Trump to address the nation as Maduro remains defiant

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Hi, one, so glad you're there. Brian Kilmeecho, getting closer and closer to the new year, and we have so much going on. This hour, I'll be joined by Brett Baer who's standing by. Rich Lowry from the National Review at the bottom of the hour looks into Australia and so much more and what's going on tonight. We know.

Just a quick note to everybody out there: it's deadline day to get out the gifts. And get it there by Christmas. Today is the last day to send via UPS, ground service, or first-class mail. Just a point of reference.

So, before we get to Brett and all the news, let's get to the big three. Number three. Every part of you wants to be there for your child. You don't want to send them out to be homeless on the street. You don't want that.

Who would? But sometimes you have no choice. Part of the problem is that we have pathologized addiction to the point where the addict is treated. like a victim on the level of a cancer patient. That is true.

That is Matt Walsh. The Reiner murders. It may have involved the rich and famous, but addiction, attacks, and family turmoil is relatable around the nation and around the globe. We'll discuss. Number two.

And the idea that your faith, that it somehow allows people to subject you to the most horrific slaughter and violence is inexcusable in any democracy, anywhere in this world. That's the head of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, talking about anti-Semitism raging around the world. It's time to stand up and be counted and find out what it takes to stand up for Israel. Why is that hard? And the Jewish community, why is that hard?

Also, keep in mind. They're coming for you in the West and they're coming to you for Christianity. You're next. Number one. If he's still standing when this is over, this is a fatal.

Major mistake. To our standing in the world. If after all this, Maduro is still in power, that's the worst possible signal you could send to Russia, China, Iran. And that is so true, Lindsey Graham, who will be with us at a different hour, going for the takedown. President Trump to address the nation front and center.

He'll be talking about Maduro, Venezuela, and how he plans on just boxing in all their tankers. What he's doing, and of course, there's a risk of not succeeding. He's also going to talk about the economy and some new programs that are going to be coming in the new year. I think it's smart. I also wonder how many will be taking it.

Because when it becomes clear, it's like another speech or just a reference or a look back. A lot of other networks don't want to give Trump that time. Brett Baer will be chief political anchor, Fox News anchor, and for Special Report. His book is a great Christmas gift. It's called to Rescue the American Spirit, Teddy Roosevelt, and the Birth of a Superpower.

Brett, welcome back. Hey Brian. that everybody's going to take the president's speech tonight, or do you think to start with? Fine. Yeah, I think they will.

I know. I mean, we'll have it. Fox Broadcast will have it. I bet CBS has it and I I assume the others will. I mean, this is sort of an end of the year speech which being portrayed as kind of what's happened so far.

But with the Venezuela news, I think there may be some interest, obviously, to see what's next with Venezuela and the the blockade of tankers. And I assume he's going to get into some of that tonight. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty big news. Yesterday we know about the briefings, and if Democrats came out, I'm not satisfied. Republicans say I'm thoroughly satisfied.

And then, of course, the big push to get the double-tap of the NVIDIA out there. I'm not sure what that's about. But I think when the President came out and said last night there's going to be a complete blockade of all oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela. He goes on to say the illegal aliens and criminals that the Maduro regime has sent into the United States during the week in NF Biden administration are being returned to Venezuela at a rapid pace. America will not allow criminals, terrorists, and other countries to rob, threaten, and harm our nation.

We will not allow hostile regimes to take our oil, land, or any other assets.

So let me see. The last tanker they took cost Venezuela $80 million. Brett, eighty-five percent of their entire economy is fueled on oil.

So this is, we're ramping it up big time.

Something's got to give. No, it's got to give. And listen, you look into all the sentences in the Susie Wiles Vanity Affair piece, which, by the way, she is very safe in the eyes of the President and it seems like everybody else is rallying around her. But one of the sentences that caught my eye was that He's going to keep on blowing up these boats until Maduro cries uncle and continue to up the pressure. And that is different than what it was publicly portrayed about the effort.

But I think it was always underlying that this was designed, all of this military buildup, to pressure Maduro to leave. And so far, he's not. Um, but uh, you know, we push comes to shove pretty soon. I mean, I just don't know how he lasts much longer. You don't see China or Russia there to prop him up.

Hezbollah evidently has a presence. We know Iran has a presence.

So let's jog over to Vanity Fair. Susie Wiles, one of the most low-profile Chief of Staffs and effective chiefs of staff in my lifetime, sat down 11 separate times with Chris Whipple, who wrote a book about Chief of Staffs over the course of months. Talked about some of the revelations that Pam Bondi whiffed when it came to the Epstein files, that Elon Musk is on ketamine, that the blowup of USAID was a mistake, that they looked at Marco Rubio as someone to land that plane and reassure George W. Bush as his PETFAR humanitarian program would not be destroyed. They talked about the tariffs, the way they rolled out.

And Wiles said the tariffs were more painful than expected. And the president was cautioned to do it slower, and he ended up just doing it the way he wanted to do it.

So I found it interesting for someone, you and I, who do this every single day, it was insightful. I didn't think anything was. you know, that crazy. But you just wonder why one of the lowest profile people would give Vanity Fair this type of time. What do you think?

Well, I think that's the biggest question out of the whole thing. I know there'll be a lot of focus on, you know, calling J.D. Vance a conspiracy theorist and saying the president has an alcoholic personality. And you saw his response that he said that publicly, et cetera, et cetera. Listen, she is the most effective White House Chief of Staff we've seen in a long, long time, considering who the president is.

Also, you know, like she has to make the trains run on time and make everything work in Trump world. That's a different world than the usual Republican president. And anyway, I think you're right. There are some things that were Intriguing, maybe said. uh with candor that we best basically knew but um to see them in print.

Now the Vanity Fair choice 11 interviews. I just You know, I don't know. Has there ever been a Republican that has gi been given a really fair shake in Vanity Fair? I'm not sure. Right.

So I want you to hear what Chris Whipple said last night. I know he was on CNN. I guess he was on MS Now. We have a soundbite on why Susie Wiles would do this. Give the interview, Cut 25.

Well, I've been reading all of the speculation about why did she do it? Why would she talk to this guy? My theory of the case is that with this White House and with Susie Wiles, it's never four-dimensional chess. It might not even be chess. I mean, they just do what they want to do.

And Susie was remarkably candid. I think, look, I wrote a book about White House Chiefs of Staff that was pretty fair and nonpartisan. And she worked in the Reagan White House under Jim Baker, one of the major characters in my book. I think, look, my own theory, I can only tell you what she said, which is that she felt that. Trump in his first term was vilified by the press, never got a fair shake, and I think she thought I would give her a fair hearing.

And I I guess if you read some of the quotes, she feels like she didn't she took they took a lot of these quotes out of context. I don't know. Did you have a chance to read it? First of all, I read the whole thing. First of all, I think more power to him.

The fact that he got this. These series of interviews, the fact that she trusted him. Sure. You know, she, I mean, that's that's a reporter that's digging it out. I add more power to him.

I think how it's characterized, and you know, she says it was taken out of context. He has, apparently, the quotes and the tapes. You know, uh I I think that that's a dangerous road to go down. If you if you it's just like the Bob Woodward twelve interviews with President Trump, you know, if you do it, there's a chance that it's going to be characterized differently than you thought it was going to be. That said, I I get the premise.

You know, they feel like they're uh on the right side of history as far as what they're doing policy wise. And she wants to at least try to reach out and say the President got a bad deal on the first term. Press-wise and maybe change the dyn dynamic. I'm not sure this did that, but it's not a big deal for her, because she is the apple of the president's eye.

So she writes this on X. The article published earlier this morning is disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest president, White House staff, and cabinet history. Significant context was disregarded. And much of what I and others said about the team and the president was left out. I assume after reading it that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic negative narrative about the president and our team.

The truth is, the Trump administration has already accomplished more in 11 months than any other president has accomplished in eight years, and that is due to the unmatched leadership and vision of the president, for whom I have been honored to work for the better part of a decade. None of this will stop our relentless pursuit of making America great. I agree. Nothing's going to stop. Evidently, Pam Bondi, she just came out, one of the things that stand out, the completely whiffed on the Epstein files.

They underestimate, she said, we underestimated the potency of the Epstein scandal. And one thing that maybe I've discussed with you, I think I have. You know, this whole emerging You know, the podcast section of the Trump supporters who seem to have a problem with a lot of what he does, that he's focused on overseas. They didn't like the bombing in Iran. They don't like what's happening in Venezuela.

They don't like the lack of candor they bring on the Epstein files. They don't trust the Charlie Kirk investigation or any investigation. They don't trust this FBI. She says that makes up only 5% of the Trump spear, and they're relatively new to the Trump world. Do you agree with that?

Just, I mean, just. from what you know about everything in Washington. Yeah, listen, I I think that Uh it may only make five percent of the numbers, but um it does have influence. It does get eyeballs and You know, they it's one of the reasons he went on Joe Rogan before the election is because they knew how powerful that was.

So. I think you have to take it with a grain of salt when it goes one way, and you're deciding how to make decisions on policy. But there are people that are upset about things. There are other people who are upset about the Rob Reiner comments and the posts and the comment. And there are people out there saying, hey, listen, put Venezuela and Reiner together and say this was a horrible thing.

You know, I didn't like him as a person, but it shouldn't have happened. And stopping drugs from coming into our country could stop families from having these horrible things happen. You know, like there's a lot of angst out there about different things that the President says or does, but in the big sphere, they're going to do whatever they want to do. I hear you. And the other thing would be: after the horrible off-year elections for the Republicans, she said, I think we've got to get back to kitchen table issues and less Saudi Arabia.

But that's interesting. You know, for you and I, we love that stuff to find out what's happening behind the scenes about their game plan. And maybe it wasn't communicated enough that almost all the overseas trips are related to us here, the money he brings back in the manufacturing, he wants to return.

So, and you know, what you know, it's a little bit of behind the scenes. It's a little bit of the blueprint. And yeah, we'd love that stuff. But in the big picture, we assume that that's the case anyway. I bet this speech tonight is going to be a lot about affordability and the economy and what they have planned for Q1, Q2.

You know, so I think it'll follow that blueprint.

So, Brett, have you named your panel yet or do you want to blow it? Do you want people to be surprised when they get the call? I mean, are you available? No, you can't afford me. You keep on coming back with me, but the money just isn't right.

Yeah. That's true. When you come to New York, I will be there for you. All right, all right, I'll be there soon. All right.

So, Brett, watch 6 o'clock tonight. Special report. Do what I do. DVR it. I watch it the same day, so you get full ratings credit for it.

Brett, thanks so much. And one more thing. Hold on. Eight weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Wow, congratulations.

