2024 GOP hopefuls shadow box over the weekend; Trump wins straw poll...

From ISIS. Top Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kill Me. Hello, welcome to the latest moments of the Brian Kill Me Show.

So glad you're here. 1-866-408-7669. And back after the weekend, back in action. I'm sure you saw a lot of the action that took place over the weekend in politics, which I'm sure you have a passion for. Today, the President of the United States will be busy saluting the International Association of Firefighters.

That's an opportunity to get some votes. For the most part, they're not usually in his camp. This hour going to be joined by Stephen Krakauer, Go Inside the Medium. The Media, he's the author of Uncovered: How the Media Got Cozy with Power, Abandoned His Principles, and Lost the People.

So, before we get to Britt U, let's get to the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. Right at the get-go, Dr. Fauci gets an email from Dr. Christian Anderson, which says virus looks engineered, virus not consistent with evolutionary theory.

That same day, Dr. Fauci organizes a conference call. All these other virologists get on there, and three days later, everybody changes their story. That is a little of what's going to be unfolding this week as we go inside the origin of COVID-19. It's coming into focus how Anthony Fauci got the lab leak theory squelched until recently.

He commissioned a memo that concluded it started at a wet market. But why? Culpable, perhaps? If so, we got to get to the bottom of this and try to come to grips with our number one foe, China. Number two.

I think it's a warning sign for the country. Eric Adams has been talking about public safety not only on the campaign trail, but for the first year. I showed up at crime scenes. It is really stating that this is what I have been talking about. America, we have to be safe.

All right, lessons learned perhaps between Joe Biden helping block T.C.'s pro-criminal reforms to the loss of Lightfoot in Chicago as mayor. The message being sent by Americans is that criminals are wrecking this country. Fix it or you're out. We'll discuss. Number We will evict Joe Biden from the White House.

We are never going back to a party that wants to give unlimited money to fight foreign wars. It's insane that Joe Biden has gotten a free pass for this socialist spending spree. That's some of the give and take over the weekend. 2024 really got underway. They pulled the trigger on their starting gun as all the big names subtly shadow boxed each other and gave clues to their battle plan for President Moore.

We will lay it out. As 62% of the people voted against CPAC, what for President Trump? Does that surprise Britt Yoon? Britt, welcome back. Hi, Brian.

To hear from you. Oh, same here. Always great to have you on. I just thought, I really feel like it kicked off this weekend to a degree as Nikki Haley went at Trump, Mike Pompeo went at Trump. Trump began to try to associate DeSantis with Paul Ryan and Jeb Bush.

We had Governor DeSantis taking on Gavin Newsome. Do you get that sense? Yes, I think that's about right, Brian. But so far it's It's been they've been pretty gentle except for Trump. He's never gentle with his criticisms.

um with each other and you know this is a we're at a very early stage year. Um I'm not surprised at all by the sixty two percent uh that uh Trump got in the CPAC straw poll. Uh, CPAC has become the Trump fan club. No kidding. And where Nikki Haley got booed a little bit.

She heard some cat calls as if she's from another party. Although I give her credit, she went to Club for Growth, evidently did not invite President Trump, and she went to CPAC. Same with Tim Scott, went to both. But listen to what Chris Sununu said on Meet the Press, cut three. I've learned that you can't tell people not to run.

If someone really wants to run, they're going to run, and that's fine. But unlike 2016, I'm going to make sure, and I think others folks are going to make sure that we all have the discipline to get out before it's too late. And those that don't, I think will be chastised very publicly for doing so. But I've got to be honest, I've talked to all the candidates. They all understand that.

They really do. We're going to take our time. There's still a lot to play out over the next nine months. I think that he's trying to say is they don't want President Trump. He also went on to say that he doesn't think Trump's going to get the nomination.

So. You get the sense that I get the sense that Trump's winned in the last five polls. He looks strong at CPAC. He certainly has the endurance. He looks like he lost weight.

I mean, you think you can rule out Donald Trump at this point? No, I don't think you can really map. He's in the poll position. Um you know, he's ahead in the polling. But but his margins uh even in the CPAC straw poll vote, which was less than his margins.

in that very same stroke poll in previous years.

So I think he's lost some altitude, but he's still up there pretty high. And he's not somebody who I think is going to fold or fade particularly. He'll be able to raise all the money he needs. He'll still he has his core base of support, which isn't going away. And so he'll be able to stay in it for a long period of time.

Somebody is going to have to just is going to have to beat him. And if it's a splintered field, The you know, on paper at least, it would look like that very much to his advantage. And of course, with all these people either getting in or at least. Acting as if they're going to get in. A splintered field looks like what we're going to get, which is what Chris Sununo is warning against.

Yeah, it's so interesting with all the experience you had of people that are friends and ran against each other, that work with each other. We are going to look at a Vice President, I think, running against his former Boss, president, running mate, Mike Pence. We're going to look at a former Secretary of State, head of the CIA, running against the former president and Mike Pompeo, the former UN ambassador.

So they all agree with Trump on a lot of things, but they're beginning to separate. I thought this was noteworthy. Mike Pompeo cut 10. I was talking about the time to elect serious leaders who are thoughtful, who speak about America as the most exceptional nation in the history of civilization. They're not denigrating it.

They're not throwing out whoppers. They're not spending all their time thinking about Twitter. That's what I was speaking to. It's the moment for celebrity. The moment for stars is not with us.

