From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead. Good morning. It is not Brian Killmead. It is your humble correspondent, Griff Jenkins, sitting in for the one and only Brian Killmead today, coming to you from Washington, D.C., in the belly of the beast, if you will, in the swamp.
And I'm sitting in the Tony Snow Radio Show in Washington. I've said this before, but for listeners that have not heard me say it, it is always not only the greatest honor to be sitting in the Tony Snow Radio Studio, which is a show that I started with Fox as Tony Snow's producer. He was a great man, a great radio broadcaster, but also to be in a radio studio because in the 90s I had started the Oliver North Radio Show, Common Sense Radio for America, we called it. And I have never felt more comfortable in any environment than in a radio studio and behind a radio mic.
So it is a great honor, a great privilege to be sitting in for Brian, who has the day off. We can talk. About anything and everything under the sun. Just a quick backdrop, though. I started in radio in the 90s, and I remember in the days of Rush Limbaugh was king, the great rush, and we would listen to it and take our cues sometimes from the direction he would take it.
And he talked about the cuts and trying to rein in government and making our federal government for the American people. He would find instances of waste, fraud, and abuse, just one single thing that Elon Musk and Doge has found. And it would be a topic for a week long on Rush and then on Sean Hannity's show. And he was rising in the radio ranks and on Ollie's radio show, and then later, even on Tony Snow's show. And it's fascinating now to have been this young kid producing radio at a time when the only people that were really talking about putting America first and doing the things that President Trump and this minister.
administration is doing now. To have heard it back then, 25 years ago, and now to see in just the first 100 days of President Trump's second administration, seeing the really Dynamic, bold moves. It's quite, but whether you agree with it or not, it is bold and it is going to have long-lasting impacts on people and all of us that have been around the conservative movement and conservative radio for years and years. It's something to really sit back and marvel at to say, wow, someone actually got it done. It actually happened.
And it's no knock on people like Newt Gingrich in the contract with America in those days when they were trying to do it, but they didn't rein in government. Government got bigger. But now you're seeing the cut after cut, the wastefight and abuse being removed, and entire government agencies being whittled down. It is really going to be fascinating to see where we are just a year from now, and certainly by the end of this administration to see just how fundamentally different things are. And whether it benefits the American people better.
So that's my quick setup. That's the background. That's why it's quite fun to be sitting in for Brian Killmey, because we have got a lot of great guests to get to. But I want to start because we're lucky to have the CEO of American Petroleum Institute, Mike Summers, in the studio in New York joining me. Mike, thanks for coming in.
Sorry I'm not in New York. They kept me here in the swamp in D.C. Griff, it's great to be with you, and what a great introduction. Tony Snow was a great friend and neighbor. I had so much admiration for him.
So thanks for that kind, kind introduction.
Well, you know, Mike, in part, I sort of decided to try and do that. A, so that our listeners would wonder who the hell are they listening to? I've heard that voice somewhere. Who is it?
Some nasally young guy. Not a young guy anymore in his mid-50s, but I really harken back. And back in those days, we would have you on the radio. No one knows the petroleum industry better than you. But it is quite something, right, to see really what this president, President Trump, is actually doing.
It's like if you condensed, you know, decades' worth of what conservative radio rush, Sean, and all those were talking about for decades, and you tried to do it in 100 days, that's what we're watching unfold. I want to play for you, Mike, just quickly on the Hill yesterday when President Trump went up there. He talked about this big, beautiful bill and really talked about the size and scope of it. I want you to listen to this, and then I got a question for you. It's very important.
It's important for the country. It's not important for me, it's important for the country. This is the greatest bill that will ever, I think it's the most important bill this country just about has ever done in terms of size and scope. That's why we call it the Great Big Beautiful Deal. I mean, it really is.
The bill is... Uh I think it's going to be one of the most important. It's the biggest tax reduction in history. biggest regulation reduction in history.
Now, Mike, that last part there, biggest regulation reduction in history, that pertains to emission regulations on coal, oil and gas. What do you make of it? Yeah, so really, Griff, this is a really important week, not just for the President of the United States, but for the American energy industry. There are two big things happening in Washington, D.C. that really could change the course of everything that we're doing right now as a country.
First, the reconciliation bill is likely to make it through the United States Congress this week. That is a very, very big deal. You mentioned it. Of course, it's tax cuts for the American people, but it's also a reform of our energy industry as well. I'll give you an example.
Lots of people are talking about the tax side of this. The energy and natural resources side of this is huge. It mandates lease sales in the Gulf of America. It mandates lease sales in Alaska and onshore here in the continental United States. That's a very big deal because you think about what President Biden did.
He actually, for the first time, had only one lease sale during his administration, the lowest amount of lease sales in the Gulf of America in history. That is a very important package that has to get done this week. And I know Speaker Johnson is on it and he's going to get it done. But the other side of the Capitol in the United States Senate, they have a big vote this week, which would finally get rid of the California-dictated EV mandate. That's a very big deal going to the President of the United States, hopefully this week.
Senator John Thune and Senator Shelley Moore Capito have been at the forefront of this fight, and we're excited to get those two big things done. This could be the most important energy week that we have seen in decades if the House can get their work done and the Senate can get their work done as well. You know, because you mentioned the EV mandate, I want to drill in on that just a little bit so that you can explain to our listeners how significant this is. And being here in D.C., and you know better than I, but I vaguely kind of remember the state of Maryland looked at basically because they have a Democratic governor, they're fairly liberal state, they looked at doing something that would sort of copy. California's EV mandate, and then they said, nah, maybe not.
That's exactly right. The challenge with this mandate from the state of California is that there are 17 other states that have waived into that mandate that would essentially eliminate sales of internal combustion engine vehicles, the kind of conventional car that we all drive, would mandate the end of those sales by 2030. No state wants to do that at this point. Even the state of California is trying to wiggle out of this. They realize what a terrible thing that they've done because, you know, EVs might make sense.
For somebody that's commuting 20 miles a day, it doesn't make a lot of sense for someone that is driving kids to and from basketball practice or someone who works on a farm or a ranch or has to drive long distances for their job. This is a travesty. Americans should have a choice of the kind of vehicle that they want to buy that makes sense for their lifestyle.
So what California did and what these states, mostly blue states, did to wave into these new car rules from California was an absolute travesty for American consumers. The Senate's going to fix it. And that's what's exciting about it's going to happen this week. And it's only because of Republican leadership that it's happening. You know, it's funny.
