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Mike Gallagher offers a gripping exploration of today’s most pressing topics. From a heated debate over a public altercation at a baseball game to a broader examination of media bias in crime reporting, Gallagher invites listeners to question social norms and prejudices. The episode takes a stark turn as it covers the shocking murder of Irina Zarutska, revealing the complexities of race and justice in contemporary America. The conversation further delves into geopolitical developments as Israel targets Hamas leaders in Qatar, challenging international norms. This episode is a must-listen for anyone eager to understand the intersection of media, race,
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He’s the happy conservative warrior. Mike Gallagher. Broadcasting across hundreds of radio stations nationwide. And seen on your trusted conservative TV network, Salem News Channel. Here’s Mike.
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I always love 50-50 issues. I think the story of Karen Balsnatcher is a 50-50 issue. I just got into a big argument with Mark Davis. Right before I start this hour, I do a hit on Mark’s local show in Dallas. which we often play on air, and we always post it at MikeOnline.com. We call it the M&M Experience, and it’s just been a tradition for years. I visit with Mark, who is the legendary morning host in Dallas-Fort Worth on 660 AM The Answer. I visit with him every morning at 735 Dallas time, and we take about 10 or 15 minutes, and we break down headlines and issues and topics and stories. And we just have a great time. And it’s become a real popular feature in that market. People love the M&M experience. And once in a while, he and I disagree. And boy, do we disagree about Karen Ballsnatcher. I know we’ve got a lot of breaking news. We’re going to talk about the North Carolina stabbing death of Irina Zarutska. We’re going to talk about new poll numbers out of New York for Zoran Mamdani, showing that he is the runaway favorite to win the the mayoral race in New York City. Imagine that, an actual communist becoming the next mayor of New York City. We’ll talk about all of that. But we didn’t spend a ton of time on the Phillies’ Karen case. This is the lady that marched over to the dad and demanded the return of the baseball that he retrieved, a home run ball that he gave to his son. She comes over, grabs him, by the shoulder, he’s startled, they go back and forth, she’s arguing, she’s furious, and she winds up getting the ball. And Mark Davis, a few minutes ago, cited Greg Gutfeld, who gave the dad all the credit in the world for de-escalating the situation, realizing you’re in a no-win, you’ve got a crazed Karen in your face, He just said, OK, take the ball, go away. And it worked out great because the kid was showered with love and gifts from the Philadelphia Phillies. He met with one of the players. She’s got to be the most hated woman in America right now. And it all worked out fine. But Mark thought that the dad failed in giving back the ball, that it was a terrible lesson, that he shouldn’t have returned it. that he should have firmly but politely stood his ground. Greg Gutfeld said no. He did the right thing. He de-escalated. You’re in a no-win when you’re standing there going toe-to-toe with some crazed lunatic. It happened to me driving into work this morning. Some lunatic woman in a Hyundai just about ran me off the road, cut in front of me, scared the heck out of me. I slammed on the brakes. I honked at her. She gave me the middle finger. I mean, it’s amazing how people in road rage turn everything around like you’re the one to blame when they’re the ones that made the mistake. But, you know, that’s a Karen driving a Hyundai. Surprised it wasn’t a Subaru. That’s the kind of woman that the Karen ball snatcher is. And incidentally, isn’t it wild that she hasn’t yet been identified? How can that be? You know there are plenty of people who know who she is. That video has been viewed hundreds of millions of times. There are friends, family, coworkers, neighbors of her who know exactly who she is. To this minute, we don’t know who she is. Now, again, Mark and I disagreed on that part of it. Mark doesn’t want to know. He thought, that’s a good thing. I thought, why? No, let her be shamed. Let the world know who she is. Mark was uncomfortable with that. So he and I disagreed on every aspect of this story. Do we have the Gutfeld cut? I don’t think we do. I don’t think we have. We’ll try to grab that and play it for you so you can hear what Greg said and how Mark reacted to it. Because Mark said, no, Greg was 1,000% wrong. That’s a terrible lesson for his son. The lesson is you let the bullies win. She didn’t win. She might have gotten the baseball. It was just a baseball. What’s he supposed to do? Punch her? What are you going to do, get physical with some lunatic Karen? With Karen Ballsnatcher? No. Give her the ball. Go away. And the kid comes out. Way ahead. He got a bat, a signed bat. He met with the player. They gave him a goodie basket. They loved him. The whole country loves him and the dad. And they hate Karen Ballsnatcher. I’m really shocked at Mark’s position. But as we talked about it, I got flooded with text messages on the MyPillow text line at 800-655-MIKE. And it was about 50-50. 50% of the texters agreed with Mark. 50% of the texters agreed with me. So let’s find out. Let’s go. 800-655-MIKE. Welcome aboard. It’s Tuesday, September 9th, 2025. Here in the Relief Factor Studios, one number does it all for you. Call or text 800-655-6453. Do you think the man did something wrong by giving back the ball? Or do you think that perhaps he de-escalated and handled it perfectly? 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He’s the happy conservative warrior. Mike Gallagher. Broadcasting across hundreds of radio stations nationwide. And seen on your trusted conservative TV network. Salem News Channel. Here’s Mike.
