The Megyn Kelly Show - 20240609_weekend-best-of-bill-maher-riley-gaines-shawn-ryan
Aired: 2024-06-09
Duration: 01:15:02


=== Highlights from Bill Maher Interview (01:45) ===

[00:00:01]  FICE presented super inkler cost programme for the fact that super inkled costs are the first time welcome to the Megan Kelly Show live on Sirius XM channel 111 every weekday at noon East Hey everyone, I'm Megan Kelly.
[00:00:28]  Welcome to the Megan Kelly show and this weekend best of special.
[00:00:32]  We've had a busy few weeks here and I wanted to bring you some of the highlights that you may have missed.
[00:00:37]  If you spend any time on X, you likely saw some of my interview with Bill Maher.
[00:00:43]  I like Bill, but he was off.
[00:00:45]  Let's say let's, shall we say, on a few key elements of some big stories in the news over the past couple of years and we'll bring you some of the highlights that went pretty viral.
[00:00:55]  Also, I sat down with Sean Ryan for two hours recently for our yearly Memorial Day show.
[00:01:00]  It was an incredible interview.
[00:01:02]  I think you're really going to love it.
[00:01:03]  If you missed it, and we'll bring you my favorite exchange also, Riley Gaines, for her first time on the Megan Kelly show.
[00:01:10]  It quick, it's like hard to believe.
[00:01:12]  How is that possible?
[00:01:13]  I don't know.
[00:01:13]  It just kind of worked out that way, but we talked about so much and we finally got the chance to really talk in person about what she's been through and how she became a real activist in this gender insanity lane.
[00:01:28]  Another first-time guest on the show, Charlemagne the God was on the show recently and I got a lot of feedback on this one some mixed reaction, but most people really loved the interview.
[00:01:38]  It was a really interesting conversation.
[00:01:40]  Plus, after the New York City business records trial verdict, I had to share my incident analysis and reaction.

