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Federalist Radio Hour
’You're Wrong' With Mollie Hemingway And David Harsanyi, Ep. 192: Russia Collusion Hoaxer Robert Mueller
01:14:37
Join Washington Examiner Senior Writer David Harsanyi and Federalist Editor-In-Chief Mollie Hemingway as they analyze the ongoing Democrat-induced TSA funding shutdown, rehash Robert Mueller's role in the Russia collusion hoax, discuss the death of...
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- [00:00]
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- [01:46]
Molly Hemingway
Welcome back everyone, to a new episode of youf'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@radiothefederalist.com, we'd love to hear from you.
- [02:01]
David Harsanyi
We got some great email this week, didn't you think?
- [02:04]
Molly Hemingway
Remind me.
- [02:05]
David Harsanyi
Well, you had asked for advice on procedural shows. Oh yeah, one of those. And then also my favorite email was the guy who was commenting on an episode from literally three years and two months ago.
- [02:20]
Molly Hemingway
I didn't realize that was an old episode, so I wasn't sure what the guy was talking about, but I. I honestly don't remember what we talked about last week. So two years ago three years ago is a bit much for me. First topic today I was going to go into was the situations at the airports. Now I have to just preface all this by saying that I, ever since COVID have hated. I've never loved being on play. I mean, I'm not scared of flying. I like. I like the whole experience. It's Fine. But I hate airports. I hate lines. Since COVID I will do, I will drive 11 hours to go visit one my kids rather than get on a plane and do all of that. But you, I know, travel a lot. So has the DHS defunding, the defunding of DHS hurt you? Have you experienced it?
- [03:12]
David Harsanyi
Okay, so I travel a ton. And in fact, prior to Sunday, I had traveled like seven of the seven days. And I, and like you said, I had done things to avoid airports. I'd done planes, trains and automobiles. And I, I have found myself doing a little more train and a lot more automobile than I have done previously because the flying experience can be so miserable. Having said that, I've had only one experience with slight delays due to the Democrat shutdown of tsa, and that was at Dulles Airport. And I still, it was not fun, but it wasn't horrific. And oddly enough, I've actually had the opposite of problems recently where I'll go to my line, and it's not a short line, it's no line, which never happens. And that happened in Vegas for me, that happened at dca. But we're having a big federalist summit in Arizona this week, and I'm flying out soon. And I am nervous about getting there and about other people getting there. You know, people are coming from every different corner of the country. And so if this in any way harms our summit, I'm going to be even angrier than I have been previously.
- [04:38]
Molly Hemingway
I think, or I feel like very few people actually know why we're experiencing these troubles or specifically who is at fault for doing it. I'm confident that if this was in the reverse, Republicans were shutting down TSA funding, it would be the biggest story going maybe second to the Iran war. And I really, you know, you're very critical of Republicans for not really pressing issues. I think this is a good example for you to talk about. I mean, it is. If I was a senator, I would be out there or a House member every day talking to the public about the reason you are now having these horror shows at airports is because of Democrats who incidentally are doing it because they don't want to deport illegal us to deport illegal aliens, which is just like a double whammy.
- [05:27]
David Harsanyi
It is. Well, first off, the media viewing its role as a Democrat party protection racket does make things a little difficult here in that probably if you're watching Nora o', Donnell, you know, if you're watching CBS or ABC or NBC, CNN, MS, now, whatever these places are you're probably not being told that this is a Democrat shut down. You're probably being told that there's gridlock in Congress and then being given a lot of anti Republican talking points. But even so, that's just the reality. That's been the reality for a long time. And Republicans don't seem to want to do what it takes to destroy the corrupt media. But they've been given sort of political gift here in that Democrats are trying to make life difficult for average Americans and do it on behalf of criminal illegal aliens who are the primary target of ICE operations. That would seem to be such a gift that you'd have to be really bad at politics to not take advantage of it. But I don't think they really are. And in a way, I wonder if President Trump sending ICE agents away from enforcement of their duties to help TSA at airports isn't therefore a bit of a problem itself. Meaning by all accounts, the ICE agents being at airports is helping speed up these lines and helping people get through and make their flights. You know, Atlanta had had like four to eight hour delays at tsa. But in so doing, it removes the pressure on Democrats to stop what they're doing, which is negotiating to make ICE less able to deport criminal illegal aliens.
- [07:20]
Molly Hemingway
Here are some of the headlines just I just pulled it up. Republicans set up efforts to reach DHS funding deal and shut down. Democrats aren't even mentioned in the New York Times headline of having anything to do with this. Do you? I'm saying like they figure out ways deal to fund DHS falters amid bipartisan pushback and so on. You would never know from the headlines. Which unfortunately is what. Well, maybe not unfortunately is what most people, you know, read. I just on airports like the other. I was at JFK not long ago and I was on a line that was just snaked for probably four miles. I mean, it was the worst line I'd ever been on in my life. Right. I just feel like we can do better just general in airports. And I don't understand why there hasn't been this big push to reform or fix these problems that we have in. I think you would any party that engaged in that would probably do well. Yeah, do well.
- [08:18]
David Harsanyi
Well, did you see that Delta Airlines removed their congressional ticket office until the shutdown ends. And people were like, what's this Congressional ticket office? There are special privileges given to members of Congress and their staff so that they don't have to experience airports like the rest of us do. They get taken to the front of the line. They can cancel a ticket without penalties. They can get booked on a flight so easily, you wouldn't believe it. And I think they get special rates as well. So you ask, why are things not being done? And part of it is that we have a two tier class here where if you are elite, you do not face what the rest of us face at an airport.
- [09:09]
Molly Hemingway
One time I was at Denver International Airport and John Kerry cut in front of me. I was about to go on and they let John Kerry cut, cut in front of me and he had a snowboard with him. I was very annoyed by that. But always fascinating to see someone that's right.
- [09:30]
David Harsanyi
There's another thing I want to say about this, though. We seem to have a situation with this and the SAVE act where we tolerate a minority party exacting all sorts of awfulness to prevent things from happening. But that when Republicans are in the minority, they do not get that treatment, not only by the corporate media, but also by the establishment in D.C. if 47 Republicans decide to stop something in the Senate, they are treated worse than Hitler. They're treated as if they're just awful, awful people. But when Democrats do it, everyone's like, yeah, this is normal, this is okay. And these, I think a lot of people felt when Donald Trump was elected that we were going to see the end to this double standard treatment of Republicans versus Democrats because of how he was handling things. But, you know, even with his broad support that he has from the D.C. establishment right now, I sense that we are continuing, we're reverting back to this old way of being where Democrats get to do whatever they want, whether they're in the minority or the majority, and Republicans don't get what to do whatever they want, whether they're in the minority or the majority.
- [10:54]
Molly Hemingway
As you know, I'm a fan of minorities being able to stop majority.
- [10:57]
David Harsanyi
Me too. I love, I love minority rights in the Senate. Yes, yeah. And, but I'm not talking about that.
- [11:02]
Molly Hemingway
No, no, I understand. But I just want to say Republicans can also do it. They're just terrible at making the case. And, and obviously they face a huge uphill battle against media, you know, media that makes them out to be villains. I mean, you remember. Actually, I don't remember exactly what it was, but the Republicans are standing in the way of something. And they were called nihilists by everyone because they weren't funding something that Democrats managed. So it's very difficult to fight back, but they don't do a good job. So those two things combined is Terrible.
