The Megyn Kelly Show - Truth About Kirk Investigation and Robinson Trial, Iran Questions, with Curt Mills, and Josh Duhamel on Keeping Politics Out of Hollywood | Ep. 1281

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

Megyn Kelly discusses the shocking killing of Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, a Chicago alderwoman’s disturbing comments calling it a case of “bei...ng in the wrong place at the wrong time,” her continued lies even after her apology, Governor JB Pritzker’s attempt to blame the killing of Sheridan Gorman on Donald Trump, his “depraved moral character,” why she believes Tyler Robinson definitely assassinated Charlie Kirk but more investigation is still needed, the controversy over Joe Kent’s commentary about the investigation, why it won’t have an impact on Tyler Robinson’s trial, and more. Then Curt Mills, executive director of "The American Conservative," joins to discuss the latest developments in the war in Iran, what U.S. leaders should do moving forward, the GOP’s tough spot in 2026, polling on the Iran war and the economy, the important role that independents will play, the attempt to smear dissenters of the Iran war as antisemites, and more. Then Josh Duhamel, actor, director and founder of Gatlan, joins to talk about his decision to move out of Hollywood, raising a family in Minnesota and North Dakota, how he stays grounded and keeps perspective, why he believes celebrities should keep their politics to themselves, the importance of separating art from political views, his company's mission to optimize aging and overall health, the benefits of using testosterone and hormone replacement therapy, and more.   Mills- https://x.com/CurtMills Duhamel- https://www.gatlan.com/   Relief Factor: Find out if Relief Factor can help you live pain-free—try the 3-Week QuickStart for just $19.95 at https://ReliefFactor.com or call 800-4-RELIEF. Betterwild Pet Inc.: If your dog is scratching, licking, or showing signs of allergies, support their gut and skin health from the inside out with BetterWild—get up to 40% off at https://betterwild.com/MK ARMRA: go to https://tryarmra.com/MEGYN to get 30% off your first subscription order Ethos Life Insurance: Protect your family’s future with fast, online life insurance from Ethos—get a free quote in minutes at https://Ethos.com/MK     Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKelly Twitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShow Instagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShow Facebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow  Find out more information at:https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to The Megan Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at New East. Hey, everyone, I'm Megan Kelly. Welcome to the Megan Kelly Show. We've got a big show for you today. Savannah Guthrie is speaking out in her first interview since her mother went missing. Where's the lady? We never found the lady. Plus, actor Josh Demel will be here, and that'll be interesting for us. But first, we've got to tell you more about the shocking and senseless murder of 18-year-old Loyola University. Chicago student, Sheridan Gorman, this poor girl. It happened after 1 a.m. last Thursday while she was out with friends. And unlike the left and corporate media, we have to discuss the alleged culprit, 25-year-old Jose Medina, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. By the way, we have a big follow-up
Starting point is 00:00:53 for you on that terrible older woman who said, oh, wrong place, wrong time. This guy chased her. chased her at 1 a.m. in the morning, wearing a mask, a black mask, and shot her in the back. Oh, it's a wrong place, wrong time thing. That's what you say when, like, you took a ferris wheel that broke and you were badly injured. That's wrong place, wrong time. Where you like got hit by lightning. Wrong place, wrong time. This was a girl living her life, like every normal 18-year-old in America who got targeted by an illegal for assassination, who chased her. He clearly wanted her dead for no apparent reason. It is not a wrong place, wrong time.
Starting point is 00:01:38 And we were all over that alderman woman yesterday. We'll tell you what happened in a second. The guy was apprehended by Biden's Border Patrol in May of 2023, but then released into the country. This is not an anomaly. That's what Biden did throughout his term as president. most of them were just let in. If you got apprehended by Border Patrol, then they just turned you around and said,
Starting point is 00:02:01 oh, okay, here's your court date. And no one ever shows up for their court date, ever. The very next month, he was arrested for shoplifting at a Macy's in Chicago, which should have led to a phone call by the Chicago PD to ICE saying, yo, we haven't found an illegal here, and we caught him for shoplifting,
Starting point is 00:02:20 but we're going to turn him back out because we don't prosecute crime in Chicago, and you should, you might be interested in pay. picking him up. But Chicago is a sanctuary city and Illinois is a sanctuary state, which means they don't cooperate with ICE. They won't call, even if there's an ICE detainer on somebody where they know ICE is saying, please hold a guy, which wasn't the case here, but even if that is the case, they don't call. They say F off, pound sand, no. So needless to say, when he got pinched for a shoplifting arrest, Chicago PD did not call the feds. Not that under Joe Biden, the feds would have
Starting point is 00:02:52 done anything. It was the feds that released him to begin with. So, he was released from local custody and a warrant was eventually issued after he failed to appear in court according to ABC 7 Chicago. So what we have here is multiple acts already of lawlessness. He came into the country illegally. He then shoplifted. He then didn't show up for his court date. And an arrest warrant was issued for him. And now he's killed somebody. Not just any somebody, but a beautiful 18-year-old girl with her entire life in front of her, just trying to get an education in Chicago. He's been charged with first-degree murder.
Starting point is 00:03:32 That's the right charge and other felonies over Sheridan Gorman's murder. He missed his detention hearing Monday. This time, it's a pattern for him. It's allegedly because he has tuberculosis and is in the hospital. I don't know what to root for. You know, it's like, do we root for the tuberculosis to, get him? There's no chance he has health insurance. I'm sure we're giving him treatment on the taxpayer dime in Chicago. Or do we root for him to get well again so that he can be tried, found
Starting point is 00:04:07 guilty of murder, and hopefully be behind bars for the rest of his life, which will be justice, I suppose, as close as we can get, but we'll do nobody any good. Doesn't bring Sheridan Gorman back. It doesn't ease her mother Jessica's pain. It maybe prevents the next girl from getting murdered by this fucker who never should have been here to begin with, forgive me. Now, yesterday, we told you about this Chicago alder woman, Maria Haddon. She represents the district where this murder occurred. Now, you would think your first reaction if you represented the district would be, oh my God, I'm so sorry, let me at least walk you through the multiple efforts I've done to
Starting point is 00:04:44 make my district safer. That wasn't it. We played you a clip from her interview with Fox 32 Chicago last week. We played it yesterday. She gave the interview last week. Sheridan was murdered on Thursday, where she said of Sheridan's murder, quote, it sounds like this might have been a wrong place, wrong time, running into a person who had a gun. All lies. I mean, like literally all lies.
Starting point is 00:05:06 As we promised to you yesterday, oh, we called her office. We did indeed call to find out if she had anything to add. After we now know from the criminal complaint that Sheridan was shot in the back while fleeing, not just from any random person, but from an illegal immigrant who was dressed in all black and wearing a black mask. Wearing a black mask.
Starting point is 00:05:32 Doesn't sound like he was exactly up to any good that night on the pier along Lake Michigan as young Americans were minding their own business, celebrating life. This guy sitting there with his tuberculosis
Starting point is 00:05:49 and dressed in all black with a loaded revolver and wearing a mask, obviously covering his face. And then for no reason there was no report of an altercation, of a teasing, of anything. Not that any of that would justify this, but I'm just saying there doesn't appear to have been any trigger other than he saw a gorgeous young female American and decided to take her life. and she ran, she knew she was in danger, she ran, and he chased her and shot her in the back like a disgusting pig coward. Well, the alder woman, wrong place, wrong time. Her office didn't answer. And guess what?
Starting point is 00:06:34 Her voicemail was full. We called many times. Then we sent her office an email and got no response. But just a few hours after that, Alderwoman had in releasing a statement on Facebook. book. Yeah, because now that the national media is after her, she realizes she's got skin in the game. She did finally apologize for her wrong place, wrong time remarks. Her statement reads in part, quote, my comments were never intended to blame the victim or to imply that Sheridan should not have been out enjoying the park or that it was her fault she was shot. I sincerely apologize for any additional pain my comments may have caused. However, she once again fell down on the
Starting point is 00:07:17 First of all, she made no mention of Medina's name because he has to be protected, you see, unlike what he did to Sheridan. He gets protected. Or that he is an illegal immigrant, only writing, quote, the person who shot Sheridan is the only one responsible for her death. What person might that be, alder woman? The illegal, Jose Medina, you don't want to say it? Because what? It projects Hispanic. People might know he's from Venezuela and here unlawfully, thanks to sanctuary city policies, you prefer and promote? She referred to him only as the masked man, the suspect, and the person, never saying his name or that he was here illegally. She said the community is grieving a life cut short by gun violence. Yes, this is about the gun. That's leave it to a
Starting point is 00:08:17 progressive in Chicago to always make it about the gun. Same thing on the south side of Chicago. It's just gun violence. If we get rid of the guns, the gang members over there, killing each other, not allowing 12-year-old boys to grow up, it would all stop. It has nothing to do with the thug gang mentality that we've cultivated and allowed there for decades now. And this guy, you know, had he not had access to a gun, she'd be alive. He seemed pretty determined to kill her. I'm going to guess that if Medina had a knife on him, Sheridan would still be dead. This isn't about gun violence, you asshole. And by the way, grieving a life caught short by gun violence. Yes, by whom? Thanks to whom. You missed that in your statement. Haddon also appearing to take a shot
Starting point is 00:09:09 at yours truly and others in what she calls conservative media, writing, quote, the fact that some media outlets are intentionally creating sound bites to misconstrue my words during this tragedy is also unfortunate. It is unfortunate for you, and it's thanks to your own behavior. You have yourself to blame, madam. She actually tries then to claim that she was taken out of context with her wrong place, wrong time comment. See, now, let me tell you something, sister.
Starting point is 00:09:39 This is where things go really off the rails, because when you apologize for something, you say you're sorry, and then you STFU. You don't then try to say, I'm deeply, deeply sorry, but I was taken out of context. But people are wrongfully spinning my words. Then why are you sorry? Why would you be sorry if you've been taken out of context if it's the media's fault? That's a me problem, if that's what's happening. That's not a you problem.
Starting point is 00:10:05 Why would you apologize? Sorry, but you can't have it both ways. Either you did something wrong or I did something wrong. And I'm here to tell you, older woman, I did nothing wrong. I have you dead to rights. And now your attempt to wiggle on your inane, disgusting comment is failing because, unlike most other media, we actually do our homework here on the show. We went back and took a look at the entire interview, and you are screwed because you're
Starting point is 00:10:34 lying to cover up your insensitivity. I'm going to quote her statement directly, okay? This is as part of her alleged apology to try to get out of the culpability. for saying wrong place, wrong time. She said, the interviewer, this is on the Facebook post last night, the interviewer asked me whether Sheridan was targeted by the shooter and whether this was related to the Duck Walk killer who terrorized our community in 2018. I replied, no, that this seemed to be a senseless wrong place, wrong time tragedy, unquote.
Starting point is 00:11:12 Well, we pulled the tape. And we didn't hear anything from Haddon or Fox 32 Chicago's Anita Blanton about a duck walk killer. Here is the full exchange from last Thursday where Hadden made the wrong place, wrong time comment. Watch. We found out like, okay, this is a masked individual that pops out while she's with a group of her friends. Should other people be concerned about their safety right now? or do we think that this is a targeted incident? So from what I've been told so far, right,
Starting point is 00:11:51 from what police know, from speaking to the students who are with her, it seems she might have that as they were just out, you know, people go out to the beach all the time, right? And they go out on the pier, they walk around. So the kids were out doing normal, normal things people do in the neighborhood. And it sounds like this might have been a wrong place, wrong time. running into a person who had a gun they might have startled this person at the end of the pier unintentionally but that's that's all we know so it from what i've been told um what police
Starting point is 00:12:27 investigation has turned up so far what they've been able to share with me and with loyal university we don't believe there is cause for broader community concern at this time absolutely nothing absolutely nothing was teed up by that reporter or anybody else about the duck walk killer and whether this is part of a serial killer thing that happened back in 2018. Nothing. You're fucking lying. Just own it.
Starting point is 00:12:51 And that bullshit about she might have startled. You're just making shit up. He was there lying in wait with a gun dressed in black and a mask and chased her and shot her in the back. Stop trying to minimize it. You are hashtag part of the problem, madam. She doesn't care. She doesn't. We read you her resume yesterday.
Starting point is 00:13:12 this is like a DEI obsessed leftist progressive. I guarantee you if Sheridan Gorman were black, her messaging would be entirely different. She's going back to her priors because the perp here is a Hispanic from Venezuela and the dead American is a young, beautiful white girl from Westchester, New York, from Yorktown Heights. Screw you, Alderwoman. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Starting point is 00:13:38 Along with Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat who has been no better. We told you yesterday about his statement where he also failed to acknowledge that the accused killer happens to be in the country illegally. Does anyone think that's relevant? Does anyone think it might be worth a mention to point out that this guy wasn't illegal? And then Pritzker was asked about his message to Sheridan's parents. Okay? Because he decided to offer some empathy. Thanks so much for her parents and to blame.
Starting point is 00:14:10 What do you say to Sheridan's parents, Tom and Jessica Gorman, when they blame policies, including those in Illinois for their daughter's murder? Well, this has been a terrible tragedy, and I know that the Gorman family has suffered mightily. I agree there have been real failures. Those failures, of course, extend beyond the borders of Illinois. It's their national failures, a failure to have comprehensive immigration reform, a failure of the president to follow his own edict to go after the worst of the worst. And in my view, we have a lot of work that we need to continue to do. But it is the job of the federal government to go after immigration enforcement. The nerve, the absolute gall to blame the absence of comprehensive immigration reform.
