Megyn Kelly on Venezuela, Ben Shapiro’s Treachery, and Mark Levin’s Mental Illness

30:00and you can make a case for that if there are foreigners who threaten you you can never make a case for the u.s government casually killing americans all of us should be offended by that every single time and we should push back against it hey whoa whoa i'm not a houthi don't treat me like one i'm not a venezuelan stop americans have to remember that the point of this exercise is to secure the homeland and everything good about it. And one of the very best things about the United States is the regard that Americans have for human life and for dogs. There's a sweetness and a sentimentality to Americans that would be sad as hell if we lost.

30:41Don't allow the killing that takes place overseas to make you think it's okay for the U.S. government to treat you that way. But they naturally do. And it's one of the reasons, and I hate even to say this, but I've just noticed it from living around it for so long, that some of the most authoritarian members of Congress, almost all of them actually, are career military officers. Not enlisted, they're all officers, but they're career officers who spend an awful lot of time thinking about how to kill America's enemies or rivals. Not even attacking that, that was their job. But that attitude seamlessly transfers to American citizens.

31:26And our government is never allowed to have that attitude toward us again. We're not Houthis. We have rights because we're citizens. You serve at our pleasure. We own this government. You may say you own Venezuela. Okay. You don't own me. i own you because i'm the citizen and you're the servant that posture is essential and very hard to keep up during the empire phase of civilization very very hard because again there are a lot fewer meaningful democratic structures in an empire nobody cares about the congress anymore it's all about the president that's great when you have a great president and hopefully we always will Because once again, so much power has been vested in that office that at this point you kind of can't let AOC have it.

32:22Because you can't let any irresponsible person who like hates whites or believes in transgenderism or wants to destroy America. People like that cannot be president, period, anymore. Because there's so much power now in the presidency that they could do the kind of damage you don't even want to think about. But you have to push back against an imperial government treating you like a subject. And there is no issue on which this is clearer than free speech, which, once again, is the basis of our country. It's not just some line in the Bill of Rights. It's the whole reason the United States is exceptional.

33:05And that's clearer than it's ever been. because the country that gave us the concept of free speech, Great Britain, puts thousands of people in jail every single year for thought crimes. And so it's not like this is a distant, they only do it in China or North Korea kind of problem. This is happening in the country that gave birth to us, Great Britain. It could very easily happen here. And the only way that it won't is if American citizens draw a line in the sand and say, you will have a revolt if you take away my right to say what I think, period. You will have a revolt on your hands. And they should, because that is the only remaining power for most American citizens.

33:44They don't have economic power. Of course, the power of labor is basically gone. AI will erode it still further. We're going to go on strike. Who cares? You're being replaced by machines. Shut up. They don't have economic power. Does voting matter? You know, we can debate that. Most people kind of doubt that it does. So what power do you have left? What's the equalizer here? There's the guy in charge. There's you, the subject. What makes you both human? Only one thing. That's your inalienable God-given right to say what you really think. No matter how kooky your opinion is, no matter how offensive it may be to the people in charge, you have an absolute right.

34:21Inalienable, it can't be taken from you because it wasn't granted to you by any temporal authority. you have that if you give that up you are a slave and not surprisingly at all given the way these things roll given this new era that we're in all of a sudden you are hearing calls not just from the left not even primarily from the left to end the freedom of speech in the united states and this is the red line here's one example this i think was on cnbc new year's day watch this I know it's difficult to hear, but it's time to limit the First Amendment in order to protect it and quickly before it's too late.

35:01What do you mean? I mean that we need to control the platforms, all the social platforms. We need to stack rank the authenticity of every person that expresses themselves online and take control over what they are saying based on that ranking. The government. The government should control the social media.

35:29so here's a foreigner coming to our country and saying with a straight face you need to get rid of the first amendment because people are using it to criticize my country sitting on a tv set in new york city lecturing a country that's not his own about how they're not allowed to criticize him and the government should punish them for doing it it's been a lot of noise in the news recently, but none of it matters if you can't hear it. There's no shame in this. Millions of people get deafer every year. Some we know well. But your friends, our friends at Audion can help. For years, the experts made hearing aids cost thousands of dollars.

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38:35So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it, asking where this is all going. They come from places like NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, in meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Cheeky doesn't begin to describe it, but he is a foreigner, right? So, okay. You could say, well, he just doesn't know what the rules are. He's obviously got a lot of brass to say something like that, a lot of chutzpah to say something like that.

39:10But who cares? I mean, yes, he's a billionaire. There are a lot of Israeli billionaires who've been calling in an Israeli prime minister for censorship in the United States. And it's offensive, and we should obviously stop giving them any money. We shouldn't be paying for that. But they're still not Americans. Oh, but there are Americans saying that. Here's one that actually happens, a career U.S. military officer called Jay Collins. This man is the lieutenant governor of Florida, which is the most conservative state in the union. If you ask Jay Collins, what are your politics? You say, oh, of course, I'm straight MAGA Republican.

39:45I'm a conservative. I share your values. This is real. We check. This is not AI. Watch. Here's Jay Collins of Florida. And here's a critical thing. You have a right to free speech, but you don't have the right to harm other people with your words. You don't have the right to say things that have really negative, really horrible meanings. When you want people to destroy Israel, that matters. Oh, you don't have the right to say things that people in charge don't like. You don't? That's the whole point. If you don't have that right, you are a slave. And Jay Collins is your master. notice by the way he didn't say you can't attack america that's totally fine jay collins military officer no you can't attack israel you can't call for the destruction of israel of course you can call for the destruction of any foreign country you want it's a staple on fox news lindsey graham does it every single day you just can't you can't call for the destruction of israel and that's a crime.

40:51Of course, it's not a crime. It may be an ugly opinion. It may be an unsustainable argument. You may be an idiot. You have a God-given right to that opinion and a God-given right to express it. And this is the only country on planet Earth where you still can. And again, if they try and take that away, you need to have an insurrection against the government because you're done at that point. An insurrection against the government if they try and take away your right to say what you think you're right to your own conscience, period. That has to be it right there. It's fine to attack America, but you can't attack Israel.

41:25This is, by the way, part of the problem with administering an empire is that a lot of people, and Jay Collins, clearly one of them, might be good people, might be right about a lot of different things, but they come to identify so strongly with foreign countries that they forget about their own. This was a huge problem during the British Empire. There were tons of colonial military officers and administrators who spent their careers in India and kind of cared a lot more about what happened in the subcontinent than they cared about in England because that's where they spent their lives. Those are the problems they spent their careers solving.

42:00So they went up identifying with foreign countries more than their own. This is absolutely a feature of empire, hard to fight against, but it's essential that we do fight against it no what matters is the united states that's who's paying for this that's who's in whose name these actions are being conducted the only justification for any of this is to serve american citizens not the citizens of israel or sri lanka or any other place venezuela but america so you'd think this would all be very very obvious but somehow Now, I actually called around on this and was told, oh, it's not a real position, but there's a there's a current administration official, like an actual official in the executive branch right now.

