Trump: Ground operations in Venezuela to begin "soon"

At farmers, our honesty is contagious. Wait, am I going to catch honesty? Well, when you're with farmers, it's kind of inevitable. Well, how long does it take to it? I lied to you when you asked if I knew what a deductible was. I don't know my dad's birthday. I thought umbrella policies were for rainstorms. Actual rainstorms. I have it, don't I? You don't just have honesty. You have farmers. Bump, bum, bum, bum, bum. Learn more at farmers.com. Underwritten by Farmer's truck or fire insurance exchanges or affiliate. Products not available in every state. From high atop, Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmeade. Hi, everyone. Get ready to close out a big week today. Charlie heard at the bottom of the hour, Kirsten Cinema, from the former Arizona Senator, co-chair of AI Infrastructure Coalition. And she is very much into the private sector and using her knowledge of what's going on in politics to make America a better place. Had a chance to meet her for the first time in person. Yesterday I'm Fox and Friends. She's kind enough to call in in a matter of moments. We'll zoom in there so you can see her on the stream. A lot to go over. And we also owe the former senator identity gratitude that there's not two more states in this country and the filibuster is not gone. And the build back better plan of cost of $6 trillion wasn't put into the bloodstream. She stopped it along with Joe Manchin. So let's get to the big three. Number three. There were cameras all over my husband when he was murdered. There had been cameras all over me, analyzing my every move, analyzing my every smile, my every tear. We deserve to have cameras in there. I hear you, Erika Kirk. Finally, the trial of accused Charlie Kirk alleged a killer gets on track, as we will soon learn if we can see Tyler Robinson's fight for his life after taking Charlie's. His smirk and smiles are sickening. Once it begins, we'll see an end, I hope, to the wild conspiracy theories that are ringing around this investigation. Number two. Well, I think what we're seeing is the first instance of the Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which said that, you know, don't mess around in our backyard was the old school version. And now President Trump has said, don't run bad operations with your global buddies in our backyard. Two conflicts, one beginning and one perhaps ending. Venezuela, heating up and Ukraine perhaps winding down. The latest on the two consequential problems Trump inherited, but is determined to solve. Number one. We saw double-digit inflation, something we hadn't seen since the 1980s under Joe Biden. So President Trump comes in. We cut taxes, expanded child tax credit, incentivized business to invest in America.

Senator John Thune with Sean Hannity last night. The economy will make or break the midterms and Trump's legacy as he admits polls are low. He's betting on himself to turn it around. We detail his game plan right now. And joining us now, former Senator Kirsten Cinema, Senator, welcome back. Oh, welcome. Well, it's wonderful to be with you. And it was wonderful to meet you in person yesterday. Yes, even though you were honest, you don't watch much television, right? You have no idea. Yeah, I don't. I actually watched no television. Did that hurt you as a senator? Did you sometimes miss some issues because you didn't know what was? No. No, in fact, I got the news faster because I would wake up and read it every morning. Okay. So, and you can, I can read a lot faster than I can listen. And so I actually was able to get more information faster. But, you know, the truth is, Brian, I actually just didn't even own a TV. Wow. Senator, I want to talk about AI because the president signed an executive order into law to make it, I guess, to put us all on the same page and make this a national push instead of an individual state push. But I do want to tell you, ask you about the economy. How do you, where do you look forward to see if it's going well? And what role is politics playing in how people feel? Oh, that's such an important question. So after 20 years of elected service, I'll tell you it's not hard to get a feel for how the economy is feeling. And my suggestion is go get into an Uber and ask your Uber driver. That's it. After your Uber driver. They will tell you the cost of groceries, the rent, cost of gas, how much profit they're making, what they think about for their kids or their kids are going to have a better future than them or not. So there's a lot of GDP and there's data and there's data points. And look, all of that is for people on television and news, et cetera, to talk about. But the reality is you just need to talk to regular Americans. That's it. And the easiest way to do that is hop in an Uber. ask your driver some questions about how his or her life is going and listen, like for real listen. And that's how you can tell how the economy is going. And I'll tell you what I'm hearing right now, Brian. People are concerned because the price of groceries are still too high. And of course, the rental market is really expensive right now. And that's why you see the administration doing things like exceptions on tariffs for beef and coffee. We saw that rollout just three weeks ago. You saw that the Trump administration is now announcing they want to do a rollout around. housing prices across the country. Those are all political responses to the financial pressure that Americans are feeling right now. So the one thing, I don't, these corporations buying up housing, that's got to stop. I mean, there's got to be some type of regulation there because you had a Black Rock or they're buying these houses, taking over neighborhoods, then renting them out to people. We'll never be homeowners then, nor can you compete with corporations like this. So, you know, most Americans understand that, like, the pinnacle of the American dream is to own your own home. That is the American dream, right? So I remember, I was very poor growing up, Brian. I don't know if you remember my history, but I was actually homeless for a period of time in my childhood. So for me, becoming a homeowner was, was it. It was like, I've made it.

I've hit the American dream. And that is what Americans dream about. And so there's got to be some movement in the market where people who are renters can see the dream of homeownership and then feel it and get there. And that's, I think, where the focus should go in housing right now. I hear you. Let's talk about the AI race. So the president yesterday signed an executive order with the goal of creating one national AI rulebook to wipe out the chaos of competing state laws. They had this in legislation. Both sides ripped it out. They were actually going to put this in, but they couldn't agree. So the president took things into his, took it on itself with an executive order. Your thoughts about why that may or may not be necessary? Well, I do think we need to have one national standard. You know, it's fine if there are states doing additional work on the side, as long as it doesn't get in the way of protecting Americans' rights, privileges, and expectations. So right, you know, before the executive order, you had a different standard of what AI looked like if you lived in Florida versus Indiana versus California. And that's... That just doesn't make sense. Like, if you're an American, you should get to have access to those same rights and expectations of privacy, those same ability to have AI enhance your life. And so the standard across the nation is a real, it's actually a really important issue. Now, the president did it through an executive order, and that's a good start. But it's my hope that Congress will come back and actually codify a realistic standard, a national realistic standard. So Americans can have peace of mind that they have access to the same protections, rights and privileges, no matter which state they live in. So the problem, do you think the problem was it came from the White House? I mean, why didn't Congress write it themselves? So unless they just don't feel as though they want to pass it, they don't want to take the rights away from the states. What do you think? Well, look, I'm a huge state's rights person. I love, I mean, the 10th. I'm from Arizona, Brian. Yes. Yes, we do. We do not love the federal government. We are actually any government. But in particular, we believe very strongly in states' rights. The issue here, in my opinion, is not about a 10th Amendment issue. This is about whether or not you as an American get the same rights and privileges depending on where you live. And look, I think Congress can come to an agreement here. It's just going to take them a little bit longer. Brian, this is no surprise. Congress hates to act, right? They try not to, and then they wait until the last minute when they have to. And the president and the White House's opinion is that the AI race against China is so integral and so urgent that we cannot wait. And we can't allow a state like California to create restrictions that hold back the entire industry and that make it harder for Americans to benefit from the advancements of AI. Here's what the president said, yes, Jay, is his primary focus. Cut 44. And we also know that a big part of our economy, it could be 50, 60 percent of our economy going forward, for a period of time, at least, especially during this startup, is AI and AI-based. We have...

trillions of dollars of construction going on, and that construction would stop or it would certainly be, a lot of it would be halted. So look, we're leading China. We're leading China by a lot. China knows that. And not doing this would be the greatest gift to China and other countries, but China in particular, that China has ever received. Well, do you agree with that, number one. And number two, do you think we're beating China? We are ahead of China in the AI race at the moment. Our models are superior. Our compute power is superior. However, that could change very rapidly. And there are a number of things that we've got to do in order to stay ahead of China in this, what I believe is a national security imperative for our country and for the whole globe. You know, as I said yesterday on Fox and Friends. If we don't win this race against China, then China will dominate the AI models. And then Chinese values will be the values that are communicated to people around the globe. And that's a very, very dangerous proposition. And the problem is the problem is power, right, Senator? And the power of China will spend $560 billion on grid projects in the next five years, up 45%. Can we match that? Yeah, we can. Now, the National Energy Dominance Council is a council that was established by the president. It sits in the White House. Its job is to coordinate a whole of government approach between all the agencies to increase domestic energy production. And in the short term, that means natural gas. In the long term, that means nuclear. Can we do it? Absolutely. But do we need help to get there? Yes, Brian, Congress has got to put its head down and work together to do permitting reform early next year that will allow us to move faster on these projects. We have the capability to create enough domestic power to power the AI race and win it. But we've got to unleash some of these companies to do this work. And we can do that, Brian, while still protecting all of our environmental concerns, which make us better than China. So, Senator, looking back now and having a chance to talk to you, I mean, we just had so much respect for the way you were fighting just for logic. You weren't fighting for Republican or Democrat, and that's why you ended up an independent perhaps. But what was it like being one of two senators, even though others claimed to be moderate, to continue to take on the White House when necessary, on the filibuster, on the build back better plan, on adding two states? and take them on on the border. What was that like for you with Joe Biden as president, you from his, and you from your own party, maybe taking a lot of heat? Well, you know, I'm in Arizona. I was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, so I'm used to taking the heat. So the good news is that was that was something I've been doing my whole life. And Brian, the people who know me and the Arizonans whom I served for 20 years know that I always would stand up and do what I believe is right, regardless of political pressure from any party or any people. And so for me, it wasn't hard to make the decision to do the right thing. But I'll tell you this, Brian, in those last two years of my service in the United States Senate, as you'll recall, I was an independent for some of that time.