Starting point is 00:15:09 Not a word about Joe Biden. The guy came in under Biden in 2023. Not a damn word. It's about Trump and the absence of comprehensive immigration reform. And then at the end, Trump and his policies. Not only did Trump, of course, obviously run on reversing Biden's open border, which he did, and on deporting all the illegals. But then he tried. Trump tried. He tried sending ICE to Chicago, not any place in Illinois, to Chicago.
Starting point is 00:15:44 and the reason that didn't work out is because of that man. Governor Pritzker had this man allowed Trump to send ICE into Chicago to clean up Joe Biden's illegal immigration problem. Sheridan Gorman might still be alive. The reason Trump was stopped from doing that is that fat bastard. It was Governor Pritzker who stopped it. In fact, in the last few months, his attacks on. Trump's immigration policies have been non-stop. Here's just a small sample.
Starting point is 00:16:22 What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American. Find a family who's enjoying today sitting on their front porch and ask if they want their neighborhoods turned into a war zone by a wannabe dictator. Our small businesses suffer when Our residents and visitors who are shopping and eating are made to feel unsafe by the jackbooted thugs roaming around a peaceful downtown. Make sure that you understand that the ICE officials don't have a right to knock down doors to take people away.
Starting point is 00:16:59 We're thinking of you and doing everything we can to protect you. So this is dangerous. They shouldn't be doing it. It's anti-American. It's un-American. It's an attack on the American people by the President of the United States. Ice needs to take it down about three notches. is a bunch of untrained and unqualified people. It's like it's become some sort of secret police force for Donald Trump. He actually had the nerve, notwithstanding that to say this is a failure. This happened because of Trump's failure to go after the worst of the worst.
Starting point is 00:17:31 Oh, my God. He fought him in the media. He fought him in the courts. He did everything within his power to get Trump and ICE out of Illinois and out of Chicago in particular. And by the way, this guy, Medina, would not have been on the list of the worst of the worst because all he had prior to this was a shoplifting arrest. Even under Tom Homan's protocol, that would not qualify. It's unbelievable the nerve of this guy to actually try to blame this on Donald Trump. I'm stunned.
Starting point is 00:18:07 I guess I shouldn't be. I should be more cynical up by this point in my news career. I just, it's stomach turning. A girl is dead. take some responsibility, change your policy, do something. Do something resembling anything to keep your citizens, the Americans, safe. This isn't even touching on his refusal to fight crime in his state. Never mind the disgusting Chicago mayor, who's 10 times worse than either this alder woman or the governor,
Starting point is 00:18:37 if that's even possible. But Pritzker wants a national future right now. Pritzker wants to be the Democratic nominee. there are some Democrats running, there's not one I would vote for, but there are some Democrats running, I'm sure, who are like decent people who have just diametrically opposed to political views to those of my own and maybe many of yours. But this, this level of dishonesty, gaslighting, refusal to take responsibility when you're watching young 18-year-old American girls get shot to death is beyond effed up. Like, this is incredibly cynical and dark and really exposes a, depraved moral character, a depraved moral character. And are we surprised?
Starting point is 00:19:19 This is the same family that's been shoving the transgender ideology on our kids in schools for years now, for decades now. That's his family. The Pritzkers, there's something sick about them. Literally, they don't care about the health and wellness of American children, whether it's an 18-year-old girl named Sheridan Gorman or your children going to their schools, not wanting to be transitioned by teachers with an agenda without the inclusion of parents on even the notion that there is gender confusion by a child.
Starting point is 00:19:53 This is like the Pritzker's are villains, in my view. This is an evil family. He's not the only Democrat with an extreme position on immigration, that you know. Here's House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries saying he still, still doesn't know. whether Medina should be deported. And he appears to know nothing about this case. An illegal immigrant has been charged with murdering a college student in Chicago last week. Do House Democrats believe if he's convicted, he's someone who should be deported?
Starting point is 00:20:29 I'll look into the case. He doesn't know anything. I bet he knows who Alex Pready is. I bet he knows the name Renee Good. Does he know the name Rachel Moran? Do you think he knows that name? You know, he might know Lake and Riley by this point, since we have an act named after her, an actual law. Do you think he knows Jocelyn Nungari?
Starting point is 00:20:53 Do you think he keeps up to date on the latest young American girl shot to death by an illegal that his party allowed into this country? It was a very easy question. A young American teenager was murdered, and he's not sure that if the suspect is convicted, he's should be deported, it should be the easiest yes of his political career. Like that, aren't you somewhat politically savvy? Isn't that how you become the House Minority Leader like Hakeem Jeffries? But that's him pandering to his Democrat base. The pander is to never attack an illegal, right? You don't, why would you do that? We're on the side of the illegals over on Team Blue. Definitely the answer is, I don't know. At a minimum is,
Starting point is 00:21:40 I don't know. It's definitely not, yes, I want him gone. My God. God, why would you say that? That's political suicide on the left. The heartlessness with which this is happening and being handled is stomach turning. And there should be accountability for them at the ballot box and on the phone lines right now. I mean, honestly, to me, it's – I know, we're going to talk about the Iran war later. It's not good. Trump's approval ratings are in a free fall. he's losing double digits, young men, independence, and so on.
Starting point is 00:22:17 You still have, of course, you'd have to vote Republican. I'm sorry, like, I don't care how mad you are at the Republican Party. This is what you get death on the American streets if you vote Democrat. I'm sorry. If the Democrats weren't so insane, if it were like your granddad's Republican Party or Democrat Party, maybe, maybe, but they, they don't care. They're the ones who caused it. They opened the border.
Starting point is 00:22:42 without a thought for what it would do. And now that it's catching up with them, that's what you get from Hakeem Jeffries. I don't know. I'll look into it. Who the fuck is Sheridan Gorman? It's really what he's saying. I find this disgusting.
Starting point is 00:22:56 And who was it, you guys? We have, there's a soundbite who is like, oh, it was Chris Murphy. Do we have that cut, Chris Murphy? It's a soundbite that's circulated in 2024. He's from my new home state, Connecticut. it. So he said this in 2024, but it's getting recirculated now.
Starting point is 00:23:16 This is just this is the perfect evidence of the leftist attitude on this issue. Listen to this. Well, I mean, Chris, that's been a failed play for 20 years. So you are right that that has been the Democratic strategy for 30 years
Starting point is 00:23:31 maybe. And it has failed to deliver for the people we care about most, the undocumented Americans that are in this country. Undocumented Americans are the people we care about most. There is so much that's wrong with that. He won't say illegal.
Starting point is 00:23:50 He won't say illegal alien or illegal immigrant. An undocumented American. No, senator. The problem is they're not American. There's no such thing as an undocumented American. If you are an American, you are documented. You have a birth certificate, probably a passport, probably a passport and a driver's license proving that you are an American.
Starting point is 00:24:14 That undocumented American is not a thing. And what you're really trying to say is a nicer, dressed up, fake lying term for illegal immigrant. And those are not the people you should care about most. As one of your constituents, Senator, I urge you to care about my children and the other children of Connecticut more than you care about the, quote, undocumented. I demand that you take steps to protect the Americans, actual Americans, who live in this state and in all this country, before you sing to us about the people you care the most, the undocumented. What the F? It's exactly that attitude that got Sheridan Gorman killed that made people like Chris Murphy not object to Joe Biden's open border.
Starting point is 00:25:05 Governor Pritzker, fight tooth and nail to keep ice out of Chicago in Illinois, where they might have caught this guy. And the next one just like him, who right now is still lurking in Illinois, thanks to these guys, or maybe Connecticut, or maybe your state. Relief Factor loves hearing from pain-free customers and hopes they can help you next. One user of Relief Factor named Kim wrote to them to say, quote, before trying Relief Factor, I struggled just to make it through my work days. I would collapse on the couch at night aching everywhere. Within a few weeks of starting Relief Factor, the daily pain began to fade. Now I'm keeping up at work and I still have energy left for my family. There are many stories like Kim's of parents having more love to give,
Starting point is 00:25:52 but no strength to do it, things like that. Relief factor could be the solution. It eases pain, sure, but it does more than that. It can restore evenings, laughter, and the simple joy of being present. If you have back pain, knee issues, or stiffness slowing you down, relief factor could give you your mobility back. Relief factor is 100% drug-free and targets the inflammation that causes pain, helping you move better, feel better, and actually enjoy life again. Try the three-week quick start for just 1995. Go to Relieffactor.com or call 800 for relief. Why shouldn't you be next in getting out of pain? There's a lot happening in the news right now. And of course, since Trump's attentions are
Starting point is 00:26:31 international, so are most of the news media. But this is an important story. This is an, it's just the latest in an ongoing dark saga. And let's just be honest of in too many cases young American girls getting killed by these monsters. It's not all girls. Of course, we did a long piece on YouTube, which is still up there. I urge you to go look at it, highlighting some of the men too, the men and the women and the young ones who have been killed in America by these illegals. Oftentimes it's police officers who are just trying to do their jobs. Oftentimes it's innocence, all stripes and sizes who get killed by drunk driver illegals. But the ones who get attacked on the street tend to be young American girls.
Starting point is 00:27:25 Girls like 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungare, who was sexually assaulted by two of them before they threw. her over a bridge in Texas. Girls like that. I refused to stop calling attention to this. I told you yesterday that Sheridan's mom, Jessica, we found out, is one of our Megan Kelly show community members. She's one of us. She's one of us.
Starting point is 00:27:50 She sat here day by day, just like you guys do. And God bless you and thank you. And watch this show and supported it and learned from it and participated in it. and actually went so far as to show up at our white plains tour stop in the fall, dressed in her red, white, and blue. She and her sister and her friend wearing the Charlie Kirk Freedom T-shirt. And that day, just like all the rest of the days, especially in the fall, we were all mourning the loss of Charlie,
Starting point is 00:28:21 and clearly she and her family and friends felt it too in their freedom shirts and their stars and stripes. Her love of this country ought to be sustained and verified, and we ought to be worthy of it, and we ought to elect leaders who are worthy of it. Hakeem Jeffries, you're not it. Chris Murphy, not you either. Governor J.B. Pritzker, you're despicable. Dispicable.
Starting point is 00:28:50 Okay. I want to turn the page. I want to just talk about this one story before we bring on. A guy I've been wanting to talk to you for a long time. His name is Kurt Mills. He runs the American Conservative, which is a publication that's all about being a conservative. But they're more non-interventionalist, so he's got some views we want to discuss. But before we get to that, something extraordinary happened yesterday with many friends of this show about Charlie Kirk.
Starting point is 00:29:19 You know, not even indirectly, pretty directly. Michael Schellenberger, you know him. He comes on all the time. Love him. Great reporter. He interviewed Joe Kent. the now former counterterrorism chief who quit over the Iran War and has been making the media rounds, including on this show last Friday. And Schellenberger zeroed in with Joe Kent on Joe's suggestion that the Charlie Kirk investigation has been mishandled by the feds.
Starting point is 00:29:47 It's in the hands of the Utah state authorities now, but the FBI was very much involved in this. and he suggested to me, to Tucker, to others, that there were potential international connections to Charlie's murder around Tyler Robinson in tandem with Tyler Robinson unclear. He's not saying Tyler did not pull the trigger that were not adequately investigated in his view. We talked in part about a group chat that Charlie was part of prior to his death. in which he lamented what was happening with the pressures being put on him by Jewish donors. He was angry. He wanted it to stop. And he made clear that he was considering giving back donations he had received from Jewish donors because he was so sick of being pressured not to have people like Candice at his events, not to platform people like Tucker.
Starting point is 00:30:46 And here is in part what was written in the texts that Joe, uh, has been discussing Joe Kent and that we now know were provided to Joe Kent by Andrew Colvette of Turning Point after Charlie's death because Andrew thought as well this may suggest an Israeli link to Charlie's death and I ought to tell the FBI about it or in this case the feds. I happen to know that Andrew sent this text chain not just to Joe Kent but to one other Fed. So, you know, those of you who are like, that must mean Joe Kent is the leaker because it got leaked to Candace Owens. not necessarily.
Starting point is 00:31:22 It could have been somebody who worked for Joe Kent. It could have been Joe Kent. He denied it. And it could have been this other Fed who Andrew provided the text chain too.
Starting point is 00:31:30 But here's what Charlie wrote. This is 48 hours before he died. Just lost another huge Jewish donor. Two million a year because we won't cancel Tucker. I'm thinking of inviting Candace.
Starting point is 00:31:40 Ugh. Then Charlie writes, Jewish donors play into all the stereotypes. I cannot and will not be bullied like this, leaving me no choice but to leave the pro-Israel cause.
Starting point is 00:31:53 And then the person he's corresponding with says, please don't invite Candace. That might feel good short-term, but it's not good long-term, in my opinion. Like all groups, you're going to get a wide variety of opinions. That nasty free will thing that God bestowed on us makes life frustrating at times and goes on. Okay, so this was turned over to the feds investigating Charlie's death,
Starting point is 00:32:13 and in Joe Kent's view, the possibility of an Israeli connection of some sort, whether, you know, a domestic or an actual international, like an Israeli, an actual Israeli, was not adequately looked into. And I happen to know that there is at least one other lead on that front, which I'm not at liberty to divulge because it was given to me off the record and you cannot report off the record information. That's all I'm going to say about it. I have worked for a long, long time to get it on the record and I cannot get the permission. That's fine. But I, I am guessing, I've never spoken to Joe Kent privately. None of my information.
