Biden: Threat of Russian Invasion of Ukraine "Very High"

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Live from the Fox News Radio Studios in New York City, fresh off the set of Fox and Friends, it's America's receptive voice. Brian Killmead.

Well, I'm excited to be filling in for Brian today. My name is Joe Kelly, and we're coming to you live from the Florida Freedom Zone, where we had probably the best 2021 ever here in Florida, with 118 million Americans visiting Florida, the highest number of domestic travelers in the history of the state, all during a pandemic. We had a phenomenal year last year. We'll get into that coming up a little bit later. My name is Joe Kelly, and I am with Brian's flagship radio station in Orlando, WDBO, and I'll be filling in for Brian today.

You can join the show at 866-408-7669. You get details, of course, when you go to BrianKilmeadshow.com. And we're going to start off with talking a little bit of Russia here as Thomas Graham is going to join us. He is a distinguished fellow, the Council on Foreign Relations, co-founder of the Russian, Eastern European, and Euro-Asian Studies programs at Yale University. Thomas, thanks for joining us here on the Brian Kilmead Show.

Glad to be with you this morning. We have been hearing the warnings, and each day we wake up and think, well, has the border been breached? Have the Russian troops invaded Ukraine? Yes. What is the latest there?

Well, it is a tense situation along the border. There are one hundred fifty thousand troops Russian troops surrounding Ukraine at this point. There have been some skirmishes between Ukrainian forces and separatist forces in the eastern part of Ukraine. That has raised anxieties and tensions in that part of the world. The United States, the administration is saying that a Russian invasion, a major invasion, could occur any time in the near future.

And we had a very contentious session at the UN Security Council yesterday where the United States And Russia traded arguments over who's to blame for the situation in Ukraine.

So it's a tense situation. That said, there's still a diplomatic track. Secretary of State Anthony Blinkin is scheduled to meet with the Russian Foreign Minister somewhere in Europe next week to see whether we can find a diplomatic resolution to this ongoing crisis. One of the things that has really interested me is the reference to false flag events. You know, there was a time in which false flag events were just the domain of the conspiracy theorists.

And now we're talking about it like it's just part of how you do war or how you do foreign relations. I mean, can you kind of address the false flag notions?

Well, you know that information now has become a very important part of international relations and foreign affairs. And each side tries to control the narrative to put on the most positive spin it can on what it's trying to do and a negative spin on what the other side is trying to do. The United States is concerned about false flag operations because they believe that Russia will create provocations that will serve as a pretext for the launch of a military operation into Ukraine. By the same token, the Russians are claiming that the Ukrainians themselves may engage in provocation, that is stage attacks That make it look like they've been attacked as a reason for them to use military force.

So all of this, I think, is really an effort to try to control the narrative and to cast the blame on the other side if a major military conflict breaks out. We're talking to Thomas Graham here on the Brian Killmead show. My name is Joe Kelly. Thomas is with the Council on Foreign Relations. And of course, we're talking about Ukraine and Russia.

What is the end game for Vladimir Putin? I mean, here's a guy who has named himself effectively president for life. And just the audacity in 2022, with the whole world watching, you're playing these kinds of games. I mean, you're playing with fire here. Yes, no, absolutely.

No, just a couple of things here. First, Russia doesn't like to be ignored on the international stage.

So certainly, Putin, I think, is very appreciative of the attention he's getting at this point, with Western leaders traveling to Moscow to negotiate with them to see if they can find a way to diffuse this crisis. But second, there's a larger issue that's at play here for Putin, I think, for Russia. as well, and that is that they are dissatisfied with the security arrangements in Europe that were developed thirty years ago at the end of the Cold War. They believe at a time when Russia was weak and therefore Russian weakness was exploited. And now that they've regained some of their strength, they see a significant amount of disarray in the West.

certainly in Europe. They're trying to, in a sense, revise that Cold War settlement to their advantage. To give some context here, I want to play a cut from Joe Biden at the White House talking about the threat of a Russian invasion being very high, cut one. How high is the threat of a Russian invasion right now? It's very high.

They have not moved any of their troops out. They've moved more troops in. Number one, number two, they have reason to believe that they are engaged in a false flag operation. They have an excuse to go in.

Now, Thomas Graham, the president has made clear that U.S. troops are not going to be sent into Ukraine. That's right. Remember, Ukraine is not a NATO ally. The United States has no obligation to defend Ukraine.

We do have an obligation under NATO to defend those members. And these are many countries in Eastern Europe that border on Russia, but not Ukraine.

So what the President is trying to do, what the administration is trying to do, is to use other means to do what we call deterrence. to raise the possible cost of a military Operation by the Russians that would outweigh any possible gain. And we're doing that through threats of sanctions, economic sanctions against their banking systems. against some of the high technology companies. we were doing that by sending a small number of American troops to countries in eastern Ukraine to reassure those allies that we will, in fact, defend them if they're attacked, but also to persuade Moscow that even if it goes into Ukraine, it should not consider extending any military operation beyond that into NATO territory.

Thomas, can you address the the timing of it all for us? The the Olympic Games wrap up this weekend. I believe the closing ceremonies are Sunday. I mean, do do do the Olympics play into this scenario with Russia and Ukraine? To some extent, although I think it's been exaggerated in some of the commentary.

There is a view that Putin would not launch a major military operation during the Olympics because the Olympics are so important to Chinese President Xi Jinping. China on the international stage, and China doesn't want anything to detract attention from that. And there has been a fairly close relationship between Russia and China that has built up over the past several years. Russia depends on China for diplomatic support. It will depend on it for economic support.

if the United States and its allies levy a certain sanctions.

So the thinking is that he wouldn't mar the Olympics, but after the Olympics are concluded, then all bets are off, then he could use his military force in a very provocative fashion.

So Monday, you're saying.

Well, that's what the thinking is.

Well, but look, I'm not an alarmist on this. I think there is a possibility of that. But there are a few other things to bear in mind. That is, the costs of any type of war are quite great. You run tremendous risk.

Once you start a war, it's not clear how it's going to end. And second, The Kremlin has done nothing to prepare the Russian population for a major conflict. And one of the things that you would want to do if you're contemplating something like this is assure that you have popular backing. If you don't do that, then you risk a reaction of some sort when Russian soldiers are killed and Russians don't understand clearly why you have launched a military operation. Lastly, for Thomas Graham, and again, thanks for joining us here on the Brian Kilmead show.

If not the United States, then who? I mean, who are our allies that could lead this effort to do whatever needs to be done to keep Russia from invading Ukraine or getting Russia out of Ukraine as quickly as possible?

Well, I think here, the United States is indispensable. There's really no other country that could lead this operation. We have the military capabilities, we have the intelligence capabilities. uh that don't compare with those of our of our European allies. Germany, France are big countries, but not nearly as capable as we are.

So in the absence of American leadership, you would see even greater disarray in Europe And that would be an incentive for Russia to act more aggressively.

So let me just end by saying that the United States has done a tremendous effort over the past a few months in rallying its our NATO allies, our partners in Europe, to a sort of unified front against Russia. And that has to weigh on the way the Kremlin is thinking about what its next steps might be. Thomas Graham, thank you so much, fellow from the Council on the Foreign Relations. Thomas Graham, joining us here on the Brian Kilmead Show. Thank you so much, and have a nice President's Day weekend.

Would you please? Thank you. Thank you very much. You can join us here on the Brian Kilmead Show at 866-408-7669. And we'll take some of your phone calls coming up straight ahead.

If you want to jump into the phone lines, you can do so now at 866-408-7669. Also, we're going to get to some Hillary Clinton coming up in the next few minutes as well. As Hillary is, boy, definitely sounds like she's beating a drum to throw her candidacy in once again. We'll get into that coming up in a few minutes. I'm Joe Kelly.

You are listening to the Brian Kilmead Show. Expanding your knowledge base. It's the Brian Kilmead Show from the Fox News Podcasts Network. I'm Ben Dominich, Fox News contributor and editor of the Transom.com daily newsletter. And I'm inviting you to join a conversation every week.

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Subscribe and listen now at FoxnewsPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Hey, it's Joe Kelly in for Brian Kilmeet here in Orlando, Florida, which, by the way, this weekend is going to be the Daytona 500. If you're not familiar with how Florida works, Daytona Beach is just 45 minutes or so to the northeast of the Orlando area, and plenty of people are going to be here in Orlando this weekend for the Daytona 500.

And then just announced that Paul McCartney, literally, as I went on the air here hosting for Brian today, they announced that Paul McCartney is coming to Camping World Stadium, which is our former Citrus Bowl, here in Orlando. He's going to be here May 28th.

So if you're planning a trip to Florida, May 28th, Paul McCartney is going to be live in concert. All right, let's jump to the phones here at 866-408-7669, Patrick in Pennsylvania. Nice alliteration. You're up first on the Brian Kilmead show. Hey, Patrick.

Hey, good morning, Joe. Thank you for taking my call.

So my question is that, like just a moment ago, you were saying, if we don't stand up to Russia, who's going to? A couple days ago, Brian Kameed was saying, We need to stand up, we need to show him who's in charge. I think this thinking is very concerning. What the potential could happen with standing up to Russia, it can lead into a nuclear war. How would the United States feel if Russia had troops, say, in Mexico, or if they came back to Cuba?

Like, will we be okay with it? I don't think Putin is asking too much. I think he's just saying, listen, We don't want Ukraine to be part of NATO. And this this thing that you guys are propagating, and I'm either a Republican or Democrat. It's very frightening, like what could potentially happen.

We're not standing up to Syria or Iraq, we're standing up to Russia. I just want to get that point across. Right. But Patrick, you understand that as we heard our guest Thomas Graham mentioned, I mean, and as I said, if not us, then who? And I don't think anybody, I don't think there's a single person in America that wants to get into a land war with Russia.

But do we just stand by and allow them to invade sovereign borders and sovereign nations without so much as pushback?

Now, I understand, but the United States has done that repeatedly in the Middle East. Whatever time we want to go to war, we pick a fight with Iraq or Iran or Syria.

So we do that with impunity. And all Russia is saying is: listen, you know, maybe they're being aggressive, obviously. Putin's kind of nice guy, but is it worth it? Do we need to stand up? We can't even protect our own border.

