‘You're Wrong' With Mollie Hemingway And David Harsanyi, Ep. 139: Trump’s Joint Address

Summary

Federalist Radio Hour: 'You're Wrong' With Mollie Hemingway And David Harsanyi — Ep. 139: Trump’s Joint Address

Date: March 5, 2025
Host: David Harsanyi
Guest: Mollie Hemingway

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into reactions and analysis of President Donald Trump's March 2025 joint address to Congress (functioning as a de facto State of the Union). Mollie Hemingway and David Harsanyi dissect Trump’s performance, discuss Democrats’ response, explore policy themes (trans issues, the border, the administrative state, Ukraine), and pivot to a cultural discussion about late actor Gene Hackman and recent movies. The tone is both combative and convivial, with Mollie and David alternating between critique, banter, and wider reflections on American culture and governance.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Mailbag & Show Dynamics

Timestamps: 01:28–03:40

• The hosts playfully bicker about the show’s mailbag, with David expressing frustration at criticism and Mollie welcoming reader feedback.
• They joke about their on-air disagreements and assure listeners of their genuine friendship behind the scenes.
• Light banter about Ash Wednesday traditions and religious identity.

Notable Quote:

“If people only heard what goes on… when we get into real arguments, I worry sometimes. I don't want to be insulting, but… we've known each other long enough… we’re not going to hold grudges if we disagree.”
— David Harsanyi (03:13)

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2. Trump’s Joint Address: Reactions and Analysis

Timestamps: 06:09–12:17

Trump’s Communication Style & Tone

• David asserts Trump “speaks the rhetoric of the normie,” making his speeches engaging and accessible even if he rambles at times.
• Mollie notes her general dislike for the State of the Union as a ritual but says Trump’s performance felt both less necessary and more effective this time due to increased action and reduced posturing (“less talk, more doing”).
• Both comment on Trump’s ability to ad-lib and “bait” opponents from the podium.

Democrat Reaction in the Chamber

• The hosts mock the Democrats’ paddle/auction-sign protest (“a bad idea” for meme culture).
• They see Democratic conduct as unduly partisan, especially the refusal to clap for apolitical, “normie” moments like honoring children or bereaved mothers.

Notable Quotes:

“Whatever you make of what he said… he is entertaining to listen to. He’s a good communicator. He speaks the rhetoric of the normie… that is his greatest strength.”
— David Harsanyi (06:09)

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“It is so fun to dunk on these people with their signs… if you’re a Republican or Democrat… I want them to keep doing that forever.”
— Mollie Hemingway (10:35)

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3. Partisanship, Congressional Decorum, and the State of the Left

Timestamps: 13:49–17:42

• Discussion of Rep. Al Green’s disorderly protest, comparing it to when a Republican famously yelled “You lie!” at Obama — double standards and media coverage highlighted.
• Both agree that a more raucous, British Parliament–style atmosphere could be healthy for democracy, so long as it’s not weaponized to shut down speech.
• They strongly criticize Democrats for not even clapping for “80–20” or “99:1” unifying moments, which they frame as a sign of being “out of touch with normies.”

Notable Quote:

“If Democrats wanted to be more effective, I think merely standing and applauding these children or the mothers… would make their other arguments go so much further than when they just look this hostile.”
— Mollie Hemingway (16:25)

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4. Transgender Policy: Trump’s Framing, and Cultural Commentary

Timestamps: 19:25–26:49

• Citing Axios’ report that Democrats might walk out over “criticism of transgender kids,” Mollie highlights Trump’s line:

  “I also signed an order to cut off all taxpayer funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth… our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you.” (24:16)

• Both praise this as a “positive message for children.” Mollie links it to wider critiques of feminism and societal messages about gender.

• David notes this is an “80–20 issue,” suggesting Democrats are out of step with public sentiment.

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5. The Administrative State, Executive Power, and Political Reform

Timestamps: 28:00–36:14

• Extended discussion of Trump’s “chaotic” but, in their view, necessary assault on the federal bureaucracy (“administrative state”).
• Mollie references an essay by Jeffrey Tucker on the deep roots of bureaucratic bloat and why reform necessarily feels messy after decades of inertia.
• David stresses that for reforms to last, Congress must retake authority: “There’s got to be a permanency to it, and that needs to come through legislative branch” (34:59–36:14).

Notable Quote:

“If your options are do literally nothing as the administrative state destroys the country or have a bit of a chaotic cutting… people are like, yeah, it’s going to be chaotic because that’s the only way you can do it.”
— Mollie Hemingway (31:10)

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6. Ukraine, Zelensky & U.S. Foreign Policy

Timestamps: 38:55–56:45

• Mollie and David debate U.S. policy toward Ukraine and Zelensky’s recent White House visit.
• Mollie sees Zelensky as essentially a U.S.-created and -sustained vassal: “He’s just doing what we’ve asked him to do the whole time, you know, no, he’s not the problem. It’s our foreign policy that’s the problem” (44:27).
• David tries to balance: “I understand why he wants to fight. I understand why he says it’s not a disaster to defend your country, even though people do die, because there are some things worse than peace.” (44:27)
• They discuss the challenges of finding “peace with honor,” critique both sides for rhetorical excess, and examine the politics of aid and public opinion in the U.S.
• Notably, they debunk “Putin on the march” scenarios, with David saying it’s preposterous to believe the loss of eastern Ukraine would lead to a Russian advance on Paris (51:50).

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7. Culture Segment — Remembering Gene Hackman

Timestamps: 57:06–71:56

• Both mourn and celebrate the recently deceased Gene Hackman, ranking favorite films and roles (“The Conversation,” “The French Connection,” “Hoosiers,” “Royal Tenenbaums,” “Unforgiven,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Enemy of the State”).
• They reflect on the difference between today’s movie stars and the rough-around-the-edges, authentic ‘70s stars like Hackman and Duvall.
• Mollie likens the “perfection” of recent actors and politicians to the “perfect” images of the Obama White House, contrasting it with the “authenticity” of Trump-era visuals and ‘70s cinema. She laments the lack of similar realism and talent in today’s movies.
• Both note a decline in the quality and mainstream appeal of Oscar-winning movies, with Mollie’s interest in the Academy Awards at a low point due to what she sees as excessive focus on diversity quotas over merit.

Notable Quotes:

“Gene Hackman… so embodies the roles that he’s in that… he’s just completely lost in them. And it’s a joy to watch someone who’s like that.”
— Mollie Hemingway (57:58)

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“The 70s just had these everyman actors… they weren’t like beautiful or anything… but they were just, like, gritty and got into their roles.”
— David Harsanyi (58:20)

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8. Personal & Culture Notes

Timestamps: 71:56–74:01

• David reports on attending a local Jewish film festival, watching “All About the Lefkoviches” (a Hungarian–Hebrew film), sharing how connecting with the language stirred memories of his childhood.
• Mollie reacts with surprise and shares a bit about personal taste in languages and music.
• They lament the dwindling shared pop-culture references in America, especially compared to the ‘90s.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Trump’s Speech:

  “He’s entertaining… a good communicator… he speaks to people in a way they can comprehend.”
  — David Harsanyi (06:09)

• On Democrats’ Conduct:

  “It is so fun to dunk on these people with their signs…”
  — Mollie Hemingway (10:35)

• On the Border:

  “Crossings, illegal crossings plunge, which tells people that Democrats either are completely incompetent or lying and want to see illegals crossing the border and creating chaos.”
  — David Harsanyi (23:49)

• On the “Trans Kids” Issue:

  “Our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you.”
  — Quoting Trump, read by Mollie Hemingway (24:16)

• On Cultural Change:

  “Things had gotten so beautiful that you no longer saw them. Whereas Trump would have this, like, awful shot… but it was so authentic that it was riveting.”
  — Mollie Hemingway (58:33)

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Important Timestamps

• 01:28 — Start of main show, mailbag discussion
• 06:09 — Trump’s communication style and speech analysis
• 09:39 — Trump’s ad libs, Democratic protest signs
• 13:49 — Congressional decorum; partisan standards
• 19:25 — Trans issues as the Democrats’ “red line”; Trump’s position
• 28:00 — The administrative state: chaos vs. stasis
• 38:55 — Ukraine, Zelensky, U.S. interests, criticism of both sides
• 57:06 — Transition to cultural talk: Gene Hackman’s legacy
• 71:56 — Personal/cultural notes, Jewish film festival

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Conclusion

This episode offers a thorough, opinionated, and lively recap of Trump’s latest address, pushing listeners to consider both style and substance in contemporary politics. Mollie and David’s conversation ranges from wonky policy critique, to cultural analysis, to nostalgia, always with a playful argumentative spirit. The pair underscore their central theme—the elites’ distance from “normies”—while weaving in reflections on the administrative state, America’s culture wars, and what’s been lost in the move to a hyper-partisan, hyper-curated national discourse.