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The legacy media has been forced to cover the murder of Irina Zarutska in Charlotte on August the 22nd. The video surveillance, the closed-circuit surveillance video from the light rail train was released to the public the other day, and the reaction has been fierce. Of course, there is but one component that must be focused on, and that is the Democrats’ soft-on-crime, criminal justice reform, race-based policies. Now, the media is terrified of the American public having to come to terms with that bitter reality. For example, Politico wrote an article about it The headline actually says, Ukrainian refugee killed in North Carolina gets dragged into political messaging war. Politico turns this story into one about a political back and forth, a political debate. So with Politico, an Inside the Beltway publication, being forced to finally cover the murder, the article that the guy wrote leaves out that the killer is black, leaves out that it is a black-on-white crime, didn’t include the video in the article, and had no images from the train at all. You know what the one picture they ran with was? A picture of Donald Trump. This is a Trump issue. Politico wants to take the stabbing death of Irina Zerutskaya and turn it into a Donald Trump problem. You just don’t loathe the media enough. They’re nuts. And they’re so desperate to hide the truth from the American people. And yet there are some truth tellers like Jesse Waters over at Fox News Channel who points out the obvious. And the obvious is the media is completely and utterly silent when it comes to a crime like this committed by a black man against a white victim.
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Usually when beautiful blonde women get hurt, it’s all over the television. Natalie Holloway, the girls in Idaho. You can’t stop from seeing it. Now, this, you’d think, is the poster child for asylum seeker. She’s from Europe, so she can assimilate easily. Her country is literally being invaded by Putin. She qualifies for refugee status, and she was working, so she’s not a public charge. And then you have DeCarlos, who’s the poster child for permissive politicians.
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permissive politicians, and I would add race-based criminal justice reform. Go to the root cause of criminal justice reform. Talk to any lefty about why criminal justice reform is needed. Zoran Mamdani in New York is talking about letting prisoners out of jail. He doesn’t want people of color incarcerated. It doesn’t matter to these lunatics on the left what the person has done. The overriding concern is their skin color, their race. And if they’re black and they’re behind bars, well, we’ve got to let them out. This guy was arrested 14 times. Now, Charlie Kirk was called out by Van Jones last night on CNN. This is pretty astounding. Our colleague, Salem’s own Charlie Kirk, made a very important point on his show yesterday about the way… The racial factor has to be entered into the equation here.
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A white Ukrainian refugee was murdered just because she was white. Everybody knows that, obviously. If a random white person simply walked up to and stabbed a nice law-abiding black person for no reason, it would be an apocalyptically huge national story used to impose national sweeping political changes on the whole country. Instead, Megan Basham, no one seems to care when a white woman gets stabbed to the death.
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Now, Ben Shapiro said the same thing last night on Fox News. If a white man had brutally slaughtered a law-abiding, innocent, beautiful, young black woman, it’d be George Floyd 2.0. Oh my goodness, the riots, the meltdown, you know that would happen. But Van Jones, over on CNN… saw fit to call Charlie out for Charlie’s common sense observation. Here’s what real bigotry and rage from CNN sounds and looks like.
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People like Charlie Kirk fan, they’ve been looking for opportunities to make this some sort of like reciprocal George Floyd situation. And that’s the part that I think he’s almost giving away the game. And it’s sad to see a lot of people going along with it.
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You know, let me just say a couple of things. One is what happened to that young woman was horrible. And it’s everybody’s nightmare. If you’re in any public space, subway, whatever, that something bad is going to happen to you or somebody you care about. So it does strike a chord. We don’t know why that man did what he did. And for Charlie Kirk to say, we know he did it because she’s white, when there’s no evidence of that, it’s just pure race mongering, hate mongering. It’s wrong. Then he says that if something like that had happened the other way, there would be sweeping changes imposed on society. Where is the George Floyd Policing Act? It didn’t pass. Even when you had a white police officer murder a black man on live television, the whole world saw there were no sweeping changes. In fact, not one law was passed at the federal level. So I think that’s an important thing to point out. The other thing is you mentioned the thing about cashless bail. I think this is a big challenge that we have. Would you have felt better if there had been cash bail and the mom had come and put down $1,000 to let him out? It’s not about cashless bail or no cashless bail. It’s about the fact that we don’t know how to deal with people who are hurting in the way this man was hurting. Hurt people hurt people. What happened was horrible. But it becomes an opportunity for people to jump on bandwagons. And then for someone like Charlie Kirk, he should be ashamed of himself. No one mentioned the word race, white, black, or anything except him. What people mention is the horror of what happened to this young woman.
