From Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmeade. Thanks so much for being there, everybody. It's the Brian Kilmeade show. We have a big hour coming your way.
Craig Carton, host of the Craig Carton show on Outkick in WFAN, host. He's going to break down last night's Thursday night game, where the man, the biggest surprise this year so far for me, are the Browns. Browns beat the Steelers.
Now with our controversy, not their fault. Controversy on the Steelers' side. Mark Penn is with us. He's going. He's the CEO and chairman of Stagwell.
He doesn't need anyone's opinion. He Finds out what everyone's thinking when it comes to these elections, and extremely fair when it comes to Republican and Democrat. Doesn't lean either direction; just wants the facts.
So let's get to the big three. Number three, we are prepared for it. There's no doubt about the fact that they're trying to likely escalate. They're pulling out all the stops. Their influence operations inside the United States, assisted by other countries, is pretty significant.
That is General Jack Keane with me on Fox and Friends. We are sending another aircraft carrier to the Gulf. Ten thousand more sailors and Marines. Is this a full-fledged? Is the full-fledged fighting about to start again?
Knowing what happened with these would-be terror attacks in the UK and over Saudi Arabia. Number two, one of the only pieces of good news for the administration right now is that the average price of gas nationally has dropped 13 cents in the last week. Republicans can use all the help they can get, and falling gas prices will be a help to them heading into the election. Tom Bevin from Real Clear Politics, hands-on fighting—that's what Trump is doing in the last 30 days as he outlines what is his party, what his party has to do in the terms of pulling off an upset in New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Michigan, and holding. On to states like Texas and Maine.
Number one. At that moment, I was fighting for my life. But there was a moment when I realized I had fallen down due to my injuries. I realized that the aircraft is going down, and I was still getting hit. But I opened the door.
That was key. The pilot, a true hero from India, descend talking to President Modi about what he did as he recovers from his stab wounds from his co-pilot. You heard it. The hero pilot speaks. We have the latest as all eyes point to a.
Fingers, I should say too. But let's bring in Mark Penn. Mark, clearly the president feels like this is an emergency. He says, "I'm going to be on the road basically all the last 31 days." And yesterday, Oklahoma and Texas. He's going to Alabama and places like Arkansas.
What does that tell you about how he feels about his red states?
Well, look, it says that he's he's gone code red, so to speak. In terms of making sure that midterm turnout is high, are fundamentally about turnout. They're really not about persuading a lot of people. If you if you kind of look at it now, about a hundred look, we have two hundred and fifty million eligible voters. There are about a hundred and fifty million who vote in the presidential race.
We're about a hundred and twelve million who vote in a in a midterm.
So so that means you know really only about. You know, forty percent of the voters come out in the midterms, so turnout is everything, and so the president is a turnout machine, and he's been there to stimulate the Republican turnout.
So, in terms of the, do you think, in his mind, first, first, win the keep the Senate, and then the House? Yeah, look, I, I think that, like, it is almost a hundred percent of the times in midterms. How the house turns over, right? Almost, almost every year. I did ninety-eight; it did not turn over, but almost all the time it does.
So there's nothing exceptional about that. And actually, I don't think it's going to make much of a difference in the in the last two years. The Senate is really where it could make a difference because it slows down judicial appointments. And if the if the Democrats get the Senate, that obviously will not will not go along where they need judicial appointments the way that things have been structured here, and so that's actually kind of the biggest problem. I don't think legislatively there's a big problem, and there's no problem.
Look, if the Republicans want to run a bunch of investigations and impeachments, it's not going to help them. It's going to rebound. It's going to, I think, boomerang the other way. Yeah, I think they would be such a waste of time because knowing too. Donald Trump's done.
So, but Rokanis said a couple weeks ago, he said, "Oh no, we're going to look into impeachment because everyone should everyone should be accountable." Good luck with that. You know, Real Clear Politics. Tom Bevin said, "This is where it's trending that could help the president cut twenty-seven." The one metric to look at, obviously, presidential job approval, is gas prices. And the good news, one one of the only pieces of good news for the administration right now, is that the average price of gas nationally has dropped 13 cents in the last week. It went from about 4.50 down to about 4.37.
If that continues, the cake is pretty much baked at this point. But Republicans can use all the help they can get, and falling gas prices will be a help to them heading into the election.
So.
So and right now they did go down slightly, but still, and they're still on average above what Joe Biden had. But what do you think people going to keep in mind when it comes to voting? Most most polls show affordability or the economy is number one. Yeah, I think this is where you know it's where the Republicans and Trump ought to put a lot of effort. You know, average the the kind of inflation you had in the Biden years was about eight percent.
Inflation now is down to three percent or below, even with the the conflict in Iran artificially raising inflation eight percent, three percent. Most voters think it's the opposite, right? It's surprising how much misinformation there is really out there about the economy. That so far, despite I think a lot of attempts. The administration has not been able to turn around the picture.
This is a good economy, and it is a good economy that that is producing growth, that is bringing inflation down, that is that is driven by consumer spending and tremendous investment in AI, and that's not what the voters think. The voters think that it's a very bad economy. People do feel that that they're that they're hurting, and so it's always a tricky thing for a campaign. Are people hurting, and do you recognize that? Are the numbers actually improving in a way that they're so much better than they were on inflation?
There's no question about it. It's not even close. Yeah, you know what's interesting is Mark Teeson has this very comprehensive column today. Not cheerleading, but just going over using the numbers. Consumer prices today are 27 higher than they were in January 2021, but it's almost entirely out of the 127 you spend now.
A hundred dollars of it is because of because of what happened during the Biden years. Biden bears the lion share of the blame for the increase. The consumer price index was rose 21.4 from. 2021 to 2024 to 2025 rather, 4.8 percent under Trump. You would think it was all Trump, judging by what's going on in the news right now.
About 80 percent of higher prices Americans are paying today is due to Biden era inflation. Though prices have gone up at a slower pace during the Trump term, they have not returned to pre-Biden levels. You would not know that. In January 2021, Biden takes office. 30-year mortgage, 2.65 percent.
He hands Off the rate at six percent, but now it's at seven percent, and people are blaming Trump. The average gas price was three forty-three a gallon on Trump's second term, which is lower than the average for Biden, which was three dollars and eighty-nine cents. And Trump's the one drilling. And with building the pipelines, Biden was the one stopping it all, and getting it from Venezuela and draining the draining the strategic oil reserve.
So one thing I would say, if I'm a Republican, ask the Democrats how you're going to make life affordable. I don't know what they said except for Medicare for all and and up the tax rate on billionaires.
Well, Brian, I don't know why you're letting facts get in the way of narrative campaigning here. Look, the the truth is, inflation was much higher, and it was driven by massive government spending. And the basic argument is, it was eight percent.
Now it's three percent. You want to go back to eight percent, or do you want it to go down after the Iran War is over, back to two percent, and that will bring interest rates down as well. It's kind of simple, but you know that's not what the voters are hearing, and and that's the disconnect. That's the challenge that that Republicans have in the next thirty days: how to get what what people think is happening in the economy and what happened under Biden. Because right now, if I ask people, who do you think is more to blame for inflation?
They will say Trump and tariffs. Over the Biden administration, despite the fact that it was four to one, four to one Biden over Trump in terms of actual inflation over time.
So we noticed the remake of a lot of candidates. You know, you have El Sayyid pretending he is now pro socialist. Appeared multiple times in front of the DSA, and Hassan Piker was his rabbi during this (pun intended), and has been really coaching him all the way through. And but he's now acting like all I care about is nuts and. In Medicare for all and fixing people's lives.
Number two is Talerico. Talerico is trying to say either I misspoke or I've changed my mind. He now now he wants to work with Trump on the border.
Now he no longer wants to have a state tax that he wanted to put in before. He wanted to push back on oil and gas.
Now he's pro oil and gas and meat. But I think he was outed by Hassan Piker. Tell me if this is going to hurt for people in Texas that are undecided and thinks Talarico is eloquent and might be and might be moderate. Listen to this, cut thirty three. Hopefully, insha'Allah, after James Talarico wins, okay, we got to hold him to account.
We got to make sure that he doesn't become another do nothing Democrat, business as usual. We have to remind him. That we are the force that backed him both early on, and we are the force that allowed him to win this seat of power. And if he wants to maintain it, he's got to play ball.
So, if they want to make believe Talarico is John Fetterman, but Hassan Piker made it clear he's he's his guy, which is a far left zealot. Bro, looks. I have been really pretty clear on the Hasan Piper thing. He he he is a hundred percent anti-American. He you know he his comments that that America is a dog s company, country and the deserved nine eleven that he would choose Hamas over Israel any day of the week.
They are so outrageous and out of any values that that. Frankly, either party should stand for that. I believe every Democratic or Republican candidate should completely disavow him because until we disavow this kind of complete, you know, anti-Americanism that would really fundamentally against our values, how is our politics going to advance at all? And in terms of whether or not Democrats are kind of hiding their agenda after the primary, well. You know that's the voters are going to have to judge on that.
There is a pretty good history. You could look at Spampurger in Virginia, right? You look at people who said they were moderate now and even get elected, and all of a sudden they move to a farther left agenda because there's just so much power of the left in the Democratic Party, and until that changes, that means any Democrat that you elect. Is probably going to be drawn over to the left because that's where the power is, and otherwise they're going to get primaryed and thrown out.
So, Mark Penn, when you were working for the Clintons, I was not involved in politics; I was doing sports, but I always was passionate about it. And I remember Bush forty-one and Bill Clinton. You know, one of the issues was you know the military background and how much military spending there would be. And Bill Clinton, I felt it was like center right over center left. And there wouldn't be that much of a difference, except for personalities, a youth movement, a changing of the guard, that type thing.
You know, obviously he's so much more eloquent. Even George H. W. Bush would say how great a speaker Bill Clinton was. It just seemed less of a difference between the parties than we have right now.
Am I right? Am I remembering correctly?
Well, of course you're right. I mean, look, we we had the divided government. Remember. There were the first two years of Bill Clinton, where the country said, "Wait, that's too far to the left." Then Republican Congress came in, and and at that point, Bill Clinton got together with the Republican Congress, and they said, "Let's deal with let's let's maybe do something with immigration. Let's do something with welfare reform, and most importantly, the the balanced budget agreement.
But let's do it as we used to say, according to our values." So we were always about preserving fundamental safety net and other programs, and expanding those programs for people who needed them, with an element of responsibility. And frankly, President Clinton's ratings soared into the into the seventies, and it was a very unified country in so many different ways. I mean, it's unfortunate that impeachment, you know, came in when it did because actually it was it was. There was tremendous unification and accomplishment during during those years because the parties worked together to find solutions to the problems. That's obviously not what you're seeing today.
I think it'll come back. I just do. At one point, I think we got to get to the point where, yeah, I won, but you didn't lose. And so, what what are the three things we can work on, and then how do we do it? For example, with welfare reform, you said responsibility.
Bill Clinton had welfare reform where there was a work requirement. He agreed to that. I'm not sure that any Democrat would agree to that today. And I know Trump did that through an executive order. I think no, excuse me, he did that through the big beautiful bill.
But do you ever think something like that, like a Democrat would sign off on a work requirement when it comes to when it came to welfare?
Well, that that actually was one of one of the bigger debates. One one hopes that they would because I think what what they were trying to do was say no, there absolutely have to be you know good programs for people in need, but no, we want to make sure the people who don't need it or can work don't get it.