You mentioned the combustion engine, and you remind me just a few weeks ago, I was interviewing EPA Administrator Lee Zeldon because they were closing down their million-dollar museum that's had like, you know, a dozen visitors since the Biden administration wasted all this money. And among the relics to be boxed up was a copy of Al Gore, former Vice President Al Gore's earth book. And I remember he read, he did the book on tape. He read it, and we played on Tony Snow and even on Ollie North's radio show in the 90s. We would play clips of Al Gore saying, It must be possible to eliminate entirely the combustion engine into the future and literally.
He was the guy that started that ball rolling.
Now, fast forward today, you've had for years Al Gore acolytes and green energy people really fund this gigantic movement, which ultimately led to someone stepping up in creating that electric vehicle that could possibly compete with it. His name was Elon Musk. He gave the left green energy people the exact vehicle they want, but yet now, because he's with the Trump administration, they've decided that the car they demanded and want to force Americans to drive, they're setting on fire and vandalizing because they simply hate the guy that gave it to them. How does that make sense? We have a Tesla dealership in Georgetown.
I live in Georgetown, have for over 30 years. And every weekend, they're out there protesting in front of it. And so every Saturday and Sunday, I know that if I've got to run errands, I'm going to be stuck in Georgetown traffic. That's exactly right. You usually have people lining up at Georgetown Cupcake, but the protests outside, the Tesla dealership even rival that, of course.
But, you know, what I'll say is that this has really become a bipartisan backlash against this California mandate. 35 Democrats, brave Democrats in the United States House of Representatives, voted against it as well. I expect that we're going to get bipartisan support in the United States Senate also. Folks like Alyssa Slotkin in Michigan, where the car industry is so very important, or John Asoff in Georgia, or John Fetterman in Pennsylvania. These are three senators where internal combustion engines are very, very important to their constituents.
And I would hope that they would vote the right way when this comes up this week.
Now, let's talk about, you know, when we talk about energy and you talk about the things that are being done on Capitol Hill and in this legislation, ultimately, you know, what Americans want to take away from this is I do A, want to keep my gas guzzler. In full disclosure, I drive a 2006 beat-up Toyota 4Runner that's got all of the engine lights and warnings on and, you know, the side doors dented in and it's covered in surf stickers. My wife says I have an emotional attachment to that and the dog are the two priorities of my life. I love them. I'm going to drive it till the day I die.
But they also, Americans, want those gas prices to remain low or keep going lower. Where are we on that? Yeah, so I mean, one of the things that's actually going to be addressed in this quote-unquote big, beautiful bill is these lease sales that I mentioned earlier, particularly in the Gulf of America and on federal lands, both onshore and offshore. That's a top priority for our. Organization, the American Petroleum Institute.
In fact, just last June, we put out a five-point policy agenda of five things that the next administration could do. And almost 90% of those things are already completed by the Trump administration. I need five more things. But the things that aren't done yet are what Congress has to do. And Congress is going to get those things done, those mandatory lease sales in the Gulf of America and onshore done during this term, hopefully this week.
And then the other top priority that Congress has to tackle is advancing the Trump tax cuts.
So those two big priorities could be almost there if the House passes this bill this week. The other big thing that has to get done is we have to reform the broken permitting system that we have in the United States. It is almost impossible to get anything built in this country in a timely fashion. It took one year to build the Empire State Building, but unfortunately, we're in a position where to get a pipeline even permitted, it takes five years. Years.
That is not energy dominance.
So, if we want to complete the president's energy dominance agenda, we have to get a permitting bill through the United States Congress. The time is now. Energy dominance. Mike, can you stick with me for a second? Of course.
Because I want to go a little deeper into that if we can, but we got to take a quick break. You're listening to Mike Summers, the CEO of the American Petroleum Institute. I am Griff Jenkins. And for the great Brian Kilmead show, we've got a whole lot coming up. Stick with us.
Giving you everything you need to know. You're with Brian Kilmead. Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy, host of the Trey Gowdy Podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at FoxNewsPodcast.com.
A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. The great Brian Kilmead show, Griff Jenkins, your humble correspondent, trying to fill those giant shoes of Brian, who has the day off. And we are talking about energy, oil, and gas, electric vehicles with the CEO of American Petroleum Institute, Mike Summers. Mike, thanks for sticking around because you just in our last segment, you just were hitting something that I think is important our listeners hear from you about, and that is the permitting system and the challenge of pipelines and getting really not only oil and gas, but in a larger perspective, really a minerals supply chain.
Because our largest nemesis, as best I can see and competitor, is China. How do you see it? Oh, that's exactly right. I mean, China is our number one global competitor right now, and that's why these EV mandates really don't make sense. The United States is essentially energy-independent right now.
We are energy-dominant. And so, we would switch from conventional vehicles, internal combustion engines, to vehicles that are primarily sourced from the country of China. I don't think anybody wants that. We need to have our own homegrown energy. We need to have our own homegrown auto system.
And unfortunately, what California and what President Biden before California wanted to do was force consumers into vehicles that were primarily sourced from technologies in China. And that is exactly the opposite direction that we should be going as a country. EVs, again, might make sense for some consumers, but they don't make sense for all consumers. And Americans should have that choice, which is why that Senate bill that has to pass is going to pass just this week.
So we're excited about the Senate getting that done. Done. But the broader question about how we get the permitting system fixed, it has to be fixed. We have more energy demand coming, not less. And because we have more data centers, Loudoun County, Virginia is the home to the most prolific data centers in the world.
But they're going to need energy. In fact, there was just a study that came out a couple of days ago that suggested that we're going to need 25% more energy to meet the demand by 2030. 25% more energy. Where's the energy going to come from? Most of the time, it's going to come from natural gas.
And that means we have to produce it here in the United States. We have plenty of natural gas in this country. We're really the Saudi Arabia of natural gas.
So we need to make sure that we have the resources and we produce those resources here in the United States. And we need the infrastructure to support that. That means more pipelines. Wait a minute. You just grabbed me when you said that the U.S., America, is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas.
That is quite astonishing. We ought to be doing something about that now. Why aren't we taking advantage of that? Absolutely. We have more natural gas than we know what to do with in this country.
We need to be able to export it. We need to be able to use it for Americans. You think about the reason why we've been able to lower our greenhouse gas emissions every year is because of a switch that has gone on from the primarily using coal to fund or to energize America. We're now using more natural gas. And that has led to historic environmental benefits for the United States of America.
And it's not because of something that the government did, it's because of free market economics. And that's something we should be really proud of. Wow, we shall see where it goes. Mike Summers, CEO of American Employment Institute, thank you very much, my friend. Have a good week.
