The episode takes a stark turn as our conversation shifts to the stabbing of Iryna zarutska on a North Carolina train. We explore the public’s response to a tragic event, where a woman lost her life amidst an audience of passive bystanders. The dialogue questions societal tendencies to distance oneself from immediate crises, and we delve into the implications of free speech and public discourse in digital spaces, considering the impact of what we choose to share and see online. Join us for a thought-provoking conversation that leaves no topic untouched.
Light My Fire, their composition. Along comes Jose Feliciano with his version in 1968, and everybody loved this too. It’s a masterpiece. And Jose Feliciano is 80 today. It was either this or Feliz Navidad, so I think I made the right choice. I want to take a little Feliz Navidad. Absolutely. I would, too. Every once in a while, I will crank out, when it’s 147 degrees, I’ll crank out a little Winter Wonderland or something like that just to provide a little relief.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s my Christmas goal. I told you what we’re doing. I’ve decided to lean into the family. Yep. I’m going to try Montana. I don’t even know. We’re looking somewhere. Here’s the Clark Griswold Christmas wish list. Yep. I want a house with a fireplace. Yep. I want snow. I want happy reindeer. I want hot chocolate. Happy reindeer. I want happy reindeer.
SPEAKER 02 :
So no depressed reindeer.
SPEAKER 01 :
I don’t want any grumpy reindeer. I need up-tempo reindeer. Very good. I’ve decided we’re going to have a ho-ho-ho happy friggin’ Christmas.
SPEAKER 02 :
Doggone it, you’re going to have a good time if it kills me.
SPEAKER 01 :
Oh, they’re going to enjoy whether it kills me. You will enjoy this Christmas. You will have a good, happy Christmas. Because I’ve got to navigate the crazy Gallagher family, because half of them don’t like the other half of them, and there’s all this coordination I’ve got to do, so… I had the heart-to-heart with one of them the other day. Was there progress?
SPEAKER 02 :
Is it looking promising?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, it’s kind of sad. He’s going to have to sit it out. But that’s okay. He’s got his wife. Well, yeah, we’re not going to have everybody under one roof. That’s not going to work.
SPEAKER 02 :
So you’re going to farm them out across several states. It’s like going in shifts. You’re going to be in Idaho. You’ll be in Colorado. You’ll be in Montana.
SPEAKER 01 :
I mean, you do not want the Manson family getting together over the holidays because there’ll be 911 calls and everything else. Are you going to VRBO it, Airbnb it? Yeah, that’s what we’re doing, VRBO.
SPEAKER 02 :
I think it’s, is it VRBO or VRBO? Well, if it’s an acronym, it’s VRBO. Well, but it’s not an acronym. It doesn’t stand for it.
SPEAKER 01 :
I used to call it VRBO, but I don’t think they call it that. I think they call it, I think they say VRBO.
SPEAKER 02 :
Whatever.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, get it right, talk show boy. I know. All right, so whatever it is. I’m going to try to find something. I don’t even know where to go. I mean, I started looking at Aspen last night. That was pretty good. I could get a house for $47,000. I was going to say it’s a little pricey. Good Lord.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know what people love? You know what I’ve heard just purely anecdotally? Steamboat Springs. Steamboat Springs, Colorado? Is it Christmassy?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, you’re in the Rockies, and so, you know, it’s going to snow. I want snow. I want a fireplace. I want hot chocolate. I want peace on earth, goodwill toward men.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, indeed.
SPEAKER 01 :
Oh, boy. Because, you know, I need some good news because there’s so much bleakness. I mean, Mark, the video, they released the… unedited video of the murder of Irina Zirutskaya. And it is so horrific. It’s so… And to see the other people on the train just look at her. She’s terrified. She’s bleeding out. She’s holding… You know… I don’t know what we thought happened when he plunged the knife into her, but I guess in the movies you fall down and you die, but you’re done instantly.
SPEAKER 02 :
No, she literally was sitting there looking up, wondering what happened to me. Why did you do this to me? She’s conscious and upright for several seconds.
