Personal Impact of Anti-Trump Lawfare, and New Katie Porter Berating Staff Videos, with Eric Trump and Walter Kirn | Ep 1169

23:56I mean, she really did. She was a, I mean, but she also made us work, but yeah, it was my high school graduation. I called her up. I was at boarding school. I called her up on 1-800-COLLECT. I'll never forget this. And I go, mom, here are the dates for my graduation. Just mark it in the Rolodex, put it in the calendar. And she goes, hold on one second, that's the Monte Carlo Grand Prix. Now, if you're European, that's like the Super Bowl and Augusta and everything else combined into one, right? That's like the holy grail. That's MLB, that's NBA and everything combined into one. Every European loves the Monte Carlo Grand Prix.

24:25And she goes, honey, that's Monte Carlo Grand Prix. I go, mom, this is my graduation. And her exact line was, Eric, every effing, but she used the real world, Every effing moron graduates from high school, get over it. And she never came to my high school graduation. But yet, Megan, this was a woman that adored me, right? Like, this wasn't like a broken household where my mom didn't love me to death. But it's like, you know. No, you knew she loved you. Now, just so you know, I could have been graduating with a doctorate degree from MIT and not high school, right? And she probably would have used the exact same thing.

24:55Same result. Every effing moron, you know, graduates from MIT with a doctorate degree. But same result. But she was an amazing woman. And she was a powerhouse, really, really good at real estate. She was kind of the, you know, certainly the right hand person to everything that my father did, you know, early in the career. And my father loves her. I mean, he loves her. And I'll never forget, I think I mentioned the story in the book, but every single day, you know, you'd have Anderson Cooper go knock on her townhouse door. They wanted Ivana Trump to say anything negative about Donald Trump in the first campaign.

25:25This was in 2016. And she just flipped them off. She gave them zero time of day and she loved my father. And then finally, one day she opened up the door and, you know, Ivana, we want to we want to interview. We want to know everything about Donald Trump. You know, how do you think he's going to be as a president? And she said something so funny that made my father laugh. She goes, terrible husband. But man, will that guy be the greatest president in the entire world? You watch. You mark my words. And it was such like an Ivana Trump type quote, you know, just so classic, so honest. And that's how I wrote the book.

25:55I mean, maybe this is the first time I've ever really thought about it. But maybe it was a lot of that free spirit that she had where she just said what was ever on her mind. That's exactly how I approach this book. I did not miss words. It's going to ruffle a lot of feathers, I think. You'll be the first one to attest to that when it comes out. And also beyond that, I'm getting probably deeper than I should. It was actually a very cathartic process given that the absolute hell that they put us through. I know because when you're going through it, you know, the shells are coming down upon you.

26:22You just have to keep going. You have to just survive. And it's almost like you're kind of still there because your dad's currently president. But the law fair is over and like the impeachments are over and, you know, God willing, the assassination attempts have passed. And so maybe it was the perfect time to just take a deep breath, exhale and take stock of where you are at this point in your young life. Like you've been through a lot. I mean, even without your dad running for president, you could have written a very interesting memoir. You were writing about the helicopter rides to Atlantic City with all these famous celebrities when you were a kid.

26:58I mean, Trump was king of the world before he was president of the United States. And you had a front row seat. You were part of it. Yeah, then I had a front row seat and he sat me down in November of 2016. I was 33 years old. He goes, Eric, I want you to take over the empire. I want you to take over the company. You've built all our buildings. You've managed all our teams. I want you to head it off. And I go, this is amazing, right? I'll continue to build our hotels. I'll continue to build the golf courses, the residential buildings, commercial buildings. I mean, I have real estate in my DNA.

27:26I get into a lot of the stories in the book, obviously, about growing up on construction sites starting at 11. And, Megan, never did I realize that 90 percent of my time was going to be, you know, keeping the animals off of our back. I mean, when I got that call from, you know, The New York Times, Washington Post, Eric, there are secret servers in the basement of Trump Tower communicating with the Kremlin. I literally started laughing. You got to be kidding me. They perpetrated that hoax. I go, first of all, we're like cloud based computing. Right. So, first of all, we don't really even have servers.

27:50Second of all, you don't put servers in basements because basements flood. Let's get to the basics. Third of all, I'm like, why don't you come over to Trump Tower? Like, I'll walk into any basement in Trump Tower, and they'll be impeccable because I'm a very anal retentive person. But, like, you're not going to find any servers. I mean, it was all a made-up hoax, and they allowed that to perpetrate for years and years. But, again, because I didn't have constitutional protections, I wasn't in the executive branch, I became the pinata to the full force of the Letitia Jameses, as ironic as that is that we're talking about this the day after.

28:19And, you know, every single one of those—I mean, I was getting a subpoena every single day. I was sitting in a deposition every single day. I became the most subpoenaed person in American history. I spent$400 million,$400 million defending from just totally insane attacks, i.e., you know, having servers communicating with Putin, which was nuts, right? And all the attacks from Hillary and everything else. And I remember being in the courthouse with my father. I never left his side, Megan. Every single day he was in the courts in downtown New York, I was next to him. And I remember when they read off those 34 felony convictions and he stood up.

28:55He turned around. We shook hands. We walked out proudly and we were in the car. And I say this in the book. He said, honey, I don't know how. It was the lowest moment of all of them. Right. I don't know how, but somehow we're going to win this. And he didn't just mean the court case. He meant the entire presidency. And I looked at him. I go, Dad, it's either the White House or it's two jail cells for us. Right. Because that's what they wanted. And I've never done anything wrong. I've never gotten so much as a speeding ticket. Right. It was either the White House or they were going to throw us in jail.

29:24And that's the story of Under Siege. But they weren't just doing it to our family. They were doing it to the entire country. When they were weaponizing the IRS against religious institutions, against pastors, against churches, when they were deplatforming people, when they were debanking people, when they were taking people off of Facebook and Instagram and turning down their voices and violating their First Amendment right, when they were passing up really good, capable people for jobs because of DEI hires, where people's careers were totally set back. They were coming after all of us. They were coming after not just our family.

29:59We might have been the tip of the spear, but they were coming after. Megan, they came after you. They came after every network that you ever worked on or worked for. They came after your employees. They came after your friends. Why? Because you were allowed independent voice that they otherwise couldn't control. How about sending the FBI into church meetings and trying to sick them on parents at school board meetings? I mean, the weaponization while Joe Biden was president was truly unprecedented. They want to say that word about your dad and his administration now, unprecedented. No, no, it's what is happening to Tish James is far from unprecedented.

30:34It's exactly precedented. And it wasn't that too long ago that we don't all remember it. Just rounding back to growing up as your dad's son and how real estate is in your DNA. I learned a lot about you in this book. I did not know about Frank Sanzo. I love the story about how you and your dad first saw this guy. Can you tell that story? We were driving in his Rolls Royce through Bedford, New York, an area you probably know. Your dad's. I'll never forget. My father's Rolls Royce. And we're going to one of our properties, and he sees this lone stonemason on the side of the road. And he pulls over, and he goes, Eric, that's the most beautiful wall I've ever seen.

31:11And he pulls up next to the guy and he goes, hi, my name is Donald Trump. And the guy obviously knew who he was. He goes, that's the most incredible stone wall. We're sitting there talking about masonry and bluestone versus granite versus brownstone, et cetera, et cetera. And finally, my father goes, I want to give you all my work. You're amazing. You're so talented. I want to give you my work. So Frank came into our life. And I worked for Frank every single summer. And this guy, I mean, it was Marlboro Reds and it was pots of coffee. and he would literally, Megan, I say this in the book, he would mock you if you wore gloves, right?

31:42I mean, as you're doing stonework, like, you know, you're laying patios, and this isn't like marble, this isn't like tile work, this is like serious stonework. Rough. And if you were wearing gloves, he would mock you. At the end of the day, he'd give you a couple drops of olive oil, because he'd say, like, olive oil could cure everything. It would cure cancer, it would cure every problem. But just this hard Italian guy who was amazing, and I grew up working for him every single summer, and, you know, construction is in my DNA. And many of the guys that I worked for back then still work for me today.

32:11And it's an amazing family. It's an amazing community. It's an amazing company. And he was a very special guy in our life. I mean, little did you know that you were going to need that tough skin in more ways than one, right? I mean, New York real estate is no, you know, that's not for softies. But presidential politics, as they always say, it's not beanbag. And we've heard this story a bit before. But can you talk a bit about how your dad, when he called the whole family together before the first run and had the meeting and said, this is the moment we're going to find out who our real friends are?

32:47He called me and he goes, honey, get the kids. We were on the 25th floor of Trump Tower. He was on the 26th floor. He goes, get the kids, come up to the office. So I bring up Ivanka and Don and he looks at us and he goes, you know, kids, I'm going to do this. And then he said, let's do this, right? And that was everything, Megan, we had ever done, we had done together, right? Whether it's the real estate world, the golf world, the hotel world, the residential buildings. Obviously, I was on Seven Seasons of the Apprentice. And he goes, let's do this. And we didn't know a damn thing about politics.

33:11In fact, you come into the story in a meaningful way because I never forget getting a call from my father. I read this. I never forget getting a call from my father. And he goes, honey, Megan's going to kill me on the immigration comments or something. He's like, I need somebody who's going to defend me on this show tonight, right? And I go, Pop, I don't know a damn thing about – I know nothing about immigration in America. Like I built hotels, right? What the hell do I know about immigration? We hardly knew what a delegate was. We hardly knew what a caucus was, let alone, you know, freaking anything.

33:39And I remember I was debating on your show. I think there were a couple of illegal immigrants on the thing. I was like the center box. And I mean, if you want to talk about faking it until you make it, like I think it was my first experience in politics with you, Megan. And we've built a great friendship ever since. But I just never forget that. And we did it as a family. And normally the first rule of politics is keep your family the hell out of politics, right? And they certainly didn't let Hunter up on that stage, and I think for a reason. But, I mean, what a wild ride. But as he was coming— And did you find out who your friends were?

34:12Yeah, at the end of that statement, he said, you know what, we're going to find out who our true friends are. And they are going to come after us so viciously, you have no idea. And we found out who our true friends were. And, you know, in the art of the deal, he spent a lot of time talking about the days where his phone stopped ringing. and wow, did I find, you know, wow, did I learn that kind of the hard way. I mean, we saw that in 2020, you know, the phones just stopped ringing and the very few people who are around us, most of them are in the cabinet today. I mean, that's where you really get a great test of kind of loyalty and who's there for you and who really loves you and who has backbone and spine.

34:45But we saw days where the phones rang off the hooks, right? You know, from people you had never heard from before, that's every time we won an election about three seconds later. And then you had those very dark, dark, dark, quiet days where the phone stopped ringing. And we found out who our true friends are. I can peg every single person in my life and know exactly who they are and whether they were there for us or not. And it's very hard for me to forget that. You also write about the first moment you got a call from Air Force One. This is so fun. There's so many great anecdotes. The book is called Under Siege by Eric Trump.

