The Biggest Stories of 2025

From the heart of our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. backed by the trusted voices of Team Fox, a clear, fresh voice cutting through the noise to tell the truth. It's Guy Benson with Guy Benson. Hello, everybody. 2026 after the fastest year in human history. It's not an opinion. It's fact. I mean, just the craziest year. I mean, I know 2024 was pretty nuts with the campaign. In 2024, what did we have? We had Trump winning the nomination. We have Biden. His brain turned to applesau during that June 2024 debate in Georgia Tech. We have dropping out of the race three weeks later. We have Trump nearly being assassination in between that time, then choosing JD Vance two days later. And then we had... Kamala Harris being anointed, like Soviet style, as the Democratic nominee without one vote from the public. Then we had the Brat summer and all the polling showing that Kamala Harris is going to sweep away into victory, only for Trump to win every swing state and the popular vote while Republicans took back the Senate, held the House, and the conservative Supreme Court remained 6'3. So besides that, that was a crazy year, but 2025, man. I mean, Trump came in and... It's like almost having a do-over. Because if you remember 2017, Trump's first year in office, not great. Not his fault necessarily. I mean, obviously we had that whole Russia collusion narrative just take off and a special counsel being launched. And then that just engulfed his first year as president, at least from a media perspective. Then obviously the repeal and replaced to Obamacare during that summer of 2017 shot down. John McCain went from a yes to a no vote. The famous, the infamous, I should say, thumbs down on the Senate floor to shoot that down. So a big loss to start off that particular. term for Donald Trump. And then they eventually got the tax cuts through at the very, very end. But overall... all the leaks, all the changeover as far as, you know, chief of staffs and press secretaries. And I could go down on the list as far as Trump's team just being in disarray because he didn't know who to trust, really, right? He'd never been in Washington before. So he appointed all these people. Half of them were loyal to him during the campaign. So I guess he felt he owed him something. And the other ones, he didn't realize what kind of swamp he truly was dealing with. He warned about it. But until you live it, I guess you really don't know. So this time, at least, in 2024, he has the cabinet that he wants with people that he trusts. And that's why you see so few. leaks out of this administration. So few people that are defying the president openly like we saw in 2017. So that was 2025. And Trump got so much done. It is incredible. And I want to go through, as you guys know, I'm a Fox News contributor, Washington Examiner columnist and obviously an author as well, my third book, The Big

I mean, it was big. That's certainly for sure. But it was called the biggest comeback ever and is called the biggest comeback ever. If you got some time to read over this long winter, inside Trump's big, beautiful campaign. I'm burdened by what has been New York Times bestseller. So I got a lot of hats that I wear outside of also being a radio host in New York. And obviously for Fox News, whenever they need me to fill in for guys. So all of that said. I mainly cover the thing that got me into this business as far as my current iteration. I once worked in sports as a sports columnist for Fox and for NBC. And then that was a little bit too competitive, for lack of a better term. A lot of guys that want the same job as me. So I'm like, hey, let me. You know, I always have been studying media of my whole life and the bias around it. And if my only competition is Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy, well, this can't be too hard now, can it? So I jumped into it. And eventually before you know it, Fox sign me and now I'm a contributor and that's all great. So I want to go through guys. as far as what I think were the biggest stories of the year. And it's got to start out with Trump being inaugurated. Not so much the inauguration part, but the fact that you think of all the political IEDs thrown at Donald Trump since 2021, since he last left office. I mean, it's really something to be holding. We know all about them, right? But let's repeat that. Just to understand when we got to January 20th of 2025, How this guy's even up there with his hand on the Bible being sworn in as the 47 president, what he had to endure to get to that point truly is the greatest comeback ever, at least since the 0-4 Red Sox coming back from 3-0 against the Yankees in the ALCS, and maybe Jesus. That was a pretty good comeback in its own right. But I can't think of really anything else at this point. You think about the weaponization of the justice system by Democrats. multiple federal and civil cases against him in courtrooms in places like New York and Washington that obviously it was going to be a fixed fight from the beginning Soviet style. And if those cases ever came to fruition, all of them, we wouldn't be talking about a President Trump right now. Fortunately, they all fell apart because they were all BS. And it was the Keystone cops, whether it was Jack Smith or Fani Willis or whoever we tried to carry out this again. a weaponization of a justice system to take out a political opponent. That's what Democrats did while saying that only they can save democracy. It's quite the contradiction. He was also taking all state ballots, Colorado, Maine, not by some sort of prop measure where voters weighed in, but just basically by an attorney general here, a panel there, and that was the end of that. Then you obviously have a hostile media that will never, ever give Donald Trump remotely a fair shake. Over the past 10 years, ever since he came down an escalator in June of 2015, to this day on a daily basis. And now also we have to remember the two assassination attempts that I mentioned earlier, July 13th and Butler, and obviously September at Trump International golf course, sixth hole. You have a sniper that sat there for 18 hours, 18 hours in a sniper's nest, had all the ammunition. tactical gear, everything that he needed to take out Trump. And once you're on a green, if you've ever played golf, there's nowhere to hide. There is no cover. He would have been a sitting duck. Thankfully, a Secret Service agent saw a rifle barrel sticking out of a fence line and was able to scare the guy off. He eventually Ryan Ruth was arrested. So you think about all these things. Now overcome all of that and win every swing state in the popular vote. When you look back in retrospect, is utterly remarkable to see Donald Trump inaugurated.

On October 7th, 2023, more than 1,200 dead, the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. And Biden wasn't able to get it done. Biden wasn't even awake. The auto pen wasn't able to get it done. Braun-Klein, whoever was running the country, Jill Biden, Hunter Biden was not able to get that piece still done. That deal is done. Also a huge story this year as well. Gas prices. falling to a five-year low. That is incredible. And you could even go to places like Colorado, Tennessee, Texas, where you could find gas well under $2 a gallon. And that is a direct result of Trump's drill baby drill policy, making America energy independent. Again, a remarkable story. Again, just a simple change of policy. Let's drill here. And maybe, just maybe, if we don't have to depend on foreign oil and gas, then therefore our prices will come down. And trust me. If energy prices go down, the president told me this when I interviewed him for the book, I asked him, hey, my kid wants to know how to bring down the cost of cheeseburgers. Like my nine-year-old actually submitted that question for me to ask him. And he chuckled. He said, well, energy's the big ball game. That's everything. If you bring down energy prices and therefore to drive the trucks to the restaurants, to the places that use that energy, if the cost is cheaper, that should. be passed on to the consumer, that's how you lower inflation. And sure enough, we're seeing core inflation now at a very manageable 2.5% when it was above 9% under Biden, yet Democrats have the hubris to talk about how they're the party who knows about bringing affordability back to Americans when they're the ones who caused this disaster in the first place. Oh, speaking to the Democratic Party, they have dropped now to 1-5, 15% approval. I mean, Gas station sushi is more popular at this point, which I had yesterday. It wasn't horrible. But, you know, you don't want to go there too often. The point is 15% approval, Quinnipiac, a huge story. And they keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I believe that's the definition of insanity, right? I mean, their whole deal, I guess, is just to resist Trump at every turn, swing at every bad pitch. Talk about how... Building a ballroom at the White House is an attack on democracy or the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center that they've lost their mind on. I mean, I could go on and on, but what you'd never hear from the Democratic Party is, you know, an actual solution, an actual policy proposal? Like, what will you do to make the lives of your constituents better? It's all about Trump is bad. And again, we're here to save democracy when literally they installed a candidate without one vote from the public. It is utterly remarkable. And 15%, that's a hard thing to come back for. Perhaps the biggest story of the year was the assassination of Charlie Kirk as well. This is probably the most prominent political assassination we've seen in this country since the 1960s, a horrible time, JFK, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., MLK, all being gunned down. But the impact that this has had since, if you're looking for a silver lining in a father of two very young children, a loving husband, Erika Kirk, in terms of being executed in public at Utah Valley University in September 10th of 2025, is the fact that 130... Probably more now at this point. This was the number that I saw back in November. 130,000 chapter requests, new chapter requests for Turning Point USA across the country. And Erika Kirk has shown such amazing strength and resilience. It's an understatement, quite frankly. I couldn't imagine.

You know, having two young kids myself. Like, you have to mourn your husband, only 31 years old, just being taken from you by a, you know, a trans furry loving maniac named Tyler Robinson at that university. And then you realize that you have two kids that aren't even in elementary school yet that you have to be the pillar of strength for it to get them through this. And the fact that she's not only done that, but taking the reins at Turning Point USA and really just making this thing, obviously what Charlie wanted to be was bigger than one person. It is a movement and it's not going away anytime soon. In fact, it is only getting stronger, certainly. And then finally, I'll leave it here, guys. Two stories, actually. One, completely not covered. You know only one house has been built in California in the Palisades since those devastating wildfires nearly a year ago? One, and Gavin Newsom wants to be president of the United States, and that's the competence that we're seeing, the guy who didn't have any water in the reservoirs or the fire hydrants, and now has rebuilt one home? And that guy's a frontrunner for the Democratic nominee. Good luck. But the media doesn't report on that, of course, because every time Gavin Newsom is interviewed, well, guess what? It's all about Trump. Trump's bad, but how bad is he to you, Gavin? It's just an effing joke. I'm sorry. And then finally... Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, the U.S. military, taking out the fordo nuclear capabilities of Iran. That facility decimated after reports said, no, barely got any damage until the Iranian said, yet it's pretty much gone. The Israelis confirm that, U.S. intelligence confirmed that as well. So that is your most two underreported stories of the year. But major ones, certainly. That's certainly for sure. Anyway, this is Joe Concha. I am filling in for the great Guy Benson. It is Friday afternoon. Thank you for joining us. Back with more in just a moment. Filling in for Guy Benson, it's Joe Concha. Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% off your first purchase at Fox Newswineshop.com with code FNRadio 20. 20% discount excludes wine club offers and cannot be combined with any other promotion. Expires July 31st, 2026. Must be 21 order to order. Please drink responsibly. Oh boy. You know what? It's 2026, and I'm kind of a music buff, movie buff as well. But I have fond memories of the summer of 1995, and that particular song, Ants Marching by the Dave Matthews Band, therefore making that song you faintly hear in the background 31 years. He wake up in the morning. It's an interesting voice, Dave Matthews. It's distinctive. It grew on me. It's all good. Anyway, so you got it. Here, well, actually, let me set this up first. CBS News is an absolute dumpster fire, at least was, right? You think about 60 minutes, and you think all the way back to Dan Rather in 2004, who used documents from a computer font that did not exist to try to prove that George W. Bush didn't serve in the National Guard. Well, it turns out that the documents were fake because, again.

rather used a document from a font that didn't exist on a computer when Bush was in the National Guard. Therefore, the story was debunked. Rather was fired. His producer, Marla Mapes, was also fired a big black guy for 60 minutes. And then we obviously saw what happened last year, 2024, where Kamala Harris... was edited to look somewhat coherent during a 60 Minutes interview. 60 Minutes refused to release the transcript, the video, and then obviously you saw that they clearly were putting their foot on the scale for Kamala Harris to try to get her over the finish line. Trump sues 60 minutes. CBS is forced to settle, and that was that, uh-oh, not good either. So we could go down the line, but overall, CBS not only has an ethical problem, but also has been in third place forever in terms of it's CBS evening newscast. You have to go back to Kronkite, I think, when the last time they led. And then obviously their morning show is also in third place. So they're not making money. Their ratings are horrible and no one trusts them. So of course you have to make big, big, big, big, big changes. And at the top, they bought in Bari Weiss, who is dismantling CBS. Yes, that's exactly what George Clooney says. George Clooney, the actor, relevant, 25 years ago, Ocean 11th, I guess. Well, anyway, he says that CBS News is dismantling itself as we speak. Right? He says, am I worried about film studios? Sure, it's my business, but my primary loyalty is to my country. I'm much more worried about the way we inform ourselves and how we're going to discern reality without a functioning press. What the hell are you talking about? I know you played Edward R. Murrow way, way back when, but you're not actually a newsman. And again, CBS is profoundly liberal. Go listen to Scott Pelly sometime and his Wake Forest address. It is disturbing. how partisan that guy is, and he's part of 60 Minutes as well. So yes, good for CBS and good for them to try to go towards the middle in these situations. Do we have the Tony DeCopal clip guys real quick? The point is on too many stories, the press has missed the story. Right. Because we've taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites and not enough on you. Okay. Wow, that's refreshing. He's exactly right. It was a whole Mayacopa that he did in the CBS Evening News, and he will be the new anchor. And Tony DeCopal actually has done a very good job for CBS. He has stood out and good for Bari Weiss to reward him as far as bringing CBS back to the Tiffany Network and the trusted brand that it once was. Can it do it? You'd have to change a lot more than just an anchor to do that because the culture is embedded to be liberal. But we will see. At least the effort is there. Anyway, this is Joe Concha. I am filling it for Guy Benson. Back with so, so much more in just a moment.

