RFK Jr. Spars with Dem Senators Trying to Smear Him at Confirmation Hearing, with Michael Knowles and Link Lauren | Ep. 994

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Megyn Kelly Show – Episode 994

Title: RFK Jr. Spars with Dem Senators Trying to Smear Him at Confirmation Hearing, with Michael Knowles and Link Lauren
Host: SiriusXM – Megyn Kelly
Guests: Michael Knowles, Link Lauren
Release Date: January 29, 2025

---

1. Introduction

In Episode 994 of The Megyn Kelly Show, host Megyn Kelly delves into the intense confirmation hearing of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Accompanied by guests Michael Knowles and Link Lauren, Kelly provides a comprehensive analysis of the proceedings, highlighting the tactics employed by Democratic senators to undermine RFK Jr.'s nomination and exploring the broader implications for American health policy.

---

2. Overview of the Confirmation Hearing

Megyn Kelly opens the discussion by recounting the fervent atmosphere on Capitol Hill, emphasizing the strong support RFK Jr. received from the audience, which included numerous parents advocating for improved health policies. She contrasts this with the adversarial stance taken by Democratic senators, who focused on discrediting RFK Jr.'s credibility and positions.

---

3. Democrats' Attempts to Undermine RFK Jr.

a. Vaccine Mandates and Misrepresentation

One of the central battles in the hearing revolved around RFK Jr.'s stance on vaccines. Democratic senators persistently painted him as an anti-vaccine advocate intent on banning all vaccines. Kelly criticizes this portrayal, noting that RFK Jr. has consistently opposed vaccine mandates and advocated for more research rather than outright bans.

Notable Quote:

Megyn Kelly [05:25]: "He's very against vaccine mandates and in some cases he wants more research being done before we push these vaccines on kids."

b. The Onesie Incident

A particularly memorable moment was Senator Bernie Sanders' questioning of RFK Jr. regarding a baby onesie labeled "unvaxed and unafraid," produced by RFK Jr.'s nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense Fund.

Notable Exchange:

Bernie Sanders [04:20]: "Can you tell us now that you will now that you are pro vaccine, that you're going to have your organization take these products off the market?"
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [04:49]: "I'm supportive of vaccines. I want good science and I want to protect."

Kelly highlights Sanders' focus on the onesie as a distraction from more substantive policy discussions, mocking the disproportionate attention given to such symbolic items over RFK Jr.'s actual policy proposals.

Notable Quote:

Megyn Kelly [05:25]: "We spent actual time on a baby Onesie in today's HHS confirmation hearing... America wants the truth."

---

4. Analysis by Michael Knowles and Link Lauren

a. Michael Knowles' Insights

Michael Knowles commends RFK Jr. for handling the hearing adeptly, particularly noting RFK Jr.'s ability to deflect personal attacks while focusing on substantive health issues. He criticizes Democratic senators for prioritizing smear tactics over meaningful policy debates.

Notable Quote:

Michael Knowles [13:34]: "The advantage of having a guy who was a Democrat for his whole life be your nominee is that his supporters were Democrats for their whole lives and Democrats are a little bit unruly."

b. Link Lauren's Perspective

Link Lauren echoes Knowles' sentiments, emphasizing the effectiveness of RFK Jr.'s campaign strategy in addressing the audience's concerns about chronic diseases. She underscores the disconnect between senators' tactics and the voters' priorities.

Notable Quote:

Link Lauren [64:08]: "These senators should spend less time talking to lobbyists and donors, more time talking to their constituents..."

---

5. Key Moments and Quotes

Throughout the episode, several key moments and quotes stand out, illustrating the contentious nature of the confirmation hearing and the strategies employed by both sides.

Notable Quotes:

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [07:58]: "President Trump has asked me... it is an existential threat economically to our military or health..."

• Sheldon Whitehouse [15:33]: "Do you believe, as you've said, that antidepressants cause school shootings?"

• Ron Wyden [54:02]: "You keep citing the Trump administration and... Are you just going to follow what they say?"

• Michael Knowles [26:30]: "He was the canary in the coal mine. It was basically very easy for all the other controversial nominees..."

---

6. RFK Jr.’s Defense and Position

RFK Jr. adeptly defends his positions, particularly his commitment to ending the chronic disease epidemic and addressing the influence of corporate interests in health policies. He emphasizes his long history of litigation against Big Pharma and environmental toxin producers, positioning himself as an outsider willing to challenge entrenched industries.

Notable Quote:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [27:10]: "I don't care. I'm not here because I want a position or a job. I have a very good life and a happy family. This is something I don't need. I want to do this because we're going to fix it."

---

7. Influence of Corporate Lobbying

A significant theme in the podcast is the role of corporate lobbying, particularly by pharmaceutical companies, in influencing legislative outcomes. Kelly and her guests argue that many Democratic senators are beholden to Big Pharma, which undermines genuine efforts to reform health policies.

Notable Quote:

Michael Knowles [28:10]: "When you litigate against these companies, you get a PhD in corporate capture and how to unravel it."

---

8. Legislative Actions Discussed

a. Trump’s Executive Order on Trans Surgeries for Minors

Kelly discusses President Trump's executive order aimed at halting federal funding for transgender surgeries and procedures for minors. She lauds the order as a significant victory against what she describes as harmful medical practices.

Notable Quote:

Michael Knowles [43:54]: "This is a major important victory."

b. The Lakin Riley Act

The podcast highlights the bipartisan support for the Lakin Riley Act, legislation aimed at enforcing stricter immigration controls to prevent criminals from being reintroduced into the country. Kelly underscores the moral imperative behind the act, tying it to recent tragic events.

Notable Quote:

Megyn Kelly [52:24]: "This is not something you would celebrate. It's just her death was not meaningless."

---

9. Critique of Democratic Senators and Related Figures

Kelly and her guests critically assess the actions of prominent Democratic senators during the hearing, accusing them of prioritizing corporate interests over public health and effectively sabotaging RFK Jr.'s nomination through insubstantial attacks.

Notable Criticisms:

• Elizabeth Warren: Accused of shifting her stance to protect Big Pharma interests instead of challenging them.

• Mark Warner: Described as expressing blatant disdain for RFK Jr., undermining the proceedings.

• Sheldon Whitehouse: Praised for his brief but impactful remarks, though his overall stance remains ambiguous.

---

10. Caroline Kennedy and Family Smear Campaigns

A contentious segment involves criticisms directed at Caroline Kennedy and her son Jack Schlossberg, who have publicly attacked RFK Jr. Kelly and Lauren denounce these actions as baseless and damaging to RFK Jr.'s reputation, framing them as desperate attempts to tarnish his image using unwarranted personal attacks.

Notable Exchange:

Elizabeth Warren [34:13]: "Bobby was able to pull himself out of illness and disease. I admire the discipline that took..."

Link Lauren [68:06]: "I found it really embarrassing to weaponize his past issues with addiction against him."

---

11. Conclusion and Future Outlook

The episode concludes with an optimistic outlook on RFK Jr.'s chances of confirmation despite facing opposition from both Democratic senators and some conservative Republicans influenced by corporate lobbying. Kelly anticipates continued challenges but remains confident in RFK Jr.'s ability to enact meaningful health reforms.

Notable Quote:

Michael Knowles [57:18]: "If the man did nothing more in office than he's done in the first nine days of his second term, frankly, he would still be a successful president."

---

Final Thoughts

Episode 994 of The Megyn Kelly Show provides an in-depth and critical examination of the confirmation hearing of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the HHS Secretary role. Through incisive commentary and analysis, Kelly and her guests shed light on the political maneuvering, corporate influences, and personal attacks that shaped the day's proceedings. The episode underscores the tension between public health advocacy and entrenched corporate interests, while also highlighting the challenges faced by nominees like RFK Jr. in navigating a polarized political landscape.

---

Note: All quotes and timestamps are derived from the provided transcript for accuracy in representation.

Transcript

[Megyn Kelly]

For 140 years, MultiCare has been in.

[Michael Knowles]

Washington prioritizing long term solutions, partnering with.

[Megyn Kelly]

Local communities and expanding access to care. Together, we're building a healthier future. Learn [e-mail] 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 coming to you from Washington, D.C. this afternoon. Fireworks on Capitol Hill today where Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Made the case that he is the man, I mean, indeed, truly like the only man to run the Department of Health and human services in 2025America and implement President Donald Trump's Make America Healthy Again agenda. His opponents didn't get it. Even some of the Republicans didn't get get it. But for the most part, they did. Well, the Republican senators, a couple which I'll go over, were annoying, but the Democrats once again made fools out of themselves. They just, they made fools out of themselves in the same way. They keep looking at Trump and saying, hitler, Nazi, fascist, convicted felon. And everybody's like, screw you, we have a country to save. That's how I felt today watching them go after rfkj. They don't get it. That audience was filled with parents, moms with infants, with little kids, with them trying to send a message to these senators. They're done playing these ridiculous games. Half these senators are on the take with Big Pharma, or Big AG for that matter, and doing Big Pharma's bidding live in the hearing. They don't want rfkj. They don't want somebody who's been suing Big Pharma his entire career. That's who pays their reelection bills. And it was very obvious as you watch them today, they were smearing him. I mean, left and right, those in the press, those who are on the left hand side of the aisle in this hearing, and you know, they weren't even trying to hide it. Basically, they just wanted to make if half this stuff had been said outside of the U.S. senate, they could all be sued for defamation. I mean, it was amazing. Look, I will say this. They didn't go hard personal on him like they did with Pete Hegseth. They could have brought it up. You know, obviously, Bobby Kennedy is a recovering heroin addict. He said he's been sober for 42 years. They could have brought up the personal behavior with women. It's not exactly stellar on the history there. They steer clear of that, which was good. But they men are obsessed with his stance on vaccines Obsessed and like either unwilling or unable to see what he really feels about them. I mean, look, he's not a huge proponent. I think that's fair. But they just wanna paint him as somebody who wants to ban all vaccines. And he doesn't talk about banning at all. He's very against vaccine mandates and in some cases he wants more research being done before we push these vaccines on kids and has joined as a lawyer in some lawsuits against the manufacturers. Look, here's. Here's one of the lowlights of the day. It was actually very funny, so I enjoyed the moment. But this is what we. Instead of talking about what he's going to do to try to get the chemicals out of our food supply, try to work with farmers and ranchers to help them avoid these toxic pesticides in the way that they're using them now and to the measure that they're using them now, instead of talking about that and exactly how he plans to get all of these ultra processed foods out of our food supply or make them just a minor offering as opposed to the dominant thing you see on your shelves and at your school lunches. Instead of spending time on that. The Democrats wanted to talk about baby clothes like Bernie Sanders, who decided to bring up this onesie, which we're putting on the screen now, put out by RFKJ's nonprofit Children's Health Defense Fund, which he's now had to leave because of this appointment. And Bernie Sanders was really upset that there's a baby onesie that reads unvaxed and unafraid. Watch this.

[Bernie Sanders]

Now you're coming before this committee and you say you're pro vaccine. Just want to ask some questions. And yet your organization is making money selling a child's product to parents for 26 bucks, which casts fundamental doubt on the usefulness of vaccines. Can you tell us now that you will now that you are pro vaccine, that you're going to have your organization take these products off the market?

