Katie Porter's Interview Meltdown, AOC's "Body-Shaming," and the Truth About Biden Corruption, with Link Lauren and Ken Vogel | Ep. 1167

Summary

The Megyn Kelly Show | Ep. 1167 Katie Porter's Interview Meltdown, AOC's "Body-Shaming," and the Truth About Biden Corruption, with Link Lauren and Ken Vogel Date: October 8, 2025

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Overview of the Episode

This episode centers on three main themes: the viral Katie Porter interview meltdown amid her California gubernatorial campaign, controversies surrounding AOC’s comments and “body-shaming,” and a deep-dive into Biden family corruption—especially Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings—featuring an in-depth interview with journalist Ken Vogel. Host Megyn Kelly is joined by political commentator Link Lauren and New York Times reporter Ken Vogel for candid and often biting discussion on political hypocrisy and media double standards. The tone is irreverent, direct, and unfiltered, with biting humor and cultural criticism.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Katie Porter’s Interview Meltdown (begins ~05:45)

• Context: Porter, leading candidate for CA governor, botches a softball local TV interview when asked how she would appeal to Trump voters.
• Discussion: Porter’s inability to directly address the question or remain composed is dissected at length. The panel plays the entire interview clip, highlighting Porter's frustration at follow-ups and ultimate decision to cut the interview short (09:01–11:14).
• Analysis: Megyn and Link argue this episode confirms Porter's reputation for a short temper and lack of readiness for high office.

Notable Segment Breakdown & Quotes

• The Set-Up (07:15–09:00): Comparison clips show how other candidates easily answer the same question.

  • Megyn (07:51): “It’s not hard. Literally you can pivot to something you do. Just say something resembling anything. So good.”

• The Meltdown unfolds (09:01–11:14):

  • Julie Watts (reporter, 09:04): “What do you say to the 40% of California voters who you’ll need in order to win, who voted for Trump?”
  • Katie Porter: (09:27) “No, no, I'm saying I'm going to build the support. I have the support...I have stood on my own two feet and won Republican votes before.”
  • Katie Porter: (10:39) “I don't want to keep doing this. I'm going to call it.”
  • Julie Watts: (11:04) “I will continue to ask follow up questions because that’s my job as a journalist.”

• Reaction & Analysis

  • Megyn (12:00): “Katie Porter's not ready for primetime. That’s obvious. You could tell from the dress she was wearing, the lighting...and her absolute meltdown.”
  • Link (13:07): Equates the atmosphere to an interrogation scene on Homeland; mocks Porter's appearance harshly.
  • Megyn/Link riff (15:14): Discuss the unprofessional setting and how Porter failed to own her walk-off.

2. Porter’s Reputation and Identity Claims

• Toxic workplace allegations:
  • Katie Porter (20:39): Frames criticism as sexism and racial bias: “Female professors, particularly women of color, get much worse teaching evaluations...It’s really unfortunate because those are the very voices we need more of in our government.”
  • Megyn & Link: Mock Porter's attempt to position herself as a victim, not a bully.
• Refusal to condemn anti-American protests (22:56):
  • Porter avoids answering when asked about “Death to America” chants, another walk-off moment.

3. Democrats on Women’s and Trans Rights, and Media Hypocrisy

• Porter on Bill Maher Panel (24:31):
  • Refuses to take a clear stance on trans women in women’s sports; Piers Morgan calls her out.
  • Megyn/Link reaction: Critique Dem women for equating women's rights only to abortion access, ignoring concerns like fairness in women’s sports.
• Porter’s Mothering & Abortion Anecdote (26:36):
  • Shares that her 12-year-old daughter was afraid of rape and needing an abortion if Trump wins.
  • Megyn: “It’s really a reminder of how sick you are as her mother to be filling a 12-year old’s head [with such worries]...”

4. AOC’s “Body-Shaming” & Left-Wing Hypocrisy (begins ~28:37)

• Context: AOC mocks Stephen Miller’s height on social media, calls him “like 4'10".”
• AOC (29:14): “Never seen that guy in real life. But he looks like he’s 4'10 and he looks angry about that...”
• Megyn, Link (30:15–31:04):
  • Point out AOC’s hypocrisy, using her own looks to advance her career while mocking others.
• AOC Backtracks (32:43): Claims to love the “Short King community,” tries to re-explain.
• Panel’s Take:
  • Ridicule AOC’s double standard and lack of substantive accomplishments.
  • Megyn (34:38): “The internet is commenting on how she's gained a bunch of weight… calling her abuelita. So okay, let’s do that. Okay. What she wants done.”

5. The View’s Racial Comedy and Law Enforcement Takes (begins ~35:29)

• Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar: Joke on darkening skin and using accents to confuse ICE; reminded of their past acceptance of blackface.
  • Megyn (37:11): “At least Whoopi is consistent...The left is hypocritical.”
  • Link (38:36): “None of these women are in Mensa either.”
• Discussion: Panel points out leftist hypocrisy on racial issues and the dangerous effects of vilifying law enforcement.

6. Greta Thunberg’s Activism Shift (begins ~43:51)

• Context: Greta joins a pro-Palestinian flotilla; background given on her rise, family, and penchant for seeking notoriety.
• Greta Soundbites Played (45:17–46:08): Iconic “How dare you” montage.
• Trump Reacts (46:20): “She’s just a troublemaker. She has an anger management problem.”
• Panel: Lampoons Greta’s activism as self-serving and unserious.

7. Meghan Markle Critique (starts ~48:14)

• Context: Markle posts video from spot where Diana died, seen as self-promotional and insensitive.
• Link: Calls her “sociopathic. She’s a malignant narcissist.” Says everything Markle does is calculated for attention, not ignorance.
• Megyn: Calls Markle a “disaster tourist” who exploits tragedy for PR, not someone truly interested in being a devoted mother as claimed.

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Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Biden Family Corruption

Interview with Ken Vogel (New York Times)
Starts at 54:36

Summary

• Vogel’s new book Devil’s Advocates investigates how Hunter Biden and others leverage political connections for foreign business dealings—especially Burisma and Ukrainian corruption, but also other cases in Romania and China.
• He discusses how U.S. elites, both left and right, routinely profit by providing reputation-laundering and influence-peddling for foreign oligarchs.

Key Points

The Grift Model Explained (57:35):

• Foreign interests routinely look to bribe or curry favor with U.S. officials, often via family members or associates.
• “There are plenty of well connected Americans who are willing to take those paydays, including Hunter Biden, including Rudy Giuliani, but also many others...” (Ken Vogel, 58:40)

Hunter’s Unqualified Burisma Role (63:40):

• “He didn’t [have the industry experience]. There was absolutely no basis for him to be there other than to curry favor with his father...”

Influence Operations (Book Details):

• Hunter Biden’s actual work for Burisma wasn’t business or gas expertise, but to arrange American “fixers” to clean up Burisma’s image and legal status—consulting and legal firms including Blue Star Strategies and top US law firms.
• PR and legal efforts from ex-Clinton and Obama staffers and former Justice officials work to shield Burisma from US and UK investigations.

Biden Team Obstruction (60:38):

• 2016: Biden VP office blocks the CIA from sharing a report with policymakers about Hunter and Burisma.
• Vogel: “...the Ukrainians think Hunter Biden is a joke and are rolling their eyes at these professions by Joe Biden... while his own son was on the take.”

The Prosecutor Scandal (68:17–73:03):

• Recap of famous story: Biden brags about pressuring Ukraine to fire their top prosecutor.
• The fired prosecutor was investigating Burisma, who was paying Hunter Biden $1 million/year.
• Panel details the uncomfortable appearance of a double standard and argues that, regardless of who benefited, the optics and the backchannel efforts to conceal Hunter’s role undermine anti-corruption claims.

Media Suppression and Democrat Aggression (84:54):

• Vogel recounts extreme backlash from the Biden campaign, including public and private attacks to chill reporting.
• Ken Vogel: “They recognized this was a real issue and one they wanted to get ahead of...The way the Biden campaign was able to marshal all these former intelligence officials to essentially shout it down and encourage successfully the social media companies to suppress the spread of the link to the New York Post story...”

Bipartisan Nature of Corruption (99:41):

• This influence operation system is bipartisan; GOP and Dem lobbyists and fixers regularly join forces abroad to profit from foreign oligarchs.
• Noted example: Paul Manafort for pro-Russia Ukraine, with Dem Tony Podesta, and others all teaming up.

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• Ken Vogel (58:40): “There are plenty of well connected Americans who are willing to take those paydays, including Hunter Biden, including Rudy Giuliani...”
• Megyn Kelly (63:40): “There was absolutely no basis for him to be there other than to curry favor with his father.”
• Ken Vogel (68:17): “That arrangement started in early 2014 and was made official in about April or May when Hunter Biden was added to the board...”
• Megyn Kelly (70:52): “This whole business of cleaning up Zlochevsky’s reputation...would have tentacles throughout America like Hunter, the VP's office, law firms, PR firms...”
• Ken Vogel (84:54): “The way that the Biden campaign was able to marshal all these former intelligence officials to essentially shout [the Hunter Biden laptop story] down...”

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Memorable and Notable Moments

• Katie Porter Interview Footage & Mockery:

  • “I just want a positive conversation. I’m here for a pleasant experience.” [Porter’s actual quote, 10:52] becomes a punchline throughout.

• AOC’s “Short King” Walk-back:

  • “I want to express my love for the Short King community...” (32:43)
  • “Some of my best friends are short.” (33:27, Megyn, sarcasm)

• Whoopi & Joy’s Advice for Avoiding ICE:

  • “Everybody get a little cocoa butter. Sit in the sun...give yourself a Latin accent.” (36:45, Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, mocked by panel)

• Greta Thunberg Parody:

  • “She’s just a troublemaker. She has an anger management problem.” (46:20, Trump)
  • “I don’t take Greta Thunberg seriously at all…” (46:44, Link)

• Meghan Markle as “Disaster Tourist”:

  • “She’s sociopathic. She’s a narcissist...for her to act like she didn’t know where Princess Diana died...is just malarkey, buffoonery, tomfoolery.” (49:04, Link)

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Structured Timestamps for Major Segments

• Porter Interview Segment: 08:54–11:14
• Panel Reaction: 12:00–19:52
• Porter “Bullying” Clip: 20:39–21:24
• Israel/Protest Walk-Off: 22:56–23:19
• Trans Sports/Bill Maher Clip: 24:31–25:20
• Porter’s Daughter/Abortion: 26:36–27:43
• AOC “Body-Shaming”: 29:14–30:47, follow-up 32:43–33:36
• Whoopi/Behar ICE Segment: 36:15–38:43
• Trump on Greta: 46:20–46:42
• Ken Vogel Interview Begins: 54:36
  • Burisma/Ukraine Details: 57:35–81:28
  • On Media Suppression: 84:54–89:06
  • Bipartisan Influence Biz: 99:41–102:30

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Style and Tone

• Highly irreverent, employing direct criticism, biting sarcasm, and cultural references.
• Host and guests mock political figures with little restraint; explicit language surfaces (“motherfuckers,” “fuck off,” “malarkey, buffoonery, tomfoolery”).
• Mockery is often attached to a broader cultural critique about media bias, Democrat hypocrisy, and the decay of public debate standards.

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Conclusion

This episode provides a lively, scathing dissection of progressive politicians' media implosions, controversies over political correctness, and the ongoing scandal of foreign influence-seeking in Washington. Through high-profile clips, thorough analysis, and interviews with key journalists like Ken Vogel, Megyn Kelly and her guests lay bare the hypocrisy and cynicism of current American politics and media—with plenty of humor for their audience.

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For listeners seeking coverage on the Katie Porter meltdown, AOC's rhetoric, leftist media hypocrisy, or granular details on Biden family influence-peddling, this episode is both informative and brutally candid.

