Welcome back, everyone to a new episode. If you were wrong with Molly
Hemingway and David HARSONI this is actually part two, I would say of our
ama, or I don't know it's gonna be an AUA ask us anything m
Considering how many questions start, Molly, no, you can get a ton
to stop it. Here's a funny one I wanted to start with. Someone
wrote Katie. Molly is brilliant as always. I love the way she goes
after Republicans and all of their bs. I appreciate David's questions and find his
perpective interesting. However, I'm tired of hearing that he doesn't care about anything.
It makes it hard to listen to him and his thoughts, to take
his thoughts and opinions very seriously. I personally do care about things, and
I wish you did. I love I come off like that I do not
care about things. Yeah, sometimes you have that gen x like I'm too
cool, too cool for school. But I know you actually do care.
And I think that's why it doesn't bother me to hear you say it,
because you're you're trying to make a point. Usually like I don't even care
about this issue, but I'm upset that it's going this way. Or you
know, you have some kind of general approach, but you care deeply about
the country and your community and your family. And oh, of course I
care about those things. But I have to say that I am upset how
my life has gone in a way. I cared too much about politics.
Yes, you know what I mean, And I don't mean the ideas or
the policies as much as I about the ugliness and the you know, just
this everyday grind that we have to go through. And I'm not complaining about
my life or job, but it is you want to say, that's one
of you know, whether you're talking about Hannah or Rent or you know,
other people talk about totalitarianism. The whole thing is when everything's getting political,
it means you're in an authoritarian system. Exactly everyone, Yeah, exactly.
The totalitarians want to make everything about politics, and that's what they've done.
Sports the shot where I shop, my movies, my everything, and it
is a grind. So that brings me to a question a lot of people
asked, and I'm just going to again just summarize it and say, do
you think that this long for instance, primary process, this president election election
that is basically like a two year thing. Do you think that there's just
fatigue involved and people care less and less or angrier because they're just there's just
too much of it in their lives. What I worry about is that it's
a distraction mechanism to keep people from making things better. So, for instance,
you have the twenty twenty election fraught as it was, leads to uniparty
control at the federal level. You know, Democrats control the White House,
the Senate at the House, and they don't control all these state legislatures.
And yet a lot of state legislatures didn't really do anything in the two years.
Like when you don't control I mean, regardless of what you control in
Washington, DC, you should do everything you can to make things better at
a more local or state level. And you saw some really good work,
and I think like Florida's legislature is a good example of doing a lot of
a lot of good work. And I don't even you know, I'm sure
there was also a lot of not great work, but Texas As legislature should
be really good. Like on paper they claim to be a bunch of Republicans.
I kind of get the feeling that they're so overwhelmingly Republican that you list
yourself as a Republican whether you are one or not, you know, just
so you can be in the game. But even so, you had these
like really squishy leaders going out of their way to like give Democrats what they
wanted, and you're just like, what's the point of view? Texas?
Like you brag about being so great, but you didn't really do anything to
like really seriously advance the ball. And then once you do a good job,
it helps other legislatures that aren't as strong or solid as you are.
So I get annoyed by the lengthy political primary, mostly because there's so much
else that could be done, and all that people in DC like to talk
about is literally presidential politics. Like they even don't talk about the House and
Senate as much as they should. That's a good point for me. The
frustration, I think is in that people's expectations of politics and politicians are way
too high the things that they can do or a party can do. It's
their expectations are too much and they don't view incremental victories or stopping the other
party from doing something as a victory. Anymore, and they just become increasingly
frustrated to the point where they hate their own party more than they hate the
other party. And that I'm not saying that there's nothing, you know,
there's no good reason for it. I'm just saying that it becomes destructive and
not really productive in any way. So um, and you know, so
politics is not just hating the other party or hating this person, or it's
hating everyone. And I just think it's become so negative. Everything is so
angry. And I'm not one of these people who thinks there should be Kumbayan
politics. We have politics because we disagree. We're supposed that's where we're supposed
to disagree. But it's just maybe from because of where what we do.
But it's so pervasive and it's so imbued in all things that it's become so
just disconcerting in life every day. This is such a downer, right,
We're supposed to be like a disposed much happier. So I wanted to talk
to you to really just change topics in a very traumatic way. So I'm
not sure if people know this about you, Molly, or I'm sure some
people know this, but perhaps not everyone that you like the woman in the
Matchmaker and the Fiddler on the Roof, are quite adapt to bring people together
in not just relationships but result relationships that result in marriage. Is that a
fairer assessment? Yes? And I would say, like the matchmaker in Fither
on the Roof, I'm really only interested in marriage matchmaking. I'm not interested
in dating matchmaking, and I do like doing it. I have with a
very good friend and now we have another associate. We've had a lot of
success, and it is to me the most wonderful thing I get to do
is to help people come together ideally in you know, in marriage, and
then some of them have had kids, some of them have had a ton
of kids, and it's just pure joy that I get to be part of.
That. Is this skill? Like does it? Is it an inherent
skill that you have? Do you do it just by feel? Or is
there some sort of scientific or method to to how you bring people together?
Okay, so first off, what I want to say is that mostly this
is a testament to my husband, and what I mean by that is I
love being married to him so much that I want other people to have really
good marriages as well. And it all started with a friend of mine who
was like so beautiful, so nice, so like exactly what I would want
if I were a man for a wife and she was not married married,
and I was like, I'm gonna help that lady get a husband. And
I did, and they're pregnant with their fourth kid now and it's awesome anyway.
