The Megyn Kelly Show
Megyn's Time 100 Recap, Trump's Board of Directors, and Dems' Sagging Poll Numbers, with Mark Halperin | Ep. 1057
Fri, 25 Apr 2025
Megyn Kelly is joined by Mark Halperin, host of "Next Up with Mark Halperin," to discuss the launch of his new MK Media show next week, what to expect from the show, Megyn's experience attending the Time 100 gala, how she was one of the only conservatives at the event, the "scam" of the "influential" list, calling out Blake Lively and George Clooney on the red carpet, the smug journalists celebrating themselves at this weekend's White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the event's diminishing value under a Trump presidency, the hypocrisy of media coverage of Trump compared to other presidents, his accurate prediction that Trump could win the 2016 election that was mocked by his own network MSNBC, the condescending backlash he received from his colleagues, how he saw Trump as a political force even back in 2011, Trump's influential "Board of Directors," why JD Vance is a massively powerful VP, the recent polling declines for both Trump and the Democrats, the strong support Trump still has on his border policy, why the Democrats are losing ground with both moderates and progressives, which Democratic candidates have a chance in 2028, the media’s complicity in covering up Joe Biden’s obvious cognitive decline, Elizabeth Warren’s weak defense of his mental acuity, the collusion between media and Dems, and more.Subscribe and follow Next Up now: https://nextuphalperin.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nextuphalperinApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-up-with-mark-halperin/id1810218232Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2f0n8G4xqUo8aGxbbbtRjH3 Day Blinds: Visit https://3DayBlinds.com/MK & Shop the Buy One Get One 50% Off deal today!PrizePicks: Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/MEGYN & Download the app today! | Use code MEGYN to get $50 after your first $5 lineupTax Network USA: Call 1-800-958-1000 or visit https://TNUSA.com/MEGYN to speak with a strategist for FREE today Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow
Chapter 1: What was Megyn Kelly's experience at the Time 100 gala?
But first, last night I did go to the Time 100. Remember yesterday I was still a little bit on the fence. Do I go? Do I not go? I don't totally believe in these big, you know, red carpet galas. I've been to very, very many of these and I don't know. I just had mixed feelings about it. Um, It's very self-congratulatory, right, to go to something like that. And it's also not true.
You know, I said this last night, with all due respect to time, I don't think they really do pick the most influential people in the country. You know, I think it's really like a PR event for time. And that's fine. You know, I don't want to be ungrateful. I mean, I appreciate being named again, but it's... I have to be honest. These things, they're very navel-gazy. And it's... I don't know.
Can I tell you, I looked around last night. There was not one other conservative in the room. Not one. Not one. You'd find like the occasional civilian who'd come over and be like, hey, I'm one of, you know, your kind. But like not as soon. Now, they did name some like J.D. Vance was named and some other people who, you know, were named as Joe Rogan.
I mean, he's not conservative, but, you know, he voted for Trump. Anyway, they weren't there. But I mean, of the 100, I'd say about six or seven leaned right. Um, it's just the way it is. It's the way it is. Media is the way it is in New York. And so it's just, you know, the things are awkward. Plus let's face it. What do we do on this show?
But criticize the media left and right and up and down all day, every day. And half of them were there. So that's awkward. It's awkward. Um, all right, we're going to get into all the stories in just a minute. Uh, and along for this ride with me today is Mark Halperin. Mark is editor in chief and host of two way on YouTube.
And now starting next week, he's the host of a brand new show on the MK media network. It's called next up with Mark Halperin. It launches on Tuesday. Okay. This coming Tuesday. So go ahead and subscribe now. Wherever you get your podcasts, okay, for free at NextUpHalperin, all right? Just Google that or search that in your podcast search bar or in your YouTube search bar.
NextUpHalperin on YouTube, on Apple, Spotify, all social platforms, NextUpHalperin.com. Go ahead and subscribe and follow now so you don't miss anything that Mark reports because he's always got exclusives and he's always way ahead of the rest of the pack.
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Chapter 2: Why does Megyn Kelly consider the Time 100 list a 'scam'?
You can. You can.
Yeah. And then I found out it wasn't a mistake, which I thought might have been. Anyway, so that's fine. But I have to tell you, Mark, I really did wrestle with like I don't really the people at time were absolutely lovely. I should say that up front. They were really nice up and down the line and like did not sense one iota of hostility toward me, given my political views.
You know, they they did nothing other than make me feel welcome and were super kind. And I appreciate that. But the nature of the gathering is just off-putting to me. Whereas when I first went in 14, I was a little bit more starry-eyed. It was very cool. It felt like something to me. It felt like, wow, I've accomplished something, which I hadn't. I launched my primetime show. That was good.
