The Megyn Kelly Show - U.S. Women Soccer's World Cup Fail, and Consequences of Criminal Behavior, with Clay Travis and Dana Loesch | Ep. 602

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

Megyn Kelly is joined by Clay Travis, author of "American Playbook," to talk about the U.S. women's soccer team failing miserably at the World Cup, Megan Rapinoe's attitude after the game and infecting the team, the value of winning and hard work, women's sports being overrun with biological males, the need for women to speak out about the issue, the reality of biology, President Biden and VP Harris attempting to push the "Bidenomics" talking points, why abortion is a crucial issue to the 2024 presidential race, why Clay is optimistic about America, and more. Then Dana Loesch, host of the nationally syndicated radio show "The Dana Show," joins to discuss one shop employee in California who may be prosecuted for protecting his store from someone robbing it again, the consequences of criminal behavior and progressive politics, thwarted school shooting in Memphis, how the protective measures at the school worked, why the media refuses to cover the story, the Biden family dogs continuing to harm White House employees, how the story is a reflection of the Biden family overall, and more. Plus, Megyn and Dana share parenting stories, and discuss lessons in doing what you say, staying true to your word, and the value of sports.Travis: https://www.amazon.com/American-Playbook-Winning-Country-Democrats/dp/1668022346/Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations. Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show. We begin with something I rarely say on this show, and that is our lead is sports news. The U.S. women's national soccer team lost in the World Cup yesterday in the round of 16 against Sweden. The first time in the team's history that they are out before the quarterfinals. Longtime team leader and activist Megan Rapinoe was smiling and laughing to herself after missing the crucial penalty kick. It was overall just an embarrassing performance for this team from the start.

They donned the uniforms of the United States of America, but they refused to honor anything we stand for. And therefore, I'm thrilled they lost. Good. I'm glad you went down. You don't support America. I don't support you. And I know I'm glad you went down. You don't support America. I don't support you. And I know I'm not alone.

Joining me right now to discuss that more, Clay Travis, co-host of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show and author of the new book, American Playbook. Get it? Playbook. He's all about sports, but he also loves America and writes all about it. A guide to winning back the country from the Democrats, which is out tomorrow. Clay, great to have you here, especially on a day like this. I couldn't care less about the loss. Couldn't care less. I hope that they took a lesson from losing that we all want our kids to learn when things go down, which is be introspective, figure out how it happened. And in this case, they didn't have their eye on the ball. They had their eye on their woke activism, which has been this way for a while. But Megan Rapinoe and her imprint on the team has now really made its mark. And I'm thrilled she's gone. I feel like there's a future now for this team potentially without this woman at the helm. But how do you see it as a guy who is

immersed in sports for a living? Thanks for having me on, Megan. Look, I was with my family in 2015 in Vancouver when the U.S. women's team beat Japan to win the World Cup. And in 2015, all of America loved these U.S. women. Most of them were relatively anonymous at that time. They were incredibly likable. They were completely without partisanship. And certainly they hadn't gone overboard with the woke agenda. And then, Megan, something crazy happened. Donald Trump got elected.

And I feel like people need to remember this. Trump offered for the U.S. women when they won their title in France in 2019 to come to the White House and be celebrated, as is commonplace with champion sports teams. And the U.S. women turned their back on that offer. And from that point forward, they allowed, I think, the woke instincts of Megan Rapinoe to direct every decision they made. They became polarizing. They became, frankly, quite unlikable. And ultimately, that led to, and I think this is important, the single worst performance by the U.S. Women's World Cup team ever. And yet Joe Biden puts out a tweet praising them, talking about how beloved they are and how proud of him, how proud of them he was.

And to me, Megan, when you look at Rapinoe in the way that she shanked that penalty kick, it went to the far right, ironically. But her reaction where she's smiling and kind of laughing to me, it epitomized the way the U.S. women played this entire World Cup. They were awful. Stand by on that. Stand by. Let's just show it. There she goes. Didn't come anywhere close. She puts her head down. It's a weird I mean, I'll give her a pass on the smile. I mean, I'm sure she wasn't happy about it. I don't know what went on there, but her overall behavior is really the issue. Keep going. Yeah. And what it ultimately came to represent is this team performed woefully and they performed like a group of individuals. And unfortunately, I think that's what the culture was that was created in the space between 2015,

when they won that first World Cup, 2019, when they repeated. And then this, again, they scored one goal, Megan, in the final three games that they played in first World Cup, 2019 when they repeated, and then this, again, they scored one goal, Megan, in the final three games that they played in the World Cup. They were atrocious. They did not live up to their individual talents. They were the overall favorite, expected to win for a third straight year. And remember, they were very fortunate to even make the knockout stage. And so as a result, I saw it. I'm sure you did. The OutKick audience as a group said, we put up a poll. Are you rooting for the U.S. women?

You have to be really unlikable for United States sports fans to decide that they aren't rooting for the United States to win. And yet that is what the Megan Rapinoe-led U.S. women's soccer team managed to create. Now, to be fair, Megan, it's not everybody on the soccer team, right? There are a lot of people on the soccer team who disagree with Megan Rapinoe. But let me just say this.

It's not everybody on the soccer team, but now we've watched them game after game, and at most, Clay, at most, what I see is from the ones who are phoning it in, maybe a couple put their hand over their heart. They're like, Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, same.

There is not a one who is actually singing and who looks proud to be there. Not one, not one. So get off, get out of there. You know how many young girls would give anything to represent the United States of America on the world stage in this fashion and would be thrilled to represent the United States of America on the world stage in this fashion and would be thrilled to say that they're American and they're representing our values. Screw these girls for not even phoning it in, though, even the ones who are like kind

of trying are embarrassed. I'm embarrassed of them. Yeah, look, and I think tying this in with the book, Megan, this is what Democrat politics leads to. I really do believe this because this is a belief. Why are the U.S. women behaving in this way? Because they don't believe in American exceptionalism, because they aren't proud of the country they live in, because they are buying into this left wing ideal, which has taken root in the Democrat Party and I think has led us to a really awful place where there is a legitimate argument. And it's not a coincidence, especially with younger people in this country. They aren't proud of America. And that's because they're being taught that America's history is one of tragedy and not triumph of exploitation and not of what I believe. And I think what most of your listeners will believe, the story of the greatest country that's ever been founded in the history of the world. If you are embarrassed by some of your country's history, which is what a lot of these kids are being taught, then you aren't that excited to represent.

Then don't play for America. Then don't. Don't play for America. Go find another team. Good. Get out. We don't we don't need you. It's fine. We certainly don't need Megan Rapinoe. She was an embarrassment throughout these games. And by the way, they put the final penalty kick in her hands. And we saw how that went. And to your point, here she is admitting. So Carly Lloyd spoke out. You saw this on Fox Sports saying, I don't know what this team stands for anymore. Essentially, you know that they used to stand for something is to play great soccer. And then right around 2020, it shifted. And that's when they got more about their woke ism and their sort of social values. Just play the damn soccer.

All right. Shut the F up. Play the damn soccer. And maybe you could continue winning World Cups. No one gives a shit what your personal and political views are. No one cares. If we if we cared about that, we'd have you run for office. Go ahead. Become, you a shit what your personal and political views are. No one cares. If we cared about that, we'd have you run for office.

Go ahead. Become, you know, be Vivek Ramaswamy. Run for office as a private citizen. Get your name on the world stage and say what you believe. That's fine.

On the soccer field, shut up. But here's Megan Rapinoe talking about how she sees the whole loss and her place in it after the Big L the other day,

sought two. I thought we played really well. I'm so happy for us that we went out like that, playing the way that we did. I mean, this is like a sick joke for me personally. I'm just like, this is dark comedy. I missed a penalty. But when you reflect on the impact you've made on this team,

is there a memory that stands out to you right now in this moment probably equal pay chance i think this team has always fought for so much more and uh that's been the most rewarding part for me to know that we've used our really special talent to do something you know that's really like changed the world forever. I think that means the most to me. Okay. It would be nice if we could just get back to the day and age where they focused on the sporting event.

Yeah. Look, this has been my argument for a long time, Megan, that when you decide to share your political opinions, you become divisive, right? And that's fine if you're in the business of sharing your political opinions, like you or I might be, or like other people out there who are in media. But if you're in the business of trying to appeal to the entire country, you shouldn't do this. And look, Megan Rapinoe also said that she was most proud of equal pay. And let me just talk about this for a sec, because I think it's important. I wish if the U.S. women wanted to be political, Megan, they could

have gotten on the global stage in 2019 and in 2023, and they could have said, look, we don't agree with everything that goes on in our country, just like every person on the planet doesn't agree with everything that goes on in their country. But you know what the lesson of the Women's World Cup is, Megan, overwhelmingly? You can almost pick the winner of every women's soccer match in the world just by ranking the countries on how much they allow women to have basic human rights. And this is the story that I think would have been really compelling for the U.S. women to share. Hey, the reason why we kick ass, the reason why we are dominant is, guess what? Because women can wear shorts in America and play soccer starting at four years old.

Because women can go to soccer matches. Because women can drive cars. Because women have basic human rights, which don't. You can choose how many children they want to have. Women have basic human rights in America that do not exist anywhere in the rest of the world. And as a result, we are not only exceptional at soccer, we are exceptional when it comes to having talents everywhere. They could have used America as an example of a bright and shiny city on a hill

that represents the full fruition by and large in the world of what women are able to accomplish. Instead, they denigrated America on the global stage. I think that's what Rick Grinnell said. I thought he captured a piece of this very well. Rick Grinnell, of course, openly gay, first openly gay cabinet member under President Trump, who tweets out the following Rapinoe made herself the face of women's soccer while pretending like America was a terrible place to live. She's left awake of chaos and destruction for the women's team with her selfish antics. She's an out green haired lesbian who has made millions pitching subway, among other things. I add, she fails to understand that she would get imprisoned in 69 countries around the world for simply being gay. And nine countries would kill her for being gay.