I Guy Benson, it's Joe Concha. Yes. You know, I looked over my guest list and I said, if we don't have J.B. I ain't doing this show. And it works. So here she is. She's an Emmy Award winning. She's a mommy to three little humans and a pooper scooper to two dogs. Wow, that's five basically got to take care of at this point. Also a full-time cleaning lady. I know the feeling, Julie. I'm supposed to be somewhat off this week. All I've been doing is cleaning. I'm going to lose my mind, Jules. No, I know. It's like, why do we even buy Christmas presents? Because then they're just going to end up. It's more stuff to end up on the floor. I mean, seriously. You're so right. It's kind of like my son's been playing with like three of the things we got for it. And there's like nine that are just, you know, off to the side. And not discarded yet, but it's not a good feeling. But either way. Now, this year I was like, you get your stuff upstairs and you put it away. I do not want my living room to look like a bomb went off for the entire month. So I managed to get them to at least take their gifts to the... You know, bedroom. I could sit on the floor up there out of my, out of my view. Wow. See, you and my wife have to go bowling together sometimes. I just closed my eyes and I heard her. Like, it's exactly the way she speaks. So you guys. Yeah. Clearly, the boss is in the family. So what did you do for New Year's? I'm just curious. I hosted a little thing at my house. Yeah. We had a little party with some people in the neighborhood and stuff. It was fun. And I had the kids. But I did work every single day. Me too. I didn't want to go too crazy. But oddly enough, like, I had, like, maybe two glasses of champagne and was starting to come down with a cold because everybody in my house had one. And, of course, it hit me on New Year's. But what I didn't like is that I was up until 4 in the morning, not because I was partying because I was cleaning. It's like literally all I do is clean. I was cleaning until 4 o'clock in the morning, and then I had to work the following day. And we're talking to Julie Bandaris. And you know what the irony is, and I'll let you know what I did. is that when you, if you say, all right, well, you know, you guys work hard and you work hard so you could afford a cleaning service to come in once in a while. The problem with bringing in a cleaning service on any kind of regular basis, you have to clean for the cleaning service. Like you can't just leave a mess. They're there to like make things clean in terms of like the dust goes out and you clean, you know, this sink or whatever. They're not there to pick up clothes and fold them and put them away. So you end up working harder to prepare for the cleaning service than you would if they actually didn't come. Well, my housekeepers actually would pick up my kids stuff, except I tell them not to because I'm like, nope, kids are doing that. I'm not allowing the housekeepers to be their slaves. That's not happening. I agree. They're not here to work for you. They're here to just clean, and you will clean up your own room. So I actually make the kids do all the work before the housekeepers come. That's like my rule. Good job. Good job, Julie Mandarish. What I did, I got to my sister-in-law's house. And this year, you know what? My wife, she's kind of like you and me. In other words, Christmas break is when a lot of people go away and then we get our opportunities to, like, host things, for example. Like, I'm doing big weekend show tomorrow. You've been doing Faulkner Focus. You've been all over the place, quite frankly. So, you know, it's a great time to be on national television and all the fun stuff that goes along with that. But at the same time, we end up being busier from, say, December 22nd to January 3rd. then almost anybody in the building, right? So that night, however, I felt back because my wife equally because so many of the doctors in her practice go away, she ends up working a lot outside of Christmas, even Christmas, but then all those in between times, she's working 12, 13-hour shifts. So when she was going to her sisters and it was more her friends than mine, so to speak, that she grew up with, I said, all right, you know what, I'll drive and you have fun, and that was that. So I did not have a drop.

Thank you. Well, you know, I didn't want to drink anyway. You'd be quite honest because the next day I had to be back on. You know, it's like, well, same. That's what I was saying. I'm like, I'm not waking up with a headache. I don't need that. I'm already going to be sleep deprived. I don't need to throw the headache into the mix. Yeah. When you hit your early 40s like we have, early 40s, right? Early 40s or 30s, right? Early 40s or 30s for you. Oh, I'm sorry. Early 40s for me, early 30s for you, of course. Well, you're obviously much older than I am. Obviously, the younger sister I never had. She is Julie Van derris, and she joins us here today. So. You know, in terms of when I look back during my monologue as far as the biggest stories of the year. And I came down on basically Trump being inaugurated, not so much the inauguration part, but everything he had to overcome to get there. Like if you told me four years ago on January 7th of 2021, that he would actually be president again. I would say, you got to be kidding me, right? But sure enough, he was resilient once again. Gas prices five year low. That's fine. But I think the biggest stories were the border closing and Iran's nuclear facilities being taken out without one U.S. casually and the peace. steel in Gaza. That's what I came down as like final three. No, I would definitely say, yeah, the peace deal in Gaza, but that peace deal is not really sticking so great. So, I mean, hopefully they're going to come down, but, you know, Hamas needs to disarm, I mean, to get down to it. They're in phase two of that. so-called peace deal. And part of the peace deal is Hamas has to disarm. But not only should they have to disarm, they should have to blow up all their underground tunnels. And in order for them to get Israel troops out of Gaza, they need to do those two things, I believe, before they get out. But phase two is supposed to be them disarming, which, who's going to believe them if they say, oh, yeah, we disarmed? I mean, there's no accountability. They're not going to let people in there to check and see if all their weapons are gone. What are they going to do with their weapons? Burry them in their underground tunnels? So I don't really have much hope on a peace deal with Hamas. Very good point. And that is pragmatic. And we are talking to Julie Bandarish. Yeah, I mean, it'll be under hospitals. It'll be in tunnels. But at least that the fighting, at least for now, has stopped. And that's a lot better than what we saw. Yes, at least the fighting for now has stopped. This is true. Or paused. So you're also outside of being, you know, an Emmy winning anchor and just being, you know, the most underrated star on Gutfeld, quite frankly. I mean, to talk about a show that was created for somebody outside of Greg, it's definitely Julie. And I want to get your thoughts psychologically on what's happening with this person named Rosie O'Donnell who fled the country after Trump won. She actually kept her words that I would move out. She went to Ireland, which I'm not quite understanding that. I guess she said Donald. I don't get it either, but Donald. Right. And I'm half Irish. I'm a Gallagher on my mother's side, but you don't live there. I mean, it's not the best weather in the world. But anyway, here she is in Cut 26 going off on us, I guess, and Kelly Ann. And basically, I don't know, despite the fact she wanted to get away from Trump, all she does is rip out her phone every day on a daily basis. So this is Cut 26, guys. Go. What can I tell you?

I got a little text that the Fox News idiots. Idiots. How dare you? Kelly Ann Conway being the queen idiot. She's the best. Stop it. Said that I need to get a dog. Good idea. or a husband in order to be happy and get over my Trump derangement syndrome. I don't need a man any more than you need a butch woman to come and rock your world. Rock your world. Because trust me, things would be a little different in your universe. She sounds pleasant. Would you have her over for a New Year's party sometime, Jill? Uh, no. I wish she would go away. I don't even understand why she... Well, hey, listen, thanks for watching. You've got to look at the glass half full. She's a viewer. So, I mean, thank you for watching because you're obviously bringing up our Nielsen ratings, and we all appreciate it, those of us who watch the ratings at Fox. But, I mean, she moved to Ireland because she didn't want to have anything to do with this country because we're led by a president whom she hates, but yet... She loves to talk about it. So why is she even talking about it? If she's so disconnected from this country, then fully disconnect. Please pull the plug. Like pull the plug. And if that means, you know, I mean, go on some more meds. I don't know. She was apparently having difficulty getting some medication for her issues in California. I'm not sure if they ran out of pills out in Ireland, but she needs to restock. She needs a refill ASAP. Yes. And maybe, you know, I think it was good advice from Kellyanne. So, you know, get a dog. In our case, you have two dogs. I have two dogs. And I don't understand him. Kelly Ann is not Fox. I mean, Kelly Ann worked for the Trump administration. But when you think of Fox... opinion commentators, like Kellyanne worked for the White House, and now she appears on Fox, but she's not Fox. I don't even understand. I don't actually think Rosie knows what she's talking about. Well, that's nothing exactly groundbreaking, but yes, this is true. I say two Irish setters, and she'll be very, very happy, and that's just me. Speaking of Happy, over on CNN, which, you know, you talk about ratings, we average about... you know, well over 3 million in prime time, and they're averaging about 500,000, which is really hard to do because that's 10,000 viewers per state. You know, that's what they're averaging. It's fighting at 100 million homes. We couldn't get that few of viewers if we even tried. Like, we could all simultaneously get on the air and say, please turn off your TVs and don't watch us, and we would get more viewers than that. Yeah, it would be like the Sopranos where, like, you know, they show Tony and it goes to black. We could literally show black and probably do better than that. So, yeah, more employees than actual viewers at this point over at CNN. So they get desperate. And every New Year's Eve, they decide to allow their, you know, anchors and guest hosts to get inebriated on the air. And this is Andy Cohen, Julie, just after midnight, not making a lot of sense. Cup 28, go. I'm just saying, great, you got your martins. Go off in the sunset. It's after midnight. We'll fiddle with what we have, with what you've left us with the thing with you and Mayors, man. Go dance away.

