Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019

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Speaker 8 Welcome to the Megan Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM channel 111 every weekday at Noon East.

Speaker 8 Hey, everyone, I'm Megan Kelly. Welcome to the Megan Kelly Show.
We witnessed a norm-breaking presidential address to Congress last night, but not for the reasons the corporate media will tell you.

Speaker 8 President Donald Trump gave a speech that was quintessential Trump, full of surprises and performance and and excitement and in a dynamic way that actually electrified the audience in front of him.

Speaker 8 Words no one has ever spoken before about an address to Congress in this setting.

Speaker 8 It's basically a state of the union, but they call it just a joint address to Congress because it's his first year in office.

Speaker 8 And the presumption is you won't have much to talk about because you've only been in office six weeks. Not this president, not this night.
Obviously, Donald Trump knows good TV and how to deliver it.

Speaker 8 The public largely responding very favorably to the speech and not just Republicans.

Speaker 8 But the story was very different on the other side of the aisle with Democratic lawmakers refusing to clap or stand multiple times throughout the night for all sorts of very moving, personal, beautiful moments that typically would see bipartisan support.

Speaker 8 I mean, there was one that even brought Canadian Debbie to tears, and she is a hard-hearted news producer. I I mean, you don't make Canadian Debbie cry.
I've like, I've rarely seen it.

Speaker 8 Even she had some tears.

Speaker 8 Then there was the one cane-waving Democratic congressman who literally got escorted out of the chamber early on in the speech. He wanted to make a spectacle of himself, and he did.

Speaker 8 Where were the cries of horror from the Democrats in response to that breach of decorum like we saw with old Joe, what's his name, a couple of years ago, who yelled out, you lie to Barack Obama.

Speaker 8 And then after the speech was over, you will not believe, I mean, maybe you will, but I think it's still shocking what one MSNBC host had to say in particular about that sweet 13-year-old cancer-surviving boy.

Speaker 8 We're going to get into it now, starting with Rich Lowry, editor of National Review.

Speaker 8 Aren't you tired of the corporate media prioritizing certain narratives over the facts? I am too, of course.

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Speaker 8 Rich, I thought it was a great speech. I prepared for utter boredom because that's what these things typically deliver.

Speaker 8 Even with Trump, I just figured it's going to be kind of a bore. His past State of the Unions have not been anywhere near this entertaining.
But last night, he kept everything tight.

Speaker 8 He didn't linger on any point too long. He didn't get too deep into policy to where your eyes glazed over.
He was just hitting his points. He went off script in a way that was funny, endearing.

Speaker 8 I know the left didn't like it, but everybody laughed at the Pocahontas remark on Elizabeth Warren. They're just very funny asides and his delivery.
I was talking about this with Doug this morning.

Speaker 8 If I delivered the same things Trump delivered last night, people might be mildly bemused and say, okay, it's a good line. But the way Trump delivers these things really has you laughing out loud.

Speaker 8 He's so funny. And when he unleashes it, you know, in the right setting, it's endearing and it totally works.
And I think it's why, in part, the speech was so well-received.

Speaker 8 CBS YouGov survey of 1,200 adults, though this is more heavily weighted toward Republicans, 51% Republicans, 27% Independents, 20% Dems, but showing 76% approve of the speech.

Speaker 8 Time spent on issues you care about, 63%, say a lot. Speech made you feel hopeful, 68%.

Speaker 8 And then even CNN with a survey,

Speaker 8 which does not appear to have that sort of partisan weighting, that

Speaker 8 69% had an either very or somewhat positive reaction to the speech. Your thoughts?

Speaker 12 Yeah, I think for the ordinary viewer, there's nothing you heard last night that you necessarily disagree with. I mean, maybe tariffs or some things, but largely he emphasized things that are popular.

Speaker 12 And the headline of that speech, the headline of the first two months, is Trump

Speaker 12 2.0, the sequel, more Trump than ever.

Speaker 13 So

Speaker 12 it was longer, it was more combative in some ways, more entertaining. And

Speaker 12 these aren't really speeches so much, they're performances, right? So, George W.

Speaker 12 Bush used to give speeches, he had the speech writers, Mike Gerson, the late Mike Gerson, my friend Matt Scully, write these eloquent speeches that he'd deliver.

Speaker 12 You can't do that with Trump, it has to be in his words and it and his way of speaking, which it is. How many times did he say, like, like we've never seen before, right?

Speaker 12 No speechwriter sits down and writes like we've never seen before. The point you were just making a minute ago is as apt.

Speaker 12 You know, a comedian, a really good comedian, you can say his lines as an ordinary person, and they're not funny, right? Or they're not as funny.

Speaker 12 And 80% of the things Trump said last night, they're entertaining. You could say them, I could say them, someone else could say them.

Speaker 12 They wouldn't be funny because they're Trump, because it's uniquely Trump. So I don't like State of the Union addresses.

Speaker 12 I'd prefer a State of the Union to be a 20-minute, eloquent, thematic speech, but that speech does not exist. No one's ever given that State of the Union.

Speaker 12 That's not what Trump did last night, but it works for him. Now, it's not hugely important.
By Saturday, two or three other major news stories will have happened, but it was a good night for him.

Speaker 8 Big time. Here is one of those moments where he was talking about some of the Doge discoveries on waste, fraud, and abuse, SAT7.

Speaker 16 Just listen to some of the appalling waste we have already identified. $22 billion.

Speaker 16 from HHS to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens. $45 million for diversity, equity, and inclusion scholarships in Burma.

Speaker 16 $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is.

Speaker 16 $8 million to promote LGBTQI plus

Speaker 16 in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.

Speaker 8 That's it right there.

Speaker 12 Yeah, just the way it says LBQIA plus is funny, right? And some of there was a great meme last night of Al Green, you know, waving, waving his cane, and the caption was, they promised me trans mice.

Speaker 12 Because one of the items he, of course, mentioned was his experiment to try to create trans mice. I don't know whether they're successful or not.

Speaker 12 Probably if they were in the San Francisco school district, those mice, they would be certainly be trans.

Speaker 12 But that was hilarious. People hate that stuff.

Speaker 8 And it's memorable as well it's something if people are listening at the bar they'll they'll take away and remember the next day exactly whether the democrats found it funny or not the average american sitting at home laughed at that there's just no question there you know no one who doesn't have tds didn't get a chuckle out of that right like it's he's exactly right none of us has ever has ever heard of that place uh

Speaker 8 whatever it was called yeah Lesotho, although John Pedoritz was tweeting out, he goes, I've heard it. I did when he was a job.
He's a Jeopardy champion. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 8 It's just John and whoever enacted that policy on the left. Okay, so let's talk about the Democrat response up for a minute, then we'll go back to Trump.
But

Speaker 8 the little signs,

Speaker 8 Simone Sanders tweeted out, and I totally agreed, they were giving off bingo vibes. Like this was their big resistance.

Speaker 8 These tiny little signs, which look like, you know, you were at an auction, like, I'll take Lesotho for $10

Speaker 8 that read like, Musk lies or false. Like, whoa, whoa.

Speaker 8 They're throwing down Musk steals. Okay.
I mean,

Speaker 8 war criminal. Oh, well, that's going to turn the hearts and minds.
You know, like, what did you make of the resistance with that?

Speaker 8 And some people wearing the pink in honor of the P-hats they wore back in 2016. This was their big FU.

Speaker 12 Yeah, it's pathetic. So either just sit there and be civil.
And by the way, clap at the nice moments.

Speaker 12 There's no reason for any American not to clap when DJ has this amazing experience of instantly be made an honorary Secret Service member, or just leave in en masse and just do it.

Speaker 12 I think that would be bad. I don't think it would play well for them.
But they got this in-between place. It was just pathetic.
And it just advertised their cluelessness and their powerlessness.

Speaker 12 So, and Trump obviously, he did this a lot in the first term as well, but last night it was really explicit.

Speaker 12 I'm going to call you out for not applauding anything I do. And then I'm going to have these wonderful people in

Speaker 12 the balcony who are cancer survivors or victims of parents and loved ones of victims of terrible crimes.

Speaker 12 Or I'm going to announce that we got the guy who blew up our 13 service members at the Abbey gate. And I dare you not to not to clap.
And they didn't. They took the dare.
Right.

Speaker 12 So, you know, they look grim. They're checking their phones.

Speaker 17 Just clap lightly.

Speaker 12 You're not going to lose anything. But he got the reaction, exactly the reaction he wanted.

Speaker 8 Just show up looking normal and

Speaker 8 give the smattering of applause on the things that are obviously going to be supported by the people watching at home. And sit there politely, not doing anything on the things you disagree with.

Speaker 8 It's, it's very easy. It's not hard not to make yourself look like an absolute moron.

Speaker 8 I really do wonder, like, what man, truly, what man, Rich, would say, oh, i'll take one of the little signs could i have one of those little popsical sticks so i can hold up false like i it's just so undignified and unmanly there's something so teenage girl about it you know like snaps it's the opposite of snaps i'm embarrassed for them and then with the pink outfits and then with the white outfits and then some with the t-shirts look look at that there are men there dude i don't know why i see a distinction between the men and the women doing this but it's there's something kind of feminine about it I just feel like it's so emasculating.

Speaker 12 Yeah,

Speaker 12 totally. And they just believe, and they have believed for a long time that there's some way to delegitimize Trump such that he'll go away.

Speaker 12 You know, in the media and MSNBC, they had this constant debate whether we're going to platform him, platform him, and show his speeches live.

Speaker 12 Like that was going to make a difference one way or the other, whether it was on MSNBC.

Speaker 12 And they seem to think that holding up their little auction paddles somehow is a gesture that's going to be meaningful to someone.

Speaker 12 And there is a famous intellectual Lionel Frilling in the 1950s had this line about conservatism at the time, which wasn't in a great state, that conservatism is just a series of irritable mental gestures.

Speaker 12 And that's what progressive is at the moment. Maybe not mental.
Maybe that's giving them too much. Or mental, maybe in the psychological sense.
But all they have at the moment is irritable gestures.

Speaker 12 And that's what the paddles were.

Speaker 8 Yeah, they have irritable gesture

Speaker 12 syndrome.

Speaker 8 Yeah. Gesture syndrome.

Speaker 12 It feels like there should be an SNL skit on the medicine that addresses irritable gesture syndrome.

Speaker 8 I don't know what it is. I think it's definitely not more Trump winning.
That seems to aggravate it greatly.

Speaker 8 Trump knew this was coming, that they weren't going to root for him. Even on the gimme's, it's like,

Speaker 8 I don't understand why. I guess they really have no meaningful leader, but like, why didn't some leader sit down with him beforehand and

Speaker 8 say,

Speaker 8 just don't project asshole. Okay.
That's what we want to avoid. We want to be like the strong, sober, but likable ones in the room.
They forget about likability, how important it is.

Speaker 8 So we'll get to the congressman standing up and harassing him, the weirdness with the signs and the paddles and the pink outfits, whatever.

