NPR's Embarrassing Excuse, Another Socialist Victory, and Smug Serena Williams, with Matt Taibbi and Rob Finnerty | Ep. 1351

30:29And they just announced it. And from that, she went to the NPR editors and they hit print on one of the golden cows of reporting. They were like, we've got it. Queen Nina. Yeah, I mean, there are so many things about that that are remarkable. First of all, how does somebody who you worked in that beat for three years, you said? Yes. You have sources, I'm sure, that could help you confirm or deny a story like that, right? How does this person not have somebody that would pick up the phone if she called to help her confirm or deny that story? How did the editors not instantly reject that story when they...

31:14They weighed in. the editors said they trust Nina implicitly. She's so holier than thou over there, Matt, that they, they just trust Nina now. And they said, because she said it was an announcement as opposed to like, I have an inside scoop. I've got a source telling me they didn't use their like emergency backup system of like triple checking all stories before they go on the air because she told them there was an announcement from the bench, like from the court, which is so crazy. I'm telling you, either Nina Totenberg has dementia or some sort of brain disease that's causing her to behave in a very bizarre way, or this is a lie, or she's so just generally incompetent, she must be fired.

32:04This is absolutely a fireable offense, even for a Nina Totenberg who's been there for 50 years. I'm sorry, but this is totally humiliating for NPR. I was saying yesterday, it's akin to reporting the Pope has died when he hasn't died. You know, like it's that level error and NPR has no satisfactory explanation. Oh, and by the way, Matt, the other piece of this is she she reported the NPR reported his stepping down with its typical bias. Right. It's the headline was. Hold on. I think I have it here. Here it is. The headline is Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, retires.

32:50What did Nina Totenberg write when Ruth Bader Ginsburg died? Justice RBG, champion of gender equality dies at 87. Did notice any difference in the tone there? So, I mean, I don't think it was her bias that led her to report that Alito was retiring when he wasn't, but she's got a history of not calling it straight. And by the way, she's made errors too. She's the one who reported that Justice Gorsuch had refused to put on a mask when the chief justice asked him to around the COVID time and that Sonia Sotomayor was so offended. She didn't participate in oral arguments in person, that she did it remotely.

33:30And she was wrong. She was 100 percent wrong. She was so wrong that both justices, Gorsuch and and Sotomayor, issued a rare joint refutation of Nina's reporting. She's had other things that she's just gotten egregiously wrong. This woman's been getting a pass for far too long. She's passed. She's passed her her journalism prime, as these mistakes are proving. I mean, it's really incredible. And I mean, I think you could speak to this too. It wasn't that long ago where the guiding principle of pretty much everybody who had any kind of reporting beat in media was to avoid the big face plant. When you did a story, your main motivation was to not screw it up.

34:17That was the first, second, and third things that you worried about was what will happen if I get this wrong? This could end my career. This could lead to a lawsuit. All kinds of problems could happen. Now it's become incredibly common for newspapers to make mistakes and either not own up to it at all, not issue a correction, not issue an explanation, or simply give an explanation, make a correction, and have there be no consequences for it whatsoever. However, people make mistakes and nothing happens now, which is sort of an extraordinary thing. Think of all the people in the WMD episode who got things wrong and were promoted as a result of it.

35:08And this is this is how that happens. I just can't stress enough how you understand that is plutonium you're handling. If you get news like that as a Supreme Court reporter, like, holy shit, there's only nine of them. The retirements are spaced out by years. It's a huge deal when there's a vacancy on the high court. If you get a scoop like that, it has to be handled so carefully, so professionally, so responsibly. And you would never go to air with it unless you had it cold. I mean, I would not go to air with that unless I heard it directly from the justice or the justice's spouse. That's it. That is the only those the only two people who could make me do it.

35:50Right. Not even another justice could convince me to do it. And so like for her to that's why people like for her to say I misheard from the bench that there was a retirement announcement, period. Not even about a justice. Never mind this justice. Right. And she it's just insane. I can't get past it. So I'm sorry. The speed is fascinating. Like, that's a huge story. It would take more than, you know, a little bit for to get that on air in a normal situation. You'd have to double, triple check it. The editors would demand certain steps be taken. But it sounds like, you know, they managed to she went from hearing that or allegedly hearing that to going on air with it relatively quickly.

36:42Yes. Her explanation yesterday was that she then spoke with her intern who was at the court with her and NPR executive editor Krishnadev Kalamer and told them what she had heard. Kalamer surfaced the story that NPR had previously prepared for the day Alito did announce his retirement and publish it. It's not unusual to have one in the can for all nine justices like, God forbid, they die or they retire. So the background had already been written. That's normal. But nobody questioned her. And the the producer here that the Calamer, I guess it was the editor. Talked about he said she's the preeminent Supreme Court reporter in the courtroom.

37:23So I'm assuming that's what she heard. She's in the room. So he it was complete deference to her. blind deference, which is very dangerous as they just learned the hard way. Let me tell you what Paul Farhi is saying. He wrote for a long time for the Washington Post and was like their chief media reporter slash critic. And I, when I saw this explanation yesterday, my jaw dropped and I tweeted out or posted on X, OMG, NPR posted an article by Nina Totenberg reporting that Alito's retirement, retiring, and then within minutes retracted as SCOTUS denied total shit show. That was actually before I'd seen the explanation.

38:06He responds. So NPR made a mistake, recognized its mistake and corrected it within minutes. What would you have them do other than not making a mistake? That, I, I, I, that, that is a literally unbelievable thing for, you know for an experienced media reporter which paul farhi is i mean i was briefly away from rolling stone when they made the error that nearly destroyed the entire organization you know the uva rape story uh you know some of my my favorite people were caught up in that disaster. People, you know, I'd known for years and it was universally accepted in the media business that it was, you know, it was a mistake to just simply trust the reporter, you know, absent some kind of verification.

39:09And, you know, it was considered a kind of a warning tale or a cautionary tale for editors that this is what can happen if you place too much stock in what your reporters tell you. You've got to get some kind of confirmation that satisfies you. So here you have a complete systemic breakdown and the Washington Post media reporter isn't interested in that and what the process is at NPR. That's incredible. It also speaks to what must go on at the Washington Post, too. Yeah. And, you know, it's quick to defend it. Like, oh, what would you have them do? Like like it's just another like it's a rounding error they made on some math claim.

39:56Now, this is this is a massive journalistic fail. Don't pretend like you don't know that you fully know that. Pull off Paul Farhi. And here's Peter Baker, the New York Times White House reporter. No one's more mortified by a mistake than a journalist committed to factual reporting. The best own up to it, correct it and apologize for it, as Nina Totenberg has done. It's worth remembering a long career dedicated to getting it right. OK, look, this is not her first screw up. There have been others by Nina Totenberg, always overlooked by her fans because she's an open liberal reporting with a liberal bent with all the right nasty takes on the conservative justices and the beneficial ones for the libs.

