Democrats still downplaying threat of narco-terrorism

Maya Tom, Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sewing division. It's Brian Kilmeade. Hi, boy, welcome to the Brian Kilmeade. So glad you're here. We've got an exciting hour coming away. Doug Susan Collins, the 12th Secretary of the VA, who's going to be with us. Former Congressman from Georgia is going to be here. Kaylee McAnney, co-host have outnumbered. as well as her great show on Saturday. She's going to be here. In fact, some say she is, former White House Press Secretary, Serenity in the Storm, the name of her book. I'm out of information about Kaylee, but we're going to learn more from her directly. Shortly, the president's got a big announcement today. We know it's all about World Cup the draw tomorrow. We had the FIFA president on Fox and Friends today. And yesterday we had Alexie Lawless in studio. So it's going to be fun the world to be watching. They expect one billion people to be watching. tomorrow. Meanwhile, before we get to Kaylee, let's get to the big three. Number three. Back in my great state of California, my very own governor, Gavin Newsom, with the way he's overlooked women, half the population, by devaluing us in midlife, he probably should not be our next president either. I agree, Hallie Bari Weiss. Let's hope he's not. Not too early to talk about 26 or 28 elections as we begin to analyze the special election result Tuesday and Dems take aim at each other already for the 28 nomination. We bring you all the fireworks. Number two. I think 2026 is going to be a great year. The president set the table. He's done peace deals, trade deals, tax deals. And the economic policy is really a three-legged stool. All aspects of the economy front and center from automobiles to health care to affordability as the Trump team fans out to explain their action plan. There is no such thing as a narco-terrorist. But people on a boat carrying cocaine are not a direct threat to the lives of our service members. This is not who we are. This is not America. Yes, it is. It is America. And drugs on a boat heading our direction is a problem. Latest Trump attack distraction is focusing on Venezuelan's drugboats and the double-tap attacks. The real story is the ousting of Maduro as at least one Republican and some MAGA supporters expressed their objections. Let's bring in Kaylee before she gets on outnumber shortly. Kaylee, great to see you. It's been six minutes. Good to be here. It's been six minutes. You miss me? I did. I'm just wondering when you're going to get sick of me. At this point, I mean, that's really. It's really the story. I'm really testing our relationship. But, Kaylee, in particular, what do you think about the fact that the Democrats are trying to downplay the drug threat from Venezuela? They're actually siding with the guy saying the guy driving the boats, don't blame them. Yeah, they always do. And President Trump, he's a master at this. First, policy-wise, he just does what's right.

to their cartel members that they needed help. That shows more danger. That alleviates this admiral that's going to be testifying today, or Pete Hegseth said to them. I'm sure they'll try to investigate. Right. And as President Trump has said... I believe it was something like 25,000 lives are saved with each of these boat strikes. I mean, fentanyl pouring into our country, you have tons of Americans who have been killed, hundreds of thousands. There are real consequences. And President Trump's mind is, you know, I want to take these guys out. I want to protect Americans. He's sat across from these families who have been affected by fentanyl. That's his primary motive. But the hypocrisy is quite something when you compare the Obama years to this. They really want to get peed out. I mean, the Democrats, why do you think that is? Because they know he's so close to President Trump? Yeah, I don't know why they pick a target. They hone in. It seems like they're going after him. They've been going after Kash Patel. They're just out for a scalp. They want the effect. to be the Trump administration falling apart. But President Trump is not that kind of guy. He stands behind his people. You've seen him. You know, in the cabinet meeting, he went first to Pete Hegseth. I think that was by design. You know, you go after my person. I'm just going to double down on them. So President Trump stands by his people. And he said the same about Kash Patel when he came under fire last week. What's your view on Rand Paul? He seems to be loving, siding with Democrats. He said, we should not be risking the lives of our nation's service members to engage in military action in Venezuela. The framers gave the power to declare war to Congress, not the president. The American people do not want to be dragged into endless war with Venezuela without public debate or a vote. We ought to defend with the Constitution demands deliberation before a war. This is at a point where you brief people. This is not a time when the president's even looking to go to war. He's looking to change the direction of the hemisphere. So he just does not want to do anything. I don't want to spend anything. I don't want any intervention. Iran is misunderstood. How do you deal with people like Tom? Thomas Massie and center around Rand Paul, Republicans. Yeah, and I don't think anyone's talking about a long protracted war with Venezuela. If they were, then Rand Paul would have a point. But I think you just lay out the facts. You know, Article 2, Commander and Chief Power gives the president the power to act on a limited basis. And that's what he is doing here with non-state actors. He's not at war with Venezuela. He's taking a limited strike, limited action in the national interests. Other presidents have done likewise. But, you know, Rand Paul, I get that he's principled and that Congress has the power to declare war. That is true Article 1, Section 8. But this is not a war. This is a limited strike. And other presidents have done it. And there's plenty of precedent. So I think he's getting ahead of his skis there with that assessment. You could be very, I think you're being very kind to him. I don't understand why a phone call to the president could have handled it. But instead, I think this guy thirst for publicity. Let me go out there. I'll be a Republican coming against Trump. And then everyone's going to run to him. And now every show on MSNBC or whatever they're calling it says, even Republicans want answers or looking to take action. So I think there's a part of him. He just wants to be going against the grain. And we see that with a few Republicans. And, you know, who knows what their motive is?

I do know Rand Paul being a libertarian-minded person has a definite view of foreign policy. But to your point, why not solve it with the president on the phone? Why give the left-wing media an opening to come in and just say Republicans are pummeling on President Trump? It's not a good storyline for anyone if you care about the betterment of the Republican Party. So your response to what seems like a big blowout between Kamala Harris and Josh Shapiro. Famously, as we all know and have gotten to learn, that Josh Shapiro thought he was going to be the front runner as the number two. But I guess, according to Kamala Harris, he came off too cocky, was measuring the drapes in their meeting. How do we know this? I guess Josh Shapiro gave an interview to the Atlantic, at which time they read a passage from the Atlantic about from Kamala Harris's book to Josh Shapiro. And when they did that, he had her answer where he actually used an expletive, which you very don't, you don't really get a lot on the other side. What see, he said this, so Josh Shapiro, she wrote it in, wrote in her book when she said that he was. asking to be on every single meeting, and that he came off arrogant, measuring your drapes. That's complete utter BS. I can tell you that's her accounts are just blatant lies. I mean, she's trying to sell books and cover her ass. The governor then stared me past me, shaking his head. As I began to ask another question, he held up a hand. He looked disgusted with me, with Harris, question mark, question mark. No, I began to realize he was disgusted with... himself. I shouldn't say cover her ass. I think that's not appropriate, Josh Shapiro said. His tone suddenly sounded collected. She's trying to sell books. You went out to say what seems to bother Josh Shapiro more than any one detail was that Harris portrayed him in the way consistent with the whispers that have dogged him throughout his vetting process through his career. He comes off as selfish, petty, maniacal, and maniacally ambitious. So two hits in one. Two hits in one. I've got to say on this side of Kamala Harris versus Josh Shapiro. I'm siding with the Josh Shapiro side here. The reporting back during the election, which I remember vividly, and I'm paraphrasing it here, was that Tim Walz came in and was like, how may I serve you, Kamala Harris? And then you had Josh Shapiro who came in and asked questions about the role, what it would be like, saying he wanted to be, you know, a steady presence or hand in the administration. Questions that anyone should ask who was doing a job interview. And then he left with some reservations. And he didn't call and say, I won't take the job. The reporting was he called and said, maybe it's better for me to remain governor. I'm having these kind of equivocating thoughts. Well, that scarred Kamala Harris's ego. So I'm not surprised. She torched him. I think she was afraid of him. He's far more accomplished. And I don't agree with him ideologically, but far more well spoken than Kamala Harris, better at his job, I would argue, than Kamala Harris, the borders are. So I think she was intimidated. So when it comes to ambition, I think it was her ambition, not the ambition of Governor Josh Shapiro. What about the fact that he's Jewish?

Yeah, look, she take shots of people's identities. We saw that with Pete Buttigieg there. She said that she couldn't choose a gay man. Maybe that was weighing on her. I don't know because we were in a time where there's a lot of anti-Semitic rhetoric on the left with regards to Gaza and Israel. So that certainly could have played into it. Who knows? There were a myriad factors, but I know I think she was severely intimidated by him. Kaylee, Gavin Newsom says Democrats need to be more culturally normal. while looking back at Harris's loss. And he went on to say that we complain too much and we whine too much as Democrats. That's one side of him where you think, wow, he's going to run up the middle. But then you see him the next day. He's trolling Trump, acting like a fake, tough guy, pretending as if he doesn't have a job. which is devastated by fire and homelessness and over budget by billions of dollars. It's bizarre. He's trying to thread this really tough needle where he wants to win a primary. So he has to cater to the far left. I mean, look who survives primaries these days. It's democratic socialists. So he's got to win a primary. But at the same time, he can't ostracize the middle of the independence, which is why he interviewed with folks like Charlie Kirk and expressed remorse, if you will, for biological men and women's sports and changed his position there. But I'm not sure you can quite thread that needle because I don't think the left is going to let you get away with sewing a more middle of the road position. I think you're going to see Gavin Newsom go further and further left and then try to shake it up, mix it up if he's to become the nominee and track back to the middle and pray we all forget his record. It's going to be interesting on the right. Do you expect JD Vance to almost run as an incumbent? Do you expect other Republicans not to bother the challenge? The Nikki Haley's, the Ron DeSantis, the Yonkins, the Ted Cruz. Marco Rubio, do you expect people to say whatever Trump says goes? You know, at this moment in time, JD Vance's... very popular with the base. He seems like the front runner, no doubt about it. Things can change in two and a half years. I don't think it will be just him running. Those who have said, I think there's going to be this unity ticket and everyone's going to rally around and there won't be a primary. I don't think that will happen. I do think you will have some other highly accomplished conservatives. You think it's good if it does happen? No, that's terrible if that happens because what makes you stronger is a primary. We see what happens when you don't have a primary. Look at Kamala Harris. Look, JD Vance is far more skilled than her, but a primary makes you better, makes you stronger, makes you tough. you're exercising those muscles before you go out and face the opposite party, it would be bad for the party to just coronate a unity ticket. So I'm hoping others throw their hat in the ring. And at the moment, JD Vance, a big frontrunner, but you never know. Three years is a long time. Here's the counter to that. We remember a while ago, but I remember Ford when he lost the nomination or lost came with thought about coming back. There's a lot of people thought he could have worked harder for Reagan or Reagan could have worked harder for Ford when he lost the nomination. And then there's Bernie Sanders. loses to Hillary Clinton, and we know it was rigged against him. I don't know that he ever jumped on board, and Hillary, when she loses epically to Barack Obama, you know, didn't really get on board. It wasn't against him and ended up being Secretary of State. I think it's hard to heal afterwards. Do you think so? Yeah, there are challenges. We remember Ted Cruz with...