We'll see you at all the parties. Wow, that's entertainment, huh? I can't understand why they're promoting alcoholism on New Year's Eve, on CNN. Like, I can't even understand it. And, like, I know they think it's cute and funny, but it's not. And, I mean, and I have nothing against Andy Cohen. That's his name, right? Yeah, Cohen. Okay, thank you. I don't really watch. But. But I can't understand why this is like a thing. I mean, every single year he comes on, he gets completely wasted, and Anderson Cooper just kind of sits there and giggles through the whole thing, which I'm not really quite sure how that helps his credibility. But I think it's weird that they just like openly. tout being drunk on television. Like, I can't even understand that. Like, we don't drink on New Year's Eve. None of our hosts drink on television. I've wanted to drink on TV, but I've been told that that's a no-no. So I'm not quite sure why they openly allow people to get wasted on CNN. But you know what? It's because half their viewers are probably passed out and drunk themselves. I mean, you have to be intoxicated to turn on CNN. So I guess... They want to be one with their viewers. So then if that's the case, then I understand their reasoning. Or passed out from Borden. We're talking with Julie Banderas. That's the thing. Anderson Cooper is also a 60-minute correspondent. And you really want to see, like Mike Wallace, could you see him or morally safer getting hammered, you know, on Times Square? I could not see it. And then Andy Cohen, here's the thing. If you're like 21 and you're on spring break and you're in Cancun like I was, all right, fine, you have some fun. This guy's pushing 60 and has hair that's whiter than George Washington. It's not a good look. And I'm children now. Yeah. children like i mean he's a dad like grow up i mean i mean seriously because eventually his kids are going to get old enough and they're going to see this stuff on youtube like oh so my dad openly gets drunk on national and global television that's cool it's a very good point my my kids have found me on youtube they don't find anything they find me talking to you might but it's like still they will find it it will get to eventually Yeah, they're going to see it. That's like a terrible role model. I'm not really quite sure. I don't really get it. But then again, nobody watches that show. I mean, remember when they had Kathy Griffin on? And she was just a hot mess. So it's like, but he's a hot mess. So it's okay for a man to be a hot mess on TV, but it's not okay for a, God, I almost just said something totally inappropriate. But it's not okay for a really beautiful red-headed woman to be. A hot mask. I'll change it. It's sarcastic Friday here with Julie Banderas. And thank you, Julie, for that. Good save on your part. So, you know, you've been an anchor for many years. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on in terms of what's going on at CBS News. I always thought that Tony DeCopal is a decent anchor as far as CBS, especially relatively over there, which, you know, you might as well call MSCBS in certain occasions. But here he is in Cut 29.

actually doing a Mayacolpa to his audience at the CBS evening news. He will be the new anchor. And this is refreshing on some level that he's admitting that the legacy media, well, kind of sucks. This is Cup 29. The point is on too many stories, the press has missed the story because we've taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you. Wow. So, of course, the left has gone nuts over this. George Clooney is saying that he's destroying CBS News. Well, I don't know, that sounded pretty reasonable to me, Jill. Yeah, but you know that now CBS is trying to go a little bit, you know, right of left. You know, like they want to go moderate. They want to go down the middle, and the CBS president and CBS leadership. has finally woken up to the fact that mainstream media is way too liberal. It's way too biased. It's the reason why Fox News Channel exists. I mean, Fox News Channel was launched because of CBS, NBC, and ABC, because broadcast journalism was always so far leaning to the left and liberal and biased that that's where fair and balanced. And that whole theory came up with. But CBS is now waking up to the fact that the left-leaning woke. liberal lunacy on the news doesn't belong. And it's turning off viewers. Look at CNN's ratings. And CBS's ratings. I mean, they've been playing catch up to the Today Show forever because they're so left-leaning. Look at Dan Rather. He lost his career because of lies that we're told on the air. So I think that this guy is coming in and obviously he's being told to say this stuff. I mean, I think Partly, yeah, he probably believes it, but he's coming in saying, look, we need to set the record straight. We're actually going to be a news program and no longer be a biased program. So we'll see if they actually stick to it. I'd say, you know, watch them the first week. I'm sure they're going to stay true. But I think it'll be only a matter of time before their two colors leak because it is CBS after all. Never judged a politician or in this case a CBS news anchor by their words, always judged by their actions. Oh, I judge them by their cover. judge a book by its cover. You do. Okay, very good. And I think a great point about Fox, by the way, in terms of why it was created, Charles Crowdhammer, the late great Charles Crouthammer, once had the best saying. He said, Fox was created because they found... half their audience. He said he found their audience, half the country. In other words, they were being... That was being alienated for years. I mean, everybody, all you had were the main broadcast networks, and you were given and fed the same storyline in every evening news broadcast. So, I mean, that's why the concept of Fox News Channel came out, because they wanted to give them a more balanced view. You're not just getting one view, you're getting a balanced view. And that's why... And people love to criticize us for... being conservative and right-leaning so that we're not balanced, but we have both Republicans and Democrats on panels in order to balance out the argument. So, but, you know, nobody wants to hear decide they don't agree with. So that's just ignorance.

Very good, Julie. And I'll give you the final 15 seconds. What was your New Year's resolution for 2026? Well, New Year's resolutions are stupid, so I don't do that. And also dry January is ridiculous because I tried that one year, and I made it to January 2nd. So that's just stupid and idiotic. I'd say everything in moderation. If anything, my New Year's resolution, even though I don't believe in them, would be... Well, I've been trying to tell myself this for the last year to try to stop drinking Monday through Thursday and try to only drink on the weekends. So I'm going to go back to that, but I'm not going to do a dry January because that's just lunacy. I have three kids. That's impossible. Right, exactly. They will. Oh, and I'm going to try to exercise again. I was on, like, such a great role. I was, like, working out four to five days in the gym. And then I moved twice from the span of, like, between June and August. Yeah, so my life has been just insane. I moved out of the city. I think I told you. Yeah. Anyway, it looks like we got to go, unfortunately. But Julie, thanks so much for joining us. And, yeah, you will be back at the gym. I have a feeling next week. Take the weekend off and we'll see you at the end. Thanks again, Jills. We'll talk to you soon. And this is Joe Concha. I am filling it for Guy Benson. Back with more in just a moment. Filling in for Guy Benson, it's Joe Concha.

We are back here on the Guy Benson's show. Boy, I can't believe that we're in 2026. A couple of predictions for the year, people. All right. For starters, we're still going to bomb the hell out of Venezuela as far as their drugboats. And as we've seen, you know, again, murders are, we've never seen a bigger drop in murders in modern. history as far as the U.S. is concerned. So that is really something. So that's going to continue. And I think in the end, the Trump economy is really going to take off. We're going to see the Trump tax cuts. Obviously now they come to fruition with the big beautiful bill in play in 2026. No tax on tips. The Dow Jay Jones will probably break 52,000 unthinkable just back in April during the tariffour when it first started. So all things pointing out for President Trump, the GOP, the economy goes well. The House could be held by Democrats. I'm by Republicans. We will see back with more in just a moment on Guy Benson. A new generation of conservative talk. Right here, right now. Fair, fun, and backed by the trusted voices and reporting resources of Fox News. Fox News. You're listening to Guy Benson. And now, here's your host, Guy Benson.

Welcome back, everybody. January 2nd of 2026. I don't write checks normally, but I had to for one gentleman who was working on something for my house today. Didn't take Benmo or pay PayPal or Zell or the way I pay for basically everything. From out of store, it's always Apple pay. And I almost wrote. One to 25. It's hard to get a transition in your head out of 25 to 26, but I caught myself at the very end, and that's all a good thing. Anyway, let's bring in our next guest, shall we? Because this is somebody who I greatly admire just for her ability to be pregnant and run 26 miles alone, let alone host one of the great shows on Fox Business. Of course, that is the big money show. On Fox Business 1 p.m. Eastern Time Mondays through Friday. Taylor, how are you? It's so fun to chat with you. Happy New Year and thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure. Happy New Year. Everybody's getting the question today. So what did you do for New Year's Eve, Taylor? Oh, you know, I have a two-year-old and a five-month-old. So we celebrated London's midnight at 7 p.m. New York City Times. And we told my two-year-old that it was midnight. And we watched the fireworks over Big Ben and the London eye. And then we were all in bed by 9 p.m., which was wonderful. I'm going to do that. That is so smart. I mean, mine are older than yours. They're 10 and 12 years old, so I might not be able to get away with it. But, I mean, that is just genius because it is hard to get to midnight now at this point as a parent, you know, especially when you have to work the next day. But there I was. So, all right, good for you. And congratulations on the new baby once again, five months. So not walking yet, obviously, but sure, a bundle of fun. Yes, you know, fun. We're just trying to get her to sit up. But for now, we're just laying her on the floor. baby steps as it were are just laying on the floor yes and rolling rolling is a big thing also i remember all these things i wish i had more at this point anyway let's talk about the economy that is your sweet spot as far as democrats are probably somewhat panicked i would think in terms of what may be coming in 2026 taking the political element out of this aside you look at what trump policies are going to take effect as a result of the big beautiful bill being passed in july yet All everything that has to now come into play couldn't come into play until this calendar year of 2026. So what we're going to see is no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. The Social Security. deduction, no tax on American-made car loan interest. There's going to be a lot of green regulations that are going to be cut that were born out of the Biden administration. Obviously, the child tax care credit expansion, excuse me, that that expands to $2,200. That's index for inflation. And then the Trump tax cuts once again permanent as well. So.

In terms of if you're just an investor or just a regular person working, you're going to have more money in your pocket no matter what you do, it appears, Taylor. Yes, right, and that is the goal. It's because Americans have felt like wages after inflation have not kept up. You know, we feel like we've all, and it's true, we have been getting poorer in the last four years. Now, in the end of the first year of Trump's administration, Real wages finally turned positive. So the wage increase I was getting from my employer finally outpaced the rate of inflation. That is good. And so, again, I think every American right now budget still stressed. people feel really stretched. And so if we're going to have more money back in our pocket, this is a good thing. I totally agree with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that I think the first and hopefully the second quarter could be a really big banner start to the year, especially when you think about tax refunds. It could be $1,000 and $2,000 higher than usual, given all of the things that you outlined, like no tax on tips and no tax on overtime. And so I think this is... Trump and the Big Beautiful Bill that is trying to deliver on a lot of the promises of trying to just make America affordable again. And so there are certainly a lot of business policies and the elements that you all mentioned in Big Beautiful Bill that really speak to that. Also, if you're in a high tax state, I was reminded the salt cap deduction goes from $10,000 to $40,000. Wow. So you and I could debate the merits of... whether that should be the case or not. But Congress has decided that's the case. And so again, if you're on the coastal states. there's also some good news in there for you. Indeed, and I am in a high-tax state. It is called New Jersey, and I don't know why I live here. Oh, that's right. My family's here, and we can't leave anytime soon, but that's just the way it goes. We're talking to Taylor Riggs, the big money show on Fox Business is the show to watch at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. Also, Taylor, gas prices at a five-year low, in some cases out west in states like Colorado or Tennessee or Texas, oh, Tennessee, not so west. But you're seeing gas prices in places like Utah as low as like $1.30, $1.35 a gallon. insane. Yeah, it's big, right? Because that's like a tax cut in essence. You're not paying as much as you were, at least during the previous administration when it was, you know, north, well north of $3, in some cases in California, well north of $6. So gas prices down, GDP came in hotter than expected 4.3% after being in the twos, primarily Jim Jordan Biden's, Joe Biden's final years, wages up, as you said. But I think a very important element as well as in the housing market where we're seeing some real signs of hope, mortgage rates now at a 15-year low. I've got to think that'll be rocket fuel for what has been a sluggish housing economy. Yes, you know, and so housing and shelter makes it a big proportion of CPI, which is what you and I use to measure inflation. And obviously housing affordability has been top on mind. You and I've talked about Gen Z in this young generation where homeownership feels really out of reach. And the average first time homeowner is now 40. And so I think bringing down...