35:19It's out on Tuesday. They preorder it now so you make sure you get one of the first wave copies. But how cool is that and what went down? Yeah, I got a call from Air Force One. I got a call from a scrambled number on my phone. I normally don't pick those up, but I figured it might be something a little. And I picked it up. And the first words that come across the phone were, you know, Mr. Trump, this is Commander Air Force One, the president of the United States. And my father had already picked up the phone, so he was already on the line. And we both started laughing. He goes, honey, can you freaking believe this?

35:49Like, can you believe it? I'm like, no, I can't quite believe it. This is a little surreal to me. And not too long after we went to Buckingham Palace, we were there with the late great queen who my father loved and we all loved and I think the whole world loved. And we show up at Buckingham Palace, come in on Marine One. We're waiting there for the queen. The helicopters are taking off from these incredible immaculate lawns. And he looks over at Don and myself. He goes, can you freaking believe this? How did we find ourselves here? I mean, we were really good at building buildings. Right. We were really good in the business world.

36:21We were good at everything we did. I mean, as I said before, I think we had been in Washington, D.C. about 15 times. Maybe I was in D.C. a little bit more because I went to school there, and then I built a hotel there. But I think my father was in D.C. like 10 times before actually becoming, you know, commander-in-chief of the United States. This wasn't our world. This wasn't our ecosystem. These weren't our people. We didn't have any, you know, we didn't have any endorsements. I mean, you remember, Megan. I mean, how many endorsements do we have in 2017? None. Jeff Sessions and like, maybe that's it.

36:50I mean, we had zero and it was my father, it was Don, myself, you know, like that was it. You know, we crisscrossed the country. You know, being the son of a president has its perks. When you think about, you know, the almost five years that you've been in that role so far, is there one or two, like something that comes to mind? Like, now that was a cool experience. Like that I recommend to everybody. Yeah. Listen, Marine One is always amazing. You know, you fly in, you know, under the pitchness of darkness. You fly into a White House on the South Lawn at 2 o 'clock in the morning and everything's just blacked out.

37:23And you land above this, you know, the most famous building anywhere on Earth. I mean, if you could reach out the window, it feels like you could touch your Washington Monument. You're so close to it. And, you know, the trees are blowing and everything's blacked out. And, you know, the helicopter pilots are under the nods and everything else. And that's a great experience. I mean, Camp David is truly one of the most kind of incredible places that very, very, very few people ever get to see. Air Force One is obviously amazing. But I think the moment that really hit me was Arlington National Cemetery.

37:52When he laid the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier the first time, you're sitting up there on the top of that hill overlooking the entire city. And it's the only time Washington is quiet, right? It is the only time as that wreath goes down the stairs and you have the lone soldier that's guarding the tomb. And I remember that was our first entry into politics. And I go, wow, this is different. This is different than the real estate world. This is different than the business world. I mean, my father has the entire world riding on his shoulders. And we as the family are the first family now.

38:26We're going to be held to a different standard. We're going to be in the spotlight. And wow, was that a big moment, as quiet as it was. I mean, it was really remarkable. It's one of those things that seared in my mind that I'll never forget about. Have you slept in every bedroom in the White House? I have, and that's an interesting one. So the Lincoln bedroom, you've seen it. I'm sure you've seen it. Not in person. You haven't. Okay, well, we're going to have to change that. But Lincoln's son actually died in the bed. And it's a bed that's probably the size of a queen, the width of a queen, but it's about three feet longer, right?

39:00So it must be a custom mattress, and it's really interesting. But you have the Gettysburg Address, and every night before, when they do turndown service at the White House, they'll put the Gettysburg Address on the nightstand. And so you're literally going to shut off the light, and four score and seven years ago, you start reading the thing, and you go, oh, my God, this is unique. But on the other nightstand, on the other side of the bed, is a little oval painting that Lincoln kept on the Oval Office desk of him and his son, the son that passed away in the bed. He passed away, I believe, of polio or measles.

39:32And you're sitting there saying, wow, I mean, the history is real. And then you look around the room and you see this tall stand-up mirror. And the thing is seven feet tall because obviously Lincoln was an incredibly tall guy. And it's wild. You walk around the White House and you can date the White House based on the way the eagle's head looks in the presidential seal. So, you know, when it was when it was Department of War before my father changed it back and at a time when America was at war, the eagle's head would always look at the arrows. And at a time of peace, the eagle's head would be turned and it would look at the olive branch.

40:05After Truman, the eagle's head only looks at the olive branch. They never had the eagle's head turned back. But as you walk around the White House, you can kind of distinctly tell when certain things were built, when certain, you know, deaths were put in based on the direction of the eagle's head. And it's a fascinating building that's beyond full of history. You write in the book about another home that you guys share, of course, and where you spent half your childhood, which is Mar-a-Lago, and the infamous raid that was pursued by the FBI on your family's most intimate spaces, your little brother Barron's room.

40:42And for you, this wasn't just the outrage that it was for all of us. It was that. But it was deeply personal. And you really write about that. Think about it. I mean, the average American is like you have to think of the FBI with whom you write. Like your normal approach was very positive toward law enforcement. And this was just such a game changer the way they went in there. I cannot imagine that violation. Yeah, I spent a lot of time talking about that in the book because, I mean, if there's ever a siege, I mean, that was a literal siege of our home. Right. And that was deeply personal. I mean, I grew up there, but I get a call from from one of the people that run the property.

41:17Obviously, I run every Trump property, right? And I run the Trump organization. And they called me up. They go, boss, there's 30 FBI agents here with a search warrant. I go, a search warrant? Why would the FBI be here with a search warrant? And by the way, why am I not hearing about this from Secret Service, who I have around me, right? It didn't make any sense. And I go, you know, and they literally told me they're coming in the gate. They have a search warrant. I said, can you ask them to wait one minute? We have a lawyer that lives down the street. I'll get them over there. We'll figure out exactly what's going on.

41:42No. And they're demanding that you turn off every single security camera. Now, obviously, a commercial property like Mar-a-Lago has a lot of security cameras. I go, tell them I'm not turning off the security cameras. Why in the world would I turn off the security cameras? And they sat there and they ransacked Mar-a-Lago for hours and hours. And I asked them, I go, does my father know about this? And everybody was just silent. I go, I'll call him now. And so we met in his office. We wrote up that tweet that became so famous. You know, right now the FBI is raiding Mar-a-Lago. The FBI went absolutely nuts when that tweet went out.

42:10They go, how dare you? How dare you leak this to the media? Yeah. I mean, effectively, the message was how dare you beat us at our own game, which is, you know, and instantly a turn. We're here to embarrass you. Of course. And instead, we embarrassed them. And my father took it right to them. And he did so instantly. And it was it was amazing. And I'll never forget that. I'll never forget that. And then the aftermath of this, you know, obviously, they took HIPAA records. They took medical records protected under HIPAA. You know, they took my father's all of his attorney client stuff. Right. So every every legal document that he had with attorneys.

42:41So they violated that. That really pissed off the judge, by the way, as you can probably imagine. They took his passports. They went through Melania's closet. They went through Baron's room. I mean, they were unrelenting. And then in the aftermath, we find out that Jack Smith was planting classified folders on the carpet. You remember those perfectly orchestrated photo shoots where everything's fanned out? Like my father just leaves classified folders just perfectly fanned out on a beautiful carpet in the middle of his office. My father's a little bit more anal retentive than that. That's not really his style.

43:10And yet they admit later on that they planted those folders and conveniently took these photo shoots. And this was the siege. I mean, they wanted to do anything they could to indict him, to imprison him, to bankrupt him, to silence him. I mean, think about all the gag orders. I mean, I became the guy who was standing out front on the steps of the New York courthouse shouting at the top of my lungs because I was only gagged in about three quarters of the cases. There's a couple of cases I wasn't quite gagged in. You know, and so I became the de facto spokesperson who was out there yelling because my father couldn't have a voice because during the middle of a presidential campaign, you know, the judge whose daughter worked for the Democratic Party decided to gag order my father and not allow him to speak and defend himself.

43:50Yet no one else was gag ordered. I mean, this is the hell that they put us through, Megan. And, you know, I want the world to know, you know, kind of how fragile, you know, how fragile it can be. We live in the greatest country in the world, the greatest economy. We have the greatest rule of law, and yet it's still challenged every single day. And honestly, it breaks my heart for countries around the world that don't have the system that we have, as corrupted as our system got throughout this whole process. I mean, could you imagine other countries around the world? I mean, it gives you full appreciation.

44:22Yes, our foundation is still strong. It gives you full appreciation for what people deal with all over the world. What about that, Eric? Let me ask you about the so-called lawfare, right? Tish James, James Comey. First, let me ask you this. Would you have liked to have seen a James Comey mugshot like your dad had to submit to? Well, you know, the mugshot was like the greatest thing that ever happened to us. You know, we raised a fortune off of that thing. And by the way, it took every inner city community and made them all 100 percent Trump because they said, listen, like they've done this to us for the last five decades.

44:54Right now they're doing it to this guy. I actually like him. You know, the enemy of the enemy of your enemy. to me is your friend, right? Isn't that the famous saying? It's exactly what happened there. And so I don't wish poor on anybody. I really don't. Comey was, in my opinion, a criminal what he was doing. I want FBI directors in this country to keep planes from flying into buildings, not sit there leaking memos all day to the New York Times. And man, was his priorities messed up. They were horrible. And I think you saw the consequences in the country. I mean. And so you're not feeling sad about Tish James having to go through this process, single tier, you and Laura don't sit at night saying, oh, such a nice person.

45:36Why should this happen to her? You know what? I wish no one the hell that I went through based on her actions, which were overturned 5-0 by the appellate courts, as you mentioned before. I mean, finding a$600 million when your lenders are on the stand saying that we're the best customers they've ever had, the best borrowers they've ever had. It was like you're in a make believe land. It felt like you were in some crazy, evil fairy tale. It didn't make any sense. And again, as I said before, they often dig so deep that they find themselves. And that's what happened with her. You want to live by the sword, you die by the sword.

46:10Isn't that kind of how life generally works. And again, I don't wish the pain and suffering of our employees, of the lack of sleep that I had for a four-year period of time on anybody. But, you know, the great irony that she apparently did exactly what she was accusing us of doing is nothing short of remarkable. It's truly like literary the way it's coming down. Today, Eric, by the way, we're talking to Eric Trump. The book is called Under Siege. It hits Tuesday. Get it now before the rush so you can make sure you have it in hand. It's a great read. It's deeply personal. One of my favorite things is he reveals the Secret Service code names for the whole family from Trump on down.

46:48You'll have to read the book. I don't want to spoil it here, but they all begin with the letter M, which is interesting. But here we are. It is October 10th, and that means we are exactly one month from the day our friend Charlie Kirk was killed. And I wonder how that's affected you as somebody whose dad was shot in the head. a year, not even a year and a half ago. My God, I mean, it's like 15 months ago. This happened to your dad, the three Trump lovers who were at the rally in Butler who also got shot, one of whom is dead. And then you see this happen to poor Charlie, such a dear ally to your dad.

