Iran Deal Risks and Fallout, with Curt Mills and Mark Halperin, Plus Jennifer Newsom's Wild Comments, with Damilare Sonoiki and Stepfanie Tyler | Ep. 1291

24:59He says, I look forward to the architects of this proposal, the vice president and others coming forward to Congress and explaining how a negotiated deal meets our national security objectives in Iran. One more before I toss it back to you. And that's Laura Loomer. Forgive me for citing this absolute fucking lunatic to you in the context of a serious discussion. But she tweets out, luckily, President Trump wasn't in charge of the negotiations. Trump understands the real danger and threat posed by this regime. which is why people around him, I'm sure we can all figure out who planted the New York Times story, stabbed him in the back yesterday by leaking private situation room conversations to the New York Times to pretend like they were against the war when many of those people are on the record supporting the war themselves.

25:46So this is a direct threat against J.D. Vance, obviously. And all three of these folks seem to be saber rattling against the vice president. Your thoughts on it?

25:55Curt Mills:Well, look, I think the vice president should relish the fight. I think he should make clear his prerogatives and his views on this. And I think it's going to be a Hollywood moment if he's in Pakistan inking a durable deal. These are all ifs. I don't know if he's going to be in Asia later this week. And I don't know if he is going to be able to get a deal over the finish line. But I think it would be a lot better than the efforts led by Wyckoff, Kushner, Rubio, the gang that was either ambivalent per the times or in favor of the war. And so I think we could do a lot worse than that approach. As to the figures you cite, yeah, I mean, they're media figures, but they're also presidential advisors, and they need to be treated as political entities.

26:40Curt Mills:And the reality is that they are as much more, actually, as mutinous and ungrateful as people on the, I would describe as the principled America first right are accused of being. They don't get, you know, one night of bombs not falling on the Iranians and its congressional oversight, which all of a sudden was Lindsey Graham is interested in. And all of a sudden it's, ah, Trump wasn't involved in the deal. And ah, we need scalps in the cabinet. And ah, we must coup d 'etat the vice president. I mean, look, I just don't think people who questioned the war from the right were anywhere near this shrill.

27:21Yeah, no, of course. And notwithstanding the fact that they were being called anti-Semites and neo-Nazis by that same crowd. I mean, it's actually crazy the terms that were bandied about. There's a poll out today showing that the overwhelming majority of young people in this country, Republican and Democrat alike, and by young people, I mean under 50. It's not just under 30, oppose Israel, are skeptical of Israel, no longer believe, have a favorable opinion of Israel. It's 60 percent of the country, you know, writ large, but young people in particular, everybody under 50, the vast majorities in both parties are distrustful of Israel.

27:58And that same thing. I mean, it was a tweet exactly like that where I said months ago that the Republican Party was losing its young people to in this battle that Israel kept going on and on in Gaza. like the, you know, its opponents called the genocide, whatever you want to call it, that young Republicans believed it and were against Israel. And that even Israel's fans should be in favor of Israel stopping the campaign in Gaza and of us stopping our focus on Israel because it was bad for Israel. This is back when I was very, very supportive of Israel. And the psychopath Mark Levin actually called me a neo-Nazi.

28:38And not just me, many others who said that same, that is just a fact. And now there's yet another poll showing it's only gotten worse, Kurt. And that's what they're going to have to deal with. Even if we could declare that we had won this war, this is a classic case for Israel of winning a battle but losing the overall war. You may have won this particular thing. You may have decimated Iran's military. But in the court of public opinion, Israel is a pariah.

29:08Curt Mills:Yeah, I mean, look, I think Israel is tactically masterful. I think they're able to do things that almost no country or intelligence service or military is able to do. I think they are intimidating. I don't want to take that away from them. But I think they are strategically chaotic and blinkered. And I mean, not only within the region, where I think, frankly, by the native population, by the Arabs, they're viewed as effectively an air force base that they can torment, but they have no natural legitimacy. and that potentially the countries in the region could just wait them out, that there may not be an Israel in 50 to 100 years because the contradictions of their own society will cause them to collapse.

29:48Curt Mills:And it's a perspective, frankly, that I am much more a subscriber to than I used to be. I mean, look, as I flagged earlier, the name of the military raid this morning into Lebanon, Operation Eternal Darkness. I mean, what kind of country uses this language? I mean, we've lapsed into sort of lame militarism as well. But like Epic Fury is a kind of like, you know, like Gen X flair. Eternal Darkness is, they may as well just name it, you know, Operation Orgy of Murder. I mean, we're that close to them just saying this. And it's very clear what they're doing here. They fear that the ceasefire may hold.

30:28Curt Mills:And they're trying to kill as many people as possible and kind of indiscriminately. I mean, the places they've hit are not known Hezbollah strongholds, and they don't care. And I don't see how this actually serves Israel's interest, but I think they've been on this road since Netanyahu first became prime minister in the mid-90s. I think people didn't understand that at a time in America. But Netanyahu himself became prime minister as a sort of ambivalent party to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. I mean, this is a gangster figure that we should not be doing business with. Two things. I found the phone conversation between Trump and the PBS reporter.

31:10She writes, I asked about Lebanon still being hit. And if he had seen that, yeah, they were not included in the deal. OK, that's contrary to the initial reports. But I asked why not? And if they should have been, POTUS, because of Hezbollah, they were not included in the deal. That'll get taken care of, too. It's all right. I asked, and you're okay with the Israelis continuing to hit them? POTUS, it's part of the deal. Okay, no, I don't, you just said it's not part of the deal. Everyone knows that. That's a separate skirmish, okay? You gotta talk faster. I tried to then ask if he regretted the truth social post about wiping out a civilization and noted that there was a huge pushback to that.

31:49Then he hung up on me. Okay, so he's saying it's not part of the deal. It'll be dealt with later. It's a separate skirmish. And this is, yeah, that's what you were referencing, the separate skirmish comment. And then just one thing, just to elaborate on that Pew poll I just referenced, 60 % of American adults now have an unfavorable view of Israel. That's up from 53 % last year and up from 42 % in 2022. The share of adults with a very unfavorable view of Israel, which is 28%, has also increased nine points since last year. It's tripled from 10 % in 2022. 59 % have little or no confidence in Netanyahu to do the right thing.

32:30That's up from 52 % last year. And in both political parties, a majority of adults under 50 years old view Israel negatively. 84 % of Democrats, 57 % of Republicans. Amazing. 57 % of Republicans under 50 now say that they view Israel negatively. That is just devastating.

32:53Curt Mills:People wouldn't have believed it 10 years ago. People wouldn't have believed it three years ago. And it is the result of the seeds that Israel has planted and that Israel's leadership has pursued. I mean, this is a this is a manic, blinkered, psychopathic country at this point. Not everybody. There are there are people in that country who are great Jewish patriots who represent, I think, an older kind of Israeli patriotism. But the sort of seeds of Israel's natural militarism and I'll say it, terroristic elements were kind of there from the beginning. And I think the dark side has really come out with the Netanyahu project and particularly since October 7th.

33:36Curt Mills:They've really overreached. And then additionally, it's not just, you know, say what you will for the Russians. You know, the Russians invade countries. You can think what you will of that. You know, they don't ask other countries to pay for it. What is particularly psychotic about the Israeli thing is that they insist on being dominant in American culture and politics. And, you know, the reality is you don't have to care about Israel, but Israel cares about you. This is all the administration has been doing. I mean, where is a piece of domestic legislation to say limit immigration, both legal and illegal?

34:11Curt Mills:Where is Trump fighting on tariffs since the Supreme Court decision? You know, the other elements, where is an industrial policy package? You don't see any of that. It's all the air, all the oxygen is sucked up on Iran and sucked up on Israel. And so this is why, you know, again, I think there's a very reasonable chance if you have me back on, we're going to be talking about a new war in three weeks. But I think this piece is worth trying. I think Lebanon is very worrying. I don't think it's necessarily a red line for the Iranians. You know, people portray everybody in the Middle East as, you know, sort of a unity, Team America of bad guys.

34:51Curt Mills:The reality is, yes, Hezbollah is alive with Iran, but it's a, you know, it's a wary alliance between Persians and Arabs, generally speaking. There's not a huge amount of trust there. And I do think the Iranians will not walk away from this unless the Israeli crimes in Lebanon are just unbelievably beyond the pale, which they may be. Yeah, which they may be. They're doing their level best. I think if Israel feels it can queer the deal, whether it's like carpet bombing Lebanon or otherwise, they'll do it. That's what we're up against. And President Trump needs to remember he's the superior in the relationship with Netanyahu and to act like it.

35:29Kurt Mills, thank you. Thanks so much. Coming up next, Mark Halpern is here. We'll get his take on the politics of this. We've got some early results back on some elections that took place yesterday, and he will analyze all of that for us. Let's talk about what's really happening right now. New data shows that financial stress is at an all-time high for some. Many Americans are at a breaking point. Debt maxed out, no extra dough, no room to breathe. And some people are running out of options. Listen, if debt has been weighing on you, you're not alone. And when it comes to debt, waiting usually makes it worse.

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37:46This just coming in via Yashar Ali, a great journalist online who's been covering this very closely and is himself Iranian-American. The Islamic Republic of Iran is threatening to continue keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed and now to refuse to attend the peace talks in Islamabad unless Lebanon is included in the ceasefire. Both the U.S. and Israel say Lebanon is not included. Now, Lebanon was included, according to the original statements about this deal. Remember, it was the prime minister of Pakistan who helped make it happen. He'd been talking to JD. He was one of the first to announce, okay, here's what's going to happen.

38:33And he said Lebanon was in the deal. Then Bibi Netanyahu got mad. Reportedly, via the New York Times, they say that Israel said they support the decision to stop attacking Iran for two weeks, but the ceasefire does not include Lebanon. And that was Israel's position. Then Trump tells the PBS reporter, yeah, Lebanon's out. They're not part of the deal. Now, was the Pakistan prime minister completely wrong? Did he make that up? Or did we just bend the knee to Israel again? then originally stating that Lebanon would be included in the ceasefire, but then when Netanyahu complained once again, saying, okay, never mind, you can have your way, bomb them to smithereens.