Speaker 8 But Trump set them up for today's narrative in a way by calling out the fact that he knew they wouldn't clap or stand for anything, no matter how sympathetic the cause.

Speaker 8 Early on in the speech, here's a bit of that in SAT4.

Speaker 16 This is my fifth such speech to Congress.

Speaker 16 And once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud. Nothing I can do.

Speaker 16 Five times I've been up here. It's very sad

Speaker 16 and it just shouldn't be this way.

Speaker 16 So, Democrats sitting before me,

Speaker 16 for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America?

Speaker 16 For the good of our nation, let's work together and let's truly make America great again.

Speaker 8 Cut away to Nancy Pelosi there by the pool feed, which, I mean, she, she looked terrible all night. There was, there were such unflattering, nasty-faced screen grabs of her.

Speaker 8 Somebody grabbed one and put it out and said, caption this. And Michael Knowles wrote,

Speaker 8 I'll get you my pretty and your little doge, too, which pretty much encapsulated how you felt when you looked at her like, oh.

Speaker 8 But he was right to set them up because they then played right into his hand.

Speaker 12 Yeah. And he told them what what he was doing, right? He was banking on them not reacting to even things that are unquestionably good or moving or endearing.

Speaker 12 And they just, they couldn't bring themselves to do it because Trump is literally Trump saying it, right? It's Trump derangement syndrome for everyone to see on live TV and mass, right?

Speaker 12 If anyone else said, here's this adorable kid who's gone through this horrific illness in a a police outfit being lifted by his father so people can see him, they all would have stood and applauded for the kid, but nothing to do with Trump, for the kid.

Speaker 12 And they couldn't bring themselves to do it because

Speaker 12 Trump said it.

Speaker 8 Let's watch a little bit of that. So Trump brings this sweet young boy, 13 years old, into the chamber.
And his dream is to become law enforcement.

Speaker 8 And he's survived brain cancer and he's there with his dad. And Trump calls attention to the story.
And there were, this was much better.

Speaker 8 Like, I have to say, there was something about these stories last night. Tell me if you feel the same, Rich.
They always bring somebody.

Speaker 8 You know, every president who does this brings a few people into the chamber so they can tell their personal story. And sometimes it's a heart, you know, breaker.

Speaker 8 Sometimes it's inspirational.

Speaker 8 I don't remember actually really feeling so moved repeatedly, you know, by some like, wow. And I mentioned Canadian Debbie.
I'm softer than she is. She is tough.
She's Holly Hunter in broadcast news.

Speaker 8 If she's shedding a tear, you've done something right. And we were both in tears a couple of times last night.

Speaker 8 I really felt like they did a very, very good job in like the art of the the speech, like taking us on a bit of an emotional journey.

Speaker 8 Trump with the laughs, but also those sentimental moments, which were crafted by his team, obviously, were really good. And the speech writing around their stories, really good.
Let's just start with,

Speaker 8 since we're on the subject of little DJ, let's watch that moment.

Speaker 16 In 2018, DJ was diagnosed with brain cancer. The doctors gave him five months at most to live.

Speaker 16 That was more than six years ago.

Speaker 16 Since that time, DJ and his dad have been on a quest to make his dream come true, and DJ has been sworn in as an honorary law enforcement officer. Actually, a number of times.

Speaker 16 The police love him. The police departments love him.
And tonight, DJ, we're going to do you the biggest honor of them all.

Speaker 16 I am asking our new Secret Service Director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service.

Speaker 8 He looks so happy.

Speaker 8 His dad looks him up.

Speaker 8 The head of the Secret Service giving him a badge.

Speaker 8 Oh, and he hugs him. The head of the Secret Service hugging DJ.

Speaker 8 Whole arms around the neck.

Speaker 8 We're chanting DJ.

Speaker 16 Thank you, DJ.

Speaker 8 I mean, wow. And I'll just finish it off, Rich, by showing you the Democrat reaction.
So here's the video. You can see the Republicans in the front clapping, and you can see the Democrats sitting.

Speaker 8 See them in the back? They're all sitting. They couldn't get to their feet for that moment.

Speaker 8 They've lost their way.

Speaker 8 There's something deeply wrong with somebody who cannot stand for that.

Speaker 12 Yeah. One of my favorite parts of that moment, you don't know, but when DJ's talking to the head of the Secret Service right afterwards, you imagine, so what do I get to do now?

Speaker 12 What are my responsibilities?

Speaker 12 How do I get on the job? But this is a tradition that goes back. I think Reagan was the first to do it.
And there was a terrible Air Florida crash

Speaker 12 at Washington National Airport. It wasn't Reagan then, of course.

Speaker 12 And there's a guy who I think might have been an off-duty fireman or just a bystander who swam out into the icy Potomac River and saved someone.

Speaker 12 And Reagan had that person in the balcony recognize his heroism and sacrifice, save this person. So everyone's done this.

Speaker 12 Trump's taken it to a different level, though, because things have, it's not just recognizing someone to make a point or to honor their,

Speaker 12 he makes something happen. With Limbaugh, right, he awarded the Medal of Freedom right there.
You know, has a secret, head of secret service come down. So things are happening.
So it just goes to,

Speaker 12 he's a showman, right? And he envisions this as a show. And to quote another John Pedort's tweet from last night, you know, it's like, it's a version of Oprah.

Speaker 12 You almost think Trump at some point is going to ask every member of Congress to look under their seat there and find their gift, right? So they can go out happy.

Speaker 12 At least Republicans would go out happy. Democrats would reject the car.
They got a free car last night, just on principle. It's true.

Speaker 8 Even if

Speaker 8 he were saying it's for your constituents, each of your constituents is getting one. No, no, it's a no.
Exactly. All right.
So now we will go to the moment that made Heart of Steel Debbie Murphy cry.

Speaker 8 I'm giving her.

Speaker 8 She's actually a lovely person, but it takes a lot for hardened news people to actually shed a tear.

Speaker 8 It does, because we're just in this business where we use gallows humor and we cover the darkest events of our times every day for years. She's been with me since I launched my first show in 2007.

Speaker 8 And this was it. It had to do with Jocelyn Nungare.
This was a little girl who is 12 years old who went out to the 7-Eleven and got attacked by two illegals from Venezuela.

Speaker 8 And they sexually assaulted her, tortured her, and threw her off a bridge. And her mother was there.

Speaker 8 This is one of the reasons I personally voted for Donald Trump and ran to the voting booth to do it. I was literally thinking of Jocelyn Nangari.
I didn't go to a voting booth. I figured it out.

Speaker 8 I failed it out by mail. But my point is simply, that's who was on my mind.
This girl's story was so harrowing and her poor mother, so distraught. And there was no reason for it.

Speaker 8 There was no reason for it. Joe Biden opened the southern border and killers came across.
And the Democrats know it's true. It was done intentionally.

Speaker 8 And her mother was there last night and President Trump announced an extraordinary thing to remember Jocelyn in SOT 12. Here it is.

Speaker 16 Alexis, I promised that we would always remember your daughter, your magnificent daughter. And earlier tonight, I signed an order keeping my word to you.

Speaker 16 One thing I have learned about Jocelyn is that she loved animals so much she loved nature.

Speaker 16 Across Galveston Bay from where Jocelyn lived in Houston, you will find a magnificent National Wildlife Refuge, a pristine, peaceful, 34,000-acre sanctuary for all of God's creatures on the edge of the Gulf of America.

Speaker 16 Alexis, moments ago, I formally renamed that refuge in loving memory of your beautiful daughter, Jocelyn.

Speaker 16 So, Mr. Vice President, if you would, may I have the order?

Speaker 8 You can see she's trying not to cry, Rich. And he, you know, to your point about the showmanship, right? There's showmanship going on there, but there's true

Speaker 8 emotion too. I mean,

Speaker 8 there's something wrong with you again if you don't feel it. And yet, again,

Speaker 8 here is the Democrat reaction to that moment. Like,

Speaker 8 how do they not stand? How is not everyone on the left side of the chamber standing and clapping for that?

Speaker 12 Now, this one, there's real ideological component. It's not just Trump derangement the way it is with DJ.
They hate talking about victims of illegal immigrants.

Speaker 12 They just don't want to hear about it. They won't do it.

Speaker 12 The only time I can remember any Democrat ever addressing it, basically, is Biden was heckled into saying Lake and Riley's name incorrectly in a state of the union.

Speaker 12 And Kamala Harris, asked by Brett Baer about it, grudgingly says, you know, this is terrible.

Speaker 12 They just can't, it doesn't compute for them. They think it's inherently hateful to point out that this happens.

Speaker 12 all crimes are terrible obviously but it adds an extra layer if it's someone who just shouldn't shouldn't have been here and they don't they don't get that they won't admit it and the best line for trump the whole night obviously was that we didn't need a new immigration policy we just needed a new president which has been absolutely true he obviously over promises sometimes and overpromises on how quickly he can do things but this is something he fixed instantly it um just one just the deterrent effect of donald trump being president again convinces a lot of people well maybe we should wait and see what happens two they just ended cash and release.

Speaker 12 Now

Speaker 12 they need more resources.

Speaker 12 There's some more policies they need. They need some help from Congress.
But

Speaker 12 he's just turned off the faucet almost instantly. So there's less strain on cities.
You have the Roosevelt Hotel, which has been

Speaker 12 housing illegal immigrants closing down for that purpose. You're going to have less

Speaker 12 criminals just by sheer math, right? Fewer illegal immigrants coming in, the fewer illegal immigrant criminals you're going to have. And he did that instantly.

Speaker 12 And Joe Biden could have stopped this from starting in the first place by not reversing all the Trump stuff or done it himself. But he didn't want to.

Speaker 12 And they don't want to be faced with the consequences of what was a deliberate failure.

Speaker 8 Here's that line in Sod 11.

Speaker 16 The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation. We must have legislation to secure the border.
But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.

Speaker 8 And what we're seeing still is that the support for Trump's policies when it comes to immigration remain sky high. I mean, even just those two polls that I mentioned at the top,

Speaker 8 let's see, Trump's immigration and border plan. How do you feel about it? 77% like only 23%

Speaker 8 say they dislike it. I mean, and then

Speaker 8 from the CNN survey, let's see, they go on.

Speaker 8 Roughly six in 10 viewers said

Speaker 8 they approved of Trump's handling of the presidency. And they point out, this is the CNN survey, Trump scored his highest marks of the night.
for his policies on immigration.

Speaker 8 76% of speech watchers said his proposed policies on this issue would take America in the right direction.

Speaker 8 And then CNN trying to make it sound like it's a much different story when it comes to his other policies. They say,

Speaker 8 compared with closer to six in 10 who feel positive about his proposals to change how the government works, just 63% favor that, Rich. And his proposed policies on the economy, just 62% favor that.

Speaker 8 Okay, like those are amazing numbers for any presidential policy in a country that's as divided as ours is. But 76% on his immigration plans get up and clap for what he did for Jocelyn Nungare.