Mortgage rates is one piece of that puzzle. I get worried that when mortgage rates come down, what that means is the price goes up because homeowners and sellers know if I'm making a payment of X dollars a month, if the rate goes down and the price can go up for how I sell it for because the overall monthly payment is the same. But I actually am hopeful that that will come down, that home price growth needs to slow, which we did see from the K-Shiller Index, or some home prices actually need to fall and cool off a little bit. So I think overall it's very good that mortgage rates are coming down as long as that doesn't accelerate home price growth, which we don't want to see. Because, again, you know, you and I can talk about... and debate the merits of, well, I have a down payment that I could use for a home, but if I want to put it in the stock market, maybe it'll actually do more for my money. But I do love the idea of home ownership being accessible to Americans who feel like they're an owner. They have a stake in something. They really care about their community. They are a landlord. They understand property taxes. The responsibility, the owning a home brings you. So we could talk about maybe whether it's the best or not. a place to put your money, but it's more than a financial investment. It's emotional security, and it teaches responsibility. So whether or not you choose to or not, I do want it to be open to Americans. I'm really excited. I'm hopeful that home price affordability finally becomes a little bit more realistic this year than it has been in previous years. Indeed, hopefully, and we're talking to Taylor Riggs. You know, I remember, my biggest regret in life from a financial perspective, Taylor, was when I was living in Hoboken. My wife and me actually got married, but we remained there until we were going to have kids because, you know, have a nice little one-bedroom apartment. That's good enough, right? Until you actually have another member of the families. That was our dog Chase and my wife, Jean and me. And there was an opportunity to buy an apartment across the street from us that it makes me sick because a couple of weeks ago, that same apartment went up for sale. We could have had it. at far less than half of what it's selling. It drives me nuts. I didn't invest. So to your point, ownership is so huge because it's kind of like, in most cases, free money in your pocket. Housing tends to go up for the most part, especially around here. So, yeah, I wish I had done that because I just saw what it was going for. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. But here we are. I know, right? Sometimes you pick yourself in that. But, you know, I think the principle of what you're getting to was, the free money, right? Where to best put your money? And I love the idea of the responsibility that owning a home gives you. But I could also, if we're looking at it for purely just a financial reason, you put that money in the S&P 500. The market has been up for three straight years, double digits. You're up 13% last year, 20% into two years before that. Most market participants, I think, do think that. The market's going to continue to have a great year. This year, most economists are looking at $75,000 to $8,000 on the S&P 500. So if you did miss out on the big housing boom, there's lots of other really good places to put your money. I love the idea of these Trump accounts. I know we can kind of get like baby bond-ish and more of a socialism program. But what I do love is it teaches financial literacy, right? So how you and I are talking about the benefits of homeownership.

It teaches financial literacy to really young age, and it gives young Americans in this country a stake in American companies. So I can open up the S&P 500 on your Trump baby account and say, here's what Caterpillar did today. Here's what NVIDIA did today. Here's what great American companies did today. Here's how they're innovating. And it gives them a stake in capitalism and a stake in companies in America. There's lots of different, I think, opportunities out there for people. Homeownership, absolutely, is one of them, just from a pure financial perspective. But I'm actually excited that the big deal is hopefully opening up some other things for people, too. Indeed. And we're talking to Taylor Riggs, The Big Money Show on Fox Business, is a great show. You want to watch that, along with a great cast, Brian Brenberg, who's probably, is he the friendliest person in the building? I know, like, Hammer, you know, kind of gets that title. But, boy, that's a happy guy all the time. Brian is a gem, and my husband's name is Brian. Oh. And so I'd say I have a husband named Brian, and then my work husband. Who's the Brian that you know? And he is just a gem, and he's like salt to the earth, one of the nicest people from the Midwest, although I've been giving him hard times from Minnesota. So I'm wondering how he's doing if he's out there cracking down on all that fraud. But Minnesota aside, he's a good guy. I think he's hiding in his cabin saying, I live here, but I kind of don't live here. But anyway, it's Taylor Riggs, Brian Benberg, Jackie DeAngelis as well. And let's see, I think you've added a fourth. You're digging, dags. Yeah, of course. So, yeah, that's good. There is a wit to that woman that cannot be matched. There's no question about it. So anyway, I want to go back to. New Year's for a second because, you know, Fidelity just released a survey that found the two-thirds of Americans. Their New Year's resolutions will have a financial component to it. Ooh, I love that. That is good, right? But I wonder also, I think back to, again, I bring up the story of, oh, if I only purchased an apartment in Hoboken, like, way back wonder if I just made more investments in general in terms of owning things instead of renting or just giving away money just to survive, basically. I always wish that The schools in this country, starting with, say, your freshman or sophomore year in high school, mandatory class that teaches you about credit. It teaches you about investing. It teaches you about savings. Right? And I get home back. You learn how to cook. And history is important, but I think we have enough room in the curriculum to carve this out because I think it's the most important thing that. kids could learn about because when they get to college, what happened to me is I walked in as freshman orientation, you're flooded with offers at these tables to open up a credit card account. You don't know about interest and, you know, paying the minimum and what that's going to do to your life down the line if you don't understand financial literacy. So, yeah, it sounds like we're on the same page on this one. Hopefully it comes to fruition. Yeah, so my dark, dark, dark take on this is the public unions don't want to teach this because the left wants to keep you dependent on the government. for welfare, for SNAP, for handout. So if they teach you financial literacy and you go on to start your own business or invest in yourself or invest in the stock market or create independent wealth, then you're no longer dependent on the government, and then guess what? They lose power because they believe in big government and that everyone should be dependent on them. So my dark take is that they're actually purposely...

hiding, I think, knowledge from our generation. So it is my job and your job and our job as parents to teach our children about financial education and just plain financial literacy, you know, and what is the credit card? How do you balance a checkbook? I heard on your call that you wrote a check this morning. I remember my dad used to sit me down and teach me how to physically balance a checkbook on pen and paper. How do we teach children about... You don't just pay the bare minimum on a credit card. You have to pay off the entire thing or else the interest on the debt that you're rolling over can sometimes then be more than the balance that you've started with. And that really pushes people into unsustainable options where the interest rate on your debt becomes so unsustainable. So I wish that we did this. I think until we get to that point, it's up to parents to really sit our children down and talk to them about... how to manage your money and good investing tips. And mine are always try to invest a little bit in your 401K. If you have a company match, take advantage of that, right? Try to put a little bit in savings. I just invest in the S&P 500 because I bet on America and American companies in the long run. And then if you have some money left over, absolutely, right? You have to take that vacation. You have to have fun. But this constant cycle, and I get very worried about Gen Z who's like, Yolo and just... putting everything on 10 different credit cards, eventually that's not going to work out long term. So I'm grateful that, I mean, you even have me on your program here, right? Just to talk a little bit about how I wish that we had more financial literacy in our American curriculum, but I don't think the teachers' unions want that. Wow. I never looked at it that way before, but it is definitely a great take. And I'll just leave it here. You don't have to comment. Let's say you invested in the S&P 10 years ago on January 2nd of 2016. We're just talking 10 years ago. You'd be up. 229%. Pretty safe bet. S&Page is via fund. And that's a pretty good return and investment. So I know I have that for my kids. Hopefully I'll be saying this in 2036 when they're going off to college and will be bothering me for more money. But you're far away from that time at this point. Taylor with a five-year-old, I'm sorry, five-month-old and a two-year-old. So it certainly starts that. I'm sure you started already. What do I have a 538? What do I call that thing again? 529. 529. I knew it was somewhere in the fives. Yes. We started that about... What I love about those 529s is you can do them in trade schools as well. I'm not sure college is the best opportunity for everyone, for some it is, but you can do it for trade schools as well, and I love it and for other entrepreneurship opportunities. Yes, and you'll never guess what my brother runs in Patterson, New Jersey, a trade school. So, yes, I am a big advocate of that, and his classes are full all the time, and they have great placement into the job market, and they make good money. Anyway, Taylor, we got to go with the Big Money Show, 1 p.m. Eastern Time. That is with Taylor Riggs. That is with Jackie DeAngelis. That is with, obviously, the great Dacon McDowell and the happy Brian Brinberg. Taylor, thanks so much. Enjoy 2026.

My pleasure. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Take care. And this is Joe Concha. Filling in for Guy Benson. Back with more in just a moment. Filling in for Guy Benson, it's Joe Concha. Welcome back, everybody. So this thing in Minnesota just keeps getting worse. The fact that... Governor Tim Walz, the goofy 80s sitcom dad, who was somehow chosen by Kamala Harris to be here running Maine, despite having Josh Shapiro right there, right there in Pennsylvania. It's 63% approval in a state she had to win. A bit too Jewish for her taste because she didn't want to lose voters in Dearborn, Michigan. Muslim voters are the far left, anti-Semites in her party. So she chose Tim Walz instead, the guy who lied about his military service, the guy who... basically portrayed himself as the next Vince Lombardi when he was actually just, you know, an assistant coach and a volunteer coach because he couldn't be a full-time coach because, well, you know, when you do 96 and a 55 DUI, not good, you're not going to be hired to coach anybody anytime soon. So that's bad. I could go through all the lies that Tim Walz is told. But now this whole fraud thing in... Minnesota, which basically you might as well just call Mogadishu at this point. We're talking. 9, 10, maybe even 15 billion in fraud? That's not on a federal level. That's a state level. That's a state that doesn't have an economy that's remotely near 15 billion. So you can't even imagine what this has done. And all that money instead of going to autistic kids or hungry kids has gone back to terrorists in Somalia. And Tim Walz has been residing over all of it. I have a feeling he's not going to be president or even run for president. In fact, there's a 30 times more likely chance of him being indicted than actually becoming president. Might as well make that 3,000 times at this point. Anyway, this is Joe Concha. This is Guy Benson. Having so much fun on this Friday. Please do. Stick around. And welcome back, everyone. Let's bring in Dr. Mark Siegel and old friend and... The number one bestselling book on the New York Times bestseller list. Way to go, Mark. Outstanding. The book, of course, is called The Miracles Among Us. And, Doctor, what compelled you to write this book? Because, as you know, you've met my wife many times. She's an ER doctor. Unfortunately, you know, the job is tough where you literally have to unfortunately witness. patients, terminal patients, particularly die in front of you. And then you see sometimes maybe they come back after you thought that they were dead. I just wonder, is this based on your experiences where you said, you know, I got to share what I am experiencing, what I have experienced for decades as a medical doctor? Well, you know, interestingly enough, it's based on two major events, neither of which are in the book. But it's inspired by two major events, one medical.

