“Finish the Job”: Is the US Finally Winning the 47-Year War with Iran?

This Memorial Day, as America approaches the 25th anniversary of 9-11, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation paid off the mortgages on 26 homes for Gold Star families and families of fallen first responders across 13 states. In tribute to the 343 FDNY firefighters lost on 9-11, Tunnel to Towers has committed to delivering 343 mortgage-free homes this year. Their courage. will never be forgotten. Join us. Donate $11 a month at T2T.org. What is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Your local Toyota dealer has great deals available today on Rav4, Grand Highlander, Camry, and Corolla with the features and style you deserve. It means driving for less. With hybrid and plug-in hybrid options across the lineup, delivering great MPGs. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles, meaning your car will hold its value for years to come. Shop Toyota.com to find out more. Toyota, let's go places. From high atop, Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmeade. One, hope you having a great day. Fantastic morning. It's going to get better. We're going to give you up to date on what's happening in the world, and there's a lot taking place this hour. Lieutenant Colonel Alan West updates us on the big battle in Texas for the Republican nomination and ultimately the next Senate seat in Texas. It's not going to be a layup with this controversial Democratic nominee that people think is better than Beto. I think he's worse, but we'll have to see. There's a lot of pressure now in the Senate to blow up the filibuster. Republicans. I'm not going to budge on that, but it looks like John Cornyn has. We'll talk about that. So let's get to the big three. Number three. We also want TSA and FEMA funded, but we are not going to be blackmailed into cutting a blank check for ICE to get it done. So I hope Republicans stop listening to Stephen Miller and start getting serious about reform. Such a clown. She is awful. Just awful. DHS funding remains on hold as Chuck Schumer and John Thune ratchet up the tensions and the anger. The stakes never been higher as we are at war right now and Dems have never been more irresponsible. I'll explain. Number two. So yeah, 400 million barrels feels like a lot, but when you've got 15 million going through the Strait of Hormuz every single day that can't get there, it's only about 25 days of supply of oil. So it helps, but it really doesn't solve the problem. That's CBS. Energy prices rise as tankers hit in and around the Strait of Hormuz. The West is showing no signs of buckling as more of the West does something responsible. They tap into their reserves as we have to keep the prices. reasonable. Number one. We don't want to leave early, do we? We got to finish the job, right? After midnight hammering, then we left, we figured that'll be the end of them for a while. But they started again. We don't want to go back every two years.

Day 13, Iran targeting the Gulf States missile defense, energy, and financial sector and civilian targets while the U.S. and Israel taking apart their military arsenal and targeting their secret police force. Soon the Iranian people will have the opportunity to take back their country. Will they be able to? That's going to be key. And how much more can we do to take apart the IRGC? That'll be key. But I'm just amazed how the media seems to be cheering for the worst regime on earth. I bring you to the Washington Post mostly negative against this. the administration tangentially the country. But they had an editorial today that I put on my, I've just put on X as I walked up through the, I got on the elevator today. They essentially says, yeah, this is a war of choice and it's not our choice. You know whose choice it was? It was Iran's in 1979. Even if you look back at what the DNI put out in Joe Biden's last year in the White House. They said the Iran military has facilitated 190 attacks on U.S. forces. 190 attacks. That's Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic TIA, whatever they sponsor and whatever they do directly. Assassination attempts on the president twice. They put a bounty on Pompeo, Hook, and John Bolton. Three soldiers in Jim Jordan have been killed. 603 between 2003 and 2011. That's Americans. The 241 in 1983. Keep in mind, this is all Democrat and Republican stats. It seems as though if you watch other outlets and read almost every other publication outside the New York Post, you will not hear this. You'll hear that Donald Trump just wants to have a war. What he's doing is ending it, not leaving it for the next guy. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but please don't tell me he did not anticipate the straight of her moves being challenged, let's say. They're the naval commander for the Revolutionary Guard said any ship aimed to arm aiming to pass through the straight must obtain Iran's approval or face attacks. A couple of things. It's not going to be from the sea. It's going to be from land. Little by little we're getting rid of all their all their launchers and their rockets and they can't replenish. Manufacturing's been shut down. Not many mines because they don't want to mine ships that might be delivering oil to China, the number one customers. So what are they doing? They're trying to blow up tankers from the land. Okay, I understand it. We should consider we're putting our destroyers and escorting through, number one. And number two, if you could just be a little bit more patient, they'll have the inability to do and blow up these tankers. This is what they're hoping to break the will of the West. And so far it hasn't happened to break the will of the Gulf states. No one's budging. Behind the scenes in front, you don't hear any reports about that because they understand this evil regime is showing you. Anybody who has any doubts who they are? Notice they're targeting civilians, going for residents and commercial areas. They're not even getting to military bases in most cases. Here's Ambassador Mike Waltz last night, cut six. We defended Israel today and it strikes against Hezbollah and its fight to the north. Today in the UN Security Council, we had all the Gulf Arabs 13 to 0 with 135 nations.

standing with them. And then tomorrow, again, what the heck is the UN good for? Well, tomorrow we're going to have them talking about snapback sanctions and keeping the maximum pressure up that President Trump put in place as first term and put back in place this second term. So we're fighting the fight on all fronts, Sean. And this is the diplomacy that we can have on the world stage to match. what our great war fighters are doing. And they're doing it. And I think they just pick up the pace even more, make the damage even greater. They killed the commander of the besiege. Who is that? That's the secret security force, dressed in plain clothes, oftentimes on motorcycles that harass and kill and maim the average everyday Iranian. Let's say they are putting the moral code out. If a woman doesn't have a hijab or a hijab on, they go to jail or they're physically abused. They have been terrorizing the Iranian people since 1979. They're usually, they're mostly young men and almost all religious zealots. So on the ground, the Israelis, mostly, I believe, are beginning to target them and then put a target on their back. They've set up checkpoints to show they're still in charge. So we are blowing up the checkpoints. We are making gains. General David Petraeus, cut seven. We're very well along in this. The problem is that there still are challenges there. And I think probably the biggest is the strait. There still is a threat for ships were attacked today. There's the threat of short-range missiles. You can lay mines with other than mine layers. You can actually use fast boats and so forth. It depends on the type of the mine. There are some mines reportedly less than 10 that have actually gone in the water. If we end up in a situation where they mine the strait, that will be very challenging as well. But it'll be challenging for ships heading to China where they get 50% of their oil. Do they want to mine a strait that would stop them from navigating it? And the one thing, yeah, we have sunk their Navy. But the fast boats are still out there between 70 and 80% of them. And they're harder to get. and harder to find. Not saying we can't eventually get to them, but I think it's important. They're trying to do everything possible to make our allies in the Gulf uncomfortable. They've had some success growing up oil fields, refineries, desalitization plants, and making people in Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia feel insecure. But if you just look at what the, how these. Iranians are acting and what they're aiming for. It backs up why you needed this confrontation to begin with and they needed this president to do it. I love John Fetterman's attitude. We got a couple of things happening. We got to get the uranium 400 kilograms. We thought we know where it is. Trusty Israelis can be able to get it. We got to kill the new supreme leader, the son of the Ayatollah. He's already been wounded. And number three. We got to do it the best I can to get rid of the IRGC. But among the people that understand what our next target should be is Senator John Fetterman. He said flat out. We just got to kill the Supreme Leader. Now they're saying, look, we replaced a younger and older Ayatollah with the younger one. Number one is not an Ayatollah. No one even knows who this guy is capable of. Nobody really knows him or necessarily out of the circles has heard his voice. But the IRGC has put him into play.

And by the way, he has refused to come out. They literally had a cut out of him at his ceremony. So he shows he's got no courage. And he's not even putting out tapes yet. Because I guess he, forensically, he doesn't want to be followed. So all I can tell you is any military operation has some changes. But if you read any of the columns yesterday on the front page of the Washington Post, New York Times, you would think this is the worst thing that ever happened in the history of our country. That is just not the case. And I bring it to a myriad. I just ask you to make your own opinions and don't fall susceptible to it. People want to spin it. It looks like we have CNN, Washington Post, and others actually pulling for Iran, having short-term memory loss on what Iran's done to this country and how it's bedeviled seven presidents. So here is the Israeli spokesperson talking about what Hezbo is doing, fully financed and led by the IRGC in targeting the northern part of Israel. Cut 13. Brigadier General Ephron, Effie, DeFron. Listen, cut 13. In recent days, we have identified that Hezbollah is trying to increase the firing towards northern communities and expand the range of fire to additional areas in the country. Hezboa is taking heavy blows. We are deepening the damage to its capabilities with each passing day and increasing the pressure on it. I think this is the overall death rattle. When you think Hezbollah, think Iran, when you see Iran, who was so careful to react after the 12 days and hit a base that they warned us they would hit and really damaged nothing. Now they have nothing to lose because they've already lost so much. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two days ago said Iranian people, be prepared to take back your country. It's almost time. You listen to the Brian Kilmeade. Back with your thoughts in a moment. 1-866408-7669. Where big stories meet bigger conversations. Stay informed and energized with the Brian Kilmeade. Hi everyone, it's Brian Kilmeade here. Are you tired of those uncomfortable dress shirts, especially when they bunch up under a sweater? If so, then you must check out collars and go. Makers of the dress collar polo. Listen up. These shirts are four-way stretch, buttery soft polos with firm dress collars on them, so they give you the dress shirt look, but extremely comfortable polo feel. You can wear them with anything under a sweater, with a blazer, or by themselves as an elevated polo. They work for any occasion. These polos are perfect, whether it's in the office, on a golf course or a night out. Collars and Co is exploding and have gone viral on social media thanks to the one million investment they received on Shark Tank from Mark Cuban and Peter Jay Jones. You don't have to worry about collars that flop down and spread out. They stay firm and sharp all day. It's an amazing array of sweaters, quartersips, pants, and outerwear. If you're looking for the performance dress shirt or polo that looks great all day, check out collarsandco.com. Use promo code Brian or 15% off of any purchase of $100 or more. That's promo code Brian.

