Iran backed Houthis' attack spark global security concerns

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From the Fox News Radio studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade. Hi, everyone!

So glad you're there. It's the Brian Kilmeade Show. We have a busy hour coming your way. We have a we're going to have Lieutenant Colonel Alan West at the bottom of the hour, trying to make sense of Texas in the midterms and Kanta Ackman, Doctor Kanta Ackman, senior fellow at the Independent Women's Forum, member of the Council on Foreign Relations. We got to get find out what's going on in the Middle East.

I also got to tell you, got that great YouTube channel. Everyone's talking about it. YouTube.com/slash at the Brian Kilmeade Show. And today, my book comes out. United States: The Six Crucial Moments That Forged the American Miracle.

You could finally get it. Hope you get it, and hope you like. But before we get to Dr. Aquaman, let's get to the big three. Number three, every time President Trump leads to push for a ceasefire, President Zelensky and Ukrainians agree to it.

They follow President Trump's lead. They follow the ceasefire, and then the Russians respond by hitting Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Yep, it's not hard to figure out. The energy fight from Iran to Russia and our economies combined to jack up fuel costs because of these conflicts. Why siding with our allies is the key to winning long term and necessary for this fight.

Number two, this is a DC magistrate judge. These guys are typically not friendly to anything Republican, right? Whatever was presented to them was enough to believe for them to believe that a crime had been committed and there was evidence potentially in Ilan Omar's house. From the Omar raid and the ICE clash in New York City against illegal gang-linked immigrants, Dems and GOP are on opposite sides of the immigration debate. Where do we stand?

We'll break it down. Number one. I mean, for all the talk of Donald Trump's popularity, the Republican Senate candidate—this is gosh darn awful. How about Kemp? Paxton, sixteen points underwater.

He is literally the least popular GOP Senate nominee at this point in the cycle, this entire century. Three weeks to go, and we will know soon how much power Donald Trump will have in this final two years beginning that began in 2024. As 47 goes from Ohio to Alaska to try to keep the Senate, and that's what's going to be having the midterms. It is the number one story for the next two three weeks. But we got to also see percolating in the background.

Certainly, to have an effect is what's happening with the Houthi rebels. They bombed the Saudis again for the last five days, and they're going for civilian targets. They want this fight, and they actually seem to me to want the U.S. to get involved because that's what Iran wants. Iran wants to affect the elections.

They feel the higher gas prices, the worse Trump will do. Trump is the biggest problem they've ever had in office. And Doc, Doc, Fed, you know that right now, so you know. Also, the stakes. Are you surprised the Houthis took so long to get involved, and how much they're involved now?

No, I think they've been extremely strategic, and they've probably been closely advised. And we believe they have IRGC commanders there, embedded with them in Yemen, and they are inflicting maximum pain when Saudi Arabia is vulnerable and when the United States is vulnerable. And they go for civilian targets. Why? They have no ethics.

These are radical Islamists. They have violated profoundly civilian infrastructure. That's in. That welcomed me home many years when I lived over there. In fact, to tell you the level of fury in the kingdom, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia has just made his second statement describing theologically how they're violating Islamic principles.

There's even been a drone that's been intercepted over one of the holy cities, over Mecca.

So this is an outrage. This is Shia Sunni, isn't it? I don't know if it's as simple as that, but that's part of it. It's also they are opportunists. The Houthis they were developed out of a conflict internally in Yemen following the Arab Spring.

They've militarized that conflict. They got onto the bandwagon post October seventh and claim they were acting. Remember when they were targeting Israel on behalf of the Palestinians?

So they take whatever opportunity they can. But now my My concern is that they will further target more civilian infrastructure. That airport is the lifeblood of connection to Saudi Arabia. Forty million passengers every year. Will they be targeting data centers?

Will they be targeting, God forbid, desalination centers? Which I'm very worried about.

So, I mean, we've had plenty of time to get missile protection, missile defense protection around the desalination plants. It's been about eight months. Would you think it's there? I would say yes. I think Saudi Arabia.

Has prioritized oil infrastructure. Remember, the Houthis haven't just targeted the airports; they've targeted refinery capacity as well, which is very concerning. They've targeted the pipelines and also the holy cities. But Saudi Arabia is a huge country, and it has multi-layered defense. But the Houthis are operating with missiles and drones, and we see even from.

Being inside the 12-day war in Israel, I could see just the devastation one missile could do on a civilian population.

So, Iran's behind all of it. Colonel Michael Jernigan, wait in now retired, cut 34, 34. What it says about the broader conflict is that the Iranians are trying to expand it. The Houthis are the Taliban of Yemen, and they are funded by Iran. Iran is reaching out and trying to expand their their influence around the world, and trying to influence attacks in Britain and influencing attacks in Saudi Arabia.

Why this is significant is is the Houthis' motto is. Victory to Allah, death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory to Islam. And here they are attacking Islamic members of the religion, Saudi citizens on their way to Mecca, the holy city of Islam.

So none of this is in their their code. And so what that tells me is that this is all influenced by Iran.

So, what do you think? I think this is very timely because Iran has lost its near proxies. Hezbollah and Hamas are deeply degraded and. Ineffectual at this point for Iran, and this far proxy has been very helpful. Though simplifying them as proxies isn't enough; they have their own ambitions for Yemen.

And this is coming at a time when we've been struggling with the Strait of Hormuz, though it's beginning to ship tremendous amounts of oil now thirteen point five million barrels in September, just as it can now narrow the Red Sea. Very importantly, the Houthis have occupied an island. In the Red Sea, and so they control the Bab el Mandeb Strait as well, and that's why I think the United States must consider engaging Somaliland as hosting the operations from there to target them very closely. Because Somaliland is an ally.

Well, Somaliland is an extraordinary country. It's run its own elections for decades. It's pro-Israel. It has an Israeli and UAE military installation there. Our own AFRICOM commander from the United States has inspected those facilities.

It's directly opposite Aden, which is where the government that Saudi Arabia and the world recognizes as legitimate is situated.

So this would be an amazing location. We are next door in Djibouti, but Djibouti, where we have Camp Lemonnier, does not allow the US to host actions from there. As far So we could make that distinction. Here's the president talking about Somaliland. I call it Somalia land, not Somaliland, because actually it's a totally different country.

Some people like Somaliland. That has nothing to do. You know that has nothing to do. I said you got to be kidding. I think they should change the name immediately.

This is so significant that he said this recently on this campaign trail.

Somaliland, they're Muslims. They have repelled Shabab. They absolutely do not tolerate Shabab, the radical Islamist that are rife in Somalia. They are wanting to engage with the international community, and they've been independent despite international recognition for decades.

So those are our friends. They. Are recognizing Israel, and they have been recognized by Israel. They are like the Kurds, having the same values as us, and are ready to serve. They've offered.

Hosting military operations and mineral rights to the United States.

Okay, we go ahead and do this. I think obviously we have fifty thousand troops in the area, and other aircraft carriers coming to the area.

Some of our bases are not operable, like Bahrain, I hear.

So the next step is Iran wants to affect the elections. Is there any doubt in your mind? I'm sure they have ambitions for that. I'm very doubtful that they can affect our elections. But you know how they could.

By upping the price of oil. They they could, but President Trump has already anticipated that by lifting a sanction on Russia to purchase some of Russians, which is going to have no effect on the price. It's already lowered prices just on futures. Yeah, it it's lowered prices on diesel futures, which is important. And it's and we don't have a shortage of oil, Brian.

We have a shortage of refined goods on the on the market.

So helping Saudi Arabia protect its refineries and getting more ref. Refining capacity, even stateside, there are ways that we could do that. Even though it takes years to build refineries, but that policy needs to change. Absolutely, I'm building new refiners since the 70s. It makes absolutely no sense.

So, if what do you think is more effective, finding a way to neutralize the Houthis or finding a way to protect the Saudis? I think we have to do both, and I think we are already engaging with protecting the Saudis. They're a ferocious fighter. Force themselves. They've been through this for many years.

They have great assets. They work very closely with the Royal Air Force from Britain and with the United States. But I think providing them U.S. military assets that can get satellite imagery and help with targeting in real time would be very valuable. And we have amazing technology that has been developed in Israel during this war with Hamas.

The Iron Beam that can shoot down drones just at the speed of light for a few. Dollars, that's something, and we even have developed. The United States was the first to purchase miniature iron domes called the Trophy that protects M1 Abrams tanks.

Now, Saudi Arabia and Israel have no diplomatic engagement, but if the United States is owning some of those assets, Saudi Arabia can benefit, and I'm sure those dialogues must be underway. Right. I just think that when this midterm, when this midterm ends, I think this region explodes. What do you think? I think when the midterms end, whatever the outcome, and we are watching a knife edge on this election, the president will be free to full court press.

And I think we are at the moment. I don't think we're in a holding pattern. We could have an October surprise, depending on how the president is thinking about this. Inflicted on us, or we do it to them. I think we will do to the Houthis, and not that the Houthis are going to be solved with military force only, but to subjugate them enough to bring them to the negotiating table and cut off some of the armaments and supplies and intel.

The way we've done with Hamas and Hezbollah, the. General that you just played, it's very appropriate to think about it like the Taliban. Yemen has been the graveyard of empires going back to the Roman era, and so its geography is challenging. There are enormous human suffering. Twenty-two million people suffering under Houthi rule, and in years of war, that's humanitarian crisis.

The Houthis again exploited exploited aid that was coming into Hodeidah, just like Hamas did in Gaza.

So these are chronic problems, but they need immediate subjugation militarily. All right, more with Dr. Kanta Ahmed in just a moment. Bottom of the hour, we change gears and talk about the midterms with Lieutenant Colonel Alan West, who's nestled. Running the RNC over in Texas.

This is the Brian Kilmeade show. It's Brian Kilmeade. Hi everyone, it's Brian Kilmeade here. Are you tired of those uncomfortable dress shirts, especially when they bunch up under a sweater? If so, then you must check out collars and go makers of the dress collar polo.

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dot com. Use promo code Brian for fifteen percent off of any purchase of a hundred dollars or more. That's promo code Brian. The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmeade.

Hey, welcome back, everyone. A few more moments to try to unwind the very complicated Middle East with Dr. Kanta Ahmed, senior fellow and independent women's forum, but member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

So the Houthis are ramping up things; they keep on hitting Saudi Arabia, but they did before they started doing this two and a half weeks ago. Is told I had called Trump. I might have been directly, and they said. Our problem's not with you; it's with Saudi Arabia. Please don't get involved.

The problem, Doc, Doc Madge, you know better than anybody else, is that when you block the Red Sea, you have a problem with us, and we are allied to Saudi Arabia.

So you have a problem with us. What is our best next play?

Well, we do know that President Trump struck a ceasefire agreement with them, but in some ways the Houthis have violated that because they've killed an American in this attack. This attack in in Riyadh on the airport resulted in three hundred and nine wounded. That is twice, more than twice, that were wounded in the Al Qaeda strike in two thousand and three, which changed the global war on terror for Saudi Arabia.

So it's a huge event. I think President Trump's next move, and I'm Sure, he's making those plans is to help with more strategic defence of the valuable assets in the kingdom and subjugation of the Houthis. There's another problem that I'm worried about. It's not only the Bab el Mandeb, the the bottom neck of the Red Sea, if you were, but even sewers. Are they going to start to target sewers if the Houthi the sewers the sewers canal?

Yeah, if the Houthis are not chastised, and they are, they're very specific at the moment. They're allowing American ships to go by Bab el Mandeb. They're allowing Israeli flagged vessels to go by. I am told by an expert in Yemen while I was in Europe recently. They're They are targeting Saudi ships, so the Houthis have to be made to feel enough pain that they reconsider that.