42:47Who's making this case that Americans actually don't have? Oh, they have a First Amendment, but it turns out that actually you can't say anything I don't like or else you go to jail. This guy's name is a rabbi. I don't think actually has a congregate. He's I don't know if he's what it means to be a rabbi. I don't think actually runs a congregation. Yehuda Kaploon. Actually met him. Seems like a nice guy. But here are his views. And you should keep in mind that the views you're about to hear are much, much more common than you may realize. Here he is. The amount of hate speech that we've seen during this time, I mean, it's off the charts.

43:27You look through social media. You see it even on television. The lines, they're not even blurred anymore. They're gone. How do you even begin to tackle such a phenomenon? Well, I think we have to have an understanding that, first of all, in this country, we believe very strongly in free speech. It's the basis in our Constitution. And we also believe in the freedom of religion. You have to balance that. But you balance that in two ways. Europe has paid speech laws, probably some of the best on the books, but it's selectively enforced. So if you selectively enforce the rule, it's not going to have any effect whatsoever.

44:03And you can see how it's had no effect in Europe in monitoring and stopping the hate. so this guy is something called the anti-semitism czar it's an office set up by george w bush like most insane unjustifiable things anti-semitism czar at the state department focused on one specific kind of ethnic hate not protecting all americans there is no stop anti-white hate czar of course and there never will be because the same people who are upset about hate are promoting that kind of hate, but whatever. It's one specific group protected somehow by the United States State Department. But this is a guy who actually has a job administration saying, it's great.

44:49European hate crimes laws are great. Well, first of all, every single one of them is immoral. And two, they're all contrary to the First Amendment. You couldn't have laws like that here. And three, when you actually look at those laws that Rabbi Yehuda Kaplan is saying are so great, they're used to suppress Christianity. That's what they actually are, of course. And creativity and freedom of thought and individual conscience and the humanity of the populations of European countries, all suppressed by this. But Christianity is always number one. So in Finland, for example, when the lead opposition political leaders is now on trial, Why?

45:29Why is she on trial? Because she tweeted a quote from Romans, the Epistle to the Romans by St. Paul. You may have heard of it. It's a significant book in the New Testament. In it, he describes basic Christian sexual ethics, you know, like one man, one woman against other forms of sexual expression. That's Christianity. And that was deemed a hate crime under the law, under those European hate crimes. hate crimes laws, hate speech laws that Rabbi Yehuda Kaploon is saying we should emulate, but maybe enforce a little tougher, more selectively. This is what will destroy the country and divide the country and make people hate each other.

46:15Whenever the U.S. government protects one group and allows others to be attacked, whenever the U.S. government promotes one group and suppresses another group, It's prima facie unfair, but it's also the most divisive thing you could ever do to any country. If you treated your children differently, they wouldn't hate you. They'd hate each other. And every parent knows that. So all of this stuff is corrosive to the United States at exactly the moment when national cohesion is going to be essential because there is a rocky road ahead. That's very obvious. And here you have an administration official calling for hate crimes laws.

46:54So the answer has to be no. And it has to be no now more than ever, because once again, we're entering into a brand new phase with new rules. And all of us are going to have to adapt to those rules. We may support them. We may not support them. But that's what we're doing. But in the process, we cannot give up what it means to be American on the most basic level. You don't need to be an economist to see what's happening. The dollar is in trouble. It's getting weaker. It's sad, but we're not in charge of it. So we have to respond appropriately in ways to protect our families. When paper money dies, it's going to be replaced by programmable digital currency or gold.

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48:45What are your views of it now? Yeah, still skeptical. I said, I'm not on a green light posture on this. I'm not on a red light. I'm on a yellow. And I don't love it. I got to be honest. I, first of all, would prefer we use our military defensively and not offensively, which may be anachronistic. but I'm not really in the mindset at all, especially now with three kids who are two out of three in their teens of being super bellicose in our language or our approach to the world. And I don't really see this as necessary. I don't see this one as necessary. I understand what Trump is saying is the reason and I too appreciate the honesty.

49:26I actually appreciate that we're not cloaking it in democracy. Like we wanted the oil. He was really explicit and we didn't want them playing footsie with China and Iran and Cuba. Okay, so at least he's being honest about it. But I worry very much about unintended consequences. And, you know, I realize it's not Libya, it's Venezuela. But okay, a couple things happen in Libya. First of all, when we killed their leader, it's been chaos ever since. And I see the same sort of power vacuum there potentially, even with this vice president left in place, that happened in Libya. I don't think we actually are going to run Venezuela because we don't want to, and we don't want to have a long-term presence there.

50:09So I do wonder what the power vacuum will be. I'm not so sure this vice president is going to be able to rule there with the same iron fist as Maduro. I don't know what's going to happen. But I also think about what happened in Libya, Tucker, when we were even younger. And that's when you and I were in college. and for the years prior to that, Libya was doing some bad things in the world. They bombed the nightclub in Berlin and some Americans got killed and Reagan then bombed them and we were sort of ratcheting up. It wasn't an outright war with Libya but we were escalating tensions here and there with them and the next thing we knew, we just sort of thought we had settled the matter because we are the big bad United States and once we sort of bomb you, you're supposed to go away and realize it's going to get worse for you but what Libya actually did was they planted a bomb on Pan Am 103 and brought down that flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 people, most of whom were American, including 35 students from Syracuse University, where I was going to school as a freshman.

51:10And every year I was there. For four years, we had the memorial honoring those 35 18 and 19-year-olds who had been studying abroad in London and had been killed over Scotland on their way home from their study abroad program because of these little sort of power battles that had happened that weren't supposed to mean anything. We're supposed to be just sort of asserting our power and teaching somebody a lesson. Did anybody anticipate that? I don't think so. Okay, you know, Venezuela is not Libya. It's not full of a bunch of Middle Eastern potential terrorists, but it's not great. Like, they've got a bunch of gangs down there who have zero problem killing Americans.

51:48Let's check in with Tren de Aragua. Let's check in with Lake and Riley's family to find out whether they have any empathy for Americans. Doesn't seem so. And I don't know what faction of that group we're ticking off right now with our behavior and going in there and saying the oil's now ours. We're going to sell it. You know, we'll give you a piece of it, but we're taking it. So I really do worry about unintended consequences. And I object to empire. I much prefer the way we started with the original George Washington. Let's avoid foreign entanglements. Let's not cozy up too much to any one country.

52:25Let's enjoy the beautiful blessing of the two huge oceans on either side. I don't want to have to take care of Venezuela. I really don't. I'm not particularly worried about them cozying up too much to China and Russia, neither of whom are in a position right now to attack us. And I don't think I have a reason to attack us at the moment. So I don't like it. I still support Trump, obviously, but I don't think this is something he ran on at all. I think he actually ran on the opposite promise that we weren't going to be doing this stuff. I don't think anybody who voted for him was thinking about this when we voted for him.

52:58Everyone's rooting for him, everyone who's sane and independent minded. But this is a massive distraction from where his attentions should be, in my view, which, as you point out, are rightly Baltimore and other cities that are genuinely suffering. And I think if we roll into these midterms, you know, he gave a big speech before the Republicans in Congress yesterday about we need to win the midterms. If we roll into these midterms and we have a year almost of Trump focusing on running Venezuela as the so-called affordability message is ubiquitous in the left-string press every day, it's not going to help.