So there was an element of responsibility, and that bridged over to a lot of soft Republicans who said, you know what, that makes. That makes a lot of sense to me. Look, people forget that for forty years in the fifties, in the forties, in the fifties, of the sixties, it was the seventies. It was often a Republican president and a Democratic Congress, and it was standard fare in the country to get things done by the two parties working together. That was how almost everything, you know, had to be accomplished.
So.
So, look, we're a long way from that right now. This is not happening. And in the next couple of years, we'll see what happens in the next presidency. But, but I think there's a midterm election here. It's going to turn on turnout.
There's an economy that's, I think, better than the Republicans are able to depict it, depict it as. And and hopefully, the country will come together more and that we'll reject some of the extremism. That's really being pedaled, particularly through social media, and it's taking our politics really off course. I hear you, Mark Penn, CEO and Chairman of Stagwell Inc. Thanks, Mark.
Thank you, Brian. Back in a moment. In a world of noise, get the signal sharp, informative, and always on point. You're listening to Brian Kilmeade. Radio that makes you think.
This is the Brian Kilmeade Show. We are prepared for it. There's no doubt about the fact that they're trying to likely escalate, and certainly the terror operation in the UK may be a part of that. Radicalized Islamic individual, certainly on the on the aircraft, is likely the outcome. Whether it's related to Iran, will take something to see.
But they're pulling out all the stops to influence operations inside the United States. Assist. By other countries is pretty significant. What they want is an outcome here that's very different. That the opposition parties take control of the Congress of the United States and shut the war down.
That they believe is the best pathway forward for them, as opposed to having to fight us.
So why wouldn't they want to pursue that objective? And they're doing that as much as they can. That is General Keen, and General Keen pointed out. That the 25-page letter, open letter, 25 pages, like we're going to read it to the American people, saying essentially elect Democrats should blow up in their face. If you, if our arch enemy and our terroristic enemy is saying please vote for the other party, doesn't that make you say unless you're dug in for the left or dug in for the right, you're not going to move anyway?
But if you are independent or undecided. And you find out that Iran wants you to vote for Democrats. That would that would be enough. And then if I'm in Texas and I say, "Well, you know, I don't really like Ken Paxton. Is not that likable of a guy?" and Tellerico has changed all his positions, and maybe he's going to be more moderate.
Maybe he's going to be like John Fetterman. Maybe I'll give him a chance. And then Hassan Piker weighs in and says, "I put him in this position. He will do what I say, which is extreme left socialist policies, and there I say pro-Islamist policies." You're listening to Brian Kilmeade. Breaking news, unique opinions.
Hear it all on the Brian Kilmeade Show. Nola two zero to Harris, swinging a drive out to right. Harper measuring it off, looking up, and it's gone. Albie with a swing and a drive. Harper looking up, and that one's gone.
Out toward the Braves bullpen, Nelson has a solo shot, and the Atlanta Braves are moving on to the division series. They go, they move on. The Phillies are out six two. They win the best of three two games to one, and Philadelphia goes down on the road. With me right now is Craig Cardin.
He's really enjoyed this. Probably he won't say it. But it probably is his highlight of the week.
Now it's been three years. Listen to the Phillies lose. Probably both. I think it's fifty-fifty. Not a surprise, right?
No, listen. They were the road team, right? They were the wild card team. Ah, so yeah, not a surprise. And we don't wish anything good on Philadelphia.
And as a New Yorker, we like seeing Philadelphia lose. But do you like Mattingly getting fired by his son? Yeah, that's a weird spot, right? Cut forty-eight. Do you want to come back?
Do you think you've earned the right to come back? I don't. It's not the time to talk about anything like that. Not concerned about myself in this situation. Want the Phillies to do what you know they need to do to to set themselves up for success.
Yeah, I'm not really. We'll see what. I don't. I don't know what. I don't really like.
My stuff doesn't really matter. I love Donny Baseball. Every New Yorker does. If I was the New York Mets, I'd wait for him to get fired, and I would have hired him. I know Andy Green's going to keep the job there, but that's got to make it for a very awkward Thanksgiving dinner.
Son, pass me the turkey. Yeah, go get the turkey yourself, right? Craig Carton is also a host of Outkick, the Craig Carton show. You talk about everything. Yeah, yeah, it's it sports, culture, some politics.
Like today in the show, I have a Holocaust survivor on, so we kind of run the gamut of things that I'm interested in, and hopefully, not going with the audiences too. Yeah.
So one thing about Mattingly, I think he said, "I don't want to manage." And then there's a firing. He goes, "All right, I'll take the job." Yeah, and he he wanted to be. He was bench coach in Toronto. Then he. comes over almost won a World Series.
Yeah, he still never gotten one, even as a coach or a manager. And he replaced Rob Thompson, who got his job when Joe Girardi got fired, and led them to a World Series without the win. He's one of those guys you feel for. He's a great baseball player. He's one of the great Yankee players of all time without a title, and that's a very small group of people.
But you know, he's a baseball lifer. That's what these guys do.
So I want to bring it to the Yankees dominant, right? Yeah, it's crazy.
So crazy because they don't. Don't have Stan and they don't have Judge, and the Boston Red Sox want the rematch. At one point, they were the hottest team in baseball for what three months, two months.
So the Yankees win the game two nine to two. Their chances against Tampa. A good Tampa is a better team. Tampa was better than them all year long.
So it's interesting to me that the Yankees are favored, which just I think placating the New York fans are excited because of the way they played against the Red Sox. Those back-to-back wins against the Red Sox were the two best back-to-back games the Yankees offense had the entire season. It does come down to pitching, though, and if you have a five game series, which is what they have against Tampa, and the Yankees have Cam Schlitler in two of those five games, and he's the best pitcher in baseball right now, and Max Freed, the best lefty in baseball, for one of those games, and Garrett Cole, Cy Young Award winner, for one of those games, and theoretically Carlos Rodon, who's pitched his ass off the last month, I don't see how the Yankees don't advance. I'll tell you this: whoever wins that series is. Going to the World Series, I would think.
Yes, because the Guardians and White Sox can't beat them. How much trouble is baseball in? I mean, Houston has make the playoffs. I know they had a 500 year, but. That's would the Mets won the division with a 500 record?
They would be sellout. When you say sellout in the playoffs, 21,000 empty seats. That's embarrassing. Atlanta, the same thing. Atlanta's always been good at baseball.
Atlanta is a lousy pro sports town. Great college town with all the you know college football down there. They didn't sell out any one of the three games against the Phillies, including last night, which is an elimination game. Houston, I'm sure you've Great respect for the fine people of Houston. That is a dump.
All the city. I'm banned from Houston, so I can say that. Right. You know who didn't like it, Yogi Berra. Remember he complained about the mosquitoes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Remember he was. Remember when he stopped talking to George Steinbrenner, and he went to Houston as a manager. He used to say, "Why is it so hot?" You know. Yeah.
Well, he was right. May he rest in peace. But yeah, Houston's just an awful, awful city. Last night, it looks like Aaron Rodgers had a bit of a blow up with Mike McCarthy. Evidently, they were slow getting in plays, and you could hear him.
You could actually hear him. You blank hole. I mean, come on. Yeah, I know you're 42 and going to the Hall of Fame, but you got to show your coach more respect. And then the coach cursed him out.
He called him. I obviously can't say an F and then an A. And he said after the game, he goes, "I wish I'd used different words because I recognize that you know you could read my lips." So, but they go back a long, long way. But they ended not speaking. Yeah, it was a weird thing.
Fired McCarthy. Yeah, yeah. When he left Green Bay, yeah, then he went went to Dallas. And actually took the Cowboys to a playoff game, but to me, just real quick, if I can, so the two stories from last night's Thursday night game: number one, Deshaun Watson and the Browns beat the Steelers. I should say, yeah, beat the Pittsburgh Steelers three and one.
Unbelievable. When's the last time the Browns were three and one? But Amazon did something that I'm I'm surprised most more people don't find objectionable. They have Taylor Rooks, very attractive, very good host. She's their lead host for all the Amazon sports coverage.
Okay, and she's very good at what she does. All right, she happens to be a beautiful woman as well. They had a woman sit down one-on-one with a guy that was accused of two dozen sexual assaults. Doesn't that seem a bit odd to you? And the interview, and I think it's his first national interview since he always come back, and finally he's now playing well for the Cleveland Browns.
At no point do they bring up what happened all the five, four years ago, and they try to turn him into a sympathetic figure. Why? Because he's winning. And it's like the old thing: as long as you win in the NFL, it doesn't matter what you do; it sugarcoats everything.
Well, a couple of things come to mind. Number one, I didn't see it, so I can't comment on it. But I did read the headline about it. They didn't bring it up. He's got help.
Part of it was, oh, you got help.
So if you had a problem, yeah, and you're getting help, they emphasize that. That's as close as they got to because you should get help and you should become a better person. You know, I've had my, you obviously things play out in public, and I got help, and I'm a better person. They did a documentary on HBO about. Yes, they did.
Yeah, called a wild card. Yeah, so I've lived it. A different type of situation, my background than his, but you just put a woman into a situation with a guy that allegedly was like a serial rapist, right now. He was never convicted criminally. Multiple grand juries did not indict him.
That's going to be part of that story. But how do you do that interview and try to turn him into a sympathetic figure and ask him how did you handle all the negativity, Deshawn? Greg, we talked about this last week. Those pregame shows—they don't ask. They're garbage.
There's no. There's no. And again, she's good at what she does. Fear of losing the football contract. Exactly right.
Because that deal, the. NFL, or as you know. Blesses damn near everything that happens with all their partners. Fox is a partner for a long time. CBS, of course.
Now you have Amazon and Netflix and all these other partners. But I thought that to be really interesting, especially in a week where I'm sure you guys have discussed it many times already. This week, the number one story in America is the Cornell Seven story.
Now that's going to have that's going to play itself out. But kind of an odd week to make a guy that's accused of what he was accused of appear. To be sympathetic, it's got to be an executive decision.
So I'm curious what into that, and we'll see what happens if anyone's going to comment on that.
So.
Also, adding to this to the game itself, they they they open up three and one. Aaron Rodgers did something else. He scores a touchdown and he taunts the fans. He ties the game. Yes, yeah.
He gets the they they get the field goal. They go ahead and he throws an interception and the game. Yeah, you don't want to get you don't want to taunt people and then lose. You better taunt when you win. Yeah, right.
And then go win the game. I got no problem taunting once it says zero zero zero on on the clock, so that you can say I'm a winner, you're a loser. Right when You taunt. And the fine people of Cleveland do not to be taunted. They've been through so much.
Let's be honest about it. And they show up. And they show up. I was a season ticket holder in the dog pound. Really?
Back in nineteen ninety two, ninety three. What were you doing there? I was doing Sports Talk Radio, a three W E radio, which is a legendary conservative talk station back at AM eleven hundred in Cleveland. And yeah, and I love the people of Cleveland, and I had a great time there. But the most underestimated season city.
They really rebuilt that place, didn't they? Yeah.
Well, they built the thing this downtown area called the Flats, yeah, and they revitalized that. Then they revitalized the actual inner city part of the downtown Cleveland. They built the Jake with the you know the former the Guardians downplay. It's a great town. I'm sure they're big Fox fans.
Well, Cleveland's a great, great city. Yeah.
By the way, we yeah, I know the RNC was there, and everyone's like, "Well, Cleveland's going to be terrible." No, it's great. Rockwell Hall of Fame is there.