- [11:35]
David Harsanyi
And it goes back to the State of the Union when Trump said, I'm about to set a trap for you that you only have to have a modicum of intelligence to get out of. Please stand if you think the primary purpose of the American government is to serve the American people and not illegal aliens. And the Democrats didn't stand like they're willing to do anything to protect criminal, illegal aliens. And that's sort of so absurd that it makes it difficult to use as a political talking point. Like there, there were all these problems with the Kamala Harris campaign where people didn't believe that she really supported transing children. You know, things like that. Because it's so absurd, so nonsensical that people are like, that can't be. And it almost feels that way with the criminal, illegal aliens or even their opposition to showing that you are a citizen of this country in order to vote. It's interesting how much that's a threat to Democrats and how much they're willing to do to stop that. Support is available 247 with VRBoCare. We're here day or night, ready whenever you need help. Because a great trip starts with the right support.
- [12:56]
Molly Hemingway
Let's move on to the death. To the death of Robert Mueller, who had a long career, but I think for most contemporary people, he's probably remembered for the Russia, quote, unquote, collusion investigation. Donald Trump had some comments about him. He said, robert Mueller just died. Good. I'm glad he's dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people. There's a big debate about that. I, I think it's a poor form to do that just in general, especially for the president. I saw you were maybe less. I don't know what your opinion, what was your opinion on it? On, on, on that comment from Donald Trump?
- [13:42]
David Harsanyi
Okay, so, Robert, I frequently wish that our president would say things differently, but I'm not going to go after President Trump on this particular thing because Robert Mueller tried to coup him, you know, that was, it was a coup attempt. He went after anybody who was ever nice to Donald Trump in any capacity. He went after Trump's family, friends, campaign associates. And when he began his investigation, we know based on written documents, they knew there was no collusion at that time. And they spent tens of millions of dollars to destroy a presidency, to remove a duly elected president to create a climate that enabled assassination attempt and that put friends in prison trying to get them to make something up about President Trump. So am I going to be like, gosh, you weren't the nicest about this guy when he died. No, I'm not. And I found far more vile and reprehensible the comments from former presidents saying Robert Mueller was a great man. I mean, that's disgusting to me. That's, that's so reprehensible. I can't believe anyone would do that, Republican or Democrat. And I just saw last night, President George W. Bush was like, Laura and I were so saddened that the guy who tried to coup a duly elected president died. It was, you know, what a great man he was. It's like, no, I don't care. I actually don't care if everything else he did in his life was good. And it was not. And I wrote about that in 2018, 2017. Maybe if you tried to coup a sitting president with a phony investigation. And I just want to remind people, when he testified before Congress after Bill Barr destroyed his little attempt by saying, yeah, you know, we asked him to investigate Russia collusion and there's no Russia collusion, so we're going to, you know, close this chapter. And he had done that thing with the two volumes. He was like, okay, so there was no collusion, but we think he was too angry about our investigation into something we knew was fake. And so there really was obstruction. And he, so the whole effort fails, right? The whole release of the Mueller report fails after tens of millions and a year and a half and every day being a crazy media story. And so the media and other Democrats tried to get him. They were like, what if he testified? What if he testified in front of Congress and he could kind of reset the narrative away from what Bill Barr did? And, and in testimony, he was asked about his investigation of Fusion gps, which is the group that manufactured and disseminated the Russia collusion hoax that he was hired to perpetuate. And he says, who's Fusion gps? In other words? Like, I mean, I don't even know. I don't know what to do with that. If you were an, if you were a good American and you knew that a fake Hillary Clinton funded group had manufactured and disseminated a very dangerous hoax and you were in a position to do anything about it, any good American would do something about it. And so this idea that we're going to praise this man, it's disgusting to me. And to see all these people being like, how dare Donald Trump speak against a guy who was very bad and did bad things and then say nothing about Barack Obama, praising him as a man who supported rule of law is just enraging to me.
- [17:47]
Molly Hemingway
Well, I don't know. Donald Trump is who he is, so it is what it is. I don't. I think it's better if he had said nothing because he's the president. But I understand where you're coming from as well. I don't think Mueller was a great man or anything like that. I also get that if you worked with him and knew him a long time, you would say something nice about him. But I will say I think Mueller, if, was the person who actually finally, inadvertently killed the Russia collusion or exposed the Russia collusion hoax. When he spoke in front of Congress, and he obviously was not mentally capable, it was clear that he was not mentally capable of running this investigation, that other people were running the investigation, that he didn't really even know what it was about. And I don't. 2019, I forget the date. And he was basically forced to admit that the whole thing was nonsense. Obviously, he didn't want to do that, but that was the moment, I think, that a lot of people were like, who are still sane to some extent, were like, yeah, this whole thing's bs. I mean, I. That's how I remember it. It's a. It's a while back, seven years now. He basically confirmed that there was no collusion, that there was no conspiracy. Collusion is not even a real thing.
- [19:03]
David Harsanyi
No, I don't think he deserves any credit for anything he did in the, in his investigation. I think he deserves nothing but condemnation. It is true that by some miracle, you know, if the federal government comes after you, they're going to get you on not just something, but they could get you on a lot of things. It's nothing short of a miracle that they did not have anything to go after.
- [19:25]
Molly Hemingway
Can I say I forgot to make my main point there. My main point was the people who were conducting that investigation wanted to get Donald Trump so badly. And the fact that they couldn't get him and couldn't get anyone around him on anything was more proof than. Than anything else that there was nothing to get right. Is that a fair assessment of his investigation?
- [19:47]
David Harsanyi
I do. I just don't think he deserves any credit for that. There were many illegal actions taken in the effort to destroy an American president and to undo the results of the 2016 election. And Robert Mueller went after precisely zero of those people. He protected 100% of those people, and he instead went after people in an effort to get them to say something against Donald Trump. It is true. And Byron York's book Obsession is very good on this point. And I would always recommend people read it as a reflection of those times or accurate reported thing about those times that Robert Mueller was chosen for that role because he was perceived as a Republican, he was perceived as unimpeachable. Now that was false and I wrote about that at the time and, but he already probably had dementia at that point. So his lack of control over his. He hired exclusively hard left activist Democrat prosecutors and people like that to be part of his team. So the 12 top people weren't just left. I mean, they were hard left. They're people like Andrew Weissman. They're people who were involved in all of the get Trump efforts during the interregnum. They were, they were activists. He didn't really have control over them. He didn't maybe even know what they were doing. And so it's hard to know just precisely how much to blame him given that he was losing his mind and was taken advantage of probably by these far left Democrat activists.
- [21:37]
Molly Hemingway
But you remember how the anticipation and the eagerness that, that all the Russia collusion hoaxers and, and people who, that couldn't wait for his report. I mean, they thought for sure it was going to blow it open. And it, it didn't do anything like that. It was just such a big disappointment.