=== Reaction to Election Denier Trial (15:28) ===

[00:01:46]  That's included here in part.
[00:01:48]  I think you'll enjoy it if you missed it.
[00:01:50]  But I also wanted to tell you something important.
[00:01:52]  Tomorrow we start fraud week here on the MK SHOW.
[00:01:57]  We're going to bring you a series of true crime shows all based around fraud in one way, shape or form.
[00:02:05]  Now I don't want to tell you too much because part of the fun is watching and listening to it unfold yourself.
[00:02:12]  But there are five very compelling stories, including my own enjoy.
[00:02:21]  I do think there's a difference between it was stolen you know the the nonsense with dominion voting machines and all that versus it wasn't fair and what wasn't fair.
[00:02:33]  The election started.
[00:02:34]  What wasn't fair, okay well, the election watched the suppression of the Hunter Biden Laptack story, just just for one.
[00:02:39]  Oh, for fuck's sake really.
[00:02:41]  Oh then, then you're, then we're not as alike as you think.
[00:02:45]  That's a.
[00:02:45]  That's a stupid non-story.
[00:02:47]  I mean yes, who?
[00:02:49]  There are polls that show some 10 to 12 percent of the electorate says they would have changed their mind had they seen it, had they known about it.
[00:02:55]  It wasn't right.
[00:02:55]  It wasn't right to suppress it, but nobody gives a about about Hunter Biden's dick nobody.
[00:03:02]  You're talking about yourself.
[00:03:03]  I'm telling you there.
[00:03:04]  There are data to show people did care, they.
[00:03:07]  They said they were nobody who was voting, nobody who was going to vote for Trump anyway, or Biden anyway.
[00:03:14]  I mean, it wasn't about Hunter Biden's man parts.
[00:03:17]  It was about the scandal of his corruption and his dad's corruption.
[00:03:21]  Bill, I used to think that Hondur Biden was a hot mess and Joe Biden was embarrassed by him but had to deal.
[00:03:28]  Now I really think he was doing Joe Biden's bidding.
[00:03:31]  Joe Biden is the bad guy who sent his drug-addled son out there to collect money.
[00:03:36]  That's what the laptop shows.
[00:03:39]  And that's more important than what I was bringing up about not abiding by election results, not respecting what always made this country great, the peaceful transference of power.
[00:03:50]  See, I don't disagree with you on that.
[00:03:51]  You're not going to get me to say it was a great thing the way Trump behaved.
[00:03:54]  I don't have to get you to agree or disagree.
[00:03:55]  You're obviously someone who looks at an elephant and a mouse and cannot tell which one is bigger.
[00:04:01]  I disagree.
[00:04:01]  I think that's projection by you because I look at Joe Biden.
[00:04:04]  That's how I see you.
[00:04:05]  Well, let's see.
[00:04:07]  Why are you telling me this?
[00:04:08]  I mean, this is just typical right-wing talking points, the evil Hunter Biden and the evil Joe Biden.
[00:04:16]  And look, do I like them?
[00:04:18]  No, I don't particularly like that.
[00:04:20]  I think they're very flawed.
[00:04:21]  Listen, listen.
[00:04:21]  It's not nearly unfortunate.
[00:04:23]  You're misstating my argument.
[00:04:24]  You're misstating my argument.
[00:04:26]  Hunter Biden just now on the laptop was brought up as evidence of how the election was not fair.
[00:04:30]  He's not a reason necessarily to not vote for Joe Biden.
[00:04:34]  The reason not to vote for Joe Biden is his policies.
[00:04:37]  You're not woke.
[00:04:38]  He's as woke, or at least his policies are, as they come.
[00:04:41]  The open border bill?
[00:04:43]  How could anybody vote for somebody who keeps this border open with the number of rapes and the number of murders and the numbers of crimes going on with these immigrants?
[00:04:51]  But again, these are the normal sorts of issues we've always had in this country that should be taken care of through the normal process we've had.
[00:05:01]  You're talking about the difference between some this, I'm talking about the difference between this and something fundamental, which is our democracy.
[00:05:09]  The fact that you have to respect who wins an election or else you don't have the kind of country we've always had before.
[00:05:17]  How about?
[00:05:17]  I mean, I feel like we keep going around the Roseberry Bush about this, and we're not going to make any progress.
[00:05:23]  So let's stop talking about it.
[00:05:25]  But, you know.
[00:05:27]  I just, I mean, you keep saying sort of I'm nuts because I don't see the difference between the elephant and the mouse.
[00:05:32]  And I'm telling you, I identify them differently than you do.
[00:05:34]  Hillary Clinton, of course, is the original election denier.
[00:05:37]  I'm sure you voted for her in 16.
[00:05:39]  Well, she's not an election denier.
[00:05:40]  She absolutely was the OG election denier.
[00:05:44]  First of all, she came out before the sun had risen to concede the election to Trump.
[00:05:51]  And then spent the next four years saying he was illegitimate.
[00:05:54]  He was an illegitimate president.
[00:05:56]  Okay, well, first of all, saying she didn't say he was an illegitimate.
[00:06:00]  Well, she did.
[00:06:00]  Tell me exactly what she said.
[00:06:02]  She said those exact words repeatedly.
[00:06:05]  Okay.
[00:06:06]  I mean, she conceded the election.
[00:06:09]  Whether you're interpreting her disappointment at losing it as the same thing as Trump not conceding it, I don't know.
[00:06:18]  That's where you're getting it from.
[00:06:19]  But again, it's a tremendous false equivalency.
[00:06:22]  You could ask Hillary Clinton right now who won that election.
[00:06:25]  She will tell you.
[00:06:26]  Donald Trump won that election.
[00:06:27]  Now she knows she has to because of what Trump has said.
[00:06:30]  She came out that night and conceded the election.
[00:06:34]  And conceded the election.
[00:06:36]  Correct.
[00:06:37]  And then spent the next four years trying to convince us it was not legitimate.
[00:06:40]  Just saying, look, it's not the same as Trump.
[00:06:42]  What Trump did was far more severe.
[00:06:44]  I'm not going to deny that, but don't try to tell me that Hillary Clinton wasn't an election denier and Jamie Raskin and a whole host of Democrats who are now in prominent positions on Capitol Hill.
[00:06:54]  Doesn't make it great what Trump did, but they don't have clean hands either.
[00:06:58]  But you bypass the immigration question.
[00:07:00]  I mean, like, that's not.
[00:07:01]  I'm not bypassing it.
[00:07:02]  I think it's a disaster.
[00:07:04]  How would you put this guy back in there for four more years to leave the doors open?
[00:07:07]  And like it was so much better under Trump?
[00:07:10]  Yes, it was better under Trump.
[00:07:11]  Are you kidding me?
[00:07:12]  It was somewhat better.
[00:07:13]  Oh, Bill.
[00:07:14]  It was somewhat better.
[00:07:15]  Go look up the immigration rates in illegal immigration for 2020, for 19 to 20.
[00:07:21]  I'm not defending Biden on immigration.
[00:07:23]  I don't understand why it's so difficult in this country to stop people coming through the border.
[00:07:28]  I don't.
[00:07:28]  And I watched that 60 Minutes piece they did on it a couple of months ago, and they had films of people coming through this hole and the border patrol just watching them and basically waving.
[00:07:42]  I don't understand why.
[00:07:43]  I don't understand why this country can't accomplish something like that.
[00:07:46]  It doesn't seem like it's impossible, but so many things in this country.
[00:07:50]  That's what's so aggravating.
[00:07:51]  We can accomplish it.
[00:07:52]  We can stop what's happening at the southern border.
[00:07:54]  We just won't under Joe Biden.
[00:07:56]  And he keeps pretending like he has no agency on it, but he does have agency.
[00:07:59]  There are a lot of executive orders he could do just like Trump did.
[00:08:02]  He won't.
[00:08:03]  And you know why?
[00:08:04]  It's because of the people who use the word Latinx who are trying to lecture him that it's not humane to enforce our borders.
[00:08:11]  Yeah, I would agree with that.
[00:08:13]  The left wing, because they're so afraid always of being called racist, they let that color every issue and very often wind up with terrible policies that wind up not helping people.
[00:08:29]  Don't you think that's what's happening to him on the trans issue, too, which is my big issue with the measurement of the front?
[00:08:34]  Well, I think what Joe Biden is is a guy who does not want to fight with the left wing of his party.
[00:08:38]  He sees that as I don't think he understands a lot of what's going on in the left wing.
[00:08:44]  I mean, I doubt if he heard the word trans before he was president.
[00:08:49]  But that's what he has chosen to do.
[00:08:52]  He does not want to fight with AOC.
[00:08:54]  He thinks that's where the energy in the party is, and he's not completely wrong.
[00:08:57]  So he just kind of goes along with that kind of stuff.
[00:09:01]  Yeah, that's one thing that's not great about him.
[00:09:03]  But again, in this country, maybe gender is not binary, but politics is.
[00:09:09]  You only get two choices.
[00:09:10]  That's right.