Transcript

[Megyn Kelly]

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[Link Lauren]

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[Megyn Kelly]

Welcome to the Megan Kelly show live on Sirius XM channel 111 every weekday at noon East. Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to the Megyn Kelly Show. The leading candidate to be the next governor of California is a nightmare. It's so fun. This is the best story. Have you seen this? She completely imploded in a spectacular fashion in a new interview simply because she was asked what she would say to voters who supported President Trump to try to get them to vote for her in this gubernatorial race. I mean, is that so hard? It's basically like, what, what, what do you say to people on the other side of the aisle whose votes might be helpful to you? That's it. This is very foreseeable and really not that hard. You know, I, I understand your complaints. I know there are a lot of disaffected California Republicans who haven't been at whatever. That's so easy. That is a softball question. We're talking about former Congresswoman Katie Porter, who could not handle the thought of talking directly to Republicans at all. I mean, it completely froze her brain. Instead, she tried to shut down the interview because she only wanted to have a, quote, positive conversation. I just want a positive conversation. I'm here for a pleasant experience. That's actually what she said. Meantime, former Vice President Kamala Harris is out there on her book tour calling Republicans motherfuckers. So it's come to that. Joining me now on all this news and more link, Lauren, host of Spot on with Link. Lauren on the MK Media podcast network. Link will be joining me on the MK Live tour in Fort Worth, Texas, his home state. That's October 25th at Dickey's Arena. It's going to be so much fun. So go get your tickets right now before they sell out. Megan Kelly.com if you want to see me and link together and meet us behind the scenes too. You can find all of the 10 stops we'll be making on the tour there@megan kelly.com did you know gold is up around 40% this year? 40. That's not speculation. That is reality. And if a portion of your savings is not diversified into gold you could be missing the boat. Here are the facts. Inflation is still high, the US Dollar is still weak and government debt is still growing. This is why central banks are flocking to gold. They're the ones driving prices up to record highs. But it's not too late for you to buy gold. You're not too late to get in on this from Birch Gold Group and to get in the door now. Birchgold will help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax sheltered IRA in gold. You can do it in whole or in part. You don't pay one dime out of pocket. Just text MK to 989-898 and claim your free info kit. There's no obligation, just useful information. The best indicator of the future is the past and gold has historically been a safe haven for decades. So text MK to 989-898 right now to claim your free info kit on Gold. That's MK2989898. Protect your future today with Birch Gold Link. Great to see you. How's it going? Cannot wait to see you in person.

[Link Lauren]

I know. I'm so excited to be back in my hometown. Being from Dallas. Dallas. I was just talking to some folks last night who are getting their tickets. They're coming to the show. My pitch to everyone listening, come out and have a good girls night in Fort Worth. I have so many groups of girls who are coming to Billy Bob's. They're going to see the Stockyards. They're going to go get drinks, make their way over to the show, nestle in. And then the last thing I wanted to say is I know there are a lot of folks who live alone, right? There might be someone who hasn't gotten off the couch in a week or months. Come to the show. Okay? Come to the show. You're going to make friends in line going through security sitting around you. Very seldom can you get this many like minded individuals for a fun night out.

[Ken Vogel]

Out.

[Link Lauren]

Okay? People who have common sense. So come to the show. And I'm so excited. That is my pitch.

[Megyn Kelly]

I love your pitch. It's a great pitch. That's how I feel. It's like, you know, originally when we were doing the tour they asked do you want to just do like Two weeks straight where you just go night after night. And the more we thought about, the more we're like, people don't want to leave their house on a Sunday night or a Monday night. You know, like, you want to go out a Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So we're like, let's. Let's. Let's move it so that it's like, a few weekends over the course of a couple of months so that people want to go. So that's the whole goal, is to, like, make it an event, come out, like, apart party. We're gonna have a great time. We're gonna have a lot of laughs. We're gonna have smart discussions. It's like, we will make it worthwhile for you to actually get up off your couch, get dressed, and go through security and get in there. I get it. Because I am a homebody, too. I don't love to do that kind of thing. So believe me, between Link and yours truly, we'll make sure it's.

[Link Lauren]

I will do my Jasmine Crockett impression during the show. I promise. In Dallas. Something tells me. Yes, something tells me the crowd in Dallas might want the Jasmine Crockett impression. I will do it for you guys. I'm a martyr, so get your D. Okay.

[Megyn Kelly]

Are a giver. Now. If only we could book Katie Porter, because I think she'd be better than either one of us. I had no idea she was this entertaining. None. I love everything about this interview. I don't remember the last time I went and bothered Doug, my husband, or, like, after seeing something on my phone, like, and said, you need to sit down next to me, and we need to watch this together next to one another. And that's what you and I are about to do with this audience and who, unlike us, have lives and probably are not sitting around watching every minute of Katie Porter, because why would you, unless you were in this business? But we're going to do it today because it's our gift to you. It's our gift. We. We screen all the nonsense hits so that you only get the gold ones. Members of the audience and Lincoln, I would like to bring you the Katie Porter interview. But here, I'm going to set it up first. Okay, so she's running for governor of California. She's got the inside track. And she sits down with this journalist from the local CBS who's an investigative journalist who's been doing a series of interviews of all the candidates and asking the same. I don't like 10 questions of them. And it's been going fine. This is not new in politics. This is a time tested way of doing a candidate comparison. And so she starts off with the other candidates and then eventually she gets to Porter. Here is a sampling of how it went when she sat down with the other candidates asking the same questions that caused Katie Porter to self immolate. Here's thought to 6 million voters who.

[Julie Watts]

Voted for Trump is a lot of votes. Are you going to need those votes in order to win?

[Megyn Kelly]

If you're a top two, I need every vote.

[Julie Watts]

What do you say to those 40% who you may need in a top two California primary?

[Unidentified Female Commentator]

I think them specifically, I think they're tired of politicians just talking at them.

[Link Lauren]

And I feel like they just want.

[Ken Vogel]

To be heard and they want to.

[Julie Watts]

Want to listen when it comes to redistricting.

[Donald Trump]

Yeah.

[Julie Watts]

Are you alienating those Republicans by saying, yes, I support what Gavin Newsom is doing?

[Megyn Kelly]

You know, look, I would look at the polls of the state right now.

[Unidentified Female Commentator]

The polls say protect California.

[Ken Vogel]

Whatever the California customers want, I will be their leader and represent.

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay. It's not hard. Literally you can, you can pivot to something you do. Put, put whatever you want in there. Just say something resembling anything. So good. Okay, so then sits down Katie Porter and the audience, you guys, you need to know she's long suffered under reports that she's a bully, that she's extremely nasty to her staff and people around her like, not just like a tough boss, but abusive. She had this crazy thing with her ex husband where he, he said she was abusive toward him and was like controlled whether or not he could have a phone and was verbally abusive to him and like. So the, that's what we knew about Katie Porter before this interview. The lady seems to have a temper, a temper, temperament problem. So glad we get to do this together. Here is the interview that went round the world. We're going to air these three and a half minutes in full and you can see for yourselves how it went.

[Julie Watts]

What do you say to the 40% of California voters who you'll need in order to win, who voted for Trump?

[Katie Porter]

How would I need them in order to win, ma'?

[Megyn Kelly]

Am?

[Julie Watts]

Well, unless you think you're going to get 60% of the vote. You think you'll get 60%? All everybody who did not vote for Trump will vote for you.

[Katie Porter]

That's what you're thinking in a general election? Yes, if it is me versus a Republican, I think that I will win. The people who did not vote for Trump.

[Julie Watts]

What if it's you versus another Democrat?

[Katie Porter]

I don't intend that to be the case.

[Julie Watts]

So how do you not intend that.

[Megyn Kelly]

To be the case?

[Julie Watts]

Do you. Are you going to ask them not to run?

[Katie Porter]

No, no, I'm saying I'm going to build the support. I have the support already in terms of name recognition. And so I'm going to do the very best I can to make sure that we get through this primary in a really strong position. But let me be clear with you. I represented Orange County, I represented a purple area. I have stood on my own two feet and won Republican votes before. That's not something every candidate in this race can say. If you're from a deep blue area, if you're from LA or you're from Oakland, you don't have an experience.

[Julie Watts]

But you just said you don't need those Trump voters.

[Katie Porter]

But you asked me if I needed them to win.

[Julie Watts]

So you don't need them.

[Katie Porter]

I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative. What is your question?

[Julie Watts]

The question is the same thing I asked everybody that this is being called the empowering voters to stop Trump's power grab. Every other candidate has answered this question. This is not argumentative.

[Katie Porter]

I said I support it.

[Megyn Kelly]

So.

[Julie Watts]

And the question is, what do you say to the 40% of voters who voted for Trump?

[Katie Porter]

Oh, I'm happy to say that it's the do you need them to win Part that I don't understand. Answer the question as you have it written and I'll answer it.

[Julie Watts]

And we've also asked the other candidates, do you think you need any of those 40% of California voters to win? And you're saying no, you don't?

[Katie Porter]

No, I'm saying I'm going to try to win every vote I can. And what I'm saying to you is.

[Megyn Kelly]

That, well, today's matters. Okay, so you.

[Katie Porter]

I don't want to keep doing this. I'm going to call it.

[Megyn Kelly]

Oh, thank you.

[Julie Watts]

You're not going to do the interview with us?

[Katie Porter]

Nope, not like this, I'm not. Not with seven follow ups to every.

[Julie Watts]

Single question you ask every other candidate has answered.

[Katie Porter]

I don't care. I want to have a pleasant, positive conversation which you ask me about every issue on this list. And if every question you're going to make up a follow up question, then we're never going to get there and we're just going to circle around.

[Megyn Kelly]

I am an investigator.

[Katie Porter]

I have never had to do this before, ever.

[Julie Watts]

Oh, you've never had to have a.

[Katie Porter]

Conversation to end an interview.

[Julie Watts]

Okay. But every other candidate has done this.

[Katie Porter]

What Part of I'm me, I'm running for governor because I'm a leader. So I am going to make.

[Julie Watts]

So you're not going to answer questions from reporters. Okay, why don't we go through. I will continue to ask follow up questions because that's my job as a journalist. But I will go through and ask these. And if you don't want to answer, you don't want to answer. So nearly every legislative.

[Katie Porter]

I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you and I don't want this all on camera.

[Julie Watts]

I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you either. I would love to continue to ask these questions so that we can show our viewers what every candidate feels about every one of these issues that they care about. And redistricting, it's a massive issue. We're going to do an entire story just on the responses to that question. And I've asked everybody the same follow up questions.

[Megyn Kelly]

It's so good. I will tell the audience that reporter is Julie Watts, CBS News. And my own take on it is Katie Porter's not ready for primetime. That's obvious. You could tell from the dress she was wearing, the lighting she accepted, and her absolute meltdown and being asked follow up questions. I mean, pretty basic follow up questions. But I will say there was something mildly antagonistic about this Julie Watts that I loved. It was like everything she said was so by the book. And her tone wasn't bad either. There was just something very needling about it that was absolutely delicious. And Katie Porter, she could, she was responding a bit to that and also to her own ineptitude mostly. But that's what made it so compelling, is that the reporter didn't give one inch and clearly was like, fuck off, this is happening. And Katie Porter knew. She had humiliated herself and kept looking for the moral high ground but couldn't get there. She was desperately trying to get there and just never could. She's obviously ended her campaign. I mean, that. What Californian would vote for that?

[Link Lauren]

I mean, it's going to be tough to come back from. It honestly felt like a scene from that show Homeland when they're doing an interrogation, like one light, one overhead light interrogation. But Katie Porter, this is what it's like being a Democrat, right? Joe Biden, people would ask him what his favorite ice cream flavor was. So I think they've gotten so spoiled they're not used to actually having real questions. But none of those were tough questions. It was like, hey, how are you going to reach the other side of the aisle. This isn't rocket science, okay? You don't have to be in MINSA to answer that question. But Katie Porter, I think she probably has anger issues from the stories we've heard and the rumors we've heard around California. I also just feel like Katie Porter, I thought she was transgender. Until today, I thought Katie Porter was transgender from the way that she looked. Apparently she is not. But I don't know who has more testosterone, Michelle Obama, Brigitte Macron, or Katie Porter. Okay. Because Katie Porter, she looked like one of those people, you know, like back in the day. Like the bearded ladies at the circus. Like, the people who could, like, lift 500 pounds and stuff. That's how I felt about Katie Porter. Like her poor husband, when he doesn't give her the TV remote, does he get a black eye or something? So, no, I would not want to be with her in private if that's how she's acting and public. And my last thing I'll say is, if you're going to do a walk off, okay, you guys need to watch Andy Cohen. If you're going to do a walk off, you got to walk off. You can't, like, kind of walk off, and then you stay. You either walk off or you don't. Do the BS and the theatrics of it all.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah, I love. My favorite part is I, me. I'm me. Well, I don't want to have it. I don't want to have an unhappy experience. You, Dan. I'm not going to be ignored. Dan. I don't want to have an unhappy experience. And the reporter's like, I don't want to have an unhappy experience either. But, like, she kept shaming, shaming her with the. Every candidate has answered these questions. Every candidate has answered these questions. And it paralyzed Katie Porter because she's not actually just me. She was not able to say, fuck off. I don't really care. You're annoying. I'm getting up and leaving. Which actually would have been the power move. She, like, tried to do the power move without putting the power behind it and just demanding to have a pleasant, positive and happy experience, which is, ma', am, this is politics and news that none of those adjectives applies.