America is the greatest country in the world for lesbians. She's been ungrateful for what she was given by God. President Trump goes on to say the shocking and totally unexpected loss by the U.S. women's soccer team to Sweden is fully emblematic of what's happening to our once great nation under crooked Joe Biden. Many of our players were openly hostile to America. No other country behaved in such a manner or even close. Woke equals failure. Nice shot, Megan. The USA is going to hell. MAGA. So they're both getting at the same point, Clay. Yeah, I think both of those are incredibly well said, Megan. And look, this is my last book. Ironically, Republicans buy sneakers, too, which I think is an amazing quote, but it really goes to the essence of what you're talking about. That was Michael Jordan. They asked

him why he didn't get political while he was playing for the Chicago Bulls and winning six championships in eight years. And he said, Republicans Buy Sneakers Too. And as a result, Megan, you know, Michael Jordan's shoe still outsells every single current NBA player combined. And here's a crazy stat for you. It's also in this book. The number, did you watch, you may have been watched because it became such a huge hit. Did you watch the documentary that they showed during COVID about the Chicago Bulls? Uh, yes. Yeah. It was amazing. Right. It was great about MJ. He was, he was crazy. I, I actually like that as one piece of sports I follow. because I lived in Chicago when that incredible team was playing and I saw them play and it was like magic.

So what's interesting is more people watched a documentary about the Chicago Bulls championship 1998 season. That's called The Last Dance, by the way. I think it's up on Netflix. It's fantastic. More people watched that on ESPN than watched the NBA finals that year with LeBron James. Think about that for a minute. People were more interested in watching documentary about Jordan than they were LeBron playing a current game. My little boys love Michael Jordan. They love Michael Jordan. They love Steph Curry. They don't look up to LeBron. They never talk about him. But they they say that Michael Jordan is the goat. They want his shoes. Like, I mean, still here in 2023 and they're right.

My boys are the same and one's 13. So it's I'm sorry to root against the United States of America team. But I have to say this is even worse than that. As you point out, MJ didn't get political, but this is worse than a basketball player on some random professional team taking a political stance. You're representing America. If you cannot do that pridefully, get out, get off the team, sit on your stupid loser bench at home and go pursue your woke activism. Why wouldn't she? Why doesn't Megan Rapinoe or all these other activists who she's infected the team with, why don't they do that? Because they want to cash in, Clay. They're making money for all of her bitching about equal pay. This is a multimillionaire, a multimillionaire who wants men to come onto the women's team now that she's

leaving it. She thinks it's just fine for my daughter, right, to have to compete against males out there. She won't have to endure the safety risks or the heartbreak from losing to a biological man or losing your spot to one. So it's because of that, right? Because they're more interested in making money and pushing their politics than they are in winning. It just gets to the heart of so much of what's wrong with these leftists now in our country. The only reason people care about the U.S. women's soccer team at all is because they win. If they start to lose, the platform banishes, right? And they don't seem to recognize that. And on the equal pay thing, which they made a big show of and Megan Rapinoe says she's most proud of, the reason why the U.S. women got paid less, Megan, was because FIFA pays way less for the Women's World Cup rights than it does for the Men's World Cup because most countries around the world don't support women's athletes like the United States does. And I think we got to hammer this home. Megan Rapinoe retired. And on her way out, she said, I'd be fine with a man representing the U.S. women's soccer team.

Look, they are very talented soccer players. A man would dominate them. People make fun of the U.S. men's soccer team, even though they got eliminated at the same stage of the World Cup as the women. The U.S. men's soccer team, if they played a match against the U.S. women's team, would win 50 to nothing. They might win 100 to nothing. They are infinitely better, right? The U.S. women, Megan Rapinoe was on this team. Megan, they lost 5-2 to an under-15 boys team in Dallas in prep for the 2019 World Cup. This is not the best 15 year old boys in America. It's the best 15 year old boys in Dallas, Texas. They crushed 15 year old boys. You got young boys. They're not fully grown men. They crushed the women. All right.

Most people in the world watch way more men's sports than they do women. Again, it's a sign of American exceptionalism that our women have the fan base that they do. And yet they turn their back on the opportunities and the exceptionalism of America. You know, somebody was showing this video online of the U.S. women's team leaving their hotel after the debut or to go to the debut game. And they were wearing custom made suits by Nike. And you can see in some of the shots that they're dancing and they're full of just hubris and they're playing it up. And some of the comments online were that, you know, you can you can wear the suit and you can dance like Megan Rapinoe was dancing in the suit.

You got to win. You can't like, that's what Carly Lloyd was pointing out. Like they were over there celebrating in the stands with the fans, uh, after their loss or after their tie, you know, when that post saved them from losing as if, as if they had just won the entire thing, but like the hubris on this team from the beginning, because to your point, and this is made in your book as well, it is all about them and their egos. There was no humility. There was no nose to the grindstone. Just get the job done. You celebrate once it's done, once it's done. And on that front, Clay, Jim Craig, you know, great goalie for the, you know, Miracle on Ice hockey team, just tweeted out a couple days ago, happy birthday in heaven to Herb Brooks, who would have been, I themselves, doing selfies after a tie that they almost lost.

Here's what's coming, Megan. And I don't know if your staff can grab this or not, but I bet you haven't seen it yet. ESPN SportsCenter began their coverage of the U.S. women losing by talking about what a hero Megan Rapinoe was. And it's emblematic of the propaganda that I think our kids are being shared. Because you sit and watch SportsCenter to watch and see American athletes succeed at an incredibly high level. And to your point, if a men's team was as cocky and outspoken and polarizing as this U.S. women's team, and they lost, it would be catastrophic. I mean, everybody on the planet who talks about sports would be going after this team

with everything they've got. I'm telling you what's coming, Megan, is there's going to be a, oh, it's sexist for the women to be held to this standard and for people to be talking about them in the way that they are. And my thing is, look, if you want the money and you want the equal pay, when men's athletes, when their teams perform, and let's be honest, totally choke like the U.S. women did. It is absolutely a – they get destroyed. I did sports talk radio for a long time. A lot of these women's players want to be paid like the men, but they don't want to have to handle the criticism that comes with those paychecks. Just wait. I guarantee you by the end of today, there will be sexism, racism, whatever it is.

They'll all be arguing that that's the reason why the U.S. women are being criticized, not their performance. I'm telling you it's coming. Homophobia. We'll throw that one in. Oh, good point. That's exactly right. Yes. No, you're totally right. And I mean, it's absurd. You act like you've been there before. OK, that's fine. You can keep your head held high. Don't don't celebrate before you get the W. The W is the only reason that you get the accolades. And you failed. You And I really hope that the next team learns, learns. You can be as woke as you want in your private life when you're out there representing us. You hold your head high. You honor America, her fallen heroes who have sacrificed everything so that you can have that stars and stripes on your back and you represent the country or you get out, get off the team. Otherwise, we will celebrate your loss because

you are losers in more ways than one. All right. On the subject of sports and what we will get to the book and talk about a little bit more about a sports talk radio show this morning. You're firing. I bet harder on this than almost any man will who's doing sports talk radio this morning. I love I'm I'm outraged. I'm ashamed of these. I'm ashamed of these young women, especially Rapinoe. OK, on the subject, we talked about how Megan Rapinoe on her way out is all fine with the men coming in and playing against her, her successors. Well, thankfully, Martina Navratilo, with whom I have absolutely nothing in common when it comes to our politics. I mean, she's out there on other days complaining that she's had too many conservatives forced upon her by Elon Musk and her Twitter feed and she can't handle it. So she and I have gone toe to toe on Twitter once or twice.

However, I'm with her on the trans thing in women's sports. And she has been bold on that. She was initially bold. Then she got shamed and she kind of backtracked. But now she's back on track. So I like where she is and I salute her for speaking up. So it's happening, Clay, U.S. Women's Tennis. I didn't realize this, but the U.S. Tennis Association and they I guess they oversee they set the rules on U.S. tennis. And this is with respect to all is it's a league and recreational tennis. So it's not the women's like U.S. Open. The rules are a man can compete

against the women, period. All he has to do is self-identify. No, not that the hormone, not that they change anything. They really don't. I mean, you go through male puberty, you have an advantage, period, end of report. That's why men are now banned in the cycling world. They're banned in most of the international events in the track and field now. Just recently, all this happened. But tennis has said at the professional level, you have to like have some hormone a woman. And guess what happened? Guess what happened? Transgender tennis star Alicia Rowley, who's a man, is now the latest to win a women's national tennis championship and the coveted golden ball. I didn't know what the golden ball was, but apparently when you win a super national tournament, you get a gold ball. It's extremely hard to get one. And this guy got it posing as a woman recently won the women's 55 plus grass court national championship and national indoor

singles and doubles championship. It's unbelievable. So Martina thankfully spoke out about this saying, let me get the quote. Come on, USTA, she tweets. Women's tennis is not for failed male athletes, whatever age. This is not right and it is not fair. Would this be allowed at the US Open this month just with self-ID? I don't think so. So it's happening, Clay. It's happening where maybe not at the tip top level, but at every level they're under, the men are taking over women's tennis. It's starting to happen. lie. Any person out there who says that a man is not bigger, stronger, faster than a woman and should not be able to compete in women's athletics is lying to you. And I mean, this is happening in athletics. I know you've talked about this crazy Wyoming sorority, which has University of Wyoming sorority, which has, I mean, a dude who's a member of the sorority. I don't understand. I'm sorry. And not to not to put too fine a point on it, but like an aroused man sitting there

in the sorority claiming he's a woman getting off as a heterosexual man probably would be. I've dreamed much of my life, Megan, about being able to live in a sorority house. Every every guy goes off to college, you know, would like to have lived in the Kappa Kappa house if he'd had the opportunity to. Like, that's what heterosexual men think about. Right. house. Every guy goes off to college, you know, would like to have lived in the Kappa Kappa Kappa house if he'd had the opportunity to. Like, that's what heterosexual men think about, right? So this is- Only the deviants actually try to do it. Go ahead. Yeah. Well, yeah, of course. I mean, but, and by the way, I mean living there as an actual guy.

