-founder of the Federalist. Here's a question. How many brokers does it take to insure your business. If you are like most business owners, the answer is too many. Multiple policies, multiple applications, no clear view of how it all fits together. In fact, it's just a massive stressor for most people. And when questions come up, it's not easy to get the clarity you

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policies, imagine it, in one place with one person who wants to help you. Go to supershure.com slash Megan today. That's super sure.com slash Megan paid for by SuperSure insurance agency LLC, a licensed insurance agency. Guys, welcome back. Great to have you. A lot going on in the news today. there's a lot in the Plattenor scandal. So let's just start with California politics because I do think people are very interested in what the vote count is out there and what the hell is happening. And I don't know that any of us can answer that right now. We can give some numbers. And I will give them now.

So California governor. As I said, Decision Desicc has made the call that Javier Bocera will move on. Lucky him. They say as of 10.16 p.m. last night, 60% of the vote is in. Yesterday morning, it estimated that 58% of the vote was in. Steve Hilton, they said so far, has 27.2, Bcerra, 26.0, Tom Steyer, 20.2. But the reason that they can't call it for Hilton is, they say, of the amount that's outstanding. They can see where they're waiting for votes from or where they believe they are, are heavily Democratic, very blue areas. so they're just presuming that these will be Becerra, Steyer, or possibly even Katie Porter votes, but that they won't be votes for Steve Hilton. They won't know until they actually get them. Vote Hub reporting that Steyer improved from a 20% to a 38% chance.

And tonight's Vote Hub Wincast update driven by ballots in Key County shifting toward him and confirmation of high outstanding turnout in urban areas. Hilton, they say, still has a slight edge. now tracking to defeat Steyer by 0.6%. This is very interesting to me because no matter what they're showing in terms of outstanding counties, Sean Davis, Hilton has been above Steyer in every poll, typically by high single digits, low double digits, since Steyer joined the race that Hilton was already in. And so that would account for deep blue pockets of California and the deep red and so on, even with likely voter polls.

So that should factor in who's likely to actually get a ballot in on election day or in the week thereafter that we have to wait. I don't trust this. I don't trust this at all. And that's not even counting what's happening in the L.A. mayor race, which I'll get to in a second. But let's just start on the gubernatorial race. Yeah, it's kind of a fascinating little system. set up here where you've got three ways to vote. You can go, you know, vote in a voting location, you know, pull the lever, push the button, whatever you want to do. You can vote by mail. So when you

vote by mail, the post office gets your ballot and they postmark it. Or you can do this amazing new invention called the vote drop box where it doesn't get postmarked. You just put your vote in there and they'll come and collect your votes and then they add them all together. And then, ta-da, you have all the votes you need. And what I find, fascinating about this system is that in the first one where you vote in person, we know when that vote was made. When you put it in the mail, we know when it got put in the mail because it gets postmarked. But there's this magical new third category of votes that don't really have a date. And California law, by the way, says if a ballot doesn't have a legible postmark, as long as, you know, they have a good faith reason to believe that it was cast in time, they have to count it.

And so in this magical new California system, which is like totally safe and secure and not at all like designed to be rigged, you get counts on election night. So that tells you, hey, this is how much votes this guy has. And then we have the system where there's no way to date a ballot and they're going to collect ballots for weeks. And we're supposed to believe that's that's somehow a credible, secure, like normal way to do elections. There is only one reason to design an election in this way and is to control the outcome. Like, I'm sorry if that makes people mad to hear, but nobody would create a system like this if they wanted people to have faith in results. They created a system like this because they wanted to be able to engineer results. That is exactly how this feels, Sarab.

And I have never been one to be like, it's all rig. These are fake votes. I really haven't. Much to a lot of my audience's disappointment. I've all along been like, show me the hardcore proof before I'll believe it. But this just stinks to high heaven. I mean, Steyer was not even really on the radar in this race. It really was Hilton and then Bacera after Swalwell fell apart.

And they really want us to believe that now this unlikable billionaire, tranny-loving, bizarre person whose final push was all about getting boys and girls sports, something that has between 80 and 90 percent opposition in the United States, that he calls. closed it on Steve Hilton in the final days to where Hilton's only ahead possibly by 0.06 percentage points over him. It's very tough to believe. So I'll say two things. The first is I'm 100% with you and Sean on the fact that we need to get back to a situation where election day, as the name goes, is a day, not an election week, not an election month,

not an election season where, you know, there used to be this thing we did where we went to the ballot blocks on that day, for the most part, there were exceptions. I realize Maylin was a thing. But for the most part, most people voted on election day and the outcome was known by that evening. Remember that? It's also the norm across the developed world. Just recently, Britain had local elections. Everything was known by the end of the day. So this whole like multiple means of drop boxes. and expanded mail categories, especially much of it is left over from COVID, for example,

in a crucial purple state like Pennsylvania, infuriates me. And I think creates this sense of distrust we all have where it's like the polls are going one way. And then, oh, conveniently, you know, ballots start popping up. However, here's just one thing I would add to that, which is the content, we are in a context in which, I see, the president, the Republican president is historically unpopular. He's plumbing depths of unpopularity that are unprecedented nationally, and everything is nationalized. So that, and you're talking about Los Angeles, the city, and you're talking about California of the state, which are overwhelmingly blue places. So I'm not, you know, look, I'm willing to,

I don't think I'm as skeptical of what the results are showing so far as you guys are. But the fact that even the question is being raised is a testament to why we need to stop this whole prolonged election season. Election day, election night results. You know, I remember doing 2020. It was like I did tweet something and like media matters picked it up because I guess it was wrong thought at the time. But I was like, because I went to bed and Trump was ahead in Georgia. But then there was something about like a pipe that was broken. Do you guys remember this?

the leak in the pipe in some precinct and then like ballots kept adding up for for Biden and then look Trump lost 2020 he should have admitted that he lost 2020 but it's that kind of thing that it's it's exactly like Sean said it's designed to systematically soak this trust in the system and I think we need to do a different way and as you know so I like I don't blame people who are I'm thinking about I agree with you and I totally take your point about it's California. You know, it's full of Democrats. It's full of Democrats.

There's tons of far-left libs out there. So why would it be shocked that the mail-in vote would favor Democrats? Even, you know, even if we were, if we could prove that it was entirely legitimate, we shouldn't be surprised that it favors Democrats. However, it's almost like a cart, you know, before the horse or chicken and egg scenario because it's like, is California universally represented by Democrats because it's filled with Democrats? or because the Democrat machine will make sure that it's universally represented by Democrats. Like, I don't actually know the answer to that.

I'm not sure I trust them. I mean, what we have today, and honestly, especially at the gubernatorial level, because I can accept that L.A. is probably, I'm sure we can look it up, but it's got to be over 90% Democrat registered. It's probably just like New York, which went 90%. about, it was 87% for Joe Biden in the 2020 election. So I can accept that L.A. is predominantly blue. But the state has got 39% Republican.

39%. So like that actually should be reflected in the gubernatorial race. And right now we're being told that it hasn't shown up so far. I just like, okay. And what we're seeing right now, Sean is Steve Hilton is proposing, I think I said something for Trump, but it's actually Gavin Newsom. to swoop in and help. He's proposing an emergency election count accelerator core to bring California election shambles to a swift conclusion. Here's what he writes. This is a campaign statement.

California is the laughing stock of the nation when it comes to election reporting. We're the fourth largest economy in the world, home to Silicon Valley, some of the most advanced technology on earth, yet government bureaucrats need a month to count fewer than 10 million ballots. That's exactly the number that Florida does in one night. 10 million. Same number. India counts 600 million in one day. I didn't know that. Wow. Hilton will call on Governor Newsom to immediately establish an emergency election support corps deploying available state employees and rapid response support teams to counties facing significant ballot processing delays. I'm not sure if state employees is the answer, you know, to any. You know, to any

anything, but especially not this problem, Sean Davis. One other thing, just to let you know, yeah, okay, a top DOJ official is, hold on, what am I reading here? I just want to make sure I know what I'm reporting. Protecting the integrity of California's elections is a top priority for my office. This is what the U.S. attorney is saying out there. California's election system has serious structural vulnerabilities. Universal vote by mail with no. No voter ID requirements creates conditions where fraud can go undetected and unpunished, eroding public confidence. Without commenting on any specific investigation, my office has multiple election fraud investigations underway in coordination with FBI, Los Angeles. We will follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal law to the fullest extent.

