The Megyn Kelly Show - True Cost of Tech Censorship, and Celebrity Corruption, with Sharyl Attkisson and Tom MacDonald | Ep. 311

Episode Date: April 29, 2022

Megyn Kelly is joined by Sharyl Attkisson, investigative reporter and host of Full Measure, and Tom MacDonald, rapper and former pro wrestler, to talk about  the creation of the Department of Homeland Security's "disinformation" board, the absurd person leading it, the cost of tech censorship, vaccine and COVID misinformation, more spin from CDC Director Walensky, the latest on illegal immigration at the Southern border, gross coziness between press and power at the White House Correspondents Dinner, the evolution of hip-hop, the way modern celebrities focus on commercialization and vice, the importance of finding sobriety and true happiness, the corruption of celebrity, owning your life instead of being attached to a corporation, the corruption of the media, and more.Find out more about vaccines at the CDC's official site: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/index.html The CDC's official COVID vaccine site: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/index.htmlFollow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations. Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show and happy Friday. Don't you just feel better on Fridays? Aren't you just in a better mood on Fridays? It's just like, I don't know. I know a lot of people work the weekends, but still, there's just something in the air on the Friday. It's like, yeah, okay, good things are coming my way. It's a little bit more freedom, more joyful people everywhere. So that's how I'm feeling. We're going to start today with a trigger warning for all the snowflakes out there, or as Debbie, Canadian Debbie called herself the other day when she

was, she was saying she was, I don't know, too afraid to run some clip or whatever. She goes, I'm just a snowball. I'm like, that is not a thing, Debbie. Of course, then she reminded me she lives in Canada where it's like everything's bigger when it comes to snow. You'll understand why I'm giving you this trigger warning in our second hour when we bring on rapper Tom McDonald. Man, I've been immersed in his music lately and it's fascinating stuff. And he's a fascinating guy. So looking forward to that.

But first, someone backed by special request. My own. Cheryl Atkinson is going to join us in one second. What on earth is happening at the Department of Homeland Security? We talked about this a little yesterday. Secretary Mayorkas appeared on Capitol Hill, couldn't answer a pretty simple question about suspected terrorists who have infiltrated our border. Seems like something that he should know about, but perhaps he's too focused on his new disinformation board that for some reason DHS feels the need to be in charge of.

The Department of Homeland Security. Yes, they will be running our disinformation board that critics are likening to George Orwell's Ministry of Truth in 1984. Here to talk about it all, investigative reporter Cheryl Atkinson. She is the host of Full Measure on Sinclair Television. Cheryl, welcome back to the program. Good to have you. Great to be here. Thank you. I hope you don't mind if you hear a little bit of dog noises during the interview because I either lock her out and she's going to scratch and bark or she's in here and she might do a little of that. No worries at all. You know, I was thinking

at one point I'm going to let my little Strudwick make a guest star appearance on the show and people are going to finally get to see the menace who's been ruling my life for a year. So, yes, I'm in favor of dogs, especially the well-behaved ones. Cheryl, what could possibly go wrong with DHS and its ministry of the disinformation department that's going to be run by some woman who thought the Hunter Biden laptop was disinformation. I mean, I just don't understand why this doesn't occur to them. She's holding up the George Orwell book, 1984. This is so classic. It's literally mapped out in 1984, which I've been reading and rereading in the last couple of years, partly for my books.

And I was starting to watch one of the movies, 1984, last night. I just can't fathom that it doesn't occur to them, the similarities and the parallels that they're following, and either doesn't occur to them or doesn't bother them. And smarter people will have to ultimately decide this. And you probably know more than I do. But common sense tells me this is unconstitutional. It's certainly un-American for a government entity to step in and determine or decide who can say and think what things and what qualifies as disinformation, not to mention the obvious, which you already pointed out, the people so far that are in charge or coming

up with this idea are some of the biggest purveyors of disinformation, proven disinformation. That's not even in dispute in the past couple of years. What the heck is going on? So my team put together this clip of the woman who's going to be running this thing, Nina Jankowicz, which sometimes they say, don't watch it until the show. Just watch it with the audience. Listen to it for the first time with the audience. And that's going to happen now. This is her singing a song about disinformation.

And it's from February 2021. It's how you hide a little, hide a little lie. It's how you hide a little, hide a little lie. It's how you hide a little, hide a little lie. When Rudy Giuliani shared bad intel from Ukraine. Or when TikTok influencers say COVID can cause pain. They're laundering disinfo and we really should take note. And not support their lies with our wallet, voice or vote.

Oh, information laundering is really quite ferocious. It's when a huckster takes some lies and makes them sound precocious. By saying them in Congress or a mainstream outlet so disinformation's origin seems slightly less atrocious. Oh my God. Cheryl, did that just happen? Nutty. It's just nutty. With her British accent,

she's a good little singer. I'll give her that. And I like her pizzazz, her flair. I really don't want her censoring me because she doesn't seem to have two nickels to rub together in between her ears from the look of it. I don't think she should be in because she doesn't seem to have two nickels to rub together in between her ears from the look of it.

I don't think she should be in charge of what I say on the Internet. I'm thinking, Megan, that one of the other big takeaways from this, naming her, naming this agency or whatever it's going to be, it's proof, in my view, what we already knew was that Twitter was acting in that capacity as are other big tech outlets. If Twitter were still acting in that capacity, I don't think we would have seen this rushed, hurried announcement of something no one's had a chance to look at or really consider. But this is the backup plan with the notion that Twitter's now not going to be able to act is one of the biggest sensors and information shapers that we've had since 2016. The timing is very coincidental, isn't it? I mean, no sooner does Elon announce he's got a deal,

then suddenly we get this announcement. And in the midst of Elon's attempt to buy it, we had Barack Obama last week trying to lecture us all on how disinformation is such a huge problem. Purveyor of lie of the year, mind you. not just little lie, not just occasional lie, lie of the year. You got to tell a big whopper in order to get that designation. That's the man now who was spending his post-presidency lecturing us about disinformation. And then the other shoe drops with this announcement post Elon's official announcement on Monday. Is it worth backing up just a little bit? Because I dissected this for one of my books? The beginning of the notion that someone needed to step in and curate our

information is not that old. In 2015, there was little to no talk about such things. And in September of 2016 is when this idea was first introduced on the national stage in its current form. With fake news in its modern form used by a nonprofit called First Draft, who I learned was actually funded by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, started up at the beginning of the election cycle, generating and creating the notion of fake news. And then within a couple of weeks, then President Obama gave a speech at Carnegie Mellon that said, for the first time I heard anybody say something like this, that somebody needed to step in and start curating

our information in this wild, wild west media environment. And I remember at the time, Megan, going, what? Like, no one's asking for that. And slowly, well, actually, rather rapidly, but slowly over time, it's all almost as if we've come to accept that instead of we're arguing the terms, instead of arguing that that is even done at all. Third parties influenced by government and corporations are determining what we can see and hear and think. This is why it's such good news that Elon Musk will be in charge of at least one of these major social media companies. At least there's going to be one where there appears to be somebody who's on the side of free speech running it. And prior to this week, we didn't have that. It's true.