But again, even then, I wasn't one of the most influential people. And You go and you get asked, like, what does it mean to you to be one of the... It's like, oh, God. And so I... I wrestled with whether I should go on the red carpet and give interviews. I definitely was going on the red carpet for a picture. For sure, I wanted to do that.
But you also have to choose whether you want to talk to the press that's there, like Daily Mail and Extra and all those folks. So you'll hear a little bit of that struggle as I sat and spoke to Extra TV. Here's a sound bite.
Congratulations. Thank you very much. I want to know, when you first found out that you were on the list, what was your reaction?
I kind of laughed because I've been here before and then I was canceled and now here I'm back again. So that was good. What does that say to you? It says that nobody decides who gets canceled other than the American public. Okay, so Abigail Fine and my assistant insisted that we play that soundbite, which we did because she was with me through the set cancellation.
But, you know, overall, it just felt a little embarrassing, right, to be walking around with people pretending that this is real, that this really is the 100 most influential people and that somehow you've moved up in some imaginary power grid, right?
Yeah. First of all, I'm like you. Any event that I can't wear sneakers to, the bar is high to get me to get dressed and go. Look, I worked a time. This event, I'll use an in-play word, it's a scam. It's an advertising play. They use the leverage of 100 plus years of a great journalism brand. And they say to famous people and influential people, come be at the dinner.
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Chapter 3: What controversies surrounded Blake Lively at the Time 100 event?
There's a lot of controversy right now with Blake being on the Time 100 list.
It's a ridiculous joke. She shouldn't be there. She has no influence over anything. Right.
I mean, what do you think of when you read headlines like every day about her and Jillian?
I mean, I think she launched a fake Me Too allegation against him, and she's lived to regret doing it because virtually every allegation she has made has fallen apart. And so for her to be honored for doing that, to try to ruin a man over absolutely nothing, is a scandal. And obviously they're looking for big stars to come here and generate pages on their magazines, but that was very wrong.
Right. Are you going to be avoiding her inside because she's expected to be here with Ryan?
I have a feeling she's going to be avoiding me. I won't be avoiding anybody. I'm good.
And what do you think of her new movie, Another Simple Favor? People are saying she's feuding with Anna. Do you believe that?
I couldn't care less, but I do care when people bastardize the Me Too allegations against people who don't deserve it. And I think notwithstanding the fact that they can lawyer up with very powerful PR people and lawyers and so on, we have to be very clear-eyed on what looks real and what doesn't and call it out when it isn't.
Otherwise, no one who's actually experienced these things is going to be believed. So... You know, now today there are a bunch of headlines about that and me specifically hitting her on what I said I believe is a fake Me Too claim against Justin Baldoni. Go ahead.
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Chapter 4: How did Megyn Kelly respond to George Clooney’s criticism?
you know, say the things she said when it's all being disproved, like on camera, where there's actual evidence. So she had the opportunity to go up before the audience and give a speech. You know, they pick one or two. Like I mentioned, Simone Biles was one, Blake Lively's another. She decided to make the whole thing about her mother's rape. Here's a bit.
What does influence mean? How we use that matters. I have so much to say about the last two years of my life, but tonight is not the forum. What I will speak to you separately is the feeling of being a woman who has a voice today. Before I say more, I want to warn that I will speak about tonight covers trauma, so please feel free to step away if you need me.
My life was influenced most by my mother sitting here tonight. She wanted me to share with you that she is a survivor of the worst crime someone can commit against a woman. My mom never got justice from her work acquaintance who attempted to take her life. She has always credited her beating heart today with a story she heard from another woman in a similar circumstance.
The woman painfully and graphically shared how she escaped. And because of hearing that woman speak to her experience, instead of shutting down in fear and unfair shame, my mom is alive today. We don't let our daughters know, but one day we break their hearts by letting them in on the secret that we kept from them as they pranced around in princess dresses.
But they are not, and will likely never be safe. at work, at home, in a parking lot, in a medical office, online, in any space they inhabit, physically, emotionally, professionally. Never underestimate a woman's ability to endure pain. Life's just a bowl of cherries. So thank you to every woman whose strength brought life to me and my four children.
And thank you to every man, including my sweet husband, who are kind and good when no one is watching. And to all the communities across the gender, age, political, geographical, and racial spectrum who fight every day just to be safe. I see you, and I share tonight and my influence with you for as long as I have the ability to affect even one other person.
Okay, Mark. Now, why she would make her whole speech about her mother's trauma from more than 45 years ago, I don't know. But that was the darkest view of womanhood in America that I think I've ever heard from a public figure at an awards ceremony like this. She goes on, you heard it there.
We don't let our daughters know, but one day we break their hearts by letting them in on the secret that we've kept from them as they pranced around in princess dresses that they are not and will likely never be safe. Not at work, not at home, not in a parking lot, in a medical office, not online, not in any space they inhabit, not physically, not emotionally, not professionally. Thank you.
