The Brian Kilmeade Show

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of any purchase of a hundred dollars or more, that's promo code BRIAN. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead. Hi, everyone.

So glad you're there. It's the Brian Kilmey Chow coming your direction. And we have a lot on tap today. This hour, we're going to talk to Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins. Going to be in the studio, big announcement.

And Senator James Lankford, Republican Conference Vice Chair, are we going to be looking at a government shutdown? He's also in charge of Homeland Security Intelligence and Finance. And of course, we'll take your calls. And I cannot wait to hear from you: 1-866-408-7669. We know winter weather is certainly an issue.

I know the snow removal is certainly an issue, regardless of where you are. And I also know the extreme cold and power is an issue.

So let's just soldier through it with the big three. Number three. Vogue giving Gavin Newsom a glossy spread profile. Ahead of his new memoir, the first line in the piece says this: quote: Let's get this out of the way. He is embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence as he delivers his final state-of-the-skill.

Yeah, Emily Campano helping us out there, but she's reading from Vanity Fair. When will it stop? Yet another glowing, fact-free feature of California's. Failing Governor Gavin Newsom. We have the reality check and what the GOP is learning from their failure in Texas and what they plan on doing perhaps today with President Trump.

Number two.

Well, we're talking about that. We have ships heading to Iran right now, big ones. The biggest and the best. And we have Talks going on with Iran, we'll see how it all works out. There you go.

Don't fool yourself, Mr. President. Iran is not doing a deal with you on missiles, terror, or nukes, or talks in the Middle East are a waste of time. Maybe we want to buy the time. There's only one way forward to end this regime and give the Iranian people what you promised, support.

Number one. The body cam has been the best weapon for good cops out there.

Now you just go right to the video. Boom. Done. Over. It's more protection for the police than I think it is for the population.

I agree. Dan Bongino weighing in, former assistant head of the FBI. Smile, you're on body camera as ICE gets one per officer in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, we will see if this is all or part of ending the government shutdown. We have the latest as we await critical vote today. I don't want to bore you with inside baseball, but I will say that they had to pass a rule in the House in order to take what the Senate was doing with passive, avoiding the shutdown and pass it with only GOP support. And they did.

So there's going to be an official vote today on what the Senate handled the appropriations bills, the Senate handed the House, and they're supposed to approve it. And then it's supposed to go through, and then they'll have two weeks to readjust elements. of the Department of Homeland Security. That'll be something Senator James Lankford is going to be involved with. As the Republican Conference Vice Chair in Senator Homeland, Security, Intelligence and Finance Committees, all the committees he has to sit on.

Senator, welcome back. Are you optimistic this MIDI shutdown ends tonight? I am very optimistic on it, Brian. I'm glad that we finally had a breakthrough on the rules to be able to get to on the floor of the House. They can actually move this today and to be able to get it done.

Many shutdown is over. Most of Americans don't even know there's a little half shutdown going on right now, we affectionately call the partial government shutdown. Most people don't even know it, but I would tell you the TSA agents that came past when I was playing back to DC, they're very aware. They said their paychecks are becoming bipolar.

So it's a challenge for folks that are worried about are they still going to get their paycheck? But they decided in the House to forget about the SAVE Act, which is going to demand, among other things, you have to have ID when you go to vote.

Now, you're for the SAVE Act, but for some reason you guys have not brought it up yet.

So some frustrated members of the House and the Republican side wanted to put that together. The President talked him out of it.

So where is the SAVE Act at?

So what's interesting is the Save Act that came out of the House actually didn't include the provision you just said, which is voter ID. It just said you have to show proof of citizenship to register, but don't have to show ID to actually vote. What we're actually working on now is a revised version of it. They call the Save America Act that actually requires voter ID when you vote and a proof of citizenship when you register, which will be a real ID. For everybody that's got a real ID, you register with a real ID that already has your proof of citizenship that's built into it.

If you're not a citizen, obviously you don't get a chance to vote. That's the federal law already. We just don't have a law that says you've got to prove it. When you do things right, you don't get much publicity. But I was so enthused that you guys were going to pass all your appropriations bills the right way.

You debated it. I didn't know the details of what emerged from your minibus and your committees, but it seems as though both sides were compromised and were getting things done. And then all of a sudden when the Minneapolis eruptions happened, the shootings took place, Democrats saw an opportunity to take a stand and now want to withhold money for DHS for two weeks. In order to make some demands. One of those demands is body cameras.

I don't see a problem with that. Ending roving. You know, any type of roving surveillance that you do in different cities looking for people that might look illegal. I'm not sure that's happening, but they want that included. The other thing was judicial warrants before you pursue anyone, which is ridiculous.

It's farcical. What other thing, what do you expect to emerge over the next two weeks in urgent negotiations?

So what's really interesting is in the previous negotiations that had already happened over the last several months, body-worn cameras were already included in the original bill.

So this demand of we demand to have body-worn cameras. I was like, yep, that's already in the bill that you rejected, and we did a government shutdown as you demanded to get something. Clearly, they should have read their own bill in the bill that actually got negotiated between the House and the Senate and both sides.

So body-worn cameras is wide agreement on. Dan Bongino, that you played the clip on earlier, is exactly right. It's a great help to law enforcement to be able to tell their side of the story. This is what I was looking at. Here's the split-second decision that I had to make.

So it is a tremendous asset to law enforcement to be able to have those body-worn cameras. The roving. Beast, we're all trying to figure out what is the definition of a roving patrol. Is this someone who's driving? Is this someone who's walking?

That is the nature of law enforcement that they have the ability to be able to say, hey, something doesn't feel right about this, and for a trained law enforcement professional to be able to go ask questions on it. That has actually been supported even by the Supreme Court of late, what they call the Kavanaugh decision in this, to be able to allow members of law enforcement to be able to make a decision when they're out. The one that's interesting you brought up was about judicial warrants and administrative warrants. A lot of people are going, well, of course we should have a judge in this.

Well, you need to understand with immigration, these are mostly civil matters. And so most of the time, it's not a judicial warrant to actually pick somebody up. What the Democrats are looking for is saying you've got to have a judicial warrant to pick everyone up. They're wanting the entire country to be a sanctuary country that you actually cannot arrest people and pick them up on the whole. You can't do administrative warrants.

Right now, if a judge is even said, They got a final order removal. They're actually removed with an administrative warrant. Democrats are trying to sneakily say the whole country cannot actually pick people up unless a judge specifically for that one person says you can pick them up. That is not the way immigration has ever run, nor should it.

So I love to know who's organizing these protests. I mean, I don't see them saying, hey, every time they're interviewed, are they saying, you know, I got this neighbor of mine who's my best friend and they're from Ecuador and they got messed up with paperwork or they came here six years. You don't hear these stories. I don't even think they know any illegal immigrants.

So and I was listening to Michael Schellenberg. He's like, listen, there's a total disconnect. You've got these middle-aged white women organizing anti-ICE operations literally through Signal Chat and other various apps. Here's Todd Blanch on the investigation on who's behind this. Cut three.

We do have progress, and we have several ongoing investigations. And remember what was happening in December, Laura? We had a massive fraud going on all through Minneapolis, all through Minnesota, and suddenly it turned. It turned almost on a dime, and it became suddenly all about ICE, all about getting ICE out and how horrible ICE was doing. But really, what we have here is a massive underground fraud network operating in Minneapolis.

And we had a very strong pushback, very strong pushback when we raised our hands and said, stop. And so, yes, we have multiple investigations going on. We sent prosecutors from Maine Justice. We sent prosecutors from other U.S. attorneys' offices all over the country.

And we're making progress every day. What could you tell us about this, Senator Langford? Yeah, the most basic thing is that people are standing out to be able to protest against Trump. It's whatever Trump is for and whatever ways they can find to be able to attack President Trump. They're going to do it.

The latest of this are these shootings that happened of law enforcement where tragically an American was killed. That was. Protesting, a violent protester, by the way, that was actually engaged. There should be a full investigation. The president's been very clear saying he wants an honest, open investigation on this.

That's entirely reasonable. There's lots of steps that have been taken to say we've got to find a way to be able to turn the volume down in these areas. But what they really are looking for is two things. This is a way to attack President Trump. Number one, number two, it is they don't want any law enforcement at all.

They don't want anyone criminal or not that's here illegally. And that's just not where the American people are. The American people do not want criminal aliens in the United States. And people that are here illegally, they want them to be able to go through it the right way. It's not anti-immigration.

This is anti-illegal immigration. Yeah, they don't want to say that. And by the way, just fascinated people who have brought me through the process when it comes to how President Obama did it. He had Tom Holman lead a charge, mostly through the prisons, of illegal immigrants. And when their fingerprints are taken, it just lights up on ICE.

So if you're picked up by shoplifting in New York City and you're here illegally, the minute you put your fingerprints down and you're arrested, ICE gets the notification. You got an illegal immigrant who's in your custody. And they used to just give them up.

Now they don't tell them, they deny it. In some cases, they try to sneak him out the back door, which happened the other day when a judge in New York City took a guy that attempted rape, a series of charges back to 2014. A judge let him out. It's all because Donald Trump won an election and he's not Barack Obama. Yes.

What's interesting is you talked about judicial warrants and administrative warrants earlier. President Obama used administrative warrants a lot to be able to remove people that were not legally president of the United States. That's a very normal way to be able to do it. It has been done for a very long time on it. But now folks are focused in saying because it's President Trump that they don't want him to be able to actually enforce law and order.

The country wants law and order. They don't like the chaos. Here's Governor Waltz not taking responsibility. Cut for a incredibly proud of Minnesotans that in the face of a federal government retribution campaign against a state that has never been seen before. We responded with peaceful protests.

Boycotts, delivering food to our neighbors, and a commitment to a civil society that works for all of us. What is wrong with him? Does he really does he believe a word that he just said? I don't know. I don't know.

It just striking me.

So my great state of Oklahoma, 4 million people, half the size of Minnesota on it. We have had by far more folks that have actually been picked up out of our prisons that were not legal in the United States, have also committed some state crime. And Oklahoma is the third largest state for removals, and most of those have come from our prisons and jails because we're actually cooperating to say, yeah, if someone's not legally a president of the United States and they've committed a crime, we want them removed.

So that's the way it should actually be done. And so there's no protest in the street because actually folks that are behind bars right now are turned over in Minnesota saying, nope, we don't want to do that. All right.

So we'll see what happens over the next two weeks. For the ninth straight time, Senator Lankford, you have released the federal fumbles for the past year. Do you want to go over some of them? I can actually.

So this is yet nine years in a row we've been focusing on this area. A lot of folks have talked about Doge. We did Doge before Doge was cool, I can say it that way.

So the whole focus is where can we find waste? And the pressure is on the different agencies and committees to say look for this stuff or we will expose it. And we're relentless on it to be able to pull this stuff out.

So we found a quarter billion dollars that was spent by NIH studying transgender mice.

Okay, a quarter billion dollars on that. Of course, a quarter billion dollars also wasted in Minnesota. We've all seen those stats. But people may not know there was also a study that was done on the effects of COVID on a herring fish. And we also sent money over to China so that they can do experiments on beagles.

