Join Mike Gallagher as he recounts his latest adventures navigating Washington, D.C. during the inauguration. From attending glamorous balls to enduring the bitter cold, Mike’s stories are both entertaining and insightful. Listen as he shares the chaotic but memorable experiences of traversing the city when security is at its highest and public transportation at a standstill, including a pricey pedicab ride that becomes a tale for the ages. In this episode, Mike and Mark Davis dive deep into the political atmosphere surrounding the inauguration. With discussions on security concerns, the potential for political distractions, and recent pardons causing a
Mike Gallagher. Every day, Mike visits with Mark Davis. Morning host on 660 AM, The Answer in Dallas. Here’s today’s Eminem experience.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hail to the host. Is that for you or me? That’s for you. I’m standing. I’m standing. I’m standing for you.
SPEAKER 04 :
We properly welcome you in. Good morning, President Davis.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, my goodness gracious me. We made it.
SPEAKER 05 :
We got here. We did it.
SPEAKER 02 :
We did it. We’re here. We did it. I’m exhausted from last night. I can’t even get through the show. Please tell me your last night stories. Well, let me start. Oh, my God. I got stories. Have I got stories? Let me share with you all of us getting from the South Carolina ball at the Smithsonian over to the Salamander Hotel where the Turning Point USA ball was being held from Charlie Kirk’s group. Now, Washington, Mark, you know, Washington, D.C. I know Washington, D.C. I’ve been coming here for years. I have never seen security like this. They shut to traffic the whole flipping city down. You can’t get a vehicle from point A to point B. So what do you got to do? You got to walk because all of the streets are closed. Metro working? Yeah, and I’m going to get on the Metro. I’ll do that. You want me to get lit on fire? I’d like to not get lit on fire on Inauguration Eve.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’re going on the New York subway, which is 20 times more dangerous, but anyway.
SPEAKER 02 :
I don’t know the metro here. I ain’t doing metro, so we’re walking. And it’s bitter cold. Now, you’ve got to picture this. I’ve got an overcoat. I bought the last overcoat available in the state of Florida because they don’t sell overcoats in Florida. I was going to say, why not? It’s about the composition of a windbreaker. It’s like a long… I thought I’d get clever and get a red MAGA tie. It’s like a tissue paper. It doesn’t keep my neck warm. So we’re walking and we’re walking and we’re all of a sudden. And it’s got you got picture this Joey Hudson, his wife, Peg. She’s in a beautiful ball gown. She’s complaining because it’s cold as you know what. She’s got her coat. She’s shivering. Phil Boyce, our boss, he’s marching along with his gray ski cap on and his overcoat that he ordered from Amazon because he’s in Orlando. He couldn’t find any overcoats either. So we’re all moaning and groaning. And it’s about a mile and a half, two miles in the cold, in the bitter cold. So along come two… foreigners on pedicabs you know what pedicabs are you know the guy with the bike the rickshaw the little rickshaw he’s got a he’s he’s pedaling a two-seater and they stop and i wave them down i thought guys this is our an answer to a prayer and by the way those ain’t cheap ain’t cheap brace yourself So they buckle us in. And it’s like the two brothers from Saturday Night Live. Remember the Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd brothers? Were those the brothers? We are the wild and crazy guys. These are the brothers. They’re our pedicab drivers. And they put blankets over us. I’m back in the thing under a blanket with my boss, Phil Boyce. Totally like an immigrant. Joey and Peggy. And the immigrants are taking us, the illegals, they’re worried about getting deported, so they’re already grumpy. And they’re driving us. And, of course, they’ve got to blare the obnoxious music because those pedicabs, they put on music tracks. So we’re in the darkened streets of D.C. with YMCA blaring out of our pedicabs. And I lean over to Phil, and they’re taking their time. Now they’re going to charge us by the minute. By the minute. By the minute. He says he’s got a stopwatch. He’s got a stopwatch, right? Well, he’s taking his sweet time. I lean over to Phil. I said, Phil, you know what this is going to cost us? He said, well, I’m going to plan on giving him a 20. I said, a 20? We get to the Salamander Hotel, and Raji and Gigi pull out their calculators, and they say, okay, that’ll be $376. Now, I say to the one guy who’s kind of the guy that can speak English, my guy can’t speak English. The other guy speaks broken English. I said, is that for both? He said, yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s for both. I thought, well, okay. So I walk away. Well, now he chases me down. He goes, no, no, no, no, no, no, both. $376 each. Yeah, he thought both meant… Yeah, exactly. He thought both meant the two people.