And I was wondering if you had any recent experiences, because I sure do, with social media. Have they shaped or censored or banned some of the stuff that you've been reporting on and doing interviews about? Well, we had to be very careful with our we interviewed RFK Jr. A couple of weeks ago, and we knew very well he's been stricken from the internet. I mean, he's been banned from Twitter and Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. So he's been basically erased. So our goal was to get him on the air in a way that could live, right? We didn't, it was pointless for us to do an interview with him that would then just get banned. You know what I mean? Like that's pointless. So we

understood we had to be careful with it and we had to sort of cross certain T's, but man, it's like, it would have been nice to just have a conversation with him without having to worry about the censors. You know, I mean, we are kind of getting a little, I don't know, un-American. It's starting to feel a little un-American. Well, this is the goal. And I've talked about this before. The ideal for the propagandists and the censors is we just start censoring ourselves so they don't really even have to step in. And I can't tell you how many journalists and news organizations executives have told me over the past couple of years,

they don't publish what they want to publish, even though they believe it's true or a valid viewpoint or a valid scientific study because they're self-censoring in order to survive on what they see as these powerful platforms that are crucial to them being a thing. They're afraid that if they cross a certain line and get canceled, as one of them told me, what sort of pure victory is it to be able to report the truth,

but then to be canceled entirely? So here all of us are trying to dance around the truth or certain viewpoints or scientific studies in order to please the censors who are improperly censoring to begin with. And that's a really dangerous place I think we find ourselves in. My team is reminding me RFK Jr. is on Twitter. It's the one platform he's been allowed to remain on. You know, one of the things that we did to sort of keep the interview up was to put a bunch of links to the CDC, the WHO, all that, you know, at the end of our interview on YouTube. Honestly, Cheryl, I don't care. It's like that doesn't bother me. A lot of our audience is like, oh, what's that doing there?

You know, those organizations have lied to us from the beginning. Agreed. I know that. But to me, it seems like a small price to pay to get your interview posted and to have it remain up on YouTube. I don't own YouTube. I don't have a right to be on YouTube. YouTube has every right to shut me down and say, I don't want you on here. It's not pleasant. I don't want it. I would consider it viewpoint discrimination, but they have every right to do that. So if they're basically going to say, you can put on this guy we think is part of the disinformation dozen. Um, and it's, it saves my interview to throw a couple of links at the end, or, you know, sometimes they throw up the little for

information on COVID, you know, you see that at the underneath the video, go to whatever. I don't care. It's different. That's different to me than what you're talking about, though, where you actually don't ask the tough questions or you steer clear of the third rail subjects because you're afraid for good reason that they're going to shut you down. Well, I agree. But think about it. You and I both know, and I do the same thing. When we're posting CDC information, we are posting disinformation in some cases that we know is not true or has proven to be inaccurate or is put out by people who have been sorely misleading, if not entirely wrong. And I've done some exposé, I don't know if you interviewed Congressman Massey when he caught CDC and top executives and scientists who he recorded on the phone, admitting that they were

putting out false information about COVID vaccine being effective in people that had already had COVID. And they admitted this to them and then continued on. So you can only say this is an intentional intent to mislead. Went on to put out in public the same disinformation over and over again after they acknowledged it was untrue. And yet here we are then having to post links to these sources that we know are disproven. For more disinformation. In order to protect our ability to say things that we believe are true.

Right. So we're trying to correct the disinformation, but we have to make sure we include a link to the disinformation organization in order to get our correction of the disinformation aired. It's true. It's sad. Now, what about that, Cheryl? Because that's one of the things with the stats coming out this week saying It's true. labs, that kind of thing. Like they were looking at people's blood, like you weren't going in necessarily to have your blood tested for COVID, but they were making sure like what percentage of those get in the country who gave their blood for whatever reason, have it. Anyway, the point is,

most kids have had it and a majority of adults have had it. And I heard on the New York Times podcast, the daily this week, they're like, but that's not, it doesn't mean we have herd immunity and we're never getting herd immunity because different variants, yada, yada. But I do wonder, what do we think is the next move from these same officials who have been pushing the vaccines on us, despite the fact that they knew in particular in people who already had COVID, this was not necessary. What's their next move now? You know, now that COVID's waning, do they, do they double down? Do they keep firing people? Do they keep kicking kids out of school who don't get it? The LA, you know, public school system, do they say you can't come back next year? Like, I really wonder whether politically they're going to have the backing to do that and whether the news media is still

willing to go along with it? That's a great question. I kind of separated into two because I don't know and can't even understand how some places with now quite a bit of data and evidence in showing that schools that shut down fared no better and perhaps fared worse than schools that never did. I reported on places that never shut down, period, after the initial spring of 2020. Oh, was that 2020? Yeah. And had no big issues. In fact, had fewer than those who stayed shut down and pushed vaccines and masking and so on.

So with all the evidence, it's hard to understand on what basis people are still doing that. But separately, I think the vaccine track goes to where their internal documents in the past have always shown they want to go, which is a perpetual system of boosters and annual shots and perhaps mixing it with the annual flu shots so that this is something that generates billions and billions of dollars over the long term. But it takes constant convincing and propaganda in some cases, if you will, to try to convince people they need something that is questionable. And let me go back to flu shot, because most people don't know this. And I didn't before I covered all these stories, I thought, you know, I'm fully vaccinated, my kids fully vaccinated, I didn't know any of this stuff, till I started digging in. But it turns out, flu shots, as I learned 15 years ago, are ineffective in the elderly and potentially harmful. And the government knew that from multiple studies, but didn't believe the science, their

own science, and set out to do a definitive study that adjusted for all these confounding factors at the end of which they thought it would show flu shots prevent deaths in elderly. Instead, there was an inverse relationship. Deaths were higher since many millions more elderly were getting flu shots. And the government scientists who did the study wanted to come out and talk about it. They thought it was very important. They acknowledged they were biased pro-flu shots because these are all vaccine supporters. They were stunned at the findings and were not allowed to talk about it

when I tried to interviewing them for CBS. One of the scientists who was independent at Harvard did do an interview with me, said all of these things. I've reported on the study, but I remember saying to a top government official at the time, what are you going to do now? Are you going to tell elderly people not to get the shots? Because it carries some slight risk. And at the time, there had been stories about old people standing in line and fainting, trying to get their flu shots and getting sick. And this official said to me, we can't take flu shots away from old people now. We've spent so much time and money and years telling them they need them. They'll be suspicious if we tell them they don't need them now. So what we need to do instead is start vaccinating

children with flu shots who don't really need the flu shots because they're not hurt by flu typically, but they carry it to the elderly. And then he said, Megan, the hard part is going to be convincing parents to give a shot to their children that their children don't need. Lo and behold, within the next year, it became a suggested and then more than suggested vaccine for the childhood vaccine schedule on the basis of what I've told you, but instead they told the public, your kid needs this shot. Kids are dying of flu. The whole narrative changed. I see that playing out with the COVID vaccines as well. We've been told that by our own doctor, our own pediatrician says that's the thing, that's the shot they should get. And that if they get flu, they should be taking the Tamiflu right away because flu really

can kill children in a way like he worries more about that than he worries about COVID. This is actually the first I'm hearing that that may be part of a propaganda war. Well, and I can send you the studies later. There's not even a question about the effectiveness in the elderly. And then what I told you was told to me behind the scenes, then came to pass. But I think that it's the moneymaker for them. And I'm not saying that's the only motivation, although that's the fiduciary duty that vaccine companies do for their shareholders. They have to make money and do what's best for the money interests. But the moneymaker for them, as they've acknowledged in internal documents in the past, is if they can get a recommended shot

that's on the flu schedule or on the vaccine schedule for children, or for heaven's sake, on the annual schedule, that is just money they calculate out into the future so far that that's just the gold standard for them. Well, what's frustrating to me is you've got Rochelle Walensky still in charge at the CDC. And she was asked about, okay, what about this study, right? The CDC is the one who reported this information that 75% of children and teens have been infected. At least as of February of this year. The numbers are probably up now, right, since February. More than half of the U.S. population has antibodies for COVID as of the end of February. And the question was, so, you know, should people feel good?