From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmeade. A barrel of Brent crude shot over $100 a barrel yesterday. The average price of one gallon in the United States is $3.54. That's a 17% increase since the start of the war. Gas prices are going through the roof. Tariffs still here? More problems are going to happen because of all of this prices are going to continue to go up. I love when politicians say to people, don't worry about that inflation, it's gone. American people are smart. Costs are going up for many reasons, but including because of this war of choice that the president has decided on his own to wage. So that's what they're saying. I mean, the talking points are so ridiculously fundamental and rudimentary. They all say the same thing. And man, it's embarrassing to be 70 something year old and have to still read from notes or have someone tell you what to say. But what he's talking about is on inflation. And the numbers were really good. Consumer prices rose at 2.4%. That's getting closer and closer to the two that we need, right? Prices for goods, excluding food, energy and used cars and trucks were up just 1.7%. That's a very good number. shelter costs, a large component of labor's department's consumer price measure, we're up 3% from a year earlier matching January's gain. So that's positive. I watched Black Rocks Larry Fink last night with waiting to go on with Brett Bear. And he says, listen, I understand price is going up temporarily with this conflict. It hasn't changed his opinion. They thinks our economy is good. He thinks it's strong. He said, I believe the war is going to be, whether it lasts a long time or not, because I don't think it will. He said, he went on to say on a special report that right now. They are feeling a little uncertain with the tariffs because we don't know what the court's going to do. He creates an uncertainty. He creates fear. He goes, but the feeling is that 14.5 trillion of money that we manage most of all is very long dated. He at Black Rock, where all that money is, he says, they don't pay much attention to short term volatility. And even though the president looks at his polls, he also knows it's March. And if you address a chronic problem, that's what leaders do. You keep you calm. When everyone else is losing their heads, you keep yours. And you look at the big picture. Venezuela, I'm not saying it's over, but it looks like an extremely positive situation. Cuba's going to fall under its own weight. When Iran finally gets tamed, you're going to see a much different Middle East. It's going to be hard, and it's necessary. The other thing, the supreme leader, he's not Nyatollah, just gave his first statement demanding all types of craziness, basically that we release all sanctions immediately, or we're going to face certain death. And Russia and China support him. Big deal. We already know it. So we'll play some of those remarks. He's wounded in battle by almost all accounts.

They said, listen, there are a problem, too. I mean, I'm watching a lot of the British coverage. There's a lot of hostages from the UK being held by the Iranians. You know, look at the way they've treated everybody in the past. Remember, when John Kerry was cutting their deal with the JCPOA as Secretary of State, our guys, evidently, in international waters, were captured by the Iranians and put on their knees with guns at their heads. And there had to be an emergency intervention or else these guys would have put in jail to. I mean, that's really what Iran's history has been about. And on top of all this, we hear about a threat on the west coast of a drone strike, one-way drone strike. And I'm sure this is going to be commonplace. That's why we need the Golden Dome, by the way. So having said that, the DHS is still shut down. The TSA is not paid. ICE is looked at as the enemy of the people more than Iran. It's insane. So these two aren't funding it. So the people who live paycheck to paycheck or make $50,000 a year don't get a paycheck. Listen to the Brian Kilmeyellee show. So glad you're here. 1866408-769. After I have a great conversation with Lieutenant Colonel Allen West, we talk Texas and more. Then I hope to talk to you just on the other end. You can write me at Brian Kilmeade.com. Just click on comments and I'll find out what you have to say. Don't move.

Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% off your first purchase at Fox Newswineshop.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 order to order. Please drink responsibly. talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kilmeade. Will Iran continue this war? That's where I think you start to see the Chinese get involved. They're the ones together with Japan, Korea, and India who are most affected by all of this. They're the big consumers. of the oil and gas that comes out of the Gulf, although it affects the price of our West Texas intermediate crude as well. When do they put pressure on Iran to say, knock this off? When do the Iraqis put pressure on them? Because they do some of their sanctions evasion through the Iraqis, and they're starting to shut down their oil loading. Many of the oil loading facilities have literally shut down, and they're shutting in oil wells and so forth production, which will take time to re-establish as well. So that is General Petraeus offering some brilliant analysis. That's why the Carlisle Group hired him for their investing. He had real understanding of the Middle East and the hotspots around the world. Meanwhile, Iran's new Supreme Leader says the leverage of closing the Strait of Hermuz should be used in his first statement since getting the job. We hear he's wounded. Hopefully he's very wounded. Aron, he went on to say a few things too, predicting our eventual defeat. And also he's going to continue to hit our bases in the region. region. And he also talking in some very muscled up language for a guy that's lost his Air Force, lost his production ability to produce weapons, ballistic missiles. And now we're working on and having a lot of success in blowing up his ability to make drones. Okay, let's bring Lieutenant Colonel Alan West. Colonel, how do you think the war's going so far from your contacts and what you've seen? Well, you forgot one other aspect. He doesn't have a Navy anymore, and he doesn't have a mine laying capability and capacity there in the Straits of Hormuz. So the only thing he could use to threaten the straits would be continuing to use those drones. And when you have air dominance, that means that we can have a 24-7 air cap over Iran. And any time we see a missile launch, a ballistic missile launcher, come out. we can immediately strike that. And if we have a J-Star system up, which gives you the moving target indicators, you know exactly what's moving on the ground there. And I'm quite sure we have that capability up. So, again, I kind of liken this to kids being in the backseat and, you know, some of them screaming, are we there yet? We got, what, this is 12 days, we're into this, and we've completely decapitated the number one state sponsor of Islamic terrorism. They are depleting their ballistic missile and drone capability and capacity. And I agree with General Petraeus that at some point in time, China, which gets 75 to 80% of those energy resources out of Iran, is going to say enough. And they're going to try to.

see how they can look forward to a new and different Iran because they're the ones who's going to lose out, along with Russia, who loses those who weaponized drone systems. Well, my thing is, why did we let that barge or that tanker get through of en route to China yesterday? We're pretty good at pulling over these freighters. Why are we not doing it? Yeah, well, you know, the nefarious side of me would say, okay, if we knew ahead of time that that barge was heading towards China, maybe that's something to let it be struck because, again, that puts pressure on China to say enough of this. Because if that oil was intended to go to China, that means that we're putting an even more constraint on their energy resources and they're going to see their economy suffer from it as well. But I think one of the critical things is that, you know, we're producing, we're consuming, we're exporting. our fossil fuels, oil and natural gas. We should not see this exorbitant increase of the price of oil here in the United States of America. So we need to get that under control first and foremost. We should not see pain on the American people. This is not Jimmy Carter and the Saudi oil embargo when we had even in odd days at the gas pump. Yeah, I mean, some of the people that seem to be cheering for Iran and these publications are just insane to me. Now, sometimes you have a war effort, Vietnam, some portions of the Iraq war where things go south and hey, listen, write it. If you think things are going bad, you think we have the wrong tactics, you think of the wrong generals, you could write it. But it seems going out of your way to find a story and go, let me find the negative side of it. Be, you know, I have questions. I get it. But to not bring up the fact that we've wiped out all their ships, they got the fast boats left. And I think the bigger question is, should we start escorting these ships in and out of the straight? There's a sense that the destroyers could be victims of these drones. And you don't want a destroyer stuck in that narrow waterway, plus you don't want any of our equipment heard or hit, let alone the people. So I can understand that. But that's the one thing we're seeing now. The one piece of aggression they have is to get the price of oil at 100. They want to get up to 200. Yeah. Well, I think also when you talk about the straits and hormones, we could use a little deception tactic. We could send out false transponder signals that could confuse whoever's trying to pick up those signals. And maybe that is a way to mask, you know, when ships are going through. Much the same is, you know, deception tactics that you... we saw use to mass the actual D-Day Landings and something that we did in Desert Shield, Desert Storm, using deceptive tactics. So those are some of the things that we can do as well. But without a doubt, I think that, you know, some of the things you see coming out of Iran, these are the last times of desperate people. When they start talking about going after financial institutions, I think, yeah. And I think that what we need to start looking at doing is how can we tie up the assets? freeze the assets, seize the assets, because I can guarantee you that many in the leadership of Iran, they have their assets and banks outside of Iran. And that's something that we need to. It's the whole diplomatic, informational, military, and economic, you know, leveraging all of that power against Iran. Again, this is a country that has been a scourge on humanity. And you talk about these pundits out there.

Why aren't more people, why are some of these women athletes, why are some of these feminists talking about what just happened with the Iranian women's soccer team? The fact that these young women were forced to go back to a country because of the threats against them and their families. I know. It would be great for Megan Rapino, who's great at taking a knee during our national anthem, to look at the courage of others who stand up to their oppressive country, and they get threatened with death for not singing with it. One of the women that left their soccer team and was going to be killed because she was playing, kicking the ball around with guys without any hijab on. This is woman's name as Shiva Amini. She came in to talk to Martha McCallum yesterday and talked about life in Iran and why she got out. Now, cut 17. I can totally understand what those Iranian soccer players are going through because I've been in their shoes. You know, the regime, Iranian regime put you in this situation. You have to say goodbye to everything that you have in Iran, or you have to get back in that hell because you're going to go. Everything can happen for you if you go in Iran. You can face prison. You can face rape. You can face even execution. Nice place, right? I guess we're the problem? Yeah, you know, and it's interesting, the juxtaposition between Megan Rapino, you know, taking a knee. Nobody in the United States of America is going to punish her for that. She has that right net freedom to do so. She's got a Dunkin' Donuts ad out of it. Yeah, see? So why don't she speak up? For these women, as she said, they're facing imprisonment, they're facing rape, they're facing death. So it's the hypocrisy is laughable when you look at how people pick and choose, you know, what is, you know, a right and what should we stand up for, you know, little boys playing soccer with girls. Sure, let's stand up and talk about that. But women who are being threatened for their lives because they didn't have a hijab on when they were kicking a soccer ball around, give me a break. Iran is a evil regime. And anyone that does not see that and understand that, especially those of us in the military, talk to someone that's lost the limb. Talk to someone that's lost the loved one because of the explosive force penetrators that the IDs that Iran supplied in Iraq and Afghanistan. We'll let you know why this is important. Talk to the survivors who lost their loved ones in the Beirut bombing attack back on October 23rd, 1983. This has been going on for too long. And I'm glad to see that we finally have a president stepping up to the plate. Believe it or not, I got this from the Washington Post today in the editorial section. In 2024, the Joe Biden's DNI concluded that between 1023 and 1124, there was 190 attacks from Iran on U.S. interests.

