In this captivating episode of The Mike Gallagher Show, guest host Joey Hudson takes us through the latest headlines from D.C. to the controversial protest in Minneapolis. Discover the shocking details surrounding Don Lemon’s involvement in a disruptive church protest and the ensuing debates about accountability. As the story unfolds, Joey examines how these events influence America’s broader culture clash and what they mean for the future of political discourse.
From the wild world of D.C. politics to America’s culture clash, brace yourself for the reality check you’ve been waiting for. The one and only Mike Gallagher Show. Sitting in for Mike today, here’s Joey Hudson.
SPEAKER 01 :
Joey Hudson in for Mike. Glad to have you with us today. We’ve got a lot to catch up on, a lot of breaking news. The situation in Greenland is heating up. We’re going to jump into that and kind of break that down for you in today’s show. Also, this one is classic. Axios asks, A simple question of 20 potential Democrat presidential candidates for 2028 for the Democrat nomination. Ask them a very simple biological question, one that we’ve heard over and over that the left is scared to answer. And that is, can a man become a woman? Can a little boy become a little girl? Only one of the 20 actually answered. You might be surprised who that one was as well. We’re going to jump into that. And, of course, the headlines still coming out of Minneapolis. Seems like they have dominated the headlines now for a few weeks. Former CNN host, fired CNN host Don Lemon is still catching the heat after his following the anti-ICE protesters. into a church on Sunday. Now, I guess it probably looked good on paper to Don Lemon at the time. And look, maybe he thinks it was a success. He’s certainly getting a lot of attention for it. And who had even thought of Don Lemon until Sunday? We’d kind of put him out of our mind, right? Well, he’s back in the limelight. I hope he’s able to get lots of clicks and make some money on it, because, boy, is he in a situation, potentially, that there could be criminal charges brought against him. Now, of course, he’s defending his actions. He’s defending the actions of those protest groups. Yesterday, when we first started talking about the story, after it broke on Sunday, Don Lemon was claiming that he just happened… to come across this protest at this church. Of course, we learned as the day went on yesterday that Don Lemon actually had been part of this group. He had been with them prior to going to the church. He knew exactly what they were doing, and he was part of the coordination of it. Again, he wants those clicks. He wants people watching his video, because Don Lemon had just kind of fallen off the face of the earth until Sunday. Well, The protesters, of course, walked into this church. They totally disrupted the service. Now it’s a matter of, are we going to prosecute them? And what can we charge them with? And there’s a lot of theory going on out there. The Trump administration promised that they will investigate. Attorney General Pound Bondy says that that investigation has already started. And let’s just hope that this is not a situation where we hear someone saying, yes, we’re going to hold them accountable, and they really don’t. These people need to be held accountable. Don Lemon needs to be held accountable for doing what he knew was wrong. So let’s kind of jump into this. Lemon, as I said, initially claimed he just happened to come by this. He later admitted to the New York Post that, yeah, he was part of it. He was part of the coordination of this. After the backlash yesterday and Lemon saw, well, maybe this didn’t go exactly the way I had planned, he starts talking about why he did it. And he starts offering his theory of what he thinks is going on here. And cut number one, I want you to listen to Don Lemon’s explanation here. He suggested that the criticism was really not about the other demonstrators, the other protesters, but that they had targeted him, that singled him out. as a, quote, independent, gay, black, happy, successful man. He also said that the outrage is being fueled by intimidation, racism, and homophobia. Here’s Don Lemon in cut number one.
SPEAKER 05 :
And you are a prize for them, an independent, gay, black, happy, successful man. And this is an attempt to intimidate and beat you down.
SPEAKER 09 :
I don’t disagree with that. And I didn’t hear the first part, but I think that there is obviously there’s racism. And the whole point of it is that they’re detaining people on the streets because of accents and the color of their skin. And they’re also targeting people of color and black people as well as brown people. So there is a certain degree of racism there. And there’s a certain degree of entitlement. I think people who are In religious groups like that, it’s not the type of Christianity that I practice, but I think that they’re entitled, and that entitlement comes from a supremacy, a white supremacy.