We'll see if Congress can get their job done. I'm Griff Jenkins, sitting in for the great Brian Kilmead. We'll be right back. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Killmead.
This is Griff Jenkins, your humble Washington correspondent, filling in for the great Brian Kilmead. An honor and a privilege to be with you. And as I have aforementioned, sitting in the Tony Snow Radio Studio, a show that I started, helped produce, and now have the honor to sit in the studio behind the microphone. And our next guest is not only one of the smartest guys I've ever known, he's also the editor of National Review and author of the book The Case for Nationalism. Rich Lowry has been my guest when I was producing talk radio, going back to the 90s.
Rich, it's great to have you. I think, as I was sort of painting the picture at the top of the show, saying that when we were in talk radio in the late 90s, early 2000s, and we heard Rush and Sean and others talking about, you know, doing all of these things to put America first, to dial in the government, to make it better for the American to serve the American people, not the bureaucrats in Washington, and now watching really just. Just what the Trump administration is doing. It's really a remarkable front row seat, but it occurs to me you are among those voices in conservative thought. It's led the movement.
And so that's why it's so great to have you on now and kind of reflect on what we're watching. But since I've dated this, I think we can just call this segment two middle-aged guys with a microphone. Exactly. Two middle-aged guys reminiscing. Yeah.
I didn't realize that you're going to be hosting today. This is a real pleasure. I'm a huge fan of yours, obviously. Right back at you on all fronts. And great time to be in the news business.
They should have told you I was filling in.
So you're like, Yeah, I'm taking a pass. I'm taking the day off. I'm going fishing or playing golf.
So, look, Rich, there's so much I want to get to, but I think, you know, one of the things. That is really interesting to me is obviously the news of Biden's prostate cancer. Everyone wishes him the very best. But there is obviously this debate talking about now because of Jake Tapper and Alec Thompson's book. You know, was something not disclosed?
An op-ed or an editorial piece in the Wall Street Journal now calling on the former president to sort of clarify the details of his disease for the in the name of transparency. But I want to play for you: I was watching the competition, Morning Joe, this morning. And, you know, a lot of times when I was producing the Tony Snow show, he taught me, Rich, he said, listen to the questions sometimes from the moderators that tell you more than actually the answer from the guest on the topic. This is cut number one, guys. This is how the Jake Tapper Morning Joe interview started.
I guess at first, I'll start with kind of. Of an obvious question, but Jake, is it fair to say that Joe Biden had a successful presidency, a remarkable presidency, possibly even a historic presidency in his time in office?
Well, he certainly feels that way, and we don't really render him. But when you look at the legislation that he passed and his accomplishments and how it ranks against other presidents? I'm not here to render a verdict on how successful a president he was. Certainly, he feels that way. You can point to any number of accomplishments he has.
But this book is more focused on what happened. You know, we all saw the debate June 27th. We were all shocked. We were all stunned at his inability to. Communicate his thoughts and the record that you speak of to the American people.
And Alex and I set out to figure out what happened. Yeah. Rich. You know, it's it's like uh we've talked about so much has changed since we started doing this more than a quarter of a century ago, and then some things don't change. She's literally a historic, a remarkable, successful president.
How do you see the Biden years, Rich? Yeah, so look, that's one of the evasions they relied on. You'd say, look, we saw him. He almost fell down. He forgot someone's name.
He was talking about dead people. And they say, well, he's passed a lot of legislation. But they had a Democrat majority in both houses. Of course, they're passing legislation, and it didn't have anything to do with his mental or physical acuity.
So she goes straight to that dodge, right? And look, I'm very glad this book is out there and it's added details that we didn't know. But in the aggregate, it's not surprising at all. And Jake says we are all shocked. At that debate, were you shocked?
I wasn't shocked at the debate. That's kind of what I expected at some point because it was all before our eyes for a very long time. He wasn't good in the 2019 Democratic primary debate.
So, of course, he's going to be even worse five years later. Yeah. And, you know, look, you're right. The whole country saw it. And, you know, Jon Stewart just did a takedown of Tapper's book, just saying, you know, basically, like, hey, if you knew all this, why did you wait to tell us?
Why weren't we told about this? And, you know, you had Tapper was really getting pushed by Megan Kelly as well on that stuff. But, you know, at the end of the day, it's fascinating. Mika's question really is trying to grasp at what I think, you know. Joe Biden, like all presidents and big power brokers in Washington, had a huge, has a huge ego.
And he wants his legacy to be those accomplishments he had. But it's pretty clear that history now will always view him as, you know, a president in great mental decline that was hidden from the American people. And, you know, you asked me, like, was I surprised? I wasn't surprised. I'll tell you a quick story.
You know, as a reporter here in Washington, and I don't know if I've ever said this publicly, but occasionally I'll fill in at the White House. And it was a weekend when we were low on reporters at the White House.
So I was filling in there, as I sometimes do. And the President Biden was coming back from Rehoboth or whatever and landing in the South Juan and Marine One. And you basically have a, you know, on the weekends, it's a bare-bones staff.
So there's like a camera, a TV provider. hoarder and like a still photographer guy. Just the three of us out there, and you stand on the rope line and you shout a question, and you usually get ignored, and that's sort of it. But you got to go through the formalities because you are documenting history on every day. And I was there on one of the maybe the first famous moments when Biden gets off, ignores us, and I'm watching him go what looks like into the residence.
But instead of turning at the Secret Service guy where the sidewalk turns to go in, and literally the sidewalk only turns into the residence, he keeps walking onto the grass as if he's going into the trees. And I'm catch eyes with the Secret Service agent who looks like he's seen a ghost, turns around, redirects a president, who comes back around to Bush, and then goes in smiling the whole. And I thought, what did I just see?
Now, obviously, that's nothing to the degree that the American people saw in that June debate, but there were signs there. And it's hard to imagine. That's a very telling anecdote. That doesn't happen to someone who's in a normal state. And again, this is one of the things you could just, no other president had people like walking beside him, pointing all the time.
You know, watch out for this, don't trip over that. We're going to take a right here, a left here. This is so-and-so. Shake their hand. You know, it began with the Easter buddy, right?
The Easter egg roll. It was kind of a joke, but it's sort of true. He needs to be directed around.
So everyone, anyone who's had an elderly parent, right, they're familiar with this state in some manner or other.