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For listeners:
If you missed the episode, this rundown covers all essential arguments, spirited quotes, and cultural asides—making it easy to catch up or revisit key moments from the latest Federalist Radio Hour.

Transcript

[David Harsanyi]

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[Molly Hemingway]

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[David Harsanyi]

Welcome back everyone. Welcome back everyone, to a new episode of you're Wrong with Molly Hemingway, editor in chief of the Federalist, and David Harsanyi, senior writer at the Washington Examiner. Just as a reminder, if you'd like to email the show, please do so at radio the federalist.com now. Molly, typically I would say here, we love to hear from you, but last week's mailbag made me not want to say that because a lot. I'd say 50% of the mail was just garbage, right?

[Molly Hemingway]

I don't share your viewpoint on our reader mail. I love our reader mail. I love it no matter what it says. I love it if it's very positive or critical or whatever. But you seemed to not like it this week.

[David Harsanyi]

I did not like it this week because, and we don't need to rehash this debate over the White House Press corps, but a bunch of our listeners, your fans, sent in mail completely misrepresenting my position, literally called those people, I literally called them frauds and whatever. But they're, they're, you know, everyone's believes I'm protecting them. I, I just, sometimes I sense that people don't understand what a neutral principle is. You know, Also actually, how do I do this? Do I say Happy Ash Wednesday or.

[Molly Hemingway]

No, I Don't. I wouldn't.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah. Fat Tuesday is Happy Ash Wednesday.

[Molly Hemingway]

We just. Yeah, maybe blessed Ash Wednesday. Hold on. On the mail. I go to church on Sunday, and I'm sitting in front of someone who's a listener. And he said, are you and David okay? I was like, yes. And he's like, I was really worried. You were fighting so badly in the last episode. Did it seem like we were. I didn't feel like we were fighting.

[David Harsanyi]

I felt like I yelled at you a bit. But let me just say this. If people only heard what goes on, like, what's gone on. When we get into real arguments, I worry sometimes. I don't want to be insulting, but I think that we, you know, we've known each other long enough where. That's where we're not going to hold grudges if we disagree.

[Molly Hemingway]

Yeah. I liked fighting with. Or, you know, arguing with you so much that I was, like, hoping we would have another argument this time. Anyway, let's get on to it. Let's get to where we might argue. Who knows?

[David Harsanyi]

Okay. So blessed Ash Wednesday. It's today. I remember as a young man, as a young. As a boy, I was in yeshiva, and my. My English teacher came in, and she had, like, a smudge on her forehead. And I was, like, fascinated by it. And I wanted to tell her, you know, that she had something there. And then she was the first person I was so insulated that she was the first person to explain to me, you know, the ashes on the forehead thing.

[Molly Hemingway]

So you were a young Jewish guy? I. And I'm. I don't think I'm scheduled to do any TV today, but first time I was on TV with ashes, the people on the Internet acted like they had never even heard of Ash Wednesday before.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah.

[Molly Hemingway]

Also, I got invited by the Vatican to address being Catholic in public life. And I had to tell them that I'm. I'm a Lutheran Catholic, not a Roman Catholic.

[David Harsanyi]

So do all the high churches do the ashes and the low churches don't? Or, like. I don't know.

[Molly Hemingway]

Sometimes I know nothing other than Lutheran. So I know Lutherans do it. I know Roman Catholics do it. I think Orthodox are in a different schedule, and they. And. And while ashes are kind of a universal, like, sign of, you know, like, morning repentance type thing, I don't know if they have an Ash Wednesday. And I think, you know, Anglicans do it. I think some Presbyterians do. So.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah.

[Molly Hemingway]

Maybe it's just anyone liturgical. It's a. It's an important day. In the church here, it's the first day of Lent, and we've been going through something called pre Lent for a few weeks, which is where you train for Lent, because in Lent you do greater discipline, disciplines. You're reading scripture more, you're praying more, you're giving more alms, you're giving up food or other and, or other activities. And so it's, it's a very intense 40 days.

[David Harsanyi]

Is, is it appropriate to ask what you're giving up or is it like a birthday wish where you're not supposed to share you.

[Molly Hemingway]

I, I don't know if it's appropriate or not, but I, I tend not to talk about what I do publicly, if that's okay.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah, sure.

[Molly Hemingway]

Actually, can I say, was talking with the kids about their plans, you know, just in a motherly way, going through what their plans are. And, and one of the kids had a full list of all sorts of activity, fasting, increased work, like some really special ideas. And then the, the next one I talked to was like sweets giving up sweets. And then that was the end of the conversation.

[David Harsanyi]

I would search for something I'd want. I'd given up already or wanted to give up. But let's talk. Let's start talking about last night's non State of the Union address that Trump gave. I believe it was the longest talk to full Congress ever by a president. That's what I read. I think it was an hour and 40 minutes. And I just say up front that whatever you make of what he said or didn't say or whatever he is entertaining to listen to. He's just fun to listen to most of the time. Sometimes he can go on too long, I think, but in general, he can get away with that. That because he's funny and he's. And the way he speaks is entertaining. Right. And he's a good communicator. He speaks the rhetoric of the normie, in my view, and that is, I believe, his greatest strength. Whether you agree with what he's saying or not, he's speaking to people in a way that they can comprehend. What were your reflections on, on his talk yesterday?

[Molly Hemingway]

So, first off, I'm not a huge fan of the State of the Union. I know it wasn't an official State of the Union, but I'm not a huge fan of that address. I did think his 20 of the union was the best speech he, he'd given to that point. It was a really remarkable night. He had a string of successes to talk about, including that he had just defeated the Impeachment. The economy was doing well. Foreign policy was his foreign policy vision. You know, he'd come into office and everybody said, he's going to lead us into nuclear war. And instead you had Abraham Accords and all these great things in the works. And Rush Limbaugh, that. I think that was the time that Rush Limbaugh received his Presidential Medal of Freedom, which I thought was an important moment for conservatism. It was just a really great night. And then, of course, a few weeks later, the world implodes with the response, with the COVID pandemic and the response to the COVID pandemic. And it was. It became not just a horrible year, but that leads to Joe Biden being elected and for really dark years for the country where it just seems we've lost something that was special about what we had. And so going into this, I was not really looking forward to the speech because one thing I like about the current Trump administration is that they're just doing stuff. It's like, less talk, more doing. The first Trump administration, it seemed like a lot of tweeting, but not always a lot of, like, the tweeting showed the intent, but the obstruction was such that it was really hard to get anything done. Now there's clearly the obstruction happening, happening. There's lawsuits filed every day and all that, but I just didn't feel, like the need to hear from him. So I wasn't. That. I wasn't anticipating it that much. And I even tuned in late because I was doing some stuff with the children that needed my attention. And so I tune in and I. I see a scene from the back of the Democrat side, and they're all holding these paddles that look like auction paddles. And I was really confused because it's like, from the back, so there's nothing written on them. And I was like, what is going on here? And that was my entree into the speech. And then I, you know, I was late enough that it didn't seem that long. And it went through the litany of, like, the things I don't like about State of the Unions. You know, we're going to do this, we're going to do that, and all the data. And then it turned into, I think, some really great speech writing and inspirational and beautiful stuff.

[David Harsanyi]

At the end, you can always tell what's written and what he, you know, ad libs. So he'll say, like, he's going through the litany of funding that we have been giving the world, you know, and then he's like. And then the country, you know, we give the country of, you know, Congo or less etho or whatever it was, you know. Yeah. A billion dollars. And no one knows where that country like, you know that the. No one knows where that country is. It's his ad lib and it's always funny and it's true. And people at home probably who are watching, I don't know how this did ratings w laugh at that. I thought the, the, you know, people hold. What are those things, those auction things.