Donald Trump and, you know, that scene at the R&C. Yes. But ultimately, I think most in our party, good rock-solid conservatives come around, unite the party around a common vision. But I think you've got to get through that period where the media is going to try to peg you as, you know, a far right person, whatever antics they're up to. It's always the same. You're racist, homophobic, xenophobic, the, you know. adjectives they have for the right. It's best to work those out, expose the left for what they are and do that in a primary and then hit the ground running with that muscle as strong as can be heading it to the general. Kaylee, it's Thursday. I know you're doing out number first. What about Saturday? Do you know who we got for sure? Yeah. So we're working on it now. We have a few ideas. I'm blanking at the moment, but it's going to be a great show. My team has sent me like 10 emails during Fox and Friends with you with our guests. So when do you solidify your lineup usually Friday afternoon? Friday afternoon. I mean, you do a Saturday show too. The news goes so fast in Trump world. So the reason, you know, I don't have an answer today is because today's story is yesterday's news. And by Friday afternoon, it all changes and we shake it all up. And we're working to the last moment. But we know we know we should, we're going to be watching on Saturday. And then we're watching our number in a couple hours. Kaylee McInney, thanks so much. Thanks, Brian. 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. Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% off your first purchase at Fox Newswineshop.com with code FN Radio 20. 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. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Kilmeade. Hey, welcome back, everybody. Just a quick note, don't forget on the Sunday show. We've got a great show lineup coming up at 10 o'clock on One Nation. We're going to have Douglas Murray joining us. It's going to be great. We're going to have Doug Burgum, the Secretary of Interior. He's also got a portfolio when it comes to energy. He's going to be with us, too. So that's going to be a way to kick it off. Also, two authors have put together the most explosive book on China, you can imagine, how they basically stole everything from us, from the Tesla car, from Elon Musk to the F-35 to the prototype. that we use to get into space. So how they did it, what their mission is, and how the worst is yet to come, we'll take a look at that. And anyone who cares about longevity, Dr. George Josh Shapiro is going to be with us. He's got some breaking technology that increases your quality life and lengthens it, and soon is going to be affordable to the masses. We'll discuss that. But coming up next on this show, we got Doug Susan Collins of the VA. We'll talk about what the reality is, is he cut and leaned out that organization to make it more. efficient? Is it indeed working? Also, when it comes to Georgia, you saw those special elections, off-year elections, went to the Democrats in these relatively purple areas. Could Georgia, the most, I guess, susceptible seat might be Jon Ossoff? Doug Susan Collins would have been a perfect candidate if he wasn't doing such a great job at the VA. Who's out there that could actually flip that seat? We'll talk a little Georgia politics with the Secretary of the Veterans Administration. Come anyway, and then we'll take your calls on the Brian Kilmeade.

The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmeade. So what does it like to sit in a three-hour cabinet meeting? I don't know. I don't always like to watch it. I don't know how it's like to be in it. The guy he's used to it now. He's a veteran of it. He got confirmed a short time ago and doesn't regret a day of it. He is Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He is Doug Susan Collins back in studio, the former Congressman from Georgia. Welcome. Brian's going to be back. What was it like there for three hours? Have you ever been anything quite like this? No, not that those cabinet meetings are a hoot. I mean, we get, it's become interesting now between the cabinet members. We know that it's going to be long, and we know that we're going to have the press in there, we've got to sit there. So it's become sort of a running thing that we have our prep for cabinet meeting. We stop drinking about two hours ahead of time. We get our, we take our glass, we take our cup, we sip it at a time, we get it all done. But I think it's great for the American people. I think they get to see the president. They get to see the cabinet, most of which, you know, in previous administrations, they never ever did anything like this. He did, I think, four times or nine times in four years? Oh, yeah. And they never, and there was nothing little substance. No, no. You didn't know who the people were. Exactly. So, I mean, it really, I think, gives the American people a look at what a cabinet looks like, the different departments. And, yes, I had somebody said, well, you only talk about the good stuff. Okay. Okay, we're just going to get up and we're going to tell you what our departments are doing and where we're facing issues. But we're not going to sit there and look at this in a perspective of saying, you know, here's what the American people wanted, here's what we're doing, and we're making it happen. And the thing about it is, is we are winning. Right. In what respect? I think the biggest thing is, especially out of the VA, and from my perspective, the VA, we've made changes, we've made more changes, substantive changes in the 10 months that I've been in the seat. then probably in the last few years, and I'm not taking any way of thing away from previous directors or even under Republican administration. But when I stepped into the office, it was amazing the backlog of stuff that was either said, we need to change this, or what do you think about this, or make a decision about this. The previous administration, I'll be frank, though, punted a lot of stuff. They had lawsuits. They had, you know, just stuff. And I just said, we're not going to do that. We're going to start handling issue by issue by issue. And we're starting to make a lot of change. Are you tapped up yet? Yes. Yeah, we're pretty well staffed. We're still adding a few. I have the fewest political, what I'll call, we call political, folks who come in and in each administration than any, almost any of the other department, all the other departments for a size that we are. We're 450,000 people. And I've only got about 50 politicals. Compare that to like DHS, others, they got 200 politicals. And they got far less people than we have. So we have to do a lot with what we call careers. Those have been in a while. Why did you think slimming down would make you more efficient and whatever you found? How many people did you slim down to? We ended up we never had to fire anyone. We never let anybody go on a rift. We didn't even do any of that. We did an open invitation for early retirement. And we had 30,000 take early retirement. What we found, Brian, was a simply, it's almost like. a ball team or an organization in which you have a lot of good people. I'm never going to diminish the people, but they just were in wrong places. And we're getting ready here in just the next couple of weeks to talk about a reorganization of our hospitals and our health care clinics and stuff. And we have, it's 90% of what we do, so 300 plus 1,000 people.

And, but what we're finding is, is a lot of them were put in just jobs that were sort of made jobs. They were taking them away from clinical positions. And we had too many, I call them camel committees. We had, everything was a committee. And so you have these groups that were hired to look at this. And in three years down the road, they really weren't making any decisions. And many times the decisions being made were by people who had not been in the hospitals. So those are the kind of things we just slimmed down. So when you take. the effort is the only thing we're going to worry about is a veteran, whether it's disability claims, whether it's health care, cemetery, whatever, and you start focusing the attention on that, then you take it off the organization. What they had been, especially in the four years previous to us, they had added 80,000 people, $100 billion, and numbers had went down. Metrics had went the wrong way. And just in the 10 months we've been doing it, we've dropped the backlog, 160,000 plus, almost to 5 and 6-year lows. And all this with people. What is the policy that it ever take hold or was it ever reverse where veterans who are not near a veteran's facility can use their local doctor? Yeah, we brought it back, actually. It's actually the law, which was sort of, you know, mind-bowing to me because I was in Congress when we passed it. And it was just getting started in Trump one toward the end of Trump one. Basically, the Democrats, the Biden administration said, we don't like this because they were beholden to basically workers and unions. And that was the reason the place built up was it was just a worker-driven thing. And I said, we're not a jobs program. We're a health care organization and stuff. So what we did is we went back and said, look, we're going to make sure that if they want to come to the, and we're going to give them the absolute best care they can have at a center, or one of our health care, hospitals, or center. But if they want to see a local doctor, it's more convenient for them and their caregiver. then we're going to do that. I instituted a thing called best medical interest. Again, one of these things has been thought about for a long time. I just said, no, we're going to do it. And we started in May. We've increased our best medical interests, about almost 20 percentage points of people who sit with their doctors and say, look. For me, my caregiver, on this issue, I want to go see this person. And it's made a world of difference. People are happier. They're getting appointments, sometimes quicker, sometimes not. I mean, I think we're a health care system, and everybody has to understand that. We're just like NYU Medical. We're just like everybody. We compete in the same areas. We're the only ones, though, that ever have to talk about how our wait times are. Nobody else does. First time in a long time. We don't really have a hot war. The way we left Afghanistan is abysmal, but it means that we didn't have anyone deployed over there. We know people are 450 are at risk in Syria. We got 2,200 over in Iraq, and we know there's special operations going on throughout Africa all the time. I got it. But it's not... 200,000 troops anyplace. How has that affected the whole VA system? Well, I think it's given us the time in some of our areas to sort of just, like in the military, which I've served in now, still I've got about six more months and I'm retiring. But it's given us the time to sort of.

take an assessment, sit back, and take a breath and say, okay, where are we at now? Because one of the things that's not been talked about a lot, Brian, is this generation, GWAT generation, I'll call it, these last 20 plus years. Many were young. So now you say they were 18, 19, 21 in 2002, 3, 4, and 5. Now they're getting into their 40s. Some of them come back with catastrophic injuries. Some of them come back with injuries we're just finding out about as they go along. So really for us, it's a reassessment on how we handle the long-term mental health and strain that we saw in that area to go along with the physical injuries that were coming out. What about the suicide raid among veterans? Yeah, still one is too high. This was one area for me that we've changed since even last time you and I talked. I've changed completely the structure on how we handle suicide prevention. We're spending $500 million a year, almost six, on prevention. But yet we were only, those who are committing death by suicide, 60% of those folks had never been in touch with the VA. So I said, we're like a choir that sings to ourselves. We're not talking to the right people. So we've switched our... You have to recruit veterans and tell them you're out there? Well, you have to go tell them. There's so many of them that either had an experience, the ones that are at risk. are not in the, you know, you got to look at it this way. Older veterans, Vietnam, Korea, and even though they traditionally went toward the social organization, VSOs, American Legion Forum, VFW is all these folks. This group doesn't really do that. So there's a lot of them that are just out there on their own. They go to nonprofits. There's some that they see. But we're going now to podcast. We're going to, we're revamping how we monitor or how we get the word out to say, hey, it's okay to get help. And if we can do that. Look, and even if it's not at the VA, just get help somewhere. Right. A couple of things. I want you to hear what President Obama said about this administration and the people you work with, part three. I would not expect the politicization of the Justice Department or our military. There's been resistance, particularly in the military, to that. But the degree to which that has been encouraged, you know, that used to be something that I would lecture other countries not to do. So he's disappointed in you, guys. Oh, I'm so sorry. Right. You know, I mean, that is someone who absolutely has no self-awareness. This is someone who under his own tenure. really took the politicization to the next level. He may have lectured other countries not to do it, but he was winking and nodding in his own Justice Department. He was winking and nodding in his own defense department where we were seeing the move away from meritocracy. We were seeing the move away, especially in some of this in the military. And the insertion of DEI. The insertion of DEI, the insertion of everything else. But that, I mean, I...

