Is this this guy that nobody knows at the Kennedy Center?
SPEAKER 02 :
Exactly. What’s his name, Bella? It is Bella Fleck and the Flecktones. They’re awesome. I’ve been a fan of his, theirs for a long time.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know nobody knows who that is, right? You know that, right?
SPEAKER 02 :
It is a… Acquired taste? Or a narrow, esoteric kind of thing. The sort of stuff that I traffic in all the time.
SPEAKER 01 :
Quirky. That’s you. This is who you are.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s kind of a bluegrassy, mandolin-y, banjo-y. And the guy’s been an aficionado of that for a long, long time. And a maestro of that for a long time. And I’ve been a fan of his.
SPEAKER 01 :
So he drops out. He doesn’t want to perform at the Trump Kennedy Center. Yeah, and I decided to send him a note about that. Well, see, isn’t it weird how the X algorithms work? Because you were the very first comment, and it’s because you’re verified and you’ve got a big following on X. And incidentally, come on, join us. The water’s fine here at X. We post the Eminem experience live on the Mike Gallagher Show X account every day so you can see. I don’t know why you’re all dressed up every day lately.
SPEAKER 02 :
Is it the new studio? I’m doing video stuff. doing various other things, and so, you know.
SPEAKER 01 :
There’s something going on. He doesn’t want, hey, ladies and gentlemen, he doesn’t want us to know, but he’s dressed up for something. Maybe a job interview. You looking for another job?
SPEAKER 02 :
As I said yesterday, people notice I said, hey, dress for the job you want. As I said that, whoa, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER 01 :
But we do the Eminem Experience live every day on the Mike Gallagher Show X account, so go over there and follow us at Gallagher Show.
SPEAKER 02 :
Are you running us right now? We better be.
SPEAKER 01 :
I hope we sure are. At Gallagher Show, it’s live.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m going to go retweet that right now as we tell this very weird story of online.
SPEAKER 01 :
And they promised me they’re going to fix that ugly beige carpet background you got right now. We’ve got to get a nice background for you. Do you know what’s going to be behind my head within days?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, a monitor, right? A monitor that you could hang from the Empire State Building and see.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, welcome to my world.
SPEAKER 02 :
I hope the wall will hold it. I mean, it’s kind of crazy.
SPEAKER 01 :
The one behind me right now is 85 inches.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’ll bet mine’s bigger than yours.
SPEAKER 01 :
I’ll bet it is.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s not the size of a monitor. It’s what you do with it.
SPEAKER 01 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 02 :
So here’s what I did. So this Bella Fleck, who I’ve been a fan of. I mean, I kind of cared. Bella Fleck. He said, oh, I’m yanking my performance from the Kennedy Center because of Trump. Because it’s politicized. Now, this is what set me off a little bit. And Trump’s sticking his name on the Kennedy Center, which is just vintage Trump trolling, right? It’s just vintage. I don’t care. Some people ask me, should he have done it? I don’t care.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, by the way, real quick, you know we’re like one day away from him putting a big neon Trump White House sign on the side of the White House, right? Fine. Any day now he’s going to do that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Like everything else he’s done, it’ll get renamed. I mean, I don’t know if Vance will do it, but the next Democrat we have will undo all this.
SPEAKER 01 :
Or Marco.
SPEAKER 02 :
So I sent him a thing where Marco has said he’s not running if Vance does. If Vance does. What is he going to go do? what’s man’s gonna go do coach the buck guys let the game come to you so here’s bella whining and moaning that the trump adding his name was driven by politics there’s a difference trump’s thing was driven by ego and i think we can stipulate the man’s got some ego he’s very fond of himself his brand and what he’s doing for America? And by the way, with ample reason. So the real politics here, the political bigotry, the political hatred, the political venom is from all these idiot artists who are pulling their performances from the Trump Kennedy Center because they are costing employees. There are fans who don’t get to see them. And so I very tastefully and restrainedly said, uh, big fan here. Just want to say, uh, you’re the one who’s actually politicizing it by taking your, why don’t you meet your obligation to do the performance? and bag on him from the stage like everybody else is probably going to do. That’s free speech. That’s fine. Wouldn’t that be better? And I left that. I didn’t think twice about it until you told me that I was being absolutely lit on fire by the entire country. And it’s hilarious. These idiots. Oh, some of it is a lot of it is really vulgar and terrible. I mean, listen, Brigitte Macron ain’t getting cyberbullied. I’m getting cyberbullied, and I could not care less.
SPEAKER 01 :
I watched last night, and I’m looking at it, and you’re my friend, so I don’t like seeing it because it was hundreds and hundreds of, who is this Mark Davis? Somebody put a dunce hat on Mark. Hey, Grock, will you put a hat on this Mark Davis clown?