So, yeah, and Jake, you know, when he was pressed by Megan on why he wasn't more aggressive on this, really couldn't say anything except for me a coppa. I should have been better, which is, you know, that's a legit answer. We all fall down on certain things, but it's a little galling that he's out there with this book now when his certainly his network was part of the cover-up.
Well, yeah. And, you know, I do, I think it's worth reliving these because now we're hitting that moment when a certain faction of those in this discussion believe that they've got the momentum to say, well, let's move on now. But it is worth remembering the Democrats and the media that downplayed Biden's decline with full-throated, high-octane support. This is cut number six, guys. The montage of some of those voices close to Biden that were among his biggest defenders.
You got cut number six there. Very loose and well, very well informed. We've spent way too much time talking about this president's age. This version of Biden. intellectually, analytically.
Is the best Biden ever. I don't deny that it was a bad debate performance. That's different than whether or not the president is up to the job. He's clearly up to the job. His mental acuity is great.
It's fine. It's as good as it's been over the years. He is sharp, intensely probing, and detail-oriented and focused. He is strong. He is strong behind doors, and he's strong when he's in front of the camera.
I think Alejandro Majorgas is Deeply probing is my best part. But among the voices there, you heard Joe Scarborough, who interviewed Tapper and Thompson this morning. And yet, is there some reckoning for those folks?
Well, not as much as there should be. I have to say, one person who's really gotten off the hook, as far as I'm concerned, is Corrine John Pierre, who almost hasn't been mentioned. I've been writing a piece about this. But reporters did ask about this at the briefings. They'd ask about his health.
They'd ask about videos that look really bad. They'd ask about him talking about dead people, going back at least to 2022. And she always laughed it off. She said that she had trouble keeping up with him. She's a fitness nut, right?
She runs five miles a day in the morning. And the idea that she had trouble keeping up with Joe Biden is absurd. And they lied.
so blatantly to smeared Robert Hurr, who talked about the Totally accurately portrayed his interview with Joe Biden. Not in a harsh way, actually, it's sort of in a nice way. And he was very nice during the interview, as we know from the audio tapes. And Biden sounded like a guy in a nursing home who couldn't even remember years.
So, this is one of the worst frauds that's ever been perpetrated on the American public. The only comfort is that it didn't work because everyone realized it was a fraud. You know, I look forward very much to reading your piece on this because you're right. It is the greatest fraud, certainly in modern American history. And, you know, I am fortunate, knock on wood.
My sweet mother is 93 years old, still got all of her mental acuities. She's getting a hip replacement here soon, but her mind is sharp. And she has been saying for a long time when Biden was going to run, she said, I can't believe he's running, Griff. You know, I'm here in a senior living community building that also has an assisted living. And I see on a daily basis when we all go down for our one-free cocktail and dinner at five o'clock, you know, that you can see people in this state and you can see these mannerisms.
And my mother more attuned to it. And then, of course, the whole country tuned. Hey, listen, can you stick with me? I got to take a quick break, but I do want to get to another piece of yours because you've been writing about President Trump, the current administration, and dealing with Vladimir. Putin.
You got a second? Yep, absolutely. All right, we'll be right back with Rich Lowry, the editor of the National Review. I'm Griff Jenkins, filling in for the great Brian Kilmead. Increasing your intelligence quotients.
What the hell did you just say? It's Brian Kilmead. The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmead. That's so true.
You learn so much here on the great Brian Kilmead show. I'm Griff Jenkins filling in for Brian. He's got the day off, and we're joined again by the editor of the National Review, Rich Lowry. Rich, I wanted to thank you for staying over for a quick second segment because I wanted to get to, you wrote about Putin. You wrote a piece called Putin is Playing with Trump.
We all obviously know now that earlier this week, a two-hour phone call between Trump and Putin. It's significant, I think, that they're talking. But as you write in this, I think a key part, you say, so long as Putin believes that he's winning and holds all the cards, there's no reason for him to become more pliable. I think you're spot on. What was your take, Rich, on the call and sort of where things stand?
Are we getting any closer to a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia? Yeah, well Trump totally changed the agenda on this because there's very little talk of these dogs prior to him him winning and this was a priority of his and now it's been the focus. And I think the Ukrainians, after Zelensky had that debacle in the Oval Office, have sort of got flipped how they should be playing this. Seem like the most reasonable player, right? And you propose a ceasefire of the United States, we're in favor of it.
We'll do it. You know, you want a mineral deal? All right, let's do it. Putin wants a meeting in Istanbul. I'll show up, Zelensky myself.
So I think that's where they need to be. The question is whether Trump can exercise the necessary leverage over Putin. Because I think just. saying, well, maybe we're going to sanction you some more. There there's some more painful sanctions.
we can do. But I don't think that really does it. I think Trump needs to say, okay, if you don't want this, we're going to back Ukraine to the hilt. We're going to remove restrictions on their use of weapons. We're going to give them more sophisticated stuff, whatever it is.
And this has been very painful for you, Vladimir Putin. You've lost like 100,000 guys, 800,000 guys, casualties total, and you're going to lose many more and you're not getting anything from it. That might convince Putin to actually sit down and take this more seriously. But I think as Trump's occasionally said, I wonder if he's tapping me along. I think Putin is tapping him along.
He's just delaying, inching ahead, and hoping Trump just loses patience with the whole thing and stops funding Ukraine. It's fascinating, and it's a great piece, by the way. If you want to read it, Rich Lowry's National Review piece, Putin is Playing with Trump. And I think it's very insightful too, Rich. You know, I was, I just happened to be the correspondent that interviewed Zelensky in Kyiv in his compound, the first Fox reporter to do so after the shortly after, just two months after the war began.
There were literally bombs were falling on his compound. We had to stop the interview at one point and go to a shelter and then resume it after that. And he was obviously as defiant as he has remained. And then to interview him again last summer, his people reached out because he was going to meet with the then-candidate Trump at the last minute at the UN General Assembly, UNGA, as we call it every year, the annual gathering of the world leaders in New York. And so, if you recall, Zelensky meets with Trump, goes, does a photo op, and then Zelensky went.
Went straight to Fox on 6th Avenue, sat down for an hour-long interview with me, and then he was wheels up back to Ukraine. And I asked Zelensky after that interview off camera: I said, So, how confident are you that Trump, if he becomes president, will have your back? And he said, I'm very, very confident, more so than I ever thought I would be. Here we are now. And, you know, your piece, you're sort of suggesting that really that the greatest threat to Putin is if indeed Trump were to basically give Zelensky everything he wanted under Biden and even more, that might be the game changer.