Speaker 12 Yeah, and I was going to say also, get up and clap for the fact that the border's closed, right? They all say they want to address illegal immigration, but they really don't, right?

Speaker 12 They should be happy that this has happened, but they're not, because if they wanted this to happen, Biden would have done it.

Speaker 8 Yeah. So here is Alexis Nungare, Jocelyn's mom, who went on Hannity after the speech.

Speaker 19 It was truly an honor, a very surreal feeling to be sitting

Speaker 8 in that area to

Speaker 19 remember the life that Jocelyn had.

Speaker 19 I found it very cowardly that a lot of the Democrats didn't stand, didn't clap. didn't do anything to support anything that Donald Trump is trying to do as president to make this country better.

Speaker 19 It was very shameful.

Speaker 8 To me, that was just so powerful, you know, equally to DJ, a 13-year-old cancer-stricken boy, because I feel like every mother sitting at home understands and father instinctually that woman's pain and the horror that she's been through as a result of this open border.

Speaker 8 And all she's saying is maybe acknowledge my daughter, acknowledge what happened to her.

Speaker 8 Forget what Trump has done to close the border, but but like, where is the humanity when it comes to my dead 12-year-old?

Speaker 8 I just, I don't think women respond positively to any sort of F you to something that looks like an FU to her. I don't, I don't think most men will either.

Speaker 8 I just think as a matter of politics, Rich, obviously humanity, yes, you should be on your feet clapping, but as a matter of politics, like I obviously they came up with a plan just not not to clap.

Speaker 8 and not to stand for anything. But why are, how could they be so foolhardy? As opposed to like, if there's a moment that's genuinely heartfelt that moves you, of course, show your humanity.

Speaker 12 Again, they think there's something wrong with doing this.

Speaker 12 They think it's hateful and xenophobic to highlight these cases.

Speaker 12 For ordinary people, these cases obviously are a gut punch, made much worse by the fact that the horrible criminals who perpetrated these crimes shouldn't have been here.

Speaker 12 So saying, look, this terrible thing happened and I'm going to stop it by stopping these people come in isn't a 70 or 80 percent issue. And it's a huge reason that Joe Biden lost.

Speaker 12 I mean, Joe Biden, if it hadn't been for the

Speaker 12 Afghan pullout, if it hadn't been for inflation, hadn't been for the border, he wouldn't have lost. Well, you throw an age there, but Kamal Harris probably would have won.
These are huge issues.

Speaker 12 And Trump, you know, it's something he highlighted.

Speaker 12 Coming down that escalator in 2015, when it seemed very extreme what he was saying, it seemed as just Steve Miller and Steve Bannon, they believed that. No one else did.
It couldn't sell.

Speaker 12 It would alienate Hispanics. And here we go, where he's actually implementing it or re-implementing it from what he had figured out the first time around.
And it's hugely popular.

Speaker 12 That's just been a sea change in American politics.

Speaker 8 It's amazing to see. Here is that MSNBC reaction that I teased at the top of the show.
And this was in response to Little DJ. And honestly, it's I like, I don't know what's happened to this person.

Speaker 8 She used to be a Republican. She was the person who shepherded Chief Justice John Roberts through his confirmation process.

Speaker 8 It's Nicole Wallace, who now, I think her next job will be with the Lincoln Project. Here was her reaction to sweet 13-year-old DJ.

Speaker 20 It was a genuinely beautiful moment. The beauty of that child is the tragedy of the Trump presidency.

Speaker 20 Because we don't know how he survived pediatric cancer, but it is likely he benefited from some sort of cancer research. And it is a fact that Trump has slashed cancer research.
I hope he lives

Speaker 20 the life he wants to live. He wants to be a cop.
He knows what he wants to do. And maybe when you have childhood cancer, that crystallizes for you.

Speaker 20 And I hope he has a long life as a law enforcement officer. But I hope he never has to defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump's supporters.

Speaker 20 And if he does, I hope he isn't one of the six who loses his life to suicide.

Speaker 20 And I hope he isn't one who has to testify against the people who carried out acts of seditious conspiracy and then lived to see Donald Trump pardon those people.

Speaker 8 Oh my God.

Speaker 8 That is jaw-dropping. We went back and looked to see what the reaction on set was to her.

Speaker 8 And even her fellow panelists, from Jen Saki to Rachel Maddows, you could see Jensaki literally leaning away from her.

Speaker 8 And even Rachel Maddow, without commenting on that, just moved away, bridged away to another topic. When you've gone too far for Saki and Maddow, you've gone too far, period.
Can you believe that?

Speaker 12 It's a psychological malady. It's literally sick.
I mean,

Speaker 12 you look at that from a rational perspective, you're like, okay, that must be a deep fake of what Nicole Wallace would say in such a circumstance. Say it's a lovely moment.
Say the kid's a hero.

Speaker 12 His dad's a hero. We wish him the best.
And yes,

Speaker 12 we want research to get cures and therapies

Speaker 12 to make kids in such circumstances long-alived as possible and move on, right? To connect it to January 6th,

Speaker 12 how does that even come into your mind?

Speaker 12 A cancer survivor,

Speaker 12 a kid in a police uniform, that's the first thing you think of.

Speaker 12 It's mind-boggling.

Speaker 8 It's true. And she saw the same thing we saw where his eyes got all big when President Trump said he was going to be made an honorary Secret Service.
He was so excited.

Speaker 8 The hug, he threw his arms around the Secret Service director. It was a sincere embrace.
And that's where she went. Like, I hope he doesn't die on President Trump's

Speaker 8 capital bill.

Speaker 12 There are other things that you can object to that Trump said if you're Nicole Wallace. Lots of them, in fact, but not DJ.

Speaker 17 Not DJ.

Speaker 8 It's such a strange.

Speaker 8 syndrome. TDS is a very strange syndrome.
It really should be in the DSM-5.

Speaker 8 And it's very unfortunate because once afflicted, you really cannot get out from under it. It's like,

Speaker 8 what is it? Personality disorder. If you have a personality disorder, it's almost impossible to get out of it.
Maybe it is impossible.

Speaker 8 And there are a lot of my moms in the psychiatric field. I mean, now she's retired, but she was telling me a lot of psychiatrists just won't even try to treat that.
Same thing with like sociopaths.

Speaker 8 There's really no curing you of sociopathy. There's no curing you of TDS.
Once you get it,

Speaker 8 it's a lifelong affliction. And it really does warp the way you see everything around you.

Speaker 8 You see the pot of gold and to you, it looks like crap.

Speaker 8 You know, you see a wonderful event for a child and instead you see only doom and gloom and darkness if it has anything to do with the orange man.

Speaker 8 And it's strange how it's like, it's broken for the rest of the country. Like they never really had it.
And so now

Speaker 8 they look at these people and they... They're not watching them.
You know, we were talking about this yesterday, Rich. Sometimes when you're in the opposition, your numbers go up.

Speaker 8 At Fox News, our numbers always went up when we were in the so-called opposition. It was Democrat president under Barack Obama, et cetera.

Speaker 8 Their numbers are not going up under MSNBC post-election. They're still withering on the vine.
The numbers are horrid. And I really think it's because of this.
Like, Trump's policies were not.

Speaker 8 Yes, tariffs are controversial, right? But like...

Speaker 8 Everything else he talked about was really not even controversial. And the celebration of these suffering Americans and giving them a gift is a feel-good moment that we can all get behind.

Speaker 8 And the dour, TDS-afflicted anchors crapping all over the child's joy

Speaker 8 is something very evil.

Speaker 12 Yeah, what we're talking about in capsule here is the debate over who's normal, right? And for them, it's just a theological matter that Trump is not normal.

Speaker 12 And look, he's unusual in a lot of ways in some respects that we've talked about, some good, some bad. It's an unusual state of the union or address a joint session of Congress.

Speaker 12 But if you just look at the reaction to DJ, a president hailing this kid, a nice gesture for this kid, everyone's standing up applauding, wiping tears from the eyes, that's normal.

Speaker 12 Sitting grim-faced and not reacting to this story or connecting it to January 6th is not normal. And this obviously is a reason why.

Speaker 12 Trump won the elections, the reason why he's thrived, at least in relative Trump terms so far politically, is because he's occupied the normal ground in American politics and they're spun off into outer space somewhere.

Speaker 8 I mean, and not to mention, you know, seditious conspiracy and the mentioning of six cops who died by suicide. You know how many cops?

Speaker 8 First of all, being a police officer is extremely stressful, especially these days, thanks to her side's soft on crime policies and what's happening to cops on the street.

Speaker 8 And to attribute, you know, post-J6 suicides to Donald Trump. You know how many suicides there were from cops after the BLM riots? No, we don't because nobody took kept track of that.
But we know that

Speaker 8 2,000 cops were severely injured during those riots. And what about Daniel Dorne, who was or David Dorne, who was killed in one of the BLM riots? I don't, what about him? Her mind just goes to J6.

Speaker 8 They're obsessed with J6.

Speaker 8 It's just, whatever. I can't save them.
It's a very interesting, you know, psychological illness. I hope she gets the help she so desperately needs.

Speaker 8 There was one other controversial subject, though the way Trump got in and out of it was clever, and it was Ukraine. You know, he styles it in a way that's tough to disagree with.

Speaker 8 Like, he wants the killing to stop. It's like, well, who? Yes, you should clap for that.
Like, that's also one of those, like, yes.

Speaker 8 But of course, it's become a very hot-button issue because people think he's pressuring Zelensky too much and not Putin enough and so on.

Speaker 8 Well, this is one of the more notable moments of the night where Trump was trying to make these points, and the Democrats

Speaker 8 they clapped. I can't remember what the line was.
Well, I'll just play the SOP. This is where he went after Elizabeth Warren, and it was one of the few times where they were clapping the Dems, 16.

Speaker 16 The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine's defense

Speaker 16 with no security.

Speaker 8 There it is. It was the money that we've sent.

Speaker 16 Do you want to keep it going for another five years?

Speaker 16 Yeah. Yeah, you would say Pocahontas says yes.

Speaker 8 Reaction shot.

Speaker 8 She's the sole person clapping. Yes.
And it's just like Trump doesn't give a fig.

Speaker 8 He'll use that term anywhere.

Speaker 8 He's not different behind closed doors versus how he is in front of the camera.

Speaker 8 But she is, like she lied to the American public for years about being a Native American. And that's kind of what he's, he's like, this person has no credibility.

Speaker 8 And the only thing she's clapped for all night is more money to Ukraine for a war that we all know is not going well.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I'm a Ukraine hawk, but what Trump is talking about in the polling is popular and most people are, it's going to strike them as common sense. Let's strike a peace deal, right?

Speaker 12 And again, it's another thing that we've had this weird reversal where any other person saying, oh, I'm going to try to forge a peace deal in this long-running war.

Speaker 12 At least war has gone on for three years, more than a million casualties. If you add them all up, probably.