So it was more like desire more than anything. But then I also,
I think because it took me a while to get married, to find
the right person to marry, I'm very sensitive to how some people have no
problems. Some people they just like they meet their spouse early, they're like,
that's the hot lady I want to marry, They marry her, and
then they're like happily there there after, and then other people it's just it's
just a little more difficult, particularly if you're like a really interesting, weird
cat or you have like very particular religious views that mean that your field of
play is smaller. And so that's what I would say. First off,
I focus on Lutheran's and I do want to say one time I talked about
it on the podcast, like many moons ago, it wasn't with you,
It was with a couple of ladies and this guy wrote in and said that
his brother needed to be in my matchmaking pool, and that man married one
of the women in my matchmaking pool, and they have a baby who's the
cutest baby I've ever seen, by the way, And so there's even like
a federalist connection with it. But mostly it's like I work with people who
would like to be married, so they're already more matured than some of these
people who are like I just want to date forever whatever, And so then
we ask them a series of questions to get a feel for them. If
we can meet them, we do, and then we just kind of start
looking through who we have and matching people up. And I love it,
and I do. I do want to say one thing, which is I
think it's funny that you know, people know me from my journalism work and
at the level of work I'm doing. Like if I were a liberal and
I also was doing this like really successful matchmaking thing, I imagine I would
be getting like very nice profiles in the Washington Post or whatever. And that
was that's a catty little thing for me to complain about. And I hate
him when people complain about stuff like that, but it's fair. I think
it's fair. It's okay, you're among friends here, someone must have been
friend. Yeah, everyone's listening is a friend John who's from Io as a
very specific question that he wants it will help with. So I'm going to
just test out how what kind of advice you give here. Let's say two
people have already made a match, but they are very early in a early
in talking, dating, etc. Also, let's say that they are both
entering middle age and you know, with kids. Any tips for successful building
on the relationship in a healthy way the end goal is marriage. Oh man,
I don't know. I'd actually probably have to know the person a little
bit better before I were to give advice. If both people are already marriage
minded, that that makes it much easier that you can just sort of speak
openly about the seriousness of what you're doing. It's but I generally think that
if you have the same values and same religious views, you can then just
focus on making sure it's like a good mood match, you know, like
relationship match. Like not everybody with the same values is going to want to
spend the rest of their lives together, And then you don't need to necessarily
pressure it so much. Just kind of be in relationship and see how it
goes. That's not very helpful advice, but just you know, a little
bit of time together is good. Have you ever been like, do you
ever put people together and then you saw them together and you're like, no,
man, this is not going to work. These people are not compatible.
Yeah, certainly. I mean you learn from me each one too.
So like when someone's in the pool and you think, okay, this might
be a match, and it's Sometimes it's based on things they claimed they wanted,
and then you find someone who has those things and they're like, no,
this isn't it. And you realize they are also realizing about themselves that
things are a little different than they thought. But one thing I like is
that it helps me actually when men are very specific, so and I love
that they can be you know, they'll just be like, okay, so
I think all women are pretty, but the ones that I really think are
pretty you have brown hair or you know, like I like this physical attribute.
I care. I've noticed I zone in on this one and I don't
care so much about these other ones. And it is actually helpful to just
let them be honest. And men are so visually attracted that that's great.
Women are almost never that way, or if they are franky, I'm always
like a little like weird that when they're like way too into looks um.
But they also are very specific, you know. They also can be very
specific. They tend to know what they want in terms of like the type
of the type of man they want, you know, what do they care
about? So guys like I want a hot blonde who's smart and has money
right or whenever? And uh, but do women say like I want a
man who is interested, you know, who is intellectually curious, or like
what are the top things that they're looking for? So that's where you don't
get. One thing I love about the men is just because one guy likes
a hot blonde, the next one wants to hot brunette, and the you
know other person is like very much like the like a dark skinned lady,
you know, and the women are not. And then and then also sorry
I should say, some men very much want a challenge and you kind of
get that feeling like they really want to have a wife who challenges them.
And then a lot of men, of course don't want that. And I
think when you are honest about it like. I was talking this one guy
recently and by the way, I think, I think I have the perfect
match for him. I'm so excited. But anyway, he was talking about
how he like doesn't really want to have a fight with his wife all the
time, Like you know, he's dated girls before where they think it's like
really fun to be basically fighting all the time. And he's like, I
just don't want that, and I'm like, of course you don't. But
you know, um, women likewise, some really want to feel safe,
or some really want them the husband be able to provide for them financially,
or others really care about the intellect. And it's all different, and that's
fine, it's great. Oh. Also one thing I love. Sorry to
go off on this, but sometimes you meet these people and you're like this
person, like they're so into things that I don't get at all, like
dungeon dungeons and dragons and as play and like, um, you know,
like I've read Tolkien thirty eight times and I'm about to do it again,
you know, And you're like that's great. Um. And then you look
through your ladies and you're like, and I got the perfect lady that's going
to also just think this is the most amazing thing. It reminds me of
that movie is it Ten Things I Hate About You Shakespeare or something like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah okay. And in fact
that like one of the characters in it, she really wants a guy who
can be Bill Shakespeare for her, and then the guy totally does the role,
and you're like, not what I would want. But there are people
like this and you find them and then they live happily ever after. It's
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slash Freedom. Is the cliche that opposites attract, is that true are people
looking for typically for people who are like them? Because that's what I think
it really is about. Wait, meaning which one, I think that people
who are similar have similar interests obviously, but also are temperamentally similar work out
better than people who are who are always knocking heads and have different personalities.
I know that it's a cliche where you see the movies where like the wife's
just you know, a yapper and the guy doesn't talk. But most of
the time when you meet couples or do couples become more like each other as
they go along. I don't know. I'm just curious about how like I
don't know, I'm curious about the matchmaking. Okay. I generally think personally,
what I'd like to do is find people that compliment the other person.
So you have the person who's really quiet but would like to be more social,
and you put them with the person who has no trouble with that,
you know. But one of the most surprising things I have learned through matchmaking
is sometimes two people with extremely strong personalities that are that are like kind of
the same. It's just great. Like there you kind of go, these
are the same people and you would never put them together, but it works
great. And I have a really, really good friend who's been married to
her husband for like, you know, twenty years or something, and she
and he both have very strong personalities and they have a beautiful, like very
supportive relationship in their marriage. So I find that a all of that fascinating.