40:41So Peter Baker rushed rushes to her defense. But I guarantee you, if I went back and worked at Fox News next year covering the high court and made such a mistake about a leftist jurist retiring when it wasn't true, Peter Baker would not be out there saying, oh, she did the honorable thing. That's not. And that kind of a statement would make a textbook out of you, Megan, if you did that. totally right and and also like they're they're treating her quote mistake as if it's like she got burned by a source it happens like this was such an epic failure she she didn't have it no one told her it she made it up we're ignoring the fact that at no point did nina tottenberg hear justice alito is retiring she made it up and put it out on npr went out to all their radio stations.

41:33It stood for much longer in the in the ether than it did on their pages because they retracted it on their website. But it had already been broadcast because they were doing live coverage of the Supreme Court. So it got blasted out across the country. I'm sure there are people today who are still confused and think Justice Alito is retiring. And it's very telling, Matt, that at least when she was asked yesterday whether he had responded to her little apology, the answer was no, he he did not let her off the hook. He's probably pissed off. There are some were even speculating maybe this whole thing was a trap.

42:05Like maybe he had somebody tell her or tell a leaker to tell her, like maybe some effort to find the Supreme Court leaker. I don't know what the game would be, but I'm sure he's not happy. Yeah. And, and he's, he would be right to be upset if, if that's what the process is. I mean, the, you, you mentioned being burned by sources, you know, that does happen. And that was the first thing I thought of when, when she was giving that excuse is that what actually happened was that somebody she, she knows and who's been a good source for her, you know, blew her up and she's covering for that person by giving the story that's so unbelievable and embarrassing to her personally that, you know, won't be any anybody asking about you know a source who got something wrong um but i just don't think that's possible like if you were going to come up with another story uh about how it was your fault you would come up with something different than this wouldn't you i mean this is this is just not an adequate i'd like to think so yeah that's incredible no i i don't There's got to be more.

43:20There's got to be another shoe to drop here because it's it's I understand she's their gal for 50 years. I understand she thinks she's the queen bee of the high court. I don't think that, but she thinks that even for that level reporter. This is the end. This should be the end of Nina Totenberg's career. It should. I'm sorry she has to go out on this note, but she does. the only reason, you know, it won't happen is because she's a leftist at a leftist news organization. And all these other leftists like Paul Farhi and Peter Baker are very quick to run cover for her. You know, so they she's she's not getting any of the flack that you would get or that I would get or that anybody at Fox News would get if they had done such a thing.

44:05It's just such Such an egregious, egregious story. Yeah. Okay, I want to keep going. So back to Malat Kiros, okay, and these Democrat socialists, because I do want to point something out. This woman is railing about, among other things, ICE. She hates ICE. All these DSA types want to get rid of ICE. And let me give you a little sampling of that, because she sat down with Hassan Piker and gave an interview not long ago, Sop 4. Abolishing ICE is just one step, right? I think there has to be an immediate pathway for every single undocumented immigrant that's here in this country today that does not require them to shell out thousands of dollars to go through their process, for it to take decades at a time to be able to get to citizenship.

44:51An immediate pathway to citizenship. Immediate pathway to citizenship. No deportations, no ICE. Immediate pathway to citizenship. So amnesty for all illegals. at the same time this woman was winning yesterday the mother of sheridan gorman the 18 year old college student who was killed in chicago on a pier minding her own business with her friends a couple of months ago shot by an illegal in in the back of the neck as she ran away from him at like 1 30 in the morning sheridan's mom testified before congress appeared to testify right before Congress. And this is unbelievable, Matt. Representative Pramaya Jayapal sat down in front of these angel families because it wasn't just Sheridan's mom.

45:37There was another, there were some other family members, said the following to these grieving parents. Another guy had just lost his daughter at age 20. Sheridan was 18 and was just killed a couple of months ago. Listen to this Jayapal speak to them. She's a Washington state representative. Stop 23. Let me start by offering my deepest condolences to you, Mrs. Gorman, and to you, Mr. Abraham, for the loss of your children. As a parent myself, I can think of no greater loss, and I appreciate you being here to share their stories and their lives with us. Unfortunately, this hearing is the fourth time in this committee that we've had a hearing on sanctuary cities the fourth time.

46:24And there's many other things that we could be doing other than this. I would have loved to have had some hearings on the unconstitutionality of the president's executive order on eliminating birthright citizenship. She said that to a grieving mom and a grieving dad. And then Jamie Raskin comes into listen to him. Sat 24. As a father, I, too, know the pain and devastation of losing a child. And my heart goes out to you and to your families. Our colleagues are conducting an endless series of hearings on sanctuary cities. This is our fourth such hearing. Again, raising, you know, it's a fourth hearing.

47:06This is a lot on this issue. Mrs. Gorman. And then Jessica, Sheridan's mom, had the chance to respond and made clear in her comments, which she clearly ad-libbed this part. She didn't know what they were going to say. She heard what they said and knew exactly what they were doing. Listen to her, Sat 25. This story is about my Sheridan. It's about how failed border policies, sanctuary city laws, and twisted leaders refused to cooperate with ICE. They sent her to her grave. And the question before this committee is painfully simple. When did protecting our American citizens stop being your first priority?

47:45and even more important, why did protecting our American citizens stop being your first priority? I want an explanation. I need one and I deserve one. And I honestly can't make sense of it. I cannot make peace with it. And in what world does the child who spent her life making sure no one was lonely die terrified and alone on a pier in Chicago? In what world does the girl who saw everyone become invisible to the people in power responsible for protecting her? this cannot be explained away and it cannot be buried beneath a list of unrelated issues that you all paraded before us thanks for telling me without telling me that you know you're here but you don't want to be this is the fourth this is the fourth time you had angel families thanks for telling me you don't care she will always be my sweet sunshine and if the people who failed her would rather look away then I'm really then I'm asking the rest of you to look right at her.

48:43Here she is. There's she and I. Here she is. This is the take in the day before she died. Say her name. Tell her story and demand better. Because my Sharon Grace Gorman should still be alive. And no mother should have to stand where I am standing. Begging. Begging. Elected leaders to value my child's life after it's already too late. I wake up in the middle of the night and I think, did my daughter her cry for me? She made it 40 feet. She made it 40 feet running for her life. Did she cry out for me? She died on that pavement all by herself, lonely, bleeding on that pavement. And I will never, ever rest.