Yeah. So, and the point of that wouldn't be to just have the war grind on forever. It would actually get Putin to take the talks more seriously. And, you know, in theory, it's kind of easy, right? The deal, right?
That you draw a line where it is now, and Russia gets to. Keep what it has. I don't think it's great that it grabbed it, but they're not going to get pushed all the way back. And they don't get any more. And Ukraine gets to be a defensible country and rebuild with a lot of help from Europe.
But it's the second part of that that Putin has the most problem with. He really wants Ukraine not to be de facto dependent on Russia for its existence. And that's the big, I think that's a big sticking point in these negotiations.
So it's not easy. I give Trump credit for changing the game, but there's work to be done here. A lot. And, you know, in that eastern Donbass area, I've been there. Really, you look at the front lines, and the front lines for three years and more have not moved.
And so that salemate is almost an assured thing. Maybe this changes things. I don't know.
Meanwhile, when can we watch for that piece to drop on President Biden? Today. Today. Should be today, Gruh. You've done with the second segment, but I'll try to make up with a special picture.
Quick writing. I will let you start writing, and I thank you for taking time. My friend Ritz Lowery, so much fun. Griff Jenkins. And by the way, go to naturalreview.com, check out Rich Lowery's piece.
I'm Griff Jenkins, filling in for the great Brian Kilmead Show. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kelmead. He is indeed one of the most approachable, smartest, funniest, and best all-around guys I know. His name is Brian Kilmey.
This is his radio show. But I am your humble correspondent from Washington, D.C., Griff Jenkins. Filling in while Brian has the day off, a huge honor coming to you from the Tony Snow Radio Show here at Fox News in Washington. Why does that matter? It matters because, well, a young producer named Griff Jenkins started that radio show many moons ago, and so it is really something special for me from a really emotional standpoint to be sitting in this studio working with Allison, Eric, and Pete, the great staff here, because I used to be that staff.
I remember when I used to come in every day, put together a radio show. I remember during the 90s, even before Tony Snow, I was the producer for Oliver North's Common Sense Radio, his national radio show, and I would Run the board, the board operator for that, get the cuts ready. And every day when you cued the music and you hit that mic and the light came on, you knew you were having a conversation with the most important people in America, those listening to talk radio. And my how things have changed. We talk a lot about the changes that maybe would be made in Washington that would benefit Americans from sea to shining sea, but now you are watching it happen in just 100 days in this administration.
So much to be watching. And I'll tell you another interesting tidbit. I remember producing Ollie North's radio show on the morning of 9-11. I was, my daughter was born 11 days prior, and my wife had an emergency C-section, so she really was in the hospital for the first week.
So I went back to work back in those days. You didn't get like a long time off for paternity leave. But, you know, when she came home and my daughter, Madeline, now 23, was you know, just fresh home, I decided to take a couple of days off. And I was watching, holding my daughter at the edge of the bed, watching Fucks and Friends in the morning. And it was the second day that I decided to take off, and I saw the towers being struck, and then, of course, the Pentagon.
And I actually got a phone call to my house because we really didn't have iPhones back then from Oliver North, whose radio show I would be doing. He was flying back into the Pentagon, and he was calling me from the phone that, you know, they used to have phones above your tray table on airplanes. He had managed to get a signal paying about. $100 a minute and called me and said, I'm on a plane. I'm landing.
We're flying over the Pentagon. We can see the damage. We're rerouting to Dulles to get us on the ground. Meet me at the studio right away. Washington was a mess.
I ended up having to ride a moped at the time. My wife and I had a little moped for fun, and I was able to evade traffic and get to the radio studio. We did a radio show. And Oliver North's talked for decades now about that day and the lessons we learned.
Well, why am I bringing that up? I'm bringing it up because our next guest here on the Brian Killmead Radio show, Brian Stern, a former U.S. Army, Navy counterintelligence officer, played a role in bringing justice in the wake of 9-11. If anyone that watches Netflix has had the opportunity to watch American Manhood, Osama bin Laden, the documentary is remarkable. And Brian Stern was the ground intel officer.
On the ground in Abbottabad, and it was thanks in part to his brave, courageous intelligence gathering that we were able to get Bin Laden. Ultimately, here is a little snippet from Netflix that we have pulled from that. Before we bring in Brian, I just want to play that. And if you haven't watched it, I encourage you to go watch it. Here, listen to this.
We needed to have human intelligence on the ground. People think about intelligence work as analysts reading reports. I mean the people on the street. As a task force commander, I was based in Kabul and then I had places all over the region. We need intelligence that validated all the information.
What do we think we know? What do we know we don't know? What do we see? We watched the courier get into a little white SUV. There are a lot of white SUVs in Pakistan.
And our CIA officers followed it from Peshawar to a town called Abbottabad. Finally, the vehicle pulled into this large house. A bunch of indicators. strongly suggested that there's something going on in this house. Remarkable stuff.
Brian Stern joining us now. Brian, thank you for taking time. It is such a great honor to get to talk to you. Obviously, the remarkable documentary, and just so our listeners know, if you haven't seen that, that was CIA Director Leon Panetta talking about it was thanks to your intelligence, you really played a key role in all this. You know, as you reflect on that, what are your thoughts?
I think it's important to understand that there were literally tens of thousands of intelligence professionals for years and years and years and years, even before nine eleven, that were involved in either a small way. up to a large way in the hunt for bin Laden. The hunt for bin Laden and also the invasion of Afghanistan is really an intelligent success story. There were literally tens of thousands of people who, one way or the other, had different roles to play. And I think that's what the documentary really does a really good job of showing is all the The money and time and talent and treasure and technology.
And analysis and collection, and all the different things that went into. Um even just identifying Bin Laden as a threat all the way to identifying Al Qaeda and Bin Laden as the as the as the as who did nine eleven and then all the way through to the operation to the operation to that killed him. Yeah, remarkable, remarkable stuff. Such an important point, Brian, because what's great about this series is that you do get to see the names and faces of some people that have been such an important part of this success story, to include yourself and some of the CIA analysts who had been looking at Bin Laden for a long time. And on 9-11, they very quickly, many of the analysts, knew that this was Bin Laden.
And it's fascinating to me, Brian, because as I was kind of mentioning in the intro, you know, I'm a correspondent and weekend anchor here at Fox News, but I started my journalism career with Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North back in the 90s, starting his radio show. And then I came to Fox to produce a show called War Stories documentary. And then that led to me being embedded with him as his producer and cameraman during Iraq in Afghanistan in the 2000s, early 2000s, for the majority of the 2000s there in the early days. And You know, in full disclosure, Colonel North's like a surrogate uncle to me. I've been very close to him.
