Inflation tanks markets, again, while midterm races tighten

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Lieutenant Colonel Alan West at the bottom of the hour. I got to get his military tagged on what's going on in the Ukraine as they are making a massive push offensive, and the Russians do not know what to do. We'll discuss that and also take your calls at 1-866-408-7669. The Queen's still dead, and we're taking a long time to barrier. It'll be next Monday.

If anything happens there, I'll let you know. We do have some breaking news on the economy, and it is not good. Wall Street responding negatively. It's off about. Dow is off about 550, 560 points because it looks like the Fed's going to have to raise interest rates again.

And guess why? Because it looks as though inflation. Went down only slightly. It's now down 8.3%. They expected more.

Let's get to the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. Would you call the border secure? The border is secure. But we also have a broken immigration system, in particular over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed.

Are you nuts? Border broken, buses are flowing across the country. Kamela claims Trump broke it, but does anyone believe that? Look at the stats, the massive impact on the negligence on our country by your administration, Mr. Vice President.

Number two. The price of gas, when we said what I was doing, wouldn't make any difference. And guess what? It's down $1.30 since the start of the summer. and continues to go down.

Inflation eased in July. Barely. Inflation is high. Utilities skyrocket. For the Biden administration, it's a reason to celebrate because at least the numbers are heading in the right direction.

Number one. Polling can, especially at this early stage, we haven't even seen the campaigns fully get underway. And I know John Fetterman is leading in some of these early polls, but he's not doing any debates. The polls aren't capturing the late movement in a lot of these Senate races. There really aren't, and that's Josh Kreishauer of Politico 2022.

Last major primary in New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania are heating up with the balance of power in the Senate at stake. And I am not overstating that. Keep in mind: if you ever want to get the podcast, if you can't listen to me live or you want to listen again, can't listen to the whole show, just go to BrianKilmeadShow.com or wherever you get your podcast, you feel most comfortable.

So the inflation number is 8.3%. It was 9.1%. Before the president took over, it was 1.8%. That's how much it's climbed 0.01%. The core inflation, which they say is minus gas and utilities, At 6%.

That's way too high. It's way too high because, and you don't need me to say this. You pick up meat, you pick up, you go to buy a car, whatever it is. Everything is higher. Your wages went up about 5.4% if you decide to work.

So that's the. That's the situation in our country right now. The president today is going to have a big event. He's going to talk about the success of the Inflation Reduction Act. Good luck with that.

I mean, this is not the time to take a bow about inflation. Plus, even if it was the ultimate Inflation Reduction Act, there's no way you would have time to kick in.

So please don't be naive to think it is. And by the way, if you just look at the student loan forgiveness, it more than makes up for any best case scenario when it comes to the Inflation Reduction Act.

So that money goes into the debt. It doesn't mean we were forgiven as a country. It means those individuals don't have to pay between $10,000 and $20,000 back. The August Consumer Price Index prediction was 8%. It is so it's higher than they thought, and that's why the market's acting up so severely at this hour.

And we'll take a look at that.

So, in politics, this is really exciting because in New Hampshire, we're going to find out what's going to happen. Why is New Hampshire so interesting? Because Maggie Hassan is considered the most vulnerable senator in the Senate. She's got her approval ratings in the high thirties. And if Governor Sununu decided to run for the Senate, he'd be up by about 20 points.

No one would probably even have run against him. But it's Don Bullduck against Morse, John Morse. And Morse is the preferred candidate for the governor and for most mainstream Republicans. And Bulldock is a successful general that believes the election was stolen and that said some negative things about Governor Sununu. And Governor Sununu, obviously, if you listened to our show yesterday, is not taking it personal.

So he says if this guy wins, it's no problem. Part of the reason why he's winning is because he only raised about eight hundred thousand dollars, but the Democrats thought he'd be the easier one to beat, so they put in millions on him.

Now you might not think that's ethical. I'm one of the people that doesn't think it's ethical, but I'm naive. I guess. I know some people try to help other candidates, but I've never seen full b fullbone ad campaigns against the other against Chuck Morse, I should say. I said John Morse, that was wrong.

So multiple Republicans are are vying for it. But as of two and a half weeks ago, Bullduck had a substantial two-digit lead. We'll see if it happens.

Next, when he comes to Maggie Assan, she is vulnerable head-to-head with Morse or Bullduck. She has basically a one- or two-point lead. She has gone out of her way to act like a Republican. She's against the student loan forgiveness. She's against the, although she voted for it.

The mini Build Back Better plan that seemed to have duped. Senator Joe Manchin. Democrats have amplified so much in these states and affected the election. Democrats have spent $19 million across eight states in their primaries amplifying candidates. They think they would be easier to beat in the general election.

I know, color me naive to think that, but if you really think our elections are in danger and democracy is on the docket and on the ballot, why would you propel people that you think would want to throw the election, take over democracy, even though I don't believe that is the case? Why would you want to do that?

Well, because the reason you'd beat the general. What if they're not? What if most of the American public or the people in that state say your candidate's too extreme? I think I I'm gonna go with the other guy or woman. Who you might deem as extreme.

I do not believe that the red wave is over. I do not believe it's been thwarted or stopped. I don't really believe the polls. I know Lee Zeldon seems to be on the march. And if you can make a dent as a Republican in New York, where it's two to one Democrats are in favor, and independence will probably be ultimately decided, when you have three major Democratic candidates come out, office holders come out and said, I'm endorsing the Republican, you know something's afoot.

They say J.D. Vance is in a dead heat with Tim Ryan in Ohio, and they say an easy lead for John Fetterman in Pennsylvania. I find it hard to believe. Even the Washington Post has come out and said Fetterman's got to prove that he's medically okay. Nobody wants him to be sick, no one wants to be debilitated.

But I do think that we all know that when you interview a candidate, you want to know what he can do or she can do. And if Fetterman's having trouble, Speaking. What are I thinking? Don't you think that should come up? Don't you think that should be Disgust without people saying you're cruel?

I have a doctor ridiculing me because I had a Aneurysm. Excuse me, a stroke. No, no, no one's ridiculing you. Except a debate before early voting. That's what I think is your obligation.

Here is uh Kellyanne Conway and which he's seen so far cut seven. You also have Chuck Schumer pouring in over $3 million to pump up Balduk, thinking that he would be the less formidable candidate against Maggie Hassan. That strategy of buoying up the Republican you think is, quote, unelectable, a silly word, more on that in a second, has really backfired in other races so far. And I just have one question for Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, Maggie Hassen, and Chuck Pappas, and all the Democrats. Why do you have such little faith in your candidates and your incumbents that you're playing around in the Republican primaries?

Yeah. It's unbelievable that you have that much money. You think, you know what? President Biden hasn't been that effective. The economy is not doing great.

The Afghanistan withdrawal was an absolute abomination. China, you can't say the trade deals have been effective. You can't say gas prices are low enough we could actually run on some of our success. Even though you could name four or five pieces of legislation to run on, Dr. Oz weighed in on the people he's running against.

He's running against a guy that doesn't want Joe Biden to compete with him in a purple state.

Now, I understand the. You know, if it was a red state and you're a Democratic president, it doesn't really work for you. But purple states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, you'd think he would help. But Tim Ryance wants no part of him there. And John Fetterman wants no part of him in Pennsylvania.

For Mehmet Oz, Dr. Oz, he says Fetterman, it's frustrating for him because he cannot compete with Fetterman because Fetterman doesn't even go out and campaign. Most of his snarky comments come from somebody else, some probably college kid who knows social media. And He won't debate. Cut to.

I campaign a lot. I've been to 200 places around Pennsylvania over the summer. John Fetterman, to my knowledge, maybe half a dozen, spoken for a total of 25 minutes or so. I mean, he just hasn't answered questions from the media, from the voters, or from me.

So it's not just a debate. He's got to get out and start defending himself, and he's not doing it. He's hiding. And here's the thing: he is way to the left. He is Bernie Sanders in Pennsylvania in a hoodie.

He is somebody that's for zero cash bail. All the things that people of Pennsylvania on the surface would find distasteful. But if you have a sympathetic figure who's 6'5, wears a hoodie, got a ton of tattoos, doesn't really accomplish anything, and some say charismatic, I don't see it. Especially the way he speaks. I don't know if it would have sounded like before his stroke, but he doesn't sound great now.

Listen to John Fetterman rallying a pretty good crowd over the weekend, cut three. Women are the reason. Wee wee. I know this has been said earlier, but I want to. Say that again.

Don't piss women. of this decision. Should be made up to Dr. Oz? Or or to a woman.

And a real doctor. Yeah. Right. You don't want to give any accolades to a experienced Uh acclaimed surgeon. Don't call him a real doctor.

As if he's on a soap opera. Not really. More from Fetterman. Cut four. Yeah.

Meat. To be. The 51st vote.

Sounds like you sounds like you want me to be, right? But you know what I would do if I was that 51st vote? First, Rid of the filibuster. Right next. Codify row.

Okay, good luck with that. Just know. That almost every political expert will tell you you're going to lose if the Democrats weren't able to retain the Senate. You're going to lose in twenty the numbers are overwhelming. You're going to lose in twenty twenty four.

You blow up the filibuster just like you did when it comes to judges. Then you have Supreme Court justice being affirmed on a simple majority. Do you actually want to do that? I didn't think you wanted to do that. It doesn't really make sense to do that.

Fetterman's going to have to, at one point, Compete. Go ahead and get in the debate stage. I'll give you an example.

So, I could have the most supportive audience in the world with you guys. And I could have the best management in the world, which I have at Fox. But if I was to suffer some type of illness or injury that stopped me from being able to speak coherently, I would not be able to go on the air. It's not a matter of having a big heart. You gotta be able to do the job.

And I don't think it's bad to for Dr. Oz to ask in an ethical way. Can this guy actually compete for the job? And for Democrats, maybe asking for a mulligan to say, if he can't, I think we should be able to put another candidate in there and go ahead. I wouldn't think it would be that much of a problem.

Real quick. I've never heard this before. I know when there are sitting presidents like Bush 43 in the last few months, John McCain didn't want to compete with him. When he got the nomination, they met behind closed doors, only one photo. He wasn't popular at the end.

The economy collapsed in the Iraq War, even though the surge was fantastic and he deserved credit for that. Everyone was focused on the collapse of the economy in 2008. That's just a reality. Don't take it personal. But if you have a president that now is between 38 and 44 percent approval in some polls, Why is it?

that you can't even say that he's doing a good job. Listen to Senator Mark Kelly, who's been one of the biggest disappointment in an invisible empty suit since he got the job in Arizona two years ago, Cut Six. Has he done a good job, do you think? Hey, I you know, I d you You know, first of all, it's not. My job to give him a report card.

I would say, you know, mix reviews. Wow, what a shot to the solar plexus that is. And by the way, I would say no problem if you were speaking out along the way, like Joe Manchin was. If you were saying, hey, I got a huge problem with Build Back Better. We don't have any money for that.

What are we doing when it comes to this massive spending? What do we need a rescue plan for of $1.9 trillion? Trump just gave us additional $800 billion in December. How does that make any sense?

