The Megyn Kelly Show - Three Most Annoying Senators at Hegseth Hearing, and Pam Bondi Crushes Dems Today, with Victor Davis Hanson | Ep. 983

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

Megyn Kelly begins the show by discussing why Pete Hegseth will be confirmed as Defense Secretary after his excellent performance at the hearing yesterday, the significance of Sen. Joni Ernst already announcing her support for Hegseth, the three most annoying senators at the confirmation hearing: Tammy Duckworth, Mazie Hirono, Elissa Slotkin, their ridiculous questions and interruptions, how the female senators make other women look bad, smug CNN pundit Catherine Rampell dismissing Hegseth as just a TV host, Gretchen Carlson’s ridiculous comments pushing a false narrative, and more. Then Victor Davis Hanson, author of "The End of Everything," joins to discuss Pam Bondi crushing the Democrats at her Attorney General confirmation hearing, the hypocrisy from Hirono who refused to meet with her, the mistake by the left of underestimating her, petty and bitter Michelle Obama refusing to attend Trump's inauguration, Kamala Harris not giving the customary VP residence tour to JD Vance and his family, the terrible California leadership, breaking news about a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas to release the hostages, the effect of Trump taking office on the deal, and more.Hanson- https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/victor-davis-hanson/the-end-of-everything/9781541673526/Byrna: Get 10% Off at https://Byrna.com/MegynGrand Canyon University: https://GCU.eduFirecracker Farm: Get 10% off with code MK at https://Firecracker.Farm/Birch Gold: Text MK to 989898 and get your free info kit on goldFollow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon east. Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show. We have Victor Davis Hanson coming up in just a bit. And wait until you hear the latest reporting about Mayor Karen Bass and what she was up to exactly during the deadly Los Angeles wildfires. This woman is cold stone callous. I mean, she does not seem to give an F. We'll show you the video and play you the sound. But first, these days, personal safety is not something that can be left to chance. Whether at home, on the road, or just living everyday life, having a reliable way to protect yourself and your family is crucial. This is why Burna is the choice for many. I'm excited to tell you about Burna.

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It's done. He's going to get confirmed. It's over. He's in. You can start calling him Mr. Secretary. That's that's my view. Unless something catastrophic happens between now and the time the full Senate takes its vote. We were looking at McConnell. We were looking at Collins. We were looking at Murkowski. McConnell's, of course, an enemy of Trump. And Murkowski and Collins are left-wing Republicans. And then we were looking at Ernst. Well, the Republicans can afford to lose three, not four, three. If it's three, it'll be 50-50 vote in the Senate, assuming he gets no damn votes. And then the vice president, as president the Senate would cast the deciding vote. That would be J.D. Vance and he'd be

confirmed. We're not even hearing any rumblings about McConnell and the other two now. They haven't officially said that they'll be voting for him. But Ernst was the pivotal character. There isn't a person, including you, Susan Collins, you, Lisa Murkowski, or you, Leader McConnell, who cares more about women in the military than Joni Ernst. There is not one. Not you, Kirsten Gillibrand, none of you. So if she's on board, there is no excuse for, in particular, these Republicans, who I just listed, not to be on board. And I think they'll realize that. I don't think he's going to get a Dem vote. I actually don't think he will. This is how it goes now. We used to get majority, even unanimous support for

another party's nominees, unless there was just something so obviously beyond the pale. And now we don't. Now you have to have majority control in the Senate in order to get your nominees through, or at least ones who have any sort of controversy, real or manufactured. And in Pete's case, it's mostly the latter. You know, we've talked about the things in his personal life, which would come back to haunt any nominee. But let's face it, you know, the Democrats have elected a man as president who was accused of rape and sexual assault by multiple women. They had no problem with it. They were about to elect a woman whose husband was accused of openly beating another woman, not to mention being a serial cheater or at least a cheater

with the family nanny, whatever, like their morals are situational. So Pete's going to be confirmed and you should get used to the phrase Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. You can go cry in your soup, leftists, over how that makes you feel. But what President Trump wanted, and by the way, he won the election, was somebody who understood the warrior, who understood the fighting men and women, and that's Pete.

He wanted the guy who could answer the questions that came from Senator Sheehy of Montana about how you load a weapon and what the ammo looks like and what the batteries are that you put in your night vision goggles. That's what he wanted. And President Trump talks about how, and others have told these stories about how when he was in office the first time, he would call the generals in there and they would give him one set of advice. And then he would call the enlisted guys in there and ask for their take. And this would upset some of these

generals, not all of them, but some of these generals would get irritated that these lowly plebes would be listened to by the commander in chief. Well, it turns out Trump was way more interested in what those lowly enlisted guys had to say than the generals. And this pick reflects that. Pete's a major, he's not a general, but my point is he wanted somebody who had actual boots on the ground, as Pete put it yesterday, dust on the boots fighting experience, where he was laying his own life on the line repeatedly for the country. That's what Pete has done and that is the mentality he's going to bring back into the Department of Defense. It was interesting, one of the exchanges where Kirsten Gillibrand, and don't get me wrong, she was hysterical yesterday, very strange

performance. But I will tell you that I respect Kirsten Gillibrand a lot more than I do a lot of these other Dem senators. There are a few who I actually like. I like Mark Kelly too. He gave Pete some guff yesterday, but he's a good man. But Gillibrand has done a lot to help protect women in various spaces, and I respect a lot of what she's done. She's not generally this much of just an emotional mess. But she's wrong about Pete. You know, she kept saying to him yesterday, there's absolutely no slip in the standards for women. Absolutely none. They have to meet all the same tests that the men do. And Pete's response was to name specific groups and areas in which there were written or unwritten quotas for allowing women in. And he's looking at her and saying,

Senator, in the real world, the rules are being bent to look the other way when it's a woman who fails this test or that. She can't possibly refute that. She can't possibly say that's not true, which is what she was trying to do. She was saying there's no written standard that would give women a pass. Like women only have to score seven on the fitness test, whereas men have to score nine. Of course. I mean, does that surprise anybody? They didn't put that in writing. But does it also surprise you that when in practicality, they're under massive pressure from their bosses to allow the more women in that they do look the other way when they're a little slower on the run, or they have trouble managing their a hundred pound ruck. Uh, and the other

things that Pete and the guys were talking about yesterday, like, let's get real. He's saying, I don't want that anymore. And the messaging from the top is going to be very, very different. Um, I was amused and also irritated looking at some of the coverage of what happened yesterday. Uh, every single newspaper and podcast, et cetera, that's not, you know, independent or openly conservative talks about the allegations against Pete as though they're real, they're true. And they've been established, whether it's the public or the drinking, the public drunkenness or the allegations that he allegedly raped a woman. Like they just talk about, you know, like accused of rape and signed a settlement. I mean, signed a settlement,

that's it, he must be guilty, right? As if no public figure who's innocent and facing the threat that he will lose his job. Fox absolutely would have been in a position of having to fire him. Had this woman come forward and said, he raped me, I'm a conservative, I'm with this Republican women's group. And he came out here on a speaking

engagement, which Fox doesn't love anyway. They don't love it when you do these things. So any excuse to like, you know, make a thing out of it. And Pete, while beloved at Fox, wasn't their top, top guy. So he was expendable. I think his calculation was exactly right, that it was too risky to let this woman go out and tell the public, nevermind his bosses, that he was a rapist. And then, you know, his defense is absolutely meritorious. Uh, however, it doesn't make him look good. The defense is it wasn't rape. It was consensual cheating on, you know, my, yes, technically he was still with his second wife, but he was already with Jen at that point.

So my soon to be third wife, all of that doesn't make him look good either. So I'm just saying the calculation in Pete's head for why he signed that settlement makes perfect sense to any thinking person. But in the press, it's, you got accused and you signed an agreement, so you're guilty. And they know that's not true. And I loved it when the one Senator from Oklahoma was like, how many of you cheated on your wives? He was clearly intimating that he had cheated on his and saying, if it, if it weren't for my wife, I think I'd be in jail, which I'd like to know more about. But he was clearly making the point that he had a very forgiving wife, um, and that he had sinned. And look, there are a lot of marriages where people

make really stupid mistakes and the couple decides to get past it. Um, that appears to be what happened with Jen and Pete, where they started in a difficult position and they had difficulties, not surprisingly at the start of their relationship. And then they got past them. They got past them. All these people are saying Pete's Christian conversion. I think he was always Christian, but he's leaned in is false meant, meant to justify his bad behavior. Bullshit. What's your evidence of that? How do you know? Why did he get the big tattoo? The big cross on his chest, was that just in case Trump one day nominated him to something so he could tell his story of embracing his Christianity. And he could

like Superman, open up his chest and say, see, I'm a true believer. Bullshit. If anything, that tattoo has caused him more trouble than it's helped him. So I just, what is your evidence that his leaning into Jesus is false? I don't see that. I see quite the contrary. If anything, I hear people rolling their eyes that he's become too much of a holy roller. Well, I've seen a lot of people lean into God in my life and read the Bible and have things change for them. And I have zero reason to doubt that that's what happened to Pete. And I think Jen too. And I believed him when he said he wakes up in the morning and the two of them pray together. And I think he'll pray not just to do a good job as secretary of defense, but pray for our troops and our country and our president as soon as he is sworn in, which he will be.

