Maureen Callahan on Maria Shriver, Mark Halperin with Ted Cruz - MK Media Week One Highlights

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Megyn Kelly Show

Title: Maureen Callahan on Maria Shriver, Mark Halperin with Ted Cruz - MK Media Week One Highlights
Host: SiriusXM / Megyn Kelly
Release Date: April 30, 2025

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Introduction

In this bonus episode of The Megyn Kelly Show, host Megyn Kelly provides an exclusive look into the inaugural episodes of two prominent MK Media podcast network shows: The Nerve with Maureen Callahan and Next Up with Mark Halperin. The episode delves into Maureen's critical analysis of Maria Shriver’s latest endeavors and Mark's in-depth conversation with Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

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Section 1: Maureen Callahan Critiques Maria Shriver

Maureen Callahan launches her commentary by scrutinizing Maria Shriver’s new book, "I Am Maria," which debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Maureen expresses skepticism about Shriver’s authenticity and critiques her portrayal as a reformed Christian woman of faith.

Key Points:

• Maria Shriver's Personal Life: Maureen discusses the longstanding rumors of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s affair resulting in a child, Joseph Baena, and questions Maria Shriver’s purported ignorance of the affair. She highlights the implications of shielding an illegitimate child within a prominent family.

• Critique of Shriver’s Messaging: Maureen condemns the language used in Shriver’s book, labeling it as "garbage language" and unoriginal self-help rhetoric. She emphasizes the lack of transparency in Shriver’s narrative about her marriage and personal struggles.

• Publishing Controversies: Maureen shares her own experiences with the publisher Viking, suggesting that Maria Shriver’s influence may have affected the publication of critical works like Maureen’s "Ask Not."

Notable Quotes:

• "Maria Shriver has newly reinvented herself… this is the garbage language that we are infected with in this current culture." [00:51]
• "She's icing this kid out… Why is he iced out of being around the paragons of Virtue and Christianity?" [09:30]

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Section 2: Mark Halperin Interviews Senator Ted Cruz

Mark Halperin hosts Texas Senator Ted Cruz in a comprehensive discussion focusing on the current economic strategies under the Trump administration, particularly concerning tariff policies and federal spending.

Key Points:

• Tariff Policies: Cruz and Halperin debate the two proposed tariff paths. Path one advocates for short-term tariffs as leverage to negotiate better trade deals, while Path two suggests maintaining high tariffs permanently. Cruz expresses strong support for using tariffs as leverage to prevent economic stagnation and recession.

• Federal Spending Cuts: The conversation shifts to the necessity of reducing federal spending post-COVID-19. Cruz outlines specific areas he believes should see cuts, including eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and promoting school choice through federal tax credits for scholarship organizations.

• Presidential Influence on Trade: Halperin posits that President Trump has a unique opportunity to leverage tariffs effectively, potentially making him one of the most impactful free trade presidents.

Notable Quotes:

• "If Trump ends up negotiating some phenomenal deals, I hope that's the path we go down." [22:04]
• "My number one priority is jobs... freeing up spectrum for investment is critical." [29:15]
• "I think the crazies are still driving the train." [36:32]

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Section 3: Maureen Callahan and Bill Discuss Ben Affleck

Maureen Callahan, joined by guest Bill, delves into the tumultuous personal life of actor Ben Affleck, critiquing his relationships and public behavior.

Key Points:

• Affleck’s Relationships: Maureen and Bill dissect Ben Affleck’s past relationships, particularly his marriages and affairs. They highlight incidents such as Affleck’s alleged involvement with a stripper during a movie shoot and his subsequent turbulent relationships with Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Lopez.

• Public Image vs. Private Actions: The discussion emphasizes the contrast between Affleck’s public persona and his private actions. Maureen mocks Affleck’s attempts to appear charismatic and in control, pointing out his inconsistent behavior and failure to maintain stable relationships.

• Media Representation: Maureen criticizes how the media portrays Affleck, suggesting that his publicized actions are manipulative and self-serving. She questions the authenticity of his public apologies and reconciliations.

Notable Quotes:

• "Don't date Ben Affleck. There was this great story… "I have no idea why everybody's so fascinated with my private life." [45:55]
• "He has to put himself out there publicly. There's a public image that he is so concerned with." [49:50]
• "The dirty secret is that he, Ben, he's the diva. He's the one who likes attention and calls the paps and manipulates women." [51:38]

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Conclusion

This episode of The Megyn Kelly Show offers a critical and unfiltered examination of prominent figures in the political and entertainment spheres. Maureen Callahan’s incisive critique of Maria Shriver and her exploration of Ben Affleck’s personal life, combined with Mark Halperin’s strategic discussion with Senator Ted Cruz, provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the underlying issues and controversies shaping these public personas.

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Note: Advertisements and promotional segments from the episode have been excluded to focus solely on the content-rich discussions and interviews.

Transcript

[Megyn Kelly]

Welcome to the Megyn 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 and today's bonus episode. We are down in D.C. for an exclusive interview with Tulsi Gabbard that airs tomorrow morning. But today we're bringing you a look at our first two MK Media podcast network shows. The Nerve with Maureen Callahan launched late last week and has been on fire, actually launched on Tuesday of last week. And Next up with Mark Halperin launched yesterday and is off to a great start. Here's some of the excellent reporting and analysis, fun, smart, entertaining and compelling from Maureen and Mark. And go ahead and subscribe and follow their shows on YouTube and podcast and social media platforms. Back tomorrow. See you then.