And I think that will be kinetic, but that will also be anti-drone, electronic warfare, and other technologies that we've just. Think about how dumb it was four years ago when President Biden made Saudi Arabia a pariah nation and took the Houthis off the terrorist. Which was one of the first actions President Biden did. Yes, it was a. Inexplicable decision.

I don't know what motivated that. Yes.

So, what's left of Iran's government? What do you think they they They are evidently putting out reports that they're trying to get ramp up their military arsenal again and try to get having kids in school be read war books and try to get the country on a war footing. What do you hear?

Well, the the country itself, as you know, is in economic isolation, and I think that will only continue. And I think that they are under enormous pressure. I would watch the area of Iraq. Very closely, as you know, we've just pulled out of Iraq. Big mistake.

I think it was terrible timing. I would not have advised that. But you know, this agreement was in place. That leaves Joe Biden. That that leaves not only Iraq exposed.

It leaves the northern flank of Saudi Arabia exposed. We have Houthis that are working with Iranian-backed militia in Iraq, targeting one of the major pipelines was targeted from that direction. But I think. I think as the as the Iranian Republic becomes under more and more pressure, we are going to start to see some some uprisings, some enclaves where there will be independent rule, some assertions made by groups in Iran to begin seizing power, and I think we're going to see that fragment. I mean, I heard that our military knows or our CIA intelligence knows who these groups are.

We just have to get them arms. I have heard, and maybe the armaments are underway. I don't know. I don't have enough intelligence on that, but that is what I expect the phase of war is going to be. Why don't you think the Iranians have continued to bomb around Israel?

It's been. It's. They probably have limited reserves of their targeting. They're exacting more pain on the global market by punishing us in the Straits of Hormuz, and they may be moving their assets towards this very problematic group, the Houthis. And also, but also, and also, Israel has exacted an incredible retribution for the strikes that it withstood from Iran repeatedly.

So maybe the message is penetrating that they can't take Israel on as an as an enemy, and if they do. They basically Israel knows all the home addresses of all the scientists, of all the officials. They have this assassination game. All of the officers in the Revolutionary Guard, all of the valuable to multiple levels of rank ranks, and in fact, that's why this incredibly painful defensive war that Israel's. Had to wage after October seventh is going to yield enormous insights for these wars that have now unfortunately expanded across the region.

The threat of the Houthis is very similar to what Israel was facing from Hamas. Remember, we used to call them rockets when they came from Hamas, but they were always missiles. This is a very similar conflict. How much left to Hezbollah?

Sorry. How much is left of Hezbollah? There, there are groups of Hezbollah, but they're surrounded. Israel has gained geographical dominance. They've sealed off a lot of the, a lot of the tunnels, and most of all, the Lebanese people now publicly despise Hezbollah, call them out on their news media, and aren't tolerating them.

I talk to Dr. Talkman. Always great to see you. Very volatile region. You make it sound so simple.

Thanks so much. We'll talk to midterms next, Lieutenant Colonel Alan West. How can we help make stronger communities happen?

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If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmeade. I mean, for all the talk of Donald Trump's unpopularity, the Republican Senate candidate. This is terrible. This is gosh darn awful.

Mike Rogers, eight points underwater. Ashley Hinson, nine points underwater. Dan Sullivan, Alaska, eleven points underwater. How about in Ohio, thirteen points underwater? And you know what?

Since I can't really draw too well, how about this? How about Kemp Paxton, sixteen points underwater? He is literally the least popular GOP Senate nominee at this point in the cycle, this entire century. No one else. No one else has been as unpopular as Kemp Paxson as I did on the air.

Congratulations, Kemp Paxson. You truly have pulled off the impossible.

Well, that is Harry Enten on CNN, sarcastic. What do you expect? But they do provide interesting angles. We had to get our own guy, so we have to keep playing him. By the way, Lieutenant Colonel Alan West joins us now because there's so much.

Always great to talk about Texas, Colonel. But man, there's a lot of intrigue there because Texas is teetering at least for a cycle of turning blue with the Senate race and a governor's race, at least. And those those gerrymandered seats are very much up for grabs, Colonel. Overall, before we get specific about About what Harry just said, what what changed in Texas?

Well, it's good to be with you, Brian. I'm glad to hear that you're doing well. I think what has changed in Texas is exactly what you've seen happen in California, Colorado, Virginia, many of the strong red states, even Georgia. You look there, where I was born and raised. You have allowed people to come in and taken advantage of economic policies, business policies in the state of Georgia.

It was about bringing in Hollywood and the productions, movie production studios, and slowly but surely. The demographics have changed. I mean, we just recently had this new Texas Stock Exchange open up here, and you've seen the tech sector come in here, and most of it is focused down in Austin. And look what Austin, Texas, has become.

So I think we have to be very careful and circumspect. If you want to go back and look at how these red states have trended purple and then trended blue, we got to make sure that the people that are coming into these respective states understand the reasons why they're coming, especially the businesses and corporations and the employees that they're bringing with them. They understand the policies and the difference. As to why they're coming, you look at a place like Florida. Ron DeSantis, you know, really made a good statement of saying, you know, this is what Florida is, this what Florida stands for, and he's been able to flip areas that nobody thought was possible.

Right? Yeah.

So, and and that's what happened. But even though Byron Donalds in a tougher race now, there's something about, I guess, the cost and is the Hispanic community. And I asked Dan Patrick this over the weekend. He said no, but as the Hispanic community misinterpreted the aggressive or The way the president's approaching illegal immigrants in America, I don't think we've done a good job of explaining that, and you've got to continually message that. You know, when you look at the the left and how they're going after ICE.

ICE would not have to be in these communities if local law enforcement, and especially in some of these "quote unquote" sanctuary cities and states, which is unconstitutional and unlawful, if they would allow their law enforcement to work under 287G program with ICE. Therefore, they could police up these individuals that have the detainers, and they turn them over in the in the jails and facilities. But instead, You have governors such as Westmore in Maryland, Kathy Hochul up there in New York, and and other places, Pritzker in Illinois, that are saying we're not going to work with ICE. And so I think that they the the administration has not made it very clear that these people are undermining the rule of law. These elected officials, these governors and and other state house legislators are undermining the rule of law.

Abigail Spanberger is another great example in Virginia. Yeah, I want I want you to hear this new ad. This El Sayed links his family's links to Al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood is real. In fact, he talks about his his sister talks about his mother and what she did with him in the seventies. How proud she is of his mother.

This is a fact.

So they put together an ad. It's really brilliant. I can't play the whole thing because we're not here to sell Mike Rogers, but listen to some of this. Cut fourteen. Can you set the record straight about whether you or your family have any ties to the Muslim Brotherhood?

No. No, you don't have any ties. No. Abdul El Sayed's sister tweeted, "My family has long been supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood." El Sayed's birth mother reportedly worked for a designated terror group that provided financial support to Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and also Hamas. His father-in-law sits on the board of an organization that is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Muslim Brotherhood celebrated his win in the primary.

He said Al Sayyed took money linked directly to terrorist groups, and Al Sayyed couldn't deny the claim.

So you get the idea, and this is facts. I mean, we have, and you got to see, it's a visual, and we're on radio, but they're showing the quotes. This, this matter doesn't this matter to the people of Michigan? My goodness.

Well, you know, I was just up in Michigan a couple of weeks ago, and it is starting to matter. As a matter of fact, Abdul Al-Sayed spoke at the Islamic Society of North America's annual conference in in Detroit, Michigan, on Labor Day weekend. The Islamic Society of North America is not is one of the organizations that's listed in the Muslim Brotherhood explanatory memorandum that was found in an FBI raid in two thousand and four. Yeah, it's crazy, but it is happening. And he spoke at their convention.

So here is an organization that the Muslim Brotherhood said will facilitate their infiltration into the United States of America.

So again, these these are truths, these are facts, and we just have to get this stuff out. And and that's the critical aspect of of all of this. Speak the truth. Speak the truth about ICE. Speak the truth about illegal immigration.

Speak the truth about these affiliations that people like Abdul Aziz had have. Yeah, and and getting back to Texas now, is it your belief that the governor's race is dead heat? No, you know, I just don't. I just don't believe that. I mean, I mean, again, you know, when people are going down and they are, you know, doing these surveys, where are they doing the surveys?

Are they going out into, you know, East Texas? Are they going out to wait West Texas? Are they concentrating in the major population centers down the I thirty five corridor, and of course, Houston, Harris County, in those areas?

So that's what I would look at, and then, of course, also the. You have people that are telling these these survey callers what they think they want to hear in order to not be bothered or not be pestered.

So, I would like to dig back and see exactly the areas where these surveys are being conducted. It looks where do you think Talerico is for twelve days? And can you see a scenario, Colonel West? You had a devastating motorcycle accident. I don't think you.

I think you would have found a way back on the campaign trail in less than twelve days. It's so funny because you know I was looking at that interview you and I did. I think it was two days, now three days after I had that accident.

So, you know, you know, I got skull drug down I thirty five at seventy five miles per hour, but yet I'm talking with you. It didn't look pretty, but I'm still talking to you. Oh, you were fine. Yeah, and so I don't get this thing about I had the flu. Even if you had the flu, do a Zoom call, but let people know who you are, where you are.

So it's those type of things that kind of like a dark cloud to hang over James Talarico, and it may be the October surprise that he did not expect. Absolutely, and Colonel West, finally, Paxson, do you believe it's a dead heat there? I do, and one of the main reasons I do is again the GOP establishment, the Cornyn camp. Will they get behind Ken Paxton? You know that's still an an an if, and hopefully they will see the greater picture.

And you know he's not the the perfect person, but who among us is a perfect person? Colonel West, thanks so much. It's going to be an interesting. You got it. Real talk.

Real guests, real insight, where curiosity meets conversation. It's the Brian Kilmeade Show. How can we help make stronger communities happen?

Well, at JPMorgan Chase, we invest in what's working because when businesses can grow, that growth means more jobs for more people and more goods that can go to more restaurants and main streets and schools in the communities we love. Make the green grass grow all around, all around. Make the green grass grow all around. Make momentum happen. Learn more at jpmorganchase dot com slash impact.

Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kilmeade Show. I don't do this with men very often. I started examining his body because I didn't know he was a great athlete, and I looked and I watched up and down. I looked at his ass, and I got it.

You are a great athlete. Who's he talking about? Senator Houston. Yesterday. Yeah, about his nice butt.

Yes, he is in very good shape. He was a college football player. We know that because in my sequel, the games do count. That's coming out next year. The games still count.

Center Usted is already submitted for an interview for that, and every one of the interviews are going to be on camera.

So we zoomed them all in the radio studio or in our podcast studio.

So each one goes on for twenty, thirty minutes minimum, sometimes forty. And Center Usted was great football. Player, fantastic athlete in high school, and played with John Gruden in college at the University of Dayton, where they set a whole bunch of records too.

So John used a great guy. I mean, extremely, extremely competent, extremely good. He what he is is little profile.

So you have Sherrod Brown, who's the most well-known politician maybe in modern Ohio history, who's been there fifty years, who got destroyed by Bernie Moreno—not destroyed, but got beat handily by Bernie Moreno because Ohio won. And this time he's got a slight lead over Houston. He was battling back. He held the seat for JD Vance when JD Vance became Vice President of the United States, and he's done really just like a workman job. But he doesn't do a showboating job, you know.