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Oh, my gosh. I mean, let’s unpack all of that garbage. And that’s garbage. I mean, factually, it’s lie after lie after lie. And Van Jones knows it. Number one, the man was caught on tape saying, I just did that white girl. I just did that white girl. A convenient little fact that Van Jones conveniently forgot. He mentions the mother. What if the mother had posted cash bail? Or had posted bail for this guy? Do you know the mother has already been interviewed and she said that she didn’t want her son out on the streets? She didn’t. His own mother didn’t want him out on the streets. And she said the system failed by letting my son… Out on the streets. She didn’t want him out on the streets. Because she knew what a danger he was. To society. 14 times this guy was arrested. And the best these clowns have on the left is to scream racism. Oh, it’s racist. Charlie Kirk’s a racist. He ought to be ashamed of himself. Well, he’s not ashamed, Van Jones. In fact, Charlie posted a response today. to that ridiculous commentary by this ridiculous man, Van Jones. There’s a whole bunch of them over there on CNN. I haven’t even gotten to Brian Stelter yet. He’s another piece of work. Here’s what Charlie posted on X. Van Jones, I’m not ashamed, but you should be. You’re part of a media cabal that tried to silence this story because it exposes the gross incompetence of Democrats’ so-called criminal justice reform. You and other talking heads on TV are complicit in the revolving door that lets these violent criminals roam our streets to maim and murder. Secondly, there was no George Floyd Criminal Justice Reform Act because it would have been a disaster. And cooler heads eventually prevailed when we started challenging the D.C. media establishment. George Floyd, Charlie writes, died of a drug overdose after a lifetime of destroying his body with illegal substances. BLM burned down American cities and terrorized businesses for a criminal who didn’t cooperate with police. His friends did. They’re alive today. How many black and brown people died post-George Floyd because police were afraid to go into urban neighborhoods for fear of being scapegoated if something went wrong? And yes, of course, if the races were reversed, you’d be the loudest voice crying racism, Mr. White Lash. Remember Van Jones? What America saw with Donald Trump’s election was a white lash. And Charlie correctly points out that the killer said, I got that white girl. Why did he say that, Van Jones? Oh, race doesn’t have anything to do with it? Lastly, Charlie writes, would you even be talking about this story if we hadn’t raised the issue on social media? Of course you wouldn’t be. Of course not. Charlie says Americans are sick of the lies and racial grievances built on fake news narratives. The propaganda is literally killing innocent people. The point of this whole story is criminal justice reform as advanced by the lunatics on the left and the Democrat Party. These are policies steeped in race. They will tell you black people, brown people, people of color shouldn’t be behind bars. That’s why the Zoran Mamdani’s of the world want to empty out the prisons. And that’s not just rhetoric on my part. He said it. Mamdani is on record as saying that the prisons are overcrowded and we got to release prisoners, particularly people of color. From behind bars. Great timing, Zoran. Let’s hear more about your criminal justice reform ideas. And let’s see if New Yorkers are stupid enough to elect you mayor. 800-655-MIKE. Welcome in. Fired up today and hope you are too. We ought to be fired up. Enough of the Van Jones garbage. Enough of the people who are pretending that criminal justice reform works. Enough of the failed Democrat policies that are getting people like this beautiful young woman slaughtered. on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina. Not in New York, not in L.A., in Charlotte, North Carolina. Democrat mayor, Democrat governor, Democrat policies. And we’re either going to wake up or we’re going to lose the country. 800-655-MIKE. I hope you join us. Every single day it’s a joy to remind you that portions of our show are sponsored by MyPillow. As you know, our friend Mike Lindell, big legal victory last week. He’s been in a ton of hot water, as you know, because he believes in election integrity. Of course, due to his friendship with President Trump. Well, last week there was a $5 million vote. judgment against Mike that was overturned by the courts. Good news for MyPillow. So you keep praying for MyPillow, and you keep supporting this great American company. The premium MyPillow, limited time, great price, $18.98. If you go to MyPillow.com, this pillow is a godsend. Look, I bring the MyPillow products with me when I’m on the road. Here at the hotel in Washington State, I’ve got the MySlippers with me, those unbelievable slippers, because I pat around in the hotel room. I don’t know what’s on that rug. I bring the MyPillow with me. I roll it up into the suitcase. I’ve even got my MyPillow loungewear. Tons of great products. If you haven’t been to the site in a while, go check it out. Go to MyPillow.com. Look for the Mike Gallagher specials. Click on that box. And with anything you order, enter the promo code MikeG. You’re going to save big. The slippers, the doggy beds, and the Giza dream sheets. MyPillow.com. Promo code MikeG. MyPillow.com. Promo code MikeG. Or call 800-928-6034. 800-928-6034. Like we love to sing.
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It’s a heartache.
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Breaking now on the Mike Gallagher Show. Wow, this is significant. Israel has taken the war with Hamas to Qatar. Israel’s military took out members of the senior Hamas leadership team in Qatar with an airstrike earlier today. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement the IDF conducted a precise strike targeting the senior leadership of the Hamas terrorist organization. According to Trey Yinks over at Fox News, Khalil El-Hayah and Zahir Jabarin were the two targets of the Israeli strikes. Now, Qatar is reacting very badly to this. Qatar’s foreign ministry said in a statement, The state of Qatar condemns in the strongest terms the cowardly Israeli attack targeting the residential headquarters of several members of the Hamas political bureau in the Qatari capital of Doha. The ministry affirms that security agencies, civil defense, and relevant authorities immediately began responding. This criminal attack constitutes a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms and a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents of Qatar. So, wow, this is big. Israel striking Qatar. targeting two senior Hamas leaders. More on that here in just a moment. I want to go back to, I’m so infuriated at the response to the murder of this young woman in Charlotte, and I want to isolate Van Jones. This is so maddening. I’m not trying to get personal here. I don’t know anything about the guy. I’ve never met Van Jones. I’ve never met Brian Stelter. I’ve never met these people who are so just diabolical in their over-the-top reactions to stories like this. You saw this monster. We’ve played it, goodness knows, enough on Salem News Channel. You’ve seen it during my show and others, where this guy calmly… coldly, very calculatingly, takes out a pocket knife, kind of pretending to be resting behind her. She got on the train after a shift at a pizza place where she worked, escaping Ukraine to seek safety in Charlotte, North Carolina. And she’s sitting there minding her own business. Petite, she’s small, she’s on the chair, she’s on her phone, she’s got her AirPods in, and he suddenly, without any provocation or warning, jumps up behind her like a coward and slits her throat, stabs her in the throat and upper body three times. She died on the train. And Van Jones says of this monster, of this demon, of this degenerate, well, he was hurting.
