'Troublesome' Senators endangering Trump's big, beautiful bill

Hi everyone, I'm Brian Kilmead. If you want something fun and easy to search for homes and apartments, then you should be using the Redfin app. Whether I'm searching for my next place, if I want to buy, if I want to rent, or if I just want to scroll through and see some dream homes, like for example, something on the beach or at least a walk to the beach, a big house, second, maybe a third floor, I use the Redfin app. Redfin makes it fun to search all the homes for sale and apartments for rent in your neighborhood. You can filter for price, for beds, for baths, square footage, and so much more.

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Hi, everyone. Welcome to the latest moments of the show.

So glad you're there. I'm here, and we have Donald Trump starting his 20th week in office, 20th week, and so much has already happened. Usually, enough for four years. Even Democrats admitting he seems to be in a rush, and maybe we can learn from that. Although, of course, they don't like a lot of what he's doing.

I'm going to talk to a real political expert, grew up in the business, Chris Noonan, former governor of New Hampshire, whose dad was chief of staff of Bush 41, and so much more. And we're also going to take your calls at 1-866-408-7669.

So let's get to the big three. Number three. It certainly does establish that this country, whose president was being told at the White House that he didn't have any cards to play, that he apparently has quite a few cards to play, including this daring attack, then who knows what else the Ukrainians, who have proved pretty ingenious, may have up their sleeves. Brilliant and possibly game-changing. Massive genius drone attack in Russia by Ukraine still has Russian society paralyzed in paranoia.

They check in every truck. Every driver wondering if one is filled with more drones to attack more planes, more trains, and more bridges. Number two. Mr.

Solomon stated that he had been planning this attack for a year, and he acted because he hated what he called. the Zionist group. That is Bishop Gruelle over in Boulder, Colorado, wishing he could have killed more. That's what this flamethrowing terrorist said after being arrested in Boulder for his anti-Semitic attack on Israeli supporters. Why this has to stop and why some think that it all started on college campuses.

Number one. Another item high on our list to begin work on in June is a rescissions package the White House intends to send Congress this week. The administration has identified a number. of wasteful uses of taxpayer dollars, and we will be taking up this package. and eliminating this waste.

Four weeks to make it work. That's what Trump and Thune have to do. Draft and pass. As troublesome senators visit the White House Monday, along with Leader Thune, we're going to talk about hurdles and the House. Keep in mind, too, that Senator Thune's going to be joining the Tuesday show.

Now, what is in the Big Beautiful bill that's controversial?

Well, they said there's not enough spending to be cut, except if you talk to Susan Collins, she'll say it's just fine. Don't cut Medicaid at all. When they're not cutting Medicaid, what they're doing is adding work requirements to it, making sure illegals are not benefiting from it. and also making sure that you are getting Medicaid, which is state aid. You are getting it one state at a time, wiping out that fraud which is just widespread.

But if you touch Medicaid, people feel it's a third rail for the midterms and for the elections. I think you got to make some bold moves. People say also that the big bill adds money to the deficit.

Some say no. If you look at what the CBO says, they see the economy growing at 1.8%. We've never had 10 years of anemic growth of 1.8%. If you grow the economy 2.5% or 3%, which you could say with the trade deals and this bill is possible, there is not going to be any deficit, any money added to the deficit. But you can't convince Rand Paul of that.

Cut five. The bill increases the debt ceiling by five trillion dollars. This will be the largest increase in the debt ceiling ever in our history, and we've never raised the debt ceiling without actually meeting that target.

So You can say it doesn't directly add to the debt, but if you increase the ceiling five trillion, you'll meet that. And what it does is it puts it off the back burner and then we won't discuss it for a year or two.

So I think it's a a terrible idea to do this.

So Thune insisted he still wants to get the package off Capitol Hill on July 4th. I don't think that he plans on getting Rand Paul. I like what Ron Johnson says. Senator Johnson says the package is too big. I want to get back to pre-pandemic spending, and I'm going to work to get it passed.

Rather than ah Too much is in the deficit. I don't want it. Tom Massey, Rand Paul. Are they getting to work? Donald Trump picked up the phone yesterday, invited everyone to the White House, Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, Rick Scott, that have been critical for different reasons of what the House is handing over.

And he doesn't get into who's right or wrong. He said, what do we need to do to get this pass? Understand what the stakes are. Russ Boyd. Boat, who played a critical plays a critical role in making this all work, OMB director, explained.

That we're going to have critics, including Elon Musk. But then he goes out of his way to define why they are wrong. Cut nine. I love, Elon. This bill doesn't increase the deficit or hurt the debt.

In fact, it lowers it by $1.4 trillion. And so when you assume the extension of the President's tax relief from 2017, this budget or this bill and it is really a reconciliation bill. It is not really a budget bill. It is using a budget process. This is a $1.4 trillion over 10 years deficit reduction.

It is $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings. Obviously, we have a little bit of spending in there as well for border and defense. But that is the biggest mandatory savings package that we have seen since the 1997. It is very historic. He'll go deep on it.

And I just think that if you look at what President Trump has done with his team. When it comes to these issues of explaining, they don't need. Preps. They don't need to be get talking points. They live it.

Russ Fot lives this stuff. You don't need to. You can't catch him. You can say whatever you want about him. You're not going to catch him.

And if you have Scott Bessett, the Treasury Secretary, you're not going to catch him in a negative situation because he understands exactly what he's doing. Reince Priebus, former Chief of Staff of the President. Is on a you know in hostile territory for ABC, a role that Chris Christie used to play, but now he's so vehemently anti-Trump they kind of put him in just a you know a guest role, but he's still a great guest. Here's Ryan's Priebus on the truth about Medicaid and why does it matter? If you cut Medicaid, you loot Josh Hawley.

Why? Most of the people in his Missouri, in the state, they said, are rural, they need Medicaid. Question is, if they're able-bodied people, why do they need it? Are they impoverished? Is it something they can't work their way out of?

And why isn't the state paying for it? Cut 12. But you cannot sit here and tell me that 30 more million people on Medicaid and us and the Republicans saying we want able-bodied people who are mostly in the expanded pool of Medicaid recipients to check in with the federal government twice a year is going to cause people to die. We're not talking about elderly. No, you are wrong.

We are not talking about elderly people. We are not talking about people that have kids under seven years old. We are talking about people who should probably start looking for a job. And that's what people don't want to hear. But a lot of it is the facts.

So, and what Barack Obama did, telling everyone on Medicaid, we'll pay the federal government if you just expand it.

So, the federal government writes the check, governors look good, suddenly people have insurance, they get reelected, they go out of office, Obama leaves, and now you got this huge federal bill.

Well, I don't know why we have a deficit.

Well, because you pay Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. And the president said, I don't want to touch any of it.

So that leaves only one-third of the budget, if that, in order to debate.

So you got a trillion for the defense budget, that's an additional $140 million, and you have more money for the border. including $46 billion for the wall. We'll see where that goes. This is going to be a big week in terms of the economy and trade. President of the United States is going to talk to President Xi this week.

He also said, you got till tomorrow to make your offer, EU, Japan, India, Vietnam, major countries that want to redo trade relationship. We demand they redo their trade relationship and balance it out with us.

So that's Wednesday to get a deal.

So I think the president wants to be in the Oval Office cutting some deals. And he wants to do it. Japan was there last week. What is the holdup? I hear it's over cars.

So about the tariffs, you want them lifted. And Japan is really upside down when it comes to debt. They have a productive economy, but financially it's not working out. They have massive stagflation and they have massive debt over there.

So they don't want to add more to the cars.

So Scott Bessant. was asked to take on a lot of people, including Jamie Diamond, who said this over the weekend, he might be the most respected banker in the country, Cut twenty nine. I just got back from China last week. They're not scared, folks. This notion they're going to come bow to America.

I wouldn't count on that. And when they have a problem, they put 100,000 engineers on it. And they've been preparing for this for years.

Well, the problem is they're also violating the deal. What they told us in Geneva was we're going to stop ban we're not going to hold back any rare earth material for which is for our tech center, for our military.

Well they did. And that's the problem.

So already they're not living up. to the deal they caught in Geneva. Here's present cut twenty eight Well, they did. They were uh they violated A big part of the agreement we've made. You know, if you read that whole statement, I was very nice to them.

I helped them because they were in trouble with the stoppage of. A massive amount of business. But I'm sure that I'll speak to President Xi and hopefully we'll work that out. But yeah, that's a there's a violation of the agreement. Yeah, so that's the problem.

So it's up for them to have a conversation this week. The markets will be directly affected, I am sure. About Jamie Dimon predicting things, about he's worried about the bond market tearing up. He's worried about Japan. Excuse me, he's worried about China.

This is what Scott Besson says. He's known him for a while. Cut 30.

So, again, I've known Jamie a long time, and for his entire career, he's made predictions like this. Fortunately, none of them have come true. That's why he's a banker, a great banker. He tries to look around the corner. One of the reasons I'm sitting here talking to you today and not at home watching your show is that I was concerned about the level of debt.

So, the deficit this year is going to be lower than the deficit last year, and in two years, it will be lower again. We are going to bring the deficit down slowly. There you go. And that's his approach. That's what he said when he was our guest.

He's been on about 10 times on radio. When no one knew him, he was in here saying that's his main focus. He's worried about income disparity. And he's a billionaire, all right? Self-made billionaire.

Didn't have any money, working since he was nine years old. Success story, obviously, extremely bright. Self-made billionaire who said, I want to work for $200,000 to fix the country. That's pretty much why you want people to go into office, don't you? Bottom of the hour, Governor Kristenunu.

We'll talk about the politics of the Big Beautiful Bill, and we'll talk about the attacks in Ukraine. They were brilliant. We have more information now. I also have an account of what's happening in Russia. You're going to be fascinated by.

Don't move. You're listening to the Brian Kilmead show. Diving deep into today's top stories. It's Brian Kilmead. Hi, everyone.

I'm Brian Kilmead. If you want something fun and easy to search for homes and apartments, then you should be using the Redfin app. Whether I'm searching for my next place, if I want to buy, if I want to rent, or if I just want to scroll through and see some dream homes, like, for example, something on the beach or at least a walk to the beach, a big house, second, maybe a third floor, I use the Redfin app. Redfin makes it fun to search all the homes for sale and apartments for rent in your neighborhood. You can filter for price, for beds, for baths, square footage, and so much more.

So if you find a place you love, Redfin makes it easy to go see it in person. Just schedule a tour right from the app. Plus, if you're looking to sell, Redfin agents know how to get you the best price possible for your home. That's because they close twice as many deals as other agents. And with a listing fee as low as 1%, Redfin's fees are half of what others often charge, which means you'll have more money to put towards your next home.

So, whether you're looking to buy, you're looking to rent, you're looking to sell, Redfin's got you covered. Download the Redfin app to get started. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead. Certainly does establish that this country, whose president was being told at the White House that he didn't have any cards to play, That he apparently has quite a few cards to play, including this daring attack, which, you know, if if the if the Ukrainians can b be believed wiped out about, you know, 30 to 40 percent.

Of Russia's strategic bombing force. That's a major setback for Russia. It is an embarrassing intelligence failure and an embarrassing defense failure. And who knows what else the Ukrainians, who have proved pretty ingenious, may have up their sleeves.

So a couple of things. Britt Hume is not only right, he's insightful. I talked to a general right now overseas that works extensively with the Ukrainians. He said, look out for something else coming.

Now remember, the Pager was the first hit, then they had a follow-up walkie-talkie hit with Hezbollah.