and Americans, 190 attacks, whether it's through surrogates or through them directly, let alone the three assassination squads out to get Brian Hook, John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo. Twice they tried to get the president. We had a guy just tried here in Pakistani, said he was hired to go kill the president. So this is, and people say, well, this is a war of choice. Oh, yeah, whose choice? It's their choice to declare war on us. This is the first time we're hitting them. Yeah, it's like I said, it's been 47 years, you know, and again, how did we get into this situation because of a weak president by the name of Jimmy Carter, who could have supported the Shaw instead, allowed the Aitoa to come along. So don't talk to me about regime change because, you know, Jimmy Carter allowed a regime change that has caused the lives of so many Americans and, like you say, service members as well. So it was about time that we step up. And 11 days, 12 days, we're into this. After 47 years, give me a break. I know. I want to talk about Texas. Senator John Cornyn, you know, he's lying against Ken Paxton, first time we've talked since. So it's going to be a runoff in May. The president says he might get involved. Do you think he should? No, I don't think he should because he, you know, there's already petitions on the ground here from the grassroots in Texas, Republicans asking that the president stay out of this and let Texans decide who they want to have as their, you know, Republican senatorial nominee. So, Ken, yesterday, Senator John Cornyn said, I blow up the filibuster because of and passed the Save Act, which would demand voter ID. Your thoughts on that? Well, of course, you're going to come out and say these things because you're in a very tight runoff race coming up. And guess what? We would expect a senator from the state of Texas to say that he's going to support those things and make sure that we can have voter ID in our elections. I'm not for it blowing up the filibuster. I want to leave it in place. Anything you pass, anything you pass, Colonel, they've got to just reverse it. That's right. You got to be careful because remember, you know, Harry Reid when all of a sudden he said you don't have to have the 60 votes to get judicial confirmations and it went down to, you know, a simple majority. Look how Donald Trump used that and got three Supreme Court justices in. I know. But let's say you have a Democratic president. Next cycle, cycle after. They go, yeah, we're going to get rid of that voter ID Act as soon as they get a Senate with the majority, which, you know, you know our cycles. You know the American. Oh, yeah. American history. So I'm just saying that if you do that, I think that Joe Manchin did great work and was Kristen Sinema by making sure that didn't happen last time. I think it keeps the Senate somebody you got to negotiate with. And I hate to say this, but the Democrats will be giving the Republicans an incredible issue going into the midterm elections. When Hakeem Jeffries just said on the record in an interview that one of the stipulations, they don't want ice at polling locations, the question should be Minority Leader Jeffers, why do you not want ice at polling locations? Yeah.

Now we're in the DHS shutdown. These guys, TSA workers can't get paid. Coast Guard can't get paid. It's incredible. Homeland security investigations, HSI, who works with FBI, especially when we have these terrorist attacks like you just saw up in New York City throwing those improvised explosive devices. Yes, we see it. And we have a mayor that doesn't want to admit it, but has a guy, an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activist. For dinner. For dinner. Not the cops that saved the day. Incredible. Yeah. Thanks so much, Colonel West. Interesting times. They are. God bless you. Take care, Brian. You got it. And by the way, Texas got something else from another blue state. From New Jersey, Texas just got just picked up. A major oil company, Exxon, who's been there in New Jersey for 144 years. They say we want a more tax-friendly environment. You're listening to Brian Kilmeade. Your calls are next. In a world of noise, get the signal, sharp, informative, and always on point. You're listening to Brian Kilmeade. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobil. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upbound payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for 12-1 plan required, $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes, me slow when network is busy. See terms. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Kilmeade. Back in 79 and 80, we spent a horrendous year of 1980. All those days and nights, every time you turn on the television, it would be America held hostage at 1130 at night in the East Coast. It became a nightline, of course, later on. Kronkite would end this show with how many days the hostages have been held. They knew exactly what they're doing. They were decapitating Jimmy Carter on election eve. As we sat on Air Force One, we had to tell him on the Cronkite report that evening. The next day's election was not the number one news story. The number one news story right at the top of the news budget was the anniversary of the hostage taking. That was bigger news. Carter was screwed. They never put, they never set the hostages back until after he'd been beaten by Reagan. And then when he had left office. They knew exactly what they're doing. They decapitated Carter. And I got to tell you, they're doing the same thing to Trump. They know exactly what the straight of a moose is doing to the oil markets, to the markets generally. They know what we're up to because Trump is on television all the time. They see him. They know how he works and how to hurt him, and they're trying to decapitate him. Okay, Chris Matthews, what's the difference? You answer at home, what's the difference between 1979?

In 2026. Let me see. In one case, we watched as they took our hostages and asked for them back. Try to free them, crashed in the desert, sadly. So what's the difference now? We're actually blowing their doors off, killed 40 of their leaders. I think the number is up to 49 the next day, and some say as many as 80. We just took out the commander of their secret police force that was enforcing all those radical Islamic extremist beliefs. We blew up their entire Navy, destroyed their entire Air Force, broke up, took down their ballistic missile manufacturing. Do you see what's going on? Does he not see the difference? We're taking them apart. What they can do now is have a death rattle, do everything possible to try to get people to get us to stop because we'll stop when we're done. And no longer is in 1970 now, we get almost oil from there. We get it anywhere. We get it from our own backyard now. And we're able to pump natural gas through Europe. So they're not as obligated as they used to be. What you did is you alienated all your friends. It's no longer OPEC again, OPEC and Iran against the West and against America. We got all the Gulf states in our, in our corner, got all NATO in our corner, and have our best friend, Israel, fighting by our side. Besides that, Chris, it's exactly like 1979. Exactly. And Jimmy Carter had a few options to get tough. But he decided it would escalate things and chose not to. Leaders make their decisions. You could judge who's a great president and who's not. But they had an opportunity to do that. So that's all I ask. Understand that it's more sensational to say Iran has blown up a barge. than to say America's had 5,000 attacks inside Iran, systematically taking down their infrastructure, knowing they don't want to do too much damage because they want Iran to live for a better day while taking out their secret police, the IRGC, and their leadership. So, I mean, it's not let's just lay in our backs and let let's be abused by Iran. And that's what's different about this. This president is doing something that Joe Biden wouldn't do, that Obama wouldn't even entertain. George Bush, we had our hands with Iraq. We thought that was a bigger threat and arguably maybe it was. And H.W. Bush knew it was a problem. Iran-Contra, an attempt to work with moderate Iranians, as blew up in everybody's face, Reagan's as well as Bush's. So everyone's tried different ways. And this president finally says, gloves are off. Let's finish him.

And that's who we're doing. Please be a little bit patient. Understand it might be a little bit hard for a couple of weeks with gas prices. And also understand, too, the market's going to come roaring back because nothing fundamentally has changed, except for the Middle East will ultimately be safer. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade. All right, from 48th and 6th of Midtown Manhattan. We've got a great hour coming your way. Brian Kilmeade here. Josh Crashar is standing by. Talk about the political ramifications of the president speaking on the economy, but still looking and keeping an eye on the war. How do you feel about that? Mark Tyson standing by, speechwriter, Fox News contributor, ISI, think tanker, and Washington Post columnist. So we have a we have a lot to discuss this hour. We're also following what the president's going to be doing. He's going to be celebrating women about 4 o'clock today, big ceremony. We are supposed to talk to him today in an interview you're going to hear on Friday. But we know things can change with the president's schedule. But right now we're scheduled to talk to him tonight. And hopefully we'll be able to bring that right to you. So let's get to the big three. Number three. We also want TSA and FEMA funded, but we are not going to be blackmailed into cutting a blank check for ICE to get it done. So I hope Republicans stop listening to Stephen Miller and start getting serious about reform. What an embarrassment, Senator Perry Murray is. DHS funding remains on hold as Chuck Schumer and John Thune up their tensions and their anger. The stakes have never been higher and Dems have never been more irresponsible. I'll explain. Number two. So yeah, 400 million barrels feels like a lot, but when you've got 15 million going through the Strait of Formuz every single day that can't get there, it's only... about 25 days of supply of oil. So it helps, but it really doesn't solve the problem. Oh, really? CBS is Kelly O'Grady. Energy prices rise as tankers get hit and in and around the Strait of Permudes. The West is showing no signs of buckling. In fact, they've responsibly tapped our emergency oil reserves, 32 countries strong, Japan is joined in, and now we have as well. Number one. We don't want to leave early, do we? Huh? You got to finish the job, right? After midnight hammering, then we left. We figured that'll be the end of them for a while. But they started again. We don't want to go back every two years. Yep, war at day 13, Iran's targeting the Gulf States, missile defense, energy, and financial sector, and civilian targets with the U.S. and Israel are taking apart their military arsenal, not only in Iran, but also in Lebanon, and targeting their secret police. We've killed, or somebody killed, the commander or the besiege force. Those are the thugs that walk around assaulting and killing people for not wearing the proper.

proper attire, their moral police, they are ruthless, and soon they're all going to be dead, I hope. The Iranian people will have an opportunity to take back their country shortly. Mark, when you look at the aims of this mission, how would you describe the aim of this mission that started 12 days ago? Well, there's sort of three aims and they're sequential. I mean, the first, you know, everyone's wondering, like, well, why aren't the people out in the streets, you know? Because Trump told them not to go out on the streets. They, you know, why haven't we take out more regime leaders? Well, because that wasn't actually the plan. The plan is sequential. It starts out with taking out their offensive capability and their air defenses, right? And so we've seen their ability to launch ballistic missiles is down by 90%. Their ability to launch drones is down by 80%. 85%. So the first phase of the operation has been an overwhelming success. The second phase of the operation is taking out the instruments of repression, the instruments of the leadership targets, taking out their ballistic missile production capability. And eventually it's going to be their nuclear capability. And we're going in sequential fashion. Now we've got a point where we've got, you know, air dominance. We can basically fly over the skies of Iran largely unopposed. And we're going to start taking stuff out. And there's a campaign plan that was prepared by Admiral Cooper. It was presented to the president two days before the he had won. And he's following it. And so this idea that suddenly because gas prices have temporarily spiked that he's going to lose his nerve and panic. I know a lot of people around him are panicking. But he's not panicking. You just played that clip. He's not panicking at all. He is steady, steady on the tiller. He is commander in chief. He's carrying out this mission. He's not going to stop it before it's done. And because like as he says, we don't want to have to go back and do it again. So we're going to make it, this is going to be decisive. So when you say people around him are panicking, who? I'm not going to name names, but there have been an article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday about how people are saying you need to get an off-ram that they're worried about the midterms and all the rest. You know, if this operation is as successful as I think it can be, it's going to be a benefit to him in the midterms. And by the time we get to the midterms, gas prices are going to go back down. This is a temporary spike, a temporary problem related to the war. And who panics over gas prices going up for, you know, nine, ten days into a conflict? I mean... It's ridiculous. But he's not panicking. So he's going to be fine. So the Supreme Leader just spoke with trying to translate it right now. But one of the things he says is he's going to continue to shut down the best he can, the straight of her moves. The one thing I asked, Mark, is I'm wondering why are we letting Iranian chips out of the straight? Yeah, well, maybe that's not going to happen anymore now that they've hit a tanker. I agree with you. And also, you know, the other thing is I think that the one play that Trump is maybe now is going to do is he ought to call Xi Jinping and tell him, you know what, we're going to start blowing up the Iranian ships that are heading for you if you don't tell them to open up the straits of Hormuz and get Xi Jinping to call the Supreme Leader of Iran and say, stop.