So, what happened in Afghanistan? I can't sign off on that. But he doesn't do anything, and then he says, Well, I don't really want to campaign with him, and I don't want to comment on what kind of job he's done. 1-866-408-7669. Or just write me at BriankillMe.com if you're back at work.

And you can't really call. This is the Brain Kill Meet Show. A radio show of the people for the people. You're with Brian Kilmead.

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Subscribe and listen now by going to FoxNewsPodcasts.com. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmeade. He puts himself above others and the law. He does it continuously.

It's what he's done throughout his career. For example, he's backed massive middle-class tax hikes, but these tax hikes don't affect him because he's not paid his taxes 67 times. Think about that. You want middle-class tax hikes, but you're not paying your own 67 times. It's stunning to me.

He had a nonprofit and he also has some properties he owns, but he's got tax liens. He ignores them. He said they fell through the cracks. It is crazy to think that you wouldn't straighten out your tax situation before you run. It would be crazy to get yourself in shape for a run.

It would be crazy to not sanitize the fact that you endorsed Bernie Sanders in 2012 and 2016, and then say, well, I'm not for that. I'm more of a populist now, mainstream person. Also, he's anti-law enforcement. Ben, you are listening in Arkansas. Hey, Ben.

Hey, Brian. Fantastic show, man. I just want to make a quick statement on Dr. Oz and Fredderman. And the Trump situation.

The Democrats keep talking about Trump and how he did this, he did this, he did that. They don't talk about the issues. And I'm hearing that with Dr. Rise. Talk about his issues.

I don't care that Fredderman's not out campaigning. Talk about the issues that you were worried about. That's what gets the voters. I know, I think that he was answering Tucker's questions last night. And he is doing that.

I mean, he spoke to a thousand people on Saturday and Sunday. He talks about the issues, but he has to talk to his opponent because you've got to contrast yourself. You say, for example, you're for the tax cuts. You like what Trump put forward before the corporate discount and corporate tax rate. He should be proud of the fact that he's a self-made multimedia success story.

I would not run from the fact that he has, I don't know, four or five houses, maybe more. I wouldn't care. You know how hard this guy works? You know, I've watched him in the streets from here. He leaves our studio right before the pandemic, and there was a car accident.

The guy was having a heart attack, crashed his car. He goes and pulls the guy out and starts giving him CPR. That's what this guy does while raising a family of four. I would not run from his success, but he does talk about the issues, but he's so dramatically different from Fetterman. It's almost as if Fetterman won't go out there and put himself out there and deny actually who he is.

So that's the challenge. Here's uh the other big challenge. Is what's happening in Ohio because Tim Ryan, thanks to the Coben, Tim Ryan is running as a Republican. He's putting down Joe Biden. He says Biden should not run again.

He said the Democratic Party, the word Democrat, has a bad name, bad connotation on it because of the direction of the party right now. Even though he's voted with the party and Joe Biden, I think, on every single vote, every single one.

So when people look at the polls, they see a dead heat. It's a little bit of deception of what exactly is happening or the people of Ohio are being duped into thinking they're electing another Senator Portman. When it's really not another Senator Portman. JD Vance, I get it. He's an author, a self made success story.

A guy came from rural America, all the be all the way to Ivy League America, while serving in the military. Doesn't have political experience, but man, I like that life experience, don't you?

So they say they're in a dead heat. And if they're in a dead heat, usually the tie goes to the Republican because of the way Ohio's been trending. Trump went up by eight points. When we come back, I want to talk about the success Ukraine's having. You know, a month ago this didn't look possible, but the Ukrainians said, keep your powder dry.

We got a plan, and it's got to get you on the offensive. And they know this got to be in the summer and fall. And they've done it. They're getting thousands of miles back, they've liberated hundreds of cities. Precise, personal, powerful.

Is America's weather team in the palm of your hands? Get Fox Weather updates throughout your busy day, every day. Subscribe and listen now at FoxNewsPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Will Kane, co-host of Fox and Friends Weekend. Join me as I share my thoughts on a wide range of topics from sports and pop culture to politics and business.

The Will Kane Podcast. Subscribe and listen now at FoxNewsPodcasts.com. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. It's happening with lightning speed.

Advancing Ukrainian troops in the northeast Kharkiv region are taking back lost territory. Despite casualties along the way, the gains have been rapid and dramatic. And it's taken everyone by surprise. Ukraine kept the operation a tightly guarded secret. For now, journalists have been banned from reporting from the front line.

Unbelievable what's taking place now. The Ukrainians have totally switched from holding to what they had, trying to stop the offensive by Russia, but Russia hasn't really made many advances since April. And now, over the last five days, it looks like the Ukrainians have taken it back about 3,000 square miles. And Kherson is the next focus, and they're getting closer and closer to the Donbas region. And they might be, and they deny it, but they might be doing some guerrilla operations inside Crimea when those nine planes exploded.

Do you think that was the spontaneous combustion? I don't think so. When you think that one. you that pro Russian official's daughter sadly got in the way, but she was speaking out against the Ukrainians pro this invasion, and she blew up in a car bomb. Do you think that was by mistake?

The Russians have been more ruthless than the Ukrainians could be, but so far we're seeing. We're seeing some unrest inside Russia, where forty local elected officials signed a petition calling for Putin to resign.

So far, not a word back. How weak is he? He just fired his commanding general sixteen days in to getting sixteen days prior to getting the job. Lieutenant Colonel Alan West joins us now. Colonel, put on your camouflage for a second and just your decades of military experience.

How confident how did this happen?

Well, I think one of the things that history has taught us that the Soviet Army and the Russian Army today, going back to Afghanistan, 79 to 89, they're not really good at sustained combat operations, logistical support. And what ends up happening is that they don't really train their lower level officers or noncommissioned officers to be able to take the initiative like we do in our military. They're very top heavy. They're very general-centric as far as orders and commands being set down. And so they don't have a lot of flexibility.

And when you're going up against an enemy force like the Ukrainians now in their own homeland, they're a lot more flexible, a lot more adaptive. And what they have done is they have extended those supply lines of operations for the Russians. And they have really done a great job of now going into smaller unit tactic operations. And they have protracted this long enough that they were able to, you know, produce a large counteroffensive. And now the thing that's working against the Russians is that winter is coming along, and that's really going to forestall them doing any type of advancements.

But the one thing that has to be taken out is the Russian artillery, because they're just going to sit back and try to have the ability to just pound the Ukrainians. And that's why sending them the High Mars system, which brings a little bit more parity in artillery range. That will greatly assist the Ukrainians.

So far, the Ukrainian forces continue to make impactful gains in Kherson Oblast.

Now, that's in the south. That was taken almost immediately. It's very, very hard, tough sledding, but you're the military expert. I imagine they're going to have to take some of the Kherson forces and move them over to stop the advances in the north, don't you think? Or are they going to say, we just want to hold on to the south?

Well, I think one of the things from a strategic perspective, they may be looking at solidifying gains down in the south to cut off any type of Russian support to Crimea because they understand the strategic and logistical importance of that peninsula and also getting back open their sea lanes of commerce. And so then they can focus later on on the north because you want to look at where you see the Russians having those extended lines of communication, supply lines. The Russians are going to be a little bit more fortified when you look at areas in eastern Ukraine, northern Ukraine that are closer to the Russian border. But when you start to talk about down south, and of course, like I said, Crimea, those have strategic importance for the Ukrainians.

So you want to make sure you can get those gains first, and then you can focus your attention maybe to the north and further to the east into the Donbass area. Couple of things people worried about. They say the Russians look so bad right now, look so desperate. They've used, rotated through, we're currently using 80% of their fighting force. They don't want to do a draft, they said that would cause additional panic and possible some unrest.

So they're calling it a special operation. But if the Russians start getting desperate, people worry about what they're capable of, whether it's blowing up that nuclear plant and making it seem like the Ukrainians did it, or could they be leaning on the Chinese in their big meeting this week and ask them for some direct help?

Well, the thing is, Xi Jinping has to look at this and say, is this worth them getting involved and providing help? Because, you know, they're also looking at maybe making some incursions against Taiwan, and they don't want to get involved in a two-front conflagration themselves. And so when I look at, you just talked about it in your opening, how domestically this is starting to turn against Vladimir Putin and Russia, they're now starting to lose the propaganda battle at home. That's going to be a detrimental effect upon them. And yes, you're right.

If they create a draft, that means that things are not going very well. But yet we see that with the forces they have, they're not being effective.

So Vladimir Putin right now finds himself in a real conundrum as far as what to do. And I don't know if the Chinese want to reinforce failure. If it's successful, sure. But reinforcing failure, that can also come back to. Bring a bad light upon them as well.

Also, the Russian military, according to the Institute of Study of War, the Russian military command may be suspending the deployment of newly formed units to Ukraine due to recent Russian losses and overall downgrade of morale. The force will continue to make impactful gains in Kherson, as I mentioned, and the force continued targeting Russian military assets and positions in Kherson from afar.

Now, the question is, too, even though the Ukraine's fighting on their home turf, sadly, there's a sense that they're making so many gains that they're worried about their supply lines. Is that legitimate? Do you need a lot of forces to guard against your extended supply lines?

Well, even though you're at a home base, you have to really look at what's been happening with their electric grid and some of the other sustainment that they have. And a lot of their logistical support is probably coming out of Poland. And so that, again, is a key reason why you need to make sure you have air superiority and air dominance so that the Russians cannot use air power to cut off their supply lines as well. But they should be able to sustain themselves a lot better because it is their home turf. But if you're fighting in small scale operations, that reduces the strain on your logistical support base.

And I don't think that the Ukrainians are looking at conducting massive maneuver force operations. And so that can negate the fact that they would have a problem with gasoline, ammunition, things of that nature being pushed forward. Tamala Harris, speaking over the weekend after 9-11, and of course the one year virtually since the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, said this about the threats to America now that al-Qaeda is back in Afghanistan. She doesn't see that as the problem. Cut 25.

I began by asking the Vice President about how, over two decades, our focus has had to shift from foreign terror. to the threat from within. I think it is very dangerous, and I think it is very harmful, and it makes us. weaker.

So you look at everything from The fact there are 11 people right now running for Secretary of State. the keepers of the integrity of the voting system of their state. who are election deniers. You've got And what's that sending? What message does that send to the world?

Well, you couple that with people who hold some of the highest elected offices in our country who refused to condemn an insurrection on January 6th.

So instead of saying Al-Qaeda were concerned Zawahiri's location, they're back in Afghanistan and we see the terrorists that have crossed the border that we know of. She pivots and thinks Republicans are the biggest threat.

Well, yeah, because they have to demonize their political opposition, and that's what you see happening. And, you know, when you want to talk about domestic terrorism, antifund Black Lives Matter has done far more in burning down neighborhoods and domestic violence and terrorism. Let's talk about Inauguration Day for President Trump and the violence that happened there in Washington, D.C. Let's look at the fact that Vice President Kamala Harris, as a senator, worked to get violent demonstrators released from jail by helping to raise bail funds.