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It’s about the fact that we don’t know how to deal with people who are hurting in the way this man was hurting. Hurt people hurt people. What happened was horrible. But it becomes an opportunity for people to jump on bandwagons. And then for someone like Charlie Kirk, he should be ashamed of himself. No one mentioned the word race, white, black, or anything except him.
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We’ve got to figure out how to calm the nerves of hurt people like this man. Monster. Hey, Van, did you say that about Timothy McVeigh? Did you say that about Derek Chauvin? Hey, Van, was Derek Chauvin hurting when he put his knee on George Floyd? I mean, were the people that committed violence on January 6th, were they just hurting? Tell us, Van. Are people that commit… Horrific acts of murder or violence? Are they just hurting, Van? And we’ve got to figure out how to help them through their hurt. They’re just in pain. Right, Van? Because that’s what you’d want somebody to say about your loved one being victimized by one of these hurting people. Do you realize how cruel it is to the family of Irina Zarutskaya? that a guy’s on national television, well, we’ve got to learn how to deal with the hurting people. Hurt people, hurting people hurt people. He was hurting. He was just hurting. Charlie Kirk, incidentally, was talking with Megan Basham, and that was the exchange they had. Megan posted something about another factor in the death of Irina Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail. The left-wing MacArthur Foundation said, gave Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, a $3.3 million grant to reduce the jail population, specifically as part of racial equity claims. The MacArthur Foundation routinely incentivizes local municipalities like Mecklenburg County, like Charlotte, to make residents less safe, to put people like Irina Zarutskaya in harm’s way by leaving obvious threats like DeCarlos Brown on the streets. This is not left. This is not black, white. The reason race is a story, the reason race is a factor, are prominent Democrats who embrace criminal justice reform policies that are steeped in race. Their whole reason for letting monsters like this guy roam the streets is based in race. And look, This is coming to New York. I mean, it’s already there. But if this Zoran Mamdani wins and the latest polling suggests it’s not even going to be close. Zoran Mamdani is way ahead of his three rivals. Right now, according to the New York Times, Siena College poll conducted September 2nd through the 6th. If the 2025 New York City mayoral election were held today, who would you vote for? Zoran, 46%. His closest contender is Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor. He’s at 24%. The Republican nominee, Curtis Lewa, Trails in third place at 15%. Eric Adams, the sitting mayor, is in single digits. He’s not even in double digits. He’s at 9%. Now, with the story of the murder of Irina Zarutskaya as a backdrop, you listen to Zoran Mamdani and what he is promising to do
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to the city of new york if and when he gets elected the jail population of rikers has increased since eric adams has come into office by more than a thousand additional incarcerated new yorkers and what is quite staggering to me is that we know that we can reduce that jail population to less than four thousand vital city had an article about a number of different proposals that could reduce to thirty seven hundred and Some of this also just has to look at the average stay on Rikers in the 90s was 50 days. Now it’s more than 100. There are more than 1,500 people on Rikers who have been held there for more than a year. So I do think many of the reforms that have to be made are also reforms around the court system.
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There you go. There you go. The prominent Democrats instinctively side with the criminals. That’s the whole… That’s the name of the game for them. They don’t give a rat’s rear end about victims. They only worry about the criminals. This is spiritual. This is spiritual warfare. This is good versus evil. And if you’re going to tell me that you support a message from a guy who is committed to reducing… The jail population. That’s his focus, is how to let criminals go free. These are people locked up for crimes they’ve committed. According to this guy, there’s too many behind bars. Tommy’s in Naples, Florida, 17 before the hour. Our number is 800-655-MIKE. Tommy, welcome back. How are you? Hello.
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Hi. Mike, how you doing? This is Tommy. Can you hear me? Yeah, go ahead, Tommy. Okay, thanks so much for taking my call. I just want to make a comment on, I didn’t get the guy’s name that said that Charlie Kirk should be ashamed of himself. Van Jones. That’s Hocus Pocus. I don’t know what that guy’s name is. Van Jones. His name is Van Jones.
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Van Jones is his name.
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Yes, sir. Go ahead. And so how absurd is it? It just seems that Dems don’t mind crime and they don’t mind wars. But this guy, Charlie Kirk, should be so very proud of himself, as you should be, because you and many others, soapbags, I mean, I can’t name them all, You guys have helped Trump get a lot of help. You helped him get across the finish line in this election. We know darn well. I think Charlie Kirk reached out to a lot of the younger folks because he went all around the country. He did a wonderful job, as you guys do. Thank you. Thank you for the good work you’re doing.