I said to my colleagues over and over again, I know you're unhappy with the positions I'm taking right now, but I promise you that in less than two years, you will be grateful that I have done this. And that's in specific to the filibuster, Brian. And that has borne itself out every single day. Every single day. The filibuster was designed to create comedy within the Senate and to force people to work across the aisles and compromise. Neither party likes it when they're in charge, but every party loves it when they're in the minority. And I believe that that tool should be there, regardless of which parties in the majority, to temper the passions and the excesses of either party. And that's exactly what it does. And on the other issues, you know, build back better. You know, originally they came out with a $6 trillion plan that would have bankrupted our country. And I said no. They wanted to raise taxes on Americans all across the country. It would have crippled our economy. I said no. And I'm really glad that I did those things because we would be in a much worse position today if I hadn't stood strong for the people of my state and country. Senator, when was it clear to you, Senator, Senator, Senator, that Joe Biden cannot serve another term. You know, I never talk about the private conversations that I have with other elected officials. I know that I'm the only person in Washington, D.C., who had that rule. So I won't share any of the personal details, but I'll tell you that it was clear to me that for two years. that President Trump was going to win re-election when he ran in 24. It was clear to me for two years. And my colleagues knew, because I told them every day, gosh, they really got sick of me saying it. And I was just telling them because I saw the handwriting on the wall. I would come home to Arizona every weekend. I would talk to voters and listen to them. And I would go back to D.C. and I would say to my colleagues, You guys, this is what's going to happen. This is what's coming. President Biden is not going to another term, and neither is a replacement if you were to choose one. And they just were unwilling to see the reality. You know, and Brian, I'm going to go S O'Rick for just a second and say this. One of the challenges I see in government, is that people are so committed to their own ideas of what they want things to be, that sometimes they have trouble seeing things for what they are. And the key to success is to understand what things are at the moment and then figure out how to work in that setting right there, given the reality that you face. It's practical, it's pragmatic. I know the left and right, don't love it, but that is how you get stuff done. No, I hear you wholeheartedly. I just wonder if we're going to get to the point where people are going to go, okay, this is what I want to happen, but it's not possible. So how do I, what's the best I can get? And then people feel as though if you compromise, you're going to get primaried. And I think both parties are guilty of this, don't you think?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I'm now sitting here as a one-time Democrat, always a moderate, now an independent, and not serving in public office. So yes, I do agree with you wholeheartedly. But the reality, Brian, is the only way that that changes is if voters change their behavior. So you know what I used to tell folks when I would meet them at fundraisers or gatherings? They would say, what can we do to help? you know, adjust the situation. And I said the number one thing you can do is support someone who's running for office with whom you agree with only about 60% of the time. Because that person's thinking for themselves. Yeah. Right? And so go support someone you don't agree with 100% of the time. That means that person's thinking on their own. You may not agree with every decision they make. I hope you don't. Because if you agree with every single decision, an elected official makes, either they're lying to you. or you're not thinking for yourself. And Brian, both of those are dangerous for democracy. Wow, you speak in. And, you know, we're up against a break. For someone who doesn't watch much television, you seem to have an instinct because we're streaming too. A short soundbite right to the point and always saying something important. Senator Sinema, is there anything that you want to make sure to before we leave you, get across to our listeners? No, I'd love to come back because there's a lot more I'd love to talk with you about. And it's been a real pleasure, Brian. And be open to the AI revolution because you're at the cusp of it. Senator Kirsten Cinema, thanks so much. Thank you. Have a great day. All right. By the way, it's hard for me to say Kirsten cinema because I have a Kirsten, who is my middle child. But I understand what Kirsten goes through because everyone mispronounces my daughter's name. And she always says to me, why didn't you just name me Kristen? It would have been so much easier back in a moment. The headlines, the stories behind them, and the people who make them, only on the Brian Kilmeade. Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% off your first purchase at Fox Newswineshop.com with code FNRadio 20. 20% discount excludes wine club offers and cannot be combined with any other promotion. Expires July 31st, 2026. Must be 21 order to order. Please drink responsibly.

If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmeade. It was dangerous. It was scary. The sea conditions were ideal for us, but certainly not water that you would want to be on. Certainly not. That's why it was advantageous to us. The higher the waves, the harder it is for radar to see. That works. So Brian Stern. talking about how hard it was to get to Maria Maria Corina Machado out of Venezuela and get her into Norway to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, which he won. Who is she? She's the one who rightfully, her party rightfully won the last election and Maduro won't leave. She says, went on to say, listen, we had a plan. If Maduro's out, we'll know exactly what we're doing for 100 days, 100 days militarily, economically, diplomatically, and she wants the world to rally around this movement, and she obviously is a big supporter of what President Trump is. is doing. And by the way, we'll go over this in detail a little bit later. But by taking that tanker, it costs Venezuela $80 million. And if we can continue to do that, that'll amp up the pressure on that outlaw regime. And finally, maybe force Maduro right out the door. He's acting continuing very erratically these days. Maybe he knows his days are numbered. I hope. Coming up next, Charlie Hurd, a Fox and Friends weekend. This is the Brian Kilmeade on a Friday.

makes you think. This is the Brian Kilmeade. How could this escalate the conflict with Venezuela? Well, you know, we've had sanctions on Venezuelan oil for since the first Trump administration. And Biden kept them. Kept them. Yeah. So to me, this is absolutely normal. I mean, seizing an oil tanker? Yeah, we've been seizing Iranian oil tankers in the past. We also, according to the law that I've read, we can, that oil is up for forfeiture. So we could keep that. We've kept Iranian oil in the past. I think this is actually a pretty, you know, check-the-box case. So that was interesting, and it sounds like Jake Tapper was stunned when Beth Zaner, the CNN analyst, security analyst, said that seizure of the tanker off the coast of Venezuela, A-OK with her. With us right now is Charlie Hurt getting set for Fox and Friends weekend. Charlie. So I think people were surprised that she said that. And we saw a few analysts say this. This legally stands. And basically it cost Maduro's government $80 million. Yeah. And I get why people have questions about it. I mean, I have questions about it. While this is not unprecedented, it never happens. It almost never happens. We never actually make good on our threats to forfeit and get these ghost oil tankers that are carrying oil. from places that have been sanctioned for terrorism or for whatever reason that they've been sanctioned. And so I get it. There are a lot of questions. I have a lot of questions. I have a lot of questions about what does this mean long term for our ability to sort of broker, be the financial brokers of the world. But clearly, and I think that what she said makes sense, but it's a reminder. that when you, the worst thing you can do in politics or in, especially in global politics when you're dealing with like foreign bad actors, drawing red lines that are fake is the most dangerous thing you can do. And I get it. Some of it is kind of, you know, there's an art to it more than just a science to it. But when you draw red lines, that should be something that is terrifying. And the reason it should be terrifying for bad actors. Do you think the president did? Do you think he's doing that in Venezuela? Is that a red line? He hasn't said, I want regime change for sure. No, I think he's handled most of all of this very artfully and in a very smart way because he has not been specific. He has been a little bit vague about it, but he's like, you've got to go. And if you can pull all this off without making any red lines that you don't enforce, and you get the place to the guy to leave. And there really is, unlike a lot of the other adventures we've had around the world, an apparatus that steps into place and the country is able to emerge from that stronger and a great ally of the United States, then, oh my gosh, that is everything you could possibly want. And it's so much better than getting embroiled in some freaking years-long war that, like most Americans don't really understand. Joey, I know you know this, but...

Joe Biden said, I'll deal with you, Maduro. You just promised to have free and fair elections. I need to buy oil from you. And why is that? Because he did not want to drill. Because it would have alienated his Bernie Sanders wing, which really put him into office. So we got the Venezuelan dirty corrupt oil. And we drained our strategic oil reserve in order to keep oil and gas somewhat. calm during his for two years, get him to the midterm elections. So he made a deal with the devil. So the president came in originally said, maybe I could do something here and then realize he's not taking back our TDA, his TDA gangsters. He's not doing it. So you know what? I'm going with Marco Rubio's plan, which is maximum pressure because they, Venezuela keeps the top on the anarchy in the southern hemisphere. Because if you see that China. Hezbollah, Iran, and Russia are all running wild in that country, along with Cuba. You realize this country which has a history of democracy, how imperfect. And this guy's illegitimate. It's not that they elected. Chavez was elected. This guy replaced him and then lost a bunch of elections, even with his corruption. He sees an opportunity in our own hemisphere. Imagine the twisted thinking of somebody like former President Biden who looks at a situation and says, you know, our path to independence is to hand control over our livelihood, our lifeline, to a third country. It's insane. And that's one of the things. And let Iran sell their oil. Yes. Look the other way. Not only to a third party, but to all of your, you're handing control of your livelihood to all of these enemies that despise the United States of America. And whereas, meanwhile, and by the way, it's the same thing. And I hate to even enter into this field because this is like your baby. And you'll school me on it for like 30 minutes. But like with rare earths. The idea that we're willing to get into a fight with China and lose over rare earths, when we have perhaps one of the largest stores of untapped rare earths ourselves, not to mention oil and gas reserves, it's insane. And it really is like a demented desire to be owned not only by somebody else, but by our worst enemies. You know what they're making a choice for? national security or the green mania, the green religion. Oh. Because they don't want to strip mine because it's bad for the environment. Minnesota's loaded with it. The number one mine in the world, they tell me, was California. And they basically shut it down. They said, why should we do it here when China says they'll take over it? So the China either took the oil, took the rare earth and then... mastered it. So they took the Congo and they took all this stuff and they abused people with no work rules. They got children with spoons on the side of a mountain, trying to dig out looking for rare earth, which is poisonous. It's horrible to see. But we allowed our national security that controls our phones, our military weaponry and everything else to be, we have a year to get our act together. China said, we're cutting you off. There was panic on our side. And to take it a step even further.

I don't even think that they actually, there are some good people who believe in the whole green, wacko agenda, no doubt, especially young people who have been fed this slop for so many years. But I don't actually believe that the most powerful actors in the Democrat Party who push this thing actually care one whit about the environment. Like Bill Gates. Right, right. What they actually care about, well, I don't really know. He's such a... dork and a nerd. He may be a... But what they want is control. And the whole green agenda is all about centralized control, which of course is the threat going back to the beginning of the first humans. It's always about centralized control. And the green agenda is all about giving a government so much power. They can tell you how much water you can use, how much you can't use, how much energy you can expand, how much you can't. And it's all about... You know, it's their desire for power and money. Charlie heard here. Charlie, you're going to love this. You don't watch MS much MS now. I guess now it's MS now. So Rachel Maddow, this is incredible. Which Ryan's with MS now. Right. That's why they did it. They said, Rachel, what do you think we should do with the last name? She wanted a jingle. Yes. So, by the way, Walter Kronkite Award for journalism. I mean, are you kidding me? Journalism? When has she done journalism? Cut 22. Trump really doesn't seem to have any idea why he's going to war in Venezuela, nor does he seem to be in charge of any of the decisions that are leading us to this war. And so we also have to worry about who's actually running the government right now and who is actually driving us toward this regime change war that the president doesn't seem to be at the helm of. We don't know who is and we don't know why. Oh, that's great. There's so much to say. Number one, she's taking, she ignored Joe Biden, the sleep of the switch, missing his secretary of defense for months and didn't even know it. Four cabinet meetings in four years, not name tags to identify people in his family. So. Now she says Donald Trump is not in charge. I didn't know anybody who thought that Donald Trump was not in charge of everything that he's done. Yeah, no, I don't think that was actually Rachel Maddow at US Now, MS Now. I think that was AI of everything everybody said for years about Joe Biden and they just sort of repurposed it in her voice. That's insane. And it is, it really is funny when it and you put your finger right on it. It is so hilarious that you have a king, a dictator, but then he's not in control. Good point. And it's like, wait a second, no king's day. I just marched when the no king's march. And it's like my favorite troll from Trump this year was when he came out and thanked everybody for keeping this king from taking power because he was really worried about it. He was like, because he thought he was president and he didn't know who this king was, but he was really, really, they got him really worried about it. That's one of the craziest things. But you know what they did on those on Kings Day? They registered a lot of people to vote. So those people came out and they used it to their advantage, even though. Yeah, we can mock them all we want. But every time they walk up, hey, do you have a moment for, you know, whatever rights? Yeah. And it's like, and we walk past them. They want us to walk past them because they don't want to register a normal person. They want somebody go, oh, you know, and then sit down and.