If it wasn't so completely ludicrous, if his statement just was not, so on its face wrong, you would just bottle out laughing here. But it's sad because here's a former president who many still look at is this, you know, beacon of icon who's basically lying. His Department of Justice was awful. Eric Holder. Remember that one? The wingman. Oh, my God. But he didn't politicize it, but he said, only the president's wingman. I'm just the wingman. I'll do whatever they do. And then you went into the beginnings of what we saw in Russia, Rush, Russia, which I was a part of, we talked years ago now, I mean, all of that came under him. You were legal, part of that? You were a leading, pushing back on it. We were. And to see the stuff now that has come back in seven, eight years after we came back in and were able to look into it. Stuff we knew then. We just didn't maybe have the piece of paper because they were hiding them in closets or whatever. But for him to say that is just a joke. And look, say what you want about this cabinet. People are going to make fun because they don't like the president. They're going to tell all we're unqualified. I hear this all the time. But look at the results for the American people. Our defense is our recruitment's out, you know, skyrocketed. We're closed the border. Veterans are getting quicker, faster, and better. You know, we're looking at our opening up our energy reserves. We're looking at opening up our markets. We're looking at, you know, there's all this. You may not like it, but it's actually working. Right. And it seems like you guys like each other. We do. And I was listening to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., talk to the vice president, and he just says that they like getting together. They like being around each other. Yeah. So it's so different from the last term. Because I know you were tied with you, you were tied with the president, but you were still a congressman. Yeah. And there was a lot, Mattis didn't want to come over, right? And you know how what a bad choice Tillerson was. And John Kelly thought it would be a good idea to try to rein in the president, never really was a fan of the president, as chief of staff. Man, that's changed. Can you give me an idea what it's like with Susie Wiles there? Okay, Susie is such a calming influence. And she's one of those that, you know, if you remember back, you and I are old enough to remember the what E.F. Hutton commercials when E.F. Hutton's speak. Everybody listens. Well, she may not say a lot, but when she does, you know, we all know that it's. Been thought out. It's planned. It's what the president's looking for. It's what we need to do. But I think the dynamic between us, I told somebody this the other day, this cabinet, and I looked around the room, I had either worked with or served with almost everybody in the cabinet and knew them on a personal level. Only a few that I did not know on a personal level. But we get together to eat together. We just, no meetings, no other. We just got pizza together. We call each other. If I need something at DOD, I call Pete. If Pam needs something, or if I say Pam, I need somebody, some help over here, can you give us some direction? I call Pam. Brooke, if it's an act. It's really important, is it? Very important. It's so important. Back with more of the VA secretary, Doug Susan Collins, former congressman from Georgia. He's in studio. Don't move. The headlines, the stories behind them, and the people who make them, only on the Brian Kilmeade.

If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmeade. Having the military leading with strength is something that American people are really backing here in the survey. 64% of those survey supportive of the U.S. military giving their munitions to Ukraine. So they did the Ronald Reagan Institute. They did a survey. It turns out the president's got a lot of support on Venezuela. He's got a lot of support when it gives weapons to Ukraine and as well as the supporting of Israel went up 4%. Just an idea what's going on in this country with the president, not even done with one year. Doug Susan Collins in studio as we go through. Doug, when you are talking to with staffers at the White House, how aware are they off polls? or how much do they look at surveys to decide what's next to plot and plan? Yeah, I think it's always a part in a modern day political environment that they sort of know where, you know, sort of feel of what's going on. But I think the president came into this term very much committed. I think in some ways this is a third term. It's an interesting third time, and I put it that way. He had four years of he was attacked unmercifully. for everything and a lot of the stuff couldn't get done, a lot of stuff got done, even some of the own party, only it was just a problem. And then it was almost like we had like they call a gap year now. We had a four-year gap year, which was sort of taken from him as far as a second term. But then he comes back in with a lot of people who says, we now see what we can do and how to do it. So I think this year you've seen him coming with very much of a strategist, what we're going to do. And he's not varied from it. Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, made a great point at the cabinet meeting the other day. He said, look, he said, we've been, and his words, I'm going to use a little bit different words, but what he basically says, we've been planting this year. And the seeds are starting to grow. And he said next year you're getting ready to see a big jump in what we've planted. I don't have to tell you at the off-year elections. How many people are talking about two smaller races in Georgia where you're from? And it didn't go the direction for Republicans. Can you tell me about those races? I know you're a secretary position now. In my role as a Georgian, here's exactly what happened, 20% turnout and Republicans sat on their rear ends. I'm going to be blunt. I love my folks. What were the positions? Yeah, it was Georgia Public Service Commission, which is over, in our state, they oversee all public utilities. So the rate setting from like Georgia Power, the other EMCs, those kind of things, they set rates and look at that. And look, we've had some very high rates. We had a... nuclear power plant that was built 20 years ago that's finally online now. It wouldn't have never happened under this administration because we got it done quicker. So just a lot of different things have been going on. So the people tapped into that. You know, you're paying more. We'll blame them. Our candidates, you know, I think they ran, but they ran late in a sense. But the biggest thing was 20% turnout.

And when you have 20% turnout in the state and it was in the five big more liberal parts. I mean, again, Republicans, Ryan, I think you and I've talked about this before and stepping into from pure political. Republicans have to understand that there's election every two years. It's not just four. Right. And we don't get that sometimes. And we got to know it for next year because if they want to continue to see President Trump do anything. Do this thing. Then we got to show up next year in the congressional. So what about the most, they say the most flippable seat is Jon Ossoff. In Georgia, can be. Have you seen in that plethora of candidates one that's standing out above the rest? Not even what Doug Susan Collins thinks is the best. Is anyone standing out above the rest? Well, I think just in polling, we're seeing sort of a solidification of it's Mike Collins, Buddy Carter, and Derek Dooley, I think in that order. The polls have sort of... Vince Dooley, son. Yes, yes. Far third place, not moving a whole lot. Buddy Carter, former colleagues in the middle. Mike Collins is in about the 30s. I think right now I want to wait to about another 60 days. After the first year, we'll see because our primaries in May. We'll see where that actually turns out. So I think after the first, about February, people start focusing in. Right. But that's where it's at right now. But either way, they're going to have to Georgia to Republicans, I think in a bigger sense here, have got to realize this is a race. This is one that you've got to show up on. It's one that matters. And I think there'll be plenty of contrast to this candidate. from whoever steps forward. So you mentioned that before you go, Doug, we're up against the break, but you mentioned that you have a few things in the worst you're going to announce quick. Is there any type of hint you can give us? Yeah, I think what we're doing is VHA, which is our largest healthcare part. We're getting ready to put it as the tip of the spear of what we do instead of a support. We're going to give everything we can to our hospitals and clinics to let they make better decisions, quicker decisions. For patients, that's going to be coming in a structure. We're not taking everybody we currently have, but just putting them in the right places like a coach on a team. We're putting them in the right places. And then we're getting ready for what President Trump has always talked about, the community care aspect, which you asked about earlier. Our new contract is going to be going out pretty soon for bid. That is our new contract for 10 years. One of the largest contracts in the federal government for community for community. For community care so veterans care so veterans. So veterans care so veterans. So veterans. So veterans. So we have it happen in studio always. Doug continue success. Thank you.

Back in a moment. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade. I know. Hi, everyone. Brian Kilmeade here from 48-6 in Midtown Manhattan, where the tree is 75 feet high and ready to roll. The big Christmas tree in Rockville Center. That's where people come. Skate, have a great time, take a look at it, realize. Time for it's really cold. Time to go inside and have some hot chocolate. or something to drink. Coming up this hour, we're going to talk to one of the busiest guys in America, the Secretary of Department of Transportation, Acting Administrator of NASA. Sean Duffy's going to be with us and one of the most productive, insightful, smart senators in the country. Senator James Langford's going to be here of Oklahoma. I'm getting the sense that there's a willingness on both sides to come to some type of agreement when it comes to health care and the subsidies. And I hate Obamacare too, but I don't want to... I also feel for people paycheck to paycheck who found out their rates have doubled. So I know I'm looking for a quick fix and then you've got to work on a big fix. But until then, I'd wait. So we have a lot to discuss today. We're also seeing the president's going to have another big announcement. Also, by the way, the FBI has rested a man who's suspicious and they think they've got the man who laid those pipe bombs in front of the RNC and DNC on January 6th. This FBI is producing. So let's get to the big three. Number three. Back in my great state of California, my very own governor, Gavin Newsom, with the way he's overlooked women, half the population by devaluing us in midlife. He probably should not be our next president either. Hallie Bari Weiss, the superstar actress, going after Hollywood's governor. Not too early to talk about 26 midterms or 28 generals as we begin to analyze the special election result Tuesday. And Dems take aim at each other already for the 28 presidential nomination. We'll bring you the fireworks. Number two. I think 2026 is going to be a great year. The president set the table. He's done peace deals, trade deals, tax deals. And the economic policy is really a three-legged stool. That is the Secretary of Treasury, all aspects of the economy fronts and center from automobiles to health care to affordability as the Trump team fans out to explain what they're doing, which was long overdue. There is no such thing as a narco terrorist. But people on a boat carrying cocaine are not a direct threat to the lives of our service members. This is not who we are. This is not America.

What does he know about America? But I'm glad he's married. That, of course, is Cory Booker. Latest Trump attack distraction is focusing on the Venezuelan drug votes and the double-tap attacks. The real story is ousting Maduro, taking action with this thug in our hemisphere and bringing down communism and influence from Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, as well as China. At least one Republican and some MAGA supporters are saying, Mr. President, what are you doing? You don't want to get involved in another war. He's not looking to get involved in a war. He's addressing a problem because he does everything at once. He's not going to pretend that Central and South America aren't a problem. We're the previous administration just said, I'm going to do a deal with you. I'm going to let you pump oil. Chevron can go back in. And then you just promise. to have free and fair elections, and he didn't. By the way, they also wanted to get family of Maduro family members out of prison in America, and he let them out. So no one talks about that. And I wasn't that familiar until the Secretary of State brought it up with John Hatterney on Monday night. So that's pretty significant. But what do I mean by distraction? I mean going after a boat, going after these drug traffickers en route to the Caribbean who were going to stop in one of the islands and they were going to unload their payload, which was full of cocaine. One actually destroyed the boat and a couple of people survived. The Wall Street Journal reports that they were radioing back for help, and that's why they went back and took them out. But even if they didn't, are we in a war strategy where if you don't hit them the first, if you don't kill everybody the first time, you got to save them? I don't get it. Barack Obama didn't save anyone. Joe Biden was droning people. They wouldn't go back and say, ooh, we missed. I hit the wedding. I want to just hit the groom, but I killed everybody. And then it went back again. That happened during Barack Obama's administration. You did not hear me complain because I don't have a problem with it. Because when you become a terrorist, the people around you, either they know it already or you should have told them ahead of time. But now they want to say, well, this double tap, it's a violation of Geneva conventions. Pete Hegseth said, kill everybody. That has not been verified by the New York Times called out the Washington Post on that. I don't want that admiral in trouble. So the admiral is going to be on Capitol Hill today, and they're going to look at that admiral to throw Pete Hegseth under the bus. You can't. President drives a bus, and he has no interest in having Pete gone. He thinks he's doing a great job. And I know that for a fact that he thinks he's doing a great job. So here's the president yesterday. Cut one. So to be clear, you support the decision to kill survivors after the... No, I support the decision to knock out the boats. And whoever is piloting those boats, most of them are gone. But whoever are piloting those boats, they're guilty of trying to kill people in our country. Right. And we're doing that. That's why Maduro's got to go. And what does that mean? That means Colombia has an election coming up. Maybe they'll get, they'll read the tea leaves. Like Honduras should be reading the tea leaves. But listen to this plethora.

this lineup of Democrats who think they got Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump where they want him. Cut two. There is no such thing as a narco terrorist. But people on a boat in the middle of the Caribbean carrying cocaine are not a direct threat to the lives of our service members or Americans. Uniform military may help save us from this president and his lame people like Pete Hegseth. This is not who we are. This is not America. Why are we blowing out of the water and killing people in boats with outboard motors, some of which aren't even pointed towards the United States? It's a catastrophe. I think Pete Hegseth, it's impossible to imagine that he survives this as Secretary of Defense. I think he must resign. Okay. He's going to stay four years. Rachel Maddow has no context with this administration. I don't think people even listen to her anymore. So when we come back, a guy we all listen to, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. He's also got a FIFA announcement. Don't move. Coming to you on a need-to-know basis because, man, do you need to know? It's Brian Kilmeade.

Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kilmeade. Hey, we are back with one of our favorite old-time people, Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy. Used to be at Fox full-time. Now we can't get him a pass that works. He's got to come in with his security and ask for a favor to get in. But he's on a lot, and it's our favor when he's actually on. Mr. Secretary, welcome back. It's good to be with you, Brian. Yeah, they locked the doors that fox on me. So, yeah, I can't get in. I got to text you and go, Bryant. Can you open the doors? Can I get in to the building? Because you travel with a big footprint these days. Mr. Secretary, how are you involved with FIFA? What is the word? I mean, it's going to be key. I was in the Super Bowl in the Meadowlands. And I'll tell you, it was a disaster, nothing to do with you. You could not get in or out. Everyone waiting in the freezing cold weather. How do you beat that in the hot summer? So I don't want to overstate it, Brian, but the players are important, the coaches are important, the fans are important, but probably the most important thing that happens at these games is the Department of Transportation, not trying to overstate it. Seriously, everybody moves on planes and trains and automobiles and transit systems. And so, again, to make the games go off, well, there's me 11 million people. that fly into the U.S. to watch these games. While they're here, they're going to fly to the different host cities. They're going to take trains to the different host cities. Motor buses to the different host cities. All of the television equipment that comes into the games, to the food, the hot dogs, the beer, everything has to be choreographed by the Department of Transportation. So we started working on this a year ago, when we first got in office, almost a year ago. putting teams together to make sure we have the right equipment, the right buses, the right assets in place to make sure the fans have a fantastic experience enjoying soccer as opposed to what you just mentioned, a frustration of, you know, standing, waiting, you know, trains broken, or buses not working, or graphic jams. All of that is being worked out to make sure this is the greatest World Cup games ever. And it's going to be hosted by the U.S. and hosted on her 250th birthday. So I was lucky enough to be with you for the club championships. And we know that was not easy getting to that final. So I guess it's going to be more challenging now. Out of all the venues off the top of your head, and I'm going to hold you to it, what do you think is built best for the people, for the ticket holders, and what do you think is going to be the biggest challenge? Would it be New Jersey? Well, I think Miami is, you know, we work with Miami. We're going to work with New Jersey. Yes, exactly. So, but I think all of them have unique challenges, which is why our teams then work together to figure out, okay, how do we overcome those challenges? If there's additional assets that are needed, if there are additional cars for rail, if there's additional buses that are needed on transit, we are going to deploy those assets to those communities that don't have enough. to make sure this massive flow gets in and out and again each additional unique challenge each host that he has

we're working through right now to alleviate. And again, this is the first time a lot of travelers will come to the U.S. And they're coming to watch these games. You know, it's also interesting. There's a perception around the world that America doesn't want people to come to our country. Untrue. We've worked with state and with homeland and DOT all together to say, listen, we welcome everybody to come to the country. We want you to come and stay in our hotels and eat in our restaurants. spend your hard-earned money, drive in our economy, see our beautiful country. It's just what we said is we don't want people to overstay their visas. We want people to come in as authorized. And, you know, when the games are over, they've got to go home. But I think there's been a misconception, Brian, that because we say we won't people to follow rules that we don't want them to come. No, we want you to come and follow the rules. And that's why I think we're going to have just, you know, great people coming in. And the games are going to be awesome. I was just talking to Kobe from Fox Sports. You know, Kobe Jay Jones. You know, he's like, I was asking him, like, what do we want to see in the draw for the U.S. team? And he's like, he didn't want to really tell me, but he's like, I know what I'm looking for. We want an easier draw. There's some teams we don't want to play, some teams we do. And then he wouldn't go on any further. But, yeah, no, but Fox Sports has it for the U.S. And it's going to be just fantastic. The draw us tomorrow. The president's going to be there. A billion people around the world. are going to tune in to what's the draw from the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center tomorrow. I mean, it is globally massive. I think this would be the biggest stage the president has ever when he speaks tomorrow at the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center. So you also are part of with the president announced yesterday. You got all the CEOs of the major car companies there to announce cafe standards. How much you can actually build a car and how many miles per gallon will it get? It's going to drop from 50, which is almost unattainable and very costly, to 34 miles per gallon. What's that going to do for the price? of cars or how we drive? Take a step back. And there's no combustion engine that can get 50 plus miles to the gallon. We don't have the technology. But Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, they drafted a standard that used EVs, electric vehicles and hybrids to come up with a standard that was way higher than a combustion engine could meet. And the law that was passed in the 70s is very specific. It's only for combustion engines. No other technology. You can't use an EV. You can't use a hybrid. And so by breaking the law, they got this really high standard. Then we had car companies that were trying to invest in technology to come closer to the really high standard that was set by Biden and Pete Buttigieg. They couldn't meet it, but they were spending $100 billion a year to meet it. On top of that, if you couldn't meet the standard, Brian, I don't know if you thought much about carbon trading. It's not good for the country. But there's carbon trading between the auto in the auto companies. So if you don't meet the standard, you could go to a Rivian or a Tesla, and you could buy carbon credits to the tune of billion dollars a year were being spent on carbon credits or taxes. So these are all adding up in additional costs for your car. Bringing those costs down, number one, is important for the American consumer, but it's going to let the car companies make cars and trucks.

that Americans want to buy, not the cars and trucks that people to judge and Joe Biden wanted them to build. Really important. This new rule, again, maybe I'm a 1970s guy at heart because I finally remember, you know, my parents' big family. We have station wagons. You can bring a station wagon back if you want, you know, maybe some wood paneling, Brian, on the side. I know, glued on. Yes, you can bring a stationer making back. We want, we want, we want car companies to make products that you want to buy. If I want to buy a muscle car, let me buy a muscle car. And by the way, everyone's concerned about gas prices. I was just back in Wisconsin a day and a half ago. And gas prices were like at $2.45. I mean, gas prices are coming down. let's build more cars in America. Right. And if we get newer cars in the country because there's products that Americans want to buy, that means we have safer cars in our roads. And if people getting crashes, it's going to save their lives. We'll have less death, more life by this rule. So I want you to hear some of the CEOs yesterday from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The first one is Jim Farley, cut 22. This allows us. to invest in affordable vehicles made in the U.S., which we will take the lead on, and will allow us to make vehicles more affordable. So thank you for making this step for all of you. Because it's there where we see cafe regulation reconciled with real customers' demand. We believe in growth. They are ready to invest even more. I'm here representing the hard-working men and women of Orion Assembly in Michigan. The facility, our manufacturing facility there, is currently going through a retool. so that we can build additional U.S. manufactured pickup trucks and full-size support utilities for our customers, and we're so excited about that. So you got GM, Stalantis, which you price. I can't believe, by the way, you have to let an Italian guy own Chrysler. We have to fix that. And that should never should have been forced by Barack Obama. And then, of course, the Ford CEO, so they're pretty happy. One guy that isn't, Sean, is this guy, Governor Gavin Newsom, cut 23. You're selling new knee pads for all CEOs, universities, and GOP bending the knee to Donald Trump. And they were sold out, just like our universities. We're selling out, just like our law firms are selling out, just like a lot of CEOs. We're selling out, selling out this country, our future, our republic. So what are your thoughts about Gavin Newsom says these guys are caving to Donald Trump? No, the problem is that Gavin Newsom is... is paving to an idea that doesn't work for the American consumer. We've said the American consumer should dictate what kind of cars they want to buy. And again, I'm not opposed to fuel efficiency standards. We should gradually push our cars to be more fuel efficient. That's a good thing. If you want to buy an EV, you should be able to buy an EV. But Gavin Newsom. is forcing Californians to purchase vehicles they don't want to buy. He wants to bring them all into EVs by 2031. And the problem with that is in California, they already don't have enough electricity. And you can't power these cars and homes and businesses with wind and solar. So it's a lie that he's going to have power sourced by fossil fuels.

And so it's a little shell game that he's playing. But again, why is Gavin Newsom so upset with the American consumer who wants to buy something other than what he wants them to buy? And again, this is big government at its worst. You have government policies that force us to buy things that the market doesn't want. It's the old Soviet Union model that has always failed. Bring us back to the consumer choice. And if you want to buy an EV, God bless you, get an EV. They're great cars. And they work for you in the city. Real quick, 20 seconds, Sean. Johnson, Brian, doesn't work. Yeah, real quick. Are you doing anything to build up these charging stations? So I was forced into the EV charging stations real quick. What I've done is that if you're going to spend $4 billion on charging and you're going to make me do it, damn, we're going to build charging stations. Good. You're not going to have 10 charging stations for $2 billion. If you're going to make me build charging stations, we're going to use the taxpayer dollar well. I prefer we don't spend the money on that. The Congress has forced it. So we're going to make you build charging stations like the Congress intended. Awesome. Mr. Secretary, Sean Duffy, always busy, always productive. Thanks so much for the quality time. Thanks, Brian. God bless. All right. Meanwhile, when we come back, Senator James Langford, is there a chance of coming together on these subsidies for your health care plan, even if it isn't the best plan in the world? We'll talk about it.