SPEAKER 01 :
Oh, I mean, 15, 30 seconds. The Daily Mail describes it this way. A new video lays bare. the ghoulish behavior of passengers who filmed Irina Zarutskaya as she bled out on a North Carolina train rather than rushing to her aid. Several onlookers can be seen pulling out their phones and recording as the Ukrainian refugee took her final breaths, following the unprovoked attack that has shocked the nation. Now, you know, I always wonder about human behavior in a story like this, because a lot of people say, well, I’d rush right in. This guy is this big, hulking, menacing, weapon-wielding monster, you know? A lot of people are going to say, well, I don’t want my throat cut. Well, he had left. He was down. Right, right. But when you see, I know, I mean, that’s part one. Part one is people saying they would have tried to confront the guy or restrain him. But at the very least, rush to her aid. She was awake for those last seconds. She could see that nobody, she looked over at the woman next to her. And, you know, I’m going to get in trouble for raising this. Is race a factor there, too? Because every one of those passengers were black. She was the only white woman, I think, in that whole train.
SPEAKER 02 :
We’d have to go back in a time tunnel and have a black person attacked and see if they would have helped that person. I don’t know. Right?
SPEAKER 01 :
I know. I know. And it makes me weary because, look, as I said yesterday, that Potato Head— Stelter was right. There’s a lot of racist things being said right now. I saw Black MAGA Conservative, I think is his handle, or something like that, some derivation of that, saying, hey, please don’t hate all black people for this. But nobody is…
SPEAKER 02 :
I mean, that’s always – not nobody. Nobody meaningful. You can’t run life according to the sliver of horrible behavior online that you’ll get on X, that you’ll get on – that’s not reality. That’s not the mainstream. You’re right. But what sadly is the mainstream is what you’ve now brought up, the sad notion of we’re all on our phones, we’re in our bubble, nothing, this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening, I shouldn’t do anything. So is this, I think I’m going to tackle this in the 9 o’clock hour today, do we need laws? And I know this is really tricky. As soon as I say it, it’s like, how do you even do this? Should there be a legal penalty for doing nothing as someone dies five feet from you?
SPEAKER 01 :
I mean, it’s that whole Good Samaritan thing. I don’t know. I mean, how do you punish somebody for not rendering aid?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, what’s the sentence for that? It’s like, what? So maybe the answer is an instant no, but I will ask.
SPEAKER 01 :
Somebody, I follow Eric Matheny over on X, and he said something that was pretty profound. He said, Irina Zarutska will be a turning point for criminal justice in America. Gone are the days of gentle policing. and defunding police departments and replacing officers with social workers. This social experiment has failed. Either that or you’re going to see vigilantism skyrocket. Now, the only problem with his argument is twofold. Number one, did you see the Charlotte mayor?
SPEAKER 02 :
But it’s a Democrat primary.
SPEAKER 01 :
I know, but wouldn’t you think even Democrats would say enough of this? I mean, she’s out there. She didn’t even want the video shared. And by the way, can I ask you that question? Because I’m going to tackle this when I go on the air a little bit later today, when I start my show. And, you know, we’ve got a video platform called Salem News Channel. You and I are seen every day on Salem News Channel. We’re seen on X. In fact, we’re streaming this right now on X. If you want to check it out, follow me at Gallagher Show. Follow Mark at Mark Davis. And we’re really proud of Salem News Channel. It’s a great streaming video platform featuring all of our shows. And so we have the opportunity to see things as well as hear them on our radio shows. Mark, should we play this video on Salem News Channel, on the Mike Gallagher show today? Should people see it?
SPEAKER 02 :
Not the part where she is stabbed. The horrific aftermath, and because again, it’s not particularly graphic. It is graphic in what you are seeing, but it’s not, you know…
SPEAKER 01 :
physically graphic she’s not spurting blood she’s holding her hands over her face and you’re right i mean she had glasses on they got knocked off obviously when he was stabbing her she’s looking up at him with this look of terror she was crying obviously um and i’m gonna go yes i’m gonna go yes you’re gonna go yes and i and i don’t always her family her family has asked it not to be released
SPEAKER 02 :
Of course they have, and please, of course I understand that, but we can’t conduct media purely on the sensitized nerve endings of grieving family. We can’t. There’s a job to be done. Can the job be done without this video? Yes. Is it necessary? No. But it delivers something that just you and I talking about it cannot.