Starting point is 00:32:48 comes from him. But I am guessing that Jo Kent knows of this thing that does raise questions about Israelis. Again, not to impugn Israelis at all. I'm just saying it's not completely made up out of whole cloth. There was at least one other suggestion that that should have been run down. That's all I'm going to say. I don't believe the Israelis killed Charlie. I think it was Tyler Robinson. I think if he had help, it was by Trans-Tifa. But I don't begrudge anyone asking these questions because I've read the Charlie text chain and I know some other things. And I just think it's prudent, it's prudent given how important Charlie was to the conservative movement and to the Israel issue and his evolving state of mind on the issue, which was a threat to Israel and those
Starting point is 00:33:40 who support it, you know, politically, I mean, that you would have to look into that. You would. He was assassinated by somebody. So in any event, that Joe Kent believes that too. And Schellenberger asked him about whether now he's made himself a potential witness for the defense, meaning Tyler Robinson, at Tyler's eventual trial for Charlie's murder. Listen here. I mean, have you thought about that Robinson's defense attorneys may, you know, call you and to be a witness? Yeah, no, I've considered it. I understand.
Starting point is 00:34:19 I think it's just a lot of people that look at Tyler Robinson and go, this is not shocking at all. There's no, there's nothing missing from this. There's no, there's no evidence that he had accomplices. And now you're just kind of speculating. And, and, but more than because of who you are, that that could actually end up derailing the prosecution of the guy that murdered Charlie Kerr. Yeah, I'm sure that's fair criticism. I just, from my vantage point, I don't see, I did not see, I should say, I did not see the investigation being thoroughly done.
Starting point is 00:35:00 I don't think what I'm going to say is going to knock the defense of socks off or the juries. So I am confident in what I know and what I'm saying. And if I end up having to go play that role, then. You know, I'll do it. But it seems to me that, you know, your testimony, you know, will be incredibly important to the Robinson defense. Yeah, I mean, then honestly, so be it if it gets us to the truth. So he says he has no desire to testify for the defense in this prosecution, but if called
Starting point is 00:35:34 to talk about what he knows in terms of whether the feds investigated this and not, he'll do it. Now, I just want to follow up with, we asked. Joe Kent when he was on about this issue because the FBI was investigating this case along with the Utah authorities and kind of asked him what he had to do with it. Why was the National Counterterrorism Center involved? Because what happened was he apparently looked at some FBI file and got his hands slapped by Cash Patel reportedly, who didn't want him budding in, like a turf war kind of thing. And I asked him about that. Here's a little bit of that exchange
Starting point is 00:36:11 when he sat down with me less than a week ago in SOT 25B. Would that have been your job, Joe, to consider that piece or Cash Patel's? A combination, but if there is foreign involvement, that's where the National Counterterrorism Center comes in. Because we have more robust and broad authorities to investigate the foreign angle, the FBI has the more broad and robust authorities to investigate the domestic angle. So who has the ability to shut you down from that? So really, the way it happened was initially it was just like, hey, the FBI says you guys can't look into the case file and when the case file is kind of where all the data is and you're done. You guys can't work here anymore. You guys can't work on this case anymore. We argued that we should still be involved in that case. And we won the argument. We got kind of put back on the case. But then after a while, the government has a great way of making things just die and process. And so essentially all of our requests, our ability to investigate, it was cut off, our request to investigate, were kind of taken away and sort of died in the process.
Starting point is 00:37:16 So you get it? It would have been his job to investigate the international connection, if any, and Cash Patel's job to investigate what was happening domestically. And he felt that there was a bit of a turf war going on and that they were slow rolled right out of the case, even once they'd been restored as having permission to look into it, that the government has a way of making that very difficult for you. And he felt that that was done to him. Clearly, he's speaking about the FBI. I haven't spoken to Cash Patel. I'm sure he would deny that, though.
Starting point is 00:37:46 I feel compelled to say. So Andrew Colvette and Blake Neff, who were also on this show two weeks ago, who worked for Charlie and are now doing Charlie's show in the wake of his death, were not happy with that exchange between Schellenberger and Joe Kent. And here's some of their reaction yesterday.
Starting point is 00:38:07 I'd be shocked if Robinson's attorneys don't use this. Well, of course. This is the obvious result of this. That's what infuriates me. He's like endlessly, he's like someone who's vague posting on Facebook where he's like, ooh, there's things I might know. People should know.
Starting point is 00:38:22 I might. But I can't tell you what those are. But I can't say what you actually think happen. This really does have a potential to not only taint a jury pool, but to undermine the very prosecution of Tyler Robinson, who I am 100% convinced, pulled the trigger and killed Charlie Kerch. I am for asking questions. is why I shared the group chat with Joe Kent in the first place. I'm not afraid of the answer
Starting point is 00:38:46 to those questions. If Israel had a hand in killing Charlie, I want to know. What I'm telling you is that we've had six months plus since that time to track down all those leads, none of which have been corroborated, none of which have actionable evidence behind. You have to have facts and the recklessness with which these accusations are being thrown out now has real-world implications. Okay. I completely understand Andrew and Blake being upset about this. They do not want to do anything to shore up Tyler Robinson's defense, and I grant them total and complete grace on that reaction. But as a legal matter, they really don't need to worry. Okay? And I'm going to get to why in one second. But before I do, taint to the jury pool, that's always something you have to worry about somewhat. But
Starting point is 00:39:35 in case after case after case, we have seen very, very ubiquitous media coverage, and it can be handled in voir dire by prosecutors. That's what they will do. That's what they would have done in the Brian Colberger trial, where they would have explored the many, many media exposés on the case and the many, many theories that were circulating all over social media that Colberger didn't do it. There's a large faction that maintains that to this day. They were very loud on social media, and had all sorts of theories and podcasts and so on about how he wasn't the killer. Now he's, of course, admitted he was. But that was something that the prosecutors were going to have to deal with.
Starting point is 00:40:14 And prosecutors state to state in today's day and age have to deal with that anyway. Because it's a true crime community now. You know, like I was just talking to my, well, I'll reveal this news later. But we may have a little true crime news for you coming up. But it's growing and it's very popular. And it happens in cases that you know about in cases that you don't, where there are very strong local, there's very strong local interest in it
Starting point is 00:40:39 and becomes a podcast thing or internet fodder in some way, shape, or form, it can be dealt with taint. But the notion that it's going to go beyond that, that it's going to undermine the very prosecution of Tyler Robbins, as Andrew said, and he said, who I'm 100% convinced pulled the trigger and killed Charlie.
Starting point is 00:40:57 Me too, same. And Andrew and I've talked about it many times, privately and publicly. The notion that it's going to undermine the prosecution, I think is incorrect. And I think in Andrew and Blake's defense, they were set up to get to this point by the way Schellenberger, who I love, presented this. He presented it as I've spoken with a constitutional law attorney. And that person says this is definitely going to play a role. And this is going to potentially help Tyler Robinson at trial. I think Schellenberger spoke to the wrong person.
Starting point is 00:41:29 he spoke to, sorry, yeah, he spoke to the wrong person. He shouldn't have spoken to a constitutional con law lawyer. He should have spoken to a criminal defense attorney or a prosecutor, criminal prosecutor, talk to an actual criminal prosecutor or defense attorney. This is not coming into evidence. It's not coming into evidence. It's just not. The only way this theory about whoever, I don't even know who it necessarily would be,
Starting point is 00:41:54 is it Israel, is it Jewish donors to turning point if you go off of the Charlie text, I don't know who exactly the people who completely buy this theory think it is, but let's say it's one of those groups. The only way that's coming in is if there is actual evidence to support it. A text expressing consternation by Charlie is not going to open that door. It is not. Now, Joe Kent saying there were six major leads that pointed to the Israelis that were not pursued. And here's what they were. and can get really specific at it, maybe a pretrial hearing where they could get into that.
Starting point is 00:42:32 Maybe that could open a door. That's not what he has. That's not what he has at all. In fact, Schellenberger really pressed him on like, what other evidence is there? And he didn't cite any. He wasn't able to say, trust me, there's a lot. He seemed to just be saying, like, I got shut down on the investigation. There was something there.
Starting point is 00:42:48 I wanted to pursue it. And I smelled something, but I wasn't allowed to do anything. Well, that's not going to be enough. I mean, I'm sure Tyler Robinson's attorneys are going to be sad that it's not enough. But my own instincts as a lawyer for 10 plus years, a litigator, and I've tried cases. And then I check with Arthur Idala, who is a legit trial attorney, criminal defense, had one time been a prosecutor, and Matt Murphy, longtime criminal prosecutor. So I've got both sides weighing in with me. And a couple of others who I called all agreed, not one wiggled at all, saying there is
Starting point is 00:43:20 not a chance in hell that this gets admitted by the Robinson defense. And even less chance that Joe Kent gets called at a witness. Unless there's some treasure trove of other evidence that Joe Kent remembers, oh, gee, there were those six clues. It was the Israelis that I, I did send to cash and he didn't let me pursue. That's not what's happening, though, here. Okay, so I don't think they need to worry about what's going to happen at the Charlie trial. And the last thing is, though, on this, I also don't think this settles the matter about whether someplace said clues might be present or why we haven't actually bothered to know. We haven't bothered to actually investigate.
Starting point is 00:44:05 Because I believe Joe Kent that he was effectively shoved off of this. I don't know by whom. I believe it for many reasons. And I don't know why that happened. But I'll tell you that, you know, when I talk to Joe Kent personally, he talked about there being additional leads. that were not investigated. And that's why when Andrew says, we've had six months plus since that time that I sent this to the FBI, well, to Joe Ken and maybe another Fed, to track down all
Starting point is 00:44:39 those leads, none of which have been corroborated, none of which has actionable evidence, that presumes facts not in evidence, that there has been an investigation of this angle of the story. And I would submit we just don't know whether that's true. What we know from Joe Kent is there wasn't. And it's one of the many questions I think I still have about this case. Why? Why would you shut that down? It's not the only one. Where's the arrest of the Trans-Tifa mob that clearly knew about this beforehand? Who's investigating that? Why does it take six months to figure out whether They're all the people posting that Charlie Kirk was going to get shot on September 10th, whether they, how they knew that.
Starting point is 00:45:29 Like, at least come out and tell us why? Why hasn't there been an arrest? Have you investigated anybody? Who have you spoken to? How did they know this? Did they all just get lucky? All right. So it's not to stop with like the, it's an anti-Semitic, it's not.
Starting point is 00:45:44 Fucking look at Charlie's texts, all right? It's just, let's just know. nothing should be off limits. So I love Andrew and I love Blake, but I think that they're not right that everything has been investigated. And here's Joe Kent, again, less than a week ago to me directly, 25A. And all I can really truly say is that there were additional leads that we needed to run down and fully investigate. And that's just simply was not done. Basically from the time that Tyler Robinson turned himself in and was arrested and his
Starting point is 00:46:18 fingerprints were found on the rifle, they basically, they being the FBI, said, hey, this is now going to go over to the Utah law enforcement, and we are not investigating anything further. And there was a lot of back and forth about that because there were still, and again, not just my opinion in the opinion of the National Panthersum Center, there was other leads for us to run down. And I even spoke with members of the FBI or kind of at the ground level, and they agreed with me. We wanted to continue to investigate. And so all I can say with authority right now is that there were additional leads for us to run down.
Starting point is 00:46:55 The scope that we had of foreign involvement, we did not get an opportunity to run down all of those potential leads. And I think Charlie Kirk deserves justice. I think people deserve the truth about what happened on that day. Not trying to be cryptic. What I'm saying is that there were things that we still needed to investigate that were not investigated. So to sum up, in my view, this is a matter of government accountability, responsibility, and open-mindedness to a real investigation that would cover any and all clues around who might have had involvement. But I do not think in any way, shape, or form as it looks right now, this results in any help to Tyler Robinson. You cannot just say, there were things the government should have run down in my view,
Starting point is 00:47:47 but they didn't and get that in front of a jury. That's not going to happen. So I think there was a level of alarm yesterday on this that was perhaps not warranted, though completely sincere and understandable. And I think we should take a deep breath on the trial of Tyler Robinson, which I think will be well handled. I think he will be convicted. There is a mountain.
Starting point is 00:48:12 of evidence against him. And the only questions I have are what's been done to investigate Trans-Tifa and why haven't those leads that Joe Kent mentioned, again, at least one of which I've been told about, not by him, off the record,
Starting point is 00:48:29 why aren't they being investigated? Like, where is the definitive answer on that? Because Joe Kent just left the counterterrorism a week ago. He left as chief a week ago. And he would know, if they'd been investigated. So the answer cannot be, we looked into it because it was his group that would have been charged with it. His group would have been charged with it. And what you heard
Starting point is 00:48:49 him say there was they were effectively shut down on it. Okay. So that's where that stands. Love to get your thoughts on it. Up next, I've never spoken to Kurt Mills, but I'm looking forward to. He is here. He is extremely smart and knowledgeable. And I think we're all about to learn a lot. If your dog is scratching more than usual, licking their paws or shaking their head, it might seem like normal dog behavior, but it turns out those can actually be signs your dog has allergies. We're not the only ones who get them. And a lot of those issues start in the gut. When a dog's gut health is off, it shows up in their skin, digestion, and even in their energy levels. But here's an option for you. Better wild allergy relief, soft chews. They're designed to
Starting point is 00:49:32 help balance your dog's gut health to support their immune systems. They're the first and only choose with ancestral advantage wolf probiotics with natural ingredients. Better Wild says it's proven to help reduce itching and support gut, immune, and skin health. Plus, BetterWild uses clinically studied veterinarian approved ingredients. Consider giving it a try. Right now, BetterWild is offering you up to 40% off your order at BetterWild.com slash mK. That's betterwild.com slash mK for up to 40% off your order. Betterwild.com slash mK.
Starting point is 00:50:08 Join me now, Kurt Mills. He's the executive director of the amazing. American conservative. Kurt, thanks so much for joining us. Big fan and love the publication. In the model of Pat Buchanan, who has been my own sort of sage over the past year, I've done a lot of reading of Pat Buchanan. And my God, he called so much of what we're experiencing right now. And interestingly, was diminished on the world stage by being called an anti-Semite, Kurt. Patterns repeat themselves. Indeed. Indeed. I would like to say that we improve as a species, but I think the jury's out. Yeah, the same. Let me kick it off with this. General Stanley McChrystal gave an interview to the New York Times. He was, for our younger audience, the guy who commanded our troops in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2008 and was very badass, was the one who really killed, like, the worst of the worst in terms of the enemy and was almost universally beloved by the troops, you know, Air Force guy, like Army.
