Scott Pelley's Smug Bias, and Why Trump Was Right to Leave NBC Interview, Plus Entrepreneur and Horse Racing Owner Mike Repole | Ep. 1334

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Welcome to the Megan Kelly Show on Happy Monday, where over the weekend, all outstanding hope that Spencer Pratt might make the runoff in LA for this mayor race slipped away. Literally unbelievable. Sure, Jan. Sure. Nithya Raman came from third place and in all these outstanding jurisdictions, not only beat the Republican, which, okay, you could see that potentially, but beat Karen Bass too. Like not only did the Democrat come from behind, but this Democrat? Okay, sure. Coming in just a bit, we'll talk about it a little bit more. And then in our second hour, we're going to bring on a first-time guest with an incredible story. Mike Rapoli. And not only, this is where, let me just quickly tell you why I wanted to talk to this guy. Do you guys remember of the Kentucky Derby? When the golden, what's his name? One. Tempo. I always want to call him Golden Dome. I don't know why. Golden Tempo won. And he came from behind. He was like out of nowhere and he just won the Belmont Stakes too, by the way, so cool. But remember he had a jockey on him who had a brother who was also a jockey? And his brother at the Kentucky Derby was riding the horse that was the favorite, but they didn't win, thanks to Golden Tempo. And anyway, the two brothers held hands as they crossed the finish line because they were proud of each other. So sweet. The owner of the horse that was the favorite, but lost the moment between this guy and his jockey was caught on camera. And you expect him to be like, good try. Nice job. No. He was like, you lost to your brother. That's, that's what matters. You know, he was like this sweetheart with the thick New York accent. And even though he had just suffered this big loss at the Derby and his horse was a favorite, he was, he had such the right messaging when he talked to his horses, jockey. And like he understood this like a moment of unity for the country and this family. And like, I was so impressed by the guy I wanted to meet him. His name is Mike Rapoli. It turns out he's worth two and a half billion dollars. And I'll tell you what he, how he made his money. You're going to know the product very well, but totally self made guy, totally like humble, hardworking, true blue, red, white and blue American. I can't wait to talk to him. So that's the second hour. There's something refreshing about a company that focuses on integrity and hard work with Brooklyn betting. I know they built my Aurora lux mattress in the USA with high quality materials and real attention to detail. And I know that because when I sleep on it, I sleep like a dream. Thanks to these guys. It's that classic American ethos do the job right, stand behind your product and build something that lasts. And they delivered it right to my doorstep. I mean, who wants to think about how to go get a mattress? Brooklyn betting knows sleep is not one size fits all. That's why they offer mattresses for everyone, every sleep style, even in hard to find sizes. Deep pot, Brooklyn betting uses copper infused foams and temperature regulating materials to keep you cool and comfy all night long. Plus they get a 120 night comfort trial with easy returns or swaps. They have earned awards from CNET and wire cutter proving they deliver real high quality sleep that you can trust and enjoy like I do. Go to Brooklyn betting.com. Use my promo code Megan at checkout to get 30% off site wide. That's Brooklyn betting.com and promo code Megan for 30% off site wide. Let them know we sent you after checkout. Brooklyn betting.com promo code MEGYN. First though, we have got to talk about what's going on at 60 minutes specifically with the firing of longtime CBS correspondent Scott Pelley. We told you last week that CBS fired Pelley for cause. It said on Tuesday after reports that he confronted newly installed executive producer, Nick Bilton in a heated staff meeting the day prior. Before he did that, Barry Weiss, who's she calls herself editor-in-chief of CBS news, had fired the top three women at well top three of the top women at 60 minutes. Cheren Alfonsoy, another gal whose name I can ever remember. And the woman who, Cecilia Vega, that was her name. And also the new and not that long in charge editor or executive producer. She had fired all three of them. And the staff of 60 minutes was reeling. And I get it that that would be jarring because very rarely do people get fired at these network positions and 60 minutes even less so, but they were fired. And Scott Pelley's position was everybody was reeling. I was like the senior most person. And so I felt the need to confront the brand new editor or executive producer who none of us knew at all this guy who has dropped on us out of the New York Times documentary unit. Like who, who are you? This guy, Blinton. So he wasn't happy and he went, we got up in this guy's grill, built in, I should say. And it didn't go well. Scott Pelley tried to play the tough guy. Sure. Sure, Scott. Um, he was look up the debt. I'm going to look, I've been calling him a prig. Just for kicks. I looked up that dec definition. You tell me, I mean, I think I got to be honest. Stop. Scott Kelly is the walking definition of that word. Here's the definition. A self-righteous, annoying person who demands rigid conformity to rules and propriety. They often look down on others acting as though they are morally superior and fussing endlessly over trivial, formal details while ignoring the feelings of those around them. Okay. That's, that's his picture should be there. There's no love between us and Scott Pelley. I said last week, I don't think this is well handled. And I stand by that. But like today's story is about Scott Pelley because he decided to sit down with our friend Lulu Garcia Navarro over at the New York times, the daily show. And it was his first interview. It was posted online yesterday. It was a lot and we're going to go through some of it first. Here is how Scott has been at 60 and CBS for 37 years. That's a long time. He spent his career there quite clearly. He feels very connected to the organization. Don't begrudge him one second of that. But there are some dramatics going on in this interview like this. Take a listen to how he described his emotional state right now. I want to actually start by just asking you how you're feeling in this moment. Well, if we want to talk about it at an emotional level, the best thing that I can imagine in terms of describing it is that it's, it's like your spouse was murdered. Whoa. There are some moments of the day I feel fine. There are some moments of the day that I just frankly fall apart when I least expect it. But I do want to be clear that I do not feel sorry for me. I don't care about me. I'm fine. I care about these people that I left behind, the people who are still trapped there. Okay. So first of all, I don't believe that he doesn't care about me the way he says that. I don't care about me. You do care about yourself. Like let's be honest. You are so self-important. You are at the forethought of everything you do. And we need only to watch you and listen to you to know that. So whatever this is him cloaking himself in this sort of self-righteousness. He's the Avenger. He's there for Sharon. What's her name and the other gal Cecilia. Okay. Um, he's like, they fired one third of our staffers. I was like, I think there's only six correspondents. So it's like, I don't, they fired two. I guess the math tracks, but like sounds kind of dramatic. You don't have that many people. So he, he there compares his firing to his wife being murdered. Now I'm just, I ask you, just sit for one second, please. I forgive me, but like with the unpleasant thought of that actually happening in your life, do you think you'd be like, you know, some days I was fine. I was fine. But other days I fell apart and who like, what could happen to you? In your professional life. And I've had some negative things happen to me that would compare to the murder of your spouse. I'm like, this is not the right analogy. This is, this is not where we should have gone. Scott, but like it does show you how important he thinks 60 minutes is CBS news is. And honestly, one of my overall takeaways of this whole interview was how out of touch he is. Okay. But he did not stop there when it comes to the murder comparisons. Watch. That's a family at 60 minutes. My former boss and former producer Bill Owens. Saved my life in a firefight in Iraq. So Lulu, these bonds are pretty tight. And when somebody wipes out murders, a large number of your family members, people are hurt and shocked in disbelief and just desperate for some explanation. Okay. So Bill Owens, that's, that is a compelling story. Bill Owens was the executive producer of 60, but he stepped down last year. He wasn't there and he's not involved in all this. And so I'm sure you feel grateful to him, but you know, he's not there and he's not involved. So I'm not sure what this is about. I also have to be honest. It's, it's not a family. It's a news organization. And Barry was brought in to revamp it. And some revamping is going to trample across 60 minutes. Scott, because of you and Sharon and Leslie and people like you. And like, no one can step into your family and rejigger it. No one can step in and say, there are some weak members of the family who are going to have to go because people like the family less than they could. This is a news organization. That's why it was possible for a new boss to come in and start moving chess pieces around and changing the way you play the game altogether. That's okay. It's allowed. The way he is behaving is like a child, like a petulant child. It's fine if you feel like your family in your workplace or you feel like you have this bond of loyalty and so on that transforms everything and, and, and, and tramples any commercial concerns, Trump's, but it doesn't. You need to remain, retain the knowledge that it doesn't actually. Actually, it's a place of business and business decisions are going to be made accordingly. The entire interview shows somebody who doesn't seem to understand that. And this is one of the reasons why I've said some others have said before me. It is not a good idea to spend your whole career in news. It's not. It is so much better. I think for you as the consumer of news and for the news people, the news rooms, higher people have had another life before they get into news so that they understand what real life is like. Right? Like the news room. He talks about it. It's this revered place where we're all family or risking our lives every day. Okay. That you have gotten too self important. The news is important. The first amendment is important, but let's be honest. It's not brain surgery. Okay. We, we don't actually have people's lives in our hands. We have information that's important to them that we should give responsibly and truthfully, but you don't understand, Scott Pelle, that to the right half of the country, we think you left that business a long time ago. You don't think that, but we think you left that business a long time ago. And