This show proudly sponsored by Real American Freestyle Wrestling. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilhorne. Hope you had a fantastic week. It's going to end strong here on this Friday.
David Bonson's going to be with us from the Bonson Group. Make heads of tails. Not only of the numbers that are coming in, although we don't have job numbers because of the lockdown and shutdown. but also about consumer confidence, about how we feel about jobs and about our future. Uh, a lot happening today.
Griff Jenkins in the studio getting set to host Fox and Friends Weekend. Uh joined me a little bit earlier. And we got a big announcement. Fox Nation Patriot Awards. Tickets go on sale for the November 6th show that you look forward to every year at the Tilla Center at LIU, where I went to college.
Foxnation.com/slash Patriot Awards. Go scoop up your tickets. Let's get to the big three. Number three. This use of U.S.
military firepower is unprecedented. Targeting drug smuggling boats with military strikes, there's no. Legal precedent. And it's another example of Donald Trump breaking laws within the United States. That is a look at what the media is saying about Donald Trump and the Republican Party, but it's just not the case.
We are at war with cartels. We want to protect America's youth and then stop the drugs from flowing that are killing them. It's the best way, the only way. Why I'm all in on this even if the lawyers are not. Number two.
Some of the individuals have been doing this for a long time. There's an organization to it. They're on social media. When they started was not a thing. But now, with the social media piece and the way that they communicate, we're definitely doing everything we can to put together all the pieces to this.
ICE under attack. Portland, Chicago, Los Angeles, and more. Why it shows Donald Trump was right to put them into the fray and why they're needed to straighten out those cities. Too bad the local police are not allowed to help. Number one.
The amount of money that actually is going towards people who are undocumented is such a small portion. We got to make sure Americans have the health care that they need, and if that means We gotta shut this government down, so be it. Oh, that's fine. Shutdown continues, intensifying, very intensely. While the GOP seems to have the upper hand, is there a risk for the midterms should it linger and should mass layoffs take place, even if it should be happening because we're 36 trillion in debt?
Griff, What do you sense right now? We've been through so many lockdown shutdowns.
Sometimes you get the sense who's got the momentum. You kind of knew the Freedom Caucus didn't have the power to do what they were doing. Senator Cruz in 2013, shutting down the government to eliminate Obamacare, didn't have the numbers. I get the sense that the power and leverage is with the Republicans right now. 100%.
And let's also not forget that in 2013, when Ted Cruz was shutting the government down, it was one senator, Chuck Schumer, who called government shutdowns the politics of idiocy. That was literally his quote. He's had a change of heart. But to your point, the leverage is with Republicans because you have one side that is saying, listen, let's just pass a clean, nonpartisan, simple extension to keep the government open till November 21st. And we'll talk about the health care subsidy extension that you want to, but let's not shut the government down and cause pain and difficulty as we just saw in the last one that lasted.
35 days in 2018, 2019. But in this case, one side simply says, Let's just pass this, keep things open, and we'll talk to you about your thing. The other side said, No, I'm taking all my toys, going home, and damage be damned. And that is never a winning argument to demand it. And now it's backfiring on them a little bit as we continue to lay out how this exactly works: that illegal aliens are getting free health care in states like California.
But some are worried in the Wall Street Journal today, some GOPers are worried that they're going to get blamed for creating, and might create some vulnerability because everyone's about to get letters as they do every year for their insurance premiums.
Now, a lot of people should never have gotten Medicaid. They never brought the money down after the pandemic infusion of dollars. But when the numbers go up, will they get blamed?
Some moderates are saying, let's continue the subsidies until after the midterm. Senator Mike Rounds says to walk away from these people that are losing insurance would not be. Good politically or morally, and there's about 24 to 40 million people enrolled on Obamacare. Do you see the other side to that? I do see the other side to it.
And listen, healthcare is a difficult issue for Republicans as well. That's why they are wanting to take a measured approach to it, but they know that they can't ultimately. Bring something that's going to damage millions of Americans. But I don't know if Republicans are going to get such a huge blame out of this because what we're learning in this shutdown is there is the case of millions that came across the illegal border illegally that were paroled legally into the country and then started to qualify for some of that Medicaid. And that's what the Republicans and the Big Beautiful Bill sought to cut out because ultimately, you should not be able to get free health care if you're an illegal alien.
But the other thing I'll just add quickly is that when you look at the way that those Obamacare health subsidies were juiced by Democrats under Biden, you're talking about a lot, trillion, a trillion dollars.
So much more than they ever said. And every year they got to be subsidized. And Biden threw all the money at it. And then Trump said, if you're not going to repeal it, I got to fund it.
So he's like, who came up with this program? Right. And the larger. Theme of the Trump administration was always going to be to cut the spending down. And so to give way to the Democrats, you're doing anything but cutting.
You're talking about these programs Doge has killed, a billion here, a billion there. When you're talking about three quarters of a trillion dollars, that is a lot of money, and no one's going to be on board for growing our debt to that level. Here is uh Nancy Pelosi. She has a real balanced approach about who's to blame. Cut for.
