Rich Lowry
Appearances
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Yeah. One of my favorite parts of that moment, you don't know, but when DJ's talking to the head of the Secret Service right afterwards, he imagines, so what do I get to do now? What are my responsibilities? How do I get on the job? But this is a tradition that goes back. I think Reagan was the first to do it, and there was a terrible Air Florida crash.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
And at Washington National Airport, it wasn't Reagan then, of course. And there's a guy who I think might have been an off-duty fireman or just a bystander who swam out of the icy Potomac River and saved someone. And Reagan had that person in the balcony recognize his heroism and sacrifice, save this person. So everyone's done this.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Trump's taken it to a different level, though, because things – it's not just recognizing someone to make a point or to honor their – He makes something happen with Limbaugh. Right. He awarded the Medal of Freedom right there. You know, has a secret head of Secret Service come down. So things are happening. So it just goes to he's a showman. Right. And he he envisions this as a show.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
And to quote another John Pedort's tweet from last night, it's like it's a version of Oprah. You almost think Trump at some point is going to ask every member of Congress to look under there. their seat there and find their gift. Right. So they can go out happy. At least Republicans would go out happy. Democrats would reject the car. They got a free car last night just on principle.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Now, this one, there's real ideological component. It's not just Trump derangement the way it is with DJ. They hate talking about victims of illegal immigrants. They just don't don't want to hear about it. They won't do it. The only time I can remember any Democrat ever addressing it basically is Biden was heckled into saying Lake and Riley's name incorrectly in a State of the Union.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
And Kamala Harris asked by Brett Baier about it, grudgingly says, you know, this is terrible. They just they just can't. It doesn't compute for them. They think it's inherently hateful to point out that this this happens. All crimes are terrible, obviously, but as an extra layer, if it's someone who just shouldn't shouldn't have been here and they don't they don't get that, they won't admit it.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
And the best line for Trump the whole night, obviously, was that we didn't need a new immigration policy. We just need a new president, which has been absolutely ridiculous. True. He obviously overpromises sometimes and overpromises on how quickly he can do things, but this is something he fixed instantly.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Just one, just the deterrent effect of Donald Trump being president again convinces a lot of people, well, maybe we should wait and see what happens. Two, they just ended catch and release. Now, they need more resources. There's more policies they need. They need some help from Congress. But he's just turned off the faucet almost instantly. So there's less strain on cities.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
You have Roosevelt Hotel, which has been housing illegal immigrants closing down for that purpose. You're going to have less criminals just by sheer math, right? If you're illegal immigrants coming in, the fewer illegal criminals you're going to have. And he did that instantly. And Joe Biden could have stopped this from starting in the first place by not reversing all the Trump stuff or –
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
done it himself, but he didn't want to. And they don't want to be faced with the consequences of what was a deliberate failure.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Yeah, and I was going to say also, get up and clap for the fact that the border's closed, right? They all say they want to address illegal immigration, but they really don't, right? They should be happy that this has happened, but they're not because if they wanted this to happen, Biden would have done it.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Again, they think there's something wrong with doing this. They think it's hateful and xenophobic to highlight these cases. For ordinary people, these cases obviously are a gut punch made much worse by the fact that the horrible criminals who perpetrated these crimes shouldn't have been here.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
So saying, look, this terrible thing happened, and I'm going to stop it by stopping these people to come in isn't a 70% or 80% issue. And it's a huge reason that Joe Biden – I mean, Joe Biden, if it hadn't been for the Afghan pullout, if it hadn't been for inflation, hadn't been for the border, he wouldn't have lost. You throw an age there. But Kamala Harris probably would have won.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
These are huge issues. And Trump, you know, something he highlighted earlier. coming down that escalator in 2015 when it seemed very extreme what he was saying. It seemed it was just Steve Miller and Steve Bannon. They believed that. No one else did. It couldn't sell. It would alienate Hispanics.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
And here we go where he's actually implementing it or re-implementing it from what he had figured out the first time around and is hugely popular. That's just been a sea change in American politics.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
it's a psychological malady. It's literally sick. I mean, you look at that from a rational perspective, you're like, okay, that must be a deep fake of what Nicole Wallace would say in such a circumstance. Say it's a lovely moment. Say the kid's a hero. His dad's a hero. We wish him the best. And yes, we want research to get
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