[00:09:10]  You get Donald Trump, a criminal election denier who is going to transform this country into an authoritarian place like we've never seen before, or you get Joe Biden with all his flaws.
[00:09:24]  Also a criminal.
[00:09:26]  Okay.
[00:09:27]  What is his crime again?
[00:09:28]  Special counsel Robert Hurst said he'd committed felonies, but he wouldn't indict him because he was a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.
[00:09:35]  He couldn't get a conviction in front of a jury.
[00:09:38]  And what was that crime?
[00:09:39]  That was the...
[00:09:40]  Classified documents.
[00:09:41]  All over his basement, his garage, everywhere.
[00:09:44]  Well, okay.
[00:09:45]  Again, a false equivalency.
[00:09:47]  They both had classified documents.
[00:09:48]  Here's the difference.
[00:09:49]  Immediately, Biden, he shouldn't have had them.
[00:09:52]  Immediately, he said, oh, sorry, my bad, and gave them back.
[00:09:56]  That's why he didn't get charged with obstruction.
[00:09:58]  But Trump has two classified documents, pieces to his case.
[00:10:01]  One is you had them, and the second is you obstructed justice when we demanded them back.
[00:10:05]  So, okay, against Biden, you don't get charged with obstruction.
[00:10:08]  But number one, where's the classified documents charge against him?
[00:10:11]  He's also a felon.
[00:10:15]  You got your story.
[00:10:16]  You know, look, if you see it that way, that's what I have to deal with.
[00:10:22]  You're asking me why I see it differently than you do.
[00:10:25]  The contest between two of them, and I'm telling you.
[00:10:27]  It's not convincing.
[00:10:28]  Fair enough.
[00:10:29]  I mean, they both should not have had classified documents, one by the toilet, one by his corvette.
[00:10:35]  Okay.
[00:10:36]  One.
[00:10:37]  One.
[00:10:38]  Multiple, many.
[00:10:40]  No, I'm talking about one person.
[00:10:41]  Okay.
[00:10:41]  One of them.
[00:10:42]  Okay, a copy, right?
[00:10:43]  One Trump, one Biden.
[00:10:45]  They both did that.
[00:10:46]  The difference is Goofus and Gallant.
[00:10:48]  Goofus said, anything I touch is mine forever.
[00:10:52]  Go fish.
[00:10:53]  And the other one said, oh, yeah, my bad.
[00:10:57]  And I'll immediately return them.
[00:10:58]  That's very funny.
[00:10:59]  You're taking me back to my childhood with that reference.
[00:11:01]  Why can't the difference be one actually had the ability to declassify documents and keep them because he'd been the president and one didn't because he should have been looking at documents only in a skiff while a sitting U.S. Senator and clearly he stole classified documents that he wasn't entitled to and never had the ability to declassify them.
[00:11:22]  Yeah.
[00:11:24]  Maybe you know more about that than I do.
[00:11:26]  I don't remember that part of it.
[00:11:27]  And I always don't trust anything I hear until I vet it from the other side because everybody sort of has their one-sided view of it and narrative is more important than truth.
[00:11:37]  I know this is the right-wing narrative.
[00:11:40]  I'm not like that, Bill.
[00:11:42]  I care about facts.
[00:11:43]  I practiced law for 10 years.
[00:11:44]  I want to get the cases right more than I want to get clicks.
[00:11:48]  And I have a lot of lefties who watch me.
[00:11:50]  So I'm not like that.
[00:11:51]  All I can tell you is those are the facts.
[00:11:54]  And Joe Biden also has behaved in a grossly, grossly extra-constitutional manner.
[00:12:00]  Not only the nonsense of trying to skirt the Supreme Court on the eviction moratoriums and the student loan, quote, debt forgiveness, which he's bragging about skirting them on, but the four indictments, which obviously the White House was behind and promoted and wanted.
[00:12:18]  Four indictments of a former sitting president, which we've made it almost 250 years without doing.
[00:12:23]  If that's not extra-legal and weirdly non-normie, I don't know what is.
[00:12:29]  What are the four indictments we're talking about now?
[00:12:31]  The two federal indictments against Trump and the one in New York and the one in Georgia.
[00:12:35]  Oh, you're talking about the Trump indictments.
[00:12:37]  Yeah, I'm saying this administration 100% was behind at least those two federal ones, and there's evidence they were behind the other two, or at least in coordination, though they deny it.
[00:12:46]  They were behind them.
[00:12:48]  It wasn't Trump committing those crimes.
[00:12:50]  Do you really think, you don't think that Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton could have been indicted for what they did when he left office with all the furniture?
[00:12:58]  I don't remember.
[00:12:58]  If somebody kicked the tires of the Clinton initiative, the foundation, you don't think they could find something?
[00:13:03]  I think they did kick those tires a lot.
[00:13:05]  I'm not sure what they found, but I don't think it was much.
[00:13:09]  I don't remember Bill Clinton ever calling up.
[00:13:11]  Hillary Clinton could have been indicted post-herit.
[00:13:13]  As I was saying, I don't remember Bill Clinton calling up a Secretary of State and saying, I need you to find me 11,000 votes.
[00:13:21]  You don't find that to be a bit of a smoking gun.
[00:13:23]  I don't.
[00:13:24]  Here's why, because I've listened to the whole phone call.
[00:13:27]  I have to.
[00:13:28]  And what he's saying is I'm only behind by some 100,000, whatever the number was.
[00:13:33]  He said, so I want a recount.
[00:13:35]  And I want you to start counting.
[00:13:38]  And all I need is this number.
[00:13:40]  So basically, once you get to that number, you can stop counting.
[00:13:43]  Look, I don't want to have to defend Trump on his denialism about the election because I'm more on your team on that.
[00:13:50]  But I understand why it's not a smoking gun as you just put it.
[00:13:55]  Okay.
[00:13:55]  Well, you know, people see things differently.
[00:13:58]  They do.
[00:13:58]  Yeah.
[00:13:59]  So this is why you feel like a man without a party, because your team feels like you do on the Trump stuff.
[00:14:05]  They hate Trump, but they're not with you when it comes to your anti-wokeism.
[00:14:11]  So where does that leave you?
[00:14:13]  Who do you go out to dinner with?
[00:14:14]  Lots of people.
[00:14:15]  I mean, I feel like more people than ever are on Team Me, whatever that is, because, you know, they're the normies in the middle who don't want to be ideologically captured by either side.
[00:14:28]  That's who I feel like I speak for.
[00:14:30]  People who are not afraid to call out their own team, if you have a team, or a team that you are more on the side of when they do stuff that's goofy.
[00:14:42]  And I think they appreciate it a lot.
[00:14:44]  I mean, I notice in my stand-up shows, you know, the audience is kind of half and half, and the liberals will laugh at woke nonsense, and the conservatives will laugh at Trump jokes.
[00:14:58]  Most people in this country, I think, understand that there are deep defects on both sides.
[00:15:04]  Yeah.
[00:15:05]  And they just want the extremists who seem to have the megaphone on either side to go away or stop being so powerful.
[00:15:14]  You know, everybody is like, why can't we just be, you know, common sense?
[00:15:18]  And why can't we just, you know, be the people in the middle?
[00:15:21]  But at the end of the day, no one sort of stands up for that because it's just so easier to pander to the people who are a team because those are the people who wind up scaring the other people.
[00:15:32]  I mean, certainly on the left, that happens.
[00:15:34]  I've said it many times.
[00:15:36]  The problem with wokeness is nobody ever gets canceled for being too woke.
[00:15:40]  That's how you wind up with men can get pregnant.
[00:15:47]  We're staying in this nice resort in Sedona.
[00:15:50]  They got a guarded gate, and I pay attention to that kind of stuff because of my background.
[00:15:56]  And a lot of the guys knew me.
[00:15:58]  They worked there from my podcast and wanted to talk.
[00:16:02]  Well, we were there for a week.
[00:16:03]  The last day I walked through and it's this old, old man in there.
[00:16:10]  And he's wanted to talk to me.
[00:16:12]  Me and my wife had gone up to a hike because I was like, I just, I got to get the hell out of here.
[00:16:15]  Maybe a hike will make me feel better.
[00:16:17]  Walk back down and this guy starts trying to talk to me.
[00:16:22]  It's dark at this point.
[00:16:23]  I had already kind of surrendered, like, I'm done.
[00:16:25]  I didn't feel good, but I had kind of made my decision.
[00:16:28]  Like, I'm not doing this anymore.
[00:16:30]  And I'm kind of looking at him over the shoulder like, I'm not in the mood to like strike up a conversation.
[00:16:39]  And, but my wife starts talking to him.
[00:16:42]  And I'm like, shit, I just want to go to my room.
[00:16:46]  So I turn around and this guy, this guy read my mind from front to back.
[00:16:55]  And I mean, like, I've never had that happen.
[00:16:59]  It wasn't, I mean, it was descriptive.
[00:17:03]  It was, it scared the shit out of me because I was like, how are you?
[00:17:07]  How, how are you in my head?
[00:17:10]  And he started rattling off all these thoughts that I was having on that entire hike.

