On this episode of The Karol Markowicz Show, Karol sits down with Jennifer Van Laar, managing editor of RedState and a leading investigative journalist known for uncovering major political stories.
Jennifer shares her unconventional journey—from 20 years as a courtroom stenographer working on murder trials to becoming one of the most impactful investigative voices in conservative media. She explains how her courtroom experience taught her how to build cases, analyze evidence, and ultimately break major political stories.
The conversation dives into the investigation that exposed former Rep. Katie Hill, the year-long reporting effort that scrutinized RNC leadership and spending, and the pressures journalists face when reporting critically on their own political side. Jennifer also discusses the evolving mission of RedState, why intellectual honesty matters in political media, and how conservative outlets balance breaking news with opinion.
Karol and Jennifer also explore the future of California politics, the fallout from the Palisades fire, Governor Gavin Newsom’s leadership, and whether the political pendulum could swing back in the Golden State.
Plus, Jennifer reflects on her personal life—raising three sons as a single mother, finding purpose through storytelling, and why discovering your strengths and “staying in your lane” may be the key to long-term success.
Topics Covered in This Episode:
-
Jennifer Van Laar’s path from court reporter to investigative journalist
-
The RedState newsroom and conservative media today
-
Major investigations that changed political careers
-
Reporting on corruption within your own party
-
California politics and the future of the state
-
The importance of storytelling in journalism and life
Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol mark Wood Show
on iHeartRadio. I've talked about this subject a lot, and
I hadn't done it monologue in quite a while and
wanted to talk about this again because I got a
note in my email about this, and also today Kat
Rosenfield on X posted starting to think the plummeting birth
(00:27):
rate might have something to do with millennial women being
immersed in these motherhood as identity annihilation narratives for the
entirety of their fertile years, and I tweeted I talk
often to counter this persistent messaging that motherhood is the
end of your life, about the fact that my career
took off only after having children and my identity and
my purpose crystallized because of them. Having kids was the beginning,
(00:51):
not the end. I also got a note about this recently.
I wasn't sure if I was going to answer this
because it was a short note, and it's not When
they don't have a lot of details, it's tough for
me to really give an answer. If you're going to
write to me for advice, as much detail as possible,
as much detail as you feel comfortable giving me.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Would be great. This is the note, Hi, miss Markoitz,
you spoke at my school a few years ago and
I had asked a question about how you balance family
and career. I'm now twenty three and still don't see
how you do it. I'm not dating anyone, partially because
I'm afraid that adding a relationship to my life will
be too time consuming. I don't have a high pressure job,
(01:30):
but imagine I will one day. How do I balance everything?
The thing is you just do it, is the easy answer.
But the other thing is you're twenty three and you're
not dating anyone, so you don't have a picture of
what your life actually will look like. Part of what
gave me the space to grow in my career and
(01:52):
do what I wanted to do was marrying the right
person who let me explore things and let me try
out things, and that made me able to succeed at
another level than I ever would have without him. So,
if you're twenty three and you're not dating anyone, and
you say you don't have a higher pressure job, but
imagine you will one day you might not, you don't know.
(02:15):
I would say, don't put the roadblocks in your way
in advance. See where you end up. On this, A
lot of women are just given this message that marriage
and kids are the end, when in fact, for a
lot of women, it really will be the beginning of
you being able to do things. You have somebody who
contributes to your household. Maybe doesn't support the entire household,
(02:38):
but at least half of it. You are given the
ability to try things that you might not have been
able to try otherwise. So this whole thing about women's
identity being destroyed and their careers being over as soon
as they have kids just makes no sense to me.
And I feel like a lot of this is just
messaging made to ensure that women don't have kids, and
(03:01):
I think that it's on purpose. It's to say you
can't live a life that is enjoyable with children. Don't
have children. It's scary, and I know that it's aimed
at liberal women, but I think the woman writing to
me is a conservative woman. I am assuming this because
I spoke at her school, I speak to conservative groups.
(03:21):
I can imagine who this person is, even though she
didn't say or what kind of person this is. And
it's not the blue haired liberal girl on the college campus.
This is somebody serious who wants children. And wants to
hear that it's going to be okay. And this idea
that it can't be okay if you have kids and
(03:44):
that your life will be altered for the negative is
one that is just pushed on them so hard. This
girl is saying she doesn't even have a boyfriend or
a high powered career and she already doesn't know how
to balance them. You are told that it's going to
be so hard, but in fact it's not. In fact,
when you're with the right person and you have a
career that you care about and you know how to
(04:07):
do well, it's not the image you see online of
the devastated woman who doesn't have what she actually wanted.
