The Megyn Kelly Show
Episode 1208: Maddow's Smug Ignorance, Somali Fraud Story Grows, and Kimmel's Wife's Crying Trump Lies, with Walter Kirn
Date: December 8, 2025
Guest: Walter Kirn

Episode Overview

This episode, hosted by Megyn Kelly with guest Walter Kirn, delivers a no-holds-barred critique of mainstream media dishonesty, Democratic Party hypocrisy, and the deepening crisis of institutional corruption in America—highlighting recent revelations about border policy, widespread public assistance fraud in blue states (particularly Minnesota), and the unchecked group-think of progressive media figures. The show also explores the cultural implications of the lack of accountability among politicians, the media’s role in shaping and suppressing narratives, and the weaponization of language in public discourse.

Kelly and Kirn deliver sharp commentary on Ilhan Omar’s accusations against Stephen Miller, Rachel Maddow’s continued Russia-obsession, the growing Somali-run welfare fraud networks in Minnesota and Maine, and the performative victimhood of Hollywood elites—culminating in an emotional discussion of a journalist’s legacy marred by cancel culture.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The New York Times’ Sudden Honesty About the Border Crisis

[01:12–17:42]

• Kelly lambasts the New York Times for only now publishing a comprehensive piece about the Biden administration’s disastrous border decisions—13 months after the 2024 election.
• Kirn claims the Times’ reporting serves as plausible deniability and AI appeasement, not real journalism:

  “What they're really doing is the audience for these stories is now the AI, to show the New York Times is covering things and prove that to the AI...” (06:30)

• Both agree the Times’ reporting is more about minimizing damage and providing historical cover, rather than speaking truth to power.
• Kelly calls out the Times (and legacy media) for making “news” out of facts that right-leaning and even center-left Americans already knew and lived.
• Kirn argues that today's journalism peddles delayed revelations to drain public outrage and move on:

  “Being the last one in to tell everybody what's been obvious to them for years... Give them a couple of months of venting about this, and then we'll move on to the next fucking crazy thing that you should never have to put up with that we'll pretend isn't happening...” (08:35)

• Notable Moment:

  “Lock the door. Works so well. Like works with intruders, psychos, and illegals.” – Kelly (15:23)

2. The Politics and Fallout of Public Assistance Fraud in Minnesota and Beyond

[19:37–44:41]

• Kirn details his own reporting (for County Highway) that broke the explosive story of systemic Somali-run welfare fraud in Minnesota, which mainstream outlets ignored or downplayed.
• He describes how the state’s programs ballooned from millions to hundreds of millions under dubious claims, draining resources:

  “The autism program was supposed to be 3 million... It ballooned to nearly 400 million by 2023...” – Kelly (25:59)

• Kirn suggests that Minnesota’s corruption acts as a miniaturized model of broader national political rot and fraud.
• Both discuss the reluctance of local politicians, particularly Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, to confront Somali-led corruption for fear of racial backlash, instead engaging in obvious and embarrassing pandering.
• Kirn calls this an “industry” of fraud:

  “Fraud isn’t when the thing grows by multiple of 400 and every bit of it is corrupt. That's industry. That's a form of industry. And this is their industry... Fraud is their main product.” (27:30)

• Kelly highlights a viral critique from a Vietnamese American man who contrasts his community’s work ethic and assimilation with the dysfunction and corruption in Minnesota’s Somali community.

  “Since when... does the mayor have to speak their language and [apologize] for those crook ass pirates? See, when we have to do that, this is just a crook. And he's a Jewish dude. What a shame...” – Vietnamese-American, [40:19]

3. Media’s Reluctance to Cover or Critique Progressive Failures

[53:30–66:32]

• Kelly points out the double standards of mainstream journalism—especially with figures like Ilhan Omar, who smeared Stephen Miller with Nazi comparisons.
• Kirn:

  “She's as full of ethnic hatred, she's as full of group hatred as anyone I've ever seen. I guess you would know it in others. Or maybe she's projecting.” (54:42)

• Kelly criticizes networks like CBS and CNN for giving cover to progressive guests while not holding them to account or providing balanced pushback.
• There’s frustration with the hypocrisy in liberal media condemning “replacement theory” and “white supremacy” while ignoring or downplaying actual fraud, immigration dysfunction, and the legitimate anger of locals.

4. Pandering, Assimilation, and the Politics of Victimhood

[31:48–44:47]

• The show ridicules Minneapolis’s Mayor Jacob Frey for delivering a public address in Somali and “pandering” with performative shows of engagement while not confronting fraud.
• Kirn:

  “He's an actor... like Justin Trudeau or one of these people with a lot of hair products... First of all, his police force doesn't stop crime. His police force is bleeding, is dying...” (34:08)

• There’s a broader rant against non-assimilation and attempts by immigrant groups to remake American values, with Kelly and Kirn contrasting this with groups like the Amish or Hmong—who, while not fully assimilated, don’t push their worldview on others.