Speaker 12 And

Speaker 12 this is a bad thing, right? So the tactics of getting there, I don't necessarily like. I don't know what's going

Speaker 12 on behind the scenes, but we've established Russia is not going to win the war in the sense of taking Kyiv and toppling the government and creating a Russian puppet puppet state out of Ukraine.

Speaker 12 And Ukraine is not going to win the war

Speaker 12 in the sense of regaining all their territory. So it's time for it to end.
And again,

Speaker 12 this is a commonsensical position, one that a lot of Americans would consider normal. Again, I don't think necessarily the way we're getting there is not normal.

Speaker 12 That Friday Oval Office confrontation with Zelensky was not normal. It's like something we haven't seen before.

Speaker 12 But the goal, let's stop killing, is not something that ordinary people are going to recoil from. It's something they're going to think makes sense.

Speaker 8 And Trump also announced last night that Zelensky sent him a letter saying he will accept the minerals deal.

Speaker 8 And that process is now back on track, which, again, is a positive development, though you wouldn't know that from that side of the chamber last night.

Speaker 8 I didn't go back as I promised I would to Al Green, a Democrat from Texas, who decided to make this evening about him, about himself, and got up there. It was a

Speaker 8 consistent, ongoing heckling of Donald Trump. It wasn't like, I mean, I remember that when Joe Wilson yelled out, you lie to Obama.
And it was, it dominated the news the whole next day.

Speaker 8 It was a huge deal, this breach of decorum. This guy got up there and would not sit down.

Speaker 8 He was like a code pinker who just kept yelling with his cane, almost like menacing Donald Trump with his cane. He's 77 years old.

Speaker 8 By the way, Trump's 78, and

Speaker 8 wouldn't take a seat. And it was actually really interesting because what you saw was J.D.
Vance

Speaker 8 and Speaker Mike Johnson behind Trump saying to the sergeant-at-arms in the House, get him out of here with the thumb, like, get him out.

Speaker 8 And eventually, Mike Johnson issued the order for the sergeant-at-arms to restore order to the chamber, and he was ejected, which I'm sure is what he wanted. But here's some of that

Speaker 8 moment as chaos broke out.

Speaker 16 We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country.

Speaker 8 The Republicans cheering USA over Al Green's chance.

Speaker 16 And one counties in our country, 2,700 to 525

Speaker 8 on a map that reads almost completely red for

Speaker 16 Republican.

Speaker 8 A few things happening there, Rich, that jumped out at me. Trump first gives the thumb, you know, point and like, get him out of here.

Speaker 8 The Republicans have gotten good about this USA chant.

Speaker 8 I noticed it when I went down for some of the confirmation hearings, like Heg Seth, when protesters came in, Pete supporters, most of whom, by the way, were military vets, just got up and chanted USA.

Speaker 8 They did it for Bobby Kennedy, too. It's pretty effective, right? They don't allow the hecklers veto.
Look at that guy. Get him out.
And J.D. Vance

Speaker 8 also with the, you know, the rap sign, like, get him out. And I have to say, that was one of the dynamics that jumped out at me last night was JD

Speaker 8 with his, as kids, the kids have a term, bombastic side eye.

Speaker 8 He had the bombastic side eye many times looking over at the Democrats with those like twinkly blues, which are, you know, they know how to cast aspersions by just like a sort of wink and a nod.

Speaker 8 And boy, you could just see he was literally behind the president and he was figuratively behind the president at every moment looking out for.

Speaker 8 people who weren't clapping, people who were, you know, potential hecklers. And I thought it was kind of nice.

Speaker 8 I noticed the dynamic and I thought to myself, that's the kid who has the background in Appalachia, who would beat the shit out of you if you said anything bad about his mother, even though he said plenty of bad things about his mother, but you're that it's different.

Speaker 8 The rules in the holla, as he pointed out, were, you know, you can rip on your mom or your family, but nobody else can.

Speaker 8 And even though he's got a mild manner in general, like he is a street fighter at heart. Anyway, all of that jumped out at me in like the ongoing dynamics around Trump last night.
Your thoughts?

Speaker 12 This is a shocking breach of of decorum. The worst we've ever seen.
There was some heckling of Biden from Marjorie Taylor Greene and Boebert, which I didn't like and thought was wrong.

Speaker 12 And there's Joe Wilson, who's a great guy, by the way. And I think was, if I remember correctly, was an unplanned interjection.

Speaker 12 It's kind of just popped out. I think he regretted it afterwards.
And when he did it, there were gasps in the chamber.

Speaker 12 So to have someone just stand there and shout and wave a cane at the president of the United States and have to be forcibly ejected. I thought for a while he might resist, right?

Speaker 12 They might have to carry him or something. At least he walked out and expressing no regrets afterwards and saying it was a great thing to do is shocking.

Speaker 12 It's

Speaker 12 another step down in terms of our politics and a terrible moment for Democrats because this will be one of the most replayed moments of the night.

Speaker 12 And it's a 77-year-old, angry man waving a cane saying, get off my lawn to the president of the United States. It's just not a great look.

Speaker 8 Right. Trump handled himself well.
He did not lose it. He did not acknowledge him other than that, you know, get him out of here.

Speaker 8 And so he didn't take the bait, which was good. And as much as, you know, JD and Mike Johnson, they gave him the rest of the time.

Speaker 12 I could see a look towards the end. There was like a look of irritation on Trump's face where you're like, okay, is he going to go there?

Speaker 12 But he did. He just said, thank you very much.

Speaker 8 After

Speaker 8 Sergeant at Arms was a little slow on the

Speaker 8 ejection. No, it was like, where is he? Get him out.

Speaker 12 Yeah, yeah, I think so, but probably just because this is an unprecedented thing.

Speaker 12 You're the sergeant of arms.

Speaker 12 Expect to just kind of stand there with your hands folded, not to have to go eject an unruly member of Congress, but so goes.

Speaker 8 I thought there was one thing if it's a war protester who sneaked in or who is a guest of

Speaker 8 a member. This was a member sitting right there.

Speaker 12 Total breach of this will be when Al Green inevitably offers the next articles of impeachment, being expelled during Trump's address to the joint session will be one of the articles, we can assume.

Speaker 8 Yeah, exactly. Okay.
So

Speaker 8 last but not least, the Democrat response, which is always just like a terrible job. If asked, you should say no.

Speaker 8 It was Alyssa Slotkin, who I didn't know much about. She's a new, newly elected senator from Michigan.

Speaker 8 And when I went and saw her at the Pete Hegseth confirmation hearings, she started off by talking about her background in the CIA, how she signed up after 9-11.

Speaker 8 She determined she'd be in security and then she got recruited by the CIA and she served under George W.

Speaker 8 Bush and Obama, bipartisan, you know, more blue-collar or blue, you know, crossover blue dog Democrat.

Speaker 8 No, the answer is no. You heard the way she cross-examined Pete and you quickly learned this is a hateful person who I personally grew to loathe in the moment.
But last night,

Speaker 8 while projecting that he's an existential threat, threat, she tried to weave the, you know, I'm totally normal and this is what Democrats are. And therefore, the selection of her made some sense.

Speaker 8 But here's how she sounded.

Speaker 21 He believes in cozying up to dictators like Vladimir Putin and kicking our friends like the Canadians in the teeth. He sees American leadership as merely a series of real estate transactions.

Speaker 21 As a Cold War kid, I'm thankful it was Reagan and not Trump in office in the 1980s. Trump would have lost us the Cold War.

Speaker 21 Donald Trump's actions suggest that in his heart, he doesn't believe we're an exceptional nation. He clearly doesn't think we should lead the world.

Speaker 8 So what did you make of her?

Speaker 12 I thought it was okay.

Speaker 12 As you know, I mean, this is just an impossible task.

Speaker 12 The only good response ever was the late, great Fred Thompson, who was an actor and sat on his desk and gave a response in the 90s that was fantastic and very memorable.

Speaker 12 And like afraid to talk of a presidential run by Thompson, but this is a very hard assignment. I think, you know, what you that sought there, that's a critique you can make of Trump.

Speaker 12 I don't think it matters for most people. I think the best thing for Democrats to say is his priorities aren't your priorities and you're going to pay the price and he's not doing enough.

Speaker 17 to reduce prices.

Speaker 12 I think that's where they should go. And it should be kind of a traditional Democratic argument against a traditional Republican president.

Speaker 12 He's helping his rich friends. You know, I think that makes sense for them.
All the other existential threat to democracy stuff is

Speaker 12 not going to get them anywhere.

Speaker 8 Here's the throwback to her with Pete.

Speaker 22 Is there anything that a commander-in-chief could ask you to do with the uniformed military that would be in violation of the U.S.

Speaker 21 Constitution?

Speaker 16 Senator.

Speaker 23 Anybody of any party could give an order that is against the Constitution or against the law.

Speaker 22 Right. Okay.
So and are you so are you saying that you would stand in the breach and push back if you were given an illegal order?

Speaker 23 I start by saying I reject the premise that President

Speaker 22 at all.

Speaker 22 Mike, this isn't a hypothetical, okay? Again, you're going to be in charge of 3 million people, the active duty that I know you care about, I believe you care about.

Speaker 22 So have you been in conversations about using the active duty in any way, whether it's setting up in detention camps, policing dangerous cities?

Speaker 21 Have you been involved in any of those conversations?

Speaker 23 Certainly, I have been involved in conversations relating to doing things this administration has not, which is secure the southern border.

Speaker 18 Sir, sir, I get your filibustering. I get it.
I get it.

Speaker 8 Okay. I mean, it just went on and on and on.
I really, I have to say, I don't think she's the future of the party as the Democrats think she is. I just think she's, she showed a rabid partisanship and

Speaker 8 attack dog nature in her exchange with him. We can show more of it later.
But in any event, I don't know. Do you think that's the future of the Democratic Party there, Rich?

Speaker 8 No.

Speaker 12 And I don't think we're going to know the future of the Democratic Party for a very long time. I don't think the opposition and Congress really figures out how to react to a presidential loss.

Speaker 12 You just hope things go wrong. They do.
Inevitably, events happen. Capitalize on those.
And then hope you get a decent presidential candidate who figures out something new.

Speaker 8 Well, there's rumblings that Tim Walls is thinking about running for us.

Speaker 8 He's the great white hope. Rich, great to see you.

Speaker 12 Thank you so much.

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Speaker 8 Join me now, editor-in-chief and host of Two-Way on YouTube, Mark Halperin. Mark, welcome back.
So what'd you think of last night?

Speaker 17 I'd say three main things. First of all, I thought the president's performance, you love him or hate him, it was just an incredible physical performance,

Speaker 17 entertaining. He's a great television producer, as you know.
And I thought the casting of the folks from all over America representing certain themes were really key.

Speaker 17 And it's always important to remember the president, contrary to what Politico and others want to say, he's not talking about extreme red meat MAGA issues.

Speaker 17 He's talking about issues that are broadly popular, including with people who don't like him.