=== Gabe's Breakdown at the Agency (05:39) ===

[00:17:15]  And he's like, this stuff that's going on in China, that's not your fight anymore.
[00:17:20]  And this stuff that's going on with the kids, that's not your fight either.
[00:17:24]  And this stuff that's going on with the trans community, that's not your fight.
[00:17:28]  And I had shut down.
[00:17:31]  I was like, how is this guy in my head right now?
[00:17:35]  So freaked me out.
[00:17:37]  We're walking back to our bungalow.
[00:17:40]  We were in a place where it was kind of like a duplex.
[00:17:43]  And we're on one side, somebody else on another side.
[00:17:47]  We got there.
[00:17:48]  When we got to Sedona, my best friend that I was referring to earlier, his name's Gabe.
[00:17:55]  He died of a heroin overdose later on.
[00:18:00]  But Gabe was a SEAL.
[00:18:02]  Gabe was a pro hockey player.
[00:18:04]  Gabe was a fighter.
[00:18:06]  He was into MMA.
[00:18:07]  Gabe was at the agency with me.
[00:18:09]  And no matter where Gabe was, Gabe was always known as a protector.
[00:18:15]  Like, no matter what unit he was in, no matter what, who he was with, could be the manliest of all men.
[00:18:23]  Like, everybody knows Gabe has got you.
[00:18:27]  And he was my best friend.
[00:18:31]  Well, we get there and we see this guy and he looks identical.
[00:18:33]  He could be Gabe's identical twin.
[00:18:35]  I mean, you could see differences, but same brow line, same jawline, same build, same walk, same three-day shadow, same everything, muscular.
[00:18:46]  And me and my wife are both like, man, that looks exactly like Gabe.
[00:18:51]  And everywhere we would go, this guy was at.
[00:18:54]  If we were at the pool, this guy was at the pool.
[00:18:56]  If we were going on a hike, this guy was coming back from a hike.
[00:18:59]  If we were out in town getting dinner, he was out in town getting dinner.
[00:19:02]  And we had always thought it was weird because I'd kind of had a breakdown on the plane to Sonona.
[00:19:12]  And so I was in a vulnerable spot.
[00:19:14]  My wife knew it.
[00:19:15]  I was in a vulnerable spot.
[00:19:16]  I knew it.
[00:19:18]  I was with my buddy Dave, and he knew it.
[00:19:21]  And it was just odd that Gabe, who's always known as a protector, is like every this guy that looks identical to him is everywhere.
[00:19:29]  Well, it turns out, right from that gate, we walk to our bungalow, and it turns out this guy and his family is staying right across the thing from us.
[00:19:42]  And we hadn't seen him all week.
[00:19:43]  And I'm like, that was weird.
[00:19:45]  And on the way back, I'm telling Katie, I'm like, holy shit, like, I think, I think that was God that was reading my mind.
[00:19:52]  And she's like, yeah, Sean, that was God.
[00:19:55]  And I'm like, I can't believe this.
[00:19:57]  Like, how is this happening?
[00:19:59]  And she's like, Sean, God's always been around you.
[00:20:03]  You just don't make time for him.
[00:20:05]  And I knew that to be true.
[00:20:08]  So we get to the bungalow.
[00:20:10]  Gabe staying across the way or the lookalike, whatever you want to call it.
[00:20:15]  We find out he's staying right across.
[00:20:17]  This is all within like 10, 15 minutes.
[00:20:19]  Then we go in, and I'm crying.
[00:20:22]  And I'm like, I can't believe this is happening.
[00:20:25]  And right before, also right before we went to Sona, a good friend of mine, his name was Dan Cirillo, died.
[00:20:34]  He was kind of the only, he was a SEAL and a businessman, and he lived in Franklin.
[00:20:41]  And I don't have a lot of people that I can relate to where I live now in Franklin.
[00:20:48]  And Dan is one of those guys that he's very successful.
[00:20:54]  He owned a couple of hospitals.
[00:20:56]  He owned a big security business.
[00:20:59]  And he's like one of the few people that I can sit down with and talk business and talk friends.
[00:21:03]  And he doesn't need anything from me.
[00:21:05]  And I don't need anything from him.
[00:21:06]  And those, you know, those relationships get hard to come by.
[00:21:10]  And so we hit it off really fast.
[00:21:13]  And then he died on a hunting trip with his son, had a heart attack.
[00:21:17]  And, but hey, I mean, if there's a way to go, good on him.
[00:21:24]  But anyways, his daughter, who I had never met, I'm having this breakdown in the hotel.
[00:21:33]  And his daughter, I heard my phone go off while I was talking to Katie.
[00:21:39]  And as soon as we kind of finished what we were talking about about what was going on, I checked my phone and it's from his daughter.
[00:21:48]  And it's this text.
[00:21:53]  I'd never even met her before.
[00:21:56]  And she says, she must have got my number from her dad's phone.
[00:22:01]  And she said, Hey, Sean, this is Taylor, Dan's daughter.
[00:22:08]  And I just walked into my dad's gun room for the first time since he had passed away.
[00:22:14]  And he grabbed me by the arm and told me that I needed to contact you because you knew a side of him that nobody else knew.
[00:22:24]  And that he wanted me to tell you that he loves you just the way that you are and that you're doing exactly what you should be doing.
[00:22:33]  And then I'm trying not to lose it right now.
[00:22:38]  But so that was like the third thing all within, like I said, 10, 15 minutes.
[00:22:46]  And I was like, holy shit, like there's no denying this one.
[00:22:51]  And a low brick wall.

=== Dad, Gun Room, and Guardian Angels (08:11) ===

[00:22:55]  Yeah.
[00:22:56]  And so, you know, I grew up Catholic and never really took church seriously.
[00:23:04]  I never did.
[00:23:05]  And then when I left home, I never really went back and had kind of lost faith.
[00:23:09]  And I'm not saying I wasn't a believer.
[00:23:11]  I just didn't really care.
[00:23:13]  And I didn't think about it.
[00:23:14]  And I had definitely no time for God.
[00:23:19]  And so I took that as a, I mean, that was like a slap in the face.
[00:23:24]  And I decided I needed to get serious about faith and at least look into it.
[00:23:28]  And so I started looking into it.
[00:23:30]  And it's been great.
[00:23:32]  And, you know, to be honest, it's the only thing I can find that makes any damn sense anymore.
[00:23:37]  And it's all it's all in that book.
[00:23:39]  Everything we're seeing happening right now is in that book.
[00:23:42]  Is that how you started just reading the Bible?
[00:23:44]  I did.
[00:23:44]  I did.
[00:23:45]  I started trying to read it from front to back and I wasn't really getting anywhere.
[00:23:51]  Some shocking stuff in that Old Testament if you go that way.
[00:23:54]  Yeah.
[00:23:55]  And but then turns out, as it turns out, my entire team, I'm really close with my team, my podcast team, the guys that work for me and make it what it is.
[00:24:09]  And turns out one guy was raised Southern Baptist, super well versed in the Bible.
[00:24:15]  My editor, Darren, grew up with Jehovah's Witness and escaped it, but knows, I mean, knows that book from front to back.
[00:24:28]  My IT guy, Adam, devout Catholic, knows it all.
[00:24:34]  Everything, Elijah, my production manager, he's the Southern Baptist guy.
[00:24:39]  And they kind of started pouring into me.
[00:24:42]  And a lot of my buddies that were in the SEAL teams, Eddie Penny really kind of paved the way for all of this, I think.
[00:24:52]  Eddie Penny was a, we were a team two together.
[00:24:55]  And then he went on to Dev Group and just like, oh my, like, I mean, not who you would expect to come to faith, but he was my Christmas episode a couple years ago.
[00:25:11]  And ever since he came on and gave his testimony of how he came to everybody that's been on the show has brought it up.
[00:25:21]  And he became kind of a mentor of mine.
[00:25:24]  So I called Eddie and told him and I said, hey, this is what happened.
[00:25:29]  I don't really know where to start.
[00:25:31]  I don't really know what this means.
[00:25:34]  And we had a conversation and he goes, he was like, oh, man, he's like, a lot of us have been praying for this to happen.
[00:25:43]  Wow.
[00:25:44]  And that kind of freaked me out.
[00:25:46]  I was like, what do you mean?
[00:25:48]  And he's like, we've been waiting for this.
[00:25:50]  He's like, you have a big voice.
[00:25:52]  And this needs to happen.
[00:25:56]  And so that was at about midnight.
[00:25:59]  Now I'm getting into some other kind of weird synchronicity coincidences.
[00:26:04]  And so about 12 hours later, I had a meeting that Adam, my IT guy had scheduled with me at noon.
[00:26:12]  And Eddie was telling me during the conversation, he was talking about guardian angels and all this other stuff that was spiritual warfare, stuff that I know nothing about.
[00:26:24]  Well, fast forward 12 hours, I'm talking to Adam.
[00:26:28]  I didn't know what this meeting was.
[00:26:29]  I thought it was about email marketing or something.
[00:26:32]  And he wanted to talk to me about spiritual warfare and guardian angels.
[00:26:38]  And I was like, it was literally like almost the exact same conversation as I had had with Eddie Penny.
[00:26:45]  You're like, that's not on the dropdown menu of message manager.
[00:26:48]  I know.
[00:26:50]  And they're not friends.
[00:26:51]  I mean, Adam is with all due respect.
[00:26:53]  Hadn't coordinated those two guys?
[00:26:55]  Eddie is a built like a shitbrick house, a dev group operator, and Adam is a IT computer nerd who I love to death.
[00:27:06]  And so, no, they don't, they don't, there's no cross-pollination.
[00:27:10]  They're not friends.
[00:27:11]  They've never spoken.
[00:27:12]  Exact same conversation at noon, come home for lunch from my studio to be with the wife and kids.
[00:27:19]  And Adam.
[00:27:22]  And anyways, I go back to work.
[00:27:25]  I look at my clock in my truck and it says it's 444.
[00:27:30]  I look at the odometer.
[00:27:31]  It says 444 miles left to E.
[00:27:34]  And this is four hours and 44 minutes after my conversation with Adam about guardian angels.
[00:27:41]  So I look up the meaning of 444 and it is your guardian angels want you to know that they have got you.
[00:27:51]  And I'm just, I'm like, holy shit, man.
[00:27:56]  Like we just had two conversations about guardian angels and now I'm seeing 444 everywhere within.
[00:28:03]  Yeah.
[00:28:04]  And it's in the meaning of it, supposedly, according to Google is your guardian angels want you to know that they've got you.
[00:28:14]  And so I've been in it ever since.
[00:28:16]  And I've had some great mentors and started going to church.
[00:28:22]  That didn't last very long.
[00:28:24]  And now we have a group of, there's four families, including us, a lot of trust, very close friends of ours.
[00:28:35]  And we just have a discussion every week, every Tuesday.
[00:28:40]  So when I get home today, that's what we're doing.
[00:28:44]  And it's cool.
[00:28:45]  You get to ask the tough questions.
[00:28:48]  You don't need to be embarrassed.
[00:28:49]  You're not going to offend anybody.
[00:28:50]  You don't feel judged like you're going to church.
[00:28:54]  You know, I always feel like I'm being judged.
[00:28:56]  Oh.
[00:28:56]  Hello.
[00:28:56]  We're Catholic.
[00:28:57]  Yeah.
[00:28:58]  Built in.
[00:29:00]  And there's none of that.
[00:29:02]  And man, you know, when you, when you kind of take all of the BS that religion kind of injects into your journey of building a relationship with the Creator and Jesus, it's really interesting.
[00:29:20]  It can be a lot of fun.
[00:29:21]  I know what you're saying.
[00:29:23]  My audience knows I've been having a not unrelated struggle on that exact score.
[00:29:29]  Really?
[00:29:29]  Yeah.
[00:29:30]  Yeah.
[00:29:30]  I'm Catholic, lifelong Catholic.
[00:29:33]  And I started the process of having my first marriage annulled.
[00:29:38]  And instead of like bringing me closer to God or setting me in a path that I thought would land well, it really has kind of alienated me.
[00:29:46]  And it's caused a bit of a crisis of faith, you know, like who are these middlemen I have to go through in order to have a clean relationship with God?
[00:29:55]  That doesn't make any sense to me.
[00:29:57]  I think God loves me and God sees me in a loving marriage with three wonderful kids who have two great parents who are in love.
[00:30:06]  And he's thrilled.
[00:30:08]  And he will accept me into his kingdom when it's all said and done.
[00:30:13]  And if he doesn't, it's certainly not going to be because I didn't get a paper.
[00:30:16]  I got a paper divorce from Dan, but I didn't get an annulment from a priest, you know, and then marry Doug in a Catholic church.
[00:30:24]  It doesn't make any sense to me.
[00:30:27]  So that's sort of where I am right now.
[00:30:29]  I'm still wrestling with it.
[00:30:30]  I got tons of great feedback.
[00:30:31]  By the way, thank you to my audience because so many thoughtful emails on it, you know, from Catholic listeners, but also just Christian listeners who don't believe in that, you know, middleman thing either.
[00:30:43]  And I haven't resolved it.
[00:30:46]  Well, I'll keep my opinion to myself.
[00:30:49]  Why?
[00:30:51]  The middleman is a lie.
[00:30:56]  There are no middlemen.
[00:30:58]  It's just about you and your relationship.
[00:31:01]  And that's it.