Now, these are unrelated intelligence operations, but the Walkie-Talkies also damaged a lot of Hezbollah because they said, okay, we can't use the Pagers because the Israelis exploded them on us.

So they used Walkie-Talkies, and then they exploded.

So what Britt Hume's referring to is the stunning move where four unsuspecting Russian military bases remotely activated roofs, lifted off mobile homes and sheds, parked on flatbed trucks inside Russia. They had armed Ukrainian drones tucked inside. They rose up, one went as far as someone as far as 4,000 miles and hid dozens of aircraft.

Now, in case you think they're overstating it, they're not, because I've seen the video. The video is out there. You could see the explosions of these aircraft, many of which they don't make anymore, but they were effective bombers torturing and killing civilians in Ukraine.

Now. I'm reading these accounts inside Russia. And one of our contacts in Russia wrote me and said, as predicted, the Russians are overreacting. And what they're doing is checking every truck, suspecting every driver, randomly arresting and pulling people over. And most of their transportation goes through trucks inside Russia.

It's just a mammoth country with 150 million people. It's bigger than ours. We have 300 million.

So you imagine how much open space there is. And now they suspect every truck, they suspect every driver because we had bridges blow up, trains derailed, military bases.

So this is Unbelievable, would they instill terror? And fear inside the Russian population. Why not? You started this war three years ago, you kidnapped children, you stole them from their parents, you torture political prisoners in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions, and then you bomb and target energy sectors and civilians in apartment complexes.

So you deserve a little bit of terror coming your direction.

So here is Senator John Thune, cut 39. We also stand ready to provide President Trump with any tools he needs to get Russia to finally come to the table in a real way. President Trump has invested considerable time in working to end the bloodshed in Ukraine. But Vladimir Putin appears more interested in prolonging the war than pursuing peace. And yesterday Yeah.

Less than an hour.

Some prisoners use change is disgust. They want a three-day pause. The Ukrainians want a 90-day or a 30-day pause. The Russians feel that if this falls apart, it's no big deal. We should say if these talks fall apart and you're not pursuing sincere peace, the $300 billion will be handed over to Ukraine or $150 billion of it frozen overseas.

Or, number two, have these massive sanctions that the Senate passed has got at least 80 votes, sponsored by Senator Blumenthal and Lindsey Graham. He talked about what could be coming their way, Cut 41. Our sanctions bill. Would make a tremendous difference in stopping the flow of revenue to Putin's war machine. 500% tariffs on any country buying energy products, oil and gas, from Russia would target India and China.

They buy 70% of it. And the message to China would be: we are. Choking off the revenue flow. We're putting Putin's economy on a trade island. And if you continue to support that war machine.

you will do no no business with the United States or to Europe. I love it. Let's just do it. And, Mr. President, use that as leverage.

Witkoff, who's ever doing the negotiations. Kellogg uses his leverage. Let me just give you an outline of what the Senate has passed, and it's veto-proof, so it's going to happen. My party's not going to turn on me, but I'm going to unleash it. And what they have is.

Massive sanctions on the central bank, sanctions on third parties buying their oil. That's China, that's India, that's Brazil, that's Turkey. It's happening. And I don't care who we alienate, enough. It's gotta stop.

And then if they have any success here, China takes Taiwan. and they move and take the rest to Georgia. To me, it's a huge problem. John Herps, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, told us this about the strike CUP43.

This is a truly extraordinary operation, demonstrating, one, how vulnerable Russia is to measures against Russian aggression in Russia itself, and how adept the Ukrainians are at understanding and exploiting those vulnerabilities. This operation is on par for, you might say, brilliance with the Israeli operation against Hezbollah last year. Truly extraordinary. It is. And by the way, that's where he's referring to the pages in the walkie-talkies.

So the German Chancellor is going to meet with the President on Thursday, arrives Wednesday night, at which time he is more committed to getting them the weapons they need. And it looks like Ukraine can write the checks to pay for the weapons, so why not give them the weapons, especially the Patriots? Not give them, sell them the weapons, especially the Patriots. But there's certain things that we have that nobody else has, including artillery. And we've got to be able to give them that because we're still looking at a pitched battle across the enemy lines.

They've taken 18% of the country. They want more before they sit down for a legitimate ceasefire. And they said they don't want a short-term ceasefire, they want a permanent one. That's what the Russians say. For Kyiv, Ukraine.

They say we'll take 30 days and then we'll negotiate. Kristen Noon is going to be in the studio next, going to inside the politics of it all. You'll listen to the Brian Kill Me Show.

So glad you're here. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Hey, we are back, and Governor Chris Nunu is here. He's got a brand new haircut.

He looks in fighting weight. I don't know what's going on. Are you doing cross-training? I can't afford a haircut now. What are you doing?

I do double jabs. I do the fat shot. I do six of them a week. Six of them a week. Yeah, I don't know which brand to take, so I just take them all, and it seems to be working.

You just have your butler do that, or do you have to shoot yourself? I'm working to a butler. I would love to have a butler. I want to be a snobby rich person someday. You not even have to talk to me.

I'm literally poor and doing my own floors, but I'm working my way to snobbery.

Well, here's the thing. Yeah, you're close. You're closer than you think. But especially, I watched you last time on CNN. I'm like, and you're just saying to yourself, why would I do that, Joe?

Well, Abby Phillips is a great person. It's a very bickering type show. It's not really, and so it brings out the worst to me. What are you accomplishing? What do we accomplish?

Sure, Michael's great, and Scott Jennings is great, but it brings out the worst to me because I get really frustrated on the show.

So I'll probably, I always say, I'm not going to do the show anymore. It just brings, you know, I get too angry, and then two weeks later, I'm like, you know what? I can do better. Let me get back in there.

Well, it doesn't. And, you know, let's say, I think you're better off here.

So Senator Thune's got his hands full. He's got a month to pass this big, beautiful bill. And he says, I'm going to be working to fine-tune it. What would you change? Look, I'm definitely more in the Rand Paul camp of things.

It's a thousand people. If you're not willing to make tough fiscal decisions now, then you're not giving this country any hope of having to do even the harder stuff down the road. And my message: look, I decided not to run for the Senate. One of the main reasons was I think I'd just be so frustrated there, right? As Rand Paul is.

And so my message to Thun, and I think Thune's great, by the way. I think he's nothing against Mitch McConnell, but the whole cast of characters there: McCormick, a car dealer from Ohio. Moreno. Moreno, great guys, right? Katie Britt, terrific.

New young generation of conservatives. But they got to understand that our fiscal crisis is bigger than anything. If I were Thune, I would ask everyone to hedge to that side because you have four or five that won't cut anything, four or five that want to cut more. I think that when in doubt as a conservative, as a Republican, that cares about the biggest issue, go for the cut.

So number one, they're adding $140 billion to defense, right? Because does anyone think we don't have to start building up defense? Does anyone think we have enough shifts? Does anyone think that we have modernized to affect? Shipbuilding is going to be critical.

You have to be said at the same time reform the Pentagon in a way that we've never done it before. We only talk about it in terms of spending.

So, look, I guess. And then the border. Those are the two things. The borders are the big one, and absolutely. But my argument with defense is this.

We all know that it's one of the most inefficient, right? Every report says it's massively inefficient in terms of how we procure. I think you could, you don't have to add the $140 billion. You can still do these new projects without losing a soldier, a bullet, anything. But it's so inefficient.

Like, there's so much waste. My son is a Marine, a crew chief on a helicopter. And when he talks about how much it costs just to replace washers, right, on one of their helicopters, it's outrageous.

So, this procurement and things you can do just to get those costs in line, but still add the programs and have the defense that you need. on the when they do the math. They, the CBO, says we project that the economy is going to grow 1.8 percent. And then, would uh would Bess and others say? What decade have we grown at one to pay percent?

We've never had that little growth. They believe that we will grow our way out of it. Yeah, CBO. Do you not see that? The CBO is wrong.

I think we have a much higher growth potential.

So, wouldn't that change your math? Absolutely. And again, that's why you don't have to cut the $2 trillion, right? There's a huge growth model here. The second quarter GDP numbers were phenomenal.

They look to be phenomenal. They're like over 4%, according to some predictions. And you're already seeing onshoring. Trump's onshoring plan of manufacturing.

Some of the initial job numbers as of a week ago are already showing onshoring. It's not taking two or three years like we thought. It's already happening. That's really, really positive stuff. But I just go back to Senator Thune.

If you're not willing to address Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security, I know those are the third rails. You know, and I gotta, I don't mean to pick on him directly, but Senator Hawley was like: to touch Medicaid is political suicide. Wrong to make tough decisions gets rewarded. And I'm a governor. I was a governor for four terms in eight years.

And we cut taxes, we cut budgets, we made hard decisions. We were super transparent about it. We talked about it and made sure the constituents understood that our job was to manage their money. Our job was to manage their programs. And you can do it efficiently, but you can't do it by keep adding to the tax.

So bring us back to Obama. He has Obamacare, and he says, I'm going to give states. Billions of dollars to expand Medicaid.

Now, only I think between 10 and 20 states have said no. Why? Because they didn't want to get used to the federal money because when the governors age out or the President Obama leaves, who's going to tell all my constituents that the federal money is dried up? It's an addiction, right? We got addicted to the money.

The 90% match, right?

So expanded Medicaid is a, instead of 50-50, like traditional Medicaid, expanded Medicaid, 90% comes from the federal government, which is exactly what it is. Which was never the intent, right? Never the intent. Is it supposed to be Medi-Cal? Medicaid is supposed to be state-funded?

Yes. It's always a 50-50 match.

So the federal government sustains it and expands it and says, don't worry, I'll give you the money. That's right.

So here's how you get out of it. And it's not about getting out of it. You don't just cut it off and go back to 50%.

Next year, you go to 83%, and then 75%, and then 65%. And that way you're giving the states time to say, you know, we need the government's pulling $40 million out. We can put $40 million in. Allow states in their budget process to Keep adding the dollars back in if they want. It's not about cutting SNAP benefits.

People aren't going to die when you see these cuts in Medicaid. Again, allowing states more flexibility. I would do block grants. Why should the federal government tell me how much of my Medicaid dollars can go to SNAP? They limit that, actually.

Or they say, this is how much you have for SNAP. Maybe I don't need that much for SNAP. SNAP is a food stamp program. Food stamp program, right?

So let states decide what they need. Right.

So when they say, well, they're cutting SNAP, I listened to Federman yesterday, and he's like, well, I don't think I'm going to go for the big, beautiful bill because they're cutting SNAP and cutting Medicaid. And I'm thinking to myself, not really. No, not really at all. To the chagrin of Ron Johnson and others, and you, because he's not cutting it. He says illegal immigrants are not going to get it.

That's what we're doing. That's right.

And remember, SNAP and all these programs that were juiced up under Obama and Biden hugely. Like, I mean, they're really ramped up well beyond, I don't want to say beyond the needs, but there are some states, like, for example, I'll just use New Hampshire. We have the lowest poverty rate in the country. We have huge needs. 10% have food insecurity.

But our SNAP program is good. It's solid. I could actually, they could probably use some of those dollars in other areas, but the federal government doesn't allow it. But if you gave us a ball of Medicare, Medicaid money and said, here, New Hampshire, here, California, here, Florida, you decide in your Medicaid population which of these individual programs need attention and which don't. And every state's gonna be a little different.