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All right. I appreciate it, Tommy. Thanks for joining us again. You know, the truth is it’s not even a hard position to take. This isn’t even difficult. Nobody needs to thank Charlie Kirk or Mike Gallagher or any of us, Jesse Waters, for standing up and saying normal things. If you are committed to releasing bad guys onto the streets, you’re going to have what happened in Charlotte over and over and over again. Now, I don’t know that I fully agree that race is the factor in terms of the actual crime. I’m frankly not interested in statistics. I understand a lot of people get very hyped up about black on white crime and it’s disproportional compared to white on black crime. Crime is crime. I don’t really care the race of the criminals or the victims. What I care about are policies that are deliberately destructive to communities. And look, here was Ben Shapiro last night. on Fox News and making, you know, I think a pretty common sense observation with Laura Ingraham.
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I think it’s perfectly obvious why the media deep sixes this particular story. And the answer is perfectly obvious when you look at the races of the people involved. If this had been a black victim and a white perpetrator, then it would have led the news nightly for months on end. You would have had riots in the streets. If it’s the reverse situation, the media will completely ignore it because it doesn’t match up with their preferred narrative of a white supremacist country that is cracking down on black people.
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I still can’t even get over the, well, people are hurting. Oh, we’ve got to figure out how to help people who are hurting. My gosh. Rob’s in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Hey, Rob, how are you?
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I’m all right. A little aggravated, of course. Me too. This nonsense with these do-gooders, these bleeding hearts. They want to rehabilitate. They want to renew somebody. They’re not fixable. They don’t want to put them down. They will spend decades incarcerating them and trying to provide therapy. There is none. We kill chickens. We kill children in this country every day. These people ought to be summarily done away with rapidly, convert them to liquid fertilizer, and put them out on a golf course. That’s about it.
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If this guy isn’t a candidate for the death penalty, nobody is, Rob. There’s a ton of them. You’re right. You’re right. But we can certainly look at this one. We can look at this case and see this monstrous, evil… a demon awaiting to pounce. If he’s not a candidate for the death penalty, because you’re right, there are people that are beyond rehabilitation. But you take this guy and the reaction by a CNN commentator named Van Jones is, well, he was hurting. He was just hurting. We got to figure out how to help hurting people like this guy. My gosh. My gosh. I’m not kidding you. Their reaction, the reaction from sort of mainstream, left-leaning media types and politicians is stunning. Stunning. He’s hurting. My gosh. 800-655-MIKE. One open line.
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SPEAKER 05 :
He’s the happy conservative warrior, Mike Gallagher, broadcasting across hundreds of radio stations nationwide and seen on your trusted conservative TV network, Salem News Channel. Here’s Mike.
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I got into a big argument this morning with Mark Davis in Dallas over Karen Ballsnatcher. I’m so glad Mark is back. He was subbing yesterday for Chris DeGaulle, who did a great job covering President Trump’s speech at the Museum of the Bible yesterday. And so Mark was out, so I didn’t have my daily hit with him. He thinks the guy that gave the ball to Karen Ballsnatcher set a terrible example for his son. Somebody just sent me a meme from Virginia on the MyPillow text line. Boy, I love this text line. You often give me some great show material. Virginia sent me a picture of Karen Balsnatcher, who has yet to be identified, which is astounding to me. That’s incredible that no one has yet revealed who she is. There were two names that were mentioned, and both of them were wrong. So I don’t know who she is. Mark doesn’t even want her identified. I think people ought to know who she is. But there’s a lot of speculation about what she is. Virginia says, with a picture of her, with her, you know, her short, kind of two-toned Karen haircut and her big oversized Karen glasses. Karen Ballsnatcher, who marched over and wanted to ruin the joy of a little boy whose dad rightfully got the ball that was hit, the home run into the stands. Virginia writes, I’ll bet everything I own that she is double-vaxxed, triple-boosted, works in HR, has pronouns in her bio, attended the No Kings protest over the summer, believes climate change is real, has two cats, and voted for Kamala Harris. It’d be kind of fun to find out how many of those boxes she checks. A lot of Karens in New York. I tell you what, I don’t know what’s going to happen in November. We’re going to have a big event at Hofstra University on October the 7th, and I hope you can come out and join us. Hugh Hewitt, Kevin McCullough, Joe Piscopo, and I, we’re going to be holding a big town hall rally on the campus of Hofstra University. You know, is New York on the verge of self-destruction, of obliteration? From a political standpoint… Zoran Mamdani winning the race could be the absolute best thing to happen to the Republican Party, because this will happen months before the midterm election, where right now it’s being projected that Republicans are going to maintain control of the House and the Senate, which would be fantastic. But this Mamdani, this cashless bail, criminal justice reform reform, socialist with lots of communist beliefs, who believes in letting people out of prison, who wants to slap people who are financially successful with tax hikes in order to pay for all the free stuff that Kami Mamdani wants to give away? This could be disaster for New York. But as Vivek Ramaswamy put it last night on Fox News, a gift to the GOP.
SPEAKER 14 :
Look, I think from the politics of it, I think it’s pretty clear that if Mamdani does win in New York, that’s actually a gift for Republicans in the midterms. They’re running ads about him already. But the fact of the matter is still New York is one of America’s premier cities. We don’t want to see the city fail. What I want to see Republicans do and what I want to see us do in here is set an example for being the party of capitalism. What does that alternative actually look like? Because if you look at young people, why is Mamdani popular? You look at many young people say they view socialism as a more favorable system than capitalism by a majority. So I think what we’re missing right now is a pro-capitalist movement to say this is the best system known to the history of man to lift people up from poverty, make that case to young people. And that’s up to us. And this is a great wake up call for our side to say we’re painting that alternative vision rather than making effectively the case for Andrew Cuomo, which is pretty sad state of affairs. You weren’t working.