Breaking news, unique opinions. Here it all on the Brian Kilmeade. People are expecting us to come up with a solution. I think the average American doesn't care what flavor the legislation is as long as it takes care of the challenges they have. If there's going to be a big idea, that will not happen by January 1, 2026. Whatever your plan is, we've got to bring the cost down. I have been saying for months that we have got to reach some sort of a solution on premiums. We just have to put our best proposal on the table and see how the chips fall. And what they're talking about is, on a bipartisan way, trying to fix the fact that by legislation, the rescue package, the... subsidies given to people of hundreds of percent over the poverty line were given to people during the pandemic. And they were supposed to sunset this year. And they were supposed to be done. And now that they're done, they're saying Republicans are jacking up rates. Well, we know that was a folly and the government got shut down because of it, not jacking up rates. This was the way the legislation was written to pass. And now they're trying to make it to get Republicans to fix it. However, if you look at just the people, they are getting a lot of their rates sometimes double. So they say, what about these subsidies for the 24 million they get Obamacare? Because you can't go into this pool because almost every major health care company is out of the pool. So the government is pretty much the health care company, health insurance company. Senator James Langford is always going across the aisle when he can, Homeland Security Intelligence and Finance Committees. Senator, welcome back. Are you guys working on something that's tangible for a health care fix? Yeah, we are, Brian. Thanks. I appreciate the good explanation that you had there. People losing track. This is not Obamacare. This is subsidies on top of Obamacare because Obamacare is driving up prices so much for everybody. During COVID, Democrats put in an additional subsidy just to be able to try to hold down rates. But everyone, every single person is having issues with their health insurance costs because of what we said 15 years ago. Obamacare will cause costs to rise, not go down, and it has. And now you're right. They're trying to be able to blame Republicans because of what Democrats pass doesn't work. It doesn't work. And so now we're trying to be able to figure out what do we do to be able to help people that are in a really, really bad situation right now to be able to get through it. And long term, how do we actually get more health care choice back to Americans so prices can come down? So I guess Bill Cassidy, is Bill Cassidy, a former doctor? I guess the current doctor, you could still go back if he is. He's leading it on the Republican side. And on the House side, a bipartisan group set to meet with Bill Cassidy to talk about this. It's led by Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey and Jen Kiggins over in Virginia. They'll unveil their idea of a plan. Do you have any idea what are some of these elements that might be possible?

I do. I will let Bill Cassidy roll the full thing out, but he and I met yesterday with a group of Republican senators to be able to talk to this. We met actually the day before to be able to talk about it. I met with a group of Democrats yesterday to try to make the pitch on this. The goal is not to just hand more money to insurance companies and hope that they'll actually handle it well. The goal is to give more flexibility back to individuals, especially that group of individuals that are between 55 and 64. That group is the one that's actually seeing the skyrocketing rates. Other rates are going up 3, 4, 5, 8, 10%. But if you're 55 to 64, your race may be going up 100%, 200%, 300%, depending on the company that you're with. These are folks that some of them dropped out from their employer or they retired early because the Obamacare deal was such a good deal after COVID with all the additional subsidies. But now those subsidies are going away, and they're finding out, oh, wait, getting in Obamacare wasn't such a great idea. But now they've got to be able to figure what are they going to do on health insurance. So you know what's amazing. I'm looking at this chart now about how other countries are doing with their health care. We're spending on average between $13,000 per person. A life expectancy is 78 years old. Our obesity rate is 42.7%. Give you an example, Switzerland, they're spending 9,000. They're living another six years, and their obesity ratings 12%, Germany, 8,000, that's almost about half of hours. They're living to 80, and their obesity rates 21%. So I can keep going down. Everyone's spending considerably less than us. So we're not trying to rob anyone of health care, but it's just not, it's not paying off. I mean, anyone can see this. Yep. The system that was created is a problem, and it is driving up the race for everybody. Everybody loses track. The Obamacare marketplace is about 20 million people. But the way that it was shaped and what was done is really affecting everybody in every health care issue. And what Democrats are fighting for is more subsidies for those folks, those 20 million folks that are in the marketplace. But everybody else is paying a lot more for their insurance. They're like, yeah, you're on your own. We're actually trying to figure out how do we actually bring down health care rates? for everybody, not just the 20 million that are on the subsidies in Obamacare, what do we need to do to actually slow down the rate of spending, but also maintain good quality that's out there? And there are ways to do that, dealing with the way we handle pharmaceuticals. I mean, there's all kinds of different things that are out there that we can do. We've made a lot of proposals on this, but so far the fight ends up coming back to Obamacare. But again, if you're in it... You're like, I don't care how it gets solved. Just make sure it gets solved. We're trying to figure out how to fix the short term and then how to fix the long term as well. So the most logical thing is this. Okay, we'll give you the money. We're going to put it to health savings account. We're going to make sure that these people that are not, shouldn't be eligible, aren't eligible. So you clean that up. Maybe it's 10%. You clean that up. But is it impossible, you know, logistically to set up everyone with health care savings accounts and put money in it? Yeah, it's not impossible logistically to do. You've got to hustle to be able to get it done to be able to do that. But it would still mean the first quarter, those folks that have these really, really high rates, especially from 55 to 64 years old, that group that's really experiencing that would have a very difficult first quarter. But to try to be able to figure out then how to be able to get some additional assistance to them to be able to get through the rest of the year. But again, it's getting to them not to the insurance company. And it's trying to be able to find a way to long-term drive down the rates.

not to just continue to subsidize a bad deal. And my great state of Oklahoma that I know everybody wants to live in, but only those of us that are okayes actually get to live there all the time. But in my state, the Obamacare marketplace plans without, if you take away all the subsidies, just the actual cost of it has gone up 200% in six years while commercial insurance has gone up 29%. There is a problem in the Obamacare marketplace. We can't just ignore that about pouring more taxpayer money on top of it and thinking that's going to solve it. It doesn't. So I want to bring you – so hopefully we'll get that done. Do you feel as though there's a chance that Democrats are doing this a whole head fake they want this issue to run on? Oh, there's some that definitely do. There's some that definitely just want to be able to run on it and say all Republicans are terrible. They're mean people that don't care about your health insurance. That's totally true. There are a lot of Democrats who are also saying, hey, there's a problem in my state and I want to make sure I'm taking care of people. What's interesting is the way they shape the Obamacare subsidies is they went around what's called the Hyde Amendment so they could send federal money to subsidize abortions. It's the only area in all of health care that subsidize abortion, not VAs, not Indian health systems, not Medicare, not Medicaid, not TRICARE, not any of those systems. All those, you can't fund abortion with your federal dollars. If you're going to do an abortion, you've got to pay for yourself on it if your state allows that. But in Obamacare, they made sure the subsidies could get to be able to support abortion. It's one of the things that we've raised as well to say, hey. If you want a Republican to be able to come on board and be able to help fix this, we've also got to make this health care the same as the rest of federal health care. That is federal tax dollars don't go to pay for people's elective abortions. That shouldn't be that way. We as Republicans believe that every life is valuable and precious. Why would we want to have to pay to take life? So many people in Oklahoma have served in the military or are serving, so they understand what happened in Afghanistan, the embarrassment of this nation, and the danger looks like we are in domestically. So Senator Langford, we know what happened in Afghanistan. One of these guys that came over, got asylum from the Trump administration through the current system that was in place in April. He got asylum, but he came here during the big evacuation and had worked with the CIA and it becomes a killer. And we have another National Guard. been holding on for his life after he killed the woman. Now, while we're talking about this, I got a call from a veteran in Oklahoma. And he says he has another, I want you to hear this. We can listen to it together. I want you to hear what he's worried about. Listen. I can relate to that a little bit. Like, I've been a United States Marine combat veteran. And my... My interpreter is back here in the States, and I don't know what he was promised. I don't know what he was told, but he's very disgruntled. Like, I've been on the phone with him frequently, and he's going through, like, a mental hiatus, and I've been, you know, worried about him a lot. And he went on to say this. I mean, he's complaining about everything from taxes to, you know, his wife was incarcerated for...

abusing their children and he doesn't understand how that's a problem here like the culture yes they're not used to it and he's like why won't they let my wife out and I'm like well buddy this is what you signed up for this is what you came over for like this is why you're here and and he can't go home and he knows that like he's got a He's got a target on his head if he goes back home. Like, he knows that. So, Senator, what happened in Washington, if this is his fixer, they were shoulder to shoulder in Afghanistan, and the guy says it has snapped, this is the problem we're having with the hundreds of thousands who came here, tens of thousands. Yeah, it is the big challenge that we've faced, and a lot of us have talked about for a long time. It's not just the folks that like that great Marine was telling you about his translator where he's staying in contact. He's got relationships. This is a trusted source. We all know there were folks that were jumping onto those planes that we had no idea who they were that were getting in, that we didn't have any background. There wasn't full vetting. It's not like we could go to the government of Afghanistan and ask for additional details from them about the background for some of these people and these family members. that we're getting on board. What the Biden administration led in were saying, hey, we didn't have any records on this person that they were active in terrorism. That doesn't mean they weren't. That just means we don't know if they were. We don't have any evidence of it. And that's one of the big challenges that we're facing. And then plus, what he's also identifying there is, hey, the culture is incredibly different between Afghanistan and the United States. If you come to the United States and you grew up in Afghanistan and all of that culture, and you bring it here and say, hey, I expect to be able to live the same way here. Well, guess what? We don't live the same way here. And for folks from all over the world that come here and join us and are a part of the American dream on it, we welcome people from around the world. But we also say, you've got to be able to adopt who we are. and our culture to be able to do that and our law to be able to do that. I know. It's just these are real world problems that we're having in our world today. So just lastly, on these Venezuela and Maduro, what do you feel as though you're fully informed about what the president and Secretary of State Marco Rubio's plan is? No, I'm not yet on that. And I serve on the Intelligence Committee. I've actually asked for additional information. And that's one of the things. The Trump administration is getting better at actually trying to be able to get us. more and more information. And it's something the members of Congress, both sides of the aisle, said, hey, just we always ask for information on this. We want to know the details. Accountability is good for everybody, regardless of party. This is not a matter of trust. There's just basic transparency and accountability to the process. The one thing I can tell you is I am thrilled. that the president is stepping up to say we will not allow cartels to be able to get drugs into our country. The last five presidents have said, we're not going to allow drugs into our country. Trump is actually stopping him. He's actually saying, we're not going to do this. We're serious about it. If you're trying to be able to come in and kill our people, we're going to stop you. If you're a foreign terrorist organization or foreign cartel trying to be able to bring in drugs to be able to kill 100,000 Americans a year, we're going to stop you before that actually comes. So that's a good thing.

We just need additional details in the process and how they're prosecuting all of that. Maduro is a narco-terrorist dictator that is not duly elected in Venezuela. He's not the legitimate leader there, and he is facilitating drugs coming into the United States to be able to prop up his illegitimate government. So we should treat him that way. So I would just love, also, we have to find out, too, is China living up to not sending the precursors over here? You know, our FBI director was there a month ago, and he said, you know, I think they're serious about it this time. Can you tell the American, can you tell our listeners what's going on? Yeah, China is saying that they're going to slow down the movement of these precursor drugs into Mexico and into Canada that are then being processed there and then brought right into the United States. China is a communist nation. They know what's actually leaving out from their borders. There's no question that they watch and inspect everybody doing everything. This is not a free country like it is here in the United States. So we'll see. China's made a lot of promises. We'll see if they actually keep those promises in the days ahead. But I'll tell you, there's a lot of us. that are paying very, very close attention to that to say words are helpful, actions are better. Yeah, so you stop cocaine and you stop the cartels, you stop the trafficking, you stop the money, and you stop the fentanyl. It's all one. So I just wish people would stop playing politics with it, but I guess I've stopped expecting that. Senator James Langford, thanks so much. Hopefully we have some type of bipartisan agreement on health care. Yep, we've got to be able to take care of people in the short term, and then long term, we've got to be able to solve this and to be able to deal with a massive problem that Obamacare has created in our health care system. All right, go get him, Senator. Thanks so much. Back to more. Keep praying for the nation. Merry Christmas. Absolutely, you too. Newsmakers and newsbreakers, here at first on the Brian Kilmeade.