we don't look at you the way you see yourself at all. Okay. There's going to be more on this in one second, but so Pelle then explained to Lulu why he was so aggressive with this new guy, the show's new executive producer, who I have to be honest, seems utterly clueless. How they're making the executive producer of 60 minutes, a guy who's never done television before is beyond me. It is an insult. It is. To the 60 minute staff and the CBS news. What the F? He's never done television before. So what do you say? How can you put this guy in charge of 60 minutes? Well, who did it? Barry Weiss. Barry Weiss has also never done television before. These utter novices, when it comes to broadcast journalism, are trying to say like, how hard could it be? I guess it's just exactly the same as print journalism, like I did at the New York Times or at the Free Press. It's not. It isn't. There actually are multiple layers of doing broadcast and communicating with an audience visually through moving pictures that you obviously don't understand. And some of what Scott Pelley said about Barry trying to make changes to a cooked 60 show, like it was already in the books and it was just, all they had to do was hit play like an hour or two before air. Did make sense. And I give him those points. You can't come in. I know this just from being at, at a date line, you know, for a little bit and doing some date lines, like my Putin interview was aired in the date line time slot. And I think one other, I did one other in-depth piece that was aired in the primetime date line spot. But my point is simply, and then I had my own 60, 60 minutes type show on their Sunday night air at NBC for about two minutes. It didn't do very well. But my point is simply, I understand like the deadline situation. You can't mess with it that close to air. It's not like the live Kelly file on Fox or this show. You can't like once that it has, it's on tape. Every element has been combed over. It's been run through legal standards and practices. Every line has been looked over it to prevent you from getting sued because these tend to deal with heavy, headier stuff. You cannot open up the product two hours or an hour before air and start messing with it. I mean, unless there's a serious, serious reason to do it. And he was complaining that she, but my takeaway on that is. It does matter whether you've had experience in broadcasting. It does. So you cannot have both an editor in chief over there and now an executive producer of 60 with no television experience. I get it. I give him that point and I understand why the staff is eye rolling at this guy. However, you do have to afford him some level of respect as a colleague who has for better or worse been placed in this position. Your new owners over at CBS, David Ellison, the son of billionaire Larry Ellison, believes in him and thinks he's the man for the job. So you can't be a total asshole when the guy has his first big staff meeting. No matter how mad you are about the people getting fired. Okay. But here in this clip, he's explaining why he, Pellie was so aggressive with this new executive producer. He talked about how the first thing that ticked him off was this guy gets in front of the staff and instead of just speaking like a human to them, like, which honestly would have been the right thing to do. Just like, I know, I know it's been a rough week. I know people are feeling unsteady. You know, we fired the EP. We fired two top correspondents. Let me tell you what we have in store, what we have in mind. You know, I can't comment on personnel decisions, but I can tell you he took out his phone and started reading something he had written, which is humiliating. I think it would be humiliating in most businesses, but in a business where we're all paid communicators, it's especially humiliating. And I mean, way to insist that the staff disrespect you. The thought of Roger Ailes ever needing to read his little remarks to the newsroom at Fox is a joke. You're a leader or you're not, or you're not. You speak from the heart about your leadership vision and this show you've taken over, or you don't. I mean, honestly, there is no doubt in my mind that they recoiled when they saw, they as broadcasters saw this guy needing his little notes on his phone to read to them what was going on, even if legal has said, this is the way you need to say X. You start off the top of your head. You speak from the heart. And when you get to the part that's dicey legally, you pick up your phone and say, sorry, I have to read this part. And then you do it. The broadcasters also understand that news men and women also understand that this was someone who was scared. And you know what happens in the workplace setting when someone who's already not respected and not wanted projects fear. Right. Well, here's Scott Pelle on that moment. I felt that somebody had to stand up for the broadcast, not just the broadcast, but the people. There are people in that room who go to war zones when they are pregnant. It is a life threatening job in many instances. And very strong bonds, very emotional bonds are found or are developed in that kind of setting. Okay. It's not untrue that you develop close bonds in the newsroom and there are people who go to the war zones while they're pregnant. It's not unique to 60 minutes. It happens at CNN. It happens at Fox. It happens across news media. And these are the journalists we respect. And we remember because bad things do happen to them. I mean, there, there have been, just look what's happening over now in Lebanon. I mean, multiple, multiple journalists are being killed by Israeli bombs and we're in Gaza as well. Some connected to the, to Hamas and some not. And you do risk your life as a journalist when you embed with the troops and you put yourself in harm's way. In fact, my husband and I were just in DC over the weekend and we went to Arlington National Cemetery, which is very moving, very moving. I'm looking at my phone now because I just want to tell you about this plaque that we saw when we were walking through Arlington. It's on the ground. And it's one small homage, which is the size of the homage that it should be not big in Arlington to journalists. And it reads, US correspondent, this tree grows in memory of journalists who died while covering wars or conflicts for the, let's see, for the American people, not covering the conflicts for the American people. One who finds a truth lights a torch. One who finds a truth lights a torch and it goes on from there. And it's a beautiful tree right in the middle of Arlington to honor the journalists who have given their lives while covering the news. And honestly, as much as we, most people on the right can't stand the media, there are definitely honest, great journalists who were really lucky to have. And it is an important job. It's one of the reasons why some of us stay in it, stay with it, even though we find it toxic and difficult and disappointing, because it is an important job to keep the public informed. So I'm with him on the sacrifices that people make. But again, it does not insulate your newsroom from overhaul, from tweaks, from accusations of bias that have to be addressed. And if you really wanted to save those jobs, Scott Pelle, you would try listening. You would try listening. I mean, the audience knows like Barry and I are in this negative place. Unfortunately, she attacked me. I did not attack her. She, she drew first blood. And look, I've been honest that I don't think this is the job for her. She has no television experience. However, she isn't wrong. That 60 has lost its way. It is biased noticeably toward Democrats and progressives. We know that. This, most of the people listening to this show do not need to be convinced of that. But Scott Pelle clearly has no clue. Barry is a liberal, but she's a non-woke liberal. So she's seen enough with with her eyes. To know how this show and frankly, the news organization is perceived by the other half of the country. They get the side she's not on, but she's not woke. So she understands where most of us are coming to it from. And she's trying at the direction of her bosses to correct for some of that in the programming there. And it's going about as well as you might expect. They're accusing her. They're mad at her because it's not just about the show. They're accusing her. They're mad at her because they think she's Trumpifying the newsroom, which is a joke. You can inject more fair and balanced coverage and make changes around the edges without Trumpifying the newsroom. That's a joke. You couldn't Trumpify CBS or 60 if you tried. Honestly, that would not be possible. Literally, everybody would quit. So it's something that's being done around the edges. These are very minor changes and they're being treated like earthquakes. Now, there's another segment that's looking at the changes happening at CBS, which also happened to be almost universally pro-Israel at a time when Israel's for the first time doesn't have majority support amongst the American people. And they're objecting to that because that's Barry's own set of biases that she's injecting into the coverage. And it's obvious and the Ellisons apparently share it. So there are like all sorts of issues about what's happening at CBS. However, I want to stick on the Pelly piece of it because that's today's story. All right. So he talks about people go to war. So I got it. Now, this, however, is not really how Scott Pelly these days is spending his day job. Right. He's been to conflicts over the years. I get it. What he's really doing these days is ripping apart moms for liberty. Like that's his thing now. Or giving sanctum onious graduation speeches. Do we have that? We had it here the other day. And I didn't play it. You probably didn't pull it over. But my God, this, the sanctum ony of Scott Pelly when he spoke not long ago at a graduation speech, not this year, but I think it was last year, the one before. That's what he's really doing. And the cluelessness is obvious as the nose on your face to anybody who take the time to listen. In this next clip, you will hear him compare himself to heroes who risked their lives for our country. Lulu did challenge Pelly a bit on his choice of the violent language, like the murdering of your spouse and Pelly, well, here's how he answered. Watch. In that meeting, you said Weiss was, and I'm quoting here, murdering 60 minutes language that you've used here. Can you explain to me what you mean by that? One of the things Nick built and said in that ill fated email to the staff was that he was excited to tell, I'm paraphrasing here. He was excited to tell the staff about the new crop of correspondence. And when I saw that, I thought, okay, they're going to fire all of us eventually. That's the plan. He put it in writing for all of us to see. And so that's why I use these admittedly for a journalist hyperbolic terms. Okay, I get it. So you may be unsteady feeling like everyone's going to get fired, but again, you have no right to your job. You have no right to that position. There's no right. If you have a contract and they fire you without cause, you have a right to your salary until the end of that contract term. That's