While President Donald Trump and thousands of Americans were busy celebrating Flag Day and America’s 250th birthday at the UFC Freedom 250 festivities that took over the White House and Washington, D.C. this weekend, a bunch of bitter celebrities and activists gathered in New York City for counterprogramming.
Jane Fonda headlined the event and was joined by the likes of Bette Midler, Julia Roberts, Joy Reid, and more to bash Trump, sing about fighting “fascists,” and memorialize ‘martyrs’ like Renee Good.
On Monday’s show, Megyn was joined by Glenn Greenwald, host of System Update on Substack, to discuss the bizarre event and why people don’t take celebrities claiming to be political activists seriously anymore.
The Cringe Concert
The 90-minute “Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment” event at The Town Hall theatre in Manhattan – which Fox News reported was funded by a George Soros-backed group – was organized by Fonda’s “Committee for the First Amendment.”
The organization claims to be “a large collective of artists, storytellers, and cultural leaders standing together to defend free expression against government repression, industry complicity, and intimidation.” Fonda’s group launched in October 2025 and took its name from the 1947 collective of celebrities, including Lucille Ball, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, and Frank Sinatra, who challenged Sen. Joe McCarthy’s investigations into the spread of communism in the U.S.
While the Committee for the First Amendment’s website claims the stars “stood together against attacks on the First Amendment during the darkness of the McCarthy era,” Fox News reported some original members were later identified as communist while others, like actor Humphrey Bogart, said they were duped into joining.
The group now purports to “continue in that spirit” by “preparing for what’s coming, resisting with non-cooperation—but always non-violence— when needed, and ensuring our collective voice is loud and purposeful in these dangerous times.”
On Sunday night, that meant Hanoi Jane getting up on stage to invoke the Red Scare. “This isn’t the first time that Americans’ rights have come under attack, but this time what is really different from the last century are the attacks are coming from every part of the government – the executive, the legislative, and the Supreme Court,” she claimed. “There is a clear effort to destroy our fundamental democratic rights and dramatically retake our form of governance. I think the Un-American Activities Committee right now is coming from the White House.”
For Midler, it meant singing the most embarrassing song about “fascists” the world has ever heard. Watch:
The Academy Award winner released that remake of Woody Guthrie’s 1940 protest tune, “All You Fascists Bound to Lose” in March and followed it up with an official music video in April.
And then there was Roberts, who took the stage to remember Renee Good, the woman killed after nearly running over an immigration enforcement official in Minneapolis in January. The Pretty Woman actress claimed the activist was “not a symbol” but “an American woman” and “a queer woman” who was “doing the very best she could do to be good in an unjust world.”
Hollywood Hypocrisy
In Greenwald’s view, the cringey concert illustrates just how far celebrity culture and what constitutes ‘artistry’ has fallen. “Historically, if you look at Western artists and the idea of art in Western culture, it always has been political but not in this direct ‘go and vote for this candidate’ or ‘I’m going to represent these very banal political ideas that everybody else I speak to’ [way],” he explained. “Part of the idea of art is to question taboos, to test new ideas, to kind of poke at orthodoxy.”
“And these people have convinced themselves, because they refer to themselves as ‘artists’ – even though they’re just like good-looking studio tools – that they too play a similar role in society, even though they have nothing of actual value or interest to offer,” he continued. “And that is why I say what offends me are not people who are in the creative world wanting to express ideas that affect the world… What offends me about it is they are so empty and vapid about it. It is pure just Hollywood group think. They all repeat what each other says. There’s no bravery to it. There’s no courage to it. There’s no impact.”
In his view, the 2024 election proved just how inconsequential this group has become. “I remember people really thinking Taylor Swift’s endorsement… of Kamala [Harris] was going to swing the election,” Greenwald recalled. “It didn’t swing a single vote… not because people don’t care about what artists think, but because these people aren’t artists. They are just banalities. They are just people craving public attention and applause. And that will never have any power.”
Events like “Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment” also reveal just how hypocritical these celebs really are. “Jane Fonda, who used to have pretty radical politics in the ’60s… [was] giving a speech in defense of free speech. I do think free speech is under attack right now. I always think free speech is under attack, as somebody who’s made that a primary cause of my life,” Greenwald noted. “Free speech was under attack at least as much, if not way more so, during the Biden administration when they had a systematic campaign to bully and pressure and coerce Big Tech into censoring and banning dissidents from their policies, including on COVID and Ukraine, from the entire internet in what court said was one of the most full frontal assaults on free speech in decades.”
“Do you think Bette Midler, and Jane Fonda, and any of them were raising their voices against it,” he asked. “Of course not, because they just become very boring state partisans. Fascism to them means Donald Trump and you get rid of fascism by electing Kamala Harris. It’s nothing more interesting or complex than that.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Greenwald by tuning in to episode 1,339 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.