Charlie Kirk's Legacy of Compassion, and Kamala and Katie Porter's Inauthenticity, with Jack Posobiec and Ana Kasparian | Ep. 1172

27:55And so, you know, you really just have to vote for us because we're going to get you better economic policies. We're going to get you a bigger social safety net. But it's totally both sides ism. Look at these texts from these losers. None of you has ever heard from before. I mean, your thoughts on that. Yeah, it was. I mean, I mean, I saw that story, I guess, as we were walking into the White House and someone had had sent it over. And I said, well, of course, they timed it perfectly so that it would drop immediately when Charlie's memorial service happened for just that purpose. And also, obviously, to to try to respond to this this insanity out of the attorney general candidate in Virginia and some of the horrifying, violent things that he said specifically.

28:38And by the way, not just over text, but calling this woman and berating her, saying violent things to her. And so it's so obvious. And, you know, nobody's saying that this thing was a, you know, was like an urgent story that needed to get out. No, it was timed directly to try to bracket. It's a typical media strategy. It's also a political strategy known as bracketing, where when you can't defeat your opponent, what you try to do is muddy the waters at least. So there's multiple things going on at the same time. So they released that story so that juxtaposed every time, if you're going on social media yesterday, you'll see here's Erica, here's the widow, here's the tears, here's the friends.

29:20But then also, oh, Republicans bad, Republicans bad. Don't remember, Republicans bad. You have to see it at the same time. And it's so patently obvious and Orwellian that I'm actually surprised that they would try something so cheap. Actually, I blame the last. I'm not surprised that they would try something so cheap. But it's just really sad. It's really sad that we couldn't take one day to be able to say, you know what, let's put down all of the attacks. Let's put down all of it to say this was a good guy and he didn't serve what happened. Yeah, it's so I mean, it's like there is a difference between some loser Republicans who are not in power.

29:58Like somebody at one point ran for office and lost is the most I can see here. And like the chair and vice chair of various states, young Republicans. OK, well, we've never heard of these people. I've been covering Republican politics for 25 years. I've never heard of these people. And they want to pin it around the right's neck as though it's an attorney general candidate who's within a whisker of actually becoming the top law enforcement officer of Virginia. Yeah. And you know what? Fine. OK, so we've seen those texts. Let's see all the young Democrats text messages about Charlie Kirk now, because I saw what all the young Democrats and the public Democrats were saying publicly.

30:40And I saw Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi come out and do the yes, but remember that, you know, the yes, but that's what they said. They said, yes, it's sad that Charlie Kirk died. But and then Barack Obama, who is for all intents and purposes, the leader of the Democrat Party, went on this litany of smears and attacks against Charlie saying, oh, but what about MLK? He said something about MLK. He said something about the Civil Rights Act and wokeness and all the rest. And stop, stop. Don't do the yes, but it's so insidious and it's so poisonous and toxic to our our country. And that's obviously why they're doing it.

31:09They can't stop. So let's go ahead. Let's say we're going to release text messages. Let's release all the text messages from the young Democrats about Charlie Kirk. And let's go back, by the way, to September 10th. And let's see what they were saying in the group chat back then. More than happy to. Yeah, you're so right. Of course, they do smear Charlie in the Politico article. One of these guys we've never heard of, this Junta. Again, I don't know who these people are, but there's some guy named Junta, who sounds like a douchebag, first name Peter, who is, let's see, there's William Hendricks, who's the Kansas Young Republicans vice chair.

31:46And then there's this Peter Junta, who was the chair at the time of that organization. and apparently he said, Junta said, people who did not vote for him to become chair of the Young Republican National Federation needed to go to the gas chamber. Okay, they think that like in some stupid young guy's text chain is the same thing as the Virginia AG, like tripling down, texting he wants to put two bullets in the brain of the Republican House Speaker in Virginia, calling a Republican to say, no, no, I really meant it and his children do and then tripling down with more text saying, this is why I've thought it out.

32:21I really think people need to feel the pain in order to change their political. Like if this guy stood by it repeatedly, these are a bunch of knuckleheads in a stupid text chain behaving badly. I mean, there's something they never wanted to be public, something they weren't really standing by. But wait, I just want to give you this. So they attacked Charlie in the political piece. This Junta, part of his messages read, If your pilot is a she and she looks ten shades darker than someone from Sicily, just end it there. Scream the no, no word. And they they write as follows. Junta's line on this darker skinned pilot, for example, echoes one used by slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year when he said, if I see a black pilot, I'm going to be like, boy, I hope he's qualified.

33:06Kirk was discussing how diversity hiring invites unwholesome thinking. Again, they just pull these snippets, Jack, without giving you the full context of what Charlie was trying to say to start a thoughtful discussion about what these terrible policies are going to make people feel right. Like he doesn't. He was saying openly, I don't want to feel like that. I want to look at every pilot, no matter the skin color and say, I know he's here because he's qualified. He was saying their quotas, which it wasn't Delta, I think it was United, was saying we had to have 50 percent black pilots and female pilots with black people, black men are only six percent black people, only 13 percent of the U.S.

33:44population. Like that's going to be a real tough bar to pass. That was his point. They love to smear him. None of this is an accident. Go ahead. None of this. And I was on that podcast discussion with him where we were having that discussion. That's exactly what we were talking about. We said the only way, just mathematically speaking, the only way that you could ever achieve those numbers is by lowering standards. And by the way, it's in the context of the lowering of standards that we've seen across the board, whether it be in the military where Pete Hegseth is addressing this or in medical fields or in medical schools, et cetera, et cetera.

34:18But to go back to the context of the Virginia candidate versus this group chat, I do think you need to put this in context because the context here is very direct. The bullets are only going in one direction in this country, and we've been seeing it now for two years. Thomas Matthew Crooks was up on that roof in Butler, Pennsylvania. We saw this guy who just was convicted down in West Palm Beach trying to kill President Trump on the golf course. We saw, again, Luigi Maggioni, right, this crazed, you know, just just Marxist anti CEO killer up in New York City. And then we see what happened to Charlie here.

35:00So don't sit there and tell me that the context is anywhere near the same because it's just not. We know there's political violence in this country. We know that people are doing it. We know who's doing it. We know where it's coming from. And I don't care what junk science Reuters wants to cite or they're going to go to some professor out of Rutgers, the guy who's like an Antifa supporter and say, oh, well, he says the violence is all right wing. I say, well, what's this guy? What's he done? Well, he's got this book called the Antifa handbook. And it's so ridiculous to me when I sit there and I say, I can point to off the top of my head, multiple cases where violence was used against my friends, against people I know, against cases.

35:39And they celebrate it, Megan. This is the difference, too. They celebrate it. You just mentioned how in the wake of Charlie's murder, we had prayer vigils. We had people sign up. We had students sign up. 122 ,000 across the country. We've had these tours come out. You did a fantastic job down at Virginia Tech, right? and we had a ton. Glenn Beck was up in Montana. Then we had North Dakota, went back to Utah, got 6 ,000 more. You know what you didn't see? You didn't see violence. You didn't see a single person raised a fist in anger. You didn't see a single person on the right come out and say, I'm going to go do something violent in retaliation for Charlie.