it. That's it. That's the way it goes. Every on air person in news understands this. So Scott Pelley gets in the face of his new boss. He confronts him. By the way, that new boss with zero television experience, who nobody respected, who had read his little statement off of his phone. He's reportedly making $2.3 million a year. That's a joke. That's a joke. Anyway, Scott Pelley confronts him in front of the entire staff. And in very dismissive terms, like suggesting that this guy, built in, is not going to make it. What the hell is his name? I mean, nobody even knows him built in Nick built in, but he's not going to make it over the long haul. And Pelley is showing open disdain for him, which is by any definition in subordination. And despite all of this, Pelley tells Lulu he never in a million years thought that they would fire him. Watch. Tell me about that meeting. And if you were at that point going and expecting to be fired. Oh gosh, furthest thing from my mind. It hadn't occurred to me. So I walk in the door and I see Barry Weiss is sitting in there. And I think this is terrific of her. She, she's come to this meeting and now I'm going to be able to ask her these questions. She's going to be able to explain what happened. But it really didn't occur to you that you could be fired after so many of your colleagues had been let go after you'd had this, you know, very contentious interaction with your new boss. You know, some reporter I turned out to be, I just didn't connect the dots. Why not? Because he thought he was untouchable. He didn't think it could ever happen to him. And what you need to realize pretty much in every job, but certainly in a television job is no one is irreplaceable. No one. It doesn't matter who you are, how big your star is, how bad ass you were. You are replaceable and they will replace you and the organization will go on. It will. It's especially something like 60, which is about the institution and not the individual correspondence. I mean, I for one would love to see 60 go back to the way it was during the Ed Bradley, Mike Wallace years, the murderers, Rose 60 and not Scott Pelley's 60. I would love to see Berry fire everyone there. I would. Those last three correspondence, they're ridiculous too. They just issued a statement over the weekend. Leslie Stahl, Bill Whitaker and John Worth. I'm Bill Whitaker was the one who interviewed Kamala Harris. Remember when they, they edited her sound bite to make it look and sound better than it did. Leslie, you know, the laptop can't be verified. And then there's this other guy, John Worth, I'm who apparently is in sports. I don't, obviously you're, you're shocked to hear. I don't know him. They issued a statement saying they're going to stay at 60. I guess 60 wants them to stay. Barry wants them to stay and they're going to stay. But this is what they say. This is what they say. Nevertheless, we have decided to stay on. We fear that our returning might be construed as an endorsement of our overlords across the street, meaning Barry and this guy, Blinton and others. That is simply categorically not the case. Newsrooms are not supposed to be set, run like dictatorships. Collaboration and argument are the way we have always worked at 60. And then they go on to say, um, here's why we are staying. We don't want to see 60 minutes die. We've been grieving because this whole mess has been, has wounded and damaged the broadcast. We want to stay and fight, try to repair and preserve our reputation. We're staying for our teams and all the teams. We work for you guys. The thought of abandoning you became unbearable. And of course we're staying because this is home. They are staying because they will never get another job in television. They're not special and they cannot stand the thought of not seeing themselves on camera. That's why they're staying. It has nothing to do with those things they said. Nothing, nothing whatsoever. Give me a break. I mean, no one's ever even heard of most of them. So that's them trying to cloak themselves in glory as they hold on to their jobs and refused to walk. Why would you have a deal? Do the best you can. Maybe keep an open mind. On the suggested changes. But here are two, a pair of sound bites I really wanted to show you that really in my mind tell you what you need to know. Okay. I'm going to tie them together. Here's the first one. Sot seven from Pelly. I was not familiar with her name. So I did some research and discovered those things that you just outlined. What concerned me was that she had zero television experience and had never managed a large global operation like CBS News. Those were red flags to me. But I thought, you know, David Ellison thinks she's the right person for the job. We are absolutely going to welcome her, listen to her and give her the benefit of the doubt. I mean, I'm surprised that you hadn't heard of her. She's a lightning rod in journalism. You know, she just hadn't crossed my radar. And if I hadn't heard of Barry Weiss at that point in time, that probably tells you more about me than it does her. Yes, it does. Which leads me to Sot eight. Watch this. What was the feeling about that particular opening salvo to the team? Uh-oh. She, I am told, said something to the effect of why do you think the country thinks you're biased, but she didn't offer any kind of a metric. You know, what's your metric? Why do you think so? Do you have a poll? Is there market research? What are you talking about? Because we certainly didn't believe that. There it is. Right there in a nutshell. He didn't know who Barry Weiss was because he only operates in this rarefied airspace way above it all. He doesn't spend time on digital media, media or independent media. I guarantee you, he thinks that's way beneath him. Why would he familiarize himself with the free press and this low life Barry Weiss was an irrelevant person until she became his boss's boss. So he had absolutely no idea who she was. And I believe him. And he has absolutely no idea that half the country thinks 60 minutes has lost its way and is incredibly biased against right-leaning conservative or Republican people. No idea. So that this is why it's all part of the same ignorance that has confused Scott Pelley about who this person is and why she would come in without evidence and say, why does half the country think that you're biased? Why do people think you're biased? And he's offended. He doesn't know what she's talking about. And you heard him there, like explicitly defending the church. He had nothing to back it up. Get out of your upper east side. Of your upper east side circles, Scott Pelley, and go to fly over country. Spend some time in Iowa, in Montana, in Arkansas, in Texas. Go anywhere. Go to Ohio, where people are hurting right now and ask them whether 60 minutes celebrating Germany's crackdown on free speech rights with criminal charges is as funny as Sharon Alfonsoy thought it was. Okay, go. Figure out through contacting real live Americans who don't share your politics. Figure it out for yourself why Barry came in with that knowledge, not opinion, knowledge. And was trying to do you a favor by telling you this, by saying, I actually have been out there. I, Barry is a liberal lesbian living in California at this point. She is not, she's not of fly over country. She's from, I think, New York. She went to good schools. She went to Columbia for college. She's all leftist, leftist, leftist. Okay, but she's been out there. She reads, she talks to real life people. She has her finger on the pulse of what people want and what they don't want when it comes to identity politics. I mean, unfortunately, as of late, she's apparently trying to expand the definition to include people who are Jewish, which we've had arguments about this for years now. The answer to fighting DEI is not to put more groups into it. So like we're all in there. The answer is to demolish DEI, or now they call it belonging. Note to parents out there, that's the new way they're getting away with DEI in your kids' school. Now it's belonging. Who could be against that? In any event, he didn't know her and he doesn't know her information because he doesn't care. He doesn't fraternize with people like you and me. He thinks we're gross. He thinks we're Nazis. He thinks we're, you know, these dumb Trump supporting Neanderthal deplorables. So he wouldn't have any idea that what she's saying is true. Here's the Moms for Liberty clip. We've shown it before, but this is the guy now. This is the guy who says she had no support for her accusations. She had no evidence to back up her bias accusations. Watch. Parents send their children to school to be educated, not indoctrinated into ideology. What ideology are they being indoctrinated into? Let's just say children in America cannot read. They often dodged questions with talking points. You're being evasive. 21% of Hispanic students are being evasive. What ideology are the children being indoctrinated into? What is your fear? I think parents' fears are realized. They're looking at these books where sexual discussions are happening, but they're children at younger and younger ages. Tiffany Justice read from sexually explicit books written for older teens, but found in a few lower schools. Most people wouldn't want them in a lower school. But in a tactic of outrage politics, Moms for Liberty takes a kernel of truth and concludes these examples are not rare mistakes, but a plot to sexualize children. Oh my God, so infuriating. So infuriating. It's just, it's not like, okay, every time one of these books winds up in a kid's library, it's a plot to sexualize children. But there's no question that there is a general school of thought that talking about inappropriate sexual acts to children is an okay thing to do for many academic leftists. It has to be. Otherwise, these books wouldn't keep showing up in K through eight libraries in schools. Scott Pelley, shame on you. You shamed warriors for children who are trying to protect them against grooming, which is happening. Whether that's the intent or not, it's happening. That's the relevant point that should have been made on 60 Minutes, you asshole. The way you groom children into wanting to have sexual relations with adults is you inappropriately discuss matters that should never be in front of a child first, and then you graduate the child to doing it. Pay attention. That's one of the main reasons why Moms for Liberty object to this smut winding up in our children's classrooms. It's not Bob and Jane had a hot night together between the sheets. This is not what's happening. It's talking about anal sex and exactly how to do it. It's talking about incest, these books do. Honestly, we've gone through them many times. Shame on this guy. And now he has the nerve to say this, Barry, she's so clueless. She came in here and accused us of not being fair to conservatives and like dismissing them. She didn't need a poll, Scott. She'd been watching you. She knows how half the country can't stand you. Never mind Leslie Stahl, the laptop can't be verified. When a presidential election was on the line, or Bill Whitaker changing with his editing team, the Kamala Harris answer, when an election was on the