A couple of things that I'm just realizing while you were talking is that, you know, Trump has made maneuvers like Iran. You know, he doesn't do many military actions, but when he does them, they work. When I watched our guys take that tanker, the way they repelled perfectly, imagine if that went wrong. You know, then all of a sudden, you know, the lives are lost. What's the meeting? There'll be emergency meetings and committees. And then we watched the tanker being taken. We saw the Iranian situation. When we do an operation under this administration, he says, whatever you do, it's got to go good. And every one of those 22 boats. And you spent enough time with President Trump to know this. You know that because he is a nuts and bolts guy. He's a guy that builds skyscrapers. And so he knows how like each floor is attached to the floor below it. He is like a nuts and bolts kind of guy. If he's going to order a strike on nuclear facilities in Iran or or that or order his guys to go and take a tanker, you know he is sitting there in the situation room in real time watching second by second commenting. on everything, and everybody is bringing their A-S-A game. Charlie, I want to change gears, but before we do, General Jack Keene, my favorite segment of the week, you know, with Fox and Friends, Joyce joined us. And I told us what's next? And what I think is great about the general is he knows strategically because of all this experience, but he also knows the men and women in charge. So he finds out what is likely to happen, let alone what he wants to happen. Cut 20. They have plenty of options. I mean, obviously, they can focus on the narco-trafficking targets themselves, you know, where it's manufactured, the storage sites for it, the distribution for it, or they can target on government sites as well. So they have a number of options here, obviously, to deal with. including land targets. And the president said, we're going to start hitting land targets soon. But the anaconda, I think, starts squeezing with these tankers because you just took $80 million out of an economy that was backwards anyway. Imagine if you do that every day and they can't export. You know who also gets hurt? Oh, let me see. It's on the tip of my tongue, China and Russia. I don't mind that. Yeah. Well, and that's why I think that all of this at the end of the day winds up being about China. And I think Trump is so smart about this, about recognizing China has completely moved into our, not even our backyard. It's like our side yard. They have completely moved in because of indifference. Indifference on our part. Yeah, and incompetence on our part. And also they bribe them with the Belt and Road program. I'll build your bridges. I'll build your airports. I'll take care of your quotes. And then you can pay us. Oh, you can't make the payments. I'll take the port. And now people are waking up. And at least going to Panama. I'll be a Belt and Road.

And we'll do a deal rather than extortion. We'll talk about it just real quick, too. You just reminded me, Mexico was told multiple times there were Russian spies in their government. We told them exactly where they were, who they were pretending to be, and they haven't moved on that yet. So if you think for a second, President Trump is going easy on Russia or looking the other way at certain things, he knows this is a way to squeeze Russia. And he also knows in Mexico, not okay. Guys, wake up. Back in a moment. From breaking news to big name guests, Brian brings you insight you won't hear anywhere else. You're listening to The Brian Kilmeade. Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kilmeade. Savage's view is that California is a kind of hellscape, but there are some set of problems that from his perspective are visible. Yeah. From your perspective are harder to see. Well, I mean, the affordability crisis, he's 100% right. The poster child of our failure as a state is the issue of poverty that's out on the streets and sidewalks as it relates to encampments and homelessness. So here's the thing. Do you hear what he just said, Charlie Hurt? So that's Gavin Newsom, who's being portrayed in New York Times as the frontrunner to get the nomination. Charlie Hurt from Fox and Friends weekend, about to get his preview. He's talking to as recline. Didn't he just put himself down? Right? It doesn't sound like I listened to this twice. So he says, The affordability is Christy gives, yes, 100%. He's right. The poster child of our failure as a state is the issue of poverty out of the streets and sidewalks as it relates to encampments and homelessness. Yes, you did this. And you gave your state a $30 billion deficit. Yeah, and this is the whole- This is the whole lie that has become the Democrat Party. They promise to solve all of these problems and they never solve any of them. And the only people who keep winning are politicians who keep telling the same lies that they're going to solve these problems. And they never, in fact, not only do they not solve them, they make them 10 times worse. And the people that keep voting for them for some reason, which I'll never understand, keep. you know, losing, winding up on the losing end of the stick. And it puts the lie to all of these government promises. And the fact that a guy like Gavin Newsom can so easily slip in and out of and say something like that, I think goes to the heart of why. I don't see how that guy winds up being the Democrat nominee. I just don't think that I think that there is just enough smart people voters in the Democrat Party to look at that and say this is BS. But they are labeling him as the frontrunner. Bill Clinton said I met with Gavin Newsom. He is so impressed. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would never say that.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for all of her, you know, we can sit here and pick her apart. But she's a much more gifted politician. That guy's not a gifted politician. He's a huckster. But in real time, I mean, he went from, I want to hear what the other side has to say to Donald Trump. I'm going to be his number one enemy. I'm going to set up his social media side to be his, the inverse of Donald Trump. I'm going to start doing a million interviews as a blatant partisan. But by the way, do you know what he's did? You just reminded me, as he was saying here, yeah, we have an affordability problem and it's all over California. He also, when the fires burnt everything down in Los Angeles, he said, yeah, I'm outraged. Where was the water? Where was the planet? Excuse me, you're the governor. Right. But he wanted to distance himself from it. I see, I don't think a shapeshifter like that. Like, we can quibble with Barack Obama. But the reason that Barack Obama won in 2008 is because people felt like he was authentic. The reason Donald Trump. keeps winning is because people believe that he is authentic. And we can quibble about both of those. But Gavin Newsom will never, ever come across as authentic. And I just, and maybe the Democrat Party makes a compromise like they did with, with John Kerry in 2004, where they look at him and they go, okay, he's not the, he's not. Howard Dean, he's not the most authentic, but we think maybe he might be more sellable. And maybe they make a deal with the devil, but then he loses. And again, say what you want to do about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She comes off as authentic. So, yeah, she is while she's spending millions of dollars in Puerto Rico. And also, I'd like to issue a formal complaint about how do you have Kirsten Cinema open for me? I know. I mean, she was good, though, right? Do you know what a let down that is for all of your viewers? Can you tell me what the eight hours this weekend will be? It's going to be, I wish it were going to be Kirsten Cinema. Let's see, we have Kaylee McEnany. Great. We have Mike Pompeo. Great. You're actually going to make me remember all of these. Well, it's going to be big. And it's going to be Army Navy game. You're going to have Joey Jay Jones. I'm sure coming from Army Navy on Saturday. I'm sure that'll be important. Oh, yeah. Will you do any football? And we're going to have, yeah, of course. You know, I'm kicking your tail in the fantasy football thing. And I think we'll even have Brian Kilmeade. I hope so. If I'm asked, I'll be there. An AI version of it. Yeah, so from 6 to 10. Saturday and Sunday on it's Fox and Friends weekend. And I know that Rachel will interview the wives and cabinet members. This episode is brought to you by Starbucks. That is fire. Whoa, that's good. This might be the drink of the summer. Okay, I like this one too. I'm rocking with it. Okay. Try it for yourself. Starbucks refreshers concentrates are coming home. Find them in the coffee aisle and make it yours.

News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan. It's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade. I'm so glad you're there. It's the Brian Kilmeade, coming to you from 48th and 6 in Midtown Manhattan, where if I'm just judged by the sidewalks, I think New York has never been more popular. I mean, there's so many outdoor displays. It's just a block for me. There's really an outdoor mall, it looks like individual mall, not something that was produced. So I thought it was really cool, you know, little things like from ornaments on down to different things that would be great Christmas gifts right across from Radio City. We got our great Christmas tree here, which has become a place now for everyone to come. Actually, Santa is... there today. If you're listening to this on Friday, Santa's outside our building right now for a few hours. We also sadly have a ballerina who's wearing nothing but like a dress, bare arms who has to ballerine. What do you call it? Just dance? When a ballerina dances? What are you called? Just dancing, right? But it's different from dancing. I mean, she's not doing the hustle. She's on her toes as a ballerina. And she's got to say, I mean, I know we're paying her, but it's still a lot to be outside. It's about 20 degrees out. I mean, she's burning calories. She's probably getting, you know, breaking a sweat a little bit. It's still dancing. She's just, you know, there's all forms of dancing, Brian. You should know this as a dancing expert. That's true. This hour, we're going to be joined by Steamboat Institute fellow, Corrine. Hajar. She's going to be with us. Morgan Murphy running for Senate in Alabama is going to be here. But next, we got Brian Stern standing by a former U.S. Army and Navy counterintelligence officer and first responder and founder of the International Rescue nonprofit that we love, Gray Bowl Rescue, who got Maria Corina Machado out of Venezuela. He's about to tell us that story. But first, let's get to the big three. Number three. There were cameras all over my husband when he was murdered. There had been cameras all over me, analyzing my every move, analyzing my every smile, my every tear. We deserve to have cameras in there. Yeah, absolutely. And that is, of course, Erika Kirk. Finally, the trial of accused Charlie Kirk assassin is front and center. We'll soon learn if we can get... cameras in the classroom, excuse me, cameras in the courtroom for Tyler Robinson's fight for his life. And finally, get all the conspiracy theories and put them to rest as the prosecutor outlines what they say he did to kill Charlie. Number two. Well, I think what we're seeing is the first instance of the Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which said that, you know, don't mess around in our backyard was the old school version. And now President Trump has said, don't run bad operations with your global buddies in our backyard. Jim Hansen, two conflicts, one beginning and perhaps one ending. Venezuela heating up right now. In Ukraine, perhaps winding down, the latest on the two consequential problems. Trump inherited, but is determined to solve.