The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmeade. You claim that you and your wife haven't gotten in a fight in 10 years. That's right. Are you lying? No, I'm not lying. Travis. Joey asked you the same questions. Well, it's only been two and a half years, and you're right. I haven't gotten an argument. All right. Never once. Honestly, you know, neither of us are going to win the arguments or why get in it. There we go. There you go. That's a smart man right there. What's the secret? Just not just staying out of the argument altogether? Dude, I'm 64 years old. And what am I going to argue about at this point? You know, I'm like, you know, I've met this incredible woman that, you know, is, you know, she's beautiful and smart. And she stands for all the most important things that I believe in in the world. And I can't believe how lucky I am. So what am I going to fight about? You know, I like a great answer. I mean, it's an effective answer. Maybe George Clooney's telling the truth. He's on the Kelsey podcast. And that's when everyone focused not on what George Clooney said, but on what Kelsey said. And he says he'd never had to fight in two and a half years. Between Travis and Taylor Swift. Yeah, we did, so I should say that. And Jason is the other guy that's his brother. And I guess clearly he's in a more normal relationship because clearly he fights. They also have four kids. Right. So you have to, I mean, how do you not fight? To me, this is my point today on Fox & Friends when this came up. I'm not saying they're lying. I'm saying that what you do is you keep your disagreements to yourself and it's not healthy. See, I agree with that with normal couples. However, I think for them two things. One, how are they defining, like, argument? Are they like little bickering? Are they saying that's an argument? They're thinking like full-fledged, like real, like, brawl fight. Yeah. And then my other thing is, especially for Clooney, I mean, even... Travis and Taylor, they live a life where they probably don't need to bicker over the laundry and the dishes because people are likely doing that for them. Right. So think if you didn't need to worry about any of that. Isn't money the number one thing people argue about? Yes, that's a big one too. So if they're not worried about finances or keeping the house clean, like why do you leave your pants on the floor again, put them away? Then there's not too much else. You mean there's somebody who picks up the pants? It's usually the wife. Right. Oh, for them, it's the housekeeper. For them, it's somebody else. Exactly. So they literally could just drop their clothes where they are and keep walking. And the wife then's probably not mad because she's not the one picking them up. Right. So you've removed a lot of the small fights. Exactly. So the big fights are where have you been for the last week? And then it's usually a shooting movie. Did you see Berlin? I was in Sweden. You saw me on stage. Why don't believe you? Well, look up, look on YouTube. Yes, exactly. I think a lot of things. Where were you Sunday? Losing to the Cowboys? Exactly. I do think, though, the other thing you said on Fox and Friends is with like ways and directions, how it also removes a lot of things to fight about. So you liked that point. Nobody knew what I was talking about. Actually, you know what? I understand that point, but I disagree with you in that.

Andy is terrible at following it, so we fight over it locks. He misses the turn all the time, and he's like, you didn't remind me. I'm like, it's right in front of your face. How did you miss the turn? Or I'm accused of following the directions too much. So, like, when the road barely splits and I'm just looking, I'm trying to follow the path. He's like, why do you do that? Just pick up your head and make your own decision. See? So we do fight about it a little bit. But it turns out, I had a referee look at all the fights, and I'm right most of the time. Obviously, just like in life. Yep. Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sewing division. It's Brian Kilmeade. Hi, one, so glad you're there. Brian Kilmeade coming to you from Midtown Manhattan, where the tree is now up, so which means do not drive across town if you're in 46, 47, 48. It's just going to be overwhelming. You've got to be very frustrated. You're not going to be in the holiday spirit. I don't know about you, but I noticed I cannot believe how many people have their decorations up already. People seem really pumped up for the holidays, and people are spending money, which is good for the economy. And so far, we see the market's relatively flat today. Mark Tiesin at the bottom of the hour, he wrote a great column in The Washington Post about the reality of Trump's Drug Brod Strike and the playbook that the president might be picked up in reading. It might be from this guy named Barack Obama. We'll discuss that. Josh Crashauer is standing by Fox News Radio Political Analyst, and we'll talk about what the off-year election as well as the special election teaches both parties. So let's get to the big three. Number three. Back in my great state of California, my very own governor, Gavin Newsom, with the way he's overlooked women, half the population, by devaluing us in midlife, he probably should not be our next president either. No joke, Halliberry, you are right, but mostly Hollywood does not agree with her. They seem to be rallying behind him. Not too early to talk about 26 of the presidential in 28. We'll break it down for you because it looks like on the Democratic side, we already got some cat fighting. Number two. I think 2026 is going to be a great year. The president set the table. He's done peace deals, trade deals, tax deals. And the economic policy is really a three-legged stool. And that's what he breaks down. And I'll play the entire sound by truly all aspects of the economy front and center. The Trump plan's going to be out there. And I think they learned their lesson. They have to talk about it. And then make Americans benefit from it. That'll decide the election more than anything else. We'll hear about their health care, their automobile, and their affordability deal. Number. There is no such thing as a narco-terrorist. But people on a boat carrying cocaine are not a direct threat to the lives of our service members. This is not who we are. This is not America. Really? Thank you, Senator Cory Booker. I always need that a wake-up call. Latest Trump attack distraction is focusing on the Venezuelan drug boats and double-tap attacks. The real story is ousting Maduro. The real story is taking action to stop drugs, period.

At least one Republican agrees with the opposition in some MAGAPS borders. We don't want to see any action outside our borders period. Thanks to, so thanks to people like Rand Paul and Thomas Massie, there's Democrats always have somebody to say we have bipartisan outrage with. Josh Crash Hour joins us now. Josh, welcome back. Hey, Brian. Good to be back with you. Hey, Josh. First, what is your takeaway from the Tennessee 7 election? Well, look, given the over-exuberance on the Democratic side, especially when there was a poll that came out showing the race neck and neck, the fact that the Republican won by nine points is a sign of relief, certainly for Republicans for Speaker Johnson. I think there are two big lessons, one for each party, to learn from the race. I mean, number one is there are going to be a lot of headwinds for Republicans generally because it's tough for the first midterm of a second-term presidency. There's a lot of questions about economics and AI and a lot of things that are buffeting the party in power. So you always tend to lose seats in the midterm, and I think that pattern is likely to repeat itself. But look, the Democrats nominated the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of Tennessee in this race. She was anti-police, anti-Israel, anti-Nashville. This would have been a much closer race. I think that there was about a five to ten point penalty for the Democratic Party nominating someone. so out of the mainstream. And that's why the polls may have been very misleading. And the race was actually much, much more comfortable of a victory for the Republican Matt Ben Epps. So I think it's, I mean, if Democrats nominated in New York City, there's a lot of socialist candidates running in primary challenges, the more mainstream incumbents. You see this crop of these very far left candidates across the country running in primaries. So these are the folks that are running in swing districts. So these are the standard bearers. You know, in Maine, you got this very far left candidate. platinum, looking to run against Susan Collins. If these are the people that emerge as a Democratic candidate in competitive races, there's going to be a big penalty, and they could end up losing a whole lot of winnable races and give Republicans a big boost in turn, if that's what happens. How powerful is the Democratic Socialists of America as a party? Because now they're trying to infiltrate every area of New York. They're trying to run on parent-teacher groups and city councils, small and big positions. These socialists want to be in charge of everything. There are a big factor in the cities. The fact that you have Seattle and New York City being run by socialists, says the whole story in Minneapolis. It came close to flipping. the mayor will be there as well. So if you look at the vote in that Tennessee race, Nashville voted more for this socialist candidate than they did for Kamala Harris, the city of Nashville, which you kind of think is a more moderate city. But the young Gen Ziers, the far-left activists within the Democratic Party, are living in cities and they are trying to move the party to the extremes, the Democratic Party to the extremes. On the flip side, in the suburbs of that district and certainly in the rural parts, The Republicans held their own. They did pretty well. And the fact that this Democrat was so far to the left, the suburban swing voters in Williamson County in the suburbs of Nashville did not, like her at all, shows you that that's the problem Democrats are going to be facing outside the deepest blue parts of the country. So what I see is this. The Cook report came out and said, yeah, Trump won by 20 and Green 1 by 20. But the Cook report said the district is an R plus 10. Van Nupt's 1 by 9.

