Golden Globes Snub Lie, Meghan Markle’s PR Move, with Maureen Callahan, PLUS 'Narcissistic' Crockett Campaign

Summary

After Party with Emily Jashinsky – Episode Summary

Podcast: After Party with Emily Jashinsky
Host: Emily Jashinsky (MK Media)
Guest: Maureen Callahan (The Nerve)
Date: December 11, 2025
Episode Title: Golden Globes Snub Lie, Meghan Markle’s PR Move, with Maureen Callahan, PLUS 'Narcissistic' Crockett Campaign

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Overview

In this lively episode, Emily Jashinsky hosts columnist and podcaster Maureen Callahan for a fast-paced, no-holds-barred discussion spanning the worlds of media, celebrity culture, politics, and technology. The pair dissect the controversy over Megyn Kelly’s alleged Golden Globes “snub,” the PR machinations behind Sydney Sweeney and Meghan Markle’s recent headlines, the simmering Diddy documentary feud, and Texas’s wild Democratic Senate primary. Towards the end, Jashinsky delves into the United Kingdom’s plan to “ramp up” biometric surveillance and the expanding push for Digital ID, warning of “Brave New World”-style government power.

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Key Discussion Points and Segments

[06:46] The “Golden Globes Snub Lie” – Megyn Kelly, Conservative Media, and Hollywood’s Declining Relevance

- Media Narrative vs. Reality:

• Emily clarifies confusion: Media outlets reported that Megyn Kelly was “snubbed” by the Golden Globes, but in truth, Kelly’s team withdrew her show from consideration.
• Key Quote:
  • Megyn Kelly (as paraphrased by Emily):
    “No mystery to us that we would not actually be nominated, because we told them thanks, but no thanks. Now all the headlines… Snubbed! No, no.” [08:23]

- Hollywood’s Award System Insight:

• Maureen critiques the insider culture of Hollywood award campaigning — from billboards (e.g., Ben Shapiro’s campaign) to “pay-to-play” tactics.
• She recalls the days when awards “mattered” culturally, but notes today “I haven’t heard of 90% of these movies, and I consume an enormous amount of culture.” [09:54]
• “You have to act like you want it. Before you know it, you probably really do want it… you’ve convinced yourself it actually matters. All that matters is cultural relevancy, which is something Megyn Kelly has, and the Golden Globes do not.” — Maureen [13:48]

- Prestigious Gatekeeping and Power Shift:

• Both critique whether outsiders should validate themselves by seeking legacy media/establishment awards.
• Discussion of the performative, politicized nature of award “chasing”—and growing irrelevance to the actual power structures of culture.

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[14:02] Sydney Sweeney’s PR Statement: “I’m Against Hate” – Celebrity Image Management in 2025

- Scripted Apologia:

• Sydney Sweeney issues a heavily lawyered statement after social media backlash over jeans ad, declaring: “I’m against hate. Many have assigned motives and labels to me that just aren’t true.”
• Maureen is skeptical:
  • “Her statement is, 'I'm against hate.' Who isn't?” [15:52]
  • Points out the lack of an actual apology, suggesting Sweeney’s team walks a fine line—signaling to Hollywood while trolling cancel culture.

- Modern Celebrity Playbook:

• Celebrities, especially younger ones like Sweeney, are forced into PR-driven rituals when accused of “problematic” affiliations or insufficient progressive politics.
• Speculation that Sweeney’s team (led by Scooter Braun) is reading the “weather veins” after career setbacks:
  • “Her career, which really has yet to fully get aloft, ... they had to do something.” — Maureen [20:20]
• The rare, carefully non-political A-lister (e.g., Tom Cruise, Sandra Bullock) is lauded as smart.

- Entertainment Press Complicity:

• Discussion of how People Magazine and mainstream outlets operate as outlets for celebrity press releases, with entertainment journalism losing adversarial edge:
  • “How do entertainment journalists maintain a distance? They don't. Right. Like the mainstream ones don’t.” — Emily [17:11]

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[23:20] Rolling Stone’s Taylor Swift “Astroturfing” Report & Viral Social Media Attacks

- Study Overview:

• Rolling Stone cites a report where a tiny group of social media accounts generated a bulk of inflammatory anti-Taylor Swift discussion, with accusations of “MAGA,” “trad wife,” and “white supremacist” alignment—allegedly coordinated.
• Both guests treat the findings skeptically, wryly speculating about industry rivals (e.g., Blake Lively) possibly benefiting.

- The Media Cycle of Manufactured Outrage:

• “If everybody’s a white supremacist, then nobody is a white supremacist.” — Maureen [24:10]
• Double standards noted in how magazines cover "favored" vs. "disfavored" stars:
  • “They believe Sidney is MAGA, so she's got it coming. They know that Taylor is a dyed in the wool Dem.” — Maureen [24:28]

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[25:03] Meghan Markle’s “Sad, Sad Story”—Father’s Amputation and the Royal PR Machine

- The Letter and the Optics:

• Emily details the bizarre People Magazine headline: “Letter Arrives Safely in His Hands” (after her father’s leg amputation).
  • “So he didn’t have his hands amputated. It was a leg, number one. ... How else would it arrive unsafely?” — Maureen [26:16]
• Criticism of Meghan’s delayed note, lack of direct contact, and elaborate storytelling for basic familial decency.

- Speculating the Next PR Move:

• Maureen advances a controversial theory, discussed "quietly in media circles," that Markle may someday make retroactive, public claims about her father to justify her estrangement:
  • “I think Meghan’s game plan all along has been to wait until her father dies and then come out and say, guess what? He sexually abused me and that’s why I can never speak to him.” — Maureen [28:34]
• References to Lady Colin Campbell’s claim she was approached by “emissaries” peddling that very narrative during her book research [30:19]
• Pattern of “telling whoppers” in Markle’s public narrative history is noted.

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[31:30] Diddy Documentary, Hip-Hop Feuds, and Conspiracy

- 50 Cent’s Crusade:

• Discussion of 50 Cent’s production of a Diddy documentary, and his long-standing animosity.
  • “He was basically like, we all know Sean Combs loves gay sex. ... Beat the shit out of Cassie all the time. ... It’s been conventional wisdom ... that Sean Combs was behind the killing of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.” — Maureen [32:01]
• Documentary explores these conspiracy-laden accusations. Emily finds the documentary’s opening—Diddy berating lawyers for “bad PR”—fascinating; Maureen is intrigued.

- The “Smoking Gun” Question:

• Maureen says it’s unlikely a smoking gun will emerge; notes Biggie’s mother’s suspicions (“I think Sean Combs had something to do with it.”) [33:10]

- Meta Note:

• Brief, humorous asides on Scooter Braun, Justin Bieber, and “celebrity breakdowns” in the wake of scandals.

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[42:47] Jasmine Crockett’s “Narcissistic” Senate Campaign: A Case Study in Political Self-Sabotage

- Crockett’s Rhetoric:

• Emily reviews the Texas Senate Democratic primary, highlighting Jasmine Crockett’s CNN appearance:
  • Crockett’s past “slave mentality” comment about Latino Trump voters resurfaces, and her subsequent awkward attempts at explanation are derided:
    • “She doesn’t believe[s] the people who voted for Trump believe in what they’re actually getting. So what she’s saying is that you Latinos are too dumb to know that Trump is playing you.” — Emily [45:15]
  • Maureen concurs that this will be a political “albatross.”

- Republican “Astroturf” Operation:

• Reports (confirmed by Emily) that GOP operatives proactively boosted Crockett in polling to goad her into running, betting on her self-obsession (“as a narcissist, Jasmine Crockett is going to be very persuaded, very persuaded by these numbers. Indeed, Crockett… said she was persuaded by these numbers.”) [46:30]
  • Notable Crockett quote:
    • “There was a reason that I entered the race, and it wasn’t because of James Talarico. It was because of Jasmine Crockett.” [47:53]

- Populism vs. Corporate Alignment:

• Jashinsky and guest note that Crockett’s “populist” tone masks standard-issue Democratic positions:
  • “When it comes to corporate power, crypto, Israel—she’s a very standard Democrat.” — quoting Ryan Grimm

- Prognosis:

• The host expects a chaotic, media-saturated campaign cycle in Texas, with Crockett’s “rhetorical norm breaking” simultaneously damning and attention-grabbing for Democrats.