=== Mental Toughness Lessons from Dad (03:53) ===

[00:31:06]  Tell us about mental toughness and how your dad made sure you had it.
[00:31:11]  Well, I am so fortunate to have...
[00:31:13]  I didn't realize this at the time, but of course, as you get older, I realize now how fortunate I am to have two amazing parents who love each other very much, who taught me how to be an independent thinker, how to call out an injustice when you see it.
[00:31:30]  So I could not be more grateful for my parents, who were both high-level athletes.
[00:31:34]  My mom, she was a Division I softball player.
[00:31:36]  My dad, he's an SEC Hall of Famer football player, went on to play for the Eagles.
[00:31:43]  It's been a good bit in the NFL.
[00:31:45]  And so them having that background inclined was a big part in me playing sports, I guess I'll say.
[00:31:54]  But when I was young, probably eight years old, my dad, he did some different business endeavors.
[00:32:01]  And so I went with him on a business trip to Memphis, Tennessee.
[00:32:05]  And I will never forget, we are at this hotel.
[00:32:08]  I normally, of course, you know, never really traveled with just my dad.
[00:32:11]  It was always all of us as a family, but it was a fun little bonding trip.
[00:32:15]  So we're at this hotel.
[00:32:16]  And he says, Riley, come down to the lobby with me.
[00:32:19]  And I'm like, okay, you know, what are we doing?
[00:32:21]  He takes me to the pool at this hotel.
[00:32:24]  It's outside.
[00:32:25]  It's in the middle of December.
[00:32:27]  And he's like, jump in.
[00:32:28]  I'm like, dad, I'm not jumping in that pool.
[00:32:31]  It's freezing.
[00:32:31]  He pulled back the tarp.
[00:32:32]  He said, no, you're going to jump in.
[00:32:33]  This is your first lesson of mental toughness.
[00:32:36]  You're going to jump in and you're not going to say you're cold.
[00:32:39]  You're not going to shiver.
[00:32:41]  And I'll tell you when you can get out.
[00:32:43]  I'm like, dad, this is child abuse.
[00:32:44]  You can't make me do that.
[00:32:45]  I'm calling mom.
[00:32:47]  But I listened to him.
[00:32:48]  I jumped in, confused, you know, what is this for?
[00:32:52]  Finally, after five minutes or so of treading in the water, he said, okay, you can come out.
[00:32:56]  And then we go back to the room.
[00:32:58]  I'm still shivering.
[00:32:59]  I'm like, dad, what was that about?
[00:33:01]  He said, that, like I said, you need to learn mental toughness because physical toughness, yeah, it's important, but mental toughness will take you further.
[00:33:10]  There's no such thing as cold, Riley.
[00:33:12]  He said, there's such thing as an absence of heat, but there's no such thing as cold.
[00:33:16]  It's a mental state.
[00:33:17]  You think you're cold.
[00:33:18]  He said, you're not really.
[00:33:19]  And I will never forget that.
[00:33:21]  It has stuck with me since.
[00:33:22]  And every time when I was swimming or practicing and I began to, you know, your legs burn, you feel your body filling with lactic acid.
[00:33:29]  You're tired.
[00:33:30]  You're in pain.
[00:33:31]  I thought to myself, pain isn't real.
[00:33:32]  Just a feeling that I'm having.
[00:33:34]  It's fleeting.
[00:33:34]  It's in the moment, but not real.
[00:33:38]  So this is the difference between you and virtually everybody.
[00:33:40]  I mean, I remember talking to some Navy SEALs about this and that's how they get through training.
[00:33:44]  Like, I don't feel the pain.
[00:33:45]  I don't feel the lactic acid.
[00:33:47]  I tried that at my very next workout and it was not true.
[00:33:51]  It's not true.
[00:33:52]  We mere mortals do feel pain.
[00:33:55]  But it's those lessons that I learned when I was young, my dad was right because they have transcended beyond athletics.
[00:34:04]  I'm able to do what I do now with a smile on my face, with an incredibly light heart, not worrying, not caring, not feeling anxious or stressed about what we're up against because I know what I'm standing for is the right thing.
[00:34:21]  This brings me to something I've always wanted to ask you.
[00:34:23]  So my audience knows I used to be on the wrong side of this whole issue.
[00:34:28]  You know, when I played clips of myself at NBC feeding into all of this, you know, I was still in the mindset of be compassionate.
[00:34:36]  There's a very small group.
[00:34:38]  They're very badly bullied and using the pronouns even when I launched this show.
[00:34:43]  Not so much on the other side, but on the pronouns I was still using when I launched this show.
[00:34:47]  And then I started, you know.
[00:34:49]  I remember when you, like, it was a defining moment for me to watch you kind of go off on, it was, it was very powerful.
[00:34:58]  It was very fiery, but I needed to see that.