SPEAKER 03 :
$376 for you? Oh, the two people in his pedicab.
SPEAKER 02 :
In his pedicab. No, no. But it didn’t mean to… It was $740 to drive a mile and a half in two pedicabs. Now, Joey’s arguing with him. I said, Joey… He said, this is outrageous. This is ridiculous. And I’m trying to get away. I’m thinking, we’re going to get shot or stabbed. There’s going to be an international incident. And all I want to do is get inside to the turning point ball and see the village people sing YMCA in person. And the final indignity, and we’ll get off of this, the guy wanted a tip from Joe.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, Jesus. That’s exactly what I was going to ask you.
SPEAKER 02 :
What do you tip on top of $700? On top of $700? I can hear Joey bellowing in his unmistakable southern accent. A tip? A tip? You want a tip on top of $750?
SPEAKER 05 :
Are you out of your mind?
SPEAKER 02 :
And I’m just thinking, that’s my night. This is it. This is a Gallagher production. So we made it inside. Now, it was pandemonium at the Salamander Hotel. The turning point ball, that was the ball, I guess. It was just chaos to get in. It was crazy. I have never… I’ll tell you what, it was so overwhelming. Now, there was security to go through the metal detector. We were supposed to have a high-level ticket to get… No ticket. We got in without anything. They didn’t ask for a ticket. They didn’t ask for a name on a list. We just got… I mean, look, anybody… But I noticed that the guys doing security, I kid you not, for the Charlie… This shows you where Charlie Kirk is in the ecosystem. U.S. Secret Service. Hello. They had Secret Service guys doing the security. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like it. And, of course, let’s get back to the big picture for a moment about the whole inauguration weekend. Mm-hmm. All this business of moving it inside, and there’s a lot of rumors about why. I’m getting word from my sources here on the Hill, and these are congressional staffers, and even one particular member of Congress told me, this doesn’t have anything to do with the weather. It is not weather-related. There is a massive security concern about the safety and the health and the well-being of President Trump. And everybody who would have been attending today, and that’s why they moved it indoors. That’s what I’m hearing anyway. I’m going to hold that at a big arm’s length.
SPEAKER 03 :
Because I think those who know ain’t talking and those who are talking don’t know, for the most part. What if it were 45 degrees and sunny? Going to move it inside then? Or is this just a, I mean, I’m willing to believe that the cold weather gives them an excuse to do something that seems like an extra safety move. I believe that. Well, wait a minute. So you’re putting what at arm’s length? You don’t believe that? The notion that security is the main thing. It’s 10 flipping degrees. People are going to have to be outside for five hours.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s 28 and it’s sunny. It is sunny skies and 28 degrees with a light wind. There’s a lot of hype about the weather. Mark, it was colder for the Obama administration. It was colder for JFK. Colder for JFK. Now, you know, I don’t know. Look, we don’t have to get hung up on this because what I don’t want to do, and I walked into the studio today so angry at this pardon. I’m so upset about what happened. What Biden did, this evil, desperate act of of letting them get away with it. Fauci, Liz Cheney, the I didn’t think he was going to do it. I didn’t think he had the guts to do the gall to do it. Mark Milley, Fauci and the January 6th committee members, including Cassidy Hutchinson, that liar who who perjured herself. You did a lot of terrible. He he he’s going to let him go. I’ll get away with it. Liz Cheney. The only reason you look. They got away with it. But but here’s what I don’t want to happen. I hope Trump doesn’t take the bait. I think it’s an absolute troll move. It’s to stick it to the the the the exuberance of today. It’s to try to put a cast a pall over that. I hope Trump barely acknowledges it. And because, look, Mark, the great one, Mark Levin posted today on X. Once again, it’s mourning in America. Finally, we take back our country from those destroying it. And we’re talking to you, Anthony Fauci. We’re talking to you, Liz Cheney. This is me talking. None of it would have been possible today without you, the American people, and the courage and leadership of President Trump, a historic and iconic person. Today is the long-awaited day. Thank you, our soon-to-be 47th president. God bless you and keep you safe. Let’s remember that. I don’t want to get, in fact, on the show today, I just do not want to get distracted by how angry and just enraged I am. That smirking Liz Cheney, to think that that bad person is going to get away with this, Mark.