So even though the off-year elections didn't show any progress for, had a lot to cheer for for Democrats, even though they had to take out a line of credit to the DNC to make sure New Jersey and Virginia went their way, it turns out an R-plus-10. It doesn't really seem like panic time for the Republicans, even though Al Gore says he's never seen anything quite like this turnaround. Look, I think it depends who the Democrats nominate. If they nominate, you know, in Jersey and Virginia. Yeah, I mean, they avoided talking about the issues. It's not like Cheryl and Abigail Spanberger were like aggressively moderate, but they avoided talking about the left-wing issues that really energized the activist left. But in, you know, I always say this about Zohran Mamdani. He won 50% of the vote. That is really bad for the Democratic nominee. And he won, but usually Democrats win about 80%, 75, 80% of the vote in New York City. So, you know, if you're going to underperform by like 20 points because you nominate these left-wing activist types, that is going to have much more severe. down ballot consequences. It doesn't matter what the environment is. Voters are not going to buy these types of candidates unless you're in the most left-wing parts of the cities of the country. I want to talk about Minnesota because this is just unbelievable. Minimum a billion dollars lost in scams, mostly by the Somali community. And it looks like they use the threat of racism and the threat of losing the 80,000. vote block to make sure that this thing wasn't reported, but it got so big. And finally, the Washington Post, and you saw Chris Rufo and the Manhattan Institute start reporting some of the scams, sophisticated scams that were going on to make sure pandemic money went to the wrong people. Restaurants, for example, with 35 seats, billed out for 18,000 meals, autistic children programs, put in Somali kids who were not autistic in order, and the parents would get kickbacks if they just put their healthy kids into these programs. I mean, this is unbelievable what we're witnessing. And the Washington Post writes this. The governor is not helping himself by refusing to take responsibility for the welfare fraud that happened in plain sight. Wall signed an anti-fraud legislation at the start of the year in an attempt to weed out abuses of the system. But he also oversaw a vast expansion of the welfare state during his tenure without implementing robust safeguards and checks to be sure the money is fairly distributed. That's the Washington Post, Josh. Yeah. I mean, this scandal has been in public view for the last couple years. Didn't stop Kamala Harris, by the way, from picking Tim Walz, says her running mate to sit. And it didn't be sort of shocking that this did not get. It's my bet. I did not know it. I did not know much about this, especially the power that the Somali community had there. Well, look, Ilhan Omar's representation of Minneapolis, St. Paul, in that district, is a testament to the influence of the kind of politics that you're seeing and the corruption that we're learning about. But this has been, I mean, this is a sign of how, you know, it would have been, the New York Times thought they did a very good job reporting about what's gone on in Minneapolis and the abuse of the welfare programs and the special needs programs in the state. I mean, the fact that Walls is the first line of defense, and you have people like Keith Ellison, the attorney general, and this did not get aggressively prosecuted. It wasn't until federal leadership got involved, tells you everything you need to know. Look, there's a lot of sensitivity. I mean, this is sort of an uncomfortable reality, but because of the growing political power of the Somali community in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The Democratic leaders there don't want to touch that. They don't want to lose votes. And that's part of the challenge here. Now that it's out in a national outside of Minneapolis ecosystem, this is a scandal of epic proportions. But the Democratic leadership in Minneapolis and even in the state of Minnesota with Governor Walls, we're trying to kind of downplay this and paper it over. And now you can't do that. I think Walls' national political career is pretty much over. This is an issue that... probably is going to get him trouble in his reelection bid coming up next year. You know, the president came out and said bluntly, we don't want him here. Somalia is a garbage country. Very harsh words. Ben Shapiro was asked about it. Cut 45. If you're not used to, President Trump's use of insult at this point, after fully a decade of it, I'm going to have to ask whether you have adapted to the Trump era for good or for ill. When he says that he does not want Somalis in the country as a general point, when he says they're coming from a culture that does not mesh well with the United States, is he wrong about that? Of course he's not wrong about that. This is going to take generations for them to weave themselves in. But if they're taking this money in real time and sending it back to Somalia, which we hear, according to Chris Rufo, and now if they're giving it to al-Shabaab, we've got a really big problem. Yeah, I mean, I was on special report, and I think one of the big issue, I mean, look, I don't, I think the language Trump used, I think is not helpful. In fact, there's a lot of substance that is so scandalous that that's what we're the people should be making sure they keep their eye on the ball. But I think the larger issue I made this point on special report this week. The issue of assimilation. I mean, it used to be that you go to school and you learn American values that people would come to the country, but they wouldn't hate the country. Like, you know, Ilhan Omar. I mean, look at the anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism that she. you know, is responsible for in a role in Congress. Usually, historically, you have people that come to the country and are super grateful for being citizens and praise the country. You're seeing a different dynamic, not just in the Somali community, but I think it's a challenge of it. It's a challenge that's much more systemic where you have the school system not teaching the unique exceptionalism of this country and you don't learn civics. You don't learn social studies effectively. And that's like a larger problem. And a lot of, you're seeing. In the Somali community, perhaps, a lack of assimilation, a lack of, you know, Omar, I think is a good textbook case about her politics and how that's rising in Minneapolis. So the guy who ran for mayor, if you look at his record and his radicalism, a big, big red flag, he got almost 50% of the vote in that Minneapolis race. So there's a larger question of, like, are we essentially requiring that acculturation, assimilation of people who are coming to the country that used to, you know, praise America and say, you know, how great it is, that we have a country full of blessings.

And instead, they're trash in the country. And they're complaining nonstop. The president's right about that. Just on how Jews are viewed in America, I've been outraged about what's going on. You've been outraged for the last two and a half years since the October 7th attacks especially. A person stood up just like and kind of echoed what we've been saying. And her name is Hillary Clinton. She was a professor of Columbia. And she noticed that the anti-Semitic anti-Israeli views. And she asked, what were you getting this information? She says people know nothing about the history of. of Israel, nothing about even 20 years ago when she was first lady, about what they went through and the efforts they were made to bring peace to the region, and they blame TikTok. Listen, cut 28. Smart, well-educated young people from our own country, from around the world. Where were they getting their information? They were getting their information from social media, particularly TikTok. That is where they were learning about what happened on October 7th, what happened in the, you know, days, weeks, and months to follow. That's a serious problem. It's a serious problem for democracy, whether it's Israel, the United States, and it's a serious problem for our young people. China's controlling that feed in many respects, and we know that there's all anti-Israeli stuff all over TikTok, and 53% of young people get their news predominantly from TikTok. So... She's picking this up. That's significant. Look, it affects Israel, but it affects all, why do so many Americans endorse political violence? It's shocking. No one over the age of 40 countenances these ideas, and yet you have this uptick among people under the age of 30. And so it's Israel and support for Hamas, support for extremist groups, but it's a whole lot of other things that are fueled by ignorance and fueled by, you know, not reading the news, not watching, you know. the news and listen to 10-second clips on TikTok or going on social media and getting radicalized. I think it's a big, big problem. It's one that is a bipartisan. I mean, you have Republicans and Democrats agreeing on this. In fact, that was why TikTok, the overwhelming vote to ban TikTok was so significant, though, you know, we'll see what happens with the new ownership, but that ended up getting bypassed. by the administration. So, you know, look, I think that she really put her finger on a major, major issue. Unfortunately, even though there's so much bipartisan support on understanding the problem, no one's been able to propose legislation or ideas on how to fix the problem. Right, but we've got to fix TikTok. I'd love to just shelve it, and we've got to stop the next TikTok from coming up. You know, social media is tough enough, especially when China's manipulating it. Thanks so much, Josh. Appreciate it. Thanks, Brian. It was great. Mark Teeson, bottom of the hour, your calls for the first time will be next. 1866, 408-7669. We'll talk about that. We'll also talk about how Josh Shapiro use expletives to describe Kamala Harris. I'll get into detail. Where big stories meet bigger conversations. Stay informed and energized with the Brian Kilmeade.

The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmeade. Back in my great state of California, my very own governor, Gavin Newsom, has vetoed our menopause bill, not one but two years in a row. But that's okay, because he's not going to be governor forever. And with the way he's overlooked women, half the population, by devaluing us in midlife, he probably should not be our next president either. Well, that's going to bother him because he evidently is the Hollywood darling. They all want him to win. But the problem with Gavin Newsom is he's done so poorly as a governor. Meanwhile, nine months since those massive fires, almost nothing's rebuilt, no permits have been issued. The environmental roadblocks have not been knocked down like he promised. And he seems disinterested by it while his country, excuse me, his state runs a huge deficit. But he thinks he understands what went wrong. And in that the New York Times thing they did yesterday, he was one of the featured speakers. Here's what he said is wrong with his party. Tell me if you think he's right, cut 25. But I think there's a broader narrative that we have to address. That is, we have to be more culturally normal. We have to be a little less judgmental. We have to be a party that understands the importance and power of the border, substantively and politically. We have a party that I think needs to design and develop a compelling economic vision for the future where people feel included to reconcile the fact that if we don't democratize our economy, we're not going to save democracy. I don't even know what that means democratizing the economy. More homeless? I mean, what are you doing? You raise taxes? People leave. What is the Gavin Newsom playbook? He seems to have wanted to listen. Interviewed Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, Ted Cruz, and wanted to find out what conservatives think. He evidently watches Fox all the time, and he makes some statements, but his actions haven't changed. That's the problem. And this whole tough guy attitude doesn't even fit him because he doesn't act tough. He doesn't make tough decisions. He doesn't confront anyone. Listen to this, cut 24, about the CEOs that came to the White House. We could talk about why. Kamala Harris lost, which is separate. I mean, it's part derivative of the larger narrative, but issues around inflation scars. We don't talk enough about interest rates. We didn't talk about incumbency. Issues related, Biavian, related to Israeli politics. Immigration, the border in particular. You could talk about all those things, not just 107 days, not just talk about Biden's determination of the lack thereof in terms of passing the baton. Yeah, that is a huge, I mean, inflation's going. You didn't talk about inflation? You want to bring it up? Hey, isn't it great that I get inflation up? You wanted to pretend the economy's better. It wasn't. They thought that Trump could do a better job and all those things that he just mentioned.

He's so busy. He'll make your headspin. It's Brian Kilmeade. There is no such thing as a narco terrorist. But people on a boat in the middle of the Caribbean carrying cocaine are not a direct threat to the lives of our service members or Americans. Uniform military may help save us from this president and his lame people like Pete Hegseth. This is not who we are. This is not America. Why are we blowing out of the water and killing people in boats with outboard motors, some of which aren't even pointed towards the United States? It's a catastrophe. I think Pete Hegseth, it's impossible to imagine that he survives this as Secretary of Defense. I think he must resign. What is she going to say all these people when he is leaving with President Trump in 2028? He's not going anywhere. I don't know how many more times you have to tell unless he wants to move on. which the way they're going after and everything he does, maybe you might want to. But there's, you can't get a piece of paper between the two. So you could sit out there and MS now, fascinating name conversion, and you could say Pete Hegseth can't stay there. And then you could just say to say to his, well, what makes you think the president's going to let him go? Mark Teeson joins us now. He is the former speechwriter for W, a fellow at AEI, Fox News contributor, Washington Post columnist. Mark, welcome back. Good to be with you, Brian. Mark, one of the first things I did when I heard about the burgeoning controversy with the double tap on a boat strike was go back and research what Barack Obama did. You always told me it's over 500 times. And I thought to myself, is there, all 500 times, did President Obama get the guy he wanted right away? Everybody dead? Everybody, did he have to go back a second time? Would he ever do that? Human Rights Watch said he did. Amnesty International said he did. A Stanford study said he did. But there was no outrage about that. But there is outrage what they say is about this if they went back a second time. Yeah, no, I interviewed from my question post column this morning, David Shed, who's going to be on One Nation this weekend, as I understand it. So you got him second after I've got a chance to talk to him. But he was the head of the DIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency under Barack Obama that was carrying out the strikes. And he told me, yeah, we did double taps all the time. In fact, we usually had a second predator drone in the air waiting to see after the smoke cleared from the first attack whether there were any squatters, they called them. Squatters were people who were supposed to be hit the first time, but were injured or escaped the first hit, and they'd take them out in the second hit, and sometimes a third hit. This was like standard operating procedure for military strikes, and they did it hundreds and hundreds of times. And he says...

there was bipartisan support for it on Capitol Hill. He briefed all the, as the head of the DA, he briefed all the oversight committees. He talked to the members in both parties. And by the way, Bush did it too. It might, I mean, the strikes escalated under Obama. I went from about 50 at the end of the Bush administration when the drone technology came online. to like over 500 under Obama. But we were knocking out squatters all the time. There is nothing inherently wrong or illegal with a double tap or a triple tap or a quadruple tap strike to take out of target. But don't you see the pattern? Mark, I'm sure you do. They're going to go and they're going to talk to the Admiral today, find something he said that makes Pete culpable. And then they're going to move to make this an ongoing thing, like the Epstein files, like the Russia hoax, like the impeachment mess, like January 6th. Whatever they're just going to look to make that the story instead of drugs and Mondoro being the story. Well, you know, then let them have an investigation into Barack Obama for war crimes first because he did it first and did it, you know, hundreds of times as well. What the Trump administration is doing, I know President Trump probably wouldn't like to hear this, but they're actually following the Obama playbook when it comes to taking out these drug boats. This is a model that the U.S. military refined. during the war on terror under Barack Obama, that they are now applying to drug cartels. The president has declared the drug cartels to be foreign terrorist organizations, which means that under U.S. law and the laws of war, he permitted to use military force to take them out. He notified Congress that we were in an armed conflict with the non-state actors in the drug cartel. He had the Office of Legal Counsel prepare a memo that set out the parameters. for what was permitted and what was not permitted, just as they had under the Obama administration for these strikes. So he's checked all the legal boxes in terms of how to carry these things out. And then on top of that, he's testified in court. He's filed in court that the drug cartels are intertwined with the Maduro regime. So even if you don't accept the whole war on terror framework for justifying the legal action against the cartels, if they are part of the Maduro regime. And Maduro is, in fact, head of one of the cartels. I can't remember the name of which one it is. But Trenderagua is intertwined with the Venezuelan regime and several of the Arctic cartels. Then they are paramilitary forces attached to the Maduro regime. And so, therefore, if we're taking military action against the Maduro regime, they're legitimate military targets there as well. So there are multiple layers. of legal authority for taking the action that the Trump administration is taking. And, you know, the Democrats can go pound sand if they don't like it. Yeah, let's talk about Ukraine, another area of your expertise. Here's what President Trump said yesterday after the five-hour meeting in Moscow, and there'll be a follow-up in Miami with the Ukrainian delegation, cut 46.