[Maureen Callahan]

So Maria Shriver, you may have seen her on her little media tour. She has a new book out which I finally bought. I was having trouble bringing myself to put money in her pocket, but you know, it's for a greater good. Okay, so this is the book. It's called I Am Maria Maria Shriver, number one New York Times bestselling author. And in fact, to my great dismay, I saw in this weekend's book review it has debuted at number one on the New York Times list. And that was the inciting event. I said I've got to talk to you guys about this and we've got to take it apart. So you know, Maria Shriver, I'm going to give you my blanket objections to her and then we can go in and really dig in piece by piece. Maria Shriver has newly reinvented herself, I'm going to say, over the past decade as a real Christian woman of faith whose difficulties in life now have imbued her with so much wisdom and experience that her job is now to teach all of us how to become better people and really self actualized again, whatever that means. But this is the garbage language that we are infected with in this current culture. Maria Shriver. And this loops into this new book. Her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the mega movie star of the 80s. There was nobody bigger. Maybe Sly Stallone, he had an affair, I'm going to say actually a relationship because it went on for about 10 years with the Schwarzenegger Shriver household's maid. That affair resulted in a child who was kept a secret for about 10 to 15 years. This child spent a lot of time in Arnold and Maria's home among Arnold and Maria's four children, one of whom, Patrick Schwarzenegger Starred in the White Lotus. For my money, by the way, one of the best performances on the whole show. Oh, I also saw Jason Isaacs at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Very small guy, like shorter than I am. I'm five seven. He's like maybe five five and like real thin. But anyway, so the kids grow up with this other child in their home often. And this child, we're going to show you a picture of him is the spitting image of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Okay? So Maria Shriver would have us believe that the wool was pulled over her eyes for about 15 years. That she had no idea that this could have been a child fathered by her own husband, who, by the way, open secret in Hollywood. I remember reading about this as a kid in like, Premiere magazine and Movieline magazine. This was back when magazines really mattered and they, like, really delivered the goods. And it was reported often in there not only that Arnold was a serial womanizer, but that he was really creepy with women on sets and way too handsy. And he definitely would have been me too, Ed. You're telling me that if I'm like a kid in suburban Long island and I know about this, that Maria Shriver doesn't know about it? Not buying it. Maria Shriver doesn't know that this kid, who's a carbon copy of her distinct looking husband with a jaw that, like. Come on. You. You don't. Okay, fine, whatever. The story breaks, Maria shocked. Taking to her bed, her fainting couch. Can't believe it, by the way. She grew up at Kennedy, okay? This is what these men do. They treat their women like shit. They have affairs, they sire other kids. Sometimes they leave women for dead. She's shocked, guys. Shocked to her bones. She's a big Christian. All we see whenever Joseph Baena, that's the name of the child, he's now an adult. That Arnold had with the housekeeper. And to Arnold's credit, he has been a present and loving father to this. To this kid. You know, Maria reportedly, allegedly has iced this kid out. Okay? This kid is not welcome. All of the siblings, the half siblings, whatever, they're all adults now. And by the way, one of her daughters, Katherine Schwarzenegger, who sort of pedals in this lifestyle, self help, wellness bullshit, is married to Chris Pratt, who prides himself on being a big Christian. I ask you, what is Christian about icing out this kid who is here through no fault. This is not his fault. That affair, that relationship, that is not his fault. Why is he iced out of being around the paragons of Virtue and Christianity. Maria Shriver. This is why I didn't want to spend money on her book, you guys, But I did it because it is for a greater good. We're going to take her apart as she should be. You know, she gets such, like, velvet glove treatment because, as we all know, regrettably, because they cannot stop banging on about it. Her best friend is Oprah Winfrey, you know, so. And she had a big career, by the way, in media. She was a quote unquote journalist. And I have a personal anecdote to share at the end of this bit. You guys are. I don't know if it's gonna shock you, but when it happened to me, I was kind of shocked. So she's got this book out, and it's a book of poetry, okay? The base price for this book, you buy, you buy it in a bookstore, which I encourage. Cause, you know, Amazon gets enough of our money. 30 bucks, you're buying it in Canada. 39.99. This book is very small, and I mean physically small, okay? That means that the publisher trying to scam you by making it look like it has more pages than an actual standard size book would. Okay? It's a book of her poetry. And I'm going to read just a little bit of it to you because I love you and I would never torture you like this. You're going to gag, okay? You're. Don't drink anything while you're listening to this segment. You're going to gag. So she gives us a little bit in the beginning and a little bit in the end of, like, actual prose we can read. And she opens with reflections. The first line, I am Maria. No shit, lady. Your picture's on the COVID Your book is called I am Maria and your name is on the bottom as the author, okay? She tells us that searching for the authentic Maria, uncovering, discovering and recovering her garbage to fill up space has been a challenge for me all my life. For decades. I couldn't see her because I was looking for myself in all the wrong places. What is this? You may be wondering what on earth took me so long to see these truths. Trust me, I've asked myself that question a million times. I now understand I couldn't have known these truths until I learned them. And I couldn't have learned them until I lived them. And I couldn't have lived them until I had to. She's sounding like Mel Robbins, another total and complete moron who's out there shilling snake oil to the women of America. And I really hate this because it's all so inauthentic and none of it's true. I've ripped many of these poems out of a place of fear, shame, confusion and darkness. Okay, this scandal happened. I'm gonna say it was at least 20 years ago. So I think she's very late to this party now. She gives us a little bit of an origin story in case we don't know that she's a Kennedy. Because trust me, these Kennedys never let any of us forget that they're Kennedys. Though they probably should. You see, she begins, which is so cloying. It's a way of trying to establish relatability with the reader. And it always puts me off when people say, you see, because it's a tell to me that they think that they are so above the rest of us that they need to bring themselves down to earth in order to converse with us, even though we are