=== Swimming Meet and Pronoun Debate (05:31) ===

[00:35:00]  So I don't know if you know just how many people you've inspired and influenced since taking that stand.
[00:35:08]  That was a big decision for me to turn on the pronouns.
[00:35:11]  Naturally.
[00:35:11]  And, you know, like you, there have been so many women who have inspired me.
[00:35:14]  You're one of them.
[00:35:15]  But Kelly J. Keene, Ellen Joyce, Abigail Schreier's book, there's just been, you know, all these other great women who were to this party nice and early and have been waving the flag saying, hold on, hold on, hold on.
[00:35:27]  J.K. Rowling, how brave she's been, all of it.
[00:35:30]  But I always wanted to ask you about when you were swimming and Leah Thomas, you found out you're going to have to swim against him.
[00:35:40]  So what, how did your mind work at the time to say, I'm going to do it?
[00:35:46]  So we found out in about November of 2021.
[00:35:50]  Actually, let me take you a little further back.
[00:35:52]  So I finished my junior year at University of Kentucky, ultimately placing seventh in the country, which it wasn't a best time, but I was proud of this.
[00:36:01]  You're top eight.
[00:36:02]  You're an all-American.
[00:36:02]  It's a pretty high honor, but I knew I was capable of more.
[00:36:06]  So it was kind of right then and there that I placed seventh my junior year that I set a goal for my senior year to win a national title.
[00:36:12]  And so I'm right on pace to achieve this goal.
[00:36:16]  About midway through my senior season, I was ranked third in the nation in the 200 freestyle, trailing the girl in second, a girl I knew very well, by a few one hundredths of a second.
[00:36:27]  But the swimmer who was leading the nation by body links, might add, was a swimmer that none of us had ever heard of before.
[00:36:34]  Not me, not my teammates, not my competitors, not my family, not my coaches, none of us.
[00:36:39]  It was the first time we became aware of a swimmer named Leah Thomas.
[00:36:42]  Lots of red flags at the time.
[00:36:44]  Keep in mind, we hadn't seen a photo of this person or else things probably would have been a little more clear.
[00:36:50]  But we really continued to stay in the dark until an article came out disclosing that Leah Thomas is actually Will Thomas and swam three years on the men's team at UPenn before deciding to switch to the women's team.
[00:37:02]  Whereas you said, ranked, I mean, was mediocre at best.
[00:37:07]  He was a less than average male swimmer, still competing at the Division I level.
[00:37:11]  So obviously he was a good swimmer.
[00:37:13]  Yeah, but just not compared to the other men.
[00:37:15]  But not when it came to national rankings or achievements.
[00:37:20]  When I found out about this, naturally we were shocked.
[00:37:26]  But really, when I think about how I felt, it was like this overwhelming sense of relief.
[00:37:31]  Like, oh, that makes sense.
[00:37:34]  Duh, it's a man.
[00:37:35]  That's why he's beating everyone in the country by so much in multiple events.
[00:37:38]  Duh.
[00:37:39]  And I didn't think much about it because I thought surely, I mean, it didn't even cross my mind that the NCAA wouldn't see a problem with this.
[00:37:46]  They won't let him compete with us at NCAA's, the pinnacle of our sport.
[00:37:50]  They'll put a policy in place.
[00:37:52]  I'm sure they already have one in place.
[00:37:54]  This isn't really an issue.
[00:37:55]  He's a man.
[00:37:56]  So I was very relieved until I found out that the NCAA did not see it that way.
[00:38:02]  They didn't see it the same way that me, again, my teammates, my coaches, anyone with any amount of brain activity saw this issue.
[00:38:09]  They saw no problem with it.
[00:38:12]  But even still, those three weeks, I mentioned how we found out about three weeks before that meet in March of 2022.
[00:38:18]  Even after finding out leading up to that meet, I am almost ashamed to admit it, but I still felt this like sheer sense of curiosity, almost intriguement.
[00:38:31]  You know, what is this going to look like?
[00:38:33]  Is he as tall as Instagram pictures make him look?
[00:38:36]  Is he going to sandbag it?
[00:38:37]  Will he be in our locker room?
[00:38:38]  I mean, there were so many questions that we didn't have answers to that there was a sense of intriguement.
[00:38:44]  But I'm ashamed for feeling intrigued.
[00:38:46]  really am because upon getting to that meet, seeing the tears that I saw from the girls who placed ninth and 17th and missed out on being named an all-American by one place, seeing the tears from the moms in the stands watching as their daughters are being obliterated in the sport that they once loved, feeling the extreme discomfort in the locker room, hearing the whispers, because that's what they were.
[00:39:10]  They were whispers of anger and frustration from these girls who just like myself had worked our entire lives to get to this meet.
[00:39:19]  I remember specifically actually when my feelings really shifted because this was like a week-long meet.
[00:39:26]  You swim prelims in the morning, you have to qualify top 16, you come back that evening, you swim finals, and that's where you'll achieve your overall national ranking.
[00:39:33]  And so that first day of competition, I'm watching prelims of the 500, which is the event that Thomas would that evening go on to win a national title in.
[00:39:43]  And I'm watching prelims.
[00:39:44]  There's about eight heats or so.
[00:39:46]  My team was sat next to Virginia Tech.
[00:39:49]  One of the swimmers from Virginia Tech, she swam in one of the earlier heats.
[00:39:54]  She had just finished.
[00:39:55]  She came back to the pool deck, stood by me.
[00:39:57]  I knew her.
[00:39:58]  I didn't know her that well.
[00:40:00]  I really only knew her name and what event she swam.
[00:40:03]  We're watching the final heat swim.
[00:40:06]  This is the event where she knew she was right on the cusp of making top 16.
[00:40:11]  The final heat concludes.
[00:40:13]  Thomas is swimming.
[00:40:14]  Thomas dominates.
[00:40:14]  She looks up at the scoreboard and she realized she plays 17th.
[00:40:18]  And I will never forget because she looked at me, again, not even really knowing her.
[00:40:22]  And she grabbed me, my hand, with tears running down her face.
[00:40:26]  And she said, Riley, I just got beat by someone who didn't even have to try.
[00:40:30]  I mean, I have chills telling it again.

=== Exploring Third-Party Candidates (05:19) ===

[00:40:31]  I have two.
[00:40:31]  I have chills listening.
[00:40:32]  And that's when those feelings shifted to utter heartbreak.
[00:40:36]  And I realized the severity of what we were dealing with.
[00:40:39]  This wasn't just a circus or a funny haha, like SNL skit moment anymore.
[00:40:43]  This was real life.
[00:40:44]  And that's when, that's when I decided what cowards we have leading us.
[00:40:50]  Our coaches, even coaches who I love and respect and who knew this was objectively wrong, but that it was very hard for you to say anything about it as the competitors.
[00:41:00]  They knew what would happen to you.
[00:41:01]  Of course.
[00:41:01]  Yeah.
[00:41:02]  But they were more worried about their own heights.
[00:41:04]  Of course.
[00:41:04]  And again, I understand because the risk and the threats, they're real.
[00:41:07]  I'm not sitting here saying that it's easy.
[00:41:09]  Well, actually, I am.
[00:41:10]  It is easy to say that there are two sexes.
[00:41:13]  That's not hard to say.
[00:41:14]  But very few have said it, right?
[00:41:16]  Alice Ganlin spoke out.
[00:41:17]  You, Penn Swimmer, you spoke out, but almost no one else that I know of.
[00:41:23]  No, there's been very, very few.
[00:41:25]  Very people think it's either either, of course, they're terrified, they're scared, they believe it when their universities or administrators tell them they won't get a job or they'll not, they won't get into grad school or they'll lose their friends, or people genuinely think it's not their problem.
[00:41:38]  They think, oh, well, I'm done competing.
[00:41:40]  It happened to me, but I'm moving on.
[00:41:43]  It's on to the next thing.
[00:41:44]  It won't happen again.
[00:41:46]  Really?
[00:41:47]  I know it's incredibly selfish.
[00:41:51]  I saw you on the view yesterday where they were trying to zero in on you and Biden and this presidential race.
[00:41:58]  And those ladies really, really, really wanted you to say that you endorse him.
[00:42:03]  You didn't want to do it.
[00:42:05]  But eventually you admitted, okay, it's kind of a binary choice here.
[00:42:09]  I mean, it's basically a binary choice and that you're not going to vote for Trump.
[00:42:13]  So why wouldn't you just be explicit about it?
[00:42:16]  I wondered about the hesitation.
[00:42:19]  Simply because I'm, you know, I'm not, I'm not a fan.
[00:42:22]  And, you know, I don't think that, you know, an endorsement, like people think that me not wanting to endorse means that I'm not voting, which I think is the strangest, strangest thing ever.
[00:42:32]  There was another moment in that conversation where I even said, hey, there's third-party candidates.
[00:42:36]  Whoopie told me she'll beat my behind if I bring up, you know, third-party candidates.
[00:42:41]  So I just think it's kind of strange where we are as a culture and as a society where it's almost like there's either one of two extremes.
[00:42:49]  And if you're a person who just, you know, simply chooses to be objective, simply, you know, chooses to look at, you know, both candidates and say, hey, I think there's some right things here.
[00:42:59]  There's some wrong things there.
[00:43:00]  There's some good things here.
[00:43:01]  There's some, you know, good things over here.
[00:43:03]  Like just me being able to explore both options are all options that are out there.
[00:43:08]  For some reason, it bothers people.
[00:43:11]  And I don't, I don't understand why.
[00:43:12]  They were really pressing you.
[00:43:14]  They were like, do Biden is solid.
[00:43:16]  They wanted you to go to your audience and say vote for Biden.
[00:43:20]  And it was very strange.
[00:43:21]  Like, you know, you've got some magic wand that's going to turn this thing if you just say, I endorse.
[00:43:27]  Can I ask you about third parties?
[00:43:28]  Would you consider RFKJ?
[00:43:31]  Oh, I mean, I've looked at all of them.
[00:43:33]  I've looked at RFK.
[00:43:34]  I've looked at Marianne Williamson.
[00:43:35]  I've looked at Cornell West.
[00:43:37]  Like I've looked at all of them.
[00:43:38]  I've been looking at third parties since, you know, 2016.
[00:43:43]  Like, you know, like 2016, people would say we didn't have the best options, right?
[00:43:47]  But I felt like Hillary Clinton was, you know, overly qualified to be president, but it's not like I didn't explore everything.
[00:43:53]  I explored after President Obama, I explored everything.
[00:43:56]  I explored conservatives.
[00:43:57]  I explored, you know, the Green Party.
[00:43:59]  I explored Democrats.
[00:44:01]  I feel like that's what you should do as an American citizen.
[00:44:04]  You know, I don't think the two-party system, you know, has been, has been the best thing for us here in America.
[00:44:10]  And I don't think there's anything wrong exploring everything.
[00:44:13]  I'm actually shocked that there hasn't been a third party candidate that's been able to come along and like really galvanize people, especially being that America seems to be so disappointed in the choices that we have now.
[00:44:26]  Do you think that there is like more pressure on you to quote endorse because you're black and there's a presumption that you have some influence with black voters who not by huge margins, but by some margins are migrating from the Democrat to the Republican Party or at least from Biden to Trump?
[00:44:44]  I think, I think people, I don't know if people are necessarily, and I see the numbers, like I think I said, or 22% of people, 22% of black people may vote for Donald Trump.
[00:44:53]  I think that number is overstated a little bit.
[00:44:55]  But my guy, Tim Ryan, who used to be a congressman in Ohio, Tim Ryan always, well, senator in Ohio, I'm sorry.
[00:45:02]  Tim Ryan used to always, he talks about the exhausted majority.
[00:45:06]  And I think that's what most people are in this country.
[00:45:08]  We're the exhausted majority.
[00:45:10]  So it's not even just about being tired of, you know, Democrats or being tired of Republicans.
[00:45:15]  People are just tired of politics, period.
[00:45:18]  You know, and I think that's what you're seeing a lot of now.
[00:45:22]  Like even, you know, having the conversation about, you know, who I'm choosing to vote for.
[00:45:27]  Listen, I've said it over and over what I think about both candidates.
[00:45:31]  Right.
[00:45:32]  And it's, it's only me.
[00:45:34]  I don't know what's going to happen between now and November.
[00:45:37]  I don't think much is going to change.
[00:45:38]  But if these people want people to be, if these parties want people to be more energized about their candidates, maybe they should just run better candidates.
[00:45:48]  I don't think it's that.
[00:45:49]  I don't think it's rocket science.

