TRUMP’S ULTIMATUM: U.S. Demands Iran’s Total Nuclear Surrender

Instagram teen accounts default teens into automatic protections for who can contact them and the content they can see. Explore teen accounts and all of our ongoing work to protect teens online at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. Have you ever stopped and thought about what's actually powering your day, the coffee you made this morning, the drive you took to get here, even the device you're listening on it? I'm Tanner Faust, and that's exactly the kind of thing we're going to talk about on the energy tailgate, a podcast from Chevron. I'll be your host inviting guests to discuss big energy topics and what they mean for everyday life, all from the tailgate of our truck. This is the energy tailgate. News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan. It's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Brian Kilmeade. So glad you're here this hour. We're going to be joined by Lawrence Jay Jones. Don't ask me how I know. And Jeff Foxworthy, comedian, actor and host of a brand new Fox Nation special. He was just on our couch on Fox and Friends. Can't wait to talk to him again. It's also an exciting day for us, Lawrence, because we now have another great station affiliate in Texas. Coleman, Texas. Yep, 102.3 FM over in Coleman. We're going to be on live from 8 to 3 there with the time change. The station's slogan is the heart. Part of Texas news source over in Brownwood, KXYL. Isn't that pretty cool? With you here, you are Mr. Texas. I try. All right. So before we get to Lawrence, and also this is a special day, this is now. 16, what is it? 16 years. This is the anniversary of our show. No way. It started. So that's pretty cool. The start of the Brian Kilmeade. So let's get to the big three. Number three. The New York Knicks back in the NBA finals for the first time since 1999 are primed and ready and rested to go. But the reality is they got a 7'5 alien by the name of Victor Wemeyama from France. They're going to be the favorites to win the championship. That is some great analysis from Stephen A. Smith. Talking sports, by the way, big Nick fan. Soccer and basketball, as the U.S. national team looks stellar, as does their star who scored and assisted as they win a friendly against Senegal. Plus, the Nick Spurs tip off on Wednesday, and it promises to be anything but friendly. Number two. I find it really shameful that there's a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread. Gossip. Graham and I have a great marriage. I just didn't show it there. Consequential primaries around the country, the most intriguing in Californians, the Republicans have high hopes and the gubernatorial race and the Los Angeles mayor's race. We're going to break it down. Meanwhile, a Dem star and Graham Platner continues to embarrass his party in the country in Maine, his latest controversy that should be disqualifying.

Do you know that they've lost their ballistic missile, the ability to construct and make new drones? Do you know that they've lost their entire Navy in Air Air Force? The Mosquito Navy exists, but why is this a disaster? Well, not just that. They've also gotten a lot of their missile facilities as well and production plants as well when it comes to those missiles, those projectiles. Brian, I would say typically, you know, it's just Chris Murphy. The problem is a lot of people that are supposed to be moderate share that same point of view. It's totally wrong. I mean, if we stopped right now, we have done amidst damage. Now, do I think we should stop right now? Absolutely not. We're on the five goal line. I continue to say that every week. And the reason is, is I'm not so worried about the next four to five years. I'm worried about when a new president gets in. Right. What are the Iranians going to do? And they're not going to show any mercy. Now, they're trying to do this last ditch effort because, you know, they're radical Islamists and they want to unite the Muslim world, Shia and Sunni. Nice try. And they want to, the Gulf states now, after they attacked them, unprovoked, them to join their side. I'm sorry, it's never going to happen now. So I want to switch because we only have you for one segment to Graham Platner. So over the weekend, you know, about a year ago, six months ago, we found out that this upstart that really forced the sitting governor into submission. She's 74 years old. And without any, you know, without any charisma, she thought she was going to go against Susan Collins. So Graham Platner comes out to nowhere, the oyster farmer, and who's a veteran, and he comes out and he starts getting the momentum in the crowds. He's backed by Bernie Sanders. Then we find out that he's got a bit of a radical past, and he's got a Nazi tattoo, which he has since covered up. Then we find out that he has called for, called on video on Reddit, looking at a fellow soldier being shot and said, this guy should die instead of getting a purple heart. And then over the weekend, we find out about his sexting at least eight other women. And this was exposed by his wife and a former staffer who made it public. Well, and then the wife is saying that they have a perfect mayor. Now, I'm not trying to get into what they have in the home. We don't care. But come on. Like, just stop it. Just stop it. She said it took her 20 takes to do the video. This guy's a disaster. And I made this point earlier on Fox and Friends. You know, if you're. If you want a reasonable voice, I don't agree with everything that Susan Collins, but I understand she's representing her district. She has to win. She has to represent all of Maine. And it's hard for a Republican to win in Maine. She manages to do it. All the time. She voted against, she voted for impeachment to impeach Donald Trump. So it's like, what more do Democrats want her to do to prove that she's a reasonable voice? So they're saying that they still want this guy because they want to stop Donald Trump. The guy is a devout races. He hates every group.

Every group, you look at these poses, he's gone against Jews, black people, military people. He says I'm a communist. A communist? I mean, what more, he's the worst candidate you could possibly have on a ticket. But this new Democratic Party, this is what they like. So I want you to hear Graham Platner talk about this and his sexting, cut in. It's no surprise to me that the establishment media outlets are just going to run gossip. instead of wanting to talk about the things that actually matter in this race, which are the material realities that the Mainers are working with. These people are going to try to make this race about anything but what it's supposed to be about, which is policy. They never want to talk about policy. Amy and I have a very loving and very happy marriage. They would very much like to try to rip that apart. We're going to come after us in every awful way that they possibly can. This is your former staffer that your wife went up to to say, when they came up and asked my husband to run, did they know about this? Here's more. Cut 11, he gets pressed. But the stories are true, right, about the texts? No, no, this is the amazing part. The Wall Street Journal of New York Times ran stories without any evidence besides the gossip from a former staffer. I'm sorry, that's... That's, frankly, journalistic malpractice. We pushed back on it. They went it. They did it anyways. The messages they did not. I'm confirming that what Genevieve McDonald said in the New York Times is not true. Why can't he complete? So you never met with her about uncomfortable, for lack of a better word, sexting messages as the campaign was going? We talked about. Things in Amy and I's marriage that we've gone through over the years. Oh, so it's true. We talked about that because that's our marriage, and we discussed it with the campaign. What Genevieve McDonald claims isn't true. So it's true. Yeah. So it's true. I mean, come on, man. But he does say it's not true. So when those who, but when they emerge again, he's going to look like a line. A hundred percent. Well, he, he, he, he walks the line. What he's trying to do is think that people are stupid and try to characterize it. It's like the way that they wrote the story was untrue. But we've had some problems within our marriage. But by the way, it's a perfect marriage. Right. It's just come on. So listen to what the, what Democrats are saying now. Listen to Andy Kim, the senator from New Jersey, cut 14. Do you have concerns about Graham Platner? Well, first I'll say is, you know, I've been very much focused on the crisis in my home state, so I haven't been able to focus as much on this. Let's see if Chris Murphy's got a different answer. Cut 15. Yeah, I mean, I have not followed this story as closely as others have, but.

I mean, Graham Platner is somebody that served our country. He served his community. He's also made mistakes. And he has admitted that. Character also involves standing up to people who are bankrupting and corrupting this country. Because he wrote a book about character. And she said, what about this guy's character? It's incredible. A mistake is a Nazi tattoo? Is that? I don't want to hear about. Republicans and past APO that you have and their past comments and past social media ever again. If this is the standard now is that past racial, if it's okay to have a Nazi tattoo, then I don't want to hear anything about that. I know. Anything ever again. And then the point of, oh, I'm just focused on my state when you have to serve next to that person in the Senate and he's running under your party. Come on. Final moments Saturday night. Lawrence Jay Jones's San Antonio Spurs cut 35. Ahead to Fasel who goes in for the dunk and the San Antonio Spurs have done it. There will be a new champion in the NBA. A new era has dawned. It's Wembe's West, the Spurs. are going to the NBA final. And here's their coach, cut 36. What were you guys discussing? What was going on as you prepared for this opportunity here tonight? We didn't know. You have to go do it. But we played this team 12 times now. And we played them our last six games. And we know what we're made of and what we're built. And we had to go out and execute it. And they did that. So, of course, I've been covering the Knicks and 90s and got back into it. My son is so into it over the last. eight years and watched the frustration. You know, they were great in the 90s. You know, fall short every time, Houston and San Antonio and losing to the Bulls to stop them. When they were great, bowls were better. And then the heat got great with Alonzo morning, and they beat him. Sometimes they lost to him. And then up comes Reggie Miller. And the Pacers frustrated him again. But Lawrence, here we go. First time back since 99. Knicks have won 11 in a row as the number three seed against the number two seed spurs. Your thoughts? This is going to be a gray series. This is great. I do like the way that the Knicks are playing, but I got to go with my Spurs. I've been a Spurs fan since I was a kid. Tim Duncan was my favorite player. And we've experienced a lot of championships. I mean, five over my lifetime. But we won more. And the one thing about the Spurs that has always been our franchise philosophy is that the team is not built on one person. We have a lot of role players that step up in big moments. But it's Wembe. You have to admit. This guy's 7.9 4, he's 7. Think about it. It was Tim Duncan at the time as well, or David Robinson. Both. But you surround them. With Genobley and Parker. And then they turn out to be stars. Arguably, Hall of Angels. And by the way, this is what I love about their franchise. And I put the Tampa Bay race the same way. They don't have the largest salary cap. They don't have the most attractive market. No offense to San Antonio. It's true. People usually want to go to Los Angeles, Chicago, the bigger, there's more money's there. But it's the franchise always finds the talent. That's right. Anyone can draft a store. But then you find the talent in France. You know, you file. Where did Genoblee come from, by the way? Argentina. Argentina. So you find that. But Tony Parker was 10, 12 years. Yeah. You know, so, but it's not built on one player.