But anyway, I want to go over some of the media coverage, just the dishonesty and get back to a couple of the highlights from yesterday, because the public has had some fun with some of these hysterical female Democratic senators. I'm not upset. You know, it's like, thank God we had like Joni Ernst up there who was calm, cool and collected and represented herself very well. You know, she was a more Margaret Thatcher type. She wasn't hysterical. And she's had firsthand experience with these issues. She wasn't hysterical. Um, and she's had firsthand experience with these issues. So she had reason to be upset if she wanted to be in any event. Uh, let's start with the most, like I, I did say, and I stand by the Tim Cain was the

most disgusting. He was the most despicable. Like when did you stop beating your wife? What? That's not even a thing. It's not even an allegation that Pete's a wife beater. Okay. He got away with it. That's fine. I'd love to go back and see what Tim Kaine has said about, you know, Ted Kennedy, who, you know, let a woman die after he drove drunk and plunged her into Chappaquiddick, into the lake in Chappaquiddick. Did he ask him when he stopped beating the women in his life, when he stopped killing them? Like I was even around like, cause he, you know, he ran for, for vice president on the same ticket as Hillary Clinton. He's got a long connection to these old, extremely flawed top Democrats. Love to know his thoughts on that. In any event, um, the, this sort of the second in command for worst performance yesterday, but it's tight.

I don't know. Is it Duckworth? Is it Hirono? Or is it sleeper candidate Slotkin? Sleeper candidate Slotkin of Michigan got under my skin more than any other. And it was mostly because as I watched her, I knew she was smart enough to know better. She's smart. You could tell she's definitely smart, but so infuriating. It was like bamboo shoots under my fingernails listening. Like Hirono was kind of amusing. Like I hate you, but you're very amusing. Um, Duckworth was very annoying and less amusing, like a sad little lady, but like less amusing than Hirono. And then Slotkin was probably the most pernicious because she's got some gravitas in the way she approaches her messaging. But, and she worked for the CIA under George W. Bush, under Barack Obama.

And I'm not sure if she was still there under Trump. I think she may have left and she ran for office as a Dem in Michigan in 2018. And that's what she's been doing and now ran for Senate. And she beat Republican Mike Rogers for the Senate seat. That could have been in our seat. She won it. Too bad, because Mike Rogers would have been a far superior choice. So, all right.

I guess I'll go through them in that order. So you can go on the same journey I did. Let's start with Mazie Hirono, who you heard Michael Knowles say yesterday, no civilized country would make this woman a senator, but she did. And just what I wanted to do in this sound that we cut for you here is show you, yes, she's a moron, but listen to how uninterested she was in any answers from Pete Hexett. It was all performative. And Maisie, you're not a good performer, but just watch. I have read multiple reports of your regularly being drunk at work,

including by people who worked with you at Fox News. Do you know that being drunk at work is prohibited for service members under the UCMJ? Senator, those are multiple false anonymous reports peddled by NBC News that run directly contradictory to the dozens of men and women at Fox News Channel who I work with who came on the record. I'm not hearing the answer to my question. Will you resign as Secretary of Defense if you drink on the job, which is a 24-7 position? I've made this commitment on behalf of the men and women I'm serving. Will you resign as Secretary

of Defense if you drink on the job? I've made this commitment on behalf of the men and women I'm serving because it's the most important deployment of my life. I'm not hearing an answer to my question, so I'm going to move on. Would you carry out such an order from President Trump? Senator, I was in the Washington, D.C. National Guard unit that was in Lafayette Square during those events holding a riot shield

on behalf of my country. I saw 50 Secret Service agents get injured by rioters trying to jump over the fence, set a church on fire, and destroy a statue. You know what, that sounds to me that you will comply with such an order. You will shoot protesters in the leg.

Would you use our military to take over Greenland or an ally of Denmark? Senator, one of the things that President Trump is so good at is never strategically tipping his hand. And so I would never in this public forum give one way or another direct what orders the president would give me in any context. That sounds to me that you would contemplate carrying out such an order to basically invade Greenland and take over the Panama Canal.

The DOD policy allows service members and eligible dependents to be reimbursed for travel associated with non-covered reproductive health care, including abortions. Will you maintain this common-sense policy? Senator, I've always been personally pro-life. I know President Trump has as well, and we will review all policies. I'm not hearing answers to my questions.

Because you won't listen because you refuse to just listen to the nominee who is trying to answer them just not the way you like. He actually did try to give you an answer about those drunkenness reports talking about how it was an NBC hit job against him. It was a denial, madam. You just didn't want to hear it. And her thing about the Greenland and Panama, what she's really saying there is I object to Donald Trump. I hate Trump. I hate what he's saying. Will you do what I want instead of what Trump wants? And Pete Hexeth is not taking that bait. Oh, I know it's upsetting, isn't it, madam? You lost. You didn't get your way. And she's working things out on the bench from the seat up there. She was just, look, she wasn't effective. She was kind of whiny and nobody paid any attention to her. She scored no

points whatsoever. So, okay, I guess, you know, maybe she did a little high five with her staff. I did see Elizabeth Warren when I was in the room yesterday, go over to Tim Kaine, and they were saying good job to one another. The little tag team, oh, we're the smartest, we got him. But let's get back to the most annoying. My list of most annoying senators at the Pete Hegseth confirmation hearings yesterday. Again, most smarmy, most despicable, that's Tim Kaine. But I'm going to put Maisie Hirono in the third spot for most annoying, since she was so pathetic, it was hard to be really annoyed as opposed to just kind of mocking her. In number two, Tammy Duckworth, a senator from Illinois who was equally disrespectful of Pete Hegseth and equally

uninterested in hearing his answers and tried, she tried to like do a couple of gotchas against Pete, which we've captured a bit in this soundbite, which I'm going to talk to you about on the back end. Watch here. Have you led an audit of any organization? Yes or no? I don't want a long answer. Yes or no? Have you led an audit of any organization of which you were in charge? Senator, in both of the organizations I ran, we were always completely fiscally responsible. Yes or no? Did you lead an audit? Yes or no? What are you afraid of? You can't

answer this question. Yes or no? Did you lead an audit? Do you not know this answer? Senator, every part of my leadership of these organizations has been misrepresented from top to bottom. I will take that as a no. What is the highest level of international security agreement that you have led? And can you name some that the Secretary of Defense would lead? There's three main ones. I have not been involved in international security arrangements because I have not been in government other than serving in the military. So my job has

been to lead men and women in combat. Can you name one of the three main ones that the Secretary of Defense signs? You're talking about defense arrangements. I mean, NATO might be one that you're referring to. Status of Forces Agreement would be one of them. Status of Forces Agreement. I've been a part of teaching about Status of Forces Agreement inside Afghanistan. been a part of teaching about Status of Forces Agreement. But you don't remember to mention it? Okay. So it's like a little fun memory test by Tammy Duckworth. Trying to do little like, let's play my little guessing game. I'm your high school history professor, and we're going to see how well you can do on my little pop quiz for you. Then she got into

ASEAN. Remember this? Do we have this Deb? We had a cut yesterday. I think we bring it over, um, where she tried to do a little, she did like a gotcha on him about this group of South Asian countries and whether it was really a test, I guess, to understand whether he knew this, you know, this abbreviation, right? This ASEAN. I remember when I heard it, I'm like, it's pronounced Asian because I had no idea what she was talking about either. ASEAN. And by the way, apparently that's not how you pronounce even the group that she was talking about. It is actually pronounced closer to Asian. It's this group of countries in Southeast Asia that very like together they are individually.

They don't amount to much economically or otherwise, but together they're like about the size of the UK and they have more bargaining power. So sometimes they try to refer to themselves as a group, but it's more of an economic deal than a political or than a military deal. So, you know, amazingly, Pete hadn't studied up on his acronyms for every single region in the United States and I guess flunked her little test. And she and leftists on Twitter lost their minds over this. Pacific a little bit, and I'm glad that you mentioned it. Can you name the importance of at least one of the nations in ASEAN and what type of agreement we have with at least one of those nations?

And how many nations are in ASEAN, by the way? I couldn't tell you the exact amount of nations in that. But I know we have allies in South Korea, in Japan, and in AUKUS with Australia, trying to work on submarines with them. Mr. Hexer, none of those countries are allies across. None of those three countries that you've mentioned are in ASEAN. I suggest you do a little homework before you prepare for these types of negotiations. Listen.