So it just continues to roll out. The biggest area of waste that we found this year, actually, was the $85 billion that was lost over the government shutdown. 43 days, longest government shutdown in history. We lost $85 billion during that time period. For all the folks that say government shutdowns don't cause anything, yeah, they do.

They cause us to lose money in our economy, and it wastes a tremendous amount of money inside the Federal Government.

So we are going to continue to be able to call it out and say there are some active solutions that we can do to be able to make this better. $150,000 spent studying how COVID and climate change affect each other. $1 quarter billion on NIHS funding transgender experiments. And you mentioned the shutdown was just brutal for us.

So we'll see how much we could keep shedding light on this in order to shut it down in the future. I know the President is looking to trim when he can.

So finally, Senator Lankford, some people are noticing what's going on with these special elections, and they're not going the GOP's way. The doors closed, and you talk to other senators and congressmen and Republican operatives. What are you guys doing wrong or what's the public not getting that you're doing? Yep, I think we are not telling the story of things that we have already passed. I think the drama of the day and the protests and the things are occupying the news, and we are not doing a good enough job of telling things like the Working Families Tax Cut Act that was done last year with no tax on debts, no tax on overtime, senior adults now not paying tax for especially for working seniors on their Social Security benefits, the folks saying for small businesses and farmers and ranchers, taking care of the death tax for the vast majority of Americans.

I mean, there's a lot of things that have happened. Even the piece that I talk to people about all the time, they're like, I didn't know that was in there. School teachers now can write off their school supplies on their taxes so they can write it off as a business expense. Just like every small business just could write off at a business expense, the classroom is like a small business. They now get to write that off.

Most people say, well, I didn't know that was in the bill. It's because we're not telling the story well. And so we've got to continue to be able to get out there and say, here are the things that we've done that's going to help affordability. Currently, already making a difference. You know, on this show, I'm going to have both.

Oklahoma Senators on, and I'm going to judge who was more effective. You're off to a fantastic start. Senator Mark Waymo does have does have a high bar to clear.

So Senator, thanks so much for kicking off the show like you did. Always top quality. Glad to do it, Brian. And for the record, I want Vandy Fair to write an article about how great my hair is as well. Exactly.

Why is that?

So, seriously, I got great red hair. They need to write a story about my hair as well. You're endlessly attractive. I'm sure someone's going to write that story, perhaps Time or Newsweek. I'm sure they will.

Yeah, and your voice, Center. Everybody wants you to do the voiceover of their bio or their life story. Senator James Lankford, thank you. You're better, Brian. Thanks.

Keep praying for the nation. Go get them. Back in a moment. The headlines, the stories behind them, and the people who make them only on the Brian Kill Meet 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. A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Killmead Show.

Mr. President, I gotta tell you, I agree with the Wall Street Journal, I agree with the New York Post on the one thing. I know, and I really applaud you for going out of your way to give everyone an opportunity to avoid conflict. I appreciate the fact that you have Arab neighbors, Gulf states you respect, leadership you respect, that really want you to sit down with Iranian leadership and try to avoid any type of military conflict. But there's no way you can avoid a military conflict because this is Iran.

For 40 years, we all got our course, our master's degree, our PhD in Iran duplicity and terrorism. And you promised the Iranian people, keep rioting. I got your back in Iran. You better not kill innocent people. And they killed between 30 and 50,000 in cold blood.

I saw a video this morning of what they did over the weekend. A woman couldn't get into her apartment. I guess she was accused of protesting. Gunned down in cold blood. And now They're rebuilding their nuclear facilities.

They have a big roof over them, so you can't really see what they're doing. Nobody doubts that they're reconfiguring and bolstering up their intercontinental missiles and their ballistic missiles. And they're still killing their own people. We're getting the Armada in place, the Thad missile system in place, the Patriot missiles in place, getting on the same pages, the Israelis. But Steve Witkoff, Jerry Kushner, you are wasting your time.

Please don't even think about signing a deal. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Killmead. Welcome back, everybody. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs is with us now, Doug Collins.

He's a former congressman from Georgia. You know, he's a Veterans Affairs Secretary. He's got his hands full. We've got to talk about that. But we're also seeing something take place now that it's one of those things that it's not natural to me because, number one, you have to pass.

I don't know if you know what happened last week, but they were about to pass through a normal budgetary process all the appropriations bills to the Senate. The House went home and the Senate said, okay, it's in our lap. Then the shooting of Alex Preddy took place. And Democrats have an opportunity here to reform and restrict and try to impeach all whatever I can get through, Secretary of Homeland Security Christine and affect their budget.

So they said they will not. Fund the government. Then they got down to we won't fund DHS. We need two weeks to figure out what kind of reforms we can put into place. But because you didn't pass as is, what the House gave you, the House had to come back to work on Monday.

And because the Democrats won't help them, the Republicans had to pass a rule. In order to pass what the Senate handed them. And it looks like. They did. Through the committee, was it 8-4?

Yeah, they got it through the rules committee.

Now it's going to be on the floor. The test vote will be the rules vote. That's what are the tests. If they can't pass the rule, they can't pass the bill.

So that's where they're at. But didn't they pass the rule last night? They passed out a committee. It's got to go to the floor. The rule sets up the floor activity.

That's what everybody, you know, it used to be, the rules committee used to be called the speakers committee because the majority owns the rules committee. It's 9-4, basically. Minority has no way of controlling the rules committee. But it sets the parameters on what's amendment's on the floor or what bill's on the floor and how long they're going to negotiate.

So that bill passed out.

So within the next few minutes, they're going to actually. If the Republicans can all hold together and pass the rule Then that means that they'll probably pick up a few Democrats on the side, but they'll get all the Republicans to vote for the bill. Because you would think logically Democrats would want to do it because they say they have two weeks after this passes in order to fully fund or augment the DHS budget, right? Yeah. There's a lot of concern right now that I think is going on.

And the, you know, I'm speaking just as an observer and a member, former member of Congress. The Democrats, I think they're going to do everything they possibly can to tie up the CR and do whatever they try and get whatever they can get. This is annoying.

Well, it will be after if If this passes, it breaks DHS off. Everybody else will be funded. Only DHS will be under a CR. It wouldn't surprise me if they try to. Lead that a CR as long as they possibly can get it.

Beyond the two weeks. Beyond possibly into the year.

So, didn't they fund it to the big, beautiful bill? Anyway, I say did. Yeah, it was, it was really, and now some of them are going back trying to get that money out of that's not going to happen.

So, again, this is a political play again. But what is bothersome to me, and it was bothersome in the longest shutdown in history back that we had in the fall was for me, as far as veterans and everybody else. It was. They're going after something. But can care less about the collateral damage of the American people.

DHS also is TSA, it's also FEMA, it's also the other aspects that they do as well.

So they're willing to. you know, take these and get rid of them. Basically.

So, well, I guess we'll see what happens.

So, you don't think they're going to get this solved in two weeks? For example, some of the things that they want done, and we'll get to your area, want they want to put body cameras on the ICE agents.

Okay. Yeah. Stop roving patrols. I'm not sure they're doing it, but okay. All right.

So, walking around, did they say you're buzzing around looking at Home Depots and roofs to see if you look Hispanic? That's what the claim is. And the NICE denies that. Uh number three is get a judicial warrant before you go into any illegal immigrant. That's impossible.

Well, you're also wanting to change the whole way we do. I mean, look, the. What they're trying to change is is is taking our entire which Congress actually did this originally is take our entire immigration s you know, code and everything, which is where they're trying to get at to make it almost impossible if you get h basically what it looks like they're trying to do is if you get here, no matter how you got here, you can stay. That's basically the way in in a very summacious way of putting it. If you get here, you just stay.

Yeah. Well, it's like asylum. Asylum is most is is is a joke. I mean, asylum is is interpreted by the other the Democrats and others Is nowhere close to what asylum really is. All you have to do is walk up and say, I feel persecuted in El Salvador.

I'm from El Salvador. From Mexico. Yeah, I feel my life is in danger.

Okay, you could stay. I mean, think about it. Not under this administration. Oh, yeah. I mean, even under pre every, I mean, this was asylum was like you're coming out of Cuba, you're coming out of Russia.

This is the old Cold War. You're coming out of a state in which, you know, or even an area, you're a Christian in a country in which the government itself is persecuting you. When you say, I'm scared of gangs in my neighborhoods, I mean, which is. Basically, some of the complaints that I've heard when I was ranking member of judiciary in the House, that was the complaints: well, my neighborhoods aren't safe. And they're coming here for asylum and it's like Okay, you're making the same argument we have in our inner cities and many of our other places here.

I mean, that's not an asylum claim. We need to be compassionate. I have to remind everybody, everybody listening to you right now, Brian, should know one thing. We're the most generous country in the world with legal immigration. We're the most generous country in the world.

We welcome more people legally to citizenship here than any other country in the world. And we're the most desirable. The most desirable. Right.

Okay, so. Mr. Secretary, yesterday RFK Jr. announced a $100 million investment in addiction recovery. How does that help you at Veterans Affairs?

It helps us in coordination. I think that's going to be the big thing. The one thing that is an unwritten story about the President and this Administration and this Cabinet is that we all work together and we take our jobs as if we're running our departments and running the agencies as if we're not siloed, that we do need each other to help. And I think that's been you're going to see this in the next few years as how this happens.

So the money and investment with coordination between state and local and federal on how we get people into treatment facilities, how we identify them, how we get resources to them. One of the biggest areas that we have a lot of times is in the, what we'll say is the residential rehab kind of stuff, which is costly and we're having to build those facilities.

So I think this is going to help us identify but also give hope to that. I can't tell you how many people I know that have had addiction issues and they go into rehab, they can't last more than 10 days because they're insurance waste. Exactly. Or they take the better way. I'm sorry, we need your bet.

And to a better guy with better insurance. And in 10 days, you're not going to get better. Yeah, that's the problem. And this was something we did. I did a long time ago with criminal justice reform, VA reform, homelessness.

This is all tied together. You need at least a minimum to really break some of this is almost a 60 or a 90-day process. One, just to get it out of your system, it becomes habit, the other part. And then it's a longer-term counseling and other stuff going forward. Yeah, so that's something that happens a lot when you have intense conversations.

Combat, like you we saw for 20 plus years, it plays a psychological toll on you. And a lot of people look to do self-medication and they come back.

Some people are born, you can tell they have addicted personalities. Others go to war and they come back and they're looking to self-medicate to maybe get ideas or thoughts out of their head or feel the way they used to. That leads to addiction. It does. It does.

And we're seeing this as you come through. And that's one of the things that we're focused a lot on the VA is making sure we have not only the mental health facility and the doctors in our hospitals, in our clinics, but also telemedicine. One of our biggest, some of our bigger usage issues right now is in telemental health, where they can actually connect. And of course, our crisis line 988 is always on.

So you keep that, that really got into for the general public. It really kicked in 2020. And that was one of the few benefits of the pandemic, right?