53:34He's going to lose control of the House. I don't think Republicans will lose the Senate, but we're going to have nonstop two years of investigations. And look, Trump hasn't been doing a great job of getting his agenda pushed through as legislation the first year, because as it turns out, you really do need 60 senators now in order to enact legislation unless you get rid of the filibuster. So think how we'll do when Republicans don't even control the House. We will have absolutely no laws passed, which Tucker will only feed into what you're talking about, which is this idea of empire and the executive branch growing bigger and bigger.

54:09He's already rendered Congress almost irrelevant. They'll become even more so with the Democrats in control of the House because all they're going to be doing is snipping at his heels, trying to investigate everything he does. But they won't even be relevant in terms of potentially passing legislation because it'll be an absolute no-brainer. Nothing will happen. The executive branch will grow. And okay, maybe I can get, you know, comfortable with empire if I must, if we're thinking about a J.D. Vance. But we are not going to have a Republican in the White House forever. Never mind the right Republican in the White House forever.

54:41We are going to wind up with a Gavin Newsom one of these days or an AOC. And then what? And by the way, even if we move on from Trump or a J.D. type, you know, president and stick with like Republican, who's going to run the empire? Like, what if we wind up with a Mitt Romney? What do we do with Venezuela then? What if the collapse happens then because we no longer have a strong hand on the tiller the way we might with Trump here? What chaos will ensue? We just, I don't think we have an accurate feel for what we've unleashed. And again, I think it was unnecessary. I think you make a strong case.

55:23I've thought all of that. I don't think I articulated it quite as well as you just did. And of course, I'm totally opposed to Empire 2. I'm kind of for an agrarian society with no electricity, small communities. I'm serious. I mean it. But we're not in charge. And so this is a new system. Clearly, we're moving toward it. At some point, this president or some president is going to start ignoring the courts, too. And you're going to have just total power in the executive. And there's a lot of evidence that the emerging America demographically wants that. I mean, that's the case in most countries, and it will be the case here, probably.

55:56I'm not endorsing that at all. I'm just sort of looking ahead generationally, and we're going to get something like that. So given that, I feel like you need to make smart decisions, wise decisions with the future in mind, always, especially now. And there are all these ghouls who've somehow attached themselves like barnacles to the executive branch like Mark Levin and Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz screeching about how, okay, that was a great success four days ago. Now we need to roll into Tehran. Do you think that will happen? Oh, yeah. I mean, it's like you watch Lindsey Graham. It's like he's got the taste of blood in his mouth and he's excited.

56:36I mean, he's practically frothing. It was disturbing. And, you know, this is who for right now Trump is surrounding himself with. You know, you had Lindsey Graham on Air Force One with him. You had Levin at the White House with his arm around Trump, almost trying to like manhandle him, like sort of assert power over Trump, like kind of pulling him in. And, you know, Trump doesn't like that. Even when you shake hands with Trump, he makes sure he's in command and he's in the dominant position. But Mark Levin goes in there and almost tries to emasculate him like with the arm around like this is my guy, which is exactly the wrong messaging to allow and to send in Levin's case.

57:11So it is disturbing, like how close, not just the neocon, I think there are some normal neocons, like I would consider probably, you know, Brit Humes, probably neocon-y, some of my pals over at National Review are neocon, but they're not frothing at the mouth crazy for blood neocons. Exactly, that's right. I mean, what Lindsey Graham stands for is deeply disturbing to me. And that stuff about the Ayatollah, like, you know, our president is going to come kill you. Would you just stop? Like you said, just, hey, as far as I know, Lindsey Graham doesn't have teenage children who are going to have to go fight his war he now wants against Iran.

57:45But I do. And you have kids in their 20s. And some of us actually have a real stake in making sure that does not happen. We do not want that. It's, again, unnecessary. So it's really kind of getting crazy. And I also think you're right about the alarming increase in military budget. What is the reason for that? Trump's speaking in a disturbing way about Greenland. My hope is that all the talk about Greenland, because even yesterday, Caroline Leavitt was saying military options are still on the table if that's what the president wants explicitly about Greenland, that he's just asking for a 10 where he intends to settle for a six, which is I'm going to scare you so that you actually will cut a better deal with me on your raw earth minerals and give me more access to your country if I need it for those and or military purposes.

58:34but obviously we can't go around invading Greenland. We can't go around invading any countries. We can't go invade Cuba. He mentioned them. We can't go invade Iran. We cannot go invade Colombia or just kick the guy's ass as Trump is saying and not expect any negative consequences to us. Like we are actually are rebuilding the economy. Trump is rolling back regulations. He's allowing modern business to thrive. The tariffs I think have not worked out too poorly and I think have a very good shot of working out even better. Interest rates are coming down. Inflation is coming down. Why can't we just roll that agenda into a stronger economy than ever come midterms and maybe possibly win more seats in the House such that Trump and maybe, you know, God even knows, convince some senators to vote Republican when a vote comes up and actually enact an agenda that could stick and that could be popular and stop worrying about being policemen of the world, worrying about the bad, of course they're bad guys.

59:33We know there are bad guys in Cuba. We know the guy who runs Colombia is not great. We know Maduro wasn't great. Iran, obviously, we're not big fans of the Ayatollah and vice versa. We're not the policemen of the world. It was never intended to be this way. And look, if that's what we're going to use the$1.5 trillion for, that's alarming too. Even if it's not world war, if it's just that we can be the world cop or the world invader or like sort of the badass with swagger with the amazing military and now we want to use it, that's going to cause a host of unintended consequences that Trump's never going to be around to even see through.

1:00:09You know, you and I are still going to be here. Our kids are still going to be here. Trump's grandkids are going to be here. But it almost feels at times to me like Trump has discovered he's got this exciting, efficient tool called the U.S. military, and he's dying to try it out. And unfortunately, when you're dying to try out the U.S. military as the commander in chief, you ultimately are not the one who will be dying, but others will. And they include Americans eventually. Yeah. And, you know, it's always possible for any president to get over his keys. I mean, it's just once these enterprises begin, it's sort of hard to know where they're going to go and think unanticipated things happen.

1:00:48And there's just a lot of risk in in all of this. Rubio seems much more level headed than I ever gave him credit for being in smarter. G.D. Vance, obviously, has always been both of those things. But it does seem like now is the time to clear out some of the emotionally unstable lunatics. It'd be nice. And, you know, your point about free speech is absolutely spot on. You know, you play. I was amazed to hear that the one soundbite by Jim Collins in Florida. Incredible. I actually wrote down what you said. He said, you don't have the right to harm other people with your words. I absolutely do. And it's actually what makes us fundamentally American.

1:01:31It's awesome. I have every right to insult you, to speak hatefully about you. And it's glorious. It's what makes it wonderful to live here. I mean, the First Amendment, of course, is there to protect hate speech. Hate speech is not only constitutional. It's written right in there that you can say you can say the most hateful things possible. Sorry, but I can. And if you don't like it, too, you're the one who needs to move. Not me. I don't need to move out of the United States of America. That's my fundamental right to say things that offend. And that's what's so upsetting about what is happening in Europe, not to mention in Israel, too, because you mentioned, you know, the rabbi and the guy on CNBC.