Just trying to make them look dumb. No, like literally nobody knew about this group, that that's what they go by. You want to go through the names, the individual names? Sure, I'm sure he'd be happy to talk to you about the individual names and what the strategic interests of the United States are with respect to each one or together as a group. But because he didn't know her little acronym, she tried to make him look stupid like he is a dumbass, and she failed. I mean, it's, it's one thing if everybody in the room is like, Oh my God, he doesn't know what NATO is. Holy

shit. Right? Like, I mean, that's one thing, but this where everybody's like, what's that? What does she say? I think it's pronounced ocean or Asian. You tried and you failed. So she is my number two most annoying and irritating senator from yesterday. And then we get to number one, that's the sleeper candidate I was telling you about, this Slotkin. Okay, now Slotkin is, if memory serves, I did look it up and now I can't remember, but I think that she may have gone to Columbia. She's got one of these, you know, highfalutin backgrounds in education. And then she joined the CIA. Columbia. Yeah, Columbia. There you go. That explains a lot. And then she joined the CIA and now she's a politician out of Michigan. So she starts off by trying to like

bond with Pete. Like I I'm of the CIA. Um, I guess she was fluent in like Farsi and one, one other relevant language. Maybe I can't remember what it was. Um, and that's why she got hired by the CIA. So in any event, it's not the same. I respect her service, but it's really not the same as being on the front lines being shot at, but fine. Okay. So she's kind of tries to put them on par with each other. Like we're both military people. So I completely get it. I get it. And I trust me. I believe you. I believe you that you care. I believe you that you care about the troops. Genuinely, I'm with you. And at first I was a little fooled by it. And then as you watched her over the course of the

seven minutes, you really just kind of wanted to punch her in the face. Don't punch her in the face. That's just an urge. She brought up rage inside of one. That's the point I'm trying to make here because she was just so nasty and passive aggressive and kept slipping in little deceptive pieces of information. We'll play you the soundbite here. Listen to the part where in particular, she tries to pretend that Trump said he was going to unleash the military on his quote enemies within, you know, we've covered that a lot on this show. That's not what he said. He was specifically asked by Maria Bartiromo, whether if there were protests around the election that got violent, what would he do? And that in response to that,

he said, you might have to use the military and refer to some people as being enemies from within. But the left has been conflating these two terms ever since trying to say Trump's going to unleash the U.S. military on American citizens who do not vote for him. So she slides that in there. She tries to belittle Pete as well. You'll listen. Watch. You will be the one man standing in the breach should President Trump give an illegal order, right? I'm not saying he will, but if he does, you are going to be the guy that he calls to implement this order. That President Trump is going to be giving illegal order?

No, I'm not saying he will, but do you believe there is such a thing as an illegal order that Joe Biden or any other president, Donald Trump, could give? Is there anything that a commander-in-chief could ask you to do with the uniformed military that would be in violation of the U.S. Constitution? Senator, anybody of any party could give an order that is against the Constitution or against the law. Right. Okay. So, and are you, so are you saying that you would stand in the breach and push back if you were given an illegal order. I start by saying I reject the premise that President Trump will be giving any illegal orders at all. This isn't a hypothetical. He was asked and did use uniformed military to clear unarmed protesters.

He was given the order to potentially shoot at them. Helos flew low in Washington, D.C. as crowd control. He later apologized publicly for those actions. Was he right or wrong to apologize? Senator, I was there on the ground. I saw that. I understand. And I respect that. I've been there. I understand the level of threat that was involved in that moment. I also understand legality and the Constitution and the laws of what you have. Sir, was he right or wrong to apologize? I'm not going to put words in the mouth of Secretary Esper or anybody else. No, he said them himself. You don't have to. What are you

scared of? Did he do the right thing by apologizing? I'm not scared of anything, Senator. Then say yes or no. You can say no. President Trump said in November that he is willing to consider using the active duty military against the, quote, enemy within. Have you been personally involved in discussions of using the U.S. military active duty inside the United States? Senator, I'm fine. I'm glad we finally got to the topic of border security equaling national security because it's been abdicated and ignored for the last four years. It wasn't my question. I'm just asking, have you been involved? You're about to be the Secretary of Defense, potentially. Have you been involved in discussions

about using the active duty military inside the United States? Senator, I am not yet the Secretary of Defense. If confirmed, I would be party to any number of conversations. So you haven't been in any of these conversations? Which I would not reveal what I have discussed with the President of the United States. No, no, just have you been in conversations? Do you support the use of active

duty military in supporting detention camps? Senator, everything we will do would be lawful and under the Constitution, but I recognize- Okay, I'm gonna take that as yes. What are you scared of? Oh, because you're a big, bad CIA agent and you're so tough. You're tougher than Pete. Sure. Who served his country, not just at Gitmo, but in Iraq and Afghanistan. You're a scaredy cat. What are you so afraid of? What a child. What an absolute brat. You know what? She was assistant secretary, like an undersecretary for defense under, was it Obama or Biden? And so she's bitter. She's jealous. She's never going to get this role. Sorry, sister. Somebody who's your age, who actually took even greater risks

than you did, is going to be recognized now and is going to be running the agency that you were just a lower part of. I know you're going to have to suck it up. You can't blame it on sexism under Obama. You can't blame it on racism. It's just you weren't good enough and he is. So go ahead and vote no. He's still getting in there and you can do your little histrionics when he comes in for his updates as the secretary of defense. But he's getting through because somebody who's not hysterical, someone who does care about women's issues, someone who's fought her entire career to protect women in the military. Joni Ernst is going to vote for him. So you can suck it, Madam Slotkin, and enjoy what will almost undoubtedly be a short term out of Michigan. Because that district did, she's right, she said at the beginning, go for both Trump and for her. But once they get a load of these antics, I just can't imagine

Michiganders are going to stick in this woman's camp for another vote. We'll see. Could be proven wrong. Michigan's becoming more blue. We'll find out. Okay. So those are my top contenders. But overall, the women at the hearing embarrassed themselves on the Dem side yesterday, which has led to all sorts of memes showing Pete's face in the middle on X and all these nagging, you know, hens around him, like all guys are like, my God, me when my wife, when I won't let her have the remote control or all these things. So here we put together our own little montage of the best hysterics from yesterday. I have many concerns about your record and particularly your public statements, because they are so hurtful to the men and women who are currently serving in the U.S. military. Please explain these types of statements because they're brutal and they're mean.

Everything you've said in these public statements is politics. I don't want women. I don't want moms. What's wrong with a mom, by the way? It sounds to me that you will comply with such an order. You will shoot protesters in the legs. It sounds to me that you would contemplate carrying out such an order to basically invade Greenland. Now I've heard of deathbed conversions but this is the first time I've heard of a nomination conversion. Have you led an audit of any organization yes or

no? I don't want a long answer yes or no. Yes or no did you lead an audit yes or no? What are you afraid of? You can't answer this question. Women who've earned their place in their units, you have not earned your place as Secretary of Defense. Okay. The richest part of that is Elizabeth Warren, who is basically accusing Pete of lying in his comments about women when he's trying to say,

what I was saying all these times, he said, I've never complained about women in the military. My complaint was about women in combat in certain roles where we've lowered standards. And they opened up the cross-examination with him, Elizabeth Warren did, by referencing comments Pete made in 2013. By the way, I think it was on my show about women in combat and talking about how we can't lower the standards in order to facilitate it. And Pete responded by saying, I'm glad you brought up my comments from 2013, pointing out that for 12 years, I've been contextualizing that usually by pointing out that I'm talking about standards

and she wouldn't have it. And what she was basically saying there, she's like, I've heard of deathbed conversions, but I've never heard of a nomination conversion is that you're a liar. Pete Hexeth, you're lying. You're just saying whatever you need to say to get a position that you want. And I will give it to her. Chief Lies-A-Lot is an expert in this particular subject matter. Remember Chief Lies-A-Lot who tried to get ahead at Harvard and elsewhere by saying she was Indian when she's not. And then when caught, she defaulted to, well, my ma, ma and my pa, pa told me that my high cheekbones meant I'm an Indian. Okay. For the record, maybe you can see them if you're watching this on YouTube. I actually kind of have high cheekbones. I do. Yeah. It's great. I've never had anything

injected in them. This is all God given. And I don't think I'm Native American. I've never had the test. Chief lies a lot, but if somebody told me I were Native American because I have high cheekbones, I think I'd check it out before I started telling people at universities that I was so I could get tenure or hired or any sort of advancement. And then I'd probably be a little reluctant to start lecturing other people about honesty. Can you believe the ma, ma, and the pa, pa? Okay. She's basically, she's a Cherokee. She's full Cherokee, but no. Okay. Let's move on to the media. You've got these absolutely smug. Again, like Slotkin, like snide, overeducated, elite libs who are just sliding in the dagger on Pete in a way that, you know, I'm just an elite know-everything. And so I can tell you he's an idiot. You know, I totally respect your service. I believe you care. But what are you so afraid of? That was Slotkin. But now here's a woman named Catherine Rampell. And we looked up Slockin.

She went to Columbia and Cornell. But now here comes this woman, and I'm going to let you know who she is. Her name is Catherine Rampell. She's on one of those insufferable CNN panels with the terrible Abby Phillip, who again is like mild-mannered, but has never seen a Republican who's done the right thing. I just want to take control to say that Republicans are bad. They're even worse than you thought. That's Abby Phillip. So she's running the panel. Catherine Rampell comes on. And you would think that Catherine Rampell would know a thing or two about Pete and his background because I looked her up too. And guess what she has for her educational background? Well, she has a bachelor's from Princeton. Princeton. Hmm. How do we know that school in connection

with this story? Oh yeah. Pete went there. And unlike Catherine Rampell, both of whose parents went to Princeton, which newsflash makes it a lot easier to get into Princeton. That wasn't the case for Pete. So she goes out on to, and by the way, her major was anthropology. Okay, I'm sure she learned a lot. That would qualify her to be opining on the Sec of Defense or not. But in any event, CNN thought she'd be an adequate commentator. Why? Because of her long history in military? No, she has absolutely nothing to do with the military, the Pentagon, et cetera. In fact, before she was at the Washington Post, she was at the New York Times as a theater critic. But here she is telling us why Pete was chosen for this job. Yes, he was very articulate and polished and he's a TV host.