[Link Lauren]

Also, I will say it's hard to look like a badass getting up and walking out of a broom closet. Okay, that looks like where Harry Potter lived under the stairs. Like, this dark, dingy broom closet they were in. They couldn't find a better set. Like, I'm such a stickler for lighting. If I Am not like blown out like the sun. I won't be in there. You know what I'm saying? I will go Mariah Carey. So for Katie Porter to be sitting in there with like one little candlelight a thousand yards away. It's hard to look badass walking room.

[Megyn Kelly]

It's amazing that the reporter allowed it. Like I'm surprised. Can we roll the tape without running the sound for a second? Cause I want to show something on Katie Porter shot the reporter. Honestly, CBS should have done a more professional job in lighting the scene and picking. Like a lot of times you do a newsroom interview. It's exciting. You're in the newsroom. But like, this was not it. And on the single shot of Katie look how it looks like there's something blue sticking out of her neck. Hold on. It looks like she's got like a blue FL coming out of the right side of her neck. We'll get back there. Stand by. They never should have allowed that. Like, Katie Porter should have sat down. She need look right there. It's so weird. It was there the whole time. Is clearly like a piece of tape or a light. I couldn't tell the difference. On some. Something behind Katie. It looked terrible. It was so distracting. This is why Trump does so well. Link. You sit down in any interview as a monitor to Steve thinks and he'll say the light needs to come up. Pet up with a camera. This vase needs to go. Like, that's what a lifetime in television will. Will do. Clearly this woman is not focused enough on how one should appear. Let's put it that way.

[Link Lauren]

She's in what we call a rough lighting. But my family and friends know I travel with full lighting. I am ready to go at all times. Katie Porter. You need some gay interns. Katie Porter has no gay men around her because she's being sabotaged. But yeah. And also it's like the sleeveless dress and then kind of like the Helga Oktoberfest haircut. Like, I don't know. I think she's a calamity. And we won't be hearing from her a year from now.

[Megyn Kelly]

What did you make of the reporter? Because I also found her very entertaining. I mean, respect. She handles herself like a pro. But do you see what I mean? There was something just mildly antagonistic about, like somewhat mocking and like she wouldn't get off. There were seven follow ups to that first question because Katie Porter wouldn't answer it. And she just tried to go seven ways from Sunday to. To make her answer it because Katie Porter was pretending she didn't understand anything instead of playing dumb and, like, she wouldn't drop it. And that is something that you don't often see when they're. When they're talking to Democrats. Like, if they can find, if they can see this Democrat target is uncomfortable. 99% of reporters move on. They do not want to make them uncomfortable.

[Link Lauren]

No. What's interesting is that Katie Porter said, I've never had this happen before. I'm like, you've never been asked a follow up question or second or third question. And like I said, I know I keep coming back to this like a broken record. These were very easy questions. And I feel like when you're running for office, I'm always shocked when politicians aren't ready for questions because there aren't really that many tough questions. It's like, hey, what are you gonna do for the voters? How are you gonna reach people? How are you gonna solve this issue in your state that you live in? I don't know why she's acting like she's caught off guard, but I think there might be a more underlying mental health issue like anger management or some type of personality disorder, which means she's actually perfect for California politics. If she has severe narcissism and a personality disorder, she can join Gavin Newsom in that. But no, Katie Porter, we wish you well, sort of.

[Megyn Kelly]

She. Here's. Here's why I think it happened because it's a Democrat primary. That is the only time the media asks tough questions of Democrats or is in any way relentless in questioning a Democrat. That's why. Because it's demondem, violence. It's like normally they steer clear of it. If Katie Porter were already the nominee up against a Republican. I'm sorry, I don't know this particular reporter, but the vast majority of the media would not lay a glove on her. There would be no follow up. It would have been a lot more gentle from most reporters. But it's demondem contest now. So that's when you see the media actually, actually lean in to being good journalists. Like, that's great. They actually do want the strongest candidate to emerge so that they can beat the Republican.

[Link Lauren]

I think also from a ratings perspective, this journalist is probably thinking, okay, it's my job to be a conduit from, let's say all Californians. California has been shifting to the right in this last election. President Trump was able to shift so many counties to the right. They thought Kamala was going to win in this massive landslide because she's From California. She didn't. She won California, obviously. But I think California has been shifting red. People want voter id, they want common sense, they want to clean up the homelessness. So I actually don't blame this journalist for pressing Katie Porter a little bit. What are you going to do? Because it's a fallacy to think that everyone in California is a die hard liberal. I don't think that's the case. I think about 40 some percent are red.

[Megyn Kelly]

Right. And you can't just ignore them when you're asking to be governor of the whole state. Eventually you heard her kind of stumble into what should have been. The first answer was like I represented a purple area and Orange county. So I understand. Yes, that's, that's your answer, madam. That's where you should have gone. I understand those people. I know what their concerns then articulate their concerns and say, and they're. And my policies on X, Y and Z are much better than this other guys. That's why I should get the red vote too. Okay, let's keep going because there's other clips of Katie that I do want to get to. Okay. She's super fun. This lady here is the Katie Porter comparing herself. Well, I'll let this out play for itself, but she's being asked about those toxic workplace allegations and whether she's a bully. Listen here, SOT3 and I saw this.

[Katie Porter]

As a professor, certainly female professors, particularly women of color, get much worse teaching evaluations and even when all the professional evaluations are the same. And so we see this again and again. Lots of the so called bad bosses are women and disproportionately people of color. I think it's really unfortunate because those are the very voices we need more of in our government.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah.

[Katie Porter]

So I'm proud of my stuff. I'm proud of the relationship we've built.

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay. So she's like a woman of color who was discriminated against when asked about whether she's a bully. This was just April of 2023. That's okay. She's Rosa Parks now. She's, that's, she's not a bully. She's always been bullied. Bullied Democrats get very uncomfortable when you put them in the role of like the victimizer. They're much more comfortable being the victim. Much.

[Link Lauren]

No, absolutely. It's funny, she says she's a woman of color or something. I'm like, no, you're just wearing pink. Okay. You're not a woman of color because you're wearing color. But no, it's Interesting, because there's so many. There's so many up and coming Democrats right now who have bullying allegations. Look at Jasmine Crockett. She was accused of bullying and having people, you know, open the car door for her and snapping at them and making male aides carry her purse and carry a pillow. I think these Democrats are, are just divas and they're used to everything going their way. That is what is so clear about Katie Porter in every single clip. They're used to nobody pressing them. It's not like President Trump where he gets 99% negative coverage from the mainstream media. Katie Porter knows going on the View, they're going to be pretty positive and nice to her. And then even Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris had tons of bullying allegations. She had 92% staff turnover the four years she was in D.C. as vice president. The media didn't even want to cover that. They didn't want to cover any of that. And so, Katie Porter, we are going to bring your stuff out into the open now because we have new media, we have podcasts, and these Democrats can't hide their horrific behavior any longer.

[Megyn Kelly]

All right. And put a pin in that, because we will get to Meghan Markle before the end of this hour when we're talking about badly behaving Democrats who appear to be psychopaths. Listen to her when she, she. Fox's Hillary Vaughn asked her in April of 2024. That first start, I think I said, was April 2023. Here's a year after April 2024, asking her about some of the chants we're hearing that are anti Israel and anti America. Sought five protesters blocking the Brooklyn Bridge, burned the American flag and chanted Death to America. Do you condemn this type of rhetoric?

[Ken Vogel]

We've got to get her onto her next event here.

[Megyn Kelly]

Are you okay with people burning the American flag?

[Unidentified Female Commentator]

If you'd like to follow up with.

[Megyn Kelly]

Us, Are you okay with people chanting Death to America? She's. She's walking. Congresswoman Porter, are you okay with people chanting Death to America? Is it okay? Do you not have a problem with it?

[Unidentified Female Commentator]

Happy to reach out here.

[Megyn Kelly]

I mean, I. That guy does seem a little gay to me. Link. I don't know.

[Link Lauren]

She has one gay assistant, but he's, he. Honestly, the people around you might be sabotaging you. I'm happy she was getting some exercise in that clip, though. She was getting sunlight, vitamin D exercise. These are things I think Democrats need more of. But the reason she won't answer is because the Democrats are perfectly fine with Americans Chanting, you know, death to America. Burning the American flag, as we just saw in Portland with Nick Sorter, who's an independent journalist. He was trying to put out an American flag that they were burning. There is this radical Marxist, you know, faction on the left that's growing and growing. And folks like Katie Porter are so scared of turning them off, they won't condemn that behavior. That's what we're seeing with Chuck Schumer, Hawkeye and Jeffries. They're not radical far left, but they're just capitulating to those folks as they don't want to scared that progressive wing of their party. So the reason Katie Porter didn't answer, it's not because she had to go to an event. It's because she thinks that's fine.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah, she was. No, she had no problem with it. Here she is behaving dishonestly and as an extremist on the subject of women's rights versus trans rights. She was on with Bill Maher. Thank God Piers Morgan was there. And here's a snippet of what happened in 5B.

[Katie Porter]

You should be able to have a civil debate. Nobody, including Riley Gaines, who I disagree with strongly, should be.

[Unidentified Female Commentator]

Should you disagree with. Out of interest.

[Katie Porter]

I think that it should be up to sporting bodies to make the decisions about who.

[Unidentified Female Commentator]

But what has she said that's actually wrong?

[Katie Porter]

I think that what she has done is try to turn this. We talked about people, you know, becoming. Using things to kind of get likes and get clicks.

[Unidentified Female Commentator]

That's not what she's doing. I mean, she's not. I've got no Chuck for Brady Gaines, personally, but all I've seen her do is stand up for women's rights, to fairness, inequality. She actually competed against Lia Thomas, and it was obviously unfair. Lia Thomas won one of the races in the NCAA Championships by 50 seconds against a bunch of biological females who simply couldn't keep up. That cannot be right. It cannot be fair.

[Megyn Kelly]

That is something I'm here for a pleasant experience. I was told this would be positive and I would be happy. Bill Maher.

[Link Lauren]

That's what I show up on a first date. I was told this was going to go well. What is happening? I feel bamboozled. But no, this is really what it's like. The women on the left, they purport themselves to be, you know, feminist, and we're going to protect and uplift our girls. They're perfectly fine with men coming into their locker rooms, into their sports teams. For folks like Katie Porter, Kamala Harris, all of these elite Women Democrats, they think women, women's rights begin and end with abortion, right? That's it. They think women's rights is abortion. Kamala Harris showed us that on the campaign trail for 107 days. What did Kamala Harris talk about? Bringing abortion. She would go to black colleges and tell young girls, we're gonna get you the right to abortion. We're gonna do this abortion. The girls are like, okay. But women's rights is also like, how do we pay our bills? How do we have health care? How do we not have criminals on the streets so we can walk home from work? And so for Katie Porter, of course she doesn't know about women's rights and she thinks it's fine for guys to come in to women's sports teams, but this is gonna continue to be the losing issue for Democrats and they keep trying to minimize it.

[Megyn Kelly]

One more and then we'll move off of Katie Porter. But here she is Talking about her 12 year old after Trump won last November.

[Katie Porter]

So on election night, I went to pick up my daughter from water polo practice and she's 12. And she got in the car and she was crying and I said, did someone punch you? Like, water polo is a rough sport. I was like, did someone hit you? Did the coach yell at you? What happened? And she said, mom, Trump won. Trump's gonna win. And what if I get raped and I need to have an abortion? This is from a 12 year old, my 12 year old daughter. And so it was really a reminder of how scary this time is for people and how important it is for Democrats to have strategies both at the state level and the federal level to make sure that we can continue to protect people's rights.

[Megyn Kelly]

It's really a reminder of how sick you are as her mother to be filling a 12 year old's head full of worries about getting raped and needing abortions and having that be, of course, your next available option. I'll have something hideous happen to me, by the way. If it does, it will be at the hands of a Democrat DA who let some criminal come in and go out like it's a revolving door. And then of course, what I'll do is I'll kill my baby because I'm Katie Porter's daughter. This is, this reveals so much about her.