He's been a mentor. And, you know, I know quite a lot about him. And one thing that our listeners may not know is he was really in many ways among the first counterterrorism folks in the 80s when he was working for the Reagan years. And now, you know, because of the evolutions in intelligence and counterterrorism, you guys were able to get bin Laden, and that was a success story. But my question to you is, since the bin Laden days, how do you see U.S.
intelligence and counterterrorism strategy sort of evolving? Yeah, I think it's evolved over time. Technology has obviously increased dramatically and exponentially and continues to do so almost every day. The threat remains very present. It has never been in our lifetime or in the history of humans, it's never been this easy for so few people to kill this many people.
So I think we're very fixated on China and Russia and Iran and all those things, which is Absolutely appropriate, but make no mistake, just because, just because. Our priorities have changed. It's not like the different terrorist groups of the world haven't gone out and found Jesus and gotten government jobs and are working on the DMV. They wake up every single day trying to figure out unique and exotic ways to kill us. And make no mistake as well, they are here.
There is a very large domestic terror, you know, people throw the word domestic terrorists around a lot. There is a foreign terrorist presence in the United States. That is very demonstrable. They are good friends with the FBI and at local law enforcement, especially in major cities. They're on the front lines of this war.
And it is still a very, very, very, very active threat that needs to be addressed, needs to be mitigated. And the real concern Uh the real concern is When if terrorists figure out a way to partner, if you will, or align, if you will, with other nonstandard threats like cartels, as an example, or other things like that, or organized crime, their capability dramatically increases. And I think that's the next ridgeline in the counterterrorism fight is we've always been looking for bad guy number six who's got an alphabet soup last name, but there's a chance that it could be someone who may not be as garden variety as typical as we typically have seen. Gosh, that's such an important point, Brian. And I didn't mean to necessarily take you here, but you mentioned the cartels.
You know, I don't know how much reporting you've seen of mine, but for the past four years of the Biden administration, I was very frequently on the border, and I was constantly having all these people coming across the border because the cartels had effectively taken control and making billions, not millions, billions of dollars on people crossing that border. And I did, you know, weeks upon weeks in places like Hacumba, California, in the San Diego sector. And I interviewed on live TV, you know, military-aged males coming across that could speak English. You know, where are you from? Syria, Iraq, you know, Iran.
We had people from all over Eastern Europe coming across, not with families, single adult males. And you wonder, you know, if we have had, and that, by the way, is just people that Fox News got live coming on T V, live on television coming across the border. We still don't know the gotaways, the ones that were crossed and evaded even being detected by Border Patrol. Are you concerned that there could be a threat that our enemies exploited with that open border? Yeah, absolutely.
And I'll give you a great example. I I'm not concerned. I think it's a validated threat. I it's not a concern. It's a fact of life.
The question is how do we deal with it? And I'll give you a great example. The number one passport of people coming across the border is from Venezuela. and people don't really give Venezuela a lot of attention. The largest concentration of Hezbollah bad guys outside of Lebanon is actually in Venezuela, which because of Puerto Rico actually shares a maritime border with the United States.
The former vice president under Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela is a guy named Tariq El Asame. And without being without crossing any lines, does Tariq Elassame sound like a Latino to you? He does not. Right?
So, so then and then if you layer that, so if Tariq Elassame, who used to be the vice president, now he's not anymore, he's been sanctioned by us and a bunch of other things. But bottom line is, he's he's Lebanese. He's he's his family from Lebanese and Syrian.
So, if he was the vice president of Venezuela, Venezuela is the most common passport that's coming across. And then you layer that on with Trende Agua, which is also based in Venezuela, which we know, which is now an FTO, labeled as a terrorist organization. Very quickly, you get into: wait a minute, we have Venezuelan terrorists with Hezbollah ties in the United States of America. How did that just happen? Yeah, boy, you are connecting such important dots.
I have extensively covered, I've covered Trende Aragua, I think, more than any correspondent here at Fox News because I had some help and have friends in the intelligence world and border world that helped me connect those dots. Because even way back before anyone had talked about Trende Aragua, the Border Patrol chief, the previous one, Jason Owens, would tell me, he said, you've got to pay attention to TDA. They're here, they're setting up shop, they're literally going to be worse than MS-13. Here's what we're seeing. And there's ties to the Venezuelan government, to Maduro's regime, insofar as, you know, Trende Aragua was started at a violent prison in central Venezuela in a town called Tocoron.
And they became so powerful that the Venezuelans started to sort of rebel against it. Hey, Brian, I've got to take a break here. Can you stick with me for a couple of minutes? Third up problems. All right, we'll take a quick break here.
Brian Stern is our guest. We're fortunate to have him. I'm Griff Jenkins, filling in on the Brian Kilmead Show. We'll be right back. It's Brian Kilmead.
If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead. This is Griff Jenkins, your humble correspondent in Washington, filling in for the great Brian Killmead on the Brian Killmead Show. And we are talking with Brian Stern, a former U.S. Army Navy counterintelligence officer, also the founder of the international rescue nonprofit group, Gray Bull Rescue, doing incredibly heroic and important work.
Brian, I want to talk about that, but just to pick up where we left off on our conversation, and that is we were talking about Trende Aragua, the threats coming across the border, the concern that we could have someone that wants to do great harm to America, exploit the previous administration's open border, and particularly the threat from Venezuela in Trende Aragua, now designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration. And just picking up on that, Brian, I was the first on Fox and of any reporter to report this because the Border Patrol gave it to me. Me, they looked back across CBP, ICE, Border Patrol. There isn't a single record of a Trende Aragua member being apprehended or arrested prior to the year 2022. And it happened late in 2022.
This was entirely created under the previous administration. And now we know that Trende Aragua has had arrests. And I built an entire map for Fox that is shown often on our air. More than 17 states now have it, and the administration is calling it an invasion. How serious of a threat do you think Trende Aragua is to us?
I think it's a tremendous threat. I think it is potentially one of the most existential threats. or not even an existential threat that we face uh uh at least in recent times you know, it's important to understand that that be because Because Trent originates in Venezuela, Venezuela is basically it's a criminal enterprise with a seat at the United Nations. That's all it really is. It's a criminal syndicate, no different than any other criminal enterprise.
And because it's a nation state, With its ties to Russia, with its deep ties to Iran, and by proxy Hezbollah, the Trendier Aragua training camps. Look very similar to the Hezbollah training camps and other terrorist training camps that we've seen.