That's his main qualification. I know in TV we sometimes get confused. Why do you denigrate this man's service? I don't understand. 20 years, decorated, Ivy Leaguer. He's a TV host. That's all he is. That's not his main qualification.

That is his main thing. He's a TV host. I like TV hosts. It's his main qualification. It is his main qualification. I think that qualifies you. Not every member who serves deserves to be in charge of the DOD. She said his main qualification is that he's a TV host.

And I'm sorry, that's just baloney. Do you think he wanted to show himself in the job? His main qualification is that he's a warfighter and he's going to be the closest warfighter we've ever had to the enlisted people running the Pentagon. In the longer clip, then Abby Phillip comes in and says, you shouldn't denigrate the service of the generals who have been at the top of the defense department before by saying that Scott Jennings, Scott Jennings, like how am I denigrating them by saying he is closer to the enlisted men than anybody who's ever held this position. But that's Abby Phillip. There cannot be a discussion that doesn't wind in her fake fact-checking with hard left spin. Signed, Abby Phillip. Back to this woman, Catherine Rampel. All right, so she, the theater

critic, would like us to know that the only reason, the reason, the main qualification, those were her words, for Pete to have been nominated is because he's a TV host. So Scott Jennings says, why do you denigrate his service? Then comes Abby Phillip. She didn't do that. Okay. How is it not denigrating his, his tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Gitmo, the vast majority of his adult life, by saying his main qualification for this job was his stint on Fox and Friends. Fuck you, Catherine Rampell, because that is denigrating his service. His service is the reason he got the job. I guarantee you, Trump is more familiar with Brian Kilmeade than he is with Pete Hegseth. I guarantee you he's been watching Brian Kilmeade for he is with Pete Hegseth. I guarantee you he's been watching Brian

Kilmeade for longer. He's probably called and texted Brian Kilmeade over the years longer and knows him a lot better. But he did not nominate Brian Kilmeade because he wasn't just looking for a Fox and Friends morning host to run the Pentagon. It's Pete's lifetime of service while in the armed services and afterward working for veterans that got him this job. And perhaps Trump wouldn't know about him if he hadn't gotten a job on Fox. But that's what opened the door, not what got him the job. You're so disrespectful and disgusting. But that is what the elite thinks of our military and certainly of any Trump supporter. Never mind, people are going to wind up in the cabinet. It's absolutely disgusting.

And this is what Pete and Trump and Pam don't, they're too stupid and scared to really understand how things ought to be run. Just ask Abby Phillip. She will tell you why he doesn't belong there and the other people do. Okay. Moving on. Who am I reminding myself of? Is it a Peanuts character? I just thought that I'll think about it and you guys will think about it and you'll tell me. It's Megan at megankelly.com. Okay. Speaking of Fox, I know when you were gearing up for this confirmation hearing of Pete, which is truly one of the most, if not the most, consequential of the Trump picks, what you were asking yourself, same as me, was what does Gretchen Carlson think? Gee, I really wonder who. But PBS decides that Gretchen Carlson's opinion would be really important to get right now.

And this was her take. For some initial concern from Republican senators about these allegations against Hegseth, it seems as though many are prepared to vote to confirm him. What does it say that an allegation of sexual assault does not appear to be disqualifying? It says the power of Donald Trump. That's the first thing that I would mention. But it also is frustrating for those of us who work in this advocacy space to see that even, you know, allegations of drinking too much or mismanaging other nonprofits that Hegseth ran, that those seem to climb to the

top of the list ahead of any kind of a sexual assault or sexual harassment claim. Okay. He's not been accused of sexually harassing anybody. Did that come up yesterday? No. The best they had was somebody at one of those veterans charities may have allegedly harassed somebody at a strip club trip that Pete wasn't present for. And I believe it was Sean Parnell who was present and came out on the record saying Pete wasn't there. He was not there. So what are you talking about, Gretchen Carlson? You can only be talking about one thing, and that is the alleged rape accusation. Did you go through the report line by line? Because you know as well as I do,

you know better than anyone that I will stand up for women, even those I can't stand, if I think they've made a valid allegation. You know that better than anyone. And I spent a day going through that woman's police report line by line. And I'm telling you, that woman's not telling the truth. That's my strong legal and journalistic opinion. And I've gone through it episodes and episodes ago in great detail to explain why. Have you? How dare you get out there and wonder why this fake, clearly fake allegation is not disqualifying for him? Get talking about it. What have you looked at? When was she drugged, Gretchen? She was fine at 1.30 in the morning. She was

fined at 4 a.m., according to three eyewitnesses, two videos, and her husband on the back end. Are those not reliable for you? This is not Pete Hegseth's word. It's independent eye and videotape witnesses and her marital partner saying she was fine, not drugged. When did Pete date, rape, drug her, and then rape her? It is an impossibility, which is why he was not charged. So shame on you. Shame on you for using the money you managed to extract out of Fox News for this nonsense to try to push these bullshit claims because you want to see your face on television. And by the way, when you do a Zoom, don't go right in front of the laptop because it makes your face look huge. That's advice to Gretchen and everybody

else for that matter. I just, I find that absolutely abhorrent. And just for the record, okay, just for the record, because I mentioned it, that whole Fox News thing, just as a point of clarification, when I came forward to talk about what happened between Roger and yours truly, it was not because I believed Gretchen Carlson. It was not because I believed for one minute that she had been harassed, not for one minute. It was because I was worried others might be, because she laid the allegation that he might be this thing on the table. But I don't believe that's why Gretchen lost her job for one second, not for one second.

She laid the allegation out there and finally the company was getting ready to look into it. And in the wake of that, women started speaking up about what was happening to them. So I just want to be clear that it wasn't her particular circumstances that inspired me or I think most people over there to do anything. How dare she come out and try to disparage him this way? Someone who'd been a colleague of hers for quite some time. And I guarantee you, she never saw him drunk. And if she says she did, it's not true. All of his Fox & Friends co-hosts have said, never, never, ever. And we spent hours upon hours with him.

All of the on-the-record character defenses of Pete have been under people's actual names, stars that you would know. All the Fox & Friends morning crew, all the scurrilous allegations have been anonymous and behind the scenes. Too much time on her. She's irrelevant. Jimmy Kimmel had his own little meltdown about the situation. Watch here. The main event in Washington today was the confirmation hearing of Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense, former weekend Fox and Friends co-host Pete Hegseth. The hearing started at 9.30 this morning, or as Pete calls it, happy hour. Hegseth was hammered by Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who argue that he should be disqualified based on accounts of excessive drinking, allegations of sexual misconduct, which are two of the qualities Trump looks for in a nominee. Ha ha ha. That's hilarious. So funny. I mean, I don't remember

him making jokes about Kamala's boozing, which was pretty obvious both before and after she lost. Is that a funny joke? I'd love to see all the funny jokes about what her administration would look like. Is that going to be surrounded by boozers so she looks like the sober one, Jimmy? And again, it's just so fun to just sort of pretend that, ha ha, like he's a rapist, like some ha ha ha ha. It's super fun to rip on Pete Hegseth as though, yeah, we love serial harassers. That's not what's been alleged against Pete Hegseth. Sorry to burst your bubble. There was a day and age in which you'd be more careful about that thing because you would be worried about getting sued. And Trump is trying to bring that day back. And the media is having a meltdown over it, right? They don't like it. Oh, you're going to

chill free speech. Oh, I'm going to chill defamatory speech, right? Like that's, that's what I'm going to try to chill. Um, he's not worried. Pete's got better things to do and yeah, he's probably, he's probably not going to, um, to sue Jimmy Kimmel. Here's another one with him where Kimmel's out there with this little bit about what Trump is allegedly saying about the LA firefighters, equally untrue. And just out of nowhere, listen here, it's SOT 17. I don't want to get into all the vile and irresponsible and stupid things our alleged future president and his gaggle of scumbags chose to say during our darkest and most terrifying hour. The fact that they chose to attack our firefighters who apparently aren't

white enough to be out there risking their lives on our behalf is, it's disgusting, but it's not surprising. Instead, I want to focus on thanking those men and women. Oh my God. They're not white enough to be out there fighting our fires per Trump. What a lie. What a disgusting lie. I haven't heard Trump made any remarks about race and the firefighters. However, what the right has been objecting to in the wake of the devastation in Los Angeles is the obsessive focus by Democrats running that state, that city, and that fire department on race. Their obsessive focus on race. They're the ones who care about the skin color of the firefighters. His team. This is not a Trump thing. People on our side of the aisle

have been saying, that's ridiculous. Why are you focused on the race of the firefighters? Why are there 10 million articles and hits and social media posts about how L.A. had a problem of white firefighters that they're trying to solve? Could you see that? He spins the 180. Trump and conservatives say the fire department's not white enough. What? That's exactly the opposite of what happened. Everybody over here said, could we just have standards that everybody passes? By the way, it's not really a race thing. It's a male-female thing. For the people on the right objecting to this, just make sure it's like

the military. We have nothing against women. We have nothing against moms, by the way. But does anybody really think a nine-month pregnant mother should be in combat? You need to have your head fucking examined if you think that's a good idea. It's about standards. That's it. It's the left that somehow thinks skin color should matter, whether you're fighting a fire or in the, or playing the cello. Remember? Heather McDonald's been talking about how in like these orchestras, they always had, like from the beginning of time, they've had blind auditions in the top orchestras, where you go behind a curtain, nobody can see you. They don't know if you're male, they don't know if you're female, they don't know if you're black, you're white, you're Hispanic, anything. And if you rock the audition, you're in the band, the orchestra. Well now, post-George Floyd, they're getting rid of the drape. They want you to see the skin color because equity or see that it's a woman because equity. It's ridiculous. It's his team doing that, not Trump. Trump is the antidote to that nonsense.

