Trump Calls Out "Pirates" and Celebrates Heroes at SOTU, and Robert De Niro Literally Cries Over Trump, with RealClearPolitics | Ep. 1260

25:32And so if you can't do it, but your kid can do it, everyone knows what Nancy Pelosi is going to do. She's going to call up little Alexandria, whatever her name is, Alexandra, and tell her what to trade. Same as she clearly did with her husband. So when she was first asked about this, she said, no, it's a free market. You know, like basically, why would I support that? And then everybody started taking a closer look at how she got so rich. And now she's been dragged kicking and screaming over to the side of, okay, I'll stand. and I'll support the ban, Andrew.

26:05Tom Bevan:Well, yeah. No, I think this is one of those reforms that's, if it's not 80-20, it's got to be 99-100, 99-1 among American people. But you're right. I mean, both parties are guilty of doing this, and it's wrong, and it should stop. We'll see what happens. I think that the time may come for this to pass. I was struck too by all his economic reforms. None of them were sort of the sort of robust Reaganist sort of green shoots, you know, unleashed the economy kind of stuff. They were all sort of aimed at tamping down commercial activity and felt very sort of socialist in a sense, I'd say. What do you mean?

26:56What do you mean?

26:56Tom Bevan:Well, I mean, you know, the idea that stopping big banks from buying homes, which really has no effect on homes. But that sort of anti-bank, the sort of anti-pharmaceutical, the idea that tech companies will have to build their own power sources. These are all sort of command and control economic measures and not the kind of thing that you would – that I thought he would be talking about. Trump's not very – I don't know if he is fully free market. We know he's not free trade. But his justifications for those I thought were very good. I mean, he was pointing out how these energy companies come in and they run up the electric costs, some 20%.

27:41And why should anybody other than the companies, the tech companies are doing that? Why should anybody other than the tech companies have to pay for any of that increased cost, like infrastructure improvements or so on? On the pharmacies, it's like that was the most favored nation stuff that, you know, that's sort of a bipartisan issue now. I think even Republicans have realized that the cost of prescription drugs is out of control. We do nothing about it. So it's like, why should the people in Europe be paying one-tenth of what we're paying for our drugs that we manufacture? That just seems fair.

28:12And on the BlackRock thing, why do you say that that doesn't affect the cost of homes? When you have a company like that swooping into neighborhoods, buying a bunch of homes up, how can a regular Joe, just starting his family, compete with BlackRock for a home?

28:28Tom Bevan:Well, two things. One, it's a very small percentage of the amount of homes that are bought and sold that the company – it's about 1%, I think, of all the sales. So it's a minor part of the market. And the other thing is that, well, just as a free market guy, there are people actually who are selling their homes as well. So why would you deny a seller the opportunity to sell to the highest bidder? Someone's ox is going to be gored. Whenever you try to mess with free market forces, there are unintended consequences. And I think the unintended consequence of something like this might well be that it actually makes it harder for people to sell houses.

29:13Tom Bevan:It interferes with the way the market works. It's kind of what Mom Donnie wants to do in New York. I don't want those big banks in the housing market personally. And I think Trump definitely has a protective strain in him, Tom. I mean, for sure, we've seen that. But we had no protective strain for far too long under people like Bill Clinton, and we lost all of our manufacturing jobs as a result of it. Yeah, I mean, look, Trump is not a traditional, you know, free market, free trader, which which has been the Republican Party for 40 years. He's that's not that's never been his mindset. And that's part of why he got elected in the first place.

29:50And so that's part of the trade off with Trump. he does have some tendencies where he's you know gets awfully close to or simpatico with elizabeth warren and that makes a lot of republicans nervous um but back to the nancy pelosi thing if i could just say i mean that was my laugh out love my wife and i were watching i turned her and i'm like did he really just say that i could not believe it look the stock trading ban thing it should be a no-brainer and as you point out megan like everybody's rah-rah for it in public and then in private it's like why didn't this pass then i mean how hard is it for congress people to put their put their holdings in a blind trust a truly blind trust so they can enjoy the fruits of the market as it goes up but without you know having the any sort of back doors where they can do stuff that's considered illegal or unethical they should not be able to profit uh from insider information, which a lot of them have.

30:48They sit on these committees. They see a lot of the stuff coming before the public sees it coming. And so that just, it makes total and complete, again, it's another common sense measure that for some reason we can't seem to get done. But, you know, Trump being for it, I think might push it over the finish line. We might finally get something that the American people, as you said, like 90 % of the public is for it. That'd be nice. I think most of the public also understands that there has been massive fraud in Minnesota and that it has been perpetrated overwhelmingly, almost entirely by the Somali born community there.

31:25Just as a stat, they are so far 82 of the 92 defendants charged for this fraud per the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota. Okay, so 82 of 92, I think it's fair to say this is a Somali problem in America. So the president got into this. He announced a war on fraud. And this is where Ilhan Omar got super exercised and started screaming at him. That's a lie. And more. Watch. The members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated$19 billion from the American taxpayer. We have all the information. I am officially announcing the war on fraud to be led by our great vice president, J.D. Vance.

32:19The Somali pirates who ransacked Minnesota remind us that there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception. He says Somali pirates, J.D. Vance and Mike Johnson start laughing. They cut to Ilhan Omar, who's just looking distressed in the audience. But she was yelling that's a lie when he said they've been plundering America. There's no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated 19 billion, billion with a B from the American taxpayer. Well, here again, the federal prosecutors say it is at least$9 billion up to$18 billion.

33:04They said they're still trying to determine just how much of that remaining$9 billion was part of this same Somali fraud scheme where they used these 14 Minnesota programs meant to help people but abused them and didn't help anybody other than lining their own pockets for fake programs involving nutrition, housing, and all that. autism research. Remember that one? It was all bullshit. And that's just scratching the surface, as Trump said, because the fraud went well beyond that. If you want to go back a couple of years to COVID, they're looking into that now at the federal government level, not just in Minnesota, but in many states.

33:37But there's nothing he said that was false at all, Carl. And this was a moment I would suggest the president welcomed. Yeah, I agree with you. There's two things about this story that I don't understand when it comes to Ilya and Omar. And the first, well, the first, I don't understand why she would defend this. I think, to me, she ought to get out in front of it, and she ought to go back to her community, and she ought to say, we're better than this. We don't want to be known for this. We need to root this out. You need to help the government. She's not acting like, to my mind, like a member of Congress who's protective of the Treasury, but rather like an agreed minority who feels she's being singled out.

34:14And I don't think that's the right move, because this fraud is real. The other thing, looking, and I don't think it's just going to be Somalia and Minnesota. I'm in California this week, and I can only imagine the fraud that's been going on here. And these stories are starting to come out. But remember this, Megan, years ago, when I first started coming with the immigration issue, people who wanted to become legal immigrants had to sign that they would not be a burden on the taxpayer. It wasn't that they were eligible for poverty programs, but the expectation was, you sign a paper that you wouldn't do it.

34:53You would work. You had to take these pledges. You had to have a job. You had to have a plan. And somewhere along the line, that just got thrown out. And these Somalis who came to Minnesota as refugees, their country was just in a terrible shape. They went on the dole immediately and they were apparently encouraged to do so. And apparently that's common across the country. And I wonder when we got away from that ethic, because we never had a conversation about it. No president ever talked about it. We never said, okay, we're taking - And no citizen would ever vote for it. That's right. And it wouldn't be a popular thing.

35:27And I'm talking now about legal immigration. And during the Biden administration, we went from that new norm where legal immigrants are expected to be able to, you know, go on welfare and take other poverty programs too, then illegal immigrants are also allowed to do this. This was, this was a bridge that, I mean, no, nobody ever voted for that. And I don't understand how we got to this place. And I think that, I think defending it makes the Democrats look, makes them look bad. But can I just say, Carl, part of the problem, the reason she's defending is because she's tied up in it. I mean, let's not let the democratic politicians in Minnesota in particular, but in any of these other states off the hook.

36:06I mean, Tim Walls, Keith Ellison, all these folks, because the Somali community became a powerful voting block. They were funneling this money back to politicians in the forms of contributions. And oh, by the way, anybody who criticized this was labeled a racist. And so nobody wanted to do that. And so they looked the other way while this went on and ballooned into this extraordinary extraordinary scandal. And so she has to, I think, say, you know, instead of saying, look, we got to get to the bottom of this, she's saying, you know, well, it's not true. Trump's a liar and he's a racist and try to deflect because I think the truth is she's received contributions and she's had her picture taken with a lot of these people that are now on trial.

36:48The the the Ilhan Omar moment was capitalized on by her. She did it for effect. She wanted her little viral moment to look like a badass. And she posted a clip of herself during the State of the Union yelling, you've killed Americans. Here it is in eight penalties for public officials who blocked the removal of criminal aliens. In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country, they're blocking the removal of these people out of our country. And you should be ashamed of yourself.

37:30OK, you guys, you were there. You remember 2009. You lie. Joe Wilson was admonished by the House. As a result, we were all shocked and horrified in the political class that somebody would do that at the State of the Union. And she was she did it over and over and over. She was desperate to get that clip so she could post it. And then brag about Tom Bevin. Is she going to be admonished by the House or are they going to be as outraged about this as the left was about Joe Wilson? Look, you would hope so. I mean, but I think there's probably a double standard. I don't know that Mike Johnson is going to push this the way this is.

38:10Unfortunately, I think this might be the new normal. you know that that that particularly when it comes to Trump that Democrats just think that they you know it's okay to mix it up with the president of the United States in the middle of the state of the union address again not too long ago that was considered a horrible breach of decorum and and now it's like not only are they not ashamed of it they're bragging about it raising money off of it well and Joe Wilson did it one time he yelled out one time you lie that was it was over. She was a heckler. She was Don Rickles out there last night, Carl.