49:29I don't understand why it's only the Republican side that cares about our American children. And I know that you're a mother. I know that you're a father. I deeply value that. But basically what you just did, what you said was, I'm so sorry for your loss. I have a daughter, too. I have a son. I feel your pain. You don't. You don't feel my pain because the next words out of your mouth were, but there's no but when your child is in the coffin. Incredibly powerful and how inappropriate of these Democrats, Matt. Yeah, I mean, this is one of the mysteries to me of what's happened to the Democratic Party in the last 20 years is there seems that they seem to have lost a sense of how they sound to ordinary people.

50:21They have decided that certain messaging imperatives are more important than seeming human at times. I don't in any way want to compare my situation to what happened to Ms. Gorman. But when I testified before Congress, the behavior of the Democrats was so unbelievably disrespectful that they gave an enormous boost to people who were against Internet censorship just by being unattractive characters on camera. And it's so strange for a politician not to be conscious of how obnoxious it sounds when you don't do the obvious thing, which is just to sit there and listen. If you have objection to the policy, you can make it later.

51:18But don't be disrespectful to somebody who is grieving and emotional. How is that ever going to help you politically? I just don't understand that kind of behavior. And good for Jessica for calling them out on it. She made that a very powerful moment that is tough to forget. Matt, it's great to see you. Thank you so much for coming on. Come on again soon, would you? Thanks so much, Megan. Take care. You too. More ahead with first-time guest Rob Finnerty, and I will show you why I love this guy. Don't go away. If you are heading into summer without a medical emergency kit, you're taking a risk most people don't even think about until it's too late.

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53:12Joining me now for the first time is Rob Finnerty. Rob is a longtime journalist and TV host. He's currently the host of Finnerty at 8 p.m. Eastern each weeknight on Newsmax. Now, before I bring him on, I want to show you how Rob first came to my attention. I mean, I heard of him prior to this, but this is when I knew I was in love, that I had found a compadre out there in the ether with whom I shared an affinity for mocking people and other things. Watch this clip. We played it on this show when it happened. Watch this. On another note tonight, the New York City mayoral debate last night, but I'm less interested in what the candidates actually said, and I'm more interested in why we keep doing this.

53:55Government affairs reporter Melissa Russo, senior politics editor at Politico Sally Goldenberg, and Telemundo 47 anchor Rosarena Breton. This is a two-hour debate. All right, so we have talked about this, and I don't just, I just don't get why we do this, who started it, when this started, but whenever it is a Spanish name, we are all suddenly required and expected to shapeshift into the perfect Spanish accent. Normal, everyday news people do it all the time. They forget years of training. They forget their non-regional diction. That Telemundo anchors, by the way, Rosarina Brenton. Just say Rosarina Brenton.

54:30But for whatever reason, we all feel the need to pronounce it like we're living in Mexico, like we're living in a country where Spanish is the native tongue. That's not the case here in the U.S. Rosarina Brentonia. He said it. I couldn't understand what he was saying. As I've said before, I am Irish. And if I was moderating that debate, would the host introduce me as Robert James Finnerty? Don't you know the little lad that he is Robert James Finnerty? If the host was Chinese, would they then introduce that person with a Chinese accent? I don't think so. So stop doing it when they're Spanish. Just stop it.

55:06Also, we don't need to say all three names when they are Spanish. No one describes me as Robert James Finnerty. I'm just Rob Finnerty. We don't need to say Kilmar Abregu Garcia. It's just Kilmar Garcia. I don't know who started this, but enough's enough. Stop. Just stop. Oh, my goodness. You, Rob. Thanks so much for coming on. I am your ardent fan. You are hilarious. Thank you, Megan. That, you know, my producer in my ear actually had to say to me, don't say anything in a Chinese accent right in that moment because you've been there. You've been there live TV. I thought about it. I considered it.

55:48And if you watch it again, yeah, there's a little spot. I didn't do it. So that's probably a good thing. I did. I was like, oh, he's thinking about it. Thinking about it. I thought you could cancel for that. Like Shane Gillis. You're not allowed. I guess you can do the Irish accent. You can do the Latino accent, but you can't do the Chinese accent. It's one of the unwritten rules. We're not there yet. Maybe one day. And I'm tempted to do it now, but I'm not going to. I so agree with you. I had made these points to my team in the, in the past, you know, like, look at it. I, I definitely mocked the Telemundo anchor, but never so effectively.

56:21You did it so well. Are you good with accents? I have you, have you historically been good with the accents? Um, Ooh, uh, I did. I did do a little bit of theater when I was younger. Um, and I never thought this would, I mean, I would go from like hockey practice to rehearsal when I was in high school, which is a little different, I guess. I didn't think I'd be talking about that today, but I'm fine with it. It's helped me. My mom would say, oh, it's building character. And I'd be like, mom, when do I get to use said character? I guess in that moment. And sure enough, look at you now using it out on the airwaves to make us all happy as we watch things like the Telemundo debate.

56:59It was ridiculous. That was the New York debate, right? That was the, what debate? It was the, who was debating? It was the New York mayor candidates, right? It was Zora Mamdani back during those days because Curtis Lee was out there. But we were mocking, remember Fox partnered with, I think it was Telemundo again on their presidential debate. And there was that one third anchor with Martha and Brett who was from Telemundo. And of course, everything she said, Ann Coulter later joked that you needed captions to understand what she was saying, but we had to do the triple name is like, it's a lot, you know, Kilmar Obrego Garcia.

57:38Why are we affording him all the respect? I understand how Spanish names marry the mothers and the fathers, but it's like, we're in America. You pick your top two. That's all you get. No, especially when it's Kilmar Obrego Garcia, who shouldn't even be in this country. Like, why are we honoring this man? Like bestowing all three names on him? It would be like if I called you, Megan, middle name, Kelly, Esquire. We just, we don't do that. But whenever it's a Spanish or Hispanic name, for whatever reason, like I said, we feel the need to like shapeshift and bestow all this title on people. But if it's an Irish name like me, like Robert Finnerty or Megan Kelly, don't you know, we never do that.

58:16We don't do it. We don't do it when it's somebody who's Chinese or Japanese or whatever. It's just, it's like this, it's a weird thing the left started doing and everybody in the media, especially local news. And I can say this because I was in the local news for a long time. They all do it and they all like pride themselves on it. They're all like, you see what I did during the commercial break? And you're like, yeah, why did you do that? You know, it's a pander. It's a blatant pander. We've been seeing a lot of it lately. I was just talking about Taibbi about about how Craig Melvin gave a little like trigger warning before he used the term biological boy and and girl before reading the Supreme Court opinion yesterday, basically chastising the U.S.

58:55Supreme Court for using sex based descriptions of gender. It's like they've they've lost their way that he wasn't the only one. There was more that went down yesterday on the on the Supreme Court and the way that they were talking about it here. Listen to NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, who's upset about President Trump in the wake of the Supreme Court opinion on girls sports and keeping boys out of them. So for the president, this will clearly be a case that he will cite as a victory. He has talked about it as a cultural issue. It's been a big part of his discussion on the campaign trail. He often sort of boils it down into bumper sticker language, talking about transgender athletes and that that's universally bad.