SPEAKER 01 :
Okay, is this not getting old or what? We’re entitled. White people are entitled. It’s all about white supremacy. How did we go from Don Lemon and a group of protesters disrupting a church service, potentially violating federal law, to white supremacy? To entitlement? It’s like every situation that Don Lemon finds himself in. Even when he was fired from CNN, he always works it back around and inserts the racial component. It’s all about those entitled white guys. They’re after me. They don’t like a black gay man being successful. Now you tell me, does the fact that Don Lemon is a black gay man have anything to do with what he did on Sunday being wrong? Disrupting a church service? Did a group of white entitled men sit around a table somewhere and say, we’re going to go after Don Lemon? I mean, he’s the one who inserted himself into this national story, right? He’s the one who wanted the clicks. He’s the one who sought this group out somehow and was embedded with them. He’s the one who confronted the pastor And now he wants to talk about the entitlement, the white supremacy? This is where Lemon loses a lot of people, even some people who maybe consider themselves Democrats. Because I think most of America are tired of this argument, are tired of the entitlement narrative, are tired of the white supremacy narrative. Church goers who were there just to worship their God were scared. The kids, I’ve watched more of the video now, and you see parents kind of just hovering over their kids because their kids are terrified because they don’t know what these people, these lunatics running around within their congregation are going to do. Think about it. You’re sitting in church. And suddenly these people come into the sanctuary yelling and screaming. You don’t know if they’re armed or what their intentions are. Had to be terrifying for these kids. And Don Lemon, there he is with his camera and his microphone confronting one of the pastors. But no, that’s okay. Because the entitled white supremacists have targeted him because he’s a black gay man and a successful black gay man. Maybe he’s forgotten that CNN fired him. I don’t know. 800-655-MIKE, 800-655-6453. Love to get your comments. You can text me. You can call. Alex will put you in queue. We’ll talk as time permits. Email me directly, joey at joeyhudson.com. I’m Joey Hudson, in for Mike today.
SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 01 :
Mike Gallagher. Joey Hudson in for Mike today. Hope you’ll join the conversation. It’s real easy. 800-655-6453. You can call. Alex will put you in queue. We’ll talk as time permits. Send me a quick text message. Email me directly joey at joeyhudson.com. Let me take a moment to also invite you to join me on my daily podcast, Joey Hudson, Just the Truth. Just search for it wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also find it on YouTube. Just go to YouTube.com. And search for Joey Hudson. I’d love for you to subscribe to my channel and join me each day. A little bit of good news. I just want to pause here for a second and talk about this before we get into the chaos that continues in Minneapolis. Recently reported economic data shows signs of our economy really starting to turn around. And I hope that you’re starting to see a difference here. And I think we’re going to see even more as we get into 2026. America’s take-home pay is higher and has been higher the last few months than it had been in several years. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released last week shows average weekly earnings increased 1.42% after inflation. This was January through December of 2025. Now, 1.42%, that’s small, I get it, but at least it’s going in the right direction. It’s not going backwards like it did for those four years of Joe Biden. Retail spending up 3.3% on year-over-year basis in November, and it was up six-tenths of a percent. from October through December. So a sign that Americans are making a little more money, they’re spending a little more money, putting it into our economy. Those figures were slightly stronger than the expectations of economists going into December, according to Reuters. Lower interest rates, they’re down slightly as well. contributed to a surge in home sales, we’re told, as the National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales rose 5.1% in December. And again, these declining interest rates are helping with that. We’re not where we need to be. But again, we’re going in the right direction. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 6.19% in December, according to Freddie Mac. That represents a decrease from 6.24% in November of the previous year and 6.72% over the last 12 months. We’ve got work to do, but at least we’re starting to see some of the benefits of Donald Trump’s economic policies. And again, according to Scott Besson and others in the Trump administration, we’re about to really see a surge in take-home pay. When Americans start filing their income tax returns, some of the benefits that were put into place as part of the big, beautiful bill, We’re going to see those take effect, too. So lots of good stuff going on, even though we’re seeing a lot of this chaos around the country, particularly in Minneapolis. Back to this whole situation with Don Lemon. You know, when he starts talking about entitled white supremacists, I really believe he loses a lot of people. Now, you tell me if I’m wrong here. I mean, I think he loses people even who consider themselves Democrats. Maybe not the far left, but those moderate Democrats, particularly those white moderate Democrats in the Midwest and some of those areas, they just don’t like to hear this. They don’t like the division. And they particularly don’t like it when a black man like this storms a church that appeared to be predominantly white, And then he talks about entitlement and white supremacy. And again, initially Lemon’s take was, well, he didn’t really know about this. But we have some video of him outside of the church. This is cut number one. And you can clearly see he’s outside and he could have stayed there. And maybe things would have been a little better. But no, he chose to go inside. Let’s roll the tape on cut number one.
