← The Megyn Kelly Show
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tariff Threats Get Results, and Absurdity at Grammys and DNC Conference, with Ric Grenell, Stu Burguiere, and Coach Tuberville | Ep. 998
01:48:55
Megyn Kelly is joined by Ric Grenell, Trump administration envoy for special missions, to discuss exclusive details about his secret trip to Venezuela rescuing American hostages, the Maduro government agreeing to take back Venezuelans in America illegally, what Venezuela actually got out of the deal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s major win in Panama, what else is coming related to the region, and more. Then Stu Burguiere, host of BlazeTV's "Stu Does America," joins to discuss how President Trump’s tariff threats to Mexico and Canada are really a negotiation tactic, how he's already getting positive results without the tariffs taking effect, how the corporate media is shaping the narrative incorrectly, the DNC leadership conference’s most embarrassing moments, how Democrats have clearly learned nothing, why identity politics are still not working for them, Kanye West and his "wife" Bianca Censori’s obscene nudity on the red carpet at the Grammys, Alicia Keys pushing DEI on stage ...
Loading summary
Transcript159 lines
- [00:00]
Megyn Kelly
For 140 years, MultiCare has been in Washington prioritizing long term solutions, partnering with local communities and expanding access to care. Together, we're building a healthier future. Learn more@mycare.org welcome to the Megyn Kelly show live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon East. Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to the Megyn Kelly show and happy Monday. President Trump's whirlwind first couple of weeks has continued over the weekend. It's nonstop. He does not rest. There's no more, you know, weird sand shuffling over long weekends at Rehoboth Beach. From the busy week work week of the President that goes from 10am to 4pm at best, four days a week. As we had with our last president. This president does not stop. All he does is work and try to improve the country. I mean, I don't think he sleeps. It's kind of crazy. I don't. You need to sit down. I need to sit down. I need to have my coffee. I can't even talk to Doug in the morning. He's such a Chatty Cathy. I'm like, honey, I need my coffee. President Trump's up and at him. Okay, so a lot of big things happening. We're going to go through it. News today about these tariff threats against Mexico and Canada where it appears Mexico's already folded. Fast action from Secretary Rubio down in Panama. You know, he kind of gave us a preview of what he was going to do down there. He's worried about the Chinese influence. Well, he already scored a big W down there and I think it's gonna be the first of many. Cuz President Trump wants the whole kit and caboodle. He doesn't want just small wins, he wants the big victory. And we'll talk about what that means. Plus we have got to, in just a bit talk about last night's Grammys. Of course you didn't watch them. Neither did I. Nobody watched them. We only see the clips online. But it does give you a little window into how insane these so called cultural leaders of the music industry are. They're just, I mean, it used to be kind of cool to be a musician, right? To like somebody who could fill a stadium in Italy, in, you know, France, in Denver with people jumping up and down and loving them. Now you've got absolute idiots trying to espouse their political views to us as though we care about anything about them other than the way they sing songs. We'll get to that. But we begin today with an exclusive interview with our friend Rick Grinnell. Now, back in December, President Trump appointed Grinnell as his Envoy for Special Missions, a title that sounded important, but vague. We weren't sure what it was. But Rick, of course, has a lot of international experience. Former ambassador to Germany, former acting dni, was at the UN For a long time. I mean, he knows what he's doing overseas. And now we're starting to get a better feel for how Trump intends to use him. And it's boy, for the good of the United States. We've already seen his diplomacy in action as he returned this past Friday night from Venezuela. And not alone. He brought with him six Americans who were being effectively held hostage by the Maduro regime. Here to tell that story is Rick Grinnell. When it comes to grocery shopping and meal planning, it's often stressful and time consuming. Between busy schedules and personal demands, finding the time to shop, plan meals, or cook healthy dishes from scratch is challenging. On top of that, maintaining special dietary needs and health goals, I mean, it can all be overwhelming, right? But now there's Hungry Root, the easiest way to eat healthy. Hungryroot acts as a personal shopper. Hello. And nutritionist combined. It handles everything from weekly grocery shopping to meal planning, offering personalized recommendations based on individual tastes, preferences, and health goals. From smoothies and snacks to full meals, all offerings are healthy, with no artificial sweeteners or preservatives. Only top quality ingredients are used, making healthy eating easy and delicious. Take advantage of this exclusive offer for a limited time, get 40% off your first box, plus get a free item in every box for Life. Go to hungryroot.com mk and use the code mk hungryroot.com mk code mk to get 40% off your first box and a free item of your choice for life. What? Hungryroot.com MK Code Codemk Rick, great to see you. This is an incredible story. I mean, I saw a lot of reactions on Twitter from, you know, well, meaning fans of the president even saying, is it bad that I didn't know we had six Americans being held in Venezuela? So just give us a little background on who these people are.
- [04:49]
Rick Grinnell
Well, first of all, I have to say I'm still really emotional about what happened Friday. It was probably the highlight of my career to be able to represent America, to represent the president, and to watch what was happening in real time to negotiate. Not only did we get the hostages back without paying a penny and without trading any hostages, which is really important, but we also got the Venezuelan government to bring their planes to the United States to take illegal immigrants in our country from Venezuela back to Venezuela. They are sending the planes and they are paying for it. I think this is the new standard. It's pretty amaz. The negotiations were obviously very secret. I left Friday morning super early. I went on an Air Force plane, had Air Force protection. The Air Force is amazing. They've got young people who just are totally committed and working in secret and working around the clock. We flew out of Washington D.C. we landed in Caracas and made our way into the Presidential palace. There hadn't been a White House official there in Caracas in a very long time. And I started negotiating with the Maduro team and then eventually with Nicolas Maduro. And it was pretty amazing to be there and to negotiate on behalf of the US but we had a clear mandate from President Trump. He knew what he wanted, we knew what the parameters were, and the pressure was on to deliver.
- [06:30]
Megyn Kelly
What was that clear mandate?
- [06:34]
Rick Grinnell
First of all, to get the illegal immigrants in our country back to Venezuela. And they needed to accept all of these individuals, including the awful group, the trend. And we needed to make them realize that they had to take them back. And we went for everything by saying, you need to provide the planes, you need to pay for it, you need to come get them. And there are, you know, hundreds of thousands. And so there's going to be a big group going back to Caracas. And then the President wanted us to focus on the hostages. You know, there are 12Americans at least. We may have found a couple of more while we were there that are in essence hostages. They're held on really lame charges. But we had a conversation about the individuals. It's the Venezuelans government position, it's Nicolas Maduro's position that some of these individuals were arrested because of terrorism charges or individuals that were trying to kill the President of Venezuela or the Vice president. And what I said to Nicolas Maduro very clearly, I said, look, look, if you've got evidence that individuals were trying to kill you or the Vice president, those are serious issues. We should absolutely prosecute those individuals. We are with you on that. We agree on that. However, we need to share information, because our information doesn't say that. Our information says that some of these individuals were simply working in the military. A former Navy SEAL who didn't do anything wrong. But you're reading their background and pretending like they were there and sent there by the US Government. We in the US under understand that there are, you know, millions of people who served in the military and who then leave the military and Proudly carry their military experience with them as they go into life, whether they're vacationing in Colombia and, you know, going over the border accidentally into Venezuela or meeting a woman that they were interested in for the weekend in Venezuela. These are all innocent human issues, and it's our job to explain. So some of these individuals, it's going to take some time, but we are very focused on making the case and sharing the information to be able to get the others out. But we did have six. We were able to successfully argue that these six were absolutely innocent, they're not political in nature, and they deserve to come home. And we were able to picture, yeah, it was pretty amazing.
- [09:26]
Megyn Kelly
So that's you with the six. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. They all appear to be approaching middle age or around middle age.
- [09:34]
Rick Grinnell
Some of them were young, although the.
- [09:36]
Megyn Kelly
Guy in the middle, the guy with your arm that you have your arm around, he looks younger. With all due respect, the others look closer to your age and my age.
- [09:47]
Rick Grinnell
I have to tell one story, Megan, that I haven't told anybody this publicly, and it's pretty remarkable. You'll see if you pull up that picture that four of them are in kind of their prison blue uniforms and two are in regular uniform. And what happened was we negotiated for six, and the four in blue actually had said when we got on the plane, so they said, where are the other two? We were released into this room and we had the other two guys with us, and they asked us to shave and to get ready, get cleaned up. And two of the individuals said, we're not doing this again. We've done this four or five times. This is fake. We're not doing this again. And they refused to follow the rules and get cleaned up. The other four did. And what ended up happening over time, that we only learned later, was that the Venezuelan government found two other Americans to replace them. They didn't have time to get everything together, so they were in their plain clothes. And that's why there are two others not in blue. It's heartbreaking to think that there were two individuals that could have been released, but they thought that once again, this was just a head fake from the Venezuelan government government. And so they refused to play the game, not knowing, not realizing that this was for real.
- [11:23]
Megyn Kelly
Oh, no. So are we going to go back for them by your total that you said 12, that we should have six still there?
- [11:30]
Rick Grinnell
Yeah, there's at least six. We think we found another two because we interviewed these individuals. As you can imagine, if you're in prison One of the first things the State Department does is to say, who else is there? Are there other Americans? Give us information about who's there. And so we're working on that. We will absolutely go back. Part of our work is to really push them to show the facts, right? Because these individuals are not terrorists. They're not trying to kill the president and the vice president. That's what the Venezuelans believe. So it's our job to convince them, show them the facts, and to actually dig in. This is what the Biden team didn't do. The Biden team didn't even send anyone to the prisons. These individuals that you're looking at, they didn't even get a wellness check from the Biden administration. They had no idea what was going on. No one saw.
- [12:21]
Megyn Kelly
Is that protocol, Rick, to at least get a wellness check?
- [12:24]
Rick Grinnell
Worse, of course, that's what we do as American diplomats, is to at least get wellness check and to say, do you have a lawyer? We're working on your case. Give them information. These individuals were completely in the dark. So much so, Megan, that when I. What you. You were showing that video of me walking out on the tarmac. We were on the tarmac for about two and a half hours waiting. And I didn't know if they kind of were not going to give us the individuals. We waited and waited, and everybody on the plane, the Americans were very nervous. I was nervous, what's going to happen? When these cars pulled up and I was standing there for a little while, I saw the six were in individual cars, and I could see from across the tarmac that somebody got out of the car and they had a black hood over their head. And I just stood there thinking, this is an American. I'm an American diplomat. I have the Air Force behind me on an Air Force plane. And we can't just stand here while an American has a hood on his head and is shackled. And so I walked over there and each individual was being unhooded and unshackled to get on the plane. And I would say to each individual, get on the plane. Get on the plane. I'm an American diplomat. Go get on the plane right now. One individual, I think there's a picture of me hugging him, was standing in front of me with his black hood over his head. And as they took the hood off, he would later tell me, I had no idea where I was, what was happening, what was going to happen to me. But when he took his turt off, I looked at him and I said, I'm An American diplomat sent here by Donald Trump. I'm here to take you home. Get on the plane. And he broke into tears and hugged me. And I have to say, you know me, I'm, personally, I'm an emotional person, but professionally, I'm not emotional at all. I'm. That's right, it doesn't matter what you say in my life, with my nephews and nieces, I can be the first softy. But professionally, I just don't have emotions. I go and I, I work. But in that Moment in my 25 year career, I felt emotion rush over me like never before. And I really had to hold back tears. And I just said, get on the plane, we're getting out of here. And he was the sixth. We got him on the plane and as soon as we got in the air, they all clapped. And as soon as we landed in American soil, they all were incredibly grateful. One of them told me, and you know, these guys, they, they, they have nothing. They didn't have shoelaces anymore. They had no phones, no clothing. It was freezing cold when we got back to Washington D.C. and this, this guy looked at me and he said, I don't have much, but let me tell you, for the rest of my life, everything I have is yours. And I said, you don't owe me anything. You're an American. And we together do this. And we're bringing it up.