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Senator, I have no power over that organization. I'm not part of it. I resigned from the board.

[Bernie Sanders]

That was just a few months ago. You founded that. You certainly have power. You can make that. Are you supportive of this?

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

I've had nothing to do with.

[Bernie Sanders]

Are you supportive of these onesies?

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

I'm supportive of vaccines.

[Bernie Sanders]

Are you supportive of these, this clothing, which is militantly anti vaccine?

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

I am supportive of vaccines. I want good science and I want to protect.

[Bernie Sanders]

But you will not tell the organization you founded nothing to continue selling that product. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[Megyn Kelly]

We spent actual time on a baby Onesie in today's HHS confirmation hearing, are you supportive of these onesies? America wants the truth. I mean, to be perfectly honest, I prefer the little footed onesies. Keeps their little tootsies warm when you put them in it. What? This is ridiculous. Meanwhile, guarantee you those onesies are selling out like wildfire right now on the Children's Health Defense website. By the way, what does it even mean, unvaxed, you know, and unafraid? It could be about the COVID vaccine, which actually they were telling us should be given to babies and young people. And it's basically just the parents way of saying, you know what? I refuse your mandates and I will make my own decisions for my children. Or maybe it is about the full vaccine schedule that they push on us to give our little kids because there are a lot of parents out there, millions of them in fact, that think it's too much too soon. Why are we giving the Hep C vaccine to babies which prevents STDs? Not a lot of babies in need of that. So whatever he tried to make this into like some federal case against the evil Bobby Kennedy. And you heard Kennedy's response there. Another big moment came when Nevada Senator Kennedy, Catherine Cortez Masto, she's a Dem. And I got news for you, madam. Okay. Your state is getting redder by the second. So I would tread carefully if I were you. And you know what else? It tends to be that the further west the state is, the more Maha is popular. My California friends who've been voting Democrats, some of them their whole lives love Maha. And I guarantee you Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto has a lot of them in her state too. You know, the libs who thought that the right was crazy and was neocon y and wanted to spy on them and they weren't much akin to that. They weren't friendly toward it. They like Maha. And this is the face of Maha, so she better watch it. She decided it'd be super fun to frame RFKJ as just a loser stooge for this Trump administration.

[Elizabeth Warren]

You keep citing the Trump administration and.

[Megyn Kelly]

You'Re just going to follow what they say? Is that what you're doing? You're just a rubber stamp for them in this position.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

President Trump has asked me and the chronic disease epidemic and make America healthy again. And I.

[Megyn Kelly]

The only reason why you're at HHS is that the only reason why then you're at the HHS to address that one issue.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

President Trump has asked me because I'm in a unique position to end that. And that is what I'm doing. And if we don't solve that problem, Senator, all of the other disputes we have about who's paying and whether it's insurance companies, whether it's providers, whether it's HMOs, whether it's patients or families, all of those are moving deck chairs around on the Titanic. This is an existential threat economically to our military or health, to our sense of well being. And it is a priority for President Trump. And that's why he asked me run the agency. And if I'm privileged be confirmed, that's exactly what I'll do.

[Megyn Kelly]

Now, there were some who believed that Cortez Masto could potentially be a yes vote for RFKJ because of the reasons I just stated. I didn't see that today in the room. Doesn't mean she won't eventually do it. But the general wisdom in there was that none of these Dems who might be open to the idea of rfkj, who was a Democrat two minutes ago, that they loved, probably none, will wanna be the deciding vote. So if he loses four Republican votes, then he's going to need one Dem. And, and the wisdom is that not Cortez Masto, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode island is like a lifetime lifelong friend of rfkjs. Some thought maybe he could potentially be that vote. They went to law school together. I'm. I'm pretty sure they were both in each other's weddings. You wouldn't have known that from today. So he's potentially at least another. He didn't beat up on RFKJ the way the others did. He just used his five minutes to go off on the issues in Rhode Island. And I gotta be honest, a lot of what he said I actually agreed with. He was going on and on about the nonsense rules that constrict states when it comes to, for example, elder care and how, you know, you want. If Granny kept calling her Granny, like Granny gets sick and you want to take. And like the caregivers of the family who need a break instead of like providing coverage for a caregiver to come in for a day or two so the family can have a break, they insist that Granny go in an ambulance to the hospital that insurance will pay for, but not the former, which is stupid, as he kept saying. So I gotta say, White House is making some good points. He's a possible on rfkj, but we don't know. And the two absolute worst, absolute worst in the room were Ron Wyden of Oregon, he's the ranking member, meaning the top Democrat on the committee and Mark Warner of Virginia, who I I'm gonna, I. It's tough to say. I'm gonna let you guys be the judge first. I'll get Michael Knowles vote in a, in a bit. We're gonna be joined by link Lauren. He worked on RFKJ's campaign and he's got a lot of, a lot of thoughts on all of that. But first, Michael Knowles is here. He's hosted the Michael Knowles show on the Daily Wire. Increased tariffs on our trade partners, tax cuts and regulation changes. There's a reason why gold is a diversification tactic now more than ever. Birch Gold is releasing their ultimate guide for Gold in the Trump era with a foreword by Donald Trump Jr. To get your free copy along with Birch Gold's free information kit on gold. Text MK to the number 989898. Here are the facts. The national debt continues to increase. Our interest payments on the national debt continue to increase. So gold is an important option and it can be your hedge against a weakened dollar. Birch Gold can convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax sheltered IRA in gold. Text MK to 989-898 for your free copy of the Ultimate Guide for Gold in the Trump era. There's no obligation, just information with an A rating from the Better Business Bureau, countless five star reviews and thousands of happy customers. Find out more about Birch Gold. There is a reason so many people love these guys and take all or just a small part of their existing IRAs and move them over into gold with birch. Text MK to the number 989-898 today. Michael, great to have you. So just like last time you and I did this after hegseth I was in the room. I was seated right behind Cheryl Hines, the wife of RFKJ who must have blown Hollywood's mind for those who didn't know she was married to him to see her, the star of Curb youb Enthusiasm Larry David show right there. And I was totally struck by the amount of enthusiasm in the crowd for him. He's a rock star. That's like as much as the people love Pete, they were military guys. They followed the rules. You know, they were told not to clap and not to make sound and they didn't. The RFKJ Maha crew was like bring it. They were booing people like Elizabeth Warren. Whenever the hecklers got loud they were yelling we love you Bobby. And the woman who is seated couple couple down from me was awesome. She's kept like when When Bobby got on a roll, she was like, tell it. I'm like, this is so much better with her here. So it was kind of fun. Today's was. It was kind of fun. Probably not for Bobby Kennedy. Kennedy, but it was fun for people like me too. Just to see once again, these Democrats have nothing. They just want to inflame, you know, throw arrows. All of it was about conspiracy theorist and anti vaccine freak. That's really where they went with it. What were your thoughts?

[Michael Knowles]

Well, this is the advantage of having a guy who was a Democrat for his whole life be your nominee is that his supporters were Democrats for their whole lives and Democrats are a little bit unruly. And so in this case, that actually redounded to our benefit because they were applauding. I feel really good about Sheldon Whitehouse and I could be proven wrong on this, but they say that jazz is not the notes that they play, but it's the notes that they don't play. And that's how I felt about Sheldon Whitehouse's line of questioning, so called today. What was the one thing he didn't say? He didn't ask RFK a single question. So on the one hand he was really playing up how people are concerned, Mr. Kennedy, and people are afraid of some things you've said. But then Sheldon Whitehouse filibustered himself. Why? Because he didn't want to make RFK answer any questions.

[Link Lauren]

He didn't.

[Michael Knowles]

He didn't want to put him in a bad spot. I think Senator Whitehouse was sending a clear message today to the Democrats and to some of the fence sitting Republicans that he would be a pro Kennedy vote if it comes down to it. The rest of the crew, I thought, didn't really land much of a punch. You had Ron Wyden, who to me sounded a little more like Ron Winan today. Am I right? He was just complaining the whole time. He didn't really land a blow on him. Elizabeth Warren was funny because she first asked Kennedy, do you promise once you leave HHS not to work for the pharmaceutical industry? And he said, yeah, I certainly promised that they wouldn't hire me. I don't like them. And she said, great. Next question. Do you promise not to work against them? And Kennedy basically laughed. He said, hold on, I can't work for them or against them. Can I do anything after I leave hhs? So I don't think that really landed at all. The silliest moment was Tina Smith, a Democrat that I didn't even really know about in the Senate.

[Megyn Kelly]

I think we have this. Is this the SSRI thing?

[Michael Knowles]

The SSRI gal.

[Megyn Kelly]

Stand by, let me play it. And then you take it on the back end. Here she is. So do you believe, as you've said, that antidepressants cause school shootings?

[Sheldon Whitehouse]

This is a. Should be a simple question.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

I don't think anybody can answer that question. And I didn't answer that question. I said it should be.

[Megyn Kelly]

So your answer.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

I said it should be studied along with other potential cultures, culprits. Like, they may cause social media. But I don't know. I would never make. Because there's no science on that.

[Megyn Kelly]

Well, there is, Senator. I mean.

[Link Lauren]

Excuse me.

[Sheldon Whitehouse]

There is, Mr. Kennedy. The science shows that there is no.

[Megyn Kelly]

Link between school shootings and antidepressants.

[Sheldon Whitehouse]

And in fact, most school shooters were.

[Megyn Kelly]

Not even treated with antidepressants.

[Sheldon Whitehouse]

And of those that were, there was no evidence of association.

[Megyn Kelly]

You know, I don't think my question.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Is standard Earth because HIPAA rules. Nobody knows.

[Megyn Kelly]

But the science shows that there's no link between antidepressants and school shooting. Okay, does it. That's. That's an impossibility that they could absolutely rule out that they played any role in any of these. But keep going.

[Michael Knowles]

I loved Kennedy's answer, which is, what are you talking about? There are HIPAA rules. We can't actually go into the medical files of a lot of these shooters. And there has been an association shown with a number of these school shootings. So this woman went on and. And she went on to talk about her own experience with SSRIs. And I thought it really undermined her argument because she was not particularly articulate. She was interrupting him. I thought she sounded downright unhinged. And if her argument was, listen, I've been on powerful psych drugs for a lot of my life, and see, I'm proof that they're all great. There's no question about them. Not the best argument, Senator. So I felt hers really fell flat. No one really landed a blow. The funniest part was at the end when the senators were all itching to get out of the hearing to go vote on a separate matter. And that one senator asked, like, five questions in a row and then said, okay, I gotta go. I don't even wanna stick around to hear the answer. I thought Kennedy was gonna have a lot more trouble when he was first announced as the pick for hhs. But as we said last time on the show, Megan, Pete Hegseth was obviously the canary in the coal mine. He was one of the controversial nominees the controversial nominees are Hegseth Tulsi, Cash Patel, and Bobby Kennedy. They scheduled Pete Hegseth first. Then they had a bunch of boring nominees that we all knew would get through, like Marco Rubio. And then they had the rest of the controversial ones scheduled for later. Hegseth sailed through. It was a little tricky, but there was never any real doubt that he was going to make it through. And so I think it's a lot easier for all the other controversial nominees, including Kennedy. If I were Bobby Kennedy, I'd be feeling very good this afternoon.