36:13It just didn't happen. I said this to a reporter from The Atlantic the other day who was doing a piece on me or something. I was just like, you know what? You know what? Show me one. Please show me one where you can find it. And by the way, I wouldn't celebrate it if it did happen, but it didn't. It didn't happen because we are not those people. You guys on the other side, you got a real problem and they refuse to address it. I can't help but feel that a large part of it is godlessness. You and I have been talking. I mean, it's actually kind of funny that you and I are friends now because Charlie helped bring us together too.

36:47You and I used to fight on Twitter. We didn't like each other years ago. And then slowly but surely, you know, the environment changed. I was following you on Twitter. I'm like, this guy makes so much sense. You sent me a nice DM about my Twitter one time. Then we got together backstage at a Turning Point event with Charlie right there. That was Charlie. Had a hug and like things change. You know, he helped bring us together too. But my point was simply that, you know, the environment's shifted underneath our feet and they really are shooting our people now. I mean, I've been pointing out to the audience, remembering four Republicans, including Trump, were shot at that Butler rally.

37:24Four MAGA faithful were shot at that rally. Then they tried to shoot Trump again the next month. This guy who just was found guilty down in Florida. And by the way, fired shots at Secret Service. It almost got away with killing Trump at that. I mean, thank God the Secret Service found that guy. So yeah, you're right. It's our people who are in danger. And I think it's godlessness, Jack, because I watched you at Charlie's Memorial with those rosary beads in hand. It was so powerful. You and I have talked privately about the devil and trying to stave him off. And I do think being steeped in faith is a comfort to us.

38:04And I think the fact that so many on the left have lost all connection to it is what's driving some of that madness. That's exactly right. You lose God, or even worse, you hate God, you become resentful at God for creating you, for creating the world, for creating society. And so that resentment breeds envy, it breeds anger, it breeds dissociation, it breeds disaffectedness. And Charlie talked about this all the time. He said, he would said the biggest problem in America right now is disenfranchised young men. And he said, if we can get that question right, and that's, that's economics, that's the, um, the demonization of young men in America, that's, uh, you know, immigration obviously plays a huge role in that housing, all of it.

38:52If you can get that right, you can actually fix so much of the problem in society, because there's no path for a lot of these people. But even if they have a great grades, and by the way, many of the people I just mentioned that who've turned to this violence did have great grades 1500 SATs or a member of the robotics team different things like this and it's that lack of god that lack of humanity that lack of understanding that we're all given certain talents we're all given different talents it makes us different and yes that's totally fine but we can all be united in the fact that we're all from the same country we all have one creator we all have those shared values but if you lose god at the center of all of this.

39:33And that's why I believe that the social reformers and cultural Marxists, what they did in the 1960s, the very first thing they did was they made it, you know, disreputable to cite God in public, disreputable to talk about the Ten Commandments, disreputable to say, oh, you know, I read my favorite, what's your favorite book? The Bible, right? People would laugh. It's not your favorite books, but that's the Bible. Charlie would send me Bible verse every single morning. He would just do this to a bunch of people, whatever he was reading, you know, he just, just text it off before we even, you know, it didn't matter what, you know, hit piece was coming out or what political scheme we were working on.

40:05And not that we had any schemes. I have no idea what you're talking about. I completely deny all of that. And, you know, it would, we would start every day like that. Every single day would start with a verse from scripture and it'd just be whatever he was reading or sometimes, you know, cause I was East coast, he was West coast, you know, I might wake up earlier and, and we would share that back and forth. And that was just at the center. That was just the center of everything that we do. and so to so many people who said i don't understand how you guys can can go on and how come you're you're doing all this and you know are you just are you making it light of it said no no no we're not it's that we know that charlie is with his creator and in fact when we've you know i've gotten the show together and and we have all the guys and myself and tyler and andrew and blake and you know we get there we always leave that that one chair and megan when you came as well you know we left the chair empty and we say we say charlie's on assignment with god he's just on assignment with God and he's going to be on assignment because God has a higher purpose for him.

41:01God always has a purpose for all of us. In this case he's got a different purpose for Charlie and you know it's tough to accept that. It's tough to understand that in some way this is a higher will. This is God's will. I have trouble with it. It's obviously a challenge you know because you sit there and you think you know why you know just one inch to the you know, you know, one inch to the right, God, maybe that would have been enough, but it is what it is. Why didn't Charlie turn his head like Trump did? Why didn't Charlie just turn his head for that? Yeah. And, and honestly, I try, I try really hard not to go down that path because, you know, when you go down that path, you just, it's, it's the, the self-recriminations and the over and over and it's, it's recursive thinking and it's, it's, it's not good.

41:47It's just, it's not good thinking. It's not a good path to be down. The much better path is the one that Charlie always focused on was put God at the center, put God at the center and understand that there is a reason for everything that happens. And even in a case like this, there is a reason. And I remember when, you know, when it happened and people were asking me, you know, could I do media? Could I be out there and sort of just be a face while people are dealing with the arrangements and hospitals and, you know, everything that goes attendant with someone's passing? And I said, you know what?

42:20I could hear this little voice of Charlie in the back of my head that said, Jack, go do it. Go do all of it. That's what I want you to do. And I said, okay. So I just sat, you know, I'm right here in my home studio and I just sat and did media for about 24 hours straight and then hopped a plane. Of course he wanted you to do it. That's Charlie saying, keep going. He would be so proud of you and the way that you've handled yourself in the wake of this terrible tragedy. You've been just perfect, Jack. You've been strong, but you've been honest about your emotions. You've called back to faith many times and reminded us at every turn who Charlie really was.

42:55It was one of the many reasons I wanted to have you on today. The connection to faith, the importance of it, and the leaning in is something that's resonating beyond right now, thanks to him. and my team pulled this clip of Charlie talking about faith. I hadn't seen this one, but I love it. I'm going to play it now. Here it is. I don't go to UT and I'm not the legal age to vote yet. And my parents are divorced. And both of my parents have separate political views. My mom's conservative and my dad's a liberal. And my mom is always kind of pushing me to bring politics into my life. And I was wondering, A, should I care?

43:30And if I should, why? And which parent should I lean more towards? Got it. I see you have a shirt here that says whom shall I send here I am by the way The most important thing is to bring Jesus into your life. Let me just make sure I say that most important thing So the scriptures are very clear about this Christianity has a heavy emphasis on honoring your parents now to contrast that with the prior questioner I don't think she's doing a good job of honoring her parents because she's accusing them of being in a cult even this is very important everybody even if your parents share values and views and a worldview that you do not have you are biblically obligated to honor them which means to spend time with them and to love on them and to go visit them even if they are wearing a black lives matter and in this home that we have no hate and trans lives you still go and spend time with your parents because if you are incapable in this case of honoring your earthly father you will never honor your heavenly father.

44:28And it's very clear in the 10 commandments, and I'll get down to the specific advice in the 10 commandments. It is the only commandment, honor your mother and father so that you may live long in the land of which you are in. It is the only commandment that deals with a promise and your country. You will cease to have a strong country, America, if we do not have kids honoring their parents. Now to your personal advice, find out what you believe and why you believe it. If a parent ever tells you to do something that is sinful or goes against God, that is a violation of what it means to honor them.