- [15:36]
Megyn Kelly
No man left behind. I know you guys made a phone call to President Trump from the plane and we have a little bit of that. Take a listen here. Saat one. I had Donald Trump all over my prison cell, but I love you, Donald Trump. Thank you.
- [15:50]
Tommy Tuberville
Thank you. Greg Werber here.
- [15:51]
Megyn Kelly
I thank you.
- [15:52]
Stu Burguiere
I can't believe we're here. This is incredible. I'm walking on a cloud.
- [15:58]
Megyn Kelly
Trump.
- [15:59]
Rick Grinnell
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you.
- [16:03]
Megyn Kelly
Unbelievable. Rick, I, I hate to say, to use this word, you guys almost made it look easy. So what, why, why wasn't the last administration doing this? I mean, obviously there was a deal to be had and I don't. Did Venezuela get anything other than the threat of Trump's wrath? Like, how did we get them?
- [16:25]
Rick Grinnell
Well, it's a really good question. And I think in diplomacy, what I've learned is you've got to show up, right? You got to show up and talk. And so I was asked that question. President Maduro said to me, okay, so we're going to give you these. And now these are the things we want. And I said, no, we're giving you a huge gift. And the huge gift is that I am here sitting with you, and you've got all sorts of cameras around, and you're going to use this for propaganda purposes because an American diplomat is sitting here with you. And I get that it is my job to let you know that we want a different relationship. We're going to put America first. We want the Venezuelans who are in our country illegally out, and there's a lot of them, and we want you to pay for them and bring them back home. And I want our hostages, and we want to go down this road of getting back the Americans. And so the gift was a conversation, a hope of a different future, and an American diplomat sitting there. And I am very clear eyed that an American diplomat sitting with Maduro is a controversial thing. But I have to say that I think that we have to be able to talk. Talking is a tactic. It is not weakness. It is in the face of looking at someone else pushing for the American agenda and not backing down. And I think there was an individual from the Biden administration on Twitter attacking me, saying, come on, they must have paid or switched Venezuelan hostages for that. And I say, no, actually, we didn't. We're sending Venezuelans back to Venezuela and we are absolutely giving no money, no hostage switch. It's called diplomacy. And it's what you do when you look at someone and you put America first and you make the arguments that this is what America wants.
- [18:26]
Megyn Kelly
And when you know they know you're not bluffing, that Trump will follow through on any veiled or explicit threats. And you have a boss who's alive, not afraid, and understands the power of this great country, and you're exactly like him. So it's like they're dealing with a totally different team than under Biden and, you know, with Blinken and Jake Sullivan.
- [18:49]
Rick Grinnell
So that President Trump also recognizes that exact point. And so what we wanted to make clear on Thursday night before I left, nobody knew I was going to Venezuela the next morning. But in the Oval Office, we took a picture with President Trump. I then went to J.D. vance's office and took a picture. And both of those, the President and the vice president, both those pictures were released Thursday night and very early Friday morning to send a message that this is our guy without actually saying anything specific.
- [19:26]
Megyn Kelly
Oh, I like that. That this must have been thrilling for you personally, Rick, on a number of levels. Like when you got this title, did you know it was going to include things like this?
- [19:36]
Rick Grinnell
Well, I knew that there's a whole bunch of issues with Venezuela and we got to continue tacking those, tackling those. We've got North Korea. We. We've now got the California federal government's reaction to the fire. So I like to tell people, Megan, that I'm dealing with Nicholas Maduro, Kim Jong Un, and Gavin Newsom.
- [19:58]
Megyn Kelly
I like the notion of. I actually just tweeted this out the other day about Scott Pressler, but it's going to work for you, too. I tweeted out something like, the scariest thing a politician in America used to be able to. Used to hear was Ronan Farrow's on the phone. Right. Like doing some me too expose of you. But today it's Scott Pressler's here. You know, this Republican activist who got tons of a million and a half Pennsylvanians registered red time around and is threatening the governor of New Jersey. He's gonna do it there. But you're kind of in that role where it's like, oh, God, Rick Grinnell is here. You know, like, you're gonna be going to these hotspots, it sounds like, with the president's backing, letting them know there. You may not love this visit, but you're really not gonna like the visit you get from my boss's team if it doesn't work out between us. This is a brilliant pairing. I think this is a great way of using you. Let me steal a couple minutes of your time. And by the way, we're not officially releasing the name of the hostages. Right. Is that true? I mean, I saw a couple of the names in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Just so our audience is not wondering why we're not doing bios.
- [20:59]
Rick Grinnell
Yeah, we're not. I don't know exactly if all of them have contacted their families. They had complicated issues, so I'm just not going to say their names.
- [21:07]
Megyn Kelly
Okay. Yeah, it's. There's a couple of them are out there if you guys so desire, but we'll update you as the week goes on. Okay, so let me ask you this. While I have you. Yesterday, I think, was it yesterday or Saturday? It's all blending together now. Donald Trump posted the following. This morning, I ordered precision military airstrikes on the senior ISIS attack planner and other terrorists he recruited and led in Somalia. These killers who we found hiding in caves threatened the US and our allies. The strikes destroyed the caves they live in and killed many terrorists without in any way harming civilians. Our military has targeted this ISIS attack planner for years, but Biden and his cronies wouldn't act quickly enough to get the job done. I Did the message to ISIS and all others who would attack Americans is that in all caps, we will find you and we will kill you. And then Trump himself posted today video of the attack, which we can see here standby. I mean, obviously he's declassifying it by posting it himself in just what looks like a pretty significant show of American firepower from the air. And now, Rick, there's a lot of speculation about whether this is not only a message to any foreign terrorist, but perhaps one to the drug cartels along the Mexican border who we've deemed foreign terrorists, that if they don't get in line, they could be in a lot of trouble. Just like these Somalia ISIS workers that their threat over the weekend to drone attack ICE agents is not being well received and they're messing with the wrong first world nation. Your thoughts on all of it?
- [22:42]
Rick Grinnell
Yeah. First of all, there are two different issues, and I wouldn't blur them together. First of all, with Somalia, and actually I would say a concern until a few weeks ago in Syria as well. We've defeated Donald Trump, defeated isis, and we watched over the last four years with concern that ISIS may be trying to reconstitute. We've been very clear that we will not let that happen. ISIS is a horrible terrorist organization that has really gone after Christians. And so we've watched them very closely. And I think President Trump was very troubled by even them beginning to organize to come back. And so we have to be able to do this to keep ISIS at bay. This is the right thing to do. And we're watching where ISIS would begin to form in any possible way. Separately. You know, President Trump is very credible when he talks about stopping fentanyl and drugs coming into our country. And so I think every single narco terrorist, every single country or individual or group that is facilitating drugs into our country, they should be unnoticed, that Donald Trump absolutely wants to stop them, and he will use all force necessary.
- [24:02]
Megyn Kelly
I love the warning of it, and it was amazing because I think a lot of us have kind of forgotten about isis. We thought Trump took care of that and like Biden, have been, took our eyes off that ball, though Biden's the commander in chief, or was, and had an obligation to keep paying attention. Marco Rubio went down on his first foreign international trip to Panama. I sat with him last week just as he was about to depart, and he made clear that one of the main reasons, if not the main reason of going down there was the growing influence of China in the canal, that when we gave the canal to Panama, it was explicit that they would not allow it to fall under the control of another foreign entity and that it certainly shouldn't be China, and that what they're doing now is they're building all these sort of corporate concerns along the Panama Canal that are owned by the Chinese that could be flipped like that into military strongholds. So we're just not gonna have it. And Trump has said we want this canal back. So Marco RUY goes down there. Here's what he told me on Thursday, Sat.2. In reality, if China wanted to obstruct traffic in the Panama Canal, they could. That's a fact. And it's my view that's a violation of the treaty agreement. And that's what President Trump is raising. And we're going to address that topic. It's one of deep concern. That dynamic cannot continue. It is not in the national interest of the United States to have a canal we paid for and we built used as a. As a leverage and a weapon against us. That can't happen. We built this thing. We paid for it. Thousands of people died doing this. Americans.
- [25:30]
Stu Burguiere
And somehow our naval vessels who go.
- [25:33]
Megyn Kelly
Through there and American shipping that goes through there pays rates, some cases higher than other countries are paying. For example, a vessel from China, that's also not acceptable. But we should not be in a position of having to pay more than other countries. In fact, we should be getting a discount, or maybe for free, because we paid for the thing. So what we learned today is that the Financial Post is reporting Panama promised free passage to US Warships. Rubio saying he was going to demand that he got it. And on top of that, the Panamanian president says he will not renew the Belt and Road deal with China as we are demanding less influence that he said their sovereignty is not up for debate. He doesn't want to give us the canal, but he said that they would not renew. A 2017 memorandum of understanding to join China's overseas Development Initiative, known as the Belt and Road, suggested that the deal with China could, in fact, even end early. All good, all great. That's a W for us. But then the big boss weighed in, just in case people were clear, like, that's great, but. And here's what Trump said yesterday. SOT 3.
- [26:44]
Tommy Tuberville
Secretary of State Rubio is in Panama, Panama right now, and we're talking about the Panama Canal.
- [26:51]
Megyn Kelly
What they've done is terrible. They violated the agreement.
- [26:54]
Tommy Tuberville
They're not allowed to violate the.
- [26:56]
Megyn Kelly
The agreement.
- [26:57]
Tommy Tuberville
China is running the Panama Canal. That was not given to China, that was given to Panama.
- [27:02]
Megyn Kelly
Foolishly, but they violated the agreement and.
- [27:06]
Tommy Tuberville
We'Re going to take it back or.
- [27:08]
Megyn Kelly
Something very powerful is going to happen. Okay, frame it up for us. Rick, what's happening here?