And you can't be a selfish guy. And you've got to be coachable. And I'm excited about it. I think my prediction is the Knicks in six in six. And the game one, this could be the Knicks won 11 in a row. We've never seen anything like this. As a number three seed, no one expected this. Certainly not a dominant team. Jim Jordan's not on the roster. So they did this, went 11 in a row, two straight sweeps. If they take game one. I think that all bets are off. Because I think that there might be some doubt. Because I went to the Spurs next game at the garden. And they lost, I think, four. And Wembe was pretty dominant. And I think there might be some doubt. Can we do it against the West? If they take game one, all that doubt's gone. You know why there's some doubt? It's because I'm not saying. The talents in the West? No, well, yeah. I mean, they haven't had a. I mean, we just took down the reigning champions. And so there's some doubt about the, but, you know, there's some youth when it comes to the Knicks as well, and they're jelling. They're jelling. And so that is, I'm worried about that. They get 10. And how tired we are. And they go 10 deep. Yeah. They go 10 deep. And that's one thing that Tibido, who brought them into prominence, he got fired because he would not use his bench. Yeah. And the guys who were exhausted by the time they made the playoffs, same thing when they was in Minnesota. And he wouldn't end Chicago. He would not use his bench. But this guy uses Mike Brown uses his bench. And Mike has, you know, championship experience. You know, both with the calves and with Golden State. So, you know, he knows what these pressure moments are. He's been on the bench. He's played with some, you know, he's coached some superstars. So it's going to be great. I'm going to enjoy it. The tickets are outrageous, though. It's the most New York thing ever. It's so celebrities come, but the fans can't come because they can't afford it. Unbelievable. 18,000 for two seats in the Middle East section. It's amazing. Lawrence Jay Jones, thanks so much. Fox and Friends co-hosts and does everything. We will talk throughout this series. Go back in a moment. He just doesn't read the headlines. He breaks them down. Real talk, real news. This is the Brian Kilmeade. Instagram teen accounts, automatic protections for teens. Instagram teen accounts have built-in content settings and limits for who can contact teens. Plus, teens under 16 can't change these default safety settings without parental approval. So parents can help teens connect safely. Instagram teen accounts, automatic protections for who can contact teens and the content they can see. Learn more at Instagram.com slash teen accounts.

A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kilmeade. Hey, we are back. And again, I mentioned this briefly with Lawrence Jay Jones here. We've been 16th anniversary of the Brian Kilmeade. We started on June 1st, 2010. And with Eric and Pete, we've been there from day one, and Alison, and doing a fantastic job. Can you believe it's been 16 years, Allison? I cannot. Time flies. I know. I mean, to think about it, we move from the, what floor were we on? 18. We were on 18. And 16 years is only you having the show, starting as Brian Kilmeade and Friends, not from when you took over radio from Tony Snow. Oh, no, Tony Snow. Okay. So we did Brian and the judge for a while. How would we do that show? Like a year and a half for two years? Oh, that was two years. Okay. Probably about. So it's been a while. So 27 on TV, 16 on radio. More than, I mean, like 18 on radio, let's say. With the bright and the judge part. And then you with One Nation is we coming up on four years. Yep. That's pretty cool. So yeah. And thanks to everyone who came out in Reno, Nevada. That was pretty cool. We did history, liberty and lefts. We got a big date coming up in Pensacola, Florida. And we're starting to weave in some things from the brand new book, United in the States, the six crucial moments, the Ford's the American Miracle. And that got a pretty good response. So hopefully everyone will like that because we bring history to life in a way that Ken Burns can or chooses not to because he probably can't. Jeff Foxworthy is next because he's funny and he has a special on Fox. He listened to The Brain Kill Me Show. So glad you're here.

Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% up your first purchase at Fox Newswinshop.com with code FN Radio 20. 20% discount excludes wine club offers and cannot be combined with any other promotion. Expires July 31st, 2026. Must be 21 older to order. Please drink responsibly. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Kilmeade. So Jeff Foxworthy's here. Why? Because he wanted to meet me in person. I can't blame him. Comedian actor, host of the new Fox Nation special, Jeff Foxworthy, the jokes on me. And Jeff, I'll tell you what, what I get, and it's so great to see you again. But what I get is your promo is fantastic. Because I mean, your name is perfect for it. It kind of works. So when they approach you on doing a special, were you locked in? Because they go after people, establish comedians like Eddie Murphy, throw all types of money. He's like, no. I'm done. And it is so much work because you have to throw out the material after. How did you feel about it? Well, you don't have to. Well, it was funny because before this, I think I've done like 11 specials if you include like the blue color comedy movies and all. And so when they said, would you be interested in doing a special? I said, how long you want it to be? They said an hour. I said, I'm not interested. Because, and this is what people don't realize, but for a comedian. to do a new hour, it takes a year of hard work. And by, I mean, that's being in clubs on Tuesdays in front of 30 people. And 30, you don't announce that you're there. No, I just walk in with note cards. And hey, is this funny? Is this funny? And, and I'd gotten to the point, I said, I'm not interested in doing an hour. I said, but, because I just watch. that thing on the Beatles that was like 10 hours and watching them in the studio writing songs. And it's like, is this the lyrics? Is this the chord? And And I was kind of fascinated by that process. And so I said to Fox Nation, I said, but if you would let me do a special and you show the process, show me going in, follow me into a little club on a Tuesday night, show me doing things that don't work, things that bomb, show how these ideas evolve into what you see on stage. I said, if you would do that. I would be interested. And when I hung up the phone, my wife said, all I'm going to tell you, and the special before that I had done for Netflix, she said, when you walked off stage after that last special, you looked at me and you said, never again. And I laughed and I said, yeah, but they're not going to let me do it this way. So don't worry. I'm not doing another special. And how long ago was Netflix? Well, that came out like 20, 22 or three. Okay. And I said they're not going to do it. Nobody, nobody's going to take a chance. Because you had seen it with music. You had been behind the scenes with music. Nobody had ever done it with stand up. And they came back and said, all right, we'll do it. And I'm like, oh, wow, really? And I have to thank Fox Nation.

open to doing something new. And we're like, all right, what would this look like? Would you, would you cut it in half? And what we ended up doing was showing me doing, which ended up, it wasn't 30, 30. It was probably 45 minutes of new material because it kept growing. And 15 or 20 are behind the scenes. But we started just. started with the show and then would cut back to me in the club working on that idea. And I thought it turned out great because once you see the process, you have an appreciation for it. And like I like people and I like to learn what they do, but I want to know, like if I'm meeting a barista, I'm like, What's the hardest part of your job? You're curious. I'm curious. What's the easiest part of your job? What do people not know about making coffee that they ought to know? And, you know, what's the hardest part of doing a podcast? But Jeff, let me ask them. Do you ask that for material? Do you ask that as a human being? I ask it as a human being. I don't have to add people. There's something, Brian, about being a comedian. People voluntarily tell you things. They shouldn't tell their therapist. I mean, people will come up to me in the grocery store, and they're like, hey, Jeff, let me tell you what my brother did this weekend. And a lot of times it's funny? Oh, my God, yeah. And you're like, I don't know if I would have told anybody that, but I'm going to be using that on stage tonight. So here is a little from the special, cut 43. If you have ever answered a FaceTime call while sitting on the toilet, you might be a redneck. If the four-sale sign in your front yard was put there by your neighbors, you might be a redneck. If the two biggest reasons you love country music is Dolly Pardon. You might be a redneck. If you think Hogwarts is your sister-in-law without makeup.

Right. So, I mean, you've clearly, that is never getting old. You know what's so funny about it is it's one-liners. You know, and we live in an age, nobody does one-liners anymore. But. And I look back, I think it helped me to be a better comedy writer because you had to tell the whole joke in one sentence. So it taught me to be very efficient with words. I'd been doing them for 20 years when Rich Scheidner pointed out to me, he said, you do realize the way you do the comic friend of mine. He said, You do the punchline first and the setup second. He said the setup is you might be a redneck. And he said, but you do it in reverse. I said, you're right. I never thought about that. So do you remember how many years it took you to be yourself on stage? Or did you feel natural right away? No, I didn't feel. It's not a natural thing. And I tell young comics that. I said, look, here's the thing. Nobody else has your. experiences. Nobody else has the way you think. So the sooner you can become yourself on stage. the better you're going to be. But it takes a while. And I think for me, you know, because early on, I didn't know, like Stephen Wright, remember Stephen Wright? He had just come out on Carson. But Stephen was that slow, monotone drawn out. And I was like, should I be like that? Should I be? I didn't know. And, you know, I think Jerry Seinfeld said when I, I think you just do it every night for 10 years. And then you have a style. And I'm like, And ends up he was right because later on I would listen and I would go, why do I like hit certain words? Because I'm not aware that I'm doing that. But it became my style. But I think it's when I embraced, because I had people telling me to lose my accent. And it's like, no, this is the way I talk. This is where I'm from. These are my experiences. And when I kind of got freed up. enough to talk about that stuff. I got better at it.

And I did, I was just talking to somebody in the lobby about this. Like when I started, I would come to New York all the time. But in New York, especially for a young comic, somebody starting out, you might only get on stage two times a week. So we used to get a group of guys and like four of us and go, if anybody gets on tonight, you've got to promise to buy a big pizza so we can all have dinner. Because you got 20 bucks. You got 20 bucks. Yeah. And we all four weren't going to get on. And so kind of the idea was you could either stay in New York or L.A. and you might get on a couple of times a week. But Leno was always a road dog. And I thought, Kind of the Malcolm Gladwell theory, if you do something for 10,000 hours, you're going to get good at it. And I'm like, I can go play Des Moines, Iowa, and I can go on stage every night for 30 minutes. So at the end of the week, you know, I've got 200 new minutes on stage. You've established yourself. Yeah, but as opposed to getting 12 new minutes in New York. So you were open to traveling? I had. My first eight years of comedy, I did over 500 shows a year, eight years in a row. Wow. But I got better at it because I was in the stage. I was, yeah. And your wife understood? She did. She would cherry pick my schedule. She'd look at it and say, okay, you go to Toledo by yourself. I'll go with you to Honolulu. And I'm like, no, I really need you in Toledo, you know. She understood. Especially when you're not making money in the beginning. Were you married without making money in the beginning? As an unestablished comedian? When I, she was the only, she was there the first night I ever went on stage. A bunch of guys I worked with at IBM entered me in a contest. How old are you? 24. Enter me in a contest. I've never been on stage just because I was the funny guy at work. And it wasn't like an amateur night. It was for working comedians. First night on stage, I won the contest. No way. And I met my wife. She was in the audience. So she saw me the first time I did it. And we started dating. And she was the only person in my life, because I had come from blue-colored town. I thought you had to get a job that you hated. And she was acting. She was an actress. And she said, You have all this creativity inside of you, and if you don't find a way to let it out, you're going to have a miserable life. And it had never dawned on me, wait, I could do something creative for a living. And I quit my job at IBM. My mother's first question was, are you on the dope? Whatever the dope was. And I said, no, I said, I think I have a gift for this. I think I can do this. Five years later, I was on Johnny Carson, got called. Five years. Five years. Got called to the couch. Same mother. You know, you wasted all those years at IBM.