Number one. We saw double-digit inflation, something we hadn't seen since the 1980s, under Joe Biden. So President Trump comes in. We cut taxes, expanded child tax credit, incentivized business to invest in America. Yep, there we go, Senator John Thune. The economy will make or break the midterms. And Trump's legacy as he admits polls are low. He's betting on himself to turn it all around. We detail his game plan. But first things first. If you look at what the president's most focused on international relations, it is finally in our hemisphere. And it is in Venezuela. Two days ago, the big story was the tanker containing $80 million of illicit oil that was Iranian. And we've been looking at this called the skipper, this ship for a while. fast roped onto it, took it over, and so now we're going to bring it home. And that's more pressure on Venezuela. The other thing that why it's so important for Maduro to go out of our hemisphere is because he was told to hold free and fair elections by a previous president. He held those elections. He tried to cheat, but he still lost overwhelmingly to the party of Maria Corina Machado. And he stayed in power and tightened his grip surrounded by Cubans and Iranians in Hezbollah. We're all going to allow that in our backyard for the president of the United States led by Secretary. State National Security of Arbor Marca Ruba. The answer is no. But one of the key is having something to replace Maduro with, and that is Maria Corina Machado's party. She got picked as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Would she be able to get to Norway to accept it? Yes. Why? Because of Brian Stern and Gray Bull Rescue. And guess who joins us now, former U.S. Army and Navy counter intel officer, Brian Stern. Brian, welcome back. Hey, Brian. How are you? Great. Could you tell me how you got involved and what you did? It was as tough as being a ballerina at 46 and 6. They could tell you that much. Not a like, but certainly a challenge. We got contacted a week ago today, actually. It was last Friday around 2,100, around 9 p.m. by a friend who was connected to Maria's team and asked if we were doing stuff in Venezuela. They knew we were doing stuff in Venezuela, but asked if we would. If we'd be willing to hear out a very complicated case, we didn't know it was Maria at first. We learned that it was Maria either late Friday or early Saturday morning. I'm not sure. Figured out that it was her. That changes everything. As you know, we've been doing stuff. We do stuff all over the world. We call this Operation Golden Dynamite. That's her name for us. Because of who she is, this changes everything. We have a lot of things all over the world. This was our 800th mission that we've done. 800 missions. But this is the hardest thing we've ever done. This is the first thing we've ever done for someone who has a Wikipedia page.

Right? She is, she's the second most popular person in the Western Hemisphere. Which means if she spotted, it would be over. So you had to disguise her. We had to do all kinds of things, all kinds of things, all kinds of things, which we can't get into. But that was, so that all started on Saturday. We started planning Saturday all day, started planning, continued to plan Sunday. We deployed forward. to the region, went back to the region on Sunday and set conditions for Monday, and we initiated operations on Tuesday. And here we are. Some on land, some on sea? There was a land piece, a maritime piece, a very large maritime piece, and also an aviation component as well. She had to fly to Norway from the Caribbean. When, at what point during the operation did you feel like it was secure? when I saw her in Norway. That was it. When I saw Maria hug her daughter is when I took a deep breath. Because at that point, our, you know, we're out of the, you know, our piece is done. We were out of the game at that point. We actually did not do the aviation piece. We were about, we were supposed to. We were about to. We were ready for it. But for lots of really good reasons, we didn't have to. they had that sorted it out, so that was better for us. They have anything to do with the F-16s or the fighter jets that flew over 72 hours ago? No, no, it was more about Maria has people on her team that have access to cheaper planes than we do. It was really a cost. It was more of a costing than anything else. So you got her, you had to get her out, you had to get it through checkpoints, and people would recognize her, so I imagine she had to be disguised. I don't want to get into how everything went down on the land because we still have ops going on. This is still, we don't want to put sources and methods at risk. But suffice it to say, it was dangerous for her, very dangerous for her, dangerous for everybody involved, frankly. She did not complain, you said, and it was extremely cold. And you also said the waters were extremely choppy, but that helped you. How? So we were in five to ten foot seas depending on timing, which was miserable in a small fishing boat. I will tell you, on one of the boats, we had a very seasoned operator who's a very former Marine, who is a very seasoned guy, and he was vomiting for nine hours for perspective. It was cold, it was wet. This is happening in the middle of the night in pitch black darkness with cloud cover and almost no moonlight. And Maria didn't complain once. I've never, it was inspirational. She's been a hero of mine for years. Being asked to participate in this, let alone lead this operation, is probably the greatest privilege that I'll ever have in my career, for sure. So when I met her, I was frankly starstruck. She's a hero of mine. I know I've been following her. I've been on her Twitter feed for years to meet her and then to watch her. be the Iron Lady that she is, went from, you know, I thought she was, I thought she was a rock star to, to, uh,

So that's why I got in. I didn't particularly want to live in Washington and really want to go into politics. Where did you spend most of your time in Trump term one? I was at the DOD, so now the Department of War, but I was with the Secretary of Defense. I was a press secretary to Christopher Miller and Kash Patel was his deputy. And 2020, it was a fever dream, 2020, but we traveled around the world, went to 17 different countries, went to Afghanistan in December. 2020 through the BLM riots through the election. I mean, it was, it was pandemic. The pandemic. It was a trial by fire that year. But it was my first time working at that level of government. And seeing that up close was fascinating. And also seeing the people who betrayed the president. I got a ringside seat. for the folks that tried to undercut him at every turn. I was like, is this how politics really? I mean, I hadn't seen it before. This is how this really works? Yeah, that's how. I mean, I was with General Millie in the Pentagon. If you can. Imagine that. And it was rough. Yeah, I mean, he obviously sat there and watched us abandon Afghanistan, the worst military operation in our lifetime. Yeah, since the British burned the White House. But he could not tolerate. He could not tolerate Trump. He was calling China about Trump. Well, he changed his tune. So as soon as... I mean, Trump picked him. Right. He did pick him. And Millie couldn't wait to get to the White House at every opportunity until the election. After the election, he very loudly and vociferously badmouthed the president. Every time the door shut, he would trash Trump. And it was clear what he was doing. He was trying to keep his job going into Biden's first term. So what kind of committees would you be interested in? Well, you know, Alabama is a military state. So we've got five major military base and space. Oh, yes. Pete Hegseth's coming down tomorrow or today, actually, to Alabama to unveil the new sign for Space Command. We've got five major military bases, 400,000 veterans, 1,000 defense contractors. Alabama is the shop floor. for our defense industry. We make all the stuff. So I want to be on Senate Armed Services. That's really important. And Morgan Murphy, one of the best, the most important jobs that would be, is to make sure we change the way we purchase weapons. We change the way we make weapons, mass produce weapons. We have a bunch of rights, but we cannot deliver. We have not delivered for Taiwan yet. Brian, you hit the nail in the head. They already wrote the check. Can you imagine like you ordered, you know, $61 billion worth of stuff from Amazon? It didn't show up. I mean, that is Taiwan. They have ordered so. I think the figure is incredible. It's a huge number like $28 billion or something, and we have not delivered it yet. But you're exactly right. Every major weapons procurement system at the DOD is over budget and behind schedule, all of them. Right. And the way we do things are wrong. We have to license this out to other people. And what I'm so encouraged about is during the George Bush era,

You know, Hollywood and Silicon Valley, we're bowing out. They don't want to be part of defense contract. Google employees pressuring Google not to get involved with the U.S., but getting involved with China. Now we got some of the smartest minds at Palantir and other places like Palmer Lucky and his company, who is saying, how can I get the most lethal cheapest weapon quickly to the Department of War? And I really see things changing, but we need someone to organize this. That's so critical. And in the Senate, I mean, the way Congress works and the reason procurement is broken, I was coach's national security advisor. So I watched Tommy Tuberville. Coach Tuberl, yeah, thank you. And he was. You know, we were both new to Washington, but watching the procurement system, what happens is, you know, you want to build an aircraft. You put a nut and bolt factory in all 435 House districts and make sure it's represented everywhere so they can go in and see the congressman and say, look, we got 40 jobs in your district or we got, we're building such and such in your district. And they get across these albatrosses that nobody wants. I was literally in a meeting with coach. I hadn't been in the Senate for... probably two months and we're sitting there with another senator i won't say his name but he he turned to coach he said hey uh hey senator why don't you put uh why don't we put five ships in the bill and you take three for Alabama and i'll take two for my state And I'm a Navy captain. I'm Navy Reserve Captain. And the Navy is, we're behind on ship building. And I knew the ships he was talking about. And I know that the Navy doesn't want those ships. And I thought, did you ask the Navy if they, my head almost exploded because it just is the worst way to buy weapons. But that's how we do it. Right. So my policy when I was working in the Senate was, number one, I evaluated every single program that came in. Number one, is it good for national security. Number two, is it responsible to the taxpayer? And number three is it good for Alabama. But if the first two are met, the third is inherent, right? If it's good for the taxpayer and it's good for national security, by definition, it's good for your state. And Coach adopted that. That's what he looked at every program by. And we need more people like that in government who will do what's best for the country before. What's best for getting elected? Yeah, I think that's true. What would you do about health care if they put you right in there now? There's a two-week limit. You know the subsidies are going up. Every Republican hates Obamacare. We said all that. But there seems to be a collective understanding that you've got to do something for people. Yeah, well, I mean, we've spent my lifetime. I'm 53 years old. We've spent my lifetime wrecking health care by injecting more government into health care. And it just keeps... getting progressively worse. And it can't be undone. All of that damage can't be undone in five weeks, four weeks, whatever the timeline is they're trying to. Would you get some subsidies but health care accounts? I think you'd have to. I think you'd have to get to a solution. But the subsidies have to come with a solution. He is Morgan Murphy. Most likely going to be the next senator from Alabama. He's got a lot of work to do. But I think the president and Senator Tommy Tuberville are looking to get on his team, which would be an automatic victory. Morgan, congratulations. Best luck. Brian, it's great to be with you. Thank you.

The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmeade. Hey, we are back. And with me in studio is Corrine Hajar. She's with the Steamboat Institute. She's a fellow there, Washington Post editorial board member who's just fresh off a visit to. Middletown, Ohio, right? That's right, yeah. By the way, I'm reminding me, I did go to Middletown, Ohio to sell on a Fourth of July because they wanted to go to, like, Middle America, and they thought that would be the perfect place to go. Does that represent middle America in many ways? Well, it's the vice president's hometown, and I think it's a typical Rust Belt town, the type of place that he ran and was elevated to represent. I mean, the Republican Party is evolving into a party that also represents part of the working class. So this is a lot of what the president's trade. policies are supposed to help, reviving manufacturing. But I have to say people there are really hurting right now with the cost of living. Small businesses are hurting with the tariffs and higher input costs for their businesses. So it was a really interesting trip. So it was an enlightening trip, I imagine, to see it up close and personal and not look at stats. So when you say products and tariffs, what products are being are being affected? Well, I'll give you an example. I went to a boutique on the main drag in Middletown, which if you actually read the vice president's book, has always struggled. I mean, this is a town that's experiencing post-industrial decline and the NAFTA era, the free trade era, all of that. But especially now, if you go into, I talk to an owner of a fashion bout. And she said, you know, if this isn't like a big box store or like an online shop where I can hold on to some of the prices for the price input increases for a bit. She was saying that, you know, I have to pass those on to consumers. So clothes are going to be more expensive. She had a hat bar, for example, where you could decorate your hat. She's had to look for different vendors to help her business just to cut prices. So in other words, the manufacturing moved out. So to bring it back, the president said, let's make a course effective to make it here. But what do you do in the interim? Well, we wait to make hats here. We make to make shirts here and bring shoes back. Well, let's say we do have the workers. It doesn't happen overnight. Right. And you hit on hit on the exact problem here, which is it does not happen overnight. And if you go back to 2022, when President Biden was trying to sell Bidenomics, he asked for patience. And Republicans went wild over this. And of course, for any type of economic change, it's going to take time. The problem is that the Trump administration ran on fixing the Biden economy right away. The president said there would be precipitous price drops right away. And again, like any policy you're going with, it's going to take time to restructure the economy. Personally, I see tariffs as a tax. But either way, however you feel about them, it's hard to sell to voters that you have to struggle in the meantime when you were promised immediate relief. So there are people that were Trump voters that were frustrated. Yes, they were frustrated, but they were willing to wait. I think that's the difference. I met a lot of people who were just not willing to wait. So last month, the vice president said that we're on a front end of an economic boom, just hold on and wait. You've had Mike Johnson say, we need some patience, but things are going to get better when the tax cuts hit next year. And you meet a lot of folks who are frustrated with that message. They do not want to wait. They were told that things are going to get better. And they also faced higher prices under the Biden administration. So this is years of struggling in a place that has experienced economic decline on top of that. But then you do meet fans of the vice president, Trump voters. This Middletown, Ohio is in Butler County. It went over 60% for Trump in 2024.