[Megyn Kelly]

I would, too. But I do have my eye over on Senator Cassidy on the Republican side, who is a question mark. He's a doctor. To hear him question rfkj, you might think he was a Democrat. He seemed to be laying traps. For him. It was all like, what is your plan to do this within Medicare? What is your plan to do that within Medicaid? Explain the difference between this obscure program every layperson has never heard of and this other. So it seemed to be like a little knowledge test for him. Meanwhile, it's like, that is not why Trump nominated him. Obviously, he will have the help of career bureaucrats over at HHS who can get him up to speed on all these things he'll learn. But it almost seemed like he was trying to embarrass him or maybe create the case for Republicans that Bobby's not qualified for this job. That was my. My feeling. I don't know. But we need Cassidy to be a yes, or he needs to be hearing from Elon Musk's super pac. You've already got Scott Pressler, who got all those Republicans registered in Pennsylvania, saying, I will personally make sure Kennedy suffers electorally or anybody on the Republican side who doesn't vote for him. And these people mean business. Don Junior's got a whole wrangling group of money people who know how to scare these Republican senators. They're not trying to scare the Dems. They're trying to scare the Republicans who are trying to stop Trump from getting his nominees. So if I were Cassidy, I would be careful.

[Michael Knowles]

This was Kennedy's one mistake during the series of traps and gotcha questions is he was asked, do you know how many kids are born on Medicaid in the country? And it's one of these, you know, what's the capital of Uzbekistan? Kind of questions. And Kennedy didn't know the answer. He said, I don't know what the answer is. And he made the mistake that people sometimes make when they're in a negotiation in A negotiation. Whoever gives the first number loses. And I think it's true here in Senate confirmations, if you don't know the answer, don't give an answer. So he said, I don't know, 30 million. And the answer was one and a half million or something like that. So, okay, they showed that he didn't know one statistic. I don't think that's really gonna hurt him all that much in the end. I agree some Republicans are a little on the fence. The reason that I would have been on the fence and that conservative Republicans would be on the fence is because Bobby Kennedy has been in favor of abortion for his whole career. That was what really worried me. And I know a lot of pro lifers as well. And Kennedy was clear as day here. Kennedy said, I believe that every abortion is a tragedy and I support President Trump's agenda. To me, it was a little strange that these Democrats kept hammering Kennedy. I know, you know, they said, are you just here to enact Trump's agenda? And Kennedy was nuanced about his answer. But of course the correct answer is yes, I didn't win the election.

[Megyn Kelly]

A Republican senator asked him, michael, are you, you know, if we have another like pandemic type thing, are you going to go over and, you know, interfere at the CDC and the NIH and with these doctors who are coming up with. Meanwhile, I was like, I certainly hope he's going to. Yes, I hope his answer is yes. That's why we want him there, to make sure we don't have another drunk on his own wine. Dr. Fauci is sending out edicts now. If all goes well, we're not gonna have that, cuz we're gonna have normal heads of these agencies. But I mean, he did say, no, I won't interfere. But like, they're not getting it. They're not understanding like some Republicans. Senator Ron Johnson was a star today. He was the star of the whole hearing. He asked all the right questions. In fact, I'll give the audience just a flavor of him after just so many beat downs by the left. Here's what Ron Johnson did. SOP12.

[Ron Wyden]

Here's somebody from the left, somebody I don't agree with on many issues, politically coming together with President Trump and focusing on an area of agreement, something that the American people desperately want, finding out the answers. What has caused autism? What is causing chronic illness? Ms. Kennedy, I know, I think I've come to know what's in your heart. I think I know the personal and political price you've paid for this decision, I want to say publicly, I thank you for that. I truly appreciate what you're doing here. Can't we come together as a nation and do this?

[Megyn Kelly]

That. That was amazing, Michael. And RFK took that mantle and ran with it repeatedly. When given the opportunity to say what he plans to do, which only came from folks on the right, he was absolutely brilliant with it and really sold himself.

[Michael Knowles]

I think the American people were persuaded. Whether the Democrats were. Certainly they were not, whether the fence sitting Republicans were, that remains to be seen, but I suspect they will get in line. But the way some of these senators were speaking about vaccines, about government organizations, about mandates, I thought. Have you not been around the last five years? Did you not pay attention to what happened in the election? You know, we remember Covid. We remember when Bobby Kennedy was right about the COVID vaccine and all you people and Dr. Fauci and the CDC, all of you just lied to us. In some cases, you knew that what you were saying was not true or was not based on reliable science, and you just said it anyway. So, sorry, excuse me, if I'm willing to favor the views of the supposed conspiracy theorist Bobby Kennedy over the supposed geniuses like Dr. Fauci. Because as Kennedy made clear in this hearing, he was called a conspiracy theorist recently for his views on Covid. He was proven 100% right. So my, my thought to these squishy Republicans is vote against Bobby Kennedy if you want, but you're gonna have to answer the American people whose views on this matter are perfectly clear.

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay, we have that soundbite. I'm just trying to look through where it is, where he defends himself on these. You know, I'm a. Here it is. Sat 17 on whether he's a conspiracy theorist. Watch.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

That label was applied to me because I said that the vaccines, the COVID vaccine didn't prevent transmission and it wouldn't prevent infection. When the government was telling people, Americans that it would. I was saying that because I was looking at the monkey studies. In May of 2020, I was called a conspirator. Now everybody admits it. I was called a conspiracy theorist because I said red dye caused cancer. And now FDA has acknowledged that and banned it. I was called a conspiracy theorist because I said, or I've lowered IQ. Last week, JAMA published a meta review of 87 studies saying that there's a direct inverse correlation between IQ loss.

[Megyn Kelly]

All right, so I'm going to assume.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

I could go on for about a week. Is there any one of them that you can say, you got Me, that really was a conspiracy theory. Are you in a position?

[Megyn Kelly]

Not yet. Exactly.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Right.

[Megyn Kelly]

I mean, I feel like that, too. Virtually all Americans. Virtually all Americans can relate to that. You know, on whether this was a lab leak, you know, Covid, whether it was Russian disinformation in that Hunter Biden laptop, I mean, you know, this is something that's become so commonplace that it's a meme online, right? Like, wait 10 minutes and all my conspiracy theories will be proven true.

[Michael Knowles]

That's right. This was a realization I had during COVID and I was not the only one that a. The difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth very often these days is about six to nine months. The fact you just alluded to, Megan, that the CIA now says, according to reporting from the New York Times, that they have come around to the idea that Covid might have come from a lab leak in China. Gee, really? That's amazing. You now, you, the CIA, the preeminent intelligence agency in the entire world, you, the New York Times, the paper of record, you've just now figured out what everyone with two brain cells to rub together knew and said openly five years ago that you all called us conspiracy theorists for saying five years ago, that's out. You know, we saw the left overplay their hand on insults like racist and sexist for years and decades even, and now those insults don't really stick anymore. I think the same can be said of conspiracy theorists, which is why Bobby Kennedy took that invective and he ran with it today and the Democrats were left sputtering.

[Megyn Kelly]

He was on totally solid ground. Here he is describing what he's doing there. Right. I mean, this is. You kind of forget because we cover him as a news item so often. But this is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. You know, his wife is a very successful actress out in Hollywood. He's led a very big life. He's been an extremely successful attorney. And much like President Trump, frankly, much like Pete Hegseth, who was making, according to the disclosures, over $2 million a year at Fox News and is now making about 250,000, they don't. This is not for the money. They actually want to get into public service to do some good. So here he was speaking to that in SOT 13.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

I don't think anybody is going to be able to do this like I have because of my peculiar experience, because I've litigated against these agencies. When you litigate against them, you get a PhD in corporate capture and how to unravel it. I've written six books about these agencies. I know a lot about them and I know how to fix it. And there's nobody who will fix it the way that I do because I'm not scared of vested interests. I don't care. I'm not here because I want a position or a job. I have a very good life and a happy family. This is something I don't need. I want to do this because we're going to fix it.

[Megyn Kelly]

So well said, right? He doesn't have to. We should be grateful people. They're not even grateful for Elon Musk, these leftists. It's like the most brilliant man on the face of the planet wants to work for us for free. The only correct answer is to say yes, thank you.

[Michael Knowles]

Yes. I love the line he said there. When you litigate against these companies, you get a PhD in corporate capture. And that obviously has happened. I don't know anyone who has any familiarity with Washington who would disagree with Kennedy that major corporate interests have captured a lot of the agencies that are supposed to regulate them. And there's a real irony here for the former Democrats who are sitting there supporting Kennedy, many of whom voted for Donald Trump, is they believed for so many years that Republicans were the parties, were the party of the establishment and corporate power, rich uncle pennybags and Democrats were the ones speaking truth to power, independence from the outside man. And in reality, all of those Democrats who were grilling Kennedy today were effectively working on behalf of some of the biggest corporate interests in the country. Even to zoom out a little bit when President Trump just passed his executive order ordering the agencies to stop transing the kids, to cut out the so called gender affirming care for little kids. The people who are arguing against that on behalf of transing the kids are arguing on behalf of big Pharma getting little kids hooked expensive medical treatments that they will have to pay a lot of money for for the rest of their lives. So you're right, you did see a fight here just beyond Republican versus Democrat. You saw a fight beyond corporate power. I think very corrupt corporate power in this case versus independent minded people who want to make America healthy again. It just so happens that the Dems were on the side of the corporations and it was the Republicans who are trying to bring some accountability to those corporations.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yes. Okay. And that brings me to Ron Wyden, who I mentioned at the top Democrat from Oregon. How much has he taken from pharmaceuticals and healthcare companies? $1.2 million over the course of his career. Didn't happen just yesterday, but still that's a lot of change in Washington. And here's a taste of how it went between him and RFKJ today. SOT6, your testimony today, under oath, you.

[Bernie Sanders]

Denied that you were anti vaccine. But during a podcast interview In July of 2023, you said, quote, no vaccine is safe and effective, Senator, as you.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Know, because it's been repeatedly debunked. That statement that I made on the Lex Friedman podcast was a fragment of the statement he asked me, and anybody who actually goes and looks at that podcast will see this. He asked me, are there vaccines that are safe and effective? And I said to him, some of the live virus vaccines are. And I said, there are no vaccines that are safe and effective. And I was going to continue. For every person, every medicine has people who are sensitive to them, including vaccines. He interrupted me at that point. I've corrected it many times, including on national tv. You know about this, Senator Wyden, so bringing this up right now is dishonest.

[Megyn Kelly]

That was very good. And all it needed at the end was that cherry on the Sunday about his 1.2 million from big pharma, which is why he's so concerned about what Bobby Kennedy has said on vaccines.