the ones putting money in said pocket. I grew up in a big competitive Irish Catholic family where you didn't sit around and talk about your feelings. You went out into the world and had an impact. The bar was set high. And I mean really high. We know. We know in the tons of biographies, historical accounts, magazine articles, documentaries, memoirs that have been published since the assassination of JFK in 1963, we know. You don't have to tell us. Please don't tell us. Just spare us. Just assume. You know what? Just give us our dignity and assume that we all have a modicum of intelligence and know who you are. That's why you got this book deal. That's why you got your own publishing imprint. That's why you get on the Today show and all manner of public national platforms to sell your garbage. Okay, Fast forward to 2003 and Kapow, exclamation point. My movie star husband abruptly decided he wanted to run for governor of California. Wait, what? You got to be kidding me. Okay, when Arnold Schwarzenegger again, known womanizer, known social climber. Everybody knew as early as the 80s that he had his eye on the White House on finding a way to get around or add an amendment to the Constitution which would allow foreign born people to run for President of the United States. Everybody knew that this was this guy's ultimate goal. What better way than than at that time to marry a prominent Kennedy. We all knew it. Maybe Maria really did delude herself. I don't know. She goes on to tell us more Mel Robbins stuff about living her authentic life, blah, blah, blah. Let's flash forward to a Poem, shall we? This poem is called Dallas. Guess what it's about. The word pulls the trigger. That is really poor choice of language. Rips through my house like a. Like the wind. Dallas, why did you forsake us? Why did you let that happen? Why did you? Where were you? This is garbage, garbage, garbage. Okay, now we get to a poem called Rejection, which I'm guessing is about Arnold. You know what I'm talking about. Don't play naive. Don't pretend you didn't know. Don't pretend it didn't cut. Face it. That familiar feeling of rejection. It cuts. It makes you wince. Edna St. Vincent Millay, this is not. And by the way, in the introduction to her book, she tells us that she's done talking about her marriage. And you won't find any real details about it here. Again, what are we all doing here? Either talk about the marriage and put it on the page and tell your story, or don't. But don't be a tease, Maria. You know, everybody learns that, like, everybody hates a tease. So I'm going to tell you my little Maria Shriver story, which is that in 2019, I had published a book for the same publisher that publishes Maria Shriver. It's Viking, and it was called American Predator. It was a true crime story. Immediately hit the New York Times bestseller list. It outperformed their expectations, and it makes them, still, to this day, a ton of money. They said to me, whatever you want about, write about next, we will publish it. We don't care. You know, because all they could see was dollar signs. I said, great, here's my next book. Guess what it was. Ask not. Which is the book that came out last summer, Kennedy book. About all the Kennedy women that family has, like, fucked with and destroyed. My publisher went radio silent for a good few months, which is a very, very. It's like a. No, no. In that world, you don't do that. You can really screw with an author's career doing that. Because suddenly everybody thinks that I'm a problem, that the author's the problem. If a publishing house doesn't want to go near an author that has just sold them a ton of books. There's a major issue, right? She, Maria, thinks in this book, this guy, Brian Tartt, who is the publisher of Said House, right? Brian was my publisher. I thought he loved me. Until word got back to me that Viking had likely passed. I'm going to say likely allegedly passed because they were getting in bed with Maria Shriver and giving her her own imprint. And they didn't want to upset her delicate sensibilities. To which I said, that's a bunch of bullshit, because Maria Shriver likes to call herself a journalist. And any journalist worth their salt would never want to trample on anyone's First Amendment right to express themselves in the pages of a book or their ideas, no matter how confrontational or upsetting. I also had a fellow author decline to give me a blurb for the book saying that this person, I will not gender this person was too afraid of upsetting Maria Shriver, which to me I was like, are you kidding? Upset Maria Shriver? Who cares? So that will lead us to Jack Schlossberg. I've been dying to do this for a very long time, and I'm so happy this platform has afforded me this. And it is my fervent hope that this winds up in Jack Schlossberg's Instagram feed, because he went after me personally a couple of months ago after I wrote a story, a column for the Daily Mail in which I basically said, why isn't Caroline Kennedy coming to get her son? Because his social media accounts and his trolling of people who are really far more accomplished and intelligent than he is. By the way, this is a 32 year old man who has no real job and spends his days filming himself for Instagram. And I mean, it's like, it's almost. I'm not saying he is, but it's like watching somebody who's like bipolar and in a manic face and they can't stop doing something like posting, posting, posting, and they speak in ways that actually make zero sense, even though he'll remind you more than once he's been to Harvard twice, you guys, twice. And it's not like he's a legacy or anything, but anyway, he went after me personally after I wrote a column basically saying this is the kind of Kennedy that the family used to like, lobotomize and hide. Ask, not read about Rosemary. And anyway, he's out there making an absolute ass of himself. There was a story in Page Six that I just loved, and it basically said that Jack, JFK's grandson is doing more harm to the Kennedy name than the rest of them combined. That's coming from Kennedy family members, and that says a lot. Again, when you're talking about a family that has unalived women who were inconvenient, left someone to drown or die. She didn't drown. She suffocated in three feet of water. That says a lot. He then went on to social media and started calling me Names, Okay? Like, it's gonna take more than that, Jack. It's gonna take more than that, Jack. Calling me names. I'll repeat it for you. Because he thought it was witty. He called me Maureen Vagine. I guess he thought my name rhymes with, like, a female body part that by definition should be something we mock and laugh about. Which, you know, by the way, I've never understood that. I've never frankly understood why the P word, the word pussy is supposed to be sort of a. A put down in the culture. I mean, women give birth, you know, we are incredibly powerful because of that bodily part that men don't possess. So, you know, fuck you. Anyway, Jack's been on Instagram for a couple of reasons. Number one, he is loudly taking a very brave, determined stance. We're not talking Israel versus Palestine. We're talking the Met Gala. And he is telling us that he is boycotting the Met Gala. And you can watch a little bit of this from his Instagram.