59:38That's his interpretation of it. It's obviously much more complex. It's an area of American life where there are very deeply personal issues, especially when it's involving minors, religious implication, all kinds of things that make those cultural issues such hot buttons when it comes to how they interface with politics and with moments like this. So shame on President Trump for boiling it down into bumper sticker language, Rob. And it was all her opinion. And the Craig Melvin, I don't know if you think Craig Melvin, when I saw that, to me, that read as an ad lib or something he decided he was going to do right before the segment when he said, you know, biological male, biological woman.

1:00:20And we're just going to use this this language and be aware of this is the language that's in the opinion and in the decision. I think he made that decision in the moment. And Kelly O'Donnell, I can remember, she's been there a long time. I used to have a lot of respect for her. She, I don't ever think my grandmother would say, I want the news to be the way it used to be. And that's right down the middle. And I would say, Mama, Walter Cronkite used to sail with the Kennedys. All right. It's never been right down the middle. And Kelly O'Donnell is one of these, she's one of these reporters that's been around since the world was flat.

1:00:51And I used to have a lot of respect for her. But over the last really in the last 10 years since Donald Trump, it's become clear that every report that she does, and I mean every, is now just her opinion about whatever she's talking about. Yes, there's more from her. We listen to Sat 29. And while Laura talks about the broadness of this, it is also notable that it is narrow in the sense of the numbers of transgender athletes who are seeking to compete. But that is a very small pool in many ways. Honestly, we heard this from all these leftist reporters yesterday, Rob. It's just like just a handful of trainees out there who are trying to steal girls medals.

1:01:33Stop worrying about this so much. Meanwhile, I read yesterday from an article in Out Sports, which is all about LGBTQ people in sports, saying they think they have no way of knowing, but there are tons of athletes who haven't actually come out who are trans at the college level. And they put it at tens of thousands in the high school level. So, like, it's just not true. It's not true. They went off some NCAA official saying there's only 10 out trans people in the college level that we know about. That's not true either. But that's what all these leftists pin their hopes on to diminish the fairness rights of girls nationwide.

1:02:08And that's totally disingenuous. And it's a lie. Think about Leah Thomas at UPenn in Ivy League school. She won a national championship. Sorry, he won a national championship in swimming at Penn. So even if it was just one, this person won a national championship. I had Peyton McNabb on the show last night in high school. She was a volleyball player. lovely young woman in 2022 some guy who was like six foot three uh dressed up as a girl playing volleyball spiked a ball right into her face she was unconscious for more than a minute had to go to the hospital suffered a traumatic brain injury she was in the hospital for more than a few days she's thankfully fully recovered but even if it is just it's the same thing with the illegal alien argument oh you know sheridan gorman well that's just you know that's a one-off that's just an isolated incident.

1:02:54First of all, no, it's not. But when it comes to men playing in women's sports, even if it were just a few, which of course it is not, that's no excuse. That doesn't make it any better. Leah Thomas took that national championship, that division one national championship away from a real biological woman. Yes, 100 percent right. And yeah, we love Peyton McNabb. She's she's one of the reasons we got the decision we did yesterday. She stood up and she said, no, none of this bullshit. Stop, stop, stop. OK, thankfully, today is July 1st. And I think we're all heaving a sigh of relief because Pride Month is officially over.

1:03:30And no one no one wanted any more Pride Month. No sane person wanted any more Pride Month because because of displays like this one here is. This is from New York City from the Dyke March. You may have missed it, but it happened last week. top 30.

1:04:13James Talrico would be proud. They're wonderful. Wonderful. Yes. Wonderful. The streets of New York. That was just one example. There's plenty more. This one is let's see. Oh, yeah. This is Washington Square Park. This was disgusting. We saw this all over New York where the new thing is to climb trees or poles and then twerk in the most X-rated way possible. Here's Sot31. And this is also from, this happened just over the week, I think it was Sunday.

1:05:11I bought a light pole. We're throwing bottles of cops.

1:05:22Yeah. So it's going really well. The Pride celebrations were exactly what we anticipated they would be. So, Megan, two observations from Pride 2026. And I'm so happy that it's July 1st now. But this, first of all, it's getting worse and more perverted and more sadistic every single year. When gay marriage became legal, I think it was 2015, Barack Obama, Pride was like, I can remember my local news station. They wouldn't let us get political at that time, but we were required to be a part of the Pride celebration in Tampa, Florida. And all the anchors had to be on the Pride float. I remember I asked my former CNN producer, now news director, how this is not political.

1:06:03And she said, it's just Pride. you're celebrating people coming out of the closet and i said well yeah you know i don't want to lose my job but i was like you're celebrating what people do you're celebrating what people choose to do behind closed doors what they choose to do in the bedroom and nobody celebrates what i do in the bedroom i wish they would have a parade for it they never will okay but but for whatever reason we are all required to honor and celebrate what these people do and if you look at pride parades in in 2013 14 15 they were they were a lot calmer um i lived in Boston and I saw one and I was younger and I remember it was Santa Claus whipping reindeer and the reindeer were men.

1:06:39And I remember that was the first inkling I had that, hey, wait a second. Maybe this is more than just like I had the courage to come out of the closet to my parents. But then the other part of this is the violence. This year we saw that the media won't cover it. They do what they always do and that's cover it up. But these are all very violent by and large. And in Seattle this past weekend, Pride went out with a bang there. People got arrested. uh independent journalists that were covering it got attacked and then the people that did it who were also pride slash antifa they were arrested so these are also very very violent events by and large it's like you're right because there seems to be like an increase uh like the hockey stick in perversion and criminal behavior at these events and the like the country's not in the mood for it notwithstanding what we saw in minneapolis we covered this yesterday morning on our AM update podcast, which is just news headlines in Minneapolis.

1:07:33They're bringing back public bath houses for sex romps amongst gay people. Like that's the open goal of it. And they think if you have a judgment on it, you're a homophobe, you're a bigot. I don't understand why gay men can't have sex in their own houses and apartments like everybody else. Why does it have to happen at a public bathhouse. These things used to be prevalent. They were banned in the 80s amidst the AIDS crisis. And here is a local lawmaker in Minneapolis trying to justify why you and I and all the other citizens should be in favor of this. Listen to this. I think it's important to address this, the weaponization of hyper sexualization of our queer communities as a means to also bring forward repressive policies that limits their existence and their ability to be in community with each other.