Like that they're protected to some extent against future illness, those people who have had it. We don't know whether that protection has waned. We don't know as much about that level of protection as we do about the protection we get from both vaccines and boosters, adding that the agency still encourages those with detectable antibodies from prior infection to get vaccinated. So it's like, we do know that the vaccines wane quickly. That we know from the vaccine companies and the studies that have been done. It wanes quickly. That's why they keep having to recommend all these boosters to us. That's why Anthony Foucher has been shot four times in the arm,

that is. And so for her to then say, oh, well, we don't know how long natural immunity lasts. It's like, number one, that's because you refuse to study it. You refuse. Only the Israelis have studied it. Other countries have studied it, but not us. We've been woefully deficient when it comes to actually looking into these things that might be counter to the narrative or the decision they've made to just take one track, which is push vaccines. So that's number one. But number two, if you don't know, how do you know that it doesn't last longer? I mean, I know very well you can get COVID if you've already had COVID and you get get COVID if you've already been vaccinated.

But if she doesn't know, how can she just continue resorting to get the vaccine, which we know wanes? Well, more information from her that's proving not to be true. That's completely inaccurate if she said that, because there is more data on natural immunity by definition than there is on vaccine immunity, because the vaccines came out far later. There is longer data going out to study the people who first had COVID and are still immune than there is for data on people who had vaccines a year later plus and may or may not be immune. So what you said is true. The vaccine immunity we know wears off quickly, thus the boosters. And that was always expected

on the front end, by the way, which I reported back in spring of 2020, based on experts who helped develop the vaccines, the RNA vaccines. That's what they do. They wear off fast. They don't work particularly well. That's why we've never had a successful RNA vaccine before. But then the notion that natural immunity, which is well-established, is some kind of wild card. I've gathered on my website, sherlachson.com, if you go under health, I believe, I have a whole link to dozens and dozens and dozens of peer-reviewed published studies that establish longstanding natural immunity that goes far past vaccine immunity. There may be a study or two that is inconclusive or shows something slightly different, but the vast bulk of the studies done by a variety of experts around the world

say the same thing. This is not in dispute. So to hear if the head of CDC is still saying that, either she's misinformed or continuing to intentionally give out bad information. She's like an automaton. I mean, she just can't stop herself. Vaccines, vaccines, vaccines. She and Fauci are just one trick ponies now. I don't need to listen to them ever again. I know what they're going to tell me.

Get boosted, get boosted. Well, screw you. I got boosted and then I got COVID. Refund, refund. You know, I'm just like, and everyone's had that experience at this point. So here's my, screw you. I got boosted and then I got COVID. Refund, refund. You know, I'm just like, and I'm, everyone's had that experience at this point. So here's my question to you. Where are we now as, because, you know, at the height of the Delta breakout and then Omicron was not that severe, but it was everywhere. They were really pushing the mandates, the vaccine

mandates, people getting fired. You know, the very nurses that we called heroes are getting fired, even though they had COVID for saying, I don't want the vaccine. They never pulled them. The vaccine mandates, as far as I know, they haven't gone away. I mean, I've been watching for that. The only ones that went away were the ones struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. It's unconstitutional. But we still see some vaccine injuries. We've had people on our show discussing some pretty severe injuries they've gotten from the vaccines verified by the CDC.

It's not made up. It's not psychological. And so I wonder, because I know you've done a fair amount of reporting on vaccine injuries and like the VAERS system and all that. Where do things stand with that? And are people able in any way, any meaningful way now to report any vaccine injuries? Well, people should know that you can do it. Your doctor may not do it. Particularly, they're supposed to, they're required to by law to report an adverse event after vaccination. It's not up to them to determine whether the vaccine caused it or not. This surveillance system is to pick up, is supposed to pick up

all potential adverse events so that something that was previously unrecognized might be recognized. So it defeats the purpose to have a doctor say on the front end, that wasn't caused by vaccine, I'm not going to report it. But too often that happens. Nurses have been fired from their jobs for reporting these events that they see in emergency rooms that they that could or could not be related, but that are required to be reported. And I interviewed one of them on one of my podcasts. So there are a lot that are slipping past that are not being captured. So you can report them yourselves. And you should just so that this is something that can be lifted into the system, even if it's not being officially done. Your health professional

can do it. You can do it. It's not that hard. You go to vaers.gov and fill out a report, fill out the information you know. If you don't know the lot number and the details, you don't have to fill that part out. Just to clarify that. So it's not that hard because somebody was recently saying it's very hard to post on there. Is that just a friend, but is it not that hard? Let me go back and think of, you know, before I knew how to do it, it probably was more confusing to me than it is now, obviously. But I think if you go to VAERS.gov or VAERS.org, you will find report an adverse event and if you click on that there's a computerized way and it may be confusing because they ask for stuff you may not know

like the lot number but you can leave it blank so maybe to me that's the most confusing thing if they're asking for details you don't have but fill out what you have at least put that information out there and other you know the government doesn't go through that. They go through, in my view, some of them for the purpose of trying to pretend those aren't related. But there are good people that have access to that database and journalists and some good FDA scientists, for example, that look at that with in mind trying to identify previously unidentified adverse events. One more important thing, a lot of people I hear say, well, I got the vaccine a couple of weeks ago. I'm fine. So I didn't have any adverse events. They don't understand that scientists have long established some vaccine adverse events can manifest weeks,

months, or years later. So it's important to report anything that happens and let somebody decide in the future based on patterns, whether that could be related. This is one way we learned Viagra caused blindness. And I broke that story internationally by looking at the database of medicine. It was so clear. The government didn't want to see it. And they didn't have people looking at that in my view carefully enough, but it was so obvious that it was causing blindness. That's unbelievable. That's, I mean, it's great news, I guess, for unattractive spouses, because it's like, he wants he can perform. It doesn't matter any longer. Sorry, bad joke. you covered this and we've been wanting to get it on the Rio Grande. And it's got a very strong current and at risk to himself. He jumped in to try to save them and was killed himself. It's so sad.