[Jack Schlossberg]

Hey, Anna Wintourer, I'm sorry, but I'm boycotting the Met Gala this year. I can't go in good conscience with so much happening around the world and at home. It's just not the time. It's not the time for a party like that. So I'm calling on everybody to boycott the Met Gala. It's not the time. Thank you, guys. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Thank you all so much. Thank you. No, thank you.

[Maureen Callahan]

Anyway, okay, enough of him. Enough of him. Enough. This is another thing he does. He just says the same thing, like, over and over and over because he really doesn't have anything to say. Number one, as per news reports, he was not invited, okay? That's why he's boycotting it. Number two, can we please look at a photo of Jack with his mommy at the Met Gala a few years ago? You guys, look at the dress that Caroline Kennedy is wearing now. I am sure I can't prove it. I don't know the actual receipts, but I'm sure that Anna Wintour put her in that dress because every attendee has to have their look approved by Anna. And so, first of all, that's how, like, grubby Caroline Kennedy and her kid are. They're, like, willing to have Anna Wintour tell them what they can and cannot wear. I mean, she's political royalty, don't you know? And secondly, look at this. She looks like a Japanese cake exploded. Or she actually looks like a couch exploded. It's sort of like the version of Kim K's dress. When she went with Kanye that first year. This is an epic troll. This is an epic, epic troll. And her date is her layabout, useless Nepo baby son, who, not for nothing, was hired by Anna Wintour over the summer to be Vogue's political correspondent. And look at the tongue bathing he got for this, I believe. Did Annie Leibovitz shoot this? Somebody big. We're looking at Jack on the floor in what looks like a newsroom next to a Xerox machine, rolling around in Xeroxes of his own face. He proceeded. I think he maybe wrote one or two columns, by which I mean, I know how this works. I've seen it all. I see it all the time. These celebrities get these bylines, but what they do is they call an editor, they talk to an editor, and an editor puts them into a cogent piece of writing that is semi publishable. And he instead went on Instagram. And let's watch him explain to us why he feels the need to go live.

[Jack Schlossberg]

Hey, everybody. Hey, everybody.

[Mark Halperin]

Hey.

[Jack Schlossberg]

Welcome, everybody. Hey. You know, this is unplanned. I didn't plan any of this. I just decided to go live. I've never been live. I've never been live. Actually, that's not true. One time, I chugged a monster. Live told me about 2018. I think live is important. I think live is growing. I think live is the future. So that's why I'm going live today. Now, you may be wondering, why are you going live?

[Ted Cruz]

What's up?

[Maureen Callahan]

Well, I wanted to show you that amount of footage because it ratifies my earlier point that all he does is repeat stuff. There's no actual content or original thought behind it. I'm going live. I'm going live. It's important to go live. I think live is growing. It's important to grow. What are you talking about? Why are you clogging up my goddamn feed with your bullshit? You're not bright, you're not talented. You have nothing to offer except your name, which, sir, frankly, is in the toilet. Why don't you go get a job and be a productive member of society instead of talking like a child to an audience that you think adores you? Oh, by the way, I love this for him. Alan Dershowitz is reportedly suing him for an online troll, and it couldn't happen to a better guy. And I hope Alan Dershowitz takes this kid for whatever he's worth, which we all know is mommy's money. Next up, before we go to break, I want to remind you guys that Listen, I've been getting, I read all the emails, all the dms. I'm responding to as many of them as I can, as quickly as I can. And God bless you because this is a problem so many people, including Jack Schlossberg, would love to have.

[Megyn Kelly]

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[Ted Cruz]

And now joining me on Next up, our first episode, the Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Senator, very grateful to you for making time.

[Mark Halperin]

Mark, great to be with you. Thanks for having me.

[Ted Cruz]

You spoke the other day about the two tariff paths that you and the President and some other your colleagues discussed about a path that had the tariffs be short term and effective leverage and tariffs, I'll paraphrase and lead to international calamity. As we sit here on the 100th day of the President's administration, how are you feeling about the prospects that he's solidly on path one?

[Mark Halperin]

Look, I very much hope he's on path one. Frankly, there are voices within the administration that are advocating for both directions and there's a real difference of opinion within the administration on that front. I think President Trump has an historic opportunity, an opportunity to use the leverage and he's got leverage no other president has had because he has credibly threatened these tariffs. Suddenly, our trading partners desperately want to cut deals and want to dramatically reduce the tariffs they charge on US Goods and services. In exchange for President Trump lifting the tariffs, he's announced if we sit here, Mark, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days from now, and the outcome is that tariffs worldwide have gone down massively. That is an incredible and an historic victory for the United States. It's very much the path that I am urging the president to go down. There's another path, and there's some vocal people in the administration advocating it, that don't see the tariffs as leverage. They don't see them as means to an end. They see the tariffs as the end, and they want them to be a permanent feature of our economic system. The United States having very, very high tariffs, our trading partners all having very high retaliatory tariffs. I think that would be a terrible outcome. I think that would be terrible for my home state of Texas. I think it would be terrible for the country. And I'll tell you candidly, I don't know which path we're going to go down. I am trying very hard, and I'm repeatedly urging the president go down path number one, but he's got voices that are urging path number two as well. And so I think that uncertainty is going to persist for some time.