SPEAKER 01 :
And there’s a purpose to it, because let’s consider something for a moment. Had it not been for X, The country would not have seen this, you know, I mean, because the media was suppressing it. Wikipedia was deleting it. They didn’t want you to see it. They don’t want you to see it because it blows up their narrative and it reaffirms. Look, this is not a MAGA talking point like the New York Times put it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Conservatives, Trump. Conservatives pounce. It’s Trump acolytes who are making this a big deal. Or the Axios, I think Axios or Politico headline you gave me, that Irina Zerutskaya in her death has been dragged into the political arena. What? What? It’s just people caring about her. It’s people daring to care about her.
SPEAKER 01 :
A woman is savagely murdered and these ghouls are upset about not the murderous devil who killed her, but the video or race. Did you see what Van Jones said about the killer? He was hurting.
SPEAKER 02 :
He was hurting.
SPEAKER 01 :
He said hurting people hurt people. Hey, Van, now do Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis. You think he was hurting with George Floyd? I mean, my gosh, these people have lost their minds. Headline, New York Times. This is an actual headline. North Carolina ignites a firestorm on the right. North Carolina ignites a firestorm on the right. So it’s just us who are upset about what this woman went through. Now, here’s a question. Riddle me this, Batman, Mr. Digital Media Guru. Would Twitter, under the old regime, the Jack Dorsey era, would they have censored the stabbing video?
SPEAKER 02 :
Probably. And not and not only the stabbing video, but maybe those who sought to make the point that maybe the problem that led to this and will lead to this again is society’s propensity to fail to deliver consequences to criminals of color for fear of an accusation of racism. And so if you come out with that opinion, I think that might have been shut down as well. As hate speech.
SPEAKER 01 :
And here’s what we’re uncovering. This is why it’s so important, and I’m glad we’re having this tough conversation. Millions of Americans right now are discovering that you can become a judge, a magistrate judge. Mm-hmm. in many states, without even being a licensed lawyer. Do you know Teresa Stokes? DEI? I mean, look, I get the criticism of DEI. A lot of people on the left say, oh, you conservatives, you say everybody you don’t like who’s a person of color is a DEI hire. That’s racist. That’s so demeaning. All right, well, Teresa Stokes… the magistrate judge who released this guy after 14 violent arrests. This guy wasn’t arrested for, you know, minor shoplifting. This is a bad guy. This guy armed robbery and all this kind of, she never passed the bar exam. She’s a judge. She’s a Harris donor, of course, no law degree. Jesse Waters revealed last night that a clerk who calls herself a DEI consultant and a racial equity organizer was part of the whole process that freed Irina Zarutska’s killer. Look, this is all front and center now, my friend, and we would have never known about it.
SPEAKER 02 :
And it’s depressing on its face. And yet, free speech is breaking out all over. Thank God for Elon, who seems to have regained some shred of sanity lately. Thank God for free speech in our environment that we enjoy, for free speech in the online environment. does seem like a tipping point, and God bless the memory of Irina Zarutskaya, may her death be viewed as a point at which America comes to its senses and realizes that we have to stop the reckless practices that lead to monsters like this roaming free. And if that is her legacy, I hope her family, those who do love her, and all of us who hold her up and remember her name and say her name, I hope we can view this, that she is a part of that history.
SPEAKER 01 :
Mark, may your words resonate throughout the country. I hope you’re right. I pray you’re right. I fear you’re not. I know that New York is on the verge of electing a guy that will absolutely take these policies and put them on steroids. And people are stupid enough to repeat the same dumb behavior. But maybe you’re right. This one has made a difference. This one, I think, is, I hope it’s the watershed moment we need. I do, too. So, meanwhile, off we go to a Wednesday. All right. We are ready for you. All right. Sorry for the sad, somber content today. I hate it. It is appropriate.
SPEAKER 02 :
But yet, inside each somber moment, there’s an opportunity for uplift and optimism and doing something about it.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen.
SPEAKER 02 :
I love you. That is Mike Gallagher, and his show follows ours as soon as we’re done at 10 on 660 AM The Answer.