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[56:15] UK Biometrics and Digital ID – “Brave New World” Warnings

- UK Government Plans:

• Emily highlights a UK Home Office press release openly promising to “ramp up facial recognition and biometrics,” with potential applications from tracking migrants to policing errors.
  • “The Government of the United Kingdom is pledging to ramp up recognition and biometrics. That is a headline right out of Brave New World.” — Emily [56:15]
• She notes the chilling language and the speed at which this normalized state surveillance is “bragged about,” not hidden.

- Digital ID as Control:

• The push for an encrypted Digital ID (endorsed by Keir Starmer’s Labour) is framed as dangerous “mission creep,” and parallels with E-Verify in the US are drawn.

- The Trap:

• Emily warns that waves of migration crises could be used to justify permanent biometric tracking and digital ID, shifting consent through fear:
  • “Let as many people as possible into the country… then demand access to Digital IDs and Biometrics. In fact brag about it because you have scared the population into sacrificing their freedom for the sake of convenience or safety.” [60:25]
• Calls attention to public-private partnerships, unregulated corporate data troves, and “boiling frog” risk of passive, population-level acquiescence.
  • “At some point, we’re going to be asked even more forcefully than we already have been to sacrifice our freedom for the sake of security. And some of it will be because elites already made us less safe and then tried to force us at the metaphorical barrel of a gun.” — Emily [60:25]
• Asserts the US’s unique legal and political tradition may slow, but not stop, such incursions.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Hollywood & Awards:

  • Maureen: “All that matters is cultural relevancy, which is something Megyn Kelly has, and the Golden Globes do not.” [13:48]

• Sydney Sweeney’s Statement:

  • Maureen: “Her statement is, ‘I'm against hate.’ Who isn't?” [15:52]

• PR, Press, and Entertainment Media:

  • Emily: “How do entertainment journalists maintain a distance? They don't. Right. Like the mainstream ones don’t.” [17:11]

• Taylor Swift ‘Astroturfing’

  • Maureen: “If everybody’s a white supremacist, then nobody is a white supremacist.” [24:10]

• Meghan Markle’s PR Strategy:

  • Maureen: “I think Meghan’s game plan all along has been to wait until her father dies and then come out and say, guess what? He sexually abused me and that’s why I can never speak to him.” [28:34]

• Diddy Documentary:

  • Maureen: “We all know Sean Combs loves gay sex. Beat the shit out of Cassie all the time… it’s been conventional wisdom ...that Sean Combs was behind the killing of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.” [32:01]

• Jasmine Crockett’s Narcissism:

  • Jasmine Crockett (clip): “There was a reason that I entered the race, and it wasn’t because of James Talarico. It was because of Jasmine Crockett.” [47:53]
  • Emily: “She’s so transparently narcissistic that Republicans can play her like a fiddle to the detriment of Democrats.” [50:15]

• UK Biometrics:

  • Emily: “The Government of the United Kingdom is pledging to ramp up recognition and biometrics. That is a headline right out of Brave New World.” [56:15]
  • “Let as many people as possible into the country… then demand access to Digital IDs and Biometrics.” [60:25]

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Episode Timeline Guide

| Segment / Topic | Timestamp | |------------------------------------------|---------------| | Intro, Banter, Show Topics Preview | 01:08 | | Golden Globes “Snub” (Megyn Kelly) | 06:46–14:02 | | Sydney Sweeney PR Statement & Media | 14:02–22:00 | | Rolling Stone/Taylor Swift “Astroturf” | 23:20–25:03 | | Meghan Markle & Thomas Markle Story | 25:03–31:30 | | Diddy Documentary / 50 Cent Feud | 31:30–39:45 | | Jasmine Crockett Senate Run | 42:47–52:00 | | UK Biometric Surveillance (& US Parallels)| 56:15–65:30 | | Closing Thoughts | ~65:30–End |

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Tone & Takeaways

• The episode is witty, combative, and often sardonic. Both Jashinsky and Callahan delight in skewering self-serious celebrities, political narcissists, and “Brave New World”-style technocrats alike.
• Celebrity culture is painted as more image-managed and less relevant than ever, with PR-driven non-apologies and legacy awards ceremonies losing cultural power.
• Populist posturing in politics—on both right and left—is scrutinized for performative shallowness, with specific critique of progressive candidates easily manipulated by their own egos.
• The rise of biometric state surveillance in the UK is treated as a dire harbinger for the US, with urgent warnings about passive societal consent and rapid, uncritical technological adoption.

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For listeners interested in behind-the-scenes celebrity PR, the politics of media gatekeeping, or the encroachment of digital surveillance, this episode is a bracing, quotable deep dive.

Transcript

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[Maureen Callahan]

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[Emily Yoffe]

Welcome to afterparty. I almost actually started headbanging to the music tonight because this is technically my second after party of the evening. I mentioned on Monday's show that the great Ryan Grimm and I were going to be debating Robbie Suave, Elizabeth Nolan Brown and the Reason crew on Big Tech tonight in dc. Just want to thank everybody who came out. Some after party fans in the audience appreciate it. We did win the debate. I stopped by the after I made Ryan do a shot of vodka with me. And so this is, I guess if it's after the after party, it's the hotel lobby. So we're in the hotel lobby tonight, not just afterparty. Make sure to give us a subscription if you haven't yet. Subscribe on the YouTube channel. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can only get happy hour on the podcast feed. That's where I talk to all of you via the questions you Send in to emilyoulmaker media.com or the After Party. Emily Instagram. The great Maureen Callahan is here tonight. I'm so excited. I'm going to bring her in in just one moment. We do have a big show. There's a ton, a ton of news, as always. Megan broke some news actually on the Megyn Kelly show today talking about the media narrative that somehow Megan was snubbed by the Golden Globes. That's not true. We're going to bring you the real story and I'm really excited to get Maureen's reaction to the facts in that case, because I think there's a broader conversation to be had here about how these things still matter, whether these things still matter in 2020, 2025. We're going to talk about Sydney Sweeney. We're going to talk about Diddy. I'm very excited to talk about Diddy. And you know, we're going to be talking about Meghan Markle, who is back in the news because it's a day that ends in y. I'm gonna talk a little bit about a great Jasmine Crockett appearance on CNN. True master class, 10 out of 10 from future senator Crockett. And we're going to get into a crazy biometric story out of the United Kingdom. Now, before we bring in Maureen, I have to talk about my favorite thing in the world. You know what that is? It's masa chips. Have you ever taken a look at the nutrition label? On any typical bag of chips you'll find a chemical cocktail, seed oils, msg, artificial dyes, vague natural flavors and ingredients that sound more like a science experiment than a snack. Masa is part of the growing movement to bring back real food with only three ingredients. Organic corn, sea salt and 100% grass fed beef tallow. Not only do these chips avoid the bad stuff, they also taste incredible. You can taste the tallow. It makes a huge difference. With Masa, you'll feel satisfied, light and energetic with no crash, bloat or gross sluggish feeling afterwards. You don't want to feel sluggish around the holiday season. Basically, snacking on Masa chips is nothing like it is with regular chips. Personally, my favorite flavor, I say this all the time. I don't really have one because they're all so good. I love the churro flavor. I love the spicy carbonara flavor. I also love the lime. These things make great chocolate gifts when you're going over to somebody's house for a party too, by the way, because everyone wants to try Masa chips. They're hearing about them, they want to try them and they're so, so good. Perfectly for perfect for bringing two parties. If you love Masa, you also love Vanity Crisps because you're like me and you love good chips. Vandy Masa's sister company makes the most delicious three ingredient potato chips that I have literally ever tasted. And I mean it. My favorite is the Smokehouse barbecue. So if you're ready to give Masa or Vandy a try, use code AFTERPARTY for 25% off your first order. MA chips.com or vandy crisps.com or simply click the link in the video description or scan the QR code to claim this delicious offer. And if you don't feel like ordering online, Masa and Vandy are now available nationwide at your local sprout supermarket. So stop by and pick up a couple bags before they're gone.

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[Emily Yoffe]

All right. We are joined tonight by Maureen Callahan, host of the Nerve with Maureen Callahan, who I have been waiting to get back on afterparty for so long. Maureen, thank you for spending the evening here on After Party.

