House set to vote to release the Epstein files

What is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Your local Toyota dealer has great deals available today on Rav4, Grand Highlander, Camry, and Corolla with the features in style you deserve. It means driving for less, with hybrid and plug-in hybrid options across the lineup, delivering great MPGs. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles, meaning your car will hold its value for years to come. Shop Toyota.com to find out more. Toyota, let's go places. Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sewing division. It's Brian Kilmeade. Hi, everyone, so glad you're there. It's the Brian Kilmeade. We're going to have an explosive afternoon. Thanks so much for being here. Lieutenant Colonel Allen West soon. Meanwhile, we have a lot going on today. We know there's going to be a vote, a house vote, on the Epstein file release. We'll cover that. We're also going to be all over the president's meeting with Mohammed bin Salman. It should be fascinating because we're trying to get him to sign on the Abraham Accords. Last time it got close, that's when the October 7th attack happened. In Gaza, against the palace, against the Israelis, killed over 1,200 of them. And Sinwar's note showed part of the reason they wanted to stop the expansion of... The Abraham Accords. So we have a lot to get to, and I want to get to your thoughts too. You know what's write me up, Briankillme.com. Just click on comments. Let's go to the big three. Number three. I'm not in love with the people running Venezuela. I love Venezuela. I love the people of Venezuela. But what they've done to this country, and I really say this, what Biden and the Democrats have done to this country can never, ever be forgotten. Venezuela, at a breaking point, as Trump turns up the heat, and yes, before it all happens, Maduro has a chance to meet with Trump, it looks like. At least talk to him where I think the message will be, leave. Number two. They're just fishing. They don't care about the victims. They don't care about providing justice for the victims or giving the American people the truth. They only care about one thing, and that's trying to embarrass Donald Trump. Epstein files about to erupt an all-in effort to get Trump, right? Why, once again, he might have outmoved them all. Sadly, the whole investigation was never about the victims. Certainly Donald Trump is not satisfied with the answers that he's been getting, I understand, and those close to him. And Senator Ron Johnson has had to subpoena Donald Trump's FBI to get more information about the assassination attempt. The Butler assassin in the news because we now know new news on Thomas Crook. So buckle up on that.

And that's when we'll discuss it. Let's get started. So essentially, Miranda Devine was on our show yesterday. It was kind enough to come out and talk about how she got, found out a lot about his, Crooks' footprint online. And the different online chats he was going through. I mean, it's amazing what this guy was on. I mean, he was, let me say, he was on YouTube, he was on Discord. He was on Snapchat, Quizlet, Chess.com, Venmo, Zell, grouped me. What else chatty? I mean, it's unbelievable with this guy was on. He dropped off a cliff in 2021. In the beginning, it came out. If we're to believe these text messages are authentic, crooks love Trump, and then he hated Trump and talked about murdering them. In the beginning, he was talking about murdering Democrats, including the squad. And then by 2020, he's talking about murdering Trump and his supporters and this hatred for Fox News. So that just came out, and that's new. But there's a lot of people twisting everything and saying this is grand conspiracy theory. Why was his body cremated? Why do they quickly hose off the roof? Well, I found out today from FBI officials that they hosed off the roof after three days because they were done with it. And they said they have to return the body to the family after three days and they decide to cremate them. So this is, they believe our FBI, the current in power, believe that he acted alone. Now, Miranda Devine and others say that this guy was contacting at least one other person overseas with connections to Norway with connections into Russia. I also found out from our FBI officials that our enemies know us quite well, and they know what pushes our buttons. They know what gets us arguing with each other and gets conspiracy theories rolling. First off, I don't think there's any doubt about this. Christopher and Paul Greg Abbott, they were the directors of the FBI and the deputy director on Capitol Hill. They were testifying one on July 24th Chris Wright, and then one six days later about what they knew. Clearly, they did not tell us everything they nailed. And I have a theory why. Cut one. A lot of the usual repositories of information have not yielded anything. notable in terms of motive or like ideology. There were over 700 comments posted from this account. Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect anti-Semitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature.

So extreme in nature, anti-Semitic, that's not true. And they had the accounts. But what they did is not want to bolster and make Donald Trump, in my view, look more like a martyr. He was being targeted. No, they want to say anti-Semitism rampant in our country. We don't really know what he thought. No, we know what he thought. We see the text now, 700 of them. Here's what Chris Wecker said, the former deputy FBI director. The scary proposition that this post article raises, and that's the idea that there are maybe hostile foreign enemy, our foreign intelligence services. or enemies of any kind that are surfing the social media sites in the internet, looking for someone like crooks, who they can then groom and weaponize and turn into an assassin, as may have happened in this case. The agencies have to be very much alert to this that there may be some grooming taking place. It happened with ISIS and the Halloween plot. ISIS went in there and radicalized a small cell of young people in the United States on the Internet. Well, we know that certainly can happen. And then there is a situation with crooks and at a social media footprint that we do need answers. But what happens in according to the current FBI officials, who I spoke to earlier this morning, you get a series of facts and then you lace them together and you got yourself a conspiracy. So putting together random facts and making up a fairy tale is the exact quote that I was told. And that they're going to spit down and they're going to speak to somebody and they're going to tell the whole story. Now, part of it is they say the president is very happy with the investigation feels as thorough. Miranda Devine told me yesterday the president was not happy with it. So I'm kind of a tendency to believe the person people I directly talk to. I also know sometimes the president changes his mind on things. Here's Miranda Devine, who did the big story yesterday using her contacts. Here's what she said about this furry connection. Yeah, just like the assassin of Charlie Kirk, cut three. It's really a small amount that we can see, but it struck me because, of course, as you mentioned, Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin Tyler Robinson was involved with this furry community. He lived with someone who identified as fur, some sort of sexual fetish where you dress up as animals or this deviant art site has sort of animals that are having sex but are humanised and other weird stuff. You like Thomas Crooks had... this image that he'd posted of a very muscle-bound sort of Arnold Schwarzenegger-type male body with a female face, with a female head on it. So, I don't know, it seemed to be a few different fetishes there.

Yeah, I think so. It sounds like a few different fetishes. Sounds like a whack job. It would be great if someone tipped us off. I also found out that from this FBI, that nobody was tracking this guy. You know, he was on all these websites talking about killing the squad, then talking about killing Trump, and it was not lighting up anybody on cyber command within the FBI. I mean, I know they can't be everywhere at all times, but... I think it might be important, but I think Christopher Ray ends up being the biggest letdown that I can think of. You know, Chris Christy, who I like, recommended him, and I don't know what the hell he did for four years. So meanwhile, let's talk about the Epstein situation. They're going to release the files. The president says release the files. Go ahead. Cut seven. All I want is I want for people to recognize a great job that I've done on pricing, on affordability, because we bought prices way down, but they're going way lower, on energy, on ending eight wars, and another one coming pretty soon, I believe. We've done a great job, and I hate to see that deflect from the great job we've done. So I'm all for it. So he's all four releasing everything. He also said, by the way, there's some interesting names that keep getting bandied about and the tens of thousands of pages are going to be released. Larry Summers don't think he's a Republican. Bill Clinton, he pops up a lot. Reid Hoffman, nobody's been on the plane more than Bill Clinton. Reid Hoffman, big Democratic donor. So this is going to get complicated for all those Trump haters. And then you got this story about this Congresswoman Plaskid, who's a delegate from the Virgin Islands. Epstein's Island, right around there. And evidently he had a place in the Virgin Islands, too. And he was talking her pretty regularly. He had his cell phone. She had her phone. She had his cell phone. He had hers. So she's in 2019. She's yelling at Michael Cohen, who's testifying then. I believe Michael Cohen had already flipped against Trump. So he gets a text. She gets a text messages from Epstein. So Epstein texted her and says, he opened the door to the questions who are the other henchmen at Trump organization. Stacey Plaskett writes, yep, very aware, waiting my turn. A little bit later. Cohen brought up Rona, keeper of the secrets. Rona, Stacey Plaskett writes, quick, I'm up next. Is that an acronym? Epstein, that's his assistant. And then he quickly asked a question. She quickly asked a question about that. So who's Ron a graph? When the president was a civilian, a businessman, an apprentice host, Ron is the person to go to. She was the one who was always with him, knew everything, always great, always courteous. Anybody in Trump world knows that R-H-O-N-A is not an acronym. It's a different spelling of a name. But Plasker within seconds was asking the question that Epstein wanted. Now, let me ask you something. I believe at the time this guy's already been convicted. and in jail and in out, right? So she knows how bad he is. Why is she dealing with him? And her statement essentially said, well, I'll deal with anyone that could help me with a witness. Really? You'll deal with anybody that can help you with a witness? Why do you guys in such great contact where you're able to text each other and be so friendly? You're doing that to help you with a witness just for Michael Cohen? I mean, Derrick Van Orden brings this up. You know, the Trump's in there, and they hate him.

And you know what Epstein is trying to do? He's trying to destroy Donald Trump. Donald Trump was hated. He said there's nothing, Epstein, if I could just paraphrase, came out and said, there's nothing good about Donald Trump. So Derrick Van Orden says, listen, go ahead, guys. Get all the Epstein files out there, all the paperwork that you can. And this is the type of things that's going to pop up. It's going to get very complicated, very quick. Let's listen. Epstein was convicted in 2009 of sex trafficking. Ms. Plaskin represents the Virgin Islands where Epstein Island is. She was speaking to him a few months before he died in prison asking him what question she should be asking witnesses that were going after President Trump. There's in no universe can you say that that was a good thing to do. Right. Exactly. Do you think that that's all that's going to come out, some Virgin Island delegate who obviously is friendly with him? Larry Summers, first casualty announced plans to step back from public commitments. After this paperwork came out, quote, I'm deeply ashamed of my actions and recognized the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Epstein while conducting to, continuing to fulfill my teaching obligations. I'll be stepping back from public commitments as one or a part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me. It begins. Now, Thomas Massie, do you really think this guy gets up every day thinking about the victims? of Jeffrey Epstein, Ro Khanna, the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, if they were doing it during the Biden years and even the prior years during the Trump first Trump term, I'd say, well, they've been there all along, finally people paying attention. But you're going for Trump, but you're going to hit everybody, people that you don't even know. And then you will soon see that Jeffrey Epstein had a complicated life. He had great philanthropic programs. He funded a lot of causes, a lot of rich people. He delivered a lot of people for other causes. And he might say, hey, hop on my plane if you're, if you need it, whether you're a sick kid or you're going to an environmental cause like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. is. He wanted to go with his daughter over at the Grand Canyon to see something, and they went. So is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. guilty of having a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the same people with Harvey Weinstein, the same people with OJ Simpson, the same people with Bill Cosby? You think they're one person and they're famous and they're rich and they have access and they turn out to be a totally different person. That's the story here. And the president's right. Look, I know Bill Clinton said it a lot when he was going through an impeachment, but I want to get back to the people's business. I get it. And this becomes one of these Russia hoax things. But the president doesn't think that girls weren't abused. He says that's not the part that's a hoax. The hoax is that Democrats actually care about this. They just see a chance to hurt Trump. Believe me. I want to give you more sides of this story. I want to get your take on this story. I also...