- [21:55]
David Harsanyi
They were, they were lighting candles that were like those saint candles that Roman Catholics have with Robert Mueller's picture on it. I think they called it like molar moss or something. I don't even remember. They were celebrating holidays around him. They were worshiping him and he left them high and dried. That is true. But I do want to just say for this hagiography about him, and I am someone who thinks like when someone dies, you should go after them. To the point about Trump's tweet. But when he was hired, I remember people being like, you literally can't criticize him. But there were all sorts of things that I thought were worthy of criticizing him over, including he was leader of the FBI when the anthrax investigation was completely bungled. He was also the person who let Sandy Berger serve no jail time when he stuffed documents in his socks. Like the treatment of Democrats under his FBI was ridiculous relative to the treatment of Republicans. And to that point, it was the charging Scooter Libby, but not the leaker. He, he had no control over. You know, Comey, there was the railroading of Ted Stevens who was falsely accused of things by the FBI and had his political career destroyed in Alaska and was exonerated later. There was bad stuff about an Israeli spy ring that had been bungled as well. Basically accusing a guy who had talked with, you know, like an American. It was like accusing some guy who had merely had, like, conversations of being an Israeli spy. Just general incompetent supervision of Andrew Weissman and other people. So this idea that he is unimpeachable. Was unimpeachable. Just isn't really true. No matter what, though, nobody destroyed the reputation of the FBI as much as Robert Mueller and Comey. They ruined it. I mean, there's no coming back from what they did. And the idea that you would praise this person as a man who upheld rule of law when it counted, when he did, not just the opposite, but maybe the worst in history. Opposite is just bad. So I'm sorry for his family and friends. I'm sure he also did many, many good things. I mean, I know he had a decorated military career, for instance, and, you know, I don't. I understand that everyone's very complicated, but nobody should be confused about the damage this man caused the country. And we have still. We're still suffering in part because basically no one has been held accountable for it.
- [24:57]
Molly Hemingway
Well, it is interesting. I. I also try not to say negative things about someone who's just passed away, not because of them, but because of their family. And I think it's in poor form. But I've noticed lately, and I did have to do this twice, and recently when Jesse Jackson died and I forgot who else it was, that if you are quiet and you act with decorum, other people run to create revisionist histories of this people.
- [25:23]
David Harsanyi
Yeah.
- [25:23]
Molly Hemingway
Make them into saints. And if you don't act to kind of push back that. That the stories cement their legacy in a way so that you have a responsibility to get the history right. I hate this idea. I remember at the time, if I. If you criticized him, you would be smeared. You know, they'd say, like, he served this country and, you know, you're just a Putin stooge or whatever. This is not a fascist state. I get to be critical of anyone I want.
- [25:49]
David Harsanyi
And it is good to honor military service. It is good to honor that. That does not give you a get out of jail free card for the rest of your life.
- [25:58]
Molly Hemingway
But I wanted to point. Yeah, go on. No, no, please go.
- [26:02]
David Harsanyi
Well, I wanted to kind of talk about Margo Cleveland testifying this week about FBI and DOJ abuses.
- [26:09]
Molly Hemingway
Can I mention one last thing? On the Russian collusion stuff, there was a piece by Eli Lake. You might not have loved it, but it was about Bob Mueller's tarnished legacy about why he had a good, you know, he had a good career. But then Russia, the Russia stuff ruined it for him. And Joe Scarborough, a Morning Joe chimed in that this was a joke of a piece because he said the Senate Intelligence Committee had found that, you know, all the things have found that it was a grave counterintelligence threat and this and that and actually Russia stuff was true. Now I just want to mention that these dead enders on the Russia collusion stuff have also revised the history to pretend that this was just about the 2016 Trump campaign and how it was susceptible to Russian interference. That wasn't the thing that they talked about day in and day out. That's not the thing that they obsessed over. Joe Scarborough said that Donald Trump had been compromised, that there he had been blackmailed. He didn't talk about some low level 2016 camp like they are trying to change history just like they do for Robert Mueller's bio to make it this very rational, you know, investigation this very rational thought process. But they were unhinged. When Jonathan Chait wrote his speech about how Donald Trump was an asset since 1987. He had a, he was on there talking about it. He asked I forgot his co host name Brzezinski or whatever name. Mika. Mika, is he, is he an asset? Mika Brzezinski? 100%. Like that's not about some campaign worker in the Trump campaign. That's about Donald Trump and what would have been the biggest scandal in American history, maybe in the history of the world if the president states have been an asset for another country. So please, I mean let's, let's, let's not do that. I'm sorry.
- [27:53]
David Harsanyi
So I love also like the Senate Intel Committee, which was by the way a complete joke of an investigation where the Republicans were basically completely awol on the whole thing and they let Democrats just kind of manifest their insanity on that also suffered from restricted information. And so for example, within the last year we have seen the release of quite a few documents from DNI, Tulsi Gabbard and the CIA, John Ratcliffe, showing that there was an attempt to manufacture a Russia collusion narrative precisely to affect members of the Senate and Congress. And most people fell for it. And they were given a report that seemed to be, well, a report that alleged that Donald Trump, that there was legitimate reason to believe Donald Trump was a Russian asset. And very few Republican or Democrat senators had the wherewithal to even question this remotely. But as those documents were released in the last year, basically makes that entire Senate Report completely moot. But it is interesting how much people cling to that, but don't cling to. To the excellent work put out by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In fact, when the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence was saying, we think there are FISA abuses, we have questions about the predicate, where, you know, we're concerned about the. This dossier. You know, everyone said, these people are insane. And they've been totally. You know, and they did it very quickly, too. The Senate's intel whitewash thing took many, many years and was heavily redacted and was written in such a way to give people like Mika Brzeinski a chance to say, oh, no, there really was Russia collusion. Like, they're just so bitterly clinging to it that it's embarrassing. But they don't. They don't give credence to the much better work by the House Permanent Select Committee.
- [30:01]
Molly Hemingway
Despite everyone's best efforts, there were zero convictions having anything to do with conspiracy by anyone. Right. Even though, I mean, Manafort, or whatever his name was, was, I think, jailed for some kind of tax.
- [30:16]
David Harsanyi
I forgot what he did, clearly, in an attempt to get him to turn on Trump.
- [30:20]
Molly Hemingway
Yeah.
- [30:21]
David Harsanyi
You know, and he didn't do it, which is interesting. Okay, so I mentioned that Margot Cleveland, our senior legal contributor at the Federalist, was testifying this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the courts. No, what was it? I forget what the subcommittee was. And it was really interesting. They were talking about constitutional abuses as part of the Arctic Frost efforts, but also other things that the FBI and DOJ have been engaged in. Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson released additional documents showing that Jack Smith and his team were relying on that one party, J6 Committee, led by people only, people appointed by Nancy Pelosi, who agreed with her perspective on J6, and essentially led by Liz Cheney. They were relying on that committee, which had no balance on it, zero balance, to do, like preliminary, quote, unquote investigations. And then they were just using their map that they provided for who they would go after. We learned that Jack Smith really went out of his way to hide his attempts to spy on his political opponents in the Republican Party, including that, you know, when he went after a bunch of senators, only one senator had a company, mobile phone company, went after a mobile phone company that said, like, we're not going to turn over his records. And when they pushed back, he did not in any way go to the courts to try to secure these records. And Senator Cruz was asking the panelists whether they thought the reason why he didn't go to a judge on that was because he knew he would lose. And there are all these emails showing that they were aware that they were violating people's privacy rights, First Amendment rights, speech and privacy, I'm sorry, speech and debate clause rights. And they did not care or they worked to make it so that it didn't matter. It also showed interesting, like almost it looked like coordination with Judge Beryl Howell and she was strongly supportive of the approach they were using to go after their political opponents. I mean, really interesting documents. And once again, you know, like, I'm, I'm glad that the Senate held hearings on it, but there's a lot of bad behavior out there at the FBI and doj. It seems to be a completely rotten organization in many ways. I'm not saying there's nobody there that's good, but the percentage of people who are good seems to be very tough, tiny relative to the people who are just abusing their power. And it's a bad, it's a very bad situation.