My God, what did you make of it?
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Chapter 5: What is the significance of the White House Correspondents' Dinner today?
And just like every woman and little girl who I and my children and all of yours to the females have to live in fear that they will never be safe anywhere. Thanks a lot for coming. I'm Blake Lively. I mean, it was just I thought such an obvious manipulation of her image. She used her mother and the mother's supposed trauma. I have no idea what happened to the mother.
And I thought it was just one of the most cynical displays.
Look, I followed it probably not as closely as you, but I followed it really closely. It's an interesting story and it's compelling. And I agree with you. So far, based on what we've seen publicly, a lot of the things she said just are not backed up, but not just by documented evidence, but by other people who had insight into what happened.
And clearly she's super concerned about her public image. And clearly whenever she goes out now, she's got the opportunity to try to shape it and reshape it. And I agree with you. This seems like a self-conscious attempt to recast her image at a time when she went on offense and now she's very much on defense.
You know, the last bit of it reminded me of, we did a segment a couple of weeks ago, a month ago on Bill Weir, who's at CNN as their like climate reporter now. And he admitted that both in 2020, when his kid was born, and then again in 2024 on Earth Day, he wrote a letter to his son. And it was like, I'm very sad that the water that you drink will be
covered in toxins, that the ice cream you try to eat will melt in a world that's too warm and dying. It was the darkest stuff, Mark. And that's like, I can speak to this. I'm a mother of two boys and a daughter. And in no world am I privately sitting here waiting in fear as I watch my daughter prance around in princess dresses. When am I going to have to tell her she'll never be safe?
There's no place, not online, not at work, not at home. That's just... It's a leftist thing, this catastrophizing, that we're in this extremely dark world and there's danger around every corner, mostly at the fault of conservatives. And to me, it almost like was a window on perhaps why she went the way she went with these allegations against Justin Baldoni. Maybe.
Maybe she actually did perceive these massive slights at every corner. If this is how she views life, that everything is dangerous and with lurking people wanting to hurt us, there's like a psychosis. But it is, in my experience, limited to the left. The right has its conspiracy theories that they love, but the left has this weird, dark worldview about...
people out to get them and ruin everything around us.
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Chapter 6: How did the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner influence Trump's political trajectory?
The overall notion of the thing, particularly with a Republican president, is past its sell date. Because although Donald Trump has a special relationship with the media, it's always been a bunch of almost all liberal reporters from liberal organizations celebrating their own worldview and not treating George Bush the same as Barack Obama.
um in addition it's supposed to be about celebrating journalism and and starting uh in uh uh you know three or four decades ago people started bringing celebrities and turned it into something very different so i washington in general is such a boring place that i don't mind a little celebrity and a little bit of excitement but this massive dinner particularly with donald trump in the in office and the white house correspondence
association, having gone just crazy anti-president. I think they would have been better off canceling it as opposed to doing the version of it they're going to do.
Here's one of the funniest and most telling takes that I just read before we came to air on Nerd Prom. It's by this guy who writes for Mediaite named Colby Hall, who has his headline is this year's White House Correspondents Dinner serves only to normalize Trump's First Amendment dumpster fire. I won't be a part of it. Good for you, Colby. Good for you. He's so self-congratulatory again.
And he says as follows, President Trump's constant attacks on the media, which is in his first term, ranged from petty insults to ominous but contained action against the press, have escalated into a war that mirrors authoritarian states and far-flung regions of the world. That's why I'm opting to skip this year's weekend.
And he goes on to quote certain upset journalists who don't want any part of this. They have, okay, let's see. What is there to celebrate? One prominent editor of an influential outlet said the first Trump term was weird enough because the white house didn't engage, but his staffers like Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway still really gave a shit.
Now it's like the current tripe white house truly not performatively hates and is attacking the press.
Then you've got him quoting another person saying, with Disney bending the knee to Trump, Paramount contemplating doing the same to settle the president's insane lawsuit against 60 Minutes, the White House bringing in all these ridiculously sycophantic alt media figures, Marjorie Taylor Greene's boyfriend et al.
It's an unsettling time to be in news media and an odd time to be celebrating anything. finally said a longtime cable news anchor to Colby Hall. To me, this represents everything that's wrong with both Washington and the White House press corps, which is in the midst of a crisis of relevancy, public trust, and confidence. Having a big black tie soiree does not read right to Americans.
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Chapter 7: What was Mark Halperin’s prediction about Trump winning the 2016 election?
What I'm saying is they should cover him tough and fair, same way they've covered other presidents. And they just don't do that with him.
I should say this. The headline in HuffPost this morning is HuffPost is bringing workers fired by Trump to the White House Correspondents Dinner to highlight the Trump administration's scorched earth attack on vital government functions and its workers. HuffPost is bringing guests who have experienced the fallout firsthand.