line. This is why it's very hard to listen to his little lectures on the journalists who are dying in the field. They deserve better than what you've given them at 60. You besmirched them with these pieces and this so-called journalism. It's yellow. You besmirched them. So don't get all high and mighty with me or Barry or this guy, Nick Bilton, who I've never heard of before. You shamed your newsroom. You did, sir. And Sharon Alfonsoy and Leslie Stahl, you are the ones to blame for the 60 minutes problems, not Barry. Shame on this guy. I'm not buying it. And I've said, I told you last week, I don't think she's handling the tumult well. And I think there was definitely a better way of like not preventing this from spilling into a scandal that's in the news every day. But that does not excuse his terrible behavior. I'm going to end with just this one, Sot 11. President Trump reacted to you being fired. Did he? He went on a podcast and called you a stiff. I'm surprised that the president of the United States would bother to notice, but okay. Please, please tell me. I'm not aware of this. He also said you were part of this gang of stupid crooked people that don't care about your country. Stupid, I can take that. Stiff, yeah, probably. Don't care about the country. I've never worn the uniform. But I've been in combat for this country in Afghanistan, and Iraq, Kuwait, been shot at, spent nights in foxholes, filling up with water in the desert. I'm not aware that the president of the United States has ever done any of those things for his country. You know what, Scott Pelley? There are a lot of ways to serve, as you yourself seem to be intimating. You didn't dump the uniform. Those acts were in service of journalism. That's why you did them. I don't begrudge you any moment of it. How dare you begrudge Donald Trump the sacrifices he's made? Honestly, like, Trump literally took a bullet. For this country. So fuck off, Scott Pelley. The absolute arrogance and nerve of that asshole to suggest that because Trump didn't wear the military uniform, he's done nothing for America. Donald Trump could be sitting in Balmoral, Scotland at his golf course, enjoying what's soon to be his 80s. He decided to come back and run again after having been impeached twice, besmirched, called a Nazi at every turn, seen his sons become the most subpoenaed presidential children in U.S. history, and arguably the most subpoenaed civilians in America. He, at that point, he ran for reelection, and like in November of 2024, had been nearly assassinated twice and had actually almost taken a bullet in the head. One did hit his head, his ear. He served. You may not like him, but he's served. And even now, I'm not, as you know, in favor of this war in Iran, but it's a call that our commander-in-chief made. And while you may not like the call, his command is to be respected. Once the call is made, you root for the American troops, as we have been here, too. He, it's not an easy job. He's got a lot to balance. He's got a lot on his plate. How dare you? How dare you besmirch him because he never actually had a military uniform on, while aggrandizing yourself for going over to cover wars as a journalist? It's unbelievable. This is the same thing we're seeing with some leftists now who are ripping on J.D. Vance because he was in the Marines, but he was a correspondent. Like, he was updating the troops and others on what was happening in the war as opposed to like on the front lines firing a gun. Who cares? Did you go? Most people didn't go to Iraq. All right? Most people didn't go to Afghanistan. Stop. Just stop. It just sums up Scott Pelle's arrogance. He wants to elevate himself over Donald Trump, who by the way, not only has he literally endangered himself in an effort to serve in a job he doesn't have to do and doesn't need, but he actually is the sitting commander-in-chief. So stop. Don't try to compare yourself to him and don't suggest he hasn't served. It isn't true. He's serving right now. As the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and you know that and we're at war. I just, this is, this is your problem. Scott Pelle, this is your problem. Your problem is actually not Barry Weiss. How about starting to show some of that care and family-like protection for the country instead of just some staffers over at CBS News? All right. I want to switch to NVC because Kristen Welker got yet another opportunity to interview the president. It was in Wisconsin and it didn't go well to the point where Trump got up and ended it early. Here are some highlights. Watch. Do you think it's appropriate that they have an election and five days later they're nowhere close to picking up? State and local officials acknowledge they are slow. They're urging, no, they're crooked. They're urging the votes to be counted. That's how they vote in California. They're crooked just like your crooked, your press is crooked and meet the press is crooked. To be fair, I'm not crooked. But let's, let's, let's, when you play right into their hands and let's continue. You read the crooked or you're stupid. Let's, you play right into their hands with this rep. You know that these elections are rigged. Your network knows that they're rigged and your crooked and meets the press is crooked. And so is ABC and CBS and CNN. But Mr. President. Your one-sided crooked networks. All right. Let's go all the quits because I've had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time. Mr. President, let's please, I traveled all the way to Wisconsin. I've traveled all, I know. I've traveled all the way to Wisconsin. On and off in the rain. And I've given you enough time. You want to straighten out your press because you know what? A country can never be great with a dishonest. Okay. I don't blame him. I got to be honest. I don't blame him. He sat there with her for quite some time. Reportedly, they were together for an hour. And the problem for Kristen Welker is she made that moment about Kristen Welker and about the vaunted reputation of NBC News. When you are interviewing the president of the United States, especially Donald Trump, you're going to have to give him a little. You got to give him something. It's, there's a back and forth in an interview where you can't just keep battering him over the head at every turn. Look at that exchange. He says, is it appropriate, they're talking about California, to have an election and five days later, they're nowhere close to picking. She says, state and local officials acknowledge they're slow. They're urging the votes to be counted quickly. He says, no, they're crooked. That's how they vote in California, she says. Now, why wouldn't you, as the news anchor, give him that fucking point? I'm sorry. Why wouldn't you say, I understand it, it does undermine the confidence for many. That is such a gimme. Give him that. Give him anything. Instead, she's got to take every point on because, you know, otherwise you're an election denier. I've never said the 2020 election was stolen. A lot of my audience would love for me to say that. I can see what's happening in California, stinks to high heaven. And you know what? I have credibility to say that because I didn't jump on every election denial, denier claim, and so on. Kristen Welker, you undermine your own credibility. You think you're boosting it for NBC by not giving him what everybody can see, which is, it's suspicious as hell that this woman came out of third place, a distant third, in all the days after the actual vote and is now going to be the second to make it into the general election contest over the one Republican Spencer Pratt, who coincidentally happens to be very Trumpy. Who do they think they're kidding? It's smells. We don't believe it. But again, just like Scott Pelley, she doesn't understand. Like, what do you mean? Anybody who would be questioning that would be an election denier. So I have to come out and say, oh no, that's how they vote in California. And he's getting frustrated. They're crooked. Just like you're crooked. The press is crooked. To be fair, I'm not crooked. Would you stop? Again, don't make, he, this is Trump's tactic. He's angry with you. Don't take the beat. You don't have to, you don't have to respond to the personal attack in the moment just because he makes it whatever or maybe try to be playful. Maybe try to lighten the mood because you can see he's getting agitated. He's got a lot on his plate. The whole thing was very antagonistic. And so if you watch the whole thing, there was a lot of this prior to the moment we just showed you. And I honestly, by the time you got up and walked, I didn't, I didn't blame him. And I wasn't surprised. She was rude. He has allowed you to interview him. There's a lot going on in the country right now. I flew all the way to Wisconsin. Now who gives a shit? No one cares. You got on a plane. Oh boo-hoo. You have one hour of television. You have to do a week. No one cares. You had to fly to Wisconsin. Please, Mr. President, you're so desperate to save the interview. Why don't you treat him more respectfully as it goes on? And there's a way of challenging him without being so whiny and nasty. Work on that. Try to be a little bit more likable. Try to telegraph to the president that you don't hate him and you don't think everything he's saying is a bunch of nonsense. No, you want us to perform for your audience. You had to perform for them, for your bosses at NBC. That's why you got up and walked out, which you deserved. And I'm sorry to hear that you're allegedly getting another interview because you don't deserve that. We'll be right back. For the first time since World War II, our national debt has exceeded the gross domestic product. America's reckless government spending keeps catching up with us. Higher inflation, higher prices, higher cost of living expenses, and higher interest payments on the national debt. Every dollar Washington spends on interest is a dollar it has to tax, borrow, or print. Smart retirement planners prepare for potential setbacks, and they can do that by diversifying with a time-tested asset known for weathering the storm. Consider physical gold from Birch Gold Group. Text MK to the number 989898 and Birch Gold will send you a free info kit on converting an existing IRA or 401K into a tax-sheltered IRA and physical gold. You don't pull the ripcord on your parachute once you've already hit the ground. Don't wait for economic turbulence to diversify. Text MK to the number 989898 and consider owning some gold from Birch Gold. We are going to be joined by Mike Rapoli in a minute, but I want to start with just two quick updates on two legal matters that we've been following closely here at the MK Show. First of all, Henry Novak, this young man who was murdered in London as he walked home by a man named Vickram Degua who is Sikh, who happens to have brown skin, relevant because Henry was white, and Vickram and his brother told the police that Henry was the aggressor, that Henry was attacking them based on some sort of discriminatory grounds that they were Sikh, that he ripped off their turbans, called them names, and that he needed to be in trouble criminally for these behaviors. The cops showed up, treated every word of that