The book is doing really well. And you know what's heartening, and you know this too, is that there are a lot of history fans out there, history buffs, and there's people that just are hungry for readable history like yours. And I'm telling you, I think it's really heartening to hear and see people getting into reading about Teddy Roosevelt. Yeah, it's called To Rescue the American Spirit: Teddy Roosevelt and the Birth of a Superpower. Let's keep it on the list through the holidays, ladies and gentlemen.

Brett, congratulations. Thanks. You got it. All right, so Brett Baer joins us. We come back.

Your turn. 1-866-408-7669. Do you think the Vanity Fair thing's a big deal? Number one. Number two, what do you want to see happen in Venezuela?

Do you agree with Lindsey Graham? That if he stays in power, they win, that's a problem. Back in a moment. Diving deep into today's top stories, it's Brian Kilmead. 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.

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FirstNet, built with ATT. Learn more on FirstNet.com/slash public safety first. Uh If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead. Yes, he has a defense because he has significant mental problems in the past, disorders that have been treated.

I think he has been in dual diagnosis programs somewhere close to a dozen times, and that's alcohol and drugs and some sort of a psychological diagnosed issue.

So these are all things that we can consider to be bad or things that can predict criminality. But when you're talking about death penalty, these are things that you look at and say, hey, you know what? This is actually good for the defendant. We have an explanation as to what may have happened other than just mischievous, depraved heart murder. And if they know what's going on, they're going to say, Hey, DA, let's have a sit-down.

Don't make this mandatory death penalty.

So, a couple of things. Nick Reiner's been charged. He has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. For stabbing deaths of his parents. Robin Michelle.

I have convicted he could face the death penalty, and that was just a speculation from a litigator, Vic Baj, who was on last night on Fox News at night with Trace Gallagher.

So it was just an ugly scene all around. 32-year-old son who's been star-crossed. This kid is literally his entire life at 14 years old. He takes $200, steals $200 from his parents, goes on Craigslist, and hires a hooker. I mean, when he I a little bit later, he does a movie with his dad.

Called Dopey, just about it's really about him and his father's relationship, and they put it together. I assume it's a documentary. And at which time he does such a good job in twenty eighteen, one of the priests just says, Look, if you can get yourself clean, I'll hire you. There's stuff for you to do here. And they say, he says, I'm not doing any drugs.

He goes, we know you're doing drugs, and you're also on Adderall. And I'm thinking to myself, too, how much the prescription drugs. By people in schools who, you know, psychologists, who people have means, who bring it to a psychologist, he's acting up, let's give him some type of.

Some type of mood altering drug, like Adderall helps you concentrate. Oh, he's got ADD or she's got ADD. Let's give him Adderall. I wonder how much that plays into the long time psychotic behavior. But evidently, the night That he killed his parents.

He walks into a Conan O'Brien's party and was just a problem to everybody, asking people, why are you famous? How are you famous? Number one. Number two, he was also. Walked up to Bill Hayter of SNL, very talented guy, and he was just sitting there.

And Bill Hayter's like, I'm having a private conversation. And he just stared at him. And just stormed away. Hours later, he'd kill his parents. There were shots of Bill Hayter walking around on the sidewalk looking clearly distressed.

I mean, you can't ever blame Bill Hayter for this. I mean, it was this guy's behavior. You also see video of him dressed in blue jeans, uh jeans, long sleeve shirt, baseball cap, carrying a backpack, strolling by a gas station just before midnight on Saturday. His parents would die a few hours later because, allegedly, from his hands. For people, you can't relate to this, the celebrity and the fame and the money, maybe.

Fuck the addiction, the extreme behavior, the torturing of families. I think s too many can relate to that. And then how you handle it is so different. You try to be understanding, but is that the worst? Oh, then you do tough love, well was that the worst?

Rich Lowry coming up next. We'll discuss everything. With the holidays coming, that means more gift buying and more deliveries to the front door. It made me think about how I should upgrade my security to keep away the porch pirates and keep my deliveries safe. I went with Simply Safe because it's proactive.

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Again, that's simplysafe.com. There's no safe like simply safe. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. The very nature of our gun wars means that.

They are only as strong as the weakest link, which is why we wanted to make sure that they followed Premier Mins' lead. in committing to strengthening the gun laws that were of course created in the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy some 30 years ago.

So that is a little bit of the aftermath, the analysis that are going on after the horrific shooting over in Australia and Sydney that left way too many dead and too few cops, only four in the area. And it turns out citizens were doing the most damage. A couple stormed the younger gunman, the son, he's a father-son, evil duo. And they were able to knock one gun out of his hand, but sadly, they had another he had another gun and shot him dead. We know about the Syrian who immigrated to over to Sydney, Australia.

Loved being in Australia, very grateful, obviously. When the gunman was right in front of him and started shooting, he Muslim descent, he tackled him and he took five bullets. But now thankfully, that father is dead. And he was shot dead at that scene. And this guy saved countless lives as he tries to get better in a hospital.

And then we see that. We see what happened over in Brown. We see the assassination of our guys over in Syria. We see the horrible Rob Reiner situation with his son killing him. And there is a lot of huge news, very disturbing news, as we get closer and closer to the holidays, let alone.

That pteropod that was thwarted. Five guys have been arrested already. It was supposed to happen on New Year's Eve. People pro-Palestinian, anti-capitalist, pro-socialist, hate America. They were caught in the Mojave Desert.

They were practicing making and exploding their IEDs. Crazy stuff. Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, joins us now. Rich, welcome back. Let's start in Australia, where this the Prime Minister Netanyahu, within hours of this attack, said, we told you what would it take for you to now pay attention to the anti-Semitism that's raging in your country.

Yeah, so and it really kicked off with October 7th. It wasn't a reaction to anything Israel did in response to October 7th, which just shows how perversely that pogrom and massacre in Israel is like a bad signal around the world that people come out in favor of Hamas. Just totally bizarre, but this was predicted. It's a disgrace that there wasn't more police presence there and there wasn't a quicker response. And that couple, wow, what an act of incredible bravery and sacrifice.

Unbelievable. But there's a problem with Muslim immigration. We need to have more around the West, more strict ideological tests to make sure these people aren't going to be hostile to our society to the extent we can. And then just have fewer. If you have fewer, then there's less of a chance of bad apples.

I think Australia in 1981 had 41,000 Muslims.

Now it has more than 800,000. Doesn't mean they're all bad people, obviously, but there is an element that is not going to assimilate to your society and is going to hate your society. Don't you think we woke up, Rich? We're waking up in the West to there's nothing wrong with being proud of your country and wanting the culture to stay the same. Yeah, that never should have gone away, but absolutely.

And here in the United States, we can afford, and then Australia too, to be very choosy. Like, there's so many people who want to come here. We can choose the people we think are best suited to assimilate and to thrive immediately and embrace America. And we can have some fewer numbers as well. But just that kind of thought has been considered retrograde or hateful or racist for decades.

And I hope that's changing.

So look at it, they think it's the gun laws in Australia. And they say the law I look at the laws on guns there, within the limits set down by the National Agreement. The agreement banned automatic and semi-automatic firearms and ruled that applicants for gun licenses need a genuine reason to use a firearm other than personal protection. It could be legal firearms, storage, licensing requirements that go into it if you do get permission. One of the reasons, recreational shooting and hunting.

For farmers and other occupations, which a firearm is required, and for licensed collectors and possessors of heirlooms.

Meanwhile, there are some exceptions to the semi-automatic firearm. The country has also had a permanent firearms amnesty in place since 2021.

So, if you had a gun, somehow this guy, even though the father was being investigated for terrorism as late as 2019.

So got permission to have all six guns. Yeah. Do you believe that? Unbelievable. So, obviously, another thing that happens is that needs to happen.

You need to tighten up what's the standard by which you decided this guy wasn't a threat, right? Obviously, whatever that standard was wrong. And, you know, even if they had looser gun laws, it doesn't mean that anyone would have been armed there at the Hanukkah celebration and able to shoot back more quickly. But it's something I know a lot of Jewish people here in the United States really appreciate. I have a friend who moved from New York, where it's really hard to get a gun, New York City, down to Florida.

And the first thing that his rabbi told him is, Can you please get a license and a gun? Because we want as many able young men armed in the synagogue for services as possible in case something horrible happens. And if that had been true in Australia, maybe the death toll would have been less. Here's Jonathan Greenblatt on with us yesterday. He's president of the Anti-Defamation League, CUD 14.

And I think we are all devastated in mourning the fifteen people who were gunned down in cold blood. in the largest massacre that's ever taken place in Australia, certainly of Jewish people. Dozens more were injured. And this didn't happen in a vacuum. This didn't happen by chance.

This attack was planned in cold blood. By ISIS-inspired extremists. They gunned down an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, grandparents. They gunned down a rabbi, a father of five with a three-month-old baby. They gunned down a 10-year-old girl.

The only The only crime these people committed was wanting to celebrate Hanukkah. Yeah, I mean, it's just incredible, and that's what you have all over. And then I watched last night, they just reported in the New York Post that these six Jewish kids, young men, get on a subway. And two other uh two other New Yorkers just start screaming horrible anti-Semitic phrases at him.

So, this is that used to be a rare situation.

Now it's a daily situation. Yep, no, it's been unleashed, and it is from the gates of hell. It's and it's horrible.

So I want to pivot if I can. By the way, if you don't think it's coming for Christians and the West, you're not paying attention. This is just phase one.

So let's move over to Venezuela. The President has changed tactics.

Now he's going to embargo and stop all tankers from coming or going into Venezuela. That's a serious escalation in this conflict. And I think there's no doubt about it. It's in our national interest, but it's not without controversy or risk. Here's what Lindsey Graham said, cut 10.

Maduro is not a legitimate president. He's actually head of one of these terrorist organizations, and I am glad that we're taking him on. But here's my concern. We got ha you know, 15% of the Navy pointed to this guy. If he's still standing when this is over, this is a fatal.

Major mistake. to our standing in the world. If after all this, Maduro is still in power, that's the worst possible signal you could send to Russia, China, Iran. And of course, the Democrats leading into this election on a Western note, Rich, your thoughts? He's right, isn't he?

Well, it's an act of war on a blockade like this. I really think he should have gone to Congress and made the case and got an authorization, but there's plenty of precedent for President not doing that.

So he's not going to do it. And I'm with Lindsay, in that, well, this may be implied by his remarks. I'm not sure how blockade. Makes him go. I mean, it's gonna exact an enormous economic price on Venezuela, but but the country's already been wrecked, and I'm not sure how much it changes Maduro's incentives, because he clearly doesn't wanna go because He doesn't want to live in Russia the rest of life or doesn't want to be jailed or killed.