one completely non-medical. And that's probably why the publisher, who's a genius, figured out about halfway through the process that this book wasn't a medical miracles book, that it was a miracles book. And that we were able to figure out that doctors aren't willing to admit that they're participating in miracles as much as they actually are. And surveys back that up, which I found out after I wrote the book, that 70% of doctors are... are believers and 75% believe in medical miracles and 55% see they witness them in their practice but they're trying to act as though they aren't miracles because that's not how we're trained. But we're also trained, Joe, to believe that the human body is like a temple and that it's... complicated and it's a miracle that it works every day and every doctor will admit that so we're set up to believe in miracles but then we have this idea that secular versus religious that it's got to be separated literal separation of church and state the two events that occurred to me that set me on this path the first non miracle non medical was that when my son was born My first son, I was kind of lost and I was wandering down the streets one day thinking, you know, this has changed my life. How am I going to count for this? And I see this guy praying and he hands me his prayer book. And he says, I want you to take this and pray for your newborn son. I go, but I haven't told you I have a newborn son. Wow. And I thought it was a vision or I was imagining it. And as I'm walking away, I see that he's actually there and he's nodding at me. The second event that occurred, I think you'll like even better, which is when I was early in my residency days. There was a guy who had a severe head injury. He had worked at a restaurant up in the Bronx, and he fell and slammed his head. And he went into a deep coma. And every single day, this was at Bellevue Hospital, the family would be there at the bedside, praying all day with him, praying. And they're watching the numbers on the screen. And they kept coming out to us, the interns and the residents saying, look, we think his heart rate's going up. Look, we think his blood pressure is going up. Look, his eyelids are fluttering. And we almost were getting to the point of being sarcastic about it or sardonic about it. And I felt like this was going to be my career of patients that weren't getting better and families that wouldn't give up hope. I felt that that was the future of my career. But you know what happened after three months? The guy woke up and walked out of the freaking unit. And that ended up being my career. That ended up being my career that we ride off people too soon. that we talk about things like physician-assisted suicide, which is bunk, where we're ready from the moment someone comes in to categorize them and peg them instead of holding out hope. And one more thing. I got a note from after the book came out and started soaring because people want hope and people want prayer and people want miracles from an ICU nurse in a neuro ICU who said,

I've been working for 40 years, and every time somebody comes into my ICU after head trauma, we get told, you know, they're not going to make it. But many of them end up making it, and we feel the same as you do, that we write off patients too soon. Wow. And that's the thing, right? So many doctors are so overwhelmed these days, Mark, as you know, that sometimes it's more like a number that you may be dealing with, not a human being with a family and a history. And we're talking to Dr. Mark Siegel, but fortunately you've taken the time and saved many lives over the years. And obviously this book is just obviously inspiring a lot of people because the word of mouth is incredible. And that's why it's number one on the New York Times bestseller list and number one on the publisher's weekly list as well. among us. You bought us something before. Physician assisted suicide. What is that? I'm sorry, or at least familiarize the audience at home exactly what that pertains to. And by the way, before I answer that, I'm going to expand this even further, which you'll like, which is that we're in a lane now. Joe and I are in a lane now. We're about to talk about how, you know, patients are numbers, where artificial intelligence is playing an extreme role now, which I like. The human equation, you know, who are you talking to? Is it a secretary? Is it, is it, you know, you send a note via some screen on your electronic health record and nobody responds at all, or maybe a secretary does, or maybe you only ever saw a physician's assistant. We're moving in more and more and more of that direction. Physicians are quitting. Physicians are overwhelmed. Physicians are paid too little. I don't want you to feel sorry for physicians, but. You know, it's not what it was. And I think we've gone way in that direction of digitalizing everything and forgetting the human component. On top of that, you look at what's happening in Canada, medical assistance in dying, where literally homeless people are put to death or severely depressed people are put to death. And that's happening here in 14 states already. Laws are on the books, including in New York state. which makes it, the governor just signed such a law. I was going to go up to, I saw her at a movie the other day, which was featuring Marty Supreme, and I was going to go up to her and say, how dare you sign that law? Yeah. But she was having enough trouble eating her popcorn because the sound wasn't working. But seriously, I'm completely against all of that. I'm against it. because I don't think it's what the doctor's role is. I don't think the role of the doctor is to decide those things. We're there to try to prolong life and decrease suffering. Right. That's war in God's hands as far as making those decisions. And we're talking to Dr. Mark Siegel, The Miracles Among Us, is the New York Times bestseller. Just to touch on this real quick, and we'll get back to the book because I think it's worth talking about, Mark, and that is that the United States, this is according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, is facing a physician shortage projected to be close to 100,000 in the next 10 years. And they say what's driving this is an aging population, physician burnout and insufficient training operations.

So, I mean, 100,000. And that's, that's, that's something that should be alarming, especially as they point out, an aging population without a younger population backfilling that because less people are having children these days or even getting married. We're, we're, we're heading towards a medical crisis, it seems. And it's way, actually way worse than that because, well, because that you're talking a shortage. There's also the issue of under. represented. So in other words, you might have a physician there. Like, I did a report a few years ago on the federally qualified health center up in Dunkirk, New York. And I was amazed at how much more money they had and how much more facility they had after the Affordable Care Act. I'm not an Affordable Care Act fan at all. But if there's a part of it, I like the best, it would be the Medicaid expansion, although that's been taken complete advantage of during the pandemic, as you know. The clinic didn't have doctors. I said, what do you do? They go, well, it's very hard to recruit anybody here to Dunkirk. We try to do rotations. So they have a doctor or two or a nurse practitioner or two, but it's underutilized, underrepresented, rather, which is why I'm hats off to Mehmet Oz right now and giving $50 billion to the rural areas. Because if you think about it, if we can get AI out there and we can get more outreach and get more doctors and nurse practitioners into these areas, they're in huge trouble. Rural areas are in huge trouble in this country right now. Absolutely. And that's why services like Teledoc, for example, and others, you know, as far remote. prognosis is something you could do for certain things, not the major things, obviously, but at least that's an option that technology is giving us, but certainly does not address what Dr. Mark Siegel is describing in those rural areas. I completely agree. By the way, I have to add something to this. I know I'm getting us far afield. I told you, but I know, but we could talk forever. We're dear friends. Let's add to that a statistic that blew my mind, which is, you know, with Wagovi coming out in a pill form now. What is that? Can you define that? I'm sorry, Mark, just for the layman's at home. Well, the Wagovia is the weight loss drug that everybody's talking about. It's called a GLP1, which basically means that it creates a hormone that slows your stomach from emptying, that decreases hormone in your brain, that improves the way that insulin works in your body, that decreases inflammation. It's got a lot, a lot of big pluses to it if you're overweight, even if you're not. Cardiologists are raving about this drug because it helps the heart. The one thing about it is that it's being ripped off and that there's scams out there where you think you're getting with the drug I just talked about that everybody's clamoring for, and you're not. And then it turns out, and this is a statistic I was leading to that has something to do with your point of underrepresentation, not enough doctors, is that pharmacies.

that are prescribing these things, 40% of the time, are doing it without a prescription. They're rip-off pharmacies making these knock-off drugs, and there's no doctor writing for them. Really scary stuff, and that fits into this. this situation we're talking about here. Yeah, and Wagovi is the drug. And I just wonder, when something sounds too good to be true, Mark Siegel in the book is called The Miracles Among Us, it almost seems like it is. There are no side effects for the actual Wagovi as far as it, it just helps the heart, it helps you lose weight. There's got to be something we're missing here. Is there anything you've read that should have us, you know, take a little pause as far as taking this drug, or is it all systems go? No, no, because first of all, I mentioned gastric emptying. You know, a lot of people have reflux, and it can make your reflux worse, and it could interfere with your bowel function, and you might be nauseous when you're taking it. So from a GI point of view, not everybody tolerates it. I'd say even one quarter of people don't tolerate it. So that's one thing. There's some problems with the thyroid that have to be carefully watched, and then for the eyes, the jury is out, but it sounds like it can actually make... problems with the retina worse. I think it can actually cause migraines. We're studying this still, but it's not a clear check mark on the eyes. That's for sure. So the eyes, the thyroid, and the issue of gastric emptying, and those are big things. So not everybody can tolerate these drugs. Not at all. Not everyone should be taking them. Absolutely. Diet and exercise. That's what I'm sticking with for now, and it seems to be working. We're talking to Dr. Mark Siegel. It is working. This is a television. It is working. Oh, thank you. Yes, this is true. Just don't eat bread. I don't know. I've kind of done that, and some pants aren't fitting the way they used to, nice and loose, so that's all good. The miracle among us is the miracle among us, excuse me, is the book by Dr. Mark Siegel, New York Times bestseller. Great chapter, by the way, and I've met. Steve Scalise, obviously the congressman, minority whip, or majority whip now at this case, minority whip at the time when he was shot on that baseball field in northern Virginia, practicing for the congressional annual game. And, you know, this guy was a sitting duck on that field for this maniac. It was just firing when they had nowhere to take cover. And, you know, many people thought that he might not survive or not come out the same way. And your chapter really details how this may... been a minor miracle that Steve Scalise not only survived, but now still is very active in Congress and lives a relatively normal life. Well, that has something to do with all these miracles that they all are put together with people of courage, usually, people that have fortitude, people that believe, he's a deep, deeply religious person. And the first miracle that occurs there is that what, that. Brad Weinstrip was actually in the batting cage, which he never is. He doesn't even believe in that. He can't figure out what he was doing there. He wasn't even supposed to be on the field still. And he's experienced as a combat surgeon. So when Steve Scalise got shot, he ran out onto the field. He basically put a tourniquet on him. He got the helicopter to come over. He gave him fluids.

He got them to put an IV in him right away. All of that mattered because he ended up using 50, losing 50 units of blood. When he got to the hospital, two amazing doctors got together. An interventional radiologist and a surgeon, your wife would love this story because literally they couldn't get the bleeding to stop in the internal Iliac artery, but they did it by combining. radiological techniques with surgery and they saved them. And then he had a long rehab process, but he says, and this is one of the points you may be leading to, he thinks that community intercession really helped him, where prayers pouring in from all over the world. And he thinks that the doctors and the emergency responders on the field were emissaries of God, not angels, but emissaries that were there. You know, just where all of the positive feeling came together to help save him. It's such a beautiful story in his recovery. And it's told so well in the book, The Miracles Among Us, Mark Siegel. We're only down to a minute, unfortunately, Mark. But I do want to now, this basically transitions to what happened with DeMarne Hamlin. As you know, I'm a big NFL guy. I was watching that game. It was a Monday night game. Bill's at Bengals. Hamlin makes a tackle. He collapses. It was a hard hit, and it was awkward, too, to watch having played football when you kind of leave with your head, bad things can happen. And sure enough, he had a sudden cardiac arrest. But the immediate response from the emergency medical personnel and the Buffalo Bill's staff, I mean, right there on the field, they saved his life because his heart, it basically stopped. And right there in a cold January night, they were able to save his life. I'll give you the final 45 seconds. Well, this isn't an unusual story. First of all, lot of people in the book, he's now giving back. So his recovery meant a lot to him. He's out there in the community, teaching CPR, telling people, he created a scholarship fund for people that want to go into football. He's an amazing guy. And his recovery took a while in a hospital. But the biggest miracle of all was that Leslie Bisson, who is the head of sports of medicine and orthopedics at Buffalo, and as the team physician, had had an experience years before. in 2007 when a hockey player got a skate to the carotid, and he almost died in this and said, we're going to rehearse. We're going to rehearse. So they literally rehearsed cardiac arrests, even though there hadn't been one in the NFL since the 50s. And so they were ready to go and they saved them within 50 seconds. That's the miracle. Wow. Unbelievable. What talk about preparation and a miracle. Again, when you think about the condition that he was in at that point and just as limited resources that were around. But, you know, all that training and all that preparation came off. The miracles among us, how God's grace plays a role in healing. I've said it before. I'll say it again. This is one of the top selling books of 2025. It will continue to be in 2026. Mark Siegel shares all of these stories. Definitely a must, must read. Mark Siegel, thanks so much for joining us. And happy 2026. Joe, great to be with you. As always, my friend. Thank you, sir. And we'll be back with Guy Benson in just a moment. Filling in for Guy Benson, it's Joe Concha.