45:04It doesn't mean you have to blindly obey them, but you must honor them, which really means to treat them heavily, basically to treat that with a lot of weight. I would instead be close to both of them. It's a very difficult situation. You're going to grow up a lot quicker because of it and come to your own independent political views and let them be known to each appropriate parent. Jack, it's so stunning because Charlie was saying basically to conservatives, no matter how far to the left your parents are, love them, honor them, don't abandon them. Like this is the man, not the caricature that you read in the New York Times.

45:44They keep doubling down. They continue to run hit pieces on him. They cannot get enough bad ink spilled on Charlie. I don't know if it's willful, right? Like they, they know who he was, but they just want to lie about it. Or if it's, if it's fear and they just have to interpret the limited clips they've seen in the most negative way. What are your thoughts? Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's, it is an interesting sense, you know, and I do think about some of the New York times, the newsroom uproar that we saw over the past couple of years where, you know again that they've just been completely beholden in so many of these cases to people who have that particular belief system they're so woke so far left and i mean it sounds cliched so captured that they're not willing to look at the look deeper at these clips look and you saw right there charlie when when someone would come up and and you know i didn't really catch this this person's politics but let's say there's someone on the left charlie would go to them and say i care about you.

46:44I actually care about you personally. And he did, by the way. And he would try to reach out to them and say, what are your personal beliefs? What are your values? What drives you? What do you care about? What are your interests? And so he would sidestep the political, you know, and I know that, you know, the headlines of the clips, you know, Charlie Kirk dunks on or Charlie district, but he wasn't like that. And, you know, maybe, you know, maybe, you know, that's, that's, you know, the algorithm must playing into it a little too much, but it's, it Charlie was not like that. Charlie would say, I care about you as a person.

47:14And yet we may disagree, but hopefully we can come to the same place or at least come to some agreement or clarity on that which we want, which is a better life for ourselves, a better life for our families and a better life for others. And by the way, you don't see that on the conservative side of shunning family members. You don't see that of cutting people off, of ostracizing. That is one, again, it's one direction. It always comes from the left. These are the people who say, we won't show up for Thanksgiving. We won't show up for Christmas. We won't, you know, celebrate birthdays, et cetera, et cetera.

47:45I won't be in the same room as that person. Whereas the conservatives that I know, they'll say, yeah, we'll, we'll just talk about something else. We'll talk about, you know, we'll talk about like, uh, well, I'm, I'm from Philadelphia. So we'll say, we'll talk about the Eagles, you know, whatever. It's not going so well for them so far. I mean, it could be a little bit better, but much better than the Phillies lately. Doug loves the Eagles too. And I just know we've had a lot of shouting. The Giants game was just a little a little. We don't we don't need to talk about that. We don't need to go there.

48:16We had enough upsetting news happen lately. I've got to ask you before you go, because I know that you are working very hard to get the Republican elected in New Jersey in the governor's race, Chittarelli. And he's got a real shot. The Republican has a real shot of taking down this Democrat, this woman named Mikey Sherrill, in part because she's not that compelling, but also because she's got this scandal around her. From her time at the U.S. Naval Academy, there was a cheating scandal the year that she graduated. And we're now seeing her excuses start to change about why she personally was not allowed to walk in the graduation.

48:55Now, earlier, she said, I knew people who were implicated in it, and I didn't come forward with the information. That's why I didn't walk. But now just on October 8th, she said, this is the reason she didn't walk. Sat 41. There were hundreds of people in my class that spoke to investigators. When I did, I told them what I knew. So now it's, I spoke to the investigators and I told them what I knew. So which is it? And why do you think she's running so tightly with a Republican in a very blue state? Well, look, I mean, this is because the Democrat policies are just so completely abhorrent in New Jersey.

49:37You look at her, she's got that she lied about her insider training, the$7 million that she raised while a member of Congress and the 94 cheating scandal is very infamous within the Navy and within the Navy Academy. me. I certainly remember hearing about it and they talk about it all the time, even when we still take officer tests and things like that. And look, it's very simple. Release the records. Why are your records sealed? She could release them today if she wanted to put this to bed, but she won't do it. And there's a reason for that. And her husband as well. There's a reason they've lawyered up rather than simply say, look, I have nothing to hide.

50:08Here's my records. Why not? It's fascinating. I mean, I have I spend the summers in New Jersey and I would be so thrilled if we manage to get a Republican governor. I mean, between the nightmare windmills they've been doing there, the energy policies in general, the taxes, the most taxed state in the union, it's time for a change. And I think New Jersey residents know it. Do the right thing. Jack Posobiec, thank you so much for being here. It's great to see you. Thank you, Megan, and God bless. Yeah, you too. Wow. Okay, coming up next, Democrat Anna Kasparian is here. Lots to go over with her.

50:43Looking forward to that. Don't go away. If you have ever googled yourself, you know how many results contain your personal information, stuff you did not know was online, and it's not by chance. Your info is available. Your name, your address, phone number, financial info, income, legal, and health history. What? It can be sold and shared publicly without your consent. There are real risks here, including financial scams, identity theft, unfair targeting by insurance companies, and general safety risks. But I want to tell you about Incogni. Incogni helps you take control of your online privacy.

51:16You sign up, allow them to act on your behalf, and they demand that data brokers delete your personal info. Now they've introduced something huge, custom data removals. With their unlimited plan, Incogni's privacy team gets your info taken down from any specific site. Right now, you can get 60 % off an annual plan by heading to incogni.com slash Megan and using code Megan at checkout. It's risk-free with their 30-day money-back guarantee. Take your personal data back with Incogni. Get 60 % off an annual plan at incogni.com slash Megan. Code Megan at checkout.

51:57We absolutely have to keep talking. It's more important now than ever. To cower, to hide, to go silent is not the answer. and all I can tell you is there is no fucking way I am canceling one stop on this tour. Not one stop. I'm going. I'm going to stand on these stages and I'm going to say all the things that we say all the time on this show. We're going to make it safe for me. We're going to make it safe for my team and my guests and you. We're going coast to coast and do something really important, which is say what's true and what's real to honor him. I really now more than ever would love to see you all face to face.

52:39God, I would love to see you face to face. I need to see you face to face. I am doing this tour and I would love for you to join me. MeganKelley.com for the tickets.

52:54California Democratic candidate for governor Katie Porter is back on camera. I mean, you got to give her credit for courage after her disastrous press last week, following a brutal interview and resurfaced videos of her berating her staff. Plus, Kamala Harris continues her book tour with more incoherent jumble. Joining me now to discuss all of it, Anna Kasparian, host and executive producer of The Young Turks. Anna, welcome back. How you doing? I'm doing well. Thank you for having me. You're absolutely killing it lately with some of the things that you've been willing to defend yourself on. And I just want to commend you for that right off the bat.

53:36Oh, thank you. You're so sweet. Thank you. Another day in the life, right? I mean, this is the business we're in. This is the business we've chosen. Okay. The media gods have given us an array of riches today. So we'll kick it off with Katie Porter. Every day I wake up refreshing my ex feed for another Katie Porter video. And the heavens lately really have been providing. She's not going underground. She decided to sit down with yet another interviewer. This is Nextar's Inside California Politics show. And it almost looked like she was going to snap again, but she managed to hold it together. But it did get a little tense.

