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of any purchase of a hundred dollars or more, that's promo code BRIAN. The fastest growing radio show in the best in all of the land. This is Griff Jenkins filling in for the great Brian Kilmead on the Brian Kilmead show. Kilmead has a day off, and we are taking the reins on a day that is perhaps one of the most consequential in our lifetimes as we witness the situation with Iran not knowing a matter of hours about the president threatening Iran to come to the negotiation deal. It's a very clear message: deal or destruction.

And he put that in a True Social this morning saying this. I want to read it because for anyone hearing our program right now that may not have seen this, The president has really upped the pressure and escalated the threats on Iran if they do not come to the table and negotiate in good faith. He says this. A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will.

However, now that we have complete and total regime change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen. Who knows? We will find out tonight one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end. God bless the great people of Iran.

With that, let's go to correspondent in Washington, Lucas Tomlinson. Lucas, good morning. Thank you for joining us. And boy, I'll tell you, the president has sent a very clear message here. Yeah.

Griff, thanks for having me. Thinking of your friend down 995 here in the nation's capital. That's a heck of threat from President Trump, probably unlike any that has been made in the history of this country. And that deadline is about 11 hours from now.

So Iran has some time to think about this, but not a whole lot of time. S What do you make when you sort of put into context what we've seen transpire in really the last 48 hours in Iran with the president not only carrying out the most daring and successful combat rescue operation in U.S. modern military history, but also the details we're learning from our colleague Jennifer Griffin that literally in between the rescue of Dude 44 Alpha, the pilot of that F-15E Strike Eagle, and the weapon systems operator Dude 44 Bravo, during the middle of that, we were able to send B-2s and strike deep in the IRGC headquarters, sending a clear message, I think, to Iran. It's a clear message. The concern here is at the end of the day, we're dealing with a martyr culture, perhaps not with the tens of millions of Iranians, but certainly with the upper echelons, and that's the IRGC.

Recall during the Iran-Iraq war in the eighties, Griff, they sacrificed 37,000 children, having them march through minefields, jumping on Iraqi tanks laden with explosive vests. And when the President talks about killing a whole civilization potentially, while that will strike fear in many Iranians' minds for the leadership, what's left of it in Iran, you have to figure that some of these leaders probably welcome strikes like this because they in their minds, it only strengthens their position. Yeah. So we don't know what's going to happen. And our colleague Bill Himmer says he talked to senior administration officials involved in these negotiations, saying that they hope that they could be close to something.

They hope they get lucky, that a deal can be struck.

However, the backdrop is that Iran has yet to Engage in good faith negotiations at all. They just walked away from a 45-day ceasefire. And so we don't know what the next several hours hold here. But one of already critics, Democrats in Washington, are already reacting to President Trump's threat, saying that if he indeed carries something like this out, it would be a war crime. They're already attacking the president before this plays out and until we see what he's done.

So far, to be clear, he's hit military targets. We saw it early this morning striking again, hitting Carg Island, hitting military targets, bunkers, ammo storage, and things like that. But At the same time, when you have Democrats screaming about war crimes, Democrat strategist, longtime Democrat strategist Mark Penn has taken to True Social, a Democrat, mind you, pushing back on Democratic criticism, saying war crimes? He's questioning. Senator Merkel from Oregon said that taking out mixed-use infrastructure like bridges and power plants would be a war crime, suggested as well, soldiers in the U.S.

may need to not follow orders. He adds the Iranians have sent hundreds of missiles targeted at civilian centers in Tel Aviv and throughout Israel, as well as towards hotels, plants, and airports of UAE and other countries. As civilians are not collateral damage, they are the primary target of hundreds of missiles and drones sent by the Iranians, and they massacred tens of thousands of their own people, just machine gunned them down. These are the protesters he's talking about, by rulers who have no legitimacy whatsoever.

So where is Senator Merkel's outrage? At the real war crimes, it's an interesting point. It is an interesting point. I mean, you look at the past 47 years since the Iranian revolution, you know, Iran created Hezbollah for a reason, helped fund Hamas for a reason. That was to carry out what many would be called war crimes, you know, firing drones, rockets, missiles next to civilian areas.

Even that school that was allegedly hit by U.S. or Israeli forces was parked right next to our IRGC base not far from where the Supreme Leader was located at the time before he was killed.

So it's certainly rich hearing Iran or any kind of other critics talk about war crimes. You look at the history of warfare dating back to World War II, you can even go back to Julius Caesar. War is hell. War is brutal. And when President Trump talks about taking out bridges, power plants, you would think that some of those targets are strategic, or else the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Pentagon planners on the Joint Staff would not be looking to target them.

A lot of these Surface air missiles and a lot of the ballistic missiles are mobile. You would think you would need bridges to move them. And so perhaps certain bridges that were taken out would cripple Iran's ability to move things around.

Now, when it comes to the killing of civilians, probably not something that the Pentagon wants to see happen. Remember, there's a population that President Trump has been winning over in large part. When I was in Dubai for a month, I spoke to a number of Iranians. Over half a million live in the United Arab Emirates, and many were very happy with the bombing. You know, they had left Iran for a reason.

They were setting up businesses in Dubai. They want to see the war get wrapped up, and perhaps that's what this deadline is in about 11 hours. This is the ultimate poker game. You know, President Trump is pushing all the chips into the middle of the table, Criff. He sure is.

Now, on this question of the war crimes that Democrats are bringing up, yesterday at the White House, the President was asked about. Whether or not he was concerned that these power plants and bridges he's threatened would amount to war crimes. Here is what he had to say about that. Cut two. Listen.

Are you concerned that your threat to bomb power plants and bridges amounts to a broader state? No, not at all, no, no, no. I hope I don't have to do it. But again, I just said 47 years they've been negotiating with these people. They're great negotiators.

Why would that happen? And because they're not going to have a nuclear weapon. And if somebody that takes my place someday is weak and ineffective, which possibly that will happen because we had numerous presidents that were weak, ineffective, and afraid of Iran. We're never going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

Okay. It's an interesting soundbite, Lucas, because there's clarity, moral clarity in the endgame, which is that Iran, as you point out, a messianic martyrdom death cult that has been for the last 47 years focused on killing Americans, the president making very clear the end game is that they cannot have a nuclear weapon. And that's where this whole war really comes down to is Iran not having a nuclear weapon. You look at North Korea, and a lot of analysts have been looking at that model. Years of obfuscation, years of talks that went nowhere, progress seemingly being made, sending a former president in the name of Jimmy Carter to North Korea to defer talks, and then look where we are now.

For all intents and purposes, North Korea has a ballistic missile, an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States. President Trump... And the White House, the Pentagon, does not want to see Iran become the next North Korea. And that's really what this whole war comes down to. Yeah.

There are ultimatums and then there are ultimatums. And this is an ultimatum that the president has certainly put on there. All right, now I got to draw on your military background because for the last few days on Fox and Friends, I have been doing wall walks and laying out really the intricacy of the rescue of both the pilot and the weapon systems officer aboard Dude 44. That's the call sign for the F-15E Strike Eagle. And of course, Dude 4-4 Bravo, the backseater, if you will, 155 aircraft, the Daring Seesaw combat search and rescue mission.

You know, when you look at what was used in this and how they carried it out, this, I think, and you are a graduate of the Naval Academy, this seems like a rescue mission that will be studied at places like the Naval Academy in West Point for decades to come. There's no question, Griff, and what a call-son, by the way, dude 4-4, right? This was incredible. And frankly, whether it was the Maduro Raid or before this war kicked off on February 28th, one of the telltale signs that war was imminent is when these search and rescue units were deployed. When we saw the Jolly Greens show up, you know, in some remedium, I've called them Blackhawks.

These aren't Blackhawks. These are Pavehawks. They're flown by elite Air Force pilots. In the back are para-rescumen PJs who have training akin to the Navy SEALs. They are highly trained search and rescue operators that can rescue a downed pilot in any condition, whether it's mountains, desert like we saw over the weekend, or triple canopy jungle, the Arctic, out of the water.

And when those search and rescue units showed up in theater, you knew we were getting close to go time. You talked about 155 aircraft being used. We heard it. At the White House yesterday, the president, the chairman, joined chiefs saying the U.S. military will spare no expense to rescue a fallen aviator.

And let's not forget about the training that goes into these pilots. People usually just focus on what they do in the air. But covering the military, as long as you have GRIF, we know all about SEER school. Every pilot, before becoming operational and going to a squadron after he or she gets wings, goes through SEER training. They learn to live off the land in the case of getting shot down.

They learn how to Feed themselves, they know medical, they know how to escape and evade. And really, you have to credit this Wizzo as the backshooter's name, the weapons officer. That Wizzo was in pretty good shape, despite injuries that he had, and at the rank of Lieutenant Colonels, probably someone in his 40s, to be able to hike up a 7,000-foot mountain and to escape and evade capture and to send that signal to the rescuers showing where he is, the CIA deception, also having A-10s rolling in, and how about those B-1s dropping 100, 2,000-pound bombs to secure the rescue site. It takes big hones to be able to go in there and pull off something so daring and to not lose a life in the process. I hope they let this colonel talk as soon as he's ready.