SPEAKER 13 :
You know, there’s a lot of people wondering what role, if any, President Trump is going to play in this. And it’s complicated because a lot of New Yorkers hate Donald Trump. Plenty of New Yorkers love the guy. They know, I mean, some of the success stories that he was responsible for, not to mention the skyline that he largely created, big chunks of which are, you know, was with the Trump organization. People still remember him saving the… the ice skating rink at Central Park. And stories of Trump’s largesse in New York are legendary, and that’s just a fact. So plenty of New Yorkers love the guy. You know, a lot of hardworking, the blue-collar workers in New York, the cops, the firefighters, the doormen, the deli workers. The elitists, of course, don’t like him, and there’s lots of elites in New York City. As I understand it from my sources and my connections to President Trump, Trump believes that Andrew Cuomo is the best hope to defeat Zoran Mamdani. I don’t think he doesn’t like Curtis Lewa. Curtis, of course, is the Republican candidate. And incidentally, polling just out from the New York Times-Siena College, Zoran with 46%, Cuomo has 24%, Curtis has 15%, Eric Adams is at 9%. The legendary Cindy Adams, and I love this lady. That was a bucket list thing. I always wanted to meet her, and I met her a couple of years ago. I think she still does some weekend work for John Katsimatidis over at WABC Radio. And, of course, Katz, of course, owns ABC, and, you know, they continue to have, you know, great people like Cindy Adams. Cindy Adams is like a longtime columnist for the New York Post, and she really is legendary. You know, she covers a lot of showbiz stuff, but she also gets involved in politics and And she wrote a column, look, the only way is for Cuomo to go one-on-one with Zoran, that Curtis and Eric Adams should drop out. Here’s somebody over on MSNBC. pointing out what I’ve heard. Now, again, not sure this is 100% accurate, but this is what, as I understand it, Trump believes that Andrew Cuomo, as the sole challenger to Zoran Mamdani, is the only chance we have of blocking this radical extremist from becoming the next mayor of New York City.
SPEAKER 03 :
The president wants this to be a one-on-one race that he believes that Cuomo has the best chance to beat Mamdani and that would be hindered if Sliwa and Mayor Adams. He polls the best. I think anyone, though, would be a significant underdog to Mamdani, even in a one-on-one race. But a one on one race would be closer in a divided field like this. Mondani is going to skate to a victory. The rumors are swirling about Adams to the point that current mayor that on Friday, the mayor had to hold a news conference to declare that he’s staying in the race, at least for now. Because there’s been reporting this could be an ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia. There’s been reporting about the potential of a job at HUD for the mayor. And he is, Joe, and I’ve talked to people close to the mayor, is toying with the idea. Though even though he said on Friday he’s staying in, he has not ruled out entirely jumping out of the race and into the administration. Curtis Sliwa, the Republican, doesn’t seem to be entertaining this. He wants to keep running. It’s also unclear, Joe, whether or not. This would actually help Andrew Cuomo. Because if Andrew Cuomo is seen as benefiting from President Trump stepping into the race, that’s only going to drive more voters to Mondani.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s the conundrum. And Cuomo is going around saying, oh, Trump doesn’t want me to win. That’s ridiculous. That’s ludicrous. Here was… Here was Andrew Cuomo, cut number 17 on CNBC, poo-pooing the idea that President Trump believes that Cuomo is the best chance to defeat Zoran Mamdani.
SPEAKER 07 :
Mamdani says that you are President Trump’s choice. Yeah, except that’s ludicrous, right? If you’re a Republican, you are praying for Mamdani to win.
SPEAKER 13 :
If you’re a Republican, and this is so, so let me share with you the wisdom of the great Cindy Adams. And I really love her. I just think she’s gritty and she’s New York and she’s real. She just, I just love her. And gosh, how old is, it’s not polite maybe to wonder about a woman’s age, but I think she’s got to be maybe late 80s. Tracy will find out here in just a moment. But here’s what she writes at the New York Post. Face it, Cuomo is the only choice for New York mayor. She says, our five boroughs don’t all love Cuomo personally. However, just as we’ve got lifesavers at the shore, we now need a lifesaver on the cement. Is Andrew warm? A quilt’s better. This is no Miss Universe pageant. Nobody’s measuring a contestant’s chest. We need a doer. Some worry our ex-cop mayor, who many love, has his difficulties. And Tweedledee Tweedledum, who never ran anything, never met a comic, he didn’t like, hates cops, lives in an apartment meant for the poor, thinks Bernie Sanders’ spit should be saved, is scrambling to run for mayor of the greatest, richest, best, classiest, most famous city on the planet. It even survived de Blasio and his wife, the cashier. Of course, there’s always that red beret who lives in a one-room apartment with 17 cats who do not vote. Andrew Cuomo says, number one, we must talk to businesses in this town, make them feel wanted. Business fuels this town. Do something about the affordability issue. Create housing. Hire 5,000 new police officers. Put many in the subways. Cuomo said, The far left is getting stronger and stronger. My father was no socialist. Kennedy was no socialist. Obama was no socialist. Defunding police, abolishing jails, legitimizing prostitution, the drug trade. Socialists make nightmare scenarios. This new guy knows nothing. He doesn’t