Stop with the Strait of Hormuz because we're going to, because I'm not going to be very happy if you do that. Well, I'll tell you what. The other thing is that's why they're really not mining it. They said there's nine mines there. That's it. And why? Because they need it for their allies, their evil allies, Russia and needs to use it. And so does China. Meanwhile, give me an idea what the Supreme Leader said. Their new Supreme Leader vowed to keep blocking the Strait of Hormuz. They vowed to avenge. the death of citizens killed in war and says especially true, they're going to strike near, because they said because they strike near a school, while they target civilians every single day. Meanwhile, Iran said Iran's also going out of their way to target the radar existing with the missile defense in various Gulf states. How do you characterize where the Gulf states have handled being targeted like this? I think they've handled it fine. And if anything, what Iran has done is rally them around us and rallied them around Israel. It's completely backfired on them. They did take out one radar. It hasn't had any impact whatsoever on the ability to shoot down missiles and drones. And I think the supreme leader is not long for this world. I think that we have not even begun. the process of leadership elimination yet. You know, the reason why we knocked out 48 of their top leaders is that wasn't part of the war plan to do that so early in the campaign, but they were stupid enough to gather in broad daylight thinking we wouldn't strike during the day. And so we saw a target of opportunity and we took it. But that wasn't the plan. The plan was, you know, systematically to go to start with their air defenses, to start with their ballistic missile capabilities, their offensive capabilities, and take that out and then go after leadership. And so we haven't even started the process of going after leadership targets in a systemic fashion yet. And, you know, what we did do is apparently we took out their, the combined force took out their central bank. So guess what? The Iranian Revolutionary Guard paychecks ain't arriving anytime soon. We've deliberately eliminated their ability to fund their apparatus of terror and internal repression. We're taking out the checkpoints of the siege forces, and we're going to be taken out there. We're going to be taking out the RGC systematically over a period of weeks. There's not going to be a lot left standing of the regime when this is all over. That's why I believe, too. I'm sure you sort of the story in a paper that you also write for the Washington Post. It talked about during the last year of the Biden administration, their director of national intelligence concluded that there were 190 various attacks from Iran, sponsored or direct, on U.S. interests and U.S. forces. 190 in one year. And they say this is a war of choice. This country chose to be a war with us. Yeah, the only choices we finally decided to fight back.

I mean, they've been at war for us for 47 years, and people say, well, you know, we're just hearing this for the first time we've been at war 47 years. Did you not hear about the hostage crisis in 1979? Did you not hear about the Beirut barracks bombing? Did you not hear about the fact that the Iran? People don't realize this, Brian. Iran was held liable in a U.S. court for the al-Qaeda's bombing of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. They trained the al-Qaeda operatives how to blow up buildings. They've been working with, okay, you know where the leader of, you know, so bin Laden is dead. His successor, Amunzauer, here he is dead. You know where his successor is right now? Tehran. They've been giving sanctuary to the leadership of al-Qaeda. In Iran, since 9-11, there's been an al-Qaida cell operating out of Tehran, moving money, moving operatives, sending operatives out in the West to carry out attacks. They've been protecting them and using them. One thing that people don't realize is, I mean, you know, so Hamas is Sunni, Iran is Shia. That didn't stop them from supporting them. They're perfectly willing to ally with rival Muslim groups in order to attack us. And they did the same thing with al-Qaeda. I bet you by the time this is over, we're going to have that guy, too. So I will be great. And we got to get the uranium. You get the uranium. You get the new leader. You'll be really further along, and I just can't wait if hopefully somebody can arm the Iranian people. General Keene was asked on Larry Kudlow about escorting tankers through the straight, cut 27. If we start to bring out warships through right now, the Iranians still have the capability, not just at the coastal area, which we can eliminate, but hundreds of miles back, we're likely not going to begin that task of escorting tankers through until that threat is removed. So I guess we're going to, yeah, we've got to make sure because the destroyers can be hit, can be hit by these one-way drones. Yeah, just patience. Okay. We are systematically taking out their offensive capabilities. We've made a huge amount of progress. 85% of the drone capability has been stopped. And we've got to get the other 15%. And we will. And, you know, there's no rush. Okay. This is, you know, how long did it take us to capture Iwo Jima? Or, you know, I mean, it's a, this is in the con, in the history of conflict. You know, this is, this will go down when we look back on it as one of the most successful lowest cost operations in perhaps U.S. military history. You know, we've had seven casualties and our hearts break for those families, but that's probably the least we've had in any war in modern times. We're successfully protecting our forces. We're successfully taking out the adversary. They are unable to do significant damage to us, and they're going to go down. I want to bring it to something else. The president is passionate about getting the Save Act pass, which is essentially voter ID. And he's mad at John Thune. He said, blow up the filibuster or find a way to get the votes. I don't want to hear it. John Thune says, I don't have the votes for the filibuster, and I can't get 60. So I am not for blowing up the filibuster. And Senator Corden says, I'm kind of changing my mind on that. I know he's worried about the nomination. So what are your thoughts about this?

How do you get anything? So remember when Joe Biden had his election, federal election takeover act that would have eliminated all voter ID laws that are existing in states now that would have done all, you know, mail, you know how we stop that? A filibuster. So if we destroy the filibuster in order to pass this bill and then they take over Congress again and they have the Democratic president, they are going to not only reverse the SAVE Act, they are going to pass their federal takeover to the elections and they will make it impossible for Republicans to win another election and take back power. So it's, you know, it's short-term gain for long-term pain. And not only that, if we get rid of the filibuster, they're going to pack the Supreme Court, they're going to expand the House so they can get more electoral votes. They're going to pass the Green New Deal. They're going to pass. I mean, they will turn this country into a Zohran Mamdani-inspired hellhole. You want to give them a path to socialism, get rid of the filibuster. I hear you. So, you know, it's just, I support the SAVE Act. But this is not the way. I'm just wondering, are there any vulnerabilities with any of these Democrats who feel it would be due their benefit to join in on this? Like Senator Bill Cassidy did in the infrastructure plan. And so many, you know, they joined that they got a five or six on two major pieces of Joe Biden's legislation on the gun reform and infrastructure. Is there any play there? on the Democratic side. I don't think, you know, Angus King, I don't know, you know, besides John Fetterman, I don't know how you get to 60. So, you know, what you can do in executive order, I'm not sure. But, I mean, obviously, if you look at the polls, it would be a benefit for the Democrats to go in and maybe make some changes and then get on, get on board for this, but I don't see it before the midterms. Well, here's one of the problems with the way the Senate has been run. And this is not under just under John Toon. It's been for many years like now. is that we don't bring up anything for a vote unless we're sure we're going to win. And that's a mistake. Sometimes it's better to bring something up for a vote and lose so you get everybody on the record. When I worked for Senator Jesse Helms in the 1990s, he always had what he called Remember in November votes, where he would bring up something that he knew was going to lose, but he was going to make it an uncomfortable vote for the other party. So bring this thing up. put every one of them on the record and then go to the American, to the people of their state and say, these people who want, put up the ad saying they've voted to allow illegal immigrants to vote in your elections. Hold on you. That's how you do it. I agree with you on everything, Mark, which means you're probably right, so you can sleep easy. Number two is hold on steady. This war is worth it. Don't look at the negative headlines trying to destroy the country. Don't root for Iran. Just go for the facts, and I think you'll be pleased. I don't know. Routing for Iran. They are. People are.

And, you know, I know people turned against, like, the country and other wars that went on for a long time. They've been rooting against us since day one. When has that ever happened in our history? It's insane. And 90% of Republicans support what's going on. So it's the Democrats who are rooting against us. Right. Did they bring those numbers down? Stop rooting against your country. Just because if you hate Donald Trump more than you hate the Iranian regime, you're what's wrong with America. Mark Teeson, let's end on that note. Don't say another word. Let's just end right there. I know you're tempted. Don't even say thank you. All right, fine. Mark Teeson, thank you. Bye. From the Oval Office to the Frontlines, he talks to the people making history. This is the Brian Kilmeade. Now playing on Netflix, The Hawk. From the mind of Will Ferrell. Oh, mama. I'm back. Comes a new original series. Get ready. Get ready. That's it. Did I stutter? When an iconic pro golfer. Lonnie. Hock! Takes one last swing at greatness. You were a big shot golfer. I still am a big shot golfer. No one. Dad, I'm the Hawk now. Will stand in his way. That's how it's done. The Hawk. Now playing. Only on Netflix. The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmeade. Look, this just isn't complicated. Democrats' position here is simple. We want reforms to rain in ice and border patrol. We also want TSA and FEMA funded, but we are not going to be blackmailed into cutting a blank check for ice to get it done. So I hope Republicans stop listening to Stephen Miller and start getting serious about reform for TSA and FEMA and Coast Guard and Moore while these negotiations on ICE and Border Patrol continue. Yeah, they're the joke. And she is just such a... such a embarrassment for leadership on the left. You got Christine Ome out. You could say that to win. You got the elimination of roving patrols. Tom Homan was never for that anyway. You have body cameras, and I think you have a deal on putting at least ID numbers on people's uniforms, not names. They're not going to do judicial warrants, and they're not going to take off their masks because of the doxing that you know exists. Here's Senator John Thune, cut 32. We are trying to close a deal that would enable us to fund all the agencies that the Democrats say they want funded with reforms, with reforms to ICE. And I've seen the offer sheet from the White House. And they have gone a lot farther, a lot farther than any Democrat I think was even possible.