We're also working closely with Harmeet Dillon. She's the head of the Civil Rights Division nationally to conduct a comprehensive audit of California's voter rolls. And so on. My office will not look the other way. investigate and prosecute. Every legal vote deserves to be counted. Every illegal vote cancels one out, and all of that is in the wake of Trump tweeting out, I think yesterday, there's big cheating by the Democrats in California. Votes are all tied up, may not be in for weeks, under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office in L.A. Why the vote counting delay, President DJT.

So things are heating up a little there, Sean. I mean, it's possible if there's cheating underway, they won't get away with it this time. Yeah, what I find fascinating, by the way, is we're not talking about general election results here. We are talking about a primary. And so I don't think any of us is under any illusion about who is going to eventually win the general. It is a very blue state. The Democrats are going to win. Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt are spectacular candidates, but you can't overcome the math. But again, we're in a primary now. We're just trying to figure out who's going to go against who in the general election. And, you know, we're talking about processes, which are just ridiculous on their face. California changed its primary rule.

rules to be what's called a jungle primary. It's not an actual primary where they're trying to figure out in this two-party system, we're going to have a person from this party and a person from that party, and they're going to face up. They changed it so that it's the two top vote getters, and they changed it because they wanted to make sure that it was Democrats who are the only statewide candidates in California because it's such a blue state. And so you might ask yourself, well, why would they do that? Because a Democrat's going to win anyway. And the reason is, when you have statewide races, when you have gubernatorial races, Those drive turnout downstream and down the ticket.

And when you have really, really close congressional representation where control of Congress might be decided by one or two votes, what you want to do if you were just wanting to get to a result is you want to make sure you're discouraging down ballot voting of your opponent. So what's the best way to do that? You cook your primaries so that the only people at the top of the ticket are one party. and that creates massive down-ballot effects for the opposing party. And so it just, you know, California is, I know it's America. I know it's a very advanced economy.

It is a third world banana republic when it comes to actual administration and justice and political offices. This is no way to run a state, but they're not actually interested in running a state. They're just interested in being in charge. And that's the sole reason we're even dealing with all this nonsense. about mail and ballots and month-long voting, is that the people in charge there actually have no interest in governing. All they care about is ruling. All right.

So the L.A. mayor race is not going much better. So have it's equally flawed. Or at least questionable, I guess, is a better word. They're showing bass at, this is the AP vote count, last updated yesterday evening, 10.14 p.m. They're showing bass. has 35.1% of the vote, and she's moving on. Pratt with 29.4% of the vote and Nithia Rahman at 23.4% of the vote. So within six points of Pratt now. Yashar Ali, he's, I don't know if he's originally from L.A. I mean, he's an Iranian-American is a great reporter, but he worked out, I think, for then- Mayor Newsome when he was Mayor of San Francisco.

in any event. He's got some history in California politics. And he posted this. Update in Los Angeles. Between yesterday and today, and this was at 7.29 p.m. yesterday. So he meant between Tuesday and Wednesday. Karen Bass gained 11,700 in change votes. Spencer Pratt gained 6,400 in change votes. Nithia Raman gained 10,600 in change votes. Nithia cut Spencer's lead from 37 in change votes. to 33,000 and change votes. Current rankings, Bass, 195,000. Pratt, 163,000. Raman, 130,000. So that means Nithia Raman is going to have to get another 30,000 votes here alone just to catch him, to catch Pratt, or so. And then she's going to have to, whatever, if that makes them even,

she's going to have to win whatever outstanding vote there is beyond there. If that happens, I'm going to eat this packet live on the air. That is not going to happen legitimately so wrapped. She is not. There is no way. Nithia Raman is like the Alder also Rensh, she all but collapsed after that debate. How can this be? So I don't think she can.

But I don't, you know, next. I don't have a piece of paper. But I have a nice leather shoe. And I will, I think based on what we know so far, yeah, a picnic of unpleasant sort of things to eat, a crow, I'll hunt a crow and bring it to the show. But again, you eat a crow and I'll eat a humble pie. Again, a very liberal place, but still, you know, none of these questions would even be raised. But for the fact that we're a developed country, this is California is the world's nine,

if it were a country, it would be the ninth largest economy in the world or something like that, in the largest economy in the world as a country, home, as Sean pointed out, to the most advanced companies in the country still. And yet, there's a Banana Republic-style quality to how we count votes and how long it takes to do that. And that really needs to change. It's destabilizing. It's extremely dangerous in a democracy for people to begin to feel that there's something up. Even, again, if whatever wrongdoing may be going on, if any, is only marginally effective and isn't really important, given the sort of lopsided democratic leaning of the state, still the impression of impropriety, the fact that it feels like elections don't run smoothly is just devastating for the system.

And I hope that I hope there are people wise enough in the California system. There aren't. Spoiler alert. to realize that there's good reason to cooperate with whatever Trump process brings, kind of speeds this up and brings greater light to how the process unfolds because otherwise you're going to have generations building up of this kind of resentment that there's something wrong with the system. Like it just needs to wrap up in a night. That's it. Really.

Election day and then it wraps up at night. Democracy is all over the world. Ron DeSantis, Ron DeSantis tweeted this the other day. Florida processes more than 10 million votes in a matter of hours. California takes days or sometimes even weeks to count the votes. It is pathetic and it's corrosive to our civic culture. That's exactly right.

10 million votes in a matter of hours versus, I mean, weeks, stop it. So my crack team tells me that Trump got 30% of the vote in Los Angeles. County last time around, which is pretty remarkable. Now, two things to factor in, that's Trump. And even though Spencer Pratt has some similarities with Trump, there's only one Trump. So I don't think we can just assume he's going to get 30%. On the other hand, on the other hand, the Democrats burned down L.A. So, you know, it's what I, you would think that they'd be less inclined to reelect Democrats, even though the first one to make it through is Karen Bass, the one who sat by while L.A. burned. You'd think if there was going to be one

Democrat who'd make it early, who they were like, okay, yeah, she should go through because we need at least one dem. It'd be this nithia ramen. You know, like at least some accountability for Karen Bass. But nope, nope, they're like, how about burning down Beverly Hills next? How about Burbank? Like, they don't care. Okay. Great. Enjoy the fires. All right, moving forward. That's enough about California politics, which are just an exercise in frustration. Let's talk about this Platner situation because now we're talking about a national race that has a lot of scrutiny, and that is who's going to win the Senate seat in Maine? Susan Collins is up for re-election. She's been re-elected there many, many times. She's this moderate Republican,

and she's well-liked in Maine. So this time around, she's gotten a very interesting challenger. it appears that Graham Platner will easily win this primary on the Dem side this coming Tuesday. But all these allegations are coming out against him in the meantime. And I don't know. I have complicated feelings about this, guys, because it's like, you hate to see like these late, dropped allegations, especially about like someone's interpersonal relationships. Now, it's one thing, like we found out about Doug Emhoff allegedly beating a woman. Okay, we should know that. We just definitely know if the second gentleman is possibly going to be the first gentleman, is a woman beater. It is relevant. These are short of that. These, the accountant at Times portrays an angry dude who does lay hands on women in a way that's violent and unacceptable. I mean, technically it would qualify as a battery under the law, which is an unwanted touching. But,

You know, I am mindful the fact that guy's a veteran. He said he had PTSD. He came back. He's been in therapy like nobody's business, according to him and his wife, all the therapies. I don't know. I'm a little uncomfortable with it, but I also feel like you got three women on the record saying he's a douchebag, Sean. And one of the women is saying he laid hands on her, not a slap, not a hit, but like aggressive grabbing. And now she is claiming she's got a, at least two other women who she seems to be saying are going to make similar allegations about abuse, not harassment, not bad treatment. So let's just start there. Is this relevant and should we be factoring it in? Yeah, it's a great question. So I'm a big believer in the rule of law. And in the rule of law, you have one standard of justice and kind of one code that you measure everyone against. and Democrats created the code there, and they created it when they went after Brett Kavanaugh. They accused him of running a secret gang rape cartel in suburban Maryland, I believe in the 80s. So that was a pretty major escalation and allegation that they levied against someone who, by all accounts, was a total Boy Scout.