We're going to up to date on things that really affect you. So don't move. You listen to the Brian Kilmeade. Diving deep into today's top stories. It's Brian Kilmeade. Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% off your first purchase at Fox Newswineshop.com with code FM 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. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmeade. Ladies and gentlemen, keep in mind that the Epstein files were in existence and free to have been open during the Biden administration. You were there for four years. How come you didn't open it as a Democratic Party then? What am I missing? I'm not saying I know. It's a legitimate question. Maybe I don't remember the answer. Maybe my extraordinary producers should be able to help me during a commercial break. But from my understanding, the same files that were open or being open now with the 220 pages of documents or whatever it is with various emails, that could have been done when Biden was in office. Well, why didn't you do it if it's so important now? That is a great question. And that reflects up with my talking about the sincerity of Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie and Eric Swalwell and Hakeem Jeffries. And the reason is we're seeing it. Larry Summers, I'm stepping away. Stacey Plaskett, the Virgin Islands delegate. Now she has to put out a statement. You can't even find her to interview her. And by the way, Hakeem Jeffries was asked about this. So he has no answer. He loves saying that Trump is trying to run from the Epstein situation. Cut 12. Why should Americans trust you and House Democrats on the Jeffrey Epstein files when one of your own, Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett was found to be texting with Jeffrey Epstein during a hearing, getting information from him, using that and her questioning during a congressional hearing. And at one point, he tells her good job. This is a bipartisan effort to make sure that consistent with what the survivors have requested, that there's full and complete transparency, and every single predator who may be in those Justice Department files doesn't escape accountability. Yep. It's going to get really dicey, really quick, because Jeffrey Epstein in New York City was surrounded by Democrats and Donald Trump was a Democrat for a while. And that's where he was doing most of his giving. Look, I'm sure if you look at Jeffrey Epstein's bank account, I'm sure a lot of money went to charity. And there's a lot of people showing up, and he's producing a lot of things that are good for people and programs and schools, and he's a number one donor. I'm sure we're going to find out that he was a huge donor to various Kay Ivey League schools. You've got to know it. Everybody wanted him to speak. How do you become a successful businessman? How do you know who you know? He could go anywhere. But you got the victims now speaking out. That's the real story.

And now that these are teenagers. Now they're probably in their 30s or 40s. They're speaking now in Capitol Hill. It's going to come out. And I just cannot wait to see this turnaround. And remember that for a while, Jeffrey Epstein was a guy to hang out with. It was a guy who wanted to represent. Alan Dershowitz represented him. Little did they know the whole thing would blow up on him and almost destroyed his reputation. But he was all for those files coming out. And Virginia Joffrey, whose book I think is still number one of the country, who sadly took her own life before she died. She was asked multiple times about Trump, says I'd never had any interactions with him that was negative. Remember, she was originally working it at Marilago and was recruited out of there until Trump said, knock it off. And then Jeffrey Epstein ended up hating Trump, which I think is a good thing. Lieutenant Colonel Allen West is next. I got to talk about Venezuela. So much more. By the time I hit my 50s, I'd learned a few things, like how family is precious. Work can always wait. And 99% of people over 50 already have the virus that causes shingles. Not everyone at risk will develop it, but I did. The painful, blistering rash disrupted my life for weeks. Don't learn about your shingles risk the hard way. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist today. Sponsored by GSC A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kilmeade. I'm not in love with the people running Venezuela. I love Venezuela. I love the people of Venezuela. But what they've done to this country, and I really say this, what Biden and the Democrats have done to this country. can never, ever be forgotten. One of the things they did is they said, hey, we're going to lift some sanctions on you. You want to let Chevron come in and pump some oil. If you just promised to have free and fair elections and do it within a certain time frame, and we did. And Chevron went in there and they started producing oil because he didn't want us to do it. He wanted to kiss up to his green lobby and say, I've decreased oil production but kept the prices low. How did he do it? Cutting a deal with Venezuela and depleting our strategic oil reserves. That's how he kept the gas prices somewhat re- reasonable. But he was cheating. And he was selling our soul to do it. And he had an election. And he lost 70-30. And he stayed in power. And Biden wasn't. And that's the mess that was dropped on the president's lap. And I don't think it's going to last. I think that it costs us a lot of money to bring a lot of firepower in that region. If we just pull it out, it looks like Maduro, look like he stared us down. It look like a hero, harder to move out. This is the moment. And he says he wants to talk to Trump. And Trump says he should, he will talk to him, at which time it should be very simple. Do you want to go to Russia or Iran? Lieutenant Colonel Alan West joins us now. The colonel is the Dallas County Republican Party chair, American Constitutional Rights Union Executive Director. Colonel, welcome back. Good to be with you, Brian. I wholeheartedly agree with you on what President Trump should say to Nicholas Maduro.

Yeah, I mean, that's it. It's going to be very simple. There's nothing he could do to stay. What if he says, I'm going to bring in some democratic principles. And I think I know where the drugs are coming in from Colombia. No, because, I mean, Nicholas Maduro has been the problem. He has only perpetuated the demise of what was once, one of the most prosperous nations in our hemisphere, Venezuela, continuing on the policies of Hugo Chavez, and not to mention the horrible things he's done to the Venezuelan people, his support to Hezbollah, his support to Iran, his support to these... transnational narco criminal cartels. So, no, I think that he needs to just understand, here's a plane ticket, you know, just choose your destination. Or do you think that we could take him, El Norega style? No, I don't think that, you know, Venezuela is a little bit different from, you know, Panama, you know, inside the scope, first and foremost. But I don't think that the American people right now have the stomach for that because, you know, what's the buzzword going around around the country? It's affordability. So I think the President Trump really has to focus on some of these domestic issues, but he can keep an eye. He can keep attention on these foreign policy issues because what's happening in Venezuela, what is happening in this hemisphere, especially with the drugs, that's affecting the lives and the quality of life of the American people. But you don't make a deal with the devil. You don't sit down with... Nicholas Maduro and allow him to have any high ground. Right. Here is Trump talking about what else he wants to do. Cut 21. So potentially launching strikes in Mexico or putting American troops or American personnel into Mexico to deal with... Would I launch strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? It's okay with me. Whatever we have to do to stop drugs. Mexico is... Look, I looked at Mexico City over the weekend. There's just some big problems over there. If we had to, would we do there what we've done to the waterways? You know, there's almost no drugs coming in through our waterways anymore. So he would probably be best off talking to Claudia Sheinbaum, whether it's a wink and a nod or if she's not in bed with the cartels or ourselves, and we could take them out. We know exactly where they are. Yeah, you're absolutely right. We know where these facilities are. And I think also you need to, you know, send a message to Xi Jinping to stop your transiting of those chemicals that enable the processing of fentanyl down there in Mexico. But what would just happen? I think that Ms. Claudia Sheinbaum just put a big... security fence and gate around her capital, not her capital, but her version of the White House down there in Mexico City. So they have a problem. The cartels are running the show down in Mexico, and especially when you look at those provinces that are right along the border with us here in Texas.

where we share 1,249 miles with Mexico, they control the immediate side of Mexico and those provinces that touch the United States. So yes, we need to start looking and say, we're going to create a security buffer zone if Mexico can't step up and do it themselves. That would be interesting. I would love to see something happen with all types of pressure because we know the drugs are flowing right into your state and then through our country. And they also say that with Colombia, they make the Coke. It goes to Venezuela and they traffic it out. So we know all these routes. And the president said something interesting. I know where all of you live. I know what your front door looks like. How does that resonate? Well, if you recall, that's the same thing, kind of the message he sent to that Taliban leader when he showed him a satellite photo of his house. And I think it's important that people need to understand is that as you're bringing death and destruction to the... front doorsteps of families here in the United States of America, our teenagers that are losing their lives, number one killer of individuals, Americans from 18 to 40 to 45. We do know where you live, and we can track your movements. And we will do what it's necessary to end your life if you want to continue to try to end the lives of Americans. Brian, we're talking about over a quarter of a million Americans. have lost their lives within the last four to five years because of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamines. You know, that's more than what we lost in the Korean War. That's more than what we lost in the Vietnam War. This is indeed a serious issue for the American people. Mohammed bin Salman is here, the Crown Prince, and he's meeting with President Trump all day tomorrow. He's doing an investors conference at the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center. You know, he's heavily into the movies. We know they're into sports. We know that they're probably going to go try to get the World Cup after we're done with it. this coming year. And you don't really hear much about terrorists coming out of Saudi Arabia over the last five or six years. A lot of us to do with him. So the President of the United States says he's ready to make a major move. Cut 24. I am planning on doing it. You're going to sell that. You've been a great ally. They've got to like us very much. Look at the Iran situation, what we did in terms of obliterating, you know, we obliterated their nuclear capability. Yeah, I will say that we will be doing that. We'll be selling F-35s. We'll be selling F-35s. Are you okay with that? Right now I am. I will tell you that the Crown Prince should be very thankful to President Trump because when you look at the policies of the Obama administration and the Biden administration, they were more so supporting, aiding and abetting Iran and the expansion of Iran's hegemonic desires and goals and objectives.