Speaker 17 And that's something that put the Democrats on their back legs. Finally, I'll say what the Democrats did last night.

Speaker 17 Even after decades of partisanship and even after Donald Trump is doing things that are partisan, I thought their behavior last night in not applauding a little boy with cancer, not applauding Lincoln Riley's family was disgusting and unhinged.

Speaker 17 And I think they'll pay a price for it.

Speaker 8 We haven't yet shown the Lake and Riley moment. Her mother and sister were there.
That mother's face was the picture of anguish. I mean, it was just

Speaker 8 heart-wrenching. And of course, her daughter was the subject and the name of President Trump's first legislative act that actually did get passed and is now law, the Lake and Riley Act.

Speaker 8 Here's that moment of the president acknowledging the grieving family.

Speaker 16 Last year, I told Lakin's grieving parents that we would ensure their daughter would not have died in vain. That's why the very first bill I signed into law as

Speaker 16 your 47th president mandates the detention of all dangerous criminal aliens who threaten public safety. It's a very strong, powerful act.

Speaker 8 Mother and daughter on their seat, clapping.

Speaker 8 The Democrats all seated again.

Speaker 16 It's called the Lacin Riley Act. So Allison and Lauren, America will never, ever forget our beautiful Lacan Hope Riley.

Speaker 8 She nods thank you to the president, Lacan's mom.

Speaker 8 And once again, even after that piece of it, you know, it was sort of a separate line about we'll never forget Lacan. The Democrats did not stand.
Here's the video again.

Speaker 8 Like they couldn't even find the heart to stand for just that piece. Like we'll never forget her.
Nope. The grieving mother literally in tears.
And they sat there.

Speaker 8 You know, it's one thing, Mark, to see the Supreme Court sitting there. We know they never stand.
Or, you know, the heads of the military branches, they never stand.

Speaker 8 But those Democrats, not even feigning empathy. What did you make of it?

Speaker 17 And Megan, you'll recall that a year ago, Joe Biden had to be dragged, kicking, and screaming into saying saying her name at his State of the Union address

Speaker 17 after not acknowledging

Speaker 17 her brutal murder, after not having a consciousness phrasing to say, you know what, maybe we should listen to the public. Maybe we do need to close the border.

Speaker 17 Maybe we do need to figure out where all the people are in this country here illegally who have violent pass.

Speaker 17 Last night, they were given a mulligan on this tragedy. that not only is a tragedy for a family, but has implications for the country.
And they just, they refused to take it. They refused to be human.

Speaker 17 And I think, again,

Speaker 17 President Trump's plenty partisan. I understand how much they don't like Donald Trump, but there's opportunities to behave like a human being.

Speaker 17 And because of party politics and their Trump derangement syndrome, they chose not to. And I think it's a, it's a horrible thing.
It's a horrible thing that they did.

Speaker 8 Why do you think so, Mark? Because honestly, like we all, we've all been watching State of the Union addresses for many years.

Speaker 8 And in my experience, I don't remember them all bit by bit, but they would sit there and not clap if it were a partisan issue and then telegraph to the country i disagree but on the human moments you would you'd have many instances in which the whole chamber claps if for no other reason even if they're not really feeling it just because of good politics so that clearly the democrats met and decided it would be bad politics to clap for anything

Speaker 17 Well, my reporting's mixed on that. Some of my sources say it kind of just happened spontaneously, that they, once they sort of got into the pattern of not clapping, remember

Speaker 17 the tradition is members of both parties escort the president out to the floor. And so they started the evening, they started the evening declining to participate in escorting him out to the floor.

Speaker 17 Their view, and it's the view of tens of millions of people, he's illegitimate. He won the popular vote.
He won the election. Even after January 6th, they still think he's illegitimate.

Speaker 17 And so that is manifested in that room by the party, by the members of Congress.

Speaker 17 And they simply, I think, I think just in the moment, they sabotage their efforts to make this about policy and Donald Trump's policy, the implications of his policies on real people.

Speaker 17 And they turned it into an MRI of their soul, as the old expression goes. I can't tell you.
I just can't see how a human being could sit there and not stand up for that little boy.

Speaker 17 I just don't know. I just, I just,

Speaker 17 you know, there's so much in politics that you can understand because you understand the motives of politicians, right? If you've covered them for a while.

Speaker 17 I can't understand not standing up for that little boy. I just, I can't understand it.
And I think it was reflective of how much they're still on their back feet.

Speaker 17 They still don't understand the country and Donald Trump's appeal to enough people to get him elected and to put him in a very powerful position. Because as I said, he's talking about popular issues.

Speaker 17 They want to say he's talking about MAGA issues. He is some, but mostly he's talking about popular issues on which many of the members of the Congress of the Democratic Party are on the wrong side.

Speaker 8 It's amazing because one of their failures last night was to telegraph, like, what is it about Trump that you find so objectionable? You know, when he won in 1916, people kind of knew.

Speaker 8 You know, he had said things that had been bandied about in the media quite often, you know, the opening speech about Mexico not sending their best, their rapists, and so on, which had been bastardized by the press, but whatever.

Speaker 8 There was a narrative, a very clear narrative around Trump. Now it's just so amorphous.
The last thing we heard was he's Hitler. And then the country rejected that and elected him.

Speaker 8 And that was one of the things I was searching for last night. Like, tell us what it is.
What is the reason you hate him and you can't stand for anything?

Speaker 8 Your little bingo sign of Musk steals and just false or the random save Medicaid doesn't really do it. So I felt like it was an utter failure of messaging on their part, which.

Speaker 8 It just wound up in a total victory for Trump because there he is hitting his points, using his sense of humor, getting laughs, getting applause from the Republicans and probably from people at home.

Speaker 8 And then the Democrats walking right into the trap he's set of showing zero humanity or empathy while also not making clear why it is they're being so nasty.

Speaker 17 It's an interesting question.

Speaker 17 I think I want to figure out a way to drill down on it with a series of focus groups because the amorphous thing is they hate him because he's Donald Trump and they think he's going to destroy democracy.

Speaker 17 But some of them don't like Tulsi Gabbard. Some of them don't like Bobby Kennedy.
Some of them don't like Pete Hegset. Some of them don't like Musk.
Some of of them don't like Doge.

Speaker 17 Some of them create falsely that he's going to, he's talking about cutting Social Security.

Speaker 17 I think that they're having trouble figuring out because I think in a Democratic Party and the anti-Trump movement contains multitudes, and it's obviously a weakness.

Speaker 17 The point last night from the leadership was: let's all focus on one thing: that his policies will adversely affect people. And that's a good debate, and there's some truth to it.

Speaker 17 If the country really wants to have significant savings from Doge, they're going to have to be things given up. Research on medical innovations, going to have to be given up.

Speaker 17 Access to national parks is going to have to be given up. Not entirely, but to some extent.
That's the debate they said they wanted to have. And instead,

Speaker 17 they did stuff that you can't ignore.

Speaker 17 And I will say, if the Republic, if a Democratic president, if Kamala Harris had introduced a little boy with cancer who had outlived his diagnosis and loved law enforcement, and the Republicans had sat silently, not applauding, not standing, it would have brought the the media to a standstill.

Speaker 17 And that is the part of their problem is they are enabled in their negative attitude, in their lack of strategic vision to how to confront him.

Speaker 17 And there's plenty to confront because the press does not call them on it.

Speaker 17 And so they don't really understand exactly what's actually happening in the real lives of real people and how people would experience such a display.

Speaker 8 The thing about DJ was he was not controversial. He wants to be a police officer.
It's not like there was a backstory behind him and something

Speaker 8 happened that was caused by Democrats. That's not where Trump went with his story.
It was just a nice story about a kid who wants to be a cop. In a way, it was kind of endearing toward cops.

Speaker 8 Maybe that's their problem. I don't know.
But that was such a weird one not to stand for.

Speaker 8 Lake and Riley was killed by illegals, but still, there's not an American in the country who's in favor of Americans being killed by illegals, you know, with the grieving mother and sister standing there.

Speaker 8 Then we get to Peyton McNabb,

Speaker 8 who was hit in the face by a volleyball, spiked at her by a male player pretending to be a female in her high school in North Carolina.

Speaker 8 And again, I realize the Democrats are very pro this so-called trans agenda, but they know very well from the last election mark that the country is not. That is an 80% issue.

Speaker 8 There are no 80% issues in America, virtually none. But 80% of the populace does not want boys playing in girls' sports.

Speaker 8 That's why he wisely brought Peyton McNabb to the state, whatever, the address last night. And here he is

Speaker 8 remarking on Peyton

Speaker 8 McNabb's presence. And then we'll show you the reaction.
Stop five.

Speaker 18 Our country will be woke no longer.

Speaker 16 We believe that whether you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer, or an air traffic controller,

Speaker 16 you should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender.

Speaker 16 Very important.

Speaker 16 I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women's sports.

Speaker 16 Three years ago, Peyton McNabb was an all-star high school athlete, one of the best, preparing for a future in college sports.

Speaker 16 Peyton, from now on, schools will kick the men off the girls team or they will lose all federal funding.

Speaker 16 What I have just described is only a small fraction of the common sense revolution that is now, because of us, sweeping the entire world.

Speaker 16 Common sense has become a common theme, and we will never go back. Never.

Speaker 8 And here's the video of the Democrat reaction, which is the same reaction that we saw to DJ, to Lake and Riley's parents, to every moment that tugged at the heartstrings. They did not stand.

Speaker 8 And he had gone through Peyton's injuries, which are severe. There's partial paralysis on her right side.
She suffered a traumatic brain injury.

Speaker 8 By the way, the male who hurt her never apologized and actually

Speaker 8 was angry with Peyton for even speaking out about it. She's been on our show.
In any event, they're too. And that's, again, an 80% issue, Mark.

Speaker 17 I asked some Democrats who were in the chamber, how could you not have stood at those moments? And they said, and these are reasonable people.

Speaker 17 Trump lies about the border. His policies on the border are inhumane.
Trump wants to cut Social Security and he's lying about it.

Speaker 17 These are questionable positions to take, but I understand their passion, but I don't understand a connection between those things and sitting silently while these extremely heart-wrenching stories are told.

Speaker 17 As you say, some of them they could say, well, I don't like Trump's immigration policy, so I'm not going to applaud and support Lake and Riley's family. I guess.
But I go back to the little boy.

Speaker 17 As you said, there's no policy story there. It's just a great American story.
And it is inhumane to not applaud them. But it speaks to their lack of strategy several months after the election.

Speaker 17 It speaks to their Trump derangement syndrome in many cases.

Speaker 17 And it speaks to their failure to recognize what's happening around them, which is a guy who they want to say is extreme red meat MAGA actually has found the sweet spot on a bunch of issues that are popular, even with a lot of their own voters and the Democrats.

Speaker 17 And they just don't see that yet. And they certainly didn't see it last night.
And perhaps the reaction to last night will make them see it.

