Meltdown Over Patriotic UFC at White House, with Glenn Greenwald, and Justin Baldoni's Attorney Bryan Freedman Gives Exclusive Details of Settlement | Ep. 1339

Welcome to the Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at New East. Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to the Megyn Kelly Show. Happy Monday on another very busy newsday, some incredible sports stories over the weekend. They even made their way into my lane, so you know they were big. From UFC Fight Night at the White House to the New York Knicks winning. The NBA championship. It's unbelievable. It's like it's been almost, well, it's been over 50 years, incredibly. But we begin today with an exclusive here on the MK show. And that is some breaking news and an exclusive. document to reveal in the Justin Baldoni Blake Lively saga. As we reported Friday, Judge Lewis Lyman granting Blake Lively's request for attorney's fees on the defamation claim that was filed by Justin Baldoni against her. She sued him for sexual harassment. He counterclaimed for defamation. And she got that counterclaim dismissed before virtually all of her claims were dismissed. And under this weird California law, that entitles her potentially to attorney's fees. All right? It sounded like a victory, right? But remember that Baldoni's, and the judge said, yes, you can have the fees to Blake lively. But Baldoni's defamation claim was only active for less than five months. So that's just a small part of the 18 months of high-price litigation between the parties. Justin Baldoni, on the other hand, got himself a major win on Friday. When Judge Lyman denied Blake Lively's request for punitive damages against him, damages meant to punish him, or for a tripling of damages that she also argued she was entitled to when it comes to her actual sustained damages. So she had a couple of other categories of damages that she wanted him to pay her outside of her attorney's fees. And this judge said, it's a no. Now, as we've been reporting, Blake Lively's request, all of those requests for attorney's fees and these other damages, was rooted in this California Civil Code 47.1, which is a law passed to protect victims of sexual harassment from being deterred to go public with their stories thanks to a powerful defendant who sues them for defamation. It's basically like... You work for a man. You're going to claim sexual harassment by said man.

The law is trying to discourage said man from trying to bully you out of filing that litigation with a defamation case against you. I mean, the whole thinking behind this provision, and we spoke with a woman who dreamed it up and architected it, was to protect less powerful women from more powerful men, or you could reverse the genders, depending on the situation, but the less powerful from the more powerful who used defamation in an effort to silence and make the whole process impossible. You tell me, who's more powerful, who's richer, who's better connected between Justin Baldoni, whose name you probably never heard of, unless you watched, what was it, Jane the Virgin, and Blake lively, married to Ryan Reynolds, and at that time, best friends with Taylor Swift. Okay, so she misused this entire thing, but that's where we were. Okay, this was never meant to protect multi-millionaire movie stars like Blake lively. But she saw an opportunity. We heard that from the architect of the law herself, who came on this program and said, Blake's people came to her, the architect, and said, she wants to be the face of it. She wants to partner with you to take your law national. And she's going to show the world how she's an advocate for Me Too victims nationwide. And this woman said, stay the hell away from me and my law. It's actually working out okay for some plaintiff or some women here in California. And I've gotten it passed in a couple of other states. And I don't want your help. You'll only draw negative attention to it. No one sees you as a Me Too victim. And she said, I didn't want her to met gala. My law. I totally got it. Now, Lively's 47.1 motion, the motion for all these fees and costs was the only part of the case. That was not part of the settlement the two sides reached last month. Okay? So this is the one piece. She said, I'm not settling this. In other words, Justin, I'll still be coming after you for attorney's fees. And it's safe to say that Blake loudly thought she would prevail. Here is her attorney, Michael Gottlieb, the day after the settlement was announced, appearing on Matt Bologna's podcast. So let me tell you why our client is... happy, ecstatic with this settlement. The reason that our client is happy with this settlement is because it gives her the power and the opportunity to pursue what we believe is her most potent and powerful claim in a way that is efficient, in a way that is final, in a way that the defendants have no appeal rights over, and in a way that cuts off most of the noise that would be surrounding this case and lets us get straight to the core issue. of how the defendants retaliated against her, specifically the retaliatory lawsuit that they filed, that called her a liar, that branded her a liar. It's not one of these statutes where there's discretion for awarding the damages once the conditions are met. And we believe the conditions have essentially already been met. And now they're going to be held liable for compensatory damages tripled, punitive damages, and attorney's fees when we establish the elements of this 47.1. Well, that's not exactly what happened, is it? They got their attorney's fees, but they didn't get the huge pot of money they thought they were going to get when they got punitive damages meant to punish and her compensatory damages, meaning the actual damages she could prove to a court she suffered as a result of his counterclaim times three. That's what trebled means. The judge said, it's a no.

And now it appears from the statements that her team has issued over the past couple of days that she thinks she can still have another bite at the apple in getting those other damages that this judge just denied. So. A bit of breaking news there and an exclusive reaction from Justin Baldoni's attorney. He happens to be my own as well. His name is Brian Friedman, and he's done an amazing job in this case. Let me tell you something. When you sign your insurance policy for some brokers, that's it. They're done. They got their commission. They like you a lot. But goodbye, they've got somebody else to sell to. You may not hear from them again until it's time for renewal. Your business runs all year, though. And so do the gaps and the risk. And this is why I want to tell you about super sure. This is a great idea for a company. If your company has more than 25 employees, whether you're the owner, CFO, or HR manager, It can be too complex to just buy a policy online. You're past that now. SuperShure is the super agency built for you. It's licensed in every state for your business, insurance, and employee benefits too. With year-round support for you and your team. At supershure.com, you can access tools like fine print facts, which will translate your current policy into plain English. So you see what's covered and what's not. plus a business value calculator. So you can estimate what your business is actually worth and know what actually needs protecting and in what numbers. Go to super sure.com slash Megan, one super agency, one powerful, easy to use platform. All your policies in one place. Go to super sure.com slash Megan. and check it out. Wouldn't it be nice to have a little hand-holding as you go through this crazy process? Paid for by Super Sure Insurance Agency, LLC, a licensed insurance agency. Brian, welcome back. So she says it's not over for her. She's still going after Justin. Her attorney's fees are not enough. She wants damages to punish him. And I guess she thinks she's got some actual damages she can prove that will be troubled or tripled if she can just resurrect this claim under 47.1, the statute of California law that I just explained. Your reaction? You know, my reaction is. that we don't believe that's accurate at all. And part of the reason I think that there's confusion is because you hear all these different things from all these different people. And really, you know, from day one, it's been about the receipt. So I thought what would be really important is to release the settlement agreement, which is not confidential.

which is not subject to any kind of order, which restricts the public from seeing it. And I think that will provide some clarity for people to be able to take a look at the settlement agreement and see exactly what it says, which is that Judge Lyman will have the right to rule and only the right to rule on this particular motion. One of the reasons that Justin felt it important to also not resolve that motion as part of the settlement agreement was to give Judge Lyman the right to do what he felt was appropriate under that. If he felt it was appropriate to award damages. then he would have done so. If he felt it was appropriate to award punitive damages, he would have done so. If he felt it was appropriate to award treble damages, he would have done so. He didn't do any of those things. All of those things were not awarded. What was awarded was attorney's fees, and we respect Judge Lyman's decision with that particular ruling. And so it's, you know, the settlement agreement really provides that both sides didn't want any type of appeal from that. Both sides wanted to respect 47.1, whether it's constitutional or not. And both sides wanted resolution. And that was not something chosen by one side or the other. It's been enough time. People should be able to move on. There should be a result here. It should be done. handled and people should move on with their lives. And Justin would certainly like that opportunity along with the other individual defendants. They felt like, you know, they've gotten, they were, you know, dismissed from the case as part of the summary judgment ruling. They just would like to move on. with their lives at this point. And if the judge is going to award attorney's fees, which it looks like he will, that number will be determined. We believe that that's, in the statute's pretty clear, that that's attorney's fees to defend the defamation cause of action. Only. Yes, and only Blake Lively's, not other plaintiffs, not other defendants in those cases. Okay, so to be clear, you are releasing the settlement agreement between Blake lively and Justin Baldoni. You've released it to us, and people can go right now to Megyn Kelly.com to read it themselves. This is an exclusive for the show for now, and you should check it out there right now. If you can, we've posted it as we came to air. And what I see in this agreement, Brian, is that she, the both parties, agreed.