- [33:35]
Molly Hemingway
It's a terrible situation because it finds us in a place now where most American people don't trust our institutions at all, that the ones that we need to trust most. And I think that goes, goes back in a big way too. Well, it goes back to Obama, but it goes back in a big way to the Russian collusion stuff and then the stuff that came after.
- [33:54]
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- [34:25]
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- [34:44]
Molly Hemingway
You want to talk about the death of Kermit Gosnell? I do now. Yeah. So for people who don't remember or don't know, he was a late term abortionist in Philly, right? West Philly. He you had, well, let's put it this way. You Had a lot to do with bringing that story to national attention. I'd say, if I remember correctly, what was it? 23rd, 2011 maybe? I think before I knew met you,
- [35:11]
David Harsanyi
I think it was 2011 and I don't remember exactly. And it's been a long time. But the situation there was that Kermit Gosnell was a decades long, you know, prolific abortionist in Philly and had a lengthy history with the abortion movement. He had actually been involved in something called the Mother's Day Massacre, where he pioneered this abortion method where he took like a bunch of, I want to say like metal parts and put like a gel around them and then inserted them into the women. And then as the gel melted, it tore up. Tore up their insides. You know, he's always kind of like a mon. Even by abortionist standards, which is not a great standard since their entire profession is about ending life in the womb violently. He was particularly monstrous about it. But he'd kind of worked, regulated unobserved for many decades. And his specialty was working with women who were in particular like, you know, hardship situations. He had a. Well, let's first talk about how he was discovered. So he, among the other things he was doing, he apparently was a doctor feel good who was willing to write prescriptions for people for. For drugs. And the DEA was looking into that. And they raided his clinic. And when they raided his clinic, they realized that it was like a bigger situation than just the drugs. They found lots of baby body parts in formaldehyde. They found body parts in the refrigerator. They found hallways that were filled with trash that, you know, you couldn't safely evacuate a woman. Say he botched an abortion, which he did all the time. You couldn't safely evacuate a woman to get to the hospital. And there were all sorts of issues in play. They even found that he had different standards of care in a racist way. He himself was a black man, but he would take advantage of women on an ability to pay and seem to prey on like black immigrant women frequently or other immigrant women. And so you would get anesthesia based on your ability to pay. And the more you paid, the. The less pain you would be in. Just like so many health policy issues in play here. And a grand didn't know.
- [37:50]
Molly Hemingway
I'm sorry, didn't a woman die as well? Wasn't there a manslaughter charges?
- [37:54]
David Harsanyi
Yeah, so like several women had reportedly died. And he wasn't just killing babies who were pre. Pre the age limit. And I don't remember what it was at the time. In Pennsylvania, he was also delivering babies live and then killing them. And so he ends up being charged with the death deaths of, I think, one of the women and. And a few of the babies that he killed.
- [38:21]
Molly Hemingway
But I think they suspected that there were hundreds of born alive deaths and maybe even more women, maybe even thousands.
- [38:27]
David Harsanyi
Yeah, it was kind of his primary method, according to what the grand jury found. And so when the grand jury released their report, it was called House of Horrors. And the description in the grand jury report was just unbelievable. And it did get some news coverage when that happened. Like, when that report came out, it got national news coverage. And usually when you discover a prolific serial killer who has done, like, crazy things like this over a long period of time, and it implicates government regulating agencies and the abortion industry and in abortion groups, of which he was like a very, you know, prominent and happy member and the abortion movement. You know, like, you would think that for something that implicated so much, it would be the kind of story that, I don't know, like the Russia collusion hoax, you might get multiple stories a day out of. Instead, it was one story, one story. And at the time I thought, well, maybe when the trial begins, that's when they'll cover it more. But the trial began and nobody was covering it. Nobody. And a local reporter, JD Mullane, showed the empty seats that they had reserved for the media. They had assumed there would be quite a bit of media interest in this serial killer, like, dramatic serial killer story. And there was no media interest. And my very, you know, tiny role in this was just to contact every reporter who had made a huge deal out of Sandra Flock or of. Do you remember when the Susan G. Komen foundation tried to stop funding Planned Parenthood and that became a big story. Or Wendy Davis, like I or Todd Akin, I just looked at the reporters who would write, you know, Todd Akin said something not great on the campaign trail. And a reporter might write, no joke, 14 stories on it. And when Susan G. Komen tried to stop funding the abortion, the leading abortionist, Planned parenthood, maybe another 20 stories on it. You know, it would be like they knew what to do when they had a story. They knew what to do when they didn't have a story. They would write 20 stories on it. And so I would, like, add up all the stories they had written on the. On the information operations done by the pro abortion movement and say, okay, you wrote 78 stories on Todd Aiken, planned Parent. Susie, why have you not covered the Gosnell trial? And I would just Ask like every reporter. This was in the early days of Twitter when you could contact a reporter and they would respond. And quite notoriously, this woman, oh my
- [41:07]
Molly Hemingway
gosh, why her name? She was at the Washington Post. Right.
- [41:12]
David Harsanyi
Okay. So the best one of these, I thought, and there were many, many good ones, but the best one was Sarah Cliff at the Washington Post, who was their health policy reporter. And I just tweeted, washington Post health policy reporter Sarah Cliff has 80 plus site hits on the Aiken Fluke Coleman stories and zero on Gosnell would love an explanation. And of this story, which had maybe like, I don't know, 45 good health policy angles, she said, hi, Molly. She misspelled my name. I COVID policy for the Washington Post, not local crime. Hence why I wrote about all the policy issues you mention. You remember the policy issues in play with Todd Akin's comment. I'm sure you remember the policy issues in play with the Komen Foundation.
- [42:08]
Molly Hemingway
Sorry, no, I like, I like that
- [42:11]
David Harsanyi
there are no policy issues with what is the width of your hallway? You know, because like when, when people try to, to say abortion clinics should have admitting privileges for their doctors at hospitals, that's so that they can take the patient right to the hospital and explain what's going on. Right? That's so, you know, you have to have a certain width of your hallway if you're doing abortions so that when you butcher a woman along with her baby, she can be safely evacuated. That's a health policy issue. When you have different standards of care based on immigration or racial status, that's a health policy issue. And Sarah Cliff said this was a local crime issue. Okay, so how did the papers cover this local crime issue? You know, think about other local crime issues. Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Michael Brown. Those are local crime issues. Did the Washington Post find fit to cover those? Maybe to the tune of thousands of stories?
- [43:15]
Molly Hemingway
Well, they will tell you that it reflects a national problem, which of course late term abortion does as well. You will remember John McCormick, I think the weekly stand was, was still around and he was covering Congress, I think, and he got Nancy asked Nancy Pelosi what the difference was between Kermit Gosnell did and the run of the mill late term abortionist. I think it was just maybe cleanliness, but. Or neatness, but she couldn't answer that question. She, she kind of yelled at him and found it reprehensible and, and said he was savoring the question or something like that. It was just crazy. You will remember she said that abortion was Sacred ground for her. She's a Catholic. That's what she said.
- [43:59]
David Harsanyi
Yes.