I think people who have the marriage that they want
and the career that they want, it happens often, and
they just don't tell you about it because it's hard
to be like, Hey, my life's really great. I have
this marriage and career that I really like and really
(04:30):
works for me. I don't think that message gets spread enough,
and I'm here to spread it. Thank you for listening,
and stay tuned for my interview with Jennifer van lahar
Hi and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz show on iHeartRadio.
My guest today is Jennifer Van Lah. Jennifer is the
managing editor of Red State and an investigative journalist. Hi, Jennifer,
(04:54):
is so nice to have you on, so great to
be here. So how did you get to this path?
Where did you decide to be a writer, and how
did you end up at Red State.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
So I'd always enjoyed writing.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
That was kind of my best class, you know, growing
up and going into high school. That outside of college,
I became a court reporter, like a stenographer in courtrooms depositions,
and I worked for the State of North Carolina and
did about more than three dozen criminal first degree murder
trials from jury selection through verdict. So that was what
(05:28):
I did for twenty years while raising my kids, and
that really gave me such an insight into how people
build cases, which is really what you do as an
investigative journalist.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
So after I got divorced and.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
I moved home to California, I couldn't do court reporting
there because I used a different method than our regulatory
scheme allowed. So even though I had been the president
of our state association all that, they want me to
go back to school and I said forget that. So
I kind of got involved in political consulting, doing some
comms work for different candidates.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Then I started writing at.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Red State and twenty sixteen right after that election and
just timing from there.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
So I associate you very much with investigative journalism. Is
that your true love?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
It is?
Speaker 4 (06:19):
And it took me a little while to find it
because I liked doing more of the analysis or just
even the hot takes because there's so many things. Especially
as a mom, you see people writing things and you
just want to go off.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
On whatever their take is on things.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
But once I started doing that, and my first big
story ended up being kind of the biggest story of
my career so far, which was about now former Representative
Katie Hill, who was actually harrassing her staff and she
also had issues with prescription drug abuse, alcohol issues. She
ended up resigning eight days after my first report and
(06:53):
that and then I thought, Okay, maybe maybe I might
be able to do some of this stuff. Right.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I was going to ask what your face sad story
has been? Is that your favorite story that you've worked on?
Speaker 4 (07:04):
No? No, because that one brought so much terrible things
personally on top of even though it was a great professional.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, win.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
But I think my favorite one that I think has
made the most changed was basically a year and a
half long examination of ron A McDaniel's spending at the
RNC that resulted in President Trump firing her and it's
getting a whole new RNC and then President Trump winning.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, I remember that very well. That those stories. Did
you get into a lot of trouble because you were
going after a quote unquote on your own side.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Oh yeah, they tried to get us to not be
able to publish it. But you know, I credit the
late amazing Charlie Kirk. He kind of saw the writing
on the wall and I had been communicating with him
what I was finding. He said, well, come on my
show first and we'll talk. We'll you know, give your findings.
And that was before the story was even published. So
that whole night after that, the people at the RNC
(07:57):
were harassing me and my publisher to not publish it.
But really, you know, that horse was already out of
the barn, And I credit Charlie for doing that.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, he was brave. He really, I think took chances
that some people don't take. One attacking you know, again,
his own side. I think that was something that he
did very very very well.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yes, what would you have done if this hadn't worked out,
if you hadn't left court reporting and got into writing,
and you know, it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Work out for everyone. What would have been the plan be?
I didn't even have one. It kind of had to work.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
I was a newly single mom of a teenage boy
that had a learning disability, and also taking care of
my dad who had had a stroke, which is why
I moved back to California.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
So it just it had to work.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
It's funny for people listening, A lot of people say
I had no plan B and this had to work.
And I wonder if there's something to that when you
don't have another option, when there is no other possibility
and this has to work out. I wonder if that
makes people kind of more motivated to me could actually work.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
I think so, because my option was trying to find
some kind of secretarial job, driving in from the suburbs
of LA and to West LA and being in a
car four hours a day, and that just I was
not going to allow that to happen.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
What are you covering right now?