Hey, welcome back, everybody. Well, we have a new mayor here in New York City. He is R.M.M. Donnie. And this guy is the Oprah of mayors at this point in terms of everything that he's promising. You get free child care and you get free bussing and you get free everything in this utopia that is now New York City. The problem is... Promising is one thing. Executing on those promises, quite another. So, Memdoni's fans, they brave. It has been cold here in the New York City area. Trust me. Freezing temperatures, high winds. They're there to celebrate the new mayor as he's publicly sworn into office on Thursday. And sure enough. It was supposed to be an inauguration for a new era block party, thrown by Zohran Mamdani staff, and all these people were barricaded into pens, kind of like you see at Times Square. The problem is that there was no access to bathrooms or any. Food in general. So if you want a preview of the Zohran Mamdani era, as far as little food, because when you have government-run shopping centers and grocery stores, they tend to run out of food because that's what happened to the Soviet Union and Cuba and Venezuela, and he's going to bring it here. That's not a good thing. And just in general, just having basic services. Again, you promise the moon, and you have no way to pay for it. Oh, by the way, you never held a real job. That's a big problem. I'm Joe Concha, filling in for Guy Benson. Back with more in just a moment.

Raise your glass to Guy Benson Happy Hour. Brought to you by the Finnish Long Drink. Finland's most popular alcoholic beverage is taking America by storm. Visit the longdrink.com. And now, here's Guy Benson. And welcome back, everybody. All right, let's bring in Jennifer Say. She is the founder of the startup sportswear brand, XXY Athletics, founded by former U.S. gymnasts and Levi's executive. And also, be sure to check out her book. Levi's Unbutton. The Wolk Bob took my job, but gave me my voice. Jen, thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. Thanks for having me, and happy New Year. Happy New Year. So first question, of course, I have to ask you what you did. for New Year's Eve. Mine was fairly lame. I'll be happy to explain in a moment. But what did you guys end up doing, if anything? For New Year's Eve, it was pretty lame, but I was happy with it. I stayed home with my husband and my two young children, and I watched a movie. See, there you go. I got two young children also. We ended up going to my sister-in-law's house. And what are you going to do at this point? It's not like you're going to Times Square and lock yourself into one of those little cages and say, all right, let's party. It's a different world now. And thank God you watch the movie. Yeah, I watched the movie. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, and I made a special fun dinner, so that was the celebratory part. That's it. I was very happy with it. Good for you. What movie you go with? We watched Jay Kelly. Jay Kelly? I haven't heard that one. Do you know it? Well, I'm so disconnected from popular culture at this point. I had to Google what are the best movies of the year, and it came up. It's actually with George Clooney, who I know can be kind of annoying, but the movie was pretty good. I recommend it. Yeah, I'm glad you say that. You know, I find Clooney kind of pretentious and pious and annoying as well. And not because, like, he's a Democrat. I don't care. But I, he just injects himself a little too much as if his opinion really matters above anybody else's. But in the end, he's a good actor. You know, the guy, even in the 60s, just like Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise, is aging, you know, quite well. So I've learned over the years, Jen, to just separate the fact that if I were to be like some folks that I know that say, all right. I'm not going to watch this movie because this guy is such a liberal. I can't take it. Well, at Newsflash, people, 95% of Hollywood is liberal. You literally will have nothing almost to watch outside of like a John Boyt film if that's the case, right? I can name a couple of others. But that's the thing. It's pretend. It's a fictional movie. Just watch it. Don't worry about the person's politics. And then you'll be fine. So I'm glad you were able to separate the two there, no question about it. And I'm looking at it right now. 77% rotten tomatoes. It's not bad. Go ahead, Jen. Yeah, I thought the themes in the movie were apolitical. It was sort of about an aging star looking back on his life and kind of wondering what it would have been like if he'd taken a different path and spent more time with his family and children. I think that's a universal theme that isn't just applied to Hollywood stars. We all do that a little bit as we get older. So it's easier to separate it when they're not kind of preaching politics at you, which I found this didn't. What I do find funny about these movies, Since we're talking about Hollywood stars that kind of mock them in a way and their sort of self-centeredness and their preening is the people that make the movies are all probably actually like that because they live in that world, but they're sort of mocking it, and I don't think they see it in themselves. They think they're the different ones, which I think is sort of funny. But I found it entertaining. So it's a little long as over two hours, but hey, I had nothing but time on New Year's Eve. So it's fine.

Well, thank God, Jen. You didn't have to watch. I'm talking to Jennifer Say. She's the founder of the startup sportswear brand XXY, the founder. Obviously, she is leading the way as far as women's rights in sports along with Riley Gaines. So we're going to get to that in a second. But I keep going off on these tangents, but we've got time. So it's fine. You know, I... I went back and forth because, you know, with my kids, we watched the Miami-Ohio State College football game, which was a great game. But then that game ended, and then it was time to watch the ball drop. And then you've got to watch, you know, ABC, you know, going back to a kid when I used to watch Dick Clark in Times Square. Like, I don't know, I'm nostalgic, you know, for maybe that particular network on that particular night with the live coverage from Times Square. It's different now, right? So right after the ball drops, the first thing you see, and look, I'm going to couch this completely and totally. I don't care what your sexual orientation is or who you're sleeping with. I've never cared about that. I care about the character of people, right? If you're a good person, if you're fun to hang out with, if you're annoying, whatever. I base it on, like, basic human traits. So I say this. But the minute after the ball drops, then you know this is contrived. ABC had two guys making out. And it's not like, oh, they randomly happen to happen to go in front of the camera at that time. This was obviously staged, and ABC was trying to push the agenda. So you were smart to watch the movie because I just don't. I don't need that stuff. I don't know. If it just happens as one thing, that was staged. It was totally staged. Yeah. On the other hand, and I only came across all this scrolling X. I didn't watch any of those New Year's shows. Did you see the Amy Sederis comment on CNN? Oh, no. Tell me that one. Okay, that was funny. Sorry, I know we're on a tangent. This is fine. So she's talking with, whatever, the two guys on CNN, Anderson Cooper and the other guy from Bravo. Andy Cohen, yeah. Yeah, yeah, Andy Cohen, right. And, you know, they always get a little wasted at this event. Which is sort of weird since Anderson is supposed to be like a newsman. It seems a little undignified. But anyway, Amy Sederas, David Sederas and sister, you know. comedian, writer, she writes funny stuff. They asked her, where is the best place to meet men in the coming year? And she said, the lady's room. So that's kind of funny. Oh, that is funny, actually. Wow. You wouldn't expect that. I know. She's getting, you know, accused of making a transphobic joke. But it's pretty funny. I mean, when you're live, you can't necessarily control what people say. So. Pretty funny. That is pretty funny. And we thank you for sharing that, Jennifer Say. And this is Joe Concha, and we are talking to Jen. And look, I just want to play one. It's just one more, and I swear we're going to talk about what we're supposed to talk about. Guys, this is cut 28. I know you said Andy Cohen, Andrew Cooper, get a little wasted, but this sounds well beyond inebriated. This is cut 28. Andy Cohen go. I'm just saying, great. You got your Martins. Go off into the sunset. We'll fiddle with what we. have with what you've left us with you and mayor's man go dance away we'll see you at all the parties yeah he's talking about Eric Adams whatever reason yeah and i guess that's supposed to be entertaining like see that and it's like what a great idea like ten years ago and they keep doing it i guess because they have more employees than they have actual viewers at this point so this is the only thing literally that people will tune into to see and he can't say that word on the air a cloud of himself yes that's what i was going to go with anyway

Go ahead. That level of wastedness. Like, who has done that since they're, you know, 19 or in college? Like, that's insane. I mean, that's full-blown alcoholism. There's really no other explanation. That's the thing, right? You talk about, like, 19, 20. All right, I went to spring break. I did Panama City. I did Cancun. I may have sounded like that at one point. But then again, I'm 21 years old. Andy Cohen's pushing 60. You know, like, it's no longer cute anymore when the guy who has, like, whiter hair than George Washington suddenly is sounding and acting like that. So I'm just going to leave that there. I like. Yeah, I'm not even capable of being that drunk because I fall asleep after two drinks. So that's, you know, my own sort of self-protection mechanism. Anyway, enough about drinking on New Jersey. Well, you and your wife should go, you and my wife should go bowling sometimes because, yeah, once she's done with two, she never even gets through to, you know, it's done. Something will go on Netflix and then the snoring begins. She's got two dogs on top of her, and it is over. So it's not like it was the 2000s. I'll put it that way. Anyway, all right, Jen. We're going to talk about. What we're supposed to talk about, all right? This is like a bad eight-minute date at this point on my part because I keep leading us in this direction. That's okay. Sorry about that. So women in truth, I'm sorry, women's rights and truth, excuse me. They're on trial in 2026. Girls, equality, and safety are at stake. It's amazing to me that the Democrats say that the party of women, yet still some elements of that, especially after it's no longer fashionable to do so. But the fact that they still support men playing against women in sports when clearly, just like we see, we saw majorly baseball, football, if you give somebody advantage like steroids, some sort of chemical advantage, therefore that is an advantage that should not be allowed in any way, shape, or form, therefore ban the advantage. That happened in steroids. I think it's starting to happen now as far as men. playing against women in sports, but you still have someone the left that say, nope, it's all about trans rights. And meanwhile, we're seeing the Olympics. We saw a boxer get pummeled from Italy by a man. We're seeing women get titles taken away from by men or boys in high school that otherwise would be finishing seventh, eighth, tenth, if they were men. But I'll give you the floor here because I think you're winning the battle, but I don't think it's over yet. Yeah, I think we're far from over. So this is a momentous year, and we'll talk about that. You were quoting an ad that we dropped yesterday. So first, I would want to just point out, you're totally right. Steroids, performance enhancing drugs, even blood doping, which was a practice that was used maybe 10 years ago. Everyone considers that unacceptable. No one would say, well, it's just one person. Why don't we let him? He identifies us stronger than he is. And it should be noted that the male advantage

A man competing in the women's category provides greater advantage than any of these steroid use or other performance-enhancing drug use. It's a greater advantage for a man to compete in women's sport. So it's absurd. I would say you made the point that it's sort of not in vogue anymore to argue this point, but I would argue it's still the platform of the Democratic Party. It's still officially the platform that trans women are women, who can say what a woman is. Most blue states, if not all, still have on the books laws that allow a person to, you know, gender identify, so self-ID into women's sports and faces. What the, the ad that we dropped yesterday is about the momentousness of this moment. On January 13, two Supreme Court cases will kick off with opening arguments beginning. They both challenge gender ideology more broadly, and the idea that boys can opt into girls' sports. 27 states have laws on the books that say women's sports are for women, which seems a very common position to take. But in Idaho and West Virginia, there are two males who are challenging their laws. One is a puberty-blocked young male, and one is a... fully grown male wanting to compete in women's track and field. It's absurd. So I think it's important to note, though, with these cases, what I think people really need to understand is even if it goes our way, and by our way, I mean, on the side of truth, that, you know, you have to be a woman to actually declare yourself a woman. All that means, if we win, is that the 27 states that have laws on the book, protecting women's sports, can continue to do so. The other 20 or so, some odd states that allow males to compete in girls' sports, states like California, Washington, they can continue to do that. That's how this will work. That's how this precedent will work. So we'll still have so much work to do to change the cultural conversation. Stay with us. We do have the break for a moment. We'll be back with Jennifer Say, and so much more in just a moment. Filling in for Guy Benson, it's Joe Concha.