39:20Well, if so, that may have been a miscalculation, because now not only did Iran promptly close the Strait of Hormuz, but is threatening to continue keeping it closed and now refusing, threatening to refuse to attend the peace talks unless Lebanon is included. So I'm going to bring in Mark Halpern. Why Mark, he's host of Next Up with Mark Halpern, which is part of our MK Media Podcast Network. Go to nextuphalpern.com to subscribe to his show. You should do it, because especially when political news like this breaks, he's the first place you want to go. Why are we talking about Lebanon? Who gives a shit about whether Lebanon was in the prime minister of Pakistan and is at the betrayal?

40:04Americans care about their own problems. They care about their wallet, about their 401k, about maybe being able to take a vacation this year, which they haven't been able to for the past four years, thanks to Biden's inflation. And now we're going to spend weeks talking about the negotiations around the Strait of Hormuz, which most people didn't even know existed or couldn't offer an additional sentence about prior to 38 days ago. Well, first of all, how have things been going, Megan? I haven't talked to you in a while. Everything, everything's caught. A lot of news. A lot of news. Well, look, first is on the on the Israel front.

40:38As you know, the three most complicated relationships amongst human beings are landlord, tenant, mother, daughter and any American president and Bibi. And I've actually I've actually been amazed at how under the radar, the disagreements that have existed throughout the conflict have been kept. It's been relatively rare, but it's kind of come to a head now, not just over Lebanon potentially, but also over some of the other issues. I mean, one big question for me is if there are face-to-face negotiations, is Israel in the room? Are they in the city? Are they involved at all? And then you've got the question of, I don't think there's any doubt that Donald Trump would walk away from this conflict with a different set of drop points than Bibi would.

41:22So it's going to be a thing. And to your larger question, I really wish I could be cloned and I'd send my clone on a driving tour to diners in 30 states and ask people, what do you think about all this? Because there's no doubt in my mind that whether they're Bernie Sanders people or MAGA people or just regular people, most Americans would just scratch their heads at how much attention this is giving, how expensive it is and what the risk and reward is. Now, at the same time, the president's job is to do what he thinks right for America. And so other presidents have focused a lot of resources on this country just in a different way.

41:57But it's not a winner. It's not a winner with voters. And even if this ends spectacularly well, and I think it still could, I don't think voters are going to care much about it because it is, as you say, just so remote from their lives. So what is the likelihood that Trump turns on Netanyahu now? Because Trump was told a bunch of things by Netanyahu that did not turn out to be true. The New York Times made that clear in its reporting yesterday. And Trump put his neck out there for Netanyahu based on these representations. And it hasn't worked out so well. I mean, whatever happens with the resolution of this thing, Trump's hemorrhaging supports a support among the key constituencies that put him in office.

42:44He is too smart to not know that. And he's going to turn on someone, Mark. Yeah. Well, I think it really almost every answer to every political question, including the geopolitical question of how we all feel about Netanyahu, depends on how it ends. If this ends with the straight open, even if Iran's making some money off of it, Iran's nuclear program and missile program largely defanged or entirely defanged, I think he'll be happy. The president will be happy, and I think he'll be rewarded for that by the American people and by the history. If it doesn't end well, you know, I've covered too many presidents who've been furious to Netanyahu who feel that he's manipulated them, lied to them, led them down a path that they didn't want to go down.

43:30And they all just keep coming back for more. So I'm not sure that he'd make me be the scapegoat. There's a lot of complex reasons why Netanyahu is not easily scapegoated by American presidents. Mm hmm. The one of the risks here is that if Iran is controlling the strait, as it wasn't before, but is now, thanks to our war, that this little fee we're going to be the toll booth fee that now they're going to be slapping on these ships gets passed along. And one of the pressure points that Iran had over Trump was the increasingly high price of gas here in America, gasoline and diesel, up more than a dollar on a tank of gas and up higher than that on diesel fuel.

44:16And that could potentially continue. It could potentially continue. Like that surcharge gets basically slapped down to the consumer level, Mark. It doesn't usually stay with the person who controls the ship. So this isn't all necessarily rainbow and unicorns for us. Not to mention that already our Arab allies are suggesting those donations, those like investments in America that they promised at like the Middle East summit that President Trump went to. Yeah, those are off because they have a lot of work to do on their own countries now, thanks to the bombing campaign Iran unleashed on them. And all the kind of modalities of the agreement, you know, there needs to be agreements on sanctions, agreements on the strait, agreements on nuclear, agreements on missiles.

45:01On all these things, they can be done in a spirit of cooperation and trust, which seems far-fetched given who we're dealing with, or they can be done, you know, through a lot of verification. I think the strait has to be open. The president seems amenable to Iran making money off of the strait, which they didn't do before the war. So we'd be going backwards there. But he also said in one of the interviews he's done today that maybe the U.S. could make money off of it too. I think that if there can be that kind of commercial relationship, that's the president's dream of how you bring Iran into the community of nations.

45:42Again, if you're Israel or - But those nations are objecting. The Gulf nations are already saying, we're not agreeing to that. Why would we agree to that? I think it's going to have to be multilateral. It's going to have to be, and I think it'd be smart for the United States to hedge against Iran going back to hostilely trying to control the street. They're going to have to try to build something that has a lot of nations involved, and that makes it mechanically impossible or difficult for Iran to use force to control the strait or the threat of force to control the strait, and also makes it in their incentive and give them incentives not to close it down, which is why I think one administration official told me that's how they were thinking about this.

46:22If Iran has a financial incentive to keep the strait open, they'll keep the strait open. But the problem is, what do you do when someone doesn't pay? What does Iran do when somebody says, I'm not paying your toll. You actually don't control this. You don't own it. And I'm going to pass through without paying your$20 million a day fee, whatever it is. Then what does Iran do? Do they bomb that country? And what does it mean for us? Yeah. At the Council on Foreign Relations, we call that the Rumpelstiltskin problem. I think that that's why I think a system where other Gulf countries maybe benefit and maybe the United States benefits, I think that's going to be the thing that's most likely to stick, that people will feel like, well, they got to pay because it's an international cartel that includes a bunch of countries.

47:18It's one of many issues that has to be worked out. But I go back to President Reagan used to talk about trust, but verify. This is like not much trust, but a lot of verify. And you heard that from Pete Hegseth. You heard that from the vice president. They both in their remarks today have been significantly more focused not on trust, but on verifying in all these things and significantly focused on the prospect that the whole thing could fall apart and that the military option would come back into play. So it's going to either happen or it's not. The straits going to be open under acceptable terms or it's not.

47:52They're going to give up their nuclear material or they're not. And if you believe Pete Hegseth and the vice president, I don't think they they would say these things without coordination and without the president's approval. We've not given anything up. We've given them a few days to maybe rearm, maybe get stuff from Russia, maybe get stuff from China. But for the most part, what we've given them is a chance to do the right thing. And that's that's the way this was going to go no matter what. Okay, so now what's going to happen with the very, very neocon right that is upset today? Yeah. Very clearly.

48:26Levin, Graham, Loomer, and Netanyahu. You know, they basically see this as he does. You know, like, for example, one of the 10 points in the 10-point peace plans proposed by Iran is lifting of all U.S. sanctions on Iran. Now, Israel definitely doesn't want that. And none of that other contingent wants that. And they are all very disappointed there. You can see the struggle session because they're very proud of President Trump for doing this. But they're very, very upset about the way this is this appears to be wrapping up. So now what happens there? Well, it's a great question. And I've been as fascinated as you've been listening to what they've been saying today, because, you know, it's a little bit of whiplash for them.

49:11And Eric Erickson has said this this can end with the negotiation. The military has to go back and finish the job. And and and and he's he's you know, he's pretty level headed guy. um i think it i think it depends and again i don't mean to be boring and repetitive but it just depends on what the deal is if if there's some of these babies might be seen as splittable but i don't believe most of them are the gulf's open the straits open or it's not the nuclear materials handed over it's not they have missile capability or they don't and i think that it look to me the best deal that's available right now is full turnover of nuclear get denounce any prospects of more nuclear, really denounce and get rid of the ballistic missiles and the terror networks and open the straight and give them an opportunity to be part of the community of nations.

50:05If that deal happens, I think the neocons will be very happy. If it doesn't happen, I think the president's fallen well short of the mark of what he said this was about. And I don't know that he can even do it. So I understand why they're upset today, but I think they may get what they want. And if they don't, it will be clear for everybody to see. What do you think President Trump's calculation is right now politically? Because he gave that contingent a lot, a lot, Mark. Yeah. He, and we'll go through it when we, we're going to take a break and we'll come back. I mean, he is down significantly with every constituency that put him in office.

50:49And so he's gone up with the very small contingent that includes the massively hawkish neocon right. But with every other contingent, he's gone down. And so what do you think his mindset is here coming out of that? Now, even that small contingent is unhappy with him, but they'll get over it because they're very grateful for the war. but he has so much work to do in regaining the support of the, of the other groups. Yeah. Well, he's not, he's not up for reelection. And so where his support stands doesn't directly affect him. I think that, that there's time, although the clock ticks for him to fix the problems by the midterms, not just by ending the war, but by doing some of the other things Republicans are talking about.

51:37He, he, he's got a great sense of instincts and a great sense of timing. normally, but this is a complicated one. And I think we don't know yet how this has gone as compared to his greatest hopes and worst nightmares. He's always going to, as P.T. Barnum, he's always going to sell this as a big success. But he has a chance to succeed, having done a difficult thing. But there's no doubt that China and Russia must look at this and say, ha, nice try. If this was meant to intimidate us, it didn't work. And even if gas prices, as he said, they will come down now, it's still not clear if the goal was to make the American people feel he accomplished something.

52:19He's far short of that right now. Could get there, but he's far, far short of it currently. All right. More of that on the opposite side and the election results. Don't go away. Relief Factor loves hearing from pain-free customers, and they hope that they can help you next. One user, Bill, said, quote, I've been crawling under sinks and working long hours for decades. My back and knees took the punishment. I thought pain was just part of the trade, but relief factor surprised me. Within weeks, I was working without wincing. I could get down on the floor and get back up again without thinking twice.