SPEAKER 03 :
But does she, because here’s the first thing that occurs to me as the news of that hit my laptop. Fauci and Cheney in particular, I don’t think anybody cares about Mark Milley, but Fauci and Liz Cheney in particular. Heavy iron doors were never going to slam behind them. That was never going to happen. Mightn’t there have been some type of legal action? Maybe. But they are reputationally destroyed. The court of public opinion has rendered its verdict, and they’ll always be welcome at Manhattan cocktail parties. But by and large, they are damaged goods for life, and I’m pretty good with it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I get it. I guess that’s that’s that’s a good way to look at it. And I’m going to try to hold that in my heart because I’m capable. I’m a petty, shallow, small, small man. I’m a little Denise would say, Gallagher, you’re a little man. I’m just furious. I mean, I can’t I can’t believe I really thought when we got to like yesterday and the day before, I thought, well, maybe he’s not going to do it.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’re in the final hours. He’s not going to do anything. But what? No, he’s. Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Here we go. Well, one last middle finger. And the timing is everything for him. They’re doing it to try to cast a poll. And isn’t it hysterical to watch their rage over TikTok? Think about this over the TikTok ban. 170 million American TikTok users were greeted to a message yesterday that said, welcome back to TikTok. Thanks to President Trump. Do you realize the goodwill? I mean, imagine that negotiation behind the scenes. Trump said, OK, I’ll bail you out. But you make sure you send everybody a message because it was I’ve got a tick tock account. I looked at the box and it says thanks to President Trump’s assurances that he’s going to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Tick tock is back. So young people are now saying, hey, way to go, Trump. Young people. I mean, the goodwill that he was engendered by this move. And they hate it. That’s why they’re furious. Because, look, he did an about face on it. It wasn’t all long ago. He was saying it’s got to be banned. In the first term, he thought the ban was possibly a good idea. And folks like Charlie Kirk are getting called out because they were calling TikTok evil and it needs to be banned. You and I have talked about this a lot. We have. I’ve never been comfortable with a TikTok ban. I don’t know how you do it. I don’t know why you do it. I don’t know why you shoot. Can’t two things be true at once? Can we not put up guardrails to make sure that the Chinese are not spying on us and taking our data and keep the app running? Is there no way to do that?
SPEAKER 03 :
And if anybody’s concerns are profound enough, don’t be on TikTok. If you don’t want Beijing, you know, knowing anything about you, even though the entire world knows everything about you already, then don’t have a TikTok account.
SPEAKER 02 :
I said that over and over again. And then people get frustrated with me. But I keep saying that. Well, it’s about my kids. OK, how about keep your kids off TikTok? Exactly. Right. For crying out loud. Be a mom or dad anyway. But again, Trump today, he’s expected to take over 200 executive actions on day one. Look, I settled into the hotel room last night after these balls and it was fun. And, you know, the South Carolina ball was wonderful over at the Smithsonian. We were in the portrait gallery and the band was playing and everybody’s cheering. Cheering and laughing and smiling. Mark, this is so epic to get here after as hard as we fought. And I’m talking about you, Mark. I’m talking about me. I’m talking about our audience. We fought so hard in 2024. And look what we experienced and look what we achieved.