So I want to bring up something else that we do agreed on off the disagreed on off the air. What is that? And that is, I thought it was such a great message for the Giants with a brand new coach and a brand new regime to say, "Hey, Jackson Dart's out for the year." But I'm going to go get a promising a val a val one time first round draft pick. Yeah, I'm going to go get JJ McCarthy to back up James Winston because I'm not giving up on this. Oh, that's the message you take out of that.
That's that's the message that America takes. Is there a camera on me right now? Yeah, is this camera? Is that the camera? Yeah, we're streaming.
We're streaming.
So everybody that loves Brian Kilmeade, yes, he is a delusional York Giants fan. But I love it. That's fandom right there. Getting JJ McCarthy. I have a strong argument, but I want to hear yours.
Okay, so. Go getting JJ McCarthy is not a sign to fans like yourself that we're not giving up on the season. It's a message to Jameis Winston that you're not very good, and we're not going to put up with you that much longer. JJ McCarthy was the tenth overall pick by the Minnesota Vikings. Sadly, he's an abject failure thus far into his NFL career.
Any different, but you know, Sam Darnold, same thing, same exact thing, same thing.
So he goes to the Jets and. He sees ghosts and he leaves, and he goes a backup in San Francisco. But he has a great coach with him, picks up a lot when he's asked to fill, and he goes to fill, and then he goes to Minnesota to be a backup, correct? And then JJ McCarthy gets hurt, and he plays extremely. Is that right?
Sam Donald won fourteen games, fourteen games, and then he goes. Let me go to Seattle. Really, you're gonna go? Yeah, we got JJ McCarthy. You could go.
That's exactly right. Goes and wins the Super Bowl. Yep.
So the failure. Had all this ability, probably has more physical ability. JJ McCarthy, yeah. Sam Darnold was a far better college quarterback, even though JJ won a national championship with that you know corrupt program in Michigan. Sam Darnold was a rock star coming out of USC, as you know.
JJ McCarthy is probably a good kid, and maybe will be a backup quarterback for the next decade. But if you're trying to sell me on the fact that the Giants getting JJ McCarthy to you as a fan is the indicator that the Giants are going to win a. Super Bowl.
Well, I didn't say that. Fox needs to start a drug testing policy. No, that's that's true. They have started. Yeah, I've three of every four I pass.
Okay, for the one, yeah, you don't have. Does not have to be a hundred percent. You just got to get close. Yeah, go almost passed. You could.
Oh, I love that.
So, so Craig, I think you have twisted my words because I know you do this all the time on WFAN. Me? Yes. I didn't say Super Bowl, but it shows you this this team that won a handful of games over the last two years against a new coach. Invest in it.
You don't have to win right away. Just build a program. Sure. Says I like when I'm we're building.
So they open up two and one. They got to play the Cardinals. Excellent chance to be three and one. And Jameis Winston, a solid backup. I'm going to give another guy potentially who could do it.
So John Harbaugh doesn't say I hope he's good. He calls up Jim, his brother, and Jim coached him for four years. And he said, I love you, and I love him. You guys going to work together? You show that guy if he's good, like a Hostetler, good to Sims and.
When he's out, right?
So if he's good at the end of the year, Dart's healthy, and this guy, because he gets you in the playoffs. JJ McCarthy, JJ McCarthy gets you close or in the playoffs. Yeah, at the end of the year, Dart gets the job back. Why McCarthy goes? McCarthy gets traded for a number two pick because now he shows he can play.
Like I said, this is the Oxford debate. This is the Oxford debate. You go, my turn. Like, so first off, if JJ McCarthy did something that only Daniel Jones has done in the last decade, and that is get the New York Giants into a playoff, right? It's been that long, okay?
You think that they come back next year and just hand the job back to Jackson Dart? They don't have to.
Well, they will. I mean, they don't have to trade McCarthy, but I think, of course, Dart gets the job back. Dart is. Dart is why? What's Jackson Dart ever done for the New York Giants?
At this point, he's clearly better than Eli Manning was at this point. Remember Eli Manning? Jackson Dart has played in twelve games. He's four and eight. Right.
But what have you seen out of Jackson Dart that makes you think he's a franchise? I do this thing called watching. Yeah, right. Ever hear this thing? You watch glasses.
Right. Absolutely. I got LASIK surgery. I've done this. Better than 2015.
I will say this: I respect the fandom a great deal.
So you think it's so awesome? You're diminishing my argument by It's like I want to say stick to politics. That's what I want to say to you.
So how right have I been so far? I can't tell you what. You're going to the game this weekend? Yeah.
Okay. You're die-hard Giant fan. It's great that you go to games. That's awesome. I'm sure you're in a suite with security, as you should, because you're very popular.
That being said, not true, by the way. But we go. Let's move on.
Next Friday, when I come in and sit down with you. Yes. When the Giants are two and two and lost at home. To the Arizona Cardinals, and Jameis Winston throws three interceptions.
Okay, are you going to sit here and say you still believe that the season is going to end well? I don't think I think you agree with me. You don't think he knows the playbook enough to go. I don't think he's a very good quarterback. No, but McCarthy doesn't know it.
Oh no, JJ can't play yet.
Okay, yeah, that's not on him. He's got to learn the playbook. I'm pulling for Jameis Winston's most likable guy in sports. He's a great person. Yeah, I'm pulling for him.
But I do wonder. I watched him check the defense. He's checking the defense like I would. Yeah, his head is going back and forth. Like I've never seen this before.
It's called this defensive back. He's in over his head a little bit. A little bit. But I do think next week. You guys play the Bears, I think, after Arizona.
I think have that right. Could JJ McCarthy theoretically be the starter? Yes, I will tell you that that's a possibility. Wow, that would that would mean you almost got to cut Jameis Winston if he could lose the job to a guy that's other for one week. It's like a seven million dollar cap hit if they do that.
But Winston a great point. Winston said he threw for four hundred yards, three interceptions, and these guys would tell me I'm too erratic.
Now I throw for a hundred and something yards and we win, and you said, what's wrong with me? Yeah, and by the way, you saw. Your coach, Sean Harbour, was wearing the the shirt, which is kind of weird to me. One and O, it's kind of like a high school thing. Like we need to motivate professional athletes making tons and tons of money every week.
We're trying to go one and O, but I get it. It's what coaches do. The reality is that what he did say about Jameis is right. All you have to do is win. Yep.
Nobody looks back and goes, "Oh, that was an ugly win in week three." Just win. Stack wins if you can. And every time you're on the show, Craig, I consider it a win for our show. Thank you. Cannot wait for Outkick.
The Craig Carton shows on Outkick. Go to Outkick dot com. And how many shows you doing a week? Ah, five, five shows every day of the week. We're doing a show.
Wow. Who's raising your family? Who's raising? I have a wife. Right.
Yep.
I got twenty chickens and a dog. That's all you need. They won't move that. All right, Craig Carton. Thanks so much.
Back in a moment. Illuminating, intriguing, incoking. I know some of these words. It's Brian Kilmeade. Shaq here.
What's it like to buy a car from Carvana, 100% online, and get it delivered to your door? Let me tell you. Your car is here, Mr. Shack. Thank you, Mr.
Carvana guy. Can't wait to take it for a spin. Only the best for you, Mr. Shack. Hey, have you always been so big, tall, and handsome?
Not always. I was six ten once. Seven days to love it or return it, Mr. Shack. Not that I would.
You never do. No, I never do.
So buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply. See our seven-day return policy at Carvana.com. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmeade.
What's your personal deadline for deciding when you're going to run? Fate. You know, they say, "What is it? Do you meet?" I've said it on so many different occasions, in so many different days, in so many different ways. I'll continue to say the same thing because it still applies.
That moment will arrive when it arrives. You'll know it. You know, you know.
Sort of hits you. Not just here; it hits you here.
So, what is he talking about? In that Vanity Fair article, he talks about how he looks up to Bill Clinton, how he kind of mentored him. He wants to do exactly what Bill Clinton did. One thing about Bill Clinton, he had the personal behavior was the issue. Gavin Newsom, he's admitted it.
He had had an affair during his marriage that still exists today.
So they got that in common. Bill Clinton was a really good communicator, and I think he was authentic. I really do. I mean, the stuff that he was not authentic about was his personal behavior.
So we can make that decision all you want, but in terms of going in and meeting people that have their backs against the wall, getting things done, understanding politics, and being bright, you're talking about a Rhodes Scholar. I don't look at Gavin Newsom as a Rhodes Scholar. I just don't. And I don't think he really stands for anything. Literally, he's the ultimate chameleon in politics, and he labels himself in this Vanity Fair article, where they really only say positive things, a disruptor.
He's not a disruptor. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just fifteen dollars a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments.
But that's weird.
Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com/slash-switch. Upfront payment of forty five dollars for three month plan, equivalent to fifteen dollars per month, required. Intro rate first three months only; then full price plan. Options available.
Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at MintMobile. dot com. From the Fox News Radio studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade.
So glad you're there. Everybody got good news. We have that YouTube channel. Everybody's talking about it. YouTube.com/slash/atthebriankillmeatshow.
I want everyone to subscribe. We give you a great perspective on what goes on. We give you the highlights and the entire radio show and other things on the YouTube channel. And also, coming up on the 13th, I'm just checking the calendar.
Sooner than you know it, Uniting the States: The Six Crucial Moments That Forged the American Miracle. Is going to be out. Got a special on Fox Nation about it, and it really highlights how this country came together and in in a way that not many people thought possible. And as you see these six great moments, you'll see how it could easily have gone the other direction. Another reason to celebrate America's 250th birthday.
Well, standing by is Josh Crashow. I want to break down the midterm politics, and also at the bottom of the hour, the latest on AI with Teresa Payton, who's a former White House Chief Information Officer under George W. Bush. She's also So, cyber security expert.
So, let's get to the big three. Number three, we are prepared for it. There's no doubt about the fact that they're trying to likely escalate. They're pulling out all the stops. They influence operations inside the United States, assisted by other countries.
Is pretty significant. That is General Jack Keane. We are sending another aircraft carrier to the Gulf. It's a full-fledged fighting about to start again because the would-be terror attacks in the UK and the would-be hijacking over Saudi Arabia. Number two, one of the only pieces of good news for the administration right now is that the average price of gas nationally has dropped 13 cents in the last week.
Republicans can use all the help they can get, and falling gas prices will be a help to them heading into the election. The up hand's on fighting. That's what Trump is doing now. Is he's going to sprint through these last 30 days? He says he's as committed as ever.
And think about it; it's his last big campaign. Upsets in Minnesota, New Hampshire, Michigan, and Texas—they could really flip the Senate back. And forth, I'm not sure where it ends, but it is going to be a dogfight. Number one. At that moment, I was fighting for my life.
But there was a moment when I realized I had fallen down due to my injuries. I realized that the aircraft is going down, and I was still getting hit. But I opened the door, and that is the pilot who's being stabbed by his co-pilot and still managed to open up the door and fight back and make sure that plane didn't crash. You heard it. The hero pilot speaks to India's president.
He's Indian descent, and we have the latest as all eyes point to Iran. Fingers, I should say. Josh Crashauer joins us now. Josh, when there's details of this plane about that would-be hijacking that was thwarted, come out. I'm stunned, stunned that there were pilots on board just flying as passengers.