know from his own throat. How is it possible this could have happened to us? Cindy Adams writes, Forget trying to nail Andrew. You don’t have to invite him home for chicken soup. Just know that he, and he alone, can do the job. Reduce crime, clean away garbage, lessen prices, reopen shops, reduce food costs, move the junkies, bicycles, scaffolds, thieves, killers, sickos, construction, rats, mice, roaches, make tourists feel safe, jail store thieves. Smiling maybe isn’t a requirement. Cindy Adams says he brought his mom, who is in her 90s, as a date to my home. He said his father, in the governor’s failing days, would ask him to come over, but I didn’t have the time to do it. I’ll never forget that. Look, he says New York has 300,000 employees, $115 billion budget, God forbid another 9-11, plus any day could be another COVID. You need experience to deal with it. This guy, Zoran, what, 33 years old, three-term assemblyman, worst attendance record in the assembly, 11-year-olds are voting for him. This government today can’t even fill a pothole. He’s not reality. Free, fast buses, government-run grocery stores everywhere. Where’s the money coming from? None of what he babbles is real. And Cindy Adams… who gives this full-throated endorsement of Andrew Cuomo, adds as a final paragraph to her column, just thought I should mention that Andrew doesn’t even basically like me. He usually snarls at me whenever he sees me. She says, New York, so special that at some hotels, they don’t even let you into the steam room without a tie and jacket. In the newly juiced up Waldorf, you have to shave before you enter the barbershop. I’m hearing their room service will start having an unlisted phone number. That’s Cindy Adams. I mean, she’s New York through and through. She knows New York like the back of her hand. And she is 95 years young. 95 years old, Cindy Adams. Still cranking out columns for the New York Post. And she maintains Andrew Cuomo is the only choice for New Yorkers at this stage of the game. Let’s get your take on all of it. 800-655-MIKE. 800-655-6453.
SPEAKER 05 :
Mike Gallagher. Every day, Mike visits with Mark Davis. Morning host on 660 AM, The Answer in Dallas. Here’s today’s M&M experience.
SPEAKER 13 :
Speaking of CNN, Van Jones called out our friend and our colleague, Salem’s own Charlie Kirk. And Charlie is often cited in these culture issues and these political issues. Van Jones weighed in, criticizing Charlie, saying that he is stoking the fans of racial unrest. And look, they have also expressed some measure of sympathy and compassion for the monster who did this to her. Well, what was he going through and what was his mental illness? But Charlie responded. He said, Van Jones, I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve said, but you should be. You’re part of a media cabal that tried to silence this story because it exposes the gross incompetence of Democrats’ so-called criminal justice reform. Mark, that’s the whole story.
SPEAKER 04 :
Nobody can. I don’t care. You don’t care. No conservative cares what color the attacker was or what color the victim is. The race angle comes in because we have a massive societal blind spot that lets monsters of color wander free because addressing their mental illnesses, their criminal propensities is is has been pilloried and condemned. as racist.
SPEAKER 13 :
Mark, that’s right. The reason race is part of this conversation is because the left and the Democrats have made race the central tenant of criminal justice reform. You know, look, if a white guy had done this to a young black woman… And then after he slit her throat, was caught on tape saying, I killed the black girl, or the N-word, or even worse. Oh, my gosh. We would have riots. We would have George Floyd 2.0. It would be that all over. And everybody knows it. That’s what makes me crazy. Everybody’s all in on this. They understand it. And look, I… I continue to like our chances. Polling suggests that the midterm elections are going to be very kind to the Republican Party. And I think one big factor is going to be, I believe, the election of Zoran Mamdani as the next mayor of New York City. As we were speaking just a moment ago, the New York Times-Siena poll comes out. Polling, he ain’t even close. He’s so ahead of everybody else. He holds a huge lead in the mayor’s race. However, his lead diminishes considerably if it was one-on-one.
SPEAKER 04 :
With him and Cuomo. That’s right, him and Andrew Cuomo.
SPEAKER 13 :
Here’s the New York Times-Siena poll right now. If the 2025 New York City mayoral election were held today, who would you vote for? 46% for Zoran. 24% for Andrew Cuomo. 15% for the Republican and our friend Curtis Lewa, only 9% for Eric Adams. Look, I don’t think it’s a secret, even President Trump wants it to be Cuomo.
SPEAKER 04 :
So who are we looking to get, are we looking for Eric Adams to drop out? Because Curtis isn’t going to. If he really has 46 and Cuomo just has 24, even if you add in Eric Adams’ 9, that only gets him to 33. Gets him to 39.
SPEAKER 13 :
24 for Cuomo, 15 for Sliwa.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, but I don’t think the Sliwa voters are going, well, maybe they would. If Curtis got out, would Republicans go, all right, there’s no Republican, at least I’ll vote for the least insane Democrat who is, well, but that’s probably Eric Adams.
SPEAKER 13 :
Right, so it’s a 24, 34, 39 vote. Yeah, I mean, if you took all three of the polling right now, Cuomo, Sliwa, and Adams, all three of them, that beats Mamdani. Barely. Barely. I think he’s going to win.
SPEAKER 04 :
I really do think he’s going to win. I had held out some, I’ll believe it when I see it, prospect, but I may already be seeing it. I don’t know. It’s November of this year, right?