You can get rid of the bureaucracy. Here's one for you. I mean, I don't mean to get too wonky with your audience, but let's say within Medicaid, I want a certain drug to be approved because I have some people with some rare diseases. Do you know it takes like two years of bureaucratic nonsense in Washington, even though I run the program, to get that approved? Why are we doing that?

Let states make their own choices. Let states have control. Cut billions out of the bureaucracy. You create the efficiencies and ramp it down. Here's what Rand Paul said: cut 11.

Well, the math doesn't really add up. One of the things this big and beautiful bill is, is it's a vehicle for increasing spending for the military and for the border. It's about $320 billion in new spending. To put that in perspective, that's more than all the Doge cuts that we found so far.

So the increase in spending put into this bill exceeds the Doge cuts. When you look just at the border wall, they have $46.5 billion for the border wall.

Well, the current estimate from the CBP is $6.5 million per mile.

So if you did 1,000 miles, that's $6.5 billion. But they have $46 billion.

So they've inflated the cost of the wall eightfold.

So there's a lot of new spending that has to be counteracted.

Well, I would love a further definition of that because I thought $2 billion was like, what, 25 miles? That's what his last time. I don't think it's $6.5 million per mile. I don't know. But by the way, if they're overestimating the wall, that's not something Republicans are looking to do.

I mean, whether you're putting electronics on it, surveillance on it, things to that nature. But if you want to further define it, okay.

So the border's already closed without building the wall.

So Rand Paul is in the ire of the president. He said this just now. Rand votes no on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy losers. These people of Kentucky can't stand them.

This is a big growth bill. Yeah. Well, look, I'm not going to get the president and Rand Paul. I'm really not. I do like the growth aspects of it.

But, you know, Rand said something else in that same interview. He talked about, and I don't know the exact numbers, that the amount of. Cuts we need amount to about six or seven percent in virtually every program.

So let's say you take every government program, you cut about six or seven percent. In your home budget, if I said, look, you know, you got a ten percent reduction in your pay, so you got to cut six, we could all find ways to do that. Absolutely. I'm just tired, and everyone in America should not put up with this idea that it can't be done. And again, I go back to Senator Hawley, where he said it's not, it's political suicide.

No, it's not. It's not Medicaid. To cut anything. He said Medicaid, but. That means they're not going to cut Medicare.

That means they're not going to eventually deal with Social Security. Guys, if you don't build Social Security, it goes bankrupt. It goes bankrupt. As does Medicare, right?

So what happens? We have to borrow more money to keep those programs going. Inflation gets skyrocketed. The dollar gets weaker. We're not the reserve currency.

Go ask folks at BlackRock or Blackstone or KKR. They're investing in other currencies around the world, not because they don't believe in America, but because it just makes they're hedging their bets, right? The last group that had America as a triple A-rated bond this last month, that's gone. Nobody rates this AAA anymore. Guys, this is reality.

It is math. And I'm not trying to be so dire, but in the eight to 10 years we have left here before it all really crashes, someone's got to stand up and say, yes, Rand, we're willing to come with you and make some cuts. This is a scenario I absolutely can see happening. You pass this bill, you do the tax relationships. We see what's happened with the Trump economy.

We're going to find out. Everyone's like, oh, There's so much to unsettle this. Yeah, he's 11 weeks in. He's doing everything at once.

Some people, no one's ever really done like what he has done, but we could say that about Trump every day.

So the trade deals start coming in. The big beautiful the big beautiful bill passes.

Well, he's got three years left, three and a half years left. Can you go back in and just say we're going to be reforming Social Security? Can you go back in and say we're going to be focusing on Medicare now? And then a term limited President could make some really courageous decisions If he without hurting his party, easier. I think you've hit it right on the head.

And if I were the president, this is what I would go to the fiscal conservatives. I'd say, look, Give me what I need now. I know we're going to raise the debt ceiling and have to get through this now for that growth model. But along with that, para-pursu, I'm going to also say we're going to do, you know where I'm going with this, a balanced budget amendment. Not tomorrow, but we're going to do an amendment that says within the next five years, we will achieve a balanced budget and we're going to start on it today.

You can put that action into law, put those long-term guardrails, because that is what we're concerned about. We're not concerned about balancing the budget today. We're concerned about making sure it gets done before the crisis hits.

So Congress does have the ability to pass a law, give them guardrails, and say, within the next two or three years, this is going to be addressed. And that way it's not politically scary for everybody. It gives times for this stuff to roll out, but it assures the American people that the value of their dollar is secure. See, the one thing I have no patience with Tom Massey and Rand Paul. I appreciate what they stand for, but you got to roll up your sleeves and get and just find the middle ground.

That's true. That's good work. Ron Johnson says, I want to see the president be successful. I don't like the bill. But he's going to work.

He's going to sit there in committee. He's going to hammer Josh Hawley personally, and publicly, perhaps, and they're going to find something that works. Here's cut ten. I think what has disappointed me about the debate that went through the House, if you even call it that, we weren't looking at the facts and figures. The only figure we ever heard about was $1.5 trillion.

Sounds like a lot, but when you put it in context of the $89 trillion we're going to spend over the next 20 years, the $22 trillion in additional deficit we're going to incur, that's $2.2 trillion per year. per year deficit. It's completely unsustainable. I agree with Jamie Dimon here.

So that's his concern. We had Ray Dalio on last week, and he said the percentage of the debt needs to get at 3%. He goes, right now it's at 6% or 7%.

So if you get it to 3%, we're fine. That's right.

But he goes, historically, empires collapse when it gets to. Above it. That's exactly right. And so there's time. This is very doable.

I would hope that they would grab the moment because the clock is ticking. You just can't keep kicking the can down the road. And again, to your exact point, find that middle ground. And I would ask Thunin, and like I said, I respect the heck out of him, what can you give these guys with a little more of a long-term fiscal conservative guideline, guidepost to make them understand that, you know, we're willing to meet us in the middle in the short term and I'll give you something in the long term. Where are those discussions?

And again, to say, well, we're not going to talk about Social Security and Medicare. It's a disservice to the American people. The president said that. And I would say this. He's trying to get elected.

The answer isn't we're going to reform Medicare. We're going to fix Medicare. We're not going to reform Social Security. We're going to fix it. Because as you know, when Social Security goes bankrupt, if you're on Social Security right now, you all lose 18% of your benefits.

That's in law. Do you know what's fixing? It's so easy with Social Security. And again, being a simple, not great at math, but understanding it. But for example, there's only a threshold that certain people pay in Social Security.

And I reach, because I have a great job now. I didn't have one before. I reached my cap in like four months. That's right.

You could take more from me. You know, other people go 12 months, and all of a sudden it balances out. You go up one year in age eligibility. All of a sudden, it balances out. Give people a 62 option.

But now you say there's an incentive to wait to 69. Or you have a cap. When you've made a certain amount of money, you're not getting as much. And by the way, wealthy people will be happy to give that up if it means security in the system. More from Chris Anunu in a moment, including that stunning attack from the Ukrainians inside Russia in a way I didn't think was possible.

Don't move. Yeah. Increasing your intelligence quotient. What the hell did you just say? It's Brian Kilmead.

Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. And this is also a great strategic benefit for the United States. Because those planes that were destroyed, TU-22s, TU-95s, are in fact nuclear-capable planes. They are used for Russian nuclear weapons, which are first and foremost targeting the United States or use against the United States.

So we are more, we are safer from Russian nuclear structure. Strikes as a result of Ukraine's action. John Herps, former ambassador to Ukraine in Kyiv, talking to me yesterday and just saying that brilliant move to have these trucks and sheds open up and out come 117 minimum drones that derail trains, blow up bridges, and blow up dozens of aircraft and probably more. Governor Chris Sununu is still with me. This is something for the ages.

It's huge. And it isn't huge that they did it. It's huge where they did it. They did it 1,000 miles into Russia's interior.

So it wasn't something just right over the border. They showed that they have reach, they have accuracy, they have capability. And if, and again, I'm a big believer that you've got to keep backing Ukraine to force now force Russia to the table because they've been unwilling to come.

So it'll be interesting to see where it goes.

Well, it's a great move. With nothing's happening with the talks, the president said I'm giving it two weeks. How much more before the president just tells the Senate, go have at it? Because it's a veto-proof bill to sanction Russia.

So the sanctions would be great. But again, I think everyone's watching to see the president's next move here. Because he said, look, nothing's going to happen until Putin talks. He's got to get more engaged. A conversation is one thing.

This move by Ukraine, maybe there'd be a second move by Ukraine, a similar type move. Because what he's really trying to do is bring the Russian public into it, the Russian people into it, to put some more pressure on the Kremlin to end this thing. The sanctions hurt, you know, definitely Russia, without a doubt. But when it hits your interior, when you see explosions in Russia, and the Russian people are seeing that I like to see him give more weapons. Absolutely.

Because they're taking those money. Like those weapons so they can hit a little deeper, a little firmer, and force Russia to the money. But you don't have to give them drones. You give them steel. They know how to make it themselves.

So now you give them patriots and you baby war. If they're made in America, I have no problem giving them weapons if they're made in America. How about Germany's new attitude? They're going to spend 5%, the chancellor's coming Thursday, and they're going to start giving long permission to use our weapons deeper into Russia. Would that be?

Be happening if Trump wasn't elected? Not at all.

So, I mean, that's where Trump, I think, has really deserves a lot of credit. What he's done to Europe. I don't want to say bringing them to heal, but I'll call it inspiring them to do the right thing, back their counter, back their own play, because it's their neighborhood. And again, they're talking about 5%. As long as they actually commit to it in Germany, that would lead the rest of the country.

And the last thing was: you can never trust Iran. They've been a bad actor since 1979, since your dad was in office. This has to end. Until women are wearing mini skirts again in Iran, I trust nothing with those goofy. Thanks, Governor.

From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian. In Kill Mead. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the latest moments of the Brian Kilmey Show.

We come to you from 48th and 6th in Midtown Manhattan. Heard around the country, though, and around the world, where. They say crime is hit all-time. In terms of shootings and murders, we're hitting one of the all-time lows. I guess four-month, the five-month mark, or coming up on the six-month mark.

I guess that's true. It doesn't feel that way, I'll tell you that. This hour, we're going to be joined by Mayor Glenn Jacobs. He's also in the WWE Hall of Fame. You might know him as Kane.

And we're going to do a simulcast on FBN with Stuart Varney. Jerry Willis is standing by from Fox Business. But before we get to her, let's get to the big three. Number three. It certainly does establish that this country whose president was being told at the White House that he didn't have any cards to play, that he apparently has quite a few cards to play, including this daring attack, then who knows what else the Ukrainians, who have proved pretty ingenious, may have up their sleeves.

That is a great point, Britt Hume, as usual. Brilliant and possibly game-changing. A massive drone attack in Russia by Ukraine still has Russian society paralyzed in paranoia and an Air Force devastated. Number two. Mr.

Solomon stated that he had been planning this attack for a year, and he acted because he hated what he called. the Zionist group. And that is Boulder, Colorado's investigator. Wish he could have killed more. That's what the flamethrowing terrorist said after being arrested in Boulder for his anti-Semitic attack on Israeli supporters.

Why this has to stop, and why some think it all started on college campuses, including me. Number one. Another item high on our list to begin work on in June is a rescissions package the White House intends to send Congress this week. The administration has identified a number. of wasteful uses of taxpayer dollars and we will be taking up this package.

and eliminating this waste. Four weeks to make it work. That's what Trump and Thune have to draft and pass. As troublesome senators visit the White House Monday, along with Leader Thune, we'll talk about the hurdles and the House. And Jerry Willis, welcome back.