Speaker 17 But I'll say again, their best friends in the press, the irony is the best friends in the press are creating for them a blue bubble that won't, I don't believe, cause many of them to think anew after last night because they're not being told in their world.

Speaker 17 That was a real problem last night. That was a real problem.

Speaker 8 Right. They, I was listening to the New York Times' The Daily podcast this morning.
And of course, it was all about how this Peyton McNabb, it's a culture war issue. She was injured by a trans woman.

Speaker 8 You know, they don't talk about the biological realities of who, like, some people are still confused by that term. We talk about it so often here.
Our audience is not.

Speaker 8 But

Speaker 8 they're intentionally obfuscating what happened there. And for most people, I think this was a breath of fresh air to hear Trump get this specific on what's real and what's not.

Speaker 8 But again, the Democrats sat and did nothing SOT6.

Speaker 16 There are only two genders, male and female.

Speaker 8 I'll tell you something, Mark, for me personally, having covered this very closely for a long time, it was heartening enough just to see all the Republicans on their feet for that.

Speaker 8 You know, that five years ago, that would have been a very dicey thing to say in this setting. And even the Republicans would have been unsure about whether they could stand and clap on that.

Speaker 8 So I'll take that victory where I can get it.

Speaker 8 Yeah.

Speaker 17 I mean, on this issue, the pendulum swing way too far, not for extremists, not for activists. It swing way too far for a big majority of the country.

Speaker 17 And now I think there needs to be a reasonable conversation about when it swings back, where should it stop as it swings back? Because it will swing back some.

Speaker 17 There needs to be a serious conversation. I think for most Americans, there's a big difference between kids and adults.
And so I see how people on the left are upset.

Speaker 17 They say, you know, this is inhumane. This is dehumanizing.

Speaker 17 This is shaming people. Well, they're going to have to recognize that their

Speaker 17 failure to acknowledge how far they let the pendulum swing and not just let it swing, how far they swung it.

Speaker 17 They're going to have to figure out, they're going to have to figure out where, where can they accommodate understanding the majority and stop acting like they're the majority where the pendulum swung.

Speaker 8 I mean, even when I interviewed Trump in September of 23

Speaker 8 and I asked him, can a man become a woman? He was uncomfortable. He was was like, well,

Speaker 8 I say, no, I don't think so. You know, like, he's gotten much more bold.
And of course, we saw that on the campaign trail.

Speaker 8 And it's, it's, look, it's something to have him say that in the House chamber on a night as big as that.

Speaker 8 So that's a win. And the Democrats either will come along or they'll get left behind.
We'll have to wait and see. You know, there was.

Speaker 8 There were audible booze and pushback when Trump talked about his historic victory. They really don't like to acknowledge that on the left.

Speaker 8 And that's when Al Green got up there and started harassing Trump. And, you know, sort of things got chaotic inside of the chamber.
But this was debated, interestingly, the other day when Stephen A.

Speaker 8 Smith went on The View. And Joy Behart, you know, she too pushed back.
And even on this morning's The Daily, Maggie Haberman was pushing back on just how historic the victory.

Speaker 8 They really don't want to

Speaker 8 say historic. They don't want to say mandate.

Speaker 8 They don't want to say any of the things that Trump says. And they put it under the guise of like fact-checking him.

Speaker 8 Here, let me show you the exchange that I'm talking about with Behar and Smith, SAP 27.

Speaker 26 He won the popular vote by 1.5%,

Speaker 26 one of the smallest ever. And he won the general election by less than 50%.
So what kind of mandate is this really?

Speaker 27 Well, it is a mandate, and I'm going to explain why. And I don't mind the question, but let me be very clear.
I'm no supporter of Trump. I'm a supporter of truth and the facts.
And here's the facts.

Speaker 27 The man won every swing state. He increased in terms of his voter turnout in his favor from the standpoint of blacks, Latinos, and young voters.
He increased his numbers in that regard from 2020. 89%

Speaker 27 of the counties shifted to the right.

Speaker 27 That's a mandate.

Speaker 16 I don't understand how people can look at that and say, there's no mandate.

Speaker 15 There's a mandate.

Speaker 26 That's a different definition of a mandate, I guess.

Speaker 8 It's very funny to me. Let's just keep redefining it until I feel better.

Speaker 17 You know,

Speaker 17 the people who on that set and in congress and on msnbc who want to litigate the size of the mandate and want to minimize his victory are

Speaker 17 spending time not trying to understand why he won someone who they think is the worst person in the world someone who won after the events of january 6th who won after denying he lost the election in 2020 who won after four years of a term that they consider to be a you know complete abomination they need to spend more time for their own good and for the good of the country answering the question not how big is his mandate but why was he able to win how did he win and how is he governing now in a way that's almost unbothered by the democrats efforts to slow him down

Speaker 8 your um co-host over on two-way dan turrentine we love him too he's a democrat he tweeted out the following i love my party but tonight was a new low i get silence on this or that policy and the raw politics of the base's anger but for not a single democrat to stand and applaud a boy's brave battle with cancer or a man's admission to West Point, which was a surprise Trump gave to one of the audience members, was a classless disgrace.

Speaker 8 And maddeningly, while overall Trump's speech was politically good, there were political holes that could be exploited, juvenile taunts that voters hate and comical lies.

Speaker 8 But much of that will be buried by our self-inflicted stupidity. Do you agree with that? And how will it be buried?

Speaker 8 Like, what happens from here, here, the media coverage in the wake of the speech, and just the tone setting that happened last night?

Speaker 17 Well, I do agree with Dan.

Speaker 17 It's one of the reasons we like him so much at Tu Way and why he's so popular with honest Democrats and with a lot of centrists and moderates and independents and some Republicans because he's willing to say the truth.

Speaker 17 You know, I watched more MSNBC last night after the speech than I usually do because I was super curious to see if they would acknowledge what had happened.

Speaker 17 And instead, Nicole Wallace basically demonized a little boy.

Speaker 17 The question of what happens next, I think everybody assumes, as I did after the election, that the Democrats would get their act together. I think last night demonstrated as both cause and effect.

Speaker 17 They're far from getting their act together.

Speaker 17 If that's the best they could do on a night like that, to just completely have the biggest own goal I can remember in an event like that, they have a long way to go.

Speaker 17 And President Trump is all presidents are in danger of overreaching.

Speaker 17 But I think he's now basically competing against himself because there's no there is no democratic opposition that's putting up a meaningful challenge to what he's doing by executive order by what he's doing in congress at least so far there are some things that are going to require democratic support and i think one danger for him you know he he he certainly faced you know the kind of heckling that Democrats used to decry.

Speaker 17 I mean, I've listened for years how Democrats said one South Carolina Republican, Joe Wilson, said to Barack Obama, you lie.

Speaker 17 They still talk about that as a desecration of the state of the union and of the presidency. Last night, you know, there were countless things just like that.

Speaker 17 I think the president's going to have to decide if he can govern and the things that are going to require some Democratic senators at least to vote his way.

Speaker 17 Can he govern if he is not turning the other cheek to when he is slapped? And that's going to be a challenge for him because, again, there are some things that require Democratic support.

Speaker 17 And after last night, I don't know where those votes are going to come from.

Speaker 8 I know.

Speaker 8 I mean, with not a single Dem voting for the Protect Women and and Girls and Sports Act, not a single Democrat voting for cloture on that bill, I don't know what he's going to get any crossover votes on.

Speaker 8 I really don't.

Speaker 8 That one's just such a no-brainer. This is not Megan Kelly and her wishful thinking.
It truly is an 80% support issue. It was a very simple, clean bill.

Speaker 8 It wasn't filled with a bunch of weird things that might get them in trouble. And they didn't vote for it.

Speaker 8 So I'm like, yes, he'll get his budget bill through because he can do that with just 51 votes. You don't have to, you don't need a cloture vote on that.
So that'll be good. But

Speaker 8 I don't don't know what's going to happen on, on the rest of his agenda when we're speaking about legislative wins. It doesn't seem very promising.

Speaker 8 Okay, on your point about what the Dems are going to do and like they're getting their act together, apart from their little bingo signs, you know, their little auctioneer signs, false, false.

Speaker 8 They

Speaker 8 released this weird thing on video this week that's making some news. What the heck happened here? So first,

Speaker 8 some eagle-eyed ex users noticed that a few of these Dems, I think it was Senator Schumer, Senator Warren, and Senator Corey Booker, seem to be using the exact same script to just drop these sort of, you know, FU videos to Trump.

Speaker 8 Here's how it first emerged.

Speaker 18 That ain't true.

Speaker 16 That's what you just heard since day one.

Speaker 18 Donald Trump's president says prices are not down, they're up. Inflation is getting worse up there.

Speaker 8 The prices are down. It's too annoying.
We get it.

Speaker 8 what they did.

Speaker 8 And then it emerged that at least 22, I think it's up to 23 senators

Speaker 8 did the exact same thing that we just saw there. Here it is, SOT 26.

Speaker 18 I will immediately bring prices down starting on day one.

Speaker 8 It's amazing. They're all obviously reading.
They're following an exact script. They actually seem to stand and sit at the same point as well.
The whole thing's scripted, choreographed.

Speaker 8 What's going on there? And

Speaker 8 like that was just released on social media. So I guess this is the new, like, younger hipper digital lane dem.

Speaker 17 They all have that same little mic, too. Yeah.

Speaker 17 One of the few areas since the election where the Democrats having found a correct diagnosis, not a necessary cure, correct diagnosis is they're way behind in organic social media and in creation of social media by political players.

Speaker 17 Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, there are no analogs like for them on the left.

Speaker 17 So they say, we need to do better. We need to create more compelling content on a regular basis.
Their challenge is it's very hard to do quickly and it's very hard to match.

Speaker 17 fake stuff like that, scripted stuff like that, to beat organic, because the organic stuff is so powerful.

Speaker 17 It involves big personalities who develop followings over a long period of time, consistent performing. This is synthetic, but it's at least an effort to put out.

Speaker 17 It's somewhat compelling.

Speaker 17 Now, I don't know if they didn't think they'd get caught or maybe they thought it would be good to have it amplified by having some, you know, having the kind of coverage you're engaged with it now.

Speaker 17 But again, it's one of the few areas where they're at least. acting on a correct diagnosis, which is they are so far behind.

Speaker 17 And of course, in the Obama years, they were far ahead and now they're far behind.

Speaker 17 And they have to be players in in podcasting and video and programs like this in the creation of social media for TikTok and other places. At least in this case, they're trying.

Speaker 17 They're bringing in people. They spent a lot of time with liberal creators yesterday, the crooked media guys and other people.

Speaker 17 They're far away from where they need to be. But again, at least this is a single area where they're making an effort.

Speaker 8 Elon Musk tweeted out, I'll give somebody a free cyber truck if they can tell me who created this script, like who was patient zero on this.

Speaker 8 And I guess Corey Booker today said, it was me, and you can keep your Cybertruck, which was a dumb addendum because who wouldn't want a free Cybertruck? But I guess he was behind it.