So, I mean, how could that not be about Trump, right?

Well, he said it wasn't, of course, or he said it no, she wouldn't acknowledge that it was. Um, I think it's unmistakably about Trump. Here's what he did specifically: cut 12. We are $31 trillion in the hole. We've got to begin to grow the economy, build it back with lower taxes.

And when we do that and grow our economy, we'll get it back right. It's going to take a true conservative leader, Shannon. Are you saying that President Trump wasn't a true conservative leader? Six trillion dollars more in debt. That's never the right direction for the country.

And Nikki Haley said something similar. Is he vuln is Trump vulnerable there?

Well, yes, he's vulnerable on a number of counts, which is why he's lost altitude. He's vulnerable to his behavior after the election. He's vulnerable on running up the debt. He's got vulnerabilities and of course, you know people may be in a mood to turn the page, to move on from this generation of leaders. That includes Biden and Pelosi and even McConnell, uh and certainly therefore Trump.

Trump is way up in his seventies. Um, you know, So I think it's he's got a lot of vulnerabilities, which is not to say h he can be beaten, which is but it is to say he can be challenged.

So so you know, Al Gore, when he lost, he didn't run again. John Kerry lost, didn't run again. Mitt Romney lost, didn't run again.

So we're not used to this. You know, so can you put it in perspective, does this remind you of anything that you remember covering? That didn't start coming. covering presidential politics until you know, like the late sixties. And so nothing like that has happened in my experience.

Um you know, people who who who win and then lose or lose in the beginning normally do not run again. Uh it hasn't happened in a long time and I you know, I'm It's usually not the not a blueprint for victory, but but there he is, uh, head up and banners flying with a lead in the polls.

So, I got to switch over to COVID and the origins. You know, the FBI and energy, the Department of Energy came out with conclusions to a degree that best they know with the information that they have that this virus came from a lab.

Now, we find out that Anthony Fauci immediately last Monday, by the way, hopped back on TV and says none of the data shows it came from a lab.

Now, we find out a memo was generated at his request to say it came from a wet market from a natural occurrence. And we find out that a few to six days later, he's standing next to President Trump, saying data revealed in a study shows that this came from a wet market. What does that tell you about where we should go with this investigation and why somebody who, if he's not responsible, is so invested in this not being a lab leak?

Well, to some extent, I think the argument could be made that he was indeed responsible because his agency was funding research at that Wuhan lab indirectly, but nonetheless funding it. that that involved um gain of function which means strengthening a virus. Um testing it.

Now look, the purpose could have been innocent.

So you know better how to fight it. But on but l l just common sense tells you that the lab leak is a very plausible theory, and it should there never should have been the effort that was made to shut it down. And you have to suspect, at least, that Fauci, responsible to some extent, For For for this research. didn't want it to get out that he was and didn't want to be blamed for this pandemic. Sitting next to President Trump in February, he said He commissioned this paper.

Eight weeks later, Fauci stood next to President Trump at a White House press conference and said evidence that the Lagley theory was implausible while pretending it had nothing to do with him. And then on April 17, 2020, he asked if the virus could have come from a Chinese lab where a group of highly qualified evolutionary virologists looked at the sequence in bats. They evolved there. He said no, he doesn't see how it could have happened. What I think is the worst that happened from here, you know, you have McCary saying one thing, Fauci saying another, and you know, you see someone else come on, Bhattichara, whatever it is, and we debate it, we go over it.

And I think that's how you usually cover a story. But I think the thing that's different about this, the vilification, the YouTube taking down congressional testimony about therapeutics, the consternation, the bad, the shadow banging that took place, that's what really made everything worse, Brett. The debate stopped, the anger grew. I agree entirely, Brian. We are on a very dangerous course in this country now.

We have a long tradition in this country of free speech. And the theory behind free speech is not that there won't be objectionable speech or even false speech. The theory of it is. that when when people can all have their say, and information can be brought forward and arguments made. even false statements made.

That out of that out of that uh welter of discussion and and argument and debate, can come a a sensible conclusion. Wise decisions by voters, wise decisions by policymakers, that that is the way to get where we've always To where we've always been, and it's the best way. Straying from that now and trying to know from the start when a debate is going on what the truth is. We often don't know, and we found that out on COVID time and time again. And yet the the con the Yeah.

of what people thought were objectionable views continued. And it was a very grave mistake, and I hope we don't continue to make it, although there are signs that we are, because all this misinformation, disinformational work that's being done is just another it's just a euphemism for censorship. And censorship is deadly in a democracy.

So if I just tap into your foreign policy knowledge again, I'm watching Kindle Lisa Rice two weeks ago, and she said, and if I could just paraphrase, it's folly to think that we don't want to worry about Russia and Ukraine because we want to focus on China. She essentially says it's one and the same. They're supporting this conflict. They might even get more involved in this conflict. And the partnership that they have shows they have similar objectives.

Do you see a separation between China and Russia?

Well, yeah, they're not identical, but they but they you know, they but they are in some loose sense allied. and maybe more strongly allied than before, and it is a danger. But look, I think that the reason to worry about what Russia is doing in Ukraine is because it is a test of the West. is a test of resistance to this kind of imperial uh ambition that uh Putin has. It is a test of the willingness to resist this kind of brutal aggression.