Thank you for having me, Brian. And of course, you have your host of Real Tough Women on Fox Nation, host of the Fearless and Proud podcast, and author of a brand new book called Lincoln's Lady, Spy Master. And I want to get to that. But first things first, would it help the economy for this bill to pass roughly the shape it's in now, even though we know it's going to be fine-tuned?

Well, the question is: is it going to help the economy? Yes. But is it going to help our budget deficit and debt? No, right? I mean, that's what's going on here.

But do you find it amazing now, although the debt's always been an issue? We have the rescue plan. We got the new Green Deal. Nobody's talking about the deficit. Oh, well, this big, beautiful bill.

Now, Democrats are like, I'm worried about the deficit. First time. First time ever. From the Dems, right? Oh, how could we possibly do this?

It's ridiculous. Yeah. They're talking out of both sides of their mouth. But you know, Democrats and Republicans are bad at spending too much money, in my view. Right.

Here's Russell vote on that because Elon Musk, like you, was critical of the Big Beautiful bill, cut nine. I love Elon. This bill doesn't increase the deficit or hurt the debt. In fact, it lowers it by $1.4 trillion. And so when you assume the extension of the President's tax relief from 2017, this budget or this bill, and it is really a reconciliation bill, it is not really a budget bill.

It is using a budget process. This is a $1.4 trillion over 10 years deficit reduction. It is $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings. Obviously, we have a little bit of spending in there as well for border and defense. But that is the biggest mandatory savings package that we have seen since the 1997.

It is very historic. So that is Russell Vogue. Is he wrong? No, I mean I I I Look, if I had my drothers, we would reduce. There's still spending to be reduced.

There absolutely is. And people say that, you know, Musk did a lot. He could have done more. I wish he would have stayed. I wish he wasn't going away.

The unit is still there. Yes, but it's not being run by him. And let's face it, he put a spotlight on this like nobody has ever done. He showed us things about waste and fraud that we had never seen. It's not just about spending too much money on silly programs that are made up.

It's about not taking care of our taxpayer dollars. Like, there's an attitude that, oh, it's the government's money and we'll do whatever the hell we want to with it. Because it's not yours. Just like, you know, just same with when it comes to medical. If you walked into a doctor's office, they said, even your dentist, well, you're going to have to take a wisdom teeth out of this or to get an appendix out of this.

We don't have any idea what the money is because it's from insurance to hospital and it goes in circles and then you could always dispute what you owe. Yeah, I mean, so the idea that the treasury sends out checks without keeping a list of what they're spending to me.

Well, that's changed now, right? Yes, but. That was astonishing to me. You tell that to a business person, they're like, How do you how do you run a business? How do you do that?

I mean, how does that work? It can't work. Not to I want to bring you into the politics of it, though, because on the other hand, we have so we have the Republicans saying you're not cutting enough, and then we have Democrats saying you're cutting too much, cut through. Make no mistake, the fight against this bill Yes, could be a silly. is ramping up today.

It starts with Senate Democrats showing the American people what the bill actually is, one ugly bill. One of the most reckless, odious, and self-serving pieces of legislation we have seen in a long time. All right. Yeah, I know.

So what they're saying is he's cutting Medicaid, cutting SNAP, and people will die. But what they're doing is getting criticism for not cutting enough on SNAP, just illegal immigrants. And when it comes to Medicaid, they're saying check twice a year for eligibility and have a work program for those people able-bodied without a job. And the problem with that is what? I don't see a problem with it either.

I mean, we have to be careful about how we spend taxpayer money. You know why? Because we want dollars to go to people in need, not to people who don't need. Good point. Among the people that are upset by it is Rand Paul, and he has gotten the President's ire, who just ripped him before.

Cut 11.

Well, the math doesn't really add up. One of the things this big and beautiful bill is, is it's a vehicle for increasing spending for the military and for the border. It's about $320 billion in new spending. To put that in perspective, that's more than all the Doge cuts that we've found so far.

So the increase in spending put into this bill exceeds the Doge cuts. When you look just at the border wall, they have $46.5 billion for the border wall.

Well, their current estimate from the CBP is $6.5 million per mile.

So if you did 1,000 miles, that's $6.5 billion. But they have $46 billion.

So they've inflated the cost of the wall eightfold.

So there's a lot of new spending that has to be counteracted.

And the only thing is, if that is indeed the math. Go in there. You say, I'm going to work them. Ron Johnson said, I'm going to work on this. I don't like it.

So I'm going to work it. Tom Massey, I'm not going to do anything. This is too much waste. Really? What do you do for a living?

Go in there and negotiate. Go in there and negotiate. Try to make it the same thing. They would rather stand in front of cameras and complain about it, get people to watch them on TV. They don't do the hard work.

I mean, It's frustrating to watch this process. It absolutely is. If we're going to spend anything extra, I think spending on defense, though, makes sense. Right.

And then Governor Sununu is just telling me, do you realize the most inefficient branch of the government is the Pentagon? And he says, well, you got to fix it before you put more billions into it. I go, well, how do you do both? With China and Russia breathing down our necks, North Korea, a Golden Dome that needs to be built. It's I wish there was a Doge team just on the Pentagon.

Well, I mean, so that is a critical need right now, in my view. And what you need is. Big muscles, right? We don't have those big muscles right now. We need to be prepared for anything.

China needs to feel like, you know, oh, the US of A, they're ready to go on anything. They don't feel that way anymore. All right. So, Jerry, let's talk about this. You have a passion for history.

Yes. Where did this come from? And I've read your books. Oh, thank you. I've read The President and the Freedom Fighter.

I read the one about the Triple E pirates. Thomas Joseph. Thank you. Yes. Would you focus on the Civil War?

Yes. Which I did the President Freedom Fighter looking at Lincoln and Douglas, how they worked together. You said they were spies in the Civil War, and you have one woman in particular. Elizabeth Van Loo.

So she was both a spy for the Union. Her reports went directly to the desk of Ulysses S. Grant in the field, wrapped around a rose from her farm. And she was a Southern bell.

So she knew how to coax information out of people. She knew how to make friends in high places. And she was so insinuated into the capital of the Confederacy because she was born in Richmond, Virginia, that she knew everybody. And those people she couldn't coax information out of, she bribed them. I thought I was writing a book about Moonlight and Magnolia, sweet little old lady.

She turned out to be, can we say badass on the radio?

Okay, badass.

So. What made her loyal to the North while in the South?

So she was committed to Virginia not leaving the Union. Virginia had a long history. I believe four of the first five presidents were Virginians, right? She felt like Virginia had a special role in the country and that the country should stay together first. Second, she opposed slavery.

Her grandfather was a founder of an anti-slavery league in Philadelphia.

So she had ties to those organizations. Her mother was the same way, and yet her family owned slaves. Right.

So she's not suspected. I mean, obviously, if she was found out, she would have been hanged.

Well, one day in 19 or 19, 1863, there was a knock at her door, and it was two Confederate detectives coming to search her house. And at the time, she had three Union officers hiding on the third floor of her house. And she was, she didn't know they were coming. She was desperately worried that they would cough or move a piece of furniture or do something to alert the detectives. She managed to evade that, but they were curious about her.

She was known as pro-Union before the war, but she had been so powerful because she was a society lady, right? She had money. And ultimately, I think they were kind of cowed by that. And also, they just didn't expect a southern lady to put up such a defense.

So interesting. Robert E. Lee was linked to the Washington family, and he believed that Washington would have been for the South. Which is hard to believe because even Andrew Jackson was not for the South. When South Carolina tried to leave the Union, he basically sent the Army and says, You will not leave.

So he's located in Tennessee.

So, what your point is really interesting, and that's what I found in researching the book. I had assumed everybody in the South was pro-Confederacy. It's not true at all, especially in Virginia. There was a hardcore group of people who were unionists and wanted to see the Union succeed. There were people from other countries working in industry in Richmond, Germans, Irish, English people.

They either were unaffiliated, some of them were anti-slavery. And so she managed to pull together a spy ring of these people. Plus slaves and black freemen who worked for her and got information out of, you know, as I said, Jefferson's. Jefferson Davis's offices, the Confederate War Department. She really penetrated the secrets and she passed them on to the Union.

Some of her reports went right to the desk of Lincoln. What happened to her after the war?

Well, after the war, she stayed in Richmond and she was isolated. Nobody would talk to her. They knew what she did? By this point, they knew what she did and they were angry. On the day after Richmond fell, she went out into her yard and she pulled out the flag, the Union flag that she had had in her attic and carefully hand-sewn stars in it as states were admitted to the Union.

And she put it up in her yard, and this crowd gathered around this tiny little woman and threatened her. And she put up her fist and she said, I'll have Ulysses S. Grant come for you if you don't stop.

So he came to her house, told her how to apply for aid at that point, and then he made her postmaster in Richmond.

So she stayed on, but she was isolated and alone for the rest of her life. But she did the right thing, and she never won a credit. She never wanted credit. She was afraid people would come for her. That was part of it.

Spies wrote, you know, books after the war, right? They got a lot of attention. They went on speaking tours. Elizabeth never did that. She did not want the attention.

She sort of buried herself. And let me tell you just a quick little story. We may never have heard about her except for a former World War II spook who, 100 years after the Civil War, Found a room in the National Archives that had all of the documents from the Union spies. They had been unopened for 100 years. Wow.

He goes in and opens them up and finds all of these stories. And he said Elizabeth Van Loo's spy ring was the best and most accurate on either side of the war. Do you know if she met Lincoln? She did not meet Lincoln. Lincoln did come to Richmond, of course, as I'm sure you know, famously came to Richmond after the war with his son, which was.

The scene just makes you want to cry. He comes in with his son, and African Americans come up to him, former slaves, and try to kiss his garments, and he says, No, don't do that. You know, you have a God. I am not that person. Wow.

But you can imagine that was one person that fought a war to free them. It's a great book. I cannot wait to get through it. Lincoln's Lady Spy Master, Stories You Probably Don't Know. He's part of the unsung American Heroes.

And Jerry Willis, thanks for doing it. Where do you get it? Everywhere. You can go on Amazon, Barnes Noble. It's everywhere you buy your books or my website, jerrywillis.com.

Awesome. Jerry, congratulations. Thank you, sir. Back in a moment. Want even more, Brian?

Download the podcast at BrianKillMeadShow.com every episode. Exclusive interviews on demand. More of Kill Mead coming up. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead.

Tabinet. Good morning, brah. Is already okay? Yeah, yeah, I just wanted to say good morning. Oh really?

Yeah. This one's like good morning. Thanks for your lunch yesterday. Yeah, no problem. I'm uh I'm excited that Kid Rock's gonna be on the show.

Yeah, it's gonna be a big show.

So, all right, so that's just to explain all this. Evidently, there's this new trend with men calling other men before they go to bed and wish them a good night's sleep. It's nuts. It's insane. It makes you very uncomfortable.

I mean, who does this?

So, Lawrence was going to try to do this for the show, but he fell asleep last night. Early.

So he calls me in the morning. And that's legitimately. I'm like, why are you calling me? Eric, you know how busy I am in the morning? I'm doing two radio hits.

I'm doing the the New York Minute. The New York two two-minute hits.

So for me to get a call to BS is. Just like totally throws off my schedule. But the factory even picked up. Was something too that I was going to be able to do that? without his card.

We're not coming to work. Can't get a hold of anyone. Or was about calling you to call out. Yeah, he's like, listen, I can't get a hold of it.