And the person that they used in this was a woman who could not remember, when this alleged rape of her happened, couldn't really remember where it happened. She thinks it might have been this year, it might have been that year, it might have been this neighborhood or might have been that neighborhood. But in reality,

what we had in that case was no evidence that she and Brett Kavanaugh had ever even met. There was no evidence that they had ever been in the same room. There was no evidence that this party where she alleged that an assault happened ever occurred.

And when you spoke to her close friends about it, they all thought she was full of crap. So that was the standard that Democrats had. And what they decided when looking at all those facts was, we don't care, Brett Kavanaugh's a rapist. So I don't think that's a great standard to have, but I have not been given the authority to create standards. The Democrats made that one.

So under the standard that they created, under the Kavanaugh standard, Plattner is a serial assaulter and he has to go. And I'm sorry, those are the rules they made. I think those are the rules that they should have to live under. You cannot have politics. You cannot have this stuff where one side gets to make these insane allegations and you have to listen to them where when the same thing happens to that side, you have to dismiss them because they're not credible. So I think under the standard that Senate Democrats created for Brett Kavanaugh, we are required to say that Platner is guilty and cannot be a candidate. Well, there is that.

I mean, here's Senator Sheldon White House in response to the New York Times piece. He's a Democrat from Rhode Island. Seems like a lot of nothing. I mean, the only one who had anything to say that seemed unsettling was a woman who works for right-wing political operations. Mike Davis points out of the Article III project, wow, Senator Whitehouse led the fake rape charges against Kavanaugh. Now he's defending a guy who literally threatened to rape women and doesn't deny it.

We'll get to that. White House couldn't stand Kavanaugh's treatment of women with no evidence, but says this is nothing. I mean, he's in a difficult spot, the senator and others who just, jumped on board the Kavanaugh allegations, not to mention the Hegsteth allegations in more recent history, which were utter bullshit. I mean, we went through it line by line on this show in like a crazy segment that no one could believe as you went through this woman's actual account with the police report, which we went through tooth and comb. And but these Democrats love to use that. He was battered over the head with it at his confirmation hearing, Sorab. And now they're like,

Now, in fairness to them, those two women, neither of whom I believed, were alleging rape. Maybe you need to allege rape to get on their radar. That's not what they're accusing Plattner of. I'm not sure. It sounds like for a White House, a technical legal battery, physical touching against a woman's will and talking about rape as like a fun tool of control. If somebody were to break into the house, he would rape them, not in a gay way, he said, not in a sexual way, according to her. But in order to dominate and, like, torture somebody. And, okay, whatever, I guess that doesn't rate for White House.

Probably rate for White House if he were the one on the receiving end of it. But in any event, your thoughts on the bigger question of, like, how do we handle these? Yeah. You know, because, you don't want to turn into a Democrat just because it's a Democrat who's under fire here. Yeah, so I should lay some of my background for those of years who don't know. I was the op-ed editor of the New York Post when the Kavanaugh hearings happened, and I looked up what I wrote at the time. I think it's worth, I wrote a column under my own byline whose headline was,

the drive to sink Kavanaugh is liberal totalitarianism. Right. So what happened to Kavanaugh, I've even described to the New Yorker or something he wants profiling. I said that was my radicalizing experience where I was like, there's something wrong with how lopsided things are in the media and in the adjudication of especially these kinds of accusation cases. You might think, well, that was like several years ago.

That was nearly eight years ago. But I also basically was the first person to go on the record with a piece for a magazine I then co-founded called Compaq, about the Hegsef allegations during his hearings. And the headline of the piece kind of gives away the gist. It was smearing Pete Heg-Seth. I spoke to like former comrades of his who said, yes, you know, he drank a lot, but these particular allegations, you know, don't hold water. And I put that out there.

So with that in mind, I did. So now I'm at Unheard and we published this piece by Mike Tracy, who's just like an equal opportunity doubter of what you might call accusation culture. So the headline there is the hollow accusation campaign targeting Grant Platner. So I feel like I earned my ability to say, I think these accusations are very weak. A lot of them are these sort of very subjective standards. It's like it was emotionally wrenching.

Really? A relationship in your 20s that was emotionally wrenching? Been there. You know, like, I've had some of those on both ends. Everyone has. Right? Physicality is a different story. The physicality point, it's very notable,

but the New York Times said that those particular allegations, this one woman and this Lindsay Fife field that those allegations the Times could not corroborate. Now you might say, and the idea that the Times went out of its way to publish

this story, but in a way that protects Platinum ultimately, it just stretches credulity because first of all, if you're a Times reporter, you're out to get like a Pulitzer or whatever. And at the end of the day, if you can say my reporting led to a nominee to drop out of a race or whatever,

that's it. Like, you got a scalp. And these people, although they're definitely progressive, they still want that, like, ability to say, my scalp, I got the platinum scalp. Second, insofar as the Times is like an organ of the establishment Democratic Party, which it is, if they had something that was stronger that they felt they could corroborate without getting slapped with a libel suit, they would have run it. So the idea that, like, they abused the source and didn't really run the things, it's because they looked into it and it wasn't a strong enough allegation. and they had to say that they couldn't independently corroborate it. So with all that in mind, just to wrap this up very quickly, yes, I agree with Sean. They definitely, the left created this set of rules where you're supposed to, quote, unquote, believe all women, even though we know some women lie, just like some men lie.

I get that. However, the reason I get kind of worked up about it on no matter whom it happens to is I'm also a father to a son. And I don't want, I would like to disarm the entire culture in which we create. this sexually depraved culture in which the only values are individual autonomy, whatever you want to do, and after the fact, consent, adjudication. And lots of people got drunk. Lots of people have all sorts of altercations. You know, he said, she said, whatever. But because that, you know, now we need politically to take someone down, whether they're on the left or the right, we're going to sort of say, we're going to go back to your record in your 20s. Where you drunk? Did you raise your voice? Did she raise

her voice, whatever, and your life or your career is destroyed. So it's more important to me as a dad of a son to, like, disarm that entire culture, if possible, then to, like, play by the rules the left made, even though, again, Sean is 100% right. This is the universe these people created. There's no doubt about that. Yeah. Yes. I know. I agree with what you said, too. It's, it's, look, if these women were coming forward and, you know, saying he, like, like in the case, of Kavanaugh. He raped me. I think we'd all be taking this a lot more seriously. But, and with all due respect to the women who told their stories, including Lindsay, the question is whether we are now at the point where we are revamping difficult relationships under the banner of Me Too, you know,

as opposed to like, the Me Too movement was supposed to be. I know, because I was there when it started, about workplace harassment that arrested a woman's career. You know, she wasn't allowed to move forward in her career unless she slept with the boss or someone who was her superior. That's what Harvey Weinstein was doing to women. That's what Les Moonvez was doing to women. That is what Roger Ayles was accused of doing in a different way, although he, in my experience, did not punish people's career if he didn't sleep with him.

He just kind of wanted you to sleep with him. That's kind of a different thing a little. But in any event, this is more like we had a bad relationship and he was kind of a douche. I mean, that's, you know, I'm not sure if that's really where we want to take our politics, Sean. I was quoting when the Ken Paxton win happened last Tuesday, Heather McDonald, the great Heather McDonald, who has been saying for a long time now that we don't want to make eros the stakes of our elections because I'm not excusing anything here, any of the allegations,

but her basic premise is men and women are hot for each other. It's kind of how we keep the human race alive. And it is built in to the male psyche to pursue a woman. And this is her talking about sort of more of in the office setting and how like it's actually not all that unusual to see a man go after a woman, even if she works for him, because that's where you find women. You know, like that's where you spend all your hours at the workplace. I don't know what Heather would say about this, but I get the point, which is, do we want to make the field of Eros, the stakes for whether we elect a candidate, male, female, Democrat, or Republican?

Yeah, I think the reality is in politics, and we can lose sight of this, is that politicians are tools. Okay, so you elect them to go do certain things and represent you in a certain way. And at the end of the day, that's kind of like what you're voting for. you're not voting for a pastor, you're not voting for a next door neighbor, you're voting for someone who's going to do what you want them to do in office. And we are always treated to this perennial thing where people kind of just want to avoid that reality. So we turn into, well, this person's an adulterer. Oh, yeah, well, that person's a raper. Okay, well, yeah, but that person's a racist.

