Democrats at war over deal to end shutdown

This show proudly sponsored by Real American Freestyle Wrestling. Recently, a close friend of mine experiencing unexpected loss, watching their family struggle emotionally and financially, made me stop and think seriously about my own family's future. As the primary provider, I know how important it is to make sure that if anything ever happened to me, my family would still be able to manage.

So, I realized that without life insurance, my family would be left with overwhelming financial burdens. I looked into coverage before, but the process always felt complicated, got endless forms, phone calls, and medical exams, made everything take weeks.

So, that's why Ethos stood out to me. Their process is simple and 100% online. There's no medical exam required, just a few health questions, and you get a quote in as little as 10 minutes. In many cases, you can even receive same-day coverage without ever leaving your house. Ethos offers up to $3 million in coverage with some policies starting as low as $2 a day, billed monthly.

It's a trustworthy company that's changing the way people think about life insurance.

So, protect your family's financial future with life insurance from Ethos. Get your free quote at ethos.com/slash. Brian. That's e-thos.com/slash Brian. Application times may vary, rates may vary.

From High Atom, Fox News Headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Killmead. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the latest moments of the Brian Killmead Show. After your fantastic weekend, we're back in action today with some big news and some breaking news about the end of the shutdown.

This hour, I'm going to talk to Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, as well as Lawrence Jones in the studio, fresh off Boxing Friends. He tried to get out of it, but I was able to find, track him right down, and force him into the elevator up to the 15th floor and then through into the studio. Lawrence, is any of that true? No. Oh, okay.

Let's get to the big three. Yeah. Number three. Celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for. And so then what am I doing?

I don't want to start turning people off. to films and to art that could change consciousness or change the world.

Okay, it's a little deep, but that's true. That's Jennifer Lawrence. She's not going to get into the political thing anymore. The business of entertainment is Hollywood learning to stay away from politics, plus, the real reason perhaps why Jimmy Kimmel is such a Trump hater. Number two.

Why do you want to create that? Look, obviously you have a Democratic establishment. I ran for president against the Democratic establishment. And of course, there's a division within the Democratic Party. There's no secret to anybody here.

The aftermath of the off-year election is every analyst intrigued. It should be a time for Democrats to celebrate, but instead you have an undeniable divide between the far left and the center left. I'm not sure if anyone's equipped to ste to heal it. Number one. I understand that not all of my Democratic colleagues are satisfied with this agreement.

But waiting another week, Or another month. wouldn't deliver a better outcome. It would only mean more harm for families in New Hampshire and all across the country. Beginning of the end of the longest shutdown in American history, the damage felt in our economy and across the country was too much for just enough Democrats in the Senate to end the shutdown. But the left is Harley all on board.

And Lawrence, as we look at the shutdown and who finally voted with the others, of course, Rand Paul jumped out because he doesn't want to be relevant. He just wants to be ideological. The minority whip, Dick Durbin, Senator Maggie Hassan, Tim Kaine, Angus Keen, Gene Shaheen, Catherine Cortez-Masto, Jackie Rosen, and John Fetterman. That will get to 60 in the test vote. I'm wondering if anyone could break from pressure, but right now that'll open up the government.

Most of them are retiring or not up for re-election or are in the states that Trump won.

So that tells you a lot. I think the most shocking one, and I said this this morning on Fox and friends. Was Dick Durbin? He's the vote counter. How do you lose the vote counter?

And I think that just shows you that deep down They know this is the right thing. But they're afraid of the base. And if you have a leader that's not afraid of the base because they don't have an election to run anymore, you do the right thing. But you know, this is exactly what Senator Thune said: open up the government and we'll negotiate on health care. But as I brought up to Senator Shaheen, maybe we'll bring that back, is the only reason you have to negotiate on health care is because Obamacare is not working.

And her answer is: well, in New Hampshire, it's working.

Well, the rest of the country is working. It's not working. What are you talking about? I'll take your word for it, but I don't know about New Hampshire, but it's not working. If it wasn't working, you wouldn't need these subsidies.

That's right. And we got to go back to. Part of this debate is what took place during the pandemic. There was a surge of resources. You had a health pandemic.

And now they want the same funding levels as if it's COVID. And that's just not going to happen at all. There's a reasonable way to do this. But, Brian, at the end of the day, okay, they did this over a handshake. That doesn't mean they're going to resolve health care.

I'm sorry. That doesn't mean that there's going to be an Obama-like bill that fixes health care. And I'm not sure the Republicans have a plan that can work as well. When government is involved in healthcare, it just doesn't work. Yeah, I don't think.

After being burned in their first term, the president was not looking to redo healthcare. He said, Obamacare is unmovable, let it happen.

So then he said, saved it a couple of times in his first term. Joe Biden just flooded it with cash and then opened it up to more. And these governors, little by little, started giving in and taking the subsidies. What happens? It's like crack.

The minute those subsidies come in, okay, you can do it. And everyone thinks you're a hero. After a few years, people go, no, the subsidies are going to stop.

So it's up to the state to now supplement. And the state goes, I need some help. In comes Joe Biden. I'll help you out. And then we have people eligible that are 400% above the poverty line.

That's not what it was intended for. I believe that Republicans should not take. The Democrats bait and make the next election about healthcare. I'm sorry. I think the last election was very clear.

It's about affordability. And the president has to, every day until the midterms, talk about that, the success of the administration, bringing prices down. That's what it's going to be about. If people are not living paycheck to paycheck and feel some type of relief when they go to the gas station, the grocery store, the Republicans will win the midterms. If they don't, then it's going to be in the Dem's hands.

So I saw Tim Kaine kind of thrash this out last Sunday with Shannon Bream when he said. You know, I don't uh I if they were gonna take this up for sure You know, that would be okay, but I don't trust the President to take this up for sure. And I thought, wait, so I'm like, how could you just guarantee that it would be him?

Well, the week later, he signed off on the word of Jon Thune that they're gonna put this to a vote. Cut seven is Tim Kaine, how he got to yes. I've said what I need in Virginia. With 320,000 federal employees who live in households that probably encompass nearly 650 or 700,000 residents in my state, I need a moratorium on mischief. My Virginians have been suffering under this administration.

The shutdown started on January 20. I need a moratorium on the punishing of the federal workforce. That's what I need. And so I joined this group to make sure that we could get important protections for federal employees. And what we have in this bill.

Is the restoration of all the furloughed employees and a guarantee of their back pay, the restoration of all rift employees who got riffed after October 1 with all of their back pay. and a guarantee of no rifts no riffs going forward. Yes, but this was because of you guys. Part of the reason why they were for for a loan is because you shut the government down.

So you're asking for a guarantee on something that you cause.

So I'm not understanding the calculation on that. I think was it Really happening, Brian, is he's starting to hear from the voters. Like, that's Washington, D.C., all those folks live in Virginia or Maryland, and he's feeling the heat over that. Just say that. Yeah, it is.

A couple of things. I mean, this is a win for Republicans, but to me, and you may feel differently because I'm sure by the time we get off the air, there'll be all these Republicans taking a bow, we won. I just don't think with all the pain of the flying around and the snap payments, there's no winners. And that's just it. Obviously, the Democrats caved on this.

There's just no way. But I am not for dancing in the end zone. Yeah, and I also just think this whole debate was juvenile because we're back. I mean, what improved from the over 40 days that we were in the shutdown? What improved?

What happened? What moved on the... We just got more headache. They're saying that because they held back so long that the travel during the holidays is still going to be impacted. I don't consider that a win.

No, I know. And by the way, the airlines, you know, while everyone's inconvenienced, the airlines are losing a ton of money. They did nothing to deserve this. And the pandemic, they were destroyed. Right.

So they did nothing. And then they got the problem with the air traffic controllers not getting paid. And now they're going to get hit with a surge of cash. That's fine, but it's got to get to them relatively quickly. Hopefully, they're pre-thought about this.

But this is the rift within the Democratic Party. We saw it right now. I mean, we saw Abigail Spamberger. Here's what she said: is the wind that you guys got in the off-year elections, is that making Democrats dig in? Cut 14.

Some in your party look at your election on Tuesday and the win in New Jersey and say that is permission to hold the line in Congress and refuse to fund the government or fold on the shutdown. Should Congressional Democrats view your victory that way? Absolutely not. Our victory was a victory that was based on a campaign that was addressing concerns related to costs and chaos. And she wanted to say, she said, open up the government.

And I thought, uh-oh, I wonder how that's going to go, because she's still a congressperson. Yes. But, Brian, she's in the minority. I was watching the other channels, and I'm watching my feed as this is happening on social media. All of the other channels, all their pundits, all the Democrats that are elected were enraged last night.

They verbatim were saying that because they won these races in New Jersey and Virginia, that gave them even more of a reason to double down.

Now, They have no control of any part of government. How do you think you have a mandate to be able to get something passed for healthcare? I don't understand it. That's not how the legislative process goes. But they believe that the people are with them.

No matter how many people they hurt in the process, people not getting paid, not getting food stamps, not getting their health care taken care of, they didn't care. It's about winning the next election.

So I want to talk about before you go, let's do one long segment. I want to talk about politics. And do you think this is politics in Hollywood? Do you think the trend that we're seeing is a new trend in Hollywood where they're like where the fever broke on Trump hatred. Robert De Niro will never be broke.

Spruce Springsteen, it'll never break. But for uh the Baldwins will never break. But for others who looking at this and want a promising career, they feel differently. And I want you to hear what Billy Bob Thornton told Joe Rogan. You know, he's a star of Landman.

He's a very accomplished actor. I don't know anybody who doesn't think he's a great actor, but I have no idea what he's like as a person. Cut 35. First of all, unless you have really studied stuff and really know about a subject fully. Uh Who the hell would want to listen to an actor or a musician talk about politics?

You know what I mean? It's like are are we supposed to follow this? I mean, uh if we are What if they lead you down the wrong road? I'm so glad he makes that point because I feel like when we make that point, we sound elitist. And it's one I have most of my friend group, they're lefties.

Yeah. And they do, they're very smart people in their own profession. But they comment on politics of the day. And I'm like, what are you talking about? That's not, that's not happening.

That's not, these are not the facts on the thing. And it's so nauseous. You're white on Instagram. And I go, exactly. And it's like, you're getting this feeling.

I'm like, you're a lawyer, you're a great doctor, and all that, but you're speaking on something that you haven't engulfed yourself into to see how things are done. And he's exactly right. I think the second thing is, I don't think Hollywood is becoming less liberal. I think they realize the old Jordan saying that Republicans buy sneakers too. And they're realizing that they're losing money as a result of just being so progressive.

So you can go vote, you can go support, you can even go to a campaign event. But going on your social media, bashing people on the right, bashing the candidate on the right, is not going to serve you well.

So look at Clooney and Rob Reiner. They're never going to change. I mean, they're militant right. Right.

Although Clooney comes off a little level-headed, Rob Reiner's like screaming at you.

So I don't know what he plans on doing, how that affects him. The people say, oh, who directed that? I won't go to that. I don't think that happens too much. But George Cooney, I look at it, I mean, somebody.

He might as well run, be a politician. That's how involved he is. I think he feels the heat a little bit, but I don't think he cares. I think you get to exactly. You get to a certain level where you're just that household name and people don't care.

But there are some people you start to lose a part of your market. 50% of your people are on the right, 50% on the left. I will say, at least George Clooney, although he's wrong, at least he's not nasty. A lot of them are really nasty, and those people, I just won't support. Yeah, and by the way, he's probably so well-read, he can go deep on policy.

I think that's a little bit different. And his wife is involved as well. Yeah, yes. Right.