that any and all proceedings relating to her pending 47.1 motion will be heard before Judge Lyman. So she's not going to be able to resurrect her claim here for punitive damages or triple damages in front of any court or any judge besides Judge Lyman. Do you agree with that? Yes. And as a matter of fact, and just like that the other... parties in the case won't be able to resurrect the ruling that she's entitled to her attorney's fees. It's a, you know, the parties wanted finality. And there's no forum in which she can then take this based on the settlement agreement and say, I want to redo any of these. provisions like punitive damages, like treble damages, like compensatory damages. The only issue left is for Judge Lyman to rule on what's the amount of the attorney's fees under 47.1 pursuant to the limited cause of action of the defamation claim. Okay, so but let me ask you this. So she can't file this claim. She can't try to resurrect the punitives and trouble damages claim elsewhere. If she's going to try to do that, she would have to do it in front of Judge Lyman. But your point is she can't do it in front of Judge Lyman either because he issued this ruling on Friday. And it did seem to make a distinction between attorney's fees on the one hand and all these other damages she wants. And he seemed, Brian, you tell me, he seemed in his ruling on Friday to be saying, You can't recover all those other damages you want under the federal rule of procedure that you've raised here. Like the federal rule of civil procedure 54 only gives you a right to attorney's fees, madam. But he seems to be saying if you want under this California statute to recover all these other damages you're talking to me about, the triple of the compensatory, the punitive damages to punish, all that stuff requires a jury trial, Blake. He seems to be saying. Justin Baldoni would have all sorts of rights to make sure any such exorbitant award would have been run through the proper legal process, which he specifically references, like the Seventh Amendment and jury trials and like a full hearing on all this, none of which she ever asked for, which she appears now to have waived and settled the case finally. So you tell me whether, I mean, honestly, whether there is a legitimate avenue remaining for her to try to punish him more with these damages. I think what Judge Lyman was ruling on was he was saying, look, there were other ways this could have been done that you could have, you know, first of all, you could have on trial. But another way this could have been done is by filing some type of cross claim. to try to recover these things, which would have afforded, you know, Justin Baldoni and others to, to, you know, the right to a jury trial, the right to put on a defense in the case pursuant to, you know, the Constitution. And that that was not chosen, that was not the path that was chosen. And as a result of that, there is no ability then to recover.

punitive damages, treble damages, or compensatory damages, the only recovery that's allowable at this point is attorney's fees based on the defamation claim. Yeah, that Justin filed against her that he dismissed months prior to dismissing almost the entirety of her case as well, which is why she ultimately settled it, because there was only a small little acorn left in her corner to hurl at Justin, and it was going to be extremely painful to go to trial and have to get cross-examined on the truth that you guys had on your side just to pursue that one acorn. Now, as I look at the settlement agreement, and, you know, we've just gotten it. The one thing that stands out to me, in addition to her waving all claims against Justin and any appeals as well, there's no dollar figure in here, Brian. There's not a single penny. I mean, normally when you have a plaintiff like this with a lawsuit that was supposed to be this massive with these big claims, he sexually harassed me, then he turned around, he retaliated against me, he tried to ruin my reputation, all the stuff she's been saying. A couple weeks earlier, she was demanding $400 million in damages. Not one red cent was paid by Justin or any of the defendants to settle this $400 million, she claimed she was entitled to. I think that's a fair reading of the agreement, certainly. But, but, you know, the truth is, you know, I'm not here, and Justin's not here, and neither of the other parties in the case are here to start pounding our chests and saying how great this is and how wrong they are and how right they are. What we're here to do is to move on, to allow people finality. to allow them to have peace, to allow Justin to have time, you know, with his family, unmitigated time where his mind is elsewhere, to allow him to continue moving on with his career, to allow all the other individual defendants that were dismissed in the summary judgment, you know, motion to move on and live their lives. And frankly, and honestly, the same for Ms. Lively, to allow her the dignity. to move on with her life and put this all behind everyone. And frankly, you know, I don't know if people are getting tired of it. I imagine that they are. And it's time to move on. And it's time to learn from it all. And I'm sure people would have made other choices had they considered this in hindsight. But the truth is, you know, when you settle, you should settle. Wish the other party the best and move on. And you're correct about the fact that there's no dollar figure that exchanged in either direction in this document. She walked away from the whole thing on the eve of trial because she did not want to sit across from you, Brian Friedman, and have you cross-examine her. Having been in that exact spot, I don't recommend it.

Although it's not true. Actually, you and I got along really well. That's when we became fast friends. But it would have gone differently for her. You know what? I think that the parties got to the point where it said, what are we fighting over at this point? Let's reach a result. Let's reach a settlement. Let's move on. Let's live our lives. But she says here, her lawyer says, though, Brian, you heard him in that clip with Matt. that her most potent and powerful claim is this bid for fees, etc. And that the retaliation now, he says, was Justin's cross claim for defamation. Like, just get real honest here. That's not what she claimed was the retaliation in her case. Was it? I read the claim. It's been a while, but the retaliation seemed to have been all those other allegations she made about how mean Justin was after she accused him and his business partners of sexually harassing her. And like a nasty press campaign that she could never prove he orchestrated. You know, there were a lot of positions taken in the case at various times during the case. Sometimes it was a case about sexual harassment. When the summary judgment motion was, you know, granted, it became a case about the smear campaign. It was a moving target throughout. But notwithstanding any of that, I think everyone would agree that moving on. and allowing people to live their lives and do better and be better is the way to go. I don't think she would agree with that. That's why her lawyers out there saying they're going to try to get every last cent from Justin. I mean, they clearly want. to make him suffer. They're not happy that they had to settle. This is my own gleaning. They're not happy they had to settle. They knew that it was the best move for Blake rather than have her subjected to cross-examination and tatters, you know, her reputation already in tatters. It would be even more so. But they're pissed. That's how I read this. And here's more from her lawyer. You certainly sound like you're ready to move on and sound like your normal, sane, classy self. I got a different vibe listening to him. Here he is, again, back with Matt Belloni on his podcast, The Town, Sot For. So what are you hoping to get here? Give me a best case scenario dollar amount that you could collect and from who? So I want to step back from that because this lawsuit.

has never been principally about money for our client. It has been about accountability. It has been about shining a light on this underground smear machine that retaliated against her for raising claims of sexual harassment and retaliation and has harmed so many other people. And what you've seen since Blake stood up and brought this lawsuit is evidence coming out in our case that has led to information being used now in other litigations, the Nicholas case. the Amanda Ghost case, this underground smear machine has been exposed, and people are now on notice that if you see a Matt Bellany sucks.net website pop up, you're going to maybe have an idea of who might have put that website up. What's your reaction to that, Brian? My reaction to that is that what you're hearing is clearly disappointment on his part. And a disappointment that he didn't get the numbers that he hoped to get in this case. He didn't get the result that they hoped to get in this case. And clearly when you bring a case and you hope to prevail on that case, if you have the evidence to show that you're right, you go to trial. And so it was really easy. for us to end up in a trial. All Blake lively needed to do was to say, no, I'm not settling. Let's go to the trial and the jury of our peers and let's see what we can get. If it was so good, why do you settle a case exchanging no money? It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't pass the smell test. But again, right, that puts us back into the he said, she said, fight here, fight there. And I think the settlement agreement speaks for itself. You don't spend $30, $40, $50, $60 million and walk away without a dollar. A dime. Yeah, without a dime. He paid nothing whatsoever. What about the attorney's fees? Do you have any idea, Brian, how much those are likely to clock in at? And is there a component of reasonableness that's going to be required in making that calculation? The attorney's fees are limited by the statute to, first of all, the attorneys that were spent on Blake lively defending a cause of action. And that's the defamation cause of action. So that's one cause of action. It's also one. defendant, which was Blake lively. So you're not talking about something that would be, you know, involving a number of defendants or a number of causes of action. Also, we have to recall that that's during a time period that what was filed was a motion to dismiss. There wasn't any discovery. I mean, I believe there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 30, 40, maybe more depositions in the case.

There were no depositions taken at that time. So there wasn't a significant amount of work that was done at that period of time. So we believe that those should be a pretty reasonable, relatively nominal amount given what was actually happening during that period of time. So we're not... necessarily concerned about that. But the truth is this, right? You know, Justin has always supported women. We'll always continue to do so. And, you know, part of the reason that he agreed to have that 47.1 heard and not dismissed it is because he wanted the right result, whatever that right result was, to respect that statute, to respect, to he agreed to not have appellate rights, to respect that statute, to respect Judge Lyman's opinion of that statute. But he wanted finality. He wanted this to be done. and over with. And look, you've heard from the person who the statute was written by, and frankly, on behalf of, and you heard what her feeling was about this. And she had very strong feelings about what the purpose of the statute was and who the statute was supposed to protect and why. And without relitigating or rehashing that point of view. I think this is a very different case when you look at the power dynamic and you look at the actual. funds, access to power, access to people, and careers of who we're dealing with here. It doesn't feel like the typical case where you have someone who's made an allegation of sexual harassment or sexual assault, and you all of a sudden have somebody overwhelming somebody with. a lawsuit that tends to scare them and force them into giving them the inability to protect themselves. It's not a typical case. It's not what it was meant for. Victoria Burke, who wrote this statute, said that herself. Right, right here on the show. Is this something that would be covered by insurance, the attorney's fees, Brian? I don't know the answer to that question, whether it would be covered by insurance or not. You know, likely, you know, there, I mean, we went through during this case, we went through a fire.