cures and therapies to to make kids in such circumstances long lives as possible and move on right to connect it to january 6th how do you even how does that even come into your mind a cancer survivor a kid in a police uniform that's the first thing you think of it's it's mind-boggling
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
There are other things that you can object to that Trump said, if you're Nicole Walsh. Lots of them, in fact, but not DJ.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
very evil. Yeah, what we're talking about in Capsule here is the debate over who's normal, right? And for them, it's just a theological matter that Trump is not normal. Look, he's unusual in a lot of ways. In some respects that we've talked about, some good, some bad. It's an unusual stay of the union or address a joint session of Congress.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
But if you just look at the reaction to DJ, a president hailing this kid, a nice gesture for this kid, everyone standing up applauding, wiping tears from the eyes, that's Normal. Sitting grim-faced and not reacting to this story or connecting it to January 6th is not normal.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
And this obviously is a reason why Trump won the elections, a reason why he's thrived, at least in relative Trump terms so far politically, is because he's occupied the normal ground in American politics. And they're spun off into outer space somewhere.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
But we know that over 2,000 cops were severely injured during those riots.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Yeah, I'm a Ukraine hawk, but what Trump is talking about in the polling is is popular and most people are going to strike them as common sense. Let's strike a peace deal. And again, it's another thing that we've had this weird reversal where
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Any other person saying, oh, I'm going to try to forge a peace deal in this long-running war, or at least war has gone on for three years, more than a million casualties, the atom all up probably, and this is a bad thing, right? So the tactics of getting there I don't necessarily like. I don't know what's going on. going on behind the scenes.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
But we established Russia is not going to win the war and the sense of taking Kyiv and toppling the government and creating a Russian puppet state out of Ukraine. And Ukraine is not going to win the war in the sense of regaining all their territories. So it's time for it to end. And again, this is a commonsensical position, one that a lot of Americans would consider normal.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Again, I don't think necessarily the way we're getting there is not normal. That Friday Oval Office confrontation with Zelensky was not normal. It's like something we haven't seen before. But the goal, let's stop killing, is not something that ordinary people are going to recoil from. It's something they're going to think makes sense.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
This was a shocking breach of decorum. The worst we've ever seen. There was some heckling of Biden from Marjorie Taylor Greene and Boebert, which I didn't like and thought was wrong. And there's Joe Wilson, who was a great guy, by the way. And I think was, if I remember correctly, was
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
was an unplanned interjection you know it's kind of just popped out i think he regretted it afterwards and when he did it there were gasps in the the chamber so to have someone just stand there and shout and wave a cane at the president of the united states and have to be forcibly ejected i thought for a while he might resist right they might have to carry him or something at least he he walked out and expressing no regrets afterwards and saying it was a great thing to do is shocking
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
It's it's it's another step down in terms of our politics and a terrible moment for for Democrats, because this will be one of the most replayed moments of the night. And it's a 77 year old angry man waving a cane saying, get off my lawn to the president of the United States, which is not not a great look.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Towards the end, there was like a look of irritation on Trump's face where you're like, okay, is he going to go there? But he did. And he just said thank you very much after Speaker Johnson handed it back over.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Yeah, yeah. I think so, but probably just because this is an unprecedented thing. You're the Sergeant of Army. Yeah, it wasn't code pink. Expect to just kind of stand there with your hands folded, not to have to go eject an unruly member of Congress, but –
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Total breach. This will be when when Al Green inevitably offers the next articles of impeachment being expelled during Trump's address to the joint joint session will be one of the articles we can assume.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
I thought it was okay. As you know, I mean, this is just an impossible task. The only good response ever was the late, great Fred Thompson, who was an actor and sat on his desk and gave a response in the 90s that was fantastic and very memorable. And it's like, great to talk of a presidential run. But this is a very hard assignment.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
I think what you sought there, that's a critique you can make of Trump. I don't think it matters for most people. I think the best thing for Democrats to say is his priorities aren't your priorities, and you're going to pay the price, and he's not doing enough to reduce prices. I think that's where they should go, and it should be kind of a traditional Democratic strategy.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Argument against a traditional Republican president. He's he's helping his rich friends. You know, I think that makes sense for them. All the other existential threat to democracy stuff is is not going to get them anywhere.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