[Molly Hemingway]

That they seem like. Yeah, auction. Paddles.

[David Harsanyi]

Paddles, right. It's very dumb, I think, for politicians in the modern age to hold up signs or paddles because immediately you go on Twitter and everyone is just putting other words on them. I just think it's a bad idea for them to do that.

[Molly Hemingway]

David, don't tell them that. I want them to keep doing that forever. I don't care if you're Republican. Democrat. It is so fun to dunk on these people with their.

[David Harsanyi]

I don't think any politician listens to me, so we're safe in that regard. But I did think it was a glimpse, the whole speech gave us a glimpse of the dynamics in place in American politics right now and why Democrats are just this out of touch. Lost party. Trump gives again. You have to agree with everything. An uplifting, patriotic, pro American speech. And the whole time the left's demeanor is completely sour and weird. They're weird. For instance, they won't stand up for the parents of.

[Molly Hemingway]

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[David Harsanyi]

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[Molly Hemingway]

So I came in after this had happened, but I watched the part where Al Green got up and shouted with his cane. And first off, I have no idea what Al Green was shouting. Did. I don't know if anyone knows what he was shouting.

[David Harsanyi]

Was Medicaid cuts made? I don't even know, honestly.

[Molly Hemingway]

Okay, so that's so interesting to me. I mean, I just want to remind people of what happened when that Republican member said, you lie to Obama, when he lied and claimed that Obamacare would not in any way benefit illegal aliens. And people were apoplectic with rage over this. How dare. How. How unbecoming. So racist to shout at someone of a different race during the State of the Union when you should be so respectful and so polite. Or you might remember when Obama falsely characterized a Supreme Court decision that related to.

[David Harsanyi]

I think it was like foreign citizens United, wasn't it?

[Molly Hemingway]

Yeah, I think it was related to something, some aspect of that. And Justice Alito, who does not have a poker face at all, mouths the words that's not true and shakes his head, yeah, no, without realizing that, because, you know, because Obama had just mentioned the Supreme Court. Of course all the cameras are on the members of the Supreme Court. And again, it was a big story, even as media like up to and including Linda Greenhouse had to admit that technically Alito was right and that what Obama had said was not true. And these were big stories. And here you have Al Green, mean old Al Green with his cane, shouting and having to get kicked out of the chamber. And it just didn't seem like it was a huge deal. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm not reading.

[David Harsanyi]

Can I, can I, can I admit something? I'm. I believe, you know, to some level that decorum and civility is necessary to have a free country and all that. But civility is usually weaponized. I hate to even use that word. By people who want to shut down others from protest and talking. So I wouldn't mind if these congressional, you know, speeches and stuff had the booing and the yelling that the British Parliament has. I am, I'm all in on that. I love that stuff. That's the only reason I watch that stuff on C Span.

[Molly Hemingway]

You know, we're off to a horrible start, because I completely agree with that. And I don't care if it's a Republican or a Democrat necessarily. Like, there is a place for just letting people speak and being respectful of the office of the presidency. I get that.

[David Harsanyi]

But.

[Molly Hemingway]

But I also get that these are fraught debates. And. Okay, so my point being, though, that there's this cartoonish hostility from Democrats. And then, as you point out, they don't stand for mothers whose daughters were killed by their policies or, you know, kids with terminal cancer or a kid who finds out he gets into the military academy after his dad was killed. You know, all these things that they could, you can say they're manipulative. You can say that, you know, it's a bad move that Reagan made to doing this kind of from the gallery storytelling. But if Democrats wanted to be more effective, I think merely standing and applauding these children or the mothers of these children would make their other arguments go so much further than when they just look this hostile. And at the beginning of the speech, according to something I read in the Federalist, Donald Trump began by saying there was nothing he could do to make these people not hate him. And they then proceeded to. He's like, I could announce a cure for cancer and they would still hate it.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah.

[Molly Hemingway]

And he basically proceeded to have them showing that.

[David Harsanyi]

I mean, he baited them into it almost. Right. It's very interesting to me, too. So when I say hold on, it's.

[Molly Hemingway]

Not a bait, because they could have easily. They could have easily shown him to be not true by applauding on a few things that they agreed on.

[David Harsanyi]

But their whole entire. And I think this is a problem all around, but everyone seems to like everything they believe and everything they think hinges on wherever Donald Trump is going or doing. It's an insane way to look at the world. But I quickly want to say there was a woman, she was a congresswoman, her name was Melanie Stansberg, who was from New York, Mexico, and held up a sign when Trump was walking in that said, this is not normal. Right. And then Democrats went about to prove that they. It isn't normal. They are not normal. So the, the. There was going to be a walkout. Right. And there was a walkout. And Axios reported that the Democrats had drawn a red. Had a red line. I'll give you the quote quickly right here, criticism of transgender kids was brought up as the line in the sand that would trigger members to storm out. First of all, if no one criticizing transgendered kids, they're criticizing adults who irreparably mutilate confused children or demand that men, you know, compete with women in, in sports. Like, this is an 8020 issue that we talk about with Donald Trump, and yet this is their line in the sand. Like, they are completely out of touch. It's not like with America and normal people. And that was the. That's the line in the sand. You know, it's just so preposterous. So anyway, you know, that's just one of the many things that I think just reflected really poorly on them. I think they're a lost party.

[Molly Hemingway]

I was thinking about this last night as they were trying to articulate their hostility to him. And I want to revisit what you just said about the this is not normal. There were two reasons why that sign I didn't think resonated. Well. There are multiple reasons. First, let's talk about how Donald Trump not being normal is a really big part of why America loves him. They are used to the normal approach, to the problems that we face, and they don't like the normal approach. They wish that Donald Trump's approach were more normal. They wish more people were doing what he's doing. So when they're like, this is not Normal. It's almost like a pro Trump sign. And then on the other hand, if you just look at it, here's something that's not normal to do. To hold up a sign saying this is not normal while the President walks by and to be like, so performative and weird. That's not normal.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah, it's weird. It looks weird.

[Molly Hemingway]

And they just weren't being normal for the whole time. Most people can set aside personal differences to applaud a kid with terminal cancer who wants to be a Secret Service agent. Most people, I would say, like the vast majority that we keep talking about how Democrats are on the wrong side of 80, 20 issues. I think that might be like a 99:1 issue or more. Of course you applaud a kid with terminal brain cancer. Like, that's not, it's not a difficult job. And so when she says this is not normal, it's sort of like a self description. We're not normal, she's saying, well, you're right and it's not going very well for people.

[David Harsanyi]

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[Molly Hemingway]

World. I just want to go back to what you were saying about the Axios claiming that Democrats had a red line walkout, which was if Donald Trump talked about trans children. And I thought this was a very compelling part of the speech. He said, I also signed an order to cut off all taxpayer funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth. And now I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body. This is a big lie. And our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you. I loved that.

[David Harsanyi]

Part. That's a fantastic.

[Molly Hemingway]

Thing. So many different things I love about it. One, I'm appalled that more people aren't standing up for children and against the mutilation of their bodies, the removal of healthy body parts, the psychological abuse that comes with transing children. But I also like that he said, congress, you need to do something here. So a lot of what Trump is doing, people like, but there's a limit to what can be done through the Executive. And there's a limit to what should be done through the executive because our Article 1 branch, which I believe is superior Congress, is the one that has kind of destroyed the country by passing away all of its authority to the executive agencies that are also running wild. And if we're going to fix what's wrong with our government, we need a much more active Congress to do the hard work of legislating properly. And so I liked the call for that. And then more than anything, I liked the positive message for children of, you know, letting them know that, yes, the way God made them, male or female, is a gift and not a bad thing. And I think a big reason why I'm so happy to be a woman and why my brother's so happy to be a man and my sister's so happy to be a woman, you know, et cetera, et cetera. My parents were really good about treating our sex as something that was awesome. And so it's hard to be a woman, it's hard to be a man, and it's really hard when culture is telling you that you can change these things or preaching only what's bad about being a male or female. And I think we need more encouragement for boys and girls about how awesome it is to be a boy or a girl and make it a really positive.

[David Harsanyi]

Thing. I mean, I don't know, I feel like that was the norm in the world until very recently, that we've kind of celebrated what it meant to be a girl or a.