They were supporting the Houthis who were fired rockets and missiles into Saudi Arabia. So I think that we do have a leverage point. I think that we do have a high ground where we can start asking and demanding more of Saudi Arabia to include signing on to the Abraham Accords, to include making sure that they do what is necessary to eradicate Islamic terrorism and jihadism, especially what we see emanating out of Gaza. So the one thing that Israel has brought up that we found out that they're going to have more F-35s than they have, and you can reach Israel in just minutes. So they're not objecting to it, but they're concerned by it. Would you be concerned of your Israel? I would be concerned. That's why I think it's very important that we bring Saudi Arabia to the table of the Abraham Accords to let them show that they're very serious about this and let them show that they are not going to look at Israel as an adversary. And again, you know, do what it's necessary to eradicate and eliminate Islamic terrorism and jihadism in that region, but also the exportation of it as well. Yeah, they say, you know, the one thing to note, Saudi Arabia, they're fine with Mohammed bin Salman, perhaps, but what if he's overthrown? And what if it's a hostile Saudi government that comes in? Then they got F-35s, and then Israel back to being an enemy. That's the worry. Yeah, you have to be concerned about that because the Wahhabists that are there in Saudi Arabia, if you don't put down that Islamic fascist movement, if you don't start making sure that you break away from that jihadist mindset, you could very... you know, easily see something like that happen. Let's not forget that during the Obama administration, all of a sudden you get Mohammed Morsi, who becomes the president of Egypt, and he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. That's not the type of, you know, president. That's not the type of regime that you want to see taking over in any country in the Middle East. Yeah, so when we hear about the complex, the complex they put up in Israel to bring some... semblance of peace to Gaza. It's pretty impressive. They said they got almost every Arab contingent representative, actually, except the Palestinians. The first floor is all Israelis. The second floor is mostly us and other Arab partners all there to rebuild Gaza. If something's going to happen positively, this is the type of structure, relentless pursuit you need. No, you're absolutely right. And again, I would say that the other country that needs to be heavily involved in that reconstruction is Qatar. We need to get them to realize stop supporting this terrorism. They're the second greatest sponsor of Islamic terrorism and jihadism after Iran. So they need to come clean as well. And we need to build that coalition that goes into Gaza. It can't be seen as, you know, the infidel Americans coming in and trying to take over. No, we need to have people Arab.

that are looking to say that we want to provide a better future. And let's try to turn, you know, a Gaza into a jewel there on the Mediterranean. Yeah, let's do it. Benjamin Netanyahu on disarming Hamas, cut 25. The issue of the alleged non-demilitarization of the part of Gaza that is in Hamas' hands, there will be no such thing. Even in the 20-point plan and in everything else, the area will be demilitarized and Hamas will disarm. Either it will happen the easy way or it will happen the hard way. That's what I said, and that's what President Trump said. There you go. I believe it. They don't have hostages to hold them back. Yeah, I think it's going to be the hard way because that tiger is not going to change the stripes, just not happening. And popularity is growing up with moss in the region. Colonel Allen West, thanks so much. Always a pleasure. Thank you, Brian. God bless. Yeah, stay safe in Texas. 1866408-7669. We can come back here. Also, just a quick reminder, when we come back, we'll bring some highlights from what made America great. The brand new series is now out. Keeping you informed, engaged, and always a step ahead. It's the Brian Kilmeade. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Kilmeade. So Matt Kiegel, as curator of this fort, why do you have me outside the walls to start? Because this right here is the bloodiest battlefield of the entire 18th century in all of North America. But this isn't Fort Taekan de Ruger yet, is it? Not quite yet. This is still what the French called Fort Carillon. The fort has been here in some form since 1755. The British have launched a major campaign to take this post, the largest army that had ever been assembled in North America to this date. So the French are here outside, about 4,000 troops. Yes, against a British and American force numbering nearly 16,000. So the French level a forest of trees that was left here, a log breastwork, seven, eight feet high. People are the impression that they waited in the fort to fight, but they did. No, they waited outside, and they lured the British into this position. So that's just a little for Ticonderoga, which is upstate New York, which you probably know very little about, but it was a key win for us, shows we could take and hold a fort. The British would take it back, but ultimately... We would all kick them out of our country when we win the war and win in the Battle of Saratoga, a little bit downstream there in New York. But we just did a series, I think you'll love everything from the FDR Museum. You probably never heard of. It was the first.

library of a president ever and he used it while while he was still in office. He was in Hyde Park in New York still using the office and he left it exactly the same way in the same desk, same place when he had before he passed away in his 60s in his fourth term, which is hard to think about. But if you're getting pumped up for America 250, this is one way to do it to kind of broaden out your knowledge of our glorious past. So that's something's coming your way. Meanwhile, we've covered a lot of ground already, but I've not really talked about Butler yet. And here's what they're saying. I'm sure we had Miranda Devine on yesterday talking about Thomas Crooks. What do we know about him? He had this online presence of multiple vehicles to Quizlet, chess.com, Cura. He was also on Facebook, Google Play, Discord, that horrible site for gamers, group me. And he just disappeared. media footprint, social media footprint just left. But we know that he was texting a lot, excuse me, texting a lot and using that platform, a lot, various platforms a lot, to talk about how against Trump he was. So he identified as a they, them. He also had a trail of violent extremist posts, including against the squad, then he flipped and won against Trump, expressed admiration for mass violence, shifted from pro-Trump to anti-Trump, called Trump followers cult members, also put down Fox News. What did he mean by that? So they say the FBI early was not being transparent about what this guy was really up to, and that's disturbing. All he had to do is have a press conference and say in 2019, he hated the squad. In 2020, he hated Trump. And in 2024, he tried to kill Trump. Nobody doubts that. No one says he wasn't the gunman. The question is they say who was with him. And the people in the FBI now run the FBI now believe he acted alone. And that's key. The one thing that hasn't helped is the FBI hasn't been transparent. Christopher A was supposed to go in and clean things up after James Comey. And he just went in there, in my view, to get along. Here's what Miranda Devine said on jazz with Jesse last night, cut five. You said by somebody. Do we know who this somebody is? Or we haven't seen any evidence that. There was a co-conspirator, have we? Well, only that we've seen that he had a brush with a Norwegian neo-Nazi, who was going by the name of Will Tepas, who is very violent, who encourages the sort of violent rhetoric that Crooks was using. And later on, our source has given us some comments that Tepas has made, that he was talked to, has had conversations with both Russian and American intelligence. something to do with crooks, but we don't know really how much. Well, it looked like they were doing this. They might be heading down the same path. So we don't know what exactly he was doing. There was just some interaction there. And you have to speculate. But I expect there be a press conference with the deputy FBI director, the FBI director, together on an outlet that should answer a lot of these questions. Because essentially what I've been told by people I really trust.

is that the body was cremated to give it back to the family. They gave the body back to the family. That's what they chose. They washed the roof after three days. It was full of blood. They took all their tests and they washed it down. That was not them. The FBI didn't do that, but they allowed it to happen because they said they were done with the scene. He says people are putting together random facts and making a fairy tale out of it, one of which was a podcast over the weekend that's causing a lot of uproar. So my context says Trump is satisfied with the investigation. Miranda told us yesterday he was not satisfied with the investigation. That should be easy to find out. Zero evidence that he told anyone about the plot ahead of time. I'm talking about Thomas Crooks. There are encrypted accounts there. One encrypted gram account is a gamer account. And they say it's relatively standard that emails with these social media companies, when you're a member, a lot of times you use encryption. And that's not that unusual. So that's the story. You got both. It's out there. What I would want, I mean, I want to know more about Charlie Kirk's killer. I assume it's going to come out in the trial. We're not going to have that opportunity with Crooks. The only thing I saw about Crooks was I saw the video of him in high school, and I saw his family. Dad basically acted angrily when he went shopping and people tracked the guy down, big heavy guy. I haven't heard anything yet. No press conferences said, disappointed they are with their cousin, their uncle, their kid, their neighbor. I don't really hear much about it. And that's when people start running wild. So some of these random facts might be right. But if you time together and make a story, that's what's wrong. All right. Thanks so much for listening. Go to Brian Kilmeade.com. Order any of my books. I can sign them and send them out and customize it for the holidays. We finally got that bookstore up online. So from the President of Freedom Fighter beginning to George Washington's Secret Six. Well, have it all. Don't mind.

Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan. It's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade. I've one. So glad you're there from 48th and 6 in Midtown Manhattan. Heard around the country around the world. This is the Brian Kilmeade, Joe, coming your way. Senator Joni Ernst is going to be joining us shortly. We also have a busy hour also because we're monitoring events on Capitol Hill where they're going to vote to release the Epstein files in the House. I'm sure it'll pass. And at 1051, we're doing a simulcast with Stuart Barney on FBN. So that'll be great. And so it was interesting. We have a lot going on. So let's get to the big three. Number three. I'm not in love with the people running Venezuela. I love Venezuela. I love the people of Venezuela. But what they've done to this country, and I really say this, what Biden and the Democrats have done to this country can never, ever be forgotten. Venezuela at a breaking point, as Trump turns up the heat, and yes, before it all, before it all, Maduro and Trump may meet. Number two. They're just fishing. They don't care about the victims. They don't care about providing justice for the victims or giving the American people the truth. They only care about one thing, and that's trying to embarrass Donald Trump. Yes, but it's getting a lot bigger than that. Epstein files about to erupt, all in an effort to get Trump. Why, once again, he might have outmaneuvered them all. Sadly, the whole investigation was never about the victims. Certainly Donald Trump is not satisfied with the answers that he's been getting, I understand, and those close to him. And Senator Ron Johnson has had to subpoena Donald Trump's FBI to get more information about the assassination attempt. The Butler assassin in the news, because we now know more news on Thomas Crooks. So buckle up. We're finding out that Crooks did have a big online footprint that seemed to have disappeared in 2021, was pro-Trump, then comes anti-Trump, and then talked about killing Trump, also hating Fox News and other people saying anyone who follows Donald Trump is part of a cult. So this guy was twisted, no doubt about it. Our FBI thinks he acted alone. The previous FBI wouldn't give up almost any information on it. We just also know that Secret Service dropped the ball big time. So let's bring in Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa Center. Welcome back. Well, it's great to be with you, Brian. Thank you. So, Senator, how sincere do you think those people are on Capitol Hill to keep speaking on behalf of the victims of the Epstein situation, which is horrific? There are legitimate victims. But why all of a sudden Republicans and Democrats do they care now? Well, I tell you what, this has gone on for far too long, and I do think that transparency is a good thing. What we saw, though, was with the House Democrats, they tried to selectively leak just three emails, and they tried to redact information that exonerated Trump.