So are you finding, is it saving you money? Are the veterans happy with this? Yeah, is it telemedicine as an option? It is. In fact, it is, especially.

in our rural areas where it's not So many times the VA has held up to this different standard of other health care systems, although we're the largest. We still have the same problem in rural areas, hard to get to areas where medicine is just hard to get to. We don't have community doctors.

So telemedicine has really been good for us as much as it has to keep people on track with their treatments. Are they taking their medicines? Hey, I don't feel this, I'm feeling this way today. Is this something I need to be concerned about?

So yeah, it's really helped. And we're trying every way we possibly can. One of the biggest issues, and this is where we've actually looked at working with Scott Turner at HUD and others, and then some of our grants and stuff, is how do we get better Internet access? That's always a big issue with that.

Some people have trouble with that because they can't get the access.

So again, we're working with other agencies to make sure that our veterans can get that.

So some of the numbers you have, in 2023, they did a survey. They said before you got there, obviously, 2.8 million veterans reported having some type of substance. Use disorder.

So That's what you walked into. The number could be higher. And then in 2024, they found out how many of the homeless are veterans. And it's 32,882. What do you guys do about that?

Are you focused on just the hospital or all veterans? Both. Look, I take my role as veteran affairs is all veterans. But then again, you have to understand we treat about 9 million veterans, give or take. But there's about, depending on the numberings, 16 million, 17 million total veterans.

There's a lot of veterans who don't use the benefits that they've earned either because of issues in their life or they have employment. They get insurance through their employers or whatever. And you're fine with that. And we're fine with that. Because they'll come, you know, if they want to later, they can always come back.

They never lose the benefit. There's no time limit on the benefit. They can always come back.

So I think the issue is, is homelessness in particular is a rolling number because we're taking some in, we're taking some out. The 30,000 and down is some of what we call the, it relates to how many are. Yeah. What we'll call chronic homelessness that we can't get in places.

So, one of the things that the president signed an executive order last year was in West LA. And we have a large piece of property out there on Wilshire, and it's a beautiful piece of property. But over the years, it got used for some other issues. And now we're bringing it back as a veterans center of excellence in which homelessness is being addressed, the mental health wraparound issues are being addressed, and where eventually we're going to be able to handle thousands of veterans in housing on that property.

Well, what were you doing on that property? It had been, part of it actually had gotten leased out, which we felt was not, it shouldn't be. One was to a private school out there that it takes up and put their campuses in, they quote, help veterans by once or twice a week letting them come swim in the pool. I mean, it was a bad situation. We've had a court case on this.

We feel like eventually that's going to be changed. UCLA actually built a baseball field on our facility. I'm not making this up.

So this is the kind of stuff that we're trying to move through. We've already started building housing out there. It's been a court case for a long time. We're trying to get to the end of that.

So that's really, I think, one of the central needs of how we can address it in that area. But we've also partnered with other entities like Tunnels to Towers, others, in which, you know, private public partnerships that actually can help put veterans in crisis mode or in long-term mode into permanent shelter.

So you talk about a massive reorganization. That's what you're in the middle of right now. Yes. What needed to be reorganized? Really, how we did stuff.

Think about this for a second. If you're a high-end. What we were finding, and I spent most of last year on the road in 30 states and about 70 of our facilities. What I was hearing consistently was. I ask about something X, and yet I send it up the chain and I never hear back.

Okay, it's just one of those that goes into the vast bureaucracy. Over and over again. Yeah, it is. And so, like, hey, how can I, can I do this? Can I?

From doctors or patients? Actually, it was the doctors and the directors of the hospitals which impacted our patient care.

So, what we said was, why is this happening? What we found was, it was a backwards. It's on top. It was flipped upside down. All the quote policy people and all the people who didn't work on patients were controlling.

What was happening, they looked at themselves as tip of spear. We had two or three committees doing the same thing, not talking to each other, but yet holding up projects.

So, what we did is we just said, after years of looking at this, we took nine months. We took all the reports that have been said about us, we took what Congress has said about us, and then we also listened to private enterprise: say, how do they do this? And we put the hospitals and clinics at tip of spear. Everything else is support.

So, now we have all of policy under one heading, the answers to one of our deputy undersecretaries. We put all of the business models, all of our national programs under an assistant deputy, who then go to our main person who's over our us.

Now, remember, we're talking about a 390,000-person organization. This is not small. But then we took, for the first time, really, and said all of the hospitals and clinics are going to be under, what's a medical operations center, so that it takes the issues from money, it takes issues of policy, and says, here's how we do it. I had one of the things that showed me that we were disconnected. was when I had a veteran who was getting care in Utah, Salt Lake.

He moved across country to Hampton Roads in Virginia. Was getting a treatment. He was a paraplegic and was getting treatment in Salt Lake. Went to Hampton, said, This is the treatment I was getting there. I'd like to start that back here.

And the doctors at Hampton Rose said the VA doesn't do that kind of treatment. He said, I showed you the paperwork. This is what I mean by policy everywhere. And then the hospitals are just implementing what they wanted to.

So, do you have enough doctors? Do you have enough nurses? Yeah. We're always hiring. We're just like everybody else.

Is that one of the allure of being, like, for example, you're recruited, you want to be a doctor? Hey, we'll train you, we'll put you in school, but you've got to stick with us for 10 years.

Some of that, we don't have as much as that. We do have some programs, especially coming out of the military. There's some ways.

Now, the VA, 80% of all baby docs go through the VA in some form. 80% of, no matter where you go to med school, are touching a VA through some of their residency programs and internships. We've got to do a better job. One of our problems, and I'm calling on Congress repeatedly to do this, they've got to raise the caps on how much I can pay doctors. Absolutely.

Because you can't compete. No, it's capped up with the president's salary. It's an old federal issue. But I have doctors in certain specialties that my best offer. is three to four hundred thousand less Than just across the street.

I mean, I respect so much our doctors and our nurses that come, but it's just so hard. And then we make it even harder to get in because our patients. Or if you could build incentives that work for the veterans so the doctors can do it.

So I'm sure they appreciate that, but you're doing it with a leaner staff, aren't you? Yes, we are. We started last year around 200, and you know, again, you all in, say 270, 280,000, 470,000, 480,000. We had 30,000 that took the early retirement. And yet, what we have seen is by better focusing our resources, making sure that folks are attentive, we are seeing disability benefits claims answered.

We dropped the backlog from 260 to under 100. Our wait times in our hospitals are improving. And we've talked about this before. I just want to mention to Congress, to anybody else listening, the VA is a health care system. We're just like every other health care system in the world in the sense that we compete for doctors.

I compete with Mayo for doctors. I compete with everybody. And so we reflect what's going on in our medical community. We need more doctors. We need more nurses.

And that's not just us. It's everybody. Gotcha. Thanks so much. And thanks for your great work that you're doing.

You could be doing a lot of things. You're a minister. You have a medical background. I've been in for a while. And then a lawyer and pastor and everything else.

It's amazing how much you can do. You are a Swiss Army Knife. I'll tell you what, Seddie, he is the Veterans Affairs Secretary, Doug Collins. Great to see you again. Great to see you too, Brian.

All right, back in a moment. It's Brian Kilmade. The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmead. The title of this Vogue article: Gavin Newsom is Setting His Own Rules.

That is the headline of a story about a woman. The copy's incredible. He approaches policy. As jazzy. He has a sensitive soul.

Each day starts with lemon water and he consumes nothing but fruit until noon. He studied art history in Rome. Uh he puts his dishes in the dishwasher. Gavin is a person With frailties and failings. Here's my favorite line.

The late summer sun bathed Newsom in an oh so California magic hour glow. That's awesome. And then they compare him to an Immaculate Wind-Up doll.

So it's a female writer who at one point was upset that he leaned away from her during the interview. And the woman managed not to ask him about homelessness, AI, and the fires.

So that was Jesse last night on the five going over Gavin Newsom and this glowing article by Vanity Fair. It's an absolute I mean, you would think that his own office put it out. I mean That's how overwhelming it is. But the bottom line is, he buried California in debt. He destroyed the medical system by giving illegal immigrants free health care.

He let the border collapse. More people are leaving than coming. No one's been rebuilt from the fires. Only 15% of permits even to rebuild have been issued. Did I mention the homeless situation and the encryption?

From high atop. Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead. Hi, everyone.

Brian Kilmead here. Thanks so much for listening. I come to you from Midtown Manhattan, where the snow is as if it snowed yesterday, even though it's been weeks. But nothing moves here on the sidewalks. And if you're in Staten Island, just so happens to be a red area, this mayor didn't really feel it was necessary to put plows there.

So even his own people are upset by the way it's being handled. But I digress. Everyone's got their own issues, and hopefully, you're in an area which has power. This hour, we're going to be joining. I'll be joining FBN, do a simulcast with Stuart Varney, get the latest on what has happened with the anti-ice campaign in Minneapolis, as well as the economy.

The Texas, all scrutiny, a lot of scrutiny on Texas and that unbelievable upset election and the state race that had a Democrat win for the first time in decades. Lieutenant Colonel Alan West on that. He's Dallas County Republican Party chair. And Andrea Linares is with us too from Fox Noticias. We're going to talk about what's happening in Venezuela, possibly in Cuba, and the big meeting today.

The big meeting today with the Columbia president at the White House. But before we get to that, let's get to the big three. Number three. Vogue giving Gavin Newsom a glossy spread profile. Ahead of his new memoir, the first line in the piece says this: Let's get this out of the way.

He is embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence as he delivers his final state-of-the-state address. There you go. When will it stop? Yet another glowing, fact-free feature on California's failing governor Gavin Newsom. We have the reality check and what the GOP is learning from their failure in Texas.

Number two.

Well, we're talking about that. We have ships heading to Iran right now, big ones. biggest and the best and we have uh Talks going on with Iran. We'll see how it works out. Yeah, don't fool yourself, Mr.

President. Iran is not doing a deal with you on missiles, on terror, on nukes. Though I even talk about them in the Middle East, maybe we're buying some time to get the FAD missile system in place and the Patriots are ready to go for Israel and our allies. I, for one, say the only way to move forward would be to protect the people from this evil regime who've been attacking us since 1979. Number one.

The body cam has been the best weapon for good cops out there.

Now you just go right to the video. Boom, done, over. It's more protection for the police than I think it is for the population. Smile, you're on body cam as ICE agents get one camera per officer, beginning in Minneapolis. We'll see if this is part of ending the government shutdown as they renegotiate portions of the Department of Homeland Security.

But let's talk about what's happening today at the Oval Office. If I was to tell you, if I was to tell you, Andrea, that the President of Columbia was going to be in the Oval Office in three weeks, three weeks ago, you probably would have told me what. I would say that's a big no-no. I would not believe it because we've been seeing such a right. You know, he's an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump.

We've gone all of a sudden from clashing to dialogue. Can you believe this? And according to diplomatic sources, believe it or not, it was U.S. Senator for Kentucky, Rand Paul, that was also instrumental in helping them have this conversation. And also, very important, that moment today marks one month since Nicolas Maduro and Celia Flores were captured in Venezuela.