[Maureen Callahan]

Thank you for having me, Emily. I brought my cocktail, a vodka. Well, club vodka and club soda. You said you made someone take a vodka shot. What's your vodka?

[Emily Yoffe]

I'm a Tito's person. What's your name? Tito's.

[Maureen Callahan]

Yeah, I like a bite.

[Emily Yoffe]

American vodka. Yes. Yes. Now, to be fair, I think they gave me real vodka because I ordered a shot at a karaoke bar.

[Maureen Callahan]

What's real vodka? Is that just like.

[Emily Yoffe]

Like the shittiest that they had at the bar?

[Maureen Callahan]

Oh, that's like. Well, vodka. Like. Yeah.

[Emily Yoffe]

Oh, you don't want it.

[Maureen Callahan]

Great.

[Emily Yoffe]

Like lower shelf, bottom shelf.

[Maureen Callahan]

Emily, you need to make friends with the bartenders.

[Emily Yoffe]

It's like it was a random karaoke bar. In my defense. Oh, I don't really hang out at karaoke bars. Marine. I don't know about you.

[Maureen Callahan]

It's not my thing, not my scene.

[Emily Yoffe]

It's not my scene either. But let's start with Megan. I don't think a karaoke bar is probably Megan's scene either. Neither are the Golden Globes, as it turns out.

[Maureen Callahan]

Oh, you're talking about the good Megan.

[Emily Yoffe]

The good Megan.

[Maureen Callahan]

Megan with a Y.

[Emily Yoffe]

You're so right. I should clarify because we're talking about Meghan with a Y and not the Duchess of Sussex, the former Duchess of the artist formerly known as the Duchess of Sussex, which we'll get to in just a moment. But I actually think to set the tone for this conversation, starting with the good Meghan, Megan Kelly's news on the Golden Globes today is a really interesting place to start because it gets at this conversation more broadly about. About Hollywood's waning power. And I'm very curious to get your take on this, Maureen, because the media was reporting. I saw an Entertainment Weekly headline, for example, that said Megan and others had been snubbed by the Golden Globes. Turns out, as Megan explained on the Megyn Kelly show today, it wasn't a snub. They withdrew from contention because Megan wanted nothing to do with the Golden Globes. Let's go ahead and rub this video. It was brought to my attention by.

[Maureen Callahan]

Someone connected with this whole system that.

[Emily Yoffe]

If you want to actually be considered.

[Maureen Callahan]

You have to go talk to the Golden Globes people.

[Emily Yoffe]

The whole thing was so bizarre because.

[Maureen Callahan]

Number one, I had zero interest in their stupid awards.

[Emily Yoffe]

I was. I've made the point repeatedly on this.

[Maureen Callahan]

Show that I came up under the.

[Emily Yoffe]

Roger Ailes era where we at Fox.

[Maureen Callahan]

Were not even allowed to submit for.

[Emily Yoffe]

Any kind of an award.

[Maureen Callahan]

And he just didn't believe in the system because he knew it was run by leftists and that it was for leftists.

[Emily Yoffe]

What we had our producers do was withdraw our name from consideration. So it was no mystery to us that we would be not actually nominated because we told them, thanks, but no thanks. Now all the headlines because they hate conservative media is snubbed. Snubbed. No, no.

Maureen. So if the Nerve were nominated for a Golden Globe, which of course it should be, but if that were to happen, is this the right call? And we can, we can have this, this conversation, because I think, you know, Megan and Andrew Clavin were talking about Ben Shapiro's decision to seek the award, you know, getting a billboard and all of that, and respectfully disagreed with it, I think it's just genuinely an interesting conversation about whether it's worth it for people kind of outside the gatekeeper's control to want the gatekeepers sort of prestige awards.

[Maureen Callahan]

That's an interesting question, Emily. You know, first of all, thank you, as always, for the kind words about the Nerve. It explains, you know, I was in LA a couple of weeks ago.

In my Uber going to lax, and I saw this enormous billboard for Ben Shapiro's show, like, Emily. And it literally was like, on the side of, like, a huge building, what passes for a skyscraper out there. And it was just. It said, like, Ben in, like, big red, like, B, E, N all lowercase in his face. And I was like, what is this? This is so strange. Like, his podcast has plenty of, like, visibility. He doesn't need to be doing this. I didn't know it was part of a Globes campaign. Allegedly, I would think. And, you know, it's funny because we were talking on the Nerve. This week, the Globe Awards were announced. The Globes ra were announced on Monday. And it was kind of like, first of all, I was the kind of person who every Oscar season, I had a friend. Every year, we would go, he and I, to the movies and see all the nominated movies. Like, it was a thing. It was like a real cultural thing. It felt like it mattered. And then it was like, on Monday, it was like, what? The Golden Globes are happening. They were announced today. Oh, let me go take a look. I haven't heard of 90% of these movies. And I consume an enormous amount of culture. Enormous. And what's funny to me is, like, one of our current woodshed residents is one Timothee Chalamet, who we call Timothy Shamalama Ding Dong. And he really wants it. He wants the Globe and then he wants that Oscar and he's going after it in a very desperate way. And this is the best performance he's ever given. He says it's in Marty supreme, his movie about underground ping pong. Trust me, it's this campaigning. As for what?

[Emily Yoffe]

Can I actually stop you on that point? Because I find this is interesting. Interesting because we were doing Megan Kelly wrap up show on SiriusXM today, and a lot of people were calling in, being like, they didn't know about the campaign element. And Megan kind of started explaining that. But nobody's in a better position to explain what that actually means to you. Megan referred to it as a dog and pony show, but it's this kissing of the ring. You have to pay money to get a table. You have to, like, really go to all the parties, rub all of the elbows of the celebrities. And Megan felt, like, uncomfortable. This puts you in a position where you're, like, sucking up to powerful people that you cover. And that is such inside baseball That I feel like it's a story that doesn't get told a lot. But you've seen that up close.

[Maureen Callahan]

Well, with. With the Golden Globes in particular, it used to be really like, pay to play, you know, and you used to be able to pretty much like, purchase your award. And it was kind of a big joke. And. And that was the whole thing. And now people really, they. They take it seriously because the Globes sort of position themselves as the Oscars. Little brother, little sister. But listening to her talk was very interesting because she really. She said something that was also adjacent to this, because to campaign in that town to get an Oscar means you have to sort of play ball with them politically. You have to sort of sidle up to their. Their ethos, their way of thinking.

Their values, or what passes for their values. And she was saying something about, you know, she's been in those rooms when she first came on the Nerve. She told a great story about having been at the Met gala and going into the bathroom and being disappoint, disgusted with what was going on in there. Like, why am I here without a win? Tours, like, drive by attempts to see if Megan could, like, you know, hack it with her bunch of bullshit, you know, because, like, Megan was fighting with Trump at the time. And then she said, you know, it's a dangerous thing and you'll never fully be embraced by them. And she said, I think mtg, Marjorie Taylor Greene, this is not going to end well for her because she's currently having her sort of quote unquote embrace on the left. Now, if what passes for an embrace on the left is sitting down with 60 minutes and having the octogenarian Leslie Stahl scold you and say, I'm gonna need you to do these three things, like Rosamund pike at the end of Gone Girl to Ben Affleck. You want to avoid the electric chair. I'm gonna need you to do these three things in front of our Nancy Grace Monkay to get through that. You know what I mean? Like, MTG's sitting there, like, I'm supposed to apologize to you. So I thought Megan's encapsulation of the whole thing was. Was perfect. I mean, I couldn't. She said it all. You have to go in there, you have to act like you want it. Before you know it, you probably really do want it, because you've put in all this emotional energy and time and money, and you've convinced yourself that it actually matters. All that matters is cultural relevancy, which is something that Megyn Kelly has. And the Golden Globes do not.