1:02:10I mean, Israel's been on the press quite a bit over the past year or two for cracking down on free speech rights in its country, the rights of journalists to report openly and honestly on what's happening over there. And Europe is in a place where they're now arresting people for thought crimes, for actually just causing offense. That's it. Not to mention in England, arresting a woman for silently praying outside of an abortion clinic. Literally not saying a word, just praying in her head. And a cop saw her standing there and asked her what she was doing and she admitted the truth. And she got arrested.

1:02:44Our friend Lawrence Fox, he got arrested because he was over there saying he was thinking about tearing down the pesky traffic cameras that they put in various places in London. to police the gas-guzzling cars because they don't want these non-eco-friendly cars in London. And he was thinking about tearing down the cameras. He got arrested. They raided his home. So yeah, you need to be able to think what you want. You need to be able to say what you want. In all three of those examples that you showed of people saying it's time to crack down, we should control the internet, you can't say things that hurt people or that are hateful, are exactly the opposite of what we actually stand for in this country.

1:03:25And we better be really loud about it or we're going to be following our friends in Germany and England down the drain. I mean, there does seem to be a connection between war footing and a clampdown on civil liberties in the country that's on war footing, right? So the president's that clamped down on free speech most aggressively in our history, Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson during the First World War, FDR for his entire term, and Lyndon Johnson during Vietnam, who sent the FBI after his critics and CIA to do all kinds of things that are shocking. So that's, I guess, my concern.

1:04:03If like all of a sudden you become permanently at war, your own population in some ways becomes the government's enemy, I've noticed. Well, look, we were, in a way, a part of that during the Iraq War at Fox, right? Like, they didn't allow and we didn't allow people who were criticizing the war a platform. We mocked them and made fun of them because I think we thought it was our duty to defend the war. And I see Fox News doing that right now. there's not really a skeptical voice over there about what we're doing in Venezuela. And I'm fine with the people who support the Venezuela move. Then I've been having them on my show all week and giving the president his due to hear what are the detractors saying and what are the supporters saying.

1:04:53And that's up for the audience to make up their mind. If they disagree with me on my stance, that's fine. It's great. No more power to them. But, you know, that's not the job when you're on Fox News. And when I was there, I'll speak for myself, it was very clear to me what the job was, which was to root for it, to defend it, period, and not to allow skeptics on to express why they thought it was a bad idea, but instead to mock them and to belittle them, which has an effect of shaming people out of the view, at least maybe not the code pinks of the world, but like normies, whether they're Republicans or independents who would come on Fox, they understood that message is going to get you banned.

1:05:30You're not going to get an invitation back because it's not a place to come for a full and fair discussion. So yeah, we've already slipped into that in our past, our not so distant past, and look what it got us. You know, the Iraq war was not a good idea. I wish I hadn't defended it. I know you feel the same. I wish I had let more dissenting voices on and really listen to them to see whether they had a good point. And I think now more than ever, that's why independent channels like the ones that we're operating on currently are incredibly important because there is no agenda. You know, people want to say you're bought and paid for.

1:06:02You're not bought and paid by anybody. You're totally independent, as am I. I don't take anybody's money other than like cozy earth. But they're not involved in this conflict. No, they're not. They're great. They're great. So what do you make of the division within the Trump voting base? You've been sucked into this, I think, against your will. I always think of you as the most sensible, least radical, least crazy person ever, always willing to entertain both sides, measured. And somehow you've been held up as some kind of Nazi or something by a few very, very active people on social media, Mark Levin, chief among them.

1:06:46I look at that and I'm like, this is if you're attacking Megyn Kelly for this stuff, falsely, this is clearly an effort to split Trump's base. That's my view, but tell me what you think is going on. So Mark Levin is in a special class, shall we say. He's in a special class because I truly think he's not well. I genuinely think he's unwell, which is when I stopped fighting with him. Like over the, even though over the holiday break, he was incendiary and his rhetoric. And I thought, you know, I went after him a little because he kept attacking me and others. And like, he was calling Dave Smith a Nazi, a neo-Nazi, like crazy stuff.

1:07:22And then I just realized, what am I doing? Like he's true. He's an insane person, you know, and as my therapist, ironically, always says, stay away from crazy. And he's not wrong. He doesn't take the truly crazy ones, which bodes well for me. But I genuinely think like he's not well. And I really don't think the president should let Mark Levin within 10 feet of him. Like he's not a well person. But the but there is a very ardent, extremely pro-Israel. And indeed, I will say Israel first crowd that is doing what you said right now. And sure, Levin is one of them, but I'm just saying he's just such a nutcase.

1:07:56How can we really factor him into this argument? But I don't know whether the point is to cause losses for this president or stop his agenda. I really think that the Israel firsters have no tolerance for anyone who will not defend Israel at every turn. And that's why they can't stand you. And that's why they now can't stand me. Because even though I am an Israel supporter, you and I have discussed this before. Yeah. It's not that I defend everything they've done. But in the war with Hamas, my God, I mean, like I thought what Hamas did on 10-7 was absolutely barbaric. And I have defended Israel's rights to defend itself.

1:08:33And I've even argued that it doesn't need to be a proportionate response. All the things. I've been very defensive of anti-Semitism on college campuses, which I think has been very real over the past couple of years. I've wanted the foreign exchange students, the non-Americans, ejected. I have no problem with ejecting the Mahmoud Khalil's of the world who said, nice university you have here, Colombia. Either boycott Israel or the campus gets it. Get out. Get out of here. I have no problem with any of that. I've gotten notes from all of these people, dear friends of mine over the past two years.

1:09:05Thank you so much. You make me and my family feel safer. These are pro-Israel Jewish friends of mine in the media. You make me and my family feel safer. I love you. My family loves you. God bless you. These same people have now turned on me and some are calling me an anti-Semite. Why? What did I say? What did I do? Did I step on a rake and say something super anti-Semitic without realizing it? No, it's because I won't defriend you and I won't condemn and say that Candace Owens is hateful. They want me really, really badly to condemn Candace Owens. And I'm sorry to break it to them, but I am responsible for what I say, not for what anybody else says.

1:09:48I am not Candace Owens' policeman. And by the way, they're kidding themselves that if just one more voice will say something nasty about Candace, she could finally be controlled. Like, how well has that worked so far? But again, the instinct is to stop her. Stop her speech. Stop it. Make her stop it. Make Tucker stop saying the things. Well, I have no desire to and I have no power to. And for that, I was called a coward by Ben Shapiro at the Turning Point event AmFest in December. who, by the way, in my last exchange with him, literally said our friendship, his and mine, is too important to both of us to make it depend on whom else we are friends with and aren't friends with.

1:10:36That is literally the last text I have from Ben Shapiro. The next thing I knew, he was standing on the stage at Turning Point calling me a coward for this very thing. So So I am convinced now more than ever that there is a crew for whom everything revolves around Israel, that friendships don't matter. Love relationships don't potentially matter. The only thing that matters is whether you are standing up for Israel or not. And on top of that, you can even stand up for Israel as I have. You also must not just condemn, but defriend, defriend anyone who is raising questions about Israel. It's important that that other person be excised from polite society, be ostracized, that you join us in our messaging to tell the world that they're terrible, they're evil, they should be out of polite society.