47:26And obviously, most likely a future president himself on our side, you know, here's a picture of the two of you together. You knew him well. Your thoughts on it one month out? Listen, I knew him well. He was a good friend. I remember when he was 21 years old, he came into a Trump organization. He told me the plans of what he was going to do at Turning Point, and he achieved every single one of them. And I was almost rolling my eyes at the time because the aspiration was so large, you know, so large for such a young guy at the time, you know, talking about changing every student body on every college campus around the country.

47:54And, you know, it's all part of the siege, right? That's what they wanted. They think they could cut the head off the tiger and eliminate this powerful movement. And what they actually got is the exact opposite of that. They only amplified the movement. They only pissed off. I mean, when you have 1.3 million people walking across the London Bridge, when you have marches of solidarity in Pretoria, South Africa, in honor of Charlie Kirk, they made Charlie bigger than he's ever been. When you have 100 ,000, over 100 ,000 applications for turning point chapters at high schools and colleges and other universities around the country, I mean, wow.

48:33I mean, they martyred him, but wow, will his legacy live on. But, Megan, he was a dear friend of mine. I was all over the place with Charlie, and watching the videos of blood spewing out the neck of a dear friend of mine like that, it's unthinkable. And you better believe that was deja vu to Butler, Pennsylvania. And I spent a lot of time talking about Butler in the book because I'm pissed off. I'm not satisfied with the answer there. And like, you know, like I want to put that out to the world. I'm not satisfied. We know nothing about this guy. We've never gotten into his phones. We got into the phones of every January 6th protester, you know, every every grandmother who decided to take a picture, a selfie in in the Capitol.

49:07But yet a guy who tried to take out the 45th president of the United States. We've seen one picture of the guy and he's cremated about five days later. Again, I'm not tinfoil hat wearing guy, but I'm pissed off. How did somebody get on a rooftop 130 yards away from a former president and very likely to be future president of the United States? I'm pissed. Yeah, it's all there. The book is emotional in great ways. I mean, the Trumps infamously separate themselves from their emotions thanks to the way they were raised. But what I mean is it's forthcoming on how you felt in these moments that we all watched you go through.

49:40One of the many reasons why it really is a page turner. It's called Under Siege and Eric Trump gets real. Thank you so much for coming on and promoting it here. Great honor to be on, Megan. You take care of yourself. Wow. Good luck to you and your whole family, of course. And we'll see you in Miami. Don't forget, you can go buy your tickets to see more of this discussion between Eric Trump and yours truly in Miami. And today only, we're offering those tickets for 50 % off in honor of his visit to our show at MeganKelley.com. Don't go away. Up next, Walter Kern. Do you owe back taxes or have unfiled taxes?

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51:15We absolutely have to keep talking. It's more important now than ever. To cower, to hide, to go silent is not the answer. And all I can tell you is there is no fucking way I am canceling one stop on this tour. Not one stop. I'm going. I'm going to stand on these stages and I'm going to say all the things that we say all the time on this show. We're going to make it safe for me. We're going to make it safe for my team and my guests and you. We're going coast to coast and do something really important, which is say what's true and what's real to honor him. I really now more than ever would love to see you all face to face.

51:57God, I would love to see you face to face. I need to see you face to face. I am doing this tour, and I would love for you to join me. MeganKelley.com for the tickets. Walter Kern is with me now. He is the editor-at-large of County Highway, and you can see Walter and yours truly in person on the Megan Kelly live tour. See, I told you, you're going to see all these wonderful guests of the show, and those are stars. Wouldn't you rather see Walter Kern than, like, I don't know, one of those snobby, like Tom Hanks, Hollywood hoop superstars that hates you, right? Like, these are the stars for us in our audience.

52:41Not that that's not obvious. He's going to be with me in Glendale, Arizona on November 22nd. That's our final stop of the tour. And it also will involve Erica Kirk. That's going to be an extremely powerful evening. Get your tickets now, MeganKelley.com to that show in all 10 dates. I would love to see you guys. MeganKelley.com. Walter, welcome back. Well, thank you. And I have an apology to make. I was supposed to be on earlier this week, but due to a glitch in the Apple calendar app, when you put an invitation into it, it doesn't convert the time zone. So I was all getting ready for the show.

53:20I took a walk in the woods. I was rehearsing out loud with birds in the trees. I walked back into the house, fresh, ready to just dazzle on the show. And there were three messages from your staff, where the heck are you? Oh, no. From Midwestern Boy Scout, former Mormon type like me, I wanted to commit Harry Carey, like fall on my sword, chop my own head off. You're so sweet. No apology necessary. It happens. We should have been all over you, such to the point where that could not have happened. So it was mutual. There was no way to get to me. I was out among the grizzly bears and the mountain lions walking in the Montana wilderness.

53:58Well, do not give it a second thought. We're thrilled that you are here now and that you come on at all. Okay. We have such goodness. I don't even know where to start, but I think we have to start with the Virginia gubernatorial debate. It was so good. We weren't really even paying that close of attention to this debate up until recently when like the lunatic attorney general put out how we wanted to, we found out he wanted to kill Republican children. And that kind of got our attention. And then it's just, it's not looking good for Winsome Sears, though it's getting better and better. Now it's within two points.

54:30The other gal, Spanberger, had to have a seven point lead. So Spanberger, who's billing herself and actually kind of has been a more moderate Democrat. I mean, there's only so moderate any Democrat is in today's day and age, but at least this woman stood up against the defund the police thing when she was in Congress and that was happening in Washington. And now she's running for Virginia governor because Glenn Youngkin has to get out. They have a term limit there. It's crazy. It's like four years, then you got to get out. And unfortunately, Virginia appears ready to go blue, or at least it did before this race really got turned topsy-turvy thanks to those attorney general text about killing Republicans and their children, which he's totally in favor of.

55:16His name is Jay Jones. So last night, not surprisingly, that issue was front and center. She's running against Youngkin's, his lieutenant governor, Winsome Sears. And let's just go through the soundbites because they're so good. Let's start with number seven, where the moderator, by the way, also did a very good job on pressing Spanberger about Jay Jones and whether she's still supporting his run for AG. Here's how that went. I didn't hear an answer there on the endorsement issue. So I want to just make sure, will you continue to endorse Jay Jones to be the next attorney general of Virginia? And were you aware of these text messages before they released?

55:55You have 30 seconds. In fact, it appears that it was those who released the text messages and held them for years. So the public was unaware who had knowledge of these text messages for many notes. I learned of these text messages the day that they came out, and I denounced them as soon as I learned of them. And importantly, at this point, as we move forward, the voters now have this information, information that was withheld for them, presumably for political reasons. But the voters now have the information. Ms. Member, I understand what you're saying about the voters, but for you yourself, do you still continue to endorse Jay Jones?

56:3815 seconds. Yes or no? We are all running our individual races. I believe my opponent has said that about our governor. We just want to clarify, you know, what you're saying is that as of now, you still endorse Jay Jones as attorney general. I'm saying as of now, it's up to every voter to make their own individual decision. You're a coward. You're a disgusting coward. All you have to say is no, I don't. I don't stand by my endorsement. I hadn't seen those texts. I hope he runs his race. It's going to be up to the voters as to whether they want him as their AG. But no, I do not stand by my endorsement now that I've learned the full picture of who this man is.

57:17She wouldn't do it, Walter. What I'm mystified. What prevents her from doing it? Is there some is there some pact that they make that, you know, some evil pacts to all go down or rise together, we just fell down another flight of stairs into hell by even tolerating this guy for five seconds. Because this isn't just rhetoric. Rhetoric is something aimed at the public. This was a revelation of his feelings and his backstage personality. You know, just as we've seen with Katie Porter, you know, her suddenly go, get out of my shot and stop being the sort of measured vice principal lady that she pretends to be.

58:03We saw behind the scenes here. And as someone who wrote a book, and I'm quite serious about a psychopathic killer who was a friend of mine and who disguised himself for many years, you get very few shots. What's the name of that book? Blood Will Out. It's about a man who - Literally, we all need to read it. Yeah, you really do. And it gives me great insight into the sociopathic mind. And sociopaths have a belief that that which is hidden isn't real. And that which is public is real and only that. But this guy, somebody who knew him, somebody who was concerned, somebody who didn't want to do it and waited, finally felt a pang of conscience and showed us the behind the scenes reality of this man.

58:55And that we laugh that off and that we just pass it on and we don't require straight answers about it means in an age of assassinations, it's one thing if this had come out five years, but this is very germane at this point, shows that we've lost not just our way, but maybe become monstrous ourselves. Really good point. Like the timeliness of it at, at, at any point in history, it would have been wrong not to denounce, but right now you can't denounce it. Right now you want to, with a wink and a nod, suggest you're fine with it. And he's only running, he's only running to be the chief. And then let's think about his job.

59:37His job is to prosecute criminals. Is he going to do that very selectively? Or is he, you know, I can see somebody, some murderer sitting up in court after being sentenced and screaming at the judge, you know, the man who put me here wants to kill people too. Yeah. You know, who's going to throw this stone? Eric Erickson, who's got his JD and he's a radio host as well down in Atlanta and a conservative commentator for a long, long time. Great guy. He was making the point on X today. I'm going to butcher it a little, but it was to the effect of down in Georgia, you know, you had a race for governor involving Herschel Walker, who had all these personal allegations against him, which were not good.

1:00:24But at least in his case, they all preceded when he got help for these issues. And so he had a pass, but it really genuinely was the past. and voters voted Republican up and down the ticket in Georgia, but not for him, for U.S. Senator, not for him. They drew they drew the line. Those Georgian voters did. And he talked about I think it was Roy Moore in Alabama. Same thing. They were like, no, this is a conservative red state. But no, we have standards. I mean, he was saying in in Virginia, will you do the same even if you vote for Spanberger for governor, which you shouldn't, and a Republican lieutenant governor, sorry, a Democrat lieutenant governor, do you actually feel comfortable putting this guy in your state's top law enforcement post, or will you hold the line on what is decent, just a bare level of decency?

1:01:19The answer is no. We already know the answer. That murder, that assassination has become a political wedge issue is insane. I can see them going around with one of the shows of hands at a big debate when there are like eight candidates. Now, which of you here condemns political assassination if it's of Republicans and MAGA right-wing types? And they all sort of hesitate to put up their hands because at this point, they're playing to their constituency. Obviously, the guy doesn't fear a backlash among his constituency. He probably has gotten secret applause for it. My question to him in a debate would be, okay, we know that you fantasize about murdering children.

1:02:06How close have you ever come to doing it? What's the line with you? Is it just something you use to entertain yourself and your friends? Or do you actually consider doing it at times? You'd have to go through it with him. You texted that you had talked to her before about your penchant for wanting to murder Republicans. Clearly, there was an earlier conversation. He's now denying that it was, as she claimed, his texting partner, who was a Republican moderate in the Virginia Statehouse. But she says it was a conversation in which he said he wanted to see cops get shot. And I totally believe her.