And no doubt, there will be books. Written and movies made about exactly what you're talking about. I've tried to explain over the last few days on Fox just how significant, and you're raising such a good point, Lucas, because Sear training, survival, evade, resist, escape-that's what SEER stands for. I've tried to point out that the golden rule of SEER training is get far, get high, as far away from the downed aircraft as you can get, because you know the enemy will be centering on it, and get as high as you can so you can get that beacon off. And the fact that he was able to use this highly sophisticated beacon and send short-burst messages that bounce off the military satellites that only we can read.

was his first message was, God is good. And the CIA was ultimately able to get to him, but yet after such being injured, and we don't know exactly the extent of his injuries, the president makes it sound like it was significant, he was still able to get 7,000 feet up in a mountain crevice. It's just incredible, and it's a testament to survival, to will. And also, let's not forget the code of conduct. Not that he was taken captive, but a big part of SEER training that's instilled in every military officer is that you will not be captured freely of your own free will.

You make every effort to escape, aid others in your escape, is something put in by Dwight D. Eisenhower. And that code of conduct is something memorized by every fighting man in the U.S. military. I cannot wait till we hear it from this colonel because whether it's with the media or certainly within the ranks, he's going to have a story of survival and of grit.

And it's very clear that he leaned hard on his religious faith as well. And the fact that he was shot down on Good Friday and rescued Easter Sunday, it's nothing short of a miracle. There were two miracles this Easter, Griff. An Easter miracle indeed. We've got to leave it there.

Lucas Tomlinson, great insight, as always, my friend. Thanks, Chris. All right. More coming up on the Brian Kilmead Show when we come back. Coming to you on a need-to-know basis because man, do you need to know?

It's Brian Kilmead. The more you listen, the more you'll know it's Brian Killmead. This is your humble correspondent from D.C., Griff Jenkins, filling in for the great Brian Kilmead on the Brian Kilmead Show. And that intro is so right. The more you listen, the more you learn.

And boy, did we learn a lot from Lucas Tomlinson with his Navy background learning about just how remarkable and extraordinary this combat search and rescue mission was, getting not only the pilot, but the backseater as well. Yesterday, the president of the White House talking about the success of this mission. Listen here, Cut 16. And we're here today to celebrate the success of one of the largest, most complex, most harrowing combat searches. I guess you would call it a search and rescue mission.

ever attempted by the military. Generally, when planes are knocked down in war, especially when you're fighting a Yeah, strong group. Enable group. You can't really do this because you send in 200 men to pick up one. And it's something that's usually not attempted as much as you want to attempt.

And bad things happen to that one or two. And in this case, we did too, and might not have been attempted before, but we did. In that statement, He mentioned he sent in 200 men to get one. And that struck me because I literally, after doing Fox and Friends weekend on Sunday, I went here in New York over to St. Patrick's Cathedral.

I converted to Catholicism nine years ago and have been on that journey of faith really in a strong way. And I was listening to the homily from the priest and he talked about, of course, the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that gave his life for all of us. And after he told this story, he leaned into the news that we had rescued that weapon systems officer, dude 404 Bravo. And he said, how remarkable is it that on Easter, as we talk about the story of Jesus' resurrection, we have news that hundreds of men were willing to give their lives to rescue one? That's what separates us as Americans.

And we send a message: no man will ever left behind. I'm Griff Jenkins. For the Brian Kill Me Joe, we'll be back. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead.

We have a plan because of the power of our military. Where every bridge in Iran. will be decimated. By 12 o'clock tomorrow night. where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again.

I mean complete demolition by 12 o'clock. And it'll happen over a period of four hours if we want it to. We don't want that to happen. That was President Trump at the White House yesterday, laying out the dire warning for Iran if they do not come to the negotiating table and reach a deal in a timeframe that is down to a matter of hours now. This is Griff Jenkins filling in for Brian Kilmead on the Brian Kilmead Show.

And we are lucky to have joining us now an old friend of mine and someone I admire greatly, and that is retired Lieutenant Colonel Alan West. He's now the Dallas County Republican Party chairman, and he joins us. Colonel, it's great to talk to you and have someone with your experience. You know, you have served our nation proudly for years. Then you were a representative of Congress from the years when I knew you and spent time interviewing you.

And now, We are at this moment today, Colonel. It certainly feels like this is a very critical moment. We're in. What is your assessment?

Well, it was good to be with you, Griff. You're right. We are longtime friends, and it's great to hear your voice. I think the most important thing we have to understand is that when you talk about negotiating with Iran, you're really just negotiating with yourself. You have to understand that militant, theocratic, Islamic mentality.

You have to study the Treaty of Hudabiyah back with Muhammad in 624, 625 A.D., because that's their mantra. And so they're not going to honor any type of agreement or commitment or anything of that nature.

So what is the most pressing thing that we need to do right now? I understand attacking bridges and power plants, but they don't care about their own people. They don't care if their people are sitting around in darkness. They just murdered 30,000 of them back in January. The most important thing, most critical thing that we could be focused on is getting the Straits of Hormuz open and isolating Iran from its number one source of revenue, which is this oil and energy program.

That we just struck some military targets there on Karg Island.

So I think that that's where our priority should be because if we can make sure that Iran cannot stranglehold the rest of the entire world when it comes to the flow of energy through those sea lanes of commerce, especially the Strait, that really does undermine them. They don't care about their people.

So you can attack the power plants. And if anything, what they'll do is try to turn that into some type of state propaganda thing by showing babies who can't get milk or hospitals that can't have power, things of this nature.

So I think that the critical geopolitical target should be the Straits of Hormuz and Karag Island. You know, it's such a great point. And by the way, to what you're saying about not caring about their own people, there are reports out there that the Iranian regime has already been calling for people to gather their children and form a human chain around power plants. and all that. Interestingly enough, in Washington, which I'm guessing you don't miss too terribly much because it's certainly become even more of a swamp than it was when you were there, but Democrats are already lining up screaming about this is a potential war crimes, war crimes.

You don't have to look far, particularly on other channels like MS Now, for examples, here was Jake Sullivan, who you remember from the Biden administration, saying that bombing power plants would be a war crime. Listen to this. If we go after civilian infrastructure the way he's promising to go after civilian, by the most basic reading. of of the rules of international law. Would those be war crimes the United States was committing?

The way this is set up, the answer to that question is straightforward. It's yes, they would be because this is punitive. He's not going after a power plant because it's a pure military target that's fueling the war machine against the United States. He's going against those power plants to punish Iran and punish the Iranian people to try to make them basically quit. Interesting, by the way, Colonel, that neither Jake Sullivan or any of the Democrats, senators, or representatives that have been saying that this we're headed towards war crimes were critical in screaming about the fact that Iran has constantly been bombing and killing and targeting intentionally civilian targets in places like Saudi Arabia, in Dubai, in the UAE, in Qatar, and elsewhere.

And in Israel, I mean, they're not shooting at any military targets in Israel. They're shooting at civilian populations.

So the hypocrisy is laughable, not to mention the fact that Jake Sullivan was involved in the Obama and Biden administrations, and together they gave $17.7 billion to the number one state sponsor of Islamic terrorism. I would say that that's a war crime as well, because they're enabling Islamic terrorism. Look, there was a saying when I was over in the Middle East, and they would tell us that you may have watches, but we have time. That's what the Iranian regime is banking on. They are watching our news.

They're watching MS Now and these idiots like Senator Tim Kaine, and they just believe that we can just hang on. We can see the midterm elections maybe go in a different direction, and President Trump won't be able to continue on. That's why I say that we have to focus on what are the pressing geopolitical targets right now. And again, let's focus on Carg Island. Let's focus on getting straights of Hormuz open.

Let's focus on, you know, getting that free flow of supplies through those sea lanes of commerce. And also, I think that a lot of people aren't paying attention to another strait, which is Bab al-Mandab, which is where the Horn of Africa almost touches the Saudi Peninsula because the Houthis, who are a client proxy army of Iran, they're the ones that are bottlenecking that up as well.

So that's another sea lane of commerce that we need to be focused on as well.

So that's what I wish strategically we were looking at. The military leader in you certainly coming out, and you're so right. No one's talking anymore about that. I talked a little bit about it on Fox and Friends days ago because that Strait of Mandeb would indeed be significant if the Houthis tried and blocked it. Although I'm not sure just what the Houthis have been witnessing in the last at least 48 hours from the rescue mission to putting B-2s over the IRGC headquarters deep in Tehran.

I'm not sure they still have the same appetite they do. To get involved, maybe we sent a deterrent message. But you talk about Karg Island, and it's such an important point because at the end of the day, when you step back at 30,000 feet, we're looking at an economy which is a one-commodity economy, and that's oil. That's how Iran has survived and have been able to be the bully of the Middle East and having that straight of hormoose that they could hold hostage to impact the global economy. And when you look at that Karg Island and the fact that 90% of their crude oil comes through there, it's so significant so far.

And in the strikes this morning, we've only seen military targets hit. I had a chance, Colonel, to interview the commander of the USS Cole, Kirk Lippold, on Fox and Friends a little earlier. And during literally our conversation, which we were talking about some other things, we got confirmation of the Karg strikes. I asked him about it. Here's a little bit of what he said.

Cut eight. Carg Island has been hit. How significant is that development? What do you make of that news? I think it's an excellent development.

Everything we can do to take down any military capability on that island, to destroy the IRGC military equipment and the forces there, is going to give us an opportunity that should we choose To exercise and invade that island and actually go on there in order to grab Iran by the economic throat. That is going to be a good thing. That capability has to be eliminated first in order for us to get those Marines ashore. It sounds like you would agree with Commander Leopold. Absolutely, because this goes back to the number one thing that they teach you, military one-on-one, is what is the enemy center of gravity.

And from a strategic perspective, that's what we're looking at here. I mean, you can go down to the tactical level of something completely different, but strategically, it is Carg Island and it is opening up the Straits of Hormuz. You render Iran irrelevant.

Now, of course, you've got to continue to reduce their ballistic missile capability and capacity. Let's make sure that there are no sea mines out there. I think also you have an issue with a lot of these smaller Iranian patrol boats. But look, just deploy the riverine assault boats out there because that's like an M1 Abrams tank on water. And let's take out that capability as well to harass any shipping going through the Straits of Hormuz.

So, you know, maybe President Trump is, you know, creating a great strategic deception like we saw the CIA do with this rescue mission and getting everyone focused on bridges and power plants. But let's go after their center of gravity. Gravity, which Commander Leopold and I absolutely agree on. You talked about this rescue. Let me tell you, for days now on Fox and Friends, I have been just.

Trying to convey just how extraordinary this combat search and rescue mission, the CSAR, was in going and getting the backseater, the weapon systems officer.

Now we know his call sign, dude44 Bravo. Just what a great call sign. But when you look at the difficulty of this mission that involved Navy SEALs, it involved PJs, their pair of rescue men, it involved Delta. They had to basically go in and set up a FARP south of Isfahan. And the CIA deception.

you must be blown away by just not only the remarkable success that not a single U. S. casualty came from this, but also the complexity of what went into this.

Well, this again is a testimony to the competency, the capability, and the professionalism of our military. And when you're not focused on DEI, when you're not focused on gender dysphoria and all the other monkey business that the Biden administration had the military focused on, this is what you get. These are the results. We saw the Maduro raid, now we see this operation. And you're right, it is complex.

So make sure that you have a security card on around that area so that nothing can get in. And, you know, I'd like to know the Iranian casualties that they had because I'm quite sure that they were doing everything they possibly could to get into that area. But we had the right air capability, we had the ground capability, and we went in and pinpointed. But also, how about that training, the SEER training that our pilots go through? And this is, again, a proven testimony that that SEER training, the survival, the evasion, the resistance and escape, is beneficial.

And so not only do we have great Great pilots in the air. We have great pilots on the ground. Yeah. And, you know, no doubt, I mean, the president talked about how the airman was seriously injured. But, you know, for anyone that has gone through it, I've talked to a pilot yesterday.

You know, the ejection alone is very violent. You're talking about being thrust into 10 to 20 Gs, which could rip arms out of socket, can break bones, and then you're landing. And then you've got to go into your sear training and get into the fundamental golden rule of sear training. Get far, get high. He was able to do it, able to climb.

You know, we did a thing this morning on Fox Enfriends where we had a big graphic of things that are tall. Just over a thousand feet is the Eiffel Tower. And you look at, he got up 7,000 feet, difficult mountainous train. He climbed seven Eiffel Towers with serious injuries, climbed into a mountain crevice, and was still able to get. That beacon off with that first transmission.

God is good. It's remarkable success. I'll give you the last word. Yeah, again, I think that every American should be proud of that. And think about this weekend.

I mean, we had the Artemis II launch and we went in and recovered that pilot. Who knows? He may go on and become an astronaut one day. But this shows, once again, how great it is to be American, how great our armed forces are and just a hat tip off to them. And I think, by the way, when they make the movie about this rescue mission, I suggest they're going to call it No Man Left Behind, because one thing is for sure, under President Trump as Commander-in-Chief and Secretary Hegseth at the Department of War, the message is clear that there's nothing we won't do.

There's no length we won't go to try and bring you back. And that's significant if you're serving in the military right now, doing great and big things. It absolutely is. You're not going to see a debacle like we saw in Afghanistan, where 13 of our brave Marines, sailors, and soldiers lost their lives unnecessarily in that horrible withdrawal from that combat theater of operations. Such a great point, such a stark contrast.

Lieutenant Colonel Allen West, it is great to talk to you, my friend. Absolutely, Griff. God bless you and God keep you. Take care. All right, you two, take care.

And we have a whole lot more coming up and more details about not only that daring rescue mission, but also about the stakes that couldn't be higher now with regard to what President Trump plans to do about Iran. This is Griff Jenkins, filling in on the Brian Kilmead Show. From breaking news to big name guests, Brian brings you insight you won't hear anywhere else. You're listening to the Brian Kill Meat Show. Radio that makes you think.

This is the Brian Kill Me Show. It is indeed the Brian Killmead Show, Griff Jenkins filling in for Brian today. And let me tell you, there are a lot of reasons to be proud to be an American. We have yet one more, and that is the history being made by the crew of NASA's Artemis II, going farther into deep space than any human has ever traveled to the dark side of the moon for the first time. Our producer put together a great montage, Eric, here about when they were about to go behind the moon and then when they came out of it.

Listen to this. Again, we will be out of communication with them for about 40 minutes until they come around the other side of the moon and we can re-establish contact. Integrity Houston. You are six minutes from your forty minute Lunar Flyby LOS. Yeah.

From all of us, it's a privilege to witness you carrying the fire past our farthest reach. Thank you. Godspeed.

Now, five days and six minutes since their launch on April 1st. and this really beautiful view of a crescent moon and a crescent earth. How great thou art. Integrity. Com check.

Integrity, we have you loud and clear. Tell me. Houston, we have you the same and it is so great to hear from Earth again. Integrity Houston, in mission control, all of your flight controllers and your flight director have flipped their Artemis II patches around. We are Earthbound and ready to bring you home.

Incredible stuff. Incredible stuff. Such pride that they were able to do that and such a great montage put together of witnessing that happen. President Trump was able to speak with the astronauts and congratulate them on their mission. Listen to this: Cut 23.

Hello to Artemis 2. Today you've made history and made all America really proud, incredibly proud. We have a lot of things to be proud of lately, but this is uh there's nothing like what you're doing circling around the moon for the first time in more than a half a century and breaking the all-time record for the farthest distance from planet Earth. Humans have really never seen anything quite like what you're doing in a manned spacecraft. It's really special.

I want to personally salute and congratulate Commander Reed Weissman. Pilot pick your glover. Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. Remarkable, just remarkable. And President Trump gets credit, whether you love him or hate him, whether you're a Democrat or Republican.

At the end of the day, when you watch that interview with the astronauts and the president speaking to him, you see an American flag displayed there on Orion the capsule. And you saw underneath that, America 250, a reminder that America does big and great things. And 250 years later, they are still doing big things. There's no other country that could have done it. America did it, and it's something to be proud of.

And President Trump is giving an encouragement to keep going. This is Griff Jenkins, filling in on the great Brian Kilmead Show. This is the Brian Kilmead Show. I am Griff Jenkins trying to fill the great big shoes of Brian Kilmead. And what a day to be sitting behind the microphone with you because the clock is ticking, friends.

A remarkable, remarkable timeline, a matter of hours before we find out whether or not President Trump intends to strike, as he has been messaging for a few days now, power plants and bridges within Iran if the, what is now compromised, the new Iranian regime, will come to the table and for once negotiate in good faith and give up the uranium program and reduce their missiles. It's unclear what will happen, but one thing is for sure. The president yesterday at the White House putting out very clearly his intentions, and then this morning, Following up with a post to Truth Social that could not be clearer with a dire warning. If you have not heard it, let me give you some of it. He tweeted this or put to Truth Social: A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.

I don't want that to happen, but it probably will.

However, now that we have a complete and total regime change where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen. Who knows? It follows his threat to strike power plants and bridges. And it's only a matter of time now whether we find out what will happen. Senior officials, senior administration officials talking to my colleague Bill Hemmer, saying that they're hopeful.

That they might get lucky, there might be a deal by tonight, but 8 p.m. Eastern is that deadline. And with that, let's bring in Michael Makofsky, president and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. Michael, The stakes couldn't be higher. Your thoughts as we sort of wait and watch to see what will happen.

Yeah, thanks for having me. Good morning. I think you're absolutely right. This thing couldn't be higher right now. Uh you know, anything could happen.

I think it's uh Very unlikely that the uh this Iranian regime, which is really being controlled, it seems Even more firmly than before by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Would make a deal with the United States.

So then we'll have to see if that's the case, that what the United States military. will do and what impact that will have. I think they're basically Three main issues. left here in this war, and they've been the big issues all along. One is the Strait of Hermus.

Two is what to do about Iran's nuclear program. And three is the survival of the regime itself. And I'm not sure Militarily, without a lot of risk and time, if we could solve all those problems before we stop. Uh this work. Let's talk about one of those three you laid out.

And I think you perfectly laid out the three parts of this. That's straight of Hormoose.

Now, that obviously, as we all know, affects the global economy. And we saw earlier this morning strikes on military targets, again, on Carg Island, hitting things like ammo storage facilities and the like, and radars and military targets. What do you make of the news that we did strike Carg Island today?

Well, at a minimum, it's certainly a clear we did it once, we've done it before during the war, but if it's clearly a strong warning to the regime. That we could at least destroy their oil export facility. 90%. I think 90% of Iran's oil exports go through Karag Island. And by the way, About 90% of Iran Money in oil exports total go to China.

We should clarify. And so if we take that out, which we could Or we could decide to try to take over that island. That will be a big blow to the regime.

So, the question is: if the wars stop today, Or tomorrow, let's say. You know, what do we want to do? You know, what do we want to leave this regime with? Meaning a severely more weakened country. And I think that's partly what we're aiming to do here.

In addition, separately, Uh, from the issue of the oil exports from Iran, I mean, but thing is. What concerns me is, I'm sure we could ensure the survival. Uh, of Iran, we could ensure continued uh export of oil from this through the straight of removed, but the question is. At what cost and how long? Would it take?

And I'm a little more skeptical on that score. I'm sure we could do it. What do we really want to expend the resources and time? To do it because it's easy to keep disrupting. It's harder to ensure than it is to disrupt.

And that's a I'm glad you raised that, Michael. That's a great point. Should we have to do it all on our own? Because President Trump has leaned in to not only our NATO allies that don't seem to be willing to help us with that, but also Gulf nations. Should we carry the load on our own?

Absolutely not. I think, I mean, from a sense of proper fairness. Uh you know We want the our West Europeans to do it. Obviously, it's since the Chinese get a lot coming out of there too, but I don't think we really want to encourage the Chinese to get militarily involved. In the Strait of Hermuse.

So the French. And the British and other allies, the Italians, maybe by right they should do it, but unfortunately they don't seem willing to really step up at all.

So the question is You know, for for America Not just for because oil prices are connected, even if we we don't really need as administrator oil from the Gulf as much as they do, the Europeans do, or the Chinese. will still affect oil prices. And then there's the issue of If Iran is able to disrupt the oil coming out of the Strait of Hermuz, aside from their oil exports. Is that kind of a blow to the U.S. and is seen as kind of Iranian victory?

And that's maybe motivating things as well for the president. You know, and laying out your three pillars there, let's talk about militarily. We saw this morning Vice President Vance in Hungary making a visit there, and he was saying that essentially he feels like most of our military objectives working in conjunction with Israel are being met. Is that your sense that we are at the point where we're nearing accomplishing our military objectives? Yeah, so I think um I mentioned those three big issues, but I didn't address what you're really suggesting, because I do think that's pretty much been settled as far as I can tell.

It's not. 100% settle, which is that. One of the big things that we in the Israelis have tried to do is is completely is severely severely degrade Their convey Iran's conventional weapons capability and their ability to project. power abroad and that a lot of that is due their ballistic missile. And that means not just destroying the actual missiles, but also the launchers and the industrial base that produces those ballistic missiles, because that's a fearsome threat that they have.

And there have been reports in recent days that they still have a lot of those ballistic missiles left. I don't know if we're good. But I think we've done a very good job. I think we should say If the war ended today at 7.59, I still think President Trump could take a big victory lap. This would be a big success by the United States and Israel.

It's severely degrading Iranian leadership, weakening the regime, which is also, I think, if not an explicit, but certainly an implicit objective and severely weakening them conventionally. I think it's been a very successful military campaign. It might not be a complete grand slam, Because it seems like If we're unable to extract, let's say, their enriched nuclear uranium. It would be ideal if we could. I don't have the intelligence.

I you know how much of that is buried, how much of that is accessible. I think we can extract it, but it's risky militarily. And then on the issue of the regime, if I may. I think if the war ended today, the regime is obviously severely weakened. The United States and Israel have done a tremendous job of killing a lot of their senior leadership, weakening them, leaving the country Um Very weak in general economically.

And I think uh making it easier. Easier for the Iranian people. To bring the regime down, because it's ultimately going to be the Iranian people that do that. And that's an impossible thing to gain, but the moment, one key moment in that. Will be once the firing stops.

Do the people come out on the streets? And if they come out on the streets, then are we able to protect them against the regime's repression? Right. And, you know, we can only hope that the worst doesn't happen after having now heard about some 30,000 plus have been gunned down and killed in the streets by this regime. You know, you got me thinking a little bit, Michael, because you talk about, you know, what comes after with Iran and the population and what may or may not be the remnants of a new regime in the leaders there.

But step back a second. What happens after this to NATO? Because we keep hearing that NATO will never be the same. And you raised it a little bit. It's not all of NATO.

Let's be clear. The eastern countries of NATO have been quite cooperative, saying, what do you need? How can we help? While the Western countries, France, and in particular Spain, Spain that wouldn't even allow us to fly over them and use bases that were. We pay for to do what we need to do there.

We didn't say we need you to fly alongside our fighter pilots. We didn't say we needed you to come and fight shoulder to shoulder. We just said let us use our bases and they wouldn't even let us fly over. And it's really remarkable what President Trump has done to sort of expose them. But uh Yeah, I think it's been extremely counterproductive to say the least.

For, I mean, I think that you know, of these West European countries to act this way. Uh it's frankly dis Graceful. uh in every way uh strategically morally It might play to these governments' political base. The government in Spain is left-wing, is awful towards Israel, has been hostile to the United States. Obviously, then you got in Britain, you got Stormer, who's been a You know, let's just say this: you know, Winston Churchill, who coined that phrase, a special relationship in 1946.

That's over with as far as I'm concerned, the special relationship. I believe we have right now is with Israel. I mean, imagine any of these allies, it's almost a joke. To think about it, imagine any of these allies, any of them. Projecting power in the way that Israel has done in this war.

I mean, Israel is a country of 10 million people. That's it. And they are basically been an equal partner to the United States. I mean they don't have the The firepower that we do, but they've still done extremely well. They have been an equal partner.

I've seen nothing to suggest that there's any like tension between the two countries' militaries. We've worked hand in glove with the Israelis. And what a contrast. That is to the Brits and the French and U the the Spanish. I mean, I think Israel used in the first night of the war more airplanes to attack Iran.

That the RAF has in its arsenal. I mean, it's crazy.

So they've lack will and they lack. uh military capability.

So to answer your question You would hope these countries would get a wake-up call from this, but I don't think that's going to be the case. Rubio has suggested that we should leave those bases in these countries. I think it's going to, it's hard to know, and that makes Russia A big winner if we weaken NATO.

So we do want to, I think it's very important that we keep NATO together. But How this all plays out, I think it's going to be a challenge. And it's understandable for the American people to be very upset. Say, why should we spend a lot of research defending these people who won't even let us buy over their country in a time of war? I agree.

I think it's awful. And as you point out correctly, It's in contrast to let's say Greece and some of these East European countries. that have acted more like our allies. By the way, the German Chancellor, I think, has been good. But, you know, we still, no one expects anything from the Germans militarily.

No. Uh uh you know yeah personally uh you know any more Personally, I'd like to see them rearm better. But he also is in a coalition government, and it's constrained him.

Well, we've got to leave it there, Michael, but such great insight. And who knows what becomes of NATO. We'll find out as we wait to also find out this ticking clock on whether or not Iran will come to the negotiating table or face what is going to be quite a strike indeed if the president does indeed intend to follow through. And there's no reason to doubt his resolve, as we have seen in the past. Michael Makovsky, thank you for your time, sir.

Thank you very much. Have a good day. You too. This is Griff Jenkins filling in for Brian Kilmead on the Brian Kilmead Show. From breaking news to big name guests, Brian brings you insight you won't hear anywhere else.

You're listening to the Brian Kill Meat Show. Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. No shortage of breaking news today, my friends. This is Griff Jenkins filling in for Brian Kilmead on the great Brian Kilmead show.

And let's pick up where our last guest, Michael Makovsky, just left off. I was talking to him there at the end about NATO. And it's worth acknowledging that NATO was at its weakest point when President Trump got involved and he made them the strongest they've been in modern times by forcing them to pay in to their defenses. All but Spain got up to the 4% levels that they're supposed to be. By the way, Poland is the only country that pays in more than the U.S.

because they fully understand why a strong NATO, that 32-member bloc that has that Article 5, which states an attack on one is an attack on all. We'll be there for each other. The president is exposing the weakness of the Western NATO European countries that don't seem willing to contribute. Into what we're doing right now in Iran, looking at you, Spain, looking at you, France. And the president is starting to take aim at NATO, very upset, albeit he does have a great relationship, a good partnership with the Secretary General Mark Ruta, who is coming to visit the president.

President Trump talked about this yesterday at the White House and about his disappointment. Listen to this: Cut 14. And I have to tell you, I'm very disappointed in NATO. Very. I think that NATO.

I think it's a mark on NATO that will never disappear. Never disappear in my mind. You know, they're coming to see me on Wednesday, they're going to say, oh, we'll do this, we'll do that.

Now they all of a sudden want to send things, you know. But they said it loud and clear at the beginning when I spoke to UK of all. I would have said they would have been the first because they're the oldest. And I say, yeah, I'd love to have a little help. Said, no, sir, we'd rather wait till you win.

I said, I don't need help after we win. They have two old broken aircraft carriers barely work. I said, I guess we can use them. Who the hell knows? I called the general.

He didn't even want he said, We don't really need 'em. We got the SS Abraham Lincoln, sir. We don't need 'em.

So, Secretary General Ruta will be at the White House meeting with the president. It's going to be very fascinating to pay attention because it looks like the trajectory and future of NATO could be changing in a significant way. Ruto, by the way, has praised both the U.S. and Israel's operations to degrade Iran's capabilities, but yet NATO, particularly those Western European countries, are doing little to help. This is Griff Jenkins on the Brian Kilmead Show.

We have a whole lot more coming up. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead. This is the Brian Killmeat Show. I am Griff Jenkins, your humble D.C.

correspondent, filling in for Brian today on a day that has a lot of breaking news. But there is some other news out there, and that are changes in the Trump administration. Namely, a new DHS secretary, now confirmed former Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, did an interview with my colleague Bret Baer and really dived into a number of issues. But at the top of that list was clearly the Democrats continue to allow DHS to be fully funded. The Senate passing a bill that would fund everything except for Border Patrol and ICE the House.

Republicans, not sure they can swallow that. Last night, Secretary Mullen had this to say about the Democrats and their motivation to keep DHS. Shut down in what is now the longest partial government shutdown in history. Listen to this: Cut 29. What you see from a lot of Democrats right now is political theater because what they've done is they've defunded the Department of Homeland Security.

I mean, that's like defunding the Department of War, right? Essentially, what they're saying is: we don't want to deport any of our felonies or felons or the criminals that are here that came underneath the Biden administration, and they want to open our border completely. And with that, let's bring in Theo Wall, the former acting assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice and Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during the first Trump administration. Theo, so great to have you here on Brian's radio show. What do you make of what the now new DHS Secretary Mullen has to say about this shutdown, and where do you see this going?

Yeah, thanks for having me, Griff. Yeah, I mean, look, I think the secretary is right on the mark here. It was actually a pretty fascinating. A window into how he's thinking about some of these what we sort of think of as recalcitrant issues, right? Like the Democrats are just not going to budge.

on on the funding side. And they're also not going to fund They're not going to budge on sort of the central ideology of the party at this point, which is open borders and the abolition of ICE, and as they've now started to argue, CBP.

So, in that same interview, the secretary got into an idea that he's working on to confront sanctuary city policy, which is absolutely fascinating. And so the basic nutshell is Look, if you're a sanctuary jurisdiction like a Seattle, Washington, where you don't want CBP, you don't want ICE, then why do you have an international airport where CBP is performing not only inspection of passengers who are offloading those airplanes coming in from Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, but also all the commercial goods, which, as you know, Griff, I mean, those are just enormous jazz magnets.

So I think this is an interesting window into how Mullen is thinking about this, which is not just the standard playbook that a lot of Republican secretaries of Homeland Security have had, which is we're just going to talk about it. Let's find different ways of trying to force Democrats to the table to think more reasonably about CBP, about ICE, and about their funding mechanisms. I'm so glad, Theo, you brought that up because This is, when I watched Brett's interview, that jumped out to me, obviously, as someone who's covered immigration in the border for years. But this is really outside of the box thinking. And it's not just CTAC in Seattle.

You could be talking about Chicago, where we have seen the mayor and governor there lean into their sanctuary policies in Boston, where you've seen the same thing, in New York and elsewhere. And what the secretary is talking about is possibly pulling CBP out of those international airports. I have, for our listeners, here's a little bit of exactly that part you're talking about. Listen to this cut. Cut 32.

Just one area we may take a hard look at is Some of these cities have international airports. If they're a sanctuary city, should they really be processing Customs. into into their city. I mean, seriously, if they're a sanctuary city and they're receiving international flights, And we're asking them to partner with us at the airport, but once they walk out of the airport, they're not going to enforce immigration policy. Maybe we need to have a really hard look at that.

It And that is such a great point. We're going to look at them from an immigration standpoint when they arrive, but then not enforce immigration enforcement when they hit the streets. Lest they should turn into criminals, which we have seen happening. My question to you, Theo, is: and you have a legal perspective on this, could something like this work? Yeah, I think for certain.

I mean, I think, look, it's a novel. It's a novel political strategy. It would also be a novel legal strategy. But there is definitely room here to implement the idea that if CBP is going to be defunded, if it's going to be constantly facing state and even local ordinances impairing its ability to do its job, There's no reason why CBP has to be at CTAC or at Boston, Logan. They could withdraw CBP officers from those locations, and then that would obviously then necessitate airlines reroute those flights.

So I think it's got, it has legs, both as a policy idea, but also as a legal one. And I also think this is interesting because, you know, look, the criticism that Democrats wanted to run against Mullen at the outset was Trump just put a plumber in charge of homeland security. And I think, you know, as a kid from a working class family, I think this is the kind of common sense that millions of Americans take to the job site every single day.

Okay, if this is what you're going to do, let me think through A, B, and C what my options are, and then I'm going to do one of those. This is exactly what Mullen's bringing to the job. I think it's an interesting skill set. And as you noted, it's out-of-the-box thinking that's going to produce some kind of break in the log jam. If he takes this step, Theo, do you suspect that he would face legal challenges?

Challenges. Oh, yeah. I mean, I think that's baked in, right? And I think that's one thing that your listeners have to.

Sort of keep on the scorecard, which is anything that the Trump administration does that is novel, whether it's on the regulatory side with H-1B visas at USCIS or if it's with deployment protocols with ICE or something like this at CBP, they're going to be sued. And the Democrats have choice of venue. They'll bring the suit in a favorable location. It'll probably lead to an injunction. And then we'll be off to the races on appeal.

And that's anywhere between six months to eight months to get an outcome, a decisive outcome for the administration.

So yeah, they'll face litigation, but I think the question here is, is it defensible? It's going to be very fascinating to see where it goes and out of the box thinking. Indeed. Theo, before I run out of time, I want to change gears just a little bit, though, because your background, your experience, you were at DOJ. Obviously, now there will be a new attorney general.

We don't know who it's going to be. Pam Bondi, now gone. And one of the things that's interesting. Interesting to me, as a guy that lives in Washington and still covers Capitol Hill after many years, is you have Democrats like the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, Robert Garcia, and even some Democrats in the Senate, like Tim Kaine and others, that are still demanding that now she is a private citizen to come and testify about the Epstein fouls. Here is a little bit of what Garcia and others are saying about what they intend to force former Attorney General Bondi to do.

Listen to this: it's our job in oversight to take those folks on and hold them accountable even after they're out of office. If we could chase Hillary Clinton, who hasn't been in office for 20 years, certainly we can get Pam Bondi to explain why she covered up documents, why we haven't had prosecutions. That should be a lesson to whoever is the next nominee for AG. Be the nation's chief law enforcement officer and don't let the president cause you to trim your conscience. or become a toady.

So what do you make? How do you see this playing out and can they force her to come forward? Yes, great question, Griff. And I think this is essentially just the first page in the new playbook that Governor Pritzker and others have already sort of intimated they're going to pursue Democrats will pursue over the next two to three years, which is To hold every member of Trump's orbit, whether you're a senior member of the Cabinet or you're a low-level staffer running advance in the White House, every single person in the President's orbit is going to be brought for depositions, for oversight, and potentially for litigation. I think, look, this is lawfare in its classic form.

There's no reason why the Attorney General, now that she has left that position, can be compelled as a private citizen to speak to what essentially she was doing as an attorney representing her client, the President of the United States. That should be protected. Protected under executive privilege, but also protected on just some basic law 101 concepts here. Obviously, they're going to pursue this. And I think the key difference here, one of those folks on Capitol Hill mentioned, well, they compelled Hillary Clinton to come.

Yeah, the Clintons are mentioned over hundreds of times in email exchange, visitor logs, flight logs with the Epstein sort of crowd and with Epstein himself. That's very different than the Attorney General of the United States providing legal counsel to her client, the President of the United States. Yeah, there's no different. There's no pictures of Pam Bondi in a hot tub as you have with former President Clinton. It's interesting to me.

And, you know, you're talking about this being classic lawfare. I think you're right. I have, you know, when Pam Bondi was fired, and that's really sort of the way to put it, although the president and Pam Bondi apparently still obviously very close relationship, he just felt it was time for her to go. And I thought hard about why, what was the motivation here? And one of my My theories is possibly that the president is looking at some of the dire predictions that the House, the Democrats may take the House over and be in the majority again.

I think, exactly to your point, they would then waste no time going after every member of the Trump administration, impeachments, investigations, and the like. And he may be looking for who is the best person to put in position to handle something like that should it come down. And I want to get: do you think that's possibly one of the motivations for replacing Pam? And if so, who would be good possibly to face that storm? Yeah, I think so, Griff.

I think that's a big part of it. I also think that there's just been a lot of delay. shaking up The deep state at DOJ. And I know some people think that term the deep state, that's just a sort of a phantasm of the far right's mind. Having held a senior position at the department, I can tell you it's very much real.

And there's a need for real reform at the department to shake loose some of the obstructionists. And so I think in that regard, I don't think the Attorney General was as successful as she could have been. And I think that's going to be a big part going forward with the oversight: ensuring that there's someone who is ferreting out the leaks, the obstructionists, and sort of the delay tactics that have really harmed the administration's priorities on the legal front. Who could that be? I mean, I think there's a lot of really interesting names being tossed out there.

Obviously, Lee Zeldon is at the top of the list, the current EPA administrator. I think Brendan Carr at FEC is an interesting name. He's sort of a hard-nosed lawyer who's done some real, real impressive work in the role that he's at right now. I think Governor DeSantis is also an interesting pick as he comes near the end of his tenure as governor of Florida. He's obviously an accomplished lawyer in his own right and has had some real experience handling this kind of oversight lawfare from the Democrats.

So I think there's a lot of interesting names out there. I think the worst case scenario is for the president just. To go with a conventional safe pick. He needs to really select someone who's willing to mix up the department and also protect the administration's right flank. What about Todd Blange, the now acting AG that was the deputy stepping in to fill it for while this decision is made?

Yeah, I think Deputy AG Blanche has done a fantastic job in managing sort of the legal strategy for the department generally. I think he's, by all accounts, in the conversations I have with friends of mine who are serving as U.S. attorneys throughout the country, he's done a great job of supporting those offices and giving them the resources they need to pursue their jobs. I think the question for Blanche will just be, he's got a lot of very high-profile critics, including Laura Loomer and a few others who are just constantly sniping at him. And the question really is just, is he going to be able to ascend into that top role and succeed despite not having the bona fides from the conservative sort of far-right legal movement?

You know, he was a registered Democrat until very recently. And despite sort of his great service on the president's defense team, still there's a lot of skepticism from hard-right legal folks.

So those are going to be the challenges for him. And I think this sort of two, three-month audition here will be very telling in that regard. Interesting to watch. Theo Wald, maybe we'll throw your name into that hat as well. Who knows?

You never know these days. Theo Wald, thank you for taking time. Great, great insight. As always, my friend. Thanks for having me.

All right. And we've got a lot more to get to. This is Griff Jenkins on the Brian Kilmead show: Don't Go Anywhere. Where big stories meet bigger conversations. Stay informed and energized with the Brian Kilmeet Show.

The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead. Oh, this will get you talking. All right. This is Griff Jenkins filling in for Brian Kilmead on the great Brian Kilmead show.

Did you see the story about the niece and grandniece of the IRGC commander, Qasim Solomani, the niece and grandniece living lives of luxury in LA, dressed in ways, if you've seen the photos, particularly of the grandniece, in a way that certainly would not be permitted in Tehran, and I can't imagine would have been approved by the late Qasim Solomani, who President Trump killed. Congressman Tim Burchett, talking about this whole incident, because now they have gone from living a life of luxury in LA to being in ICE custody. Marco Rubio is saying he may deport them. Here is Congressman Burchett. Listen.

Well, they're dressed like a bunch of hookers, and they wouldn't be able to do that in their own godgum country, that's for sure. You have to ask yourself, what the heck was the Biden and the Obama administration doing? Obama's sending them pallets of cash. Biden's letting everybody in over our border. We've been told maybe we could have 500 members of the Taliban that have gotten into our country at some time during the last four years under the Biden administration.

We ought to start. We need a cleaning, and this needs to start right now. And this is a perfect example of what we need to be doing because I guarantee you the money they're spending is probably somehow is shipped over there to an NGO in one of those countries from American taxpayers or the United Nations. And they come back over here and they trash this great country and they all need to go back. Let her dress like that in Iran and see how far she'll get hung off of a building is what they'll do.

And he's not wrong because we have seen story after story of women killed or disfigured, having acid thrown in their face and for not wearing head covering. And yet, here you have these women, particularly this grand niece, dressed so skimbly in just the rank hypocrisy. But this begs a bigger question, and that is, how many regime-linked families are in the country? This was a unique case, particularly because you had the niece who has been railing against America while being allowed to claim asylum here because that's how she got in and was able to stay under the previous administration. But yet, she's verbally attacking the country that's given her refuge, and yet she's allowed to be here.

That's why Secretary Rubio says, No, no, no, no, no. You don't get to stay. We're not going to extend our American generosity to try and protect you because you say you need asylum and then you're. Are you going to come to this country and bash America straight up? Unacceptable.

The question is: how many more have been allowed to come into this country of the Biden administration? Who are they? Where are they? And what sort of possible danger might they pose? That is not only a talker, but an issue that needs some serious consideration.

This is Griff Jenkins filling in on the great Brian Killmead Show. This is indeed the Brian Kilmead show, and it is Griff Jenkins, your humble DC correspondent, trying to fill the shoes of the great Brian Kilmead on a day with news like none that I have witnessed in a long time, and that is the news of what will happen in Iran.

Now, it is just a matter of hours. President Trump, having made very clear that if indeed the Iranian regime, the new leaders of it, whoever they may be, do not come in good faith to negotiating tables and meet the demands of a deal with the U.S. To turn over the enriched uranium, to limit their missile capabilities. The president saying that he will attack power plants and bridges in the coming hours if indeed they do not do it. And the president also taking it a step further with one of the strongest worded Truth Social posts that we have ever witnessed.

Early this morning, he tweeted out or put on Truth Social this: He says, A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. He says, I don't want that to happen, but it probably will.

However, now that we have complete and total regime change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen. Who knows? Only a matter of time before we find out. Joining us now, Brian Stern, former U.S. Army and Navy counter-intel officer.

He joins us, and he is, of course, the head of. Bowl Rescue. Brian, I want to get to what is perhaps the most historic, daring, successful CESAR combat search and rescue ever in the history books. It's going to be taught in war colleges forever. But I want you first to just respond to the stakes certainly seem high, and we don't really know what's going to happen.

What's your assessment of it? I think it's just that. I think that President Trump is trying to strategically communicate en masse to the people of Iran, to the people of the world, certainly to the people of the United States. I think care must be taken. Care must be taken.

I think we as America saying that we're going to wipe out a whole civilization in America sounds a little out there. But frankly, in the Middle East, this is how people speak.

So I think this message is very much for the people of Iran. The problem is they're probably not listening.

So I think care must be taken from the president's perspective to understand that like, yeah, we're hearing this, we get it, we see it, or maybe we don't get it, but we do see it. But his intended audience, I don't know if they're receiving it as well as they could be, should be, or that he wants.

So I think some discussion has to be had there a little bit. You raise a great point, Brian, and that is as someone who was embedded with Lieutenant Colonel Ollie North for years. During the invasion of Iraq, and spent a lot of time in the Middle East, it is a different language over there. They deal in a different currency, and maybe you're right because that language is interpreted differently and heard differently because it's more attuned to their language. The big question is: there are still, there's a couple of questions, but one of the big questions is: is President Trump really going to follow through?

Critics are saying, well, he's probably bluffing, but there's been nothing to suggest that he doesn't mean what he says when he talks about striking power plants and bridges. And the Iranians are hearing that message, they're taking it clear. Reportedly, the Iranian regime is calling on youth to form human chains now around power plants. What's your take on whether or not the president means what he says? I'll tell you this.

President Trump and I went to the same high school. In fact, my Kydray guy was a very famous guy named Teddy Debias. And President Trump actually wrote about Teddy Debias in one of his books. What I can tell you is that I don't believe President Trump to be bluffing. He may mix words.

He may mince words sometimes. He may play possum. He may play strong. But at the end of the day, he's from Queens. You know, he means what he says to the extent, he's going to do what he thinks is right.

And if that is perceived a particular way, that's fine. But the reality is, is he already knows what he's going to do. That's already going to happen. But for the Iranian regime, I also would say I kind of don't know if it is the wisest tact to punish the people into some into regime change that tends to not really work out too well.

So I think that, again, care must be taken strategically. President Trump. Goals are very, very, very easily understood. But we're seeing a more united Iran on the ground, not fractured. The people taking to the streets thing doesn't happen when we're attacking them of any country, of any country.

In New York, we experienced this right after 9-11. People forget, we forget that on September 10th, 2001, Rudy Giuliani was the most despised man in New York City. We got attacked by noon on 9-11. He was America's mayor, united with the fire department, the police department, and everything else because we were attacked. The Iranian people, we just need to be careful that targeting civilian infrastructure may have an unintended consequence that may actually have the reverse of what we want if we say we want regime change, if that is a stated goal.

That is quite a sobering insight. And you're right, Brian. You know, when you look back and think about how that played out, I thought it was interesting because there is now, in addition to, you know, the reverse of what you want to happen happens, there's those calling that if we target anything without a military nexus, civilian infrastructure, that it would be equivalent to war crimes. Yesterday, President Trump at the White House was asked about that. Here is what he said.

This is cut to. Listen here. Are you concerned that your threat to bomb power plants and bridges amount to a? I hope I don't have to do it. But again, I just said, 47 years they've been negotiating with these people.

They're great negotiators. Why would that happen? And because they're not going to have a nuclear weapon. And if somebody that takes my place someday is weak and ineffective, which possibly that will happen, because we had numerous presidents that were weak, ineffective, and afraid of Iran. We're never gonna let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

So he's very clear, they cannot have a nuclear weapon, but yet the war crimes thing is out there. Wh where do you where do you come down? Again, I think a lot of this is messaging, and I think a lot of this is how, from a tactical perspective and a military perspective, the intent, meaning if we attack, we blow up a bridge, which is a piece of civilian infrastructure, but if that bridge is the connective tissue between nuclear storage and nuclear command and control, well, then I'm very sorry, but it's fair game. Right. So, you know, we dealt with this in Ukraine during the war in Ukraine where the Russians were attacking trains.

And people said, oh, my God, can you believe it? They're attacking trains.

Well, it's a war. And it sucks that it's a war. But the reality is those trains have military hardware on it. Frankly, that's a fair target that is different than a maternity ward. A maternity ward with pregnant mommies in it.

That is a war crime. Attacking a train filled with munitions on it is fair play.

So I think this is all about how in 2026, where wars and messages. Messaging and politics and elections, and all the thing. The court of public opinion is judged on Instagram in Soundbites. Extreme caution must be taken by President Trump to message this properly. I don't believe that he's going to commit a war crime.

I don't think that at all. I don't think we are the next Russia. And I don't think that at all. I think that's all kind of silly arguments. At the end of the day, what he wants is very, very, very clear.

And he's demonstrated. He's demonstrated that that he'll do what he needs to do. To get to where we need to be, which is a defanged and non-nuclear Iran. And if that means we have to take out a bridge that is very horrible for the people that are impacted by that, and we're very sorry. But at the end of the day, we have our goals and our objectives.

Yeah, well said. And, you know, I know all too well the Russian war crimes spent months in Kyiv, Ukraine, and covered the civilian targets we're targeting. And by the way, Iran is launching at civilian targets in Israel and Gulf states every single day, civilian specific targets with impunity. Hey, listen, I got to go to your wheelhouse that you are very familiar with, and that is Rescues. Let's talk about this combat search and rescue.

Remarkable going in, not only to get the pilot, Dude 44 Alpha, and of course, Dude 44 Bravo, the backseater, the difficulty of getting, it's amazing that his seer training to get as far and high as he could with the injuries he was able to get. Get 7,000 feet up in a mountain crevice in the Zagros Mountains, but yet the CIA deception, along with the CSAR package, it included 155 aircraft with the Navy SEALs, with the PJ guys, and Delta Force. When you look at what we've seen, what's your take? There's so a few things. Number one, number one, we have not done this as a military.

In a very long time. Meaning, we have not, you know, at Grable Rescue, we just completed our 809th mission. We've worked Russia, we've worked Gaza, we did Maria Karina Machardo from Venezuela, we've done all these kinds of operations, right? Deep, deep, deep, deep, deep behind enemy lines. We tend to do it a little clandestinely.

We tend to do it more. We're more Donnie Brasco, we're less Blackhawked out, right? Yeah, so. We need to remember that as a military, as a special operations, as a special operations force, as the joint conventional force and special operations forces and the intelligence community, we have not operated deep, deep, deep behind enemy lines against a peer adversary in a really long time. The Iranians are not the Taliban.

This is not Somalia. Jessica Buchanan was rescued from Somalia by a bunch of guys in flip-flops. Formidable and dangerous, don't get me wrong, but they didn't have missiles. They didn't have aircraft. They didn't have radar.

They're not shooting down airplanes, which is what led to this operation in the first place.

So we need to, one of the big things to remember is that this is the first kind of thing like this, deep behind enemy lines. This is not Maduro, which was a remarkable operation by itself. This is worse because we're rescuing an American citizen who is hurt. When you do these ops, getting in is no big deal. Getting out is the whole show.

Because you're plus one, and you've already, and by doing this, you've broken a lot of china. There's glass on the floor.

So when you when the when the boys show up They can show up very nice and quiet, but once things get loud, they stay loud. And you're moving plus one with a colonel.

Now, what's interesting about that, who's wounded, who's wounded and injured.

Now, what's interesting, which is which no one's really talking about, is Dude 44 Bravo is a full bird colonel. His next rank is Brigadier General. What does that tell us? One, he's been around for a long time, he knows what he's doing. Also, he's been around for a long time.

This is not Maverick, where it's Tom Cruise who's playing volleyball. He's a mid-stage guy. This is a guy with gray hair, okay? This is a guy with gray hair who's very good at what he does, but I don't know about you. I've been around a long time.

Climbing a 7,000-foot mountain with a broken leg and wounded sounds like absolute misery and crap to me. 22-year-old me could do it and go, yeah, that would be a good story. Almost 50-year-old me sounds like, that sounds like horrible.

So when we talk about the remarkable nature of Dude 4-4 Bravo, the idea of just his seniority is remarkable. If we go back in time, there was a very famous operation in Vietnam called his call sign was Bat 21, one of the greatest war movies that was ever made with Gene Hackman and Danny Glover. It's a very similar thing, a Fulbert Colonel. Named Ice Seal Hamilton was shot down in Vietnam, and he was a full bird colonel on the run from the Viet Cong. And it was, it was, again, one of these just really awesome, awesome operations.

So, the other part of this thing is the deception piece is kind of glossed over. Yeah. When doing operations like this against a peer competitor like the Iranians, like we've done in Venezuela or Russia or these other places, the deception piece. Is central to success because they have a huge amount of resources. They have a lot of people, they have a lot of capability.

The battle space is theirs, the terrain is theirs, they can punish the people, they can do all kinds of things, they have a very robust intelligence service, they own the streets. The deception piece. is critical to success. During Maria Carina Machado, one of the reasons why things worked out so well is we had a very large deception operation that confused Diestado Cabello to the extent that he was on Twitter. Saying he knew where she was, which was completely and totally figments of our imagination.

Yeah, you look like a You see, it's important. It is indeed. And Brian, we've got to leave it there. We're up against the clock. But, you know, the fact that this deception piece was able to buy time for the operators to go get dude 4-4 Bravo, amazing.

And to your point about it not happening in a very long time, it's important our listeners know that SEAL Team 6, the DevGrew Group, and JSOC itself were all created out of the failed 1980 Iranian attempt under Operation Eagle Claw to go and get our hostages from that embassy. It was a disaster. Americans died. In this case, they not only got a gray-haired lieutenant colonel, they got out without a single casualty. Brian Stern, always great to have you on and get your insight.

Thank you, sir. And remember, we are donor-funded, GraybullRescue.org. All right. All these operations cost money. They do.

So when DevGrew does it, they got a big budget. We have a tiny budget.

So we always need help. GraybullRescue.org, you're doing great work. Thank you, my friend. Thank you. Appreciate it, Griff.

And this is Griff Jenkins on the Brian Kilmead Show. We'll be right back. Big guests, bold opinions, better information. This is the Brian Kilmead Show. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin.

It's Brian Killmead. He's so busy he had to get Griff Jenkins to fill in for his radio show. This is Griff Jenkins of the Brian Kilmead show. And, you know, as we wait to find out how Iran and the situation turns out, there is no shortage of Democrats that are posturing to paint whatever is going on in Iran as something that is going to be seen as a failure for Donald Trump and something that Democrats can use to win back the power in Washington in the midterms, in the House, in the Senate. And, you know, that's an interesting prospect.

We don't know how it's going to play out, but the Democrats already had the upper hand insofar as it's traditionally the case that the party in power, the party in the White House, loses seats. That always happens. And there are dire projections that Democrats are going to take back. Certainly the House, maybe the Senate too. But interestingly enough, with regards to that traditional advantage that Democrats have, the Democrats.

Well, he's got some bad news for Democrats. With that, listen to this. are actually ahead on net favorability at this point by five points.

So Democrats are just simply put running behind their previous benchmarks, and they need to be running well ahead of them if they want to take back the United States Senate. What? How could that be? Democrats said that they are going to win big time off of the President's shortcomings because of the economy, because of tariffs, because of what's happening in Iran. Here is just a few seconds I want to play of one Democrat that's willing to admit that the Democrats have those low numbers because they brought it on themselves.

Listen to this. Cut 26. We lost the plot. We as Democrats nationally, from Latinx to defunding the police to police organizations are all racist, to bringing a set of cultural wars to our schools. We are on the losing side of those cultural wars.

Full stop. You are worried about bathroom access and locker room access. Why don't you focus on classroom excellence? And that's simply Rahm Emmanuel, who has aspirations perhaps to be the 2028 Democrat nominee for president, with a little bit of looking in the mirror and saying, you know what? The American people are not behind this.

They don't want men, biological men, and women's sports and all of the other stuff. It's crazy. Griff Jenkins, filling in for Brian Killmead, we'll be back. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kill Me Show.

This is Griff Jenkins filling in for the great Brian Kilmead on the Brian Kilmead Show and talk about information you want and need. No one brings us better information, bar none, particularly as it relates to what we're watching play out with the war in Iran right now, is our chief national security correspondent at Fox, Jennifer Griffin. Jen, thank you for taking time and let me just commend you for remarkable reporting. I've been filling in on Fox and Friends the last few days and doing wall walks with predominantly information you have learned, particularly about one of the most daring and successful combat search and rescue missions, but you've also been following the very latest. I've been talking today on this program about the stakes couldn't be higher with this clock ticking hours to go with President Trump making such a massive threat.

The Truth Social Post today about a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. The Iranians don't come to the table. And then you reported this morning on strikes, milit strikes on military sites on Karg Island. This feels like it's moving fast. The stakes are very high.

What can you tell us of the very latest you learned?

Well, first of all, Griff, thank you very much. Those are kind words, and I appreciate it. Everybody at Fox is working very hard to get accurate information out, and we always cover the military with great care, and because we have such a great military audience. What I can tell you is the next few hours are going to be crucial. There are, we understand, talks taking place.

Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, was just asked at an event with the New Zealand Foreign Minister whether he expected Iran to come to the table, and he said, hope we have more news later today on that. And so he sounded hopeful. Bill Himmer has spoken to a senior U.S. official who said the talks are ongoing despite these very belligerent statements coming out of Iran and saying that they've called off the talks because of the president's language talking about bombing them, you know, erasing their civilization and bombing them into the Stone Age. Those kind of words don't really help.

I think, the negotiators. But what does help is the precision strikes that the U.S. military carried out this morning. We were the first to report that about 50 military targets were struck on Karg Island. They were military targets.

The U.S. military carried out the strikes.

Some of the bunkers, a radar station, and ammunition storage sites, some of those targets had been hit before, because you remember the U.S. military did target Karg Island. But what I was told by a well-placed senior U.S. military official was that, quote, this is a message to the Iranians, because what I had asked was, is this the beginning of what we expect to be a multi-hour attack that would include infrastructure despite the controversy surrounding that? And what this senior source told me was that the U.S.

military was sending a message. With the strike on very precise strikes on Karg Island. They did not target landing docks used by oil tankers. If any of those were hit, it was because the Iranians were firing out from next to those landing docks. They are not hitting the infrastructure the way the Israelis are.

They're not targeting the railway lines or the electrical grid or bridges at this moment. But that all could change at 8 p.m. tonight if these talks don't produce something. And my sense is that the White House really wants these talks to succeed because what would be unleashed after that, it's really hard to imagine. And the hyperbole and the threats, again, not useful and certainly not in the interest of the Iranians who hate this regime and who were protesters and who lost 40,000 of their friends and family members.

You know, talking about destroying the country and destroying. A civilization does not win over the Iranian people or make them think that we are on their side. Aaron Ross Powell, it's a great point, Jen. And, you know, there's no shortage of Democrats now that are already saying, oh my gosh, these threats amount to war crimes. But then there's also just the sense of, you know, we are watching Iran launch at civilian-specific targets in Israel and in Gulf states with impunity.

And we've condemned it. And so this feels like a bit of anxiety that we can't, you know, own the moral high ground if we then were to hit infrastructure that is specifically civilian.

Now, there is maybe a gray area in the sense that if a bridge that is obviously a bridge is a civilian piece of infrastructure. But if it connects the IRGC to a nuclear site, well, that then has a bit of a military nexus. But the language coming from the President talking at the White House yesterday, and then, of course, clearly this true social post suggests that an attack could extend beyond things that have a military nexus. Is that how you kind of read that? It is, but what I will say, Griff, and this is interesting, during the first Trump administration, I did talk to negotiators who said sometimes the president's hyperbolic language and threats really help them at the negotiating table.

So he kind of plays a certain role in backing up. You know, they kind of don't, he's unpredictable, and that sometimes helps the negotiators. I am not sure that is going to work with the Iranians. You and I both have been watching them for decades, and it's a different cat, I would say. But what is notable is I did speak to, I have spoken to multiple senior U.S.

military commanders who say that they would not target anything that does not have some military connection.

So if they were to hit an electrical plant, perhaps, maybe that electrical plant supplies power to a factory or a site where ballistic issues are. Missiles were being produced.

So they might be able to, they would then justify legally striking that electrical. That's not just willy-nilly striking the electricity for Tehran or for the civilians of Tehran. It may impact the civilians of Tehran, but each site, as you said, even a bridge, it might be used by the IRGC for their military vehicles to cross and to, frankly, leave and terrorize the population of Tehran. But I was assured by the military commanders that each target is passed through a legal council and they are given a legal ruling on whether it's lawful in terms of the laws of war. That's great insight and good to know.

And you're very right, by the way. Iran is a different cat, at least the Iranian regime is a different cat. It's a stubborn cat, by the way, because they haven't at any point wanted to negotiate in good faith with any previous administration. And so far, haven't.

So, hopefully, what we get from Vice President Vance or others, and Bill Himmer is reporting, maybe there is a hope that something comes of it. I do want to get to one thing, and that is one of the most interesting things that you were reporting on, which was brilliant reporting, was about the fact that even in between, and I'm now referring to the combat search and rescue of both the pilot, Dude44 Alpha, and then, of course, the weapon systems operator, Dude44 Bravo. What great call signs, by the way. I cannot wait for the book to be written in the movie to be made. I hope, by the way, the movie's entitled No Man Left Behind, because that was the message that this remarkable, extraordinary thing sent.

But then, in the middle of those two daring operations, you had the B2s go in and launch massive ordnance penetrators. Hitting an IRGC headquarters deep underground near Tehran. Expand a little bit on that. Really, quite remarkable. And that, I think, would have sent a message to Iran as well.

Well, I want to give full credit to our colleague Trey Yanks, who broke the news that Admiral Brad Cooper, in between the two rescues, had ordered several B-2 bombers to fly from Whiteman Air Base in Missouri, 36 hours round trip, refueled along the way, to drop those massive ordnance penetrator bunker buster bombs that we got to know so well during last summer's strikes on Iran's nuclear sites. This time, the target, as you mentioned, was an underground IRGC headquarters in Tehran. It was very far underground, and they got intelligence that members of the IRGC were there and the location. And Admiral Cooper, and it just shows the U.S. military can do more than one thing at the same time, despite the intensity of that rescue effort.

And he called in those B-2 bombers and struck the headquarters. And I'm told this morning that the battle damage assessments Suggests that the entire headquarters was destroyed. And the point of the strike, I'm told, was that the IRGC would have to scatter, the leaders would have to scatter, and they wouldn't have a place to meet. I'm surprised that, frankly, that headquarters had survived. They must not have had intelligence prior to now about it.

But I was told that the intelligence was time-sensitive, and that's why Admiral Cooper ordered those strikes on any other news day that would have led the news, except for this very daring rescue of the second crew member, which the details are, you know, as you said, right out of a Hollywood movie. Right out of a Hollywood movie. And so you're talking to these senior military guys. You know, what has been the chatter that you're having with them just about how odd they are on this CSAR that God dude for four Bravo out of there? And, you know, I remember from the time, look, when I was embedded in the invasion of Iraq with our friend Lieutenant Colonel.

Ollie North, we were with Kazavak Marine Unit and we were farping, we were leapfrogging farps with that thunder run to Baghdad. And you understand really what they set up to operate to bring in the C-130s, to have the little birds, the 200 plus, 155 aircraft participating. This is just, it's hard to put into words how dynamic, complex, and daring this was. Absolutely. And in fact, you talk about a CESAR operation.

This was multiple CSAR operations. I talked to one F-16 pilot who said when he flew, and he flew in three of the past wars since 9-11, he said every time he got into his plane and taxied down the runway, the last people he would see were the CSAR crews who were always waiting on standby, and he always saluted them because he knew if he went down, they would be coming for him.

So this was several hundred U.S. service members involved, all special operators, all the highest trained pilots. If you just talk for one moment about the A-10 Warthog pilots, they're known as Sandys because they're trained for so long. And their job is to Put themselves between, in harm's way, between enemy fire and enemy forces that are approaching a target where somebody is needing to be rescued. And I'm told there were more than a dozen A-10s involved.

One of them, we reported, was hit by such by gunfire and didn't think he could make it back, but did somehow hobble his A-10 back to Kuwaiti airspace. And then he decided to carry out a managed and controlled crash and ejected himself from the plane, but put it down in a safe place. And then that A-10 obviously had to be destroyed. But we just, what we witnessed in terms of contingency planning is when those two MC-130 transport aircraft that were carrying the three helicopters and were waded down and got stuck in the wet sand at that airstrip that the U.S. military had set up 200 miles inside enemy territory in Iran.

When they got stuck, quick decision making and more transport aircraft that were lighter and able to land on that sand were sent to rescue not only the crews of those MC-130s, but also the crew on board didn't stop for a moment. They took out the helicopters that they had landed with, the three helicopters. They had taken the rotors off so that they could fit inside the back of the MC-130. And in 10 minutes apiece, they reattached the rotors and those three helicopters were off and running and part of the rescue operation.

So it's just, it's eye-watering thinking about what these pilots went through and some of them under, many of them under fire, some of them with damaged aircraft and helicopters who still managed to get to safety and there were no casualties on Saturday. It's really extraordinary. When they make the movie, there won't be a dry eye in that theater when the credits start rolling. And those warthogs, I'm glad you braised those warthogs. They're about to get rid of those warthogs.

They need to keep the ATN Warthog. Take it to me. Take it from me, I remember. I have heard for 18 years that they've tried to zero out the A-10 warthog, and they know how popular that plane is with anybody who's ever been stuck on the ground. If they get rid of those A-10 Warthogs, you're going to have a massive protest.

My bet is that we're not going to be getting rid of any A-10 Warthogs anytime soon. No, I'm going to be part of the protesters if they do, because I remember I spent a lot of harrowing hours inside Saddam's palace today. We took it with the 5th Marines. We were pinned down because the Iraqis were firing out of a mosque. The OROE at the Pentagon said you can't fire back.

And then finally, we were stuck so hard, they said, bring in the Sandys. And that took about two minutes to fix that problem. Jennifer Griffin, great reporting. I know you're busy. I'll let you go.

Thank you for taking time. Joining us here on the Brian Kilmead Show. Thank you, Griff. All right. And this is Griff Jenkins on the Brian Kilmead Show.

We will be right back. Real talk, real guests, real insight, where curiosity meets conversation. It's the Brian Killmeat Show. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmead. This is the Brian Kilmead Show, Griff Jenkins, with the high honor of getting in to fill in for Brian today on what has been a really remarkable news day in hours to go to find out what will be the fate of Iran, President Trump raising the stakes, the escalation ladder, as they often refer to, could not be higher.

And it feels also that this is undoubtedly a day that is historic, where, however, it turns out, and this is historic in one sense, if you step back a little bit, to whether or not this president, in this case, Donald Trump, chose to stop a messianic death cult of Iran that has spent almost 50 years wanting to destroy America, whether he went to lengths we've never seen to stop him from getting a nuclear weapon. Previous administrations didn't stop another. Dangerous. Administration regime from getting a nuclear weapon. And that was North Korea, Kim Jong-un.

But President Trump has created a relationship with Kim Jong-un at the White House. He interestingly talked about his relationship with Kim Jong-un, and he had strong words for the failures of the previous president, Joe Biden, to foster such a relationship with a nuclear power. Listen. Kim Jong-un, who I get along with very well, as you know. Did you notice he said very nice things about me?

He used to call uh Joe Biden a mentally retarded person.

Okay, so don't tell me about. yourself. Joe Biden, he said he's a mentally retarded person. He was so nasty to Joe Biden. It was terrible.

But to me, he likes Trump. Yeah. I'm not sure, listeners, what we should make of that. That is an interesting thing. I actually, when I heard that, I leaned into ChatGPT.

That's what everybody uses now, AI. I said, hey, AI, is there any record of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean despot, from ever mentioning such words of President Joe Biden being retarded? But I couldn't find it, but that doesn't mean I don't believe President Trump. The fact, though, is clear. It does illustrate that when American administrations are not willing to go to the length to stop dangerous tyrants and despots.

From getting a nuclear weapon, then you see what happens. This is Griff Jenkins filling in for Brian Killmead. It's been great. Brian's back tomorrow.