I would say the Democrats are extremely utilitarian when it comes to their politicians. They want them to do what they want them to do. So I have no doubt that they're just going to be like, you know, Grand Platner or whatever, he said some stuff. We're going to excuse it. You had Trump famously say that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and people would still support him. I think that's probably true. I would like to say one thing about some of the comments that Platner allegedly made about rape where he reportedly said that if someone broke into his house, he would rape them, but not in a gay way, but in a dominant way. Okay. So he stole a bit from the comedian. and Jay Moore. I don't know if we're familiar with Jay Moore. He was on Saturday Night Live. The blonde guy from... Yeah. He does... Is Jay Moore they got the blonde guy from the Tom Cruise movie? Yeah, yeah. Jerry McGuire? He, and he does... He's the one who fired him. Yeah, you're fired. It's real. You should deal with it. He does the single greatest Christopher Walken impression on Earth, but he's also a stand-up comedian. He did a bit that Graham Platner took almost word for word, except Jay Moore at the

end says, you know, I would do it, but not in a gay way. I'd be like a Viking. So, But in this instance, it's Platner trying to sound tough and cool and dominant. And he's just ripping off a line from a comedian, which I find just so embarrassing. I haven't seen anyone else discuss it. But I'm a big J. Moore fan. And so when I read that New York Times article, I was like, this guy, what an idiot. Like, he's such a pathetic tri-hard. He's not threatening to really rape somebody.

But he is a plagiarist. Yes. He's an embarrassing poser is what he is. We got to go find those remarks. If we find them, we'll drop them in. Here's the other thing, Sarab. Sean began by mentioning Sheldon White House and what he did to Kavanaugh. And, you know, even though now, as I read the tweet, he's kind of like,

eh, as I see it, this is just, and this woman, Lindsay, she has worked in right-wing politics. She worked for the heritage organization. And, but like, I don't get the point because she also dated a Democrat, Graham Platner. Like, are we, what is she? So she's, now she's going to make up. a bunch of things about the, I don't think so. I feel like her work history is irrelevant. And she reportedly did tell friends about the alleged abuse. She's complaining that the Times didn't treat those as verifications at all and also had contemporaneous notes about it at a time before he was

running for anything. So that would qualify as, you know, helpful proof that what she was saying actually happened to her. But in any event, Sheldon Whitehouse doesn't think any of this is a big deal when she should move on. Here's Sheldon White House. when Pete Hegseth got accused. The question of whether Hegseth raped this woman or not is not answered by the failure of prosecutors to charge him. We've had quite enough of men shoved by Republicans into high office after investigations

into women's claims of sexual misconduct were stifled or corrupted. Those are his tweets from November 2024. And now he's sounding quite the different tune when it comes to his side. I mean, like the rank hypocrisy is a bit much. to swallow, So rep. I think the charge point is very important.

Like, in so many of these cases, if the behavior rose to a level that would have merited a criminal complaint, why didn't the people in question do it? Or in the case of Hexeth, I mean, I think it is important that, you know, she went to the police and the police ultimately decided not to indict now Secretary of War. So, yeah, look, in terms of the hypocrisy, it's really disgusting. And there's a case to be made for Sean's view, which is unless we mutually learn that this kind of thing

destroys each other, we won't stop doing it. So maybe the answer is this kind of mutually assured destruction. And then we can make a piece about these sorts of accusations. At some point, one of the dogs has to stop peeing on the fire hydrant. Like, it just can't go on forever. One's going to have to stand down.

Okay, we have more on this. I didn't get to any of Graham's on. on-camera denials, which I will play when we come back from the break, and much, much more. Don't go away. So, Saurav and Sean, stay with us. Feeling sluggish, bloated, not quite like yourself, life constantly bombards us with silent threats. Process foods, artificial light, non-stop stress, all of which can disrupt gut health, drain energy, and weaken immune health.

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Armra, and they have a special deal for you. Go to armora.com slash Megan, or just enter Megan, M-E-G-Y-N, to get 30% off when you check out of your first subscription order. That's A-R-M-R-A.com slash Megan. Back with me now, Saurabamari of Unheard and Sean Davis of the Federalist. Just a couple of good pieces of sound to show you. So again, this is Sheldon White House. Not to pick on him, because I'm sure there's other Democrats who agree with him, but he says this whole thing seems like a lot of nothing about Graham Platner. I mean, the only one who had anything to say that seems unsettling was a woman who works for right-wing political operations.

Here he was, and let's not forget, Christine Blasey Ford came forward with the help of Democrat lawmakers and their attorneys. I mean, she didn't come forward just like a babe in the woods like, gee, I have this allegation. I'd like people to know. It was completely handled and shepherded by top Democrat operatives. Sheldon, did he have a problem with that? Did he say, you know what, Ms. Blasey Ford at these hearings?

I've got questions about you because it seems like you did some work or are being shepherded by left-wing political operations. Let's check in on what he said. I believe Dr. Ford. I may be wrong, but I believed her. And I believe Kavanaugh dodged and dissembled, ranted and raved, filibustered and prevaricated. I did not find him credible. I don't believe Booth is flatulence.

I don't believe the devil's triangle is a drinking game. And I don't believe calling yourself a girl's alumnius is being her friend. It's the least thing a sexual assault victim is entitled to when she comes forward. You cannot tell me Ms. Ford's allegations weren't credible. They were credible enough to get her before the Senate. And yet she was not given the most basic, decent thing that a witness or victim could be given after they come forward. Sincere or thorough investigation. Guys, sensing an inconsistency here, Sean, that we feel the need to point out.

Can you believe that? And Christine Blasie Ford, like, that was an obvious hit. Okay, whatever. She gave a testimonial that had some compelling aspects to it. But she was a clear liar operative being handled by Democrat lawmakers and their staffs. But, you know, he believes her. She was very compelling in his view.

We have, Megan. She said the whole memory was indelible in her hippocampus. If you remember that line from her testimony, she couldn't remember where it happened or when it happened or who was there, but it was indelible in her hippo campus. I actually would like... I did forget that. I'd like to give, you know,

a metaphorical tip of the hat to a White House for giving like a textbook, classic example of just ridiculous sophistry and begging the question. You know, well, if she's not credible,

then why am I treating her like she is? Like, is that somehow some like slam dunk argument? Well, if she weren't credible, why would we be listening to her allegations? And the thing is, Sheldon White House didn't believe any of it. I actually respect him too much to believe that he believed

any of that nonsense. You know, he believed that it was useful to him. He didn't like Brett Kavanaugh, because Brett Kavanaugh was not going to rule the way he wanted. And so this was a convenient way to take a guy down who is otherwise without blemage, you know, total Boy Scout and flawless. And, you know, the joke is when you have the facts, argue the facts, when you have the law, argue the law, and when you have neither argue like hell. What I think the new political, uh, corollaries when you have neither, you know, just accuse people of rape or racism. And so, like, we all see what they did. We all see what's going on. And again, I think if we're going to end this business of, like, which trial by rape accusation, either everyone has to agree we're not

going to do it anymore because it's ridiculous or there has to be some sort of mutually assured destruction. They've set the ground rules and now we're going to follow them. Sorry, Sheldon, that's how it works. Yes, I so agree with that. It's like, I've been at this long enough and been involved in like these testimonials. It's one thing. A lot of the Me Too stuff was not about politics at all and therefore I think a lot more believable, to be honest. Though not in all cases. Sometimes you just have a woman who's out to get somebody. You know, she's pissed off about a bad relationship or what have you. But the thing is, aren't we getting kind of used, to the 11th hour big expose by the New York Times or the New Yorker that tries to bring a man down

with a parade of women who've got some not so nice allegations about. I mean, it's like, I hope Susan Collins wins this race. I really do. I'm not a Susan Collins fan, but I want the Republicans to keep control of the Senate. And this guy over on Team Blue is talking about adding seats to the U.S. Supreme Court. So it's a no. I would never vote for him. Like, that's just no.

But we've seen this playbook so many times, you know. And before I get you to respond, let me just. play a little of Graham Platner because he deserves to appear here a little. Sot two. This is him on Chris Hayes MS now last night. There are some allegations in this piece that I just want to be kind of unequivocal about are simply not true. Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was,

these are the statements of someone who's politically motivated. In this piece, there's a lot about my struggling, not being a good boyfriend, certainly self-medicating with alcohol. And I've been very upfront since the beginning of this campaign. That was a pretty dark period of my life after I came back from my combat service. And that's what that kind of life looks like. And so there are things in this that I absolutely will take responsibility for and have been speaking about openly for months now.