1:02:43I believe every word she's saying, and I don't believe his denial. But in any event, when you picked up the conversation about now shooting the Republican House speaker at the time in the head with two bullets, that was doubling down on your earlier sentiments about wanting to see cops shot dead. Right. Like, how did your thinking evolve? And then when you picked her up the phone to call her and triple down on the messaging and she hung up on you, what made you then text more about wanting to see the children die and their mother? I'm like, just walk him through it. You could completely eviscerate the guy just by sticking to his words.

1:03:18Here was Winsome Sears getting in on the action, you know, trying to make it a debate where she got to ask her own opponent some of these questions in SOT 8. Why my opponent won't say beyond its abhorrent and disgusting, why she won't say it is not okay, and that he must leave the race because Jay Jones advocated the murder, Abigail, the murder of a man, a former speaker, as well as his children who were two years, two and five years old. You have little girls. Would it take him pulling the trigger? Is that what would do it? And then you would say he needs to get out of the race? Abigail, you have nothing to say?

1:04:04Abigail, what if he said it about your two children, your three children? Is that when you would say he should get out of the race, Abigail? You're running to be governor. her okay that whole thing is so awkward isn't she brave standing there and just for listening audience abigail is looking straight ahead winsome is to her left and she's staring at her saying abigail abigail and when and abigail will not even look at her and obviously will not answer either go ahead walter well we had a minnesota state legislative leader murdered at home just a couple of months ago. Remember that? Yeah, yeah.

1:04:45This is not a fanciful scenario whatsoever. And also, if she admits it's abhorrent, then she needs to explain why people who are abhorrent should be attorney general. I mean, take it a little further. The problem here is reflexive loyalty to party over any other value in society. And that's where we're getting. And once it's reflective loyalty at any cost, then you essentially have war. Maybe not hot war, but you've got war. Because the whole idea of politics is that you're finding little pieces of overlap, or you're negotiating what you want versus what they want, and you're each giving a little.

1:05:37But when it's ultimate like this, it may as well just be a cage match. Let's just see you go at it. You know, I'm reminded, Walter, of what my old therapist said to me. After I got out of my first marriage, I was seeing a therapist. She was very helpful to me when it came to relationships. I call her my lady, Amy. I write about her in my memoir and I really loved her. She changed my life. and we were talking about dating men and I was newly out on the single scene and I, I don't know, I'd gone out like a date or something. And I was like, I don't know. I'm not, this guy's this way and he's that way.

1:06:12And she said to me, put this one back on the shelf, put this one back on the shelf. And I was like, Oh, what do you mean? She, she goes, there are lots of them. There are lots of them. And I was like, what do you mean? No, there aren't. And she was like, no, no, there are lots of them. And she was so right. Cause then later I met Doug and he was such a catch And thank God I didn't, you know, keep that one off the shelf who I started with. And my point is, I look at they're holding on to this Jay Jones and they could take M 'lady Amy's advice. Put this one back on the shelf. There are lots of them.

1:06:47Your party will go on if it maintains some basic standard of decency. But I mean, if you are going to ask Virginia voters to make this guy who wanted to see a Republican get shot in the head just because he's team red along with his babies in their mother's arms, you are sullying your brand to the point of no return. He's got to go back on the shelf. Save yourselves. Why they don't get that, Walter, I don't know. Or maybe it's just that blind party loyalty you always see among the Democrats. I'll give you a couple of more nuggets of wisdom from my study, a close up study of psychopathy. And I'm not shy about calling this that.

1:07:35It's not that he wants to see that person die or that children, those two children die. He wants to see people die. He wants to see death. He wants to see violence. That's how he thinks. and the truth is that isn't a thinker. That is an emotional basket case. But people fear these people. And I think, strangely, one of the reasons this guy's going to get away with it is the people around him are afraid of him. We don't know the rest of his profile. He could be a very aggressive, you know, look at this Katie Porter. No one would want to spend five seconds in a room with her. But they're intimidating.

1:08:18I definitely want to get to know her better. I want to have a pillow fight with her, you know, with bricks in my pillow. But there I am confessing my own psychopathic tendencies. That's what we call a joke. That's not what he was doing. But what I'm saying is sometimes these politicians are very scary people. They're threatening people. You get behind the scenes and they're much more like mob bosses or, you know, gang leaders than they are out in front. We've seen that in many movies. And I have a feeling this guy is somebody who, though maybe not popular and beloved, is somebody they don't want to mess with.

1:08:54It's so ironic. The left for the past five plus years has been using that term dehumanized at every turn. I feel dehumanized by what you said. I'm dehumanized because you didn't post a black square on the day we were celebrating BLM. Microaggressions. You smile too much. but but this guy can actually put in writing i mean like anybody who sends a text like that to a member of the other's other party the one who you want to see assassinated obviously knows they're taking a risk this is not like a safe communication well she stopped him in the texting she hung up on him on the phone call like he wanted her to hear how much she wants to kill republicans you will listen to me so this guy there's something wrong with him and it is dehumanizing in a dangerous way That's my hypothesis that there's a pathological syndrome at work here.

1:09:48You know, it's wanting to play chicken. It's wanting to go right to the edge. It's wanting to almost get caught. He not only said it to the worst thing, he said it to the worst person he could say it to. And he's daring people. He's daring people. He was daring the gubernatorial candidate to dismiss him or denounce him. and she froze. She didn't do it. Frankly, she looked scared. She did. Because the fact is, to show leadership, you want to show confidence. But this was too much for her. The issue was one she didn't want to address. You called her a coward instantly, and that's exactly what she is.

1:10:32But what is a coward? A coward is someone who fears something more than they fear the right thing than they fear doing the right thing. And what is it that she fears? I really want to know. Maybe. There's no good outcome. It's either she's genuinely afraid of him and she's staying silent. What? So that he can be elevated to attorney general or she's just more worried about her political hide than she is about elevating this psychopath to this position. Either way, it's terrible. Right. Either way, she's worried about her political hide or her actual hide. I mean, Bill Clinton went against, you know, what was her name?

1:11:09Sister Soulja. Sister Soulja. I mean, for less than this, a good Southern politician would get up on the soapbox and say, this capital sin of murder is something that is very serious. And I will not stand behind this, you know, sinful and awful. in the old days they at least used to pretend in that sort of you know evangelical way to be moral people now they stand they're absolutely petrified that somehow they'll offend the other zombie killers in the audience and in their party it's so easy all she would have to do is say i'm deeply horrified by those texts i endorsed him when i did not know about them obviously no, my endorsement does not stand.

1:12:00And I'm going to leave it at that because now it's between the Virginia voters and Jay Jones and you guys can vote your consciences. But when it comes to me, this is what I stand for. That's what she should have said. You do not stand by the endorsement. And now it's up to the Virginia voters. That's it. You don't have to tell them how to vote, but you have to withdraw your endorsement for a man who wants Republican children dead. you fucker. It's so clear. It's just infuriating. Now, she's a coward and her inability to even look at Winston Sears when she's speaking to her was infuriating too.

1:12:32I've got to say, even though I'd vote for Winston Sears in a second, I don't know how effective it was for her to keep saying, Abigail, Abigail, Abigail. It was weird. She wasn't showing power in her own right. I much would have preferred her to say, you've asked her three times now to denounce this guy and withdraw her endorsement. Speak to the moderator. Speak to the audience. She won't do it. You know, this is why she won't do it. But Winsome Sears look kind of weak, too. Good people are at a disadvantage when they're arguing with psychopaths because they can't believe it's happening. There's no script for it.

1:13:13They can't prepare for it. Wait, I'm sitting here in front of the state of Virginia trying to get somebody to denounce fantasies of murdering children in her attorney general and her chief law enforcement officer. Huh? They don't teach you that in college. People are at a disadvantage when they argue with psychopaths. That could be the title of a book. That's so good. Let me give you another one. She the other problem with a Spanberger, though she's, quote, moderate on BLM, meaning she would like police funded. Great. Thanks so much. She's not moderate on the trans issue. She totally wants boys and girls sports.

1:13:49She and Sears are diametrically opposed to one another on that point. And she also wants boys going into girls rooms, you know, meaning locker rooms and bathrooms. This is a big issue in Virginia. This is like it was this race that the woman held up the sign at a Winston Sears rally saying if boys can't go in their bathrooms of choice, maybe you can't come to white lunch counters. It was something very racist. I don't remember the exact phraseology, but it was trying to bring back up that era. And here, Abigail Spanberger gets asked about whether boys should be allowed in girls' bathrooms in SOT 9.

1:14:29More cowardice. Should transgender girls who are biological males be allowed to use girls' bathrooms and play on girls' sports teams in K through 12? You have 15 seconds to clarify. In cases across Virginia, I think it's incumbent upon parents and educators and administrators in each local community to make decisions locally. Would you rescind the Yunkin administration policy requiring boys and girls to use bathrooms aligning with their biological sex? You have 30 seconds. My priority would be to ensure that local communities, importantly parents and teachers and educators, are able to work together to meet the unique needs of each school and each community.

1:15:17Mr. Spanberger, the question was, would you rescind the Yunkin administration policy requiring boys and girls to use bathrooms aligning with their biological sex? You have 15 seconds to clarify that question. And my answer is that in each local community, decisions should be made between parents and educators and teachers. So, yes, she will rescind it. I thought that kind of legalistic blah, blah, blah was out of the window in politics since Donald Trump. I thought whether people like him or not, they at least were refreshed by some straight talk from politicians. And that looks like something from the 1980s, some kind of terrible training that you get to just keep repeating educators.

1:16:12It looks like Cirque du Soleil trying to twist yourself into a pretzel. Oh, I don't want to say that I'm going to rescind the very popular Youngkin executive order keeping boys out of girls' spaces. But I love seeing the boys in the girls' spaces. I'm just too much of a P-word to say it up here on this stage. That's what we were witnessing. She seems like a person without an actual personality. Yes. You know, who doesn't read her own books or come up with her own opinions, some complete instrument of her party and who's been told to run out the clock and, you know, absolutely in the old sense, make no mistakes.

1:16:51But she looks to me like one big mistake because she's the most artificial, scripted, stiff and unhappy looking human being I've seen for a long time. She is the most inept politician. She is the opposite of a leader. How could our Virginia friends even be considering putting this person in after Glenn Youngkin? I beg you, beg you, beg you. If you were listening to this show in Virginia, vote for Winsome Sears. vote Republican up and down the line. You cannot have that feckless idiot leading your Commonwealth. Don't do it. I'm sorry, but this is like a five alarm fire. That absolute moron is leading in the polls.