People are willing to wait. They're willing to wait them out. But you're seeing the president's poll numbers more broadly. Even Trump voters are growing more and more frustrated with the economy. So this is really becoming a problem for the president. It's roughly 36% approval rating. Here's what Steve Moore says, his economic advisor cut for. Here's the problem for Trump. And I'm a Trump guy. I love Trump. But people, unfortunately, in politics, perception is reality. Right. And if you look at these polls, Brian, you've been citing them. I mean, the polls do show the Fox poll shows 57% of Americans are not rating the economy good under Trump. So he's got to get, you know, he's got to keep getting out there and giving the American people the facts. So that's going to be key. But JD Vance is also going to get on the road. He's also following the president on doing that. He's a different speaker. He does stick more to a structure. The president likes to weave. Yes. Yeah. And, you know, sometimes we have to think about what's a winning message and what's not a winning message. I think one of the president's recent stops, he was saying a couple days ago that maybe you only needed a couple pencils instead of more than that for Christmas or you have to cut down on your Christmas gifts. And that's a tough message to sell to the American consumer, especially when your vice president is at the same time promising that we're on the front end of an economic boom. So, you know, there seems to be a lack of coordination there. And then also a lack of coordination with... broader policy. Like we were told that tariffs, part of the reason that tariffs were important was for national security reasons. But, you know, this week we're talking about Navidia being authorized to sell chips to the Chinese, for example. Well, it's hard to understand why we would tariff household goods and appliances from our friends around the world. And then with the Chinese, we're willing to sell them Navidia chips. So I think like the Trump administration sort of needs to get their message straight on tariffs because voters are growing impatient. Right. The president did notice, you know, he doesn't like to cite poll numbers that he doesn't like, but he did kind of take that into his statement and put his post on truth social. He says, when will I get credit for having created with no inflation, perhaps the greatest economy in the history of the country? When will people understand what is happening? When will the polls reflect the greatness of America at this point in time and how bad it was just one year ago? So he's frustrated because he knows he did a lot of executive orders especially, including reducing regulation, increasing oil and gas, which people are seeing gas go down. They are seeing interest rates go down. That's true. Actually, that's one thing that did come up in a lot of interviews, that the one place that people could really cite relief was on gas prices, on energy prices. But then they talk about the fact that if you look right now at the car market, people are not buying cars as much. And I actually ran into a few people who were talking about how it was really expensive to get their cars repaired right now. So all of these things.

consumers at the end of the day are going to sit down and Americans are going to sit down and say, well, I might be saving money on gas, but how does that compare to the money I'm spending at the grocery store? And I just love to hear anything Democrats had to say, what gets the president is, what were you going to do? Besides saying, make America affordable, how are you going to do it? Well, taxing the rich, really? We're going to tax the rich more. I don't know. We're going to blame supermarkets for gouging. We tried that. That didn't work. So if Democrats say, try my plan, that'll be one thing. But besides raising taxes, have you heard anything? Nope. I really can't. And actually, this is a bigger problem if you look at the city level. Like right now, we're preparing for mayor elect Zohran Mamdani to come in in New York. And it was the same. And everything, even make things terrible. Right. And it was the same type of conversation on groceries and public grocery stores. You're hearing a lot of people on the far left talking about price gouging. Well, grocery stores have tiny margins. Yeah, I know. You talk to a super, before you say something so idiotic, go meet a supermarket owner. Yeah. And find out why are bananas so expensive? Is it because I like to charge a lot for bananas or are they coming in high? So what the president did is said, I'm going to adjust some tariffs in Central and South America for fruits and bananas and coffee. And coffee were the big ones. Yeah, and prices for coffee were up. I think the stats 20% over the last year. So people were hurting on these normal household products. But again, like blaming. supermarket owners is a ridiculous plan because they can't do anything about it. We're talking to Karene Hajar. She's Steampoint Institute fellow, but Washington Post editorial board member, how invaluable is it for you to go meet people? Instead of saying, hey, these are the stats. That's the bar graph. Look at the market. You just don't necessarily recognize you. They're not going to be dug in or angry at you. Just, hey, I'm a reporter. What's it like here? How valuable? Best part of the job. And, you know, I love this country, but it makes me love the country even more when you get to go around and put faces to names and places. And I started, I was on the campaign trail during the 2024 election, starting with the New Hampshire primary, got to spend a lot of new time in a lot of time in New Hampshire with people watching them engage in, you know, our political process. And from there, I got to travel the country following. the Republican race. And that was a blessing. It was so interesting. And I love getting the chance to do this stuff, even though I'm on the opinion side, reporting is my favorite part of it. You know, you want to form your opinion with compassion for people's actual experiences. So. I had such a great time in Middletown visiting the vice president's hometown. People were so welcoming and so willing to engage and have a conversation. And I was really grateful for that. And we'll post a video on Sunday of a lot of the people I met so you can see these Americans and what they're feeling about the economy. I want to bring it to Venezuela. That's where your heritage is. You have family there still? I have family from Venezuela. Yeah, my mom's an immigrant from Venezuela. So now the President of the United States took the tanker, $80 million worth of oil. It's called the skipper. We're going to hold it. And I believe he's going to start taking more tankers, like an anaconda, start squeezing. We also know that he's re-sanctioned his nephews of Maduro. And we know that we got the CIA on the ground, and we got 15% of our Navy off the shore.

Do you have any sense of what's going on in there? And everybody knows he's got to go. I mean, there's no other ending to this operation with him staying in power. Well, let's do about if he doesn't go, if he can stick it out longer. I mean, this is a really big problem. That just entrenches his power even further. So we've sort of given. He's scared down to America. Yeah, exactly. So he has this is going to be a really big foreign policy debate going forward. I mean, we set a red line and it's going to be important. that we can negotiate to get him out of there. But I think pressure is important. Now, there are different ways to exert pressure. And I think going after their oil is a really great way. First of all, this tanker was sanctioned. It's been working with the Iranians. In 2022, it was helping bring revenue to Hezbollah. And if you look at a socialist regime like Venezuela, their economy is completely dysfunctional. The only thing that keeps them going and able to continue to prop up. The economy helped the poorest people even a little, and everyone is struggling there. Nobody has a good life there, but it's because they're sitting on one of the largest known oil reserves in the world. It's like a jackpot if you're a socialist dictator because you can keep eking it out little by little. But, you know, people are really, I know personally that people are really struggling there. They have terrible lives there. Eight million of left? Yeah, it's crazy. Eight million of left. And so, you know, I think going after tankers is a really effective strategy because, again, this is the lifeblood of this murderish regime. And it's more effective than striking the boats, I think. I mean, like, that got too messy for the administration. And they're going to have to own up if there were any mistakes made there. They are still doing it, so they're not going to stop. I don't think they're worried about it. But the good news is, you don't say, well, I wonder what would happen if he left. You know exactly what will happen. Maria Corina Machado and her party would take over. They say they're ready. Here she is after her harrowing escape. We just heard the details of from the Grey Bull Rescue. So here she is in Norway, Cuttle Evan. I want to speak to the Norwegian people, to European people. to the Venezuelan people. I would say to all citizens of the world in this hour, and I assure you that I am very hopeful Venezuela will be free, and we will turn a country into a beacon of hope and opportunity of democracy. And we will welcome not only the Venezuelans that have been forced to flee, but citizens from all over the world that will find a refuge as Venezuela used to be decades ago. So she says she has a plan for the first hundred days. She knows exactly what she wants to do when she gets in. I'm not going to tell you that it's going to be easy. But I will say this is a lot different than Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya. She published her plan with us at the post on the opinion page. And, you know, one of the things that I really admire about her is she's made the case so clearly. that a stable, democratic, and free market, you know, market-oriented Venezuela is better for us, better for the hemisphere than what we have going right now. If we're able to trade and, I mean, think about their oil industry and if it's actually stable and more productive than it is under the terrible state control right now, I mean, imagine the boom that would come from that, not only for them and the stability it would bring them, that also brings stability to immigration, that's less of a strain.

for countries receiving Venezuela on migrants right now. But it's also just an economic boon for the entire hemisphere. Yeah. And she would take over. The question is, there are cartels. There's going to be gangs. It's going to be messy. How do you dislodge the military? How do you get the loyalty of the military away from Maduro, especially when he's surrounded by Cubans? And there's all these spies around, you know, they say there's over a hundred. Venezuelan officers who have been arrested, suspicion of wanting to house Maduro. So there's a lot of fear among the military about their welfare if they flip. I mean, this is the trickiest part, right? This is where the big question mark comes in. But I have to believe one that she'll get help from friends and allies like the Trump administration has been very supportive of her vision. But also, you know, These officers are, there's only so much money that you can dole out with such, again, poor management in this country. And these officers are probably struggling. Their families are probably struggling and they're seeing everyone around them suffer. I mean, at some point you have to hope that people will see the light on this. And Maduro's actions. I don't study this guy, but he's acting absolutely like a child dancing around, the people behind him wearing weird t-shirts. Yeah. How do you explain that? Is he melting down? He's trying to show he doesn't have a care in the world. Yes, it must be that. You're seeing these very bizarre press conferences. I think the latest is he was singing a Bob Marley song to a crowd. Yeah. Well, always don't worry, don't be happy. I think there was somebody else. Do you know, Alice, I know you like music. You have jukeboxes at your house. Oh, yes, you're right. Right. Yeah, don't worry, be happy. Yeah, yeah, you're right. But anyway, I mean, the point being that this guy's swaying around and singing and clapping and everyone is smiling around him. Well, people in your country have been starving. You've been jailing journalists. You've been jailing members of the government. I mean, people like Maria Corina Machado Maria Corina Machado have to be in hiding and then go through these harrowing extractions to be able to accept her Nobel Peace Prize. I mean. This is not the friendly type of regime that he's trying to project it is. I hear you. Green, great to see you. Thanks for doing this. Your prediction on where JD Vance will be a year and a half from now. Still as a front runner, do you think to get the nomination? Do you get the sense? Well, I think it's going to come down to the economy. He's promised that we're on the front end of an economic boom. And the economy is one of the biggest political indicators of a winner versus a loser. If he can deliver that boom, but. Things are looking tricky. And Alice Maduro, if he's the vice president of a winning administration, that's your best calling card. Well, a foreign policy win like that doesn't hurt. Corrine, thanks so much. Great to see you. Thank you. Back in a moment. Learning something new every day on the Brian Kilmeade.

