Mollie Hemingway's Handle On Multiple Mediums
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Welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz and you're going to have fun today because we got a great guest. She's just wonderful. We're going to be highlighting a few things in the news. We're going to highlight the stupid because there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. And then we're going to get on the phone with Molly Hemingway, one of my favorites at Fox News that I've gotten to know. She's a contributor there.

She was one of the founders there at The Federalist and just super smart, really, really smart. And I love her perspective whenever she's on. But yeah, we're going to have a conversation with her. But I want to highlight the news first because, you know, there's a few things happening that we should talk about. Ashley Cutterside, I don't know that I'm pronouncing your name properly, but

In Godley, Texas. I'm not familiar with Godley, Texas. Couldn't point to it on a map and the school district there. But evidently she was hired. This is what I read about in Fox News. Hired to be involved and engaged in what we teach our kids in Godley, Texas.

about sex education issues. Interesting, especially since she had previously been running ads for being an escort and she has been convicted for being a prostitute. So maybe, just maybe, we should be doing a little bit of research and a little bit more vetting of the candidates that they hire because she was already hired and in that position.

And yet she's got a background that maybe isn't as conducive to making sure that we've got somebody highest moral order. I'm just, I guess I shouldn't be passing judgment, but when you're convicted of

doing that maybe that's not the person that should be working in schools i'm just saying but i found that interesting and it's just kind of a highlight hey parents it's up to you to help challenge the school districts um how you how do you vet the teachers and the people that are actually going to be sitting with your kids all day every day let's maybe do a little bit of vetting on them that would be a good thing all right next thing that kind of caught my eye is um

I saw this article out there and I loved it. It was on Fox, foxnews.com about how quiet the world is when it comes to China chomping down or cracking down on Muslims and other religions within their borders.

You know, it's just kind of assumed and just kind of taken by everybody that whether it be the Uyghurs or the Muslims or other religions that, hey, China controls all. So, of course, they can crack down on them. That's the way it is. And everybody just sort of accepts that. Why do we accept that? If they want to be a superpower and they want to be an economic leader, why do we tolerate that kind of thing? So don't tell us that we're, you know, that...

We find that stuff abhorrent, and yet we tolerate it and we do trade with them, and yet we never work or hold them accountable. You never hear Joe Biden or anybody talking to them about the suppression of religious liberties there in China. I just think it's just, you know, for the headline to say the world is silent on China and the crackdown on Muslims, especially in light of what's going on all over the place and in the world right now, maybe we should pay attention to that as well.

The other thing that I wanted to mention really quickly here is just the immigration numbers. They are absolutely staggering, getting worse. There are now millions of people that are here illegally. The numbers are infuriating, and it's unbelievable to me that we can have these Democratic-run cities complaining when they were sanctuary cities inviting them in.

the suggestion that we're going to spend $450 billion, $450 billion per year trying to take care of this mess that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have tacitly approved by their open border policies, the lack of enforcement, the lack of enforcing the current law, the catch-and-release policies that they've had along the way in the last three years.

It's just untenable. And I hope we do continue to pay attention to it. So it just can't do it. And the other thing I wanted to go back and talk about is the stupid. Because you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. All right. When I look at the stupid, I look at some of these protests that they have had.

and how they're executed and what they're done and where they're done. Now, it is as American as it gets to protest your government. Use your free speech, First Amendment, to peacefully assemble. Peacefully. That doesn't mean you can go deface things, including the White House. It doesn't mean you can go tear down things. It doesn't mean you can try to do as much disruption as possible.

Especially with iconic events like the Christmas tree lighting unveiling at Rockefeller Center or maybe the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade where they go and they sit in the streets and glue themselves to the streets. If you're going to ingratiate yourself and make your case for

your beliefs about what's going on in Gaza and you're taking these positions probably not going to win the hearts and minds of most of America by disrupting iconic

American things and choosing that to be your point sort of like what I feel and when I see And hear about it's happened mostly in Europe at least cases. I've seen where they deface or throw paint on or You know tear open these great works of art some of which are worth millions of dollars like since when is attacking our culture going to say hey, you know, they've really got a point and

I should be more like them. I think they scare off more people than they do to actually get people to want to join their side. It's just kind of stupid the way they do that.

All right, time to bring on somebody I'm really, really excited about. Molly Hemingway is just a fun person. She's super talented. I love her perspective. So let's just jump right in with Molly Hemingway. All right, so now we've got Molly Hemingway joining us. Molly, thanks so much. I appreciate your time. It's great to be here with you. Well, I got...

I was at the doctor's office and I wasn't going to get back in time. And you were so gracious in allowing me to totally change the time in which we are doing this. And I appreciate it.

Absolutely no problem. And working from home today. Well, you're very gracious. So I had a foot injury and I fell off a ladder, broke my foot like 18 years ago, broke my calcaneus in like six pieces, just destroyed the thing. So they put 14 screws and two plates in it. And then like, I can't remember how many years later, like more than a decade later, it got infected. They had to flay me open, pull out all the hardware, put me back together. And now I'm having problems with it again.

And I'm going to have foot surgery. So we're recording this before I have the foot surgery. But this will come out after I have the foot surgery, which is like day after tomorrow's when I have surgery. And so but I was up at the doctor and, you know, I couldn't really say, gosh, I have to get back for this podcast interview. And I was so afraid that I was going to screw up your day. But I appreciate you being flexible with me.

Absolutely no problem. I hope it goes well and it's important to get that taken care of. Yeah, yeah. It's not the kind of thing I want to do. It's not my first choice. Actually, I have to tell you, I tore three ligaments in my foot years ago while I was doing some box jumps, which I love doing box jumps, but I just was racing and it was bad.