[Link Lauren]

No, she's absolutely a radical. And folks like Katie Porter and Pete Buddha judge, these folks who think they're sort of the next generation of the Democratic Party, they always want to portray themselves as very moderate, middle of the road. We're just like moderate Democrats, when push comes to shove and you really press them, they are just as radical as everybody else, right? They want abortion until the end. They want open borders, they want criminals on the street, they want men and women's sports, they want the transing of children. And they might say, oh, we don't want these things, right? But it's sort of like lying by omission. If you won't condemn something that's absolutely horrific, right? Absolutely disgusting. Like a 16 year old girl getting a mastectomy, which should never happen in the United States of America. If you won't condemn that, then that makes me see you as a sick and disgusting person yourself. And I hate that we even have to have this conversation, you know what I'm saying? About people who are seeking high offices in the United States of America. But that's who Katie Porter is and she's kind of on par with this next generation of Democrats.

[Megyn Kelly]

Well, it's like aoc, she wants you to believe that she's super woke and she's really into like uplifting people. And we don't put people down for their immutable characteristics. But she's in the news this week for mocking Stephen Miller, basically calling him a dwarf. Meanwhile, Stephen Miller is a normal height man. I think the average height in America, the average height of a man is about five, nine and a half, which is shorter than you might think. But that is the average height of an American male. Stephen Miller says he's five, ten and a half. So not the tallest guy, but not short. And here's AOC talking about him in SOT 15.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)]

Point is, is that they are scrapping and grasping at straws because they have nothing else. Laugh at them. Stephen Miller is a clown. I've never seen that guy in real life. But he looks like he's like 4:10. And he looks like he is angry about the fact that he's 410. And he looks like he is so mad that he is 410 that he's taking that anger out at any other population possible, like laugh at them. But one of the most powerful cultural things that you can do to a political movement that is predicated on the puffery of, in, of insecure, insecure masculinity. That's what this is about. This isn't. People talk about toxic masculinity. And one of the best, best ways that you can dismantle a movement of insecure men is by making fun of them.

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay, first of all, that is not an AOC thought. That is An Elizabeth Bennett thought penned by Jane Austen. It's a classic line from Pride and Prejudice. We've all read the book a million times and seen the many movies. Elizabeth Bennet is the one who said you laugh at him. That's what you do to a man who intimidates you or by whom you feel put down in any way, shape or form. She cribs it to make it her own and then she body shames him. Link. That's not allowed by leftists. I'm reliably told you're not allowed to do that by the woke left.

[Link Lauren]

Well, that was my first thought when I saw this clip going viral of aoc. They preach about diversity and love everybody and Kumbaya and braid each other's hair. But of course the first thing they do is going to attacking people's looks and height and the way they look. And we do that here and there.

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay, yeah, but we don't lecture anybody on when they do it.

[Link Lauren]

Exactly. That's, that's my whole point is like I don't act holier than thou. It's like I'm going to break down Lauren Sanchez and Meghan Markle at Fashion Week. You know what I'm saying? But aoc, these folks on the left are all about Kumbaya, diversity. I also think this is rich coming from AOC because part of the reason AOC has been so successful is because of her looks. People talk about this all the time in private. Let's talk about it in public. AOC is not excellent. She's not a genius. Ted Kennedy didn't just hire her years ago to be his intern because she was so brilliant and top of the class. She's beautiful. She has big breasts, cute face, she's Latina. That has helped her advance herself in her career. So she's hating on someone for his looks. And yeah, the last thing I'll say is actually sort of a more dramatic point. She says we have to laugh at these Republicans. We have to laugh at them and scoff at them. I would rather you laugh at us than pick up guns and try to shoot us. As we have seen recently, right, with Charlie, with the assassination attempts on President Trump and so many other Republican Kavanaugh. I would rather you laugh at us than tell your supporters that were fascists and dictators and Hitler and Nazis to where they come and try to kill us in our own homes that I would actually prefer AOC if we're going to get serious.

[Megyn Kelly]

Sorry, she doesn't mean it. You're right. She's a complete hypocrite because she's running around there dropping the fascist word like it's going out of style. So she doesn't mean that either, you know, like she doesn't actually mean laugh at them because that's not what she's been doing. And she doesn't actually mean her woke messaging about not shaming people and celebrating whatever in the mutable characteristics because she doesn't do that if it's a Republican. And then you got to love the self flagellation because a little too late in the game she realized, oh shit, I'm not supposed to be do that doing that. I guess I'm getting blowback on this. So she tried to follow it up. That original video was on Sunday. The next day she goes back on camera to offer this.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)]

I want to express my love for the Short King community.

[Megyn Kelly]

Shaming.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)]

I'm talking about how big or small someone is on the inside. Like for example, I have no idea how tall Andrew Tate is. No idea at all. But that guy looks to me like 5:3. Now she's back at 5, 3, 5:4. Whereas physically, men of smaller stature can come across. They are spiritually six foot. If you're a good dad, if you're.

[Megyn Kelly]

Some of my best friends are short.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)]

Men, if you're not belittling immigrants, you're like, you know, 6:3. Spiritually, I don't know. Am I being problematic?

[Megyn Kelly]

Yes, you're being problematic and dishonest and a hypocrite. Do you? I, I was talking about how tall or short they are.

[Unidentified Female Commentator]

Yeah, that's what I used to think.

[Link Lauren]

When I was dating. Yeah, I'd go on a date, the guy would be, you know, 5 2. On his profile he'd say he's 5 10. He's tall on the inside. Okay. He's tall in his brain. But yeah, no, AOC I don't think anybody should be taking her seriously. God, she's really just such a joke.

[Ken Vogel]

I don't know.

[Link Lauren]

AOC to me is just such a joke. I don't know why she's even, you know, put on this pedestal as this leader of the Democratic Party. She has no accomplishments. Right. I remember when she, when she first got in, remember she was doing those sit ins in Nancy Pelosi's office and causing all this trouble that AOC I respected a little bit more because at least she was trying to buck the system and sort of take on the system. Now, you know, she was out campaigning with Joe Biden wearing the aviator. She's just Another member of the swamp. She doesn't have that cool factor. She's not taking on the system anymore. So AOC can sit there and do her little Instagram videos. Why doesn't she actually go have some legislative achievements? That would be sort of a first.

[Megyn Kelly]

Well, I look forward to taking her advice and making lots of fun of her. The Internet right now is commenting on how she's gained a bunch of weight, and they're calling her abuelita, so. Okay, let's. Let's do that. Okay. What she wants done. Okay.

[Link Lauren]

It's. And it's because AOC has been able to coast on her looks for a long time, and people talk about this in D.C. privately. I'm just bringing it out in the open. AOC the fact that she's very beautiful and voluptuous and has a little ways that has helped her in her career. I just have to be honest and say it. And so now when she looks going in different directions. You're going to get called out. You're going to get called out. Yes.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah, the Internet is pretty clever, I have to say.

[Link Lauren]

AOC and the O is for Oz.

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay, so we got to keep going with terrible people and hypocritical left. I'll get to Megan in a second. We got to go to the relatives.

[Link Lauren]

No.

[Megyn Kelly]

And Whoopi Goldberg. Okay. I. I have heard from. In certain circles, you know, I don't want to get specific, that you're not allowed to darken your skin as any sort of a costume or it's racist. I heard that. I'm trying to remember where I heard that, but I definitely heard from many, many leftists, you are not allowed to do that. It's racist. It's always been racist. Don't. Don't pay any attention to the fact that Billy Crystal opened the Oscars wearing blackface. The point is, it's always been racist, and everybody always knew that. Enter Whoopi Goldberg with a solution to how to handle ice. Being at the super bowl looking for illegals.

[Joy Behar]

She's threatening to go to the super bowl when Bad Bunny is there and round up all these people that are illegal immigrants. Do you think that she would go if it was Garth Brooks or Eminem or Taylor Swift or any other white person. I understand what you're saying.

[Ken Vogel]

Because.

[Joy Behar]

Because she's going to go to the Supreme Court. She's talking about Kristy Nolan and round up. How's she gonna know who's who? Because the Supreme Court has given permission to question anyone who has a Spanish accent who Has a dark skin.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah.

[Joy Behar]

So here's why. Here's the thing. Everybody get a little cocoa butter. Sit in the sun. That's the first thing. And then, and this is the only time you can probably ever do this, give yourself a Latin accent. You know, Whoopi, that is such a good idea. And see if she can tell who's who.

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay, you get the cocoa butter and you tan. You go in, you tan your face with it, and then you speak in a Spanish accent, and that's fine. And you know what? At least Whoopi is consistent, because Whoopi actually was fine with Ted Danson wearing actual minstrel face, black face, like the. The deeply offensive stuff from, like, the 40s films. It. She stood right next to him when he did that at a roast. She thought it was hilarious. And then she sat there as Joy Behar celebrated her own wearing of blackface on Halloween. She went as a beautiful black woman. There's Joy with her dark face and her Afro, which would be also celebrated. So at least she's not totally hypocritical. But the left is hypocritical. And you tell me whether they on the View would be celebrating it. Link. If you and I went to the super bowl wearing brown face and big hoop earrings and lip liner outside the lips and speaking in a Spanish accent.

[Link Lauren]

Well, you know, I was actually going to go as Diana Ross for Halloween this year. I'll have to throw the Afro in the trash, unfortunately. But, you know, inside joke here, I think it's good you're allowed to talk about blackface on abc, just not NBC, I think. I think they're allowed to talk about it on abc, apparently. But no, I think on ABC as well, it wasn't Jimmy Kimmel and a Blackface Scandal. Maybe we can find a picture. But Jimmy Kimmel, who's, you know, one.

[Megyn Kelly]

Of the 100, he wore it many.

[Link Lauren]

Times over at ABC. Yeah, he's done blackface for sure. But no, this is just part and parcel of the hypocrisy of the women of the View.

[Unidentified Female Commentator]

As I always say, none of these.

[Link Lauren]

Women are in Mensa either. They've kind of found the worst five women you can put. They can't spell and just have them go at it.

[Unidentified Female Commentator]

Yeah, they can't spell it.

[Link Lauren]

They can't spell mom backwards. But yeah, no, Whoopi Goldberg, I'm not shocked to see this, but there's also also been such an increase in attacks on ICE in sort of vitriol against ICE agents, people having their families threatened and Them being attacked and punched and shot at. And so as much fun as is to laugh about how ridiculous these women of the View are, there are serious repercussions. When you vilify law enforcement, right? When you vilify our men and women in uniform, cops, ICE agents, there are real repercussions. People go out in the street and shoot at them and try to attack them. And so, of course, that doesn't affect these women on the View because they make millions of dollars and they live in penthouse apartments with chefs and so security. And their only job is to come to a nice studio each day and get driven home. They don't really understand the immigration crisis, Right? They're in this liberal bubble. So, Whoopi Goldberg, I wasn't shocked by any of this, but she's been cosplaying a comedian for years. So she's been a comedian a long.

[Megyn Kelly]

Time ago when she was funny. It's really a long time ago. A word on what Joy Behar noted legal expert not purported to represent as the Supreme Court ruling. That's not what happened. The Supreme Court, the ICE criteria for deciding whether somebody might be the illegal they're looking for is long. There's a long list of factors that they said that they look at, and one of them is skin color. So if they know they're looking for a guy from Venezuela, they're probably going to rule out a super white guy who has an Irish accent. And that has been upheld by courts for decades now as an acceptable one. Criterion of many. It cannot be the sole criterion, but it's one of many that they are allowed to factor in not represented accurately by legal scholar Joy Behar. All right, Stick to fake comedy, Joy. Please stay on your lane.

[Link Lauren]

You know Joy Behar, I think she's a drunk Italian. She's not an expert, you know, legal analyst. But I think they could also do, like, a sequel of My Cousin Vinny with Joy Behar. Maybe she can play the attorney in, like, a My Cousin Vinny sequel. But no, I don't take her seriously for her legal prowess whatsoever.

[Megyn Kelly]

Don't. Don't even talk about her ruining yet another of my favorite movies. It's bad enough she was in Manhattan Murder Mystery, which I absolutely freaking love. If you haven't seen it, Run, Don't Walk, starring Woody Allen and Diane Keaton and Jai Behar. I can't have her in another one of my favorite movies, My Cousin Vinny, which really is one of the top 10 of all time. One more thing before we leave the View and that is Joy Behar. Back to our local resident legal expert on why Trump is so determined to put the National Guard troops in various cities. Watch this. There is crime in American cities, but the way to deal with it is get the funding that you need for police, get the training that you need, and work with local officials.

[Joy Behar]

This is a pretext to stop the next election. That's what I think it is.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)]

I would say it might also be a distraction from the hearing that's going on right now about the Epstein file. Some things have come up, and ag Pam Bondi was dodging questions and attacking back. Do you not think maybe the whole civil unrest storyline is maybe overblown?