[Molly Hemingway]

Boy. No, I think feminism. So I'm. I'm one of these people who thinks that the transing children is. You can kind of do a direct line from feminism to the transing children. And for many decades, and certainly for most of everyone who's alive's existence, there has been this idea that being a woman is a really bad thing and that it's something to be fought against and that you need intervention so you can be just like a man. So that means, you know, regulating how many children you have or preventing children or preventing just biological reality. And once you start accepting some of these viewpoints, it's not that far of a line to, you know, genital mutilation. So I am glad that my parents weren't feminists and that they made it really awesome to be a woman. Like, my. My parents just. I don't know, they were acknowledging there were these differences, but not in a bad way. Not like you're a woman, so you can't do this, but more like you're a woman. You get to do this and same with my brother. And I like.

[David Harsanyi]

That. Just to take a step back to something else you said, I think is really important is that Congress has to be more active in doing a lot of this stuff. First of all, it's not going to be permanent in any real way if Congress doesn't make changes and puts limitations on the executive branch. But moreover, American people elected Donald Trump because they wanted stability, competence, normalcy, not chaos. Right. I do think it's slightly like I love what Doge does. In fact, I don't think it does enough, frankly. But not everyone's me. They don't. People, I think, get a little bit worried when there's just this chainsaw that's going through government that may sooner or later cut something that they care about. You know what I mean? That doesn't use a scalpel, but is using a chain. So I do, I just, I worry about that to some extent for him. I don't know how you feel about that.

[Molly Hemingway]

Position. Okay, so I've been thinking about this a lot and I was at church this morning talking with a friend who recently left federal work to have her first baby and how she doesn't regret it at all. And she's someone who's a very hard working. She was a very hard working Fed in a role that's really important, that deals with national security type stuff. And we were just talking about all of our friends that are in federal service who are worried, you know, and everything's so crazy what's going on now. But what's really crazy is that it's the first time there's ever been any oversight whatsoever. And no one understands better the wide variety of quality of federal work than a federal employee. I was thinking about how the first time I went to the FCC to cover something for the newspaper that I was working at, I encountered a woman who had turned her computer. Do you remember the old days where you would put the floppy desk disc into like a.

[David Harsanyi]

Tower?

[Molly Hemingway]

Yeah. What was that called? The.

[David Harsanyi]

Tower. The tower wasn't just called the.

[Molly Hemingway]

Tower. I don't know. So she had turned it around and she was drying her fingernails on the fan that was in the back. And it was clear that she just wasn't doing any work to the point that she didn't need her computer to be accessible for a floppy disk. You know, and then you go down the hall and you're, you meet with someone who's, who's kind of keeping the whole organization running and doing real work and doing it for Everybody, including these people who are drying their fingernails on the fan on the back of the computer tower and covering the federal government at federal times for many years, you would talk to these managers who had to keep promoting people to get them out of their agencies because they were causing so much work by being bad employees. But there was nothing you could do to them except for promote them out. And so there's this, like, people are rising well beyond their level of incompetence because it's the only way to deal with them. And there are all these problems, okay? So nothing can be done, nothing can ever be done to affect these people. And now it's a bit chaotic the way that they're cutting things. And I think for a lot of people, we just don't care. I don't mean to be rude or callous. It's just that if your options are do literally nothing as the administrative state destroys the country or have a bit of a chaotic cutting and slicing and dicing operation, people are like, yeah, it's going to be chaotic because that's the only way you can do it. And also, you can't even do that because you've got every single Fed who's losing their job filing for an injunction and rogue judges granting them. And it's, you know, it's really messy. But Jeffrey Tucker, I thought, had a really good thing about, you know, kind of looking at the history of the administrative state, why it's been so difficult to rein it in, and why that means, by definition, it has to be a little chaotic and that people need to accept that. But I don't think that. I actually don't think a lot of Americans care. They're used to chaos in the private sector, and they just don't care that the feds have been insulated from that for 100.

[David Harsanyi]

Years. I don't think they care yet. I don't think most people care. But most people are also aren't ideological like Jeffrey Tucker or someone like that. So once things start affecting them, I think they will, to some extent.

[Molly Hemingway]

Care. Can I just go. I just found the Jeffrey Tucker thing, and I. And it's long, but I kind of want to go through it a little bit. He says, I'm concerned that many people do not understand the historical and institutional context in which the DOGE labor reforms are unfolding. They look at this as if these are some random, chaotic, arbitrary, strange, and even cruel measures to impose on a devoted civil service. This, the reality is very different. And he's like, I'm not even sure, if Elon understands this. But the bureaucracies have ballooned from a few to 450 or so. The bloat and absurdities have grown, too. No one has ever known what to do about it. Not Coolidge, Hoover, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton. No one. No one has been able to crack the nut. Countless Cabinet secretaries have come and gone with the intention of making changes. They've been unable to do it. No president has seriously taken on this problem because they simply did not know how. The unions are powerful. The intimidation from deep institutional knowledge is overwhelming. The fear of the media has been powerful. Every single president comes to power vaguely feeling threatened by the intel agencies, and the industries have captured every single agency, and they're too powerful. And so this combination of institutional inertia has blocked serious reform for a full century. No one has dared. No one has had even a theory or strategy about what to do about the problem. And he goes on about this the entire time. The American people have felt themselves ever more oppressed, weighed upon, taxed and regulated, spied upon, browbeaten and otherwise overwhelmed. Voting never made any difference because politicians no longer controlled the system. The bureaucracies ruled all, and the Biden years underscored the point and how to deal with this. And he's like, Trump alone has figured it out to take charge of the agencies in a limited way. The job of the president goes. The message is to pretend to be in charge, but not actually do anything meaningful. Shut up, mug up, obey and disturb nothing. The administrative state do its thing without oversight or disruption. And he's like, and then you have Trump this time, refusing to take the deal. And he's just saying, this has been this way for way too long. The voters have demanded change this time, and Doge simply must succeed or we're over as a country. And I think that's what's scary about this, is it's going to be an almost impossible feat for Doge to succeed, to reign in the administrative state. But without it, we will have confirmed the unconstitutional fourth branch of government as the supreme branch of government. And that is an existential threat to our.

[David Harsanyi]

Country. But I think he answers his own question right in the beginning, Doge can't succeed. Congress has to limit the power of the executive branch and eliminate the administrative state, or it's just going to balloon up again as soon as the Democrat gets into power. We all know federal government organically grows and organically regulates more and more. So I love what he's doing. I think it's great. But there's got to be a permanency to it. And that needs to come through legislative branch.

[Molly Hemingway]

Yeah. Don't you think that's separate? We're talking about two separate things. Yes, partly the administrative state has grown because of Congress. Partly. But it's also true that if the President doesn't control the executive agencies, that is also a major problem. I imagine a lot of this stuff will be litigated. But we need to come to a place where people truly understand that there's no such thing as an agency independent from the people. You know, no, no agency can be independent from the people's oversight. And the people do oversight partly through Congress, but partly through the head of the executive branch. So they both need, like Congress needs to change its law making and make some things permanent. But we need to establish that the President is in fact the executive, as the Constitution.

[David Harsanyi]

Says. Oh, I agree with all that. I think the administrative state was created by people who didn't care about the Constitution, you know, Wilson, fdr, Johnson, Nixon and and others. My point is that the way to control it is to keep it at limited in scope. If it's massive, you can't control it. Even Trump in this first term was basically the administrative state ruled over him. In fact, in some sense they undermined his presidency completely in. Well, I'm just saying if you consider law enforcement part of that administrative state. So my only point is that if Congress said, you can't just, you know, we're going to eliminate the usaid, it's no longer an agency. You can't just create, you know, you need to. Congress needs to take power back as well. I mean, in the sense, you know, I don't think they want to. I just think their lives are easier when the President takes all the heat. Personally, as a small libertarian, I'm very happy about this because it's going to take decades to fix, as it were, what Musk has done to the administrative state. Should we officially shut down the Postal Service? The Watchdog on Wall street podcast with Chris Markowski. Every day Chris helps unpack the connection between politics and the economy and how it affects your wallet. The Postal Service had a monopoly in the United States and it still couldn't make money. After the email revolution, they didn't change a thing. Should it be bought out by a big tech firm like Amazon? Whether it's happening in D.C. or down on Wall street, it's affecting you financially. Be.