[Michael Knowles]

And you notice Ron Wyden didn't attempt to correct Kennedy's correction because Wyden did know. Of course he did know. And so to Kennedy's actual point, when he says no vaccine is totally safe and effective for everyone, that is just obviously true. Okay? And most Americans agree with that. Now, to your point at the top of the show, Meghan, the fact that doctors in hospitals try to give newborn babies hepatitis vaccines. I remember we asked when one of my children was born, we said, maybe, I guess it was our first kid. We said, why are we giving the kid a hepatitis vaccine? He's probably not gonna be sharing needles or going to brothels anytime soon. Why does he need the vaccine? And the insinuation was all but stated explicitly because, I don't know, maybe your husband cheated on you or maybe he's gonna cheat on you or who knows? I don't know. You know, and you think, well, that is so deeply offensive. This is obviously unnecessary. This precious little kid. I don't wanna give this kid drugs that he doesn't need when he's what, £9 or something? Two days after birthday? That is the mainstream position. Now, I think that the Democrats and the squish Republicans have not caught up with the tectonic shift that has happened in politics. They're still considering politics from 10 or 15 years ago. But after this election. Issues like mass deportations, that is now the mainstream position of most Americans. Issues like questioning the over prescription of vaccines, the regulatory capture by big pharmaceutical companies. That is now the mainstream position for most Americans. I think that these senators who haven't gotten the message, they're just so profoundly out of touch and if they continue to remain out of touch, it will be at their own electoral peril.

[Megyn Kelly]

He wasn't the only one who's been, I believe is my opinion, compromised by the amount of money they've taken from big pharma. Elizabeth Warren, Pocahontas is big on the big pharma money. She has. Let me see. I want to get the number correct in. Yeah. She and Bernie Sanders are two the two top senators who received the most pharmaceuticals or health product donations in the 2020 election cycle when they each ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. She received just under $1 million. $822,000. And what did she do when she got her chance to question rfkj, who spent his whole life suing these big pharma companies for what they've done and suing environmental toxin producers for what they've done to our lakes and our rivers and so on. Here's how that went. Sat 16 so, Mr. Kennedy, will you.

[Elizabeth Warren]

Also agree that you won't take any compensation from any lawsuits against drug companies while you are secretary and for four years afterwards?

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Well, I'll certainly commit to that while I'm secretary. I do want to clarify something because you're making me sound like a shill.

[Elizabeth Warren]

I'm asking about fees from suing drug companies. Will you agree not to do that?

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

You're asking me to not sue drug companies and I'm not going to agree.

[Megyn Kelly]

To that companies as much. I'm not want.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

You're asking me, Senator, you're asking me not to sue vaccine pharmaceutical companies. Yeah, you are. That's exactly what you're doing.

[Elizabeth Warren]

Kids might die, but Robert Kennedy can keep cashing in.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Senator, I support vaccines. I will. I support the childhood schedule. I will do that. The only thing I want is good science and that's it.

[Megyn Kelly]

That was actually, I thought a very effective exchange on his part. Right. Because there is a difference. I, I understand what she was trying to do and it's very clear. He can't be suing vaccine companies or drug companies while HHS director. That's a no brainer. She wanted him to say that he wouldn't sue vaccine or drug companies for four years after. Why? What is the incentive like that? It doesn't make sense to me to put that prohibition on somebody after they've left the office. It's not going on the payroll of any individual plaintiff who might be suing Big Pharma over a vaccine injury like that's. She's saying, yes, he was receiving some payments. If he pushed people to this law firm that has a lawsuit now over Gardasil, the HPV vaccine and showed that he is getting some sort of a kickback or some sort of a payment for that referral. And he's done an ad trying to tell people, if you've been injured, you can go to this law firm. There's nothing inappropriate about that whatsoever. He's been very outspoken about that vaccine and does not believe in it. And there are some people, many, many people actually, who say their child has been hurt by that vaccine. But she tried to turn it into the same thing as, like an HHS secretary leaving and taking a job with Pfizer, which would create an incentive while in the job to just give Pfizer a pass for four years. It didn't work the other way around.

[Michael Knowles]

Certainly not. And Kennedy had her number. And you could tell that Senator Warren's fingers were just itching for the Tomahawk. When he called her out, she raised her voice. She got a little red in the face. But. But Kennedy was absolutely right. He. He seemed almost perplexed when. When he said, hold on. You're asking if I'll. If I promise not to work for the drug companies. Okay, I won't. But now you're holding. Now you're asking, will I work against the drug companies? As the HHS secretary, I'm just gonna follow the science. And now you're asking if after I leave, you're clearly. You, Senator Warren, are clearly just shilling for the big pharmaceutical companies. And so this is the real dynamic at play here. Every nominee is gonna be different. Every agency is going to be different. But in this case, it's not Democrats versus Republicans. In this case, it's not even leftists versus conservatives. It's not over some ideological issue, the sole pushback that Kennedy is getting, but it's from a powerful force, is from the pharmaceutical companies operating through the politicians that they have bought off and that they control. That's it. So the question that remains to be seen is can Bobby Kennedy, with the backing of Donald Trump, who just won a landslide election with the popular vote for the first time for a Republican in 20 years, can he overcome one single lobby in the country, and that is the pharmaceutical lobby? We're about to get a measure of their relative power in the U.S. senate.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Mm.

[Megyn Kelly]

You can see why they're scared. All right, going back now to my other least favorite senator out there today, and that is Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia. He was the governor. Now he is a senator. And he was dripping with disdain for Bobby. I mean, it was. You could feel the negative vibration all the way across the room where I was seated. He clearly can't stand him. And by the end of his cross examination, you really kind of wanted to punch him in the face. Don't punch him in the face. Not calling for violence. I'm just saying, like a surge built inside of you of like, this guy is a total asshole. He just felt really disrespectful. You could sense his hatred. He was shaking. By the way. I don't understand these senators who shake when they cross examine. It's kind of what they do for a living. Now. Now. But here's a flavor of Mark Warner.

[Ron Wyden]

You are in this position. Will you pledge that you will not fire federal employees who work on food.

[Megyn Kelly]

Safety, work on trying to preventing things like Salamano?

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Senator, there are 91,000 employees.

[Megyn Kelly]

So that I take that as I take.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

That's a simple yes, and I'm going.

[Megyn Kelly]

To take that as a no.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

I will commit to not firing anybody who's doing their job based on your opinion.

[Ron Wyden]

Based upon your opinion or your political agenda or Mr. Trump's political agenda.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Based upon my opinion. I guess that means a lot of.

[Ron Wyden]

The folks who've had any type of.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Views on vaccines will be out of work.

[Megyn Kelly]

What? Like it's just all these snide comments. I don't even really understand. There was no evidence for that. All these people with vaccines are gonna be out of work. It's just every, you know, I understand you're trying to score points, but get something substantive and write it on the substance. What they kept doing was just these little snide, snarky comments at the end of rfkj. If they ever even let him answer. Michael.

[Michael Knowles]

And I think ineffective snide comments. Cuz what was he really getting at? The question was, will you fire any of the 91,000 employees? These bureaucrats, many if not most of whom don't even come into the office anymore since COVID at HHS and Kennedy said, no, I'm gonna. I'll fire people who are bad at their jobs. Did these Democrat senators not pay attention to the election? Donald Trump ran on firing bureaucrats. The American people voted to fire bureaucrats. That is one of the main reasons that we want Bobby Kennedy in this role, that we want all of these agency heads because these bureaucrats are ineffective. They're costing the government a lot of money. They're working against President Trump as they did in the first term, and they're undermining what the American people want. So when Kennedy comes out and he says, yeah, I'm gonna fire people who are bad at their jobs. And then the response, well, is that gonna be based on your opinion or your political agenda? Hold on, what's the difference between those are synonymous or Trump's agenda? Well, Trump picked me for the job, so I don't, you know, three ways of saying the same thing. Will you exercise your judgment, Mr. Kennedy, as the Secretary of HHS to lead the department?

[Link Lauren]

Yes.

[Megyn Kelly]

Got you there.

[Michael Knowles]

I think I will, yeah. I don't know.

[Megyn Kelly]

Will you, will you work with the President to help enact his agenda? Aha. It was really was so ineffective. It was kind of painful to have to sit there through it. He in particular was quite painful. I want to ask you a little bit about Link. Lauren's going to come on. We're going to continue the discussion about what happened here. But there is some news of the day that I would love to get to with you. And in particular I want to ask you about this executive order by Trump on so called trans surgeries and procedures for minors. Another executive order, another thing of beauty. And this is what he did yesterday in part. Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a group of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child's sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions. Dangerous trend will be a stain on our nation's history and it must end accordingly. It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist or support the so called transition in quotes of a child from one sex to another. And it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life altering procedural procedures. It calls for a reversal to the absolutely disgusting reliance on and acceptance of guidance from this group. Wpath, which is really, I mean path should stand for pathology, given the way this group tries to run the trans medical community. It calls for defunding of agencies that provide grants to medical schools and hospitals who are providing these treatments. So it's a threat of federal funding to your institution if you provide these procedures on minors. Calls for the secretary of HHS to ensure treatments are not covered by federally funded programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. We don't want federal taxpayer money being used to fund for these. Also called to exclude chemical and surgical mutilation of children coverage from other related programs. Because it's not just Medicare and Medicaid that you know, wind up getting used for this. And goes on to say the DOJ shall convene state's attorneys general to coordinate the enforcement of laws against genital mutilation across all American states and territory. It goes on. We don't have enough time to go through all of it today, but this is a thing of beauty and it will literally save lives. What did you make of it?

[Michael Knowles]

We're waiting to pop some champagne a little later today over here at the Daily Wire. This has been a hobby horse of ours for some time now. A lot of people probably first even came to be aware of Ben Shapiro when he was calling out the trans ideology on TV and a trans identifying man threatened to beat him into a pulp and send him home in an ambulance. My first campus speaking tour, my first or second, it was very early on, was called Men are Not Women and Other Uncomfortable Truths. At the time that was uncomfortable to people. Nobody has done more in the country than my colleague Matt Walsh to bring attention to the trans issue with this movie. What is a Woman? The rally to end child mutilation. You've seen lawmakers now taking action since then, but this has been a long journey. I mean we're talking about eight or 10 years that conservatives and to give credit, also feminists, also people who care about women's rights, also people who just care about the well being of children. All sorts of people across a broad ideological coalition have said what radical ideologues are doing to little kids, the kind of medical experiments that are ruining their lives based on no kind of science whatsoever. In fact, the largest data set we have on trans anti procedure outcomes long term shows that not only do they not help, but they actually make anxiety worse. Horrifying kind of medical experimentation worse than what we did in this country with lobotomies in the 1950s. That is coming to an end. You're seeing that now in the uk, in Sweden and Finland. This is a cross civilizational kind of movement to restore a little bit of sanity. And Trump is putting the final hammer down on this. We're not gonna mutilate kids because of people's ideological fantasies or sexual fantasies, fetishes or anything else that is over at the federal level. Now I want to see that matched at the state and local level. A major, major important victory.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah, I mean I want to study that order more and talk with some of my lawyer friends about it, but he can't undo a state law that allows this stuff like these radical leftist states by executive order. But.

[Michael Knowles]

But he can withhold funding.