So, okay. Our media today, ladies and gentlemen, you're not surprised. All right. When we come back, we're going to get into Victor Davis Hanson and what he thinks about the Hegseth hearing. And we're going to get into what they're doing to Pam Bondi this morning. Now, Pam Bondi's getting through. There's no similar doubts being expressed by any Republican about Pam Bondi as attorney general. Kristi Noem was also supposed to go today, but there's been a delay for DHS. But I'll show you what they're doing to Pam Bondi. In some, they're taking all of the election denialism by Trump and putting it on her and trying to make her disavow. I mean, they're spending minute after minute on whether Trump lost the 2020 election. Meanwhile, she is there being confirmed as AG because Trump won the 2024

election. So can we please think about the American people and what's important to them at this point? We've litigated this enough. Victor Davis Hanson is next. Grand Canyon University, a private Christian university in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona, believes that we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. GCU believes in equal opportunity and that the American dream starts with purpose. By honoring your career calling, you can impact your family, friends, and your community. Change the world for good by putting others before yourself. Whether your

pursuit involves a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree, GCU's online, on-campus, and hybrid learning environments are designed to help you achieve your unique academic, personal, and professional goals. With over 340 academic programs as of September 2024, GCU meets you where you are and provides a path to help you fulfill your dreams. The pursuit to serve others is yours. Let it flourish. Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University. Private, Christian, affordable. Visit gcu.edu. Joining me now, Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution

and author of The End of Everything, How Wars Descend into Annihilation. So, Victor, great to see you. We'll get to in one second what they're doing to Pam Bondi this morning. She's crushing it. She's doing very, very well. But let me just get your take first on what they tried to do to Pete Hegseth yesterday. Well, that was a gift. I mean, you would think they'd be quiet given all what's happened, the election and what's going on in Los Angeles, this confederacy of dunces. And yet they never learn. They decide they're going to make a big show and then they'd embarrass themselves with these crazy questions. And it just he was calm. He answered the questions. He was funny. They were embarrassed were embarrassed they got angry they should never get

angry and it ensured his confirmation any republican senator that would not vote for him is going to be politically dead because you know what they're going to do they're going to say you voted for pete but as you but voted for this incompetent aust. You voted for all these comic characters that Biden and now you're going to vote against this decorated. No, it's not. So he's going to be confirmed. And that that was good. But it was Kavanaugh redux. That's that's what it was. Mm hmm. Yeah, they definitely try to smear him on the woman thing. By the way, we put this together. Tim Cain was their real attack dog on the women, uh, allegations. And you know, as Tim Cain has found God, because he was the one who was like women, women, women, you cheated, cheated, cheated, but he was BFFs with Bill Clinton and Doug Emhoff. We put a little bit of that together in a butted soundbite. Look, watch fully investigated and completely cleared.

So you think you are completely cleared because you committed no crime. That's your definition of cleared. You had just fathered a child two months before by a woman that was not your wife. I am shocked that you would stand here and say you're completely cleared. Something you said back in, I think, 2002 about former President Bill Clinton, that he should resign if the scandal, the Lewinsky scandal turned out to be true. You still hold true to those words you said back in, I think, 2002 about former President Bill Clinton, that he should resign if the Lewinsky scandal turned out to be true. Do you still hold true to those words you said back then? I had some feelings of disappointment back then. But, you know, and that's now 20 years old. And when I'm talking to people on the campaign trail, they're not asking me about old controversies. Past controversies aren't that important to me now. Yeah. I mean,

do you think your feelings have changed? It was a feeling I had at the time, but now I'm thinking about what do we do to help this country be strong? Oh, so gee, aw, shucks. Tweeted out yesterday by Alter Frog on X. Go ahead, Victor. Well, he used to kind of appear semi-quasi-normal, but now he's gone full Tim Waltz. He looks like Tim Waltz. He acts like Tim Waltz. He he's gone full Tim Waltz. He looks like Tim Waltz. He acts like Tim Waltz. He's as crazy as Tim Waltz. And he's kind of emblematic of that whole party.

It's kind of like they're older people that want to be, I don't know, hip or something. They want to be in the AOC. And these younger people have hijacked their party, destroyed it, and they're kind of deer in the headlights. So they kind of go through the motions of, you know, objecting, but they're silly. And he was another gift to Pete Hegseth. He did go full Tim Walz. That's exactly right. So then yesterday and today, and the audience probably knows this, but just in case, you know, these nominations, they start in committee. So you have to go before the relevant committee to your position. Like yesterday, it was armed services. Today, Bondi's in front of judiciary. And then they will recommend your nomination out to the full Senate floor or not. But, you know, typically, yes, they will. And then the full

Senate gets to vote on it. So Blumenthal is on both of those committees because he was there yesterday with Pete. And by the way, once you hit a certain age, gentlemen, Iumenthal is on both of those committees because he was there yesterday with Pete. And by the way, once you hit a certain age, gentlemen, I'm this a pro tip for you. Do not dye your hair black anymore. At a minimum, do the salt and pepper situation. I got no problem with the salt and pepper. Do the salt and pepper. I get it. But do not do all pepper because it just looks dumb when we know you're in your seventies and your face looks 70s and that's fine, but stop trying to look like you're a young man of 30 on top of your head. It looks bad. Okay. Dick Blumenthal, no charge for the free advice. He reappears today and is going after Bondi on a similar theme we

heard with Pete yesterday, which is Trump is lawless and will be asking everybody in the cabinet to be lawless with him. And will you be the bulwark against him? They went after Pete for that. And now here's Blumenthal going after Pam Bondi, our next potential attorney general, with the same line of questioning in SOT 37. Can you say no to the president of the United States when he asks you to do something unethical or illegal? Senator, first, I need to clarify something that you said, that I have to sit up here and say these things. No, I don't. I sit up here and speak the truth. I'm not going to sit up here and say anything that I need to say to get confirmed by this body. I don't have to say anything. I will answer the questions to the best of my ability. Let me ask you.

Pretty good. What did you think of it? that is I have 53 senators and you don't. So I can say whatever I want. And nobody's going to be stupid after what Merrick Garland said and did the last four years with lawfare. And he got confirmed by the Republican, some Republicans. And anybody who objects and agrees with you is going to get primaried and they know it and they're not going to vote anywhere near you. And I'm home free and I can say whatever I want to you. How do you like that? That's what it was. And she's absolutely right. She's not going to play that game. And she should have, you know, I think they're going to get even more emboldened as these go on, because I think the Republican wavering people, there's two or three of them are going to look at this and they're going to say, man, I cannot be allied with these nuts. That is political suicide. If I have reservations about

Hexeth or Kat, I cannot say anything because these people are crazy and I've got to stick with my team. So I think they're all going to get confirmed and that's going to embolden all of them to go back on the attack like Bondi did and Pete did. So I expect that they'll go after Cash. When they get to Cash Patel, and I know Cash pretty well, it's going to be a lot of fireworks. So I don't think he's going to sit up here and take that. So he came up in this exchange. I think they were talking about him in a couple of these. All right. So first, this is there's Senator Whitehouse who tried to go after on whether it's appropriate for prosecutors to start with a name and look for a crime.

And then I'll show you Maisie Hirono, who was like that. She was definitely talking about Kash Patel. But watch this with Senator Whitehouse. It would not be appropriate for a prosecutor to start with a name and look for a crime. It's a prosecutor's job to start with a crime and look for a name, correct? Senator, I think that is the whole problem with the weaponization that we have seen the last four years and what's been happening to Donald Trump. They targeted Donald Trump. They went after him, actually starting back in 2016. They targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations against him. That will not be the case if I am attorney general. I will not politicize that office. I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation. Victor, I'm just sorry, but isn't it right?

Isn't it so great to hear a nominee who's two steps ahead of them? You know, like I see what you're trying to do and screw you because you're the ones who did this. Yeah, it is. And I agree with you. But, you know, I kind of grew up with watching J. William Fulbright and all those guys and Frank Church. I didn't agree with them politically. But these are dunces compared to those guys,

those old Democratic stalwart guys that were young during the Truman era and they came into their own in the 60s and 70s. They were kind of misguided, but they were well-spoken. They were logical. They were professionals. These people are just, I don't know what's happened to the Democratic Party. I don't know if this older generation was suspect to begin with or when the party was hijacked by the woke people, they had to make the necessary adjustments. But they are an embarrassing lot. They really are. And I mean, to say what he

did about finding that old Soviet beret, give me the man and I'll find you the crime, that's what he was alluding to after what Merrick Garland did without no one. The thing about Merrick Garland, his delegate, this was all court. And we know that about Fannie Willis and Bragg and Latita James and Smith. But in every one of those cases, there was one truism that Donald Trump, if he had said he was not going to run for reelection, none of them would have indicted him. And they will never indict anybody else for those crimes. They're non-existent crimes. They will vanish and evaporate into the atmosphere.