I'm not putting down Ted Cruz, but Ted Cruz is everywhere. Rand Paul is everywhere. Lindsey Graham was everywhere. You see, Senator Kennedy everywhere. Houston's more of a worker.

But that worked against him with a name that's not you know flamboyant, and with a personality that's workmanlike. People say, "Well, I don't really know what he's been doing." Well, he's been doing a lot, and that's what he's been doing, and and that's why JD Vance has been back there so often, and that's why the president's been back to Ohio so often. They can't lose Ohio, they can't lose Kansas, they cannot lose Texas, they can't lose Alaska, they can't lose Maine. I'm pretty confident on Maine if you're a Republican. I'm pretty.

I'm confident on Mike Rogers still. I just have more faith. This is on Michigan. You know what Mike Rogers is. You just you saw him campaign with Alyssa Schachter.

You saw him campaign as a congressman. You know what he did as an FBI guy. Look up what he did in the military. Know that his son is serving now. See that he's a self-made success story, the business person.

But look who he's running against. The most abhorrent candidate in in American one of in almost in American history, outside that clown that ran from the KKK, it's a terrible guy who his ideas are awful, and now he's got so little black support. They had Barack Obama coming out, who he basically said was a terrible president, was a huge letdown. Let's talk more about the midterms because Howard Entin weighed in. On where Republicans are are trailing, I we played that before, but in terms of the strategy for Trump, Trump is saying I'm going to go out there, like it or not, I'm pretend I'm on the ballot.

Content. I think what you're seeing with Trump is actually a good strategy. They need turnout.

So, what he's—I know everyone sort of makes fun of him because everyone's like, "Oh, look at him! He's making it all about himself." And look at his approval ratings—they're terrible. But if you are going to red districts and your messages come out, that's because there are Republican voters who might be dissatisfied with Trump, might stay home at a midterm because people vote less in a midterm, and that is going to be problematic for them.

So that's why when Trump showing up, it gets them out. That's Lulu Garcia Navarro on on CNN, who was doing more of an analyst type role there. But for Abdul Al-Sayed, here's a guy with his major pro, his major policy is Medicare for all, which doesn't work. Thirty-two trillion dollars over the course of ten years, we can't afford it. It's bigger than the entire economy, and obviously, you don't get quality care.

Doctors don't love it. Number two, you always need supplemental insurance with it, and number three, you know who's really going to hate it the most? Unions. Unions have worked hard to negotiate through collective bargaining, fantastic benefits. They say these are things.

The job might not be glamorous. It's gonna be hard, but you're gonna get a pension, and you're gonna get a retirement, and you're gonna get good healthcare. That's part of the attraction of the job. You're taking away the healthcare, and you're gonna give me Medicare. Also, the seniors with it say, "Are you kidding?

That's what I'm gonna get." Here is here's Abdul Sayed on Meet the Press. Getting mild pushback on Medicare for all. Which, by the way, his wife's a doctor. I was getting text messages that they know his wife, and his wife does not take insurance. Cut nineteen, cut fifteen.

In your vision of Medicare for all, does private insurance still exist? If people want redundant care, absolutely. I don't want to take anything away. This is about what we offer to people. What Medicare for All is is guaranteed health insurance from cradle to the moment you pass away, God willing, at 120 years old after a long, healthy life, and it comes without premiums or copays or deductibles, and it guarantees you care where you need it.

That is a level of security we have never known in the United States of America. And as President Obama called the ACA, called it a starter home, and I think you know you look on. We've outgrown our starter home. It's time for us to reach. And to say what what can we get now?

And if people want to keep their private insurance above and beyond the the public insurance that we guarantee, then great. But I don't want them them to have to have that.

So. Think about what he said. He has no idea how much it's going to cost. Medicare for all is better than Obamacare, and Obamacare is a starter home. That's his landmark, landmark piece of legislation.

A starter home. That's like here's my down payment. I like to live my life on that.

So it's a starter home. You mean Obamacare that's unaffordable needs record subsidies? When the subsidies don't come in, they blame the Republican administration for not doing excessive funding for it. And now he's going to go with Medicare. And not to have pushback.

How much going to cost? Who's going to pay it? Billionaires. Can you keep your insurance if you want? But it's redundant insurance.

What are you talking about? You ever heard of good insurance? You ever heard of insurance doesn't cover anything? You ever cover insurance that you have, but you might as well not have it because deductibles are so high.

So this guy to put no time into a plan. He's got a statement. It's not a plan. Bernie Sanders got no plan either. Everybody knows that.

So this is what you're voting for. There's a choice in the election.

So overall, the other big story is immigration. As I mentioned, one of the big three, the immigration situation is really a dividing point in this country. The Obama the border opened up, Biden denied it, Trump fixed it so quickly. Not getting credit for it, just the fact of the case, it's a story in politics.

Now it's picking up illegal immigrant criminals and other people have overstayed their visa and avoided detection.

So in doing that, did he alien? The Hispanic vote, because they've been quite aggressive, especially in sanctuary cities where the local cops cannot help. Does does that is that a dividing point, and that's going to be key? Because to me, either stand behind it, explain it, and just say this: they say forty percent of the people have criminal records that they scooped up, but if you add in people that have been charged, that goes up to about seventy, eighty percent. And then you add in people that hanging out with criminals.

What the hell are you hanging out with a criminal for if you don't have the same mindset and what you do? And that's that is a lot to do with when people. That is a lot to do with when people say, "Well, you know, you're not the target, but you're scooped up anyway." Well, look who you're hanging out with, and that's the issue. Yesterday during Fox and Friends, it cost me a plug on my book, and I'm a little resentful. It looks like Elon Omar's house was raided.

This is what I heard from a great source. Her house was raided. This is about immigration, not the fraud, immigration fraud, but not the fraud in Minneapolis. Number one, the reason why they did Washington—that's where she lives. That's where her kids go to school.

That's where most of the paperwork is. Number two, don't assume just because Elon Omar was raided that nobody else related to her wasn't. Because it looks like they were, and to look, that was my heads up. And think Rico, think Rico. This isn't as they used to do to take down the mob.

Rico violations. A judge looked at this and says, "Yeah, there's reason to raid." And finally, today my book comes out. United in the States: Six Crucial Moments That Fords the American Miracle. I play. We go do a Fox Nation special Friday night.

I'm going to be in Red Bank, New Jersey, talking about it. Saturday, I'm going to be Saturday. I'm going to be over in Westbury, Long Island, talking about it. Here's a little of my first chapter, which is the Boston Massacre. At that point, the British sent troops to America.

Say, we're not going to let you do that, dar guys. On October 1st, 1768, thousands of British troops marched into Boston to restore order. The population of Boston was about 15,000. There were 4,000 British troops on the streets of Boston, so it must have been like you saw, overwhelmed everywhere, right? And the resentment of being occupied, and the fear on both sides that violence could break out, and Violence did break out more than a year following the arrival of the troops.

A British customs official opened fire on a crowd, killing a young boy and pushing Boston to its breaking point. Just weeks later, the escalation culminated in the event known today as the Boston Massacre. And that Adams called it murder on King Street. And what I may be significant about that, we know in 1770 he helped give birth to 1776 of the Battle of the Revolution.

However. Did you know that John Adams stood up for the soldiers and proved that justice for all? Hi everyone, it's Brian Kilmeade here. Are you tired of those uncomfortable dress shirts, especially when they bunch up under a sweater? If so, then you must check out Collars and Co.

Makers of the dress collar polo. Listen up; these shirts are four-way stretch, buttery soft polos with firm dress collars on them, so they give you the dress shirt look but extremely comfortable polo feel. You can wear them with anything under a sweater. With a blazer or by themselves as an elevated polo, they work for any occasion. These polos are perfect whether it's in the office, on a golf course, or a night out.

Collars and colors exploding, and have gone viral on social media thanks to the one million investment they received on Shark Tank from Mark Cuban and Peter Jones. You don't have to worry about collars that flop down and spread out; they stay firm and sharp all day. It's an amazing array of sweaters, quarter zips, pants. Outwear. If you're looking for the performance dress shirt or polo that looks great all day, check out collarsandco.

dot com. Use promo code Brian for fifteen percent off of any purchase of a hundred dollars or more. That's promo code Brian. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sewing division. It's Brian Kilmeade.

Hi everyone, it's big day, 48 to 6 in Midtown Manhattan, where it's happening. You're hearing me, and we're really thankful for that. You hear me around the country and around the world. But today, the Uniting the States by brand new book comes out. Six crucial moments that forged the American miracle.

It's a special on Fox Nation. I'll play a little some cuts from it to give you an idea what it was about. It's my idea, our idea, Harper Collins, Fox, everybody, to give you an idea of how special this country is and how close we came to not being a country at all. And how he always came out through every crisis is stronger.

So, I just hope people get a real sense they don't live and breathe history, but care about our country. I hope you really like it. I know this Friday night I'll be talking about in Red Bank, New Jersey. Saturday I'll be in Westbury, in Westbury, New York, on Long Island. But bringing the whole show to life, my buddy Rick and Pat and Allison's producing, and we're going to be bringing certain history, those moments in history, to life in a fun, entertaining way.

And all I encourage you to go to Ticketmaster and look at the reviews. I never did this before. These are the people that saw the last shows. I we revamped the whole thing all summer, and I think you're going to love it.

So that'll be great. Roger Zackheim is standing by. He's got a book coming out shortly called "Peace Through Strength: How Ronald Reagan's Military Build Buildup Won the Cold War." Yes, yes, kids, there was a Cold War. And Daniel Bilak joins us from Ukraine.

So before we get to them, let's get to the big three. Number three. Every time President Trump leads to push for a ceasefire, President Zelensky and Ukrainians agree to it. They follow President Trump's lead. They follow the ceasefire, and then the Russians respond by hitting Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

That is the great Rebecca Heinrichs. The energy fight from Iran to Russia and our enemies combine to jack up our fuel costs. Why siding with our allies in this key moment is winning long term, and it's a necessary fight in the short term. Number two. This is a D.C.

magistrate judge. These guys are typically not friendly to anything Republican, right? Whatever was presented to them was enough to believe for them to believe that a crime had been committed and there was evidence potentially in Ilhan Omar's house. From the Omar raid to the ICE clash in New York City against U.S. illegal gang-linked immigrants, Dems and the GOP are on opposite sides of the immigration debate.

Where do you stand? We break it down. Number one. I mean, for all the talk of Donald Trump's unpopularity, the Republican Senate candidate. This is gosh darn awful.

How about Kemp Paxton? Sixteen points underwater. He is literally the least popular GOP Senate nominee at this point in the cycle, this entire century. That is CNN. Three weeks to go, and we all know how much power we will soon know how much power Donald Trump will have to finish the job in the last two years of his administration.

As forty-seven went to Ohio yesterday and heads to Alaska today to try and keep the Senate, as Michigan's race takes a terroristic turn. Let's bring in Roger Zach. I'm Roger. Great to see you. Thanks so much for joining us.

Great to be here, and congrats on on your book. I love the emphasis on unity. Yeah, and it's a critical part of our history. But you know, it's also a critical part is that everything I research, we're always fighting, disagreeing. I would say, you know, Hamilton disagreed with Jefferson, not just on the stage, but in real life.

Hamilton did not want Louisiana Purchase.

So I mean, everything.

So for people that are getting so panicky now that we have political disagreements, they don't understand our history.

Well, that was the genius of our founders, and this is what your book lays out, right? They knew that there was always going to be disagreements, but they came up with a constitution and a framework that allowed for these disagreements to be handled through debate, through separation of powers, and and a variety of ways that didn't come to violence on our streets, but actually debated in the chambers of Congress and elsewhere across the country.