54:14Let's start with SOT 27. Evan. Should California voters feel confident that there aren't any more Katie Porter videos out there? Well, what I know is that I could have done better in those moments. I'm going to be focused on earning their votes and earning their trust. That's true in every election. But not just the CBS interview, the interview with the staffer. Can voters be confident that there won't be another one of those videos that's going to come to light? What I do know is that I could have done better on that situation. That's not a no. So is there potentially another video that we're going to see?

54:49Nikki, I'm going to be honest with you. I know that that video and that video was several years ago, as you know, and apologize to the staffer. That's super important to me and will continue to try to hold myself to do better. That's what I can promise. But not that there's not going to be any more videos because that's what people are wondering. Are we going to see something else like that. I can tell you what I've told you, which is that I am taking responsibility for this situation. And I'm also not going to back down from fighting back for California, from being tough. Oh, boy, there was not a no there, Anna.

55:28And I think we both know why. Right. I mean, I can't say I'm sure. I wouldn't be surprised if other videos start to leak. And, And, you know, it's interesting because I'm going to be fully honest about the fact that I used to actually be a pretty big supporter of Katie Porter when she was in Congress, you know, during some of the hearings with bankers, with, you know, corporate executives, you know, she'd pull out her whiteboard. She would ask difficult questions. But I realized in retrospect that a lot of that was just political theater, because when push came to shove and the question of money and politics came up, she was actually very defensive about Citizens United, corporate PAC money and all of that.

56:08So that was when I personally started to sour on her. There had been allegations from members of her staff, previous members of her staff, of course. And she has a lot of turnover where they accused her of being abusive. I believe her ex-husband also made similar allegations. Yes. Incendiary ones in the Daily Mail. Exactly. Exactly. And then the final nail in the coffin for me was the fact that she is running for governor of California. So obviously she was asked about a proposition that two four I'm sorry, three fourths of Californians voted in favor of. And that was Prop 36, which sought to roll back some of the soft on crime policies that actually really hurt this state.

56:53And one of the biggest issues right now is that our Democratic legislature, along with Governor Gavin Newsom, refused to provide the adequate funding in order to make sure we are holding people accountable when they commit crimes over and over and over again. It appears that Katie Porter is not in favor of that proposition, but it doesn't matter what she's in favor of. You should be supportive of what the people of California want, especially if you're running to be the chief executive of this state. Right. And so substantively on policy, I have soured on her, but also her behavior is just unacceptable.

57:30You should be expecting difficult questions and follow ups when you're doing these interviews. The fact that she was upset at follow up questions really doesn't inspire or it doesn't make me inspired by her. And it doesn't really show that she's a real leader, you know? Mm hmm. Yeah. I mean, like you're going to face a lot more tough challenges as governor of California than some follow up questions by a nice reporter, the CBS reporter. Well, that was not going for the jugular. In fact, it looked, if you watch the interview, almost like they had given Katie Porter the questions in advance, which in this case might not have been bad because this is an investigative reporter who's like, this is my thing.

58:13I'm going to ask these same 10 questions to all candidates. So, you know, perhaps they were very open by saying, here are the 10 questions. Go ahead, do your homework. We want to hear what your answers are. But Katie seemed to be familiar with this woman's list. And she's very irritated that she just didn't leave it at the surface level list. I think everybody's seen it by now, but we can watch a little bit of it here in SOT 29. Do you think you need any of those 40 % of California voters to win? And you're saying, no, you don't. No, I'm saying I'm going to try to win every vote I can. And what I'm saying to you is that...

58:46Well, to those voters. Okay, so you... I don't want to keep doing this. I'm going to call it. Thank you. Jesus. You're not going to do the interview with us? Nope. Not like this. I'm not. Not with seven follow-ups to every single question you ask. Every other candidate has answered our follow-ups. I don't care. I don't care. I want to have a pleasant, positive conversation, which you ask me about every issue on this list. This is news, ma 'am. And if every question, you're going to make up a follow-up question, then we're never going to get there. And we're just going to circle around. I have never had to do this before, ever.

59:17You've never had to have a conversation with a reporter? Okay, but every other candidate has done this. What part of, I'm me, I'm running for governor because I'm a leader. I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you. And I don't want this all on camera. I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you either. ladies this is news it's the vast majority of experiences will be unpleasant and unhappy that's so crazy like that whole exchange was so insane to me you know i'm i'm not a politician but as someone who works in media as someone who openly shares her opinion of course i'm going to find myself in hostile environments and hostile conversations and debates i literally in the middle of a debate this year had a tampon thrown at me by a man and I did not.

1:00:05I didn't run away from the debate because, look, your little stunt, whatever. I'm going to ignore it. I'm here to debate the substance. So this was an opportunity for Katie Porter to show that she is a strong leader, a woman of substance. It is hilarious to me that she referred to herself as a leader as she was threatening to run away from a from a conversation, from an interview. I'm a leader. I'm a leader. It's crazy. So, you know, I'm a leader as I run. Leaders don't run. No. And they don't call themselves leaders. I mean, like, that's the thing, right? Like they don't run around saying I'm a leader.

1:00:41I lead what that's what I do. People follow and they lead. And when I lead, here's a little bit more from that same new interview with Nextars Inside California Politics happened Tuesday, South 28. So this is your first time speaking publicly since the now two viral videos. What do you want people to know about you? And do you have the temperament to be the next governor of California? When I look at those videos, I want people to know that I understand that I could have handled things better. I think I'm known as someone who's able to handle tough questions, who's willing to answer questions.

1:01:16And I want people to know that I really value the incredible work that my staff can do. I think I I can, people who know me know I can be tough, but I need to do a better job expressing appreciation for the amazing work that my team does. Okay, so let's, can we just spend a minute discussing all the ways in which that was ineffective? Like there's not an authentic thing about one word she spoke, right? That's not how an authentic truth teller speaks. They would just be much more casual. Those are rehearsed, written down lines that her team has given to her. And it's just obvious. It's obvious if you're like a media personality like you and I are, or if you're a civilian at home, just because your gut will tell you it's off.

1:02:00Well, I mean, the problem is her authentic self is what has gotten her in trouble. And so what you're seeing on that screen right now is, you know, Katie Porter trying to kind of suppress who she really is and give people what she thinks they want. Just calm. I'm going to be calm. I'm going to be calm. Like as I watch that exchange, you're right. It doesn't come across as authentic because it seems like she's trying to convince herself to not lose it, to remain calm. And again, because of all of this drama over her behavior, it gives Californians less of an opportunity to learn about her substance or lack of substance.

1:02:43Right. And so, look, I've been talking about this very, very vocally. I've been very vocal about the situation on the ground in California. We're in a lot of trouble. You know, liberals get really upset when one of their own or someone center left calls this out, but it needs to be called out because people in the state are suffering. We pay the highest taxes. Jobs are leaving the state at record numbers. People are suffering. We have a housing crisis that hasn't been adequately dealt with. crime has gotten a little better. But the fact of the matter is we have overcrowded prisons because our governor decided to prematurely shut down four of our state prisons, which is honestly the big story that gets ignored.