I don't think we're going to know the future of the Democratic Party for a very long time. I don't think the opposition and Congress really figures out how to react to a presidential loss. You just hope things go wrong. They do. Inevitably, events happen. Capitalize on those and then hope you get a decent presidential candidate who figures out something new.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
He's the great white hope. Rich, great to see you.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Yeah, I think for the ordinary viewer, there's nothing you heard last night that you necessarily disagree with. I don't know, maybe tariffs or some things, but largely he emphasized things that are popular. And the headline of that speech, the headline of the first two months is Trump 2.0, the sequel, more Trump than ever. So it was longer, it was more combative in some ways, more entertaining.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
And it These aren't really speeches so much. They're performances, right? So George W. Bush used to give speeches. He had the speechwriters, Mike Gerson, the late Mike Gerson, my friend Matt Scully, right? These eloquent speeches that he'd deliver. You can't do that with Trump. It has to be in his words and his way of speaking, which it is.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
How many times did he say, like, we've never seen before, right? No speechwriter sits down and writes speeches. like we've never seen before. And the point you're just making a minute ago is as apt, you know, a comedian, a really good comedian, you can say his lines as an ordinary person and they're not funny, right? Or they're not as funny.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
And 80% of the things Trump said last night that were entertaining, you could say them, I could say them, someone else could say them. They wouldn't be funny because they're Trump because it's uniquely Trump. So I don't like State of the Union addresses. I prefer a State of the Union to be a 20 minute eloquent, thematic speech. But that speech does not exist.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
No one's ever given that State of the Union. That's not what Trump did last night, but it works for him. Now, it's it's not hugely important. But by Saturday, you know, two or three other major major news stories will have happened. But it was a good night for him.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Yeah, just the way it says LBQIA+, it is funny, right? There was a great meme last night of Al Green waving his cane, and the caption was, they promised me trans mice, because one of the items he, of course, mentioned was his experiment to try to create – Trans mice. I don't know whether they're successful or not.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Probably if they're in the San Francisco school district, those mice, they would be certainly be trans. But that was hilarious. People hate that stuff. And it's memorable as well. It's something if people are listening at the bar, they'll take away and remember the next day.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Yeah, exactly.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Yeah, it was pathetic. So either just sit there and be civil. And by the way, clap at the nice moments. There's no reason for any American not to clap when DJ has this amazing experience of instantly being made an honorary Secret Service member. Or just leave in mass and just do it. I think that would be bad. I don't think it would play well for them. But they got this in-between play.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
So it was just pathetic. And it just advertised their cluelessness and their powerlessness. So and Trump, obviously, he did this a lot in the first term as well. But last night was really explicit. I'm going to call you out for not applauding anything I do.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
And then I'm going to have these wonderful people in the in the balcony who are cancer survivors or victims of parents and loved ones of victims of terrible crimes. Or I'm going to announce that we got the guy. who blew up our 13 service members at the Abbey Gate. And I dare you not to clap. And they didn't. They took the dare. So they look grim. They're checking their phones. Just clap politely.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
You're not going to lose anything. But he got the reaction, exactly the reaction he wanted.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Yeah, totally. And they just believe, and they have believed for a long time, that there's some way to delegitimize Trump such that he'll go away. In the media, on MSNBC, they had this constant debate whether they were going to platform him and show his speeches live. That was going to make a difference one way or the other, whether it was on MSNBC.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
And they seem to think that holding up their little auction paddles somehow is a gesture that's going to be meaningful to someone. There is a famous intellectual, Lionel – Frilling in the 1950s had this line about conservatism at the time, which wasn't in a great state, that conservatism is just a series of irritable mental gestures. And that's what progressive is at the moment. Maybe not mental.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Maybe that's giving them too much. Or mental maybe in the psychological sense. But all they have at the moment is irritable gestures, and that's what the paddles were.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Feels like there should be an SNL skit on the medicine that addresses irritable gesture syndrome.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
Yeah. And he told them what he was doing. Right. He was banking on them not reacting to even things that are unquestionably good or moving or endearing. And and they just they couldn't bring themselves to do it because Trump is literally Trump saying it. Right. It's Trump derangement syndrome for everyone to see on live TV shows. and mass, right?