[Emily Yoffe]

Yeah, I think that's a great point. And it reminds me of the Sydney Sweeney story I wanted to talk to you about, because Sydney Sweeney gave a. What's the right word for this, like, antiseptic PR statement to People magazine that People ran as an exclusive saying, you know, sydney Sweeney weighs back, weighs in on the backlash, the American Eagle jeans ad. And the headline is quoting Sydney Sweeney saying, I'm against hate. We didn't know that. Sydney Sweeney says, quote, many have assigned motives and labels to me that just aren't true. And it's the most. Like, you can just tell. Every single letter has been workshopped by lawyers and PR types. But it also just reminds me to ask you, Marine, one of the things I think you're so sharp on is, like, this speaks to the relationship between Sydney Sweeney and Hollywood. I think that she felt compelled to come out and again, like, kind of kiss the ring. Because this is Sydney Sweeney Inc. This is a business, and they're trying to sell jeans to teenage girls who are pretty liberal. So she comes in a couple months later and is like, listen, don't worry about it. What's going on here?

[Maureen Callahan]

Well, she's had two movies that tanked, and one of those movies was supposed to be an Oscar bait movie because she gained a lot of weight. She put on some ugly prosthetics, and she's playing a lesbian boxer. You know, she maybe should have, like, had another kind of prosthetic or played like, I don't know what she needs to do. But she was completely snubbed. Everybody knows why. Secondly, she's dating Scooter Braun.

[Emily Yoffe]

Yes.

[Maureen Callahan]

And that guy knows his way around this industry, and I would bet he probably had something to do with this. But thirdly, now that I'm thinking about it, I kind of feel like Sydney Sweeney's statement to people is a bit of a troll. Because, really, think about it, Emily. Her statement is, I'm against hate.

[Emily Yoffe]

Right. Right.

[Maureen Callahan]

Who isn't?

[Emily Yoffe]

Right? That's a good point. She doesn't. She's not see anything.

[Maureen Callahan]

I renounce XYZ or I apologize. As far as I'm seeing. There's no apology here. We're just sort of making a sort of trollish, obvious thing like, hey, Hollywood, don't kill my career in the cradle. I'm still a young woman with a lot of talent. And, you know, don't cancel me.

[Emily Yoffe]

Let me ask you about this. This might seem too inside baseball, but we were talking about earlier, Meghan's decision not to go for a Golden Globe. And I mean, I'm just kind of fascinated by this question of how entertainment journalists in what's seen as kind of a lower stakes industry than like, being a war correspondent. And I guess maybe rightfully so. Although I still think entertainment has really high stakes and your reporting proves that. But it's so easy in entertainment to like, slip into like People magazine running this as an exclusive me a freaking break. Like, it's so they're just putting it on a silver platter and running a press release for Sydney Sweeney. Even though I agree with you, Marine, that I think this might have been a troll. It's like, how do entertainment journalists maintain a distance? They don't. Right. Like the mainstream ones don't.

[Maureen Callahan]

There's no, there's no distance whatsoever.

[Emily Yoffe]

So there's no skepticism.

[Maureen Callahan]

I. I'm going to take a little bit of issue with your comparison to entertainment journalism and war correspondence because I like to say over at the Nerve that I put on my flak jacket and I go out there in the trenches and I come back so that the troublemakers don't have to engage in this bullshit. But so, like, I keep my hands in on like, everything that is really difficult to watch. Such as, yeah, the Access Hollywoods, the Entertainment Tonights, the Today shows. I read all the tabloids. I read all the blogs, tabloids or tabloids. Real tabloids are a little bit more oppositional. But. But if you watch an Access or an Entertainment Tonight, you see these correspondents who are often failed actors themselves.

[Emily Yoffe]

Yep.

[Maureen Callahan]

Like catalog models who got a job because they can look into the camera and read prompter and they really, really, really want to be friends with these people. And you can see this very uncomfortable dynamic constantly going on where it's like, hey, man, hey man, I see you on the red carpet. Right. But like in real life, like, you know.

It'S kind of like watching those tears of high school where it's like the popular kids, the cool kids sort of abide. The kids who really want to be in with their group for a minute because people are watching, but then they're going to move on to their private, private after VIP party. And that's why the nerve exists, really. Because we're the real talk about fake people. We're the real talk about why Timothy Shyamalama Ding Dong is probably campaigning himself right out of that Oscar.

[Emily Yoffe]

You know, does that happen if you, if you go too hard in the paint?

[Maureen Callahan]

Yes.

[Emily Yoffe]

Turns people off.

[Maureen Callahan]

Yes. And you can, you know, Leonardo DiCaprio had to wait quite a long time for that Oscar. And to get that Oscar, you know what he had to do, Emily? Not be directed by Martin Scorsese in any number of films or give an outstanding performance in the Departed. That to this day breaks my heart. He had to leak a fake story that while shooting the Revenant he was actually raped by a bear.

[Emily Yoffe]

That's right. When he leaked that.

[Maureen Callahan]

Yeah, allegedly. I mean, it came from his camp. It got electrified. Drudge Report. The entire country was really curious. How did this rape happen? Where, where was the crew exactly? How is Leo violated? Was he airlifted out?

[Emily Yoffe]

I mean, I have a lot of questions about it still to this day. What do you read into? I, I had the same thought about Scooter Braun when I saw the statement. But what read into a Scooter Braun and maybe the broader Sydney Sweeney Inc. Team thinking that in 2025 they still have to kind of grovel after the, the controversy. Is this about selling jeans? American Eagles seem to be perfectly happy with Sydney Sweeney and they didn't seem to suffer.

[Maureen Callahan]

Their stock price went up, although they quickly then released a new campaign starring Martha Stewart, I think, to sort of scrub those decks.

[Emily Yoffe]

So what's going on? I mean, it's, it's 2025. Why did. I mean, Scooter Braun is a PR animal. What is he, what is he doing groveling on this or trolling?

[Maureen Callahan]

I think that they're, I think that they're reading the tea leaves. I think they're, you know, looking at the weather veins. I think that in the, in the wake of two flops and in the wake of backlash that depicted Sydney Sweeney as a eugenics master Nazi adjacent refusing to renounce her Republican family, that, I think that they think that her career, which really has yet to fully get aloft, like to fully, for her to fully realize her potential, that they had to do something. They had to make some sort of a gesture. And I am sure they are also trying to position her as a high profile presenter at the Oscars. You know, it's rare. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's increasingly rare, Emily. And, and these are the smart ones, the celebrities who refuse to get political. I can think of, I mean, often Tom Cruise does not get political and it's, it's incredibly smart. I think Matthew McConaughey really has not gotten political. As far as I can tell. He's come out after, you know, the mass shooting at Uvalde, that, that tragic school shooting and, and he sort of makes a little bit of flirts with it. He flirts with politics, but he's not going to let it jeopardize his acting career. No way. I. I don't know how Sandra Bullock votes. I could guess, but I've never heard.

[Emily Yoffe]

Her say, oh, that's such a good point about. And that's just like a generation prior, which is very interesting.

[Maureen Callahan]

Yeah.

[Emily Yoffe]

Now, this conversation about Sydney Sweeney reminds me of the Rolling Stone story that published today about Taylor Swift being potentially the victim of what Rolling Stone says a a media firm. It's called G U D E A, which maybe you pronounce it goodie. I don't know. They note that online discussion of Taylor's new album, quote, turned extreme in ways that many found bewildering. Bewildering? There were social media posts accusing Swift of implicitly endorsing the maga movement, trad wife, gender norms, and even white supremacy with dog whistle references. And that last part in particular also kind of what Sydney Sweeney got. And Rolling Stone reports that this research firm says, quote, a behavioral. Or they're a behavioral intelligence startup. They said in a white paper examining more than 24, 000 posts and 18, 000 accounts across 14 digital platforms between October 4 and October 18. Shared first with Rolling Stone, the firm concluded that just 3.77 of accounts drove 28 of the conversation around Swift and the album during that period. This clust recently coordinated accounts pushed the most inflammatory Swift content, including conspiracy theories about her supposed Nazi illusions, call outs for theoretical magnetize, et cetera, et cetera. So, Maureen, what do you make of this report? Is this legit? Were journalists getting duped by this? Is this Astro turf? And if so, have you seen it before? What do you think?

[Maureen Callahan]

Yeah, we've seen it before. I mean, I think the FBI should open an investigation and trace that URL right over to Blake Lively's Tribeca penthouse.

[Emily Yoffe]

That's what I was thinking. Right, yes. Who better?