So, I mean, it's more about going after President Trump than actually standing up for those that have been victimized by Jeffrey Epstein and his clients. Now, the House Republicans, what they are wanting to do is, of course, then release all 23,000 emails to be transparent. So the Democrats, they're cherry-picking and trying to make an administration look bad. The Republicans want transparency. And what we hope as well is that those that have been victimized are actually able to have that platform and feel vindicated. So let's take care of those that were victims and survivors through this process. But let's make sure that the Democrats are not just trying to paint a negative light on certain people. I mean, you got that Virginia delegate. She's right in the middle of it getting text message from me. Larry Summers says he's stepping out after the embarrassing text messages are there. Is it your belief that a lot of other people are about to be very embarrassed? Oh, absolutely. I mean, think about it, folks. If we go back, how many years? President Trump has been in office now almost a year. Well, we've had this hanging out there for years and years. Why was it when the Democrats were in control that they chose not to release the obscene files? Why did they choose to do that? It's because they believe there are many, many of those on the left. that will also be very, very embarrassed about this. So I think there's a lot of embarrassment to go around, but you know what, again, going back to the first thing I said, transparency is a good thing. So let's talk about China. Number one, we had the FBI director go over there, and he's convinced that they're going to stop with these chemicals that are the precursors to fentanyl. Are you under the belief that this time China's serious? Well, I would love to believe that, but you know what? I don't think China is ever going to be on board with this. It is a money-making product, all of the precursors that they sell and they reroute through other nations. All the narco-terrorists exist out there that are taking these precursors and developing fentanyl and other products. I don't think China is ever going to stop that. They see this is a way, one, to make money, two, a way to poison the American public. So I'm very skeptical. Really, anything surrounding China, I'm always, always going to be very skeptical. So the USS Gerald R. Ford is now in our hemisphere, and it's off the coast of Venezuela. We know that we got this huge firepower, 15,000, 15,000. troops, Navymen and Winneman on the shore outside trying to send a message to Venezuelan leader Maduro, who's a corrupt, illegitimate leader who loses election after election but just doesn't leave power, destroyed his country. Have you been briefed about what the short-term plan is?

Not necessarily the short-term plan. A lot of that, of course, depends on what former President Maduro chooses to do. Now, you're absolutely correct. He's been through many an election and just continues to stay in power. This is a tricky situation. But what I would say is with Venezuela and the leadership that is still... in power there, it would be so concerning to see the awesome site of the Gerald R. Ford, you know, pulling up and, you know, letting anchor right off the coast of Venezuela. So I think that this is... A serious situation. They see what's going on in the region to have an aircraft carrier that is close to proximity to Venezuela should strike fear in Maduro's heart. And with all of those 2,000 generals that he has on payroll and the narco regime that exists there. I tell you, I think this is where we need to show leadership. Coming from the United States of America, President Trump is the president of peace, and he should be working with others that have the same concerns as we do in that region to stabilize Venezuela. That means getting rid of Maduro, however that happens. and making sure that we are protecting the American people from these narco terrorists. So I know it's very costly to be there. And my senses we're squeezing, and there's going to be a conversation, and I hope he just makes reservations for Russia while he can. But are you for, what are your greatest concerns as being on armed services, Homeland Security? Do you have concerns about hitting their drug sites? where we understand the Coke is in Colombia, it goes through Venezuela, and then goes out through the Caribbean. So if we have these sites, are you supportive of blowing up those sites? Yeah, absolutely. I do think that President Trump does make a solid case when it comes to the poisoning of the American people through this narco-terrorist regime. We know that they are the ones that are pushing so much of this product into the United States of America. So as I look at it, sitting on the Armed Services Committee, I have sat through briefings down in the SCIF, the secured area where we can receive those classified briefings. I think the president is justified in these strikes out at sea. They have not stopped running those drugs. So am I okay with strikes, given cooperation from a number of other key players in that region, strikes into Venezuela, as long as they are very targeted strikes. We do want to protect the population there, but let's protect American people and make sure we're taking out those manufacturing or distribution hubs.

Most certainly I think we could do that. So, yes, I am okay with that. I would be more concerned about a land invasion. The geography of Venezuela is very tricky. But, you know, we do have the best fighting force on the face of the planet. And we certainly do have extraordinary special operators that could probably take care of a lot of that without actually sending conventional forces in. So let's talk about China. You know, a lot of our assets are here. They're way from the Pacific. China's probably loving that aspect of it. They're playing a role in Venezuela. We know it. And you're making a move. You're putting an effort to hauled all potential Chinese so-called Trojan horses for espionage, and you have specific requests. You along with 23 other lawmakers. What are they? Yes, absolutely. China is going to find any way they can to infiltrate the United States of America, and they do this by exploiting technology. So there is a Chinese-backed company called TPLink Technologies. They sell their cameras, their smart devices in military exchanges on military bases and posts. all around the world. This allows high-tech cameras to come into those service members' homes, maybe at their workplaces. And it is a threat, and we need to do more research on this because what they can do is then send video and audio of those military personnel back to Beijing. And so I led 22 of my colleagues in asking the Trump administration to investigate this company and investigate their technology. If it truly is a Trojan horse that's compromising national security, we need to nip it in the bud and make sure that China can't access our homeland or our military bases. That would certainly help. I mean, do you believe that we should be letting in 600,000 Chinese students? I think we need to be very, very selective about who comes into the United States, whether it's the Chinese or any other nation that is out there. We know that many students, especially those coming from China, are backed by the CCP. And so they do need an additional level of scrutiny. And if they are tied to the Communist Party of China, they need not be coming into the United States. Yeah, that would certainly help. When you talk about expanding our industrial base, excuse me, are we getting close? Well, we are, Brian, but this is going to take a lot of cooperation between the United States federal government and a lot of those larger contractors and our small businesses to make sure that we are developing the capabilities we need here in the United States to support our own national security.

This is going to take time. It's something that we can't just flip a switch and turn it on. But what the defense industrial base needs to know is that there will be sustainability, a consistency coming from our federal government, knowing that if we're investing in shipbuilding, that investment is going to be maintained in 10 years, in 15 years, in 20 years. And then we're not just going to throw a bunch of money at the problem here in this current five years and then let it drop off. So it is going to be a process, but we need to be reassuring because we need to be building ships. We need to be building drones. And you know what? We need to do it here in the United States. Yeah, using American parts. And that would be key. But I know what you're saying. So, for example, if... You know, if Trump's going to knows what he's going to do for four years, got it. So you send it to these contracts and you start the construction. A new president comes in and goes, yeah, I'm not doing that. Yeah. And then the contract gets pulled. And these businesses are businesses. And they say, well, we can't do that. So I'm wondering if there's something that could be built into the system to at least completion, regardless who's president. Right, exactly. And that's what we are discussing on the Armed Services Committees as well, is understanding the dynamics and those outlying years through various administrations. What can we do to support American industry? So one thing that I am really big on, especially with our small businesses, is making sure that if they are developing a product, that there might be an off-ramp for commercialization as well. So maybe, like we were just talking about security cameras, okay, if it's a company here in the U.S., can it be used for military bases, but then also have a commercialized product that can be used for just regular business use or home use. So this way they do have various levels of income streams coming from different angles, and they're not solely reliant upon the federal government. There are ways that we can do that when you get to more specialized. I mean, you're not just going to build ships for the American Navy. You could also be developing and building ships for our own commercial purposes here in the United States. Real quickly. So we have to find those streams. Are you seeing relief when it comes to farming and Chinese purchases of corn or soybeans in Iowa? A small bit of relief, and I'm thankful that the president was able to negotiate with China. It's a drop in the bucket, though. We need a lot more purchases. We need to be developing internationally, and we need to focus on domestic consumption of our agricultural products. Why are we, we're not going for our own agricultural products? Well, and when you look at our market, so of course, and many people may take issue with this, but I, you know, I come from a corn farming family that can be developed into ethanol. And if we had E15 year round here in the United States, all across the board, all states.

Using that, consuming that year round, it would help the corn farmers significantly. The same is true with biodiesel. That would include more soybean crush, use that product to develop. bio diesel. Let's consume more of that here in the United States. And it also brings the prices down. ethanol is a lot cheaper than if you're buying just straight up gasoline. So let's bring the price down. Senator Joni Ernst, thanks so much. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. You have a full plate. Thank you, Brian. Take care. You got it. Back in a moment. The headlines, the stories behind them, and the people who make them, only on the Brian Kilmeade.

The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmeade. Hey, we are back, and I told you what made America great. It's my series on Fox Nation, especially at the year 250. Five more out. It took a year to shoot them. One is Washington's Crossing. We went back to the exact spot. It's pretty amazing. Here's a portion of it. You'll get on Fox Nation. You can click on it now, but listen first. Look at this. The Delaware River, so quiet, is so serene. But that wasn't the case, December 25th, 1776. This was the site of General George Washington's bold move. It would change the direction of a war and the fate of a nation. I'm Brian Kilmeade, and I'm here at Washington Crossing Historic Park in beautiful Pennsylvania, the side of one of George Washington's greatest victories. You have to think about this, how bad the war was going for America. The Battle of New York had us on the run. Washington had to do something to change the direction, the course of this war, and he would chart it. He would strategize, and he would execute. This is the story behind the story of the pivotal moment that not only would change the course of America, it would change the course of history. And this is not just history. It's what made America great. So that's just a little bit of it. You'll actually see the place. I know a lot of you don't live in New Jersey. You'll probably never see it, but you could really get the sense of what they were up against. And I remember going there, and it was freezing. And it was probably 20 degrees. And the guy that was bringing me through was dressed exactly like... The militant, like the colonists were, you know, like Washington's Army. So I couldn't complain. And I was wearing a coat. And I'm knowing that Washington's Army, some of them, they were coming from battle after battle, both of which they lost. Some of them had no shoes. And they were going to hop at a boat and go across the river. And then when they got to the river, have to walk about 20 miles and then take on the British and the Hessians and hope they were going to be able to sneak up on them. They did, and they won.