I don't mean living there as a pretend woman. Yeah. So like, all of this is crazy. And I think what's happening here, and your audience is overwhelmed. My wife loves your Yeah. So look, all of this is crazy. And I think what's happening here, and your audience is overwhelmed. My wife loves your show. You know, you've met her. But I think you're speaking to a really important audience on this subject

because I think there are many women out there, moms in particular, who are being taken advantage of here because women are supposed to be nice and they're supposed to be kind and they're supposed to be kind and they're supposed to be welcoming. You know why this doesn't happen? Men. And I just want to hammer this home and I want you to think about it and all the women out there listening to think about how you're being taken advantage of here. Can you name a single woman who has began to

identify as a man and become rich by doing it. There isn't a single person. Now, some people can say, oh, Ellen, Elliot, Paige, whatever. Like that guy, girl, whatever, the career ended, right? Because men just look at this and think, I feel really sorry for you, but you do not represent masculinity. In no way am I going to buy something from a woman who used to be a man that is advertising a product. Look at what happened

with Bud Light. This was mostly men saying, fuck this. I'm not going to go buy a beer that's trying to tell me that even a fake chick, imagine even somebody trying to be a man, that's just a fake chick, right? To talk about March Madness. Men won't stand for it. And there's not any like overt hostility by and large that I see. It's just like, hey, if you're a woman and you decide to identify as a man, you're just kind of a wimpy man, right? You're not very strong. You're not going to succeed athletically. Most men look to men who are bigger, stronger, and faster as someone that we hope to aspire to be right this is what the story is of why men I think love athletics so much most men

aspire to be bigger stronger faster versions of ourselves right that is sort of masculinity defined smarter too it's a very competitive mindset. Women are being taken advantage of here. There's no woman who becomes a man and then the next year gets voted man of the year. That doesn't happen. It happens all the time with women. So I think it's going to take a lot of moms, a lot of people who are listening to you right now in the suburbs who are going to be up early this morning

driving their daughters to go to compete in women's swimming. And then they're going to say, and I give credit to Riley Gaines, who now works with us at Outkick. Now they're going to say, wait a minute, when you get to be 20 and you're competing for a championship after 15 years of working as hard as you can, a six foot four dude who still has a cock and balls is going to be changing in the locker room with you and putting on a swimsuit and beating your uh and and beating your daughter in women's sports and you're going to nominate as the ivy league did megan that guy for women's athlete of the year and they're going to put a hagiography on espn and your kid's going to be sitting down eating breakfast to start the day

and they're going to hear oh the best women's athlete of the year is a fucking dude with a dick and with balls. I mean, I'm sorry. You know, you mentioned that guy. No, here's the answer. Stand by. Here's the answer to that. It's a no. It's a hard no. Hard no. Yeah, that's the answer. It's a hard no, Clay. Even just listening to you do that, the diatribe, my blood was no. Yeah, that's the answer. It's a hard no, Clay. Even just listening to you do that, my blood was boiling. I could feel the water rising in my neck. It's infuriating. And I feel like I'm the only person in sports who even says it. And I look around and it's like my head is exploding. And that's why we're going and know, going and hiring people. I mean, ESPN is out there saying that Leah Thomas is a woman of the year. And again, I just would say, women,

think about it. Men don't stand for this. And your willingness to be open, your willingness to be embracing, I'm not saying I don't have any issue at all. Somebody who's an adult. And again, I say an adult because I think it's a big difference between giving kids these treatments. But if you're an adult and you decide that you want to identify as a different sex, I'm fine with it. Whatever. If it makes you happier. But also, Megan, and this is in the book, I spend a lot of time on this. I think we have to start calling out not only the trans thing in sports, but also you can't be transracial. Like if I came on this morning and I was like, hey, Megan, I've decided to be a Filipino woman today. People would say, oh, it's brave of Clay to be a woman, but he can't be Filipino.

That's racist. Well, hold on. It's way easier to identify as a different race. Look at Sean King. Look at Rachel Dolezal. They pretended to be black. I think Sean King. Those are all the people pretending to be Native Americans. Elizabeth Warren, Pocahontas herself. It's way. She flies a lot. Forget this. She wrote a book. She gave a food recipe to a Native american cookbook that was called pow wow chow megan she got her start

in the practice of law by claiming to be a minority so that she could get a job that she otherwise would not have gotten but people didn't pretend because it's hard to know yeah no that's absolutely right i love all of that. I will say this. It's incredible. I'll say this. I love the way that this group put it. There's this group called ICONS, the Independent Council on Women's Sports, and they've been great on all of this stuff. And they called attention to this man winning the women's tournament, as I just outlined. And here's what they said. So they called it to Martina's attention, to Chris Everett's attention, to USTA's attention and so on. And this is what they wrote, the co-founder of that group, Kim Chasby-Jones. She writes as follows. Women's tennis is turning into a laughingstock because of these terrible policies. Here's where she gets to it.

Prioritizing the mental health and identity of men over women who have discovered a love of tennis. That's if we can just talk about it in real terms, these are men. These are men. And what we're saying when we say that, oh, we have to be inclusive, you know, don't be a bigot. We're saying that the mental health and identity of men is more important than that of women like Riley Gaines or anybody who objects to them coming into our spaces and stealing our sports. And this one's particularly galling to yours truly, because while I'm not a particularly sporty gal, my daughter is. She plays tennis and she plays soccer. These are both her sports that we're talking about right here. And though she's incredibly strong for a 12 year old and athletically talented, she she cannot compete against a man or a boy who is as developed as a 12 year old as she is. Look, this is the way that I would sum it up, and I think that's well said to inclusion at some point becomes exclusion. And that's where we are. Because when you include a man pretending to be a woman,

you are excluding a woman from being able to compete. Look, that Leah Thomas ridiculousness in swimming, not only did his, and I'm just going to say his, championship knock a woman out of being able to win a championship, but Megan, getting to qualify for the NCAA Swimming Championship is a goal that almost every swimmer would have in women's swimming. And I just come back to, we talked to one of the UPenn players, and we covered this, one of the swimmers that was on that team with Leah Thomas.

And I'm paraphrasing her quote, but she said, speaking on what you said, she said, I hope one day when I grow up and I'm paraphrasing her quote, but she said, speaking on what you said, she said, I hope one day when I, when I grow up and I get married, that I have boys because if I have girls right now, there's only one on this team, but eventually they will knock out all women from women's sports. And, and I just think that was so profoundly said, but also so incredibly sad. She's rooting for having boys so that they can be able to go out and compete fairly in athletics.

And for people out there who say this isn't happening, it's amazing how many examples of it happening that is, right? We move from that doesn't actually happen to, well, it may happen a little bit. And we're rapidly moving towards where the Democrat position is going to be. Not only is it happening, it's a good thing. I disagree. We have to draw the line. This is the limit of inclusion where it becomes exclusion for actual women. I know it's infuriating to me. I mean, I'm really not at the point where it's just like, get out, get out, get out of our locker rooms, get out of our bathrooms, get out of our sports, get out of our sororities, get out, get out, get out, get out of our locker rooms, get out of our bathrooms, get out of our sports, get out of our sororities, get out, get out, get out, get back into your lane.

Only a sick, sick man would want into those female facilities. And therefore, the mere desire to do it is grounds for stopping it from happening. Right. Like that's that's that. And you're right, because we've covered Nicole Wallace on MSNBC. We covered Megan Rapinoe a couple of weeks ago, as you point out, saying, where are these men who are taking advantage of women's sports? Where are they? Well, pay attention. Open your eyes. They're everywhere. Every day there's another story. They just refuse to cover it because I guess it's not going to be them. It's not going to be Nicole Wallace out on the field having to deal with this. And now it's not going to be Megan Rapinoe. So yeah, exclusion. It has to be women, I think, to win this battle. Because I can point out the absurdity of it. But Megan, you saying it and so many women out there hearing it, you have to understand that

it's not mean to demand that there be a standard. That's the reason we divide men's and women's sports. If we just had unisex sports, and let's say we only gave one gold medal at the Olympics, women would never win a gold medal, right? And that's not an attack on women's athletes. It's because biology is real. In fact, I flagged this because I knew we were going to be talking about it, Megan, and I thought it was so interesting. You know, women are only 7% on average smaller in terms of height than men. And that makes sense. You sit around, you're like, oh, I know a lot of tall women.

Men have on average 57% more grip strength, 65% more leg strength, 90% more total upper body strength, and 162% more punching power. This doesn't stun anybody who actually has been involved in athletics, but those numbers are staggering because, again, men are only 7% taller on average than women. This is the amount of bigger, stronger, faster that men bring to bear is something that I think a lot of people just really don't contemplate. Because you mentioned tennis earlier.

Do you remember when John McEnroe, there was a huge controversy because he said Serena Williams was the best women's tennis player of all time? And his CNN interviewer said, why wouldn't you say she's the best tennis player of all time? And he was like, well, because she'd be like the 700th best men's player. And that's probably an exaggeration. But again, that doesn't mean Serena Williams is not excellent. It just speaks to how much biology matters in terms of athletic excellence. It's not sexist. There's something in particular about sports that requires physicality

that makes this important in news anchoring, in acting, in science, math. The gender doesn't play a role. The brain is the brain. You can do it or you can't. Right. But in science, math. The gender is doesn't play a role. The brain is the brain. You can do it or you can't. Right. But in athletics, it's different. It's special. Given those natural physical disadvantages that women have, it's not we have some advantages. We have some very special things about us, which men are also trying to co-opt these trans men or fake, fake women, actual men like breastfeeding and giving birth to babies. And they're now talking about womb transplants. Okay. All right. Yeah, sure. That's not going to happen in any event. All right. Let's take a quick break. All fired up this morning. Clay Travis, much more to discuss with him. We'll come back. How do you like to start your day with our F-bombs

and the C and D words? You know what? It's on Monday. We're spicing things up. Stand by. More with Clay right after this. We're here with me today, Clay Travis, founder of Outkick, which I love. I love Outkick. Even as a non-sports person, I love Outkick.com. And author of the new book, American Playbook, a guide to winning back the country from the Democrats. Well, I mean, we could use that guide right now because, you know, I don't know about you, but politics is starting to depress me. It's like Trump is incredibly strong, which, you know, he's obviously the favorite to win the nomination. He's neck and neck with Biden. That New York Times poll showed him tied with Biden, which one would think would default to the Republicans when the actual voting happens, since Republicans tend to under poll a bit. However, by the time we actually get to the voting in November 2024, Trump's going to have probably four indictments around him in the news every day

will be things like Jan 6th, which independents do not want to hear about, do not support, cannot forgive. You know, so the four more years of Joe Biden in this White House, Clay, I I'm not going to say the country can't survive it because that's what lefties talk like. And I mean, I honestly but like I deeply worry for the country. I deeply worry what we're going to do if we have four more years of that man in the White House and his policies. I deeply worry that he wouldn't survive and Kamala Harris would end up president and she would be the most unqualified, just frankly, disaster of a president we've ever seen. And my concern- She would be the Harriet Myers of presidents. Remember how Bush tried to nominate Harriet Myers for the Supreme Court and she was so unqualified he had to withdraw it?