Yeah, we want to send our military 10,000 miles away. But no one is saying that. No one is saying sending our military 10,000 miles away or whatever it was you just said. No no one is saying that. I mean, there in fact, President Biden has made clear he's not going to send troops.

In fact, almost dangerously saying he's not going to send troops. I mean, he's taken the most effective weapon off the table, and that is putting troops in Ukraine.

So do you think it's a good idea to send 3,000 troops to Poland just to position them there near this area? Like what good is it going to come from it?

Well, 3,000, certainly 3,000 troops compared to the hundreds of thousands of Russian forces is inconsequential, other than it being simply a show of force and just having a U.S. presence, which means now we have a U.S. interest. I mean, one has to ask, what is the U.S. interest in Ukraine?

And I would say our first and foremost interest is the preservation of our own soldiers' lives and not putting them in harm's way. And I think you would agree with that, yes? I don't agree with how you're propagating this. I think it's very frightening. We don't need to put our soldiers there.

We don't need to be involved in this. We could do it with. With embargoes, we could do with other ways, but we don't need to have our troops there. And by saying we do, it sends a statement to Russia. It's very frightening.

Russia's not concerned about 3,000 troops. You're right. But the potential that this has could be catastrophic. And here, individuals are like, oh, we need to do this, we need to stand up. I don't see why.

I don't see why, considering the consequences. I mean, we're talking about the obliteration. If this goes to war, the United States, I mean, is it worth it? Is this some country? Fighting a civil war, which they've been doing for 100 years, really worth it?

Is it worth our U.S.

soldiers? I think not. Yeah, Patrick, I understand. Thank you for your call, Patrick. And I totally understand that level of compassion you have for our U.S.

soldiers. And I don't think there's any one of us that wants to see our soldiers over there getting involved in deadly conflict with Russia over Ukraine. No doubt about that. Let's go to Jim in Portland, Oregon, tuning in to Freedom 970. Jim, you're on the Brian Killmead Show.

No, thank you, Joe. I um you know, if a war did break out, I I think Russia would uh invade and occupy successfully But in World War Two we um Uh Supplied underground, the French underground, the Yugoslavian partisan underground and The Vietnamese and French occupied Indochina with uh I suppose explosives, small arms, stuff like that. I think it ought to be part of our policy to make the Russian occupation of Ukraine as difficult as possible. And when these casualty rates begin to go back to Russia, and people are aware of it, maybe they think twice. Ukrainians should be fighting their own battle.

I suppose uh the Hague and Geneva Conventions don't protect partisans. But it you know, if they wanted this war, if they wanted this war and they wanted this occupation, You know, they could be dealing with a formidable underground. I think we ought to think in those terms.

Well, and I think that's exactly right. And that goes back, Jim, to why 3,000 U.S. troops. I mean, 3,000 U.S. troops is not enough to stave off the Russian army, but it is enough to put a presence on the ground there so that we can help facilitate some underground back channel measures that make life more difficult for Russia.

And I think that's what you're getting at. Yes. It I mean, to make that occupation really difficult and very unpopular in Russia too. I think your guest said that. I mean, if what if the Russian population isn't prepared for news coming back like this?

Do you remember the Falkland War? That Argentine government wanted to be popular In Argentina 'cause they were very unpopular. I gotta let you go. We're up on a hard break. Speaking of which, that was one of the clues last night on Jeopardy.

I'll have you know, and I got that one right. The Falkland Wars was on Jeopardy last night. My name is Joe Kelly. This is the Brian Killmead Show. We'll continue with more of your calls coming up.

Stay with us. 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.

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 FoxNewsPodcasts.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Killmade. If Trudeau freezes any supporters' or truck drivers' bank accounts, he'll be.

Harming and attacking Canadian families across Canada and from every nationality. My wife, my 13 children, my dog, cat, and 15 chickens will not be able to pay the hydro, the heat bills, and won't be able to get groceries. He's not just, he's not going after the truck drivers. He's going after Canadian families, and that's pretty concerning that nobody else is calling them out on this. And the media here in Canada is quietly This is something that needs to be done.

It's very concerning. That is a truck driver. His name is Harold Yonker. He was on with Hannity. And of course, talking about the convoy of freedom truckers across Canada.

You're listening to the Brian Kilmead Show. My name is Joe Kelly at Talk Radio Joe. If you're looking for me on social media, you can call in right now at 866-4087-669. And joining us now is Liz Peak. She's a Fox News contributor, columnist for foxnews.com and the hill.

Liz, I'm so glad you're joining me here on the Brian Kilmead Show.

Okay. Delighted to join you. Thanks for having me on. And I look up in Canada and when the trucker convoy protests first got started, there was a part of me that was like, hey, this is cool. The Canadians are becoming more like Americans and they're rallying and they're taking to the streets.

But there's such a key difference because when Americans took to the streets last summer, we burned a whole lot of things and caused a whole lot of damage. But those truckers aren't. They're not burning things and causing damage. And yet, in some people's eyes, they are the devil. I mean, they are what's wrong with Canada?

Well, it's pretty obvious that Justin Trudeau was scared of them. After all, he didn't meet with them. He never walked outside and sat down with these guys and said, what are your grievances? Let's talk this out, which might have diffused the entire thing two weeks ago. Instead, Hang on, Liz, we're having some challenges hearing you.

We're going to put you on hold and get you right back, and we'll talk with Liz Peake, Fox News contributor. But in the meantime, you can join me at 866-408-7669. Can I let me let's take Jay on line one here first while we get Liz back on with us. Jay, you're on the Brian Kilmead show with Joe Kelly. How are you?

Hey, not bad. How about you? Very good, thanks. Just calling. Calling in about the freedom truckers in Canada.

I think their mistake was they're not flying Black Lives Matter flags because if they flew them, they'd be peaceful protesters.

Well, for what it's worth, they can certainly go out. I know you're speaking in hyperbole, but they can certainly go out and buy some Black Lives Matter flags and wave those flags as well. But it is frustrating, is it not, Jay, how they're being vilified, these truck drivers? Yeah, right off the bat they were called racist and and stuff and and they're They're called terrorists now, domestic terrorists. And they're not doing anything but sitting there protesting.

Now, there is said to be, Jay, a similar protest that's going to be coming to the United States. It's supposed to start in Barstow, California, and make its way all the way east to Washington, D.C. Are you a truck driver? No, I'm not, but I have family that is. And and and do you hear anybody talking about an Am an American convoy?

I've heard of it, but I'm not sure if it's going to go or not. Um I think they should. I think really the bikers in America should join with them. And that to start joining with them and pushing back against these dictators. Yeah, Justin Trudeau, as we were just talking, had an opportunity to address this and to deal with it.

But at this point, it's just not going anywhere, which, frankly, that was the point of the movement, was a lack of movement, right? To block things down, to stop things down so that their grievances could be heard. Right, exactly. And nobody wants to talk because everybody wants to label 'em. And it's and it's It's hypocritical.

Very hypocritical. Jay, thank you so much. I appreciate you calling into the Brian Kilmead show. I do believe we have Liz back with us, Liz Peake. And we were talking about Justin Trudeau and his reluctance to meet with the truck drivers.

He could have handled this long before it got out of control. Absolutely. And instead, what did he do? He tagged them as right-wing extremists. And basically refused to even acknowledge their case.

And here's the case. 85% of those truckers are already vaccinated. They spend most of the day alone in their cabs. And by the way, the other thing Justin Trudeau could have done, he could have just dropped the vaccine mandates or postponed the enactment of the mandates. My guess is that would have caused these truckers to go home as well.

He has handled it so poorly, but it comes from a place of basically being very fearful of people seeking freedom, seeking freedom of speech, etc. And I think. Even though Canada is obviously divided on whether or not they want this trucker protest to go home, the truth is it's been peaceful. Thousands of people came out to cheer them on. And again, what did the officials do?

They made it illegal to go and stand on a highway and wave a Canadian flag to cheer them on. I mean, it was really, it was an incredible sort of. uh you know, Xi Jinping kind of crackdown for no reason whatsoever. And then so on the issue of crackdown, uh uh address GoFundMe and social media and how they have been dealing with the this uh the the Freedom Convoy.

Well, look, it's pretty similar to the kind of crackdown that Facebook and other media giants. Have enabled in the United States against political enemies of Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. I mean, they used their giant power. In this case, the idea that GoFundMe would effectively threaten to steal the millions of dollars that people had contributed to feed and house these truckers because they believed in their cause. I mean, it seems criminal to me.

They did back down on that. They were talking about taking the money and diverting it to other causes. And then they agreed that, okay, you know, we'll refund it to the people who gave it. But now they're talking about doxing people, putting them on lists so they can't fly on airplanes. I mean, it's really, I think it's insane.

And these are normal average citizens. There have not been widespread arrests. I gather today they began arresting the truckers, but there's been no looting, no burning of buildings, no violence against anybody. These are truly peaceful protests, as opposed to the BLM protests last year. These actually are peaceful, and yet they are being squashed by what turns out to be the Canadian version of an authoritarian regime.

It's pretty astonishing. Liz, what do you hear about a similar effort here in the United States?

Well, I think there will be, there are now supposedly three different groups. Trying to get convoys started, one to go the southern route, all ending up in DC, different routes, different groups. But I think that it was it will also be met with Hysteria on the part of the Democratic left. It'll be likened to January 6th. It'll be.

Called an insurrection or something. But my guess is: if you get some of these trucker convoys going across the United States, waving American flags, talking about freedom, people are so fed up, Joe, with the COVID restrictions that make no sense, that are not grounded in science, that appear to be the whimsical, again, authoritarian measures taken by a very fearful government. I think you're going to see a lot of support for these truckers. Uh and and here's the thing. Joe Biden pretends to be the champion of the little guy.

These are the little guys. These are the people he's supposed to protect and be on the side of. The Teamsters Union came out big for Joe Biden's. Campaign, they put in a lot of money, a lot of man hours, et cetera. This is the moment where Joe Biden could help out the people who actually are part of that union.

But the irony is, he doesn't care about the workers. He cares about the union bosses who are funneling tens of millions of dollars to his campaign. I think it is such an incredibly blatant.