And we're back with Jennifer Say. Jen, I'll say this. Gavin Newsom back in March said in an interview, I believe it was a matter of fact, that he found it deeply unfair that men were playing against biological men were playing against women of sports. So being Gavin Newsom, the, you know, shape-shifting lizard guy, right, who says whatever he thinks the person in front of him wants to hear. In that case, he told Charlie what he wanted to hear, right? He never reversed the law in his own state. After saying that, he still didn't do it. And now, to your point, in California, it's still allowed despite Gavin Newsom's saying otherwise. But I'm seeing some progress, I guess. We're going to find out soon. The IOC, the International Olympic Committee, says it's going to announce eligibility criteria for transgender athletes this month, perhaps, hopefully, because obviously the Olympics are coming up this summer. How do you think that's going to go down? Well, it's interesting because after the executive order was signed in February of this year by President Trump, a few other organizations came out and made rules that women's sports should be for women. The NCAA did and the U.S. Olympic Committee did. The sports landscape is so complicated in terms of how it's governed. It's not like there's one body that kind of waved the wand and dictates all of it. None of this includes professional sports leagues. So, yes, we're all waiting for the IOC to make their declaration. And to be clear, it's not just trans athletes, it's male athletes. So the boxer you alluded to earlier that won gold in the Olympics last summer in Paris and 24, he wasn't trans identified per se. He has a difference in sex development. So he has some unusual condition where he was probably mistakenly identified as a girl when he was born because of various underdevelopment issues. But it became clear, you know, at about puberty time frame that he was indeed a male but kept competing in the women's category. So it's about getting rid of all men in women's sports. I don't know. I mean, I think the IOC is going to say, yes, women's sports are only for women. My question and what I don't know is, are they going to take the extra step of saying we will test for sex? Because to my mind, that's the only solution. You have to test. It's very simple. It's not invasive. It's a cheek Eric Swalwell or you sit in a cup. It's done one time and it lasts forever because text doesn't change, right? Because if it's just about identification and providing documents. you know, like a passport or a driver's license or whatever, those can be changed in 44 states. So it has to be testing for sex. That's what I'm keeping my fingers cross for. The IOC says women's sports are for women only, and we are going to implement a policy of sex testing, which they had up until 1999. And that just changed out of nowhere. That's so odd because that wasn't a woke time, 99, right? I don't really remember what 99 was. I remember, like, an Internet bubble and... Bush versus Gore? Like, there's not a lot to go on. And when it comes to that, so I'm surprised they even did that. And we're talking to Jennifer Say, she's the founder of the startup. Sportswear brand X, X, XY, Athletics. She's working with Riley Gaines to bring true equality into women's sports. I'm amazed by the media coverage sometimes that I see around this, Jen, as far as the Washington Post.

Just three days ago ran this headline for young transgender runner. Racing wasn't the hardest thing. Veronica Garcia overcame poverty to become a high school track champion twice. It made her famous for all the wrong reasons. No, no, no. I mean, it's just unbelievable. The victimhood, right? And again, I go through this, and I have a lot of trouble finding what her times were as a male, right? They gloss over that. We know what Leah Thomas's times were. When he raced at the University of Pennsylvania, he was ranked something 400th and something against other men and suddenly becomes a national champion. I'll tell you this, Jen. My wife is a Division I. track athlete at Georgetown University. She was once ranked third in the country. She married me. I don't get it either. Makes no sense. Say hello to tequila. I guess this is where alcohol actually was a good thing perhaps. But the point is, I'm only kidding. Kind of. But here's the thing. When she heard about Leah Thomas, this apolitical person who was my wife who's now a doctor and, you know, raising two kids has a lot going on, not watching Fox News 24-7, that really inspired her. She's like, this is nonsense. This is I won't use the language. And suddenly she was engaged because she's like, this is a whole bowl wrong. And I think that politically, this is one thing that really got Donald Trump over the finish line in 2024. Suburban bombs coming back to him because of this issue alone. Yeah, I mean, that article was ridiculous. It's a big, you know, tight violin. I'm supposed to, you know, cry tears for this person who's cheating and stealing opportunities from girls. Of course, I'm sorry that any child grows up in poverty. It definitely sounds like he's had a challenging childhood right with trauma, which should be looked into because that could be prompting his... trans identity. But I think you raise a good point. You know, his times, and there's a great ex-account called He Cheated, which did an analysis on this very subject, you know, his times, which put him in the top quartile, at least, of women in the country, young women, high school athletes in the country, put him in the bottom fifth of male runners. Like he wouldn't have made state, he wouldn't have made anything if he was competing in boys. And the fact remains... It doesn't matter if he grew up in poverty. That has nothing to do with the issue of cheating, declaring yourself a female and competing. And you know what? What about the girls? How do you know some of the girls that got booted from the podium didn't also grow up in poverty? It's irrelevant. But the movement, the gender ideologues, they attempt, and I would say they do it somewhat successfully to train our eyes on these poor vulnerable boys who are ostracized and called names. And they want us to forget about the girls who are being punished. with this whole thing. And Jen, they're losing endorsement opportunities if it's at a high enough level, right? If we're talking about Olympics between gold and silver. Silver doesn't get the endorsements, gold does, and that's the bottom line. So hopefully the IOC makes the right decision. Anyway, Jennifer Say, great job. We really appreciate you joining us. Say hi to Riley for me. And have a great 2026. I have a feeling that you're going to enjoy even more success in this fight for true women's quality.

Thank you so much. Happy New Year to you. Happy New Year, Jen. All right. I'm going to watch that movie, by the way, that Colony one. I know you're all going to yell at me. It's a liberal. Don't do it. I don't care. All right? I don't care. It looks like a good movie. What can I say? And if I avoid every liberal, that's going to be a problem in Hollywood. This is Joe Concha. I am filling in for Guy Benson back with him just a moment. chilling in for Guy Benson it's joe concha all right we spoke to the younger sister i never had that is julie bandaris of course she has a little trouble being authentic and candid and sharing her real feelings actually it's opposite day that is not julie here is part of that interview and you won't be disappointed i know the feeling julie i'm supposed to be somewhat off this week all i've been doing is cleaning i'll lose my mind jules No, I know. It's like, why do we even buy Christmas presents? Because then they're just going to end up. It's more stuff to end up on the floor. I mean, seriously. You're so right. It's kind of like my son's been playing with like three of the things we got for. And there's like nine that are just, you know, off to the side. And not discarded yet, but it's not a good feeling. But either way. Now, this year I was like, you get your stuff upstairs and you put it away. I do not want my living room to look like a bomb went off for the entire month. So I managed to get them to at least take their gift to the... You know, bedroom. I could sit on the floor up there out of my, out of my view. Wow. See, you and my wife have to go bowling together sometimes. I just closed my eyes and I heard her. Like, it's exactly the way she speaks. So you guys. Yeah. Clearly, the boss is in the family. So what you do for New Year's? I'm just curious. I hosted a little thing at my house. Yeah. We had a little party with some people in the neighborhood and stuff. It was fun. And I had the kids. But I did work every single day. Me too. I didn't want to go too crazy. But oddly enough, like, I had, like, maybe two glasses of champagne and was starting to come down with a cold because everybody in my house had one. And, of course, it hit me on New Year's. But what I didn't like is that I was up until 4 in the morning, not because I was partying because I was cleaning. It's like literally all I do is clean. I was cleaning until 4 o'clock in the morning, and then I had to work the following day. We're talking to Julie Bandaris. And you know what the irony is, and I'll let you know what I did. is that when you, if you say, all right, well, you know, you guys work hard and you work hard so you could afford a cleaning service to come in once in a while. The problem with bringing in a cleaning service on any kind of regular basis, you have to clean for the cleaning service. Like you can't just leave a mess. They're there to like make things clean in terms of like the dust goes out and you clean, you know, this sink or whatever. They're not there to pick up clothes and fold them and put them away. So you end up working harder to prepare for the cleaning service than you would if they actually didn't come. Well, my housekeepers actually would pick up my kids stuff, except I tell them not to because I'm like, nope, kids are doing that. I'm not allowing the housekeepers to be their slaves. That's not happening. I agree. They're not here to work for you. They're here to just clean, and you will clean up your own room. So I actually make the kids do all the work before the housekeepers come. That's like my rule. From the house. Good job. Julie Mandarish. What I did, I got to my sister-in-law's house. And this year, you know what? My wife, she's kind of like you and me. In other words, Christmas break is when a lot of people go away and then we get our opportunities to, like, host things, for example. Like, I'm doing big weekend show tomorrow. You've been doing Faulkner Focus. You've been all over the place, quite frankly. So, you know, it's a great time to be on national television and all the fun stuff that goes along with that. But at the same time, we end up being busier from, say, December 22nd to January 3rd.

than almost anybody in the building, right? So that night, however, I felt bad because my wife, equally, because so many of the doctors in her practice go away, she ends up working a lot outside of Christmas, even Christmas, but then all those in between times, she's working 12, 13-hour shifts. So when she was going to her sisters and it was more her friends than mine, so to speak, that she grew up with, I said, all right, you know what, I'll drive and you have fun, and that was that. So I did not have a drop. Thank you. I didn't want to drink anyway because the next day I had to be back on. You know, it's like, well, same. That's what I was saying. I'm like, I'm not waking up with a headache. I don't need that. I'm already going to be sleep deprived. I don't need to throw the headache into the mix. Yeah. When you hit your early 40s like we have, you don't recover the way we did in our 20s, right? 40s or 30s? I think I misunderstood you. I think I have a bad connection. Oh, I'm sorry. Early 40s for me, early 30s for you, of course. Well, you're obviously much older than I am. Obviously, the younger sister I never had. She is Julie Vandaris, and she joins us here today. So. You know, in terms of when I look back during my monologue as far as the biggest stories of the year. And I came down on basically Trump being inaugurated, not so much the inauguration part, but everything he had to overcome to get there. Like if you told me four years ago on January 7th of 2021, that he would actually be president again. I would say, you got to be kidding me, right? But sure enough, he was resilient once again. Gas prices five year low. That's fine. But I think the biggest stories were the border closing and Iran's nuclear facilities being taken out without one U.S. casually and the peace. deal in Gaza. That's what I came down as like final three. No, I would definitely say, yeah, the peace deal in Gaza, but that peace deal is not really sticking so great. So, I mean, hopefully they're going to come down, but, you know, Hamas needs to disarm, I mean, to get down to it. They're in phase two of that so-called peace deal. And part of the peace deal is that Hamas has to disarm. But not only should they have to disarm, they should have to blow up all their underground tunnels. And in order for them to get Israel troops out of Gaza, they need to do those two things, I believe, before they get out. But phase two is supposed to be them disarming, which who's going to believe them if they say, oh, yeah, we disarmed? I mean, there's no accountability. They're not going to let people in there to check and see if all their weapons are gone. What are they going to do with their weapons? Burry them in their underground tunnels? So I don't really have much hope on a peace deal with Hamas. Very good point. And that is pragmatic. And we are talking to Julie Bandarish. Yeah, I mean, it'll be under hospitals. It'll be in tunnels. But at least that the fighting, at least for now, has stopped. And that's a lot better than what we saw. Yes, at least the fighting for now has stopped. This is true. Or paused. So you're also outside of being an Emmy winning anchor and just being, you know, the most underrated star on Gutfeld, quite frankly. I mean, to talk about a show that was created for somebody outside of Greg, it's definitely Julie. And I want to get your thoughts psychologically on what's happening with this person named Rosie O'Donnell who fled the country after Trump won. She actually kept her words that I would move out. She went to Ireland, which I'm not quite understanding that. I guess she said Donald. I don't get it either, but O'Donnell. Right. And I'm half Irish. I'm a Gallagher on my mother's side, but you don't live there.