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53:29Mark Halperin's back with me now. All right, Mark. So before we get down to the election results from last night, which they don't portend that well for Republicans in the midterms, let me just give you these stats. Cook Political Report went through some of them. Men only. In March of 2025, Trump had a 54 % approval rating with men. Now it's at 45. So he's lost nine points with men. White non-college, working class whites. In March of 2025, Trump had a 56 % approval rating. Now it's 52%, so it's minus seven. And I've seen other polls showing he's underwater too, like more disapprove than approve.

54:18So he's down, the point is, with the white working class. Black voters. In March of 2025, he had a 28 % approval rating with black voters. Now it's down to 18. Latinos. In March of 2025, he had a 44 % approval rating. Now it's down to 32. Independents. In March of 2025, he had a 41 % approval rating. Now it's down 20 points to 20. No, sorry. Sorry. Now it's down to 28. percentage points. So he's fallen double digits in a lot of these categories with every group, every group that put him in office. And this, honestly, the Cook political report is not nearly as bad as some of the other recent polling that we've seen or the aggregate of all polls that Harry Enten uses when he does his little summaries, which I know you've seen.

55:08So where does that leave? I guess really not President Trump, but yes, President Trump, because he still has an agenda for three years to get through, but the Republican Party. I'm working on a really good Harry Anton imitation, but I'm not ready to perform today. It's really loud. It's really loud. I have to stand. The data that you cite, which is consistent with private Republican data, so it's not liberal media polling, and the historical reality of what presidents usually do in the midterms in terms of their party, are very bad for Republicans now. There's three things they have going for them.

55:47One is they have a lot of money, and it's being reported today by Axios, the president. Hundreds of millions of dollars, he's got squirreled away. He's going to spend on the midterms, and they're going to start doing that. And Republicans will have a lot of money to spend. And that matters in elections like this. Two is things could get better. Republicans are talking about an agenda in Congress that might make things better. and the fact that Democrats may nominate in some of these key races unelectable candidates. And third is the battlefield is such that there are very limited number of seats that are winnable by Democrats, even if they have a fantastic year.

56:31And on the Senate side in particular, I did this on NextUp a couple episodes ago. It's just a very daunting map for Democrats to take the majority they have to basically run the table uh in almost every winnable race ones they currently hold and ones they want to win from republicans so there's reasons why republicans are not saying you know everybody overboard it's a disaster every man and woman for themselves but they're going to have to see improved conditions in the next couple months in order to not feel like it will be something of a wipeout but i'll say again there are just not that many house seats in play they'll almost certainly lose the majority, but we may not see a shellacking.

57:14Now, if it's Republicans controlling the Senate and Democrats controlling the House, which remains the most likely outcome, that's not great for the president's agenda on the face of it, but it might get more things done because you may be better off passing bills through a Republican or Democratic House that have appeal in the Senate. So from a point of view of accomplishing things may not be the things that the base wants, but for getting stuff done in his last few years, he may be better off losing the House. I'm going to give you two words why Republicans must maintain control of the Senate.

57:48Yeah. Sam Alito. Yeah. That is why they must maintain control of the Senate. My sources are saying he is the most likely to retire under President Trump. And I believe he's likely to do it. and you cannot get a justice confirmed to fill that slot with a Democrat-controlled Senate. I just don't know how President Trump will get one confirmed. I really don't. I think they'll reject everyone. And even if Alito were to announce tomorrow, they'd have to go. They'd have to go quickly because the Democrats will do everything within their power to slow it down. You could get it done. We're only in April, and the election's not until November.

58:32But like tick tock, you know, time time is wasting. And so if there's any chance Alito really is going to step down and I know Thomas is older and more people are looking at him. My own information is Thomas doesn't want to go and isn't prepared to go. So whatever, it's the Republicans would still have the majority, even if we had a Democrat controlled Senate and President Trump couldn't get his choice through. And then a Democrat won the White House and that seat turned blue. We'd still have five to four on the Supreme Court instead of six to three. But six to three is better. Yeah. As we've seen, some of these right leaning justices don't vote, you know, knee jerk with the conservatives who are before them.

59:13So you need a little buffer. Anyway, that's one of the many reasons. What would happen? I mean, if I agree with everything, what would happen? I agree with everything you said, but one point, which is if Alito retired, you know, soon after Democrats took the majority. And again, I don't think they want they're on track to do that right now. They basically have to win all of six races that are competitive and then another one. So I have to run the table on the six most favorable of the nine competitive races. They've got to run the table on six and then win one of the other three. I don't see that in the cards today.

59:47But here's where I disagree with you. I think if the president had a Democratic Senate and Alito left the slot shortly after Democratic majority, I don't think they can run out the clock for two years if the president nominates someone who's credentialed. Doesn't have to be a liberal. But if you nominate someone with a nice demeanor and a lot of credentials, I don't think Democrat. Why not? Why can't they just keep saying no? He doesn't have the score. I voted. I voted no. I think the public pressure would be pretty overwhelming. If it were if it were someone who the White House could sell as obviously qualified.

1:00:26I don't know. Two years is a long time to say the Supreme Court can't have a full bench. Mark. Yeah. Mark. They are so angry on the left about what's happened at the Supreme Court, right, with the seat that was supposed to go to Merrick Garland and the shenanigans that the Republicans pulled in order to not get a confirmation hearing going for him. the fact this is not Trump's fault, but they're very angry about Ruth Bader Ginsburg dying in office, not retiring early. But they're just so bitter around the Supreme Court that there is zero chance they're going to vote to confirm a Trump nominee.

1:01:08Zero. I think if it were a senator who other senators like, they could get 50 votes. Because remember, Republicans are only going to have if they lose the majority, the Democrats are only going to be it's it's very hard to see them be more than 51 49 52 48 is possible but very unlikely so if it's 51 49 and and you get all you need to get then is one democrat to flip and if you know you still you still would have to have the majority leader bring it to the floor and have a hearing and and you're right that the date base of the democratic party would say nope let's just have four justices or eight justices for a while.

1:01:46But my gut tells me, again, it will depend if it's in the last year, I agree with you. But if there's two years or closer to two years than one year, and you can say we've got 50 votes to confirm this person, and you'd only need Fetterman or one other Democratic senator, and if we're another senator whose senators liked, I really do think it would be hard to run at the clock for two years. Hmm. Hard, but I think they'd do it. I really do. They'd certainly be asked to do it. This is an issue that very much animates the left. In any event, we'll see. If Alito, Justice Alito, we all love you. Those of us on the right, love you.

1:02:23But if you are considering retiring, please, please do it soon because we just, we can't let it get anywhere close, I think, to November. And the Republicans will keep a speedy process if he does step down between now and November to make sure the Republican-controlled Senate, John Thune, and others over there will make sure it goes quickly and we get something to confirm. And don't be surprised if it does happen, if there is a retirement, whether it's Thomas or Alito. And I hear the same things you do about Alito being more likely. Don't be surprised if the White House has a nominee really quick.

1:02:54Not one of these, okay, now let's figure out who we're going to choose. But somebody pretty much locked in. Wait, when you said if it's a senator, are you thinking like Ted Cruz? I'm thinking who's like an accomplished lawyer in the U.S. Senate who's on the right, who could be counted on. I think Ted Cruz's approval ratings would go through the roof if he joined the U.S. Supreme Court. I think he's perfect for that job. I think he actually would be a very, very like a constitutional conservative. I know he's always been loathed by some portion of the population, and now he's got some of the right against him because he's Neo Connie.

1:03:29Um, but I think he'd probably do very well in that role. But anyway, your thoughts on that? Mike Lee, uh, Senator from, um, Missouri, who was former attorney general of Missouri. He might be AG. Yeah, but he could also be a Supreme Court justice. Those are, those would be. He's like becoming the Marco Rubio of the administration. He could go from Senator to AG to Supreme Court justice in the course of six months. Keep going. Those three are the ones that, uh, that, um, that I think are the most likely, uh, you You know, none of them are as young as it's been, you know, the En Vogue thing is to put somebody on the bench who's younger so they can, you know, be there for decades.

1:04:08But, you know, Ted's young. I think Ted Cruz is my age. That's young. Ketanji Brown Jackson was 54. All the articles were like, she's so young. I'm like, I love this. It's not old, but it's not, you know, 40. It's not spring chicken. decade. Yeah. Mike Lee's 52. So that's not, I mean, that's what, what, that is like, what would Don Lemon say? Beanie with the propeller hat in Supreme court age, Mark. No, Don Lemon would say they're past their prime. Right. Is that what he said? I was wondering how dare, how dare you, how dare you raise Don Lemon on this show? But I forgive it given the where it landed.

1:04:50All right. Let's talk about last night. Marjorie Taylor Greene's seat was being filled. She resigned early. This is a district in Northwest Georgia that is, I'm told, the reddest part of the peach state. The Republican did win. His name is Clay Fuller. He defeated the Democrat Sean Harris in a special runoff. And the headline is that in a district, Greene last won by 29 points And Trump won this district by 37 points. As of late Tuesday, the Republican won by 12 points, suggesting storm clouds on the horizon. Mark, your take on it. It doesn't suggest storm clouds on the horizon any more than we already thought based on the previous election results of 25 and 26.

1:05:41So it's not encouraging for Republicans, but I don't think it adds some new data point to what we already know, which you and I discussed, which is the president's approval rating is down nationally. The mood of the country is pretty sour. Republicans are perceived as the party in power. And if Democrats have good candidates, they can win or outperform where they performed last cycle. But we already knew that. So I'm not saying it's good for Republicans. I'm just saying I don't think it makes it worse than we already knew it's lining up to be currently. OK, then there was the result that happened recently where there was a special election down in Florida in the district that includes Mar-a-Lago, where Trump, of course, spends most of his time, part of his time.

1:06:28Last month, Republican John Maples, who Trump endorsed, lost a special election for a seat in a Florida statehouse district that includes Mar-a-Lago. And so he lost. And then North Carolina state Senate leader Phil Berger, a powerful leader in this state, narrowly lost his primary. So that's a loss in North Carolina and a loss in Florida for Republicans. Those, I think, are also significant when we're dealing with anything in a battleground state. uh and and you know it matters to the midterms it also matters to the presidential because we've had several cycles in a row where the same seven states decide who the president is florida used to be one of those states that decided and it's become in the trump era but very red state if florida becomes a purple state again that has huge implications for the presidential it really it gives the democrats the upper hand on the electoral college so So if you look at the Hispanic vote, the black vote, the youth vote, groups where Donald Trump performed very well in 2024, allowing him to not just win the White House, but win Florida in a major way.