She's Palestinian. I mean, I'm pretty. I don't know if she's Palestinian, but she is pro-Palestinian. Palestinian Israel, very pro-Palestinian. Here is Jennifer Lawrence, which he said last week to the New York Times Cut 37.

Celebrities do not. make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for. And so then what am I doing? I don't want to start turning people off. To films and to art that could change consciousness or change the world.

Because they don't like my political opinions. That is smart. It's smart, but it's also, Brian, nothing new in the sense of she should have known this. That tells me there were some consequences that happened in this last election. Everybody loves Jay Law because she's a really great actress, really great actress.

She had no business getting involved into politics, and I think she's starting to see that. There's a way to correct this. You don't have to get involved at all. You don't have to get involved. You can vote for whoever you want to vote for, but we don't have to n know about your choices.

Yeah, I think that she said, I grew up in Kentucky and almost everybody's to the right.

So I was going to Hollywood and I'm on my left.

So she was getting some backlash.

So, real quick, Jimmy Kimmel's wife, who's a writer on the show, might be the impetus why Jimmy Kimmel would probably always be liberal, but maybe not this crazed. Her name is Molly McInerney. And she said on YouTube, it hurts me so much because of the personal relationships I now have where my husband is out there fighting for this man. And to me, them vote, fighting this man, meaning Trump. And for me, voting for Trump is them not voting for my husband and me and our family.

And I unfortunately have kind of lost relationships with people in my family because of it. And it's really hard for me because I grew up believing in these Christian ideals of taking care of the sick and taking care of the poor. And I don't see that happening with the Republican Party. Had it been a little bit. And so it's, I feel like I'm kind of in a constant conflict and I'm angry all the time, which isn't healthy.

But I personalize everything now. When I see these terrible stories every day, I'm immediately mad at certain aunts and uncles and cousins who put Trump in power. That's what he gets when he goes home. I have never heard the clinical diagnostic for TDS, and she just did it. She just did it right there.

Why are they so angry? I mean, when I leave, you know, I'm upset about Mondami being the mayor, but I'm not. Losing sleep. I want you to arrest me. You know, I do things.

I haven't. When I see my liberal friends, I'm disappointed that they would support this guy, but I'm not enraged. These people allow politics to just capture their entire life. And by the way, why is she the victim here? Her husband, and of course, you educated me on this, she's doing some of the writing, not only attacks Trump.

But sh he makes fun of the voters as well. When we get on air, We talk about the politicians. We don't go after their people.

So, one thing I think he said famously said, I was told by ABC, you know, to try to broaden it out, go easier. And I say good riddance to anybody who doesn't want to watch. And then, in fact, forget the good, just ridden. Right.

So, I go, wow. He's telling you to jump in the lake if you're going to get it. And I'll let that go for him. And then they were the little boycott and they took him off the air and he served and he got back on air. They were so excited about his one-day ratings.

And now the ratings have crater once again because the content hasn't changed. He's not trying to go to the middle at all. And he's not a great storyteller at all. Right.

Trimp president said, No talent, but I think he's good. I liked him when he was on Fox Sports, and I remember in the beginning of his show, I felt bad because I thought he was going to get canceled, and I kind of knew him. And then I don't know what happened. You know what? I really enjoy a viewpoint to do.

Fallon. Fallon's cool. I really like Fallon. Right.

Can't really ask a question, but I know what you mean. Lawrence, thanks so much, man. Back in a moment. Where big stories meet bigger conversations. Stay informed and energized with the Brian Killmeat Show.

What if your home security could stop a break-in before it even begins? That's not science fiction. That's Simply Safe. And right now, their early access Black Friday sale is changing how we think about protection. Traditional systems wait until someone's already breaking in.

Simply Safe's active guard outdoor protection powered by AI detects threats before they reach your door. Real security agents jump in instantly, confronting intruders, letting them know they are on camera and the police are on their way. And if needed, setting off sirens and spotlights. It's proactive protection that stops crime before it happens. And here's the best part: no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and you can cancel anytime.

It's been named best home security system by U.S. News and World Report for five years straight. And with a 60-day money-back guarantee, you can try completely risk-free.

So, if home safety has been on your mind, this is your moment. Right now, my listeners can take advantage of their biggest sale of the year with this exclusive early access to Simply Safe's Black Friday sale and save 60% on any news. system by going to simply safe.com slash Brian. There will never be a better time to get real security for your home. Go to simply safe.com slash Brian.

Stay protected and stay one step ahead with Simply Safe. If you're interested in it, Brian's Talking About It. You're with Brian Kilmead. Welcome back, everybody. Just got a couple of minutes here.

I went along with Lawrence. I wanted to be able to, he wants to go to jiu-jitsu.

So I went one long segment and then we'll do handle it the rest of the way.

So this is a little bit short, but I just am so relieved that it looks like we're all set to get rid of this shutdown. And I don't think that any Republican is against trying to make healthcare affordable. It would be very interesting if they see up until January 30th that instead of just voting on these subsidies. Won't they do something substantial with this? Can they figure out why the only people that seems to be profiting are the insurance companies?

Republicans don't run on being pro-insurance. Democrats don't run on being pro-insurance. We don't want universal health care. It hasn't worked in Canada, has not worked in England. But I'm just wondering, can you have a productive conversation with health care people, with experts in the area?

We got such a we have a 10-year judgment now, a 10-year runway to look at Obamacare, what the intent was. unless it was to fail and what went wrong. Every day, America's first responders stand ready: firefighters, law enforcement, paramedics, doctors, dispatchers, and people who put themselves on the line for public safety. But keeping them connected in moments of crisis has not been easy. That's why Congress authorized a nationwide network for public safety.

Today, that promise is fulfilled through FirstNet. It's the only nationwide network built with and for first responders.

So, whether it's a big city, rural town, or remote tribal community, FirstNet helps ensure no call for help goes unanswered. It gives first responders priority access, never throttles their communications in the U.S., helping them to connect across agencies when it matters most. This isn't just a network, it's a lifeline, a bipartisan commitment to America's public safety, built to serve those who serve us all. FirstNet is the backbone of our nation's emergency response and will continue to be in the future. FirstNet, built with ATT.

Learn more on firstnet.com/slash publicsafety first. Yeah. Yeah. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show.

Tonight, eight Democrats voted with the Republicans to allow them to go forward. on this uh continuing resolution into my mind. This was a very, very Bad vote. We got a lot of work. to do.

But to be honest with you, tonight was not a good night. Bernie Sanders upset the shutdown is over. Why? Not enough suffering for no reason at all? And in case you don't know, they had a test vote last night.

They'll have 60 votes. to have a continuing resolution through January 30th, it looks like, unless something breaks and put our government workers back to work and start funding all these programs. Senator Mark Wayne Mullen joins us now. Senator, I haven't seen you anywhere. What is your response from what that test vote revealed yesterday?

Did you say you haven't seen me anywhere? No. Yeah, no, I mean, I haven't seen your comments on television yet. That's why I'm thrilled that you join us. Yeah, thank you, Brian.

Well, we knew this was going to happen. We had eight of the thirteen that had agreed to vote with us last week.

So we should have already had the government reopen. What do you mean? What do you mean? They told you verbally they would? We had 13 that agreed to vote with us after Tuesday's election.

They wanted to get through the Tuesday election, Brian, because they didn't want their base not to turn out.

So we had 13 agreed with us. Um I had been working with these individuals for Since before the shutdown happened, they wanted to get past the No Kings rally. After No Kings rally, they said they couldn't because their neck would be in a guillotine or guillotine. And then they said, well, they couldn't because they're afraid their base won't turn out. And Chuck Schumer had agreed to.

Quote, take off the handcuffs if they would allow them to get through the election.

Well, after the election, they felt emboldened and started making absolutely brand new. absolutely ridiculous demands on all kinds of stuff to limit the presidential presidential authorities. And we just wasn't going to do it. We just we said we're not doing it. And the pressure got high enough not because they felt like they were in higher ground.

It's because honestly, the airports and all their businesses and business travels around the country was being affected. And then you got to look at the GDP. The GDP dropped from 4% to 1% in the last forty days for the shutdown. And so they caved, but there was only eight of the thirty or the thirteen that agreed to it. Either way, we passed the first step to move forward.

Uh, this you realize they got what they got, you guys offered them in the first week. We will have a vote on Obamacare. Right.

And isn't it funny, Brian? I I saw your interview today with Gene Shaheen on Fox and Friends. And she was making this all about health care, saying that the Republicans are costing health care to go up. Republicans are the responsible for the high cost of health care. And you're going, wait a second, Affordable health care was Obamacare that you guys promised was going to go down.

I mean, President Obama said himself that premiums are going to go down 25%. it's up two hundred twenty one percent, and now you're trying to convince the American people that if they pass a premium tax, which is a taxpayer subsidy, to the insurance companies, that your premiums are going to go down. No, the insurance companies have come out and said even with the premium tax, Past, your premiums are still going to go up 11% to 12%.

So you're going, okay, that makes no sense. They own this healthcare crisis because it's unaffordable and they know it.

So the thing is, Senator, I hope I made it clear. That when it passed, the subsidies were always supposed to sunset. Joe Biden's program, always supposed to sunset. I thought I made that clear to her. She goes, Well, New Hampshire, the money was, you know, it is going down in New Hampshire.

Well, I don't know if that's true, but if it was going down across the country, you wouldn't have asked for the subsidy to be sustained. That is absolutely correct, Brian. You're 100% correct. If they didn't, if premiums are going down, they wouldn't ask for the extension that was supposed to sunset in four years. Remember, Um ev not one single Republican voted for this in 21.

All Democrats, 100% of the Democrats are the ones that voted for this. To pass this premium tax for COVID that was supposedly to help premiums stay low. To sunset in four years. It was never supposed to be permanent, but now they're trying to spin it and say that the reason why the health care is so high is because it's the. Republicans' fault, but yet they're the ones that created Obamacare.

Right, and nobody could say there's Republicans behind Obamacare, where you guys did have people cross over on the gun control legislation. That's not what this was. And that was before I think you even got to the Senate when they passed it. But, Senator, here's the big picture. Is that when you look at that last election, whether you think it means a lot or a little, it means something about affordability.

You know, maybe you guys should say, I inherited 5% inflation, I got it to three, my goal is two. Maybe that could be it. But the other thing that you guys care about, everybody cares about, is to make healthcare coverage affordable.

So, is there a. Have you? This is a period where you actually could close the doors, lower the shades. And try to work this out. Is there a fix to this that you have seen out there, or do you have to get a.

Do we have to go to a whole new piece of legislation? You you would you can't you can't fix a blown motor. You have to rebuild it. And that's what Obamacare is right now, affordable healthcare, ACA. It is a blown motor, and the president knows that.

President Trump has said, listen, I want to make health care affordable for everybody. I want to make it work for everybody. Let people have choice. Let the market work. We have had legislation out there.

The problem is that it's not about policy to the Democrats. This whole shutdown was never about policy for the Democrats. This was about politics. That's why they kept saying over and over again, this is the only leverage they had. They quit talking about health care.

Three weeks ago, it started into everything else other than health care because they knew health care was a losing fight because their health care that they were fighting for was to give illegals health care insurance back.

So this was never about that. And the same thing with health care, the same thing with immigration. If we wanted to actually have a policy discussion and leave politics out of it, The Congress could fix immigration and we could fix health care, but you can't because the Democrats have no way to think policy only. It's always about politics.

So they always make it that way. President Trump had a brilliant move two days ago when he put out the True Social Post and said, Hey, okay, you guys really want to do the subsidies, the premium tax, instead of giving it to the health care industry, which the healthcare industry is doing just fine. They have made record profits, and I have no problem with them making profit. I'm a capitalist. Insurance companies, yeah.