[Ted Cruz]

You and I have not led exactly parallel lives since we met in the 2000 Bush campaign, but we're both focused on being dads. We both host video programs, and we both sometimes look in wonder at the Trump administration and try to figure out exactly what's going on. And the last thing is, you and I are both talking regularly to owners of large small businesses and CEOs of corporations, probably some of the same people who are really worried about PATH to paint a picture. If your influence doesn't pervade, and those the administration agree with you, what does PATH to look like in Q2, Q3, Q4 this year for the American economy and the American family?

[Mark Halperin]

Look, I think if we see high tariffs in perpetuity, you see a lot of businesses, their costs go up dramatically. I think you'd see businesses going out of business. I think you'd see prices going up significantly. I think there's a real risk of going into a recession, all of which is a terrible outcome. I don't want to see that happen. But I want to underscore. You know, it's interesting, there's been a fair amount of press coverage saying, oh, Cruz is critical of the Trump tariffs. Let me be very clear. I think Trump has an opportunity to do something that no other president in our lifetimes has done, which is to have real leverage to finally get our trading partners to lower the barriers they have to US Goods and services. President Trump is exactly right that there are lots of countries across this globe that trade ridiculously, unfairly with us, that we open up our market wide open to them, and they put huge barriers that stop us from selling our goods and services in their country. And listen, it's not complicated what President Trump's negotiating strategy is. He often will walk up, smack someone in the head with a two by four and then negotiate from there. And then with the tariffs, he's announced he's done the smack. Now what I've been urging him to do is cut the deals, come and cut the deals, get the other countries to dramatically lower, lower their barriers. And I will say it will be a rich irony if Donald J. Trump ends up being the greatest free trade president of our lifetimes. But I think that's entirely possible. If he ends up negotiating some phenomenal deals. I hope that's the path we go down.

[Ted Cruz]

And what people misunderstand is that's his goal. And as you said, there are plenty of people around him who share the Cruise vision of how this should go. And they hope as you do that he takes that path. I could talk to you about terrorists for an hour because that's the kind of guy I am. But let's move on. Let's move on to reconciliation. Big debate within your conference and on the House side about spending cuts. People want big cuts. They want to prove that you're a fiscally responsible party. But as you know, the number of political fights that get picked every time you cut anything or restrain the rate of growth is very big. What are the big spending restraints you would like to see personally? Not what the conference would like to see. What are the big spending restraints you would like to see?

[Mark Halperin]

Look, I think we will see significant spending cuts. How broad they are, I don't know. I do think too much has been given to the level in the budget resolution of the House versus the Senate. I think at the end of the day, what matters is what's actually in the reconciliation package that passes. I can tell you in the Senate, there are a number of us who are arguing that we've got to rein back from the massive excesses that Covid produced, that the COVID pandemic became an excuse to increase federal spending by about 40%. It was a massive spending binge. And Washington being Washington, when the pandemic was over, the spending didn't stop. And what we're doing, I think, is irresponsible. I think we need to see real leadership reining it in. I think we're seeing the president in particular, Elon Musk and Doge showing Real leadership saying, hey, we can rein back a lot of this waste, fraud and abuse, but where it falls exactly. It's going to come down committee by committee in the Senate and House. And so we'll see. I'm going to be pressing a number of us for doing more and the question is going to be what gets 50 votes in the Senate and what gets 218 votes in the House.

[Ted Cruz]

But Senator, give me a couple specific programs with dollar amounts of where you would like to see cuts, not what's going to happen, not what the process will yield. But if they said, Senator Cruz, you decide where would you like to see big cuts at what dollar figures?

[Mark Halperin]

So listen, I am not laying out specific cuts that I'm advocating. And in the Senate, different people are focusing on different aspects of what they're leaning in on. So on that particular issue, the person who's probably been most vocal on that has been Ron Johnson. Ron Johnson, every week at lunch lays out, goes back to, for example, the 2019 budget. And what Ron Johnson is advocating is rather than start with where we are currently and cut, he says, let's go back to the 2019 budget before the pandemic and let's plus it up for population and inflation and let's hold Social Security and Medicare harmless but reduce everything else from there. I think that's a sensible way to do it, building it up from where we were rather than cutting where we are. That being said, I'll tell you, you got 53 Republican senators. So different, different senators focus on different aspects of reconciliation. I'm focusing on lots of different aspects of reconciliation. One of which that I'm focusing on is spectrum and making more electromagnetic spectrum available to the private sector. Why is that? Because my number one priority is jobs. And there are very few policies that can make can produce more jobs in the private sector than freeing up spectrum for investment. I think it's critical that America win the race to 5G and 6G. And what's interesting is, is by, by auctioning off spectrum, not only am I not spending money, but a spectrum auction generates about $100 billion in real revenue to the federal government from auctioning off that spectrum, plus the billions of investment and the hundreds of thousands of new jobs. So that's been a big priority of mine, is fighting for spectrum to be in reconciliation. I'm also fighting for multiple different elements to be included in reconciliation, including no taxes on tips, which is my legislation, including eliminating the cfpb, the zeroing out its budget, and the regulations that the CFPB puts in place I think are incredibly harmful to job creation. And two other things that I'm fighting to include are school choice. I have legislation that creates a federal tax credit for contributions to scholarship granting organizations in the states and also looking at creating investment accounts for children when they are born. All of those are elements that are part of the discussion. The line by line spending cuts. I'm going to support as big and bold a spending cuts as we can do. But in terms of creating the line by line, I've let others focus on that, whereas I'm focused on. On. On the issues I just laid out.