1:11:26And no, no, we're not calling for cancellation. No one's calling for cancellation or deplatforming. Just stop. That's not what we're doing. We just don't want them ever to appear at a Turning Point event again. We just don't want them ever to be invited to CPAC. We just never want to see them at a White House event. We just never want ever to see them platformed on your show, which is independent and in the digital lane. Absolutely not. So it's fine. Technically, they can exist in the ether with a microphone. That's fine. We're not anti-free speech. But we just need to pressure and cancel everyone around them for continuing a relationship with them.

1:11:57And it's absolutely disgusting. I heard you say this not long ago, and I completely related. I'd rather dive and do that. I'd rather dive and do that. And now that they've made that the stakes of my so-called friendships with them, I really won't do it. Now, I don't know. I don't care what anybody says. Like, I'll never do it now. Even if I had actual disagreements that I otherwise would raise, hell no. Because I'm not raising the fist and saying BLM at the table. And I'm not bending the knee to these bullies who think they can control me. i i always think to myself i don't think i've ever said an anti-semitic thing in my life i'm positive you haven't they never point to anything that's anti-semitic no but what's interesting is while the rest of us are having these debates a bunch of different states including the state of florida the most important state in a lot of ways has codified anti-semitism as a crime and they've defined not anti-anything, just anti-Semitism, and they've defined it in a way that is so expansive that criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic.

1:13:08The claim that someone is Israel first is a crime in the state of Florida. DeSantis signed this. And I'm just like, well, wait a second. I mean, I don't think most people even know that that happened. And plenty of states have done that. And so I think we're going to wake up one morning with European hate crimes laws written in a way that is not fair at all, that doesn't affect justice, and is basically just another form of identity politics at the point of a gun. I think this is going to happen. It is identity politics. It really is. And I'll tell you the number one reason, apart from the free speech principles, I guess the number two reason we shouldn't be doing that, it will cause anti-Semitism.

1:13:46It absolutely will cause. In the same way that now, like people don't understand. Nick Fuentes, you may be familiar with him. They don't understand him, right? Like, why? Why are people flocking to Nick Fuentes? You know what? It's because a lot of young white men in particular have been told for years now that identity is everything. It's everything. It does matter. What is your in-group? And those are your compadres. And you better get, you know, some alignment there because we're factioning now into groups. And you better figure out which one is yours. And so there are a lot of young white men who have accepted the messaging of the BLMers and the wokesters on the left and have understood now, like, you know what?

1:14:27I don't want to follow what Tucker Carlson is saying, that we don't judge people like that, even though we're on the right. That I'm accepting the messaging that's been taught to be my teachers, K through 12, by my university professors for four years, by my grad school professors, by the media, by corporate America, all of them, which is identity does matter. Your very goodness will be rated on whether you accept this premise. And they've accepted it, and now they're leaning into white identity politics and then being shamed because the leader of those happens to be Nick Fuentes. So the Jews who push those laws, and it has a lot of Jews down in Florida and a lot of Jewish people in New York too, they think that the answer to anti-Semitism, which is a problem to some extent, of course, is to get themselves recategorized as one of the protected DEI groups.

1:15:17And of course it's not. The answer is to demolish DEI. Of course. The answer is to stop separating us by group. and the more you start cracking down on people's thought crimes against Israel or even their anti-Semitism truly like this is America you're allowed to be a racist you're allowed to be a misogynist you're allowed to be an anti-semit exactly you're not allowed to like make hiring and firing decisions based on that but that's not what we're arguing over here it's we're talking about what's in your head and your heart the more you try to criminalize that or ruin someone's life over those thoughts, the more you engender the very hatred you say you're objecting to.

1:15:53And this is part, in part, the reason, Tucker, that I tweeted out that it's not Tucker Carlson and his views on Israel that are causing anti-Semites. It is more the Ben Shapiros and the Barry Weiss's of the world. And of course, the ADL then called me an anti-Semite because is that what happens is, you know, that you see the cycle, right? Like you get attacked. I didn't attack Barry or Ben. They attacked me, again, just because I wouldn't defriend people. They attacked me. I said to them, that behavior is going to cause anti-Semites. Like you shouldn't do that because this is actually undermining the very thing you say you care about.

1:16:31Then he swoops in the ADL to say, you're an anti-Semite for saying that to them. You're not allowed to defend yourself against their attacks by saying, hey, you're the one who's bringing more hatred into this argument. Exactly. Because that, you know, on and on it goes. But I genuinely believe it. And I genuinely don't want additional Jew hatred happening in this country. I don't either. Most normal American Jewish people would never make Israel the stakes of a relationship there. I know so many Jewish dear friends of mine who are sick of talking about Israel. Ben, Barry, Levin, they don't speak for the vast majority of American Jewish people who would never think of making your feelings about Benjamin Netanyahu the stakes of your friendship or love relationship.

1:17:14He's the Al Sharpton of Jewish Americans, I would say. He doesn't speak for all Jews, obviously. There's a hostility to some of the people you mentioned, particularly to Mark Levin. And I think you called him anti-Christian the other day. Why'd you say that? Yeah. So he decided to go after Jack Posobiec, who is a great guy, who is a dear friend of Charlie's and who has really stepped up to the plate in the wake of Charlie's murder. He's been doing so much to help Turning Point stay afloat, taking his podcast out there. He's been in close contact with all the Turning Point staff, with Erica. Like, this guy's been a real stand-up guy.

1:17:56He's been a hero. And not for nothing, but he's been great to me too. And I really appreciate it because back in the day, he and I didn't get along, but you know how this business is. Yes. You can get past that if you're a decent person. And he and I totally got past that. I really like him and respect him. And he's been a leader on the faith front. One of the things we lost after Charlie died was someone who could speak about the Bible, about God, about Christianity, about faith in the way that Charlie did that was inspirational, but also that unique ability to tie it to our conservative principles.

1:18:30Like that was part of the deep loss in losing Charlie. Like that, he helped you realize that your conservative ideals actually are found, the foundation is in Christianity. But on top of that, he could cite the chapter and verse of the Bible, the Proverbs, all of it to prove it to you. Well, Jack Posoba can do this too. And so I've really come to adore this guy. Anyway, he interviewed me at the Turning Point event the night after you were there. And he gave me actually on my tour a beautiful rosary at Charlie's Memorial that we all went to. He spoke and he held up that gorgeous rosary and it was very moving.

1:19:10Then I complimented him. He gave me a rosary that was identical, which I pray every day and I love. And after that event at Turning Point, he posted a picture of that rosary. And Mark Levin chose that picture of Jack Posobiec holding his rosary to attack, calling him, I'm trying to remember the word, it was like wacko or freak. It was something extremely pejorative and diminishing. And there's no accident that he chose that picture. If you Google this guy, you can find 10 ,000 pictures of him on the Internet. It is not hard to find a suit and tie picture of Jack Posobiec or even Jack in a T-shirt if you want to make him look more casual.

1:19:54He chose that picture. And it's no accident, Tucker, because he held that up because I genuinely think Mark Levin thinks Catholics who pray the rosary are freaks, that we are kooks. And that's one of the reasons why he thinks we're completely fair game to attack as woke Reich, which is what he's called me and you and others, anti-Semitic because what you're anti-Semitic because you're holding up a rosary. Well, that's sick. That's absolutely disgusting. And if you take the religious discussion there, you want to go back and argue about Jesus and Jews' role around the time of Christ. Okay, let's do that.