If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmeade. And now, seemingly overnight, these same cast of characters, they've taken a sudden and urgent interest in the Epstein investigation. Suddenly, it's all in the name of transparency. That's what they're trying to tell us. But the truth is, the biggest proponents of this discharge petition were never actually interested in transparency or ensuring justice. or protecting victims of this unspeakable tragedy, the Epstein evils. And how do we know that? Because the Democrats had every one of the Epstein files in their possession for the four long years of the Biden administration. The Biden Department of Justice had the files the entire time. And not a single one of the people who were so loud and animated right now, they never said anything about it for all those four years. And at one point, they're supposed to release him today. And they're just talking about there's people in these documents, unredacted, that don't want their names out. Obviously, it happened when I'm 16, 17, traumatic experience, I want to forget it. Others want to go to Capitol Hill steps, and they want revenge, and they want everybody to know their story. That's your personal choice. I'm not judging. But what do you do? If you release all the documents and their names are out there, you don't want any redactions. He's trying to say, mechanically, this is going to get really ugly, really quick. And there's going to be so many names attached to it. You already lost Larry Summers. And Larry Summers was really tight with this guy asking for dating advice. And I just was looking up some of his philanthropy, Jeffrey Epstein. Turns out he in 2003 gave $6.5 million to Harvard to establish the program for evolutionary dynamics. And for you do, 98 in 2006. He gave another $8.443 million to Harvard for various research functions. So that's a charitable function. $50,000 to the Teachers Association, $500,000 to an Orthodox Jewish high school in New York City, $46 million in stock and other assets to a foundation linked to another charitable fund, I can't pronounce. So this guy, Wally, is abusing teenage girls. He's taking investments and growing investments for very powerful clients. He's also throwing his money around. He donated $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation, $10,000 to the Democratic Congressional Committee, $15,000 to Gary King. He's a New Mexico attorney general, $50,000 to the deceased Bill Richardson for his 2002 run for governor of New Mexico, which, by the way, he won. So he's throwing a lot of money to Democrats. Do you really want all this stuff out? So we'll bring you the latest. And I just, I'm going off course and I said earlier, this is a total distraction. And for the victims, that's one thing. But this is about politics, sadly. So there's so much more going on, including you yesterday. It's not the sexiest thing. It was probably the most important thing. Shepherded by U.N. ambassador Mike Waltz, they passed the Security Council 15-0 to endorse President Trump's peace plan that is already going into Phase 2, which is an international police force, security force, taking over for the IDF. Let's go out to Israel where Danny is. Hey, Danny. Hi, Brian. How are you doing? Good. What's so like over there? Things calming down?

Yeah, you know, generally speaking, we are in a better situation. And we hope that the President Trump's plan will work. I have many doubts about it, but we hope that it will work. He should put pressure on the moderate side of the countries, and it can work. But, Brian, I wanted to address the issue of selling the F-35 nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. Brian, I don't know about nuclear technology. I don't know what you mean by that. Nuclear technology? They want to buy a civil, you know, for civil, for electricity production, a small nuclear base. But the F-35 is very worried. I think that, you know, it's a dangerous slippery slope, Brian. Not only for Israel, but also for the United States. Those are actually unstable, non-democratic regimes. And we have plenty of cases on such countries that fail into radical Islamic hands. And another risk is sensitive information leaking to the Chinese, you know. And I think that same holds true, Brian, for Turkey, who is a major, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a major partner of the Islamic Brotherhood. So with all my admiration to President Trump, the risk management of such decisions, I think should be carefully checked before being implemented, Brian. Yeah, I hear you. There's definitely a risk there. And I think there's got to be safeguards built in should Saudi Arabia decide because they're still friendly with China. Hey, we like to check out that F-35. You know, so how do we do that? So we've got to make sure that doesn't happen. I don't know how much security and what is built into that. Also, I'm looking at the Jerusalem Post right now and says Hamas is rejecting the disarmament clause and the Gaza Seas fire plan that they signed off on. So that Monday, the report passes the UN. On Tuesday, Hamas rejects the disarmament part. So this could be the IDF have to go back in there. All right. Linda, Linda is over in St. Louis. Hey, Linda. Hey, Brian, thanks for taking my call. Hey, I'm just amazed at the way the Democrats are making such a big deal trying to connect these Epstein files with Trump, of course, when they've had eight years to dig up any garbage, couldn't find anything. And yet where was their dedication and their concern about all the hundreds of thousands of children that have been sex trafficked across the border? And, I mean, the fact that the victims of these Epstein files, I have sympathy for them, but how many of these victims... voluntarily went there to do these whatever they did with these people that are in question versus the children that had no choice were literally, you know, kidnapped and raped and everything else. I just find it to hypocrisy with these Democrats. Well, there's no way I believe that Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna, I got up every day as their mission in life is to get to the bottom of this because they never showed any interest in it before to back up your point. Here's what Trump said yesterday, cut nine.

It's really a Democrat problem. The Democrats were Epstein's friends, all of them. And it's a hoax. The whole thing is a hoax. And I don't want to take it away from really the greatness of what the Republican Party has accomplished over the last period of time. So that's just it. He's trying to get everything on track. He's buying icebreakers with Norway and Canada. And we're streamlining. We're trying to do our best again in rapid shipbuilding. We got a crisis brewing in Venezuela. We got an affordability crisis the president wants to handle. And now they're digging up something from 2009. So, and a guy who killed himself and nobody believes it afterwards. So thanks so much for the call, Linda. Tim Poole weighed in last night. He's glad to see that Trump is just saying, let it all out. Cut 13. Biden could have released it. Trump could have released it. Trump said it was a hoax. But I'm glad to see that Trump is back on message with us. We should see these released. And considering the emails that got leaked in the past couple of weeks that turned out to be a nothing burger, well, actually, it turned up to backfire on these Democrats. We're now learning that it was Virginia Joufrey who was listed in these emails who had already said Trump had done nothing wrong. We're learning that a journalist was colluding with Epstein for positive PR. It's amazing. No one even talks about the New York Times reporter, desperately trying to get something on Trump to stop him and Michael Wolfe, a guy who writes basically nonfiction books that are full of fiction and now is out there advocating to stop Trump. We got to stop him. He looks like a real legitimate contender to actually. Become president. And that was 2015. We know what happened. He wins in 2016, takes over in 2017, leaves in 2020. And now he's back again. And now all of a sudden, you know, look, I know Trump brought it up on the stump. We haven't gotten the real story on this. But to me, it was never a foundation. I watched almost all the rallies. It was never a foundational issue that he was talking about. He would always answer the question. So that's what he was doing. You just watch. I'm going to be coming on here saying, there's going to be many more Larry Summers. who has their career ruined because of the scrutiny that Thomas Massie and Rokane are bringing up on an older case. So that's something to think about. I think anyway. The other thing is how many people are out there, how many people are out there when you talk about Israel and we're just getting calls too from what's happening, that they don't believe that Hamas will ever voluntarily disarm. Well, do they understand that they no longer have hostages and the IDF was somewhat holding back? And now if they are going to do this, they know the tunnels, almost two-thirds of the tunnels are gone. So they'll be on the surface fighting Hamas in blocks that they destroyed, a lot of their cover is gone. So they'll be finished. My hope is that the Egypt, the Egyptians, the Saudis, the Qataris, go, guys, we have an agreement.

We got to go with the agreement. Here's Roger Zachheim. He's with the Reagan Presidential Foundation, cut 29. It's a big deal for the reasons that we're just outlined, but also because of the president's going to host at the White House tomorrow. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, will be in the White House, and the President Trump can look him in the eyes and say, hey, my plan, the 20-point plan is now the plan that was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council resolution. You want to have a pathway for a Palestinian state before you sign on to Abraham Accords and recognize Israel as a Jewish state. I've done my part. I'm even going to throw an F-35s. Now do your part. So he's really set the stage here for a very successful diplomatic effort in the Middle East and truly bringing peace there and maybe get the prize he seeks. And we expect maybe in the middle of the show to begin to have press conference. You'll see Mohammed bin Salman and the president together at which time we'll take all calls. And I think Mohammed bin Salman is such a major figure that they'll probably keep more to the topic with the press, my hope. And they don't just hit them with the Epstein files or any type of... You know, World Cup questions. Brian Kilmeade.

Now the Brian Kilmeade joins Fox Business's Varney and company with Stuart Barney, live on your radio and on Fox Business. Here's Brian Kilmeade. Hi, everybody. Welcome back. I'm going to be on with Stuart Barney shortly. And right afterwards, we usually leave some time to get to the phone. So I see out there in New Jersey and in Florida. So we'll get to some phone calls right after. And of course, don't forget, One Nation Sunday at 10 p.m. Fox and Friends between 6 and 9. And if anybody wants any of my books for the holidays, go to Brian Kilmeade.com. I finally got the bookstore going on my website. This is why I could personalize it. I could send them out to you from President Freedom Fighter to Andrew Jackson, Miracle of New Orleans. here on down. So we'll talk about that, too. And also, we're going to be continuing to follow the president. He's going to be welcoming. Mr. Cruz, is he setting the stage for a White House run in 2028? Here's what President Trump had to say about it. He's a friend of mine. I mean, I haven't spoken to him about it. It's a little early. It's three and a quarter years. It's a long time. But he's a very good guy. Very good friend of mine. You remember we had quite a campaign against Ted, and it worked out quite nicely. See, where are we? Oh, we're the old one. But I'm not that surprised to hear that. He says that he and Ted Cruz are very good friends. It seems to me that JD Vance or Marco Rubio are Trump's heir apparent. Who do you think is going to succeed him? Well, I don't know who's going to win, but I can tell you, I have an idea of who's going to run. I mean, Governor Glenn Youngkin, I think he's going to be tournament and he's going to be out in a month. He looked very effective as a Virginia president and, excuse me, governor, and he looks like presidential material. He's certainly got the background, the poise. Now he's got the political experience and he's tight with Trump. I'm not saying that Trump would say, I want Glenn Youngkin over JD Vance. I don't think Ron DeSantis has ruled it out. You know, he feels like the timing maybe was right last time. It wasn't. But what has he done except for McFlore to better almost every day? He's right on every issue almost instinctively. You know, is he great at running for president? Not yet. But is he probably great at doing the job? He's shown every indication he would. You know, I don't think there's other people like Kristi Noem, I think. People have speculated that she wouldn't consider running on it. I don't think that it's going to be like those incumbent situations where. It's just a handful of people out there, and they usually fringe, like Joe Biden really had no competition. They chased Robert F. Kennedy Jr. out. This time, I think Democrat's going to be sure to have an open field. But for the Republicans, too, it's going to be kind of interesting because President and JD Vance are really won. And also, I think part of the president is... Part of him loves the idea of the apprentice to succeed him, and he could kind of audition the whole time and kind of drag it out a little. So I think that he's going to think it through. I think you're right. This is for you, Brian, billionaire Bill Ackman. He says the online culture, you've seen, you know what's coming. The online culture has destroyed the ability to spontaneously meet strangers. So he gave dating advice to young men on X. He says, I would ask, may I meet you?