Stunned that a plumber would hop behind the pilot seat as the plane was plummeting and pulled back on the yoke because he saw it on a TV show. And then, unbelievable, the way the passengers got up and subdued the would-be terrorist. It was a miracle, Brian, and I mean, I was you know I got a little misty watching the interview with with the Indian pilot who was a real not just a hero but just the training he had. The he was literally dying and bleeding to death, and was able to get open the cockpit and allow you know with seconds to spare the the Israelis and the people who who stormed the the cockpit and was able to neutralize the the co pilot, but. Everything had to go right.
I mean, the the fact that you had you know pile of people with training on board and they could fly the plane and landed in Saudi Arabia, and the fact you had this plumber who watched a documentary and understood he could how to how to how to make the plane stop from falling and descending and getting it stable again. The people who neutralized the the co-pilot and and really just listening to the the interview with with the Indian pilot talking to the Indian president Modi. Just a hero, and I hope we, you know, this is the kind of person who should be lauded and remembered. And at a time when we kind of highlight all kinds of frivolous things, this is someone who was a hero who saved 180 lives, and and and probably the most unlikely of circumstances.
So Benjamin Netanyahu was on Fox and Friends with me yesterday, and he said this about what we know about the attacker. Cut two.
Well, this is being investigated now, and as you know, the The attacker, the co-pilot who attacked the captain, is now being interrogated. But here's what we do know: First, we know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination. That appears to be something we're gathering from the information, his personal information. And he went on to say, one of the things he yelled when he was on the ground and tied up, "Kill me!" He was saying, "Kill me," which is that suicide, that suicide bomber mentality. And Doron Spielman, the spokesperson for the prime minister, said that he has postings, radical postings.
So we don't know his name, but you know the Israelis—they're finding out everything. Yeah, I mean, look, there's no doubt based on all the publicly available evidence that this is someone who. Was a radical Islamic extremist who had social media posts hating Jews, hating Israel, subscribing to a radical Islamist worldview. He was only apparently, I think, eight months was was was only with. It had a very little airline training experience.
He was pretty new, and and I think the big question, which which has not been answered, is whether that whether he was directed or there was any Foreign country like Iran, who was involved in the plot? I think it's very unclear. I know the president said yesterday he thought there were some indications of that. The Israeli prime minister also on Fox yesterday said he does not know and they don't have any evidence quite yet to conclude either way. But that's the big question: was was this involved?
Was there Iran? Was Iran involved? Was any other terrorist groups involved, or was this someone who was a lone wolf who just was brainwashed? By extremist Islamic ideology.
So the thing is, the Iranian is writing a twenty-five page letter to the U.S. to the American people, saying basically vote Democrat because we don't like Trump, and they think that Trump is going to cow-tow to the election cycle because we because every president does, and maybe he should, but he's not.
So afterwards, I'm going to take care of this. We'll see what happens.
Meanwhile, he's sending another aircraft carrier to the region, another 10,000 sailors and marines.
So they still can't figure out Trump. You know that, right?
Well, Brian, what I don't understand on the Democrats, I mean, and I get they're trying to play politics and people upset about the price of gas and and yeah, the wars. If you withdraw funding from and you and you basically try to force Trump's hand, if you take control. Congress. That's going to mean the war goes on even longer. You're literally just taking away American leverage, and and we've learned this week that the blockade that the U.S.
and the Trump administration has been pushing in in in the Strait of Hormuz is really pushing Iran to the brink, both economically and the fact that we've actually helped our allies get many exports and oil through through the Strait of Hormuz, and we're we're winning.
So if you just if you Do as almost every Democratic senator is calling for now, and cutting off funding to fight the you know to continue the operations in Iran, it's only going to guarantee that the war goes on longer, and is going to guarantee Iran is more successful.
So I look, I think the Republicans could do a better job messaging that because I logically I don't understand how cutting off funds. At a time when we're actually pushing our leverage effectively, is going to do anything to hasten the end of a war? We, whether you like the war or not, it's already underway, and the Iranians have some say in the matter.
So, the notion that cutting off funds is going to, you know, end the war is delusional, and it's only going to lead to. I mean, you're seeing the terrorist attack attempts in the UK and England. That's only going to continue if we surrender unilaterally.
So, I want to talk about some of the key races. Let's go to Texas, where James Talerico. Is trying to position himself a moderate, and he's telling other left wing Democrats, "Don't visit me." However, no one gave the message to Hassan Piker. He was asked about James Talarico. Here's what he said about the guy that now says, "I work with Trump on the border.
I no longer want a state tax. God is not binary. There a man, and I like meat. Really, cut thirty three." Hopefully, inshallah, after James Taylorica wins, okay, we got to hold him to account. We got to make sure that he doesn't become another do nothing Democrat, business as usual.
We have to remind him that we are the force that backed him both early on, and we are the force that allowed him to win this seat of power. And if he wants to maintain it. He's got to play ball. Excuse me.
So are we? Are the people of Texas voting on a left-wing radical? Are they voting on John Fetterman? Yeah, I will add a bit of reporting that we did a Jewish Insider about that event at the University of Texas with us on Piker. We asked the Talarico campaign whether they had anything to say about speaking out against the decision for the College Democrats.
This is the Democratic group on campus. To invite Hassan Piker to the campus, and they did not want to say anything. They didn't criticize it. A lot of Democrats have, by the way. Talarico's campaign remained silent.
They they essentially ghosted our questions.
So that now they're going to have to deal with the brunt of what he said on campus at a Democratic Party affiliated event with the University Democrats.
So.
That's a big problem, and and look, I I think we've talked about this a lot. I I think one thing that distinguishes the Texas race and the reason Texas is more competitive than usual is because Paxton is a very flawed nominee. But guess what? Talarico is also a very flawed nominee, well to the left of the average Texas voter.
So unlike in some of the other states, where I would argue that Democrats nominated stronger candidates who are ideologically closer to the the middle of the electorate, Talarico clearly, you know, his record speaks for itself. He's well to the left. Of the average Texas voter, and I think that ultimately, given Texas's conservative bent, is going to be what does him in. Talarico is not, you know, the equivalent of a Roy Cooper in North Carolina, or even even you know, Sherrod Brown is very liberal, but he at least has a record of winning you know swing voters in the state of Ohio. Talarico, you know, he he has a long record in the state legislature of you.
You you you you play the best of hits, but that that stuff isn't going away, and people are learning about it as they watch television television ads. Yeah, pretty pretty impressive. I want you to see just on the facts of of what's going on.
So if you want to vote Democrat, vote Democrat. But you should understand, I don't see a plan to make life more affordable. High tax on billionaires. We know the top ten percent pay seventy percent of the taxes. Medicare for all.
Well, the whole Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer don't want Medicare for all.
So what are you talking about?
So is that what you are going to do?
Well, we're going to make Medicare.
Well, that that's not affordable. It's four trillion dollars. Can't afford that. And seniors don't want to be pushed to the back of the line.
So Mark Teeson did a column. I thought was really effective because he used numbers, not opinion. Even though that's what an editorial is. This what he said: Cut twenty five. Most of the cost of living, the higher prices that Americans are paying, are due to Biden era inflation, not to Donald Trump.
If you look at the the Consumer Price Index, consumer prices, they've gone up twenty seven point two percent over the last five and a half years from January twenty twenty one until today. That means that something you bought when Joe Biden took office in January twenty twenty one, something that cost a hundred dollars, now costs twenty a hundred and twenty seven dollars. Of that twenty seven dollars, twenty Twenty-one dollars happened under Biden. Eighty percent of it. Americans are upset because they're looking and saying, "I'm paying almost thirty percent more for everything right now than I did just a few years ago." But most of that is Biden-era inflation that has been locked in.
Now Trump has contributed to it, but at a much lower rate. And he goes, he goes through the the whole list. If you look at the interest rates, when Biden took over, they were two point eight percent. Right now, they're seven percent. But when Donald Trump got the wheel, it was six percent.
So it up one percent. Why? Because inflation was high. Who upped inflation? Joe Biden with his one point nine trillion dollar New Green Deal, which the or the Inflation Reduction Act, which was the New Green Deal, and then of course he had that immediate emergency spending when he came in, which we didn't need.
So the spending inflation. Dollars and Trump dropped in his lap. Even with the Iran war, on average, gas is less with Trump in Trump two than it was with Biden. One and done. Yeah.
Well, any successful. Campaign Republican campaign dealing with the national headwinds that they're facing has to make every race into a choice, not not not a referendum. And there's a lot of baggage that that Republican candidates can bring to the table. One thing that I don't, I think Mark may have actually mentioned this in his column is, and it's actually very newsworthy this week. The Trump withdrew some of the Biden era mandates and electric car regulations that that only actually significantly raised the price of cars and gas.
The environmental Regulations that were imposed by executive order in the Biden administration that has a very very significant effect on how much you'll pay for gas and how much you'll pay for your car. And Trump, you know, wiped them off the books this week. That's something that Republican candidates should be talking about. Like I do think there is a little bit of Fear and and and and and malpractice, frankly, with some of these Republican campaigns not honing in on the vulnerabilities of their opponents and the vulnerabilities of the Democratic Party and their record in in these key issues.
So yes, I mean I think the economy. Look, I think it's a little tough to say. I mean I think after two years in office, I think people generally will view Trump as owning the economy. At the same time, there are certain specific policies that Democrats were 100 behind that have contributed to the rising cost in cars, gas, and And so on, and I think being specific about that and pointing to the voting records and the public records of the candidates they're running against is really going to be significant and important in those races.
So, Josh Crashauer, before I let you go, I believe both chambers are still in play. I really do. I mean, especially when you have booth in the margin of error on these Senate races. If someone says the Senate's lost for either or one for either side, I go, you are not paying attention.
So, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, I think the I would focus on the Senate. I do think that people over over overlook it when when you see a poll, people just all automatically assume it's gospel. Where we've learned in the last you know five ten years that polling has been off, and they tend to sample the most engaged voters and Republicans and Trump voters especially are people who don't like talking to pollsters, and they tend not to get as well sampled in these polls and. Especially in the Midwest, Midwest, there's been a proven and documented bias in midwestern polls towards the Democratic Party.
So when you look at Michigan, Ohio, those big midwestern battleground, Iowa, you know, remember Ann Coulter and being off by double digits in her in her 2024 presidential election poll, she's out of the business now because it was so discredited. But there are a lot of other polls that have been equally as questionable.
So I think that these are red state Senate races. These are states that Trump won by double digits. By eleven points or more in twenty twenty four, so I I I am skeptical that they're all going to swing blue, even in a in a good national environment for the Democrats on the House side. I do think that the you know the Democrats only need to win three House seats. I think the margin there is a lot smaller and much much more much easier to.
Yeah, let's see what redistricting has to do has to has to do with it, and see if the Texas does go the way they hoped when they redistrict, because I'm not sure they can if some of the Hispanic vote is truly lost from the Trump team. Josh, thanks so much, appreciate it. Thanks, Brian. Going to be exciting. Last 32 days.
At the bottom of the hour, I go into AI in detail. We try to keep politics out of it. Teresa Payton joins us. Don't move. Big guests, bold opinions, better information.
This is the Brian Kilmeade Show, the talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmeade. Workers like you and companies like this have. Always been loyal to our country, but for decades you were heartlessly betrayed by politicians, lousy politicians who let foreign trade cheaters plunder your wages, loot your factories, close up your jobs, and they robbed our country blind. They'd still be doing it if I wasn't here, believe me.