1:03:26The reason why so many people get let out early when they're violent criminals, the reason why so many repeat offenders never see a prison cell is because we don't have any room for them. And that is a disaster that was created by Gavin Newsom, a Democratic governor. So I want to know, what is Katie Porter going to do about that if she wins this election? Now, I don't think she's going to win this election. But, you know, when I look at this race, I really don't know if there's anyone running who can adequately address the very serious issues that we have in the state. Steve Hilton's running out there as a Republican.

1:04:03I I mean, last I checked, Katie Porter was number one and he was number two. So it's not like your typical race in which he'd have no chance. I guess it's not really a Democrat primary we're looking at right now. You guys vote for governor in a weird way out there, right? It's like, I don't know. You kind of shake up all the puzzle pieces and whichever top two are standing. Those are the two that go against each other. Well, yeah. And what I'm curious about is whether Rick Caruso, who ran for mayor in Los Angeles and was, you know, beaten by Karen Bass, if he's going to put his name in the race, because I actually think he has in the mayoral race, he provided very detailed plans to address the serious issues in Los Angeles.

1:04:50And, you know, there were some rumors that he was considering a gubernatorial run in California. I would actually like to see that, to be honest with you, because I want to see what his possible solutions could be on a state level as opposed to just a Los Angeles city level. I'm sure you, along with most Californians, are feeling forlorn about the fact that Kamala decided not to go for the top job in the state, given her political prowess, which has been on full display as she promotes her book, 107 Days. She most recently went on with Kara Swisher, and Swisher seemed to be asking her why wasn't 107 Days enough time.

1:05:29And you tell me whether you can figure out what the answer is here in SOT 21. But, for example, I discuss in the timeline, we had policy work to do that was about letting people know where I stood on the fact that I wanted to make sure that, for example, it was my intention. And I know there are a lot of beautiful public servants here today, some of who are not, have been let go over the last several months and some of who are furloughed. And I thank you all for your service and everything that you do. And if we can just applaud those who are here. but for example one of the things that that i intended to do was as the the the president i and we we then have the the largest workforce right is the federal government and i intended to figure out a way to reclassify the job descriptions by skill not just by college degree

1:06:40i just tried to write it down it was my intention for example lots of public policy been laid off applaud one of the things i intended to do we have the largest workforce i this is so classic kamala where she uses so many words to say absolutely nothing i don't know what happened to her because even if you disagree with her politics she used to be able to speak right i mean am i misremembering because i remember during she was like a rising star when she became ag in california there was all this buzz around this like next gen rising star but i never really bothered to kick the tires back then because it was state politics yeah that's a good point i mean one of the i guess national issues that she was involved in as senator was the brett kavanaugh hearings now put the substance of those hearings aside for a minute regardless of where you stood on brett kavanaugh when she was grilling him she came across as someone who was able to speak someone who was able to ask difficult questions someone who was able to get her point across pretty quickly uh i don't know how you rise to the level of a prominent prosecutor you know you know and and don't know how to make an argument Don't know how to just speak concisely, clearly, directly.

1:08:04I don't know. I just feel like, especially during the Biden administration, something happened with her. I don't know if she's just nervous. I don't know if she's on Xanax. It sounds like she's on some sort of prescription drug, right? She slurs a little bit. She doesn't. Yeah, she doesn't make her point clearly. So I don't know. I don't know what's going on with her. I'm just really happy she's not running for governor of California. You raise an interesting point because I will tell you some of that is familiar to me as from my Fox years, because when I first started off as an anchor, you'd say things on the air.

1:08:40You know, you'd do an interview. I wasn't in the business of giving my opinion back then. I was a straight news anchor there. But, you know, well, like all of Fox, you're you're a little on the edge even when you're on the straight news side. So, you know, you kind of go there a little bit, but not too much. But anyway, you learned fast that you'd get your hand slapped hard by all of the media if you said things they didn't like. And of course, on Fox, you did that a lot. And so there was a point in my career in which I felt like I had been so battered by like, oh, I can't say that. And I can't say that.

1:09:10And I can't say the other things. I'm going to get battered by the press. And I still am in this place in my career where that matters to me. Like, I seem to care what the left wing press, meaning the press says about me. So I I remember sounding something like that was never quite as bad as she is. but like every phrase had to be qualified, had to be a catchphrase. If you said something bold, you had to quickly follow it up with something that suggested, but I don't really mean it. And I understand I need to qualify it because you're so battered by, you want to be loved. And eventually, of course I got past that.

1:09:40Thank God. While I was still at Fox and certainly now. And then you can be a clear, honest communicator, but I almost see somebody who's got that handicap where it's like, I'm going to get in trouble there and there. And also, and then they disassemble. Yeah. You know what? You make a really good point. And for anyone who's in the public eye and who wants to be admired and validated by everyone, you are digging yourself into a hole. Like you just have to be yourself and you have to be authentic and you have to expect that you are going to have views and say things that one group or another is just not going to like.

1:10:20But what people appreciate, and this is like one of the best things about Americans, they love authenticity. I think that's actually what was appealing about Donald Trump when he first ran in the Republican primary in 2015. Right. He said all sorts of things that people didn't like, but they knew he was actually telling them what he really thinks. And that authenticity in the environment of all these fake politicians was very appealing. When you look at members of the Democratic Party right now, they have not gotten that message yet, save for a few people. And look, even on the Republican side, you have someone like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is saying things that are considered like sacrilege when it comes to the Republican Party.

1:11:05but she is garnering a lot of positive attention from rank and file Republicans, but also people who are center left who are like, oh my God, I totally agree with her on what she's saying here. Maybe there's a way to work together. For the first time in my adult life, I'm seeing opportunities for people on both sides of the political aisle to work together for a common cause. And that's a wonderful thing. But I think the establishment, the Democratic establishment, is still very much in the mindset of everything is a left versus right paradigm. There are enemies because they identify as Republicans, and we're never going to give them credit when they agree with us on things.

1:11:45We're going to continue feeding into division and divisive rhetoric. And I think rank and file Americans, ordinary American voters are sick of it. So we'll see how this plays out. The effort to lower the cost of prescription drugs. That was the one thing I really wanted to talk to you about, because you were on the show like a year ago saying, Why isn't anybody doing anything about this? And then Trump actually said, I'm actually going to try to do something about this. And I was waiting for the chorus of leftists to be like, actually, this is great. You know, I'm this is good. This is a step in the right direction.

1:12:17No, it didn't happen because of the TDS. But wait, something you just said reminded me something. Katie Porter, you were right that her authentic self is not that likable. But you're also right that you fail if you're not authentic. so like i think katie porter actually probably would have done better if she had come out and said the woman was annoying let me tell you how that exchange was built totally they said it's going to be 10 straight questions and everyone just gets asked these 10 straight and i thought i'd do it you know she was mildly antagonistic go look at the interview i think you can give me that point and you know i was annoyed i do a lot of these interviews she was fucking annoying and I'm not sorry.