Something was going on.

So Again, that just no one call if you're going to call me, no one can possibly call me. It's like, I can't call you guys too. You're rushing around. Eric, if I called you in the morning to say, How's your day? How's your night?

You go, What is wrong with you? I'd think something was wrong immediately. Yeah. Like, why are you calling me? Hey, what's going on?

How you doing? That's good. Nice day. Yeah, got nothing. See, I think we should start our new trend and not calling you to say good night, just randomly calling Brian and try to make like nonsensical small talk and see your reaction.

That's my busy time. I get I am a normal person when things slow down. But my busiest time is 3 a.m. How many people can say that? Not very many.

You, Ainsley, and Lawrence. That's about it. That's crazy.

So that was it. That's one of those studies I don't get. I also don't get that Gen Z. Gen Z? Yeah.

Gen Z is going through the quarter life crisis. They feel as though they can't afford a house, they don't have a woman or a man, they can't they're tired of dating, uh they feel as though they can't get ahead, things are too expensive, houses are too expensive. I mean, come on, stop complaining. I do understand how things would be too expensive. I'm not saying you should have a quarterlife crisis, but I do understand how you graduate college, you think you're gonna get a job and be able to afford a house and be like, who can afford a house or $750,000 as a starter home like in New Jersey?

It's crazy. True. New York, New Jersey. But people listening to us in the Midwest go, yeah. You could get a mansion for $750.

Well, that's true.

So you adjust your life.

So, can we move the show to Middle America? Let's do it. Remember, Mike Douglas had the number one daytime talk show, Cleveland. Cleveland, Ohio. By the way, Cleveland, bad rap, a lot of fun, correct?

Very fun. And it's close to Dayton, too. Close to Dayton. Coming up on the 21st, three weeks away. History, Liberty, and Laughs.

Go to BrianKillMe.com. And if you missed that, there's always Dallas in August. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead. The party that is closest to your economic views.

In November of 2023, it was the Republicans by 11 points.

Now it's still within that range, still within that margin of earth. Plus eight-point advantage for the Republican Party. How is that possible, Democrats? How is that possible after all the recession fears, after the stock market's been doing all of this, after all the tariffs that Americans are against? And Republicans still hold an eight-point lead on the economy?

Are you kidding me? On our latest CNN poll among registered voters, which is the party of the middle class, it is tied? This, I think, speaks to Democratic ills more than anything else. They have traditionally been the party of the middle class. No more.

Donald Trump and the Republican Party have taken that mantle away. Republicans have completely closed the gap. And that is a reluctant CNN pollster who said that with the economy, with all the ups and downs, with the tariffs, with all the controversy with the big, beautiful bill, the president, instead of leading by 11 points, leads by eight points on the economy. Why? What ideas the Democrats have?

There are ideas out there that might be rivals to what? Spend more on green energy? How did that work out? The president is in there not killing green energy, but also going out to say we're going to drill, we're going to frack, and we're going to start getting pipelines going. How does that hurt?

In fact, it helps more people, blue-collar people, than it does any environmentalist or America's Greta Thornberg. With us in the studio, back with us, one of our good friends, Mayor Glenn Jacobs, from Knox County, Tennessee. He's also in the WWE Hall of Fame, professional wrestling named Kane. Mayor, great to see you. Thanks, Brian.

Thanks for having me on. We were wrestling a little with the headsets, but essentially, the CNN pollster was upset. He's a good guy, actually, does a really good job. But does the numbers say that Trump's still? Doing well on the economy compared to Democrats.

Yeah, it's just common sense. And it's just the fact that really the Democrats, as you said, they don't have any ideas. And the ideas that they do have are pretty destructive and basically all based in identity politics. And Just, it doesn't work. Trump's policies work.

It's what Americans want, and you're seeing the fruits of that. I mean, give me an example. How many people do you walk around with in Knox County that say, you know, my heart goes out to Harvard? Yeah. You know, the way they chant pro-Palestinian phrases and Hamas flags, I really feel for them.

Yeah. Or, man, I can't wait till my daughter goes out there and plays soccer against those guys. Yeah. I see.

So I interviewed two parents who said they were told, because they were lining up against two trans men, their kids, they're 15 years old. They want to get a college scholarship. And the parents say, we will kick your kids off the team if you act up on the sideline and protest that your kid's playing against a guy. Right.

That whole thing is completely unfair. Basketball, soccer. Yeah, all of these things. And you have girls, women, who have spent their entire lives working very hard to excel at a sport, and suddenly they get treated like second-class citizens.

So what happened is when I asked guys like Jason Crowe, Congressman from Democrat, I said, well, just. You agree that trans men, boys, whatever they're going through, they're going through. Should not be playing against boys because this rarely happens. What do you mean it rarely happens? Happens.

Happens in Oregon this weekend. Happened in California again last weekend. But their answer is it rarely happens. It's a non-issue. What do you mean it's a non-issue?

Right.

It's not happy. That's not an answer. It is an issue for someone like Riley Gaines. Yeah. I mean, it's a huge issue.

It's an issue for all the girls that I have two daughters, and it's an issue for all the girls who are not allowed to compete on an even playing field. Right.

It's a big issue. And then you have the track and field over in California, and then you look at Democrats. I think there's one senator that says, I agree, and a governor says, You might have a point. But to me, just shows some courage. And the whole thing is just all identity politics.

It's all, we don't want to offend this very small minority of people, and you hurt everyone else in the process. I just, I don't understand that.

So, what are the top issues with Knox County right now? You know, Knox County is in a great place. One thing that we're really excelling at, and we're really excited about in East Tennessee, is nuclear energy. We're the home of nuclear energy. Oak Ridge is, which is where everything really started.

It's only about half an hour for us. Do you know Democrats are actually on board with this? They should be. They need to be. Have they expressed that to you?

What's that? No, no one's expressed that to me, you know, personally, but. It's burns clean.

Well, it burns clean, and it's also with everything that we're seeing. I just got a Cybertruck, it's the most awesome vehicle on the planet, by the way. But with everything that we're seeing as far as the stress on the grid, it is the only clean energy that will provide what we need moving forward in the 21st century.

So, what do you have in Knox County?

So, it's actually right outside Knox County in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is really the home of nuclear energy and a world leader. And we just landed the first uranium enrichment facility being built in the U.S. in like 20 years. It's a $6 billion project, largest in a state economic development project in the state's history.

And we believe that's going to be an anchor for more and more of the nuclear sector coming to Tennessee. And if we can become a leader in that, that's just a huge deal. You know, we talk a lot about also about small modular nuclear reactors, which is the future until we get to, at some point, fusion. But there's a lot of great things going on.

So, John Casamatiti is one of the most successful men in America, owns WABC, which Is one of the affiliates we're lucky enough to be on. He wants to vote, get involved in, or he has with. What are they called, like miniature? It's small modular small modular nuclear energy. Could you describe that as compared to a full-blown nuclear plan?

So, the difference is these are just like modular homes. These are built off-site and then brought to the site and assembled there. They're much safer than conventional nuclear reactors, and they're in a much smaller footprint. They don't produce quite the energy, but it's made up for in the smaller footprint. It is the future, it's just a matter of really getting the first one going, and the economics of scale and all those things kick in.

So, do you? But it's a tremendous It's going to be the future, and it's going to be the answer. Again, at some point, Fusion will come online, but that's probably a few decades off. In the meantime, this is kind of the transitional step in. Do you worry about security?

Because you see some of these psychos that open up with flamethrowers in Boulder, Colorado, and some of the people that want to blow up Governor Shapiro's house. You see all these psychos that blow up school shootings. They might go, hey, I have a way to hurt America. Yeah, we're not going to see that in Tennessee. We're a very conservative state.

Do you have security? Oh, of course.

Well, I don't, you know, personally. No, no, no. I'm good. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's all that's that's a DOE complex.

Uh, there's also a DOD component there, so it is, it is heavily secured. All right, good. Uh, that's uh, that's good to know.

So, in terms of what's going on with the Democratic Party in particular, we've got this book coming out that says that Joe Biden was effectively not there.

Now, there's a pushback. If we could get it up, Eric, Bill Clinton from yesterday, but Ashley Biden refuted that her father is bad. He said the only cover-up of this family is a beach cover-up. He's aged, yes, and we all do. And the stress of the presidency accelerates, but he is more than capable of doing the job.

And then listen to Bill Clinton. Mm-hmm. I had never seen him. and walked away thinking he can't do this anymore. He was always on top of his briefs.

You never saw any cognitive decline.

So I didn't know anything about any of this. I saw President Biden not very long ago, and I thought he was in good shape. But the book didn't register with me because I never saw him that way. What do you say to these people? I'd like to ask President Clinton what the definition of is.

Because here we go again. Here we go. That's just straight gaslighting. That's all it is. We could see that at home in our living room, just watching TV.

The very unfortunate, actually, I feel terrible for President Biden and what he was put through. It was obvious that he was suffering from serious cognitive decline. And the fact that the media finally came forth with that, and the same people that are covering it up are the ones now talking about it. But just the average person out there could see what's happening. And I think one of the major questions that the Democrats need to answer, say Kamala Harris, and this was never brought up in the campaign, is When did she know this and what did she know?

You know, she's either, frankly, she's either lying or she's not smart enough to really be able to say, hey, this guy doesn't have his faculties about it. It's impossible to know, like, for her to be with him two or three times a week for four years and not know. And I would err, I don't think she's, I don't think she's a stupid person.

So I would air that this was a cover-up and it needs to be examined. You know, Ms. Mayor, you know, the thing is, this is going to be an intramural fight.

So you're going to have people, governors, who have nothing to do with Joe Biden say, How dare you run for governor? You just lied to the American people for four years and they're Democrats.

So Behera, this guy, Villa Garosa, who is mayor of LA, wants to be governor of California, goes after Behera and Kamala Harris' preemptive attack to say, first you have to tell the American people why you lied about Joe Biden. And you don't see a Republican in that fight yet. That's exactly right. And this is one of these things that's just for the good of the country. I mean, who has actually run?

The United States of America throughout Joe Biden's tenure, and it obviously wasn't him. That's a question that we deserve the answer to. What about your future as you look at Tennessee? Yeah, for me, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'm term-limited and will be out of office in September of next year.

But you like politics? I do. There are days, but for the most part, I do, and I feel that I'm doing something constructive and helping move our community in a positive direction.

So I'm not sure what the future holds for me, but whatever it is, I'm excited about it. Would you think the president would be in support of you seeking higher office? I think that he would be. He's told me before that he would help me.

So I think so. All right. It'd be somebody bigger than Fetterman in the Senate. And you could probably take him right now. You'd be probably getting along with him great.

Yeah. Well, we'll see. You know, we might have a big with Trump or with Fetterman. I'm not sure. Yeah.

I know it's true. With Fetterman, I'll be able to talk some sense into him. We have some big guy camaraderie going on.

So you have to see. I hear. About that. Mayor Glenn Jacobs, thanks so much. When we come back, Stuart Varney will do a sample cast and squeeze in some clothes in the back end.

Now, the Brian Kilmead Show joins Fox Business's Varney and Company with Stuart Varney live on your radio and on Fox Business. Here's Brian Kilmead. Welcome back, everyone. Going to do a simulcast with FBN, probably the most popular. Popular business show and all of television.

That includes the other network, FBN. Stuart Varney is just a phenomenon. We're going to talk about what's happening in politics, too, as well as a little bit of soccer because it's something that Stuart and I have in common. And of course, we got the World Cup coming here shortly. We got the World Club Championship coming up shortly.