I hope the listeners do too, Yeah, but I do. But
I should say I'm happy to work with other people. But basically it's just
Lutherans, and every time it goes beyond that, it gets a little complicated.
So if you're Lutheran and you're listening and you need help, it's and
not all the Lutherans, right, only the good Lutherans. Different kind of
Lutherans. Um, like the federalist there's the atheist Lutherans, and then like
are the federalist reader who's responsible for his he and I are responsible for his
brother's marriage and their child. Um. There they were like the liberal Lutheran,
but they were all kind of like recognizing there was a problem there.
So I'm going to change gears again and ask you another question. You know,
you're a well known news personality, you're out there, you have strong
opinions. You actually, let me just read the questions. Is from a
coworker. Actually, I don't know if I should give their name or not,
so I'm just going to read it. What steps does Molly take to
protect herself given the high level of spiritual warfare she's engaged, and like,
how does she work to protect herself emotionally and spiritually given that she's an obvious
target dude to her effectiveness and high level of operation. Do you get what
she's saying? Okay, it's a very I do. It's a very loving
question, and I'd love that it's being asked. And I have so many
different thoughts that are personally interesting, but I don't know if they're interesting to
others. One thing I will say is you would be surprised at how often
I go out speaking and people will just come up to me and they will
say, I pray for you. And I'm so touched by that because it
really is hard to be out there in a hostile environment. And I love
that people are praying for me. And I also loved it if I ask
people to pray, they do. Like my dad basically nearly died last August
and I asked people to pray, and I mean I got I'm not joking,
like tens of thousands of responses or people just building him into their daily
prayers. And I am so thankful because he you know, he was in
the ICU for like nine days and then he was in rehab for a month
and he is doing really well, and I just feel like it's such wonderful
bonus time when I just got to see him. He officiated at my cousin's
wedding and it was really beautiful, and I just really appreciate that people pray.
But anyway, I would say the fact that my church is the center
of my life, not politics, helps. And my husband and I build
our weekly schedule around church, and we we just spent a lot of time,
you know, church worship, Bible study, devotions, and also just
when something happens. We kind of have this different focus than politics. So
you're saying in a sense that the overwhelming concern and love that people who like
you at their show kind of buries all the negativity or makes it worth it
for you. Now, I believe the prayer is actually like, there's the
power in the prayer is God's work and protection. I know that you are
not religious, David talk about this all the time, but I'm praying is
not some kind of populist endeavor where more people would do it. It's going
to be better for you. A lot of people aren't famous, and I'm
sure just a few prayers are just would be just as effective in your mind.
Correct, Yeah, and well no, it's again the power of the
prayers and God not in us. But I'd loved like this reader sent a
note saying that Tristan, our colleague had told, had said something on Twitter
like if you ever need someone to pray for you, to let us at
the Federalists know. And he did have a very bad situation with his brother
having sepsis, but he asked for prayers and we were all able to kind
of join in on that, and and his brother told us that his brother
died, and you know, but also it was like this whole journey we
were going through. So my co author on the first book I wrote was
Carrie Savarino is Carrie Saverino, and she and I did all this work together,
and every day when we would start our work, we would start in
prayer. And I loved she's just like very high powered, Harvard educated Supreme
Court clerk, totally amazing woman. And I love that she'd never failed to
begin in prayer and that we could talk about what was going on. And
she definitely felt like because what we were doing was so important, we were
trying to do it in such difficult circumstance or circumstances we had to be on
guard against all the things that we're attacking. Oh. Also, my husband
is a very good shoulder to cry on. Like I remember the first time
I wrote about Kermit Gosnell, and I had never received that kind of hatred
as I got for exposing, you know, some of what was going on
with the media failing to cover the trial of that abortionist. And I just
there's like this lady who I mean, I don't even Kermit Gosnell's not Jewish
or anything. And I have no idea where she got this, but she's
kind of like a famous writer, and she was accusing me of anti Semitism
and it just was like shocking and appalling, and I was crying and I
just remember Mark just held me. It's very nice marketingway. Yeah. Have
you so over the years, you think you've gotten you know, your your
skin. You know you've been You've been toughened up and are more able to
deal with harsh criticism and you know, from from from people. Yeah.
I actually feel like my I joke that my spiritual gift is not caring about
what people say about me, But there's a truth to it. Like I
don't know why, I don't know how. It's not something I worked on
or anything like that. I just sort of don't care at about being unliked.
Oh you know who Amanda Milius is. It was a trumpet. Her
dad is a genius. I'm a huge fan. Yes, Okay, so
she said her dad told her something like there's no limit to what you can
accomplish if you can be in a room and know that you were hated by
everyone and like just keep going. And I was like, that's me,
Like I don't know why, I just like I can even do it on
TV. You know, you're saying something, You're like, I don't think
Donald Trump is colluding with Russia, and everybody's screaming at you and you just
don't care. It's really a great power. And also because a lot of
the people that are yelling at me, I genuinely like apart from whatever they're
saying, So that makes it a little easier too, sometimes harder. You
have this amazing power where when I am yelling at you, you get calmer
and your voice becomes almost would you say, like a teacher who would be
speaking to a kindergartener or something like that, Like that's the tone that you
take on, and it just is enraging. So you get angrier and angrier,
and you're like listen, David, that's not how we speak. But
I just wasay, obviously I don't have the same amount of hatred directed at
me, but I too, I believe, and I don't. Actually sometimes
I worry about it, don't care that people don't like me or or hate
me when I am saying something that I really believe, when I'm writing something
that I am truly believe in, you know, not to say I don't
write things I don't believe in, but sometimes it's not that important to me.