I have no problem with the insurance companies making uh uh making money. I want them to make money, but instead of making them even more money by giving them tax subsidies, which they don't need, give that money straight to the to the individual themselves. Let them go out and choose the health care they want to buy. How did the Democrats argue against that? That is a brilliant decision that President Trump is saying that he wants to do.

So we have an option, but they don't want to give President Trump a win, Brian. That would mean that the Republicans now have saved health care. And that isn't what it's about. They're trying to change the blame game and put it on Republicans. I mean, that's obvious.

That's all you're going to hear message speaking from the Democrats over the next three days. And what people should know when talking to Senator Mark Waymullen is they broke from leadership. The leadership didn't say. Outwardly, like they did in March. Go ahead, vote for this and put it over the 60 threshold.

Have a continuing resolution.

Now, this is going to be interesting because look what Chuck Schumer put out publicly. He says, America is in the midst of a Republican-made health care crisis, a crisis so severe, so urgent, so devastating for American families that I cannot support is continuing a resolution that fails to address it. I'm voting no. Excuse me? You're the leader.

If you really felt upset that they broke with you, you would say, I could not help six Democrats from going against my leadership. My instructions were X, Y, and Z. But instead, he just talks about his vote. What does that tell you about what's happening on the other side?

Well, Chuck Schumer's weak. He's a fell leader. They know he's a failed leader. During this negotiation process, we were negotiating more with Hakeem Jeffries. And I really don't want to say negotiating.

We wasn't really negotiating because we never gave him anything except a vote with no guarantee of an outcome. But during the discussions, Chuck Schumer was never involved. The White House couldn't talk to Chuck Schumer. His own Senate Democrats couldn't talk to Chuck Schumer. We were actually dealing with Hakeem in the House.

Uh because of that.

Now, who who led the the negotiations was Tim Kaine and Gene Shaheen. And who actually broke the stalemate was Tim Kaine. And the reason why Tim Kaine from Virginia broke the stellgate the the stalemate was because he has 350,000 Federal employees in a state, and they were they were literally starting to rally against him. And so he knew he had to make a move.

So the White House offered him to roll back the RIF, which is the employees that were laid off, during the shutdown, just during the shutdown. That was it. Not beyond the shutdown, but since October 1st. And would guarantee that they would have their have a job until January 30th, but not after that. And the reason why was Tim just wanted them to get their back pay.

That was it, just get their back pay, but nothing passed that.

Well, so the President and the White House actually offered Tim that. And Tim jumped on it like, you know, jumped on it very quick. I was going to make some statements, but I'll leave that. And he jumped on it very quick, and that's what broke the log to him to bring over the the other votes.

So Senator, now you have an opportunity to get the appropriation spills done. Can you go normal process even though you're already overtime? Can you just work it through committee now, or are we going to end with an omnibus? No, so we we put on three appropriation bills, and all three appropriation bills I I I I the mini bus that we did wasn't it wasn't like we just took these three bills and put them on there. All three bills had already went through the House, the Senate and they had been conferenced.

And so we have actually four more done that way, too.

So the three appropriation bills that's on this CR, which is why we had to amend the CR, we just had to take off the three CR. CRs, a continued resolution, which were Biden policies, and replaced them with Trump policies. They're important because one of them was AG. AG hasn't been changed since 2018. And we actually lower the dollar amount on 2018, and this also has SNAP programs.

the Mill military, Milcon, which are President Trump's priorities and Secretary Hexet's priorities for the military, not Joe Biden's.

So we had to put in in there. And then we had Ledge, which paid our federal employees here on Capitol Hill, including Capitol Police. All those are important. Those went through a conference, those went through the House.

Now, we have four more. that we will probably do before january thirtieth. Those four are have already also went through the conferences, or not through the conferences, they've already went through the committees, the appropriations, the committee of jurisdiction.

Some of them, two of them, will need a House will need a House vote. All four of them already have a four vote in the Senate. And we could possibly put those in january thirtieth, but we're prob that would put seven of the twelve appropriation bills done, but that will fund eighty seven percent of the government. We will probably have to CR the rest of it.

So the other ones, which will fund thirteen percent, We'll probably be arrested the full year CR, and that'll probably be what happens January 30th.

So a couple of things, too. You know, we think about the SNAP and we think about the air travel. I got it. It's two biggest things. Also, I understand weapons not delivered to Ukraine, and that was paid for by NATO.

More than $5 billion worth of U.S. weapons exports because your armed services to support NATO allies in Ukraine have been delayed by the government shutdown. It's actually harming both you know, it's harming both sides.

So including the Aram missiles, the Aegis combat system, the High Mars, that Allies were buying and they were selling or giving to Ukraine.

So this is a huge ripple, isn't it? Ripple is huge. Yeah, it wasn't just like the defense industry was selling it straight to Ukraine. They were selling it to the UN. UN was buying it and giving it to Ukraine.

But it was they the defense department or the defense, yeah, they made it on me. The Department of War was the one selling it.

So it it wasn't that it was well the government was making money off of these sales, which is why part of the reasons why our GDP was at four percent and has dropped to one percent. That is a three percent drop in GDP will bankrupt most countries when this happens in forty days. I mean, I'm seriously, that's a huge, huge, huge drop. That's one that can have huge ripple effects that can run us right into recession. This is how dangerous this was becoming.

If we would have stayed here anytime longer, it would have become a national security risk that we were running on. And you could see the dollar deflate. The economy will come back pretty quick, but those dollars will never come back. Once you're 40 days out, it's not like you backspend 40 days of money. There'll be some influx, but it's not like next month we're going to have an 8% GDP.

We're just going to probably have a 3% GDP. It'll take a while for us to get to 4%.

So there was a lot of financial hit that we took because of these agreements we have, not just with NATO, but also with Australia, who is buying our submarines. We have aircraft that were being bought by our friends and allies all around the world, F-35s that make it that took a big hit. You have air defense, that we are the best in the world in air defense. All of our friends around the world are constantly buying our equipment. And that is a huge, huge surplus for us.

Senator Lasley. When you uh when you talk about what's happening now, overseas With the Middle East, we have the Syrian president visiting the White House for the first time ever. Your reaction. What are you going to ask? What do you think that you should the President should request from Syria?

I know they're talking about being part of Abraham Accords. I want Russia out of that country. Can we push for that?

So I met with President Al Shirari in August in Damascus. We were I led the first official Codell into Damascus. It was myself, Chairman Jason Smith from Missouri, Jimmy Panetta from California, Count Congressman and Senator Joni Hertz. I led it I led it in there. It was it was very quiet.

We went in quietly, met with him. You know, he's a former jihadist. This guy, I told him fifteen years ago, him and I were more likely be looking at each other through the barrel than we are sitting here shaking hands. But it's interesting because that's the area of of the country. The guy's very charismatic.

I had a very straightforward conversation with him, he speaks English. Uh he broken English, but he speaks and understands English a lot better and he speaks it. I understand a little bit of Arabic and I don't speak it at all, so we could communicate well. I also had dinner with him last night, myself and Senator Joni Ernst. And the president's met with him before.

This guy wants to normalize relationships with Israel. He understands the importance of ties with the United States. Last night, we talked about that. Last night, he said we want to have relationships with the United States. He said, Damascus is the oldest civilization in the world.

Syria is a very diverse religious group because, you know, he is. Used to be an extremist, and I wish I had time to actually talk about his conversation because it's very intriguing to me about his transformation. But he recognized that there's Christians, there's Kurds, there's Druze, there's all these religions that he's got to come together. And I think the president sees that. And what we're going to say is we need assurance that you're going to represent all of Syria, not just one religious group.

I just would love to kick Russia. I'm going to give you that, then we can move forward. All right. Senator Mark Waymoen doing a lot of great work in a very difficult area of Syria. Senator, thanks so much.

I'll talk to you again soon. Best of luck in the government open. All right. Thanks. Back in a moment.

It's Brian Kilmead. Hi, everyone. It's Brian Kilmead here. Are you tired of those uncomfortable dress shirts, especially when they bunch up under a sweater? If so, then you must check out Collars Co., makers of the dress collar polo.

Listen up. These shirts are four-way stretch, buttery soft polos with firm dress collars on them.

So they give you the dress shirt look, but extremely comfortable polo feel. You can wear them with anything under a sweater, with a blazer, or by themselves as an elevated polo. They work for any occasion. These polos are perfect, whether it's in the office, on a golf course, or a night out. Collars and Co.

is exploding and have gone viral on social media thanks to the $1 million investment they received on Shark Tank from Mark. Cuban and Peter Jones. You don't have to worry about collars that flop down and spread out. They stay firm and sharp all day. It's an amazing array of sweaters, quarter zips, pants, and outerwear.

If you're looking for the performance dress shirt or polo that looks great all day, check out collarsandco.com. Use promo code Brian for 15% off of any purchase of $100 or more. That's promo code Brian. Yeah. Breaking news, unique opinions.

Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Joe. Tom Brady announced that his current dog is actually a clone of his previous dog who passed away two years ago. Brady also revealed that during his career, he went through eight ronks. Yeah. I don't get it.

I mean, I took it as like a multiplicity joke. Like, you kept on, you know, you'd move with Michael Keaton, you kept on making them, and each one was a little dumber and a little goofier. But maybe that wasn't the reference, but Yeah, I mean, I have some pull from it from the Donald Trump Open. I thought it was, it seemed pretty funny. But I tell you what, they're getting blowback.

Who's a female host? It was Nikki. Nikki Glazier. She had one joke that just made, it was just cringeworthy. And I'm all for pushing the limits.

But not the way she did. I think I'll have to show you in the break. I don't want to talk about it. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead.

Hi, everyone. So glad you're there. It's the Brian Kilmey Show coming to you from 48th and 6 in Midtown Manhattan. And yep, code by Zohran Mamdani. And I think he's going to change things as radically as we expect.

And that's why so many people are looking to leave the city. Where are they going? If you have to work here, they're either going number one place would be somewhere in New York. Number two is New Jersey. You know what number three is?

Pennsylvania. That might be the best option if people want to move. Because there's certain things you got to do in the city until they chase the whole financial factor and media out. If they do in fact do that, uh we'll see if he ever wises up. This hour, we're going to be joined by a guy running for governor, Ben Midgley.

He's running for governor of Maine. He is a creator of Crunch, started multiple businesses, running on the Republican ticket. It should be great. But before we get to him, at the bottom of the hour, we have your phone calls. We'll squeeze in and your input.

If you want to write me at briankilmley.com, let's get to the big three. Number three. Celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for. And so then, what am I doing? I don't want to start turning people off.

To films and to art that could change consciousness or change the world. The business of entertainment is Hollywood learning to stay away from politics, plus the real reason perhaps why Jimmy Kimmo is such a chump hater. Number two. Why do you want to create? Look, obviously, you have a Democratic establishment.

I ran for president against the Democratic establishment. And of course, there's a division within the Democratic Party. There's no secret to anybody here. He is dead set against ending. Ending The shutdown, the aftermath.

of the off-year election was very, uh was very Uh was great. But after now that the election's over for Democrats, it's time for them to look into healing the rift between people like Bernie Sanders and others like, I don't know, Chuck Schumer. It should be a time for Democrat celebration, but it's not. We'll go over the divide. Number one.

I understand that not all of my Democratic colleagues are satisfied with this agreement. But waiting another week Or another month. wouldn't deliver a better outcome. It would only mean more harm for families in New Hampshire and all across the country. That is Senator Jean Shaheen of New Hampshire, beginning at the end of the longest shut, beginning of the end of the longest shutdown in American history.