1:08:30The idea that this policy has been repeatedly framed as facilitation of brothel or sexual activity as if folks just want to go out and have sex, which you know what? Maybe that might help actually bring more joy into our city, But to say that this policy is essentially the facilitation of legalizing brothels is not what's happening. Well, Robin Walmsley. Go ahead. Yeah, it's actually exactly what's happening. It's it's in community. Look, I have no problem with people having, you know, having sex with each other as long as it's consensual. That's that's that's a wonderful thing. I agree with the last part.

1:09:12Terrific. Fine. But when she when she. All right. All right. I'm pro. But when she says in community with one another, she's referring to gay sex. And you're exactly right. It was in the mid 1980s in New York. Ed Koch, the mayor then who was a gay man, closed these in New York City because so many people were getting AIDS and we didn't have a cure for AIDS. We don't have a cure for AIDS today. You can live with it and you can test negative for it and you don't necessarily pass it on to your partner. And that's a wonderful thing. But like this is still a very serious disease. And part of the reason these closed in the 1980s and cities across the country is because there was no way.

1:09:49Think about a restaurant, for example, if the Board of Health wants to go in and find you, they can go in and say, hey, look, you put the buffalo tenders in the same fryer as the fish. You can't do that. And you get a fine. Or they look at your bathrooms and they look at the kitchen cleanliness and that sort of thing. There was no real way to do this. So there was a ton of corruption and a ton of illegality. And a lot of these there, they were trafficking minors in these brothels for gay sex. And that's just a fact. It makes people uncomfortable in the city of Minneapolis. But that is just a fact.

1:10:19And I'm just wondering if like somebody is seriously going to apply for a license to like reopen one of these in downtown Minneapolis. Yes, it's happening. By the way, Brian Coyle was one of the councilmen who voted to close these clubs in Minneapolis, like did not think that the bathhouse was a good idea. He was gay and he would later die of AIDS. He recognized this is not a good idea. We should not be encouraging this kind of behavior amongst strangers in a bathhouse in public in Minneapolis. And so now we're going there again because we have medication that can suppress the HIV virus such that it's not as easily transmissible in sexual acts.

1:11:07But this woman is actually out there saying what maybe we should be encouraging public gay sex because it creates joy for them. And then you hear the beginning of her soundbite. She said, we are we are weaponizing the hyper sexualization of gay people like they are hyper sexual, she's saying, and we're weaponizing it by objecting to public sex in bath houses by them. This is insane with straight people don't need to have sex in public in a bathhouse or anywhere else. Why do gay people? Why? Why is it? Why am I a bigot if I don't want to walk down the street with my kid past a bathhouse where we know there's a bunch of gay sex happening inside?

1:11:51Right. Exactly. Right. Down the street from a school and a police station. And then where's the line? What's next? Do they want to make prostitution legal in a place like Minneapolis? I mean, that's that's what this. So the joy, yeah, for the for the joy. No, this is for the joy. And by the way, again, I'm I think it's wonderful that they have treatment for HIV and AIDS. They didn't have that, you know, 45 years ago when it broke out in the late 1980s and millions of people lost their lives. And that's a tragedy. And they have that now. And that's great. But if you look at these commercials again, I will be with my children.

1:12:22We will be watching like a baseball game and it'll be a commercial where they're they're not normalizing treatment. They're normalizing HIV AIDS and somebody is like on a kayak and they're like sitting in a jacuzzi and they're at like an art class and a yoga class. And that's all terrific. But the message should still be practice safe sex. Right. Like, are we still at that point? I think we should be. Yes, absolutely. And here's here's this. There's an op-ed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which is a far left paper. And the opinion is why repealing Minneapolis's bathhouse ban could be a public health win, could be a big win for public health.

1:13:03Oh, I'm sure it will be. They've lost their minds. This is Tim Walz's estate, of course, in Jacob Fry's city. And Jacob Fry's been all over the media celebrating this. Does not feel like a step forward to me. on the subject, well, of what we were discussing. Jussie Smollett is back in the news, Rob. Jussie Smollett showed up at a Harlem, I guess it was Pride Fest because he was in Harlem dancing with some other gay men. And here's what that looked like. And listen to the lyrics if you can hear it here. It's not 32.

1:13:49I ain't hurt no more.

1:14:10Okay. He wants you to know he ain't hurting no more. from, I guess, all the terrible abuse we've heaped on him unjustly. I ain't hurting no more. Not a bad dancer, by the way. Like, that takes some... Not a great one, though. No, no, not great. Better than you and me, I'm sure. Yes. But, like... I was going to say I was slightly underwhelmed. You have to learn the steps. So that takes... I guess that requires some skill. Is he looking to make a comeback now, I suppose? Clearly, yes. I'm sure he thinks he can have an act, too. Yeah. And the two gentlemen around him not wearing MAGA hats, I suppose.

1:14:48But this is what I've noticed with the left. I was not a big fan of cancel culture when that was happening. I think that somebody like Matt Lauer, by the way, Matt Lauer has been off the grid for 10 years. A lot of people have come back and were accused of far worse. There are people out there that that, you know, on the on one side, maybe don't get an opportunity. And I'm not saying Matt Lauer needs to come back to the Today Show. So but you miss Matt. Are you thirsty for a little Matt Lauer content? No, no. But I just I just I think that when you're on the left, it is it. There is no cancellation.

1:15:23You get to come back whenever you want. And there's never a cancellation. Right. You can pull a whole fake race hoax about being lynched. You know, the noose around the neck and doused with gasoline in the middle of the night. You can humiliate Robin Roberts with your fake news interview. And she was so gentle with him and so empathetic toward his victimhood. Yes. And it's no problem. You can skirt skirt responsibility. He never really had to pay for that crime. Remember his I'm not suicidal. I'm not suicidal. He never really had to do anything because they let him out because of the covid and whatever.

1:16:02He really never did any time for that crime. And now you can be the headliner of the Harlem event. And I'm sure he will get scooped up by some TV show or some movie producer and given another chance because he's a leftist, gay, black man who, you know, race hoaxes are acceptable as long as they're accusing, you know, MAGA people of doing bad things. And you know this, the media contributes to this problem. Robin Roberts, I think she's she's a nice person. I think these people are looking for these stories. I think she's a nice person. I've met her once. But I think these people are looking for these stories.

1:16:36And as soon as they see them, they don't ask any actual critical questions. They hear the story. They read the headline and then they jump on it and propagate this. And they are part of this problem and this cycle. His story was that that two black guys jumped him when he was leaving, I think, a subway around midnight. And they said, this is MAGA country in the morning, two in the morning, even better. And the rest of the media, I mean, more than half of the media just immediately jumped on the story and and thought this was the worst thing that ever happened without any without asking any questions.