SPEAKER 02 :
That wasn’t the worst thing somebody asked to put on me, so…
SPEAKER 01 :
Could not possibly care less.
SPEAKER 02 :
Could not possibly care less.
SPEAKER 01 :
Speaking of not possibly caring less, I just have to say that I respectfully disagree with you. Number one, nobody knows who Bella Fleck is. Nobody cares if Bella Fleck is not going to perform at the Trump Kennedy Center.
SPEAKER 02 :
His ticket buyers did.
SPEAKER 01 :
Nobody cares. Well, his supporters probably don’t like Trump either, so they’re like, they’re okay, good, don’t go.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s funny you bring that up because 10, 10-ish years ago, whatever, it’s why I just hardly ever or don’t play any Springsteen anymore. And I love his body of work. I mean, that’s the soundtrack of my college days. When he canceled shows in North Carolina because North Carolina had a bathroom law where they actually care in North Carolina whether a dude follows your daughter into the men’s room, into the ladies’ room. And he said, you know, 10th Avenue, freeze out, I’m out. And that was so obnoxious, so ridiculous. And I thought, what is the mixed feeling of the ticket holder, the person who has a ticket to that Springsteen show in Charlotte, North Carolina? Are they, A, thrilled because the boss has taken a stand, or kind of peeved because I wanted to go see Springsteen? Or a combination of both.
SPEAKER 01 :
I just, I just, honest to gosh, I don’t know why anybody would, it’s an interesting question, I guess. That’s all. But it’s not like you won’t get your hands on a Springsteen song if he isn’t performing in Charlotte, North Carolina. Who cares?
SPEAKER 02 :
What do you mean get your hands on it?
SPEAKER 01 :
This is an opportunity to see him.
SPEAKER 02 :
Who cares? The people who go.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, so let them worry about it. Why do you care about the people who go? This is so weird to me. This is a disconnect. Honest to gosh, I’m not trying to be a smart aleck here. No, it’s fine. Your level of caring and urging Bella Fleck to reconsider his decision to not perform at the Trump Kennedy Center is one of the goofiest things I’ve ever heard you do. Why do you care? Are you trying to protect the Bella Fleck fans? of which you are one? No. Why do you care?
SPEAKER 02 :
Matter of principle. Because it’s not me losing sleep that he’s not going to be on the stage. I guess it’s just my way of saying how incredibly stupid it is for these people to engage. It’s comical.
SPEAKER 01 :
It’s comical. But I get it. If you’re a performer and you don’t like the politics, look, it is literally now the Trump Kennedy Center. So if you’re a performer and you don’t like the venue branded with the guy that you think is Orange Hitler. Right. Well, then don’t perform. Nobody’s going to lose any sleep. Rick Grinnell is doing a great job running that facility. Go somewhere else. Go to another facility. What, do you think that’s the only facility for Bella Fleck to play his banjo? Go to another theater and don’t worry Bella. Hey, Mark, Mark, listen. I say this with love and respect. I’m not losing it. Bella Fleck fans are going to be just fine. Don’t worry. They’re going to be okay. I might have picked up a listener or two.
SPEAKER 02 :
I don’t know. Because here’s the pendulum swinging the other way. As I was being eaten alive by thousands of earth shoe wearing granola munching Bella Fleck fans, I also picked up a bunch of people rushing to my defense.
SPEAKER 01 :
Good, good. I love that. Well. Well, they’re going to be okay, but let me tell you who’s not okay. Tell me you saw the Democrats’ candlelight vigil for January 6th yesterday. I did. I did. Mark, now, number one, let me just first start by saying, Tracy, my producer, every day we go through a show prep session, you know, and I start with clips that I want to play and topics I want to cover. And Tracy brings in stories about January 6th. I said, nope, nope. We’re not going to let the Democrats have their high holy day. Trump haters Christmas.
SPEAKER 02 :
It was Trump haters Christmas yesterday.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know what? Here’s a couple of other examples I loved on social media. You know what it’s like? It’s like a white Kwanzaa. I mean, it’s like a fake. It’s a it’s a fake holiday of Democrats who got nothing else in 2026. They think let’s try to hit people over the head with January. So there they are with a stupid candlelight vigil. And did you see that goofy Al Green from Texas waving the cane around in the air? Al Green with the cane. He is a character right out of a TV show. God bless America. Waving the cane and a candlelight vigil. What? Who’s the vigil for? Ashley Babbitt? Yeah. I rather doubt it. I doubt it very highly. She’s the only death. It’s the mythical five people who were killed by the rioters. They keep telling this lie, thinking we don’t know any better. Oh, five police officers were killed. What? There wasn’t a single police officer killed by anybody on January 6th. Brian Sicknick died, according to the Washington, D.C., medical examiner, of natural causes. The poor guy had a stroke.