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Funny and Powerful Address, and Dems' Embarrassing Response, with Rich Lowry, Mark Halperin, and Alvin Lui | Ep. 1019
If anyone else said, here's this adorable kid who's gone through this horrific illness in a police outfit being lifted by his father so people can see him, they all would have stood and applaud for the kid, but nothing to do with Trump, for the kid. And they couldn't bring themselves to do it because Trump said it.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Yeah, no, it's core executive function, core executive decision, what you're going to spend money on and what you're not. It's a little bit like saying, you know, if the military says we don't want to recruit obese people for combat roles and the judge saying, well, you can pay for the Ozempic, right? It's not that much. You know, you're paying much more for your missile programs and your tanks.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
So why won't you pay for this? It's not her decision. And as Charlie rightly points out, this is, it's not, not everyone gets to serve in the military, right? If I want to go in combat, right now, which I don't. My hat's off to everyone who does. They'd say, no, you're too old, you're out of shape, and you've never made a bed in your life. You're not suitable for the military life.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
And they'd be right. And by the way, another reason to take the initiative here that the Pentagon is, is it's very important to Pete Hexeth, to send the message, we're no longer doing social services. We're no longer doing progressive social studies. We're focusing on fighting because that is a way to attract the people you want to the military.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
These guys and gals who are attracted to the military life, they're different than we are. They want the adventure. They want the risk. If they wanted to sit and get a lecture about how they're racist, sexist, transphobic, and all of that, They go to their local community college. That's not what they want to do.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
So you want to create the – send the image and send the message, which he has in various ways, right? He's done deadlifts in Germany with the guys. This, a whole host of other things to send. You know what? To say for the people who are attracted to this – We are a military organization. People are in shape. That matters to us.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
That's another thing he's doing is having a review of the physical fitness of members of the military. Come here if you want the adventure to defend your country. So I see this as part of that.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Well, let's put a pin on that and see what the facts are. He is an Obama appointee. His view of the law, Constitution, not mine, but he has a pretty good reputation. Now, this case, it involves a couple of things we've seen before. One, The Trump folks kind of rummaging through current statutes to find things that give them the authority they want to do on deportations or on the border.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
This was quite effective in the first term. There was a migrant crisis, small scale compared to what we saw under Biden. In Trump's first term, Trump was tearing his hair out. How could we possibly stop this? He had Stephen Miller and others going and looking at current authorities and using them in a creative and lawful way. to create the system that Biden then ripped up.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
But that had succeeded in basically stopping border crossings. Now, here, they're going back to the 18th century, and there's nothing wrong with that necessarily, right? 18th century has a lot of good things, including the United States Constitution. But it also involves what we're talking about in the first segment, determination by the President of the United States, what national security is.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
What's an invasion, whether we're at war? And here I do think they're pushing the envelope. Maybe they're banking on maybe they'll be right. The Supreme Court will ultimately just say, look, you're the chief executive, you're the president. You say it's an act of war, these gangs coming into the United States. We're not going to contradict you, but I'm not sure that's going to be the case.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
And what the judge is asking here basically is just to freeze things in place. It wasn't like – Judge Ali in one of those early USAID cases saying you've got to spend all this money, billions of dollars of money in 36 hours or whatever it was. It's just let's hold these people so at least I can hear the merits here. So on this one, I wouldn't have gone to war with him, but they have.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Yeah, so obviously this is an initiative entirely consistent with Secretary of Defense's entire priority at the Pentagon, which is to focus on warfighting and not get distracted by any other nonsense. And you can make an entirely rational case that gender dysphoria is not consistent with the rigors of combat and what you want an organization devoted to combat to focus on.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Yeah, well, in terms of politics, obviously, this is good for the Trump administration. All you need to know and all most people will know is they have limited time to focus on this is the president of the United States deported hideous gang members or alleged hideous gang members, most of whom probably are hideous gang members to El Salvador and a judge tried to stop them.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