He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmeade. I'm proud to inform people of their rights, and I can't think of a more American thing to do than to speak about the protections that we all have under the law. My responsibility is to do the work necessary to ensure that that doesn't take place. What I also told the president is we have the NYPD here. We trust the NYP to deliver that public safety. We do not need ICE and the National Guard to make that same case. Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect in New York City, doubling, tripling down on giving illegal immigrants America's rights. He did an interview with MS Now, should be doing a lot of them. And he defended his video. He put out a how-to video, if you're an illegal immigrant, what to say to ICE, what not to say to ICE, how to say to ICE, how to avoid ICE. It's crazy. It's like putting out something in my view to avoid the NYPDs or LAPD if you're in Los Angeles. How to break the law and not get arrested. You understand they're here illegally. They most likely snuck. in illegally. Many of these people who are resourceful are criminals and they might be saying, well, I just saw this video online. What I could say to ICE agents, they're not even worried about that. And also, how dumb are you playing this? The president just gave you some rope. He just gave you some leeway like he gave San Francisco. You're saying to basically with your actions, Mr. President, would get ready to take all that leeway away even before I move into Gracie Mansion. It's insane. I think it's insane. Maybe you don't. Maybe you don't. But if I look at what's happened in Chicago, Seattle, if I see the anarchy in some places in New Orleans, although things have settled down there, there's no way as mayor or governor would have, with Democrat or Republican, I would ever want to get on the wrong side of Trump on this, especially when his main focus is criminals. You salute him for the criminals. And if it gets to the point where ICE is overzealous and is picking up people off landscaper trucks, going into restaurants, demanding to see the Cook's ID. That should be pointed out. But at the same time, you have the same press conference, and you praise the president on picking up the racist and the criminals and the assaters and all the aggressive people that are here. We found out there are 8,000 people that snuck into our country on the terror watch list. 8,000. So thank him for doing that, and if he goes too far, say that, but not this. From high atop, Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sewing division. It's Brian Kilmeade. Hi, one final hour of the week here on the Brian Kilmeade. So glad you're there. We have a lot going on today, including they're really rushing on Capitol Hill to get something going on health care. Republicans, too, they know they have to. And I know a lot of conservatives say, stay out of it. Obamacare failed. You've always been against it. It doesn't matter. In fact, they did a study. It affects 24 million people these subsidies going away that never should have been put into play. Because you had a previous administration and the one before that that ran on an ideology, non-economic principles. Ideology was transferred the economy, saved the planet to a green technology and just jam it down everyone's throat. When it comes to Obamacare, it is really a way to get everybody on Medicaid, Medicare in order to have universal health care. It doesn't work. It doesn't work in Canada. It doesn't work in England. Okay. Having said that, doing nothing does not work in my view.

Griff Jenkins at the bottom of the hour. Kevin Roberts standing by from the Heritage Foundation, one of the deepest thinkers around and also open to debate. So before we get to Kevin, let's get to the big three. Number three. There were cameras all over my husband when he was murdered. There had been cameras all over me, analyzing my every move, analyzing my every smile, my every tear. We deserve to have cameras in there. That is Erika Kirk. Finally, the trial of accused Charlie Kirk assassin gets on track as we soon learn if we will see Tyler Robinson's fight for his life on camera. I hope so. Number two. Well, I think what we're seeing is the first instance of the Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which said that, you know, don't mess around in our backyard was the old school version. And now President Trump has said, don't run bad operations with your global buddies in our backyard. Jim Hansen, two conflicts, one beginning and one perhaps ending. Venezuela, heating up and Ukraine, perhaps winding down. The latest on both consequential problems, Trump inherited, and is determined to solve. Number one. We saw double digit inflation, something we hadn't seen since the 1980s under Joe Biden. So President Trump comes in. We cut taxes, expanded child tax credit, incentivized business to invest in America. There you go, and that is Senator John Thune. The economy will make or break the midterms in Trump's legacy as he admits polls are low. He's betting on himself to turn it around. We detail his game plan. Dr. Kevin Roberts joins us now. Kevin, welcome back. Brian, it's always a pleasure to be with you. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. And you always are stress-free and always the voice of reason. First off, President admits, you know, he put it on truth social, 36% approval rating on the economy. Why? Well, two things. Number one, and the first is unfair, is just the typical media attention. Obviously, you and Fox accepted, but it's just the barrage of really unfair stories. The second is the president is trying to clean up years of government overspending, years of economic mismanagement by the Biden administration. And it's going to be, I think, the first quarter of 2026 before we see the American people realize the real benefits of the Trump reform. And so what I would urge, just from a policy standpoint, not a political one, Brian, is that we give the president and his administration time to actually close the sale on what they have done with their policies. That, I think, will be clear by March or April of next year. You know, what's so interesting is, is really two philosophies. One spends $6 trillion on a rescue plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, infrastructure deal, throw that in there. Inflation booms. Now the inflation's coming down. The president takes over, brings it down further. And the affordability argument is what frustrated the president. Because the average American, and I just talked to a great reporter who just went to Middletown, Ohio. And everyone in Middletown, Ohio that won...

very heavily for President Trump and is the hometown of JD Vance is frustrated because things are more expensive now. They do point to some residual effects of the tariffs. Now, I know as Republicans traditionally, they weren't pro-tariff. How does Kevin Roberts feel the tariffs are playing into this? Well, look, at Heritage and obviously myself included, we want real free trade. And what happened for way too many decades is that some transgressors of free trade used. free and fair trade is a cudgel against us. And it hurt places like Middletown, Ohio. So what we want at Heritage is a true reciprocal tariff regime in which only, you know, four, five, six countries, the big transgressors of free trade, starting with China, would actually be identified. I think it's really important for the administration to continue to refine that. But the second thing that I would mention is that the real problems with affordability have very little to do with any short-term effective tariffs. This has a lot more to do. with government overreach, with over-regulation. It's really important if I could send some advice to all of my conservative elected official friends. Stop being afraid of using the term affordability. How about for once, Brian Kilmeade, we on the right co-opt a word from the left, in this case, affordability, because it is a real problem. I mean, I think about our kids getting started as young adults and looking for home. It's really difficult, not because of mistakes they made. but because the government has made it so darn difficult. No doubt about it. The thing is, and you know this better than I do, is that when Zohraimani comes out and he's got charisma, you understand social media, goes that we want to make things more affordable, that's a great line. But how? It is. When it comes to the, what comes after the word, how? And the word how is freeze. You had Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey. I'm going to freeze utility rates. You have Zoraam, I'm Donnie. I'm going to freeze rents. I'm going to make buses free. I'm going to raise taxes on the wealthy. So good luck with that formula. I would love to see that formula and see how that works out. We kind of know how that works out. And we're about to find out when you freeze things, there's a ripple effect when you freeze things. There's a reason why things were going up. You should ask yourself, why are they going up rather than freeze them in place? But there seems to be a lack of ability to understand the marketplace, the free market. No, it's so true. And there's been 80 years of freezing those things going all the way back to the end of World War II and all of the rent controls began in this country. There's a parallel here, if I may observe, between conservatives' unwillingness to engage on the health care issue in the same way that they tend to be unwilling to engage on the affordability issue. Our point at Heritage is lean into those issues. We've got the solutions. If we're going to freeze anything, it's going to be freezing any additional government regulation that's caused this mess. is vital that we talk about this regarding housing affordability, that we actually spell out the part of the question that's how, as you mentioned so well. So in Heritage, we think we've got those ideas and those plans. It really does start with scaling back the intrusion of government into some of the regulations there. But the other thing we have to realize here, Brian, is.

Having 11.5 million illegal aliens come into the country over four and a half years did create additional demand on a very short housing supply. Mass migration has a big impact on this. And one of the things I would salute the administration for is their ability to articulate that to the American people. I just think they need to be talking about it every day. How do you feel about these purchases by corporations of mass houses from, I think I'm keeping getting confused, Blackstone or Black Rock, one of them? I'm against that. I mean, I'm not sure. I'll move for free market, but you got to be kidding me. So now you're going to buy it because you've got an endless amount of money, and then you're going to fix them up, and you're going to make me a rent to the rest of my life. That's not the way it's supposed to work, but the other part of it is, well, let the free market work. Where does Kevin Roberts stand? Look, in Heritage, we're conservatives, not libertarians, which means that there is a higher good at stake than allowing a Fortune 50 company to purchase houses that only ought to be purchased by individuals. And so we're for outlawing that. I think it's a very important thing to stand for. It does not violate the free market of anything. You're creating a real corruption of the free market by allowing these big companies to do so. We ought to have conservative policymakers be able to articulate that there are competing. goods here. If I may be slightly philosophical for a minute, Brian. Yes, we want the free market to exist, but we also want as extensive homeownership by single families as we can. If we fail to deliver on communicating that message as conservatives, we don't deserve to be in power. A couple of things now. I want to talk about Venezuela, and I know about the intrusion regime change, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan. I understand that. I feel like this is different. especially because they had an election. They have a government ready to go. She just won the Nobel Peace Prize, especially because, you know, Chavez did win an election. I can't really tell you how, if it was corrupt or not, but he won an election. And this is his successor. And he's this corrupt and evil as it comes. And we have Hezbollah, we have Iran, we have Russia and China running rampant in our hemisphere. How do you feel about the way the president's approaching this? Well, I'm definitely not for regime changes, you know, but what I am for is the president standing up for... all Americans in saying, we're going to get rid of these drug traffickers. We are going to put pressure on any government that is directly sponsoring terrorists. We did that with a wonderful surgical strike in Iran regarding their nuclear capability. I think there's a strong parallel here, fittingly, as you know, because of the connection between Iran and Venezuela. And that is, we have 100,000 Americans who die each year from fentanyl as one example. We ought to be blowing up every drug running boat that there is. And I think that's going to place. pressure on Venezuela and is actually going to allow someone like the wonderful Nobel Prize winner and winner of the Venezuelan election one day to be in charge there.