1:07:36You look at Ron DeSantis' dominance in the state. That's why that matters a lot if you're thinking about the global national point of view. In terms of South Florida, Democrats have done very well lately in South Florida. And again, that's because it used to be a Democratic stronghold. It's become very potent under Donald Trump. If that swings back, that's a big deal. And that speaks to the politics of Florida and the demographics of the country. What about the Wisconsin Supreme Court? We had that massive battle over that one seat a year ago. Elon Musk was giving out checks for a million dollars to people who would register Republican or register a vote.

1:08:14You know, the implication was, hey, it should be Republican and you should vote Republican for this seat. Well, that went blue. That campaign by Elon did not work. The Democrat won that year by about 10 points. And now they've had an additional election. And the headline is with 95 percent of the votes in that the Democrat endorsed Chris Taylor defeated Republican endorsed Maria Lazar. that the Democrat had 60 % of the vote. The Republican had 39 % of the vote. So 21 point victory for the Dem. It's the fourth straight double digit victory for a liberal candidate on the Wisconsin Supreme Court dating back to 2020.

1:09:02And so now the liberals have a five to two advantage on the high court, which is not great for Republicans. This is another swing state. And the analysis here is that consolidating the liberal hold on the high court ahead of the next presidential election, when this swing state is sure to see challenges to election results, is a good thing for Team Blue. So how significant is that? That one's significant because of everything you just laid out and the history there. Wisconsin Supreme Court used to be a bulwark of conservatism. against the legislature and against uh uh when they had Democratic governors and Wisconsin is a state that Donald Trump won but has in other ways seemingly been drifting blue and it's key for the electoral college it's also although Pennsylvania is kind of supplanted it as the ultimate battleground state it's a very important battleground state not just in terms of the presidential electoral college but in terms of the mood of the country in terms of uh what issues matter to voters.

1:10:08So it's significant for the people of Wisconsin. It's significant demographically. One of the things that Republicans point to in that race, as they did in that race that Musk spent so heavily on, is weak candidates. You always say that if you lose an election that the press is making a big deal of, you say, well, we had a weak candidate. And they did. But there's a problem if you keep ending up with weak candidates. You've got to have a party apparatus that figures out how the electorate can choose and nominate strong candidates. And I think that excuse in that particular category of races, I think, is run a little bit dry.

1:10:42Republicans can't say every time they lose a Wisconsin state Supreme Court seat, well, we ran the wrong candidate. Yeah, you had notice. All right. So finally, how do you like the chances at this moment when you think about J.D. Vance versus Marco Rubio? Because there's a lot of debate about whose fortunes have risen, whose fortunes haven't in the wake of this whole Iran thing. We've got a ton of reporting on this, and I just haven't had time to write it up in part because of the war. Vance is not a sure thing anymore, but I don't believe there's any circumstances under which Rubio would challenge him.

1:11:18I think Vance may decide not to run because he's having a new baby and he's young enough to avoid this now if he doesn't feel it's his time and if that happens i think rubio would would be the consensus choice not just of the president which matters a ton obviously republican politics but a lot of the donors a lot of members of congress a lot of the consultant class elected officials so i think those two are remain head and shoulders above all the rest i think the most significant thing not really is the derivative of the war but but alone but of longer running is there's too many people in the party now who including the president some days i'm told who don't feel van should just have it you know handed to him that that it should be contested and if the president doesn't endorse fans this is binary if he endorses vance i think vance will be the nominee relatively easily if he doesn't endorse him not endorsing his vice president that's what ronald reagan did that's what bill clinton did uh that's what barack obama did.

1:12:15It's not the norm, but if he chooses not to, it will be a big deal that if he chooses not to. And I think the blood will be in the water and lots of people run against him, but I don't think it'll be Rubio. I think Rubio is the nominee of fans takes a pass, but otherwise I think he sits it out. What are you hearing over on the other team about who's, is anyone pulling away from the pack? I did my latest eight for 28 rankings of the most likely this week on NextUp, and no one's pulling away. And I think you're seeing a lot of these folks start to get serious about what does it take to run in terms of raising money, in terms of scrutiny, in terms of time on the road.

1:12:58I still think they're two aircraft carriers potentially running, guys who can build big national campaigns and handle the early, early Governor Newsom and Governor Shapiro, I think remain the two most likely. After that, it's very wide open. And I talked to over 30 strategists and elected officials, consultants about their views in reporting this out. And there's just not a lot of agreement. There are people who think Pete Buttigieg is strong and people think he shouldn't be on the list. Same with Kamala Harris, same with Rahm Emanuel. I think right now it's pretty wide open. And part of that is because it's a weak field.

1:13:33And part of that is it's the first time we haven't had, you know, a Biden or Obama or Clinton, you know, around. And so it's it's pretty wide open with the exception of Buttigieg and Harris. We're dealing with a lot of people who've never run before. And we'll just have to see what voters like. But I continue to say it's a bunch of people who want to be president, but haven't really explained why. Why isn't it Andy Beshear? Some people ask me that question because now we hear these reports that Democrats are realizing they might need a white Christian male. Yeah. The horror. Yeah. And if you're going that route, it's like right now you got and straight, by the way, if you go on that route, it's Gavin Newsom.

1:14:20Like his only he doesn't only has a couple of real competitors if that's the route you're going. But Andy Beshear would be one of them. But people don't seem to think much of his chances. Why? um i think that uh the the main reason is because uh he's not he's not a major league player uh you know with respect to my friends in kentucky and it's a hardball state in terms of state politics i think people don't see him as someone ready to step up and become an aircraft carrier he's the governor of why yeah yeah governor of kentucky raise the money uh be conversant with national and international issues build the networks required to run for president uh he He just doesn't seem to many of my sources to be ready for the big time involved here.

1:15:04A big leap for someone like that. I'm very skeptical. I don't have him this month. He's been on the list in past months, but I don't have him in the top eight right now. Do you have AOC in the top eight? I do. I think she's at six. And I don't think she's going to run. And when I put the list together, I put a big premium on my reporting and instinct about who will run in the end. because you can't run. You can't win if you don't run. And I don't think she wants to turn her life over to the rigors of a presidential. I think she'll force Chuck Schumer in retirement. She'll walk into a Senate seat.

1:15:40And I think that'll satisfy her for now. Mm-hmm. All right. So we got to listen to that next up. Which one was it? Which episode was it? What we call in the trades yesterday's, Tuesday's, the current episode. Okay, good, good, good, good. Everybody go and download that. You got to hear Halpern's take. It's about to be your season, Mark Halperin. The silly season of politics is coming back. I'm stretching. Full force in just a few short months. So buckle up. Great to see you, my friend. Thank you for having me. Good to see you, Megan. All right. And we're back in just a moment with some fun cultural stories that you may not have heard of.

1:16:14Now, this Newsom, this Jennifer Newsom, the wife of Gavin, this woman's got a whole host of hot mess history and stories to bring you. I like, she accidentally killed her sister? I like, what? That's next. When the dollar's convertibility into gold ended in 1971, gold was fixed at$35 an ounce. Fast forward to today and the US dollar has lost more than 85 % of its purchasing power. Gold, on the other hand, has increased in value by over 12 ,000%. That's why major firms like Vanguard and BlackRock hold significant positions in gold. And that's why you may want to consider diversifying your savings with physical gold from Birch Gold Group.

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1:19:14Turning now to some cultural news, and there's a lot of it. Kanye West, or Ye, is attempting another comeback, returning to the stage in Los Angeles with two sold-out shows last week, proving those who want him permanently canceled are losing. But the UK is not giving up without a fight. Meantime, new resurfaced clips of Gavin Newsom's first partner, Jennifer Newsom, are taking X by storm. And once you hear what she's saying, you will understand why. And the New York Times is looking into the trend of single women in their 40s, throwing themselves full-blown wedding-style birthday bashes. We're talking gowns, vows to themselves, the whole production just without the groom.

1:19:56Joining me now to talk about all that and for their Megyn Kelly show debuts, two hilarious voices on X. TV writer, Damileri Sanoiki. And he's a TV writer who has written for hits like Black-ish and The Simpsons. And Stephanie Tyler, founder of Bad Girl Media and the new fashion brand, Wesley. Welcome to you both. Thank you so much for being here. Hi, thanks for having me. Thank you. All right. So we got to start with this nutcase, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who is like, I mean, we figured she was pretty woke and left being married to Gavin Newsom, but what's going on? She casually references the fact that she accidentally killed her sister when she, Jennifer, was six years old, which I don't think most people knew.

1:20:47I, of course, have since gone and looked up the story, which I'll fill in the blanks on after this soundbite, but listen to this as she's recounting her talks with young juvenile offenders at San Quentin Prison. Watch this. Saw 20. I had to be very raw when we interviewed the young men who were juvenile offenders in San Quentin. I told them about my own loss where I lost my older sister a few days before my seventh birthday, and I blamed myself for her death. And I share that because that they ultimately were accused of committing these violent crimes and sentenced for life. And I think it shocked them that this, you know, blonde lady who was, you know, interviewing them had a similar story, was perhaps in the wrong place at the wrong time.

1:21:44and but wasn't punished the way they were because clearly it was an accident but theirs was probably an accident too um so anyway i share that just because i it i guess you know i quite enjoy spending time with people and being real and unmasking and showing them that it's safe to unmask themselves beautiful beautiful phone. What? Everything about that was a record scratch, right? It's like, wait, everyone who's in juvenile prison got there by accident. They committed just an accidental crime. All of them, there's absolutely no accountability. And then there's a story of the sister, which is horrifically tragic.

1:22:29This is what happened. Here I'm reading from Hindustan Times, but I got it earlier from the New York Post. She was a six-year-old playing with her eight-year-old sister in Hawaii. The older sister was Stacy and with other children on golf carts when the family was vacationing in Hawaii in 1981. The cart Jennifer was in suddenly went into reverse. I assume she was driving. Otherwise she wouldn't blame herself. Killing Stacy, Jennifer had not noticed that her sister had been hiding out, I guess, crouching behind the vehicle. And she's had to live with that ever since in what she refers to as survivor's guilt.