So they're with the Trump administration. By the way, the president of El Salvador is incredibly like, give me more of these guys, you know, no other foreign leader. I want your gang members, but the president's all sound. This is what I do. This is my core competency. So, look, I have not I have not followed this as closely as you and Charlie have. But it seems to come down to me.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Can the president just if there's any just the slightest colorable argument that something's an evasion or coercion, can he just say it and no one else can countermand him? Right. And in that case, he's going to win. This is beyond that. Right, but I don't think, is it an evasion the way we typically define an invasion? It doesn't have to be a full invasion.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
And in fact, this determination is so rational, it was actually the case. It was the status quo as of, what, 10 years ago or something? So it's an innovation where we've accommodated these folks. And this is, Megan, this for me falls into the range of these legal decisions, legal contentions.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Well, look, there are bad things that happen or terrible things or tragic things that aren't the product of an enemy action, right? Is Venezuela ordering these gang members to come into the United States to wage war against us?
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Well, that's different than an invasion, right? That's not the Wehrmacht coming across the French.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
If there's a... If there's a culpable case such that you find it reasonable, can a judge just say, forget it. The president of the United States says it's so. He's declared it. He's proclaimed it. End of story. That may be the argument that prevails. But I'm with Charlie in that we're having an argument about this.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
If it has to do with the president of the United States' core executive functions, how many people are working for him, who's working for him, What's national security and not? He's ultimately going to win these cases. Now, I think it's it's highly irritating. These these judges, some of them are totally ridiculous and it's going to delay things.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Okay. I got this going, Megan, so you can envy me.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
But this seems to me one that he will ultimately prevail on.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Yeah, totally agree. By the way, this puts pay to the conspiracy theory that had a brief life after the address to the joint session of Congress where Trump said, you know, appreciate it on a hot mic to Justice Roberts, you know, I'll always remember. And everyone's like, oh, it's the immunity decision that he's thanking him for, where actually look at the full tape.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
He's thanking everyone as he goes down the line here, generals and other justices.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
But keep going. So this was this is really, really dumb because one, he's not going to get impeached. Right. So there's there's not. Maybe you can make the case if he's on the verge of getting impeached the first time the judge is going to get impeached for not, you know, corruption, but for one of his rulings or actions, maybe the chief justice would feel compelled to speak out.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
But he's just responding to a Trump criticism of this judge, which was lurid and over the top and all caps and calling for him to be impeached. But if the chief justice is going to get in the business of rebutting the president of the United States every time he criticizes a judge, the chief justice is never going to shut up, right? He's going to be very busy.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
And these are cases that are going to come up to him in his court. So what if he, you know, this didn't happen, Trump didn't take the debate, but what happens if Trump hits back at the chief justice, right? And you get a war between the president, a war of words between the president and the chief justice. You speak, if you're a justice of the court, you should.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
You know, they do book tours and whatnot, but you should speak largely through your opinions, your well-considered opinions. When you've considered everything carefully, it's come up to you appropriately, and it's something in your ambit. That's your role. So this was, at the very least, imprudent from the chief justice.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Yeah, so first of all, I love this National Review Day, Charlie versus Megan. I love the throwdown we're having here. Look, I think Roberts is right on the merits. I don't think it'd be a good idea to just go and impeach judges for their opinions unless they're mentally ill or something or just not competent to carry out their duties or they're found in gold bars and they're
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
suit pockets the way Senator Menendez was. But I just don't think he should have said it. I don't think it helps the standing of the Supreme Court that he's so concerned with justifiably. But Senate confirms judges, right? That is part of our system. But we're not going to impeach these judges. There's never going to be the votes for it. So at the end of the day, this is a real sideshow.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Well, it's preposterous, but it's the political views you'd expect of this guy. At least it didn't use the word that some have used. to describe his dissension, which he's been taken hostage. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that might have been his wife's statement that was read from the courthouse steps last week, which is just perverse from people who- But not read by his wife, interestingly.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
What's that?