- [43:59]
Molly Hemingway
And the, the story itself was. Was massive because it had been a long time or maybe we'd never actually gotten a real look at the horrors of late term abortion in this way. It was always couched in, like, language, you know, by, by media that made it sound outside the norm, but never like murder. And this was clearly murder. And the reason that Nancy Pelosi couldn't answer that question is because there is no difference between those, those between the guy in Colorado, did he die yet? And others like Dr. Warren Hearn, right. Who's a, you know, one of the great mass murderers in American history. And it, it is, it. It's not changed. I mean, I think abortion is still covered with this kind of deceit. I just think it was an incredibly important story. Didn't they. They made a movie or a character. Right. Or was it.
- [45:01]
David Harsanyi
There's a great movie, actually, directed by Nick Searcy, who I love, and I think he's so wonderful and talented. And the screenplay was by Andrew Clavin, and the original story was from the writing team of McAleer, McElhenney, fellowman Ann, who did that. And it was really well done, I thought, and done, you know, just tells the story and it takes some liberties with certain things. So, for instance, there's a character who's a reporter character, and her name is Molly Mulaney, and it's based on, you know, I mentioned JD Mullane, the guy who was covering the trial locally. And then I, you know, I tried to shame journalists into covering it. And so it was kind of, you know, in light of that. So it's very cool that there's a character like that.
- [46:03]
Molly Hemingway
And
- [46:06]
David Harsanyi
yes, good movie. I'd highly recommend it and highly recommend Nick Searcy's work.
- [46:11]
Molly Hemingway
Local crime story became part of the vernacular of American politics after that. Right. I mean, you'd always mock liberals for, for, for not covering local crime stories. I, I think this is when you first came to my attention. I was like, I like the cut of her jib, I think, but I might have known what you're.
- [46:29]
David Harsanyi
I love that. David, I've been reading you for so many years prior to that.
- [46:33]
Molly Hemingway
Couldn't be that many years. Let's just mention, since we've been ragging On Media, Scott McFarland, who was like this big guy at CBS News, I forget his title. It doesn't really matter. And he was. Was he laid off or did he leave? I don't know.
- [46:51]
David Harsanyi
He left, he made a big show but he's like, I am leaving. I cannot handle it here anymore.
- [46:58]
Molly Hemingway
So he left and nine days later he signed up with some left wing digital media company. What is it? Is it Midas Touch or.
- [47:07]
David Harsanyi
Yeah. Which is like an actual Democrat super pac, I think so.
- [47:13]
Molly Hemingway
That is a usual thing. So when I worked at a newspaper and someone left a newspaper, they usually went on to become like a spokesman for some government agency or a spokesman for some Democrat or a spokesman or, or working in some. Something like this, some kind of PAC or some kind of oppo research firm or whatever it was. Not always, But I'd say 90% of the time, that's my experience, so. And we're supposed to pretend that the media is not biased when a guy who is a CBS News Justice Correspond correspondent moves over and goes to just a literal hard left political organization.
- [47:51]
Podcast Host
I've got Dan Morgan here on the pod. Say hi, Dan.
- [47:54]
Dan Morgan
Hey, how's it going today?
- [47:55]
Podcast Host
It's going good, man. Tell us who you are and what you do.
- [47:59]
Dan Morgan
I'm Dan Morgan. I'm an attorney and a managing partner at Morgan and Morgan, which is America's largest injury law firm.
- [48:05]
Podcast Host
That's pretty awesome. I think I saw a billboard of yours recently that said 20 billion. Wonderful. 20 million is an insane number.
- [48:13]
Dan Morgan
Yeah, 20 billion recovered. It's actually, I think somewhere north. Probably closer to 22, 23 after this year. And each year we get bigger and badder and our army grows. So the number will hopefully keep getting bigger and bigger as time goes on.
- [48:26]
Podcast Host
Awesome. So how does someone get in contact with Morgan and Morgan? What would I do if I got into an accident?
- [48:31]
Dan Morgan
Probably the easiest way is dialing pound law. That's £529 from your cell phone. We are always open. Our call center is always waiting to take your call. 24, 7, 365.
- [48:41]
David Harsanyi
Wow.
- [48:41]
Podcast Host
Dan Morgan from Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Thanks for coming by the show.
- [48:46]
Dan Morgan
Thanks for having me. Visit forthepeople.com for an office near you.
- [48:50]
David Harsanyi
I was in an Uber at a meeting at the White House. I'm Ubering home. And the Uber driver is listening to wtop, a local radio station. And they go, next up we have Scott McFarland who has a new title. And they're like, Scott normally meets with us at this time to talk about such and such for CBS radio, but now he's at Midas Touch. And we're so excited. And I'm like, this is insane. They're treating it like, it's fine that this, I mean, a, they never should have had him on, given his clear left wing bias. But then it doesn't even matter when he goes to an overt Democrat organization. They're just like, treating it like he's going to share the news. And his reporting was done in that way that like corporate media does it, where they sound like they're actually delivering the news, but they're omitting all of the relevant facts that would make it actual news. And they're, you know, they do it, they do it in a really high level way that I encourage my students, who I teach a class on narrative and propaganda in American journalism, I want them to see what the New York Times is doing because they do it at a really high level. But he told the story about the DHS shutdown without mentioning that Democrats had caused it.
- [50:09]
Molly Hemingway
I call it Potemkin journalism. Anyway, so lastly, I think we should mention what's going on in Iran. It is a war that I believe we are winning in dramatic fashion. I think the latest news is that it's confusing. We don't know what's going on, but it looks like there may be some kind of negotiation going on about some kind of deal, perhaps some kind of ceasefire. But at the same time, Donald Trump is moving paratroopers and other military components to the Gulf. So you never know. One of the talking points I just wanted to quickly mention is that there were like reportedly 15 points that the Trump administration sent to the Iranian negotiators, supposedly that needed to be met for peace. So the big talking point from the left is we already had this with the Obama deal. Look at all the stuff we had with the Obama deal and you just, you ripped it up and that's why we're here now. But that is a lie. And I just want to go through just five points. The first is that the Obama deal, it allowed Iran to continue uranium enrichment. It did not stop them from doing that. The second, it did not ask them or compel them to decommission any of their reactors. Not the reactor that's 300ft concrete, enforced under a granite mountain that supposedly is for, you know, civilian medicine, medicinal purposes. The Obama administration puts zero limits on ballistic missile production or development. Not even intercontinental ballistic missiles that carry nukes. There was no way to verify anything because there was no, any time, anywhere inspections allowed. Also, there were no restrictions on funding terror proxies that were attacking American interests and allies. But more than anything, it was worse than all of that because the Obama deal gave the Iranians a shield so the Israelis could not attack them while the deal was in place and they could just get to a point where they can do large scale enrichment within months and have a weapon. So like you don't, you could like the deal. You could not. You could think that Trump doesn't have a strategy. You could think that he's asking for things that can't get whatever it is, but it is not the Obama deal thus far. Maybe he'll change. I can't tell you what the future is. So anyway, I just wanted to get
- [52:33]
David Harsanyi
that of my chest so I have some thoughts. But before that I have a question which is do you see this moving to ground invasion and what do you see that looking like or.
- [52:47]
Molly Hemingway
No, I don't see like a large scale ground invasion though.
- [52:51]
David Harsanyi
I could see small scale ground invasion.