like it was true, slapped cuffs on Henry who laid dying, argued with Henry when he told them he'd been stabbed, that he hadn't. In fact, he had been stabbed five times, including in the back of his legs as he tried to run away from this villainous pair and paid the ultimate price for it, for no one believing him and for his white skin. It was absolutely detestable, deplorable, and it was both the fault of these two Degua brothers, their mother who helped hide the murder weapon for them, who also was found guilty by a jury in the UK, and of the police who in the moments they had to assess this situation saw one brown man and one white man and immediately assumed the white man was the evil doer. This is just as evil and wrong as when back in the day, 75, 80 years ago here in America, we would look at a white man and a black man and assume the opposite, just as evil and wrong. We have so over corrected for a prior history of racism that we are now openly discriminating against whites and white men in particular. And that's what this case is, an example of it. Now we've just gotten our hands on Vikram Degua's brother's 911 call over there. It's 999. He called 999 after the stabbing. And the number of lies in this phone call, I mean, I'd love to know more because I don't know why he called 911 at all. I can only think that they wanted this guy arrested or they knew that they thought he was going to live and they thought he was going to point the finger at them and they wanted to sort of get the jump on looking like you're the victim. That's my guess. But the number of lies in the brothers 911 call is astonishing. This is the first we've heard it and here it is. Yeah, we just been attacked by someone racially. Yeah, that's not true. Huh? Sorry, we just got attacked racially by some white person. He's talking about verbally or physically? No, no, he's physically attacked my brother. We're Sikhs. We wear a turban and he's just attacked my brother. No, we didn't. Have any weapons been involved? No, no, no. No. One second. I'm calling the police. I'm calling the police. We're restraining police. He's verbally attacked my brother racially. He's attacked my brother and took his turban off. Denny's recorded it on his phone thinking he was going to do something. So I need someone to ASAP please. I hear you screaming. I'm not letting him. I can't let him go until this is sorted. I'm not being racially attacked and letting us get away with it. He said this and he said that. What did he specifically say? So he said to my brother, you're whatever like obviously racially. Vic, Vic, Vic, Vic, sorry, let me just ask him, Vic. Vic, did he racially say anything to you? Huh? Did he racially say anything to you? He called me a pakky. He called him a pakky. Okay. That's what I needed to know. Then he's grabbed my brother's hair and started yanking his hair. Obviously Sikhs have really long hair as you may be aware and he started pulling my brother's hair to which then my brother grabbed him as well. Has anyone seen any weapons? No, there's no weapons. Is this guy fighting and struggling trying to get away? At the minute now he's lying on the floor. He was trying to get away. He jumped over some bins and stuff on the other neighbour's side. He jumped over the bins and tried to leave for the bin way. He's left the shoe here as well. So he doesn't have any injuries? He's hurt his face. I think he's fallen because when you try to climb over the bin, he's fallen from the one side of the bins over the gates to the other side. Okay. When you say an injury to his face, can you just tell me a bit more about that? Yeah, give me a second and then you go back to him. So he's hurt his face from his mouth and he's bleeding from the mouth. I think he needs medical attention. Does he need medical attention? You reckon? He will. Yeah, I believe you. He's jumped over the gates and he's fallen onto a car on the other side and he's obviously very drunk as I've been in it. Just to confirm, no one's seen any weapons? No, no. Such a lie. Such a lie. Vikram had at least two knives on him, reportedly, and one was used to stab Henry Novak five times in an altercation that lasted. He stabbed him, Henry ran, he stabbed, he caught up with him as he tried to run away and stabbed him repeatedly in the back of the legs as he tried to go over that fence. That the brother was right there. So the brother calls up and says he's been attacked physically because of his race and verbally because of his race. What did he say? I don't know. Vikram, were you attacked verbally because of your race? So what are you doing? Why are you calling 911? He's making things up and then when asked for the specifics, decided to let Vikram do these specific lies and Vikram then offers that he called him that word, which over in the UK, my information is it's treated like the N word. You don't say that word, that P-A-K-I. And so he drops this incendiary allegation, none of which was true. None of this, this was true. Henry had been videotaping part of the confrontation. Not a word of that is on there. And in fact, what we now know is that there was a recording, a recording two days after the murder in the police's presence, where detectives secretly recorded these two brothers speaking in Punjabi to one another. And in this discussion, Digwa, Vikram Digwa admitted to his brother that he had stabbed Novak and made no mention of his earlier allegation of racial abuse. Instead, he agreed with the brother that he would claim that this was self-defense. These two brothers knew all along what had happened. For some reason, they decided to confront Henry Novak who was alone. It was two to one. They were the aggressors, not Henry. And they murdered him. Vikram Digwa murdered him. And the mother wound up being an accessory after the fact. That's what happened. There was no racial abuse. If there was any racial abuse, it was by the Digwa brothers against Henry, who may have been targeted just because he was a white man walking home alone. And that's the 911 call in which you hear the brother lie repeatedly over and over and over. He lies. There were so many lies in there. And most specifically, there were no weapons involved. Really? How did he get stabbed? What happened there? Walk me through it. He attacked us racially. No, he didn't. He physically attacked us. No, he didn't. Did he racially say anything to you? No, the answer is no. But we heard a lie on there about that slur. He grabbed my brother's hair and pulled off his turban. Zero evidence of that. If Henry did any of that, it was in self-defense as he was getting stabbed five times. And then he tells me there are no weapons. And he knows full well that the brother has been stabbing Henry Novak. Now this comes out at the same time we learned that the police in London had an initial plan to portray Henry as the aggressor. The Sunday Times of London revealed that the police force designed to do this in an official statement that they had put together three days after his death, but they changed their wording after Henry's family got word of it and objected. An initial police statement they report read as follows. It was reported two men had been assaulted by an unknown man. Henry's the unknown man. The Digwa brothers are the two men. It has been reported two men had been assaulted by an unknown man. The Novak family, raw with grief, became concerned that a false narrative was being pushed about their son and pressured the officers to drop it. And by that point, the police knew that Digwa was a liar because this was after they had heard the two brothers in Punjabi talking to each other about the fact that Vikram had stabbed Novak and had made no mention of the earlier claim of racial abuse. So this has been a lie and a cover up and a conspiracy to further lie from the beginning and still no accountability for those police officers at all. But now the latest number I saw was that this could take until September of 2027 for the cops to get back to us with whether there's going to be discipline. It's an outrage. Everyone in the UK is outraged. America has taken notice of this. It's all over social media accounts. Now people understand how wrong this is and that's not going to get it done. A year from now is insufficient. We'll stay on it in the meantime. Then I want to tell you what's happened in the Carmelo Anthony case where it's not going well for team defense at all. They had a rare Saturday court session in which they had multiple witnesses come forward. The prosecution ultimately would rest on Saturday after calling 21 witnesses, 21. The most emotional over the weekend was the chief medical examiner, Dr. Elizabeth Ventura, who warned that it was going to be graphic testimony and poor Austin Metcalf's family got up and left the room. Just a quick line for those of you not familiar with the case, Austin Metcalf 17 was at a track meet where he was participating. His twin brother Hunter was there too. Carmelo Anthony from a neighboring school, also 17, went into Austin Metcalf's team tent where the track athletes would hang and their fans would hang, some of whom, and wouldn't leave. Carmelo didn't go to their school. There was no reason for him to be in their tent. He was asked apparently by several people to leave. He didn't. And then Carmelo Anthony, who's black, took out a knife and stabbed Austin Metcalf, who had apparently placed hands on Carmelo in some way that's reportedly described by many as not aggressive. In fact, one guy said, I was sitting right next to Carmelo when Austin at Carmelo's urging did put his hands on Carmelo saying you've got to leave. And he said the push was so gentle, Carmelo didn't even bump into me and I was next to him. So this was not some shove, something aggressive. Carmelo kept saying, make me, make me leave, make me. And Austin placed hands on him and the response was instantaneous. He was stabbed in the heart. The medical examiner testified that the wound was gaping two and a half inches in length and quote, not survivable. The prosecutor showed four autopsy photos to the jury. Several jurors appeared emotional, covering their mouths in horror. Hunter held his twin in his arms as he lay dying. The witness accounts of the incident have been almost identical, but all in favor of Austin's version or I guess the Hunter's version to be fair, Austin is no longer here. 18 year old Eddie Para, a teammate of Austin's at Memorial High School, took the stand. He was in the tent. Carmelo was there. I dabbed him up, Para said. I think he just means like there was a greeting of some sort. I don't know what dabbed him up means. I mean, dabbing is like the arm motion in any event. He says that he was asked who he noticed in the tent. Carmelo was there. He was asked if he thought it was weird that Anthony was in the tent. Yes, because teams are supposed to be at their own tent. He broke down on the stand when describing the stabbing saying he noticed blood and a hole in Austin's chest and that Austin started screaming. The prosecutor asked Para if the case was about race or self defense and Para said no. He was then asked who was in the wrong that day. He responded Carmelo. One team witness disputed the claims of self defense