Did Comey Leak to NYT, Leftists Want More DC Crime, and Fixing CA, with John Solomon, Steve Hilton, Rich Lowry, and Charles Cooke

Transcript

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Speaker 20 Welcome Welcome to the Megan Kelly Show, live on SiriusXM Channel 111 every weekday at Noon East.

Speaker 20 Hey, everyone, I'm Megan Kelly. Welcome to The Megan Kelly Show.

Speaker 20 We've got new reporting today on the intelligence leaks aimed at undermining President Trump before and during his first term in office and the complete lack of care, or so it would seem, by the intelligence community.

Speaker 20 Yesterday we began the show with Just the News' John Solomon. Today we're going to do the same as he's got yet another big piece on his website this morning.

Speaker 20 This one involves newly declassified intelligence from FBI director Cash Patel that squarely points the finger at former FBI director James Comey.

Speaker 20 Both men in the same job, one fully transparent, one quite the opposite.

Speaker 20 I mean, Comey wanted a message out there, that's for sure. He did want to communicate with the press.

Speaker 20 He just wanted to do it behind the scenes and with classified information and through intermediaries, so his fingerprints weren't on it, as opposed to Cash Patel, who just calls up random reporters and says, Here, take this, or has a press conference saying, Here, look at everything.

Speaker 20 This latest piece is about how James Comey, while the FBI director, used a friend at Columbia University to help craft his image, his image, as he pushed out false, misleading, and classified information.

Speaker 20 It appears the intermediary says he can't be sure. He doesn't think he, he doesn't think he passed on class of information, but it certainly appears he did to the New York Times.

Speaker 20 And in particular, to the reporter over there, Michael Schmidt, who went on to win Pulitzer Prizes for his Russiagate reporting.

Speaker 20 And while some of this was known before, we are now filling in some major details on exactly how this shit went down.

Speaker 20 Joining me here to break it down, what's new, what's old, and where it could lead is John Solomon of Just the News. John's the founder of Just the News.

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Speaker 20 John, great to see you again. So you mentioned that you thought this was going to hit last night.
It did hit last night. And explain to us what exactly you are reporting that's new.

Speaker 20 Because I think we knew prior to last night that Comey was leaking through a Columbia University professor friend of his to the New York Times.

Speaker 22 Yeah, we've known for about four years now, five years, that he used Richmond to leak some memos after he was fired by President Trump that related what Comey's side of these alleged conversations with the president.

Speaker 22 None of those were deemed, at least the things that Richmond provided the media, were deemed to have classified information in them.

Speaker 22 What we now learn is that the FBI looked, and we learned that from the Inspector General of the Justice Department, so administrative expenditure general investigation, which, by the way, severely criticized Comey for not following the rules and requirements of being FBI director, not even following his non-disclosure agreement and the way he leaked information.

Speaker 22 What we didn't know until the last 24 hours when Cash Patel transmitted these documents to Congress and Justin Dew's got a set of them is that the FBI looked at Richmond and at least two other top lieutenants of James Comey for leaking possible classified information.

Speaker 22 And for the first time, we get a very detailed response of how Mr.

Speaker 22 Richmond, a Columbia University law professor who was put on the taxpayers' payroll so he could burnish James Comey's image, what he said his motive was, what he was doing with the New York Times, and how he addressed the leak, a question of whether he leaked confidential information or

Speaker 19 let me just stop you there.

Speaker 20 I want to start this discussion same place we started it yesterday, which is the FBI cares very, very deeply about the leak of classified information.

Speaker 20 We know that because they indicted a president for doing it. They indicted a former president who has the ability to declassify information with really the wave of his hand, the stroke of a pen,

Speaker 20 in Donald Trump. So they went after him for having classified information at Mar-a-Lago.
They accused him of waving it around in a document, allegedly showing it off. That's bad.
That's bad.

Speaker 20 We have to have the rule of law, they told us.

Speaker 20 So he got indicted down in Palm Beach County, Florida, by Jack Smith in a federal prosecution after an FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago looking for said classified documents, because it's very, very wrong to have classified information or to leak classified information that you shouldn't.

Speaker 20 And yet, the FBI, the same organization, when confronted with the reality that its director, James Comey, was running classified information through his Columbia University pal to the New York Times, didn't seem to give two figs, John.

Speaker 22 Well, I want to be fair to the FBI. The FBI agents themselves seem to give quite a few figs.
They were working hard to solve this.

Speaker 22 What they couldn't do was get the Justice Department under Donald Trump or under Joe Biden to bring any charges. But they did a pretty good job of figuring out who they thought the leakers were.

Speaker 22 And I think one of the great moments, and that's why they land on Richmond, right? Let's walk through one of the episodes that the memo lays up. Richmond, Comey's still FBI director at this point.

Speaker 22 Richmond meets with Comey. Richmond's on the taxpayer's payroll.
This is interesting. He's an outside lawyer.

Speaker 22 He's brought in as a special government employee, which means you and I are paying his salary.

Speaker 22 And his goal is to work around the press office that we all already pay for for the FBI and who's trained in the US.

Speaker 20 And Comey gives him a top-secret security clearance so that he does access

Speaker 20 the information that Comey wants to leak.

Speaker 22 That's That's right. He basically has the same level of security clearance as Comey, high level, up to SCI.
That's a especially compartmental intelligence. So he's being treated like a guy.

Speaker 22 He's an insider of the FBI. He's not.
He's working around the press office that you and I also pay for. And his goal isn't specifically to do the work of the FBI.
He says his goal was to burnish

Speaker 22 James Comey's tattered or hammered, I think he uses the word hammered image, and to set future narratives, i.e., Russia collusion, i.e., Donald Trump is a Russian stooge who should be indicted, and that he tried to obstruct his friend, James Comey.

Speaker 22 So we now know that's what he told the FBI under penalty of being charged with lying to the FBI if you don't tell the truth.

Speaker 22 And then he's in a meeting, he gets access to very sensitive, highly classified information.

Speaker 22 And then a short while later, he has a conversation with Mike Schmidt, who then eventually writes a story based on on that classified information and this gentleman Mr.

Speaker 22 Richmond says oh yeah we talked about it he seemed to already know about it I don't think I confirmed it and I'm sure with a discount I'm sure quote comma with a discount comma I didn't give him the information.

Speaker 22 Now, who needs a discount on truth when you're denying whether you leak something?

Speaker 22 This is like one of the great non-denial answers in American history, sort of like when Bill Clinton said in the grand jury testimony, I don't think I lied on Monica Lewinsky because it really depends on what the meaning of the word is is.

Speaker 22 It was once considered to be one of the greatest dodges in a grand jury testimony.

Speaker 22 Here he's talking to the FBI and he qualifies his denial by saying, I'm sure with a discount, meaning you better give me some a cut on this, I didn't leave.

Speaker 22 That's the dead end that the FBI found itself. And they believed and went to the Justice Department, and the Justice Department said, and now we're not going to prosecute him.

Speaker 22 Just like they said, nah, we're not going to look at Adam Schiff.

Speaker 20 And this was,

Speaker 20 which Justice Department and which Attorney General?

Speaker 22 There are, they occur, they make multiple inquiries in the U.S. Attorney's Office of Washington, 17, 18, 19, and 20.
I think the case memo eventually closes in late 19 or 20.

Speaker 22 At that time, I think Bill Barr would most likely have been Attorney General or coming on as Attorney General.

Speaker 22 So this is a Trump declination, though, obviously at the career level. I doubt it got to the top levels of the political appointees.

Speaker 20 And why would the DOJ decline to go after him,

Speaker 20 Comey, and let's go back to what we discussed yesterday,

Speaker 20 the high-level congressional staffer who said Adam Schiff said he was going to leak classified information and that he could get away with it because he was going to say this speech and debate clause was going to protect him.

Speaker 20 So why

Speaker 20 would,

Speaker 20 under the Trump administration, these DOJ officials have repeatedly said, we're not interested?

Speaker 22 Yeah, the answer is they didn't feel like they could prove with 100% certainty given the denial or the non-denial or the qualified denial that Mr. Richmond said.

Speaker 19 Denial with the discount.

Speaker 22 Yeah, the denial with the discount. One we'll remember for a long time, I think.

Speaker 22 And in every, and by the way, it turns out, and yes, in this morning's story, there are literally six code name classified leak investigations. The FBI opened six criminal investigations.

Speaker 22 They all had fun code names like Arctic Frost or Christmas Something. They had all these weird names.
But in all of them, the same result occurred. The Justice Department declined prosecution.

Speaker 22 And people will say, okay. And then they go after Donald Trump.
But then when they find Joe Biden's classified documents, they don't prosecute him. What you see in this

Speaker 22 history, when you take everything from Richmond and some other lieutenants of the FBI, I want to get to that in a second, something Pam Bondi's Justice Department did that probably has to be reversed.

Speaker 22 You see that if it's a Democrat, Hillary Clinton, our classified emails on the server, or if it's a friend of Democrats, James Comey, you're not going to get indicted. They'll make up some

Speaker 22 explanation for why they've decided it's too hard to prosecute you.

Speaker 22 But if you're Donald Trump, and even though you might have the declassifying power, we're going to raid your home with a show of force.

Speaker 22 We're going to go through your drawers and then we're going to indict you.

Speaker 22 And I think when you look at that track record, it is an undeniable track record that people are treated differently in almost the identical circumstances, and it's very troubling.

Speaker 20 They don't want to go after anybody with power. And you can see why maybe even people at the top of Trump's DOJ,

Speaker 20 potentially at the 1.0 we're talking about,

Speaker 20 and or FBI, didn't have the appetite to go after the former FBI director, a person who's

Speaker 20 in an equally powerful position to the one that they hold now, or the identical position to the one that they were holding then.

Speaker 20 Unlike, but those rules don't apply for for Donald Trump, right? And you're hearing it right now as people are saying, how dare they discuss Barack Obama facing criminal indictment?

Speaker 20 How dare they talk about indicting a former president? The cluelessness, John, given that they're the ones who set all these new standards, that we are going to do all that.

Speaker 22 Well, listen, the cluelessness, the greatest aider and abetters of the last 10 years of misery that this country has been put through through false scandals and false stories and false narratives and weaponization is the co-conspirators that these actors had in the media.

Speaker 22 When you look at what

Speaker 22 James, Mr. Richmond, Daniel Richmond, is talking about when he's dealing with Michael Schmidt in the New York Times, he admits he had a motive.

Speaker 22 My motive wasn't to give a complete story to the New York Times. It was to make sure that James Comey looked better than he had looked and to set narratives that were going to be out there.

Speaker 16 We now know those narratives.

Speaker 20 Well, because why does he need access to classified information if all he needs to do is make James Comey look like a good man?

Speaker 22 It's a great question, right? These are really important questions that didn't get fully addressed. I mean, the Inspector General says, hey, it was really a bad thing.
James Comey is a bad guy.

Speaker 22 He did a lot of bad things. Okay, but there's no penalty.
We got fired, I guess. He lost his job.

Speaker 22 But at the end of the day, is that enough consequence to create deterrence so that this system doesn't go on? And I think we're at that moment of wrecking.

Speaker 22 And I think Pam Bondi is going to be the question we all have in our minds. Will this matter? Will these disclosures matter compared to all the other ones we've gotten out in the last 10 years?

Speaker 22 It's going to come down to two very important people in the administration. The Attorney General Pambandi.

Speaker 22 Can she break the track record of failure of prior AGs to create punishments to people who engage this, Barr, Sessions,

Speaker 22 Rosenstein, and Garland? And then can Tulsi Gabbert, as the chief of the intelligence community, restructure, rewire an intelligence community that has gone from being neutral

Speaker 22 defenders against terrorism and counterintelligence threats to political hacks trying to carry out political dirty tricks on the American people.

Speaker 22 The future of this country on those two questions are probably going to be

Speaker 22 decided by those two very important cabinet secretaries. And I don't know which way it's going to go.
We're going to have to watch.

Speaker 20 Okay, before we get back to Bondi, let's just spend another minute on the Comey reveal and his use of this guy, Daniel Richmond. Now, first of all, can we just

Speaker 20 the level of vanity that this man has

Speaker 20 really, I mean, for many years was unknown.

Speaker 20 When Comey first came on the scene, like early Donald Trump, before, you know, like, let's say late in the last administration, Comey was very well respected.

Speaker 20 He seemed like, you know, regular Joe Friday, like, you know, your classic FBI man.

Speaker 20 I think I actually once compared him to Chief Justice John Roberts, who I've joked many times was born in his little cradle with his black robe on.

Speaker 20 You know, it just seems like somebody who was born for this role from

Speaker 19 Spins or California. Seems, I agree.

Speaker 20 Yeah, seemed totally squeaky, clean, kind of like a Roberts.

Speaker 20 Boy, were we wrong. I asked my team to pull this shot of Comey.

Speaker 20 And the reveal on him has been slow, but very, very telling. Before he sat down with George Stephanopoulos a couple years ago for his big interview with it, it was before he dropped his book.

Speaker 20 And he posted a picture of himself under the Kliegue lights with the ABC News cameras set up.

Speaker 20 And look, he's like so excited. Who posts this? I actually can't read the caption, but it was him anticipating and teasing and how he was so excited to sit down with Stephanopoulos.
So this man

Speaker 20 who posted that is reflected perfectly in the documents you posted last night with this Daniel Richmond, the image burnisher.

Speaker 22 Yeah, listen, there's an earlier episode where I kind of ran into Comey. I was an AP reporter back in 03 and 04, and there's a moment where they need to renew the Patriot Act.

Speaker 22 And John Ashcroft, the then Attorney General, is about to go in for a medical procedure.

Speaker 22 And they're trying to get him while he's basically under under the anesthetic to sign off of the Patriot Act and Comey kind of portrays himself as a white horse hero there in some of the leaks that occurred around that time.

Speaker 22 And I think that that was the first clue that this guy was more than just your classic law enforcement men. Most of them, my dad was a cop for 46 years.