Yes, Maria Corina Machado Maria Corina Machado is now in Norway, and she'll probably work her way back, even though, and by the way, the escape that she made to get out of there using Gray Bull Rescue was phenomenal. I wrote about that this morning. General Jack King was on with you this morning, and one of the things extremely value about him, not only is the greatest military mind of the country, he talks to the people in charge. So he's got intelligence, and he's got his own intelligence. Cut 18. What we've got to do is continue this. There certainly is a legal basis for this, as pointed out just prior to the interview. And the reason is, is this is a sanction ship, the skipper, and it's been involved in black market distribution of oil out of Iran and now out of Venezuela. So we have a basis to get it, and I think we should continue to do this and squeeze the regime. So he wants tanker after tanker. That's where we do it. And the president kind of set up a Christmas deadline, Kevin. So when you do that mini redline, I think there's pressure on the president to make sure there's a positive outcome here. And that positive outcome, even though I know you hate the word regime changes, Maduro gone, whether it's Iran or Turkey somewhere. Well, I think there's a real important distinction to make. I don't think the United States government should be. initiating the regime change. But I'm all for regime change in Venezuela. All of us in Heritage are. And I think one of the ways you, as my friend Jack Kane says so well, one of the ways you do that is to squeeze the regime down there. You know, you know early American history. Well, Brian, it's one of our shared passions in addition to sports. And you know that the Tripoli pirates were a real big problem in the late 17 and early 1800s. And this is a close parallel. These tankerships, these drug running boats, they are pirates. And the law of the seas. first centuries across the world has been that Nation states like the United States on behalf of their people, on behalf of order, ought to take care of that problem. I think that is going to lead to the kind of organic regime change that we would prefer in heritage. When you talk about Ukraine and a resolve, we understand they're down to 19 points working with the Ukrainians to do something that's going to end this conflict and get them security guarantees. What advice would you give the president? How do you deal with Vladimir Putin? As far as I could tell, Lavrov and company, they haven't shown any give. I think we're dealing with just one side right now. it differently. I see it differently, respectfully to you. I think the president's done a great job of this. In fact, it's been so great that I think he's probably the only world leader in modern history who could secure this peace deal. To answer your question, though, directly, I think you've got to put as much pressure on Vladimir Putin or more if you can as you do on Volodymyr Zelensky. Volodymyr Zelensky obviously is going to have to give up territory. That's tragic. It's evil. It's lamentable. All of those things. This conflict will not come to an end if Volodymyr Zelensky doesn't budge. He's shown a willingness to do it.

do so in that most recent peace plan that he's offered. But we've got to put some economic pressure on Russia, not just because of what they've done. They're intransigence and evil in the Ukraine conflict, but to prevent them from doing something similar in the future. And I think Trump is the guy who can do it. Great rundown. So I'm going to a couple of things. When you look right now at what happened in the off-year elections, terrible result in New Jersey, terrible result in Virginia, terrible result in Miami. If I was to tell you, evaluate that, and what should you learn from the midterms, what do you feel at Heritage? The Republicans should take away. What should they learn? Well, we've got to worry at Heritage, especially based on those elections and meetings that we've had with policymakers on Capitol Hill this week. But it's a worry that comes with a really positive solution. And it's that we're not standing for anything. Our conservative friends in office, good men and women, aren't arguing for some aspirational vision for the future, which is why at Heritage we're saying run on an aspirational vision, not just the things you're against. Talk about your solution for health care. Talk about a bright future for the American family, for national security, for the dignity of work and free enterprise. For what it just means to be an American, I think if we do that, Brian, and I am optimistic that our policymakers will get there, that the midterms might actually be better for. for conservatives than they think right now. I'll tell you what, the people that say it's the die has been cast. Are you kidding me? Have you been seeing the speed of these news cycles? We got it. We got, oh, got 10 months. Even if I, even if Republicans were on a roll right now, I would say nothing's been decided. They say there's roughly 39 seeds up for grabs in the House. What do you, what does heritage say? Yeah, that's about right. In fact, I'd say it's probably a little bit fewer, but let's just say that it's 39. The outcome of those 39 seats will be determined, not just by the quality of candidate that's important in spending. It's really disproportionately going to be determined by the ability of either side to cast a persuasive vision for the future. Right now, I think the left is doing a better job of that than the Republican Party is, but I think if Republicans are willing to listen to smart policies and ideas rather than these overpaid consultants. that the midterms might actually go really well. Heritage is going to talk about this, Brian, multiple times a day from this day to election day next year, not just because of the electoral outcome, but because we believe more than anything in the 250th anniversary of this country, we ought to be talking about the American dream and appealing to our fellow Americans. to rejoin that. Right. As long as you talk a little bit history in the year 250, there's one country really synonymous with patriotism. I'm not saying they own it, but they earned it. I'd love to see Democrats join that train. They're a lot closer than they were in 2020, but they're nowhere near where the average Republican is. And get this, we'll have a World Cup at Olympics where all the athletes stand and with their hand on their chest. Dare I say sing the national anthem. Things are a lot better than they were. Kevin, thanks so much. Have a great holiday if I don't see you. for Christmas. Thanks, man. And thank you for your optimism more than anything else. Absolutely. Kevin Roberts. No one's smarter. Back in a moment. It's Brian Kilmeade.

Information you want. Truth you demand. This is the Brian Kilmeade. Madam Secretary of the U.S. and the gentleman from CTCC reference the unfortunate accident that occurred with the National Guardsman being killed. You think that was an unfortunate accident? I mean, it was a terrorist. Wait, wait, look, I'll get it straight. Then you can... He shot our National Guardsman in the head. You know, it's pretty amazing. He never got it straight. And you recognize that man because that man is Benny Thompson. He was chairman of the January 6th committee who along with Liz Cheney had to get to the bottom. And Adam Kiziger had to get to the bottom of what happened January 6th. But you have the assassination of attempted on two and successful, sadly on one of two National Guards members just because they were wearing the uniform by an ungrateful Afghan assassin. And he says unfortunate incident. Then sometimes you do it. Listen, we're on the air all. I'm on the air all the time. Sometimes you go, oh, what did I say? Let me fix that. But instead, in real time, I'll fix it. All they say is, I mean, I meant to say murder. And then no one would have thought about it. Because you just say things, it's a human thing to do. But he never fixed it. And then finally, when you shut down Christy Noman, insult her and tell her she should quit or be fired. Then one congressman, I didn't recognize him, just went out and he goes, are you kidding? Are you effing kidding me with unfortunate incident? It's a sin. I mean, you should be playing that on MSNBC too. Crazy. Absolutely crazy. So, I mean, you've got to be kidding me. I mean, it's nuts. This guy should have had a press conference after and said, you know, I was so upset at Christine Ome. I said something I shouldn't of it more than an unfortunate incident when they try to kill somebody for walking the streets of Washington, D.C. ostensibly to keep me safe. Nobody says that Washington is not safe for now because of that. So look, they're trying to impeach your Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dumb. Kristi Noem, dumb. Pete Hegseth said, dumb. And, of course, eventually they're going to get around to President Trump. You know what they're saying, everyone? If you give them the House, this is exactly what they're going to do.

From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmeade. There are people who have been prosecuted and who have been sentenced. If there was a linkage in that the money that they had stolen going to terrorism, then that is a failure of the FBI and our court system in not figuring that out. basically charging them with these charges. So you see, she got a softball interview from Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation. That is Elon Musk Omar. And she's talking about the Somalis, 80 plus and minimum involved in the... The fraud of the pandemic funds, the fraud when it came to social welfare funds and various programs, things like autistic money for autistic children, things like Feed America programs, started by Elon Musk Omar. And she's blaming the FBI for not following through it. Listen, that's one of your staffers that was involved in this. The restaurant that said they served 18,000 meals in a 35 table restaurant is a place that you had multiple events that says they're friends of yours and nobody's more important in the Somali community than you. Are you going to tell me in your constituency, in your district, you had no idea this was going on. Griff Jenkins joins us now. Fox and Friends Weekend getting set to do eight hours. Griff. Well, we're going to go deep into this story, Brian, because just about an hour ago, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put a tweet out saying that he is now going to issue a geographic targeting order on the money service businesses. A GTO on the MSB sounds technical, but But what it is is it's going to be the financial enforcement division of the Department of Treasury is going to really try and trace and do the old, remember the saying, follow the money. Well, that's what they want to do. And so for Ilhan Omar to say, well, if money went to terrorist, then it's the FBI. Play the FBI. No, no. You're kidding. Secretary Scott Bessent saying, you know what? Let's find out. And so there's a piece up today on Fox News.com talking about within this. Somali community, they use a somewhat shadowy financial system called Hawala, which is intended to, you know, when Somalis make money, they want to send it back to relatives home, they want to do whatever. It is supposed to be for charity. Is that a word for charity? Oh, yeah. But they're trying to, you know, avoid the paper trail, not going through normal banking services so that there's less of a footprint of it. And so this is what Scott Bessent wants to get to the bottom of. And, you know, to be. fair so far all the prosecutions of 60 plus people some most of whom are Somali in the fraud investigations that have happened to date did not have ties to terrorism so here's the tweet you're referring to egregious fraud in Minnesota has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, actually a billion, by the way, including funds sent to Somalia through many money services, businesses, which provides financial services outside of Formula Bank. Under President's leadership, Treasury will not stop until we get to the bottom of it. And by the way, it says show more, so let me show more. To the end, Treasury will soon issue a geographic targeting order, GTO, as you mentioned, to enhance reporting requirements.