And so we have a situation here, Mr. President, where one side is trying to get a deal to open up the government, to get people back to work, to fund the programs and functions that are important to the national security of our country. And we have one side that's saying, we're not going to sit down and talk. I mean, it's hard enough to get the SAVAC passed or to, you know, fund the government. But they did all the appropriations bills. It's all done. Minnesota happens. They don't like the results with two deaths there. They don't like the sanctuary city situation interacting with ICE and Border Patrol. So they say we're not going to fund it. So all these people aren't getting paid. Well, there's already places, I just told you the change has already been made. Senator John Thune. The most level-headed guy you'll ever find in leadership. Least firebrand person you'll probably ever meet. And he's had it. And I tell you what, this is so unnecessary and so stupid. And by the way, America is not walking around thinking ice is bad. You can go ahead and say that.

interested in it. Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmeade. And I would remind everybody listening right now, the United States never ever targets, target civilians. Iran does, you know, and including their own citizens, and they massacre that 35,000 of them just a couple weeks ago. And the left, please, please, the left media is much more angry, you know, about or talking about this hospital, and it is a tragedy, but they didn't seem to be as concerned about the Iranians massacring. tens of thousands of their young people just a couple weeks ago. I love it. I mean, this guy's amazing every day. Senator John Fetterman, Democrat. I hope he runs again because he clearly does, he cares more about the country and does about politics. Josh Kraschauer joins us now. Fox News, radio political analyst, editor-in-chief, a Jewish insider. Josh, I can't say that about many politicians. He really just says what he thinks. Look, I think that's what a lot of Americans want, a lot of independents are. for someone who, by the way, John Fetterman still votes with the Democrats, like 90% of the time. It's just that on issues like support for Israel, which used to be a universal value for most Democrats. And, you know, immigration enforcement, which is also used to be something that a lot of moderate Democrats would embrace has become passe. So John Fetterman is kind of increasingly left out on his island. And he is refreshingly impolitic about what he comments about things. He doesn't have a filter. He doesn't. He's talking points. He just kind of says what's on his mind, and he's done so increasingly over the last year. And now that makes it really hard for him to win a primary in Pennsylvania. But when you look at all the Pennsylvania polling, he actually still is one of the more popular Pennsylvania politicians in the state. It may be very difficult for him to win the primary in a couple of years, given that the Democrats are now the ones turning against him. But, you know, you look at independents, you look at Republicans, and you look at his overall favorability. He's above water. He actually is a... popular politician who's read favorably at a time when most politicians are negatively. So there's a lesson there, which is that, you know, the primaries can often kind of skew what is popular and what does have a lot of support in the country. Yes, but if he decides he wants to run, he's had physical challenges. But if he decides he wants to run as an independent, that could be saying, yeah, you know, I'm going to win the general. So if you want me in your party, don't primary me. But if you don't, I'm more than happy to be an independent, especially if he thinks he can win. Well, Brian, that's what Joe Lieberman did in 2000. I know. It's actually very similar when you think about it, because Joe Lieberman was all... also a pretty loyal Democrat, but the one issue where he couldn't tolerate where the party had been going at the time was just anti-war views, anti-Ira. At the time, it was the Iraq war and support for the troops. And Lieberman spoke his mind on that issue.

generally a pretty loyal Democrat on everything else, and the party turned on him and voted him out in the primary. And he ran as an independent, and he won easily. He won comfortably. So John Fetterman, even though they're very different stylistically, John Fetterman is sort of very much in line with that Joe Lieberman tradition. And look, I'd have to look at the – I know every state has their own rules and how you can run, and whether you need that – you could run on the Democratic primary and then run as an independent. Every state is different. But look, I think if John Fetterman chose – to run as an independent and got, and he would have to get some support from Republicans, but that would be the other catch, because Lieberman was able to do that in Connecticut. But if John Fetterman builds an alliance of independents and Republicans and even some moderate Democrats in Pennsylvania, that could be very powerful. I'm not sure if he wants to do that. I think there's been talking about him as a presidential candidate as well, but, you know, I think it's very, very much up to him. And I know the health challenges is something that he's also, you know, very closely attuned. avenue for him to run an independent. They can build a very unique coalition of Pennsylvania. So I want to talk about before we get into the war, I want to talk about first off, this whole funding of DHS. And I don't get it. First off, Democrats could say, I have gains. I just told the audience this. You could say I got Christine Ome out. You could say I stopped roving patrols. I got body cameras. But they want the masks off and they want judicial warrants or they're not going to fund it. Yeah, look, the politics, I think, have changed a little bit on DHS funding. First of all, air travelers are starting to feel the pain. The lines are longer at certain airports. There's a lot of inconvenience. That's one factor. Number two, the war in Iran is raising the real, all too real and sad specter of potential terrorism on the homeland in the United States. I think it's kind of politically crazy not to... support DHS funding at a time of war. That is, I think, a political vulnerability that Democrats are going to face. That wasn't the case when the shutdown began. So, look, I mean, and also, look, I think the DHS has ever since the shutdown began, Christy Nob, out of DHS, Lewandowski, out of DHS. Everyone seems to respect, even if it may not vote for Markwayne Mullin. I think he has wide respect among both Democratic and Republican senators. And Tom Homan, I think, even among Democratic critics of his, knows that he's focused on getting out the worst of the worst and maybe discontinuing some of these very high-profile and aggressive raids of people who are not committed any violent or serious crimes. So, look, there's a lot that's changed. The politics has changed on this in the last month. I think there's going to be more pressure on the Democrats, and I think the war is really what really is going to have the biggest impact, the notion of having, we already saw in New York City. the weekend last weekend. No, no, Josh, you're talking like a rational human being, but inside politics, Patty Murray didn't budge yesterday, Chuck Schumer was going at it with John Thune. If they were going to give, they have a funny way of showing it. Well, look, it's funny. I'm a believer in that public opinion eventually does shape the actions of lawmakers. You're right that there hasn't been any movement on Capitol Hill, and I don't expect it to be moving right away, but my goodness, if there is some, I mean, I'm actually a little surprised with what happened in New York over the weekend. an ISIS-inspired attack in New York City. That didn't wake up a lot of Democrats about the need to fully fund the NHS. They didn't want to admit they did it. They said it was white supremacist. Zohran Mamdani says they were targeting him. I mean, CNN got excoriated by the way. They covered it. The New York Times. I mean, some of these posts almost look like Bablon B stuff. It really is remarkable. I mean, I'm sort of sad to see the media not, you know, being in the condition that it's in.

I do think the public gets it. We're at war. There are going to be more threats to the homeland. We're hearing about them. The notion that you can indefinitely withhold DHS funding, I've got to think that there's going to be some political pressure that grows on the Democratic Party. Here's what Senator James Langford said, cut 34. Literally, Democrats hate ICE enforcement more than they're frustrated with Iran. They don't see Iran as a threat, but they do see ICE as a threat. That is the difference between the two parties, and it could not be more stark. We see that ICE is actually allies of the United States. These are federal agents doing their job to be able to protect the country, and Iran is the threat. They don't see as Iran as a threat. ICE is the threat to them. You know what? I'm telling you, if you, ICE is, I mean, people want to abolish ICE. That's a really – I mean, Langford, I think, is one of the more savvy members of the Senate. And that was a really sharp way of putting it. That there is – the part – you know, Republicans are from Mars, Democrats are from Venus. Republicans rightly worry about, you know, national security threats from people who really want to take revenge on the U.S., that for foreign nationals, people who are inspired by ISIS. That's why DHS was created because after the 9-11 attacks, for God's sake. That is what the main focus is for many lawmakers. But Democrats right now are, you know, very, very singularly focused on immigration enforcement and ICE. And even though the new cycle has changed, even though developments have changed in the last month, it is clearly hard for them to kind of reassess the need to have full DHS funding. Right. So I just can't believe how many people seem to be rooting for Iran in this and talk about what a disaster of the war is. And the president's talking too positively about it. But clinically, the U.S. forces are taking apart Iran. They've stopped their ability to manufacture missiles. They've taken out 75 to 80 percent of all the rocket launchers. They've blown up the drone manufacturing there. They've taken out between 49 and 60 of their leaders. They're blowing up the checkpoints. killed the head of the besiege, secret police. Those are the ones keeping society in check. I mean, and you have to go out of your way. Yeah. Oil is a big deal. And energy is a part of the story. But please put in perspective how we got here, Josh, right? Yeah. I mean, Brian, I know Brian, you've been kind of really informing your audience about that because you need to have both sides. You need to explain the successes that are happening militarily on the ground. As we speak, that used to be the lead story when you're at war, like all the degradation. of Iran's ballistic missile, the missile launchers, and, you know, obviously in the first 24 hours of the war, taking out the Ayatollah and some of the senior political figures in the regime. You know, we have such short attention spans that the notion that, like, a war is going to be over in two weeks, I mean, it's kind of remarkable when you think about it. The successes that have happened in such a short period of time, that doesn't, you know, that usually, you know, it takes a while to degrade. and go after an enemy, certainly one that's been been around for, you know, in the Itola regime, the Itolos regime as long as it has been. And look, I think there's going to be news to come on the nuclear, because I mean, that's the one issue that hasn't dropped yet, you know, the degradation and focus on.

who are on the front lines, when you talk to military strategists that are involved in the operation, when you talk to Israeli leaders who are working closely with the United States, they are very optimistic about the trajectory of this conflict, of the operation and where things are headed. I think the one wild card, and we've talked about this, Brian, I think the one thing that may be harder and may, you know, they may not be successful in the medium term is the regime change and ousting the IRGC and the regime from. power. That may take longer. It may not move in the time table that both the U.S. and Israel have may not be long enough to accomplish that, and that's a bigger and more challenging task. No question. And we'll see what happens today. I'm going to be supposed to speak to the president tonight and bring that whole interview back tomorrow. But he is steadfast. I talked to people around him and he knows the big picture. And like I found that quote from 1988. When he was talking about Carb Island being the oil island and that too many people are intimidated by Iran, he's giving his book tour on Art of the Deal and was asked about Iran. And says they've been basically trying to bully people around and it's time for us to stand up to them. And maybe the first thing we do is take that oil island away. I'm thinking to myself, this guy, people keep thinking that Trump is winging it. I mean, and actually when they write the story of Trump, it might be just the opposite. When you look at the Trump administration policy on Iran, dating back to his first. It has been consistently hawkish. It has been consistently aware of the threat that Iran poses, obviously taking out Solomality in the first term, was something that, by the way, it listed the same house of outrage and all kinds of claims that there would be backlash and it would, you know, all these negative implications that did not happen. It actually was a big, big move by Trump. And I think it enhanced U.S. national security and regional security. And he's continued to. about Iran as a threat, and he continued to, you know, when he said help is on the way, he wasn't kidding, and Iran now knows that. Look, I think that Trump is all too eager to tune out the noise. He has sort of a natural ability to kind of just not listen to the naysayers and just do accomplish what he thinks is the right thing. So, you know, look, I don't, there are going to be some political headwind, certainly gas prices, you know, if we get closer to the midterms, maybe. I will say, aside from a very few number of typical outliers, have been pretty united behind the president. Now, we'll keep a close monitor on that. If Trump does lose support from Republicans on the Hill, that would be also a signal where politics may be shifting. But in terms of his party, he's got the party behind him, and I think he's got the patience to see this thing out. So I do think that, you know, we live in a very ADV kind of, you know, what are you doing for me in the last hour, and when this is a war. And there's a lot of important tasks that both. that the operation that the U.S. is leading has to undertake. And I think by indication so far, things are going well. I want you to hear this, but I want you to listen to the end of it. This is Bill Moore, and we played the beginning. It's got a little bit of attraction. They even played on a special report last night, but listen to the end of it. And I think it really backs up my point. They're saying it's a good thing about what Barack Obama did with Syria. But listen to how this played out on a Bill Maher show with Adam Schiff.