Speaker 22 He just didn't talk to the media and he didn't care what people thought about him. He cared about what people thought of the work they did every day.
Did we do it right?

Speaker 22 That's what most people who become cops do. In James Comey's case, case, I think how people looked at him was just as important about whether he did the job right.

Speaker 22 That's why he gallops out with absolutely no legal authority and decides on July 5th, 2016, he's going to wave a magic wand that's not his to wave and say, I've decided because I'm better than Loretta Lynch, I'm clearing Hillary Clinton of wrongdoing in the email case.

Speaker 22 And at the moment, he's done that. What makes that even more extraordinary is the stuff we just learned from the classified annex that Chuck Grassy and President Trump got released.

Speaker 22 We know the FBI just got a batch of new documents, five thumb drives of some of the missing emails, and they decided not to look at it.

Speaker 22 Even though that is perhaps one of the biggest leads in the case, they don't look at it. James Comey just goes out and says, I'm going to be God prosecutor, judge, and FBI director.

Speaker 22 And I'm clearing her, even in the face of new evidence that needed to be investigated. I think that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 21 Do you know, John, what that was about?

Speaker 20 Do we know actually? Because what,

Speaker 20 you know, I haven't been anywhere near as close to the story as you have over the past few years but what jumped out at me with the tulsi reveals was

Speaker 20 in the documents there was a correspondence showing that loretta lynch had been told by the fbi hey um it's the russians have emails and documentation showing that you assured the Hillary Clinton team that the investigation we, the FBI, are pursuing into her emails won't go, quote, too far.

Speaker 20 So you need to be aware that it's out there, that you have reassured the Hillary team, that you've given us that directive.

Speaker 20 And on the heels of that, Comey runs to the cameras and says, we're not going to indict Hillary.

Speaker 20 And my only thought in watching it was, is that, and reading this last week, was, was that his attempt to be like, I'm not influenced.

Speaker 19 You see, like, I, Lorella didn't tell me.

Speaker 20 She didn't tell me to drop this. I just dropped it.
Like, he had to get ahead of it before she got too crooked and actually gave him the explicit order. I really don't know.
But why did he do that?

Speaker 27 You know, I've heard a lot of people say that's a God complex because no FBI director knows, every FBI director knows they don't have the authority to make prosecuting decisions.

Speaker 27 It wasn't his decision to make.

Speaker 20 No, they're the investigators.

Speaker 20 The DOJ, the lawyers,

Speaker 19 the lawyers try the case.

Speaker 27 Yeah, there's a separation between the FBI. FBI investigates.

Speaker 27 Justice decides charging decisions, and he he didn't let the Justice Department do it.

Speaker 27 And whether his motive was good or not, and I think later we'll determine he had a lot of other motives that don't look good. So we'll see where that goes.

Speaker 27 It wasn't his call to make. And I think what you're going to learn in the next 24, 48 hours, Megan, something I've been working on for a long time.

Speaker 27 I finally think we'll be getting these documents in the next few hours.

Speaker 27 You're going to see on James Comey's watch a direct political interference, both from Comey's team and from the Obama Justice Department, shutting down three, two or three criminal cases, looking at Hillary Clinton, not on the emails, which is what we've all been focused on for the last decade, but on possible bribery and political corruption related to the Clinton Foundation.

Speaker 27 And you're going to know the name.

Speaker 22 The Clinton Foundation.

Speaker 20 Say it ain't so. Chelsea Clinton assures me on X that it is an above-board organization, John.
And my suspicions of it are totally unfounded.

Speaker 27 I'm sure that I've heard that same thing from the, listen, she took over at a later time, so maybe she gets to claim that going forward, after she took over, things were clean.

Speaker 27 But the FBI had two or three separate investigations going on. We'll get that ironed out in the next hour or two.
But

Speaker 27 and each time you see a political hand, sometimes from the Justice Department, the one he's allegedly trying to protect his bureau from, and sometimes from his own team, his own leadership team, telling agents, I know you got a predicated case, shut it down.

Speaker 27 I think we're going to find out whether this guy really always operated by these moral standards or not based on what we learn in this next batch of documents.

Speaker 27 But, you know, I think history is going to look at Comey as one of the darker eras in the history of the FBI. And by the way, the FBI has some dark eras.
There's some periods during the J.

Speaker 27 Edgar Hoover era that aren't great. But I think the Comey era is going to be looked at as a dark time in the history of federal law enforcement.

Speaker 20 Wow. I mean, no wonder he was so worried about burnishing his good guy image, right? It's always the ones who are terrible who who give that any thought.

Speaker 20 It's like the, then you have Donald Trump out there who's like, he doesn't care what you hear about him. He doesn't care what the papers print about him.

Speaker 20 Like, he may gripe about it, but he's certainly not out there trying to like secretly burnish his image. He doesn't care.
He'll speak to the cameras directly and let you decide who he is.

Speaker 20 Wait, on the Comey leak and using Daniel Richmond and all this,

Speaker 20 let's talk for a minute about to whom we believe they were leaking. And

Speaker 20 that's Michael Schmidt of the New York Times, the guy who won Pulitzer Prizes for his RussiaGate reporting.

Speaker 27 Just today. And some other reporting, too.
In fairness to him, it wasn't all Russia. He won a second.
Yeah, I think he won two Pulitzers in one year, something for something else.

Speaker 27 But yeah, he's one of the members of that team that President Trump is suing over that Pulitzer right now.

Speaker 20 So just today,

Speaker 20 the New York Times' daily podcast, The Daily, took on the RussiaGate, or as Molly Hemingway is calling it, ObamaGate gate

Speaker 20 stories that have broken since Tulsi started making these releases. She's right.
She's totally right.

Speaker 20 So they finally got around to covering it over on the New York Times. Like, is this a story or isn't it? I mean, I'll give you one guess, what they concluded.

Speaker 20 But guess, guess who they bring on to tell us all there's no there.

Speaker 20 No one did anything wrong. This is all made up.
And we don't need to be looking into this really any further.

Speaker 19 Michael Schmidt

Speaker 27 surprised me a little bit.

Speaker 20 It's all over your documents, your reporting, Molly's reporting.

Speaker 20 Michael Schmidt was used by the administration as their stenographer, the Obama administration, as their stenographer to get these stories out there.

Speaker 20 This guy, Daniel Richman, was talking to Schmidt for Comey.

Speaker 20 And yet I didn't hear a word about any of that when Michael Schmidt was on today's New York Times podcast. Here's how he sounded instead.
John Zollin, listen to this.

Speaker 28 In the aftermath of Trump winning the 2016 election, it was widely understood that Russia had meddled in the campaign.

Speaker 28 And they find that Putin tried to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump. But for Trump, This document, this assessment, was the original sin because what it did

Speaker 28 was cast doubt on his victory.

Speaker 28 What Gabbard is starting to do is declassify documents that she claims irrefutably prove that not only is the assessment a bunch of nonsense, but it's at the heart of a criminal conspiracy.

Speaker 20 So she releases a classified report that Putin was

Speaker 28 trying to help Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton.

Speaker 28 There's nothing in that report like an email from Obama to his intelligence community saying,

Speaker 28 I don't care what the evidence shows. We need to get Donald Trump.

Speaker 28 She is making this out like the smoking gun.

Speaker 28 When it comes to Russia, Trump will always be the victim and he will always be the hero.

Speaker 20 with his supporters, he says. And he dismisses that House intelligence report that she just declassified, the one that was found in this, in the safe at the CIA's headquarters,

Speaker 20 as that was all Republicans. You can't put any stock in that.
That's right. And this is all BS.
None of these allegations has been sustained.

Speaker 27 Michael Schmidt's comments don't reflect the New York Times the way they would have reported a story in the 1980s or 1990s when I was coming up as a reporter. And I want to tell you a story because

Speaker 27 it's out there in the form of the Columbia Journalism Review and another great reporter who worked at the New York Times for three decades, won multiple Pulitzers, as I recall, Jeff Gerth.

Speaker 27 He did a re-evaluation of how the New York Times and Washington Post got snookered on Russia.

Speaker 27 And it was done in the Columbia Journalism Review, which is painful because the Columbia Journalism Review sits right alongside of the Columbia Pulitzer Prize Committee, where it is there.

Speaker 27 But he laid bare some of the most extraordinary moments in the failures of reporting in the New York Times. Yeah, they got a Pulitzer, but did they really cover a scandal?

Speaker 27 Did they really do the public a favor? There's a very important episode, and I have personal experience with it, so I want to hone in on it because it's how I see myself different from Mike Schmidt.

Speaker 27 A lot of people said to me early on, John, why didn't you do a lot of reporting in October, November, December, January, and February of 17?

Speaker 27 You only click in in March and start raising questions about this. And the short answer is, I did do some reporting.
I had gotten some some intelligence pushed to me by people close to the Clintons.

Speaker 27 And

Speaker 27 I went to the New York Times, like the, I'm sorry, I went to the FBI's press office, not Daniel Richmond, but the career people who are trained to tell the media what they're allowed to tell the media about FBI matters.

Speaker 27 And they told me flat out.

Speaker 27 John, yeah, we're looking at this, but right now there's no there there. Ironically, that's the same line that Pete Strzok would later use in his text mess.
No big there there.

Speaker 27 And we listen, we looked at some of this stuff. We think the Alpha Bank things are pings.

Speaker 27 And we think that the other stuff might just have some political election stuff tied to it. So I stood down.

Speaker 20 This is just to be clear, this is somebody trying to get you to report that Trump is a Russian asset or there's some sort of collusion and Russia and Trump are colluding to win the election.

Speaker 19 And the FBI originally is telling you there's no there there, John.

Speaker 27 Okay. October 31st, 2016,

Speaker 27 the FBI tells the New York Times the exact same story. They write a story basically saying this stuff isn't true.

Speaker 27 And then somehow it magically becomes true over the next six months in the New York Times.

Speaker 27 And I ask myself, you know, hey, it is possible that the career people I talked to in the FBI lied to me, but I don't think so.

Speaker 27 And the reason I don't think so is every time I would call back and check with them in January, in February, March, because I'm starting to see the hyperventilation of the Washington Post and the New York Times, the career people inside the FBI, the people trained to know what the FBI is doing and to try to give the most accurate answer they can to the media without violating the law, keep saying, John, our answer stands to you from October.

Speaker 27 It's not true. Alphabank's not true.
We don't think the steel dossier is uncorroborated. We looked at it.
It's uncribed. It's unfortunate that BuzzFeed put it out there.

Speaker 27 So I have to ask myself, was Michael Schmidt and the New York Times talking to the same people I was? Because history showed those people were right.

Speaker 27 And the New York Times and its breathless coverage are wrong and there's one story that bothers me i the most early seminal moment in my career as an ap reporter was at the very beginning of the internet era when the wall street journal in the middle of the uh hillary of the bill clinton monika lewinski scandal broke a story off cycle they weren't going on print edition they did something on the internet might have been the first time we're talking like 1997 98 really early we weren't used to the internet then most newspapers had a 24 cycle or you just did it once a day.

Speaker 27 So they break a story in the middle of the day saying that a steward told the grand jury, a Ken Stars Whitewater prosecutor, grand jury, that President Bill Clinton was found in a compromising position with Monica Lewinsky in the

Speaker 27 White House theater, I believe it was, the Bowling Alley or theater. And, you know, I'm at the AP.
My job is you better get that fast and match it, Solomon.

Speaker 27 Everyone tells me it's wrong. It's wrong.
It's wrong. To my credit, my boss is a great

Speaker 27 newsleader named Sandy Johnson. She stood by her reporters and didn't make us report.
And we eventually wrote a story saying it's been knocked down. It's not true.

Speaker 27 The Wall Street Journal withdrew that story.

Speaker 27 On its front page, they retracted a story that they'd put out wrong on the internet. The New York Times in February 17 writes a story basically to the effect of that the U.S.

Speaker 27 intelligence has proof that Donald Trump's campaign was talking to U.S. Russian intelligence campaign about hijacking the

Speaker 27 2016 election. That story has, is, and never will be true.
It has never been retracted. In fact, James Comey even said the story wasn't true in some testimony after he left as director.

Speaker 27 The New York Times has never retracted that story. Yeah, they've written stories having people criticizing it, but history has shown that story is wrong.
It should be retracted.

Speaker 27 Those are the differences between the way you and I practice journalism and the way they continue to practice journalism today.

Speaker 20 The other reporter whose name has come up time and time again is this Ellen Nakashima, who is with the Washington Post, and she appears to have been on the receiving end of these same leaks or related leaks.

Speaker 20 She was all over the news during the relevant timeframe pushing her BS reporting. Here's just a sample of that.

Speaker 30 The topic of the Kremlin's influence operations has a particular resonance for me because in June of 2016, I broke the story of the Russian hack of the Democratic National Committee.

Speaker 30 And I distinctly remember at the time that

Speaker 30 this was a big front page story, sort of Watergate, you know, the water do you break in all over again, but in the information age. It's not just the Russians that exploited all of this.

Speaker 30 We have internal domestic actors that put out divisive messages from the left, from the right, and Russia amplified those messages.

Speaker 20 When I talk to

Speaker 30 people inside the government,

Speaker 30 those sources,

Speaker 30 it's not even per se to have someone, oh, please leak me something classified. No,

Speaker 30 it's more this,

Speaker 30 the value I get as a national security reporter is in the relationship built up over time, one of trust in which I find I have developed a relationship with someone I consider to be

Speaker 30 authoritative and knowledgeable and well-meaning and who, if they have trust in me, can explain some things in terms of context, history, significance, not so much an actual

Speaker 30 operation or something really highly classified, but rather the history behind things.

Speaker 20 So what about her, John? Do we believe she was also on the receiving end of the Jim Comey leaks or possibly the Adam Schiff leaks or where?

Speaker 27 In disclosure, I worked with Ellen when I was at the Washington Post. I didn't find her anything but a professional reporter in the newsroom.