[Joy Behar]

This is in order to make the case? Because in their minds, in all of their minds, they now believe they have carte blanche to do whatever they want to. That's right.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yes.

[Joy Behar]

That's what the feeling is. And if they stop us from voting, that's the one thing people have. Well, I mean, it's the one. It's the one thing that makes us very different from lots of other countries. Our votes, they do count. I do know that they count if we can't vote.

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay, so it's back to the Bill Maher. He said he believes this. Then Gavin Newsom repeated Maher, and now the ladies of the View think Trump's gonna have a permanent state of National Guard in all these blue cities. So they can't vote at all because he's worried about people like Joy Behar actually voting.

[Link Lauren]

No, I actually. Anytime I see clips of the View, I can feel my IQ cells just disintegrating. I can feel my brain atrophying watching these women try to form a coherent thought, like if reaching was a sport. Your Honor. Honor. They are reaching, okay? They're reaching and forming conclusions, and they are absolutely ridiculous. So, no, I don't take any of these women seriously. It's also funny. Alyssa Fear Griffin is supposed to be the conservative on the panel. There's really not much conservative about her. I would love for them to bring in a real conservative on the View. I dare them to bring in a real conservative for 1 hour, 10 minutes.

[Megyn Kelly]

They had Meghan McCain for years, who is conservative but a Trump hater. The whole time she was there, it was like, so that's why she was acceptable. Because as long as you're gonna dump on Trump, we can take you. And this, this same with Alyssa Farah Griffin. She's a disgruntled former Trumper. She hates Trump. Sarah Haynes was the other one commenting she also hates Trump. She was the one like, you know, why is he bringing these National Guard troops and elsewhere. She tried to claim that there's been no violence against ice, no threat she's ever seen against ice. These are the conservatives on the show. Whatever. It's a hot mess. We know that there. We can't get too exercised about the view. It's just fun to sometimes check in on what they're doing. Okay, I want to keep with it. I do. I do want to get to Meghan Markle. But before we go there, we've got to spend a minute on Greta Thunberg, who has moved on from her climate activism, as you know, to being a pro Palestinian warrior. She got.

[Joy Behar]

She.

[Megyn Kelly]

She joined this flotilla, which actually is like a normal thing from Sweden, I guess. They've been doing these flotillas for, like, 20 years. This is just the latest one. And apparently it's always a collection of C list stars who are just looking for attention. It's basically like their. Their Big Brother or they're real housewives that you join the flotilla to get your name back in the news. And that's Greta Thunberg. And there's actually a really interesting piece in National Review that is dated today, October 8, by John Gustavsson, that gets really into Greta's background and how. I didn't know this. She's the child of two celebrities over there in Sweden, and she was somebody who is probably obviously ignored for a while because her parents were busy building these big careers. And then, um, she decided to make, like, a name for herself through climate activism. And she had. She has Asperger's and severe mental health problems. So those are two different things. But she's, according to John, got actual severe mental health problems so bad that her mother, like, had to take a leave of absence and be home with her. So this is a girl who needs parental attention more than the mother's short leave of absence and has decided to get it first from climate activists, and now by joining the C. Lister flotillas to make Gaza her cause. She's been out there railing about Palestine and Israel and all of that. And finally, we have seen. Well, I'll give you the montage of Greta first, and then I'll show you what Trump is saying about her. So 24.

[Greta Thunberg]

You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. Yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy Tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you. Why is it so important to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius? Because even at 1 degree, people are dying from climate change. Because that is what the United Science calls for. To avoid destabilizing the climate so that we have the best possible chance to avoid setting off irreversible chain reactions. Every fraction of a degree matters.

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay, so none of that was right. And you shouldn't take your climate advice from somebody who has to go home and put benzoyl peroxide on their skin in the evenings. Now Trump has finally decided to weigh in on Greta and here's what he said.

[Donald Trump]

He's just a troublemaker. You know, I mean she's. You mean she's no longer into the environment, now she's into this? She's a troublemaker. She has an anger management problem. I think she should see a doctor. She needs anger. If you ever watch her, she's a young person. She's so angry. She's so crazy. Now you can have her. You can have. She's such a troublemaker.

[Megyn Kelly]

How is he wrong?

[Link Lauren]

He's not wrong at all. Maybe. No. Katie Porter was talking about her daughter. Maybe the daughter is Greta Thunberg. And we've never seen them in the same room at the same time.

[Megyn Kelly]

All comes together.

[Link Lauren]

It's all coming together. Okay, we're analyzing it here, but yeah, no, with Greta Thunberg. She's just a professional activist, which is why I don't take almost any activist seriously and shout out to the people who open doors for all of us and yada, yada, yada. But I don't take a lot of these new activists seriously because they just go from one grift to the next. First it's climate. That didn't work for a few years. Now they went on to Ukraine. Then it's going to be something else. Then it's oil and drilling and everything in between. But these folks are such professional activists. They will go out there, they'll do like a sit in or they'll lock arms on a freeway. Then they'll go back to like a five star hotel and be eating crumpets and scones. So I don't take Greta Thunberg seriously at all. And when it comes to this flotilla, I don't even know what a flotilla is. It sounds like something you could get at, like Chipotle, like a flotilla, like a grande flotilla, Like I don't know.

[Megyn Kelly]

What a float sounds like, what they, what they put together in Jaws too, which did not end well, for most of those high school students, it's like.

[Link Lauren]

Kon Tiki or something. Like, I don't want to get on a flotilla. Also, I don't share bathrooms, and I really like my creature comforts and my amenities, you know what I'm saying? And my bath salts. So I am not going to be.

[Megyn Kelly]

What would the water pressure be like on the flotilla? Probably not so great.

[Link Lauren]

Not good. Not good. Like, I am such a creature cover person. I will change hotel rooms if there's, like, a faint noise. Okay? I am that person. So I'm not going to be on a flotilla with a bunch of, like, stinky little liberal, you know, kids on the spectrum. Sorry, I'm gonna get canceled for saying that, but I don't want to do that and be on the flotilla and, like, sailing to Gaza. Who wants to sail to Gaza?

[Megyn Kelly]

You just remember they smell good on the inside. That's what's important. All right, now, here we go. Megan Markle, she is not a well person. She was over in Paris for the Balenciaga fashion show, and she filmed herself. Herself going by the location where Princess Diana died. And here's the video. Her feet are up in the car. She's having a grand old time. She's showing you out the window where she is, and then you see hers. Her naked feet crisscrossed in front of her. Like, the world is at my feet. Ha ha. This is so fun. This is where my. My children's grandmother died. Good times. Let me put this online.

[Link Lauren]

No. What's interesting is Meghan Markle. She will try to plead ignorance and say, it was just a video. I didn't know what I was doing. Her team will put out statements. Everything is a deliberate choice with Meghan Markle, in my opinion. She's sociopathic. She's a narcissist. She's a malignant narcissist. And for her to act like she didn't know where Princess Diana died in that famous car crash is just absolute malarkey, buffoonery, tomfoolery. It's like when she said she didn't even know who Prince Harry was in the documentary. She's like, I don't know much about Prince Harry. Is he nice? Then we find pictures of her out in front of Buckingham Palace. It's like if I say, I don't know a guy, and then there are pictures of me driving around his neighborhood. Meghan Markle knew exactly who Prince Harry was. She knew exactly where Princess Diana died. But she's doing this for attention. I Have a theory. There was some reporting recently that we covered on Spot on that they're doing a Diana documentary to commemorate the anniversary, I believe, in 2027. So this could maybe be part of that. I thought maybe Meghan Markle is out doing research for the documentary. I'm sorry for laughing, but she's gonna go drive around and take the exact route to sort of, you know, manifest and put herself in that position. But the last thing I'll say about Meghan Markle, she's gone on the Drew Barrymore show and talked about how she'll FaceTime her kids when she's on the road. She'll send videos to whoever's watching her kids while she's traveling instead of going to these fashion shows. You left the Royal Family because you guys wanted privacy. You wanted to be low key. Go be with your kids and raise your kids. You know, you don't need to go to Balenciaga, who's been accused of grooming children, had pedophilia scandals. Then you're out partying with, you know, your friend who's in charge of membership at Soho House House. Go be a mom and be with your kids. If that was the reason you left the Royal Family, go do it.

[Megyn Kelly]

She doesn't want it. That. That video of her walking into Balenciaga, it was ridiculous. She looks like she's part of the fashion show in all white, walking out like, all eyes are on me. I am the model I've always wanted to be. But no, she doesn't want to be with the children. That's why she keeps doing these things the same way. Hoda Copy doesn't want to be with her children. And you can't get her off the set of the Today Show. She's there every two weeks. Weeks. Launching a new business venture because now she's a CEO. Pow, pow, pow. None of these women actually wants to be at home with their children. And it's fine. Look, if you want to be a working mom and, you know, do them both, just own it. Don't. Don't try to, like, build yourself up as, like, some fake stay at home mom, because you're obviously not. And Meghan Markle, you used the word earlier in a post I read that you. You made that she's a disaster tourist. That's exactly right. Uvalde. And now this. She's never seen a tragedy that she doesn't want to exploit for her own pr, which is sick. All right, we gotta run. Link. Great to see you. Subscribe to Spot on with Link Lauren on Apple, Spotify, YouTube. Go to spotonwithlink.com and that'll show you all the places you can get more of link. And who does not want more of link, Lauren? Coming up, Ken Vogel of the New York Times on Hunter Biden. It's time for Medicare annual enrollment again. The mailers, the robocalls, the text blowing up your phone. It can be a circus and overwhelming. But this is one Medicare message you do need to hear. Medicare plans can change every year. And even if you like your current plan, your costs could go up or you could lose coverage for things you depend on. This is why I want to tell you about Chapter. Chapter compares every plan nationwide to make sure you are on a plan that best fits your needs. On average, they save people 1100 bucks a year. I get it. Nobody wants to deal with Medicare. But in under 20 minutes, Chapter can review your options. If your plan is already the best for 2026, great, you're done. If not, they will help you switch before rising costs hit your wallet. No gimmicks, no pushy sales. Just straight talk from people who know Medicare inside and out. Call Chapter today at 27 Medicare. That's 2. 7 Medicare. To talk to a trusted advisor today, we absolutely have to keep talking. It's more important now than ever to cower, to hide, to go silent is not the answer. And all I can tell you is there is no fucking way I am canceling one stop on this tour. Not one stop. I'm going. I'm going to stand on these stages and I'm going to say all the things that we say all the time on this show. We're gonna make it safe for me. We're gonna make it safe for my team and my guests and you. We're going to coast to coast and do something really important, which is say what's true and what's real. To honor him. I really, now more than ever, would love to see you all face to face. God, I would love to see you face to face. I need to see you face to face. I am doing this tour and I would love for you to join me, MeganKelly.com for the tickets. We've been reporting for years on the conflicts of interest and alleged corruption related to Hunter Biden Biden's overseas business dealings, especially his position as a board member of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, a job for which he had absolutely no qualifications. The corporate media mostly ignored or downplayed this story, but there was one notable exception. Ken Vogel of the New York Times and boy, was he shamed for it. Here he is back in September of 2019 when the left was all excited about possibly impeaching Donald Trump for his phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky when he urged him to find out exactly what Hunter Biden was up to in his country. Vogel pointed out on MSNBC that Joe Biden might have a big problem in Ukraine as well due to Hunter's, quote, work there.

[Ken Vogel]

Watch this situation involving Joe Biden's son's work for this Ukrainian oligarch owned gas company, which is, I have to quibble with some of what your previous guest said is a significant liability for Joe Biden. Like, there is a story here. We've told some of it. There's more to be told. We're going to continue to sort of pull that back. That said, the way that Rudy is inserting himself into it is both not helpful, I think, to Rudy and to Trump because it kind of jumbles it. He's getting the facts wrong and he is making it appear as if the this is just a partizan hit job. Whereas if he would just kind of leave the reporters to do the work on it, I think that, you know, potentially this story might be taken more seriously.

[Megyn Kelly]

Well, that went over like a lead balloon with Team Biden. In fact, just two days later, they put out a digital ad featuring pundits attacking Vogel by name. Watch. Trump invited foreign interference in our election in 2016, and he's doing it again. Will media see through Trump's sleazy playbook?

[Joy Behar]

What people said is false. It's not simply, what about ism or equalism?

[Unidentified Female Commentator]

It's false.

[Joy Behar]

And when it does that, and when.

[Megyn Kelly]

For example, Politico has a whole bunch.

[Joy Behar]

Of headlines today doing the same thing.