And they'll do it again if you don't get guys like Ken Paxton elected. You know, such a big race. It's such a big race, and I want to just say that he's been a friend of mine for a long time. One of the most loyal people. And he went on to say he's the best AG in the country.
Even though he made some disparaging comments about Donald Trump, said that whole convention hurt him in the polls. I don't know how he's within one point in most polls. Our poll is down to three, but I think it's margin of error stuff, obviously. And the other thing about Ken Paxton, he's getting something close to one hundred twenty million dollars in thirty days. He's going to flood the airways.
It's a little late. I would have been like this at the very latest Labor Day, but having said that, that'll close two points. Plus, Talarico with Hassan Piker is just huge because it reveals this guy. If you do do believe that he's gone moderate, just know he hasn't. Because, and I'm going to do this on One Nation on Sunday at 10 o'clock.
If you got to change your positions, if you're Flanagan and you say you're going to crack down on fraud, you will attend a governor when fraud happened. And if you, if you are Talarico, and you are no longer going to be a left wing zealot, and you are going to change your position on what God, what gender God is, and kids, girl boys playing in girls' sports, and all this thing, yeah, tell me why you just can't change. You are changing because of the polls, Troy Jackson over in Maine. Yeah, I will do anything. I even become a Republican in order to get elected, change people's lives.
That that's not good enough. Al Sayed, oh, I'm not a socialist. I just appear in front of the DSA and was endorsed by Bernie Sanders, who comes and comes and campaigns for me, as did AOC. That's who you are. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin.
It's Brian Kilmeade. AI, data, all of this are founded on theft. They are stealing what is yours: your face, your your behaviors, your privacy. We need a government agency to oversee it and make sure that people do not get hurt. We're also seeing a real challenge to whether or not democracy.
Can survive when you have things like deep fakes that are so sophisticated. If humans lose control over AI, it's game over.
So that is Ronna, of course. Bernie Sanders, Greg Kazar, you probably don't know, and AOC is distinctive. They all have the same thing. Look out, the world's going to end if you continue to do this. And the theft thing is interesting.
Theft? Why did you say that when Google came out? What did Google use? Teresa Payton's with us now, former White House Chief Information Officer, CEO of Cybersecurity for Fortis Solutions. Teresa, welcome back.
Your thoughts about this political debate about something that's as sophisticated as SI or AI? Yeah, I mean, honestly, we should be careful what we wish for when it comes to new laws, because we may not like them once they're implemented. I mean, I think both things can be true. There are some concerns that the way artificial intelligence, now superintelligence, has been built, is that it wasn't built with the governance and guardrails that typical software platforms are built with. That can be true.
It can also be true. That we need to make sure that we have kind of the innovation and global economic dominance, and SI or AI is going to be a big part of that.
So, is oversight at the FTC because they're the ones who are bringing an investigation, I guess, into OpenAI and Anthropic about agents that's evidently went rogue. Yeah, so it's really interesting, and you know, I always I kind of wince when big tech, you know, Silicon Valley applies personality traits to technology. But you know, so calling it going rogue, it's like, no, your engineer wrote a bad software program. You didn't have the right governance and guardrails in place. That's called a feature or a bug, not going rogue.
But you know, I think it'll be interesting to see what the FTC does here. And if ultimately they end up being the regulator of Silicon Valley, should they be? I don't know if that's the right place or not. You know, when when I think about all the other critical infrastructure, and certainly technology is critical infrastructure. You know, you you've got an energy regulator, you have a bank regulator.
You actually have more than one. And so, when I think about this, I wonder if it is the FTC. But for all intents and purposes, right now, they're next man up.
So certainly better than nothing. But maybe this will evolve over time, and we'll see a different place. Jensen Wong of Nvidia has a totally different take on this. Cut forty. We hope it's an engineering problem.
I believe it's an engineering problem. I know it's an engineering problem, and we all need to hope that's an engineering problem. If it's not an engineering problem, it's not solvable, right? And so, the fact that all of these companies still are advancing the state of the art is because they also believe it's solvable. These are some of the brightest engineers in the world I work with.
You know all of them, and and these are this is a this is a technically solvable problem.
So he's talking about these agents going rogue, and he says I agree with and the why and the fear of liability. Yeah, like for example, the Australian government could sue OpenAI for going too far in their Medicare program and exposing some personal information, right? Yeah, I mean, okay, you know, let's put in sort of the human context. You know, Brian, if somebody on your staff. Hacked hugging face or hacked to the Australian government, they would bring your staff in for questioning, and they would ask you, "What did you know about it?
Did they do it on your laptop?" And they would possibly hold you accountable. That needs to be the same thing that's applied here.
So I agree with what he's saying. This this is an engineering problem. It is solvable, and these companies are going to be held liable for hacking because they should be. I would bring something else to. They could be.
They could be sued. And the other thing, I just wonder, and I can't help but wonder this, Teresa, because you've you've been in a white. You worked in the White House.
So what is fueling the stock market? These just like the the internet stocks were fueling right between Clinton and Bush forty one.
Now these are fueling the stock markets now. Everyone's putting money into this, saying this is going to be the future and. And if you want to slow down an economy, what do you do? Look out, everybody! Data centers are going to ruin the world, and AI will destroy the world.
So what happens? All of a sudden, the values of those stocks go down. People get less excited. Then people get paranoid. You have an election coming up, and it might just go your way.
Do you see politics in this? There's definitely politics in this, and you know, I'm I'm not a political expert, but there's definitely politics at play here. You know, what I would say is, is there's nothing wrong with having a conversation around. How do we improve the engineering of these products so that they're safer, more reliable, and more secure? You know, there's nothing wrong with saying, "Hey, on data centers, is there a better way to build them so that they're better neighbors?" While all this money is flowing, why don't we build the best model data centers the world has seen?
Because we don't today. You know, Norway and Sweden actually have some of the better data centers that make better neighbors.
So, I think there's. There's a lot of good talking points here, but they are being sort of hyper sensationalized. You may even call them manipulation campaigns as we're running into election season.
So I love that they're doing with this America.gov. Could you, from the best you can ascertain, what have they done with government to try to lean it out and get AI involved? Yeah, I saw the demonstrations, and wow, it looks incredible. I wish my DMV in my state would get something like that because I can't figure out when I'm going to get my my license renewed. But, anyways, but I think you know a couple of things.
We do know that Doge did have an impact on streamlining things. You know, for good or for bad, some people don't like what Doge did, but sort of leaning things out, looking at software code. Looking at programs, and it looks like a lot of this could be just sort of tapping in to and putting an easier to use wrapper around these different government departments and agencies. I think it's really exciting, and you know, can't wait for people to try it out and and say you know how it improved their lives. And they think it's going to be all across government to the point where there's a few critics of theirs, Andrew Sorkin, for example, on CNBC, who came out and just praised President Trump, and the and the rest of the panel almost fell off their chairs because he thought this was yeah that was pretty amazing.
I read that transcript because I had missed it live, and so I went back and read the transcript. and thought, "This is incredible." But yeah, I mean, we all want the government to work better for us because it's actually supposed to serve us, and we pay for it with our tax dollars. And so, obviously, what a genuine response to what he saw. And as a technologist, and as you know, Team America, I I was really thrilled to see the. Demos and the idea that the government really would be streamlined and way more accessible to citizens than it has been in the past.
She's a cybersecurity expert. She's also an intel. You know, she understands intelligence.
So what I think is interesting was brought up to me that some of the best protectionware, security, the best on software like McAfee came because people wanted protection. They wanted their they wanted Their personal data or their intellectual property protected.
So there comes there comes opportunity now for different security devices to to be built into some of these AI companies. Can you see an opportunity here? Yeah, there's a couple things. You know, one, we do need to hold these companies accountable for making their products safer and more secure.
So that's on them. You know, because nobody asked for agents hacking into other companies, but there can be an opportunity here for companies who say, "I'm going to be the you know the watchman." So I'm going to be the extra layer that looks at the governance and guardrails of your own AI, but Also, maybe standing outside the door, looking at other people's AI that maybe went off the tracks and didn't have the right governance and guardrails, and is coming at you.
So there is an opportunity here. But let's start with the companies that produce the products to begin with. Absolutely. So we'll see how that goes. When you look at these demonstrations, from everything you know.
Were you pretty amazed? As people have told us, for example, you come up with an agent, then you find out that agent found a way in the huggy face situation to put on the internet when it wasn't supposed to, and then combine with other agents what she wasn't programmed to, and try to corrupt ethics agents that I didn't nobody thought was possible. When you hear about this, even somebody like you, are you astounded? I was dismayed. Honestly, as a former programmer, somebody who manages programmers has managed programmers.
One thing Brian and I will bring up, and so I would like to hear more from the CEOs of these companies on this: is software code takes on the personality of the person creating it.
So there are engineers behind these tools, and you know.
So the question is: is you know, where is the creator of BB-8 and C-3PO, and the creator of Baymax? You know, I feel like we got the creators of Terminator and Hal.
So, so we need to really ask these CEOs who is on these engineering teams. You know, what what's kind of the personality types? I mean, not to single people out because I don't want to put people in physical danger. But you know, how are you balancing these teams with different personality types? Do you have anybody on the team that is a rule follower?
Do you have anybody on the team that is a risk expert? I think those people were. Missing when these were made.
So honestly, Brian, I wasn't like you know. I I just was dismayed because America, we have to do better, and we have to hold these companies accountable for being safer and more secure with the software they're rolling out. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. But all this stuff is just so new, and the big picture, we'll see. We'll see what happens because they seem some of some of the CEOs seem to be citing, you know, sounding the alarm.
Nobody more than Anthropic, who is a big Democratic donor. You have to cite that because you wonder how sincere their warnings are. Here's Dario Amodei, cut thirty-eight. AI has incredible benefits. I've talked about the medical benefits of the technology.
As the president has said, you know whoever wins AI wins. I think that's very important. But I think the technology has very real risks, and you know the mechanism how we address those risks is still under discussion. But we all need to work. We all need to work together to make sure that we can win and we can win safely.
And I know about liability. We already outlined that. I get it. But do you? This is what they emerged from that extraordinary lunch.
And said, "We're going to monitor each other. They're all competitors, extreme competitors. Is there a situation where they could monitor each other, where the huggy face happens, and he calls up Elon Musk and says, 'You're not going to believe what my agents just did. I just want to give you a warning what they're capable of.' And trust that Musk would do that and not try to engineer Grok differently." Well, you know, we have a construct for this. As you know, Brian, I worked in banking before I worked for the White House, and there are gentlemen's agreements across all the banks.
For example. Letting fraud rings run rampant is not a competitive advantage, and so there is a way to do information sharing on fraud rings, on criminal outfits, on nation states, and the banks do it. I would like to see Silicon Valley take a little bit of time, sit down with the banks, and say, "How do you guys do it?" and not run afoul of you know. Laws that are, you know, meant to prevent monopolies and collusion and things like that. The banks have been doing this for a long time.
They are a leader in sharing information, where they say, for the greater good, we have to share this information, and Silicon Valley needs to do the same. Teresa Payton, thanks so much. Hey, thanks for having me on, Brian. Always great to be with you. Have a great weekend.
Same here. You too. When we come back, the economy, the stock market is booming now. The Nasdaq, as well as S and P 500. Why?
I'm going to tell you when we return. From breaking news to big name guests, Brian brings you insight you won't hear anywhere else. You're listening to the Brian Kilmeade Show. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kilmeade show.