[Megyn Kelly]

He can withhold funding from universities and lower schools and hospitals and private schools, some of which take some federal money. He can withhold money from the institutions that perform or promote these procedures. And that is huge. I mean, that's a real blessing because the almighty dollar is what they actually care about. And, I mean, if he actually says, we're not gonna pay, you know, Medicare funds or Medicaid funds at an institution doing this to children, everyone will stop. There'll be tons of legal challenges over all of this. Can it. Can it be done? Can something that's already been authorized in terms of funding by Congress be revoked by executive order? And this kind of threat and all of that must be fleshed out. But to me, what's important today is the statement, the intention, and the we're not screwing around anymore. This is a scourge that will be looked back on as an infamous, horrific dereliction of morality for decades to come. And President Trump said it stops now.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, that's right. This is just the cherry on top of what has been an amazing first. What are we at? Nine days in office, the winds just keep on coming. Even I was very hopeful about the Trump administration, and he has surpassed even my expectations here. And I think some of that talk early on about acquiring Greenland, about renaming the Gulf of Mexico, about designating the Mexican cartels terrorist organizations, about retaking the Panama Canal, you know, some of this talk about really throwing around America's weight and the power of the White House in ways that we haven't seen explicitly in many years. In many ways, I think that was setting the stage for some of these kinds of issues, for this exact executive order, which is to say F A, F O. Okay? Don't think that I'm joking. Don't think I won't do it. The fact that when Colombia rejected those flights of criminal migrants that were going back down to them, and Trump immediately slapped 25% tariffs, economic sanctions, threatened to jump the tariffs to 50% a week later, this is him saying, guys, I'm really not bluffing, okay? And unpredictability is one of Trump's great geopolitical strengths. And he had seven, eight days already to say, guys, please, do not test me. I am pleading with you. Don't make me do to you what I am threatening to do. I think if I were an institution receiving federal money that was harming and abusing children in the way that the pro trans crowd has, I would be very, very cautious.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah. If the morality of it, the immorality of it doesn't make them stop, maybe the threat of losing federal funding will because that's why they do it. To the point you made earlier, it's it costs a lot of money to have these procedures and then they have a patient for life in both the hospital and with Big Pharma. Two other points I just want to make one question and one point. You mentioned what happened in Columbia. That's one of the things I'm going to be talking about when I sit down tomorrow. Just a programming note with Marco Rubio, our new Senator, our new Secretary of State in his first long form interview. So tomorrow, in his first long form interview, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sits with yours truly and 100% we are going to be talking about the message that was sent to Columbia, Colombia and all other nations when it comes to Trump's CAFO policies. Cuz he's the guy who's gonna have to be the face of those with most of these nations so. Looking forward to that then. Secondly, I can't let you go without asking you about the historic legislation that Donald Trump just signed into law, the Lakin Riley Act. Michael, this is like it's bittersweet. You know, this 22 year old nursing student with her entire life in front of her was brutalized by this illegal who had no business being here, who had been caught for lesser violations in New York and then put back out on the street to hurt somebody else. They didn't care. New York City, New York State are both sanctuary cities and states. They put him back out on the street, he went down to Georgia and he killed this young, promising, innocent woman. And today with support. It was bipartisan, you know, by a lot, I mean we had some 43 Democrats who crossed over. The vast majority still didn't, but still there was a fair amount of bipartisan support on this. President Trump signed this, his first piece of legislation into law, saying if you arrest somebody, yes, obviously for a major crime, but even for a minor crime, they must be referred to the feds. And that states, Attorney generals, attorneys general have the right, if they are in a state that where federal lack of enforcement of these policies leads to problems within their state, they have the right to sue the feds for not enforcing the law. And that's obviously for down the line when the Trump administration is gone. If there's like a Kamala Harris administration. And we open the borders back up again and we lean into these sanctuary jurisdictions. It's empowering the red states and the border states to do something about it. God rest her soul. It's not a. It's not, it's never something you would celebrate. It's just her death was not meaningless. It wasn't meaningless. Let me just play you, Michael. Her mom reacting today at the signing ceremony.

[Sheldon Whitehouse]

We also want to thank President Trump for the promises he made to us. He said he would secure our borders and that he would never forget about Lakin, and he hasn't. He's a man of his word. We trust that he will fight for the American people. Most importantly, I want to thank our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, because without his sacrifices, Lakins story would have ended on that horrific day that she was taken from us. But because of him, we can continue living knowing that we will see Lake again. There's no amount of change that will ever bring back our precious Lakin. Our hope moving forward is that her life saves lives. We're so thankful that her passion for helping others and her legacy for doing good in the name of Jesus Christ will carry on. Thank you.

[Megyn Kelly]

Allison Phillips, Lakin's mom. And when she teared up, President Trump, who was standing behind her, reached out and rubbed her back. Just a small, sweet, kind gesture from a man who made sure that young woman did not die in vain. And an emotional day. Michael. And what a message from President Trump, who ran first and foremost, more than anything else on the immigration issue.

[Michael Knowles]

That's right. Immigration and law and order. And so what a beautiful statement from Lake and Riley's mother. And a beautiful act to sign this law. The Democrats had made a deal. They said, look, we are going to keep the border open and we know that's going to bring some criminals in, but it's going to help us electorally and it might give us a permanent electoral majority. And yeah, some Americans are going to be murdered and some Americans are going to be raped and some Americans are going to be run roughshod over. But, you know, you can't make an omelette without cracking some eggs. That was it. That was the calculation that the Democrats made. It's hideous, it's evil, it's deeply immoral. That was their calculation. And Trump today said, no, no more. The best argument against the Lake and Riley act that you could hear, I believe it was Adam Schiff who made it. These from the Democrats in Congress and in the Senate, they said, we won't vote for this law because we don't want to arrest a dreamer for stealing a tube of toothpaste. Give me a break. First of all, the dreamers are in their mid-40s now. Second of all, no one is stealing a tube of toothpaste, okay? The man who murdered Lake and Riley stole hundreds of dollars of merchandise from a Walmart, and they let him off the hook because the Democrats didn't want to enforce immigration law for selfish partisan reason.

[Megyn Kelly]

And there was inappropriate behavior with a minor.

[Michael Knowles]

There was also an inappropriate. That's right. They let him off again. And. But the central political insight here that Trump has, that is lost on the Democrats or the Democrats don't want to acknowledge, is people who habitually commit crimes are gonna keep committing crimes. It's actually an insight about human nature, which is why this legislation should be such common sense. If you break into our country illegally, first of all, you should just be deported for that. But even if you won't be deported for that, if you then go on to start committing other crimes, it's going to be a good bet that you're going to keep doing that. One does not commit theft and commit lascivious acts, and then just out of the blue, for no reason, straighten up and fly right. That's not how it works. And so this should have been passed unanimously in the House and Senate. The fact that these Democrats, the many, many Democrats voted against this is a national disgrace. It's a scandal. They should be ashamed of themselves. They should resign. If we had any integrity in our government, at least, though there is the beginning of a restoration of common sense and dignity in our government.

[Megyn Kelly]

I have to say, it's like I. You know, that night before the election, Michael, I showed up in Pittsburgh to speak for Trump, and we didn't know if he was going to win or lose at that point. But I wanted to respond to the allegation that he wouldn't protect women. He had said he would be a protector of women. And his critics on the left rolled their eyes and made fun of him and said it was an absurdity. And one of the names I mentioned that night was Lake and Riley, that that's who I would be thinking of when I voted for Donald Trump. And I was. And to see her mom there today, who, you know, it's like, my God, your worst nightmare. But his empathy toward her, and I mean, really, the empathy is manifested in the language of that now law that he signed in his first act. And then when it was all said and done after she spoke and they hugged. He gave her the pen. That's like kind of emotional thinking about it. He gave her the pen that he signed that bill into law with. That's what she has now. She has that instead of her daughter. It's meaningful, but it's not enough. And what really needs to happen is the Democrats who put these policies into place, and they are still in place in many cities and states like the. The one I grew up in, New York, that they need to be punished, they need to be removed from power, and this can never be allowed to happen again.

[Michael Knowles]

I'll give you the last word exactly right, Meghan. And part of the reason that Trump can do this is because he received a mandate from the American people. Things had spun so far out of control, and there were a lot of people who said, I've never voted Republican before. I've been told Trump is a bad guy. I don't know, you know, is he really gonna protect this group or that group or the American interest? And they voted for him on a gamble. And he has proven them right. He has proven himself worthy of their trust. If the man did nothing more in office than he's done in the first nine days of his second term, frankly, he would still be a successful president. And obviously, he's just getting started. I think he has proved his supporters right. He's proved his naysayers wrong. I can't wait to see what happened next week.

[Megyn Kelly]

Amen. Thank you so much for being here.

[Michael Knowles]

Thank you, Megan. Great to be with you as always.

[Megyn Kelly]

Wow. The great Michael Knowles. Love talking to him. Up next link, Lauren. He worked on RFKJ's presidential campaign and he will give his perspective on what we saw at today's hearing. Don't go away. There's a real and growing threat to your home and your equity, and it's called title fraud. Here's how it works. Criminals can forge a single document, file it with a recorder, and just like that, your home is stolen. Your title of your home is stolen. They take out loans against your property, draining your equity, and you would not even know it until it's too late. Here's the really scary part. Credit monitoring will not protect you from this. But I do want to tell you about home title lock. To protect your home inequity, their exclusive triple lock protection gives you 24,7 monitoring of your home's title, urgent alerts if there are any changes, and a team of experts to help restore your title if fraud happens at no extra cost. The bottom line, your homes, your biggest investment. Don't leave it vulnerable. Home Title Lock is offering an exclusive 25% off their protection plans. Just go to hometitlelock.com, use promo code MEGAN25 to get 25% off your subscription and a free title history report to ensure that you are not already a victim. Protect your home in Equity today. That's hometitlelock.com promo code Megan the IRS is the largest collection agency in the world and it just stepped up enforcement for 2025. If you owe back taxes or have unfiled returns, don't wait for the IRS to come to you. Simply avoiding your tax troubles is the worst thing you can do. Getting ahead of this is the smart move, but you might not want to contact the IRS alone. You could turn it over to the team at Tax Network usa. Why? Because not all tax resolution companies are the same. Tax Network USA has a preferred direct line to the irs, which means they know which agents to deal with and which to avoid. Tax Network USA has proven strategies that are designed to settle your tax problems in your favor whether you owe 10,000 or 10 million. Their attorneys and negotiators have resolved over 1 billion in tax debt. Speak with one of their strategists for free and stop the threatening letters. Stop looking over your shoulder and put your IRS troubles behind you once and for all. Call 1-800-905-8000 or visit tnusa.com Megan that's tnusa.com Megan this podcast is brought to.

[Joy Behar]

You in part by Stash. Ever felt burned out from trying to make money trading chasing stock tips on the Internet only to watch your gains vanish? Imagine investing with less headaches and guesswork. Stash is an investing app that helps you reach your financial goals faster by using dependable investing strategies instead of high risk gambles. Stash gives you personalized investing recommendations and access to fractional shares of your favorite stocks like Nvidia, Apple and Tesla. Or you can invest in Stash's award winning expert managed portfolio. You can make real progress with just a dollar per day. It's no wonder Stash has earned more than 250,000 five star reviews on the App Store. Go to get.stash.commk to see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase and view important disclo that's get.stash.commk paid non client endorsement, not representative of all clients and not a guarantee offer is subject to terms and conditions.