So this is all political. And this is, you know, I watched that interview with Chuck Todd. This is delusional. And if you are Islamic jihadists and knowing that this is an administration that is pushing for a wide open border policy, I'm licking my chops right now because they are ignoring you. They do not see you as a threat.

And we have opened up our border. And we know that we have. Is terrorists that are coming into this country because we've got some that we've captured, but then we've got some 800,000 gotaways that we don't even know where they are. Right. By the way, I could play Hillary Clinton, Mark Warner, Mayorkas, all said the same thing.

They're worried about domestic and extremist Republicans. It's just absolutely criminal that they bring up Republicans, the other opposition party, as the problem.

Meanwhile, they've taken about 40 cell phones from Trump officials or affiliates getting ready for January 6th. And guess when, Colonel, they're going to announce their January 6th findings right in the middle of October. Isn't that amazing the way it wraps up right before the election?

Well, they think that may be an October surprise, but I think it's going to work against them because when you start to politicize and weaponize the federal government against the political opposition, that does not work very well. And that is really the essence of Marxism and socialism and communism, is to attack your political opposition. And look at the subpoenas that the DOJ, Merrick Garland, just put out against some of the former members of the Trump administration, asking for emails, communications about them discussing constitutional issues. This is unconscionable what is happening right now. Right.

Yeah, I mean, it's amazing what's taken place. I guess Stephen Miller got a subpoena. They want cell phones from other officials. They want Mike Pence to testify. They want Newt Gingrich to testify.

And imagine what they might have taken out of Mar-a-Lago. Anything that could be January 6th friendly, they might say, hey guys, I don't need this anymore. Why don't you take a look at it? And that's what could be happening. I want you to hear what Frank McKenzie said.

You know, General Frank McKenzie was in charge, gave the President advice that you shouldn't really pull out of Afghanistan. Cut 31. I know you have Since leaving, your position shared that you advise President Biden not to draw down to zero, to leave a residual force of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. It's the right as the commander-in-chief. To keep his own counsel and reject the advice of his military commanders.

If you felt so strongly, why didn't you resign? Once a civilian leadership makes a decision, even though I might disagree with that decision, it is my moral responsibility to execute that order. To resign is not in the history, it is not something that U.S. officers have typically done, and it sends a very bad signal. It is a political act by an officer who must need and must be and remain apolitical.

Do you agree with McKenzie's decision not to say anything until after you retired and stay on the job?

Well, you should not say anything in uniform. There's no doubt about that because, you know, we're supposed to support the civilian leadership. That's part of the Goldwater-Nichols Act. They have supervision over the uniform services. But I would have resigned myself.

I can't speak for the general. But if it was General West in that situation and I had given you my counsel, you didn't think my counsel was worthwhile, then I'm going to say, you know, I probably should not be part of this team because you're going in a different direction. And then once I'm civilian General West, then I will tell you exactly what transpired. But you think about this. Joe Biden once said Barack Obama's decision to go to zero in Iraq would be one of the greatest foreign policy and military decisions ever.

It turned out to be a complete disaster because we invited ISIS in. And so the exact same thing is going to happen here.

So between the Obama administration and the Biden administration, we see that history has repeated itself. And I just shiver to think about what's going to happen with the resurgence of Islamic jihadism and terrorism, especially as you just play with a vice president that thinks that a Republican, a constitutional conservative like me is a bigger threat than al-Qaeda, ISIS or the Taliban. Yeah, it's amazing because I think that if he threatened to do that politically, Biden probably wouldn't have gone through with it because he could not deal with it. Miller really resigned because of this. And then if McKenzie says, I can't do this, there would have been so much pressure on Biden to not go through with it, it would have been effective.

Because do you want this on the back of your baseball card? The worst military disaster in modern American military history? No, but it is on his resume, and I think that we have yet to see the full ramifications and the consequences of that horrific decision. Like I said, we saw what happened when Barack Obama made that decision, and of course, Joe Biden praised him for it. But remember what former Secretary of Defense Gates once said: that in all his years there in Washington, D.C., Joe Biden has never made a good foreign policy decision in his life.

And General Mattis said that he tried to convince Vice President Biden that they need to keep a force in Iraq, and he blew it right off. And that was the advice that he gave President Biden, who executed it. No wonder he praised it. We're all doomed. Colonel Allen West, thanks so much.

Oh, it was a pleasure. Thank you, Brian. All right, go get them. When we come back, you got to come join us: 1-866-408-7669. We'll talk about the border and what's going on now as we are busing illegal immigrants to Chicago, possibly Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, D.C.

And once they get to Chicago, they're busing them elsewhere. No joke, Jack. Challenging conventional thought and wisdom. You're with Brian. Kill Mead from the Fox News Podcasts Network.

In these ever-changing times, you can rely on Fox News for hourly updates for the very latest news and information on your time. Listen and download now at FoxNewsPodcast.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmead. There was a poll in fall of 2016 by the Washington Post in Wisconsin showing Joe Biden up by 17 points. He won the state by one point.

So polling can, especially at this early stage, we haven't even seen the campaigns fully get underway. A lot of Republican money is pouring into these big battlegrounds. I was just in Pennsylvania, and I know John Fetterman is leading in some of these early polls, but he's not doing any debates. He's not agreed to debate. There's worries about his health after having a stroke.

And the OS campaign clearly has momentum.

So the polls aren't capturing the late movement in a lot of these Senate races. There's also a lot of money going into attack ads against these Democrats. And there's a right approach for Republicans if they're going to do this. You've got to bring up crime. You've got to bring up the border.

You've got to bring up inflation. And not just say it's bad, it's bad, it's bad. But look at what we were doing before they lost the White House. Look what we were doing when it comes to. Inflation before we lost the White House.

Look at what we were trying to do when it comes to international relations. Here's Larry Kudlow with his best advice: Cut 13. Much has been written in the past month or so on how the Republican Party is blowing the midterm elections. Especially the Senate.

Now One key point here. Never, absolutely never believe what the mainstream media and their liberal pollsters tell you. Never. Second point. The Washington Post, New York Times, MSNBC, et cetera, crowd is arguing that the Biden Democrats are going to do better because of the brilliant legislation recently passed.

Please do not believe this either. Yeah, virtually all the polls showing the so-called Inflation Reduction Act show that the inflation is not going down.

Now, the president's going to have a big presser today where he's going to say inflation is going down. Barely, and I don't think it's time to take a bow. I think if they could blame it on weather or cancellation or someone turned an ankle, they should postpone. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian Kill mead.

Thanks so much for being here, everybody. It's the Brian Kilmeicho coming to you from 48th and 6th in Midtown Manhattan, heard around the country, heard around the world, especially in the Ukraine, where they're making miraculous gains and the Russians are running for their lives. They're going to get desperate soon. We'll discuss that. We also have this hour Tom Foley, a former Democratic Assemblyman and Atlantic City mayor, who is not happy with the direction of his party.

He is speaking up. We'll do a simulcast on one of the top shows in all cable, Varney and Company. They'll be looking, sharing you guys with his audience. And Andy Cart is standing by, the former chief of staff of Bush 41 and 43.

So let's get to the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three, sponsored by Crunch Fitness. Interested in owning your own business in a growing $30 billion industry? Check out CrunchFitness at Crunch.com. Number three. Would you call the border secure?

The border is secure. But we also have a broken immigration system, in particular over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed. Right. Broken border. Buses are flowing across the country.

Kamala claims Trump broke it, but does anyone believe that? Let's look at the stats and the massive impact of the negligence in our country. Number two. The price of gas, when we said what I was doing, wouldn't make any difference, and guess what? It's down a dollar and thirty cents since the start of the summer.

and continues to go down. Inflation eased in July. Uh Right now, the market's down 700 points because inflation came in too high. Utilities skyrocket. For the Biden administration, it's a reason to celebrate, I guess, this afternoon somewhere in the Rose Garden because at least the numbers are heading in the right direction they can proclaim.

Number. Polling can, especially at this early stage, we haven't even seen the campaigns fully get underway. And I know John Fetterman is leading in some of these early polls, but he's not doing any debates. The polls aren't capturing the late movement in a lot of these Senate races. I guess not.

We will see. Josh Crash Hauer weighing in on a special report last night. twenty twenty two, the last major primary in New Hampshire. Ohio and Pennsylvania are heating up. They've already picked their candidates with the balance of power in the Senate at stake.

With me right now is Andy Cord, White House Chief of Staff, knows the job, knows Washington as well as anyone. Andy, welcome. Brian, it is a thrill to be with you. And this is elec primary election day in New Hampshire, and I voted at 7 a.m. Oh, so you're a New Hampshire guy.

I always thought Massachusetts guy. Was I did you I grew up in Massachusetts, but resident of New Hampshire. I was president of a small university, Franklin Pierce University up here and retired. I live in Jeffrey, New Hampshire, and was proud to go to the polls today to vote. I was one of the first people there at 7 a.m.

Chris Anunda running for another term. Were you surprised when the governor decided not to run for the Senate? No, I was not surprised. I know that he understands the role of a governor and the role of a senator. because his brother was a senator, his dad was a governor, he's a governor.

And the truth is, a lot of governors get frustrated when if they go into the Senate, because in the Senate, you're one of 100. making a choice. As a governor, you own the obligation entirely.

So there's a big difference between being a legislator and an executive. And I think his role as an executive was more satisfying and showed that he could make a bigger difference than just to say he was. One of 100 senators in the U.S. Senate.

So Don Bullduck has been the recipient of $3.2 million from Democratic groups because they think he'd be the easiest to beat when he faces, if he does get the nomination against Maggie Hassan. Overall, Democratic groups have given $19 million across eight states to bolster candidates they think are more extreme and unelectable. Have you ever seen anything this pervaded? I've heard about this happening in some races, but this is a flat-out tactic. Are you surprised?

Yes, I'm disappointed. I don't think it's the right way to participate in our democracy. We are a two-party system, and we should respect to of each party. I don't think the Democrats should be running ads about Republicans in a primary. And it just shows you how desperate they are to maintain control.

And I don't think they're going to be successful. Look, I didn't vote for Don Baldick today. I voted for Chuck Morse. I think he's the one that can beat Maggie Hassan. And I'm a proud supporter of Chris Sununu, the governor who's running for reelection.

So that's where my votes are. I know Don Boldick. I respect him and think highly of him. But he's not the one that can beat Maggie Hassan. Unlike what Governor Hogan's doing in Maryland, he says, I'm not going to support the Republican that won and Cox.

And they were Democrats that just bolstered up his campaign. He put about $200,000 in. They put in millions, and he won. But I talked to Governor Sununu yesterday. He says, I absolutely will vote, will push for Morse, endorse Morse, campaign for Morse.

But if Boldick wins, I will get behind him. I think that's the way it should be done, don't you? Because the people do have some relationships. I'm completely with Chris Sununu in saying that. Mark Morse, I think, has the best chance of beating Maggie Hassan, and I think he would be a really good U.

S. Senator. Don Boldick has been a good campaigner. I've met with him the last time he ran. But if he wins the Republican nomination and Maggie Hassen is the opponent from the Democratic side, and she will be because she's basically unopposed.