Within Finson, financial enforcement. Thank you. Then important tool will be used to make sure information regarding any illicit activity is quickly reported to them. You made it available to our law enforcement. CBS does his story today. Obtained dozens of files and photos that reveal how Minnesota fraudsters blew through hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in one of the biggest COVID-era fraud schemes in American history. They have this. At sentencing of a defendant, they said they used taxpayer funds for cars and the Maldives vacation. This is a 24-year-old where this 24-year-old, and they name him, it's unpronounceable, where others saw a crisis and rushed to help. You saw money and rushed to steal, the judge said. He was sentenced to 10 years in prisons in order to pay back. $48 million, nor is one of dozens who siphon hundreds of millions of dollars. But look at the programs they took it from. A confirmation they took it from, they took it to get Lakefront property in Minnesota, receipts of wire transfers to China and East Africa, first class tickets to Istanbul and Amsterdam, a confirmation of an email for an overnight stay in a villa in the Maldives. and a 2021 Porsche. Stacks of cash, pictures of stacks of cash, texted between defendants. Bundles of cash, luxury cars, you know, resorts in the Maldives come on. I think the best part, and I applaud CBS for doing this. They went deep into many of the investigations and prosecutions of these individuals. I think the line that stood out of the CBS reporting more to me than anything was at one point one individual was saying to the other one, these are Somali fraudsters, saying you're going. you're quote going to be the wealthiest 25 year old Somalian inshallah god willing and so you know they were brazenly brazenly doing this because it was there for the taking. But I do think, as you were just reading that, that, that sort of long tweet from Secretary Scott Bessent is significant because FinCEN is this criminal investigation enforcement division that goes after people. You think of like white collar crime or whatnot. Well, this is going to take an international track and they're going to try and build some paper trail of where all of this cash went because at the end of the day, One Porsche, a vacation of the Maldives and a lakefront property, you know, that's not a billion dollars. Where did all the money go? And did it go to al-Shabaab, which is an affiliate of al-Qaeda? Now, that's what Chris Rufo says it ties to, but that's what you know what great at that. One of the reasons why we were successful in the war on terror is unwinding the money. Right. Finding out where it was going, where it was from and where it was going. So if you think about it, that money goes to, it goes to Somalia. And then al-Shabaab gets it. It goes right to the Middle East. It goes over to Europe. And this helps fund some of the terrorist activities that are hurting the West. Right. And, you know, it's also, if you broaden it a little bit, this is part of what we're doing with regards to Venezuela is built upon the ability.

to us follow the money. We're following the money. The Cartel del Solis, the Cartel of the Sons, and Maduro allegedly is the kingpin leader of, they follow, and it's not just Venezuela, the Mexican cartels. That's how we've caught some of these big guys by following that money trail. And what's startling to me is that while you had years of this fraud in the Somalia, Somalian community in Minnesota, why wasn't Biden's... Treasury Department trying to figure out, wait a minute. You know, it turns out it started, the investigation started under Biden, and they started to discover that. the governor was punishing whistleblowers. Right. So not going after the actual criminals, but going after those that are trying to expose it. Look, I think, you know. So do you want to hear the name of these companies? Yeah. Think about this. Do you want to be evil personified? They were taking money from a program called Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit to give money to food to the poor. It claimed federal funds there and they use them for other purposes. Partners in Nutrition, a nonprofit sponsored multiple meal distribution sites for those people, the poor people. that were eating terribly and wanted to eat more nutritiously. They took money from adult day services, S&S caterer, Lake Street Kitchen. They took money from housing stabilization services and various other charitable claims. So this is evil. Robbing from children, elderly services. I mean, I think, you know, as people learn more and more about this. With regards to Governor Tim Walz, he at very best was incompetent to not have really gone after it harder or he's corrupt insofar as looking the other way and allowing it to happen for fear of trying to label an entire community, the Somali community, you know, racist or, you know, we're being unfair by going after him. At the end of the day, you know, this is like a Ponzi scheme on steroids. Two-thirds of the people are nine-tenths of the people related to some type of Somali heritage, whether they're legal citizens, green card holders are here illegally. So that's important to point out, especially because I believe 80% of them are still on some type of social welfare. When you come to this country, you can't spend 10 years on social welfare. That's not the way it works. We used to give nothing. We used to have to prove that you had a job before you got to go back on the boat. I mean, we've overcompensated with money we don't have. We have. And, you know, it doesn't get talked about very much. But under the four years of President Biden's border crisis, one of the things that was not enforced was the work requirement for people that were under temporary protective status. It had TPS. Venezuelans had it and Somalia's had it. It's going to be interesting, too, to see if they'll follow the people that try now in self-deport. Remember, we've had two and a half million people leave the country after this administration's been encouraging that, even giving them a stipend to go. You wonder whether some of the Somalis that have not been charged that know they're going to eventually be found out. We'll try and get out of the country before we get them.

Yeah, we'll find them and we'll have their trail and it'll tell a different story. And I wonder how much goes right back to Elon Musk Omar, who's suddenly worth millions of dollars. who probably should be making $200,000, $300,000? What do you make in Congress? $300,000? No, 200. I would have to look at the latest numbers, but no, they don't. They don't make enough money to live a lavish lifestyle. That's why they're serving their country, right? A lot of people make their money and then choose to not make much money for a few years and serve their country, either administration or Congress, but that's totally flipped now. And it's not just a lot more, the number of lawmakers that are getting wealthy by coming to Washington. do think with regards to her and that sound bite is so key that you played opening up this segment, which is she wants to blame the FBI. She'll come up with someone else to blame because ultimately she knows that she has got to defend even the criminal behavior of that community in Minnesota. All right. I want to, before, I want to cut one more topic and that is the New York Times, I guess, through Ezra Klein, has declared that Gavin Newsom, and according to polls, he's right, is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. He's upset. six to eight points with his approval rating in California, even though I can't name one positive thing he's done except attack Trump. Now with Ezra Klein, he talks about, I guess he blaming Trump for the poverty and homelessness in California. Try to make sense of this, Griff, if you can, cut 50. Savage's view. is that California is a kind of hellscape. But there is some set of problems that from his perspective are visible that from your perspective are harder to see. Well, I mean, the affordability crisis, he's 100% right. The poster child of our failure as a state is the issue of poverty that's out on the streets and sidewalks as it relates to encampments and homelessness. Yes. Yes, that's the problem. You said you're going to solve homelessness. You brought, you increased it. It's so rich that you have not just Gavin Newsom, but you have pretty much every Democrat in Washington rallying around this affordability issue because here is a crisis of poverty created under Gavin Newsom's leadership. In this case, inflation under President Biden. And yet Democrats are saying that they've got the prescription, the solution. Somebody had a great line. They said, can't be an arsonist and a fireman at the same time. And so that's not going to fall flat. What's fascinating to me, though, is as we see Gavin Newsom continue to be out there. And look, to be fair, he's a good politician insofar as he's out there, you know, at every turn trying to take on Trump and trying to do memes and sort of imitating him. He's trying to play the game more so than I think some of the other people that like Kamala Harris, like you look at her and you're like, what are you doing? There's a DNC winter meeting. Gavin Newsom's there. Harris is there. We'll see what comes of it. At the end of the day, what's fascinating to watch, keep your eye on these progressive primary challengers. Yeah. Because at the end of the day, Gavin Newsom's biggest threat to him getting the nomination is a guy named Bernie Sanders. And he is never going to be president, but he is a kingmaker. Now he is too old. Now he's too old. He's got to get somebody in there. But he's still a kingmaker getting these progressives in the heels of Zohran Mamdani's victory in these primary races. Here's what's scary. If someone does get the nomination with Bernie Sanders help, they'll end up like Joe Biden, who has to sacrifice.

sacrifice any type of moderate agenda for that left wing green agenda, which is, by the way, dead in the water. That's one of the most under-told stories. The green, you know, the new green scam, maybe severe a scam, but all that stuff, all their renewables, got to save the planet. We don't have much time. The oceanfront property is all going to be wiped out. The world's going to end. Kids are throwing jelly at Picasso's in order to get our attention. By the way, not really going to happen. We overstated it. Yeah, really? Really, you ran on that. You jammed the inflation reduction act, which is the new green scam down our throats for all these years, Cylindra on down. And now you're admitting you wasted our money, our time. Democrats lost in 2024 because progressives took the party over and Americans didn't buy it across party lines. Now you're seeing Democrats trying to take it over again with progress. Michigan coach in jail at this hour. Not only does lose his job for an inappropriate relationship, then he gets jailed for an attempt. assault. We don't know the details, but it seems to be his girlfriends. Here is Rich Eisen on what he was learning as he talks to Adam Schefter of ESPN. Something this week. developed that the school felt like it had irrefutable evidence and was left no other choice. I am gutted. I am shocked. I'm dismayed. I'm depressed. I'm disgusted. Every single emotion that you think I would have I've got. It took no less than 90 minutes after Ohio State thumped the University of Michigan. in the big house just a couple of Saturdays ago, it took no fewer than 90 minutes for me to hear the rumor about this. That suggests, and that's really interesting coming from Rich Eisen, he's a well-sourced guy in the sports world. That suggests that the secret of this affair, this mistress on the team was an open secret in Ann Arbor. That's what that tells me right there. And you wonder, well, had Michigan won, would this have ever come to light? Oh, wow. They say donors were out because they were nine and three after being eight and five, replacing Harbaugh, who won the national championship and beat Ohio State finally. So now they're looking for a replacement. I'd be grabbing Alabama's coach. But the question is, he goes over, it looks like he went over to the girlfriend's house, and he had a knife. And they said murder suicide. That's probably where that could have been heading. That's what TMZ is saying and some others are saying. I don't know. He's in jail at this hour. I've never seen someone's life crater. in a shorter period of time than this guy's. 100%. And if you listen to those TMZ releasing the 911 dispatcher call, he starts at his wife first call saying that my husband lost his job. He's got a knife. He's suicidal. And then he goes over to... the assistant or the staffer, which we believe to be the mistress, the girlfriend. So we'll see what details we learn about that when he makes a court appearance. We might learn a little bit more about it. But you do wonder looking at the reporting on the fact that apparently this executive assistant had their salary greatly increased 50% or more. That's the type of thing. If you know your boss is having an affair in the office, it doesn't really affect you. But then if you learn it's an assistant, a lowly assistant.

that's getting a lot of cash out of it and you work inside the organization, you're not happy. Right. Griff Jenkins, thanks so much. You'll be talking about this weekend, right. I'm Fox & Friends. That's right. Fox and Friends weekend. We're going to have a great show. We've got Kaylee McAnney, Mike Pompeo, a whole list of great people. Six to 10, Saturday, and Sunday. Don't move. Politics, current events, and news that affects you. Brian's got a lot more to say. Stay with Brian Kilmeade. A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kilmeade. Sponsored by Previgin. Previgin, made for your brain. There were cameras all over my husband when he was murdered. There have been cameras all over my friends and family. Morning. There have been cameras all over me, analyzing my every move, analyzing my every smile, my every tear. We deserve to have cameras in there. I agree with the Erika Kirk and I think it's going to happen, judging by the proceedings yesterday. There was one slip up where cameras saw the shackles on his hand underneath the table. You could easily drop a curtain, think about any wedding. Those, I don't know what they call it, the skirts, the table skirts that are every formal setting in any catering hall. You could handle that because obviously you've got to keep him shackled. The guy's a murderer. We're an accused murderer. So, but he gets to wear civilian clothing, just like Luigi gets to wear civilian clothing. And it's amazing how both had that despicable smirk on their face. Quick note, coming up on One Nation on Sunday, I think you're going to love it. We've got you, you, it's going to be with us. It's going to be great. We got the deputy assistant to Scott Bessent and Treasury. It's going to be fantastic. We got Jimmy Fala is going to make sense of the media moments that matter most. And we got a lead guest, one of America's finest actors. And now I wouldn't say activists, but outspoken political commentators, James Woods. He does not do much, but he's going to be our lead guest. That is Sunday at 10 p.m. only on one nation. So that should be great. And don't forget, I want to see you in Fort Myers. Coming up on Valentine's Day, February 14th, go to Brian Kilmeade.com, get tickets. It's going to be streamed on Fox Nation, history, liberty, and laughs. It's patriotic, inspirational, and you will love it. And I love some previews never seen before. You listen to the Brian Kilmeade.