Speaker 4 (09:17):
So a lot of stuff on the Palisades Fire and
watch my space over the next few weeks, there's some
deep dives into Gavin Newsom's personal finances and let's just
say that he runs his personal finances the same way
he runs the State of California's finances.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
So it's pretty messy, so not that great.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
No, do you root for California though, I mean you
live there, right, you wanted to succeed? Did you have
any hope?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
I do have hope, and I absolutely wanted to succeed.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
I think in Galvin Newsom touts, you know, the fifth
largest or sixth largest economy, you know, based on whichever
year he's talking about. And what people don't realize it's
that in spite of Gavin Newsom is that in spite
of the Democrats and they're terrible policies, there's so many
natural resources, so many human resources there with the brain
talent and that I've always said that the people that
(10:08):
come to California are the dreamers, the people who you know,
the confines of the East Coast were not for them,
and they had a bigger rigion. There's nothing wrong with that,
but it's just they were different. They weren't going to
fit in there, and so they go out to California
and the thing they do things that maybe, you know, a.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Stricter society wouldn't allow.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
And that's how we've came up with so many great
inventions in California and really changed the world. And I'd
like us to get back to doing good things for
the world instead of being the incubator of bad ideas.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Right, But you are optimistic that that that that could happen.
I mean, that's that's saying something because I like, you know,
I love New York, and I love New York and
I root for it, but I'm not optimistic about their future,
you know, in the future, in the far off future
right now.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Right, I mean we might or might not have hit
rock bottom yet, there might still be a rock bottom
to hit. But yeah, every the pendulum always swings.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Back your lifelong California. You grew up there.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, so what I love about it in eighteen fifties, Yeah,
what do you love about it?
Speaker 4 (11:09):
I love the wide open spaces. It sounds like a weird,
dreamy thing. But just you know, when I lived back
in North Carolina, which I love North Carolina, but I
felt so hemmed in by the trees everywhere that were
so tall I couldn't see great.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Exactly what you mean?
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Yeah, And I love that, and I just love the
I'm just kind of the attitude of California, of the
old school California, not the new weirdos, but the old
school where you're just an adventurer and and everything's possible
and you're being in the outdoors and just partaking in
everything that it has to offer.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Did the fires shift people's opinions? It seems like people
who are natural, say liberals, woke up after the fires
and realized that the kind of governance they had been
living under just doesn't work. Are you seeing that or
is it just I'm looking for it and that's why
I'm seeing it now.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I'm definitely seeing it.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
It's difficult for people to say it out loud still
because there's still so much societal pressure. But I saw
it when I was at Spencer Pratt's mayor all kickoff, right,
he was saying so many who's even getting cheers when
he was talking about cooperating with ICE and cooperating with
federal Immigration Enforcement and just talking about how things have
(12:18):
to change in the way that Los Angeles has governed.
Got so much loud cheers, and they were not Yeah,
I've been to Republican events in California for you know,
a long time, and it's usually a very old and
white crowd. This was a very young crowd and very
diverse crowd. They were not your general Republicans, and I
think they felt safe coming out of the closet at
this event and the among like minded people. So, you know,
(12:43):
I think that that's the hope is and he's going
to bring in this whole new generation of people that
maybe aren't your traditional conservative, aren't social conservative, but who
are like, Okay, this isn't political, it's common sense. We
just have to have common sense.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
So Red State has.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Been around a really long time.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
I mean I remember the Red State table at the
two thousand and four Republican National Convention. I mean, they've
really the site has been through a lot of time
periods in our political history.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
What how do you keep it fresh and new and
kind of moving in the direction when things keep changing
so rapidly, Mean, the Republican Party today is so different
than it was back then? How does Red State stay relevant? Well?
Speaker 4 (13:27):
As managing editor and then I have a great editorial team,
we try to make sure that we're not enforcing any
kind of group think among our people. I hope that
people that maybe haven't read Red State in a while,
maybe have some ideas of what we were in the past,
will come and look again, because on our page, I
publish routinely things that I don't agree with that opinion,
(13:50):
and it's still a conservative opinion, and I don't feel
like it's right to kind of censor that. We do
a lot more breaking news than we did in the past,
because just the market place has evolved that way, and
I think big tech censorship really changed the way we
did some things in a good way, because now we're
forced to, unlike the left, really back up what we
(14:12):
write so that it doesn't get taken down by the
fact checkers.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Do you feel any pressure to fall in line with
what the conservative opinion is right now? Or it's do
people come there for the difference of opinion still from
a conservative perspective?