before engaging further in conversation. I almost never got a no. What do you say to that, Brian? Well, number one. Who would say no to a handsome guy who happens to be a billionaire? Right. If his first line, I think he may be in total candor, his first line was, I'm a billionaire, may I meet you? That might be different. But let's say he wasn't, let's say he had to meet a woman by saying, I'm just a millionaire. May I meet you? But let's say he doesn't say any of that. Let's see he walks up and does that. You know what's intriguing about that line I brought up on Fox and Friends today. And again, it's not my line. But it makes someone say, what do you mean by that? It makes you have a follow-up question of almost define it. Rather than no or yes, you go, may I meet you? Aren't you meeting me now? it gets the talk going, it gets the dialogue on, and you could reveal like the Stuart Varney-like personality. You know, and you could go in there with your greatest asset, and then you could start wooing the person. But if you go in there and say, hi, how are you? Right away, you're getting evaluated. You're out on the line there. But if you get a line that needs further definition, I think that is what he's doing there. He's laid it out there. Back in the day, back of the day, what was your line, Brian? I don't reveal. And by the way, my wife, I met my wife in 10th grade. So it was probably like, did you do your homework last night? You know, so, I mean, I live a very relatively simple dating life. Can I come over tonight and do it? Can I come over tonight and we'll do our homework together? That would be a good one. That would be a good one. So, Stuart, I wish I knew you back then. I would have been great. I think you were probably in high school. If I was in junior high. No, no, no. But if I was just, Stuart, in the big picture, though, it's going to be really intriguing. But your original question, the last thing President Trump wants to be is a lame duck. I don't think he loves this talk. I don't think he loved that Ted Cruz question because it makes people think you're looking past him. Donald Trump does not like that ever. No, not at all. If you are smart, don't get ahead of the president. You're right. Brian, that was great. Interesting pickup line you got there. I work. Very good. All right, Kilmeid. See you later. Go get him still ahead. Hey, let's go out to James is over in Florida. Hey, James. How's it going? Good. We turn your mind. Now, be honest, Brian. Do you believe that there might be more Republicans on the Epstein train? And if Marjorie Taylor Greene starts naming names, would that upset the midterm vote? What say you and I hang up and listen to your response? I don't think Marjorie Taylor Greene knows what's in the Epstein files. Unless she has double secret access, I don't think she knows. I think she found something that she wanted to hang on to. And I really don't know. I mean, she came out again pro shutdown. Well, let's continue the subsidies. What is that about? It seems like she loves being on the view, loves going to different press outlets, loves being on with Bill Moore, loves being on CNN. She was on CNN on Sunday, and maybe that's where she's happiest. Go ahead. You know, she was so out to the right, she was in Siberia. Kevin McCarthy, remember, she got in there. They looked at her past comments. It wouldn't put on her committee. And it was Kevin McCarthy that brought her back in.

on Donald Trump's urging, and they could, they had not a vote to waste anyway, and then Donald Trump and her been tight, and he's always been a backer of hers, and she decides to flip. Now, you don't have to vote with Donald Trump on everything. He doesn't do that. I mean, John Thune doesn't vote with Donald Trump on everything. They disagree on some of the tariff stuff. That's not a big deal. It's how you do it. John Thune wouldn't appear on CNN to rip the president on tariffs. That's what she did. So when I think the list comes out, I think it's going to be a lot of famous institutional names. So if you don't know the name, you're going to know the job. And this guy had his hooks in everybody. So that's why a lot of people didn't want these papers to come out. But it looks like they're on their way to be coming out. Although there seems to be a little bit of hiccup in the house. You listen to the Brian Kilmeade, right from Midtown Manhattan. Don't move. Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sewing to fission. It's Brian Kilmeade.

Hi everyone, Brian Kilmeade here from 48.6 of Midtown Manhattan, heard around the country around the world. A lot of balls in the air right now. We know at the U.N. major resolution just passed yesterday, backing up President Trump's plan for peace in Gaza, getting buy-in for very Arab nations. It's pretty significant where the president could have like 80% approval rating in Israel, high approval ratings in the Arab world at the same time. while being hands-on with a facility right in Israel trying to bring some peace to that region. This hour, we're going to be joined by Walter Isaacson, one of this America's premier writers, biographers, and historians. And we also have Richard Goldberg with us, senior advisor at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. And before we get to Richard, let's get to the big three. Number three. I'm not in love with the people running Venezuela. I love the people of Venezuela. But what they've done to this country, and I really say this, what Biden and the Democrats have done to this country can never, ever be forgotten. That's the President of the United States, making a move in our hemisphere that James Monroe would be proud of. Venezuela at the breaking point as Trump turns up the heat. And yes, before it all, Medoro and Trump may meet. Number two. They're just fishing. They don't care about the victims. They don't care about providing justice for the victims or giving the American people the truth. They only care about one thing, and that's trying to embarrass Donald Trump. Yeah, that is James Comer, and I can't say he's wrong. Epstein Files about to erupt all in an effort to get Trump. Why, once again, he might have outmaneuvered them all. Sadly, the whole investigation was never about the victims. Certainly Donald Trump is not satisfied with the answers that he's been getting, I understand, and those close to him. And Senator Ron Johnson has had to subpoena Donald Trump's FBI to get more information about the assassination attempt. Yep, Miranda Devine, Butler Assassin in the news because no one really knew what happened to Thomas Crooks. Now we have a social media footprint, and now this FBI is going to be pushing back and clearing things up. Buckle up, everybody. There's a lot to learn. But the big story yesterday, in my view, that affects most of us, even if you don't realize it yet, is that 15-0 resolution that passed to the United Nations. We're not used to getting, I know, Russia and China abstained. Russia had a ridiculous plan that no one paid attention to, so they just abstained. But the president's moving forward in the Mideast. I know how we feel about the U.N. Certainly in Israel, they have no faith in the U.N. And they have every reason to feel that way. But the Arab world is in the UN, and that's one thing. The perception is, can the UN sanctify this? A lot of the times, UN is working forth Hamas and the Palestinians, and we found that out the hard way by looking in the tunnels and seeing what they were doing.

Richard Goldberg joins us now Senior Advisor at the Foundation of Democracy, to talk about that and more. Richard, first off, before we get to Mohammed bin Salman in his trip and what he plans to accomplish here, your thoughts about as we get closer and closer to starting phase two in Gaza. Well, it's a huge diplomatic accomplishment what the president did last night with that resolution, getting through the Security Council and having the Russians and Chinese abstain. And Mike Waltz, too, right, Richard? Oh, my gosh. Ambassador Waltz, just tremendous diplomacy there pushing us through. What a rock star to be our ambassador at the UN and this showing. I think he'll be able to build on this. And he already did, by the way, for those who have been watching, you know, taking out all of our... supposed allies who were preparing at the International Maritime Organization to impose a carbon tax on American energy and the president and Mike Wallace and Marco Rubio picking up the phone and saying there's going to be consequences if you do this. And they pulled that resolution last month. Now you see them steamroll the Security Council to really just relinquish control. I mean, the UN has literally given up. its jurisdiction in Gaza here. All these UN agencies under the resolution now report to President Trump basically in this Board of Peace. And so when you have the Arab leadership, Israeli leadership, European leadership, all lining up behind the President of the United States and his plan for peace. What an incredible accomplishment in the Russians and Chinese who usually just try to so discontent, discord, veto things, getting out of the way. I mean, it really shows just where the president is right now at the diplomatic stage. Richard, I don't think you can be appreciated enough. I know you know this stuff as well as anyone, but, you know, especially the 25 years I've been here. I've always focused on the Middle East. I always felt from the Iraq, Afghanistan. What's going on there? How do you solve this thing? And I never thought in a million years that you could get this type of approval from the Israelis at 85, 90%. At the same time, Qatar and the president, even though I don't think that regime is perfect, they have great relations. Obviously, Mohammed bin Salman today, you're going to see it on display. Bahrain, you see it on display. In Egypt, he picked up the phone with Al-Sisi. He certainly was welcome there. He played a key role. As bad as I think Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on the world scene, the president seems to understand him. He built hotels there before he was a politician. So he has relations with less than perfect regimes to the point where they have trust. Am I overstating it? No, I think that's right. I mean, if you think about what the president did his entire career, he builds a really big vision that everybody can get behind. And it's bold and people say, oh, it's unattainable. It's a fairy tale. You can't do that. This is where I'm going for. You know, it's like this is going to be that big tower in Manhattan. The big tower Manhattan right now is the big idea of the Board of Peace and Gaza what it could be. And then he says, okay, what are the institutions we need now? What are the tools that I need to assemble in order to get there?