[Maureen Callahan]

Who wasn't it down to Blake? I'm trying to keep my scandals on track. But it was. Was it Justin Baldoni who claimed that Blake orchestrated a smear campaign against him that began with the New York Times un fact checked? Allegedly. Right. Okay, so that's suspect number one. Number one, it's also a wild thing to do given that Taylor came out in 2024 for Kamala Harris? Yeah, like we know where she stands. She made it quite clear she had a white supremacist.

Why? Why?

It makes no sense to me. None of it makes. You can't listen, if everybody's a white supremacist, then nobody is a white supremacist. Right.

[Emily Yoffe]

But it's cavity for People magazine, who I'm sure covered this and covered all the complaints about Sydney Sweeney before Sydney Sweeney groveled to them. Like, I'm sure they were, you know, happy to pimp out those headlines. Sure.

[Maureen Callahan]

Because Sidney, they believe, is maga. They think Sidney's maga, so she's got it coming. They know that Taylor is a dyed in the wool dem, you know, and so they're, they're just going to be friendly to her, you know, and also Taylor's just like Taylor Swift, Inc. Dominates everyone. Like, you can't alienate her.

[Emily Yoffe]

But if you're Blake Lively, you would know that one way to make people uncomfortable about giving Taylor Swift good press would be to make her seem maga.

[Maureen Callahan]

Oh, that's a great point. That's a great, great point. I love that. I love it. I, I, I think this theory of the case is bang on, Emily.

[Emily Yoffe]

Oh, well, it's my honor to have proffered it. Then.

Let's talk about the bad Megan. Meghan Markle, because she's in another sad, sad situation with her father. I hate when the dad storyline gets brought up in the Megan Markle context because it's just awful. This is F1. This is a People magazine headline. Megan Mar her safely in hands of her dad, Thomas Markle, after his emergency leg amputation. Spokesman confirms. Again, this is so sad. Apparently there's been a Daily Mail journalist posted up who's friends with Thomas Markle. You're going to know way more about this than I do, Maureen. And the Daily Mail journalist says, hey, we're, we're genuine friends. Meghan Markle didn't want to send a note, I guess, to her father who had a leg amputation because there was a Daily Mail journalist there. They said they finally got it. What the hell, hell is happening in this story? Is it another case of Meghan Markle turning on her father? What's, what is happening?

[Maureen Callahan]

So we've been covering this, you know, a tick tock over at the Nerve. What's going on with this? And so first of all, that People headline, which I love, the letter arrives, quote unquote, safely in his hands.

[Emily Yoffe]

Can confirm.

[Maureen Callahan]

So he didn't have his hands amputated. It was a leg, number one. He's laid up in a hospital bed. How else would it arrive in his hands unsafely? He wouldn't, he wouldn't lose it. He wouldn't drop it. Right. How far could he drop it onto his tummy? Get out. I love it. The florid Meghan Markle statement, you know, through. Through a battery of systems we managed to, you know, get that correspondence from Los Angeles over to the Philippines safely. It is now in his hands and he can do it in. First of all, this is so like any, any actual human being is like, like you. Like, what are they. What's going on here? You hear that your father is. Had an emergency amputation in a hospital in the Philippines, right. I would think your first thing would be you would reach out via text. The immediacy of a text message. Now, if she's that worried about digital security, surely she is familiar with WhatsApp. Isn't her dimwit of a husband like the heads of like, like better up or something? Some online mental health like thing that companies use or something? I don't know. So there's that. And then, you know, so I'm just gonna, I'm gonna jump to what I think is really going on because about eight days elapsed before she sent that, that note. And in those eight days, she was the subject of an unrelenting drumbeat of public repudiation and media score. And that was like, what the f is wrong with this woman? The only thing this man really did, as far as we know, was stage some paparazzi photos. He's lost a limb in a hospital. And I'm sorry, but if you're a disgraced royal living in America and you can pick up the phone and anyone's going to answer the call, if I'm her, I've got the top medical specialists in America on the phone with my father's team over in the Philippines. And then I'm finding out when he's safe enough to fly. And then I'm bringing him back to America where he's going to rehab here. And I'm going to make sure, even if we don't get along, that because I have the means, he's going to live out the rest of his days in comfort with 247 nursing care. That's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to send a bunch of carrier pigeons over to the Philippines with my note written in calligraphy, which surely contains some really bad puns like, hope you're back on your feet again soon. You know what I'm saying?

[Emily Yoffe]

Oh, no.

[Maureen Callahan]

And she would. She would. And then. So our theory that we're working with on the nerve is the thing that media people are Discussing amongst ourselves behind closed doors, which nobody's been saying out loud, but over at the Nerve, we're saying it out loud. I think Megan's game plan all along has been to wait until her father dies and then come out and say, guess what? He sexually abused me and that's why I can never speak to him. And. And don't you guys all feel really bad now? Now I can say my truth. And we're saying if that's true, which none of us believe over at the Nerf, say it now while your father is still alive and can defend himself. Because, you know, Kinsey Schofield, who's one of our regular guests at the Nerve, who is an extremely well sourced American royal correspondent, tells me that Meghan's mother had kept up a speaking relationship with Thomas Markle well after Meghan cut him off. So if there's any. If this is her plan, she better think twice. Just my opinion, do you think?

[Emily Yoffe]

Has she alluded to that? Is there truth to it? What makes you go there?

[Maureen Callahan]

I. You know, I've been talking to many people about this lady Colin Campbell. I don't know if you're familiar with her. She has her own YouTube channel. She's written books on the royals. She herself is an aristocrat. She says that when she was writing her book on Harry and Meghan, she was approached by, I'm going to say, quote, unquote, emissaries from Camp Sussex, saying that this was implying, I'm gonna say implying that this was the reason why Meghan had no relationship with her father, that she had been, quote, unquote, interfered with by him. And Lady Colin Campbell dismissed this out of hand and refused to print it.

[Emily Yoffe]

Oh. Oh, well, that's very interesting.

[Maureen Callahan]

Mm.

[Emily Yoffe]

Picking up on the tea leaves a bit.

[Maureen Callahan]

So, you know, and this is a woman who has a history, in my opinion, of telling whoppers of telling lies. The royals are racist. I was suicidal and pregnant and. And I was told I couldn't get mental help. Is it that much further of a leap, really?

[Emily Yoffe]

That's super, super interesting. Oh, what a sad, sad story. Speaking of sad stories, actually, I have to get your take on the Diddy documentary. That is. I started watching it. It's pretty interesting. What's Fascinating is how 50 Cent, who produced the movie, got his hands on this video footage. Now, if people need to refresh their memories, I actually had to refresh my own memory on this. They have a long standing beef because 50 Cent has been throwing barbs at Diddy forever about Biggie about having something to do with Biggie, and that is a focus of this documentary. And I'm wondering, Maureen, if you can kind of bring us in a little bit on what might be happening behind the scenes, because this is wild.

[Maureen Callahan]

Well, 50 Cent has always had it out for Sean Combs. He gave an interview, I think, right before the trial or during the trial, and he said, you know, I'm working on this documentary about Diddy, and he's not gonna like it. And I never wanted anything to do with him, because when I first got in the game, Sean Combs was suddenly, like, cold calling me and being like, want to go shopping with me? And 50 Cent was like. And, you know, no offense to the gay community, but he was like, that's some gay shit, and I don't want to do it.

[Emily Yoffe]

Yeah. He called it fruity.

[Maureen Callahan]

Yeah. And, you know, he was basically like, we all know Sean Combs loves gay sex. You just read the court testimony. It's all over the place. Clearly hates women. Beat the shit out of Cassie all the time. And. But, you know, it's been. It's been conventional wisdom in the hip hop community for many, many years that Sean Combs was behind the killing of Tupac Shakur and behind the killing of Biggie Smalls, who was about to leave him. Leave. Leave Bad Boy Records.

[Emily Yoffe]

Is there Smoking Gun anywhere? I mean, I'm not talking about the documentary, but, I mean, the documentary is building a pretty persuasive case. I hadn't. I haven't finished all of it, but 50 Cent getting his hands on this is interesting in and of itself. Do you think we'll ever know the answer to these questions?