1:17:35Now they got tighter even before this debate. The last poll I saw, I showed it within two and I pray to dear Jesus that it flips now so that Sears is winning. This is, I don't live in Virginia. I don't really have a personal stake, although I do have family there. But you cannot let this absolute moron win your gubernatorial house. You cannot do it. There's one more. It just didn't go well for Spanberger last night. She was asked about recreational marijuana legalization. It's another issue. She did the thing you're talking about, Walter, the 1980s politician, and dodge and weave and filler and word salad, just trying to confuse you so that you don't know what the hell you just heard.

1:18:21She's for it. She's for it and she's against it. All of it. You know, when it works, it works well. When it doesn't work, it doesn't work well. Local people should have the ability to decide. It's a big question, blah, blah, blah. No, it's like, I used to work with this PR guy who I actually love and he had the funniest lines and I remember him saying something like, I'm like, oh, you know, what should I do about this? or how should I handle this? And he was like, you'll come up with it, but whatever it is, I believe in it. Whatever it is, I believe in it. That's basically her. Whatever I'm gonna do, I believe in it.

1:18:57And Winsome Sears called her out. Listen to SOT 10. It's important that there be transparency in what is available on the market. It is extraordinarily important that we have transparency and that there is a clear market in order to be enforced. because it is in the absence of an open and clear and extraordinarily transparent market that law enforcement is not able to... Don't even know what you're saying. Right on. She's the blonde Kamala Harris. She's a different kind of Kamala Harris. Kamala tries to emote and give you a sense that she has feelings. She doesn't even play that game. I mean, she's as warm and fuzzy as a, you know, Ginsu knife.

1:19:47But the problem also there is she clings to words as though they're her, you know, security animal. Transparency, if I say that three times, with no real apparent link to the marijuana issue, I'll get through this. How did this woman make it anywhere into politics? How did she become a U.S. congressperson? I mean, not that the bar is high, but I just mean she's so inept. OK, I got to keep going. I think she not sort of come from the deep state or something like that. I mean, what is her background? I just know she was a U.S. congressperson from Virginia. And she was one of the more moderate when she was the only thing people know her for.

1:20:31She was caught on tape. There was that infamous tape of Democrats after. was it after the 2020 election? But she was saying, stop saying defund the police. And she was right about that because she was from a Southern state and she was trying to speak to this Democrat caucus. All right, enough time on her. She gives me a hostage vibe that the big people in the background behind the curtain are depending on her not to screw up because she's got to deliver that office. That makes sense to me. I didn't even say a word about the wardrobe because I'm feeling nice today. So I'm just going to leave it at that.

1:21:07Google it. You can check it out for yourself, what she was wearing to that debate. I've got thoughts today. I'm keeping them to myself. I do want to say the moderators, I didn't watch the whole thing, but I saw a lot of the clips, did a good job. Now they were from Wavy 10, an NBC affiliate station owned by Nexstar. They were Tom Schaad and Deanna Allbritton. And from what I saw, They did a very good job. I mean, that was very solid how they kept following up, even though it was a Democrat. Good job. That's the way it should go. All right. I have to take a break. And then we have got to come back.

1:21:41We got Katie Porter to get to. We got Jimmy Kimmel, who's not sorry at all. And we've got that jerk Trevor Noah.

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1:26:27Walter Kern is back with me. I do want to tell you that the reason I almost missed air today is because I went down to D.C. yesterday to see my pal Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War, and participate in an event honoring him last night at the Kennedy Center. He was awarded the Great American Exceptionalism Award by the nonprofit Nest Point Foundation. There I am with Pete and his beautiful wife, Jen, backstage. stage and I saw my old friend Harris Faulkner from Fox News and had a great time. Met Tyler Kirsch, met Ann Wilson, these great musical acts who performed, very talented young musicians.

1:27:07So it was a beautiful night and the Kennedy Center is back and it is wonderful. Honestly, it was in full form last night. I'd never been down there, but we all had a great time. It was great to see Pete. He's doing so well and he and Jen are just an adorable couple. So that's what I was doing. in there. We'll post the pictures on our Instagram and at megankelly.com if you want to see them and you're not listening or you're not able to watch it on YouTube right now. Okay, let's keep going. Katie Porter, you and I need to know her. Like, I feel like we would do well with her. I feel like there'd be a lot to go over.

1:27:42I want her at my next cocktail party. I don't want to work for her or for her to be my governor, but I definitely want her at like a dinner party. And then I want someone to needle her. Who wouldn't want to witness this, Walter? She, of course, let's just play it again because it's just so fun. We've got, do we have like a little shorter? Yeah, we have a little shortened version of it. We'll watch a little shortened version of Katie Porter with the CBS reporter, Julie Watts. What do you say to the 40 % of California voters who you'll need in order to win who voted for Trump. How would I need them in order to win, ma 'am?

1:28:24Well, unless you think you're going to get 60 % of the vote. You think you'll get 60 %? I'm getting angry. Everybody who did not vote for Trump will vote for you. That's what you're saying. In a general election? Yes. You just said you don't need those Trump voters. Well, you asked me if I needed them to win. So you don't think you need them to win? I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative. What is your question? The question is, what do you say to the 40 % of voters who voted for Trump? Oh, I'm happy to say that. It's the do you need them to win part that I don't understand. I'm happy to answer the question as you have it written and I'll answer it.

1:28:53And we've also asked the other candidates, do you think you need any of those 40 percent of California voters to win? And you're saying, no, you don't. No, I'm saying I'm going to try to win every vote I can. And what I'm saying to you is that. Well, to those. OK, so you. I don't want to keep doing this. I'm going to call it. Thank you. You're not going to do the interview with us. Nope, not like this, I'm not. Not with seven follow-ups to every single question you ask. Every other candidate has answered our follow-ups. I don't care. I don't care. I want to have a pleasant, positive conversation, which you ask me about every issue on this list.

1:29:25Well, this is news. And if every question, you're going to make up a follow-up question, then we're never going to get there. And we're just going to circle around. I am an investigative reporter. I have never had to do this before, ever. You've never had to have a conversation with a reporter? To end an interview. Okay, but every other candidate has done this. what part of I'm me I'm me I'm running for governor because I'm a leader I don't want to have I'm a leader experience with you and I don't want this all on camera I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you either oh boy it broke down into group therapy there at the end what I loved about Katie Porter is she's so unappealing she starts out in a confrontational posture you know she uses her hands as though she wants to you know push the other person off the edge of the boat basically but she also believes the audience is with her she keeps turning to the camera like can you believe this and no and and we're all looking at her going we can't believe you lady um i i want this to be a pleasant experience ma 'am you're in a mcdonald's it's truly like this is news madam you're running for governor no one ever promised you pleasant do you understand how interviews work if you've ever wondered what the person on the other end of a phone when you call the IRS is like, that's who it is.

1:30:44It's her. Yeah, it's her. She is bureaucracy in a dress. All this stuff is breaking about her. It's blowing my mind. I love it. Like I'm refreshing Twitter 25 times a day. Politico dropped this one. There's a couple we have today. And then we went, we took a deep dive into her divorce records, which are fascinating too. I mean, it's not just her divorce records, but she's got a long history with some men that doesn't go well. She is on video in July 2021 trying to do some taped piece with Jennifer Granholm. And they're not live on the air. So a staffer apparently felt comfortable getting in the background of Katie's hit because she had things she wanted Katie to know, I guess.

1:31:28Here's I'll just let it play out. Watch. It's not 11. That we're going to lose more than half a million Californians dying prematurely to air pollution and other problems. Here comes a staffer. And the state could lose... Get out of my fucking shop! I want to tell you that that's actually incorrect. It's not that it's electric vehicles. It's that if we don't need the commitments under the Paris Climate Report. Okay. You also were in my shop before that. She was? Of my shop. Okay. I'm going to start again with electric vehicles saving us money. Perfect. Okay.

1:32:07OK, what's so amazing about that is here she's she's pretending up front that she cares about people dying because of pollution and the lack of electric vehicles. She's telling us, you know, it's the welfare of the people that matter. But then suddenly we see her real priority in life, how she, you know, her fucking shot. And so, I mean, again, there are movies that end like this where a politician or a preacher or a movie star who's gotten almost to the top suddenly gets a hot mic and reveals their true self. And that's usually the climax of the movie and the person is ruined, but not anymore, apparently.

1:32:45And also the lady in the back, the lady in the back was used to this abuse. You could tell her. She didn't jump or anything. She's like, oh, fucking, you know, I get 100 times a day. She just stood there. She was, you know, it's just another day at Katie's. Here's what's so funny to me. Like, Katie Porter was not wrong. The staffer should not have gotten in the shot. If Abby ever did that to me, I'd be like, yo, Abs, what's going on? You know, we're trying to do something with Jennifer Granholm. But she can't control her temper, even though she knows she's on camera and she's speaking to Jennifer Granholm, right, of Michigan.

1:33:25Was she in the administration yet at that point? I'm trying to remember my timing. Yeah, she had already become energy secretary. So she, like, you don't want to humiliate yourself in front of important people. And she blew a gasket. She can't control. And so now we find out this is post, post having gone through anger management class as well. this is the after who put her in anger management the divorce court the judge because of the divorce it was very brutal i'll get to that but she's already at this point been through the anger management it didn't well we don't know how bad she was before maybe this is successful maybe this is a success story you know maybe she used to yell at everybody for everything and now it's just down to getting in her shot.

1:34:15Wow. So, you know, you know that, you know, this is, this is wide and widespread here. Here's another one that's making the rounds. She's trying to do a shot. I think she says she's backstage at, is it Kimmel? Where is she? She's where Cuomo, Cuomo. Okay. She's backstage at Cuomo and she's trying to do some sort of a hit from backstage and she's not happy with the, with the lighting. She really now in her defense, she would benefit from nice lighting. But she's really particular about it. And here's how that went in 2021 SOT 14. Oh, yes. This is why I didn't want to. I need the lights off, the bright lights.

1:34:56I'm so sorry, but I am about to get on. Bernard, I need you to turn these off. These that are killing me. Hang on one second, everybody. We should put the computer up. Yes, yes, we should have. Yes. Okay, everybody. buddy i'm not that dark it's too dark she's she's totally blacked out now just a minute

1:35:23yeah oh we probably we should have dealt with the computer light before yes yes yes we should oh she's seething walter okay this serial killer i wrote a book about after he was sentenced to life imprisonment i was given a chance to go in the back of the courtroom and interview him for my book before he was taken off to jail. And he was a documentary was being made about him by a German TV channel. And look, this guy's just gotten sentenced for cutting two people up and burying them. And he's about to go off in life in prison. And he gives this last interview. And in the middle of it, he says, Is this my best side?

1:36:03Oh, my God. And I tell you, people who are whose minds are this preoccupied with how they are seeming from the outside at incredibly important moments are not like you and me. I mean, Megan, obviously, you're, you know, you're a beautiful and successful journalist who knows what lighting is. Even you're not like that, though, I don't think. I wouldn't have allowed myself in that first interview with the CBS investigative reporter to have been shot in the dark with weird blue lights coming out of my neck the way she was. I think I would have noticed that. But yeah, she she's got a history of worrying very much about how she appears on camera and then not getting good results despite her worries.