SPEAKER 10 :
Speaking to an organization there that’s gearing up for resistance and protest, I’ve been surprised, pleasantly surprised to see the community coming together. Diverse community. If you see this, when we first pulled up, we’re like, wait a minute, which operation are we at? And as it turns out, because we were like, well, this is kind of MAGA coded, right? So the American flag or whatever, but these are resistance protesters. They’re planning an operation that we’re going to follow them on. I can’t tell you exactly what they’re doing, but it’s called Operation Pull Up. And it’s the Kima Armstrong. And she has been doing this since George Floyd, Dante Wright and others, where they surprise people, catch them off guard and hold them to account. And so that’s what we’re doing here. And then after that, after we do this operation, you’ll see it live. And these operations are surprise operations. Again, we can’t tell you where they’re going.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, he clearly is telling us, and you can see the group organizing behind him over his shoulder. If you’re watching this on the Salem News Channel, you can see that. So this really just destroys his initial response that he had no idea that this group was about the storm of church. He was out there in the parking area, in the staging area, where they were getting ready to all get in their cars and drive over to this church. And he expects not to be held accountable. He could have stopped this. But when he’s talking about, oh, they’re patriots, you know, they’ve got flags back there. Who in their right mind thinks it’s okay to do what they did? Now, he mentioned this Nakima Armstrong. According to her website, she’s a civil rights lawyer and scholar. She’s helped organize the storming of other locations. She was really big in the Black Lives Matter movement as well. She’s a bad person. All she wants to do is to organize these resistance efforts, as they call them. 800-655-MIKE, 800-655-6453. Glad to have you on this Tuesday edition of the Mike Gallagher Show.
SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
The Mike Gallagher Show in the ReliefFactor.com studios.
SPEAKER 01 :
Joey Hudson in for Mike. Glad to have you along today. I want to bring you up to date here. We just learned that Tricia McLaughlin, She’s Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs for Department of Homeland Security. She announced there will be mugshots. She says that they are putting together the group right now and that they will be publishing the mugshots. And I promise you, as soon as they’re available, we’ll have them for you here on the Mike Gallagher Show and the Salem News Channel. And I want to go back to this activist, Nekima Armstrong. who’s the brain trust or being given credit as being the brain trust of this organization. She’s not too smart because she may have just made the DOJ’s job a little bit easier. Turns out she posted all the participants in this group that went to the church, she posted their images on social media because she just wanted credit for this action. Now, some of the other protesters, they’re literally daring the Department of Justice to come after them. In one situation, this is cut number four, a guy named William Kelly, he supposedly is a well-known leftist agitator. He, too, was at the city’s church on Sunday. He gets very adamant. inviting the DOJ and Pam Bondi to come for him. I want you to listen.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yesterday, I went into a church with Nekima Armstrong, and I protested these white supremacists. A pastor of the church is a f***ing ICE leader in this city? How can you be a f***ing pastor and be a f***ing ICE agent?
SPEAKER 1 :
F***!
SPEAKER 12 :
They want to come after me? F***! How can they live so comfortably while the f***ing people from Somalia that are in this country legally that have f***ing citizenship can’t even go to their mosque and pray? How do they deserve any f***ing different? F*** those f***ing Nazis. Come and get me, Pam Bondi, you f***ing traitorous b***h. All power to the people.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now again, that’s William Kelly. We know who he is. He should be at the top of the list. I hope that federal agents have him in custody right away. Why not? Why wouldn’t we? He admitted he was there. You can see him on other videos. He’s asking to be arrested. So this is an example of where I hope the Department of Justice steps up and that there’s consequences for people like this William Kelly. Back to the phones. Dawn is in Florida. Welcome, Dawn. You’re on the Mike Gallagher Show.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, thanks for having me. First, I want to say I like every subject you guys talk about. Thank you. The one root of all these subjects is people that have been corrupt and stealing money by making deals with other countries for the last 20 years are losing their cash cow. And this entire country, they’re fighting the fact that they’re losing their money when they send money to other countries and keep half of it and send it to Switzerland. That’s where we should be going after. We should be going after all the money that the corrupt politicians have stolen and end this nonsense because billionaires, they don’t want billionaires in office because billionaires have no money motivation. Their motivation is to make things better. But the people that go into politics poor that can make millions of dollars off of being corrupt, they’re the ones that we should be going after.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah. Well, and you’re right, and I think we’ll see that, Dawn. I think we’re going to see Pam Bondi and her whole team, Tricia McLaughlin, go after the source of this. And I suspect there’ll be a lot of these people who have been supported by people back home, wherever home is, Somalia or wherever. I suspect that they’ll be deserted. I suspect that they’ll cut ties with them because, you know, the officials in Somalia – They don’t want the United States government coming down on them because, look, this is a small chunk of the money that goes to places like Somalia. They get federal aid directly through the State Department, and they don’t want that cut off either. We’ve got to make believers out of these people. We’ve got to show them that, hey, you treat us like this, we’re not giving you any more money. And if we start cutting that out, they’ll take care of their own.