And if the United States and its allies succeed in turning back Russia in Ukraine, the message to China will be clear. We are not pushovers. Chips are down and we are and will be united. And it would be a grave mistake to Yeah. test that in Taiwan or anywhere else.

That's the message I think it sends. Uh And if we don't do that, China says, well, they're weak, they'll fold. We can do what we want. Oversimplifies, but that's the thought. And the cause, I think, is genuine.

I think it's needed. Get them what they need to be successful. And the president, or if he's not good at speaking or effective, find somebody that can speak regularly on the need for it to explain to the average person where this money is coming from, what it's doing, and how it benefits America. Speaking once every State of the Union is not going to cut it, it makes it harder for the people who feel he's doing the right thing, but he can't, it doesn't even go out of his way to defend it. Yeah.

I think that's right, Brian. I think that the important thing to understand here is that American people will be patient with a military undertaking or supplying a military equipment even at great expense. if they see a course to success. And the President Biden has said repeatedly that we will be in this with Ukraine as long as it takes. But the question is, will it be as much as it takes?

And will it be soon enough to give Ukraine the advantage it needs to turn back this Russian aggression? That's the question. As long as it takes.

okay. But as much as it takes Yeah. Case has to be made for that, and the action has to be taken.

Well, you know, just to cut into that, the Ukrainians don't like that phrase because they know, and if it's a game of endurance, the Russians have more people, even though they have more. They're better fighters, they're more driven, it's their land. But the Russians will outlast a long war. That's why an American people are going to get tired of it. They got to do it this year, in my opinion.

Britt, thanks so much. Always great. My pleasure, Brad. Always good to talk to you. All right.

Listen, that was the Great Britt Hume setting the table for the week. 1866-408-7669. I'm going to go back and take your calls. And then Steve Krakow are inside the Medium Media and so much more. Don't move.

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It's the Ben Dominich Podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to FoxnewsPodcasts.com. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead. He's the front runner.

It's interesting, July 21, he was 70% at CPAC. At August 22 in Dallas at CPAC, he was 69 and now he's 60.

So there's a slight diminution in his support. 62 is 60. He's not going to give up the team. Even among his and this is Trump Fest, let's be clear about this. I mean, this is totally Trump Fest.

But look, he's the frontrunner. And the question is going to be, is he going to be the frontrunner in early 2024, or is he going to be slipping in some of the early states? Yeah, we'll see what happens. Iowa, I don't think he won Iowa the first time. Then he goes and wins New Hampshire.

Then he takes South Carolina.

Now, in South Carolina, he's going to have Tim Scott. And he's going to have Governor Nikki Haley to deal with. That's going to be tough. If it goes to New Hampshire, you might have Chris Noonan to deal with. That'll be tough.

In Iowa, I think he is a big Republican state more than ever. I'm not sure. But the thing is about Donald Trump, the one thing about him, You cannot say His speeches weren't bad. You cannot say, man, he looks old. In fact, he looks thinner than he did before.

His stories, we heard a lot of his stories, but. They apply to the headlines.

So it's not a matter of going back in 2016 and talking about what states came in. It doesn't really help you. When he talks about the board of what they did, when he talked about Bogram, what he would have done, then people have a debate on what really happened. He's going to have people behind the scenes like Mike Pompeo saying, no, that's really not what took place. It's going to be interesting because if he does get the nomination and he does actually win, they're all going to want to work with him.

The one thing about Matt Gates over the weekend says to fund the FBI and all federal agencies, is there a dumber thing somebody could say? Or Marjorie Taylor Greene's, we need a national divorce? I mean, these are just idiotic statements by irresponsible lawmakers looking to, I guess, fundraise or become more famous or try to kiss up to Donald Trump, who got some good news. Another billionaire businessman, this guy, Ike Permutter. He looked like he was going to go to DeSantis.

He knows both of them. It looks like he's going to go and finance the Trump campaign. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders was on a phone call with President Trump. He now denies. And Trump said, Would you just come out and endorse me?

And she said no. Uh she said she was she said um According to two people briefed on the discussion, was asked not to be named, discussed the private call. Trump was disappointed but not angry in response to the call when she said she would now endorse him. Not yet, anyway.

So he's looking to get as many endorsements as possible in a very popular Republican field. I love this stuff, it's going to be fun. On Wednesday, I'm going to be doing a one-on-one with Governor DeSantis, where he grew up, and we'll be out and about in Tampa. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead.

Steve Krakauer's got a brand new book. It's called Uncovered. Steve's book is on sale right now. And basically, it is a book that goes inside the media and how it got broken. And a lot of it has to do with got broken by Donald Trump.

But of course, Steve, your perspective is from the inside. And now you analyze from what you saw on the inside.

Now that you're kind of on the outside, correct? The subtitle, How the Media Got Cozy With Power, Abandoned Its Principles, and Lost the People. Where'd you get this idea to put the book together? Yeah, Brian. As you mentioned, on the outside now, I was kind of that media insider.

I worked at CNN, I worked at NBC, I was a media reporter for several years. And then for the last nine years, I've been literally outside of that Acela corridor, New York and D.C. I'm living in Dallas now. And frankly, it really was after Trump's election, not necessarily that in and of itself, but in seeing the reaction that the media had, how shocked they were by what happened, because they just didn't, you know, a lot of people in those newsrooms didn't even know anyone who would potentially support Donald Trump.