being raised by Carmelo Anthony. He's not being identified because he's underage, but he said he did not believe this was a stabbing that was in self defense. That was lethal force against non-lethal force. He said when the prosecution rested, the defense moved for a directed verdict, which is a matter of course for these cases. You say the prosecution hasn't met its burden. Please direct the verdict my way right now. The judge says no in 99.99% of those cases as happened here as well. And they certainly have made their burden. Then the defense began presenting its case. They called Centennial High School track coach Adam Linwood to the stand. He said Anthony's teammates nominated him to be captain trying to point to paint him as a choir boy. That athletes often go into other teams tends to mingle. Please. The prosecutor asked, is there any reason an athlete should have a knife at a track meet? This is on cross. Linwood replied no. Anthony's defense team argued he acted in self defense. They point out that this town had no policy borrowing athletes from going into other teams tents. But of course there's testimony now that this was the standard practice, not to just FYI, there were multiple witnesses on Friday and multiple more on Saturday. And the 16s who were on the stand on Friday, four of them were black, all testified on behalf of Austin Metcalf because Carmelo Anthony's family and their spokespeople have tried to make this a racial thing. There's zero evidence race had anything whatsoever to do with it. Nothing. Nothing has been submitted by anybody. And four of the teams who testified that this was Carmelo's fault and not in self defense were black. Don't know what percentage of the ones who testified on Saturday, if any, were black. But they're all telling the same story that Carmelo was not known or wanted under the Memorial High School tent because he didn't go there. That multiple kids asked him to leave and he refused. That Austin Metcalf took the lead, something that kids say was normal for him. That Carmelo challenged Austin to a fist fight. That's actually the first time we've heard that claim. That was one witness who said that. That Austin responded, I'm not going to fight you at a track meet, bro. And when when asked, let's see, by the defense attorney, did Austin grab hold of Carmelo? Team number four said he didn't get the chance to. He was already stabbed. Team six described watching the verbal back and forth between Austin and Carmelo. Well, Carmelo had his hands in his backpack and claimed he had something in his bag. The vein in his arm was visible, said teenager number six. It looked like he was grabbing something. And then there's this from some of the shit-stirring supporters outside of the courthouse or and beyond. This was, I think it was just a turning point event, sought 16 or just a turning point table near the proceeding. I'm not sure exactly where this comment was made. Oh, it was to a turning point correspondent outside of the court. Listen to this nonsense. Sought 16. If evidence does come out that Carmelo was not in fact fighting for his life when he stabbed and killed Austin Metcalf, do you think that the black community will accept that? If evidence shows that he did not, no, we're going to stand by ours regardless. They stand by theirs. We're going to stand by ours regardless. I'm a mother first. I'm a black mother. Let me put that on there. I'm an African American mother. So I have to I have to put away my color first and step into the motherhood. Nobody wants to see their child slain. So I do want to send prayers to Austin Metcalf, their family. But at the end of the day, I got to think like, okay, what did you do to him or whatever to cause this to happen to reaction? We got to start taking accountability for our kids. Because then again, if my kid, that's what I had to catch him to, if my kid was Carmelo and I feel like his back was against the wall, I'm going to take straight up, better mind than yours, better mind than yours. So either way, go, everybody lose it. Unbelievable. I mean, first of all, that made no sense. If we're going to start taking accountability for our kids, that means Carmelo should own up to what he did like he did on the spot. I'm not alleged I did it. And he should pay the price for it. I'm sorry for Carmelo, Anthony, and his family, but he should spend the rest of his life in prison. Sorry. That's what needs to happen here. He took a man's life in cold blood for no reason, absolutely no reason. The kid seems like a sociopath. We're going to protect ours. Really? That's what some of the prospective jurors were saying that got them bounced. And then he had some faction out there saying it was racist to bounce them. That somehow the prosecution should be fine putting on black jurors who were like, I would never vote against one of ours. Oh, okay. This is an absurd attitude. She's a racist. That's what she is. She's a raging racist. They come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. And it's disturbing that if she's some sort of representative of the community down there in Frisco, Texas, God help the wheels of justice if somebody like this, black or white, would ever wind up on this jury. It's not going well for the defense. And I predict that Carmelo, Anthony, will be found guilty. And this woman and others who have that kind of attitude will claim racism, and we will cover it for a day, and then we will promptly move on with our lives while Carmelo Anthony spends the rest of his life in prison. That's the way it works here. I hope it was worth it. I feel like a tough guy in the moment. Rob Dustin met half of his entire life, his twin brother of his brother's companionship, his poor parents, who now will spend every anniversary and Christmas and birthday wondering what might have been. It's the callousness with which some people talk about this, the cavalier nature of, we got to stand by ours. What are you talking about? What if yours does this again? What if the victim happens to be black? Would that play on your heartstrings at all? There's an insane person there. In any event, I'm heartened by the fact that the trial is not going well for the defense. No one's buying this bullshit claim of self-defense. There's no evidence of it. In fact, just as we came to air, my team just sent me this update. This happened. The defense is obviously grasping at straws. Per independent journalist, Brianna Morello, who's reporting from inside the courthouse, the defense witness took the stand. He's a teen, will not be identified. According to prosecutors, this teen told police that Carmelo Anthony was surrounded. There's a videotape of it, people. It's not very good, apparently. It's pretty grainy, but you can see bodies. You can see where people were. And prosecutors replayed the video of the stabbing. This must be on cross, obviously, because the prosecution is rested. We're in the middle of the defense case now. The teen admitted he actually couldn't tell if they had surrounded Carmelo from the footage. They hadn't. They hadn't. There's been multiple eyewitnesses to say no. The teen earlier said that they ganged up on him. Now the teen says he doesn't want to use the term surrounded to describe the scene. Right, because the videotape evidence belies it. So yeah, not going well for team defense. And that is a good thing, because this defendant happened to admit it on the spot. I'm not alleged. I did it. And he doesn't seem particularly sorry. There's been no expression of remorse. Whatsoever. So he's a threat, not only obviously in this case to Austin Metcalf, whose life he took, but to society. And what do we do with people like that? We lock them up. We lock them up. That's what should happen to him, in my view. Up next, Mike Rapoli is here on his fascinating life story. The Derby loss. What happened just yesterday or two days ago at the Belmont Stakes? 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Only on the Megan Kelly Channel, SiriusXM 111, and on the SiriusXM app. Now we turn to the world of horse racing with a man who caught our attention following Golden Tempo's stunning victory in the Kentucky Derby last month. Mike Rapoli is a serial entrepreneur and owner of Rapoli Stable, which has more than 300 race horses. His horse, Renegade, was all the buzz at the Derby. It was the favorite, but it came in second, notwithstanding a great race, to Golden Tempo at the Kentucky Derby that day, who came from behind and blew everybody away, and Renegade and Golden Tempo back in action over the weekend for the Belmont Stakes. We'll get to that in a second. But it was Mike Rapoli's reaction to his horse losing the Kentucky Derby that made me fall in love with him from afar. His horse, the favorite, had just lost. That's a disappointing moment for any owner. His jockey, who also was very well respected and expected to win, came over to him. Did he berate the jockey? Did he say, how did you lose that race? We're the favorites. What do you mean? It was your fault. No, no, because you see that jockey happened to be brothers with the jockey who was on Golden Tempo, the winner. Both brothers coming in one and two, and when they crossed the finish line, they held hands together. Such a sweet moment, but you'd think that Mike Rapoli is the owner of Renegade, the horse is the favorite that didn't actually manage to win that one. Might have been a little bit in a bad mood that day, or in that moment. And instead, when his jockey, again, the losing brother that day, came back to speak to him, this is what happened. You are the fucking animal. If you're ever gonna fucking lose, you're losing your brother. All right, let's go beat him up. I'm so proud of you. You guys are fucking unbelievable. You got fucking hit right away, right away. You did everything fucking right. I love you. I love that so much. It's just an example and great sportsmanship in understanding what matters and kindness, support, love. It's a little tough to hear. I know the audience is a little tough, but here's what he said jokingly. He says at the top, F your brother, because he just lost to him. He's hugging and kissing him, which you can't see if you're just listening to our program, but he's hugging and kissing the jockey the whole time saying you're the best rider. You're the best. He says, if you're ever gonna lose, you lose to your brother. You lose to your brother. He said, you did everything right, everything right, as he's hugging and kissing him. So he's making his jockey feel better about the loss and saying, that's what matters, family. What really matters here? Family. Good for your brother. I love that moment so much. I needed to meet him and he's here right now. Mike Rapoli, welcome to the show. Hey, Megan, how are you? I'm great. All right, tell me everything. How were you able to find that magnanimous spirit in that moment? Well, I think you have to go back a little bit. I fell in love with horse racing 40 years ago as a kid from Queens who used to cut out a school and go to Aqueduct. And I think my first entree into being an entrepreneur was taking money from my mom and dad and sneaking out of the track and trying to make an investment back because if I didn't make my