- [27:14]
Rick Grinnell
Well, first of all, big win from Secretary of State Marco Rubio for Donald Trump and for the American people. But I think there's a lot more that that Secretary Rubio is going to deliver. No one has been better on China than Marco Rubio. He has been clear eyed about their threat and he's very concerned of China's rise in Latin America, a region of the world that Marco Rubio knows extremely well. And so it doesn't surprise us that he's going to get these wins. But this is just the beginning for the Western Hemisphere. And Marco Rubio and defeating China, he is very clear eyed on this. President Trump wants us to all work on these issues, issues. And so I think this is only the beginning. China and Russia have infiltrated not only through the Belt and Road initiative in Eastern Europe, a place that I know well, but through Latin America and Central America. It's a huge concern. We've got to defeat them. It's some of the same issues in Venezuela. And so what we need to be able to recognize is that this is an administration that is going to concentrate on America, what's best for America. We're not working for other countries, we're working for America and Americans. And when we're working around the world, we're trying to make sure that American businesses flourish. Americans are protected. All of these America first doctrines are what we have in mind. And I'm reminded watching Kristi Noem at the border this morning, you see J.D. vance Absolutely. Going back and figuring out what went wrong in Ohio, Palestine, Ohio. And so you really have a team of people that are focused on America and Americans and I love it.
- [29:02]
Megyn Kelly
The last question. And by the way, speaking of Kristi Noem and Venezuela, the Trump administration also ended temporary immigration program. The temporary immigration program for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. She revoked one of two temporary protected status designations for Venezuela. It's by far the biggest of its kind, protecting more than 600,000 migrants from deportation. So no more. We're saying you do not have temporary protected status. You gotta go home, go back to Venezuela. And thanks to Rick, President Maduro's gonna. Yeah, he's gonna fly you back home. You're gonna go see Mom. Good luck with that. Last quick question before we go. Elon's all over Twitter saying that he has shut down usaid. This, this, this organization that they say they're, they're running like humanitarian aid and other benevolent programs for foreign aid groups that, that we support. And Elon saying he held out Twitter spaces last night at midnight saying that thing is so corrupt the money is being totally mismanaged. It's not that there was a worm in the apple, he said, it's that all we found were worms. And the workers who work for USAID got an notification last night. Don't come to work, stay at home, you're on paid leave. And there's a question about whether this thing is even opening its doors. Why should Americans care? And what do you make of the freak out on the left about this?
- [30:25]
Rick Grinnell
Well, look, this is a very complicated issue because we clearly in putting America first, wanna not waste our tax dollars and USAID has been wasting our tax dollars. Just look for yourself at all of the different programs they've been spending money on. It will outrage you. J.D. vance has been put in Char, and he will figure it out. There might be some core parts that need to go back under the State Department, but I think that's what J.D. vance is going to figure out.
- [30:54]
Megyn Kelly
The, the problem is it's become a left wing organization that just funds its favorite causes. There is a report out today about how Bill Kristol set up some group that through some back end gets money from U.S. aid. Unconfirmed, he does not appear to have denied it yet, but I'll check. So we're funding these left wing groups through the Biden admin under the auspices of like we're gonna help the sick and the poor in Africa and winds up in the back pocket of somebody like Bill Kristol. It's a no. At a minimum, it deserves to be to get a hard second look and to stop the funding until we can figure out, as President Trump infamously once said, what the hell is going on. Rick Grinnell, thank you so much and congrats. What a huge victory for us all.
- [31:38]
Rick Grinnell
All the best. Thank you.
- [31:39]
Megyn Kelly
Wow, it's amazing. I'll look at like it truly is so much winning, right? Are you tired of all the winning? I'm not tired of all the winning. I mean think about it like these 6 to 12 guys are languishing in Venezuela. And the reason it was a win for Maduro to sit with Rick is because we haven't recognized that government. You know, he lost the election but he wouldn't leave. And so we weren't recognizing him. But you know, he's not leaving and we have Americans stranded there. And what Rick is saying is that the mere fact that he was willing to be seen on camera with him is a win for the guy. And does that really cost us so much to get back our people? And by the way, to have him willingly take back his people who are far worse than our people? We're Talking about here six to 12Americans who appear to have been falsely accused versus hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who are in part gang members committing crimes in America. There's a lot happening. We're gonna get into more of this when Stu Bergier joins us right after the break. When metabolism functions properly, every aspect of life benefits. A powerful tool exists to optimize your metabolic health and it's called Lumen. Lumen is the world's first handheld metabolic coach. The app analyzes whether fat or carbs are being burned and provides personalized guidance of nutrition, workouts, sleep and stress management. A simple morning breathe into Lumen. You breathe into Lumen with your breath will reveal metabolic status, generating a tailored nutrition plan for the day. More readings before and after meals or workouts will provide more real time insights. Metabolism powers everything. Energy, weight management, fitness, sleep. When functioning is at its best, it enhances daily performance. It improves recovery. It supports better rest. Lumen adjusts recommendations to maintain metabolic balance, sustain energy levels and reduce cravings. Take the next step to improving your health. Go to Lumen Me Megan and get 20% off your lumen. That's L U M E n Megyn for 20% off your purchase. Thank you Lumen for sponsoring this episode. Our state has changed a lot in the last 140 years. We know because Multicare has been here guided by a single purpose, making our communities healthier. That comes from making courageous decisions, partnering with local communities to grow programs and services, and expanding healthcare access to those who need it most. Together, we're building a healthier future. Learn more@mycare.org joining me now is Stu Berghear, host of Stu Does America America for Blaze tv. Stu, welcome to the show. In addition to all the foreign policy news that's happening today, and there's a lot of it, you've got the tariff situation where Trump got all this negative news coverage over the weekend because he threatened, he said as of Saturday, he said, I am jacking up tariffs on Canadian goods by 25%, Mexico by 25%, and China by 10% because he'd already raised the tariffs on China, which Joe Biden then kept in place after criticizing Trump for the tariffs, but kept them because they were working. And Trump said they're going into Effect on Tuesday. It's happening. I want a better fair trade situation with Canada and some crackdown on the border and I want a serious crackdown on the Mexican border from the Mexicans. Well, you know, cue the Harry Entin segment over on CNN about how many people do not want this. They're very against the tariffs. Okay. I think the average person doesn't think about tariffs at all. Doesn't maybe doesn't even fully appreciate what it is. They've just been told by every media outlet left and right that this is a colossally bad idea. Go find the media outlet that's going to explain why this is a clever idea, such that both parties wound up agreeing to it. Trump, then Biden. When it comes to China, that's not out there. Anyway, Mexico is already caved. And we get the news this morning that Mexico has agreed to put 10,000 troops along the southern border in addition to other measures, which I will pull up and go over in one second. But what do you make just of the overall posturing of this thing and where we are after 48 hours?
- [36:07]
Stu Burguiere
It really is incredible. These things move really quickly in the Trump world, I think in a vacuum. I'm not a huge fan of tariffs either. Tariffs are attacks and they do tend to do some economic damage. They raise prices. Donald Trump talked about that very specifically and said we could be seeing some short term harm from this, but long term, he thinks it's going to be worth it. What I think is kind of fascinating about the way everyone's reacted over this particular round of tariffs is we're all kind of acting like we weren't here for the first term. The first term. A lot of this was talked about as well. Some of it went into place, some of it was more targeted than initially proposed, and some of it wound up just being what most of. I think these threats are from Donald Trump, which are negotiating tactics. We all know how Donald Trump operates, and he puts something like this out there, a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico. And within two days he's already got a giant chunk of what he wanted to get done. And a month delay, and the month delay in these tariffs indicates he wants more. He hasn't had everything that he wants yet, but he's giving them a little bit of time to come across those lines so that these things don't have to go into place. And he is just able to do this in a way that I think is central to his overall philosophy, that we don't need to apologize for being Americans. We don't need to apologize for being a global superpower. You saw this with Panama, your great interview with Rick just a few minutes ago, like, the Panama Canal is in the hands of Panama. Because we all kind of felt bad. Carter administration was like, oh, we don't want to be colonialists. You guys can have this incredibly valuable thing that we built with our blood and treasure. You can just have it. And Donald Trump is turning that around and saying, we don't need to apologize for being Americans. We're going to be aggressive. We're going to stand for what we actually believe in and try to turn around these agreements that we have with these other countries that are not beneficial to us. America first kind of playing out in real time.
- [38:09]
Megyn Kelly
The Mexican president said, this is via the New York Times, that the 10,000 Mexican National Guard troops being sent to the border would be pulled from other parts of the country and would be in addition to security forces already there. She said it was important for humanitarian reasons for Mexico to help control the flow of fentanyl into the United States. And she said there was a plan to deploy the troops immediately. I mean, who in their right mind thinks that's a bad idea? Right? There's, this isn't the whole ball game. But that's a concession that was gotten within hours of Saturday's announcement by Trump that he meant business on these tariffs and he actually was going to do it. Then you've get, you get Trudeau up in Canada, who starts off by saying, oh, we used to be really good friends and we've helped you out a lot. It's like the first stages of grief, you know, denial. What do you mean? We used to, we go back a long way. And then he says, I want to tell you that less than 1% of fentanyl, less than 1% of illegal crossings into the United States come from Canada. We're not your number one problem, but hearing concerns from both Canadians and Americans, we launched a $1.3 billion border plan. Great. Thank you. It's a start. It's not going to end the deal, but it's a start. Politico reported on Friday that a source said Trump's Commerce Secretary nominee has asked for proof of these efforts regarding Canada's $1.3 billion border plan. Apparently, they don't believe that Trudeau's actually doing this or actually about to do this, but they announced it. And right now they, too, are facing a 25% tariff on some $30 billion of U.S. goods. Starting Tuesday, it will ramp up to $125 billion worth of goods in 21 days if they don't do what Trump wants, which I think goes beyond just this, this $1.3 billion border plan. But it's very interesting because I don't see a ton of positive coverage for President Trump across these same outlets today on how it's working.
- [40:19]
Stu Burguiere
Yeah, it is working. You know, often I, you know, I. When I talk to my daughter about cleaning her room, I will tell her, I don't expect you to be perfect. I just want you to care. I want you to actually care. That's all I'm asking. And I feel like that's all we're asking of, like, a Mexico. Right. You don't. We understand that you're not going to be able to stop every single person coming across the border. We have to have security on our side for that reason. Right. But you have to actually care. You can't be encouraging people. You can't be telling people that go to the border and please send back all the money to our country. You can't be letting people from your southern border traverse through your entire nation without stopping them as they go to our border. That's a basic ask. And that's why, look, tariffs as an economic policy, definitely not my favorite thing. But everyone knows that. We know that it can do some damage to both sides. What our argument is, as the big boys on the block, is to say, look, we know that the damage that it will do to you is a lot worse than it's going to do to us. So we will sit here and we will wait you out if we have to. We'd like to get to a place, and Trump has talked about this in the past, we'd love to get to a place where there was none of this stuff. There were no tariffs at all. Everyone was free trading. Everyone was dealing with each other fairly. We're not there. And I think it's largely because of the stance America has had for seemingly a generation of being sorry for who we are. I listened to your interview with Marco Rubio, Megan, the other day, and at one point you said, these are smaller countries. The argument is that, sure, we can bully around Colombia. And Marco Rubio was like, I don't want to call it bullying. It's not bullying. I mean, you don't have to call it that, but we are sort of big boying the rest of the world right now, and that's okay. Like, that's a good thing. It's a place we should get back to. We shouldn't be unfair to people. We shouldn't be unfair to other countries. We shouldn't just terrorize them for the sake of the pleasure. But what we should be able to do is stand on our values, prioritize our own citizens and the economy they have to deal with and the safety and crime situation that they have to deal with on a daily basis and say, look, we'll work with you to stop these problems, but you have to care about it a little bit and right now it doesn't look like you do.