So when you you know you live and breathe the Reagan eight years.

So, was there much more sense of compromise? As different as a candidate as Reagan was, in many cases, he's like Trump in that way. People thought he was not ready for the job. They thought he was not hands-on with the job. They think Trump is too hands-on, but they thought he was detached.

As Al, you know, his staff was doing too much, and his his ideas wouldn't work. Having said all that, was there a sense more that they were looking to get things done, work hard, but at the end, do a deal? Were there more deals done in the in the eighties?

Well, there are some really big deals, as you know, from arms control reduction treaties with the Soviets to social security reform. You know, we have a picture here at the Reagan Institute of Tip O'Neill. The Very liberal speaker of the House shaking hands with President Reagan, but Brian, you know that that was sort of an occasional outcome. Most of the time, these these forces, political forces, were competing hard. And I and I go back to history, and you've done the same, and you see that there were deep disagreements.

The compromises were the exception, not the rule, and we got through it. And that's a that's a key lesson in our history. I hear you.

So let's talk about the midterms right now. We know about history and what. Usually does, but now you have the headwinds of high energy costs. But it's basically what Joe Biden had. But the president's policies supposed to be to bring energy down, like last year.

This year they're up.

So, if you have twenty, you have twenty plus days to play this out. What should you be focusing on? Listen, if you are up in Michigan, Mike Rogers, right now, this is this is a challenge for you. Same thing with with Susan Collins in Maine. That's far more on the trade front than it is on the energy front, but it impacts it as well.

I tend to take the view that a great candidate is going to be able to overcome these challenges.

Now, you're you're right; the prices are up, but I think for a noble and good cause, and we need candidates who could explain it that the that that the bite we're feeling right now is going to actually structurally change our dependency. We're seeing that with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz; this regime is crumbling. Ultimately, we're going to have less dependency on the oil coming out Middle East. That's going to be better for Americans.

So, I bet on good candidates rather than. On you know whether oil prices, diesel prices are up or down for this past week.

Well, I know I hear you.

So when the president's going to Alaska, what I thought one of the most solid senators the Republicans have and Senator Dan Sullivan. What's the struggles there? He's even delivered in Alaska for the Alaskans to the point where his his competitor Mary Palota just said, "Yeah, that gas deal you guys did with Trump was really good." Dan Sullivan is a great senator who does more for his state on energy and energy dominance and taking care of the issues of Alaskans. That is not debatable. But the winds are such what they are, right, Brian?

And and and you have historically challenges for. Presidents in midterms, it's always the other party that's going to come in, and and and and no matter who you are, Ronald Reagan or Donald Trump, it's a challenge for you. And here, I mean, this this some of the challenges that Dan Sullivan faced, another candidate named Sullivan. I mean, so he has some gamemanship too that he had that he had to overcome.

So you know, it's the these sort of historical wins are a challenge, but he is a strong candidate. I think he'll he'll figure it out as we get to election day. I guess so.

So as A marshal in a flat-footed tie, Santa Roger Marshall in Kansas. I think people are upset. Farmers were upset there by the cost of fertilizer and the cost of diesel. Yeah, well, you you have that, and you also have some of the trade challenges. I mean, Brian, one of the things that is is is sort of non-intuitive.

You think sort of free trade is a mindset of a cosmopolitan living in the coasts. More and more, the people who care most about free trade are those in Middle America, because they're the ones who have to get their goods goods to the agricultural products to the international markets.

So I think it's a couple of issues: certainly energy prices, but also the challenges we face with the Trump administration's tariff policies that. Agriculture farmers have seemed to be on the on on the losing side of that over the past couple of years. You know, it's interesting because he's done twenty trade deals. Have they not paid off?

Well, listen, I think the the trade deals have been a net positive, and so that's what's emphasized. But other than tariffs against the People's Republic of China. Which I think are strong national security reasons to advance.

Some of the other tariffs, you certainly have created problems for those in Middle America and and our farmers.

So you know it's sort of a mixed bag there, Brian. Yeah.

So let's talk about what's happening in the Middle East. The Houthis are ramping up attacks on the Saudis. My image: the Houthis and Iranians want to create maximum chaos in the Middle East to jack up prices as much as they can, but To affect the midterm elections, basically, when the Iranians wrote a 28-page letter to the Democrat to the American people saying "vote Democrat," we knew they were going to try to do something in October. Is this it, Roger Zakheim?

Well, and I think it could ratchet up even more. I mean, you've been talking about this. I mean, Jack Keen, General Jack Keen, talked about sort of the October surprise, and here's what's interesting about it. And this, I think, is something the Saudis have to internalize. Are the Iranians attacking Israel right now?

No. Have we seen strikes on the Israelis? The answer is no, because the Israelis have effectively deterred this radical regime. The Saudis have not, and we need to understand why. And part of it is I don't think the Saudis have done enough to get into the fight.

Now they want U.S. support, and President Trump is was talking over the weekend how he's considering that. But think about this: we give the Saudis and sell the Saudis a lot. Of military kit, we are responsible for so much of the platforms that they buy. Why have they not been effective at deterring the Iranians in the same way the Israelis have?

And I think that's really some of the unwritten story here of how this war with Iran is played out. The Gulf states haven't deterred the Iranians; the Israelis have. Yeah, and we also see the fact is that Yemen is fractured, and the Houthis are trying to take over another vital strait.

So they said, "Our problem is not with you, America.

So please stay out of it." The question is, when the president gets into it, they will start trying to hit different installations among our Gulf allies because they're acting on behalf of Iran. No question, they're the last part of sort of the the ring of fire that seems to have some potency to it. And they live in the Stone Age, so blasting them into Stone Age is a little bit more difficult when it comes to the Hutis. I think we should get into the fight. The president obviously is sensitive to energy markets, the price of fuel, and trade going through not just the Strait of Hormuz, but also in the Red Sea.

This is something that the president needs to take on. He's taken on Zelensky, as you know about, he's spoken about, because he thinks that that's one of the challenges to getting the price of diesel down. If we if we allow the the Houthis continue to to strike the Saudis and impact trade, it's ultimately going to affect the price of the pump for the American people. We're doing ourselves no good service by standing on the sidelines here. All right, so let's talk about the Ukrainians.

The Ukrainians were in Florida over the weekend, and they was talking about a day one of the different. Different things they could propose to the Russians to get a deal. They're meeting with our people, and then the president came out and said, "Well, I think the we're going to buy all this diesel from Russia." When Zelensky made it clear he doesn't think that's a good idea, nor do I. The president said, "Well, maybe the the Ukrainians need a new president," and he could have made a lot of deals, but he shouldn't have.

Now we're at the point where he wants both sides to have a ceasefire on energy.

So Zelensky weighed in. Cut twenty-three. Will you say here today that Ukraine agrees to this ceasefire? Of course, Ukraine. Always supported the idea of the American president of the President Trump from the very beginning of his term to support ceasefire and unconditional ceasefire, just ceasefire.

We are ready today for energy ceasefire, as President Trump said. But I'm not sure that Putin is ready, because even after yesterday's messages from President. And so, about energy ceasefire, Putin attacked our gas infrastructure.

So this is where we are.

So while we have an energy ceasefire, Putin hits their their energy right into their energy structure. Brian, you you hit on this on on Fox and Friends over the weekend. I think very. Clearly, to the point, persuasively, and has only played out to reinforce point of you can't make a deal with Putin. The past two days, since the president has spoken about this, there have been at least six strikes by Putin on Ukrainian energy sites and.

On the flip side, the Ukrainians have held off on targeting Russian energy sites. The pathway to solving this conflict, the pathway to reducing the price energy prices in the United States, is not through Vladimir Putin. We've seen this time and time again. And if you want to get a plan through, Zelensky is your partner. Those are the they are the ones who've been resilient.

They are the ones who are reliable. And of course, we know it's it's a complete conceit that.

Somehow, Vladimir Putin is going to give up anything here. Certainly, if we are allowing him to strike the Ukrainians, he will just continue to exploit it.

So, I know the president is really extremely frustrated by it. But, Roger, in the past, wouldn't it? It's not a loss to just rotate diplomats. Obviously, Kushner is a brilliant guy. And Whitcomb's great realtor, but they're not together producing the results.

They clearly favor Russia. They they only went to Ukraine one time. It just rotate people out. They got a huge State Department. Put Rubio in charge of this.

Yeah, well, I'm a big fan of of Secretary Rubio and God Marco at the Acropolis should be shown over and over again the way that he put forward exactly what's at stake with Western civilization. I and and it was clear from that speech that he gave when he was in Athens is that the future of American prosperity, the future of Western civilization, does not reside in Moscow. It's by people like Vladimir Putin and the the the heroic efforts of the Ukrainians that's going to give us a future of freedom.

So I'm full on think that Secretary Rubio is a man here, but the president wants to reduce energy prices, and he's clearly tasking his envoys to come up with something.

So I'm sort of sympathetic to the Wickoff and Kushner situation. President saying, "Let's come up with a deal." He tasks and get out there and figure it out. It was long overdue. Brian, for them to take a trip out to Kiev, and I would prefer them spending a lot more time or equal amount of time with the Ukrainians in the same way they've spent a lot of time with Putin and his minions in Moscow. But bottom line is, the president's driving this because of the midterms.

I'm sympathetic to the concern, but it's not going to yield the results he seeks if he thinks Putin is his pathway to electoral victory in the United States. Right, but Putin should realize the president of the United States is the one who's going to give him the fairest deal and an offer. Rampant, he'll ever get. I don't care if it's a woman, man, Republican, Democrat that comes in next, right? Oh, we don't owe fairness to Vladimir Putin.

He doesn't play. I hear you.

But but if the president is certainly seeking to facilitate a deal for Putin, that's more than he deserves. But the bottom line is here: the Ukrainian people are not going to give up their freedom for Vladimir Putin to roll on in. And suppress them, oppress them, kill them, rape them, like he's done, and that is a hard fact that the White House probably knows and needs to accept. We've seen this war since 2022. They are not going to give in.

And the reality is, is that the president ran on, "Hey, Ukrainians can do what they want. We're not going to go ahead and give them weapons." Zelensky took it, has absorbed it. And now, as you know, is leading the world in technology for drones. He's figured out how to give himself a comparative advantage. Roger Zachheim, always great.

Can't wait for your book that comes out next month. Peace through strength. Congrats on yours. We got to get you out of the Reagan Library. I think it's coming up here sometime in January.

We're excited to host you. Yeah, that'll be great. And of course, I have a lot of demands, and there's a lot of things. See if you can meet my demands for me to appear.

Now I'm only kidding. It'll be my honor. Peace through strength. How Reagan's military buildup won the Cold War. Roger Zachheim.

Thanks so much. Back in a moment. It's Brian Kilmeade. Hi everyone, it's Brian Kilmeade here. You tired of those uncomfortable dress shirts, especially when they bunch up under a sweater?

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Collarsandco dot com. Use promo code Brian for fifteen percent off of any purchase of a hundred dollars or more. That's promo code Brian. Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kilmeade Show.

Multiple offers for ceasefires have been presented by Mr. Kushner, Mr. Wittkop, President Trump himself. And Putin to date has rejected every single one of them, time and time again. And so I suspect he'll reject this one as well.

He clearly thinks it's in his nation's best interest to continue this—to bomb civilians, to go after schools and energy infrastructure inside of Ukraine, especially as winter's approaching. He thinks that's going to achieve his endgame. I wish it worked so, but it seems to me unlikely that the Russians will actually engage in an energy ceasefire. Yeah, they won't. I'm not sure why.