1:12:56No, like she probably would have been so much better off if she did that. I have to agree with you. Yeah, I actually think that is the case. The fact that she became defensive, apologetic. And now, look, I don't think that would convince all of her critics to then support her, you know, after those videos came out after that interview was a complete and utter disaster for her. But I do think that for those who are kind of on the fence, seeing her be apologetic as opposed to defend herself um i think worked against her it is true we're just living in that culture right now i if i had been katie port of the video where she's telling the the staffer you're in my fucking shot get in my fucking shot i think i would have said if i were katie port i would have been like she was in the shot i don't know how to explain tv to you but it's a hard no you're i'm doing a taped piece with kathleen sebelius your staff should no, do not get in the shot and really don't get into the shot to correct something I've just said.

1:13:55So, yeah, I was irritated. And when I'm irritated, sometimes I use the F word. And too bad if you don't like it. Don't vote for me if you don't like that. It's the least of what you'd hear from Donald Trump behind the scenes. You know, like something like that. If I were Katie, Katie, that would have been so much better than this fake act of like, I'll do better. And I've told my staff that it's like everyone knows she's going to yell at her staff for an on an ongoing basis. The staff is terrified of her. They're all leaking to every publication about how awful she is. Might as well just lean in.

1:14:23Just be like, this is me. Yeah. I mean, again, I don't think it'll convince everyone, but it would probably work better than how she has handled this. You just reminded me of this moment. It's actually a pretty viral video from Trump's first term. He's in the Oval Office. He's about to be interviewed. And I think it was George Stephanopoulos, he was coughing like off screen, off camera. And Trump didn't curse him out or anything, but he said something a little curt, you know, just basically like, we do something about this, like, you know, and it was hilarious. It was funny. Right. And so he never apologized for it.

1:14:59He never really made a big deal about it. And it was just a human moment of a prominent politician, you can maybe spin it that way. But again, it goes back to the issue of, are you a savvy and crafty political figure? And I just don't think that Katie Porter serves that role at all. Yeah. Yeah. She, she just kind of projects hot mess. That's part of her problem. Yeah. There was that one Trump interview when he was just civilian Trump, businessman Trump many years ago on Larry, Larry King, where he's sitting across from Larry King in that CNN studio with like the highlight, you know, like the game highlight where you put the pegs in the wall and they light up light bright.

1:15:40That's what it was. It looks like a light bright display behind him. And Trump goes, oh, my God, your breath is terrible. You have really bad. Oh, I remember that. Oh, my God. You know, it's not nice, but it was a human moment. Yeah. And I think, again, most Americans are just so sick of fake politicians. They really are. so if you can take take a moment that maybe doesn't look great for you and spin it as this is me i'm being authentic i'm human you have your human moments too i think that's probably the best way of yes you know wiggling your way out of a bad situation that's what she should have she should have been like she shouldn't have been in the shot now it wasn't the nicest language to be honest that's how i talk i talk that way to everyone i talk that way to the people i love I don't like whatever.

1:16:31But this this little act of like, I'm actually a Pollyanna. And those were just a couple of weird, random, bad moments. But I won't swear off on there being no more videos because I damn well know there are. It's not working. OK, let's keep going. There's one more Kamala Sot. This one seems to be a reference to the they're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats moment at that one debate between Kamala and Trump. Here we go. The debate. look I mean okay so part of it is so what happened was oh god oh no the cackle so okay so part of what I do talk about is that so debate camp which was really intense and then we get to to Philly and my team and it's Kirsten Allen who many people here may know and Brian Fallon and they're getting me ready and they're like, hey boss, so we saw Donald Trump coming off the plane, coming to the debate.

1:17:35And Laura Loomer was on the plane with him. And so they basically say to me, we didn't tell you, but she's been talking about people eating cats and dogs. They said, we think we need to tell you because his propensity is to say the last thing he heard. Oh. and sure enough on the debate stage he said it he said it and you were ready yeah i was prepped but not really

1:18:13unhinged okay

1:18:17i mean look i'm gonna be honest about the fact that the attention to that issue, I think actually hurts Republicans who were, who had more of a moral high ground on the issue of immigration at that time. And so it gave Democrats something to attack the Trump administration on legitimately at a time when I think I'm not the Trump administration, the Trump campaign at a time when I think the Trump campaign actually did have a legitimate point about what had happened with the border and undocumented immigration under the Biden administration. You hear what I'm saying? And this is the thing that drives me crazy about like some, not all, but some Democratic voters where they will latch onto one lie, right, about people eating cats and dogs to delegitimize a very legitimate issue that various communities across the country were grappling with without any real support or help from the federal government under the Biden administration.

1:19:19So again, I thought that was a bad move by the Trump campaign. That being said, OK, so you got briefed on it. I don't remember her having an incredibly powerful response to Trump's statement there. No, I think it was the moderators. Right. Exactly. The moderators were the ones who, if I remember correctly, weighed in on that. But I think what made Kamala Harris lucky in that one and only debate against Donald Trump was I remember Trump having very low energy for whatever reason during that debate. And so I remember conservative voters being upset about that, people thinking that maybe Kamala really has a shot.

1:19:57But then after that debate, things really fell apart for her campaign because she didn't really know what her message was or what she was representing or what she was fighting for. You know, she started off with some economic populism. then she meets with her brother-in-law who's an executive over at uber and then starts pushing pro-tech policies pro-corporate policies and so the base that she had started to abandon her she read a terrible campaign let's just keep it real the problem is like whether she had points or didn't have points on the dogs and the cats and all that and the memes that were spiked as a result of or started as a result like are one of the most memorable things with all the the cats dancing and like with Trump as their savior.

1:20:41It's just epic. But the problem is embodied in the answer, the cackling, the fake accent. She slipped into her street accent there. Show enough. She doesn't talk like that. Right. Like one day she was Puerto Rican. The next she was Indian. The next she was Latina. Then she had her preacher accent. It was like, you don't know who you are. Forget whether I know who you are. You don't know who you are. It's like Sybil, like one, like the movie Sybil, Sally Field, all in one sitting with the cackle and the leg bouncing out of nerves. You know, that's a nervous body response that she's in. And the weird references to the names of the campaign staffers, which no one gives a shit about, like that's a stall tactic because she's feeling nervous.

1:21:28All of it. Same thing as like media personalities can dissect it and digest it. The civilian consumers at home going, I don't like it. She's not comfortable. She doesn't feel like a strong leader. And I mean, I'll tell you, and I look at her, I'm like, thank God we did not get saddled with that woman. Thank God. Does anyone think that woman would have accomplished the peace deal that they just signed in the Middle East or anything that Trump has done? I mean, I don't know what her leadership would look like, to be honest with you, because she was VP for four years and I didn't see any leadership from her during those four years at all.

1:22:06In fact, you know, the one area where I think Biden kind of set her up to fail, quite frankly, as the immigration czar, it was a disaster for her. I mean, that was subversive. I mean, it was such a disaster that during the 2024 election, the Democrats were pretending like Biden didn't name her the immigration czar. She absolutely was named that. Come on. She went to Guatemala and basically her big play was to tell people, do not come. Well, they didn't listen. OK, the world didn't listen. And so, you know, to your point about the way that she presents herself and how she does do a little bit of code switching.

1:22:47But to be fair, I see a lot of politicians who engage in that. The problem with that is it's more identity politics theater as opposed to real substantive detailed solutions to problems that americans at that time especially were really suffering from right so immigration was a problem in fact poll after poll after poll indicated that the vast majority of americans had that as one of their policy priorities along with the cost of living and so if you don't have a real policy that you're going to promote as part of your campaign and you're just going to lean into more of the identity politics. I got I got some news for you.