But those serious allegations are just not true. You did not grab her by the wrist. you did not put your hands on her shoulders. You did not push her into a room that you close the door on. She's lying about that is what you're saying. Yes, that is not true. I don't think he helped himself there. Honestly, like, I don't.

There's no way she's lying about the tattoo. Lindsay Fifeld came forward and said, we knew what that tattoo was she was sleeping with him for two years. You're going to tell me that, like, there was never pillow talk of, hey, what's that huge tat? on your, you know, front left, right peck, it looks kind of like this Nazi symbol. And she knew there's emails from her in the August before he came out that October and was forced to admit, okay, that's what it is, where she's like acknowledging that it's a totin,

whatever. I don't even know what it is. That's not my thing. But I don't have tattoos and I didn't get one of a Nazi symbol, so I wouldn't know. In any event, there's proof that he knew it in her correspondence, or at least his lover knew it. And I don't believe his denial on that. Anyway, back to the principal question. So, I have your thoughts on it.

Yeah. So first of all, that footage from Senator Whitehouse's statements at the, at the Kavanaugh hearings is, is just with such a, it's such a throwback. It was pre-COVID in 2019 or 2018. I can't remember exactly. 18. 18. And it also brought back the classic line, I like beer. I like to drink beer.

from the justice himself. Like, what a thing we live through as a nation. What's happening. But look, to go to the principle of it, I think there is deeper repair to be done in the culture, which I think Generation Z is actually grasping at, which is the sexual ethic that we, you know, Gen Xers, millennials, et cetera, inherited from the boomers was not a healthy sexual ethic, right? And I think that work needs to be done.

But in the absence of that, lots and lots of people who are damaged by the kind of relationship and sexual ethic that just says autonomy is all that matters and consent is the only barrier. And you can, if you gave consent at the time, but then came to regret it, you can relitigate that by ruining someone's life alleging this and that. That all needs a sort of deep repair. And that's the work of our religious institutions. It's the work of pastors and priests. and rabbi and so on. That is as a long-term project, and I think that shouldn't be lost here,

that all, Graham Platner and his girlfriends, whatever the veracity of their various allegations, are all kind of thrown into this culture that we created over the, we all collectively, over the several decades. And I don't want to lose sight of that. We need to change that because otherwise, the only way for people who feel like they're powerless

to vindicate themselves, because there aren't these larger support structures, family, and formation of durable bonds between men and women and so on, the only way that you can vindicate yourself is through the kind of jacques, like I accuse you of harassment, of racism, of this and that. And that also works out in the workplace. I mean, these are broken, these are symptoms of a broken culture.

But until then, I mean, I'm with you, Megan. More and more, I just think, like, we're used to this kind of thing. Sorry, it does feel political. I think it is relevant that, that, Ms. Fifeield is, you know, she works with the independent women's forum, which is a think thing, by the way I like a write-up center one. She's worked with numerous Republican super PACs. That's not negligible in the same way that, you know, Christine Blasey Ford's emergence

wasn't like, it's relevant. It's relevant. You're not wrong. It wasn't spontaneous. But I, I would say, like, I believe her. I don't think she's making it up because of her politics. I mean, if her politics were such a deal breaker for her when it comes to, you know, the men in her life, she wouldn't have been with this guy.

Yeah, but also, I mean, in fairness, I'm not sure he was a Democrat back then. Yeah. I don't know what he was back then. Yeah. But so the larger point, though, is, you know, I think I think that there's flaws in a lot of these allegations in so far as the Times is going out of its way to say, I think in more than one instance or in different language that it couldn't independently corroborate them, it's possible that other accusers will come forward and that's part of the process.

but what we've seen so far, you know, my gut tells me it's predictable. And I think barring more, I think he'll survive this. I mean, I have to say I feel bad for Lindsay because it sounds like she was told that there were going to be all these other accusers in there. And then there weren't. And that she showed the times her diary entries, which is pretty courageous and potentially humiliating for a woman. And then they're like, there was no way to corroborate. any of it. And she's like, what do you mean? You asked me for, if I had any corroboration, I pointed you to friends who said that they could corroborate that I told them at the time.

And then they told me that they did speak to you, Times reporters, but they weren't quoted in the piece. And all you do say is it was not corroboratable, which is, you know, it's very annoying. And it does, one does wonder whether the standard would have been a little lower had he been a Republican. I'm sorry that, like, we looked into these two particular reporters. And I knew the names were familiar, here's just what came to mind. It was written by Katie Glouick and Lisa Lerrer, L-E-R-E-R. Both are political reporters. This Lisa Lererer in the New York Times in July of 2023, this is just one small thing. I'm not complaining. It's just a color. They were writing up something about my interview with Ron DeSantis at the time, and they write, Lisa Lerererr writes,

Mr. DeSantis told the right-leaning commentator, Megan Kelly, noting that Mr. B. B. and became a senator in 73, five years before DeSantis was born. He's talking about how old he was. Okay, so she feels the need to point out, I'm right-leaning. I'm a right-leaning commentator. Just journalist is fine. You don't have to describe me one way or another. And here is how she had referred to other journalists. Jake Tapper of CNN, MSNBC's Laurence O'Donnell, Anderson Cooper of CNN, Martha Radditz of ABC. Notice something missing? Okay, so that's Lisa Lerrer's bias coming out loud and clear in that piece, but if you're a leftist, you wouldn't see it. Only the right wing knows what they do to us.

We always have to have a label on us to diminish us. So the reader knows, this is not a good person. Like, we have to tolerate this person making news for today, but we clearly don't like it. Or were you going to say so? Yeah, the most condescending thing that the Times does is when they cite, especially if it's a right of center journal where they'll say, which is totally well known. every no one knows what it is, but they'll be like, the federalist, comma, a right-leaning journal, you know, as though it's this obscure thing, you know, like the Megan Kelly show, a right-wing podcast.

Exactly. And they never do it for the others. Yeah, they do this on purpose because they want to get credit for having covered a story, but they need to contextualize it in a way to tell their left-wing readers they don't have to pay attention to it. So when you put that qualifier in, they're saying, They're signaling, hey, hey, we're going to say that we covered our bases here, but you don't have to pay attention to any of it because this person's a right-wing loony. It's why you never see the left-wing descriptor. It's always only right-wing. They're creating the permission structure for their own readers to ignore it. And they think we don't notice what they're doing. Exactly. And if you're on the right-wing, you notice they do it all the time and they only do it for one side. All right, now, how about her co-author, this gal, Katie Gluick. Katie Gluick, this is what we actually once reported on her after she wrote the following article in 2024 about Fannie Willis, who some of us in the evil right wing had pegged all along and correctly identified as a grifter who would ultimately be disqualified from the prosecution of Donald Trump because she couldn't

keep it in her pants saying that probably doesn't really apply to women, but you get the picture and has a bunch of other problems now coming her way too. It's a bunch of other allegations against her. is how Katie saw the problems for Fannie Willis. Why the case against Fannie Willis feels familiar to black women. Okay. So that's what we're dealing with on these two reporters. And I feel bad because Lindsay Fifeld is now beating herself up online saying, I never should trust these two. You know, like they made me assurances and I made assurances to other women. And it turns out they used me. And I get why she's pissed today. Just don't trust the New York Times. And honestly,

if I were Lindsay and these other gals and I wanted to speak and she's got these other two gals, I would do it direct to cam, you know, like remove the middle, the middleman. And certainly if the middleman is the New York Times, just do it. Go all three of you. On Kim, you can come here, or you could just do it direct to cam and your own podcast or camera, web cam. But don't trust the New York Times for something like this involving a Democrat politician and a Senate seat in Maine that both parties really want. Okay, I want to keep going. now this week in the trial of Carmelo Anthony, the 17-year-old down in Texas, who happens to be black, who stabbed a 17-year-old named Austin Metcalf in the heart, who happened to be white,

and killed him. We've had jury selection. We've had the jury impaneled. We've had opening statements, and now we're in the midst of witness testimony in this trial, which is moving along quite a clip. The latest outrage is that no black people, made it onto the jury of 12. And some, because Carmelho Anthony's defenders are already trying to make this about race, you know, that somehow he got arrested because of race or he was targeted by Austin Metcalfe because of race.