Trump and Republicans are now Inflicting a painful shutdown on the American people because they refuse to protect America's health care. And Congress doesn't extend the Affordable Care's enhanced tax premium tax credits immediately, hundreds of thousands of families now we're talking about California only will lose their health care.
So, by the way, for people who say that there's no provision to pay illegal immigrants, they do it in a different way. Money flows into these hospitals. 50% of all this money is reimbursed by the federal government. These hospitals are general practice, they function as general practitioners, the emergency room, especially for illegal immigrants. Because Ronald Reagan passed a law that anyone who goes, who has to get health care if they enter a hospital.
So, if you get there, who's paying the bill? These hospitals are getting reimbursed. It went from California getting $1.6 billion in 2023 to $6.4 billion now in 2024. That was just last year, and that number is going to rise even more. There has to be a sense that somebody's going to rein this in.
They don't like because this all passed in the big, beautiful bill, which has nothing to do with the shutdown. No, it's not. And you've got senators like Democrat Senator Jean Shaheen, retiring New Hampshire senator that was on your show on Fox and Friends on Thursday. You guys were talking with her. She looks like she may be leaning towards crossing over.
Critico has her as the whisperer. Yeah, the whisperer. Democratic whisperer to get in there and say, Can we get this done, please? Because I'm against shutdowns. She voted in March with Schumer, one of the six to seven, to put him over the top to allow our government to be funded.
And the negotiations, look, Thune and Johnson have both said that there will be no negotiations while the government is shut down, but they are willing to negotiate on these health care subsidies.
So, Shaheen is trying to get some of her more moderate Democrat senators on board to say, listen, let's get in principle a Washington handshake version of something that will get done, that we can get this reopened, get the government reopened, and then work towards something that actually Republicans can accept. Whether or not we see that this weekend or next week is anybody's guess.
So, I want you to hear what Dan Abrams said. He was on his Sirius XM show. He runs Mediaite. And he talked about: look, stop leaving the facts out of this debate. And he took on MSNBC, CUD 15.
The way that The fact checks have been happening from the media. would make you think That There is no argument. That Republicans can make at all about people in the country illegally. Getting any additional health care. As a result of what the Democrats are suggesting.
And that's not true. But it's also not true what J.D. Vance is saying.
So here we are in the situation where Republicans, led by Vice President Vance, are vastly overstating. What Democrats are proposing. And yet, you still have the media fact checking in a way that I think leads to more undermining of the media's credibility. Because they're making it so all or nothing. And it's not.
They also want to look at. Remember, we had this debate just to pass in August, to pass a big, beautiful bill about eligibility. You know, Medicaid is meant for people who are disabled, who are hard times, unemployed. But when you're able-bodied, there's going to be a work provision for you to continue to get it. And they think it's going to have the effect of the same thing welfare reform did under Bill Clinton.
People, when they had to work, jumped out of it and they said, okay, there's going to be a limit to the unemployment and there's going to be a limit to the welfare. I'm going to have to get a job. That's what they think will happen on the Medicaid side because this is all unsustainable. Right. And it's important to point out because to Dan Abrams' point, let's fact check this.
The poverty level of recipients for Medicaid was increased three times up to the 400% poverty level under the Biden administration. Republicans came in above, above. Yeah, sorry. And the Republicans came in in the big, beautiful bill and said, no, no, no, no, this is crazy. This is crazy.
You know, if you can. Because you're 400% above the poverty level, we shouldn't be giving you free health care. Exactly. I mean, I think most Americans can understand the common sense part of that argument right now. And that is a weak position that Democrats will bring to the table if they're trying to keep it at levels such as that.
There could be as much as there's already been 300,000 jobs cut out of the federal government since Trump took over. That's the Elon Musk Doge group, which is still working. There could be thousands more cut out over the next few weeks.
Now, is this the right thing to do overall? Yeah, because we have 36 trillion in debt. We're just making interest payments or basically bankrupting us. But the other thing is, I just feel bad for the middle-class family making a combined income of $110,000 to find out out of nowhere I lost my job.
So I do want to see a soft landing for people.
So those $300,000, most of them got offers to leave in September, get six months without pay, with pay, just move on.
So, these people, I just don't want them to look and realize I got an email that I'm fired because everyone's perception of Federal workers is that they don't work hard. I think that's wrong too. 100%. So 100%. And I've got friends that do them.
Yeah. I have a lot of friends that are federal workers. I just was talking to a woman, a neighbor of mine, that got let go. It was part of the reduction in force, a riff that came before the government shut down. This was last week.
And, you know, at the end of the day, I think that just give them some time. Give them some time.
Well, you know, 750,000 government employees were furloughed. That's what happens in a government shutdown. But in this case, you do see Caroline Levitt making a strong case and others in the Trump administration saying that, look, there are jobs that will be eliminated because of our original plan in reduction in force. I do think, by the way, one thing that we could see coming out of all this, and we don't know how many jobs will be eliminated actually out of this. We know President Trump intends to do that, but I think we could have legal challenges coming out of this.
I want to get your take on what's happening in Venezuela, the drugs and everything else, because you have another area of expertise, Griff, and that is the board. Order.