The damage felt to our economy across the country was too much for just enough Democrats in the Senate to end the shutdown. But the left is hardly all on board. I'll explain. I'll explain. They're not on board.

How about that? And let me tell you who did it.

So last night there was a test vote. We just heard Senator Mark Wayne Mullen said he has many as thirteen before the election. They said wait for after the election. After the election, they got pressured not to do anything, and then they finally broke over the weekend. On board with breaking the shutdown, Dick Durbin?

Senator Maggie Ha Hassan. Tim Kaine, Angus King, Gene Shaheen, Kathryn Cortez-Masto, Jackie Rosen, John Fetterman. And one person too, Rand Paul, still continues to vote like he's on his own planet. If any one center chooses to slow this all down and drag this out for days and just extending the pain for air travel, for SNAP recipients, it's on them. But they cross that threshold.

Jon Thune agreed to hold the vote on expiring extended Obama subsidies before the end of December. And they also agreed not to fire any more people and put back the people that were furloughed when the shutdown started. That was really for Tim Kaine, who has hundreds of thousands of people in Virginia, obviously, who work. In Washington. Senator Bernie Sanders writes, Tonight was a very bad night.

Chuck Schumer essentially says, goes blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then says, I cannot support this continuing resolution that fails to address it. I am voting no. But as a leader, He allowed everybody to finally vote. To end the shutdown. He didn't write, much to my urgency and dismay.

I have certain Democratic senators who gave in to the pressure of Republicans. Instead, he says I'm voting no, which means he gave the green light, which is why You have Rocana saying Senator Schumer is no longer an effective leader and should be replaced. I mean, I I'm not a fan of Chuck Schumer. But He gave you guys the longest shutdown ever. Would you be happy if the economy just stopped all air travel entirely and poor people don't get any snap benefits?

I mean, what was the goal here? Adam Schiff writes, Millions of Californians are now at risk of losing their insurance. What an idiot. Does he not know that these extended insurance the extended insurance subsidies and tax breaks were only because of the pandemic, and that was written like that by none other than Joe Biden himself, or the auto pen wrote, or literally say his staff wrote? It wasn't Republicans' idea to do that.

Hughes Center Sheheen cut to. Today the Senate voted to start reopening the government. We took a big step forward to protect the health care of tens of millions of Americans. in exchange for funding through January 31st. This agreement will give Democrats control of the Senate floor for a vote on one of our top legislative priorities.

extending the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits. This is important when Republicans control every branch of government. The agreement reinstates thousands of fired federal workers and provides back pay to more than one million others. It advances three bipartisan funding bills. For agriculture and FDA, for military construction and veterans affairs, and for the legislative branch.

It restores. a real bipartisan appropriations budget process.

So she did it. She's getting a lot of blowback because of it. What does she care? People in New Hampshire are pressuring her. She's retiring.

What's the big deal? You know, it's interesting, Gary Peters retiring, didn't vote for this. Senator Angus King has always been voting to open the government. Cut five. The question was: Does the shutdown further the goal of achieving?

Some needed support for the extension of the tax credits. Her judgment was That it It will not, it would not. produce that result. And the evidence for that is Almost seven weeks. A fruitless attempts to make that happen.

Would it change in a week? Or another week? or after Thanksgiving, Or Christmas. And there's no evidence that it would. What they're I can't listen to him talk a word a minute, but I appreciate what he did.

That's why I had Jeanine Shaneen on Jean Shaheen on from New Hampshire on television, and she's angry. I was talking to her in the break, she's angry at everybody, but she did the right thing. There's no reason to hold out. Republicans aren't going to break, just like Democrats didn't break when Obama was in power. Why would they break?

You guys shut down the government. And don't say you control every branch. Any idiot knows it's over sixty votes. They don't have sixty votes.

So, and stop saying that they're looking to hurt healthcare. You came up with Obamacare, now it can't even be financed, and it's up to Republicans to fix it. 'Cause they're in power?

So all these people running for President and running for their own office, it looks like Chuck Schumer's toast, but I don't think he's running for reelections.

So what about the ramifications? What about paying the price? Our economy has already paid the price. Listen to Scott Besenti, Secretary of Treasury, cut twelve. The economy from day one, but it's getting worse and worse.

We had a fantastic economy under President Trump the past two quarters, and now there are estimates that the economy, economic growth for this quarter, could be cut by as much as half if the shutdown continues. And what your correspondent didn't talk about there, George, was there's, of course, the human cost, and we're going to have the busiest travel day of the year, the day after Thanksgiving. And Americans should look to five Democratic senators to come across the aisle to open that. Yeah, and they got it. A little bit later, they got it.

And it's going to be interesting to see where we go from here. And I think over the next month, Senator Thune's a reputable guy. They're going to put this in some type of vote. But my feeling is you're not going to just subsidize Obamacare at the same levels anyway. What's going to fix it?

Who's making all this money? Who's got the quality health care? What are the rates that are going up to? You know, they were going even if you provided the subsidies from the pandemic, if you kept that going by the tune of $50 billion. Do you know that still the rates still were going to go up?

Don't you see a problem here?

So they just grabbed on anything. First, they brought up USAID, and then they wanted to make sure that illegal aliens got their health care. And then they backed off all those things because that wasn't going to happen. The one thing I don't want to see happen is get rid of the filibuster. Don't tell me you're going to get rid of the filibuster.

I understand the president's frustration with it. He can go sound off, but you can't get rid of it. And I would love this question to any Democrat. If you were Republican right now, would you get rid of the filibuster? Would you get rid of the filibuster if you were in power?

And well, how are they going to answer? If everyone's being honest, everybody wanted to get rid of the filibuster that's currently in the Senate right now. Joe Manchin, Cinema have left. They're the ones who stopped it.

So another some t some other topics. That are going to matter when it has to do with the economy is what's going on with tariffs. Huge Supreme Court case last week to see if the President has the power to put those tariffs on and cut the trade deals that he cut. Those tariffs forced the hand, helped him with foreign policy, domestic policy brought in revenue. People think it might be raising prices to a degree.

We can debate that another time. But does the President have the emergency power to do it? That's the real thing. And here's what Scott Besson said: here's the key. What is the intent, and what are you addressing?

Here's what the Treasury Secretary said: cut 24. Over the course of the next few years, we could take in trillions of dollars, George. But the real goal of the tariffs is to rebalance trade and make it more fair. You know, over time, and the President's goal is to bring back manufacturing to the U.S. You know, for the past Two Two, three, four decades.

We've seen our manufacturing sector gutted.

So, what would happen over time is we would take insubstantial money as factories come back to the U.S., as we're seeing now. I was just down in South Carolina at a rare earth magnet plant and a Boeing plant on Friday, and that's. I believe 1,500 total new jobs. Tariff income will be substantial, but then that will rebalance. That's what he wants to do.

So if you're looking to rebalance trade, does that give the authority to the executive? Is it an emergency? The one thing that I'm heartened by, because I wanted this to stand, it is chaos if they have to retract it. Just like it would have been chaos if Obamacare was declared unconstitutional. And John Roberts went out of his way to change things in order to make it constitutional because he didn't want to see the health care.

Collapse. And that let down a lot of people. It pleased Barack Obama, but he never thanked John Roberts for it.

Now, the one part, I know there are a lot of conservative, a lot of people talking about the conservative justices who are very skeptical of this power. But this is the one line I think about, because they're not just saying. The executive branch doesn't have the power. The Constitute, they do have the power, they don't have the power. They're thinking about what happens if we strike the tariff power and we decide that the president doesn't have this.

Listen to this question that Amy Coney Barrett had. to the plaintiff cut twenty three if you win Tell me how the reimbursement process would work. Would it be a complete mess? I mean, you're saying before the government promised reimbursement, and now you're saying, you know, well, that's rich, but how would this work? It seems to me like it could be a mess.

And that fact that she put that together, and the plaintiff agreed, and the The defense agreed. Makes me think that these Supreme Court justices say, look. Whatever we want, the President did a lot of tariffing his first term, we didn't stop him. They left the tariffs in place under Biden. We didn't stop them.

I think he added some. Then the president came out so aggressively in April Now we've got plaintiffs and they want to stop them. But it's almost impossible to stop that train from turning around. Should that matter in the Supreme Court's decision? That's the key.

I think it matters. Because y you li you live in a country, you don't live in a law school class. And this country's got to now suddenly realize give that money, but we're not giving that money back. And the president wants, does you know, they might have alternatives, they say they do. President might have another plan, but don't say it.

Let everyone know, it'll be absolute chaos. And do you know how hard it is to cut a trade deal? Because the people we're dealing with know. Even though they're our allies, the courts might strike down President Trump's ability to use tariffs, which means a better deal for all. our opponents, even if they're allies.

So we come back. I'll take you calls 1866-408-7669. We have a lot to discuss today, and there's a lot going on. We also have the Syrian President going to the White House. They'll talk to Fox a little bit later.

And this guy a few years ago was a member of Al Qaeda. Do you trust him? Were we right to do it? I say yes, although I acknowledge the risks. I want to see what you think, Brian Kilmicho.

Politics, current events, and news that affects you. Brian's got a lot more to say. Stay with Brian Kilmead. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead.

First of all, Unless you have really studied stuff and really know about a subject fully, Uh Who the hell would want to listen to an actor or a musician talk about politics? You know what I mean? It's like are are we supposed to follow this? I mean, uh if we are What if they lead you down the wrong road? Billy Bob Thornton weighing in, talking about the landman, and then talking about politics with Joe Rogan.

I said, I'm not going to do it. Why would I do that? He says he says he's a radical moderate. And that's the second major star who came out and said basically the same thing because they thought it was great. Trump was not going to win, come out against him.

And then when he won, we're going to resent him. And the Russians did. And then what happened after 2020? They go, this guy's terrible, and they're going to speak out. And.

And but now I think they have a total change of heart. Why? Just being, it's just a good idea. To keep your politics to yourself. I remember.

Rob Lowe is one of the first major stars to come out as a Republican. And after coming out at a few conventions for Bush 43 and maybe 41, I'm not sure. He just went away. He said, Look, I am what I am. I think what I think, but I'm not going to be that public with it.

Ben Affleck did the same thing. He was out there for Al Gore and then thought, probably I haven't talked to him, but why do I need to do this? I need Republicans and Democrats to see my movies. It's not my living. I mean, George Cooney might as well be a candidate.

He knows his stuff. I just vehemently disagree with him.

So here's a little bit more from Billy Bob. And politically, I'm not a I call myself a radical uh moderate. I'm like. very strong in my opinions. But My opinions don't belong to any political party.

And uh You know, I just look at what makes sense. And I think we need a common sense party in this country. That's actually what I think we need. Absolutely true. And lastly, Greg Gutfeld over the weekend, continuing the entertainment bracket of our show, talked about the late night shows.

He's literally doubling the ratings as a cable outfit. We don't even have the same potential coverage. As Colbert and Kimmel, and people just say, you know, how are these guys still on the air? Even. You know who comes in second or third?

The Tonight Show. How is how is Fallon still on the air? Cut 38. Why did it take so long? Because you know, I had crushed them like bugs, David.

I'd crushed them and I'd thrown them into the wind, and they were still here. I call it entertainment welfare. The only reason why they were around for so long, despite the fact that their numbers were dropping, was that the fact that they kind of like towed the line.

So I guess when I heard that they were gone, it really didn't surprise me because the numbers were saying it. I don't think it was political. I didn't know anybody, and I'm counting my many liberal friends who watched them. And I think it's because It wasn't entertainment anymore. It was more like a therapy session for people that were upset at the world.

Right, and upset of the world with Donald Trump running it. I don't know if they felt that way about Bush43. And I tell you, the first time on a late night show I saw people take a political side was David Letterman, who was just known as his cutting-edge talk show. We've never seen a talk show host like him before. Steve Allen was the closest, first broke out with it.