38:42Yeah. Well, the thing is that I don't think Mike Johnson should do anything about this because the last time he censured a Democrat for bad behavior was Adam Schiff and they got him elected to the Senate. So, so I, maybe it would help. I think it was his lies that got him elected to the Senate, his many lies about Trump and Russia. Right. But what if, what if, what if they censor her and she decides she's going to run for the Senate in Minnesota, then, then where will we be? Yeah.

39:07Tom Bevan:Yeah, 2009. I mean, that just can't happen. 2009 was a long time ago. That's, I agree with you. We were so cute back then. Yeah, but it was a long time ago. I think this is the new normal and I just think it continues. And I think if anything, it gets worse. Speaking of so cute, my daughter, who's only 14, she just kept saying that about Mike Johnson. She's like, he's just so adorable. He does have a very nice face. You know, like he has just the right amount of smile on for Trump's quips and just the right amount of serious. And his tan tie grew on me. First, I was like, who wears a tan tie? Nobody wears a tan tie.

39:45Certainly not to the State of the Union. But it had a little sparkle in it. I think it had a little sheen. And over time, I kind of fell in love with it. It was like kind of a bold fashion move. I really like Mike Johnson. I know he's controversial, but you really will not meet a more affable person on Capitol Hill. I was, it's funny you say that because I turned to my wife and I'm like, J.D.'s tie is just like this much too short. He just needs it to come down to the belt buckle. It was. And it's a blue tie and I love the baby blue tie. I think I have the same tie, but it was just a little too short.

40:13Just a smidge. Yes. And what else? As somebody who's got a mild touch of OCD, Trump's hair, when he walked into the chamber, you can still see it a little here. But when he walked into the chamber, it clearly got messed up by the part, right above the part. Right. And I was like, some woman needs to do him a solid and just, you know, pat it down, like lick the fingers and pat it down. I was saying that same thing. And as he was like, he's passing woman after woman. I'm sure he'd love that if someone reached over and did that. Oh, well, just pat it at least. I'm like, Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan, it's up to you.

40:49He's almost on stage. Can you imagine if Elena Kagan had that? That would have been awesome if Kagan had been awesome. That would have been a moment. Right? No one did it. They let him go out there with a little bit of a mess. Mr. President, I would have had your back. I've touched his hair before on camera in an interview. So I would not have been shy. Someone should have done him that solid. Very, very sad. So on immigration, can we talk about the moment that we played in the intro where he said that the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens?

41:23And he said, please stand if you agree. I mean, that's like an open trap, Andrew, right? Like, do it. Stand or don't stand. There's really no good way out of this for you, Dems, because immigration enforcement is so hot and it's so controversial right now. They didn't stand. And I do think there's a risk because, yes, I know the Democrats at home are like, right on, don't stand, Minnesota. But those pesky independents who also have been watching Minnesota, I don't think that they would find that statement inherently controversial. And I do think that could wind up in a few ads as we, you know, tredge forward to November.

41:59Tom Bevan:Yeah, no, I had a sort of thought experiment. And so what if someone had stood up, because the applause, you had to cut the applause. It was about a minute of applause there during that thing. What if about the 30 second mark, a couple of them had sort of stood up reluctantly and started to clap and, you know, give them the, give them the sort of like, you know, that golf clap kind of thing. um i think that would have been a powerful moment for the democrats and would have shown that yes you know we can be bipartisan on this because it it was in some sense it was such an obvious trap um and they fell into it so so hard and then the fact that it was a minute long really sort of gave it the power uh that uh so i just wonder if the democrats could have played differently.

42:48Tom Bevan:But that would have taken someone with some presence of mind and some independence. And I don't think that's where the caucus is right now. I think that they're pretty much, as you saw, in lockstep. And they've decided that this was going to be the way they were going to handle it. I think it was wrong. I think they should have stood for that. Jeffries had ordered silent defiance, which apparently Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar did not get the memo. And I don't know how they work it. Maybe you know, Carl, like, is there like, Follow the leader. If Hakeem stands, everybody stands. If he remains seated, everybody remains seated.

43:23Or is it an individual judgment call and they just kind of know you got to stand for the hockey team, but we're not standing for virtually anything beyond that. Megan, they know they don't need Hakeem Jeffries to tell them any. I love Andy. He's as naive as I am sometimes. But any Democrat who would have stood for that would have been primaried like tomorrow. So that's just not where the party is. Yeah. Can I just say too, we did a national poll a couple of weeks ago, and then we just had a poll come out in Pennsylvania. And the data on this remains pretty clear. The public is they don't like what they saw in Minnesota, right?

44:04On this chaos on the streets, they think that ICE went too far. But when you ask people, do they believe in abolishing ICE? Still, a vast majority of folks, 58, 60 % say no, they do not want to abolish ICE. And abolish ICE used to be sort of a fringy position for Democrats. And now it's sort of a main, much more of a mainstream position for Democrats. And that could get them into trouble because people don't, they don't want to see chaos in the streets, but they also didn't like seeing chaos on the border. And they don't like seeing, you know, know, these stories in the news about people who are here illegally have committed crimes.

44:38They also don't want to see KKK come out of one of their elected representatives mouths when the entire chamber is chanting USA. Rashida Tlaib is a national disgrace. She clearly did it. Here's the video in Sat 19.

45:05everyone's cheering usa usa look at him kkk

45:15this is a sick person this is this is a sick person and by the way speaking of which Trump just truthed out the following message. He wrote, okay, hold on. When you watch low IQ Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib as they screamed uncontrollably last night at the very elegant State of the Union, such an important and beautiful event, they had the bulging bloodshot eyes of crazy people, lunatics, mentally deranged and sick, who frankly look like they should be institutionalized. When people can behave like that and knowing that they are crooked and corrupt politicians so bad for our country, we should send them back where they came from as fast as possible.

45:53They can only damage the United States of America. They can do nothing to help it. They should actually get on a boat with Trump deranged Robert De Niro, another sick and demented person with, I believe, an extremely low IQ, who has absolutely no idea what he is doing or saying, some of which is seriously criminal. When I watched him break down in tears, I've got to show you that clip, last night, much like a child would do, I realized that he may be even sicker than crazy Rosie O'Donnell, who is right now in Ireland trying to figure out how to come back into our beautiful United States. The only difference between De Niro and Rosie is that she is probably somewhat smarter than him, which isn't saying much.

46:27The good news is that America is now bigger, better, richer, and stronger than ever before, and it's driving them absolutely crazy. President Donald J. Trump. Wow. Everybody's shaking their head no for different reasons. That's an all-timer right there. What I was thinking, he doesn't even drink.

46:51It's all natural. I mean, in that way, Mike Johnson should not move to punish, admonish Tlaib or Omar because they wanted it in a way. Like they made fools of themselves. How is it bad for Trump or team Republican to have Rashida Tlaib saying KKK while the chants in the chamber were USA? She's so inherently unlikable. I'm sorry, Rashida Tlaib is disgusting. I look at her and I think you're a disgusting fool. All the shit she did after 10-7, she was basically ready to go sign up for Hamas. It was very clear to me. And Ilhan Omar, same. I mean, she's worse. She married her brother. She's a Somali fraudster leader.

47:36She doesn't seem to have any problem with all the billions of dollars that have been stolen by her people from her state. So there's no downside to Trump in sending out a truth like that. And we'll get to Robert De Niro in a minute, who is crying too much for somebody who starred in The Godfather. Tom? Yeah, look, I was thinking about this. You know, there is this and we saw this on display last night and that clip just accentuates it. didn't even see that last night the kkk thing but there's there is this sense uh that you know republicans are proud of the country for what it is and what we do and what we accomplish in our history democrats only seem proud of the country when it's you know being parts of it are being changed to their liking when when aggrieved classes or victims are being celebrated um and and that's a real difference in viewpoint and i think it's i think it was really on display last night when you know again we talk about the people that were honored our military the olympians like it was a very american a celebration of america and dems could hardly rouse themselves out of their seats for any of it and it just because they don't they don't see the country in the same way that that trump presented it last night and that i think most republicans see and are proud of i remember i was this is what i was thinking about after 9-11 if you remember there was some gnashing of the teeth in the media and we got these think pieces because everybody had put out american flags right everyone and there was like some liberal folks who said you know it made me uncomfortable there's too much jingoism in the country and that that to me like that unity and solidarity that comes with patriotism it makes democrats uncomfortable unfortunately Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

49:30I think I've told this story before, but we have a friend from Argentina and he was at our beach house on 4th of July last year and could not believe the number of American flags that people had out on their houses during the summer. Like in the lead up to July 4th, it's extra, but every neighborhood in America pretty much does it. He was like, I've never seen such a thing before. Like the way you Americans take pride in your country, this is incredible. He loved it. And of course, then we had our colonial party with everybody wearing the colonial outfits and took it next level. But yeah, no, you're right, Tom.

50:10And I think Trump's very into masculine energy. You know, the Democrats are into more feminine energy. And I don't mean that, you know, as a disparagement of women, but I'm just saying he's like strong, robust, aggressive, winners. And Democrats are more like soft. You need hugs. everyone's a victim. Mommy's here. And I think the country's in the mood. And still, even though Trump's numbers are going down for that sort of masculine winning energy, stand by more ahead. Quick break with the RCP guys next. Our sponsor, the Electronic Payments Coalition says Washington politicians are always getting in your wallet and now they're messing with your credit card.

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52:30Back with me now, the guys from Real Clear Politics, Tom Bevin, Carl Cannon, and Andrew Walworth. Okay, so there's a lot still to go over. I barely know where to begin. So I'm going to go back to U.S. hockey because there was a particular moment with the goalie, Connor Hellebuck, who was just a stalwart of that game. And most of the guys would tell you the main reason we won, just a brick wall, nothing got past him. And President Trump was very impressed with him. By the way, I've actually been at an NHL game with President Trump. He was just Donald Trump at the time. But the guy is a genuine hockey fan.