And I think that was a big warning and wake-up call for Gustavo Petro. Kind of like, let me just tone down a bit and. Have this conversation. And what do you think it'll be like today?

So, this guy could give us an idea who he is.

Well, he's quite a character, like I said, very outspoken. And this is honestly this past year was extremely tense relationship between Colombia and the United States. And let me remind people that we've always had typically a very good relationship with Cuba, and it's the tensest it's been in about three decades, correct?

So, for it to have just fallen apart this way was very worrisome. But if they want to be smart about this whole thing, This should be the focus. They need to focus on drug trafficking and securing the border between Colombia and Venezuela. How bad is it now? It's very bad.

We're talking about the fact that they share about 1,300 miles, Venezuela and Colombia. Most people are just trying to get out of Venezuela, right? Right.

Anymore? There's a security issue for Colombia here, and that's why he should be smart about this. Petro, safety and stability in Venezuela is. Of interest to Colombia. Why?

Because it's the country that has received the most amount of Venezuelan migrants.

So, if you can achieve a safe and free Venezuela, you can possibly have those Venezuelan migrants head back to their country. Then you also have to tend to the security issue. If you have narcos and drug traffickers running the show, that's a problem when you're trying to attract foreign investment and you're trying to open up the oil industry again in Venezuela because they can be targeted by these armies. When he was friendly with Maduro, right? Was Petro?

So he lost his buddy. He's hanging out in a Brooklyn prison right now.

So he doesn't want the same fate. And I don't think we're going to go around capturing. We don't have an indictment or a bounty on this guy's head. That's a different scenario. That's a different scenario entirely.

But we want to get a situation where. Once again, the Central and South America is China and Russia and Hezbollah and Iran free.

So this works in our interest to have this conversation.

So the way I understand it, the Coke is made and trafficked in Colombia and passes through Venezuela, a lot of times in those boats. It heads off our shores through the Caribbean and over to Europe. And Transaragua. And through Nicaragua, too. And Trendaragua.

Oh, Trendaragua. TDA. That's still operating there, yes. Right.

Is it operating in Colombia, too? Yes. Colombia and Venezuela.

So they have a lot to talk about today. It's not just going to be friends. Do you think they're going to open up with cameras? And would you like to see that? I would love to see that.

I don't think they will, but I would love to see that moment. And hopefully, it does not turn into a negative conversation. And hopefully, it doesn't turn into this crazy show.

Some people and some experts say, well, what happens if it turns out to be a meeting like the one that we saw the first time around with Selensky and Trump? Hopefully, it's not that. Today, the Venezuelan interim president, her name is. Delsie Rodriguez, the former Vice President, will meet with our U. S.

Ambassador, Laura Dogu.

So we'll see how this is going to go. But the message is going to be pretty clear, right? We need you to release the political prisoners, re keep law and order in the country, but begin to, I guess, Free up your oil and gas to outside interests, which I think she's on the same page in. She needs to get that revenue in. Correct.

People, what they really, really want is the Release of all the political prisoners.

So far, more than three hundred have been released, but they've been. Moving very slowly when it comes to the release of political prisoners.

Now, something that has been very significant is the fact that they're promising a general amnesty for everyone, meaning exonerating everyone during the period of political violence stemming from 1999 under Hugo Chavez to the present day. And this is very important because sometimes we want to say, well, they're free now. They're not free. They're released from prisons like El Eco, where they have been tortured, but they still face a lot of legal implications and they face restrictions.

So, what Venezuelan people want is their full freedom, like as we know it, liberty. You're not accused of anything, there are no restrictions. And we still have hundreds of more Venezuelans detained in these centers.

So, Andrea Linares is with us from Fox Noticias talking about what's happening in Venezuela.

So, what has changed on the ground since the capture?

So, a lot has changed, but Venezuelans have mixed feelings. I'm going to give you some examples. Recently, Del Codriguez saying we're going to loosen government control over the energy sector, which has been one of the requests from Washington in order to attract foreign investment. We did start with the slow release of some political prisoners. As a result, we have seen, as well on the economic perspective, meat prices starting to drop.

But people are a bit confused because inside Venezuela, you still see billboards that say free Nicolas Maduro. Bring him back home.

So, people are a little skeptical. They don't want this to be just an oil agreement. Right, they don't want this to be an oil agreement. but a continuation of Maduro. That's why they are skeptical.

And there's still repression taking place inside the country.

So we are seeing, for example, President Donald Trump also saying we're going to open up the airspace, we're going to resume flights. American Airlines saying we will be doing this shortly.

So this is good. It's good for business. It's good for travel. People still need to be careful because the situation is very unstable inside Venezuela. But these are significant steps, but people want more.

So yesterday, the foreign minister had a chance to meet Felix Pasciencia, a prior foreign minister, also served the country's ambassador to China. We'll travel to Washington in the coming days to serve as Venezuela's diplomatic representative.

So that'll be good. Rodriguez's brother, nobody seems to, who cares about democracy, thinks he should be involved. He is Jorge Rodriguez, but he's involved in all these meetings too. He's like the speaker in Venezuela. Do you have any th do you think these people Have the ability to understand they're going to have to run for election, have the ability to give people back their rights?

Do you think they're capable of doing that? The fear is that they are experts deceiving others, deceiving other leaders. That's why they've lasted there so long.

So, right now, see, here's the one thing everyone knew exactly who they were. They were: they were socialists, communists affiliated with the dregs of the world: the Irans, the Russians, the Chinas, and the Hezbollah. Are they going to pretend as if they're they weren't comfortable running in those circles? I mean, that's the million-dollar question. Are they doing just enough to appease the Trump administration and run out the clock?

Or are we going to actually see free and fair elections soon? I spoke with President-elect of Venezuela at Mundo Gonzales Uruta yesterday, and he said we need these elections to take place sooner than later. We're talking about months. We can't wait longer. They could.

And you know the fear that the administration has.

So let's say they go in there, they have an election. You're referring to chaos, erupting, and instability. They interrupt and they become guerrillas instead of citizens. They don't wait to win the next election. They refuse to.

Follow the election results. And they worry about the others melting into the woods, this becoming an Iraqi-like insurance. We don't want that to happen because you could have easily lost an opportunity. Senator Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently said in a hearing: success is not a guarantee here, but we are seeing a glimmer of hope. And I do think they know what they are doing.

The administration knows what they're doing. You cannot have this erupt into chaos. But I also understand that people want these elections sooner than later. Congressman Carlos Jimenez also said this needs to happen in a matter of months.

So that's the Difficult. part, right? Trying to figure out when's the best moment. That needs to be stable. Yeah, stabilization, economic recovery, reconciliation, and then transition.

The two countries yesterday reached a deal to export $2 billion worth of Venezuelan crude to the U.S. I thought it was interesting. Wall Street Journal brought up an interesting idea, and that is take some of the revenue that you're selling since we have so much control over their oil right now and give it to every single Venezuelan. You have a way of hitting everyone. Is there a situation where they have checking accounts or where they can go into towns and give them some money so they can start feeling some benefits, afford some food?

But you need to be able to trust in the institutions. And right now, the institutions, you don't have to trust in them.

So I don't think it's that easy. Lastly, I want to tap into your knowledge of Cuba. We saw Russian planes provide supplies. We're pressuring Mexico to stop with the oil. Venezuela has already cut off their oil.

The president says, I'm talking to him about a deal, but essentially, the deal has to be goodbye, Castros, goodbye, government. We understand that the devaluation of their currency, the situation there is extremely dire. What could you tell us? The situation in Cuba right now is on the brink of a total, total collapse. As you noted, they are running dry.

They're not receiving oil from Mexico. Mexico basically stopped their shipments. Claudia Schambaum, Mexico's president, said we're going to assist them with other things, like, for example, like basic goods and food, because we don't want this humanitarian crisis. I don't think anyone wants a humanitarian crisis, but the fact of the matter is: look, Cuba was receiving. Receiving before Maduro was captured, oil from Venezuela.

And what was Cuba doing with this? They were reselling about 60% of that oil to Asia for millions of dollars, money that was being held or is being held in offshore accounts. That money, those resources were never making it back to the Cuban people.

So now they are really being cut off. They're really feeling the pressure. The big question is, and that's why some people say, well, we don't think anything's going to happen.

So many U.S. politicians have been wanting this moment, right? The collapse of the regime. They've attempted this and it has failed. And somehow the regime has managed to stay in power for 67 years.

Why is it different now?

Well, I think if people are brave enough and they're so fed up that they actually take to the streets, pressure this government. When I say this government, the regime in Cuba, to actually strike some sort of deal, whatever that may look like with the United States. And perhaps that's how you can achieve the change. But for now, the hardship, that's what the people are facing. I don't know if you've seen the video.

There's just trash bags piled up everywhere. Trash collectors say it's because the trucks don't have fuel. There are also gas stations that will charge in US dollars, and that's how people will find extra fuel for their vehicles if they even have one. They don't even have fuel. They're facing shortages.

Areas that did not previously experience blackouts, because it's nothing new, they have experienced blackouts in the past. Even those areas have blackouts for an extended amount of time. If you have a refrigerator, obviously what happens? Your food spoils.

So it's just like a domino effect. It's really bad. My fear is if we. Potentially could see a mass like exodus at some point. I don't know if there is like.

Thoughts or conversation about this, how to deal with this if the situation gets that bad? Because since the 60s, we always expected the Castros to fall, the government collapse. They're waiting and waiting, and it doesn't happen. They tried briefly to bring them into the family of nations, and Trump put a stop to that. And I'm glad he has.

Interesting time. My last question to you is: is there still a presence of China and Russia with Del C. Rodriguez? Are they still there? I believe so.

And that means Hezbollah is there, too. That's got to be. And Hezbollah has been present for many years within Venezuela, found a hub to operate from within Venezuela to avoid sanctions, and that's how they also spread throughout the region in other areas like Nicaragua as well. Yeah, Nicaragua is another terrible place only because of their communist leadership. Man, you have a lot to discuss.

Andrea Linares on Fox Notesius, how do we get it? You can find us on Fox Deportas at 4 p.m. Eastern Time. Also, download the Fox Nation app, Fox One app. You can find us there at 5 p.m.

And also our YouTube channel, Fox Nothesias, at 4 p.m. Back in a moment. Don't go anywhere, Brian Kilmead will be right back. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead.

You know, you know, after talking to Andrea off camera after she just left, she was with Fox and Otisius, one of the anchors there. She says this guy, Petros, who's president of Colombia, just told everybody that life is better if you're in Cuba than Miami. And that he seemed almost disheveled and out of it when he was speaking. Makes me want to make sure those cameras are on in the White House today. Because if you have President Trump with an unhinged guy like this, maybe we're going to make some real progress and find out exactly who we're dealing with.

Because the Venezuelan the Venezuelan border with Colombia is going to be vital to the success of Venezuela, obviously, and especially the gang members there.

So there's a lot going on. In the backdrop, I know the President of the United States thinks of himself historically, who doesn't? He knows. that Quentin, wanted to reapproach Cuba. Obama actually did.