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Obviously we always feel pressure, mostly from our commenters, which
oh yeah, the commenters are the only ones who can comment,
but still, you know, they they get really upset and
it's funny sometimes I'll say, you never print such and such,
you know, opposing opinion when we just like, if they
looked on the front page, sure an essay to that
(14:48):
effect that they just haven't read. Everyone gets this tunnel
vision of that everything has to agree with every bit
of a talk about But I try. It's tough, you know,
because we're all human, but I try to say, okay, well,
we still just we need to be intellectually honest, and
even sometimes if it's criticizing things going on in the administration,
you know, we try to not just pile on, but
(15:10):
we try to. What I've told my writers is criticism
is fine. Don't just say orange Man bad though. Yeah,
an actual constructive criticism of why you think this certain
policy isn't helpful or when the effects will be that
maybe they're not taking into consideration and lists that out.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Don't just this sacks right.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Absolutely. My favorite is when I post something in a
link to an article I wrote, and somebody will comment like,
why don't you say blah blah blah, And I'm like,
I literally in the piece that you did not read,
say blah blah blah. And it's yeah, it's tough because
I think that the criticism comes no matter what. And
(15:51):
a site like a red state that's been around for
so long. I mean, I imagine you get you know,
your share of it.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
The other day I post said something about Google still
throttling our domain and someone said, well, you know, you
would think as lefty as Eric Erickson is like that,
they would have that in the bag. And I'm going,
my gosh, Eric site ten years so I know you
don't read it if you.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Don't know that. That's right.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yeah, people just associate it with him, and that's that's it.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
They just run with it.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Plus lefty as he is, Eric Erickson.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Come on, yeah, super lefty.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Right right there, We're going to take a quick break
and be right back on the Carol Marcowitch Show. What
are you most proud of in your life?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
I thought about this a long time because I obviously
the first thing I want to say is my kids.
I have three sons and they're all grown and two
of them are married, and I have two granddaughters.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Oh amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
But then I'm thinking, I don't I feel like God
just gave me three amazing souls to be my children,
and I really didn't have to do a whole lot.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
So I don't feel like I can be super proud
of that. I hear you.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Yeah, but I am proud that they are each other's
best friend. My two older boys are just over two
years apart, and they thought like crazy when they were kids,
and I thought, they're never going to talk to each
other when they're grown up. You know, my younger son
is nine years between him and my oldest, so he
never really got beat up on by the other two,
(17:19):
right right, Yeah, but the older two they talk to
each other all day every day. They have a podcast
together focused on hockey. They're best friends. Awesome, you're still
best friends, and I'm going, okay, So I am proud
that they're each other's best friends and they help each
other financially.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Yeah. So I'm very proud that that they are each
other's best friends and that we just all love to
be together.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
That is such an amazing outcome. That's really all that
I'm rooting for. For my kids to grow up and
get married and have kids and be friends with each
other and what else really is there and get a
one too.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It's it's huge.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
But my ten year old I was telling him that
I have three questions that I ask all of my
guests and I change it. I changed the three questions
every year, and this is my third set of questions.
But I said to him that one of the questions
is what are you most proud of in your life?
And I asked him what are you most proud of
in your life? And he said my parents? And I
was like, you had nothing to do with who your
parents are, what are you proud of? But I realized
(18:20):
it's the same thing as when I say I'm most
proud of my kids, Like you're you know, did you
have an effect? Maybe hopefully you know, it couldn't just yeah,
give us a five year out prediction, and it could
be about anything at all.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
I'm really bad at any political predictions, even know my
own wife predictions, because so many times I've looked back
and said, if someone told me five years ago this
is what I'd be doing, I would not believe them.
So I think I'm going to say that the Dodgers
will have another World championship and the next five years, okay,
a couple more.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
I know people love to hate the Dodgers, but yeah,
they're my teams.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
I'm from Brooklyn, so I have to even though you know,
obviously my family wasn't even in America yet when the
Dodgers left. But I grew up with the with the
sense of like, we have been betrayed by this team
who left us.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Yes, I feel it because when the Rams left LA
for Saint Louis for those years, like we were not
allowed to talk about them in our house.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
And now that they're back in LA, you know, yeah,
when did the Dodgers last win this year?
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Okay? Yeah, so what do you please, you guys, Dodgers.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
I don't know how many people have many teams as
three feeted in baseball. I mean, I know basketball, there's
been a few, but.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Okay, I'm not I don't follow baseball that closely. But
so you you guys have won two years in a row,
and now your prediction is a third one at.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Some point in the next five years.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
I'm not going to say this next year, but some
point right starting to sound like the Patriots, who like
you know, had a few years off from going to
the Super Bowl or.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Really bitter about it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
But you know, yeah, all right, maybe the Dodgers come
back in the next five and win another one. Yes,
I don't know if I'm gonna be rooting for that.
Or not, but I'll think of you unders happens. Yeah,
all right, I have loved this conversation, Jennifer. This has
been really great getting to know. You leave us here
with your best tip for my listeners on how they
(20:18):
can improve their lives.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
So goes back to your question about you know what,
what was my plan B?