SPEAKER 02 :
It happens.
SPEAKER 01 :
What do they say about the other cops? What is it? They committed suicide? You mean 1,000 knuckleheads behaving badly on the Capitol is going to cause you, a veteran law enforcement officer, to kill yourself? I know. I hate to speculate about one’s mental condition, but there were other things going on if they committed suicide after January 6th, besides January 6th.
SPEAKER 02 :
And did you see how this got covered for a moment on CBS News with Tony DuCobel last night? There was just a little 30-second thing. He said, hey, people, there was a little celebratory thank you appearance by folks who had been pardoned by Trump. And there’s Hakeem Jeffries saying that there are people who are trying to minimize January 6th. In other words, it was a balanced 30 seconds, and people freaked out like an asteroid was hurtling toward the Earth. Oh, F-U-C-B-S, oh, never watch it. Oh, did you see the tribute they gave to Marco Rubio? At the end, just having a little fun with him, holding every job, and they showed Marco as governor of Minnesota.
SPEAKER 01 :
But saluted him. But Tony DiCoppo said, we salute you, Marco Rubio. You’re the ultimate Florida man. Look, the Barry Weiss-branded CBS is something to behold. And the right people are triggered.
SPEAKER 02 :
The right people are up there.
SPEAKER 01 :
Exactly right. Listen, all I know is my day is made. Drive it into work. It’s foggy here in Tampa Bay. It’s nice and mild. We’re going to be in the upper 70s today. Same here. I saw a Waymo vehicle. They’re testing Waymo cars. They came to Tampa. And what they’re doing right now with Waymo’s, they got people, there was a lady, there was a little old lady behind the steering wheel. Because what they’re doing is, and she was sitting there on her phone because she doesn’t have to drive.
SPEAKER 02 :
Don’t you have to pay attention? Doesn’t the car pay attention whether your eyes are faced forward or something?
SPEAKER 01 :
No, no, no, no, that’s Tesla. That’s a self-driving car. There’s nobody in the Waymo, but what they’re doing is they’re testing the Waymos now in Tampa. What they do is they have people behind the wheel for a while to make sure it all works right, and then when they check off, no driver, car pulls up in front of your house, you hop in the back seat, it says, hello, Mark, takes you to the airport. You don’t have to talk to anybody. You don’t have to tip anybody. It’s the greatest thing since… And they’re coming to me.
SPEAKER 02 :
And they’re coming to me. They’re coming here to North Texas, aren’t they? That’s the story I hear. And you know what? You know I’m going to do it. I’ll do it. I’ll do it for you.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’ve got to do it. When I was in Phoenix a while ago, I took Waymos up and down the road just to go drive around. I went to Whataburger with Juan. I mean, I just loved it. I was so happy in the Waymos.
SPEAKER 02 :
You went places you didn’t have to go in order to do it.
SPEAKER 01 :
No, no, no. I did. I went to the pharmacy. I went to CVS, and I didn’t need to. But I thought, well, I want to get in a Waymo. And it’s cheap. It’s like 10, 15 bucks. coolest thing ever.
SPEAKER 02 :
My fear, my terror is kind of half a comedy bit, but only half because I am also a technology dork, a transportation dork, and there’s a part of this that I love. I’m intrigued by it and I am absolutely scared to death.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, and every time I mention Waymo, Elon fans point out that Elon Musk is going to do the same kind of thing. They’re calling them robo-taxis. They’re testing those things out in Austin right now. And what I hear is that the Elon version is 100 times better than the Waymos. By virtue of what? What does it do other than hopefully not kill you? It’s got a different kind of set of technology on the car. See, the Waymo cars, they got this giant dome. You’ll see them in North Texas. You’ll start to see them because they’re going to test them. And the dome, the lights are kind of spinning around. But it’s all this radar and all these sensors. But allegedly, the Elon robo taxis are going to even be better. Before we die, my friend, there will never be another driver-driven car in America.
SPEAKER 02 :
See, that’s my thing. I know I will take a driverless taxi ride before I die. My fear is that it will be moments before I die. That’s kind of the whole point. Teasing, half teasing, half hitting.
SPEAKER 01 :
It’ll hasten your demise. I love it. All right, Bella Fleck fan, you keep going. I love you. I will. Happy Wednesday.
SPEAKER 02 :
Happy Wednesday. Mike Gallagher at 10 o’clock. He’s going to rock. 6.60 a.m. the answer. For full shows live and on demand, it’s Salem News Channel.