SPEAKER 07 :
I know that. I know that. But even nonprofits, everyone’s so corrupt. Let’s start a nonprofit and I’ll give myself an $800,000 salary. Won’t that be nice? It’s all money-driven. It’s not about religion or color or race. It’s about the money. And so we need to get that money back from all these politicians that have donated money to other countries under the guise of feed the children and help the hamsters transgender. You know, I mean, it’s nonsense already. Doesn’t anyone see that? I have some family members that are staunch Democrats. And let me tell you something. It has ruined my relationship with them. They are insane.
SPEAKER 01 :
I mean, look, but Don, the crazy thing about that, Don, and I appreciate your phone call. Thanks for your kind words. The thing about that is, you know, and I have friends and relatives who are Democrats, too. And you’ve got to stop and think, why would they support something like this? Because they pay taxes, too. I mean, some of the very people that I know who are constantly complaining about high taxes, but yet they’re defending these types of actions or they defend the Democrats. Right. You’re right. It’s all about greed. It’s about the money. And we’ve got to shut this cash cow down for sure. And if we do, if we go to the source, then we can eliminate some of this nonsense. We can just take it off the board altogether. Boy, this is a classic one. One out of 20 potential Democrat nominees for president in 2028. Wood was the only one who would answer the question, can a male become a female? That’s coming up in the Mike Gallagher Show. I’m Joey Hudson, in for Mike.
SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
From the wild world of D.C. politics to America’s culture clash, brace yourself for the reality check you’ve been waiting for. The one and only Mike Gallagher Show. Sitting in for Mike today, here’s Joey Hudson.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome in. We’ve got a lot to cover this hour. Christian leaders are demanding justice in Minneapolis after the group of agitators stormed a church there on Sunday. And DHS’s Tricia McLaughlin is promising that we’re going to see mugshots. pretty soon, of those demonstrators who obstructed this peaceful service on Sunday as well. And that’s something that we all want to see happen. We want some accountability for those who went on this private property into this church and disturbed this peaceful gathering of Christians on Sunday. We’ll get back to that in just a minute. Another interesting story that I want to talk about today. You know, 2026, we’re all focusing on the midterms, but there’s also a lot of behind-the-scenes work going on getting ready already for the 2028 presidential campaign. Now, Axios did a survey recently. They reached out to 20 of the top potential Democrat nominees, people that they believe will potentially be seeking the Democrat nomination for president. They ask them a very basic question, one that the left has trouble answering. I don’t get this. I don’t understand it. But the question was, can a man become a woman? It’s not political. It’s not philosophical. It’s a basic science question, biological question. Can a man become a woman? Can a male, a little boy… born as a little boy, become a little girl? Again, it’s a basic question. But Democrats have a hard time answering that. And I just, honestly, I can’t understand it. I sometimes watch these hearings. We had one just a couple of weeks ago, and I can’t recall the lady’s name. She was asked the question about… Can a man really become a woman? She wouldn’t answer it. I mean, they spent five, ten minutes trying to get an answer out of her. She kept circling back and diverting, and she never would answer the question. Why is that such a tough question? Help me out here. Because it’s a simple question. So Axios reached out to these 20 Democrats. They asked them, should biological males compete in girls’ sports? Should minors be placed on puberty blockers and hormones? And can a man become a woman? What they found is very telling for where the Democrats are. First off, most didn’t want to talk about it. Secondly, most of them dodged the question. They tried to deflect and change the topic. Some just refused outright. Some did not even respond at all. Only one Democrat, just one, had a clear and direct answer. And I was surprised. Let’s kind of go back to who was asked. Reports that several of these high-profile Democrats, like Kamala Harris, was at the top of the list. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I can’t imagine that she is a serious potential presidential candidate, but I guess so. Gavin Newsom, of course, J.B. Pritzker. I mean, these aren’t backbench lawmakers. I mean, these are top leaders in the Democrat Party, regardless of how you feel about them or what you think of them. They’re national figures, and they’re obviously at the top of the list of potential Democrat presidential nominees. And when asked this question, a question that most Americans know the answer to, They didn’t want any part of it. So who was the one who did answer? Rahm Emanuel. And again, that surprised me. Rahm Emanuel had a clear answer. He said his position hasn’t changed. A man cannot become a woman. Again, it surprised me a bit. And he also agreed that biological boys should not be competing in girls’ sports, period. Now, you may agree with him or disagree with him. I suspect most of you probably disagree with Rahm Emanuel on most of the issues. But at least he answered this. At least he has a sensible answer to a very basic question. Some of the others, Josh Shapiro, for example, said that decisions about transgender participation in sports particularly should be left to local officials. He didn’t want to answer it on a national basis. He added that he personally doesn’t believe anyone should have an unfair advantage on the playing field. Well, that would mean you don’t want males playing in girls’ sports, period. Pete Buttigieg didn’t answer directly. Instead, a spokesperson said, pointed Axios to an old NPR interview where he acknowledged serious fairness issues in women’s sports and called for compassion. He wants us to be compassionate, I guess, to the young men who are confused. I don’t know. I didn’t quite get the answer. What about compassion for the young girls who have worked their whole life to be in sports, and suddenly a young man comes along and displaces them? You know, the Democrats, they’re big on displacement. That’s one of their buzzwords, displacement. Aren’t young girls being displaced by young boys when they enter girls’ sports? Then there’s Gavin Newsom. He addressed this recently, not as part of the Axios poll, but, you know, Gavin Newsom has a podcast. I was surprised to see that he had Ben Shapiro as one of his guests recently. Now, typically in that situation, the host, the podcast host, is asking the questions. But you know Ben Shapiro. he got in on asking Gavin Newsom some of the questions. And in cut number six, Shapiro asked him directly, can boys become girls? Here it is.
SPEAKER 06 :
The fundamental question that lies at the root of all of this is the question that you’re not wanting to answer, which is whether boys can become girls.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I just don’t. Well, I think for the grace of God. Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
I mean, I appreciate the sympathy. I also feel terrible for anybody who’s suffering with any sort of.
SPEAKER 03 :
I mean, I think it’s been the case for generations for time immemorial. You know, God bless. I just I don’t know. It’s a hard one. I just don’t understand. I don’t know. Why is it such a I’m curious. I understand the political potency of it. It’s not politically potent. But it’s just how so few, we’re talking about so few people that are struggling with gender identity issues. A lot of remarkable people, a lot of wildly successful people. And they’ve gone on their life, have incredible lives. I just, I don’t know. There’s so much hate and bigotry, so much condemnation, so much judgment.
SPEAKER 06 :
This is the part where I start to object. You may not be spewing it like some others. Trust me.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is the business they’re in.
SPEAKER 06 :
There are lots of terrible people who say lots of terrible things, but it is not an act of bigotry to say that a boy cannot become a girl, nor should my children be taught in K-12 public schools that a boy can become a girl. That is not an act of bigotry. That’s an act of rationality and biological simplicity.
SPEAKER 03 :
I respect your point of view. And, you know, good people disagree on this. And a lot of states, not just California, well-established rules, by the way, that predate me. Again, this is not where I started campaigning and advocating on these issues, as some suggest. And look, I’m with the governor, Spencer Cox, who said about many of these issues, never so much attention been placed on so few people. Right.
SPEAKER 01 :
So his explanation is there’s only a few of them. But boy, and he’s primarily correct, it’s a small percentage. And that’s the point, isn’t it? That you’ve got a small percentage of people, of these young boys, who are just disrupting girls’ sports. Look, Governor, it’s not a hard question. And when he talked about for the grace of God, we’re all compassionate. And we understand that, yes, maybe they’re confused. But again, it’s a basic question. Can a man become a woman? The answer is no. I’m Joey Hudson, in for Mike today.
SPEAKER 02 :
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What was accomplished with their “No King” protest?