Speaker 4 (20:24):
And around that time that I started writing, I realized
that all the things that I'd done in my life
that were most successful had to do with storytelling, whether
it's laying out an investigative thing or even writing something
more from a personal perspective. So I've told myself I'm
a storyteller at heart and to just stay in that lane,
like whatever I'm going to do have to be involved
(20:44):
in telling a story, and that can take so many forms.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
So my advice for you know success, or one tip for.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
Being happy, is to find what it is that you're
really good at, that you feel like your call to do,
and stay in that lane. Don't be influenced by what
other people are doing or try to be somebody else,
be yourself and stick with that.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
I love the idea of stick in your lane and
do what you're really good at and don't let other
people get in there or dissuade you from it. Choose
Jennifer Venlar. Check her out at Red State. Thank you
so much for coming on, Jennifer.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Thank you
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol mark Wood Show
on iHeartRadio. I've talked about this subject a lot, and
I hadn't done it monologue in quite a while and
wanted to talk about this again because I got a
note in my email about this, and also today Kat
Rosenfield on X posted starting to think the plummeting birth
(00:27):
rate might have something to do with millennial women being
immersed in these motherhood as identity annihilation narratives for the
entirety of their fertile years, and I tweeted I talk
often to counter this persistent messaging that motherhood is the
end of your life, about the fact that my career
took off only after having children and my identity and
my purpose crystallized because of them. Having kids was the beginning,
(00:51):
not the end. I also got a note about this recently.
I wasn't sure if I was going to answer this
because it was a short note, and it's not When
they don't have a lot of details, it's tough for
me to really give an answer. If you're going to
write to me for advice, as much detail as possible,
as much detail as you feel comfortable giving me.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Would be great. This is the note, Hi, miss Markoitz,
you spoke at my school a few years ago and
I had asked a question about how you balance family
and career. I'm now twenty three and still don't see
how you do it. I'm not dating anyone, partially because
I'm afraid that adding a relationship to my life will
be too time consuming. I don't have a high pressure job,
(01:30):
but imagine I will one day. How do I balance everything?
The thing is you just do it, is the easy answer.
But the other thing is you're twenty three and you're
not dating anyone, so you don't have a picture of
what your life actually will look like. Part of what
gave me the space to grow in my career and
(01:52):
do what I wanted to do was marrying the right
person who let me explore things and let me try
out things, and that made me able to succeed at
another level than I ever would have without him. So,
if you're twenty three and you're not dating anyone, and
you say you don't have a higher pressure job, but
imagine you will one day you might not, you don't know.
(02:15):
I would say, don't put the roadblocks in your way
in advance. See where you end up. On this, A
lot of women are just given this message that marriage
and kids are the end, when in fact, for a
lot of women, it really will be the beginning of
you being able to do things. You have somebody who
contributes to your household. Maybe doesn't support the entire household,
(02:38):
but at least half of it. You are given the
ability to try things that you might not have been
able to try otherwise. So this whole thing about women's
identity being destroyed and their careers being over as soon
as they have kids just makes no sense to me.
And I feel like a lot of this is just
messaging made to ensure that women don't have kids, and
(03:01):
I think that it's on purpose. It's to say you
can't live a life that is enjoyable with children. Don't
have children. It's scary, and I know that it's aimed
at liberal women, but I think the woman writing to
me is a conservative woman. I am assuming this because
I spoke at her school, I speak to conservative groups.
(03:21):
I can imagine who this person is, even though she
didn't say or what kind of person this is. And
it's not the blue haired liberal girl on the college campus.
This is somebody serious who wants children. And wants to
hear that it's going to be okay. And this idea
that it can't be okay if you have kids and
(03:44):
that your life will be altered for the negative is
one that is just pushed on them so hard. This
girl is saying she doesn't even have a boyfriend or
a high powered career and she already doesn't know how
to balance them. You are told that it's going to
be so hard, but in fact it's not. In fact,
when you're with the right person and you have a
career that you care about and you know how to
(04:07):
do well, it's not the image you see online of
the devastated woman who doesn't have what she actually wanted.
I think people who have the marriage that they want
and the career that they want, it happens often, and
they just don't tell you about it because it's hard
to be like, Hey, my life's really great. I have
this marriage and career that I really like and really
(04:30):
works for me. I don't think that message gets spread enough,
and I'm here to spread it. Thank you for listening,
and stay tuned for my interview with Jennifer van lahar
Hi and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz show on iHeartRadio.
My guest today is Jennifer Van Lah. Jennifer is the
managing editor of Red State and an investigative journalist. Hi, Jennifer,
(04:54):
is so nice to have you on, so great to
be here. So how did you get to this path?
