Julie Kelly on Jan. 6 Prosecutions, Trump’s Subpoena, Gen-X Heroes

CLAY: We are joined now by Julie Kelly, senior writer at American Greatness. She has a great new piece up, “Gen X to Democrats: Eat My Shorts!” She also has a book out, January 6th: How Democrats Used the Capitol Protests to Launch A War on Terror Against the Political Right. Julie, Buck and I were talking about this earlier. Your Patriot Freedom Project has done an incredible job being able to provide lawyers to a lot of political prisoners related to January 6 that Buck and I were discussing this. I’m curious what you think. If Republicans take back the House and the Senate as increasingly appears likely, do you think there will then be more of a willingness to talk about the unfair treatment of many of these January 6th political prisoners, because maybe then January 6th as a political issue is effectively gone, at least for a year or more? Are you optimistic, pessimistic? Will nothing change at all?

KELLY: That’s a good question, and I’d love to take credit for all the good work that the Patriot Freedom Project is doing. But really, that was Cynthia Hughes, who is the adoptive aunt of one of the defendants who has been in the D.C. Gulag since February of 2021. But at any rate, you know, I don’t think Republicans are going to have a choice. This is such a hot issue with the base — as both of you know, because you’re more plugged in than I am. They see these egregious double standards of justice every day.

I mean, look at what happened today. Steve Bannon sentenced to four months in prison, the same week that (laughing) Igor Danchenko is acquitted in special counsel John Durham’s investigation into Russiagate. I mean, this just has to end at some point, and it’s not just calling out the double standard of justice. It is holding accountable the officials in DOJ and FBI who are responsible for this. So, I don’t think Republicans will have a choice. I’m not sure they have the stomach for it, but they need to find it.

BUCK: So what would that mean? Let’s say they did, Julie, have the stomach for it if they were willing to take real actions here. I mean, are we just talking about hearings to try to get to the bottom of things or are we talking about eventually a lot of firings from within the DOJ and the FBI by the next Republican administration? Because people ask me all the time, they say, “How do you clean this up?” because I talk a lot about — and we talk on the show a lot about — the weaponization of particularly the prosecutorial and judicial wings of government, and I don’t have a very I don’t have a very satisfying answer for them.

KELLY: Well, I think that there is discussion as to what this would look like in January, starting in January 2023. I believe that there are discussions about forming some sort of Church Committee to look into FBI abuses, which is fine. Right? We need to explain to the American people who are following this day to day like we are exactly what this agency — this reckless, abusive, vengeful agency — along with the Department of Justice, is doing to Trump supporters. But aside from that, Republicans will have the power of the purse, and what they need to do is start cutting off funding to these entities who are responsible.

The top office culpable for all of this is the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, who was a Biden campaign adviser. His wife is head of a radical left-wing nonprofit in Washington, D.C., who accuses white women who voted for Trump of being racists. So that’s really the poison pill in this entire operation. Merrick Garland doesn’t know what’s going on! Merrick Garland is like Joe Biden. They’re just sort of, you know, the figure — that elderly figurehead.

They’ve got all their minions under them running the show. The FBI, I don’t think, is salvageable. That will be a big debate. This is not just a headquarters problem. This is a corrupt agency from top to bottom where this partisanship infects all 56 field offices. As we’ve seen from the Whitmer probe down to the San Francisco field office, you’ve got a cyber expert with the FBI who’s working hand in hand with Big Tech who told them in 2020 how to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop information. So this is such a huge, you know, multi… It’s a hydra kind of a problem and to believe that we can just cut a few corners and write a few letters and have a few hearings and this will all go away is just folly.

CLAY: We’re talking to Julie Kelly. She’s got a great piece up about Gen X, and Buck and I have talked some about this decision and the numbers that came out in The New York Times poll, which had Generation X overwhelmingly supporting Republicans. Meanwhile, just about every other age group was supporting Democrats. You wrote about this. Why do you think Gen X has broken so substantially in the direction of supporting Republicans? Buck and I make jokes about this. I am the youngest possible Gen X member pretty much. I was born in April of 1979. So, if I’d been born eight months later, I believe I would be a Millennial. Buck is a whippersnapper. He’s a Millennial. So his people are destroying America. Mine are saving it.

KELLY: Oh, oh, oh no.

CLAY: Why is that, Julie?

KELLY: Well, the Gen X elder, born in 1968, Clay, I will allow you in.

CLAY: Thank you.

KELLY: There’s no hope for Buck.

CLAY: We’re saving the country, Julie. Buck and his whippersnapper friends are trying to destroy it.

KELLY: (laughing)

CLAY: Why are we such heroes?

KELLY: Well, look, I mean, we grew up’ we were raised on Reagan, right? I mean, this paper that I cite the study from is actually 2014 that calls us the most conservative generation. Your politically formative years are between the ages of 14 and 24. So we saw what Jimmy Carter did, how we wrecked the country. We saw the malaise of Carter and how Reagan not just strengthened the economy. That was one thing. But he really was optimistic, and he helped instill in us a love of our country.