And he brings Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, back into the fold along with Steve Witkoff, which I think was a brilliant move because of all the relationships that Jared built up over the first administration, especially in the Arab world. And they say, okay, who in the Arab world do we need to get behind this plan? And then they dig in on the bilateral side and say, okay, what's going on in the relationship now? What do you need? What do we need from you? And then they say to the Israelis, okay, you have all these security concerns. We're with you. We are not going to go forward in any way unless all the hostages are out. You still have military control and parts of Gaza to defend your citizens. And we're going to take this slow but sure. Right now there's a certain part of territory that the Israelis control and have security area over it. That's where they're going to try to build up the future of Gaza first. And then if Hamas says, no, we won't disarm. No, we won't de-radicalize. Then I think slowly but surely you start taking more and more territory by force, little slices at a time, and then extend what you've built in the successful area of Gaza's forward. That's the president's vision. That's what the UN Security Council has gotten behind. Will it work? Don't know. But this is a president who thinks big and boldly. and he's gotten everybody behind it for now. Yeah, so, you know, one thing, you know, they got this bigster in the New York Times today, how they have this big facility working in Israel, where the first floor is or Israelis, the second floor is the U.S. and Arab leaders, all working towards one goal. Area Lightstone, I think, is running things for the U.S., you know, military leaders too, to get, you know, to bring Gaza, to revitalize Gaza, and they're also handling the aid going in and out. So like you said, they've lost all credibility in that area because UNRWA was in bed with the Palestinians and most importantly with Hamas. So UNR is a UN organization. So they were actually, there were some UNR representatives in the raid October 7th. And the UNIFEL, who was supposed to be making sure that Hezbollah. you know, Hezboa wasn't advancing and watching over things in Lebanon. They just watched its Hezboa took all Lebanon and they were basically complicit in the whole thing. That's another UN organization. So why would they have credibility with any Western leader? That you are exactly on the right point, Brian. There's two important things that can't be allowed to happen, that the UN, especially with UN, but other agencies too have allowed to happen. Number one, diversion of the aid to Hamas. We can't allow that to happen. And number two, radicalization of the Palestinian society. And by the way, not just in Gaza, also in the West Bank, and everywhere where UNRWA still operates through their school, through the education, and by the way, through the mosques. If we get out of Gaza, which Marco Rubio has said is now the policy, but more importantly, we commit to dismantling the entire agency. This is an institution that was built right after the Independence Day War of Israel, 1949, to really keep Palestinian society radicalized on behalf of Arab nations who wanted to come back and wash the Jews into the sea. And they tried in 1967 and 1973, and now they're making peace with Israel.

So the Arab world has moved forward after 75 years, but this UN institution is still there trying to radicalize the society to go and push the Jews into the sea one day. October 7th was the logical extension of UNR's mission. And so I say we don't just keep UNRUNUN out of Gaza. We also dismantled them elsewhere in Palestinian society. I think that's how the president will achieve his goal of de-radicalization. And of course, at some point. the pedal meets the road as far as actually seeing if Hamas will disarm and if they won't disarm peacefully, then the Israeli military will have to come in to continue disarming them by force. In fact, Hughes-Renniahu said when asked, cut 25. The issue of the alleged non-demilitarization of the part of Gaza that is in Hamas' hands, there will be no such thing. Even in the 20-point plan and in everything else, the area will be demilitarized and Hamas will disarm. Either it will happen the easy way or it will happen the hard way. That's what I said, and that's what President Trump said. And the tunnel's got to be destroyed, as you know. So let's move forward to MS, Mohammed bin Salman, who's going to be. at the White House today, and tomorrow is going to be at the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center, a big investment conference. And no one's going to be bringing up Khashoggi, like it or not. It's just not happening. And, you know, with his role in that, we can debate that forever. But clearly, it sounds like they went too far. But having said that, even Biden was normal at trying to, realizing to sideline and calling them an outlaw nation was not working for America's best interest. And now the president not only has moved things forward, he's willing to sell F-35s to Saudi Arabia. Here he is, cut 24. I am planning a good one thing. You're going to sell that. They've been a great ally. They've got to like us very much. Look at the Iran situation, what we did in terms of obliterating, you know, we obliterated their nuclear capability. Yeah, I will say that we will be doing that. We'll be selling F-35. Your thoughts on that. I guess the risk is if Mohammed bin Salman gets overthrown, we don't know what radical is going to have access to the latest American fighter jets. Well, I'll say a couple of things. One, just on the visit itself, the 180 turn that we've had in one year. A year ago, we had a Biden administration that was appeasing Iran and the Houthis while declaring war on fossil fuels and stigmatizing and saying the crown prince was going to be a pariah. You now have a president who has taken out with the Israelis, the nuclear weapons program of Iran. You have lifted the war on fossil fuels. In fact, we're now for American energy dominance, and for oil, gas, coal, fossil fuels are back. And we've said to Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince, you are the key. Your vision 2030 is the key to de-radicalization of the region. If Saudi Arabia normalized with Israel continues progress for women in the Middle East.

really moves his kingdom into the 21st century and brings the rest of the Middle East and the Arab world along with him. That is huge for our national security. Oh, and by the way, by reembracing Saudi Arabia and taking on Iran and reasserting ourselves as the power broker in the Middle East. We undo what Biden was doing, which was sending Mohammed bin Salman into the hands of the Chinese. And we're saying, no, you are not going to align with the Chinese this century. You're going to align with the United States. And we're going to cooperate with you in nuclear energy, which is going to be American energy dominant in the future. We're going to do critical minerals deals with you. We're going to support your vision 2030 and ensure that you have stability in the kingdom through military and strategic means as well. I think he is making a bet for the century. for America to push out China from the Middle East and ensure we have great cooperation that leads to normalization with Israel and a reduction of the stress on America's military posture in the Middle East long term. On the F-35 specifically, I think we have to have a very careful understanding of exactly what it would mean for them to have it, what it means for our enemies and adversaries with air defense systems nearby to pick up its signature. Make sure we're thinking about that. Make sure we're thinking about what it means for Israel's operational freedom to be able to take out threats, you know, which help United States national security. And so that we don't have to do it, but the Israeli military can go on a stealth bomber run and make sure that they're not intercepted or detected early by whatever the F-35s in Saudi Arabia might be picking up. But as long as we can ameliorate those, mitigate those. And it helps bring Saudi Arabia closer, bring Saudi Arabia into normalization with Israel. It's good for our national security and good for our military. Richard, I hear you. The other thing is, you tell me if I'm wrong, they've done something with the curriculum in their schools and their education that they seem to be growing up focusing more about their economy and quality of life. And their leadership is focused on bringing in sports, entertainment. You know, obviously we know about what happened with golf. We know that they're trying to get the World Cup. You know, that the Saudi leagues brought in Cristino Ronaldo. So they're trying to round out their society and give a reason not to be an Islamic extremist, where Wahhabism really was everywhere when the war on terror first stored in 2001. I get the sense it's changed. Am I wrong? No, you are exactly right. And for those of us who have visited to Riyadh and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia over the last few years, the transformation is unbelievable. You now go into meetings where government diplomats at high levels are women. You go into the workforce areas and it's staffed by women. Women are driving. I know that's such a crazy thing to say as if it's an accomplishment, but it's an accomplishment in Saudi Arabia. And where he has taken in just a few short years in a kingdom that doesn't necessarily have to be stable. And he is keeping it all together. And he's moving these reforms forward and investing in education and in STEM and in all kinds of innovation. That is great. And as you mentioned, sports and entertainment.

Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kilmeade. Hey, we are back, everybody, in studio. If you're kind of smart enough to get the feed, we have Walter Isaacson's with us. He may be America's premier biographer, a professor at Tulane and CEO of the Aspen Institute, the best-selling author of books like Elon Musk on Leonardo da Vinci, I almost said DiCaprio, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin, Albert Einstein. And he's got a brand new book out called The Greatest Sentence. ever written, which is 80 pages and everyone's got to read it. And first off, Walter, it's great to see you, which you've already accomplished in your career. I can't believe you still want to write, especially after following Elon Musk around for years. I know, but writing is a wonderful thing. You do it all the time. You're going to have a book that'll help pull us together next year. I just figured we should do something to help lower the temperature and reunite us as a nation for our 250th. And you did it. And tell us about the greatest sentence ever written. We hold these truths to be self-evident. We all know that. sentence almost by heart. But it was a sentence that Jefferson writes the first draft. Franklin edits it. John Adams helps do it. They do it by committee. And it becomes a mission statement for our country. It's not a definition of exactly what the country is in 1776, but it's an aspiration of what we can be. And I figured if you want people to come together and try to work together. for at least our 250th, if we all reflect on the meaning of that sentence, each word and how they picked it. So there's certain people that pop up in your book. Jefferson, George Mason, because what he did it, they're writing the Virginia Constitution. You got John Adams, and then you have Abigail Adams plays an important role. But then what I love, you know, as much as smart as they were. They reached to great intellects and philosophers in order to come up with the great government they had in their 20s and 30s. How did they get so smart? Well, they reached and said, give me the best of every government that's ever been that empowers the people to get the most of their life and away from the dictators that told them what their life would be. Every other country had been the divine right of kings imposing power or conquerors with sorts imposing power. So they read some of the philosophers of the time, like John Locke, who says, no, we can form a social contract and we can do it ourselves. That's why the sentence begins with we hold these truths. Eleven years later, it's why the Constitution begins with we the people. So I try to make it feel. like we in America made a social contract. And you also said that it was really a lot built off Thomas Payne's common sense. Well, you know, even me writing this 80-page book, which is a bit short for the type of books I usually do. I was inspired by Thomas Payne writes common sense. And it really, at the beginning of 1776, gets momentum going to break from England.