Where did you decide to be a writer, and how
did you end up at Red State.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
So I'd always enjoyed writing.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
That was kind of my best class, you know, growing
up and going into high school. That outside of college,
I became a court reporter, like a stenographer in courtrooms depositions,
and I worked for the State of North Carolina and
did about more than three dozen criminal first degree murder
trials from jury selection through verdict. So that was what
(05:28):
I did for twenty years while raising my kids, and
that really gave me such an insight into how people
build cases, which is really what you do as an
investigative journalist.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
So after I got divorced and.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
I moved home to California, I couldn't do court reporting
there because I used a different method than our regulatory
scheme allowed. So even though I had been the president
of our state association all that, they want me to
go back to school and I said forget that. So
I kind of got involved in political consulting, doing some
comms work for different candidates.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Then I started writing at.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Red State and twenty sixteen right after that election and
just timing from there.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
So I associate you very much with investigative journalism. Is
that your true love?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
It is?
Speaker 4 (06:19):
And it took me a little while to find it
because I liked doing more of the analysis or just
even the hot takes because there's so many things. Especially
as a mom, you see people writing things and you
just want to go off.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
On whatever their take is on things.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
But once I started doing that, and my first big
story ended up being kind of the biggest story of
my career so far, which was about now former Representative
Katie Hill, who was actually harrassing her staff and she
also had issues with prescription drug abuse, alcohol issues. She
ended up resigning eight days after my first report and
(06:53):
that and then I thought, Okay, maybe maybe I might
be able to do some of this stuff. Right.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I was going to ask what your face sad story
has been? Is that your favorite story that you've worked on?
Speaker 4 (07:04):
No? No, because that one brought so much terrible things
personally on top of even though it was a great professional.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, win.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
But I think my favorite one that I think has
made the most changed was basically a year and a
half long examination of ron A McDaniel's spending at the
RNC that resulted in President Trump firing her and it's
getting a whole new RNC and then President Trump winning.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, I remember that very well. That those stories. Did
you get into a lot of trouble because you were
going after a quote unquote on your own side.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Oh yeah, they tried to get us to not be
able to publish it. But you know, I credit the
late amazing Charlie Kirk. He kind of saw the writing
on the wall and I had been communicating with him
what I was finding. He said, well, come on my
show first and we'll talk. We'll you know, give your findings.
And that was before the story was even published. So
that whole night after that, the people at the RNC
(07:57):
were harassing me and my publisher to not publish it.
But really, you know, that horse was already out of
the barn, And I credit Charlie for doing that.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, he was brave. He really, I think took chances
that some people don't take. One attacking you know, again,
his own side. I think that was something that he
did very very very well.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yes, what would you have done if this hadn't worked out,
if you hadn't left court reporting and got into writing,
and you know, it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Work out for everyone. What would have been the plan be?
I didn't even have one. It kind of had to work.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
I was a newly single mom of a teenage boy
that had a learning disability, and also taking care of
my dad who had had a stroke, which is why
I moved back to California.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
So it just it had to work.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
It's funny for people listening, A lot of people say
I had no plan B and this had to work.
And I wonder if there's something to that when you
don't have another option, when there is no other possibility
and this has to work out. I wonder if that
makes people kind of more motivated to me could actually work.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
I think so, because my option was trying to find
some kind of secretarial job, driving in from the suburbs
of LA and to West LA and being in a
car four hours a day, and that just I was
not going to allow that to happen.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
What are you covering right now?
Speaker 4 (09:17):
So a lot of stuff on the Palisades Fire and
watch my space over the next few weeks, there's some
deep dives into Gavin Newsom's personal finances and let's just
say that he runs his personal finances the same way
he runs the State of California's finances.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
So it's pretty messy, so not that great.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
No, do you root for California though, I mean you
live there, right, you wanted to succeed? Did you have
any hope?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
I do have hope, and I absolutely wanted to succeed.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
I think in Galvin Newsom touts, you know, the fifth
largest or sixth largest economy, you know, based on whichever
year he's talking about. And what people don't realize it's
that in spite of Gavin Newsom is that in spite
of the Democrats and they're terrible policies, there's so many
natural resources, so many human resources there with the brain
talent and that I've always said that the people that
(10:08):
come to California are the dreamers, the people who you know,
the confines of the East Coast were not for them,
and they had a bigger rigion. There's nothing wrong with that,
but it's just they were different. They weren't going to
fit in there, and so they go out to California
and the thing they do things that maybe, you know, a.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Stricter society wouldn't allow.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
And that's how we've came up with so many great
inventions in California and really changed the world. And I'd
like us to get back to doing good things for
the world instead of being the incubator of bad ideas.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Right, But you are optimistic that that that that could happen.