She's got somebody on the ballot, but she's basically unopposed. I think it's important for Republicans to be able to be in control of at least one branch of our Congress. I think it's going to be tough to hold to win the Senate, but I want to see if we can do it, and it's important for the party.

So George W. Bush is dramatically different from Donald Trump. But when you look at the policies of Donald Trump, of having a strong border, put tax cuts, get the corporate tax rate down, build up defense, redo trade deals. I imagine no one on the Republican Party was against those policies. Were you surprised they're summed up by President Biden as a MAGA and MAGA extremists?

And the fact is people are saying kind of their heads are spinning and saying, what kind of tactic is that for the midterms or for reelection? What is your take on the tactic?

Well, first of all. I'm not a fan of Donald Trump. I didn't like his personality, and I don't like the vitriol that he brings to the debate. But he certainly had some good policies, and that's a credit to the team that he put together to help get those policies, and a credit to the leadership that the Republicans showed in Congress.

So that's what we've got to pay attention to. Look at I am a Republican. I'm not a rhino. I'm a Republican and stand proudly for the Republican Party. I agree with many of the policies that President Trump and his team put in place.

But I don't like the way he leads, and I think he's tarnishing our democracy.

So I'm troubled by how he has the politics of personality, is not. What I like. I like policy to dominate the debate. Would you also sit down inside political circles in a way I never will? Like the experience that you have, very few people can replicate.

When they sit down and look at these policies, whether it's Ron DeSantis or it's Nikki Haley, they're not going to be too much further than Donald Trump's and what he put together. There may be some nuances, but for the most part, the Republican Party is on the same page on the policies. And 74 million people on all-time record voted for it. If you're President Biden, why would you look at that and say, I'm going to stamp everyone like Hillary Clinton did with the term deplorable? Holy shit.

First of all Republicans are not deplorable, and the voters who showed up to vote in the Republican primaries in the past. I'm not deplorable people. I do think that Donald Trump is a flawed person, but the policies that Republicans stand for are not flawed and they make a difference and they're very important, and that's what we've got to work for. We need to put people in the Congress, we need to put people in the White House that will keep America with a two-party system that is viable. Recognizing that the will of the people is most dominant, the most important word in our Constitution is the very first word: we.

It's our government. Everyone should be involved, and I don't want to have anyone excluded. I want everyone to be involved. Even people I disagree with, I want them to be involved because that's the nature of our democracy, and we're the example for the world.

So we've got to polish our democracy. It's pretty tarnished right now, but it's up to we, the people, to get out there and vote. And vote around the policies that make a difference. Don't worry about the personalities. Vote for the policies.

We've got some good candidates that are thinking about running for President, and many of them will be able to outline their policies, pay attention, and that's what makes the difference. Andy Carter, our guest, Andy, I just think that Carl wrote wrote a great column last week in the Wall Street Journal. And he talked about after you guys won reelection, there was a big push led by James Clyburn. to overturn the delegates, the elect the result in Ohio, and say we've got to get new delegates in there. And it would have flipped the entire election.

Can you bring us back to that time and how that was in one some ways the two thousand and two thousand four election with the beginning of this challenging of elections, which I think is bad all around?

Well clearly the Democrats in 2000 I mean remember the Supreme Court picked George W. Bush. The voters had their votes. The Supreme Court said that the votes were legitimate in Florida, done deal. It's a goal.

Then the 2004 campaign came, and the Democrats again tried to claim that it wasn't the real solution. It was a solution. spoke to the court's rule. such way Look at that elections count and they make a difference and it's important. Rove's column was exactly right.

But the important thing is Good leadership makes a difference once you're in office. And that's what we've got to pick leaders now that will. Fight for good policy. Yeah. Yeah.

I'll be honest with you, when I first got involved in politics, the rug of American politics had more rug than fringe. Today it tends to have more fringe than rug. To let people know that it's okay to stand on the rug and bring your view of perfection to the debate, argue for it, but have the courage to work for perfectly good if you can't get your view of perfection. I know. I just think there's an lawyers, challenge things that you think are unsavory.

But for the most part, we've got to stop challenging elections because it just is detrimental to our whole society. If we can't trust any of this, go ahead, do your research, get involved, make sure the precincts are set. If there's some problematic precincts, get in there before the election. But once the election's done, I think we've got to stop this massive challenging of the tallies.

Well, that's where I come from. Yeah. The vast majority of people who are involved in conducting the elections are very noble, very committed to doing a good job. They're the grassroots of America that are working in these polling places. When I went out to boat this morning, I was greeted by neighbors and friends that were there working the polls.

They want to do the right thing. I respect the will of the people. Look at it, it's our democracy. We're a republic, we pick our representatives. That's the democratic process in this country.

So get out and vote. Have confidence that your vote will count. Know that the election process is secure. Look, I'm a big fan of local governments, and the Republican Party has always been government closest to the people governs best. It starts with the local election officials that are conducting elections.

They're mostly honorable. They want to do a good job. And I can honestly say in New Hampshire, they're the best in the country.

So now we have 9-11, 21 years passed, and some of these ceremonies were just fantastic around the country. I love the singing national anthem at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey two years ago there. I was taking a knee, so I enjoy that. But I was shocked at how many Democrats, from Warner to Mayorkis to Vice President Harris, have mentioned and Have mentioned that domestic terrorists is more of a threat than al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Meanwhile, we notice that ISIS and Al-Qaeda is back in Afghanistan. Listen to Kamala Harris, cut 25. I began by asking the Vice President about how, over two decades, our focus has had to shift from foreign terror. to the threat from within. I think it is very dangerous, and I think it is very harmful, and it makes us.

weaker.

So you look at everything from The fact that there are 11 people right now running for Secretary of State. the keepers of the integrity of the voting system of their state. who are election deniers. You've got And what's that sending? What message does that send to the world?

Well, you couple that with people who hold some of the highest elected offices in our country who who refused to condemn an insurrection on January 6th. Hillary Clinton, too. They all use this opportunity to say our biggest threats from within. Do you think they're missing the the threat of al Qaeda?

Well We better pay attention to what's going on with terrorism around the world. What's happened in Afghanistan, where we've given the Taliban the right to again house people or support people who are going to be enemies of this country. We've got to pay attention to that. I think the threat of terrorism is very real. It continues to this day, and we have to be vigilant.

You know, twenty one years ago on this day, the President went from the Oval Office to the hospitals in Washington DC to see some of the victims that was hurt and maimed in the attack on the Pentagon. I'll never forget that day. He then went over to the Pentagon. He saw that flag draped over the Pentagon. He said that this would not stand, and he did everything he could to protect this country from future terrorist attacks.

Every president following him should make that their number one priority. And I think it is. We, the people in this country, have the responsibility to polish our democracy. And we've got to get out there and do that.

So I don't like the extremism in our politics today. And I look at I was I was in tears on January 6th. Two thousand. in this last January. It was just a terrible thing what happened, terrible, terrible thing.

But it is what it is. We've got to move forward. It's election season. Pick good people to serve in Congress. Pick good people to serve in state government, and that's the way we polish our democracy, and that's what we can do.

But the president. in the vice president Convala Harris, her job was supposed to be protecting our border. She's not down there protecting the border. I don't think she's done anything to protect the border down there. And she hasn't done a good job of demonstrating that we are paying attention to what's going on around the world and no terrorism should enter this country from another country, I don't care where it is.

And she should be all ears and eyes in motion on doing that. America has a vibrant democracy with lots of debate. Celebrate our democracy. Yes, there are extremists on both sides. sides of the political aisle.

And we've got to demonstrate to them, bring your view of perfection to the debate, have a good debate. don't have a a debate of violence. and then empower people to make a decision that represents the common good and work for good. And that's the way to do it. Absolutely.

So, this is a tricky time. And the president, 21 years ago, was paying attention to those who were injured in the Pentagon. He was working with a phenomenal team from the CIA to the FBI to the military forces at every branch. And he did a great job of standing up to the world and building a coalition that fought terror. And that coalition is still there today.

And we've got to make sure that we respect that. And let's not forget all those people who died. George Howard, who Whose mother handed President Bush his badge. She said, This is my son's badge. His name is George Howard.

Don't ever forget him. And the President said, Don't worry about me. He said, America may move on, they may forget, but you don't have to worry about me. I will never forget. And that, Andy, thank you so much.

And that is in the George Bush Museum. Andy Card, thank you. Yeah. A radio show of the people for the people. You're with Brian Kilmead.

A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. When we come back, Tom Foley is going to be with us, former Democratic Assemblyman Atlantic City mayoral candidate. And why I thought it was important, too, is one thing I brought up last week is until some Democrats stand up and say, I'm not happy with the way things are going in places like New York, like they did in Virginia, nothing's going to change.

So, with crime out of control, with the taxes going through the roof, with Governor Hokul coming out and saying things if you're a conservative Republican, why don't you just go to Florida? I thought, at what point do Democrats going to say, my quality of life is just terrible. This state is fantastic. This city offers so much, but I got to find a way to change the culture and maybe try the Democratic Party or force the Democratic, the Republican Party, force the Democrats to deal with the Republicans. Lee Zeldin got state legislator Holden now supporting him.

It's his third Democrat that has come out and said, I'm supporting Lee Zeldin. When I was upstate over the weekend, From Albany to Oneonta to Schenectady, I saw more Lee Zeldon. Signs.

Now I think he should take up state. Governor Hokul has no real constituency in New York City. Just Democrats do. The party does. The question is: will the party take a chance on a guy with a conservative background that understands he would be in a blue state that has a military background?

That doesn't run from Donald Trump, but will not run the state like Donald Trump would because he knows he's representing all New Yorkers. We'll find out. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Kilmade. Do you support the president in his re-election bid?

I'm working on my own election, and that's all I'm focused on right now. Would you support Biden-Harris' ticket in 2024? I'm looking squarely towards 2022 and the re-election ahead of me. I'm not talking about the 2022 election and 2024. I'm just asking you whether you would support Joe.

Do you want to see Joe Biden? I don't want to answer that question because we have not that's not yet I want to answer that question. Yeah, well too bad. They're all Democrats and all running from him. Then Mark Kelly said this yesterday on what kind of job the President's doing.

The senator from Arizona looking to get six years cut six. Has he done a good job, do you think? Hey, I you know, I d you know, I i first of all, it's not my job to give him a report card. I would say, you know, mix reviews. Right.

It is your job to speak up about the direction of your party, which is led by him. Tom Foley, a former Democrat Assemblyman and Atlantic City mayoral candidate, joins us now. And Tom, welcome. You are a former Democrat or currently a Democrat?

Well, I'm currently a Democrat, Brian, and it's getting harder and harder every day. I just can't even imagine what happened to our Yeah. All my life I've been a Democrat. I've had several offices and I've served in the State House. And let me tell you, it's not the same party.