53:08I can speak to that personally. The audience knows I don't know anything about sports, but I do get occasionally dragged along to them by my husband. And Trump's big into NHL hockey. So in any event, you could see his respect for Conor was genuine. Trump loves a winner. He really does. He loves a winner. He loves anybody who's the best in their craft. He respects it, even if they're opposed to him. He respects it. So he gave Conor Hellebach the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which he pointed out has been given to 12 other athletes. Guys like Muhammad Ali have gotten it. And so this was really an elevation of him to vaunted status.

53:44And we actually did a little deep dive into Connor's background. Listen to this. He was not like a child prodigy. He was more in like the Tom Brady camp where nobody really saw him amounting to much. And then, you know, like until somebody did, and then there was no stopping him. But listen to him on his this little bit from Sportsnet on his origin story. SOT 4. Coming out of Walled Lake Northern High School in Michigan, Connor Hellebuck's hockey path was as clear as Texas crude. Undrafted in every junior league and not a single call from any NCAA school. He loves it. His only option was an invite to camp from the North American Hockey League expansion, Odessa Jackalopes.

54:29Craig Sarnert, who's a scout, calls me and he says, OK, I found you a goalie. I said, who is it? He said, Connor Hellebuck. So we go to the computer and type his name in the computer, and he's not on there. I mean, he's not on the top 500. We don't even have to draft this kid. No one even knows he's alive. I really didn't know where to go. I didn't know how to continue playing. I just knew I wanted to. Right after the draft, they called me and said, hey, we want you to come out to main camp. So that gave me a little hope. and I told myself I'm going to make it no matter what it takes. And he did.

55:04And now as a national hero, standing there, getting the Congressional, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. A very cool moment, guys, right? I mean, like the stagecraft of that, very nicely done. Even you have to admit it, Carl. The greatest inch, you back up. Can I hear a B minus? This guy, he gets an A plus. Think of that, Megan. That's the quintessential American attitude. I'm going to make it no matter what it takes. And if you watch that game, I guess you didn't, but he made some miraculous saves. I did. Yeah. I did. Every once in a while, I'll watch him, and I watched that one. That second period was so amazing.

55:40I was at a hotel, Megan, in Los Angeles, and there was a Canadian at the bar drinking beer at 6.30 in the morning and guzzling beers and rooting very loudly for Canada. I didn't begrudge him that. That's his own country. and he said we're dominating this game why isn't it four to one and it was one to one and i i remember thinking you know the americans i think we can pull this out because you know in sports megan as in life if you let somebody hang around and hang around and hang around and they're determined enough they can prevail it's a great american story i don't give donald trump did you lean over and whisper connor hellebeck it's connor hellebeck that's the reason sir i'd never heard of him but then when this when he had that save i turned to the guy i said what'd you think of that.

56:26And he says, I was a hell of a save. So, yeah, you got to give it. I mean, he is another example of that sort of strong masculine energy, you know, that I think Trump responds to. It was one of the things I think got Trump elected. It's I'm not just talking about like, oh, I'm going to say controversial things, you know, that are going to upset everybody. I'm talking about like being bold, being brave, being unapologetically a striver, you know, somebody who pushes for excellence, who masters their field, who, you know, gets ahead just by sheer will, determination, hard work. Like that's all very, very American.

57:04Trump loves it. It's one of the things I think subliminally that makes us love Trump. And I saw that theme in the guests that he honored last night. You had Connor, and then we've got to talk about the Coast Guard, Scott Ruskin, the member of the Coast Guard. Remember when these girls were hurting at Camp Mystic that those terrible floods went through and killed all those little girls, not to mention others in the region. And this guy came out of the sky like an Adonis, like some sort of like actual angel sent from heaven. Like, what's the word? Not parachuting, but when you go down on the rope from the helicopter, rappel, thank you, like rappelling down from the heavens, saving over 140 people, including the little girl Millie, and they made a moment.

57:52He too, just like Eric Slover, straight out of Central Casting. Here was that moment in SOT 5. 11-year-old Millie Kate McClayman closed her eyes and prayed to God. She thought she was going to die. Those prayers were answered when Coast Guard rescue swimmer Scott Ruskin descended from a helicopter above. Nobody knew where he came from. It was Scott's first ever rescue mission. Young guy, but very brave, very, very top, always top in his class. And he lifted not just Millie Kate, but 164 others to safety. Tonight, Scott and Millie Kate are here together, reunited for the very first time. Thank you, Scott, Millie Kate.

58:45And Petty Officer Ruskin, I'm pleased to inform you that I am now awarding you the Legion of Merit for Extraordinary Heroism, which is what it was. Extraordinary Heroism. Thank you.

59:08So great. Okay, Megan. Okay. Just exactly the kind of guy you want to see. Yeah. C plus. You know, as you're talking about extra credit, always. Yeah, that's right. Great. That's right. Well, and also, Megan, you know, you got me thinking about something that I wasn't thinking about last night. So these these stories are they seem isolated in some way, and some of them were partisan. They illustrated a particular policy point he was making that the Democrats couldn't stand for because they don't believe in that policy point. But there was a bigger picture there, as I see now. He Franklin Roosevelt called it, I think, the can do spirit of America.

59:44And that's not necessarily just masculine, but it is. In this case, it was. But he's portraying a country that still can do great things and has great people. And it's the answer to people who are wringing their hands and talking about America's sins and faults. And so in that sense, it was effective. Yes. Wait, I got another one for you and then I'll bring you guys in as well. We've got to talk about our hundred year old Navy fighter pilot Royce Williams, who has done everything. I mean, he was in World War II. He was in Korea. He was in Vietnam. He flew these secret missions that Trump was talking about, which apparently were largely kept a secret even by Royce from his wife up until more recently.

1:00:30And now, of course, he's a hundred years old. So it's like now or never. and he had Royce sitting with the first lady in the first lady box. And she flawlessly, as she does everything, pinned the medal on. I was like, only Melania could like in the perfect suit with the perfect hair and the perfect closeup on her 55 year old skin. She looks stunning. I was like, few of us could withstand a closeup that close that they kept doing on her face, but she's Melania Trump. She pinned it on perfectly. It went on just right. And it was such a sweet moment when he honored Royce Williams, who, no, he's not young and robust, but it's another badass story spanning the generations.

1:01:10Trump loves military heroes for all of his bone spur issues and all that. He loves and respects the military. And here is a bit of that in SOT 14. In disguise over Korea in 1952, flying through blizzard conditions, his squadron was ambushed by seven Soviet fighter planes. Despite being massively outnumbered and outgunned, Royce led the takedown of four enemy jets and almost destroyed the others, vanquishing his adversaries while taking 263 bullets to his own plane and being seriously hurt. His story was secret for over 50 years. But tonight at 100 years old, this brave Navy captain is finally getting the recognition he deserves.

1:01:56Royce, please stand up and I will ask the First Lady of the United States to present Captain Royce Williams with his Congressional Medal of Honor.

1:02:20All right, I teared up a little bit at that one, you guys. And let me just give you a little addendum, okay? Okay, Royce Williams enlisted after Pearl Harbor in 1941. For 35 minutes, he engaged solo in an aerial dogfight with seven Soviet MiG pilots, downing at least four jets before escaping to land his heavily damaged F9F5 Panther jet on a US aircraft carrier. His aerial heroics have been a legend for decades among pilots coming up through the Navy's top gun school. He is the real life maverick who lives in like respect, forever respect and heroism status within Top Gun as a result of that incident that was recorded in Soviet Union military history.

1:03:09But no trace of his daring flight on November 18th, 1952 exists in the U.S. military archives. Like I said, they've been he's he didn't want it. He's kept it a secret. He didn't even talk to his wife about it. The fact that it happened and he made it happen was enough for him. But as he ends the, you know, it gets near the end of life, people are thinking about how they can pay tribute to this guy. And asked in 2022, when Joe Biden was the commander in chief, how it would feel to be awarded the Medal of Honor now, Royce Williams took a few seconds to consider his answer. Quote, if it happened, I'd be awed.

1:03:49I wish my dad could know. It would mean even more to my friends to know that I finally received it. All of his friends are probably gone, long gone. Of course, his parents, long gone. Virtually everyone he grew up with and fought in wars with and participated with and who made him the man he is, is probably gone. and President Donald Trump said, Royce Williams, you're getting your honor and not just any honor, but the highest honor you can get, the Congressional Medal of Honor. I'm sorry, but if that doesn't move you, you have no heart. Tom, that is one for the storybooks. Yeah, no, for sure. And I mean, it was chilling last night and then even watching it now, again, you get chills.

1:04:38Um, the stories of heroism are, uh, and, and bravery are spectacular and they are the best of us. And that's why Trump highlighted them. And, and, uh, we recognize them. I, can I go back to the hockey team for just a second? You talk about masculine energy, getting your tooth knocked out and then skating around with a bloody mouth and scoring the winning goal teeth. Yeah. I mean, talk about an iconic photo of him with like the flag draped over with a, you smile and he's missing his main tooth. That guy's a stud. And you talk about like the 1980 team and Michael Rizzioni and all those guys. Oh my gosh.

1:05:17I mean, so those guys are going to go down in history. And it's nice that Conor Hellebuck's going to get an award, but, and apparently as Trump told the story, they all said, you know, raised their hands immediately and said, yeah, he should get it. But what a remarkable team. And the other thing, you know, Trump complimented the the Canadian team about what a good team they were and how tough they were and, but we prevailed. So, um, but the other stories are just remarkable as well. And, and as I said, and Trump also pointed out that the women's team has accepted an invitation to go to the white house.

1:05:46So good for them. Yes. Yes. And that was obviously the, they were great to controversy. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they were Megan Keller, go Megan Keller. I just hate it when, when politics invades sports, sports is, is like, Like, I grew up playing sports. I played sports in college. There's my Princeton football helmet right there. And I loved the fact sports is the purest meritocracy there is. It doesn't matter what color you are. It doesn't matter what religion. None of that matters. It matters. Are you good? And if you're good enough to play and you can help the team, you're on the field and you are a brother or sister with everybody else who's out there working toward a singular goal.

1:06:31And that's what made this hockey team great. I mean, these guys were not the best players in the world, but they played together as a team and were able to achieve their goal. And that's what makes it such a great story.