- [52:54]
Molly Hemingway
Yeah, I could see. It's just a guess. I don't know anyone, I don't know anything. But my guess is that I could see the Americans and the Israelis trying to procure the enriched uranium that exists at a site they think it exists at that they have not bombed at all. So to me that says that there's something there that they want to get their hands on. So I could see something like that happening. I could see them landing some troops to, to ensure that boats can get through the Strait of Hormuz. Maybe, maybe he's just threatening them, maybe he's trying to scare them. I, I don't know what's happening. I don't think we, we know what's happening yet. It's going to be really interesting to read the history of this, to see what, what went on. But I don't see any kind of like regime change, ground invasion or anything like that. But I don't, we just don't have the troops for that. And I don't think there's the will for that. And I don't, you know, certainly not among the population which is obviously not, not happy with this war, but in the administration either. I just don't see that happening. Why do you feel like that's a possibility?
- [53:58]
David Harsanyi
I don't know. I am sort of instinctually in such a different place than most of my compatriots on this that I'm continuing to just ask questions about what they're thinking. So I read the story. I get confused between like Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg. There's been a bunch of different reporting. But there a series of articles this weekend that were kind of interesting about how Israel and the US had talked about the war prior to it beginning, and apparently there had been Israeli intelligence suggesting that a big dramatic strike would lead to a regime change, you know, a civil disruption and regime change. And that obviously did not happen at all. And so there were beliefs that this could be a pretty quick operation as a result of that. And when that didn't happen, now it's like, okay, now what? And so the list of demands you mentioned that the US Sent to Iran was interesting, but so was the list of demands that they sent back, which seemed either untenable or indicative that maybe this war will go on for a very long time. And, and, and so I'm just, you know, curious. Well, what is like, what is the appetite of like we're told that 100% of Trump supporters and then 100% of Iran war supporters support the Iran war or, you know, 100% of people who always wanted to go to war with Iran are supportive of Trump's war with Iran, and 100% of Trump supporters support Trump. So in that group, what is the appetite? Is the appetite for a large ground invasion in a lengthy war, or is there a tolerance of that, or is there like not a tolerance of that? You have a much better picture of that than I do.
- [56:01]
Molly Hemingway
Other than Lindsey Graham, I have never heard anyone ever say that they wanted a large scale invasion. If someone can provide me with people
- [56:09]
David Harsanyi
who have, do you want that not to happen?
- [56:12]
Molly Hemingway
It. I don't want that to happen. I can't speak for other people, but the people I know, I just have never seen anyone say they want some sort of large scale Iraq style invasion. But I just want to go back to another thing you said about the regime change. It's not what I read, and I could be wrong, but Israeli media said that the report that Mossad, I think, gave Israel and Israel gave the Americans was that regime change would probably not happen quickly, that it would probably take about a year, meaning first you undermine the foundations of the regime, take out all their leadership, all of that. And over time, what's going to happen is they've been so weakened that, that there'll be a regime change, but it won't happen overnight. I don't know if that's true, but that's what I read. I think a low, high impact, low casualty war like this, we've already won the war, the war is over in the sense of any kind of military sense.
- [57:08]
David Harsanyi
It's a very Trumpy thing that you just said.
- [57:11]
Molly Hemingway
I'm not saying that mission accomplished sort of thing, but the Iranians have. We literally control the skies. We're just can meticulously take out whatever we want and do whatever we want with them. What are they going to do now? They could be as radical as they want.
- [57:30]
David Harsanyi
I agree with you on, on those things, but I also think it's silly to say we have quote unquote, won the war. If so, there better be no people there right now. And instead it's the opposite. More people are heading over.
- [57:41]
Molly Hemingway
And I'm sorry, I hate to break the news too. We won the war. Full surrender in Europe and people were there for years and years and years after.
- [57:49]
David Harsanyi
That's not what, that's not what, that's not what's happening here. When you're deploying troops, that's different than, you know, having people in Germany.
- [57:56]
Molly Hemingway
Well, I, I think that you asked me how long. I want the war to go on. I want it to go on as long as we finish the objectives we were there for. That were initially stated by the White House, which was stop ending their nuke program once and for all because we didn't do it last time. Stopping their ballistic missile program and stopping them from funding proxy armies, terror proxy armies around the world.
- [58:23]
David Harsanyi
And if that takes like 7, 10, 12, 20 years, that's okay, right?
- [58:28]
Molly Hemingway
I mean, no, it's not going to take. I don't even know what to say to that. We're not going to have troops there for 20 years. We're not going to be doing this for 20 years. Yeah, I mean, if we have to go back 10 years from now, because they're rebuilding all these things and we have to go back, there's no panacea here. This is. The enemy has a say. That's a cliche, but it's true. And we can only do the best that we can do.
- [58:46]
David Harsanyi
That's.
- [58:47]
Molly Hemingway
That's why the limitations of our military.
- [58:48]
David Harsanyi
We're winning. Like, clearly we are dominant. Like, there's no question about that. And we have exacted quite a bit of damage and so has Israel to the, to the country of Iran. It's also true that they have have exacted some damage to neighboring countries, to their refineries. There are major disruptions to oil. They still have some sway over the Straits of Hormuz, and that matters too. And you don't need to be winning, you don't need to be winning necessarily to still have quite a bit of say. And so with gas being dramatically higher in the US Right now, and I think if it's short term, that's no Big deal. But as that goes on, not no big deal, it's obviously not great. But as that goes on, that could cause some issues.
- [59:49]
Molly Hemingway
No, politically, yeah. I think when you think about oil, I believe is under $100 a barrel today. Still way too high and higher than it was. But the idea that you could have a war in the middle EAS with the Strait of Hormuz partially closed and still have a barrel of oil, not be like 150, 200, is kind of a miracle in a way. I know people aren't going to look at it that way. Iran is weakened in, in every way imaginable as far as their military goes. But when people say we've won in, you know, militarily, I think they underplay that. This is perhaps the most successful military operation in modern history. Never before has an entire tier of leadership and virtually every leader of the country that we're fighting been taken out within the first week of fighting. Basically a few stragglers and their entire, I mean their ballistic capabilities are virtually non existent. Now they're sending out drones. Low tech stuff. Listen, I agree with what I, there is a threat. People don't like the war. Oil prices go up, gas prices go up, that's going to be bad. But you know, I think it's the right thing to do. So I, I don't, you know, I don't know what to say about that. I, I hope that, I wish that people were a little more patient because this has been incredibly successful. So the United States.
- [61:10]
David Harsanyi
I just want to say I do have a little bit of a pet peeve of like this is most successful military operation in history or whatever. You can't judge something like that. I, I mean, I agree that again we have complete domination. We've had these really effective strikes. You can't really know what the effect of something is in the immediate moment. You need to think through what are the results down the road. And I would like to not make immediate judgments when I say that I'm
- [61:43]
Molly Hemingway
talking about the military operation.
- [61:45]
David Harsanyi
Okay.
- [61:46]
Molly Hemingway
The long term, that's different question. Iran has no allies in the world. Really. Maybe, maybe Russia's helping them, maybe not. I don't know the entire goal.
- [61:58]
David Harsanyi
Venezuela. Oh, just kidding, right?
- [62:02]
Molly Hemingway
Just because we don't know what's going to happen and people mock Donald Rumsfeld's whole thing about the knowns and unknowns and stuff. But I thought it was actually quite an interesting quote, right? I mean it is actually quite smart. We don't know and we can't know, but that doesn't mean we, we don't act when we have to act to defend our country. You know, I, I think we did the right thing. And we'll see. History will tell. I, I, I don't pretend to know everything that's going to happen, but I know that Iran is no longer the danger to the United States or it's, or, or the Gulf nations that it was the day before we struck.