- [42:37]
Megyn Kelly
And so we'll make you care. If you don't care, we'll get your money involved in this game and then you will care. You'll care a lot. Because right now, most products from Canada and Mexico into the United States face no tariffs. So this is a big change. If we slap on this 25% tariff to most of their goods. We did make an exclusion on, I think it was Canadian energy. It's down. It's a 10% tariff. Crude oil from Canada would suffer only a 10% charge, which the New York Times points out appears to be a tacit acknowledgment by Trump. The tariffs might translate into higher gas taxes or gas prices. He understands what he's doing. Trump himself tweeted out, will there be some pain? Yes, maybe and maybe not. But we will make America great again and it will all be worth the price that must be paid. We're a country that is now being run with common sense and the results will be spectacular. He, he said the tariff lobby, headed by the globalist and always wrong Wall Street Journal is working hard to justify countries like Canada, Mexico, China and too many others to name. Too many others to name to continue the decades long ripoff of America. We're not going to be the stupid country any longer. And he's all it seems to be. He's asking Americans to understand maybe there will be some short term pain in some areas, but trust me, it's for long term gain. And here's just the latest here. Okay, hold on. Yeah, okay, so I mentioned the news media. Here's, here's how they're spinning the breakthrough. New York Times made a headline right now, Mexico reaches deal with us to delay Trump tariffs. There's no mention whatsoever of the fact that they're about to send 10,000 troops to the border to help with the illegal problem. The fentanyl problem too. Washington Post does mention it. They say UF US tariffs on Mexico delayed as country agrees to rush 10,000 troops to the border. NBC News not surprisingly, makes no mention of it. Trump and Mexico's president say tariffs will be delayed for one month after talks. Not important enough to put the 10,000 troops in the headline. And that's why I mentioned the Harry Enton thing. I'm, I know this guy is just taking polling numbers and putting them on tv, but there's a reason that the vast majority of Americans, I think, are against Trump on the tariffs. Because truly the left doesn't want tariffs. The Wall Street Journal and the Rupert Murdoch types don't want tariffs. It's really just sort of the core MAGA group that is, that is in favor of them. And some group of the left that has been more, you know, against free trade and more in favor of, quote, fair trade for some time. But here's what I referenced with the Harry Anton thing.
- [45:11]
Stu Burguiere
Watch Trump's tariffs on Canada, China, Mexico.
- [45:15]
Megyn Kelly
Look at this. Just 38% support. You don't have to be a mathematical genius to figure out that 51% opposed is larger than the 38% support. Look, Trump has done some fairly popular things in his first few weeks in office.
- [45:30]
Rick Grinnell
This is not one of them.
- [45:32]
Megyn Kelly
No, no, no. Horrible, horrible, horrible. To quote Charles Barkley, the American folk are opposed to these tariffs.
- [45:40]
Rick Grinnell
Take a look at weekly Google searches for tariffs.
- [45:42]
Megyn Kelly
Look how much higher they are versus a year ago.
- [45:45]
Stu Burguiere
They're up 2,400%. That reaches a 21 year high.
- [45:48]
Megyn Kelly
You know, folks are paying attention when there are more Google searches for that than for Taylor Swift, who almost always.
- [45:53]
Stu Burguiere
Is in the top of Google search. There were more Google searches for tariffs than Taylor Swift. Correct.
- [45:59]
Megyn Kelly
Ugh. Well, that's promising. But by the way, so where you wait over the next 24 hours and see if there's a $1.3 billion guarantee from Canada to crack down on border security and 10,000 dol. Thousand troops flooding to the border right now in Mexico to crack down on border security in response to Trump's tariff plan. See if that winds its way into your local paper and the headlines, America, because they won't.
- [46:23]
Stu Burguiere
Yeah, no, that's not, you're not going to hear much about that. You know, and I like Harry Antoinette generally. He does some good work actually at CNN as opposed to some others over there. But I, you know, look, look, you look at a poll on tariffs, you're not going to get the entire picture, I don't think. I mean, I am. Again, I don't like them. I would be in that 51%. Generally speaking, some targeted tariffs at times have been beneficial, but we do see prices go up. I mean, we raised tariffs on washing machines years ago by 25%, and the price for washing machines went up 25%, and people had to pay more for that. Sometimes that can be worth it, especially if it's targeted in a way. But I don't even think that's what we're talking about here. Tariffs as a policy are one thing, and you can look at that and see what the negative consequences are. And some of the positive consequences. Really what it is, though, is negative consequences for both sides and who can kind of withstand the heat that comes from that. But more here is what we're seeing. The best case scenario is what's happening with Mexico right now. The tariff didn't even go into effect. He just said it. That was him just saying a thing. And because he said a thing and people act. Thank you, Megan. People actually believed him for once. It wasn't an empty threat. People knew he wanted to do this and would do it if he had to. And because of that, we're starting to get the things that we should have already been receiving anyway. Mexico should have been taking this situation seriously on the border before all of this. And this is a great commercial to.
- [47:53]
Megyn Kelly
Everybody who's out there running for empathy for Mexico. None. None. They should double the number. 10,000. They're the source of so many of our problems. They dumped the worst criminals who come up through their country into the United States. They allow their drug cartels to run wild at the southern border and are largely responsible for the coyotes and the trafficking of the people into the United States. Zero sympathy for Mexico, by the way. Targeted tariffs are at times terrific. Is great alliteration by you. Sterber Gear. Here's a thread that was on Twitter by Melissa Chen, who is a commentator. I don't exactly know what she writes at the Spectator and elsewhere, but she's a smart commentator and I've seen her on Rogan and elsewhere and she's always worth listening to. And she, she did a little thread on the what we're doing with respect to trade and China. All right, this is just one example. Again, the Chinese tariffs are only going up 10% because we already jacked them. But let me give you a flavor for what Trump is doing here. He's paying attention. Temu, Shine and all these tacky, fast fashion companies that sell mostly crap have long relied on an unfair and unwarranted trade advantage versus the United States. They have long been beneficiaries of what's called the de minimis loophole. This loophole allows goods to be shipped directly from overseas to American consumers so long as the value of each package is under $800American without any customs declaration. It's cheap, direct, untaxed and unregulated. It's a law that's existed since the 1930s, long before the Internet. It Last year the US received a billion packages from China through this loophole. CPB cannot possibly inspect the items at scale. So things do slip through the cracks. Unsafe items, knockoffs, products made with forced labor from China and yes, chemicals that are used to make fentanyl. To put things in context, in 2022 Gap the Gap paid 700 million while H&M paid 200 million in import taxes. Temu this company paid 0. Free trade she raised rates is not free. It's flooding our markets with cheap, crappy, potentially toxic goods, gutting our own retail markets and allowing unsavory foreign competitors to exploit loopholes and gain unfair competitive advantages over retailers who have to play by the rule because of geography. Now we've closed it and Trump shut down these de minimis entries from China effective Tuesday. It's just he's never even going to get credit for these things too. They're too small, people aren't paying attention. But he's clearly got a both guns blazing approach to what used to be lauded by the Republican Party as free trade. But free trade hasn't is not working for a lot of Americans.
- [50:28]
Stu Burguiere
Yeah, make free trade free, I think is a great way to go and this is part of it. And I will say I only once ordered from one of those companies a workout shirt. It was like 299 and I did not think there was a way to make me look worse in the gym than I already did.
- [50:41]
Megyn Kelly
It never works out. But, but but that never works out. Do not order your clothing from China. Double check. Make sure it's made in America. Stu stays with us. Don't go away. Great to see you my friend. Selling a car privately can be a real headache. It actually really is endless negotiations and paperwork hassles. But there is a better, easier way to get your unused car off of your hands for 30 years. Cars for Kids, that's Cars with a K has perfected the car donation process to make it truly effortless. They will take your car in any condition, running or not, and turn it into funds for kids in need plus a tax deduction for you. It takes just two minutes on the phone or at cars4kids.orgmk to donate and they will take over from there. Getting your car picked up as soon as the next day. You will receive a vacation voucher and maximum tax deduction, while supporting proven programs that help kids reach their full potential. With over a million successful donations over three decades, Cars for Kids continues to be a trusted partner for car donors across the country. It's free, it's convenient, and it's super easy. Just call 1-877-cars4kids. That's K A, R S, the numeral for and then kids. Or you can donate online at Cars4Kids. That's again with a numeral for carsforkids.org to donate your car today. So, Stu, the polls have made absolutely clear that a clear and hearty majority of Americans want to see all illegals in this country deported, not just the criminals, not just the really, really bad ones. All. All between 55 and 62 to 63%, depending on which poll you look at. Okay, so that's. That's a majority of Americans. That's not. That's not just Republicans. Notwithstanding that, Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey, who's about to be Scott Presslered, and I am here for it, as the kids say, go, Scott, go. New Jersey ought to be red, and large portions of it are red. Just go to Atlantic City and take a look at the Trump signage. Decides to give an interview and offer up the following little tidbit. Listen here. Tammy and I were talking about. I don't want to get into too much detail, but there's someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to. And we said, you know what? Let's have her live at our house above our garage, and good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her. Whoa. So he doesn't explicitly say that she's illegal, but obviously she is if he's presuming the feds would come to get her. And the only thing that would stop them from being successful is Governor Murphy. That's extraordinary. He's harboring an illegal in his garage apartment and is bragging about it. Stu, in again, a country whose clear majority wants all illegals gone. So should our friend Tom Homan and his friends swing by the New Jersey governor's home and see what's up above his garage?