1:06:45Tom Bevan:Yeah. I think also, I mean, the degree to which the hockey team themselves have kept this above politics is noteworthy as well. I think that they've really sort of framed this all not as a political thing, but as they're proud to be Americans. They're proud to be invited by the president and they're proud to. Yeah, but it's the media that does it too. Yeah. It's the media. It's the disgusting sports journalists. I didn't quite realize how disgusting leftist the sports journalism industry was. I should have just assumed. But since I never read those articles, I wasn't totally tuned in. They're the ones who laid all these traps for these athletes and who had the most negative takes on everything the athletes did, especially this hockey team.

1:07:25F those guys. Keep going in.

1:07:27Tom Bevan:Well, I was just going to say, on the Korean war front, people should take this as an opportunity to think a little bit about the Korean War as well. People don't think about it that often. But it is interesting, just people should note, that the aerial war in Korea was really between the Soviet Union and the United States. And it doesn't get that much coverage. But it really was U.S. and Soviet pilots facing off in these dogfights. And it's a remarkable story. And this is obviously a very important chapter of it. But the entire story of the aerial war of the Korean conflict is worth knowing. Imagine this guy having laid it all on the line, having risked his life, having taken down four Soviet MiGs, legend at Top Gun, not talking about it, not telling his wife about it.

1:08:13But secretly when asked, you know, just a few years ago, so he must have been, what, 96 at the time, what would it be like to get, you know, a medal? Oh, gee, you know, it would mean so much. I'd only wish my dad could see it. Of course, then Joe Biden didn't give it to him. But President Trump does it. And any sane human is deeply moved by that story and by watching that happen. And yet here was the Democrat reaction. OK, here is Democrat Representative Robin Kelly on a YouTube channel where they were having this state of the people, the state of the people and live reaction to what Trump was doing.

1:08:52doing. Look at this abomination. I was there. I was there. And it was as horrific as I thought it would be. Did you leave early? Absolutely. It was like an award show. You get a medal. You get a medal. You get a medal.

1:09:13Tom Bevan:That's literally Mo just said, you get a car, you get a car. Y 'all are on the same page. That is so disgusting. She wasn't the only one. look at 35 CNN's Abby Phillip. But he utilized almost like these game show type moments where you're seeing awards being presented to really bring these moments of togetherness that otherwise might not have been there. Game show. Fuck her. I'm sorry. That enrages me. That deeply enrages me. she she's never donned the uniform she's never risked her life for her country did she ever repel out of a helicopter and save 146 people i don't remember seeing that did she bring down four soviet migs over korea after having fought in every war during the course of her lifetime i don't remember that did she even make a u.s gold winning sports team of any kind when the odds were stacked against her and the score was tied and all the pressure was on and save the team from certain defeat.

1:10:19She's never done anything. She sat in that fucking anchor chair. That's all she's ever done. How dare she call it a game show? How dare this representative Robin Kelly, thank God, no relation, mock the medal of honor as it's like the Oprah, you get a medal and you get a medal. Perhaps we should have waited longer, Robin, you know, to like when, when, when poor Royce was 200, maybe that would make you happy. Like the nerve of these people, I just have one more I've got to show you because I listen to The New York Times, The Daily Podcast. I like to keep my finger on the pulse of what the left is saying and doing.

1:10:52They did it in a more clever, tricky way, but the message was exactly the same. Listen here to the chief Washington correspondent, David Sanger, speaking with, it was Michael Barbaro today, SOT 36.

1:11:05Tom Bevan:I'm curious, David, as a veteran of State of the Unions, and also as someone who's covered military affairs in your day, how you thought about all of the military awards that the president bestowed during this speech. I tend to think of those as awards typically given in solemn, much more intimate ceremonies. This is the most public possible venue a president stayed in the Union and thus has a bit of a partisan tinge. A Purple Heart was given out. Congressional Medals of Honor were given out. Was that celebrating American heroism? Was that in some ways exploiting it? I think there was an element of showmanship and an element of exploitation to it as well because what he was doing was combining the experiences of these people in just wars, World War II, you know, and so forth.

1:12:01Korea, where we were fighting for a nascent democracy and managing to try to merge that with what many would argue were less clear uses of American power. And potentially even illegal. And potentially illegal. And we're headed to that debate about Iran, for sure, if he went ahead. So this is sort of taking the Ronald Reagan idea of putting prominent guests and heroes in the State of the Union audience and moving it to the next level by awarding them these medals in front of the entire Congress. Yes, it would have been much better if we had hidden them into private medal ceremonies that no one other than the core military brothers would have been allowed to see.

1:12:54That would have been much better for Royce Williams and for Eric Slover and for Scott Ruskin to have no one see them receive these honors. these incredible feats of courage should have been dealt with behind the scenes so that they couldn't actually be appreciated by the american public do you see how insane that is carl i ask you to speak for these moronic journalists yeah i will um david david's what david singer is he's specifically thinking not of the not of the guy to a hundred year old hero but he's thinking of the pilot who, you know, led the raid that got Maduro. He's thinking, okay, we're going to venerate this guy so that maybe you won't think about Maduro and his wife are in a prison in New York and, you know, who's running that country.

1:13:43And, oh, and by the way, Trump did volunteer that we've stolen a hundred billion dollars of their oil. I, that was just so leading with his chin and nobody said anything about it. I think David Sanger's point is right. Trump's not dumb. He's making, he's trying to, he's trying to get support for the military. And so you can't, you have to cheer this hero and maybe you won't notice over here. Uh, but then, I don't know, you know, you have misgivings. That is literally moving in his misgivings about five days a week. Megan, do you see this? It's a lot Tom, it's a lot Tom Bevin. So sometimes it's two on one.

1:14:19I mean, I just gotta, I gotta battle with these guys and I love them. They're my brothers, but you know i think i should get a medal like you should be getting a purple heart uh yeah because look there's no accident that carl seized on on david sanger and tried to zero in because that was the least offensive of the three but it was in a way the most offensive because it was the largest platform right it was in the new york times daily podcast which is a huge podcast and he's laying the foundation for all the other leftists to object to the metal giving it should have been done in private that's how michael barbaro set it up normally this is done in a solemn, much more intimate venue.

1:14:56This was much more public. Was it a celebration of American heroism? You know, was it right? But it's like they objected. You know why they objected? Because it led to applause to the Trump administration, because in Trump's presence, Andrew, people were applauding. They appreciated that he pinned the medal on Royce Williams, and they didn't like it. The New York Times didn't like it. This creep Robin Kelly didn't like it, and neither did Abby Phillip, who doesn't like anything that reflects well, I'm sure, on the military, but certainly President Trump.

1:15:30Tom Bevan:Yeah, I love Carl like a brother, but I totally disagree with him on this one. I mean, this is just Trump. I like to disavow, Carl. This is just Trump derangement syndrome. That's all it is. It makes the show fun. If a Democratic president had done this, they would have no problem with it whatsoever. Exactly. And they would never use the word exploitation to attach to it. And I mean, you know, I find it offensive what Sanger said, at least in this regard. I mean, there was real heroism in Vietnam, whether you agree with Vietnam or not. But those Vietnam veterans, we finally have come, and it took too long to honor them for their effort on the part of the country, even if you disagreed with the war.

1:16:11Tom Bevan:most people i think 99 of americans view that the americans who served there and served honorably are heroes and deserve our support and our respect and i feel the same thing about any military deployment these guys and women who go out and do this are serving our country and whether you agree with the policy of the moment or not they deserve to be honored for their effort and their sacrifice that's all there is to it i i cannot yeah i cannot how do you look at that or say something like that. Game show. Yeah. It's like Oprah. Like, why don't you sit there and say, well-deserved, wow, so proud to be an American.

1:16:48How is that not your reaction? Go ahead, Tom. No, I was just going to say, I think there's just this different mentality and different lens. Some of it has to do with Donald Trump and just TDS in general. You know, it's like anything he does has to be demeaned, discredited, discarded, all of that. But there is this broader sense that celebrating these folks is somehow inappropriate or maybe because they think that the State of the Union should be above that or beyond it or whatever. But it's also – look, Robin Kelly is – she's a congresswoman from the state of Illinois. She's running for Senate here.

1:17:29She's in third place. She's probably not going to win, but the primary is a couple weeks away. I mean, these folks are all, there's a, and this goes back to the Ilhan Omar stuff. I mean, there's just a sense of like, you know, if I'm shown to be fighting against Trump, if I'm shown to be standing up to him in any circumstance, that's a badge of honor. And that's going to, you know, help them with their individual races or with raising money or with their stature with the base of the Democratic Party, because that's where the Democratic Party is. I mean, they just are blinded with rage about Donald Trump to the point where they can't even acknowledge these examples of heroism and sacrifice without, you know, falling into these kind of traps.

1:18:12It's remarkable. These Republicans should put all of that in an ad. All three of those examples should go into an ad and it should get played on loop. These are the Democrats. This is how they view our American heroes. They didn't have the reaction of tearing up. They wanted to tear it down. That's what they saw. somebody like Royce Williams and wanted to mock the moment as a game show. That is so incendiary. But it dovetails perfectly with what we saw earlier in the speech when he was going through, because Trump did the masculine energy heroes and so on. But he also did people who had been victims of left-wingers and or their policies.

1:18:53And that was equally moving in its own way. first and foremost i'll start with erica kirk who was there she was in the first lady's skybox it's not a skybox at the at the u.s capitol but she was in the first lady's box and it was an interesting thing because trump mentioned erica and called her wonderful and she stood up and the republicans were standing for her understanding full well that they may or may not know erica i think they are getting to know her, but they, this is about Charlie and they were clapping for her, for Charlie. And then, and the Democrats did not stand. And then Trump said there should be no political violence.

