Join Mike Gallagher as he explores the seismic shifts in New York City politics with Zoran Mamdani’s new policies and the resulting controversies. The episode also covers the significant arrest around the January 6th pipe bombing, exploring the media’s portrayal and the FBI’s delayed response. Gallagher’s dialogue offers a critical look at political strategies, the media’s role in shaping narratives, and personal anecdotes that bring a touch of humor to the serious subjects at hand.
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.
SPEAKER 08 :
I just saw some polling data from Real Clear Polling. If I had to ask you, would you expect that Donald Trump is more or less popular than either… Barack Obama or George W. Bush at this exact same stage of their presidencies, what would you think? Every single day, every night, there’s a narrative that the country is upset with this president. He’s harming these poor entrepreneurial Venezuelan drug runners. And incidentally, I’m not kidding. That’s almost literally what a Democrat on national TV said last night. These poor men just clinging to the shipwreck. Narco-terrorists. The Democrats are more upset about narco-terrorists bringing drugs into our country than they are American citizens. So he’s killing the narco-terrorists. He’s being mean to illegal immigrants, ripping families apart, and on and on and on. You want to know what the real clear politics polling average is for December 3rd? We’re talking December 3rd of the Trump administration, the Trump presidency. December 3rd of the Barack Obama presidency, and the December 3rd of the George W. Bush presidency. Do you know what it is? George Bush, on December 3rd of his term, in the first year, had a 41% approval rating. Okay? Barack Obama had a 39.8% approval rating. This is an average now. These are averages of the polls. President Trump has a 42.4% approval rating. President Trump, according to the real clear polling average of all the polls, Trump is more popular at this stage of his presidency than than either Bush or Obama. Look, I would argue that George W. Bush got a thousand times more favorable coverage and treatment from the media than Trump gets. We know what kind of media coverage Barack Obama received. Yet despite it all, Donald Trump is more popular today than Barack Obama or George W. Bush at the exact same point in their three presidencies. Look it up. Check it out. I mean, again, I know you don’t believe it because that’s impossible, right? That’s impossible. And the Democrats are lining up trying to figure out every single way they can tear this presidency down. Watching the left… whine and moan and complain about the narco-terrorists. I know there’s other big breaking stories that we’ve got to cover. We’ve got to talk about the January 6th pipe bomber. We’ve got to talk about the Supreme Court upholding Texas’ redistricting, which is a devastating blow for the Democrat Party. There’s a lot of good news to celebrate today. There’s a lot of terrific things to talk about. I can’t get over the Democrats… trying to convince the American people that narco-terrorists are victims. This is one of the craziest chapters of the lunatic Democrat Party I think I’ve ever witnessed. Here’s Ben Rhodes. Ben Rhodes, big Obama guy, big Democrat operative. Here he was last night on MSNOW.
SPEAKER 02 :
Look, this is the definition of why they have laws of war, so that people who are in duress, people who are wounded, people who can pose literally no threat whatsoever. I mean, there’s no spin that can describe how people hanging on to a burning boat. posed a threat to U.S. military forces whatsoever. That’s physically impossible, right? And so for them to spin this, I don’t know. They can talk all they want about the drugs that are on the boat if that’s the case, but that doesn’t justify taking this strike against people that were clearly in duress. This is why we have those laws.
SPEAKER 08 :
Spin? You think it’s spin? You want to talk about spin, pal? What about you? trying to gin up sympathy for terrorists, for narco-terrorists. And then Congressman Jim Himes comes along and says, hold my beer. Hey, Ben Rhodes, I can do you one better. Not only are these poor, poor Venezuelan drug runners victims, they’re just trying to find a better economic opportunity by running all the drugs into the United States and killing our kids. They’re just entrepreneurs.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, I live in a political world and a lot of folks, if you just tell them, you know, the president is killing narco terrorists in the Caribbean, you know, reasonably enough, they’ll say, you know, a lot of Americans die because of overdoses. And, you know, they might say they might say, OK, I’m supportive of that. Right. But what you need to do is you need to see two terrified men clinging to the wreckage of a ship. And these men are not this is not Pablo Escobar out there on a boat. You know, these are guys that probably didn’t have a lot of economic opportunity, made a terrible decision to participate in the drug trade.