[Megyn Kelly]

For 140 years MultiCare has been in.

[Michael Knowles]

Washington prioritizing long term solutions partnering with.

[Megyn Kelly]

Local communities and expanding access to care. Together, we're building a healthier future. Learn more@ multicare.org I'm Megyn Kelly, host of the Megyn Kelly show on Sirius xm. It's your home for open, honest and provocative conversations with the most interesting and important political, legal and cultural figures. Today you can catch the Megyn Kelly show on Triumph, a SiriusXM channel featuring lots of hosts you may know and probably love. Great people like Dr. Laura, Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, Dave Ramsey and yours truly, Megyn Kelly. You can stream the Megyn Kelly show on Sirius XM at home or anywhere you are. No car required. I do it all the time. I love the SiriusXM 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.

[Michael Knowles]

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

[Megyn Kelly]

We'Re gonna do more now on the RFKJ confirmation hearing today where I attended in person. It was eye opening in some unexpected ways. Was very pleased to be seated next to Callie and Casey Means. We love them. They're right at the heart of the Maha movement. And one of the reasons I want him to be confirmed so badly is I have every expectation that those two will be very involved in whatever projects he pursues there. I mean, Callie is a whistleblower from inside of the corrosive big food industry who saw the light, exited and then has been jumping up and down about the toxins that are being put in our in our food supply ever since. And Dr. Casey Means wrote Good Energy. She's been on the show numerous times. She's brilliant. Stanford trained doctor, was a surgeon at Stanford post finishing her residency, Oregon, I can't remember. Anyway, the point is Stanford, Stanford and she walked away from a very lucrative career as a surgeon because she was sick and tired of seeing what big medicine was doing to us. It just the incentive to keep us sick, to never solve anything. So those two were there front and center right behind the Kennedy family, many of whom sat right behind their dad, their husband, their cousin. As you know, it's a big family and it's not without its losers. We'll get to that. Joining me now to discuss it, our friend Link Lauren, who is a former senior advisor to RFKJ during his presidential campaign. Link, welcome back.

[Link Lauren]

Thanks for having me, Megan. Great to be here.

[Megyn Kelly]

All right, so what was your Take on what we witnessed this morning.

[Link Lauren]

I thought that went amazing for Bobby, but it was an utter calamity for most of those Senate Democrats. I mean, Elizabeth Warren can't figure out what nationality she is, but she's screeching about Big Pharma. Bernie Sanders was pointing to the onesies. That was an utter calamity as well. I think these senators should spend less time talking to lobbyists and donors, more time talking to their constituents, because their constituents will tell them they're on board with the Maha movement. We have a chronic disease crisis in this country, and they're behind Bobby, whether he's perfect or not.

[Megyn Kelly]

Exactly right. It was amazing when he. I think we have this, actually when he left the hearing room at the end of the day, they broke out into cheers. Not the senators, the spectators who are in the audience. Here it is. This hearing will be adjourned.

[Ron Wyden]

I still encourage the audience to be.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Polite and respectful, no matter what side of the issues you may be on.

[Michael Knowles]

And Mr. Kennedy, I look forward to working with you.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman Berger.

[Megyn Kelly]

You just don't see that every day where like, he. He's the head of a movement link. That's what they don't seem to be getting. No.

[Link Lauren]

And I mean, I got to witness it firsthand. I saw him get up every single day and be that warrior on the front lines of the chronic disease epidemic in our country. I mean, Kamala Harris, during her 107 day campaign, she didn't even mention the chronic disease crisis. She had nothing to say about it. I watched Bobby Kennedy get up, go out there and talk to the people about the issues that mattered to them. The fact that kids in this country are sicker than they've ever been before. So these senators, the mainstream media, some of his family members, they want to go to these smear campaigns. That's not what affects people. What affects them is a sick child and trying to get answers.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yes. And as I said, there were moms in the audience with their children today trying to send a message to these senators that they mean business. Like these mama bears, I think are so largely responsible for this even happening. Right? His for Maha, for RFKJ getting elevated in some part, for Trump winning. Even if they might not have loved Trump himself, they got to the polls. Cause they believed that he would make good on his promises on Maha. And he's doing that with this appointment. The family members are disgusting. Not those who showed up today, but Caroline Kennedy, who's the daughter of JFK and her son writes her son Jack Schlossberg. I don't know which one was worse, but let me start with Caroline Kennedy.

[Link Lauren]

Who?

[Michael Knowles]

What?

[Megyn Kelly]

I mean, Caroline Kennedy. I realized your dad was president. Like, okay, good for you. It was a long time ago, but I. And then you are a big Democrat donor, so they made you ambassador to Australia, which doesn't mean you know anything, anything at all. But she still thinks that people want to hear from her, and I guess in some leftist circles they do because she's got the name Kennedy. Okay, he was killed in 1963. It's like, she was cute. She's the little daughter. We had a part of Camelot, which was a lie anyway. But it's like, who is like, gee, I. I really want to hear from Caroline Kennedy about RFKJ and what he was like 30 years ago. Here she is in a video that is a reenactment of a letter that. That was mentioned by some Democrats today.

[Elizabeth Warren]

I've known Bobby my whole life. We grew up together. It's no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets, because Bobby himself is a predator. I watch his younger brothers and cousins follow him down the path of drug addiction. His basement, his garage, his dorm room were always the center of the action where drugs were available. And he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in a blender to feed to his hawks. It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence. Bobby was able to pull himself out of illness and disease. I admire the discipline that took and the continuing commitment it requires. But siblings and cousins who Bobby encouraged down the path of substance abuse, suffered addiction, illness, and death, while Bobby has gone on to misrepresent, lie, and cheat his way through life.

[Megyn Kelly]

I mean, just to recap, I admire him, but he caused family members deaths, and he's a liar and a cheat and also a predator. None of which was actually supported in her little shtick. Not to mention the Kennedy family addictions, which had a long history that predates rfk. J Link.

[Link Lauren]

Absolutely. I mean, I've got a big Irish family. They're a bunch of drunks and alcoholics in my family. My mom's been sober for over 30 years. I'm glad she is sober. Gone with her to get her chip. She got to know Bobby on the campaign. So much of his brand is his grit and authenticity. He was open every single day, in every stump speech and every interview about how he found God and found sobriety. And he's been sober, I think, since the 70s, at least for 40 or so years. So I thought Caroline Kennedy's video was an absolute joke. She's sitting in some dirty, messy, disorganized office. I wish we could send her back down under to Australia. I would also question the veracity of her claims made in the video. There's this narrative that his family doesn't support him that is antithetical to what I experienced on the campaign. Megan. At every single event he was surrounded by family members. They volunteered, they knocked on doors, they phone banked. If you go to his house in Brentwood, he has family asleep on every sofa, every couch. They're out in the back playing. So this notion that they don't support him is just untrue. And I found it really embarrassing to weaponize his past issues with addiction against him. Especially given the other circumstances. I found that to be just a really low blow in a moment of desperation.

[Megyn Kelly]

The nerve to try to blame the Kennedy family addiction problem on one Kennedy. Right. Maybe he did do drugs with or drink with other family members. You know who else did? Your uncle Teddy. Caroline, who was one of the biggest drunks we've ever seen in public service to the point where he killed a woman. He killed Mary Jo Kopechne when they drove off a bridge in Chappaquiddick. And as the car was falling to the ground under the water, he left her. He walked away and waited hours before reporting it. So maybe you should talk about addiction problems with a different branch of the family. Not to mention her own father's pill popping which has become so legendary that now it gets talked about like we had an active addict as a president in the White House. But it's all Bobby Kennedy's fault for introducing people to or doing drugs with some other family members. Now she wants to blame it all on him. I mean link, it totally undermined her credibility. And like she, she tried to comment it as like I have a very close family. I love my family. I'm very sorry to tell you he's a predator and a drunk and got everyone drunk and addicted and they died because of him.

[Link Lauren]

Yeah, I can think of several family members. I wouldn't want to sponsor anybody. I don't think they are 12 step success stories. And I'm only speaking for myself. I don't want Bobby to call and yell at me, which he is not shy to do. But Caroline Kennedy. Yeah, the timing was just way too convenient for me. But it was like crack for Democrats and MSNBC last night they were eating up that video. My woke liberal friends in New York were sending it to me going good for her. You go, girl. And I'm like, you need to get out and touch grass. Okay, this is a joke, right?

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay. But now can you speak to as somebody who knows him well, the baby chickens and the mice in the blender led to a perverse scene of despair and violence. That's what she accused him of. Housing in some basement where baby chickens were being sacrificed. It's not funny. Forgive me, PETA. I'm not laughing at the baby chickens. It's just I'm laughing at the desperation and the attempt to take him down. Perverse scene of despair and violence by this predator who lies and cheats. But I love him. He kills my relatives, but I love him.

[Link Lauren]

I don't think we're winning any awards from PETA, Meghan, So I think we're safe. You know, she had no evidence to back up her claims. And I know I'm sort of part journalist, part operative, part influencer, but the journalist in me is like, if you're going to make these claims and call someone a predator on video, one of your family members, why don't you have any evidence to back it up? And when she talked about him collecting birds of prey, I think what she's referring to is he loves to go falconing. He's been falconing for years and decades. He's taken disadvantaged people out falconing, handicapped people out falconing for charity. We had many falconing events on our campaign where people got to go out in nature and experience that with him. We did a falconing event with Donald Trump Jr. All the pictures are online. It was a huge success. So this notion that he collects birds of prey, let's give the actual backstory that he likes to go out in nature and play with these falcons, which he's been doing for decades. And all the pictures are online.

[Megyn Kelly]

I kind of want to know more. Like, were they live mice, live baby chickens? Because I understand, like, we all eat adult chickens, like, many times a week. It's not. It's not nice, but we do it because we're at the top of the food chain, the mice. I mean, it's sad, but you can go to PETCO right now and buy a bunch of live mice to feed to your pet snake or your pet whatever. It's like, it's a thing. The baby. I don't know. That's weird, but I kind of want to know more. I'm glad it didn't come up today, but don't try that at home.

[Link Lauren]

I thought today there were so many things that could have been brought up. I was like, yes, we got through that.

[Megyn Kelly]

Me too.

[Link Lauren]

A million other things that could have been brought up. Megan and I used to keep a list on the campaign of every horrible thing that could be brought up in interviews. So when we did, like, little media trainings or we'd do some interview prep when he was going to go on tv, I would keep my running list. They didn't touch on any of that. And like I said, though, most Americans, they don't expect perfection from their elected officials. They love Donald Trump, Pete Hegset, rfk. They just want someone who will fight for them. So these smear campaigns, they haven't worked thus far. The guy is still standing.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah. All right. So the apple didn't fall far from the tree because her son Jack Schlossberg posted a video about a week ago, which is really despicable. It appears to be making fun of Bobby's speech issue, his vocal cord issue. Here it is.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Hey, everybody.