I mean, that's that's saying something because I like, you know,
I love New York, and I love New York and
I root for it, but I'm not optimistic about their future,
you know, in the future, in the far off future
right now.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Right, I mean we might or might not have hit
rock bottom yet, there might still be a rock bottom
to hit. But yeah, every the pendulum always swings.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Back your lifelong California. You grew up there.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, so what I love about it in eighteen fifties, Yeah,
what do you love about it?
Speaker 4 (11:09):
I love the wide open spaces. It sounds like a weird,
dreamy thing. But just you know, when I lived back
in North Carolina, which I love North Carolina, but I
felt so hemmed in by the trees everywhere that were
so tall I couldn't see great.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Exactly what you mean?
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Yeah, And I love that, and I just love the
I'm just kind of the attitude of California, of the
old school California, not the new weirdos, but the old
school where you're just an adventurer and and everything's possible
and you're being in the outdoors and just partaking in
everything that it has to offer.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Did the fires shift people's opinions? It seems like people
who are natural, say liberals, woke up after the fires
and realized that the kind of governance they had been
living under just doesn't work. Are you seeing that or
is it just I'm looking for it and that's why
I'm seeing it now.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I'm definitely seeing it.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
It's difficult for people to say it out loud still
because there's still so much societal pressure. But I saw
it when I was at Spencer Pratt's mayor all kickoff, right,
he was saying so many who's even getting cheers when
he was talking about cooperating with ICE and cooperating with
federal Immigration Enforcement and just talking about how things have
(12:18):
to change in the way that Los Angeles has governed.
Got so much loud cheers, and they were not Yeah,
I've been to Republican events in California for you know,
a long time, and it's usually a very old and
white crowd. This was a very young crowd and very
diverse crowd. They were not your general Republicans, and I
think they felt safe coming out of the closet at
this event and the among like minded people. So, you know,
(12:43):
I think that that's the hope is and he's going
to bring in this whole new generation of people that
maybe aren't your traditional conservative, aren't social conservative, but who
are like, Okay, this isn't political, it's common sense. We
just have to have common sense.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
So Red State has.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Been around a really long time.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
I mean I remember the Red State table at the
two thousand and four Republican National Convention. I mean, they've
really the site has been through a lot of time
periods in our political history.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
What how do you keep it fresh and new and
kind of moving in the direction when things keep changing
so rapidly, Mean, the Republican Party today is so different
than it was back then? How does Red State stay relevant? Well?
Speaker 4 (13:27):
As managing editor and then I have a great editorial team,
we try to make sure that we're not enforcing any
kind of group think among our people. I hope that
people that maybe haven't read Red State in a while,
maybe have some ideas of what we were in the past,
will come and look again, because on our page, I
publish routinely things that I don't agree with that opinion,
(13:50):
and it's still a conservative opinion, and I don't feel
like it's right to kind of censor that. We do
a lot more breaking news than we did in the past,
because just the market place has evolved that way, and
I think big tech censorship really changed the way we
did some things in a good way, because now we're
forced to, unlike the left, really back up what we
(14:12):
write so that it doesn't get taken down by the
fact checkers.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Do you feel any pressure to fall in line with
what the conservative opinion is right now? Or it's do
people come there for the difference of opinion still from
a conservative perspective?
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Obviously we always feel pressure, mostly from our commenters, which
oh yeah, the commenters are the only ones who can comment,
but still, you know, they they get really upset and
it's funny sometimes I'll say, you never print such and such,
you know, opposing opinion when we just like, if they
looked on the front page, sure an essay to that
(14:48):
effect that they just haven't read. Everyone gets this tunnel
vision of that everything has to agree with every bit
of a talk about But I try. It's tough, you know,
because we're all human, but I try to say, okay, well,
we still just we need to be intellectually honest, and
even sometimes if it's criticizing things going on in the administration,
you know, we try to not just pile on, but
(15:10):
we try to. What I've told my writers is criticism
is fine. Don't just say orange Man bad though. Yeah,
an actual constructive criticism of why you think this certain
policy isn't helpful or when the effects will be that
maybe they're not taking into consideration and lists that out.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Don't just this sacks right.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Absolutely. My favorite is when I post something in a
link to an article I wrote, and somebody will comment like,
why don't you say blah blah blah, And I'm like,
I literally in the piece that you did not read,
say blah blah blah. And it's yeah, it's tough because
I think that the criticism comes no matter what. And
(15:51):
a site like a red state that's been around for
so long. I mean, I imagine you get you know,
your share of it.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
The other day I post said something about Google still
throttling our domain and someone said, well, you know, you
would think as lefty as Eric Erickson is like that,
they would have that in the bag. And I'm going,
my gosh, Eric site ten years so I know you
don't read it if you.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Don't know that. That's right.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yeah, people just associate it with him, and that's that's it.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
They just run with it.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Plus lefty as he is, Eric Erickson.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Come on, yeah, super lefty.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Right right there, We're going to take a quick break
and be right back on the Carol Marcowitch Show. What
are you most proud of in your life?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
I thought about this a long time because I obviously
the first thing I want to say is my kids.
