Good morning everybody. Happy Thursday to you on this December 18th, 2025. I got all your stories for your rush hour ride to work. And it is officially one week till Christmas. Let’s jam it all in. A lot to get to ending 2025. It looks like we’re developing a list of Blake Lively’s expert witnesses and she plans to call a witness who’s an expert in Darvo.

I’m going to get into this what it means for her testimony as we inch closer to their trial. Then we have an update from Whitney Levit, star of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and Dancing with the Stars and will be on on Broadway uh starring in uh Chicago. Well, also next year we’re going to see her in a Christmas romcom, which are my favorite movies.

Christmas movies and romcom movies, they’re always the cheesiest. We’ll have to find out if she’s a a cupcake baker down on her luck just trying to make rent. I don’t know. I’d love to see a Christmas movie where it’s like single mom dabbles in Only Fans. You know, hey, why not? Do you? We’re pro- uh workers of all types here. And then we’re going to get into Rob Reiner’s family offering a statement on his tragic death and his wife’s tragic death.

And then a little bit more on the the goings within the world that we live in. All this and more starts right now on the rush. So, before I get to the Blake Lively stuff, let’s jump into real quick Whitney Levit. As I mentioned, Whitney Levit accused uh you know, uh Nick Viles podcast was in bewilderment about how she could ever uh juggle being a mom and also being on Broadway while also she’s going to star in a movie, The Secret Lies of Mormon Wives star Whitney Levit, to make feature debut in Holiday Romcom All for Love.

Uh so, yeah, I’m very excited. And again, even from this one photo, they’ve got it all there. They’ve got they’re in a barn and there’s Christmas lights. What else could you ask for? They’re going to do it. Um, and there’s always a good-looking man, you know. I I just I love the combination. So, we’ll have to see.

Is she playing a single mom? We don’t know. Either way, uh, people are very excited for her and um, you know, we’ll have to see. It’s got we got to wait a whole year. So, we’ll get more of that news coming. So, I’ve got several clips from Baldoni I wanted to share. Here we have um the BBC commenting on. We always like to hear uh what uh you know sort of mainstream media thinks about the case.

Um discussing you know the co-star dynamic, the dynamic of Baldoni being sued for harassment. Um you know that’s almost like suing your coach for being too mean to you, you know, and it’s like well the coach’s job if you’re on a sports team is to sort of like conjure up a certain amount of energy from you and get you across the finish line.

Was Baldoni guilty of just being um a direct director? I mean that’s what they are called directors. or or uh or did he cross the line? That’s the question really. >> If you’re typically looking at a hostile work environment or allegations that might come from that situation, you’re probably looking at a boss and an employee maybe in an office and a 9 to5 where the roles are very entrenched and defined.

But in this Justin Baldon offers a different power dynamic. He says because of your real world position and your real world friends actually in the grand scheme you are you have de facto power. Um whereas Blake Lively is saying Justin Baldoni and Jamie Heath were her employers. Um employer employee situation. So that’s the power dynamic.

What do you do with that? Are the jury instructed to think about the power dynamic on paper which would make her the employee or to look at the real world context? I personally think that’s the most fascinating thing about this case is as you mentioned the power dynamic because Blake Lively is not some belist actress who is just trying to get her life into movies.

I mean she is and Ryan Reynolds are A-listers. They are strong. They are powerful. And so when we talk about power dynamic of course the argument he’s going to be making is what are you talking about? They’re the powerful ones. If something was really bothering andor upsetting her, she had more power than I have. >> No, of that’s a great take. Of course.