[Maureen Callahan]

I don't think so. I think. I think Sean Combs is a very dangerous guy. I. I can't believe the sentence he got. I cannot believe he got, like, two and a half years, tops. He was trying to intimidate witnesses from behind bars. I think it is completely within. You know, actually.

Violetta Wallace, Viola Wallace, if I'm saying it correctly. Correctly. Biggie's mom, she died not too long ago, and she, before she went to her grave, said, I think Sean Combs had something to do with it.

[Emily Yoffe]

Oh, wow.

[Maureen Callahan]

Yeah.

[Emily Yoffe]

That's fascinating. I mean, the documentary is. Is very, very interesting. Before.

[Maureen Callahan]

Is it worth it? Because, you know, our producer Marlena, started it, and she said she was having trouble with, like, the beginning because it felt like we were starting at, like, Sean Combs was born in. You know, and, like, I. I personally prefer biography, where, like, you're dropping me down in the middle of the action, you know, how is it?

[Emily Yoffe]

Well, it definitely starts with. In media res. It starts with found footage, I should say, quote, unquote, found footage from him, like on the eve of the trial, talking to his attorney and really laying into his attorney about his bad PR strategy. So I feel like you would, you would like it, Maureen. You of anyone, you would like it.

[Maureen Callahan]

You know who should call Sean Combs, who's got plenty of time on his hands. Sydney Sweeney.

[Emily Yoffe]

I was going to say Scooter Braun. He probably already has. He probably already has. Actually, the Scooter Braun Diddy relationship might not be so great because of Justin.

[Maureen Callahan]

Justin. Poor Justin. Not that we know anything, but I mean, yeah.

That was one of the more heartbreaking things to witness Justin Bieber's sort of public decompensation as all of this stuff about Sean Combs was, Was coming to light.

[Emily Yoffe]

Yeah. Well, last summer, before I let you run, I got to ask you about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Getting a question from the New York Post about what the Post headline is up about Olivia Nezzi while he was at the Reagan National Airport. Sean, not Sean Combs, but Sean Duffy event where they were doing pull ups. It was a sight to behold. I mean, Sean Duffy's daughter Paloma just like whipped out 10 pull ups. It was unreal.

[Maureen Callahan]

I don't know how you can do pull ups. I've never been able to do one.

[Emily Yoffe]

And at an airport, I mean, my goodness.

[Maureen Callahan]

But they're not at all. They're, they're totally secure in their masculinity.

[Emily Yoffe]

Clearly the Post headline said that RFK junior Shunned the reporter and glared at the reporter. He's not going to get away with not answering these questions. I mean, Cheryl's still on a book tour and has been, you know, getting some questions about her disappointment with the candidate or has been giving answers about her disappointment with the family and all of that. This is, I mean, your beat, Maureen. What's.

[Maureen Callahan]

Oh, it is my beat. It's my beat. You know, Bobby Kennedy Jr. Has, has, has, has taken the.

There's a playbook the Kennedy men have. And what you do when your mistress becomes inconvenient is you first you call her crazy and then you call her a stalker. And then you say you have no idea what the F. She's talking about. And you know, he's, he's able to get away with this. I do think, because Olivia Newsy, her book is tanks. Vanity Fair has dropped her. She's made herself radioactive and her ex fiance Ryan Lizza buried her in his sub stack, as did her other ex, Keith Olbermann. But Lizza more consequentially because it went to her lack of ethics as a journalist. And he basically accused her of using her position to get intel from Trump. Give it to Bobby. During 24, he alleges that she commissioned an illustrator for New York Times for a New York magazine profile of Trump and had this illustrator smuggle in a tape recorder as the illustrator was working with Trump at Mar a Lago. You know, all manner of things that make her completely unhirable as a journalist ever again. So, yeah, he can totally get away with it being like, who's that person? Never heard of her.

[Emily Yoffe]

You know, is it true in. In Newsy's case, Nessie's case, that she might be a stalker? Like, what's your read before you run? Like, what's your. What's your read on the truth?

[Maureen Callahan]

My read is that everybody involved in this story is terrible, and it's wonderful that they all found each other.

[Emily Yoffe]

It's a good read. Yeah, it's beautiful, actually, when you think about it.

That's nice. It's a. It's a fairy tale ending. Yeah. Good.

[Maureen Callahan]

Keep. Stay among yourselves. Stay amongst yourselves.

[Emily Yoffe]

It's truly an American Canto America.

[Maureen Callahan]

The title. Oh, my God. Emily, have you read the book?

[Emily Yoffe]

Hell, no, I haven't read the book.

[Maureen Callahan]

Do you have the book?

[Commercial Narrator]

No.

[Emily Yoffe]

Should I? I kind of want to.

[Maureen Callahan]

I feel like as a media person, you gotta have the book because you never know down the line when you may have to pull it out and quote from it. Like, it's just. It's just a good thing to have on hand, you know? Like, I don't know if you. I see your books behind you. I don't know how you. You organize them. If they're by genre or Alphabet, they're not organized. Oh, really? Yeah, No, I. I have a whole celebrity memoir section. I don't think this would be celebrity memoir. This would be more in, like, I would put this book next to, like, the Politician by John Edwards's former, like, campaign manager.

[Emily Yoffe]

I forgot she wrote a book.

[Maureen Callahan]

I think it was a dude. I think it was a guy.

[Emily Yoffe]

Oh, manager. Oh, I was talking about the. The. The real hunter.

[Maureen Callahan]

The mistress. Yeah.

[Emily Yoffe]

Did she write a book? No. No.

[Maureen Callahan]

But didn't Elizabeth Edwards also write a book? Oh, I'm sure she does. It's gotta be in the campaign manager's book where it's the. I will. I will leave with this. It is the unforgettable scene where Elizabeth Edwards, who apparently really was a monster. Like she was sick, but she was like a monster to everybody on the campaign. Not saying she deserved what happened to her at all. She discovers that her husband, the used car salesman running for president, has been having an affair with his videographer who he met on the sidewalk. New York City, very Bobby Kennedy Jr. Always getting mugged in New York City. Anyway, she, he like exits the vehicle and she goes flying after him down the road and she like rips open her shirt and exposes like her breasts. I don't know whether she was wearing a bra or not. She's going like, look at me, look at me.

[Emily Yoffe]

Look.

[Maureen Callahan]

What? He's like this. I mean, this was a political book. Beyond John Edwards to John Edwards. In the middle of the street, you know he's cheating on you and you have cancer. How you can stay emotionally invested in that, I have no idea. But yeah. Anyway, that's where I would, that's where I would put that book. I put it next to the politician.

[Emily Yoffe]

John Mother effing Edwards. All right. I didn't realize he had that level of game. Maureen Callahan, host of the Nerve with Maureen Callahan. I could keep doing this for three hours. Thank you so much for taking the time. I appreciate it.

[Maureen Callahan]

Thank you so much for having me, Emily.

[Emily Yoffe]

Amazing. All right. By the way, if you google Ann Coulter, Elizabeth Edwards, Chris Matthews, you get an incredible result. Pop that into YouTube, pop that into the YouTube, into, into YouTube. You get a great episode of Hardball, which was like outdoors on a college campus. And Elizabeth Edwards calls in to confront Ann Coulter. You'll never see anything like it. Okay, before there's more. Over the years, I have been clear about this. I'm not just pro birth, I'm pro life. And being pro life means standing with mothers not only before the baby is bor born, but long after. And that is exactly why I partner and partner so proudly with preborn. They are wonderful. Preborn doesn't just save babies. They make motherhood abundantly possible. They provide free ultrasounds and share the truth of the gospel with women in crisis. And then they stay with real practical help, including financial support for up to two years after the baby is born. This is what true Christ centered compassion looks like. Really. And not just for the baby, but for the mother too. And here's where you can make a difference. Just $28 a free life saving ultrasound. One chance for a mother to see her baby. And when she does, this is actually true, she is twice as likely to choose life. Preborn is trying to save 70,000 babies this year. They're really saving lives. So don't just say you're pro life. Live it. Help save babies and support mothers today. Go to preborn.com emily or call 855-601-2229. That's preborn.com emily.

[Commercial Narrator]

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[Emily Yoffe]

Day.