He came in and kicked him out. Kennedy wanted to get rid of him. Nixon wanted to get rid of Castro, doing what they can. Remember the Bay of Pigs. Eisenhower wanted to make sure communism didn't get a foothold in this hemisphere.

Can you imagine? If Trump is the president, then finally put Cuba back to becoming Cuba. In the Caribbean. Can you imagine if he was the guy to finally get rid of the Castros?

So he sees that as a possibility. The fact that he's already pressured Mexico, he has expressed outrage about Russian resupply. Here we go, game on. Keep an eye on what's happening in Iran. that we cannot be talking to them about pretending to get rid of their nuclear program.

Does it work? Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Last night's victory was historic in so many ways. Look, this is a seat that hadn't elected a Democrat in over 34 years.

It's a plus 17% Trump district. Our candidate won decisively last night, and he was outspent by $2.1 million. He was outspent by $2.1 million, and he still won that seat. He flipped that seat. Again, it's a great way to start the year.

If you are a Democrat, that's Ken Martin. He's quite happy. Joining us now, Mano knows this quite well. He's Dallas County Republican Party Chair, Alan West. Colonel, your thoughts about that stunning election result that gave, for the first time in decades, That state seat to a Democrat.

What happened? Yeah, well, several different factors. It's great to be with you, Brian. That State Senate District 9 seat is across from us in Tarrant County, which Fort Worth is the base on. Number one, it was a special election in January.

A lot of people are still not paying attention, and that was after a jungle primary that happened in December. This was right, the early voting was right in the middle of the bad weather and the snow and ice storm that we had, and even Election Day was on a Saturday. Temperatures on that day.

So I think that the weather has a little bit of an effect on it. Also, you have a Republican that was originally in that proprietary John Hawkins, who was Mayor Southley.

Well, he came in after Lee Wamscott. Yeah. So he diluted her. Hey, you know what, Colonel? We're going to try you back again.

You're breaking up severely.

So I really can understand what exactly you're saying.

So we're going to call you right back. We're going to get you back on the line.

So what the Colonel was talking about is the fact that the special election that Donald Trump won the district by 17. This guy won by 14. And if you just look at the Hispanic vote and where it's trending in Texas, there's some concern. And then what I want to build up to is what the president might lean on. He was staying out of the Senate race in Texas because he got to figure it's going to go Republican.

But they got one. Promising candidate, and they got one clown candidate in Crockett, and they got to wonder if Ken. Uh if Ken Paxton, if Wesley Hunt Or Senator Cornyn, who of the three, who's got the best chance of winning? And are you supposed to learn from the Texas state race and the wake-up call? But with us, once again, is Alan West.

Colonel, you were saying that the weather was a problem, off-year elections, but just to see the president win by 17 and this guy win by 14, it's got to alarm you to a degree.

Well, absolutely. There are two things. Number one, you know, people can't be focused on just having President Trump on the ballot. And number two, you still got to get out and turn out for these elections. I mean, I think you had about a 13% turnout in that January special election between the Republican and the Democrat.

And also understand that this is just to fill the unexpired term of former state senator Kelly Hancock.

So they will meet again in November. This Democrat will not be part of the Texas legislature session because that is biennial, and so it won't kick in until next January.

So he may not even get a chance to sit down and legislate whatsoever. Maybe he'll be on some committee hearings, but that's about it. But, you know, in a way, I'm kind of glad to have him. It's a wake-up call. Republicans, especially in Texas, need to understand that in these major urban population centers, we've got a dogfight going on because the Marxist left are in control of Dallas and Houston and San Antonio.

Antonio, Austin, and they're trying to make their incursions into Tarrant County, which is the largest red county in the entire country.

So we understand.

So that happened. We also know that Sylvester Turner, who passed away, was replaced by Christian, now Congressman Menaffey, Christian Menaffey over in Texas.

So it's now just a one-vote margin in the House. Let's see if they can pass this budget and avoid this continued partial shutdown. But I want to talk about the Senate race in Texas. Evidently, according to reports, the president might get involved now because he's worried that suddenly this could be a vulnerable seat for Senator that Cornyn holds right now. Wesley Hunt is running.

He gave up the run for his congressional seat. And Attorney General Ken Paxton is in there. James Tyralico is the Democrat of Tallarico. And he has also got Jasmine Crockett in a primary situation. But do you believe that that Senate seat is firmly in Republican hands?

And if you wanted the best shot of keeping it, what's the candidate that you want to? you think has the best shot at keeping it.

Well, I will tell you that yes, I think that it is going to be a strong Senate seat because, once again, this is a statewide seat. And so, when you talk about the folks down in East Texas, out in West Texas, you talk about South Texas along the border, I don't think they're going to vote for someone to represent them that wants to, once again, have open borders and rampant illegal immigration and drugs, sex, and human trafficking.

So, I think that's a positive when you look at the policy side of it, as well as our oil and gas industry, because Tallarico and Jasmine Crocker are not going to support our oil and gas industry. It's very interesting when you look at those three candidates. Without a doubt, Attorney General Paxton has some issues, some moral character issues. He's done a great job as Attorney General. A lot of the grassroots are lining up behind him, but the grassroots is not lining up behind Senator Cornyn.

And I think that Representative Hunt saw maybe just a way that he could wedge himself in. I believe that it will go. To a runoff, but who will be the top two? I just can't tell you right now. But it's going to be an interesting finish to this race.

So they say the NRC polling data shows that Cornyn polls better against. Uh Tell Rico. Uh and Crockett, than the other two. Have you seen that? No, I hadn't seen that, but the NRSC, I would think that they would release a poll that supports the incumbent.

I mean, that's who they're going to get behind. But you got to get down on the ground here. People here in the state of Texas, Republicans, the type of folks that turn out in a primary. And early voting starts in two weeks from today in the state of Texas for the primary. They're not happy with Senator Cornyn.

The gun issue has been really big. And there have been some other issues, border issues that he could have been a little bit stronger on, a little bit more vocal on.

So I think it's going to be challenging for him. He spent, I think, like $60 to $65 million. He's bombarding the airways, but you don't see him out and about.

So this when we look at the politics on the left, it seems like Gavin Newsom's getting all the ink. He's got his memoir out. You got Vanity Fair doing a kiss up interview to him in a way I've never thought possible from anything, but it would be a little bit over the top if it was a press release by his own staff. But the support he had is just unbelievable. I mean, this supportive article.

But the bottom line is, he hasn't done a good job. If you look at his record on energy, prices are through the roof. Every time the gas prices drop, he just adds taxes to it.

So it's now the highest in the country. He's got a train to nowhere, not one single layer of track, a wasting of $14 billion. He's phasing out gas-powered cars, but doesn't have any terminals to power electric cars. The homelessness is an all-time high. There are high-income home prices are the highest per capita in the country.

They've up 20% since he took over. Affordability is not even a word that he should be able to use in public because nothing about him is affordable. And he has more people leaving his state with more to offer than California than any other state in the country, many of which going to Texas and going to Florida. I cannot believe that he is the front runner on the left. Have you seen anything like this in your life?

Well, I mean the left is all about introducing About policy, and I think that's what we want to try to snow the people on. And one thing you did forget to mention when it comes to Gavin Newsom was the Pacific Palisades fire. I don't think that a single house has been rebuilt. And, you know, it's getting to the point where even the Trump administration is trying to get involved with that.

So, no, he is not a person that should even be under consideration. But then, when you look at the lineup that the left has, then who would be? I mean, which governor do they have that can tout success? Tim Waltz? I mean, J.B.

Prisker? I mean, give me a break.

So, I think, again, what they're looking at is the prettiest smile, the nice coaft hair, someone that can go out and really snow people, much the same as Barack Obama did, because it was all about his image, it wasn't about his message. All right.

Lastly. Here is Jack Keene. On what should happen with Iran, who we're speaking to now about and trying to avoid a conflict with, 19. Even if we made a deal with the Iranians, just to underscore what you just said, they we know what they're going to do. They lie, they cheat, they deceive, no enrichment.

Okay, that's the deal, right? With verification.

Well, they're going to go someplace else. and begin an enrichment program that's completely deceived from where we're going to check on it. That's just the behavior. We've been with these guys a very, very long time, and we can't trust them at all. to any deal.

So what are we talking about? Do you think the President's just buying time to get our missile systems and our strategy in place?

Well, you know, if you want to give credit to the Ayatollah's and the Moolahs for one thing, they are very good at political ropo-dope. They've been stringing us along for quite some time while they've been killing and maiming Americans over these past 45, 46 years. You know, I don't know if this is, you know, one of those let's sit down and talk with them, but on this side, this is what we're preparing to do. But you don't put that type of military force in position and you don't commit it to something, because if you do not commit it, that's going to be something that people will remember and say that, you know, you're just a paper tire, you didn't follow up. Gotcha.

Thanks so much. Appreciate it. Lieutenant Colonel Alan West will be backwards. Stuart Varney will do a simulcast in just a moment. Brian Kimmich.

Now, the Brian Kilmead Show joins Fox Business's Varney and Company with Stuart Varney live on your radio and on Fox Business. Here's Brian Kilmead. All right, thanks so much, everybody. In a few minutes, we're going to be going on an FBN Stuart Varney. But in the meantime, we'll be able to take some of your calls on the back end: 1-866-408-7669.

Quick announcement: I'm going to be on the five tonight, so you'll notice me. And number two is I'll be on the 14th. I'll be in Fort Myers on History, Liberty and Lab, streamed on Fox Nation Stage Show. We'll talk about the news, talk about our great country, two hundred and fifty years old, but more importantly, Fox Nation will have it, and then we'll do it again on May 30th. All building up.

They'll do another event or two in the summer. Excuse me. Yeah, in the summer. And then we'll get set for a big book launch in October. We'll have a chance to talk about celebrating America's 250th birthday, which we have not done enough about.

I thought we'd have more events even in January, but I guess it's actually maybe too cold to do anything indoors, no doubt about it. But hopefully, people find some time to go to the parks and do some things like that. Let's go on Eastern. Kill me time. Brian, a detransitioned woman just won a $2 million landmark case.

She sued because she underwent gender-affirming surgery at the age of just 16. I think this is going to lead to a slew of similar lawsuits. What say you?

Well, I think absolutely, especially out in places like California, where they don't, you know, if you're changing your name, you're doing a gender situation in school, you're not allowed to tell the parents. There's a sense that if you're a parent and your kid wants to transition, they'll make statements to you in certain countries, in certain districts where, do you want to, if you get to board? Do you want a dead son or do you want a live daughter? and they'll give those types of circumstances. But now if you say to yourself, okay, you could go recommend that 16 year old transition genders, just so you know, you're going to be looking at a multi-million dollar suit, whether it's you or your district, maybe it'll sober people up to say, just like drinking, just like driving, there's going to be age limits before you make decisions like that in your life.

And I think you have to help teenagers and let them know you don't know everything. And to prove that, you don't want to make life-altering choices, you're going to have to put people into court, have them found guilty, have them write big checks for them to sober up.