I don't know what the Kremlin's doing. I can tell you that they had a reasonably good meeting with President Vladimir Putin. We're going to find out. It's a war that should have never been started. It's in war. If I were president, we had a rigged election. If I were president, that war would have never happened. It's a terrible thing. But I thought they had a very good meeting yesterday with President Vladimir Putin. We'll see what happens. It's, you know, when I was in this office and I talked about no cards, I said, you have no cards. That was the time to settle. So Ukraine is going to deal with the president again. And President Volodymyr Zelensky came out and said, we're preparing to meet with the United States after the American team returns from Moscow following the relevant consultations in Washington. How do you characterize what you know about Moscow's meeting? So Ukraine is doing everything it can to try and be reasonable and bring an end to this war. The Ukrainians do not want to continue the war. It's Russia that wants to continue the war. And Vladimir Putin doesn't want to end the war. He wants to pause the war while Trump is president and then restart the war when Trump leaves because that's the pattern of what he did. He took Crimea under Obama. Obama did nothing. Then he stopped under Trump. then he invaded again under Biden. Then he stopped under Trump. So what he's looking at is the possibility of stopping under Trump and then restarting when some weak American president comes in again to replace him, whether it's the next election or the election after that, he's got a long game. And so the problem with what Vladimir Putin is asking for is he's trying to set up a situation where Ukraine will be defenseless when he restarts the war. Right. So there's no inherent problem with giving up territory, right? Or having land swaps. The problem is that that whole area of Donbass that Vladimir Putin is asking for, that he's been unable to conquer for four years. is the reason he's been able to conquer is because it's a massive defensive belt with trenches and and anti-tank mines built in and fortresses. And so he wants the Ukrainians to withdraw from all that so he can cross all of that. And then he's got open field all the way to keep after that. And so. He wants to be able to clear his path for the next invasion. He wants the Ukrainian military to have to cut its forces in half. He wants to have no international troops on the border, of the line of contact. He wants to have no long-range weapons in Ukraine and limits on what Ukraine could do. If he doesn't intend to invade again, why does he want all that? It's because he wants Ukraine to be weak and defenseless when there's a weak and defenseless American president in the Oval Office so he can finish the job. And so we want to bring an end to the war, but it's got to be done in a way that makes – that is a defensible border that makes it impossible for Vladimir Putin to start the war again after Trump is gone. So they lost about 7,000 troops last week, the Russians did?

I'm sure the Ukrainians are taking care about that. Clearly. But they also, the Ukraine's also moving on Moscow's shadow fleet as they try to illegally sell oil. I love that idea. I mean, they basically destroyed a portion of the Russian Navy without a Navy. And they're doing it again with these underwater drones. Yeah, they've destroyed half of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Remember the Moskva, that famous ship that was confronting the soldiers on Snake Island? Yeah. It's at the bottom of the Black Sea right now. And they've been taking out, they've taken out about 20% of Russia's oil refinery capacity. And now they're going after these ships going into ports. are afraid to go into Russian port in order to offload the oil. So they, Ukraine, they're very cleverly squeezing the Russian oil sector. And what's important about that is that the Russian oil sector is all that's keeping the Russian economy afloat. But yet the Europeans still buying it? European still buying oil? Most of Europe is not. It's primarily the countries that the Trump administration likes, like Hungary and others who are buying the Russian energy today. So, I mean, we can put a little pressure on them to buy from us instead of from Russia. But what the problem, if you really want to force Vladimir Putin to the table, it's not going to be through Steve Witkoff going to Moscow and saying pretty pleased. And, you know, what can we do to appease you? It's going to be through, and I think he's doing a pretty good job, actually, as Steve is. He's trying to make the best of a bad situation. It's going to require coercing the Russians and forcing them to the table by making it painful. And if we just gave the Ukrainians 25 tomahawk missiles and said, you can fire them at the Russian. energy sector. If we all of a sudden, instead of disabling 20% of their energy production, could disable 50% of their energy production, the Russian economy would be brought to its knees and Vladimir Putin would have no choice but to sue for peace. That's the only thing it's going to happen, Mark. That's where it's going to have to go. Currently, they're willing to draw this out unless they know that by walking away, it's going to not change things for the good, things are going to stay the same if they walk away again. Yeah. Do you think the president would do it? Look, here's the deal that we're putting on the table, the way we did with the Ukrainians, and the alternative, the choice is take this or suffer the loss of 50% of your energy sector. So do you think the president's willing to do that? I think that that's where it'll end up in the long run, because Vladimir Putin is not going to cut a deal that is that is reasonable. And look, keep in mind, Donald Trump is doing more for Ukraine right now than Joe Biden ever did. He's given them long-range weapons that Vladimir Putin has never, that Biden never gave them. He's giving them targeting information they can use to strike Russian territory, and he's given them permission.

to strike inside Russia with U.S. weapons that Biden resisted for three years. So Trump has done more. In a way, he's doing that already without the tomahawks. He's putting the squeeze on the Russian energy sector. He's also imposed these sanctions that are crippling Russian energy sales. India and Russia, I'm sorry, India and China are their two biggest purchasers. India has stopped buying Russian oil and China has suspended Russian oil. purchases over these tariffs. So he is squeezing them. But I think it's going to take a little bit more squeezing in order to get Vladimir Putin to come to the table. All right. And Venezuela, is there a way to amp the pressure additionally on Maduro that they're not doing yet? Well, Trump is hinted at it. It's striking them on land as well. And also, he's authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela. Look, the problem in Venezuela is playing whack-a-mole with the cartel drugboats is good because every one of those drug boats that gets destroyed is saving thousands and thousands of American lives of drugs that are not coming into our country. But the problem isn't the cartels alone. It's the Venezuelan regime. The Venezuelan regime is ostensibly a socialist regime, but its leaders are narco-capitalists. They're all tied into the drug business. And they're all making billions of dollars, which they keep in offshore accounts, until you eliminate that connection between the narco regime and the narc and the drug cartels, then the drug problem will never end. And so you've got to, the only way this ends is if Maduro leaves power. Right. And he's got to leave. And then there's no way because if he survives, it'll look like he beat America. That's the risk that we have with the buildup. Yeah, I'm not worried about that happening under Donald Trump. Mark Teeson, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Take care. All right. Mark Teeson, you'll see them all over the channel, too. When we come back, we'll finish up strong. 1-8-6-6-6-9. Don't forget, One Nation coming up Sunday at 10 o'clock Eastern Time. Amongst my guests, it'll be Douglas Murray, amongst my guests would be Doug Burgum, two Douglas is in one A-block. I don't know. That is going to be some type of record. And then we're going to have these two Chinese co-authors, two co-authors who take apart China and their spying regime like never before seen. And we'll have other exciting news, including a way for you to live longer. Besides that, not much impact. Brian Kilmeade. Real talk, real guests, real insight, where curiosity meets conversation. It's the Brian Kilmeade.

Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kilmeade. Sponsored by Previgin. Previgin, made for your brain. Jimmy Kimmel. gave me a stack of stationary with a presidential seal in Bill Clinton's name on. And I would send notes to all these actors from Bill Clinton. I'd sign it like, and I'd find a movie that wasn't a great film with theirs. And I'd like, you know, I'd love you in this film. And I'd write these notes. And I'd send them, I'd send to like 30 different actors. I guarantee you some of them are framed on some of their own. Oh, my gosh. They don't even know. They still don't know. That is amazing. Now they know. Now they know. Oh, my gosh. So I guess George Quentin knows a practical joker, so it took the presidential letterhead and just sent it out. Yeah, so he's, yeah, he's... That's a little cruel. Because, you know, that is one thing that if I ever got a note from President's desk saying, great job or something, I would think that is awesome. Yes, but he said he purposely did it when they were in like a bad movie to make it extra funny, but he's known to be a big practical Joker. He said he also was stationary with Brad Pitt's name on it, and he's done that too. And he told another story how he sent this big thing to, was it Barbara Streisand, I think, or... Merrill Streep and like pretended it was from Brad Pitt giving her advice. And he told her like five years later that it wasn't from Brad. That's very funny. It's very funny. So they were having a good time of Jason Kelsey, but the big story to come out of that is that nobody fights. Yeah. Right. George and Amal don't fight and Taylor and Travis don't fight. I mean, the thing is, people are really going to try to woo George Clooney now on the left before they run. I'm telling you, he's made himself a power player. because he's got all this money, he's got all this Hollywood cachet, and he proved it. He was the only one with the guts to stand up about Biden way too late. Obviously, all that stuff, we've been over that. But Barack Obama wasn't doing that. And I'll say, too, just watching him in interviews, right? He's likable. He's gregarious. And he's not overly political, right? He's not, like he might feel one way, but an interview he's not always trying to make it. I am far left and this is where you should stand. He just has a nice conversation with people. Lastly, Henry Quayar is a great friend of the show, right, does TV too. He's a Democrat with a level head. He's always pro border security. Every Democrat with the Biden administration, they all hated him. And they primaried him. Put millions of dollars in. And he kept winning. Now, this is what Carl Rove said. If Republicans are going to maximize their flipping of seats in Texas, they got to hope Quayor gets indicted because that'll open up an opportunity in that very conservative district. He got a pardon yesterday from President Trump, who knew everything and said, I just got to do what's right. Cut 35.

Was this a surprise? It was. You know, let me tell you, I got a text from somebody asked me about the partner. I said, what partner are you talking about? And then they sent me a copy of that. I do want to thank the president. I want to thank President Trump for a partner in. And, of course, I certainly want to say God has been good to my wife, to my family. But I'll certainly say it again. Thank you, President Trump. So that's pretty amazing. He's a really good guy. So I've been to the board of four times, three times he was there with just wearing a member-only coat, not looking for any camera time, didn't want to be interviewed, but he just was trying to fix things. And that's why I think at some point, if specifically he has any type of pushback, I think he might flip and be a Republican. But he keeps saying, no, I'm going to be a Democrat, but I'm going to help Trump whenever I can.