And it's just yet another. I mean, we literally just had the head of the Border Patrol on last week talking about how this is a very dangerous area. People are dying. Americans are dying. Migrants are dying. And this is not just a, oh, people want to come to America. Don't be so, you know, harsh. No, this is not just a oh people want to come to america don't be so you know harsh no this is not the way and there are really good reasons for having a tough border

including the safety of those who need to protect it and those who want to cross it and this is a case that helps prove it jen saki was about this. And here's how she responded this week. Soundbite 20. Does the White House feel at all responsible? And what what more can you offer to people who, you know, are on the border in border communities who are experiencing loss and trials like this? Well, of course, we are mourning the loss of his life, and we are grateful for the work of every National Guardsman. I would note that the National Guard worked for the states. And so he is an employee of the Texas National Guard. And his efforts and his operation were directed by there, not by the federal government in this effort, in this apparatus. We've long stated that our immigration system is broken. There needs to be more done to invest in smarter security, to have a more effective asylum processing system. And we would welcome any efforts for any elected officials to work with us on that. Got it, Cheryl. He worked for Texas. He wasn't a federal employee. Who cares? Why did Governor Abbott have to send him? Why? Well, that's the

question. I agree. I thought that was a strange answer that seemed to imply, well, that operation wasn't our thing. But of course, it was their thing because it was done solely because the federal government isn't following the law and doing what it's supposed to do in protecting our national borders. And this is a little bit like the disinformation or the ministry of information that we're now starting up. It makes no sense if you're looking at, even are there well-meaning people that simply think this is the best policy? They certainly know the numbers of people that have come through who are, as Donald Trump accurately said, whether people like it or not. Thousands upon thousands of convicted rapists, killers, sexual assaulters, all kinds of criminals, that stuff is tracked with specificity

to the extent that it's known when these people come across. And there's a huge record of that. Secondly, as you said, we are basically exploiting the poor people who come here that are not drug traffickers and bad people by letting them think they can come in. They're putting their lives at risk, paying a ton of money, and we're making the drug cartels richer beyond their wildest dreams by making sure that money goes into the pocket because these cartels charge every person that comes across the border a fee, thousands upon thousands of dollars. And in the end, we're finishing the end of the trafficking operation for them, the cartels, for free by transporting the illegal border crosses to

their final destination at no charge to the cartels or to them, but to U.S. taxpayers. It just makes no sense. On the subject of who's coming across the border, there was news this morning and there was a feisty exchange on Capitol Hill about it. We're going to play it after I squeeze in a quick break and we'll come right back to Sheryl Ackeson. The one and only Sheryl Ackeson. She's amazing. She's fearless. She's intrepid. And there's a reason that she's done so well on her own since leaving CBS. Now she's with Sinclair, but she's created her own lane. And the people are flocking to her for very good reason.

So, Cheryl, there was news this week that among the record numbers of people who are now trying to cross the southern border, some with success, some not so much. We have caught at least 42 people, encountered is the word they're using, 42 people encountered who were on the terrorist, the terror no-fly list, okay, for being suspected terrorists. So Jim Jordan had Secretary Mayorkas of DHS in front of him yesterday on Capitol Hill and tried to find out what happened to those 42 people. Were they released into the country? Were they sent back home? Were they turned back on the spot? What happened to them? You would think that the head of the Department of Homeland Security, this is the reason this group was born, right?

This is after 9-11. That's when we created this. Would have an answer to what happened to those people on the no-fly list. And that every Democrat and Republican on that committee would have an interest in hearing Mayorkas' answer fully to that question. But you would be wrong. Here's what happened. 42 illegal immigrants were encountered at our border are on the terrorist and no-fly list. Are any of them still in our country? The gentleman's time has expired. This is an

important question for this committee. Are any of them still in our country? Congressman, I will deliver to you a response with respect. No, no, no. That's a simple question. Are terrorists on people on the terrorist watch list, no-fly list? Are they still in the United States that you've encountered on the border? Congressman, some of them may be still in detention. So I will- Have any of them been released? Have any of them been released? The gentleman's time has expired. This is critical for the- The chair recognizes-

You got 42. I just, have they been released? Can you, will the gentleman answer that question? Congressman, I will provide you with- Thank you, Madam Chair. They may have been released. Thank you, Madam Chair, ranking member. I believe it is my time. Madam Chair, if I could just one second. I'm sorry. No, the gentleman's time has expired. We want to know if terrorists, people on the terrorist watch list, have any of them been released?

Mr. Secretary, it is. Mr. Jordan, it is my time. But this is about people. It is my time. That's a pretty important question. The gentleman's time has expired. Pretty important question. Well, the Democrats on that committee didn't think so.

They moved right on. No one was interested in getting to the bottom of it. A Republican leader ceded some of his time back to Jim Jordan so he could ask a follow up. And he did know better. Mayorkas didn't know facts that might matter or have your your info in front of you. You know, why didn't he know? I, too, am disturbed by the fact that it was a shoulder shrug from this guy. Well, if you don't want to give the information, you don't get briefed on it before the hearing. Right. And number two, I saw this happen one time. As an aside, I hate this system that both Democrats and Republicans have agreed to where they each get a couple of minutes for a question and they go back and forth, Democrat, Republican, and they don't have enough time to dig into anything. So anytime you would stand to potentially

learn something, you can't possibly because it's the other guy's turn. This was not always how the hearings were conducted, but it's been that way for a while. I saw one hearing a long time ago where someone couldn't answer something and whoever was doing the questioning said, will you call them now and find the answer? And they sat there while the person testifying. I wish someone would have said that to him. We will pause, get someone on the phone that has that information and we'll wait. That would be amazing. Something like that is not going to happen. Well, that's part of the frustration when we saw the Rand Paul exchanges with Dr. Fauci. Right.

He just as ran to be scoring points like did you or didn't you call those people and tell them to reverse their opinions on whether this started in a lab? And he would just say, this is more disinformation from you. This is what you do, Senator. And then it'd be like time. So these are good questions, but there's never there's never an answer. And then when they don't follow up, you know, we don't it's like it just goes away because unless they they're very willing to blow off congressional subpoenas. And when you're not the party in power, you have limited

abilities and so on to actually get information. All right. So speaking of power in Washington, this weekend is the Washington, it's the White House Correspondents Dinner. And this is when all the people who think themselves important, connected to covering the White House get together with, it will be the president, the Jen Psaki's of the world and the people around the president. And typically they invite just to make it extra gross Hollywood celebrities so that they have a bit of glam added to it. They call it nerd prom. And it's happening this weekend. Politico in advance of this does an in-depth report on the White House press corps today. And what it is lamenting, Cheryl, is that White House reporters in the Biden administration are bored. There are no good stories to cover. It's just kind of bland. And there's nothing to really sink your teeth into it. I was pulling my hair out, right? Are you kidding me? With the economy in the state that it's in,

the southern border in the state that it's in, crime in the state that it's in, you know, crazy talk about forgiving student debt and so on. Like, it's boring. He's boring. But this White House isn't boring at all to any reporter who's paying attention. I think that's true. And I think that sort of describes what's wrong with these dinners. I've just been shocked over the years from when I was a young journalist attending my first ones, that they are so overtly partisan, some more than others, but certainly the past 10 to 15 years, no doubt about it, that the whole viewpoint of almost everybody who attends, as well as those who put on the dinners and who are chosen to speak, it's just shocking. And I'm going beyond the White

House Correspondents' Dinners. There's several of them that happen that you know about in D.C. every year. And I went to one a couple of years ago. I wrote up some of these dinners for my last book. It was just so stunning. The speakers who are chosen, who overtly, and they don't try to make a pretense of we'll give various sides or we'll stay away from politics. They overtly advocate for or against a candidate. It's always the Republican they're against. It's always the Democrat they're for. They say amazingly biased things, speaking to a room of journalists, that even the journalists who tend to lean left in Washington, D.C., I've been at some of these dinners and then gone to the ladies room after

a speaker and seen other journalists just shaking their heads at the stuff that was said by the person that was hired to come and speak or the other speakers and that we're all just sort of sitting there applauding and clapping. I are I think these are problematic. Yeah, I think so, too. And they they really just reveal what we already knew, which is that there's way too much chumminess when a Democrat is in power between the media and the administration. And Trump was right not to go to these things. He didn't go to any of them in his four years of being president.