He's lying there now. He's he's this attacker, and he calls out to the to the air crew, kill me. Kill me, all right.
So it's clear he was suicidal. That's not a question. It was clear he was going to down that plane. It's not clear, but it looks very likely that he was going to down the plane and with all the passengers in there. And if you couple that with the what I just told you about the Islamist tendencies that radicalization that were found in his background, I think that's that'll give us the a pretty good clue.
But again, I. Don't. Make final conclusions yet, but that's the indications we have now. Wow, that's pretty extraordinary. Prime Minister telling us yesterday that he said "kill me," which means suicide.
Bomber Doran Spielman, his spokesperson, great friend of the show, wrote yesterday that this guy, the attacker whose name has not been revealed, an investigation he does not lead, it had been posting radical things online, and he's from Oman, who has been playing both sides of the fence, doing deals with. Iran, they have really no army, so they got to be friendly, just like Qatar. They got no military, so they got to always be negotiating between Turkey and Iran and us. But their leadership is not friendly to to Israel, or else they would have had the Abraham Accords already. That was all set until their king died, who was going to make amends and have peace talks, but didn't happen.
So you got to wonder if this gets brought right back.
Now look. Elections aside, the Prime Minister Netanyahu aside, if it comes out and they have proof that Iran was behind this, that it could have killed 170 Israelis, including foot, and then 100. If you count the four Americans on board, 174. If that was proof, that goes right back to Iran. This guy confesses.
I'm telling you, it doesn't matter what Trump says. They are all they are all in the line of fire. The supreme leader, wherever the hell he is, you have the Vahidi, head of the IRGC, Arachi, the foreign minister, Preskiyan, the president. All of them, and they know exactly. They got cameras everywhere.
The Israelis have done it. They're all done. They're all done, and the Israelis are just waiting for that opportunity because the president's economic sanctions has been such a effective stranglehold. I don't know if you saw. But in the Wall Street Journal today, who again?
I got to emphasize Wall Street Journal. I know it's the same company, but they don't get up every day looking to praise President Trump. In fact, Trump is suing them. They have this said, and everything is reversed. In everything is reversed at the in the Strait.
We are now in the Strait. Have just shy. There was evidently nineteen million barrels of oil going through a day. It said seventeen point five.
So the strangle, the the blockade is over.
Meanwhile, they're not getting anything out.
So, and we've talked to China.
Now, I don't think China is going to do exactly what we say, but they can see the benefits of leveling off their support. And now, Qatar is not Qatar, but UAE is doing a great job freezing all their money and no longer doing business. With Turkey and Syria because they're still doing business. Not in Syria, excuse me, with Turkey because they're still dealing with Iran.
So there, there's some extraordinary things going on, non-military things going on. And then, if you're Iran, things have never been worse. The economic sanctions have never been harsher, and the and the and the economic suffering has never been greater. And you've been bombed out for multiple days. And then the president of the United States, who you think you can figure out the cycles, says, "Yeah, I am going to take care of you after the midterms." Excuse me, taking care of you after the midterms.
I thought you want to fix this before the midterms. You get a deal, the gas prices go down, you have a better chance of winning. No, that's not what I am going to do. Bigger problem than that. I am not going to let politics rule the day.
For the next thirty-one days, I'll go on to blue states and I'll make sure to maximize the vote, and I'll see what I can do to hold on to the Senate and the House, and then I'll deal with you. You realize they lose all leverage the day after the election day, with the day of the election day, and we're all going to benefit from that. Hey, go to briankilmeade.com. Find out where I'll be with my new book, "United in the States." I'll tell you one stop is going to be in Westbury on October 17th, on the 16th in Red Bank, New Jersey. Briankilmeade.com.
From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmeade. So glad you're there, Brian Kilmeade. With you here, can't wait for Sunday's show, One Nation. Sunday at ten o'clock.
It's going to be a great show. Amongst my guests, Senator Tom Cotton, Ari Fleischer, and Senator Senator. Tim Scott, Senator Tim Scott's going to be with us too. It's going to be great. We're also have a chance to to look at this race.
And it is a horse race. And I just think it's so interesting. It's kind of a blend of my two backgrounds. Where I started, I was doing a lot of all sports radio, and you just break down series and games before the games, and you do see in the radio. But that's what this is.
You can mark it down to like maybe eight Senate races, and you see what can flip and what couldn't flip, and who's what's going to be the messaging, and who's going to make the big mistakes. I'll tell you what happened with big mistakes today. Bottom of the hour, the best in the business when it comes to foreign policy: Rebecca Hindricks, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, PhD, and everything Middle East, and Shannon Bream is standing by. She has a huge show this weekend on Fox News Sunday. And I gotta warn you, warn you too, that you have a YouTube channel.
You can also listen and watch. The almost every one of my guests is now on video. YouTube.com/slash at the Brian Kilmeade Show. You also get some special segments from all through the week.
So before we get to Shannon, let's get to the big three. Number three. We are prepared for it. There is no doubt about the fact that they're trying to likely escalate. They're pulling out all the stops.
Their influence operations inside the United States, assisted by other countries, is pretty significant. Yep, we are sending another aircraft carrier in the Gulf. That is a huge message. Could full-fledged fighting be about to start in Iran again? Number two, one of the only pieces of good news for the administration right now is that the average price of gas nationally has dropped 13 cents in the last week.
Republicans can use all the help they can get, and falling gas prices will be a help to them heading into the election. And so with the rise in the economy, look at the market today, up 335 points. Hands on fighting—that's what Donald Trump is doing in the last 30 days as he outlines what his party has done so far with upsets in Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Michigan. Possible, and they need to first and foremost hold Texas. Number one.
At that moment, I was fighting for my life. But there was a moment when I realized I had fallen down due to my injuries. I realized that the aircraft is going down, and I was still getting hit. But I opened the door. As amazing, the pilot speaks out to President Modi of India because he is of Indian descent.
You heard it: the hero pilot speaks out while being stabbed or hacked with an axe. He manages to open up the door and call out an emergency call to whoever was listening. That door opened. People saw the blood. They were able to take action and extraordinarily save their plane.
Shannon, the more you. Find out about this story. The more in awe I am.
Now think about it. If the copilot was, if the pilot was okay and landed the plane, I still would have been amazed. But the pilot's incapacitated, and it just so happens there are two other pilots on the plane, and there's a plumber that's able to steady the plane after having plane after having the guts to take on the attacker unarmed. I mean, that's just the beginning of this extraordinary story. This is going to be the best movie.
Cannot wait to see who puts this on the screen so we can live through it because it is full of so many different heroes. One of the first things I did when this story started bubbling up is I texted my brother who is a commercial airline pilot. He flew in the navy forever. He's flying for American now, and I was like, "Dude, what is the deal with your co-pilot?" Because they get assigned people they may fly with them for a few legs over a couple of days, but there are so many pilots. You get different co-pilots all the time.
I used to think that they were teamed up. You don't. You may not fly. The same person your entire career. You can make go months or years before you're teamed up with them.
I'm like, how do you suss out your copilot to figure out if they've got a problem? You know.
So we talked through what his plan is in the cockpit, but he talked about how critical it was that that pilot got the door open because obviously, you know, fortifying those cockpits so no one can get in, you know, is generally the plan. But you know, by opening it by by forcing himself to get up and get that door open, he allowed so many additional heroes to get involved. It's amazing. It is.
So we found that from Doran Spielman, yeah, who is a spokesperson for Benjamin Netanyahu, the coal. The co-pilot has been identified only as an Amani national. That's to us, but he knows who it is, and says the Amani was radicalized. And he went on to say he talks on social on the social media about killing Jews.
So it's very clear he had the intent and the motive to kill Jews before.
So leading that question to President Trump, who put him up to it. Cut six. And that Iran, you just ask them, they know what happens. Who penned a 25-page letter to us, Shannon, telling us to vote Democrat? It was very bizarre.
I mean, and it shows you one of the problems. Which would Brett pressed on this with the Iranian president, like who is actually calling the shots? There are you? Is the IRGC? If they can still hit vessels in the Strait, are they the ones who are really in control of this whole conversation?
Is diplomacy possible? And then this weird letter that they write, this open letter to U.S. academics and students and voters. I mean, it's just bizarre. I I can't recall anything like that in the years that we've been covering, you know, foreign policy.
So we're looking at different reasons why the market's up. I know they expected ninety thousand jobs. They got twenty nine thousand jobs, so that couldn't be it. But the market's not only not suffering; it's surging. Could it be the G seven has agreed to release one hundred million barrels of crude and oil products, and France is about to release a lot of their diesel, as we've been urging them to do?
Could this have something to do with it? I mean that would make a lot of sense because anytime there is news on crude, diesel products, oil, petroleum, any of it, it moves the markets one direction or the other. And I think that there is such a tight margin on exactly where these products can go and what the markets can bear. And you know, so much of this is based on speculation about future availability and purchases.
So anytime that there is good news that looks like it's heading into these, you know, fuel markets, it tends to move the markets.
So there's a editorial essentially in the Wall Street Journal, which you know is usually not that kind to President Trump, especially when it comes to tariffs and things. But they wrote an editorial that the Strait of Hormuz is no longer in Iran's purview. In fact, we're supposed to get—I guess—we get 19 million barrels of oil out there. It's at 17.5 right now.
So we're just—they're just forcing their way through.
Now it doesn't mean we're getting the fertilizer and the other products through, and you still got to refine massively. And evidently, refinery was bombed out by the Iranians in some respects from the UAE and Saudi Arabia. But that's a major development. I mean, Iran has to be feeling massive pressure now. Yeah, they have to because of all of the economic sanctions and the tightening of the screws that you know Secretary Besson and the president have been working on, and you know also pushing back against other countries that are actually aiding them in some respect.
And you got to wonder, you know, the president's conversations with President Xi last week. We're told there was very forceful communication with respect to Iran, not just supplying parts that they could use and weaponry or intelligence they can use to kill U.S. troops and soldiers. But the fact that they are the major buyer of Iran's products, well, if there's not a product that can get out from Iran, and you're telling China stop buying it, I mean, all of these things are just making their inflationary pressures really difficult for people living there. We know the elites have some, you know, ability to.
Pad themselves against those kinds of things, but I've got an Iranian friend that I've known for about twenty years here in the U.S. and his family escaped from Iran in the seventies and eighties. And so I ask him, you know, how are people actually doing there on the ground? He's still got a lot of family there, and he said it is incredibly difficult. Their economy is in shambles.
So for real people, the pressure is there. Does that reach the leadership, the elites, in a way that will make a difference? Who knows?
Well, one thing is sure: it's harder to get money, have money extra to send to Hezbollah and Hamas, so that right away. Helps security in the region, and now you have Syria, who has a leader that would has a rivalry with Hezbollah because Hezbollah kept Assad in power for years.
So there's a lot more stress on Iran, and they no longer have an ally. That was a huge loss.
Now think about it. As you know, the Russians were keeping Assad in power when Ukraine war starts to be more difficult than he could ever imagine. He's got to pull assets out of Syria, and guess who gets exposed? Assad. Guess who gets ousted?