SPEAKER 03 :
Today is the payoff. It is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. I am so glad that you are there. Me too. The final couple of minutes, what do you want from his speech? Remember his speech from 2017? It was critics, which we are always going to do, called it dark and foreboding. Well, it kind of was because he identified the various ways in which America and the world were mightily screwed up. And the first thing you’ve got to do to make a problem better is identify what the problem is. And he did so, and he didn’t varnish anything. Oh, it’s so dark. It was a wonderful inaugural address first time.
SPEAKER 02 :
What do you look for today? Well, I believe he’s going to, if the reports are correct, he’s going to really stress unity. That’s going to be a big part of the theme. He’s going to say, you know, look, Democrats and Republicans, we all have got to get together to make this country great again together. He has the highest approval rating he’s ever had in his life. He’s about 60 percent. A lot of even a lot of Democrats are maybe silently cheering for him. We’ve got to we’ve got to turn this all around. We’ve got to we’ve got to close these borders. We’ve got to make groceries affordable again. We’ve got to be concerned about the Chinese. We’ve got to be concerned about the Middle East. Look at the Trump effect. And God bless them. There were three hostages who are now are now home. You know, that wasn’t Biden had 15 months to do a deal and he didn’t get a deal done. Trump got that done. So it’s the Trump effect. I use that phrase, the golden era, a lot, but it’s also the Trump effect. And I hope his message is going to be, and I hope he says it. We’ve got to roll up our sleeves. He’s inheriting a mess. Let’s not sugarcoat it. Biden is leaving him. Biden is leaving him with a dumpster fire, Mark. Good way to put it. But if anybody’s capable of putting it out, it’s our McDonald’s fry cooker and our garbage truck driver. Exactly. And our chief firefighter, Donald J. Trump.
SPEAKER 03 :
I hope they drive that garbage truck out onto the floor of the arena today. We don’t get a parade. Please give us the garbage truck inside the arena. That’s hysterical.
SPEAKER 02 :
By the way, we’re going to be carrying the inauguration on our show because of the timing and all that. We’ve got some weird, funky times with our show and your show and my show. And we’re going to be live with the inauguration coverage here on 660 AM, The Answer. Can’t wait. I got a report that somebody from South Carolina, program director, said, did they move the swearing in to 1140? Have you seen that anywhere?
SPEAKER 03 :
No. It’s supposed to be noon, right? Oh, yeah. Straight up. I think that’s kind of the rules.
SPEAKER 02 :
11 Central.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, that’s all right. We’ll roll with the punches, and we’re going to keep it right here all day.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I can’t wait for tomorrow’s Eminem segment, because tomorrow’s Mike and Mark segment, we have a different president. Isn’t that crazy?
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m still pinching myself. I love it. Let us rejoice and be glad. It’s a big, big day. And I’m so glad. And you know what? I’m going to say finally, quick note personally. The only thing I missed last night was you. We would have had so much fun together. One of these days, we’ve got to do one of these epic events together because I was sending you pictures like a teenager. It was tremendous. I feel like I’m there. Well, I feel like you are there. Except I have feeling in my extremities. Yeah, yeah. And you’re not out $747. Exactly. Wait till the bosses get my expense account.
SPEAKER 04 :
He’s going to expense it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, I’m going to turn it in. Of course he is. I’m going to turn it in. This may be my last day. Hey, I loved it. I loved the ride. I enjoyed working with you, Mark. Yeah, I’ll be out. Chris DeGaulle will be doing middays. It may be the last Mike Gallagher show, but we’re going to make it a good one.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’re ready for you, buddy.
SPEAKER 02 :
I love you. Have a great time.
SPEAKER 03 :
Greetings from Washington.
SPEAKER 01 :
Okay, take care.
SPEAKER 03 :
Greetings from D.C. Mike is here for us on 660 AM The Answer.
SPEAKER 01 :
Download the podcast and hear all of Mike and Mark’s conversations at MikeOnline.com for the M&M experience.