1:17:09And Robin Roberts is part of the problem. Yeah, no, she fell down on the job. First hour, we discussed how Nina Totenberg did, too. I don't know if you followed that at all yesterday, but she reported that Alito's retiring and he's not. She's the NPR Supreme Court correspondent. Rob, she actually excused her failure with the following explanation. And she sorry, whatever she, whatever, that she was leaving the high court after covering it for 50 years. She was leaving the high court and she heard something about retirement announcements, but she didn't hear the S on the second word. So what she, what she said she heard was there was something about a retirement announcement from that.

1:17:51She reported on NPR that Justice Alito was stepping down. That's it. Can you imagine trying to go to your Newsmax bosses and say, I heard I heard two words, retirement announcement as I left the Supreme Court. I'm just going to go ahead and say it's Justice Alito. Let's run with that. And that's her explanation that she just randomly heard those two words. Nothing about Justice Alito. No name, no confirmation from a justice or a source close to a justice, nothing. They put it on NPR. They blasted it out everywhere. And she still got her job today. Yeah. Is she still technically with NPR? I think she semi-retired from doing the Supreme Court correspondent work, but she goes in on the big days.

1:18:38NPR still tweeted it and retweeted her. That's correct, right? Yeah. Oh, and they still use her. She was there covering it for NPR yesterday because it was a big day. And she's been there covering the Supreme Court forever. But I imagine this is why NPR, this is why people don't trust NPR. This is why people don't trust PBS. Think about like when people on the right and politicians in Washington, when they say they're biased, they're not they're not lying. And if Justice Alito and I saw the Supreme Court, to your point, they immediately acknowledge this and said it's not true, which is very uncommon for the Supreme Court.

1:19:13That's very uncommon for the high court to do. And they immediately acknowledged it. And nobody else had the story. Just this this has been NPR reporter talking about a conservative justice. And the story was immediately redacted. And that can happen if you're on the left. If you do it on the right. If I did it, you've got a good chance of getting fired. That's how serious that is. immediately. No questions asked. Your ass would be out of there. So would mine. It would be an utter humiliation. It's just ridiculous. The double standard. Okay. I want to, I want to keep going, but this is a topic shift.

1:19:50We're looking a little bit of presidential politics soon. By this time next summer, we're probably going to have a pretty good feel for who's running on team red and team blue. And one of the guys we think is going to throw his hat in the ring on the blue team, is Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois. He's starting to throw out a couple of opening salvos, you know, a little red meat for his base. And they include this in SOT 34. Watch this. The president says that Democratic Socialist, which he says is a nice term for communist, as he's been labeling these Democrats since they won last week. He says they're the greatest threat to the country since its founding.

1:20:25And he said that includes World War I, World War two, Pearl Harbor and 9-11. The man is continually suffering from dementia. I don't think he really understands what he's saying. The truth is that, I mean, this is a man who's threatened to jail the mayor of Chicago, the governor of Illinois. He regularly threatens to go after people and indeed has used the Department of Justice to go after people. So, you know, he just I think he has these concepts in his head and he blurts them out without really thinking. So J.B. Pritzker would like you to know that Trump has dementia. I don't remember him. That's not true.

1:21:07But I don't remember him speaking up at all about someone who actually was having obvious signs of memory loss and some sort of brain deterioration. And that was the Democratic president, Joe Biden, from his party. Yes. Yes. How dare you? You don't have a medical degree. I dealt with that for four years. And I'm not like a Trump sycophant. I think people think, oh, he works at Newsmax. He must be like a total, you know, he's totally in the bag for Donald Trump. Not at all. But I agree with you. Donald Trump and I am armchair diagnosing just like I did with Joe Biden. And guess what? I can do that because I have two eyes and a brain.

1:21:40I don't have a medical degree, but I have two eyes and a brain and I'm able to do that. And I have grandparents that had Alzheimer's disease and my mother was a hospice nurse for 30 years. Does that make me an expert? No, but it gives me some exposure. But I also just live in the world. Okay. So like everyone else. So when you see it, you know what it is. You might not know the exact diagnosis, but you know what it is. Donald Trump is fine. Donald Trump has all his marbles. I think the man probably should sleep more. I think he would benefit from a good night's sleep. I think he probably would benefit from maybe not being up at two in the morning calling and texting reporters and being on Truth Social.

1:22:11And I mean that totally honest. And his vice president. Exactly. OK. But Donald Trump does not have dementia. But this narrative from people like Pritzker in Illinois, who, by the way, should just call Donald Trump and beg for the National Guard to save that city. That is one of America's really wonderful cities. And it's been destroyed by the crime that's been allowed to run rampant by Brandon Johnson, the mayor and J.B. Pritzker. But the fact that the left is now talking about this, and I know that you have a relationship with Jake Tapper. I don't think Jake likes me very much, but the man covered up the Joe Biden health story for four years, right up until that debate.

1:22:47Then it was OK to talk about it. And then he wrote a book to make money off of that story. And that no matter what, I think that is one of the problems. And I think the left are still dealing with the same problems that Joe Biden and people like Jake Tapper and the media left them with in 2024. Well, that's another thing. Yes, I agree with you. It was very obvious to all the media, including Tapper and everyone else, that Joe Biden wasn't all there. They just refused to report on it because they wanted him to win the presidency against Donald Trump. But on the Nina Totenberg front, she wrote a whole book about Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

1:23:19and she knew she knew that RBG had pancreatic cancer and she did not report on it. And I mean, ask yourself, like, if you have that kind of a scoop as a Supreme Court reporter and you don't report on that, like that's a dereliction of duty in and of itself. Like the left hates RBG now because she died in office rather than allowing the seat to go up for a Democrat president to choose her replacement. That's how we got Amy Coney Barrett. And like the Nina Totenbergs of the world decided to cover that again. Do you think they do that for conservative justice? It's like these reporters, they see the world through entirely different prisms.

1:24:01And by the way, I do wonder, like any reporter sitting there talking to Governor Pritzker who said Joe Biden has dementia, like Caitlin Collins, would have been challenged. They would have been challenged immediately to the point you're saying. Immediately. You're not allowed to diagnose from the armchair. Think about Jake Tapper. But with Trump, it's fine. Yeah, think about Jake Tapper and Laura Trump. It was for four years, you were kind of, you were like fringe if you even said that. If you said, and by the way, Joe Biden, we're not talking about 2024. And we don't need to relitigate Joe Biden.

1:24:31I know, but it's so important because this is, they wanted to run this guy again, Megan. They wanted to run him again. If that debate doesn't happen in June of 2024, he's probably the nominee. And I still think Donald Trump beats him in November, but he still would have been the nominee. They thought they wanted to keep this going. Whoever was pulling the strings in the background. And this man was not okay in 2020, but he was able to navigate that election cycle because of the pandemic. He was able to literally do interviews from his basement. That's not hyperbole. He would set up a Zoom in his basement with his wife right next to him and do two or three interviews a week.