Starting point is 00:51:16 and then ultimately commanded the Air Force. And he got booted by Barack Obama because he said something negative about Joe Biden, I think it was. I think he was actually ripped on the vice president and Barack Obama recalled him. In any event, very, very well-respected general. So he sat down and gave an interview to the New York Times and said something that really jumped out at me about people who are, quote, enjoying this war and what he says to them. Here it is in a lot 19. We could bomb Iraq pretty easily. We could even take Baghdad with relative ease.
Starting point is 00:51:52 We could get rid of the existing government. But once we wanted to change the reality on the ground, who actually controlled things, how things worked, now you're not at 30,000 feet, you're at six feet. And you're the same height as your potential opponent. And I tell people about this war. If you like this war, enjoy this war. first part because this is the best part. Because everything after this will be harder. You see the reality that all of the resentment you create through what you do now at some point comes back to you. I think that for everyone we kill in bombing Iran, they have a brother, sister, father, mother,
Starting point is 00:52:39 and they are unlikely to go, oh yeah, it's okay. You killed my father, but yeah, it was geopolitical necessity on your part, that's not the way we respond. And so sometimes it's necessary. I don't deny that some wars are just and required, but no wars that I'm familiar with are neat, clean, or produce the kind of outcome we actually want. They produce this messy thing that might be better than before the war, but it's not a lot better. So in short, we're risking a lot. And for what game? And he seems to be asking that same question here. Similar question to what you've been asking. Let me ask it this way to kick things off. How do you think it's going right now in Iran? Well, look, I think General McChrystal is a good man. He's probably much more establishment than I am.
Starting point is 00:53:34 It's very interesting to see how he evolved over the last 15 years. When he was ousted from the administration or from the leadership in the military, he was criticizing Barack Obama and also Joe Biden, really Joe Biden more than anyone else. Back then, Joe Biden said what you will, fought internally against the surge that the Obama administration, the early Obama administration was trying to do in Afghanistan, something that I think, you know, years,
Starting point is 00:53:59 as a years have wound on, it was something Barack Obama himself didn't really even really believe in. And so I think it's big to see McChrystal say this, his contemporary at the time, David Petraeus, before the Iran War warned against this war pretty much. He said that it was actually remarkable that the US had been so lucky in the Maduro raid that no special forces members have been killed,
Starting point is 00:54:24 that could easily have been killed. And so it is heartening to see for better or worse, the sort of general class, the retired general class, complain about some of the maneuvers here, which is not something that we saw nearly as much in the global war on terror, at least in the 2010s. General Mattis is also out there ripping on it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:43 You know, that was Trump's Pentagon chief, and he's also expressed major doubts about whether we can accomplish our goals in this war. Keep going on. I think, look, I think the war is not going well. If you define it as, I mean, the basic U.S. definition was we wanted everything in the world with no costs, you know. We wanted to kill the leadership of Iran. We wanted to replace it peacefully with our people.
Starting point is 00:55:05 We wanted to keep Israel on side and we wanted to keep the mega coalition together. That was basically the White House's goal, and that obviously fails spectacularly. The Iranian goal is survival. And then additionally, within the Iranian government itself, there are probably partners, sorry, there are probably forces within the Iranian government that are actually pretty happy by how this has gone all things considered. There were basically two views on Ali Hamine, the Supreme Leader. View number one, he was keeping the system together.
Starting point is 00:55:36 And view number two, which I'm more persuaded by, which was that he was an 88 or 87-year-old Jared Dekrat that was in the way of, you know, more ambitious, younger people, including maybe his son, depending on his position. I mean, basically the Iranians have developed into a junta. They are run by the Revolutionary Guards, and they have discovered a new toy, which is that they can shut down the Strait of Hormuz. They always theoretically knew that, but it's one thing to know something in theory and to see it in practice. So I zoom out here on March 3rd, It is hard to see how the United States is better off for this war. And if that is the goal, if the goal of a war is to have strategic gains, this war was a clear error. It seems like notwithstanding some of these setbacks because this drone program that the Iranians have has been incredibly pesky, to put it mildly, we're getting ready to double and triple down. Now, there's the big question.
Starting point is 00:56:36 The big question right now is whether Trump is actually going to use all. the ground troops who are currently en route to the Middle East. Today, it's been reported that the Pentagon is expected to order roughly 3,000 troops from the Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East in the coming hours, according to the Wall Street Journal. And then there was another unit that had been dispatched. We had Marines already and sailors on route. And what people are asking is, are we actually going to use them? Or is this just a scare tactic by Trump to improve our hand at whatever negotiating table we may or may not be at. Remains unclear exactly who's negotiating with whom and how.
Starting point is 00:57:19 But do you think we actually are going to start unleashing thousands of American ground troops in Iran? I think at this point, given how this has gone, every time that President Trump has mobilized military assets, he's eventually used them. It might take, you know, he initially started. mobilizing these assets in January, he used them by the end of February. So I think Bayes' case, we are going to do it. I think that there is a mobilization and an effort to try to potentially take this thing called Carter Island, which is, you know, in the Persian Gulf right off the coast of mainland
Starting point is 00:57:55 Iran. I think it's military value and financial value is dubious and overstated. But I think hawks on Iran are going to persuade Trump to try to, you know, take it piece by piece. And I think you could see it be a potential mass fatality event. What is mass fatalities? I mean, there could be hundreds of Americans killed and trying to take this thing. Yeah, it's very, very, very, very, very warring. I'm not sure the decision is made. I think Trump probably changes his mind on how to approach this war hour by hour.
Starting point is 00:58:28 He's a day-to-day player. But I think the base case that there is going to be some movement. I think they're, you know, they keep trying to move the over-to window on this. And I think at the beginning of the war, you know, they said that, well, maybe we do a little ground troops. And remember, before the run-ups of the war, that was always seen as, you know, only the realists and the restrains are making all this noise about ground troops. No one's talking about ground troops. No one's talking about ground troops. Well, lo and behold, March 1, the administration was talking about ground troops. And I think they were for a reason.
Starting point is 00:59:00 It's mission creep. That's what people are worried about on this. It's the very same term. My husband texts me when I'm inside the grocery store, and I said I only had to go in for one item. And 45 minutes later, he's still waiting for me outside. Mission creep. Only here we're talking about life and death. And there is a real question about, no, it's just a minor incursion.
Starting point is 00:59:20 You know, basically this small excursion is how President Trump phrased it. And now we've got literally thousands of American troops on their way to Iran. And, you know, there was another former military. Jerry guy. This is former CIA officer Mark Polymeropolis, who is making the rounds on podcast, and he said this yesterday, similar to what you just said. Here it is. Dot 20. There's some very good open source intelligence sites that we've seen a flow of the special operations commands, kind of lead elements, Army's Delta Force, Steel Team 6, the Task Force 160, that's the U.S. Special Operations Aviation, 75th Ranger Regiment. They also have been going
Starting point is 00:59:59 to the Middle East on C-17s, multiple flights over the last 48 hours. So we're seeing the deployment, of what are ground forces. And so I think that's something that, you know, one should take note of, in particular, because in the past when Trump has done this, whether it's the Venezuela operation with Maduro or the initial kickoff in Iran, you know, when he moves military assets, he actually uses them. And in particular, we also have to, we have to have to remember that the Marine Expeditionary unit, the one coming from the Pacific, that will be on station by Friday in the area, too. contingent of Marines. So there are forces, there are ground forces flowing to the region. The reason I think Trump would not do it are mostly political, right? The polls are overwhelmingly
Starting point is 01:00:49 against this, including Republicans. Only a smattering of Republicans want to see ground troops unleashed in Iran. So Trump knows that. And also, I think, notwithstanding the fact that he seems to have been dazzled by the presentations made to him by the military industrial complex and its supporters at Fox News and elsewhere. I do think that he's fundamentally anti-war. Like, I think he got excited about what happened in Venezuela. He got excited about what we did in Iran in June. He had people he trusted and watched too much on Fox News, get in his ear about how amazing this could be for us. But I think, like, at his core, I think he is anti-war. And does he really want to be the guy that commands three to five thousand American ground troops in Iran, where he knows that
Starting point is 01:01:30 death toll and those Dover, you know, dignified transfer ceremonies are going to go up in a way that will be truly difficult for the nation and him. Look, I'm very concerned. I would have agreed with you fully a month ago. But I think at this point, structurally, what is going on here is that until President Trump tells Israel and he tells Benjamin Netanyahu, no, this war will not end. And so you alluded to it, there's a potential Islamabad, track to negotiate a settlement of this war. But the reality is the Iranians are not going to agree to the exact same package they turned down a month ago.
Starting point is 01:02:12 They are, they feel, I don't want to say strengthened, but emboldened by how they've done the last three weeks. And if Trump is not willing to broker an America first peace deal with the Iranians, then I think he will have to go to war. You will have to keep, he's already at war, he will have to escalate in the war. And that's just my concern. And, you know, I'm not sure it's the dais cast. I'm not sure it's Fed accompli.
Starting point is 01:02:39 You already have, you know, elements within Israeli society clearly anxious that Trump is going to cut bait. You have neo-conservatives in the United States, the Wall Street Journal editorial board, certain members of Fox News, basically the Murdoch machine that are nervous about it. So, like, you know, I think it's always very dumb to think the history is written. But I do think that if, in the world, you know, Unless he tells Netanyahu, no, unless he tells Israel, no, they're going to keep marching on this. No talk of Israeli troops on the ground, by the way, just the Americans.
Starting point is 01:03:13 Here's, I wanted to run this by you, Victor Davis Hanson, who we love, who went through a very scary surgery recently for a cancer scare he had involving his lung, is now getting back out there. He's going to come on the program soon. He's not yet healthy enough to do like a full hour sit down with us and he will be here just as soon as he is. But he's done bit pieces, you know, where he's appeared here or there for 10 minutes. And we got to hear him just a little bit on Hannity. This is on Thursday, so it's a few days old. But here's how he described how things are going. He's an honest broker and he's a war expert and we love him.
Starting point is 01:03:47 So I wanted to get your reaction as a more skeptical person around this war to what he's saying. It's not 22. And when people say, well, we didn't have an imminent threat. We didn't have an imminent threat when they took our hostages when they blew up our barracks. Nobody said we better attack around because we need an intimate threat when they blew up our embassy. They always acted spontaneously with surprises, and we never knew what they were going to do. So the idea you have a telegraphed imminent threat, it's not the nature of that regime. It's lying, disguise, and dissimulation.
Starting point is 01:04:19 And that's their pattern for the last 47 years. But nobody's taking them theory. Every president said we're going to deal with this, all seven of us. of them and all seven of them did not. And then all seven them, when they got out of office, said, I regret that I didn't. There's enough evidence to see how things are really going. Europeans would never agree to go anywhere near Iran
Starting point is 01:04:38 unless they thought the tide was turning, and they think that we're going to win. Otherwise, they would keep still. And the reason that the pepto nations of the Gulf survive is they have their finger in the wind, and they're very attuned to the climate. And when you have Al Jazeera praising the United States bombing campaign and saying that it's been underestimated and it's brilliant
Starting point is 01:05:00 and effective, you get the feeling that they think not only should the United States finish the job, but it can and will finish the job. And then when you start to see tactical aircraft like wardhawks and Apaches, that means that they're offering almost ground and sea support to hit targets. There's nothing, there's no defense at all. When you have that type of aircraft flying at will in Iranian airspace. So you put it all together, and I think it's pretty clear that this Robo-Dope strategy that they have, that we're going to tire before they are, is dependent on just public opinion, the midterms in the United States. And if Trump sees it through, and I think he will, I think they're going to fall pretty soon in two, three, four weeks.
Starting point is 01:05:49 What do you make of that, Kurt? Yeah, I hope he gets better, but I think that's a dissembling and inaccurate portrait of what's going on. I mean, first of all, there's just basic facts he got wrong. I'm not aware of any president who has been president during the Iranian, really Islamic Republic's existence that stated that they regretted that they didn't go harder on it. In fact, it's it's the opposite. Carter's presidency was destroyed by a failed special forces raid. Carter's presidency was destroyed by trusting the Hawks and not working out a pragmatic deal with a new leadership in Iran. Reagan didn't say anything of this sort. Clinton did. Dido.
Starting point is 01:06:24 George W. Bush fought the Iran hawks to his credit in his second term after making a mess of the world in the first term. Obama signed a deal with the Iranians. Biden, while probably more hawkish on Iran than Obama, didn't say anything to the contrary. And his relationship with Netanyahu helped undermine him with the Gaza protests. So I mean, if anything, it was Trump, who was the first president to relent to Israeli pressure on Iran. what he's saying seeing there you know secondarily like look you know passes some prologue and uh mr hanson's a
Starting point is 01:06:58 nice man but he was a vociferous champion of the iraq war you know he's he's the opposite of pap pacanin or the founder of our magazine um and you know i think uh military military historians occasionally can lapse into becoming war fetishists and i think his strategic analysis is just wrong um i think he knows a lot about war war two and about ancient history and he give you way more detail about those battles than I can, but his prescriptive analysis is atrocious. I mean, we would have done a lot better the last 25 years by just doing the opposite of what Victor Davis Hansen wanted geopolitically. Oh, my beautiful VDH took a beating there, but he'll be back on and we'll ask him directly. Now, I take your point. You're basically saying he's way more hawkish
Starting point is 01:07:43 than you are, and that one quarter of the Republicans are, and that he hasn't always been right, like backing the war in Iraq, which I also did. and have lived to regret. In my defense, I knew nothing. I was a young Fox News anchor. I did as instructed by my bosses who are still pushing war on us all these years later, not to excuse myself, but just to contextualize it. The consequences to Trump politically are already being felt, and they are significant.