1:36:53That's what we see with Katie Porter. She's obsessed with how the shot looks and it never looks good. She's obsessed with how she looks. Same results. And she is not obsessed to blame everybody else. she's not obsessed enough with how she looks i mean i'm not i'm not saying a personal trainer should force her his way into her life but you know maybe so uh well there's something interesting about because like this this video of her walking in a batman out that woman outfit it from 2019 is making the rounds she was celebrating something bad happening to trump uh was the first impeachment vote or something.

1:37:31She was very anti-Trump. And she decided to wear her Batgirl costume to Congress. It was Halloween. But I'm just like, there's something aggressive about this outfit. I'm going to show it. It's very short. The boots are high. I've seen a lot of legs. Can we replay it? Just replay it because there's something going on in the front there too. Does Alfred get minimum wage? There. If you return the Batmobile, could you pay for the Green New Deal? All right. So I'm just going to say, forgive me. But even I wear the Spanx. I wear the Spanx. I pull them up. It's like, I understand. I get it after a certain age.

1:38:14You know, like you've had some kids. But there's something aggressive about this outfit here. Like she she's like one of these leftists who wants to lean into making unattractive decisions because they think it's somehow empowering rather than like telegraphing personal dignity and like grooming and like appropriate nips and tucks like a pair of Spanx I'm talking about. And I think this is part of her unhappiness. Like, I think her physical manifestation is reflecting a deep-seated unhappiness inside Walter, because now, now we're going to get to what is being reported via the Daily Mail about a long and troubled love life.

1:38:59She has an ex-husband. They wrote this in November of 2024. He accuses her of having dumped boiling potatoes on his head, scalding his scalp, said he was too dumb to have a cell phone, and of calling him a fucking slob, among other things. He says the following, that they each filed restraining orders against each other and alleged abuse, the Daily Mail reports, that he insisted she was prone to extreme anger and had a history of snapping and screaming at him and the children, that they frequently said things, she frequently said things to him, like, you fucking idiot, and you're fucking incompetent.

1:39:42She would not let me have a cell phone because she said you're too fucking dumb to operate it. Now, what kind of a man would allow his wife to determine whether or not he had a cell phone? He goes on, the Daily Mail reports, to say that in 2012, she came home from work one day and was enraged that the house was not clean, slammed a glass coffee pot on the counter, causing glass shards to spray everywhere and cut him. Quote, this house is a mess. You effing slob. You're incompetent. What the eff do you do all day? She allegedly said while the three kids were nearby in the living room. He said Porter began picking up dishes and saying, look at how effing dirty this is.

1:40:23It goes on to say that the oldest child, Luke, was in the high chair. She looked at the potatoes in a ceramic bowl and yelled, Can't you read the effing instructions? She then took the ceramic bowl of steaming hot potatoes and dumped it on my head, burning my scalp, he says. He says she stood over their son, who was two and a half years old, and screamed, Get out of my face and leave me alone! He, the husband, says that he then rushed in and Katie Porter struck him in the face and said, why can't you keep them away from me? She then called that allegation absolutely false. So she denied at least some hefty portion of this.

1:41:07She said he says she came in as he made jello with the kids and said, are you so effing stupid? You can't make jello. How effing dumb are you? Again, in her defense, if he can't make the jello, that is dumb. But Ted, Ted, on the angry side of the messaging. He's teaching every little kid learns to cook by making jello first. I don't know. It seems he wasn't able to do it, nor to clean the house. And if he didn't have a job, he should have been cleaning the house. I'm just saying, on principle, some of these points might be valid, but the execution of it. He accused her. I'm trying to find a way to defend this gal.

1:41:46The ex-husband accused her of refusing to leave the house when it was his visitation day, when they were separated, that she slowly moved around, quote, taunting and laughing at me. Porter insisted she was simply getting ready for work. Hoffman, the ex, said Porter began brushing her teeth very slowly, and he punched a light switch out of frustration, he admits. Porter claimed that the ex, Hoffman, squeezed her hands, ripped the dental floss right out of her hand, demanded that she leave the home, and yelled that she was ruining our children, called her a dumb B-word, a despicable person, effing evil, and told her she should rot in hell.

1:42:27The soon-to-be ex, Hoffman, admits to grabbing her hands to take the toothbrush away, claimed that Porter was the one who ran at him and punched him, causing a bruise on his arm. Porter went to work and then called the police nearly 11 hours later. And then there were mutual restraining orders. It broke down. She alleges he had committed some abuse as well. Hoffman had hit her, according to their seven-year-old boy, that she was victimized by the ex and had kicked, maybe the child says had kicked him. That's unclear to me who the him is, but did not go into detail. It's a hot mess. That's really what we're getting at here, Walter.

1:43:14And then just, I'll put an opinion in it. But another very similar situation happened then with her live-in boyfriend, who also, they claim abuse, mutual accusations, mutual restraining. Like, this person wants to be governor of California, Walter. First of all, how does she attract men? It's a mystery. And how does she attract political support? That's a mystery. This is all very fun National Enquirer, salacious, you know, daytime drama. But it suggests to me that these party machines, and California is a party machine, only a machine would bring up a candidate like that. Only a machine that could deliver the office to a hippopotamus or a Frankenstein monster would nominate her.

1:44:09Why do these people flourish in this environment? What is it about our politics that encourages and is receptive to psychos? Because she looks like a psycho. I just think of Kathy Bates in Misery standing over the bed of the writer saying, I'm her biggest fan. Or has America lost? we've gotten so damn tolerant and so don't judge a book by its cover that you know people can walk up to us with a knife and shove it between our eyes i don't know and we're like yeah well you know could have been worse it's amazing to me that she had any sort of a political career after all of this i mean she's her staff has already come out and said that she's abusive and now and she's issued some anodyne statement saying like i i've been trying to do better with the staff but like there's a long pattern here of some very questionable, frankly, nutty behavior is how it looks to me.

1:45:11And I think we just scratched the surface in that CBS investigative reporter interview. So let me just give you the synopsis of what then allegedly happened with the boyfriend. I mean, I'm sorry, but this is like, she wants to be elevated to a very important post. And this is fair game for a politician. So the Daily Mail reported same time, November 2024, the following, that she obtained a temporary restraining order against her ex-boyfriend, someone by the last name Willis, after accusing him in court of abuse and harassment that she said caused her to fear for her safety. She petitioned for domestic violence restraining order in November 2024.

1:45:54This is after that whole meltdown with the husband. These are not good choices in a partner by this woman. She alleged that her romantic partner of several years sent her, her family and her staff more than a thousand text messages and emails over three months. The judge approved the order, ordering the boyfriend to make no contact and to stay away from her and her children, including in the case filing included in were details about the threats that she allegedly received. I'm sorry, the threats against her to call child protective protective services that he was making to remove her children from her custody.

1:46:31Also detailed attempts to extort Porter for thousands of dollars and to make defamatory false allegations like her having a sexually transmitted disease. She said she submitted test results to the court to prove she did not have the STD political reported. Porter said that Willis, 55, was dealing with substance abuse and has mental health issues, which led to him being involuntarily committed twice since 2022. This thing's being written in 2024. According to Porter, he had taken steps to address his issues, like attending narcotics and anonymous meetings and staying in a sober living house, but she claimed to have witnessed his continued substance abuse.

1:47:14She'd seen him misusing, she claimed, prescription painkillers, snorting Ritalin and abusing cannabis and nicotine patches. He also previously disclosed to me she claimed his use of cocaine and nitrous oxide. He told Politico that he accused her of seeking the restraining order to preempt him from suing her and seeking protection for himself and her children. He told Politico, quote, she's a monster. I mean, here's the question I have for you. If you know you got this history, I mean, this is like, this is a long ass history. A lot of great women have made bad choices in men and vice versa too.

1:47:54But if you have a pattern of absolutely volatile relationships involving restraining orders and mandated anger management cases or classes and physical and verbal abuse, some of which involves your children. Why would you run for public office? And why would you ever let yourself lose your temper in as public a setting as an interview with CBS News? That is just waving the red flag at the bull. The media's going to figure out whether you have an anger issue. And it had all been kind of forgotten. Now we're almost in November of 2025. This was not an issue in her campaign until now. Well, the reason you do all those things is because you're a psychopath with no conscience who believes you're right about everything and that the world made you do whatever wrong things that you've done.

1:48:56And in fact, it does much worse and hides it, so they're all hypocrites. And you're such an important political figure, and your plans for saving California are so vital that how dare they get down into these soap opera details? Are they not serious? These are not people like you and me. They don't have a boundary at which they reflect and go, wow, that was a mistake. They're not Walter Kern going, oh my God, I forgot to set my alarm right for going on the Megan show. I'm going to go out and slap myself. These are a whole new breed of people and they do very well in politics. We used to see movies about them like Sunset Boulevard or Mommy Dearest.

1:49:40Apparently they exist in Hollywood too, but they've jumped the gap and they've made it into politics. Imagine that woman in charge of COVID policy during the pandemic. Oh my God, She would have had us all walking on our knees down the street with like hostages with our hands behind our head, you know, sprayed down by insecticide. I mean, it's dangerous. Can you imagine the number of lawsuits California is going to get from the staffers who claim hostile work environment? I mean, just you're setting yourselves up to fail. Now, here's an alternate viewpoint, because to me, it's ironic. Like I said, I thought the CBS investigative reporter was wonderfully passive aggressive.

1:50:20She did a great job, but she was needling her over and over, which is our job. I enjoyed it, but I also understood why she was getting annoyed, which is what I actually love about the interview. I also feel her staffer should not have gotten in the back of her shot, but she should have handled it differently. I would not have been happy with my lighting in that backstage at Cuomo thing, but she's a nasty person who's seething. The level of anger was disproportionate to the event. So it's not that she doesn't have any points to be raised. It's just she can't seem to modulate her emotions, which is bad because she's a woman and female politicians really do extra need to keep it together.

1:51:03And B, any politician does. Any man who is this volatile would be getting called out too. But the view, they have a different view. Here's thought 18. Maybe she's having a menopausal moment. You know, listen, anything is possible. But she said in a statement that she's striving to do better, quote, saying, I have sought to be more intentional in showing gratitude to my staff for their important work. Now, you know, some people apparently are surprised by these videos. I am not. We see these videos with guys. We saw it with, oh, my God. Bill O 'Reilly. Bill O 'Reilly. We've seen it with Laura Ingraham.

1:51:44We've seen it with lots of different people. We've seen it with actors. Trump does it every minute. And he always says to people, you're the worst. I don't like you. I don't know who you are. I don't know why you're here. You know, maybe people are having a bad day. I can't imagine it could be easy to be running for something because it's kind of like us. We always have to now be on our best behavior. We have to watch what we say. We have to watch how we say it. And sometimes it gets really frustrating because you just want to say, this is how I feel. Okay, Whoopi Goldberg was accused by Sage Steele of getting up, right?