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
She read the wife's statement.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Yeah, yeah. The statement was from the wife. It was read by someone else. But these are people that have torn down flyers with pictures of Israeli hostages who've never said anything about Israeli hostages, who were literally pulled from their houses, their beds, their children. held in dungeons. They're not just cold, right, heinous acts of violence being perpetrated against them.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
And this guy, who is an immigrant to the United States, as Marco Rubio has eloquently stated, has no right to be here. Charlie can speak to this fulsomely, by the way. If you're an immigrant, a legal immigrant on a visa, a tourist student visa, or even a green card holder, you are obsessed, if you're a normal person, with abiding by every single rule law and rule.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
You don't want to park on the wrong side of the street because of what might happen to you. And this guy, you know, there's a cognizance of guilt, right, Megan? He said, well, I don't go in the media very much because I'm an immigrant here and I might get in trouble. I don't want to get in trouble because who knows what could happen, right? And it's happened. So it's entirely on him.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
And it kind of ties back to the first segment on the trans issue. In the military, you don't have a right to be a member of the military and you don't, as a foreigner, have a right to be in the United States. So I'm sure it's not pleasant to be in a dissension facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, but he brought this on himself.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
And this is something, I think it's a bit of a close call, but I think ultimately another theme in our discussion today will be based on the determination of Marco Rubio that it is against the national security interests of the United States to have these protests creating a false image of what we are and what our priorities are. And he was a leader in that effort. So goodbye.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
It shows he's assimilated in that respect, Megan, right? It's the most American thing in the world to accuse our own country of racism.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Let's do this January 6th. I'm just asking you a question.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Yeah, it's meant to punish and coerce. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Thank you.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
I have no idea. Could be wrong. She played softball. That's all we know. She was a softball star at some point. That's circumstantial.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
And there's something about the Senate that creates certain kind of leaders. They take on the aspects of the institution. Now, this is true of Mitch McConnell. Republican base didn't like Mitch McConnell, even though he was very good at his job in the Senate. But he wasn't going around pumping his fists and trying to pretend like he was something he wasn't.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
And that's what Schumer is doing, just like Tim Walz is when he's saying he's going to kick people's asses. I will say at least this is a cartoonish version of what a lot of Republicans or Elon Musk wants or thinks, they're not Nazis.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
So Elon Musk is a techno-libertarian, but people are spray-painting swastikas on his car because they just think if anyone's on the right and they disagree with him, therefore they must be a fascist or Nazi. At least this is a cartoonish version of the way entrepreneurs or libertarian-leaning Republicans think, but it's still
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
cartoonish and Chuck Schumer just doesn't, you know, I think AOC would be an idiot not to challenge him in that Senate primary coming up several years away now, but I think she should go for it.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Yeah, well, we all have our moments and I wouldn't have known what all those are, but I'm not environmentally So this is hugely embarrassing. And Lee Zeldin, I agree with Charlie, he's great. Now, you got to be careful because the first time around, a lot of great stuff happened to EPA as well. And it all got reversed because it wasn't careful enough.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
So hopefully Lee Zeldin is dotting his I's and crossing his T's there. But I would also I wouldn't think like O's would be a natural stand in for something that's going to be filled in. And usually you leave something blank. You'd have underscores of the journalistic way to do it is a capital T and a capital K. So, yeah, we should have been a little more spelled a little more careful here.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Yeah. What is weird? He has kids like a dead polar bear. Sorry, dead stuffed polar bear. Sorry, this polar bear is dead. That's just the world you live in. This is one of these beats, Megan, like every climate reporter in the country, probably, if they haven't written those sort of things, they think it, right? It's like covering gender or misinformation or disinformation.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