Speaker 8 Here's the thing, though. If you have kids, you know, the rule is the last thing you want to be is cringe, right? If you're going to do it, got to do it well, and you're not supposed to be cringy.

Speaker 8 That was cringy. So was this by Representative Jasmine Crockett, who I think is 42 years old, not 28.

Speaker 8 Someone should have told her that before she dropped this video before the State of the Union or joint address to Congress last night. Watch.

Speaker 9 Yeah, they tried to rig the game, but you can't fake influence.

Speaker 29 They get on it like that. Hey, I'm tripping, I'm sliding, I'm riding through the back like button.

Speaker 8 Two backups.

Speaker 8 And it ends Jasmine Crockett with her signature.

Speaker 17 I will say that that version is better than the one that Dick Durbin did. I don't know if you saw that one, but hers is better.

Speaker 17 No, I'm kidding. Kidding, kidding.
I just like the thought of Dick Durbin doing his version.

Speaker 8 I think it'd be good. Oh, my God.

Speaker 8 That was too much for my brain to handle.

Speaker 8 Okay.

Speaker 8 I just think it's ridiculous. There's no dignity.
You know, it's like, you could be cool. You could do a fun video.
I mean, I have to say, in most ways, AOC understands this and she does.

Speaker 8 She uses social media very effectively. This is not it.

Speaker 8 And they're, just to me, it just shows that they're struggling. So, speaking of struggling, Tim Waltz.

Speaker 8 If I think I could offer something, I would certainly consider that when asked if he's open to a 2028 presidential run.

Speaker 8 If I think I could offer something, I would certainly consider that. I'm also, though, not arrogant enough to believe there's a lot of people that can do this.
I'll do whatever it takes.

Speaker 8 So, do we think that Tim Walt is a serious candidate for next leader of the party? Never mind presidential candidate.

Speaker 17 No, he's not.

Speaker 17 I could expound. I could expound, but no, he's not.

Speaker 17 Look, most people who join losing tickets,

Speaker 17 Tim Kaine, for instance, who did a thing on Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago where it seems like no one knows who he is, most

Speaker 17 beep candidates on losing tickets don't

Speaker 17 then emerge as super strong.

Speaker 17 I think that the nature of his failure is pretty obvious to most Democrats. And he got off easy, as you know.
He was not scrutinized very much.

Speaker 17 And things that did turn up were not placed front and center. I think that

Speaker 17 it is a mystery. In my career at this phase, we're early, obviously, we're not even close to the midterms.

Speaker 17 At this phase every cycle, I could tell you five people for the party out of power, or if there was an incumbent, both parties.

Speaker 17 a term limited incumbent, who are the five people who I'm watching who I think really have the potential to do what it takes, the difficult task of winning a party nomination and potentially the White House.

Speaker 17 I can't give you five Democrats, but all I can tell you is if you forced me to 50, I wouldn't say Tim Waltz.

Speaker 8 Oh, wow. That's saying something.
All right, last but not least, over on the Republican side, Pam Bondi

Speaker 8 in a bit of a controversy this week because she had the White House, and there's new ABC News reporting on this.

Speaker 8 The White House invited those influencers to the White House last week, reportedly as a thank you, a way to honor and thank strong online influencers of the kind that you just mentioned.

Speaker 8 Chaya Raychik behind Libs of TikTok, Jack Basobiak, Chad Pranther, Liz Wheeler, a bunch of right-wing influencers.

Speaker 8 And apparently, according to ABC, unbeknownst to them, they were then, like, they weren't expecting this. They were brought in to a meeting with Pam Bondi and Cash Batel.

Speaker 8 And she then surprised them with those Epstein file binders.

Speaker 8 And so I didn't realize that they were totally caught off guard with this. And so when we we saw them emerging from the West Wing holding these binders and kind of like laughing about it,

Speaker 8 they didn't know what they had. And the reporting is that she chose not to loop in any White House senior staff on this.

Speaker 8 She chose to keep it a secret from them because she thought that it would be like a fun surprise, that they would be pleased. But it turned out that there was absolutely nothing new in these binders.

Speaker 8 And it had the unfortunate effect of embarrassing the influencers because they'd been told and believed cash and Bondi that they'd been given something something exciting and new and, you know,

Speaker 8 proprietary.

Speaker 8 So now there's been fallout because

Speaker 8 it's a question of who embarrassed an influential group around the president, right? Who really deserve nothing other than thanks from him. Who embarrassed them? Why? How?

Speaker 8 Why wasn't senior White House staff told? And why was a thank you session turned into a Pam Bondi Epstein drop information session that actually was no actual info? All that happened.

Speaker 8 We have the ABC News report on it. And now Bondi's saying that she did get a truckload of documents from the FBI, who she accused of withholding against both her and Cash Patel's orders.

Speaker 8 Though the next drop has not been received, and the question is whether she's in any sort of trouble. Trump had very warm references to her last night.

Speaker 17 So here's the hierarchy that I think about this. At the top is the victims, and nothing should be done on this that doesn't acknowledge what happened to them, get them the justice that they deserve.

Speaker 8 The Epstein victims.

Speaker 17 Yeah, the Epstein victims. And we shouldn't look at the titillation that some people feel over

Speaker 17 the names of people associated with what happened. We shouldn't look at that as a distraction.
So that's priority number one.

Speaker 17 Number two is the president promised transparency, not just with these files, but with the Kennedy files,

Speaker 17 the RFK and JFK files, the Dr. King files.
That's an important commitment that he made, and it should be lived up to.

Speaker 17 And when it's done in this way, where they say we've got a big, a big release, and then it turns out to not be new, that undermines people's confidence that they really have a dedication to true transparency.

Speaker 17 Number three,

Speaker 17 this is a screw-up.

Speaker 17 Whether the ABC reporting is exactly right or not, we know the end result was the public was misled. These influencers were treated poorly.

Speaker 17 That's a basic level of comp incompetence at the highest levels that I think should give people pause because, for the most part, this administration, under strange circumstances, have

Speaker 17 executed pretty well. Lastly, as you said, said, the president and the administration's relationship with these very influential people, you don't want to embarrass your friends.

Speaker 17 You don't want to undermine them.

Speaker 17 And that photo of them smiling with the documents makes me sick every time I see it, but it's hard to blame them because, as you said, they were put in a situation they weren't expecting.

Speaker 17 So that's how I break it down. That's how I see it.
And I think in all four strands, the story will continue because, as you said, the Attorney General is promising more.

Speaker 8 I mean, if she makes it up to them by giving them the next big round, and it genuinely is a scoop, I think that'll heal, you know, that'll mend fences.

Speaker 8 If they remain in the position they're in right now, thanks to her, I think she's in for some PR trouble over the next coming months because she's probably lost a lot of goodwill with them.

Speaker 8 Mark, you have all the goodwill in the world here. Thank you for being on.

Speaker 17 Thank you, Megan. Great to see you.

Speaker 8 Appreciate it. Great to see you too.
All right. We'll be right back.
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Speaker 8 I'm Megan Kelly, host of the Megan Kelly Show on SiriusXM.

Speaker 8 It's your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations with the most interesting and important political, legal, and cultural figures today.

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Speaker 8 I want to take you now to a troubling situation in Maine, where not everyone has gotten the memo about parental rights.

Speaker 8 Members of the school board in Maine School Administrative District 11 are seeking to launch a health clinic at a high school where medical providers, not parents, will make key decisions for students.

Speaker 8 Here's what officials from the clinic said at a December school meeting. Watch.

Speaker 28 And the last question I have at this moment is:

Speaker 28 who decides decision-making capacity for a minor child?

Speaker 28 A provider. So

Speaker 28 the medical clinician. The medical clinician.
Through their interviews and their interactions with...

Speaker 28 Who gives permission for that child to be interviewed in the first place as a minor child?

Speaker 28 Well, under the law, the state law, if the child sought one of those three services, substance use disorder, mental health, or family planning, which

Speaker 28 then the provider would interview them.

Speaker 28 And if there was a course of treatment needed, they would decide whether they could do that based on the decision-making capacity during the interviews and the visits they had with the student.

Speaker 8 So

Speaker 8 no parental involvement, none whatsoever. And that term mental health is doing a lot of work there.
It's a very large category that excludes the parent from any decision-making.

Speaker 8 That woman you just heard, CEO of Health Reach, is correct about about Maine law and when children can consent to procedures, medicine, potential without parental permission.

Speaker 8 And while Health Reach says there are no plans right now to offer hormone treatments for so-called trans students, parents are understandably very concerned about where this is going.

Speaker 8 You saw the Maine governor with Trump last week. There's an agenda in Maine.
But thanks now in part to an email campaign by a group called Courage is a Habit, MSAD 11 has not yet approved that clinic.

Speaker 8 And we are monitoring developments closely ahead of tomorrow's school board meeting. Here now to tell us more is Courage is a Habit president, Alvin Louie.

Speaker 8 Alvin, thank you so much for keeping a finger on the pulse of this one. So what specifically is this about?

Speaker 8 They're bringing in a so-called health clinic for the children with what appears to be the express goal of excluding parents?

Speaker 17 Absolutely.

Speaker 14 Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Megan.
It's a pleasure to meet you. Likewise.
Absolutely.

Speaker 14 In fact, one of the school board members, Joanne O'Brien, actually admitted on a Facebook post that they are providing, referring out to the transgender drugs and different treatments of that nature.

Speaker 14 So they're lying in the sense that they go, oh, we're not giving it, but they're referring out to it.

Speaker 14 And this all stems from the keeping secrets from parents in schools.

Speaker 14 This is just a logical conclusion of that because the school counselors are the biggest purveyors of the transgender cult, and a lot of people don't know that.

Speaker 14 And so, they've been setting the tone that parents are unsafe and abusive. They're redefining two words: unsafe and abusive.

Speaker 14 And what they do is they'll say, if you don't believe that your daughter is really a boy, then you are unsafe and abusive.

Speaker 14 And so, based on that, that foundation that they've already established in government K through 12 in Maine and in all 50 states, really, now they'll go, well, we need the medical clinic because

Speaker 14 parents are unsafe and we need to provide

Speaker 14 the health coverage for children. But what they mean by that is vaccines, COVID, COVID vaccines, birth control, invasive IUDs.

Speaker 14 And, you know, Megan, it's even taking all those horrific things aside, like the transgender drugs, and they can refer out to it. These clinics are quite literally seeding their own clients.

Speaker 14 They're putting these kids in these

Speaker 14 therapies, the therapists that are affirm-only therapists. They're driving their mental health to the ground.
And then they go, oh, they need medication.

Speaker 14 So they're quite literally seeding and creating their own customers.

Speaker 8 What do you mean referring out? How would it work under the proposed

Speaker 8 system that you are objecting to? If a kid comes in to this clinic and says, I'm gender confused.