I have three sons and they're all grown and two
of them are married, and I have two granddaughters.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Oh amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
But then I'm thinking, I don't I feel like God
just gave me three amazing souls to be my children,
and I really didn't have to do a whole lot.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
So I don't feel like I can be super proud
of that. I hear you.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Yeah, but I am proud that they are each other's
best friend. My two older boys are just over two
years apart, and they thought like crazy when they were kids,
and I thought, they're never going to talk to each
other when they're grown up. You know, my younger son
is nine years between him and my oldest, so he
never really got beat up on by the other two,
(17:19):
right right, Yeah, but the older two they talk to
each other all day every day. They have a podcast
together focused on hockey. They're best friends. Awesome, you're still
best friends, and I'm going, okay, So I am proud
that they're each other's best friends and they help each
other financially.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Yeah. So I'm very proud that that they are each
other's best friends and that we just all love to
be together.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
That is such an amazing outcome. That's really all that
I'm rooting for. For my kids to grow up and
get married and have kids and be friends with each
other and what else really is there and get a
one too.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It's it's huge.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
But my ten year old I was telling him that
I have three questions that I ask all of my
guests and I change it. I changed the three questions
every year, and this is my third set of questions.
But I said to him that one of the questions
is what are you most proud of in your life?
And I asked him what are you most proud of
in your life? And he said my parents? And I
was like, you had nothing to do with who your
parents are, what are you proud of? But I realized
(18:20):
it's the same thing as when I say I'm most
proud of my kids, Like you're you know, did you
have an effect? Maybe hopefully you know, it couldn't just yeah,
give us a five year out prediction, and it could
be about anything at all.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
I'm really bad at any political predictions, even know my
own wife predictions, because so many times I've looked back
and said, if someone told me five years ago this
is what I'd be doing, I would not believe them.
So I think I'm going to say that the Dodgers
will have another World championship and the next five years, okay,
a couple more.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
I know people love to hate the Dodgers, but yeah,
they're my teams.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
I'm from Brooklyn, so I have to even though you know,
obviously my family wasn't even in America yet when the
Dodgers left. But I grew up with the with the
sense of like, we have been betrayed by this team
who left us.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Yes, I feel it because when the Rams left LA
for Saint Louis for those years, like we were not
allowed to talk about them in our house.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
And now that they're back in LA, you know, yeah,
when did the Dodgers last win this year?
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Okay? Yeah, so what do you please, you guys, Dodgers.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
I don't know how many people have many teams as
three feeted in baseball. I mean, I know basketball, there's
been a few, but.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Okay, I'm not I don't follow baseball that closely. But
so you you guys have won two years in a row,
and now your prediction is a third one at.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Some point in the next five years.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
I'm not going to say this next year, but some
point right starting to sound like the Patriots, who like
you know, had a few years off from going to
the Super Bowl or.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Really bitter about it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
But you know, yeah, all right, maybe the Dodgers come
back in the next five and win another one. Yes,
I don't know if I'm gonna be rooting for that.
Or not, but I'll think of you unders happens. Yeah,
all right, I have loved this conversation, Jennifer. This has
been really great getting to know. You leave us here
with your best tip for my listeners on how they
(20:18):
can improve their lives.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
So goes back to your question about you know what,
what was my plan B?
Speaker 4 (20:24):
And around that time that I started writing, I realized
that all the things that I'd done in my life
that were most successful had to do with storytelling, whether
it's laying out an investigative thing or even writing something
more from a personal perspective. So I've told myself I'm
a storyteller at heart and to just stay in that lane,
like whatever I'm going to do have to be involved
(20:44):
in telling a story, and that can take so many forms.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
So my advice for you know success, or one tip for.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
Being happy, is to find what it is that you're
really good at, that you feel like your call to do,
and stay in that lane. Don't be influenced by what
other people are doing or try to be somebody else,
be yourself and stick with that.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
I love the idea of stick in your lane and
do what you're really good at and don't let other
people get in there or dissuade you from it. Choose
Jennifer Venlar. Check her out at Red State. Thank you
so much for coming on, Jennifer.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Thank you
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