- [54:06]
Stu Burguiere
I sure hope Tom Homan and Donald Trump hear that, because that certainly sounded like a challenge to me. You know, I was playing a little game of chicken, and I, after watching what this president is doing around the world right now, I don't think I'd want to challenge him to that particular game seems like a losing venture. I feel like you mentioned the polls of the American people. They see this, I think in the same way I know that when I drive home every day, if I roll through a freaking stop sign, there just always happens to be a police officer there to remind me that that's not actually allowed. If I go a few miles hour over the speed limit, they are there to make sure that I know I'm not following that rule. And yet we're supposed to just accept that people cross the border, make a major life decision like that, against our laws, and set up life here for years and years and decades and have families and generations, they're not following the rules. They either have to have some sort of legal ID or fake id, or they're not paying taxes. Most likely, certainly other crimes being committed. But like, that is something I think the American people see is like, hey, if you're breaking the rules, there should be a consequence to that. We shouldn't be treating you unfairly, but we should be treating you like everybody else gets treated. That's how I feel like I'm gonna get treated. I mean, unless you're Hunter Biden, it seems like when you commit a crime, you usually have some consequences to it. And so I'm not surprised the American people feel that way. It's only rational to feel that way. And if you're Phil Murphy, if you think that you can stand up and essentially say to the country, screw you, we don't care what you think about our laws. This is a law I don't like. And so therefore, I will break it. And I will be so out there, I will tell you about it on television and expect nothing to happen to me. That is not a society that has a civilized rule of law.
- [56:00]
Megyn Kelly
That's exactly right. Honestly, I'm a homeowner in New Jersey, but maybe I should just stop paying my state taxes on the home and that, you know, I just dare you. Phil Murphy, you think he'd let me get away with just flouting the law because Megyn Kelly doesn't like it. She doesn't agree with it. This is outrageous. They absolutely should go and collect that woman and they should make an example of her. I don't mean hurt her. I just mean get her out of the country. Among the first deportations. And that will teach a lesson to Phil Murphy and anybody else who's got great ideas about waving in our face their flouting of the law, how that's going to go for that. I Mean, thanks. Thanks for letting us know. On the bright side, we now have a great, you know, roadmap for exactly how to get this one. But he had to be ashamed of himself. His party is a hot mess. Right. Even though the vast majority of Americans are over illegal immigration and this open border. And they're very over girls in having to deal with boys in their sports. By the way, we have an exclusive at the end of the show with Senator Tommy Tuberville, who's gonna be talking about who in the Senate is blocking the Senate from taking a vote on the protection of girls and women in sports bill. Because the House passed this thing and the Republicans control the Senate and it's being blocked. And he's prepared to name names. That's in our segment right after Stu. But. So the vast majority of the American public is on our side on these issues, but the Democrats come together this past weekend to elect their new leaders. They have no leaders. Kamala's gone, Biden's gone. In more ways than one. They have no leaders. And this is the clip that's going everywhere, which shows you what they care about. This is how. Well, let me start with this. There's two. Jonathan Capehart, this far left guy who has a show on msnbc, he starts by asking this question. And for the listening audience, every single person on the panel raises their hand. These are all the candidates for the head of DNC. It's thought 16.
- [57:52]
Rick Grinnell
How many of you believe that racism.
- [57:54]
Megyn Kelly
And misogyny played a role in Vice President Harris defeat? Okay.
- [58:05]
Rick Grinnell
So that's good.
- [58:06]
Megyn Kelly
You all passed. You all passed. Jonathan Caper will decide why Kamala Harris lost. And then they elect a white guy. They elected a white guy, Stu. It's been like 12 years or something before they ever. But the reason this guy, Ken Martin, got elected as a white guy, I would submit, is because of repeated statements like this one he offered in 2019, SOP 14 here. So I have to admit that I.
- [58:36]
Stu Burguiere
Have my own white privilege here, but that doesn't prevent me from seeing the phobias that exist throughout our communities, both in Minnesota and. And frankly throughout this country.
- [58:49]
Megyn Kelly
Okay? But he got elected as chair. David Hogg, the far left kid who was part of the Stoneman School shooting, He was there. He was a student down in Florida when that happened at Parkland, who is just. I mean, with all due respect to that terrible experience, he is truly one of the most annoying leftists on Twitter. He is truly hateful, very nasty, does not understand there's a Second Amendment in this country and that he doesn't get to rewrite it with his eraser. He wins vice chair. So now you got two white guys. Two, two. And the DNC chair, Jamie Harrison, I guess outgoing, tries to explain that this has thrown things into chaos because they have quotas. They have bare minimums for non binaries as. As part of DNC leadership, which I guess neither of these guys is. Listen to sod 18 rules specify that when we have a gender non binary candidate or officer, the non binary individual is counted as neither male nor female. And the remaining six offices must be gender balanced. In order to be gender balanced, we must. We must elect one male, one female and one person of any gender. We have to elect one male, one female and 1 person of any gender to ensure our process accounts for male, female and non binary candidates. We conferred with our RBC co chair.
- [60:23]
Tommy Tuberville
Our LGBT caucus co chair and others.
- [60:25]
Megyn Kelly
To ensure that the process is inclusive and meets the gender balance requirements in our rules. Very hard if you have a quota for neither males nor females. And for the listening audience on the screen the entire time he was reading that is this little like, pronoun primer that reads, theirs zim there, her Z, she his Z, they them zim, hers zay him he, I refuse. Fuck off, dnc. Those are not real words nor real pronouns. There's no such thing as a Z or a Z or a zim. And that's why they're having such difficulty finding the right balance, because they require it at the leadership level. Still.
- [61:16]
Stu Burguiere
Well, it's hard to get to find the right people when you've created a totally, totally new type of person that you have to somehow fit into your quota. It's got to be difficult. I could see the challenge there. Totally. I have two reactions to that. One is I put on my American hat and I look at this and I think this is very disconcerting and terrible because it would be great if we had an opposition that may very well get back into power someday that had some level of sanity, that maybe they saw how things went over this past election and reacted to it and said, hey, maybe we shouldn't go down these roads anymore. It would be great that if we lost an election, the other side wasn't so crazy as to throw us this far off track every time they win. The other part of me just really wants conservative candidates to win. And my eyes light up when I see stuff like this. They've learned absolutely nothing. They are just as ridiculous and terrible with this stuff as they were before they got slaughtered. In this election. You'd think a moment like that would make you have a, a bit of self reflection, Megan. But apparently not.
- [62:26]
Megyn Kelly
No. And the reports coming out of there were just as delicious. So the headline today is in the or actually yesterday, the Wall Street Journal. Democrats have a new leader but have not come to grips with failure. They quote Adam Frisch, a Colorado Democrat who lost his House race in November, to now Republican Representative Jeff Heard as saying as follows, 20 big cities, Aspen and Martha's Vineyards. That's what's left of the Democratic Party. And I'm not Exactly sure those 20 big cities are getting the best version of the Democratic Party. Z zim zay. You don't, you don't think so, Adam? I think you might be right. Here's some more color from that whole debacle. Okay. New York Times headline coming out of that meeting was no coherent message. Dems struggle to oppose Trump. They point out that a Quinnipiac University poll conducted the week after Trump took Office found that 57% of voters view the Democratic Party unfavorably. That is the highest level since 2008. They did more than 50 interviews with Democratic leaders. They broadly agree that they need to do more to address issues like grocery costs, inflation, and immigration. But there is little consensus on how or, or even whether to prioritize the party's traditional concerns like abortion rights, LGBTQ equality, and climate change. There's a quote in here from Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas. This guy, meaning Trump, is psychotic. And there's so much, but everything that underlies it is white supremacy and hate. And last but not least, this little ditty from Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy. You have to portray a sense of alarm and urgency or people will continue to believe that the country will be okay. So they have no idea what the messaging should be. They know they, they're, they're not dumb enough to believe that the identity politics help them. They, they have got to see the polling showing it's crushing them, but it's too strong a strain. The party has this malignant tumor that's in it that loves DEI and equity and identity politics at every turn. And they, they can't excise it.
- [64:45]
Stu Burguiere
Still, it is, it's a puzzle that they can't put together. I mean, they, they really don't know how even to attack it again. Maybe if you had that real moment of self reflection, you might be able to find a path. But if you think about the incentives of not only activist politics, but also the Internet, that it's really hard For a party that has kind of crazy views and goes to the American people and says these crazy views and locks you in with that sort of maniacal purity test that they've been putting people on over the years. How do you unwind that? I mean, look at someone like John Fetterman, who again is a Democrat who says Democratic things and votes democratic ways 90% of the time, but just occasionally comes out out with something that I would call rational. He's treated as a villain for that. They've excised every pro life Democrat from the party. They're all gone at this point. And they have so many different problems here. It's not just DEI and it's not just all the things that we've been talking about here. I mean, you mentioned Phil Murphy. Go back to Phil Murphy's performance during COVID when he is one of the only guys that could challenge Andrew Cuomo for level of incompetence. And what do they do with these people? They reward them. Andrew Cuomo is probably going to be the next mayor of New York City. So they don't know.
- [66:06]
Rick Grinnell
You don't think so against it?
- [66:07]
Megyn Kelly
I real. No. I mean, he might be, but I, I'm not. I refuse. I'm going to work against him. He helped kill 15,000 New Yorkers with his inane orders to put put sick patients into nursing homes and did not let them test them for Covid. Then he tried to lie and cover that up when he got caught. It's insanity to put this guy back in power. Just ask our mutual pal Janice Dean. New Yorkers, your memory cannot be that short. Sorry. Keep going.
- [66:44]
Stu Burguiere
Oh, you can keep going on that strain forever if it's up to me. Making it deserves to be said. He terrorized the entire state during this period and went on TV and acted. Yeah, he is legitimately a villain. And I will say too, less attention because I think of General Cuomo being such an arrogant jerk on top of it. Less attention went to Phil Murphy, but he did many of the same things during that period. He got almost no heat for it. But he did get some attention from the voters of New Jersey who made his reelection a lot closer. We're seeing elections in New Jersey get much, much closer. We went through a period, I mean, my entire life analyzing politics and I have to do like, you know, I have to call the states and do all the political predictions over here at the Blaze. And as I go through that process the entire, my entire life, there was always one poll in New Jersey that showed it kind of close and gave Republicans a little hope. And then when election day would come, you'd, of course have your hopes and dreams thwarted. I think for the first time, New Jersey is in play. You mentioned what Scott Pressler's doing. This stuff is actually happening now. And the American people are sick of what they've been getting. And if the Democrats don't wake up, they will turn into a party that's just completely irrelevant in a lot of places in this country. And frankly, I think that's a good outcome for the future of the nation. But it is one they really have to face right. Right now.
- [68:10]
Megyn Kelly
They're already a national joke. I mean, they're, they're, you know, it's like the sad kid at, you know, the parties in high school who runs and tells the teacher every time he sees somebody misbehave, who really doesn't have a lot of friends, but he's not like the lovable nerd. He's like the turn states evidence douchebag nerd who people really do want to punch, but they won't because they have boundaries there. That's what the Democrat Party is now like. This feckless, weakling, tattletale, annoying loser kids who nobody wants to brand with. You know, it's like that. I keep thinking about that beautiful picture of all those young Republicans at the CJ Pearson, you know, organized Inaugural Ball, and New York magazine calling them the cruel table. It's like, no, that's the face of the up and coming generation. Young Trumpers who are gorgeous, promising, hopeful, optimistic, patriotic. That's what drives the left crazy, who are so focused on zay zem and God, we don't have enough non binaries. Is there any woman here with a penis? Anyone at all? Is there any man here with ovaries? Please. Oh, we can't get to a quorum. And this is why, just to add more color to it, Politico reporting on X, that Dems are in a bit of disarray over this whole thread by Dave Weigel, who works for Semaphore, who talked about some of the crazy answers these candidates gave on how they think they're doing. Like, we should take money from good billionaires, not bad ones. And anyway, the quote repeated by Politico was, we are so fucked, said one Democratic strategist. They even they see it still.