There were riots over in France, and this is after a win. Appear on the screen and it will be Killmead time. Here we go. It is 10:51. Show me Killmead, please.

There he is, the lad himself. Brian, Killmead Brian, Senator Chris Murphy is creating a new political action committee to oppose Trump's agenda. Watch this. Since January 20th, Donald Trump has unleashed a level of corruption that this country has just never seen before. We're watching the dismantling of our democracy.

Brian, that was just a little clip from it. We know what they are against. But I don't know what they are for. Do you? Yeah, well, we know that Chris Murphy wants to run for president.

He thinks that's his best way. And you know what? I thoroughly believe that these people have no other game plan. You know, I think it was Ezra Klei who wrote a book just about all different things that Democrats have done wrong and how to fix it. And he's talking about all these ideas.

If Chris Murphy wants to do something productive, come up with ideas. Come up with a way. What don't you like about the bill that's about to pass? What don't you like about the Iranian deal? What don't you like about the way the president's handling Hamas?

Okay. Fine, but just to start a blanket thing to say he's corrupt, maybe they're going to start with the illegitimate president. Didn't really win the election. It is done. If Democrats want to be smart, understand you can't stop Trump.

You should try to be stopping things you don't like about the administration, but coming out saying corruption and all these things. They've tried that already. It doesn't work. America understands President Trump, including other demographics, women as well. They understand what he's got.

They want to see what he's going to do. He's already had as much production in 11 weeks than any president in the history of the country. Good luck trying to stop it. You either want to join it or tell us what you would do different. Yeah, I agree with that.

Change the subject for a second. Two people dead. Nearly five hundred arrested after a riot erupted in Paris. This was after the Paris Saint-Germain soccer team's win against Inter Milan in the European Champions League final. Brian, I don't get this.

The French team won and they rioted in Paris and two people were killed. What is going on here? And how about two dozen police officers and firefighters get hurt? You know, you have a kid that gets struck, somebody on a scooter gets struck, somebody else gets stabbed in the chest. It's sadly, it's the story in sports.

I mean, people win and they like to tear things down. Tell that to the Eagles. They had to grease the poles in order not to take them down. That's not unique to Paris in order not to take the lights down and things of that nature. That's not unique to Paris.

But it is an odd reaction from a very passive country on a seeming victory. They finally get a victory, something to celebrate in France. They certainly can't celebrate their first couple who don't seem to be getting along. But now they decide to do this and wreck the place. But all I know is FIFA is bringing the World Cup championships to America starting in July.

And I could see me and Stuart Varney hanging out, wearing the jeans you use when you walk out of the building, just me and you splitting a beard. Two, depending on how much money you had on you. That's where we could be heading, Stuart.

Well, you know that the final is going to be, it used to be called Giant Stadium. What's it called nowadays? MetLife. MetLife. The final's got to be at MetLife.

Fox is covering it. And I don't know about you, but everybody I know wants to come and stay with me because I live in New Jersey and attend the final. And then they want tickets for the final from Fox because I work for Fox and so do you. You got any tickets, bro? Stuart, I don't have any tickets, but I would say this.

It's not just about the final. This is going to be the biggest World Cup in terms of teams, biggest pool. And it's going to be in Mexico. It's going to be in Canada, predominantly in the U.S. This is go, this is going to, next summer will be the summer side.

This year's club championships, it's a minor thing compared to what next year's World Cup it's going to be. You and I sit there, we're an island. We talk about soccer, most people don't get it.

Soon, soccer will dominate the summer, and it's going to be great. I cannot wait. And Fox does fantastic coverage. I'd like to own a sports bar in New York City during the World Cup because they will be jammed. Absolutely.

Brian? You're all right. Good stuff today. Thanks so much indeed. Go get them, Stuart Varney.

1-866-408-7669. You know, I wish I could say that France is the only one that does it, but you win a championship. For some reason, they like to wreck the city. They don't really do it in New York. I think we're used to winning.

There's a parade canyon of heroes. But if you think about it, I don't know. Is Oklahoma, if they go ahead and beat Indiana or Indiana beats Oklahoma, are they going to tear it down in Indianapolis? I don't think so. I think they got a little bit more decorum than that.

In Oklahoma, more of a college sports town. We have Tulsa in Oklahoma City, more of a college sports town. But man, do they love their Thunder? And is that a great organization? I mean, they lose Durant.

They lose their star players who they drafted. And then all of a sudden, next thing you know, they harden.

Next thing you know, they're back again, rebuilt and young, and best record in the regular season. And now they're in the NBA final. Real quick, before we go. A sense of what's going to be happening this week. This show, we're going to have Senator Thune on on the Tuesday show, at which time he's going to lay out.

What could be the President's greatest accomplishment? And that is the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill, which will have a permanent, this is his legacy, permanent tax cuts. It's going to be very hard for future presidents, left or right, to move this up because we're going to get used to it. And who's going to want to hurt the economy by raising taxes? And then, number one and number two is get things like no taxes on tips, get things like a Pentagon spending a trillion dollars.

I think it's necessary, and a border that's fully reinforced, and a wall that's finally built with technology on it, wiping out that date once and for all.

So I think that's going to be big. And that's why Trump made his calls yesterday to Josh Harley, made his calls to Ron Johnson, made his calls to Rick Scott, not to Susan Collins. I think he got a bit of a passed. But I think that he knows these guys are going to be problematic, and I want to get them on the same page and let them know failure is not an option. Speaking of you, coming up, WHIO listeners especially, Dayton, Ohio, coming up on the 21st, BrianKili.com, History of Liberty, and Laughs.

We bring the fun, the entertainment, the insight to the stage. And then, of course, in Dallas, Texas, in August, and Richmond, Virginia, in September. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Killmead. Hi, everyone.

So glad you're there. We've got a busy, busy show, and it's been a busy week. This is going to be the week in which the Senate's front and center has got about a month. Here we are in what is it, the 20th week in office for President Trump to pass the Big Beautiful Bill. It's a self-imposed deadline of July 4th, just like the Memorial Day was the tripwire for the House.

Now, Senator Majority Leader Senator Thune has got all the, I guess, stress on his shoulders since he took this job for Mitch McConnell. It's probably his biggest challenge. He's going to join us in a matter of moments. Bottom of the hour, one of America's finest sports writers got a brand new book on Mike Tyson, Mark Kriegel. He's going to be with us, ESPN analyst, too.

So let's go to Senator Majority Leader John Thune. Senator Thune, welcome back. Thanks, Brian. Good to be with you. Senator Thu, could you bring us inside?

I understand the President asked you to come to the White House yesterday. Josh Hawley was also Rick Scott, Senator Ron Johnson. These are some of the people that are very critical to a degree of the bill that came out of the House. What was it like?

Well, I think the President is very committed to getting this done, Brian, and so he's sitting down with lots of different folks. And I had the chance to sit down with him yesterday and kind of walk through where I think things are in the Senate and also kind of what our vote count looks like. And so we've got the President obviously is incredibly effective at bringing people on board to his position. And we need to have him fully engaged with Senators as we go through the next few weeks in hopes that we get something across the finish line here in the Senate that the House can take up and pass and put on the President's desk by the 4th of July, which, as you know, has been the goal. Right.

So you said you want to tinker with the House bill. In what areas bother you the most? Or forget about Jon Thune, what bothers you, but what makes it hardest for you to pass it the most?

Well, I think there are some significant differences, of course, as you know, between the House and the Senate and the way they view some of these issues. Of course, the salt issue is something that is that the House has to address. Not an interest necessarily in the Senate. And by the way, for your listeners, that's the deduction for state and local taxes, which is a big issue in some of the sort of the East Coast, West Coast states, but not so much anywhere else in the country, which is why it's not as big of an issue in the Senate. I think the question of whether some of the tax policies are made permanent as opposed to being four or five years, and permanence obviously creates economic certainty for investment, which drives job creation and ultimately generates more government revenue, not less, because when the economy is growing and expanding, people are investing, they're making money, taking realizations and paying taxes.

So I think that's one of the issues. And I would say on the spending side, too, we got, as you know, a lot of our members who would like to see more in terms of spending cuts, but I think the House did a really nice job of finding areas where we can reform government, root out waste, fraud, and abuse. Make our government operate more efficiently and effectively. And so the Senate wants to build on that. But obviously, we have people who would like to go farther than the House did.

But in the end, it's all about the math, and it's what gets us 51 in the Senate and what gets us 218 in the House.

Well, here's this whole thing: there's a couple of things that keep on permeating through. Number one, does it add to the deficit? And are you cutting Medicaid? Here's Rand Paul, Republican, Cup 5. The bill increases the debt ceiling by $5 trillion.

This will be the largest increase in the debt ceiling ever in our history, and we've never raised the debt ceiling without actually meeting that target.

You can say it doesn't directly add to the debt, but if you increase the ceiling five trillion, you'll meet that. And what it does is it puts it off the back burner and then we won't discuss it for a year or two.

So I think it's a a terrible idea to do this.

So and the CBO says that you're going to add to the deficit your reaction. What's the reality as you see the math?

Well, I think that the CBO, and by the way, I mean, there's no question that the deficits are and the debt is way too high. And the way to get that down, start bending the curve on spending, get greater growth in the economy. As I mentioned earlier, when you have growth in the economy, government revenues go up. And then if you start bending the cost the spending curve down in the right direction, you can start getting to where it's closer to balance. But it's not going to.

The question I think that your people want to know is: will it add to the deficit? We are running deficits, and the deficits right now are unacceptably high, but will this lead to higher deficits? And the answer to that is no. You're going to get growth in the economy. And when the economy, again, is growing and expanding, you get more government revenue.

Add to that almost a couple trillion dollars in cuts that are in the bill, and you have the most significant reduction in spending. and biggest amount of savings in history. In this legislation.

So, and if you look at CBO Brian in the past, they've been, you know, they have a long history of just flat being wrong. over the past seven years when we they scored the twenty seventeen Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and the economy grew five percent more than what they projected. Revenues were one point five trillion dollars higher than what they projected in twenty seventeen. And when the Democrats passed their so called Inflation Reduction Act last year, CBO missed the mark on energy provisions by about four hundred percent. I mean, these guys have they are notorious for missing on these projections.

One thing we do know is if we reduce taxes, And cut regulations and have an abundant energy supply in this country, the economy grows and expands. And that's where you start seeing these deficits get a lot smaller by comparison.

So, Josh Hawley, one of the people, says, don't touch Medicaid, but you are looking to touch Medicaid in that no more Medicaid for illegal immigrants. And twice a year, according to the House, you've got to be checking eligibility. Are you cutting Medicaid?

Well, no. Ryan Johnson wants you to, and Holly doesn't. And we are strengthening and reforming Medicaid. And I think to both of their points, that's what you want to do. You want people, there are people in this country who need the help, and those are the people that you want.

You've got pregnant moms, disabled, and elderly, and people who depend upon Medicaid, but you've got a lot of people benefiting from Medicaid today, able-bodied adults. You've got a lot of illegals who are on Medicaid, have been added to the roles by states around the country. And so I think what we're doing is making sure that Medicaid is there for the people it's designed to be there for and rooting out the waste, fraud, and abuse from people who are taking advantage of it. But I think in the end, it's about making that Medicaid more effective and more efficient for those who need it. That's the bottom line, Brian.