This statement from the administration, the president had the constitutional authority to direct the use of military force because he could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest. That's too vague for you? Totally vague. Okay, because that's from Obama, about Libya. Well, Obama made the argument initially that he could go into Syria without an authorization. I and many others push back on that argument. Ultimately, he did not go forward with going after Bashar al-Assad, even though Bashar al-Assad was gassing his own people, because he thought he might lose the vote in Congress. So do you understand what he was saying? Number one, he got caught and he changed the subject from Libya to Syria. But I would say the biggest disaster of Barack Obama's foreign policy was his decision not to enforce a red line that he drew in Syria. If you said if you use chemical weapons, you'll be attacked. And they did it, and he didn't. And he said, Adam Schiff said, because he was afraid he wouldn't get the vote in Congress. That's exactly why Trump took action because he can't have Congress dictate his foreign policy. Right. Well, Brian, it's a double whammy because Obama did not get, you know, we did have an up or down vote. So obviously the hypocrisy with what Bill Barr was getting at. But also, you know, what you don't do when, when international, you know, with the global security. president is on the line, like that led to so many untold consequences, whether it was rise of terrorism in the region, whether it was the migration from a lot of people from Syria into Europe and other countries. I mean, there are so many second order effects by Obama's decision not to live up to his red line and to allow, you know, evil actors and terrorists in the region to continue doing their their activities. So, I mean, and also Adam Schiff, I mean, this shouldn't come your listeners. But, you know, he used to be a pretty hawkish voice on Iran when he represented Beverly Hills and he had a lot of Iranian constituents in his district. Now that he's trying to play to the base and now the Democratic Party has moved very, very much leftward, he's sounding a different tune. But actually, Schiff was, you know, and he represented many, many members of the Iranian diaspora. He knows all too well of the plight that the Iranian people have been dealing with and for him to kind of abandon them like that and to just give lip service. and not even acknowledge the benefits of what could be happening in the ran. It's pretty remarkable, but I think that's part and parcel where the party is headed in recent years. Because Donald Trump's forward. You've got to be against it. Josh Crashauer. Thanks so much. Thanks, Brian. Back in a moment. He just doesn't read the headlines. He breaks them down. Real talk. Real news. This is the Brian Kilmeade.

that makes you think. This is the Brian Kilmeade. This regime, the Iranians, and the Quds Force, dedicated in their ideology from day one to the expulsion of the influence of the United States, the dominance of American allies, and the eradication of Israel. That's the pillar of their worldview, that they are going to become our allies anywhere in the region is delusional and dangerous. And that is Charles Krauthammer speaking in 2015, talking about the dangers of Iran. And we can go back to 2009, Victor Davis Hansen, other people, deep thinkers who understand history and understand this regime. And we used to as a country understand it. We thought to ourselves, at what point are we going to have to confront it? At what point is it going to be too much for us to look the other way? And then the Iraq war happens. And they get involved in 603 guys die at the hands of Iranian EFPs, which are. IEDs on steroids and then Soleimani behind a lot of it, organizing the insurgency against us. Look, we made some mistakes after the invasion of Iraq. You know that. But the brilliant move we made to go to this surge is something they'll write about in war colleges and teach about for years. The reason why we needed a surge for the most part after we made the adjustment was because of the rise of the militias in and around Baghdad, around that country outside the Kurdish region, fueled, supported. trained by the Iranians. And they killed, they wounded thousands, killed 603. And remember, Joe Biden's DNI says between 1023 and 1124, there were 190 attacks on U.S. military personnel through surrogates or directly, let alone the bounties they put on the heads of Mike Pompeo, the President of United States, Brian Hook and John Bolton. How many more secret? How many more clues do you need that there are enemies?

Iowa top Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sewing division. It's Brian Kilmeade. I'm so glad you're here. It's the Brian Kilmeade coming away on this rainy day, but at least it's not snowing. I'm very happy about that. Eli Lake is going to be with us at the bottom of the hour, columnist for the free press, contributing editor at Commentary Magazine, hosted his own podcast. We've got to get a perspective on the Wharf. Jamie Metzell in studio, former NSC and State Department staffer under President Clinton, Senate Foreign Relations staffer under President Biden, former UN official, and author of Super Convergence. So before we get to Jamie, let's get to the big three. Number three. We also want TSA and FEMA funded, but we are not going to be blackmailed into cutting a blank check for ice to get it done. So I hope Republicans stop listening to Stephen Miller and start getting serious about reform. Never is the word blackmail been used more inappropriately than when Senator Perry Murray was describing the log jam for funding THS, the TSA, the Coast Guard over on Capitol Hill. This has got to end this week. If you're going for a plane today, I just get... there about a day early. Let's wait. Number two. So yeah, 400 million barrels feels like a lot, but when you've got 15 million going through the straight of Hormuz every single day that can't get there. It's only about 25 days of supply of oil. So it helps, but it really doesn't solve the problem. Yep, and that is Kelly O'Grady of CBS. Energy prices are on the rise as tankers get hit in it around the Strait of her moves. And now the new Supreme Leader speaks out about keeping it closed. The West is showing up this time. They're not buckling. They are willing to tap into their oil reserves. 32 Western nations and our own. I think it's important. Now let's we can see. We can open it up. Number one. We don't want to leave early, do we? We got to finish the job, right? After midnight hammering, then we left. We figured that'll be the end of them for a while. But they started again. We don't want to go back every two years. Yep, here we go, day 13, and we're looking at Iran targeting the Gulf states, multiple missile defenses, energy and financial sector. We'll have the latest there as the U.S. continues to pummel Iran, take out now their besiege commander, took out close to 60 of their government workers, and we'll see if the Supreme Leader really picked by the NRGC is going to be even more brutal than his father, and hopefully we'll be able to get a target on his back and pull it off. Jamie Mettle joins us.

us now. Jamie, exciting, interesting, compelling times. Crazy times. There's real opportunity and there are real dangers and so we're going to have to navigate everything carefully. Right. Did you expect at one point throughout your career that a U.S. would be confronting Iran? We had to. I mean, the Iran threat was growing. Presidents under both parties spoke a good game, and we didn't really do enough. And Iran was building its nuclear weapons capacity, its long-range ballistic missiles. It was supporting these terror proxy groups all around. The threat was growing. We had to do something. As you know, I'm not a huge fan of President Trump and everything, but he was the one who said we actually have to lance this boil. And who knows how it's going to... play out but i i definitely think this was this was not a war of choice as some people are saying this was a provoked war and provoked by iran i hope uh... israel is continuing to amaze me the way they've infiltrated into iran i hope they grab this uranium Yeah, they know where it is. It's really important because if the Iranian regime survives and they have access to this enriched uranium, there is a path to starting the whole thing again. And so we're really going to need to get it. And that's going to take a lot more, unfortunately, than what we've done so far. All right. So let's also talk about what you want to talk about, too. The AI Ten Commandments. Wherever you go, people are worried about AI. I don't care. senior citizen go, how's it going to change our lives? So, yeah, oh, sorry. And so, so tell me where the ethics come into winning. Yeah, thank you so much, Brian. Thanks. So I'll just give a little bit of background. My new book, the AI10 Commandments, is coming out on April 21st. I hope to join you here and in Fox and Friends on that day to release it. But the basic thing is right now we are living through this incredible AI revolution. And there's some really awesome things it can do and some really terrible things that it can do. And right now we're so focused on all of the dangers. And I think the Americans are right to be worried about bad things. And there will be job losses. There will be some difficult challenges that we're going to face ahead. But there are also incredible opportunities. My last book, Super Convergence, that you just mentioned, is about what the intersection of AI genetics. and biotechnology can do to help us in our health care with agriculture, energy, advanced materials. And the new book, The AI Ten Commandments, is about my working with GPT5 to basically mine all of human recorded history. And all of our traditions are religious, spiritual, moral, and ethical to come up with 10 principles that are drawn from our common history that if followed by everybody would lead to the greatest amount of peace and happiness. And it turns out when you explore that question in a way that AI can uniquely help us.

that we have so much in common. And the principles that emerge are really kind of beautiful. And then in the book, I talk about going through with GPD5 and Cigar. So here's this principle. Let's talk about where it comes from. And it was a mix of the most beautiful things from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, indigenous cultures. And just as AI can help us create harms. it can really inspire us to be our best. And the name of the game now is everybody recognizing that there's a better future and a worse future. And our mission is to work toward a better future. So you used AI to find out how to have the best ethics with AI. Right. And so basically, it's like, think of it this way. If you're walking out in a forest and you see a bunch of ants in an ant colony, you're able to look down and you can see the whole colony and you can see all of the ants. But if you're an ant in that colony, you're just wandering around. You think, well, my focus of my idea, I'm going to carry this leaf from here to there. And so AI has none of us, even a brilliant guy like you. can see the entirety of human history all at once. But this incredible tool that we have created, it's not like an alien landing on Earth. It's us. We've created the tool. We have this amazing cultural history. And what I'm doing in this book and what AI can help us do more broadly is see a bigger picture integrated story. It's exactly equivalent to the work that I do in biotech and human health, where when we use AI, we can see the body functioning. in a way that would be impossible for any of us to do on our own without technology. Understood. So how long did it take you to adapt to as AI is evolving? Like, for example, if we were talking about chatGBT two years ago, it doesn't look anything like it could do so much more today. And now there's so many other companies can do it too. Yeah, it's incredible. And so I lecture all around the world on this, how to think about the AI revolution. And what I tell people is this is a revolution that is not only continually unfolding, but it's accelerating. And so we need to be just like you're doing and just like your listeners are doing by being here right now. We need to dedicate a lot of our life energy to continually learning, continually understanding what AI can do and how it can help us and how we can collaborate with it. So the history of this book, I gave a talk two summers ago. It is this amazing place called the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York. And it was about the future of AI. And then they invited me back this last summer and said, give us a talk about anything. And I thought, you know, I'm going to combine the future of AI and then reference the beautiful pluralist religious tradition of Chautauqua, which started 150 years ago for Methodists, but now has embraced all different faiths. And I gave a talk about AI and spirituality. And people really loved it. And I decided,