- [69:51]
Stu Burguiere
Yeah, no, it's very true. I think they are. Now, I hesitate to be too confident here. Right. Things do change. I think the Democrats felt like this back probably in 2008 after Barack Obama I remember people writing books saying Republicans would only be a regional party from here on out.
- [70:09]
Megyn Kelly
Yes.
- [70:10]
Stu Burguiere
And things change quickly. The next election was the Tea Party election. So it does change quickly. And you gotta be really, really careful. But like, when I look at that, you know the New York magazine cover you mentioned? Obviously they cropped out all the black people to make it look like it was an all white audience. But when you look at that whole picture, that's an inspiring picture of our future. It is. I mean, you're right. It was like a bunch of good looking younger people who were like inspiring, engaged in politics, cared about relationships in a traditional sense. And when you become the uncool party, it's really hard to shake that. We saw that back in the 80s, the just say no thing when it came to drugs. Look, the right message, obviously, you shouldn't do drugs. But it was just seen as uncool. And for a long time, Democrats took advantage of that, showing Republicans as the uncool party. And over time, they turned to this party that was like, just say no to the guy making the funny joke. Just say no to the guy who says follow the law or who says that. You can notice things like women playing against men in their sporting events. They turn into a bunch of Karens. Right? They just, they're like constantly policing lives.
- [71:29]
Megyn Kelly
It's Margaret now.
- [71:30]
Stu Burguiere
Oh, Margaret, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Yeah, is that another one I have.
- [71:33]
Megyn Kelly
To change after that interview with J.D. vance and Margaret Brennan? I don't really care. Margaret. Margaret is the new Karen. Okay, Debbie Murphy, Canadian Debbie tells me we cannot end this segment without me playing the following sound bite. This is from. I mentioned there were a bunch of candidates who were running other than the white guy who won. And I want to introduce you to Dr. Quintessa Hathaway of Arkansas, who told the audience she wanted to give them something that's been on her heart here over the last couple of days. And then this. Good evening, everyone. It is my desire to be the next DNC chair and I just want to give you all a little bit of something that's been on my heart here over the last couple of days. You fight on, you fight on. You fight on. You fight on. When your government is doing you wrong, you fight on. Oh, you fight on. Quintessa, sadly, you are no longer in the running toward becoming the next DNC chair. You received. Oh, let's check. Checks, notes. Zero votes for that. Apparently not. Rousing rendition of you fight on. This we have Trump and they have Quintessa, Still, I'm feeling, I'm feeling like we're in good shape. All right, I gotta move on because I can't let you go without getting to the Grammys. Did you watch any of the Grammys at all?
- [73:10]
Stu Burguiere
I watched exactly 0% of the Grammys, though I did see some pictures and some revealing photos. In one sense, yes, I did checked in on it a little bit.
- [73:22]
Megyn Kelly
I watched no Grammys. I just watched some of the clips and the responses on X. And within about two minutes, I think the world knew that Kanye, now known as Ye and his wife question mark. Bianca Censori showed up there and she was naked. So we have blurred this because we do have kids who watch the show. But she dropped that fur coat and you see full vag, big fake boobs, and her naked bottom. And she's, I guess, wearing a, quote, mesh dress, which is totally invisible. You cannot see that at all. It doesn't even appear. I mean, the, the, the best was she kept trying to pull it down like the dress, like, sweetheart, we've seen your vagabond. There's, there's no reason to pull it down. If, if you, if you had any hopes of modesty, they ended when you chose that outfit. And Stu, I have to just say a couple of thoughts on this. First of all, it's so crass. It's so classless. I mean, any of us, you, me, Canadian Debbie, Steve Krakauer, my ep, if any of us just took off all of our clothes and showed up at the Grammys wearing mesh, a mesh dress, we would get, get tons of attention. It's because you've crossed another new societal low. It's not because, ooh, we all want to see you naked. There's no question she has a beautiful body. She's a beautiful woman. We knew that from all the other nude pictures. But to show up at the red carpet like this, at a festive event, totally naked is just another blow to our already craven society. Something kids sometimes watch, right? If you're not smart, you don't let your kids watch the Grammys. But just saying what she wanted them to see was her naked body. That's what she wants people to know about her. I, I find it disgusting. I'm not like, angry because I don't let my kids watch these things anymore. But it, I'll just put it to you this way. My kids, I was telling them about it in the car because I thought they might hear about it at school. And I, of course, my 15 year old googled it. And it wouldn't even pull up on his phone own. Right. Because we've got like screeners on there. Because it's pornographic, but it's shoved in our face at every turn. Especially by these two.
- [75:38]
Rick Grinnell
Yeah.
- [75:38]
Stu Burguiere
I mean, just absolutely embarrassing. I do have the same dress and it was my alternative choice for this interview. I'm glad I didn't wear it. But I, you know, it is just like it's the devaluing of it.
- [75:50]
Rick Grinnell
Right.
- [75:50]
Stu Burguiere
Like, it's just like, if this is all you are, then what are you? Right. And it is a sort of, kind of revolting sort of statement about America. And Kanye west has spent. I don't know, he's been all over the board. But, you know, at one point he was singing religious songs. So I don't know what's happening with that. And I was also concerned about the cushions on the chairs inside the venue. Because if you're not wearing clothing, I mean, I just don't think that's sanitary. It just seems like I don't want to have cocktails next to somebody dressed like that. I feel like, you know, just spray everything down after. If you're in the Grammys, especially.
- [76:29]
Megyn Kelly
She's been sleeping with Kanye, who slept with Kim. God only knows what you're getting. Not suggesting anybody has a disease, just saying, you don't want that trail coming your way. They didn't actually make it into the venue. They. There were reports they were kicked out because they weren't invited. But then there was a report clarifying from I think Entertainment Weekly saying, no, no, no, they were invited. He'd been nominated for something. They just didn't go in. They came, they posed, they walked out. Because obviously they was just, they were just there for the photo op. Can I just remind you, this was Kanye on with Tucker shortly before they booted Tucker off of Fox News. Trying to play all like, oh, I'm a man of God now. I object to the objectification of women. Um, I think it's. Well, let's start with. With, I don't know, SART 7. Yeah, SART 7. Kim is a Christian, but she has people who want her to go to Interview magazine and put her ass out while she's a 40 something year old multi billionaire with four black children. And this is what.
- [77:33]
Stu Burguiere
How fashion wants to.
- [77:36]
Megyn Kelly
How they want to present her. I had a lot of issues with.
- [77:40]
Stu Burguiere
The imagery of skimming.
- [77:42]
Megyn Kelly
I felt like there's a lot of imagery that was overly sexualized and things that I wouldn't want to see. My Wife, and definitely not my daughter's.
- [77:51]
Stu Burguiere
Doing in the future in order to sell product.
- [77:56]
Megyn Kelly
I don't. I've seen skims promotions, many of them. I've never seen Kim Kardashian's full vag on display, even she hasn't gone that far. I've actually never seen her full boobs in promotion of skims. I've seen them many times elsewhere on the Internet, thanks to you, Kanye, who participated in that one shoot, I'm told, where she had the champagne coming out of that. Whatever. He definitely tweeted it out and wrote all day long. And then he added this to Tucker for good measure. Saudi, the girl showing her body off, showing this, showing that.
- [78:29]
Rick Grinnell
And I didn't realize that that was.
- [78:31]
Megyn Kelly
Affecting, like, my soul and my spirit as someone that's married and loved and.
- [78:36]
Stu Burguiere
And the father of, like, now what about to be four kids.
- [78:39]
Rick Grinnell
Corsets, like a formal underwear. It's hot. It's like, it's hot for Hoover.
- [78:43]
Megyn Kelly
So, like, the night before the night, you're gonna come in here and say that you're not into a corset bun give me really bad anxiety. What are you. What are you talking. Why is that giving you anxiety to say that? Because I knew last night I was.
- [78:58]
Tommy Tuberville
Having really bad anxiety.
- [78:59]
Megyn Kelly
And I don't need any more negative energy for you to now say that you're not into me wearing a tight dress. You are my wife, and it affects me when pictures are too sexy. You built me up to have. Be this, like, sexy person and confidence and all this stuff. What a difference a divorce makes. I don't.
- [79:19]
Stu Burguiere
Help me still, I think maybe as. As a. As a conservative and someone who, you know, can appreciate some of the things Donald Trump does as president. And we saw Kanye west put on a red hat for, like, two weeks, and we lost track of the point that he's just completely insane. He was insane when he was saying George Bush doesn't like black people. He was insane when he went to the Donald Trump side. He might have made a point or two that you liked, but he was insane. He was insane when he ran for president against Donald Trump. He was insane when he started hanging out with Nick Fuentes and becoming an anti Semite, and he's insane now. That is the really simple summary, I think, of everything with Kanye West. None of this makes any sense because he is insane. He's a crazy person. And, like, this is not.
- [80:07]
Megyn Kelly
This is. This is an opinion about the way in which he has been behaving, which is totally fair. I I'm like, I would like to state for the record that I have. I did never. I did not buy into this, and I did not. I did not put him on the air or try to milk that for ratings like Chris Cuomo did. I just. You could see he wasn't. There's something off, and I have no wish to exploit it, but I feel like this wife, I used to think she was exploited. I now think she's totally in on it. She's. She's. She's in on it. Like, she just wants to be a star. I have zero use for these two. Okay. Alicia Keys accepts the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award and uses it. Ms. Alicia Keys of the. Oh, I swear I wasn't coincidentally wearing the Palestinian colors, like, hours after 10, 7. No, I wasn't. I swear. This is how she spent her acceptance speech. This is not the time to shut down. The diversity of voices we've seen on this stage. Talented, hard working people from different backgrounds.
- [81:12]
Rick Grinnell
With different points of view, and it changes the game. DEI is not a threat, it's a gift. And the more voices, the more powerful the sound. When destructive forces try to burn us down, we rise from the ashes like a phoenix.
- [81:39]
Megyn Kelly
Okay. Destructive forces try to burn us down. I mean, obviously, I believe that was yet another reference to Israel, by the way. It was the. The Hamas who did the burning of actual people and babies. Alicia, you might want to actually do a little research before you go out there and wag your tongue because you don't know what the F you're talking about.