But, well, and everybody said it was going to take 10 years to be good enough to do Carson, which it probably should have, which was why I was doing 500 shows a year, because I knew Johnny wasn't going to stick around for 10 more years. And that was all I wanted to do was be on Johnny Carson. Right. And so I told myself, I'm going to do it in half that time. It took me five years and two months. And. I remember going home that night because you didn't know with Johnny, you didn't know. They told you. If at the end of your set, if he just claps, he doesn't like you. If he gives you. They told you before. Yeah. If he gives you the okay sign, he liked you. And if he calls you to the couch, he loved you. Well, so I've been doing 500 shows a year. I get to the end of my six minutes. I'm scared to look because it's like Caesar saying, do I live or do I die? Did it feel good? Did you think you killed? I did because I could hear Johnny laughing as I'm going through the set. All right. So then you look. And I look and he's calling me to the couch. And literally it was life changing. And I have like if you go through my home, I don't have a bunch of stuff for my career. But I have a photo. that somebody gave me like six years ago when I did the Tonight Show, they went back through the archives. And it's me sitting in the chair talking to Johnny, and Johnny's got his head back in his mouth wide open laughing. And I remember going home that night thinking, oh crap, I don't have a plan. This was my goal. What do I do after this? But- And what did you do? How long did it take you to reset? Well, it was life-changing because literally the next week, Caesar's Palace is calling going, do you want a headline? For no other reason than Johnny Carson called you to the couch. That doesn't happen with Kim O'Stephen Colbert. No, those days are gone. Johnny was a kingmaker. I mean, if he liked you, you had a career. But I'm going to add something to that. So I was obsessed with late-night television. My senior thesis was on the history of late-night television. And I got Dave Wettick on, who was the one who hired Johnny for the first time. And I got Jack Parr on the phone. Wow. And we didn't, I didn't have a recording device at the time. So I just transcribed it. And then I got Letterman because I was interning at NBC in the history of late night. And he was in awe. But like, and then you just Steve Allen. I ended up meeting Steve Allen later. But just seeing those kinescopes and going to the Museum of Brookhead, fascinated by it. When you look back, just like when people look back at Michael Jim Jordan, I don't care what happens in the future basketball, you'll never going to look back at Michael Jim Jordan and say, that's the way you look back at Carson. You're not hyping it and saying, wow, what happened? You could watch that now and say, why is he the best? He's the best that ever did the job. Because he could interview the guy from Iowa. that had the weird potato chips, or he could interview Billy Graham, or he could interview, and they were all interesting. Yep. And yet he was the star, but he didn't have to be the star of the conversation. Well, and he knew that. Carson, like I remember walking from this, as I'm walking to the couch, I'm thinking, what are we going to talk about? And he literally lobbed him up and let me hit him out of the park.

Because he knew the next day at the water cooler, people weren't going to say, did you see Jeff Foxworthy last night? They were going to say, did you watch Carson last night? Right. Hold that thought. More with, do we have time? Okay, more with Jeff Foxworthy. They got a few minutes at the top of the hour. Got a great special on Fox Nation available now, right? Yes, go check out. Da-da. Back in a moment. Increasing your intelligence quotient. What the hell did you say? It's Brian Kilmeade. you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmeade. Then, on the ride home, she was driving me home. On the ride home, she said to me, I was Googling about anti-venom, and she said, do you know that the vial they used to give human beings, that the veterinarians use the exact same vial to give to dogs that get bit by poisonous snakes? So I tell you that. Because if I ever get bitten by another snake, I have a bad feeling I'm going to the vet. So that is some of your special. But I think with Jeff Foxworthy saying, is you see the making of the special, which that's what attracted you back to it on Fox Nation. I got bitten by a copperhead. And this is the sick thing about being a comedian. As it happened, I'm thinking. I'm going to get a great bit out of this. Most people would be thinking, am I going to die? I'm thinking, all right, you've got to remember everything because this will be a good story on stage. But yeah, most of the things, and people always say where do you come up with stuff. I was very lucky as a comic because I learned early on what worked for me. And that was if I thought something or my wife said something or my family did something, I was going to trust other people were thinking and saying and doing the same thing. Do you write it down? Do you write it down? Yeah, always. Always have note cards in my back pocket or notes on my phone. But that's when you get the response to people coming backstage going, oh my God, I've done that. Or, oh, my God, I've thought that, is you're finding that commonality, no matter where we live. I mean, the accents change and the scenery changes, but people are the same. And so that's your job to find, you know, everybody has these thoughts or experiences, but comics learn to grab them and go, oh, there's something funny in that. How many times do you have a joke? And it doesn't kill. So you work the joke rather than lose the joke. A lot. You know, it's one of those things. Most people don't do stand up as long as I've done it. It's so fascinating to me that after 42 years, I still don't know what people are going to laugh at. Because if you laid carpet for 40 years, you would know. This is how I do the stairs. This I'll do the corner. I can think something's really funny and go into a club with a note card in my hand and go, what about this? Nothing. And I'm like, really? That's not funny. And then I can have something that I think, well, this is stupid. Throw that out there and people are beating the table. And I'm like, really? The crazy thing about comedy.

is that when you start off, it's the horrible situation. So you're not skilled to handle it. The audience is seven people. They're all comics waiting to get up. And then when you get great at it, these people come to see you. Just to see you. Yeah, it's kind of not fair. Yeah, but no, it is great. Just check out as Fox Nation special. Fox, you are Foxworthy. All right. Thanks so much. Oh, man, always good to see you. Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sewing division. It's Brian Kilmeade. All right. 48 and 6 in Midtown Manhattan, around the country, around the world. This is the Brian Kilmeade coming to you. Michael Goodwin standing by. We'll talk about what's happening with this Israeli parade. Why would I bring up a parade? Because for the first time since 1964... The sitting mayor of New York City does not march in the Israeli Day parade, who just happens to have a reputation well-earned of being anti-Semitic, but it doesn't seem to matter. Mark Teeson at the bottom of the hour in studio, and keep in mind, this is a big day for us, the 16th anniversary of the Brian Kilmeade. It started 20, excuse me, 16 years ago on June 1st. 2010. And also it's a great day because Coleman, Texas, 102.3 FM is where it's located. The station is KXYL, the heart of Texas news source over in Brownwood. They are now taking our show. Our network continues to grow. So thank you so much, everybody in Coleman. Now let's get to the big three. Number three. The New York Knicks back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999 are primed and ready and rested to go. But the reality is they got a 7-foot-5 alien by the name of Victor Wemeyama from France. They're going to be the favorites to win the championship. And by the way, when he says alien, he means in a good way. Talking sports. I'm talking soccer and basketball. The U.S. national team looks stellar in their first game with the new 26-man roster. And a friendly against Senegal, they win. Plus, the Spurs Knicks tip off on Wednesday, and it promises to be anything but friendly. Number two. I find it really shameful that there's a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread. Gossip. Graham and I have a great marriage. Well, consequential primaries around the country. The most intriguing is California, as the Republicans have high hopes in the gubernatorial and the mayor's race. We break it down. Meanwhile, as you just heard, the wife of Graham Platner speaking out as he continues to embarrass the party and the state of Maine, his latest controversy should be disqualified. Number one. He said during an interview that initially the Iranians were committing to not having a nuclear weapon or creating a nuclear weapon within their country. And the president raised a very important question. What if the Iranians try to buy a nuclear weapon on the international black market? And ultimately, this language was included in the agreement. A tax exchange between Iran and the U.S. as Iran's president allegedly resigns and Trump ups the demands for a ceasefire to be extended, we follow the fluid situation. And one of the things he's demanding is tell me exactly.

when I'm going to get in there to take out the thousand pounds of uranium and the straits got to open up immediately. And there's got to be timing put on it. And we know they're masters of delay a game. President says I'm not in a rush. Let's bring in Michael Goodwin now at the New York Post. Michael, do you think the president should finish the job or continue to pursue a delay of game with peace? Hi, good morning, Brian. Look, I think to take a sense to negotiate. And, of course, that's always the most desirable. But I think it's really an open question whether the Iranians are serious about these negotiations or whether they're just using them to delay the inevitable. It certainly, to me anyway, looks like they're not serious about the talks. I mean, and the president has reached that conclusion different times and then said that they had made progress. it's something of a mystery. It's a kind of a black hole for those of us on the outside. But I don't see the kind of progress that would say, okay, we won. We got what we started the war for, which is the no nuke, and which is two other things, the ballistic missiles, and the proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah. So I don't see that we're there yet, so I think you really have to continue. to give the negotiations every possible chance to succeed because

Yeah, well, I guess we're going to see what's going to happen. What people think, what do you say to people? Say, what's a big deal that mayor missed the Israeli Day parade? And he decided to make it clear that he'd rather bite by himself than show up and do it. Mayor Bloomberg did, Mayor Eric Adams did, what his commissioner did as Grand Marshal. Why do you think it was especially important for him to go to that parade? Look, I think it is. such a tradition, as I wrote in a column, not for six decades as a mayor skipped this, and essentially since it began. So for him to do this, given the other issues, his embrace of the inaccurate Palestinian version of the birth of Israel in 1948. I mean, he never talks about the United Nations. and that changed the landscape, change the boundaries. He doesn't recognize reality when it doesn't fit his agenda. I believe he is an anti-Semite. In the sense, at the very least, he does not recognize the right of a Jewish homeland. And I think that's a very big portion of what modern anti-Semitism looks like. It's not about race. It's not about religion. It's about a homeland. So they're okay for, what, 22 Arab countries and other Muslim countries to have a homeland, where outsiders do not have the same rights, but only Israel. And it's that double standard that, to me, marks him. So I wanted you to hear what Bruce Blakeman, it wants to be the next governor said, about him. Cut, let's listen. Why does he single Israel out all the time? Israel is a democracy. They have civil rights. They have religious freedom. It's the home of not only the Jewish religion, but Christianity. And he denigrates Israel, never says anything about places like Iran, Russia, China, places that really don't have the kind of human rights that Israel does. So that's what Bruce Blakeman, who is Jewish and wants to be a direct contrast to the, to the, not only the governor, but to the mayor. He wants to tell people that doesn't have to be this way. That's right. And I think that he's right about Israel being a democracy where all religions are respecting and given equal rights. So that's a kind of thing that Zohran Mamdani does.