Zero evidence of that. Zero. There's not even something that they can exploit and make something out of. Literally nothing has been said about race. There's no dynamic about race. There's no allegations that Austin Metcalfe was in any way a racist or had ever said racist things to Carmelo or anybody else. Nothing. Nothing.

However, you know, these loons on the left who want to make everything about race are going to do what they're going to do and they're doing it here. So they're very, very angry that are no black jurors. But it turns out, Sean, the reason there are no black jurors is because several of the black jurors in voir dire explicitly said they could never put a brother in jail. Okay? You'll get bounced every time for that. And the last remaining three who were in running were all educators. And I think a lot of prosecution, a lot of prosecutors would balance an educator fearful that they wouldn't have the stomach to convict in a case like this that involves a teenager, a 17-year-old, right? They may be looking at him too sympathetically. And also because

this is, this happened at a school. So they think they're the experts, they're the mini-expert. No lawyer really wants the self-described expert on his or her jury. You know, you want the jury to look at you and your witnesses is the expert and not to have three self-declared ones taking over. So this is all legit, but they're already setting it up on team defense for some sort of like the fix is in because it's all whites, a judging a black man. Your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, it's sadly predictable. I mean, the facts are so stacked against Anthony in this. He was in a place he had no business being in. He was asked to leave. He didn't leave. they, you know, get into an altercation of words and then he decides he needs to stab this guy.

You know, it was self-defense. Now, I've done a lot of self-defense classes. If anyone's ever been to a concealed carry class, you get this rammed into your brain. Then when it comes to self-defense, proportionality is a really, really key element. If you are walking around as like a gun owner or a concealed carry holder and you have a firearm on you, and someone comes up to you and says, hey, I'm going to punch you in the face, you're not allowed to shoot. that person. That is not allowed to be a kind of proportional deadly force. You weren't at risk at that point. If someone comes in, you know, roughly same size and, you know, just kind of sucker punches you

or punches you in the stomach, you're also not allowed to go and stab that person or shoot them. Again, proportionality is a really, really important thing. And the facts here, this claim that it was in self-defense that he was in fear of his life is nonsense. The defense knows it's nonsense. And so what I think they're trying to do is create this new kind of OJ dynamic where they want to completely racialize it and either somehow get him off by making sure they have people on the jury who sympathize with him racially or they want to be able to contextualize it or get it thrown out on appeal. It wasn't a jury of his peers. I think it's absolute nonsense. You know, it seems to have been an unprovoked fatal, deadly attack. And they don't have the facts with them.

They don't have the law with them. so now they just have to cry racism. That's the thing. So provocation is relevant here. It was unprovoked by Austin Metcalf, but it was provoked by Carmelo Anthony. You know, Carmelo Anthony, according to the police report, went over to him.

Well, Austin said, get out of our tent. I mean, it's come out in the trial that there were multiple tents at the track meet for multiple schools. And you were supposed to stand, if at all, under the tent for your school. and not somebody else's school. And the tents were predominantly for the athletes to come back to in between, like, meets.

So understandably, you wouldn't want, you know, the rival school under your tent, and nobody was doing that. But what they testified to was Carmelo Anthony's school didn't have a tent. So it's possible he was wandering there in good faith. I don't know. I'm not sure I didn't hear the testimony firsthand yet. But it could be that he was in the wrong place and didn't realize he shouldn't be. but he was told by Austin Metcalfe to leave the tent, and there was testimony by a coach

that he had told Austin Metcalfe, like, you be a leader, you know, keep things in order in here, which would include keeping out rival teams representatives, and that he had gone over to Carmelo Anthony and told him to leave, and it was the equivalent of make me, and he said, you know,

why don't you put your hands on me and see, like, see if you can make me? And that Austin Metcalfe did put hands on Carmelo Anthony, in some way, shape or form, like there's been testimony that he grabbed him or he may have pushed him. He didn't punch him. No one's even alleging a punch. And then the next thing you know, he got stabbed through the heart. So there was provocation, but it was by the defendant. And the self-defense law doesn't allow that. You can't provoke someone to hit you in the face and then react with deadly force and claim self-defense. First of all, only deadly force against you can be met with deadly force.

To your point, Sean, that's very clear. And second, of all, even if Austin Metcalf had, like, pulled a knife, there'd be a question about whether Carmelo Anthony could argue self-defense because he provoked him. You can't provoke the person to attack you and then say, I was doing self-defense when you provoked him. But here's something even more interesting. Yesterday in the defense's opening statement for Carmelo Anthony, the lawyer said the following thing. He said, that Anthony made a split-second decision out of fear. In that split-second mellow, which I guess is what they call Carmelo, has a decision to make,

how and when to act. He said self-defense is useless if you wait too late to defend yourself. He reacts in a split second of fear, chaos. And to me, Sorab, it almost sounds like they're getting ready to argue, mistaken self-defense where they may be getting ready to argue, okay, it wasn't like perfect self-defense where he truly was under threat from Austin Metcalf. They may be getting ready to argue he believed he was about to get attacked by Austin Metcalf. Mistakenly, I thought he had a knife. I thought he had a weapon. I was mistaken. And in Texas, I looked it up. That's imperfect self-defense.

you often see it when you have a defense of others defense. So it's like, you know, I shot the man in the red jacket. Why? He wasn't coming toward you. Well, because I thought he was attacking that woman. No, he was only kissing her. Oh, I was wrong. That's imperfect self-defense. Sorry, that's imperfect defense of others. And this may be imperfect self-defense. We're like, I thought he was going to attack me with a knife, but he didn't. And in Texas, if that's your argument, you can only downgrade it to involuntary manslaughter. You can't get a not guilty. in if that's your defense. So I don't know if that's what they're going for. It's kind of interesting if that's what they're going for. But you tell me whether a Texas jury is going to look at any of this. I mean, they say that this Carmelo Anthony had good grades, was an upstanding student, you know, came from a nice family, though that nice family's now playing the race card in a way that's very despicable. You know, what are the odds they're going to look at this kid and want to lock him up for the rest of his life? I don't know if it's reasonable, I guess, you know, to think about, you know, someone is coming at you,

they've asked you to leave a place and you are put in such danger that it justifies you pulling a knife and stabbing them in the heart. You know, I don't, look, I mean, there's the legal standard of, you know, in perfect self-defense or just self-defense. And then there's the facts of this case. And I just don't, you know, I ain't a big city lawyer. But I don't see how that those thresholds can be met by Carmelo. It just seems like a pretty open-shut case to me, right? Someone tells you to leave. You say, well, make me the person approaches you,

even if they put an arm on you to escort you out or to sort of thrust you out, is in any possible universe, is it a reasonable response to stab them in the heart? So like and what, you know, again, like with the black jurors, like what, what difference would, would that make? Like, it's, again, I think here's my bottom line is most people following the facts of this case would conclude that this is a pretty open and shut case. And these all seem pretty like desperate lawyers maneuvers. I can't blame the lawyers. It's their duty to, you know, offer the best possible representation they can. And they are obviously every possible thing they can throw.

But I'm sorry. It just seems like it's over. before I agree with you. All right, I know, Sean, you've got to go. We'll say goodbye to you and so. I have you guys, thank you both so much for coming on. I hope to see you again soon. I want to just tell the audience that this just came in

as we were finishing up our discussion. This is just an update from the trial because it's underway right now via the Daily Mail. Police body cam footage played in court today, captured Hunter, who is Austin's identical twin, who was there. Oh, so awful. Anguished Christ.

where he exclaimed, oh my God, he's my best friend, he's my brother, before hysterically shouting, I can't do this as Austin lay dying. Oh, that's so awful. As the footage was played in court on Friday, Metcalf's sister, I'm sorry, as the footage was played in court on Friday, Metcalf's killer, Carmelo Anthony sat motionless. Hunter was not in the courtroom at the time. What an authentic, real, awful statement. I can't do this. That really resonates. When something's happening to you, that's truly awful and the loss of a loved one in particular, I can't do this, right?

It's like, no. That's your instinct to say when something awful happens to someone you deeply love. Like, it's a no. No, no. I reject it. And yet the reality becomes clear. The knife was shown in court. Photographs were shown to the jurors depicting a knife with a black blade and a silver handle.