No politician will ever be charged with saying that his real estate is somewhat more than they think it is. And therefore, he got a loan, which he paid back with interest on time to the profit and satisfaction of the lender. And nobody's ever going to be prosecuted for that again. They know it. So she was really good. I thought she was excellent. And I think they're all going to follow the cue of Bondi and Pete Hexeth.

I mean, they set the establishment how to deal with these people, their children. And I think they're going to be treated. I think that's right. Be aggressive. Like don't you don't need their votes. Like you said, I have 53 senators and you don't be aggressive and stop letting them try to control the narrative about Trump in a way that's trying to sink him before he even gets started in the eyes of the American people. He, Trump or his nominees. This one was White House again. And this is clearly about Kash Patel because you'll hear Bondi reference Kash in her answer, Sot 40. Senator, to cut to the chase, you're clearly talking about Kash Patel.

I don't believe he has an enemies list. He made a quote on TV, which I have not heard. I saw your sign or Senator Durbin's sign about Cash. But I know that Cash Patel has had 60 jury trials as a public defender, as a prosecutor. He has great experience in the intel department department of defense i have known cash and i believe that cash is the right person at this time for this job and i'm questioning you right now about whether you will enforce an enemy's list that he announced publicly on television oh senator i'm sorry there will never be be an enemies list within the Department of Justice. So you're right, Victor, when he gets in there. Oh, boy.

Yeah. I mean, he has that. He knows he has a 53 votes thing about cash is he gets that. He can say things and he writes things that can be taken out of context. But what they don't. I've known him for about 15 years. He's got a photographic memory. He really does. And he was schooled by Devin Nunes about, and he's a brilliant guy. And what he's going to do, and I think everybody knows it, he's going to bring back all these guys and women that are in their forties, fifties, and sixties that were driven out by the Mueller, Comey, McCabe, Ray regimes when they got sick of the weaponization. So he's going to be surrounded by professional FBI people that were dissidents and wanted to restore the reputation of the FBI. It's going to be restoration. And the other thing real quickly, Megan, is that this is all going on when Joe Biden, their president, our president, but

especially their hero, is now pardoning 1,500 people. He pardoned his son. And they know what's going to happen, maybe while these confirmations go on, because Biden is running out of time. And we know he's going to try to pardon. I think he'll pardon Liz Cheney, Benny Thompson. I think he'll pardon probably some more Biden family members. And he's made a mockery of that. And then we have the whole incompetency going on in Los Angeles and the whole destruction of

L.A. and the culpable blue models, blue state models. So the backdrops of this hearing is not good for progressivism, is what I'm trying to say. Well, some of those names you just mentioned came up because Mazie Hirono, is she the dumbest in the Senate? That's a hard call. Yeah, I mean, I await your nominee for a fellow contender. I think she might be number one. She's a Democrat from

Hawaii. She started to get into with Bondi whether she's going to prosecute a bunch of different DOJ officials in there under Biden, including Jack Smith, Merrick Garland or Liz Cheney. Bondi refused to take the bait, saying I'm not going to answer hypotheticals and saying, quote, no one has been prejudged and nor will anyone prejudge, which is the right answer, right? It's like, I'm not going to give them a sweeping pass if they've done something and we get in there and we find out. I mean, Liz Cheney's been accused of some serious ethical violations during the course of J6 and the committee hearing. So who knows? So that's how she answered it. And then here's Hirono on Trump's enemies. You as attorney general should investigate one of his perceived political enemies. Would you do so? Senator Hirono, I wish you had met with me. Had you met with me,

we could have discussed many things and gotten to know. I am listening to you now. Could you respond to the question? Yeah, you were the only one who refused to meet with me, Senator. But what we would have discussed is that it is the job of the Attorney General to follow the law. I'm very happy to listen to your response. So good, right? Given what we heard yesterday.

You didn't meet with me, Mr. Hegseth. You didn't meet with me either or me either. And now you get this woman. You know, she refused to meet with Pam Bondi. Yeah. I don't know what they thought they were going to be very schooled and prepped. And Schumer had them all in and said, this is an occasion for us to make the argument that Trump is satanic and these people are incompetent. But they really didn't research it. Anybody who knew Hexeth or Pam Bondi or met them or knows them or seen them in action, they're very quick on their feet. They're witty. They're smart. And they're perfect. I the way they answered, didn't they understand what they were doing when they asked these stupid questions and they showboated and performance art? When Pete, you know, I'm not a general senator. Didn't they understand that these people were far more capable in that venue than they were? But it's just that

they're in an echo chamber and they're so arrogant, but they're ossified, calcified hacks and they don't understand it. And they're up against a new generation of really smart people who have mastered the medium of television and impromptu repartee and they just had them for dinner. It was embarrassing. And you know what else? You know what else? Here's the other piece of it. You're so right. Totally agree. They're bitter about this victory and it's manifesting in their snarky, petty little questions. And in other ways inauguration? Michelle Obama to the snaps of Joy Reid, who's like, Michelle gets it. Loveance and his wife, Usha, to the residence where she stays, where the vice president stays, for a tour or just for a nicety, you know, which is, I guess, traditional. She hasn't done it and she won't do it. Notwithstanding the fact that Usha Vance, who has three very young children in the single digits, apparently reached out to say, I could use some direction on childproofing the residence before I get there,

so I know what I'm going to need. And apparently they didn't get back to her. Eventually someone from the office got back to her. Someone from the office is going to let her tour, but it's not Kamala Harris. And eventually, I guess Doug Emhoff spoke with Usha. But that's it. Nothing from Kamala whatsoever to J.D. These are petty, bitter people. Yeah. I mean, Kamala, she was offered a little soundbite about the disaster, catastrophe in Los Angeles. And you'd think she would say, whatever I say, it cannot be a word salad because I will be watching. And what did she do?

In 60 seconds, she said something that was entirely incomprehensible. No one could understand the syntax, the grammar, the vocabulary. It was just a confirmation of her imbecility. Wait, we have it. Let's hold the point. Watch it here. And so it's critically important that to the extent you can find anything that gives you an ability to be patient in this extremely dangerous and unprecedented crisis that you do. What? Who was next to her?

His eyes were sort of exploding. i don't know who it was it looked like my york is almost but his eyes went oh my god this is what is this woman and she's couldn't take my eyes off her yeah and so it's uh you know all i you know we've talked about this before but i think a lot of it is fear because they project you know and you've talked about this before, but I think a lot of it is fear because they, you know, and you've talked about that, Megan, they always project what they're doing. They project that's wrong or unethical. They project onto their opponents. But they know that if they were in power right now and they had suffered what they did to Donald Trump and they were Donald Trump, they know what they would be doing. And they would be going after their enemies like Merrick Garland did and Biden did.

And that terrifies them because they think that Donald Trump thinks like they do. And I don't think he does. I think he's so concerned with getting these tech barons and common sense and opening up natural resources for development and artificial intelligence and bioengineering. He really has this dream of a golden age, and he only has four years, and that's what he's concentrated on. But that's not how they think. They think, oh, my God, what we did to him, and now he's in power like we were. He's going to go after all of us us because that's what I would do. So your point about projection plays perfectly well into what Jimmy Kimmel was doing last night,

saying Trump's upset that the firefighters out in L.A. aren't white enough, which is like completely backwards of what actually happened. It was the city of Los Angeles, it was the LAFD that decided their ranks were too white and started openly on some initiative to make them less white and less straight. has come out of the fire chief touting how gay she is. And she's a woman, she's gay, and she's a lesbian, and she's a woman. Second in command, gay and a woman. Third in command, gay, a woman, and black. And on top of that, just today, this is making its way on the internet. We went and actually found it ourselves.

On the LA, is it PD or FD? It's FD, right, Captain? On side 18. Okay. Talking about their pronouns in a video for the disabled, not to mention all the other stuff. Listen here, this is on there right now. Good afternoon. I'm with the Los Angeles Fire Department. We're here at the Emergency Operations Center with some information for our fellow Angelenos. My name is Captain Jennifer Wilcox. My pronouns are she, her. I am a Caucasian female wearing a black shirt uniform with eyewear and a black hat. Los Angeles continues to aggressively respond to the Palisades fire and Hearst fire amid the dangerous ongoing windstorm and extreme weather conditions impacting the Los Angeles region. OK, so it's FD. This is the group is having all the troubles and she needs us to know what her pronouns are. a minute out of her briefing on this emergency situation to tell people who are blind what she's wearing and about her skin color and her like this we're in la la land victor i i know and i live here

unfortunately in this state but uh that's not going to go over well with the 10,000 homeowners that lost their homes. I don't think they understand that if you're in Los Angeles, it's not just Malibu, but Pacific Palisades is the example of tasteful, elegant, elite wealth. Some of those homes were built in the 20s. It's old L.A. It's got these classical Spanish architecture, beautiful tropical landscaping, one of the most quiet, safe, beautiful places in the world. And it's completely been Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne, of them, they're second and third generation and they're not that wealthy people. They inherited and through Prop 13, you don't have to pay the going rate on property're sitting on this huge investment of five or $6 million because everybody wants to live there. And there's no way in the world they're going to ever be able to rebuild

any of their homes. They've been completely wiped out what their grandparents or parents lived. And when they listen to that and they think of 300 or so hydrants empty, the reservoir empty, that type of fire person mentality, it's just going to enrage them. And it's going to make them even angrier because they voted for these people.