1:20:32How's that going to end? about the same as the discussion that people wanted to raise about black crime versus white crime ended. Glenn Lowry stood up at the time saying, that's not going to end well. Stop doing that. Stop talking about, suggesting whites are committing all the crimes. You know what they're going to do soon? They're going to bring up some uncomfortable truths about blacks, which is eventually how that ended. Like, just stop, all right? Because never in my life in arguing with someone like a Mark Levin would I bring up his faith beliefs and call him a kook for them. That's just so hateful and disrespectful.

1:21:05Never, never would I do such a thing. But there's a reason he chose that photo with the rosary and tried to diminish Jack Posobiec and I would argue Catholics and Christians who also pray the rosary. Yeah, apparently he went totally bonkers when you called him out. He's an angry, angry man. And honestly, I tweeted this out and I really believe it. well it's so it's obvious to me that there's hostility here this is not just a foreign policy debate i understand that he's all in for israel i'm not mad about that by the way um that's okay with me but it's more than that there's there's like there's something deep going on here with mark levin and i agree with you i hope let's dissect it yeah let's dissect it okay because i do want to spend a minute on this if you have it oh of course so mark levin was always a fan of mine.

1:21:54He was always a fan. Like there are tweets out there saying, oh, she's got a hell of a podcast in 2022. He came on my podcast. He asked to come on when he had a book out. Sure. Yeah. Come on. We had a nice exchange. This is all, I think pre 10, seven, but we had a very nice exchange. Never had a problem when we were at Fox with one another. And then as I, as I point out, I didn't have a relationship with Mark texting and so on, but some of those others that we discussed, had been sending me the love texts ever since 10-7 about how my standing up for American Jewish people made them feel safe and thank you and we love you and we're so grateful and blah, blah, blah.

1:22:29That's not why I did it, but I appreciated the notes. That was very sweet. So when exactly did I become an anti-Semite? Because he's called me that. Was it this past July when you and I were both at Turning Point, the Student Action Summit, and Charlie and I had a two-minute exchange on Epstein? And if you worked for a foreign agency, who would it have been. And I said it would make sense it was Mossad. Yeah, I was called an anti-Semite after that, as you and I discussed the last time I came on your evening show, by some official Jewish group that said Charlie was an anti-Semite too. Charlie Kirk.

1:22:59Okay. Was it then? Was that the day I turned anti-Semitic? I'm trying to track it in my head. So then the next thing that happened was I went on with Piers Morgan and I said, I don't believe the Hamas ministry of anything. I don't believe their numbers. And I believe they're propagandists. And I don't believe their photos they put out. But I also said Israel needs to wrap up this war because they're losing support. I got called anti-Semitic by a bunch of people. A lot of pressure from American Jews who are active on Israel, which is the difference. No, I'm not going to take it back. I meant every word I said.

1:23:31None of it makes me anti-Semitic. And then came the Tucker's interviewed Nick and you must disavow him. Now you really need to break up with Tucker. as if my entire career rises or falls based on who my friends are and whose interview I decide to weigh in on. Well, it's ridiculous. So first of all, I had no problem with the fact that you interviewed Nick Fuentes and you did it your way. And I happen to know, because I know you, and I know some other things about that interview, that you did it with a pure heart. It wasn't because you were in love with all of Nick Fuentes' messages at all, but I know you and I understood, this is, you don't have to confirm or deny, but I thought you were very much trying to reach him with your main message that you say all the time, which is in the conservative sphere, on the right, we don't judge people by identity.

1:24:18We don't, you didn't say it this way, but we're not big on the N-word and the other words that he's been calling people like Usha Vance, or even thinking about people that way, because that's what crazy leftists do with identity. That's not what we, as Christians, do. Okay, so you tried. It didn't really work, but you tried. And I know your heart was in the right place. And it was a worthwhile exercise because he's a very interesting guy. Let's face it. He's obviously got some very extreme views, but he's very interesting and he's very smart. And on a lot of things, there is value to be derived from that guy's messaging.

1:24:51I'm sorry, but he actually has a lot of things he talks about that you're like, oh, this is not a bad point about our country. Excuse his thoughts on race and Jews and the Holocaust and all that, obviously. Okay, so I was fine with your interview with Nick Fuentes. I need to be excommunicated. And then came Candace Owens. And that she really drives people crazy. She drives them crazy. They were very angry. I didn't call her out for what she said about Israel possibly being involved with Charlie Kirk. Well, I didn't call her out because I was totally fine with those questions being raised and still am.

1:25:23Like, I'm sorry, but I am. I'm sick of this bullshit. I am allowed to have questions about what if anyone aligned with Israel or from Israel might have had to do with Charlie's death. I think it was Tyler Robinson. I think he acted either alone or with trans Tifa. I don't know. I got an open heart to he was manipulated by somebody. I do. So I'm fine with those questions. And I'm sorry for people who don't want them asked. And then it switched to Erica Kirk and Turning Point. Erica became, Turning Point became the focus of Candace Owens. And honestly, Tucker, from that point forward, I worked with Turning Point and Erica regularly to say, look, Candace has a right to ask the questions she wants to ask.

1:26:04I'm very close with everybody there, as I know you are too. And I talk with them at length often about what's the best way of handling this, right? And I did not think it was a great idea to go out and try to combat each claim. I really thought just let her do her thing. You don't get to police her, but you also don't have to respond to every question she asks. Like, that's just not, I wouldn't do it. And I don't suggest you do it. Sometimes they agreed with me. Sometimes they didn't. But for the whole time, I was in close contact with them. And then ultimately Erica was asking me if I would help forge a meeting with them, broker a peace of some sorts.

1:26:41I told her, you know, maybe you could just email Candice and put it to bed. You know, maybe that's the best way instead of like getting together. I don't know. Or doing some, she wanted to do a live stream initially. She didn't want to do it that way. Whatever. I tried to be of service. I spoke with Candice too and was honest with her. And I've gotten to know her a lot better over the past six months. And actually I know her better now than ever. And I've learned a lot. about what's being done to Candace by some of the people we've been discussing. And it's disgusting. And I'm horrified by what she's been put through.

1:27:11So I'm really just not in the mood. I'm not her policeman. I don't want to be her policeman. You don't like her. Don't click on her face. Same for me. Same for you. It's the best. I have to ask you about Barry Weiss and CBS. How is that experiment going? And will it succeed? As a veteran of network news, I'm interested in your thoughts. No, it won't. It won't go well. It won't succeed. Nothing's going to change there. And Barry Weiss won't be the one to change it. First of all, Tucker, let's be honest. She's never worked in television a day in her life. Not one day. She actually wasn't very experienced even in the press business, even in the newspaper business.

1:27:49Nope, not at all. You know, she quit the New York Times after a couple of years. So she's got one thing going for her, which is she is not woke when it comes to blacks and Indians and like. I can't think of any other favorite groups, but she is woke when it comes to American Jewish people and somewhat when it comes to women. So, OK, she's not as far left as some of the other woke radicals who dragged us through 2020 and its aftermath. math. But she doesn't have any business running a news organization. And people pointed out that I sent out a tweet when she got the job saying she deserves her success.