1:23:30Like American voters are sick of that. They're sick of the theater. They need real solutions. And I think that Trump did run on policy proposals, what he wants to do, whether it's the tariffs, immigration, you know, cost of living situation not looking very great right now under the the trump administration but at least he paid attention to it during his campaign whereas with the harris campaign or even the biden campaign there was this weird um stubborn way of promoting something that didn't exist which was supposedly a great economy it wasn't a great economy yeah you can't keep pointing I mean, the GDP.

1:24:11I mean, the GDP. Exactly. No, and it was like, don't believe your lying eyes. Believe my words. And we were like, you're so right, though, about that moment with the cats and the dogs. If she had pivoted that to, OK, that's not happening. But you know what? The underlying issue is a real one. And I haven't been in the top job for these past four years. But let me tell you what I would do about the southern border, because it does need to be closed. We do need to act. People are suffering. And there has been too much migration into the United States, legal and illegal. And here's what I'll do. She's not capable of it.

1:24:39that she would have answered all of the questions of that campaign differently if she were capable of that. Anyway, it was the first time in my ever life I actually felt for Kara Swisher. It's a one and done. I'll move on quickly back to loathing her. All right, stand by. We have to take a quick break, but we will be back. There's a lot more to discuss. I'm dying to get Anna's take on what's happening with Barry Weiss already over at CBS. Stand by. If you've experienced bloating or general gut discomfort at some point, you know that doctors tend to give the same advice. Eat slowly, take a walk after meals, steer clear of processed foods.

1:25:11But let me tell you about cowboy cholestrum. Packed with proteins, natural growth factors, and antimicrobial peptides, cowboy cholestrum can help strengthen your immune system and repair your gut lining, leading to less bloating and better digestive health. They use high-quality ingredients sourced 100 % from American grass-fed cows. Just add a three-gram scoop of their chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry flavor to your coffee or smoothie, and you're good to go. No artificial flavors, just naturally delicious ingredients. For a limited time, get up to 25 % off their entire order. Just head to cowboycolostrum.com slash MK and use code MK at checkout.

1:25:51That's 25 % off when you use the code MK at cowboycolostrum.com slash MK. After you purchase, you can tell them our show sent you. Ever notice those creepy ads that pop up on your phone and seem to know exactly where you've been and what you've bought and even what you've been talking about? You've probably wondered, is my phone listening to me? The truth is every day without your knowledge or consent, your smartphone is listening to you and it's leaking a detailed record of your life. Personal information like your location, your habits, your interests, even the people you communicate with, it's funneled into an invisible marketplace where it is tracked, analyzed, and sold to the highest bitter.

1:26:30But the smartphone by Unplugged is different. With a built-in firewall, the smartphone by Unplugged blocks apps from tracking your every move, and it even shows you in real time which apps are trying to access your data. If your phone has ever lost or stolen, an emergency reset instantly wipes your data. And with the battery disconnect button, you can cut off all tracking from cell towers. It's time to demand technology that works for you, not for big tech. No tracking, no exploitation, no manipulation. Built for you, not for them. Available for$989, $989, or with easy monthly payments at unplugged.com slash MK.

1:27:29Ben Shapiro, Glenn Beck, Adam Garola, Charlie Sheen, Piers Morgan, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Erica Kirk. Send a message that we will not be silenced. It's Megyn Kelly Live, presented by Y-Refi and SiriusXM. Go to MegynKelly.com to get your tickets now. You can stream the Megyn Kelly show on SiriusXM at home or anywhere you are. No car required. I do it all the time. I love the SiriusXM app. It has ad-free music, coverage of every major sport, comedy, talk, podcast, and more. Subscribe now. Get your first three months for free. Go to SiriusXM.com slash MKShow to subscribe and get three months free.

1:28:09That's SiriusXM.com slash MKShow and get three months free. Offer details apply.

1:28:20Here with me today, Anna Kasparian. She's host and executive producer of The Young Turks. works so Anna Michelle Obama has a podcast and near as I can tell she devotes some 90 % of it to telling us why she can't stand Barack Obama she has a podcast she does no one is watching it yeah literally I think we are the only ones who watch it oh my gosh I didn't know that that's amazing yeah she has a podcast and all she does is rip on her husband I mean truly every show has got a new update on how she can't stand him. She, the latest was she cannot stand watching him chew at the dinner table. And like her blood is boiling as she sits across from him.

1:29:05Like, I want to smack his face for the chewing. She doesn't like motherhood. She's like zero to 13. We're traumatic and horrible. Meanwhile, that's basically all of motherhood. You know, it's like all you have after that is high school. Um, and now here she's out again. Honestly, you can't stop her every single episode. There's something more. Here was the latest that just happened yesterday. We're doing all the college stuff. I'm making her bed because whenever they went to camp or somewhere, I said, I'll make your bed once and I'll make it really neat and nice. And then that's it. Got her room all set up and you could tell Barack was totally clueless.

1:29:41He didn't know where to be. We gave him a lamp from Ikea and said, put it together. Here, you take this box, You put it together. There was nothing to put together. But he was over there with his lamp for like two hours. We had to get in this motorcade and leave the baby behind, you know, and to watch her standing at that restaurant, waving goodbye. So I'm crying. Barack gets in the car. You know, we're driving back to the Air Force One in the motorcade. You know, we're a little quiet. And I hear this. That was literally the sign. I had to look over and be like, the agents are like, sir, are you okay?

1:30:23And he's like, it's like, man, just do it. Just cry. Let it go. Okay. I'm sorry, but she never misses a chance to try to emasculate him or make him look like a doofus. You know, there's a complaint among many conservatives, Anna, that, like, I've heard them rip on the show Modern Family, which I love. I think it's hysterical. It's so funny. My family watches it all the time, but I accept the legitimate criticism that the thing that some conservatives don't like about it is they make Phil Dunphy, the patriarch of the whole family, an absolute moron. You know, he he looks weak and dumb and really in no way like a strong, you know, male role model.

1:31:07He's a loving, sweet guy who's a doofus. and honestly, she tries so hard to make Barack Obama go from like this towering figure and it's well past like, oh, we'll be a little self-deprecating so people can relate to us. It's every episode, something insulting about him and never the opposite. He can't even put together the Ikea lamp, the imitation of the way he sounded while he was crying, like an intimate family moment that she now wants to repeat in front of the national audience. I'm telling you, she loathes him. It's really clear. I, she has also, the casual references to Air Force One and the motorcade and the Secret Service.

1:31:46Just last week, she was bitching about how famous she is and how she can't stand it. She doesn't like going out to dinner because she's always the topic of conversation of the next table. She and Barack. But now she just wants to remind us about all the accoutrements around them that make them super special. This woman, she gets on my last nerve. she's doing a podcast meaning like you're putting yourself out there as a public figure and so i get by the way i totally understand the downsides of being a public figure and how uncomfortable it can be at times but if you want that to kind of fade away you don't do a podcast now i thought i thought she had done like a few episodes of a podcast and i remember seeing that like, I don't know, last year, a few months ago, who knows.