I mean, when when this thing was all said and done, Bald Don was the one who lost representation. Blake Lively didn’t. And I know people say, “No, she’s not an A-list actress.” Put it this way, she’s not starring in any upcoming Christmas movies. Christmas movies are generally reserved for people whose star has started to fade, which hey, that’s what we that’s what Christmas is all about, right? you’re no longer uh you know in comic book movies so let’s have you know looking at you Alicia Silverstone we love it you know as if okay uh there’s

no hate towards Christmas movies I’d gladly do any of your Christmas movies out there if there is a podcaster dad who needs to be in Christmas movies um yeah and so Blake Lively she’s just she’s getting a lot of the bad PRslammed for being out of touch after promoting $400 holiday gift yeah I mean this is what you’re going to get you know she’s of course she’s out of touch she’s a multi-millionaire there and um you know she’s trying to she’s going to have to show a jury why she was the damsel in distress. So this was shared

by um it ends with court subreddit and um it’s a preview of six of Lively’s expert reports. The reports are still sealed. So uh I think this person did a really good job of teasing who is going to be in those reports. So, I wanted to share with you guys, again, the reports are still sealed, so we don’t know too much, but they’ve got a Darvo brief by renowned psychologist Jennifer Frra, uh, who’s the person who coined the term Darvo.

Lively’s expert reports included at least two reports analyzing internet trends and other sources to look at potential manipulation of online discussion via Wayfair’s digital campaign. Now, you guys might remember Baldoni has an expert who’s a CEO at a crisis PR firm who is arguing that there was no manipulation because that the internet reacted so quickly to hating Blake Lively.

If they were trying to put their finger on the scale, it would have actually taken more time and it was actually just a case where, you know, the internet got hot. That’s what the internet gets hot. When the internet wants to hate on somebody, they’ll find all of the receipts that they need to. Um so here are Lively’s experts.

Um her opposition to MSJ expert reports Aaron Colada expert report um Lively asked Professor Colada to review the post and platforms discussed in D’s text messages. Uh Colada found indicia which is indications of a just you know because these lawyers they have to sound smart. Um you know just stupid Latin words and whatever.

uh speak to the common person indisha of a digital campaign to manipulate online discussion on Tik Tok, Reddit, fomois and YouTube. Colada also found that negative sentiment about Lively and positive sentiment about Baldoni dramatically increased by August of 2024. And it’s like, of course, of course there was negative sentiment about Blake Lively, people didn’t like the way she was promoting the movie.

And as I explained this, it’s like, well, Blake Lively, like most actors, they’re not content creators, right? they’re only going to go on this on the interviews and and do the press junkets when they’re promoting something. And so when you’re promoting something, that’s when uh opinions about you are going to rise up because you’re jammed down people’s throats.

You know what I mean? So Dr. Jennifer Frra expert report here it is uh coining the term Darvo, deny, attack, reverse, victim, and offender. So, she built the term and Blake Lively has the person who coined the term, Dr. Jennifer, um uh as as someone there to testify. Now, what is she going to testify to? Well, I’m sure she’s going to just really break down exactly what Darvo means so Blake Lively can show that that’s what Baldon did, which was you come after us, we’re going to reverse attack and do all the other acronym things. Now, is that the case of

what happened? I mean, we’ll never really know for sure, right? Uh, it’s my belief that Blake’s arguing that Baldoni was attacking her was really just Baldoni operating in self-defense. I’ve called it the jujitsu idea, which is that Justin Baldoni hiring um, you know, crisis managers wasn’t to attack Blake Lively.

It was to defend himself inevitably knowing she or Taylor Swift’s audience were going to come after him. Lively cites to a portion of Baldon’s deposition where he talks about Liz Plank quitting the podcast. It appears that Lively talked to Plank about Baldoni before filming began. Something about this and possibly the circumcision discussion.

Also figures into Def Fray’s export report. Yeah, that circumcision discussion is going to cut deep, which you never want in a circumcision. You don’t want deep cuts. All right, there it is. Circumcision jokes. You know, we just couldn’t not uh enjoy ourselves here. Uh do what you want with your bodies, I say. But boy, what a tough decision to make.

Uh the kids one day old. Do you want me to? Okay, you understand. But all the kids in school are going to call them an anteater. That men, they’re mean. The locker rooms are tough out there, guys. Moving on. All right. You know what I mean? Just do what you want. Uh Dr. Dena is another expert witness. Dr. Dena is the Robert E.