[Ted Cruz]

As I know you think school choice is civil rights issue of our time. And I agree with you on that. And I think it's incredible what you've done in Texas. And as you have said, most senators don't get involved in state legislative business. But that's an issue you feel so strongly about, that you've done. And it's a fascinating case study and how a federal official can actually impact their own constituents through the state. I love watching your podcast career video podcast career. And people haven't sampled the show. You should. It's fascinating. And again, I knew you when you were a Bush staffer. Sort of watch the trajectory. Sure. United States Senator, whatever. Successful video podcast host. That's something. Now, I watched a lot of your episodes and I want to show you one thing and I want to get your reaction to it. Guys, this is, this is a 101.

[Mark Halperin]

How real is the prospect of. Of killer robots annihilating humanity?

[Ted Cruz]

20% likely, maybe 10%.

[Mark Halperin]

On what time frame?

[Ted Cruz]

5 to 10 years.

[Mark Halperin]

So soon. Like you, you. You see a world where that's possible.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah. All right, so reacting to what guests say, live as. As I do right here, very difficult. But I want you to just be a little introspective here. One of the smartest people ever tells you that within 10 years there's a decent percent chance that robots will kill us all. I thought you were a little subdued, frankly.

[Mark Halperin]

Well, I was subdued, but to be clear, teasing out the question, what's the chance that we're all going to die? And to have, as you point out, one of the most brilliant men who ever lived, say 10 to 20% in five to 10 years that I sort of figured I'd let those words carry the weight on their own.

[Ted Cruz]

All right, that was a good choice for a host. I would have jumped up screaming and maybe raced from the room. But you chose a different tag. It was kind of, kind of compelling. I want to hear about work, family balance for you. Your state's relatively far from Washington. You've chosen to add this, what for some people would be a full time job co hosting the show. So talk about how you're currently balancing being a dad and a husband with your two full time jobs.

[Mark Halperin]

Yeah, look, it's the worst part of the job is the price that your family pays. So our girls right now, they're 14 and 17. We've got two teenage girls at home, eighth grade and 11th grade. And my typical schedule, we live in Houston. So Heidi and the girls are in Houston. They go to school in Houston. And the usual schedule is that I fly to D.C. monday mornings, and I'm here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then usually I fly home Thursday nights. Fridays, I'll do day trips across Texas. Saturdays, I'll often do day trips across Texas. And then I try to keep Sundays as a down day for the family. That's rough. It means you miss a whole lot of things. You miss a lot of volleyball games. You miss a lot of dance performances. You know, that's. That's a really difficult aspect of it. It's also tough. Tough on the girls. Look at any kid. Any person wants to be known for who they are. And one of the realities in the heavily polarized world we're in is, listen, politics is very different from how it used to be. Right now, the two sides, they hate each other's guts. And there is an anger and vitriol that I really think is unfortunate. I wish we learned to get along with each other and not hate the other side the way it is now. But, you know, I'll give you an illustration. 2017, the 2017 World Series. So I went to Games 3, 4 and 5 in Houston. Game 3, I took my dad. Really cool to take your dad to a World Series. We had season tickets to the Astros when I was a kid, so I got to take my dad to that. Game four, I took Heidi, by the way, that was a complete waste. Heidi is not in the baseball at all. She asked me if the Astros were going to score a touchdown. I turned her. I said, okay, sweetheart, I'm offended that you're in this stadium right now, that you're taking the seat of a real baseball fan. But game five, I took Catherine, my youngest daughter, now Katherine. It was the day after she had turned seven, and it was game five, you may remember, is the game that went to 1:30 in the morning. It's still the greatest game in the history of the Houston Astros. What's interesting, Mark, is that game. I had no security. It was just me and Catherine. The two of us were dancing and hugging, and it was 130 in the morning. And I told her, sweetheart, you don't appreciate this now, but you'll tell your grandkids you were at this game. And I think about that now. Yeah, I go to a lot of games, but. But now I always have a security detail with me because just the nature of the threat profile. You can't go to a game like that without security. 2017, barely even thought about it. That's an illustration. And unfortunately, that puts a real price on the kids. By far the worst part of the job.

[Ted Cruz]

One last question, because I know you got to go. You've run for president, and even before then, you were a student, as I am, of what it takes to run for president. Of all the Democrats who are discussed as potential 2028 presidential candidates, who do you see as the most formidable? To win a general election.

[Mark Halperin]

To win a general election. Okay. That's a difference. You know, obviously, you've got an iterative process in a primary. I'll say this. I think if we had. If in 2024 there had been an open primary.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah.

[Mark Halperin]

I think the top four on the Democrats would have been Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg. And I think in an open primary, I actually think in 24, Elizabeth Warren would have won that.

[Bill]

That.

[Mark Halperin]

I think Elizabeth Warren right now is the ID of the Democrat Party.

[Ted Cruz]

But who's. I appreciate that, but because I know you got to go. Who's the most formidable to win a general election? Who. Do you look at the way Republic Democrats looked at George Bush in 98, 99, and said, if that person's their nominee, going to be tough to beat.

[Mark Halperin]

Oh, look, someone who is more moderate or reasonable. So you look at names like a Mark Kelly or a Josh Shapiro or an Andy Beshear. I think they could be formidable in a general. I don't know that they have a prayer of winning a Democrat primary. Gavin Newsom is clearly incandescently ambitious, so he is going to try to morph into whatever he thinks the Democrat primary base wants. I don't know that it's impossible that AOC gets the nomination in 2028. I do think the ID of the Democrat Party continues to be far left, so I don't see them going towards an attractive general election candidate right now. I think the crazies are still driving the train.