And I think that was the right move. I know that their argument is, oh, we can check our partisanship. We can check our skeptical relationship. It's supposed to be for one night and get along. But it's too incestuous. It can't be checked. Right now, it just serves as a confirmation for everything that the average American has seen, which is the press is all the way up the bottom of a Democratic president. Absolutely loathes a Republican president. And what these people want more than anything is to be part of the cool crowd.

They want to be in, you know, on something special, something with Hollywood, you know, sort of flair, but the power of the presidency, and they want to feel important. And so really, it's the press and it's celebration of those things. And by the way, they're doing it at a time with record inflation and so on, where the average Joe is really struggling to pay his bills, especially like his grocery bill and his car payment. And I don't know that they want to see these people in their black tie outfits, rubbing elbows with celebs and Joe Biden and Trevor Noah, who's the comedian. Well, the comedians to me got progressively less funny. They were just commenting on things they didn't like or hated about, generally Republicans. And Donald Trump, like you say, there was no

in-situation for him to attend any of these dinners. It's not like you say that partisanship is checked. And I was at least at least two speeches during this time period given at these dinners, where journalists were actively encouraged by the speakers, actively told and lectured that it was their job to take out Trump. It was their job to make sure he didn't get elected a second time. I mean, these things were said without balance, with nobody raising an eyebrow. I'm sure some of the listeners like I raised my eyebrows did. But in general, there was nothing said. These speakers just said what they said as if everybody agreed with them. It was pretty stunning. This is I'm just looking this up. This remember Michelle Wolf on Sarah Sanders.

That was one of the more caustic ones yeah yeah where she says um i actually really like sarah i think she's very resourceful but she burns facts and then she uses their ash to create a perfect smoky eye like maybe she's born with it but maybe it's lies it's probably lies uh and went on to make some really inappropriate like dark dark uh jabs about sarah sanders and others and i mean we always see this when it's a democrat or when it's a republican president george w bush just got skewered you get somebody up there like a seth meyers it's never some comedian because some comedians do lean right and will be at least equal opportunity jokesters. They don't get invited. It's got, I mean, the Trevor,

no one's going to laugh at anything Trevor Noah says because he's a not funny, but all of the jokes will come at the expense of the, of the Republicans. I have been at dinners in the past a long time ago. I remember if it was Bob Saget or I don't remember who, someone did a great speech. It was funny. It was very fairly. Someone did a great speech. It was funny. It was very fairly or very nonpolitical. It was about family and it didn't have to do with the people in charge. I thought that was tasteful. I'll tell you the first one I was really uncomfortable at, Megan. I don't know if you were at this one. Don Imus, when Bill Clinton was president, Don did let Bill Clinton have it.

And those journalists were not used to anything like that. Nothing I don't think has ever happened since then. I was pulling at my neck and sweating. He was saying such, he was sweating terrible things about Bill Clinton. I think that's the last time they had a comedian or a speaker that said anything like that about Democrats. Since then, it's always been about Republicans. But in general, that's just super awkward. I mean, you're there with these political figures sitting at the table with Democrats and Republicans because that's what happens there. And you're watching and people are laughing at jokes that are at the expense of the people who

are your guests at the dinner. Well, I think it's it's the it's the gridiron dinner where the motto is singe don't burn as the comedian. And that's what the motto should be at the White House, too. You know, when you've got the president sitting there, Joe Biden, Donald Trump or whomever, some respect should be paid to the office. And it should be a singe don't burn kind of thing. And what Michelle Wolf did was she burned in a way that was mean to Sarah Sanders and others. And that's what you don't want to see. That's what I predict. You know, we certainly would have seen if Trevor Noah had been

there during the Trump years, right? Trump was right not to show Joe Biden will be there. Whatever CNN will be there because they will not be anchoring their shows on CNN plus Cheryl just want to show the audience this if you go to CNN plus today, this is what you will see. Let's see. Put it on the board and I'll tell the audience at home what we're looking at now is a standby as we get it on the board. It's a black square. It's a sad little black square that reads, this video is unavailable right now.

Please try again later, but you shouldn't because it's not coming back. CNN Plus is not coming back and the video is not coming back. And apparently the final moments of CNN Plus were with a sad wolf blitzer, which to me seems so perfect. And I'll tell you why, Cheryl. I'm sure I've told the story before, but when Jeff Zucker first took over CNN, I was in Roger Ailes' office. And Jeff Zucker called Roger Ailes to thank Roger for having said nice things about him in the press. And Roger, who is so quick and such a whip smart with his comebacks and so on, said, well, I didn't say them because they're true. I said them to make myself look good. And Jeff Zucker was like, oh, okay. And then he said, well, do you have any advice for me

on starting this job? And Roger said, well, I could certainly use some more Wolf Blitzer. Which of course, when he was being facetiousious he's a competitor and he understood that that would not be good for cnn because with all due respect to wolf blitzer no one needed more wolf blitzer and it's so that's why i see this as just the perfect bookend to what roger saw all those years ago when zucker took over no one needed more wolf blitzer roger saw it jeff zucker didn't see it he's the one who launched this doomed product wolf didn't see it no one needed more brian stelter no one needed more don lemon no one's even watching those programs on the main channel which they get essentially for free because it's bundled in their cable channel

and um to me there was just sort of a perfect, I don't know, there was an irony in the fact that Wolf was the one, the final one to sign off. Your thoughts on the demise of, by the way, it's on the one month anniversary of its launch of a very young product. Well, they didn't give it much time, but I don't think it was going anywhere. You know, I worked at CNN back when it was a news organization, and I really think they have a big opportunity because as much as their reputation has been destroyed in recent years, as I recount in one of my books, among the mostly progressive people I interviewed who worked at CNN who think it's just a terrible product now, I still think the name is big enough that they could turn it around. And there is a market for people that want it to be just the news, you know, like it more like it used to be. I'd love to see them do really do something like that, recognize what's happening and, and, you know, make it work. Me too. Uh, they've got a long way to go, but that more from that Politico article talking about the, the current white house and how it's

so boring to cover because there's no news one reporter who wished to stay anonymous says to politico jen saki is very good at her job which is unfortunate that she just so good she gives us nowhere to go and then they went on to say to point out in the article that uh there's a new bio out on j Biden put together by two respected AP journalists. And that new bio sold 250 books in its first two weeks, 250 Cheryl, the interest isn't there. I'll give you the last word. Agreed.

You know, we're in a big transition time. And my last word, pardon me, I would say is the big theme about all of this is have those who really want to direct the conversation, stop other conversations. Have they gone so far that people are now seeing things for what they are? Are people who are sort of on the sidelines and didn't think they cared? Have they been turned into activists by seeing in your face so much of what's going on now that seems so absurd and contrary to logic and common sense? Maybe that pendulum is beginning to swing back in a different direction, back toward more sanity when it comes to our information and censorship and all the things that have gone so wrong. Yes, reason is starting to prevail. Cheryl Atkinson, what a pleasure. Thank you so much. It's great to talk to you. Thank you. And remember folks, you can find the Megan Kelly show live on Sirius XM Triumph channel 111 every weekday at noon East and the full video show and clips by

subscribing to our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Megan Kelly. If you prefer an audio podcast, subscribe, download on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcast. Now they say it's follow, follow over on Apple or wherever. And there you will find our full archives with more than 300 shows. First of all, the guy has over 1 billion views on YouTube, a million monthly streams on Spotify, and he's got the ability to knock artists like Cardi B and Dolly Parton off of the charts. Rapper Tom McDonald's become a polarizing figure to some in the hip hop world, but clearly he's got a message that resonates with a lot of people. Super excited to have him here. Before we get to know Tom, for those of you who don't know him, here's a taste of one of his most popular songs. Listen to the lyrics.