Booker chair in the marketing at the Marshall School of Management in University of Southern. So, you know, professional people. Now, the question is, you know, are PE is is is any of this going to move the the sort of um the metaphorical football here. Uh Ashley Humphre, expert reporter. Um Ashley Humphre is a professor of integrated marketing communications.

So, you’re going to get a lot of people that are going to give you their opinion about what the hell happened online. That’s all because there’s no smokinggun. If there’s a smoking gun, it’s bang, there’s the gun. That’s the person who shot it. Uh, see you later. Jury can rest now.

Whatever the hell, you know, uh, indicia of, you know, none of that. None of that. So, what they have to do is go, “Well, I’m an expert on TikTok and I’m going to tell you what’s real and what’s not.” The jury is probably, I mean, and again, it’s no offense to the to these experts on either side, but the jury is going to decide whether they smell [ __ ] or not.

They’re going to decide, did Blake Lively have the power to speak up, text somebody, provide any proof whatsoever that she was the victim of a harassment, or, you know, was this a case of her trying to take the internet’s anger and and and justify it in some sort of deeper way, like they can’t possibly hate me.

Uh, it must be coordinated. I personally I I’m not a gambling man, but I would bet a little bit of money that Blake Lively is not going to win this thing. That’s where I’m standing now. Respectfully, we have to be respectful. There’s a take here that’s completely different from mine, which is fair.

Uh Danny, Randy, Re Bell, uh and again, it is I’m not sharing this. Please don’t be mean. We need to appreciate people that have that are seeing it differently. We need to have grace to be able to have this conversation. So, one side’s not attacking the other. And I understand that the internet is built for attacking. We will not do that here.

I did want to play what she had to say. Let’s do this. Take a quick break. When I come back, I’m going to respond to this Tik Tok that is a sort of pro Blake uh sentiment. We’re sponsored by Veracity, an allnatural way to slim down, get energized, and sharpen your focus. Revolutionizing health by tackling the root cause of so many issues. Metabolism.

With Veracity, you can support your body’s needs to live your healthiest life. If your goal is weight loss, you need to try Metabolism Ignite, the number one doctor recommended GLP-1 booster and GLP-1 Alternative. Metabolism Ignite is a natural, safe, plant-based aid that results in an 85% reduction in hunger and is clinically proven to lose on average 9 lbs in 90 days.

I started Metabolism Ignite a couple weeks ago. In just two capsules with breakfast, I feel energized and focused all day. Veracity has a unique blend of lemon, verbena, and habiscus extract, green coffee bean extract, and magnesium. Make the switch to GLP-1s the natural way. Head to veracityselfare.com. Use code rush hour for up to 45% off your order.

Once again, that’s veracityselfare.com for up to 45% off. Make sure you use my promo code rush hour so they know I sent you. Okay, let’s listen to what Danny has to say. So, just remember all of the content creators that have been obsessively posting about the Blake Lively case because let me tell you, my FYP right now compared to like 6 months ago is amazing because finally the tide has turned and now everybody knows that Justin Baldon is a total creepy creeper.

And they also know that there’s evidence that there was an totally inorganic smear campaign that was going on against Blake Lively, which over overlapped with Taylor Swift. >> I don’t know if that’s accurate, that there is evidence of a smear campaign against Blake Lively. This article that came out, whack as hell, um, is from a new company that uses AI to analyze positive sentiment versus negative sentiment.

So, this article doesn’t stand a chance. Not a snowballs chance in hell in court because it’s quack. They they don’t show the the math that they used to get to their conclusion. It’s a garbage. Uh when in fact, if you’re Taylor Swift or Blake Lively or any number of famous people, you will have bots commenting on your channel because that’s what bots do.

They’re not commenting on some random, you know, they’re they’re they’re sort of content farming to to grow their channels for a a variety of different reasons. >> And um let’s not forget all of the content creators that posted about this day after day, multiple times a day. Some of them acting like they were totally neutral, some of them acting like they didn’t even care about showing how not neutral they were and against Lake Lively. just doing her so dirty.