money back at the end of the day, I'd be in big trouble. So I've been blessed to have so many special horses, been in the game for about 20 years. For people who don't know, I'm now over 12 in the Derby, the two of the favorites scratched. And you fall in love with my trainer Todd Pletcher, I have a great relationship with. Johnny Velasquez, they're used to our IRARTs. You know, that's the team. And I know IRART and Jose since they were 19, 18 year old kids. They came from Puerto Rico. I have a brother who's 15 months younger. He was a New York City cop. I'm a serial entrepreneur. My dad's a waiter from France and my mom's a seamstress from Italy. And you know, I'm a first generation kid like these two. And neither one won the Derby. But IRART and both run a gate obviously together, gave it their all. The horse could not have been more courageous. IRART to be in that one post, get banged the way he did at the beginning, to fight through that adversity, to make every single possible move correct for two minutes, and to get to the lead in three or four seconds right before the finish to get caught at the wire. You know, it wasn't just Mike Rapoli, the owner. I always have those kids called me Uncle Mike and, you know, I just went down there and I just, you know, I'm in my mid fifties and I saw a young kid who's the best jockey in the country that hasn't won the Kentucky Derby. It's like that great Super Bowl and he's won every other big race. And all I saw there was a was a nephew that was gave it his all. And I just looked at him as just who he is just a great kid who, you know, Megan, I have a think dream big, think big dream, bigger philosophy. And, you know, of course the Derby is important to me, but I'm so blessed with so many dreams I've already accomplished. I just wanted that so bad for him. I can't believe you had the presence of mind in the moment because I mean, I know some people in horse racing and like the moment right after you lose when you're, you know, you had a shot at winning is a very tough moment is like the disappointment is pretty acute. But in that moment, you were building him up. You were there for him. And technically, you're way above him on the totem pole. But like, there wasn't a moment of reproach. There wasn't like, keep him away from me. I can't talk to him right now. There was only you hugging and kissing him telling him what a great job he did, what a badass he was. And like, getting the sentiment exactly right, which is like, but your brother, your brother had this moment and we're all happy for your brother brings a tear to my eye. I just do you know, Jose as well, who was on, who was on Golden Tempo and actually did get the W that day. Yeah. And we've gone to dinner together as they have grown up in this game. I knew them before they're married. They're both married. They both have three kids under 10 years old. I'm an older parent. I've been married to my wife, Maria for 26 years, but we went through some personal hurdles. I have a 10 year old daughter, Joy Amia, which means my joy in Italian. So, you know, I know this feeling about having young kids and what they've done. And, you know, again, you know, you said something, you had the totem pole. I mean, you know, my grandmother passed away five years ago at 90 years old. She was a 42 year old grandmother. My dad was a waiter in a French restaurant. And then he was a banquet waiter at Lexington Marriott and my mom was a seamstress. So, I'm pretty low on the totem pole too. And I'm always going to be Mike from Queens, no matter what I've accomplished. I love that attitude. You I mean, the audience knows because I told them at the top of the first hour that you're worth over $2 billion now, two and a half or so. Reportedly. And yet, you still have that attitude. You're still a kid from Queens. You still are the guy who grew up in that apartment that if it was a thousand square foot, it was a lot. That's key. Wouldn't you say? I mean, that's that's one of the main reasons you became so successful. You know, listen, you can never forget where you came from. But not only do I know where I came from, I know what my parents came from, and I know what my grandmother came from. And someone told me that you grew up in the suburbs of Saratoga, so I'm sure wherever you live now, wherever I live now, our homes are a little bit different than the homes that we grew up with. And, you know, I shared a room with my brother for 28 years, and I only got my own room because he got married first. So I got my own room for a year. And, you know, families, everything and your friends. And, you know, I had 75 family and friends member there. You know, when they crossed the line, I mean, I put my head down for a good 45 seconds. And I could just hear people, my daughter crying, my wife crying, people agony. And once I put my head up, you know, it's it was about them. And they wanted it for me more than I wanted for myself. And then it was very easy for when I saw I read it in that moment just to it was just about him. And, and, you know, there's no one that loves winning more than me, Megan. But no one who accepts and learns from losing more than me. And I think you can learn. You actually learn more in losing in life than actually winning. And some people forget about that message. It takes a big man though, I have to say again, I don't I don't know you at all. I don't know. Now I know now I've learned that you invented came up with smart water and vitamin water. Got it. Yes, very familiar. But I didn't know you at all. And then then I just thought you were into horse racing. And I realized you're this very successful entrepreneur. But I was so impressed by it, Mike, I got to say it's like, there's so many examples in the news. And I've heard your mouth. So I think I know you're not going to be offended. So many douchebags out there. It's like great to see somebody who just makes you feel good about our country, our athletic events, you know, winning and losing, who projects the right attitude to the kids. I was watching that with my kids. I'm like, you see that? Look at him. Look what he did. You know, you were an example in the moment. We have two few heroes out there. So thank you for being one of them. And along with I read showing, showing my kids and others across the country how to lose grace gracefully. Yeah. And you said the word that I'll use, you can still be a likable douchebag. You know, you don't have to be. It doesn't always have to be controversial. I mean, you know, trust me, if you ask me, my wife for 80, you know, 26 years, if you ask her, if I'm an asshole, she'll say yes. If you ask you, do you love me, she'll say more than anything. So, you know, the biggest thing I try to I try to portray to my daughter who's 10 years old and even others. I mean, I'm always going to be Mike from Queens. I always try to tell kids, just be yourself. Just be you. We live in a society where we worry more about what people think or what people want us to say. And at the end of the day, it's, I think it's really why we have so many unhappy children, unhappy people, they go through life faking it. I mean, be yourself, be proud and, and you know, listen, you can agree to disagree. Reason why I have the same friends for 45 years is they can complain to me about anything they want. We've had this incredible life, incredible journey taken together. And, you know, once in a while, my, my friends of 45 years have to have tough conversations with me recently. They, they came to me with a very serious subject and they weren't happy with the food in the private plane. So very, very serious subject, you know, considering we used to go to McDonald's and pizza every Friday, the private plane didn't meet their standards. So I had to work on that. But it's the ability to be real. I like that they're leaning in. Yeah, they have to, they have to feel I have to make them happy, man. That's my golden life, right? So why shouldn't they have the best? Let's go back to that moment if you'll, if you'll permit me at the Kentucky Derby, then we'll get to what happened this past weekend. But at the Derby, we were all, we weren't at the Derby, but we were watching at home because we always get dressed up in my home in Connecticut and we watch as a family. We have our Virgin Mint Juleps and, and we watch and enjoy. And here was that incredible come from behind moment by Golden Tempo renegade right there. So 52 renegade is in behind that group. He's on the rail. He's got 10 lengths to make up as six speed and the non-perpetr one, two on the far turn might spit in so happier. They're turned, they're outside two and a half back and then down toward the inside comes a merging market as they make their way to the top of the stretch. Further ado is getting going on the far outside with commandment. They're both putting in their runs as they arrive into the final four long. Oh, Sally is also gaining ground on the far outside as they come to the last 16th of a mile. De non-perpetent front, oh, selling a huge long shot. Renegade and Golden Tempo are closing two. Here's Golden Tempo, Golden Tempo and Shirene Devoe make history in the Kentucky Derby over renegade in a final time of 202.27 seconds. Oh, the two brothers held the hands. It was just so sweet. So can I, can you just spend a minute on this horse Golden Tempo because spoiler alert, Golden Tempo also just won the Belmont stakes. He did not race in the preakness, which was too close in time to the Derby. A lot of horse owners decide to make that same choice for the health and goodness of their own horse. But can you describe this, this horse Golden Tempo because he did it again at the Belmont stakes coming from behind to win the whole thing. And he beat me again. We were the favorite and he beat us again. We, we came in third. We had the lead at the top of the stretch and two horses got outside us and they had the momentum. And then I think when Golden Tempo got by us, the other horse commandment, just what with Golden Tempo, who actually came in sixth, I think in the Derby. And, you know, when you, when you see that moment, you know, you know, I've been blessed. I mean, the, you know, the biggest race I've ever won in my life was in 2022. This Belmont stakes that just was this week. And I came in first and second with both my horses. And I've always said as a kid, I've wanted to win the Belmont stakes more than the Kentucky Derby. But now that I've won the Belmont stakes, I want to win the Kentucky Derby, right? So, you know, there's a moment in the stretch that you really might be a 15 second spot where you think you're going to win this, you think you're going to win this, and you think about dreaming about this race for 40 years. And here it comes. And it's so close. And here you go. And you can vision it just for 15 seconds. And then it ends like that. And you get caught at the wire. And then you got to regroup. And, you know, listen, I, you learn more about people through adversity. Anybody's a great friend, a great family member, things are going great. Everybody's winning. Everybody's happy. But life isn't defined by good times and happiness. It's good. It's, it's defined by losses and adversity. And to me, listen, it's, I'll