There's not one honest, straight, objective journalist who ever ends up on a beat like that.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Yeah, it's a parody. You know, and they can't just say that, You know, the science suggests if the projections are true, that 50 years from now, 100 years from now, if we keep warming this way, natural disasters will marginally be worse, right? I mean, it's always hell is upon us. Every single natural disaster is directly caused by climate change.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
It's kind of like COVID in that the people who are most supposedly committed to the so-called science get over their skis and ignore the science to make the most hysterical politicized case for the policy outcomes they want.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Yeah, seagulls are just looking for a stray sandwich they can snatch. That's the seagull play. They're not awed by anything.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Thank you. It was a pleasure seeing you guys argue. We have to do it more often.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
Yeah, so one opine is the right word. What you read would be pretty good, at least kind of bog level, one third of the New York Times column, right? But that's not her role as a judge. And we had a lot of loose talk, right, of a constitutional crisis. I think we talked about that last time we were on.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
It's a constitutional crisis if judges are overstepping their bounds and impinging on the executive authority. And the people who scream loudest about a constitutional crisis, they never focus on that, right? Everyone has their appointed role in the constitutional system. And if anyone oversteps it, that is profoundly wrong. So this decision is profoundly wrong.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
And the point you make about your race being different from your so-called gender identity is a good one. And this is one reason, and maybe we're going to talk about this later, that the left is so wrong-footed on the trans issue. They thought it was a civil rights issue, right? They thought it was like civil rights for African-Americans or civil rights for gay people.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tesla Attacks, Weird Walz Comments, and Judges Keep Fighting Trump, with Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke | Ep. 1030
And they've gone into something that most people do not consider that way because it is a totally different category. And this opinion is a prime example of that.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
I love Scott, but I hate that show.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
Yeah, well, you go up and you appeal it. And just, Megan, one reason this is so absurd. Well, first of all, it's just another case, right, where they come up with a meme, a catchphrase that they repeat over and over again, and they hope they'll make reality, right? We saw this all during the campaign. Kamala Harris is joyful. Everyone says joy, and she's joyful.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
And you hope that actually will make her joyful or people think she's joyful. Right, Brat. Same thing here, constitutional crisis, like Trump. It's last 24 hours. The memo clearly went out and everyone's saying constitutional crisis. But when they said that Trump was an existential threat to democracy for a year or two, I thought they were talking about he'd suspend congressional elections.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
You know, he tried to stay for a third term. It turns out just carrying back foreign aid. That's that's the constitutional and offering to federal employees.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
Yeah. So the Congress did not say, we have specifically appropriated money for a DEI program in Serbia, right? If they said that, that would not have gotten through Congress. So it's executive discretion to begin with on whether you're going to spend money on a Serbian DEI program, right? So if the executive made that call without Congress specifically commanding it,
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
Why can't a new president, a new executive make the opposite call? Right. So they want to play this game where one side can do it and has discretion, has executive authority and the other side doesn't. And of course, that should be intolerable. No one should be willing to play that game. And Trump and Elon aren't.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
Right. And he supposedly can't do anything about it, even though he was elected in part to roll back this sort of insanity that's infected our government. And just the left's idea, you know, we all believe in promoting American ideals abroad, right? But they think our ideals are gender ideology and anti-racism and DEI.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
This goes to a much more minor but important symbolic issue, whether we're going to fly any flag above our embassies and facilities or Overseas, except for the American flag. And they've flown all sorts of Black Lives Matter flags and various gay pride flags or versions of the gay pride flag because they think that is what this country is about in some sense at its root. And it's just not.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