When it's important and I care about it and I'm saying it, I
don't care. And I think I learned that where I've always had that skill,
but especially I learned it when I was at the Denver Post being the
only conservative in the whole building, probably hated by everyone. I just stopped
caring. And I think it's a good tool to have when you're a journalist
or any kind of pundit. When you don't, you are very susceptible.
And I've seen it happen. You go native no matter where you are,
You're just going to say what everyone else is telling you to say, you
know, or whatever. And that's it's always good to be thinking. About
that stuff and being a contrarian. Frankly, I think it makes everyone better
at their job. So but I'm very impressed because sometimes I see the swamp
that is, like your replies and your like Twitter feed or what the things
people say to women in this country. And I'm not usually one who brings
this up in this way, but it is appalling. You know, I
have, you know, family members, and I if I saw anyone speak
to them that way, it would enrage me more than anyone yelling at me
personally, you know, Okay, I actually disagree with you on this point.
In particular, I I almost get nothing but nice notes from people.
And I had been told that when you're on TV, you get like a
lot of negative comments, you know, particularly about your appearance and everything.
And I almost never get that, I mean, particularly not in actual real
people. Like what I think of is if you're getting emails from people,
people who exist enough to the level that they are writing an email, it's
like ninety nine point nine polite, too beautiful. And so what I mean
by polite is like even when people are disagreeing with you there, which you
know, I actually like it when people send in notes that they disagree or
something. Almost everyone who does that is very nice. And statistically men actually
get much worse treatment online than women do, and there's this myth that women
are subject to particularly bad treatment. Now, the one caveat I will say
is that I don't see people respond to me on Twitter unless they follow me,
and even then I don't always have time to see it. So I
guess it's possible there's like really bad stuff in there, but I haven't.
I just don't see it. That's interesting. Maybe it is a little bit
of sexism on my part to think that women can handle that kind of thing
and men can so, meaning I am not that offended when I see someone
saying something about a man's appearance, then I would be when as because I
think somehow women are you know, are more sensitive to it. And I'm
not saying that I see that for you, but I think that because you
don't see people who don't follow you, maybe you're missing out at some of
them. Really you see stuff going on out there. Oh and I block
with wild abandon on Twitter. I mean I love blocking people, and occasionally
someone will be like, yeah, you blocked me, and I never said
anything against you, and I've just gotten confused or whatever. But I know
on that note, I want to say. One of the things that annoys
me is when people will say Sometimes you'll see people say that person blocked me,
and yet I never interacted with them. I block people for being mean
to other people. So if I'm like in your replies and someone's being really
rude, I will just block. I'll be like, I don't need any
of that. That's just that's interesting because I often get people say like,
she blocks me. I never I don't know what I did. You know,
teller, don't block me. They probably said something mean to someone else
and I just was like, I'm done. Yeah anyway, all right,
Well that's interesting as well. The Watchdolt on Wall Street podcast with Chris Markowski.
Every day Chris helps unpack the connection between politics and the economy and how
it affects your wall is America not number one anymore? Sometimes it takes admitting
we have a problem he'll be able to fix it. Between parental rights over
their children or the government paying big tech for your private info, how can
we right our wrongs to go back to being the shiny city on the hill,
Whether it's happening in DC or down on Wall Street. It's affecting you
financially. Be informed. Check out the Watchdot on Wall Street podcast with Chris
Markowski on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Do you
block people on Twitter? I honestly I have no real policy. Sometimes I
do if I'm mad. Sometimes I want people to shout into the abyss and
I just a mute them. I do block certain people, So I want
to say this. I do not care what people think of me, but
I do get upset when people misrepresent my position. That offends me. So
that happens quite a bit. And people who do that, I will block
them, you know, any kind of and I don't mean some like person
out there in Kentucky who doesn't like me. I mean other writers or whatever.
I'll block people who come at me in bad faith. I try.
I know that people might not believe this, but I really try my best
to at least frame arguments of the people I am going after fairly. I
think that's something we should all be doing. So. I don't know that
sounds like I'm being sanctimonious or pious or something, but it is true.
I just think you get better arguments that way. But a lot of these
people don't do that, like someone like I'm just going to throw out a
name, Jonathan Chait. You know, he will always like throw in this
column I wrote for the Washington Post years ago to pretend that I'm like,
don't want minorities to vote, you know, because I said, let's weed
out bad voters. But it's about people who don't know anything about American civics.
He's the racist, for instance, who thinks that black people can't learn
as much as why people can about civics. Not me, but anyway,
he misrepresents it and frames it in a way that is unfair. So that
kind of thing annoys me. So I ask people on Twitter to ask us
questions, and one of them from Alex the Chick Alexandria Brown, is what
is your worst food take? My worst food take? I am not,
you know, very I like a lot of different kinds of food, but
I wouldn't say I'm like a sophisticated person like people yell at me when I
say this, so I'll say it. I think Chick fil at is like
incredibly overrated. It just takes tastes like rubbery chicken. To me, it
is a horrible food. Take. Okay, so I nailed it, nailed
that. I'm like, just that doesn't even make that's not even wrong.
It's just not right. It's like so wrong. I used to go there
because I wasn't supposed to, you know, But now I'm like, I
don't even I think that they're not I don't even think Chick fil A's a
good company anymore or whatever. So I don't. I Don'm not even gonna
go there anymore. So what's your favorite fast food? It's interesting, this
is probably gonna be a bad tike. I go to like you ever been
to Cava? Yeah? Okay, I love Cava and that guy's that fast
food? Do you think? Okay? So I like Cava. I like
Chipotle is as good or used to be when I was in Denver. I
liked it a lot. But if I had to go to like an old
fashioned burger place and just like a fast food place, getting a whopper at
Burger King, that's a pretty good burger, I would say, interesting,
how about you? Okay? So, first of all, I want to
say, Cava is like a local DC area company, and I think they're
great, and I don't know how broad they are, but I know they're
you know, at the very least local. Um. I used to go
to the original Chipotle, which was across the street from my aunt and uncle's
market near the DU campus, and the original was like amazing, you know,
every day was brand new, very fresh, very interesting salsas and really
good meats. And then as I understand, like, it's great that they
are international now, but it's just it's lost that really great Claire, Yeah,
I've been to that one, I think, yeah, but were you
there when it was no it already had been bought by mcconald's by the time
that you. Yeah. I just I think it's gone downhill lately, I
know, Becau. It's just it's just me going into like I just don't
feel like it's as fresh as it was or as good as it used to
be when I went to Denver. I don't. I don't know if that's
true all around. Sorry. And then fast food is something I've never really
gotten into, and I think it's partly because growing up we just you know,
we lived in rural places or we were too poor for fast food.