say it this way, toughest loss of my racing life will always be renegade to golden tempo. One of the best accomplishments in my entire life being a kid from Queens is being second in the Kentucky Derby by a head. I think Megan, maybe six or seven more years of therapy, I think I should be okay. I may be able to get over it. But, but you know what, you can't change it. And now I'm starting to look to the 2027 Derby, right? I got something to chase. Well, and also like, you had a heart, you have renegade in the Kentucky Derby. I didn't have that. Nobody listened to this. I've had that. That's such an accomplishment. What you've done in racing. And it's just like a blip on your resume. It's like an extra that would be a throwaway for, for you, but not for most people would be our only accomplishment. So all of it is just really, it's incredible. And you gave us all such a thrill like that. The horses renegades amazing. And that moment between the jockey brothers was just something that was unforgettable. Can I ask you about the, I don't really know a lot about horse safety. I think most people who watch horse racing love the horses and they worry about, you know, whether they're being well taken care of. And this has been a bit of a scandal because there have been a lot of horses who have died in thoroughbred racing. So what's the status of that? What's your opinion of, of that? Yeah. The unfortunate part of horse racing is any other sport, if a horse, if a person either breaks an ankle or sprains an ankle, you know, he's on the shelf for six weeks to 12 weeks. Unfortunately, the way these horses are built, they have these four legs that carry anywhere from 1000 to 1200 pounds. So unfortunately, there is no science right now that if they break a leg and it can't be fixed properly, they either unfortunately have to be, you know, euthanized or they, they possibly could get lemonitis, which means no blood gets to this spot and they can die from that. So it's unfortunate that that's the situation. I mean, there's been a lot of done on horse safety. And, you know, the other thing that we've been tackling and we're very close to is there's a there's a safe act, which really is about horse slaughter where people can ship horses to Mexico or other countries, where they actually eat horse as a delicacy. And we have a bill right now that just got, I think it passed one of the houses. And if we can stop that, we can stop any horse from being shipped out for slaughter. So there's good work being done, better work being done. But I couldn't sit here and tell you that never will there ever be an injury to horse racing where unfortunately, they won't have to be euthanized because of the way they're built. But, you know, we, I mean, there's a ton of precautions, there's a ton of safety, but hey, it happens in life. It happens in, you know, if you're driving past midnight, it's, it's, it's, it's one of the saddest part of the game that is we've gotten so much better at it. But it's not fixable unless you completely stop the sport. And but we've done a very good job. Is that because I know you also did not race renegade in the preakness is the preakness just too close to the derby and can that be fixed? Like, why is this so close that all these great horses who win or come close to winning in the derby don't race? Megan, you know, I love this sport and I grew up with the sport for the last 40 years. I, I, I came to love it. You know, I also have the United Football League. I'm involved in St. John's basketball. It's the worst marketed sport in the United States. It's the worst run sport in the United States. You know, there's, there's organizations that have been around since the late 1800s that unfortunately haven't been able to let go of the sport. It reminds me, Megan, I heard the clip that you had on UFC. Well, before UFC, there was boxing and boxing was not regulated properly, was not run properly. And horse racing is at that stage right now. I'm sure you've gone to Saratoga being a girl from upstate New York. Anytime. And if you bring people to Saratoga, it's something they fall in love with. If you've ever been to the derby, it's an event. This year, 25 million people viewed the Kentucky derby. But the retention of being able to hold them isn't there because there's no one really looking at what is the best interest as a whole of the entire sport. It's one of the things I'm trying to fight for fan interaction, gambling, ownership, breeding. I mean, New York state, a lot of the breeding money comes from upstate breeders that need horse racing to succeed. California needed horse racing. Kentucky is the king of racing, but it's a great sport. And I think I really, for the first time in about 10 years, I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel that people are now looking to work together versus staying silos and only want to fix their spoke of this 10-wheel spoke. But I'm sure you love going, but when it's not a big race or a big event, you forget about it the other 362 days a year. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, no, I grew up in a suburb of Albany, which is a stone's throw from Saratoga. And we went up there all the time for all sorts of reasons. Saratoga is just charming, but the racetrack is like time travel. It's stuck in 1959 in a great way. And they're having the Belmont stakes there now because I guess they're redoing the racetrack over at the Belmont. So Saratoga it is, but we'll definitely be there. We try to go as often as we can in the summer, and we'll definitely be there the summer as well. Let me just expand it. The time we have left to your other, you know, your real empire, all of your work and smart water and so on. I read that one of the early business partners you coupled with was Kobe Bryant. And that is such a wonderful, but tragic story. How did you come to know Kobe and what did you make of his legacy? We started a small or invited one with my partner, Darius Baikoff, who was from Manhattan and I was from Queens. And we had this $100,000 company that he basically began. And it was 100,000 for three straight years. And, you know, we kind of joined together. We had two different personalities. One thing that I always talk about when you go to go into business with another co-founder or partner, you know, go to business with someone that adds a different point of view, not someone who thinks like you or dreams like you, but someone who's got a different skill set. I do a lot of sales and marketing. He was ops and finance. He was more vision every hour is more strategy and work together. We built this incredible brand, smart water, Vitamotor. You know, I was 36 years old and we went from two employees to 600 employees. And, you know, we sold for $4.1 billion. But the real story about that was I always believed success is best when shared. So I started a 10% option pool for all the employees because I wanted everybody to be an owner. And, you know, 10% of 4.1 billion is $410 million. And when you divide that by 600 employees, obviously, presidents and VPs made more. But when the receptionist who's making $45,000 back in 2007 is gets a check for $400,000 and the shipping clerk gets a check for $700,000 and you create $250 millionaires. I mean, it really is a great feeling. And I've taken that with me, with body armor, with noble, with kind bars, with Pirates Booty, just about making people owners, letting them build something with you together. And I think it's so important that, you know, oh, the stock market is doing so great. Look at this. It's 1% of the people. Why not profit share? Why not? These kids are graduating college. I doubt your education is going to cost you as much as your kids' education is going to cost you or did. My parents were able to pay $5,000 a year for St. John's. You know, I have one 10-year-old daughter. I've already paid for seven college educations, but that's okay. And I'll pay for more. But how do we, these kids graduate to get a $50,000 job? The math doesn't work. So how can we get these employees to really share the success with this next generation? Because I used to think they had it easier than us till about 10 years ago. And I'm not sure if Megan Kelly is Megan Kelly and Micro Poli is Micro Poli. If we were 15 years old today versus being 15 years, you know, when we were 15. So to me, that's very important. Oh, I worry about it too. Yeah, I worry about it too. It's like, I don't know, especially with AI, very concerned about the job prospects of our kids. But I love, I love that you've given back to St. John because, you know, that's also not too far away from my hood. And it's, of course, I know it from basketball. What I learned in reading up on you is one of the reasons we know it for basketball is because Micro Poli has given $10 million to the program. You've given away tens of millions of dollars to so many different cancer research, just loan catering, like the list is very long. It's got to feel so good, Mike. You know what? It's the best thing I do. I mean, I think at the end of the day, listen, I always know if I'm going to be successful. I don't look at it like my number or my accomplishment. The ability to share it with my friends and family, the ability to share it with my Vita Morta family or my Pirates Booty family or my Junkless family or my Noble family, all the brands, UFL and helping people reach their dreams to me is more special than that. I mean, you know, listen, I didn't want to be the only rich person out of my friends and family. I wanted everyone to just success. So when Vita Morta sold, you know, my brother gave me 100,000 dollars. My aunt gave me 100,000 dollars. My parents gave me their life savings. And, you know, I was crazy probably to take it, but I was a little naive. But, you know, success is best when shared. It's so important. And then quickly you talked about my relationship with Kobe. You know, Kobe came to me after he tore his Achilles. I was friends with him in the 07 or 08. And the one thing he said to me is, Mike, my basketball career is at the end. I need to know how to be an entrepreneur. I've got another 50 years of my life. So I spoke to Kobe in a way that nobody else spoke to Kobe. I mean, I didn't really like him in basketball. I wish that he lost every game. But when I knew Kobe, the person and, you know, the biggest compliment he gave me, and it was a compliment he probably didn't mean, was there's only two people that talked to me like this, you and Vanessa. I said, good, I'm glad. And we built this beautiful, beautiful dream. He gave me $6 million. And he wanted up, the family ended up getting $450 million in total. And Kobe knows that in heaven is great, great, great grandchildren are taken care of and still talk to Vanessa and Natalia Capri and BB. And, you know, it's maybe my... Oh, Mike, I got to run because we got 15 seconds to the hard break. But God bless you for helping him and so many families. If only his prediction of 50 more years had been true. All the best. We'll continue to follow it. Thanks for the memories. We're back tomorrow. We'll see you then. Counting down the minutes. To flying where time doesn't matter. Go on. Book that trip. It's easy. Booking.com. Booking. Yeah.