=== Why Small Talk Sucks for Anxious People (14:32) ===

[00:45:51]  You, in the book, you write about your background.
[00:45:54]  You grew up pretty poor in a single wide trailer and spending most of your time running around through the woods and had very hardworking mom, had a more complicated relationship with your dad.
[00:46:05]  Did you ever think that that kid, right, who was learning how to catch a rattlesnake on his spare time, would be in the position now where it's like your magic words of I endorse this candidate would be so important, right, to political TV shows and pundits?
[00:46:23]  No, not on that aspect.
[00:46:24]  I always knew that I was, you know, here to do something.
[00:46:28]  I always felt that in my spirit.
[00:46:29]  I used to be in my grandmother's yard in Monks Corner, South Carolina, and the field, like there used to be a field in front of her yard that used to separate my grandmother's house and like my cousin Gloria's house.
[00:46:40]  And it's back when I was smaller, the field seems so big, but it's actually not that big.
[00:46:45]  But I used to always be acting like I was on a stage and I used to be acting like, you know, I was performing, right?
[00:46:50]  And it was always like I was in a rock band.
[00:46:53]  And then, you know, as I got older, it was like I was a rapper.
[00:46:57]  So I always knew that I was, you know, supposed to be delivering some kind of message.
[00:47:02]  And this might sound kind of crazy to some people, but I remember meeting a medium back in 2006.
[00:47:09]  And, you know, he said to me, he goes, you know, he was just talking to me and he said, you know, you're going to achieve a lot of your goals relatively easy, but I just want you to know that, you know, when you get the way you're supposed to go, you're here to deliver a message.
[00:47:22]  And that same medium told me that he saw like a microphone in my future and he was talking about radio.
[00:47:28]  And he said, he was naming different radio personalities.
[00:47:32]  And it was not spooky at the time, but it was just like, hmm, he even told me I was going to have a daughter.
[00:47:38]  And that was in 2006.
[00:47:39]  I'd have my first daughter until 2008.
[00:47:41]  So long story short, I always knew I ended up having four.
[00:47:45]  Long story short, I always knew that I was here to, you know, be on a platform of some sort, but I didn't know that it would be, I didn't know I would be Captain Sava Joe in an election.
[00:47:58]  You know, I think I read the book and I really enjoyed it.
[00:48:02]  And I think what makes you special is your extreme ability to be introspective, reflective about your life, to keep challenging yourself, to keep changing, keep growing.
[00:48:14]  And you're very, very honest about what you perceive as your own shortcomings, whether it was early on in your marriage, something you addressed, whether it was the life lessons you took from your dad and your uncle and your sort of growing up, which you realized as an adult weren't so great, or even right down to, we don't have to get into it, but like the size of certain man parts that you just read like Howard Sternsa, put it out there, Charlemagne.
[00:48:38]  I have to say, you're a brave man.
[00:48:41]  I don't know if you call it brave.
[00:48:43]  I just, I think that we lack self-awareness, man.
[00:48:45]  And I think that one of the main reasons that, you know, a lot of people just aren't being honest with themselves, which is why the book is called Get Honest or Die a Line, is because it's so easy to be real with other people, but it's so hard to be real with yourself.
[00:48:59]  And, you know, they have all of these cliche terms.
[00:49:00]  Like, I keep it real, but usually the people who keep it real can only do that with others.
[00:49:05]  But man, when that mirror gets in front of them, it's very hard for them to have those like super honest conversations with themselves.
[00:49:12]  And my whole life, that's what I've, you know, challenged myself to be just honest.
[00:49:17]  Because, you know, my dad used to always tell me something when I was young.
[00:49:19]  He was like, man, when you lie to me, you're not lying to me.
[00:49:23]  You lying to yourself.
[00:49:24]  And that's something that just always stuck with me.
[00:49:27]  And you can kind of tell the people who are lying to their self in our society.
[00:49:31]  And I went on a, I went away on a spiritual retreat, you know, earlier this year, me and my wife.
[00:49:36]  And one of the things that came up for me during that time away was stop lying to yourself and stop volunteering those lies to other people.
[00:49:44]  And that's, that's literally what I wrote this book for.
[00:49:47]  I wrote this book for people to stop lying to themselves and stop volunteering those lies to other people.
[00:49:52]  All right.
[00:49:52]  I've got to read you this because my fourth grade boy was at an end of year ceremony just two days ago.
[00:49:59]  And my husband and I went and their fourth grade teacher read to this class of boys the following poem, which speaks exactly to what you're saying.
[00:50:06]  I cried.
[00:50:06]  I'm not going to lie.
[00:50:07]  You're a dad.
[00:50:08]  You're going to be able to relate.
[00:50:09]  But it's called That Guy in the Glass.
[00:50:11]  It's by Dale Wimbrow and it goes as follows.
[00:50:14]  When you get what you want in your struggle for self and the world makes you king for a day, then go to the mirror and look at yourself and see what that guy has to say.
[00:50:23]  For it isn't your mother, brother, or friends whose judgment you must pass.
[00:50:26]  The person whose verdict counts most in your life is the one staring back at the glass.
[00:50:33]  You can go down the pathway of years receiving pats on the back as you pass, but your final reward will be heartache and tears if you cheated that guy in the glass.
[00:50:45]  That's exactly what you're saying.
[00:50:46]  That's a theme of your book in some ways.
[00:50:48]  Powerful words.
[00:50:50]  Whoever that was who wrote that, they remixed Michael Jackson, man in the mirror.
[00:50:53]  I just want you to know I'm talking about the man in the mirror.
[00:50:58]  Man in the mirror.
[00:51:00]  Yeah.
[00:51:00]  I'm asking him to change his way.
[00:51:03]  That's all that is.
[00:51:04]  But whoever wrote that is absolutely positively true.
[00:51:06]  The hardest thing for us to do is look in the mirror every day and be honest with ourselves.
[00:51:11]  And I literally challenge myself every day.
[00:51:14]  I wake up every day.
[00:51:15]  And before I'm, you know, honest with anybody else, before I'm telling anybody else about, you know, what I think they may be doing wrong, or if I give them compliments on what they're doing right, I talk to myself first.
[00:51:26]  Like, you know, that, that, that inner voice in your head, the things you tell yourself are really the most important.
[00:51:32]  And that's what I do every morning.
[00:51:34]  It's, it's something you've worked at, you've cultivated.
[00:51:38]  I, you talk in the book about the therapy you've been through all the way down to, I don't know if this, this didn't exactly come from your therapist, but you have a spiritual guru in your life as well.
[00:51:48]  And the tree hugging, you're a tree hugger, but not exactly in the Green New Deal sense, in a different kind of way.
[00:51:58]  Yeah.
[00:51:59]  It's a chapter called Tree Hug the Block.
[00:52:01]  And, you know, I just talk about the benefits of, you know, doing things like forest bathing, you know, walking around in your yard with your shoes off and your socks off and just doing grounding exercises, you know, going up to trees, putting both hands on the trees, putting your forehead on the tree, taking a few deep breaths, you know, saying a prayer.
[00:52:18]  You know, sometimes, you know, just sitting shirtless with your back to the tree.
[00:52:24]  You know, me and one of my spiritual advisors, her name is Jadi Alba, we laugh because, you know, she always says, you know, lay down in the ground, face, face down, ass up, right?
[00:52:33]  And just let the, let the earth, just feel the earth.
[00:52:36]  And man, you'd be surprised how when you're stressed out or if, you know, you're, you know, battling like a bout of depression or your anxiety levels are high, you'd be surprised how that just brings you right back to center.
[00:52:47]  And, you know, we used to laugh, you know, back in the day at the people who used to consider themselves, you know, tree huggers.
[00:52:53]  You'd be like, oh, man, they just high.
[00:52:55]  Everything, everything is great when you're high.
[00:52:57]  And guess what?
[00:52:57]  Megan, they write.
[00:52:59]  You know, when you high, you walking around doing some grounding in the backyard, or even when you're not high, it really does feel great.
[00:53:05]  And it really does bring you back to center in a real way.
[00:53:08]  I like the beach too.
[00:53:09]  I like walking, you know, barefoot on the beach.
[00:53:11]  You know, I would hope I'm, I would hope the only time you're walking on the beach is barefoot, but walking on the beach barefoot, going in the ocean, you know, you know, being in the ocean, looking right up at the sun, saying a prayer directly from the water to the sun, man, all of that brings you back to center in such real ways.
[00:53:27]  I know you say in the book, if you're feeling self-conscious about hugging a tree, of actually hugging a tree, putting your face up against the tree, start small, maybe just sit with your back up against the tree so people don't think you're crazy, but you could kind of graduate to a full five-minute hug of a tree and it actually could be transformative.
[00:53:45]  That's such a beautiful way of dealing with anxiety, which you admit you have dealt with for years, versus just taking a pill, which is what the medical community will push on you these days.
[00:53:55]  Oh, absolutely.
[00:53:56]  You know, I'm not against, you know, anybody who needs medication, you know, for certain things, but, you know, personally, I've never had to use it.
[00:54:04]  I remember my father, even when I was young, when they were trying to put me on like Riddling as a child, you know, my father was like, no, you know, back then, though, it wasn't, you know, he don't need Riddling because he don't need to just be on medication.
[00:54:15]  It was, he don't need no Riddling.
[00:54:16]  He needs his ass beat, right?
[00:54:18]  So, but even now, it's like, I don't, we don't, we don't necessarily, medicine shouldn't be the first option all the time.
[00:54:25]  You know, I feel like, you know, this is a glorious earth that we, that we're on.
[00:54:29]  And like there's a lot of natural remedies and holistic remedies that we could be, you know, tapping into that bring us those same results.
[00:54:36]  A lot of those things in the pharmaceutical, pharmaceutical world do.
[00:54:41]  So how did you make it so big in radio and now podcasting too with the kind of anxiety that you suffer from?
[00:54:50]  And as you were growing up, you talk about how it was very much social anxiety.
[00:54:55]  How did you get over that?
[00:54:56]  How do you deal with that to this day?
[00:54:58]  That's the strangest thing about anxiety, right?
[00:55:00]  Like anxiety creeps up on you at weird times.
[00:55:04]  It's those times when you're just literally laying on your couch at home.
[00:55:09]  And then all of a sudden you get up and you start checking to see if all the doors are locked, right?
[00:55:14]  Or, you know, like you can be laying on the couch and there's a ceiling fan going and you just start thinking to yourself, what if that ceiling fan, you know, flies off and like cuts my head off?
[00:55:26]  Like it's just the stupidest, strangest things.
[00:55:28]  But when it comes to like getting in front of a microphone and talking to millions of people, yes, there's a level of anxiety there, but for some reason, it doesn't give you, you know, those same panic attacks of just going through regular everyday life.
[00:55:46]  I have no idea why I'm able to get in front of a microphone and, you know, talk to millions of people effortlessly, but I can't be in a party with 50 people without wanting to go home, you know, because I'm already having a panic attack because I'm thinking about, you know, the worst possible scenarios happening.
[00:56:06]  I am too, but it's usually that guy over there is going to come over here and talk to me.
[00:56:10]  It's not about the ceiling fan.
[00:56:11]  It's like, oh, God.
[00:56:12]  I don't want to do that.
[00:56:12]  But that is actually another reason I wrote this book.
[00:56:16]  That's why I think small talk sucks, because I don't think they understand when you're a person who's already dealing with anxiety and you've had to say prayers and do breathing exercises and put your beads on, right?
[00:56:29]  And all your other things just to show up in the world.
[00:56:34]  The last thing I want to do is have a meaningless conversation with a stranger.
[00:56:39]  Like at least come into my life or come up to me and bring me a conversation of value that may ease, you know, whatever it is I got going on.
[00:56:49]  I tell a story in the book about, I tell a story in the book, how I was at the airport and, you know, I'm a person who's been attacked in the street a couple of times, right?
[00:56:57]  Like right here, right here in New York City, you know, just for things that I've said on the radio, like, you know, back in the day, though, not anything recently, but like over a decade ago.
[00:57:05]  And, but I'm still, you still have that PTSD from things like that.
[00:57:08]  So I'm at the airport and this guy comes up to me and he's trying to talk, but he's like not really saying anything.
[00:57:16]  So automatically I'm on alert.
[00:57:19]  And then he finally goes, he's stuttering and he's telling me that he has a speech impediment.
[00:57:24]  So he's asking me to bear with him while he gets out what it is he's trying to get out.
[00:57:30]  He cut the small talk, you know, and he told me exactly what it was from the beginning.
[00:57:36]  So that one little moment eases my anxiety and lets me know, okay, this person isn't a foe.
[00:57:42]  He's not, he's not any type of opposition in any way, shape or form.
[00:57:45]  He just has something he wants to say to me and it's hard for him to get out.
[00:57:48]  And if that, if that individual who has a speech impediment can let me know that we can do the same thing.
[00:57:55]  We should be able to tell people, hey, man, I don't want to talk about that right now.
[00:57:59]  And if we direct.
[00:58:00]  I've never linked social anxiety to the hatred of small talk.
[00:58:06]  I have to say, I too hate small talk and have a fair amount of social anxiety, not anxiety in the regular lane, but social anxiety.
[00:58:14]  And I had never linked the two.
[00:58:16]  This is actually an insightful thought that one is causing the other because I, like you, am much more comfortable when the conversation is substantive.
[00:58:26]  Yes.
[00:58:27]  And you think about it, right?
[00:58:28]  It's a link because when somebody says, Okay, Megan Kelly, you have to be this place at seven o'clock at night, you're already dreading all the things you know you have to do in order to get to this place.
[00:58:41]  And if you got something to do the next day, you're like, I'm going at seven.
[00:58:45]  I'm going to be out by eight.
[00:58:47]  I want to be back home in my bed by nine o'clock.
[00:58:51]  And I hope when you get there, you're thinking about all the conversations people want to have with you.
[00:58:55]  You're thinking about, you know, what people are going to try to get from you.
[00:58:59]  Because a lot of it is people just trying to take from your energy at these places.
[00:59:05]  It's not a lot of pouring into you when you go to these events.
[00:59:11]  So, stuff like that, man.
[00:59:12]  It's like, yes, it does cause a lot of social anxiety.
[00:59:15]  And it's another reason why I keep telling people: small talk sucks.
[00:59:19]  I'm Megan Kelly, host of the Megan Kelly Show on SiriusXM.
[00:59:23]  It's your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations with the most interesting and important political, legal, and cultural figures today.
[00:59:31]  You can catch the Megan Kelly Show on Triumph, a SiriusXM channel featuring lots of hosts you may know and probably love.
[00:59:39]  Great people like Dr. Laura, Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, Dave Ramsey, and yours truly, Megan Kelly.
[00:59:46]  You can stream the Megan Kelly Show on SiriusXM at home or anywhere you are.
[00:59:50]  No car required.
[00:59:52]  I do it all the time.
[00:59:53]  I love the SiriusXM app.
[00:59:55]  It has ad-free music coverage of every major sport, comedy, talk, podcast, and more.
[01:00:01]  Subscribe now, get your first three months for free.
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[01:00:10]  That's seriousxm.com/slash MK Show and get three months free.
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=== Lawfare Against a Presidential Candidate (14:39) ===