[Michael Knowles]

I. I'm trying to figure out the.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Right present to get Donald Trump for the inauguration.

[Michael Knowles]

So I found a really rare animal.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

And killed it, and I'm gonna give it to him.

[Megyn Kelly]

How many leftists absolutely laid into Donald Trump in 15? 16. Because on the campaign trail, they accused him of mocking a reporter's disability, which Trump denied he doing. Not a peep. Not. There was so many likes on this video. It was no Republican liking that shit.

[Link Lauren]

Right.

[Megyn Kelly]

Who would do that to a family member?

[Link Lauren]

I found that absolutely disgusting. To come out and attack your family publicly is just embarrassing. It feels very reality show Kardashian to me. It's not something I will ever support. And Jack Schlossberg, I've never met him. I can only speak from what I see, I'm not a big fan. I thought that video was gross. You can discuss, you know, what people believe in. You can discuss, you know, the merits of their work, and you can discuss, you know, Bobby's policies. But to attack him for having spasmodic dysphonia was a really low blow and really just made Jack look bad to me. I also have to point out Kerry Kennedy and other members of the family have the same condition. So I don't think they probably felt good watching that too.

[Megyn Kelly]

Right. I mean, it's like you want to. I just feel like the. His deceased grandfather would be shocked, would be horrified. And by the way, Caroline Kennedy was like, I don't try to speak for my father or my uncle, but they would both think he's a disgrace. So now she wants us to know she's vouching for the fact that Bobby's father would find his own son, who's just an uncle to her, absolutely disgraceful. But she never speaks for him, nor her own father, who also would hate rfkj.

[Link Lauren]

Absolutely. They kind of push this narrative that Bobby's dined out on his last name. No, he hasn't. He's not even that wealthy as we've seen in the financial disclosures. He's not dining out on his last name. And he's also the patriarch of the Kennedy family. I think a lot of the other ones who had postings in the Biden administration, you could argue they've been dining out and currying favor based on their last name. Jack Schlossberg. I don't know if he works. He seems to have a lot of free time. I wish I had that much free time in my day to sit around making videos, making fun of people, and firing off 5,000 tweets, but I don't. So maybe go find some employment and find a job.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah, he's been in the news a lot this past year and none of it has been good. Then there's this. This is so Kennedy. And I'm talking about modern day Kennedy. We weren't around when the true alleged Camelot was around, but that was no Camelot either. JFK was banging everything with legs. I mean, it was like, absolutely no loyalty or faithfulness to his wife, including the White House intern.

[Link Lauren]

Sounds like a good time to be.

[Megyn Kelly]

I'm just like, okay, whatever. We were sold a bag of good because they were Democrats. They weren't doing that to the Republicans. Those people were getting impeached thanks to Woodward and Bernstein. But Maria Shriver weighs in now on the Caroline Kennedy video.

[Link Lauren]

Yes.

[Megyn Kelly]

Just to like, we're such good people. Oh, my God, we're so good, we Kennedys. We're so strong, and we always do the right thing. Except for him. He's the black sheep. She on X posted in response to Caroline's video. Courage is when you do something hard, heartbreaking, and painful, and you do it anyway. Love you, Caroline. Always have, always will. Okay, so that this is superfluous wording. She said the same thing twice. But in any event, this is so Kennedy. Right? Like, I'm digging the dagger into my loved one at his moment of need, like, the most important moment of his life. I'm trying my best to absolutely humiliate and kill his chances. And I'm noble. Just in case you didn't know how noble I am and how noble our family is here. I am Maria Shriver, to tell you that.

[Link Lauren]

No, absolutely. I thought it was really funny to give her a Profiles and courage. Like I said, she's sitting in a messy, disorganized room reading a written statement, you know, the day before Bobby's confirmation hearing. I think it just seems so obvious to all of us who are living in reality, but if you're in that liberal mainstream media echo chamber, you're eating all of that up. You want Bobby to go down so hard. So they're just grabbing onto anything. Megan.

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay, I guess Schlossberg. This the guy. This is, again, JFK's grandson, Caroline's son. Apple Tree posted this today. We have it cut. He's decided he really does like making fun of family members and others. No. Oh, it's a tweet. Okay. Which. It's a post. Okay. Which is responding to Nicole Shanahan. In fact, let me set it up. Here's what Nicole Shannon said. She was posted and. Yeah. And then here's how. Here's his response. Here's Nicole Shanahan warning the senators who are beaten up on rfkj today.

[Jack Schlossberg]

In 2020, I cut large checks to Chuck Schumer to help Democrats flip two Senate seats in Georgia from red to blue. The two candidates I helped elect, Senator Raphael Warnock and Senator John Ossoff. Please know I will be watching your votes very closely. I will make it my personal mission that you lose your seats in the Senate if you vote against the future health of America's children. And more than that, I also want to say to Senators Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Lisa Markovsky, Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, Thom Tillis, James Lankford, Cory Booker, John Fetterman, Bernie Sanders, and Catherine Cortez Masto. This is a bipartisan message, and it comes directly from me. While Bobby may be willing to play nice, I won't. If you vote against him, I will personally fund challengers to primary you in your next election. And I will enlist hundreds of thousands to join me. You're either on the side of transparency and accountability, or you are standing in the way. The choice is yours. Please choose wisely.

[Megyn Kelly]

Right on, Nicole. So his response was. She's literally so hot. Who knew? Cannot imagine a senator being intimidated by this bird. That is the perfect tweet. That is exact. That is leftism in a nutshell. Right. Like, if Tucker Carlson ever remarked on how hot Nicole Shanahan is, he'd be getting called a sexist pig by everyone over on Jack Schlossberg's side of the aisle. So he puts it in there. Why? To diminish her. He's actually using it to diminish her down to her appearance, as we see with the follow up line, which shows he is not her fan. Cannot imagine a senator being intimidated by this bird. This bird, like this little breakable, sad, weak little thing who's scary to no one. Right? So it's like try to knock her down by reducing her just to her looks, then insult her as a weakling who no one is afraid of. This is the party that is pro woman. Right? Not, not, not Trump, not rfkj. Cause he flew the coop to stay on the bird motif. It's perfectly on brand.

[Link Lauren]

Absolutely. But this is what being a Democrat is about. If you look at Jack Schloss, he got to go on stage and speak at the dnc. Bill Clinton, he's been terrible. He's the patriarch of that party. He got to speak at the dnc. Kamala Harris, she's a disaster. She got to be the candidate. So the Democrats, it's always the rules for thee, not for me. Yeah. Doug Imhoff as well. It's the rules for thee, not for me. So if a Republican went out there and said someone was hot or sexy like you said, they would be called a sexist pig. But Nicole Shanahan, she's a much more formidable force than I think people realize. I was one of the first people who got to meet her on the campaign. I was on the VP committee, which I was grateful to be a part of. And Nicole's a very formidable person. I think she's been written off, but she has a lot in store for the future.

[Megyn Kelly]

So this also happened on the View today, where Joy Behar referred to the new press secretary, Caroline Levitt, who did an amazing job this week. She's green and she's young, but she's very strong. Very strong. And she's gonna get even better. This is why she thinks Trump chose her. Listen, I think she's probably been put in there because according to Donald trump, she's a 10. You know, that's what it is. I want to be clear, though. So that's why he chose Caroline Levitt, according to the tolerant left, because of her looks. And I posted this out online. It's again, it's an attempt to diminish her. You know, she's. She's nothing more than a pretty face. She can't be taken seriously. But, but I think you made this point on my show link. Let's face it, we really are making America hot again. Like this.

[Link Lauren]

I said we're about to have the honest cabinet.

[Megyn Kelly]

And let's face it, Republicans in general these days, like that New York magazine cover, I don't know, I just feel like Republicans are all about these days, making an effort, pulling yourself together, presenting yourself. Well, you know, there is an unusual percentage of good looking people who support Donald Trump. I don't know what it is. And then on the left, you have these lunatics shaving their heads, wearing their blue bracelets, having their Norman's reading glasses everywhere. Like it's not a good look. It's not something young people are going to want to be associated with. And back to the original point, Joy Behar would be ripping on Jesse Waters if he said the only reason Joe Biden selected somebody was because she was a 10. Though I can't think of anybody in his cabinet who come. Anyway, whatever. What are your thoughts on it?

[Link Lauren]

Well, like I said before, we're about to have the hottest cabinet in American history. It is shaping up right now. MAHA stands for Make America Hot Again. Just between me and my friends. So that's what's coming down the pike. And I'm sorry, the Republican Party is kind of the big tent, cool party right now. New York magazine can kind of do their fancy footwork and try to denigrate them, but the Republican Party is the cool kids table right now. And you played that clip from the View where they're talking about Caroline Levitt's looks and she was hired because she's a tin to Donald Trump. I can tell you nobody on the View was hired for their looks. So we can check that off right there. But it's jealousy. There is a double standard there that if you're a Republican and you speak on a woman's looks, then somehow you're sexist. But Democrats can do it all day long and they get a pass and they're praised and they get to fail upward.

[Megyn Kelly]

All right, now back to the hearing. I want to ask you a question. So we, we, we cannot afford to lose four senators, you know, and.

[Link Lauren]

Right.

[Megyn Kelly]

Four Republicans. Unless a Democrat crosses over. Over. But we're not sure if there are any such Democrats willing to cross over. They should, because as we saw, a lot of these swing states where these Democrats come from voted for Trump. They voted for Trump. So it's not. Now Rhode island is not one of them, though. Rhode island is blue. It's very blue. But Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat who just really did a soliloquy during his questioning, which I said, actually some of it Made a lot of sense in terms of, like, what's happening to our grannies and elder care. So it was kind of a safe place to go because it wasn't about how bad Trump is or Republicans are or RFKJ has been. It really wasn't, though. There was a tinge of it. So. But there's a lot of questioning about whether he could be a Dem to cross over, even though he's in a blue state. Because they went to law school together. I think they were in each other's weddings. I think there are other, like a long, long friendship between the two of them. Not sure if it's still in existence. Certainly didn't sound like it, given the way Sheldon Whitehouse signed off his little soliloquy today. We have a little bit of a cut. I'm gonna ask you about him, and then I'm gonna ask you about the Republican Senator Cassidy, who people are worried about. So they're hoping for White House to cross and they're hoping that Cassidy will not fall down and go with the RFKJ haters. First, here's the Democrat from Rhode Island, Sheldon Whitehouse.

[Ron Wyden]

Mr. Kennedy, I only have five minutes with you, and I've got a lot of experience with cms, so you're just going to have to listen two things. One, if you want to move from advocacy to public responsibility, Americans are going to need to hear a clear and trustworthy recantation of what you have said on vaccinations and making indisputably clear that you support mandatory vaccinations against diseases where that will keep people safe. You're in that hole pretty deep. We've just had a measles case in Rhode island, the first since 2013, and frankly, you frighten people. I've said a lot. My time is out. You're welcome to respond in writing.

[Megyn Kelly]

He didn't give the chance to say one thing in response. But how do you like rfkj's chances with Senator Whitehouse?