That would be Kamala Harris. My concern is what happens if China invades Taiwan and you have President Kamala Harris trying to decide how to deal with that kind of geopolitical struggle? I just I just I feel like Kamala Harris represents and there's a huge part of the book where I discuss this, the failure of diversity in general. Diversity, in my opinion, is not a strength. Now, diversity of thought is a strength because it strengthens your ability to actually reach the right decision. You practice law, Megan. The luxury that I feel like I have, and I bet you feel like you have, is sometimes you had a client and you're like, man, this is a really big bad side of the case to have. If you're a lawyer, you'll look at it and be like, man, this is a really big, bad side of the case to have. Right. If you're a lawyer, you'll look at it.

I'd a lot rather argue the other side than this one. But you're an advocate. You have to advocate for what you are being paid to advocate for. I feel like so much of what we do is we look at all the facts out there and we just say, OK, I'm going to pick the side of which that I'm going to advocate for and apply my legal training as a result to make a strong argument for why my side is the right one. And I feel like Kamala Harris represents this cosmetic diversity idea that everything needs to be perfectly representative of the United States. In fact, there's an excerpt up on today on Fox News dot com making this argument. You know, Megan, the men's basketball team's 12 black guys. That's not remotely diverse relative to the United States population. Right. Only 6 percent or so of the United States population is black men. But those 12 black guys happen to be the best 12 players in all of America, right? If we said they need to perfectly represent America and we wanted them all to be men,

we'd have to fire like 10 black guys. We'd have to put white guys, Hispanic guys, and Asian guys on the U.S. men's basketball team, and we'd be a lot worse. But it would be perfectly representative of the nation's racial diversity. I don't want that. I want the meritocracy, right? Kamala Harris is, to me, a perfect approximation of cosmetic diversity. She's gotten where she is, not because of her talent, but because of her race and her gender. And she's being exposed because she's been promoted above her talent level, frankly, and her ability to do the job. Roger Ailes used to call it failing upward. That's what she's doing. She's failing. She's not

qualified for these jobs and she certainly isn't qualified to be president of the United States. But the guy who's in there isn't all that that qualified to be president United States. And have you seen now like they've they've embraced by nomics by nomomics. And the New York Times podcast, The Daily, had this celebratory discussion of Bidenomics today, talking about how inflation is going down and how Biden's really owning it now. It's as his economy. And he's really trying to change the narrative on this before November 2024, because it's it's the thing around his neck, right? It's the albatross. Even the New York Times poll last week showed, I think it was 20% of the country feels somewhat good about the about the economy. It's it's the vast, vast majority, some 70% say the economy's

a nightmare. And you know, we think it's poor, we think it's going terribly. And almost I think it's 65% don't believe in the direction of the country right now. So he's trying to change it. And one of the ways in which he's trying to change the narrative is totally political, Clay, is he's now posting this infrastructure project is thanks to President Biden in places like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It's going to be all swing states. Mark my word. They're not going to do that in California, New York. It's going to be all swing states. And you and I are paying for this shit. Why am I paying for the Joe Biden celebratory sign for what? For an infrastructure plan that helped drive up the inflation that I'm now supposed to be giving him credit for helping drive back down a little? Like, how do we get to the inflation to begin with, President Biden?

Why do I have to pay for your damn sign when I can't pay for my milk? That's what most Americans are asking. Yeah. And you asked, you know, I'm incredibly concerned about what's going to happen in 24. And Megan, I think it's your audience that's going to end up deciding this election. Because when I go out with my wife and her friends, there are a lot of people, women in particular, suburban women, moms, they just don't like Trump personally. And what I would say is you have to give up on personal, right? You have to give up on the personal and just look at the policy because Biden's policies are disastrous for your kids and for your community and for your economy.

And I also think a part of this, and Trump may be able to address this better than a lot of Republicans can. Megan, I've heard you talk about this. I think Republicans have to talk data, there are about 10% of the population that says there should be no abortions for rape, incest, life of the mother, that stuff. That's about 10% of the population. Overwhelmingly, that's Republican. There's about 10% of the population that says you should basically be able to have an abortion up to the ninth month. And that is overwhelmingly Democrat. The rest of us, and I'm in this camp, are somewhere in the 80%. We're somewhere in the middle. And I bet almost everybody listening to us is somewhere in that 80%. Republicans need to be able to address this issue. Because I think the overturning of Roe v. Wade has created a huge opportunity that Democrats exploited in 2022

that Republicans haven't addressed. And the idea is that they are selling and it's effective. Hey, if your 14 or 15 year old daughter gets pregnant, Republicans are going to make her have to have that baby. And that is, I think, for a lot of moms out there and dads, but particularly for moms, that is a very resonant fear that Democrats are exploiting. And frankly, I think Republicans are doing a really bad job of addressing it. And I think it may. They're afraid to talk about it. Yeah, they're afraid to talk about it. I think you have to address it. I think you have to take that on. I think that you had there's a piece in the book. It was a chapter three that you said something that

really caught my attention. I was like, I want to I want to talk about this because there's a piece in the book. It was a chapter three that you said something that really caught my attention. I was like, I want to I want to talk about this because there's so much pessimism in the news. And there's and there's, you know, Republicans who are very angry, for example, about what's happening to Trump, but really just what's happening to the country. You know, forget Trump for a minute. It's wrong what's happening to him, but it's really wrong what's happening to the rest of us. And you write as follows. And you got to explain this because you were writing about how you used to be a Democrat, but the craziness that some of which we've been discussing pushed you more to the right. I can relate to that. I mean, it's been

a long time since I was a registered Democrat. I've been a registered independent for some 20 years, but I've also been pushed to the right by the ground shifting beneath me. I didn't move. The ground moved. But you say as follows. I believe America is poised to reject the left wing woke overreach of our modern era, just like happened in the 1960s. I believe we are set to rebound with an America is awesome era beginning with the 2024 election. I believe that era will extend all the way into the 2050s and may well extend through the rest of my own lifetime. Sing it, Clay Travis. Why? Tell us why. I'm an optimist and I'm a history nerd. My wife likes to make fun of me because I went to Civil War history sleepaway camp when I was in high school.

I can't believe that I married somebody who went to Civil War history sleepaway camp. That's amazing. And so I'm a huge history nerd. And if you look at history, it doesn't really repeat itself, but it often rhymes. And so I'll use an example that I used in this book. Top Gun Maverick came out last year, Megan, and it absolutely dominated. It destroyed at the box office. And I believe that there is a huge segment of Americans that grew up in the 80s, that grew up in the 90s, that grew up in the early 2000s, and they want that America back. And I feel fortunate that I grew up in that era because what did you tend to do? You tended to be fairly happy. You were optimistic. And even if you disagreed with somebody politically,

you could go have a beer with them. You could interact with And even if you disagreed with somebody politically, you could go have a beer with them. You could interact with them. There wasn't this idea of good and evil. And I think that what we are going to see is out of the tumult of the 1960s, you ended up, so let me give you my historical analogy here. Out of the tumult of the 60s, you went to Richard Nixon. Nixon basically sold, hey, I'm going to make America normal again in some way. And then he got removed for Watergate. Jimmy Carter got elected. I really think that Joe Biden is Jimmy Carter. And instead of Watergate, COVID was the reason that Joe Biden got elected, because Democrats managed to terrify enough people out there

that their kids were going to die, that there was going to be some massive, significant impact. And what happened after that? Reagan. And then Clinton, who was in many ways a Reagan-like figure, led from the middle. Even Barack Obama 2008, Megan. If you look at Barack Obama 2008, it's basically a Republican campaign. It's America's so awesome that me, a single child of a mixed race family can rise to be president of the United States. I think that's what's going to happen next. We're going to have a Reagan and he's going to lead us back to the era that we all grew up in. Oh, my God. Sounds so nice. I'm just going to marinate Matt for the next day or so. And you can marinate in it, too, if you buy and support Clay Travis by

buying his book. Clay, so great to see you. The new book is out tomorrow. It's called American Playbook, a guide to winning back the country from the Democrats. Thank you, my friend. See you soon. Appreciate it. Keep up the good work, Megan. You as well. And we'll be right back with Dana Lash. Looking forward to talking to her, too. Don't forget, folks, you can find The Megyn Kelly Show live on Sirius XM Triumph Channel, 111, every weekday at noon east. Full video show by subscribing to our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Megyn Kelly. And you can get clips there as well. Love the clips. We'll be right back. You are not going to believe what is going on in California right now with respect to crime. We're going to get into it with the host of The Dana Show, Dana Lash,

who's up to speed on all things involving your personal safety. Dana, it's great to have you back on the show. How are you doing? Good. I'm doing well. Good to see you. Thanks for having me back. Oh, it's great. It's great to see you. So you this is unbelievable to me. So we last week we we did a story on Oakland, California, and that the right the rising in crime out there, just a rash of crimes from carjackings to I mean, you name it, and they're dealing with it right now to the point where the NAACP, they came on the show to speak out, saying defund the police was a mistake. Soft on crime prosecutors are a mistake. Black and brown people are getting killed and hurt at exponential rates. Something must be done and calling on everybody in the community to speak out about all of this. Well, about 72 miles east northeast of Oakland,

California, where this is happening is Stockton, California. And Stockton, California has the distinguished honor of being one of the top 10 crime ridden cities in America. And that's a I mean, that's a distinguished list right now, Dana, because there's a lot of competition for it. As you know, Stockton, California is not doing that well. And what happened? I'm sure you covered this on your show last week when a couple of thugs went in to rob a 7-Eleven for the third time in recent days. They were robbing it. They were taking all the stuff off the shelves. And finally, the clerk said, I've had about enough of this. And he took out a stick and started beating the robber, called the cops, got the cops there. They were there belatedly. The guy was dealing with it on his own, unfortunately.