And I think the power of pamphlets and short books. They knew it back then. And that's why I thought, you know, at least for this coming birthday, let's do something like a pamphlet, a short book that reminds us of who we are. Yeah, and of course you did the book on Franklin. Is that what gave you the impetus to say I can get this thing because you knew Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin so well in the role he played in the Declaration of Independence? Many years ago when I was writing the Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin biography. I was surprised to come across in the basement of the Library of Congress. They have the first draft of the Declaration. Jefferson wrote by himself, right? No, Jefferson's there. Yeah, he writes that first draft. But then in a apartment on Market Street in Philadelphia, he, John Adams, and Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin, Congress had appointed a committee to draft it. Last time Congress probably appointed a good committee with those three people and a couple of others on it. And I looked at Jefferson's draft, and he had begun, we hold these truths to be sacred. And then there's Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin's printer's pen, dark black backslashes, and he changes it to self-evident because he had been reading David Hume and the Enlightenment philosophers and believed that our rights come from reason, not the dictates of religion. But then the sentence goes on to invoke the creator. Jefferson didn't say it. He said they derive rights. John Adams writes in, they're endowed by their creator with rights. And so this was about 10, 12 years ago, I was reading just in the half of a sentence. What was that like when you found that to see that Jefferson? It's a fly leaf of the book. And when you open my little book, it has that very first draft with all the pen marks and everything else. One of the things it was like I was working for a TV network. You were running CNN. Right. And somebody came in the next morning after I studied and said, oh, we have a great crossfire show. Judge Roy Moore is putting the Ten Commandments on the steps of a courthouse. And federal judge is telling him to take it down. And everybody said, great, who's going to be for the Ten Commandments? Who's going to be against it? It'll be a Crossfire show. I said, great. Then I went back. And that night, I was working on this part of the book. I said, wow, here we are in the media using the Ten Commandments to divide us. And there were our founders balancing the role of divine providence and the role of rationality in creating our rights. And it made me say, no, we ought to get back to that sense of balance. So also, for people listening right now, we create, you know, everybody's equal, right? Give every man their rights. What about women and what about slavery? And you went out and you found that John Adams, Abigail Adams, Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin evolved. They knew it was an abomination. Jefferson knew it was an abomination. Thanks for reading the book, because that's so much a part of the narrative of America. When they say all men. I was trying to figure out, did they mean men in a generic sense, like the rights of man? No, they were limiting it to men. And as you say, Abigail Adams writes, remember the ladies, writes a letter to her husband, John. And he writes back, no, we're not going to give up our masculine rights. So they didn't have it that way when they did it. And in that room on Market Street, where Jefferson and Adams and Franklin are doing it, there's another person.

Richard Hemings, who is the slave of Thomas Jefferson, his valet, whose younger sister Jefferson is going to have an affair with. So this is complicated, but Jefferson... Who's a great chef, right? Yeah, yeah. And Jefferson knew it. Jefferson writes in a lot about how bad the slave trade is. But it takes us a long time to get that right. In fact, it takes four score in seven years. Because when Lingen dedicates the cemetery at Gettysburg, That's when he says four score and seven years ago, but a new type of nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. So my book is about how we've tried to live up to that aspiration as a nation, and it takes us a while. But doesn't... And I never put the average person with Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin, but doesn't Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin's evolving into understanding this emblematic of it? You said he had two slaves when he's in the print shop. But the more he realizes that if you give the African American a chance to read and write, they can do anything the white guy can. So they grew up in a place where they thought they were sub, they were not human, they were as big as us. Let's be nice, but they can't evolve. He realizes that's wrong. And he becomes the world's leading abolitionists along with his, maybe the country's leading abolitionist. Absolutely. He films his own school. Right. Absolutely. And this is part of the growth. We get things wrong. I got a lot of things wrong in my life. But with Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin, he keeps a record of the mistakes he made and how he rectifies it. I couldn't believe that. He does into the mistakes he's in his life. Because he was indentured to his brother. But he runs away famously. He says, okay, I rectified it by educating my brother's sons when he died. But the big one, he realizes, is that he had two slaves when he was a printer. They end up wandering off free. But Franklin says, no, we have to grow and rectify this. So he supports the schools of Dr. Bray, it was called, which educated slaves and freed slaves. And then at age 80, which back then was considered a bit old, he becomes the president of society for the abolition of slavery. And the reason you use the great word, emblematic, that is not just his narrative. That's our nation's narrative. We didn't get it totally right in the beginning. But the narrative of America is we try to get it right. So, for example, if I'm born in 1890, But women don't vote. Of course not. So if you ask me, I'm 12 years old, oh, women don't vote. I just accept it. All of a sudden, 1919 comes up, and the women's suffrage movement happens, and they vote, and you think to yourself, of course they should be voting. In retrospect, we look back, we go, of course, what were we thinking? But you're subjected to the time you're born. Jefferson didn't invent slaves. They had slaves on his plantation before he was born. And then he evolves to realizing, how do I get out of this? Exactly.

And that's the point of the sentence, is that it's aspirational, but over the course of almost 250 years, we've expanded. What does it mean to say, all men? Well, as you say, in 1919, we said, oh, yeah, it should be all people. Once again, how do we make sure all men are created equal? Well, we try to give equal opportunities for everybody so that we can be a land of opportunity. Do you know what you're describing, though? And I wonder it would have been like interviewing you in 2020 because people were going back in history and judging them from where we were in 2020. Going back to 1890, oh, how were we thinking in 1859? You know, I never thought, I thought history was to be studied, not judged. And it seems as though we were judging. Take those statues down. This person didn't do this or was against women's rights or whatever. Outside Frederick Douglass and a few others, we'd have no statues in this country. I do tell my students at Tulane, I say, before you get on a high horse about taking down somebody's picture or a monument, think 50 years from now, 100 years from now, why they might want to take your picture down. We all get things wrong because we're all captives of our time. However, we grow. We look at things, and even the debates about monuments, to my mind, that's a good debate to have. People have to argue about history. And in the end... Like Shakespeare taught us, we realize people are complex. We could honor Thomas Jefferson for the first draft of the greatest sentence ever written, but we can know that we have to get out of that conundrum of he had of owning slaves. When we come back, I want to talk about how Franklin felt about meritocracy and how it feeds into capitalism, why that's important. And number two, what Franklin did for Thomas Jefferson after he had his feelings hurt when they looked at the first draft of the Declaration of Independence and they started chopping it up and saying everything out what he said and the interaction they had. Walter Isaacson's My guest. His book is, it's out today, right? Out today. I'm with you at the beginning. Thanks so much. The greatest sentence ever written. Don't move. From breaking news to big name guests, Brian brings you insight you won't hear anywhere else. You're listening to The Brian Kilmeade. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmeade. So first I want the anecdote out of the way. Walter Isaacson, our guest, his book is out today, the greatest sentence ever written. You'd be so much smarter if you picked it up. Especially I know people, when I do events and I talk history, Walter, a lot of people say, you know, really smart people, they're accountants, their coaches. I haven't done history since 11th grade. I haven't really thought about, you know, I haven't picked up a history book in a while. They're busy. They have three kids. But this is what I like about this book.

You walk out with so much legitimate knowledge with quotes from our founding fathers. It's not your projection of what they thought. It's their words. I know. Thank you so much because I think we have to reembrace, especially our history, our narrative as a nation. And history is not boring. It's wonderful stories of amazing people. And I think as we celebrate our 250th, We should go back. You've written so much. You've written about Jefferson. I mean, you've written about Washington, written about Lincoln, right? And you know through the incidents that those people had to wrestle with, we gain wisdom. Absolutely. So when we talk about capitalism, meritocracy, you say Franklin correctly saw the danger of creating a meritocracy or meritocratic autocracy. His proposals for what became the University of Pennsylvania were designed not to filter a new elite, but to provide opportunities and enrichment for all young people to succeed as best they could, whatever their level of talent. He aimed at what he could, what he called true merit. True merit was served. serving your community and serving your country. And one of the problems we've had in America in the past 20, 30, 40 years is we've created a meritocracy who thinks of itself as an elite. And Jefferson, who I really like and admire in the book, he wants UVA, University of Virginia, to take just the top 20 people and make them part of an aristocracy, a natural aristocracy, a merit aristocracy. And Franklin says no. The point of education is to make sure every person can contribute, rise to whatever level they can, and be... serious and true merit, which is serving your community and country. So, Walter, would you say that a capitalistic ideology or philosophy, economic philosophy, is absolutely necessary for a democracy like ours with visions that the founding fathers had because it's an opportunity to be successful, no guarantee of outcomes? Yes. Free markets are part of having free minds, free speech, and everything else. And our democracy is based on, as I said, John Locke and others, who said, if you work, take things from nature, you can create private property, and it creates great wealth. But one thing I will say is that John Locke said and Ben Franklin said, yes, but we have to keep some in the common. So everybody, each new generation, can have an opportunity. So they make it so that schools are free and for the public. police, fire protection. Those are our debates today as how much should we share in common. And we don't have to be so bitter about it. We should say, hey, it's a balance. But for example, Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin's greatest attribute is he was constantly learning. And Cotton Mather comes out with a model of how to give back. Yeah, you want to be successful. You've got to help out. You've got to form different institutions, right? Essays to do good.

So that's where he gets the idea for firefighters and libraries, right? So everyone has a chance to read and help out your neighbor. You know, the library is the perfect symbol of the commons, which is he said we created a library, and the motto was to pour forth benefits for the common good is divine. Because he felt serving your community was the way to serve all of God's creatures, and it was a divine thing to do. And he said it gave every... Kid, or he didn't say kid, but every person in America, the chance to be as educated as the richest people in England. So for him, the library becomes a symbol of our common ground and the American dream. How do you compare Hamilton and Jefferson in their different parties and the friction that they had that resulted in Hamilton's death on a different reason, but Heron Bird, that's how serious people took it. That rivalry between Republicans and Democrats are going through right now. I think that we have made this rivalry between left and right, Democrats, Republicans, so poisonous. It doesn't really have to be that way. Ben Franklin was the one who knew how to get a very passionate person like John Adams and Samuel Adams, who, you know, on one side of the spectrum, and then a Thomas Jefferson together and say, look, on 70% of the things we're discussing, we can all get to a consensus. And it was under this mulberry tree in his backyard. He had a little trick. He would put some oil on troubled waters and it would smooth it. And I think that's what we have to get back to now that Democrats and Republicans, even on health care. Right. We know we need some new solution on health care, but instead we make it so partisan. I think. you're going to be heartened because I think in a few weeks they're going to have something because I get the sense Bill Cassidy is going to be working. My senator from Louisiana, Bill Cassidy is a smart dude. And he also knows, I think, that he can find people across the aisle to say, let's try to solve this reason. And only that, he knows because he's a doctor for years. He's a doctor for years. Yeah, doctor for years. And there's a few Barrasso's another one that could get in there. Go out and pick up the book, The Greatest Sentence Ever written. You could finish it in a day and you'll be smarter for the rest of your life. Walter, congratulations on all this. Brian, I love you. And I look forward to talking to you on Sunday on One Nation. One Nation, remember that. Hey, Brian Kilmeade, Cho. Keep it here, everybody. Don't move.