Blood could be seen running down the weapon. in, obviously, this is a photograph, which investigators suggested may have been affected by the rain falling that afternoon. Prosecutors later displayed the knife itself in court. Anthony, who wore a navy suit with a white shirt to court today, remained motionless, staring straight ahead as the evidence was presented to the jury. It's a very tough haul for him. I really think it should have worked on a plea. I don't see a good outcome coming his way. I don't know. This is one of the mysteries about this case and why it's interesting is what makes, again, what is reportedly, we don't know, but reportedly otherwise a good kid, stab another good kid in the heart over a dispute about who can stand under which tent. I mean, when I first heard that story, I just assumed he came from a broken family or he had some sort of abuse in his life or something to create someone with a hair trigger.

and like a very disproportionate sense of, you know, quote, justice, that hasn't really been the reporting on him. And I don't know, it's one of the really most disturbing things about this, because you'd really like to think that our society has an order to it and that other than a crazy person, your average kid will obey the order where we don't stab each other in the heart over being told you have to leave this tent. could be diminishing, could be insulting, could make you feel, why is he sending me out of here? I get all that. It's kind of like a road rage incident. You feel something's been personalized where someone's done something to you. You can't risk somebody's life. You can't take somebody's life.

I want to know more about Carmelo Anthony. That's where I am. Okay. Coming up next, we turn the page and interview for the first time here in the MK show, mega-selling author James Patterson and wait until you see who he's bringing with him. Little mystery. You'll see it next. If you are heading into summer without a medical emergency kit, you are taking a risk most people don't even think about until it's too late. Summer colds linger and can turn into sinus infections that last for weeks. Getting sick right before

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I've got some exciting news. I now have my very own channel on Sirius XM. It's called the Megan Kelly Channel, and it is where you will hear the truth, unfiltered, with no agenda, and no apologies. Along with the Megan Kelly show, you're going to hear from people like

Mark Halperin, Link Lauren, Corrin, Callahan, Emily Dyshinsky, Jesse Kelly, Real Clear Politics, and many more. It's bold, no BS news, only on the Megan Kelly channel, SiriusXM 11, and on the SiriusXM app. Joining me now for the first time on The MK Show is James Patterson, truly one of the bestselling authors of all time. He's had more than 100 New York Times bestselling novels.

He has sold more than 400 million books across the globe. I mean, that's just, it's insane. His work ranges from his iconic thriller novels to nonfiction investigative books to young adult series. His latest book is an action thriller centered on America's national security. just in time for our 250th anniversary, and his co-author is equally interesting. It's Matt Evertsman, a legend in his own right. Matt is a decorated U.S. Army First Sergeant best known for his leadership during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, which was chronicled in the hit film Blackhawk down. Their new novel, Rockets Red Glare, is out June 8th and available for pre-order right now. James, Matt,

Welcome to the show. Great to have you. Thank you. Good to be had. Thanks for, thanks for having us. This is awesome. Oh, the pleasure is all mine. All right, James, let me start with you because I learned a lot about you in preparation for today that I did not know. Like your father, here's the line, grew up in a poor house in Newburgh, New York. What does that mean? What does that mean? Literally, it was like in Newburgh, they had a place where essentially people who are homeless would be. And his

mother, my grandmother, who I never met, she was a charwoman. So she cleaned the bathrooms and the kitchen. And they got a room in the basement. And my father's a bright guy and he got an orphan's, because his father had disappeared, orphan

scholarship. And yeah, so that's what the Pogi was, the courthouse. Wow. So you came from nothing in terms of money or connections. Yeah, that has no real effect. I mean, I can take any kudos for that. The thing about my grandmother on my mother's side and my mother is they were the ones that really, you know, my grandmother was, you can do anything. She said you're not going to play in the NBA. So forget about that stupid dream, because you can't go to your left that well.

But anything else you can do, including writing books. But you weren't a writer up until like, well, it sounds like you graduated. You were around 17, 18. You were an avid reader. And then went to work at a psychiatric hospital. I did. I worked at McLean Hospital. Still, still up there in Belmont, Mass. It was a terrific place to grow up. I wasn't a big reader when I went there. I was a good student in high school and college or whatever. And then I had a lot of free time. I worked a lot of nights just started reading, reading, reading, and fell in love with it and fell in love with writing. I just started scribbling all these stories. And I loved it. And that's why I say, you know, to this day, I don't work for a living. I play for a living because I don't.

I love writing stories. Yeah, and that's why you do it so well. Also, fun fact, at the psychiatric hospital, you met a man by the name of James Taylor. You did. Pre-fame singing like fire and rain in the cafeteria? He had just written that one and was like, he was a patient there,

as was his brother, live and his sister Kate. They were all patients. And James, obviously, James was having a different kinds of problems. And he wasn't famous at that point. and he did sing in the the small cafeteria he would sing Fire and Rain and Sweet Baby James

and these songs which at that point had not been released and then a year later about a year and a half later he got out and he got picked up by the Beatles label

Apple and they released that first album which became a monster hit yeah but it was Were you just flabbergasted that the guy

who used to sing in the psychiatric hospital turned out to be this guy James Taylor yeah once again don't think of it like some crazy house like one flew over the cuckus nest it was it was mainly i just a lot of people having problems and uh you know and i and i and i grew up there a lot i you know once again newberg

is a little provincial and all of a sudden i'm dealing with people from all over the world uh some rich ones um you know and interesting folks and uh and also i you know as they said i i just started writing a lot of short stories yep and that's what you have to do to become a great writer write right right and more writing yeah well Before I bring Matt in, one other point. You had a stint in advertising. Yeah, but I've been cleaned for over 30 years. Come on, Megan.

Give me a break. But we got to talk about it because James Taylor was not the only one who could do something with music. People, you know the jingle. You just didn't know you had James Patterson to thank for it. I'm a Toys R Uskin. Here it is, not 51. Here is. I don't want to grow up.

Five Toys R Uskin. They got a million toys that toys are rusted. I can play with I don't want to grow up. I'm a Toys R Us kid. They got the best for so much kids. You'll really flip your lid. Dunfights to trades to be. The biggest toy store there is.

Gee whiz. I don't want to grow up because be a Toys R Us kid. Once a Toys R Us Kid. Always a Toys R Us Kid. Do I thank you or condemn you? No, I think thank. It's a nice song. It's, you know, buying kids up to a point.

Toys is a good thing. My friend Linda Kaplan wrote the song, great, wonderful songwriter, and da-da-da-da. It was fun to do. Wow. And then as if that wasn't enough success, you moved on and accomplished all I said and more in the writing film. And you're probably feeling really good about yourself until you met Matt and saw his resume. As portrayed, as I said, in the book and then film Blackhawk down in which we pulled a clip played by Josh Hartnett.

He's not as good looking as Matt I might point out. Very clearly. I'm glad you pointed it out. Here is the clip in which it's your goodbye speech to your fallen comrade, Corporal Smith. Let's watch, Sot 58. You know, a friend of mine asked me before I got here. Just from him, we were all shipping out, he asked me, why are you going to fight somebody else's war?

What do you all think you're here? I don't know what to say at the time, but if you asked me again, I'd say, no. I'd say there's no way in hell. Nobody asks to be a hero. Sometimes turns out that way. I'm going to talk to your mom and dad when I get home, okay? Amazing. They do not let just anybody become a U.S. Army Ranger.

That is tough stuff. And never mind, go through what you guys went through. In Black Hawk Down, thank you for your service and for everything you've done for the country. Well, Megan, thank you. Very kind of you to say. and appreciate you having us on today. Of course, of course. So not only, I mean, it's great.

Like James sold 400 million books, but you have the Bronze Star Medal with Valor and the Combat Infantry Men's badge, Army Service Ribbon, National Defense Service Ribbon, eight Army Achievement Medals, four Army Commendation Medals and more. You've also sold a bunch of books successfully in addition to your military service. And now, this is perfect.