In a videotape that we showed our audience. Do we have it now? Let's show them the original incident. That now, as you watch this, understand now, of course, the clerk is in trouble with the law. Watch this. Showing the guy stealing. He was telling the clerk there's nothing you can do. There you go. The clerk comes over with some sort of a stick. Starts beating the guy.

Which most normal Americans are totally fine with. Dana, the guy was fine. He was hurt a little. His leg and his arm. But he was asking for Dana, the guy was fine. He was hurt a little, his like leg and his arm, but he was asking for a soda when it was done. I mean, it was not like this is, this is not a, the guy got, you know, killed situation. The one guy, the one clerk tried to wrestle him down, you know, just with his hands and he was struggling and he wasn't submitting. And then the other clerk comes in with the, with the, what, I don't know what that was was some sort of a stick. And now is if on cue, the Stockton cops are investigating, yes, the robbery suspect for robbing, but also the assault, quoting here, of the robbery suspect by the two

workers. They actually might put those two workers in jail. They deserve a medal. What do you make of it? I think that the people who are considering jailing the workers who came in to stop this guy, they ought to be thrown in jail. I love that this guy came in with this epic melee attack. It looked like a push-broom stick.

One of the hazards, Megan, of being a burglar is that you F-A-F-O. And everybody knows, you know, you mess around. You could probably find out. And it looks like they found out. That guy should be, I mean, get him into MMA. My gosh.

I mean, I'm sure that they could find him some sponsors. I mean, that was pretty epic. He went in and handled it. And I got to say, that's an, I mean, I know some people, you know, bleeding hearts, whatever. They're like, oh, that's an assault. That was so mean what he did. But honestly, like some of us who grew up like in southern Missouri, we got like whoopings that were worse than that from our grandmas if we messed up. So, I mean, I feel to see where the problem is here. And so here's the thing. This guy deserves a key to the city. These two guys who stopped him,

they had been robbed by this man now, according to KCRA reporting, at least two other times within the same 24-hour period. The same guy. They are reporting that the day before at 3.41 a.m., which of course is like a sketchy time for these poor workers in the 7-Eleven. You got to worry somebody coming in there at 3.41 a.m. who's up to no good, who's threatening you might come back, right? So that's what happened. So the 7-Eleven worker the day before reported this suspect going behind the counter and threatening to shoot the clerk if he intervened in his robbery attempt. The suspect then took several packs of cigarettes and a large garbage bag before fleeing. Then the next day at 1227 a.m., a 7-Eleven worker, same place, reported the suspect demanding

money at the store while suggesting that he had a handgun. When the worker didn't comply, the suspect grabbed the items, put in a garbage bag before leaving. At some point later in the morning, the man's believed to have returned to the store. And that's when the beating captured in the viral video took place. So this is and they described his his medical injuries as a result of the beat down his pain in his leg and shoulder pain in his leg and shoulder. This guy. So three times in 24 hours, he comes in there. He threatens them. He suggests he has a gun. He says he's going to shoot them if they intervene. And then finally, on the third time, they try to stop and do what the police have not done. And now now the police are interested,

Dana. Now they're super interested. They should have been super interested the first time the guys came in there and were robbing the place or the second time the guys came in there or the third time the guys came in there. Or maybe the store owners could have been concerned the first time because they, you know, they reviewed the CCTV footage. I'm not, I'm not an attorney, but I just feel like Megan, there's maybe grounds for a countersuit for these staff members because clearly they're working in a very unsafe and hostile environment and there's no protection afforded to them by the owners of this convenience store. So, you know, their their safety and security is just supposed to be at the discretion

of, you know, maybe if police decide to show up and enforce the law or if the store owner decide to allow them the means of self-defense. I mean, I feel bad for these people because, I mean, they're business owners, too. A lot of these a lot of these entities, you know, they're franchisees. And I feel bad for a lot of these staffers. They work the graveyard shift. That doesn't mean that they should be any less protected. But I just got to go back for a minute. Because, I mean, that was a pretty stellar beatdown.

And I like to see criminals get theirs. Because when you stick it to a criminal, when you stick it to a bully, they kind of stop bullying. They kind of, you know, maybe learn their lesson. Maybe this place will get robbed less if they think that there's going to be pushback. I mean, the brains and act going there. And the guy was making a mess, just like shoving this stuff from the shelves into this bucket. And he didn't even care what he was getting. He was just making a mess. Just he was just doing it to do it. Maybe he'd already suggested that he was armed. Right. And so these two guys got to worry

that potentially their lives are in danger. Meanwhile, the guy, the guy, when he was on the ground was definitely kicking and moving. He was fine, but he was not subdued. So these two now having confronted him really have to worry. Look, I have absolutely no problem with what they did. Most Americans have absolutely no problem with what they did. But this reminds me of the Daniel Penny situation, you know, in New York with the subway rider who, you know, he was the guy was down there threatening everybody. And then thank God he was subdued. Now, in that case, he died. But that that good Samaritan is now facing criminal charges as well. Which is also a crazy story because that, I mean, that individual, the whole thing that came out about Reddit having a threat on this guy was true. I mean, apparently for years, people were aware of that. Michael Jackson impersonator. Propensity. Yeah. His propensity for violence. And they're like, oh, he's not just some Michael

Jackson impersonator. He gave that up years ago. And they were other Redditors were warning each other about, you know, this guy could pop off on this platform. So just kind of be aware of your surroundings. But Megan, you bring up something interesting here, because it's really about the idea of self-defense being considered bad. Now, it's apparently virtuous to make yourself more acceptable to victims or more or more acceptable to attackers. It's apparently more virtuous to be a victim than it is to defend yourself, because apparently you may hurt the victim's feelings or they may have pains in their legs if you kick them back or something to that effect. But this is this they're trying to I feel like this restorative justice movement has been trying

to mainstream this concept for some time. And that's a very dangerous thing when you cause people who have this in their gut feeling that their safety and security is under threat and maybe they should do something or maybe, you know, when you cause people to second guess what they're seeing and what they're feeling and make themselves more vulnerable to attack, that's a really dangerous thing, especially when you're not providing greater security or protection by way of enforcement, because restorative justice also, I mean, really goes after an attacks enforcement of existing law. So it's self-defense that's under attack here. And it's trying to shame people out of defending themselves. This goes back to the McCluskeys in St. Louis who had, I mean, granted

horrible trigger discipline. And one of them didn't even have an off firearm, but they were on their private property. I used to live blocks away from that exact neighborhood. That's private property. People broke a fence and trespass. That was their private property. They take care of their sewer. They take it. They literally have to pour the concrete for their own sidewalk. It's a weird area, but that's all their land. And so when you have people who are like busting down your property or the fence, getting it onto your property, trespassing, yelling threats, et cetera. I mean, yeah, you have every right to, you know, to fear for your life, especially seeing the rights that took place days earlier. But the point is that they were shamed and attacked for merely defending themselves on their own property. The way that

Daniel Penny was attacked for defending himself and other passengers. Nobody took into account, Megan, the passengers who came forward and said, yeah, we were terrified. This guy said he was going to kill us. And now we have this situation with these convenience store workers. This is a trend in America, this restorative justice that's trying to mainstream this denial of self-defense. And this has got to stop because it creates more victims and it powers the criminals. And the criminals keep getting out. Yeah, that's exactly right. So this the subways, by the way, have not gotten any better. This went viral over the weekend where there was an Asian family on the New York City subway. I think it was two adults

and two kids sitting there. And these and I should point out for the listening audience in that 7-Eleven video, the robber was black and the two guys who took him down were Sikh. And so, I mean, it's just a matter of time before Black Lives Matter gets involved and says this is like a potential George Floyd situation. Yeah, right. So so what happened on the New York City subway, which I mean, I want you to look at this video. You tell me what would have happened if the if the ones who are bullying and threatening were white and the ones being targeted were black. What actually happened was the ones being targeted were Asian and the ones bullying them and harassing them were three young black girls.

And then another person on the subway took the video and post it. And it was reposted by an Asian woman who's running for Congress as a Republican in New York. But the subways have gotten no better. And this is what you're subjected to if you go down there and no one cares. The media has zero interest in this. It went viral on Twitter from conservatives, but the media has no interest in this. Notwithstanding its minorities being bullied, I believe because of the race of the people bullying them and threatening to assault them and harass them. So here's what happened. Okay. Now you have to watch the longer video because in the longer video,

those three girls notice that there's a woman down the train who's videotaping them and they come over and appear to beat the hell out of her. The woman with the video camera. They don't want, oh, you don't want your crime documented? Try not committing one. And now the police, thankfully, they have an APB out for these girls who are harassing this family with a young kid. You could see what looked like a daughter, just young, screaming at them, threatening them and then allegedly assaulting the person taking the videotape. But this is life in America. It will get no, no time at all on CNN or MSNBC. You know, I believe for the reasons I stated. Yeah. And I think also, too, Megan, there's this people like to be Internet famous for fights. I mean, they like to be Internet famous for acting like hard asses, especially youth in America,

which is sad. But the sad, sadder thing is, is that sometimes maybe one day they step up to somebody who's like Daniel Penny. See, that's the thing. When people push back, when they mess with the wrong person, when they when they scare the wrong passengers and people actually push back, then suddenly the antagonists turn into the victims. And then you get all the you know, you get all of these activists involved and you have PR companies that get involved, like in the situation of the penny case. But that's again, that's a consequence of pulling stuff like this in public places and threatening people. And the sad thing is, you know, I mean, there's all consequence of pulling stuff like this in public places and threatening people. And the sad thing is, you know, I mean, there's all of these like what is it that I think it was maybe the New Jersey.

Was it the New Jersey mayor? There was a mayor. I think it's on the East Coast that got upset. No, Chicago's Chicago's new mayor, Megan, who got upset last weekend because after a mob of and they were young adults, they weren't all teenagers. I mean, when you're 22 years old, you're an adult. You're not a teenager anymore. And they were busting into stores and having riots and all this other stuff. And someone asked this mayor a question and phrased it as, oh, well, this was a mob. And the mayor took offense at the word mob that was used, even though it was legally. Wait, stand by, stand by. Well, we have that.

Let's play it. And then you take it in the back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not aware of some of these large gatherings. No, that's that's that's that's that's not appropriate. We're not talking about mob actions. I didn't say that respectfully. These large gatherings, these large gatherings. Just hold on a second, you know, promise you, we have time to talk. It's important that we speak of these dynamics in an appropriate way.