[Link Lauren]

I'm really not sure. I'm really down the middle on a lot of this. I thought Senator Whitehouse was entertaining when he was going. Grannies in the car, Granny's in the kitchen, then Granny's here. I'm like, where is Granny? What's going on with this? So I don't know. I'm hoping that the Republicans will file rank and get it together. Trump won the landslide. Won this. Trump won this election in a landslide. He won the popular vote, the Electoral College, the House, the Senate. He should be able to have the Cabinet he wants. The same way Joe Biden got to have everybody he wanted. He had Pete Buttigieg as Secretary of Transportation, and the only qualifications he had were fixing potholes in South Bend, Indiana. And he was an utter calamity. So I think if Joe Biden got to have his Cabinet, the Republicans need to get it together for Donald Trump. And you can also look at the other health officials we had the last four years. Rachel Levine, who's pretty much an overweight man in a dress, has been dictating health policy. Why don't we have someone who actually knows about the chronic disease epidemic in this country?

[Megyn Kelly]

Thank you. Honestly, these Democrats got behind Rachel Levine and celebrated his elevation to being the alleged first female, whatever the role was. I don't have the exact title. It's not a female. It's a man. It's a man who lived his whole life as a man, went to med school as a man, practiced as a man, raised a family as a man, and I think, at 53, decided he was going to start masquerading as a woman after a lifetime of being a man and having some of the advantages that come with that, especially during the time he grew up when it comes to getting into med school. And so. But then actually wanted us to celebrate him as the first female this and the first female that, as though he had climbed any of the same hills we had. Fuck off, sir. And take off that ridiculous dress that. They all loved him. Rachel Levine is like the face of HHS under Joe Biden. But Robert Kennedy, he's too much of a kook. Link. We can't vote for that.

[Link Lauren]

Absolutely. The Democrats the last four years under Joe Biden had no problem with an overweight man in a dress dictating health policy. But they have an issue with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Who's been on the front lines of these issues for years. And I wish they would just come clean and admit it. 90% of our healthcare cost in this country go toward chronic disease. That is $4 trillion a year. This is an embarrassment for the United States, the most prosperous nation on earth. We've got the sickest people on earth. This isn't okay. And if we've been trying it one way and it's been an absolute disaster, God forbid we try something new and give Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. A chance. Chance.

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay. I do want to show you the Republican Senator Cassidy, who's a doctor, was very forensic in his approach. There was no warmth whatsoever emanating off of him, and I was not able to read him If I had to put him down right now as yes or no, I'd say he's leaning no, just given how cold he seemed toward Bobby. But. But I don't know anything about him, to be perfectly honest. So here he is.

[Bernie Sanders]

What will you do about dual eligibles? About dual eligibles?

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Well, dual eligibles are not right now served very well under the system. Those are people who are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare. And you know, the. I suppose my answer to that is to make, make sure that the programs are consolidated, that they're integrated.

[Megyn Kelly]

How do you propose that we integrate those programs?

[Bernie Sanders]

Does Medicare pay more?

[Megyn Kelly]

Medicare pay less.

[Bernie Sanders]

Medicaid pay more.

[Megyn Kelly]

Medicaid pay less. How do we do that?

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

I'm not exactly sure because I'm not in there.

[Bernie Sanders]

What thoughts do you have regarding Medicaid reform?

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Well, Medicaid is our working for Americans and it's specifically not working for the target population. Most Americans, like myself, I'm on Medicare Advantage and I'm very happy with it. Most people who are on Medicaid are not happy. The premiums are too high, the deductibles are too high.

[Megyn Kelly]

So I realized that was a very boring clip, but I cut it that way so that the audience could see what he was doing to him. And you know, know he's not actually going to be directly atop of Medicare. That's going to be Dr. Oz. If he gets confirmed, he's going to be running Medicare. But they thought it was fair game.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Right.

[Megyn Kelly]

Cuz it's under nih.

[Link Lauren]

Right.

[Megyn Kelly]

And I think that Senator Cassidy was already well aware that Bobby Kennedy was going to have difficulty answering those questions. It's not something he's talked about in the campaign trail. It's not really part of his mission. Of course he, he'll have somebody there who can oversee this, but the Senator knew all that. So I think he was trying to embarrass him while not looking like a complete prick. Right. Looking like he was staying on topic, which does not give me a lot of hope. And I don't think McConnell's gonna vote for Kennedy. And I don't have high hopes after Hegseth of Collins and Murkowski. And if that calculation is true, that's four down, which kills the nomination. So he would need a Dem. And now we're on shaky ground. That's my own back of the envelope math there, link. I don't know what you're hearing, so.

[Link Lauren]

I'm definitely listening to what you're hearing and I'm agreeing with you. But I want to be careful not to criticize Senator Cassidy too much, cuz I'm hoping we can win him over in the next few days. And if there's one thing I know about Bobby, he is willing to listen and work with anybody. Our campaign was a cornucopia of very different voices. We had people who were pro life, pro choice. We had these debates openly. We talked about what should we do at the border, what should we do at this? It doesn't matter. If you're a lifelong person who's been in politics, Bobby Kennedy will listen to you, sit down with you and hear what you have to say, and work with you in good faith. So I hope Senator Cassidy votes yes on Robert Kennedy Jr. S confirmation because I think he will be able to work with him. But like you said, I think he was trying to ask about Medicare and Medicaid and all these things. But the overarching theme of the day, for me watching the confirmation hearings, Megan, and you'll have to tell me if you agree. They've been around in D.C. for decades. Some of these people have been in the Senate a very long time. So they're interrogating Bobby Kennedy. What are you gonna do about this? What are you gonna do about that? You guys are the ones who've been around for decades overseeing the chronic disease epidemic. It's like when Trump was debating Kamala Harris, and Kamala Harris said, when I get into office on day one, I'm gonna secure the border. Sweetheart, you've been there four years. You went down to the border for 20 minutes. So shoulda, coulda, woulda. I think with a lot of these senators.

[Megyn Kelly]

You're in office now, Kamala.

[Link Lauren]

Yeah.

[Megyn Kelly]

I mean, that's the crazy thing is we're coming off of four years of Democrat rule. The Democrats had control of HHS and the White House. Like what I love, like the long. These are the problem by. By the Democrats. Sheldon Whitehouse's whole bid on how bad it is for Granny. The Democrats have been in power, why didn't anything happen? But now he's discussed it like, nobody works with me. It's like, well, you know what? This is a lifelong friend. If you would treat him nicely, maybe he would work with you. Even if you don't treat him nicely, he's probably gonna work with you. So here was rfkj, kind of speaking to the point of he's been a Democrat his entire life. But there's a fair amount of tds, obviously in politics and certainly in that hearing room today. That was Coloring the way people were coming for him. It's sat 19 and all these Democrats.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Are opposed to me for partisan issues. They used to be my friends agreed with me on all the environmental issues I've been working on for my whole career. Now they're against me. Because anything that President Trump does, any decision he makes, has to be lampooned, derided, discredited, marginalized, vilified.

[Megyn Kelly]

It was a great. It was a great answer. And my favorite part, though, link after the onesie, make onesies great again. That was my favorite part of the whole hearing. When Bernie's like, do you favor this onesie? Will you promise to get this onesie? Like, who cares, Senator?

[Link Lauren]

I think it was just mad they didn't make them in adult sizes. I think Bernie wanted them and they just didn't come in adult sizes.

[Michael Knowles]

That was the problem.

[Megyn Kelly]

But this moment was my absolute favorite one of the day. Sat 5.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

I don't want to take food away from anybody. If you like a cheeseburger, a McDonald's cheeseburger, Diet Coke, which my boss loves, you should be able to get them. If you want to eat Hostess Twinkies, you should be able to do that. But you should know what the impacts are on your family and on your health.

[Megyn Kelly]

Perfect pitch. Perfect. Both in its messaging and his humor and the call out to Trump.

[Link Lauren]

Absolutely. And if there's one thing I know about Bobby, he doesn't want to take anything away from people. He said, I'm not going to take away vaccines. I think some of the senators overlooked that, conveniently, when they were interrogating him today. He said he doesn't wanna take away vaccines. He respects the Dobbs decision. He's a lifelong attorney. He respects the Supreme Court. He has said he has no intention of doing anything to reverse Dobbs to undermine Trump's views on abortion over the next four years at hhs. But they just wanna overlook these things to have some political theater, to have a moment. I thought one of the best comments he made was how there aren't any Republican or Democrat children in this country. There are American children who are sicker than ever before. It's an embarrassment that more kids than ever have asthma, childhood diabetes and all these other issues. And nobody the last four years under Biden has wanted to discuss that. And I understand there are a lot of perverse incentives in Washington, D.C. a lot of lobbying. The pharmaceutical lobby is very strong, especially with some of the senators who are up there today. But it's time to make America healthy again. Otherwise, I don't Know what happens to us if we continue down this path for more years?

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah. He was talking about how the people in Japan still have a 3% obesity rate. They haven't gone up exponentially like we have in the United States with all of our processed food and the way we eat. And Kennedy's been talking a long time about the rise in autism, the rise in ticks, the rise in allergies. Why are we seeing it? And his theory is it's because we are swimming in a sea of toxins every day in our food supply, in our water supply, in the air we breathe, in the furniture we sit on everywhere. And it's time we get really honest about what those things are and whether we can eliminate them from our daily diet. And I use the term diet to encompass all of that, not just the food that we take in. It would be so encouraging, uplifting. I don't. Give me something to feel good about in all of us, to have somebody at the top of HHS who's even thinking about that stuff, Link, you know, who's just. Who's identified that stuff as a problem. And instead of just shoulder shrugging because it's going to upset Big Pharma or Big Ag or what, is actually going to try to do something about it. I'll give you the last word.

[Link Lauren]

Yeah. Like I said, God forbid we try something different the next few years to see if we can make Americans just a little bit healthier. Like I said, I've seen Bobby Kennedy firsthand get up every single day and be that warrior on the front lines of the chronic disease epidemic. He's really been the canary in the coal mine. He can't be blackmailed, he can't be bought off. He's certainly not doing this to enrich himself in any way, shape or form. This is a sacrifice he's making for the American people because he gets up every day and he really does pray. What can I do to make Americans healthier?

[Megyn Kelly]

Wow. All right, well, we'll continue to follow it, and we should know more over the coming days about how the votes on that committee are settling. And don't forget, Link. Thank you. Tomorrow, our exclusive interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. This is his very first long form interview since becoming Secretary of State. It's days before he jets off for his first foreign trip to Panama. That's interesting, right? Given what Trump has been saying. We're gonna ask him about Trump's standoff with Colombia, in which Colombia caved in about 40 minutes. We'll ask him about what's next in the Middle east, what's next in Ukraine. I mean, talk about having a lot on your plate under Trump. The secretary of state has a lot to do. And it's going to be a very it's going to take a lot of political acumen to thread the needle on some of these issues, both here internally within the United States and when dealing with his foreign counterparts. We wish him a lot of luck with it. And it should be a fascinating sit down. Hope you will tune in for that. We'll see you then. Thanks for listening to the Megyn Kelly Show. No bs, no experience agenda and no fear.