SPEAKER 13 :
Charlie Gasparino had a piece we read yesterday on the show. Charlie said, you know what? There’s starting to be a creeping realization that this could happen. And for the business community and the world, we’re saying, you know what? Give up. Let him win. Burn it all to the ground. Let the world see how socialism and communism is going to fail in a great American city like New York.
SPEAKER 04 :
There is value to that. I don’t want that, but that is the silver lining, if you want to call it that. We’ve got a master class in how terrible the ideas are.
SPEAKER 13 :
And the silver lining becomes in November of 2026 because then people are going to look at that. He’ll have, you know, almost a year under his belt of running that city into the ground. He’s already said, I mean, he’s giving interviews now saying, oh, I’ll get rid of the gang task force at the NYPD. We will let more people out of prison.
SPEAKER 04 :
We will reduce our jail population. What does that mean? And see to it that people are released more quickly. Correct. There’s good timing.
SPEAKER 13 :
Good timing. Now think about that with what we’re talking about, what the country’s talking about with Charlotte. And then here’s this guy coming along. So we’re going to have to wait and see. The other thing we missed yesterday with you being off, Karen Ballsnatcher.
SPEAKER 04 :
Karen Ballsnatcher. That’s a very uncomfortable name. Well, that’s her nickname. Philly’s Karen.
SPEAKER 13 :
You’re absolutely right. Philly’s Karen. I prefer Karen Ballsnatcher. I’m sure you do. Look, but you know what’s amazing about this story? In 2025, she’s still not been identified.
SPEAKER 04 :
That is beyond… And I kind of… That’s wild! I’m kind of glad because she’s on the wrong side here. We can… We can fast-track this because she’s in the wrong. The dad absolutely had every right to the ball. I believe that’s been established. My etiquette question for you, I was watching The Five yesterday, and Greg Gutfeld, this rarely happens, was 1,000% wrong about something. He congratulated the dad for giving the ball up. Because it de-escalated, and we don’t have enough de-escalation. He’s right about that, but there’s a way to de-escalate, and that’s by very calmly looking into this woman’s bugged eyes and saying, ma’am, I got to the ball first. He tried that. That’s all there is to it. He tried that. No, no, no, he didn’t. Yes, he did. He shook like, oh!
SPEAKER 13 :
And then he calmly told her, it was my ball, I got the ball.
SPEAKER 04 :
Mark, no. He didn’t do it long enough.
SPEAKER 13 :
What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Are you going to get in a fist fight with a woman in front of your kid?
SPEAKER 04 :
No, no.
SPEAKER 13 :
I’m going to never raise my voice. She was in his face.
SPEAKER 04 :
I don’t care.
SPEAKER 13 :
She was grabbing him. She didn’t get that ball.
SPEAKER 04 :
Greg was 100% correct. So you think the dad was right in caving and folding? Of course he was.
SPEAKER 13 :
And look how it turned out. And look how it turned out.
SPEAKER 04 :
Look how it turned out. The kid got a gift bag.
SPEAKER 13 :
The kid met with players.
SPEAKER 04 :
It all worked out great. But the lesson is bad. The bully won. The terrorist won. No, she didn’t. No, she didn’t.
SPEAKER 13 :
She’s the most hated woman in America.
SPEAKER 04 :
I know. I mean, Mark, nothing can change that.
SPEAKER 13 :
Good for him. If he’d have reached back and popped her or they’d have gotten into it.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s not what I’m saying. Please listen to what I’m actually saying. And imagine, I’m writing a little play in my head, I know. It’s where, as she goes… He doesn’t raise his voice one molecule more than I am to you right now. And saying, ma’am, I have every right to this ball. I understand you’re upset. But this ball belongs to me and not to my son. You are not getting it back. And have a nice day.
SPEAKER 13 :
And when she doesn’t back off, then what?
SPEAKER 04 :
And when she doesn’t calm down. She wasn’t calming down. You continue to speak to her in exactly this childlike tone. Oh, would you stop it, Mother Teresa? Bologna. Bologna. You’re wrong. You maintain your rule. You stand up for what’s right. He was 1,000% wrong to surrender the ball. He was 1,000% right.
SPEAKER 13 :
He did de-escalate, and that’s the problem.
SPEAKER 04 :
We got everybody hitting everybody. I would have de-escalated, too. No, you wouldn’t have. When de-escalation involves surrender on a vital point, that’s not good quality de-escalation.
SPEAKER 13 :
And the surrender led to a very happy ending for that young boy. But the lesson is that. She’s hated. And again, it’s astounding to me that people know who she is.
SPEAKER 04 :
People know her. This woman and the Dobbs decision Supreme Court leaker are two. I can’t believe that we don’t know who either of those people are. Maybe it’s the same person. In today’s world? Wow.
SPEAKER 13 :
It’s crazy because you know that she’s got neighbors, she’s got coworkers, she’s got family. And all it takes is one person to say, yeah, that’s Betsy or that’s Martha or whatever her name is.
SPEAKER 04 :
I actually actively hope that doesn’t happen because as much as we all have a similar view of her, but she’s going to be destroyed.
SPEAKER 05 :
Download the podcast and hear all of Mike and Mark’s conversations at MikeOnline.com for the Eminem experience.
SPEAKER 13 :
The Eminem Experience. Subscribe to the Mike Gallagher Show podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for joining us. Have a great day. Be safe. Keep fighting the good fight. I’m Mike Gallagher. God bless America.