So let's leave some time on the back end. Bottom of the hour, we go into the economy and, of course, take your calls at some point. Or you can write me, briankilme.com. Just click on comments. Don't move.
It's Will Tain Country. Watch it live at noon Eastern Monday through Thursday at FoxNews.com or on the Fox News YouTube channel. And don't miss the show. Listen and follow the podcast five days a week at FoxnewsPodcasts.com or wherever you download your favorite podcasts. This week on the Foxtrue Crime podcast, I'm joined by retired FBI Special Agent Stacey Perkins as she discusses the Bureau's Innocent Images initiative and the many child predators she has helped to bring down.
Listen and follow now at FoxtrueCrime.com. Pretty soon I learned that I was a little bit more than a hundred College description. That is not number 25, Eric. I asked for cut 25, but why are you playing Taylor Swift? Happy Taylor Swift Friday.
I'll just say this, Brian. What a great day to be alive, to get all day to listen to the brand new, amazing Taylor Swift has outdone herself.
Now, Eric was playing the fifth track, Eldest Daughter, which, as I was telling you on Fox Friends, is the fifth track is always the emotional one on previous albums. You had All Too Well, which is like one of her most famous emotional songs. My eldest daughter, Madeline, got me into Taylor Swift. I woke up at 4:30. I went to the 2005.
You woke up at 4:30 because you had to be on the show. You had to be on the show at 8:20, but I needed time to listen to the whole album. I've gotten through almost all of it, but I went first to the eldest daughter because I knew that, as I told you before, Taylor Swift would wield that magical, emotional sob sword and just slay me with it. I just got the tears out, got it out of the way.
So, you're perfectly willing to say that you. cried When you heard this, you are an adult male. I am man enough. You are an adult. Don't ask man.
If you don't sit down and listen to that, and you're a father of a daughter, particularly an eldest daughter that got you into Taylor Swift, and you don't tear up, you ain't got a heart, I'll tell you. But I will say this. The majority of the album is about her newfound love with Travis Kelsey. It's a positive, happy album. Can you believe it?
And yeah, and her message is like, hey, it's okay to be happy. But you know the problem. When you write a song about happiness, like for example, Uptown Girl. Right. How does that sound when Billy Joel sings it?
He's talking about dating being married to Brooke Shields. No, he didn't marry Brooke Shields. Oh, I forgot who it was. Christy Brinkley. Christy Brinkley, that's right.
Same era, same supermodel. And then, I love you just the way you are. He sings that. And He divorced that woman. He said, My new lines are: She took the car, the key.
She took the house, the keys, the car.
So that becomes from a love song. Shouldn't you wait to see if the relationship's going to work before you write about it? I'll tell you, she's just laying out her emotions, pouring her heart out there, and it is moving the nation this morning. It's moving the nation is already on it. I do think this, though.
You know, James Comey also shares your passion.
Well, I can't. I don't even comment on that. I mean, you know, he needs to just do his thing. He's got enough problems. Leave Taylor Swift out of this.
But I will say, you know, these songs, these lyrics, like the famous songs of Billy Joel and Love Songs of the Past, Taylor Swift is not only a mega superstar, which is what most people see, she is perhaps the most poetic, skilled, gifted lyricist of our time.
So she writes it all. All right.
So I want you to hear this. If you don't mind, Eric, do you mind if I squeeze in some news? You're not going to just display another song. All right.
Here is Todd Ringell. He is the Assistant Special Agent at HSI over in Oregon, Cut 25. This spans back many years.
Some of the individuals have been doing this for a long time. There's an organization to it. They're on social media. uh which when they started was not a thing. But now with the social media piece and the way that they communicate, You know, we're definitely doing everything we can to put together all the pieces to this and draw it into more of an organization versus simply individuals.
They're trying to take down what I think is an Antifa branch that has just been trying to destroy the ICE building, harassing ICE agents over in Oregon, Portland, Oregon. Yeah, and you saw that Oregon lawmakers and I guess the Attorney General out there has moved to try and sue to block the potential of the National Guard coming in. But then you watch what's happening on the streets with Bill Melusian out there reporting. How can anyone, let alone a Democrat, decide that I'm going to take the side of those rioters? But the mayor and governor have.
Yeah. Right. And we're seeing him do it time and time again, doubling down, not only in places like Oregon, but in L.A. and Chicago and Boston. The same playbook that is a losing playbook, when you've got this issue, we talk about it's an 80-20 issue.
I think it's more like 90-10 or better that the American people across partisan lines are.
Well, what are ICE agents telling you? We're up against it. But what are ICE agents telling you? Because they're not getting support from local cops. Do they want to do this job?
They believe in their leaders, Tom Homan, Todd Lyons, and they are committed like never before. Morale's never been higher. Saturday and Sunday, 6 to 10, Fox and Friends weekend. That's right. Tune in.
It's going to be great. Maybe Taylor Swift will join us. Let's see. That'll be some that's a big tease. I'm Dana Perino.
This week on Perino on Politics, I am joined by Executive Vice President at Targeted Victory, Matt Gorman. Listen and follow now at FoxNewsPodcast.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Yeah.