And so, you know, our members are reacting, as you point out. We've got some on different sides of this issue, but at the end of the day, it's all about making this program stronger and directing it to the people. Who are it supposed to help? I just want you to hear what Elon said as he left the White House for now and left his Doge people behind.

So You know, I was like disappointed to see the massive A spending ball, frankly. Uh which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it. and our reminds the work that the Doge team is doing.

So your thoughts.

Well, I mean, again, he's using the CBO numbers, and that's a static analysis. The CBO doesn't take into consideration that we have a dynamic economy. And that, when you make adjustments in tax rates, for example, that you're going to get more growth and more revenue.

So, he and there are a lot of folks out there who are adopting that point of view, but it's built around projections that the CBO is making, which are based upon a static view of the economy. And so, I mean, I think at the end of the day, what Elon would like to see, and we want to see as well, is a government that works in a lot more efficient, effective way, that's a better return to the American taxpayer. And I think what you're going to get with this is, like I said, the biggest Savings ever achieved in a piece of legislation passed by the Congress in history.

So you are the calmest guy anyone's going to ever meet in Washington, but the President's fed up with Rand Paul already. He put on Truth Social. Rand Paul has very little understanding of the BBB, especially the Big Beautiful Bill, the tremendous growth that is coming. He loves voting no on everything. He thinks it's good politics, but it's not.

The BBB is a winner. He went under, so he is a little upset with him. Are you frustrated with Rand Paul? Is he rolling up his sleeves and trying to make it better or just critical on the outside? You know, I would like to see it would be great if we could I'd like to have all Republicans vote for this thing at the end, Brian.

And as I mentioned, you know, we have individual senators who have different views on these issues, and they are in many cases very thoughtful and well-informed. But at the end of the day, it becomes a question of whether or not this makes things better or worse. And I think what the President is arguing, and I agree, is that you start getting savings on the spending side, you start getting greater growth in the economy because of these good tax policies, which are pro-growth, and the combination of those things ends up making things much better for our country. And so the President would love to see the team stick together, and so would I, to put it bluntly. But I understand sometimes you can't get everybody, but we've got to have 50.

We have to get 50 plus J.D. and the chair to make this thing passed in the Senate. Understood. And what you have to do, too, is figure out on the salt. I mean, Mike Lawler says, I lose my seat if I don't get the salt tax to where it is right now.

As well as your New Jersey Republicans, and then Others say, Are you kidding me? We have zero percent taxes for a reason. I'm not paying for New York.

So I don't know if there's a happy medium there, if it goes back to the House and then it dies a slow death. These are types of things that you wanted this job leader through.

So I want to talk about something else that could be working its way through the House, and that's a massive sanctions bill on Russia. Did you talk to the President about that yesterday? Because it's got over 80 votes. Blumenthal and Lindsey Graham kind of wrote it, I guess. Your thoughts about what's in it, and is the president for it?

Well, and we touched on it at the White House yesterday, and the White House is working with our team here on some refinements to it, I think, to make sure that from a technical standpoint, it accomplishes what everybody wants to see accomplished. I think the answer to that, Brian, is the President, we are trying to give him as much space and room as necessary for him to try and negotiate the best possible outcome and get a peaceful solution in Ukraine. And if the sanctions contribute to that, then we are available and ready to move.

So we are kind of looking to coordinate with and to take direction from the White House about what gives them the best possible chance of succeeding and trying to get the outcome that we want to see and that we want to achieve in Ukraine. Did the President say yes, go ahead and pass it? I think he's I wouldn't say that he's there yet. I think that they are aware, obviously, that we have a bill and that we are ready to move.

So we will but I also know that the discussions and the conversations they are having with the Russians and with Ukraine are you know again, we want to make sure that they have the best possible chance of getting a good outcome there, and we will contribute to and add to that if they think it is helpful.

So we are ready to move. We will look for a green light from them and perhaps at some point we will have it. President Zelensky is asking for more Patriots. Is there another weapons sale to Ukraine? Because they do have money.

Is there a weapons sale possible or do you see that as too big a hill to climb?

Well, I think that if we can sales, I think, are one thing. And I think that we want to do everything we can, along with our NATO allies and everybody around the world who wants to see the Russians in this invasion of Ukraine dealt with in a way that deters that kind of bad behavior in the future. And so if we can sell weapons systems and the types of I've always said, training, intelligence, weapons, anything we can do to help support those efforts there, we should do. I think it's in the end. It's in the world and the United States' interest to do so.

I think there's a real concern in the country right now about more American resources tax dollars going in there. But if the Ukrainians are prepared to buy some of our weapon systems and we've got them and they can use them, then we certainly ought to do that.

So, Senator Thune, I understand the U.S. did not get a heads up on Operation Spiderweb that devastated the Russian Air Force, blew up at least two bridges and derailed trains. And it was a brilliant operation by everything I read. It's a year plus in the making. Your thoughts about Operation Spiderweb?

congrats to the Ukrainians. I mean, what a masterpiece. And the fact they were able to pull it off without anybody for all intents and purposes, almost anybody around the world knowing what was going on and the effect that it had, the impact, the destructive impact, On Russia's warmaking capability, I think is remarkable. I mean, it truly is. You've got to give them great credit.

And I think what it suggests is. the Ukrainians are much better prepared and equipped to defend their country and to fight for their country, men and women, than a lot of times I think the world gives them credit for. Did the President respond to this at all? Because yesterday he was strangely quiet. I know he was busy with you guys and doing a lot of things behind the scenes.

Yeah. Well, I think that I'm not sure that I saw anything officially come out of the office either, but I think anything that enhances the pros p possibility that we get closer to a peaceful outcome there is good. And it seems to me at least that Ukraine making it very clear to the world and to the Russians that there's a lot of fight left in them helps get people to the table.

So I'm hoping that in the end it's an advantage for the President, the White House and his team as they try and negotiate again, a successful and hopefully peaceful solution in Ukraine. Senator, you're going to do a rescissions package of $9.8 billion for PBS, NPR, USAID. Is that expected this week?

Well, it's coming. We won't probably get it on the floor of the Senate this week. I think it's headed up here from the White House. I don't think we received it yet. The House will act on it first.

And they'll probably send it over here. We're very going to be very preoccupied over the next few weeks with the big beautiful bill with budget reconciliation. We've got a stablecoin, a crypto bill on the floor this week and next, and possibly Russia sanctions, nominations. We've got a very full docket, but we are certainly, as soon as it is available and the House acts on it and sends it over here, we will move as quickly as we can. These rescissions bills are ways in which we can find additional savings, largely on the discretionary side of the budget.

Reconciliation is about the mandatory side, and I know it's a distinction that's lost on people who don't follow this stuff closely, but there are two categories of spending, and rescissions deals with the One category and reconciliation with the other. And we want to make sure that we're moving on all fronts. to reduce the size, the scope and the largesse in our federal government and make it more efficient and more effective. Senator Fetterman's indication he's fed up with the Democratic Party. Have you actively recruited him for the Republican Party?

Well, we've got people who are talking to him. I don't think at this point he's and I mean, I can't speak for him, but I know, Brian, that there are overtures, obviously, that get made. And I think more than anything else, we just want him to know that He shouldn't let those guys get him down. I mean, he's under attack by his own side, by the far left in this country, and he's making some hard votes. And, you know, if he wants a place or a home in the Republican Party, I'll tell you what, we'll welcome him.

Will you try to recruit him for this bill? We will on yes, we talked to him on a number of bills where we think he might see the world through the lens that we do as opposed to the the the far left, the progressive wing of the Democrat Party, which is what's the tail wagging the dog in the Senate these days. And he's a guy who's shown he can be a voice of reason on some issues like Israel and obviously make votes that maybe aren't always that sometimes may be at odds with his leadership, which I think his leadership is completely out of touch. I mean, this is a party in the Senate and in the House and across the country that really doesn't have they're just you know, they're just right now really floundering. And I think that He understands that.

He's articulated that, and I'm hoping that at some point he'll act on it. Ten seconds. July 3rd, are you going to say this bill is passed? That is my hope.

So we will see. 51, my friend. All right. That's all you need. Senator John Thune.

And of course, you pass it, then the House got to see if they still like it. Thanks so much, Majority Leader. We really appreciate it. Our audience really appreciates the insight. Thanks, Brian.

As you would do. As do I. Back in a moment. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmeid.

Hey, welcome back. I went a little long with Senator Thune, but so great that he came on the show. It shows you how much he respects your audience, you guys. Mark Creedle is going to be with us shortly, too. He's a boxing analyst at SES for ESPN.

And Mark, author of several best-selling books. His latest, The Baddest Man, The Making of Mike Tyson. Mark, of course, up close and personal. His contacts in the boxing world are beyond reproach. He also wrote for the New York Post and New York Daily News, but stuck in Los Angeles now.

I don't know why. I'll get to the bottom of that story. Listen to the Brian Killmee show. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kill Me Show.

D'Amato continues to be one of the foremost fight managers in the business. His stable of past pugilists includes former champions Floyd Patterson, And Jose Torres. And now He's seasoned eye for talent. has spotted a fresh up-and-coming young heavyweight named Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson has an exceptionally good record.

He had maybe a dozen fights in the Junior Olympic Championship. And he knocked out Every fighter he fought. to win the national championship twice. Tyson not only has A very hard, thrifty punch in either hand, but he has developed elusive qualities and has the most important quality: the will to win. He has the desire to win, he wants to be the best.

Customado weighing in, the legendary Customado weighing in on Mike Tyson, the teenager en route to becoming a heavyweight champion, which I don't think he was able to see because he passed away. Basically, he raised Mike Tyson in a group home up in Caskills, New York. Mark Kriegel knows all that and more, boxing analyst, SAS for ESPN. He's got a brand new book out called The Baddest Man: The Making of Mike Tyson. What are your thoughts, Mark?

Great to see you, by the way. Great to see you. Daily News, New York Post. Yep. Uh he writes for us.

Mark, your thoughts hear. Remember that. Yes, of course. Your thoughts hearing a custom auto speak. It began with Cuss, the push to make Mike Tyson.

I mean, it was the greatest marketing push. Certainly, in the history of combat sports, and it began with this fable. Of Cuss and the kid. Cuss had been responsible for Getting Floyd Patterson, who was basically a Not much bigger than a middleweight to be the youngest ever heavyweight champion. That in itself was improbable.

And Then Cuss found himself essentially in a state of It's almost a self-exile. For many years What what Cuss had done While he was developing power. Patterson was He became a darling. of of all the writers. Norman Mailer, Gay Talese, guys who are really substantial.

Presences. Pete Hamill guy was my rabbi. Um and by the time he found Tyson, there was already a a kind of ready-made script and it was it was pretty much irresistible about Cuss and the kid. It's almost like Cuss had been he'd been absent for all these years and he was coming back down off the mountain and he had this kid who was going to be the youngest and the greatest. And the best.

In some senses, he was, but also that fable, you know, kind of missed the nuance. Right.

He was a man-child, right? I mean, do you think that he was using performance-enhancing drugs, or was he legitimately that big coming out of Juvenile Hall, right? No, he was that big. They didn't have that stuff then. They certainly didn't have that stuff at Spoffer or Tron or other places where he was in detention.

I mean, they had like street drugs. And Mike. Mike was essentially raised on the street. It was all sorts of dysfunction came to bear on him. It wasn't particularly Unique to fighters, but I think in Mike's case, it was more intense.

So you had a guy. and Bobby Stewart. probably the only one in the whole story who's entirely selfless. Who She's Mike. in Tryon, upstate.