[Molly Hemingway]

Informed. Check out Watch Daughter on Wall.

[David Harsanyi]

Street podcast with Chris Markowski on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. I'VE got Dan Morgan here on the pod. Say hi, Dan. Hey, how's it going today? It's going good, man. Tell us who you are and what you do. I'm Dan Morgan. I'm an attorney and a managing partner at Morgan and Morgan, which is America's largest injury law firm. That's pretty awesome. Why do you guys think you win so many cases? The insurance companies and other companies that we go against know that we're going to take it to the end that we believe in the case. So we fight for every dollar and we're not afra go that extra mile for our clients. Are insurance companies, like, actually afraid of you guys? We don't bluff. We take it to trial. And we are not strangers of getting very, very, very large verdicts. Awesome. So how does someone get in contact with Morgan and Morgan? What would I do if I got into an accident? Probably the easiest way is dialing pound law. That's £529 from your cell phone. Our call center is always waiting to take your call. 247 365. Wow. Dan Morgan from Morgan & Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Thanks for coming by the show. Thanks for having me visit forthepeople do office near you. Are we done with that? Do you want to talk.

[Molly Hemingway]

About Zelensky? Well, maybe a way to transition to that is to point out that while the Democrats were unable to stand up for children or the mothers of deceased children, they did clap that at that really weird moment that Trump pointed out that they were applauding, which was when he said, would you want this Ukraine war to continue for another five years? At which point point Elizabeth Warren starts clapping vigorously that she would like the war to continue for five years. Did you.

[David Harsanyi]

See that? Yeah, I, I, I wrote a column. It's not out yet. You know, I just think a lot of, there's a lot of sophistry in this debate. There's a lot of un I, I, I just every side annoys me and it's weird to clap for something like that, especially in the way that the Trump framed, framed it. But I, I don't think that, that I hate when people are like, oh, you don't want peace? Yeah, I think peace is great, but it's kind of ridiculous to say that peace is always preferable to war when sometimes war means defending your liberty or your sovereignty or whatever. So, you know, I, I think it's a loaded question.

[Molly Hemingway]

I guess. Hold on, hold on. Aren't you straw manning that, though? Yeah, well, just because I.

[David Harsanyi]

Mean, I get that a lot, personally. Oh, you're against peace. You don't want peace in Ukraine. You know, that. That sort.

[Molly Hemingway]

Of argument. Okay, so I do think, actually, first off, that peace should be the goal of humanity. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that peace is good and war is bad in general. People should be moving toward peace and people should care. It struck me in our prayers of the church we have, we pray, for instance, for the president every week, regardless of who is the president. And. And we pray for an end to all wars, regardless of the war. Now, there are things that are worse than peace, right? Like, yes, right. But I think we've kind of been moving away from a good societal value of peace being something we should seek, and peaceful understanding that war is horrific for people who are subjected to it and, and trying to avoid it unless absolutely necessary. And if you look at Christian philosophers who have talked about this throughout history, the strict limits they place on when and how you can engage in war, those are good things that we just kind of stopped talking about. And it concerns me now with Ukraine. I do think that it's okay if you say Ukraine is one of these things where peace is worse.

[David Harsanyi]

Than.

[Molly Hemingway]

War. That's. That's an okay argument to make, but you have to make the argument, like, explain how continuing this war is in anybody's interest, or what is this? Particularly the thing that I just keep waiting for and I, you know, used to anger people, I think by asking for it on television would be, what is the strategy for success against nuclear Russia? Like, what is the strategy? How is this going to work? Nobody ever answers that. And they have never even, like, pretended to answer it or tried to answer it. They just kind of do the Elizabeth Warren clapping for five more years of war. And the result of that has been absolutely horrific for the people of Ukraine. You know, Zelensky, in his meeting got really mad that Trump said that. That the war had been bad for Ukraine. He's like, that's Russian disinformation that Vladimir Putin is saying. And then like a minute later he says, and by the way, this war has been horrible for our country. And it's like, that's literally what Trump just said. You know, that cities are being destroyed, that men's lives are being lost, that a whole, like, generation of men are dying in Ukraine.

[David Harsanyi]

It's nothing. But the problem for me, it both, okay, the problem for me there is the people, a lot of, you know, on the right in America say that that is Zelensky's fault. He, you know, for fighting a war where he was. His country was invaded. I don't know that he had any choice other than to fight that war. He didn't start that war. We could talk about the reasons supposedly Russia invaded, but can I take a quick step back and let's just talk about that meeting? I find myself in the middle of this thing, you know, as just my position. And I would say it's clear to me that Zelensky made a massive, historic mistake. Maybe he can correct it, because Trump is, you know, just wants this deal done, obviously signing the middle deal. But the idea that you would challenge your patron and the president, who doesn't really care as much about, you know, who's. Who's willing to. Who's not willing to just continue sending you weaponry forever was just insanity. It just tells me that he is not really right for that role. You know, Benjamin Netanyahu used to come and talk, you know, and sit there with Barack Obama and Joe Biden antagonist, his country, who were trying to basically give Iranians nuclear help. Iranians get nuclear weapons. And he somehow navigated that. Zelensky has zero, zero leverage. That was just, to me, just one. Just embarrassing for him. But I understand why he wants to fight. I understand why he says it's not a disaster to defend your country, even though people do die, because there are some things worse.

[Molly Hemingway]

Than peace. I don't know. I've never liked Zelensky as much as everybody else did, although I admired his bravery at the beginning and stuff like that. But I don't understand why people get so. Okay, I do understand why people get so angry at him, but I wish they would understand that he's really just operating as a vassal agent of us. Like, why get mad at him when he's just doing what we've asked him to do the whole time, you know, no, he's not the problem. It's our foreign policy that's the problem. Or that has not handled the Ukraine issue well, going back to 2014, when, of course, we were very involved in the coup. I mean, we were openly and proudly involved in the coup in 2014. That kind of set everything in motion in a bad way. And, I mean, I know that 2014 doesn't start things either that you really have to go back, like a thousand years, but I don't want to do that. That. But Zelensky is not made in a vacuum. Like, this is all the result of us encouraging and financing and supporting what he was doing. So when people get mad at him. I think it's.

[David Harsanyi]

Misplaced anger. Do you think the alleged 2014 coup was in a reaction to the Russians in infiltrating essentially that government with, with their own, I guess, couple. I mean, this idea. It just seems to me that a lot of people make rationalizations and justifications for how Putin acts, but will give Zelensky and Ukrainians no quarter in anything that they do. So he's just a puppet of the United States essentially, is what you're saying. Or we created this entity as if they have no agency. And I just don't think that's true. I think they have agency. I think they're defending their country. It makes complete sense to me and I just don't understand why we can't accept.

[Molly Hemingway]

That reality. I, I, okay, first of all, I didn't actually mean to say I, you know, when you people accidentally say something that, that turns out that it's a loaded phrase or something like that. You said alleged coup because you would describe what happened in 2014 as what, like.

[David Harsanyi]

A revolution? I would say that, that with Western help, the, the you pro Western Ukrainians overthrew the pro Russian faction that also came into power in also shady ways. So I, you know, it's, it's a shady, corrupt country. It's a.

[Molly Hemingway]

Weird place. Okay. I, I just wanted to make sure, like I wasn't trying to say, I was trying to be neutral with that. And it's, and I realized as soon as you reacted and called it alleged that it wasn't a neutral way of.

[David Harsanyi]

Describing it. But I won't even call either a coup exactly. But I get what you're.

[Molly Hemingway]

But maybe like a revolution might be a more neutral way to.

[David Harsanyi]

Describe it. I guess even that seems a little much. I know what you're saying.

[Molly Hemingway]

But as far as far as agency goes, without US Help, Ukraine would have been taken over.

[David Harsanyi]

By Russia.

[Molly Hemingway]

That's true. So it's not a complete issue.

[David Harsanyi]

Of agency. Well, there is a counter history there that, that the Europeans actually step up for the first time in 50, 60 years and they don't let that happen and it becomes maybe even a more brutal know, but possibly, although.

[Molly Hemingway]

I don't think they have the capabilities, like they have really lost military capabilities over the last.