SPEAKER 08 :
They’re two terrified guys who didn’t have any economic opportunities. That guy’s a Republican plant. There’s no way that’s an actual Democrat. There’s no way. There’s no way that guy said, I’m going to go on TV and I’m going to claim that the two narco-terrorists that we took out are just terrified people economically disadvantaged Venezuelans seeking a better life. That’s a Republican plant. That guy is an actor. He’s a crisis actor. He is from townhall.com, and he changed his identity, and he got some plastic surgery. He’s pretending to be a Democrat congressman from Connecticut so that the whole world can laugh at at the Democrat Party. Because that’s all you can do. If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. This is the state of today’s Democrat Party. You see, Zoran is already promising one of his first policy announcements. No longer are they going to do homeless sweeps and clear out areas where the homeless have set up encampments in New York City. He hasn’t even taken office yet, and he’s already promising to deteriorate the quality of life in New York City. You guys better be ready in New York. Good luck, because you’re going to need it. Yeah, that was Zoran’s announcement yesterday. The commie is not going to mess with the scores of homeless people who are setting up encampments. That was a Mayor Eric Adams initiative. We’ve got to clean them up. We’ve got to get them into shelters. We’ve got to get them off the streets. These are people who are prone to be victims of violence and all kinds of terrible things. We can’t have 50 people camping out at the subway station. Oh, no, no. Zoran says those sweeps are going to be gone. One of his first policy announcements. Hasn’t even been inaugurated yet. Good luck, New York. You’re going to need it. I’m glad I went there over Thanksgiving and saw, you know, the Rockettes and all the stuff and Broadway, because I may never go back. With that lunatic at the helm? Yeah, yeah, that’ll be great. No more homeless sweeps under Mayor Comey. Great, great start to what’s going to be a splendid run of Mamdani the commie as the mayor of New York City. Holy moly. I’m not kidding you. I swear to you, I’m not trying to be funny here. I think these folks are doing the Republicans’ bidding. Can you imagine expressing sympathy for narco-terrorists? I’d like Jim Hines, this congressman from Connecticut, to call some of my friends who’ve lost children to drug overdoses and let them tell him what they think. of his sympathy, economic opportunities. My gosh. Our number is 800-655-MIKE. Welcome aboard. We’re in the Relief Factor studios. I’ve got to get your reaction to this front and center. Like I said this morning on X, find someone to love you the way Democrats love narco-terrorists, and you will be set for life. 800-655-6453.
SPEAKER 09 :
Once you hear words of the cheer from everywhere filling the air,
SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
The Mike Gallagher Show.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s not American. That’s not what we are about. And we’re going to do right by every single person in our cities. And so, to our Somali community. In the ReliefFactor.com studios, here’s Mike. The only thing funnier than Jacob Fry, the mayor of Minneapolis…
SPEAKER 08 :
Speaking Somali. The only thing funnier is watching him eat Somali food with his fingers. That’s even funnier. That’s even better. Look at me. I’m eating your food. And I’m eating the food the way you eat it in your third world country. Aren’t I special? I’m telling you, it’s a big psyop. These are all Republican plants. These are characters. These are actors who are Republicans who want Trump and the Republicans to succeed. Zoran Mamdani. He’s a rock-ribbed conservative. I just know it. And what he’s doing is he’s an actor pretending to be a radical, lunatic, communist, socialist toddler. He made a big announcement yesterday. Did you hear about the announcement? I can’t stop laughing. I’m ashamed of myself. I’ve grown up loving New York. When you’re a kid wanting to be a broadcaster in the Midwest, you dream of getting a job in New York City. And I did. I got a job at WABC. I’ll remember it like it was the rest of my life. I ran over to the hotel. I was staying at the Hotel Pennsylvania right across from 2 Penn Plaza where WABC, the home of Rush Limbaugh, was housed. And they offered me the job. And I ran over to the hotel screaming to my wife, I got it, I got it, I’m going to work at the biggest talk station in America. Honey, I made it to New York. And Denise, oh my gosh, did she love New York. We loved our