1:52:25Wasn't it Whoopi of getting up in her face? Oh, it was Barbara. Barbara and Whoopi was there. Barbara Walters, who ran that show, was accused of getting up in Sage Steele's face and physically assaulting her backstage. So that's the environment at The View. Bill O 'Reilly did have a famous on-air meltdown when he was at Inside Edition. remember he's like evit we'll do it live you know i don't know if you've seen it's one of the greatest things ever we'll drop it in here but it's one of the greatest things you've ever seen now i can't read it there's no there's no words on it okay there's no words there to play us out what does that mean to play us out i don't know what that means to play us out what does that mean to end the show yeah yeah all right go go In 5, 4, 3.

1:53:18That's tomorrow, and that is it. In 5, 4, 3. That's tomorrow, and that is it for us today. And we will leave you with a... I can't do it. We'll do it live. Okay. We'll do it live! Fuck it! Do it live! I'll write it, and we'll do it live! Fucking thing sucks! And Laura Ingram, too, had been not so great with the crew and they obviously recorded it and put it out on a video many years ago. But neither of those two is running for governor of California. So it's really more of like a Fox News internal thing or inside edition internal thing. I'm not sure we can make that comparison, Walter. Well, I don't want to call journalists TV people, but TV people whose job is to present to the entire country, lit, made up in a coherent way.

1:54:23We expect one thing from them when things screw up. They're being professionally compromised. That a politician turns out to be almost the biggest TV person of all, that in fact they're more monstrous than anyone we've seen there. And the thing is, she doesn't just snap. She pours boiling potato water over people's heads. And all we saw of her at first was that interview. And what do you know? That interview was not snapping. That was just how she handles other people. It wasn't that there was some moment where she went awry. And when you dig and you keep peeling the onion back and it gets worse and worse and worse, I'd say you've got a case.

1:55:18But once again, on The View, we're in we're in a country now where there are excuses for the most flagrant and obvious human behavior of the worst. Yeah. Infantile. What's with the menopausal moment thing? What the F? If a man said that, he'd get fired. I know. I know. Menopause. And, you know, now there's premenopause. So half a woman's life has got a pre-made excuse. But sorry. So you get to you get just to be you get to be a raging bitch for eight, 10 years and nobody can hold you to account. Well, then you can't run for governor. If we're going to lean on that crutch, then you can't be a governor between the ages of 45 and 55 or whatever.

1:55:57But maybe women, maybe it works as an electoral strategy because maybe women in the country are so frustrated. Maybe there's something to the feminist critique of society. They've been kept down for so long that people like this are kind of acting out the frustrated fantasies of the voter. Maybe. I don't know. She's not paying much of a price for it. I honestly, on the subject of, you know, my therapist who I saw after my first marriage ended, you know, I think Katie Porter probably has some very low self-esteem. I think that's why she's so obsessed with how she looks and how the lighting is and whether the staffer's back there in a way that it makes her quick to anger.

1:56:43You know, I mean, we again, being part of a professional television person, I absolutely would say, yo, abs, you're in my shot. Just like that. So it's I'm not objecting to the the caring about that. But she seems like to be very angry if it's not going her way. And I think there are a lot of women who don't just choose one partner who's an absolute loser, but have a series of absolute losers in the past. They love losers because they can berate them all day. They know reliably that they'll come home and something will be broken, so they'll get a chance to yell, they'll get a chance to humiliate.

1:57:24But the real reason I don't want this character in charge of our politics is because they have a lot of power. And in an era of pandemics and fires and public emergencies and all sorts of moments when someone rises to almost, you know, authoritarian executive power, enduring emergencies and so on. Somebody like that can ruin your life, can ruin your economy, can ruin your peace of mind. I mean, Gavin Newsom, he was kind of a semi-dictator, but really he just wanted to slip off to the French laundry and toast and get it on with his fancy friends. She put a freaking roadblock around every Los Angeles neighborhood and have nighttime night goggle patrols looking in your window.

1:58:20She doesn't seem like an emotionally healthy person. And I think that would concern me if I were a California voter. I don't that's not you got to again right back to the put this one back on the shelf. There are lots of them. This is we're very early in the Democrat primary process out in California. Got a lot of people running for it. We all know whoever gets the Democrat nod is going to be the winner in all likelihood, unfortunately. But put this one back. This is not the one you can do better. Okay, speaking of people who are on TV and worry about their image, Jimmy Kimmel has decided to give a full-throated interview about his five-day suspension for him.

1:59:04It was on Bloomberg. He sat down with Bloomberg, and this is how he describes his free speech martyrdom five days off the air, SOT26. I didn't think there was a big problem. I, you know, I just saw it as distortion on the part of some of the right wing media networks. And I was I aimed to correct it. And so at what point did you realize this was a problem? I think when when they pulled the show off the air. Well, that's unusual. Well, yeah. The important thing to me was that I was able to explain what I was saying, what I was trying to say. Because you felt like your initial comments had been mischaracterized.

1:59:56I didn't feel like it. It was intentionally and I think maliciously mischaracterized. Well, he does that for a living. He mischaracterizes and maliciously misrepresents, you know, Donald Trump or anybody he doesn't like. So, you know, I guess he knows what it feels like now. But here's the thing. He went out there and tried to say that the man who shot Charlie Kirk was MAGA. That's what he clearly was saying. And he was flipping about it. He was flipping about Charlie. at a time when MAGA was suffering the loss of a beloved fellow MAGA member and leader. He took a dump all over them and then tried to say they had somehow produced Charlie's killer.

2:00:49And there's not a scintilla of truth to it. Just as a reminder, here's what he said that led to his suspension. Saw 27. We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. MAGA reacted by saying, how dare you suggest he was one of ours? He wasn't. He was a leftist. He wrote it on the bullet casings. His family says it's so. The governor of Utah says it's so. And his defense is, I was maliciously mischaracterized. by whom?

2:01:29I wish the reporter had done his job and said, exactly how were your remarks mischaracterized? What did you say and what did they say you said that was wrong? I don't think he could answer that question. Yeah, yeah, I still don't know what was mischaracterized there. It was a little bit subtle. You know, he couched it in a negative, you know, but he was obviously saying that he knew and the identity of the killer was obvious and his sympathies were obvious. And look at these pathetic MAGA people trying to obscure the truth when it was him trying to obscure the truth. And it was very subtle. And these people are actors.

2:02:11And the thought that it just sort of came out or people mischaracterized him or he could have said it differently is ridiculous. Every one of those words is worth its weight in gold is rehearsed. And that guy's a professional. He knew he knew that his staggering, failing career was going to be well served by a controversy like this. I was told months ago that he was on the way out, you know, when Colbert got canceled. And this was, I think, a cynical attempt to, at a very tender moment, kick the hornet's nest, get himself back in the headlines. But the funny thing is, Jimmy Kimmel is not talented enough, and his product is not in demand enough that he'll last.

2:03:03But he does seem a little bit like he's lost some of his swagger. Some of the wind's gone out of him because I think he realizes that though he can get attention through extreme measures, that's about all. And I think he'll just quietly shuffle off the stage at some point. I really hope he does because this is amazing. Like he is not taking responsibility for what he did. He was not mischaracterized. The problem is he was characterized exactly right. and what he said was wrong and it was really offensive and he did not give two dams that he was pouring salt in the wounds of a whole group of half of the country that was really suffering.

2:03:46And now he has the nerve to come out and play the victim. He didn't do anything wrong. He was mischaracterized. This is exactly why Disney pulled the show and wanted him to apologize, which he did not do. And he's back on the air again, demiddling ratings. Okay, so speaking - Our celebrity culture is really damaging us. We've now got prima donna, movie star, governor, we've got people fantasizing about death in the way that you see in a movie, and you've got people pretending it's not real on late night TV. We're moving into a kind of twilight zone of unreality that I don't know how we pull ourselves out of.

2:04:29Turn it off. Don't watch it. Don't let yourself get pulled in. It's infuriating. It'll make your life far worse. I never watch that stuff. I mean, I don't think the audience listening to this does either. We just see the clips and they make us angry because they're, I mean, it's one thing we're used to being ripped on. We're used to like nasty, untrue jokes about Republicans, but just don't, don't, don't fucking joke about Charlie Kirk. I mean, truly don't. Like we're still in mourning. It's so heartless. It's so nasty. Don't lie about his killer being MAGA. Like, what are you saying? And he's got a very big platform and he's supposed to be this comedian and he won't take the responsibility because he always just says jokes, jokes, jokes.

2:05:11And that leads me to Trevor Noah, who just, this is really dreadful. This is really dreadful. He couldn't help himself. He appeared, I believe it was at the Comedy Cellar, which I love. And this is what he said. this week. Meanwhile here, comedians are shitting themselves. Don't say anything about Charlie Cook. I wasn't going to say anything about Charlie. I wasn't going to say anything about Charlie Cook. But don't. There's nothing funny about it. Oh, now you've tested me. I mean, there's nothing funny about it? You can't say there's nothing funny about it? No, there's nothing funny. No, don't say that because as a comedian, I'll be like, I'm sure there's something funny about it.

2:05:53The guy was shot while defending guns. Do you understand? I'm not even writing that as a joke as a human you have to admit that is an incongruous funny thing that happens You are there on you're like on stage. You're like let me tell you why people should have guns That would be like if the captain of the Titanic was giving an impassioned speech about icebergs Right before it happened. He's just there. He's like I'll tell you why icebergs are not as bad as people say

2:06:27So Charlie slipped on a banana peel as far as he's concerned. You know a bad comedian, when they have to lie to make their joke work, that's not what Charlie Kirk was talking about when he was shot. No, it's not at all. We pulled it. We pulled it. We're not going to show the gunshot, obviously, but we are going to show the last couple of questions that Trevor Noah is mischaracterizing. It was about trans mass shooters. It was about the trans issue and who's committing these massacres here. So do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years? Too many.

2:07:09I'm sure Americans five. Okay, now five is a lot, right? I'm going to give you some credit. Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years? Counting or not counting gang violence. Counting or counting, not counting. So the questioner is building up to try to say trans people don't commit murders. Trans people aren't out there doing mass shootings. Now, if Trevor Noah wanted to say that was the irony, that they were talking about how low the number of trans shooters allegedly is, and then Charlie got shot by somebody who was into furry culture who was dating a trans person.

2:07:45It's not funny, but he at least could have made an actual connection. But he wasn't celebrating guns there. Charlie wasn't defending guns. he was being asked about who's committing these shootings, the mental health of these trans people. So it was a complete misrepresentation by Trevor Noah because he wouldn't actually draw the connection that actually is there, Walter. He wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole. You know, nope, nope. One thing that comedians do, and the reason we laugh and laugh uncomfortably, especially in edgy comedy clubs, is they speak thoughts that we're afraid to speak ourselves.