Speaker 27 The documents I saw yesterday show that she published classified information and they couldn't determine who the provider of that information was. Now,

Speaker 27 I want to point something out in the documents I published this morning, which are the ones that went to the Capitol Hill.

Speaker 27 And you will see that there's large blacked out sections of some of these memos, large blacked out sections. In fact, the most tantalizing one is something to the effect of

Speaker 27 Mr. Richmond told us, James Comey

Speaker 27 told them not to leak, but,

Speaker 27 and then it's all blacked out, the butt. And you're like, what is there? I think I know what might be there.

Speaker 27 And unfortunately, the Trump Justice Department, Trump 2.0 Justice Department, made some redactions to these documents. They may have a legitimate reason.
We're trying to

Speaker 27 press through and negotiate and see if there's some way for the American public to see this.

Speaker 27 But I believe in some of these blacked out areas, there are two more lieutenants of James Comey, not named Daniel Richmond, who may also have acknowledged their role in the leaking campaigns.

Speaker 27 And I think we should wait and see if we can get that information released by Pam Bondi or the Justice Department, if it can be lawfully released.

Speaker 27 I think it will create a more 360 degree stereo look at how Comey operated and how some of these leaks operated over time.

Speaker 27 Again, just because a reporter got a classified leak doesn't mean they're a bad person. I once got one of the most classified stories in the history of this country.

Speaker 19 No, getting the leak doesn't.

Speaker 20 Getting the leak doesn't. Getting the story wrong and never correcting it does.

Speaker 27 That's right. That's exactly the thing here.
And I haven't done an evaluation of Ellen Nakashima's reporting yet.

Speaker 27 I certainly am going to now based on these new documents because she's a new sort of figure in this. I will point out something about the Washington Post.

Speaker 27 And for a period of time, when my old Associated Press colleague Sally Busby was there, I think they tried to clean up some of their Russia reporting.

Speaker 27 They did about 12 or 13 appendages and corrections to stories. And Sally, I worked with at the AP, she was trained, I think, like you and I were, which is we stick to the facts.

Speaker 27 And when we get it wrong, we admit it. There's nothing wrong.
The only thing wrong is not admitting you're wrong when you are.

Speaker 27 And so there was a period where the Washington Post cleaned up some of its reporting. But about four months ago, I obtained a document under, I believe it's under FOIA.
I got it.

Speaker 27 And it is the confidential interview of the NSA director Mike Rogers saying that one of the Washington Post politic-winning stories that claimed that Donald Trump said something to Mike Rogers during their meeting that was incriminating, Mike Rogers said was, quote, wrong.

Speaker 27 The story is wrong. And he debunks it in detail in an FBI interview, which means he probably wasn't the source of the Washington Post story because he was pretty critical of it.

Speaker 27 I went to the Washington Post.

Speaker 27 Sally Busby is no longer there, and I got crickets when I asked him, Are you going to correct this story? I check back every few weeks. I haven't seen a correction.

Speaker 27 That is a problem, just like the New York Times story from February of 2017 is a problem. And I think you've, I don't know if that's an Ellen story.
I have to look.

Speaker 27 I don't think it was, but your point is right. When you don't correct when you're wrong, you've really deserved the public.

Speaker 20 Ellen's stories are about, for example,

Speaker 20 the Russians hacking the Democratic National Committee, which now it appears is wrong.

Speaker 20 It does not appear that they were necessarily behind that league, or at least now we have information that it was

Speaker 19 one particular league.

Speaker 27 I really want to address that because it does get, even in the conservative media, it gets gobbled up a little bit. Everybody I've talked to, critics

Speaker 27 and believers in the intelligence community, believe that John Podesta's emails, which were not the DNC emails, were hacked. And there's pretty good reason for that.

Speaker 27 And the FBI had prima facie access to the evidence. They could actually see what happened with John Podesta's email.
So the Russians were involved in that, and that's an influence operation.

Speaker 27 By the way, not uncommon. The Russians are famous for this, so are the Qataris.
Many countries do this.

Speaker 27 The DNC hack is much more problematic for several reasons. On James Comey's watch, the FBI never demanded to get the servers from the Democratic National Committee.

Speaker 27 Instead, they used its former cybersecurity chief and his company to evaluate the servers for the FBI and give them an analysis. And then that analysis was put out to the American public saying,

Speaker 27 based on what CrowdStrike, this vendor hired by the DNC gave us, we believe there was a hack of the DNC servers.

Speaker 27 About three years ago, four years ago, as Bill Barr was leaving, we were able to get the actual interviews that CrowdStrike's people did with the FBI.

Speaker 27 And in that interview, they said something very profound that has never been disputed since, which is the Russians gained access to the DN servers. They did some probing.

Speaker 27 They did some escalations of credentials, meaning, all right, I hacked my way in. I could get myself to administrator level.

Speaker 27 But what CrowdStrike said that I think is so important for all of us to understand, that is a form of hacking. If you get to credential level, you've hacked yourself in.

Speaker 27 But what CrowdStrike said is they could never prove there was no evidence of exfiltration, meaning that the Russians, after they got their permissions on the servers, they didn't pull the data off and get the emails and leak them out.

Speaker 27 Now, that is a very important qualification. There was some hacking.
They got into the system, but CrowdStrike is very specific that we couldn't prove exfiltration occurred.

Speaker 27 Now, compare that to what the Washington Post and New York Times and others reported, and it's a little muddled.

Speaker 27 And I think that that's one of the stories we've got to get fixed in the next few months.

Speaker 20 Well, she also did the reporting on Carter Page.

Speaker 20 And what it appears to me, John, is that she and Schmidt and a lot of these others, okay, it's fine. I agree with you.
It's not not wrong to get a classified leak.

Speaker 20 I mean, that's on the person who's breaching the classified

Speaker 20 protections.

Speaker 20 Ellen has no oath that she's taken to protect that information. And as a reporter, you can report and reveal stolen documents so long as you didn't orchestrate the theft.

Speaker 20 So, in any event, but...

Speaker 20 Especially when it comes to leaks from three-letter agencies, you must make sure you're not being used.

Speaker 20 I mean, every reporter knows when one of those people reaches out to you, all hackles should be up.

Speaker 20 The likelihood of you getting used is very, very high, which I've said this before, but that's why generally news organizations will put someone who is a cynical mofo in that position, like at Fox, Catherine Heritage, who likes no one.

Speaker 20 Which is good. That's good.
That's exactly who you should have in that role, who cannot be charmed or wooed into writing what you want her to write. That's right.

Speaker 20 And instead, what it appears to have been is people like Ellen, people like Michael Schmidt, heard all the things they already believed about Donald Trump from a source they trusted like a Schiff or a Comey or a Brennan

Speaker 20 and with glee ran to their keyboards.

Speaker 27 Yeah, Megan, you just did, that was like the perfect description of what our obligations are and what we often fail to do in our industry. There's a moment in my career where I went through this.

Speaker 27 Probably one of the biggest scoops I ever had in my career was at the Associated Press when I got the interrogation reports of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9-11.

Speaker 27 And we learned from those interrogation reports that he he actually planned to do 10 planes on two coasts, and then bin Laden scaled it down. It was one of a worldwide exclusive.

Speaker 27 But we had that document for seven or eight days from our sources.

Speaker 27 And we did lots of reports because you didn't know if someone was trying to make somebody look good, or this was only one of 30 interrogations.

Speaker 27 And we did a lot of work before we pulled the trigger on writing that story. And that's important because we all know that people have motives

Speaker 27 when they give us something. And we we have to take those motives into account and rule out that we haven't been misled before we pull the trigger.

Speaker 27 And too often in the internet era, that idea that was I was trained on and that you were probably trained on has been lost in the internet era where the moment I can get a click now if I go out with this is the only reward you get.

Speaker 27 And I think that being right or wrong has been less important than getting that click.

Speaker 27 And I think it's so important that journalism take a deep breath at some point and wind ourselves back to let's find out the motives.

Speaker 20 Let's make sure we haven't been misled before we report something john before i let you go have you been following the difference of opinion on these reveals that have been coming out between say on the one camp you matt taibbi molly hamingway and others aaron malate glenn greenwald and on the other many in the so-called mainstream yes of course who i don't really listen to but i do listen to andy mccarthy over at national review and respect his opinion and he did write a whole book about rushagate but he still is just not well he hasn't written about it in a while because he's been on vacation, but he did not think there was any there there on the initial reveals here.

Speaker 20 And he really thought this was a nothing burger, like what Tulsi was revealing. So have you been following that difference? And do you have a thought on it?

Speaker 27 Yeah, listen, I try not to evaluate whether something's nothing or not. I try to just give people facts so they can make up their own mind.

Speaker 27 My goal, now he obviously writes op-ed, so his goal is to help people come to conclusions. I've tried throughout my career to just give people data points and let them make up their own mind.

Speaker 27 I do think that, you you know, what you do see and what we've learned is that inside the intelligence community, the roles of the intelligence community were broken to come up with a story that Putin helped Trump, even though the evidence said otherwise.

Speaker 27 The most damning evidence from all the intelligence experts I talk to, and I derive my knowledge from people who are professionals, I'm not an Intel professional, is that the intelligence community's belief that Putin didn't try to help Trump was based on the most significant moment in October of 2016, which is Russia ended its active measures and did not try to interfere in the election in October 2016.

Speaker 27 Why is that important? Everybody knows, including Russian intelligence, most Americans make up their mind in the last few weeks of the election. Russia had all sorts of dirt.

Speaker 27 They could have dropped on Hillary Clinton to possibly take him out, and they didn't do that.

Speaker 27 That is what we call a passive decision, meaning the intelligence community saw them having the capability to do something to damage a candidate and deciding not to do it.

Speaker 27 That's a very powerful piece of evidence in the intelligence committee assessment. And it's why Congress on November 29th, 16 is brief that there is no, there was no preferred candidate.

Speaker 27 That's a pretty good reason to believe that. You have to look at what happens after November 29th to realize how badly the community was hijacked.

Speaker 22 Maybe

Speaker 27 Andy's looking at it from a prosecutor. Could I prosecute someone from what happened here?

Speaker 27 No, but from an integrity standpoint in our country on how we're going to protect ourselves about the future of of this country from counterintelligence threats, from counter-terrorism threats.

Speaker 27 The ability to take good intelligence and turn it into a bad conclusion affects all of our safety. And I think from that perspective, there is a reason why we should be reporting on this.

Speaker 27 Whether someone gets prosecuted or not, I don't know. I've been hearing about prosecutions for 10 years, haven't seen a whole lot of them.
So I'm pretty jaded in expectation.

Speaker 27 But I do think these things matter for your

Speaker 27 safety.

Speaker 27 When those two intelligence officers came to my driveway in March of 17, which set me on my path to unravel this story, the first thing they said to me when I asked them, why are you coming forward to me?

Speaker 27 Why me? And what are you trying to me to do? And he's like, you gave us these tools after 9-11 to protect you from terrorists and from counterintelligence threats.

Speaker 27 And if we lose them because we've abused them the way we do, you will not be as safe at night as you have been the last 10 years.

Speaker 27 That's what drove those two whistleblowers to come to my driveway at 11 o'clock at night in the spring of 2017. I think the professionals know that the abuse of these tools risk

Speaker 27 them being taken from them or being corrupted, and we're all less safe. And that's a matter of public interest that goes beyond prosecution.

Speaker 20 John, as I listen to you talk, all I can think is we need a full episode of John Solomon and your background and your stories, because even just in that brief recitation, I learned facts about you.

Speaker 20 I didn't know what a fascinating guy you are. It's, I love to do that, like just you, and we'll, we'll talk for a couple minutes.

Speaker 27 Listen, I listen, I don't listen to many podcasts, I listen to you often. You are do such a great job, and you inform the public with such integrity.
So anytime, I'm there.

Speaker 20 Ah, thank you. Thank you so much.
All right. To be continued,

Speaker 20 we'll stay on it. We'll continue refreshing Just the News.
Coming up next are friends from National Review. Speaking of National Review, Rich Lowry's here, along with Charles C.W.

Speaker 19 Cook.

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Speaker 20 Joining me now are Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cook of National Review.
You can find all of their work by becoming an NR Plus subscriber today.

Speaker 20 We will get Andy McCarthy on to talk about his views on RussiaGate once he's back and well rested and ready to talk again. We've been on vacation at exactly the wrong time, Rich Lowry.

Speaker 20 But in any event, let me ask you this, because I want to pick up on the media angle that we were discussing with John Solomon. Interesting fact,

Speaker 20 the New York Times, Michael Schmidt, who we just discussed, who won a Pulitzer for his RussiaGate

Speaker 20 reporting,

Speaker 20 and and now, of course, is downplaying all the latest revelations by Telsey Gabbard, is married to

Speaker 20 the woman whose soundbite I am about to run for you. And you'll be shocked, shocked to hear that she also doesn't seem to think there's much to the latest RussiaGate allegations.
Play SOT5.

Speaker 32 Some more news breaking this hour to tell you about Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered a grand jury investigation into the so-called Russia Gate conspiracy allegations made by the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.

Speaker 32 These are unsubstantiated and largely debunked allegations by the Trump administration that former President Barack Obama and his aides in the intelligence community ordered a probe into the 2016 Trump campaign's connections to Russia to ruin his chances of becoming president.

Speaker 32 We'll stay on top of that story. Thank you for letting us into your homes.
We are always so grateful.

Speaker 20 That's MSNBC's Nicole Wallace, who constantly sounds as though she's just getting over a three-week battle with the flu and she's been forced to do the broadcast from her near deathbed.

Speaker 20 She constantly, she sounds so sick.

Speaker 19 And that is unsubstantiated.

Speaker 20 But I will tell you this, Rachel Lowry, you run a news organization.

Speaker 20 If I ran MSNBC, there is no way I would let the wife of the journalist who received the classified leaks at issue report in any way, shape, or form on this controversy. What say you?

Speaker 33 Yeah, I was just going to say, this is one of the big problems with the media, right? The media, a lot of it, Democratic operatives and certain people in the so-called deep state are the same.