So I agree with you, Stuart, wholeheartedly. This is just the beginning.

Okay, we have the head of the nation's largest teachers' union. She called Trump a dictator.

Okay, listen to this. NEA is one of this administration's top targets. Dictators always come for educators because we teach the children. How to think for themselves, how to question and analyze, to solve wicked problems, and to create community. To appreciate the world's diversity and to dream and to fight and to make this world a better place.

All right.

Brian, she said that in a meeting full of far left activists. I'm sure you've got a lot to say about this. Go for it. Yeah, I mean, their two focuses right away are to make sure that whole climate change becomes part of everybody's vernacular, even though President Trump and others, most of the world is sobering up to the calamity and corruption surrounding it, and it's not proven science. And we're all getting that.

And also to push every type of racial issue possible. They want to jam it down these kids' throats. That's why you got to look out for this preschool, this free preschool.

Well, who's pushing for that? Left-wing cities pushing for free preschool. Don't you know they're just jamming this stuff into these kids' heads when their brains are soft and they're growing. And that's what they want to do. And that's why this administration says we got to get involved in education.

We have basically told them educators handle it all. Teachers unions haven't control. There's nothing we can do. Hopefully your kid will grow up and ask to go to Hillsdale College.

Well, that strategy is not working. And that's why these unions feel a threat.

Now, not to teachers. Teachers are doing a great job, but they're susceptible to unions that they almost have to join in order to get tenure, in order to get jobs, which some places it's not a prestigious job. In other places, it's a coveted job, like in New York, where they actually pay you to do something very valuable.

So, this is extremely important for this administration to get on top of this and push back. Yes, indeed. The teachers' unions seem to have lost a great deal of credibility, but I really don't see that much pushback against them, frankly. Certainly not outside of Blue Cities. I hear you.

And not enough, but I do think the president's done tremendous, got tremendous gains in the colleges. But I'd love to see them push back here. I'd love to see more outrage there. But the one thing that's been exposed is the pandemic exposed the inadequacy of all these union members, how they care about teachers and their money first and kids last.

So that's why so many are going charters. That's why Mayor Mindami is trying to pull back on charter schools to get people and didn't stop choice. But in places like Arizona, you get great hope. Like Florida, you get a lot of hope. Disaster.

It's a disaster for New York. And there you go. Brian, thank you very much indeed. We'll see you again real soon. All right, thanks so much.

Stuart Vorney on FBN, the number one show there, along with Larry Kudlow.

So that's what they're doing. They also just go on to say. They found out the Soros Open Society Foundation, big supporters of these teachers' unions. The OSF has donated at least $2 million to the Sunrise Movement. The Sunrise Movement is a left-wing cause that pushes for left-wingers on the Judiciary Committee, supports them.

They're a left-wing cause. that pushes on what they call the four pillars that are critical. The Green New Deal, that calamity which was jammed down our throats for billi trillions of dollars by Joe Biden, he doesn't even remember it. Stop the climate crisis, invest in racial and economic justice. That's what George Soros is doing to our society.

And they're one of the foundations contributing to Drum Roll Please, Big Shocker, the anti-ICE and Border Patrol that is running rampant through places like. Minneapolis Like Seattle? And like Los Angeles.

So this is what the President promises to unwind. When he got into office, and he's doing it. Can't do it all at once, but he's getting a lot of it done. And I noticed since Tom Holman took over last week, things have calmed down a lot in Minneapolis. Why?

Border Patrol has pretty much left. And they've gone on to other cities, not going home. I mean, 650 western West Virginia, huge arrests over in Maine. Although they're winding down a little in Maine to help says Senator Susan Collins, who's going to be in a tough fight to keep her seat. And why does the president want Susan Collins to win?

She's about the only Republican they can win. In Maine, they don't want to flip that seat. I know Iowa's not going to be a layup with Joni Ernst moving out.

So those are some of the things that are going on.

Alright, so a lot to discuss today. Glad you're here. We're also trying to find out if this limited lockout is done, and there'll be a two-week extension on maybe reformatting some elements of DHS. You listen to the Brian Kill Me Show on a very busy Tuesday. Don't move.

From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead. Hi, everyone.

So glad you're there. We got a busy hour coming your way. Bottom of the hour center, Mark Wayne Mullen will be joining us. Senator Armed Services Committee. We know he is going to be joining us, but talking about what's happening with talks in Iran, I think, is just putting off the inevitable because we cannot trust them.

And for 40 years, they want to make things clear we are their enemy. I think they were burning the flag at their excuse for a Capitol building today. And it was our flag. And we have a very special guest in studio, Lucas Siminar, who is the Purple Heart recipient, served in Afghanistan and came from nowhere to managing a very successful company that's grossing $60 million to help veterans get what they deserve. Before we talk to Lucas, let's get to the big three.

Number three. Vogue giving Gavin Newsom a glossy spread profile. Ahead of his new memoir, the first line in the piece says this: quote: Let's get this out of the way. He is embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence as he delivers his final state-of-the-state address. Embarrassing.

When will it stop? Yet another glowing, fact-free feature of California's failing governor, Gavin Newsom. We got the reality check on what the GOP is learning from their failure in Texas over the weekend. Number two.

Well, we're talking about that. We have ships heading to Iran right now, big ones. The biggest and the best and we have uh Talks going on with Iran. We'll see how it works out. Yep, we're gonna see.

Don't fool yourself, Mr. President. Iran is not doing a deal with you on missiles, on terror. On nukes or talks in the Middle East. They'll be the one time you'll have to stand up for the Iranian people like you said you would.

Number one. The body cam has been the best weapon for good cops out there.

Now you just go right to the video. Boom. Done. Over. It's more protection for the police than I think it is for the population.

Yup, smile, you're on body camera. ICE agents get one per officer in Minneapolis. We'll start to see if this is all part of ending the government mini shutdown. We have the latest from Washington as a vote is expected to take place today. We'll talk about the parameters there.

But the President of the United States sent once again Steve Witkoff and his nephew, excuse me, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to talk to Iranian officials over in Turkey. I have no idea why we're talking because we know that the President of the United States won on the record and said for the Iranian people to stand up, I got your back. You don't get their back by signing off on a pretend nuclear deal because they're already rebuilding their nuclear program, which we should have destroyed and completely obliterated months ago. But let's talk about two. The men and women who actually pull off that operation, the one they did in Venezuela, the bombing of the Houthis, when you have operations supporting with the Israelis, when you have Syria, we have operations there to get some retribution for killing two of our soldiers and one interpreter.

That's all the men and women who serve, and that's exactly what Lucas Semenor has done as a Purple Heart recipient. Lucas, what made you join? I wanted to serve my country. I watched, you know, I think it was the O'Reilly factor. I watched the invasion of Iraq as a kid.

My grandpa and grandma served, and I said, you know, this is my generation's war. What year was that? That was, I joined in 2010. At the age of 17. At the age of 17.

Yeah, mom had to sign a permission slip. What branch? Army.

So you joined the Army, and how would you characterize your service? Brief and interesting. You know, I graduated airborne school 17, went to Afghanistan a year later, wounded over there, and then was out shortly thereafter figuring out. What adult and adult life in the real world was like. And when you got out, what was your greatest challenge?

Not being homeless at first. I didn't have a support system. The transition programs that exist They don't really prepare you for it. And so figuring out how to adult was honestly the most interesting part. And so, you know, you don't go to college.

You went through high school.

So when you got out, what skills did you have? I like to joke and say I was effectively a combat janitor. I was a reconnaissance scout, but, you know, that doesn't translate to the civilian world.

So cleaning latrines was pretty much the main skill set. Physically, are you okay?

Somewhat, yeah. I walk a little funny these days, but you know. Shrapnel, you got blue. Yes, yes. Bad knees, bad back, you know, nothing to complain about.

I'm here and able to do this.

So when you talk about veterans, you decide to help other veterans because you were able to come out the other side. What did you find challenging about the VA? And how would you describe the company you put together to help those? Yeah, so I mean, the company's main focus is to get veterans to a place called base zero. We lose most of our veterans, the 22 a day that we all hear and talk about.

We lose most of them during the transition period out, those first three years. It's unclear. There's no pathway. And the VA oftentimes, it'll invalidate a veteran service. Uh there's One of the biggest and the best analogy I can give is that the VA wants you to fill out essentially a driver's license form, but they don't tell you that they need 10 other things to even consider your claim.

So, when they deny a veteran, it leads to horrible things like what happened at the San Antonio VA, a veteran taking their life in the parking lot. Right.

And you say 22, those 22 suicide. Yeah. So, what does your company do?

So, vetclaims.ai exists to bridge the gap, bridge the benefits gap. The current pathway to getting benefits is untenable at best, and how we solve that is leveraging AI to fill in the gaps of medical records.

So, give me an example.

So uh the An easy example as we're talking is the Camp Redcloud, North Korea South Korea, I should say. There was a veteran who had short-term memory loss. It persisted for years and years after service. The VA denied him for over ten years. And it wasn't until RAI was able to find a joint base housing report that exposed chronic black mold within the barracks he lived in that the VA finally admitted, oh, Your short-term memory loss is service-connected, and the veteran finally got the rating he deserved.

Wow, and so other people would come to you because they don't know where to go, what they're eligible for, too, right? Correct. If they don't know how to go about it, they don't know how to prepare for the medical exams, they don't know if their met their service records are full enough to get the claim. We're the people that can help them substantiate what they're saying. And also, you know, sometimes to find out what you could be qualified for to begin with.

Do you think that's communicated effectively with the veterans? No, not at all. That's one of the biggest things is so many veterans attribute a lot of injuries, aches, and pains, what have you, to old age or say, well, there's no way I could service connect it when little do they know there's a lot of medical backing for it. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: So you have no outside investors, and in one year, you've built a $60 million company. We're much bigger than that now.

We grow 40% roughly month over month still. How many service members you call clients?

So we now have helped, as of last month, closed out about 22,000 total that we've helped probably closer to 24, 25 now. We've created over 250 veteran and military spouse jobs. What kind of AI do you use?

So we Multi-factorial AI is the best way to put it, where it's leveraging everything from EPA reports, base housing reports. Peer-reviewed medical journals and everything in between. Anything that can be used to fill in a gap in a veteran's service records. Right.

And now the word is just by word of mouth, you have. You have hundreds of people using your service? Thousands. Thousands. I mean, we help.

Every month we're helping over 5,000 people. We get paid from the veteran themselves. And what can you give us an idea of those rates? Yes, definitely.

So we charge the veteran, and this is one of the biggest points. We charge the veteran $1,250 and we have a money-back guarantee. If we don't help you get the rating you deserve, not only do you get your money back, but you get your money back plus $500. What do you mean by rating?

So rating via disability ratings. It determines compensation amount and also determines the kind of benefits that come with it.

So it goes from 0 to 100%. And at a 100% rating, like in states like Texas and Florida, there's property tax exemptions. At lower rating levels, you get different educational programs, survivors' benefits, so on and so forth. And you build up that rating by need or by years of service. But neither.