- [81:59]
Stu Burguiere
Anyway, your thoughts, I mean, it's fascinating. You know, this. She says diverse, Diverse voices are. Different voices from different backgrounds are important. Well, sure. I mean, we don't want the same person singing all the songs. We don't want everyone to. I mean, you do get a different perspective. That's got nothing to do with skin color. No one's saying that we shouldn't have different people from different backgrounds. It's this maniacal focus on immutable characteristics that are the problem. And especially when you're promoting people who are less qualified, you know, who knows what went on exactly. Of course, with the air crashes and stuff. But we do know that that stuff is a serious problem inside the FAA and inside an uncountable amount of government agencies that are doing important things that are supposed to help Americans. If you're focused on that, you're not focused on finding the best person. You're not focused on finding the best singer, you're not focused on finding the Best lyricist. You're focusing on genitals or skin color or whose genitals you like the best or whatever intersectional value we're supposed to be caring about this week. When you're caring about that, you're not caring about merit. I thought that was great. You know, Pete Hegseth said that in his term. I know Marco Rubio's spoken about it. All these appointees from Trump are talking about it. Pick the best person. Don't care about those things. And that's the way to go.
- [83:20]
Megyn Kelly
You had Shakira. Who did? She pulled a Selena Gomez like the immigrants. You had Lady Gaga make it all about. Trans people are not invisible. These people are very annoying. And you really should pause before you think about giving them your money. All right, it's like, oh, then Beyonce. Beyonce, she's won 33 Grammys, including for Best Country Album last night. Meanwhile, they, you know, somebody went through and did the list. Hold on a second. I have it here. It's actually outrageous. So did you know? Listen to this. Still. Somebody tweeted this out. Mike Harlow, Frank Sinatra got 11 Grammys. The Beatles won seven. Judy Garland, 2. The Rolling Stones, 3. Beyonce, 33, most overrated artist of all time. I totally agree with that. And by the way, you don't have to take my word for it or Mike Harlow's word for it. Listen to what John Rich tweeted. Folks are asking me, how do music award shows work? He writes. Labels and publishers all have blocks of votes. They make deals with each other. You vote for mine, we'll vote for yours type thing. It has zero to do with who made the best music. Thus, Beyonce with Country Album of the year. Nice, right? The same thing is true with the CMAs, the ACMs, billboard, et cetera, all work exactly the same. Last night, the Grammys outed themselves in a big way. It's ridiculous. Her husband, I'm sure, pays for all these aggressive marketing campaigns, and we're supposed to pretend that that Queen Bey is unassailable in her country music attempts? Well, you know what? She isn't. We're not buying it. We know what happened and how she got this award and how she got her 33 Grammys when you've got two for the Judy Garlands of the world. Your thoughts?
- [85:16]
Stu Burguiere
I mean, it's funny because they praise DEI so much, Megan, but if dei, it's their industry. A lot of boring white guys like me are going to be winning Hip Hop awards, and I don't think that's what they want. I'm concerned about the way they look at this. And I find at least, you know.
- [85:32]
Megyn Kelly
You have your outfit ready.
- [85:34]
Stu Burguiere
Yes, it's ready. Don't look at the red carpet. Take your kids away. It's funny, too. Lady Gaga, you mentioned trans people are invisible. This terminology is so strange. Like, if anything, I feel like trans people are the most visible. Every time they walk down the street, I can tell immediately, way too visible. I want to know less. I want to see less. I want to know less. Please don't wear Kanye's wife's dress stress anywhere. But this is. It's just like this standard stuff that I feel like, you know, look, these are not the smartest people among us. I mean, I. I'm not sitting here thinking that they're all necessarily, you know, going into deep thought about what they're saying. A lot of them just. They've got a vibe. A DEI is good to them. So they're going. They're going to say it. But, like, you'd think there'd be some thought after all of this has happened, right? You're. You had this. This supposed mandate in 2020, which has gone away. The culture is moving in the opposite direction. People who are, I think, standing out right now are people pushing back against this old guard and this, you know, which encompasses DEI and so many other things. It's great to be fair to everybody, but, like, just on the merits, Beyonce should not, you know, I just. I don't think enough of her music to believe that she could possibly have. Have more. More awards than all of those people I think you just mentioned combined.
- [86:57]
Megyn Kelly
I know it's ridiculous. We know what you're doing. It's obvious what the industry is doing. It's just not the same as it used to be. Like, there was a time when true merit determined who won these awards. That time has come and gone. And Americans know it. They know it, whether it's an Oscar campaign or Grammys campaign. And, you know, these. These stars are making fools out of themselves in trying to walk over into political commentary. No one believes they have any working knowledge of the issues. And by the way, I'm convinced on that Alicia Keys reference, we know what you're doing. We realize you thought what Hamas did was aces. You made that clear. You're disgusting. Stu Berger is not disgusting. He's a champ. It's great to have you. Thank you for being here here, Megan, you're the best.
- [87:45]
Stu Burguiere
Thank you.
- [87:46]
Megyn Kelly
All right, coming up next, U.S. senator Tommy Tuberville. Coach is here. I mean, this is one of the most respected, celebrated, most winning coaches of all time. And he happens to be a US Senator who for years has been pushing to protect girls in sports. And he's about to blow the whistle on his fellow Republicans for not getting this bill, which already been passed in the House, a vote on the Senate floor. Don't miss that. You might have heard about this new brand called XXXY Athletics. It's the only athletic brand standing up for women's sports. It was founded by former elite gymnast and longtime Levi's top executive Jennifer Tse. XXXY Athletics actually knows men cannot become women. Hello. And while we've had some wins as of late, we're not done. Trump's executive order only impacts sports governed by Title IX that take place within federally funded education institutions. That leaves competition and sports governed by the US Olympic Committee unaffected. That's more than half of all sports competitions. We have work to do. We need to change the culture to end men in women's sports once and for all. XXXY Athletics makes world class products including sweats, graphic tees and workout gear that holds up to the toughest workouts. Check them out@theTruthFits.com use the code MK to get 20% off your order. There's go to TheTruthFits.com don't forget that code MK20. 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 SiriusXM 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. Go to SiriusXM.com MKShow to subscribe and get three months free.
- [90:06]
Rick Grinnell
That's SiriusXM.com MKShow and get three months.
- [90:11]
Megyn Kelly
Free offer details apply. Now we turn to a subject that was key to the 2024 presidential election and a key issue here on our show, the protection of women and Girls in Sports. A bill titled Protection of Women and Girls in Sports act passed through the House on January 15, 218 to 206. The legislation bans federal funds from going to institutions that allow biological males in sports and requires Title IX provisions to solely recognize biological sex. But now the bill is being stalled in the GOP controlled Senate. Hello. What? And my next guest has more on the GOP leadership failing to bring the legislation for a vote. Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama has been on the front lines working to pass this legislation, and he's been working for years. I went back and looked at the number of times he's tried to bring this up when nobody wanted to hear from him, when it appeared to have no chance of passing. He brought it up. He brought it up again. He brought it up again. He has been like a dog with a bone on this. A true ally to women and girls everywhere. And there's a reason, I think he's got a historic background in the sports world as a former head coach for several college football teams. Senator Tuberville. Coach Tuberville, welcome to the show.
- [91:36]
Tommy Tuberville
Thank you, Megan. Thanks for having me on. What. And what a great subject we're going to talk about.
- [91:41]
Megyn Kelly
You're a huge fan. Like, the number of times you have tried to push this boulder up the hill really makes me respect you. Even when you knew there was no way a Democrat, Democrats controlled Senate was going to give you a vote. But then GOP wins control of the Senate. And what we've seen since you guys took over in the Senate and the House now is the House passed it and it got massaged a bit. They passed it again. They said, yeah, okay, here we go. Back to you guys over in the Senate. And we've been waiting, I've been waiting to see a vote by the GOP controlled Senate on this thing because it's much better notwithstanding Trump's executive orders, if it can become law, law that can't just be undone by an executive order four years from now. So why aren't we seeing a vote?
- [92:27]
Tommy Tuberville
Well, exactly right, Megan. A lot of people don't realize an executive order, which President Trump signed almost a couple weeks ago, defining gender, by the way, and he even came out and said, listen, we have to have a bill within 30 days. Because if you don't know this, executive orders only last as long as that president's there. So we got some work to do. This is a third time. Third time's a charm. I've had it on the floor twice. We didn't have the votes. Even had a Republican vote against me the first time. Joe Manchin voted with me the second time. But we're going to have to get 60 votes and we got a lot of work to do. We have 53 Republicans. We know we've got to get some Democrats. But it is a very, very touchy subject. Do you know, Megan, that there's some high school teams in this country in blue states that are totally biological boys. It is a disgrace. It is a disgrace. What's going on and what's going to happen is we're going, we are going to end up not having women's sports because parents are not going to allow their kids to dress in dressing rooms, take showers with biological boys or they don't want them to compete against them because of being a safety factor. But, but it is devastating what is happening. President Trump understand it. They put $100 million in advertising in the election the last three months and it helped him get over the top 79% of the people in this country. Republican and Democrats say it is wrong for men or boys to participate in women's sports. We've got the majority on our side, as you said. We've got to get it to the floor. John Thune told me he's going to get it to the floor. He hadn't done it. It. Now it's time to put up or shut up. We've got to get it on the floor so people can see if it's not going to pass. We'll do it again. But we've got to get people on the record because this is something that is very dear to the heart of all parents across this country and is dead wrong.
- [94:26]
Megyn Kelly
Would John Thune not wanted to come to the floor? He certainly wouldn't want to protect Democrats. He must know of Republicans who are not ready to vote for this thing.
- [94:34]
Tommy Tuberville
Well, leadership is actually co sponsors of this and I think at the end of the day, Jonathan has been overwhelmed. Obviously, you got President Trump breathing down his neck. You've got the Congress or the House pushing things over. We're trying to do the reconciliation. The Lake and Riley act needed to be passed because that was so important with the border being under attack and, and we're losing so many young men and women for fentanyl and all those things. But now is the time to act on this. So we, we can't wait any longer. 50 years of title nine. It has been decimated by the Biden and the Democrats and all the far left left progressives. I grew up in this business and coaching. I saw what it did for young girls, older girls. It's creed. It's created leaders across this country and we're absolutely devastating. This still Today, I don't know what Joe Biden was thinking or, or was he even thinking or any of the Democrats when they thought this, this was the right thing to do.
- [95:29]
Megyn Kelly
Is there some belief that this can't pass and they only want wins right now? They only want a put legislation on the floor that can get through.
- [95:40]
Tommy Tuberville
Yeah, put yourself in John Thune's position and the leadership of the Senate. You know, they're looking at things, hey, can, you know, let's win early. Let's get on the score board early. But the problem with this is we've already won because President Trump pushed this out there. Now is the time to put pressure on the Democrats time and time again, four or five times. We have to, even before the next election, get them on the vote vote that they're going to vote against girls and women having to participate in, against men and boys. It's, it's devastating to the, to sports. It's devastating to the lives of young people. There's been rapes and dressing rooms and showers. It is absolutely amazing. Riley Gaines and I, you know, have become good friends over this, talking about it again. We're going to talk about her with her again later in the week because this is Girls Sports Week. It is so important that we keep people's mind on this and not let it go down and, and, and forget about it. This is so important to the people across the country.