So we know that they've been trained, we know they've been taught preycraft, we know they've been taught sabotage, subversion, homemade explosives. We're very focused on the narcotics piece. Which is there But make no mistake, they're so much more than just a bunch of people who have come to America to find better jobs. They're here to cause problems. They're here to break things.
They're here to kill people. They're here to take apart institutions. They're here to subvert the United States. They they are no different than Hezbollah. They just happen to speak Spanish.
Frightening, frightening words. And great, great insight from Brian Stern, a former U.S. Army and Navy counterintelligence officer and the founder of the rescue nonprofit Gray Bull Rescue. Brian, thank you much for your insight. Check out that Netflix if you haven't.
I'm Griff Jenkins, and for Brian, kill me, we'll be back. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Oh, it makes you think all right. I'm Griff Jenkins, your humble correspondent from Washington, just filling in for Brian Kilmead.
Big shoes to Phil here. Brian is off today. What an honor to be sitting in here talking to the great listeners of the Brian Kilmead radio show. And I, you know, one of the things we got to get to some news here, and that was something that I covered yesterday. And that is the it was ultimately, we saw yesterday DHS Secretary Christy Noam testifying before the Senate, and then later in the afternoon, the House of Representatives holding a hearing related to the threats to ICE.
And what was not surprisingly a center of attention was the incident that happened at Delaney Hall, the Newark, New Jersey ICE Detention Center, when you had a handful of lawmakers, all Democrats, that were literally charged. The ICE facility there saying that they needed to conduct oversight.
Now, ultimately, Secretary Noam, under questioning, From Democrat senators said, listen, we are more than happy to allow members of Congress to do their required obligated oversight duties, but you cannot show up unannounced and start just charging in, and you certainly cannot. And Tom Holman has reiterated this too: push, shove, and lay hands on ICE officers, let alone law enforcement officers. It's a secure facility, and it was causing quite a scene, so much so that that incident resulted in one of those Democrats, Congresswoman LaMonica MacIver, being charged with assault of officers. The Democrats spending much of yesterday saying that they are going to double down and they are going to continue to try and go to facilities and that they think that it is outrageous that a member of Congress has been charged with anything, despite the fact that she was. Laying hands, and that's being polite about it, on those ICE officers who are simply trying to keep order and work the security of the facility.
Yesterday, President Trump, while on Capitol Hill making his case for the big, beautiful bill, took a question and weighed in on Representative MacIver and the incident there at Delaney Hall. Here is some of what he said: Cut 19. Did you see her? She was out of control. Those days are over.
The days of woke, no, I didn't. The days of woke are over. That woman, I have no idea who she is. That woman was out of control. She was shoving federal agents.
She was out of control. The days of that crap are over. And it's fascinating uh That the president's talking about those days are over.
Now, those days are what he's referring to, I think, is that the days of politicians protecting, remember the people that we have learned from the director of ICE, Todd Lyons, tells us the people inside that facility are criminal, illegal aliens, gangbangers, people with rap sheets. And he, President Trump, is talking about politicians, Democrats in particular, protecting those illegal criminal aliens. And clearly, we'll see where the politics of this goes and whether Democrats decide to die on this hill, which I would submit to you is not necessarily a hill worth dying on because ultimately the political message that it sends to the country is that, you know, these illegal criminal aliens matter more than you do. And that isn't a winning message for any politician, regardless of the color of your stripes. And it was the lesson, by and large, of the 2024 election that Democrats have yet to find a way to course correct.
They simply are not course correcting. They're doubling down on that. And we saw that yesterday from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. This is the top Democrat in the Senate weighing in on this McIver being charged by the DOJ. It's cut 21.
Listen to this. Look, I think what they're doing is outrageous, and I think that, you know, this is typical of the Justice Department trying to intimidate anybody who might oppose them, whether they be an elected official, a judge, or anybody else. They're opposing, Chuck, I think, if I've got it correct, the criminal illegal aliens. You know, it's fascinating too. The other beef that President Trump and the Trump administration, Tom Homan, and others, Christy Noam, have had is with the sanctuary cities.
We keep getting more and more sanctuary cities just saying, Well, we're going to double down too and refuse to cooperate with ICE. I just reported this week on a case of an illegal alien from Guatemala that was literally arrested more than 30 times in Fairfax County, Virginia by the Fairfax County police. Arrested more than 30 times for drug possession, assault, burglary, theft, larceny-you name it. He had a rap sheet 15 pages long. ICE had 16 different ICE detainers on him requested over the course of three years.
He'd been arrested, he was in jail. ICE said he's here illegally. Please hand him over to us. They denied 16 times those detainers, and this guy was still out on the street. And Democrats are defending, in the name of sanctuary jurisdictions, criminal aliens like this individual.
His name is Michael Santos Santos. Fortunately, ICE was able to arrest him at large and Unfortunately, during the arrest, which was successful, he'll now be placed in removal proceedings. One of the ICE officers, we've learned from ICE, was injured. But yet, to hear Chuck Schumer, other prominent Democrats continuing to take the side of criminal illegal aliens is something that really you have to shake your head and pinch yourself and think: are they really going down this road? Are they really taking sides on that issue?
Is that where they hope to find political success now out of power within the minority in the House, in the Senate, and out of the White House? There's no issue, I would argue, that was more significant, that history will look back and say was more of a deciding factor than the issue of immigration. And more specifically, the countless Thousands, tens of thousands of communities, cities, even states that felt uncomfortable with what they saw before their very eyes coming in and posing a threat, a danger to the community. That was why you saw people across all demographics, across all political parties, said, It's time for a change. I want a change from this open border that the Biden administration is simply not going to change.
And they crossed all kinds of Of political and democratic lines to bring about that change. It was the top polling issue. Because of the threat to the communities that decided that election. And here we are months later with Democrats saying, I still want to take that position. And the American people are not going to continue to accept that.
The American people are not going to look favorably upon that sort of thing.
Now, whether or not it's an overreach by charging the DOJ charging assault charges against a sitting member of Congress, maybe that will work itself out and maybe she won't be charged. But it's pretty clear from Tom Homan and President Trump as well, and from Christy Noam, DHS Secretary, that there will be no tolerance on this issue. And that is the mandate that the American people gave them. It's not just a political one-off issue that a politician has come up with. This is a mandate that the American people wanted the most fundamental of basic rights.
and that is not only freedom but safety. Safety is what they demanded. Safety is what President Trump did. In the clearest first order of business, you saw the Trump administration secure the border. As Christy Noam testified yesterday, border crossings are down 93%.