[David Harsanyi]

Few.

[Molly Hemingway]

Decades. So. Sorry, you were saying though, that he's this agent, he has agency and he should be deferred to in.

[David Harsanyi]

That sense. And I guess, no, I, that's the thing. We have to do what's best for us. I don't know. I don't know what's best for us. Exactly. But I do know that, for instance, when I hear J.D. van say that it's moralistic garb garbage to even care about who is right or wrong and all we should care about is, you know, are these cold facts and who can win and who can't.

[Molly Hemingway]

Win. Yeah. David, did you think it was ridiculous that we sided with the Soviets in World War II because they're bad people? They were bad people when we sided.

[David Harsanyi]

With them. But. Yes, but we, There was a larger, bigger moral fight. Nazis never attacked New York or California. We still fought them. There was a bigger moral fight to be had in the world. And immediately, even before World War II ended, we had already turned our sights towards, you know, against Soviet Union. I think that, I don't think it should be the entire equation. If we have to be friends with the Saudis, we will, but that we should. That it's moralistic garbage to mention it. Like, I don't even understand why JD Van supports Israel completely. Don't understand. None of his, none of the things he says makes me think that he, he believes it's a good idea for us to lie with, for instance, Israel, because a lot of that is moralistic, isn't it? I mean, it would be a lot easier for us to just side with the Arab world all the time and who have all the oil and.

[Molly Hemingway]

All that. I think in his speech explaining his stance on Israel, he articulated it in a national interest sense. And I get that a lot of people support Israel for completely like these guys good. These guys, bad reasons, or vice versa, oppose Israel that way. But a lot of people support Israel because it's, they believe it's in the, in our country's interest to have an ally like that in the Middle East. And it's not to say there aren't moral considerations. It's just that if your understanding of the war in Ukraine is based solely on Vladimir Putin invading it three years ago, it's just not. It's just kind of like an idiotic way to approach the issue. And it, you know, you said, why can't we understand that Zelensky has a national interest and that he's advocating for his nation's interest. I agree with that. I don't see what's the problem in you can still hate Putin and you should, frankly. But you can also understand what his, his national interest is and how it relates to the Black Sea and how Ukraine being controlled or being in NATO affects a lot about.

[David Harsanyi]

Russia's health. I've Got Dan Morgan here on the pod. Say hi, Dan. Hey, how's it going today? It's going good, man. Tell us who you are and what you do. Hello, I'm Dan Morgan. I'm an attorney and a managing partner at Morgan and Morgan, which is America's largest injury law firm. That's pretty awesome. Why do you guys think you win so many cases? The insurance companies and other companies that we go against know that we're going to take it to the end that we believe in the case. So we fight for every dollar and we're not afraid to go that extra mile for our clients. Are insurance companies, like, actually afraid of you guys? We don't bluff. We take it to trial. And we are not strangers of getting very, very, very large verdicts. Awesome. So how does someone get in contact with Morgan and Morgan? What would I do if I got into an accident? Probably the easiest way is dialing pound law. That's £529 from your cell phone. Our call center is always waiting to take your call. 247 365. Wow. Dan Morgan from Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Thanks for coming by the show. Thanks for having me. Visit forthepeople.com for an office near you. So listen, can I quickly just give. I just fear that I, and I'm going to get, we're going to get all these letters misrepresenting my view. So I just want to lay it out. I think the, the, the notion that if Ukrainians lose their eastern provinces that are Russia, you know, with a lot of Russians in them, that the next is Sweden and Paris is next after that and Putin's going to roll tanks in is ridiculous. Putin can barely handle Ukrainians, much less handle a real force like the Germans or something like that. So I, I don't believe that. Nor do I believe that it's a bulwark of democracy. But Trump has not asked Putin to make a single concession in this deal. Not one. Ukrainians have to do it and he has no choice. And that's fine. Zelensky is going to have to give in, but Russians give.

[Molly Hemingway]

Up nothing. So the United States always felt that Cuba being communist was a threat because of how close it was to our country. Country. Do you not agree with that? We've, we've always been really interested in, in how Cuba is operating. If Mexico or Canada had joined the Soviet Union, that would have been viewed as a threat to.

[David Harsanyi]

Our.

[Molly Hemingway]

Country. Correct. And when you say, like, why would Putin care if Ukraine.

[David Harsanyi]

Joins NATO? I.

[Molly Hemingway]

Didn'T care. It's basically moving the US Border right up against Russia.

[David Harsanyi]

Because we. Russia should be happy if the US border was on its border because we make countries around us richer. But more than that, there's a big difference between.

[Molly Hemingway]

Actually, that's. That's kind of a good argument, David, but go.

[David Harsanyi]

On. Sorry. Unfortunately, Moldovia and Finland are not the United States. So it's a little different. I'm not. Listen, it's complicated and I get it. All I'm saying is I find that there's a lot of sophistry going on here in the debate.

[Molly Hemingway]

Here, here. I just want to say, I think even though Russia's poor and they don't have the capability of rolling across Europe, and it's a good way to know if you should pay attention to someone or not is if they say that. That Putin's going to be on the march if he gets, like, a sliver of Ukraine. It does view itself as an. I don't know. Let me say a lot of people speak week as if Russia is the Soviet Union. Even this week, I saw a Democrat tweet how it was a communist country that a lot of people are stuck in the 80s and thinking about Russia. There really is a communist empire and it is flowing from China, you know, rooted in China, the communist.

[David Harsanyi]

China. And that's the thing.

[Molly Hemingway]

We have. We are. We are hostile to Russia, and the democrats are particularly hostile. I. They really hate Russia and they really hate Putin. And I think it's naive to say that if Ukraine were in NATO and by the way, that would be all, like, downside. We think those other countries aren't paying their fair share of their defense. We're like, let's add a country that's right on the border, that's in ruins, and that'll go well for us.

[David Harsanyi]

It's. So. I don't think Ukraine should be in you. I don't think Ukraine should be in NATO. I don't even think NATO should exist as it does right now. But.

[Molly Hemingway]

Go on. Oh, I'm. I misheard you. I'm fighting with you about something.

[David Harsanyi]

You didn't. No, I'm just saying I don't think they should be in NATO, and I don't think they were going to be in NATO. They were going to be in NATO. I think that's a pretext for war. But I just want to say I agree with you 100%. Russia is not the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was driven by an ideology that was universal. They wanted the whole world we fought proxy wars against them all over that world. But it's also not true that a country can't hold off a nuclear power. I hear people saying that constantly. The Vietnamese disagree, the Afghans disagree twice place, the Algerians disagree. I mean, you can do it. And honestly, Ukrainians, and it was with a high cost. We're doing it. So it's just, it just seems to me we're not having.

[Molly Hemingway]

It honest. And so you're just saying they could just do it into perpetuity, like we could just, we.

[David Harsanyi]

Could just. I'm saying, I. The problem for me is I don't know if they want to do it because we don't have elections in Ukraine. But if people want to fight for their country, I don't think we should, you know, treat them. You have to admit this. I mean, most Trump fans in the United States talk about Zelensky with such hatred, like they would, they could never muster it for Putin. Many of them, like the Tucker Carlson's of the world, are on Putin's side. I mean, I'm not, I'm not being like Chris Murphy here when I say that. I mean it's pretty clear. So I, I just think that we're not getting a really a straight debate on this as a foreign policy issue. I want.

[Molly Hemingway]

Peace there. I don't know. I feel like the different attitude in the two leaders also relates to how much money is going from an average American's wallet to one of the two men. And also their attitude toward us in response to that amount of money, like Putin for being an adversary is not causing people the day to day pain, I mean.

[David Harsanyi]

Except indirectly. Putin's not causing us indirect plan, but Zelensky is. Because we're giving him money is what.

[Molly Hemingway]

You'Re saying. I'm trying to say you're, you're claiming that people are disliking Zelensky more than Putin. I don't know if that's true. I don't think Putin has very favorable ratings in this country. But I'm just trying to say maybe Zelensky's attitude is a part of the.