1:23:11It's awful. I mean, frankly, that's the parents' fault for letting six-year-olds be at the wheel of golf carts. But what do you make of the whole story there, Damilari? Because it's like, she packed a lot in that 40-second soundbite. Well, yeah, I think it tells you a lot about how those type of people, I guess you'd call them libs, see the world, which is that nothing is anyone's fault, right? It's all an accident. And I think it shows that a lot of people's realities can't, a lot of people's politics can't survive contact with reality. Like if you've actually met people in prison or met people who have committed violent crimes, like it's usually not some innocent accident.

1:23:48You know, I think that just, it just shows how out of touch she is. Right. And explains a lot about her husband's policies on crime, Stephanie, and a lot of the leftist policies on crime in general. They really don't think most people who are in prison belong there. Oh yeah. And I don't know, for me, the first thing I thought of was Gavin says like, he can relate to black people because he can't read. And now she's relating to prisoners because she killed her sister, which I don't know. It's, I don't know. It's a stretch. I just want to say, I can read, you know, so I can read. And so I just don't relate to Gavin on that level.

1:24:24You It's tough for me because I do know how to read. And so when I heard him say that, it made me really just confused. Oh, yeah. I mean, it wasn't just that he can't read. It was like he's talking about his low SAT score. Like, I'm just like you. Stupid. I mean, that's what he thinks of black people. He didn't say it that explicitly, but he might as well have. Well, it's also funny because how often, once every four years, these people go into the black church and they go get chicken and waffles and they go to 125th Martin Luther King or 125th and Lennox in Harlem, and they just disappear for four years.

1:25:00And so it's just funny. It's like, oh, I know that there's an election coming up because you're pandering again. Mm-hmm. All right, here's some more girl power. You're gonna like this, Stephanie. This is in case you woke up feeling disempowered today. Jennifer Newsome is here for you in SOT 22. Like every problem that we have in society right now will be fixed when women come together and partner with our male allies and other allies. But when more women are in the rooms making decisions, changing the status quo and transforming not just our culture, but our society and our economy. I'll give you one example.

1:25:37Look at Silicon Valley. Had more women been early on in those companies or at the tables of power making decisions, I don't think we would have so much or have allowed for so much sort of bigotry, racism, misogyny, and hate online. Think about who's the victims online more often than not. It's women, LGBTQ +, marginalized communities, women of color. Thoughts on that, Stephanie? I mean, it's the same thing that Domilare already said. It's always the system getting you, and there's no accountability. Everybody's picking on us. the patriarchy, more women in the rooms. What does that even mean? I think when I was in women's studies, this is something that they talked a lot about.

1:26:32Basically, it was a failure to be a stay-at - home mom. You need to be out there working. I don't agree with more women in the rooms. It's what we need to hold space so we can all talk about our feelings and nothing gets done. A lot of the times the stuff that they're calling bigotry and, you know, like oppression is just is literally what it takes to move the ball forward in a business. And I don't know that they understand that. I don't know. Plus, it's like there actually have been women in very big roles in tech virtually from the beginning. Sheryl Sandberg comes to mind who had an early seat on the Google rocket ship and then went on to be Mark Zuckerberg's number two at Facebook now meta for the vast majority of its existence.

1:27:21Elizabeth Holmes, they tried their luck with her at the helm of one of Silicon Valley's most storied companies. How'd that work out? Susan Wojcicki, who was running YouTube for many, many years, an offshoot of Google. It's a very, very large company it's like i'm not sure these women were the antidote that she seems to think or she seems to be kind of clueless that they were even there domileri like in her world they just didn't exist and that's why we had mean people in silicon valley also there's ursula burns she was the first black and the first female ceo of a fortune 500 company of xerox but i think this you know when i see that clip it makes me think about that 2024 map where you had all the arrows pointing right and you have the entire country shift right and i think a lot of that was driven by men and i think when you see that type of dialogue of like hey you know women and look obviously we all love women we're all pro women but it's like when you see that type of dialogue that's about you're just women we need more women women this i think about how you know how that's how you have a sneeko andrew tate uh a clavicular like if you see the the rise of all these you know manosphere look smaxing bone smashing you know all this stuff i think it's men feeling like they've been chased out or they've been painted as the enemy, right?

1:28:39Because if you're, I mean, there are only men and women, right? I mean, well, I mean, people disagree about that, but that's what I think, I think. But so when you're saying, you know, men, when you're saying, you know, women, you're kind of saying, okay, not men. And I think even though your intentions might be good, what you're creating is this next generation of when you see, you know, like I said, the Sneakos and the claviculars, and people feel this manosphere, this looks maxing and all this stuff. How did that come about? It's like, well, yeah, you spent the last 10 years saying, you see what they did to Brett Kavanaugh, right?

1:29:11Like you spent the last 10 years kind of demonizing, even if - They try to ruin a man's life. So I think it's, I think - So that's very interesting because she raises Andrew Tate in this next soundbite. Like she doesn't think she's the reason for Andrew Tate. She thinks she's the solution to Andrew Tate. Here's a little bit more from Jennifer Newsom, Sat21. Boys that spend time online are moving a little bit, I'm trying not to be political here, but are moving to the right and being sort of influenced by the Andrew Tates and some of that sort of alt-right socialization online that we know is very, very dangerous.

1:29:50My husband and I were alarmed when our kids were watching sports online and my son knew about Andrew Tate. and thought he was pretty cool and thought that his Republican grandfather, my father, would like Andrew Tate. So that's scary. While we're working on legislation to hold tech companies accountable and help them be a force for good in our kids' and families' lives, to really provide all the best-in-class resources and support for youth so that they don't go down this rabbit hole of very, very dangerous and limiting narratives around ultimately what it means to be a girl and what it means to be a boy.

1:30:31Okay. There was a lot in that one too, Stephanie. So first of all, we know her son is also, was also into Charlie Kirk, which Gavin Newsom admitted to Charlie when they sat across from each other. And her, like, I, I heard a very interesting New York Times profile on clavicular, who for the listening audience, if you don't know, is a young, he's like 20 so-called looks max, or he invented the term. He's this like six foot two, 180 pound guy who's like, it's very important for guys to be angular and muscly and like virile. Although he actually doesn't care about virality according to the writer of this piece because his is being ruined by the multiple medications he's on, which he openly admits include like the medication to not lose your hair.

1:31:15And I think possibly some steroids too, if memory serves, which affects sexual function. And he says it doesn't matter. Like what's important is maxing out your looks. Anyway, the point is after I heard this, I asked my own 16-year-old, have you ever heard of clavicular? A boy. And my son's, my 16-year-old's a boy. And he's like, oh yeah, everybody knows who that is. I'm like, oh really? And I was like, what do you know about him? And he gave me like two lines on him. And then we moved on. He's not an influence in my son's life. I didn't think we need to censor the internet. I didn't go to some tech forum talking about how these executives need to crack down on the internet so that my 16-year-old would never have to hear about who.

1:31:50It's like you raise your kid with good values. You don't fear this kind of thing, Stephanie. Well, I just think this is also part of the pendulum, doing pendulum things, because probably when you live in a house with, sorry, but a bunch of pussies, you're going to think that people like, I mean, I'm not saying that Andrew Tate is a good influence by any means. But when, you know, that's the other side of the pendulum. And when you aren't used to seeing that, there are probably some things that seem interesting to you. I don't know. Yeah, the more verboten it is, the more these kids are probably going to be attracted to it, or at least interested in clicking on it and seeing what it's all about.

1:32:33Well, I mean, she said she changes the name of protagonists in stories from men to women, which, or, you know, if it's a male protagonist that she's reading a story to her kids, she'll change the name to just be a woman or the pronoun to be a woman. And I don't know, that's also, that's like lying and weird. I don't, I imagine. And unnecessary. Yeah, the kids, not that she reads the Bible to them, but the kids grow up and they're like, oh, wait, it's not Nora's arc. Noah's arc. Like, I don't know. It's so stupid. Yeah, it's like, I will say, I don't think Clifford Miller invented a lick smacking.

1:33:10I don't think he would say that. But I think your point about verboten is very true. I often think about what I call the Eminem principle, right? Who was the biggest rapper in the 2000s? It was Eminem. And a lot of parents would say, hey, you can't listen to Eminem. You can't listen to Eminem. You're not listening to Eminem. He swears he does this. So what do people do? They go and they try and download or buy Eminem. And I think you see a lot of that with anything in culture. It could even be Trump, right? Trump is forbidden. He's bad. And it's like, okay, I want to check that out. And so I think this just shows that they don't have control of their household.

1:33:39They need to bring in legislation to keep influences out. Mm-hmm. Now, on the subject of like messaging to girls, you raised this a minute ago, Stephanie, about how it's still notwithstanding our efforts on the right to normalize being a stay-at-home mom as a totally valid choice and just as empowering as going on to be a CEO, we still have work to do. The opposite message is still out there and certainly dominates the left and they control us, you know, our media and our culture and our Hollywood movies and so on. Which brings me to Chelsea Handler and the following soundbite from this 51-year-old woman in Sat32.

1:34:16I like traveling a lot. I like hooking up with guys. I don't like to get too serious. I don't want someone in my space all the time. I just am not interested in that, you know? It's such a different way to live. Nobody's ever that honest about that. Do you see yourself committing to, like, I don't know, marriage or being with somebody? but you said you've never been with somebody for that long. Like, could you? I just think marriage is so outdated. Really? It's just a really silly idea. But, you know, since I've bemoaned marriage my whole entire public life, I would be really hypocritical for me to get married, which means I'll probably do it.

1:34:54You know, at some point I might just go, okay, fuck it. I'm, you know, I'm 50 years old, so I might as well just go get married. What, you know, what could go wrong at this point? But I don't care about marriage. I don't care about that kind of like, I feel like that's a very patriarchal thing. Anyway, you're kind of like, yeah, property a little bit. Oh, oh, it's marriage is patriarchal. It's much more fun to just hook up with guys all the way into your menopause years as she is now 51 and has, I guess, absolutely no desire to have a deep, meaningful connection with another human who's her partner in life and potentially father to a children.