Starting point is 01:08:14 And, you know, as somebody who is an American conservative, I imagine you're alarmed about what I'm seeing and what you're seeing. in these polls as well. Like, I don't think it's all about the Iran war. I think it has largely to do, mostly to do with the economy. But being, looking like you're distracted and focused on, you know, Iran instead of Illinois is not a great thing for any American president. And Harry Anton over at CNN just did a rundown of the numbers and in particular the numbers on American men and how it's going for Trump with American men. Hold on. We have it here. Sot 12. Donald Trump and Republicans won in 2024 because of support from male voters.
Starting point is 01:08:58 The only way they can win given the gender gap in this country is support from male voters. And male voters are abandoning Donald Trump. In November of 2024, he beat Kamala Harris among them by 13 points, by 13 points. Look at where he is now on his net approved rating. Down he goes. It's a 20-point shift away from Donald Trump. He is now seven points underwater at this particular point among men. I think it is very difficult for Republicans to do well in this midterm cycle if Donald Trump is
Starting point is 01:09:27 underwater with men and look right here. Whoa, yikes, yikes, yikes, yikes, yikes. Men under the age of 25 on Trump. He won him in 2024 by five points. Look where he is now. The net approval waiting way down there. Down we go to negative 19 points. That's a nearly, what is that? Nearly a 25 point switcheroo against the president of the United States. comes to men under the age of 45, those men that had switched their allegiances over to the Republican Party are seeing what the president is doing. They don't like what the president is doing, and they are very much soured on the president of the United States. That is no buono, Kurt Mills. No, I mean, it's a stake in the heart of what Trump is supposed to be about. And,
Starting point is 01:10:12 you know, it's not as if he should advance the concerns exclusively of men under 45, but no one can really deny that that was in a lot of ways his base and why he was reelected in 2024, why he did better than he did in 2020, and why he did better than he did in 2016. And I think it belies, sorry, it reveals how sort of radical the war contingent actually is. It's basically older Americans, older conservatives who, again, supported a lot of these mistaken wars in the 2000s and in the past. And frankly, it is a bunch of cynical careerists and a lot of foreigners. This war is extremely popular in Israel.
Starting point is 01:10:52 It's over 80% support in Israel. It's under 40% in the United States. And as you mentioned, for any escalation, ground troops, et cetera, et cetera, it gets dismal from there. The numbers just go down even further. Last night, there was a, there's a special election in Florida in a House district that includes Mar-a-Lago. State House District 87 in Palm Beach. And it's a local election, like a state house, not federal. And it's been vacant since August of last year.
Starting point is 01:11:23 Trump won this district at the presidential level by 11 points last November, November 2024. Last night, a Democrat won. She's a business owner, a military spouse running for office for the first time. She defeated the heavily favored Republican John Maples, who John Maples had received Trump's complete and totally. total endorsement. And her own explanation on why she won was everyone's feeling the affordability crisis. And the last thing Florida families needed when they're struggling is $4 gas. That's the
Starting point is 01:11:56 problem. I mean, that's the other problem for Republicans, whether you want this war or support it or don't, is you don't want to lose the midterms and you really don't want to lose the White House over to the Democrats in 28. And the harbingers. at the state special election level are all bad, universally bad across the board, like multiple red cities that Trump won in November of 24, now going Democrat in these special elections by double digits, sometimes as much as like 19 or 20 points to the dem in a Trump one district. So these are warning signs that we need to pay attention to if we don't want a bloodbath in November and then the following presidential election. And they're not getting
Starting point is 01:12:39 better thanks to this war. Yeah, I mean, I also, I think people are underrated to the degree to which Americans are increasingly independent, like literally registered independence. I believe the numbers are approximating about 40 percent, depending on what surveys you believe. So even if you see the polling of just quote Republican voters, it's a smaller and smaller slice of the country than ever before. Same thing with Democrats, smaller and smaller slice of the country than ever before, at least in the modern era. And so, you know, that's how you're going to get these wild swings where Trump can win a district, by 11 to 15 points and lose it by five points less than 14 months later, less than 16 months later. And so, you know, I would not be sitting pretty and sanguine in the White House that Trump
Starting point is 01:13:24 is commanding a majority of Republican supporters on any given issue. The reality is George W. Bush left the presidency at 22% approval rating. What does that tell you? Over half Republicans supported him, even as the economy tanks, and he lost two foreign wars. It's just sort of the nature of partisanship. Over 80% of Democrats backed President Joe Biden in June of 2024, and the Democratic leadership cooed him 30 days later. So these surveys of support are interesting only so far as they go.
Starting point is 01:13:56 There are tons of Americans who want to trust the president. There are tons of Americans who are glad that Kamala Harris is not the president. But I think mapping the enthusiasm for this war, mapping the enthusiasm for six times, gas is a tricky business. And I would not be overconfident if I were President Trump's political advisors. Well, that's the problem because you don't win election with just your party only. And even if you just look at Republicans, the latest poll out today from Reuters shows one in four Republicans opposes this war.
Starting point is 01:14:27 It only has 75% approval rating across the entire Republican Party. So that's not even, even if you got every single one of those, you know, three quarters of Republicans to go out there and. vote for him, that doesn't win you an election. You need all of the party and some independence generally to win. And what we have here is he's got 25% of Republicans now opposing him. We saw a poll the other day saying also 25% of the electorate that put him in office, which does include independence, are against this war. So it's like he can say that the MAGA loyalists love the war, but he needs more than that to stay in office, to keep Republicans in office. So you've got
Starting point is 01:15:08 25% of those who put him in office opposing the war. You got 25% now of Republicans who are opposing the war as it goes on. And you have 69% of independents opposing the war. Sixty nine percent of independents. Obviously, 93% of Dems opposed. They'd opposed anything he does. But you cannot win an election with 69% of independence and 25% of Republicans opposing you. I think the independent numbers by some surveys are worse than the Democratic numbers. There is a contingent of basically older Zionist sort of, I don't know, Biden-wing Democrat, basically. You see it in the leadership choices of Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. They're a little loath to over-criticize the Iran War.
Starting point is 01:15:53 You would think the congressional Democrats would be all in on opposing this, but they're actually not. It's actually the independence that are driving, you know, the opposition, I think, most vociferously in the country. They just don't have representation in Congress, unfortunately. But they do vote. It's true. They do vote.
Starting point is 01:16:10 And they vote in the midterms and they vote in the presidency. Yeah. They have a representative sitting right here. I've been a long-term registered independent for many, many years. Likewise. Same here. Yeah. I always say I would not put on anybody's team jersey.
Starting point is 01:16:24 I just, there's too many like scoundrels in each party who don't represent my interest. And nor do I sign on to anybody's uniform party platform. I like being able to say, I'll make my decision, you know, when it's time. What you're seeing right now is that you have. sort of Empire Strikes Back moment of the Bushwing Republican Party, and they're using Trump as kind of a figurehead and mascot. It's a MAGA drag act. And, you know, these forces very much want to, you know, once Mr. Trump leaves the scene, once he doesn't run for that third term, you know, they thank him for his service, they thank him for the Iran War. And then they want to knife J.D. Vance.
Starting point is 01:17:00 And then they want to put Marco Rubio up or Ted Cruz up and go back to business as usual, circa 2015. That's exactly right. I mean, the nerve of Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin, both of whom are two original never-trumpers to now cloak themselves in maga gear and act like they've been with Trump all along. And really Trump is just doing the bidding of the Republican Party when Trump ran as a restrainer as somebody who is against war. And now they look at people like you and like me who believe Trump on that and who would really like to hold him to it as some sort of turncoats, you know, unpatriotic, disgusting. It's like, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We're still where Trump said he was the entire time he ran and governed the first time. Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, it is heinous and disturbing for the country that the command center, the nerve center seems to be of the White House's media operation at this point, are people like Mark Levin, Ben Shapiro, the foundation for defense of democracies, Barry Weiss's media outfits. these are people who also syphorously oppose Trump. They opposed Trump more, in my opinion, than Hillary Clinton.
Starting point is 01:18:12 The Clintons wanted Trump to be the nominee, right, to their error politically. But the never-Trumpers actually burned their party cards, sometimes literally, not actually an analogy. They actually burned their party cards. And they opposed Trump. And why? Because, you know, it wasn't so much. They said it was about his character and the bankruptcies and the divorces and all this stuff. But I think they would have lumped it if he had been with them on foreign policy.
Starting point is 01:18:38 And he was loud, rude, and unsparing on the mistakes of the Bush presidency, on the Iraq war, on the unnecessary, the lack of necessity of these foreign wars, how America was getting ripped off on the world stage, how it was wasting its time in the Middle East. He was unsparing on that in 2016. And he was unsparing in 2024 as well. In a lot of ways, Trump is best as a politician as an insurgent. I mean, that 2020 campaign was pretty low. lame, honestly. The 2016 and 2024 campaigns were better because he was articulating this message.
Starting point is 01:19:11 And it is a complete act of retroactive continuity to try to argue that he always ran as a sort of Marco Rubio circa 2015 Republican. The two hated each other. Feeling sluggish, bloated, not quite like yourself, life constantly bombards us with silent threats, processed foods, artificial light, nonstop stress, all of which can disrupt gut health, drain energy, and weaken immune health. When that happens, it's not that your body is broken. It's that it might be missing the right inputs. That's why I want to tell you about Armra cholesterol. It's packed with more than 400 bioactive nutrients that they say can work at a foundational level to fortify gut health, support immune health, fuel recovery, and promote whole body vitality. Strong gut integrity can support
Starting point is 01:19:58 metabolism, skin and hair health, and even performance and recovery, which is why cholesterol has long been valued by some elite athletes as well. If you are looking to take back control of your health from the inside out, consider Armra. And they have a special deal for you right now. Go to armora.com slash Megan, A-R-M-R-A-com slash Megan, or just enter Megan when you check out to get 30% off your first subscription order. That's A-R-M-R-A-com slash M-E-G-Y-N. Well, you know what people will say.
Starting point is 01:20:32 Well, he always made clear that Iran couldn't get a nuclear, weapon. Sure. And that's really what led to this war. Well, yeah, but I mean, but there's been a willing conflation between no nuclear weapon and everything else that was on the table. So, number one, the guy that he just killed, the Supreme Leader of Iran, not to trust him, but he had issued a fatwa in the early 2000s against nuclear weapons. So we just potentially removed the most major impediment within the Iranian system to them actually launching for a bomb. His son, or whoever is running Iran now, this sort of who of eight or nine people in the IRGC, they may just lunge for a crude weapon at this time
Starting point is 01:21:09 or even try to buy it from North Korea or something like this. So number one, we've made it more likely that the Iranians will get a nuclear weapon. Number two, there was a willful conflation in the negotiations by the Israelis, by the neoconservatives, by opponents of any diplomacy, and I include the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who cast a lot of doubts on diplomacy throughout this process. there was a willful conflation between no nuclear weapon and no nuclear enrichment. The Iranians wanted to maintain a pittance of enrichment to basically save face with their own population, somewhere around 3.5 percent, lower than Obama's JCPOA.
Starting point is 01:21:50 That is well, well, well below weapons grade, approximately 90 percent. It's a fake issue. And they knew, in my opinion, that Trump is not a details man. He said it himself. The deal can be a page long. And there was a conflation between no enrichment and no nuclear weapon. They don't, they can, they've been enriching since the end of JCPOA for years and they haven't gotten a nuclear weapon.
Starting point is 01:22:15 Right, exactly. And so now we don't know. It's not an imminent threat. It's not an imminent threat. I mean, VDH is wrong. If it was an imminent threat, then it's been an imminent threat every day since Ayatollahomene, you know, came down the plane in 1979. And I'm 35 years old and I haven't lived.
Starting point is 01:22:31 in mortal fear of the Ayatollah all 35 years of my life. Yeah, he hasn't been in front of lobe for you. It hasn't been from most people. I got through the 90s, the 2000s, yeah. What do you make, Kurt, of the very active campaign to silence any critics of this war as anti-Semites? Because not a day passes where a detractor, somebody who's got questions about this,
Starting point is 01:22:54 doesn't get called that word. The latest yesterday was the despicable Josh Hammer, decided to take a shot at Tulsi Gabbard. I mean, seemingly out of nowhere, because he found out that she had Joe Kent working for her as her chief of staff for a period of time, and therefore decided to go for her. Here it is in SOT 23.
Starting point is 01:23:16 Multiple people, around the same time, last fall on where on the exact date, that Tulsi Gabbard, who is the Director of National Intelligence, and she was Joe Kent's boss, as the director of the National Counterterrorism, etc., he worked under Tulsi Gabbard. I was told by numerous people who are very much part of the conservative ecosystem in D.C., these are well-sourced people, strong connections to the White House. They told me to be strongly on the lookout for Tulsi Gabbard and her office.
Starting point is 01:23:43 They basically said that Tulsi Gabbard is running something of a shadow operation from her office, that she is personally – I was told this – I've met Tulsi you don't know her well. I was told she's personally actually very anti-Semitic and that she is heavily involved in a lot of the anti-Semitic. influence her operations. As a woman who watches the MK show and came to one of my tourstops, the redheaded libertarian set on X, I was told by people closer to the White House that you are a gay vampire, Josh Hammer. So, I mean, let's just go with that. Like, I've been told, I've been reliably told she's an anti-Semite and she's running an
Starting point is 01:24:19 anti-Semitic op out of the DNI's office. I mean, what is this, Kurt? Yeah, I mean, look, I hope VDH gets better. And I know that Josh is not well. I mean, that he presents with the visage and the self-control of an insane person. That was like a vintage Alex Jones segment, but at least Alex Jones is hilarious. Josh is. And smart.