- [62:36]
David Harsanyi
So I have a reader or a listener email request and it's nowhere near as easy as recommending procedural dramas, but because Washington, D.C. tends to have a lot of groupthink about this war and is largely supportive, you know, Democrat, Republican, but not, you're not getting like a ton of interesting commentary here. I would love to hear from people and really people who support, you know, enthusiastically support the war. What you see as the timeline and what you're willing to have happen, what costs you're willing to go through to achieve the objectives that you want to achieve. So, like, what objectives you want to achieve, what you see the timeline as being and like the range of what that timeline is and what cost you're willing to endure. I know it's like a heavy request, but if anyone has any thoughts, I would love to hear them. I love, kind of, I feel, I feel like I don't quite understand where everybody is on this, and I would like to understand better. So if anyone has any, any thoughts on it that are worth sharing, I would love to hear them.
- [63:45]
Molly Hemingway
Two quick things for me, just before we go to culture is one, if we, just so you know where I stand, if we left today, I still think it would have been success. So if, if everyone picked up all Trump picked up everyone and brought him home tomorrow. I still think this mission was successful. I think it probably pushed Iran back like a decade. And, and that would be good enough.
- [64:06]
David Harsanyi
Good buddy, I'm right there with you.
- [64:08]
Molly Hemingway
I think we can do better, though. I think the nuke stuff, we need to deal with that. There's so much going on we don't know, obviously.
- [64:15]
David Harsanyi
Yeah.
- [64:15]
Molly Hemingway
The other thing is there is the group thing. Have you listened to Chris Murphy lately? Have you listened to Chuck Schumer when he's talking about how Donald Trump purposely killed a bunch of girls? Or Chris Murphy who says it's the worst thing that's ever happened to us? I mean, there's not groupthink on the Democrat side. They will never support anything Donald Trump does. And I think that their party is just completely now resistant to anything that looks like it would help Israel or anything that looks like we would be in the Middle east or any of that. You don't think so?
- [64:47]
David Harsanyi
I remember being on Fox News Sunday with Senator Mark Warner, Democrat from Virginia, and he did have criticisms of Trump on the war. He called it a war of choice and things like that. But he was also very supportive of the goals of the war effort, you know, take taking action, Iran's nuclear capabilities and the like. And I think that a lot of the people who are more responsible Democrats, you know, less just playing for politics, are treating this differently. But I'm not interested in what Chuck Schumer has to say. I'm interested in what a, like, normal American who supports Trump and thinks about foreign policy. Like, I'm more interested in what.
- [65:32]
Molly Hemingway
But yeah, yeah, it's just because you said there was locks up in D.C. i don't think that's exactly true. But I, I, I did wonder.
- [65:41]
David Harsanyi
It's a town that generally supports military. Well, I, intervention.
- [65:45]
Molly Hemingway
I, I don't understand. I, I like to ask people who I consider, you know, realists or even isolationist, you know, do you believe that we should, if you thought if Iran was on the cusp of getting a nuclear weapon, do we have a responsibility to act or not?
- [65:59]
David Harsanyi
Not.
- [66:00]
Molly Hemingway
I mean, that's a question I want to know. And if we do, doesn't it make sense to act before it has a shield of immunity, before it has supersonic weapons, before it is really a danger, a more dangerous situation to act or to let them get to that point? I believe most people who are on that end of things, not the realist, but the isolationist, and people on the left want Iran to have a nuke. I think Ben Rhodes wants Iran to have a nuke. But if you really don't, I don't see why you wouldn't want to act now and you would want to act later. I don't really understand why, when we know that the moolahs and the clerics and their radicals lie and don't abide by any agreement.
- [66:43]
Podcast Host
I've got Dan Morgan here on the pod. Say hi, Dan.
- [66:45]
Dan Morgan
Hey, how's it going today?
- [66:47]
Podcast Host
It's going good, man. Tell us who you are and what you do.
- [66:50]
Dan Morgan
I'm Dan Morgan. I'm an attorney and a man, managing partner at Morgan and Morgan, which is America's largest injury law firm.
- [66:56]
Podcast Host
That's pretty awesome. I think I saw a billboard of yours recently that said 20 billion won. 20 billion is an insane number.
- [67:05]
Dan Morgan
Yeah, 20 billion recovered. It's actually, I think somewhere north probably closer to 22, 23 after this year. And each year we get bigger and badder and our army grows. So the number will hopefully keep getting bigger and bigger as time goes on.
- [67:17]
Podcast Host
Awesome. So how does someone get in contact with Morgan and Morgan, what would I do if I got into an actual accident?
- [67:22]
Dan Morgan
Probably the easiest way is dialing pound law. That's £529 from your cell phone. We are always open. Our call center is always waiting to take your call. 247 365.
- [67:32]
David Harsanyi
Wow.
- [67:33]
Podcast Host
Dan Morgan from Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Thanks for coming by the show.
- [67:37]
Dan Morgan
Thanks for having me. Visit forthepeople.com for an office near you Culture.
- [67:45]
Molly Hemingway
It always seems like we go from the most serious thing to culture. We have to, like, plan better. Ratchet it down. I have two things. One, I watched the Peaky Blinder movie the Immortal Man. I'm a huge fan of Peaky Blinders. I just love everything about it. Chilean or Cillian Murphy, however you pronounce it, Fantastic actor. Love him in that role. Like, really looking forward to this movie. I watched it. I. It looked. It looks great. Like, it's just all the visuals and the anachronistic rock music and everything's done perfectly. Just produced perfectly. Story super thin. Super thin. Barely held my interest. I. I don't know what the. What the reviews have been like. I see it as 93 on Rotten Tomatoes. A little surprising to me because I felt it was a little thin, but maybe I need to re watch it.
- [68:45]
David Harsanyi
Sorry, was that critics review or the people's review?
- [68:50]
Molly Hemingway
It right here. Oh, it has high critics. High people. 94.93. So maybe it's just me, but I, I don't want to give away anything, but there's like only so many family members you can kill off before you're like, what is even happening here? Right.
- [69:08]
David Harsanyi
And you saw this in the theater? No.
- [69:10]
Molly Hemingway
So I don't know. I did go to the theater though. Yes. And I went to see Project Hail Mary.
- [69:18]
David Harsanyi
Okay. I did too.
- [69:20]
Molly Hemingway
Oh, you did too.
- [69:21]
David Harsanyi
Yeah.
- [69:22]
Molly Hemingway
I found it enjoyable. Right. I. I think it's a nice blockbuster. It wasn't. The story's nice. The. I think Ryan Gosling's very likable guy basically just plays himself. I guess these days. I have really no complaints about the movie. I'm a little bit. I wouldn't get in trouble here. I want to push back a little bit. Some of the reviewers and some of the people calling it like one of the greatest movies ever made. Like, I. I just feel like it's a bit overdone. Right. I mean, it's a very simple story. It's heartfelt. It's like a really good. Reminds me of a really good 1980s or, you know, blockbuster that you'd go with the family to see. Even though that's another part. Everyone's like, yeah, I take my family. Even the first scene is kind of. I mean, I have kids or anything, but that first scene's a little scary. Right, With. With the dead people. No. Doesn't he first uncover the dead? His. His. The dead people in the ship. Oh, he, like, unzippers them and they're dead.
- [70:24]
David Harsanyi
Spoiler alert there.