Jasmine Crockett, future Senator Crockett from Texas was on CNN after her big campaign announcement. She has entered, as you already know, the Texas Democratic Senate primary hoping to take on John Coran or possibly Ken Paxton. There is a Republican primary in this race, but she goes goes up against James Talarico, also a very splashy candidate that a lot of of let's just say Democratic consultants think might be their answer to Trump 2.0. He talks about scripture, he alludes to populism. I think the real story of this is that you have roughly two corporate aligned Democrats, one that is throwing the norms out the window, the rhetorical norms out the window just like like Donald Trump has. But.

We'Ll see how Jasmine Crockett can pull it off. Nobody can really pull it off. And then you have Tyler Rico, who's running a Biden campaign, about how important it is to, you know, maintain the norms of civility and whatever. You know, Biden's case, that was obviously B.S. but, you know, it's a, it's a lane to run in, and that's the lane Talarico is running in. So Jasmine Crockett goes on cnn, talks to Jake Tapper. Here's what happens. Let's watch this. In a December 2024 Vanity Fair profile, you talked about, quote, and I'm going to read a lot of the, quote.

[Maureen Callahan]

Just to put it in the context.

[Emily Yoffe]

Quote, all the complexities, contextualize it. Community, the immigration thing has always been something that has perplexed me about this community. It's basically like, I fought to get.

[Maureen Callahan]

Here, but I left you all where.

[Emily Yoffe]

I left y', all, and I want no more y' all to come here. If I wanted to be with y', all, I would stay with y', all, but I don't want y' all coming to my new home.

[Commercial Narrator]

Home.

[Emily Yoffe]

It almost reminds me of what people would talk about when they would talk.

[Maureen Callahan]

About kind of like slave mentality and.

[Emily Yoffe]

The hate that some slaves would have for themselves. It's almost like a slave mentality that they have. Now, about the time that that was published last year, around a million Latino voters in Texas were voting for Trump. Do they all have slave mentality?

[Maureen Callahan]

No.

[Emily Yoffe]

And that's not what that said at all. To be clear, it did not say that every Latino has that type of mentality. No, no. But slavery, the ones that vote for people who believe in strong or Trump's immigration policy. So, so I don't believe that the people that voted for Trump believe in what they're actually getting.

She doesn't believe that the people who voted for Trump believe in what they're actually getting. So what she's saying is that you Latinos are too dumb to know that. That Trump is playing you. You guys are just all idiots. Jasmine Crockett, congresswoman, she's got this under control. She's telling you what you're actually getting, but you. And you can't actually even parse the language there because it doesn't make sense. She's saying they don't believe in what they believe they're actually getting. Borderline indecipherable. But let's give it a go here and assume what she means is that they're getting something different from what they say they believe in what they believe. They believe in Donald Trump is delivering something, something different. That is not a winning message in the state of Texas, where a whole lot of Hispanics in the Rio Grande Valley, for instance, hated being called Latinx by establishment Democrats, found it very paternalistic, hated being told that they weren't supposed to like Trump because they had to vote Democrat. Hated being told, for example, that they must lower illegal immigration because they're Hispanic. This is just one great example. There are many. But one great example of Jasmine Crockett being honestly a disaster. I mean, a story broke today from Notice, which is kind of funny if you haven't seen it yet, covered, that Republicans astroturfed Jasmine Crockett into the Senate primary. I confirmed the story today. This is. This is true. They knew that if they started asking pollsters to include Jasmine Crockett when they were questioning people about who should get into the Senate primary. She is a known quantity, right? Like, she has higher name recognition than other people in the state, certainly more than in Torico. And so when, you know, you have those two things together, you toss Crockett into the mix and you know she's going to get high poll numbers. And then that as a narcissist, obviously, as a narcissist, Jasmine Crockett is going to be very persuaded, very persuaded by these numbers. Indeed, Crockett, in her announcement speech, said she was persuaded by these numbers. She went on a podcast with Aaron Parness, and he asked, you know, why she thinks she's the better pick to take on Talarico. This is from yesterday, why she's the better pick than Talarico to take on Cornyn or Ken Paxton, whoever it may be. This is part of Jasmine Crockett's response.

There was a reason that I entered the race, and it wasn't because of James Talarico. It was because of Jasmine Crockett.

I mean.

You can't. You can't argue with it. You can't argue with it. But clearly the Republican establishment played Jasmine Crockett like a fiddle, knew that she would be an albatross to hang around vulnerable Democratic candidates for the rest of the cycle, asking them to answer for wild stuff that Jasmine Crockett says like Latinos have a slave mentality. The Republicans ran a campaign in 2010 that was like fire Pelosi. And it actually matters in swing districts if you can start making candidates have to answer for, maybe it's mom Donnie, although Trump maybe made that a little bit difficult. But Jasmine Crockett, make them answer for Nancy Pelosi. Is San Francisco elite liberal. Do you stand with Nancy Pelosi on this? Nancy Pelosi said that now Crockett isn't exactly the same as a House majority leader or speaker of that Right. Like she's not on the same level as Nancy Pelosi. So who knows how helpful it will be. But here you have a high profile Democrat who is now going to be all over the media for the next 11 months saying stuff like Latinos have a slave mentality, then trying to clean it up in a way that is arguably more hilarious than the original mistake. So welcome to the race. Jasmine Crockett. Already you're going super well for you. But I thought this video my friend Ryan Grimm put out was, was very, very interesting too, because Crockett's rhetorical norm breaking has made people think of her as kind of squad adjacent. Think of her as a populist because she's kind of a rhetorical populace. She talks like some people will associate with, with populism. Right, because populism is about kind of challenging the system and the establishment. And she does that with the way that she's willing to say crazy stuff about, you know, the, the right in particular. But, you know, that's true of Marjorie Taylor Greene, you know, calling Nancy Pelosi at one point a right. Like Marjorie Taylor Greene did, that she broke a lot of norms, rhetorically broke a lot of norms. She was a populist in substance as well. So is Jasmine Crockett. No. Let's take a look at Ryan's victim video. I covered her first race in 2020. Crypto guys are going around the country. They're going after anybody that they thought was going to regulate them and they were supporting anybody they thought would be friendly. And, you know, multiple people on her campaign told me that she just said, look, what do I have to do? Just tell me. And they're like, well, if you sign this policy statement and post it on, on your website, you know, they won't go after you and they'll probably give you a lot of money.

[Commercial Narrator]

Money.

[Emily Yoffe]

She's like, cool, do it. That same campaign, she also attacked her Democratic opponent for taking corporate PAC money, bragging that she had taken no corporate PAC money. Within months of that, she started taking corporate PAC money and since then has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars on of it. When she went to visit Israel on a trip paid for by apac, there she is and has overwhelmingly just voted the party line when it comes to sending weapons to Israel. So when it comes to corporate power, crypto Israel. She's a very standard Democrat. We do, by the way, we should add. So all kinds of fun stuff happening with Jasmine Crockett that are going to make this primary, I think, really fascinating. There's probably an argument Talarico is more Bernie lined or can make the case that he's more Bernie aligned. I keep referring to Talarico. I mean to say Timo Richie Cunningham, the, his formal name, at least on this show. But he probably is. I mean, I'm going to give him the edge at this point. Name recognition is very powerful in low turnout races like a Democratic primary. But I this is going to be a, there's gonna be a lot of money spent in this race for sure. And Jasmine Crockett is going to be all over media. I mean, she's done a media tour just in the last 24 or so hours. So that's really going to be everywhere. And the story coming down to Republicans goading Jasmine Crockett into that race with polls and then Jasmine Crockett coming out and saying, I didn't get into the race because of James Talarico got into the race because of Jasmine Crockett tied up with a bow. I mean, it's perfect. Stick a fork in it. So it's so perfect. It's so perfect. She's so transparently narcissistic that Republicans can play her like a fiddle to the, the detriment, to the detriment of Democrats. So enjoy. I hope the Democrats enjoy this primary bid. It is going to be a fun one to watch, though, because I think of that, that Talo Crockett clash on, on rhetoric is going to be fascinating. Now, I'll be remiss if I didn't talk about the biometric story out of the United Kingdom. I want to combine it with a broader conversation about digital ID as well. I don't know if you've seen this. We might as well just start, start with the headline here. Let's go ahead and put this BBC headline up. Facial recognition could be used more widely by police under plans. All right. What might those plans be? I have a lot, a lot more on this, including a truly hilarious press release for the UK government. But before we continue, I do want to show you something fascinating on the this very topic. So this is the up phone from unplugged.com I've been testing it for the past week, actually, really for the past month. If you see this dashboard here, let me pull it up on the screen. It's, it's got a privacy dashboard. Like literally right on the, Let me put it up towards the camera right when you open it up. And I can see right now that it's blocked. 10 trackers today. And it's awesome. It's literally right there. It's, it doesn't show up super well on the camera, but I'm looking at it right now and it's, it's fantastic that you're actually able to see that. That's 10 people, 10 apps that were trying to harvest my data, build profiles, track my location. Now, if you imagine that you are a political journalist, but don't just have to think of yourself that way, every one of those block trackers is someone who could potentially trying to be, trying to build intelligence on you. What you're reading, who you're talking to, what campaigns you're researching. Think about that and then think about it, you know, if it's, it's matters to a political journalist like myself, right? But think about that for the average person too. Think of the various ways that could be weaponized down the line in circumstances that we don't even think about right now. I mean, this is data that's going to be accessible 10, 20 years into the future by the government or somebody who buys it from, from private data brokers. And there are many of those private data brokers. So like I said, every one of those black trackers is someone who's trying to build intelligence on me. Let's just make it even personal here. What I'm reading, who I'm talking to, what campaigns I've been researching. And the up phone shows you exactly which apps are trying to spy on you. And then it blocks them in real time. It lets you track them. So if you work in this business or you care about what could happen with your data, just go to unplugged.com visit unplugged.com emily and get 25 off a phone case with a purchase of a phone. And look at these things. They are so sleek. They're very, very easy to use as well. Easy to transfer from an iPhone. Learn more and order your UPPhone today. That's unplugged.com Emily because your life should be yours, not theirs.