Starting point is 01:24:43 And, yeah, Josh is charmless, unfortunately. And most of his columns are a declaration of war against the English language. And this is no exception. So, I mean, look, it's just factually inaccurate. Number one, I mean, the story of, of, of, uh, Director Gabbard, unfortunately, just hasn't been terribly effective. She doesn't have a strong relationship with Trump. I think that's part of why Kent resigned. The idea that this woman is anti-Semitic is just, well, you're right. There's a conflation of any criticism of Israel with
Starting point is 01:25:14 prejudice towards Jews, but it's just not who she is. If anything, honestly, and this may be a bit in the weeds, of anything, her views on Middle Eastern politics are actually a pretty hard line against Sunni political Islam. I mean, if you listen to her speeches over the years, she's basically backed the Israeli line vis-a-vis Hamas. And, you know, like, it's just not accurate. He is just doing a character assassination of her. And, you know, to what effect? I mean, I don't actually think ODNI is actually that effective. They didn't stop the war. I think that's why I can't left. Well, it's also an indictment, an attempt to indict Joe Kent, right, who's become very inconvenient for the Josh Hammers of the world, who they've dubbed him an anti-Semite. There's
Starting point is 01:26:09 an active campaign underway to try to cancel yours truly. And the sin that I have committed is I'm friends with Tucker Carlson. I mean, literally, like, you can get canceled now for your refusal to cancel somebody. It's like they've gotten really desperate. And especially since the war started, It's gone times 10 to try to silence any critics of it, which is very weird. Like I listen to you. I listen to a lot of critics of the war. I am a critic of the war. I'm still a Trump supporter.
Starting point is 01:26:37 But I have no problem hearing people who support the war justify it, say why they believe in it. Like, there are two sides to it. I totally get that and respect to the other POV. I don't share it. But what's with the attempt by people like Josh to try to cancel, diminish, smear anyone he perceives as less than full throttle in support. The story is older than I think you're implying, frankly. I mean, it's interesting that the free press is, you know, now the home of sort of
Starting point is 01:27:08 anti-woke, anti-culture, cancel culture. That's how it was founded in 2020, 2021, 2022. But the reality, if you look at someone like Barry Weiss's career, she actually came about on the scene at Columbia University by trying to cancel and get defraught. pro-Palestinian professors. I mean, this isn't, this is an old, old, old, old playbook that goes way back. This happened to the magazine, our magazine's co-founder, William Buckley, who I'm sure is still liked by a lot of conservatives.
Starting point is 01:27:39 I'm not a fan. Bill Buckley oversaw something called In Search of Antisemitism, which is basically a witch-hunt book that went after Pat Buchanan and Gore-Vidal just for their criticisms of Israel. And this is the early 90s, early 90s. It's ubiquitous right now. And what you mentioned Barry Weiss at Columbia. There's a debate amongst some in the American Jewish community about once we saw the explosion of anti-Semitism, actual anti-Semitism, post-107 on so many of the college campuses,
Starting point is 01:28:14 I mean, like the ripping off of people's yarmacas, they're getting in the faces of Jewish college students who were trying to cross the quad, screaming, you know, globalized the intifada. That was crazy-ass shit, pulling down the pictures of the hostages who were, still fighting for their lives. That was crazy. It was deeply wrong. But we have seen a debate unfold in the wake of all of that about whether the answer is to put Jewish Americans into the category of DEI. Like, keep DEI and just put Jews in there too. So it's like blacks and gays and trans and Jews. And then there were many of us who said, that's the last thing we should be doing. The answer is to eradicate DEI. The DEI and dividing us by skin color or religion or
Starting point is 01:28:59 that that's the problem. And the solution to the problem is not to enlarge the problem itself. And to me, it seems clear that we lost that debate, that, you know, being Jewish or forget Jewish, it's about like being pro-Israel, making Israel like a huge thing in your life and judging others by their opinions on Israel. That's kind of gotten shoved into like a DEI category. where now you get called an anti-Semite. We were always told we criticize Israel, and it wasn't anti-Semitic. But it turns out that's just not true, Kurt.
Starting point is 01:29:29 I think the administration and facets of the administration are basically doing DEI for Jews only, actually. They are. They are preserving the DEI playbook and tools, but just for Jews and just for against critics of Israel's wars. And, I mean, I think case of point, I believe the administration is re-sewing Harvard. And like, look,
Starting point is 01:29:52 Every single thing that happened on the campus protests in the past years is not defensible. There's obviously above zero anti-Semitism in the country, but it's a country of 330 million people. There's the First Amendment. There's the right to protest. Sometimes protests get out of hand and trying to smash these, I think, is going to be hugely counterproductive. It's not working. Israel's approval rating goes down and down and down and down in every survey. and the Republicans, I mean, base case, one of the huge reasons they got thrown back into power that Mr. Trump was reelected president was that people were fed up with the woke cancel culture of the early 2020s.
Starting point is 01:30:34 And for this administration to come in and now to try to, you know, pseudo-criminalized speech critical of Israel, I think, you know, doesn't pass the left test for the American people. And there's going to be a major lane, in my opinion, for anti-war Democrats to be. want to run against this. And then also, in my opinion, eventually right-wing anti-work critics as well, I think the administration is making a huge error on this. And I think, you know, look, I'm not sure this is so much being driven by Trump himself. But, you know, he's a coalition manager. He's a sort of boss Tweed figure. And there are elements of his coalition that want to do this. And like, look, I don't want to start a huge fight with this, but like, you know, there's someone like the Laura Lumer woman who's, you know, an utter fanatic and basically just has some sort of operation that is just
Starting point is 01:31:19 trying to get people fired for their views on whether or not the Americans should support a foreign war, a war, by the way, that she criticized when Trump criticized it two years ago. I just think shows how cynical and nasty and stupid, but also I'm very confident on the wrong side of history of all this is. The Israeli hardline is running out of time in the United States and they know it. I hope you're right, because I tell you, this is not good for American Jews. I mean, truly, I know it's like cliche, but literally, virtually all of my closest friends are Jewish. I mean, I'd say 80% of them. And to a person, even the ones who are really pro-Israel will say, these people don't represent me.
Starting point is 01:32:03 I don't judge people by how they feel about Israel, never mind how they feel about this war. And I don't need everybody and their mother to get sued over anti-Semitism because they have the wrong poster board. I just don't think that normal American Jewish people are running around thinking, how does it affect Israel? And how can I shut down other people's viewpoints that I find mildly offensive, even about Judaism? You know, it's like, I had a long talk with a friend of mine. I was like, look, you know the number of like very, very conservative men I've had on this
Starting point is 01:32:35 podcast? I mean, like too many to count? Do I think all of their views are perfectly equal when it comes to women? And there's absolutely no sexism in their worldview? No, I do not think that I don't give a shit. Like, I just don't, like, who cares? Like, okay, so we, we differ on a couple of issues. You may be more this way and I mean more that way. And neither one of us is perfect. Nobody has the perfect, absolutely lovely worldview on everybody. The point is, like, when do we start shutting down speech, shutting people out of the national conversation,
Starting point is 01:33:06 and hurling the nastiest allegations as defining of one's personhood? When do we do that? And against whom, and for what purpose? And what we're seeing right now is that allegation, the same way it was a weaponized by the BLMers in 2020 to be, you know, everybody's racist. It's being weaponized right now by a certain contingent of Israel firsters to shut down any debate about this war or the Israel lobby, A-PAC, in America and their influence over our Congress. No doubt. I mean, I think you're picking up on a macro-dynamic, which is the increasing separation of the American Jewish community from the interests of Israel or from the Israeli community, frankly.
Starting point is 01:33:47 And this has been going on for a number of years. You know, people like Mr. Hammer are in a minority of Jews, a minority of Jews vote Republican. And then within that, a minority of Jews to vote Republican are inclined towards these types of politics, in my view. And it is a cynical attempt. I mean, by the way, it's not just driven by Jews. I mean, people like Senator Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham. Tom Cotton. They clearly revel. They clearly revel at the opportunity to call someone racist for once. Like, I mean, I just think we shouldn't use this conversation at all. Not to imply that there aren't genuine biggest and racist in this country. And frankly, some of them are pretty separate, or pretty strident critics of me because I try to advance a principled criticism of Israel, principled non-interventionism.
Starting point is 01:34:43 And I think there are people who actually want to agree with Benjamin Netanyahu that they want the conversation to be about Jews. And I think that plays into all the wrong people's hands. And I think you can totally criticize the governor of Israel. You can totally argue that the United States should have nothing to do with this and that does not make you a bigot. In fact, some of the most brilliant and principal critics of Israel, for decades now are Jews and have been Jews. Yeah, I do think that they try to make an example of certain well-known people as a warning to others. It's losing its effectiveness.
Starting point is 01:35:25 It's losing its effectiveness. It is. I mean, to go after Tucker Carlson, who we both know, this is going after the second most important conservative in the country, it's not going to work. And Tucker's power only grows as a result of it, like, his... This show is on fire. People are thirsting for an alternate viewpoint. And I think, I'm sure he has a lot of independents and Democrats listening to, but I think there's a large strain of Republicans who would like to hear their own opposition to this war embodied by, you know, smart conversations. And I'm, I don't focus on Israel anywhere near as much as Tucker. I just don't have the interest.
Starting point is 01:36:04 But I'm also a critic of this war. And it's been interesting. We've had some audience say, I'm not interested in this. And we've had tons of new audience come and say, oh, I'm very interested in hearing this discussion. I'm a bit of an Iran nerd. I like I like talking about this stuff, but the reality is it's not us driving us. This is all the administration is doing because of our relationship with Israel, right? I mean, this is an administration that's ostensibly supposed to be about immigration and trade protection. And yes, there are people working on that. But what is sucking up all of the oxygen is the Iran war, is Israel issues. And it wasn't just a Trump story. It also happened to Joe Biden. This relationship is.
Starting point is 01:36:43 bipartisan in being, I think, a pretty bad bag of goods for whoever the president of the United States is, unless we make a clean break with the Israelis. So, Kurt, last question. What do you think is going to happen this week? Do you think Trump actually does unleash these troops? Or do you think he takes the off ramp because he's feeling the pressure at home with the gas prices and these politics that we went over and just declares a victory and gets the hell out? I think we're probably going to do some sort of military operation unless Trump.
Starting point is 01:37:11 Trump is able to will into existence this potential Pakistan side dialogue. And I think there's basically one man, a lot of its rumor at this point, but there's one man that potentially could come in as it's sort of du ex machina, and that is VP, J.D. Vance, if he does meet with some of these Iranians in South Asia, I think that's a game changer because I think the Iranians are done meeting with Wyckoff and Kushner. Yeah, that's right, because we bombed them the last time they were in the midst of those then they therefore no longer trust them. Kurt, great, great discussion. Thank you so much for coming on. All right. And coming up next, I'm going to keep the party rolling with actor Josh Dumel, who is here live. Can't wait to talk to him.
Starting point is 01:37:56 When you bring a child into the world, your perspective changes overnight. Suddenly you're thinking years ahead about child care, school, the future milestones. Well, part of loving your family also means thinking about their future, even in sometimes uncomfortable ways. insurance. Yes, that's what we're talking about. It's not a fun topic, but it is one you need to think about. Ethos makes getting life insurance so fast and so easy. It's 100% online. You get a quote in seconds, apply in minutes, and get same-day coverage of up to $3 million. Some policies are as low as $30 a month. Business insider named Ethos, the number one no medical exam, instant life insurance provider. And Ethos has a stellar 4.8 out of five stars on Trust Pilot with over 3,000 reviews. Protect your family with life insurance through ethos. Get your free quote in minutes at ethos.com
Starting point is 01:38:50 slash mk. That's ethOS.com slash mk. Ethos.com slash mk. Application times and rates may vary. Hey, everyone. It's me, Megan Kelly. I've got some exciting news. I now have my very own channel on Sirius X-M. It's called them. Megan Kelly Channel, and it is where you will hear the truth, unfiltered, with no agenda, and no apologies. Along with the Megan Kelly show, you're going to hear from people like Mark Halperin, Link Lauren, Morin Callahan, Emily Jashinsky, Jesse Kelly, real clear politics, and many more. It's bold, no BS news, only on the Megan Kelly channel, Sirius XM 11, and on the Sirius XM app. From Smalltown North Dakota to the bright lights of Hollywood, actor Josh DeMell first rose to fame,
Starting point is 01:39:42 on the daytime soap opera All My Children, before making the jump to the big screen, starring in everything from romantic comedies to the Transformers franchise. But these days, life looks a little different. As a father of two with another on the way, Demel has traded the hustle and bustle of Hollywood for a quieter off-the-grid life in Minnesota,
Starting point is 01:40:04 embracing the role he says matters most, being a dad. And now he's channeling that real life experience in his latest project. In his new film Preschool, which he directed and stars in. He plays one of two fathers locked in an over-the-top battle to secure a coveted spot at an elite preschool. The film spirals into a hilarious and relatable look at just how far parents will go for a little junior. Here's some of the trailer. I will make absolutely sure that you have every opportunity that life has to offer.
Starting point is 01:40:36 Welcome to Pugsy's Academy of Excellence. We only accept the best hit. A prepared child. It's a successful child. Oh, my God. Excellent. Unfortunately, this year, we only have one slot. I know they have a strategy.