[Ted Cruz]

All right. The incandescently ambitious Gavin Newsom will be my guest on Thursday and your podcast and his are ranked neck and neck, so maybe your appearance will push it over the top. Senator, very, very grateful to you for joining and we'll continue to congrats on the pod Mark. Thank you Senator.

[Megyn Kelly]

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[Mark Halperin]

Go to SiriusXM.com MKShow to subscribe and get three months free. That's SiriusXM.com MKShow and get three months free offer details apply.

[Maureen Callahan]

When the LA wildfires broke out and then news broke, the really important stuff that Ben Affleck dropped everything, raced over to Jen Garner's house, scooped her and the kids up and spirited them off to safety, I thought to myself, how is JLO reacting to this news? It cannot be. Well, my Second thought is I need to call Bill and talk to him about this because he, like me, loves to dive in to the human psychology behind these people who otherwise present themselves as so perfect and rich and powerful. And Ben Affleck is one of our favorite talking points since he is out promoting his new movie the Accountant 2. I thought, what better time to bring in Bill and talk some Ben Affleck and other celebrity news. So welcome, Bill, and thank you for doing the show.

[Bill]

Thank you for having me. Let me congratulate you on your show. I listened to the first show the other day. Absolutely amazing.

[Maureen Callahan]

Thanks, Bill. Thank you. Oh, my God. So first I want to start off by showing the audience like Ben Affleck's greatest hits. First we're going to look at the. This is one of the greatest paparazzi photos ever taken. And were Andy Warhol still alive, this would be a silkscreen print that would go for millions of Christie's. The paparazzi photo of a fed up Jennifer Garner in Ray Bans. I think they're Ray Bans driving Ben Affleck to rehab. And he makes her stop for Jack in the Box or fast food. She can't even look at him. She is so disgusted. She's pushing the food, the bag of food in his face while looking down. This shot said everything about their relationship. As we know, Ben went on to marry the quote, unquote love of his life, Jennifer Lopez, who they were engaged 20 years ago. They like to say the media broke them up. What really broke them up was Ben went to a strip club while he was shooting a movie in Canada. And I will never forget the details of this story because I remember it was like my JFK assassination moment. I was on the beach reading the National Enquirer. It was this story about Ben at a strip club with his castmates, who included Christian Slater. They were partying. He performed a sex act on a stripper in the club in front of everybody. They all went back to the mansion where they were staying. Somebody walked by a bathroom at some point and saw one of the strippers shaving Christian Slater's back. And I was like, these are the details that really make a story sing, you know? So let's take a look at JLo and Ben maybe in the first flush of their newly rekindled romance. They're newlyweds. They're on the red carpet strutting their stuff, showing how happy they are. Let's take a look at some of those moments in recent memory. So right now we're looking at I believe this is one of Jen's premieres. So. Look at him get in her face. Look at, like, he's a big guy. This guy's like, six three, I think. And it's her night, and he's getting in her face. It's like, yeah, you can see the name of the movie. It's the Mother. I think that was hers. Here we are at the Grammys. Oh, I love this one. Ben, his best grumpy face is on. They don't know the cameras are on them. And she basically elbows him and is like, hey, look alive, okay? This is her crowd, not his. This is her work event. He needs to show up and support her. And he is being so such a pill, by the way. Whenever it's one of Ben's events, it. He's always on. Okay, now we're walking to the car. This is towards the end of the relationship. And you're gonna see why he opens the car door for Jen. Jennifer Garner. Sorry. JLo. I get confused. Okay, she steps inside. Very daintily steps inside. Watch the slam. The arm. The arm, like, flies up. It's the most epic. You. He knows the cameras are there. He sees them. He's talking to the paparazzi at the end of that clip. And that, ladies, is what it's like to date Ben Affleck. Bill, your thoughts?

[Bill]

First thing I have to say is I never heard that part about Christian Slater before. I mean, who gets. Who gets their back shaved by a stripper? I just. I never heard that one before.

[Maureen Callahan]

Well, I mean, it was like 4am you know? I mean, imagine what it was like there. But, like, that's like, who exactly. Like, hey, want to shave my back? Like, that stripper was earning her money that night. Okay, anyway, go on.

[Bill]

The. The door slam. That's just in front of people. I've. I've just given up, you know? And it's funny coming from a guy who's, you know, he. He could be a pretty good actor on the role he's taking, and he just can't do it. It's not there. He's just given up, giving up on life at that moment. Slamming the door in front everyone knows fully well it's going to be on the front page of every paper. Just, I'm done. I'm giving. I've given up. And here it is for everyone to see.

[Maureen Callahan]

Showing so much contempt for a woman who made an entire documentary about how much she loves him. Like, that's the thing. Like, don't date Ben Affleck. There was this great story. Well, okay, before we get into the latest quotes from some insiders who had some really juicy stuff to share with the New York Post, I want to go back to this clip of Ben Affleck on Howard Stern because now he's trying to win back Jennifer Garner. He has been leaking that he would take her back in a heartbeat if she would have him. This woman is in a seven year relationship with another man. But this was Ben on Stern about like two years ago, talking about why he had such a problem with alcohol. We're probably at each other's throats.

[Ted Cruz]

I'd probably still be drinking.

[Mark Halperin]

You know, like, it was part of why I started drinking alcohol because I was trapped.

[Maureen Callahan]

So, Bill, you've been married for a while now. You're coming up on your 12 year anniversary. So congratulations on that. Let's say, God forbid you split up with your wife. Would you tell anyone, let alone Howard Stern, that your lovely wife drove you to drink?