Speaker 33 They're married to one another. They're dating one another.
They go to the same cocktail parties. They are the same blob.
And this is just an indication of that.

Speaker 33 And also, it's highly irritating to have her say this, this is much ado about nothing, when she,

Speaker 33 besides Rachel Maddow, was perhaps the person with the biggest media platform plying all this nonsense for years about the walls closing in and it was going to be established or had already been established that Trump had colluded with Russia with zero remorse afterwards, never any

Speaker 33 one moment of modesty. Oh, I got caught up by partisan passions.

Speaker 33 I should have been a little more careful. None of that.
And now she's still lecturing to us about the matter.

Speaker 20 It's a good point, Charlie. I mean, who, if Nicole Wallace weren't allowed to report on these allegations, what unstained reporter could they find at MS to replace her?

Speaker 34 Yeah, I call it the Rachel Maddow extended universe because there is this whole world

Speaker 34 of essentially untrue ideas that is believed by MSNBC viewers.

Speaker 34 I think the

Speaker 34 straw that they're clutching onto is that Tulsi Gabbard has made some implications that aren't true. For example, that Barack Obama is going to end up being criminally punished for his role in this.

Speaker 34 But to take that hyperbole and then to conclude that all of the unraveling of Russia Gate is illegitimate is ridiculous. We lived through this for a couple of years.

Speaker 34 The aim was at first to prevent Trump from becoming president and then it was to waste his presidency.

Speaker 34 You'll remember, if you look back, it was fairly common, including on MSNBC at the time, to hear people say that he should not allow to be used to use his presidential powers

Speaker 34 while he was under investigation and so on.

Speaker 34 So I think what they're doing is they're taking the hyperbole around the edges of this and they're trying to discredit the rest of it, which simply will not and should not work.

Speaker 20 I'll tell you what, she has literally a vested interest in upholding this reporting, thanks to the things she has said, but also the things that her husband has written that were award-winning.

Speaker 20 And there is really no question that she should not be allowed to sit in that chair and opine on whether these are legitimate or not legitimate

Speaker 20 allegations that directly involve her husband now and the veracity of his reporting and his reputation. The National Guard troops that President Trump dispatched to Washington, D.C.
arrived yesterday.

Speaker 20 They showed up in droves. And

Speaker 20 I guess, you know, to say that the Democrats are not grateful would be an understatement. The mayor has waffled between kind of being grateful and saying, you know, you can say crime's down.

Speaker 20 Try telling that to the victim's family members, and getting pushed by her fellow leftists into saying, but he's authoritarian.

Speaker 20 And, you know, of course, we hate him, but the troops, they're not such a terrible idea.

Speaker 20 In any event, they've arrived, and Judge Janine Piro, who's the U.S. Attorney now for the District of D.C.,

Speaker 20 was asked yesterday about the troops and the allegedly falling crime rate. And here's how that went.

Speaker 35 What this makes clear to me is that there is a whole community that is suffering because of the violent crime in this district. All members of the minority community.

Speaker 35 I am here today to tell you that on behalf of all of these victims, all of these families, that they're going to be accountable, that we are going to make a difference.

Speaker 35 And I guarantee you that every one of these individuals was shot and killed by someone who felt that they were never going to be caught.

Speaker 35 And I want to send a message that we are going to catch you.

Speaker 36 You said it's guns on the street that's causing this problem. Are you concerned that the DOJ's funding cuts to gun violence prevention programs undermined the efforts?

Speaker 35 We are putting all kinds of resources onto this street.

Speaker 35 It's never enough.

Speaker 35 This changed. This changed.
It's never enough. You tell these families crime has dropped.

Speaker 35 You tell the mother of the intern who was shot going out from McDonald's near the Washington Convention Center, oh, crime is down.

Speaker 35 You tell the kid who was just beat the hell in back with a severe concussion and a broken nose, crime is down. No, that falls on deaf ears.
And my ears are deaf to that.

Speaker 35 And that's why I fight the fight.

Speaker 19 Thank you.

Speaker 19 Boom.

Speaker 20 And she dropped the mic. Not, not literally, but she should have.
Rich, well done by Janine Pirro. And there really are some horrific stories.

Speaker 20 I suppose you could find them in any large metropolitan area, but D.C. in particular has got some awful ones, like that one about the intern.
I think he was 19 years old.

Speaker 20 They're doing an internship in Washington. It's like a kid's dream going out to get a McDonald's and gets killed.
We could spend all day going through these.

Speaker 20 She had the pictures of a lot of those young victims in particular up on those boards,

Speaker 20 right up in the face of those reporters saying, how dare you? It's never enough. Don't tell me.
Don't tell the family members of these dead people. Crime's down, so we don't need more law enforcement.

Speaker 33 Yeah, I'll say a couple things. One, I have no use for Mario Bowser.

Speaker 33 And she has vacillated a little bit here, but I think basically though, from where she's coming from, a fairly constructive attitude, right? She's saying, yeah, crime's down.

Speaker 33 We we don't need this, but if we're getting more federal assets, let's use them to reduce crime.

Speaker 33 And if that had been the message by Democratic mayors all around the country about ICE, you know, saying, Oh, I don't like these tactics, I don't think it's really necessary, maybe you're going too far, but yes, thank you for coming and going, getting the criminals off our streets.

Speaker 33 I think that debate would be in a much better place. And I don't think the National Guard troops make much of a difference.
They basically guard federal buildings.

Speaker 33 Maybe they free up some police resources to do other stuff, but certainly the sheer presence. If you're a young woman jogging on the streets of DC, you're going to enjoy seeing those guys.

Speaker 33 You're going to feel a little safer seeing those guys and men and women in camouflage standing there.

Speaker 33 But I think the key thing is the driver of most of the gun violence, very small group of guys who've already been involved in the engaged in the criminal justice system, have long wrap sheets, have probably been in prison already, and are largely known to authorities.

Speaker 33 Can you, working with the local police with additional DEA and FBI resources, really in this 30-day period, try to move the needle in arresting more of those guys and making them worry about consequences.

Speaker 33 That's huge. And then the carjackings, which are so awful, you know, they're 14-year-olds carrying these things out.

Speaker 33 So, you need, as Janine was saying, you need them to believe there are going to be consequences. That involves, I think, changing the laws.
Congress has a role here.

Speaker 33 The DC City Council probably can't be done in 30 days, but you can move the needle. And I hope there's an incentive created here for DC to say, no, we don't need this federal intervention.

Speaker 33 We're doing fine because because we're going to get tough

Speaker 33 in ways X, Y, and Z. That would be a very constructive outcome.

Speaker 20 The cops have been super grateful for it, Charlie. The Cops Union came out and said, thank God, we need help.

Speaker 20 We actually cannot handle this on our own, which went unreported by the New York Times' daily podcast yesterday when they took their deep dive into local reaction.

Speaker 20 They forgot to mention that the police are really grateful for it and say it's necessary.

Speaker 20 But here's just another example of what was on the two boards she was showing, pictures of victims.

Speaker 20 She said, look at these 45 45 victims, all 19 and under, all killed by gunfire in the last 18 months in D.C. And you tell me crime is down.
Two of the victims, Charlie, were three years old.

Speaker 20 One little girl's name was Honestly Cheadle. It happened last month via the local NBC.
Police arrested a man who they say fired shots.

Speaker 20 that killed a three-year-old girl as she sat in a car with her family after 4th of July fireworks. They believe the shooter intentionally targeted the family's car.

Speaker 20 She was taken to a hospital and died days later.

Speaker 20 And then just today, I retweeted someone named Maddie Karen, not to be confused with Maddie Kern,

Speaker 20 who says as follows: I was called into court, she's a DC resident, to give a statement about a man who had exposed himself to me on the Metro. He had over 200 charges to date.

Speaker 20 Court was delayed four hours for him to, quote, calm down after calling the judge the C-word. Once he had, she dismissed the new charges and let him go.
That is what so many crime victims have faced.

Speaker 20 If the police do arrest the perpetrator and charge with the right charge as opposed to a downplayed charge, which is what is allegedly happening within the DC police, they're downplaying the charges so that they can make it look like crime is down.

Speaker 20 But if they get charged adequately and then get into the court system, you run into a judge like this who's really not particularly impressed, maybe unless you've actually murdered a three-year-old.

Speaker 20 And even then, questionable.

Speaker 34 Yep, I haven't heard a good argument against this move yet. It may be true that crime is down.
Perhaps a lot of that's the artifact of reporting. But it may be true.

Speaker 34 It's irrelevant, though, because crime is still very high.

Speaker 34 If you look through the reports, it is at an unacceptable level. I am not a fan of the idea that we can make paradise on earth.

Speaker 34 Sometimes, when you hear the phrase, for example, if it saves one life, I think, well, no, we live in a free country. You cannot completely eradicate bad things happening.

Speaker 34 But that's not what we're discussing here. We're discussing a city that is a mess, a city in which people are assaulted and killed and victimized all the time.

Speaker 34 And the fact that it may or may not be relatively down from its absolute high a few years ago is immaterial. The question is, is it acceptable? And the answer is that it's not.

Speaker 34 And that it's not is largely a choice. We're not talking here about a hurricane or a tornado or an earthquake.
We're talking here about government policies that don't work.

Speaker 34 You mentioned one of them, which is letting people off. Another is treating crime as if it's some sort of charming foible of the city.
You sometimes hear this in discussions of New York.

Speaker 34 Oh, do you remember back when?

Speaker 34 As if it was some sort of you know, fun thing you would do in the 1970s between seeing Led Zeppelin and going to watch Star Wars. You get a knife in the back, but a charming knife.

Speaker 34 That's nonsense. People hate crime, and there's no reason they should be subject to it.
And the arguments made in its favor are ridiculous. The other bad argument is that crime is worse elsewhere.

Speaker 34 First off, that's irrelevant too. But you hear this, wow, it's worse in New Orleans or it's worse in St.
Louis, maybe.

Speaker 34 Those are cities and states, though.

Speaker 34 And under our system, the burden is much higher higher for the federal government to get involved but Washington DC is a federal district the district clause in the Constitution gives plenary power to the federal government to take care of it if it wants to it can delegate some of that power out to a city council or a mayor or whatever apparatus it desires.

Speaker 34 But it doesn't have to.

Speaker 34 And if it is the case, as it clearly is here, that the delegated authority is just not doing a very good job, then it's entirely reasonable reasonable for the federal government, which runs the federal district, which incidentally is the capital of the United States.

Speaker 34 There is an interest here in making sure that it's not a hellhole, it's embarrassing that DC is the way that it is, to step in.

Speaker 34 And there's nothing that Trump has done thus far that has violated the law, and there's nothing he's done thus far that would require Congress to act, although Congress probably should take control back.

Speaker 34 So I don't see any good arguments here that don't amount to either it's not so bad, it is, or crime isn't too much of a a problem anyway, it is, or this is racist, it's not,

Speaker 34 or this is an overreach from the federal government, which is ridiculous given that we're talking about Washington, D.C., which is run by the federal government.

Speaker 20 Right, right, good. All good points.
You've got morons like Eric Swalwell.

Speaker 20 Well, that's really my only point. You do have

Speaker 19 to leave it there.

Speaker 20 But in this particular instance, he decided to try to make a thing out of a recent crime event where a man,

Speaker 20 according to NBC4 Washington, they posted a man is dead after a shooting in D.C.'s Logan Circle neighborhood. Officers looking for a suspect.
This moron, Swalwell, tweets it out, Trump owns it.

Speaker 20 So now every crime that happens in D.C. is Trump's fault because he's tried to supplement the law enforcement.
I mean, do we maybe we'll give it 30 seconds. Which of you would like to take it?

Speaker 20 I can see both of you, actually.

Speaker 34 I mean, what does that even mean, Megan?

Speaker 34 Like, if somebody takes over custody of a child whose parents are unfit to look after them, and then the child falls over and scrapes her knee, you wouldn't say, ah, well, there you go.

Speaker 34 That just proves that the custody change. I mean, obviously, that's not what's at stake here.

Speaker 34 If in maybe 10 years you had the the same people running things and there was no improvement, sure, point that out. But that is just,

Speaker 34 that's actually, I need 30 seconds, but just give me a moment.

Speaker 34 That actually is why I say that there are some people who are functionally in favor of crime.

Speaker 34 Because either they have some ideological opposition to fighting crime that they believe is rooted in history and is usually completely incomprehensible, or they are so polarized against those who don't like crime that they end up effectively siding with crime.

Speaker 34 And we've seen a lot of that over the last week. A lot of the coverage here has just been, Trump wants to do it, therefore it's bad.

Speaker 34 Trump wants to fight crime, therefore crime must have something going for it. And it doesn't.
It doesn't have something going for it. I think the average person watching this thinks it's lunacy.

Speaker 20 That's so well said. All right, wait.
I've got a couple of examples of that teed up for you guys.

Speaker 20 Here's Simone Sanders, who undoubtedly is earning millions over at MSNBC, where she co-hosts one of the primetime hours. I think it's the one vacated by Joy Reed.

Speaker 20 And she appeared on Morning Joe with Scarborough and had the following exchange, SOT 10.

Speaker 3 You don't think more police make streets safer?

Speaker 39 No, Joe. I'm a black woman in America.
I do not always think that more police make streets safer.

Speaker 39 When you walk down the streets of Georgetown, you don't see a police officer on every corner, but you don't feel unsafe. So what is it about talking about places like Southeast DC, right?

Speaker 39 Ward 8, if you will, that people say, well, we need more officers to make us safe. I think we have to rethink what safety means in America.

Speaker 19 Rich?

Speaker 33 Rethink what safety means?

Speaker 15 What is it?

Speaker 33 Does anyone not know what safety is, right?

Speaker 33 It's being able to walk down the street without looking over your shoulder or let your kid go out and play without worrying about him or her being harassed or shot. I mean, it's very basic.

Speaker 33 And if you showed that clip to

Speaker 33 the average resident of a dangerous neighborhood in southeast DC, they would think she's crazy, right? That's only, that's a luxury luxury belief right there.