We know now for sure that above truth and accuracy and ethics, they care about your clicks. >> Now, I don’t I don’t I don’t disagree. You know, there’s something that gets you out of bed. There’s the you know, I don’t work till 2:30 in the morning uh because I just, you know, enjoy doing charity work online.

It is a business that I run and it, you know, serves a purpose to feed the family. Absolutely. But I also want to defend that in order to have longevity in doing what I do, you do have to try to be as fair as possible. Now, I’ll agree with her. There are people that are so pro Blake and so pro Baldoni that they can’t, you know, uh, you know, properly call balls and strikes.

You could definitely argue that I I don’t have a perfect uh lack ofbias here. You know, we have all got whatever. I got that mint money in my pocket, kid. But what’s so funny about that is my my opinion is still that uh Blake Live is going to lose this. So, how do you think of me now? Uh, you’re going to change, Dave.

Did I? I cashed that check. Uh, so anyway, point being, I don’t disagree with her that there is always a profit model for sensationalism and things like that, but I would argue and push back with her. By the way, I think she has great I think I think I like her voice and the way she’s discussing this.

So, I, you know, just from a stranger to another, you know, I used to live in East LA. God bless you out there. I love it. I miss uh it’s uh, you know, the season with all the guava falls. It smells great. Um, uh, but you can see the mountains with the snow in the background. East Los Angeles is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Um, with that said, I would push back that she’s saying the tide has turned. I kind of think it’s just her algorithm has adjusted to more pro Blake content because I don’t see the needle moving at all in the Blake direction. I think if anything, the needle has been pretty stuck since January. Since Baldoni initially began to defend herself, the needle’s been stuck and people have waited for Blake Lively to issue any amount of evidence and she keeps on falling short.

You know, oh, he was biting my lip. No, you were offering advanced kissing in scenes that didn’t involve it. You know, there was just one thing after another that didn’t really live up to the um to to the to the qualification of harassment, but we’ll see it play out in court. So, let’s let’s jump over to something a little different here.

The Reiner family, again, a little bit more serious if you ask me, uh, breaks their silence following the double murder. Um, real just terrible story. So many people have come out in support again, of course, of this, uh, of Rob Reiner and all of the work he’s done and how great him and his wife were uh, for so many different reasons. And it is such a tragedy.

It’s a real tragedy if you think about it, to their daughter. I mean, no, by all means, they’re the ones who died, but she’s she she had she found their bodies in rigor mortise. uh hours after they died and described her brother as dangerous. God knows that’s accurate. According to, you know, the allegations, Jake and Ramy Reiner say in a statement for the first uh and again, Jake, I guess that’s the other son.

Um words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day. The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michelle Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience. They weren’t just our parents, they were our best friends. It’s a it’s a real sad story.

And um they say, “We are grateful for the outpouring of condolences, kindness, and support we have received, not only from family and friends, but people from all walks of life.” And I I mean, I have to imagine to their to their brother who allegedly committed this murder. He is a mentally deranged man. I mean, it sounds from all accounts that he was in a blackout rage when this it doesn’t forgive it, but it’s like you’re not right when this happens.

And even even with a family that’s worth millions, they weren’t able to get him the proper help to overcome his own demons. She continues, “We now ask for respect and privacy, for speculation to be tempered with compassion and humanity, and for our parents to be remembered for the incredible lives they lived and the love they gave.

Nick Reiner has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He appeared briefly in court Wednesday without entering a plea.” Uh, so there it is. Rammy is the one who discovered a parent stabbed and bloodied body Sunday afternoon at their Brentwood, California home. Boy, what’s in the water in Brentwood? Isn’t that where OJ Simpson or uh isn’t that where that whole uh debacle went down? Well, speaking of health care, mental health care and all types of health care, uh this is absolutely wild. Mike Johnson is block

is not allowing a vote even though they’re the the majority of Americans want a vote to extend the subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. Now, the Affordable Care Act is a band-aid on a gaping wound in our country, which is our healthcare system. It is broken. But they have had almost two decades to fix this, and they have offered no solutions, only concepts of a plan.