This is not to obfuscate what is actually taking place. But we have to be very careful when we use language to describe certain behavior. There's history in this city. I mean, to refer to children as like baby Al Capones is not appropriate. Oh, it was a mob. It was legally accurate. I mean, it was a large gathering, Dana. It was Thanksgiving in the South Loop.

Yeah. When you have get togethers, Megan, do you do you refer to them as that's like calling them mobs? Like you had a mob of people over your house. I mean, this is so insane to say, well, it was a large gathering. It was a mob act. It was a bunch of people, whether they got together and then committed crimes as a huge group of people or whether it was organized and they decided to come together as a huge group of people to commit crimes.

Regardless, it's irrelevant. It was a mob of people who decided to commit crimes while in a mob. I Regardless, it's irrelevant. It was a mob of people who decided to commit crimes while in a mob. I mean, that's it. To sit here and say, well, you're talking about baby Al Capone. A 20-year-old's not a baby Al Capone. A 20-year-old's a grown-ass individual who also can stand for the consequences of their criminal behavior. And that's what these individuals chose. And for this mayor to get up there, what he should have said, Megan, is that, you know what? Look, if you're 20 years old and you're out doing this stuff, you need a job.

You need a J-O-B. Go and get a job. If you're a teenager and you're out doing this kind of stuff, you need your ass beat. You need your mom and dad involved in your life raising you so that you know better than to go out on the street and raise hell. That's what this mayor should have been saying. That's a message that parents that everyone would have understood. And instead he does this and then they act shocked, Megan, that crime continues because he enables it. They're enablers. Yeah. Instead, he wants to police the language of the reporter referring to the people causing the chaos as the mob of people. Oh, no, this is important.

This is this is the far left guy who replaced Lori Lightfoot when these crazy people in Chicago had the chance to get a more moderate person in there, not somebody in the far left. They went further to the left. And this is what you have. You have mob violence. And the new mayor wants to argue over the language used to describe it as opposed to what actually happened on the subject of the media blacking out the things they don't like. Right. Whether it's, you know, black on Asian crime in the subway or the word mob, I guess that's something we need to worry about. Memphis, this you and I have talked how many times over the past 15 years about school shootings and other mass shootings. There's no bigger expert on guns in America than you. And now, if you would be hard pressed to find the story of the Memphis school and what what didn't happen the other day because it doesn't work with the media's narrative. In fact, they don't think that fortification of schools to protect children is a good idea at all. They get upset when you talk about fortifying the schools. They think you're off point and that that's sort of ignoring the actual problem, notwithstanding the fact that we have 400 million guns in America. They somehow

think we're going to get rid of them all. So why don't you tell us what happened in Memphis? Because I know you've been covering it. Oh, yeah, Megan, this story is a story of a school that turned itself into a hardened entity, which is, you know, you were talking about how there's a lot of criticism from the left about this because they say, well, you're turning the facility into a prison. You're making schools like prisons. But when you go to a concert or you go to a ball game, I mean, it doesn't feel like you're in a prison and they have great security. I mean, they have multi layers of security. And that's what this school, this Jewish school in Memphis had, Megan. They had multiple layers of security, including the locked door system where you could go into one set of doors, but you're sort of locked in this vestibule area unless someone buzzes you in through a second set of doors. They had their CCTV. They had everything. And so what ended up happening, and there's a lot more to this story that the media immediately ran away from, is this individual, I think it was a 33-year-old individual,

showed up at the school, had a handgun, had it out, pulled up in a red pickup truck, showed up at the school, entered into that vestibule area, and then couldn't get into the rest of that, couldn't get into the school because they had the door locking system. So thick glass, et cetera. So as far as he could get was in this foyer, this entrance area. When he realized he couldn't get in any further, he decided to leave. He fled. He got back into his pickup truck. But at this time, school officials were watching through their CCTV. They were watching. They got the image of the guy's truck. They got his license plate.

They got his image. They immediately contacted police who I think no fewer than three miles away from the school. Police engaged this individual and he immediately got out of his pickup truck, brandishing his handgun and cops shot and shot him. And he was in critical condition in an area hospital. So this is where, Megan, the story gets even weirder, because thankfully this school was locked down. They were aware. Also, thankfully, it was summer. Kids aren't back yet. There were some faculty present on the premises, but not everyone was back.

But this individual was apparently a former student of the school. And then more of the story came out. His classmates started speaking out. He has a history of the school. And then the more of the story came out, his classmates started speaking out. He has a history of mental illness. And also 20 years ago, he had previously seen his father be his father was killed by Memphis police because his mother had called 9-1-1 20 years ago. The dad who also had mental illness issues had had a gun, was brandishing it, putting it to his head. The mother was upset. She called 9-1-1, told police what was happening, said that he had a gun. When police showed up, he was waving the gun around and police shot and killed him. And apparently the son saw that. And it's horrifically tragic.

But at the same time, it kind of speaks to maybe whether or not there was a motive or what else was at play with this. But there's always a bigger issue that the media immediately wants to discount. The moment that there is something that invalidates the narrative, whether it's the race or the ethnicity or the beliefs or the political affiliation of the suspect involved. The media runs the other way. In this case, a couple of different instances. I mean, you had clearly what looks like it could be a very well-defined motive. But also, additionally, you have this hardened school. This is what we've been talking about with schools for the past decade. Make sure that you at least have a locking door. Parkland, the fence was open, the door was open. And Megan, at that school, this was even after a retired

Secret Service agent went in because they had a child at that school. They walked through the school, Megan, with a stack of Post-it notes in an experiment to show the staff and the administrators at the school how dangerous it was that their school wasn't secure. And they walked through the hallway for a good couple of minutes and they put post-it notes on the back of every student they could touch. And then they went into the administrator's office and said, that's how many kids that could have been killed in a shooting because your school's not locked down. This happened months before the massacre at Parkland actually took place. Media never wanted to talk about that.

The Stoneman Douglas, the parental and the security council that came together in the wake of that tragedy, they discussed it. Media wouldn't have anything to do with it. They kept with the narrative, Megan, that it was turning schools into prisons. Sometimes all it takes is a locked door or an aware staff member who's like, why is someone who is not a member of the school coming in with a giant duffel bag? Why is someone in the parking lot surveying the school? And then an immediate reach out and touch someone, let them know that you're watching them and you're not afraid to go up and engage.

And with this individual, he met that locked door and he fled because it seems like he realized that that school was onto him and that he, you know, he was immediately thwarted. He was probably going to be arrested. He was, I don't know if he was a prohibited possessor. Nobody knows how he has his gun. Those are things media never wants to find out. But thankfully, this was an instance of cops reacting really fast, school officials being aware and a tragedy that didn't happen. Wow. I did not know that story about the ex-secret service guy or gal going through Stoneman Douglas High School before the shooting and doing that. That's chilling. It is a good reminder, though, for parents, just

ask. Ask your kids' school, ask the administrators what fortification they have. What are the security measures to stop a lunatic from getting in? Because we cannot get rid of, even if we could get rid of all the guns, we cannot get rid of all the crazy people. And so like, there has to be a way of keeping them out. When we went and we, when we moved to Texas, and my kids were homeschooled, and we transitioned them to a Christian school, and I was interviewing, I was taught, I was interviewing the school, they weren't interviewing us. I was like, okay, I'm going to sit down, let's talk to you. And one of the first questions I asked after their curriculum was, what are your, what security measures do you have in place?

I see your double locking door, but I want to know what else. And the principal looked at me and he goes, well, I built my own AR-15 and it was apparently in a locked thing in his desk. And he had special allowance to be able to carry. And he does all this training and everything. And I thought, OK, can I come to this school, too? Because I also do this school here. It's amazing. God bless Tech.

That's hilarious. You and Chris must have been doing high fives when you when you walked out of that one. Oh, that was so yeah. We're like, we love this school now. We want to be here. It was great. Oh, that's a great call. All right. So now the subject of weapons, it doesn't have to be a gun. It can be a dog. As it turns out, let's go to the White House where apparently there is a killer dog protecting Joe Biden, and it continues biting, speaking of Secret Service, Secret Service personnel. Joe Biden just sounds like a douchebag here. I'm sorry, but this sounds like a really shitty thing to do to the guys and women who are paid to protect you, which is to leave them constantly exposed to a German shepherd who's a biter.

And it's not like getting bitten by, you know, a little chihuahua, which also is unpleasant. A German shepherd could really hurt you. So this is Commander, the Biden family German shepherd. And finally, Politico did a good article on it, I have to say. And their headline was, don't blame the dog, blame Joe Biden. So good for Politico for covering this because not a lot of people have. They write about how the dog has bitten. What is it? Seven people trying to get my number here, saying that there was one agent who for 10 seconds was attacked by the dog. He was left bruised and bleeding, but not in need of further medical attention.

That agent was actually lucky because there is a 196 page trove of internal communications that they obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Judicial Watch got them, revealing a slew of incidents where members of the agency assigned to take a bullet for the president wind up taking a German shepherd's teeth instead. Quoting here from Politico in November, a uniformed division officer was transported to the hospital after Commander Unleashed bounded down a flight of stairs and charged. One of the White House ushers warned the officer not to get back up too late. He did. He was bitten twice, once on the tricep, once on the leg, needed to use a nearby steel cart as a shield against further attack. The dog was trying to kill him. Not the first family's first round of bad dog news. They had another German shepherd named Champ, who, after a long separate string of biting incidents, had to go. Then Commander came on scene and they talk about how.