Speaker 33 And that famous phrase, she can say that because she safely goes from green room to green room and from Democratic fundraiser, Democrat fundraiser, or whatever else it is, and doesn't have to worry about crime.

Speaker 33 And, you know, this, this,

Speaker 33 the counter-argument that, look, we shouldn't do this because violent crime is down 25% in D.C., whatever it is. Talk to anyone who lives in DC and ask them how they feel.

Speaker 33 Actually, I give Joe Scarborough credit. He's been reading these anonymous missives from Democrats he knows who are saying, why didn't this happen sooner? I don't feel safe in the city.

Speaker 33 We talked on the editor's podcast with our reporter, Audrey Fahlberg, who's down there in DC, says routinely harassed and menaced on the Metro, and that everyone knows someone who's been mugged or gotten hurt.

Speaker 33 That is totally unacceptable. ABC anchor just the other day, right, said that she was mugged

Speaker 33 inside the ABC's studio. Yeah, not a not a...

Speaker 33 what shouldn't be a dangerous part of town, kind of near Jupon Circle, right across the street from a luxury hotel. I I forget the name of it.
Might be the Mayflower.

Speaker 33 I forget, but should you, you go there and you're like, is this really dangerous? But it is if you're there at the wrong place at the wrong time with

Speaker 33 Willard, yeah. So

Speaker 33 everyone knows, even if the numbers have gone down, it's still not a place where you feel safe. And

Speaker 33 Simone, it doesn't matter what Simone Sanders says, everyone knows that. It's a little bit trying, spinning crimes, a little bit trying to

Speaker 33 spin the economy. It doesn't matter what you say.
People know what their pocketbook is, and people know what safety is.

Speaker 20 This moment is a joke, Charlie.

Speaker 20 This woman 100% rides to and from work in a Lincoln Town car, driven by a driver. When she gets to MSNBC, there is security there waiting for her.
She gets escorted into the building.

Speaker 20 I know a thing or two about working in cable news. For her to be like, I feel totally safe, except when I see a cop because I'm a black woman in America, is a lie.
Keep going.

Speaker 34 Well, sorry, we don't even have to assume.

Speaker 34 Can we just take a second to focus in on her argument? The actual logical chain that she offered up there was

Speaker 34 policing doesn't improve things in areas with crime because in areas without crime, there aren't many police. What kind of argument is that?

Speaker 34 That's like saying that food doesn't help people who are hungry because people who already have lots of food don't need any more. Like, yes, obviously there aren't police all over Georgetown.

Speaker 27 It's a relatively wealthy, safe area.

Speaker 34 What the hell does that have to do with people who don't live in Georgetown? I mean, that is, she said that, you said she makes millions of dollars a year. Why? She said that on television, Megan.

Speaker 27 What kind of argument is that?

Speaker 34 That's what I'm talking about, the fetishization of crime, the defense of crime. And she says there's a black woman in America.
What does that mean? Like, does she have any real arguments?

Speaker 27 But that she is pro-crime.

Speaker 34 Not in the sense that people use that in a sort of archie bunker way, but she would rather have more crime than fix it for whatever ideological reasons that she has come up with.

Speaker 34 She's willing to go on television and say, well, it's fine for me in Georgetown.

Speaker 19 Come on.

Speaker 20 She's not the only one. I don't know if you're aware of Anand Giridardis.
He's a professor at NYU.

Speaker 20 Yeah, and he goes on MSNBC all the time. And he's got the following concerns.
Sat Nai.

Speaker 29 I think it's really important to be clear about what is going on here. And a relatively small crime problem is being used for specific authoritarian purposes that we know and understand.

Speaker 29 So let's be clear about DC does have a really, one really big crime problem, which was the January 6th insurrection incited by the current President of the United States.

Speaker 29 And his first act in coming back was pardoning all the people who tried to overturn constitutional republic order in Washington, D.C. When I go to D.C.,

Speaker 29 I'm not afraid of losing my wallet so much as I'm afraid of losing my vote.

Speaker 29 I'm not afraid of losing my wallet so much as I'm afraid that my children's freedom to breathe will be stolen in a world where climate change policy is non-existent.

Speaker 20 Rich, you're in D.C. a lot.
Is that what you feel? That your children's right to breathe is being stolen second by second? And that's what you worry about when you walk down the streets of D.C.

Speaker 20 at midnight?

Speaker 33 Again, it's very easy to say up until the time you get mugged, right? And I didn't like January 6th. I think people committed

Speaker 33 crimes, bullying police officers. I don't like sweeping pardons, but that doesn't mean that people should be unsafe in D.C.
And what constitutes a small crime problem and a big crime problem to him.

Speaker 33 Again, this is something where I give Marielle Bowser credit. She said, oh, the numbers are going down.
Maybe she's right. Maybe she's wrong.

Speaker 33 But she said, it doesn't matter to you if you're the victim of crime, right?

Speaker 40 And

Speaker 20 the fourth highest homicide rate in the nation.

Speaker 19 Yeah.

Speaker 33 Higher or stayed higher than any other state. And you see it in public places, right?

Speaker 33 We talked again on the editors yesterday about Union Station just feels like a blasted out barren zone because homeless people took it over.

Speaker 33 So you couldn't have one place to sit because a homeless person would build a mini encampment there, right? And the authorities gave in to the homeless.

Speaker 33 So I think this is another thing that could happen actually in 30 days. The homeless encampments are getting cleared up.
And they're going to homeless people now.

Speaker 19 That's where you're wrong, my friend.

Speaker 20 That is where you are wrong.

Speaker 20 That's your luxury belief that the homeless are going away thanks to law enforcement because here's what's actually happening. The resistance is fighting back.
to keep the homeless in Union Station.

Speaker 20 And I'm not even making this up. We have videotape here and a soundbite of a liberal liberal woman who is taking that problem on herself.
She does not want the homeless removed from Union Station.

Speaker 20 She does not want your damn benches back, Rich Lowry. You can stand.

Speaker 20 And here is her plan to stop those guard troops from doing it in SOD 11.

Speaker 38 It's August 11th. I am outside Union Station in D.C.
where folks on the ground are telling me that they are about to start rounding up unhoused people tonight.

Speaker 38 The folks here at the encampment in front of Union Station are handing out these whistles whistles to give to unhoused folks.

Speaker 38 That way they have a way to call for help if they are kidnapped by federal law enforcement. So if you're in the area and able to swing by right in front of Union Station, they have tons of these.

Speaker 38 Bring them back to folks in your community so they have a way to call for help because this is how a fascist authoritarian regime starts.

Speaker 19 The homeless people are going to blow into the whistles.

Speaker 33 I love whistles.

Speaker 27 What people love whistles for some reason?

Speaker 19 Who is going to come?

Speaker 20 Who is going to respond and where are they going to take them so that they don't have to leave? Go ahead, Charlie.

Speaker 34 I know I'm a little obsessed with these arguments that people are making, but we've just heard three arguments in a row, two from the MSNBC guest, one from her, that

Speaker 34 inspire the follow-up question, and then what?

Speaker 19 Yes, right.

Speaker 34 So, look, I am a big critic of January 6th. You've heard me say it a million times.
I don't need to re-rehearse it for you again.

Speaker 20 Including right after January 6th on this show.

Speaker 34 But January 6th was bad, right?

Speaker 34 So if January 6th was bad,

Speaker 18 what

Speaker 34 would more crime be? I mean, what is the argument there that because Trump did January 6th, we can't also not have other crimes?

Speaker 34 And then the unspoken argument from the same guy and then from her about authoritarianism, what does that look like? Like, what is the next step?

Speaker 34 So we clear out homeless people from public places where they're not supposed to be, and then what?

Speaker 34 America becomes a dictatorship? I don't understand what is supposed to happen next here.

Speaker 34 It's never said,

Speaker 34 it's just implied, it's floated out there as if we all understand.

Speaker 34 But that's not authoritarianism. There's no authoritarianism inherent in cleaning up a city or stopping people being criminals.

Speaker 34 If anything, the greater threat of chaos and anarchy and destruction of freedom and ordered liberty comes from crime.

Speaker 34 So I never quite know what it is that these people want or think is about to happen and they never explain it.

Speaker 20 Okay, but the other question raised by her whistle plan, and for the listening audience, it's a bunch of plastic whistles in neon colors,

Speaker 20 is what happens

Speaker 20 Forget, like, she's arguing, leave the homeless alone.

Speaker 20 What happens if they, if she does the whistle plan plan and the homeless do what they're supposed to do and they blow into her little neon pink whistle?

Speaker 20 Then what? Who's coming? That 19-year-old girl with the blonde braid? She's going to stop the National Guard? And then what is she going to take them back home for dinner?

Speaker 20 What she's going to take these homeless people back to her house? Because it doesn't seem to be a big appetite in D.C. to have these people move in to the domestic housing.
So what's her plan then?

Speaker 20 Like, she's going to fight the National Guard so that they can have the corner of Union Station that they've staked out. Ah, it's a win.
You sit there. That's your corner.

Speaker 20 So that they can defecate all over the floor of Union Station, which is what your reporter was talking about stepping in the other day, Rich. Like, what is the plan exactly?

Speaker 20 How is it a win to get the homeless, like Rose on the door at the end of Titanic, to blow their little whistles, come back, come back, or go away, go away?

Speaker 33 It drives me crazy because they think they're being compassionate to homeless people by letting people who are seriously mentally ill and not getting treatment or have substance abuse problems or some of them just kind of perversely like the lifestyle sleep on grates at night, right?

Speaker 33 And someone crapping in union stations, terrible for everyone in union stations, it's not great for that person either.

Speaker 33 And given the amount of money that DC spends on homelessness, if there's not enough shelter for these people, that's a scandal on its own. So they should be rousted out of public places.

Speaker 33 The ones are mentally ill or have substance abuse problems. You try to get them help, but they shouldn't be sleeping outdoors.
They shouldn't be out of their minds harassing people or attacking them.

Speaker 33 It's bad for everyone. And they just can't get their heads around this.

Speaker 33 And

Speaker 33 they think they're doing the right thing. They think giving a schizophrenic a whistle so he can sleep in a dirty blanket in the corner of Union Station is a good thing.

Speaker 33 It's infuriating.

Speaker 20 It's amazing. All right.
So I want to ask about something else now.

Speaker 20 So Caroline Levitt, the press secretary at the White House, tweeted out earlier today for the third straight month, there were zero illegal aliens released into the country.

Speaker 20 Under President Trump, the border is the most secure it's ever been in American history. I think that's objectively true, at least in modern American history.
And

Speaker 20 he's continuing to try to get the illegals who are in the country out of the country. bit by bit.
And they're making some progress on that, although clearly not as much as we would like.

Speaker 20 Nonetheless, the leftist narrative is that it is a

Speaker 20 day and night struggle for those who are here illegally to get through their days as they cower in fear of Tom Holman. I don't know whether that's true or not.
I doubt it.

Speaker 20 But even if it is, I don't care. You're here illegally.

Speaker 20 The immigrants who are here legally have nothing to worry about, and the ones who are here illegally need to go home.

Speaker 20 And there was data released just this week showing that the number of people living in the country who are illegal, who are are here illegally, has gone down by 2.2 million since January.

Speaker 20 And the belief is that they are self-deporting because they are worried about Tom Homan. So that is something I think to be celebrated.

Speaker 20 We're still up, I think it's 8 million over where we were back in 2019,

Speaker 20 whatever, under the Joe Biden years. So we're still net up almost like 8 million.
Okay, my point is simply, you would think most people would say, all right, well, that's, you know, it's a good thing.

Speaker 19 Enter

Speaker 20 John Oliver and monica lewinski monica lewinski decided to weigh in on the illegal immigrants and what they must be going through and how she can relate take a listen to sat 12

Speaker 25 i have to remind myself now with all these stories going on i mean it's it's so hard it brings something out of you like it's there that anxiety that I thought I'd move past that day that I got my citizenship.

Speaker 25 I thought it would be gone then.

Speaker 19 It didn't feel that.

Speaker 25 The relief didn't feel enough.

Speaker 26 I've had a sense of understanding a tiny, tiny bit that I empathize with the immigrants who are going through the crisis right now, right? Ice fuckers.

Speaker 19 Yep. Yeah.

Speaker 26 And

Speaker 26 just of...

Speaker 26 feeling hunted, like of feeling unsafe, of like something could happen at any moment. Now, for me, the hunting was the consequences of that were nowhere near what they're suffering.

Speaker 26 you know but i've had that of yeah you know be whether it's being recognized or a paparazzi or there's there's something a feeling of unsafety wherever you are and and probably a lot of women feel that in general i'm not sure i'm making sense right now but no i think you're making total sense i think that idea of attention being weaponized that feels like there's a lot of crossover there god okay ice fuckers she says okay so there's only one person involved in this story on that set or in the topic that's known as a fucker and it's not ice ice.

Speaker 20 It is you, madam. That's how you got famous.
And you've never stopped trying to parlay some sort of a career out of that moment. She hasn't moved past it.

Speaker 20 If, God forbid this ever happened to me, if I were a 19-year-old girl, I made a very stupid mistake and had an affair with the president of the United States who was married, and the odds of it were coming out were pretty much guaranteed.

Speaker 20 I would take my humiliation, I would express public regret for a terrible decision I'd made, and then I would go become a lawyer or an interior designer or a writer.

Speaker 20 And I would never talk about it again because it would be the biggest shame of my life. It's like when Doug and I and the family went to,

Speaker 20 I can't remember whether we were, I think we were in Sweden and we were in this museum and it was the construct of this huge ship, which they were very, very proud of 100 years ago.

Speaker 20 And they set it afloat and it sank. And they had reconstructed it and put it in this museum.

Speaker 20 And they were making the comment that Japanese tourists would go through and be like, you made a monument to your greatest failure?

Speaker 20 Like in our our culture, we get ashamed about our failures and we try to move past them and never talk of them again.