Won't take advantage of an open channel with the president of the United States. President gives Vladimir Putin the time of day, but Joe Biden didn't. No other world leaders even talking to him, as far as I know. And the he doesn't want to start a ceasefire.

Meanwhile, the country is a wash in debt. They have they basically have lost more of a brain drain that they could ever have imagined. They are losing thirty two thousand troops a month. They are using North Koreans tricking Africans into fighting for them in order to keep this fight alive. They actually gained.

A small bit of territory over the last year, and lost portions of the Donbas, which they started fighting for. They've been thoroughly exposed. They lost their influence over in Syria, but for some reason, we're trying to bail them out, and I hope it doesn't last any longer. When we come back, the latest from Ukraine with Daniel Belet. The fastest three hours in radio.

You're with Brian Kilmeade. Hey, we're back, and I don't have to tell you what's going on in Ukraine. That's going on for four and a half years now. Ukraine has formed the finest fighting force in Europe, pound for pound, best, one of the best in the world. What they've been able to innovate, what they've been able to withstand, has been unthinkable.

And the we're watching the Russians being cut down to size on a daily basis. And but it's not without Ukraine paying a big price. President is seeing what's going on. He's extremely frustrated. He did not start this war.

It's nothing to do with him or his policies. He inherited it. With both sides have clearly dug in. Vladimir Putin has gotten multiple chances for an off ramp. He's not taking it.

And you got economic chances. Everybody knows saving face matters. It's the story of history. Nobody wants to divide decisive loss unless they're forced to deal with it. And Ukraine has shown they're not going to quit.

Why would they? I when the president brings up, well. You know they should they should cut a deal. Cut a deal for what? Give up land that Russians can't win to how to pause a war that's only going to restart again without security guarantees.

There's been no good deal offered to the Ukrainians. Daniel Beilack knows this. He's in Ukraine, former chief investment officer for the prime minister of Ukraine. Daniel, welcome back. I think we're kind of frozen.

Thanks, Brian. Oh, you can hear. I can hear you.

Okay, I know we're dealing with thousands of miles and thousands of countries, so it's a little bit of a delay there. What these this back and forth must be really agonizing for you over the last for the last few weeks. Yeah, it's it's been it's. Terrible, Brian. We've been just bombed twenty four seven.

We're we're you know no Patriot missiles. We're out of Patriot missiles now.

So we're we're completely at the mercy of the. Hey Daniel, you know what I'm going to do is we tried to zoom it from Ukraine. Obviously, they have all types of issues, so I'm just going to get him on the phone.

So if you just let me pause here, and as we get him on the phone, just let me even understanding too, there were meetings going on in Florida with Ukrainian officials, thinking about creative ways to bring an end to this war. At the same time, the president engaged Vladimir Putin over the weekend. It was his birthday. I know who wants to celebrate his birthday, but they they did speak. That was time there was a 500 ton deal of diesel fuel done, and it's going to allow Russians to get some money.

It's only going to be a little bit of a cushion. It's only going to be a little bit of cushion for us. Almost a day and a half of diesel, but the money is going to be used helps the you Russian war machine.

So Dan, we're just going to do it on the phone right now. You said the last thing you were saying is that you are out of Patriot missiles. Yeah, we're we're out of Patriot missiles. We we we desperately need. There's there's 200 Patriot missiles in Greece that are about to expire in terms of their ability to do anything, and we need them.

And all all we need is a is a telephone call from the White House to authorize the transfer. You know, we're we're really getting desperate. You know, they're hitting schools, hospitals. We're pulling kids, kids, young children out of the rubble of apartment buildings and their schools. They're hitting.

We're now down in terms of medicines and food because they're hitting logistic centers. They're going after passenger trains. You know, they go on safari for civilians. As as you pointed out, Brian, they're losing on the ground. Actually, as we as our troops are starting to make advances in the east, so Putin is just gone to.

Gone to war in a in a terrorist manner against the Ukrainian people.

So I want you to hear the exchange with the president and Lucas Tomlinson yesterday. Cut twenty one. Zelensky says he supports your energy ceasefire, but Putin doesn't. What's your message to Putin? I think they've both supported.

I think they want to make a deal, but they don't know how. But we're going to get them to make a deal. We haven't heard. They lost, you know, the numbers just came out. They lost thirty-two thousand people, mostly young soldiers, last this month, this last month, and they have to make a deal.

We haven't heard anything from Putin, sir.

Well, we're going to see what happens. We'll get it done. Right, we have not heard anything from Putin. The president had a private conversation with him. What do you hear is happening?

You always have the best intelligence. You're in the battle.

Well, we heard from as soon as the president announced that there was going to be an energy ceasefire, they they blew up six energy plants. President Zelensky ordered for our troops to stop hitting their their oil refineries for two days, Sunday to Monday. During that period, we were bombed incessantly, and they took out six energy facilities.

So, you know, it's like you said, Brian, about compromise. I think Golda Meir, former prime minister of Israel, said it best. She said, "They want to kill us. We want to live. There's not much room to negotiate." And that's the situation we're in right now.

But the one thing that's pretty clear is you have not stopped hitting them either, right?

Well, we we resumed, and we and we won't. And you should. We have no other means of we have no other means of getting of defending ourselves, Brian. Every penny that the United States is going to spend of its taxpayers' money to buy diesel from Putin is going to go into killing Ukrainian children and their families. And and that that is that is a really sickening thought to me.

You know, Congress passed a law in 2022, sanctioning Russia and forbidding the United States to buy any petroleum products from Russia. I don't know how this latest deal squares with with that in terms of legality, but the point is that the only people that are going to pay for for this deal diesel are going to be Ukrainians, and we're going to be paying with our lives.

So, how many refineries? I mean, they do not have many refineries left, do they? We've taken about we've taken out over fifty percent, Brian. It's really has really hit the Russians hard. We've seen the the the impact on the battlefield, as Putin said.

They are in huge losses. We're we're incurring probably half of or less of their losses, and we took out fifty thousand Russian soldiers last month. They can't replace those now. And so we're starting to push them back on the on the battlefield, but you know this this this diesel deal doesn't make much sense as far as I understand for for for the United States because you know 300,000 tons, which is what they're supposed to deliver in October, is like one day of consumption in in the U.S. transport sector.

So I don't know. I don't know what the how much this is going to move the dial in terms of bringing down the diesel prices in the U.S. And I understand Americans are are really hurting because of this. But you know, it's I think I think the Iran war has has caused a lot of this, and you know we have to defend ourselves. You know, Russian diesel is not going to make a big difference to the the delivery.

Russian diesel is not going to make a big difference. To to to Americans in a in a in a macro sense.

So I want to go back to original. When we were transferring lines, you said something about Patriot batteries are coming your way. The president just signed off on it. Can you can you backtrack and just reframe that? Yeah, no.

We we know that there are two hundred Patriot missiles that are hitting their best before date in Greece. I mean that's a lot of missiles for us, and apparently what I've heard is that they're just waiting for the sign off from the White House to send them to us. But you know that doesn't doesn't seem to be happening for some reason. You know this idea that I heard today, Mr. Kushner and Mr.

Whitcomb saying that this deal on the diesel was a way to get Russia to the table. I mean, you and I both know, Brian, that appeasement never, never, never moves Putin to do anything except double down on the destruction and and murder that that he wrecks on on his enemies. He's just going to see this as a sign of weakness and and a way to say that hey we're winning this war we got we got the United States now supporting us and you know I really worry about what message this sends to to to America's allies about the resolve of the United States that you know President Trump quite correctly sanctioned India Turkey Indonesia other countries that were buying Russian oil. And for some reason, decided that it was going to lift the sanctions imposed by for for deliveries to the United States. Yeah.

Put it this way: most of the American public supports Ukraine. There's a small portion that doesn't. I don't know why they're confused, but in the end, I think the president's going to get it right. And he's giving. I mean, after Alaska, and and after this, which just happened, bombing the energy sector the day after today, there's going to be an energy truce.

I think that sooner or later, the president's going to get it right. Also, out of respect for Lindsey Graham, final thought. Bye.

Well, I hope so. I mean, the energy truce that's been sort of bandied around seems to only involve oil refineries.

So we don't hit oil refineries, but they can hit our energy infrastructure, power plants, water, etc. That that's never going to work, Brian. I mean, it's got to be. President Zelensky has has been consistent about this for the last. Month saying, look, we will we will go for an energy ceasefire, but it has to be across the board.

You don't hit our infrastructure, and we won't hit yours. And we have no choice, Brian. And I think the American people will understand this. But to defend ourselves, if they're not going to play ball, Daniel, I can't wait. Yeah, I'm going to have to.

I'm going to have to leave it there. But there's going to be a time we're going to be speaking about the Ukrainian reconstruction after victory in this war. Just hang in there. You already get the world's attention, and hopefully, we're going to get it right at the White House. Daniel Beleck, thanks so much.

Thank you. God bless the people of the United States. Thank you for your support. You got it. Back with Stuart Varney.

Do a simulcast in a moment. Listen, Brian Kilmeade. You're with Brian Kilmeade. Now the Brian Kilmeade Show joins Fox Business's Varney and Company with Stuart Varney live on your radio and on Fox Business. Here's Brian Kilmeade.

Welcome back, everybody. Kind of excited. "Uniting the States" comes out now today. First time. We're two and a half years.

So you go to BrianKilmeade.com. You can order. You can get it signed. It goes to my local bookstore if you want a personalized. And we'll do that.

And so, six crucial moments to forge the American miracle—a matter of moments. We're going to do a simulcast on FBN, your favorite business channel, and with Stewart Varney, your number one host on that channel.

So that's going to be great. And we're going to be talking about a few things that really matter, including what's happening with the midterms and a certain fundraiser happening with the world champion New York Knicks. What would that be tonight? There is a debate. It is Bruce Blakeman against Governor Kathy Hochul.

It's their first and only debate. What's listening? President Trump's confident that Ukraine and Russia will make a deal to end the war, but there's one problem. Listen to this. Zelensky says he supports your energy ceasefire, but Putin doesn't.

What's your message to Putin? I think they both support it. I think they want to make a deal, but they don't know how. But we're going to get them to make a deal. We haven't heard they lost.

You know, the numbers just came out. They lost 32,000 people, mostly young soldiers, last this month, this last month, and they have to make a deal. We haven't heard anything from Putin, sir.

But we're going to see what happens. We'll get it done. Okay, Brian, do you agree that Russia and Ukraine don't know how to make a deal, or does Russia just want to keep this thing going?

Well, put it this way: the meeting in Florida, Ukrainians are meeting with Jared Kushner and Steve Whitmire in Florida on different proposals to give to Russia. Russia has shown no interest in making a deal. The Alaska debacle, where they pretended that they showed somewhat interest, that should have been the first key that Vladimir Putin doesn't even understand saving face. He is losing thirty-two thousand. Do you know he's actually losing land in the Donbas?

Remember, for the longest time, it was can the Ukrainians hold on?

Now, look, the Ukrainians. I just was interviewing Daniel Belak in the Ukraine ten minutes ago, from the Ukraine, and he says they're out of Patriot missiles, and there's batteries in Greece. The president just has a sign underneath. There's nothing better that we could do for our own security than provide the security for the Ukrainians. They are our backstop.

You know, you. Growing up in Britain, understand the danger of an expansionist Soviets now Russians. And Vladimir Putin knows how to make a deal. He doesn't know interest in making a deal. What he has in President Trump is the perfect guy to provide the off ramp to save face.