OK, here's here's as follows. What's Mark? What's remarkable about the incidents of the dog at the White House is how the same set of facts with a different political figure might have led to an entirely different sort of coverage and perhaps to a story that didn't just pop up and then disappear during a summer news cycle. Consider the most powerful family in the country appeared to sit by as their dog repeatedly menaced scores of anonymous people who work for them. The dog lives in the executive mansion with the custodial staff who come with it. He has access to all sorts of training regiments and presumably the doors with pet proof latches. And yet with it. He has access to all sorts of training regiments and presumably to doors with pet-proof latches. And yet a frightened Secret Service agent had to wield a chair like a lion tamer

to protect against another bite. And then Politico says, can you imagine if this dog had belonged to, say, Nancy Reagan? The Marie Antoinette narrative would have written itself. Fair point. Yeah, I can only imagine imagine if that had been a Republican dog, Megan, owned by a Republican president. My first thought when I because this is like I think they're yeah, their second German shepherd that they've had issues with and they've

they've they had to send that one. They said a family farm, which makes me wonder what that means. But my first thought was, well, when you look at the kids, did you expect anything different with the dogs? That was my first thought. Maybe the nicest, but it's true. It's factual. But that was, you know, I mean, you saw what their kids were like. I'm just surprised that the dog doesn't have like hookers and blow all over in the White House the way that, you know, a hunter fighting. That's kind of it. I mean, this is it's german shepherd that i i guess i don't know who they have train it it seems irresponsible like i love dogs but what i hate are irresponsible dog owners and he doesn't get a pass because he's president of the united states i mean if anything

he should have a higher bar that he rises to a higher bar he's got trained killers protecting him he doesn't need killer dogs you don't need a dog to do it. And they and they also have trained canine. They have canine that they work with that do all of this anyway. They don't need German shepherds to act as some like security avatar for Joe Biden and Jill Biden. They don't need that. So it just seems like it's it's excessive. And it's it also puts Secret Service in, you know, obviously dangerous positions. But why? It's just more chaos to the already chaotic White House. You know what this also reminds me of? So National Lampoon's Christmas vacation. And it's the it's the Quaid brother, Cousin Eddie, when he's got his dog under the table and he's just yeah, he's just choking on a bone, Clark.

It's all right. Or he probably just got in the trash. I mean, that's like the same vibe here. I just think it's the white trash family that's in the White House and they got their dogs that they cannot keep trained, that doesn't listen to commands, that goes off and just rains hell all over the White House premises. I mean, it's just more unnecessary chaos from this family. Why do they have to keep having chaos for no reason at all? They keep giving themselves problems. It's ridiculous. And I also I love dogs. I really feel like that dog would just do a lot better with a different owner. Of course, because obviously the dog is aggressive and probably shouldn't be placed around a family in which you're going to see a lot of armed personnel coming in and out and there could be threats and so on. Like that's that's not a

good place for that dog commander. He should go command someplace else. But you you raise an interesting point. I mean, it is. Remember when Mitt Romney ran for president, it was a national news story that he put his dog in a crate on the top of his car, which was effed up. It was. That is bizarre. I don't under he's like the dog liked it. Oh, really? I doubt it. Going 70 miles down the highway. Whatever. That was weird. But the media cared. They cared. But like here, the question is, do you care about Secret Service? Do you care that there's an animal involved who's actually hurting Secret Service people who are just doing their jobs, putting their lives on the line? But this is not one of the accepted risks to be bitten by the president's dog. And think about it. If you were this dog owner, if you were Joe Biden, you would do something about it. You would say, I love these guys. These guys are willing to lay down their lives for me. I'm not going to let them live like this. We got to get rid of the dog. I love the dog, but the dog's got to go. And he would recognize to Megan that clearly his dog is stressed out because it's not normal behavior to be that aggressive towards

absolutely everyone and everything. He's, he's not trained for the environment. He's not trained to deal with that many different people. So, I mean, clearly he's not paying attention to the signals that his dog's sending. I mean, the animal's stressed out, the animal needs some help and they're just, oh, well, you know, let's do it. Dog's doing what? No, he, he either needs to be trained and learn how to deal with these situations, let's do what dog's doing. No, he, he either needs to be trained and learn how to deal with these situations, learn how to deal with this. I mean, it's like with horses, you know, you don't take a horse out, you know, on public streets and out in crowds until horses have gone through a lot of training to deal with that because they can be easily

startled. You know, with dogs like German Shepherds, very active, very hyper alert, hyper aware dogs for situations like this, they also need training. So it's actually animal cruelty for them to have let this gone on for this long. And the fact that they just swap the dogs out, Megan, that's the other thing. So the other dog had this exact same problem. Then they swap it out for this dog that also has the same problem. Maybe it's not the dog. Well, you know, that that was a fascinating parallel you drew between because, you know, Joe Biden, of course, has been running on Uncle Joe and what a family man he is and how family is so important. And look, it's not to say that if you have somebody who's addicted to drugs in your family, you're necessarily a bad parent.

A lot of people have dealt with this who are loving. But yeah, that's the thing with the Joe Biden family. He's got like he's got a lot of lot of issues in there. And now it trickles right down to the damn dog. Say again? And the dogs. The nieces and nephews apparently have issues and the brother and the dog, like the whole fam family has issues down to their animals. It's systemic. This is systemic. It's systemic. It kind of is systemic. I stand by my comment. It's a douchebag move to let your killer dog continue biting the men who are charged and women with laying down their lives for you to protect you against actual bad guys. Do better. Be more respectful. Stand by. Dana Lashley is with us. And we have plenty more to but I've been kind of wanting to discuss it, and you're the perfect person to discuss it with. We're both professionals. We're both

happily married. We both have kids. And parenting can pose some tricky problems every once in a while that you really have to stop and pause and figure out how to handle. So let me tell you about the one that we dealt with last week. It's not a big deal. It's just like one of those little moments where you're like, oh, this is a tough one. So we're here at the Jersey Shore, Dana, and we spend our summers here. My husband grew up going here as a kid because he grew up in Philly and this is nearby. And our kids are involved in this, like they take sailing lessons and tennis lessons at this camp they go to. And none of the kids likes the sailing lessons because sailing is scary when you're learning. You know, you can you can get hit in the head with a boom. You can capsize. You know, all sorts of things can go

wrong. The waves are scary. And our little guy, Thatcher, who just turned 10, doesn't enjoy it. But we're making him do it. You know, he has to do it. It's they they're little boats, they're little opti boats, which are, you know, relatively easy to sail. Easy for me to say. I don't know how to sail anything. But in any event, so he he's got to do these. They're called inter clubs where like our club competes against other clubs. And when you go to those, there's tons of boats, tons. So it's the stress level goes up even more. You could easily get hit. Anything could happen. And the day before he was supposed to go to one of these interclubs, there was an incident at our club, a smaller club, where he got hit by his boat, got hit by a bigger boat,

older kids who are not where they were supposed to be and inadvertently rammed into his boat. He was hit in the head with their boom and ejected into the water. He was fine. Thank God. He had a little knot on his head. He got back into the, you know, he didn't get back in the boat. They took him in. But so the night before the big interclub, Dana, he's saying to me, I don't want to do it. I don't want to go to the interclub tomorrow. And I said to him, is this because of what happened today? And he said, no, I just hate the interclubs. I hate them. They're, they're big and they're stressful and I don't want to go. And normally I'd be like, don't go. I mean, this is not, we're not preparing you to be a professional sailor. But earlier that day, the coaches had come to him and said, Thatcher, are you going to go to

the interclub? And he said, yes, I'll do it. So the instructors packed up his boat, which is a hassle, and his sail. And they drove along with the other little Optis. They got the boat there and they were counting on him to represent. And so that changed it. He said he would be there. He told the coaches. They worked on his behalf.

The team was counting on him showing up to represent. And he had been given the chance to bow out and he passed on it. So now I'm in a situation where he's begging me not to make him go. But I really want him to understand that doing what you said you are going to do is important in life. And he's fine. He didn't get a concussion. It's not like it's not safe for him to be out there. But he's crying, Dana. He's my sweet babe. He doesn't want to go. He's like, Mom, don't make me go. So I landed with you don't have to. I'm not going to make you. But you you told everyone you were going to you were going to be there. You need to understand you're letting down your team, you're letting down your coaches, and you're not living up to your word. So I'm not going to make you feel bad. I'm not going to say a word about it if you bail.

But you need to understand in making this decision what the stakes are. And then I went down to my bedroom and I prayed. I prayed that he would make the right decision right because it's like what if he says i'm not going what if he spends the day sitting at home watching tv letting the people down and failing to overcome his fear right like that's those are the stakes it's like these are the moments in which you make a man right like you make a good person anyway he said he would do it thank god my prayers were answered and the story does not end with him going and win winning the interclub he was basically at the middling mark he was halfway in the in the pack fine he did it and truly it was just one of

those moments where you're like it could have gone either way in the moment i didn't know if we were handling it right as parents but now with with retrospect, it feels like it, you know, it landed where it should. But you do you have those moments where like, it's not existential, but you realize there's more riding on it than a stupid game or sporting event or what have you, right? Like the stakes go up for you as a parent and your kid as a developing adult. Yeah, it's a character-building exercise because it might seem inconsequential at the time, but it actually goes into making the fiber of the future man.

And, I mean, we don't have, I mean, in Texas, you know, we're here in Dallas, so we don't really have any sailing. We have late grapevine, but I think there's gators maybe in it. I don't know. That's the rumor. But, no, we have football, so football's the big thing here. And my husband was a jock in all throughout school. I was a jock all throughout school. Our youngest is like, who's going to be a mad scientist. I mean, he's the guy who's, you know, he got scholarships to college for coding and tech and STEM and all this other stuff. But he played sports up until, you know, he was in high school.

And he did football. He committed to football. All his friends were playing football. He played football for two seasons. All his friends were in football. The second season, he wasn't feeling it. He didn't want to do it. He had a growth spurt. And when boys, you know, go through growth spurts, it's awkward,

especially if they're tall and they're lanky and they're trying to, you know, motor skills, they're trying to control their arms and legs. And so he was having a little bit of a tough time. And he did not want to do it. He did not want to go. He did not want to show for football. And they, you know, they, they're, they're, they take very great care with how they play in school, football in school in Texas. And he didn't want to do it, but he had promised, he told the team and we told him, you know, if you commit to this, you're going to show up for every practice in the morning because they practice morning and afternoon. You're going to show up for every practice in

the afternoon. You're going to be at every game. There's not going to be an excuse unless you're vomiting, you got broken bones or you got a fever because there's a difference between hurt and injured. So that's you got to show up and you show up. And he did not want to fulfill his end of the promise. And we told him we're like,, we're, you know, you made this commitment. Feel free. If this is what you want to do, you can go in front of your whole team and your coaches and you can tell them why you're going to be the one kid that lets everybody down, because that's what it is in truth.