And they thought, you know what? We were good liberals and we voted for all of you people. We voted for DI, woke, the whole green stuff. And you turned around and engulfed us. And that's not, they're irate. They're just shocked, those people. And I have empathy. I'm not one of these people who blames them and says, you know, you voted for these people. They were voting for kind of a nostalgic liberalism that no longer exists. And I don't know if they understood that, but they voted for a radical Jacobin French revolutionary movement in California

that blows up dams, that does not build $7.5 billion worth of three new reservoirs, which would have given us 5 million acre feet, that doesn't clean the hillsides, that doesn't get rid of the chaparral, that doesn't allow grazing of sheep and cattle as we used to, doesn't clean the forest, and then hires people on the basis of their superficial appearance. That's what they voted for. But I think they thought very naively, well, they're kind of, you know, Democrats, and they're kind of good people and they they're they'll do OK. And and they didn't understand that they they voted in a bunch of nihilist and anarchist. Mm hmm. Here's here's more. This is L.A. City public information officer, spokesperson doing the same.

This is up there right now talking about want us all to know. Well, you'll hear. Watch my name is ashley rodriguez i'm the public information officer for the city of los angeles department on disability my self-description i'm a latina with short brown hair wearing a blue shirt and standing to my left is our American Sign Language interpreter, Susan. It's like, you know, it's so performative, this business of like, I'm going to cater to the blind and I'm going to make sure that they have a visual description of me in their heads before they listen to my talk. Because if you really wanted to do that, Victor, if that were really

important to you, as opposed to just performative box checking, you would do it throughout your little speech. You would say, you know, so far the LA fires have consumed 12,500 homes in the Northern Pacific Palisades and the Southern Pacific Palisades. The Palisades is an area of Los Angeles that looks, like you say, largely built in the 1920s with Mediterranean roofs, which in which the homes are typically on a half an acre lot. You would you you couldn't get through normal conversation because there are too many references that require visual knowledge. You cannot cater. It's why does it matter for the blind people to have a perfect description of a Latina up there speaking. Like, what's the information?

That's what they want to know. It's because it's narcissistic. It's all about her. And she understands one thing, Megan. Had she done preparation and talked to all the relevant government officials, had she visited all these places, and if she had mastered the topic and taken four or five hours and just dropped that stuff that you mentioned, and then extemporaneously without notes, like where you

and I are talking, just talked in a convincing, authentic manner, she'd probably be fired. And she knows that. So she thinks to herself, how do I advance using the Latina card and all of this other DEI stuff? And I know that I will never be adjudicated on my actual ability to master the knowledge necessary to make a difference or to remedy the situation. And that's why everybody's angry, because they know that this is not just a sin of commission by all of these pronouns junk. It's a sin of omission. It comes at the expense in this zero-sum game that these people don't know anything. They don't know about reservoirs. They don't know anything about water pressure. They don't know anything how to get people out of a house who's a heavy male. They don't know about the Chaparral. They don't care because they feel

that that was an old, white, stupid generation that built LA and they're all dead. And they made all of these non-green reservoirs and they were so into infrastructure and water, but we're beyond all that. So they're kind of like children that inherited this sophisticated desert that has exist as a paradise because of all this imported water that was always on the margin of error. Any little error could destroy that whole system. And they had some really brilliant people who built William Mulholland was a genius that got Colorado water, Owens Valley water, aqueduct water, and created that pair. Henry Huntington came all the way, 200 miles away, and made the first transmission lines that could convey hydroelectric to run the electric cable cars in L.A. They were geniuses that built that city, and now they're relegated to old, white, stupid guys that are gone. But these people don't have half the ability that that generation did.

And they know it. And they can't even be custodians of a system that they inherited. It's too complex. They can't figure it out. And they're destroying it. And everybody knows it. And there's a lot of people in L.A. that do know how to do it. And they do know how L.A. because they grew up with it.

And they're furious because they're saying if you had have just taken the system you inherited and stuck to your job and mastered it, my house wouldn't be burned up that is 70 years old, a historic place in Los Angeles. And I wouldn't have lost all of these furnishings that my grandmother gave me. And we wouldn't have all these looters trying to find safes and things and burned out lots. That's what you did. So I think it'll make an impression. I really do on some of the Californians. Here's the other thing. You know, the hypocrisy of some of these people who are in our culture and in our lives virtually.

The left, after George Floyd, what did we hear? We had whole books discussed, interviews on NPR about, it was, quote, in defense of looting, in defense of looting. You had authors writing books about it, interviews on leftist radio. You had Trevor Noah out there talking about how, well, that's you only don't loot if you're going to uphold the social contract. But when the police violate the social contract, then you have the right, right? Then it's fair game for all. Well, guess who's super upset about the looting of the 10 and 20 million dollar homes that have had to be evacuated because they're under threat of fire.

That same crowd, Julia Roberts, is out there posting, F you, looters. I'm sure she's very worried that her friend's beach house is about to get burned with her beautiful Picasso that she gifted him. And she doesn't want that to, right? But where were you when it was poor people with small ma and pa

businesses getting burned who did nothing wrong in missouri in wisconsin and across the country in 2020 well she was nowhere she didn't care because the thing about the la fire that's tragic but also instructive is these people never suffer the consequences of their ideology because they have enough money or the right zip code that they're protected from the ruin that they inflict on other people. We're the lab rats and they are the experimenters in the laboratory. But the laboratory scientists go home at night. They don't stay like the mice. We're the white mice, the lab rats that are experimental. And now something happened, and the people who created this mess, it boomeranged back on them, and they don't know what to do. They're angry, and so Julie Roberts says, looters, and then she thinks for a second,

well, wait a minute, maybe a lot of them are DEI types of people. Should I say this or not? And I guarantee you in a week from now, she will try to contextualize what she said. Right. Yeah. And so everything about DEI, Elon Musk was very prescient when he said it's a mind virus. It's a 360 cultural revolution. And it's got the on Midas touch. Everything they touch, they destroy. MSNBC has been destroyed. They just

fired, you know better than I do, the media market. But I can tell you from the books, after George Floyd, some great authors were blacklisted. And they all went with the DI. And then I get calls from a lot of people in the book industry. None of them sold, Megan. It almost bankrupt them. Nobody wants to read for the 900th time the anti-racist manifesto or why I was treated so terribly memoir. And it destroyed them. Now what are they doing? They're doing just what the media are doing. The publishing houses are getting rid of all the DEI titles, book lists, authors, and going back to what Donald Trump would call a return to common sense. So that's why they're so scared. This was a revolution.

I don't think we appreciate it. It was like a French revolution, and it's now failed and there's a counter-revolution. And they don't know how far the counter-revolution is going to go. And they're very afraid because they know that they didn't earn these positions. They know they've done a lot of damage to society and now they're afraid they have zero public support. That's so interesting. Yeah. That's from a war historian.

Our audience should know. Rashida Jones, the president of MSNBC, just announced she was stepping down. Not sure if it's a firing or forced out, but the readings are in the toilet post Trump's win. But so she's gone. She she I don't I'm not sure who's taking over, but it's going to be just like somebody just like her. But it's interesting, isn't it, that Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris are behaving so badly? Like, why won't Michelle Obama go to the inauguration, right? Like, why won't she show up? I think I know, because she spent the last three weeks of the campaign screaming that Donald Trump was Satan, and he was a racist, and he was mean, and he hated Black people, and now she's going to have to sit next to him. And she doesn't know what Donald Trump would say to her in front of everybody.

But she knows that if she was Donald Trump, as again, as I said, and then she had heard all of what she had said about him, she knows what she would say. And she thinks Donald Trump is even more trigger happy than she is. And Donald Trump would probably, you know, Donald Trump better than I do, Megan. You know what he would do. He would walk up and just act as if he was going to say something and then smile and try to hug her or shake her hand, talk to Barack like he did. And he would think in his mind that will make her even madder than me saying something.

And it did. He was an old friend of Barack Obama. So, you know, Barack Obama called him a racist, too. But they don't they don't I don't think they get Donald Trump at all. You know, I was just thinking. Let me ask you a question, because she also didn't go to the Carter funeral where she knew Trump. Yes. And I do wonder because she and Barack both were out there saying Trump's a racist. Barack referenced Hitler. Is the difference that Barack Obama didn't actually believe any of that, but Michelle Obama did? Yes, he's a Bill Clinton transactional politician. It's always the next day.

He doesn't care. But the other thing is there's a subtext, I think, is that if he were to talk honestly to Barack Obama, he would say something like this. If Barack Obama would talk honestly to Donald Trump, he'd say something like, Don, don't get angry. You don't have any idea what I put up with. You don't have to put up with her like I do. So let's just forget it and be friends and joke and talk. And then I have to go home to it. So be sympathetic to me.

And that's what I think the subtext. Because he's not happy, Barack Obama. He never was. Oh, they have very different lives. Yes. And that makes her even angrier and angrier and angrier. And he's smart enough, like Bill Clinton, to know that the only reason that they have half a reputation is they feigned that they were centrist. And Obama went hard left in the second.