[David Harsanyi]

Problem here. I don't think he's good at his job. Are we ready to talk about culture? I think so. Let's talk first I think about Gene Hackman who died. We didn't get a chance to discuss it last week. Now he's one of these people. Two things I want to quickly say. He's one of these people or actors who you don't know you love. But then when you Think about it a bit. You're like, he's always awesome almost in every role. I went through, you know, all his movies, and he's just been there, and he's been awesome. And then it hit me, and we mentioned this offline, but he's gone. He hasn't. He retired 20 years ago, like, in 202004 was his last movie. And it doesn't feel like that long ago. It just feels like you always see him on tv, you're always watching him in movies, is. I don't know. I. I know you were. I think you were a big fan.

[Molly Hemingway]

Too, right? I love him, and I don't even know why I love him so much. I just think he's a great actor who so embodies the roles that he's in that you just complete. He's just completely lost in them. And it's a joy to watch someone who's like that. I feel like Robert Duvall is also like that. It's another one of my favorite favorites. Maybe.

[David Harsanyi]

My favorite. Yeah, we've talked about this before, but the 70s just had these everyman actors. You know, they weren't like, beautiful or anything, you know, or super attractive, but they were just, like, gritty and got into their roles, and it was just a lot.

[Molly Hemingway]

Of fun. I was talking to my two best friends in October. This is a political thing, but they're super, super liberal. And I was thinking about how during the Obama era, every time there was any photo from the White House, it was perfect. I mean, it was like a beautifully composed shot with beautiful people. Everything about it was perfect. And then when Trump came into office, there would be these photos of him meeting with normal people. First of all, nobody was looking beautiful. They weren't composed well. Like, you know, the shots weren't balanced. You'd have the tall people over here and short people in it, you know, but it was so authentic that it was riveting. Like, you'd kind of. Things had gotten so beautiful that you. You no longer saw them. Whereas Trump would have this, like, awful shot, grainy photograph, and you were like, oh, that's very interesting. And that's kind of what I feel like about movies from the 70s, when you look now and everyone is so beautiful. The women in particular are just gorgeous, and their bodies are perfect. And you see the naked bodies and the face has all been sculpted to perfection. And then you go back to 70s movies, and the women are natural and not natural, but you know what I mean? Like, they're whatever. They're whatever the Breast size, God gave them. That's the one they're working with. And you see a lot of variety and you see differences about their teeth and their skin and everything. And you suddenly get like obsessed with them because they're so, you know, just like. There's something grabbing you, it's snagging you. I was like with the.

[David Harsanyi]

Men. Sorry. Yeah, I was, I was watching something. I think it was Karen Black. Do you remember that actress? You know, and she's slightly weird looking but, but very attractive and like looks, I don't know, a little cross eyed maybe.

[Molly Hemingway]

Or like. And it's too.

[David Harsanyi]

Sexy. Yes. Or like what was another one? Leslie Ann Warren? Or like, you know, there's just, there were just all kinds of different, like women and men act. Yeah. And the men, they just were, you know, much more authentic. And I think that, that, that.

[Molly Hemingway]

Comes through. Okay, so which movies from the 70s are you thinking about? Because I have one I would like to.

[David Harsanyi]

Talk about. I have a I. Because I'm a male and I celebrate that. Molly. I have a list. I made a list. It's not in any particular order. Here are my favorite movies of him. Okay. I love the French Connection. It's the, I love him in it. The car chase in that movie is amazing. It's the last car chase actually in a movie that's interested me. I think I find him usually pretty boring.

[Molly Hemingway]

The conversation. That's the one that, that's the one I was going to.

[David Harsanyi]

Talk about. Let's talk.

[Molly Hemingway]

About it. Okay. I love this movie. I, I, I love everything about the movie. It's, he's like a surveillance guy and he accidentally records a murder. Why am.

[David Harsanyi]

I forgetting? Talking about a murder, I believe right in the park there. I forgot. I haven't seen it in a while, but I know I love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a Francis Ford Coppola movie. He made them in fact, in between I think the two Godfather movies. Just fantastic. I've got Dan Morgan here on the pod. Say hi, Dan. Hey. How's it going today? It's going good, man. Tell us who you are and what you do. I'm Dan Morgan. I'm an attorney and a managing partner at Morgan and Morgan, which is America's largest injury law firm. That's pretty awesome. Why do you guys think you win so many cases? The insurance companies and other companies that we go against know that we're going to take it to the end that we believe in the case. So we fight for every dollar. And we're not afraid to go that extra mile for our clients. Are insurance companies, like, actually afraid of you guys? We don't bluff. We take it to trial. And we are not strangers of getting very, very, very large verdicts. Awesome. So how does someone get in contact with Morgan and Morgan, what would I do if I got into an accident? Probably the easiest way is dialing pound law. That's £529 from your cell phone. Our call center is always waiting to take your call. 24. 7 3. Wow. Dan Morgan from Morgan & Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Thanks for coming by the show. Thanks for having me. Visit forthepeople.com for an office near you. Here's one that I don't know. People, especially people my age, will remember it, but I'm not sure younger people know. There was a Superman movie in 1978, I believe it was. And he played Lex Luthor and he is so.

[Molly Hemingway]

Good in it. Okay, I almost would have listed that one. I'm not a list maker, but if I were, I might have mentioned the Superman.

[David Harsanyi]

Lex Luthor role. Yeah, he's so fantastic in that I have to mention it, even though I don't think this is his strongest role because it doesn't really give. It might be. I don't have to rewatch.

[Molly Hemingway]

It as Hoosiers.

[David Harsanyi]

I love Hoosiers. I love the movie. Yeah.

[Molly Hemingway]

He'S. He's good. Why do you not like that role for? I mean.

[David Harsanyi]

I think that's. No, I do like the role. I just don't think that it, like, showcases his, like, range as much. You know, he's kind of a. A loner, which I, which he, again, he's perfect for that role. I for sure. The Unforgiven. Not the just Unforgiven. Forgiven. He's amazing in that. Have you seen.

[Molly Hemingway]

The movie Heist? That.

[David Harsanyi]

Might be like.

[Molly Hemingway]

That's an underrated. My favorite.

[David Harsanyi]

Of the genre. Yeah, I think it's a David Mamet movie.

[Molly Hemingway]

Script at least. Oh, that.

[David Harsanyi]

Would make sense. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So this might be number one, I think. I am not a massive Mel Brooks fan. You know, people sometimes surprised by that. I seem like the type of guy who would love it. But his, him and young Frankenstein playing the blind man is the funniest role in that.

[Molly Hemingway]

Movie. Movie. Yeah. So those best friends I was talking about that I was trying to convey to them like the brilliance of the Trump normalcy. They didn't, they did not fall for it. My. One of my girlfriends loved Young Frankenstein and I think I was too stupid to get it? I would like to give it another shot. I remember she could quote everything from it and she just thought it was so funny. And I was like, I'm not getting this. I think I was too young when I saw it and I need.

[David Harsanyi]

To try again. I hate to say this. I have big debates within my family. I'm a Woody Allen guy. Right. I don't think Mel Brooks movies hold up. I think they're so juvenile that they're. They're just. You get older. They're not that funny. I'm not saying there aren't moments. Young Frankenstein has moments. I still enjoy watching it. I just don't think a lot of it holds up. Like, yeah, I don't want to get into it, but okay, here's one that Crimson Tide. Have you.

[Molly Hemingway]

Ever seen that? I think so. It's not. It's not on my list, but I'm willing to hear why.

[David Harsanyi]

You love it because it's him and Denzel Washington and they're just antagonists that go up against each other. And there's this one scene where Denzel Washington takes control of the submarine and it is just so amazing. And the acting is just on such a level. I, you know, I just love that. What else do I have? Oh, Royal Tannenbaums. I mean, I think he was amazing in that. It was completely different from anything he's ever done. And he's hilarious. I don't know if.

[Molly Hemingway]

You'Ve seen it. I have, but it's not.

[David Harsanyi]

On my list. Last but not least is Night Moves, which your husband mentioned to. Reminded me of about an hour ago, which is a movie where he plays an ex football player, I think, and he's kind of a private eye in la. And I think the director is the same person did Bonnie and Clyde, maybe. But it's just a fantastic movie and he's fantastic in it.

[Molly Hemingway]

That's my list. Okay. I have a few that you.

[David Harsanyi]

Did.

[Molly Hemingway]

Not mention. Okay. Okay. So we covered Night Moves from Mark. I haven't seen that. Love the conversation. Love Hoosiers. No Way out is one of my.