I was actually just telling Emma, my assistant, about the time that my
mom took us kids to McDonald's and we were so not used to going out
that she thought she had enough money to feed us all for dinner because she
had five dollars and we like to make fun of her for that all the
time. She hadn't really been since the sixties, I guess, and she's
like, this would have been more than enough then, and it was like,
let's discuss inflation, Carolyn. Anyway, So I just was never super
into fast food. And then I watched this propaganda documentary called fast Food Nation,
and it was about a guy who ate McDonald's or something every day for
a month and what happened to him and how they needed to be like banning
McDonald's or whatever. And whenever I watched propaganda, it produces like the opposite
effect in me. And I just literally got up out of the theater and
went and got some Wendy's fries and they were good. So that's kind of
how I like to do. It's like just like as a very sort of
like random special treat. So I think you might be confusing Supersize Me with
Fast Food Nation. I'm not sure both are. Yeah, fast Food Nation
was the book by was that whoever? Eric Eric? It was a different
guy. But it's also propaganda. But they yeah, I was supersize me.
Supersize me. I wrote about in my first book, Nanny State.
It is it's just junk science, just a garbage documentary, just nonsense.
Fast Food Nation was an interesting book about fast food. Also kind of propaganda,
but far better reported and interesting. And I'm not trying to correct you.
I just want to oh no, And I want to just say one
last thing, which is last year, I took the kids, the husband
and kids back to where I grew up in California, and one of the
first things we did is went to an in and out because they always hear
me talking about in and out and they loved it. Did you guys?
It's great. When I grew up in New York and Queens, we had
a white castle. Did you guys have that on the West Coast? I
don't think so. Say like cheap little burgers at Onion in there they were.
They were really good. Actually I like that. I've been there in
a while. Okay, I have another question for you, David. This
one's from Laura Ashford on Twitter. Is there anything you did as a child
that you now wish you would have done differently. Yeah, of course I
wish I had been more serious, a more serious student, and taking advantage
of a lot of the opportunities that were given to me, which I didn't.
Now sometimes I think to myself, maybe I would be a different person
now, and it was meant to be this way. But I feel like,
you know, in my twenties and mid twenties, when I started to
get really serious about ideas or you know, about other politics and stuff,
I became kind of I was kind of an autodidac, Like I had to
go back and read a lot of stuff on my own, and I wish
that I started earlier. Oh oh, child, My biggest real regret is
that I probably should have gotten married earlier and had more kids. Think that
that's my big regret in life. But I guess I do consider myself a
child in my early twenties. So I think that I answers the question how
about you? I don't know, I actually get asked a lot, you
know, speak to young women or something, and they'll ask like, what's
the worst thing that ever happened or that you did or whatever, And I
just kind of realized, I know, there's a ton of bad stuff I
did, or that happened to me or whatever, and I just choose not
to dwell on it. So like everything you said just now, it very
much resonated with me. Like I wish, oh, I wish I'd received
a better education. We really cared about giving our kids a good education,
and I wish that I had received more of a classical education. I think
that would have really taken root in me sometimes. I remember was in one
of my kids, was like in first grade, and Mark and I were
learning or we're like reviewing how the teacher was teaching writing, and I was
like, could we audit this first grade class? Because I think we could
get a lot out of this. So that's just sort of something that I
have other things. Yeah, if I may, you don't have to go
down this road with me, just letting you know ahead of time. But
um, I wish I hadn't picked up smoking as a kid. I think
that that, you know, I worry now that that's going to hurt me.
You know I smoke for years. Um you did. Yeah, probably
started smoking at seventeen and smoked till into my I don't remember exactly know twenty
six. Maybe something that isn't that that's like nothing, you think, so
even like a pack of day I'm not worry. No, actually quitting smoking
at that age and is like one of the best things you could have done.
Smoking is genuinely bad for you, but your lungs doo heal. So
and I wish, you know, I think that that there was kind of
a people are lured into doing things like drinking too much, for doing drugs,
and I think that those are things that I wish I hadn't done either,
you know, I just feel like they slowed down my progress in life.
And now then you get to the other ish side of things. I'm
not saying I'm an old man, but I'm not a young man. You're
like, you know, I wish I had started earlier and all these things
that I'm doing because they're far more exciting than wasting my time doing whatever I
was doing. But you know, then I think like every young person has
to do that to appreciate what they have now, right, So I don't
know. I will say that Mark and I definitely also say we wish we
could have gotten everything figured out earlier and had kids, had more many more
kids, because we were kind of so old when we got married, we
had two right away. You know. We unfortunately had a series of miscarriages
after that, and we really like kids a lot, and I do think
it's reasonable to think that if we'd gotten married earlier, we would have had
more of the like twelve that we wish we had. And I have to
say this just to make sure that kissed my wife. Listen, it's completely
my fault that we didn't get married earlier. I did not think that I
could afford to be married. I did not think that I made enough money,
that I was mature enough and all that stuff, which when I got
married, I still wasn't making enough money and I still wasn't mature, And
so you might as well do it early, you know. And I think,
actually, you have kids, it actually matures you. You know what
I'm saying, So that's why you do it, Okay. So that was
a big thing from Mark too. You know, he's a little younger than
I am and all this, and he, like, we really thought we
had to kind of have our act together before we got married, and we
didn't realize that it was the act of getting married, and in our case,
we got pregnant right away, that all of a sudden. We were
like, oh, we just you know, like his career just skyrocketed after
marriage and mine too. So yeah, if you want to be successful in
life, you get married. The earlier the better. Then you have kids
after you get married, and then you pay your taxes and you mind your
own business and life will be good for you. So let me ask you.