right at terrible fire in Pacific Palisades. You were on the air here while your home was burning. That was awful. Yeah, I was and I feel terrible for the other people in the areas that they were going through the same thing and the families that suffered. I really think, you know, a lot of people suffered. Yeah, we're still going through it with attorney with insurance companies now. So whether something's covered by insurance is an awfully interesting question, not just in the world of this type of case, but also in the world of people who suffer, you know, their homes and losing their homes and smoke damage. Yeah, it's one thing to have insurance. It's another to actually receive the payments that are supposed to be your benefit. How, how? How did Justin react, Brian, when he found out she wanted to settle this thing as opposed to go to trial? I think that Justin's always wanted to be able to be heard. And he's always wanted to be able to speak. and to be able to share what he experienced, what he felt, what his family went through, how he does support women and how he feels about women and how he feels about protecting them and the laws and all of that. So I think he was disappointed that he didn't have the form of a trial. in which to be able to be heard. But, you know, Megan, as you know better than anyone, like a trial is hardly the form in which you get to be able to tell your story in the way that you want to. It's a very regulated process where certain things come in, certain things don't come in. And I'm really... You know, it's kind of enough about me. I'm tired of me, frankly. And it should really be about Justin and Jamie and Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan and Steve Sarowitz and hearing from them. That's who I want to hear from. These are all the people she accused of engaging in the alleged smear campaign against her as opposed to. Blake just suffering the consequences of being an unlikable person in her many interviews. Yes, I see your point, that those people also suffered and they also want this over. And I'm sure they want their reputations back, which I think were there. I mean, for better for worse, filing that defamation claim did change the whole narrative around this. Even if it's going to cost attorney's fees now, it changed the whole narrative around this whole claim. And that's when Justin really told the world he wasn't going to take this lying down. He wasn't just going to roll into the fetal position and say, go ahead and beat me. I did it all. I'm sorry. I just want you to take you back.

Christmas time. There were eight, ten hours given by the New York Times to respond. There was a, you know, a complete, what I'll call hit piece that came out that was untruthful. We were scurrying. to find, first of all, lawyers that weren't away for Christmas, but really to find the truth. And we found, you know, emojis that were removed. We found text messages that said, you know, meet me in the trailer, I'm pumping, right, that were directly opposed to some of the allegations. We found that, you know, that we were talking about circumcision because she was pregnant. Like all of these things that were different than what you were reading. And really felt it important to try to get those with the kids call receipts out there to try to tell the truth and be transparent. And this hopefully will be the final transparency. But we're putting that settlement agreement out for everyone to see. So they can take a look at it. They can see what exchanged hands or actually what didn't exchange hands. And we want to continue with that transparency and honesty with respect to showing the people what actually happened. You can go see it right now at megankelly.com for yourselves. What's going to happen now with Justin? Because I haven't seen him in a... in an acting project since this whole thing came out. Is he going to renew his career? How does he feel about doing that? Where's his head on that? You know, my belief is that he will renew his career. I don't know exactly. I think that from day to day, you know, probably he has different thoughts, but I'm sure he will try and. and renew his career. I think that he's a super meaningful, super caring person. And more than anything, right, if you could tell anything in this case, all you had to do is read his text messages and his emails. And, you know, and you can see what's true person he is. And that's why we were never afraid. to just have the truth come out, to have the documents come out. And I think he'll go on to great things in life. And I'm really looking forward to that for him. I'm looking forward to his healing. I'm looking forward to Emily and his children's futures. And I can just say, honestly, it's been an absolute honor to represent someone of that character. I know you don't say that about everyone. Just for the record, Brian's also represented Don Lemon, Chris Andrew Cuomo. Okay, never mind. He doesn't say that about everyone. Not everyone's personal emails reflect well on them, but they have in this case. You've produced them even while he was being bullied by her into the basement at his movie premiere. His messaging, and you gave it all to us. You gave us the voice memos. You gave us the emails. That also is on Megyn Kelly.com, and you can hear it for yourselves.

was of someone who is very sweet trying to navigate a really difficult situation. And always saying nice things about Blake, like trying to maintain people's positive opinions of her, she just made it impossible. Last question. There are over 1,400 entries on the docket in this case. Some of the filings are over 100 pages long, Brian. Is this thing finally over? I think it's finally over. I'm hoping it's finally over with respect to allowing Blake to move on, allowing Justin and the other parties to move on. There's still some collateral matters involved in this that have to be resolved. But the crux of the case and the crux of the issues, I think. people are going to be able to move on. And hopefully people will wish the best for each other and come to that place that says, you know what? Enough is enough. We can agree to disagree. I feel I'm right. You feel you're right. And everyone... through transparency and authenticity, has been able to make their own decisions. And from the beginning where we had nothing in our favor, we had no one in our favor. So today, where I believe that the great, great majority of people see who Justin Baldoni is, it's really changed significantly, and I'm really happy for him. And see who Blake Lively is, too. Brian, thank you. Thanks so much. All the best to you and to Justin, too, and the rest of the defendants who were well represented, and this is a great result for them. Let's hope that Judge keep these attorney's fees relatively low and does not engage in any nonsense about trouble damages and punitives. So again, go to Megyn Kelly.com right now. If you would like to read exclusively the settlement agreement and general release between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, we've gotten our hands on it. All the exhibits are here, too. You can see for yourself exactly what they agreed with, how they came up with the joint statement that they would release, and the signatures of the parties on the back of it. Not one red cent was exchanged between them after all of her nonsense, about $400 million. All right. Up next, Glenn Greenwald is here for the rest of the show. What a great couple of hours we have for you. Our sponsor, the Electronic Payments Coalition, says Washington politicians are always getting in your wallet. And now they're messing with your credit card, too. They say your credit card and the security it offers are under attack, and that Senators Dick Durbin and Roger Marshall want to change the nation's payment system to benefit corporate megastores like Walmart and Target at the expense of everyday Americans. Credit cards can keep your payments secure and provide rewards that families use to help make everyday purchases more affordable. The Electronic Payments Coalition says the Durban Marshall mandates would let corporate megastores cut corners on credit card processing, routing transactions over cheaper, untested networks that have weaker security and fewer protections. Find out more at guard your card.com and consider telling Congress to guard your card.

We are learning more now about the latest agreement between Iran and the United States, the fragile ceasefire, and who's really mad about it. Plus, the UFC fight at the White House last night was a spectacle, as was the bizarre resistance counter programming, which is just... Good, clean, fun. We're going to show you what they were doing. Julie John Roberts made a guest star appearance. Of all things, to show your face at, my God, what was she thinking? Here to break it all down for us is Glenn Greenwald. He's host of System Update on Substack and the first Megyn Kelly show guest ever, the official godfather of the MK show. Glenn, welcome back. Thank you. One of my proudest titles, if not the proudest in my career. Okay, so what a day to have you. We just got lucky. We didn't know that there was going to be a settlement inked with Iran today. But actually, that's the news hitting just as we come to air, which is the following. New from the New York Times, Trump and JD Vance both have electronically signed the framework agreement with Mohamed Baghear, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, one of the leaders of Iran's war effort. So we've signed a deal, and we don't exactly know what the deal is, but we're getting some hints. So the New York Times had a long interview with Donald Trump, and he said that it will ultimately assure that the Strait of Hormuz is permanently toll-free. It appears the Iranians were already disputing that, suggesting... Not permanently. Maybe for two months, but they're not necessarily giving up their right to charge tolls. Let's see. Then saying that we will deal with the nuclear agreements later. We're going to start talking about that after. So it's kind of like, let's cease fire now. Let's reopen the straight. We'll remove our blockade. And as for your not enriching any more uranium, or at least not enriching it to the point where we don't like it above whatever it is, 3.47 or 3.67 percent. We'll deal with that later. And as for the so-called nuclear dust, like the previously enriched uranium that we were told was obliterated by our strikes last June, we'll deal with that later too. But there's going to be some nuclear agreement to be negotiated that's going to severely restrict Iran. This is what we believe. And in response, or in, you know, as a result of all this, if we do it, then we are going to allegedly provide full sanctions relief and access to $25 billion in frozen funds of the Iranians. That, again, is per the New York Times. Now, just to add to it, the Iranians came out, CBS News reporting this, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which is in charge now.

It added more color. It says immediate and permanent cessation of the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon. No more battling between Israel and Hezbollah and Lebanon. A U.S. commitment not to interfere in Iran's internal affairs. Again, not confirmed by Trump. This is via CBS citing the Iranian side. Full lifting of the naval blockade. U.S. commitment to withdraw forces from the region around Iran. Not sure what that means. Reopening of the strait within 30 days. Under Iranian arrangements, don't know what that last qualifier means. Suspension of sanctions. On the sale of Iranian oil, petrochemical products and derivatives and full Iranian access to revenues. So that's going to be very lucrative to the Iranians. U.S. and its allies required to present reconstruction plans for Iran worth at least $300 billion. We believe that because JD Vance seemed to confirm it if they meet certain conditions on the news this morning. 60 days of negotiations to reach a final agreement on nuclear issues, as I just mentioned. So that one's kind of being punted to be, to be negotiated. And the complete lifting of primary and secondary U.S. sanctions against Iran. Now, that would be a big number. And like, that's... If we really do lift all sanctions for them and reconstruct Iran and make $25 billion available in frozen funds too, I don't know whether that's in the sanction relief or not, maybe they won't charge in the strait of Hormuz. Maybe we're just going to make them so rich that they're going to be like, who cares about the straight? And then there's, yeah. U.S. commits not to increase its forces in the region during this time. Iran will reaffirm its commitment under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty not to produce nuclear weapons. And then they add as a separate deal part, separate and apart from the complete lifting of primary and secondary U.S. sanctions, the release of $24 billion in frozen Iranian funds during the 60-day period. They get like half and then half later. So that's where we are now. who are Democrats are saying it's a worst deal than Obama's JCPOA. Critics who are Republicans are the neocons. like Mark Levin, who seems to be in a tailspin this morning, rage tweeting every five minutes about he needs to see the deal points and why are we bashing Benjamin Netanyahu? Because Trump is. And he deserves a kind word. And basically what is this bullshit is his point of view? Like, I'm happy as ending. That's my take on this. I wish it had never started. I don't know that this is better than where we were when we were actually negotiating with Iran before we started this war. But whatever. Let's get it.