[Megyn Kelly]

They need to be taken on. They need to be taken on by the candidates and responsible people in the media.

[Ken Vogel]

The New York Times is obsessed. You know, it may market itself as.

[Link Lauren]

Part of the resistance. It's obsessed with kind being right down in the middle, you know, with this Ukraine story. A lot of people say, well, this is, you know, 2016 and the press hasn't learned anything.

[Ken Vogel]

At some point, we have to ask.

[Link Lauren]

If a lot of journalists don't want to learn anything.

[Megyn Kelly]

That was the Biden campaign that put that out. They could not have the story being told about the Biden family corruption over in Ukraine. And it turns out there is more of the story to be told. And Ken Vogel is telling it in his new book titled Devil's Advocates, the Hidden Story of Rudy Giuliani. Hunter Biden and the Washington insiders on the payrolls of corrupt foreign interests. The book hits stores on October 14th. You can pre order it right now. And Ken joins me today for an exclusive interview. Ken, welcome to the show.

[Ken Vogel]

Hey, it's great to be with you, Megan.

[Megyn Kelly]

This is crazy. I, I read this, it was making my blood boil. And I don't care, I don't, I, I have never run cover for Rudy Giuliani or anybody else who may have their hand in the till and I certainly haven't for Hunter Biden. So I applaud you for writing this book. Can you first set it up? Why? This is an area that is just so ripe for exploitation by foreign governments trying to find some, I'm sorry, weakling here connected to whatever president, could be a right wing one, could be a left wing one for exploitation to try to gain access to power.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah, I mean, there's this sort of mindset in a lot of the developing world, really a lot of the rest of the world that, you know, you can get what you want from government by essentially paying the government or the people around the government, the families of the elected officials. And, and we in the US like to think that we're above that. We're different than that. We have all these ethics laws and conflicts of interest laws and disclosure laws that prevent that kind of thing. But it turns out that in the rest of the world where when they sort of get crosswise with the United States or other international bodies, they apply the same mindset and they look for Americans who are close to the government and the top officials in the government to put on their payrolls, to be able to at least create the perception that they are gaining some kind of favor or effectively navigating their way out of trouble. And it turns out that there are plenty of well connected Americans who are willing to take those paydays, including Hunter Biden, including Rudy Giuliani, but also many others who I profile in detail in the book.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah, this is a grift because you have some access to power and you run around to deep pocketed foreigners touting it, trying to seem important, like you can change policy. And certainly when you are the son of the sitting vice president, that carries a lot of weight. Because what you're zeroing in on with Hunter really all started when Joe Biden was vice president. That's when he joined the board of Burisma in Ukraine. Before we get to that, I just want to start with a headline that just came out on Tuesday, thanks to our pal John Solomon over at just the news and the headline is Joe Biden's team blocked the CIA from distributing report on son Hunter's Ukraine business dealings. And what Solomon is reporting that back when Joe Biden was vice president, it was February of 16. His team intervened. His vice presidential team intervened to prevent the CIA from disseminating an intelligence report to policymakers about the senior Ukrainian officials perceptions regarding Hunter Biden and his dealings in Ukraine. In other words, they were going to tell policymakers in the United States the. The CIA was that the Ukrainians think Hunter Biden is a joke and are rolling their eyes at these professions by Joe Biden that we're not corrupt but foreign countries like Ukraine are while they're. His own son was on the take and, and he, Joe Biden, his team intervened saying the VP would quote, strongly prefer this report not be disseminated. And it looks like it. It wasn't. It was withheld. Just, just so we have this. Here is vice president, then Vice president Biden on his infamous anti corruption speech he gave in Ukraine. This happened in 2015. But listen to the holier than thou attitude he was espousing while his son was essentially on the take.

[Donald Trump]

51 But I can tell you, you cannot name me a single democracy in.

[Ken Vogel]

The world.

[Donald Trump]

Where the cancer of corruption is prevalent. You cannot be one. They are thoroughly inconsistent. It's not enough to set up a new anti corruption bureau and establish a special prosecutor fighting corruption. The office of the general prosecutor desperately needs reform. The judiciary should be overhauled. The energy sector needs to be competitive, ruled by market principles, not sweetheart deals. It's not enough to push through laws to increase transparency with regard to official sources of income. Senior elected officials have to remove all conflicts between their business interests and their government responsibilities.

[Megyn Kelly]

Lecture, lecture, lecture.

[Donald Trump]

Democracy in the world.

[Megyn Kelly]

That system pertains just the news reporting that these Ukrainian officials quote viewed the alleged ties of the US Vice president's family to corruption in Ukraine as evidence of a double standard within the United States government toward matters of corruption and political power according to the CIA. And, and there it is in a nutshell, Ken. I mean there it is in a nutshell. That's, that's, that's what was happening.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah, and it's not just that it's a double standard though I think certainly it is. And we saw this pattern play out where Hunter Biden was working for individuals and companies that were targeted by U S backed. Not just U. S backed but, but anti corruption initiatives that were backed by his own father around the world. It wasn't just in Ukraine, but this also gets at this other theme that like the perception is important here. It's not just that, you know, you're paying Hunter Biden to effectuate some change in US policy to get the US to back away from a given prosecution or to enact energy policies that were more favorable to the Ukrainian gas company for which he was working, but rather that, but there's an importance that there's a weight that is associated with having Hunter Biden on your payroll in Ukraine. So the Ukrainian prosecutors who are being encouraged by Joe Biden to pursue corruption kind of look at it and say, wait a minute, here is the son of the vice president who is telling us to pursue corruption. The vice president is the son is working for one of the targets of the, of this anti corruption campaign. I mean that's certainly a mixed message. The most charitable way to perceive it, the more cynical way to perceive it.

[Megyn Kelly]

And not qualified to be there. You know, it's one thing if Hunter had had a lifetime in the oil and gas industry still wouldn't have been great, but at least you'd say, all right, I mean on paper at least you can sell it. He didn't. There was absolutely no basis for him to be there other than to curry favor with his father. And your reporting is that's exactly why Burisma put him there.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah. And it is something where they, you know, the prosecutors are going to think twice when they see that a very, the son of a very important, a US public official who is very important to the US policy towards Ukraine is, is essentially sitting on the, the board of this entity that, that the US is targeting it. It's, you know, again, it's like a mixed message at best, but it's could be seen as protection like that they are paying for protection from this prosecution that the US Is encouraging and I think that very much comports with the post Soviet mindset that prevailed in Ukraine at the time. And still. And so you could see where the motivation would be for the Ukrainians or for anyone else who was in a similar position where they're being targeted by a US backed anti corruption initiative to look for that kind of protection and see Hunter Biden as the type of person who could provide it.

[Megyn Kelly]

Right. What an opportunity for Hunter. Whether it was with the Chinese or the Ukrainians or the Romanians, there were the opportunity abounded for him to line his own pockets, never mind what it would cost the United States or his father. Now there is reason to believe that Joe Biden paved the way for him. You've got a quote from Devin Archer, who I did not realize was previously an Abercrombie and Fitch model. You. You taught me that. But Devin Archer was his business partner and best friends. And those two, plus a guy named Chris Hines of Heinz ketchup fame and fortune, originally formed this business venture, Rosemont Seneca. Eventually, Chris Hines got a touch of, like, morality where he looked at these other two and said, I'm not sure I want this association and, or whether this is going to a good place. And he, he peaced out. But Devin Archer and Hunter stay. Stayed in business together. And you point out in the book that Devin Archer says Joe Biden used to call people and he said, you do something for me, you're a friend. You do something for my son, you're a friend for life.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah. So even if the. We accept the argument at face value that the Bidens have made and Joe Biden has made himself and Karine Jean Pierre made from the White House podium that Joe Biden never specifically talked with Hunter or Hunter's business partners about these foreign business ventures. You see right there that the message is communicate. It's the same sort of wink and nod that we're talking about the Ukrainians wanting to avail themselves of by putting him on this board that Joe Biden is, is telling these foreign business partners that, like, he sort of endorses their. Whatever it is that they're doing with, with Hunter, so that even if he doesn't know the specifics of it, it is certainly sending the message to these foreigners that, hey, you're getting what you're paying for.

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay, so clearly that was the deal where Joe Biden kind of blessed it. Hunter went over there and worked it and sold it. And ultimately Joe Biden pardoned Hunter Biden for all of it. And you do point out in the book that there's a reason that pardon, that sweeping pardon he gave his son. After all the protestations, I will never pardon Hunter. I'm not pardoning Hunter. And then all the Democrats saying, we believe him, we believe him, it's not going to happen. He did pardon Hunter, pardon Hunter. And you say there's a reason it went back to January 1, 2014.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah, that's when he was really ramping up his foreign business dealings, including with Burisma. That arrangement started in early 2014 and was made official in about April or May when Hunter Biden was added to the board after Devon Archer, the business partner, sort of paved the way and got on the board first and brokered the introduction, and it's notable. It's not just like, you know, at the time that I wrote the book, it was sort of like it was just me connecting dots. But eventually, the prosecutors in the Hunter Biden case essentially suggested that there is a potential charge for violation of the Foreign Agents Registration act, interestingly, not connected to his work in Ukraine, but rather to his work in Romania for a different oligarch that they could bring. They, of course, did not bring that, but they were sort of hinting at that, I think probably to extract a guilty plea. But it's hard to ignore that when you look at the way that the pardon was framed, it's hard to ignore that the prosecutors are suggesting that there might be a potential Farah charge and that the pardon was sort of chronologically situated to cover the activity that would be the basis for such a foreign agent's registration.

[Megyn Kelly]

They went back to the earliest foreign interference that he was doing, back to when Joe Biden was vp. And we'll get to Romania because you've broken some news there, too, which is kind of shocking. But let's just stay with Ukraine since we started with it. You report Ukrainian prosecutors. Now, people generally know this story. But just as a refresher for those who haven't been thinking about Hunter Biden in Ukraine blissfully for the past year or so, Ukraine was corrupt, is corrupt. And at one point, when Joe Biden was vice president, he went over there and said. And he bragged publicly that. He said, you better fire this corrupt prosecutor or I'm not giving you this billion dollars that we committed to give you. And remember, he said at the Council on Foreign Relations, son of a bitch, they did it. So they fired this allegedly corrupt prosecutor. Well, it stunk to high heaven because we would later find out that prosecutor was investigating corruption in Ukraine, including at Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company on whose board Joe Biden's son, Hunter, sat for this do nothing position for which he wasn't qualified. So it was like, wait a minute. Are you doing this because you want to clean up corruption in Ukraine? Are you doing this because you want to do your son a solid? And he's already introduced you to some of the officials running Burisma. And the connections between the Bidens and this company have gotten uncomfortably close. You point out in the book, Ukrainian prosecutors were investigating Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma, for corruption and bribery. Zlochevsky started paying prominent foreign politicians to try to diffuse those investigations and clean up his reputation, not only in Ukraine, but internationally. Slochevsky. Stop. Top American recruit was Hunter Biden. While then VP Joe Biden was overseeing Ukraine policy, buying Hunter's loyalty, according to this thinking, would mean buying favor from his father's government. Hunter Biden was offered a seat on the burisma board for $1 million a year in salary. He then joined the board in the spring of 2014. And you write about how he had an expensive cocaine problem, mostly private schools for his daughters, expensive tastes. And he needed to fund the Hunter Biden lifestyle. But this whole business of cleaning up Zlochevsky's reputation, and thus Burisma's reputation, would have tentacles throughout America like Hunter, the vice president's office, law firms, PR firms, all of which Hunter was connected to and seems to have unleashed on cleaning up the reputation of Burisma so Hunter could get his cool mill.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah, I mean, it was a very sophisticated reputation laundering campaign and sort of protection campaign where they were seeking to get out of trouble from Ukrainian prosecutors as well as U.S. justice Department officials and State Department officials who were encouraging Ukrainian prosecutors and British prosecutors at one point to investigate Zulchevsky. And what's most interesting, at least important, an interesting bit of context here is like what Zulcy was being charged with or Zulchevsky's background. He was a part of this authoritarian government in Ukraine before 2014 that was taught that it was toppled by mass street protest and with the encouragement of the US Government. And Zolchevsky had been a minister in that government and ended up. He was a minister in the agency that oversaw gas and gas and oil licensing. And lo and behold, company that he started was awarded all these very lucrative licenses. And so he leaves the government and becomes a billionaire rather quickly as a result of being able to essentially privatize some of these state assets. That is like a quintessential oligarchic corruption pattern of the sort that the US government and Joe Biden both when he was vice president before that as a senator and then when he was president, decried as anathema to democracy. So, you know, they would have reason to be, they, Burisma would have reason to be concerned that this would be something over which they would be targeted. And in fact, they were. And Hunter Biden was in the middle of this, of this campaign to get them out of trouble. Now, on the prosecutor, there is, I think, still some debate about the reasoning for both the prosecutor, you know, the US wanting the prosecutor to be gone and Joe Biden pushing for it. You know, the. There's question about whether he was actually investigating Burisma or whether he was just using the threat of an investigation to essentially elicit bribes from Burisma, I can say, right.