Well, I knew people down in Dallas who were not overly ideological who voted for him. And so, what do they miss? And I actually put together a proposal at the time. I called in all my favors to CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS. And I met with executives at all those places in April of 2017.

I said, you know, here's like a three-page proposal. They've got blind spots. How can we get back to reconnecting with an audience that clearly has lost the trust and lost some perspective? And there was a little bit of interest, but ultimately everyone passed on that idea. And that really formed the basis of this book because I do think that.

That really was the starting point in a lot of ways. We saw this with the COVID lab leak theory, Hunter Biden's laptop, Jeffrey Epstein. I write about in the book. All of these stories, the corporate press botched in such massive ways. And trying to get at why that is, what they missed, and then why they choose to suppress information rather than open it up and allow the public to get information just displays this total lack of trust in the public.

And the public, in turn, lacks the trust in the media. And that's a huge, huge problem. Yeah, there's so many different incidents that you point out. First off, your background. You were at CNN when?

I was there from 2010 to 2013. I started working for Piers Morgan, who now is with Fox. It's been a little run for both of us there in terms of changing from the corporate media structure of the CNNs of the world. And then I oversaw a lot of the basically television as it lived on digital during the 2012 election, worked closely with Jeff Zucker in 2013. And it really was a very different CNN.

I mean, it wasn't that long ago, and there was valid criticisms of CNN at the time. But the way it shifted in just a few short years by 2015, 2016 was like a completely different place than when I worked there.

So John Klein, who I remember, he's a historian, has written a lot of great books, including one on Steve Jobs. He was running things at CNN. How was it different from Jeff Zucker?

So, I actually lay out in chapter six of the book what I think kind of my diagnosis of what happened with the Jeff Zucker era, because I worked closely with Jeff and I liked Jeff. And Jeff kind of had this mentality that there was a one-story. One story mentality for the news, right?

So, when there was a Boston bombing, we put all of our resources towards that story and covered it with immense time. And then there were some criticisms of, say, the poop cruise or the missing plane and the amount of resources that we put towards stories like that. And in some ways, I understood the journalistic principle. People kind of check into cable news and check out.

So if you can put everything behind it, people can know this is what's most important. But then came Trump. And look, Jeff Zucker. It was closely associated personally with Donald Trump. I mean, he went to Trump's wedding in 2005.

He was, you know, in many ways, they made each other at NBC. Celebrity Apprentice was a huge hit for Jeff Zucker's NBC at the time. And so it was personal. And then Trump became this turncoat. And then Jeff, I think, you know.

Actually, he believed that he was in this existential fight with Donald Trump and it was mutually beneficial. Financially, it was good. Personally, it was this battle that could be waged every day. And that really, when they made that fight with Trump the single story, the one story, that really turned the network into something that it wasn't before. At the very least, there was this principle of journalism first, objectivity, the news.

And maybe it was boring, and maybe it was, you know, people were not huge CNN fans, but at least when news happened, they could trust it. And then it became much more ideological and much more partisan. And that is now obviously Jeff's gone, Chris Lick's there.

Now they're trying to dig themselves out of that hole, I think. Not just the success of it, not just financially, but perception-wise. Can CNN regain that feeling of being the news? It's a very hard thing to now turn that ship around because they really went off the rails in terms of the standards and practices that were there during the Trump era. All right.

So he was there. Obviously, he was talking to Trump, even helping him during the debate. They had some of that audio there. Trump said that I recommended him to the head of CNN before he got it. You should hire this guy.

And he feels though he turned on him or Trump turned on Zuckerberg, whatever. It doesn't even matter. But you do talk about Zucker telling you to yell more, right? And you also talk about an interaction with Don Lemon. He says, why can't we tell voters who to vote for?

Yeah, this was actually Selena Dito that gave this amazing story. I talked to 26 people on the record in the book, so everyone puts their name to it. I know anonymous sources. And Selena was hired by Jeff Zucker right after the 2016 election. And, you know, she's someone who from the New York Post, you know, she really got the mood of the country in a way that CNN didn't.

So they brought her in. And at first, she was welcomed there. But then within a few weeks, it went from, tell us what the voters think to why would the voters think this? How could they possibly believe these lies? And she's like, I don't know.

I'm a reporter. And then, yes, Jeff Zucker telling her to yell more. And then she just completely got sidelined. I mean, for years for the length of her contract. And there's stories like this.

And I appreciate, you know, Selena's perspective here because she's someone who, journalism first, wants to help the corporate press, you know, fix these blind spots and was sidelined because there was a total lack of introspection. And I lay this out in case after case, not so we can just, you know, go and rehash the history. But so the public can understand this is what happened, this is why it happened. And next time, we don't need the corporate press to be the gatekeepers anymore. Here's the tools to sniff out when the press is lying or misleading in the future.

So interesting.

So, as things start galvanizing, Trump accelerated anything wrong with media. He accelerated all the bad at these networks. They were obsessed with him. In fact, anything he did good, they would just flip it and find something with Russia, find something with this finance, go find a Michael Cohen situation. Why was that?

I mean, was it purely for ratings, or did they just despise this guy? I think it was a combination of things. It was financial in some ways, but I do think that also there were personal elements to it. I mentioned Jeff Zucker being at his wedding, but go down the line, Dale King, Chris Matthews, I mean, he was part of that world in many ways. He, by being part of that world, by knowing, I mean, he hosted SNL in November of 2015.