Well, I'm going to write a book based on this. But if I'm talking about AI and spirituality, I want to work with AI in a different way, in a different way that any author has worked with AI before. So what I did is first I did an outline of the book. I then trained AI in my writing style by uploading all of my materials. And then I wrote the book. All of everything that was about argument. But then I would get to it. I used the point I just made about AI being able to see us like we see Ant Colony. So I would say the sentence that I gave before, AI can see us with a perspective like we see an Ant Colony from above. write me two paragraphs in my writing style that make the following points. And it gave me these two beautiful paragraphs. And I said, no, you actually didn't get it right, make these changes. And then you didn't get it right, make these changes. Then I would edit that. And then I would put it back in GPT5. And I would say, how about this? And it would say, well, what about this word? And so we went back and forth like this thousands of times. And when I finished writing the book, I thought, well, this, I've written this different than any book I've ever written before. So why would I put my name alone as the author? And so the author of my new book, the AI Ten Commandments, will be me and GPT5. I was noting in your waiting room, you had the Greg who ran for the governor of Utah. He has a book out that's just sitting outside here called The Last Book Written by a Human. Well, my book is the first book written by a human and an AI. And maybe two years from now, there'll be some machine sitting here having this conversation with you. How's the published feel about that? Well, it's really interesting because I have, you know, I've written six books, all have been published really well with traditional publishers. And when I reached out to my amazing superstar agent and I said, I have this book. Here's two things that are essential for me. One, I want to have GPT5 as my named co-author. And two, I don't want to wait the year and a half that it normally takes from start to finish, just from when you're accepted. I want this book out in six to eight months. And my agent said, I understand the aspiration. It can't be done the traditional way. And so this is 2026. I said, you know what I'm going to do? And I launched my own publishing company. It's called Transcend Books. We have the best of the best in all of the different things in editing, in distribution, PR, marketing, all of those things. And this will be the first publication of that. So it's a new world. We can just do things in whole different ways. And it's opening new vistas of opportunity. So how about this? So is one of your goals to say, okay. Jamie Metzell's new company is going to have the following ethics when it comes to AI. And can you put those ethics into your AI model? Yeah. And then out what you do, let's say you decide one day, I need to find out who's spying on me or do something that breaks one of your rules. Yeah. It will not.

It'll keep you to your model. You know, so just before you and I went live, Brian, you were asking me about Anthropic. And I gave you my views on Anthropic. And one of the reasons why I'm supportive of Anthropic in many ways, although I think this dust up with the Pentagon was entirely unnecessary. And I think that we should be supporting Anthropic. Anthropic should be supporting our warfighters. But they have done this, it's called constitutional AI, where they've written this lengthy constitution, and then they have entered this constitution into the algorithm. I certainly, with the AI Ten Commandments, I am now exploring possibilities of can that be entered into maybe not a full LLM, but into at least a smaller chatbot. So somebody could say, I'm having an ethical question, and I'm going to go based on these principles. What are your views? And the nice thing for me is so in support of the book, I've got beautiful supporting quotes. You know this. From other AI models? No, from the Vatican. and from the leading reform rabbi in the United States. And what both of them have said is that we have these wonderful traditions. So I'm not trying to say anything against our existing traditions. As a matter of fact, I think that the more revolutionary technologies become, the more we need the best of our very ancient traditions. I mean, there's so much ethics and principles. But I think that we can also say that we have an opportunity. to look at all of humanity and say, how can we, in a way, bring all of our traditions together? This is what the kind of, I don't want to use the word progressive because it's now been ruined, but the side of lots of different religions, whether it's the Unitarians or lots of others have tried to do, say, are there the Baha'is to bring principles together that can draw us to you? How do we pre-order it? Oh, you, thanks, Brian. Well, you can go to Amazon.com or wherever books are sold. All right, because people have a lot of questions. Yeah. And so weird, right now, it looks like blue collar workers are going to do the best because we've got to build the data centers that provide the backup for these models. Can I say so blue collars are going to do well building these data centers? Clombers and pipe fitters and all of those things. I. You know, the people talk about AGI, artificial general intelligence. I summarize my view in seven letters. A. G.I. ISBS. We are not going to create machines that do everything that humans do. Humans are incredible. Machines are incredible. What we need to do is to say, what does it mean to be a great human doing things machines can't do? And what does it mean to have machines that can help us do things that machines can do better than us? I believe there is an unlimited future. for humans doing uniquely human stuff. And blue collar workers, my mother is an independent living in Denver. When I go there, the kindness and love of the cleaners. Like the people are coming to clean my mother's apartment. It's so beautiful. We haven't.

value those kinds of very human traits or different kinds of creativity or having conversations like we're having now. I think what this is going to do is to force us to say, what does it mean to be a great human in an age of revolutionary technology? And then let's over index on that. And so I'm really excited about it, but we need to make sure the worst stuff doesn't happen. Well, we are seeing right now that financial centers, for example, they're not hiring like they used to right out of college. And it's very hard for very qualified men and women. graduating to get jobs because AI has taken a lot of that workout. And there's a bridge right now. I mean, there's a gap because AI is taking jobs and it's slowly creating whole new industries. Like when you think of industrialization and electrification, like we wouldn't be here without electricity. Candlemakers were not happy about electricity. And horse drivers and all those kinds of things. The challenge is that it's happening so fast. And so that's why governments must play a role in easing this. this transition. So don't get me wrong, there will be a lot of disruption and we're seeing it now. But jobs aren't going to go away. Humans aren't going to go away. Humans have all these miraculous capacities. And we've always thought of new ways to allocate our energy. towards optimal means. I think we're going to do it, but the transition could be tough. All right. This is going to be exciting. He's got a brand new book coming out in just a few weeks. The AI Ten Commandments, a new moral code for humanity. Jamie, as much as I like you, co-author, I like you better. I like you the most. All right, Brian, thank you so much. Back in a moment. Real talk, real guests, real insight, where curiosity meets conversation. It's the Brian Kilmeade.

news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kilmeade. The problem is from the outside, like the rest of the world. You look at this unnecessary aggression by the United States government, and then you tack on whatever propaganda they have already been spitting out about America for the last 20 or 30 years. And then this war with them around gets really ugly. Because that's how you start a World War III. You start a World War III by doing something that other than people that wanted this forever. Who else thinks that's a good idea? Who else thinks it's a good idea to just attack a country that isn't doing anything? They haven't done anything. Like, if you... proof that they've developed the depleted uranium and they've got it up to a point where it's they've got it to what it what what what percentage does it have to be like they're at 60 right but that's way more than you need way more than you need way more than you need way more than they're at least ramping up their production where it's possible to get it to whatever it needs to make it's way more than you need for civilian use right right but that's still it's not clear that that justifies an invasion when North Korea has nuclear weapons. Right. Yeah. Right. It's like, do we just want, we're just trying to prevent them from ever getting to a point where they're like North Korea? Who the f*** is worried about North Korea? You should be worried about North Korea. Obviously, there's a down period right now, but they're developing more and more missiles. Number two, with Joe Rogan. What he's saying is he's actually talking himself into need action. What they're also forgetting about, they were making between 200 and 300 ballistic missiles a month. Guess who was helping him? China. Guess who wasn't going to stop him? China. The pressure to relief the sanctions would have grown each and every year with the president without the spine of this president. They would have been virtually gone. Joe Biden was trying to cut a deal with him, letting him manufacture and sell oil while looking the other way despite being under sanctioned. So you have a regime making ballistic missiles. who has made it their mission to take out Israel, looks at us as the big Satan, I'm a little Satan, at the same time admitting we can make 11 bombs. How could you not act?

The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmeade. We're very well along in this. The problem is that there still are challenges there. And I think probably the biggest is the strait. There still is a threat. Four ships were attacked today. There's the threat of short-range missiles. You can lay mines with other than mine layers. You can actually use fast boats and so forth. It depends on the type of the mine. There are some mines reportedly less than 10 that have actually gone in the water. If we end up in a situation where they mine the strait, that will be very challenging as well. James Betrayers have been so much more positive about this operation. And maybe it's because I know he's tied with General Keene. And General Keene has let him know about this operation. And maybe, you know, nothing would circumvent any type of top secret nature to it. But I think also General Betray is probably, and I know he's so cool and calculated, but he probably knows some of the 603 people that got killed by EFPs in Iraq. Remember, he was there authoring and implementing the surge. He knew exactly why we had all these militias organized against the new government. Iran was behind it, financing, training, and actually fighting. Eli Lake knows it too, columnist for the free press, contributing editor at Commentary Magazine, host of the podcast Breaking History. Eli. It's amazing. Generals who want to look at this clinically and militarily are pleased with the way it started, where this operation has been conducted. It's the one that are playing politics that can't wrap their head around it. They're almost to me rooting for Iran to be successful. You know, this is, can I say to me, this was summed up. in a tweet, I forget who said, it was somebody who was very funny, it was like a post-on-act. It was after we'd confirm that we pretty much sunk all the ships in the Navy, right? And the tweet was like kind of typical of what you're saying about how you can't accept that there might be good news in the war. And he'd say, yes, all of Iran's ships have sunk to the bottom of the ocean. but they still have the idea of a Navy, which is what they used to say about the nuclear program. Right. I'm like amazed at this point because I have to say, okay, like we saw a series of articles. Most of a common A is even more hard line than his father. First of all, like compared to what his father just murdered more than 30,000 protesters in a period of 48 hours, you know, that sounds pretty much. pretty brutal and vicious and hardline to me. Yes. But more importantly, How long do you give this guy? The Israelis have demonstrated a level of intelligence domination, not just penetration, of the Iranian regime, that I kind of think that they hold the fate of the lives of the remaining leadership in their hands, and they can, you know, pretty much pull the trigger, whatever they want. We had a really good column at the free press from Aaron McLean, which was like advice to matabat, Mashabah, Hamid. Don't go.