So I think he's going to stay, and I think this makes it likelier that Trump is going to have to resort to direct military means to try to oust him. In a way, but the thing is, if you want to dislodge the military, who are now going to be starved of everything, maybe even their families, maybe they'll realize, man, Trump's not kidding. Maybe we should make the move now. Because the only thing Maduro has is his private protection, mostly Cubans, and the military. People hate him.

Yeah, so that's the optimal scenario. And that would be great. I just worry that even if that would happen, you know, it's not going to happen in weeks, though, I wouldn't think it might take years, you know, which we're not going to do this for years.

So that's why I think we're kind of down the path. And if it doesn't work fairly soon, then we're on to the next step of the escalation, is my guess. You think it's worth it? Mm-hmm. I would like to see the case made to the public in a way it hasn't and would have liked to seem to go to Congress.

I'd like to see Maduro go, though. I'm not sure exactly what will come after him. I think there's some chance there could be something good after him because there is an opposition there that has cohered and made his case under hideous threat from the regime that could, in theory, just slide into Caracas. I like to see him go, but I would have liked to have seen a more formal case made by President Trump about how and why we're doing this.

So let's, if we can, go to the Vanity Fair interview that Susie Wiles did. Did you have a chance to read it? It's two big parts.

So don't blame yourself if you didn't, but I'm sure you've seen some excerpts and quotes. I read I read the coverage of it and I think there is a as far as I can tell, not having read the the actual pieces, you know, the the s some of the most explosive quotes that they're they are caveatted or there's context to them and they're not quite as bad as they sound. But still I I hate to say, I mean, she's done a great job. Fantastic job in the campaign. The White House has been better run than last time around.

But holy cow, this is just a major lapse in judgment. There's no reason to be sitting, chief of staff, doing these kind of interviews. It's just not your role. You know, wait until you're gone, you know, maybe then do it. But then you even shouldn't you shouldn't even do it.

So I don't know what she was thinking. Obviously, they're rallying around her. It's not going to blow her out of the White House, but this was bad. I hear you. Well, in a way, but I'm looking at the actual substance of it.

You know, Rubio had to go talk to George W. Bush about we're not getting rid of Pet Farr. that Elon Musk going in and just blowing up USAID. Was not really a good move that he's on ketamine. Kind of interesting, but they said he was a one-man show.

He's a genius, but he doesn't really communicate what he's doing. That Zelensky would have been better off. The argument was going to happen. As soon as he blew up Scott Bessett and refused to meet with him when he went all the way to Ukraine, there was tension. He says, If I could do it again, I wouldn't have cameras in the room, but the blow-up was going to happen.

He went and exposed that Vladimir Putin, you know, the author. Uh Chris Whipple. Said that why is he so close with Vladimir Putin? You know, these conversations. He goes, Yeah, I've seen him have conversations with Vladimir Putin.

Some go well, and some go very bad.

So that's a reality check, kind of interesting behind the closed doors. He actually says the tariff rollout was really broad, and it was really he wanted it was more painful than they thought. Coming in?

So, I mean, this is insight that kind of enjoy getting it. I mean, probably would have been better if she was leaving, but I don't think it really does damage that Pam Bondi whiffed. Unreleasing the Epstein files? Didn't we all kind of know that? We knew that, right, yeah, yeah.

So I I look at that as just say why, but but I don't think it hurts anybody, really. I I agree with that in the sense that it's it's it's interesting. It's it's all interesting. It's your it's certainly journalistically. Interesting.

And it seems to me that at least from where I sit, I would prefer that Susie Wiles win all these internal battles, because I think what she says makes a lot of sense. Again, I just wouldn't have done these interviews with Vanity Fair as the sitting chief of staff in the Trump administration.

So, I mean, that's what you hear. Here's Chris Whipple on another network talking about the interviews. There were 11. Cut 24. Here's a rule of thumb for young journalists.

When your subject starts talking about context and being disingenuous and framing, you know you've done something right. The reason they're not talking about the substance of the piece or any of the quotations in the piece is because they know full well that every word is on tape. I spoke to Susie Wiles 11 times, 11 in-depth interviews over nearly a year. And what was remarkable about it, and she deserves. Tremendous credit for it.

She was freewheeling, she was unguarded. She was unlike any other senior White House official I've ever encountered, she was on the record almost all the time. You agree with that first statement? I don't. Here's a rule of thumb for young journalists when they say that they're framing you as something out of context.

Oh, I don't know. No, sometimes you're taking it out of context.

Sometimes you are framing them out of context. But journalism is, at a certain level, involves an act of betrayal in that you get the person to trust you, the source to trust you. And then once they have and you got it and you got something good, you're going to use it in a way that source might have never intended or might really hate. I mean, that's kind of inherent to the craft.

So I take that point that's implied in there. But very often, if you say it was 60 minutes deceptively edited something, it doesn't mean that 60 minutes did something right. It may well mean it deceptively edited something. Yeah, I actually don't think there'll be any fallout. I just find it interesting.

And the fact is, that's the way Trump handles things. You know, you study presidents. You've no conservative thought. You go to th they invite you to these think tank rich. They don't really invite me.

They don't have my email. But you know that. That the president is more transparent. He talks about whatever is on his mind, even if it comes back to haunt him sometimes, not so much this time. And it only makes sense that people that work for 'em would be the same way, right?

Yeah, well, I would make a distinction, though. He's the president, so however he wants to do it, he can do it. You're the chief of staff. You make the trains run on time. It's not your job to be the story.

So I imagine she regrets this and wishes she had done it in retrospect. But they're all backing her. There's not a good alternative as chief of staff. She's done a fantastic job, as far as I can tell. Uh outside of this lapse, so she's not going anywhere anytime soon.

Seventeen months is the record for for the Trump record for chiefs of staff.

So let's see if he gets past seventeen. I think she I my prediction. Last all four. Lasts all four years. All right.

All right.

And we're going to keep this tape, Rich Lowry. As you know, just like Chris Whipple, we tape everything. Rich Lowry, thanks so much. Go and order your subscription. Get it as a gift to NASA Review.

Thanks, Rich. Awesome. Thanks, Brad. Back in a moment. Where big stories meet bigger conversations.

Stay informed and energized with the Brian Kilmeat Show. Fox News Radio has complete coverage of President Donald Trump's address to the nation starting at 9 p.m. Eastern. Download the Fox News app and click listen. America is listening to Fox News.

Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Killmead Show. His morning show makes you wish you died in your sleep. Host of One Nation and thoughts and friends, Brian Killmead. Brian, always a pleasure having you on this show.

And I mean that sincerely. I know that I might come off harsh to you, but it's only out of love because I feel bad for the way you were brought up. Killmead, who really is going to want to donate to this? I mean, you might as well just donate to a Brian Kilmead library. Which there's a lot of donations pouring in.

Yes, there is. Right now, there's a big movement for it. Even when they compare the things that they're attacking Trump getting older for, it's like, oh, he took a nap during a meeting. Yeah. I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds when Kilmead was answering his last question.

That Is that necessary?

So that was Jamie Lissow turning on me, one of the nicest guys around.

So that just shows you how low things have gotten on Gutfeld. Last night, very funny show. And Jamie Lissow says he wrote for six hours all day, nervous about the show, even though he's been on 161 times. I'm being serious. But it was just, it was a great show.

I was on with. Uh Kennedy as well.

So and it was a lot of fun.

So hopefully people watched, but everyone's watching that show.

Meanwhile, we're not quite done yet. We have a few more days. I'm going to work right through Thanksgiving, excuse me, Christmas Eve. Thanksgiving. Christmas Eve with new shows.

And then we've got a lot of best of special shows that we're going to be rolling out in between Christmas and New Year's.

So you don't want to miss a minute. Keep in mind, One Nation's going to be big this weekend. Amongst our guests, we've got Frank Luntz to break down the poll numbers and review the President's speech tonight. It's Wednesday, so by Sunday, get a real perspective on what the president needs to do in the midterms. Remember, Susie Wiles did predict they're going to have success in the midterms in Buck tradition and history.

How does Frank Luntz feel about that? We'll also have Senator John Cornyn. He'll be on with us too, as well as Mr. Wonderful Kevin O'Leary. Those are amongst our great roster of guests.

Meanwhile, keep it here in the Brian Killmeat Show. From High Atop. Fox News Headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead.

All right, from 40th and 6th of Midtown, Manhattan, heard around the country, around the world. This is the Brian Killmead Show. We have a lot going on today. First off, just a quick note, a consumer-friendly note, and that is, if you're going to send things out for Christmas, want it there by Christmas today. Today is the last day to send via UPS, ground service, or first-class mail.

Christmas Eve, a week away, that's what they're guaranteeing. For the most part, some things may vary.

So that is my consumer awareness note. Tonight, the president will be speaking, giving an address to the nation, focusing predominantly on the economy and the shrinking trade deficit as well. What's at stake with the Supreme Court tariffs decision? And the drug war in Venezuela, how we vamped it up by stopping the tankers. Jason Riley joins us now, Wall Street Journal columnist, Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow, Fox News contributor, and best-selling author.

He has a column out today, quite intriguing. Donald Trump's affordability failures will cost him, pun intended. The economy has gone from one of the president's best issues with American voters to one of the worst. Jason, welcome back. Good morning, Brian.

How much is he responsible for in taking politics away? If you just look at from numbers in policy, How much of his 34% approval rating should he be responsible for legitimately?

Well, at this point in his presidency, Brian, I think he needs to own the economy. And that's certainly what voters are telling pollsters. That Fox News poll in November was quite devastating in showing that voters think that President Trump is responsible for what's happening right now, regardless of what he inherited back in January.

So I think, you know, regardless of how much he thinks. He should accept responsibility for this. The American people are looking at his policies and how those policies are contributing to what they see. And what they don't see is what he promised. On the campaign trail, which is lower prices.

Their prices have gone up. For food, for energy, for housing, and so forth. They continue to go up in many cases, and they seem to be blaming this administration for that situation.

Well, not all food, and gas has never been lower, right? I mean, it's been about four and a half years low, and it's going even lower. I think it's now down to. $55 a barrel in terms of oil. And I think that it could probably drop closer to two, so that'll help.

You saw what he did adjusting tariffs. And you saw that there's certain products that have come down, and the rate of growth increased prices is 2% as opposed to what he inherited. Does any of that matter? It matters to some extent, but the big picture is that it doesn't seem to be mattering enough in terms of helping him with his job approval. Remember, the economy was one of his strong suits in terms of how voters viewed his capabilities.

Today, it's one of his weakest points with voters.