He was taking selfies with Al Sharpton. He was in that world, and then he turned on that world and he exposed that world. And that is something that when they really felt the power that they had slipping away and being exposed, that they really reacted poorly to. I describe it as an addiction. I mean, I think that many in the media became addicted to that Trump phenomenon and the fight that they believed that they were actually in.

And that leads to bad decisions. That leads to bad practices. You mentioned it goes beyond Trump. In fact, I think it's gotten worse since he left office. This idea of narrative over facts.

We see this with so many COVID-related stories. We're seeing it now just play out with the lab leak theory. There's still the laptop, the lab leak, all that stuff. Even now, as we get clear evidence that they completely botched the story at the time, the lab leak theory in 2020, the laptop in October 2020. Every Right down the line, there's still a real resistance to going and explaining to the audience how they got that wrong, why they got that wrong, and correcting the record, and why is that?

Because it's not just that they got the stories wrong, like the Hunter Biden laptop story, saying, oh, it's this instead of that. It's that they put their fingers on the suppression tools in partnership with tech platforms, in partnership with the government. To make it so that people couldn't get information, couldn't even hear other perspectives. That is almost too embarrassing to now go back and correct the record because that's completely abdicating their responsibility as journalists who are supposed to be about free speech and the free flow of ideas in the First Amendment.

So, a couple of things. You open up your book and you say, you know, when Walter Cronkite was the lead anchor and the network news was the place to go, and local news mattered so much. 70% of the people trust the media. And then it went down to 50%.

Now it's down to around 30%. And part of it, you believe, has to do with local media. It doesn't have the financing that it used to have. It seems to be just wallowing. And the local media, as you bring up, Was the benefits were their kids played, went to school with everyday people.

They went and coached baseball and baseball teams. They'd be in society. They knew the town.

So they knew the legitimate issues.

So therefore, people could relate to them. And now people stay in DC, Los Angeles, not us. Do you know that to be the case? Because we know our audience is not in DC, New York, and California. But that's where most of these media outlets are, and they've lost touch with the rest of the country.

Yeah, Brian, it's not ideological. I think that's what often is missed in media criticism these days is it's about a connection to a community and how out of touch the general corporate media has become. Because you look at these polls of trust and yes, all-time lows, poll after poll. But it's not just the Republican line and the Democratic line stays where it is. The independents, people that are not ideological, are not particularly interested in politics, just want to get the news, just want to understand what's happening in the world.

They're busy. They've got lives. They've got families. They go outside. They don't spend all day on Twitter.

These people want just. A place to turn to to get their news, and that has completely fallen off the cliff. The independent line has dropped in most polls by 50% from just 2017 in trust in the media, and particularly TV news like legacy media, CBS, ABC, NBC. That's a huge problem. And I don't think it's because necessarily of politics, it's because, as I lay out in the book and story after story, particularly with COVID, I think COVID was a huge, huge factor with this in the more recent years.

There is a total misunderstanding about the country that this that the press on a national level purports to cover. And yes, the decline of local media is a huge harm to that trust as well. And you also talk about the business model. You said something about the business model, the broken financial incentive structure. What do you mean by that?

Yeah, that's one of the five problems that I lay out in the book. In the old days, places like ESDN is a case study I talk about in the book. CNN, the New York Times, these were giant corporations that there could be good years and there could be down years, but for the most part, they had a steady business structure. They understood the business model. They were going to print money no matter what.

That has now changed. And I think the reason that's changed is partially because we've seen this rise of independent media that's not just taking away viewers, but is taking away real influence and power. I mean, they are really fearful of Joe Rogan. Why is that? I mean, I write in a book and talk to people like Marty McCarry and others about the Joe Rogan-Sanjay Gupta moment that happened when Sanjay Gupta went on Joe Rogan's podcast and actually had a pretty good interview.

But then Sanjay Gupta goes to his consensus media home of CNN and trashes Joe Rogan in a completely ridiculous way. It's because they're really fearful of it. And if the financial structure was Safe, it was still steady, then they wouldn't happen. Then the mistakes that we're seeing, the bad decisions we're seeing, it wouldn't happen nearly as much. But instead, the executives at these organizations are panicked because they are actually feeling for the first time that there could be real, fundamental, existential threats to their business.

And now bad decisions start getting made in that void. Yeah, and Joe Rogan, by the way, even heard him a couple of days ago. He's still ticked off at CNN as they call it, as he's trying to recover from COVID, did not want to get vaccinated, clearly. And he took ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine or whatever he took. They said, well, Joe Rogan is taking horse medication.

So, what are you, a horse dewarmer? And he said, that's totally not true. This is an award-winning therapeutic that also is used on horses, just like a lot of medicine from pregnancy on down is used on humans as well as dogs. That has nothing to do with it. And he sat there and he said, They know this is not true.

No one even called to see if he's getting better. The story was: why did I get better in two days? And other people are dying in a hospital. No, they just wanted to marginalize him. And that was a learning moment for him.

And when Sanjay Gupta comes on, Joe Rogan politely roasts him. And for him to come back now that Rogan's gone and then try to k and kill him on CNN with their eight hundred thousand viewers as opposed to his twenty million, I thought just sh really showed what they're about. It was story. After story like this, it was not just in ivermectin and these other treatments, which again, yes, has been taken by hundreds of millions of people of humans over the years, not for COVID, but for other uses. Yes, and then you go look at masks.