I mean, it's not the best weather in the world. But anyway, here she is in Cut 26 going off on us, I guess, and Kelly Ann. And basically, I don't know, despite the fact she wanted to get away from Trump, all she does is rip out our phone every day on a daily basis. So this is Cut 26, guys. Go. What can I tell you? I got a little text that the Fox News idiots. Idiots. How do you? Kelly Ann Conway being the queen idiot. She's the best. Stop it. Said that I need to get a dog. Good idea. or a husband in order to be happy and get over my trump derangement syndrome i don't need a man any more than you need a butch woman to come and rock your world rock your world because trust me things would be a little different in your universe she sounds pleasant would you have her over for a new year's party sometime jill Uh, no. I wish she would go away. I don't even understand why she... Well, hey, listen, thanks for watching. I've got to look at the glass half full. She's a viewer. So, I mean, thank you for watching, because you're obviously bringing up our Nielsen ratings, and we all appreciate it, those of us who watch the ratings at Fox. But, I mean, she moved to Ireland because she didn't want to have anything to do with this country because we're led by a president whom she hates, but yet... She loves to talk about it. So why is she even talking about it? If she's so disconnected from this country, then fully disconnect. Please pull the plug. Like pull the plug. And if that means, you know, I mean, go on some more meds. I don't know. She was apparently having difficulty getting some medication for her issues in California. I'm not sure if they ran out of pills out in Ireland, but she needs to restock. She needs a refill ASAP. Yes. And maybe, you know, I think it was good advice from Kellyanne. So, you know, get a dog. In our case, you have two dogs. I have two dogs. And I don't understand him. Kelly Ann is not Fox. I mean, Kelly Ann worked for the Trump administration. But when you think of Fox... opinion commentators, like Kelly Ann worked for the White House, and now she appears on Fox, but she's not Fox. I don't even understand. I don't actually think Rosie knows what she's talking about. Well, that's nothing exactly groundbreaking, but yes, this is true. I say two Irish setters, and she'll be very, very happy, and that's just me. Speaking of happy, over on CNN, which, you know, you talk about ratings, we average about... you know, well over 3 million in prime time, and they're averaging about 500,000, which is really hard to do because that's 10,000 viewers per state. You know, that's what they're averaging. It's spiking at 100 million homes. We couldn't get that few of viewers if we even tried. Like, we could all simultaneously get on the air and say, please turn off your TVs and don't watch us, and we would get more viewers than that. Yeah, it would be like the Sopranos where, like, you know, they show Tony and it goes to black. We could literally show black and probably do better than that. So, yeah, more employees than actual viewers at this point overseen.

So they get desperate. And every New Year's Eve, they decide to allow their, you know, anchors and guest hosts to get inebriated on the air. And this is Andy Cohen, Julie, just after midnight. Not making a lot of sense. Cup 28, go. I'm just saying, great. You got your martins. Go off into the sunset. It's after midnight. We'll fiddle with what we have, with what you've left us with the thing with you and Mayors, man. Go dance away. We'll see you at all the parties. Wow, that's entertainment, huh? I can't understand why they're promoting alcoholism on New Year's Eve, on CNN. Like, I can't even understand it. And, like, I know they think it's cute and funny, but it's not. And, I mean, and I have nothing against Andy Cohen. That's his name, right? Yeah, Cohen. Okay, thank you. I don't really watch. But I can't understand why this is, like, a thing. I mean, every single year, he comes on, he gets completely wasted. And that was J.B., Julie Bandaris, told you would not be disappointed. And go to Guy Benson's show if you want to hear the entire interview. We'll be back with more in just a moment. Filling in for Guy Benson, it's Joe Concha.

Welcome back, everybody. So, New Year's Eve used to be kind of a thing for me. In other words, in my 20s, in my single days, what I would do is you pay for an open bar kind of situation. So you pay like $100. I know I'm dating myself here. It's the 90s, all right? Bear with me for a second. You pay $100 to go to like a nice place in New York, say the Intrepid, for example. They would do a party there. Or your average. big kind of bar that could fit like two, three hundred people where they drop balloons from the ceiling. You got to get dressed up a little bit. I went to one at the Paramount, I believe, at Madison Square Garden. So that was my thing. Like, all right, big night. Let's spend a little money. A hundred bucks back then for me, a lot of money. But I figured it's the one night where unpredictable things can happen. So why not? So that's the way I used to go about it. Now I have two kids, sixth grader and a fourth grader, and we go to my sister-in-law's house. And the thing is that... I could have a couple drinks if that so compels me. But, you know, somebody has to drive. And my wife, as I've mentioned, is an ER doctor. So let her have her fun. So for this New Year's Eve, just to be completely lame, Dylan, I did not have a drop of alcohol. But I was quite happy with that because the next day I felt great. And I watched the Miami-Ohio State game, which you don't need a buzz to watch that game because it was awesome. So in a way... I'm kind of embracing this dry New Year's Eve thing because I got to watch everybody else get drunk, and boy, people can be annoying when they're inebriated. I respect that. I respect that being an observer, a spectator in the sport rather than jumping in this year. I love that. My New Year's Eve was way lamer than yours because... And normally I would be out, you know, doing the things that you used to do in your 20s as I myself am in my 20s. And I woke up, though, morning of New Year's Eve, probably, oh, 5 a.m. Oof. And I started vomiting my brains out. From? And I had the norovirus. No. So I was down bad, Joe. I was so sick for probably like, it was probably a full 12 hours where I could, I couldn't keep water down. Me and my wife, we were like, we were almost. At the point where we were talking about maybe going to urgent care or something because I couldn't keep water down. Like it was brutal. But then all of a sudden it just cleared up. I was able to keep water down. So I also did not have a single drop of alcohol because if I was already dehydrated before, I might not have woken up the next morning. If I had drinks on New Year's Eve. So I tapped out on that one. And we were actually going to go. uh down we live down here in in the dc area we were going to go see the washington monument like adams morgan uh foggy bottom we're at oh so we actually we live out in restin so we're like a little bit further out but we love we love that area and we were going to take the metro into washington dc and see the washington monument all lit up sure which was

gorgeous and we watched a live stream of it from our couch instead because i couldn't quit yacking but that was that was our original plans um we ended up staying home and i had to lay low all day yesterday but i'm here i'm here at work it's it's january second we're both here joe um i'm sore but otherwise fine so i'm sipping on a liquid iv right now to try and rehydrate myself but we're here we're here That's the whole thing. You need electrolytes. Exactly. But once you get past that one, once you go through hell, what you did as far as the vomiting, the dehydration, and just like just get me to an urgent care. Once you get over that hump, now from here, boy, do you appreciate your health? Oh, yeah. But I can tell you, my wife in the urgent care, and she's working today, and she just texted me right before we came on. She says, you know, just overwhelmed today. I go, what's the main thing you're seeing, norovirus? So it is kind of everywhere. Yeah, yeah. It's nasty. Everybody's got it. But it comes and goes pretty quickly about a. 24-hour virus. So that's that. But let's get out of this conversation because we're going to make people literally sick just by listening to it. Let's talk about the playoffs. So NFL playoffs, I should say. And how much time do we have? You can just tell me live on the air. That's fine. About three minutes, guys? Yeah, three minutes. Okay, great. So here's the way I kind of see it. And then you tell me, Dylan, I think New England hasn't been tested, and you look at their schedule. They barely played anybody above 500. I get that Drake Mays had a great year. At the same time, half the teams seem to be getting arrested or charged with something, which isn't good, and they don't have a lot of playoff experience. That's right. I see them as kind of a paper tiger. I see Denver as kind of a paper tiger. They're both 13 and 3 right now. They can very well be 14 and 3 by the time this is done. But in the end, I think they're very beatable one and two seats. Jacksonville, they're the Jags. So how do I trust them? I'll tell you this. I'll give you my prediction. Out of the AFC, I see Houston taking the conference. I know it's crazy as a wildcard team, probably. But they've won eight straight. Their defense is very legit after seeing the college football playoff. That does mean something to a certain extent. And that's that. So I have Houston coming out of the AFC. And then the NFC is kind of a toss-up. But in the end, I think the 49ers. are the team just based on experience. But boy, what a tough division. Seattle's emphasis is going to the Rams all there. Right? And I just don't trust the Eagles this year. So you tell me, who do you got for going to the Super Bowl? Actually, Joe, you and me agree on our AFC prediction. Wow. Which I did not expect. I thought I was going to come in here with the hot opinion saying that Houston's got it. But my rooting interest. I would say in the first half of the season, my Indianapolis Colts obviously fell off a cliff and started a grandpa at quarterback. Wasn't bad, actually. I don't know if he was the problem, but yeah. He wasn't as bad as I thought he would be. But his ceiling is very low. His ceiling was very low. And, of course, we lost out with him. So I think, I agree with you. Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, Bit of Paper Tigers. Broncos can't play offense in the first half. So they're going to get punched in the mouth by Buffalo. That's my prediction. But Houston's defense is just like, that's a championship defense. They are insanely good. They're healthy. I think they could make a run. And then in the NFC,

We'll see. I think San Fran could do it. Rams haven't been playing good as of late. Can't trust the Eagles. I feel like the Bears, it's a year too soon for them. I agree with you. I just don't have. I'm a Bears fan. Yeah, they just don't. I would love to see Caleb make it, but I just feel like it's one year too early. Seattle, I think it's either going to be Seattle or the 49ers, but we'll see if Sam Darnel can hold up or if he's just going to. he's going to fall off the Sam Darnel Cliff, you know. That's right. And that's what happened last year. Led Minnesota to a similar record. Then the first round, bye-bye. So don't quite trust him. I'm just, I'm a Bears fan, but I'm also a 49ers sympathizer. In other words, I think, you know, they were beating the Chiefs in two super polls in the second half by double digits and somehow still lost those games. So I'd like to see this modern version of San Francisco win. But again, if my Bears win, so be it. I don't think they quite have the defense to get there. But either way. It's going to be crazy. It's going to be so unpredictable because there is no definitive favorite this year, right? There's no chiefs. So you don't have like that whole influence. So yeah, either way, we're going to be entertained until mid-February, basically. And that's why winter is horrible around here. But the NFL and now the college football playoffs being expanded as a way it is makes it a little bit better, Dylan. That's right. That's right. Go I, you. I'm a Hoosier. Go I you. Oh, you're a Hoosier. I'm a Terp, so we don't talk football at this point. You'd be just like 60 to 6 or something on our own field. But we're not going to talk about that. All right, we got to go. This is Joe Concha. This was Guy Benson. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Have a great 2026, everybody. Bye-bye.

Listen to the show ad free on Fox News Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music with your prime membership, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.