Speaker 20 This, Monica Lewinsky needs to be more like the Japanese.

Speaker 20 Instead, she's tried to create an entire adult existence out of her blowjobs to the sitting president of the Mary of the United States, Bill Clinton, who is married.

Speaker 20 So now she would like to parley that experience into expertise on what it's like to be an illegal immigrant who feels hunted because she's had the paparazzi following her around.

Speaker 20 And if memory serves, she's from a very well-to-do family. She's got a nice, you know, set of parents and

Speaker 20 income. She's been writing for Vanity Fair.
Nine times out of 10, it's about her experience or some related thing. So now it's crossed over to she's calling ICE a bunch of fuckers.

Speaker 20 She empathizes with the immigrants feeling hunted because she's a woman, because you're hunted as a woman in America. And she's had photographers who want to take her picture, Charles.

Speaker 20 And by the way, that's not even to say anything about John Oliver, who's more in your circumstance, Charles, who came legally and then legally became a United States citizen.

Speaker 34 Yeah, I mean, that was all nonsense.

Speaker 34 I am a legal immigrant and naturalized citizen. I came from the same place as John Oliver.
I think I like America a lot more than John Oliver, but we went through the same process.

Speaker 34 I have never felt for a second as if I'm about to be deported because I'm a legal immigrant and naturalized citizen.

Speaker 20 No anxiety, like he says he had.

Speaker 34 No, I don't, but I also don't feel that it is a problem if people who are here illegally feel that they might be discovered and deported because that is the law. We have a system in place.

Speaker 34 So, one thing I did feel before I was a citizen was that I didn't want to break any laws, not deliberately, but inadvertently, because I really didn't want to be deported, which I could have.

Speaker 34 I actually, I won't bore you you with the whole story, but I called up the IRS because they sent me too much of a refund and I sent them back $450.

Speaker 34 And the lady on the phone said to me, you're the only person in my 30-year career at the IRS who has ever called up and offered money to us.

Speaker 34 And the reason for it was I thought, oh no, if I get this wrong and they discover it, they'll never let me become a citizen. But I think that feeling of wanting to do the right thing is good.

Speaker 34 It's not bad. It's not a problem.
It's not the occasion for expletives. More broadly, you said at the beginning that the border is probably more secure than it's ever been in American history.

Speaker 34 That's probably true. And that is a choice.
You can't perfect this area. But the difference is night and day because the last president, Joe Biden, did not want to enforce the border.

Speaker 34 And the current president, Donald Trump, does. And I was put in mind of this over the weekend.
I was away on a trip and I drove back to Florida. And the freeway was closed because of an accident.

Speaker 34 So I had to take this sort of back road. And I came through into Florida from Georgia in this tiny town.
There can't have been more than 180 people who lived in this town.

Speaker 34 And the sign said, welcome to Florida. And then 100 feet after it, the sign said, in Florida, we use E-Verify.

Speaker 34 That is a choice. That wasn't on the freeway.
That was on the entrance to Florida from Georgia in this tiny town. That's a choice.

Speaker 34 Florida has decided that they're going to try to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to stay in the country.

Speaker 34 And when you do that, you don't get rid of all of them, but you get rid of a lot of them and you enforce your laws. And the fact that this is being compared

Speaker 34 to the Gestapo, that Monica Lewinsky says that she feels that these people are being hunted, that John Oliver says that he doesn't feel secure in his own citizenship, is complete lunacy in the eyes of 70%, 80%, 90% of the public, which has been radicalized on this question of deportations because the government has refused to do the basic things that it can do.

Speaker 34 So I think that was an insane clip, but it almost feels like that was a missive from another world, you know, 10 months ago before things changed.

Speaker 20 The part of it that rings true to me, Rich, is him saying, like, and her saying, like, they feel anxious over what these illegals must be going through because this is what leftists do, right?

Speaker 20 They try to take on other people's problems and pretend that they're happening to them. Remember that video of Selena Gomez, like, my people,

Speaker 20 like this multi, multi, probably hundred millionaire, like, woo!

Speaker 20 Like, would you stop, right? Like, this is what they do. They see a problem out there and they try to get you to feel sorry for them because they are so upset this is happening.

Speaker 33 Yeah, that, and they also, they just love the idea. They love the thrill of being threatened by fascism or supposed incipient fascism, right? So the National Guard in D.C.

Speaker 33 is a classic example of this. What did the National Guard do in L.A.?

Speaker 33 You know, they showed up, they stood in front of the federal building, and and then when things calmed down, they mostly left, right? They'll do the same thing in DC. It affects no one.

Speaker 33 They're not arresting dissidents or seeing what you say or believe about Donald Trump and harassing you on that basis. None of that.
They're standing in front of federal buildings, right?

Speaker 33 But they love the idea.

Speaker 31 They love the word.

Speaker 33 They love the anxiety. It makes them feel important, makes them feel alive.
And this is another example of this. They're not going after John Oliver.

Speaker 33 Monica Lewinsky's experience had nothing to do with this. And I will say, these numbers about the number of illegals that seem to be leaving are really heartening and surprising me on the upside.

Speaker 33 You know, I was a little critical, they need to do more, you know, you just can't pick off the criminal aliens. Yes, you should try to do that, but you need to go broader.

Speaker 33 But if you do have this, and you know, it's it feels harsh to say, but if you do have a certain level of anxiety among the legal immigrants in this country, maybe my job's not secure, maybe I could get deported, maybe it's easier to go home.

Speaker 33 That's the golden ticket to really moving the needle. And this trend continues.

Speaker 33 I mean, we're going to see the first large-scale negative movement of people, you know, out of the United States instead of into the United States since, I don't know, Eisenhower.

Speaker 33 I mean, it'll be a historic accomplishment on top of what he's doing at the border.

Speaker 20 I was critical of Christy Noam and her photo op at that El Salvadoran prison, but I mean, the deterrent effect may be legit and real.

Speaker 20 And Tom Homan making himself available to any news outlet that asks and being unapologetic about his efforts. Also helpful.
Like all the people see these things and they have an effect.

Speaker 20 All right, last topic, because we're on the subject of these, you know, these privileged beliefs, right? These luxury beliefs, Rich, as you put it, which is a term.

Speaker 20 That brings me to, and this is like,

Speaker 20 this hits on a particular sweet spot for me, but it brings me to actress Christine Boransky, who I happen to love. She's very funny.

Speaker 20 I fell in love with her when Sybil Shepard had her own eponymous show called Sybil. And

Speaker 20 she was quoted in this show where

Speaker 20 she had to give advice to an unborn baby. And everybody who was giving advice to the baby said things like, Be a good person, be nice to others, do unto others, etc.

Speaker 20 And they get to her, and she was already playing this sort of snooty character. And Christine Boransky looks at the unborn baby and she says,

Speaker 20 When you're sitting on the airplane in first class and the coach passengers get by, try not to make eye contact.

Speaker 20 So I think she is hilarious. It was a character thing, but anyway, she's very funny.
So she's in a new HBO or in an HBO show called The Gilded Age, and she was doing a promo interview for it.

Speaker 20 And she, this is a risk for anybody in Hollywood, given how powerful Jeff Bezos is.

Speaker 19 Okay.

Speaker 20 She took a risk.

Speaker 20 When the topic of everyone's favorite astronaut, Gail King, and her fellow blue origin astronauts came up, listen to this in SOT 19.

Speaker 37 One of the reasons I'd love this show to continue is because I think there is such an exploration to be done in terms of the corruption that goes on, the buying of government influence, which is happening now, excuse me, and the

Speaker 37 grotesque displays of wealth, sending women into a spaceship for what? So they can, you know, do their makeup? What the f-

Speaker 37 Jones got to me started.

Speaker 20 I'm going to.

Speaker 20 Please do get her started.

Speaker 20 It had the same effect on her, Rich, as it had on all of us. And I would submit to you that it's one of the reasons why Gail King is reportedly not going to get her contract reviewed at CBS.

Speaker 20 The thing was an unmitigated disaster on many levels for many people.

Speaker 33 Yeah, totally a luxury trip, right?

Speaker 33 How's this advancing space travel, exploration, science, anything?

Speaker 33 It's just a joyride for a favored group of people who can pretend that, you know, this was a groundbreaking and historic event, right?

Speaker 33 What Elon Musk is doing in space is really going to make a difference. And it may be something that's talked about 100 years from now.
This is just buttering up celebrities.

Speaker 20 Yeah. And it just, to me, it taps into

Speaker 20 something people are feeling in the country, Charles. You know, some people feel it and they're going to vote for Zora Mandani.

Speaker 20 Some people feel it and they applaud the murder of a healthcare executive.

Speaker 20 So there are lunatics who are reacting to this so-called income inequality and these, you know, out-of-touch gazillionaires in very negative ways. But do they have to add fuel to the fire?

Speaker 20 Does Jeff Bezos have to send his vapid fiancé to space with Gail King, who then insists that we call her an astronaut and tells us how inspirational we are.

Speaker 20 Like those people really are part of the problem.

Speaker 20 And those of us who have absolutely no problem with billionaires and actually may think it's wonderful that we live in a country where if you come up with a great idea and you can execute on it, you can become one.

Speaker 20 I think a lot of us would still like them not to be so absurdly out of touch by going on what would be a $300,000 a person, quote, space flight.

Speaker 20 And then when they come back and tell us they're an inspirational astronaut and we say no, not respond by saying, Well, have you been? No, literally, no one's been. It costs $300,000 for a seat.

Speaker 34 Yeah, I think you are more upset about this than I am, although I do agree with you that the calling themselves astronauts part is completely visible.

Speaker 34 I'm very pro-Gilded Age, not the HBO show, although it's fine, but the actual Gilded Age. I think we have a totally

Speaker 34 unreasonable historical view of it that has been corrupted by the left, which has decided that the Gilded Age was bad, and they call the people who are in charge of it robber barons.

Speaker 34 I actually love the Gilded Age. It was a period of great American entrepreneurship and industry, and explosion of art, and

Speaker 34 everyone

Speaker 34 got much richer, including people right at the bottom. So, if I ever write a book, Megan, I think, about history, I think I'm going to write a book defending

Speaker 34 the Gilded Age.

Speaker 34 So I don't particularly care about what Bezos did there.

Speaker 34 I do find the people who went on the trip quite annoying and the way that they've treated it afterwards. I think that the disconnect is less between Bezos and me.
Obviously, he has lots of money.

Speaker 34 He can do all he wants with it. He wants to burn it.
It's fine with me.

Speaker 34 And more with the people who went up in that spaceship who don't seem to realize that they were the playthings and beneficiaries of a billionaire, that they are not astronauts, that they were not doing anything groundbreaking, and that they looked rather silly.

Speaker 34 That to me is the big disconnect. It's not with Jeff Bezos.
We've always had these eccentric billionaires in our country who do things that we find extraordinary.

Speaker 34 Some of them are ostentatious with their wealth, some are not, but

Speaker 34 whatever.

Speaker 20 I love that Christine Boransky had the nerve to say it. I have to say, like, it took guts because, you know, Jeff Bezos is one of the main.

Speaker 20 Justine Bateman gave a very interview, a very interesting interview the other day, talking about how, you know, the studio system is basically down to a few billionaires now, like Tim Cook, who runs Apple, and Jeff Bezos, who runs Amazon, and that

Speaker 20 the movies are all secondary, that the main castle is their tech business, and that the moat around the castle to keep it protected is their movies on Netflix or on Apple or on Amazon that kind of keep people interested and they fund, you know, different projects that will keep them interested in an Amazon or in an Apple or in technology.

Speaker 20 But those are all just secondary to their main business and it's dangerous. She had a good point.
In any event,

Speaker 20 it's dangerous to criticize Jeff Bezos for someone like Christine Boransky, who makes her living acting on stage. So I give her credit.

Speaker 20 Once again, she's done a very strong, interesting, amusing thing. Guys, thank you both so much for being here.

Speaker 33 Thank you so much.

Speaker 20 Always fun. Go, go now, subscribe at NR Plus so you can get all their content.

Speaker 20 And you, if you sign up for NR Plus, you really do get almost no ads. I love it, and I listen.
National Review has my favorite feature on any news site. Very few have it.

Speaker 20 The Wall Street Journal has it. National Review has it.
Sometimes the New York Times has it on some of their articles where it says listen to this article.

Speaker 20 And you press listen, and then you can do whatever you want. And National Review has a very nice AI voice over there.
And you can listen to your news, you know, piece by piece.

Speaker 20 And I do it all the time. I'll just do like a running tally of the NR articles in the morning.
Very, very helpful stuff. Okay, coming up next, Steve Hilton.

Speaker 20 Our old pal Steve Hilton is running for governor of California. And wait until you hear where he is in the polls.
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Speaker 10 I'm Megan Kelly, host of the Megan Kelly Show on SiriusXM.

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Speaker 20 When Kamala Harris announced last month that she would not be running for governor of California, the conventional wisdom was that it was opening up an opportunity for another Democrat to lead the nation's largest state.

Speaker 19 But could a Republican,

Speaker 20 I said it, actually take the reins of the golden state for the first time since Arnold Schwarzenegger left Sacramento in January of 2011?

Speaker 20 Steve Hilton, who is running on a campaign to make California golden again, is trying to make that happen.

Speaker 20 And a new poll from Emerson has him currently in second place behind former Democratic Representative Katie Porter. She's at 18.
He's at 12. All the others are down by like four or five.

Speaker 20 My God, what's happening? Steve joins me now. Steve, what is happening? And Katie Porter's got a long list of problems.
So like, I feel like you could close that gap.

Speaker 31 Yeah, exactly. Well, it's great to be with you, Megan.
I'm very excited about closing the gap.

Speaker 31 Um, yeah, there was another poll actually that our campaign did, to full disclosure, but actually had me leading.

Speaker 31 So, whichever way you look at it, we have this ridiculous top two system in California. Um, don't get me started on that, but you've got to get the two candidates.