He was the first host of the tonight show. But this guy was just totally great and outrageous and popular with people in college. And then those college-age kids got 30 and 40 and 50. All of a sudden, when John McCain started running against Barack Obama, he decided Obama was the guy. And every night.

He would rip McCain with old jokes, like knock-knock pace, like the pace of a knock-knock joke, about why he is so old, he is so old, he is so old. I thought to myself, What's going on here? It's not even humorous. He's just trying to beat up on this guy. And now he's great friends with Barack Obama.

Maybe they were in cahoots back then. Maybe you can help him finish up his library. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead. I am not a politician.

I'm first a husband, a father, and a businessman. I never graduated college. I've been on unemployment. I've been on food stamps. But I still managed to run several big companies.

One, I built from scratch to 500 locations, over a billion dollars in revenue, and I created 15,000 jobs.

So I know how to figure it out. I grew up here, my wife grew up here. Maine's just not what it used to be.

So that is the voice of Ben Midgley. He has got a brand new tape that really tells his whole story, and he is running for governor of Maine. That's a place Republicans don't have a lot of success outside Susan Collins, who drives a lot of Republicans crazy because she's moderate and has to stay away from things that would be a turnoff to Maynards Who might think if you're too conservative, you're probably not going to get elected. That's just the way it is. Ben has had a lot of success in business.

You've seen him on the air, especially during the pandemic. He's all over the business channel. We were trying together to get health clubs open. Why? Because Ben, who had served previously as the CEO, the president of Planet Fitness, is one of the founding partners of Crunch Fitness.

And if you've seen a crunch, they're fantastic. Planet Fitnesses are everywhere.

So, Ben, you've had a lot of success. Why would you try to go into politics when you had all this business success? You could be enjoying your life kicking back. Yeah, first, thanks very much for having me, Brian. It's great to see you again.

And, you know, just to give you all the credit in the world, you were the primary voice in the media trying to get health clubs open. And that was a big deal back then.

So I just want to thank you again publicly on that. I was being selfish. I was dying to work out. I could not believe they shut us down. And you had to crunch down my block so I get a chance to know you, and then you came out.

Which was not easy, right? No. Because you got blown back when you came out saying we need to work out. Oh, yeah. Like it was an irresponsible thing to do when it was the best thing for you.

Is that part of your motivation for getting in?

Well, my motivation for getting in is I'm from Maine. I grew up in Maine. My wife's from Maine. Our three kids grew up in this state, and it's really an incredible place. And, you know, it's built our character, built our kids' character, and really.

You know, without going on too long, over the last seven years, I've watched the decline of the state from what it used to be. It used to be a tremendous place. And now we've got 30% of the state on welfare. Businesses are running from the state. We're in the top 10 of drug overdoses and drug deaths in the country.

We actually lost our nephew to a drug overdose. These things that are happening in Maine, we have the highest electricity increases in the country. They're all policy-based decisions.

So now that I'm no longer with the business, in a good place in my life, the kids are old enough that they understand the motivation to jump into this, that we decided now was the best time to get in and try to make a difference. You think you can? I do. How? I do.

I think. Number one, with the welfare, for example. There's too many people on that. Obviously, that number is horrendous. The five areas I think we're focusing on, and there's about 22, 23 issues that are wrong in the State right now, like a lot of Democrat-run States, but it's the economy.

The cost of living in the state, which has gone up dramatically. And Maine is one of the lowest income states in the country. We're also one of the highest tax-burdened states, so it's really not a good mix for the folks that live there. Opportunity is leaving the state because we're not business friendly, so it's very hard to get businesses in the state. And we've got a lot of businesses that are leaving the state for lower tax states.

New Hampshire, for example, is right next door. Support of law enforcement. We're going to defend the police, not defund the police. We have to get back behind those folks. And then fixed education.

We made this switch to social-emotional learning about six or seven years ago. And our kids. Is that what it's called, or is that what you label it? No, that's what it is. They made the point to say, the Commissioner of Education, that academics is going to take a back seat.

to social-emotional learning. And it's been terrible. We've had massive investment. The schools have dropped to the lowest in the country, really, the lowest test scores we've ever had in the history of the state of Maine. And we still have one in high school.

And for parents right now to understand what their kids are learning and making sure they're rationalizing what's happening, keeping the politics out of the schools is very hard. And you need to get that back in place so kids have a much better chance to have a good career, whether they go into the trades or some other opportunity and then stay in the state.

So we've got a lot of areas we need to fix. Who do you look at in politics and think that's the type of politician I want to be? Anybody that served, even if you don't know them, is there a prototypical person, whether it's Joe Manchin who stood up as a Democrat in a conservative state?

Now, if you're somebody who's a Republican in a state that's not used to electing Republicans outside Susan Collins, how do you keep true to your school at the same time? Reflect the people of Maine. That's a great question. Yeah, the state in Maine is There are 40,000 more registered Democrats than there are Republicans. And then the next biggest voting bloc are independents.

They're almost tired of Republicans.

So you've got a lot of folks in the middle there. I still believe that the majority of people are somewhere in the middle, a little tired of all the fighting on the political level. In terms of, you know. Politicians I've admired over the years. Obviously, got a picture of Abe Lincoln right there.

It could go back really far. You know, modern day, of course, I support the president. And, you know, Chris Sununu was a great governor next to us in New Hampshire. I think for Maine, people just want someone who's balanced and focused on getting the job done and getting things back to where it needs to be. For Maine, that's what the real thing is for me.

There's a purpose and then a cost to this. Personal ambition. There's no, you know, this side needs to win over that side. We just need to get things set right for the people in Maine.

So, what did you learn in business that can apply? Do you see a businessman now as president? You see how he's approaching things. If success leaves clues, well, how could you implement what you know in business? The thing that's helped make me most successful in business was taking the time to listen to everybody.

It takes a lot more time to do it that way, but. It's not about beating the other side. For example, in a franchise organization, you have the franchise or on top. You could tell all the franchisees what to do. But then the franchisees can create a franchise association.

They can all get together. They can push back at you. You can have lawsuits. You can go on for years and years and years.

So the more you get to the point of truly understanding what everybody needs and finding the best outcome that's going to be fair here, fair there, but overall best for the overall business. Same in politics, what's best for the overall people of the state of Maine. I think as long as you put the time in, then you'll get the credibility for being concerned about everyone's opinions. Obviously, you have to make the right decision. For the people in Maine, but the overall goal for me is do right, do good for as many people as you possibly can.

Understood. You've had two very successful. Your run up to Planet Fitness. How did you get all the way to the top?

Well, actually, I was recruited in to be the president of Plano Fitness. And then I left there after a few years and partnered with some very good friends of mine, tremendous mentors of mine. Actually, their names were Mark Mastroff and Jim Rowley, and got involved with Crunch and became initially the president of a franchise company that didn't have anything. We didn't have any clubs, any franchisees, and then was promoted to CEO. And our original pitch was.

Well, listen, Crunch just came out of bankruptcy. We don't have any clubs, and it's going to cost you two million dollars to build a gym. Do you want to take a chance on us? And people took a chance because of the team that was behind it. And then year over year, we gained more momentum and more momentum, ended up selling one thousand five hundred franchises.

And became the number one franchise in the country two years in a row now. And we've got a great president that took my place as I left. The team's fantastic, and I think Crunch is going to have a great run.

So in other words, it was a lot of risk, it was a lot of work. And there were no guarantees of success. Not at all. Kind of like this, right? Yeah.

From a political standpoint.

So what do you think to people who think that life is tough and these kids don't have opportunities today and all those things? Where does grit come in? Where does luck come in? And do you think it's harder for a young person today than it is when 10 years ago, 20 years ago? Yeah, 30 years ago.

I love that question.

So for myself, I tried to make it through college. I tried my best. My parents sent me off of $500. I was working three jobs to try to make it through. And after a couple of years, I just couldn't afford it.

So I was out in I went out to Santa Barbara, California, and Santa Barbara City College. And then after a couple of years, I just continued to work. And I think, I don't know if it's said in the beginning of the video, but one of those jobs I had was cleaning machines in a gym in exchange for a membership. And that's how I got in the industries from the very bottom. And I just tried to keep working myself up.

Ran into some tough times. I ended up on unemployment. I ended up on food stamps, and that was back in the day when food stamps were these brightly colored tickets. You'd have to tear them off in the grocery store aisle and present them. It was very humbling.

I knew I didn't want to be there, and hard work was going to be the only way out.

So you just did. Did you in California? I was in Maine at that time. Yeah. And I wanted to stay in the fitness industry because I had been in the industry for six, seven years.

There wasn't a lot of opportunity in Maine at that time in the fitness industry.

So I did everything I could. Mowed lawns, I packed sea urchins until I could get back in the industry and got back in. And over 30 years, I ended up just kind of learning from as many people as I could, reading as much as I could, making mistakes, getting back up, trying it again, and then fortunately got a lot of momentum. But I think for these younger kids, whether you're a college graduate or not, whether you go to the trades or you just try to pursue something on your own, as long as you keep going, you're probably going to be fine. And that's the message I think we need to get out there.

And then government needs to stay out of the way and just support people's opportunities. Do you think people have to run capitalism again? Do you think we have to have politicians decide where they stand on capitalism when that's usually a given if you're in the American based on the mayor of New York City, the one who almost won in Minneapolis, the one that may win yet in Seattle? Yeah, based on what I've seen, similar to what you've seen, it's really sad that a lot of folks think that socialism or some form of socialism might be the answer. And it just means they don't have the opportunities that they need, right, that they want.

And the government is not there to help them get those opportunities. It's better to make people dependent on the system than give them the opportunity to do better for themselves, their family. And that's where we need to go.

So here's the guy that won with this message. Zoram Amdani, listen. The conventional wisdom would tell you that I am far from the perfect candidate. I am young despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim.

I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all. I refuse to apologize for any of this.

Okay, that's a pretty defiant speech, number one. Number two is the socialists the socialists feel as though that that group, the DSA, feels they have the wind at their back. Is that p is that some some of the people you're running against? Do you expect to run against in the general?

Well, I think in Maine, sure, you definitely have that. And in some respects, Maine is trying to be the most progressive place of all. I don't know if it's because we're a small state and we don't get that much attention, but a lot of the policies that are in place now, it it seems like Maine is trying to rival California and Oregon. But I think there's enough pain in the state right now. There's enough frustration.

It's fairly obvious, like I said, when you have thirty percent of the state that is on state health care. And they want to try to make it universal health care in the state, which would just sink the state from a financial standpoint. you're gonna get Calmer minds prevailing when we get to the election next.

So, this DSA, if you find anybody running under this banner who wins, the DSA is now pushing right away, Mandami, demanding for the incoming mayor to end all city contracts and companies doing business with Israel, which draw all funds from banks lending money to the Jewish state. Then they are demanding that in a five-page screed. This DSA New York City chapter is doing that. They're unabashedly pro-Palestine. Israel hating Mandami fully supports its anti-Israel agenda once he is sworn in as mayor in January.

So that's the pressure he's going to be under, but he's even talked about doing it. Does it worry you, or you just think, ah, those New Yorkers are crazy? I think there's undertones of worry, but I think that's really more prominent in the bigger cities. I think once you get more out into the suburban parts of the country, that you've certainly got a more conservative approach, a more balanced approach, and some of this doesn't make sense to those people. Your previous mayor, governor, sparred with President Trump.

Still does. Yeah, still does. Over men and women's sports. Men and women's locker rooms. First off, where do you stand?