President Trump would do it. He would take criticism in doing it just to end this. But Vladimir Putin is making the guy that's trying to help him look bad. And that's the president of the United States, and he's only going to take it for so long. I actually look at Zelensky; not only is not the bad guy, I look at him as a phenomenal leader in wartime, learning on the job to lead a country through very tough, one of the toughest times ever.

And get this, Stuart: as you know, he's if there was an election right now, he would win overwhelmingly. But in their constitution, when in when at war, no elections, no. He said to the president over the weekend, "If you give me, if Vladimir Putin says no bombing for two months, we'll have an election. But you can't campaign, and he can't get an opponent in this environment." What a situation! But I want to change the subject.

You've got a new book out. Comes out today. The title is "Uniting the States: Six Crucial Moments That Forged the American Miracle." Great title. Tell me about it, Brian. Yeah, I mean, here it is.

It took two and a half years to make, and it's not just about our wars and our battle wins. What I wanted to see the six moments that made our country what it is—from the Boston Massacre, where we established law and order, and and a chance for. Every presumption of innocence when it comes to court in the British soldiers, you'd be happy about that. To George Washington doing something unthinkable, trying to win a war by not losing instead of fighting straight up. He said, "The longer this lasts, the longer I'm certain we can win." A strategy he didn't not sure it could work, but he told the soldiers it would, and it obviously did.

Shay's Rebellion that gave us the Constitution, the burning of Washington, which the Brits did, and we got we bounced all the way back as a country. To win a decisive battle, decisive battle in the battle of New Orleans, and to John Quincy Adams being the conscience of a country, being the first major major political figure to take on slavery in our country, and I just thought that helped form the backbone of the greatest nation this world has ever known. And I just think if people can understand where we came from and the things that had to break our way, including the Louisiana Purchase that tripled the size of the country without firing a shot, they would fully appreciate our 250-year journey. But I want to make it digestible and understandable, where people could say, "Wow, I didn't know that." And now I know more about our country. The next barbecue, the next tailgate, when someone stands up and go, "We're never that great," they would understand that we really are.

And there's a Fox Nation special to go along with it that just dropped an hour ago. I've read all of your previous books, liked them all. You write in plain English, and that's something I really, really like. I'll get the new one, Brian. Good luck, sir.

I'll see you real soon. Thank you so much, Stewart. Truly appreciate it. Go to briankillme.com, and if you guys want to get it personalized, it goes to my local Barnes and Noble, and they just call me up, and once a week I go down, and I'm able to personalize and get it out. Special occasions: Happy birthday, Merry Christmas, Happy Valentine's Day, whatever, Happy anniversary.

Able to put that down. And customize it shows you gone the extra mile, but we're talking a lot about Ukraine this half hour. I just want to end a little bit with the midterms. If I look at the real core of politics, there's all the battleground states are all Democrat. Oh, I mean every Senate race, tough Senate race, is all Democrat right now.

But it's all one or two points, except for North Carolina and Georgia. But I don't think you know the president was hoping to flip Georgia, but didn't get Brian Kemp. As soon as you don't get Brian Kemp, Mike Collins is going to have a tough time. Mike Wiley taking on the sitting governor and not Tom Tillis was tough. The president had that rift with Tom Tillis, but everything else is in play.

And I just think that if you understand, just get into get into the individual races. For example, do you know Johnson who has not done one national ad? He just wants to focus on New Hampshire, so he's within three points. And then you have Michelle Tefuya within two points with that very, very troublesome that very, very, very troublesome candidate in Lieutenant Governor Flanagan. And then you have that's within two points.

And then in Alaska, you got a three point race. I don't know why Dan Sullivan's. Dan Sullivan's trailing, but I do know this: it's almost impossible to poll accurately in Alaska, especially the way they vote—rank choice voting. Dan Sullivan is as competent as he gets. Please, I dare you to bet against Susan Collins.

So, for people to say that things are going against the headwinds going against Republicans, all I say is break it down to the individual races. Don't talk sweepingly. And now, with his new allegations and revelations that the links with the El Sayed family. Of the sister and the mother to various terroristic extremist groups. I mean, what more proof do you need in Michigan that this guy's a huge problem?

And Mike Mike Rogers is a safe choice. You listen to the Brian Kilmeade show. Keep it here. From the Fox News Radio studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade.

Yes, that's true. Everyone from 48th to 6th in Midtown Manhattan heard around the country, around the world, it's going to be a big hour, an important hour, and every day matters so much leading up to the midterm elections. The president of the United States, whatever you want to say, you know, I'm not on the ballot. He's like, no, no, put me on the ballot. And then people thought, well, you know, in June we wanted you out earlier, and he didn't really want to do it.

People said he wasn't into the midterms. Man, you got to say he's into the midterms now. He went from Ohio. He's been in Nebraska. He's been in Oklahoma.

He's been in Texas. In North Carolina, this is just off the top of my head.

Now he's going to Alaska today. And we also saw Katie Zakaria, the new press secretary. She gave her first briefing. By all accounts, did a really good job when she made the announcement that they've asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign as ambassador to Greece. Devastating to her personally, friend of hers.

I don't have. I didn't really dive into the details of that, but it's obviously serious for the administration. No push for the administration to act. Peter King's going to be with us. He wrote a fantastic book for Sports.

It just chronicles his years at Sports Illustrated. And beyond, from 1989 to 2018, and joining us now is Gerard Baker, editor at large of the Wall Street Journal. Gerard, I would the Wall Street Journal doing a fantastic job, especially this cycle. I love reading on politics and as well as business, but really, if if it is all about the economy, what are the Republicans' chances in the House and Senate? You know, thanks for having me, Brian.

It's an interesting question. Obviously. All of the polls tell us that Americans are very unhappy with the state of the economy. President Trump, you know, has an approval rating on the economy anywhere between, you know, some polls put him in the high twenties, some put him in the high thirties, but none of them gives him a approval rating on the economy that would translate into a good performance in in in the midterm elections for Republicans.

So it's tough, obviously. And look, people are still are unhappy about. High prices. They are unhappy. I think about some of the other things going, particularly you know, gasoline, diesel prices, things like that.

But, but, brothers, I write in my in my column today that there is there is still something of a mystery about the polling here because the economy. Actually, look, I'm not going to say people don't know what their economic conditions are. I'm not in a position to judge why people are saying they're unhappy with things. But by any objective measure. The economy is actually in a better shape than than it's been in for a very long time.

I mean, whether you take inflation, whether you take growth, unemployment's a little bit higher than it was a few years ago, but not very much. We've got this amazing investment boom. We've got this extraordinary stock market. And look, one of the things I do in my column today, Brian, is I compare today with. 1992, which you're just about old enough to remember.

I remember it very, very well. I remember spending some time on that campaign, George H. W. Bush, reporting on, reporting on Bill Clinton, but against George H. W.

Bush. And you know, the the message was everybody now knows this famous James Carville phrase: "The economy, stupid." It's the economy, stupid. And Bill Clinton was elected in 1992 largely, according to the polls, because people thought the economy was terrible. Actually, that the second half of 1992. An incredible turning point for the economy.

Which then we had a we had a boom time in the 1990s. Productivity boom, the economy boom, the stock market boom. Everything. Clinton took all the credit, by the way, which he didn't really deserve. But so so it was.

I just say again that the point I make in the columns days, we I think are at the beginnings of. You know, to coin a phrase, what potentially could be a golden age for the American economy—it's just not, for some reason, being felt by voters right now. And you know, it looks like they're going to vote accordingly. You know, it's interesting, George. I remember that succinctly.

I was in Los Angeles at the time, and George H.W. Bush—he was not known as a great economic man. He was a foreign policy guy. And they said, you know, he would always skip over the economic numbers and just say it. And they said, well, and that gave us the internet boom and everything like that.

And by the time George W. Bush becomes president, it becomes the internet bust. Remember the the bubble burst.

So I guess timing is everything. But what's interesting is. I just look at. I couldn't tell you what Bill Clinton ran on economically, but I could tell you what Democrats are running on economically. And just look at it clinically, from from your great business mind.

Tell me one thing that Democrats would offer that would help the economy. You know where is where is going to where are they going to pull back the bow and unleash the arrow? That's going to unleash American prosperity. Is it going to be more renewables? Is it going to be higher taxes on billionaires?

Is it going to be Medicare for all? Is it is going to be less drilling? Is it going to be opening up the borders? I have not seen an economic plan except for rich people are bad, and let's hope the billionaires tax becomes a federal policy. Am I skipping over anything?

Of course you're not. No, I mean they're offering nothing, and they're doing what you know, frankly, what sometimes opposition parties do in these circumstances, which is they don't want to they don't want to offer anything. They want to criticize the incumbent party, criticize the president, the Republicans for what voters see as a poor economy, but they don't want to they don't want to take they don't they don't want to propose anything that would improve the economy. Partly because they don't have any good ideas. And and they know, by the way, also that a large part of their party wants a social, wants socialism, right?

So, so you know, the Democratic Party can't agree right now on what's right for the economy.

Some people presumably want, you know, just sort of the usual thing, as you say, Medicare for all, more spending, more regulation, higher taxes.

Some of them want outright socialism.

Some of them want, you know, sort of you know, confiscate people's wealth and redistribute it to other people. That to you know to to you know to work to To practice socialism—a system that's never worked anywhere it's ever been tried.

So yeah, so it's no wonder they they don't have a plan because they can't agree on one because half their party is way so far left that they want us to turn into you know a socialist country, and the other factor is you know you don't want to get out there with a plan because they don't want to talk about their plan. They want to talk about what they see as the economy right now. Look, I think it's you know again it it makes sense from a political point of view from from their perspective. But if they do get in in the midterms, they get majorities in both houses. And much more importantly, if they become, if they do, if a Democrat is elected president in 2028, you know they're going to have to start telling us.

They're going to have to start telling us whether or not they really do think socialism is the right system. And I think then you know voters will get a very different perspective of the choice on offer. I mean, just for for our listeners. I just saw a poll that said the majority of people want Medicare for all. Could you tell everybody how much Medicare for all would cost and what the downside is?

You know, it will cost trillions of dollars. I mean, look, Medicare is already a kind of an explode. An unexploded time bomb, right? In our we have we have serious fiscal problems. One of my problems I have with both political parties in the last ten years is that they haven't done anything to address those fiscal problems, and that is a serious problem.

We have a we have thirty five trillion dollars of debt. We have a deficit every year of seven percent of our economy. We can't sustain that, especially with interest rates going higher. But one of the reasons we're facing a really significant fiscal crisis is that Medicare, as it stands, just Medicare for those of retirement age. Is going to become increasingly expensive, and is going, and as people live longer, and as medical costs rise, it's going to Lower hole in in the budget.

If you say Medicare for all, i.e., every single person in the country, not just retired people, should then join in with this sort of you know fiscal time bomb, then you are going to expire. You are going to completely wreck the deficit. The only thing you are going to be able to do, Brian, is you are going to have to put up. You are either going to see the deficit rise to literally unsustainable levels, the kind we've never seen before, or of course you are going to have to put up taxes, and that. Of course, we're you know, and we're not talking here, Brian.

You know, one or two percentage points on you know the average taxpayer's tax bill. We are talking five to ten percentage points minimum on that tax bill, which, of course, will completely plunge the economy into into a depression.

So, yeah, it's completely unworkable, and they know it. Right. Well, listen to this, cut fifteen. In your vision of Medicare for all, does private insurance still exist? If people want redundant care, absolutely.