Speaker 31 There's not a Democrat primary or Republican primary, the top two candidates in next June's primary go forward to the general election, and all the polls so far showing that it's me and Katie Porter.

Speaker 31 So, there you go. By the way, can I just say one thing, Megan? Um, You've had back-to-back naturalized citizens today on the show, and I can confirm that I also don't feel anxious walking around.

Speaker 20 You didn't run around feeling anxiety about whether your swearing in would happen or not and whether you'd get hunted.

Speaker 31 It's insane. So by the way, one thing,

Speaker 31 I actually, I hadn't really, I don't think I've spoken about this publicly before, but it just brings it to mind.

Speaker 31 When I got my citizenship 2021. So we moved here, my wife and my two sons in 2012.

Speaker 31 Took quite a while to get through it. 2021 got my citizenship.
The first time I went back to the UK afterwards,

Speaker 31 I guess out of habit, I had my British passport and I used it in those electronic gates. We went back to Christmas time to see friends and family and it didn't work.

Speaker 34 So I thought, wow, it's really happened.

Speaker 31 I got out my US passport. It worked.
I sailed through. And I thought that was the end of it.
And my British citizenship had been canceled.

Speaker 31 Turns out you actually have to proactively do that and renounce. There's a sort of paperwork process you have to go through, which I'm in the middle of doing right now.
So very soon, I will be 100%

Speaker 31 proudly American.

Speaker 20 Oh, so Tom Holman might be watching this. He might come get you if it's not.

Speaker 20 It's been no renouncing.

Speaker 19 No.

Speaker 20 Exactly. So I think it's very bold of you because California is a hot mess and they don't really like Republicans, although they like them more than we knew.

Speaker 20 In the wake of this redistricting battle that's happening in Texas and now Gavin Newsom's threatening to retaliate, it's come out that there's actually a significant portion of the state that is Republican.

Speaker 20 They're just not reflected in the congressional districts because of gerrymandering, because of the very thing Gavin Newsom is being so hard on Governor Abbott in Texas for what he says he's doing.

Speaker 31 Exactly. I mean, this is a point I've been making for years, and it's highly relevant now.

Speaker 31 Everyone talks about, including Gavin Newsom, well, we have an independent districting process in California. It's true that in 2008 and then in 2010, the voters chose an independent system.

Speaker 31 They chose to take the power to draw the maps away from the politicians and put it in the hands of this commission.

Speaker 31 But classic California, the Democrat machine, got hold of the process and said, you know, we're going to do what we can to favor Democrats.

Speaker 31 So as you say, and pretty much constantly for the last 20 years or so, there's been a 40% or so Republican vote in California, 40%.

Speaker 31 But in terms of the congressional representation, it's 17%.

Speaker 31 And it's the same sort of pattern to the state legislature. That's why I've said when I'm governor, we're going to restore the integrity of the system.

Speaker 31 And if Gavin Newsom goes ahead with his scheme to steal even more seats, I announced last week that I'm going to be filing a lawsuit to block him because he hasn't thought through all the legal obstacles.

Speaker 31 And I just don't think he can do it.

Speaker 20 Yeah,

Speaker 20 they've tried to tie his hands

Speaker 20 from doing it with this legislation that you mentioned, which was passed. And he's going to have to live up to that.
So his threats do sound a little empty.

Speaker 20 Just for the record, Gavin Newsom can't run again because there are term limits in California. So this really is going to be an open seat, which leaves a big, big opportunity for you.

Speaker 20 So he's... been trying to like get his swagger going over this whole redistricting battle and act like a tough guy

Speaker 20 because he obviously wants to be president and that's where his eyes are focused. So he's been sending out these bizarre tweets.
First, he just started threatening.

Speaker 20 Like if you do this in Texas, which by the way,

Speaker 20 they did have to do. We went back and actually looked at it more seriously.
The

Speaker 20 districts in Texas had resulted, these few that they're targeting, as a result of racial lines being drawn unfairly to try to group blacks and Hispanics together and exclude whites.

Speaker 20 And the DOJ said that's illegal. You have to redo them.
So they're redoing them. And we are going to wind up with five net new seats in Texas.

Speaker 20 And that state will reflect its voting block appropriately as a result of this. California already has an imbalance in favor of Democrats, where it has almost no Democratic representatives.

Speaker 20 And Gavin Newsom is acting like a spoiled child because he needs attention. He wants to look tough.

Speaker 20 So here, but I just want to read a couple of the tweets because

Speaker 20 he's getting like weird. All right, so he tweets this out and he signed it, GN.
So this one came from him.

Speaker 20 Donald Taco Trump, as many call him, that Taco, according to leftists, stands for Trump Always Chickens Out. Ask Iran if that's true.

Speaker 20 Missed the deadline. Now, by the deadline, he means his own

Speaker 20 declared deadline for Donald Trump to back down in Texas. Gavin Newsom said, you have till Tuesday to stop it.
And Trump blew him off like the flea that he he is.

Speaker 20 He missed the deadline. California will now draw new, more beautiful maps.
They will be historic as they will end the Trump presidency. Dems, take back the House.

Speaker 20 This is an all caps with an exclamation point. Big press conference this week with powerful Dems and Gavin Newsom, your favorite governor.
That will be devastating for MAGA.

Speaker 20 Thank you for your attention to this matter, GN.

Speaker 20 An obvious attempt to sound like Trump in Trump's truth social posts and totally missing the reality, Steve, that there's only one Donald Trump and he cannot be copied.

Speaker 31 I know. It's so embarrassing.

Speaker 31 I mean, you know, as my teenage sons would put it, cringe of the highest order. What is he doing? And this has been going on for a while now, actually.

Speaker 31 They've been using that account with these ridiculous parody posts. And it's not funny.
I mean, we'll get into it. I mean, especially when you think about all the problems, the real problems.

Speaker 31 Like, it is the worst-run state in America, California. He's got a lot to deal with right here in California.

Speaker 31 The fact that we have the highest unemployment rate in the country, the highest poverty rate, the highest cost for everything that matters, housing, gas, electricity, water, you name it, the worst business climate in America.

Speaker 31 Like everything is a disaster. I mean, never mind, homelessness and crime and everything else.
And then he's... doing this kind of thing.

Speaker 31 Exactly as you say.

Speaker 31 This idea that Texas started it is ridiculous.

Speaker 31 If you just look at the raw numbers and you say, what would it look like if we did have fair representation in California, just on the congressional districts?

Speaker 31 We would have from California an extra 12 House seats for Republicans. 12 for Republicans.

Speaker 31 They've already taken 12. Now he wants another five or six.
I mean, it's just completely ridiculous. And he's running around doing this kind of thing on social media.
It is utterly pathetic.

Speaker 31 I really, I'm on the road the whole time since launching my campaign at the the end of April. People are so angry and fed up with the way things are going.

Speaker 31 They're fed up with the struggle, the cost of everything, the hassle of everything. I honestly believe we, of course, you know, I'm not saying it's going to be easy to win at all.

Speaker 31 It's going to be very difficult. Their machine is very powerful.
They've got their unions, all of that. But I really think we've got our best shot in at least 20 years.

Speaker 31 People are desperate for change and that's the plan. I mean, we've got to deal with these real problems.

Speaker 20 You mentioned the homeless problem in California. I've experienced it myself.
I've been out to LA a few times over the past couple of years.

Speaker 20 You literally have to step over the homeless encampments, like the tents, and like just to get from A to B. It's so ubiquitous there.
It's really seriously problematic.

Speaker 20 You toured a homeless encampment near the San Jose airport, and this is some video you posted to your ex-account on Monday. Here it is, it's 41.

Speaker 42 Just here, right by the San Jose International Airport.

Speaker 40 and they get off the plane and say oh the capital of Silicon Valley they brag about this being the world's fourth biggest economy and there look

Speaker 40 This is what you get

Speaker 40 This is what you get from Democrat one-party rule. It's an absolute disgrace.
How have we allowed this to go on for so long?

Speaker 19 Look at this.

Speaker 20 Tent after tent after tent. Just for

Speaker 40 as far as you can see.

Speaker 40 And let's go across here.

Speaker 31 Yeah.

Speaker 19 Just look. It's unbelievable.

Speaker 25 Just walk down here a bit.

Speaker 20 This for the listening audience.

Speaker 40 This is Gavin Newsom's California. This is Democrat-run California.
It stinks of piss and shit.

Speaker 19 Unbelievable. So that...

Speaker 20 Were those trailers and the second, like, were those campers, Steve, like... parking out? What was that in part two?

Speaker 31 It's a permanent encampment. I mean,

Speaker 31 I described it as the kind of third world slum slum conditions. It's not the favelas in Rio de Janeiro, it's San Jose.
They brag about being the capital of Silicon Valley. It is so shameful.

Speaker 31 And this has been there for years and years and years. And it's right across the state.

Speaker 20 By the way, it doesn't even have to be like when I went to the premiere of Mr.

Speaker 20 Burcham, which was my fun little cartoon I did with Adam Carolla, which was at this like swanky place where there, you know, it's like a very nice neighborhood. Same.
It looked the same as that.

Speaker 20 So you don't have to go out like very far to find this.

Speaker 31 100%. It's everywhere.
And the smell is a real thing. That's why I always make this point.
I was covering the protests in LA when you were with the ICE stuff going on and the riots and all of that.

Speaker 31 I was right there reporting on that and talking to people and making the case.

Speaker 31 Let's not get into the specific argument about what was going on. But there too, I mean, we saw the chaos and the crime and the lawlessness and setting cars on fire, all of that.

Speaker 31 But throughout it all and days afterwards, and all of everything else had been gone, you were left with the stink.

Speaker 31 the stick in in in la our second city about to host the olympics everywhere you walk in downtown los angeles it stinks of piss and shit that's the truth and it is so shameful it's been like this for years and they've done nothing about it and these are the people these democrats who brag go on and on about lecturing everyone about equity and social justice and how compassionate they are It's just beyond belief.

Speaker 31 On a lighter note, though, I do, I have to say, I'm very happy that you showed us the the whistle lady earlier, because now I think maybe with the, you know, the Californias are sitting around thinking there's this audit a few months ago saying $24 billion of our money spent on homelessness.

Speaker 31 No one can track where it went. The problem just got worse.
I think we know now.

Speaker 27 They bought whistles.

Speaker 19 Neon whistles. Yes, right.
Plastic and neon.

Speaker 20 Very cute. Very cute.
I'm telling my 12-year-old would love that.

Speaker 20 But not to speaking of money disappearing, we just did a story on AM Update earlier this week on the California wildfires.

Speaker 20 All these big stars came out to raise money and made promises that the money would go directly, go directly to the Californians whose homes had burned. It didn't.

Speaker 20 We're trying to track down $100 million now, which appears, according to the reporting that we did based on some local sources, to have gone to a combination of like

Speaker 20 immigration groups, random leftist causes, as opposed to to rebuild homes. You see these aerial shots of what's been rebuilt in the Palisades and nothing.
The answer is nothing.

Speaker 20 Absolutely nothing has been rebuilt.

Speaker 20 And Gavin Newsom is worried about doing parodies of Trump tweets online.

Speaker 31 It's exactly right. I mean, it really illustrates so many of the deep problems of California.
I'm there often. I was in Altadina the other week, Palisades.

Speaker 31 I was there for the six-month anniversary on the same day that Gavin Newsom at a press conference was bragging about this being the fastest recovery effort in history, historic speed of recovery.

Speaker 31 He was talking about. I did my press conference standing in front of a pile of rubble in the middle of Pacific Palisades that was kind of flowing out onto the street and onto the road.

Speaker 31 He couldn't even clear the sidewalk. He promised six months ago a, I mean, this is classic news him.
He just runs around saying things, nothing happens.

Speaker 31 He promised a Marshall plan to rebuild Palisades. It's just a joke.

Speaker 31 But the point about the missing money is very, very deep, actually, because this is exactly the serious answer to where the $24 billion of homeless taxpayer money has gone is exactly where the fire aid money has gone.

Speaker 31 This unbelievably corrupt network of non-profits and charities, so-called, and all these groups and activist organizations that form part of this system, the Democrat industrial complex, I call it, because that's the same story for everything.

Speaker 31 This is why we pay the highest taxes in the country, but have some of the worst outcomes on everything, because the the money just gets funneled into this democrat machine there's a there's something that is rarely discussed which is something called vmt vehicle miles traveled which is this thing they came up with part of their extreme climate agenda talk about luxury beliefs the climate extremism is a classic example of that and they are they just put this fictional amount of charge for the amount of money, amount of miles that are traveled for any new road project or housing project or anything you want want to build.

Speaker 31 They put this allowance in for vehicle miles traveled, how much traffic is going to be generated. And then they charge taxes on that.
Guess where the taxes go?

Speaker 31 It's called mitigation for climate impacts. And it goes right back to the NGOs and the climate activists and all these organizations.
This is what goes on in California.

Speaker 31 This is what you get with 20 years nearly of one-party rule, this kind of corruption.

Speaker 20 There was news on that just today, on California's extreme climate measures, which is just over the top, but we all need need to worry because it's true that as California goes, so goes the nation when it comes to that stuff.

Speaker 20 They adopt these very restrictive carbon emissions requirements, and lo and behold, the Biden administration was adopting the same ones.

Speaker 20 Now it's all being undone by Trump, but there was news in Politico today, which the headline is as follows: another one of California's Trump-proofing planks just broke.

Speaker 20 And what they had tried to do in the Biden administration before Joe Biden left was to try to get truckers out there,

Speaker 20 heavy-duty truck manufacturers and their trade associations to promise that they would continue meeting the state's zero emissions sales targets.

Speaker 20 And so it was like, no matter what Trump does, you've promised that you're going to do it. So he strong-armed them into doing it.

Speaker 20 And the Federal Trade Commission under Trump just declared those agreements unenforceable.

Speaker 20 So now these groups are free to, yeah, there's going to be some emissions, there's going to be jobs, there's going to be purchases of these kinds of vehicles, and they're going to be used and more efficiently efficiently and it's going to get done.