Sort of hypocrisy that I think an awful lot of Americans are just sick of it. We're talking to Fox News contributor Liz Peake here on the Brian Kilmead show. My name is Joe Kelly, in for Brian today, broadcasting here in the Florida Freedom Zone of Orlando. We got the Daytona 500 this weekend. A lot of exciting things happening here in Florida.

And we've enjoyed so much freedom and liberty here during this pandemic. And I don't want to sound like I'm with the Florida Tourism Department, but we had 118 million Americans visit Florida last year. That was our highest number of domestic travelers in the history of the state of Florida. We had the biggest numbers ever in 2021 because of our red state freedoms. Because I mean, people like Alexandria Casio-Cortez came to vacation in South Florida to enjoy the Florida Freedom Zone to get away from the blue state craziness.

Yes, and guess where I'm right now? Are you in Florida? I'm in Florida too. Oh, good. And by the way, I wasn't here more than about 10 minutes.

I ran into at least 20 New Yorkers who are here, too. The truth is, and by the way, remember the rumors, and I've had people down here confirm it, that Nancy Pelosi's bought a house down here. Why wouldn't she? The taxes in California, New Jersey, New York, they are driving people out. And the fact that these Democrat legislators don't understand that, it really is a shocking thing.

But they are losing. They are losing this battle. They're losing seats in the House of Representatives. They're losing money. They're losing people.

You would think that they would begin to learn a thing or two from the states that have done so well.

Well, and Liz, and you touched on it a little bit a little while ago, but with the blue states that have been dropping their mask mandates, they've been dropping all these other rules and restrictions so rapidly. And you sit back and think, well, wait a minute, is this the science? Are we following the science or are we following political science? I mean, is this just changing political realities or is this changing medical reality? Yeah.

Well, I don't know if you heard Rachel Walensky, the head of the CDC, dancing around the whole issue of mask policy. She doesn't want to change mask policy, even as she recognizes that politicians across the country think are changing it. Without her guidance, because they have to, because voters are basically saying enough, we're tired of this. Imagine being, really, I'm almost sympathetic with a Democrat running for office in this cycle because you have Joe Biden at the head whose approval ratings. Honestly, I don't know about you, they've shocked me.

I mean, I really didn't think it would be so bad so quickly. Policies that are hurting everyday Americans on all fronts, whether it's energy prices or the cost of rents, the cost of mortgages going up, et cetera, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.

So, right now, the only thing you could apparently Ron Clain. The president's right-hand man in the White House, chief of staff, went to the Senate Democrat caucus and said, Don't worry, things are gonna get better. And Joe Biden is gonna give an inspiring State of the Union speech about how his successful policies against COVID.

Well, right now, it's exactly those. COVID policies that are under the gun that are causing things like Freedom convoys trucking across the United States and the deposing of people running our schools. It caused Glenn Young's victory in Virginia. They really must be out of their minds not to move on this. Liz Peake is joining us, Fox News contributor for Foxnews.com and The Hill.

You'll find her at Liz Peake P-E-E-K if you're looking for her online. Liz, thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us here on the Brian Kilmeet Show. I certainly do appreciate it. Hey, it's been terrific joining you. Thanks for having me.

We'll get your calls coming up. You can join us right now at 866-408-7669. You're listening to the Brian Kilmead Show. I'm Joe Kelly. Coming to you on a need-to-know basis, because Mandy, you need to know.

It's Brian Kilmead. The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmead. We are in uncharted territory. And make no mistake.

Our adversaries around the world are watching. Republicans are defending coup plotters. January 6th last year was a gift to them. Because they know something we need to remember. America is only as strong as our unity and our democracy allows us to be.

Isn't it good to hear Hillary Clinton again on the radio? No, what's that? You can join me at 866-408-7669. You're listening to the Brian Killmead Show. My name is Joe Kelly.

Hillary Clinton, last night speaking to some Democratic fundraisers in New York. She really is the gift that keeps on giving. And I don't know about you, but if she decides, for whatever reason, to throw her hat into the ring and maybe challenge Joe Biden or something along those lines, I think that's going to be great for the Republican Party. I think the Republican Party would absolutely just. Eat her lunch.

I mean, just take her to town because we've already figured out Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a known quantity. The thing that threw everybody off about Barack Obama was nobody knew there was no history there. We didn't know anything about Barack Obama. We know everything that there is to know about Hillary Clinton.

By the way, I got to thank Brian Kilmead, not just because I'm filling in for Brian today, but I got to thank Brian Kilmead because I got a question right on Jeopardy last night because of Brian Kilmead. The category was Abraham Lincoln, as you might imagine. And one of the clues in Jeopardy last night was the African-American that Abraham Lincoln met with to discuss the condition of the black troops there. And I said, oh, it's Frederick Douglass. I know this one.

So thank you, BK, for helping me get a clue right on Jeopardy last night. All right, 866-408-7669. Let's go to John, who is listening on WHIO in Dayton, Ohio. Hey, John, you're on the Brian Killman. Kill me, Cho.

Yeah, thank you, Joe. Uh the United States has a moral obligation to send troops that protect the Ukraine. I say that because in ninety one, when the Ukraine gained its independence, They had about a third of the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons, They were the principal design and manufacture for those weapons. said about two thousand nuclear weapons. We in the United States suggested and insisted they give up those weapons.

And for that activity in ninety-four, there was a treaty signed. where we would protect them if they gave them up. If now, and we pledge to protect their. Integrity as a country. To what end, though?

And I don't think people disagree with you, John, but to what end? Are you talking about a full-on land war to send as many U.S. troops into Ukraine as necessary to protect them? I mean, where does it end? Uh to get their nuclear weapons was hailed as a tremendous Nuclear proliferation success.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I mean, but how far do you take it? Absolutely send troops in there and send the military in. We promise to defend their territorial integrity. what if that promise doesn't mean anything, Why should any other country in the world forego nuclear weapons And say, well, the United States will protect me.

Well, I think we've just recently learned that lesson in Afghanistan, haven't we? The way we left Afghanistan. I mean, did we leave that country in a better condition than we arrived at that country? Did we leave that country ready to manage and control themselves without outside influence? I mean, it's not that we've not broken our obligations before.

But increasingly, why should any country believe us? That's exactly right. You're exactly right. The way we left Afghanistan is exactly right. Why would any country ever believe us again?

Certainly, that's got to be sending a message to China, to Taiwan. I mean, they've all got to be concerned about that, right? And the same thing with Ukraine, if the nuclear weapons you know, right now the Ukraine realizes and they realized at the time that foregoing nuclear weapons is probably a dumb idea. John, thank you so much. I'm so glad you called.

I appreciate you listening to the Brian Kilmead Show. My name is Joe Kelly. From the Fox News Radio Studios in New York City, giving you opinions and facts with a positive approach. It's Brian Kilmead. You know, we got to 85 degrees yesterday in Orlando, Florida.

I'm Joe Kelly in for Brian Kilmead, and we're coming to you from the Florida Freedom Zone here under the governance of Ron DeSantis. Of course, we have enjoyed great freedoms here during the pandemic. In fact, the governor pointed out yesterday that we had our best year ever when it comes to domestic travel. We had 118 million Americans visited Florida, the highest number of domestic travelers in the history of the state.

So Florida is open for business and has been open for business. And I got to tell you, I've traveled only a little bit during the pandemic, right? We're not supposed to be traveling a whole lot. But in traveling during the pandemic, I'm startled when I see other states and how they're handling the pandemic when it comes to face masks and all the other mandates, and mostly the blue states, of course, because here in Florida, there have been very long stretches. Under which it seems like we don't have a pandemic.

And yes, we'll still go out sometimes and I'll still see people wearing their face masks and trying to keep their distance and all. I still see a lot of knuckle bumping and elbow bumping and that kind of stuff. Not as much shaking hands and hugging. I get that. But otherwise, it really does seem as if it's business as usual here in Florida, which I, again, of any state I could be living in during a pandemic, thank God that I am living in the great state of Florida.

You can join me here on the Brian Kilmead Show at 866-408-7669. You can get details, of course, at briankilmeadshow.com. I'm Joe Kelly, and let's get to the phones here. We've got a lot of people that want to talk. We'll start off with Bruce, who's tuning in on the Fox app in New Jersey.

Bruce, you're on the Brian Kilmead Show. Hey, Joe, how you doing? Just to give you a compliment, doing a real good show today. It's really interesting. You're keeping it flowing along real good.

And I more or less have like a statement and with the mask and all that. And what I think what they're going to do is because Governor Murphy said the masks are coming off not because you said you could take them off, but he goes, we're waiting until March. Why not, if we could take them off, take them off right now? What I say is going to happen is President Biden in his State of the Union, he's going to announce. We finally beat this thing.

Science lines up with everything. And as of tonight, I'm announcing that mask could come off in schools and all over the country as of now. And that's what I guarantee you he does. You know, that's interesting, and that certainly would spice up a what would be an otherwise boring State of the Union address. And by the way, I'll say that any State of the Union address is generally going to be boring.

I mean, they're all pomp and circumstance, they're all for show, and there's very little substance that usually comes out of the State of the Union addresses. But I I find it interesting, Bruce, and the only thing that would give me reason to p pause and say maybe not is that the government is still ramping up. The mask distribution scheme that we have going on right now that we're, you know, we're sending people masks and we're sending masks to drugstores. And now they're even the Biden. I was just reading yesterday, the Biden administration was working on a strategy to make sure that children, the children as young as five who can't get the vaccine, can still get face masks.

So they're still ramping up production of face masks. Doesn't mean they can't change their mind by March 1st at the State of the Union, though. But I just think they're doing that just to show they're doing something and all that, and whose money are they spending doing all that? It's not their money.

Well Our money sending all those masks out and all that kind of stuff. But I just think that's what's going to happen. And in the Ukraine, I really think we can't do much, but I mean, with the one gentleman saying that it will lead to a nuclear war, well, Putin doesn't want a nuclear war either. I mean, if it wipe us out, it could wipe him out. Yeah, I agree with you.

I don't think he was getting at that we would get to a nuclear war. I think his concern was that we would be protecting them because they gave up their nukes. Bruce, thank you so much. And, you know, when it comes to the government ramping up these programs of the mask distribution, I mean, did anybody order your quote-unquote free COVID test? We spent something along the lines of $36 million for those free COVID tests that everybody was able to go online and order.