Starting point is 01:40:51 I just have to figure out what it is. We need to know what Dylan's up against. We are a brilliant team. There isn't a single problem we can't fix. We're just getting started, Doc. He'd been in fights. That's best for our children. That is a very.
Starting point is 01:41:16 amazing and very real. He's also here to break some news about the business he founded, Gatlin. We'll get into that in just a bit. Josh, welcome to the show. Megan, I'm so happy to be here. I've been hoping to meet you for a very long time. So here we are. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's great to have you. Big fan. And I'm an even bigger fan of your lifestyle and character choices. I feel like you are one of those few rare beings in Hollywood that gets there, makes it big, and says, What the hell is this? I'm out. Like, you keep your career going. But when it comes to passing on values to the next gen, you've decided on something more sane. So let's start there. Why are you not raising your family in Los Angeles? Well, we do spend part of our time here. I have a 12-year-old who lives in Los Angeles. But he also comes with us out to Fargo, North Dakota, and the cabin that you see there all the time. We spend most of the summer out there. And a big part of the winter, too. It's just, you know,
Starting point is 01:42:16 To your point, it was like, you know, my wife is from North Dakota very much a family girl, very close to her family. I am the same. And it was just a chance for us to, I don't know, give them something else besides the big city. You know, I grew, when I bought that place 17 years ago, it was a way for me to sort of relive my youth in a way because I grew up in the outskirts of mine at North Dakota out in the woods like Huck Finn. And so when I bought this property, I think that was the initial impetus for it. And then as I went on, I had Axel and now Shepard, and we have a little one on the way after a little girl on the way in June, it's, you know, I really want them to be able to experience the things that I did to get dirty to, you know, figure out things on their own to get off
Starting point is 01:43:05 their iPads and to just explore. And I think that that's, it's really been a huge blessing. It's our happy place out there. And we, we, I could live out there year round. if I could. So what you're saying was the draw to Minnesota was not Tim Wals. No, it was not Tim Wals. Thank God.
Starting point is 01:43:26 Then we can continue getting to know each other. That's a thing. Thrilled to hear that. All right. So you start off as this rural kid and grow up, you know, dirt under your fingernails like, like I did, actually up in Syracuse, New York, too. Like in the creek a lot of the time and making mud pies. And I think that develops a good person on a number of levels. But then you decide to try your hand in modeling first.
Starting point is 01:43:50 So I'm told. And I'm told you actually made it so big that you beat Ashton Coucher for a male model of the year back in, what, the mid-2000s? That was the late 90s. But I didn't actually make it big. He did. A late 90s, okay. It was, I won a competition that was sort of like Zoolander in a lot of ways when I really look back at it now. It was ridiculous.
Starting point is 01:44:12 but it was what I thought was my, you know, my rocket to stardom. And it didn't turn out so much that way. It was four years of grinding and, you know, I won the thing. And I thought that I was going to go on and, you know, do great things. But it didn't turn out that way. Ashton, on the other hand, went on and did that 70 show and got a Calvin Klein camp. And just a bunch of different things. So I was pretty bitter at him for a while.
Starting point is 01:44:40 But we've buried the hatchet. We laugh about it now. Well, you have the chiseled good looks, which will always help you as a male actor and a male in general in life. And it's no accident that you started on All My Children, right? Where it's like, back then I'm sure they were like, he's hot. If he can act at all, he's hired. And it would turn out that you could do it all, which is why he became a big movie star. But I do want to take us back as somebody who used to watch All My Children a lot back in the day.
Starting point is 01:45:08 Not the more. Yeah, sure, when I was grown up, I loved all my children. I watched General Hospital. I had a few that I really liked. But here you are in the following stop, 52. Good morning, Rosalie. The meal and the company were so charming the other day. I thought I'd see what your breakfast were like.
Starting point is 01:45:28 Did you happen to bring a different credit card this time? I'm afraid not. No, huh? But you were so clever about it before. I don't dare. manager's here today. What a shame. We had such a great time.
Starting point is 01:45:49 When you talked about Tuscany, I felt like I was there. Yeah, I started telling you about Switzerland. You were asking me about skiing in Chamonix. Because I've read about Chamonie. But you've been there. Oh, well. Wait! You don't have to go.
Starting point is 01:46:08 I got paid this morning. Oh, no. This will be on me. I couldn't let you do that, Rosalie. be my pleasure really you talk me into it and of course I can return the favor
Starting point is 01:46:21 sometimes I'll be right back with the menu oh my god that's hilarious that's amazing so many stories okay so that that scene was the most
Starting point is 01:46:33 impressionable moment of my or easily my late 20s into my mid 30s even now I remember that scene like it was yesterday I couldn't tell you what I said in a movie last week or anything that I did recently.
Starting point is 01:46:50 But that scene, because I was so nervous, I knew I was going to be on TV for the first time. All I could think about was, oh, my God, I'm going to be on TV. All my friends back home are going to see this. What am I going to do? So I would just, and I was the breathing. I couldn't, I feel it now.
Starting point is 01:47:06 It's like I regress back to that moment because that was like the one time in my leather duster. in my mohair mock turtleneck. With like one too many buttons undone? It was like, and so I remember just being so nervous that I had to remember these lines and I was going to be on TV and it was just terrifying. The girl, by the way, is Elizabeth Banks.
Starting point is 01:47:28 Do you know what that is? I thought that was Elizabeth Banks. I was like, that looks exactly like Elizabeth Banks, who also, of course, went on to become a huge star. Yeah, that was her first job too, which we also laugh about that because we were so, Oh, thanks for bringing that one out, Megan. Holy crap.
Starting point is 01:47:45 I was not expecting that. Well, it's funny because I could be wrong, but I think I spent last week with Elizabeth Banks, where we went on vacation for our kids' spring break, Justin Timberlake was 100% there. Yeah. He's married to Jessica Beale, who we also saw. And she was with a hot blonde who looked remarkably like Elizabeth Banks. And those two just starred together in one of those Netflix, you know, docu-series or not a docuseries, but like a series, it was really good. And she looks amazing. If it in fact was Elizabeth
Starting point is 01:48:16 Banks, she looks awesome. Probably was. So you guys have both made it big. Probably was. Yeah. Thanks for you. I don't know. But, all right. So then you parley that into a movie career. And so, like, you could act. You got a bunch of Emmy nominations, one, one. And then you decide there could be bigger things in store for me. I'm going to try my hand at the big screen. And not only do you get cast in big movies, but like the Transformers, like, you can't, is that just an actors utmost dream any man on earth would love to star in this, no? Yeah, that was, uh, it was a big decision actually to leave all my children because I did it for three years. It was for the first time I felt like I had something. I felt like I belonged
Starting point is 01:48:58 in some way, although it took me forever until recently to actually feel like I belonged to this business because I felt like an outsider for so long. But to leave all my children, because it was the first time I was in New York City, straight from North Dakota, it was. It was like I was making a little money for the first time. And they offered me a contract to stay for three more years. And I decided, you know what? No, I'm going to I'm going to go try my hand and see what happens. And I left and moved back to Los Angeles.
Starting point is 01:49:27 And shortly after that, I got Las Vegas. And then I got Win a date with Ted Hamilton. And then shortly after that was Transformers. So, you know, it was, you know, I guess I just trusted that I could do it. It was a scary move at the time. But, you know, I guess if I would give advice to any young person out there, just believe that you can go do it. You know, you really got to just trust.
Starting point is 01:49:53 But was that the before and after? Like that, the Transformers thing had to be like where, okay, now everybody knows you. That was a big one because that production was gigantic. It was, you know, Michael Bay had all the toys, helicopters and all the cameras. and all the cameras, and we had jets flying over, we had DOD involved, and we were on,
Starting point is 01:50:14 you know, it was just, because my stuff especially, because I did all the, all the military stuff. And so it was, it was a big sort of collaboration with the U.S. military to pull all that off.
Starting point is 01:50:25 And they were really, uh, helpful in doing all that. So it was, that stuff in particular, shoes. And it was like massive explosions everywhere. And it was,
Starting point is 01:50:34 uh, it was unlike anything I'd done before. So at the time, time I felt like it was, I felt like a tiny cog in a giant machine. Looking back at it now, it was 10, I did four of them. Let's see, one, two, three. I did four of them. And, you know, it was, it was a huge boost to my career, to say the least. Well, of course, since we subjected you to the All My Children clip, we will do the honor of now playing a Transformers clip, the later version of Josh. Here it is. F-22 is we're still waiting.
Starting point is 01:51:54 Okay, for the listening audience, Josh is decked out in his, like, camo with his bike and so on. And the question I have for you coming out of that is probably not the one you expect. But it seems to me if you get cast in a film like that, which is testosterone central, and you feel like such a badass with the military and the guns and the camo and the hogs, and you're making it big in Hollywood at the same time. with a recognition going through the roof, it might be a time for like church, God, a normie romantic partner, like something or someone to ground you and remind you you're human. Don't get too big.
Starting point is 01:52:34 Don't indulge too much in the excesses that are now going to become available to you. Did that happen to you? Wow. What a question, Megan. So I'm so glad I'm here today. It, yeah, the truth is there are a lot of pitfalls in this business. And, you know, I'm not going to say I was perfect, you know, but I did know that I, that none of this was real. You know, fame can come and go as, it can go as quickly as it comes.
Starting point is 01:53:06 I did know that. And I have a really tight-knit group of friends back home and family that I leaned on heavily. during those times. So I always stayed very close to North Dakota, very close to my friends. I got a group of 20 friends that were on a, we're still every day on a thread. So I think that helped me stay grounded. It helped me sort of keep perspective on everything, but you're right. It can be, it can be a lot, you know, and thankfully, if you go back to all my children and the bit that I did before that, you know, it wasn't like it all happened immediately. It was like it was sort of a slow burn. And it still feels like a slow burn. And it still feels like a
Starting point is 01:53:43 slow burn. I don't feel like any of it happened quickly. But yeah, I mean, in God, family, friends, home, those are all things that really sort of kept me. And I think still keep me in this business today because it's easy to burn out. Well, I ask it because I spent a fair amount of time talking over the past year to Charlie Sheen. And he's been so honest about his, rocket propulsion to super fame and how he didn't really have that force to ground him and really started to feel like, I can do whatever the hell I want. There are absolutely no limitations on me, which was not good for him, right? He's still dealing with the fallout from that. So why, why, though, the temptation was there for you, didn't you succumb in the way my pal Charlie did,
Starting point is 01:54:38 Charlie Sheen, or others, you know, who are less able to say no to those indulgenies? I don't No, I'm probably not the, you know, the spokesperson for it, but I, but I, I, I, I've had enough experience in this business now to know that I was, again, very lucky to have a very tight-knit group of friends, a very, a very family that wasn't afraid to put my ass in check if I needed to be. There you go. But it can be, it can be a very enticing and intoxicating thing, you know, because you, a lot of stuff thrown at you. And if you don't keep some kind of perspective on what reality is. And I always,
Starting point is 01:55:18 and I always knew this. And I watched this growing up. This was before I even wanted to get into the business is that I'd see guys rocket to start them and then burn out quickly. And I didn't want to be that guy. I wanted to try to stay as humble and is appreciative. And also I had a lot of jobs before this. I didn't get into this business until I was 27 or 8 years old. And so I worked What were you doing? I worked in warehouses. I worked a lot of like grunt labor jobs for a long time. And I think that that real life experience is great as those jobs are, I didn't want to go back to them because I felt so lucky to even be in this position.
Starting point is 01:55:57 I still do. So I think that. And it just reminds you. Yeah. It reminds you what real life is like for most people. Exactly. It's a lot of real life experience. One of the things I've noticed, you know, what happens in Hollywood if you succeed is not only do you, you know, you become.
Starting point is 01:56:11 I'm recognizable and the fans love you and all that. You get money. But then you get like an entourage that surrounds you with the most obsequious, absurd messaging about how amazing you are, which I also think is a damaging force, right? It's like your agent and your manager and like whatever. It just seems like such a fawning, ridiculous. I think the thing you said about having a family that's ready to kick your ass, that's the best possible influence, no?
Starting point is 01:56:38 Yeah, absolutely. And I think that that that could, it's a good message. for a lot of people in the entertainment business these days. I just feel like, you know, because you have a platform doesn't mean that you get to preach to everybody. Oh, thank you. Tell that to the Oscars. I honestly believe that, you know, we're very fortunate to be in this position.
Starting point is 01:56:58 And I spent a lot of time in the Midwest, so I get to see what they actually think about, you know, us. And they're not afraid to tell me. And, you know, I have this. I'll never forget this. I was going to play golf with a buddy in Georgia about 10 years ago. And he meets me at the airport with a T-shirt that says, nobody cares what actors think.
Starting point is 01:57:27 And I was like, damn, that's really funny. That's really good. And that always stuck with me because it's true. I mean, my job, and I don't, that's why I don't really take, I don't really, I have real strong opinions about things, but I don't really talk about it because it's like why. You know, why would I, you know, alienate half my audience? Because I respect, I respect her views on things.