1:19:34And they did stand. They knew they had to stand. I mean, like they, there was no way they couldn't stand for that. But Erica Kirk was a bridge too far, apparently, because they've decided to bastardize Charlie's legacy and say he's a racist and so on. So you can't like, I guess you can't stand for a grieving widow. I'm not sure exactly what was going on there, but there was that moment. Here, I'll show it. It's not 10. I'm very proud to say that during my time in office, both the first four years and in particular this last year, there has been a tremendous renewal in religion, faith, Christianity, and belief in God.

1:20:12Tremendous renewal. This is especially true among young people And a big part of that had to do with my great friend, Charlie Kirk, a great guy.

1:20:31So last year, Charlie was violently murdered by an assassin and martyred, really martyred for his beliefs. His wonderful wife, Erica, is with us tonight. Erica, please stand.

1:21:05Thank you, Erica. This is amazing. Erika looks at the woman next to her, who we later find out is the mother of Irina Zarytska, the Ukrainian refugee who was killed on that train, and says, love you. Erika always does that. She's constantly telling everyone who supports her, I love you. She loves me. I've told her I love her many, many times. We talk regularly. She's holding it together. But man, this has been a very, very rough five months for her. And the fact that the president honored her in this way and honored Charlie, it spoke volumes. No matter what you may hear about Erica Kirk, the president loves her.

1:21:43J.D. Vance loves her. And I love her. And she's doing very well in keeping it together and forging a very rough battle and keeping a massive organization together and now being a new single mom and just missing her husband. You know, the first year, you guys all know, we've all probably lost somebody in our lives. The first year is always the roughest. You know, you got to get through the birthdays and Christmas and we just had Valentine's Day. You know, I mean, all those things we all forge on with our lives after we pay our condolences. And people have the tendency to forget the person who's back there grieving still and really hurting.

1:22:21So I was thrilled to see Trump invited her. It seems like so long ago, but it was only six months. I mean, it's only been six months. It's really remarkable when you think about it. And the way that she, not only when Irina's mom was, when Trump was talking about her story and she was standing and she was not holding it together. She was crying, sobbing, and Erica was in frame, just put her hand on her shoulder and was saying, God bless you, and was just trying to comfort her. That was really, that also got me. I mean, she's a pretty remarkable woman. Me too. I mean, just to see the two of them up there.

1:22:57I mean, both the surviving victims of a terrible, terrible crime. And what's interesting too is that Irina was killed the day before, it was the day before Charlie. Charlie was killed on September 10th and it was a Wednesday. And I think Irina was killed, she was killed the Saturday before. But we were talking about, I remember we had a panel of great guests. We had Megan Basham. We had Allie Beth Stuckey. We were talking about Heather McDonald. We were talking about the crime against Arena on this show that Wednesday that Charlie died. And it was a great episode. It was very in-depth on poor Arena and the crime problem in North Carolina and the soft on crime judges and DAs and so on.

1:23:41And then we got off the air and Charlie was shot and came back on the air. And so to see Charlie's widow and Arena's mom, like, holding each other, comforting each other, oh, my, it's, like, too much to bear. But like, of course, you have to understand the stagecraft of it, too. You know, somebody had to think about it and make that decision on Team Trump. And what a wise move it was. Wise move for the women and wise move for giving us the moment. And the Irina Zerutska thing, it was crazy that the Democrats did not stand. I don't I genuinely don't understand why they did not stand. Like, who who would be in favor of a criminal who killed Irina, a Ukrainian refugee?

1:24:25Here's the moment. And it's the one that really like I think Trump had genuine disgust at the fact that they sat here. Last summer, 23-year-old Irina was riding home on the train when a deranged monster who had been arrested over a dozen times and was released through no cash bail stood up and viciously slashed a knife through her neck and body. no one will ever forget there were people on that train no one will ever forget the expression of terror on irena's face as she looked up at her attacker in the last seconds of her life she died instantly she had escaped a brutal war only to be slain by a hardened criminal set free to kill in america came in through open borders Mrs.

1:25:16Zaretska, tonight I promise you we will ensure justice for your magnificent daughter, Irina.

1:25:45How do you not stand? How do you not stand? Motioning to the Democrats. That was genuine disgust on Trump's part. How do you not stand? Well, he had blamed the Democrats for her death. And I don't know that they knew what to do, but why not stand for Erica Kirk? By the way, Megan, I don't know if you know, We give this prize, the Real Clear Foundation does, it's called the Samastat Prize to Heroes of the First Amendment. And we awarded it to Charlie Kirk and, well, to Erica on behalf of Charlie Kirk this year. And he was, among other things, a champion of free speech. He was killed exercising his First Amendment rights.

1:26:32And it's why he was killed, because he was willing to speak on college campuses. To me, every American should mourn the death of Charlie Kirk. I don't care what your politics are. You know. Absolutely right. Megan, last week, I think it was, or maybe the week before, I was asked to moderate an interview with Joe Abraham. And Joe is a, he's an angel father. His daughter, Katie Abraham, was killed a year ago in January in Champaign-Urbana. She was down there visiting friends. She was 20 years old. And a guy who was in the country illegally rammed into her, the car she was in at 80 miles an hour.

1:27:07They were at a stoplight. She was killed instantly. And part of what we talked about, he's become an activist now. And part of the reason he's become an activist is because he could not get J.B. Pritzker, the governor of the state of Illinois, to respond to him in any way. and he was at a congressional hearing in June of last year. J.B. Pritzker was there, Kathy Hochul was there, and Tim Walsh was there. J.B. Pritzker walked right by him, feet away, never acknowledged his existence, to this day has never spoken Katie's name, never even a word of condolence. And I asked him, I said, why is that?

1:27:43It would cost him nothing to just say he could still be for all of his policies, but why can't he turn to you and just say, I'm really sorry for your loss? He hasn't done it. He won't do it. And nobody knows why. There's something about Democrats and like, there's all this compassion for the Renee Goods of the world, the Alex Preddies of the world. But for the people who are killed, the Laken Rileys of the world, there's no compassion going in the other direction. And I don't understand it because it really wouldn't cost them anything. And to not do it is, it's like, it shows their inhumanity.

1:28:19Human. Yeah. That the guy who murdered allegedly, we all saw with our own eyes, Irina, DeCarlos Brown had been arrested 14 times in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, before the stabbing with criminal charges dated back to 2007. It was a team of Democrats that kept putting him back out on the streets. That's why they didn't stand. They didn't stand because they know full well it was basically an indictment of their own soft on crime policies. And while Trump did then ad lib in that the guy was an illegal, which was incorrect. He was not an illegal. It doesn't change the facts, which is this guy was on the street able to kill because of Democrat policies.

1:28:56We went through it in great detail at the time it happened. And just to make clear, she was killed on, I think, August 11th or in August, or was it 22nd, August 22nd. It didn't remember the videotape didn't hit until the week that Charlie died. That's why it became a controversy that week. Remember, it was all like, wait a minute, this didn't just happen. But it was amazing to see those two next to each other. And what a sad confluence of events. And President Trump, he is changing the way we approach crime. And he definitely is calling attention to political violence, having been the victim of it himself, having seen one of his close friends, Charlie Kirk, killed in the name of it.

1:29:34And it's another thing he doesn't get credit for. You know, I mean, he does speak out about that stuff. He's pretty vocal on it. And he's leading the charge. And whether it's a strongly worded true social post or it's him at the lectern shaming the Democrats for not standing for a crime victim and basically making them promise to do better, you know, that using that soapbox to call attention to these issues is important. Okay. I want to talk about some of the other Democrat reaction because that was the infuriating stuff. Then there's the fun stuff where we saw inflatable costumes. We saw lots of profanity.

1:30:09and I've got to show you the Robert De Niro crying thing, which I'm dying to get to. All right, stand by, because we've got to do a quick break and then we come back with you guys from RCP. Maybe you've seen those red light panels that are all the rage now. Well, this is totally different. Let me tell you about the glow infrared therapy light from Sauna Space. They say it helps with screen fatigue, your skin, your mood, and your energy. It's incandescent light, not LED, which makes all the difference. In the morning, it's like natural sunlight And at night, it helps you relax and get ready for seriously deep sleep.

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1:31:33In 2021, Sage was 14 when school officials in Virginia sought to socially transition her to a new gender, treating her as a boy and hiding it from her parents. A left-wing judge refused to return Sage to her parents because they did not immediately state that their daughter was their son. But today, all of that is behind them because Sage is a proud and wonderful young woman with a full-ride scholarship to Liberty University. Sage and Michelle, please stand up.

1:32:16But surely we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents' arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents' will. Who would believe that we're even talking about this? We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately. look nobody stands up these people are crazy i'm telling you they're crazy we're lucky we have a country with people like this democrats are destroying our country but we've stopped it just in the nick of time didn't we okay let me just show you caitlin collins reaction to that sat 34 but these moments as he was in there and at the beginning obviously getting started he was largely looking over to the left side of the chamber where a lot of the Republicans were sitting.

1:33:04Then he began looking at the right side as Democrats obviously were not standing for what he believed should be applause lines during his speech. And he was getting increasingly irritated by it. At one point, stopping and saying, these people are crazy. I can't believe they're not standing for this. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He was increasingly irritated that they wouldn't stand for it because he really needed the accolades. That's not what it was. He couldn't believe that they wouldn't stand and clap for these basic principles of here's Irina's mom who's in tears, a Ukrainian refugee killed by a criminal here in America.

1:33:43And she's crying and you're sitting. Here's Erica Kirk, who's crying and you're sitting. And now here's this young girl who was having some gender confusion who basically got stolen by the state of Virginia, the Commonwealth, away from her parents who were in the dark completely about what was being done to her. And only far late in the game did they even find out when they were about to lose custody of this girl for not affirming. It was crazy, that story. And Trump's saying, we've got to stop this. You can't take kids from their families, from their parents over this issue. And they wouldn't say.

1:34:16It's a disbelief on the president's part, like on these basic principles. But we saw time and time again, the Democrats would not stand. And outside the chamber, Tom, we had even more absurd behavior by these guys. I don't even know which one to start with. Maybe we start with tough, tough woman, Congresswoman Maxine Dexter. She's a Democrat from Oregon. And she really wanted the crowd at like the counter-programming event, which is like the people's state of the union, to know she was tough and she's defying Trump and his authoritarian project. And take a look at who was with her. I'm a mother.