I see someone asked, is there anything or what would it take for
you to be a baseball fan again to resume watching your favorite sport? Is
there anything that can happen that will make that happen? Okay, yeah,
So for context, I stopped watching baseball because Major League Baseball followed Joe Biden's
demand that they boycott the state of Georgia, and they moved their All Star
game in response to Georgia making a mild improvement in their voting laws when they
really should have done some massive improvement. But their protest was that they were
making any improvement, and it was very hard for me to stop watching baseball.
And I guess, yeah, I guess if they apologized, it would
be no problem coming back. I don't expect an I do not expect an
apology. I'm not naive. But if they would just apologize for what they
did to people like me. I would be very happy to go back to
watching. And I do you know, occasionally I'm like, I I'll see
people talking about it. I'm like, oh, remember when I devoted like
hours of my week each week to this? Did you ever read that Frederick
Exuley? Is that his name? Frederick Extually? Book? A fans note?
Oh you've told me about this? No I have not yet. Yeah,
yeah, New York or writer or something that. Yeah, where is
that the boxing one? Maybe I'm confused? Yeah, no I have not.
So you love this book, is what you're saying. Well, I
highly recommend it, and I do, and sometimes I can recommend it and
I realize that other people aren't going to like it as much as I do.
But it's sort of about a guy realizing that he was devoting I mean,
it's about a lot of issues, but one of them being about how
he was carrying a lot about out a sporting team that does not care about
him. I just want to say a quick programming note that I had last
episode promised that this episode would be all about politics, and I had lied
about that. We decided that this episode was not going to be politics about
politics all the time. Though I think we touched on the despondent, despondency
of and fatigue of all the politics. Wait, David's gonna ask you the
base So on baseball though you're watching it this year, what do you think
about all the rules changes? And like, I know that they're what is
it? The games are shorter, there's a clock what. I don't know.
I don't care if the games are shorter. I don't know why everyone
got all worked up about that. Baseball is a slow moving game. It
has a certain rhythm, and I you know, I used to be a
massive baseball fan, used to work for MLB for a while, and I
used to go to games and just sit there, and you know, it
was just an experience. I didn't want it to end quickly or anything like
that. So I don't really get all of that. But I am not
watching a ton this year. I'm a much bigger I'm just a huge hockey
fan. I'm a fan of the New York Rangers. I watch every single
game I have for probably thirty years now or more. And as I told
you, I think a few episodes ago, there is like I don't they'd
have to do a lot for me not to watch them, Like they'd have
to like have PLO flags on their uniforms maybe or something. It's going to
take a lot for me not to watch, and I wish it wasn't that
way. But I have to say hockey has been pretty good. They dropped
the Pride Day stuff when some of the players didn't want to wear those jerseys
instead of making a big deal out of it embarrassing the players, and they
just let them make their own choices, which I think is important. So
I think they've done a pretty good job in general. So, Molly,
last episode, we talked about how we both got into journalism, and you
gave us, you know, your story and all of that. But so
let's talk a little bit about the last ten years. And it's funny,
I know you ten years around now. Actually think August will be when we
first met or when the Federals started. I'm not sure if it was September
August ten years ago. But what has changed in that time, Like,
what's been the biggest Someone's asking, like, what has been the biggest change
in journalism that you've witnessed over that ten years? Oh, it is,
it's been a big ten years. I think ten years ago there was still
an attempt to like feign toward objectivity as a goal that people wanted to have,
or you know, not to be just straight up political propagandists. I
don't know why I do this this, but occasionally I read the CNN newsletter
Reliable Sources. I think it's called I don't know what it's called. It
used to be written by Brian Stelter, and it was like if a really
bad fourth grade student who knew nothing was like trying to explain the world's events
too. He got fired and got replaced by a much dumber, much more
politically rabid, like crazy person, and it is almost impossible to believe it's
for real, like the level of you know, this would be an example
of how he would write. He'd be like crazy election denier. Kaylee mcinaney
hosted the seven pm Conspiracy Hour. I mean, like you're just like you're
a grown man, act like a grown man. And these people just go
out there, whether they're Jake Tapper, be like that, and they're just
like using phases that nobody would have ever used even as they were crazy leftists
before. You know, like if you're a Democrat and you challenge an election,
you're defending democracy. If you're a Republican and you challenge an election,
you're denying. You're an election denier. Like they don't care, Like they've
openly embraced that they are partisan propagandists and they don't care. And so it's
kind of cool because now you realize, like there's no point in ever working
with them, like in a reasonable way. You just know that they're political
activists. But it's still kind of sad and shocking. What do you think
now? I think that you hit on the key change is that they went
from being biased to be They went from being biased to being activists. There's
a difference between those two things. I've always made excuses for them that they
saw the world and in the newsroom I worked and I saw this. They
saw the world to the prism of their leftist leftism, and that's how they
wrote. But now it's they know they're lying. They know that they're completely
abdicating their responsibility as journalists, taking on one source stories and running with them
when they know it's just half truths and things like that to bring down you
know, presidents they don't like, or people they don't like and they use
you know, when when when a journalist who's supposed to bring clarity to the
world says things like gender affirming care, they're no longer journalists. They're just
some kind of pagan pr person, right. I mean, there's no other
way to look at it, and I have I completely think it needs to
be destroyed. I hate when people I still like hate when like people lose
their jobs and stuff in journalism because it is a hard profession in many ways.