All that background sets up perfectly why the two of you decided to coordinate on this, Rockets Red Glair. just in time for the 4th of July. So Matt, tell me why? What is this, why should people be reading this as we go to the July 4th holiday? You know, it's a great segue into this, you know, with celebration of the 250th anniversary of this great, unbelievably brilliant country of ours. And, you know, there's a fun way, truly, I think, to kind of get in that spirit. When I say, fun, listen, it's an action thriller. And it's about, you know, a really talented group of men and

women that that rise to the occasion to protect us on our own shores. And that, I think, just the theme of the patriotism and the valor. And of course, the intrigue all rise into a good, a good beach read. But it's fun. And I think it does support this notion, again, of men and women that serve our country so bravely and admirably, literally any chance they get. And I think that's that's sort of in a nutshell, how it plays out for us. James, one of the things that's good about it is it happens here on our shores and the military has to defend us against a nefarious enemy who's attacking us in various ways and across various cities. And so that's the thing that America's really dread, right? Like the thought that,

like, what came across the border? Do we know exactly who's here? What's going on with the potholes? How could we be attacked in the homeland in a way that doesn't make those oceans feel like the, you know, comfortable cushion that we think they are. Yeah, and also, I mean, like what's going on right now, you create enemies. And this is tricky. That's what happened with 9-11. We do things, and sometimes there's payback in a big way. And that's something obviously.

We have to protect ourselves against that, for sure. In the book, one of the themes that comes out, and this is, I don't know, you tell me, at if this is like ripped from the headlines, but there's presidential campaign, there's secret service who come under attack. And I mean, there's just been so much of that, like, over the past couple of years with Trump and the repeated assassination attempts and Secret Service in the news, like seemingly every other week. Do you guys, do you pay attention to that when you're writing books like this? Or how does that work into your thought process? Begating, if I can just jump in on that, I will tell you, this has been a long time in the

making in the writing. And a lot of this, believe it or not, actually was kicked around and jotted down years before this current administration. So interestingly enough, though, what it just points out is, you know, every one of these stories starts with a what if. And for somebody to say like, oh, that could never happen, you know, fill in the blank, whatever it is, it's, I'm here to tell you, it actually will. People said, you know, Black Hawk down, that event on October 3rd and 4th, 1993 will never happen again, anomaly. and yet it does happen. You know, combat is very ugly and it's very real. These things do happen.

So the nutshell of it, I can answer your question, I think, is this covers Cold War stuff. This is GWAT stuff. This is a regular warfare stuff. And anyone that says it couldn't happen is delusional, literally, and fooling themselves. So, you know, that's kind of the throwback answer is that if you can think it, it really kind of, because in real life, that's what our enemies do. Like, if they can think it, don't do it. Well, and I don't know. I feel like one of the things, like there's some, I don't want to give

anything away, but there's like some top lawmakers who, shall we say, become very endangered. It does make you wonder how prepared we would be, God forbid, there were an attack on the homeland, Matt, right? Like, it raises natural questions because I, my own feeling is less than we'd like to be. Absolutely. You know, Megan, if you, and I don't need to speak all the doctor's here.

We cannot protect this country, honestly. I mean, we can react and we can do the best we can. And we are, you know, you read a little segment before about a boy, killing another boy and stabbing him in the heart. And we are in that period of anything goes. We're also where, I think, more than ever, there are people who don't care if they live or die. They just don't care that much.

They've gotten to that point in their lives. and that makes it just more dangerous than I think that it's ever been in a lot of ways. But definitely, as Matt said, if you can think it, somebody's capable of doing it. There was, you know, even here in New York City, there was, I'm not in New York, but near, that woman fell through the manhole a couple of weeks ago. It was awful. Yeah. And then across, in another country, there was.

Weirdly, I knew her. China. I can't remember. Isn't that weird? What? I knew that woman. How? She's right up here in Westchester. Yeah, she was. Dizarre. I'm sorry, go ahead.

Oh. Yeah. No, no, it was just so disturbing. This poor woman just stepped out of her car and fell into an open manhole, which should never be there, but was. And then we saw, I saw video on the internet. It was overseas. It was in some Asian country. I think it might have been in China, but somebody's walking along and steps on the manhole and, like, that goes down. And it does make you think about vulnerabilities. Like, there are a lot of them that we don't think about every day. But let's, face it, usually the people who are thinking about them aren't really the top Army Rangers. It's like bureaucrats, you know, who are underpaid and overworked. And the next thing you know, maybe because of what we let happen at the border or some other clever means, the bad guys are here and we're really vulnerable, especially if we're fighting overseas doing something we shouldn't be doing, in my view. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And Megan, if I could just throw something really quick into that comment and all you're saying, absolutely correct, big country, so much to protect, impossible even. But if there's good news in it, and this in real life, we have got such a force of stout, tough American men and women that maybe they're reacting, but they'll do a job for it, as we've seen in real life, real time, and witnessed on real battlefields. And I think in this book, again, you know, you do get to see this, hey, man, when you're on the ropes, good, good people, everyday people, can stand up in there. Yeah, I mean, the other thing, Megan, and this is sort of cornball, but it's true, to protect against a lot of this stuff, to some extent, we have to start rowing in the same direction better than we have been.

Because the way it's working right now, we're just, well, we're rowing in 20 different directions, and the boat just spins. And it doesn't, that doesn't really help, but that doesn't protect us. It doesn't do anything that we like to. It just waste a lot of money. We looked this up just because you guys are coming on about American pride. And this is a headline in the New York Post just two days ago. Fewer than one in five Democrats feel proud to be American ahead of the birthday, the 250th, compared to two and three Republicans.

But that's still lower for Republicans than it's been. 68% said they feel proud of the country. It used to be much, much higher on both sides. but this decrease in national pride is depressing James Patterson. What are we supposed to do about that? We just need, somehow we need leadership. I don't just mean president, but just in general where more people are sort of nodding their head as opposed to shaking their heads. Hopefully will.

One of the things about this country we've been pretty good about doing is when things sort of going the wrong way, we tend to have a ton of rebalance things a little bit. And I don't mean Republican versus Democrat as much as just working together a little bit better than we have been. Maybe it starts with Rockets Red glare. Maybe people read Rockets Red glare by James Patterson and Matt Eversman and say, you know what? This has been a great thriller by guys who have maintained mostly nonpartisan leanings. And I'm inspired.

I'm inspired to think about how we protect ourselves. against outside enemies as opposed to creating enemies from within, of our fellow countrymen. The other thing is that we, we, um, we, we can, we can go and escape for a few hours. That's okay. Uh, there's so much toxicity. And we just, we can't do that all day. You know, it's like, you know, this is, it's escape reading. Uh, we're going to get a good result. The good guys, hopefully are going to win within reason, good guys and women. Yeah, and that's, I mean, that's one of the things obviously we want to do. And the thing with the collaborations with me, I always try to,

when the collaborations, whether it's Dolly Partner, Viola Davis, somebody who's going to bring the authenticity to the kinds of stories that I like to get involved in. And Matt, Matt knows this. You know, what the story is somewhat over the top. But if something happened, this is the way it would happen. This is the way Rangers would act. This is the way the Secret Service would act. No, you can tell. I mean, there's a, this is from the prologue. Sergeant Jeff Carnes sat paralyzed in the passenger seat of the smoldering humvee, slowly regaining consciousness after the concussion of the RPG. And we go on from there, who he sees about to grenade him, only to see that guy instantaneously get a bullet in his head. Like, you've, you've actually lived this. This is like, some of these memories are from your actual experiences, Matt. You know, one night we were all out to dinner.

That's for Matt, James. Let Matt talk. No, quick, quick, Matt. This is a Matt story, though. We were out to dinner. Oh, I didn't have a minute left. I'm trying to get the Bronze Star winner in here. Go ahead, Jim.

No, go. No, you go, Matt. I forget what I was going to say. I'm sorry. This is all. All, James Patterson, back to you. Matt, at the dinner table. And I said, Matt, you know, because I haven't been.

How close? And he reached across the table when he said, this close, in terms of a combatant, in terms of what's really happening in wartime when it comes to, you know, mono-a-mono-mono combat. Yeah, he knows of what he speaks. This close. Yeah. And has managed to put pen to paper. Sorry, Matt.

And bring it to all of us in rockets, red, glare. No, it's okay. We forgive you. You're James Patterson. You can do what you want. And Matt Eversman, you got to read it. Read it. Get it.

pre-order it right now, and then you'll have it. And if you wait too long, I'm telling you these booksellers, they sell out. So don't let that happen. You order it today, and you'll be reading it in time for Father's Day and time for the 4th of July, 250th, and you won't be sorry you did. Guys, thank you both so much, Matt. Again, thanks for your service. Thank you, Megan. Have an awesome weekend. And we'll see you on Monday. Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show, no BS, no agenda, and no fear.