We also had a strong anti-authority, anti-establishment streak in us, which a lot of generations have except the Millennials. But anyway, so that’s part of it, and our culture was like that, right? You were brash. It was crass. Our comedy was very crude. Our colors were bold and we like to have fun. We enjoyed our freedom. We had a lot of fun. You know, I’ve got two daughters, one in college and one in law school, and we listen to eighties music or I talk to them about it; they’re like, “I wish I would have grown up then.

CLAY: Yeah.

KELLY: That’s a country that’s been stolen from them, and so who do we hold accountable? Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, because they’re trying to rip the soul, the fun, the heart, the freedom out of this country. And we’re just. We’re not gonna take it.

CLAY: (laughs)

KELLY: Maybe Buck doesn’t understand that reference.

BUCK: Ohhhhhhhhhh!

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: Excuse me. Excuse me, madam!

KELLY: (laughing)

BUCK: (singing) “We’re not gonna take it!” Yes, anyway.

KELLY: Right.

CLAY: Julie, I think it’s even more like Buck and I have talked about this too. You have got kids. I mean, I’ve raised my kids showing them all the 1980s movies and even the early nineties movies. And I think there’s a huge population out. That can remember the 1980s and the 1990 and says, “Man, it seemed like everybody really kind of got along well.” You didn’t necessarily have to agree with everything. But the eighties and nineties were kind of amazing in that everybody seemed to get along, and I think there’s a lot of nostalgia for both of those decades out in America, even among young people.

KELLY: Yeah, I think that’s definitely true. I mean, if you look at young people, the Gen Zs, you know, they listen to eighties music. They’re watching eighties movies, especially during lockdowns with their Gen X parents. I mean, this is how we really introduce them to the country that they don’t recognize, and so I do think that that is true. I mean, look, I started junior high in 1980. I graduated from college in 1990. I consider myself one of the luckiest people that I came of age during that time — and the Democrats and Biden and plenty of Republicans and the news media do not age want that country back.

They don’t want fun. They don’t want freedom. They don’t want liberty. And that’s why you see, it’s not just a little margin between Democrats and Republicans and Biden and Trump. I mean, these are huge, double-digit margins that favor Republicans, that overwhelmingly favor Trump over Biden. So those aren’t… The New York Times wasn’t an outlier, as I explained. There are dozens of polls that show this for Gen X. So, you know, we’re going to have to start our fight in November, and we’re going to keep going and put leaders of our generation into office and keep pushing.

BUCK: Julie, I don’t want to I don’t want to rain on the Gen X nostalgia parade here — and, you know, you guys could all start talking about the great music and everything else that —

KELLY: (crosstalk)

BUCK: Sure. All true. But I did want to ask you, since we have you here and we got millions of people listening across the country, you’ve thought that they’re going to prosecute President Trump. Today, the big news came probably — well, big news. But, you know, the breaking news from the last hour, I should say, expected news was that they’re subpoenaing Trump officially. They’ve given a timeline. Now, is this all part of that effort or is this just a diversion before the election? You think they’re bringing charges against Trump. How does it roll out?

KELLY: I think the subpoena, just like the raid, is sort of the optics of it. I don’t know where they think they’re going to go with this subpoena and why did they wait until their last meeting to vote on the subpoena? I still think that the criminal charges will come out of the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office. Matthew Graves. I think they will be related to January 6th. So, they’ll be obstruction, conspiracy, tampering with witnesses, evidence, something along those lines. The only — (crosstalk)

CLAY: Do you expect that to happen…? Sorry to cut you off, but I’m curious when. You’ve called your shot on this for a while. When do you think the most likely time for those charges to come would be?

KELLY: I honestly thought it would be before the election. I’m not saying that it won’t be because this DOJ will not adhere to any traditional customs such as nothing happening 60 days before an election, which they are blowing every single day. So, if it’s not before the election, I’m sure it will be by the end of the year, but I still have no doubt that that is eventually… We know that they had at least one grand jury calling in witnesses related to Donald Trump’s January 6 activities. So, you know, as I’ve said before, it’s not really a matter of when, but — excuse me, not if, but when. So I wouldn’t put it past them to do the week before the election, quite honestly. I mean, they have no constraints, so why not?

CLAY: Julie, you have been fantastic. I appreciate you and me and all of our Gen X friends who are saving the country from Buck’s infidel Millennial friends.

KELLY: (laughing) Buck, we love you.

CLAY: We’ll talk to you again soon.

KELLY: We feel sorry for you, that’s all.

BUCK: That’s all right. You know, what do we bring to the party? Just Beverly Hills 90210, Friends. You know.

CLAY: That’s our generation, dude!

BUCK: We’re two years apart! How could I…?

CLAY: I know. I know. You’re the whippersnapper here. You’re the Millennial.

BUCK: We get Saved by the Bell.

CLAY: I’m saving the country. You’re destroying it. That’s just what’s going on.