Speaker 20 In any event, it's not working. Biden's last-minute attempt to get wind through everywhere.
We're going to have a full report on that.

Speaker 20 This with the trucks in California, but they're so focused on everything's got to be green, green, green, green, green.

Speaker 20 You know what kind of a damage people suffered to their lungs and their health as a result of those wildfires? Because there wasn't adequate planning, Steve. They didn't have competent administrators.

Speaker 31 Everything. Look,

Speaker 31 the climate stuff is the the main reason that everything is so expensive. Because of all these policies, it makes housing more expensive, gas, electricity, everything.
Highest in the country.

Speaker 31 That's why people can't afford to pay their bills. You can't afford to buy a house in California.
The California dream has been destroyed.

Speaker 31 That dream of owning your own home and building your life that used to represent better than anywhere else, the American dream.

Speaker 31 It's the climate extremism more than anything else that is destroying that. That's why I've pledged to reverse it.

Speaker 31 And so I've said also that it's not enough, I I think for us to I mean of course it's great that we have a federal administration that's pushing back on all this but we can't just rely on the federal government to save us in California.

Speaker 31 We have to fight and stand up for ourselves and get this common sense change that we need in California.

Speaker 31 And that's what my plan is all about is to lower people's costs, reduce the hassle of doing anything, whether that's running your life, running your business, whatever it is.

Speaker 31 It's just endless, bloated, nanny state bureaucracy, making everything so complicated and costly right across the board. That's what we've got to get rid of.

Speaker 31 And that's why I think it's not just that I can, you know, lay out the policies.

Speaker 31 I mean, people may know me from Fox, but before I did that, you know, I taught at Stanford and I started a business here.

Speaker 31 I was a policy advisor, senior advisor to the prime minister back in the day in the UK, David Cameron. I've done this, right?

Speaker 31 I've been there at the heart of a government, you know, fighting the bureaucracy, not with the kind of success I would have liked. I wasn't the boss.

Speaker 31 I wasn't in charge, but I know what it's like to take on a bureaucratic system. And that's why I'm doing this, because I really know that we can get this done.
We just need,

Speaker 31 you talked about competence and just people who know what they're doing. For so long in California, we've had these machine politicians.
Their only skill is navigating the party machine and getting

Speaker 31 all the way through all the act exactly. You were talking about it just last week.

Speaker 31 I really thought of this when you were talking about Kamala Harris and all these people, but they're all the same, Newsom, Karen Bass, whatever. But sick of it.

Speaker 31 The results are so painful for people. And we've just got to get in there and shake it all up and get...

Speaker 31 The other thing that really reminded me when you're talking about, you know, Sidney Sweeney, I know it sounds, of course, it's a different topic, but

Speaker 31 that reminder that returning to normalcy, right?

Speaker 31 That's true in the cultural arena. But in California, it's also needed in the policy arena.

Speaker 31 We've got these crazy, extreme ideological policies that are just making everything ridiculously expensive and complicated. The answers to these things are not complicated.
It's just normal,

Speaker 27 basic competency.

Speaker 19 It requires some courage.

Speaker 20 It requires courage by the politicians, and it requires boldness by the voters when the actual voting day comes along.

Speaker 20 I do want to show the audience you out there in front of the fires, well, in front of the spot where the fires were, and what you found.

Speaker 20 This was posted on July 7th, SOT43.

Speaker 42 Hi, everyone. Thank you for coming today.

Speaker 19 I've just been listening to Gavin Newsom bragging about the response

Speaker 42 of his administration to the devastating wildfires we saw here six months ago to this day.

Speaker 42 I'm quoting him now:

Speaker 16 the fastest response in terms of debris removal in modern history.

Speaker 42 Six months, and this is still here.

Speaker 20 Gesturing behind you, for the listening audience, it looked like it looked akin to 9-11. I mean, the devastation behind you that hasn't even been removed.
Never mind, rebuilt.

Speaker 27 Look, this is

Speaker 31 everything.

Speaker 31 that we're talking about, the luxury reliefs, climate policies, the incompetence, the inability to really do anything, these sort of promises that never get delivered.

Speaker 31 It's all because you've got these are not serious people. They don't understand how to get anything done.
All they just constantly assume they're not going to get a challenge from the other party.

Speaker 31 They're so arrogant. All they care about is saying the right things to pander to the activists and the unions who fund their campaigns and so on.

Speaker 31 And that's why we have this massive mess in California. And that's what we've got to get away from.

Speaker 31 This kind of attitude that you just say things to pander to the internal audience of our party instead of just focusing on.

Speaker 20 Is it possible, Steve? You know, because

Speaker 20 my feeling way over here on the East Coast is these Californians are never going to do it.

Speaker 20 They love feeling like a good little liberal. They're never going to actually, when voting day comes, put a Republican governor back here, back in there.
It's a long time since 2011 in Schwarzenegger.

Speaker 31 But it's a lot worse. It's a lot worse for people.
I mean, just, you know, I'm on the road, as I said, the whole time.

Speaker 31 And the word that captures what I'm feeling from people, you know, we do hundreds of events, thousands of people, and you just see it in their eyes. And I feel it so strongly.

Speaker 31 The word that represents better than anything else what's going on is struggle. Just the struggle, the pain.

Speaker 31 of just existing, of trying to feed your family and pay the bills or run your restaurant or something you know i i ran a restaurant back in the day in england i know what it's like to start and run a small business and the pain that people are going through and so i think it is part part of what i'm trying to do and i'm running a very active energetic campaign and some people are saying they haven't really seen anything like that so early but the reason that i'm doing it is because we've got to give people hope it doesn't have to be like this that is the message like we we don't have to to live like this.

Speaker 31 It's a choice.

Speaker 19 Well, and California has gone so much. It's

Speaker 20 radical. We're not even talking about the cultural issues.
And California has gone so radically left on that under Gavin Newsom.

Speaker 20 I don't care what he told Charlie Kirk on his, you know, it's a question of fairness, man, when it comes to boys and girls' sports. It was a lie.
He doesn't believe it. Just today in the news,

Speaker 20 there's an article just this week, I guess I should say, that this one trans athlete, which means a boy participating in your girls' sports,

Speaker 20 who won all these events, like the high jump and the long jump at the state championships in June.

Speaker 20 He was honored. He was honored by California lawmakers, including California state senator Sabrina Cervantes, who thought it would be great to honor this young man, A.B.

Speaker 20 Hernandez, not the women, not the girls. who competed against him, who were forced to and found it, you know, tested their metal and actually got out there and did it.

Speaker 20 Him. He's the only one who got the honors.
And I'll give you a feel for how their celebration of this guy

Speaker 20 sounded in SAT. I think it's 16.

Speaker 43 This says certificate of achievement presented to A.B. Hernandez.
The group of LA City Council is pleased to recognize A.B. Hernandez for winning CIF State Track and Field Championships.

Speaker 43 Your preservation and dedication are a testament to your motivation to succeed. So congratulations on this outstanding accomplishment.

Speaker 44 And just wanted to take a moment this evening to recognize A.B. Hernandez for their grit, their passion, and their dedication to the sport.

Speaker 44 We have two certificates of recognition on behalf of the California State Senate for your CIF championship. Of course, second place in the long jump and first place in the high jump and triple jump.

Speaker 44 I am just so proud to know that you continue to prevail despite all the noise out there and you're focused on your goals and your dreams and your aspirations.

Speaker 44 We know how difficult it is to get to that level,

Speaker 44 to be an athlete at that level. And so again,

Speaker 44 your dedication and passion is an inspiration to so many.

Speaker 20 Oh my God. So that was Cervantes.
The mayor was the first one there. The nerve to talk about his first place and

Speaker 20 how hard it was to get there. Yeah, for the girls.
For the girls, Steve.

Speaker 31 Okay, so let me just,

Speaker 27 I was there.

Speaker 31 I went there to the championships in June to announce what I would do to end this obscenity. By the way, I'm just, I'm going to show you, people won't be able to see you aren't watching.

Speaker 31 Here's a bracelet, Protect Girls Sports, Save Girls Sports, which I've been wearing ever since that date was given to me by a brave campaigner that I stood there with to announce what I'm going to do.

Speaker 31 And just to be really clear, why this is happening, this all goes back to, and it's worth, it's not even the competition. In a way, it's, you know, it's everything.

Speaker 31 I mean, you've talked about this so much and been such a powerful voice, but it's the locker rooms and it's the, you know, even field trips.

Speaker 31 It's just girls, it their spaces being invaded there was a there's a story that made me so angry for a few months before these championships on the central coast of california you may have seen it that the the teenage girl telling the story in front of a school board about how she was in the locker room with her friends and a male walked in and as she described it started completely naked in completely intact that was her word and she described what she saw with her friends like just right next to her she complained about it she was punished she was punished

Speaker 31 for calling it out and then she went to the school board to tell the story and the school board silenced her and gabbled her out and said you can't say that so this is it all goes back to a law that was passed that AB 1266 passed in 2013 and so however outraged we are we got to know we got to realize the law is the law so i immediately said well no it's not enough just to be outraged what can i do about it as governor and i one of my team is uh actually governor pete wilson's legal um advisor who did great work with governor wilson i said look we've got to change this how can i do this because the legislature won't overturn that bill well actually as the governor you have the power to challenge legislation that you think is violates the california constitution and we think that this bill does in two particular areas section 28 which guarantees safe schools and section 31 which bars gender discrimination what is this if it's not discrimination against girls?

Speaker 31 So my plan very clearly, and I said it there at those track and field finals, will be to overturn this obscene legislation.

Speaker 31 And I mean, as you say, that's just one of many of these unbelievable, extreme cultural things that they're doing.

Speaker 31 And there's another one that just popped up, AB 495, which allows any adult stranger to take custody of somebody else's child just by signing a few forms without any background checks.

Speaker 31 It's just unbelievable. That's coming up for a vote.

Speaker 20 That's on the illegal immigration front, right? Am I wrong? Like if somebody's about to get deported, they basically let anybody step in and be like, I'll watch her. I'll take the child.

Speaker 20 But it's like, that's part of how we got into this mess. Yeah, take custody because we already are doing that with unaccompanied minors who crossed the border, not under Trump, but under Biden.

Speaker 20 giving them to unknown people who have maybe no connection with them.

Speaker 20 And it's come out in the news, many of these people turn out to be child molesters who are, of course, the ones who are going to line up to take an unaccompanied child.

Speaker 20 The vetting system was piss poor under Biden. He didn't care.

Speaker 20 And so now you're saying California's got a law that they're, that they're, that's basically going to allow the same kind of thing with very little screening to happen out there.

Speaker 31 To anyone, not just anyone who's been involved in the immigration system, all children, all parents. It's a state law.

Speaker 31 I mean, it hasn't been voted on yet. There's a big

Speaker 31 pastor, Jack Hibbs, who's a good friend of mine and one of my supporters, you know, is rallying supporters to try and get them to vote this down. Because

Speaker 31 it's just, you were just when you think they can't get more extreme, they come out with something like this. That anyone, any adult can take custody of anybody's child.
It is just unbelievable.

Speaker 31 But this is part of the, this is again, I come back to it all the time because this is what happens with one-party rule.

Speaker 31 They get so arrogant, they get so inward-looking, they get so captured by their own ideology, and they just forget about regular, regular normal people who see this kind of thing thing and say, you've got to be kidding me.

Speaker 31 So that's why I think we're going to win next year because,

Speaker 31 I mean, look, I used to do a show on Fox News. It was called The Next Revolution.
I always say,

Speaker 31 next year, we're going to have the California Revolution. That's what it's going to feel like.
But actually, it's just regular people saying, please, can we just end this far-left insanity?

Speaker 20 Well, I mean, the governor race, the presidential race, those are still areas in which Californians can be heard. California Republicans can be heard.
You may not get the congressional

Speaker 20 representation that you deserve, but you can make your voice heard on a statewide level or the national level, and you should. Steve, we'll have you on many times between now and then.
Good luck.

Speaker 20 We know we're rooting for you.

Speaker 31 Oh, Jids, can I just say one last thing? I've got to say to you, do we have a minute? Yeah, go ahead. We've talked a lot about California, but there's one other place.

Speaker 31 that I have to mention when I'm on with. I've been saving it up because you will understand this better than anyone.
And the minute I say the the word, you'll know where I'm going with this: Sussex.

Speaker 27 Sussex.

Speaker 31 So, as we discussed,

Speaker 31 I am now a proud American, naturalized. My parents were Hungarian immigrants.
I grew up in England, born in London.

Speaker 31 And when I was very young, they moved down to a town called Brighton. That's where I was born and raised.
It is on the south coast in the county of Sussex, East Sussex.

Speaker 31 So, when I see your favorite jam company founder running around calling herself the Duchess of Sussex.

Speaker 27 No,

Speaker 12 not my god.

Speaker 20 It's got to really irk you. It irks me too.
And her royal stationary, even though she's not a working royal, constantly requiring people to call her, you know, the right titles.

Speaker 20 Do you believe that King Charles, or possibly more realistically, in the future, King William should strip them? of their royal titles. This could make or break you as the governor.

Speaker 27 I don't know what I can do about it, but like, what are you talking about?

Speaker 31 You trash the royal family.

Speaker 31 You ruin the great queen's last

Speaker 31 month with your ridiculous evil

Speaker 31 assaults on her character and integrity in the family. And you do everything you can to say, we don't want this.

Speaker 31 And then you're after America and say, oh, by the way, yeah, we do want it because if it helps us make money.

Speaker 12 Unbelievable. Yeah.
And

Speaker 31 she is not my duchess.

Speaker 20 The biggest grifters in California, and that's that's saying something in a state that has Hollywood as one of its hubs. Steve, a pleasure.
Thanks so much for coming on.

Speaker 31 Of course, Megan. See you soon.
Thank you.

Speaker 20 All right. And we're back tomorrow with Stu Bergier.
And we'll see all of you then.

Speaker 20 Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

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