So you could serve one year, get hurt in war, or get hurt in the States, and have 100% rating. It's all based on disability. And there's a big misconception in America that's going on, too, where VA disability is looked at like the civilian SSDI, Social Security disability, and it's not. VA disability is workman's comp because military members can't sue their employer. for hurting them.

And it's a big misconception.

So you might meet a veteran with 100% disability, but they're fully capable of working a job. I mean, I'm a 100% veteran. I'm fully capable of running a multi-million dollar company and building them. doesn't mean that my life's not going to be shortened by the injuries, impacted by the injuries, my body's affected. How effective has Doug Collins been as Veteran Secretary?

In my opinion, Doug Collins has been incredibly effective. We've seen the claim times drop. I mean, we're talking under 150 days. Yeah, he cut people. Yeah.

And I think that's the thing: people don't always equal efficiency. What they're doing over there as far as getting these decisions turned is amazing.

Now I think it's time, and what I hope to talk to Mr. Collins about one day is modernizing the intake capacity for the VA. Because right now it's just they're trying to fit a square cube into an octagon hole. In what way? I'll go back to the driver's licensing.

Imagine a simple government form with like five boxes to fill out. That's what they're giving veterans. But in reality, if a veteran submits that, they're going to get denied. They have to have that form, plus a bunch of forms the VA doesn't even tell them they can make up or exist. See, I just thought if you served and you're a veteran, you're going to be eligible for care.

No. No. If you're a wartime vet, I believe you get like six months or a year immediately following your exit. But no, if you don't get health care, even being a purple heart recipient, the VA won't pay for my prescriptions from a a civilian pharmacy. And if I want to use my VA coverage to go to a civilian doctor, I have to wait over 90 days.

Wow. It's a mess. Why is that?

Because it should be expeditious, because you're not defending on the VA system. That is what one would think. I think Trump made some good headway when it came to the Veterans Choice Act. I think he did a really good thing there. But I think the spirit was better than the execution.

The execution of it has still led to this thing where the VA has to meet a certain timeline before they have to admit: oh, now you can go to community care. Whereas it should be, a veteran should have an option. I don't want to go to a VA, plain and simple. Especially when we've got veterans committing suicide in front of the VA, I think that it should be a pretty fair option to say, hey, you know what? I would like to just go to a normal hospital.

So how has this changed? I know you just started your company, but since we're not in two big wars at the same time, for 20 years, that's been the case.

So the churn was incredible. What is it like now? Like who are the people contacting you? I mean, right now, it's still a lot of the GWA, Global War on Terror Veterans. And, you know, I would.

I would say we should look forward. What happens when we look at like a Ukraine, a peer-to-peer, peer-to-peer peer conflict? We're going to be talking about mass casualty events that America has not seen since Vietnam or World War II. And if that comes back to this nation on the system that exists today, that 22 a day number will be something we dream of getting back to. Because the current system can't support that kind of influx.

And that's why I built this. That's what scares me. And how do you keep people from doing what happened to you and then going from, wait, I don't know what I'm going to do, and you end up on the streets, you didn't have a support system. How do you stop that from happening? It It has to start at the exit.

And that's a big thing of what we're fighting for and what we're building here is. You know, without proper transition guidance and assistance, without programs that actually give veterans job opportunities or help them get access to their benefits, that initial piece of stability that comes from the VA benefits is oftentimes the thing that can save the most lives. And those denials from the VA, I would I would say they're pretty causal and what what We lose veterans too. Right.

So, you know, they got to find a way to raise the price of doctors because it seems like they're paying them less than everybody else around the country. Do you think that's a problem? I think it's that, and I think it's how transient it is. I can share my personal experience, right? When I did want to go to VA Mental Health many years ago, I went, I talked to one of the therapists.

And I was like, cool, this went well. And I went to go back the next time and they're like, oh, you can't schedule the same therapist. They rotate. In what world is someone who is going through seeking help going to want to want to relive the same thing ten times? That's not progress, that's psychosis.

Right.

I mean but you mean the person's still there, but they say you you get who you get? Yeah. Yeah. You can't you can't have the same practitioner. And it's, I don't, and to my understanding, they still have not fixed that.

Because that's one of the things I ask about quite often. Uh and it it's it's a mess, you know, and we've got lead us here. We've got these nonprofits that traditionally have helped veterans, right? The VFW, the DAV, American Legion, all of them. And they did such great things for veterans after World War II, after Vietnam, and continually do so to this day.

But they're starting to, when it comes to Congress, they're starting to lobby for and push against. The best interest of the veteran. And they're starting to fight for self-preservation. And it's one of the most painful things to watch. Yeah.

So if people listening to you right now, Lucas, want to be uh take you up on your program and you're the millions of people that you help, what do they do? They just go to vetclaims.ai. Vetclai Vetclaims.ai. Yes, sir. Vetclaims.ai and VETclaims.ai.

That's our website. If you want to follow me and what we're doing politically to help this, help veterans get better access, Lucas Siminar, all over social media. All right, Lucas Siminar, great to meet you. Thanks for what you're doing. Purple Heart recipient, thanks for your service.

Wounded in Afghanistan, but now helping everybody else here. Heel, go to vetclaims.ai and find out more. Lucas, continued success. Thank you, sir. Back in a moment.

Where big stories meet bigger conversations. Stay informed and energized with the Brian Kilmeet Show. I don't know. Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Joe.

Listen, Bad Benny was, and I think that was demonstrated last night, one of the great artists in the world. And that's one of the reasons we chose him. But the other reason is he understood the platform he was on, and that this platform is used to unite people and to be able to bring people together with their creativity, with their talents, and to be able to use this moment to do that. And I think artists in the past have done that. I think Bad Bunny understands that, and I think he'll have a great performance.

Yeah, I don't know. I wouldn't recognize it. I saw some video of it. It's not my taste. And I know he's the number one streamer in the world, and he don't win Grammys for being bad, so I get it.

But my problem is, is he going to go out there with his anti-ice pin? Is he going to go out there and say F-Ice? Is that what he's going to do? And everyone's going to go crazy. Or 50% of the country will go, no, I'm really turned off.

Or they got to go to. What I think is turning point. Turning point's got. A great lineup, and it is going to, they're going to have a halftime alternative. It's going to be streamed.

I think people seek it out. Just so you know, not many people. Are flipping channels from the Super Bowl. But maybe Turning Point will put together the type of show that will get a significant amount of people doing it. Brantley Gilbert's fantastic.

Gabby Barrett is great. Lee Bryce is awesome. And Kid Rock is all part of performance for the All-American Halftime Show, which is an alternative which Turning Point USA has launched. It's called Folks Who Love America.

Meanwhile, Different the athletic, which was bought by the New York Times and it's now as their essentially sports armor, their newspaper. They asked some players, What do you think? One anonymous player said, I prefer anyone who's synonymous with football and football culture. I feel there's tons of artists out there who are fans of the game. I've got George Strait in there.

How about Chris Stapleton? His national anthem was fantastic. A few respondents did weigh in on the culture war aspect of it. Quote, I don't even know who Bad Bunny is, says one NFC offensive player. I always think who it should be an American.

I think they're trying too hard with this international stuff. But by the way, Bad Bunny is an American. He's from Puerto Rico, which is part of the United States.

So he's an American citizen.

So a different NFC player said, I do not like it. I prefer anyone who's synonymous with football and football culture. But by 56 to 41 percent, players like that he is booked at halftime. I personally, if I'm in the NFL, I got an entertainment arm myself. I don't license it out to Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, and now Jay-Z.

I don't do it. I just have a pick of myself. You know, just you got so many people working at the NFL. The halftime is so important, so expensive. Why not just pick people that would be straddling the line?

For example, Bruno Morris. You might not say to yourself, Well, I don't have any of his albums. As soon as you hear his songs, you're like, Well, that is great. I, to me, to this day, the best halftime show, and I've seen I've been to over 20 Super Bowls. Best halftime show I've seen was Bruno Morris.

I thought it was historic. Paul McCartney was fantastic. I have no idea. I'm not a Beyoncé fan. I have no idea what she was doing.

But.

Well we'll see. I know you got to rotate it. I don't really worry too much about halftime, but I'm going to be going live Sunday at 10 p.m. Eastern Time, so right after the game ends, I'll be able to maybe evaluate all this, the commercials, the halftime entertainment, the anti-Americanism, which I hope doesn't happen on a 250th birthday. You know, that might be something else.

Because you went out of your way to make sure this is a red, white, and blue occasion. Because most of the people who follow football, very patriotic. All right, Senator Marquayne Mullen is next. You're not going to want to miss a minute.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House is talking about the shutdown. We'll bring you the latest. Don't move. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead.

I think we have a clear historic choice here. Why is that?

If we negotiate with Iran, and let's assume we get a good deal. Even no enrichment, which is the essence of a good nuclear deal. Therefore, they can't produce a nuclear weapon. Let's say we even got further than that. No ballistic missiles, or limited ballistic missiles, and no support for proxies.

Those two issues I just mentioned likely are not on the table. Let's assume we even got that far. And we have a deal. What does that do? That extends the life of this regime indefinitely.

It's true. Why would we do that, especially when we already pledged support? For the protesters in the street said, don't hang him. They didn't. They shot him.

Thirty to fifty thousand dead.

Now they're rebuilding their nuclear program. They put huge roofs over them, the Natance building. And nobody thinks they haven't stopped building ballistic missiles, and they threatened to assassinate our president. And they still have an ongoing threat on Mike Pompeo, as well as John Bolton, and I think Brian Hook. Senator Mark Wayne Mullen knows all about the danger of Iran, but he also noted that there are so many Gulf states that are allies of ours who don't want us.

to attack and take out the Revolutionary Guard. And or the Ayatollah. What's the right thing to do? What are we going to do? Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, welcome back.

Thank you. Thanks for having me on, Brian. You know, it's a good question because when you start looking at our options, what we don't want is Iran to become a vacuum for ISIS or Al-Qaeda or the Taliban or even Turkey. Think about the rich reserves that the Iranian people have underneath their feet. In fact, a lot of people think that Iran has better reserves than even Saudi Arabia, but yet the people are depressed and in great poverty because of the Ayatollah and the stronghold that they have used that money instead of for the people to create terrorism and so terrorism all around the world.

And so the Gulf states are saying, wait a second, hold on. What's our option here? What's Plan B? The Ayatollah is, I believe, eighty six years old. His health is in question.

Is it better that we wait and let him die of natural causes? And then a leader were to come into place, but they don't know what that leader was? Would there be anybody there calling the shots? And since there's not a presumed leader that's been in place, because remember the Ayatollah has been in place since 1979, and the Shah and the Shaw that left, he's passed away. Excuse me, the Shah's son hasn't lived in the country in quite some time, so the people of Iran really don't know him.

And so the path forward is either one, to contain them, knowing that they can't get a nuclear weapon, or two, we have the options to remove the Ayatollah and then look at the Arab states to help stabilize it.