1:25:06And he was campaigning. COVID allowed him to do that. And then he got 81 million votes, apparently, and he became the president, but he was not OK, in my opinion, mentally, cognitively in 2020, let alone 2024, let alone January 2029. If he were to win reelection, you see him at this event last week where they have him out there and he can't he can barely spit out words. And you think that they actually told us this guy should have ongoing access to the nuclear codes. It's crazy. All right. When we come back, we have to take a break. We've got to talk about what's happening at Wimbledon. Yes, Wimbledon, I say, because we've not only got Naomi Osaka entering like she's some sort of a queen, but Serena Williams in yet another example of poor sportsmanship.

1:25:55It's kind of the main storyline whenever she appears. That's next when we come back with Rob Finnerty. Don't go away. Our sponsor, the Electronic Payments Coalition, says Washington politicians are always getting in your wallet and that now they're messing with your credit card. They say your credit card and the security it offers are under attack and that Senators Dick Durbin and Roger Marshall want to change the nation's payment system to benefit corporate megastores like Walmart and Target at the expense of everyday Americans. Credit cards can keep your payments secure and provide rewards that families use to help make everyday purchases more affordable.

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1:28:59Rob Finnerty of Newsmax is back with me now. All right. So what's happening at Wimbledon with these divas, Rob, is a bit much. Okay. A couple years ago, we had Naomi Osaka, who couldn't perform. She couldn't be interviewed by the press. She couldn't be asked about why she doesn't play that well on clay because it was these nasty reporters trying to get into her head. Every other reporter could sit for that. Every other reporter got asked about their weaknesses. It's not fun as the journalist to zero in on their strengths. We always go for the place that hurts. That's what we get paid to do. Everyone can take it except for her.

1:29:37And then they changed the whole rule where like players would now have these mental health rooms to get ready in before they had to go play. And they'd have psychiatric counseling if they needed it. all because of this woman. Now she arrives to the U.S. Open in some head to toe white kimono trying to look like, I don't know, some sort of a goddess, some sort of a queen. Now she's leaning into her fabulousness, Rob, and we're all expected to get on board and celebrate Naomi. Well, it's a no, I don't respect Naomi Osaka at all. She's not tough. She's weak. And only somebody who is would walk in needing that kind of attention as opposed to somebody who lets the game speak for itself.

1:30:21So let's start with Naomi Osaka. You, first of all, the outfit, I mean, you just normally would wear like your athletic gear when you arrive and you go underneath and you write and you get ready and then you come out and everyone tracksuit. Yeah. That's what everybody's done. But you think about like, I grew up with tennis stars in the 90s, like Pete Sampras, Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi. If you go a little further back, like Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe. And these people were competitors. Chrissy Everett. Of course. Of course. And you can keep going back. What's her name? The one who married Andre.

1:30:57Steffi Graff. Steffi Graff. Like the greatest of all time. Oh, yeah. She's a doll. No, it's. And you look at what's happened and what's changed. They were competitors. you look at like Rafa Dundahl now and I'm not the biggest tennis fan but you can't not watch these people when they're competing in majors because all they want to do is beat each other and you look at Coco Gauff and you look at that at the competitors on the women's side I mean really on the men's side too and it's just it's like this generation of like little weaklings who can't sit down and do a press conference who are making millions of dollars off the court as well in endorsements and they can't they're not there for the fans.

1:31:33They're there. Look at me flowing robes. Like, how do you want people to react to that? Like, if I brought my daughter, if you were there with your kids, how do you explain that? You'd be like, well, that's just I guess that's what she that's what they do, I guess. She's wearing that. So we have to we have to honor her and clap and and genuflect as well. And bow and curtsy. Yes. Naomi Osaka was part of the like black only dinner party that happened during the French Open. It's just so outrageous. Like if you and I had a whites only dinner party, we, we, if I was in traditional media would get fired, you'd get fired from news.

1:32:05I was like, well, you can have a black only dinner party because that's a celebration of, you know, I guess blackness, which is allowed, but celebrations of whiteness are not. And she was big on the BLM stuff, but you can't ask her questions about clay and she's shy and she needs mental health counseling, but she's totally entitled to call all this attention to herself in a head-to-toe white kimono as she arrives in Wimbledon. And I guess, are we allowed to ask about that or not? I'm not clear on the rules on what you can ask Naomi about and what you can't, because we're all just living in her world.

1:32:38And speaking of the weird behavior around the pressers that follow the matches, Rob, which all of the players do, and most of them dislike, at least the losers dislike them because you've just lost a match and you really don't want to be asked about it it's hard but it's part of tennis they all do it serena williams at age 44 decides to try to re-emerge at wimbledon and look hats off to her she actually is the goat of female tennis i think her numbers are even better than steffi graff's forgive me steffi if i'm wrong but they're right they're right like i think they might both have 23 grand slams yeah crazy ass, you know, accomplishments, but age comes for us all.

1:33:21And so Serena tries to go back out there and she lost. She got, she got her ass beat in her first round and went down and guess what she refused to do? The press conference after the fact, which was considered universally bad form by her. She's too much of a diva, Rob. She didn't want to have to submit herself to the questions of reporters. And there's a report out today that while she was refusing to do that, she was complaining to the Wimbledon organizers who, since she lost, removed from her the ability to use five black cars, you know, like the town cars that take you around everywhere. There was one for her mom.

1:34:01There was one for her sister. There was one for her trainer. She had five. She lost. And they said, we're no longer going to pay for those five black cars. And reportedly, she complained. She wanted them throughout the tournament period end of report i'm sick of this woman's diva behavior and she's worth not millions of dollars hundreds of millions of dollars she absolutely is is the greatest of all time on the women's side not only that but just as an athlete 44 years old they let her come back and she didn't like come back to the phoenix open they let her come back for the first time the first match she's played is at wimbledon which is one of the most prestigious tournaments if not the most prestigious tennis event that we have every year um she plays somebody who has got a 3 and 13 record i think is ranked something like 80th in the world and then there's that little nearly weak handshake right there that drives me crazy you are a leader you are a legend in your sport give this young lady a hug i don't know who she is all right give her a hug she just beat somebody she grew up idolizing watching and someone she probably never thought she would play let alone at Wimbledon.

1:35:05And what does she do? She gives you this little, this little wet, flaccid clam thing after the match, because you just lost. You've got 39 Grand Slam wins, 23 singles wins. You're the greatest of all time. Give this girl a proper handshake and a hug and congratulate her, because this is a huge moment for tennis. And it's a huge moment in her life, whether or not she ever wins a match again. And then at the end, walk into that media briefing room, drink your Gatorade and give a press conference and answer every single question answer every single question because this might be your last time doing it go out with grace dignity and style and by the way if you did that maybe the tournament will give you those five town cars that you don't deserve and that you don't need anymore gas is expensive all right but maybe they would have but because you she handled it like a total loser she handled it like a total loser and it's a shame it's a shame And it's bad for the sport.