I don't want to take anything away. This is about what we offer to people. What Medicare for all is is guaranteed health insurance from cradle to the moment you pass away, God willing, at one hundred and twenty years old after a long, healthy life, and it comes without premiums or copays or deductibles, and it guarantees you care where you need it. That is a level of security we have never known in the United States of America. And the President Obama called the ACA called it a starter home.

And I think you know you look on. We've outgrown our starter home. Okay, okay. It's time for us. Number one, I never heard.

It might be true. I didn't know the ACA was a starter home. It's already an affordable starter home. And number two is cradle to grave, no cut, no supplement. Does he not know that he's a copay with Medicare?

That's why you need a Medicare Part D. And does he? Do you think doctors love Medicare? Look, to me, what's interesting about this, Brian, is we've just talked about Bill Clinton. The last two Democrats before Biden, the two previous Democratic presidents before Biden, both tried to introduce massive healthcare reform.

They both started out thinking maybe in terms of something like Medicare for All, i.e., a national single payer national health service type system. Bill Clinton thought about in 1993, looked at it. The numbers simply didn't add up. It was going to be completely impossible. And you know, his healthcare plan, which he tried, actually failed in Congress.

But it was much less than Medicare for all. Barack Obama comes in in 2009, promising you know massive radical healthcare reform. Even he, Obamacare for all its faults, even that was not abolishing private insurance and replacing it with a tax-funded universal healthcare system.

So, but so that so on two occasions. Democrats have had a chance to do radical healthcare reform. On both occasions, they've actually failed, and indeed understood how incredibly costly and ruinous a Medicare for All system would be. And now here we are—you know, twelve years, whatever, fifteen years after Obamacare. We're, you know, here.

The Democrats have decided.

Well, that's, you know, that's not enough in the country. All the damage that Obamacare has done to the country—that's not enough. We're going to really this time. We are going to do Medicare for all. It's no, and look, we have to hope, Brian, that they will see that, you know, that they will see that the numbers don't add up, and the costs and the damage that it will do to, to, you know, to private insurance, but more, most importantly, to patients and to citizens will be so great that they'll abandon it.

But right now, this is, you know, this, this, this is the. Plan and yeah, as you say, unfortunately, nobody is really talking about this very much because everybody's focused on the fact that you know people are unhappy that prices are higher than they were a few years ago.

So I'm going to ask you something else, and this I know you guys are very anti-tariff and the Wall Street Journal, but the president's got 20 trade deals, and almost people look at it and go, "Well, most of them are good, especially the EU, want a really good improves things." He hasn't landed the Canadian deal, hasn't landed a Mexican deal, and there's some other deals out there. The Canadian deal has caused strife on both sides, but has the the 20 deals? Do they look to rebalance an economy in a positive way when you and the Smart guys at Wall Street Journal look at them. First of all, I've never been. I've had an open mind about tariffs.

I've never been. I thought. I will say this. I thought that you know widespread tariffs would do more harm to the economy than they have. That they haven't.

The U.S. economy is incredibly strong and incredibly resilient. And at the same time, also the tariffs have been scaled back from you know president's the president's Liberation Day. 18 months ago, so you know. But it's also true that tariffs have not.

You know, you have to. We you have to acknowledge those people who were concerned about tariffs have to acknowledge that they haven't done as much damage to the economy as they thought. But the problem, I don't think they're transforming the U.S. economy, and I don't think they're transforming those trade balances. We still have a massive trade deficit with with with with all of those countries.

And and and again, here's here's the larger point. Brian, I don't think that greatly matters. We have a trade deficit with many of those countries, but we have a financial services surplus with many of those countries. We we have trade surpluses with our countries and financial services deficits with other countries. You know, this this is the way the economy works.

I think restoring manufacturing is absolutely in the United States is absolutely a valid goal. And I think one of the problems we've had for the last thirty years is we've had successive governments and administrations that haven't cared about manufacturing, have put business interests first, and business have often. Short manufacturing, and that's been very harmful, I think, for the U.S. economy.

So, finding ways to bring that back, tariffs might be able to help. We haven't seen a massive rebirth of manufacturing yet, but I'll be honest, it's early days, right? We've only had these tariffs in place for a little over a year. But I think, I think, I think that on the whole, the tariff, the you know, the tariffs have not been as great as has not been as high as President Trump would have liked, at least from his from his From his plans on Liberation Day, they haven't had the negative effect on the economy as a result of that. But they haven't really fundamentally rebalanced trade in a way that the president wants.

Even though, as I say, I don't even think that's necessarily particularly important thing. I think the important thing is finding ways to to generate domestic manufacturing.

So. I see Democratic agendas out, and one of the things they're going to do if the House flips is haul all these CEOs, Silicon Valley, the AI guys, you know, from everyone except Bill Gates, you know, the Joe Lonsdals of the world, the Pomerluckys of the world, the the Zuckerbergs of the world, and find out about what their donations have meant to Donald Trump, why they did it, and to justify it, and to Elon Musk. What would that? What does that do to the business community? I mean, it doesn't do them any good to leave it to stay out of the political party.

They think they should play a role, but now they're going to make they're going to try to punish those who supported Trump in this last election. Yeah, honestly, I don't. Brian, candidly, I'm pretty cynical about the business community. The business community will spend money where it thinks it's valuable. Right if Donald Trump is president.

The Republicans are in control. They spend a lot of money supporting Donald Trump. And I'm frankly cynical enough not to believe that this is because they passionately believe in what Donald Trump wants and thinks, but because he's the president, he's power, and that's where that's the way. Unfortunately, I just. They want influence.

People, people, people. Yeah, of course, that's right. And by the way, ten years ago, these tech companies were giving huge amounts of money to the Democrats. I mean, you know, that's just what they'll do. I imagine, you know, if the Democrats then proceed to investigate all these people, there will be, you know, many of them will stop giving money to to the Republican Party.

And if it looks like the Democrats are going to win the twenty twenty eight presidential election, lo and behold, a lot of them will give money to the to To the Democratic Party and to the Democratic candidates, so I mean, I'm I'm not too concerned about the state of American business leadership right now. I think they do all right, and I'm you know I think yeah I don't lose much sleep about what may happen to them. And overall, we're seeing AI go to battle. I mean, they really are fueling the economy. Do you think part, and maybe I am thinking too macro, part of the scrutiny now on AI companies that we're witnessing and the crackdown on data centers is because if you want to hurt Donald Trump, you hurt the economy.

If you want to hurt the stock market, you hurt the AI companies, and maybe try to bring them down to earth. Could that be part? Could the political process be in play? I don't. I don't.

I think. Look, I think people like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren just believe that government should tell people what to do. Right? I don't see a kind of 4D chess kind of manipulative ploy here. They just think government should regulate business.

That's you know that that's all business. They should. Government should be telling people what to do. They they look at the data center situation. They look at the fact that data centers are not popular.

I think again, you know, we're back to my point about the economy. I think people don't understand the benefits that are coming, but you know, we get sixty, seventy percent in opinion polls saying they don't like people don't want big centers in their backyard, and Democrats exploit that, but you know, that opposition to to support what they want to do, which is to regulate companies and to tell them how to. Spend their money. I, I, I don't. I mean, it would be you know remarkably short-sighted if they were sort of somehow trying to destroy AI, which is this extraordinary you know source of growth for the economy.

Simply to win, simply to win a midterm election. I think they genu. I mean, I think they probably will destroy. You know, I think their policies could well end up destroying you know America's AI advantage because they're so they're so committed to regulation. But that's because they're so committed to regulation, not because they're Want to destroy U.S.

economic growth? Go get him! It's been great. Thanks so much, Gerard Baker, The Wall Street Journal. He's editor at large.

Thanks so much. Back in a moment. This is the Brian Kilmeade Show. It's Brian Kilmeade. Hey, welcome back.

We got a minute, but I can't wait for my next guest, and so can you. I know we watched a fantastic football game last night. I had to fall asleep in the fourth quarter because I get up at two thirty in the morning. But it was a fantastic game: Rams against the Bills. It could be a preview of the Super Bowl.

A lot of people call for it. Both teams have a long way to go to get there, and there's other teams in the way. But one of the best writers I read—sports writers, period—but he does football predominantly—is Peter King. He's got a fantastic book out. It is out today.

He's now. My arch rival, because my book's out today too. It is Monday, the game, and the game is out. And it's the cover is real cool. It is a football.

So Peter King works for Sports Illustrated for years, from nineteen eighty nine to two eighteen. But you watch; it's about everything he's done. He's also really good on television and radio, and he's going to be on my show over the weekend.

So. When we come back, Peter King joins us, and we talk a little bit of football.

So that'll be great. Meanwhile, it's almost impossible to point out one of the big surprise teams of the year, even though they had a chance to win. And Scatapult fumbled is the New York Giants. I'm going to do the best I can not to talk about Bill Parcells, Lawrence Taylor, and all, and the Bill Belichick era of the New York Giants. I'm going to spread it out to your favorite team as well.

This is the Brian Kilmeade show. So glad you're here. And by the way, United States is now out as of hours ago. Go get it. The talk show that's getting you talking.

You're with Brian Kilmeade. What's that? Daniels. Yeah, he's not.

Okay.

Now they they don't have a timeout. What are they doing? They're gonna get up and spike it. They're not gonna be able to get there. Not a time.

It's gonna it's gonna run out on them. The clock ran out as Daniels ran the ball. Ted Scadaboo says, "I'll take the tie and get out of town." Unbelievable. That is Chris Myers on the call, and that's how the Giant game ended in overtime when. When the Redskins, excuse me, when the Commanders were just all they had to do was spike the ball and kick a field goal, and they wouldn't win the game.

After Scadaboo fumbled, with the Giants, all they do is hold on to the ball, kick a field goal, and win the game. But that clock just ran out.

Now, one person who's seen probably more football than any non-football player in the country is my next guest, Peter King, author of the game. It is out today. As and now he's my archrival because my book is out, and I don't know. That friendship will ever recover, Peter. And our books are so similar.

So this is unbelievable. Except for yours about football, mine's about the country. But yours is synonymous with the country. Peter, welcome back. Hey, Brian, it's so good to be with you, and I'm so glad you had me on today because obviously it's it's a huge day for you too.

Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, you know we're the two busiest people in America, I think. But it's all good. And and look, this book to me. What I wrote is just a total labor of love.

Had a great time doing it. It was was a lot. It was a lot of work. And also, I imagine the as you look back at your career, I imagine it was a little retrospective. I mean, you talk from nineteen eighty nine when you break in as a reporter on the Cincinnati Bengals to twenty eighteen all the Super Bowls you've seen.

You went from an unknown reporter in a league that was beginning to flourish to the top reporter in the number one sports league, arguably in the world.

So, and you chronicle that journey by following your career. The first year I covered it, nineteen eighty four, was just a. Fairly bizarre year because I was with a team, the Cincinnati Bengals, that had a coach who I could go in his office anytime I want, talk to him anytime I want. He was an incredibly open guy, Sam Whitech, and then a rookie quarterback, Boomer Esiason, who I picked up at the airport the day he was drafted, and then I'm still pretty close to him to this day. And it was a wonderful time, a wonderful.

And a wonderful team to break in on that, plus the fact that most days in training camp that year, I watched practice with Paul Brown, who is a one of the founders of football. Yeah, was seminal figure in NFL history.

So I was incredibly lucky.

So you contrast that, nineteen eighty four, when the draft was on ESPN for a round and a half at eight o'clock on a Tuesday morning. To today, when the NFL does television shows about the schedule release, it's just I'm I shake my head when I think about what the league was and what it is now.