You haven't seen me or my good friend and colleague Bill Melusian at the border since the Trump administration has come in because there's no one there. Christy Noam testified yesterday about reverse migration in the Darien Gap, that dangerous jungle crossing between Colombia and Panama. I am the only correspondent for Fox that went down there for weeks and did live reports during the Biden administration when there were thousands every day. You talk today to the numbers and you learn that not only is it down 93% from border crossings right now, but the gotaways, those that the great former Army and Navy intelligence officer Brian Stern was talking about, the threat, the gotaways, the ones we don't know about. About.
That was averaging, according to Tom Homan, about $1,800 to $2,000 a day.
Now it's under 200. Still some work to be done. And as we heard from Christy Noam yesterday, one out of every three CBP cameras and towers across the border are still not functional because of what was left by the Biden administration. That's why she's asking in her budget for billions of dollars to repair that so we can get those gotaways from 200 down to zero to try and secure the border and to secure the nation. But a remarkable issue.
I raise it obviously because I'm close to it and report a lot on it, but I felt like it would be worth taking time to sort of talk about it because we're watching a remarkable incident play out in the Delaney Hall, Newark facility there and really with where Democrats are choosing to align themselves. Listen, we've got a lot more coming up. We've got a great guest, Carol Markowitz, New York Post columnist coming up. We've got a lot to talk to. Her about.
I'm Griff Jenkins trying to fill the giant shoes of the great Brian Kilmead here on the Brian Kilmead Show. We'll be right back. Politics, current events, and news that affects you. Brian's got a lot more to say. Stay with Brian Kilmead.
Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. Oh, we'll break news, all right. Griff Jenkins filling in here for the great Brian Kilmead and having too much fun and covering the news. I'm glad to bring in one of my absolute favorite columnists from the New York Post, Carol Markowitz.
Carol, thanks for joining us. I want to get to an issue I know we're going to hear a lot about in the Post, and that is we've now learned here at Fox that DOJ has opened a criminal probe of Andrew Cuomo, the former governor, now the frontrunner in the New York mayorals race with a primary, I believe, next month. The DOJ accusing him of lying to Congress when he testified before Congress last summer about his response to COVID-19. Remember, requiring nursing homes to accept COVID patients. What do you make of it?
Hi, Griff.
So nice to be on with you. Thank you for having me.
Well, I think that it's. Pretty clear that Andrew Cuomo did lie under oath to Congress. His team had apologized to other Democrats in New York for saying, We know we put you in a tough political situation, and we're sorry about the whole putting COVID-positive patients in nursing home and lying about the numbers. That was a big part of it. And then when he spoke to Congress, obviously, he denied any of that.
So I think that. It's a tough situation because it's clear that I think it happened. I'll use allegedly here just in case, but allegedly happened. But what New York is facing is that in second place for the mayoral race is a straight-up communist. He wants government-run grocery stores.
He is just a cornucopia of communist ideas.
So Andrew Cuomo becomes sort of the great hope. And you have this really tough situation where people don't know what to root for. That's incredible to think the way you just put it, Carol. The great hope. Andrew Cuomo is the great hope.
And by the way, to back up your recollection, I mean, remember, New York State did an investigation into the COVID stuff of the nursing home, and they found many of the very glaring problems. To be fair, though, Cuomo's spokesman did issue a statement to Fox saying this: We have never been informed of any such matter, so why would someone leak it now? The answer is obvious. This is lawfare and election interference, plain and simple.
Something President Trump and his top Department of Justice officials say they are against.
So it's interesting, a bit of flipping the table here. It is. It is interesting. And so, what's additionally interesting is that if Cuomo goes on to win the primary, he will be competing against current Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent, who is also continues to be under, well, actually, the Trump administration quashed the investigation, but there's questions. Around his tenure as mayor.
So, if these two people are running against each other, it'll be very interesting to see which one New Yorkers pick. Is there any doubt in your mind, Carol, that Cuomo is going to win it? I got to tell you, I was up filling in, filling in host for Fucks and Friends Weekend back in February. I believe it was Valentine's Day weekend. And out of nowhere, Andrew Cuomo drops this like super.
Polished, you know, highly produced visit he made to like an old folks-looking kind of home on like wishing people Valentine's Day. And they're all cheering, and it's set up like you would expect any top national politicians. I don't know if you remember that, but I saw that. I'm like, this guy's serious. This guy might actually win.
Well, he's certainly in poll position to win, but I really don't know because New York City is experimenting with ranked voting, which wasn't around for the time. I moved away from New York three years ago. I'm a proud Floridian now, but I still follow the state very, very closely. And it is my home state. But they're doing this ranked choice voting, and nobody really knows how it's going to go.
Cuomo seems poised to win, but who knows what could happen with this new system? It's unclear who will be splitting which votes here. I mean, am I going to see you, Carol, making a breakfast stroll in the morning with Steve Doocy on Fox and Friends? I know you are. We're up there down there.
Oh, everybody. We welcome the whole Fox team to Florida. Please come. Move the whole operation down. Do we really need this cold weather?
I'm in New York today. We don't need this. Oh, yeah, I'll tell you. I'll tell you. Listen, I'm a surfer.
I've been a surfer my whole life. I mean, the older I get, the more I gravitate towards the warm ocean waters anywhere I can find it.
So I want to sort of put this in perspective.
So Should Cuomo actually win the primary, and he would be obviously well suited to win it. You know, is that ultimately what's best for New Yorkers? Or when you're looking at the alternative, being a potentially communist-influenced guy, or is that more, in sort of your opinion, geared towards Cuomo looking to just put a positive final chapter in his long-running drama series? It's such a tough question because, look, I love New York. I root for New York.
I want it to do better. I wanted to recover from the COVID years, but I have so much anger at Andrew Cuomo for what he did during those years. I mean, just the very fact of him putting elderly COVID-positive patients back in nursing homes when we knew nothing about COVID at all, we knew not to do that. And he did. It anyway.
And it's just this carelessness and the fact that he treated New York City quite poorly during that time. He kept our schools closed. He kept restaurants closed when they were open elsewhere in the state. He just. He did not seem to have New York City's best interests at heart.
Having said all that, if I were still a New Yorker, first of all, I would be holding on to Mayor Adams with. All my fingernails because I think he's the best option of the bunch. But if not, then Andrew Cuomo would likely be my second choice just because we can't.