[David Harsanyi]

All time favorites. I love that movie. I saw it in my late teens or whenever it came out and it blew my mind. The twists. I don't want to give it away, even though it's super old. And he's excellent in it. Playing a.

[Molly Hemingway]

Very flawed character. Right, flawed. But because of the quality of the movie, there are layers there that are good. And I think he's amazing in it. I think he's kind of like the gem of it. And then. Oh, Enemy.

[David Harsanyi]

Of the State. You know, I had that here. It's. The movie itself, I don't think is great. I.

[Molly Hemingway]

Don'T love it. I think you are a bad libertarian.

[David Harsanyi]

But go on. He's great in it. He is great in it. He makes that movie in. You know, I think it's not. It's just. Yeah, it's one of these, actually. I think it might. Was a Tony Scott movie. The person who.

[Molly Hemingway]

Did Crimson Tide. And then there. Okay, then this one's kind of, like, silly, but I really like him in this role. It's not, like, the best role. And I'm not surprised that it's, like, right before he retires, but.

[David Harsanyi]

In Runaway Jury. Oh, I was. I almost watched that the other day because I was looking for movies he was in. I'm sure I've seen it, but I.

[Molly Hemingway]

Don'T exactly remember. It's sort of like, from a libertarian perspective, a very bad movie. But it's about people gaming a. A jury trial to help.

[David Harsanyi]

Out tobacco companies. So I would have trouble knowing who the good. I would probably think the good guys were the people who are supposed to be the bad guys. What side is.

[Molly Hemingway]

Gene Hackman on? He's.

[David Harsanyi]

With the corporation. Okay. So. So he just reminded me he was in the Firm as.

[Molly Hemingway]

Well, which is. I almost thought about that one too, that it's kind of the same type role, but. Oh, yeah, because he's. Yeah, the Firm is actually probably better role for him. I might like Runaway Jury better as.

[David Harsanyi]

A film anyway. All right, That's.

[Molly Hemingway]

A good list. I was trying to think. I told you about how there was a period of time where I wasn't liking new music. And I was really worried that I was becoming old, because so much of liking new music is about. About yourself and, like, where you are in life. You know, people always think that the women they liked or the men they liked when they were having their sexual awakening, that's the best men and women, or that's.

[David Harsanyi]

The best music. And so I was sports.

[Molly Hemingway]

Team'S best music. Yeah, I was worried that I was, like, losing something. And then I started getting into a ton of new music, like, you know, five, 10 years ago. But I was thinking about this with regard to actors. Like, we've named three of my favorite actors here. Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, Denzel. Like, I'll watch.

[David Harsanyi]

Denzel in.

[Molly Hemingway]

Anything. Oh, yeah. And I was like, they don't make them like they used to. I was, like, hearing my mother's voice in me, thinking, But I was like, there probably are some great actors now, for sure. I loved the Timothy Chal Chalamet speech where he was saying, like, I want to be a good, great actor. I was like, I like that you want to be great and you're not ashamed.

[David Harsanyi]

To admit it. I love that speech.

[Molly Hemingway]

Yeah, for sure. Oh, cool. Yeah. And so there. There are good people like that. I just need to.

[David Harsanyi]

Study up more. Yeah, no, for sure there are. It's just that. I don't know, I. I guess in the 80s, like, the action movies came in and the acting kind of took a back seat. And then CGI started and the acting took a bad back seat. And that. Oh, X. This is a good segue to the Oscars. I mean, I don't think I've seen. And I do want to see the movie the Brutalist, which won some stuff, but the one that won most of the awards. I don't even know what it's called. I wrote it down somewhere about the sex workers. I mean, I know. Yeah. I just feel like in the. In the 70s, you can make a big movie that also had just fantastic acting, like an epic, you know, or even the 60s. Lawrence of Arabia, the Godfather. I just don't feel a lot of those movies exist at all anymore. Movies that we can both look at. At art, but also has commercial, widespread commercial appeal. I can't think of the last.

[Molly Hemingway]

Movie like that. Oh, it's. It's very. It's a very dark period of time. So I did not watch the Oscars. I didn't care to. I didn't. Nothing about it mattered to me. And it used to almost be like a. Not a holy day, but a holiday for me where I would. I would have. I watched start to finish. I rooted. I knew all the films, they have new, like, racist and sexist standards, so that you have to meet these racist and sexist standards to be considered for an Oscar. I have no interest. To me, the moment you stop caring about merit and you start elevating not just other things, but things that are bad, I just don't care about it at all. Now. I do think I want to see Anora, but. But I. This could be wrong. We'll see. I'll see how it goes on my rowing or whatever, but I suspect it's just a decent indie film, not a.

[David Harsanyi]

Best Picture winner. Yeah. Are we done with movies? Sure. Just want to mention that I was saddened that David Johansson died. Lead singer of the New York Dolls. Later, he was this character named Buster Poindexter. He had some big hits. Martin Scorsese, I think last year had a documentary I mentioned on this show going through his life. And he was just an interesting guy when I was younger, as a New York Dolls fan. Sad to see.

[Molly Hemingway]

Him pass away. Well, I just want to say that I knew him mostly as Buster Poindexter first and then with New York Dolls. I didn't know he died. And I'm shocked.

[David Harsanyi]

To hear this. So, yeah, I do have an outing to report. I. There was this Jewish film festival that goes on near my house. Now, to call it a film festival and say that I went is to really exaggerate how exotic the situation is. It was more like put on by a local temple and it was more like I was the youngest person, me and my wife were the youngest people there, probably by five, six years. I could have probably beat up anyone at that, at that showing, just so you know. But I saw a movie called all about the Lefkoviches and. And I just want to say it was just phenomenal. I loved everything about it. Now it's a Hungarian foreign film with some Hebrew in it. Having I told you this before, my first language was Hungarian and so I.

[Molly Hemingway]

Could sit there. I.

[David Harsanyi]

Don'T remember that. Yeah, when I was a kid I spoke Hungarian probably for the first four or five years, I would.

[Molly Hemingway]

Say. And then. Do you.

[David Harsanyi]

Still have it? Yeah. So then I moved to Israel for a year and I basically forgot English. Had to relearn it around when I was, you know, seven, eight years old. Which tells you a lot about why I speak the way I do. But yeah, so I was so proud of myself. Like I haven't, you know, my parents spoke. My grandparents only spoke it and Hungarian. So I went to see this movie and you know, as subtitles. But by the end I wasn't even looking down at them. I basically understood everything. So that was exciting for me. But just in general, I thought it was an. And listen, it's not some, you know, it's playing at Lincoln center and places like that. It's a well known foreign film film, you know, as well known as foreign films get. And it was just a beautiful story about a dad and, and his son and his grandson. And I really.

[Molly Hemingway]

Highly.

[David Harsanyi]

Recommend it. Okay. Love it like that. Yeah. I'm sure it'll be streaming at some point. I think that's it.

[Molly Hemingway]

For me.

[David Harsanyi]

You? I'm good. All right, well, I remember you can email the show at radio the federalist.com let's try to stay on point this week. Let's try not to transpose your views into my arguments, and let's just keep it.

[Molly Hemingway]

To the facts. Dear readers, please do your best now.

[David Harsanyi]

With your email. Yes, let's. Let's be responsible with the emailing. That's all I'm saying. But we do look forward to reading them, and we'll talk to you next week. Until then, be lovers of freedom and anxious.

[Molly Hemingway]

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[David Harsanyi]

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[Molly Hemingway]

Grams of protein. Guys, thanks for helping me carry.

[David Harsanyi]

My Christmas tree. Zoe, this thing weighs a ton. Drew Ski, lift with.

[Molly Hemingway]

Your legs, man. To Santa. Did you.

[David Harsanyi]

Get my letter? He's talking to you.

[Molly Hemingway]

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[David Harsanyi]

Course he did. Right, Santa, you know my elf Drew Ski here. He handles the nice list. And elf, I'm six' three. What everyone wants is iPhone 17 and at T mobile, you can get it on them. That center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies.

[Molly Hemingway]

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[David Harsanyi]

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[Molly Hemingway]

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[David Harsanyi]

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[Molly Hemingway]

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[David Harsanyi]

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