1:34:54I'm a physician and I have a flag. It's a bunch of inflatable frogs. And I am the proud representative for Oregon's third congressional district. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. and tonight i defy trump and his authoritarian project by standing in joyful radical peaceful resistance with the portland frog brigade

1:35:25oh my god yeah so these are not serious people no it's well so it looks silly and it is silly But David Marcus, who's a contributor to Fox News and who I follow on X, said... He's great. Yeah, he says, Reminder that the Portland Frog Brigade is literally Antifa. I saw them in action on the ground. They wear the costume to evade being identified and to pretend to be playful and wholesome. They are neither. So a little bit... When I first saw this, and I'd seen the stuff going on in Portland, but I didn't make that connection. And so it's a little less silly and goofy and crazy. She's crazy. Yeah, and joyful.

1:36:05She's in joyful opposition, whatever. But yeah, we talked about this a little bit on our show. The juxtaposition between the State of the Union and that venue and the joint session of Congress and all of that, and then you switch over and you've got people dancing, wearing frog costumes, and the guy in the giraffe. It was insane. I mean, it was crazy. And yet, that's what at least part of the Democratic Party, That's where they are. This is where they play another flag. Exactly. We had the frogs. Here's the giraffe that you mentioned. Some guy named Robbie Rhodes. I mean, he was nuts. Decided to put on a giraffe costume.

1:36:42But they had him. Here he is. Watch, 29.

1:36:45Tom Bevan:I've been arrested three times by ICE over absurdity, over us being ourselves, over me singing songs like, hey, Mr. Tangerine, man, get rid of brown people for me. I'm Ary and white. There ain't no place I'm going to. And then all of a sudden, he's not ready for primetime player ice agents with two weeks of training. Come after me. I got arrested in Portland. I got arrested in Minneapolis in the last three weeks twice. Okay, we've seen enough. But they can't. Robbie Rhodes Steamer. That's his last name. Robbie Rhodes Steamer. I saved that one for you, for you, Andrew. I thought you'd want to weigh in on the dignity of the Democratic counter program.

1:37:36Tom Bevan:Well, I played that clip on our show as well because it's so outrageous. I mean, I like political theater. I'm for it. I think that peaceful, you know, a little bit of absurdity is not a bad thing. He wasn't very good. I guess that was part of the problem. And he should be arrested. He should be arrested just from how he sings. Yeah, I mean, so it's not clever. It's not smart. It's not it's not really fun. So not on key. Yeah, I'd give this a D, frankly. I thought that who says they're going to counter program with with Robbie Roadsteamer in a giraffe costume following the inflatable frog act.

1:38:21I mean, this is the state of the Democrats while on the other Zoom call, they're ripping on the Medal of Honor winner. Oh, great. Terrific. Great job inside the chamber. You know, they're shouting, you kill people and you lie and all the things. And then you've got Joy Reid, who was the master of ceremonies of the counterprogramming event at the People's State of the Union, speaking of terrible singing. Sat 25.

1:39:14You did amazing. Yes, you get an A. I don't give grades, though. We just go on vibes and the vibes were immaculate. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Of course she doesn't give grades. She doesn't believe in grades because she's a failure. She's the opposite of all the guys that Trump showcased. Winners, right? I don't do grades. I just do vibes. We give them here. We've been doing it all show. It's an F, madam. It's an F on every level. Carl, care to defend? No, I can't defend that. And I'll tell you. We got it. I won't even try. Actually, Megan, there's a serious point here.

1:39:58And people can have demonstrations. They can have counter programming. They do anything they want. But there's a serious point here. And I remember that the day after Trump's inauguration, there was a rival inauguration. You know, pink pussy hats or some ridiculous. I can't even. Wait, let's pause it there. Let's pause it on the P word from Carl Cannon. We're coming back right after this. We're not done. Ladies, listen up. If you are exhausted, anxious, foggy, or if your metabolism is out of whack and doctors just brush you off and chalk it up to age, you're not cray-cray. You are being ignored.

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1:43:00Explore the full Defender lineup at LandRoverUSA.com. Hey, everyone. It's me, Megan Kelly. I've got some exciting news. I now have my very own channel on Sirius XM. It's called the Megyn Kelly Channel, and it is where you will hear the truth, unfiltered, with no agenda, and no apologies. Along with the Megyn Kelly Show, you're going to hear from people like Mark Halperin, Link Lauren, Maureen Callahan, Emily Jashinsky, Jesse Kelly, Real Clear Politics, and many more. It's bold, no BS news, only on the Megyn Kelly Channel, Sirius XM 111, and on the Sirius XM app.

1:43:40The guys from Real Clear Politics stuck with me a little extra. They're basically just doing an all-dayer on the Megyn Kelly channel on SiriusXM. I'm just not going to let you leave. You're going to stay here all day. Do the wrap-up show? Okay, so you were, yeah, that's right. You were responding, Carl, to the ridiculous clip of Joy Reid singing and failing and making a comparison to the Women's March with the infamous pussy hat right right so that was really a rival inauguration and i went i i wasn't covering it but i was giving i was supposed to give a talk downtown that day so i i was found myself literally got off the subway in the middle of it surrounded by millions well not millions but you get the idea anyway but but there was one woman college age young woman 20 years old she had she had two buttons one on each lapel and one said imagine a world without misogyny and the other one had a picture of trump with an x through it said not my president and and we sort of we're on that thing where you're crossing a street and you almost run in the person i stopped her and i i pointed to her butt and i said that one good that other one that's not right he is your president and and and she kind of i think she oh boy no she kind of appreciated it she didn't travel in circles where she was hearing this and but but this has been for 10 years now almost going on 10 years he's the president and there's there's this idea of a segment of the democratic party in a segment of progressive america that they that they don't have to accept him as their president that's what's manifest manifested by these rival you know rival state of the union events and i don't think it's healthy for our country i i think if you you vote and you lose that's person still your elected representative he's still your center he's still your governor still your president and i i think And I think this is a dangerous thing that we're doing.

1:45:31So I look at those events and they can be funny and people have a right to do it. But I think it's a bad precedent. Wait till President Vance gives the State of the Union. Oh, my gosh. I mean, listen, if you're a Democrat and you're going to do this kind of stunt, you don't do it with frogs and a giraffe felon or whatever. I don't know how many times he'd been arrested. You if I were running it, I'd get a couple of my maybe most prominent Dems, maybe not the 2028 crowd, but like the most prominent ones. Chris Murphy has never seen a camera he doesn't want to put himself in front of. And I would parade a couple of like a parade of people hurt by Trump's policies in front of them.

1:46:10You know, like some farmer who's upset about the tariffs, something like that. And just go through one by one. This is how Trump's hurt America. Like, whatever, you're going to do it. Do it in a way that actually might move voters, not with the freaking inflatables. I mean, it's just – I felt like I walked into some weird non-binary sex party. Furries. Okay.

1:46:32Tom Bevan:Can I – Star Wars bar scene. Yeah. I have a solution to the State of the Union. I'd like to run by you guys quickly. And that's – what if everyone had to stand for the entire thing? So there were no chairs. So you couldn't stand up and sit down. Here's the trade-off. You couldn't play that game. You just had to stand for the whole thing. But would that also mean maybe it's a little shorter because people don't want to stand for that long? I like this. This is an excellent idea. I mean, the president had to stand the whole time. Right. And he's one of the oldest ones in there. If he can do it, everybody else can do it.

1:47:08I like that, Andrew. I'm going to submit that in the suggestion box. I got one more on Joy Reid before we move on. Classy as always. Here she is, top 24. attention all mega trolls and with apologies to the pastor who gave the invocation your bullshit is not welcome here and to paraphrase one of my favorite actors in the world robert de niro i'm going to slightly paraphrase him fuck y 'all we're here to hear the truth and to hear from impacted people not to see or hear from you. So go back and pay attention to your orange lying friend. I mean, that's rich coming from the Democrats who infiltrate all these Republican town halls and hijack them.

1:47:56What they've been doing out in Minneapolis with cops just trying to make arrests, the nonstop harassment. They couldn't take a couple of pro-MAGA folks yelling a few lines at them. I mean, take it up with Ilhan Omar inside the chamber screaming at the president of the United States, like pathetic. All right. I've got to talk about the following person. Who am I talking about? Let's play SOT 21. This is the introduction to our next topic. Abigail, Abigail, Abigail, Abigail, Abigail, Abigail, Abigail, Abigail, Abigail, Abigail, Abigail. It's all I can think of whenever I say Abigail Spanberger. My daughter's name is Abigail.

1:48:39Abigail Adams, too. Come on. She tried to ruin it, Tom. Oh, I know. Tried to ruin it, but she she failed. Abigail gave the rebuttal, the little scene, little talked about rebuttal for the Democrats. And the reason it's a little talked about is because it sucked. It didn't move the needle at all. I suppose she didn't like fall down drooling. So that's a win. I'll just give you a taste of what she sounded like. Sorry, but I must. Stop 20. Our president has sent poorly trained federal agents into our cities where they have arrested and detained American citizens and people who aspire to be Americans.

1:49:17And they have done it without a warrant. They have ripped nursing mothers away from their babies. They have sent children, a little boy in a blue bunny hat, children to far off detention centers. And they have killed American citizens in our streets. And they have done it all with their faces masked from accountability. OK, if we had an honest Snopes, all of that would be fact checked as grossly out of context. But OK, this is all I can think of now. I saw it and now you guys are going to have to see it too. Margot Cleveland of The Federalist with a rather clever tweet. I don't see the Dems response going well.

1:50:00As Abigail Spanberger has been in a bad mood ever since her middle school classmates tagged her with the nickname Snow Miser. Kids can be cruel, accurate, but cruel. That's why she never wears hats. None of this appears to be true. It was just a clever little like take from Margot. And our crack producer, Jake Whitman, put the following together. Watch.