But these days I like cheer on. I hope CNN is burned to
the ground. I hope every one of them loses their jobs there. I
can't help it. So yeah, because they've it's not even if, like
I've said, there's so many times and people don't believe me. It's not
like how they went after It's not that they go after Republicans. That bothers
me. It's only that they only go after Republicans. If they acted in
the same crazy way going after the both candidates, it will be fine by
me. And just look at now, look at what's going on now with
Hillary, how they acted with her classified document problems, how they act with
Biden, and how they act with Trump. They don't like Trump, so
they get to act, you know, to simply becomes spokespeople for for the
you know, for the Justice Department. And I don't know, it's just
it gets me so riled up. I don't really even know which direction direction
to go in. But I did want to say one quick thing about media
reporters. Media reporters are like journalism professors. They've actually never done any journalism
in their lives, so they I don't even understand how that job exists.
Why do we need naval gazing media reporters? Who really cares? I mean,
we talk about it because we hate them, but who really cares what
the CEO of CNN is. When you were growing up, did you know
who ran and CBS News or The New York Times? You didn't know,
you evedn't care. I disagree with you. I mean, to me,
the media are one of the groups, if not the group, most responsible
for the destruction of the country. I absolutely want to know who the people
in charge are and what they're doing, but that's not my point. My
point is we shouldn't know. It's not important quote unquote. Media reporters aren't
Media reporters they're just like like Mark Hemingway wrote a piece about this related to
this left wing activist Tim Alberta riding up a thing on about CNN, and
it was just sort of it didn't deal with the fact that CNN had viciously
spread the Russia collusion hoax for years, or how they viciously spread the Kavanaugh
rape hoax for years, or how they had viciously tried to destroy the country
with endorsement of COVID lockdowns. It was basically about like which executives went to
which party in the Hampton's it's journalism in service of the first of the elites
and against the American people. And that's what media reporting is these days.
It's kind of amazing because journalists like the old timey journalist. And again I'm
not romanticizing things because journalism has always been partisan, probably, but when you
read Ben Hecked or like, uh, you know Menkin or something like Menkin
didn't even like people, but he was I wouldn't say a populous kind of
journalism, but he spoke for the people, right like they connected with the
people in their communities. Maybe not, maybe not, but he loved Baltimore
and he wrote about Baltimore or he you know, he lived in Chicago and
he loves Chicago. But now all these journalists are all just in DC.
They hate the country they're in. They hate other than DC or New York.
They hate the country. Right, they write what was the Oh yeah,
that variety was a variety of the rapp or something. They did this
piece on Brian Glazer's ex wife who was a big producer in Hollywood, and
this woman turned into a conservative and moved to Tennessee, and they write about
it like they're on some sort of expedition into the middle of the Congo in
eighteen twenty, right, like you keep waiting for the scandal, and the
scandal is literally she moved to a Franklin, Tennessee, which is a very
nice place to exactly, I'm in there. And what was the tweet?
What did she say? Oh I wish I could remember. It was something
sobi not so innocuous. Oh yeah, the journalists or the country has been
or the colleges have been taken over by the theater theater kids or whatever,
something like that. And it was funny and this was supposed to offend you.
So that's my point. They're so out of touch with the world and
what's going on and anyway. I mean the other day I floated this idea
that san and should probably would become the neutral network, Like I think that
we could use a news network that just gave us really bare bones Swards David
but never going to happen. And I don't even think. I don't like
this. Okay, So first of all, if you look at the cable
outlets, they no longer have news like NBC and CNN. Every single show
is like left wing craziness. Okay, there's no single hour that's like a
news hour. It's all opinion. Fox where I work, does have opinion
programming a lot of it, but it also has straight news, and that
news is completely neutral or even you might say reminiscent of what we thought of
as neutral, like you know, ten or twenty years ago. So I
do think there's probably a market for, like, you know, conservative response
to NBC and CNN. But I don't like the idea that CNN would be
neutral between NBC and Fox, like CNN and NBC are crazy left wing.
Fox actually does the neutral stuff like there I'm on there all the time with
Democrats or you know, whether they're open democrats or they're like media types and
they go out of their way to present, you know, the entire range
of opinion. And yes they have like Sean Hannity and other people that have
political views. They're pretty you know, like either populist right or other forms
of being on the right. But they also have just straight news shows throughout
the day. Now, I think that's that I was slightly I don't want
to be unfair to Fox because I actually think they have people who are pretty
straightforward news folks, and I don't I'm not trying to frame the CNN project
as like in between MSNBC and Fox News. I mean that I would like
me and I'm sure there's no audience for this. A station that was more
like c Span or something like that, which said, here's what Congress did
today, the five things they did, Here's what happened here, here's what
happened there, and just gave us the news. I get a lot of
this and someone asked you this, like, what's you know? Like I
wrote, Nanny stayed And people will be like, well, it's great that
you're complaining about it. What's the solution or you know, what's the solution
here or what's the solution there. I don't really have solutions all the time
or ever. Really I don't have solutions. My solution is My solution has
always been gridlock and just stopping people from doing things. That's my solution.
I don't want things to happen. But how about you, I mean,
do you feel like you're giving enough solutions to how to stop what's going on?
To how to improve things, to how to you know, where are
we just to thetalistic about the world in general? Okay, I think it's
actually a great question, and it's a question that we get a lot from
people, and it's a little bit frustrating because I don't view my vocation as
solution giver like thanks. As a reporter, I do think it's my job
to explain the situation that's you know, to like report accurately about what's going
on, to provide context about what's going on, to go on TV and
speak about the real things that are going on. And in my perfect world,
there would be other people that coming up with solutions. The more time
I spend in this, I think you kind of get this too, because
I've noticed it in your writing. You do start kind of realizing that there's
nobody else out there giving solutions and you need you need to pick up some
of that work too, even though it's not really our job. This is
like, to me the story of gen X realizing they have to do things
that they never wanted to do, and so, like I think about it.