I don't support that. The trans. No, I support girls, yeah, without question. And what about your gyms? Are the gems?

Well, I mean, the trends are not.

Well, the gyms follow state law wherever you have to. Certain states require any business to allow someone to go into a locker room of their choice or bathroom of their choice, but that's just state law. And I'm not associated with the company anymore, too.

So I don't want to speak on behalf of that.

Well, I want you to hear this confrontation that happened in a Gold's gym that's getting a lot of attention. Get it! WONG! Yeah! We're big.

In a women's locker room, and that's why I'm getting kicked out and I want to make sure the girls know. Everybody saw that man in the f ⁇ ing.

So it gets worse from there. You're nodding your head. I mean, this is. Seen it before. Yeah.

Your reaction is are you going to take a strong stand against the sitting governor right now?

Well, you know, should we win? I mean, we obviously support girls, right? It's not just a safety issue, it's a fairness issue, and it's the intent of Title Nine.

So I would certainly sign into the law. Uh, you know, protections for women in women's sports.

So, right now, you have, uh, and by the way, we're talking to Ben Midgley, who's running for governor of Maine. And Ben, you have others: you have Robert Wessel, you have Robert Charles, you have David Jones, James Libby, Owen McCarthy, Jonathan, uh, Jonathan Bush. Your thoughts about your competition, yeah, I think, first of all, everyone in the race is a good person. You know, I'm never going to be the type of person that's going to take shots on anybody. Uh we're in a very good position.

If the state ends up with a Republican governor one way or another, the state's going to be better off.

So if it ends up not to be me, which we're highly hopeful it will be, and we think it will be, the state's going to be better off regardless of whatever Republicans in office. That being said, my dad always taught me in sports: you play your own game, you execute your own strategy, and you make other folks react to you.

So that's what we're doing. And what sport was that? Basketball? Basketball, football, a little mixed martial arts. You got it all.

So a couple of other things. Just like Elise Stefanik, who I interviewed, and Bruce Blakeman, who's going to be running for governor, I think both in New York, they're tied with Trump. But that might not necessarily work. It didn't work. It doesn't help you in Virginia.

They waited until last week for Glenn Young to get an endorsement. Doesn't really help in New Jersey. What's your view of the President, and what role would you like to see him play in your race? I support the President without question. The challenge we have in Maine is, and I think you mentioned it earlier, is the current governor and the attorney general, they've sued the administration 25 times.

with taxpayer money. That's not the way to go about it. When you're governor, I mean, your primary goal is to take care of the folks in Maine.

So, if for some reason something comes up that the administration has set out there that doesn't work well for the people of Maine, you're going to be in a far better position as a Republican governor to go sit down and talk about it and try and get to the outcome of that.

So, we're going to try to end all that drama, you know, partner with the administration as best we can. But obviously, as governor, you have to make sure whatever's happening is best for the folks in your state. And lastly, Ben, what's your family's reaction? It was hard enough because you were already working a thousand hours. What's your family's reaction to being out there knowing that it's going to mean criticism of you?

Yeah, that's already happened. But I'll tell you, once you go from the private sector to politics, once you sort of at least my personal experience, once you rip off the band-aid and you're out there, then all that anxiety and that concern goes away, at least for me personally, because there's a real purpose and a real cause to this. Like I said, this is not for me to extend my career. This is not for any use of the service. Yeah, you've got to go.

And that was my dad. My dad was, you know, he's a military vet. He spent his whole life taking care of. Veterans. And by the way, happy early Veterans Day to all of our veterans tomorrow.

I mean, without them, we wouldn't be anywhere. And he spent his life taking care of vets. He was the American Legionnaire of the Year for the state of Maine. And I think that instilled in our whole family the desire for public service.

So they're all on board. They're actually pretty excited. And in some cases, I got to stop them from getting so fired up. All right, good.

So if people want to support you and you run for governor, where do they go? Benforgovernor.com. Very simple. Ben, congratulations to all your success. Best of luck the rest of the way.

Thanks, Brian. And I know one thing: you will not be outworked. No way. No way. Thank you.

Back in a moment. Don't go anywhere. Brian Killmead will be right back. Real American Freestyle is the first ever unscripted pro wrestling league created by Hulk Hogan, Chad Bronstein, Israel Martinez, and Eric Bischoff to give elite wrestlers a real shot at a professional career. Real American Freestyle is where Olympians, world champions, and NCAA legends come to compete, not in a cage, not in a script, but on the mat in front of fans around the world.

This is real wrestling. Reimagine for today. The first event kicks off August 30th in Cleveland, featuring matchups with some of the best wrestlers on the planet. You've never seen wrestling like this. Learn more at realamericanfreestyle.com.

He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Killmead. Conservative critics have been calling Zoran Mahdani a far-left radical as well as a jihadist, but he can't be far-left and a jihadist. I mean, what do you think he's gonna do? Turn ISIS into thesis?

I don't get it. Really, our left. Isis, like pronouns into the sis. Oh. No.

I don't get it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, but by the way, he is everything as bad as it is. There is some talk that he's going to start lining up landlords that are bad and start having the government, the city government, take over the buildings. And for those people who think, well, if landlords are forced to freeze the rent, they'll just leave the apartments open.

Guess what wants that? They want to see these guys and these women, whoever owns these buildings, they want to see them all go belly up. And then the city takes over them. They decide who lives in them. They set the rent.

And then the city absorbs all the money. You know, all the losses and all the repairs. And you know how the city does things. They can't even pick up your garbage. And if things don't go good, you just move out.

And they own everything.

So when people say, I have the last laugh, I'll vote with my feet. You leave these empty buildings, they take them over, that's what they want. It's Will Kane 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. From Highway. Top Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead.

Hi, everyone. So glad you're there and back in action here in New York City, where the mayor is getting ready to take over in about two months and change everything. And I thought for a while I'd be exaggerating if I said that, but I think that what this guy's fired up to do, the staff he's looking to hire, it is going to be a mess from education to law enforcement. This hour, we're going to talk a little education with Dr. Carlos Cavallo.

He is the president of the University of Austin in Texas. And you know, the University of Austin, co-founded by Barry Weiss, Neil Ferguson, Joe Lonsdale, Palantir. It is one tuition-free. It's conservative. It's a conservative education.

It takes the politics out of things. And it's got some big announcements, making big progress, especially as the president is trying to straighten out our higher educational system and make it more practical. They're all about getting somebody ready for a thing called a job. And Mark Short is standing by too, former chief of staff to the bottom. Vice President of the United States.

He's got a lot of experience, including getting things through the legislature. He's going to be with us shortly. Let's get to the big three. Number three. Celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for.

And so then what am I doing? I don't want to start turning people off. to films and to art that could change consciousness or change the world.

That is Jennifer Lawrence, realizing the business of entertainment means you have to have business for everybody. Hollywood seems to be learning this. I'll explain why I'm optimistic. Number two. Why do you want to create?

Look, obviously, you have a Democratic establishment. I ran for president against the Democratic establishment. And of course, there's a division within the Democratic Party. There's no secret to anybody here. It's no secret, but how big is it?

The aftermath of the off-year election, as every analyst intrigued, it should be a time for Democrats to celebrate, but instead, you have an undeniable divide between the far left and the center left. Number one. I understand that not all of my Democratic colleagues are satisfied with this agreement. But waiting another week. Or another month.

wouldn't deliver a better outcome. That would only mean more harm for families in New Hampshire and all across the country. No joke. Senator Gene Shaheen of New Hampshire leads a group to get over the 60-vote threshold, and a test vote should be formalized later this week, maybe Tuesday or Wednesday, and that we could be back in action. Shutdown is the beginning of the end.

It's the longest already in American history. The damage felt in our economy across the country was too much for just enough Democrats in the Senate to end the shutdown. But the left is hardly all on board. I'll explain the divide. I mean, my goodness.

Joining us now is Mark Short. Mark, great to see you. Brian, thanks for having me on.

Well, I should say, hear you, Mark.

So, yesterday you were speculating. You were speculating on Meet the Press about what it would take to end this, but it looks like. The Democrats have caved on this. This is a deal they could have had week one of the shutdown, even before the shutdown. But they did it anyway.

And some mature senators seem to have stood up and are ready or poised to put an end to this. Is this how you see it?

Okay. Brian, I do think that they caved in the short term on the policy. As you said, this was always a deal that was on the table. Republicans almost unanimously, except for Rand Paul and Thomas Massey, voted to many times to keep government funded, and Democrats almost unanimously voted to shut it down. But I think that, you know, strangely, Brian, in the mainstream media, a lot of the narrative was sort of a blame on both sides.

And I know from having been a Republican staffer on the Hill in 2013 and then in the White House in 2018 that traditionally Republicans get blamed for shutdowns. And I think that cynically, many of the Democrats felt like that was the case. And therefore, they wanted to continue to extend it past Election Day. And they succeeded in that from a policy perspective, as you said. This was always the proposal that was on the table.

They didn't win anything else. But I candidly, Brian, I confess to you that I do worry that there'll be enough Republicans that have cave on the Obamacare subsidies when they get a vote in December, that they'll also win on that policy too.

So if they go out and say, okay, let's subsidize for another year because we don't want to look like we're holding people back on their hurting people with their premiums that are going to rise, but we're bailing out on a program not one Republican ever. signed up for in any time at any point since it passed, right? It's amazing that the spin is to say that we need to keep these subsidies going, as I've heard Democrats articulate because of Republican health care problems. As you said, 15 years ago, Obamacare was passed unanimously with Democrats' support. It has proven to be an incredible failure.

And the reason that Americans are paying so much is because socialized medicine has never worked. And yet, here we are 15 years later, and even in the original bill, Brian, the original bill, Democrats went to insurance companies and bought them off with a promise that there'd be taxpayer subsidies. to help pay for people who have um incomes 400% of the poverty level. What we're talking about today is not renewing those. Those are already in the law in the statute.

What we're talking about is renewing subsidies that were added on top of that by the Biden administration during COVID so that actually people who earn potentially up to $500,000 could still get a subsidy to pay for their Obamacare insurance.

So you're worried that in the next month, you know, I think Senator John Thunch should live up to his word. And he should have a vote on this. If you wanna, you know, he said he'd do it, so do it.

Okay, do it.

So you're worried that Republicans are gonna say, oh, it's politically, it's gonna be tough for me to, you know, it's gonna be tough for me to vote against this. I'll go forward. And they'll end up keeping those supplements in, and it will look like a total win for Democrats. And not only that, but it's against what Republicans have been fighting against. That's exactly right, Brian.

So I feel like cynically, they, you know, yes, you're right, they're caving. They got nothing more than was on the table before, but they did get to Election Day. They did have big victories on Election Day, particularly in Northern Virginia with a lot of federal employees. And now they're going to get a vote in December to extend the subsidies. And I'm concerned that there'll be enough Republicans that go along with it for exactly the reasons you say: that heading into a midterm, they don't want their constituents to have higher premiums.

And so they're going to vote for this continued taxpayer subsidy of a failing health care system. Listen, Mark, you were part of the nonstop effort to repeal Obamacare, right? And that was the first thing Donald Trump tried to do. Famously, Senator John McCain. Put a thumbs down because he didn't like the idea of a skinny bill.

or whatever it was back then. I don't even want to relive it, but it didn't stop. Do you think there's a plan out there that they could bring forward? Or is that going to take a year or two to construct? Does anyone you know sketch out what a Republican health care plan would look like?

Well, they've tapped Rick Scott from Florida to begin taking some efforts at this. But I don't think that there right now is an effort to totally replace Obamacare. I think Republicans feel that those efforts have failed. And candidly, Brian, at that time, you're right. It was John McCain who had the ultimate deciding vote.