1:50:48And we won 13 new seats in our state legislature. Learn too much.

1:50:59I can't unsee it now. Look at them. Yeah, I see exactly where Margo is going. Is Abigail Spanberger really the future of the Democrat Party? Because typically you give that job to someone who you see as a contender. and I mean, I would venture to say, Andrew, not it. No.

1:51:22Tom Bevan:Well, we talked about this on our show. I thought it was an interesting choice that they chose her to do it because her brand is that she's more moderate than a lot of the Democrats right now. And so I thought it was a conscious choice to try to do that. She's not, Carl will know more because he's a Virginian now, but she's not sort of running the state as a moderate. No, she certainly not. But I will say this about she was in front of the flags for her states. She looked gubernatorial, at least. She wasn't in some strange setting. Like her kitchen? Yeah, and that's a good thing to get through these responses without it making much of a ripple.

1:52:06Tom Bevan:That's the best you could hope for. I agree, I agree. Most people have done this, or a lot of people have done this, and it's sort of been bad for their political brand. I'm thinking of... The Katie Britt one two years ago. Marco Rubio with the water. It's horrifying. There are a couple others. So those are the ones we remember. This one will be forgotten and it should be. And that's a good thing for her politically. Yeah. I don't think Abigail Spanberger has any shot at national politics at all. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Charismalist. Well, but think about this. Think about this, Megan.

1:52:38I don't think the Democratic Party is ever going to have a ticket with two males on it again. I think they're going to balance that they're always going to have a man or a woman and a woman. That's, I think, the energy in that party. So then you start to think about whoever the nominee is, Andy Beshear, Gavin Newsom, whoever it is, who would they pick? And then you start to come up with a list and Christian Wismer's on it. Now Abigail Spanberger's on it, but it's a short, pretty short list. So I wouldn't rule it out. Okay. You're very smart when it comes to politics, so I won't rule it out. But I still have to put my money on no, because I watched her in that gubernatorial debate and she was terrible.

1:53:20She was so bad. The reason Winsome Sears in her defense kept saying Abigail, Abigail, it was like she wasn't even there. She wouldn't comment on any of the controversial issues. Yes, it was a winning strategy. That's because the Commonwealth was over the Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, who we loved, but who they hated. And a potted plant with a Democrat sticker on it could have won that election. So it was not because Abigail Spanberger had some superior skills. It was because she had the right party ticket and it worked for her. And on the national level, you cannot get away with just standing there saying nothing about the trans issue.

1:53:56Like it was crazy what they let her get away with. But that's Virginia for you. Enjoy your new state, Carl. You thought you were going from like the People's Republic of California to something that was more, you know, slightly, slightly moderate. No, not anymore. OK, I want to spend our last couple of minutes on media. Um, okay. Stand by. Where, what's, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. We got to get to David Muir and Jonathan Karl. ABC News covering the president's State of the Union. As he walks in, no one would fix his hair, but they were shaking his hands. And listen to this blunder these two made.

1:54:35And I will submit to you, there's a reason they made this blunder, which they then had to correct. SOT 32. Freeze was seated.

1:54:46Tom Bevan:We just saw the president obviously shake the chief justice's hand. There's Justice Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett. Of course, he chose Amy Coney Barrett for the bench. She was one of the justices who did not vote in his favor and did not shake her hand there. did interact with the chief justice, but then with none of the other justices. And John Pearl, this was a question for the president today, but it was clear to us at the White House that he didn't quite know how he was going to handle the justices when he got there tonight. Yeah. Interesting. That shake, very quick shake with John Roberts and him going right by Amy Coney Barrett, who he put on the court.

1:55:28Tom Bevan:Choosing to interact only with the chief justice, but Trump felt particularly betrayed by the justices that he put on the court that ruled against these little drama queens. Here's the video. He shook everyone's hand. Everyone. Here's the chief justice. He did shake Elena Kagan. Here goes Brett Kavanaugh. And there's Amy Coney Barrett. All of them got their hands shaken to the point where they had to come back on the air and say this in Sot 33. But we should point out as he walks in, he's pretty close to the justices again, as he comes down on the floor, that he did shake their hands there this evening.

1:56:04Tom Bevan:There were a couple of shots that they showed, one of them making it very clear that not only did he shake the chief justice's hand, but the others who had gathered there, including Amy Coney Barrett, who did not rule in his favor on the tariffs, though he did appoint her to the court. Oh, they thought they had such a juicy moment. The president's snubbing his own appointee. No, that's not what happened at all. And they should be embarrassed. Clearly, they had to come back on the air and correct that because a producer got in their ear and said he did shake the hand of every justice who was there.

1:56:39The chief justice and the other three associate justices all got a handshake, even the leftist, Elena Kagan. So he embarrassed himself. They both embarrassed themselves and they loved it. They saw what they wanted to see, Tom, and they gave them a chance to lean into a negative narrative about Donald Trump. Isn't that always the case? And the apology comes two hours later when the audience is probably a third of what it was when they when Trump was coming into the chamber. You know, it's like they put out the tweet or the post and it gets 10 million views and the correction comes, you know, hours later and it gets like a thousand views or something.

1:57:13I mean, it's just, it's the same thing over and over again. But clearly they wanted that in their minds, right? They had already, they had already had this narrative. And that was one of the things we talked about a little bit earlier. Trump actually was very restrained, I think, to his credit in terms of the way he dealt with the court. He was very cordial with them on the way in. He didn't attack them. Was pleasantly surprised. He called it unfortunate, I think, the ruling, but didn't attack them personally. And so I thought he actually handled it much more deftly than most people, including all the media.

1:57:47They were all hyped up for him to attack the court. He didn't do it. Yeah, me too. I actually predicted that he would attack them because, you know, he had. So he's not like afraid of doing it in somebody's face. But, you know, he went with decorum to his credit on the night in question and handled himself quite well. and I it's amazing to me because those two clearly wanted their little catty moment of ah ha ha he hates and they hate and see it's all falling apart the Supreme Court and they hate him now too and Trump blew it and he's such a he's such a jerk he didn't shake the hands and he did shake the hands even though his own justices whom he appointed Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett at least were two of the three I was I was reliably informed I was reliably informed by the media for for months that the court was a rogue institution, corrupt, right?

1:58:39And of course, this will gain them no chips in the bank with the left anyway, Tom. You know what I mean? Of course not. They did. Three conservative justices decided with the liberals to strike down Trump's tariffs. And do you think this is going to make the liberals be like, you know what? Maybe we don't have to pack the court or dissolve it. No, they won't give them any credit. They'll paint them as just a group of partisan hacks like they always do. All right, and now we end with a piece de resistance. This is the thing I've been promising all show, and the real reason I had to hold you guys over to get to this, Robert De Niro.

1:59:11And we've all seen Robert De Niro go on his foul-mouthed rants about Trump now. That's been happening since 2015 or 16. But we haven't seen him crying with Nicole Wallace over Trump. Now, we did check. He was at one of these events, these counter-programming events last night. We do not think he cried last night. It could be wrong, but we did a quick check. We didn't see that last night. I think Trump was referring to this clip I'm about to show you when he talked about Robert De Niro crying. I'm going to play the longer version, you guys. Let's watch SOT 44. Yeah. You're always about lifting up everybody around you.

1:59:46Yeah, of course. Why is that? Is he?

1:59:53You have to. You have to lift people up. Why? You have to bring them together. Period. You can't divide people. You can't win that way.

2:00:12It's a no-win situation. And look what we have. Look who we have there. It's almost like a destiny to have this thing there, destroying, attempting to destroy this country, and maybe not even understanding why. So it's up to us to protect the country. That we love. Yes.

2:00:39you weren't supposed to make me cry thank you so much thank you for this we talked about how this is the moment this is the moment that it goes one way or the other that's right you think it's going the other way i don't know all i know is people have to have to resist resist resist resist there's no easy way it's not going to come to you easy you know there's a time when you know in your own life and your own survival you better do this you better jump and run through the fire because if you don't run through the fire, you're not getting out. And that's what we have to do. I'm glad I get to run next to you.

2:01:14Oh, my God, I just threw up in my mouth. Everything about it makes my skin crawl. The worst, though, is that she's not crying. She wants us to believe that she's crying, like in solidarity with him, with her very nasal delivery, like, you weren't supposed to make me cry. You weren't supposed to make me cry so that I get to run with you. It's so weird. Who does that? Who that's not crying pretends they're crying when, let's face it, Robert De Niro is an elderly man now. And a lot of times when men in particular become elderly, they get a lot closer to tears very often. You We saw it with H.W. Bush.

2:02:01We've seen it with quite a few men. And it can be kind of sweet. It's not sweet here. But I think Robert De Niro, he's emotionally unregulated. All right. And there becomes almost a responsibility by the news anchor not to put this person on. Really, truly. Trust me. I'm not going to name names. But I've had this experience where I then say we can't book that person again. because they just, they're emotionally unregulated and or they've crossed over to a place where some sort of like dementia has slipped in. I say that about Carl like once a week. And you're not getting the actual full person.

2:02:37You can't have him on. He's too emotional.

2:02:42Megan, Megan, he's one of the group. Almost elder abuse. Megan, Megan. Not for you, Carl. No, he was, he played the Southern catcher in Bang the Drum Sole who dies of cancer. He played Jake LaMotta, the great boxer. He, of course, you mentioned. Raging Bull. Yeah, Raging Bull. And you mentioned earlier he was the godfather. He plays the young Vito Corleone. So he's a great actor. He can cry on cue. I think you're missing the point. It reminded me of a. He's crying for a film. He too was acting. Yeah. She was definitely acting. To me, it seems sincere on his part because he's deranged. He really, truly has Trump derangement syndrome.