You look at vaccines, you look at lockdowns. I talked with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya in the book about the way that he was treated by the corporate press because of the way that Fauci and others and Collins spun them into making him demonizing this Stanford doctor, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, over a very reasonable proposal that has been clearly proven right over time. But that's also one of these big eye-openers, I think.

We see this now every time we get more information, the science, as we learn more and more about the science of COVID, we see that the corporate media consensus coverage was not just wrong, but was clearly pushing out other points of view that obviously have now been proven right. Why was that? Why did they do that? And in some ways, it was fear in the early days of the pandemic, but in other cases, it was because they just didn't trust the public to tell them the truth about these stories, the nuance, the complicated nature. None of these are black and white.

Because of that lack of trust, it's becoming more and more. Clear, and as I lay on and uncovered, there's that particular moment in time, these last couple years. Has proven that the media doesn't trust the public, and I think the public understands that. Steve Krakauer, thanks so much. It's all in your book, Uncovered.

Appreciate you joining us. Hey, Brian, great talking to you. Appreciate it. Yep, how the media got cozy with power. Listen, when we come back, I'll take your calls, finish up this hour.

Hope you had a great weekend. Want to find out the details? Brian, kill meet you. Educating, entertaining, enlightening. You're with Brian Kilmead.

He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Killmead. A new trend among younger workers is bare minimum Monday, in which they do as little as possible on the first day of the work week, while a new trend among World War II veterans is realizing their sacrifice meant nothing. Yeah, I mean, the whole Senate Live was so ridiculous. They used Fox and Friends in the Cold Open.

And it was totally the absolutely terrible. I mean, there was a time when you appeared on Fox and Friends when they would do it. I would get text messages in the middle of the segment.

So if I'm not watching or if I happen to watch, it is huge news, right? If people are watching it in the studio. And they noticed setting up the Fox Red. I used to get text messages.

Now this whole thing airs. And not one person texted me. To say they portrayed you on Fox and Friends. Number one, they have an Asian guy. Yeah.

I I even trying to but Uh to imitate somebody. Number two, the topic, it was just ridiculous. Out of all the issues going on, it's amazing to me that they j they've become as political as MSNBC. I mean, they've sort of been. I will say the weekend update has been getting a little funnier as of recently.

I will also say this: everything's black and white. Everything's race. White guy, black guy, white guy. We actually have a lot. You'll hear them throughout the week that we have like a bunch that we can bring in.

Yeah. But I will say this, just to go against your point with the Asian guy. As long as you're an actor and have good, like, they can sort of like make fun of you in a good way with the way you act, but they can't. Don't even try. No.

They just want to make, I don't know, they just want to make you seem like a bad news present. I don't know. It's their impression of what Fox is, but they've never actually watched themselves. Exactly. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show.

Brian Kilmead. All right, one, welcome to the latest moments of the Brian Killmeat Show coming to you from 48th and 6 in Midtown Manhattan. Heard around the country, heard around the world. We have often discussed this hour. Michael Goodwin standing by for the New York Post, Stephen Hadley, the National Security Advisor under George W.

Bush, he's going to be joining us now to put it in perspective: I don't believe there's a difference between China policy and Russia policy. They are so linked to the hip right now, whether you like it or not. If you're going to go soft on Russia to focus on China, you are not thinking of the big picture. We'll talk about that, see if he agrees.

So let's get to the big three.

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

Fauci gets an email from Dr. Christian Anderson, which says virus looks engineered, virus not consistent with evolutionary theory. That same day, Dr. Fauci organizes a conference call. All these other virologists, they get on there, and three days later, everybody changes their story.

Oh, coincidence? I don't think so. Here we go. It's coming into focus. How Anthony Fauci got the lab leak theory squelched until recently he commissioned a memo that concluded it started at a wet market.

But why? Culpable perhaps? It's so important we get to the bottom of this as we try to come to grips with our number one foe, China, and what they're actually capable of. Number two. I think it's a warning sign for the country.

Eric Adams has been talking about public safety, not only on the campaign trail, but for the first year. I showed up at crime scenes. It is really stating that this is what I have been talking about. America, we have to be safe. Lesson learned, perhaps, between Joe Biden helping block D.C.'s pro-criminal reforms to loss of Lightfoot in Chicago as mayor.

The message being sent by Americans is that criminals are wrecking this country, specifically the cities. Fix it or you're out. We'll discuss. Number We will evict Joe Biden from the White House. We are never going back to a party that wants to give unlimited money to fight foreign wars.

It's insane that Joe Biden has gotten a free pass for the socialist spending spree. This is the weekend of 2024. The weekend when I guess the right, the conservatives, the Republicans pulled the trigger on the starting gun as the battle for the nomination began. And we also got clues as they shadow boxed with each other about their strategy to the nomination, which we'll be going through. Donald Trump.

No doubt about it. He is the frontrunner. But how firmly is he up there? Michael Goodwin joins us now. Knows him well.

Commiss for the New York Post. Michael, welcome. Good morning, Brian. Thank you. Club for Growth said, Mr.

President, you're not welcome. CPAC said it's all about you. And it seems Nikki Haley got a got a respectful welcome. Tim Scott, a respectful welcome. But they went to both places.

And then Mike Pompeo had a chance to speak on Fox News Sunday. It's pretty clear they're circling each other.