But something that was a less told story is that because Obamacare, when they passed it, had so much Medicaid dollars flowing to the states, There were a lot of Republican governors who were calling in to their senators saying, please don't vote to repeal this because I need these Medicaid dollars. And so I think the challenge is going to be that there's such an infrastructure built in now that it's harder to actually replace Obamacare in total. But there can be some market reforms that offer more choices. I mean, during the first Trump administration, you'd be shocked that Obamacare premiums really did not rise because the team that was around the president was focused on making sure there were more plans available. And with more choices, prices stay down.

But ultimately, I think that there's not going to be a vote to repeal it entirely anymore. But there can be some reforms that are better than saying, hey, let's just keep increasing subsidies to hundreds of thousands of dollars to Americans. Right.

So if you, yeah, so it's going to take an effort. It's going to take people that understand healthcare. You can't possibly know everything about everything.

Some people are experts on defense. Other people are experts on the economy. And other people are. Like Rick Scott's got that background in healthcare, and so does Senator Cassidy. Get those people, whoever's got that background, knee deep in this, correct?

That's exactly right, Brian.

That's what we need.

So I want to uh move on. First off, on in t in terms of coinage. If you could read between the lines here. Everyone weighed in on are they for this or against it?

Now, most obviously, outside Angus King, Jackie Rosen, Masto, Fetterman, Kane, Tim Kaine, Maggie Hassan, Dick Durbin, Gene Shaheen, everybody else is still voting to keep the government closed. Bernie Sanders, tonight was a bad night. But listen to what Chuck Schumer writes. America's in the midst of a Republican-made health care crisis, a crisis so severe, so urgent, so devastating for American families that I cannot support a continuing resolution that fails to address it. I'm voting no.

But you know, Mark Short, he's not saying they broke with my leadership. I coach them not to do this, and they want to get.

So he's just basically acting like a senator here. Read between the lines. What does that tell you?

Okay. It tells me he's in trouble within his own conference, and he knows where the energy of the party is, is with AOC and Bernie Sanders and now Mayor Mondani. And so he's trying to appeal to that part of the wing of their party. But I think even the left-wing Democrats know there was kind of a wink-wink here where Schumer allowed these members to break. I mean, it's not as if these are rank-and-file members.

You have Dick Durbin, in fact, voting to support the government funding.

So I think Schumer has is trying to play both sides, where on the one hand, he's trying to tell Democrats, let's keep the government open. But on the other hand, he's playing to his base and pretending as if he's aligned with Bernie Sanders and AOC on this particular issue.

So he's trying to get both sides. But even in that statement, again, he begins by talking about a Republican health care crisis when all this is driven by the fact that we now have Obamacare and government-run health care. True, which is all him. It's all his party. Absolutely.

So I just people have to just think a little bit. They're hoping they don't. Just like they say the Republicans control all the levers, they can reopen the government. That's just a dumb statement that they expect you not to know that it's the average American to know that it takes 60 votes.

So I want to talk about getting rid of the filibuster. For the longest time, Democrats were talking about doing it. If it wasn't for Manchin Cinema, they would have done it.

Now President Trump is getting, I don't know if it's a tactic, but he says we have to blow up the filibuster. Here's what Senator James Lankford said, cut 17. We should not get rid of the filibuster. The filibuster has been a core in the United States Senate since the early 1800s.

Now, there's been different forms of it over the years. The current form that we're living under was actually done in 1975. But what's unique about the filibuster and about the United States Senate is that it's the only place in our government where both sides have to talk to each other. That's a good thing for America. Do you think Lankford's right?

I think Lankford is right. I think the sixty vote threshold is good. But I also, Brian, am not one of these people who feel like it's Sancho Sact. I feel like the reality is this was not something that was in the Constitution. These are internal Senate rules.

And the reality is that what happens today is that many senators, let's take a Manchin on the left, or let's say a Collins, a Republican McCowsey, they can look at the board and can say, you know what, I'm not for this. But I know it's not going to get 60 votes.

So I'll pretend to my base of voters that I'm with it, knowing it's not going to get to 60 votes. And so if you didn't have a 60-vote threshold, I think that certain members would calibrate differently for how they actually act as senators. There's a lot of gamesmanship that's played because of the 60-vote threshold. And so, you know, initially what you had was Mr. Smith goes to Washington.

If you want to filibuster, you have to stay on the Senate floor and keep the vote open. And so I don't feel like for those who say that if you get rid of the filibuster, it's going to be apocalypse. I don't believe that. I do agree that it's probably a healthier system, but I don't think it's something that's going to make as significant a difference as those who claim you're going to have an apocalyptic scenario if you don't have it.

So, Mark, I know you don't agree with the President on everything, one of which is I saw you yesterday on Meet the Press. You do not like the fact that the President wants to examine and investigate why four meatpackers are dominating all and deciding what the price of beef is in our country. Hurting, I guess, the farmers or the ranchers, probably a better line. What don't you like about the President investigating that? I think my complaint is more broad, Brian.

My complaint is that I believe that the first Trump administration advanced free market principles. I think that the tax reform of twenty seventeen was an incredible boon to our economy. And I think the President deserved enormous credit for the deregulatory environment that he brought. It appears that this second administration embraces far more government activity. Whether or not that is now embracing state-owned enterprises, that we now have a half-dozen companies the government is investing into.

That is something that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have been cheering for. You have basically Republicans advancing price controls on importations, particularly of drugs. You have this administration advancing the most protectionist trade policy we've had in 100 years. I think those are driving up costs, Brian, more so than a market environment that allows meat packers to choose the price. Of course, we shouldn't support monopolies, but this is always a canard that the left brings up to say, hey, we're going to launch an investigation when there's a perfectly valid marketplace that determines prices and say we're going to go after big businesses because that's a populist appeal.

Then Americans feel like, oh, great, we're going to go take down these big businesses that are lower prices. The thing that is driving up our prices is this trade agenda. And I think it's very Different than the first administration. The first administration did have tariffs on China, and they were very effective. This second administration has tariffs across the globe, and I don't think it's the same policies he advanced that were so successful in his first administration.

So interesting because I think part of his goal, and you would know this being on the inside for so long, is to reconfigure all those relationships.

So you come in and you push the envelope as hard as possible in order to get them to table to reconfigure the relationship with the EU, to reconfigure with South Korea and Japan. And then you dial back those tariffs to a certain degree, but you create leverage by putting it out there. I'm not sure the Supreme Court would like that argument, but it seems to be the game plan. What it what if it's the ends to a means? To be fair to the president, he's been consistent in advocating a more protectionist trade policy his whole life.

I think this is what he believes. But I think in the first administration, you actually rallied the globe against China, which I think isolated China. As you just said, when you now begin tariffing Korea and Japan, who are closest allies in the region, you actually they look at it and say, well, wait a second, I might as well trade with China, get a better deal than I do with the United States. And so you're basically pushing our closest allies into the hands of our adversary. And so I I don't think that it's actually resetting.

I think it's resetting in a negative and perverse way. But if you look at the negative, if you look at the EU deal, you don't think that's a better deal than we had before he s he started his second term? I think the reality is it continues to drive up prices, Brian, that's not good for the American consumer. All right. Mark Short, thanks so much.

Now we have an end, it looks like an end to the shutdown. We'll see where we go from here with the President's agenda and the future of the filibuster. Thanks, Mark. Brian, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

You got it. Back in a moment. Real talk, real guests, real insight. Where curiosity meets conversation. It's the Brian Kilmeat Show.

Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. It's actually going very well. Recently, we got paid by Nike to put an ad on it for the New York City Marathon. Absolutely.

Yeah, exactly. If Lauren Michaels has taught us anything, it's that you never, ever give up. even if everyone says the time has come and Tina Fe is ready to take over. Wow, that's interesting. That Pete Davidson just did he surprise everybody with the appearance?

Didn't he mock the fact that they bought that ridiculous. Barge? Yeah, that they bought a Staten Island ferry. Essentially, yes, that was the whole reason he came on to say, oh, the New York Times wrote this piece out. It was terrible.

And they did the whole. It was entertaining enough, but that was, I thought, the most profound joke in there. Right.

You know what? We'll know what to play, maybe hopefully the next half hour. We'll play some of the open, the guy who plays Trump. I thought it was pretty funny. As long as it's done without hate, I think I'm fine with it.

Did also did you see the video of Alec Baldwin's crash? They have another view? and is from his d from the truck's dash cam. He did not, the dash, the truck did nothing wrong. They turned perfectly into the lane.

It wasn't wide, and you just see his car go right into the tree. Which is like the first version of it looks like the truck did nothing wrong, so it doesn't surprise me the second version shows that. That's unbelievable, this guy. Yeah. And then he came out, he's protesting the use of real animals.

In the show that you saw that spectacular, they've never used real animals before, not for the past. Can you imagine having so little? He's got nine kids, focus on somebody's pickup basketball game. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Killmead. Hey, we are back, and let's talk a little education.

Over the weekend, 60 Minutes did a big feature on higher education that battles with the Trump administration. I thought it was a pretty fair job. They had Steven Pinker on, who tends to be a conservative professor, and the biggest criticism was in order to get their attention, the Department of Education is focused on. A lot of the money that goes into research and development, whether it's some worthy cause or whether it's attacking some disease, but it was the only thing that could have got their attention. All the money that's flowing to these Ivy League educators who have no sense of balancing out their education, of have a conservative on your faculty, have a few of them, don't condemn people.

Why are kids afraid to put their hand up in the air and say something that might be pro-Trump in a classroom at Harvard or Columbia or Stanford?

So the President saw the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel protests, the pro-Palestinian protests, a lot of them by green card holders were on student visas. And he said, We're going to get a hold of this. Biden didn't care about it. I care about it.

So that was the the whole The give and take of that piece. And I thought it really set things up right. And in a way, in a much fairer way than I thought 60 Minutes would do. But there's one group, one college that's never going to have a problem with that. You're never going to see protests on those campuses or a push to be more balanced because they were created to be balanced and they've been effective.

It's the University of Austin in Texas. It's abbreviated, as you know, interestingly in a way.

So you've seen it all around. It's in the upper floors of a building. It's not a sprawling campus yet, but it's on its way. Their president joined us now, Dr. Carlos Cavallo, president of the University of Austin.

Dr. Cavallo, welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me. And I was lucky enough to see you guys in action, see how impressive your layout is.

Tell everyone what makes the University of Austin unique.

So we are unique because, number one, we are a committed American institution.

So being proud of America and celebrating what we are and our tradition as the pinnacle of Western civilization is something that is in our DNA. We take that as a starting point for our education, and so that all of our students have to be understanding and educated on the path that got us to this point.

So that's actually, we see that as a fundamental component of building a modern citizen. And of course, that has to go through a lot of debate and understanding of difficult ideas, difficult moments in our history, being very open about those things. But fundamentally, building citizens that are proud and are happy to move this country forward. And now you're in your second year, right? That's correct.

We're in our second year. Thanks to an incredible donation. From I think uh Jeff Yatt, yes. You now are going to be Um you you're gonna be tuition free forever? That's correct.

We are making a commitment of never charging tuition and never to accept government money.

So as you were pointing out in your introduction, government money is something that comes with strings. And oftentimes, we might agree with what's happening right now potentially, but Governments change and for over many, many years, government have had a very negative influence in higher ed. And I think we want to make sure that we develop our university without those strengths. But on the free tuition side, also we're saying that we're making an investment on American dynamism. We don't want our generation of young folks coming out of college burdened by debt.

We want to make sure that we allow them to be innovators, we allow them to be taking risks, start families early, et cetera, et cetera, without that burden. And I think this is an investment on Americans' future that Jeff kick-started, and we're going to continue to uphold.