And I had to go to physical therapy after that. And I asked the lady when I was going to be better. And she said, how old are you? And I said, 40. And she said, oh, yeah, you're never going to be better, like all better. Oh, my gosh. It is so good.

It was nice while it lasted. That's encouraging. Yeah. Well, I do find that the older I get, I don't recover quite as quickly as I did when I was, you know, 23 years old. It just doesn't bounce right back. Or like, it's

Since you have children, you know when your children get injured and you can almost see – they almost look like aliens with how quickly their injury heals. Like if they get a little cut, you can like watch it heal. And then with your grandparents or whatever, they get a cut and it like turns into like this big ordeal that six months later is still not healed. And it's just –

The body is amazing. It is miraculous. It is an absolute miracle. And I just think so thankful there are people, really smart people that dedicate their lives for just years and years and years to go to medicals. Like,

go to medical school and know how to deal with this. And I just in awe. And anyway, so I'm so looking forward to just getting this done. But I didn't want to wax out about my foot surgery that's coming up. I wanted to get to know you a little bit better because you are one of the smartest, wittiest people on television. I love it when you come on.

and just talk common sense and I agree with you probably 105% of the time but there's every once in a while every once in a while there's like wait a sec Molly I'm gonna call her that is so wrong and um

That is rare to none. I love the way you, I think one of the hardest things in communicating is taking a big weighty idea and then synthesizing it down to a few sentences to make it make sense. And you're so good at that. Where did you get that? Well, that's very nice of you, first off. I'm not sure how true it is. But I remember that after college, I was working at this like economics program.

that was affiliated with a university. And one of my jobs was to translate what the PhD economist said into English, or at least that's how I joked about it. I mean, they were technically in English, but they were always... And it was my field of study as well, but they would write these things in this jargon that made no sense to a normal person, and we were trying to communicate it to normal people. And I think I learned, yeah, at an early age that...

if you really understand something well, then you actually can communicate it to a general audience. Kind of like how when you have kids, again, when you're trying to, you realize when you're trying to explain something to a five-year-old that you don't actually know how it works because you can't explain it. You know, they'll say, how does the record player work? And you're like, I have no idea. But I think it's important to synthesize information for a general. Oh, you know what? I want to tell you, Jason, it's Brit Hume who taught me that.

So I remember when I first started doing TV, and I'm not like a total TV person. I think everyone who sees me knows that I'm not this does not seem like the thing I aspired to do or anything like that. But Brit Hume had a show on Fox for a while in 2016. And

And he asked me to come on and I love Brit Hume. I just have such high regard for him. I think he's brilliant. Yeah, he's awesome. Yeah. Just the way he says things. So I was already a little nervous and it was my first time kind of doing anything over at Fox on set. I'd done stuff elsewhere, but, and I'm nervous. I have no idea where to look. Everything is a mess. Like I just looked awful. And at the end he said something like, can you come back tomorrow?

I said, well, I could, but why would you want me? Like that was, I did a horrible job. And he was like, oh, no, you definitely have a lot to learn about TV, but I can't teach you how to, I can teach you TV. I can't teach you how to think. Come back tomorrow. We'll start lessons. And so every, you know, every few days when I was on, he would teach me just basics. So some of it was really about learning.

how to sit and how to look at which camera, like how to know which camera to look at, what lighting did, what your hair should look like. But also part of it was that he understood that when I wrote things, I would be pretty nuanced, but that TV is not for that level of nuance. So when you write something, you might say, here's the best argument from these people. And here's the best argument from those people. And here's where the first group is right. And here's where the second group is right. But

Why ultimately the one is better than, you know, it gets really complicated, right? But on TV, you basically just have to pick the one thing you want to say and say it. Because otherwise... Yeah, you've got to cut to the nub of the issue or you're going to run out of time. Yes. And it's just, it just is bad. It's just bad. So if you reshape your thinking about like, what's the most important thing I can say at this moment? That's my little, what I learned from Brit Hume. I don't know if that's directly responsive to what you were asking. No, I think that is right. Because...

It's hard to do. I once heard, of all people, Bill Clinton talk about communicating. And he was saying, look, you've got to be able to take away the issue. You've got to be able to explain it in 30 seconds, three minutes, and in 30 minutes, if you really, truly understand and grasp the issue.

And he said the hardest one to do is obviously 30 seconds because that's usually all you've got. And if you don't have their attention and you don't hit your point, you're done. And you're not going to get to minute three. And then you'll never get to minute 30. So if you're going to persuade people, you've got to understand what they're thinking, what they're looking for, and then make an argument that's compelling. And that's always kind of stuck with me.

Interesting. I know there's a lot of stuff to not like about Bill Clinton, but he was an incredible communicator. Yes. Anyway. All right. So let's go back to little Molly. Let's go back to Molly. I was born in and just kind of walk us through a bit like where you came from, because I think you're from the kind of the Rocky Mountains here and a little bit about growing up.

So I was technically born in Denver. And I say technically because my family didn't live there at the time I was born there. They lived in Wyoming. So I should have been born in Wyoming. But my parents were both from Denver. And my mom had some issues that she wanted to have me be born at a hospital in Denver. So born there, then spent a couple years in Wyoming, but at an age where I don't remember much. I'm the youngest of my family.

of my siblings and we moved to California. - Do you mind if I ask you where in Wyoming you were? - Yeah, Kemmerer. So Kemmerer is a little town, almost all the towns in Wyoming are little, but it's a little town in the southwest corner, very near Salt Lake. - Rock Springs. - Yeah, and Kemmerer's known for being the first location of a JCPenney store. - Really?