[Megyn Kelly]

He actually may have been corrupt.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah. I mean, and, you know, big surprise that someone in the Ukrainian government would be, would be corrupt. But, but either way, Burisma was happy when he was fired with, under pressure from Joe Biden because they thought, correctly, that they would be able to deal in a more open, transparent way with his successor. And in fact, they were able initially to do so. And they ended up getting what they wanted, which is the dropping of these cases by the, by the subsequent prosecutor.

[Megyn Kelly]

Can you speak to these like the PR group in the law firms you, you talk about, right, about this group, a consulting firm called Blue Star Strategies. Now this is a Democrat Party linked consulting firm here in America. These are both former Hillary people, the Sally Painter and Karen Tramontano. These are. You tell me, who are they and why is some American consulting firm called Blue Star Strategies at all getting involved with Burisma?

[Ken Vogel]

Well, yeah, they are a Democratic consulting firm. They worked in the Clinton administration actually at the same time that Hunter Biden worked in the Clinton administration and the Commerce Department. And they set up this firm that essentially worked with, you know, international interests, oftentimes that were sort of being targeted by prosecutors in their own countries or sometimes international prosecutors and sometimes by the US and that's what happened here with Burisma. They were brought in by one of Hunter's partners with assistance from Hunter Biden. He was involved in the recruitment of Blue Star and the signing of that deal between Burisma and Blue Star. And what they did was both on the PR front, trying to essentially cleanse Zulci's reputation. But they also importantly reached out to their contacts in the U.S. government during the Obama Biden administration to try to get them to back off of Zulchevsky and back off of US Support for this prosecution. Now, that would seem to be the kind of thing that would trigger a requirement to register under this Foreign Agents Registration act as a foreign lobbyist. They did not do that in real time, despite questions from me and others in the press and Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson about why they hadn't done so. Ultimately, at the same time that Hunter Biden was being investigated by the Justice Department for his foreign business, Blue Star was also investigated and they retroactively registered as foreign agents, which to me seems like sort of a tacit admission that they skirted the law in the first place. But they got a deal under which the Prosecution was dropped. There would be no charges as long as they filed this registration, which they did.

[Megyn Kelly]

But even the name, like Blue Star, it just. It reminds me of the Blue Horseshoe, loves whatever from Wall street, you know, just has this feel to it of like, oh, it's. It's meaningless, and therefore, it's hiding something they don't want us to know. Do they deny any of this, Ken? These two gals deny that they were, you know, taking money after having been hooked up with Burisma through Hunter and his pal, to cleanse the Burisma's reputation so that it could get this prosecutor off of its back and, you know, smooth sailing with the US Government.

[Ken Vogel]

They don't exactly deny it. The way they frame it is that they were just seeking information. They wanted to know why the US Government had this negative view of Zulchevsky and of Burisma, and they wanted to, like, help correct the misperceptions in Washington about this guy. So that's the way that they would frame it.

[Megyn Kelly]

Very, very benevolent. So now it wasn't just Blue Star, this consulting firm that Hunter brought in to cleanse Burisma, again, this is how he was actually earning his million dollars a year. It was not for any oil and gas expertise. It was to work as dad, to bring in this consulting firm to work the American public's perceptions and the perceptions of the Obama Biden government. And then this law firm, which is just everywhere, David Boyes firm, he also brought in, and he was of counsel to that firm. And you actually point out, I mean, talk about your other conflicts of interest. Hunter Biden had a couple of roles in connection with Burisma, and one was as a lawyer. Right. Was that the Burisma deal.

[Ken Vogel]

Initially, he was sort of brought in through Boy Schiller, but when he joined the board, he sort of handed off the legal portfolio from Boy Schiller to another lawyer there. And ultimately a different firm was brought in to sort of run the effort to try to get the Ukrainian prosecutors to back off. And that firm was Cravath. I'm forgetting the rest of the names there, but Cravath, Swain. Yeah, there you go. And the lawyer who they had, who, again, is very. It's like, very symbolic and important that, like, they're choosing. This particular lawyer is a guy by the name of John Beretta, who had worked. Worked in the justice. In the Obama Justice Department in a rather senior role. And so he comes in and he's basically, like, advertising to the Ukrainian prosecutors, like, I worked in the Justice Department. And now I am here on behalf of this company to help resolve this situation. And so again, it's like the signaling that carries so much weight in, I mean it carries so much weight everywhere, but particularly in these foreign countries where there's like, like less of a clear line between like the government and the allies of the government who are on the outside. And John Beretta and Hunter and Blue Star, they all sort of like take advantage of this perception that they are kind of unofficially carrying the imprimatur of the government and that gets them taken seriously and helps their clients.

[Megyn Kelly]

I mean, I know, I hear you on. We may have had a couple of motivations for getting this prosecutor fired. Right. He may actually have been corrupt and the Biden, the Obama Biden administration may have actually wanted him gone. But it sure does seem convenient that after Hunter Biden worked very hard, he didn't work very hard for many things, but he did work very hard to clean up Burisma's reputation and get this prosecutor fired. With an outside consulting firm in the states, with lawyers in the states, Crevasse Wayne, you don't hire them unless you're really willing to pay for good results. Like that's a huge, very well respected firm. And through working his own dad, suddenly the prosecutor was fired while they're lecturing the whole world about corruption. I mean, Joe Biden, like he, we could spend all day playing sound bites of him saying Ukraine really needs to root out corruption. They really need to root out corruption. And he was the, the point person for the Obama administration on making sure that happened. Meanwhile, his son is running around trying to run cover for one of the most apparently corrupt organizations there.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah. And you know, their argument at the time, not at the time, but because of the time, this, as you noted, was not really covered with the sort of degree of intensity that you would typically think that like a high level conflict of interest scandal involving a top US official would be. But, but after the fact, when this became an issue, the Biden folks argument was, you know, Joe Biden wasn't aware of this. He wasn't aware of what his son was doing beyond saying, you know, beyond being alerted by news stories that he had joined the board and telling him, I hope you know what you're doing. Well, we see from this CIA, this memo where the, where the Biden folks are telling the CIA not to disseminate a memo that, that, that really does point out this sort of conflict of interest here or at least the double standard and the perception of a double standard that like, no, in fact, they were aware of this and Joe Biden was aware of this and he didn't want others in his government to be made aware of it. So, you know, whether or not he was actively involved in pushing out a prosecutor because it would benefit his son or his son's client, or whether it just so happened that it benefited the burisma, you can't argue that he wasn't aware of this potential conflict of interest. And even if you could argue it, he did.

[Megyn Kelly]

Wait, hold that thought. He did argue it many times. Just as a refresher for the audience, Hannity show put together this montage back in the day. SOP55.

[Link Lauren]

Mr. Vice President, how many times have you ever spoken to your son about his overseas business, business dealings?

[Donald Trump]

I've never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealers. I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else anything having to do with their businesses, period. And what I will do is the same thing we did in our administration. There will be an absolute wall between personal and private and the government.

[Megyn Kelly]

Do you stand by your statement that you did not discuss any of your sales son's overseas business dealing?

[Donald Trump]

Yes, I stand by that statement. I did not know he was on the board of that company. I've never discussed my business or their business, my sons or daughters. I never discussed a single thing with my son about anything having to do with Ukraine.

[Megyn Kelly]

Did you lie about never speaking with Hunter? No, I didn't. Go ahead, Ken.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah, I mean, so clearly he did know that, that Hunter was on the board of this company and, and the people around him knew and the people around him and possibly him himself did not want others in the government to be sort of aware of this and sort of focused on it as a potential problem that undercut the U.S. s effort to fight corruption around the world. You know, the other, the other thing that's sort of notable on that front is like this memo that was circulated or that they attempted to circulate that the Biden folks blocked from circulating came right as this effort by Biden to force out the prosecutor was heating up and as Blue Star's effort to kind of get to get the US to back away from the prosecution was really at its apex. So like this was the moment when people in the government should have been aware of this. And in fact, we do know that there were some people in the government who were aware of it and were deeply troubled by it and tried to flag it it for the Vice President himself. And we're told that he just doesn't want to hear it right now. At the time. I mean, this is. I'm not making light of this at the time, his other son, his older son Beau, was fighting brain cancer that ultimately cost. Cost him his life. And so, you know, there is, I guess, a human argument, and you could understand why he wouldn't want to be troubled with, like, what his other son was doing. But it implicated US Foreign policy and the ability of the US to take the moral high ground in calling out and fighting corruption, which was, again, a key part of, like, the Biden doctrine in foreign policy.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah, you have to do your job. You're the Vice President of the United States. It's very sad, the personal tragedy that happened with Beau Biden, but you have to do your job. That's not a job you can phone in. So if you need to take a leave of absence because of, you know, a massive health problem in your family, then that's what you do. But you don't just say, don't bother me with massive corruption my other son is engaged in that's compromising the United States of America. Do you think this is why when you started to report this story more aggressively or at all? Because few were in 2019, they came at you so hard. It's very normal to see hit pieces like that on MSNBC against people like me. It's not normal to see it against people like you, but they. But obviously you struck a nerve.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah, I think that they recognized that this was a real issue and one that they wanted to get ahead of. And it wasn't just them coming after me or other reporters. I mean, we saw it most acutely with the Hunter Biden laptop. And when the New York Post wrote about it in the run up to the 2020 election, the way that the Biden campaign was able to marshal all these former intelligence officials to essentially shout it down and encourage successfully the social media companies to suppress the spread of the link to the New York Post story and any other reporting or commentary about. About the Hunter Biden laptop really does show the degree to which they recognize that this was a problem, even as they sort of pretended and tried to brush it off as like, oh, no, this is either Russian disinformation or this is like a Rudy Giuliani spin. And, you know, to the. The point that I was trying to make, maybe not super articulately in that clip that you played from MSNBC was that Rudy was in fact, kind of muddying the waters in a way that made it more difficult to discern what the facts were and what the real problems were with, with having, you know, a close family member of the former vice president and potential future president, you know, working for corrupt, I mean, interests that the US Government had determined were corrupt in places that were of critical geopolitical importance to US national security priorities.

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay, but now I am, I have it on very good authority that it's only the current president who targets his media foes and folks in the media who make him unhappy. I, I seem to be gleaning that he wasn't the very first to do this, Ken.

[Ken Vogel]

I mean, it's a different approach. I take your point. But, but, yes, the Bidens were effective. And, you know, maybe there is something to be said for the idea that they were. You know, the Democrats are more accustomed to being able to, like, work with the media and therefore taking, like, a less adversarial, publicly adversarial approach and sort of working the back channels. But here was an example where the effort to work the back channels because they did, you know, work to sort of shape our coverage and maybe discourage our coverage before it ran, and then after it ran, they reacted in this very aggressive way that you saw play out there with that digital ad.

[Megyn Kelly]

Did you ever get rattled? Like, did you ever think, oh, God. Because the book reports that what's her name, Kate Bedingfield, she wrote a separate letter to the executive editor of the New York Times accusing you of an egregious act of journalistic malpractice, spreading Russian propaganda. That's their favorite. Go to. Then the Biden team provided the letter to a CNN reporter who published it, Andrew Bates, who literally lied every other sentence. Another Biden aide blasted your reporting on Hunter's work for Burisma as historic malpractice and then called you a coward. Then we saw that Biden campaign produce that video that we just played, impugning you by name. You write in the book, this is the type of media targeting for which Trump, Trump rightly drew criticism lately. You, I mean, to me, as a reporter, this would tell you you're right over the target, but I don't know, was the New York Times rattled at all by this?

[Ken Vogel]

The New York Times definitely had my back. And the executive editor at the time, Dean Beckay, publicly defended, you know, my reporting and me and sort of justified or validated the reporting as being, like, significant and something that we were going to continue. And we did continue it. And it was, it was interesting because it did not. It. You know, I think much of the. I can say like much of the mainstream media either sort of shied away from it or was like more measured in in their approach to it. And of course, that's changed quite a bit. After Biden dropped out of the race, Democrats sort of blamed him for costing them a chance at beating Trump in 2024. And now it seems as if there's much more of an appetite to scrutinize the Bidens.