Get it done is my current feeling. Now back to you. Yeah, there's so much there, which is why it kind of shocks me both in general. But right now to say that I do think the one point Mark Levin made that is valid is that since the deal has been signed, and it's not the final deal. It's a memorandum of understanding to stop the war for 60 days in order to get a final deal. But everyone understands that if you stop a war of this magnitude for 60 days, you're stopping the war. You wouldn't do it otherwise. If the deal is already signed, as JD Vance and Donald Trump both have confirmed that it is, we ought to see the terms of the deal. The reality is that we know essentially what's in the deal, not only because the Iranians have disclosed it, and not only because members of Congress and certain reporters have seen it, but also because if what Iran was saying about this deal were just fabricated or completely false, you would, of course, expect the Trump White House to be saying that it's false, and they're not doing that. In fact, as you said, JD Vance is confirming it. the outline basically of a deal and we can talk about the deal and we absolutely should. I think what we are going to see end up happening. And it's extremely ironic, given that it was kind of a central promise of the Trump 2016 campaign in the Trump first term to claim that the JCPLA was the worst deal ever negotiated, that we had to immediately withdraw from it because it was such a threat to American national security. That was the Israeli view. But from the American perspective, that deal, I'm not saying it was perfect, but it certainly worked to keep Iran from doing things like enriching past 3.67 percent. They only started enriching at 60 percent after Trump withdrew. from the deal. And what we're going to have is a deal that's similar to that, though probably without as many of the intrusive safeguards that that original deal had, on top of which Iran has been unbelievably emboldened and strengthened by the fact that they stood down the world's most powerful military and none of the stated goals that the United States government insisted it was intending to fulfill at the start of the war. Not all of them, but none of them. has really been fulfilled. Iran's government is obviously still very much in place. Their ballistic missile system has been somewhat degraded, but they could easily replace it. Their drone capacity is very high. They still have that enriched uranium buried under the soil. They still have the right to enrich. They're still able to fund what are called proxies in the region. I mean, none of the stated goals if the Israelis and the Americans at the start of the war said the war was about have been fulfilled. And on top of that, not only are those. aims unfulfilled, but Iran will be much better off by now being reintegrated back into the world economy, able to sell their oil on the global market, above and away from sanctions, have their funds that we froze unfrozen so that they have availability to them. I'm thrilled this war is over. I don't think the war should have ever started, but the Israelis understand, and all of them are saying, with a lot of rage and resentment, that this was basically... If you don't want to say Iran won the war, certainly they didn't lose the war and they're coming out as strong, if not stronger than when the war began, which is quite a remarkable observation given that the United States is the most powerful military in the world. Yeah, not to mention that they've realized they have this other nuclear bomb, which is the Strait of Hormuz and their ability to control it, which is like brand new was not the case beforehand, but...

I, you know, my own feeling and watching this whole thing is clearly President Trump wanted that straight back open. He wanted oil to continue to flow or to resume its flow through the straight. And I think that's important and a good idea. But my first takeaway after that was we better make damn sure somehow that there are ways around the Strait of Hormuz, like immediately. That should be our number one job right now. is to open up the oil flow, not using the straight so that we remove this important tool from the Iranians' deck of cards, right? Because otherwise, they're going to hold it over our heads forever. And we're just going to have to keep going back over there. In fact, Trump reportedly said something to the New York Times along the lines of, we'll go over there. If we have to and will, like, be the policeman, will be the guardian. Here's how the Times reported it. That Trump insisted if Iran failed to reach a final nuclear accord with us, a process as aides say they expect we'll begin this Friday in Switzerland, that Trump would restart military attacks on Tehran, quote, or make the U.S. the guardian of the Middle East in return for 20% of the region's revenues. Good God. No. No thanks. No American voted for that. We don't want to be the guardian of the Middle East at all. You know, but Megan, this is to me the kind of overarching mystery and bizarre aspect of what happened here is that it's not like nobody had looked at a map. Before this war began and figured out for the first time that the Strait of Hormuz is this critical passageway for the world economy, not just for oil, but for natural gas and a whole bunch of other petrochemicals on which the world economy depends. And there's basically, unless you want to move Iran, like actually physically move it from one place to another, which we don't have the ability to do. One of the reasons why presidents never went to war with Iran is because the immense leverage that they had. And by the way, the leverage is not just being able to shut the Strait of Hormuz, as they've done for the last several months. They can also destroy with great ease and always will be able to the entire energy infrastructure of our Persian Gulf allies, meaning the Arab dictatorships of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. And they prove that as well. And so it's not just the ability to choke off the Strait of Hormuz. It's also the ability. and they only exercised a small portion of this power to be able to just... These little countries that we call the Persian Gulf allies are really not even countries. They're tiny little gas stations. They're filled with very few people. We... have to protect them. And Iran is a real country, like a big country, three times the size of Iraq. And they are able very easily to destroy that energy infrastructure in a way that will cause economic collapse. And the thing is, Megan, this is what I think we always have to come back to is.

Donald Trump knew all this. He said it all before. He's talked about it all before. He's talked about the reasons why these kinds of regime change wars are so destructive. When was the last one that ever ended well from the perspective of the American people? You barely can think of one. I mean, maybe you can go back to like the last century and find one. But recently, these words have been nothing but disastrous. Trump built his whole political identity on this. The lots of people were telling Trump this, that this is what was going to happen if he entered this war with Benjamin Netanyahu. He knew that, and yet he did it anyway. And I think he got into the middle of it. And now what you're seeing is a kind of speech from an American president about Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu that we haven't heard before. And I think the only reason is because Trump really ended up with no alternative he had to get out of this war for the economy of the United States, for the world economy and his political interest is the midterms approach. Yes, because what Trump's now saying was in our AM update this morning, but he's basically like Israel, I don't know what Benjamin Netanyahu's effing doing and apparently said to him, you don't know what you're effing doing and was very frank with him and very angry that he continues to engage in a bombing campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon. He. claims that they struck first. Trump's response is what they hit you with was an absolute nothing. No one got hurt. You're using that as a fig leaf in order to launch your much larger and more devastating attacks, which will lead to us never being able to end this. He's finally lost his patience with Benjamin Netanyahu. I've lost my time in the first hour of the show. Here we go to break. We come back with Glenn on the opposite side. So much more to discuss. Don't leave. If you are heading into summer without a medical emergency kit, you're taking a risk most people don't even think about until it's too late and an unnecessary one. Summer colds linger. They can turn into sinus infections that last for weeks. Getting sick right before vacation can derail everything. And when you are traveling, finding a doctor and pharmacy is stressful. But let me tell you about the medical emergency kit from the wellness company. It's like an urgent care and a pharmacy right at home. It includes essential prescriptions like amoxicillin and generic Z-PAC to treat a wide range of common and serious illnesses, no waiting for your doctor, no hours of urgent care, no pharmacy lines, and no copays. Just match your symptoms to the right prescription in your guidebook or call their telemed doctor standing by. Start on your med sooner and feel better faster. Order yours online in minutes, and it's shipped right to your door. and save 45 bucks with our promo code mk at urgent care kit.com slash mk. That's promo code mk at urgent care kit.com slash mk.

Glenn Greenwald, host of System Update on Substack is my guest today. My guest tomorrow will be JD Vance, the vice president of the United States. And what a day to get him on the heels of this Iran deal. He's got a new book he's promoting all about his faith, which I'm very much looking forward to discussing with him. So that'll be a fun show. And we also have, he's the second hour tomorrow. Wait until you hear who is the first hour. Whoa. This is going to be an interesting show. Don't forget to download tomorrow's. Glenn, welcome back. There's a lot more to get to. We can go back to the Iran deal as well. But I wanted to move forward and talk a bit about what happened at the White House yesterday and then what happened in New York over the weekend. They're sports stories, but they made their way into my lane of news stories. Therefore, they make it onto the MK show. The UFC event at the... White House yesterday. And I don't watch UFC. I don't like violence. I don't like violent movies. I don't like, I really just don't like. I don't like full metal jacket, the green mile, like anything involving torture or you can like break somebody's bone in UFC. It's crazy. I respect them. Like they're. Very tough, but it's just not for me. However, it's very American. And it's pretty cool. And I love that Trump did it differently and had this event on the White House lawn that is totally Trumpy. Like, good for him. You know, it wasn't so long ago we had trannies on the White House lawn showing their fake boobs naked in front of the people's home, which is disgusting. Now, as we go into last night, the big question was, will the big event go off or will it not? Because... DC was experiencing some bad weather. And the weather channel sends out the most, I got to say, bizarre forecast. I'm putting that in air quotes. I don't know what this was. Here it is. UFC Freedom 250 is facing a chaotic weather set up on the White House South lawn. Okay, so far it's fine, with a 60% chance of thunderstorms, heavy downpours, and wind gusts up to 34 miles per hour, threatening to delay the outdoor fights. Here we go. On top of the storm risk, Brutal D.C. humidity is driving a triple-digit heat index alongside massive swarms of mosquitoes and gnats that fighters will have to battle inside the cage. While the venue's massive 92-foot overhang will keep the octagon dry, a single lightning strike within eight miles will trigger an automatic 30-minute freeze on the entire event. What? Have you ever heard a forecast about the mosquitoes and the gnats? I have to say, I do think there's an agenda going on at the Weather Channel.