1:35:56Yes, she's got she's got a repeat problem with bad sportsmanship here. You're right. The mealy handshake with the woman who beat her is 20 year old Australian Maya Joint, who won. And you're right about her ranking. I think she's 78th in the world. She's but she beat Serena. She's a lot younger, a lot younger. And people, that's why the older players don't do well. They can't last. Serena fell apart in the third set. That's what happened here. You know, Right. Foreseeable. And by the way, she took the spot of another girl who could have been there ascending in her career, whatever. She wanted to see her name in lights again.

1:36:33She got it. And then those press conferences afterward are mandatory and she refused to go. And then it actually came out the Daily Mail's reporting that when Serena tried to come back in 2022, she was beaten there, too, in the first round by Harmony Tan. And Harmony Tan said that Serena after the match, right after, blocked Harmony Tan on Instagram. Like, that's Serena. She blocked the girl who beat her. She gave the barely there handshake to this girl. She refused to show up at the mandatory press conference. She bitched that her five car town cars were taken away from her. And look, who could forget what happened at the U.S.

1:37:10Open? I was at 10 years ago when she berated that little lines. judge remember who should watch it this is the tape is infamous

1:37:31giving it to her well she'll have to be careful here she's already had a warning for racket abuse here we go and this this could be trouble

1:37:53and what she was yelling was reportedly i swear to god i'll effing take the ball and shove it down your effing throat to that little line judge who was like running running from a to b anyway your thoughts on her right well um i think that's a felony by the way if she were to do something like that i think if she were to do that imagine she did that on the court right there everyone's like wow this match really um no it's it's too bad i remember in the 1980s uh michael jordan lost multiple years to either magic johnson or larry bird and also and then the detroit pistons in the playoffs and you can go back on youtube and watch the press conferences he was dejected um he was depressed he didn't know if he'd ever make it to the top and i'm talking about michael jordan here and he's sitting here he's taking his lumps he's you know and the media is the sports media is not they're not great um they're hard uh but he sat there and took his lumps and then he went on to win six titles and he vanquished everyone including the detroit pistons including the lakers and the celtics as well uh and i look at serena williams and it just it bothers me that these i understand how competitive this is and in that moment i'm sure she was upset but you go back to wimbledon megan and you think about all the people that are there who maybe have never seen her before that are watching.

1:39:10There are probably families. It's a big corporate event, but there are families. There are little girls and little boys there that are like, wow, we get to see Serena. We thought she was retired. And then she does that. And it just sort of confirms in your mind what's been building up for years and years about this woman, that she is a great, great player, but maybe not a great, great person. And there's a difference. Yeah, there's a difference. Totally. There is definitely a sense of entitlement there that shines whenever she's in the spotlight. Okay, last but not least, Dwayne The Rock Johnson has come out to say he doesn't want to get political.

1:39:43He just wants to act. He enjoys being on the big screen and bringing joy to people through his acting and his movies, and he thinks that's a gift. And he doesn't want to get political because he realizes how toxic it is and how it alienates a lot of people. 100 % feel like people on our side of the aisle, that's all we've been asking. We don't we don't need you to say conservative things or be a Trump supporter or anything. But it's like, please let us have the the not knowing whether you hate us or not. That that's we would love to have the not knowing. Right. Well, that's not acceptable to some.

1:40:19George Takai, the Star Trek guy, he's ripping on him all over threads. He's very upset with that position. And now Will Wheaton, you don't know who Will Wheaton is, but I'll tell you, Will Wheaton was one of the little boys from Stand By Me. He was he was like the sweet, the sweet, good looking one. Well, so was River Phoenix. But anyway, he's one of the sweet, good looking ones. Great movie, by the way. He came out great movie and called Dwayne The Rock Johnson a coward for this decision. So disappointing to find out that he is such a coward. And what Dwayne The Rock Johnson said was, quote, what I have learned through experience is that I need to keep, need, not want to keep the main thing, the main thing.

1:41:06And the main thing for me, the thing that in the morning I swing my legs out of bed and I run toward is creating. It's art. It's storytelling. So I've learned I'm going to keep my politics to myself. There are moments when, hey, there's nothing we can't talk about. If I'm wrong, I'll tell you I'm wrong. Or if I feel like I got a leg up and this is the right way to go, I'll share it with you. but he doesn't want to get into politics because he says, I hate the slinging. I hate all the bullshit that comes with it. And now he's taking it on the chin from somebody really no one's ever heard of. Uh, but this small sect of the left, the leftist acting crowd that insists you're cowardly.

1:41:42The view just had this same discussion about, I think it was Keith Urban who doesn't want to talk about his politics, which of course means that he's a conservative. Um, and they berated him some of them for that position, right? Because they insist, or was it Kenny Chesney? It was one of the, I think it was Keith Urban, because they insist that you share their politics and then get vocal about them. I love this. I hadn't heard that. The Rock, it is interesting. The Rock does have a movie coming out July 10th, I think, Moana, the live action. So Michael Jordan, Republicans go to movies too. So maybe it's a smart business move on his part.

1:42:19But Johnny Carson was number one for something like 30 years because nobody knew his politics. He was definitely conservative from Nebraska, friends with Ronald Reagan. But that was part of his magic. And you look at Jimmy Kimmel and some of the others today, and it's so unattractive that half of the country can't watch them. I wish that people like George Clooney would take a page out of The Rock's book and do this as well. Because I like so many Ben Affleck, so many of these actors that I really did like until I found out how much they hate half of the country. And it's really unattractive. And for anyone that says that it doesn't impact how you feel about their movies, to me, it does.

1:42:56Now I'll go still, I'll see a Leonardo DiCaprio movie because he's the best, but I'm thinking about it in the movie. I will not see a George Clooney movie though. Me neither. I would not see a George Clooney. And Ben Affleck says... I was going to say that Netflix movie that I just did was terrible, by the way. That stupid thing on the train, terrible movie. George Clooney. I didn't even see it. Ben Affleck says he won't even act across from a Republican. So good luck. By the way, it was Kenny Chesney. I would submit to you then, Ben Affleck, you should say no to your next The Rock movie because I'm just going to throw it out there.

1:43:26Nine times out of 10, the ones who won't talk about their politics are righties. They're conservatives and they know what's going to happen in their careers in Hollywood if they speak out. Unlike Chris Pratt, who was one of the few who were bold and unapologetic about it. Rob, a pleasure. We We look forward to you coming back often. It was so fun. Thank you, Megan. Tomorrow, everybody, Maureen Callahan. Don't miss that. Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

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