[Megyn Kelly]

Mm. Well, I mean, good for you for doing exactly that. I want to talk about what happened in Romania, but let's just take a quick break first and we'll be back with Ken Vogel. The book is Devil's Advocate. Check it out. You can pre order it right now. A lot of juicy stuff in there and you should know about it. Why? Why the hell should we be paying for this kind of corruption going on by these officials who are glomming on to the person who's actually in power and which officials are allowing it it? I've been talking a lot about Riverbend Ranch lately because I love their steaks. Riverbend Ranch has taken Black Angus beef to a whole new level. For the last 35 years, Riverbend Ranch has been creating a very elite Angus herd by using ultrasound to select genetically superior cattle with a focus on flavor and tenderness. When you purchase from Riverbend Ranch, you're not only supporting the 64 Cowboys and Cowgirls and their families who work on the ranch ranch, you're also supporting over 260 other US ranches and the hundreds of American families who work on them. It's born in the USA, raised in the USA and processed in the USA too. This beef is aged to perfection for 21 days and then shipped directly from the ranch to your home. This is not your average Black Angus beef, so order from Riverbendranch.com use the promo code Megan to get 20 bucks off your first order and let me know what you think. Riverbendranch.com promo code Megan if you've experienced bloating or general gut discomfort at some point, you know that doctors tend to give the same advice. Eat slowly, take a walk after meals, steer clear of processed foods. But let me tell you about something called cowboy colostrum. Packed with proteins, natural growth factors and antimicrobial peptides, it always makes me laugh. I'd say it's a good product. Maureen Callahan loves this stuff. I haven't actually tried it yet, but it's just colostrum. You know, it's like what you like when you're trying to Breastfeed your baby. And this is from cows. But like we all drink from cows if you have dairy. So anyway, it's called cowboy colostrum. Every time it gets me. And it can help strengthen your immune system and repair your gut lining, leading to less bloating and better digestive health. What do you care if they call it cholesterol and it comes from a cow? If you're not bloated any longer, they offer high quality bovine colostrum. Yes, I said it sourced 100 from American grass fed. You know what the word is? Cows just add a 3 gram scoop of their chocolate, Madagascar vanilla or strawberry flavor. See, it's like exotic. That's funny. Okay, anyway. Or strawberry, it can go in your coffee. Can it go in your milk? Is that too weird? Like, that's where it started and you're good to go. No, no artificial flavors. Just naturally delicious ingredients. For a limited time, get up to 25 off their entire order. Just head to cowboycolustrum.com MK Use the code MK at checkout 25 off when you use code [e-mail] MK after you purchase, you can tell them our show sent you. Or don't you know it? There's no reason to comment on the ad. It's fine. The ad drove you there. That's what's important. You don't have to get into the details of how the ad was read. Enjoy. We absolutely have to keep talking. It's more important now than ever. This fall, Megyn Kelly is taking her show live to cities nationwide. To go silent is not the answer. I'm going. I'm going to stand on these stages and I'm going to say all the things that we say all the time on this show. We're gonna make it safe for me. We're gonna make it safe for my team and my guests and you and do something really important, which is say what's true and what's real. And I would love for you to join me. MeganKelly.com for the tickets. You can stream the Megan Kelly show on Sirius XM at home or anywhere you are. No car required. I do it all the time. I love the Sirius XM app. It has ad free music coverage of every major sport, comedy talk, podcast and more. Subscribe now. Get your first three months for free. Go to SiriusXM.com MKShow to subscribe and.

[Link Lauren]

Get three months free. That's SiriusXM.com MKShow and get three months free. Offer details apply.

[Megyn Kelly]

Back with me now. Is Ken Vogel. This is his first interview for his, his brand new book, Devil's Advocates the hidden story of Rudy Giuliani, Hunter Biden and the Washington insiders on the payrolls of corrupt foreign interests. The book is out next week. You can pre order it right now and be in on the know. Ken, what happened with Hunter Biden and Romania.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah, this is one that is a pretty similar fact pattern actually with what happened in Ukraine which is that there was a Romanian oligarch real estate developer, extremely wealthy, who was being prosecuted by prosecutors in Romania in connection with what they alleged was a corrupt land deal in which he had again bought land from the state. You know, Romania was a communist, sensing a pattern. Right. And so he was able to get what prosecutors allege was a real sweetheart deal from the state to buy this like very coveted land. And he built a massive development on it including you know, a mall and offices and commercial, other commercial properties. And he ended up renting and under a long term lease part of the land to the U S government to build the US Embassy in Bucharest here. So he's being prosecuted and who does he reach out to to hire to help him navigate this prosecution? But Boyce Schiller and Hunter Biden. And Hunter Biden goes over to Bucharest with a partner at Boyce Schiller and he meets with the US Ambassador under the Obama Biden administration to Romania. And they talk about this case and, and they sort of eventually follow up about, you know, their concerns with it, essentially seeking the help of the US Government in backing away Romanian prosecutors from this case. Well, as if that wasn't enough, Hunter Biden is also working to develop a land deal with this Romanian developer and a Chinese linked company. Not just linked, but a company that was regarded as like a pivotal cog in the Chinese Belt and Road economic influence campaign to essentially create this joint venture that would include Hunter, his partners, the Romanian developer and the Chinese that would own this land. So you would have, and they, in so doing they thought that this might sort of diminish the appetite of the Romanian prosecutors to pursue this case because the process, because the real estate developer would have less interest in the land and they would cut a deal with the state that would pay them. But the end result if this were to have gone through which it didn't, would was that would have been that Hunter, the Romanian and the Chinese would would co own the land around the US Embassy, if not the land itself on which the US Embassy was built. You could see why that could cause national security concerns and it did. One of Hunter's partners at the time, Tony Bobulinski, actually raised this concern to the Romanian real estate developer and said, hey, we need to make sure that the embassy is not included in this transaction. And it never got far enough for that to actually be an issue where they were spelling out which specific parcels were involved in, which weren't. But again, a concerning fact pattern that just shows how his pursuit, Hunter Biden's pursuit of foreign paydays was in some ways at odds with the foreign policy of the United States that his father as vice president was pushing.

[Megyn Kelly]

We're talking with Ken Vogel. The brand new book out by Ken next week. You can pre order it right now is called Devil's Advocate Advocates. One of those advocates is Rudy Giuliani. And how widespread was his behavior and what was it?

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah, I mean, the thing that's so interesting about Rudy is he, you know, he went after Hunter Biden. In fact, he encouraged Trump to go after Hunter Biden, to highlight Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings to, as a political cudgel and in some ways effectively, in some ways ineffectively, as we discussed. But the reason why he was so well versed in the, in sort of the way that this foreign influence business worked is because he himself had worked at the same space. In fact, he had worked at it in ways that directly overlapped with, with the ways that Hunter Biden had worked in it, including on behalf of this same Romanian real estate developers. So the story there is that Hunter Biden eventually sort of passes off this, this, this legal work for the Romanian real estate developer to Louis Free, a family friend, the former FBI director, family friend of the Biden and the former, and also a close friend of Rudy Giuliani. So Louis Free is working this case on behalf of the Romanian developer. And when Trump gets into office, Louis Free brings in Rudy Giuliani to write a letter to the Romanians calling out some of the elements of this anti corruption prosecution. So, so it's sort of, it's more than a little ironic then that Rudy would sort of come after Hunter Biden over his work in the foreign space when he himself had worked at the same space in some cases on behalf of, on behalf of or with some of the same people.

[Megyn Kelly]

No, it does remind me of how, like, if you want to figure out how a hacker is likely to get into your network, you got to go work with a hacker and have somebody explain it to you. And that's how some of these, like hacker criminals keep themselves out of jail. They cut A deal to like work with the FBI to show them how it's done. Not suggesting it's exactly a parallel, but yeah, it makes sense to me. How widespread is this? I mean, like, is it just these guys or is it not just these guys?

[Ken Vogel]

No, I mean, it's very widespread. And in fact, like the, the point about the parallels or the points of connective tissue between Hunter and Rudy in this case are important because. Because it shows that this is a very bipartisan thing. Sure, the foreign interests are looking for people who have connections to the party in power, but they're also looking for connections like across the government. So you see these strange bedfellows, types of situations like in Ukraine where Paul Manafort is working on behalf of the authoritarian president who employed the guy Zolchevsky, who started Burisma, who hired Hunter Biden.

[Megyn Kelly]

That was the pro Russian, the pro Russian Ukrainian president who got ousted thanks to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's State Department.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah, I mean, the US Was certainly behind it, was certainly supportive of the street protests that led to his ouster. But Paul Manafort was trying to keep him in power. And so how does Paul Manafort go about doing that? Well, he brings in Tony Podesta, a prominent Democrat with close ties to the Biden, to the Obama administration through his brother John Podesta. He brings in Tad Devine, a Democratic operative who had worked for John Kerry and would go on to work for Bernie Sanders. He brings in Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman with close ties to Mitt Romney. So you see like all these people who in the US are on opposite sides of some of the most heated political fights between the red side and the blue side. But when they're going abroad and looking to pad their pockets, they're all in alignment on the green side, that is the side that's able to like pay them the most money. And so what country does pay the most? I mean, it's usually there's this dynamic where the ones the foreign interests are sort of most toxic and therefore like most, you know, face the most problems from prosecutors at home and in the U.S. and the U.S. state Department of U.S. sanctions. They oftentimes have the most money, often ill begotten funds, or at least that prosecutors would say would ill be gotten funds and have the most incentive to try to protect themselves. And also they're the ones who like, there's the real reputational costs for the well connected Americans who are going to go on their payroll. And so they're eyeing it and they're saying like, I Don't know. This is like a real. A client that might look really bad, so the payday better be worthwhile. And so you see, you know, dictators in Africa. Joseph Kabila was one. He was the former president, strongman president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, launched a huge lobbying campaign in 2018 that I write about in the book that brought in people from across the political spectrum and was paying, you know, millions of dollars because, like, that's a tough client to take and it better be worth your while.

[Megyn Kelly]

What? Was there anything that really shocked you when you were researching this book?

[Ken Vogel]

I mean, I think it was the willingness of, of Americans to sort of try to frame a political argument in the US where they would say, look, this person looks really, really bad. And sure, they've done some terrible things, but, like, they are kind of, it's kind of in the best interest of, like, U.S. foreign policy for the U.S. to like, turn a blind eye to the bad things that they're doing in their country, whether they're human rights violations or corruption or what have you.

[Megyn Kelly]

We're still doing that. We're still doing. Yes, we all buy Apple phones and we, we deal with China, you know, in a corporate level and a presidential level under both presidents, you know, most, the most, most recent ones, notwithstanding, what we know what they're doing, the Uyghurs and all that, the human rights abuses over there. So I find that easy to believe. I do wonder, you know, like, the Hunter Biden laptop and how willing the media was to go along with Russian disinformation. Russian disinformation. How much do you think that kind of thing, like the censoring of that reporting by X, then Twitter? Well, how much of an effect do you think that had on, like, the American media and understanding that we're just not going to go there, we're not going to talk about things like that.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah, it's tough to know. I mean, I think it was troubling from the perspective of someone who, like, is whose whole job is transparency and enforcing transparency in places where it's not. Where it's not comfortable for the ruling class. And I think there were stories in there, but, you know, I think they did ultimately get told most of them. I mean, maybe I should, I should check myself a little bit.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah, that's thanks to my side of the aisle.

[Ken Vogel]

I should check myself a little bit because I'm still like, in this, with this Romania story, with the land around the U.S. embassy, like, I found about that out about that and reporting my books so this was well after Biden was, you know, the. Already or, you know, Biden was not. Biden had already been elected in 2020. So. Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of. A lot of interesting information out there about this industry, and it doesn't make either side look particularly good.

[Megyn Kelly]

No, but they should be outed, even if it doesn't make them look good. I appreciate writing the book, Ken. I love this kind of stuff. It's. The granular detail is very appealing to me because that's evidence. Again, it's called Devil's Advocates the Hidden Story of Rudy Giuliani, Hunter Biden, and the White Washington Insiders on the Payrolls of Corrupt Foreign Interests by Ken Vogel of the New York Times. Thank you so much for being here. All the best.

[Ken Vogel]

It was a pleasure. Thank you, Megan.

[Megyn Kelly]

All right, we're back tomorrow, everybody. We will see you then. Don't miss that. Thanks for listening to the Megyn Kelly Show. No bs, no agenda, and no fear.