That's been viewed over 27 million times on YouTube. It's called Fake Woke. We're ashamed to be American. You should probably love it because you have the right to hate it and not get stoned to death in public, as children we were taught How to walk and talk, but the system Wants adults to sit down and shut up Cancel culture runs the world now, the planet went Crazy, label everything we say as Homophobic or racist, if you're white

Then you're privileged, guilty by association All our childhood heroes got me too, they're the Rapists, they never freed the slaves They realized that they don't need to change, they gave us Tiny screens, we think we free cause we can't see the cage They knew that race war would be the game they need to play for people to pick teams. They used the media to feed the flame. Tell me what to believe in Hey so fake, whoa, say whoa, say so Hey so fake, whoa I love it. Tom, welcome to the show. Great to have you here. Hey Megan, thanks for having me.

So I feel like we have something in common. I said this about myself just the other day. I love to touch the third rails and you clearly do too. Yeah, I've been doing my best for sure. Yeah. But you weren't always this way. And I think your evolution, so your personal journey to getting to this place has been really fascinating and it's been traumatic. I mean, you suffered a major trauma that was not unrelated to your willingness to be so bold now today. Yeah, correct. Um, yeah, it was, uh, you know, I spent a lot of time making the same, you know, sort of types of music that a lot of rappers make and about the clothes and money and cars

and girls and parties and, and sort of, you know, that whole type of lifestyle. And unfortunately, I was kind of living that lifestyle. And it ended up in sort of a prolonged stint of alcoholism and alcohol abuse, which ultimately led to sort of like a mental unraveling. And I had a little bit of a breakdown that lasted the better part of a year. And I went home and stayed with my mom and she sort of helped rehabilitate me and was going to the doctor and meditating and exercising and put me on all these different kinds of pills and trying to just put the pieces back together.

And when I finally ended up doing that, I, you know, I'd spent nine months acutely mentally unwell. And in that period, I really got to know a lot about myself, you know, what I wanted to talk about my music, who I wanted to talk about it to, how I wanted to do it. And, you know, so it completely changed everything about my music career. Um, and, and, and it helped me sort of reframe my life. And it's really odd that sometimes the worst things that happen to you end up being the best things that happen to you. So, because not only did that, not only did that affect my, my music career in a very

positive way. It made me like a better man. I learned a lot about myself and how to treat the people around me. And it taught me a lot about empathy because I was always so headstrong and stubborn and just lace up your boots a little tighter and

get on with the day, be a man, etc. And for nine months, I felt like a boy. I was weak and trying to put the pieces together. So it taught me a lot about myself. It taught me a lot about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, knowing that it could end at any moment. And that bred songs like Fake Woke and Snowflakes and Dear Rappers

and the things that sort of blew me up over these last few four years. Having your own encounter with frailty is helpful. It's helpful to one's perspective. But just to take a dip into what you said, that listening to hip hop and growing up a fan of it and listening to a lot of it, it wasn't exactly the healthiest place for you. I mean, this is what you address in Dear Rappers in 2016, which I understand it was like your first big exposure. And I think that's worth spending a minute on.

So because I don't listen to a lot of hip hop, I have to be honest, but what I hear, I agree. It's not the most uplifting messages. You know, it's like countries like got sad songs that have like a positive message at the end, like heartbreak, but it'll take you to the good place in the end. My impression of a lot of the hip hop songs is like, like you say, like it's about money and it's about drugs and it's about things that we shouldn't be valuing. And it's not to say it drove you into this dark place, but it sounds like it certainly didn't help. Yeah. You know, and that's, that's kind of what Dear Rappers was about. The first song that sort of blew me up in 2016. It was, it's, it's about the music and the lifestyle that it sort of influences. It's, it's younger demograph to have.

Like, I haven't looked into the hip-hop demograph recently, but I remember a couple years ago when I looked into it, it was like 14 to 20-year-old white American youth. So, I mean, that's pretty young. Like, that's pretty young, like this pretty young, pretty influential kids. Um, and you know, to somewhere things took a turn, like it used to, you know, hip hop traditionally was about, you know, fighting the power and being against the man and having your voice heard. And, um, you know, it's, it, There was a lot of like, it spoke a lot about a lot of social issues and power to the people and stuff in its beginnings.

And then somewhere along the way, it sort of like started veering into, it was ultra sort of violent and you had like sort of the gangster era of everything and then it kind of went from there into this new version of what hip-hop is which is a hyper commercial um marketing vehicle for a bunch of different products and it seems to lean pretty heavily on uh like prescription pill abuse and party culture and like all of these things. And it's just, it's sort of evolved, not all hip hop, but, but, but a lot of hip hop.

A lot of it. It's sort of morphed in, yeah, it's, it's sort of morphed into that zone. And for me, you know, I'm looking up to these guys as, you know, I want to be a musician one day. And I think that these guys are cool and I'm looking up to them and their actions and what they're telling me is cool is influencing the way that I'm living my life. Whether immediately on the surface or subconsciously, it's having some sort of effect on me. And then, you know, when Dear Rappers happened to bring it full circle, I was living in an old rundown shack with mice and cockroaches in the house in a less than savory neighborhood in South Central.

And there's water coming through my ceiling. And my girlfriend and I can't afford groceries and, every month. It's like a lot of times we're having to make the choice. A lot of times we're living my candlelight for four days. Cause we can't keep the power on. I told people a lot of times, like it just sticks out of my mind. I used to plug my fridge into an extension cord and run the cord out the back door and plug it into my neighbor's garage. So the food didn't spoil when our power got cut off. So it was grim. And like, it was not totally the result of me treating myself poorly. And but it was, it definitely contributed. So at that point, you remember turning on the computer or the radio or whatever it was and hearing a big sort of mainstream rapper, one of these entities that I had looked up to in the past.

And I heard them sort of like complaining about their life. And for whatever reason, it really irritated me. Because I was like, yo, you're somebody that I look up to. You have at that point in time, from my perspective, you have everything that I would give anything to get a taste of. Um, and I don't want to hear you complaining. So I, you know, I literally, it was like, I think God must've been looking down on me that day because I had half a cigarette left and I've since quit smoking, but I went and sat on the front porch with this half a cigarette and started smoking. And by the time that cigarette was done, I had written, I just

started writing Dear Rappers. And I started writing this sort of open letter to the hip hop community about what I was seeing from the outside looking in and it didn't take any longer than 15 minutes. I don't even remember stopping to think about any of the words. It was like, it was seriously like God knew that I was in a situation and he like spoke through me for 15 minutes. It was the easiest song I ever wrote and it was the song that changed mine and Noah's lives i remember getting up from the stair and walking into the house and i said nova i just wrote the song that's going to change everything wow all right wait let's let's not let's not keep the audience in suspense any longer let's let them hear just a bit of dear rappers thisers. This is Sound By Eight. I don't want your Xanax bars or your fancy foreign cars.