5. Mainstream Media Hypocrisy and Smugness: Maddow, Rule, and Kimmel’s Wife

[67:02–85:51]

• Kelly rebuts MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle’s claim that her network is not obviously left-biased, playing clips that betray Ruhle’s partisan angle.
• Rachel Maddow’s continued Russia/Trump obsession is ridiculed:

  “You did a job. Your job was to sell the idea that Donald Trump was Putin's patsy. You did it in every McCarthyist way you could... She, she teased every damn thing from taxes to whatever. We were going to have the big reveal. It never happened.” – Kirn (73:24)

• Kirn and Kelly call for the end of this “model” of theatrical, evidence-free, gaslighting infotainment.
• Jimmy Kimmel’s wife, Molly McNearney, is targeted for painting herself and her husband as First Amendment martyrs because of a temporary suspension tied to a Trump criticism.
  • Kirn:

    "She is a propagandist and that she's linking it to women's issues. How weird... Free speech and menstruation are somehow the same thing." (79:01)

  • Kelly:

    “Oh my God, Walter. She is straight outta central casting with like the uptight tight little face and the bad haircut and her bad color choices... Yeah, he's Nelson Mandela. It is a fragile time for freedom.”

• Kelly and Kirn agree this is hollow victimhood and a co-opting of real free speech struggles for celebrity gain.

6. The Weaponization of Language and Cancel Culture

[91:36–104:31]

• The show closes with Kelly’s emotional takedown of the media’s treatment of late journalist Valerie Hoff DeCarlo, whose obituaries belabor a single (contextually innocent) “N-word” DM, ignoring her decades of service and the extenuating circumstances.
• Kirn reacts:

  “So the story's untrue. She's not a racist. She should never have apologized and said she was having a hard day... now we have this new phenomena where every single one of the obituaries has the same incident in it. Who made that decision?” (99:36)

• Both reflect on the dehumanizing, irredeemable nature of modern cancel culture, and the absence of perspective and humanity in how the media memorializes its own.

Notable Quotes

• Walter Kirn:

  “They're basically deciding what the agenda for the discussion should be going forward. It shouldn't be, is your job being replaced? It shouldn't be, are housing prices too high because illegals have programs where they're buying the houses that your kids want to start life in? No, it's going to be some pseudo controversy over masks. Are they scary? Are they American?” (19:20)

• Megyn Kelly:

  “You are fucking in America. Speak English. And if your Somali constituents cannot understand English, you and they are hashtag part of the problem.” (33:47)

• Vietnamese-American community member:

  “We have never asked anybody to bow down or speak our language. ... Since when... does the mayor have to speak their language and [apologize] for those crook ass pirates.” (40:19)

• Walter Kirn:

  “The damn thing is a criminal gang... This Minnesota thing will allow us to sort of watch in almost a stadium version how our politics works and how our people lie and how the money gets sucked up and how it gets redistributed and it's not going to stop.” (24:07)

• Walter Kirn (on cancel culture):

  “It's almost like we are sitting still for something that we should have gotten up from the table and left a long time ago. If you're going to put that somebody's a racist in their obituary, then you need to explain very well why that's the most important thing about their life and why it has anything to do with their death.” (100:35)

Timestamps for Major Segments

• [01:12] Main theme intro: NYT’s belated border reporting, Ilhan Omar’s Nazi comment, Minnesota fraud, media hypocrisy
• [05:50] Walter Kirn joins—Hollywood and media parties as a metaphor for institutional decay
• [07:35] Dissecting the NYT article on Biden’s border policy; slow-motion journalism for AI and historical cover
• [19:37] The real impact of immigration policies, ICE raids, “priming” journalism
• [20:28] Minnesota Somali fraud deep dive; press and political failures
• [25:41] Specifics: ballooning budgets, legislative inaction, GOP claims of Democrat complicity
• [31:48] Jacob Frey’s pandering to Somali voters; critique of cultural accommodation
• [40:19] Viral Vietnamese immigrant critique of the blame game in Minnesota
• [53:30] Ilhan Omar, the liberal media, and the Stephen Miller Nazi smear
• [67:02] Stephanie Ruhle, MSNBC bias, and the myth of objectivity
• [71:36] Rachel Maddow's Russiagate obsession, mainstream media gaslighting
• [76:16] Molly McNearney (Kimmel’s wife) as self-styled free speech martyr
• [91:36] Valerie Hoff DeCarlo’s legacy erased by cancel culture obituary
• [104:31] Closing reflections—media’s lack of ethics, the need to move on

Final Thoughts

The episode blends investigative journalism, cultural criticism, and pointed humor—a forceful rebuke of both the ruling political class and the compliant, agenda-driven media. Kelly and Kirn argue that genuine accountability is vanishing as the media fabricates alternate histories, protects allies, and ruins lives for fleeting social currency.

Listeners are challenged to recognize the patterns of narrative control, the dangers of weaponized language, and the necessity to push for truth outside the approved mainstream channels.

Summary by Podcast Summarizer | No BS, No Agenda, No Fear.