his anti-Semitism is so kind of clear that it is what it is. It's not a sophisticated intellectual position in any new way. Here's the great commissioner, Jessica Tisch, who decided to stay on for the good of the city, in my view. She didn't say that to me, but I got that indication when I did speak to her. But she said this because she chose to march, and he didn't. Listen. Do you have any concerns about the year not being there? No, it's the mayor's decision not to march, and it is my decision to march proudly. A little bit of a shot across the bow, right? Proudly. And I think it's incredibly courageous for Jessica Chesh, the police commissioner, to take that stance. Obviously, she reports the mayor. And look, their relationship has been sort of on thin ice all along. I don't suppose this is going to help it. But it is a test of Zohran Mamdani. I mean, can he ride?

and not a Muslim, but a mayor. And I think that's what's missing from so many of his programs. They're very much about his socialist agenda, his left-wing ideas, whether they were. So I want to talk about Los Angeles because I think it's a bigger story than Los Angeles. And then the mayor's race that's going on. You had Spencer Pratt, who's just running on common sense. He said, yeah, I vote Republican, but I'm not running as a Republican. I'm running just on pure donations. Most of the people giving me money to run are Democrats. That's what he says. And the money is $4.4 million he's raised compared to the sitting mayor. And I believe this is the beginning, if he is successful, of common sense, maybe running in Chicago, certainly Los Angeles, and my hope is even New York, especially with a moderate Democrat doing well in San Francisco. So I asked Harvey Levin, who is in downtown Los Angeles living off celebrity and knows almost all of them are leaving. He said this about the reality of the city, cut 21. Ten years ago, 15 years ago, downtown had this renaissance, and people were moving down there, restaurants were opening up, businesses opening up, and it was really a place to go. It was a destination. And now, you know, the sense people have outside of that area is you're crazy to go downtown. Why would you do that? So that is kind of a glimmer of what's going on in this city. homelessness is terrible right now. We just have a real problem here. And then when you hear people say, oh, it's gotten better. You know, it's sort of like, who are you going to believe me or your lion eyes? But this city is a mess. So when he pointed that stuff out, in Harvey Levin, I have no idea who he votes for. He doesn't want anyone to know who he votes for. He's not political. He said that, you know, that's why people are open to this guy. What do you expect to happen? Because tomorrow's the primary. Well, and, Brian, look, I think, you know, depend on who turns out. But look, the idea that urban America has become sort of a wasteland in so many ways. I mean, New York or seeing it. We're seeing it in Chicago, of course, in downtown L.A. So I think that this could be a reckoning for urban Democrats. I mean, if you cannot govern these municipalities.

covered it. Giuliani, Bloomberg, even Eric Adams did a better job than Zohran Mamdani is doing. So I think that this is what I Yeah, I just hope it's sometimes going to be the case that hasn't done it yet, but has the right intention. And that's where you see the guy from Levi's who took over San Francisco and started saying no more needles, no more homeless, let's just clean it up. But he's still a Democrat. But he's a sensible Democrat. And it doesn't seem, they say in overall the races, 60% of the primary races between a so-called moderate, typical liberal Democrat and a socialist Democrat, like Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the socialist is winning. That is scary for the country. Final thought, Mike? Yes, I think that's right, Brian. And I believe that the problem is that the remaining mainstream democracy. often. I mean, you don't hear a peep from Chuck Schumer about the outrages of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Rashida Tlaib to leave or Elon Musk Omar, right? They leave it to Republicans to fight these battles. So if you're a Democrat, you have a choice of going with a fringe on the left or really becoming a Republican because the centrist Democrats have gone silent and, in effect, are complicit.

party. Michael Goodwin, thanks so much. We're sure to read his columns all the time in the New York Post. Thanks, Michael. My pleasure. Thank you, Brian. You got it back at a moment. 1866408-7669. Keep in mind, we do have a YouTube page now. Everyone's talking about it. Go to YouTube.com slash at the Brian Kilmeade. Politics, current events, and news that affects you. Brian's got a lot more to say. Stay with Brian Kilmeade. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmeade. Can you order that, Brian? What did you want? Could I have the tropical butterfly lemonade refresher? Large, please. So that was me ordering my butterfly refresher. And that was what I called. I went to Starbucks and I was tired of ordering the toasted coconut. And it was hot. Latte. So I had a butterfly because I've never seen it before. But I go, wow, that looks. And it said refreshing. I'm looking to be refreshed. Wasn't refreshing? Yes. Do you feel refreshed? Mark Tisa is here. So Allison thinks it's the funniest thing she ever heard. So did everyone in the car. Yeah. But I enjoyed it. And then you walked in to celebrate my anniversary of 16 years, our anniversary of 16 years. Exactly. So thank you. You're welcome. How much that cost you? $7.80. $7.80. You're good expensive. Thank you. I appreciate it. I think we already have. And by the way, I'm working on this. So as you know, I'm a New York Knicks fan. Oh, wow. Right? And like I covered him forever. Your tickets are going to cost more than $7. So, and Lawrence is a Spurs fan. And the company is sending me to all the Nick games. And it's going to cost the company at least $12,000 a ticket. And they're going to send me. Yeah, I saw the blue seats in Madison Square Garden are like $5,000. Is that crazy? And the court side seats are going for $280,000. Right. So that's why I asked to be on court side. And they said, no. No, they're not sending me. Were you crazy? There's no column for that. Tickets for the show. That's not going to work. So it is insane. But I do think that the whole country is going to be watching this. Or am I New York centric? Is that me being New York centric? Well, you can be a little New York centric. I mean, it's the first time the Knicks have been in the finals since 73, right? No, they've been in the finals in 99. This is one. But they haven't won since 73. And I think it's so funny that Governor Hokel thinks they're going to exploit Donald Trump and go, I bet she doesn't even know anybody. She meant to say the 73 team, but she's at the 93 team, yeah. But the thing is, Trump is legitimately a sports fan. Yeah. He legitimately is. Oh, he's been a Knicks fan for ages. But he goes all the time. He knows these guys. So all of a sudden the video stops popping up. There he is with Marv Albert at 93. There he is saying, you know, with Isaiah Thomas taking free throws. But here's the problem. Okay. So all the mega Knicks fans. are not the ones who are spending $5,000 on blue seats tickets. That's true. The New Yorkers who love Donald Trump are not the people who are, so that garden is not going to be filled with mega New Yorkers. But he's going to go, right?

I think he may. Yeah. But it's not going to be his crowd. It's going to be people who can afford $2,000, you know, courtside seats. And we watch Spike Lee wear his Palestinian garb one day. Oh my gosh. And then he wears this after the president's brawling with the Pope. He wore a Pope shirt the other day. So, I mean, that's really the sentiment, a lot of them there. I load the NBA. Why? I just do. It's just the left-wing league, and it's just, it's, I just don't, I just don't like basketball. Baseball is the all-American sport. I'm a hockey fan. I like hockey. Hockey players generally tend to be conservative. How do you feel about soccer fans? So I am coming around. I always used to think that soccer was a socialist sport, and I did a big piece about that a while back. But, you know, gosh, I'll give it a chance. You know, got the World Cup coming here. I think a lot of people are going to give it a chance for the first time with the World Cup. The one thing I asked, the guys, I went down to the unveiling of the 26-man roster, and I said, have the U.S. hockey team inspired you? They said, absolutely. In fact, Christian Polisic said, I left it. I went and I went and watched. Wow. So he went ahead and went watch one of the games and then went to the locker room after. But the beer was gone because Kash Patel was there. And unfortunately, he couldn't celebrate with the guys because the FBI director was. Oh, that's so funny. You know, wouldn't it be amazing if we won the Olympic gold in the hockey and the World Cup? It would be. They said that this. What are our chances? You're a soccer fan. This is what they told me. Yep. That. The U.S. team winning the World Cup would be bigger than the 1980 win over the Soviets. No, it would not. But that in terms of proportioned sports feats, it would be. Yeah, except there was also the Cold War. Well, that's a... I mean, that's what made the Miracle and Ice so special is that... I'm actually writing a book about this. I'm running a book about... It's called We Win, They Lose, How the Miracle and Ice Turned the Tide of the Cold War. It's going to be the first book... For you order now.

Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kilmeade. I wouldn't take Iran's word for the paper that it's printed on, nor should our negotiators. But you can have performance-based milestones. where if Iran does something, there is then some sort of deliverable after it's proven and durable and lasting. So if the president can negotiate something around the highly enriched uranium, getting the straight open, and then closing a path for Iran getting a nuclear weapon, these would all be things that we could verify. So that is Brian Hook, very respected. By the way, they put a bounty, you know he's good because they put a bounty on him to try to kill him, like Mike Pompeo, like John Bolton, Mark Teeson, our guest. Mark has read in as well as anyone, if you read his Washington Post columns, you know that. If you watched them last night on the big weekend show, you know that. Your thoughts about what Brian Hook said about something conceivable to come out of these talks. Yeah, so first of all, let's start with the overarching thing, which is that what Donald Trump did. With Operation Epic Fury is one of the most courageous things any American president has done in my lifetime. And all these people saying, oh, well, he went to war and just got the same thing as Obama did. No, he launched 13,500 strikes against the Iranian regime, took out 82% of their defense industrial base. So they can't produce missiles. They can't produce things anymore. Sunk their entire Navy, grounded their entire Air Force. I mean, the damage that was done, if you just do a battle damage assessment, is... magnificent and on top of that israel launched another 8 000 strikes on top of the 35 15500 we launched and we've taken out their top leadership their second tier of leadership the third tier of leadership um so this is this has been a massive massive military success that has put made america in the world safer but how you end the war is as important as how you start one And this is where he's in a little bit of a quandary because the Iranians think that they have leverage because they control the straight. And so because they control the straight, they are taking a harder line in the negotiations. And Trump has some red lines that he wants to get. He wants to get all the nuclear material, right? If he can do. What we in the Bush administration did in 2004 when we went to the U.S. military aircraft went into Libya, gathered up all the nuclear material, gathered up all the centrifuges, and took them to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and then destroyed all the ballistic missiles on the ground and had all of it. That would be an immense success. And I think that's what he wants. But I don't know that the Iranians are going to give him to him to. You know what the problem is? When Ukraine give up their nukes, they end up getting invaded. And when Libya give up their nukes, they end up getting the overthrowing Gaddafi. So that might be the wrong message, those two actions, especially under Barack Obama, urged by Hillary Clinton to overthrow, which is fine. But you have to have, but if you're going to do that, you have to have a plan. Yeah. But if you don't give a bad plan, I'll take any plan. But guess what? If you don't, if you don't give them up, then you're going to get overthrown now.