1:28:27Of course, I was being nice because we were friendly. And also because I don't begrudge her her success or the money that she got paid for an organization that honestly wasn't worth$100 million. Like the multiples didn't play out. But God bless, if you can get somebody to pay you a shit ton of money for your company, go for it. But no, she has no business running a news, a TV news organization. There's a lot more to TV news than just taking the free press and putting it on TV. A lot more. There's a reason they call it broadcast news. There are two pieces to it. The news is important, but so is the broadcast piece.

1:29:02And the fact that she put herself at the helm of the Erica Kirk Town Hall proves to me she doesn't understand the broadcast piece. Because I'm sorry, not to be mean, but Barry Weiss is not a strong broadcaster for many, many reasons. And she should not be on camera and she should not be the face of CBS News. And she really shouldn't steal the on-air opportunities of the talent who are filling those roles. There's no better way, and I don't have to tell you this, to engender a loathing and resentment from the talent that works in your building than for you as an executive to start stealing their primetime opportunities.

1:29:41It was a massive fail. The ratings sucked. And trust me, it wasn't because the public's not interested in Erica. She didn't lead Erica to good places for Erica to shine. She she ambushed her with the guy who asked Charlie the last question before he was shot and killed. She brought him back to face Erica Kirk to finish a question and to ask Erica to condemn Trump's violent rhetoric? This is the guy who saw Erica's husband get assassinated by a leftist, tranny, furry-loving guy, and now you want to make his widow condemn Trump, who just gave her husband the Presidential Medal of Freedom, whose vice president buried him, got him on Air Force Two?

1:30:25How dare you? How dare you do that, Barry Weiss? and she had zero sensitivity about it. She ambushed her. And trust me when I tell you, there's no love lost between Erica Kirk and Barry Weiss. So that's just my little window into what she's been doing. But on top of that, Tucker, I've got more if you want it. Oh, I love it. I love it. There's no saving CBS Evening News. And there's really no saving CBS Evening News. This guy, Tony Dokapul, what has he done so far? Nobody knows who the hell he is. so far he got the job because he had a contentious segment with ta-nehisi coats in which he was good ta-nehisi coats went to israel for 10 days and came back and said he was an expert on it and wanted to write his thoughts okay you're not be quiet leave it to people who actually have done a little study on it you're going anywhere for 10 days i mean i just got back from montana for 10 days doesn't make me an expert on montana it's cold it's got bears people love to hunt okay like i'm not an expert okay but anyway um that was a good interview that's why he got the job because he stuck up for Israel.

1:31:27He has an ex-wife who's living in Israel. And of course, that's the agenda now of Barry Weiss and her boss, the Ellisons at CBS and possibly at CNN, if they wind up buying that too, although it's not looking good for them given the rejection of that bid today. In any event, so that's why he got the job. What has he done? We pulled up a few segments that Tony Dukapu has done while a correspondent because now he's claiming, I've always hated it. I've gotten it. Too much reliance on elites. I'm going to be for the people. He's trying to sound like a Fox News anchor. Well, we pulled up a couple of big news events.

1:31:57We pulled up the Border Patrol is whipping Haitian migrants at the border story. Did Tony Doka pool get it right? Even 24 hours into it after the Reuters photographer who took the pictures and said that's not what they show came out and said that's wrong. No, he jumped right on the bandwagon, served it up to Jen Psaki, who is his guest, to let her take a huge dump all over the Trump administration and the Border Patrol. But that's the rescue. That's the savior of CBS and evening news. Count me a skeptic, Tucker. People aren't interested. They're not interested in network news. They're really not interested in evening network news.

1:32:33And they're really not interested in CBS evening network news. It will fail, as will the entire network. Boy. But I mean, Barry makes me respect her a little bit. She's obviously a good talker that she convinced the Ellicott's that CBS News was like totally the way to control American public opinion. It's kind of it's hilarious. So what about Fox News? They do have an agenda. And for their agenda, Tucker, they did hire the right person. Of course they did. But it's completely fruitless and it just shows they may be evil, but they're dumb. What about Fox? I mean, so you said at the outset that Fox played a huge role in selling the Iraq war, huge role basically in every pointless conflict we've had for the last 30 years and they're doing the same thing with venezuela what's fox's future do you think well i think they're going to be they're going to be in a tough position as soon as trump leaves because trump as you know is a ratings machine everybody's interested in trump you know i remember when i was on fox trump would come out and just do a random presser just start talking on anything, whether he was a candidate or a president, the ratings would go through the roof.

1:33:43People just love him. They love listening to him. He's incredibly compelling. He's entertaining. He's smart. He's very funny. He's charming. He's self-deprecating. He's just like, unlike anything you've seen. These pressers he's doing on Air Force One where he's like, you know, rolling thunder, like who asked me, yeah, Cuba, maybe them next. Yeah, could be, you know, like, yeah, that guy needs to watch his ass in Columbia. Highly entertaining. No one ever does this. You know, he got out there when he was talking to House Republicans yesterday and he was talking about the transgender issue. And he was like, oh, you know, you get the guys come in and they lift the weights like this and you get the women.

1:34:14He goes, Melania hates when I do this. She hates when I do this. I'm going to do it. You get the women and they're like, he's imitating the weak woman trying to live. Anyway, my point is, you got to love him because he's funny and he's accessible. So that benefits everyone, including Fox. But when Trump is gone and we have anybody in his said, I don't care how charming or interesting the next guy is, it's not going to be Donald Trump. I think Fox News is in a lot of trouble, just like the rest of them. And I also think this is going to hurt them. The thing we discussed, the Fox News of yesteryear, which just has a knee-jerk response to things like Israel, to things like war, is out of touch with today's young Republicans.

1:34:59Yes. Today's under 50 year old conservative men and women are over that bullshit. They are. They do not want war cheerleaders or Israel cheerleaders. They have healthy skepticism of both. And if Fox doesn't start understanding that and making room with its elbow for that kind of coverage to start not just occasionally being spouted on their network, but become a serious part of the network the way Roger did after Trump took over the Republican Party and started to sort of shove out the more establishment types or at least make room for the new MAGA types, they will fail. So they will continue with the Murdoch's mission or even with the old Roger Ailes mission, which was very, very neocony, at their own peril.

1:35:50Why do they have – do you have any guess as to why that's the only issue they won't move on? They're pretty flexible. They're business people, of course. And they've moved all over the map on a lot of issues, but they've never wavered at all on the need for America to be involved in neocon wars. Why is that the red line, do you think? I mean, I don't know what kind of holdings they have in the military-industrial complex. It's worth asking. I haven't actually taken a look at the Fox News board recently, but they have more money than God. They don't really need to be beholden to anybody on the money front.

1:36:24I do think the Israel front is interesting, though, which is an area that causes, creates neocons, and most neocons are defensive of Israel. And what's happened on Israel is it used to be you were golden to just defend Israel on everything as a Republican. Like you were expected to do it. There was absolutely no downside in doing it. And you would only get rewarded for it. And it was the one group that these Republicans could take money from. You want to take$25 million from Miriam Edelson for the East Wing renovation? No problem. That's going to give you a hard time. I'm, she's an American Jewish, you know, entrepreneur.