And of course, if you flip the box over, you'll find that they're all made in China, which just on face value alone hurts. It hurts to think that we're in this economy that we're in right now, that we are so gacked up on supply lines. Issues and production issues. And with no matter which way it got here, the virus, the coronavirus, whether it came deliberately through a lab that was released deliberately into the populace or if it was totally an accidental, we know that it came from China. I don't think there's no discussion, no debate, no dispute on this.

So it just hurts. It doesn't feel right. It doesn't pass the smell test that our so called free COVID swabs that we're getting from the government are all made in China. That How is that not problematic? You know, with the U.S., what is it called?

The Production Act, where the United States can commandeer production lines here in the United States, it just seems that giving that money to China for the production of the test kits and probably for the face masks is, well, it just sucks, honestly. Let's go to Stuart, who's listening in Virginia. Stuart, you're on the Brian Killmead Show. Hi, I just wanted to call and comment on the Ukrainian situation and kind of have a one hundred and eighty degree opposite reaction. This is some time for some Churchillian diplomacy, okay?

The the the dip the uh geopolitical reality is we cannot do anything for the Ukrainians.

Okay. The Eastern Ukrainians are primarily Russian. The Western Ukrainians are basically second class Nazis, although I wouldn't want to have had to have chosen between Stalin and Hitler. But the fact of the matter is, we need to go to Putin and go, okay, what can you give me for this? You know, we don't have to throw Americans in the front of everything that happens in the world, but leadership to leadership.

All right, understand. Do we have the leadership in place, though, Stuart? Do we have the leadership in place? I mean, if you say we need a Churchill, is Biden a Churchill?

Well, no, no, no. And I seriously doubt Biden's individual capacity for negotiating this kind of deal. But what I'm saying is, people talk about 3,000 Americans. What's the point of that?

Well, it's called a trip line. We've done it before.

Okay, no, they're not going to stop the steamroller, but it's like, oh, kill an American, things change, right? Stop all of that nonsense. He tried to deal with Putin on his, but all they're going to want is a land bridge to the Crimea along the Sea of Azov, okay? Who cares? Deal with them, give them something for that.

What's the point of having a NATO if? It doesn't matter whether you're in the team or off the team, we're going to go to the map for you anyway. That's why you have it now. And they're not in it, okay? And I just think it's, you know, Americans always want to try to, what, quote-unquote, do the right thing internationally.

Well, the right thing right here is to look out for America, make a deal with Putin so that he'll at least maybe lean more toward us than the Chikoms. I think you're on to something there. Thank you, Stuart. Glad you called. Let's go to Frank in New York.

Frank, you're on the Brian Killmead Show. Yes. So Right, yeah. Listen, you know, I'm a little bit concerned about what Vladimir Putin wants to do because, you know, I've been talking to colleagues of mine here in the New York metropolitan area, and they say that he's kind of like an old school type of gangster that has no ability or power to conduct some sort of major invasion that would disrupt the operations of our governments and involve us in a political turmoil situation. I'm sorry, you're.

Hey, I want to make sure I understand what you're saying. You're saying that your friends are saying that Putin isn't that guy? Yeah, he's a has no power to create a a large scale problem worldwide. that he's just a bluffer. But I'm concerned that based on how the troop buildup is going in and how our President Joe Biden is reinforcing, he's already sent the eighty-second airborne, that we're going to have to deal with a situation where maybe we are going to go into a similar conflict like we did with al-Qaeda and ISIS and Saddam Hussein and Desert Storm.

I'm very concerned that Putin is not dealing his cards right. He's not talking to United Nations about his issues. He's dodging certain problems because he seems to Believe that President Biden is some sort of scandal-ridden president that is very old. He's a congressional force. Frank, I feel like you need to expand your friend base just a little bit because I don't think there's a whole lot of people that doubt whether or not Vladimir Putin could or would do it.

It's simply a matter of whether or not he will do it. I mean, he's shown, you know, believe a man when he tells you who he is. And he has already shown us who he is. He's already annexed the Crimea. I mean, we know what he is capable of.

He is certainly capable of causing a great deal of trouble along the border with Ukraine, including and not limited to invading Ukraine.

Well, you know, I think that uh if we are brought into a conflict Yeah, over there, I think the cause is that either England and Canada were not cooperative with our country because they actually say that they don't want to get involved. Canada is a conscientious, objecting country that only provides troops when they need that. Their economic needs need to be met. And I don't want to be insultive, but the fact is that our service people have lost many, many lives over the years in these types of conflicts that go on for years and years, and we really don't need another one of this nature. Thank you, Frank.

I'm glad you called. You can join us here on the Brian Kilmead Show at 866-408-7-669. My name is Joe Kelly. We'll get more of your phone calls coming up straight ahead. Stay with us here on the Brian Kilmead Show.

Learning something new every day on The Brian Killmead Show. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead. The potential future requirement For an additional boost, or a fourth shot for MRA, or a third shot for JJ. is being very carefully monitored.

in real time. And recommendations, if needed, will be updated. According to the data. as it evolves. The voice of Dr.

Anthony Fauci, there, of course. My name is Joe Kelly. This is the Brian Kilmead Show. Thank you so much for joining. You can find out more details.

Go to BrianKilmeadShow.com. You can join me at 866-408-7-669. I honestly don't know how we are still taking marching orders from Dr. Anthony Fauci. The American public.

Has lost faith. In the American healthcare system. I mean, if that is not one massive takeaway from this global pandemic, is that we just don't trust. I mean, it's not even about trusting our political leaders, I mean, our bureaucrats, trusting people from the CDC. We're supposed to have faith in the CDC and the FDA.

These are agencies that are supposed to garner immense trust with the American people. And now, when you hear Fauci's voice, who is supposed to be the preeminent expert on infectious diseases in the United States, when you hear his voice, How many of us are rolling our eyes thinking, I don't know if I believe him or not. I don't know if I trust him or not. You can join me with your thoughts. 866-408-7669.

In the meantime, let's talk about Ukraine. Rita is in Spring Hill, Florida, listening to WXJB. Hey, Rita. Hey, Joe.

Well, first of all, I just want to know why our government is so concerned about another country when we're not even protecting our own country.

So you worried about the Ukrainian border, but not our own border. The government is, Biden is. Right. So we're pretending like there's not a problem at our border while we are justifiably concerned about the sovereign borders of a sovereign nation, but we're doing nothing about our border. I had seen the problem.

Exactly. Right. I had seen that. Both my grandparents, both sets, Came from other countries. Here in America, the legal way.

The legal way. Our own government says, oh, there's laws on the books. But we're going to discard those laws on the books. And we're just gonna let people flood into our country and we're gonna put them on planes where you and I can't fly unless we have vaccination proof. And then they're going to fly them here, there and everywhere, and no proof of vaccination.

Rita, I got to say the biggest disappointment about what you have just described is not so much the function of our government, but the function of our media and the legacy media outside of networks like Fox News that have just abandoned any kind of coverage of what is taking place at the Southwest border. I Personally, I have lost family members who no longer speak with me because of my views. And I think I'm not very well educated, maybe. Then I have common sense.

Well common sense Okay, I'm just going to break it down. I'm going to get real with you here, Rita. Don't lose family members over this stuff, okay? Family's important. Oh they disowned me.

Well I All right, Rita, I hate to hear that. I would like to think that our families, and this is where I think, you know, things like this pandemic are going to have a net positive effect. I hope. I hope that in the aftermath of this pandemic, we realize that our families are important and that we realize that maybe politics, we don't trust it as much as we thought we once did. I mean, our faith in our government, our faith in our bureaucrats has just never been lower.

Rita, thank you so much for calling. Let's go to Chris real quick in Michigan. Chris, you're on the Brian Kilmead show. Yeah, how are you today? Good.

Yes. So in my opinion, I mean, I think the United States, they're basically the Karens of the international community. You know, we tell people that they can't do this and they can't do that. All the while we're doing the exact same thing. We've got military bases all over the world.

We've got troop deployments everywhere. But here's Russia moving troops around in its own country. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have a discussion, we shouldn't have a little bit of a talk about it, but until they actually go and do some violation, we're not the thought police here. You can't convict people for their integrity. Right, but but but Chris, you don't want to wait you don't want to wait until the the well, I'm so bad at clichés.

Uh you don't want to wait until the the the barn door has closed on the fire. You don't want to wait until it's too late to do something about it. Yeah, you do. Let me tell you why. Because you cannot Give another people freedom.

You cannot def I mean no, but it's easier it's easier to decide it's easier to stop Russia from going into Ukraine than it would be to get Russia out of Ukraine, don't you think? Uh In what way? I mean, if we were to negotiate some sort of terms with Vladimir Putin that would keep him from invading Russia, excuse me, invading Ukraine, I mean, that would be an easier act of diplomacy than once he has invaded Ukraine, us trying to get him out.

Okay. You're assuming that you're inside Vladimir Putin's head and that you know that he has. intentions of absolutely invading Ukraine. You don't know that for sure. Nobody.

You're right. No, you're right. You're right. You're right. You're right.

Yes. And I believe I believe that a lot of this is just noise. It's like Denzel said in Training Day. You know, I read the news for entertainment. But it's really just like bedtime stories for little kids.

It's not really what's happening. You know, just like the last caller said.

Well, and Chris, and Chris, thank you so much for your call. But I go back to, again, like you said with the last caller, we talk about trust and whether or not we have faith. And you said, you know, you said that they haven't moved into Ukraine. You know, but we have to have faith in our government leaders, which, frankly, at this moment, we just don't have. We don't have faith in President Biden.

We don't have faith in Fauci. We certainly don't have faith in Vladimir Putin. I'm Joe Kelly. This is the Brian Kilmead Show. Radio that makes you think.

This is the Brian Kill Me Show. I've been really encouraged by something about this pandemic, and that is the balance between work and life. I have been encouraged watching as people have realized that life should not be all about work. It shouldn't all be about the pursuing financial goals. I mean, there should be other goals in life, other priorities in life.

And I think the work-life balance has really been helped so greatly during this pandemic. As odd as that may sound, but because so many people have been working from home and kind of reintroducing themselves to their families and thinking of different ways to do things, and necessity is the mother of invention, and we've come up with all kinds of new ways to get work done. And that is what we're going to talk about here for this segment on the Brian Kilmead show. My name is Joe Kelly. You can join me at 866-408-7669.

I asked Gene Marks to join me. Gene is with the Marks Group. It's a small business consulting firm. You'll find him at Gene Marks. He's also.

CPA. Gene, thank you for joining us here on the Brian Killmeat Show. Joe, thank you very much for having me on. I'm so interested to see what work is going to look like in the years ahead. And, you know, in the beginning days of the pandemic, it was two weeks to flatten the curve.

We all kind of thought we'd go home for a couple of weeks and then we'd all get our lives back and everything would go back to normal.

Now, two years later, we're still trying to figure out what that's going to look like. As you advise clients and workplaces, I mean, what is that going to look like?

Well, first of all, can we you and I just admit that the millennials were right all along? I mean, we have about we have about 600 clients in our business. Most of like the average Small and mid-sized business owner is over the age of fifty in this country. And before the pandemic, it was the millennial generation that was saying, we should be working more from home. We need more independence.

We need more flexibility. And most business owners were like, nah, that's not, you know, keep coming to the office. It's not something we're interested in doing. Then the pandemic hits. Everybody goes home.

And like you said earlier, what do you know? The work manages to get done and it was secure and it was good. And so that generation was right. And that is a permanent change in the way workplaces are going to be. Although I will tell you one thing, it is not going to be as extreme as a lot of people are expecting.

And evidence of that is some of the largest tech firms. I mean, Facebook just signed its largest lease in its history in London for square footage. Google has been leasing, I think they signed like a billion-dollar lease in New York City just recently as well.

Some of the largest tech firms themselves are snapping up office space. And you think, like, oh, we're gonna, you know, I thought everybody was gonna be working from home, but no, it's not gonna be like that in the future. It's gonna be more of a hybrid. And the big brands, the big companies, they know that. And that's gonna impact how employees are gonna be employed wherever they are.

And you are so right about the millennials. And a lot of people chalk that up as they're being lazy, they're undisciplined. But really, they were on to something with realizing that life should not be all about work. And I think, you know, for a lot of us, we got that from our dad's generation and from grandpa's generation. But, you know, with all of the advancement in technology, we were promised.

I remember the promises, Gene. We were promised that life would get easier, but it's not. It's getting harder. It's getting more complicated. Everything is more complicated than it used to be.

And the notion of having a little bit of time at home and finding a balance with your life outside of work is just, to me, going to be the long lasting benefit from the pandemic. It's true. And Joe, listen, the word we've heard all the buzzwords about working from home and working from anywhere and the four-day work week, which is another thing we can talk about because people are seriously looking into that. It really comes down to one thing. It's flexibility.

And listen, we should be grateful for the technology and the cloud-based applications that are available right now, because I can hire people to do services for my company anywhere around the world. And I can service clients anywhere around the country. I don't care.

Now, my company has been completely virtual since 2005. I have 10 employees and about a dozen contractors. We don't have offices. I shut them down in 2005. But just beware.

I mean, as much as my overhead has been saved as a business owner, I think I run the world's most dysfunctional company because we never see each other face to face. And so we miss out on innovation and social. A lot of people like going into the office and being with their friends. Community.

So, you know, it is again, it's going to be a combination of things that business owners are going to be doing, but it's going to come down to flexibility. How can we just get the jobs done wherever that job is being done? And you want to do it in the office, you want to do it from Portland, or it's up to you, wherever you want to be. Those are the smart employers that are going to be practicing those types of workplace goals. We are talking to Gene Marks with the Marks group.

You can follow him at Gene Marks. And I know that here in Orlando, I live in downtown.

So I have watched with great interest these last two years as first it was the offices that closed. And again, everybody thought it was going to be temporary.

So when the offices closed, the restaurants closed. When the restaurants closed, the bars closed. And then two weeks later, nothing reopened and everything stayed closed. And now we have so much vacant office space that is available. And when you mentioned that these tech companies are buying up office spaces, I wonder if some of that is just an investment strategy and not so much about a work strategy, just because the prices are so affordable on commercial real estate these days.

Yeah, I agree. It's certainly one of those things. I think it's a combination of a few things. I mean, number one is that these tech companies know, I mean, if you're working for Microsoft or Amazon or Google, I mean, so much is involved in face-to-face interactions. You can't innovate and do product development and make strategy entirely over a Zoom call.

It's got to be whiteboarded. It's got to be human and together.

So that is going to, you know, they know that, and they are going to be requiring their employees to be coming home. I don't know if you remember this, but like Yahoo, when Marissa Meyer took over as CEO a number of years ago, they used to have a bunch of people working for home. She ended that practice and brought people in. IBM, about 10 years ago, before the pandemic, obviously, their whole business was built around remote working, and they required their employees to now check in a few days a week to their offices as well.

So a lot of companies know that. And one other thing, listen, I deal with a lot of people. lot of small and mid-sized companies. Joe, I live outside of Philadelphia. All through the pandemic, when you drive around the suburbs of Philadelphia and you look at the parking lots and the corporate centers and the industrial parks, they were filled with cars.

I mean, the minute that a smaller, mid-sized company can get their employees back to the office, they got them back to the office.

Now, the smarter ones, again, are giving more flexibility to their employees, but they also know that they need to be there. They need to see them. They need to talk to them. That's the way business still gets done, and it's going to be done for a while.

So there's a middle ground. You got to know your employees and your demographics to figure out what works best for people. And Gene, invariably, anytime there is any sort of beneficial human effort, there's going to be ne'er-do-wells on the other side who are mucking things up for all the rest of us. I've watched with interest as people have developed devices that simulate that their keyboard and mouse is at work during the daytime. I've seen people putting up fake green screens, giving the impression that they're actually at work or working when they're actually outside fishing or doing something else.

How do we keep these narrows? Do-wells from screwing it up for the rest of us. Yeah.

Well, first of all, you have to have policies that because it's always the one or two people that kind of ruin it for the rest, but you still need to have written policies about the proper kind of behaviors that you need to have when you're not in the office, the expectations of those employees. Having said that, though, listen, it's People don't realize when you sell something, you have reserves. Businesses have reserves for bad debts. You have reserves for bad inventory. You have reserves for projects that go over.

There are always going to be those types of costs. And one cost you're going to have when somebody is working from home is there is going to be a small percentage of employees that are not going to be following the rules and taking advantage.

So you have to make sure that you consider that that's just going to be a cost of doing that business. And after some time, listen, those kinds of employees usually get found out after time. And as long as you've got a written policy in place and a procedure for following up on it, you can deal with that employee when ultimately that person is going to come to your attention. And while there are some bad actors on the employment side, there are certainly going to be some bad actors on the employer side. I mean, I have read some instances where some employers have taken to social.

Surprise visits to people's homes to see what their work situation is like at any given moment. And if that's not troublesome, I don't know what is. It's the opposite of what you should be doing. The whole point, we started off by talking about the millennials. I mean, come on, these are grown people now.

You have to give them the respect to do their jobs and the competence to get done what they're supposed to be getting done. Who's got the time to be checking up on them? It's not a smart manager knows that there's much better ways that they should be spending their time. I will tell you one thing, Joe. One of the biggest issues that we need to be aware of with these employees working from home is security.

I mean, ransomware attacks have gone up like over 300%. Oh, really? Tell me more about that.

Well, it's because, frankly, you and I, and a lot of people listening to this, don't take offense. We're all kind of dopes. You know, I mean, we're working from older computers. You're probably sharing your computer sometimes with your kids. You know what I mean?

Our company knows full well what you're talking about. That's right. And so all these employees are working from home. They're not in a very secure environment. And the hackers, they know that.

And they're looking around to take advantage of, you know, those employees and they can get access to corporate networks.

So we've been doing a lot of work advising clients about that, Joe. And some of the things you need to be doing, of course, is making sure your employees get trained so that they know when to recognize an attack, you know, or potential phishing email or something like that. Most importantly, your employees have to all be running the most recent operating systems on their device. You know, whether it's a Mac or Windows or from Microsoft, because those have the most recent security protections in them. It's not a guarantee that you'll be protected, but if you're a hacker, there's so much low-hanging fruit.

If you hit a computer that's got the most recent version of an operating system running, you're going to tend to avoid it because it's just too much work for you. And that way you can minimize. Lastly, I'll say to you that I think some of the unsung heroes of this pandemic has been America's IT workforce because getting everybody set up to work from home had to have been an IT nightmare. And even in my case, I mean, I broadcast from home, and it's no simple measure setting up a radio station at a home, but I broadcast from home just like everybody else did for, I don't know, 280 some odd days or so. And it's the IT crews that have not only been working so hard to get everybody set up in their home offices, but as you say to make sure that they are also secure.

Can you imagine if this pandemic hit in 1980 or 1990? I mean, the impact that would have had on workers and cost of the pandemic. I mean, I know that big tech has got its faults and I clearly understand that, but you are absolutely right. We should all have some appreciation of the times that we live in and what big tech has done to really help us have a much more flexible and balanced work life. And I think that that's going to only improve as things go forward and hopefully become more secure.

Gene, I just hope that my own IT crew is listening so that the next time I spill coffee into the keyboard, I'll get a little bit of credit for being such a high praise for them. Yeah, they're too busy to care. Probably the next disaster. Hey, Gene, I could talk to you all day. Thank you so much for your expertise and for your time.

Again, you can follow Gene Marks with the Marks group. It's at Gene Marks. Gene, thank you so much. Thank you, Joe. Enjoy sunny Florida.

I'm jealous being here. Yeah, man. 85 degrees, and we got the Daytona 500 coming up tomorrow.

So we're very excited. You're killing me. Yep. Thank you, brother. You can join us right now.

It's 866-408-7669. It's the Brian Kilmead Show. What are you going to do? Are you going to go back to the office? Are you going to go back into the cubicle farm?

I'll tell you that our cubicles are empty. We opened our office actually this week at the radio station, and most of the employees have thus far chosen to not come back to work. They're still working. I'm certain of that, but they're not coming back to the office quite in the way that maybe we had anticipated. Let us know what your plans are.

866-408-7669. I'm Joe Kelly. You're listening to the Brian Kilmead Show. Giving you everything you need to know. You're with Brian Kilmead.

Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. That's what Putin typically does. He asks for things and puts it out to the world so he can have his propaganda machine take over the narrative and put America on the defensive since we are in a position of weakened national security under this administration.

So, Putin is running two schemes: one publicly and two behind the doors, a disinformation scheme, which I believe he's trying to convince the world that he's actually going to invade the Ukraine when I don't think he ever will.

Well, we certainly hope that's going to be the case. That's Cash Patel, Fox News at night, that Vladimir Putin is just doing this to expel propaganda and doesn't actually plan to invade Ukraine.

So he's just getting everybody all hot and bothered for nothing. That's awesome. 866-408-7669, this is the Brian Kilmead Show. My name is Joe Kelly. You can join us right now.

Let's go to Christine, who's joining us in Virginia. Hey, Christine, you're on the Brian Kilmead Show. Hi. I just wanted to make a comment about the truckers in Canada and to ask a question. Last night on Fox, They said that Chudo admired the Chinese Communist Party.

And if that's the case, than the way he's treating the truckers is Okay. it it's in line with what he admires, the authoritative n nature of the Communist Party. And if that's the case, And if their media is on par with our media as in keeping the public Uninformed What do we do? What how do we help the Canadians? And how do we help ourselves?

Well, I don't know to what extent we can help the Canadians, Christine, at this point, other than just giving them our emotional support and financial support. But we don't even know if the financial support is going to get to them thanks to GoFundMe and them withholding money and trying to decide whether or not the truckers are a threat to Canada or if they are good citizens and servants of Canada. But it's going to be coming to the United States, Virginia, so we're going to be able to see I'm sorry, Christine, we're going to be able to see what that's going to look like when it comes here to the United States. In fact, let's go to Bubba, who's listening in Orlando right now. Bubba, you're listening.

Oh, and here to WDBO, in fact. Hey, Bubba, you're on the Brian Kilmead show. Hey, what do you know, Joe? Good to talk to you guys. Good to hear you in the mornings.

Thank you. Welcome back and thanks for carrying on for For uh uh uh uh for uh Brian. I hope he and his family Oh yeah, they're great. Yep, yep, everybody's good. Thank you.

How are the twins? Twins are great. Uh Black and Decker are my uh sixteen year old twin sons, and they're doing wonderful. My uh bl uh Black had his wisdom teeth removed yesterday, so he's a little sore, I would imagine. Yeah.

Oh, shucks. How did mom pitch in with the ice pack? Oh, massaging of the neck and the poor back. And oh, my goodness, what a nightmare.

Well, Bubba, I appreciate your call. Thank you so much. Yeah, he had his wisdom teeth removed. I'm responsible for bringing ice cream. I am to make sure he's got his ice cream, Bubba.

So everybody's good.

So thank you very much for that. My name is Joe Kelly. This is the Brian Kilmead Show. And you can join me at 866-408-7669. You'll find me online at Talk Radio Joe.

That's going to be on Facebook, on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, you name it. I'm there at Talk Radio Joe. You're listening to the Brian Kilmead Show. Live from the Fox News Radio Studios in New York City, fresh off the set of Fox and Friends, it's America's receptive voice. Brian Killmead.

Hey, I'm Joe Kelly in for Brian Kilmead today. You can join me at 866-408-7669. Coming to you from the Florida Freedom Zone in Orlando, where it is expected to be 85 degrees later today. Compare that to the temperature where you live, and you'll see why so many people are coming to Florida. 118 million people traveled to Florida last year in the middle of the pandemic.

It was the highest number of domestic travelers in the history of our state. And to borrow a phrase from Mark Kay, the League of Extraordinary Governors, with Governor Ron DeSantis at the helm, it has been nice to live in Florida during this pandemic, a time in which nobody wanted to live through a pandemic, but being able to do so in Florida has certainly been beneficial for, well, for those of us who live here. We have had deaths just like any other state has had. We've had our issues just like every other state has had. But all things told, I think we've done a pretty good job.

And I'm satisfied with the job that Governor DeSantis has done. Shannon Bream is joining us. She is a Fox News chief legal correspondent, anchor of Fox News at night. Shannon, I'm so glad you're joining us here on the Brian Kilmeet Show. Thank you.

Thank you. For having me. I saw last night, and by the way, I do want to get to, I'm really excited about talking about your book in just a couple of minutes, and I want to get to that in just a few minutes. But I saw that Hillary Clinton was back on stage last night. She is blaming a whole lot of people for a whole lot of problems, and she is blaming Fox News for the Durham Report.

And I'm just blown away at the absolute discounting of the Durham Report by pretty much everybody but Fox News.

Well, I think it's So interesting, this back and forth.

So, of course, he had the filing earlier this week that gave us some clues about some interesting allegations that he's making. And you're right, most people are ignoring them. But you've got to remember, as we all do, the people who are ignoring this are people who won prizes, like top journalism prizes, for their reporting on the Trump-Russia alleged collusion.

So, if there's something that casts new light on that story or something that doesn't line up with their narrative, I guess I'm not surprised that they wouldn't want to report on it. But, you know, Sussman, Michael Sussman's legal team, filed this brief saying you're trying to taint the jury pool and you're trying to inflame things.

So interesting to me that Durham then filed this pleading yesterday, basically saying, listen, we can't control how people interpret this. This is part of the government's case, so of course we're going to file it.

So this is far from over, I have a feeling. Why is it that people can just out of hand discount what Durham is saying?

Well, you know, they say some of it's not new or that it's not accurate the way that it's being portrayed. And if that meets their best interests, you know, of course, if it's someone like Michael Sussman's legal team, they're going to say that. They've got to defend their client. But I think others are, you know, they want to minimize it because it doesn't line up with the reporting that they stuck with for a good two years.

So they're not going to have an interest in interpreting it in a way that is negative for them. And listen, we don't know everything. We have some details that are in the filing that for me answer a couple of questions but leave many more questions.

So there's plenty of room for interpretation there. And I think that those who benefited from the other version of how they wanted to see this go are not going to be interested in that version. What kind of credibility does Durham have? I mean, generally speaking, I mean, is he someone that has earned the right to be listened to?

Well, of course. And when he was first appointed and his name came up, we saw plenty of across the board praise for him, saying this is a guy who is well respected, nonpartisan, he's very meticulous, he does things by the book.

So early on, there was plenty of praise for him from all quarters.

So I think for the most part that continues. But we saw how the Mueller report played out and people took sides on that one. I think we see a lot of parallels this time with how people are reacting to. I mean, people still think that there was Russian collusion with the election. Listen, they can go read the Mueller report and check out the details for themselves.

I mean, he said, I can't find any conclusive evidence that these allegations that were made existed. I don't have it in my framework. Certainly, he raised questions about things that can be interpreted a couple of different ways. But the overall conclusion that there was no collusion that he found was clear. And if you don't like that, you can take it up with Robert Mueller, which again, everybody was praising when he first was assigned to the case.

We're talking to Shannon Bream, Fox News chief legal correspondent, anchor of Fox News at Night. And Shannon, what is next then for the Durham Report? I mean, his work is clearly not finished. It's not. And he has been very meticulous, very quiet, very methodical about this.

Once in a while, we get a tiny little rumbling of something that's going on. But for the most part, I think that he is living up to the reputation that we were told he had on the front end, which is he's going to follow every potential lead. He is going to not be a respecter of persons. He's going to follow the facts. And he's going to take the time he needs to do it.

I mean, he is a seasoned investigative prosecutor. And so I think we're just on his timeline, whatever that is. And the absolute lack of leaks that have not come out of that organization is breathtaking in today's standards. It really is because you think about how everything around here in Washington, we think of it just being so many leaks. I mean, I cover the Supreme Court.

That's one of the very tough places to get anything. But on Capitol Hill, once people are involved, there will be leaks.

So, for the special prosecutor to keep his team together, clearly a group of investigators that he trusts, and they have been very confidential through this whole thing, I think that that's been an enormous credit to them. Does Hillary Clinton have anything to worry about? I don't know. I mean, I feel like she has very successfully been able to separate herself from a lot of the allegations out there. And sometimes if it's a two or three disconnect, if there's a law firm involved that maybe she has had or her campaign has had some connection to, there may be enough level of distinction and separation.

And listen, a lot of the folks parsing this one will say what was happening was legal. This access to this DNS information, the way that it was being used, it was legal. It may push the boundaries. But a lot of folks say it's not going to touch her. You know, I saw some of the message boards on Reddit and everybody is once again j uh s seemingly having fun chanting lock her up, lock her up.

Uh but if if that hasn't happened at this point, I don't I don't know how that's gonna happen moving forward. She seems to be rather teflony. Yeah, I I I think that is quite a stretch to think that that would ever happen. Will some things come out that are unpleasant for her or for her team or someone connected to the campaign? I mean, that's all certainly possible.

I think anybody who is looking forward to or rooting for her to go to jail is going to be very disappointed. Yeah, I would agree with you. We're talking to Shannon Breeman. I want to talk about your book, The Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak: Lessons on Faith from Nine Biblical Families. I, so I, just to give you my perspective, I've been a check-the-box Christian my whole life.

I was raised in the Catholic Church, but then I kind of drifted, went my own way, and thought I was in charge, which was just a terrible mistake. I realized that I am not the master of any domain. And I came to God about three years ago and said, All right, I understand I have made some mistakes, and I'm going to follow your path now. And I walk with Jesus now, and it's a big part of my life. And with this pandemic, you know, a lot of us have lost contact with others.

Other people and with that human emotion, that human contact. And I think about the mothers and daughters of the Bible speak and lessons to be learned. There is so much to learn here about just human interaction and human contact. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and the first book in the series, Women of the Bible Speak, that was out last year, I wrote that during the first very frightening part of the pandemic when there was so much we didn't know and people were frightened and separated.

And it was very comforting to me to look out over time these stories through the Bible, the Old and the New Testament. And we're doing that again, as you said, this time in the context of mothers and daughters. And some of the relationships that we have in this book aren't the biological mother and daughter, but spiritual mother and daughter or a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law and the ways that we can be encouragement and mentors for each other in a spiritual sense of spiritual motherhood and daughterhood. Because not everybody's going to be a mom. Not everybody's a daughter.

And so not everybody's going to have a daughter. But there are lessons that are just woven through there that translate to 2022. And I love what you said about kind of feeling you were away from God and coming back because we see that in many of these stories. And God's always there waiting. And listen, I make mistakes.

I sin every day. Thank goodness for his mercy and forgiveness. And we see through these stories like he's always working, even when we make mistakes. Make mistakes, even when we get off track because we all will. Um, he's still able to use it for good.

I was as I was getting dressed this morning, I almost put on my iron sharpens irons uh t-shirt. Uh, but then I just put on you know, that's always my work choice: which t-shirt do I want to wear to work today? Since I'm on the radio, it doesn't really matter. But uh, I almost wore my iron sharpens irons shirt. But I mean, that is so, you know, the notion that we make each other better people.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and that idea that we can have accountability, we can have encouragement, all of those things. We need each other. We need community. I think that we were created that way.

And we do see that through these relationships in the Bible. I mean, one of my favorite pairings in the new book is Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Elizabeth, her cousin, who was much older, had wanted a child for decades and had not had those prayers answered. Then, both of them at the same time have these miraculous pregnancies that were only through divine intervention. Elizabeth, much, much older than anybody would have ever thought, and Mary, much younger than she would have expected at a time that she had not been with a man and the whole virgin birth. The thing is that God gave them both that experience at the same time.

So they were able to share it together and say, like, the rest of the world may not understand what's going on with us or believe our stories, but we have each other. We know we've had this divine intervention. And they could encourage each other. And Mary went to live with Elizabeth the first few months of her pregnancy. And I love that picture that God kind of gave them to each other for help in that time when they needed it most.

I've still got so much to learn in reading the Bible. I always get confused by the Marys. There are so many Marys in the Bible. There are a lot of Marys. A lot of Marys in the Bible.

I need like a flowchart of all the Marys in the Bible. Exactly. All right. Hey, Shannon Breen, we love you here in Orlando and in Florida. Come here anytime, please.

I will. I'm born and raised in Sanford, so. Outstanding. That's good to hear. All right, Shannon Bream, Fox News, chief legal correspondent, anchor of Fox News at night.

Shannon, thank you so much. Have a great weekend. You two President's Day weekend at that. We got the Daytona 500 happening this weekend at the Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach. By the way, I don't know if you guys know this, but the Daytona 500, the origins of that, they literally raced their cars on Daytona Beach.

The sandy beach was the origin of the Daytona 500 race. Go on YouTube. You can find some of the old black and white film on YouTube from back in the day when they used to race on the beach. These days, you can still drive on the beach. You just can't race on the beach.

My name is Joe Kelly. We'll take your phone calls coming up straight ahead here on the Brian Kilmead Show. It's 866-408-7669. You can go to BrianKilmeadShow.com. Educating, entertaining, enlightening.

You're with Brian Kilmead. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead. We could get lucky because the trajectory right now is going way down. And it very well may be.

that if you take masks off the kids in the next week or so it's going to keep going down. But you've really got to be careful. You know, you don't want to say it's an absolutely wrong decision. It's understandable. why people want to take masks off the kids.

But right now, given the level of activity that we have, It is risky. Dr. Anthony Fauci, our nation's premier expert on the coronavirus. By the way, speaking about our nation's premier experts on coronavirus, we just got this in. The Surgeon General has just announced that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

Vivek Murthy says that his four-year-old daughter also had the virus, and that his wife and five-year-old son were also positive for the virus. They all had mild symptoms. His daughter, he says, is doing okay. She has an improving fever, he added.

So get well soon to our Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, from his diagnosis of COVID-19. My name is Joe Kelly. You're listening to the Brian Kilmead Show. You can join me at 866-408-7669. Let's go to Paul, who is listening in Wayne, New Jersey, on WABC.

Hey, Paul, you're on the Brian Kilmead Show. Hey, thank you for taking my call. You're doing a great job. Thanks, bud. I lived in Florida, so I know the feeling, but don't rub it in, okay?

85 degrees today. That's great. It's a great state. Yeah, I wish I was back. I just want, you know, you have Fauci just aggravates me every time he makes a statement, but I just want to read something real quick.

It takes me 20 seconds. You know, you have Churchill McCarthy. And Montgomery, these were some people who went out to the field to see what was actually happening on the war front. shaking hands with soldiers and civilians. But the biggest hit on Fauci is he sits on a throne in Ivory Tower, distant from anyone, and then criticize the people that are in the trenches.

Why is he an expert? All he does is mouth off what the World Health Organization says. Thank you, Paul. Listen, I agree with you. I think you're right about that.

I think the American people have lost faith in Anthony Fauci. I mean, there's no doubt about that. And just as you've heard, and it's just that we're not covering new ground here, but as Brian has pointed out numerous times, as Hannity has pointed out numerous times, I mean, what does Dr. Fauci do? What does he do when he's not on TV talking about the coronavirus?

When is he actually in the trenches, as you say, you know, working with people and getting stuff done? Let's go to Gainesville, Florida. KW is joining us on the Brian Kilmeat Show. Hello, KW. Hey, good morning.

Thanks for taking my call, Joe. Great show, great topics, great callers. You know, you talk about what's going on in Ukraine.

Well, the President made his comments the other day in his speech, and he said that the the people in Ukraine need to have their liberty and they need to have choice. And now at the same time he was doing that, he was later on or earlier, he was talking to the prime minister in Canada, who never liked a dictator in Cuba he didn't love, and he told him to crack down on the protesters that were fighting for freedom from the vaccine mandate, the truckers up there. And they speak out of both sides of their mouth, and both sides of the aisle in our elites in politics never saw a extended war they didn't love.

So they're trying to push us that direction again. We've only been out of war for, what, six months, and they're pushing for another one?

Well, we still got people left in Afghanistan. Yeah.

Yes. And they're pushing for another war when they didn't even finish the last one properly.

Well, but I I might I might take a little issue with pushing for. I I mean, do you think that we do you think the Biden administration is pushing for a war? Yes. I think that there Hillary wanted to go to war with Russia. for what reason?

Why why would the United States want to go to war with Russia?

Well, you remember when Hillary was wanting to go after Russia when we were in Syria? And she kept pushing for a war with Russia. And that's what she wanted all along. And President Trump won the election, and we didn't go to war with Russia. in Syria.

But Want war because it's all about money. Follow the money, you know, military-industrial compacts, oil. and the control of Europe And moving bases in around Russia? There's a lot going on here, KW, no doubt. Thank you for your call from Gainesville.

Let's go to North Carolina. James, I got about 45 seconds for you. James, go ahead. All right. I just had a comment, you know, y'all were talking about the stay-at-home workers and all that stuff.

Yes. Well, I'm a truck driver, all right?

So we have to use the dispatchers and they're doing these staying at home workers. I've got listen to dogs barking in the background, kids crying in the background. Got to listen to all that crap. And then half the time you call and you're trying that it takes 30 minutes to explain I got a flat tire because they don't speak English. Oh, that's interesting.

Well, all right, James, thank you for your call. Thanks for the update on that. My name is Joe Kelly. You're listening to the Brian Kilmead Show, and we will continue with your phone calls coming up straight ahead. Stay with us.

You can join me at 866-408-7669. This is the Brian Kilmead Show. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead. My name is Joe Kelly in Orlando, Florida, filling in for Brian Kilmead today.

You can join me at 866-408-7669. And I've got to tell you, I'm really excited because just as I went on the air here today at 9 o'clock in the East, filling in for BK today, we got word that Paul McCartney had booked Camping World Stadium. For a live concert coming up May 28th in Orlando, Paul McCartney. Very excited, man. Paul McCartney.

It holds like sixty thousand at Camping World Stadium. I don't know how it's gonna be arranged for the concert, if it's gonna be in the round or at the end or whatever it's gonna be. By the way, President Biden is expected to give an update on the situation with Ukraine. That'll be coming up at 4 o'clock Eastern. You'll be able to catch that, I'm sure, on Fox News a little bit later today.

I want to welcome onto the show Danielle Hollander. Danielle, I'm excited to welcome you. She is the Visit Orlando Chief Marketing Officer. And Danielle, this is not a commercial for Orlando, though it may sound a bit like one because we've got so many great things to talk about with Orlando. Hello, how are you?

I'm great. Are you? And I'm equally as excited about Paul McCartney. I saw him last time in Orlando, and it was one of the best concerts. And it's amazing the concert lineup that we have.

Garth Brook, Bad Bunny, you know, we've got Billy Joel. We've got some amazing concerts coming to Orlando. We really do. It's a destination. I mean, Orlando has long been, thanks to Uncle Walt, a destination location, but never more so than now.

And, you know, speaking about Florida and broadcasting here in the Florida Freedom Zone, I had mentioned earlier here on the Brian Kilmead show that last year, and these are the numbers that came to us from the state, and we're going to kind of boil it down to local numbers, but 118 million Americans visited Florida, the highest number of domestic travelers in the history of our state. That I mean, that takes me by surprise. And I know how cool Florida is and how people wanted to get away from wherever it was that they were to come here to the sunshine and perhaps more at ease COVID restrictions. But that is a phenomenal achievement for the state of Florida to see such domestic travel. Mm-hmm.

Absolutely. We're thrilled to hear those numbers. Obviously, everybody took kind of a hit in twenty twenty, but I can tell you the domestic travel to Orlando for twenty twenty one was super strong. We're anticipating that to continue. And we're happy to have some of our international travelers back.

We had Mexico was really well good for us. Our flights are now back from Brazil, from the UK, all of those primary markets.

So we are really, really pleased with the way things are going. And we're recovering much faster than anybody anticipated. And what about the conventions? I mean, there's a lot of cities that rely on conventions. Orlando is certainly one of them.

I mean, Las Vegas is reliant in large part on conventions. A lot of major cities have massive convention programs. How is Orlando doing when it comes to ramping back up with the garden variety conventions and conventioneers that we once saw pretty regularly?

Well, I can tell you, we one of the things about the Orlando community is everybody works so well together. And between the convention center getting their GBAC certification, The airport, the hotels working together, the transportation companies, Orlando Health and our other health care providers working with our sales teams. Orlando's actually been the leader in face-to-face meetings. We've had over 200 live events. that have occurred since July of 2020.

So we have actually led the industry back. We had another hundred citywide conventions that are booked for twenty twenty two. And we recently had the Professional Golf Association show. Last week, we had HomeBuilders and National Kitchen and Bath. And they're reporting great numbers, over 60,000 people were there.

So this has been something that the teams and the community have worked really hard to ensure and have those safety protocols that our meeting planners and the delegates were looking for. And we've really been that leader.

So I'm real proud of the whole community for bringing that back. And if all the all tides, the all ships and tides rise, we need to have all of that back to keep the success. But we are outperforming our peers in that area. And You know, working just as hard with the meeting planners to make sure that we're able to accommodate whether it's at the convention center or in our hotels. when they had to rebook.

So it's it's looking cautiously optimistic. One of the big events, if I'm not mistaken, coming up very soon is going to be the CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. And that is that is going to be fully attended, I would imagine. Yeah, that's in one of the hotels coming up. It was here last year, so that will be coming up shortly.

And we have all types of conventions. We've got hair shows, we have. Common, you know, with MegaCon, we've got the tons of different industries that choose to bring their whether it's their corporate groups or their association groups here to Orlando. We are so synonymous, though, with our theme parks. Address how the theme parks have played a part in leading this discussion and getting people back to their comfort zone of being out amongst other people and milling about and engaging with others and enjoying our theme parks.

Yeah, as a theme park capital of the world, of which we are, you know, that was one of the key things. And all of the parks worked together with the CDC, with the health officials, to ensure that they were opening back up in a responsible way so that the visitors, you know, we've always, visitor safety has always been number one in hospitality here in Orlando.

So it was very critical that as we brought visitors back, we brought them back in a safe way and in a way that they were comfortable experiencing the destination.

So they had limited capacity, they had different safety protocols, mass requirements, depending on where we were in the various surges.

So that has really helped people feel comfortable about coming back. And now everybody can come back and experience all the new things. And in fact, we have a new theme park opening next week, Peppa Pig Theme Park.

So it'll be the first one here in the U.S.

So that will add to our great lineup of. Of theme parks and with Disney celebrating their fiftieth anniversary and the new Jurassic World Velocicoaster Universal. And I just wrote new Icebreaker at SeaWorld. SeaWorld, yeah. Tons of new things to experience at our theme parks and also outside of our theme parks.

Now, there are a lot of people who make their way to Orlando via cruise ships through Port Canaveral. And at the beginning of the pandemic, as you well know, the CDC put the kibosh on cruise ships. We're getting back into the cruise ships these days. But touch on that, if you will, and what kind of an effect that has. Yeah, we're about 45 minutes from Fort Canaveral, which is one of the largest cruise ports and has a variety of cruise ships that sail in and out of the port.

And one of the things that a lot of the cruisegoers like to do is to come over and combine their cruise with a land stay over in Orlando.

So, yes, when that was all shut down, you know, it certainly did have an impact of going back and forth. You know, we have some wonderful things over on the coast. Our beaches are amazing. You can watch the shuttle launches or the space launches.

So, you know, now that they're coming back, we will see those folks coming back and doing that land and sea. But that's one of the great things about Orlando being centrally located. You can combine your trip with whether you want to go kayaking, whether you want to be out on all of our lakes, all of our, you know, you want to go paddleboarding, but there's so many. options in every direction that you can You know, come to Orlando and then experience things that surround the destination as well. I'll tell you: one of the coolest experiences that I have had in Florida was being at the beach one time and visiting some friends.

And as I was making my way back, I drove past the port Port Canaveral, and there on one of the barges was one of the stage one boosters for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. For those that don't know, I mean, our space coast is right next to Port Canaveral. Cape Canaveral is next to Port Canaveral. And when they launch those SpaceX Falcon 9s and land the boosters on a barge, they barge them in to Port Canaveral. And you can literally just sit there and watch with awe as they offload these massive booster rockets and prepare them for launch once again.

Yeah, it has been amazing what's been going on over on the Space Coast and with all the rocket launches. I'm very fortunate. I can go out in my backyard, as many people can here, and watch those launches and have done that many times, whether it's from your house, if you're visiting, from your hotel room, but it is quite an awesome site and going over and being close to that. It's an amazing experience. It really is.

And I don't know if y'all know this, but you could literally stand in Main Street USA at Magic Kingdom. And if it's a sunny day, I mean, you'll be able to see the contrail of the launch. But you could, you know, theoretically be standing somewhere watching fireworks from the Magic Kingdom while at the same time looking to the east and seeing a Falcon 9 launching off in the distance. I mean, it is an amazing place to call home. It it is.

And you know, between that, the wildlife here, you know, the the lakes and Really the quaint towns, I mean, we talk about all of our amazing attractions, and it would take you over 100 days to see everything in Orlando, but that is really balanced with a lot of local neighborhoods, a lot of public art. We have amazing dining. In fact, I'm excited. We're going to have Michelin, Florida Guide coming out this year, which is going to include Orlando restaurants.

So, that really is a testament to what has happened with our culinary, you know, culinary prowess. That is part of all the influence. We get visitors from all over the world. We have people from all over the world that live here and call Orlando home. And that has really found its way into our culture and into our food.

And so we're so excited that we're going to be recognized through the Michelin program later on this year. That is pretty cool. Danielle Hollander, she is the chief marketing officer with Visit Orlando. You can get details. Just go to visitorlando.com.

Danielle, it's a pleasure talking to you. Have a great weekend. It's a holiday weekend. And of course, we got the dates on a 500 on Sunday.

So still more things to do this weekend. Absolutely. Thank you so much, and have a great weekend as well. Thanks, Danielle. That is, again, Danielle Hollander with VisitOrlando.

You can go to visitorlando.com for more. Our state is wide open. We would love to have you. Though I can tell you right now that I've got like a million Floridians yelling at me to tell me to stop telling other people to come to Florida, right? We've got enough people here.

Stop. Particularly if, you know, if you're fleeing a blue state, and keep in mind that Florida. Is not the reddest of red states. We're purple-ish. We certainly have our Democrat centers here in Florida.

But if you're coming here, leave your blue state politics at the border if you would, please. Thank you. It's 866-408-7669. You're listening to the Brian Kilmead Show. My name is Joe Kelly.

We'll continue with your calls next. This weekend, check out Brian's new show on Fox News Channel. His new Saturday show lets him ruin your weekends too. Take it easy, Gutfeld. That really hurts.

One Nation with Brian Kilmead. Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern on Fox News Channel. More of Brian coming up. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin.

It's Brian Killmead.

So, I was reading a radio trade magazine during the break there, and I was just reading this about Joe Rogan and Spotify.

So, Joe Rogan, as you know, is get paid $100 million by Spotify to take his podcast, and he took it over to Spotify a year or so ago. But the New York Times did a piece and says that the reports that he was getting $100 million are not accurate. And I thought, oh, yeah, because that's a lot of money. I mean, $100 million, there's no way he's getting paid $100 million for a podcast.

So the New York Times says, no, it's not $100 million, it's $200 million. That is what the contract was, Joe Rogan and Spotify. $200 million? Wow, that is a phenomenal achievement. What an amazing amount of money for a podcast.

Congratulations to him. He's not going to be leaving there anytime soon. And evidently, he's got three and a half years left on the deal, and there's options for more after that as well. All right, let's go to Jeff, who's listening in St. Louis.

Jeff, you're on the Brian Killmead Show. How are you, sir? I'm doing great. Hey, Joe, just, you know, I don't know why we find it surprising. The Democrats.

you know, they've had a systematic They don't care about children. Um the mask have obviously caused psychological, emotional, Obviously, educational. I'm a teacher. I've taught for 30 years. I teach at the college level.

Even at the college level, it impairs. education and communication. But, you know, it's not surprising. They're consistent. They're mandating these vaccines for children with little or no upside with likely negative consequences.

But do you think that they really don't care about children, Jeff, or that? Or that they're misguided in what they're doing?

Well, Joe, if you can look at people and say, you know what, a six-year-old should be mutilated on the altar of transgenderism. Are you telling me you're not children? That that escalated so quickly. No, I understand I understand what you're saying, but I I I just don't know that liberals wake up in the morning thinking, how can we harm children? I mean, I think they just might be misguided in how they do that.

Let's go to Larry in Michigan. Hey, Larry, you're on the Brian Kilmead show. How are you? Very good, how are you? Good.

I just had a point that I believe is a little bit counter to yourself and your guests from the I believe was the Marks group. About thanking the millennials for how they have changed the work. Um Ethic, I guess, or the work pattern in the United States? Sure. And I don't I don't think just just to be clear for anybody who didn't hear it, I don't know that he was thinking the millennials per se as he was saying that the millennials were right in that working from home was gi was going to be a thing.

But I it wasn't the millennials who did it, it was the coronavirus that did it. But but please go ahead. The corona the coronavirus uh forced it, basically. Correctly, yes. Right.

But uh and I guess maybe uh being an elder white man, I'm probably one of the enemies of the millennials at this point in time because we caused all problems in the country. But uh If we do not get people to not work at home, We're not going to have that chair to sit on, the desk that they sit at, the computer that they're working on, the roads that they take to the restaurant. food that's being delivered to them, the house that keeps them warm. We need people in the trades. We need people that are willing to get out of their house.

and work. No.

Well, certainly there are there are fields under which that is going to be a requirement. It's not even open for discussion in certain fields, but are there not other fields that are perfectly suited for working from home? Oh, absolutely. There is certain fields that are. And for the most part, they get very well paid for doing their work from home.

But the point is, is that most of them want to work from home, and we have to have a difference in that work. There needs to be people that get out and do what needs to be done for the infrastructure and everything else. There's a shortage in all trades. There certainly are, Larry. You are right about that.

We've got a workplace shortage that is widespread. Larry, thank you so much for your call. Thanks to Pete and Allison and Eric and everybody for putting the show together. I greatly appreciate it. I'm Joe Kelly.

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