Yeah. Right. That's, you know, you take your chances going forward. And this is, and this becomes the, but this is the quandary he's in because let's say we get what we all agree is a good deal, right? We get, we get all the nuclear material. We get, maybe Saudis joining the Abraham Accords, something like that. This is like a good deal. The problem with it is is that then we are going to have to do things like lifting sanctions. providing them with frozen assets. And there's talk, which is insane, of a $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran. The idea that we would give these lunatics $300 billion in international financing to build up their country, first of all, it's terrible idea. Second of all, the problem with it is, is that will kill the deal. In the long run, because they will only abide by the deal as long as Donald Trump is president. As soon as we get Gavin Newsom or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Kamala Harris or Pete Buttigieg or who, whichever Democrat, named the Democrat. What about JD Vance? Well, it'll be different if there's a Republican president. But let's say at some point we're going to have another week president like we had with Biden and Obama, right? It's going to happen at some point. They don't have to comply anymore. And so the only way that of all the achievements I laid out about what he did with Operation Epic Fury, the only way that remains permanent and they are not able to rebuild and reconstitute is if the regime changes. And so what we ought to be doing is arming the Iranian people to overthrow the regime. And providing them support, like we did the, like we provided the Contras during the, during the Cold War, like we provided Unita in Angola, like we provided to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan to drive the Soviets out. We know how to, there's two ways to overthrow, to have regime change, right? There's the Bush way, which is sent in 300,000 troops to occupy the country. We know we're not going to do that. Nobody is advocating doing that. And then there's the Reagan way, which is give money to solidarity. give support to the Democratic opposition. And one of the flaws with the Trump doctrine is that all of his gains, and this is the same thing in Venezuela, right? So if Delci Rodriguez now does whatever Donald Trump tells her, is she going to do whatever Gavin Newsom tells her? No. As soon as Trump is gone, she's going to go back to doing what they were doing before because they're bad, they're narco-terrorist regime, right? Trump's success depends on him remaining in office. And as soon as he's gone, all of those gains will disappear in Iran and Venezuela and wherever else unless there's a change in government. So you need a Democratic government in Venezuela before he leaves office. You need a Democratic government in Iran before he leaves office. So let's think about this. The president had his two-hour meeting on Friday or Saturday. He stayed in Washington, D.C. this weekend shows us seriously he's taking everything. Not that he wouldn't if he went back to Marlago, but he doesn't even want the travel time. He just wants to focus on this. So who's in the meeting, Mark, that's consulting with the president? Now, we know that he makes his own. He consult with himself, but he wants to hear other views. Who's with him?

Well, I mean, he's got, he's got... The vice president rushed back to be there. Yeah. I mean, he's got JD Vance. He's got Jared. He's got Steve Witkoff. He's got Pete Hegseth. He's got Kane. I mean, he's got a whole group of advisors who are talking to him and John Ratcliffe as well. Cooper doesn't seem to be in the room as much. I think Kane is sort of the primary military advisor to him, though he obviously, he's, you know, Cooper's in the direct chain of command. The chain of command goes from president to Pete. to Cooper, right? The chairman is the military advisor. It's crazy for me. I know. I don't understand it either. And, you know, he's the guy who has all the operational answers. You know, if they, when somebody raises a question, well, what if they do this? Cooper can tell you exactly. They're very concerned about things like, you know, the Iranian ability to hit Saudi Arabia, the Iranian ability to hit the oil infrastructure, which could raise gas prices, okay? Well, Cooper has a plan for that. If he was in the room, he could explain it. So, you know, it's, it doesn't make sense to me. And then he also reaches out to Jack Keene and other people outside. I know he talks to you. He talks to a lot of people. He's got a wide way when he wants to, this is not a guy who's, you know, everybody who says, oh, well, Benjamin Netanyahu pushed him into the war. Have you meant Trump? You can't do it both ways. No one pushes Trump into anything. And anyone, if he's getting too much of a one-sided, you know, conversation, he reaches out and finds other people with other opinions to, to, so he could weigh those as well. I mean, he's, he's, he's very broadly advised. I just want to you what Mike Pompeo said former secretary of state cut four. We should achieve and continue down the path to achieve the very victory that President Trump has laid the foundations for. We've put an enormous amount of pain on their economy. We've taken down their ballistic missile capabilities. Hamas and Hezbollah are on their back foot as well. We need to continue this effort to make sure that all the hard work and the loss of American lives that has happened. is worthy of the outcome. And that means an Iranian regime that no longer threatens the region, no longer threatens Israel, and is protected. And that's what you're saying. We're worried about the regime, but they go deep in radicalness. We're trying to get to a layer that we can deal with. And the one thing that we have now is that's changing things. We have not discussed this yet is the Internet's back. Yeah. And it's more than 50%. So just watching some of the Arab channels. And we're now getting video out of what the Iranians did when they massacre those 40,000 people. We should see more of that. It's so ugly. We're going to. But here's the thing, Brian, there's no, there's no layer of the regime that's moderate. I mean, you know, all these people saying, oh, well, you know, we killed the Ayatollah and the top layer and like that, and now we've got an even more radical government. It's like, I'm sorry, that would be like saying we killed Hitler and Gehring and Gerbils and now we've got the really bad Nazis. Right. It's like there's no moderate Nazis, right?

They're all dedicated to their ideology. And it's the same thing with Iran. There's no, there's no Delci Rodriguez in Iran. There's nobody you can go to and deal with who's going to be reasonable. It's purely an exercise of who's willing to go up the escalation ladder and who's willing to go higher. And Trump usually is the guy who's willing to go up highest of the escalation ladder and dare people to follow him. And the Iranians are sort of saying, yeah, all right, try it. I want to just bring up how this links to Ukraine. They know how to defend the Shahed drones because they are manufactured in Iran. They sold the licenses, I guess, to the Russians or gave it to them. And the Russians are making their own now. So they were able to counter that. So that helps. And then you have Ukraine who are basically finding a way to... cut the Russians down to size with their own drone technology. And they have gained more, I guess, in the last nine weeks. And the Russians have gained in the last nine months. And the Russians are well over a million casualties. And they can, for the first time, are not able to replace their soldiers with more soldiers. There just aren't enough people anymore. And never before, Vladimir Putin felt more insecure about his own security. And now they did a poll in Ukraine. And they ask people, knowing the fear of the result, how many, what do you like to see that's happening on the ground there? And this poll is staggering. Now, can you imagine what it would be if they weren't in an oppressive society? The Levada Center, the Independent Levada Center has shown that 62% of Russians favor peace talks with Ukraine and only 27% want to continue the war. And that's in the most, knowing that if you vote the wrong way, you go to jail. Yeah. And that's still, so things are beginning to turn there. And what the Ukraine is trying to do is let me help you with low tech fighting in the region. And they actually, and they actually are. We're using their technology to protect Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. their sky net anti-drone technology and that. Admiral Cooper has said that we've been consulting with them on tactics and strategies in dealing with the Shahed drones. You know, it's funny that when all of our NATO allies in, well, not all of our NATO allies, Romania, Greece, other people who have been good, Poland has been good, but, you know, when the Spanish wouldn't help us, when the French wouldn't help us, when the British wouldn't help us, Ukraine is the one who stepped up and say, how can we help? And I thought we know how to fight these drones. We've been killing Iranian drones for three years. We know how to defeat them. Let us help you. They're the best ally we have. In Europe right now, they're the most battle-hardened, experienced army on the continent. They are loyal to America because we save them. They're the best ally we have other than maybe Poland. And they also have the best defense industrial base outside the United States in terms of building weapons. They have just had to.

build it in the midst of a war. So, you know, I'll give you an example of how they can help us and we can help them. Right now, there's a shortage of patriots, right? And they need patriots to defend, to defend Kiev. We need patriots for our purposes around the world. They have a defense industrial base that could build patriots if we give them the license. Why don't we give them a license? to build Patriot missiles and in exchange for every four they, we get one-fourth of whatever they produce, 25% of whatever they produce. So all of a sudden, instead of them being a suck on Patriots, they'll be producing Patriots for us. They can refill our stockpiles and refill theirs. And if you don't want to do it in Ukraine, you could do it in Poland. There's ways to do this. So there's lots of creative things that we can do to help Ukraine, to help the United States, and secure the peace. And I know the German, where odds with Germans right now, but the Germans can produce things when they want to. They still have that industrial base. And they're beginning to build up their own military. Here's a good thing about the world, whoever the next president is is inheriting. They got Japan who understands the threat. South Korea understands a threat. So you don't know how we have to explain to the Germans, French, and British that you better bulk up your defensive. Now, do they have the revenue in their economy to produce this stuff? I'm not convinced. However, the Germans got the potential to do that. I'm not convinced the French would ever do that. or the UK is capable, we'll find out. But they understand it now. It's no longer spitting into the wind. And I saw this quote. It might even be from your column from Eisenhower in 1953. You can't continue to our European allies. You can't continue to count on us soon. What will you do if the well runs dry? 1953 Eisenhower was trying to say what Trump's saying now. Yeah. So what Trump is telling the Europeans is you have to take primary responsibility for the defense of Europe. And that's the right answer, right? They should be taking. They should have probably done it decades ago. But we are critical to helping them. We're the backstop, right? And we can produce weapons that they can't produce. We have a better defense industrial base. And by the way. Providing weapons, especially if they're paying for them, they're buying them. When we provide weapons for Ukraine and they purchase them, that creates defense jobs in the United States. That strengthens our defense industrial base because when you get ordered, I'll give you a perfect example, the Lima Tank Factory in Ohio. The Obama administration was going to put it out of commission. And Rob Portman and the Ohio congressional delegation came up with a plan to save it with foreign military sales. And that's why we now can produce Abrams tanks here at home. That's how now we can produce strikers. Most of the production is for our allies, not for the U.S. military. So the way you keep the industrial base going is by selling weapons to friendly countries around the world. So selling weapons to Ukraine doesn't deplete our arsenal. It strengthens our defense industrial base and builds our arsenal because we're building more of them when we have orders from other countries. All right. Mark Tis, in a few more minutes when we get back, don't move. It's Brian Kilmeade.

Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kilmeade. How do you square thinking that he may have had a stroke with what you were saying in the days and weeks after? How do you square this? Well, Craig, look at it from my point of view. So I'm watching, just like everybody else was, scared to death, like what is going on? He gets off the stage. I see he appears to be okay. He says to me, Jill, I really, in other words. messed up, didn't I? And I said, yes, you did. And so we get off, and I know we're going into another event, or we have two more to do. And my mind is racing. What do I say to him? What do I say to him? I'm his wife. I've got to lift him up. So we go to the next event, and I'm thinking, what do I say that? We'll lift him up. That is true. I want to say the things that are true. And so I said, you know, you answered every question. My mind's racing. That's a pretty little bar. Well, and so, you know, I had to sort of lift him up. I mean, I'm his wife. I'm not going to get out on the stage there and say, Joe, you really screwed that up. So Mark Teeson, I know you have a million things to say right now, but just what are the top two things to that reaction? So she says, I'm his wife. So you know that there is no way that he could serve four more years as president of the United States. You see him up close every day behind the scenes. The American people knew this. 70%, even a year before the debate, 7 in 10 Americans said that he was not mentally fit to be president. So everybody knows it, but you're the closest person to him. Your responsibility is to sit him down and take away the presidential car keys. You're his wife. And instead what she did is she pushed him to run again. And got angry at everyone that told him to drop out. And got angry at everyone who told him to drop out. fed the lie to the American people that he was perfectly fine and then pushed him out on that debate stage to make himself a national laughing stock. That is not what a loving spouse does. That's not what a family does. It's the family's responsibility to sit down and say, Joe, we got a year earlier and say, you can't run for re-election. We need a transition plan. We need to have primaries. We need to have a process. Big picture with the Democrat. I couldn't care less about the Biden's. I never liked them anyway. But now the Democratic Party has to deal with her. And these questions. And then Biden's book is coming out. His book's coming out too, yeah. So again, it's going to bring everyone right back. Well, you know what? Good. Because the reality is this is the worst presidential scandal in my lifetime. And the idea, they lied to us for four years about that the president of the United States was not Copus Mentis, couldn't do his job. And the Democratic Party should pay a price for it. All these people are trying to run away from it. All right. Mark, is you really getting this, we're going to a hard break thing because you stopped a little bit earlier than you. Because I heard the music. Yes, you heard. It gets louder loud. I actually got a few minutes more minutes to talk here because you're still talking. Too bad. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade.

I'm so glad you're there. It's the Brian Kilmeade. I hope you had a great weekend. We're back in action now. This hour, we've got to be joined by Eric McTaxis at the bottom of the hour. New York Times bestselling author. It's got a new book, Revolution, The Birth of the Greatest Nation of the History of the World, as we have America 250. Also, it's great for us because we have a brand new station coming to you from Coleman, Texas, KXYL 102.3, the heart of Texas news. So that is great. And meanwhile, we're following a bunch of different stories. We're trying to see if a deal is kind of going to be placed in Iran. And we're also looking back at yesterday. There's a big parade yesterday in New York City. And for the first time since 1964, when they started with the Israeli Day parade, we had a sitting mayor decide not to show. And it is Zohran Mamdani, our first Muslim, our first inexperienced, really supremely inexperienced mayor, and a first mayor that has come out blatantly, seems to be blatantly anti-Semitic. So let's get to the big three. Number three. The New York Knicks back in the NBA finals for the first time since 1999. are primed and ready and rested to go. But the reality is they got a 7-foot-5 alien by the name of Victor Wemeyama from France. They're going to be the favorites to win the championship. No question. Talking sports, soccer and basketball, as the U.S. national team looks stellar in their first 26-man roster friendly against Senegal. They win 3-2, plus the Spurs Knicks tip off on Wednesday, and it promises to be anything but friendly, but quite expensive. Number two. I find it really shameful that there's a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip. Graham and I have a great marriage. Well, it's not up for me to decide, but consequential primaries around the country. The most intriguing is California, as the Republicans have high hopes for the governor's race, with Steve Hilton's first or second, and L.A.'s mayor's race. We're going to break it down. Meanwhile, what you were just hearing was the wife of Graham Platner, a Democratic star. He continues to embarrass the party in Maine, especially, his latest controversy that many would say is disqualifying. Number one. He said during an interview that initially the Iranians were committing to not having a nuclear weapon or creating a nuclear weapon within their country. And the president raised a very important question. What if the Iranians try to buy a nuclear weapon on the international black market? And ultimately, this language was included in the agreement. There you go. A tax exchange between Iran and the U.S. as Iran's president allegedly resigns and Trump ups demands for ceasefire to be extended. We follow the fluid situation. And that's what we're looking at now. I'll tell you right now, the president's thinking about what's going to take place because at some level he was dealing with the president in Iran. And that president is so frustrated because he felt he and the foreign minister have been dealt out of these negotiations, not by us, but by his own government, that he's resigning. So if you don't think there's a problem coming to a deal with a group of people that have no idea who's in charge, that is indeed you are just too politically biased to pay attention.

Actually, actually is reporting that Trump is making some addicts. More specifically, get the material. We want to know how we're going to get the thousand pounds of uranium out. And we've got to have the timing in this deal. The second source says Trump wants to amend some of the wording around the reopening of the strait of Ramos. And they do have some funds that are supposed to be unfrozen. And the president's really wrestling with that. With the Iran wants is the blockade to be lifted. Well, if they do their things, that'll be lifted. Security guarantees and war reparations. Never will they get war reparations, maintaining sovereignty over the strait. Police, you're not going to have sovereignty over the strait. You're not going to get reparations. In terms of unfrozen funds, that would be what you probably would exchange the unfrozen funds. But we'll see. Here's Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in Singapore. Talking about being ready to go, cut one. Ultimately, like I said, any deal that the president is willing to make, he's only going to make it if he believes it's a great deal for our country and the security of the world. And only one president was willing to lay it out on the line and ensure after 47 years. that Iran is not capable or have a nuclear weapon. So you saw it in how he's been talking about it publicly. Those goalposts haven't shifted at all, which is the expectation of the American people and what we've stated to Iran. So in the middle of negotiations, the closer they come to that reality, both now and into the future, the closer we're going to get to that kind of a deal. Meanwhile, they're exchanging fire right now between the two. There's no doubt about it. They went after our troops and our forces in Kuwait. They were successful on Saturday. They did wound some of our guys. We went out and took out one of their ships. We've took it out countless numbers, as many as 40 of these so-called mosquito navy that they have. So we're having success at that. And also the president took out, after they took out one of our drones and in their international waters, we blew up their radar stations in one of their local islands right near the Karg Island. So if you think people are just standing by looking at each other, you're not paying attention. In terms of our economy, yes, oil and gas prices are too high. But there's other things out there that show the economy somewhat healthy and not even near a recession. Kevin Hassett went over it. He was on the Sunday shows on... This week with George Stephanopoulos, who never has George Stephanopoulos on. And Kevin Hassett was listening as an economic advisor and couldn't believe how inaccurate and partial they're telling the story. Cut tail.

We track inventories every day. We started out with billions, billions of barrels of private and government inventories, and we still are in the billions. And so there's plenty of runway. But also, you know, there's a lot of pressure on Iran to finally agree to the President's Terbs. You know, one way to think about it is that if you look at the Rial, you know, half a dozen years ago, then one would, 4,000 of them would buy a dollar. Right now, it's something like 1.4 million of them buys them. So their currency is, I mean, if I had a real, it would almost be worthless. It would be like having less than a penny and then trying to go buy something for your family. So how much are they going to cash in? How much pain are they going to deal with? And they're desperate to get e-commerce going again, businesses communicating again. I mean, for example, do you have a square? Do you have any type of? internet connected device, if you have a small store or a big shop, how do you deal with that? We're back, you're back to using cash and what kind of cash? I mean, you have to have wheelbarrels worth of reels in order to buy a loaf of bread. So if you don't think they're in a desperate situation, you're not paying attention or you're too politically biased to really understand. So we'll talk about that too. I also want to talk about what's happening with the world of sports. And I have not talked about this yet. The U.S. national team has the hopes of the soccer world and the sports world. Fox has got the rights. You have 105 games. You have the biggest number of teams qualify ever. But most people are going to be looking at how the U.S. team is doing. Nobody expects him to win or get to the semifinals. Quarterfinals could be considered a great showing. I expect more. Here's a little of the USA as they get their 26-man roster together and look really good. Now, people want to know, is Polic going to start scoring? He did. Cut 34. Pulisick across goal and it's knocked in from Desk. One nil for the United States. Sugenio Dest with a goal. There's one push forward down the right side for Pepe to chase. Pulisik is in the middle. Pepe rolls it in. It's Christian Pulisig. Red the keeper. It's Pulisic with a goal. What a start for Christian Pulisic. A goal and an assist. It's Balagan with a chance. Balagan scores. The US restore their two goal advantage. But the final whistle goal. It's a victory for the United States against one of Africa's best. As Mauritio Pocetino's man, win it by three goals to two. Yeah, I mean, and you don't really care about the final score, but you want to see how much they'll, how well they're playing. And what happens is he basically played the entire roster, except for their starting goalie, which is kind of strange. So I think you're going to, even for you non-sucker fans, you're going to get into it. The other big story in the NBA. is how the Knicks have put together 11 straight games, two straight sweeps, and now we'll visit San Antonio to play the Spurs. This is how that game ended. Cut 39. What makes this? 35. Ahead to Fasel who goes in for the dunk and the San Antonio Spurs have done it. There will be a new champion in the NBA. A new era has dawned. It's Wendy's West. The Spurs are going to the NBA. Wembe, yeah, Wembe comes up, this is a 7 foot 4, 7 foot 5 center, 23 years old from France. I'm sure every French person is going to want to try to come over here that has a few dollars to rub together. Here he is after the game, cut 37. You work, all these hours we put in, it's for this type of emotions. Like I want that, I want to win so bad. It's like my life depends on it.