But for a while, he was talking about close the borders and all that. And Bill Clinton was famous for doing stuff like that. And they understand politics. But they understand Michelle Obama is off the rails. And Hillary is even off the rails. But that's what's in common about both Bill and, and Barack. It's almost as if, okay, well, our, our wives are crazy. We can't put up with them. We're not going to, you know, engage in this feuding because it's not transactional. It

doesn't help us. They're utilitarian. Like they'll go along to the extent they have to, but now that he's won, it's like, all right, that stuff I said, I didn't mean any of that nonsense. Exactly. He's thinking now. I'm like, yes, yes, we did. What do you mean? We're not going to the extent they have to. But now that he's won, it's like, all right, that stuff I said, I didn't mean any of that nonsense. Exactly. He's thinking now. Yes, we did. What do you mean? We're not going to the inauguration. There's no way she wants to be seated next to the Trumps.

Absolutely. His mind is going, there's going to come a time in the next four years I've got to call Donald Trump and get a favor about anything. And he will have favors. I have a friend that wants this or this. And he knows that. And that's the same thing with Bill Clinton. And they understand that Donald Trump,

for all of the bad publicity, the weird thing about him is he doesn't really, he talks a great game, but he doesn't hold grudges. He said that. He said, I can give you second and third chances, but not fourth. And he brought in J.D. Vance after what J.D. said about him. He yeah, he's actually at this inauguration. You're going to see a line of

Elon. Yes, makes sense. Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos all sitting together. And I think the other heads of social media companies are going to be there, too. Like they're all they've all banned him, said terrible things about him. Not Elon, but the others, certainly. And Trump, you know, it's like they come in and kiss the ring. He'll let you kiss the ring. He's like, fine, buy guns. Absolutely. But they share that vision because Trump has basically said to them, you maybe don't like me and I don't like you, but you guys are geniuses.

Whether whatever your field is, look at he broke into the top three auto companies. Nobody's ever done that. Elon. Look at SpaceX. He bailed out NASA. He revolutionized all of social media. That's what you guys do. You know, David Sachs and Zuckerberg, whether you like them or not.

And the world doesn't like you guys. And they're trying to gang up on you in Asia and Europe. But you bring us money and prestige and power. And we got all these new technologies, AI, biotechnology, cryptocurrency. And that's where the future is. And you guys are going to work for me. And we're going to make everybody rich. That's whether you make fun of it or not, that's his vision, Donald Trump. And they understand that. He likes entrepreneurship. He loves the spirit of American invention

and what these guys have done. And he respects success. He does respect success. And he'll give you that due as long as you don't, you know, say incredibly nasty things about him, like somebody like Mark Cuban. Yes.

And he, the thing is, they know that they can make more money for themselves. And they, some of them have actually a sense of public commonwealth. They know that they can help the country and they know they're in a deadly race against China and Russia and all these enemies abroad. And they understand that Donald Trump is saying to them, whatever you guys need to make our country preeminent and help the middle class in the process, I'm going to do it. And I don't really care anymore what you said about me. But you're going to have to do this. And that's exciting for them because, you know, Andreessen said that. He went in to meet with Biden.

They basically said, these are the winners in artificial intelligence and nobody else, no startups. And they understand Zuckerberg said that they'd call him up and scream at him and you're going to do this. Donald Trump's not going to do that. He's going to say, do call you up to yell at you about is if you say something nasty about him, that's a personal grievance. He's not going to try to infringe on the First Amendment by saying you may not say that you may not speak to that. I really don't think that's what the left is worried about, because, again, projection. All right. Stand by, Victor. I got to take a quick break. Be right back. Breaking news and big one on Israel. Let's cut through the BS and get to some good stuff. Firecracker Farm, hot salt. Yes, Firecracker Farm, hot salt. This small family business is making waves. And if you have not tried it yet, it is time to change that, my friends. It was the gift to give and receive

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firecracker.farm. And here's the kicker. Use code MK at checkout for 10% off your order. Don't wait. This offer is only limited for a period of time. That's firecracker.farm and use code MK for 10% off your order. For those of us holding our breath for the past several months, watching the politics of this nation, we can finally exhale a bit. Work can finally be done on the major issues this country's facing. One of the most significant being our national debt. The fact is we're broke and that debt that we have is a house of cards that cannot be quickly dismantled. So the strategy remains the same. You might want to diversify your savings. This is why I want you to know about Birch Gold. So many things are out of our control,

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That's SiriusXM.com slash MKShow and get three months free. Offer details apply. We've got major breaking news at this hour. Already seeing the immense power of a second President Trump term. Multiple officials now say Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire deal that includes the release of dozens of hostages. And one of those officials is President Trump himself, writing on Truth Social, we have a deal for the hostages in the Middle East. They will be released shortly. Thank you. Wow. According to the AP, around 100 people are still

being held captive inside Gaza, but Israel's military believes at least a third of them are dead. The AP reports the three-phased agreement would begin with the release of 33 Israeli women, children, and elderly, and those wounded in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian women and children incarcerated in Israel. No reporting right now that we can see about, what about the American hostages? There are a handful left. We don't know. Are they in the 33? We don't believe so. The earlier reporting was that we might get two in that first round that they that the Americans had originally said we want them all that they said no and that it was dropped. So that's what the Biden team. We just don't know. We'll learn more. A Trump source to

Fox News today said only 23 of those 33 hostages that are going to be released under this deal are alive. That's incredible. They're holding the dead bodies of the hostages. Back with me now, Victor Davis Hanson. It's kind of confusing because the Biden team has been negotiating, but so has Team Trump. He's dispatched his Middle East envoy over there. And so I don't know exactly who's negotiating with whom, but there's no question that the Trump threat, that all hell is going to break loose if they are not returned by his inauguration, which is Monday. It had to have played a part here. It did. I don't think it's a good deal for Israel because there's about 20% of Gaza they have to get into because that's where Hamas has fled to.

And if they pull out and they release hundreds, if not thousands of terrorists and it's a ceasefire, you know what's going to happen. They're going to get the UN, they're going to get the moderate Arab regimes to rebuild it, and then Hamas is going to threaten them, kill some, and take over again. So I don't think, but I think I know what Trump is doing. I've talked to a few people, but I think their attitude is you can't ever deal with Hamas because of the hostages. So you got to get the hostages out and let Biden get the hostages out. Everybody knows they're being released, as you said, Megan, because Trump is coming in. But Biden officially will be in office, at least when the first iterations start. So he's responsible. And then when you get the hostages out and Israel gets out, Hamas will break all of their

commitments. Everybody knows that. And at that point, they have no more leverage over anybody. And Israel is going to be under the Trump administration free to retaliate as it sees fit. I think that's what the Trump people are thinking. But I'm afraid that in the process, there's going to be a lot of damage done, even though I want all the hostages, as everybody does, to be released. But they're going to let a lot of terrorists out and they're going to have to get out before they've destroyed Hamas. And I think they could destroy Hamas if they went into the last areas of Gaza, which they won't be able to do.

What else is amazing is the numbers, Victor. It's like, okay, so they're going to let out some number, ideally, you know, eventually all 88, but let's say 33 of the hostages they've got in their custody. And Israel is going to let out hundreds. And the so-called hostages that, you know, Israel has, they aren't hostages, they're prisoners because they were arrested with, there's a due process that they go through in Israel before they arrest somebody. All these people are people who are suspected of terrorism or caught in the act of terrorism against Israel. So yeah, so caught. So these people all get out by the hundreds and just the proportionality is not there. But Hamas, this is what happens because Israel values life and Hamas does not.

Yeah. And Biden, what Biden is trying to do is use the, and that's what they've been doing all along with Iran and everybody else. They're using the ascent of Donald Trump and his restoration as a lever and saying, you know what, they're thinking to themselves, Trump will do and say things we can't do. And we're going to use him to get a last minute deal. And Trump is kind of using them. And he said, I'm going to be Ronald Reagan and they're going to be Jimmy Carter and they're going to release the hostages because I'm coming in. So that's the matrix. But I think everybody expects that the people they release will be right back in as the apparat that restores Hamas. They're all Hamas people. And they're going to go right back and reform Hamas. And they're going to be free to do it because Israel will be withdrawn. There's going to be a ceasefire. And then the money is going to pour in. They're going to steal it, UN money, golf money, and they're going to start in on it again. And I think at that point, the Trump administration

thinks, well, there's no more hostages and they can't leverage us or Israel and they got their chance. So world opinion is going to be on our side, especially when the hostages tell how everybody, how they were treated. And we see these bodies of people who died weeks before this gruesome apparatus that runs it. And we're going to let Israel then take care of business. I think that's what they think. I don't necessarily agree with that, because I think there's going to be a lot of damage in the process of this piece. But I think that's what the Trump people are saying. It's Biden's deal. You notice that Trump didn't take credit for it. He just said they're released because I think the downside after the ebullition

of the hostages return, the downside will be Biden's. And then Trump will start with a fresh slate and said, well, he did it. We got the hostages. There's no more leverage on us anymore. So I think that's what's going on. Well, this is phase one of the ending. And the ending was a long time coming. I mean, there's, there's a sigh of relief to some extent as it appears to be winding down. Victor, thank you. A pleasure to see you speak to you after the inauguration, which is coming up on Monday. Can't believe it. Um, okay. So we'll see you all tomorrow and, uh, we'll have a full rundown for what else they do to Pam Bondi. Don't miss that. Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show.

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