- [70:26]
Molly Hemingway
Yeah, I shouldn't have said that, but. Well, what'd you think?
- [70:30]
David Harsanyi
I couldn't agree more. I enjoyed it. I thought it was actually not just good, but like. Like, pretty, you know, like, good, good.
- [70:37]
Molly Hemingway
Yeah, very good.
- [70:38]
David Harsanyi
When people are like, that was amazing. I'm like. Or when they're like, the meaning was so rich, I'm like, yeah, I don't get that. And also, I agree, even on the Ryan Gosling thing, I genuinely like him. Although I get all the. Ryan's confused sometimes. Like, there's kind of pretty white young men, but I thought he was a little too goofy to play an amazing scientist.
- [71:07]
Molly Hemingway
The book apparently has a lot more science in it. It's the guy who wrote the Martian, which is a movie I also liked People gonna be mad. But for me, the Martian was more enjoyable to watch than this.
- [71:18]
David Harsanyi
One of my children also preferred the Martian to this. I've not seen the Martian, but I. Yeah, I don't know. I. I liked it. I would high. I would recommend it. I would say it's a good movie to go see. And I also was so happy. Relative to our previous conversation about Hollywood not trying to make any movies for people, this was a movie for people. This was a movie that is broadly enjoyable across age groups and, you know, different types of people. And there are some deeper themes. I didn't find them to be, like, the deepest imaginable. After I saw Interstellar and wept, you know, throughout, I wanted to see it again almost immediately. And I bought that. You know, I bought, like, a hard copy of it. I did not feel that way about this one, but I did like it a lot. So I don't want to in any way disparage it, because I would. I would say people should go see it. Definitely.
- [72:13]
Molly Hemingway
It's just a fun. It's a good experience.
- [72:15]
David Harsanyi
Oh, it was, like, high quality yeah, it's well made.
- [72:21]
Molly Hemingway
I. I'm not going to give anything away here, though I did find the last few scenes so. Too goofy, maybe.
- [72:29]
David Harsanyi
Yeah.
- [72:30]
Molly Hemingway
Kind of under. I. I would have liked for it to. Sometimes people don't like this in European movies, have this sort of theme more often or. Or structure more often. But do we really need to see everything resolved in the movie? Can't it just be, we don't know and we leave a little bit to the imagination?
- [72:47]
David Harsanyi
It was a little bit unknown at the end. Like, you don't know exactly what the future for the individual in question. I do also. I also had a little bit of struggle with the lack of human exceptionalism. I am a human exceptionalist, you know, in the same way that I'm an American exceptionalist. Like, we are better. We're different. We're, you know, not in the same way. I should say that denigrated my actual belief in human exceptionalism. And so I struggled a little bit with. With parts of that. But in terms of the messages of sacrifice and sacrificing for other people, I did really like those messages. That's very different from the message Hollywood is normally sending and also talking myself back into it being like, super good.
- [73:29]
Molly Hemingway
And also that sometimes you're. Because of events that are beyond your control, you're thrust into roles and then you can still be something of a hero. Right. You can still be selfless, even though that wasn't your original intent. Right. I think that that's a good message as well. I liked Everything was great about it. I just don't think it's one of the great movies of all time, that's all. The only other movie I can think of that had a similar experience that I think was for everyone. It was just fun and was just popcorn. Was the mission. Not the Mission. The Top Gun sequel.
- [74:01]
David Harsanyi
Oh, yeah.
- [74:03]
Molly Hemingway
Not great works of art, but fun.
- [74:06]
David Harsanyi
And F1 would be like a minor version of that. Okay. There's one other thing I want to say about the. About Project Hail Mary, which hopefully will do very well at the box office and everything.
- [74:14]
Molly Hemingway
Oh, it has.
- [74:15]
David Harsanyi
One of the themes is that, you know, an individual is a cat, that this one particular individual is a coward, and yet is thrust into needing not to be. But I didn't find that really believable because the backstory for that person involved him not being a coward, you know, standing up for his beliefs even when there was great personal cost. And so it just didn't. And also, you know, there's a physical strength about him and it just. I just didn't ever buy that he was.
- [74:46]
Molly Hemingway
That's interesting. They could have probably been a better way to. To have them, you know, to have that happen where he ended up on the ship.
- [74:54]
David Harsanyi
But the music was really well done too. It was like all these bands that are well known, but they're. So they chose songs that are not the most well known of that band.
- [75:03]
Molly Hemingway
Yeah.
- [75:04]
David Harsanyi
Okay. On that note, did you have a trailer for your. Before your movie? I had a few Brendan Fraser meteorologist film before. Okay, so Brendan Fraser is in a World War II movie that seems to be built. Oh, and it's like that great guy who plays Moriarty in the Sherlock Holmes. Who's that guy?
- [75:25]
Molly Hemingway
I will get that answer to in a minute.
- [75:28]
David Harsanyi
Okay. And it's about. But I'm calling it the Meteorologist movie because it seemed like it was sort of about the guy who was. Was discussing the weather before the Normandy invasion. But it looked great. And after it was done, I, I turned to Mark and I was like, I, I want to see that. And he said, I'm a nearly 50 year old man and it's a movie about World War II. Yes, I will be seeing that.
- [75:55]
Molly Hemingway
It's like when I tell people I've seen every movie about the Roman Empire, like I don't care how bad it is, how stupid it looks. It's called Pressure, I think. Is that what you're talking about? Maybe Plays Dwight D. Eisenhower. No. Is that it? Yeah.
- [76:10]
David Harsanyi
Okay. And then also there was a preview for the Sheep Detective, which I've seen that preview trailer. So goofy. And also I want to see that. Although one of my kids told me that Hugh Jackman, who's in that movie, who is the Sheep Herder. It's a murder mystery. He's murdered and the sheep figure out the murder based on how he'd always read murder mysteries to them.
- [76:37]
Molly Hemingway
I think it was Sheep Detectives.
- [76:39]
David Harsanyi
Fabulous conceit. But she told me that he left his wife like his longtime, decades long wife for Sarin Foster. And I had seen Hugh Jackman and Seren Foster on Broadway in the same production. And I realized I had seen.
- [76:57]
Molly Hemingway
You've seen their marriage falling apart. Yeah, I was, I don't care about celebrities, but I was actually disappointed when I heard that because he was one of these guys, very attractive man, I take it, who was married to his, you know, for a long time to the same woman. An age appropriate marriage and then that was it.
- [77:18]
David Harsanyi
Oh, Sutton Foster is her name. Sorry. I saw them in the music band. And you say age appropriate. But I kind of feel like maybe she was his his first wife was very, not very, but, like older than him. I'm older than my husband, so I'm
- [77:33]
Molly Hemingway
not begrudging this, but we have the same situation here. Some of us needed a bigger, bigger challenge. I am. I had my anniversary a few days ago. We're married 27 years.
- [77:46]
David Harsanyi
Congratulations.
- [77:47]
Molly Hemingway
Thank you.
- [77:48]
David Harsanyi
Wonderful. I love it.
- [77:52]
Molly Hemingway
Okay, I think that's all right. We. If you're interested in hearing me more, you can come hear me speak at the Glen Allen Cultural Arts Center. I guess that's near Richmond. Be speaking about Guns Forging Freedom, a history of American Guns. That's on April 1st. If you'd like to reach the show, you can do so@radiofederalist.com we love to hear from you. And we will be back next week. Until next time, be lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray.
- [78:37]
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