Yeah, I mean, the picture they painted is scarier than anything you can bind in the Old Testament when God gets like exceptionally angry and destroys entire cities. And honestly, when I first read it, I almost thought it must be satirical. Like there was kind of a level of irony and that they knew that they were doing because it's, you know, it starts off already kind of dramatic in a way that that surprises you. And then the more it goes, the more it just gets, I mean, biblical is really the only term I can think of. But like almost. threatening. And it's not even a generalized warning for Washington residents. It's a specific weather threat, like a meteorological omen for this event that a lot of people, for whatever reasons, have a problem with. I'm still hoping there was some winking and nodding of satire in what they were doing. But we've seen so many instances where supposedly just like very neutral institutions become... outrageously political in the most inappropriate ways that it really leaves you wondering. Yes, the rapid response account, which writes for the administration, responded, this event is about celebrating America's unmatched greatness after 250 years, which apparently doesn't sit well with the friendless loser who wrote this bullshit clickbait headline. Rain or shine, we're celebrating our great country no matter what. God bless America. And they were right because while there was like a half an hour rain delay, the fights did go off. A great time was held by all. And I do have a lot of friends who love UFC. And like their feedback on this event was so positive. They loved the entire weekend. They had the military flyovers. They had Zach Brown who refused to not. sing, even though he came under all sorts of the usual criticism. How dare you? How dare you? You know, at the president Trump event, he was like, stop it. This is about America. I'm doing it. Did not fold the anthem, like all of it was very patriotic. And yet, if you've got the TDS, Glenn, you're not allowed to enjoy this. You got to. shit on it however you can. The mosquitoes and the swarms of gnats and the terrible Zach Brown who flouted his duty as an American. Here was the walkout. Trump and Dana White walking from the oval under like, well, the covered part of the White House and then out into the so-called octagon. That's where they have the fights. It was, you know, no... No moment of theater or, you know, presentation, dramatics was spared, which is perfectly on brand for both men, actually. Yeah, you know, I actually think that these are the sorts of things where liberals have done the greatest favor to Trump by acting completely hysterical and just seemingly being very petulant and resentful and bitter and angry over what at the end of the day are really just kind of inconsequential.

cultural celebrations. I mean, inconsequential from the sense that there's no political harm to them or anything else like that. And the ability to get liberals worked up over things that in context, let's remember we're still in. involved in this major, very dangerous war. There's all kinds of economic harm and damages that Americans are feeling to get liberals focused on this instead and have them whine and complain about a kind of cultural spectacle that isn't for everybody. I'm not the target audience for it. I didn't watch it. But I know that huge numbers of Americans do and have every right to be as included. in white house celebrations and cultural celebrations is whatever, you know, the Obama administration like to do in order to show how elevated and, and, you know, kind of uplifting Obama's intellect was. This is all part of kind of like what makes America great is the cultural diversity of it. And it's he's so good Trump is and their team at provoking liberals into. drawing attention away from what benefits them politically and instead whining and complaining about this sort of stuff, that they have just become their own worst enemies. Why would you begrudge a celebration of this kind that obviously tens of millions of Americans take a kind of pride in them feel like they're culturally represented in a way that these kind of people haven't always felt? And in a way, it's kind of one of the promises of the Trump administration was to start including in our DC politics, in our national life, a kind of part of our country that's very important that has represents a lot of people, but that has kind of been scorned upon when it's not excluded. And they always fall right into the trap of sounding like douchebags and elitist assholes by saying, this is a degradation of the White House when it's things that tens of millions of Americans. see as their culture and that they love and find entertainment. They're still doing it. This morning, I made the mistake of putting on MSNBC for a little while on Sirius XM. You can listen to it. And it was like, that word kept coming up over and over. Even on CNN, I heard it too. Like, they think this was, this was a degradation, that this was somehow a defilement of the White House grounds, the vaunted White House grounds. It's like... Joe Biden had a tranny out there showing his fake naked boobs all over the White House. And yes, they were forced to condemn it after it happened because there was a national outcry after, like, how dare you do that? But I mean, please, would you just stop, spare me on, you know, your standards of taste? Because there are none. We saw what your standards of taste were. To say nothing about what American presidents. Yeah, to say nothing of what American presidents have been doing in that White House forever, going back to JFK and the hordes of women that he had and Bill Clinton's blow jobs in the Oval Office. We're now going to pretend that unless it's like highfalute in enough culture. Somehow it degrades the sanctity of the White House that has seen all sorts of things ever since it was constructed because human beings occupy it. It's just the kind of...

artificial controversy that liberals just can't help. And I think the reason why they love it is because they do get to feel kind of like elevated and superior. It allows them to look down upon the culture of the people with whom they disagree with politically. Yeah. And it's just too tempting of a psychological benefit for them to resist. Watch this. This is from 2024 or 2023? 24. Look at this. Okay. This is Trans Day of Visibility. At the White House, Joe Biden's right there. Look, there's the naked boobs. That's a man. This is absurd that anybody who supported this would have the nerve to talk about the degradation of the White House grounds, the defilement. Please, spare me your lectures. That was disgusting. We've never really recovered from it. Let's be honest. And this is like a restoration of masculinity and what it actually is. So I applaud that as well. Like, yeah, let's get back to masculinity. While I'm on the subject of masculinity and the trans people, I've got to spend one moment on Elliot Page, who makes me so uncomfortable. Elliot Page was a cute, female, and still is a female. The name has changed. She was Ellen Page. And now she goes by Elliott and wants us to believe she's a man, which she's not. But it's a very poor imitation. She started in Juneau. And here she is. Okay, fine. She's going to pretend she's a man now. Not only is she pretending she's a man. She had a little lecture on how she believes she's feeling a healthy masculinity. Unlike the toxic masculinity, obviously. of all the people who support Donald Trump or just vote Republican. Take a listen to this, not 34. Healthy masculinity to me is, or even just something I've felt as transitioning is like leaning away from whenever there is some sort of impulse or expectation you've put on yourself to like shut down or conform in a way that usually feels like this. Like I am closing off. I remember kind of being like, oh, Elliot, maybe you should, you know, talk with your hands a little less. You know, maybe in pictures, because ever since transitioning, now I'm like, Johnny, I am smiling. I am smiling in those photos. Whereas I used to be so, I could barely look at a photo of myself. I was always like, you know, and now. And I'll be taking, say a dude's like, hey, are you, are you Victor from Umbrella Academy? You know, and we're doing a photo together. He's very, right? Yeah. And like having that moment where I'm like, oh, should I also not? Like, should I also be close off? And it's just like, what the fuck, Elliot? What are you talking about? Like, oh, honey, you're the part of the problem. Okay. So it's now toxicly male to not gesticulate. Talk with your hands a lot to not overshare to be a dignified, stoic man. That's toxic. And Elliot will show all the rest of you, Glenn, actual men, what it's what it really means to be masculine. And it does not include closing off from people. You can't, if you close off, that's, that's the bad masculinity. If you.

just regurgitate every feeling and gesticulate with your hands while doing it. Gavin Newsom style, you might say. That's the good kind of masculinity. Like Elliot lives. You know, there's so much here, actually, that as somebody who became kind of part of and how my life affected by what was called the gay and lesbian equality movement, you know, starting in like the 80s and 90s when I first became aware of becoming of age. To compare what it's become now, it's not just a different movement or in a different category. It's almost like the exact antithesis in terms of what its ethos is supposed to be. I think I might have mentioned this two months. I don't know, though. In Brazil, there's this left-wing politician. She was born a man. She's now identifies as a trans woman. And they just made her the leader in Congress of the commission on women. And she's been a woman for like, I don't know, 13 seconds. And she goes around. lecturing everybody on what real femininity is, even like to other women who don't, who lived their whole lives as women were born women. And the audacity of that is so, it's so amazing to me. It's kind of like, you know, these, these people who are lifelong Republicans become Democrats because they hate Trump and then start immediately telling you what a real Democrat is. But there's so many things that has been bothering me about this new iteration of what is now called the LGBTQ, all those other acronyms. And one of the things that bothers me the most is that we actually made progress, I think progress in society where... people weren't as confined to gender roles. Like to be a little girl didn't mean you can't play sports or to be a boy started to mean that it was fine to have an interest in art or fashion or whatever. These, we kind of had, like women were allowed to be in the workplace. Men could have a kind of more interest in raising kids. These things kind of became fine. And so much of this discourse is so aggressive. I mean, listen to Elliott Page saying, This is how a woman is. A woman behaves this way. A woman doesn't gesticulate with hand gestures. Only men do this. It's like they're imposing these extremely rigid gender roles that I thought we had moved past, you know, past to the point that now if some, you know, celebrity parent looks at their six-year-old who was born a girl, but like sports, they immediately say, oh, you're not a girl. You're a boy. You like sports. Or a boy says, oh, I don't want to go play sports. I'm kind of interested in these, in drawing. Oh, that's a very feminine trait. It's such a regressive... form of looking at gender dressed up as this very progressive and radical movement. And you see that so manifest in the way that Elliot Page is lecturing us about what it means to be a man. And also I have to say, as somebody who does tend to have more male friends and who's always kind of had just like a general disposition to being more around men than women, that discourse, everything I heard Elliot Page say,

