Former Fox News Host Alan Colmes dies this week from complications due to illness. Sean spent over a decade debating Colmes each night but ultimately counts him as a close friend. The world is a little darker with his passing... Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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| This is an iHeart Podcast. | |
| Smart political talk without the meltdown. | |
| We got you. | |
| I'm Carol Markovich. | |
| And I'm Mary Catherine Hamm. | |
| We've been around the block in media and we're doing things differently. | |
| Normally it's about real conversations. | |
| Thoughtful, try to be funny, grounded, and no panic. | |
| We'll keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day. | |
| Join us every Tuesday and Thursday normally on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. | |
| I'm Ben Ferguson and I'm Ted Cruz. | |
| Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz. | |
| Nationwide, we have millions of listeners. | |
| Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes, inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court. | |
| And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else. | |
| We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family. | |
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| Sean is out today, but he's agreed to call us to talk about this. | |
| And I think we have to start the program, Sean, with acknowledging the fact that we've lost a great one. | |
| Jay, by the way, thanks. | |
| Thanks for doing the show, number one. | |
| You're a good friend. | |
| You know what's amazing? | |
| And I'm all these years we did this show together. | |
| Do you know every single conservative friend of mine, you included, Laura Ingram included, Bill Cunningham included. | |
| I mean, I can't tell you the number of my friends on my that agree with me politically that just knew the guy that I knew together, uh that I worked with together, an amazing human being. | |
| And you know, when we started this show, Jay, when Fox News went on the air in October of 1996, nobody, I mean, nobody thought we had a shot. | |
| Neither one of us had a lot of TV experience, and and every single day, you know, we were working on really just trying to hold our own and survive in those early years. | |
| And the amazing thing was that even though we had political disagreements, he got along with all of my friends. | |
| And it w you know, he used to always say to me, you know, your friends always treat me better than my friends treat you. | |
| And maybe it was a tribute to him over me, but um he was an amazing, amazing guy. | |
| He he had a a wit, a sense of humor, a quickness, and more importantly, I mean, he was He was somebody that loved free speech. | |
| I'll tell you that. | |
| We had him when we're privileged to have him come down and join us at uh Regent University for a symposium where he was one of the guests, and he was just phenomenal. | |
| I mean, this was a guy that loved free speech and did not mind as you said, Sean speaking to an audience that didn't agree with him, and they walked away, maybe not agreeing, certainly not agreeing in most cases, but they loved the guy. | |
| Yeah, and that was that was the magic of Alan, and he also because he had the stand-up comedy background, I can't tell you how many times I've often said that it's the most difficult people to debate are comedians because they can switch out in time. | |
| You you can think you've got them pinned up against the wall and you made all your great political points, and then all of a sudden, you know, he takes all of the balloon and and Alan would do that. | |
| Um I want to say that you know when we started Jay in in 96, we never thought we were gonna make it very long. | |
| And so we really collaborated and really worked hard behind the scenes together to make the show a success. | |
| And I know people re may remember the fact that politically we disagreed, right, but the one thing that we always agreed on was that we wanted this show to work, and it really did. | |
| It became a huge hit, and we're but we were both so very proud of that, and it was it was us working together as friends behind the scenes every day and and trying to make this thing work. | |
| But the the one thing that really stands out about Alan, you know, you know how convicted the political atmosphere is in the country right now. | |
| Yep. | |
| And he you know what? | |
| The mics would go off. | |
| He believed everything he said. | |
| He when when he wrote this book is listening, it drove me crazy. | |
| Absolutely insane. | |
| But he believed it, and we we argue when we'd argue and we'd argue, and then after the show, we were discussing how we can do a better show the next day. | |
| And we were discussing I'll tell you one other thing. | |
| You know, I I without the vote and everything that we've known for a while, when when he first was dying of his illness, and he had a big fight around, and we actually were were more very hopeful that things would would turn around for him. | |
| He said to me was he goes, you know, I this is easy for me. | |
| I'm just worried about my wife. | |
| I don't want her to worry. | |
| I don't want her to be upset. | |
| And that that kind of captures the Allen that I knew. | |
| He always thinking about somebody else. | |
| He was the most generous human being, the nicest guy to ever work with. | |
| If you gotta work with somebody that you don't agree with politically, he was the guy. | |
| And I'm I I was very honored all these years to work with him. | |
| I know people thought because he disagreed politically, we never got along, and that was never true. | |
| And and uh I just have such a deep respect for him. | |
| It's a really tough day. | |
| I I got like a hole in my heart. | |
| Yeah. | |
| Um I talked to Monica Crowley, his sister-in-law, and and she's heartbroken. | |
| His poor wife is devastated. | |
| They're both wonderful people. | |
| They they did so much for him, and he did so much for them. | |
| And I I'm very, very impressed with every i it really was a tribute to Alan to hear from every single major conservative that ever went on our show today, how much they liked him and how much, even though they disagreed, what a good guy. | |
| What a great person. | |
| What a fun person to be around. | |
| And uh, so it's it's a it's a tough day. | |
| It's um, you know, I I deal with everything. | |
| The one thing I've always had the most difficulty dealing with is death. | |
| And uh and you know, I I I was hoping this day would never come. | |
| I was hoping for a miracle, and I can tell you this, he went out fighting. | |