So Russia. Loses an ally, Iran loses an ally, and now suddenly Syria becomes an enemy of one of the leading terror organizations, and that's Hezbollah. You talk about ripple effects. Yeah, and in that neighborhood, you know, every puzzle piece, every ally, every friend, every frenemy—I mean, all of that calculates into a very, very, very complicated Middle East. But if you can pull assets away from China and Russia in a way that makes it more difficult for them to aid the bad guys, quote unquote, in the region, and then they, as you point out, their proxies, every bit of that that you can move, whether it's the Abraham Accords or you know changes in leadership that benefit the U.S.
and our interests. It's just so tenuous there, but every little bit and every diplomatic move or shift makes a huge difference. Absolutely. So, I want to bring you to the CNBC report. We try to figure out what what's pushing the market.
It's growth. Cut twenty one. U.S. GDP coming in quite a bit. This is third reading for the second quarter, coming in quite a bit better, 2.2 percent versus a one and a half percent expectation.
That is the final reading or the third reading. Looking at the PCE numbers here, just folks, we're working on new technology, so it doesn't take me quite as long to get it. But here we go. August core PCE price index 0.2. I think that's a tick better than expectations.
Yes, July looks like it was revised down. Down to zero point one percent, so all of that's going to be good.
So there's there's some positive signs with 30 days left, and that's what the president's got to keep saying. This is what I did. This is what's worked. But what are the other guys going to do? Make them, make people make the comparison.
And you know, our polling shows that people feel very worried and negative about their own pocketbooks.
So you can say, just as the Trump administration would try to point to data that looks like things are moving in the right direction, this administration will say, "Look, inflation cooling, wages growing." They're going to point to everything that they can that is a positive indicator for them. And consumer spending is still up. I mean, people still—they may tell us they feel bad about their situation, but it's not really cutting back on their ability to go out there and spend in the markets, at least not. Yet, so they've got this messaging issue that the you know Biden folks would have too. But you know, during the Biden administration, being over nine percent inflation, for this administration to come out and say, "Hey, but we're in the three to four percent range.
We've really rein things in and turned things around." You can talk data and numbers to people all the time, but you know, when they fill up their tank and buy groceries, that's the real world check for them.
So whether they can break through those real world, you know, experiences people are having every day and convince them that better things are coming, they don't have much time to do it.
So the president gave an interview to was it Time Magazine? Yes. And one of the things they asked him, "How you happy with your nominees, Supreme Court?" He says, "I'm not happy with any of them." So that's going to be part of the subject. He's happy with Sam Alito. I'll tell you that, and that's going to be one of your guests, right?
Yeah, Justice Alito is going to sit down with us for our Sunday special on the Supreme Court. They kick off a new term on Monday, and there are a lot of the president's policies that are going to be on the docket.
So he'll have more time to decide who he likes and doesn't like on the court. And listen, some of the people he's unhappy with right now in that Time magazine article, there have been times when he's publicly praised them.
So he's going to win some, he's going to lose some at the court. You know, the left will say, "Hey, there are a bunch of rubber stamps for President Trump. We've got to reform them and term limit and pack and all that." Kind of stuff.
Well, the president doesn't feel like they're a rubber stamp, but he's lost on big things like tariffs and birthright citizenship.
So that takes a little bit of the wind out of the sails of the left, saying that it's corrupt and in his pocket. But he clearly, you know, not happy with them right now. At least not his nominees. All right, but we'll find out if if your if Sam Alito cares about that. I know he's been.
Yeah, I, you know, I'm going to see if he'll take the bait. You know, those guys are really careful about what they say with respect to. Current issues and that kind of thing. I can't ask him about cases, but I'll see if he'll bite any on, you know, the public speculation about changes to the court, criticism of the court, and whether they even hear it inside those walls or if they just have their heads down doing their business. I don't, in my mind, I see Sam Alito, you know, trolling TikTok all day.
Not really. I'm wrong. Maybe you're wrong, but this could be really interesting because after November, if the Republicans lose the Senate. What are the seventy-two-year-olds and seventy-four-year-olds going to do? Because if they want to keep a conservative in their seat, do they do they suck it up and wait two more years for the presidency and see if the Republicans can win that?
Yeah, I mean, all of it's a gamble, and there was so much pressure on Justice Lido in the spring.
So much speculation about whether he was going to retire, and he was adamant with me and others: "I'm not going anywhere." But that was kind of his guarantee for this term.
So I wonder what his longer term plan is. Listen, these guys try to be as apolitical as possible. They don't want to ever look like they're making decisions based on who appointed them. And he's one of those who, like they all do, says, "Listen, I just make what I think is the right decision in the case." And so maybe his legal philosophy is more aligned with where President Trump is, even though President Trump he was not a President Trump pick. But we'll see about what the future could be for these guys.
Shannon, there's two things that Democrats, these more liberal Democrats, keep saying: we get power, we're going to either do one or both. We're going to have age limits on Supreme Court justices, or we're going to expand the court. What would they have to do legislatively to to do both those things?
Well, I mean, you would have to get that through Congress. I mean, those are big changes. There are some who would argue, "Hey, maybe that's a constitutional amendment, which is a much heavier lift." But Democrats are talking about on the age limit thing. There are Democrats out there who are, especially those who are looking at 2028, who have more broadly said, "I think there should be age limits on all kinds of people on Capitol Hill, not just the justices, but people serving in the Senate and the House." So you know, we'll see. But remember, when I interviewed Megan Romero, the co-chair of DSA over the summer, she said, "Just get rid of the Supreme Court." So, you know, some of these proposals by Democrats who try to do they need sixty votes.
Do they need sixty votes in the Senate for that? You would have to if you are moving a measure that would have to get past closure, not to be too wonky, but to get something to the Senate floor would require sixty votes. Yeah, unless they unless they did one of these backdoor things like through reconciliation or something like that, they could try. But I I have to think, not getting too far into the weeds, that a Senate parliamentarian would say that it's not germane to the budget to change the makeup of the Supreme Court, which might make it more difficult to do a reconciliation thing, which would you could do with a majority, just a you know fifty-one votes.
So right, I don't know, but Democrats like to talk about it, and maybe they know that it's a long-term hope, but they hope that it will help them in the short term on the campaign trail. Go get him, Shannon Bream. We'll watch Sunday on Fox News Sunday. I'll see you Sunday night. Absolutely, Sunday night, ten o'clock, One Nation.
Tim Scott, Tom Cotton. Back in a moment. Bye. Learning something new every day on the Brian Kilmeade Show. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmeade.
There arguably could be some similarities between the '06 cycle and the 2026 cycle. Think about the condition of the country back in '06—an unpopular war. Six in ten Americans opposed the Iraq War at that point. Gas prices had doubled. This is sound familiar, and we ended up losing six seats.
That was a night, by the way, we lost some redder states. That's when Jim Talent lost in Missouri. That's when, by the way, Sherrod Brown won in Ohio and beat DeWine. That's when, in the state of Montana, John Tester beat Conrad Burns by the narrowest margin. Those were three of the six pickup seats that the Democrats got that night.
Today, six in ten Americans oppose the Iran War. Gas prices, enough said on gas prices. And so there's an argument. If you look at history, that 2026 feels a lot like 2006. He's a smart guy, no doubt about it.
Well, let me give you an idea, just off the top of my head, why I think it's going to be different. I mean, you have to lose Texas. He's down by one.
Now you put a hundred million dollars into that race. Susan Collins would have to lose every time she trails in a poll. She wins by ten. She's up, and then you have Minnesota. She's Michelle Tafoya is within one point.
And then you have in Michigan that would be a flip. Then you have in Michigan a flip opportunity. I think Mike Rogers now within one point, and certainly is a much more reasonable candidate. He's going against an extreme. And then in North Carolina, yeah, that's going to be a flip.
There is going to be a Democrat there, Mike Waltley. Unless he can close that gap rapidly, expose Cooper on crime, which is extremely vulnerable, that that could be problematic. But New Hampshire, it's a Democrat seat that could flip. Nunu is extremely popular there.
So, you look at these. What I just told you. I mean, that's where it's contentious. I mean, do I think Nebraska, Montana, and Kansas? Wow, if that happens, everything I just said about flipping wouldn't be the case.
A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kilmeade Show. They're linked with China. They're linked with Russia. They're linked with Iran.
They they have come together, truly believing that they have a huge opportunity now. To change the world order that that the United States and like-minded democracies established post World War II, and they have all become more aggressive as a result of it. It's not isolated. Russia's at war in Europe, and President Xi stepped up his effort the last three or four years, and and obviously Iran went to war with with its proxies in in Israel. This is all connected.
And Iran has this terrorist activity network that has been a worldwide problem for some time, and that's who we've been chronicling. And that's when people, you know, I love when people said to me, "Hey, you know what? You always talk about war, or Brian, you're very pro-war. I'm not pro-war. We just have these perpetual enemies out there." And they're continuing to rattle our cages, threatening us at home and abroad.
And we look the other way. We look to do deals. We look to do compromises. We have to fortify neighbors and locations. We have to adjust our naval fleet order to order to address our enemies.
So, China would love for us to be distracted in the Middle East, and then there's Russia, who thought they just cut through Ukraine. They've been bogged down for five years now. And they've been a perpetual problem through now Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and now they're threatening NATO on a regular basis.
So okay, continue to ignore it. You can ignore it all you want. The problem's going to be there. Trump's not ignoring anything. He's engaging with all our enemies, and he's confronting Iran, who's what's been a problem for forty-seven years.
And he's doing it in the same way. He was the first one to attack them directly, took out Soleimani, the first one to go after him, and he bombed out. We bombed out with Operation Midnight Hammer, and then he took him on directly by looking to by taking out the Ayatollah and their first two or three layers of leadership. And now we're basically in a standoff. We're slowly squeezing the life out of him.
With us right now is Rebecca Heinrichs, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. Rebecca, welcome back. Thanks, Brian. Gonna be here, Rebecca. My hunch is Iran cannot figure out this president because they thought the midterms would force him to act and cut a deal that would be more beneficial to them in order to get gas prices down.
And the president's made it clear: I'll deal with you after the election. They write a 25-page letter. The American people say basically vote Democrat. What are they? What are they up to?
Well, so look. First of all, I thought that your your opening remarks there were just spot on. And so, just real briefly, just to footstomp something you said, for because I get the same thing. People say, Rebecca, it sounds like you you know you want to go. What you want to you?
You're supportive of President Trump's war against the Iranians. You know, it seems you want to be tougher on the Russians. You wanted you want to be tougher on China, and these countries are cooperating. China, Russia, Iran, North Korea. They are, and you know, and what I say to people is, those who don't want to confront them.
And those who want to look the other way—they are far more effectively pro-war because you're going to get more war, more aggression against the United States and our interests if you don't take these these adversaries head-on. And so, I want to deter major war, and so I'm very, very supportive of handling these issues. As soon as possible, because that—if you don't—it gets far, far worse.
So I think that the Iranians, at this point, Brian, I think that they have really misjudged President Trump's commitment to finishing the job. I mean, the Iranians really thought that they could hold the global energy markets hostage with the Strait of Hormuz, and they could get the president to cry uncle and and have President Trump essentially leave the region. He has not done that. He's crushing their economy, and we are successfully getting oil. Through the Strait of Hormuz, almost to the level of pre-war levels.
I mean, so it's remarkable. And then, you know, I really do believe we have to resume military operations to go after what's left of the IRGC. The president's decided he's going to do that. Almost certainly after the midterms, we'll see how it goes.