2:03:21There's no one who has it worse than Robert De Niro. I mean, truly, Rosie O'Donnell and he, they're tied. And the nerve, Andrew, of him to lecture us on not being divisive literally says you can't divide people. Let's run SOT 46. He's a dog. He's a pig. He's a con, a bulls**t artist, a mutt. Well, I'd like to punch him in the face. This is somebody that we want for president? I don't think so. I'm going to say one thing. Fuck Trump. Oh, wait, what? He's a sociopathic, psychopathic, malignant narcissist. He's got to be stopped. If he gets in, I can tell you right now, he will never leave. He will never leave.

2:04:12You know that. He will never leave. What does that mean? is that the country we want to live in do we want him running this country and saying i'm not leaving i'm dictator for life you can't divide people unless you're bobby de niro in which case you can do it all day every day if it's about donald trump andrew yeah well um i will say this about

2:04:38Tom Bevan:nicole wallace before we leave it it takes some discipline when someone's crying on camera not to break in. And it's something that interviewers kind of learn to do. When someone's having an emotional moment, don't do the natural thing, which is to try to relieve the stress in the room. So give her some credit for that. Can someone please cut Andrew's mic? You know what I'm saying? Cannot listen to this. What? But I, yeah. I mean, what do you want to say about Bobby Nino? He was at the State of the Swamp event yesterday, and he did say on camera, because we played it in our thing, that America is not very, he loves his country, but America is not lovable right now.

2:05:28Tom Bevan:So that was fairly mild for him. But don't divide people. Yeah. Can't divide people. Luckily, you just can't. It's just the wrong thing to do. It just shows, though, like, I can't even imagine. And I think most people can't even imagine, like, getting that emotional and having all these emotions of anger and the rage toward a politician. Like, there are politicians that we don't like. And, you know, if, like, if AOC becomes president, she wins the next election or someone like that, like, are Republicans, are they going to be, you know, crying about it? I mean, there's just this emotional level that the Democrats have, and it's driven by Trump mostly.

2:06:12That it is. It's like a mind virus that causes them to get just so emotionally invested. Their hatred of him is like all consuming. And I just I don't understand. I think most people don't understand it because we just don't get that worked up over politicians. You like some, you hate some like the country is going to survive one way or the other. It's not like it's they've convinced themselves that like he's the end of times. I mean, it's really weird. But why do we care? Although I will tell you, Tom, last night, Doug and I had like a serious conversation of how we would divide the United States if we needed to.

2:06:44Like if blue needed to separate from red, what would be meaningful lines? And we decided that we'd have to give the West Coast to the Libs. We'd have to give the East Coast to the conservatives. Then we're going to have to fight over Vermont and Massachusetts because it's going to be like the Israeli settlements. Like people got to get out. Sorry, we know you've been living here, but you got to go west. Get out. You're going to have to go. We stumbled when we got to Illinois because, you know, I know that's where you live, Tom, but like Illinois, that's all the libs now. But like we need a contiguous landmass for both the right side of the country and the left side of the country.

2:07:19And we're probably going to have a fight over Illinois. We kind of need that on Team Red, but it's so blue. But we definitely need Montana. We need the Dakotas on Team Red. So maybe there could be like a swath across the middle that we could give to the left that comes up and like kind of grabs Illinois. I think Republicans, conservatives. And then we'd go over the top of Michigan, the conservatives. We could work it out. They need the Southeast. Yeah, yeah. There's all that sunshine and good golf down there. Republicans have to have that. And we're going to get that. Megan, did you get to this point?

2:07:45That's going to be ours. Because I floated this idea. We could trade Minnesota to Canada for Alberta. What would you think? In a heartbeat. What would you think of that? I love that. Or we could just take it. Well done. And I think, or we could just like give it to Somalia. No, we can't do that. I bet you they pay us some modest amount. My daughter lives in Minnesota. She can be Canadian. She can't be Somalian. So we can't do that. We're going to send our hockey team up to Alberta and just take it by force. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Play a match. One match for all the country. If really pressed on the national divorce, there might be a way to do it.

2:08:23You know, some people are going to be unhappy, but I think net, net, it actually could be done. But, you know, you look at somebody like De Niro, I'm being facetious, of course, but you look at somebody like De Niro, Carl, and you think he would do that in a heartbeat like that. He's deranged, you know, that Trump derangement syndrome. We say it is joking kind of thing, but it truly is like an affliction. And when you have it, it dominates your life. I remember thinking about this with Rob Reiner when he met his terrible end. And, you know, of course, you felt nothing but sympathy for Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle.

2:08:53But the truth about Rob Reiner is he was a very angry man and he had had this lifelong struggle with his son. But he, public facing, when it came to anything political, was always very angry. It consumed him. And I think Robert De Niro is the same. He can't speak anymore about politics in a rational way where like you can really hear him and like take his points into consideration. He's just too far gone. You know, you're right. And it's sad because he wasn't always like that. There's a great scene in a book. It was about Hollywood. I can't, it was William Goldman, but it wasn't him. It was another one.

2:09:29It will come to me, but it was the making of Raging Bull. And the first script was so awful. And the producer said, I'm not going to make this movie. In the opening scene, he's beating up his pregnant wife. He's a monster. I can't make a movie where the protagonist is a monster. And De Niro was there. I think it was, was it Martin Scorsese? Was he? De Niro was there in the room and he didn't even, he was, he was like 20 in his 20s, thin, thoughtful guy. And he finally just said, he's no monster. He said, well, give me another script. And this guy didn't even know it was De Niro. And he helped, he helped write the script and shape it so that this very troubled man was a sympathetic character.

2:10:09And that's how he used to have, he used to be able to see the good, the bad in people. And somehow, maybe Tom's right. Maybe it's, it's, maybe it's an actual mind virus. But this thing that's happened to him, it's happened to millions of Americans and it's sad. And it's not really the best way to live. It's not the best way to think. And it's not how De Niro used to be. So the whole thing makes me sad. And I hope we can turn the page sometime without dividing the country in half, literally. I just think we should ignore what Robert De Niro has to say.

2:10:39Tom Bevan:I don't understand why anyone would give a damn what he thinks about politics. What has he ever done that would give you an idea that he has an insight into how the country should be run? He's an actor, and God bless him. But I swear my plumber would know as much. Right, if he was to tell us about how the Godfather was made, we're all ears. I'm interested in that, but I'm not interested in his politics, and I don't think we should be either. Yeah. And you can sense his frustration that people aren't listening to him. And instead of like getting the message, you know, remember that clip of Jennifer Lawrence back in the fall where she was like, I think I need to stop talking about this because I think I should just speak through my art.

2:11:23I run the risk of alienating a large portion of the country and they won't want to go see my movies anymore. And I speak through my movies. So maybe I should just let that be my message. You could see the light bulbs trying to go off for her. Like, yes, that's all we've been asking. Like, make woke movies if that's what you want. Then we can at least choose whether to go see them or not. But like, stop lecturing us on something you know nothing about on your soapbox. And he doesn't get it. Like, he continues to proselytize. We're not listening. You know, no one was worse than Robert De Niro over the past 10 years when it comes to Trump.

2:11:57We haven't listened. You know, we keep reelecting him. His approval rating is struggling right now, as it has virtually all of his time as president. But he can't seem to break through. And it's driving him crazy. I'll bet it's terrible to live with him. I bet. I don't know if he's married, but I'll bet if he is. She's like, shut up about Donald Trump. Shut up. Like, think about it. You guys are all in politics full time. So am I, basically. Do you spend your evenings talking to your family about politics? I say politics takes up maybe like 15 to 20 percent of what is discussed like in my home.

2:12:32And only when it's like in the news, something big. We're talking about like our lives. We're not talking about Donald Trump over the dinner table. Like there's something wrong with people who do that every night, every night obsessively with this much emotion. Totally agree. Totally agree. Right. But it seems it affects some people more than others. I mean, it's weird. And he's clearly, it's affected him like he's among the worst of anybody. I mean, it's just, it's consumed his life. And as you said, look, we've talked about this before. I mean, politics has replaced religion. It's replaced a lot of things in our society, particularly for progressives and folks on the left.

2:13:13It fills the void that they have and it gives them the sense of community and all that. But it's a corrosive force. It's destructive. It's not the same as religion. And people who just build their lives around it and center their lives around it wind up looking like Bobby De Niro. Sad, bitter, angry, resentful, resentful of the country, resentful of anyone who voted for Donald Trump, looking at the country through a political lens all the time. I mean, that's just, it's, I wish we could do less of that, but unfortunately, these are the times that we live in and it's affected, it's infected everything from, you know, what restaurants we eat at maybe to the, you know, the sports that we watch and all these other things.

2:14:01Some of the places we shop and it's just, it's, I wish we could roll it back, but I don't know that we can. Yeah. If I were his daughter or wife, I would, I would say, you know, you put that down. Right. You put down that phone. Detox. You put down that remote control. You step away from X, step away from the screens, go fishing, go for a walk in the snow, go sit with your granddaughter. Like touch grass, as they said. But you need to step away from politics because you can't handle it. Like not everybody can handle it. You know, it's like the drink. Some people can have the drink. They can have a couple of glasses of wine a few times a week and they're fine.

2:14:45They never get addicted. Others cannot. They've got the gene. You know, like one is what is it like one is too many and hundreds not enough. That's that's Robert De Niro and politics right now because of Trump. It broke him. It broke his mind. He's a step away and maybe focus on like making movies, something he at one point was great at. Maybe he still is. I'd love to find out. In any event, that's it. I've taken you far too long. It's not like you guys are making a fortune off all these hours for Sirius XM, but you're doing your civic duty. So thank you for being here, you guys, and thanks for everything.

2:15:19Thank you, Megan. What a great crew, right? Tom Bevan, Carl Cannon, Andrew Woolworth. What a fun addition to the MK Channel. I hope you love their podcast as much as I do. Be sure to download it as well. Tomorrow, Tucker Carlson will be here. He's been getting in trouble, as usual, and we'll talk to him about all the news. Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

2:16:09Presidential Center and sit down with celebrity guests like comedian Andy Richter. Go beyond the map with Enjoy Illinois Let's Go, available now on your favorite podcast platforms.

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