And look, I love that type of intensity that matters so much with a guy that never has to work again the rest of his life. Jalen Brunson, this guy's a fascinating story, a second round draft pick, first guy off the bench in Dallas, wants to get out, comes to the next where he becomes the man. And his college coach at Villanova, Jay Wright came out and said, I never thought he'd be this good. And here's why. He was never, he's somebody that has to be the number one option. I never thought about that as the point guard that he had to be the number one option. But obviously he thought he could do that in New York. Here he is, cut 40. Your teammates always talk about how you make them better. Just how have they helped you become this conference finals MVP? They give me the confidence. They let me be me. I think most importantly we all believe in each other from top to the bottom. It's an honor to play with them, honestly. What are you most proud of about this group? Resilience. I think that we'd be able to stay focused, stay composed. It starts to the top of the organization, starts with Mr. Dolan. Front office, coaches just all the way down to us. I mean, like I said, from top to bottom, it means something. So there you go, and his dad's an assistant coach. We'll see what's going to happen. And if you're eight days, you are rested. But are you cold? Are you, because coming off a big rest going into the Philadelphia game, they needed a 22-point comeback in the fourth quarter in order, and it was stunning, just as stunning as it sounded, to win in overtime. Stephen A. Smith finally put to lid on this, talked about what the series looks like, knowing that he's pulling for the Knicks. Cut 41. The New York Knicks back in the NBA finals for the first time since 1999. are primed and ready and rested to go. I've got a bit of trepidation, a little concerned, because Mitchell Robinson, they're back up big at 7 feet, 245 pounds. Somehow, someway, managed to break his pinky during the week off or so that he said, don't get me started with that. But in the end, going against the San Antonio Spurs, their inexperience is something that the New York Knicks can try and lead on. But the reality is they got a 7 foot 5 alien by the name of Victor Wemeyama from France. They're going to be the favorites to win the championship. But I'm not counting the New York Knicks out by a long shot. Yeah, Webbingiama, not only is he big and, yeah, he's lanky, but man, what an athlete. I could basically walk on his hands. He also does some martial arts. So you've got to find a way around him, and it really helps when you're 7 foot 1 center. It would have helped had he not. broken his thumb and needed an emergency surgery. Excuse me, his pinky and not needed an emergency surgery. So we'll take a sure time out and come back and talk more about what's going on in the political circles. I am pumped up for Tuesday's primary in Los Angeles. I'll tell you why. I'll also give you the latest in Maine. We're an embarrassment of this grand platinum is why people say it doesn't matter. We'll discuss that after his latest scandal emerges. You'll listen to Brian Kilmeade.

From breaking news to big name guests, Brian brings you insight you won't hear anywhere else. You're listening to The Brian Kilmeade. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmeade. But let me ask you, do you have concerns with the weight of all these controversies that it may jeopardize Democratic hopes to get that Senate seat in Maine? Yeah, I have concerns. That guy has questions to answer, and that's what campaigns are for. So much is riding on Democrats taking control of the Senate, that this election... If we do not get the votes necessary to take care of the House and the Senate, we will continue to have an out-of-control president. Yeah, that is Cory Booker who's running for president, pretending to be just in New Jersey. But he failed miserably last time, never left seven single digits. I don't think it's going to be any different this time. And now he's talking about Graham Platner because revelations that he's sexting. And with eight women, eight different women, we saw some pictures emerge over the weekend. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal write about it on Saturday. And now all of a sudden people are complaining. going for a side show instead of the actual issues. So, Graham Platner, who was found out on Reddit, was mocking a fellow soldier saying he should have died, not gotten the purple heart. We know about the Nazi tattoo. We know about his obscene comments about women. We know how him declaring himself a communist. But yet he's leading Susan Collins by eight points. But now this emerges about the sexting scandal. Cut 11. But the stories are true, right, about the texts? No, no, this is the amazing part. The Wall Street Journal of New York Times ran stories without any evidence besides the gossip from a former staffer. I'm sorry, that's... That's, frankly, journalistic malpractice. We pushed back on it. They won it. They did it anyways. The messages they did not. I'm confirmed that what Genevieve McDonald said in the New York Times is not true. So you never met with her about uncomfortable, for lack of a better word, sexting messages as the campaign was going? We talked about things in Amy and I's marriage that we've gone through over the years. We talked about that because that's our marriage, and we discussed it with the campaign. What Genevieve McDonald claims isn't true. Well, see.

We will say. So it doesn't even matter. I don't want to get into people's relationship. It's not a part of that. But when they say that this guy is the next generation, the blue-collar Democratic ideal of a real man, not like Governor Walsh pretended to be a real man with jazz hands, not the case. But listen when Democrat, by the way, Chris Murphy's releasing a book. And he's releasing a book about values and ethics and how he wants to bring them back to politics. Then he's asked about Graham Platner. Cut 15. Yeah, I mean, I have not followed this story as closely as others have. But, I mean, Graham Platner is somebody that served our country. He served his community. He's also made mistakes. And he has admitted that character also involves standing up to people who are bankrupting and corrupting. So he goes ahead and we go on. I don't want to bore you with that interview. Go couch this. Graham Platner's running against Trump. What are you talking about running against Trump? You're against Susan Collins. The other definition of a moderate Republican who constantly is bucking Trump, including calling for his impeachment. So anybody who says she's a maga person, I mean, just stop him right there and say you're just playing politics. Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey asked about Graham Platner. Cut 14. Do you have concerns about Graham Platner? Well, first I'll say is, you know, I've been very much focused on the crisis in my home state, so I haven't been able to focus as much on this. From my standpoint, you know, I will work with whoever the people of Maine elect. Right. And he's a center. And he was put there because Senator Menendez had his gold bars and put in jail. So he was appointed there by the governor. And Cory Booker, you heard him in the open top of the hour. And he said essentially kind of skulked out of this. But you know, that guy's got some questions to answer. I just think that Susan Collins trailing by eight is very typical. Susan Collins is always trailing against good candidates. He is not a good candidate. He's totally lied about his background. He's from a private school who cost a lot of money, and elite school costs a ton of money. And he says that, you know, he's some oyster farmer, but he came from prominence. His dad was a successful lawyer, his successful lawyer, and his grandfather was a worldwide known, a renowned architect. He eventually went to a normal public school, but that was after spending the gist of his career in a private school. Which is fine. Just don't say you're different. Donald Trump never said, I'm not a millionaire. I'm not a billionaire. He never said that. In fact, he would over-inflate, if anything, how much he was worth. And then, but yet he got most of the blue-collar vote, just be who you are. Whatever that is, be who you are. This is turning out not to be who he is. And if he is who he is, maybe he's that person on Reddit. We'll see. So coming up in Los Angeles, I cannot wait. I think you have a shot at Spencer Pratt, actually pulling off an upset and a trend in this country where average people who just want to use common sense run for office because they want to fix things. They don't want to be rich. They don't want to be famous. They just want to serve their country. Could Spencer Pratt be just the beginning, even in an area, even in an area where it is solidly blue? He's a Republican.

talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmeade. All right. Eric Metaxis is the number one New York Times bestselling author. He's got a brand new book, certainly to be bestselling too. It's called Revolution, the Birth of the Greatest Nation and the History of the World. Now, Eric, a lot of times we like to bump in with some people from the era that maybe Madison or Jefferson, but we don't have any sound or video. I apologize for that. But you bring it to life in this book. Look at how many pages? Is that a thousand pages? It is only 600 pages. Only six. It could have been a thousand. I mean, no joke in the writing of this. I wanted it to be definitive. And there's so many great stories. I don't want to leave anything out. So even to get it down to 600 pages was tough. But it is, it's like an epic narrative. This is the story of the birth of the greatest nation in the history of the world. This is not some piece of the story. It's the whole story. And you know this better than almost anybody. There are all these heroes, these insane stories. Every American should know these stories. It is criminal that we don't all know these stories. And I keep saying, if you go to somebody in 1960 on Main Street, America, you put a microphone in the face, they knew all these names and these stories. And we've drifted and drifted and drifted. What do you think that is, by the? Why do I think it is? Because we're, we've been dealing with, you know, progressive lunatics who either hate America or only focus on what's wrong with America. And so they don't feel, I mean, you saw it in the. this pretty lame uh ken burns pbs documentary where he does 12 hours on the american revolution manages to make it not sound exciting or heroic that's like like i'm going to show you we're going to go see the movie rocky and you're going to kind of struggle i don't know who the good guy is like how do you do that with the american revolution progressives don't feel comfortable cheering for America. They feel compromised. They're kind of tortured. And so they can't celebrate it. And so this has been going since the 60s. You've been hearing every bad thing and not the good stuff. And before we get to the bulk of your story, which is the story, but it's in great detail, I was watching the Al Sharpton over the weekend. And he said, right, but they just showed a cut because of how farcical it was. And one thing he said is, well, how can you possibly celebrate America when women couldn't vote until 1912 and Americans were not equal. Like, well, welcome to the rest of the world. It's not in 2026. He probably doesn't realize there's slavery in Africa today, Al Sharpton. Do you care about that, that the Muslim Islamists are enslaving Christians today while you're talking on the radio? Tell Abigail Adams not to celebrate the winning of the revolution with the son who becomes president and the husband who was our second. Listen, I... My goal in writing this book was simply to tell the story. I said every American, we have a debt. We have a debt to the men that suffered and some died so that we could have freedom. We have a debt to them to know their story, to know their names, to know what liberty is, what they were fighting for, what the prince. But we need to know that. And I said, I want to tell that whole story. And in the course of...

of doing the research. People kept saying me, okay, Eric, you're writing a book on The Revolution. What's your angle? And I said, over and over, I have no angle. I just want to tell the story. It's a beautiful story. It tells itself. But in the course of doing the research, you see an angle. Like, you see stuff that I'm not hearing. It's not being taught in the public schools. We didn't learn it growing up. That the British were barbaric. I never heard that story. They were like the Japanese or the Nazis in World War II. They were barbaric. And the Americans, Washington that had the pack, were committed not to stooping to those barbarisms, to fighting in a noble way, fighting for a sacred cause. This is, if I've ever seen a story of the good guys versus the bad guys or good versus evil, I did not expect that when I did my research that it would be so clear that the folks on our side were committed to this noble, sacred cause, willing to die for a sacred cause. And it just inspired me. I learned so much, but now I feel like this compulsion to tell everybody in America, you need to know this stuff. So what people should understand too. It was the perfect storm because we had the founding fathers who had this fantastic Scottish education who studied different civilizations, the Rome's, ancient Rome and Greece. And with John Locke coming up and emerging at the same time. So when they won the former government, they weren't winging it. No. It was almost even when they were in their 30s, they were ready to form it. They had, well, see, this is the whole thing. It's like, think about the French, the reason my book's titled Revolution and not the American Revolution is this is the only true revolution. that ever succeeded. The French Revolution is a joke compared to the American Revolution. It failed miserably. They get rid of a king. What do they get? A dictator, emperor, and a bloodbath. And why is that? And the main reason, and this is a big thing that I did not know the way I now know it, is that the men of the American Revolution were men dedicated to virtue and to faith. And they knew that if we get rid of one king, We're going to have to look to God like the Israelites in the wilderness. Jefferson, Franklin, they all understood that the narrative is we're escaping Egypt under Pharaoh and we're going to be in the Sinai wilderness looking directly to God. And only because of that. can we govern ourselves because we have a faith do you think that that's part of the reason why they were so reluctant to have a president early in the constitution they're like hey 13 states you'll govern our own thing i don't want you i don't want you being told by any central authority yeah no it's that's what's so funny so you see them kind of trying to figure it out and some of them are hyper dedicated to quote unquote republican principles you see i mean the greatest heroes samuel adams and john adams were the most worried about you know washington wants uh an army a standing army that seems like, you know, a departure from our, from our values. So they're trying to work this out. And obviously they don't really work it out until 1787. But it's so fascinating how dedicated they were to these ideas and how they understood it. But what's amazing to me, and again, I didn't know this going into it, is that because they all.