So, you know, the president was asked, you know, what if Iran was behind the plot in the UK, which thankfully was thwarted. We have a lot of questions there, and what if it was behind the the hijacking, which would have killed four Americans and wiped out 170, mostly Israelis? Here's what the president said: "Cut, cut six." So he said he's going to hit him hard if it finds out that they were involved and that it's an Omani guy who was online radicalized. We know that we're about to get his name. Yeah.
So look, I mean, the reason you would hit them back hard, obviously, is because you have to demonstrate that there's a cost to this kind of behavior.
So even though we're crushing the Iranians in you know seven different ways, there has to be a clear, direct retaliation against something that would be so egregious. If the Iranians did, I mean, they could have just sort of ideologically inspired this attacker, but if they directed it, supported it, and in any way, if the regime might even take credit for it. If they do that, I think that the United States—and by the way, the United States with the UK—if we—if we discover that these that these potential terrorists in the UK were were were connected to the Iranians, we better see a united effort on the part of the UK government doing much more with the United States to counter this shared adversary.
So the USS Theodore Roosevelt is steaming that direction, is going to the Gulf.
So I thought he was going to rotate out there, not rotating. They're staying about ten thousand sailors and Marines. What does the what What do you think the president? I know the message he's sending, but there's a practicality to it too, isn't there? Yeah, so you wouldn't send that only for a message.
That's a very expensive message to send if it was just just signaling. I think it's because you know the one thing that marks the way the President Trump has carried out and planned military operations is he wants to do it in an overwhelming fashion to have the least possible risk to U.S. forces.
So you really want significant overmatch, and so you know I I would suspect Brian. I mean I would bet on it that that. President Trump with Admiral Cooper, Secretary Hagseth, that people have been looking to see what does the United States need in terms of forces and defenses to reallocate throughout the region. Should the United States get the go-ahead from President Trump to resume military operations against the IRGC target that still exists that the Israelis wanted to hit when we took a pause? The Admiral Cooper still wanted to hit when we took a pause.
You know, and and and you got to get the. Forces in the region to be able to make sure that we can mitigate anything the Iranians might do in response. I think whatever the Iranians can do in response will be very short-lived. They don't really have much capability left, Brian. But whatever they're going to do, it's going to be in those first probably initial days, and then it's going to sort of peter out because they just don't have much ability to reconstitute.
And you know, Scott Besson's going to stop them from allowing to flying commercial flights, and you know that they've got UAE is basically frozen all their all their assets. They were in their bank.
So you have that, and nothing's getting out of the strait.
So are we blockaded? Their blockade, and now we're getting seventeen point five million barrels through. And pre-war was nineteen million barrels through. Yeah, it's a cost, no doubt about it. And there's always a chance a drone's going to hit.
But I got to credit the merchant ship captains. The merchant ship captains are sucking it up and doing it. And in the beginning, one drone hit, and they're all going to stop, and no one's going to have insurance. And that was its story in the beginning, but it's not anymore. But yet, the refinery capacity has been damaged, so we're not seeing that drastic of a drop.
Yeah.
So, but the the big challenge has been how do you get these commercial ships, these captains, confident enough to get to start moving through? This is why President Trump earlier on was saying, "Look, the strait's open. We just need people to go through it." And he was right in a sense. I mean, it was open in terms of we we did have our navy position there with the other services that were collaborating in an integrated way to be able to kind of point and shepherd ships through. It's basically Project Freedom that we started and then we stopped because.
The Saudis were nervous that if we didn't go harder against the Iranians, they were going to get hit. And so, they the Saudis actually wanted the United States to go harder against the Iranians if we were going to start escorting ships to the Strait. But but here we are. We're doing it, and so that I really think you know I give a lot of credit to President Trump just communicating we're not leaving because he had a lot of pressure even on the far right politically. Brian, you know this to just say just get out of the region, just get out of the region.
That would have been such a strategic failure. I think it would have been awful, and it would have surrendered the Strait of Hormuz, of course, to the Iranians. But the Iranians are a proxy of the Chinese Communist Party, so you would have just. It would have been such a strategic blunder to just give up and get out of the region. President Trump didn't, and so now we've got ships that have the confidence to keep navigating through there and getting the rest of oil through there and keeping the Iranian oil out.
It's remarkable, Rebecca. The one thing I disagree with the president on following through on the pledge of Joe Biden to pull out of Iraq. This is not the time. And we got two Iranian militias in Iraq, and even the most sincere prime minister in Baghdad does not have the power to to take those guns away. They're supposed to voluntarily give them up.
They didn't. And isn't that where the militias took out the pipeline that the Saudi, the East West pipeline, the Saudis were using that have since been repaired?
So this is kind of how I view it. I sort of, in principle, the idea that the United States could draw down. In Iraq, sort of rests on some conditions that I think haven't quite been met yet.
So I sort of I understand sort of the desire, but you need you need Iran to be solved first because the United States was in there still in order to make sure that Iraq didn't become controlled by the Iranians, the IRGC, and there are as you say IRGC sort of militia still around there.
So even if you have a pro-American Iraqi government, you still have to make sure that they can. Out and keep the Iranians out of there, and we still have not quite seen that yet.
So that does make me uncomfortable, Brian. And again, I think that that may have been something that the president could do after he has finally gotten a political. Kind of permanent stability in the region, and that includes eliminating the IRGC from the governance of Iran. Right. So you remember what happened?
The George Bush, thanks to the surge, and some brilliant moves from Gates and Petraeus and every McChrystal and everybody like that, handed over a peaceful Iraq. We left our jeeps, left everything there. And two years later, Barack Obama had to go back, and we had this thing called ISIS, where actually combining with Iran to oust the Sunni ISIS, the Sunni, oust them from the area. Iran had more of a presence after the conflict, and we had to have more of a footprint, which cost us more money.
So in the beginning, you think, okay, let's pull out and declare victory, but people should think, look around the corner on what it could mean.
Well, the other thing that you've got to keep in mind too, we our ability to. See if there is developing terrorist activity is because we're deployed in those particular regions.
So one of the worst things about the precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan is we lost our counterintelligence eyes and ears that we had in the region in order to predict. We still have some ability, but we don't have the clarity, the granularity that we want. And and so you know, look, if you're going to withdraw from that region. Then I want to. I mean, I think it is premature, Brian.
I agree with you, but I would also want to see the president and his team acknowledging that we need a web then of this other foreign intelligence collaborating with us, which is another reason we need allies. Yes, the Israelis. We need close Israeli cooperation. We also need European intelligence. One of the best things the Europeans do, for all of their flaws, they really do have pretty robust.
Intelligence operations, and so that's going to be really important. But I do worry that we are losing our critical forward deploy presence for intelligence collection. And I do say one other thing: I don't know why we didn't push back on on Bashar or Nassara on in Syria to let get the Russians out. The Russians still have a base there. Why do they have a base there?
No, if you, I mean, look, like that's got to be part of the trajectory of Syria. You got, you got it. I mean, under Bashar al-Assad, you essentially had this this country that was being, you know, run by the Russians. Could could steer it, and one of the great successes of getting a new government in there is you get the Russians out. We got to follow through on that.
Lean heavy on him. I think Assad is still hanging out, being protected by Russia in Russia. I mean, so look, so this new Syrian government, we should be. Leaning hard. I mean, Russia is still an acute and ongoing threat to American interests, and so we got to we got to sort of keep pushing in this direction to make sure that we get the Russians out of the Middle East.
So, lastly, because you know Ukraine so well, you were there about a month ago. Ukraine has developed another long-range missile, an FP7 ballistic missile, brings Ukraine to a small group of nations that can manufacture these types of weapons. They just got to do more of it. But what could that? Missile do that drones can't.
Well, anytime.
So, I mean, with with drone development, you can see that that drones can do a lot of destruction as long as you have a whole bunch of them.
So, there's still these small kinds of munitions, but a missile has much more firepower.
So, it can destroy larger things, have a higher destructive capability.
So, what the what the Ukrainians have wanted to do is Ukrainians have long wanted a missiles that can reach farther into Russian territory and can hit these larger targets.
So they're trying to be more cost effective and rely less on Western weapons. And so, if the Ukrainians have their own domestic ability to reach out and destroy these significant, larger targets deeper in Russian territory, they're not going to have to ask for American permission or the European permission to do that. They're just going to have that ability to do that. That gives Ukraine a significant advantage. Are you worried about this winter?
This because the Russians are doing a good job targeting the infrastructure of Ukraine. Yeah, I mean, look, the the what the the difference between when when the Ukrainians hit Russian refineries.
So sometimes you hear U.S. officials say both countries are hitting energy targets, but they're very very different targets. The Ukrainians hit Russian refineries because these refineries are being used to supply the war machine. What the Russians are hitting is infrastructure meant specifically for the civilian population because the Russians weaponize the cold. They try to freeze.
Out, vulnerable children, women, the elderly, and it's devastating to Ukrainian population. Because part of what Russia is trying to do is they're trying to demoralize and wear down the society, so that society pushes Zelensky to take deals that he simply can't do because it would be surrendering to the Russians. Lastly, do you see any legitimate interest the Russians have in any type of peace agreement? I don't, Brian. I I was very hopeful right after my trip.
The Russians are doing so poorly. Ukrainians are doing so well. The Russians are doing poorly economically. You even have senior Russian officials, kind of openly talking about how the war is hurting the economy, and of course that means they're been demoted or fired or disappeared when they do that. But things are really bad for Russia, so I was hoping that the United States government, the Trump administration, would seize on this opportunity to change its approach, rather.
Than acting as sort of a mediator between two sides equally, that we would fully back Ukraine. Do these hardcore sanctions against the Russians and compel the Russians to, at very least, I thought it was credible, possible to get the Russians to abide by a ceasefire because the Ukrainians are just wallowing them by hitting their refineries. But unfortunately, that has not happened, and so I have not seen. There's not been an increase in U.S. pressure against the Russians, and so I think the Russians think that they can continue to, to, to stand, you know, continue the war effort.
Yeah, meanwhile. Coffin sales are going to go through the roof because they're losing ridiculous amount of people. Rebecca Heinrichs, thanks so much. You're the best. Thanks, Brian.
Thanks, Brian. You got it. Back in a moment. It's Brian Kilmeade, a radio show like no other. It's Brian.
Kill Mead. The one metric to look at, obviously, presidential job approval. Is gas prices and the good news one one of the only pieces of good news for the administration right now is that the average price of gas nationally has dropped 13 cents in the last week. It went from about 4.50 down to about 4.37. If that continues, the cake is pretty much baked at this point.
But Republicans can use all the help they can get, and falling gas prices will be a help to them heading into the election.
So there you go. That's what happens if things can go in that direction. That'll happen, and I think it could. I mean, there's always going to be something going to happen. The Houthis going to bomb a desalination plant, or you could see Iran getting panicky and trying to do the same thing.
But if things go on this way, and those tradeoff moves just is gradually wrenched from the hands. Man, I see a huge positive there. Just to say, listen, we're forcing it out. We're holding in place. We're we're refortifying our fort, rebuilding at the same time, but keeping an eye on what Iran's doing.
Keep in mind, I'll talk. I'll talk a little bit about this on Sunday, Sunday night. I'll talk about the breakdown of the midterm elections. I'll talk about what's happening with China with Senator Tom Cotton, one of the nation's foremost experts. Talk to Tim Scott about keeping the Senate.
That's really his job to do. And we got Ari Fleischer to break down how this reminds him similar to where Trump is at right now, as well as where Bush was at that now in communications, which is his forte.