1:35:32Yeah, I mean, I guess I thought that was cool when I was 22 and also, you know, a liberal and, you know, still figuring out who I was like, oh, I'll never get married, whatever. But yeah, I think when you're that age and I just don't know if I believe it either what she's saying, even the bit about how she's like, well, now I can't do it because it would make me a hypocrite. It's like you're so attached to the things that you believe and you won't, you're not willing to update those beliefs at any time because of how it'll make you look. I mean, so you haven't grown at all your whole life. You just still feel the, yeah.

1:36:12And then there's obviously other, you know, biologically and we need shared resources obviously makes more sense, a mother to take care of children while a man can go work and make money. And yeah, I could go on for a while on that, but I'll let you talk. What an outdated view of marriage. You become your husband's property, Deller? Like, okay, what are, you know, 1700 called and they'd like your definition of marriage back? Yeah. It sounds a little bit like Cope. You know, I know she dated 50 cents, so maybe she just, you know, things didn't work out with her and her and 50 cents. But I think also this whole idea of, you know, marriage is patriarchal.

1:36:46You know, when I grew up, I still listen to a lot of rap, a lot of hip-hop, a lot of watch a lot of NBA basketball, and a lot of icons in those places are people who came from single-parent households and came from poverty, Tupac or different rappers and basketball players. And I used to think that coming from a single-parent household or whatever was some sort of projected that you would do well in life. As I got older, I realized it's actually the opposite. If you look at any sort of linear or longitudinal study of people's success, come from a stable two-parent household, whether it's sports, it's music, anything, you know, increases your chances for success in life.

1:37:23So I think just this idea of preaching that it's this negative thing, marriage is actually this very stable thing. You know, it's a very great thing. It's an incredible thing that's been invented that really promotes stability and prosperity. That also brings it full - She's another one who like, you can't go on the internet. If you go on the internet every day, you can't go very long without seeing another picture of Chelsea Handler naked, and in an exhibitionist kind of way, like she's desperate for us to see her without her clothes. It's like, maybe if she had taken another route where she fulfilled herself with connections to others, including in a long-term love relationship, where if you do it right, your love only deepens and grows and becomes more profound over time.

1:38:07And you don't feel the need to be affirmed by the internet. She wouldn't be doing that all the time. I'm like, I do feel to each her own. If you don't want to get married and you want to live a life where you're still running around looking for your next date at age 51, okay, that's fine. But it's such a bill of goods to hold it out to young women, Stephanie, is something that could really like, that's something that's nine times out of 10 going to make them happy. It's not. It's the opposite. it. Yeah, and I think it comes full circle as well to back to Newsom or his wife. Yeah, that stuff doesn't happen.

1:38:46His life partner? Oh, yes, she's the first partner. Yeah, that's crazy. But it comes full circle because it's not an accident that some of these kids have ended up in these situations. It is literally what's taught ideologically, oh, marriage is part of the patriarchy and you don't want to be somebody's property and yada yada yada so destroy the nuclear family and then what happens you have kids getting in a lot of accidents are happening and you know yeah a lot of people she's got air quotes are on accident killing their brother and sister or worse yeah just act accidentally totally accidentally uh where they you know joined a gang and shot somebody gang style for an initiation like we see in the south side of Chicago.

1:39:37Okay, keeping it going, Ye, Ye West is making a comeback. You know, he had a couple of very rough years with all the, you know, anti-Semitism and praising of Hitler and all the stuff that he did. And then he came out with a full-throated apology saying, you know what, I've got a problem. I'm bipolar. And when you are in this sort of manic phase, you think you can do no wrong and say no wrong. And you can, but you don't believe it when people tell you. And I think he's asking for another chance. You know, he's had a couple of chances, but he's asking for another chance. And I think like most people are saying in sort of the left wing culture are saying, no, the UK is literally telling him, no, he can't even come into the United Kingdom, which is crazy because of his controversial views for which he's apologized.

1:40:25It's not like he killed anybody. and he's, but he's doing it his way down the area. He's like, okay, I'm still gonna launch concerts. He's made$33 million off of the first two, I think it is. So what do you make of this dynamic now where he's still officially canceled, but the people are the ones who ultimately decide whether you're canceled or not? I'm glad you asked that. I think, you know, when I think about the shift, I think about that era, right? We all remember that November, you know, whatever day that was, 2024, before when you saw those arrows pointing right. And I think one of the biggest things that caused that shift, especially amongst young men, is that culture on the left of just trying to destroy people totally.

1:41:06Like I'm very, you know, anti-Semitism is awful. A lot of my close friends are Jewish. You know, a lot of my favorite artists are Jewish. But I think that this idea, this idea on the left that's just punished totally, to just destroy someone. And I think that they had this idea of like, oh, cancel culture. It's not cancel culture. It's consequence culture. We just want accountability. And I think one thing that's really good about Trump, he never apologizes. One thing you notice about Trump, he never apologizes. And I think it's the right instinct because these people who are trying to cancel someone, they don't want you to kill yourself.

1:41:36I generally think that they want you to die. They want you to just never be able to work again, to never— You wouldn't behave differently. If that were your goal, you would behave no differently than these leftist cancellation lovers. I think it's just sick. I think it's not Christ-like. If you think about the story of the Bible, it's about redemption. It's about forgiveness. this. It's about the prodigal son, you know, returning. And I think that this idea, like, you know, he's lost billions. He lost his marriage. He's lost, you know, his business partnerships. And I think that it just shows that this idea that we were sold during the peak, what we call peak woke, peak cancel culture, that it's just about, you know, accountability and apologizing and growing.

1:42:13It's like, no, they want to see you destroyed. They want, and I think kudos to Kanye, kudos to people who keep going, who persevered through this, because I think that you cannot let them win. Keep going is literally the best advice for anyone facing cancellation of any kind. Just keep going. You don't have to handle it with grace. You don't have to handle it well. You just have to keep going to win. Here's Nigel Farage, Stephanie, over there in the UK on their refusal to allow him into the country. SOT30. But I think if we start banning people from entering the country because we don't like what they say, I worry where that ends up.

1:42:54I worry where that ends up. So I think it's a dangerous path to go down. Pretty extraordinary. They're throwing people in jail for their opinions over there and now banning them from even entering. I mean, if you were a terrorist, if you were a terrorist coming on a boat, they'd walk in with open arms. Yeah, exactly right. You go, Stephanie. I have one minute to break and then I'm going to hold you guys over for a bit. That's actually what I was going to say. They have no problem with these rapists with I mean, they just welcome them and make every excuse in the world for them. But when it comes to speech, it's the end of the world.

1:43:28Yeah. And thank God we have people like Nigel Farage over there trying to stand up for what's right. But the majority opinion in the UK is already gone. It is gone. So, Kanye, yay. I don't think that's the place for you. I think you got to stick to America where we're we're not as tolerant as we used to be or as we should be. but we still are the most tolerant nation you're gonna find on earth. Okay, stand by because we gotta get to this crazy story about these 40-year-old women throwing themselves weddings when it's really just their birthday. And also the latest on Brian Noem. What a doozy of an update.

1:44:00You can only imagine. We'll tell you what happened next. Don't go away. Hey everyone, it's me, Megan Kelly. I've got some exciting news. I now have my very own channel on Sirius XM. It's called the Megan Kelly Channel and it is where you will hear the truth, unfiltered, with no agenda and no apologies. Along with The Megyn Kelly Show, you're going to hear from people like Mark Halperin, Link Lauren, Maureen Callahan, Emily Jashinsky, Jesse Kelly, Real Clear Politics, and many more. It's bold, no BS news, only on The Megyn Kelly Channel, Sirius XM 111, and on the Sirius XM app.

1:44:38Back with our guests in a minute, but first I want to bring you this breaking news. We told you in the first hour of our show today about how when the Pakistani prime minister announced the ceasefire that had been reached between the United States and Iran, he mentioned that one of the terms was the bombing of Lebanon by Israel would stop. and that then it didn't stop. And Bibi Netanyahu said that's not one of the deal terms, notwithstanding what the prime minister of Pakistan, who helped broker this deal reportedly, said. And then President Trump spoke with the PBS reporter on whom he hung up, but not before saying, no, Lebanon's not part of the deal.

1:45:20Well, now Iran is weighing in, in a post online by its foreign minister that reads as follows. The Iran-U.S. ceasefire terms are clear and explicit. The U.S. must choose ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both. The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments. And he is retweeting the announcement by that Pakistani prime minister, and he has highlighted where he writes, along with their allies, The U.S., along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon.

1:46:03So he is citing the very same thing that we cited to you, the statement by the prime minister of Pakistan, as evidence that this was part of the deal and saying it's up to us that we have to choose ceasefire or continued war via Israel, but we're not going to have Israel attacking Lebanon and continue the ceasefire. That's where we are at 2.01 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, April 8th. We'll get back to you. First, we resume our cultural panel. Two great follows on X. That's how we found them, Damilari Sanoiki and Stephanie Tyler. Thank you both again so much for being here. I want to kick this piece off with Brian Noem, who is Kristi Noem's husband.

1:46:49Absolutely no, we're taking a break. announcements. We're going to have a trial separation. They're just going to, you know, grit it out because it seems obvious she's known for a long, long time. I mean, I think most people believe that it's been an open secret at the White House. There's no way everybody at the White House knew and Kristi Noem didn't know. She's been having reportedly, they deny a long affair with Corey Lewandowski. I don't know what's going on with this marriage, but I do find this fetish bizarre and the updates on him are kind of riveting. All right. So here's the latest. He paid a lot of women who are part of this so-called bimbofication fetish to like talk dirty with him over the phone, like a FaceTime, I guess, and to wear their little outfits and to let him wear his little outfits too as some sort of like kink.

1:47:39and I've been in touch with one of these women who's given me like a bunch of information on him, including we broke earlier this week that he told her he had entered sex rehab, I believe out in South Dakota. Obviously it didn't work out. And now there's one who is speaking out to the Daily Mail. Here she is in an on-camera soundbite that she gave to them about what would happen. Her name is Nicole Racogno, and she is an OnlyFans Barbie doll fetish, quote, model. Those breasts are in the N category. They're a 38N, Stephanie. We did not know that N even existed in the broad department. I'm sure it's special order.