Friends of mine that I serve with are looking at each other and saying, what the heck happened to this party? We refer to working people of the United States, and now we just seem to be Falling by the wayside, teaching sex to kidney gardens in first grade, worried about pronouns and all this nonsense that's going on. I don't even recognize it anymore. It's going to be difficult for me. And it's an honor to be with you.

And I met you before at Harry Hurley's dinner here in Atlantic City. And he is Mr. Atlantic City. And just real quick on that, they're also Democrats are ruining sports for women, for girls, allowing transgender, transsexuals to compete. We saw what happen this year in college swimming.

And guess what's going to happen to the 11th grader, 12th grader? You can't have men and women playing each other competitive sports in basketball and soccer and anything else. What the heck happened to Title nine? I mean, Title nine was supposed to balance sports out to make sure that women had an opportunity to participate in their sports. And now you have guys doing their sports.

It's just ridiculous. I I look at this nonsense that's going around the country. People have got to realize. We need to get leadership in there, and I believe that the only way to get leadership in there is to make sure the Republicans win not only the Congress, but the Senate. Because until that time, you heard what some of these people are crazy people are saying.

The guy with the hood Petterman, whatever his name is, he's going to change the filibuster. He's going to do away with it, and he's going to make sure that we do away with the courts and everything. I mean, and then you have the Vice President of the United States putting down the Supreme Court. I mean, what the heck is going on in this country? And Brian, I thank you very much for bringing this out to people.

And I'm urging all my Democratic friends. all over the United States to To wake up and realize that we need a balance of power in there, and having this president, this Joe Biden in there is ridiculous. I've always supported the issues that Mr. Trump did here. In Atlantic City, he had four casino hotels.

I was instrumental in getting the fourth one. And we were able to save thousands and thousands of jobs. And we had a peaceful world back then. Look at the, I can't believe in what, almost two years now. How President Biden has not only messed up the United States, but messed up the world.

I'll tell you one thing, we can't even staff. We can't every branch of the service has messed their recruiting goals. And then we can't get people to become police officers anymore. The whole defund the police, now out of desperation, he's backed off that phrase, but they don't back the police. There are some people in his own party, in your own party, Corey Bush and company, that still say Defund the Police.

Reimagine law enforcement, which is crazy.

So, Tom, who did exemplify, personify the Democrats for you? For me, it was Donald Trump as president. But he's a Republican. But, Tom, so why would you be a Democrat? He was a Democrat most of his life, Brian, as you know.

And he supported a lot, he supported me.

So I could tell you right now, we need people like that attitude back in office. And I don't see the Democratic Party doing it anymore. Back then, I voted for Bill Clinton. I met President Clinton, and I thought he was a great guy. I thought he had the right thing to do.

But we had a balanced government. We had the first time we ever had a balanced budget. It's because we had a Republican Senate and a Republican House, and we got things done. I mean, and that's the fact of life. And, Brian, until we wake up, And see that the United States of America needs to be the leadership of the world.

And I don't see this president. Having that type of attitude. That's why we need Congress to be Republican. I would add this, too, with the energy. You know, we talked about these other things, and they're valid.

I'm all for being responsible to the environment, but I'm not for doing it allowing us to be susceptible to defense. And right now, as we go to.

solar panels and windmills and basically give up on fossil fuels gradually and act like this is progress while they build seven hundred coal plants in China and don't have to curtail any of their emissions for another ten years. What are we doing? Brian, it's crazy. I just want to touch on the police and fire too, because as you know, I was a thirty year firefighter and also director of emergency management.

So I've known my brothers and sisters in the fire and police and emergency services all of my adult life. And I'm telling you, he's destroyed the morale of the police department. And as far as fuel consumption, we were an exporter of fuel just two years ago, ladies and gentlemen. Do you realize that? And now we're begging our enemies to give us fuel, to give us gas.

And we have all these billions and millions of gallons of oil and natural gas within our own country. And all just take a look at the jobs. The first thing this guy gets into office, he cuts the Keystone pipeline. I mean, come on. What wake up, America?

How in the world did you let this happen to yourself?

Well, I want you to hear what Ted Cruz said, cut fourteen. People want their rights protected. That is a common sense agenda that the overwhelming majority of Americans agree with. And so the corporate media doesn't want to talk about it at all. It's our responsibility to lean in and explain, listen, was America better A couple of years ago, when we had the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, or is it better now when people are hurting across this country?

Was America better when gas was $2 a gallon or $4 a gallon under Joe Biden? Was America better when we had the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years, which is what it was the last year of the Trump presidency? Or is America better now with utter chaos and 4.2 million people coming across the border illegally? It ain't complicated. Everybody knows there isn't a Democrat out there.

That can defend this policy failure. And so they count on the media just to change the topic. And inflation stays now came across a couple of hours ago at 8.3%. It climbed 0.01%. And the President can't say it's zero anymore because it's extremely high.

And then the core inflation without gas, gas, food and gas, is about 6%.

So everybody is feeling it, Tom Foley. Brian, I just went grocery shopping yesterday, one bag. I got ground beef and chicken. It was over one hundred twenty dollars. And I filled up my car the other day, which I used to fill it up for thirty eight dollars.

It was sixty six dollars. And I'm on a fixed income as because we haven't had a cost of living in New Jersey, us police and firefighters, in over 12 years. And we don't get Social Security like everybody else gets. That's the problem. I don't know if a lot of people know that.

But in reality, that's the reality of the situation. We have older police officers and older firefighters that are living off two thousand dollars a month. And I mean, I don't know how they do it. It's just amazing to me that people don't wake up and say, listen, we need to change what's happening, get back to what we were before in the United States of America. And the only way I see that coming, hell, Ted Cruz sounded like a Democrat from the olden days right there.

Tom, I got to hold you off there because we've got to take a break. I'm going to do a similar cast in FBN in a moment. But, Tom, you sound like Jeff Van Drew right before he switched parties. And you sound like a type of Democrat that would do well in New Jersey because Murphy got the scare of his life in the last off-year election. And it doesn't look like I imagine you're going to have a lot of success as you run for Atlantic City Mayor.

Tom Foley, thank you. When we come back, I'll be doing a simulcast in FBN, and then I'll be able to take your calls right after.

So get aboard: 1-866-408-7669. Diving deep into today's top stories, it's Brian Kilmead. Yeah. Now, the Brian Kilmead Show joins Fox Business's Varney and Company with Stuart Varney. Live on your radio and on Fox Business.

Here's Brian Kilmead. Welcome back, everybody. In matter of moments, we're going to go on with Stuart Varney. He's still at a commercial. And then I'll take your calls at 1-866-408-7669.

Keep in mind, too, we're waiting today at probably our last major prime. This is our last primary. You got Rhode Island and you have New Hampshire. In New Hampshire, the results here could make or break the Senate.

Now, I could say that in Pennsylvania, I could say that. In Georgia I could say that really, if Turks don't have an upset, Colorado and Washington State for Republicans, for. In Ohio, I guess, for Democrats, their great hope of flipping a seat was Wisconsin. They're pouring a ton of money, maybe up to $100 million, to beat Ron Johnson in Wisconsin. But in New Hampshire, Maggie Hassan was somebody looked at so vulnerable because for the people in New Hampshire, he's got 34% approval rating.

We'll find out who the Republican opponent will be. And on the Pennsylvania side, we'll see. Have not seen some big polls, but for the most part, odds have been trailing according to reports. But to me, the people of Pennsylvania have to be, if to hold that Patsumi suit, seat, have to take a real look at Fetterman, not his height. Don't feel bad for him about his stroke.

But understand too that when it comes to that seat when it comes to that seat. Doesn't really seem to represent the people of Pennsylvania. Let's listen to Stuart Varney. Brian Kilmey joins us. What's going on with our premier academic institution, Brian?

They're brain dead, and here's why. I'm not saying thieves aren't intelligent, but they have no idea what the general public is about. This country is about 40% Democrats, 40% Republicans, the rest in between. If you are an elite institution, there's only a finite number of Ivy League institutions. Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, they speak for themselves.

When you hear them, you think of excellence. But no longer, now you're going to begin to think of partisanship. I mean, to watch Brian Stelter on a regular basis and think he's actually breaking down media and not anti-Fox. He wrote a whole book. About how bad Fox is with some phony scenarios and things that never took place.

And now they say at Harvard he's the perfect guy. And then de Blasio, this failed mayor, who, by the way, early reports are he's a total zero. Nobody appreciates him. Remember, he showed not only was he bad at his job making decisions that were detrimental to the city, he was also lazy, got high all the time, showed up late for work, laid on his couch in the office with a newspaper over his head after spending the morning working out on his own.

So this guy is somebody that I would not pay two cents to take a lecture from, and they're hiring him as fellows. Totally brain-dead move. I don't understand it, but they're doing it. I've got to talk about the mayor of New York, Eric Adams. He's ordering a 3% budget cut across all city agencies, including the NYPD, and he's blaming inflation.

How can you cut the police budget when crime is rising like this? You can't. And what you do should be reinstalled there. They should have left it impervious to all these cuts and saved 4% across the board. I mean, they're going to take $435 million out of education, $50 million out of homeless.

$157 million are going to be coming across for the NYPD. They can ill afford to do it. Plus, they got all these empty positions, all these retirees, so they're going to save money there. For the most part, this is a lazy way to look at it. I want 3% across the board.

Well, where are the needs? Where's the waste? Go in there and get your hands dirty. Roll up your sleeves. Don't tell your department heads to come back with cuts.

What else are you doing during the day? Give up a few nightclub appearances. Don't go to a few celebrity events and sit down and find out where the money's going because you cannot up taxes anymore. First thing I would do is make it all out offensive to get some of the most successful people in New York back in New York. Governor Hochul told everybody who's not a Democrat to leave and go to Florida.

Tell me that's going to help. Your tax base. Number two, go ahead and start fracking up state and start asking the state to maybe keep more of the money here where we work right now at 48th and 6th in Manhattan, because a lot of the money is generated in Manhattan that fans out across the state and across Long Island. Maybe go there. But to look at law enforcement and say we got to cut, we got to tighten is a joke.

You you and I both work in New York City. I don't think it's back to normal yet. As I look outside at 6th Avenue, right outside our building, the foot traffic and the actual traffic on the street, nothing like it used to be, nothing like it. Because people don't want to come back to work in this city. Look at the New York Times: 1,300 journalists.

They want to work on remote. They don't want it back in Manhattan. Yeah, I think you're 100% right. And the thing is, too, a lot of them cite some of the reasons, and I don't know who's legitimate and who's just lazy, but some of them cite crime. The random nature of crime, the stuff that we all see every day that you show on your show and we watch on our network, these aren't actors.

These aren't reenactments. This is live stuff happening.

So crime is one thing.

Some people are still freaked out by the pandemic. And number three, some people just don't want to interrupt their lifestyle. They want to stay at home in their moccasins or flip-flops, the British people probably call it. And they want to sit there and they want to just call their day and decide to work four hours a day, go to Dunkin' Donuts, and come back again. I will say this.

Take the train home about three times a week. I stay there. I get on the train in the most busiest time possible. I have never, first time in 25 years, over the last two years, I have never not gotten a seat. And sometimes after 2:30, you're wrestling for a seat.