Don't text anyone. Don't go near any devices that might have any wireless signal. You know, it's just at this point, the mastery of the battle space has been extraordinary for America and Israel. And that alone is worth a lot strategically in terms of the demonstration effect it has for China, Russia, our rivals, and our allies. So I thought Mike Waltz, he was at the UN, and I don't really think too much about the UN, but I love Mike Waltz. He's the ambassador there, and he put a resolution together, and the Arab states led it, and they condemned Iran for attacking the Gulf states, and look who abstained. Let's listen. Cut five. Guess where Iran and guess where Russia and China were today? China and Russia abstained. They backed away. They didn't stand with Iran when it really came down to it, especially with the Gulf Arabs standing strong. Yeah, do they want to alienate older Gulf Arabs who are our allies anyway, who Trump has effectively won over to the disdain of many on the left? I mean, it's extraordinary that China and Russia couldn't even bother to vote. against the resolution. Because they're afraid to the Arab states. They also don't want to alienate the Arab states. Yeah, but what does that tell you? I mean, what a strategic... miscalculation for the ages for the regime. You know, we don't know. I think we have to wait to find out more details about what went down in the full extent of the negotiations and diplomacy. But what Steve Witkoff has been saying in interviews recently suggests to me that they didn't understand how serious the stakes really were, even though, you know, Trump had amassed an armada in the Persian Gulf. My view is that... You know, I understand why the president doesn't want to call it a regime change war. I think it is a regime change war because we've taken out the supreme leader. I think other leadership are targets for the Israeli Air Force. And I also think that there is a plan for what comes next. even though it's hard to understand that as, you know, we're in the bombing phase right now. You can't ask people to come into the streets. But I actually think there is a real chance that you could get something, not just, you know, a more timid and weakened supreme leader. I think you could get a new regime. And that's really what I'm hoping for right now. And if that's the case, you know, put this down in the history books, you know, for Trump. This is an enormous accomplishment. Well, right now it looks like the government's holding. But they put up checkpoints to let everybody know that we're bombing, but we're still in charge. But the besieged commander's been hit and the checkpoints have been bombed. And that is...

where the Israelis are working. What I would love to see Eli is a way to get that uranium out. That would be beyond huge, almost bigger than killing the Grand Diatola, and then the Supreme Commander being dead, and then the people somehow getting armed. I don't know if that's possible for the CIA and Musad to get out there and give the people something to shoot back with, but that would certainly be interesting because the courage that they showed got a lot of them put into piles of body bags. Well, you know, it's funny you say that. I actually think there's a scenario where you do not have to arm the people in the big cities. I mean, we know that the Kurds and the Baluch are going to be armed, and they already are armed, and they didn't need to cut a deal with the CIA or the U.S. government or the Israelis to be armed. They've had weapons for a very long time. But I think you could see a scenario where you see demonstrators in the streets marching to try to seize the institutions. And they have the benefit of close air support because the Israelis dominate the skies and there are drones in the sky. So we saw footage that came out, I think, 12 hours ago of a CG commanders being shot by a drone in Iran. Now that's very interesting, right? If Israel has that kind of capability that they could deploy in phase two. then that does change the dynamics. At that point, you don't necessarily need to arm people. There are a lot of problems, by the way. They don't have training. You don't know who you're arming. Yes, that's true. You know, there's a lot of problems potentially with that kind of scenario. But what you could get is a situation where the Israelis still have air dominance of the skies and that every time there would be... the remnants of the repressive regime forces to try to put down the demonstrators, they would get picked off, you know, by an armed drone or, you know, Israelis flying helicopters or something along those lines. I think that's very realistic. So here is, I want to hear, talk about the deranged. I mean, I'm reading the New York Times, Washington Post. I said it last night on a special report. About 10 of the 12 articles are negative. It's unbelievable. They are actually chilling from Iran. The president doesn't know what he's doing. President saying all different things. Objectives is more than one objective. So he goes, well, what's the reason to be there? Well, pick one. There's 47 years worth of reasons. But here is Chris Matthews, a guy that should know better. Cut 21. Back in 79 and 80, we spent a horrendous year of 1980. All those days and nights. Every time you turn on the television, it would be America held hostage at 1130 at night in the East Coast. It became a nightline, of course, later on. Kronkite would end this show with how many days the hostages have been held. They knew exactly what they're doing. They were decapitating Jimmy Carter. On election eve, as we sat on Air Force One, we had to tell him on the Kronkite report that evening. The next day's election was not the number one news story. The number one news story right at the top of the news budget was the anniversary of the hostage taking. That was bigger news. Carter was screwed. They never put, they never set the hostages back until after he'd been beaten by Reagan. And then when he had left office, they knew exactly what they're doing. They decapitated Carter. And I got to tell you, they're doing the same thing to Trump. They know exactly what the straight of a moose is doing to the, to the, to the.

oil markets to the markets generally, they know what we're up to because Trump is on television all the time. They see him. They know how he works and how to hurt him, and they're trying to decapitate him. So do you want to have that at it first? Well, I mean, the notion that you could compare the decapitation of Iran through military means and the hostage crisis is just I don't understand that analogy, Chris. The second thing is that he's making a point in favor of those who support the war, which is that this regime has been at war with us since the very inception of the regime. So the hostage crisis is a perfect example of that where, you know, and I think, you know, like, listen, I just debated it'll be out tomorrow, Andrew Dan Sullivan on his podcast and he's against the war. And he mentions the international law issue. And my response to that is Iran has existed to undermine and sabotage international law from its very beginning. If you are expected to. basically have some states adhere to international law when they're fighting states that absolutely do not follow it, then that's a suicide pact in many ways. And by eliminating the threat of Iran's regime and hopefully replacing it with something better. you open up a series of strategic possibilities for the crowd that wants America out of the Middle East. Well, congratulations. That's the key to getting them out of the Middle East. Getting rid of Iran. Iran is the force that has drawn us back in for the last 47 years. constantly, whether it was their support for the insurgency and the roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, or whether it was the bombing of Cobar towers and the Marine barracks, or their attempted attempt to assassinate Trump or Masioliniajad or any number of things that this rogue state does, that at a certain point, I would say they've relinquished their sovereignty and they cannot exist within the community of nations. That's a distinction that Trump understood, that Benjamin Netanyahu understands, that of course. You know, Obama did not. He tried to have to cut a deal with these thugs. And finally, Trump is sort of solving this problem that's lasted nearly 50 years. Eli Lake, I'll add some to that. So do Reagan. Reagan said maybe there's some moderate forces here. We got the hostages back. Maybe we just got off to a bad start. And it almost destroyed his presidency and hurt George, prevented George H. Bush from getting president. Okay. So Iran contra. Then you had a situation. Yeah. And the other thing is.

Jimmy Carter decided I'm not going to take Carg Island. I'm not going to confront. I'm going to try one special forces operation and it ended in tragedy. So Donald Trump says I saw that. I'm going to do it different. I'm going to go after them. I'm going to go at, yeah, yeah, what are you going to, I'm going after, what do you mean you going? I'm going after that. I'm going to take out the Ayatollah. I'm going to try to destroy this regime once and for all. So for Chris Matthews to compare Jimmy Carter's non-action to Trump's action and say they're doing the same thing is just asinine. Yeah, it's, it's, and it's typical. And I think that it's hard for. half of the political class or more to separate their enmity towards Trump from just assessing the necessity of this particular war and also the incredible early success. in taking out the means in which the Iranian regime has threatened the world. And that itself is a win. But I don't think it's enough. It's not sufficient, in my view. I think you really do have to have a plan. And here's where I do trust the fact that Israel has gone to school on Iran for 30 years. And we are seeing the fruits of this national project in their utter domination of the regime from an intelligence perspective. I mean, there was a famous interview from 2024 with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president. He explained how there was a mole hunt for the Israelis who had infiltrated. their security services only to where they learned that the guy in charge of the mole hunt was himself and Israeli mole. That's the level we're talking about. It's extraordinary. And that's why we got it, I think for these people so happy, and I mean this, they're happy that the 58-year-old took over for the 86-year-old, same family. They go, look, you just traded him out. And China evidently putting some cartoons together, mocking us. How many games do you give him? How long do you think he lasts? Well, because Israel's involved? You know, I think within two weeks. Yeah, me too. I say less than two. And then if you can get the uranium out. And then you can continue to kill the off to besiege and just little by little cut off every limb. And then you know, they've cut and they said 85% of all the launches are out. They're unable to replenish their missile program. This is working in our behavior. I know it bothers a lot of people, but this is working towards our goals.

It is. And again, I think you've got to go big here and hope for getting something that is better than the current regime. And I think the Iranian people want it. But the other thing I think that the critics don't understand is that they think that the resolve that, you know, what's left of the regime that has shown now will be constant. That's not how psychology works. Once you start dealing with the reality that, you know, your top three commanders. in the IRGC unit for, you know, Tabriz or whatever, you know, are, you know, have met their maker. At a certain point, you sort of ask your stuff, you know, maybe there's a future for me and my family and I just, you know, figure out a way to slink away or I don't show up. That happens as well. And so I'd the idea that. everybody left is a true believer and will go down until the, you know, fight to the death. I'm not sure that that's going to be the case. Eli, look forward to your perspective. Always check out his articles on the editor of commentary, the free press, and host of the podcast Breaking History. Eli, thanks so much. Thank you. You got it. When we come back, I'll wrap up my thoughts for this hour and keep in mind, One Nation queuing up for Sunday at 10 p.m. We'll cover all this and more. Strong opinions, backed by hard facts. Get the truth behind the spin with Brian Kilmeade. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmeade. Sponsored by Previgin. Previgin, made for your brain. It actually had not occurred to me to ask. It probably would have been good to make sure that they would study sort of the benefit of shoplifting and of retail theft because perhaps people are relying on that and sort of using that. Maybe it's, you know, assisting them in some way. So that is some of the investigation into the fraud in Minneapolis and some of the crimes. That is a local politician, Minnesota State Rep, David Pinto. Why aren't we not studying the benefits of shoplifting? How many times I brought that up in the break, but not on the show, Allison? Well, you were saying you want to be the participant and go shoplift and then study it. Like, for example, how much time do we waste looking for a car when we could just carjack? When are we looking at the positives of carjacking? I'll take that one, thank you. Please get out. There you go. To be fair, the politician did leader walk up back saying he was being sarcastic. It didn't sound very sarcastic to me. Oh, it's not sarcastic. Yeah. It's embarrassing. He was covering it. I mean, there's a lot of people who feel that when people commit a crime, well, society hasn't been kind to them. Let them have what they had. I mean, that's the theory behind letting people steal up to $1,000 out on the West Coast that Gavin Newsom denied was happening. What do they call it? smash and grab. The smash and grab things that were happening like crazy in California. The feeling is, well, America's not equal. The rich have too much. So let them smash that jewelry store, grab some stuff and go. So they fence it. And they need the essentials like the jewelry as opposed to food. Right. Let's say you want Gatorade. You find somebody who has to stay hydrated. You could pay for it or you could go grab it. We can't just study what is like paying for it. We have to also study the benefits of just grabbing it.

Indeed. We should spend more on taxpayer money. I mean, this is, I'm so glad this is how we're ending the show. All Eric said was cut 42. And this is, it leaves me to so many, it makes me want to go to Minneapolis and just go to a state rep meeting and just go to local and just sit there for a while. Because it is a circus. It is, would you raise your hand and like throw out things just to poke at them? Right. The benefits of shoplifting, carjack, assault. Think about it. You could go steal his pen to see what he thinks. Why not? The benefits are just taking someone's wallet knocking them out. Why don't we look at that side of it?