| He went out with great courage, and even in his toughest, latest moments in life, he was thinking about everybody else but himself, and that's the guy that he was. | |
| Well, as you said, Sean, he's a he's a great one. | |
| I I spent a lot of time with him on your program in the in the in the for so many years, but also as I said, we've had him in a number of events where he spoke in in debates and programs and at even at the dinner table with students, usually I would have students from Regent University around him, and he was so engaging, so warm. | |
| People loved him. | |
| And uh he will and we will not forget, and we uh will pray for and continue to pray for his family. | |
| And he had a wicked sense of humor. | |
| Yes, wicked uh he was a stand up and wicked sense of timing. | |
| And he had a way of deflating you know, tense moments with that sense of humor. | |
| And and that made him, you know, we used to always say Alan's the lovable liberal, and he loved being called that because he felt should be compassionate. | |
| He he lived out that life in his personal life. | |
| And so I I have great admiration for him. | |
| I have a hole in my heart today. | |
| My my prayers are so with his his wife and and um you know, they're devastated. | |
| They lost, you know, a husband, uh uh uh uh uh a brother-in-law, and you know, we lost his friend, and I uh I was very proud, very honored, and I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to work with him because it was a collaboration and and we achieved more success than we ever dreamed of. | |
| When we beat Larry King and we became number one on that time slot, that was a big day. | |
| Yeah, yeah, well, and then and we sustained it, and we uh and and when even when he moved on, by the way, he even when he moved on, the sense of humor comes out. | |
| Well, I elected Obama, you know, I did my job block with that. | |
| That's what he said to me. | |
| Yeah. | |
| On air. | |
| And uh Well he was a true believer, that's for sure. | |
| He gave me the c copy of the communist manifesto. | |
| That's so Alan, you know. | |
| Yeah, right. | |
| Well, he was a true believer. | |
| I mean, he believed what he said, he wasn't pretending. | |
| That was his that was who he was. | |
| I think that was one of the real reasons for the success of the show. | |
| I mean, I think my audience knows you know me for a long time. | |
| You're you believe everything you say, I believe everything I say, and he believed everything he said, but he had an ability to turn it off. | |
| He had an ability to he had the human side of him. | |
| He wasn't like these crazy, you know, people in the streets and marching and trying to silence conservatives. | |
| The The one thing you mentioned freedom of speech. | |
| The one thing we always, always, always agreed on was free speech issues. | |
| He because we both knew we made our living with freedom of speech. | |
| It didn't matter if it was politically incorrect, if it was controversial, it was over the top. | |
| He was the staunchest defender. | |
| And he didn't like, I can tell you this. | |
| He didn't like when conservatives were shut down. | |
| Right. | |
| I know that on college campuses. | |
| He didn't like that that his side was doing that. | |
| He felt it was a a kind of you know liberal fascism, and he felt like hear these people out. | |
| You know, let's have the debate. | |
| Let's make it free, open, fair debate, and and uh a dialogue, discussion, and exchange of ideas and and principles, and and and I admire him for that too. | |
| He he you know, Jay, he died too young. | |
| I mean, he's such a young man. | |
| He had so much life in him. | |
| And uh that's that's the hard part. | |
| You know, if somebody's 90, 95, you get it. | |
| You understand they had a full life, and he was so full of life. | |
| One other thing I want to add, you know, he he loved a microphone. | |
| And and for his radio audience, and I know we share some audience, he loved every single solitary moment he spent on the air. | |
| It was his passion, it was his vocation, it was his hobby, it was his life. | |
| Even when he was really sick, and I would see him. | |
| Um, he still was trying he was he was pushing through and doing his radio show. | |
| And I'm like, what are you doing here? | |
| I used to, you know, I'd argue with him about that. | |
| I'd say you need to be resting, you need to be taking care of yourself. | |
| And he he couldn't pull himself away from the microphone because he loved it, and he loved his audience, and he'd love what he was doing, and he loved life. | |
| So I I um, you know, just because we have disagreements sometimes, yeah, I can really see the good in a person, and he represented everything that I would want, you know, if we were gonna live true to their ideology and their principles. | |
| This to me, you know, he uh he embodied that. | |
| And uh I we lost a dear friend today, Jay. | |
| We sure did. | |
| And uh a liberal in the classic sense, and the the party that is now operating, and the liberals that are now operating did not have the convictions of Alan Combs on free speech, that's for sure, and free discourse, as you said. | |
| He was a protector of it, he wanted to hear both sides, he'd argue, he'd argue intensely, but he would listen also, and that was um he'll be missed. | |
| And again, thoughts and prayers for his family. | |
| And Sean, thanks for taking time out today. | |
| And then thank you for giving me the time and uh our thoughts and prayers, really especially for his wife, Jocelyn and Monica and the rest of his family, and uh they're having a tough day. | |
| Yeah. | |
| Our thoughts and prayers will continue for them. | |
| All right, thanks, Sean. | |
| Appreciate it very much. | |
| You want smart political talk without the meltdowns? | |
| We got you. | |
| Now I'm Carol Markovich. | |
| And I'm Mary Catherine Hamm. | |
| We've been around the block in media, and we're doing things differently. | |
| Normally is about real conversations, thoughtful, try to be funny, grounded, and no panic. | |
| We'll keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day. | |
| Join us every Tuesday and Thursday, normally on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. | |
| I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz. | |
| Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz. | |
| Nationwide, we have millions of listeners every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. | |
| We break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court. | |
| And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else. | |
| We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family. | |
| So Dow, verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts. |