Now, sometimes I hop on after doing the five at 6:30, no problem getting a seat.

So that just shows you either, and the traffic is bad getting out, but mass transit, no one feels secure in the subways. And for some reason, even though it's safe, I believe Long Island Railroad, no one's safe doing that.

So there's a long way to go. Cutting the budget's not going to make anybody feel any better. That's a good indicator. Brian, thanks a lot. We'll see you again soon.

Still ahead. Miranda Devine. All right, there you go. Stuart Varney gave us some quality time. We appreciate that.

I never didn't bring that up because I don't think it's a headline, but think about this. Brian Stelter, who's the partisan media critic at CNN, too partisan for CNN, but he's perfect to join as a fellow at Harvard.

So he goes to Harvard. What are they thinking? They parted ways in August on a Sunday show. He's known for even his critics and his supporters as a polarizing media personality and who spent his time and made his career by criticizing President Trump perfect for Harvard.

Now, think about this. Imagine going into class and going, oh, great, there's the CNN anchor I didn't watch.

Now he's teaching me a class. Kind of great, I'm going to get. Incredible that they wouldn't go out of their way to change the stereotype on the Ivy League institutions that they're way to the left. Instead, they hire people that get fired who are way to the left. The ones that term limited out and de Blasio, who's the personification of ineffective liberal politicians, and Brian Stelter, somebody that people laughed at when he pretended as if he was a media critic.

I'm not saying he's not smart or enterprising, I'm just saying he's partisan. And guess what? He's got a job. Uh so he's going to go to Harvard for at least a semester. I'm not sure what's going to happen to uh CNN in particular.

Uh that's going to be interesting to see where that network goes because they didn't lo they didn't have and they don't have any rating training. I mean we do better. At 11 o'clock at night, or I would say we do better at 4 o'clock in the morning than they do at 8 o'clock at night. No joke. You listen to the Brian Kilmey Show.

Go to BrianKilme.com right now. Get tickets to see me live in Tulsa and Brandon, Missouri, in Mississippi. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Killmead. Hey, welcome to the latest moments of the Brian Killmeat show.

Coming up shortly, Scott Mad at the bottom of the arrow. We're going to try to make sense of 9-11 and the Democrats going out of their way to equate what they think is the. I guess MAGA agenda, which is this chief terrorist Fear we should have and we should be guarding against 21 years after 9/11. Scott Mann also talks about Afghanistan, the disaster. And the fact is, we're overstating the over-the-horizon capabilities of our armed forces because we took out Zahari.

He is the number one guy in Al-Qaeda, yes. But just to think that he's the only guy from Al-Qaeda in Kabul is folly. Vivek Ram Swami is here. He's also got a brand new book out. We're going to talk about that, but first, let's get to the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. Would you call the border secure? The border is secure. But we also have a broken immigration system, in particular over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed.

I hear you. Yeah, that is quite interesting because you have somebody who's declared that the border is closed, but we know it is not. We also know that we're being overwhelmed. The number of. Illegals coming through our border is now at 1.9 million.

When Donald Trump left, it was 450,000. You tell me what's better. I'm not great at math, but I'm great at that. Number two. The price of gas, when we said what I was doing, wouldn't make any difference.

Guess what? It's down $1.30 since the start of the summer. and continues to go down. Confession is in July. That is President Biden.

Inflation is high utility skyrocket. For the Biden White House, it's a reason to celebrate. Guess what? The new inflation number just came through, 8.3%. The President might want to rethink his White House press conference today.

Number Polling can, especially at this early stage, we haven't even seen the campaigns fully get underway. And I know John Fetterman is leading in some of these early polls, but he's not doing any debates. The polls aren't capturing the late movement in a lot of these Senate races. And we've pretty much all given up on polls, haven't we? That's Josh Krosshauer on the special report last night from Politico 2022.

Last major primary in New Hampshire, as well as Rhode Island. And Ohio and Pennsylvania are heating up as the balance of power in the Senate is at stake. Vivek Ramaswamy joins us now. Vaik, welcome. Good to be here.

Hey, congratulations on the book. It's fascinating. I'm not through all of it, but I hope to be by tomorrow when you join me on One Nation or this week when you join me on One Nation. It's called Nation of Victims: Identity, Politics, and the Death of Merit and the Path Back to Excellence. I did not know it was a book.

I caught the end of your interview last week, and I thought to myself, that's exactly what we've been talking about. I'm not even talking about matching intellects. I'm not talking about, I'm just talking, where's the work ethic? What about, all right, that guy or that woman smarter than you? You're going to outwork them?

And if you don't get the job, you're going to blame somebody? What prompted you to focus on this and research like you did?

Well, it was, in some ways, Brian, the sequel to Woke Inc., right?

So this is a book I wrote last year about corporate America cynically exploiting progressive values to be able to aggregate more power and even more profit for themselves. But you know what I realized by the end of the book is it takes two to tango. At the end of the day, that only works if there's a general population of consumers, of millennial and Gen Z consumers included, who are falling for the trick. And so this book looks upstream to the culture to say that. What is it about the vacuum of identity in the heart of a generation?

What is it about that vacuum that allows woke capitalism to thrive? That was the topic of the last book.

So that's what caused me to take a deeper dive here.

So it's sort of a sequel to Woke Inc. It's about our culture, though. This one's not about corporate America. This asks the question of what's the vacuum, the black hole of identity at the heart of the American soul right now. And my theory is that when you have a vacuum that runs that deep, that's what allows poison to fill the void.

And one of the things I had done over the last couple of years is critique that poison one at a time: identity politics, woke culture, climate. Climate religion, whatever the toxic poison may be, we can stamp it out one at a time, but we're not solving the problem unless we fill that vacuum of American identity that hopefully dilutes the poison to irrelevance. And so I was looking in the mirror and saying that, look, I'm not doing enough of that myself. That's what this book was about.

So now we have this thing called quiet quitting. We have people who just want to do such a bad job, they get fired and collect unemployment. Others, through the pandemic, obviously it's not their fault, it's China's fault. They got lazy. They said, well, this job is not rewarding.

I'm not fulfilled. I don't want to go back to work. You saw the story in the New York Times. Over 1,500 employees refused to go back. They said, my union is going to protect me.

I don't want to go back to work five days a week or at all. I'm just going to work from home. It's incredible. And so one of the things I say in the book is: victimhood fits laziness like a glove. And so one of the things that we see right now is the anti-work culture.

It's even called the anti-work movement, the Great Resignation. It was accelerated during the pandemic where you have a generational reluctance to work, to achieve. But it's not enough to admit that. Laziness or sloth or life preferences would be good enough, they wrap it with part of the grand struggle against the oppression of capitalism. Doreen Ford, one of the great leaders of the so-called anti-work movement on Reddit, says this all the time: It's about fighting against the colonialism of capitalism, the oppression of capitalism.

And that's what gives it staying power. Because then it's not just a matter of being lazy or making life choices, but you wrap it around with a moral veneer of legitimacy. That's what makes this permanent. And so it's not just about the laziness and the lack of work, it's the moral indignation that comes with it. And that's what I'm calling out in the book.

You know, and your book has great perspective on our history. You go back to people being blamed, like General Longstreet being blamed when General Lee didn't listen to him. He dies a couple of years after five years after the war. Doesn't really blame Longstreet for it. It was his decision to go right up the middle at Gettysburg, and they got annihilated, right?

That's right. But Stonewall Jackson dies and he becomes a legend. Lee dies and doesn't do enough defense. And Longstreet pays the price in history. Becomes the victim of this rewriting of history, but it's an inaccurate rewriting of history.

It is an inaccurate rewriting of history. That's one of the things I do in this book: this book isn't for everybody. It's for somebody who actually cares about looking at American history, even Roman history, as a way to gain insights into the present. That's the audience who I hope actually gets something out of this book. And one of the things I love about looking at history is it takes us out of the present for a second.

Right now, we're in such siloed chambers with respect to people who can engage, cannot engage in political discourse. We see even people pulling out of political debates today. We can't engage in political discourse when we're tethered to the present, but when we go to history, somehow that allows people to take off their constraints a little bit.

So I do trace a lot of the post-Civil War Reconstruction era history where victimhood culture was actually born. I think it began with a lot of the jurisprudence that began in the back of the Reconstruction era that taught people to think of themselves as disempowered classes and victims. The U.S. constitutional law, in some ways, actually even demanded it. But I even go all the way back to Roman history.

You talked about how victimhood created this historical. Lens of how we see Longstreet, General Longstreet versus, say, Stonewall Jackson. You know, actually, one of my favorite stories from the book was even the way we look at Roman emperors, right?

So, so the Septimius Severus is the black emperor. He was the one who I was taught in high school, was the so-called black emperor. One of the things I learned in doing the research for this book is that. He didn't see himself as the black emperor. He was only named the black emperor in the last 40 years by Americans who wanted to celebrate a black conqueror because that's what the American moment demanded.

Back in the Roman era, they didn't see each other as having anything other than dark eyes, dark hair, dark skin. It didn't matter. They were citizens of a nation. And so sometimes if you go back to history and see what actually happened, it gives you a different filter through which you can actually see the present. A couple of things.

I remember just going not necessarily in your book, but I remember reading in the 1880s, people feeling, I'm worried about my generation. They were so tough during the Civil War. Everyone fought. Everyone picked up a gun. And we've gotten soft as a country.

After 1776, we're fighting the War of 1812. And we're sitting there trying to roll out our old generals. And there's one, Francis Scott Key is saying, what happened to that attitude? What happened to our guile? We're not tough anymore.

And our greatest generation became the greatest because they had to be. The world went to war.

So a lot of it is the circumstances in which you're born, correct? Necessity may demand it. And even for the upcoming generation. Too. But I say that that's actually an inspiring point that you just made, Brian, which is that there's a point I make in the book as it relates to Rome.

By the way, we think about the rise of Rome and the fall of Rome. One of the great discoveries, again, and through writing this book, going through my old historical knowledge, but brushing it up again, is that there was no rise and fall of Rome. There were many rises and many falls. And the same goes for the history of the American experiment, too. There have been many rises and many falls.

And once we see that, that gives us hope in the current moment, too, to say that, you know what, we might not be done with this whole American experiment after all. There were many rises and many falls. We might be at a nadir, but actually, it's going to be about the agency that we as citizens exercise to say that we're going to have the next revival again, just like we did, just like we did back then in the early 1800s. We're having one of those moments now. We've gotten through it before, we can get through it again.

Because if you're black or if you're Asian, or if you're poor, if you're rich, there's always a way, there's always an excuse or a crutch you can grab if you choose. That's right. And one of the points in your book that I'm going to challenge you, because you said no one will ever bring up, because when you woke ink. Is about Asians and about American, about Indians whose grades predominantly are through the roof. And even though the SATs are extremely high and the GPAs are extremely high, it's hard for them to get into these Ivy League schools because there's so many others and they're looking to diversify and it's not flat-out merit-based, correct?