Some guy who is a federal watchdog in charge of protecting whistleblowers who Trump fired. Rohit Chopra, who headed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau until Trump fired him. Andrew Bivens, a USAID employee. I mean, OK.
Not the role of the media. That's not the role of the media.
Right. Like take a take a stand, take a position, HuffPo. That's great. Just own it. In any event, it will go forward. And I'm sure we'll enjoy the pictures and stories that come out of it and cover it right here. OK, before we move on totally from White House correspondents dinners, they haven't always been totally inconsequential.
And while they'll sit there this year lamenting the fact that President Trump is in the Oval Office, It's arguably because of their little event that he ran in the first place. You could make a pretty decent case that had they not had this annual event every year, Donald Trump would still be a private citizen hosting Celebrity Apprentice and running his business. And do you care to explain why?
And then we will play the soundbite.
Well, look, one thing I do have liked historically about the dinner is the comedy. When the professional comedians have been good, I think it's been great. And I think presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama were brilliant. I think they worked on great routines with their teams. I thought their delivery was great. I really enjoyed – being in the room for those comedic stylings.
In 2011, Donald Trump attended the dinner. I don't know how many others he's attended before he ran because he wasn't a big Washington guy. And in fact, when I ran into him that night before the comedian spoke, Um, he did what he always did to me. Whenever I saw him anywhere in the country, besides New York, he offered me a ride home, right?
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Chapter 8: What is the situation with the Pentagon leaks and Secretary Pete Hegseth?
And then, of course, I'll spoiler alert, Trump won. And as I said, I thought Hillary Clinton was probably going to win, but I thought Trump had a pretty good chance. And in the days between that clip, I think that was like a week before Election Day maybe, in the intervening days, I grew more confident that he might win. You know, I don't know how many rallies of Donald Trump Brian covered.
I covered Trump rallies that year in 30 states, 30 states. And so it seemed obvious to me that he might win. And yet that that that clip was was probably the most extreme example of what I experienced for most of the year. As I told people, as I started doing in 2011, do not underestimate the resonance he has with tens of millions of people.
Mm-hmm. I'm sure they came back and apologized to you and thanked you for your insight after Trump won.
So funny you should say that. I called management and I said, take the clip down. And also, because I'm the senior political analyst here, trust me, your coverage here should not reflect the possibility that Trump can't win. It should reflect the possibility that Trump can win.
I will say I got something that people might, if they were super generous, consider it an apology, but I never got an actual apology.
Mm hmm. Yeah. Trust me, they're not big over at NBC on apologies, even when they're clearly owed. OK, later today, I mentioned it at the top of the hour. I'm going to sit down with Colin Carroll, who is one of the guys fired at the Pentagon. one of the three pushed out. And then there's also this comms guy who says he resigned voluntarily, but the Pentagon saying they forced him out.
And he's going to tell us his story about why he's going to say, I believe he's not the leaker and that this is not being handled well, nor fairly. And I wonder if you can give us your perspective, Mark, on what's happening at the Pentagon. Cause we, we have been covering, you know, all the palace intrigue, but this is like every day there, there's a new barrage of bad press.
yeah look the palace intrigue is interesting and i'll speak in a second about about the confusion about what's going on it's important right it's one of the hardest buildings in the world to run it's a huge bureaucracy uh say whatever you want positive about pete hegseth he does not have the normal experience to do this job so he's going to have to rise to the occasion to do the job well
In most stories I report on, sometimes I'll have dissenting voices about, you know, is it A or is it B? Who's telling the truth? Who's not? But usually there's one kind of through line of, well, this seems to be what's going on. I am baffled here because I have top shelf sources saying all these stories are coming from these four guys. They're all annoyed they were fired.
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Chapter 9: Who makes up Trump's 'Board of Directors' and how do they influence decisions?
I think the vice president is the most powerful vice president of our lifetime. And that means passing Dick Cheney and Al Gore, for instance, Walter Mondale.
Wait, hold that thought.
All of them.
Hold that thought. I want to hear more on that, but I have to squeeze in this break. So we pick it up on the opposite side of this on why J.D. Vance is the most powerful vice president in history. Mark is here today. He is promoting his new show, Next Up, with Mark Halperin. It's a brand new podcast. It starts on Tuesday. Go subscribe on YouTube and subscribe on all podcast platforms.
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Before the break, we left the audience with the thought of why Mark Halperin believes J.D. Vance is turning out to be the most consequential VP in history. Why?
After less than 100 days, fewer than 100 days, everybody likes him for the most part. And he's very good at publicly and privately dealing with the president. He's a very smart guy, as you know. He's very, as I say, he speaks fluent MAGA with a suburban accent.
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