[Bill]

I mean, I don't, I don't understand how you even discuss it publicly. It, it's, it's so private. Right. That's one, you know, that would be, I would assume, what you consider your greatest personal failure. And you would want to.

[Maureen Callahan]

And I would mean the marriage ending, not alcoholism, right?

[Bill]

No, not the alcoholism. No, that's, that's a struggle that people face all the time. But to blame that on the mother of your children publicly put that out there for all to see, for eternity. They're going to see it over and over again. It just, you know, to me it goes to show the level of selfishness and, and just self importance that he has clearly doesn't, I mean, he banged the nanny. He clearly doesn't think.

[Maureen Callahan]

Allegedly, allegedly, she did get a drop top Lexi out of it, Alexis, which she told us about, but he's always denied that, but go on.

[Bill]

Allegedly. My, my mistake. Yeah. I mean, you know, bring that back to the, to the pictures with Jennifer Lopez on a big night for her and he's, you know, where she's elbowing him to smile. I mean, you, a person that can't even put a smile out there. It, I, I don't know, I don't know what goes on inside someone like that with some like in his head. I, I, I can't place it. There are times where you see, he looks like a great guy. He's out there smiling. He can be very charismatic. He's a great looking guy. He's had some great movies. But then you see these awful moments.

[Maureen Callahan]

That's why he's so fascinating, because I am also a fan of his. I may sound like I'm not, but I am. For a long time. I had a huge shame crush on Ben Affleck, but he like one of my. So I love the town. I think that's an incredible movie. I thought he did an incredible job with Argo. I love that movie. He also did one of the greatest DVD commentaries of all time. For Armageddon.

[Bill]

I asked Michael why it was easier to train oil drillers to become astronauts than it was to train astronauts to become oil drillers. And he told me to shut the fuck up. So that was the end of that talk. He was like, you know, Ben, just shut up, okay?

[Maureen Callahan]

You know, this is a real plan, all right?

[Bill]

I was like, you mean it's a real plan at NASA to try train oil drillers?

[Maureen Callahan]

He was like, just shut your mouth. And it was so funny. And you can see how this guy would be such a sparkling conversationalist. He displayed like self awareness and self deprecation. And he pointed something out that is painfully obvious about a movie that kind of put him on the map as a matinee idol. Shows he has intelligence. And then he does stuff like this.

[Bill]

Yeah, it's. I. You go back to just, you know, the self importance piece of it. It's just he has to put himself out there publicly. There's. I think there's a public image that he is so concerned with. And I think, you know, maybe to a degree, part of that door slamming with Jennifer Lopez was, you know, the masculinity part where he couldn't be viewed as the weaker person in the relationship, the one without the power. So that was a public display of. It may look like she's running things, but I'm tired of her crap. And here it is for everybody to see.

[Maureen Callahan]

Yes, yes. I want to read this quote before we go into our theory as to why Ben cut and run so quickly with JLo. Because his usual MO is to force the woman in his life into leaving him by treating her like shit. So this is a quote from someone who knows Affleck in this. It was this incredible story in the New York Post. It was like a Sunday. Great juicy read quote. The dirty secret is that he, Ben, he's the diva. He's the one who likes attention and calls the paps and manipulates women. He love bombs you. And once he's got you, he gets bored and leaves. It's cruel. And anyone who remembers what he did. So this guy, again, we're promoting a movie. And he loves. His favorite thing is to love to run around and say, I have no idea why everybody's so fascinated with my private life. Like, nothing, nothing to see here. Anna de Armas, this up and coming starlet at the time, she's building a nice career for himself, for herself. Left him and he had one of his children, by the way, again, we all know what their children look like. I shouldn't really know what they look like. I think he had one of his children take a life size cardboard cutout of Ana de Armas and dump it in his trash containers in full view of the paparazzi. Nothing to see here. Okay, so the diddy of it all. Because we're going to get into diddy as well. Share your theory, Bill, as to why Ben Affleck chose a moment in which Jennifer Lopez was in Europe to flee the $65 million marital home in the metaphorical dead of night and move into a $20 million rental. Closer to who else, Jen Garner.

[Bill]

To go back to the comment you made earlier, allegedly thought, you know, I don't. Just a wild theory. You don't run off in the middle of the night for no reason. There is something that scares you into it, if I'm not mistaken. Right about that time, there were reports, rumors surfacing of a female, a list superstar who may have been witness to partaking in some of the freak offs and might have, you know, where some of the bodies are buried, so to speak. It's a scary thing to be involved with. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there right now that would love to remain nameless and faceless through this whole trial.

[Maureen Callahan]

I couldn't agree with you more. I think that because it so goes against his normal way, as we just spoke about, of exiting a relationship. Like he got the F out of there and he never does that. And then so in this new GQ interview, he's on the COVID this cover story and he's like super, like they've sort of made him look like kind of a Bob Evans super producer Hollywood type. The first question in this profile is speaking of tabloids, the FBI visited your house. And he gives this like lengthy run on explanation. Explanation which has two different reasons as to why the FBI showed up at his personal residence. And none of it really makes any sense. And I think there's probably only one reason the feds would show up at Ben Affleck's house. With everything that's going on, am I crazy?

[Bill]

My favorite part of that story was Ben Affleck had to call the FBI to find out why they were there. I mean.

[Maureen Callahan]

Oh, my God. That was amazing. That was amazing.

[Bill]

I don't know how one knows to call the FBI.

[Ted Cruz]

FBI?

[Bill]

Or how to get in contact with them. I mean, do you Google them? Do you have a direct line? I don't know.

[Maureen Callahan]

That is amazing.

[Megyn Kelly]

Thanks for listening to the Megyn Kelly show. No bs, no agenda, and no fear.