Have a listen. >> The Democrats are are pretending as though this affects everybody in the country. It affects 7% of Americans, this extended subsidy. And of those, even if it was extended without any reforms at all, it would only reduce that small group of Americans premiums by 5.7%. >> Objection, your honor, my health insurance, not to be redundant, went from $1,150 a month for my wife, myself, and my son to $2,150 a month.

So, so politely, go [ __ ] yourself, Mr. He getsfree health insurance for the rest of his life. I’m sick and tired of our tax money going to fund the health insurance of people and that that want to tell us what we can and can’t afford to do to treat our bodies. This is why there’s violence out on the streets because people are sick and tired of the system being stacked against them.

Please, journalist, call this man out. >> The Democrats 22 to 24 million Americans. No, we’re I I understand that this is not for everybody, but it’s 22 to 24 million Americans and there are some Republican some Republican >> Republicans whose districts are going to face some real trouble and some real issues with this.

We we’ve talked to some of them. I understand that Mike Lawler from New York was particularly upset yesterday that he was kind of >> um furious about it. Said it’s idiotic, it’s political malpractice. That’s what he told Axio on some >> and there’s no response to it. There’s no response because they haven’t done anything to fix the system.

They just want to take away the subsidies and make it even worse for people. Folks are going to die. Folks will die because they’re going to say, “You know what? I don’t I can’t afford to get that lump checked out. Oh, is that a heart attack? I’ll pop some Tylenol and try to walk it off.” You know what I mean? It’s absolutely ridiculous.

Luckily, there are a lot of people in Congress right now realizing how important this issue is and fighting for everyday Americans. Here’s Representative Chip Roy going off on those Republicans for failing to address healthcare, saying they were only offering milktoast garbage. We’re listening to nonsense about healthcare.

Or my colleagues on the other side of the aisle sit here saying, “Well, you guys aren’t doing anything about the massive expensive cost of healthare.” Why do you think it’s expensive? Because you literally cut a deal with insurance companies to run healthcare. You think that’s going to run wild? Yeah.

That’s why they have 2,000% profit increases and the American people can’t afford to go to the doctor of their choice while we enrich insurance companies. And yet Republicans will complain about it and then they’ll offer milktoast garbage like we’re offering this week and then go home at Christmas and say, “Look at what we’re doing. We’re campaigning on reducing healthcare.” Well, congrat friginations.

At some point, people will look at this body and say, “Maybe we should get rid of all 435 members of the House and all 100 members of the Senate and start over because Congress is literally failing the American people.” I yield back. So, there it is. There’s a Republican from I know, I know it’s hard to tell whose side you’re on right now.

A Republican from Texas saying, “Well, we cut this deal with insurance.” And again, you know, say what you want about Obamacare. Say what you want about the Affordable Care Act, whatever you want to call it. It had a time and a place. It was a band-aid to a solution. It helped people uh in certain ways uh not getting denied for pre-existing conditions.

But if we don’t have a system that works for everybody, we don’t have a system that works, period. uh this idea that you have to have health insurance tethered to a job. What are we living in like some feudal world where we’re all slaves to a company and we can only get our uh you know our our heart checked out uh when we’re when we’re employed by the right type of company.

The hell out of here with this. We’re done with it. We are done with it. Now, here’s our other big story of the morning. Jack Smith tells Congress he could prove Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 election. He testified about his investigations into Trump during a closedd dooror hearing with members of the House Judiciary Committee.

Now, the fact that this is closed door, again, let the public see. If if you have information, we want to see it. Now, you’re going to find people on the right and on the left have a completely different story. Uh there’s those that believe like Trump believes that Mara Lago was raided for no good reason and then they had nothing on him.

Even though, of course, Trump’s Department of Justice is the one deciding which cases to drop and and and whatnot. It’s supposed to be an independent system, it’s obviously not the way anymore. Well, here’s uh from his opening remarks. Jack Smith revealed that Trump broke the law. He said, “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power.

” He said, “Our investigation also developed powerful evidence that showed President Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in January of 2021, staring them, storing them at his social club, including in a bathroom, in a ballroom where events and gatherings took place. He then repeatedly tried to obstructjustice to conceal his continued retention of those documents.