Code is very female to me, which is so ironic, like the way she's introspecting about her. No men talk like that. No men talk like that. No men I know think that way or talk that way. And here she is saying, I'm a man. And it sounds like a woman in therapy, like a standard liberal woman in New York on the upper west side, like in therapy, like trying to understand her own shyness or inhibitions or whatever. That is so true. It's such a good point. She doesn't sound all like any man I know. That's not how men talk. No men. No men talk like that. Doug and I have an ongoing joke of, I'll just say to him like, well, we're sitting there on the couch and I'll say, do you want to talk about our feelings? And we both laugh because it's just I'm not really that way either, to be honest. And he's really not that way. He's a Presbyterian from the main line. So yeah, yeah, it's a no. And we just joke about it. Like, men are not like, oh, with the hands, my feelings, let's do this. And that's, yeah, so she's, she's got thoughts. Okay, I want to get back to what happened last night because we had the UFC event, again, much, much better than where we were just a couple short years ago. And yet it had to be counter programmed by the lunatic left, led by, of course, who else? Jane Fonda, here's a little bit of how that sounded. Sot 28. This isn't the first time that Americans' rights have come under attack. But this time, what is really different from the last century, the attacks are coming from every part of the government, the executive, the legislative, and the Supreme Court. There is a clear effort to destroy our fundamental democratic rights and dramatically retake our form of governance. I think the un-American activities committee right now is coming from the White House. I got to give you one more. There's a couple, but I got to give you one more. Let's check in on Bet Midler and what happened when she got up there. Sat 30B. Oh, you fascist bound to lose. You're bound to lose. You're bound to lose. You're fascist bound to lose.

Let me put you straight When you come for the rest of us We'll fight you at the gate And you will lose you fascist battle lose Megan can I tell you something about clip I'm like very traumatized right now. I saw that clip online and I just thought that that was some like standard white progressive lady who's like a Democrat. Oh. I didn't know that was Bet Midler until you just told me. And it's very, Bet Midler used to be super cool. And this is like she's now turned into like Rachel Maddow's grandma. And I just a couple points on this. She is Robert De Niro in a dress. Yeah, totally. And like I just want like. when like there was a time maybe like a decade ago and I was getting invited, you know, when Citizen 4 came out, the film that that was about my work was noted and won an Oscar, when I was kind of like integrated into Hollywood stuff. I'm sure the way you were when you had your film out and other times as well. And there was always this perception that like Hollywood politics is super radical left. It really isn't. It's like very. like establishment Democrat. And, you know, Jane Fonda, too, used to have pretty radical politics in the 60s, like March Against the War, obviously going very controversially to North Vietnam. And all these people, I guess, like, as they just evolved, they just turn into really ordinary boring Democrats. They're like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. And it's a very superficial politics. And I'll just give you a quick example. Okay, there's Jane Fonda giving a speech about a speech in defense of free speech. I do think free speech is under attack right now. I always think free speech is under attack as somebody who's made that a primary cause of my life. Free speech was under attack at least as much, if not way more so during the Biden administration when they had a systematic campaign to bully and threaten and pressure and coerce big tech into censoring and banning dissidents from their policies, including on COVID and Ukraine, from the entire internet. What court said was one of the most full frontal assaults on free speech in decades. Do you think Bet Midler and Jane Fonda and any of them are raising their voices against it? Of course not because they just become very like, boring stayed partisans. They don't have, like, fascism to them means Donald Trump. And you get rid of fascism by electing Kamala Harris. It's nothing more interesting or complex than that. By the way, Kamala Harris, too, launched your campaign. One of her first stops was on RuPaul's Drag Race show, where the week before, they had some tranny walking down the runway with fake boobs, like in a bag, in a clear cellophane bag, dripping with blood. The display was his chest, like missing breasts with fake blood dripping down. That's the classiness of the Biden administration that they wanted to return us to to get us away from the disgusting debauchery of the Trump administration. It's a no. No, thank you.

I mentioned Robert De Niro. Of course he was there. So you got Bed Midler, who is the female Robert Jenner, the actual Robert Janira was there. And we would be remiss if we didn't check in with Julia John Roberts, who prior to the Kamala Harris campaign had done a relatively good job of staying apolitical. But like her pal George Clooney, she just couldn't keep it under reps anymore. She got to her late 50s Glenn and she said, Let's do this thing. Here she is at this pathetic little rally. It's not a symbol. Renee Nicole Good is not a symbol. She is an American woman, a queer woman who is doing the very best she could do to be good in an unjust world. Yeah. And I am honored to celebrate her life and her legacy tonight because the life she gave is our responsibility to carry. Remember when she did the ad? for Kamala Harris encouraging Trump voters, female Trump voters to go into the voting booth and disobey their husbands once they got behind the curtain. That was her big contribution. How'd that work out? This is not going to work out any better. But why? Why must that? Why? Why can't, why didn't she get the same memo that Jennifer Lawrence got when who came out and said, I'm kind of done doing that? I just want people to watch my art and I'll express myself through my art and they can take it or leave it. Well, this is the thing like, Historically, if you look at Western artists and the idea of art in Western culture, it always has been political, but not in this like direct, you know, go and vote for this candidate or I'm going to represent these very, you know, banal political ideas that everybody else I speak to and that is near me also represents because I want to be part of the crowd. Part of the idea of art is to question taboos, to test new ideas, to kind of poke at orthodoxy. There is a politicized aspect to art, not always, but often. Even, you know, going back to Renaissance art, I mean, a lot of that had political themes to it. And these people have convinced themselves because they refer to themselves as artists, even though they're just like good looking studio tools, that they too play a similar role in society, even though they have nothing of actual value or interest to offer. And that's why I say what offends me are not people who are in like the creative world wanting to express ideas that affect the world. Like I said, I think that's a normal part of art. What offends me about it is they're so empty and vapid about it. It's pure just Hollywood group think. They all repeat what each other says. There's no bravery to it. There's no courage to it. There's no impact. And I think that's the reason why. And one of the only good things that have come out of all of this is they all do have to realize that they have basically become inconsequential because they did everything possible. Remember going back to that 2016.

mega cringe fight video that they did with all those celebrities singing that fight song about Hillary Clinton. They've just gotten destroyed and humiliated because no one pays attention to them. I remember people really thinking Taylor Swift's announcement or that brat woman's endorsement of Kamala Harris was going to swing the election. It didn't swing a single vote because nobody cares. Not because people don't care about what artists think, but because these people are an artist. They're just... banalities. They're just people craving public attention and applause, and that will never have any power. Truly, who cares what Julia John Roberts thinks about politics? Now, if Julia John Roberts is going to stand up in front of some large group in New York and tell us what it was like to act across from Richard Gear and Pretty Woman, I'm interested. Go on. What was that like? You were great in that. Great. Let's do that. But... No one wants to hear me talk about what it's like to be an actress and how one prepares for one's roles. And no one wants to hear her talk about politics or the news at all. We saw her. She went on with Oprah during that fake Teletown Hall, whatever she did that she charged the campaign a million dollars for in your life as a journalist, I guarantee. Glenn Greenwald has never charged the interview subject for the set Glenn had to set up in order to go do the interview. That's not the way it works. Only a grifter would do such a thing. But at that farcical event, Julia John Roberts had thoughts there too. Remember this? Watch. I want people to say, oh, you're American and not, oh. how's it going over there you know yes so I want to get back to that space exactly Oh, go ahead, Glenn. But just that alone, do you see what she's saying? She's saying, when I go to Paris and I'm invited to these, you know, elite royal dinners in Scandinavia, I want the people next to me to feel like being an American is a good thing instead of looking down their nose at me because Donald Trump is the president. I want them to see someone more European. Is this even in the same universe as what most Americans think? And this is what gets me about, you know, Julia John Roberts has been this huge Hollywood star making gigantic sums of money for decades. Obviously, that distorts her perception that removes her from ordinary life. These people have no understanding, like no humility at all that the way they speak, the concerns that they have are so radically different from the people on whose behalf they think they're speaking or who they're influencing that it's like this incredible mismatch. Even just listening to her, she doesn't speak like anybody that you typically speak to. And I think this is the breach that they're incapable of recognizing. It's really bizarre to watch. I mean, that is what.