- [96:45]
Megyn Kelly
Can you, can you just tell me when you said that there are girls sports teams in the United States that are filled entirely with boys posing as girls? You know, I just heard a story. I'm not going to name the school because I haven't confirmed this, but it's a mom friend of mine, and I believe her because she had a kid at this school in Westchester, a private school. They hired a new sports director, athletic director. And then they turfed this guy because he didn't believe in allowing boys into girls sports. And the school made a conscious decision that not only did they want boys in the girls sports, but they had a plan to stack the entire girls ice hockey team with biological boys so that they could be totally dominant against other schools. So I do have some information in my own personal world that, that they're doing this now for competitive advantages. But you're, you probably hear from a lot more people than I do in your role. So is that true? Like, what sports are they filling the whole roster with? Boys?
- [97:41]
Tommy Tuberville
Yeah. Yeah. Most of them are track teams that you're going to have a, you know, a few in volleyball and Few in basketball, but mostly the track teams, and they're in blue states. We get calls all the time about this. And again, even the, the, the parents in the blue states are in an uproar about this. And again, it's going to become a common thing if we don't stop it now. You let this landslide keep going, we're going to have huge problems getting this stopped. So it's important that we stop it now. President Trump's hot on the trail on this with his executive order. Again, this is Sports Week for, for girls. It's so important that we, we look at Title nine as something that is constitutional and that, that was written in our Constitution, because It wasn't, because 50 years ago we, it was the first time we ever said, okay, let's give women, young men and women, young girls and women an opportunity. And it started and it's the best thing that's ever passed out of this place we call the swamp here in Washington, D.C. but again, we're going to keep fighting for it. But again, I'm going to continue to push leadership. John Thunes, John Barrasso, they all are on my side on this. But again, you might have hit the, hit the nail on the head while ago when you said, you know, they might just want to win. Well, we've had two losses in the last two votes that weren't Lake and Riley. So it's a, let's don't worry about winning or losing on this. Let's get it out there where people can see what's going on.
- [99:09]
Megyn Kelly
But do we think, Senator, that you'd get all 53 Republicans voting for this?
- [99:14]
Tommy Tuberville
Well, Murkowski voted against it last time, and then I think the next time she may have voted for it. I can't remember. But at the end of the day, now we have 53. It's, it's going to be, it's going to be a touchy subject. Again, if you just go back and look at the last three months, President Trump hammered this home with the people. And everywhere I went.
- [99:36]
Megyn Kelly
No, you, you, 100% right. The new York Times just did this poll In January of 2025, as in a few days ago, 79% of respondents said biological males who identify as female should not be allowed to compete in women's and girls sports. 67% of Democrats said that, 94% of Republicans, 64% of independents. These are huge majorities even within the Democrat Party. We think we have the Republican votes. Maybe, maybe not. Murkowski. I've heard a little Wiggling from Susan Collins. But I don't know, even if you counted those two out, out, I, I feel like we have the votes needed to pass it. We just don't think we have the votes for cloture. Is that true?
- [100:22]
Tommy Tuberville
Yeah, that, that, that's true. I think it'll be close though. You got to remember now they've got quite a few people that suffer election and in a year and a half and it's going to be, this is going to be maybe one of the top subjects out there. We get the border under control, we get inflation under control, crime under control. President Trump continues this march down the path of, of getting back to the United States. This will be one of the top issues. And so if we go and get it done now, obviously without, you know, too much fanfare from, from the, the Democrats, I think we got a great opportunity, but they're going to push back hard. Chuck Schumer is definitely against anything that we do of blocking this. So he's going to hold his, hold his group's feet to the fire on this.
- [101:09]
Megyn Kelly
And you had like a preview of what the Democrat argument is on this from AOC in the House who actually explained or claimed that this is going to lead to inspections of little girls going into the locker room to make sure they're female. I mean just the worst fear mongering here is her sound bite in SOT 30 Republicans who have voted against, consistently against the Violence Against Women act act, who have taken away the right of.
- [101:42]
Stu Burguiere
All women to choose and have control.
- [101:45]
Rick Grinnell
Over their own body, who as women.
- [101:49]
Megyn Kelly
Are bleeding out in parking lots across the country, standing there allowing us to die now want to pretend today that.
- [101:59]
Rick Grinnell
They care about women and why to.
- [102:04]
Stu Burguiere
Open up gender and yes, genital examinations.
- [102:08]
Rick Grinnell
Into little girls in this country in.
- [102:11]
Megyn Kelly
The so called name of attacking trans girls. And to that today, what we have.
- [102:18]
Stu Burguiere
To say are two words.
- [102:20]
Megyn Kelly
Not today.
- [102:22]
Rick Grinnell
Trans girls are girls.
- [102:26]
Megyn Kelly
And for all the folks that are.
- [102:27]
Rick Grinnell
So concerned, thank you for your concern about women. For the first time that I've seen, I don't know about y'all, I don't.
- [102:34]
Megyn Kelly
Know who's been to gym class lately, but girls, even if you only believe in two genders.
- [102:39]
Stu Burguiere
I've played coed sports all the time.
- [102:42]
Megyn Kelly
What's your response to her, Senator?
- [102:45]
Tommy Tuberville
Well, it's typical. Just rant and rave. She's just trying to make headlines. She has no clue what she's talking about. Inspection of young girls. You know, up until the last year or so, we didn't have to worry about this and that's never happened before and it's not going to happen in the future. It's just. They've lost her mind, Megan. They've absolutely lost their mind. They want total control and if they can control a scenario like this, they think they can control anything.
- [103:12]
Megyn Kelly
It's total fear mongering. So what we need is for Leader Thune to call for a vote on the Senate floor so that we have names, we have actual names of the Democrats who are standing in the way of what 67% of their, their base of their voters want. I don't see how that's a downside for Republicans at all. Even if we don't get cloture, let's see them vote. Let's see those senators say I am not for this and we can campaign accordingly thereafter. While I have you, can I ask you about the President's nominees? Because I saw you, I went to the Hegseth confirmation hearing. I saw you did a very nice job. Rfkj Tulsi Gabbard, Cash Patel. News out today is of, you know, Hegset's been confirmed, but of those I named, maybe Tulsi's on the least steady ground in terms of getting confirmed in the Senate. Do you agree with that and do you think she'll get through?
- [104:11]
Tommy Tuberville
Well, I'm hoping she gets through, but I think if one of those three is going to have a tougher time, it's probably going to be her. We have these people up here that think they invented national intelligence. Most of them just look at scenarios and you know what, what can, what can give us a good opinion that we can tell our folks back home that we're going to vote against her. It amazes me. Everybody tries to, tries to be one up everybody else. And you and I saw you at one of the hearings that they were waiting in on Pete Hexif. They, the Democrats were getting ready to absolutely run over top of and maybe even a couple of Republicans. He handled it so well, it kind of shut them all up for a while. But their scenario, every, every one of these hearings, Megan, is seek and destroy. They want to do everything they possibly can. Most of them have no morals. The things that they've done to this country for the past four years is, it's not forgivable. But again, I think Robert Kennedy will get in. I think it'd be close. Cash Patel probably has a better chance than both of those two. I think he'll through maybe with 52, 53 votes. And then of course Tulsi she is perfect. She's both. All three are out of the box and exactly what we're looking for. And as I tell my colleagues on the left, or, excuse me, on the right, Robert Kennedy brought millions of votes to President Trump because when he flipped sides and came his way, you could just. You could just feel the. The momentum from. From Robert Kennedy. He needs to be approved because he will do an absolutely outstanding job. Not just for vaccines, which everybody thinks is all about vaccines. It is about everything. It's about food. It's about the future of our country and our kids and everything we do and our healthcare.
- [106:01]
Megyn Kelly
Amen to that. Well, fingers crossed on all three of them. Last question. So does this mean, since you used to coach Patrick Mahomes, that you're rooting for the chief at the big game this Sunday?
- [106:12]
Tommy Tuberville
Well, I never even coached him. What happened is I recruited him and then I left and went to another school. But I've got to be very good friends with him. He's a good. He's not just a good athlete. He's. He's a very good example for a lot of our young youth across this country. Same thing with Dwayne Johnson. Coaching Dwayne at University of Miami years ago. It wasn't, you know, he's a good football player. Wasn't a great one, but. But you could tell he was a perfect gentleman on and off the field. So one of those type of people. But now I like both teams. Again, I'm not a big NFL person. I like college football more. But I'll probably be pulling for Patrick this week.
- [106:53]
Megyn Kelly
Oh, very nice. Okay, I'm going to confess. I am going to the Super Bowl. I've never been to one before, but Doug and I are going, and I am going to be rooting for the Eagles because even though I don't really love the Eagles, Coach, I gotta be honest. Ever since the Michael Vick thing, I have hold it. I've held it against them, and I'm a Giants fan, but I am going. The Giants aren't in it. I am going to root for the Eagles out of marital support and love. So we'll see. Maybe. I'll bet you a dollar. I'll bet you a dollar that the Eagles will win. You take that bet.
- [107:24]
Tommy Tuberville
I'll take that bet. It should be a good time, though, that the football game is secondhand compared to everything else around it. I've been to them, the halftime, the pregame game, all the festivities, and. And New Orleans is a great place, so be careful down there. It will be safe. You know, they'll have a lot of security. But at the end of the day, it's the biggest event of the year, sporting wise for our country and hopefully we have a great game.
- [107:47]
Megyn Kelly
Very cool. Great to see you, sir. Thank you so much for coming on.
- [107:50]
Tommy Tuberville
Thank you.
- [107:52]
Megyn Kelly
Thanks for all the great work you've been doing on this. Really appreciate it. It's a very simple, very simple action. It says sex shall be recognized based solely on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth and that it will be a violation for someone receiving federal funds who runs a sports program to allow someone whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity designed for girls. That's it. It's really not that complicated. Get behind it or get voted out of office. Democrats, you remember that poll we saw 3,000 swing state voters. The number one issue they voted on in the 2024 presidential election was the gender thing. And the sports thing is a huge part of that. It just makes sense to people that boys shouldn't be playing against girls. Get on board or get left behind, especially these senators from those six swing states. Make them vote. Make them say they won't allow a vote on this very simple bill. Leader Thune, it's the least you can do to reward people like Senator Tuberville who's worked so hard on this legislation that has majority support of the nation. Nevermind the House and the Senate. Thanks to all of you for listening. We are going to be back tomorrow with a very interesting show with our legal eagles, Mike and Dave. I mean, there's so much stuff happening in Trump world. Is any of it going to pass muster in the legal world? We've already seen some challenges filed and much, much more. So don't miss that show and we will see you soon. Thanks for listening to the Megyn Kelly Show. No bs, no agenda and no fear.