So let me see. The University of Texas, University of Austin in Texas. Zero. With quality professors who always you always focused on what the career is going to be. What are you doing?

How are you going to make that work in the real world? As opposed to, I think NYU is over $100,000 a year. And to live in New York City, and then you got if you factor in tuition, room, and board.

So how do you compare both educations?

So, remember, by us making us free, we're making a promise, we're making an equity investment with our students. We hope that they will accrue a lot of value from this education, and when they succeed in the future, they pay it forward to the next generation of University of Austin students.

So, we are making a decision that aligns our incentives.

So, every dollar I spend, every decision I make, has to be in the interest of advancing their education, making them ready to the workforce, making them ready to be productive citizens. No other college can claim that.

So, you know that everything we do is going to be to the benefit of the students, not just to make them feel nice or to make them, but really to make sure that they will be successful as they get out of here. And you point out to you expect a lot of them. And because a lot of the great innovators, a lot of our founding fathers were very young when they decided to run to start a country. And you talk about some of the great inventions happen with young men and women in their twenties. That's right.

I actually one of the things that I have to fight in my language is that I l I hate to call students kids. And we call them kids a lot these days in universities. And yeah, you pointed the Founding Fathers, we pointed to I was thinking earlier about Henry Knox, which was a general at age 25 and fighting with George Washington, amazing battles during the Revolutionary War. What he brought from Fort Ticonderoga when they needed cannons in the siege of Boston? And he did it.

And he did it, and he was 25 years old, and his education was just by reading a lot of books.

So, somebody that actually spent a lot of time reading the important things of human history and gotten ready to be that kind of a leader at that age, already at that age.

So, I think we can do better with our youth, and I think that's what we're trying to do here.

So, to give you an example of this. We are also very tough on them. We want to make sure that they are working really hard in their time here. I'm giving them this this privilege, right, of a free tuition, but that comes with the responsibility of having to work really hard. Our students work forty to fifty hours a week.

A typical American student right now works between twenty to twenty five hours a week. And you saw the Harvard study that came out last week about grade inflation and students don't show up to class. It's an old socialist thing where, you know, what was the old communist thing? Like, we pretend they're working, and I can't remember the quote exactly, but the point with this is that universities pretend they're teaching and the students pretend they're learning. Not here at the University of Austin.

They have to come to class, they have to do a lot of work. We keep them to the task. We're trying to build what we call the Navy SEALs of the mind. And there's only one way to be a Navy SEAL, to work really hard at it. And you're always trying to invent something, something that can get a patent.

And you just saw an idea of what people have done and what age they've done it. And that's what your goal is. Merriwether Lewis, as he crosses the country for the first time, was. Was was uh thirty years old. Sam Colt patented the revolver at 22.

Palmer Lucky sold Oculus at 21. Patrick Coulson founded Stripe at 22. Michael Dell his computer business at 19. Fred Smith founded FedEx at 29. This is the type of things you tell your students.

Don't tell me you're going to wait to mature. You come up with an idea in this class. That's right. And we have already examples of this. We have a student that already had sold this company after the first year and is still here with us, not taking as many classes anymore because he's running out this big, big business that he sold for a lot of money.

And that's something that started after getting here. We have some students that are now leaving to go work for Peter Thiel after one year. They met him here and he's going to be sort of spending time with you. Is he one of your founders? He's a supporter of the university.

Yes, he's been in the early days supporting us, and he's been here last year giving a series of lectures. And that's why I think where he met our students and saw the potential of that same place. But the point being is that we celebrate that. We celebrate our students taking risks and trying to go in the real world and build new things.

So we want to encourage builders out of this place.

So, is it wrong to ask this question? What majors do you offer?

So, say that say that again, Sarah. Do you offer different majors, or does everyone that goes through the curriculum get the same thing?

So, they have a core curriculum in the first year that's common to everybody, and that's a very strong education on our Western tradition, right?

So, from the Greeks.

So, you see the pictures behind here in my wall is a motivation of that.

So, from Greek to Athens to Jerusalem to Rome through to the Enlightenment in Glasgow and through Philadelphia, to the American founding. History, philosophy, and literature across that is something that we expose our students. All of our students, no matter where they come from, they have to have a very good grasp of that. We believe that's a very important setting them to success by understanding our tradition and not being people that reject the greatest of America in particular.

So, that's the first part. And then the second part, they can specialize more on things like the humanities, more on economics and politics, or more on computer science and mathematics. Wow, so you only have sophomores, right? They're going to move up and you just keep on and they just keep moving up.

So, how many students can you accept? How many applications do you get?

So we got hundreds and hundreds of applications and it's growing as we speak. I think moments like last week, this announcement is just getting us a huge kick up in demand for what we have here. We're trying to be very objective and meritocratic in our admissions.

So we only look at objective measures of merit. We don't look at essays. We don't look at any kind of demographic issues. You just want GPAs? Nothing.

And SATs. GPAs, SATs, and APs. That's it. We believe that's the most meritocratic and the most moral admissions process in America. I think we've seen what universities have done by looking at, trying to do a lot of social engineering in their classes.

We reject that completely.

So you're not saying I need some Hispanics, I need some women. That doesn't mean they don't even submit that information. We don't know their names when they're applying. We want to know their. Their objective measures of merit, and that's it.

And let the chips fall where they land. We want the best. We want the best in order to educate the best, in order to get them out of here and really do great things. I forgot what floor it's on, but you're in the floor of an older building. Describe what the college is, what it consists of right now.

So we have two floors now of an older building. We doubled since you've been here. And it's an incredibly warm environment, a very intimate environment where students spend a lot of time working together in the classroom in the classroom and out of the classroom. But we are making a conscious decision not to have a sprawling campus because we don't want to waste money on things that are not to the education of the students. We're purposely maintaining a very lean operation where we focus on the content in the classrooms, the experience they will have.

And it's very nice because we happen to be in an amazing town that's growing a lot. Austin is a very dynamic place, and being downtown offers a lot of extra opportunities to our students as well. Do you ever see a time when you'll have a campus with buildings and grass and a common area, a lunchroom? I think it all depends on our progression. I think I have to be realistic.

You asked about numbers. Our first phase of growth here, I want to get to 500 students between freshmen and senior. That's the first phase. And I think once we show That we can do this amazing job in getting, I mean, our goal is very ambitious. We want to be the best undergraduate institution in America, period.

It's not something that's not. How would that be judged? How would you judge that? success of our students. I think the students and again, I'm on the hook for it.

If they don't succeed, the scholarship will cease to exist. That's what free tuition does, and no government money does, right? Nobody's subsidizing us. It's going to be the success of our students, it's the only path for our success. And I think we're going to be able to show that.

In some ways, that requires us to be very, I think, very, very small on purpose at this stage. I'm not trying to build the Navy. I'm trying to build the Navy SEALs. And that's small because I need this really, really strong group of people coming in. And I need to really focus on delivering the best possible education and opportunities for them coming out of here.

So when people say, I don't need college, I don't think you need college. I always push back on that personally because even the classes I had, the core classes, I benefited from. You take a philosophy class, I knew I wasn't gonna benefit. I was never gonna give a speech on Socrates, but it just broadens you out to things that you just become more knowledgeable, more interesting. And I can still remember almost 90% of my classes or what I learned in there.

I mean, I didn't want to do marketing, but I had to take a marketing class. How did that did nothing but help you? Do you see merit in those type of things? Absolutely.

That's why we have a very broad core curriculum that we say to everybody they have to take. I mean, economics is part of it, some mathematics is part of it, some computer science is part of it.

So, no matter what you're going to be in your life, you need some exposure to a lot of the pieces that make the modern world possible. If you don't get an exposure to those things, you become very narrow. And I think you don't become adaptable to the next set of challenges you're going to face in life. I think that the humanistic education that we offer, I think, opens the mind of our students. To be really adaptable to the world.

And the world changes very fast, right? But there's some grounding that's very important that comes from a tradition that can be exposed through literature, through philosophy, through history, but also through technical things like mathematics and computer science and so on. And by the way, just so you know, what I witness there and what you guys always say: you cannot go into the University of Austin classroom and not speak. You guys have to, you have to participate in those classrooms. And that's the type of student you need, too, right?

That's right. I mean, we were founded with this motto of a fearless pursuer truth. And that was, again, in 2021, it was a clear time where universities were canceling people left and right, were rejecting certain kinds of ideas left and right. And the first drive of our existence was about to say out loud: a place where you have the freedom to speak openly and debate ideas is a necessary condition for one to become educated.

So that's still part of our focus. And everywhere on our campus, these are people that are free thinkers, people that are willing to engage with ideas, of course, respectfully. Within bounds of what's reasonable and acceptable, right? But it's an environment that welcomes and demands a lot of independent thinking from you. Dr.

Carlos Cavallo, the president of the University of Austin, with the big announcement that if you get in, it is tuition-free, and the quality goes. I challenge anybody to go into any of your classrooms and think these kids are skating by. They're fully taxed. And they're really pushed to be successful with an eye on what you're going to do when you graduate. The whole point.

Is everyone should forget about it? They forget about that colleges. We want to get you through four years, get your degree, but what happens next? And I think it's a real challenge today as much as ever. But you guys are ready for the task.

Thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it, Carl. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. We're making partners for life with our students.

So, yeah, so thanks for the opportunity for being here. All right, great. You got it. Meanwhile, we'll come back to wrap up the air in a moment. You'll have seen the Brain Kill Meat Show.

It's Brian Killmead. A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Sponsored by Previgen. Previgion, made for your brain.

Each week, I like to create a big visual that sort of sums up how things are going. Last week, it was the demolishing of the East Wing. This week, it's a medical professional almost dying in my Oval Office at the mere thought of charging less for drugs. Maybe next week, a bald eagle will fall dead out of the sky and splat right on the White House lawn. And by lawn, of course, I mean big outdoor concrete floor.

All in all, a great caper to an awesome week, except for election. The Democrats won. The lamestream media called the elections a rebuke of Trump's policies. Jokes on them, they're Stephen Miller's policies. I don't read that stuff.

So there you go. He kind of lost his accent a little, but that was a little bit funny. James Austin Johnson on Trump in the open, cut 42. I promised grocery prices would plummet, and they did. They plummeted straight up.

And people are saying, But sir, how will I afford my Thanksgiving turkey for my family?

Well, good news is your family's not coming because all the planes are gone. We call that problem-solving problems. Killing two birds with another bird.

Now you got a bunch of crazy birds. But we like it, we like it, that's kind of our thing. Can't afford food, have some cheapo zimpic.

Now you're not hungry and you get to take one weird, painful poop a week. What do you think? You were so uncomfortable with that last line. Yeah, I don't like bathroom humor. I know.

But, you know, but just say, what do you think? Funny? No, I thought it was very funny. Yeah, I agreed. One more.

Cup forty-three. Government is still shut down, all thanks to the Democrats and some Republicans and all Republicans and me. People say, just cave down, give the Democrats what they want and this. But I think we're going to drag it out. We're going to keep the government shut down.

And while we're at it, we're looking into perhaps stealing Christmas. We'll be doing Grinch. I like the Grinch. He's a great guy. You know, our wives are friends.

We play golf sometimes.

So, yeah, so there you go. But now the shutdown's over, so that news is old. But uh it's the Nikki Glazer one. That's the one we will not play on this show. She's, I think she's hysterical, but this was so over the line at the end.

I thought I would be, you know, get used to it. It's called comedy, but. It was too much. And sometimes that's how you got to know where the line is. Right.

And by the way, no lines crossed. February 14th, 2026. History of Livering Lefts, BrianKilme.com, Fort Myers, Florida.