1:37:04Like Israel, we all love Israel on the right. It's the crazy leftists that don't like Israel. Our side loves them. And I do believe that's why you have all these records of people who are like, I voted for Israel, with Israel 100 % of the time. You know, Ted Cruz, like, I wear like a badge of honor. And I do think the Murdochs are probably still in that same mindset. Yes. And they do not have their finger on the pulse of the young people who voted Trump last time, who are critical in putting him over the line, and who have started to turn on that mindset and who do not see Israel, especially now, as totally aligned with American interests and values.

1:37:46And let me just say one other thing on it. I've been asking myself this question, Tucker, because you cover foreign policy a lot and always have. It's not really my thing. This is not like, I don't think people tune in to the MK show because they really want to get the latest on foreign policy. You know, I cover all domestic news, politics, law, culture, all that stuff, hard news, but I'm not huge on foreign policy. I do cover it, but it's not my thing. Like Glenn Greenwald, it's his thing. He lives for it and he's great at it. Okay. I do think that even I, as I look back, I'm like, I'm pro-Israel.

1:38:21I say I'm pro-Israel. And I've been asking myself lately, like, how, like, why exactly am I pro-Israel? Israel. And I, what I've come up with is, well, I was raised Catholic and, you know, you're kind of taught from a very young age that there's an alignment, Judeo-Christian values. You hear that all the time. You read the Old Testament, you know, like all of it. And you're sort of thinking, okay, yes, I defend the Jews and I'm pro-Israel. Then you get to Fox News and it's like, of course you are. And the Republicans all are. And you're like, okay, I accept that. And you see like, they're an important country in the Middle East.

1:38:52And I believe what they say, which is they're in a rough neighborhood and people do want to attack them a lot. So, you know, I understand that it's a free democracy, but then you get to the point where you realize, oh, wait a minute. I've been in an organization for 14 years of my formative adult life and professional life where I wasn't even encouraged or allowed to question any of that. You know, it was just spoon fed and I swallowed it because I didn't really care. It wasn't something I was ever really focused on. So it's like, yeah, sure. Okay. We love Israel. And only now, Tucker, have I begun to say like, wait a minute, how much of the narrative that is in our news today has been spoon fed to me by people who are super pro-Israel at all costs, who won't tell the truth about Israel, no matter what it is, and will cancel you if you don't befriend or defriend people who do.

1:39:51And so this whole thing has made me reevaluate. Like I'm just starting from square one, basically on Israel right now. And I'm actually day by day taking a much harder look at who are they? What do they do? How do I find real information on what happened in this war in Gaza that I will trust? Because I do know I'm being propagandized by both sides. And how will I make up my own mind? Even some of the narratives that we hear, like I'm not a fan of certainly radical Muslims. And I'm not a big fan of Islam. I'm going to be honest. The tenets of it are political and I don't agree with them. But I have dear friends who are Muslims.

1:40:28And I do start to wonder like how much of the very negative messaging about all Muslims, and I've been a part of some of that negative messaging. Don't get me wrong. I'm not wavering from my position that like it's not great to have an Islamist running New York City. But how much of the narrative has come from people who are just ardently pro-Israel and need me to hate them? Do you know what I mean? All of it. So I think it's a fair question, and I'm sort of in my own search mode on that subject and others right now. I think lying is what changes the calculations. So right after 9-11, Brithume and Carl Cameron did an amazing week-long series on the dancing Israelis, the Israeli intel operatives who were arrested right across from Ground Zero, celebrating the falling of the building.

1:41:14And then all these Israeli intel operatives were swept up in the United States. They've been following the hijackers across the country. It was a big story. And Britt and Carl did this whole series on special report for a week. And it was really super interesting and factual. Fox News deleted it from the website, act like it never happened. And I remember thinking, why would you, was it incorrect? No, it was not incorrect. It was correct. That's why they took it off. And then I watched Judge Napolitano, who was over at Fox Business, get fired. And I know why he was fired for criticizing Israel.

1:41:46And under the previous regime, they got the call, got to fire him. And they did. And I remember thinking, that's not fair play. If you disagree with his views on Israel, tell them. Or if you think that Britt and Carl did something wrong in their series on the dancing Israelis, tell us what it was. No, it was just eliminated. It never happened. It was shut it down. And I don't think that's fair. That's not, first of all, it's not journalism. Second, it's just inherently dishonest. And third, it suggests like, why are you doing that? Like, what is there that you're trying to hide from public view?

1:42:15And that's when my mind started to change a little bit. I don't know what the stake is. I really don't. And you would know the board better than I would. But I think it's mostly rooted in the fact that it was always fine with absolutely no downside to just be completely in the tank for Israel. And I don't think they've moved out of that mindset. And I think they're going to learn the hard way that they need to. Because, look, let's be straight about it. the average age of the cable news viewer is somewhere between 68 and 72. That's not the key advertising demo, and that's not going to keep the lights on for very long.

1:42:53They're going to have to find a way to appeal to younger viewers. And unlike our business, where a download is a download, you know, we really, ironically, our business, which probably does appeal to more young people, doesn't depend on young versus old. Literally, it's just like a click is a click, a download is a download. Their business actually does depend on the key advertising demo of 25 to 54 year olds. And that is only going to dwindle further if they are just knee jerk defensive of Israel without giving any voice to its critics. Those days have passed and you can thank Israel for it. I mean, they've just completed this two year war and nobody would have begrudged them for fighting back after 10-7.

1:43:30But it went on too long. It was too brutal. It expanded into too many different countries. and then ultimately it dragged us in and exposed us in a way that, again, sort of like what we're watching in Venezuela, we still, we don't know what the long-term effects of the bombing of Iran will be. Let's hope we've escaped unscathed, but we don't know. So I just think it's too late. Israel's too controversial. Many, many people said to them, including Trump, months before the Iraq or the Israel-Gaza war wrapped up, stop. It's got to wrap up now. It's gone too far. And Netanyahu was going to take it further even than he did.

1:44:07Trump had to basically grab him in a headlock and say, stop. Would you just take the win? Just stop. Like, we're declaring victory. It's a ceasefire. Take the W. And he only did it because Trump basically threatened him that he had to. But that whole thing has turned young people off. They've seen, again, it feels like just a thirst for too much. And even Israel's numbers acknowledge tens of thousands of Gazans have been killed. and of course that includes an untold number of civilians and women and children and i i saw the dead israelis at the bus stop i saw the dead children i saw the celebrations of the rape of the women i excuse none of that by the disgusting hamas terrorists but the answer was not then to respond with the deaths of civilians which i know they say they try to prevent but you know what you didn't you didn't in large enough numbers and you really turned a generation against you there isn't a single Democrat in America that's pro-Israel right now.

1:45:05They've lost all the independents over 70%. And as I point out, the young people under 50 in the Republican Party, you can see it in the polls and you can see it anecdotally in your business and mine, have turned and are turning on Israel. So Fox News continues as it has been at its own peril. Yeah. Well, it'll be a well-deserved end as far as I'm concerned. Megyn Kelly, thank you for your wise assessment of everything we just talked about. It's great to see you and you're killing it. And I'm just, I'm proud to be your friend. So thank you. Right back at you, Tucker. It's a pleasure. And I look forward to never defriending you.

1:45:39Good. Well, I'm grateful. Thank you, Megan. See you soon. See ya. Thank you very much. We'll be back next Wednesday.