2:08:19You know, they say things that we would never say to our wife, but they say out loud or they say things we would never say to our boss. But he I actually dispute his thesis that that was there was anything funny about that. If there was some tiny, horrible, miserable, funny thing about that, that even the best person or normal person, you know, couldn't admit to. That would be one thing. But I want to say you're telling us about you. You have told me nothing about myself. You have told me nothing about the secret thoughts that other people have. You are just making this up. And I would sit back and go, Trevor, you can make me laugh about the unspoken prejudices of people and so on.

2:09:09But don't impute that I'm laughing with you on this. Don't bring me in here. Don't make me part of the conspiracy. I'm out of here. And oh, I would also say, hey, I've got a funny joke for you. Bang, bang. mm-hmm why don't you so disrespectful it's so disrespectful walter why someone who gets on a stage why don't they fear the fact that america's stages in america's public places and america's ability to go out and speak in crowds has now been made really perilous what does he think he has some special uh well he's of the left he's of the left and and like that's something that no one will acknowledge that the people who are getting shot are right wing.

2:09:54They're conservatives. It is a lot harder for our pal Glenn Beck to go out there as he did just the other night in front of, it was a huge crowd. Oh my God, the university, it was one, it was a Charlie event. It's a lot harder for Glenn Beck to do that at a Charlie event than it is for Trevor Noah to stand up there because of the very thing that Charlie was debating with that kid who asked him the question because of who has been motivated to violence because of how the left feels. One third of them, according to the polls, about political violence versus the numbers on the right wing side, which are nil.

2:10:35There are no right wingers, maybe one percent, the numbers show, who would entertain political violence. And on the left, it is one third. That's why, Trevor, we're not all laughing because all of us would like to get home and see our children, something he clearly doesn't have to worry about for a number of reasons. And he acted like he was brave. The way the bit started was he said, I was warned not to talk about Charlie Kirk. Everybody warned me, but I'm going to be brave and do it anyway. That's his version of bravery. The bravery on the right is I'm going to get up here and I might get shot, but I have something I want to say.

2:11:13Your fear is that your joke might not land and you might get in trouble. Well, Glenn Beck's fear is that somebody is going to blow his head off. Yeah, and by the way, Glenn's daughter was standing in the tent with Charlie when Charlie was killed. So, I mean, it was damn brave of Glenn Beck to go out there and stand up there and do that. And I guarantee you his family was very worried about him. Of course, his daughter, that would have required superhuman strength on her part, too, to say, Dad, do it. Right? Because that's, oh, she was right there. She was an eyewitness. He was on my show when it happened, the day it happened, one month ago today, telling us.

2:11:50He was in tears about the fact that his daughter was so close to danger. It's screw Trevor Noah. I don't begrudge comedians the right to make light of our times and even to take tragedies and find a way to laugh. Like that, that is something comedians do. But I'm telling you, A, it wasn't funny. B, it was dishonest. And C, maybe in reverse order, it's too soon. It's really too soon. I mean, I think I can speak for the Charlie fans. We are not ready to have a laugh about him getting his head nearly blown off. Trevor, so go fuck yourself. I just I like I have had it with these comedians trying to laugh and piss on his grave.

2:12:34The essence of good comedy is bravery, is saying the thing that other people are afraid to say or too shy to say or, you know, too tongue tied to say. But this is not bravery we're seeing from these people. This is wanting adulation as part of a call of anger and hatred. Yeah, and cruelty. And they're going into safe spaces, and they're saying the thing that their bubble partners want to hear, and they're kind of glorying in their sadistic fantasies. And that's not what a comedian does. A comedian challenges his audience. He doesn't feed them. It's gore. All right. Let's shift gears before we wrap it up.

2:13:16because we have to think about something nice. I'll say something nice. Fall has finally arrived here in the Northeast. It had been wonderful. It was like 80 degrees all last week, including here in New England. Amazing. But we woke up yesterday morning and fall had arrived. It was high of 60. And that actually is exciting to me, even though I like warmth as much as anybody else. The fall weather brings with it like nice sweaters and sweatshirts and fires. and apple picking and cider donuts, trick or treat, Halloween. I don't like, it kicks off the holiday season in a real way, right? Like you get the fall, then you get the Halloween, then you get the Thanksgiving and the break.

2:14:00You get the Christmas buildup and the actual holiday. It's a great stint between the kickoff of fall, like the cold weather moving in and then New Year's Eve. Don't you think? You made me want to go on a hayride with you, you know? Yes. I live out here in Montez. Yeah, exactly. It really is the best season for dressing. You can go so many ways and use so many interesting, rich colors. So I'm looking forward to, yeah, upping my wardrobe, a hayride with Meg and Kelly. I'm really, you know, getting outdoors and remembering what it is to be cozy, safe in a sane America. Because the end of this summer was just off a cliff.

2:14:46And I hope we start to enjoy each other and value our time off together. It can't go on this way much longer. We can't do many more shows like this. Yeah. Are you a religious man, Walter? Yes. I'm not an outwardly, overtly wear it on my forehead person, yes. But whenever I'm asked that question, it's my, you know, my reading of the Bible, my reading of the Christian message is that when asked, you're supposed to say yes. There were a few people there in Jerusalem who asked when asked if they knew Jesus said, I've never seen the guy. I don't want to be one of those. Well, I don't know. I've been doing more reading on this front than I've ever done.

2:15:42And I've really been wrestling with Charlie's death in, I've just been rattled, so rattled by it, just on multiple levels. The loss of such an incredible soul. I'm very worried about Erica and his kids. She's in deep mourning. The internet's horrible. But she's extremely upset still, as she should be. And I still haven't wrestled with the fact or like come to understand the fact that like people are so callous like Trevor Noah and people are celebrating it and people can't find empathy. And we hear all this like, oh, it's really too bad. But, oh, I don't condone political violence. But like that all that stuff's really bothering me.

2:16:22And I so I went back to Dr. Frank Turek, who I really like. He's been on the show. He came on the show right after Charlie died, and he was one of Charlie's spiritual mentors and teachers about the Christian faith. And that led me to this book that he was talking about in one of his books called Who Moved the Stone? And this is purportedly a book that convinced an atheist, Frank and his co-author of the one book knew, that God is real, that Jesus is real, and that Christianity is right. So I've been listening to Who Moved the Stone. I love audiobooks. And it's really gotten me thinking, you know.

2:17:01Who did move the stone? Well, that's the question. That's the question. And whether anybody's, like, questioning about whether Christianity makes sense can really hold water. If you go back and you look at it, it's basically like an evidence-based look at Christianity. Like, would it make sense? would the women who showed up and saw that he was gone have been mistaken? Is there any way they went to the wrong cave? It's like taking a deep dive into all of it. And I don't know, I have to tell you, even just the process of reading about this, it's not exactly scripture. It's making me feel a little better.

2:17:35It's just like reminding me that it is real. And there's a reason that Christianity was founded and people believed at a time, as you point out, it was dangerous to believe immediately by the thousands. And then of course, years later, hundreds of millions of, there's a billion Catholics and how those beliefs actually can be comforting in a time like this, if you can just reconnect with them. But it's ironic because like at a time like this, you might kind of want to feel, you might feel slightly alienated from them too, right? Like I spend my own wrestling over the past month. Well, I don't go a morning without The first words into my head being those from the Gospels every morning.

2:18:19And that wasn't the only stone that was moved in the Gospels. In John, Jesus is told that there's a man named Lazarus who's died. And he goes to raise him. And he's in his tomb very much like the one that Jesus ends up in. And he gets to the door and he says, I want to go in. I want to raise Lazarus. And they say, he's been dead four days. It's going to smell bad. That's what they say. There's going to be a stench. He says, no, go ahead. And, you know, he does it. And there is a sense that life and death issues require us to read these stories. Because even if we find them unbelievable, they're really an honest way of grappling with our feelings around death in a way comedians aren't and science isn't.

2:19:16And I'd like to believe that resurrection, in Charlie's case, is similar to what happened with John the Baptist. He was killed. He was not a savior himself, but a harbinger, a message spreader. and he was killed in a very violent way. But the message lived on and maybe it wouldn't have had that not happened. I think Charlie Kirk's spirit and the spread of his positive message and the ability to see who he really was is an absolute miracle, whether you believe in these sort of particularly physical miracles of someone coming up out of a grave. I need more books like this because it's making me feel better.

2:20:04Take recommendations. You can write to us. You can email me, megan at megankelly.com is the email. And by the way, go to megankelly.com to see Walter and yours truly and Erica Kirk all together in Glendale, Arizona on the last night of our tour, November 22nd. Check it out, megankelly.com. Walter, I love talking to you. Thank you so much for making the time for us. Thank you for having me back. Rebecca, you're a very gracious and merciful person because I made a showbiz snafu for the ages. And that you let me get back on the horse the same week is something I appreciate. We're lucky to have you.

2:20:47No, wait, before I let you go, I should ask you, speaking of you walking the Montana woods, what is the temperature out there right now? Well, it snowed just the other day, but it doesn't mean anything because it snows on and off, you know, since the end of August. But the animals have all gone away. They're in their caves. They're hidden. You know, those who hibernate. So it's getting chilly. Well, we will be out there in December. So I'm going to shoot you a note. And that's when we might not get our PMI, but we could get a sleigh ride. You're coming to Montana? Every Christmas we spend out there.

2:21:21Yes. So I will contact you. I'll give you my address offline. Okay, great. Great. It's a big state. But yeah, no. Yeah. It's wonderful. And we absolutely look forward to it every year because you always get away Christmas. It's amazing. Yeah. See you then. To be continued, my friend. Thanks again. Wow. Oh, what a day. Gosh, that was great. Eric Trump was so good. And Walter was so good. I hope you felt it too. I really found all of that like entertaining and interesting. And I'm looking forward to what I want to put on a sweatshirt. Sometimes the sweaters are too itchy. I want to put on a sweatshirt, maybe a vest, some cute boots and some jeans.

2:22:04I want to go for a hike. I want to hear the leaves crunch underneath my feet. I want to inhale the cold air, exhale, and maybe see my breath, depending on what time of day I'm going out there. It could be nice and cold on the mornings or in the evenings. I want to start to see the Halloween decorations go up. Ours are not, they're going up slowly but surely. Our fall decorations are up, but we're starting to get our Halloween ones out there. That's so fun to watch. I want to start thinking about Halloween decorations with the kids and doing our candy corn pumpkin. If you haven't seen that, you can just Google Megan Kelly, candy corn pumpkin and Strudwick, and you will see the challenges we faced in the past, thanks to our dog and getting this thing done.

2:22:51Anyway, that's living. That's living. And I don't know, that's where I always end up when I start thinking about Charlie, like spend more time with the people you love, spend more time doing the things you love. Here we are a month out and it's a blessing. It's a blessing to be able to take those walks and be with your families and maybe take a hayride and do a pumpkin, do something silly, put on Halloween Town. Love having that on in the background as we do Halloween crafts in my house. And my kids love it too. Anyway, I hope that's what your weekend looks like too. God bless all of you. Thank you for listening and we'll see you Monday.

2:23:28Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

2:23:36Thank you.