she's saying it's when i go to when i go to brussels you know i used to be applauded when obama was president because people loved america and now in europe they think that we're gross and i want to get back to you know having british and and european royalty look at us again in a positive light as though that's even uh anywhere near the list of of concerns of ordinary voters Yes, like we're real working class voters who can't pay their mortgage or their grocery bills. And she thought that they'd be listening to her on how she really wants people to admire her as an American and to be universally beloved. And she doesn't like this sort of tone, she hears in the elite circles across the pond. What? She's completely lost and out of touch. Now that brings me to the next game. All right. I've got to show you a couple of things here. There's a couple of people we need to call out. Feeling sluggish, bloated, not quite like yourself, life constantly bombards us with silent threats, processed foods, artificial light, non-stop stress, all of which can disrupt gut health, drain energy, and weaken immune health. When that happens, it's not that your body is broken. It's that it might be missing the right inputs. That's why I want to tell you about armour cholesterol. It's packed with more than 400 bioactive nutrients that they say can work at a foundational level to fortify gut health, support immune health, fuel recovery, and promote whole body vitality. Strong gut integrity can support metabolism, skin and hair health, and even performance and recovery, which is why cholesterol has long been valued by some elite athletes as well. If you are looking to take back control of your health from the inside out, consider Armra. And they have a special deal for you. Go to armor.com slash Megan or enter Megan to get 30% off your first subscription order. That's A-R-M-R-A.com slash Megan. Hey everyone, it's me, Megyn Kelly. I've got some exciting news. I now have my very own channel on Sirius XM. It's called the Megyn Kelly Channel, and it is where you will hear the truth, unfiltered, with no agenda, and no apologies. Along with the Megyn Kelly show, you're going to hear from people like Mark Halperin, Link Lauren, Morin Callahan, Emily Jishinsky, Jesse Kelly, Real Clear Politics, and many more. It's bold, no BS news. Only on the Megyn Kelly channel, Sirius XM 11, and on the Sirius XM app. Thank you.

So I'm very happy that the Knicks won. I've lived in New York State for most of my life. And I lived in Manhattan for 17 years recently. And so they never win. They never win the championship. I know enough about sports to know. The Knicks always disappoint their fans in the end. And no one really thought that they were going to pull it out. But then that one guy was amazing. What's his name? He was so good. He was incredible. Hold on. Jalen Brunson. He was... the game. When the championship was over, they put on the screen, Jalen Brunson points 35 or 45. Everyone else, 49. Like, the entire rest of the team had scored like one or two baskets more than he did by himself. And he's only 6-2, which is kind of short by NBA standards. And going up against, you know, Wemba Yama, who's 7 foot 6, it was no problem for him. He was just a crusher. So go Nix. All right, but there's a couple of things we got to discuss. We got to discuss the absurd New York people who rioted and burned school buses and stabbed people and hurt 10 cops as a, quote, celebration. Just fucking derelicts. I'm sorry. It happens every time. Philly does it too because Doug likes the eagle, so we see it. What's wrong with these people? But let's table that now. Let's go up to a higher price point on the incomes and discuss. Ben Stiller and Hank Azaria. So Ben Stiller was one of the ones who you kept seeing in the front row, celebrity row there. It was like Timothy Salomey, Larry David, David Zazelof. Jerry Seinfeld, Zazlov is not a celebrity. He's with, like, the more owner's crews. But whatever, yeah, Jerry Seinfeld. Taylor Swift was there on the miracle at MSG night. And as I mentioned, Ben Stiller was there. So Ben Stiller was given an interview after the fact to those guys who do the halftime show, like Shaq and Charles Barkley and so on. And there was a bit of a reveal on how. the celebs get those floor seats or like second row whatever listen here where they are hey ben you're not a fair weather fan because we number one thank you for the love you show you're showing our show watch you guys forever but you like a real fan like a lot of these other freeloaders they just showing up because the nix are doing good how long have you actually been a season ticket holder i'm i don't have a season ticket i just get i get the tickets the celebrity, they give us the tickets. Ben, stop line. I don't think I could afford the Nick season ticket front row. No, I'm lucky, no, I'm just, I think it's because I've been coming for so long, you know, that they feel I'm a loyal fan, our family's been coming forever, so I'm lucky enough to get that. So he doesn't have season tickets and claims he can't afford season tickets, which is a lie. Ben Stiller can absolutely afford season tickets to the Knicks. I know a doctor friend of mine who has them. He's got more than that guy does. In 2016, he snapped up a four-bedroom condo for $15 million in a luxury building in the West Village of New York. His main residence is a 33-acre spread, reportedly just north of Manhattan and Chappaqua. He also owns...

reportedly a 14-acre pad near, uh, in Hawaii. And he can afford it. But. I didn't realize that these celebrities are getting it. Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, gifts it to them. And like Anna Wintor over at the Met Gala, he sprinkles his little fairy dust on the ones he thinks, I guess, I don't know, people want to see there. So that's bad enough, Glenn. That's bad enough, right? Because God forbid, they have like a contest or they give it to like, The New Yorker who's most down and out had the roughest year lost his job in this difficult economy or in Zohran Mamdani's hideous New York. God forbid they give it to like the Make a Wish kid. No, we got to look at Taylor Swift there. Fake, excited over the miracle. And a... with her nitwit friend. She looked like an idiot. Okay. Then enter Hank Azaria, who starts off strong. I'm with him. He starts ripping on Taylor. He's like, I've had it with this woman. I had to watch her at all the football games. And now she's got to be at the basketball games too. Like I'm fucking sick of her. Yes, Hank, you speak for us all. But then started bitching about his free seats because they were in. a suite that's high up at Madison Square Garden and not down at the camera level. There he is in his seat. It's high up, I agree. But you're there. You're there. People around you outside of your suite, civilians had to pay a minimum of six to seven grand for the worst nosebleed in the house. And his came for free and he's still bitching. Listen here to what he said about those seats to the Dan Lebitard show. I tell you the one that bothered me was Taylor Swift. Why? Come. She just got here. I know she's the biggest thing in the world, but we had to sit with her all through the NFL, and now she's at the garden. Come on. Wow. She gets four seats, her three friends. It's total bandwagon. Like, Hank has been there since the 70s. He's the voice actor for a generation. Like, this is, the man continues to be someone who stars in movies for the better part of 35, 40 years. Not that I question why she'd get the seat. I'm just tired of the whole tale. She did have three seats. I got the guest list in front of me right now. She had three seats. Okay, but he went on to say,

Okay. You don't know from the garden if you're going to get in until the day of the game. If you're Ben Stiller or Tracy Morgan, you know, I think Spike Lee actually pays for his tickets, he says, but they don't let you know until day of because there's such high demand. After not making the cut for complimentary tickets to game three, the... The actor said he was able to get in free to game four. That was the miracle at MSG game. However, Hank Azaria thought it was horrible, that's in quotes, that his seats were in the arena's Cisco suites, located within the upper ball, the horror. I know I'm not courtside, he said, but I think MSG... has got me good seats. But we're way up in what they call the Cisco suites, which are like the ceiling, he recalled, noting that other stars like Questlove, Rain Wilson, Edward Burns, Jeremy Strong, Aaron Judge, and Christy Turlington were also in the same area. Like there's so many folks who want in that they've stuck us all up in the rafters. I'm sorry, but this too is so out of touch, Glenn. Yeah, I mean, I get why sports leagues want to have celebrities at their events because it gives it for some people like a kind of cachet. But it only really works if the people are actually interested. You know, like Jack Nicholson famously was like obsessed with the L.A. Lakers. So it made sense for the L.A. Lakers to want him always at the game. Huge star, you know, like on the, at court side. I guess like some, like Spike Lee always at the New York Knicks games when they're winning, they're losing whatever, like a real fan. I like the sport I know and watch most is tennis and there's like huge stars like from the NBA and movie stars who love tennis, travel the world, like really watching the matches. I get why they're promoted. But like. If you're going to be that, and especially if you're going to get these free tickets for an event, you know, where New Yorkers and there's, you know, obviously millions of them who have lived and died with the New York Knicks forever. I lived in New York for 15 years when like the era of Patrick Ewing and like really good teams. John Stark's like never won the championship. These people have been waiting for these forever. A lot of them are priced out. And then to have these celebrities who don't even seem like the real fans. Get in and get in free and get all these perks. Like those sweets have tons of perks. It's not just like sitting in any old seat high up. It's, you know, like a suite. Then go on and complain that their seats weren't as good as they. This is why there's so much resentment toward the celebrity class. We talked about this the last time I was on. Like in order to have this like mystique of celebrity that. actually is appealing, there needs to be a mystique to it. Like you have to have something opaque about yourself. You don't want to show yourself because when you show yourself, you're showing who you are like an ordinary guy with all the Kevin Warsh of everybody else, but getting all these undue privileges. And that's what creates resentment. And these people seem not to realize it. They're so immersed in this detached culture that they don't understand any longer what they sound like to people. If I were their agent, I would be like, just.