So there's some really important people along the way, most of which, if you've been following football, you're around my age. You know these people, but you don't get inside. First off, as a just from a reporter perspective. How do you write the truth while keeping the confidence of the players? When a lot of times the truth might be something that the players necessarily didn't want out or didn't know how it was going to be received when they said it.

You know, Brian. All I can do when I do this is try to be as honest as I can as a reporter.

Sometimes it costs me. I was highly critical of Bill Belichick and the Patriots after the Spygate incident twenty years ago. I have not. I had a close relationship with Bill Belichick to that point, and we have not spoken since. I was highly critical of him, but.

You have to have, you have to be able to look yourself in the mirror after going to journalism school and saying that. You know, Parcells once said to me. I mean, this is a blurb in my book. Parcells hung up the phone on me one time, but before he did, he said, "You know what? The bleeping problem with you.

The problem with you is that the story is always God." And I am sorry. The story is that, and you felt like saying thank you.

Well, that's really a compliment, isn't it? I thought so, but Bill at the time and hung up the phone. I didn't speak to him for eight months. I probably went four years without talking to Sean Payton about. You know, after the Saint scandal, bounty scandal in 2013, and I, you know, but you just try to say, listen, I am going to call it the way I see it as much as humanly possible.

I'm not going to be right every time. I was right about something. I was wrong about something during the Brady Deflate Gate thing, and I apologized and I offered my resignation to Sports Illustrated because. Your story, your word means everything, and if people doubt you. And if for whatever reason they don't think that you are being straight up with them, I deserve to be out because I made a mistake.

And regardless of the fact that two sources told me something, doesn't matter. If the story was wrong, I'm wrong, and I can't just explain it away. And so you make those mistakes, and you try to move on. But yeah, by the way, that was almost a selfish question. I feel bad because people want to hear the story.

Here, for example, one of the great characters in your book, who he got to know quite well, and I think he really is synonymous with my youth. He's older than me, but he just was coach of the Giants, the Cowboys, the Jets, and the Dolphins through my my whole sports career. Here's Bill Parcells talking about the difference between winners and losers. Cut forty three. And on the wall was a little plaque, and it had an inscription on it.

And coincidentally, that inscription was attributed to the first black player ever inducted into this Hall of Fame. His name was Emlyn Tenell, and he was inducted in the class of 1967. And that inscription said, "Losers assemble in little groups." And complain about the coaches and the players in other little groups, but winners assemble as a team. He was all about the team, and you point out how few players would end up in the Hall of Fame, but how much they want. I mean, in my opinion, one of the great the great legacy about Bill Parcells.

Is that I'll tell you this? Bill Parcells, Phil Simms in nineteen eighty four threw for four thousand forty four yards, had a season that nobody ever thought that Phil Simms would would have filled the air with footballs. Giants were competitive again, and right before they played the first game in the nineteen eighty five season, Parcells sidles up to Simms and he goes, "Hey, you ain't going to be thrown for four thousand yards this year." Said you're not going to have a big year offensively. We're going to run the ball and all this. Phil Simms said to him, "I could give a bleep how many yards I throw for.

I don't care. I just want to win." Phil Simms meant it, every syllable of it. That's why they were perfect together. But Parcells didn't care about anything. I remember one time he had some faction of his locker room that really did not like him because.

Lawrence Taylor got papal dispensation for a lot of stuff that he did, that the average guy in the team wouldn't. And I once asked Parcells about it. He goes, "You know what? I don't treat everybody the same. I don't.

That's not my job. My job is to get the most out of the players on this team. I want to be fair with everyone, and being fair with this guy might be different than being fair with that guy." So I really admired Parcells because he turned around a dead culture with that franchise, and you know the Giants were competitive for a long time after Parcells got there. I want you to Joe Montana and Steve Young play a huge role as they should, as well as Bill Walsh. And here's a little of Joe Montana's Super Bowl drive.

It ends with a touchdown to John Taylor, cut 46. Montana over the middle, the press, first down play, Montana. Out of bounds on first down, Montana to Rice again, and he's out of bounds. Montana over the middle to Craig, and Barker gets him down. Montana to Rice, he's in the clear.

15 yards. Is there another one? This one's to Craig, and he's to the 10-yard line. He's in motion. Montana touchdown.

John Taylor, Joe Montana, the famous drive. Your thoughts? Do you remember covering that game? Ah, very well, and. Brian, one of the things that I wanted to do in this book is I had questions about so many things looking back on my career, and I remember Super Bowl week that week, all the the the the stuff was coming out, but just bubbling at the surface.

You weren't finding out specifics. Bad year for Bill Walsh. Walsh almost cracked this year. He really had a bad year with this team. This team was pissed off at him.

All that, and. I remember it got in the back of my mind, and I said, "Yeah, I want to write about that someday." I never did, and I am sitting there thinking. After I retired, that's one of the questions that I have. And I went back and I found out exactly what happened in that season, nineteen eighty-eight. Forty-Niners are on their way to win the third Super Bowl under Bill Walsh, and when the season is hitting its peak.

They're on a bad losing streak. They lose a twenty-three to nothing lead at Phoenix. Things are in the toilet, and he has a meeting. and He goes around his room with all of his coaches and say, "What should we do?" And at the time, he was kind of platooning Montana and Young. It was totally dividing the team.

and Mike Holmgren, the Neophyte Offensive Coordinator, says to him when he says, "Okay, what's wrong, Mike? What's wrong?" He go around a table. Mike Holmgren says. Coach, the problem is you. You need to pick a quarterback.

It's killing us, and everybody in the room. You could hear a pin drop, and Walsh stormed out of the room, angry that somebody he thought Holmgren was kind of showing him up. Right, and he comes back and he said, "You know, I've thought about it. Mike's right. I need to pick a quarterback.

We're picking Joe Montana. That's it. He's quarterback the rest of the year." They go on. They go on a huge winning streak. Win the Super Bowl.

Beat the Bengals, and just and was he Joe Cole then? Yes, he was. Yes, yes, yeah. He very much. But understand one thing: a lot of people thought Steve Young should be playing because Montana had a bad back, and he would be in and out of the lineup, in and out of the trainer's room.

But I think Bill Walsh. Precipitated a lot of the issues by trading for Steve Young, you know, in around 1987. I and promised him the job. He said nobody ever comes back from the quarterback surgery. Yeah, nobody ever comes back from the back surgery.

And then, so Steve was yo-yoed or was a backup for like six years, and finally Montana demands and gets a trade, goes to Kansas City. The the team is Youngs, and everybody sort of lives happily ever after. But those were the kind of they don't speak now, right, Peter? No, they speak. Do they?

Young does not hate Montana, and Young told me he told me that he said it's not Joe's fault. I mean, Joe was put in an impossible situation. He's a great player, and Bill traded for a guy he wanted to take his job. How would you react? That's why a lot of people Steve wasn't happy about the whole thing.

But it reminds me of one story. How about the first year when Steve Young go it gets invited? He's a bachelor, and he's in San Francisco. His family is back in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Montana. Very nicely offers him to come home for for Christmas dinner at their house.

One of Joe's kids, a young young daughter, early in the dinner, she says, "Hey, Dad, is this the guy we're supposed to hate?" And and Montana goes up. No, no, that's somebody else. But Young always thought that was one of the funniest things. No question about it. Yeah.

A couple other things that you have too is you talked about Art Modell, and there's a lot of people. We have WHIO. We have a lot of stations in the Midwest, and he did not have the money really to own that team and keep up with everyone. Kept out taking out loans to keep the team, and when they weren't kind of coming across in Cleveland and barely paid for a brand new stadium, he ends up going. To Baltimore, and you recount the brutality of that pullout, and and the dog pound literally in tears as the team leaves.

And there was a lesson the whole league learned from that too. I think the biggest lesson there is a don't take your franchises for granted, and b one of the reasons that the NFL is so big on making sure that the people who own the team have enough money to own the team. Is the lesson of Art Modell? He did not have enough money to own the team and to operate it in a way that would be highly competitive. And Brian, I'll tell I'll tell you a story that I'll never forget.

Dan Rooney, one of the real conscience people in the league, he was the president of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I was doing an interview with him in his office then at Three Rivers Stadium. And I look over in the corner, and there's a bucket in the corner, and there's a leak in the Roof, it's pouring outside, and there is a leak in the roof, and it's falling into this bucket. And Dan's not embarrassed by it. And I asked him at the time the Browns had just opened a beautiful training facility; they were paying a lot of free agents and everything. And I asked Dan what he thought of what the Browns were doing, and everybody thought they were margin spending quite a bit.

And I asked him what he thought of the Browns. He said, "Well, unlike some teams in our league, we live within our means." And you know, he looked up at the ceiling at the at the league, and so. I just think Art Modell got in a lot of trouble because he lived beyond his means. He got Andre Rison at Bill Belichick's behest, and he was a disaster. He was a total disaster because they kept losing the Steelers.

They thought they could that guy could change things. Yeah, and he didn't. And that is one of the things in the last year of the Browns in Cleveland. Andre Rison was a disaster, and he was hated by the fans and terrible with the media. But I do think the lesson in there is: listen, don't abandon your great cities in in the league, and that's why Art Modell was a hated man till he died.

Right, and I was friends with Jim Brown. He loved Art Modell. Yeah, to the end, he always went to. There was a lot to love about Art Modell. Really, I'm serious.

I knew him very well. Thirty seconds left. If Peter King said, "Got the money, you have a franchise. You got to hire one quarterback and one coach. Who would you hire?" I'd hire Kyle Shanahan as coach.

Really, best coach ever. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!

I thought you meant now. I thought you meant now. Wow! I well, Brian. Let me.

But I have to answer the question this way. I think the best coach ever is Paul Brown, but I would not want Paul Brown to coach my team with today's athlete.

Okay, so in my opinion, I would want today. I'd want Kyle Shanahan. And look, if I could get Mahomes, I'd get him. But if I couldn't, I'd take his quarterback. I'd take Brock Purdy, totally egoless.

And a better player than anyone thinks. He was Mr. Relevant, right? Yes, he was. And that's a.

And unfortunately, he is wearing the the scarlet letter A because of that. And I think it's terrible that he does that. Just watch the guy play; he's an excellent. I think he's embraced it, and I think it's part of it. Feels him also.

It doesn't help to start for four years in college. You get all that experience. Peter King, I'm just scratching the surface in book. If you like, if you like football, you Love this book. If you are a little younger, you need to read this book to get the background that sets up the matchups for today.

Peter, thanks so much for coming. We're going to have you back again because we barely scratched the surface. Brian, thanks for having me in to talk about the game and the game. Yep, pick up the game, everybody. Brian Kilmeade.

Don't go anywhere. Brian Kilmeade. We'll be right back. He's so busy he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmeade.

Washington told us, guys, you find anything that floats and you get it over here. We've got to get across the river. But that's when the most miraculous thing happened. A fog arose between the Americans and the British. It conceals the evacuation completely, and the amazing thing—the fog lifted as Washington reached the other shore.

So the British see in time that we just lost all these. Where did they go?

So that's a little from my special on uniting the states. It's on Fox Nation right now. My book that's out today. I hope to see in Red Bank, New Jersey, on Friday night. BrianKilmeade.com in Westbury, New York.

Go get tickets at BrianKilmeade.com. Streamed on Fox Nation, but I want to meet you in person. I'm Dana Perino, and this is Perino on Politics. Join me and my very smart friends every week as we discuss the ever-changing state of American politics. We cover it all.

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