Speaker 14 So the first thing they'll do is they'll pair them with an affirm-only therapist, and then they'll keep that a secret from parents. And they'll do the pronouns.
They'll call them by a different name,

Speaker 14 things of that nature. Then they'll start driving them to that.
And then, if they need a breastbinder or tucking, then they'll offer that. They'll give them that.

Speaker 14 Then, if they start to do the cross-sex hormones, then the clinic in the school will refer them out to another clinic or another pharmacy to go get said drugs.

Speaker 8 Could they get a prescription without their parents at that point?

Speaker 14 Yes, they can, because it'll be paid through by Medicaid. In Maine, it's called Maine Care.

Speaker 8 Oh my God.

Speaker 8 So your child could first get a COVID vaccine, which we know, especially in young males, has a disturbingly high risk of causing heart infection, myocarditis, which could be potentially fatal without your knowledge.

Speaker 8 And your child who maybe just be stressed out from like a divorce that the parents are going through or God forbid, a childhood sexual trauma or bullying in school, and manifest this in the more sort of, oh, it's like the hip thing to be, which is trans

Speaker 8 without you knowing, gets affirmed, gets a breastbinder, gets a prescription to go to this other clinic. And sometimes it can be like a Planned Parenthood.
Those are, they're very like pro.

Speaker 8 That's right. It could be right.
Sending kids down this lane. And that clinic gives them a prescription for puberty blockers into cross-sex hormones, which sterilizes a child.

Speaker 14 Yep. You've got brain issues, bone density issues.
Obviously, you're stopping puberty or even if the cross-sex hormones will screw up their fertility for women, for girls later on.

Speaker 14 It's such a horrific thing. Then you know that the rest of the other parts of the world are moving away from it.
Hospitals are stopping it now, thanks to

Speaker 14 President Trump's executive order. But the schools, the transgender cult is going to be the last place that this completely dies.
It'll be in K through 12.

Speaker 14 That's the last place it dies because that's where it started.

Speaker 14 This is not a chicken or egg thing. The social contagion started in K through 12.

Speaker 8 That's such a good point. That's exactly right.
So that's incredible and very disturbing. But what's happening now? Because there are reportedly 25 health clinics already in Maine schools.
Right.

Speaker 8 But the nonprofit that would run this new one says, oh, no, we have no plans to provide hormone treatments.

Speaker 14 Well, they say that, but in other states that have that, they've already done it. And one of the things also that they lie about it, they'll say that this doesn't cost taxpayers anything.

Speaker 14 And it's a complete lie because they use federal funding.

Speaker 14 They use federal funding to stand the clinic up for that first one or two years. So HealthReach uses federal funding.

Speaker 14 They'll use a mixture of funding from, let's say, Health and Human Services or the American Rescue Act of 2021. For those of you who know, it's supposed to be for COVID.
They use it for that.

Speaker 14 And then after the first one or two years, they'll have to raise taxes, property taxes, do a referendum for Maine residents to keep the clinics going.

Speaker 14 And if you say, hey, I don't want this referendum, it'll be, oh,

Speaker 14 you're taking health care away from poor kids. It's always weaponizing your empathy.
You know, we often say here, courage is a habit. We don't have an oppression problem in this country.

Speaker 14 We have an idiot empathy problem. And that's what they always drive good people's empathy to get these things passed.

Speaker 8 But do we think that they're backing off of it at all? Because they delayed the vote on this health clinic in December.

Speaker 8 And now it's not officially on the agenda for the meeting they're having this week. So do you feel like you've already won this or it's still alive?

Speaker 14 No, the thing that they do, Megan, that's really that that's a tactic they always use across all 50 states is they'll try to punt it until parents stop paying attention.

Speaker 14 And we've seen this, you know, my organization fights this at every level, where there's the porn in schools or the critical race theory, transgender ideology.

Speaker 14 Every time something like this happens, they'll punt it because they know parents are busy. And a lot of people look at punting as a victory.

Speaker 14 And so when they stop paying attention, they're going to go ahead and sneak it in. But it's a different day and we are definitely not letting anyone forget it.
And so

Speaker 14 our suspicion is that they're going to try to punt it until they can quietly install it or vote it in. But for sure, the heat is getting to them because they should have,

Speaker 14 they wanted to vote this in December 5th. They snuck in this agenda on Thanksgiving Eve.
Imagine that. Imagine being so proud of

Speaker 14 this medical clinic. It's so good that they snuck the agenda in on Thanksgiving Eve, and then they were going to do the vote on December 5th,

Speaker 14 hoping nobody was going to pay attention. Bad news for them, we were paying attention and we're not going to stop.

Speaker 8 Right. And I should put out to the viewers: you're not in Maine, you're in Indiana, but you're keeping an eye.
You've been, this is one of the reasons why I love your Twitter account, but it X.

Speaker 8 Thank you. You've been paying attention to what's happening in schools across the nation.

Speaker 8 By the way, if anybody wants your help or to alert you to something that they'd love your help with, how can they contact contact you?

Speaker 14 Drop us an email at team at courageisahabit.org, or you can drop us a DM on our, which is at couragehabit.

Speaker 8 Okay.

Speaker 8 Now you FOIAed the school board, as I understand it, and you got some disturbing text messages about yourself and your efforts to stand up for parents and for children. What happened?

Speaker 14 So we know that they talk a lot of mad garbage

Speaker 14 in the emails.

Speaker 14 And so what we were foying was we were looking for an ethical conversation between them and health reach because they were saying, oh no, you know, we didn't approach them and this is all above board.

Speaker 25 But we knew that

Speaker 17 health reach, the clinic, right?

Speaker 14 And so what, so we were looking, so we foyed, we were looking for that. So I had sent them an email when I was in Maine last, and I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

Speaker 14 I said, hey, listen, you guys got this sales pitch from HealthReach. Of course, like any salesperson, they're going to leave certain things out, even if they're not outright lying to you.

Speaker 14 And this is,

Speaker 14 I think, I mean, I'll let your viewers judge, but I thought it was a pretty cordial email.

Speaker 14 I said, hey, there are going to be some things that you don't know about these clinics that we've seen in other states.

Speaker 14 I'd like to meet with some of you or all of you and like to share some of the things that you don't know.

Speaker 14 When you're installing something as serious as a medical clinic and you're dealing with people's children's health, you should know everything before you make this decision.

Speaker 14 Sent the email, didn't hear from them, didn't expect that to, but you know, I tried. And then when we were foyering for some of the unethical conversation,

Speaker 14 we saw that they were doing these group text messages. And in Maine, if you have either four or five people on a group text, we can foyer that.
So we said, okay, we'll foyer that too.

Speaker 17 And

Speaker 14 We saw one of the texts, one of the school board members, Matthew Lillybridge,

Speaker 14 quote, you know, in response response to my email offering to give them information, he said, we'll see how much courage he has when I answer the door with an AR-15

Speaker 14 and a Doberman.

Speaker 8 Unbelievable.

Speaker 14 What kind of person responds to an email offering information? And he could have said, you know, Megan, he could have said, you know, we'll see how tough he is. I'll get in his face.

Speaker 14 I'll punch him in the nose. I'll punch him in the mouth.
Nope. He went right to the AR-15.
And this is a school board member who's literally, I'm not making this up, Megan.

Speaker 14 He's running again for his seat right now.

Speaker 8 Oh my God. So we, we reached out to him for comment on that email and he did not respond to us.

Speaker 8 He does not understand courage. That's quite clear.
Although behind closed doors, he's super tough, Alvin. He's super tough.

Speaker 12 He's going to get it.

Speaker 17 They always are.

Speaker 8 They always are. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because you actually are courageous.
And this is a battle that must be fought.

Speaker 8 And you've been fighting it since before it was in vogue and acceptable to be fighting it. But I understand there's, you know, your great-grandfather came to America from Mao's China.

Speaker 8 So how has that affected your willingness to get on these issues?

Speaker 14 Well, I think like most Americans, I've really took my hands off the wheel. I was born here.
I was lucky to be born here.

Speaker 14 My great-grandfather, he was an older man already when he left Mao's communism. And, you know, he owned two bakeries,

Speaker 14 not a rich man by any stretch, two very humble bakeries. And when Miles Redguard dragged him out and beat him, it wasn't soldiers.

Speaker 14 They were college kids, high school kids, just like what we're seeing today

Speaker 14 across the country being developed in K through 12 and in colleges. And so when he came here, you know, it was obviously very tough.

Speaker 14 You know, you come here as an old man, you don't even know the language. And, you know, you definitely try to make a life here because you know there isn't a life when communism comes.

Speaker 14 So my father has always reminded myself and my siblings that he would always tell us when we were younger: if you can't make it in America, you can't make it anywhere.

Speaker 14 And like most Americans, I've really taken that for granted. I've been able to do a lot of other things in my life and not having to worry about.
If you asked me, you know, 10 years ago

Speaker 14 who the mayor was in my city, I probably couldn't tell you, much less who's on school board.

Speaker 14 But, you know, from being from California, when I saw how California turned out and, you know, we moved to Indiana, I saw the same things happening in Indiana,

Speaker 14 but in a smaller sense in California. And I, it really hit me that, you know,

Speaker 14 nobody's escaping out of Florida to Cuba in the middle of the night. If America goes the way it's going, there's nowhere else for my children, your children, anybody's children to go.

Speaker 14 And so I think that really, thinking about my great-grandfather running like that really kind of really drove me to say, you know, even in the tiniest way, I got to try to do something because I've enjoyed my freedom so much and I've been able to do things, great, you know, fun things.

Speaker 14 And now I feel like I just have to do my duty.

Speaker 8 It's incredible. Thank you so much for being so involved in this fight and for calling our attention to it as well.

Speaker 8 We'll stay on it and we'll be keeping an eye on that main school board meeting tomorrow just to see if they do try to sneak this in and have you back on if they do. Alvin, thank you.

Speaker 14 I appreciate it. Thank you, Megan.

Speaker 8 Wow, these guys. I mean, can you imagine your kid goes to school,

Speaker 8 gets a shot in the arm that could potentially cause a heart infection, which you wouldn't even know to be checking for because they'd vaccinated him without your consent.

Speaker 8 And then secretly give him tucking apparatus to start messing with his genitals so he can look and feel more like a girl, then snap him with puberty blockers into cross-sex hormones, which sterilize a child, not to mention deprive him of any hope of sexual pleasure throughout his life.

Speaker 8 And you know nothing. And the school board will defend this.
And so will the main governor. I mean, this is how radical the left has become.
This is, it's infuriating.

Speaker 8 And it's another reason why President Trump won and does have the mandate he says he does. Wow.
All right. We will be back tomorrow.
We're taking your thoughts on all of this.

Speaker 8 Please email me, Megan at megankelly.com. And then we're back tomorrow.
Boy, do we have a treat for you? I'm really looking forward to this.

Speaker 8 The whole show with comedian Andrew Schultz, the greatest, the funniest. He's totally irreverent.
Buckle up. We'll see you then.

Speaker 8 Thanks for listening to the Megan Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

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