1:48:31But here is what she has to say about her conversations with the married Brian Noem. He was like, I want to be your slave. I want to call me slave. And I was like, okay, that's why his name has been slave for five and a half years. So I call him slave babe. He would say, hi, boob God, your boobs are so good. You're so perfect. You're the boss. It was just a fun bimbo fantasy girlfriend. There was no kind of like wanting to be a girl or anything. There was one thing. It was only very small. He was like, I'd love to be a bimbo like me. Right. And he just said he liked a pink thong. I think I was pretty special to him.

1:49:11I don't think he bought other girls rings, red bottoms, Louis Vuitton purses, fillers. You know, I don't know, though, there could be more. He did. He did. I'm sorry to tell you. Yeah, Nicole, he did buy others because I have it on good authority that there's at least one man whose very large breast implants he paid for. And I've seen pictures of that chest now totally deflated with the enormous implants out, and it's a nightmare. I think he was buying quite a few people breast implants, fillers, gifts. And so I don't know what was going like. Was this all Kristi Noem's salary plus his insurance job paying for this?

1:49:52I don't know. I hate to think it was our tax dollars, but it appears to have been. And here's a little extra element for you, Stephanie. She produced a text exchange between the two of them where he wrote to her, would love to marry you. And then he added, how are you going to pay off? And she replies, all paid. And he writes how, and then he responds back to her, use my Amex. I'm not sure what this means, but then he gushed and further messages, quote, I seem to be falling in love with you. I do love you. I effing want to pay it because you're the one that I love. I would love to marry you. So there's been quite a discussion in the wake of this revelation that he's got this fetish about whether this is cheating or whether it's a harmless online fetish slash kink, no different from like the way, you know, your whatever older brother used to look at Playboy back in the day.

1:50:52It's just as harmless as that. You tell me whether you agree. I don't think it's harmless. I don't get it. First of all, I do not understand any of that appeal, but I don't think it's harmless. I think there is something deeply perverted happening on both sides of that. And one person is enabling it. Again, how? Don't know. But But no, I think that's far from harmless. It's disgusting. Sorry. What do you think, Damalari? Because, you know, I don't know that he ever took those texts or, you know, I love yous to a physical encounter. So far from what we know, it seems to have been enough for him to don the little hot pink biker shorts, or this woman says thong, himself, and put on the big fake boobs and and get off on dirty talk with these ladies?

1:51:50I'm kind of of two minds of it. I think on the one hand, if you're not harming anyone, to each their own, people have different interests. I like to play basketball. I like to go to Equinox and lift weights. I've never thought about what I would look like with gigantic mommy milk or titties, but to each their own. Not even in the past week? You didn't even give a second thought? No, no. There was that one time. No, I think that, but on the other hand, I do think this type of deviance, First of all, it shows poor judgment, right? You're taking pictures. Your wife is in a very senior government position.

1:52:21This creates material that you could be compromised by. So it shows poor judgment. And I also think about, I mean, so we're both true crime. We both love true crime. I think about BTK, right? BTK, he was really into that stuff. He wasn't into wearing, putting on this weird, taking these weird pictures and putting on women's clothing. And not everyone who cross dresses is a serial killer. but it just, you know, it does give a little bit of pause. I mean, I think the vast majority of American spouses, male or female would easily classify this as cheating. You know, you're telling another person you love them.

1:52:58You're asking to see them. I'm sure it was naked. I'm sure she wasn't wearing her little, looks like a wrestling singlet that most of these women wear, you know, like teeny tiny little strips over the N size breast. N, N, we're down in the middle of the alphabet. But I think it's absolutely cheating. Well, Madison Cothoran, it makes me think about what Madison Cothoran said about there's being weird stuff going on. You know, I live in LA. People are like, you know, there are these eyes wide shut parties. And you hear that about DC, about just this weird stuff. And Madison Cothoran said it's on both sides.

1:53:25You know, these weird, just weirdness. And I think as you elevate in society, there's just this weird stuff. You know, I don't know how to deal with it. Oh, in news two, the stories I could tell you. Now, like, I can't name who it is, but trust me when I tell you there is a pair of news individuals out there that is big time into the swinger parties. And like, it's just crazy because these people are on people's screens every night as like, OK, legitimate, serious news people. And like the compromise that people have on them is amazing. I just have to leave it at that. It's just a little tease for you.

1:54:05I would not besmirch them by revealing it. I don't know firsthand. I'm happy to tell you we've been reliably informed by more than one person that this is true. So that's sadly, Kristi Noem's marriage. Good luck to her. They should just get a divorce. She clearly wants to be with Corey Lewandowski. He's also married. Like, I realize some people are totally against divorce. They don't believe in no fault divorce, but like, it's here for a reason. Like get out of that marriage. They're all relatively young. their mid-50s, you have your whole life, you know, what, 30, maybe 40 years ahead of you, fucking get a divorce, go live the life you want to live.

1:54:41I don't, like, I can't imagine staying in a marriage where, like, you've got that going on while you're at work. You got to worry about your husband stealing your little outfits and shoving big balloons down them and then getting off with some bimbo model online. It's a nightmare. Okay. Now, back to Chelsea Handler. She's not the only one who is living well into her life without getting married. And I guess just happy that she hasn't. There is a new thing where you, if you are 40 years old or having a big birthday, let's say it's 40, that seems to be the age for these women. Instead of throwing yourself like a massive birthday party, like rent the villa in Italy or whatever people do, you throw yourself a wedding.

1:55:25So these are single gals who never got married and they're throwing themselves wedding complete with the wedding gown, the veil, the band, like everything. Here's one, here's some video of it. But I think we have a real soundbite, don't we? Of one of the gals, no, do we not have that cut? Okay, it's just the video. So here's this gal having, it looks like a wedding, but it is not a wedding because there is no groom and that, or spouse of any kind, and that pretty much undermines the entire possibility of the word wedding. So you tell me whether this is something that's very promising or very sad, because I have to tell you, when I started to read about it, at first I was ready to totally mock them.

1:56:12Then when I read, I was like, oh God. So this is in the New York Times that was profiled just a couple of days ago. Brittany Allen, a content creator based in New York, Initially, she did not set out to plan a wedding-like celebration, but she quickly realized that many of the elements she wished to include in her, I guess, 40th birthday, such as speeches from guests and a slideshow of baby photos, felt like moments that happen at a wedding. So Miss Allen decided, why don't I just do all the things I've waited for? She posted several videos of her weekend-long celebration on social media, which she called her, quote, wedding birthday.

1:56:54She was walking down the aisle. She said this is for anybody who's wanted to do that while Canon D is playing on the violin and looking out at all your favorite people tearing up while they watch you. It's fucking epic. I have zero regrets, she said. wear the damn white dress. I'm feeling single tier vibes for her, Stephanie. I don't know. This is a person who I feel like she, she kind of wants to get married this gal. She couldn't do it. And now she's, she's marrying herself. It's weird. I don't get it. And why, why a wedding though? I thought the patriarchy was bad. Why are we doing a wedding?

1:57:40Why not just have this elaborate birthday party? If you want all the attention on yourself and you want to show baby photos. I mean, I genuinely can't understand it. I've always hated my birthday personally. I don't, it makes me feel weird. Maybe that's part of my trauma or something, but I don't like getting gifts and opening them in front of people. It just is weird. So this idea that, yeah, you're going to go put on a white dress, like it's just so strange. I don't get it. I know. It's so, it feels narcissistic and so self-indulgent and, you know, egotistic in a way. I don't know. What do you make of it, Demolari?

1:58:15It feels like cope, honestly, you know, if you wanted to get married and you didn't, and it's tough because she, I mean, she looks beautiful. I don't know why she wouldn't be married, but what you said about marrying yourself. So I live in LA and there are a lot of people who are influencers. And I remember I had this one influencer friend who would talk about, you know, dating myself. I'm sure Stephanie, you've noticed that people talk about, I'm just, I'm dating myself right now. And I was like, well, you know, take yourself on a date. I'm like, you can't take yourself on a date. A date, you know, it means multiple people.

1:58:40And I think every time I've ever met somebody who's doing the, oh, I'm taking myself on a date, I'm dating myself They just got through like the most devastating breakup Just like just a horrible, terrible breakup And so it's a level of cope And so I think this is probably a similar thing where it's like things didn't work out for you In that department And so now you're like, oh, well, I can still do it myself But like you can't date yourself, you can't marry yourself And these people are young, they're beautiful Are people dating? Like do you see, because I fear that people are not dating, they don't know how to do it anymore Or are they like so obsessed with the online dating?

1:59:12Like, are people dating? Well, Stephanie, are you dating? I don't know. I don't talk about my personal life anymore because I had someone close to me. Literally, it was like cancellation by proxy. So I just stay away from that. But I mean, yeah, I, of course. The internet loves cancellation by proxy. I've experienced that. I think I hear about Gen Z not really dating. And if that's true, I think I can understand it. If you saw what happened, Aziz Ansari got canceled for a bad date. And I think that everyone's nervous. You used to be able to meet people. I mean, I think, unfortunately, the three places that you meet people, friends and romantic partners, it's school, church, and work.

1:59:51And so adulthood, you're not in school anymore. Church, people are just less religious and going to church less. And work, everyone's remote and work has been HRified where there could be a big risk. And so, yeah, I do wonder. I do wonder people, maybe they're not dating. Maybe that's why people are having these strange, I'm hearing myself. I feel bad for her. Back in my day, there wasn't online dating. And the only way you would get a date as a guy is to ask for it. And the system was still set up such that the onus was pretty much on men to do the courting and on women to decide whether they would accept the invite.

2:00:29And that was a system that worked for like thousands of years. It worked very well. Everyone understood what was expected of them. There was nothing weird or inappropriate about a man doing it. and the woman, generally women would know that you should be polite in saying no if your answer's no. This is like still a social risk by this guy. But like it wasn't a devastating event for the man either because they took lots of shots. It was the system for meeting people. And I almost feel like online dating really screwed up the system for meeting people to the point where even that doesn't work anymore.

2:01:02People are sick of it. They don't like it. And now they've come up, there's like a couple generations that just don't even know how to do it anymore. Elon with the birth rate stuff, right? I think that ties into what's going on with Elon's sort of fascination with birth rates. And it's, you know, it's a strange time. You know, I think the past 10 years, and also going back to what Ms. Newsome said about sort of anti-male rhetoric, you know? What do you think, Stephanie? No, that's exactly what I was gonna say, actually, is just this feminization of men men and making men feel like they can't be forward or, you know, it's scary out there, I'm sure, because you can get canceled for just about anything.