Well, look, I think uh Broadly speaking, the Republican electorate right now is divided between Trump and not Trump, and part of what's going on is to Uh siphon out uh who is the not Trump candidate, who was the one person who would go head to head with him. And so I think that all all of the others, oddly, are competing for that one spot to be the non-Trump candidate within the party. And, you know, you have eight or nine, maybe even more who will enter into it. Larry Hogan, the the Maryland governor, withdrew basically thinking obviously that he couldn't be that person, he couldn't win. And even if you do win that role, you become the non-Trump through the primary process, you still have to beat him in the ultimate winner-take-all approach.

So it's a long road, I think, for these non-Trump candidates. And of course, Trump himself. As you and I have discussed, Brian, he is not a shoe-in for the nomination at this point. He clearly has the upper hand, but it's a long way to go. He mentioned the other day the possibility of being indicted.

There's just I think there is a fatigue factor as well.

So it's going to be a rocky road for both elements in the party.

Well, yeah, he says if he is indicted, he's not going to stop running. He says no way. He also indicated that this guy they brought back from The Hague, a special prosecutor, is bringing his friends into Washington and has never been experienced this before and threatening them to flip on him about why he took. Documents or didn't take documents to Mar-a-Lago. That's a little extreme compared to what they're doing to Biden, wouldn't you say?

Or Mike Pence? Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, you have Merrick Garland. as the Attorney General last week getting raked over the coals on a number of things that display a partisanship.

I thought Josh Hawley did an excellent job on the issue of the armed raid, the s the cert you know, how many armed FBI agents came to the house of a of a father where the house was full of children uh for protesting uh abortions. Um this doesn't happen on the left. This d I mean, Merritt Garland's answer, I thought it was a joke when I first heard it. He said that the protest happened in daylight, but that the fire bombings. of the anti-abortion groups.

That happens at night and we don't have a lot of witnesses.

So that's the FBI. That's like saying, go commit your crime at night, people. We won't bother you then. I mean, it was an unbelievable answer for the Attorney General. I thought he came off very poorly.

And that goes to the heart of whether Donald Trump is being treated fairly or whether the Justice Department is sort of putting an arms wrap around Joe Biden to protect him, not just on documents, but on the Hunter Biden stuff as well. No kidding. I think there's no question about that. Just real quick on the Republicans aiming at Republicans, which you know is going to happen in a competitive field. Sure.

Nobody thinks that McCain and Romney got along. Nobody thinks that Al Gore was getting along with Bill Bradley. I can still remember those guys going at it. We know that Donald Trump was ripping everybody on the stage. It's just a process you go through.

I don't think Hillary Clinton had any legitimate. Debates, except for maybe one with Bernie Sanders. But I want you to hear what Chris Anunu said about what he's concluded already, whether he gets in or not, cut to. As far as former President Trump, I think he's going to run, obviously. He's in the race.

He's not going to be the nominee. That's just not going to happen. And so I think there's a lot of opportunity to bring forward what the Republican Party, not what we were, not yesterday's leadership or yesterday's story or crying about what happened in November of 22, but what we're going to bring to the table and get done tomorrow. That's what America's looking for. And so right now if the election were today, Ron DeSantis would win in New Hampshire.

So I know who else said that. Governor Jeb Bush said that, and he got the nomination.

So, what do you think about what Governor Sunuda is doing there?

Well, look, I think he is talking his own book, as they say on Wall Street. He wants it. He wants Republicans to look beyond Trump because then he feels that he has a chance, that all of the non-Trumps have a chance if Trump is history. But Trump is not history. And I think that whoever is going to emerge, if it's not Trump, is going to have a heck of a battle on his or her hands because Trump is not going to make it easy.

Neither are the others. Because if they all believe that the one survivor of this can actually defeat Trump and win the presidency, then it's going to be bitter. It's going to be tough. It's going to be brass knuckles all the way. Let's talk about what your column's about, and that's about crime and the wake-up call that Laurie Lightfoot's devastating loss really should send to any politician and any person who cares about the country.

Here's how Mayor Eric Adams. Adams, answer that question, cut 20. I think it's a warning sign for the country. Eric Adams has been talking about public safety, not only on the campaign trail, but for the first year. I showed up at crime scenes.

It is really stating that this is what I have been talking about. America, we have to be safe. So what do you think it's more of j she's more than just a terrible governor who got her come up and Um Well, look, I think she certainly deserved it in a lot of ways. You know, the crime numbers in Chicago are off the charts. You know, Brian, I always talk about the murders, the number of murders, because I believe that's the one crime that's not really flexible in whether it gets reported and how the police maybe massage statistics to make themselves look better sometimes, or if people just get discouraged and don't even report crimes.

Murder we can count on. We can count on that we have a pretty good handle on the number of murders. And here's Chicago having 700 or more murders in each of the last three years. 700. New York City by comparison, which has 6 million more people.

Had 438 murders last year, and that's too high.

So I think that what you see in many of these cities that have never really undergone a policing revolution, you're seeing that the police do not know how to handle these things, and the political class is afraid. To really give the police the power and the authority and the support to go out and do their job.

So, New York is ahead of the curve in this way. And for good reason, New York City went through this revolution back in the 90s. And it continued well into the 2000s, first under Rudy Giuliani and then under Michael Bloomberg.

So New York had 20 years of this. And by the way, there's a wonderful new documentary coming out later this month called Gotham: The Fall and Rise of New York, all about the crime issue and other issues that go with it. Like Chicago also has a school issue, Chicago has a welfare issue, all of the homeless issue. All of these things are connected to sort of the governance of these cities. In some cases, the states are important.