[Commercial Narrator]

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[Emily Yoffe]

Speaking of which, I have to put this press release up on the screen. I find it so. How profoundly disturbing. This is from. I found this on the website of the British Government. You can see there, it's from the Home Office. It was published on December 4, 2025. This is about the BBC story, the headline that we were just talking about, but it's the press release the government put out. Government pledges to ramp up facial recognition and biometrics. Just stop right there. The operative word in that, that press release is pledges. The Government of the United Kingdom is pledging to ramp up recognition and biometrics. That is a headline right out of Brave New World, right? This is. Rod Dre often makes a distinction between Orwell 1984 and Brave New World. Brave New World is the people being coaxed into a state in which they willingly submit themselves to levels of, of tyranny and surveillance. For example, control, state control. And when you have the government not even hiding, not even hiding their plans for, for mass surveillance, but actually bragging about it and pledging to, quote, ramp it up.

That is a sick society. You know that the society is sick when the government brags about that. So let me go back here a little bit to the. The BBC story. So you have all the details on what's actually.

The biometrics. So it says the government, quote, has not made clear what situations it was considering expanding facial recognition use into. But these may include locating illegal migrants on the run. Officials believe the technology could also help to identify and arrest prisoners released by mistake and would only be used in time, limited, focused deployments. Yeah, that's, that's what they always say, say any new laws informed by the consultation would take about two years to be passed by Parliament, the Home Office said. So it's not as though this is, this is happening tomorrow. But this also comes amid Keir Starmer's push for digital id. And I don't know if you have been following that, but he says it's going to be encrypted. Don't worry about it. Here's the Electronic Frontier foundation talking about this a little bit. They explained the scheme according to the pm, quote, cut the faff and providing people's identities by creating a virtual ID on personal devices with information like people's name, date of birth, nationality or residency status and photo to verify their right to live and work in the country. Now eff, which does great work on this stuff, accuses him of mission creep and says according to Starmer quote, you will not be able to work in the UK if you do not have a digital id. It's as simple as that. Now this is a problem that a of people, lot of libertarians have brought up with E Verify for example. And I don't think those, those claims are entirely unfounded. Although it's a bit different than this level of, of digital id. But I do want to just again point out that Starmer is bragging about this. And in both cases the digital ID and the biometric ramping up, what are they doing? They're talking about this in the context of stopping illegal migration.

That is chilling in the context of American politics where over the course of a few years of the Biden Administration at least 8 million people came in largest surge, as the New York Times has written since Ellis island, extremely rapid and extremely high volume. There is no way for us to know right now exactly who got into this country. And of course theoretically in the right hands, who wouldn't want the government to have very powerful tools to figure out exactly who came into the country, how to track them down and get them out if they're bad. Who wouldn't want the government to have the ability to get the bad guys out of here?

This is a trap.

Let as many people as possible into the country and just a few years time and then demand access to Digital IDs and Biometrics. In fact brag about it because you have scared the population into what? Sacrificing their freedom for the sake of convenience or safety. And that's what they're talking about in both of these cases. Oh how great it is to have your, your digital ID just at your, at your fingertips. You don't have to carry all this stuff anymore. You get in and out and this technology is going to get even more sophisticated. Facial recognition, eyeballs at the subway. You have no idea where this is going and how quickly it's going there. But that's what's I think particularly frightening is the UK government is not hiding this. The UK governing government is quote pledging to do this. They're promising you they're going to keep you safe with this completely, you know, sci fi Orwellian technology that I do think makes Dreher's point very well about us living in brave new world rather than living in 1984 because we are all being willingly coerced or we're being coerced. That's an oxymoron. But we're being coerced into willingly giving up our own freedoms because we want to make this. We're so scared and the threats are so significant that we choose because you're people who love your children, love your communities, want people to be safe, don't want to be inundated with horrors. You choose security and convenience over freedom, and then you're the frog in the boiling pot, right? You wake up one day, you look around like, wow, all of this power is concentrated in the hands of so few, few people. And it's a public private partnership. And you know, here in the United States we have, have the Fourth Amendment that I would argue our government is just like routinely brazenly numbing us to violations of every single day. But that's just like with NSA privileges. Imagine when this escalates to the government promising, promising that they're going to ramp up biometric, biometric tracking. Promising. Don't you worry, digital ID is coming. We will know where everybody is at every time. We will be able to match it. I mean, American big tech companies have actually been like marketing. Reuters did a great investigation on this in September. Have over the years marketed their own technology to China as a perfect addition to the surveillance state as a utility in the, the Chinese tool belt to monitor its own civilians. And so don't think those companies wouldn't make that money here. Right? Like they want to make that money here. We know that they're in already deep public private partnerships with the government. What does that mean? If you're a defense contractor and you have a lot of business with the government, what are you going to do to keep that business with the government when they come asking for these, this keystroke data, for example, we don't know what Google is doing with keystroke data data because they're not transparent about it. In the US that is. And that's all being built up into a vast reservoir that creates the contours of your daily life for these massive corporations that work in partnership with the government. I mean, it's just, it's happened very quickly. And I think this story out of the UK highlights how it's escalating, getting further at a rapid clip as well. So it's something to, to watch, be aware of. It is absolutely coming for the United States. At some point, we're going to be asked even more forcefully than we already have been to sacrifice our freedom for the sake of security. And some of it will be because elites already made us less safe and then tried to force us at the metaphorical barrel of a gun. One it's not so metaphorical for some people, you know, Lake and Riley, for example, and her family, to choose between security and freedom and to create conditions that make it easier for us to choose security and convenience over freedom. It's happening. It's it's going to come here. Hopefully never in the the sense that our government is pledging and promising and bragging about doing this to us. Thankfully, the US Is different than the uk. It's kind of our whole thing, of course, so hopefully it doesn't it doesn't come to that. But this stuff is happening very quickly and we all need to be very, very vigilant and aware and and ready to push back against it. So thank you very much for tuning in to this edition of Afterparty. It was my second afterparty, but make sure to shoot me an email emilyevilmaycaremedia.com We've got a happy hour that I'm going to record tomorrow and it will be out on Friday on the podcast feed. So subscribe to the podcast feed. If you want to get happy hour right in your feed, subscribe on YouTube. We appreciate it. It helps us so, so much. We have some great guests coming up for you in the next few weeks. Thanks for tuning in. We will be back with more Afterparty on Monday. See you then.

[Maureen Callahan]

Foreign.

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