2:01:46I mean, I guess we're past the peak of that. But for a while there, I mean, I think Domilary mentioned Aziz and that was literally a bad date that he got canceled for or a woman couldn't say no or whatever. um so i just think we've put men in a bad spot where why why try it you know there's consent but it's like oh well it was forced coercion and there's just all this new talk around it can't it i don't know it just doesn't i feel bad for men no yeah the age gap stuff too where it's like oh well you were born you know i'm two weeks older than you so that's this predatory you know the Gen Z, I think.

2:02:25I sound like an old man, I guess. Well, that's why we're seeing the rise of people like Andrew Tate, because, you know, when you've completely feminized and emasculated a generation of men, then you see somebody come along with, you know, testosterone coming out of his ears. It can seem like the antidote. You know, it's like, oh, OK, someone who's if you divorce Andrew Tate from all those videos you've seen of him being very abusive toward women and you just sort of hear his persona, you know, you might not know he's got that other very dark side. And you just see somebody who's like sort of radically male and tough and testosterone filled.

2:03:03It can feel like an antidote. So I understand it. I just feel like we need to get back to like men and boys, you know, older boys, whatever, teenage boys, learning how to just ask somebody out, take the L. If it's a no, put themselves out there. And for women to understand this is a gift, this is a great system. It doesn't mean that you can never do it as a woman, but generally gals, if you are the pursuer, you're losing. Men are biologically designed to pursue. And we're, you know, that they're kind of going after the prey. It's like the lion and the gazelle. And if you're pretending to be the lion and he's the gazelle.

2:03:38It's not a good long-term formula. To girls, you don't want to wind up with a gazelle. Okay, so anyway, I feel sorry for the 40-year-old fake brides. I think the solution to their problem is getting introduced to somebody and not faking a wedding. Last but not least, we've got to talk about what happened with the SNL, Saturday Night Live crew, which sat down with Vanity Fair for an interview where they all kind of piled in and they started talking about their lives and this one cast member took a left turn that was so bizarre that they wound up having to strip it from the piece. It was, okay, so her name is Chloe Fineman and she starts to launch into this story about abusing a little boy at the camp where she was a counselor.

2:04:33and everyone, even on the SNL cast, was horrified at this story to the point where Vanity Fair had to sterilize the story before they put it, because it's video. They do like video vignettes for their website. They had to sterilize it and take out most of her admissions to try to make it sound a little less disturbing than it was, but they then also posted the full video, so everybody found out anyway. You know, they tried, I guess, to bury it elsewhere, but everybody found it. and now there's a backlash against Vanity Fair for doing this and against this bizarre person, Chloe Fineman, for speaking about this incident so cavalierly and for doing it in the first place.

2:05:14Here is the uncensored clip. You know, I was fired as a camp counselor. For hitting on the campers? No, I pantsed a boy. Oh, honey, I think you're on a list somewhere. And he wasn't wearing underpants. Oh! And then a giant school bus drove by, and they were like, you can't, like, because he would lift my shirt all the time. What is happening? It was Berkeley. How old was the child? He was like six. No, it was a different time. Like, he would be like, hey, can I have a hug? And I'd go to hug him, and then he'd lift my shirt like a dick. And then I was like, I'm gonna get back at you. And so we were on a hike, and I was like, hey, Ollie, go look over there, it's a hawk.

2:05:56And he looked. And then I yanked his pants down. He wasn't wearing underwear. His little ding-a-ling was out. And then these two twins were like, Ollie, I didn't know you didn't wear underwear. And then I was fired. This is horrifying. My executive producer has corrected me that they posted the whole video first, and then there was outrage, and then they took it down and reposted an edited version, which is stupid too. Of course, people were going to notice. And so what they took out in the sanitized version was they removed her mentioning that the boy was six. They removed her mentioning, and I quote, that his little ding-a-ling was out.

2:06:36The original video showed that one castmate saying, oh, honey, I think you're on a list somewhere. I don't think that made the final cut. Removed her saying that he wasn't wearing underwear and that a giant school bus drove by and saw him in his humiliation. and they also took out the horrified shots of the cast members gasping and covering their faces when she told the story. So I actually think this is deeply disturbing. She was, the way she tells it, she was a counselor. So she was clearly an older person. I don't know what the age was. You know, usually counselors are like teens. So she was much older than this little six-year-old being pantsed by anybody, much less someone you perceive as a grownup, is truly an act of degradation and humiliation.

2:07:30And this little boy also didn't have underwear on, so he was completely exposed, which she makes light of by the use of the term ding-a-ling and by casually bringing this up, where this kid may have truly lasting trauma as a result of this being done to him and being exposed, literally exposed, not just in front of other campers, but in front of an entire busload of students. So this is disgusting. She's disgusting. And my own take on it is it would be bad enough if she did this and had to walk around with the shame of this and the fear that it might come out. Never mind to bring it up yourself on camera and try to get others joining in and laughing at this kid's humiliation, Damilari.

2:08:15Well, it's interesting. So I saw this story. Honestly, my first thought was the fact that they tried to sanitize it, right? Because this is the same vanity fear that refuses to put Melania on the cover. Or if they had anything that made anyone look bad of the wrong political affiliation, they would have promoted it everywhere. I think I need more information. Interesting point. Yeah, I was just like, you're running cover, right? If they had something that made some hot mic moment that made you look bad, I don't think they would go and try to scrub it from the internet. I think they'd post it everywhere.

2:08:43Facts. So I think that was my first thought. I think I need more information. Was she 12? Was she 13? Or was she like 18, 19? I think the age, and I think, look, I try to be consistent in a certain way. And, like, I do think she's probably getting piled on right now. It's, you know, and I do think that, you know, if I say. She was 16. She was 16. She was a minor. The kid was lifting up her shirt. I'm very reluctant to join in on pylons, I will say. Because I feel like, you know, it's like what I said with the yay thing, right? But I think that when people are – when you're in the middle of a pylon, it can be a very difficult time.

2:09:21And so I will extend her grace in the sense that she was a minor. I don't think she should have promoted it in an interview. And I think it says a lot about vanity fear. They try to scrub it because isn't vanity fear also a journalistic? Aren't they also like a journalistic? They have like a – So they would have us believe. Yeah, I mean allegedly, right? And so it does kind of – do they do that for other people? Do they do that for other folks who – because I guess I don't think they would – I just think she's got, I don't care about piling on this person. I don't know her. And we're talking about - It is a very traumatizing thing.

2:09:53It is. Of a six-year-old boy. Well, I mean, Lena Dunham got canceled for much - 16 is not 10. I have a 16-year-old. I have a 14-year-old. I have a 12-year-old. I know exactly what the maturity levels are. And you are well past the point of knowing better at 16 that this would be extremely humiliating and hurtful to do. And I don't care that he was trying to pull her shirt up, Stephanie. He was six. When you're six, you actually don't have good judgment. You're very young. You do stupid things a lot when you're six. And it takes a grownup, an authority figure, like a counselor, to talk to you about why they're inappropriate, not do something far more inappropriate to you.

2:10:38Right? Like I get it. Like, okay, I want to teach him a lesson that he shouldn't do this. You could teach anybody. Why don't you stab him in the leg? He'll never forget. He'll always know. Don't do that. Like there are boundaries to how we teach lessons. And any normal 16 year old would know public humiliation of this little boy is not it. And even if you want to give her grace, in my view, okay, you did something dumb at 16. You allegedly didn't know that he wasn't wearing underwear. She's not sorry. She's not sorry at all, Stephanie. She's like, she thinks it's funny to this day. And she's clearly an adult now.

2:11:15Yeah, yeah, she definitely thought it was funny. At least that was my interpretation of the video. But I think at 16, you what, you start driving when you're 15 and you can get your learner's permit and you're responsible for a machine that can kill people. I think you're, I think you're mature enough to know that you shouldn't be pulling down a child's pants. That's, you know, maybe like a 16-year-old and a 16-year-old are messing around with each other. I think like I had brothers, but, you know, they do that stuff. But, yeah, you're in charge of a group of children and you are the authority figure.

2:11:50So, yeah, I don't – I'm not giving her as much grace as you. That's true. And by the way, she's not getting canceled. She's not getting fired from SNL. She's not losing anything. We're just casting judgment on her, which I'm fine doing because this is disgusting and nobody should consider this okay behavior. She's 37 years old now. I mean, by 37, you should know that this is completely unacceptable and that you are going to be shamed by society if you do this, Chloe. Even by the SNL crowd, which I'm sure likes her and was like not really of the mood to like shame a fellow castmate, but they were put in an awkward position too.

2:12:31So this is wrong. I mean, I, I, yeah, go ahead. Okay. With that caveat, I thought there was maybe some sort of call to fire her or, you know, some sort of, I think we're just casting judgment. Yeah. I can agree. It was, it's a foolish thing to do. It's a very foolish thing. Good old fashioned judgment. Yeah. But I think I'm just so used to the woke, to the, you know, to that impulse of like, okay, well, they've got to lose their job now. They've got to, you know, I think we can sit here and we can say that was a terrible thing to do. And that was very silly. No, she told the story publicly. she wanted it consumed and commented on, obviously, or she wouldn't have done that on camera.

2:13:02And so I'm happy to oblige her. I think you're disgusting. I think this was beyond the pale. You were a disgusting bully. You owe that boy an apology. And you should ask all of us to forgive your terrible behavior because you seemed proud of it and you were cavalier about it in a way that could encourage others to do the same to another six-year-old boy. So shame on you. I don't know whether this person is a mother. She certainly doesn't sound like one. Trust me, once you have a six-year-old boy, you would never want this done to him. So shame on her. And honestly, good on the castmates for feeling free to express their horror.

2:13:35All right. On that note, I got to run. It was a pleasure, guys. I hope you enjoyed your first appearance, but not the last on the MK Show. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having us. All right. We'll do it again. Damalari, Stephanie, all the best. And we are back tomorrow with Michael Knowles and Anna Kasparian. Oh, that'll be a fun one. We'll see you then. Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

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