For me, for some reason, I'm thinking back to the Kavanaugh situation,
and it was really important to report accurately about what was going on there,
and we nailed that at the Federalist like we really nailed that, and
then at some point it was also apparent that we needed to help these idiots
in the Senate get the courage to continue on with what they were supposed to
be doing. Like it wasn't enough that we exposed all of what was actually
going on there, which should have been enough for senators to be like,
Okay, well now we're gonna like we're gonna put this drama to an end.
We also had to kind of like remind them that if they didn't vote
this way, they would not do well in the midterms. And they did
vote the right way and they did very very well in the midterms. And
I feel like that's also what we're going through right now. Just generally speaking,
we have a completely out of control Justice Department, and historically speaking,
maybe what Republicans would do would be complain about it. And I think we're
having to like help show like, Okay, it's not sufficient to complain.
You actually have to also take action with whatever limited power you have, and
reverting back to like this weak, impotent stance is not going to cut it
with the American people. And so I'm not even being like specific about what
are some of the things we talk about that need to be done, but
just that real action has to be taken to stop the slow slide into the
abyss that we seem to be. Yeah, I don't know. I never
have when I was a local columnist, And I'm just saying that sometimes I
think local journalism or journalists matter more than national journalists in a way because you
know, it's just a small, smaller pond, you know, or it's
just a pond instead of it Like but whatever I would, I was an
attack dog. I didn't see my job as come up with solutions. That's
your job. You're a politician, You make policy. My job is to
say what you're doing stinks and what you're doing is destructive and you're being a
coward, right, And I think just pointing out when people are being cowards
is a very good and important job. Listen. I'm not saying our jobs
are, like you, more important than whatever people who are listening do.
I don't think we're that important. But you or I and you have a
bigger one, but I have one too. We have a microphone right now,
and we can point these things out to a lot of people, and
I think that's vital. I don't think I need to come up with solutions.
You need to come up with solutions, not you. Um, I'm
not a political person. I know it's weird to say. You said it
I think earlier in this episode, but I'm not a political I don't like
politics. Does that make sense to you? Yes? I sometimes like,
I'm so confused at how my life ended up where I am like I I
write about it, we edit about it, I go on TV and talk
about I'm like, I'm not this isn't even on my top ten list of
things I care about. But I get in our writing as well. I
feel like we're talking about the world and how it affects us. We don't
actually like the process of how these things are achieved, right, I mean,
I don't care about like how Congress works exactly, like all the stupid
like tools they have to do what they do. I care about the end
result and where you stand and where you know and how brave or cowardly you
are. Does that make sense? Yeah? And like with the Russia clusion
hoax, I knew it was my job to report the truth on that,
and I'm very pleased with how that turned out. And I think that getting
the truth out there really was important. But I do sympathize with people who
say yes, and now that we know the truth of what happened, someone
should actually be held not just someone, everyone who participated in that should be
held accountable. And instead we have like half of a person being held accountable.
It is no way to run a country. But I can't, Like
I can be the journalist who exposes the wrongdoing, I can't also be the
legal strategist. I'm not even a lawyer, you know. Like I can't
be the Capitol Hill strategist. I have no experience there. Like I'm counting
on other people to take the information that we get out there and run with
it, and everyone needs to kind of up their game a little bit,
because like I already feel like I can't be the person who has to debunk
every single falsehood that the left does. Like at some point, y'all need
to kind of step up as well. And just what I mean by that
too, is like with the Kavanaugh thing, everybody with a brain should have
figured out right away that that was a hoax. Everyone, certainly everyone who's
not a leftist, because the people and left probably did know it was a
hoax. Everyone who's not a leftist journalist should have done that. And instead,
like we're out there having to like not just report the facts, but
kind of like help the other people on the right get the courage to also
be out there. And then we're also supposed to be like, well,
you're supposed to have a plan for what to do to fix the you know,
to get this nomination through or whatever. It's like we can't do everything.
Other people really do need to step up, and particularly the political class
I think needs to step way up. And like it's kind of shocking that
you have Republicans with like this tiny, tiny majority in the House and they're
actually you know, like certainly a lot that you could complain about, but
they're actually getting stuff done. And then you have like supposedly the most brilliant
mind and the history of politics, Mitch McConnell, and he can't do anything,
Like, he can't do anything rhetorically, he can't do anything strategically,
he can't get anything done. He can't even like be a resistance to what's
getting done. And it's like, that's not my job to be Senate minority
leader. That's your job, Like do it, do it well? Sorry?
No, I love that. I love that. It's like when people
sometimes attack me and they're like, no one agrees with you on this abortion
thing that you're writing, or no one agrees with you. I don't care.
Who cares if they agree with me. What I'm writing is what I
think is the truth, the moral and political truth. It's your job to
like package it with fancy euphemisms it sell it to people and commercials. I
don't know how to do any of that. I told you this a million
times, Molly. Literally, I don't think of the three other people live
in this house that I would win an election for anything in this house.
I cannot convince people to agree with me. That is the job of professionals
who are supposed to do that. But man, okay, but you're wrong.
You're very persuasive in your I don't think. But anyway, Molly,
I hope you have a nice vacation. It's been a pleasure doing this these
episodes with you and learning more about you. I learned a lot of things
I didn't know about how you became a journalist and your thought process and all
that, and your matchmaking skills, which I still think we should do a
whole episode on because it's really fascinating. How because I don't understand women at
all, even though there are three other three of them in my house,
and and so I found that very fascinating. I actually cut it off because
I thought maybe people wouldn't care, but we'll see what the reaction is,
and if they do, maybe we can do an episode on that. So
thank you and everyone else be lovers of freedom and anxious for the frame.