The biggest, I would never have guessed that any department store originated in Wyoming, let alone Kemmerer, let alone JCPenney. That's impressive.

Yeah, so I love Wyoming, by the way. I was impressed. Yeah, no, I agree. I love Wyoming for the... One of the things I love about it is there aren't that many people there. It is gorgeous. I think the whole state is gorgeous. There are some parts that are particularly gorgeous, but I like it. I like the way people are there. We always...

Spent a lot of time in Wyoming and went vacation there. And I just, it's a wonderful state. But really, my memories of growing up are mostly in California where we lived. So you moved to where in California? And how many brothers, sisters did you have?

I just have one of each. They're both awesome. And we lived in the Central Valley of California. So it's kind of the forgotten part of California. Everyone knows how beautiful San Diego and LA are. They, you know, even the Palm Desert area. Um,

Or San Francisco or the Wine Valley. The Redwoods. The Central Valley. Yes. Yeah. The Central Valley is the San Joaquin Valley. So we grew up like 50 miles north of Bakersfield at the foot of the Sierra Nevada. That's a beautiful country. I loved it. And it was very agriculture. It was very rural. My dad's a pastor and...

It's the only and we're Lutheran and the it's the only Lutheran church in California that's in an unincorporated area. So very rural. And it was just a really fun, great place to grow up, learning about crops and learning about agriculture, you know, whether it's mostly at that time people were growing oranges. There's been a man caused drought in the area that has really ravaged the region. Yeah.

in the last decade or so, but it was a fun, I mean, California at that time was just pretty, it really was the policies of some democratic elitists who have created the, the drought that is going on there. I totally get that issue. And Devin Nunes was a huge champion of fighting against the lots of it. But how far were you from Yosemite?

Um, so we would go, we would do a lot of camping. My parents are big into outdoors, my dad in particular. And we would go with other churches on these big camping trips. And we would always go to either Yosemite, Sequoia, or Kings Canyon. But Yosemite was the furthest away for us. So I don't remember exactly how far it was. But, um,

But it was really beautiful. I mean, I took the kids. I wanted my husband and kids to see where I grew up. So we went back recently. And I actually talked to Devin Nunes about that because he's from, I mean, he's from right there. Yeah. And I found that kind of funny because no one is from that part of California. But like, that's where Kevin McCarthy was from and Devin Nunes and Victor Davis Hanson. And I was like, maybe there's something in the water that makes us all, you know, really bold people or whatever. Yeah.

But it's beautiful. And the national parks there are just amazing. So you're growing up. You got two siblings. What happens in high school? What are you like? Are you the nerd? Are you...

Are you into sports? Were you like president of the chess club? I mean, what was going on? So we moved back to Colorado at some point. My dad got a call to a church back in Colorado. So I did high school there. And it was also so in California, we went to parochial schools and in California or in Colorado, we went to public schools.

And I don't know. Prior to high school, I was a very quiet kid. My parents think it's funny that I speak publicly now because they just remember me never talking at all, just sort of quietly observing. But by high school, I was a yearbook editor and...

definitely much more bold and outspoken and political and did a little debate and the type of things you might expect of someone like me. So my brother and my sister and I also started a Latin club where we where we recruited a teacher to teach us Latin the hour before school. So when you were asking if I was a nerd, I think that answers that question. Yeah, that's a pretty good highlight. Yeah, that would that would pretty that would

put a definitive stamp on it. Yes, because I know me and my brother, we always wanted to wake up earlier and go in and learn more, especially Latin. That was what we were...

Who does that? That's fascinating. Well, I'm glad you had a teacher to do it. Yeah, she was great. And learning Latin is actually a wonderful thing, and it helps you so much with spelling and grammar and thought and all that. So highly recommend it. No, but good for you. I mean, but look, my point is in high school, I wasn't really focused on that kind of stuff, but you were. So you're getting done with high school, and there comes a point where, okay, graduation's coming up. Now what am I going to do?

So what did you decide? This is making me uncomfortable. Like I was kind of a wreck at this age. So I feel like other people... Most people are a wreck. They haven't figured out where they're going in life at this point. Well, thank you. That's what I was going to say. I feel like that was me. So I...

Just felt confused at that moment. I didn't really know what I was going to do or the idea that I would leave my home and start college. I think I want to say one thing about back in Wyoming is that that

While I was there, I was actually very sick. So I spent much of my first year in a hospital in Salt Lake City. And the people there took very good care of me. But they diagnosed me with failure to thrive. And I always thought that would be a really good name for a biography would be failure. And it actually be a really good, really good band name, too. I think if I was starting a band, that would be right at the top of my list. Failure to thrive. Yeah.

I had a little failure to thrive in high school. I was like smart, but just confused about everything. Wait, that sounded very braggadocious. I didn't mean that that way.

way. You know what I mean? Like I was not living up to my potential. Yes. And, you know, there would be these, these like glimmers, like, wow, you got, you got a really good score on your SAT. Why are, why are these your grades kind of thing? How did that happen? Yeah. So anyway, I went to University of Colorado, Denver. So not far from where I graduated.

where my family was and my siblings had both gone to CU Boulder and I studied economics. I will say I knew I wanted to study economics from a young age. I had Mr. Smithwick in high school taught us econ and I thought this is awesome. I really like math. Like that's my thing I feel most comfortable. The language I like the best is math.