Well, here's the thing. The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post both say, Mr. President, you said you are going to support the protesters. You can't, you are going to look like Obama in 2009 when he did absolutely nothing or when he did Syria says there's a red line of used chemical weapons, and they used chemical weapons and then nothing happened. We never well, the Obama administration was never able to reestablish credibility.

Do you see credibility being an issue if we don't do anything? No, no one in the region believes that President Trump is weak on his words. It's just that his timing is when he will decide to strike. I mean, he was very clear that he wouldn't allow them to build a nuclear weapon. He showed the strength of the American power through air superiority and the ability to be able to take down their defense systems in the 12-day war.

And then he also warned the Ayatollah and the rest of the leaders: we know where you're at. We're choosing not to take you out. If we knew where they were at then, we most definitely know where they're at today, too. It's just that we don't want to create another Arab Spring like they did underneath Obama and the Secretary at that time, Secretary Hillary Clinton, because we see the region has been greatly destabilized because of it. Look at Libya, look at Syria, look at what's happened in the different regions because of that destabilization.

We've got to be cautious as we move forward, but the option to remove the leadership is still there. We just want to work in, we don't want to have, we're not there for regime change. We're there to support the people, but there's not a leader that's raised, in my opinion, that has risen to the top to say, hey, I'm able to take over like maybe President Al-Sharari has in Syria. Right.

So.

So far, we're watching Iran do what they always do. They'll go ahead and they start talks, and they want to drag out talks, and they did five or six rounds of talks, and now Turkey's going to host the talks. I don't know what Steve Witkoff even if he says, hey, they want to get rid of their ballistic missiles, they're going to stop with their nuclear program, and they're going to stop funding Hezbollah and Hamas.

Someone like you, Senator, knows you can't believe one thing they're saying. And to verify, you know, money flows to Hezbollah, that doesn't just go into a checking account. There's got to be ways to unwind that.

So I just I'm wondering if this is just one of those things where the President's getting his missile shield in place before he goes forward. And it looks like other allies are going to be involved in those talks. You know, I think the definition of insanity is doing the same thing, expecting different results. We know what the Ayatollah and his murderous regime is about. You can't trust a word they say.

And we have to trust but verify Turkey and Erdogan's motivation in this thing, too. And so I think the president is just waiting for the right time. And he's positioning our assets in a place that the people of Iran, which keep in mind, we love the Iranian people. Prior to the overthrow of the Shah and the Ayatollah coming out of power in 1979, we had a lot of business relationships inside Iran. In fact, Iran, in some cases, was more westernized than the United States.

They had more women elected to public office than the United States did. They had more women working in the professional setting than the United States did. And it was very similar to looking to what the United States had, but it was in obviously the Middle East. And so that group of people are the same age as my parents, right? That's not, they're still a large sector of the people that remember what Iran could be.

And what we are saying is that we are there to support you. We have assets in place to support you. If it comes to it, we will use the strength of the United States. But we'd really like to see the Iranian people take over their country like they did when the Shah got everybody, not the Shah, but the Ayatollah got everybody stirred up against the Shah, and they overthrew the country. We believe they can do that now.

And sometimes they just need to know that the United States is there. But there's a big difference between supporting the Iranian people. Against a murderous regime and removing the murderous regime without leadership in place to take it. We are really, really concerned about a huge vacuum, and that's what the Arab states around there are, about the huge vacuum that it could take. And I want to reiterate this, Brian, the wealth.

that is in Iran. Is is tremendous and it could it could destabilize that entire region.

Now, as far as the Ayatollah going out there and saying, you know, if the Americans attack, it'll cause a regional war. Yeah. Uh there is no way that Iran can fight a regional war. And they haven't been successful in fighting a war. I don't even know if they were successful then in the 80s.

I got toraq, it was draw. Yeah, and so they don't they talk large and have it's they have a large they have a large Bark and no dog to back it up. Except for they killed thousands or at least hundreds of their own people in Iraq. Working through their militias in the United States. That's right.

And if you look to so many of their problems, they are a planter's wart in the region. The Houthis, Hezbollah, and Hamas. This is a good example.

Some um some really good news. It looks as though Donald Trump picked up the phone in September, said, happy birthday to President Modi of India. They broke the ice, and now yesterday they broke a deal. It looks like we have got a trade deal with India framed out. We're no longer charging them 25 to 50 percent on tariffs.

It's down to 18 percent. They're going to open up their markets to a degree to American oil and American products. It seems to be both sides are happy. And according to President Trump, not backed up by Modi yet, they stopped, they will stop buying Russian oil. That would be beyond great.

Uh what does this mean for the economy?

Well, once one, it allows us to align with one of the largest democracies outside the United States in India. And we have a lot of partnerships, a lot of good friends that are in India, a lot of individuals that we are friends with right inside the United States that came from India and their families in India.

So we wanted this partnership. The biggest question is: what this means. For the United States, it opens up a tremendous opportunity. But what it really means is the pressure is putting on Russia. The president is doing an end-around on Russia right now.

By taking out these ghost ships that Russia and Venezuela was using to ship crude oil on the black market, the president's put a heavy boot on Putin's neck. At the same time, taking away India's Appetite for Russian oil, it puts another heavy boot on Putin's neck. And the president thought that the easiest war to end was going to be in Ukraine, and it hasn't happened. He mentions that multiple times. But hitting them financially, where the biggest majority of Putin's resources come from is oil and gas reserves.

This is a huge hit, and it could put a tremendous amount of pressure on Russia's economy by saying we need to find a solution to ending this because Putin has no desire. He's like trying to, Putin's trying to is like negotiating with the Ayatollah right now, looking for peace. Putin doesn't have any real desire for peace, neither does the Ayatollah. But when you hit them financially, they do. The only reason why the Ayatollah is in a position he's in is because the president hit him with sanctions.

The only reason why Russia is going to be in this position is because the president is doing an end around and slowly choking the head of the snake out, which is Putin and their oil economy that they've been shipping in. and delivering on in the black market. Is he going to sign off on your sanctions in the Senate, bipartisan 85 votes, I think, in the Senate that would put tariffs on anyone buying Russian oil? And that's India, Turkey, Brazil and China. Yeah, once we move in the Senate with this, the White House has said that the President would support it.

What we're trying not to do is, Brian, is get in front of the President. The President is doing a phenomenal job on foreign affairs, and we want to give him a lot of leeway, not back him into a corner. And we don't want there to be any daylight between the Republican senators and the White House. And so when we decide to move with it, it'll be a decision moved with the President of the United States, and there'll be no question he'll go to his desk and get signed.

So tell me the latest on avoiding a shutdown or coming out of this shutdown. It looks as though the House, used to belong there, is going to pass the rule and is going to be voting on what you guys handed them, and that was funding the government and the DHS for two weeks and at some point talk about some type of bipartisan reforms. What could you tell us? Yeah, so the House, I was with the House this morning and talking to a lot of my friends over there, trying to figure out where they're moving. It looks like we're going to fund 97% of the government today.

The only thing we're not going to be able to do completely is DHS, which is roughly 3% of our overall budget.

Now, even if we stay in the CR with them, it's kind of a bad move for the Democrats because the funding level is actually higher with the CR than it is with the actual appropriation bill, which is a bipartisan bill we negotiated. They body cameras for $20 million is actually in the appropriation bill, not in the CR. It puts the Democrats really in a hard place to negotiate because for them to say they want to defund DHS is fine. But the one big beautiful bill had billions of dollars put in place to bill to fund border agents and ICE.

So the border agents and ICE, they're continuing to get fund. What shuts down with DHS, if the Democrats decide to shut down DHS, DHS, DHS funding would be our FEMA programs and the FEMA employees. It would be the secret service, which would be detrimental to a lot of people that require that type of service. It would be, you shut down the National Guard, you shut down TSA agents, and a portion of air traffic control. Senator, here's what I worry about.

I worry that Democrats will say, well, I'm standing up for the anti-ICERs freezing in Minneapolis, but they know they have a political advantage if they could slow down the President's economy. Like they cost us billions of dollars. I'm talking about Americans, billions of dollars in the fall. Do you think on some level political operatives are urging them for another shutdown to slow down this economy, growing at over 4 percent? It's a great point, Brian, but it really wouldn't shut us down.

The president would be able to deem them essential employees. We'd be able to take money that was appropriated for DHS for border agents and ICE agents. We'd be able to string it over to TSA agents, and it would be able to continue to move forward.

So they would accomplish nothing. Even Patty Murray, who is the ranking chair on appropriations for the Democrats, which is what I said on the appropriations committee, even came out publicly and said shutting down DHS does nothing except hurt FEMA. And so she was very open about that. But to hurt our economy, we don't want to do it. We want to avoid any type of shutdown at all.

But 97% of the government will be open. We'll be able to reappropriate funds if we had to for emergency purposes because the president's authority increases during a shutdown, and the country wouldn't even know we were in a shutdown. Senator Mark Waymo, you got your hands full. In Washington, and it was great talking to you today. Senator Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma.

Appreciate it. Back in a moment. It's Brian Killmeade. Uh The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead.

We should have zero confidence. and the outcome of the midterm elections, which Donald Trump is going to get crushed. I mean, what more evidence do we need? It's a stacking of all of these things. He is not screwing around.

He tried to light democracy on fire when he lost the election, tried to light it on fire, tried to destroy. This democracy is trying to ruin our republic. It's trying to torch it.

So that is Gavin Newsome, who's just living his life through Donald Trump, trying to be the anti-Trump voice. I'm so done with it, it's a dial tone to me. But you know who's not? Vogue. Vanity Fair.

Writing just these glowing breakdowns of how great he is and what a fantastic governor he is and how handsome he remains. I mean, his report card is absolutely terrible. And I'll tell you, Vogue is the one who broke it down negatively. The ones who loved him is just about everybody. He's reviewing his book, says he shows a vulnerability, but talks about how great he is.

Uh that is vanity fair. And it's just such a joke because he's handsome, he's articulate, he's uh, he's somebody who always takes action, very comfortable in his own skin, endlessly handsome, full of energy. Listen to this: this is how it starts off. Let's get this out of the way. He's embarrassingly handsome.

His hair is seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence as he delivers his final state of the state address. It must drive Trump nuts. Believe me, it does not. He's the two-time President of the United States. He doesn't think about a failed governor from California.

But you could think that, because that's what you all think. You have no idea who Trump is. At this point, which is sad for you because you gotta find, even if you consider him your enemy. You should figure out what makes him tick and why he's popular, why he won twice, why he got the popular vote in every battleground state. I live with David Oxerod said.

He's who guided Obama, as you know. Haven't we seen enough self-puffery in our leaders? This is why people can't stand, just be out there. Why can't people just be courageous enough just to be me? It's not the first time he poked fun at Newsom.

He finds him to be pretentious. And he says, One thing Trump taught us is you got to be yourself. And he doesn't feel like. Newsome even knows himself. but on homelessness, affordability, on energy On gas on immigration.

He's terrible. On healthcare, he's terrible. But you know who's gonna find that out? Newsom. Why?

Because Democrats are coming after him. Shapiro, Rokana, Pete Buttajudge. You think they're gonna just say he's endlessly handsome? They're going after him.