He'd been he'd been there's a the infamous New York Juvenile detention center, Spofford, the Bronx, since closed. They sent him upstate. And he sees his kid wants to fight.

So he starts working with him, and then he brings him to D'Amato. Because he knows he used to fight for Demato. He used to fight for D'Amato. And D'Amato had been. D'Amato had an almost theological sense about fear.

I mean, it was a beautiful construct that he had about. Overcoming bullies and dealing with your fear. The irony is that, you know. Bobby Stewart brings him in. And day one, Cos says, oh my god, he's a heavyweight champ.

And um What what I think, and Tyson pushed back on this when we spoke. Two sort of phone sessions just to sort of establish Rules of engagement. But I said, you know Mike, I'm not sure Cost Did you Every favor in the world. He wasn't asking you to. He wasn't saying we're going to turn you pro or we're going to put you in the golden gloves or see how you do, kid, and get you a GED.

From the beginning, it was you're going to be the greatest and the best. And I think that what he was what he was asking Tyson was Make Me Immortal. Make me customato immortal. You need a huge ego to be a fighter, whether it's the UFC or boxing.

So, what makes you think that Customato felt that way? Oh, because he I I think that he uh he wanted very much to leave his mark on the game, and he had been in exile, and I think it bothered him deeply. Um and it can There are two kinds of fighters. There are fighters, you don't know their stories, and there are fighters who have stories. Mike's story was spectacular.

It just, you know, it didn't was wasn't the full truth.

So, right.

So he so Bobby Stewart brings me to Customato. Customato develops him. He goes to almost makes the Olympic team. He famously has a meltdown with Teddy Atlas before because he's so nervous. What if I lose?

Is everyone going to lea leave me? Him and Teddy Atlas. Teddy was the guy whom. cuss entrusted with much of the training. Right.

Who do you think is one of the great personalities in sports, right? I think that Teddy was a great trainer. He was certainly a very formative influence on me. He informed a lot of my thinking on Tyson when I was a newspaper columnist, which was uniformly negative. Because they had a huge falling out.

They had a huge falling out. Tyson, let me Teddy's problem with cuss. I think it was Cuss's ambition. Tyson never heard was no.

So he'd always get bailed out. If he got in trouble, he made Apparently a a a pass. At uh Teddy's wife's sister. Uh And Teddy got really upset about it, pulled a gun on him, and that was the end of Teddy and Camp. Um then he was given over to Tyson was Kevin Rooney.

Which is why, for most of his career, the early part of his career, he's on with Kevin Rudy.

So here he is, this 19-year-old gets a shot of the championship. He fights Trevor Burbick, who's a big guy. Who beat Mike Tyson famously in Barbados? I think Ali's fast, excuse me, beat Muhammad Ali in his last fight in Barbados, cut 51. 20 years old Mike Tyson on his way to becoming One of the youngest heavyweight champions of all time.

Bangs the buddy. Wow, with that up and down his nights and catches him with the right left foot. Hitting with down. He goes down. He should be able to get up.

Yeah. His legs may be shut, they are as Trevor Burbick falls back in the rope. I don't know if he's gonna be able to continue. He's got the heart, but his body won't let him. Do what his mind wants to, and he's pounded high.

It'll be scored as a knockout. Hills Lane Cunningham Out to ten. It's all over. We've got a brand new Heavyweight champion of the world. What does that mean to him?

It wasn't just how Burbick, it wasn't just that Berbick went down. He fell in every corner of the ring. He fell like three or four times. And one of the things that it. it crystallizes for America is how devastating a puncher Tyson is.

This was not a normal knockdown. It was not a normal knockout. And it again, it crystallizes the notion of just how destructive a puncher. He was. What changes after that?

Well fame. I mean, if you know, I mean, Tyson was was famous In a in a Kind of American way that killed Elvis or Marilyn Monroe or conceivably Tupac. It's a form of insanity. And again, he never heard the word no. Right.

He wasn't in a peculiar way, I'm I'm ashamed to say this. You know, throughout the 90s, I started writing a column. My first Tyson assignment was covering cops in courts. I was running around. For the for the news and and and later for the post, it was like run up to Harlem.

He just got into a fight with Mitch Green at Dapper Dan's. Was Dapper Dan's like a club? No, it's a clothing store. Get your ass up. Come on, hurry up.

Um And what I was Seeing without knowing it. It was a a young guy falling apart. You know, the the fights with Robin Gibbons, the Throwing stuff around the mansion in Bernardsville, and I was really caught up in the rush of it. I mean, it was my first. My first run.

It's a sensational story. At any city, a reporter, right?

So, and then. I was very friendly with Teddy at at the time. And it informed a lot of my thinking on Tyson, and Tyson was not behaving particularly well, so it was it was easy for me to make him the the villain in my column. I mean that that too lacked some nuance. It wasn't necessarily wrong.

But it wasn't until years later, 2012, I'm writing a column for Fox. and I go to see his one man show. In preview. And I find myself in the unlikely position of holding back tears. And he's not at all polished.

You know, it was before Spike Lee got a hold of it and put it on Broadway. It was still raw. And uh I I meet him After the show, and he's like recently sober. I think he was like a vegan that month or something like that. And um He asked me, I I tell him about Dapper Dans and the rest of it, running around, chasing 'em.

And he says, how'd that make you feel? Which is not the question I was expecting. How do you expect you? How does it make you feel? I said, what do you mean how?

He goes, how to make you feel? What about it? It was a rush. It was like a drug. You know, that kind of story, the heat, the adrenaline that story generates, and you just kind of.

Nods and he wasn't disapproving, even though I was, you know, picking apart pieces of his life, as is a lot of us. Work. And um To me, that was the first time he became actually. Human, not an abstraction, even though I'd had interactions with him at the fights during his trial. But it wasn't until that moment that he became Real to me, if you will.

Here is Mike Tyson with his probably he was at a zenith, I would argue, against Michael Spinks, cut 52. Did we just go up ready? Yeah. The opening bell, let's see what happens. Tyson attacks immediately, cuts off the ring, throws a wild right hand.

It's Tyson all the way here in round number one. Body shot, down goes Mike's face for the first time. The counter's up to four and five and six and seven and eight. That was a body shot that took him down. Here comes Mike Spinks in.

He leaves with the right hand. Down he goes. I don't think he'll get up from this. Mike Spakes is laying flat on his back. The count is up to five.

It's six. It's seven. It's eight. He won't be able to throw it. It's a block.

So people should understand: Michael Spinks didn't lose anything in the Olympics, didn't lose anything as a light heavyweight. Beat Larry Holmes twice to dispute it the second time.

So when he gets in the ring, he's undefeated and unbeatable. I don't think he's ever been knocked down. Never been knocked down. And then Tyson knocks him down 90 seconds. 91 seconds, that thing is over.

And That's the highlight. That's the high point. Of Tyson's professional career, it's hard to imagine how keenly anticipated. that fight was. It was essentially promoted by Trump.

He wanted to make a big show of it, and he did a pretty good job of that. Um But 91 seconds and People talk about Sphinx, who had been through every kind of test, not just in the ring but in life. Appearing frightened. On the on his way into the ring, and he tried, he actually tried to press the fight because his manager at the time told him, You've got to run across there and you got to get your respect. And that didn't.

Do That didn't really do him much good. But the interesting thing about Tyson, and for all the stuff of D'Amato's theory of fear and conquering bullies, was that my. did just the opposite, he projected fear onto the opponent. He made the opponent scared, and some of these guys are pretty seasoned Guys. Like Bruce Selden got hit in the top of the head.

Bruce Selden, I think he got hit like in the hair and he just fainted or something. Right, right. And these are big, you know, it's different if you or I are in the ring. But I mean, these are trained fighters. This is all they do.

And they're scared to death of a guy that many people, they're bigger than. But it also explains. To me, why he remains This type of attraction. I think this thing with Jake Paul did like 108 million views or live. How would they talk about it?

But as a business proposition, Jake Paul could only have done that dance. And Netflix could only have had it with with with with Tyson. But If you look at the cumulative effect of all those early knockdowns and how devastating they were, it becomes part of his brand. Then you stick a microphone in him and you. Wait, but that voice doesn't work with Those knockouts, what's going on?

And you stop.

So, Mark, Mark's book is out. We're going to have a few more minutes on the other side of the break. It's called Baddest Man: The Making of Mike Tyson. Mark Kregel in studio. Don't move.

Okay. Illuminating, intriguing, inculcating. I know some of these words. It's Brian Kilmead. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Killmead.

Sponsored by Previgen. Previgin made for your brain. What is it about Mike Tyson that brings people to him? Why are they drawn to Mike Tyson?

Well, there's a certain charismatic way that Mike has that I haven't seen in very many people. I mean, it's beyond even as a fighter. He's an incredible fighter. He's a great machine as a fighter, really. That's all you can say.

He's just an incredible fighter. But he's got a magnetism, and it's a personal magnetism, and he's fantastic. This is why everyone's here. And that is Donald Trump then, back in the 90s, who talking about Mike Tyson, and he did promote some of his fights. And of course, Donald Trump was a dominant figure in Atlantic City.

Mark Kriegel's here. His book is now out. It's called Baddest Man: The Making of Mike Tyson. Mark, Trump played a role with Tyson, right? One of the things that Trump.

wanted from Tyson was I mean it's a pretty astute It was a pretty astute business move. He was the piece that Trump needed to take. boxing away from Las Vegas and and move its it move its center. To Atlantic City didn't ultimately work out like that. But that was the calculation.

Um the same way like the One of the things, there's always this huge economic imperative with Tyson. The same way that Netflix wanted him for for all the live streams and to establish themselves in live live sports programming, so did HBO. need Tyson in the same way that a decade later they would use Tony Soprano to establish their primacy in the eighteen to forty nine year old male demographic. There's always this he's an incredible economic engine, and it's because of the knockouts. The Genesis story, and maybe, you know, what wrestlers call call it a promo, but as soon as he touches the microphone.

It's like, wait, what did he say? How did he say it? It's not like anything else you've heard before.

So you go through this book. If Mark Kriegel is sitting there in the 80s, there's no way Mike Tyson's alive in 2025. I think the one thing his haters like me and his acolytes and Tyson himself Could have agreed on in the late 80s, 90s was that he was not long for this world. That day when I met him in 2012, I asked, could you imagine being this old? He was 45.

He says, no, never, never even occurred to me. His life, his life was apocalyptic. And you know, for me. I need to part of me needs to love the subject even if I don't like him. And When the publisher broached this idea, I said, No way, I can't do Tyson.

I've written more bad stuff about Tyson than anybody. And I started to think about it. I'm an older guy, I've been through my own stuff, and I started to think. about what he had survived. Boxing, which is a pretty treacherous thing to survive in and of itself, the death of a child.

Booze. No dad. Cocaine. No no fathers you know, h his his family was the street. As one of his next-door neighbors told me, incarceration.

All of it, on and on and on. And and I started to It made me respect the guy, and I think that there is some virtue in having survived. And there's this finally, there's this idea that this guy who was a villain. is now Pretty much universally beloved. How the hell did we get there?

The movie is mainstream. The other thing is, he did go to jail, paid his time, and he paid his debts back.

So he basically worked his butt off to pay off back all these debts, didn't he? Yes. I mean, he paid his debt to me, I'll tell you that.

So listen. I don't mean that as cynically as it sounds.

Well, by the way, the book is great: The Making of Mike Tyson by Mark Kriegel. Mark, congratulations. And we focused volume two. Yeah, if I survive. It is time to take the quiz.

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