Just shut up always, unless you have a script in front of you or some written prepared speech. And otherwise, just go do your movies, go do your TV, collect your huge paycheck and go on a boat and just don't let people know anything else about you. Yes. What they should have done was say, here's my seat, Daniel Penny. Here you go. Or cop. patrolling the beat. You want a good seat? They'd kill to be able to sit in this Cisco sweet or like a single mother who gets to bring her kid, you know, who would never otherwise afford it. Yeah, like that would actually be something. And not even for PR, like you would, I personally would feel better about it than, you know, just somebody who gets every privilege, just taking it because you 10, even though it doesn't give you, like find somebody who would actually. see the experience as this once in a lifetime, you know, opportunity. And I guess I just don't think that way. Oh, it's disgusting. Like, what a missed opportunity by Hank Azaria to say. Like, I was so thrilled to be there. Like, all I was, I'm so grateful to the garden for making sure I had a seat that was so generous of them. Like, I saw my Knicks win. It's like, I have nothing but blessings. I'm very, very grateful instead of like, we were up and then nosebleeds with Christy Turlington. Oh, my God. You started off strong and then you fell apart, Hank Azaria. And he's not the voice of a generation either. It's like if you watch The Simpsons, You enjoyed his work. Otherwise, most people don't even know who Hank Azari is. I'm sorry. And Ben Stiller, I mean, I give him credit for like at least admitting. Like he, he's, Charles Barkley, um, stepped in it, right? Because it was like, you're a real next fan. You have season tickets. Yeah. And he's like, no, actually, that's not true. They just gave these to me. I really have no idea why. But credit to him for admitting it. And I have to do something that pains me, but I must do it. Um, There were all these Knicks fans on the streets of New York watching on like Jumbotrons that were up. And they were packed in like sardines. And it added a lot to watch their reaction when the Knicks won. That's exactly what you wanted to see was their reaction and how happy they were. And in, smushed in with the crowd, I did see John Stewart. And I'm pretty sure this is where he was. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm sure the audience will. But I saw him. He was standing out there outside with a baseball hat on with the everyman. And I have to say, I admired it. Like, he didn't. go inside the garden. John Stewart absolutely could have afforded a $6,000 ticket or more. You know, some of the other ones were tens of thousands. And he chose to spend it that way. And I have to say, I like it when people do that. And he didn't look to go on. He wasn't Megan Markle, like making sure he got in front of the camera. Here I am with you, every man. He was just there watching the game and like cheering and somebody got him from the side. And I was like, you know what? Good on you, man.

Yeah, and you know, I'm sure you've had these experiences too in New York. And I definitely did too. Like when I lived there, I love New York. Of course, extremely frustrating people who don't live there look at it and say, why would anyone want to live there with all the obvious problems that it has? But there are certain kinds of experiences because of the diversity in New York. And I don't mean diversity in like a DEI way. I mean like natural diversity of so many different kinds of people from so many walks of life. who are almost forced into finding this common humanity and common ground and common cause where those divisions actually don't matter. New York has a unique capability to bring people together from like the richest to the poorest to every kind of different religion and background in a way that really is inspiring. And I think having this city that's so filled with every different kind of person, unite around the sporting event. You know, there is something very encouraging about humanity's ability to do that. And there aren't many cities in America that produce that like New York can. And I think that's one of the reasons why this resonated so much. Yes, totally. A word on Jalen Brunson before we leave the Knicks. After game four, he was in such demand because that was the miracle at MSD. It really was a miracle. They were down 30 plus points and somehow they turned it. You know, it was like, before you knew it, they were down only 15 points, which they were again in the final. It was like, oh my God, the stress for, you know, Knicks fans. And really, truly, they deserve to win it because it's like the Spurs, if you can't win a game when you're 30 points up or in the finals 15 points up and hold on to that lead and the game of that consequence, I mean, with all due respect, then you should expect to lose. So good for him. He was the hero of that game too. And he came out the night after game four. And everybody wanted to hear his reaction and what did you think of the game? And before he spoke about the game at all, he said this about him, make a wish kid. that he'd been connected to. Oh, SOT 24. Real quick, before we get started. I just want to say hearts and my thoughts and prayers are with a friend of mine I got to meet and talk to last week. Jonathan from North Carolina. from the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Garden and Dreams Foundation. He had a heart condition, and it was just asked me to just kind of take a video and reach out to him, but something in my mind told me just to try and get him on FaceTime and get the chat with him, and I got the pleasure to do so. And it was a quick call, but it was well worth it. And I just want to say my thoughts and prayers were him and his family. Just finding out some news about him today. So my guy was his soul. Obviously, the little boy died. I don't know. We haven't been able to find anything out about this, Jonathan. But clearly the last line suggests that he died. And good for him, right? Like it.

I've been on the receiving end of that. Like, will you do this thing? Will you like make a phone call or where you send a note? And if you actually do, if you can spare the time to actually call and speak with the person live, it's so meaningful if they actually are your fan. And he did it. And it was one of the little boys' last moments, Glenn. It just restores your faith in humanity. Like athletes so often, there are bad stories about our famous people. And here's a great one. I love this guy. Well, yeah, and it's what we were talking about before, too, with, like, how you have the opportunity. If you have these kind of privileges to, instead of just, like, gobbling them all up for yourself and getting as much attention, you know, you can do so many things that obviously are beneficial to the people who you're helping, but obviously, but also. are so beneficial to you. Like, look at how the, like, look at, like, this is a guy at the height of, like, his career, right? He's at the pinnacle of the success, the star of this incredibly significant sporting event where all eyes are focused on him in the most admirable way. And clearly the emotions he had that he felt compelled to share in, like, the most unrehearsed, genuine from the heart way. You could just tell, like, his soul was invested in it. probably gave to him at least as much as if not more than whatever other benefits he's getting from having been the star of the series, helped the Knicks win the first championship at the center of the world media capital, which is New York. And so many people deprive themselves of that kind of profound human experience because the benefits aren't obvious. It takes emotional investment and just to see somebody in that moment. focused on that instead of themselves, which, you know, again, this is like an extremely important moment for him financially and reputationally and every other way for a sport to which he's devoted his life to be able to have the presence of mind to speak in that manner so powerfully and connected about someone who he did not really know that well until the week before but was so affected by. Yeah, like you said, it does kind of remind you that human beings are capable of great things. Mm-hmm. That gave me the chills when you were talking about him. And he was voted MVP of the finals. Of course, he very clearly was. So definitely has a new fan in me, even though I don't totally know his name yet by heart. But I'm going to remember it. You'll get there. I'm definitely going to remember it. But unlike these other people, I'm not a poser. I will tell you the truth about where I stand in when it comes to sports. I'm not going to lie. I think J-Lo is a poser. She posted this video, Glenn and Steve Crackauer, our executive producer, cracks me up on our producer text chain sometimes. He just sent it out with the word relatable. Watch this. It's her in what's clearly a multi-million dollar home. This huge TV. Oh my God. Stuff like. I can't even explain the luxury we're looking at, the fireplace, the windows, floor to ceiling. She's dressed up. Oh, my God. Look at. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. We're going to call everybody to you. Okay. Okay, because Glenn, who doesn't have someone filming them?

in order to post it on social media when something wonderful happens. That's the point. It's like she's acting as though this was like some spontaneous, uncontrollable, emotional ecstasy. And yet she has, what I'm sure, is a professional social media person who probably was instructed to make it seem like it wasn't as professional as it was, even though it's framed so perfectly to show the beauty of her house. She's dressed up as well. Like who watches, you know, like a New York piece in their living room in like Dolce and Gabana? whatever at Prada, whatever it is that she's wearing with her hair all done. And, you know, it also, like, she is the world's biggest poser. She just did that subway interview where she was like, if you weren't born in New York, you're not a real New Yorker. Remember she had that super cringy clip where she talked about going to the bodega and she was like got the orange juice, if you know, you know. And everyone who is actual New Yorker was like, I don't have any idea what you're talking about. Nobody knew. She was acting like it was some secret thing that only real New Yorkers know that nobody actually ever heard of. And she is just the biggest farce. I mean, that was sad to watch. I hadn't seen that until just now. No, it was pathetic. Honestly, like, she's definitely giving Megan Markle vibes, too. Like, oh, I just got to happen. I just happened to be on camera as, you know, my team won the, in that case, I think it was the World Series. Her husband, Prince Harry, was there. He showed up at the championship game. Like with Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, no wife. And apparently the only friend he brought was a guy, a military guy from, I don't know if it was his Invictus games or what he was. But like, he has no friends. You never see Prince Harry with like, and there he is with his buddies from the military or there he is from his buddies from Eaton or like some friends that they live by in Montecito. No. Friends, not like me and Glenn Greenwald, friends for many years. And I'd go to any finals with you, Glenn. Nosebleeds or not. Let's go. And we won't complain about where we're sitting either. But we will need somebody who's like straight and like into sports to explain to us what's going on. To explain everything. There's no shortage of those people. We can find them. See you soon. Bye, Megan. Good to see you. All right. JD Vance. And you'll see who the surprise guest is in the first hour. Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.