1:32:32But I can understand why it doesn't have the viewership that you would expect as someone who's a former first lady, because think about how Democratic voters really put Obama on a pedestal, right? He's like, in their minds, the ideal Democratic leader. And they have in their minds, like great memories of the eight years Obama was in charge. And so to listen to a podcast or watch a podcast in which his wife is trashing him all the time. They're not going to appreciate that. In fact, every time we at the Young Turks do a video where we're critical of something Obama has done recently, we always lose subscribers, always, because they don't want to hear it.

1:33:13They want to look back on those eight years and only think of the positives. And again, having Michelle Obama, the former first lady, insult former President Obama is probably not something that they find very appealing. But what's also interesting is, you know, she had been urged to put her name in the ring in the 2024 election. And the reporting indicated that she doesn't like it. She doesn't like being in the public eye. It seems like she likes being in the public eye, maybe in a different capacity. Yeah, that's right. Although she's not that much in the public eye because her average video gets between 1 ,000 and 5 ,000 views.

1:33:53Yes. That's wild. That is so wild, man. It's bad. That's bad. I know. My assistant, Abigail Finan, could start a podcast today and draw well above that. She's very entertaining and very funny. And she was never first lady for eight years. So that's how it's going over Michelle Obama land. All right. I want to talk about what's happening with Barry Weiss at CBS because it's ridiculous. So Barry Weiss sent out one of those doge kind of emails to the staff at CBS saying, let me know what you do all day. Like what, what projects are you currently working on? It wasn't quite as aggressive as the Elon one, but it was like, I'm new.

1:34:33I'm the editor in chief. Can you send me an email letting me know what projects you're working on and what you're up to? Well, they went into meltdown over at CBS. It was like all these meetings had to be called. The union got involved. And now there's been an official like they they the union responded to Barry. Exactly. Why do you want this? For what purpose? What will be done with the answers? Will people be subject to do to discipline or some sort of suspension or punishment if you don't like their answers? It was so finally the union has assessed the situation and now CBS had to respond to the union that, OK, you will not be disciplined if you don't respond, that you will not be this will not be the basis for discipline, discharge or layoff.

1:35:17And of course, there's also you don't need to respond at all. You don't have to respond. There's no penalty whatsoever for entirely blowing her off. To me, this is funny because I love Barry, but it's not going to go well. These organizations cannot be changed from the top down. They can only be changed from the bottom up. And they will never, ever, ever, ever, ever accept somebody who didn't grow up next to them in the CBS ranks ever. You have. And I mean, like, you can't even go laterally. Like Catherine Herridge went there from Fox News, who was a very respected reporter on the Intel beat. I mean, completely had her chops.

1:35:53And she was a legit reporter. You could she could never be dismissed as like some Fox whatever. No, they didn't accept her. They will never accept. And that's a reporter, never mind an editor in chief who gets helicoptered in. And so this is just to me the first sign of trouble. There will be many. It will probably, in my estimation, last a couple of years before Barry says F this toxic environment. I'm piecing out of here. But this is sort of chapter one. Your thoughts on it. Okay, I actually have strong thoughts on this. So let me just say that the email asking, you know, what are you working on?

1:36:29I don't find that particularly offensive. In fact, I'm not represented by a union. But when TYT had hired a president for the first time, this is back in 2016 or 2017, she called everyone into her office because she wanted to get to know them and wanted to get to know what their role is within the company, what they're working on. And I didn't find that threatening in any way. I think the reason why the workers at CBS found it threatening is because of all of the reporting that came out prior to Barry Weiss being brought in. And the Financial Times in particular had noted that David Ellison, after this merger with Paramount Sundance, with CBS and all of that, had said that he was considering purchasing the free press for a lot of money, by the way.

1:37:19It ended up being$150 million. Originally, there were rumors that it was going to be as much as$250 million. But the Financial Times reported that— For a company that was bringing in$15 million a year. So, I mean, the financials were largely inflated. Yes. So I want to get back to that in just a minute. But in regard to David Ellison, the Financial Times reported that he liked that the free press had a pro-Israel bias. And so you have the reporters and some of the workers over at CBS worried that she's going to be brought on specifically to sway the reporting in a way that's more favorable to Israel and not necessarily fair or accurate.

1:37:59So when the entire situation starts from that place, it's just it's really hard to recover from that. You get what I'm saying? Because they're worried that their reputation as reporters, their reputation as a news organization is going to tank as a result of that. But on top of that, look, I also think David Ellison wanted to bring her on because in his mind, this is a way to marry digital independent media to legacy media, which is dying. Let's keep it real. But I'm going to say from my personal my personal experience, you can't make that transition. It doesn't transition well because people who have sworn off corporate legacy media are never going back.

1:38:46They just don't trust it. They don't trust these institutions. No, I totally agree with you. That's the problem. Like, I get what he's trying to do. It's just not possible. You can't, you know, the other patient has expired. And you cannot take, like, the working brain and working heart of a still alive person and put them in this corpse. It just, that's not going to bring them back. They've expired. They've been expired for too long. The window of reviving them has passed. And as talented as Barry is, she's not that talented. No one is. No one can do it. But I also think that like, I know, trust me, I know because I've been in television for a long time.

1:39:25They, I guarantee you, are over there saying she's never even worked in TV. Their noses will be turned up as high as humanly possible at the fact that this print reporter, and they don't even see Barry as a reporter, like opinion, opinion person from the New York Times, has the nerve to come over here and try to tell us about editorial at the vaunted CBS News, and she's never even done TV. I guarantee you those are the comments that are happening behind the scenes. And as nice as Barry is and as reasonable and as talented, they're just not open-minded to it. They're jealous she has it and they don't.

1:40:10And they resent the fact that she got put in this position without having to pay her dues the way they did. I just think they're two completely different forms of media, right? Like I know that both, whether you're talking about the free press or CBS, they're in the news business to some capacity, but the format on television is not conducive to informing people, to be quite honest with you. You know, I mean, like long-form conversations like this, when I think about my own media consumption and I really like to listen to podcasts or various voices from across the political spectrum. I want long form.

1:40:46I don't want to go to a commercial break every five minutes. I want to hear what different voices have to say about any particular issue. And I want them to speak at length. You're not going to get that on CBS or ABC on network news on cable news. It's just not conducive to a real conversation. I know it's a frustration and watching it now that we're used to this other media. And when you turn on cable, you're like, what is it? My God, it's so annoying. And you have to be sitting there at a certain time and you have to sit there and watch the commercials. And of course, the networks all have an agenda that you may or may not know about because they may or may not disclose it.

1:41:20I mean, there's all sorts of handicaps to the forum that have made it irrelevant and obsolete. In any event, I'm still wishing her luck. And I, you know, kind of just feel like take the money and run, do it for a couple of years and then come back to where you belong, which is this free independent lane that has been so valuable to all of us. Anna is one of the pioneers in this space. Thank you so much for coming on. Love talking to you. Thank you for having me, Megan. All right, to be continued. And we are back tomorrow with our pals from the fifth column. I got a lot of goodness in store for those guys.

1:41:54They better buckle up because we're going to have a fun time together. Love the fifth column. Okay, see you guys then. thanks for listening to the megan kelly show no bs no agenda and no fear