took for granted that we're all going to look to God. Like we're not going to reject God the way they did in France. We're going to kill all the priests and nuns. Or in the Bolshevik revolution, they kill all the priests and torture the Christians. God is at the center of what we're doing. But they kind of knew that that's what's going to replace King George III. And there's a point. August 1st of 1776, the day before they officially signed the Declaration of Independence, Samuel Adams, who's what a hero, he gives a speech to everybody in Congress. He's a member of Congress. He gives a speech, and he says, we have this day restored the sovereign. In other words, capital as sovereign, we have. Put God at the center. We kicked out the tyrant, and now we are totally free, but we're going to look to God. Now, again, this is voluntary. This is not a government forcing people to go to church or become Christians, whatever. Because a lot of them didn't. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington were not typical church-going Christians, wouldn't you say? Well, Washington was. No, Washington was a man of faith, and that's part of what I was amazed by doing my research. I thought he's painted as some kind of a deist. I don't see that at all. I mean, everywhere I look, he is being. dramatically serious about his Christian faith. And that's kind of been, you know, I would say. avoided by people who have kind of this secular narrative. They got this French Enlightenment narrative and they keep pushing that. But it's like, I don't see it. Like Washington was, I mean, the term that a number of them used, they had this idea that it's like a Puritan idea, a reformation idea, that a covenantal theology that like Israel in the Old Testament, they said, when Israel honors God, God gives them, will honor them and they will flourish. And when they turn from God, everything goes wrong. All of these revolutionaries seem to get that narrative and nobody got it more than John Adams and George Washington. And I thought, I never heard that. I never saw that. So I'm reading Washington's letters. And I'm thinking he understood this. He is like speaking sternly to his officers telling them, you know, you need to go to services on Sunday morning and we don't want swearing or gambling or like he's. He seems to get this in a way that I have never heard before, that if we behave in the right way, God will honor us. And that's not a deist talking. That's somebody who has a very old-fashioned kind of view. So we win the Revolutionary War, stuns the world. They're slow to get out. They finally leave and get out of New York, the British do. And they do everything possible to make sure we are not successful. But when we start, there's no constitution. There's no president. We're living off the Articles of Confederation. And the 13 colonies are all. kind of rivals saying, wait a second, you have war debt to pay. I'm not paying your war dead. I'm not going to pay yours. You're not going to pay mine. It's not good. But it took an adjustment in real time to say, okay, what we won, we're about to blow it, guys. We got to get together and come up with the new set of rules. And I think that is understated. Hey, we don't know it all. Oh, totally. Figuring this out of the fly and everybody in the world wants us to fail.

All the leaders, the rest of the world wants us to fail. Well, I mean, that's why I very conveniently end my book in 1783. Like, I don't take it to the next thing because there's this moment. John Adams, I mean, he kind of ends up in some ways being the hero of the narrative, even though I didn't set out that way. But I just see him in the beginning in Boston. He talks that the book opens with him. He says that in 1761, he was in a courtroom in Boston watching James Otis Jr. argue against British Ritz of Assistance. We never heard about this stuff. And he says later on, the older Adam says this was the opening scene of the revolution. What is that, by the way? Yeah, it was the open. He says it was the opening scene of the revolution. Basically, it was where. You begin to see the clash. In other words, the British, they have a new king, King George the 3rd, he ascends the throne, 1761. So they have to do this formality. Ritz of assistance simply means that the people that are kind of patrolling, smuggling, keeping their eyes on our taxes being paid, are they smuggling stuff? We want to crack down on that. And they have to do this formality where they reissue these quote-unquote writs of assistance. And James Otis Jr., who's a huge figure, we should all know his name, the 25-year-old Adams sees him arguing in a Boston courtroom in 1761 against the rich of assistance and saying, listen, this infringes on our rights as British subjects. The British citizens, we are free. Our rights come from God. The government can't just bust into my house because they got a piece of paper. A man's house is his castle. All these ideas that basically says we believe we're free as British subjects. We are free men. First come into focus at that moment. And John Adams is tracking this through the 1760s. And, you know, obviously gets very involved. And it just escalates and escalates, obviously, with a stamp tax. But it starts in early in the 1760s. So a big part of my book is before 1775, how did we get to Lexington and Concord? And he got the French Indian War, which obviously, that's the big one. So. Do you say that this plays into why in 1770 is John Adams, this young lawyer who wants to represent the British, or chooses to represent the eight British soldiers who were jailed in relation to the Boston Massacre? Well, I'll tell you, that is, I'm glad you brought that up because that is a, it's like a sacred moment in our history. Because here you have John Adams totally siding with the Patriots, but. He says, and this is what you see happening with Washington and Adams during the war, they say, listen, we want to win, but we want to win God's way. We're not going to win by lying. We're not going to win by railroading soldiers who are basically innocent. We're going to stick to the rules. So John Adams says these men, because he knew the story, he knew that the Boston mob had incited.

The Boston Massacre. The Boston Massacre. Five died. Okay, five died. But when you, when you, it's one of my favorite chapters in the book because I thought to myself, I never really understood this story. There's no doubt that the mob, like the guys on our side, in that moment, they weren't behaving well. They were like, it was like a bunch of rowdy, you know, people in the street. And. They were inciting the soldiers. And I mean, you can just imagine somebody's in your face, fitting with worse than snowballs and whatever. And like we're in your face, in your face, poking you in the face. Eventually somebody snaps. And we don't even know who fired the first shot. But the point is it was definitely not a massacre. That's just not true. And here you have John Adams, even though he's siding with the American colonists strongly. He says, you know what? I side with them, but I side with law and order. I side with truth. We're going to do this right. If we're going to win, if we expect anybody to take us seriously, much less Great Britain, we have to be honorable. These old-fashioned ideas, we have to be honorable. And John Adams felt, and I say this in the book, he felt like if we honor God in our behavior, if we just do the right thing. That's the only way to move forward. And that's the classic case that here you have John Adams defending the British soldiers from effectively mob justice. The mob wanted those British soldiers hanging from the gallows on Boston Common. That was the only way. And to the credit, when it time to come to court, the eyewitnesses didn't make up a story. The eyewitnesses were on as saying, I don't know. I didn't see it. This is what I saw. I heard fire. I don't know who did it. More with Eric Metaxus in just a moment. He's got a brand new book out called Revolution, the birth of the greatest nation in the history of the world. Don't move. Where big stories meet bigger conversations. Stay informed and energized with the Brian Kilmeade.

He's so busy. He'll make your headspin. It's Brian. Brian Kilmeade. Eric Mettaxas is in studio, New York, New York Times, number one bestseller, and this one is probably going to head right there. It's called Revolution. It's out tomorrow, the birth of the greatest nation, the history of the world, and Eric, you made it clear. I'm not looking forward. I'm not telling you what happened after. I'm going to bring you to from 1775, I guess, to... No, before. You know, it's basically 1763 until 1783. It's like the run-up to how do we get to the war, so Lexington and Concord, and then the war. And it's funny because I thought the stuff before the war, I'll just put it a little bit before Lexington and conquered. And the more I did the research, I thought, wow, this is the most fascinating part that I didn't know. I mean, the Stamp Act, I kind of thought, oh, you know, it's a paragraph in a social studies textbook. It's boring. It's not boring. It's insane. I mean, the riots and the Tomol. Because it's more than stamps. It's paper. Oh, I mean, I mean. And even more than that, it's about the principle. These Americans, and this is a funny thing. You know, if you're a cynical person, a lot of people are cynical. But these men really believed in these principles. So, you know, we say it wasn't about the money. It wasn't about the money. It was about this is wrong. You're trying to tax us. You have no right to. It's like if somebody comes to the gun and says, pay me. And you say, who are you and why should I pay you? And they say, shut up, I have the gun, pay me. You know, you're going to say, look, If I have to, I will. But if I can get out of it, you're not convincing me that I owe you this money. So here you have these American colonists saying, Great Britain suddenly decides that we got to shut up and pay this tax. And they felt like if we go along with this, we're enslaved. We're not going to go along with this. We want clarity on this. And if you can't clarify it, we're not paying you. And if you see the way when you get the actual war, it couldn't have, you know, we have Bunker Hill where they lose 40% of the British. are casualties, dead or wounded. And they say basically, one of the quotes, if I could just paraphrase, I don't know the exact words, was if we keep winning battles like this, we're not going to have an army left. Yeah, well, I mean, it's, this happens over and over again where they underestimate the Americans. These Americans actually believe this stuff. They're willing to fight and die for this stuff. And the British, they were very arrogant, very cynical. They really mocked the Christian faith. and the principles of these colonists. They thought, you know, who are they kidding? They're a bunch of hypocrites that they're not going to. And in fact, that's what leads to the Boston Tea Party. I never really understood the whole story of the Boston Tea Party. So I did a lot of digging to understand it. And I thought it was a cynical, like a bribe on the side of the British. They were like, you know what? These Americans, they say they don't want to pay taxes. We're going to lower the price of T so much that they're just going to take that deal and shut up. And the American said, no, we are not going to, unless you take the tax off this, we don't care if you have lowered the price dramatically to kind of suckered us to bribe us. We're not going to do it.

The British never understood what they were dealing with. And how about why did they dress like Indians? That's what they ever understand. It was because they wanted to be politically incorrect to troll the lips. Just kidding. They basically said, we're Americans. We identify as Americans. And the Indians, there's a number of places in my book where I show that when they would portray America, like in a Paul Revere engraving, it was as an Indian. So this is their idea of this is America. We're Americans first. and British second, which is a real break in 1773, but it's like they'd been pushed to the edge at that point. Right. So when you, when you see this, it makes more and more sense, the more research you did, that we'd be heading to war. It's, what's funny to me is it reminds me like. There was no reason the British needed to keep pushing. It's kind of like Pharaoh. You know, you want to say, hey, have you learned your lesson now? What about now? What about now? Never? Okay, you know, so they never got their lesson. They kept pushing. And Eric, you have it all in your book, which is 600 pages. The Birth of the Greatest Nation, the History of the World. It's called Revolution. It's out tomorrow. Pre-order it today. Eric Metaxis, congratulations. Thank you so much, Brian.