Starting point is 01:57:50 But I'm not going to preach to them. They can believe what they want to believe. I'm just here to, you know, make cool stuff. I mean, speaking for people who are more, you know, on the right side of the aisle, I feel like that's all we want. You don't need to share our points of view on the big issues of the day, but we definitely do not want to be lectured by, Hollywood leftist. I don't think you're a leftist. But in any of it, we don't want to be lectured
Starting point is 01:58:13 about how we're worse than them because we don't share their values. You know, it's like, I think more and more they're starting to get it. You know, you're like a couple of actors and actresses have made public statements about how like, I don't want to alienate. You know, Jennifer Lawrence said it. And she's been an outspoken progressive, but she's like, I'm going to stop doing that because I don't actually want to alienate my fan base. I'd like my art to speak for me. We saw Sidney Sweeney, you know, declined to get drawn in. when they made a controversy around her jeans ad. And then we've seen it a couple of the awards show,
Starting point is 01:58:45 not really the Oscars, but maybe it was the Globes before that. A couple of the actors on the red carpet being like, I just want to act. I don't want to talk politics. Do you think this is a growing trend? It should be. I mean, it makes perfect sense. I mean, why would you, if you really want to be successful in this business,
Starting point is 01:59:04 why would you make half of your audience despise you by your political beliefs? Maybe they don't care. I don't know. I mean, I look at it as a business decision. You know, I want, I want, I'm here just to make cool movies, cool TV. I'm here to make cool stuff. And that's my, I'm the court jester, you know. If I want to, if I want to preach to you about what I believe politically, I'll go run for office, which I'm not going to do, by the way. Yes. Thank you. Or you can just email me. It's fine. It's Megan at Megan Kelly.com. In the midst of this crazy, successful career and life, you found time to marry one of the most famous people on earth, the singer Fergie. And how did that change life for you?
Starting point is 01:59:51 It was a big, it was a, you know, it was a huge sort of shift because suddenly I was, and she was a massive star at the time. And so it was a big, It was a big adjustment for me, if I'm being honest. But, you know, for example, is a very normal person at the end of the day. Good mom. We have a great relationship.
Starting point is 02:00:15 Do you have to navigate the, like, whose star is bigger? And how does that make the other star feel? Like, a lot of Hollywood actress who are in a, you know, a joint relationship have spoken of that dynamic. Yeah, probably. It's probably with my own ego more than anything. I don't think it bugged her as much as it probably did me. but you know she was she was a massive star at the time and it was it was suddenly you're you're
Starting point is 02:00:42 sort of in that shadow a lot of times but at the same time is there the same fear when you're when you're a man married to a female singer who's such a star is there the same fear as like a woman would have when married to a male rock star like he's going to cheat on me because he has thousands of women throwing themselves at his feet is it like that when the spouse is a woman? Like, does that happen to the female stars? I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question. It never crossed your mind. I didn't. I don't know. This is what's good about being Josh DeMelle. You're like, we're good. Trust me. Listen, Frig and I have a great relationship. We parent our son Axel. She's a great mom. I'm extremely happily married now to my
Starting point is 02:01:32 wife, Audra. We have a beautiful son and a little girl on the way. And they have a great relationship, which is what I really care about is making sure that everybody's just copacetic. You know, I just want, I just want peace. And I don't want to be infighting between everybody. And I think that, you know, they've all been thankfully very civil in the way they approach this whole thing. Well, it says a lot about all of you that you've managed to navigate that one, because that can be, that can be, it can go another way, as you know. be ugly, but thankfully it's not. Yeah, that's amazing.
Starting point is 02:02:06 So now you've got a new baby. This will be your first girl coming in June. Yeah, I got a little girl on the way. All right, so how are we feeling about that? Terrify. How about the pony? I had, you know. What's scarier about raising a girl?
Starting point is 02:02:19 I grew up with three sisters, so I knew that I just figured I was always going to have girls. You know, my dog was a girl. My three sisters were a girl. I was, you know, everything around me was female. And when I found out that I was going to have a son, Axel, it almost surprised me. And then again, when I had Shepherd, I was like, well, I'm a boy dad. So when we found out that we're having this little girl, I think that it was, I'm just, I just can't wait to meet her.
Starting point is 02:02:52 You know, I just, I think there's something about girls that is so different than boys, you know. I think that, you know, she's got a great mom. Audrey's an amazing mother. And, you know, I'm just excited to meet her. And, you know, I don't know what to expect. You tell me, you have two sons and a daughter, right? Yeah, I expect you to be putty in her hands. My daughter's the middle child. But I expect, yeah, I expect she will rock your world. And I've, in my experience, at least, girls come into the world knowing a lot. Like, she will know a lot and have strong opinions probably at an earlier age than your boys. They get there, but it takes them longer.
Starting point is 02:03:34 And I don't know. She's sort of like arrived as sort of a boss. You know what I mean? Like together and with strong opinions and like good advice to give. And it's just totally different than the boys. You know, I think you'll find it a completely different experience. Of course, it's still parenthood, but like girls are very different. And it's super fun in their own way.
Starting point is 02:03:55 Now, my girl's about to turn 15. So she's at like that age where like they get more assertive and, you know, the parents are more of a liability than they are. But like we're still good. And it's, it is very different from the boy. So I'm so thrilled you're going to have both experiences. Yeah, I mean too. You know, I feel like boys are just, girls are just more evolved than boys. Honestly, boys are like a little caveman.
Starting point is 02:04:16 My little two year old is truly a cave. You've seen the movie, the last dinosaur, spike, that little caveman. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Right. You know, and I think that, you know, they, girls just have, they're just. just they can sit and they can play and they can focus on things where boys are just like
Starting point is 02:04:31 all over the place. Well, I was thinking of the movie Parenthood where the little one is like ramming his head into the wall with a bucket on it. Your boy will definitely do that. You don't totally understand why, but somehow it's meaningful to him. Meanwhile, your girl's doing like trigonometry. Yeah. So I look forward to that experience for you.
Starting point is 02:04:50 Now, speaking of girls, is that your inspo? Because you started a company. You didn't need to do this. You're sustaining your lifestyle, I'm sure, with your. you're acting. But you started like a, like a wellness brand. Yes. Focused first on men. And now just in time for your baby girl, you're expanding it to women. So tell us what is the brand. What has it been doing for men and why the expansion? Yes. By popular demand, we are now offering to women. And so the way the company started was, it's called Gatlin.
Starting point is 02:05:23 And a friend of mine, my co-founder, Fabian Calvo, came to me with this idea to, is a at the time was just a testosterone replacement therapy company. And I was like, no way, no way am I going to be in the face of a testosterone replacement? All I do it, but I'm not going to tell people that. It's my dirty little secret. And the more I thought about it, the more I thought, you know what? This is really improved my life in a lot of ways. It's helped me stay young and active and all the things that it does.
Starting point is 02:05:54 And I thought, why not be the guy that, that, that, that, you know, shines a light on this thing and makes it okay for people to talk about. It doesn't have to be something taboo. And we've built this beautiful company. We've got, you know, it's fully concierge. The website just dropped, the new website just dropped today. We're now fully concierge. So you have fully guided, licensed, medical experts there to help with whatever questions you have.
Starting point is 02:06:23 And what's the website? It's called Gatlin. Gatlin.com. And Megan, the beautiful thing is, is I watched you and Commissioner, FDA Commissioner Marty McCarrie talk about HRT for women. And that was one of the impetus is for us to get into the female space because I didn't know all this stuff. I didn't realize. And also there was a girl that I work with on Ransom Canyon who was having troubles with testosterone, believe it or not. And some of her hormone levels were low.
Starting point is 02:06:53 And she talks about this to me. She doesn't tell anybody, but she talked to me about it. which you knew we had this company, and how that changed her life. And I just thought, you know what, we've got to get into this space because there's so many women out there that can benefit from this. H.R.T, you know, whether it's estrogen or progesterone, or even testosterone for women, you know, naturally, these things that we produce start to taper off as we get older, and there's so much science behind it now that it really can prolong your youth.
Starting point is 02:07:24 It can keep you young. It can keep you active. you looking good. It's cognitive. It's bone density. It's, it's, you know, weight gain. It's all these different things that they've found that actually can really improve your quality of life. And I think that that's really why I got into this was why not spread the word about it. Yes. The brain fog. Also sex drive. I mean, this is like, you know, I know you're married to a young woman, but I would say like when you get into your 50s, this can be an issue for a lot of women. and it doesn't tend to ever become an issue for men until much later.
Starting point is 02:07:58 But like there can be a mismatch and it's hormones. Like go regulate your hormones. Talk to a hormones doctor. Go to Gatlin. Look into whether, you know, what are your levels? How's your estrogen? How's your testosterone? Because women have a certain level of testosterone that wanes as we get older.
Starting point is 02:08:14 And there's lots of things you can do. You can do like a cream. There's, but if you get even just your estrogen and your progesterone back to like good levels, the drive can be restored and that issue can not just be something that you have to live with. These are things that we don't talk about enough. But I want to stay for a second on the testosterone for men because one of my guys who work security for me, he's also a huge fan. Now, he's younger.
Starting point is 02:08:41 He's like 41 and he loves it too. What do you love about it? Like why should a man be thinking about going on testosterone? Well, I think it's the same for all of us. As we get older, these things. that we actually naturally produce taper off. And a lot of guys, you know, starting in their late 30s, those levels start to fall off. And you can supplement that with testosterone replacement therapy for women. It's, you know, estrogen, progesterone, and even testosterone. And you can actually
Starting point is 02:09:12 maintain that youthful vigor that you had in your 20s, in early 30s. And you can, you don't have to go through what is traditionally seen as paramedopause. I mean, eventually everything happens, but you can definitely prolong it. And for me, testosterone, you know, muscle, it helps you keep muscle on. It helps me stay athletic, sex drive, you know, all those things that just make me feel. Because I got, like I said, like we just talked about, I got young kids. I want to be able to roll around in the dirt with them for as long as possible. I need to stay as young as possible for them as anything.
Starting point is 02:09:54 You know, I want my career to go as long as possible, but, you know, for my kids, they need me. And I need to be as, as present as possible. Yes, I love it. I have to say, so I'm doing HRT, and I love it. And I will say, like, it's resolved so many things like that were going wrong with me that I had no idea were hormone-related.
Starting point is 02:10:17 Like, I had very annoying dry eye. and it's gone. Like it's completely resolved the drive. It's like crazy. Who knew that that was related to hormones? And other weird things that suddenly are no longer present. You feel better. You look better.
Starting point is 02:10:31 Your skin is better. You feel more vibrant. The brain fog. Like there's so many advantage to it, but people don't want to talk about it because I don't know. It's a sign of getting older or for some, you know, you say testosterone.
Starting point is 02:10:43 You're like, what's going on down south? Well, no. Like, it'll help you everywhere, including there. But, like, there's no shame in getting older and having these things happen. And you saying, no, I refuse. I'm going down swinging. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:10:55 Well, I mean, you look amazing, Megan. I mean, if anybody was a perfect poster child for HRT, it's you. You really do look incredible. And I think that it's, I think that it's, you know, it's true. I mean, all those things that you just mentioned, you can actually, they're in the, science behind it. The data is there. This stuff works.
Starting point is 02:11:18 and, you know, get your levels checked, find out exactly where you're at. We have a whole fleet of licensed medical experts, the best in the world that can walk you through this because, you know, it's a scary thing to get into in the first, you know, the first, you know, just to step into it for the first time. So, you know, we're fully concierge.
Starting point is 02:11:42 We can walk you through this. We have all the products, all the products are. made right here or compounded right here in the U.S. too. So you're getting what you're buying, whereas some of these companies, you don't know. And that's why I think the FDA is coming down on some of these companies is because you can't just click and just have, you know, GLP 1C. You've got to have a doctor sort of guiding you through this and helping you, making sure
Starting point is 02:12:07 that you're getting what you're ordering. And so we have the best products. We have the best experts to help them through it. And I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful that you are a. advocate for women and a proponent of this stuff, honestly. Don't you think that we're, it's the dawn of a new day. Like the days of accepting your traditional medicine doctor being like,
Starting point is 02:12:29 you're getting older, deal with it, are done. Like, no, there are all sorts of options when it comes to hormones or peptides or what have you, supplements that can actually make you feel better, look better, and weirdly actually be biologically younger. I mean, it's what, what's his name, Brian, why can't I remember his last name? The crazy guy online, he's been on the show who's refusing to age. But there are real life Johnson, Brian Johnson, real life options for you to fight it. It's not to say we're all winding up in the same place eventually, but you can look good and feel good for so much longer thanks to this sort of, I don't know if you'd call it alternative medicine.
Starting point is 02:13:14 I think it's regular medicine that's just been looked down on. for so long. And I'll tell you something else, Josh, you know, you have to get the mammograms as you get older. And one of my doctors said to me, like, you know, getting older is not a disease. Okay, I accept that. But you also don't have to go down without a fight. Like, you can actually stay looking, feeling, and in a way, being younger for even longer if you just do a little research, check out Gatlin, talk to our hormones doctor, what have you, right? I mean, You're feeling it, and so am I. Yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 02:13:50 I mean, I couldn't have said it better myself. That's amazing. It's, you know, and the beauty of it is, is once you get your levels checked, you find out that you're low and whatever and you regulate to where you were in your 20s or 30s, whatever it is, you start to look better, you start to feel better, which makes you want to eat better, which makes you want to work out, which makes you a better sister, brother, mother, son, daughter. it just elevates you, in my opinion, because you feel so much better about yourself. And because of that, you're willing to do the things. You have that oomph that you didn't have that you've been sort of falling off of
Starting point is 02:14:24 for the last several years. So, yeah, I recommend people get their levels checked. Come to gatlin.com, and we can get you back to the you used to be. Next thing you know, you two could marry someone like the 32-year-old Audrapper. This is all you have to do. Go to Gatlin.com and your life is going to improve.
Starting point is 02:14:49 Josh, I loved meeting you. I want to tell the audience that your team has given our audience a special offer to get 20% off your purchase if you use the code MK at Gatlin.com when you check out. So that's great. You get 20% off. Thanks so much for being. MK20. MK20. Thank you so much for being here.
Starting point is 02:15:07 Megan, what a pleasure. I've been a fan for a very long time. Oh, I'm grateful. And good luck with the movie, too. Everybody's got to check that out. Preschool. It was just released on St. Patrick's Day. What a guy, right? What a great guy. Thanks to all of you for joining us. Today, we will see you tomorrow. We'll do it all over again then. Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.