town on Long Island. That was, for her, that was heaven. It was like right out of Leave it to Beaver. Manhasset, New York. We built a home in a beautiful neighborhood of a town called Manhasset on Long Island’s North Shore. Just lived this idyllic life. I think about those warm, wonderful memories. And Manhasset is like right out of It’s a Wonderful Life. Gazebo in the town and Town Square and Louie’s Diner. We were regulars there. My kids all worked at Louie’s Diner. It was just a dream. That dream is now headed for nightmare territory with Zoran Mamdani. He held a big press conference yesterday, standing there with his stupid little placard on his podium. A new era for New York City. Oh, yeah, there’s a new era, all right. He announced they will end the Eric Adams policy. of clearing homeless encampments throughout New York City. This was a signature initiative pushed by the previous administration, the Eric Adams administration, and the socialist communist toddler, Zoran, flatly told reporters, according to the New York Post, that he will stop all sweeps of the makeshift settlements come the new year. Now, there was a response from a city councilwoman, one of the few Republican sane voices on the New York City Council, along with my buddy Frank Marano from Staten Island. But Vicky Palladino had a reaction to this. She wrote on X, this one horrible idea, nearly above all of his other horrible ideas, that will have the most immediate, noticeable, and devastating impact on quality of life in New York City. Unchecked homeless encampments will wipe away the final veneer of civility the city was clinging to. No longer will we be able to say, well, at least we’re not San Francisco. She wrote, it’s going to get bad. It’s going to get bad fast. and it’s going to be impossible to ignore. That guy standing there behind his podium, they’re not going to reach out and sweep out the homeless encampments and get these homeless people into shelters and get them off the streets. I mean, this is a guy who, after all, wanted to who wants to put the homeless encampments inside subway stations. This is a guy who wants to give free bus rides to the homeless. This is a guy who is going to destroy this city. And I’m ashamed of myself. I can’t wait to see it. I am honestly, I am 100%. coming clean with you. I’m ashamed of my feeling that I can’t wait to see it happen. I can’t wait to see delusional New Yorkers who stupidly turned the keys of the city over to this guy watch the havoc that he’s about to wreak. They’re the ones that are going to get impacted. They’re going to get mugged. They’re going to get assaulted. They’re going to have to deal with it. And they’re going to say, wow, why is this happening? As if you weren’t warned. As if you headlined Zoran Mamdani to stop all homeless encampment sweeps as New York City mayor. Great, great. That’s going to go real well. Oh, my goodness. 20 minutes before the hour. I want to get to this January 6th pipe bomber, but I want to spend a lot of time on it. We’re going to do that. I also want to talk about some of the great things that Americans for Prosperity is doing with our friend Kurt Couchman. That’s coming up as well. I also want to remind you about the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Right now in war-torn Ukraine, elderly Jews like Maria are facing a brutal winter. A constant search for food. She’s 85 years old. She lives alone. She’s nearly blind and suffers from a broken hip. She’s a Holocaust survivor. Her father and her brother were murdered by the Nazis. Maria still lives. in her childhood home. There’s no indoor plumbing, no heat, it’s bitterly cold. She prays for warmth, for food, someone to help her. This winter, her hope is fading with each passing day. That’s why I’m so thankful for the work that the IFCJ is doing. Thanks to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, we’ve been to Israel, as you know, on a number of occasions, broadcasting from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. For over 40 years, the fellowship and their supporters have been used by God To help the suffering, to learn how you can help and be a real blessing, visit UrgentIFCJ.org. UrgentIFCJ.org. That’s UrgentIFCJ.org. Carlos said he moved out of New York City last month as a result of the election of Zoran Mamdani. Tell us all about it, Carlos.
SPEAKER 09 :
It’s going to be horrible, Mike. It’s a nightmare. It’s a nightmare. In my neighborhood, we had a neighborhood garden, a vegetable garden, and the Mamdami people have already – taken it, and they have turned it into a collective farm that we have to spend.
SPEAKER 08 :
Five Mike, nail it, Eric. Hit it. 800-655-6… No, no, no, dump. 800-655-MIKE. Look, 18 minutes before the hour, there’s going to be a whole lot of problems that New Yorkers are going to have to deal with on a regular basis. And you buckle up and you get ready and you make sure that you understand that elections have consequences. And until Americans recognize that you have solutions right at your fingertips, if you want this insanity to continue during the midterms, you go ahead and you vote for Democrats in the midterms. You’ll see. You’re going to see. And do you understand how sick I am about enjoying it? Do you realize how much I’m ashamed of the satisfaction that the country is going to take in seeing New Yorkers get punished? It’s a terrible feeling. I don’t like this feeling. I hate this feeling. But it’s absolutely true. It’s absolutely correct. People are going to get exactly what they deserve. And already, before he’s even sworn in, you’re going to see what he’s about to do to the city of New York. You ready to drop up to 20 pounds or more by the new year? Have you been struggling with belly fat forever? You know, the older you get, the harder it is to say goodbye to those unwanted pounds. PHD Weight Loss cracked the code. They have a metabolic reset system that’s a science-backed way to get your body to burn fat first. Look, I’ve tried everything my whole life. I counted points. I counted calories. I did crazy starvation diets. Then I met Dr. Ashley Lucas, and I learned all about her brilliant program called PhD Weight Loss, the only program that guarantees your success and your results. If I can lose over 50 pounds and keep it off over a couple of years, you can too. Everybody can. When you call right now, they’ll waive your consultation fee, you’ll get two extra weeks free, and they’ll cover the cost of your food during the program. Just for booking, you’ll get Dr. Ashley’s book, Five Steps to Reset the Scale. Hurry, call today, 864-644-1900, Ph.D. Weight Loss, 864-644-1900, or visit their website at myphdweightloss.com.
SPEAKER 05 :
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.
SPEAKER 08 :
The Democrats are up to their eyeballs in scandal. Minnesota is reeling from the fraudulent Medicaid scheme that many Somalis perpetuated upon the citizens of Minnesota. Incidentally, got to correct another media lie, another narrative that is false. Trump did not call all Somalis garbage. Of course, anybody who saw his comments knows he was talking about the Somalis who were defrauding and scheming and ripping off the taxpayers of Minnesota. You think about it, it takes a lot of gall. It takes a lot of gall to immigrate here from a third world country, set up residency in a state like Minnesota, and then proceed to rip off the taxpayers of with huge fraud and corruption and abuse. That takes a lot. I think they call it chutzpah. Chutzpah. So there’s a lot of scandal. This FBI arrest this week of the January 6th pipe bombing incident is a gigantic scandal. You’re not going to be able to count on the mainstream media And frankly, the story’s probably going to go away quick. Matt Vespa over at Town Hall wrote a great column today about why this story will probably evaporate into thin air very quickly. You know, when suspects don’t fit media narratives, the stories go away. What do you know about the guy who tried to kill President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania? Very little. What do you know about the guy that killed all those concert goers in Las Vegas? Very little. What do you know about the guy who allegedly planted the pipe bombs in Washington, D.C. the night before January 6th? Well, thanks to Kash Patel, we’re learning more and more. Thanks to Pam Bondi, we’re learning a lot. But here’s what’s really stunning about the arrest of Brian Cole. There weren’t any new tips that led to his arrest. All they did was get their act together after four years, look at the evidence that they already had, and make an arrest. Do you understand how scandalous that is? You mean to tell me that Biden’s DOJ, that Biden’s FBI couldn’t figure out who this guy was. They evidently had surveillance pictures of his car. They had cell phone data. there was, according to Pam Bondi, no new tip, no new witnesses. Trump comes along, tells his FBI and his DOJ, get the guy, and they got him. And if the shoe was on the other foot, and a Republican administration had failed to make an arrest, and a Democrat came along, This is what the mainstream media would be screaming to the mountaintops about the scandalous, horrific failure of an administration to do its job. Here was Kash Patel last night with Don Jr., with Donald Trump Jr.’ ‘s podcast called Triggered. and had a pretty extraordinary assessment of what the FBI under his watch is going to do.
SPEAKER 01 :
What you’re going to see is as this case presents itself in court, you’re going to see where we were able to collect the evidence and make the case against this suspect. And then common sense journalism and investigators are going to be able to look at it and say, why did these people do X, Y, and Z four or five years ago? That’s going to make itself self-apparent. But what we’re doing at this FBI is also we have replaced this entire leadership cadre. We have pushed out 1,000 agents into the field. There is a reason this FBI has 25,000 violent offenders arrested this year alone. That’s twice as many as last year. There is a reason that this FBI is going to deliver President Trump the lowest murder rate in modern history by double digits. There is a reason this FBI is out there – crushing fentanyl, destroying narco traffickers and making sure the homeland is safe and preventing spies from infiltrating our homeland and our way of life. That’s what happens when you change leadership from the prior administration FBI who wanted to weaponize and politicize law enforcement to us. President Trump and the attorney general who want to just deliver law enforcement on every single front. And that’s what we’re doing. So you’re going to see it in both lanes.
SPEAKER 08 :
Now, I want to know what I want to compile what we know so far about Brian Cole. He is a young black guy, apparently a radical anti-Trump activist. He sued the Trump administration. He was represented by Ben Crump. You know, the guy that always shows up at all the police shootings that very wealthy attorney, Ben Crump, was right there side by side with this guy. So he is somebody who worked at his family’s bail bonds company, a bail bonds company that freed, that frees criminal illegals from ICE custody. So as Benny Johnson posted on X Today, this explains exactly why Biden’s FBI and DOJ could not find the guy. The Biden FBI had mountains of evidence against Brian Cole. They had cell data, receipts, license plate, pictures, videos of the crime. Benny Johnson asserts they knew exactly who did it. But his profile destroyed their entire MAGA white supremacist insurrection bomber narrative in one fell swoop. Benny wrote, the FBI didn’t fail to catch him. This was an example of leftists protecting their own. It’s actually, and I think Benny is right, the biggest FBI cover-up scandal in our nation’s history. And how bad is the media? When I say you can’t trust the mainstream media, even when there’s an arrest made of the young black guy, They identify him as a white guy. Check out Jake Tapper last night on CNN.
SPEAKER 06 :
After nearly five years of investigation, the FBI finally announced that they had arrested a suspect. A suspect accused of planting pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. Brian Cole Jr., a 30-year-old white man from the D.C. suburbs, is charged with transporting an explosive device.
SPEAKER 08 :
30-year-old white guy from the D.C. suburbs. Now, why do you think Jake Tapper rushed to incorrectly identify him as a white man? I’ve got a theory. I’ve got a theory. They saw the big house. It’s a big house. It’s like an $800,000 home in a suburb. They said, uh-huh. Ooh, big house. Brian is his name? I’ll bet he’s a white guy. Yeah, yeah, let’s go with that. Let me go on TV and identify him as a 30-year-old white guy. Just beyond contemptible. And these are the entities that are poisoning the American soul and mind with their propaganda. This is, of course, a major scandal, and I don’t think it’s going to go away. Matt Vespa does. Matt over at Town Hall said this story could soon get buried. For starters, the suspect is black. He’s left-leaning. That doesn’t mesh well with ongoing liberal media narratives. There’s nothing here that can be weaponized against Trump or Republicans. Apparently this guy was a rich black kid with ties to Antifa who lived in the suburbs with his parents. It upends the whole Jake Tapper narrative. It’s not a white MAGA guy at all. Here’s a perfect text message. This is why I love the MyPillow text line. Brought to you by MyPillow with tons of great Christmas gifts. Perfect gift for the grandkids. The five-piece children’s Bible story pillows for only $29.98 at MyPillow.com. Promo code MikeG. MyPillow.com. Promo code MikeG. Great text from Illinois, from Chicago. Jake Tapper has been able to identify the January 6th pipe bombers’ accomplices. They were found near a subway in downtown Chicago at 2.30 wearing MAGA hats. Two white brothers from Nigeria. Welcome in. 800-655-MIKE. 16 past the hour. Did I have a Christmas experience last night? I got to tell you about seeing Macaulay Culkin on stage, the little boy who was in Home Alone. Not so little anymore. What a great night. A Home Alone nostalgia evening at the Straz Performing Arts Center in downtown Tampa. It was the coolest thing. I want to… Dosing in the Christmas spirit for some reason this year. Sue me. I can’t help it. I got Christmas coming out of my ears. 800-655-MIKE. Welcome in to a Friday episode of the Mike Gallagher Show. 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 bill. 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.
SPEAKER 09 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
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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 08 :
Last night, I got to relive all the years that I watched it with my kids. Denise and I sat in front of the TV many times to watch Home Alone and Home Alone 2. It’s a Christmas classic. I get the sense that you haven’t shared that nostalgic experience.
SPEAKER 07 :
The year of its release was roughly what? 35 years ago. Yeah. 35 years ago.
SPEAKER 08 :
So Macaulay Culkin is doing a tour. He’s doing like 15 or 20. Now, you remember, you don’t obviously know as much about the movie as I do because the Gallagher family always watched the Home Alone movies at Christmastime. In fact, my father-in-law had such an affinity. He would laugh and laugh because the bad guys, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, always got paint cans in the face because Macaulay Culkin outsmarted them because he was protecting his house. And it’s a sweet movie. I mean, John Candy.
SPEAKER 07 :
And who’s in it? And who’s the most famous person in it? Well, Catherine O’Hara is the mom. No, no, no. How many Home Alones did they make? Two.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, there’s one and two.
SPEAKER 07 :
The one was in Chicago. Trump’s in one of them. Right. He makes a cameo in Home Alone 2. At the Plaza Hotel.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, I didn’t mean to bother you. Because the little boy winds up in the Plaza Hotel and he takes over a suite and it’s hysterical. Tim Curry is hysterical. Anyway, Macaulay Culkin has obviously decided to embrace his iconic childhood role. And he goes from city to city. There’s like 15 or 20 cities on the Macaulay Culkin Nostalgia Home Alone Tour. And, look, the Straz Center last night here in Tampa Bay was almost packed. They screened the movie, and then he comes out. He’s 45 now. He’s 45 years old. He’s married to some Disney star. I forget her name. Brenda somebody, I think, is her name. They’ve got two little kids. But he tells Home Alone stories. He goes on stage with some guy. I don’t even know who the guy was he was with. They never explained who this man was. There’s a guy up there interviewing him. I thought, well, who are you? Are you a local guy? I think he travels with him. There we go. That’s it. The Home Alone main title. That is, oh my gosh. So many happy memories. So Macaulay Culkin, who has this famous tortured childhood, because his dad, he became emancipated from his dad.
SPEAKER 07 :
I don’t know if you know the story, but… I remember this vaguely. What was that even about? Because the life of the child star is frequently fraught with horrible plot twists.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, and this kid was world famous at like nine. Of course. And he… He was the breadwinner. I mean, and he did a string of movies, Richie Rich and what was the other one? Oh, he did one with that Anna Chlumsky, I think her name is. But, you know, he did a run of movies when he was a little boy. Then he took like eight years off because as he explained Riley with a twinkle in his eye last night, I can retire whenever I want. And then I come out of retirement to work and then I go back into retirement, you know, at the tender age of 45.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, for anybody thinking he’s doing this tour because he’s eating dog food and has car payments, no. I heard somebody talking about him on some other podcast with some other entertainment figure who’s like real close friends with him. First of all, incredibly great guy, very balanced, very grounded, and… Totally wealthy. He has invested so well, he’s doing just fine, thank you.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, yeah. And it was fun to be in a theater last night with a bunch of Home Alone geeks. Everybody was wearing their Christmas sweaters. And, of course, there’s various lines from Home Alone. One of the famous lines is, Merry Christmas, you filthy animal. Because it’s a… And so people had T-shirts, Merry Christmas, you filthy animal. He was calling people out. But he talked about being famous at nine. He talked about, look, I have to have boundaries and rules. He said, I always want to be nice to my fans, but he said, I’ve got rules. For example, please don’t interrupt me at dinner with my wife. And please don’t come up to me with my kids because my kids don’t know I’m famous. And here’s what’s kind of cool. He told the story about how he watches Home Alone with his kids. And they don’t know he’s the little boy in the movie. And he doesn’t want them. He wants them to have a moment where.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I mean, you do this once. I mean, you watch it with them once. And then you do the big reveal at the end like, hey, that’s dad. Right.
SPEAKER 08 :
He wants to wait till they’re older. He wants them to be there.
SPEAKER 07 :
So they’ve done repeated viewings, and he hasn’t clued them in on this yet?
SPEAKER 08 :
Not yet. He says he wants to wait. And so they don’t know. Now, they know their mom is famous, and I don’t know who she is even. I wish I knew her name. Brenda something. She was a Disney star. But anyway, but the dad, here’s what’s fascinating. This is kind of tortured, a tortured childhood. The dad was a stereotypical stage dad who pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed and was a tyrant. In fact, this kid got emancipated from his dad. The dad’s still alive. He’s like 80 years old. Kit Culkin. And they had like nine kids, and they were in like a two-bedroom apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan growing up. And they were like living in a commune.
SPEAKER 07 :
One of those kids is Kieran Culkin from Succession and a bunch of other things. That’s right.
SPEAKER 08 :
Just one of those talented actors working today. That’s exactly right. And he talks about his brother, how proud he is of his brother’s work. But he did make a reference to, because I wondered if that would come up with the Q&A about his family and the tough childhood with his dad. He got emancipated. They don’t speak anymore. The dad was just kind of kicked to the curb. And, of course, the mother and father divorced. Somebody asked him about when he appeared on Saturday Night Live as a kid. And he said it was a great experience. He says, although my dad made everything miserable for everybody, he insisted that I memorize all my scenes on Saturday Night Live.
SPEAKER 07 :
Rather than you.
SPEAKER 08 :
They all use cue cards on Saturday Night Live. And Kit Culkin was such a tyrant, he wouldn’t let his son use cue cards. Well, as he pointed out, I don’t get cue cards. Well, that means Kevin Nealon doesn’t get any cue cards. None of the other castmates get cue cards. And they hated us. They hated my dad.
SPEAKER 07 :
They hated me. How did that edict from the dad prevent the other cast members from using cue cards?
SPEAKER 08 :
Because if you’re holding a cue card up with the kids’ lines, then you’ve got both characters on the cue cards. So he forbid cue cards. And as he pointed out, I had to memorize, he said, scenes and skits for Saturday Night Live that we didn’t even use. Because they don’t always use all the skits.
SPEAKER 07 :
It gets cut at dress rehearsals. That’s right.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s exactly it. So anyway, it was just a great… I had so much fun.
SPEAKER 07 :
I can feel it coming off your pores. The bride, by the way, is Brenda Song, whom I absolutely recognize. He was married briefly to another actress named Rachel Miner. But Brenda Song, who’s been in a bunch of things, a sitcom called Dad, she was in Pure Genius… Oh, wow. Dollface, Changeland. She’s one of those actresses where you go, yeah, I’ve seen her every once in a while.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, wow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I wasn’t familiar. Now, he did confess. He admitted that their kids know who she is. They know she’s famous. But they don’t know him. That’s good. They think he’s just Papa.
SPEAKER 07 :
Isn’t that wild? Oh, to be a fly on the wall at whatever Christmas this happens where he turns to the kids and goes, Daddy has something to tell you. I know. I know. Anyway, thanks for letting me share that. So for the evening, here’s the thing. Pardon the way this sounds. You got to sit through the whole movie or do they just do excerpts?
SPEAKER 05 :
Wait, the whole movie? Yes. Download the podcast and hear all of Mike and Mark’s conversations at MikeOnline.com for the M&M experience.
SPEAKER 08 :
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Join Mike Gallagher as he explores the seismic shifts in New York City politics with Zoran Mamdani’s new policies and the resulting controversies. The episode also covers the significant arrest around the January 6th pipe bombing, exploring the media’s portrayal and the FBI’s delayed response. Gallagher’s dialogue offers a critical look at political strategies, the media’s role in shaping narratives, and personal anecdotes that bring a touch of humor to the serious subjects at hand.