[01:00:23]  This is ridiculous.
[01:00:27]  What a sad day.
[01:00:29]  The country's been disgraced.
[01:00:31]  That's what's happened.
[01:00:33]  Alvin Bragg and this judge have disgraced the country.
[01:00:39]  We made it, what, almost 250 years without doing this.
[01:00:43]  And now, because of falsified business records, we've convicted as a felon, a former president of the United States.
[01:00:54]  You don't think we could have done something like this to Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton or others?
[01:01:01]  We had a standard.
[01:01:03]  We didn't do this in America.
[01:01:05]  We aren't a banana republic, or at least we didn't use to be.
[01:01:10]  And don't forget what's happened in this Trump case in which he's now been found guilty of all 34 counts against him, which was overcharged to begin with.
[01:01:19]  It shouldn't have been a case at all.
[01:01:20]  And once charged, it should have been one count.
[01:01:23]  The whole case boils down to the same alleged scheme, but they stretched it into 34 counts by saying, and that check and that check and that check and that invoice and that invoice.
[01:01:35]  It was all part of your scheme.
[01:01:37]  So now he looks like Al Capone convicted on these 34 counts.
[01:01:42]  But the idea all along was to stop him from becoming president again.
[01:01:50]  That's the idea behind this prosecution.
[01:01:52]  That is the idea behind Letitia James bankrupting his company that he built and along with his dad from the ground up in New York, the city that just turned on him.
[01:02:04]  That was the idea behind Eugene Carroll and her sexual assault case brought 30 years after the fact, alleging a sexual assault/slash rape in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room, a case she couldn't even remember the year of the alleged rape in.
[01:02:23]  And that's the idea behind Fannie Willis and Jack Smith times two.
[01:02:29]  Stop it.
[01:02:30]  Stop him.
[01:02:32]  Stop Trump.
[01:02:33]  Why did they wait?
[01:02:35]  Why didn't these cases come until right before the presidential election?
[01:02:38]  The Democrats have been wringing their hands.
[01:02:41]  Wasn't in time.
[01:02:42]  We're not going to be able to call him a convicted felon unless you speed these things up.
[01:02:47]  The judge in the DC January 6th case saying, I'll rush back.
[01:02:53]  I'll come back from my European vacation.
[01:02:54]  Don't you worry.
[01:02:55]  If we get Supreme Court opinions allowing my case to go forward with Jack Smith, I'll be there.
[01:03:01]  We've heard about the concern that Fannie Willis, her case is going up on appeal, but she's going to try to find some way to peddle to the medal it.
[01:03:08]  We've heard even in that January 6th case before Judge Chutkin, there may be a plan to try to get him tried even after he wins, if he wins in November.
[01:03:20]  We could have a trial of the president elect in an effort to get him another conviction so they could convince electors to be unfaithful on January 6th of 2025.
[01:03:35]  And that's where this whole scheme, and here it is the proper word, is corrupt.
[01:03:43]  It's a before and after moment for America.
[01:03:46]  What just happened today is a line we can't uncross.
[01:03:52]  And these Democrats will rue the day.
[01:03:56]  They decided to use lawfare to stop a presidential candidate.
[01:04:02]  I'm not talking about violence.
[01:04:04]  I'm talking about tit for tat.
[01:04:07]  You just wait and it won't be Hunter Biden the next time.
[01:04:12]  It's going to be Joe Biden.
[01:04:14]  It could potentially still be Barack Obama.
[01:04:18]  It could still potentially be Hillary Clinton.
[01:04:20]  We're going to have to look at what the statutes of limitations are on the various crimes they surely committed.
[01:04:26]  We're going to have to look at passing laws to revive those dead crimes, felonies or misdemeanors, so that those cases can be brought out of time.
[01:04:38]  That's what may be in the interests of justice, just like they did for E. Jean Carroll with a New York state law that was passed so that she could sue him.
[01:04:50]  That's what happened.
[01:04:52]  Turn about is fair play.
[01:04:54]  And John Yu, an amazing lawyer who worked in the Bush administration, Department of Justice, has a great piece out today talking about how that's the only way they'll learn.
[01:05:06]  The only way to save the Republic now is to give them a taste of their own medicine.
[01:05:12]  That's it.
[01:05:14]  That's it.
[01:05:15]  They tasted blood today.
[01:05:18]  They're the wolves with the bloody piece of meat in their mouths.
[01:05:22]  That doesn't stop the wolf from coming back for more.
[01:05:25]  The only thing that will stop him is if he loses a limb of his own.
[01:05:30]  And I'm sorry, but the Democrats started this game in the same way the Republicans upped the ante when it came to, for example, the filibuster fight.
[01:05:38]  The Democrats got rid of it for lower court judges.
[01:05:41]  Mitch McConnell said, you will rue the day because we're going to be in control of this chamber one day and you're going to lose the filibuster at the higher level court and you'll be sorry.
[01:05:50]  That's what needs to happen here.
[01:05:52]  Who's getting indicted next?
[01:05:54]  Joe Biden?
[01:05:55]  Maybe Jill Biden.
[01:05:56]  How low can we go?
[01:05:59]  You may not want to see it.
[01:06:02]  That ship has already left port.
[01:06:05]  That horse has left the barn.
[01:06:07]  That's where we're going.
[01:06:09]  So before you celebrate too much over at MSNBC and CNN, who are positively gleeful, gleeful over this absurd conviction, you wait and ask yourself.
[01:06:22]  Ask yourself, what kind of Pandora's box has been opened here?
[01:06:26]  Here was President Trump moments after the guilty verdict today.
[01:06:33]  This was a disgrace.
[01:06:35]  This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt.
[01:06:41]  It's a rigged trial of disgrace.
[01:06:44]  They wouldn't give us a venue change.
[01:06:46]  We were at 5% or 6%. in this district, in this area.
[01:06:53]  This was a rigged, disgraceful trial.
[01:06:57]  The real verdict is going to be November 5th by the people.
[01:07:02]  And they know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here.
[01:07:06]  You have a Soros-backed DA and the whole thing.
[01:07:10]  We didn't do a thing wrong.
[01:07:12]  I'm a very innocent man.
[01:07:15]  And it's okay.
[01:07:17]  I'm fighting for our country.
[01:07:18]  I'm fighting for our Constitution.
[01:07:20]  Our whole country is being rigged right now.
[01:07:22]  This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent, a political opponent.
[01:07:31]  And I think it's just a disgrace.
[01:07:34]  And we'll keep fighting.
[01:07:35]  We'll fight till the end and we'll win because our country's gone to hell.
[01:07:39]  We don't have the same country anymore.
[01:07:41]  We have a divided mess.
[01:07:43]  We're a nation in decline, serious decline.
[01:07:46]  Millions and millions of people pouring into our country right now from prisons and from mental institutions, terrorists.
[01:07:55]  And they're taking over our country.
[01:07:57]  We have a country that's in big trouble.
[01:07:59]  But this was a rigged decision right from day one with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case, never.
[01:08:07]  And we will fight for our Constitution.
[01:08:10]  This is long from over.
[01:08:11]  Thank you very much.
[01:08:12]  Good for him.
[01:08:14]  Long from over is absolutely right.
[01:08:16]  This will be reversed.
[01:08:18]  It will be reversed.
[01:08:20]  This will not stand, mark my words.
[01:08:23]  Even in a New York appellate court system that is weighted with Democrats on the bench.
[01:08:27]  The highest court in New York is called the Court of Appeals.
[01:08:30]  It's not completely corrupt.
[01:08:32]  It just overturned the conviction of Harvey Weinstein because he wasn't given a fair trial.
[01:08:37]  They are capable of reaching a rational decision.
[01:08:40]  And if they're not, this could be appealed up higher still to the U.S. Supreme Court.
[01:08:44]  There were state constitutional violations here and there were federal constitutional violations here.
[01:08:51]  Let me ask you a question for those of you sitting at home who listened to this show.
[01:08:54]  What was the underlying crime?
[01:08:57]  What did the jury find Trump was trying to cover up with this falsified business record?
[01:09:03]  Was it federal election campaign law violations?
[01:09:07]  Was it tax law violations?
[01:09:10]  Was it additional business records violations?
[01:09:13]  Do you know?
[01:09:14]  No, you don't.
[01:09:15]  Neither do I.
[01:09:16]  No one knows.
[01:09:17]  Neither does Donald Trump.
[01:09:18]  Good luck.
[01:09:20]  Good luck filing your appeal.
[01:09:21]  He's in the same position he was in when he had to stand up first and argue the closing argument before he'd even heard the prosecution's theory of the case.
[01:09:28]  Now he's got to go up to the appellate court and try to guess.
[01:09:31]  Gee, I don't really know what I've been found guilty of.
[01:09:33]  I guess falsifying business records through unlawful means and the illawful means were.
[01:09:43]  I don't know.
[01:09:44]  I don't know.
[01:09:46]  We're not sure if the jurors took door number one, door number two, or door number three.
[01:09:49]  That's the position he's in.
[01:09:50]  Alvin Bragg ran for office on a promise to get Trump, a Soros-backed DA who doesn't want to enforce the criminal law against anyone.
[01:10:05]  That's why we were all leaving New York in droves because of his policies and the policies of his old boss, the old mayor in New York.
[01:10:16]  And this guy promised, if you elect me, I'll get him.
[01:10:22]  Remember this?
[01:10:22]  When I was at the AG's office, I sued Trump over 100 times for his administration's misconduct and brought a case against the Trump Foundation and held him accountable.
[01:10:32]  I'm the candidate in the race who has the experience with Donald Trump.
[01:10:35]  I was the chief deputy in the attorney general's office.
[01:10:38]  We sued the Trump administration over 100 times.
[01:10:41]  I know how to litigate with him.
[01:10:44]  I also led the team that did the Trump Foundation case.
[01:10:47]  So I'm ready to go wherever the facts take me.
[01:10:49]  It'd be hard to argue with the fact that that'd be the most important, most high-profile case.
[01:10:54]  And I've seen him up front and seen the lawlessness that he can do.
[01:10:57]  So I do have a lot of experience with the former president.
[01:11:00]  I think it's important to elect someone who is well prepared to pick up wherever the city district attorney leaves off.
[01:11:07]  If brought, would be one of the most consequential cases in the history of local enforcement.
[01:11:12]  And we need someone who's ready on day one.
[01:11:16]  He should be disbarred.
[01:11:18]  He should be disbarred.
[01:11:19]  That's how much damage he's done to the justice system.
[01:11:22]  That guy, moments after the verdict was read, tweeting out, today a jury found Donald J. Trump guilty in all caps.
[01:11:30]  He's so excited.
[01:11:31]  On all, all caps again, 34 felony counts.
[01:11:36]  You go, guy.
[01:11:38]  You must be so happy.
[01:11:39]  You lived up to your campaign promises.
[01:11:40]  I'll give you that.
[01:11:41]  One hell of a politician, one shitty prosecutor whose obligation is to uphold the rule of law and to seek justice, justice, not just convictions.
[01:11:52]  That's what you're after.
[01:11:54]  Just convictions in the case of Donald Trump.
[01:11:56]  That's all I want.
[01:11:57]  Just give me the big C so I can get him like I promised.
[01:12:01]  He's so proud today, just like the AG in New York is so proud of bankrupting Trump's business or doing her level best.
[01:12:08]  And we could go on.
[01:12:10]  FYI, at this hour, Trump's donation website has crashed.
[01:12:16]  You can feel, you can feel the number of people going there to pony up dough they didn't think they had.
[01:12:24]  They thought they had given their last donation.
[01:12:26]  People are hurting right now.
[01:12:28]  There's tons of inflation thanks to Joe Biden and other problems that we're all suffering.
[01:12:33]  They're donating.
[01:12:35]  And I'm sure it's by the tens of million.
[01:12:38]  This will be a financial windfall for the Trump campaign and arguably for America.
[01:12:46]  This jury, the jury of the American voters, will be heard on November 5th.
[01:12:51]  They will have the final word.
[01:12:53]  And in the meantime, Donald Trump will hear the term convicted felon every day, everywhere he goes.
[01:13:03]  The sentencing will not take place until July 11th.
[01:13:11]  That is four days before the Republican National Convention.
[01:13:15]  That's the big event.
[01:13:17]  They have the balloon drop.
[01:13:19]  The candidate's family shows up.
[01:13:22]  It gets the party excited for their nominee.
[01:13:25]  Like, what's his vision of the country versus the other guys?
[01:13:30]  How could he help my life?
[01:13:33]  What might he do that could make things better for my kids versus what the other guy's promising?
[01:13:38]  Let me hear the platform.
[01:13:39]  Let me hear your surrogates.
[01:13:40]  Let me hear you and what you stand for.
[01:13:44]  And instead, they've decided to corrupt it, this judge, of course, of course he has by saddling Trump with his sentencing four days before it starts, one week before he accepts the Republican nomination for president of the United States.
[01:13:59]  He'll be sitting in a New York courtroom, and there is a decent chance he's going to be wearing an ankle bracelet.
[01:14:07]  I don't think Trump's going to get jail time.
[01:14:09]  I've said that from the beginnings.
[01:14:11]  Garagos took me on on that.
[01:14:12]  He said anybody not named Trump would.
[01:14:15]  I don't think he's going to get jail time.
[01:14:18]  But it's not outside the realm of possibility.
[01:14:20]  Not with this judge.
[01:14:22]  Not with this DA.
[01:14:24]  Both sides have to submit their recommendations, what they believe should happen.
[01:14:29]  That's gonna happen by, I think, June 13th.
[01:14:32]  And what do you think this DA is gonna seek?
[01:14:35]  Do you think the DA is gonna say, released on his own recognizance, community service?
[01:14:39]  What do you think he's gonna recommend?
[01:14:41]  And this judge, Mershon, has done everything Alvin Bragg has asked him to.
[01:14:46]  Everything.
[01:14:47]  Alvin Bragg won 99.99% of the motion practice in front of this judge.
[01:14:58]  Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show.
[01:15:00]  No BS, no agenda, and no