It's affirmative action hurting the extremely bright minorities. Exactly right. And Harvard, one of my alma mater, used to describe this years ago as the so-called Jewish problem. That was Harvard's words, not mine. It's the same thing.

They effectively have the Asian problem now, that if they just went along the axes of merit, including, and merit can be defined in many ways. It could be musical exceptionalism, could be athletic exceptionalism, but it could be academic. The population would, it turns out, be disproportionately Asian. There's a 400-plus point gap in terms of what it takes to get into a top university on the SATs between being an Asian applicant and a black applicant. Keep in mind, there's only a 1600.

There's a lawsuit working its way up to challenge affirmative action, correct? There is, yeah, yeah, yeah, there is. And so I think that legally, it's interesting. It's one of the few cases, if you go back to actually Sandra Day O'Connor's opinion about 20, 25 years ago in the early affirmative action cases, it was one of the few cases where they put an expert on a constitutional principle, where they said about 20 to 25 years from now, we expect that these policies will no longer be necessary. It may not even be constitutional under law because circumstances will have changed.

Now we're hitting about that 20 to 25 year mark.

So it'll be interesting to see what the Supreme Court does. I delve into some of those arguments in this book, but it goes beyond the legal. Dimension of this. I hope the Supreme Court comes out on the wrong side, on the right side of this by rejecting affirmative action policies. But the deeper question, Brian, is: what is it about our culture that makes us demand these policies in the first place?

Right. To see each other as victims on the basis of the color of their skin, the more we tell that narrative, the more we create the new oppression that comes from the narrative of victimhood itself. And that's actually, I think, the greatest shackle on black identity today. The thing that's holding, the thing that creates most black victims is the narrative of black victimhood identity. Right.

People told me you can't talk about this stuff because you're not black. I don't believe in that. I think that we should be able to debate these ideas in the open without regard to what skin color we have because that's part of what makes us American, and we've forgotten that. Vivek Ramaswamy here, his book is now out as of this, as of yesterday. It's called Nation of Victims: Identity, Politics, and the Depth of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence.

So here's it. They say if you get up every day and you're told by your parents and your teachers that America is racist and you're a minority, you're black, and you go, okay, I have an attitude. I'm ticked off. Why is it that the world's against me?

So if I'm 6, 8, 10, 12, I'm going to have a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. Exactly. And that's opposed currency. And like, you know, if I was born in the 60s, too, it just doesn't work to anyone's advantage to wake up and say the world's against you. Overcome it, find a way.

And there was more of an attitude of that during segregation in the South than there is right now, where we have more of a level playing field than ever before. And I totally agree with you. I even seen it in the Indian American community, right?

So where immigrants are. Immigrants came to this country and first generation families. I was born in America, but first generation, you know, we have one upbringing: scrappy, underdog mentality, merit-focused, hard work, get ahead, put your head down, and create your own destiny. What I'm beginning to see in the second and third generation, even among Asian Americans, is now the reinvention of thinking of yourself as a person of color. Oh, no, we're not one of the privileged people.

We're one of the people of color inventing a victimhood narrative that going through hardship. That actually is their parents and their grandparents are the ones who went through the hardship. These are the guys who had it easy, yet the guys who had it easy are the ones who are reinventing this narrative of thinking themselves and recasting themselves as victims because that's the incentive structure. That's how you get ahead in America today. They're just following their incentives.

And like so many times, sports really tells the story. You actually use that. You can benefit from feeling like the underdog. And then Michael Jordan gives a speech in the Hall of Fame, and he talks about the 10th grader that got cut from the varsity team. He made the JV team.

Most 10th graders play JV. Actually, exactly. But he used it as momentum. He played sixth-round draft pick, Tom Brady. Rest of his life, he was the greatest quarterback ever.

He's a sixth round draft pick. All those teams that passed up on me, the Patriots who passed up five times. It benefits you to feel as though you have something to prove every day. Use it to your advantage. Where's that mentality?

More with Vivek as we come back because we do have some economic numbers. I got to really tap into your mind, economic mind, where we're going as a country. You listen to the Brian Killmead Show. Don't move. Learning something new every day on the Brian Killmead Show.

The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmeade. The longer That inflation remains well above the target, the greater the concern that the public will start to just naturally incorporate. Higher inflation into its economic decision making. And our job.

is to make sure that doesn't happen. And we're committed to doing that job. And I guess that means by raising rates, because right now inflation came in at 8.3%. The markets responded with a drop of 880 points. It was about 500 when I started the show with me right now, is Vivek Ram Swami.

His book is excellent. It's now out. It is called Nation of Victims: Identity, Politics, and Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence. You also have great knowledge of our economy. Hearing Jerome Powell, where do you think we're heading?

With the economy heading, he's going to raise rates, and what's the reaction? Yeah, I actually talk about this a little bit in the. In the book as well.

So there's a big difference between raising rates now and raising rates. let's say under Paul Volcker, under Ronald Reagan.

Okay, because Back then, anytime you raise rates, what are you doing? You're shrinking the economy and you're purposefully doing it to fight against inflation.

So I think there's no path out of an inflationary crisis like the one that we're in that does not run through raising rates. We as a country have gotten addicted to easy money, skiing on artificial snow, as I say. That's what the last 15 years have been.

Okay, you can't ski on artificial snow forever.

However, the key is to raise rates in a period where you also have economic policies for the actual economy that unlock economic potential to counteract the effects of raising the rates themselves.

So under Reagan, what do you have? You have a deregulatory agenda. You have an agenda that spurs private innovation. You have an agenda that gets government out of the way of private businesses. Tax reform, tax cuts that allow the economy to thrive against the backdrop of aggressively raising rates.

As opposed to what's happening now, which is spending double whammy.

So, well, the spending is a separate category for now because that then contributes to the inflation, which then creates the need for raising rates even more. But against a regulatory environment and against an unfavorable potential future tax policy environment that at once contributes to not certainly not growing the economy, possibly shrinking the economy in real world terms at the same time that you're also raising rates. And so that's the potential double whammy when you think about the risks for recession, the risks for economic contraction. That's what you worry about, which is really different than the last time we had this kind of inflation when you had to raise rates to stave it off. Is at least it was against the backdrop of Ronald Reagan's policies that were at least economically stimulating rather than economically depressing.

It plays into the mindset right now. Because you might say, look at the economy, rates are going up. I can't do this. I can't do that. I can't do that.

Or where's my opportunity? How do I overcome this? How do I get stronger mentally? That's right, absolutely. And even if you think about this from the standpoint of, you know, a lot of young founders, let's say in Silicon Valley or whatever, grew up over a 10-year period where anything that rhymes with tech had money reigning into it.

Tech, biotech, health tech, clean tech, fintech, anything that rhymes with tech.

Well, actually, building great businesses for most of American history was actually really hard to do because access to capital was more scarce.

Now, that means that this could actually be a good thing for gritty entrepreneurs to say that, you know what? In order to get funded, I'm going to have to actually have a real business model that works and to prove it, not just to write something down on a piece of paper. That could actually be good for our economy and our culture over the long run. And it's fundamentally a mindset, too. How do I overcome this rather than I cannot believe how bad the economy is?

I can't believe I wanted to buy a house. No, I can't. Which wait. Unfortunately, the vague query, we ran out of time. But go out and pick up his book, Nation of Victims.

We'll have more on this on one. Nation Saturday night at 8 o'clock. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead.

When I left active duty, it was our assessment that if we left Afghanistan, if the Afghan government fell, if the Taliban took over, then over a period of time, both Al-Qaeda and ISIS would be able to regenerate. That is still my opinion today. It's going to take a little time for them to do that. Uh well, how about a year? That's General McKenzie saying that the president didn't take his advice.

He wanted to leave 1,200 men there.

So when he told me to leave, I just left. That worked out well, didn't it? Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann doesn't think so. He's conducted a coordinated task force pineapple because we left our allies and some of our citizens behind after we left Afghanistan. He's the author of the brand new book, Best Seller, Operation Pineapple Express: The Incredible Story of a Group of Americans who undertook one last mission and honored a promise in Afghanistan.

Colonel, The general talked about his prediction of the Taliban coming, of the Al-Qaeda coming back. That doesn't take a lot of expertise to predict that. Are they there? They are. Brian, and thanks for having me on.

They are reconstituting at levels that I think is surprising everyone. I just interviewed Lieutenant General Sami Sadat, who was the last commander of Afghan Special Operations Forces, and he has Hundreds of well-placed commandos and special forces people in the country, and they have all validated that al-Qaeda foreign fighters from North Africa, Southeast Asia, Iraq, Syria are inside Afghanistan and actively training right now on the very Afghan National Army compounds that are in Helmand and Kandahar that we were on just a couple of years ago. And why you reconstructed or built, right? That's right. And the other thing that Bob, and this isn't necessarily a popular position that I take within the senior military community.

I agree with General McKenzie's assessment, but it sure would have been nice to hear that from him a year ago. And it would have been even nicer if he or some of the other general officers or admirals would have thrown their stars on the table and resigned over this. And I think a lot of Enlisted sergeants, junior officers share in that sentiment. I don't think I'm alone in that. Yeah, well that was actually asked of him on uh Face the Nation.

And here's what he had to say to that question, Cut 31. I know you have, since leaving your position, shared that you advised President Biden not to draw down to zero, to leave a residual force of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. It's the right as the commander-in-chief to keep his own counsel and reject the advice of his military commanders. If you felt so strongly, why didn't you resign? Once a civilian leadership makes a decision, even though I might disagree with that decision, it is my moral responsibility to execute that order.

To resign is not in the history, it is not something that U.S. officers have typically done, and it sends a very bad signal. It is a political act by an officer who must need and must be and remain apolitical. Really? Is it a political act to throw down your stores because of a military operation you're asked to do that you don't agree with?

I don't get that, do you? I don't, and here's where I differentiate with all due respect to the general, and I think just. Again, I've interviewed scores, Brian, of warriors who gave 20 years to this fight, and they're all saying a lot of the same things, which is To say that it's a moral imperative not to resign when you're given an order. That may hold true until it starts to violate legal grounds or moral grounds. And granted, there was nothing illegal.

About this abandonment, but it was certainly immoral. The wholesale abandonment of a partner force that we had served with for 20 years, the explicit abandonment of a promise of the special immigration visa holders, but also our partner forces, the Afghan commandos, the Afghan special forces, who bled heavily and who special operators and other advisors, you never leave a partner. And to do that wholesale and then to ask the veteran community to take on that shouldered load. is immoral, and it has created a massive moral injury in our community where seventy three percent of veterans feel betrayed, Brian.

So I do not subscribe to that. I believe we were put in a position where this was an immoral act, and senior officers should have reflected that through resignations. I would have loved to have seen that.

So far, there's been nothing. I remember General Milley was talking to Jennifer Griffin, and they were trying to see all the people that they got out. They were in Germany visiting some of those who were wounded after the bombing, at the bombing that killed 13. And he said, well, maybe we did it wrong. Maybe we shouldn't have tried to train them in our Western image.

Excuse me. You've been there for years at all different levels of government.