Somewhere around more than 70% of the country, I believe, right now, or close to 70%, thinks that things are going in the wrong direction. And you're right. He has, you know, some of these food prices are coming down because he's reversed himself on the border taxes, you know, reversed himself on bananas, reversed himself on coffee, which to me is an indication that he knows that these have been hurting in some sectors. And also remember, Brian. We were told that that these tariffs were supposed to lead to more manufacturing jobs.

in this country. That also has not happened. There's been a net loss. Of manufacturing jobs over the past year. And particularly if you look at manufacturing in those areas that use some of the items that have been heavily tariffed, like steel and aluminum, so auto part manufacturing and car manufacturing and so forth.

So again, these policies don't seem to be working on his terms. And I think what he doesn't want to do is do what Biden did, which was go and tell people, no, no, no, you don't understand. Things are really, really going well. You just don't realize it. Or it's all my predecessor's fault.

I don't think that worked out very well for Joe Biden. And I hope that's not what the President does tonight in his address. I think he should say, listen, I understand what you're saying. I'm going to work to change things and implement policies that are going to have better outcomes than what we see today. But I don't think he wants to tell people that they're delusional about what they see right in front of them.

But you can point out things to the nature where the previous administration spent $6 trillion. Rocket inflation up to 9%. What he has done is cut the deficit by $600 billion and the trade deficit as well.

So we are getting on a fiscal path. And what he can honestly say is, in terms of tax returns, you're soon going to be able to write off your car purchase, your interest rates. When the taxes on tips and Social Security, there'll be a tax break in there. Child tax credit is going to be coming your way, and more tax returns coming up in March and April. If you talk to Scott Besson, he says you're going to feel it in first and second quarter.

Your thoughts? We'll see. I mean, I don't have a crystal ball, neither does scapescent. But I don't know. He does have policies.

I'm just saying that the public does not seem to be buying this. Voters do not seem to be buying this wait and see approach. They want to see more results now. And the President is right now telling people, you know, in the Christmas season, your kids should get by on fewer toys, fewer dolls and so forth. And we just need to muddle through here.

And I don't think that's what the public wants to hear. And that's not what they were promised back when he was running for President for reelection.

So Black Friday was relatively strong, I guess, but people say they might be putting stuff on their credit cards. But how much is depending on the Fed and interest rates?

Well, um Yes, some of this will depend on the Fed and interest rates. And there's a big debate, obviously, of whether the Fed should cut rates further than they did. Powell says one of the reasons he didn't go further, that's the Fed chairman. Powell said he didn't go further, is because he didn't trust the jobs report numbers. He thought they would be revised downward.

And we saw some of that in the jobs reports that have recently come out. That in three of the past six months, I believe, there have been a net job loss. The economy has shed jobs. And that's one of the reasons Powell has been hesitant to go much further. Donald Trump wants him to go a lot further.

He wants easier money, so do a lot of investors. But I think the Fed is right to be cautious here. And so we'll have to see how that plays out. But instead of leaning on the Fed the way Donald Trump is doing, I think he would do better to focus again on these border taxes and what they're doing to economic growth and the uncertainty out there. I mean, we have less international trade now than we used to.

That means that freer trade and more trade means lower prices for consumers because it means more competition for goods and for services and so forth. And so I think he'd be more effective in focusing on the border taxes and less I think they put less energy towards trying to pressure the Federal Reserve into lowering interest rates further. Yeah, I guess we're going to get a new Fed chair and then some of that will take care of itself. What's it going to take to get credit card interest rates down? Because people also said, hey, if you want those mortgage rates to go down, get the Fed to cut rates.

Not really.

Now we hear from experts like you that it's the 10-year yield people are looking at. What changed?

Well, I don't think we've seen the growth overall in the economy that is necessary. I think that, and again, businesses, there's uncertainty out there in the economy. You see it in hiring. You see it in capital investment. Businesses don't like uncertainty.

And I think what a lot of these border taxes have done is to inject a lot of uncertainty.

So businesses, for instance, aren't hiring. It's not that they're laying off a lot of people. We don't see that reflected in the numbers. But they're very, very reluctant to take on more workers. And I think that, again, is due to the uncertainty out there in general.

And I think that's what the president needs to focus on. Stability. And I think the Fed needs to focus on a stable dollar. And I think if you do that, the rest will take care of itself. The USMCA getting renegotiated, that would be a big boost, because you know exactly what we're doing with two of our trading partners, right?

Oh, yes, absolutely. I think, again, certainty. And those, you know, Canada and Mexico are two of our biggest trading partners. And I think we need to make sure we have a solid trading relationship with both of those places. And, you know, particularly with Mexico, Brian, you know, a lot of economic uncertainty in Mexico drives people north.

in that country. And I think when they see more economic stability in Mexico, they're more likely to stay in Mexico.

So you can see an overlap there between trade policy and migration concerns. And of course, migration has been one of the president's strengths. And I'm sure we'll hear about that tonight. He has delivered on that promise, which was to seal the border and take care of illegal immigration. And I think he deserves a lot of credit for that.

One thing I'm surprised he hasn't done yet is just go to the border. And talk to Border Patrol people. All the cameras will follow you because people just say, oh, the border's closed. I guess it's fine. You know, we pulled Bill Melusian out of the border.

We put him in Washington because there's nothing going on. The president should go to where the border wall is being built. And just talk talk some Border Patrol people. See, let the press see this, observe it. Because it wasn't too long ago when we had thousands of thousands of people, including Chinese in rollerbags, just crossing the border.

Oh, right. I mean, he's delivered. I mean, I think he's even getting reluctantly, he's getting credit from the press for what he's done on the border. They think he's going. Overboard now with some of the ice rates and so forth, but I think in terms of reducing illegal crossings.

The data is the data. I think even the mainstream media has been forced to acknowledge that this has been a success story for President Trump.

So his actions speak for themselves in that sense. Brian, if he wanted to go down there for a photo op, I don't think I'd have a problem with that. But Whether it's necessary, he's gotten it done. That's one thing he's delivered on. Right.

Jason Riley, I check out his column in the Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump's Affordability Failures Will Cost Him. He'll talk about that tonight and talk about the optimism he has for first and second quarter. Jason, we'll see how it goes. Thanks so much. Thank you, Brian.

And the good news, when it comes to the economy, you can keep score. 1866, 408, 7669. Have you been hearing about this scandal in Minneapolis? Is at least a billion dollars scammed out of our social Our social safety system, and what they did during the pandemic through the mostly all-Somali community there. is just sickening.

And you know what? It's been covered up for way too long. We're going to expose it with the majority whip Tom Emer of Minnesota. Don't move. From breaking news to big name guests, Brian brings you insight you won't hear anywhere else.

You're listening to the Brian Kill Me Show. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead. Waltz is a grossly incompetent man. There's something wrong with him.

Somalians. whipped off that stain for Billions of dollars. They contribute nothing. I don't want them in our country, I'll be honest with you, okay. We're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.

Donald Trump brought this to the attention like this is something brand new. This is not brand new, and it's been being worked on, but he made it white hot. and um very dangerous. That is Governor Walsh. He is overseeing a huge scandal that's been around for years.

They covered it over. Nobody really reported it. There's been rumors of it, but it's so much worse than people could have imagined. The one person probably not surprised by it, but glad it's finally coming out, is Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the 6th District. Congressman, welcome back.

You know, we discussed this when you were in the studio last time, but this is at least a billion dollars, and it's 95% from the Somali community. How did they pull this off? How did we just now become aware of this?

Well, great to be with you again, Brian. And I just have to open by saying thank you to you and all of your colleagues at Fox News for talking about this issue. It's amazing. As I told you when we last met, we've been trying to sound the alarm on this fraud for three years. It goes way beyond the largest pandemic fraud case in the country called the Feeding Our Futures scandal, which was two hundred fifty million.

And like you point out, the numbers are billion dollars and they're continuing to count. You got Medicaid housing fraud, you got daycare fraud, you've got it fraud everywhere. And by the way, you don't you may not know this, but Tim Walls, who's been our governor in Minnesota for seven years, on Friday, last Friday, Brian, he decided to create a new government position for someone to deal with the fraud. Seven years too late. Wow.

And by the way, the coverage that we're talking about, our worthless newspaper in Minnesota, the leading headline was Walls trying to get ahead of the fraud. What a joke. It totally is. They're still trying to cover for it. And how much does this matter?

Not to you. But If you go ahead and say, hey, what's going on with the Feeding the Future program? What's going on with the Autistic Children's Program? What's going on with the millions of dollars going into this community and leaving this country? What's happening here?

They say, well, are you picking on me because I'm racist? Is it because I'm black? Is that why you're coming after me? And it just freezes people in their boots. And they go, okay, maybe I don't need to be called a racist.

So they just let it go or they pay off that person to not bring it up again. Yeah, Brian, you remember in our history, we've referred to the Italian mob, we've referred to the Irish mob. I mean, this just happens to be, as you point out, over 90% of the people being charged with these crimes, with the fraud in Minnesota, happen to come from the Somali community. Calling out a criminal is not racist. And that's where Tim Walls and Ilhan Omar get off.

Tim's trying to say these are our neighbors.

Well, I got news for you. If you're my neighbor and you're breaking the law, I want you held accountable. And I will call you out for what you are, which is a criminal. And look, you asked me earlier, how does this happen? It happens.

I would go back to 2017, 2018. We had a Democrat in the Attorney General's office named Lori Swanson. She was investigating and prosecuting Somali daycare fraud. Brian, she ran for the Democrat nomination to run for governor against Tim Walls. When Tim Walls won, he and Keith Ellison, who gave us Ilhan Omar, Keith became our new Attorney General.

The first action Keith took as Attorney General was there will be no more investigations without my express approval. I look, I think. That's an important point. It's very important because here's the other piece. These guys need that community, especially the criminal element, to vote for them, otherwise, they don't get elected.

There's about 80,000 Somalis in Minnesota. You've got Tim Walls and Keith Ellison cannot get votes from Greater Minnesota. In fact, Tim Walls only won 13 of 87 counties. I literally put him in office. Yeah, Keith Ellison won by less than a point.

So these are the votes that get them over the top. And if you're purposely looking the other way, you're complicit. Our U.S. attorney, our U.S. attorney has said that the fraud goes all the way to the highest level of government.

So, Brian, you can figure out who that is. Right now, we need to find out who was complicit, and they need to be held accountable. And I tell you what, if our governor, if what the whistleblowers, first, if the whistleblowers coming forward are real, and I think they are, and if they can document what they're claiming, which is that they not only told Tim Walls about the fraud, but he ignored them and then retaliated against him. If that can be documented, Brian, he should be prosecuted.

So quick thing, this just happened. Frustrated GOP moderates. joined Democrats to force an Obamacare extension vote. And you're talking about Rob Bresnahan, you talk about Uh Michael Lawler. Brian Fitzpatrick and others.

What's going on there? Are you against extending? Because I know Mike Johnson is against extending those Obamacare subsidies.

Well, where I come from, and we should have been talking about this a lot more. This isn't about the subsidies. This is about the Unaffordable Care Act. People got to be reminded, and I wouldn't put the former president's name on it at all. They called it the Affordable Care Act.

They enacted it 14 years ago. When they did, they told us three things: one, you're going to get to keep your doctor. Two, you're going to have more choices. And three, it's going to lower your premiums. Brian, they're all for three.

They broke the health care.

So, what's next?

Well, I hear you, but what's next? This is what we're working on. The Republicans want to lower costs, give patients a choice, and get to the root causes of the health care crisis. That's why this week we're voting on the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Act, which the bill would increase PBM transparency. It would appropriate cost-sharing reduction payments to lower premiums and provide certainty to the individual market.

By the way, Brian, that was in the big, beautiful bill. All right, majority with Tom Amer. Quite busy, a lot to discuss. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead.

Republicans are no longer trying to hide their total lack of a health care plan. and their desire once and for all to kill the ACA tax credits, meaning more than tripling America's health care costs for too many Americans. Today, Speaker Johnson said there'll be no vote in the House to extend the credits. He has said in times in the past he will never be for extending the credits. Because it's a piece of crap program that never worked, and now you have subsidies put in by a president who was discharged from the White House while he was in the White House, and they were supposed to evaporate.

So you have Senator Schumer who is desperately trying to keep his job, trying to like a tough guy, saying ridiculous things before he recites a, talks about a murder, go bills. And now he's using curse words every other line. You have Obamacare that needs to be saved by Democrats, and now you're blaming Republicans who were never on board with this plan.

Now, for the 24 million people that are counting on subsidies, it'd be great to see if something's done. I'm not sure if there will be, but there's a reluctance from the Speaker who said, you got to be kidding.

Now you want me to save a program that can't work. Senator Marcia Blackburn joins us now. She's also running for governor of Tennessee. But first things first, Senator, your thoughts about what Senator Schumer said?

Well, Senator Schumer is so inaccurate in what he says. Here is what we do know. There are as many as 24 million people enrolled in the plan, in the Obamacare plan. There are 12 million who are enrolled but have never even used it, which means these big insurance companies that get this money directly from the federal government enroll people who don't know they're enrolled in this.

So we have to take that into account. The other thing is he acts like all of the Obamacare subsidies go away. That is a lie. That is not accurate because the subsidies are in law. They stay in place.

What goes away is the Biden pandemic COVID era subsidies. Subsidy, the plus-up, that had zero-dollar payments as their monthly payment. And then also took the income caps off. And Brian, you had people that were making upwards of $1.5 million a year, having the U.S. taxpayer paying 80 to 90% of their premium.

So when you look at those zero-dollar premiums and then the fact that the income caps are gone, that is what the Democrats are wanting to keep.

Now, they're the ones that put that in place and they're the ones that set it to expire. But we know that they have always said Obamacare was a step on the way to government-run health care.

So now they're wanting to keep these plused-up COVID pandemic payments and then put more people into Obamacare to push it more to government-run health care. Anything that speeds the path to government-run health care, they are for it. And that is what Chuck Schumer is trying to do, but he's not being honest about it. On the other hand, Republicans are saying, let's send the money directly to individuals. Let's put more choice and options in the marketplace and let people buy something they want at a price that they can afford.

And by the way, how about expanding health savings accounts so that people can manage the small things and have a major medical policy if they need it for something that is major? That is what we're talking about doing. It would lower insurance premiums by 11%. We would put in place it, as we did in the Big Beautiful bill, that illegal aliens cannot get access to government paid health care. And we would tighten up the rules and regulations to root out the fraud, waste and abuse in this plused up Biden-era program.

So you're a place you used to work? As you know, is the House, and they have just GOPers, joined moderate Democrats to force an Obama extension vote today on the House floor. Senator Thune said: if we do anything, it's going to be after the new year. There seems to be, I know the House has been a A dysfunctional place for the Republicans. What they did to Kev McCarthy, I still don't understand.

Just idiots, self-centered lunatics. And then you got rid of him.

So you have Speaker Johnson, and now Speaker Johnson has a lot of moderates who are frustrated that when they're not doing anything. Who's right here? Yeah. I think it's important to realize the Obamacare subsidies, the base subsidies, people that are as much as 400%. Of poverty, then all of that stays in place.

And I think it's also important to note that the provisions Republicans have put on in the On the table are provisions that would empower consumers and patients. And it would go directly to them, and it would not be. Who's put that on the floor, Senator? Who's put that on the floor? Is that Jon Thune who put that on the floor?

Is that somebody who's put that? Senator Crapo and Senator Cassidy. Senator Craipo chairs Finance Committee, and all of this comes through us, and then you've got Help Committee that Senator Cassidy chairs.

So what is your take on Congresswoman Major The new favorite of the left, Marjorie Taylor Greene, saying the dam's about to break against Donald Trump with Republicans. Yeah. In Tennessee, Republicans are as committed or maybe even more committed to President Trump. They so appreciate what he has done to talk about the cost of living to slow this inflation. The Democrats had run it up to 9%, and now you're looking at 3% inflation.

You are looking at gas getting down closer to $2.25 a gallon. It's at $237 a gallon in Tennessee. I saw that. this past weekend, 237, 247. And we appreciate that all of that is coming under control.

The thing is, the Democrats broke the economy. Donald Trump is going to fix the economy. It is going to take a little while. But all of our working family tax cuts kick into gear on January 1 as people file their income tax. There will be no tax on tips or overtime.

Our seniors are going to realize a bonus deduction of $6,000 per senior, $12,000 for a couple married filing jointly. And you know, Brian, that's going to remove the impact. But how do you feel about the Republicans going at each other? How do you feel about Marjorie Taylor Greene now, the darling of every net network because she's coming at on and the lead guest on Sixty Minutes? You think that the Democrats and the members of the media are trying to break your party, separate?

Donald Trump for the party. Yeah. The mainstream media has Trump derangement syndrome, and we know that and we expect that. I think it's important to realize that we are a team. He is the captain of this team, and it is important that we stay united and committed to getting down the cost of living, to getting the cost of gas and groceries under control, to getting the cost of housing under control, health care under control, and innovating, bringing choice and options into the decision-making table so that we do reduce those costs.

And then putting those policies in place, I would encourage our colleagues in the House to be in D.C. more next year than they were this year. Let's codify these executive orders that the President has taken. Let's believe in the American people who are working. Hard and want to see prices come down and wages go up.

Let's believe in and encourage their belief and their ability to make their dreams come true.

So Senator, you also I don't know if you that the saw what happened yesterday was they had a subcommittee meeting on youth sports and they talked about how much it's costing, how kids aren't playing as much up from the pandemic, but not to the same levels they were playing sports before the pandemic. 70% of all quit kids quit sports by ninth grade. And you have a move, you have a, you're looking at what's going on in college sports. You see a problem there with guardrails when it comes to the NIL, and you want to see some responsibility with this new income with players that normally, if you want pro, you got all that. But now, kids, for the most part, are getting paid.

If you're playing Division I sports, you have a chance to get some significant money. What are you looking to do? Yes, I have the Hustle Act. It is bipartisan, and it would establish an accounting system and accounts. For these athletes, so that these NIL earnings could go into an account.

Once they finish their college career, then that money would vest to them. That account has their name on it. But this is a way to protect that money. You know, we've got a lot of agents. That are not registered.

They're shysters, some are shysters, and they're taking parts of these earnings.

So it would also require an agent registration.

So we are pushing this bill forward. We hope to work it into a package early next year so that there are options for our college athletes. You know, a lot of these kids, and Brian, I see this when I'm watching my grandson play sports. These kids have YouTube channels and they are working to get that college scholarship. 95% of all the kids that play sports in college do not.

play pro sports.

So this would be a way for them to monetize those YouTube channels, put that money into an account. When they finish college and get ready to start their careers, they have a nest egg that will help with them with starting that career. Understood. Senator Marsha Blackburn, good luck in your gubernatorial run and best of luck finishing out strong this year. You got it.

Take care. Bye-bye. Yeah, listen, 1866-408-7669. We haven't gone over it much yet, but the Vanity Fair story with Susie Wiles. I'll go over some of the highlights, what you thought about it.

What did you think about it? I don't think it's that big of a deal. Washington does, and I don't think Susie Wiles is too happy about it. I think it's interesting. Also, What do you expect to hear?

What do you want to hear from the President tonight? 1-866-408-7669. Don't move. Mm-hmm. Keeping you informed, engaged, and always a step ahead.

It's the Brian Kill Meat Show. This is Ainslie Earhart. Thank you for joining me for the 52-episode podcast series, The Life of Jesus. A listening experience that will provide hope, comfort, and understanding of the greatest story ever told. Listen and follow now at FoxNewsPodcasts.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.

He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmead. I heard the Fox Christmas party went past midnight. Did you hear about what happened after the party? No.

Once. Oh, do well, here we learn. Oh, I heard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do not serve Brian Kilmead burritos and fireball.

We had to completely drain the lobby fountain and fumigate its basin. It was an absolute mess.

So that's why I believe in 15-minute holiday parties because nothing good happens after 15 minutes. The fumigation costs more than the party. Oh, my God. They came in hazmats. Brian Kilmead, that did not happen.

Thank you, Harold.

So of course, Greg Upfeld did not go to the party, but it's extremely nice of the Murdochs and everybody here to have the Fox News party. I think it's good for people to get together. And the one thing that's pretty clear is that Nate is a fantastic dancer. He's six foot seven and singer, by the way. Uh he is uh six foot seven.

And he is a legitimate music uh Multifaceted Five-tool weapon. He can anchor. He can report, he can dance, he can And he could sing. And I imagine act. That's one thing that's created.

But it wasn't like one of those drunk things. It was, it looked like I was watching a professional singer, which is pretty crazy. Nate Foy, who's a you see about reporting. We didn't know he had that type of skill set.

So we'll see what happens. Right now on Capitol Hill, there's a big debate on health care. subsidies they were supposed to leave that the Democrats want to run on. And Mike Lawrence last night said both sides both sides want to run on this. One wants to get rid of for political reasons, wants to get rid of Obamacare because it's ineffective.

The other one wants to say Republicans have no plan and they're taking away your health care, so they want it for next year. Listen to Chuck Schumer, Cut thirty one. Republicans are no longer trying to hide their total lack of a health care plan. And their desire once and for all to kill the ACA tax credits. Right.

And why would they kill the credits? Because when Joe Biden jammed it down our throats on the pandemic, the only way to get it crossed, to even get Democratic votes, was if they said they were going to Dissipate. They were going to evaporate after the pandemic was over. The pandemic's over. Chip Roy, who's running for the Attorney General in Texas, he's fed up.

Cut 34. And now we're sitting here and we're listening to nonsense about health care, where my colleagues on the other side of the aisle sit here saying, well, you guys aren't doing anything about the massive expensive cost of health care. Why do you think it's expensive? Because you literally cut a deal with insurance companies to run health care. You think that's going to run wild?

Yeah. That's why they have 2,000% profit increases, and the American people can't afford to go to the doctor of their choice while we enrich insurance companies. It makes no sense. I actually don't even know that Democrats want to enrich insurance companies. That's the way it turned out.

So he went on, cut 35. And yet Republicans will complain about it, and then they'll offer milquetoast garbage like we're offering this week, and then go home at Christmas and say, look at what we're doing. We're campaigning on reducing health care.

Well, congrats your friggin Latin. At some point, people will look at this body and say, maybe we should get rid of all 435 members of the House and all 100 members of the Senate and start over. Because Congress is literally failing the American people.

So it is true. But the thing is, Republicans never thought they would have to come up with a health care plan. They wanted to do the border. They wanted to restructure a lot of things. They never thought they were going to do health care because for about 10 years they tried to and it didn't work.

So they just Obamacare got more popular because people got used to it.

So they walked away from it.

Now they have a shutdown. Cost the economy dearly because they said that these subsidies were not going to be replaced. Of course, they weren't going to be replaced. And now they said, okay, let's work on something. And now we're in a situation where the American people are starting to work on something.

Yeah, work on Fixing Obamacare, which can't be done.

So they just say, well, just throw more money at it. And if you don't throw money at it, you don't like poor people. The other big story is Vanity Fair comes out with a story: 11 interviews with Susie Wiles. They go inside some of the biggest decisions since they took over.

Meanwhile, President Trump defended his Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in an exclusive interview with The Post, saying she was right to tell Vanity Fair he is an alcoholic personality and he has full faith in Wiles to continue in her role. Weiles pointed out that the tariffs were more painful than she thought. She pointed out that Vladimir Putin. When he calls the White House, half those conversations go good, half go really, really bad. That's interesting.

Zelensky ticked off the president when he blew off his Treasury Secretary, and that blowup in the White House was inevitable. He says, in retrospect, she just wished she didn't have the cameras there. Elon Musk operated on his own, did some damage with the USAID, haphazard. Teardown. And said these on ketamine.

So these are some of the bigger revelations. That Pam Bondi whiffed when it came to the Epstein files, calling up the influence and said, pick them up when there was really nothing that new about it. And then she said there was no list. She asked that. She goes, well, that wasn't really good.

She also says on immigration, double-check before you send people to El Salvador. That's not a big deal, but that was the point. Just be a little bit more careful. These are little things around the edges inside Trump world she's trying to fix. And she mentions it to Chris Whipple, who wrote the book on Chief of Staffs, who writes for Vanity Fair, and now she's upset by the way he's being portrayed.

I don't know. She's got a lot of tough decisions to make. She's got a very interesting president to work for, very challenging. You know, if you're a press secretary or chief of staff, but she always says, I'm not there to control him, I'm there to manage the White House. And that's part of the key.

When she does want to weigh in and say, don't do this. He usually listens. Also, they have a flat screen where in real time she can monitor what the president's posting on social media. Damn it. That is something I'm sure.

She'd love to see when the president comes up with, let's say, the air quotes or more controversial posts. But at least she knows what's going on all the time. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead. Hi, one, so glad you're there.

Brian Kilmeecho moving through a very exciting week. Place is packed in New York City. And I was just gonna remind everybody: if you're gonna mail something out and want it there by Christmas Eve, they say, Do it today. If you want first-class mail through the post office or you want ground transportation on UPS.

Well, transportation is the right word. Uh uh but uh whatever you do um Don't mail me anything. I got enough. Carl Roe is standing by. He just needs me to buy a little bit of time.

He's not quite ready. And Senator Lindsey Graham at the bottom of the hour. Man, he made some news yesterday and over the weekend with this trio of terror attacks that took place from Syria to Australia. And then we saw. uh what happened at Brown.

So before we get to Carl, let's get to the big three. Number three. Every part of you wants to be there for your child. You don't want to send them out to be homeless on the street. You don't want that, but like who would?

But sometimes you have no choice. The part of the problem is that we have pathologized addiction to the point where the addict is treated. Like a victim on the level of a cancer patient. You know, you're not kidding. I mean, they actually say that it's disease.

Matt Walsh weighing in last night on the podcast as it relates to the Rob Reiner murders. It may have involved the rich and famous, but addiction and attacks on family and turmoil that results out of it is relatable around the nation. We'll discuss. Number two. And the idea that your faith, that it somehow allows people to subject you to the most horrific slaughter and violence is inexcusable in any democracy, anywhere in this world.

That is so true. Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL: anti-Semitism raging around the world. It's time to stand up and be counted. Don't just say it's not me, it's not my problem. I don't feel that way.

You've got to stand behind Israel and the Jewish community. And if nothing else, it's because those attacks are coming after Christianity in the West. They're in the line of fire, too. I think you should realize that. Number one.

If he's still standing when this is over, this is a fatal. Major mistake to our standing in the world. If after all this, Maduro is still in power, that's the worst possible signal you could send to Russia, China, Iran. Senator Lindsey Graham, you are right. Going for the takedown.

President Trump to address the nation. Front and center will be the ousting of Maduro in Venezuela. As he says, no tankers in, no tankers out. Carl Rove joins us now. Hey, Carl.

First, I want to be clear. I was ready. I was not, you know, you didn't have to wait for me. I was eager. I was at the tape, ready for the gunshot.

So I did not have to buy time. No, no, not at all. Not at all.

Okay. I'm going to correct the record then in real time. The call was ready. I'm going to go. I don't need a second source.

Carl, so what do you think the President should say tonight? He's going to talk economy. And when I saw that he's making this speech, I thought a lot of these other networks are going to choose not to take it. If he wants to make just on Venezuela, and he says when you know obviously that would be it. But when he wants to talk about kind of a year in review, Do you think some of these networks are going to bail on it?

I think they might. I mean, it depends on how well the case has been made by the White House that this is worth taking their existing program and setting it aside. Look, you know, many is a time when the when the White House communicators will say, let's do a nationwide, you know, speak to the nation on television. But you've got to be you've got to you've got to sell that case to people so that every so that the a large number of networks p uh You know, put it on.

So if the White House is saying we're going to be talking about the economy, they may say, look, we covered the rally last week, on last Wednesday when the president was in Mount Pocono. We covered Secretary Vance, Vice President Vance's on Tuesday when he was in Allentown. We've been covering that. And this is, unless there is something new that the White House can convince us is going to be significantly different and newsworthy, that, yeah, some networks are going to say we've got, you know, fill in the blank, a very popular program on which we've sold advertising.

So, you know, he will talk about that. They said he's going to talk about the shrinking trade deficit. He's going to talk about the shrinking deficit overall, down $600 billion from where it was of the economy. But he's going to, most importantly, and I know your ears perked up on this yesterday when he put this out. The blockade on oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

That's significant, isn't it? Yeah, look, the only thing can keep thing keeping Maduro in power are two things. One is that he is providing the oil for Cuba. And without the discounted Cuban oil, he would not have the Cuban intelligence service surrounding him and would not have Cuban intelligence agents serving as his personal bodyguards. The economy, to the degree that there is economy left in Venezuela that's that's sort of you know moving along is because of the sale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba at a discounted price and to others wherever he can find it, much of it being sent into the legal market around the world.

So now we have a situation where we I think blew up three boats, drug boats the other day. You have Republicans and Democrats being briefed and being shown video yesterday, and as usual, a cut on party lines about what was going on behind closed doors and about this action. Tell me if you agree with Lindsey Graham on this. Cut nine. There's no doubt in my mind that we have the legal authority uh to blow up these boats, interdict these boats.

In 1989, President Bush 41 literally invaded Panama. Dropping the 82nd airborne, taking the president of Panama out. putting him in American prison because he was an arco terrorist drug dealer. There is no difference. In nineteen ninety four, President Clinton Took down the military takeover of the junta, the generals who took over Haiti, and brought back civilian control of Haiti.

He was right to do that. Bush 41 was right. to uh clean up Panama. Trump is right to deal with a narco-terrorist state called Venezuela.

So if you agree with that, and number two, how should the president, knowing that, how should the president address that today if he looks at the others for an example?

Well, I totally agree with it. And look, I think the president agrees with that. I think the president understands that Venezuela represents a threat to the United States and our interests in the region, that it is a narco-regime that is illegitimate. He has now stolen how many elections? You know, one of the candidates he defeated, quote, defeated in the last election, was given the Nobel Peace Prize because the world community recognizes he is keeping hold of power over this once prosperous country by means of thuggery.

So I think if the president, if his goal is regime change, the most powerful thing he can say tonight is: my goal is regime change. I think the continent in which we live will be more prosperous and more free and more at peace if Maduro is driven from power. And I intend that the United States will play an intimate role in that along with our allies in the region. I mean, there is a wave moving through Central and South America, rejecting the old-style policies of the left. And Maduro represents the worst of the worst.

I mean, he is, you know, after Cuba, he is the most left-wing regime in the entire region. And not only is he a leftist, he's a crook. I mean, so if you take a communist ideology and mix it in with a guy who's a criminal, it's a bad thing for not only his country, but for the entire region. And Carl, for the longest time, you heard this when you guys were in office. What about why you worry about it?

Let's worry about our backyard. Enough of the Middle East.

So the president's actually focusing on it. Panama was first. Argentina helping their economy helps us. And then you have Bolivia have an election, put a conservative in there. Chile the other day put a conservative in there.

Now you have Venezuela, which is home to Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, as well as China. If we could, this is a major, smart, big picture push to help the welfare of our nation long term. I couldn't be more impressed with it. Yeah, and look, remember, who has the largest oil reserves in the world? Venezuela.

And interestingly enough, unlocking those reserves will benefit the United States because we have the refining capacity in the Gulf Coast, starting in Corpus Christi, Texas, and moving around through Louisiana, to take the heavy crude that they have, which is distinctly different than the crude that we have in the United States, and refine it.

So they're going to be coming to the U.S. and, you know, the largest CITCO, that's the government-run oil company, is actually in the United States. And so this is going to be a boon for America and the world, let alone Venezuela, which again, Venezuela was once one of the most prosperous countries in the hemisphere, and today it's one of the poorest. Why? Because communist ideology and corruption, the corruption of a criminal class that runs that country, has destroyed the wealth and prosperity of those people.

So I want to talk about the Vanity Fair story. Chris Whipple, who you might be familiar with. Chris Whipple, who wrote the story on the Chiefs of Staff, it was an excellent book. He sat down with 11 interviews with Susie Wiles, and they are not happy in the Trump White House. Before I get your take on what you might have read or excerpts that you might have listened to, here's Chris Whipple, Cut 25.

I've been reading all of the speculation about why did she do it? Why would she talk to this guy? My theory of the case is that with this White House and with Susie Wiles, it's never four-dimensional chess. It might not even be chess. I mean, they just do what they want to do.

And Susie was remarkably candid. I think, look, I wrote a book about White House Chiefs of Staff that was pretty fair and nonpartisan. And she worked in the Reagan White House under Jim Baker, one of the major characters in my book. I think, look, my own theory, I can only tell you what she said, which is that she felt that. Trump in his first term was vilified by the press, never got a fair shake, and I think she thought I would give her a fair hearing.

So, and you know some of the things that have come out in it. Your thoughts about what you've seen so far?

Well, it's a look inside, it's candid. I think Susie Wallace is right to say that some of it lacks context. I've read both the Vanity Fair articles online, and also, though it's candid. I don't see anything in there that is essentially Hurtful. To the administration.

There are things that are revealing. I'm sure there are things that people say, I wish she hadn't said that. But at the end of the day, What matters is, what kind of a relationship does she have with the President? Has this undermined his trust in her? And my sense is the answer is no.

Yeah, because look, she has played a vital role in his life for the last, you know. four or five years, increasingly over the last three years. And um He trusts her in a way that I don't see that he's trusted any former Chief of staff that he's had, whether it was, you know, Reince Priebus or you name it, he has a relationship with her that is powerful and I think unlikely to be shaken by it's so different. One thing you have to say, Carl, between the two terms. He's like, got the people there.

He's standing by them. They're not without controversy. There's not days when they have bad days or bad decisions. And he's just the opposite of the first time. Instead of let's get him out of here, it's no, not moving.

You know, whether it's Hexeth, whether it's Christy Noam, and Susie Wiles, there's something about somebody when they're with you through the worst of times, which is after 2020. After she loved DeSantis isolated her and she thought she was unhirable. And then they're together. They work it out. Would you stick with me?

Yes. And then he gets the nomination. You're still there. And then he wins the election. Would you be my chief of staff?

It's almost as if you're so comfortable with each other. You could have bad days and good days. And I just think that the best thing to happen to President Trump if Susie stays for four years. But you must have liked it. You must have.

Gotten offers like that when you were with George W. Bush. You were with them from day one, right? From his governor days. You were with 41.

You know, you have the rich history. You must have had opportunities with magazines, People Magazine, Vanity Fair, whatever it was, to do sit-downs. Did you do them? Would you be reluctant to do them? Only if the communication shop told me to.

And frankly, I had one with a well-known reporter. Who came in, and it was a strange interview. First of all, I was like a babe in the wilderness. What I should have had was somebody from the communication shop sitting in my office with my assistant, Susan Ralston, and I with a tape recorder. While this guy, I mean, he would ask a question.

I give him an answer. He would then write down the answer, repeating it, repeating the words as he wrote down what he was writing. And he would not have gotten right what I just said.

So I'd have to correct him. And in my opinion, he came up with a totally bizarre quote that he put into a story that I never said. And, you know, I regretted having done it. I mean, I didn't want to do it to begin with. And the White House communication shop said, do it.

But I should have thought ahead and said, if you don't trust him, what do you need to do in order to ensure that it's completely accurate and fair? And that was have a recording as well. But no, I mean, you know, to the degree that you do those things as a senior White House aide, you should do them only because the press, the Communications types tell you this is needful in helping push an issue or give people an understanding of how we operate. 90 seconds left, but George W. Bush did come up in this, and that the USAID was blown up by Elon Musk.

They said it was a mistake, and Rubio was there to save it. And he took a call from the 43rd President on Prefar, right? PETFAR. PETFAR, rather. And that is the very effective humanitarian group.

Operation that they were going to get rid of. And he wanted to make sure from the Secretary of State that he wasn't going to get rid of it. And he didn't, right? Yeah, well, I'm not going to comment on what the former president may or may not have done. I will say that he feels very strongly about PEFFAR, which is an effort by the U.S.

that involves faith-based groups and non-governmental organizations in helping to provide medication and treatment for AIDS and malaria, and primarily in Africa. And it has saved an estimated 25 million lives. And it is one of the most remarkable things because here we have, you know, using like the Catholic Church and other religious organizations and private groups. You are, in essence, creating a health network that reaches into the darkest corners of Africa in order to save lives. I was in a part of Nigeria.

And a governor of the Delta region said, do you know what are the most popular names for children? This is about eight or nine years ago. What are the most popular names for children in my part of Nigeria? I said, I have no idea. He said, George and Laura.

He said, Tell the United States, thank you for saving my people. I mean, it was, I mean, he was very emotional about it. And the president, former president, has gone a number of years to help in an AIDS facility somewhere in Africa with no fanfare. And yet, when he arrives, there'll be crowds lining the roads from the airport into the capital city because of the thankfulness of the people of Africa for this aid and assistance from the people of the United States. And the program's still there.

Carl, have a fantastic Christmas. I don't talk to you next week. You bet, buddy. Merry Christmas to you and yours. Back in a moment.

Politics, current events, and news that affects you. Brian's got a lot more to say. Stay with Brian Kilmead. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kill Me Show.

Hi, everybody. Just a quick note: I'm going to be, I cannot wait for One Nation on Sunday. I know it's a little bit early. We're going to be tackling this whole sports and kids and sports and how much it's costing. Look, your kid might be a prodigy, might be a good player, boy or girl, it doesn't matter.

You're out there, your kid is about to get cut from the first team, or you know, kind of in the middle. You want to see if he or she can get better. You live paycheck to paycheck.

Well, everybody in the block. Mom, dad is getting private lessons.

Well, I'm going to get you private lessons.

Okay. Put it on your credit card or Venmo it. You could just put it on a credit card then. And then, well, we got a tournament in Virginia, got a tournament in Pennsylvania, got a tournament in South Carolina, I gotta go to Arizona if I wanna keep up. And you want to do it.

So whether you motivated a scholarship or not. It becomes so intense so early and so expensive now, up 40% in the last five years. I'm going to tackle this on Sunday. Because I really think at Saturday at 10 o'clock, I really think so many people relate to it.

Now, a lot of people think, well, I'm not going to get caught up in it. Mike's kid doesn't want to go pro or my kid doesn't want to play in college. Doesn't matter. Think about it. If your kids fall behind in school, you'll pay money for a tutor.

If your kid doesn't make a team or wants to be on a team, just to be included with the friends on the block, not if you want him to go pro, you'll do it.

Next thing you know, you're paying extra money you don't have. It's gotta stop. There's some things that they're doing now, I think, are encouraging. We'll talk about it. Senator Windsor Graham next.

From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Killmead. We're proud of what we're doing, able to lay it out very directly to these senators and soon to the House, but it's all classified, we can't talk about it now. We're also going to tomorrow allow the HASC and SAS. To see the unedited video of the September 2nd, alongside with Admiral Bradley. Who has done a fantastic job, has made all the right calls, and we're glad he'll be there to do it.

But in keeping with longstanding Department of War policy, Department of Defense policy, of course, we're not going to release a top-secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public. Haskin Sask and appropriate committees will see it, but not the general public. Senator Lindsey Graham weighs in now. That's Pete Hegset yesterday. Lindsey Graham also talked to the press right after that.

He's chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, member of the Appropriations Judiciary Committee, and tremendous knowledge of military. Senator, do you think that Pete Hegset, the Secretary of War, made the right decision there? I like Pete a lot. I think he's done a really good job. Here's what I would do.

I'd release it to every member of Congress. Listen, we got videos all over T V showing us blowing up votes. I am all for blowing these votes up. This is very legal. We invaded Panama in nineteen eighty nine as a country under Bush forty one.

We dropped eighty second Airborne in. We took Norrego, the President of Panama, out of office and put him in an American jail.

So don't tell me that Trump can't do what he's doing. What I would tell Pete and others is share it with everybody in the Senate and the House and let you make your own judgment. I'm okay with what happened. What did you think of the video that you saw yesterday? I'm okay with what happened.

Right.

So Democrats have a totally different idea about everything.

Well, it's fine. They've got a totally different idea about everything. And that's why we have an election, right? Their idea is to withdraw from Afghanistan and obliterate our border and raise your taxes and impose Obamacare on you. If we don't win this election, we've got nobody to blame but ourselves.

Our ideas are better than theirs. Trump has secured the border in a way that nobody could have believed a year ago, right? Trump is. Going after Isis wherever Isis lives, he destroyed the Caliphate in his first term. Biden let it come back by withdrawing from Afghanistan.

He started giving money back to Iran and obliterated the border. Listen, we got a good story to tell. We need to tell it. The economy is getting better, but it's going to take a while because they were just as bad with the economy as they were with national security, and we need to talk about that more. But I've got no problem blowing out the boats.

Admiral Bradley is not a war criminal. He's a patriot. I want to take Maduro out. I'm tired of playing games here. He's a narcoterrorist.

Illegitimate leader. Of Venezuela. He didn't win the election. He stole the election. He's aligned with Hezbollah.

He dumped tens of thousands of people into our country to wreak havoc on us. He needs to go. All right, so I want you to hear Tammy Duckworth, also a veteran. You're in the military, too, cut six. I worry about our uniformed services, our men and women in uniform.

They deserve to know if they're going to go to war, that it is truly a war, that they have the American people behind them, that Congress has voted on it. He's comparing it to the Obama drone strikes, do you see that as a fair comparison? I don't see that as a fair comparison because, again, we had an AUMF in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are two completely different situations. And in fact, what I think we need to do again is go back to the beginning of this.

What is it that the Trump administration is trying to do here? Is it regime change? If it's regime change, then come to us and say, hey, we need regime change in Venezuela. And here's the evidence. Here's what we think.

And then Congress will deliberate, and then we will vote on it.

So she doesn't like the comparison, but she says if you ask, she'll say okay.

Well, no, she won't say, okay, I like her a lot. She sacrificed for her nation, but she's wrong. What? For 33 years, I used to be a military lawyer, as a judge, defense attorney, and a prosecutor. This is familiar ground for me.

In nineteen eighty nine, President Bush forty-one, without congressional approval, took Norrego out as the Panama leader. literally using military force, we lost troops in the endeavor. He went to jail, and Oregon did. Clinton changed the regime in Haiti as a military dictatorship. He restored civilian control.

Trump went into Grenada to deal with the expansion of Cuban influence in our backyard. They did all this without a declaration of war and without approval by the Congress. I used to do this for a living. We've declared war five times in the history of the nation. Does that mean if Congress doesn't declare war, the Commander in Chief cannot use military force?

No, it doesn't. We've had use of military force without a declaration of war as the norm. in this country. The exception is declaring war. You cannot have five hundred thirty five commander in chiefs.

That will lead to chaos. If you don't like the decision of a Commander in Chief as a member of Congress, you can restrict funding for the operation. You can impeach them if you think they're doing something illegal.

So President Trump is doing what Bush and Clinton and others did to regulate narcoterrorism in our backyard. He has all the legal authority he needs. I hope Maduro is taken out. We'll be safer if he is. He should have been taken out a long time ago.

Then I want to deal with the communist dictatorship in Cuba. While President Trump is in office for the next three years, I hope we will clear out the narco-terrorist states in our backyard. That it will be harder to get drugs into America because those making money off of it And these nations no longer exist. I hope that we can deal with Hamas and Hezbollah while President Trump is in office so Iran doesn't have the influence it's had in the past.

So, sorry to Lindsey Graham, our guests, obviously. Senator Maduro, now no tankers in, no tankers out. I mean, the clock is ticking. How long can this guy last? And what do you think?

Go ahead. What do you think?

Illy.

So, what should we do when Putin says no to the next peace deal, which I think he will? I applaud the administration for trying to get a solution to Russia, Ukraine that Europe can live with. Ukraine can live with, and we can live with. Putin's not going to quit till somebody makes him back to Venezuela. How do you stay in power?

If your power is based on illicit oil sales and we've cut that off.

So, I like the strategy of strangling the economy of the bad guy. I'm not suggesting we invade Venezuela. I don't mind land strikes against narco terrorist targets, but the seizing of ships and the embargo of illicit oil transfers will be the end of Madurai. When Putin says no, and he will, we need to pass my bill. in the Senate with eighty five cosponsors that would allow President Trump to impose tariffs, not sanctions, on countries that buy cheap Russian oil to prop up his war machine.

We need to do more to help Ukraine militarily.

Now What I've laid out is a strategy. To take down the bad guy regime in Venezuela, a strategy to push Putin to the table without invading anybody.

So a couple of things. It looks like there's underwater uh attack submarine got its first target of a a Russian sub in port, It looks like it blew it up. It also looks like Ukraine is making some gains on a counterattack in a town I think is called Kopniansk. And we also see that Petskov weighed in yesterday on what they're working out with Ukraine, which is a 20-point peace plan. He says they reiterate that Russia wants to end the war but seeks to achieve its goals, which, according to the Institute of Study of War, includes decapitating and replacing the Ukrainian government, destroying the Ukrainian military, and undermining Western unity.

None of those three are happening, have happened, and will happen.

So, do you think this is all wasted exercise? Here's what I think. I think Putin will come to the peace table when the price gets too great. We know he doesn't mind losing soldiers. That's not a price he really cares about.

But when his revenue drops and he can't prop up his war machine and his way of life and the oligarchs begin to change, he'll come to the table. China. Is the largest purchaser. of cheap Russian oil. China is the largest purchaser of Iranian oil.

China is one of the largest purchasers of oil from Venezuela. What does that have in common? China is buying cheap oil from bad guys to benefit their economy, and they need to pay a price. I'd like to have a good relationship with China. But China needs to be good for that to happen.

So I am urging President Trump to go after China and other people, other countries. that prop up Putin's war machine. What he's doing in Venezuela is the right model. I will be introducing tomorrow some major legislation. About the ability to seize ships.

What we're doing in Venezuela is seizing ships carrying sanctioned oil illegally. we need to transfer that model to the Russian Shuttle fleet. About a thousand, they have about a thousand tankers. The so-called ghost tankers that are out there.

Now, a couple have been targeted by Ukraine and they've captured them. Are you saying that we should be doing the same thing? Absolutely. The free world. should be seizing these ships that operate illegally.

We've sanctioned the pipelines coming out of Russia. The ability to distribute oil and gas through pipelines coming from Russia has really been reduced. When President Trump sanctioned the two largest oil companies in Russia, it really mattered. Without the shadow fleet, Russia cannot survive. to prosecute this war.

economically. go after the ships.

Okay. Senator, I don't know if you saw 60 Minutes on Sunday. We know what Japan is doing.

So Germany is just building up. They're increasing their military by, I think, recruiting is up 70 percent. And Japan is doing the same thing. And the message throughout Europe is the same thing.

Now, people might not like it, but what Trump is saying is NATO. You got to step up, not only 5%. You just got to think to yourself, how do I stop the next invasion? And they've gotten the message right now to defend themselves. Russia's got to be saying to themselves, well, that didn't work out.

They added two formidable countries into NATO.

Now Germany is rearming. We know they can fight eventually, we hope. We know Poland's building a wall and they got the message a long time ago. Finland and Sweden get it.

So now we have France who's getting the message. I'm not sure they're capable of doing anything. And we'll see.

So now all of a sudden, our allies for years, and you were frustrated with John McCain and with George Bush and with others, they get the message now. Do you think the message is going to be sustainable? Oh yeah, absolutely. I think Putin should get the NATO Man of the Year Award. Putin has done more to wake up Europe than anybody.

Trump has kicked them in the ass, and it's worked.

So what's happened? We're cheering on. Germany and Japan having bigger and stronger militaries. Eighty years ago, this year, was the end of World War two. If you had told somebody, a soldier, in nineteen forty five.

In twenty twenty five Americans would be cheering on Germany rearming and Japan rearming, they thought you were crazy. It shows you how the world changes. Out of the ashes of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan. Over time, we created two democracies. that have aligned themselves with us.

Now, that can happen over time in Gaza and the West Bank, but you got to get the Arabs to go in on the ground, stop. Preaching, killing the Jews, change the school system, on and on and on.

So, what has Putin achieved here? NATO is bigger. NATO is stronger. His economy is sanctioned to the hilt. More is coming.

He's lost a million people. This is a big flop. unless we give him a victory at the very end. China is watching. If this ends, where Ukraine is still around, strong, independent, surviving, and Putin spent a lot and got very little.

It will help ch it will help. China. Make a decision about Taiwan. It will deter China from invading Taiwan. If at the end we give Putin a big gift Then there goes Taiwan.

And where do you think we're at right now? My last question. You see the twenty nineteen to twenty points? I think we're in a good spot. I think we should not overly reward Putin.

We can't kick all the Russians out of Ukraine, so there's not going to be a military victory by Ukraine, nor is Russia going to Kyiv. A diplomatic solution that prevents a third invasion. European troops on the ground, America committed to fighting with them. If there's a third invasion, we'll deter a third invasion. Deal with the Donbass in a way that doesn't entice China to take Taiwan will be a great outcome.

President Trump is cleaning up Biden and Obama's mess, and I think he's done a hell of a good job with the economy. It will get better over time. I hear you. Senator Lindsey Graham, always impactful. Every word matters.

I really appreciate it. Thanks so much, Senator. Thank you. All right.

Senator, making a real difference. His foreign policy, I think, is fantastic. Back in a moment. Yeah. The headlines, the stories behind them, and the people who make them only on the Brian Kill Meet Show.

A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kill Me Show, sponsored by Previgen. Previgen made for your brain. Isn't that the dog not barking, which is no one defends her and nobody denies us? They should just say, oh, it's a ridiculous question.

But why isn't any, like if somebody said Brian Kilby married his brother, I'm sure people on your staff would deny it. Right.

I would assume so had I had a staff, but I know what you're saying. There's a couple of things in researching this, and you only gave me three weeks to get ready for the appearance. But the problem is nobody's speaking to anyone. Obama doesn't speak to Biden. Nancy Pelosi doesn't speak to Biden.

Biden doesn't speak to Pelosi. We're the only people speaking to each other. God, it sounds like Fox and friends when you and Ducey were there. That's true. That's true.

Starting more controversy, are you? Yes, I have. I love you all.

So that is last night on Guttfeld, which aired very successfully, very successful, highly rated show. I think his last night is today, I think he's taken two weeks off. And he's going to focus on getting his family visas. Once and for all. But don't forget on Sunday, you got One Nation starting at 10 o'clock, and then you got Fox and Friends in the Morning starting here.

A couple other things that I think are important before we go. Get this, another disturbing thing for R. Future. Kids are rarely reading whole books any more, even in English. In high schools, full novels are disappearing.

Classics like Macbeth to Kill a Mockingbird are often reduced, according to the New York Times, to excerpts, with many schools assigning only one or two complete books a year. Do you believe this? Why would anyone tell you to read a half a book or an excerpt of a book? I mean, sometimes you want to get the monarch notes of there's got to be a test, but you're supposed to read the book. Public schools say its new curriculum focuses on shorter text to build critical thinking.

Experts blame shrinking attention spans and constant screens. This is happening at reading levels hit historic lows. Teens arrive at colleges unprepared, and even elite schools are Accused of lowering standards, students are navigating an era of TikTok. Uh of course AI and digital shortcuts. They find that since kids can't read a whole book, why assign it to them?

Incredible. I think it's an interesting tact. It went with if you don't succeed, change the rules. I never thought we'd actually do this.

Meanwhile, this is really sad news for me because Cardinal Dolan is one of the great guys you'll ever meet. And one of the best things he's ever done, people have done studies on this, is put me on the dais at the Al Smith dinner.

Now that's in jeopardy because Pope Leo has accepted Cardinal Dolan's resignation. Because when you get 75 years old, evidently they want you to resign, even though he's in the prime of his life. And they're going to name a bishop to replace him from his city of his state of Illinois. You know, he's been there since 2009. Great personality.

You probably know him. Even if you're not Catholic or in New York, you hear of him. They're going to put another guy in there from Joliet. Um from Juliet, uh Mississippi, originally. His name is.

It's got to be here. His name is Ron Hicks. Bishop Ron Hicks of Juliet, Illinois, right near the Pope's hometown, so he's putting a replacement in there. Bad move.

So I found out from a friend of Cardinal Dole. I said, Does he want to retire? I mean, he's 75 years old. Does he want to join himself? He said, No.

That's a big mistake. You finally have a personality to sell your cause and religion. And now he's stepping aside. Kind of sad. Listen to the Brian Kill Meet Show.

Make sure you check me out on all my social media from Rumble to Instagram and locals, where I have the Copra Club.