Throw your money in my face and try to tell me that it's art. Hmm. That you're it. What I love about your songs is you're very open about yourself, your journey, your views. And that brings me to flash forward, you know, a few years later, sober, where you decided to make some different choices after those ones we just discussed and change your life. And that I went and looked at the comments to, to the song online. And it's, it's beautiful. Like the, the number of people you've helped with this song. And I can see, especially for a guy, for guys, oftentimes they don't want to admit weakness. They don't want to admit, you know, they're struggling, you know, coming to terms with an alcohol addiction or a drug addiction. It's very hard. You don't want to give up the thing and you don't want to admit that you're too weak to give up the thing. And sober was incredibly

powerful and very revealing. This came in 2020. This has got 13 million views. And let's just listen to a bit of that. It's soundbite 11. What up y'all? My name's Tom. Little while back was an alcoholic. Had a mental breakdown like a year ago came close to put me in a coffin Damn after the hooker I loved after I did all the drugs after I finally got fired for showing up late to the job Hella tired and drunk after the oxys I put up my nose with my boss on the oil rigs when I was young After my ex cut her wrists and the cops that I stabbed her and beat me then put me in cuffs After I totaled my car trying to run from the cops with a kilo of coke in the trunk After I drank till I rotted my teeth on my head got infections in all of my gums after

i couldn't get hard because the vodka and porno sedated me till i was numb after i couldn't escape from the basement i rented and went to go live with my mom after i cheated on people i needed and lied trying to hide from the guy that i was then i got sober the madness was over now i am proud of the man i've become ah that is amazing that's a that's amazing poetry lyricism music all of it and that i mean that clearly came from someplace deep tom yeah i haven't listened to that in at that time in my life and know that I was so close to part of me. I was so close to not making it out of that. Like, it's just,

it's horrifying to look back on. I probably haven't listened to that song in two years. That's always been a difficult one. Um, I probably haven't listened to it since around the time that I wrote it. Um, a lot of those songs are difficult, difficult to like, right. You know? Um, and then they're horrifying to put out into the world. Um, because you're just, you're being totally vulnerable to it, like millions of strangers, which is terrifying.

So after you kind of get through that, those phases, writing it down, putting it out into the world, you feel like you sort of crossed the finish line. And sometimes you just don't ever want to look back. So I, you know, I really did it, you know, like for a reason, you know, maybe you don't know what the reason is at the time. I know you say you do it for yourself. You do it for your fans too. You're not doing it for money. You're not writing about pimps and hoes and all that. You know, like you're writing about real shit like that you personally are going through and you're, you've emerged as like, forgive me, because I know you don't want to be seen as like right wing or left wing, but, you've kind of, you're, to me, you're almost like a Jordan Peterson in a way you're like a Jordan Peterson, right? Like in your own way, like you're a huge compliment. Well, I, that's how I see you, but in a different genre, you know, like you're speaking to same kind of guys who have just felt ignored and like, they didn't matter. And now society's shitting on them at every turn. And they're being told they're terrible because of their skin color or their gender or stuff they have no control over and it does drive people to

feel depressed and down and disaffected and and even in some cases suicidal that's the truth that's one of the reasons why these messages are so pernicious and so you come back and you offer your own journey and then take the extra step of making yourself not, you'll tell me whether it's intentional or not, but then controversial because you do the thing where you say, screw all these messages. This is all bullshit that we're being fed. Yeah. Well, first of all, I just have to, one more note about silver. I just have to say that I think that it's so important, especially these days. I think there's probably of COVID and lockdowns and mandates and, and, and, and the state of world affairs is like, you know, causing a pretty lot of heightened tensions and anxiety going on in the world right now. Um, and I think that it's so important. Um, we're all glued to our phones all day long and we're staring at our phones and we're seeing all of these pictures of these people. I look that we look up to, like I looked up to those rappers. And we're seeing, you know, photos of these celebrities, actors, musicians, athletes, and they have these perfect lives and perfect smiles and perfect Instagrams and perfect Facebooks and Twitters. and they're just doing everything right. And I think that further

compounds how a lot of us are feeling in the world right now. And I think it's just so important for more celebrities to stand up. All of these people that have a platform, they all have audiences. There's people in their audiences who don't feel well. There's people in their audiences who are down on their luck, are economically disadvantaged, are depressed, are anxious, are a million different things, and they don't feel well. And it's so important for celebrities to stand up and say, and I hate the word celebrity, but it's so important for people with a platform to stand up and say, hey, like me too. I don't feel well either. And that's okay. And it's totally normal

for you guys to not feel well. And all of the stuff that you're seeing online, the smiles and the houses and the cars and the, and the, and the, and the happiness that you're looking at through your phone screen. Um, all we do is post the good times, but we have a lot of bad times too. And we don't feel good either. I just think that's so important. Let's have to say that. And who knows, maybe somebody with a platform watching this says, you know what, he's right. very ugly Amber Heard Johnny Depp trial is it's just a reminder that these people who you think have perfect lives, they don't. They have just as many and probably more problems than you do. They just live in nicer apartments and those nicer apartments don't make any of those things any easier for them. And you should not want these lives. You should not. apartments and those nicer apartments don't make any of those things any easier for them. And it should not want these lives. You should not. I mean, like you go, you go to church on Sundays, you see your family, you raise your kids, you keep them close. You try to teach

them good values. You're doing it right. You know, you're, you got 17 houses and, you know, a billion dollars and you're a big movie star. And you're in his case, writing about what you want to do to your dead wife's corpse. And in her case, you're cutting off the fingers of the man you're supposed to love. You're like, this is not a life anyone should want to emulate or envy ever. Right. And just to take it one other, we love the movie family man, you know, with Nicholas Cage and Taylor Leone. We watch it every Christmas. It's such a good movie. And it's about this Wall Street guy who gets to see a glimpse of what his alternate life would have been like if he

had just married his high school sweetheart, Taylor Leone, and lived in New Jersey and have been a tire salesman. So he gets this glimpse where he goes back and he gets to live that life. And he says to her, I want a life that people envy. And she says to him, you know, I just I want a life that that people envy. And she says to him, they have this great marriage and these great kids and they nothing special, but just they laugh a lot. And she said they already do envy us. Right. Like that's that we need to be reminded of that. We need to be reminded of these the rappers and the stars and so on. They don't they don't have it all.

Precisely. And what you just said, the family and the house and the happiness of a regular, humble, normal functioning family and life, that's not the happiness that they try to sell you. So people don't realize when they say, oh, I want it all. A lot of people don't realize you already have it all. It's just not the all that they've tried to sell you on screens for the last 20 years. That's so true, Tom. So true. There's all sorts of nuggets of wisdom in Tom's lyrics, his work.

We're going to take a quick break and then we'll have more with rapper Tom McDonald, including his song that now has 27 million views on YouTube. I can't even fathom that. Cannot even fathom. That's next. Rapper Tom McDonald is here. And man, he has been tearing it up independently. He hasn't sold out to any record label.

He's had plenty of offers. He wants to be independent and do his music his way. And really, that's the only way to be able to say the things that you're saying in today's day and age. Otherwise, you get fired, you get canceled. I mean, I'll ask the audience, you tell me audience members, could Tom McDonald be with a record label and release? This is not White Boy, that was controversial, you can tell by the name, but this is People So Stupid, 27 million views.