So I support funding HIV medicines. It's good. It doesn't cost us very much. And it does help our image abroad. But the rest of this stuff is just total nonsense. It's poisonous. It's wrong. It creates the wrong image of America abroad.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
And again, unless Congress has specifically stipulated that this is what you're going to spend it on, Trump is fully within his rights saying, no, we're going to promote our image or help people in some other way. Now, again, I don't think he can just zero out USAID on his own.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
He's going to have to spend a lot of this money or most of it, but they're objecting to him redirecting money that he has a right to.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
Yeah. Well, given the alternatives, what would you fight on? Would you really, you want to fight on men competing in female sports or you want to fight on four and eight? I don't think either are great fights. But by the way, the last three weeks have been the best three weeks the right has had in the cultural war in 50 years.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
One, because a lot of what Trump is doing is going along with the grain of what was already a backlash against some of this insanity. His election itself was a permission slip for institutions like Meta to say, you know, we don't like this woke ideology. It's kind of forced on us. We don't want it anymore. And he's using the hook of federal funding to turn some of this stuff around.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
So that's been amazing. And he took a small democratic approach to this election. I'm going to tell people what I want to do. And then if they approve it and elect me, I'm going to do it. And even if at the margins people aren't excited about everything, they do appreciate that directness and that kind of approach.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
And we're restoring the water flow from those showers. What was the famous Bill Clinton line? People would rather you be strong and wrong than weak and right. And a lot of this stuff, Trump's strong on, plus he has popular backing.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
Thanks for having us. Thank you.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
No, no, of course not. It's just it's absurd to hear Democrats complaining about a hostile power grab of the executive branch by the chief executive who is elected to be the chief executive, who is elected to administer his administration and has every right.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
Presidents have done this from time immemorial to have informal advisers or people close to him review how the government's working and advise them. Now, Elon Musk is a little bit more than that. He's an actual government employee, right? He's a special government employee. And it's more than just a think tank the way we thought maybe Doge would be.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
I mean, it's really an action squad that's going in and doing things. So the executive has a lot of discretion. He can fire people that he wants. He can redirect resources if Congress isn't very specific about how they're going to be spent, which applies to most of these U.S. AID funds. So... And as you point out, he's mostly being delayed, right?
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
Congress is just – sorry, the courts are just looking at this. And we've all sort of now accepted like the Elon Musk pace of things. Like if it's delayed a week, it's a terrible defeat because everything needs to move fast. But in the scheme of things – Things are still moving incredibly quickly, even with these little delays from the court. So you're right.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
If he defies a court order, we'll have a constitutional crisis. I don't see why he would feel impelled, compelled to do that. I think he'd just fight this stuff out in the courts, and we will eventually have a big dispute over it. Because when Congress is not very specific, there's a lot to give in terms of how you spend the money. But whether you spend the money, that's a different question.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
And you've got to spend a lot of it. You just can't zero it out when Congress has said, no, you're going to spend $40 billion. But Russ Voigt and others have a theory that the – The impoundment act that Congress passed in the Watergate era is unconstitutional, and they want a test case to go challenge that.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
But that's – again, it's the tectonic plates of the two branches rubbing up against each other, and there's tension and there's give there, and you're going to need a determination by the courts on that eventually. But the idea that just we're in a constitutional crisis –
The Megyn Kelly Show
Left Pushes "Constitutional Crisis" Narrative, and Trump Brings Back Plastic Straws, with Charles Cooke, Rich Lowry, and Carol Swain | Ep. 1005
because some federal employees have been placed on leave and courts are examining whether the executive has that authority or not. He does, but that's not a constitutional crisis.