” Well, you’ve caught my attention and again, a lot of these allegations are not new, but I have to remind you he testified this under oath. And you would think if there’s evidence to refute Jack Smith’s testimony under oath, don’t you think that they would be charging him for perjury? Don’t you think that they would be locking him up? Uh, so again, and and mind you, Susie Wilds stated in the Vanity Fair piece that they did that they just did where they interviewed her 11 times.

She’s the chief of staff for Donald Trump. She stated that Trump um you know in and her had some sort of like unwritten rule that he would only go after his enemies for the first 90 days which again is ridiculous. And she said well the fact that um you know Leticia James you know was going after Trump and obviously they were going after him and a lot of his money for some of the crimes he committed gave Trump the justification to then go after her.

Do you understand how bad this is if we start just going after all of our enemies? I understand Republicans are going to say, “Yeah, but they went after Trump.” Well, he’s a convicted felon. Okay? You know what I mean? Like, they went after him for crimes that he’s been convicted of. And I understand, you know, maybe, you know, maybe you have to be selective over which crimes you go after him for.

But the stuff that went down in Georgia, these election crimes, find me the votes, like these are real deal crimes that Trump’s been accused of. Now, Jack Smith repeating it under oath. Well, it’ll be interesting to see uh what comes from this. Now, what does Megan Kelly have to say about it all? We love to end with some Megan Kelly.

She’s criticizing Vanity Fair uh because of the photography that they used in the piece. Have a listen. >> The photography alone evidences the hatred that this magazine has for all of the Trump administration. I’m going to show you a couple of the uplo photos. You pose for a photo for Vanity Fair, you know, a head shot.

I think the common understanding would be that you’re going to get a three/ quarter like a a top third of your body. >> Listen, listen listen. If you’re a good if if I don’t know uh George Clooney had a photo a head shot that close, he’s going to look beautiful cuz he’s a beautiful man.

You know, maybe it’s not the photos that were taken. It’s that you kind of took photos of people that have ugly souls. Maybe they have ugly souls. I don’t know. You know what I mean? Denying healthcare and human rights and deporting immigrants, I’m telling you right now, it ages you really fast. Yeah, you know, portrait like from the chest up.

Look at Susie Wilds. Can you see this on your monitor? It is It’s It’s worse than a mug shot. It’s It’s even >> She looks like she just [ __ ] her pants. We’ve all had that feeling. We’re like, “That wasn’t a fart.” She has That wasn’t a fart face. >> The mug shot, they give you a little bit of collar bone.

For the listening audience, it’s literally from her chin up to her forehead in a in a facial expression that where she looks like shocked. She It does look mugshody. It’s not flattering. And she actually is a beautiful woman. You can easily get a good shot of it. >> Yeah, look, she’s got nice eyes, but not everyone’s got their face chocked full of Botox.

Maggie >> Susie Wells, look at Caroline Levit. That is Caroline Levit. I’m I’m sorry. >> By the way, just I just want to let you guys know, I’m not trying to shame anybody, but just so you guys know, I’m 13 years older than this face. I’m telling you, when you do evil stuff, it ages you very, very quickly. My anti-aging serum is trying to get health care for everybody.

My the way I you know I I dabble a little c uh I put a little castor oil under my eyes, a little vit vitamin E in the hair and then I try to help people out so we all have the same starting line. You know what I mean? T wanting the billionaires to get taxed actually makes you look very youthful. >> Such an extreme closeup.

It doesn’t even look like her. You can’t even tell it’s her, but it is. It’s it’s her. But you can see the little needle. >> If you told me that was Judy Dench, I’d say maybe it was. I have no idea. She has Judy Dench face. Respectfully, Judy, you’re a beautiful woman. All right, that’s it for us. Um, I think we did did enough damage for the morning.

Uh, we’ll have a lot to talk about this afternoon. We’re riproing our way into 2026. We are not taking prisoners. All right, we’ll talk to you later. I’ll see you this afternoon. As always, twice a day, every day. I’m Dave. This is the rush.