Listen to these lyrics, you tell me whether a record label would allow this. Man, it used to be cooler to slip a bird to the system and now it's trendy to be triggered and pretend you're a victim. It's my race, it's my weight, it's because I'm a Christian. I hate the internet and anyone who has an opinion. And everybody angry

if you say white. K, fine. Pass me the brush and I'll paint my face to the shades right. Let's talk about abortion. Sorry, tell me how this works. Bacteria is life on Mars,

but a heartbeat isn't life on Earth. Weird. People are so stupid. Why are y'all so stupid? Get better problems. I swear to God that y'all want them. Y'all so dumb. Okay. The whole staff is loving this time. You've got all these new fans. All the women on my team are like, what? Who's Nova? How long have they been together? mean it's just i just never even when you know i was making the other type of music i've just never wanted um to be a part of a record

label i've always been kind of like a lone wolf um it's more you know i don't i don't think it's any secret that the music industry sort of like takes advantage of dreamers and robs artists and exploits them and kind of like bleeds them dry so like not only is it more like financially lucrative um given it's a lot more work so like 20 hours a day for like the last 10 years um you know given it's a lot more work but uh financially speaking it's a lot more lucrative. Artistically speaking, I have no shackles. I am able to say whatever I want, however I want, whenever I want to whoever, like there's no rules. I have complete freedom in terms of the art. So I get to maintain all of my artistic integrity. I don't have to bend to anybody else's wishes. I don't have to take orders from anyone.

There's no shareholders or anything that goes along with these big corporations. There's nothing affecting me. I'm the brand. And there's no pressure on you to put out product that you're only half-hearted about. Like you can take weeks off at a time. When you're inspired, you do your thing. and when you're not you don't yeah it's uh you know it i i my girlfriend

was signed to record labels for a long time i've seen the effect that that has on somebody i've seen somebody's passion and love turn into their job and i've seen how detrimental that is for the art and the person involved it's horrible it's like the death of a part of the person um so it's nice i don't have to you know i'm the manager i make the beats i write the songs my girlfriend shoots the videos she edits the videos we design all the merch. We design the, the, the, um, the album artworks.

We designed the single covers. We like from every aspect of this is controlled by us. Just as a reminder, again, to the audience, this is, this started in 16 when he was in the mice infected, infested apartment.

Like this didn't like, he just did it himself he just started speaking and writing and rapping and doing all the stuff and by the way a word on nova to my staff la weekly called her violent but talented in a 2013 article after she after she told them she had punched 25 people in the face in her lifetime accurate accurate do not mess with nova i think that's the greatest resume ever but kind of amazing it's it's incredible so but she's like i mean she's worked with um when she was signed to def jam she worked with the biggest producers in the world like the people producing Britney Spears and and NSYNC and like writing for Beyonce and writing for Rihanna and like she's done it all

in this business as far as top tier execution of music within the industry at the highest level she's been there she's done it um and you I've watched, I've been friends with Nova for 15 years and we've been together romantically for five or six and I've never seen her more unhappy than when she was going to the studio seven days a week, had a schedule to be there,

had to be there. You know, they lied to her. She said, this is the type of music i want to make and i want to be this type of artist and they said cool gotcha and then they were like hey you know like let's do this one radio song let's do one radio pop song you down with that and she was like like okay if that's if that's what we have to do let's do it and then they did one and they were like, sick, let's do 15 more now. And it was just like torture for her. She hated it. It's like these writers, Tom, who are like huge in their genre.

It often happens in the mystery genre. And then they are under all this pressure from their publishers to put out more and more work. And so you see like by James Patterson, but it's not really by James Patterson. It's by some other guy who's like, and also Tom Jones, you know, and it's like, James had nothing to do with it. He just let you use his name. And so it all gets corrupted. It's like, I liked the artist, but this isn't really the artist's work. Let me ask you a question. You did stick a toe into the mainstream when you gave an interview to Rolling Stone. I wonder if you regret it because, man, they were so snarky.

They were kind of jerks. I don't you. You tell me how you thought. But I was like, wow, they they sound unkind. They came out this week. Rolling Stone, how to become a MAGA rap kingpin without believing what you're saying by Alice Hines. It looks like. And basically, there's evidence against you that you don't believe what you're saying, is that you're basically like,

I didn't take a position on abortion. I haven't said how I feel about abortion. I'm just sort of pointing out the hypocrisy of these positions in songs like I just played, you know, where it's like, okay, a bacteria on Mars is life, but a heartbeat in a belly is not. You know, like, this is why she thinks you don't believe what you're saying. Yeah.

I mean, um, you know what, this, this, this is honestly how I feel. Um, at the end of the day, um, Rolling Stone has historically documented, uh, the important characters of music. So, you know, whether they like me or don't like me or agree with me or disagree with me or reported on me in a wildly inaccurate and out of context way. I'm at the end of the day, you guys thought that i was important enough to be in your magazine you're not going to hurt my feelings i don't get my feelings hurt by this type of stuff um so it's just kind of like there's been many times in the past um where i'm rolling stone is a notoriously sort of left-leaning publication. It's been many times in the past

where somebody from a left-leaning organization has reached out and had claimed that they were going to give me a fair shake and ended up not at all. And that's what happened in that article. I gave somebody the benefit of the doubt, and I think they took advantage of it, and I think it's unfortunate.

I feel like I was taught a lesson about not being able to trust... Trust no one, Tom, in media. Yeah, but in the face of... I feel like I'm a pretty open book, and I don't know. I feel like I'm a pretty open book. And I don't know. I feel like when I give somebody my word, like you have my word. If I say that I'm going to be there and I'm going to help you or whatever, I'm going to be there.

I'm going to help you or whatever. So it's just foreign to me to say one thing and then do something completely different. And I think that's what happened. And it's unfortunate. But I still think it's a great piece of press. And, you know, I'm not losing any sleep over it. Your next song needs to be Dear Journalist, Dear Reporters, for go from Dear Rappers to Dear Reporters. Trust me, the song Bad Press has already been written. Oh, my God, that's gonna be the mantra of my life. I can't wait. Please,

please come on when you drop it. Would love to help you promote it and anything else that you're interested in promoting time. You're amazing. You're incredibly talented. You're a seer. And, uh, I think that's why you have these huge, huge following. So if people want to subscribe on YouTube, like I just did, what's the best way for them to find you on YouTube or how do they get you? Yeah. Um, so if you just go on YouTube and just search Tom McDonald, you should see a mass of different music videos that have pissed people off. So just click on, click on whichever one speaks to you and then hit subscribe. So that's youtube.com slash Tom McDonald official on Instagram. I'm hangover gang on Facebook. I'm a facebook.com slash Tom McDonald

official Twitter. I am Tom McDonald and my website is hangovergang.com. If you want to grab albums, t-shirts, stuff like that. Awesome. And listen, he's got a new, a new album out called the brave in God. We trust highly recommend it's already got over 7 million views and it'll be climbing because it's inspirational as are you. Thanks for being here, Tom. Thanks for having me, Meg. I'm a big fan. Thank you. I appreciate it. So cool. Don't miss Monday because the Ruthless guys will be back. Looking forward to that. Have a great, great weekend, you guys. Thanks. Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.