Now, in retrospect, out one week, you said, well, maybe we trained them wrong. What's wrong with? I can't believe he said that with a clear, with a straight face. We didn't tell you to train him any certain way. You know, we didn't tell you to make it the World War II reenactments.

And I think you just taught him how to fight and coordinate.

Well, and not only that, but when you when you step into something like this and you start advising partners, you know, there is a long-term commitment to that. And you certainly, you know, to his point, you know, with you train them in the Western way of war, where they have requirements for surgical strike helicopters and operational fires and intelligence crime that they need to keep the Taliban off base. And then you pull, and again, General Sadat talked about this, and then you pull all of the contractor support in June with no warning. General Sadat was fighting in Helmand. With his corps, and he did his aviation officer walked to him and said, Sir, they've just pulled all of our contractors.

We can't fly. And he was in the middle of a fight in Helmand, and we didn't even let him know. Like, that is an immoral act. And I don't care how you dress it up. Everybody that fought this thing and prosecuted this thing for years knows it.

Listen, I don't think, for example, you know, for the most part, after 20 years, you would think that they would have enough chopper pilots themselves, that they would need contractors, but there'll be enough there to do it themselves. And I don't think anyone said, I'm not going to elect a politician to any office if they teach them how to use our helicopters or we leave some behind compared to the billions we left behind when we decide just to get out. The other thing is to keep in mind. Every president, I think Bush talked about getting out. Obama guaranteed we'd get out.

Donald Trump made maneuvers to get out. And then Joe Biden just pulled out haphazardly. Had some leader come in and said, it is to our advantage to the American people to keep a presence in Afghanistan. Look at how it benefits in South Korea. Look how it benefited us in Japan.

And I know it's going to be an active war zone, but here's why it's necessary. I think the American people are educated at this point to understand they probably take. Take them at face value, wouldn't you think?

Well, two things on that. One, back to the helicopter piece. I was talking about in the maintenance of those things. And even our military, if you pulled the contractor support, none of those birds would fly. It would stop immediately.

And so that's what we cut their legs out, basically, is what we did. But as far as what was the other piece that you wanted me to hit on? The point is that if you explain to the American people that it's into our advantage, our national security, to keep a presence there, like Japan and South Korea and other places like Europe, then even though it would be a lot harder and more active, that's the nature of the world we're in. I think we would have understood, right? Yeah, 100%.

I think if we would have just stopped and looked at this thing, it's like, okay, if we're going to get out of there, what must we preserve at all costs? What needs to be protected?

Well, the homeland needs to be protected. And what drew us into Afghanistan in the first place was the fact that there was no ground intelligence capability of substance. There was no partner force that could be an antibody to al-Qaeda. Ahmed Shah Massoud in the Northern Alliance was screaming for us to work with him so that he could counter bin Laden. And in fact, he was executed or assassinated two days before 9-11 because bin Laden knew that's where we would go to the Northern Alliance.

So we've been here before, right? This is what drew us in: the absence of a partner force, the absence of a ground network, Brian. We bled for 20 years. To put this in place, to build that partner force. And then we wholesale abandoned it in the blink of an eye.

And I'm telling you, every administration since this thing started has been woefully underwhelming in their ability to just explain to the American people that the violent extremists that use Afghanistan for unfettered safe haven have a long-term narrative to strike us at home. And the only way to prevent that from happening is to disrupt them with counterterror forces and to build a local partner force that can do it over the long term. We were almost there and we bailed on all of it. I know. And the thing is, NATO wasn't looking to get out.

It's usually our allies would be pressuring us to get out. In fact, we told everybody we're going to get out without telling NATO. Yes, and we think about that relationship. I mean, we have squandered relationships across the board on this that we're going to need in dealing with Russia, in dealing with China, with a reemerging al Qaeda and ISIS. I mean, we've literally if we acted like this, Brian, if we acted like this, to our friends in everyday life.

We would be completely alone, and whenever bad times came, there would be nobody at our side. That's exactly the pathway, I think, that we're on right now with this journey that we're doing and how we treat our allies. And that's why, like in the book, I talk so much about what does a promise mean to you and how far would you go to honor it? And when you look at it with the double amputees and gold star moms who jumped into the fray to help their partners versus The senior generals and admirals, it is a stark contrast in those two questions.

So, what about the danger here at home? First off, what the theme was on 9-11. I love the ceremony. I love that what happened in 9-11 at the Pentagon. I just thought it was hardened 21 years later to see people care.

I always loved this Star Spangled banner at MetLife Stadium where the whole crowd sang. Two years ago, we were all debating taking a knee. And now, listen to from, I don't want to get you involved in politics, it doesn't work to your advantage, but from Mark Warner to Hillary Clinton to Kamala Harris to Mayorkis, they had one theme, and it wasn't look out for Al-Qaeda, CUT 29, Mark Warner. The stunning thing to me is here we are 20 years later and The attack on the symbol of our democracy was not coming from terrorists, but it came from literally insurgents attacking the Capitol on January 6th.

So I believe we are. Stronger. I believe our intelligence community has performed remarkably. I think the threat of terror has diminished, but I do worry about.

Some of the activity in this country were the election deniers, the insurgency that took place on January 6th. That is something I hope we could see that same kind of unity of spirit. As much as January 6th was terrible, do you believe it deserves the same breath and attention as Al-Qaeda and ISIS? I do not. I do not.

I don't think that, that is a position to it's not the position that I take. I believe that, that was a terrible event, but I think that when you talk about the external threat Of ISIS and al-Qaeda and the way that they are manifesting, I think it deserves far more attention on that.

Now, what I do worry about, Brian, is the division in the country, the factions in this country. I've spent most of my life, like a lot of my SF brothers, in tribal areas, and I've seen how that ends. And the pathway we're on right now with the division in this country and the way that we focus more on our differences than what we have in common, as veterans, we are very, very worried about this. A lot of veterans, Sebastian Younger says in his book, Tribe, you know, it's easy to see why so many veterans are ready to die for their country, but they have no idea how to live for it because the entire nation is tearing itself apart. I worry too about the lack of willingness to serve.

So I didn't serve. I'm not saying that I'm not condemning any individual, but the fact that every branch of the armed forces is short of their recruiting goals is scary. It is. And if you look at the numbers, you know, trust in our institutions is one of the things that most social scientists believe we need to have for a stable democracy. The military, even though Congress has plummeted, trust in the police has dropped unfortunately.

But the military held strong, Brian, for really all the way through the war on terror coming out of the 80s under the Reagan era. You had very high trust in the military, like in the high 70s. It's dropped from 71% to to 56%, and 11 points of that drop Of trust in the military by the U.S. citizenry, 11 points happened after the fall of Afghanistan.

So when I hear General McKenzie and Millie and others talking this way, like the numbers don't bear it out. The American people are losing trust in this amazing institution that is the Department of Defense, and the recruiting and retention numbers are starting to reflect it as well. And so that speaks to willingness to serve. People, young people, they see what happened. They see what happened with this abandonment.

And I think a lot of them are like, you know what? I don't think I want to be a part of that. Yeah, and Scott, just a big picture question. When you see the way you guys adjusted to the battlefield, to the demands, avoid urban warfare.

Well, you got and had to get involved in urban warfare. Then what happened in Ramadi and Fallujah and what happened, how you adapted in Afghanistan, it became clear we didn't want to occupy, we wanted to train and leave. And then when you watch the Russians struggle in their first sustained combat really since World War II, and the inability to adjust, unbelievably inability to fight. They have no officers. You have to look around and say, man, there's a big drop between one and two.

There there is And I think right now what I'm worried about a lot is this gap between the leaders and the led, particularly at senior officer levels. I believe there is rampant careerism to the point that it is starting to really become palpable in the ranks. And you're starting to see this dissonance between the leaders and the led and this absence of trust. And when you get that, that's the kind of stuff that you get, that you've seen with the Russians in Ukraine. One of the things that always defined the U.S.

military is that the American fighting warrior will go anywhere, run through walls if they understand the answer to one question. Why am I there? What am I doing? And right now, we have violated that. We've created a moral injury, Brian, that is causing a massive effect on our population.

81% spike in the VA hotline since August. And it goes all the way back to a systemic abandonment of our allies through the Syrian Kurds, the Iraqi police, the Vietnamese montagnards. I mean, it's, and our veterans. Are starting to look at this and say, wow, you're telling me that we stand shona bishona at your side at your shoulder, but then that's not what our actions are reflecting. And that kind of moral injury will decimate our ranks if our leaders don't wake up and start addressing this right now.

I hear you. Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann, congratulations on the bestseller. It's an important book, Operation Pineapple Express: The Incredible Story of a Group of Americans who undertook one last mission in honor to promise in Afghanistan.

So when McKenzie thought about it and kept his mouth shut, they formed together an operation to save Americans and their allies when American Armed Forces picked up and left because they were commanded to do so. Thanks, Scott. Yeah, thanks, Brian. I appreciate the voice. You got it.

When we come back, I'll take your calls and find out if there's indeed more to know. Brian Killmead Show. It's Brian Killmead. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show.

There are 351 municipalities in Massachusetts and 1,073 Dunkin' locations. Bill Ricca has three on Boston Road, but further down 495, the town of Stowe is a Dunkin' Desert. There is no more Dunkin' Donuts at Stowe. Absolutely none. Those bastards.

Up until this year, they had two.

Now they're both closed. Neighbors are handling it like you might expect. Yeah, it sucks. There's nothing fun to do, and Dunkin' Donuts was the one place where everyone likes to go. Bummed out.

Yeah. Yeah. Because I've been traveling further away to go to Dunkin' Donuts. Yeah? Yeah.

How far do you have to travel now? Over a h a mile and a half. That's ridiculous. Don't live in Stowe anymore. You think it's worth moving out 'cause there's no dunks?

Yeah. Yeah, I'm s I'm sad. Is this real? I mean, where did you find this? That is Dunkin' Donuts have moved out of with 1,073 Dunkin' Donuts locations.

It's a shocking development. Massachusetts has 351 municipalities that the average town in the state has three Dunkin' Donuts. And this town lost it all. And they're panicking. They want to move out.

It's the only thing to do in the whole town. You know, when you hear, if you travel like Cooperstown, which is a great place and it gets an unfair reputation as far as there's nothing to do there, it has great restaurants. This place, if Duncan Donner's is the center of attention, what kind of town is this? I don't know, but look at the anger. I mean, this is unbelievable.

They say former Massachusetts. A congressman from the Fourth District reacted by treating Who let this happen? Yep, Joe Kennedy III.

So, this is a major, this is all the town has. It's sad. And they had to travel a mile or like a mile and a half or it's like you might get on a Ferris wheel or something. Wouldn't that be better? Yeah, or you could do like that out of Marriott Children.

The man who met Andy Griffith became a sent everybody. What about a mile and a half? Just walk a mile and a half. Yeah, you get your exercise in. One minute.

You could burn off those calories from Dunkin' Donuts. Put the power of over 100 meteorologists and the worldwide resources of Fox in your hands with the Fox Weather Podcast. Precise, personal, powerful. Subscribe and listen now at FoxNewsPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts.