"Never McCarthy" republicans quadruple down, still won't support him for Speaker

From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead. All right, get ready to get started again this Thursday edition and maybe the third or fourth show of 2023. Enjoying this year, hope you are too. Set your goals: short-term, long-term, daily.

And get off on the right foot, but there's still time. Congressman Michael Waltz knows the Republicans have done anything but. He'll be joining us shortly. There are so many challenges. But right now, we really have no House of Representatives.

None. We'll talk about that with Michael Walsh. Today, the President of the United States is going to do something unprecedented. No, it's not time for not time to look up and see Haley's Comet. It's not that infrequent.

It's probably Actually, you see Haley's comment more than you see this. The president will actually speak about border security and enforcement, and the vice president will be there. She must be lost at the Roosevelt room because I know she doesn't like talking about that. And the president's already committed to going to the border.

So let's get to the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. I think we can say pretty conclusively after looking at. Tens of thousands of emails over the course of these weeks that the government was in the censorship business in a huge way. That's, I think, provable now.

No kidding, no joke, stunned. That's how Matt Taibbi describes the strange silence from the left over his reporting on the Twitter files. Lawmakers, law enforcement, CIA, all forcing Twitter's hand to squelch dissenting voices on various topics, but mostly conservatives and anybody who's different from Anthony Fauci and his fellow left-wing journalists have no interest.

Well, we do. Number two. Are you gonna be within the border when you head down to Mexico? That's my intention. We're working out the details now.

Yep, Joe Biden is going to the border.

Now let's see where at the border. That's what the President said yesterday, making his first visit as President and in life. This as the HHA secretary of his says the entire system is strained, the understatement of the year. Number one. Republicans just need to quit goofing around on the Kevin McCarthy situation.

He has ninety percent of the vote. There's twenty holdouts. I've never seen where ten percent got to control ninety. True. Six strikes, and Kevin McCarthy is not out.

He's still the front runner to become Speaker after two days and almost no progress. That's been getting two, he's been getting between 218 and he needs 218. 20 Republicans just don't feel like voting for him. When are they going to realize they're going to have no choice? Or does he realize he's got to step aside?

I'll ask Michael Waltz that, but let's speculate. There has been some movement and I'll share it with you. First off, Uh it is pretty clear uh that They weren't specific, and the Freedom Caucus kept moving their goalposts every time they dealt with various people who were Kevin McCarthy's supporters. And they said, Listen, I give you what you wanted. What do you want now?

Okay, what do you want this?

Okay, no, you want this.

So finally, they realized it's starting to boomerang on them and embarrass the party and the country. We have no House of Representatives.

So This is what we understand is happening. They are now going to agree, Kevin McCarthy, to a one-member Movement that would allow them to have a vote on vacating the speakership.

So if one member stands up and says, I hate Kevin McCarthy, let's have a vote on whether we should get rid of him. Only need one. It was down to five. He agreed to five.

Now it's down to one. He said. He's going to agree to having a vote on term limits, knock it down to three. And do a stand-alone vote on 12 appropriation bills that fund the government instead of in the future getting an omnibus bill that everyone has just hours to sign. These are some of the things he's beginning to move closer and closer towards agreement on.

And if the reporting is correct, and I believe it is. I believe Chip Roy. Does it does a lot of uh deserves a lot of credit for this. And I sensed that something was going to move. And they're holding out for Jim Jordan, who doesn't want the job, and Byron Byron Donalds, who never wanted the job, but is going to, his star is really rising.

Votes for them is just a waste of time. No one's stepping up.

So I just thought this was interesting when I saw on special report last night Brett Baer with a great series of questions. Finally got Chip Roy to admit. That uh There's some things, some demands that he has and he's willing to negotiate. Cut 13. I want to be able to have enough members of the Rules Committee that we can block bad bills.

So that could be three, that could be four, and I want to make sure that Republicans are the ones making sure that those bills get through the Rules Committee to the floor. And I want an open amendment process, and I want to be able to have the ability to make points of order on the floor if amendments aren't going to be able to be relevant if they're not germane, et cetera. Love it. Finally, something to say you're wrong or right about. Because I was saying, you know, people standing up and saying I'm I'm upset with uh uh Chip Roy or Byron Donalds or Kevin McCarthy.

All right, why? And Kevin McCarthy, wouldn't it be great if it was like Britain where you stood up and you get the microphone and you say, no, no. Let me just say this. I am for building the border. I am for making every dollar given to the Ukraine accountable.

I am for investigating Hunter Biden. I will not sign an omnibus bill.

So I would love to see that being a debate, but this wasn't really a debate. It was people getting up saying, anyone but Kevin McCarthy, and other people getting up and said, I love Kevin McCarthy. I found it very frustrating. It reminded me a lot of impeachment. Congressman Matt Gates, who's a poor excuse for a congressman.

You might love him, thinks he's funny on his feet. People think he's charismatic, but you just got to do your job. And doing your job is moving the country's business forward while representing your state and your constituents. Your state really your constituents really don't like Kevin McCarthy to the point that they don't want the House to do anything for a week or maybe weeks?

So Matt Gates hopped on with Trace Gallagher last night, cut nine. Remember, before this last omnibus, Kevin McCarthy was paving the way for some of the worst legislation, driving our country deeper into debt and borrowing against the futures of the next generation. And so, if we got control of those key committees in the hands of conservatives, I think there are some of the 20 who might vote for Kevin McCarthy. If things stand as they are, I would suspect that the opposition will only grow. Right.

So, what will happen? Then What will happen if the opposition grows? Because Kevin Carthy lost Victoria's Sports. He's now a non-vote, and Byron Donaldson now votes for himself.

So he's only losing momentum. He does not want to vote.

So Chad Pergram said. Congressman Banks told me an hour ago on Fox and Friends that they feel like things are moving, that it'll pass. Good shot of passing, but not at 12. That's Eastern time.

So I don't know when you're listening to the show.

Some of you get the show on delay.

So not on the first vote. Let's just go by that, judging by all the affiliates we're lucky enough to have.

So, I'm a little surprised about Victoria Sparks, to be honest, because I think that McCarthy has gone out of his way to back up the Ukraine effort, even though there's some strong opposition to giving any money over there while our border remains open. And I was surprised to see him do that.

So, in terms of the opposition, there's a lot of it. In terms of people who are just mystified by why this holdout continues to happen, there are many. Britum With all his years of experience, Said this about this, COT 19. This does have a similarity to situations. We've mostly seen them in the Senate, where on a very close vote, a single member or a couple members will have the leverage that their vote is needed and will use it to extract concessions from the majority.

This happened. And we've seen things like this happen in the House where enough people will block a spending bill or an increase in the debt limit to try to leverage the repeal of Obamacare. That was tried, you may recall. The government shut down, it didn't work, it was a complete failure.

Some things like this have happened, but never something quite like this, where you have 200 members of the House want a certain candidate to be Speaker and about 20 don't, and the 20 are calling the tune. That's an interesting way to do business. Oh, it looks like Andy Biggs could be moving. He was a firm anti-Kevin vote. He looks like he could move.

Lauren Boebert is just clueless, just out there just railing away, hopping on MSNBC and CNN and Fox and Sean Hannity's credit. When Sean Hannity is arguing with you and you're a conservative Republican, do you think for a second you might be wrong? And when President Trump calls you up and says, Lauren, I appreciate your conviction, but Kevin's the right guy, do you think you might be wrong? Eli Crane, when all military, when 16 military members happen to be conservative Republicans? including Derek Van Orden, also special forces.

Says, Eli, you're not even officially a congressman yet. I understand how you feel, but you're wrong here. You got to go with the two hundred plus and get to work for Speaker McCarthy and for the country. But Elon Crane, bottle breacher, who I liked, great guy, great success story. Doesn't move.

Derek Van Orin texted me and said I talked to him for four hours. He's not budging. And he can, you know, obviously, and you know the number. If you lose five, he can't become speaker. You know, Congressman Banks told me in the break today, he said, Listen, if we can't get it today, we got to start talking about Steve Sclees or something.

But Byron Donalds is an upcoming star. Everybody knew that, but now everybody knows him. I'm happy for him, but he's not ready to be speaker. For what I could tell, you need some experience. You got to work your way through.

You got to understand how to cajole and when to put your finger down, how to work with the other side, have experience of success and failure. John Boehner, two years in, wasn't speaker. Newt Gingrich, two years in, wasn't speaker. Byron Donalds, I don't really see you being speaker in two years. The other big issue is the president going to the border.

I think it's good. I like it.

Now, the question and I think this is a win for Republicans. I don't think it's a win for Democrats. But if Joe Biden really wants to be a leader, I want to say, show me the worst. Show me El Paso. Show me the biggest hole in the biggest fence.

Cut twenty-one. Are you getting big? Within the border when you head down to Mexico? That's my intention. We're working out the details now.

So let's see where you're going to go. Go to the border. Because you know the people who are upset with you now? The Democratic mayor of El Paso, whose city has changed forever. The Democratic mayor of New York.

Who's one of the few people who says, I love Joe Biden. including people in his own family. The Democratic Governor of Colorado. Jared Polis. They're overwhelmed.

They're shipping him to New York.

So these democratic cities And thanks to the aggressiveness Of Governor Abbott and Governor DeSantis. Are saying, you deal with it. I'm not going to deal with it. And that's forced the President's hand to do something he hasn't done in 50 years. And that's go to the border and see for yourself.

Address a problem. Be a leader. Don't lead your party. Lead the country.

Well Mitch McConnell showed up at the unveiling of your bridge and infrastructure plan. Do something for the country. Don't even do it for Republicans. And just say, man, this is terrible. Not on my watch.

And believe me, if it's border security, Republicans will do everything to get you a check, even if it means a big win for you. Because it'll be a big win for the country. When we come back, I'll take your calls. 1-866-408-7669. Then welcome in Michael Waltz.

House Armed Services Committee could be chairman. I hope he is. This is the Brian Kilmey Show.

So glad you're here. Diving deep into today's top stories. It's Brian Kilmead 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. It's the Ben Dominich Podcast.

Subscribe and listen now by going to FoxNewsPodcasts.com. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmeid. His commitment to America is not as strong as I would like it to be. And we have been working on the rules to change the structure of how Washington, D.C.

is run and operated. Sean, you know more than anybody how broken this town is. This is something that we have an opportunity to rebuild, to restructure. Unbelievable. That's Lauren Boebert.

And she was, when Mark Levin is calling out Matt Gaetz, if you're Matt Gaetz, you should rethink it. When the President of the United States, former President of the United States, Calls out and says, Listen, give Kevin, it's time to give Kevin the job. and you just ignore them or use one word like Matt Gates as your word sad. And when Lauren Boebert, barely in overtime, has to squeeze by and win reelection in a solid conservative state, and I believe Kevin McCarthy gave millions to her to pull that out, you would think that she wouldn't go on and just say she generic statements Like she just said to Sean Hannity last night, as if he's never heard he needs a lesson in conservative thought on what's wrong with Washington. Kevin McCarthy may not have voted every time the way you want it, but just make it clear what you want him to do, and also he's never been in the majority before.

What Ken McCarthy could do was speak out more for Ross, but behind closed doors, didn't he do it for them? Here's a little of the exchange with Sean cut for. You don't have the votes and it's time to withdraw. He has 203, your side has 20. Why is it time for him to withdraw and not you when he has so many more votes?

Well, Sean, he needs 218, and he does not have 218. We've been trying to work this out in private, as you said, for months. But Kevin McCarthy didn't even want to listen to us until his disappointing midterms. We all want a unified party, but this isn't chaos. It's a functioning constitutional republic.

When everything is said and done, House Republicans will be stronger and better prepared to lead than we ever have before.

So You understand he's got 200 votes and you don't. And behind the scenes, he's known he's had a five to six person majority for about a month.

So behind the scenes The digging in, I'm never Kevin, has been 5-6.

Now we've bloomed up to 19. Thank goodness Chip Roy decided to dig in and say, okay, this is what I want. This is exactly what I need. And these are how many votes I can deliver. And I think Andy Biggs has too, because it's embarrassing.

And also, when you get elected, you want to get things done. You're not going to get reelected. You're embarrassing the people that put you there.

Some people might be happy and say, Wow, I'm so glad you're delaying. having the power in one chamber for a week and doing nothing. I'm so glad you're taking out Kevin McCarthy. Good luck with that.

So Trey Gowdy and Mac Gait sparred from afar. Cut six. Listen. It is personal. She does not like Kevin McCarthy personally.

And here's the proof. Here's the proof. There was a vote 30 minutes ago about whether to keep negotiating.

So you have these 20 that are opposed to Kevin right now.

Some of them want to keep negotiating. They're actually making progress. And then you had four that would rather have a spectacle on the floor of the House that embarrasses the Republican Party, including one of the four being your last guest.

So if you want proof about what her motivation is, she would rather embarrass the Republican Party on national television than adjourn to go negotiate. And then, Matt, I'll open play the whole thing. You know what? Let me get to some calls. I'll play that later.

Just remember it. Andy, listen on W-O-K- in beautiful Jacksonville, Florida. Hey, Andy. Hi, how you doing? Good.

Okay. Um So I guess for us, a lot of us I I'm coming from Florida. A lot of us haven't liked McCarthy for a long time. I don't think he's a good leader. I find him more in the Mitch McConnell.

But And We need something different. We've had leadership in California Um doesn't represent The rest of the country Did you like Paul Ryan? Not not necessarily. Did you like John Boehner? No, Denny Hastert.

Uh I think the last one I liked was uh Nuke. Yeah, they kicked him out. Yeah, they kicked him out. But he at least had a plan. Right.

But Andy McCarthy does have a plan. Kevin McCarthy, Andy, does.

So having said that, Andy, okay, he's not your pick, but after what you've seen over the last two days. And knowing that over 200 other lawmakers do want him, would you say, okay, I'm going to go ch go in there, negotiate the best I can to get what I need and then go rally around him? Would you say that?

So I don't know if I would have Like it, but I guess if they could come to a consensus, I'm fine with that. But I'm perfectly fine with them debating over this. But they're not debating. They're not de until yesterday, I didn't even get any specifics. And I even talked to these guys.

I text with them, and I was getting specifics. It's just I don't like Kevin. Any thanks. Ed, K D W N in Las Vegas. Ed, real quick.

Yeah, well this is sort of par for the course in Nevada. I mean we've had something like in the past called the Silver Party and now we have something called none of these candidates or none of the above. Having a a small group of people tie things up. Is nothing really new in American politics, particularly in this state. But I'm glad they're requiring these Chinese to have COVID tests.

I mean, that's a plus. All right, good. It has nothing to do with this, but you are right. Finally. We agree on that.

And the Chinese are now suffering what they've inflicted on the world.

Now they're dealing with casualties and lying about it and are so-called sensitive about us bringing it up. Tough. When we come back, Congressman Michael Waltz will bring us more insights in the negotiations. You're listening to the Brian Killmee Show.

So glad you're here. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. It looks messy, but democracy is messy. Our job is not to coronate the biggest fundraiser or rubber stamp the status quo.

It's to use our votes. to elect a speaker who will enable us. To get our country back on track. Every single returning Republican in this chamber. Who cast a vote two years ago in the last Congress voted for Kevin McCarthy?

as our leader. We were united then. And we must unify now. Yeah, I don't know what happened. Oh, we can make him leader.

We can't make him speaker. That's where the line in the sand is. Congressman Michael Waltz is affirmed Kevin Yes, House Arm Service Committee member. Congressman. Uh I understand there's been progress overnight.

How would you characterize how it was? Through yesterday. Yeah, you know, and Mm-hmm. Look, I have a good relationship with Representative Bobart, but I. Yes.

I will remind folks, she barely won her race. this cycle. And what I find pretty amazing is you have some of the holdouts that had no problem having Kevin McCarthy do fundraisers with him, accepting money that he had raised, even got photos with him when they when he visited their districts to help them out with them holding a gavel.

So that's a little bit rich. But look, at the end of the day, what's progressing? It's better than it was a few days ago, Brian. A few days ago, there was really no one in charge. We couldn't get a list of what would get us to two points so we can get to work and get our agenda in place and stop Biden's agenda.

Now it seems to be boiling down to some additional controls on budget and spending. Look, I'm all for that. But this motion to vacate, look, I've reminded some of the conservatives if McCarthy puts Or even if say we had a speaker Jim Jordan and puts a con ultra conservative bill in place that's going to cause a moderate to lose their race, then you could have a moderate putting a motion to vacate in place. And we can't have chaos as we're trying to get a conservative agenda in place and we're trying to stop Biden. And then finally, Kevin, and this is important, and I don't think some of these folks appreciate the fact that the Democrats are reaching out for a coalition government.

That is real. And that would mean things like an even split on committees.

So that, for example, Jim Jordan would have to mother May I as the head of judiciary to the Democrats to issue a subpoena, which means that would be dead. Things like anything the Democratic Senate passes, we have to put on the floor. These are the types of offers that are being made to some moderate Republicans who won Biden districts who have had enough. Uh and and I I remember starting to get very concerned. These guys are pushing too far.

This is going on too long. And I know they want someone else besides McCarthy, but God help us if we have a Hakeem Jeffries or some type of coalition government with the Democrats. That's not what our Republican voters elected us to do.

So In particular, you say there's been some reach out from Makeem Jeffries. And others to say, hey, let's just, you guys can't do it, so I'll help you. And this is what you need. But to be clear, Brian, my understanding is that it was blessed the the outreach was blessed by Jeffries. I was not in the room, so I just want to be clear there.

But that outreach has happened, and I think some of these holdouts need to take this much more seriously. I don't think they think that's a real possibility. Uh but Yeah. We need to get to 218. We need to get to work.

I want accountability for the 13 Gold Star families. COVID origin. Jim Jordan is chomping at the bit to get his arms around big tech and FBI reform. It's time to get to work. Enough is enough.

We have put an enormous amount of work into very positive changes to how the House has run, and it needed it after years of Nancy Pelosi, believe me. But you can't keep moving the goalpost and you can't start getting into personal Agendas and ambitions. And it's becoming enormously frustrating, and they risk.

Some of you know our moderate members get a voice too, and they've got to get reelected too. That's how we have a majority in the first place. And I think you're going to start seeing them start speaking up loud and clear. And the Democrats are reaching out. They see an opportunity in this dysfunction.

So, right now, we have some things that have been out and confirmed by Fox. That now Kevin McCarthy has agreed virtually to, instead of a five-sate, a five-member person request to vacate the position, it's just one could force a vote.

So Republicans could just force a vote. They also are looking for a a standalone vote for twelve appropriation bills for any type of budget bill that comes across so there's no more omnibus that's going to jump uh drop in your lap. Also a carve out to have a term limit provision, and that's something that Norman wants. And also, when it comes to the Rules Committee, the Freedom Caucus wants at least two seats, and for a third, they want to make sure it's a conservative Republican. How do you feel about all those things?

Well, look, it just in in principle, I have issue with Uh Yeah. Twenty Uh holding two hundred and two. hostage. Two, look, there are people that in these holdouts that have no voting record or have less conservative voting records than many of us.

So I really push back on someone saying they're more conservative than others. And every one of them have voted for Kevin McCarthy two years ago, except for the freshman. But on those specifics, Brian, look, I the last time Republicans were in charge, we passed all twelve appropriations bills, and we didn't lump them all together into a multi trillion dollar package like the Democrats did.

So fine. We actually have done that in the recent In the recent past, I have no problem with that. I have a problem with people dictating who is on what committee. how it works is we compete amongst our peers and to our peers to get on some of these key committees and just doing it. We're a party of merit.

We're a party of competition, not a party of quotas.

So that I have issue with. Term limits, let's vote on it, absolutely. And I already gave you my concern with the motion to vacate is that could come around to bite some of us conservatives if a moderate has an issue with it. And so we can't make it just too easy to start firing people left and right that two hundred and two of us have decided to put in place. Good point.

So there's a lot going on back and forth.

So they got to make sure when you're talking the Freedom Caucus to not. Take you guys for granted and just assume that whatever Kevin McCarthy agrees on with the Freedom Caucus, that all his other 200 supporters are going to go along with. And Brian, to just to clarify, my understanding, talking to someone who was in the room. was that these were not concessions, that they were exchange of proposals. the the temperature came down.

We came back to discussions. But McCarthy has got to sell those new rules, if that's the case, to the rest of the conference. We all have to be on board with it as well, and that has yet to happen. Yeah, I guess we'll find out shortly.

So the word is, according to Congressman Banks, they don't think this thing is going to pass at noon on the first vote. But by the end of the day, Chad Pergram thinks if things continue to trend that way, what do you think? I'd like to be I'd like to be an optimist. I'm going to go with by the end of the week. But again, that conversation with the other two hundred and two of us uh that you know that haven't been in the room overnight.

still has to happen, and we have just as big a voice. Uh, and uh, you know, and again, meanwhile, you have, I just can't emphasize enough, you have the Democrats. chomping around the edges, throwing out proposals. I want to be clear. I am absolutely one hundred percent against that.

We need to settle this in House. We were elected to a Republican majority. We need to put a conservative agenda in place. We need to hold Biden accountable. But I do want to put out there that is happening, and these holdouts need to take it seriously.

Uh has this been embarrassing, you think?

Well, you know what? What I did yesterday in leading a press conference of veteran house members, we had almost three hundred years of combat service in the room, seals, green berets, pilots, doctors.

Now you know what I read, Brian, was Chinese state media. pointing to democracy as completely dysfunctional to the Republican Party. And the implication there was, world, you better side with us, not them.

So when I see our adversaries, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Uh China, of course. Pointing at this. That's frustrating. I will remind folks that democracy can be messy, and we do not just anoint people like the Democrats do. But we have had good faith negotiations.

We have moved in the right direction. I mean, things, Brian, like in order to enact a new government program, you have to cut one, putting an inflation score on every bill. We've moved in the right direction. Enough is enough. Let's get to work.

Absolutely.

So I want to bring you to what the President said yesterday: cut 21. Are you going to be within the border when you head down to Mexico? That's my intention. We're working out the details now. So how do you feel about the President committing to going to the border?

Well, you know about damn time, I guess better late than never. But I hope he takes Majorcas with him because Maorcus, I guess, is going to try to show him how secure it is. Uh it's uh yeah Look, at the end of the day, Brian, I think this is going to be a show. It's going to be a check the box. Uh he's gonna try to do it.

Uh in a way when it when it won't get much coverage. And I have zero optimism until pressured by a Republican-led House. That he will put meaningful steps in place to control the crisis down there. Lastly, Ukraine. We see that they had a big strike a couple of days ago.

We also see that they've knocked down every drone that's been sent their way over the last two or three days. Seems like we're getting it down, but I mean, it seems like we're shooting a big rocket at a cheap drone, but it does great damage. How are we doing on missile defense?

Well, look, I think they're getting better and better.

Some of the Soviet old Russian systems that we put in place. Are having an effect. The Patriot system is going to take some time to get trained up on and to get into a place. Uh But one of the I think the untold stories with those drones is we're finding out that sixty percent to seventy percent of these Iranian drones have American components in it. Wow.

Chips, gyros, power systems and else and otherwise. And this is why we have to get our arms around our supply chains. We have to get control of it and we have to stop our adversaries from stealing, literally stealing our technology left, right, and center, and then using against us. We're fighting against ourselves. Iranian-made drones with American components.

Being shot down with American-made missiles.

So that's something that I'm going to work hard on in the next Congress. What are you going to be? What are you looking to be on? I hope should be Chairman of Military Readiness, which will have oversight of all training where we'll get including the academies, where we're going to get after this CRT and woke nonsense in our military, all our bases around the world, our industrial policy, logistics, maintenance, all of those pieces across the military. I hope to get on the House Intel Committee as well.

And then and we'll be doing all things China. We'll see. It should be exciting if you guys can find a way to pick a speaker. It's been exasperating to watch. Congressman Michael Walsh, thanks so much.

All right. Thank you, Brian. All right. And he'll give us up to dates and he'll keep us up to date as things are unfolding. You listen to the Brian Killmeat Show, 1-866-408-7669.

When we come back, we will talk a little bit about what Matt Taibbi told Tucker last night about the Twitter files. Don't move. Newsmakers and newsbreakers. Hear it first on the Brian Killmeat Show. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Killmead.

Ultimately, Twitter ended up caving, and by the end of the year, they had an internal guidance, which I think is very significant, where they said publicly, we will only remove content at our sole discretion. Privately, we will remove content. Any content that's identified by the United States intelligence community as a foreign state actor conducting cyber operations.

So, if the Intel community says we should take it down, we're going to take it down. Right, and now you know what you know. That is Matt Taibbi, who, along with Mike Schellenberger and Barry Weiss and a couple of others, have been given access to Elon Musk's Twitter about what went on from 2016 to 2022 when he bought it to see what was going on with Fauci CDC putting its hands on the scale. What was the DNC doing? What was Joe Biden doing?

What was Adam Schiff up to as it relates to the Russia investigation? What about the COVID vaccine? What about the protocols? And what about how wrong everyone got? And what would happen if you said something that was contradictory to what they thought was policy?

And behind the scenes, It is so much worse than I could have imagined. Why is this not a bigger story? That makes no sense to me. Matt Taibbi is surprised, too. Listen to him talk about What else was going on?

Cut 29. The thread that I put out yesterday traces the history of what happened, particularly in the fall of 2017. Twitter somewhat naively thought that they would not be sucked into the Russiagate phenomenon. They really thought this was going to be Facebook's problem alone. But when it started to become politically very difficult for them, and people like the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intel Committee, Mark Warner, the Senator of Virginia, put pressure on them.

There's an email that talked about how he was pressuring them to, quote, keep producing material for them. Is that unbelievable? Senator Warner, Mr. Moderate. Tech savvy, by the way.

Leaning on Twitter. Can you imagine what he's doing on Facebook and Google and all the other social media? And I forgot who owns Instagram. More from Matt Taibbi. This to me was really noteworthy because he considers himself not conservative, not even moderate, left, cut thirty.

I think we can say pretty conclusively after looking at Tens of thousands of emails over the course of these weeks that the government was in the censorship business in a huge way. That's, I think, provable now. And not just one agency, really every conceivable wing of the enforcement agencies of the US government were in some way or another sending moderation requests to Twitter. And in many cases, those requests were being fulfilled. And they were coming from everywhere, from every place from the NSA to the HHS to FBI, DHS, even what they call other government agencies, which I think is code for the CIA.

So we have reports from all over, from states, from police departments, everywhere. Yeah, and he said how disappointed he was that there's not more interest from other outlets. They don't see the threat to them because they were pro-vaccine, they were pro-Joe Biden, they were anti-Trump, they were pro-Fauci. What's the problem? Because all those agencies that Matt Taibbi, a self-described liberal journalist, had their hands on the scale from what you read.

And what's stopping them from the Washington Post, New York Times, or other outlets? And then all of a sudden you say, who's shaping what I know? Finally, Devin Nunes, cut thirty-one. I think that we always knew that there were kind of freak the freak show at Twitter, and look, likely at Facebook and Instagram also, we're doing shadow banning. What we didn't know is that you had members of Congress who were supposed to be there to defend the First Amendment were actively trying to get reporters and others banned.

I think this is probably a lot deeper, and we'll find out a lot more as this continues to go on. And I watch other channels. And I was listening to this blog, I think, with Jon Stewart. And Jon Stewart, a list of podcasts, I should say. And Jon Stewart said, Well, you know, the Twitter files have proven to be a whole lot of nothing.

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why he would say that. Smart guy. I know where he stands. I know he's probably happy about it. But he also has a pretty good instinct like Bill Maher, I thought.

To where things are just wrong. Bill Maher, I cannot wait for him to maybe have Matthai beyond. I think that he'd be as outraged as him, and he's as liberal as can be. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian?

In Kill Mead. Thanks so much for being here, everybody. It's the Brian Killmeat Show, 1-866-408-7669. In a matter of moments, we're going to go to Capitol Hill, Chad Pergram, who is as tapped in as anybody you'll ever meet in Capitol Hill, will give us insight into one of the most intriguing races we've had in 100 years to be speaker. Intriguing, frustrating, surprising, everything, because not much has changed after six rounds of voting.

By the way, the President of the United States is doing something stunning. He's actually going to give a speech about border security. I can't believe that. And we do have an announcement there.

So let's get to the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. I think we can say pretty conclusively after looking at. Tens of thousands of emails over the course of these weeks that the government was in the censorship business in a huge way. That's, I think, provable now.

Yes, big time, Matt Taibbi. Thanks to you and thanks to Elon Musk. Stunned. That's how Matt Taebi describes the strained silence from the lastovers reporting on the Twitter files. Lawmakers, law enforcement agencies, CIA, all forcing Twitter's hand to squelch dissenting views.

Everything from politics to COVID. But left-wing journalists aren't interested. Number two. Are you going to be within the border when you head down to Mexico? That's my intention.

We're working out the details now. Wow, going to the border? That's what the president said yesterday, making it his first visit as president and in his life. This is his HHS secretary, says the entire system is strained understatement of the year. Number Republicans just need to quit goofing around on the Kevin McCarthy situation.

He has 90% of the vote. There's 20 holdouts. I've never seen where 10% got to control 90%. Neither have I, Governor Huckabee. Six strikes, and you're still not out, Kevin.

But soon it will happen unless you can turn this thing around. We're going to have a vote at noon, but the sense is we're going to get to Kevin McCarthy as speaker today. What is Plan B? We'll discuss it. Let's bring in Chad Pergram.

Chad, I understand political reporting and Fox confirming, or vice versa, that progress was made overnight with the Holdout 20. There's a couple of indications that they're a little closer here. Just the fact that they started to talk. They have talked about possibly having Kevin McCarthy's super PAC, the one that he's aligned with, not running against very conservative candidates in primaries. They've also talked about lowering the bar to vacate the chair.

This is basically a no-confidence vote for the Speaker. From five to just one, which means anybody could basically move to have a Speaker vote on any day of the week that begins in a Y.

So that's one thing. The question for Kevin McCarthy right now is if he starts to give too much away to these conservatives, do some of his other backers who are right there with him say, wait a minute, we don't want to be controlled by them. What are you doing here? And that's where you fix one problem, you break another.

Now, the House is going to come back in at noon Eastern time. We do not know definitively that there will be a vote for Speaker. You know, there was a vote last night, which is what McCarthy and his side wanted, where they voted to adjourn. Otherwise, they would have had a seventh, eighth, maybe ninth vote last night, maybe gone through the night, and Kevin McCarthy probably would have continued to lose on each of those.

So what Republicans wanted last night, those supporting Kevin McCarthy, they wanted that recess, and they won. By one vote, they were able to adjourn the House. We could have a similar vote today at noon. Again, that vote is right on the edge. We start to question whether or not there might be attendance problems in the House of Representatives.

You know, all it's going to take is one or two people, depending on whose side they're on or which side of the aisle they're on. They're just going to change this equation big time here. But Jim Banks Republican of Indiana, who's somebody who supports Kevin McCarthy. He was on Fox this morning and he says, I think today you're going to see progress. We need to show progress.

And frankly, if I were handicapping this, I think there's about a 20, 25% chance. that we do get a speaker later today. That might be a little premature, but they are moving in that direction.

So I just watched Ken Buck on with Bill Hammer, and I was able to I was the one doing the interview with Banks today. And I want you to hear what he just said. Even though you're making progress, this is what they said to expect. I think there is an agreement. I think it's a reasonable agreement.

And I think what's holding it up right now is there's sort of a blood oath between the 20 that they won't move until they're all ready to move. And so even though 9, 10, 11 of them may agree to this compromise that's been reached, I don't think that they will all move until they're all ready to move. Because we do hear people are moving. There's people like Matt Gates who don't seem to ever and Lauren Boeber who never want to move. Yeah, yeah, there's going to be a couple of those who just don't want to move.

You know, basically what Kevin McCarthy has to do here is pluck off about 11 people, you know, depending on what the matrix is, the vote matrix. And so, you know, if he's able to get a few of those, you know, but he needs to have... A couple of votes in the early afternoon, if in fact the Democrats and maybe these Republicans who oppose him. Compelled the House to stay in session and vote, he needs to start showing some progress. Because if they keep coming up with the same numbers on those early votes, Well, guess what?

just is not working. How much progress are we really having here?

So, what you said first when you came on the air, you said they want an agreement, not the primary. Conservatives, Republican conservatives? That's right. But you start to get onto some interesting political ice there because you you are having members of Congress uh bas basically make an agreement as to something that they would do or not do politically. Um you might start to get into some interesting ethical territory there.

But there's been some fights among different Republican groups. Uh and this uh pack. that is aligned with Kevin McCarthy to say, all right, all right, we won't play against uh the club for growth. uh which is which is very conservative and wants certain things.

Now, Kevin McCarthy, you know, if he doesn't have some of those people get elected, that probably helps him. If there are very conservative people, though, we've seen very conservative, Trump-aligned candidates lose in primaries, seats that Republicans probably should have won. I said this on the air a couple of times yesterday, Brian, that Kevin McCarthy, there were certain Trump-backed candidates that lost primaries. Who would have, if it was a quote-quote mainstream Republican, however you define that. Probably would have supported Kevin McCarthy, but they were taken out in the primary.

And so that would have made Kevin McCarthy's situation better.

So this might help him now, it might not help him later.

So, why did they wait so long to get into nuts and bolts? And I want you to hear, and I'm sure you watched a special report because you have cable, Chad, and you can afford it. Yeah, you're right. Right.

So I uh. I want you to hear. I thought this was so interesting that Chip Roy all of a sudden decided to tell Brett exactly what he was looking for. Cut 13. I want to be able to have enough members of the Rules Committee that we can block bad bills.

So that could be three, that could be four, and I want to make sure that Republicans are the ones making sure that those bills get through the rules committee to the floor. And I want an open amendment process, and I want to be able to have the ability to make points of order on the floor if amendments aren't going to be able to be relevant if they're not germane, etc.

So I was thinking to myself, wait a sec, where's my pen?

Now you finally have said specifically what you want. Do you do you think does he effectively represent more than Chip Roy?

Well, I think that that is one of the things that they certainly want. And the importance of the Rules Committee is the Rules Committee is the gateway to the House floor for legislation. of what you've seen speakers of both parties do. is they draw up a bill. It doesn't go through the regular process.

A lot of bills don't go through the regular process here. They have to get it through the rules committee. They stack the The ratio on the rules committee is way, way, way in favor of the majority, whichever party is in charge, the Democrats and the Republicans, because you have to get your bill on the floor. And then on certain bills, they lock down the amendment process. In other words, what we call up here on Capitol Hill a closed rule.

You have open rules or semi-open rules. You say, Okay, we're going to have four or five amendments or whatever. But if you're trying to ram something through and there's a government shutdown deadline or the debt ceiling is going to happen, you don't have time to have those amendments in an open amendment process that's going to take days. And that's why speakers Have Have run the rules committee with an iron fist from the speaker's office here because they need that sort of power to kind of make the machinery work.

Now, you might say, okay, let's give the power back to the members. Fine, well and good. But what happens if you get into a debt ceiling crisis this spring? And all of a sudden you have uh the creditworthiness of the United States being marked down because there's so much drama. They can't get a bill out of the rules committee.

You know, that's what happened, Brian. in twenty eleven, even though they finally raised the debt ceiling. It was just the drama on Capitol Hill forced the credit ratings agencies to lower. the credit rating of the United States. And you're going to see a repeat of that.

if you don't have that happen.

Now the other thing too is they say, well we want to control spending.

Well, if they really want to control spending, here's what they would do. They would cut Pentagon spending. and they would cut entitlements. Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. That is close to 80% of all federal spending in those two sentences I just uttered right there.

So if you want to cut spending, Uh that's where you cut. You don't cut from HHS. You don't cut from the Department of Education. You don't cut from the Interior Department, you cut from those agencies. Republicans aren't going to be willing to do that.

So that's a problem when you come to effectuating some of that change.

So How would you describe it? I'm talking with Chad Pergram on Capitol Hill. Chad, what is the perfect speaker? Like, people think, well, I want the most conservative that's exactly like me, but that's not really the attributes of a speaker. I mean, think about it.

Newt Gingrich says great philosophy, conservative thought, deep thinker, great history knowledge. But how can you convince others to vote the same way? How can you deal with moderates in your party, severe conservatives in your party, maybe liberal Republicans? And also, maybe there's some Democrats to convert, and while dealing with the other body to get legislation passed, maybe the most conservative person who's listening right now might not be the best speaker. Yeah, you you sometimes have seen different speakers kind of match where the party in in the majority is.

You know, there was a time and place where Newt Gingrich was the right speaker because he brought them into the majority. That doesn't seem to count right now. You have people like Nancy Pelosi, who was loved by her caucus, but also kind of ruled with an iron fist. Uh there was an element of fear there to some degree, but most people said, yeah, she made people feel good.

So, people were willing to get behind her. That was very important. John Boehner was somebody, Paul Ryan was somebody who made sure they got out in front of the train. They saw which direction the tracks. Train was coming, and that's what they did.

That's not a criticism. Denny Hastert, and say what you will about Denny Hastert and his problems that we found out about him after he left Congress. But he said, I'm not so much of a speaker, I'm more of a listener. You see this in congressional leadership. There's a reason why it's called leadership.

that they try to get a sense, the pulse of where the Congress is or the the country, and then they put things in in such a way that it uh that it matches what they do. You know, something that John Lawrence who was Pelosi's chief of staff, used to tell me, he would always quote McJagger, He would say that she would often, you know, not give people what they want, but give them what they need. And sometimes members didn't know. what they needed, what they needed politically, what they needed for their district. They would say they would want one thing, but what they needed was something else.

And and say what you will about Nancy Pelosi, but that's why she was effective. She was very good at ultimately figuring out what members needed. And if what I needed was inside information for our audience, T V and radio, and any time I sound smart, it's because Chad texts me back.

So, Chad, I really appreciate you helping me out. I'm on the set a lot of times and you're writing me, so I truly appreciate it. Call me anytime. You got it. Chad Pergram, as knowledgeable as anyone in the country, back in a moment.

Expanding your knowledge base, it's the Brian Kilmead Show. A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Mark Thiessen's with us now. You know, Mark, former speechwriter, Fox contributor, our supposed columnist.

Mark, we've never seen anything like this before. Do you think from your sources we're going to get a speaker today? I really don't know.

So there's it's twenty versus two oh one. The question is who moves, the twenty or the two oh one? Uh who's more likely to move? Uh Probably the 201 than the 20, or some fraction thereof. I mean, and just to be clear, I draw a distinction between some of the people in the 20.

I think Chip Roy is a very serious guy. I think Matt Gates is kind of a clown. And so you've got this coalition of these sort of But Chip Roy wants to make the government work better and to be more responsible and fiscally conservative. Matt Gates wants to blow the whole thing up, and he doesn't care. And so the question, I'm sure you could cut a deal with Chip Roy.

I don't know that you can cut a deal with Matt Gage or Lauren Bobert or some of these other people. And so, you know, I don't know where it's going to end up. It's quite a remarkable and unprecedented situation, and it bodes really poorly. Even if McCarthy pulls this out, he's going to regret having done it because these people are going to be going to be a speaker with a gun to his head, his entire speakership. This bodes terribly for.

What's going to happen for running this conference and getting things done during the election? Because you basically have a, you know, he's the speaker, you know, in practice, formally, but, you know, Matt Gates is going to be the speaker behind the scenes running the show and having a gun to hit McCarthy's head and telling him what he can do and what he can't do. But I can't see that. I mean, Matt Gates has even abandoned Trump.

So you can't even say, well, that red that right wing of the party, the left wing of the party, the Romney started. No, none of that. I don't even know what part of this is. This is like the the fringe. Right?

This is not mega Republicans who are doing this. These are people who are so far to the right and so destructive that they're even beyond Trump. In terms of where they are, and they want to burn the whole thing down. And they don't care. It's like the Joker in the dark night, right?

Some people just want to see things burn. Uh I think that's where they are, where some of these people are, and they're burning down the Republican majority before it's even seated. I don't think there's any question. Here is Chip Roy, cut 13. I want to be able to have enough members of the Rules Committee that we can block bad bills.

So that could be three, that could be four, and I want to make sure that Republicans are the ones making sure that those bills get through the rules committee to the floor. And I want an open amendment process, and I want to be able to have the ability to make points of order on the floor if amendments aren't going to be able to be relevant if they're not germane, et cetera. So, I mean, this is stuff that you would think they would handle. I don't really see Kevin Carthy having a problem with that. He wants conservatives on the rules committee.

Yes, but also keep in mind that like if you're one of the two hundred one who's backing him, like why should why should the people who are like holding a gun to Kevin McCarthy's head have have this power? You know, you're you're looking at this like you're a loyal Republican, you're and you know, by the way, there's there's almost no liberal Republicans left in the party. This is between this is a battle between the right and the far r far extreme right, right?

So, you know, th why should uh a lot of people look at this saying I'm loyal to McCarthy and I'm I have priority. Why should these twenty people have like this disproportionate say in what the conference does? And here's the thing also, which we which we're which is the huge irony of this whole situation. The reason this House majority is so small is that the majority of the m is because we nominated too many candidates like Gates. Around the country.

We nominated too many extreme candidates, and voters didn't endorse Joe Biden. They rejected a lot of Republicans because we chose badly. And because so many of those candidates lost, we have this small minority, a small majority, which now empowers the same people who got rejected at the polls to the same lunatics to run the asylum.

So You can't get anything done right now. And overall, I don't mind a long debate. I don't mind things that are atypical if it moves it forward. When it's all said and done, the one person I think whose profile has been raised is Byron Donalds. What about you?

Yep. Yes, absolutely. And, you know, it's good to the extent I don't think he's going to be the speaker, but he's only been in Congress for two years, you know, so I don't even know what a lot of his positions are. But I see him on your show all the time. I see him on Fox.

He's articulate, he's thoughtful, and it's great to see some.

Somebody emerged from this chaos who's like actually a good future conservative leader.

So I don't think he's going to get the speakership, but here's the scenario you could see happening: that Kevin McCarthy can't get the votes. And so we end up having somebody else as the speaker. The Freedom Caucus folks. They have the power to block McCarthy. They don't have the power to elect their own speaker.

So they're going to have to, if they want to kill McCarthy, they can do it. But they can't pick the successor. And so you could have somebody, who's it going to be? Probably someone like Steve Scali, who is respected by both the right and the moderate. But he's also going to do the same thing that McCarthy would or wouldn't have done.

So weird. Mark Thiessen, thank you. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Killmeade. I think we all feel the same way, whether you currently plan or done planned.

Like, you're shook about this because You just never thought you would see some like this on the field. It's bad enough when you see a guy getting carted off, right? That's like. That messes with you. Or you see a guy take a really bad concussive shot, right?

And you're like, man, like... I don't want that to be me. Like, am I gonna be able to have my cognitive function that I want at 50 and 60? And and what am I what kind of risk am I really set myself up for, but this kid's 24 years old, right? You know, this really me up last night.

And that is Aaron Rodgers, arguably the best quarterback ever on the Pat McAvee show, talking about the big kid on Monday Night Football that took out and still has in critical condition DeMar Hamlin of the 24-year-old defensive back for the Buffalo Bills. And they stopped the game. It's never that I can know, could tell it's never been done before. It's a key game ending the season. I don't know how they're making it up.

That's the least important thing or will be an important thing as he recovers. But what about this happening? What exactly happened? Many people do not think this is a preexisting condition. It is something that exists.

Out there that happens very rarely, usually in younger players. Joining us now to put in perspective is Rick Wolf, nationally recognized expert in the field of sports psychology and sports parenting. Rick has got a great show on WFAN on Sundays. He's also the author, college coach, and a former professional baseball player himself, whose dad was one of the greatest broadcasters ever locally in the New York area. We know him by his Bob Wolf.

Rick, welcome back. Hey, Brian, good to talk to you. Although obviously This has been a very, very tough week for people who follow sports, particularly for sports parents. Because um Yeah, there's something about about when you see a player go down, Like Hamlin did, it just strikes right to the core of one's heart and soul. It's tough.

It's very tough.

So what people are pointing to is something that happens about two hundred documented play cases since nineteen ninety five, and actually happened for the first time that we know of in a major way on a lacrosse field. When a goalie was playing his first game ever in high school sports, he got hit in the chest with a lacrosse ball, and it struck his heart. It's called Cominutio Cordis. Commercial Cordis. Yeah, Cordis.

And he was not able to recover. No one knew what exactly happened. They give him CPR.

Now that we have defibritors on almost every sideline on almost every level, that could have saved. DeMar, what do you think about this and that possibly being the diagnosis?

Well, you know, it's funny. I had a long talk yesterday with doctor Franklin Zimmerman, who is a noted cardiologist. He's been on my show several times in years past, and he's going to be on my show again this Sunday. And I said to him, I said, Doctor Zumun, when I saw this happen, As millions of people did, you know, it was a, it looked like a routine tackle. You know, DeMar got up, then he staggered and fell backward.

It looked to me as though I'm watching, I'm witnessing, as you just mentioned, Brian, this Kamocho cordis. And Zimmerman said, nobody has said that yet because obviously, the doctors are being very, very hush hush. All they have said is that it appears that Damar suffered cardiac arrest. under the realm of cardiac arrest, Is something like we just mentioned, commercio cordis, and the way it was described to me. Is that it's first of all, as Dr.

Zimmerman told me, it's extremely rare because it has to have a confluence of all these precise factors happen at the same time. It has to be a hit. Right to the heart. It has to be a solid hit, but not an overwhelming hit. It has to hit the heart when it's between heartbeat at just the precise timing so that the heart goes into this arrhythmia, and that's what causes this cardiac arrest.

Yes, as you mentioned, there is a history. It's been known for some time. You mentioned the poor kid some 20 years ago who was killed in the lacrosse game. There was also a lacrosse player at Cornell a few years back. Same thing happened to him.

The kid out in, I believe, Long Island was a goalie. The kid at Cornell was a midfielder, got hit by a pass in his chest and collapsed in the field and died. There is lots of examples now of commotional cordis. And as you said, thank goodness. The only silver lining from these situations is that we've seen almost every school district in the country now has these fibrillators right there.

They had to have a trainer at every game, every practice. They're all trained. The coaches are trained in CPR. It is absolutely essential when the kid goes down and you have to go into immediate plans to try and save that kid's life.

So it's. From a parental perspective, Brian, E every parent knows that there's an assumption of risk in any game their kid plays. That's just the nature of sports. But nobody really talks about it because who wants to put a damper on the kids' fun and play? But yeah, there's always an assumption of risk.

And certainly, this was a giant wake-up call when we saw what happened to Hamlin. And again, we hope and pray this kid pulls through and can recover. But it's parents have to understand that, yeah, this can get very, very dangerous very quickly. And hopefully the team your kid plays on has the facilities to make sure that there's immediate medical treatment is given to them when they go down. Yeah, I want you to hear what Zach Taylor said went into postponing the game.

He's the coach of the Bengals, Cut33. Yep. I've seen the TV copies now, and everybody else was kind of forced to think that way because they're not down there in the moment. That never crossed any of our minds. It was just, how is this player going to be okay?

So then, when the ambulance starts to pull away, is really the first moment anyone gets to even. think about anything. And and in that moment, um You know, I came together with Sean McDermott and the officials kind of led the way there and it was determined just to take a few moments as teams to just process what had happened and separate and go to our sidelines and just take a few moments to process because no one had had that chance. You know, I I look at Sean and those players, all they were doing was looking at their teammate and their brother and hoping for the best there. That's the only thing going through their minds.

So, and they decided to do something.

Now, listen, Rick, you know, Dennis Bird in New York when he took that hit from a fellow player and he was paralyzed, never walk again. They went back and played that game. Mike Utley, Detroit Lions, paralyzed. They went back and continued that game. This obviously was the right move.

No one's criticizing it. But I understand too, in Norway, when the soccer player went down a few months ago, they finished that game.

So it's pretty extraordinary that they did make this move, especially because the league really has no template to make up this game. Yes, but I the and you're right. I mean, it's as always, these are judgment calls because yes, athletes do get hurt and sometimes very seriously injured. And the question then is, well, do we continue to play or do we just suspend the game and make it up later on? I was under the impression that the NFL did have some sort of.

And I could be wrong about this because the NSL hasn't said much, but they do have some sort of template to follow if something like this happens. And obviously, in this case, it took. The league, you know, a good half an hour, 45 minutes to finally decide we're just gonna suspend the game. But I think everybody felt the same thing. And I felt so sorry for those fans in the stadium because they're sitting there saying, Well, what do we do?

Do we just go home? Do we stay here? I mean, it was clear the players, the emotional reaction of the players themselves. But they were no No way in the world they were going to be able to conclude that game and finish it.

So it was a smart move to have done that. Um but yeah, this happens unfortunately a lot uh in terms of injuries to to serious injuries. I mean I've I'm old enough to remember lying watching in college when Chuck Hughes who was a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, in a game against the Bears, um He went he was as I said, he caught a pass. A couple of plays later, he went down on the long pass pattern again and he collapsed on the field and died. Again, this was nineteen seventy one.

which is the dark ages of medical emergency treatment for athletes. But as I recall, they finished the game. I mean, they sort of took Hughes off the field and they finished the last three or four minutes of the game.

So yeah, that is the only Only NFL player who had died due to being, you know, having a heart attack on the field. Um But yeah, this is something that nobody likes to think about, but it's there. And of course, the reason we love sports so much is because of the fact that. That it's an escape from the harsh realities of the real world. We like to see athletes perform and the ups and downs and the emotional highs of the game.

So when something bad happens, it's a real It's very, very sobering. Talking to Rick Wolfe, sports psychologist. And here's a quote that came across seven minutes ago from the Bills. It says: Per the physician caring for DeMar Hamlin at the University of Cincinnati, DeMar has made remarkable improvement over the last 24 hours while still critically ill. He has demonstrated that he appears to be neurologically intact.

His lungs continue to heal, and he's making steady progress. Very grateful. I know they flipped him over and they're keeping him in an induced coma. I did not know that they freeze at first.

So, these cardio experts that we talked to say almost like with the paralyzation, when they said the quicker we can get you on ice, the better. They same thing with the heart. I did not know that. Yes, I'm not a cardiologist either, but I was talking to Dr. Zimmerman, who is, and he said, yes, the fact that they flipped him over to get rid of some of the excess liquid in his lungs, that was significant.

And I did ask Dr. Zimmerman, if any Curious that you're not we're not getting you don't you're not hearing from the attending physician at the University of Cincinnati. Nobody from the medical staff has had a press conference about the kid's status. Maybe they don't want to give out more information or they don't want to take questions. I don't know.

It just seems that we're getting these dribs and drabs Thank goodness they've been positive, but I'm surprised we haven't heard more in the last couple of days. Rick Wolf, so for parents out there who say, I'm not going to put my kid in sports, it's too much of a risk. I'm not going to do it. What do you say?

Well, that that's that may be a knee jerk reaction. But the fact is, I mean, all of life is an assumption of the risk. As we all know, you can just, you know, literally try to cross the street and get hit by a runaway car. You can't, you got to live your life with a sense of courage and determination. And as a parent, I would just say, look, you can have these conversations with the youngsters, and you probably should when they're old enough to understand what you're talking about.

But you have to make sure you keep it in a perspective: like, hey, you got to live your life. You can't just turn away and say, I'm not going to do this because I'm afraid I might get hurt. That's not really being fair to your youngster. And by the way, a family member says has just tweeted this out: our boy is doing better, awake, and showing more signs of improvement. Thank you to be to God.

And Rick Lastley, on a much lesser note, we know the men's soccer team did pretty well in the World Cup. They got out of the group stage, they got into the knockout round. But now we know Greg Berlholter, the coach who played with Claudio Reyna, who was captain, they played in high school and college. They played in high school and then on the national team together. He's now the coach.

Claudio Reyna's son, one of the most talented Americans, he basically got benched the entire World Cup and was forced to apologize to his team for so-called taking it bad. Then we find out the wives are friendly, and the wives make a call to the U.S.

soccer and says to Ernie Stewart, a former player in the national team, he says, I just got to tell you, 20 years ago, Greg Berlholter kicked his wife in a domestic incident. They were boyfriend, girlfriend, now they've been married for 20 years. And then the U.S.

soccer has done a full investigation into Greg Berlholter for an incident that happened 20 years ago.

So I guess see it's a pattern. Talk about this. A lot of people are saying this is like bad youth parenting when parents get involved with coaches because they don't like their kids' playtime. Brian, first of all, from what I have read, it was more than twenty years ago. It was thirty one years ago when Berlholter was eighteen.

I'm not going to in any way try to defend him for basically allegedly kicking his girlfriend. at the time, who then became his wife and they have four kids and they're all happily married. But this is the ultimate in sports parenting in the sense that you take a step back and these are two disgruntled mom and dad saying, well, my kid didn't get enough playing time in the World Cup.

So I'm going to basically go to the US soccer and say, well, you know, your coach is a bad guy because three decades ago, he kicked his girlfriend and therefore he got investigated and got didn't get his contract renewed. I mean, really? Is that the takeaway we want from this? That because my kids are getting a playing time in the World Cup, that we're just going to talk trash about the coach and get him fired? Is that the right way?

It's lose-lose all around. The other thing to keep in mind, too. Yeah, I mean, I'm not even sure that it matters, but. Maybe Burr Holter is benching the kid, who seems to be one of the best players the country's ever produced. Benching the kid because he's mad at the parents prior to this.

I'm not even sure, but it's crazy. I don't know how to connect, and as you mentioned, Berholter and the Reynolds. They've been friends for 30 some odd years. It's so strange. But unfortunately, the takeaway is it it really leaves a very Very bad image for U.S.

soccer. And unfortunately, they've made a lot of mistakes over the years. They just can't seem to get their act together. Here's a case where the U.S. men's soccer team finally gets to the knockout round, which is a great advance for them.

You know, and now we're going to basically taint that achievement by saying, well, we're going to fire the coach because one of the players didn't put enough effort in, and the parents complain. This sets a terrible, terrible precedent. After all the years we've tried to tell parents, stay out of the way of the coach, let the coach do their job. And now this is how this plays out. It's just bad.

At the highest level. But you hear it all the time on WFAN in the morning on Sundays, right, Rick? Yes, sir. Sundays on the fan. You got it.

Absolutely.

So Rick Wolf and of course, they went to New Jersey High School, St. Benedict's, I think, right here in New Jersey. And people listening to us now on WABC know that. Rick, always great to get your insight. Thank you.

Brian, always a pleasure to talk to you, my friend. I'll talk to you again soon. All right, and you can follow him on Twitter at CoachWolf. Excuse me, ask Coach Wolf, which is great. He's a great way to get some feedback to put your kids' youth sports exploits in proportion.

Listen to the Brian Kill Me Chill. Back with Coles in a moment. Educating, entertaining, enlightening. You're with Brian Kilmead. The more you listen, the more you'll know it's Brian Killmead.

There are a lot of different nonprofit organizations that purport to defend free speech on behalf of journalists. I won't even bother to name them, but there are a lot of them. H have any have any of them weighed in on this and raised Holy Hell? No, and that's been a profound disappointment. You know, for me personally, I gave to the ACLU for years.

I'm one of those sort of died-in-the-wold liberals and grew up that way. I'm deeply disappointed. I think a lot of people who are sort of politically on that side of the aisle are missing the boat on this. They don't understand the gravity of the situation. They're thinking about this in partisan terms.

It's not a partisan story. This is a story about the architecture of the intelligence community and law enforcement getting its hands on speech and on the ability of people to communicate with one another through platforms like Twitter and Facebook. And they're doing this in a very profound way, much more serious than I thought at the beginning of this story.

So that was so telling. And he said he grew up giving to ACLU. You know exactly where he stands politically, which made him the perfect pip for Eli pick for Elon Musk to disseminate these communications. Doug listening on K L I N. Hey, Doug, in Nebraska.

Hey, Brian. Great show today. Thank you. I love the Twitter file story to me is endlessly intriguing, but not many outside Fox are picking it up. Do you am I in a bubble here?

Well Well, maybe you are, but I don't know, you're not. It's typical media. They're hiding it again.

So what's on your mind? I wanted to make a comment on your previous c uh interview with the Tabar thing. One, I want to compliment every freaking American out there that has contributed to his fund. That is fantastic. He's got about $8 million.

My grandson had played, yeah, and my grandson had played sports, and then 11. He got or a kid and he got injured in football. you know, minor concussion.

So he said I'm smart enough, I'm not going to do that. We flipped him over to baseball. But my question to the NFL. Rydell and all the sports manufacturer equipment manufacturers. Why have they not, if they've known about this, made some kind of protective gear.

That checks that isn't. Yeah, check out Unequal. It's online right now. They have it, it's Half Kevlar. And this Saturday, I'm going to be talking to the family that lost their son who was a goalie who took that shot in the chest, and what's been done since, if it indeed happened that way on Monday Night Football.

Thanks, Doug. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead. Hey, thanks so much for being here, everybody. It's the Brian Kill Me Chow coming from 48th and 6th in Midtown Manhattan.

Heard around the country, heard around the world. And it looks like Rupert Murdoch has re-upped the lease on this building.

So I hope to get a new rug. There's no sense in thinking we're going to be moving, so we got 20 more years in this building at 12-11. Joining us shortly, Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, the former FBI guy, now representative of a great district in Pennsylvania, actually the first district in Pennsylvania. And bottom of the yarrow, the latest on Vladimir Putin and the war that he started in Ukraine. Former U.S.

Ambassador to NATO, former United States Special Representative for Ukraine negotiations. Kurt Volcker is going to be with us. There's news on Vladimir Putin. That is hopeful that he looks like he's going to go for a 36-hour pause. That's the first time in about nine months.

So let's get to the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. I think we can say pretty conclusively after looking at. Tens of thousands of emails over the course of these weeks that the government was in the censorship business in a huge way. That's, I think, provable now.

Yes, and that is Matt Taibbi, stunned. That's how Taibbi describes the strange silence from the left over his reporting on the Twitter files. Lawmakers, law enforcement, CIA, all forcing Twitter's hand to squelch dissenting voices from COVID to conservatives. Left-wing journalists, not interested?

Well, we are. Number two. Are you gonna be within the border when you head down to Mexico? That's my intention. We're working out the details now.

Yeah, well, we got some details. It'll be El Paso going to the border. That's what the president said yesterday, making his first visit as president. And in his life, his HHS secretary says the entire system is strained. That's an understatement, don't you think?

Number one. Republicans just need to quit goofing around on the Kevin McCarthy situation. He has ninety percent of the vote. There's twenty holdouts. I've never seen where ten percent got to control ninety.

But that's exactly what's happening. The sixth strike. Excuse me, the six strikes, and guess what? Kevin McCarthy is not out. Still the frontrunner to become Speaker after two days of almost no progress.

He might have made progress last night. Widely reported that he's conceded to more to the Freedom Caucus. Will he lose the rest of his caucus? Let's bring in Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick for the details. He's been running interference between the two groups.

Congressman, welcome back. What could you tell us? Hey, Brian, good morning.

Well, we had a great meeting last night. The volume and the temperature were reduced dramatically, which is ninety percent of the battle here. Um, you know, and everybody exchanged ideas and we're colleagues in the Freedom Caucus. told us what they were looking for.

So now we got to sell it today to our, you know, I'm the head of the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group. We have Republican Main Street and the Tuesday group. There are three different caucuses that generally have the center part of the conference. And we just got to sell them on the changes and hopefully we can put something together. But I really do agree.

I mean, you know, Kevin's gotten 90 to 92 percent in every single round. There's no red robin that I've ever been a part of where the person with 90 percent drops out.

So I don't know how this narrative started that Kevin should be dropping out. 90% of the conference is behind him, and we're going to stick with him. If we've got to be here on the 4th of July voting for Kevin, we will. Hopefully, it doesn't take that long. Right.

It looks like Ken Buck says: listen, I want Kevin, but if we don't get something today or the next day, we've got to move on. You don't feel that way. Not at all, because I truly believe that there's nobody else in our conference that can get to 218. I think the choice, if we're being honest, the choice is. Either Kevin McCarthy gets elected with Republican votes.

Or we have to form some kind of coalition government across the aisle. We are the only check right now in the Biden administration. The voters handed us a four-seat majority. The Democrats controlled the Senate by one vote. We're the only check.

Uh so we gotta get her act together quick.

So what could you tell us are the concessions that the rest of the conference might be asked to deal with?

Okay. Well, it's you know, a big one is the motion of vacate, bringing it down from five to one. I personally don't care about it, Brian. I I've been convinced by From my colleagues, that they're not going to misuse it if they do. You know, we have other, you know, we have a discharge position, we have other things we can do.

To circumvent that, they want representation on some of the key committees that have to deal with budgetary controls.

So, the Rules Committee, the Appropriations Committee, and the Budget Committee. They want to avoid another omnibus situation that we were confronted with a few weeks ago.

Okay. So, I don't think it's anything too offensive. Today, we've got to sell it to our more moderate members, and I'm confident I'll be able to do that with my group. I understand, too, this could be a sticking point. How many members of the Freedom Caucus are going to be on the Rules Committee?

Number one, I hear is between two and three. What do you think is exceptional? How many are there? Nine? Total?

Yeah, there's n there's nine total. They would pick two members and Kevin would pick one uh uh another a third member of the Freedom Caucus uh from their group.

So there would be three out of the nine. Um I'm totally fine with that. The Freedom Caucus represents about twenty two percent of our conference as far as membership goes. They'd have 33% of the members on this committee. That's not offensive to me.

I'm fine with that. What about is it true that you guys are going to include a vote on term limits? Yes, which by the way, Brian, I mean that that's a brand new thing they brought up. I've been begging for a vote on term limits since I got here. It's the first bill I introduced every Congress.

So I welcome that. It's a constitutional amendment.

So it requires two-thirds of the House and two-thirds of the Senate. I think we should put it up for a vote. Um but that was a new request.

So it's disingenuous for anyone to say that Hedron was not allowing this. This was a brand new ask. which I welcome, by the way, that just came in a few days ago.

So I just want to tell you, Chip Roy let it be known that they're finally going to deal, a deal, I think, in specifics. How hard has it been over the last few days? Because it seems like all 20 had different goals. Am I correct? That's exactly right, Brian.

That's been the challenge. For some people, the issue, the sticking point was the motion of vacate. For some people, it was budgetary controls. For some people, it was ratios on steering committee and rules committee.

So every single one of them were an individual case.

So it was hard to bring them all in a group and try to make any progress.

So we're doing more individual meetings with them. I think the most important thing, Brian, is. that we had to start by lowering the volume and the temperature of the discourse. Everyone's very emotional, people are very passionate. And when we're doing that, we're listening to each other, we're recognizing that any differences between us pale in comparison to the differences between us and the people on the far left, and we have an obligation.

We have a four vote margin. This is our only check on this administration, and we've got to get Iraq together. And it's also becoming a national security issue, Brian. I'm on the House Intelligence Committee. We're not even given access to the SCIF right now.

We have we we oversee the nineteen intelligence agencies in this country. We're not even a forms committee right now. It's it's not a good thing for our country.

So I want you to hear what Victoria Sparks said yesterday as she went to she just voted present, Cut 15.

Well, I think it's important for us as Republicans to address concern and come to an agreement and not waste everyone's time. We need to have further deliberation to make sure that we can elect a speaker. And Kevin still needs to have a discussion with the members that have concerns if you want to be a speaker.

So we need to go back to the conference room and have this discussion, not wasting time on the floor because no one is going to budge. It's not going to change.

So were you surprised she left? Will she come back? Yeah. Victoria will absolutely come back. I'm not worried about Victoria at all.

We don't need to worry about any of them that are objecting based on policy because we can get there with those people. It's the people that are objecting based on some personal Mandeta or animus. That's hard to overcome. Not saying we can't get those people back as well. Um but the policy related folks and Victoria's certainly in that camp she will certainly Uh be with Kevin at the end.

So I want you to do what Ken Buck said about an hour ago to Bill Hammer on our channel when talking to Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick. I think there is an agreement. I think it's a reasonable agreement. And I think what's holding it up right now is there's sort of a blood oath between the 20 that they won't move until they're all ready to move. And so even though 9, 10, 11 of them may agree to this compromise that's been reached, I don't think that they will all move until they're all ready to move.

Well, that's interesting.

So you're going to get all 20 or none, according to Ken Bucks in your corner, by the way.

So would have you heard that? It's going to be a collective move? I've not heard that. I don't know if that was a development after our meeting last night. If so, we'll hopefully be learning that soon.

But I honestly don't I can't see that, Brian. I we need a number of things to happen.

So we need some of them to get to yes. And the people that can never get CS, we at least need them to vote present because that at least takes numbers off the denominator.

So for every two numbers That come off the denominator, one comes off the numerator. For every two people to vote present, the number will go from 218 to 217.

So on and so forth.

So, for the people that can't bring themselves to utter Kevin's name on the floor, if they can just build present, they can still keep their word and also not object our efforts.

So overall, Congressman, what changed over the last two days? And how do you describe Kevin McCarthy's attitude through this? Kevin is he's Brian is I have never been around a person in my life that is so resilient. And that is he just has an indomitable spirit. I've been so impressed by him.

He's had a very tough task. I mean, leading this conference. With large margins, it's hard because we're a lot of independent thinkers in this group. That's just our nature. And to navigate this and thread this needle.

Takes an awful lot of skill and an awful lot of patience and an awful lot of hard work. And it's just so important, Brian, that all your listeners know. Kevin, He has spent Seven years. focused on this. When he dropped out in twenty fifteen, 99 out of 100 people would have walked away.

He stayed, he fought, he's led our conference for four years, he's traveled to every single congressional district in the country, he's broken all fundraising records, raised over half a million dollars. He slept more nights in a Marriott than he spent in his own home. He spent more time with us and our colleagues than he has his own family. And he deserves this. And he's a great leader, and we are not going to leave his side.

We're going to be with him on round one, round one hundred, round a thousand. We are not leaving him. And we will find a way to get this done.

Well, I want you to hear a guy that seems to be a definite no said this last night on well, probably at twelve o'clock one o'clock in the morning, cut eight. Part of the groupthink of Washington, D.C. is you come here and you've just got to give the lobbyists your vote card and the leadership your calendar, and everything will be okay. Kevin McCarthy has no ideology. Even his own supporters would admit that in pride that he is simply a vessel through which lobbyists and special interests operate.

So it's not that we're not being team players, it's just that my team are the people in Florida who sent me here to fight for them. My team is not the assembly of groupthink that occurs inside the swamp. We've got to drain this swamp. We shouldn't put one of the alligators in charge. It looks like one of the alligators drained the swamp, all the phrases.

Now, if you look at the guy that was draining the swamp, Donald Trump, he fully backs Kevin McCarthy. But yet Matt Gates says sad that he's backing Kevin McCarthy. Warren Boebert said he's wrong. He's wrong on this. He should back somebody else.

So you can't even say that there's any leader there. Yeah, you can't beat somebody with nothing with nobody, Brian. Kevin's the only person that can get two eighteen in our conference. Everybody knows that. That's why we're sticking with him, and we're going to find a way to get this done.

We just hope it's sooner rather than later, because we cannot have one third of our government offline for weeks. It's a dangerous thing. It's dangerous, certainly, from a national security standpoint and many other aspects. Kevin's earned this. He deserves it.

We're not going to leave his side. And I will tell you, Brian, Kevin, we all represent our districts. Just like Matt said, our bosses are our people back home. Kevin is the leader of a party.

So he also has to represent the views of the entire conference. And we have a very diverse conference. We have everybody from the Tuesday group to the Freedom Caucus and everyone in between. And Kevin has to represent everybody.

So I think it's important that our members understand that. Cancers represent one part of the conference. Uh once you're past the age, maybe past seventh grade, we should pretty much realize that. Uh so just real quick, do you think there'll be a vote at noon today? I hope there isn't because it'll just be another show vote.

And if they I think we should move to adjourn and if people are objecting to the adjournment, they just want to see another spectacle on the floor. We don't have an agreement yet. We're making great progress. We need to get that agreement into writing. We need to draft a new rules package.

That rules package then needs to be released. and be out there for seventy two hours before we can vote on it. Um so I I don't think we're ready to vote right now. And if People want us to vote. They just want to see another damn of a sideshow in a circus.

Okay, so in other words, so the new rules package has to be out there for 72 hours? Yes. In fact, that's one of the one of the rules changes that was made was that we will not vote on any bill that has not been out in the public for seventy two hours to give the media time to dissect it, members and staff time to read it.

So we have to follow our own rule, obviously, and we have to put it out there.

So that being said, I mean, we're not whenever we get to an agreement, we have to wait three days beyond that to even vote on it. Understood.

So lastly, you're an FBI. You have the FBI background.

Now you're in Congress, Brian Fitzpatrick with us. Matt Taibbi is one of the people asked by Elon Musk to go through the communications that existed between Twitter and all types of outlets in the government about what was going on behind the scenes. I want you to hear what he's found so far. Cut 28. I think we can say pretty conclusively after looking at.

Tens of thousands of emails over the course of these weeks that the government was in the censorship business in a huge way. That's, I think, provable now. And not just one agency, really every conceivable wing of the enforcement agencies of the US government were in some way or another sending moderation requests to Twitter. And in many cases, those requests were being fulfilled. And they were coming from everywhere, from every place from the NSA to the HHS to FBI, DHS, even what they call other government agencies, which I think is code for the CIA.

So we have reports from all over, from states, from police departments, everywhere. So the fact that the FBI was so involved He went on to say that the FBI was they paid Twitter $3.4 million, and they say the amount that the FBI was hands-on especially, they underpaid them, that they should have gotten even more. Were you surprised the FBI was this involved? Of course. And Jim Jordan, who's set to lead the Judiciary Committee, Mike Turner, who's set to lead the Intel Committee, are ready to go.

They're going to bring in our intelligence agency officials, including. The FBI director, the CIA director, the NSA director, and ask them these questions. They're going to have to account for all this. And it's very concerning to me, Brian. I'm a career FBI agent.

I'm the only one in Congress. And obviously, I love my old agency. The rank and file agents are tremendous human beings. The problem with the Bureau, and this has been the case for several years now, is the seventh floor of the Jagger-Hoover Building. It's the appointed officials.

The people that are in the management and policymaking roles. It's not the line agents. Yeah. We'll see a lot of them end up working for Twitter and Facebook. Hey, I'll have to leave it there.

Congressman, thanks for keeping me in the loop and keeping our audience in the loop. Thanks so much. You got it, sir. You got it. Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick.

Back in a moment. It's Brian Killmade. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Hey, welcome back.

1-866-408-7669. Just to confirm, I just want to tell you, I mentioned at the top, President Biden is not only going to the border, he's named exactly where he's going. And I give him credit, he's going to go to El Paso. I hope he just doesn't go to the town. I hope he goes right to the border.

I hope he spends more than cursory time there. They said if you show up, it's a photo op. That's what his press secretary said. We all know that was a dumb thing to say because if you want to make it a photo op, you do that. You show up.

Every time you show up at a hurricane, it's not a photo op. It's to go around and see for yourself how many blocks are bad, how much they need to have. When they ask for $2 billion, do I know exactly what they mean?

So, if he shows up at the border, I want him to see it at its worst. El Paso is absolutely terrible. Don't clean it up. Show how bad it is and let everybody know through photos what else you're missing. And I hope Governor Abbott shows up and brings him through.

And I hope he's invited to go down along with the Democratic mayor there. And I hope he gets to witness them getting on buses and going to other cities around the country, not because they're used as pawns, but because you can't keep them in these small border towns. There are no infrastructure. There's no long-term facilities. There's certainly no room for the children in schools.

That's your no room anywhere.

So, keep it here. When we come back, I'm going to be joined by Kurt Volcker, the ambassador to NATO. There's been some major changes, a major pause in the fighting for the first time in eight months. I'll bring you the details when we come back, and probably kill me, Chum. I'm talking about Ukraine.

So glad you're here. Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Joe. This also just goes to show another interesting dynamic here, one we didn't really need to see proof for: the effectiveness of U.S. and Western-provided weapons all across the front lines and even on the home front.

This attack was done by a High Mars missile system. That's a surface-to-surface missile system, satellite-guided, provided just a couple of months ago by the U.S. And the Ukrainians have been using it to devastating effect. And this is just the latest example.

Now, closer to home, they've been using NASAMs to shoot down the drones that have been. Flying over, pelting Kyiv and the rest of the country. I spoke. With a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, and he just told me that the NASAMs and other German weapons and Western weapons have been devastatingly effective, but this begs the question. Can Russia keep up the pace of these aerial bombardments far from the front line?

Well, all of a sudden they've asked now for a pause to celebrate Orthodox Christmas. Joining me now to make sense of this, if it does make sense, is Ambassador Kurt Volcker, former Ambassador to NATO, former United States Special Representative for Ukraine negotiations. Ambassador, welcome back. That was a major hit over the weekend. You coupled that with, and could take out as many as 400 Russian troops.

One thing they do in Ukraine, they aim for soldiers, not civilians, and they don't capture children and kidnap them, which is the way wars are supposed to be fought, if they have to be fought. But your take on that hit. Yeah, that's exactly right, Brian. You hit a lot of points there already. But first off, as your previous guest was saying, this is a credit to the U.S.

munitions that we're giving them. They're in the front lines. They're being used effectively. Second, the Russians are really losing it. They put all of these fresh recruits, just recently conscripted without much training, into one building.

And the same building where they had stored ammunition. And so when the Ukrainians hit it, not only did they kill a lot of people that sh shouldn't have been all clustered together, but they also detonated all those munitions, which then created a massive explosion and killed even more people. And this ceasefire that Putin's talking about for Orthodox Christmas, I think it's largely because his troops need it. They've seen this devastating impact just now. They know the Ukrainians have more coming.

And I think they're demoralized and they need a break.

So Vladimir Putin always says, yeah, I need a break.

So all of a sudden he becomes very religious. I also, a couple of things are going on, too. I do believe that he found out that these drones have been knocked out of the sky with a missile defense system that is a conglomerate, I understand, of Sweden and the U.S. And if you could stop those is that one way? Yes, that's one way.

And then the other one is a German provided system called a Gepard. And it's it's an anti aircraft gun, thirty five millimeter on top of a tracked vehicle. That's also been very effective around Kyiv.

So the the kill rate of the drones that the Russians have been firing is getting well north of ninety percent now.

So, if you could stop that before even you get the Patriot, I know it's expensive, you don't use a Patriot on a drone, it just doesn't, it's not cost-effective, but if you can get that before We know that Vladimir Putin can't feel confident about his infantry. And if you could stop them from just leveling, aiming and leveling cities and infrastructure. He really is in trouble. He is. He is.

There was a story out this morning, or a couple of them, that we're starting to question Putin's health as well. And this is a story we've heard over the last year. I think this is how this ultimately ends: that we suddenly hear that he's got a serious health crisis, and they, you know, just like a relief pitcher, they pull him out and they put someone in who is going to actually be competent managing things now. And I think that could be an opening for beginning to wind this up. Because as long as he's in power, he's going to keep driving these people forces, driving these forces toward Ukraine, firing missiles, depleting everything.

And he's really weakening Russia right now.

So Ambassador, do you think if Vladimir Putin knew the war would go like this, he would have done it? Probably not. I think that he was way overconfident in Russia's abilities, partly because people would have lied to him about those capabilities, and also way underestimating Ukraine's capabilities, Ukrainian resolve and resilience as a nation, and also Western resolve to help Ukraine. All of those things he got wrong, and now he's out on a limb.

So we're going to deliver the Patriot. I understand tanks, light tanks, are going to be coming from France. Can you give me any information on this? Yeah, this is something that's just coming out now as well. We've been talking about tanks for a long time, but the Biden administration has not wanted to provide the M1, A1.

The Germans have not wanted to provide tanks if they're the only ones doing so.

So the fact that this is starting to move a little bit, with the French suggesting they'll provide some tanks and the U.S. saying we'll provide some armored fighting vehicles, Bradley fighting vehicles, instead of tanks, that's actually a step forward and something the Ukrainians are going to need as they try to take back that territory that the Russians have occupied for a few months. Talking to Ambassador Volcker, Ambassador, one thing that's got the West concern, or some in the West, that's why I'm here, is that it seems like President Zelensky is curbing back a lot of press. And he says, basically, I'm going to give some rules and regulations when it comes to press. That concerns a democracy like ours, where we fight it out in public, much to the chagrin of many people.

What is your reaction to his? A move.

Well, it's a tough one, and there are several factors here that we would have to consider if we were at war as well. One of them is operational security and making sure that your military effort is protected. Second is maintaining the morale of the population, maintaining the narrative, keeping your nation willing to fight. Those are things that are important. Additional is that the financial model for a lot of this diverse news and information in Ukraine has kind of dried up.

Remember, they've lost 30% of their GDP this past year, and a lot of money that would have gone into advertising or support for diverse media just started drying up.

So they consolidated a lot of different news outlets into one that is basically organized by the state. I've done a few interviews with them. I think they ask good questions, but I'm sure they're also restricting the information that they get out in order to try to serve those wartime objectives. I mean, we know that there's absolutely zero free press except for some social media sites and Telegram for the Russians. And even some of their pro-Russia, pro-war outlets are asking questions about the 80,000 to 100 plus thousand that are dead and the overall operations and the cost and the sanctions.

So having said that, when people are pointed and say Ukraine is not a democracy, going by what you said, if they've nationalized the press, I a lot of people are uneasy about this. Is Ambassador Volcker uneasy about it? Yeah, no, I'm not uneasy about it at the moment. It is a wartime situation. They do have a democracy.

Zelensky was elected by a massive popular vote in 2019. He remains very popular in Ukraine. He travels around the country. He sees people. There's no sense that people are dissatisfied with him.

And I think that the democracy is still functioning very well. What we have to watch out for is when the war ends, Ukraine's going to have to dismantle some of these wartime centralized structures. And that's it's it's something that we have to get to. Um and then when we do, it has to happen. But Ambassador, I also understand that the Klitschko faction and the Prushenko faction doesn't really talk to the Zelensky faction.

Can you bring us inside uh how they function? Uh Yeah, a little bit. You know, I I know the mayor pretty well, Klitschko, and he he does talk with the Zielinski team. You know, I think there there is communication there. But they do have some different points of view.

Because the president and the presidential administration is looking at trying to marshal all the resources for the country that they have. The city of Kyiv provides most of those resources because of the economy. And the mayor, of course, wants to control as much of those resources as he can for his leadership of the city.

So there's a built-in tension there. But you have to be clear, though, too. They're all fighting on the same side, whether it's Klitschko or whether it's Zelensky or Poroshenko. This is all about Ukrainians pulling together to save their country.

So when you look at what's happening now with Russia, people say the sanctions aren't working and that there's going to be a hard, it's been a hard winter for Europe. What is it like there? What are gas prices like? What are oil prices like? Yeah, you know, I was just in Europe in December, about three different countries.

And, you know, in one of the countries they had imposed an order to keep the heating down a little bit, so you wore a sweater. There was no restriction of any activity in terms of people driving, in terms of trains, in terms of heating, entertainment, Christmas lighting, etc. Everything was pretty much as normal. Prices are high, but we're dealing with high prices here too.

So it's not that dire in Europe at the moment. In Ukraine, they're having a much harder time because Russia is deliberately targeting the civilian infrastructure and trying to knock out the power. Less and less effectiveness there, but that is what they're trying to do.

So there, when I talk to my Ukrainian friends, they are facing rolling blackouts in order to spread the energy around the country. They are facing occasional water disruptions because the pumping stations don't get power. That's where you really see an impact. Do you think that and we're talking with Ambassador Volcker? Ambassador, do you think that the Ukrainians were happy with Zelensky's visit here or somewhat frustrated because he didn't get everything he wanted?

No, they were happy. I think that he was able to make a more important case than just getting weapons. He was able to make the case that Ukraine is on the front lines of freedom and they're fighting for us. They're fighting for our values. They're fighting for principles of democracy and freedom.

And that, therefore, the U.S. investment in this is not one of just providing aid. It's one of making sure that our values and the right side of this come out on top. And that means that the U.S. aid should be more sustainable.

It shouldn't be that we do this for a year and then walk away, not like we did in Afghanistan with President Biden walking away in twenty twenty one. We need to make sure that Ukraine's victorious here. And I think he made a lot of headway in making that argument. uh these uh attackems that go far further than High Mars that could really push the Russians back. I can't picture the Ukrainians ever giving in to a ceasefire when they still have when they've lost fifteen percent of their land.

Could the attack'ems be a game changer? It would certainly help a lot because of the range. Right now, we restrict the range of the artillery shells that we give the Ukrainians to 80 kilometers. If they could fire 250, 300 kilometers, they could really do serious damage to Russia's ability to supply its attacking forces. They'd be able to target the Kurd Strait Bridge.

They'd be able to target the naval base at Sevastopol. They'd get the logistics lines and hubs that are further back, just as we saw on Makivka the other day. They could hit all kinds of places like that where the Russians are grouping. And that's going to make it very difficult for the Russians to sustain the attack here.

So it would be a game changer if we did that. All right. Thanks so much. Ambassador Volcker. We're all upholding for the Ukrainians to be successful.

And it makes the world a better place if Russia is neutralized. Thanks so much, Kirk. Absolutely.

Yeah, thank you so much, Brian. Thank you. You got it. 1866-408-7669. We come back.

We're going to find out if there's more to know. Just to reaffirm, good news on the Damar front. The 24-year-old Bill's defensive back is beginning to recover, making fantastic progress. That is great. The other thing is, with the president, we'll go to the border before.

Going to meet with other members of this hemisphere of Mexico and Canadian president. He's going to go to the border. He's going to go to El Paso. Please, Mr. President, walk all around, see how bad it is, and get this.

Take action, a political action. Republicans will deal if you can just provide security. That's it. Interested in it? Brian's talking about it.

You're with Brian Kilmead. Hey, just a reminder: don't forget Saturday, 8 o'clock, repeated at 11. One Nation with Brian Killmead on Fox News channel.

So, hope to see you there, covering a lot of these same topics, but bringing him to a whole new level with great perspective.

Now, let's find out to find out if you need to know more while we wait for Saturday. More. To know. Here's an interesting study from Ohio State. When couples work from home, a study finds husbands benefit more than wives.

While the study did find that both husband and wives tended to compete more family-related, complete more family-related tasks while working at home, both partners in a relationship work from home. The men usually completed fewer family tasks. Alternatively, wives did not complete fewer family tasks when their husbands joined them at home. Additionally, despite wives in both projects reportedly more guilty about failing to get more housework and spending more time with their family while working from home, these same trends were only seen among men in one study. We found, quote, that men and women don't have the same experience working from home.

The professor went on to say, there are still some gender differences in how they manage their job and family responsibilities.

Next. It's science. You can't argue with science, and they get just better at it. You got it. Next, children who frequently check their social media face significant brain changes.

Apps such as Instagram or Snapchat could be making teenagers almost constantly checking their phones to see if they have positive or negative reactions to their online posts. Experts say the more people check social media, the more sensitive they become to social feedback. During adolescence, the brain experiences significant structural and functional reorganization.

So, this is what makes them more susceptible. This is another reason just to keep social media in check, right? Not only that, it should also get the kids outside to play and do more activities. Where they can check Instagram outside.

Well, without the phones. Just take the phones away, get them outside.

So you gotta say both next time. Yes. Okay. Next. The sexiest names in the world have been revealed, and I'm ready for the drum roll.

We don't have it, so I'll move ahead. The full list of sexiest names in the world for men. Jack. Nick. James Ben Peter.

That'll give you the top five. For women, it's Mary, Rachel, Kate, Julia, and Eva. I don't get it. It depends on who you associate with, right? Yeah.

But those names are all pretty I mean, no offense to anyone with those first names, but it seems pretty d The most generic. You know, that I mean they should be like ni they should be most sexiest nicknames. Muggsy. Muggy.

Well, Bach. That will be interesting.

Next. Astronomers have discovered two Earth-like planets which sit in the hab uh habitable zone of the solar system. This is great. More people to hang out with. It's 16 light years away, which is how far is that?

Is that That's not something you'll get on the Wazapp. That's relatively close, but still out of our reach. The two planets orbit a tiny red dwarf. Uh named G J one thousand two. The star is just one eighth the mass of the sun, making it very cool and faint.

It also pushes the habitable zone much closer to GJ1002 than the habitable zone in the solar system.

So we have two other planets that we'll never get to.

So now if let's say we find this other planet, we have people living there and your show is going to be broadcast there, would you change the name of your Saturday show? No, I would they'd probably have to get us on satellite. Number one, number two, do they have a football team and do they want to play our Super Bowl champion? There you go. Intergalactic.

In orbit soccer, if they have soccer, would they play Argentina? But what would they call it, though? You know, either football or soccer here in this globe. But in another world, there could be a third name. Yeah, there could be a third name.

So let's not even go there.

Next. A rising group of kidults or adults who buy toys for themselves now make up 25% of the toy consumers market. In the past year, since September, kidults have accounted for 60% of the growth in the industry. Large toy manufacturers like Lego, Hasbro, and Mattel are now creating more products tied to movies from Star Wars and Marvel University, as well as Hot Wheels. This, to me, is just a lack of maturity.

I mean, unless you're a collector, stop with the toys.

Well, sometimes you could call them toys. They could be collectors now. Say there was a really. High-tech Rocky Balboa. Right.

I'd leave it in the plastic. What would you buy? I'd buy leave it in the plastic. I keep it as an ornament.

Okay. But I wouldn't play with it. No, I don't think these. I don't think they're playing. I think people are playing them.

You think so? Yeah, I think they did. Uh could we just get c could you look into that? Would you play with Rocky and say you had Rocky in the Club or Lang doll? Would you have one knock the other out?

Nope. If I felt as if I wanted to interact with him, I'd watch him in the movies. Or one of the Rocky marathons.

Next, seven in 10 relate more with strangers online than their real friends. Out of 2,000 adults surveyed, 43% said they'd chat with their virtual pals for longer periods of time than their real pals. More than the third feel a strong sense of community when discussing their favorite media, such as movies and books and online.

However, when it comes to trends, men feel more pressure than women to read the latest trending book to keep up with everyone else.

So, again, if you're my virtual pal, as opposed to my real pal, know I love you more. approachably. I'd rather talk with you longer because you seem to really listen and understand. Brian Kill Meet Joe. Not Saturday night, 8 o'clock.

And don't forget, we got a big show next. Brian, Tomu.