But I was also interested in history and government and politics and those types of things. And economics seemed to balance those two things. And so from maybe I was like 14, 15, decided I wanted to do econ, went to college, studied econ, never changed my major, wanted to start grad school in econ, and even moved out to D.C. in part so I could –

do that, and then realized pretty quickly, I didn't want to do grad school. So I, yeah. When did politics kind of come on the radar? Like, when did you start paying attention to maybe, you know, world events, political events, those types of things that happen?

earlier in high school? I remember when I was pretty young, Reagan was nearly assassinated and we lived right near our parish school. And so the principal had me run back to my house to kind of like watch the news and come back and give a report. I think of this as my first time being a reporter, you know, in first grade or whatever. And I remember, so my dad

and mom are politically mixed or they were, I should say. So my dad grew up in a real like blue collar Democrat kind of house and family. And my mom, she,

had been raised by people who were Republican when like nobody was Republican. They just went back decades as Republicans and they cared about it. So they got married and they had these political differences. And so we would hear that at the dinner table where they would talk it out. But then also at the time that this is all going on, my dad is starting to experience that thing that a lot of Democrats experienced, which was a feeling that the Democrat Party had kind of left them.

So he's very concerned about workers. He's very concerned about labor. Like he's been in my both my parents have been in unions. And he also cares a lot about like the vulnerable, the poor, unborn children, things like, you know, these issues. And so he felt like the Democrat Party was losing that. And, you know, whether it was economic issues or socially, he just felt problems there. And so he's actually Republican now.

Which is not just kind of funny given how things started. Well, I do think, I think you're spot on. I think the Democratic movement or party or whatever you want to call it from kind of my teenage years, there's no room for a traditional kind of liberal in today's Democratic Party. It is so vastly different.

And so they would never think about like dishonoring, you know, the military or veterans or, or the police. I mean, those were things like, of course, everybody agrees on that, but you know, did they have more liberal views on certain things? Of course. But today's democratic party, yikes. That's a whole nother, that's all another podcast.

Yeah, but that's, I liked hearing my parents talk and they really did and do continue to disagree on certain things and they always had fun talking about it. And so it shaped my brother and my sister and me because we were encouraged to participate in those discussions and we're all, you know, we're all interested in politics, my whole family, and thinking for ourselves about these things. And so it just was very natural. And I think in

High school was when I started to really begin my lifelong dislike of corporate media. By that point, we're in Colorado. There are two papers, the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. And you would see how they covered the exact same event differently. And it made me realize how significant the way the media cover things, how significant that is and how much it can affect what you think about something.

And so for me personally, the big issue I care about is abortion. And I noticed that the language that they would use, you know, they would they would sort of disparage pro-lifers in the in the way they described them or in the type of people they quoted who were pro-life. And my parents had told me about abortion when I was nine. I still remember the conversation because I honestly couldn't believe it was real. I could not believe what they were telling me was real. Right.

And it just changed my life forever. I was like, I think this is not good. And I would like to help women and children. And so that was kind of my entry into politics was caring about that issue. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Molly Hemingway right after this.

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I don't know if you know this about me, but I actually graduated high school up in Winter. I lived in Winter Park. It was in Granby, Colorado. That's right. Little tiny school with 49 people in my graduating class. And so I was very familiar with, yes, the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post because the way I grew up, my parents...

From a very young age, when I woke up in the morning, it was always my dad. He'd wake me up and make us breakfast, my younger brother. But we were not allowed to watch television, so he would put the newspaper in front of us. And that's how, like, I mean, for my youngest years, that's what I remember, the newspaper. We could look at that. And then it got to be a pattern. And by the time I'm in high school, yeah, I'd expect to see the paper, and I'd read through it. Yeah.

Learn to read a box score and look at sports. But I'd look at all the sections. I learned about stocks because I couldn't figure out, like, what's this? High, low? What does this mean? Volume? And so I started, like, it was intriguing to me. So I'd look through that. But I do remember, like, I have this faint memory. And I would have never thought of this except you brought it up. The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. And I thought...

wait a sec, I don't like the way these Denver Post guys write the Rocky Mountain News. Why didn't they? They were both at the same event. Like, how come there's two different pictures, two different headlines, two different, like it didn't, it wasn't registering until as deep as it is today. Like, oh, okay. All right, now I understand what's going on here. Like that was the beginning of kind of opening up my eyes to the corporate media like you were talking about.

Yeah. And I realized in retrospect, like I didn't go into journalism right away and I

I should have always known I wanted to go into journalism because I was doing the yearbook editor thing in high school. Right. And I was a voracious reader of the news and I was obsessed with how the news covered things. So I'm, it's an example of how I'm not always the quickest person. Obviously I should have been thinking about going into media immediately. Well, I edited our little tiny newspaper, which is printed out on a printer and, um, and we'd advocate for things. And like,

trying to get rid of smoking on campus and changing the name of our high school mascot. But little things like that. But it was really fascinating. I remember being called into the principal's office. I read your article about smoking, and I, you know, this is going to cause a problem, you know, because these kids are probably... It was really funny to get called into the principal's office.

Right. Oh, I'm sure that was... So you were trying to keep kids from smoking, not faculty. No, just kids.

And that's so uncool of you. Well, what they were doing is they were allowing the kids to smoke indoors because up in- Oh my goodness. That's horrible. It was so, I'm like, I don't want to spread their smoke. I don't need to leave. Like, if they want to have their own choice, that's fine, but they can go off campus. And the principal's like, no, look, it's too cold out there. They're going to freeze out there. And it's, you know, he's creating all these excuses. And I said, well, they're not adults. What are you talking about? Like, what?

I got rules. Okay, what about all these other rules? And I got into this nice little argument with Mr. Minty. And it was just a really good lesson. I don't know that I would have come to the same conclusions now, but it was sort of my understanding that you would have an outsized voice and

If you would get involved in writing things and doing things. And I had, I had written a letter to the editor when I lived in Arizona, when I was a teenager, because KZZP, uh,

was doing a commercial-free weekend brought to you by, and then they would name whoever the sponsor was. And so I wrote a letter to the Arizona Republic saying, that's not exactly a commercial-free weekend when every other song they stop and say, we're bringing you this all commercial-free, brought to you by, you know, whoever it was. They were like, that's not commercial-free. So if they're going to do a commercial-free weekend, they owe us one. And they printed it, and I could not believe that they printed it. It was like so...

So anyway, I love it. So that's where I like those little things in life that like, oh, wait a sec. So I ended up actually being a communications major in, in, uh, uh, when I went to school, when I went to college and it came so easy to me and I loved like communications law. I aced that class. I love that class.

And it sounds like with numbers and economics, that was your passion. But when did you kind of turn the corner and say, yeah, you know, journalism? When did you like connect all those things together? So many years later, I'd moved out to D.C. I was once again floundering in terms of not totally knowing what I wanted to do with my life. And I'm working for like libertarian groups because that's kind of where I was at that time. Yeah. And

Then I, shall we say, found myself without a job. And it was after 9-11. And I knew I didn't want to go back into the realm I'd been in, which was like nonprofit administrative stuff. And that's where all the job offers were coming from. And I knew I didn't want to do that, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I remember...

watching The Daily Show. Do you remember that? Yeah, it was highly entertaining. Yeah, I'd watch it. Yeah, it was kind of enjoyable in that way before it completely lost the plot. And Peggy Noonan was on and I was watching her and I was like, oh, right. I love Peggy Noonan. Like I want to be Peggy Noonan. So I thought that that meant being a speech writer. So then I learned that you should try to be a press secretary on the Hill. And I will tell you,

former representative Jason Chaffetz. I never got hired by any of those people that I interviewed with. And I remember, I remember being the one and I'm like, oh, you thought I wasn't up to snuff and I bet you, you know. But one of the things I'd learned was that- It wasn't my fault, Molly. That was not my fault, Representative Jason Chaffetz. Oh,

I learned from that, though, that they wanted people with reporting experience. So I then tried to get a job in reporting. And I got a job at a trade publication called Radio y Música, which cover radio and records, and was covering the radio and recording industries in D.C. So that meant like covering the FCC and The Hill. And it was great. I loved it. I mean, I was actually hired to answer phones and make...

make coffee and deliver faxes but they let me write and the moment I had my first bylined piece on the front page I was like well this is it this is what I want to do yeah okay so you go from the music industry and kind of walk us through your career where you end up sitting across from Burt Hume oh I mean I don't know how exciting that is I I went into journalism after 9-11 fast

Okay, which was like the worst time to go into journalism. Everything was closing down. You're competing for jobs with people who spend... There's no meetings to cover. There's nobody to go interview. They're all not there. I mean, the newspapers are shutting down, though, because the whole economy was bad. It's all going online, yeah. So radio and records closed down, and then I went and worked for a Gannett publication that covered the federal government called Federal Times. And...

Then, you know, and I did that for years. And then I got married and we got pregnant right away. And I knew I wanted to be home with my kids. So as soon as our oldest was born, I just kind of freelanced a bunch. And I was freelancing a ton for the Wall Street Journal, but I would really do anything like Los Angeles Times or Boston Globe or whatever the papers were. I would just freelance and I would usually cover religion news. And then I

We started The Federalist, and that's really when everything changed. We started The Federalist in 2014. We wanted a conservative publication that was doing a better job of articulating the views of actual conservatives. And it felt to us that a lot of the publications, whether they're libertarian or conservative, they were more like DC telling the people what to think, and we wanted...

to just kind of get that common sense wisdom that Americans have and force it down DC's throat. And so I was like, I love this. Like, let's do this. And the moment we started, it just took off. Like everyone was very hungry for that. And that's how it all happened.

Well, the Federalist is exceptional. You know, it is got some of the best commentary. You know, it's part of the reason like I watch Fox News is I remember early on before I was in Congress and then certainly while I was in Congress, I would turn it on and I'd watch it because I wanted to help. It helped me to think about how I should think about things.

And and I would look at the Heritage Foundation and but the Federalist then was there and you could like, OK, this is really smart. Like, this is really helpful to how I should think through things.

And there's just very few publications out there. I'm not saying everybody has to be everything I agree with. I like reading stuff that I don't agree with because it's like, oh, you guys are idiots. But the Federalists filled a void that was not as crystal clear out there. And I think that's why it's been so successful. And we don't take editorial positions. We host debates. If people want to argue for this article,

this perspective or that perspective, we're fine with that. But we do it all from the, from the, that portion of the country that's completely ignored by most media. And I love doing it. And then we also do just great reporting. And I found that to be so important. Like during the Russia collusion scam, you have the entire corporate media pushing this delusional thing, but they're all either believing it or acting like they think it's real that, you know, Donald Trump is,

stole this election by colluding with Russia. And, you know, we would, we initially were like, we think maybe that's not true. But then as we became one of the only outlets to fight against it, we were breaking story after story about what was really going on, which is it was like a total scam that was cooked up by Hillary Clinton and the DNC. And then it was filtered through the media and like people in these federal agencies took the bait on it. And

And by reporting, like by breaking, by getting the news and facts out there, and then also having the strength that when everybody in the entire town is telling you that you have to back down. And we got a lot of that. You know, we got a lot of pressure to join in on the scam and we didn't. And it was hard, but it was so exhilarating. Like it was so wonderful to, to hear.

win that story basically by so by by by being both resistant to groupthink and then also reporting facts so when you're starting something like that I mean how many people are sitting around the room and then how do you like all right here's all the things we got to do oh my goodness there's more to do than we have people I mean how did how did that come to fruition

So that's, I just want to say that's what I find most frustrating. A lot of what is important to do in journalism right now is just to be smart enough to not fall for info ops and then report it out. And I always wish there were more people we could have to throw at this problem because it's not like there's one issue where the corporate media are very bad. It's like every issue. It's like, it's...

whether it's economic or cultural or defense or whatever, they're just bad on everything. And so it requires a lot of time and energy and smart thinking and smart people to just, yeah, just be truthful about what's going on. But the way I look at it is to a think through what are the most important issues to tackle at any given moment, because there are limitless options. And then to be creative about how to push it right away. Like,

You could have everyone now understands the Russia collusion scam was a scam, but it needed to be fought in the moment. Like it was very important to get the reality out there. And so you think through like what's going to what's going to drive the news cycle today or what can we write that other people can understand well enough that they can start articulating it as well. So it does require a little strategy that way, but it's more like that Chesty Pullard quote about racism.

about it being good news that they have, like they're on the, they're on the left of us. They're on the right of us. They're all around us. We're surrounded, you know, we've got them right where we want them. Like wherever you fire, you're going to, you're going to hit something good. So that's another way to look at it. You know, and I've said this many times on this podcast, but, um, you know, I think if you were to talk to me and Trey Gowdy separately together, we'd have, we'd come to the same conclusion. What was the biggest, um,

kind of misconception that you had at the beginning of Congress versus the end of Congress. What was the most disappointing? And we would both say the lack of intellectual curiosity by the traditional national media that everybody knows and how unfairly and biasly they report out the news. It's just...

Like, I've heard that. Yeah, I've seen it. Maybe you have lip service to it. But then when you're living it, when you're actually the one that had the conversation with James Comey or, you know, was in the room when they sheepishly, you know, said, yeah, we gave immunity agreements to Hillary Clinton's chief of staff. And then John Radcliffe says to her, so.

where's the clause in this agreement that says that she has to cooperate with the government? You know, and they said, well, we didn't put it in there. And then you say, well, why? Well, is this the standard one? No, it's not the standard one. Oh, it's a deviation from the standard one.

And then you go out and talk to the New York Times and some of these big publications. And then they literally had the reporter come back to me and say, because he was so excited he was going to get to run this story. And then he came back and he said, honestly, Jason, I'm just telling you, our editors know how devastating this is going to be to Hillary Clinton. So they're not going to run it. And I think that it just floored us how bad they really were. Yeah, I've been thinking about.

The media are corrupt for decades and that's not new. I mean, Dwight Eisenhower was talking about it. It's not like a revelation that there is that problem. But

The difference between where they were in the 1980s and now is it's just so much worse. I wish, though, that more Republican leaders would step up and stop acting like they are in any way legitimate. I remember one of my favorite compliments we got at the Federalist like early on was from this person who said they're dangerous because they don't care what The New York Times thinks. Like, we don't hire people who want to get hired by The New York Times. We don't care when they go after us. In fact, if anything, we feel like that means that we've done a good job.

And you need to have that attitude because right now the media are the main political actor in our country. And it's not in a good way. They are far more powerful than like the Democrat Party. They basically direct the Democrat Party and they are given this like prestige that they have.

No right to. They frequently lie. They make up stories. They participate in censorship operations. They are really doing damage to the country in terms of not sharing news and information with people like they should be. And yet you'll see these Republicans who are like craving good coverage from them. And it is really disappointing to see because...

the sooner i mean you look at these polls and very few people trust corporate media to report the news fairly or accurately like the most recent gallup poll said it has tied for the lowest ever it's particularly low among republicans where it's like nine percent of republicans trust them in any way to report the news yeah fairly or actually or honestly but their leaders kind of disappoint them by still playing around with them or acting like if they say something it's legitimate or caring what they think like

They have power because these people care what they think. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Molly Hemingway right after this. Yeah, I think you hit it spot on. I really did. You know what? The last thing that I mentioned before, I ask you these rapid questions to get you know you a little bit better. Don't get too nervous about it, but most people sweat when we do this. So just so you know. It is absolutely amazing to me how...

how pervasive it is. But again, to your point, how leaders play into this. But do you think that America's figured this out? I mean, the New York Times, they've kind of become these coastal elitists, you know. But here's the problem that I see. I wanted to just put this one other layer on top of it. If I go into Google and I try to type in something, I am not going to get the Federalist as a response. They're just not going to do it.

I have to literally go to the Federalist to figure it out because these search engines have also figured out how to manipulate it so that you can't get out something that's written in the Federalist. I mean, I've seen it a lot. We talk about it a lot.

Yes, it's the single biggest threat to the First Amendment or attack on the First Amendment that we've had in our country's history is this government-sponsored censorship industrial complex. So we have multiple agencies throughout the federal government who are colluding with big tech and then like Democrat activists to suppress news and information that is different than what, you know, basically the regime wants you to hear and to elevate censorship.

quote-unquote news and information from state-approved sources. It's horrific. It's like the worst nightmare that the Founding Fathers ever could have imagined. And people really need to take that seriously. It's

you say like, oh, people don't care about the New York Times and that's true and they don't trust the corporate media, they don't even get the opportunity to see other perspectives. There is such dominance in the search engine space and in tech and in media. And it's so heavily funded by corporations and big donors and everything that it is amazing that we're even, you know, what they're doing when they're censoring you, by the way, is trying to kill you. They're trying to

Not literally, but, you know, crush your ability to actually exist as a news site that is different than state-approved media. It is very nefarious. The good news is there are quite a few lawsuits that have been filed that are going after this state-sponsored censorship complex, and there will be more. And that is a glimmer of hope in terms of how we can fight back. Good. That's all I can say is good, because I...

I don't understand why somebody hasn't sued them on the idea and the notion that there has been this bait and switch where they go out and say, oh, here, like in my case, okay, I have more followers than maybe the average American. But, you know, I supposedly have 500 and something thousand people following me on Twitter or on Facebook. You know, at one point I was close to a million. And then one day I woke up and,

And they trimmed me back to like 500,000. I'm like, what do you mean? I had hundreds of thousands where they fake accounts. What were they? I mean, but the idea that you're actually following somebody, but then you actually don't get to see their content. If I sat on a box of captain crunch, they have to put a little legal disclaimer on there saying, you know, the bear, the crunch berries are not as big as they actually are on this box.

How do they get away with that? You're not getting followers. These aren't your favorites. You don't, they're not actually following me. I'll put out a tweet that says something about Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis and it goes to like 80 people. And then I said, I put one out there for, I put one out there with my wife and I went to dinner and I have a nice sunset. It goes to 200,000 people.

I'm like, come on, that is so fundamentally wrong. And it is an artificial interference in the public square, which is such a problem. But part of the reason why it is allowed to happen, sorry to be this way, but a lot of Republicans have allowed it to happen and Republican leaders. I was speaking with a

prominent Republican who was telling me about how if you have a military agency or other person come in and say like, oh, we want to deal with disinformation out there, even the Republicans will be like, oh, great, good idea. As if...

As if nobody thinks, gosh, what does the Constitution say about the government privileging some speech over others? Who's determining what is information versus disinformation? And in the Facebook space, they have used these third-party fact-checkers. One of them is affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party. I'm not joking. Let's leave stories. And they're involved with that TikTok company, ByteDance. And they will censor American speech.

And it is extremely effective if they come in and they flag something. Not only does that does that hurt that particular post, anything else that person or that entity puts out there will then be suppressed. And this is about highly debatable things or things where they're actually wrong. You know, they will accuse other people of being wrong when they themselves are wrong. And that's whether it's dealing with it's like dealing with any of the hot button topics, whether it's health or elections or anything. And it is effective.

It is a horrific attack on Americans' right to free speech, which is not just about what you say, but what you have the right to hear as well. Yeah, I wish they would also get hit on the FTC thing, because I do believe that they are erroneously selling their product. And the other thing I believe, and we've waxed on for this for a little bit, but I think you have the right to be forgotten. I enter into a contract with a social media contact group.

company, I get access to the platform and I get to do all this and they get to see who I am and what I'm doing to a degree, not to the spying degree that they want to. But why should a 13-year-old be able to enter into this contract? When do you get to terminate that contract? Name another contract where you don't have a termination date.

where you don't, you shouldn't continue on in perpetuity. And if I terminate the contract, now I no longer get value out of Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or, you know, whatever, that they should have to stop using my information and destroy it or get rid of it. I mean, these types of things, I just, anyway, I didn't mean to gravitate to that, but you get me all whipped up on this and I know it whips you up too. So that's a good thing. All right, Molly, I want to ask you a few personal questions. Okay. Okay.

Yeah, look out. They're not that personal. Okay, you ready? Yeah, maybe. The rapid questions. Better put on the seatbelt, okay? What was your high school mascot? The Husky. See, that makes sense. That makes sense. That's like a legit... So often you ask people their mascot and it does not make sense. All right, that's a good one. What was the first concert you ever attended? Oh, Howard Jones, I think.

Maybe the, technically the Beach Boys, I guess, after a baseball game a few years before that. Yeah, but that's where the baseball gets you. I love concerts. Go to a ton. You know, I had a conversation with Mark Thiessen and I had no idea, like every other day he goes to a concert. It's unbelievable. I wouldn't have guessed that about him. Sounds like Mark and Molly Hemingway. I had no idea. I would have never guessed. Actually, I know you're supposed to be asking me questions, but did you ever go to a concert at Red Rocks?

I did not. But you know what? It is so wonderful. Oh, I've been to the, I've been to Red Rocks. Yeah. It's unbelievable. You gotta, you gotta, you gotta go to a concert. I know. I always remember watching that YouTube, YouTube video. Oh, that would have been so iconic to go to that. But I will tell you that my very first concert that I ever attended was Michael Jackson at Mile High Stadium. Oh, that's so cool. At Mile High Stadium.

That is awesome. I don't know if you remember. This must have been 1984, I'm guessing. Maybe 85, right in there. And he and his brothers. Yeah, that was my first concert. Michael Jackson, Mile High Stadium. Unbelievable. Yeah. What's your superpower? Like, what can you do? Like, okay, I'm really good at this. Like, not in a braggadocious way. Just, you know, this is my superpower. I think it's going to sound weird, but I'm very forgetful of bad things.

That's good. That's a good quality. My pastor once said this is the best trait in a marriage. Like if Mark has done something bad, I don't remember it. So I can't hold a grudge because I just don't remember it. That's sweet. That's nice. What's your, did you have a pet growing up? I had a cat named Socks. I had a dog named Socks. S-O-X. Oh, we had turtles too that we would like rescue. But they were all outdoor. We didn't really. See, I had an indoor turtle.

Now that I've learned more about indoor turtles and all the diseases and I can't believe we kept it like in the kitchen. It was disgusting. I think about it, but.

If you and your husband could be like, hey, guess what, honey? Special treat. We got somebody coming over for dinner. Anybody in history, dead or alive, you could break bread with and have a conversation, share a meal. Who would that be? Oh, interesting. I love the question. Oh, my goodness. It's like I'm thinking about, yeah, I know you said just quick, but I can't even think of all the people that I would want to. No, just right off the top of your head. I'm going to go with Prince. Prince? Prince.

I love Prince. Formerly known as Prince, that guy? Yeah. I would not have guessed. That's a fascinating, never had before answer. If I had to say, here are the ones I'm guessing that Molly Hemingway is going to come up with, I would not have come up with Prince. So I'm highly impressed. Did you ever go see him in concert? Oh, yeah. Tons. Amazing. Amazing performer. Yeah.

The stuff he's written, if you actually look at all the songs he's written that are performed by others, it's unbelievable. Yeah. You have a chance to blow your winning streak because you've succeeded on all answers so far, but you can blow it on this one. Pineapple on pizza, yes or no? Berm, yes. Oh my gosh, what's wrong with you? I would say that's basically the only pizza I like would be pineapple with a ham of some kind.

I don't have any problem with the ham. It's the pineapple. Wet fruit? Come on. There's something about, yeah, the acidity that really makes it pop. I love it. The judges do not like this answer. Okay. UFOs. Are they out there or not out there? Real? Not real? So I have a lot of thoughts on it. I have seen something in Wyoming that I have never been able to explain.

I don't know. It wasn't flying per se, but we were driving over on the eastern side of Wyoming up from Lusk to Newcastle. And there was this like self emanating light that was very bright and very weird. It had like a like a flat top and it had kind of like scalloped edges and it was kind of oscillating across the road. And we we drove through it and I just have no idea what it was. And I was like, it was at night.

It was really bright. So as you know, if you've been out there, it's like not much light out there. So you can kind of see things from a distance. And so we saw it and we were like, what is that? And then as we got closer, we were like, wait, what is that? And it was frankly terrifying. And we also, it happened to coincide with going across the road at the same time that we were coming back.

upon it. I am so glad I was there with a friend because it was the kind of thing that would make you feel crazy if you hadn't experienced it. Now I have seen, I have read about other people experiencing things very similar. So it must be some kind of natural phenomenon. I just don't know what it is. Maybe a listener can enlighten me as to what it was. But as for like UFOs, I kind of

I've become so skeptical of the deep state that every time they come out with a, like, oh, this UFO thing or that UFO thing, I just assume it's, like, the government running an op to cover up, like, technology or something. I don't know. Some weapons system or something, yes. Or to distract people from what's really going on. Interesting. Sorry to be so cynical there. No, no. This is where I have the conversation with John Ratcliffe, who was, you know, the director of national intelligence. Yeah.

you know the highest most senior person I'm like I was at dinner with them once I said John okay the UFO stuff you gotta tell me he's like Jason I can't I can't say a word and I said come on you got it like is it real is it not real is there's like somebody in captivity is like Jason I'm not saying a word he's the most honest like poker face the whole bit he would not spill the beans on anything you know who you should talk to you about UFOs with is

Brett Baer. He loves talking that stuff. Have you ever noticed whenever there's a development on UFOs, special report. It's on special report. It gives a little bit of coverage to it. All right. That's interesting. All right. All right. Last question. Actually, yeah, last question. Best advice you ever got? I don't know.

Well, I like what you said and suggested. Just, you know, forget all the bad stuff. Just be happy. Just keep going.

Actually, I think it's kind of related to what I was saying earlier, which it's advice in the form of this, what we, the way we talk about the eighth commandment, which is the commandment in our church against bearing false witness. And it's to put the best construction on what everyone else is doing. I fail at this all the time, but it is like another one of these like superhero things. If you can do it, it is great. So rather than taking offense or taking things personally, if you can try to stop,

Think through the best way of understanding what someone else has said, even if it's critical of you or something. You will be a much happier person. No, it's great advice. You know, other than the advice on pineapple on pizza, I buy everything that you've said today. And you've been so generous with your time, Molly.

Molly Hemingway, see her on Fox News. She's all over that. But The Federalist, if you're not familiar with The Federalist, it is an exceptional podcast.

source of information and perspective and just flat out news. So I encourage you on that. And Molly, you've been so generous. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for spending time with us. Thank you so much, Jason. This is fun. And I really appreciate the time as well. So generous with her time. I can't thank Molly enough. I just, she's got her head screwed on straight, folks. You just listen to what she says, how she says it.

she's learned from Brett Hume, but boy, she gets right to the nub of the issue. And I love it. It's very, very effective. And I think it's just interesting. She's just a wonderful person. I'm glad she's, I get to see her on air at Fox News and also, you know, at The Federalist. Thanks for listening to the podcast. I would love it if you would rate the podcast, subscribe to the podcast if possible. I want to remind people you can

Listen ad-free with a Fox News Podcast Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app. Again, rate the podcast. Join us again next week. You're going to love it. We'll have another exciting, fun guest during this holiday season. And we'll be back with more. For now, I'm Jason Chapitz. This has been Jason in the House.

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