So you can go in front of all of them and you can tell all of them yourself because mom and dad are doing it for you. You can tell them why you're going to let them down and why you're going to, why you're not going to uphold your end of the bargain. And he thought about it and he stayed with it. And he wasn't, you know, he's not a great football player. We had no, we were operating under no illusion that he was going to be some great football player, but it was about more than just being a good athlete. It was, and that's, and that's one of the things that I hope people realize about sports and, you know, things that you're of the things that I hope people realize about sports

and things that you're talking about that you're doing is because this is, it's about more than just the athletic skill or the prowess or the brawn or the stature. It is about building that character. You committed to something. And even if it's uncomfortable, even if you don't want to do it,

even if it's hard, even if it seems like everything is against you, you made a commitment and you're going to see it through. And that is one of the characteristics of a great adult. And so kids having gone through that, I think they have their metal tested and they come out stronger on the other end. And it is so hard to watch as parents. It is so terrible. You second guess yourself because, you know, it doesn't help when you got grandmas in your ear going, well, it might seem a little harsh. Maybe let them.

Nope, nope, nope, nope. They got to do it. They got to do it. They got to see it through. And they come out all the better for it. And then when they tackle like serious, seriously big things in their lives, they can rely on that past experience to guide them through the next challenge. And that's what they have to fall back on. So I I've been I've been in that same position and it's hard to watch, but thankfully they make

the right ones. It's so it's like such an interesting challenge parenting, isn't it? It's like you have all these opportunities to just around the edges, change things for them and maybe weigh in on their future. You know, like these are character defining moments. You can't change their natural temperament, I think, but you can certainly give character building lessons and it requires some thought, some, some reflection. You can't phone it in and it does require you to be there. You know, Doug and I were talking about this the other day that there was this one kid who was behaving very badly on the tennis court and just being a bad sport. And the parents were nowhere to be found. And I said to Doug, because he loves tennis. So that's how he likes the fact that all of our kids are into tennis. And it's fun to watch for me.

And I said, what would you have done if that had been Yates, who's our eldest, and he's big time into tennis? And he said, I just would have said, Yates. And he would have looked at me and it would have been a look. I wouldn't have embarrassed him on the court. Just would have been a word, you know, his name and a look. And he would have understood. But that to me spoke to like the importance of being there. You know, you cannot outsource everything to a nanny or, you know, a camp or a coach or whatever, like the actual presence of the actual parent as often as possible matters, you know, because we noticed that we had a nanny when they were little. The nanny won't discipline the kid. And even if she

does, it doesn't mean the same thing as the parent being there registering his or her disapproval. Yeah. Imagine anyone other than the parent going, well, I'm disappointed in you. That's that is my oldest said that is the meanest thing you can say to a child. He's like that because there's no threat of spankings or anything that got me as much as like you or dad looking at me and going, I'm really disappointed in you. He was like, that just makes me stop in my tracks. And that is a power that only parents have because of that presence. And you know that you have that presence in your lives. And I love the look, just saying the name and a look, because there's just this unspoken

thing between parent and child and all the parent has to do. My mom looks like when she would get mad. I was trying to think of the name of that. Sam, the from the Muppets. Okay. So she, when she gets mad, she looks like an Eagle. She looks like the meanest woman on God's green earth. And if I just acted up or did something that was inappropriate or untoward, all she would do is say my name real loud, Dana, and then just give me a look. And then I swear her nose turned into a beak and her eyes narrowed and talons came up and it was just like terrifying. But that's all she had to do. And then I knew that death was probably imminent and I should straighten up, you know, behavior. And our kids are kind of the same way. Like if they were acting up,

which our kids were pretty good. Most of the time they would act up towards each other. But all we would have to do is, you know, give them a look or count to three. I only had to count to, I only got to three once in my life as a mother. We were at a playground and my oldest wanted to do something dangerous. He was trying to climb on this retaining wall and I knew he was going to fall over, crack his head open. It was terrifying. And so, you know, I'd tell him, I'm like, look, I'm going to count to three. And if I get to three, we are leaving and that's it. No more playground for the rest of the week. And he just thought that he was, it was going to be a standoff but we're not playing that game so i got to three packed him up took him kicking and screaming and he like at one point screamed you're not my mom that was a whole other conversation

like he was pulling on every stop but and um then he never got to three again like he knew that i was gonna follow through and you know to that point too megan it's a character building exercise for us as parents too when stuff like this happens, because we got to follow through. Even if we don't want to, we got to. So I didn't play ground because I remember it was a gorgeous day. It was like a beautiful fall day. It was like 70 degrees when we still lived in Missouri. It wasn't humid, which was rare. And I didn't want to leave and go back to the house. I wanted to stay outside, but my kid was not behaving. So we all got punished, but never got to three again. And I mean, I use that literally all the way to three.

You know, you start to start finding fractions you never knew existed. Two and three eighths, two and one and a half. I mean, just getting all the way up. No, he yeah, never ever. I never got past two ever. That was it. And, you know, the other lesson is not to threaten anything you actually can't follow through on, like leaving the park. You can follow. You may not want to, but you can follow through.

One time when our kids were little, Doug, we had a trip to Disney planned and Doug was like, do it right now or no Disney. I was like, oh, we had the tickets purchased. And he was like, oh, my God. He knew immediately when he said it was the wrong thing to say. It was like, please, God, let them do the thing. Let them do the thing. Let them do. I don't remember what it was, but we didn't actually have to follow through on no Disney. Thank God. But, you know, you can get so mad. Of course, it can drive you to the nth degree. So you've got to regulate your personality and your anger. My mom, I don't have a memory of my mom ever yelling at me. She was stern.

She was always the one we were afraid of. But she just kind of did it in a calm manner. I remember being the bratty teenager, like the freaking nightmare. I was mad. I wasn't getting enough money for school clothes. That's what I was upset about, Dana. I wanted more. And it's embarrassing, but I was yelling at her and we, it turned into this argument where she was just like, no. And I was like, but you know, we, I, this isn't enough. I can get nothing. I need new looks. And she was like, the answer is still no. And I said to her, I hate you. And she said to me, Megan, you are my daughter and I will always love you,

but I don't like you very much right now. I'm like, you are cool as a cucumber lady. How? I hope to emulate her someday. I'm not there yet. Oh, one time, I think one of the worst things I ever did, uh, I was in eighth grade and I wanted to get my ear pierced up in the, up in the corner in the cartilage. I wanted to do it so bad. And I wanted to go to the mall. Remember that my kids don't know this back in the month. We used to do fun things. They go to the mall and our kids are like, what? Uh, and they had like, you, uh, one of the little pagodas in the middle where you could go and you could get your ear pierced. And I was like, I want to go and do that. My mom's like, no, that's unnecessary. You don't need to do it. I'll find I'll do it myself. So my cousin and I, we were

in my bedroom and I'm like, I'm going to pierce my own ear and she's just going to have to deal with it. So I did it. It hurt. It was horrible. And my ear was all red and I was putting a sporn on it. And she I hid my hair. I was. I was covering my face so she couldn't see it. And then she finally realized what was up because you can't fool your mother forever. And I thought, she's going to rip my hair off and beat me with it. Something's going to happen.

And she looked right in my face. And she goes, if you ever do anything like this again, I'll rip it out myself. And then that was it. That was all she said. And I'm like, oh. So I never did anything else again like that because it scared me. I'm like, she really will rip it out. I have turned into an equal. No doubt in my mind. now she denies it now she's like that that never happened so i actually had my brother call in for a phoner and we can we indicted my mother and she was totally convicted i mean she definitely

spanked us she used to do the old where like you had the one hand up here and she would use her other hand to spank your bottom and you're trying to cover the bottom with right yeah i know it's the 70s it was just a different kind of standard I know. Actually, she was quite talented. But for the most part, I just remember even keel. What did you, did she just use her hand or? I had a wooden spin. It would never hurt, but I was terrified of wooden spins. Yeah, we grew up differently. I mean, people don't understand these kids today. I'm convinced that the reason they need to invent their fake victimization at every turn is because there's no actual victimization going on. Try growing up in the 70s, for God's sake. Yes. I mean, exactly. Yeah. Try growing up like in a time when I mean, you were told like my grandmother, the only other time the only time she ever whooped

me, she had a willow tree that we all killed as grandkids. She had 23 grandkids. And she would be she would say, go cut a switch is what she would tell us and hand us. Go cut a switch because she was, we would have to actually cut our own instrument of discipline. And we were out there looking for the thinnest little, like the one that was, you know, not going to hurt at all. That would look like it was the softest. Yes. And if we came back with something that was too soft and she'd say, go cut another one. I want two want two of them oh my gosh i only ever had to do it once but i have had cousins that had to do it repeatedly and at one point we killed that damn tree because we cut everything off no wonder i mean i'm positive that's what did it i was thinking

you would be like intentionally poisoning the tree after all that like the tree needs to go we got to get rid of this weapon she's gonna have to rely on her hand after this it was different times for sure we turned turned out okay. You know what? We turned out okay. Listen, it's so fun talking to you about just our lives. We never do that. And I was just feeling the need today. It was very good. It's good to catch up and good to talk about fun stuff because heaven knows we got enough serious out there in the world. I know 100%. All right. Well, come on again soon. It's great to see you, my friend. Yes, we'd love to have you on as well. Good to see you. Yeah, anytime. All the

best. And thanks to all of you for joining us today. It was fun, right? Every like, I don't know, sometimes you just there's a bunch of news that we didn't get to, but I don't care. I just was feeling the need to discuss it. Moms, dads, are you out there? Can you relate? Right? I would love to hear about some of your tricky parenting decisions and how you handled it and whether it worked or didn't work in this particular case with that or it worked but it could easily have gone the other way so it's like there's not how do you learn it's just trial and error that's parenthood right and like you're creating damage you're creating character flaws or you're not could go either way email me email me. It's Megan, M-E-G-Y-N

at megankelly.com. We're all in this together because the offspring of my decisions and the offspring of yours are going to take over this world one day. And then we got to make sure we're not effed. Tomorrow, it's National Review Day. Rich Lowry and MBD back on the program. Looking forward to that. We didn't get to any of the Trump indictment news or the latest fights with Jack Smith. We'll get into some of that tomorrow. Stay tuned. See you then.

Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.