But it's important for people to understand that if that documentary is accurate, it'll bring it to today because crime was going down every single year. Year from 93 to 2019. The new bail law comes across, and now it's up 47% in all criminal indexes, all of them.

So it's been an absolute self-inflicted wound. The lives that are ruined, the lives that are lost because of this bail reform, which nobody seems to be able to have the power to overturn. The numbers are staggering, and they're costing us millions. Between that and the illegal immigrants that we're paying for to stay in luxury apartments, while they continue to take more and more money from us and be overbudgeted, it is maddening what the city has done to itself. Absolutely.

And don't forget the impact of the George Floyd riots. where the police were held back. And once you go down that road, I mean, I think the bail reform laws are very important. There's another one, too, called raise the age from 16 to 18, where now anybody under 18 is treated in family court, and you have increasing numbers of young kids using guns and killing other young kids. That has to be changed as well and sent back to what it was, which was 16 was the age.

But I think that what happened, you're right about the bail laws and the other laws, but I think it also was a mental thing. When the police were restrained and crimes were permitted to occur openly during the George Floyd situation, I think that that sent a message to the police. That you are no longer free to do your jobs. We are handcuffing the cops. We are putting the cops on notice that if they do their jobs, we will not support them.

We might end up prosecuting the police instead of the bad guys. And I think that is a factor that is still simmering through police forces across America. Of course it is. And there's some mass resignations. Officers don't want to do it.

They're lowering the standards in the academy. You know, the mayor does show up. I'll give him that. He does show up, at least talks to people. He shows an interest.

He doesn't show up late. He shows up on time. And he has the first positive sign. I guess overall crime was down 0.4% from month to month. That's the first lack of increase in quite some time.

Right, right. Look, Eric Adams, I think, was the same. The best Democrat running in the election in 2021. He is far superior to Bill de Blasio, the terrible mayor of New York had for eight years after Michael Bloomberg.

So there's definite progress, but I think there's still so many obstacles to this, Brian, that yes, the murders have come down. 50 fewer murders in 22 over 21 in New York. That's real progress. Shooting incidents are down, but there's still a great sense of public disorder and fear. And that's got to be conquered.

And so I still think that Eric Adams has a lot of work to do to do that. And even though I support him, I think he's got to be more consistent. He's got to fight harder with Albany. These are all fellow Democrats in Albany who won't change these laws. The governor has been a disaster on this issue.

Governor Hochl, she has done nothing to help this issue.

So there's a lot of work to be done, but still. Compared to Chicago, New York is clearly well ahead of the pack. Yeah, I hear you.

Well, I mean, I guess we'll see what happens. The one thing I would say is that with Governor Hokul not only not helping on Long Island, which clearly didn't go for her, she's trying to jam 800,000 low-income housing into communities that don't want it without an infrastructure that can handle it. And it is so irresponsible, and it's retribution. And if there's any justice, these local politicians, Republicans and Democrats, will push back on this Cuomo-like move. She is so incompetent.

It's scary. Michael Goodwin, thanks so much. Always a pleasure. Thank you, Brian. Hey, listen, when we come back, I'll take your calls and read your emails.

Go to BrianKilme.com. I'm getting some of them right now. I'll hear what you have to say. Don't move. So glad you're here.

Diving deep into today's top stories, it's Brian Kilmead. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kill Me Show.

Well, what Republicans are trying to do is, of course, ban books in libraries. They're trying to keep our schools from teaching black history. They make up things about CRT in schools that just don't exist. And so they've got a lot of extreme right-wing candidates, frankly, on the crazy end of things that are running. And we just want to make sure that people know who they are and know not to vote for them.

Right. That's Governor Pritzker saying exactly what Andrea Mitchell says. We don't want to teach black history. That's people that are against CRT don't want to teach black history. You could not be more mistaken.

Want to put it in perspective. It was slavery, there was reconstruction, segregation. Jim Crow got it. But when you talk about different schools of thought of where we're at today, different Schools of thought, what was being spoken back in the 60s and 50s and 40s along the way. That's what he wants: diversity of thought.

And then the whole queer theory when it comes to race relations has no place in race relations. And the anti-American slant on a lot of this curriculum has parents beside themselves. Governor Pritzker can sit there in Illinois and think their parents think Democrat or Republican. They don't get up every day anti-American. And a lot of this curriculum is just that.

They're aware of it. It used to be in elite colleges. Few went there. Few would talk about it.

Some people would emerge from it. And now we're seeing it in grammar schools and high schools. And he took note on that. And he's perfectly willing to defend it. If Governor Yunke gets in, he'll be talking education too.

No question. And I think they basically have the same philosophy. Governor Sununu doesn't. Governor Sununu says, I don't really think it's up to a governor to decide on a lot of these social policies, these woke policies. That's what's going to make it interesting.

No. No one should get angry. People should get interested. Hear both sides debated. But what Governor Pritzker did, making it an inaccurate cartoon, actually helps Governor DeSantis.

So when he pushes back and says, let me tell you why Disney's wrong, and let me tell you why that billionaire is wrong in Illinois. Who knows? He could even be his opponent if something happens with Joe Biden declaring. After all, he would be a very old 82 and four more years staring at him and at us. Scary thought.

When we come back, Steve Hadley joins us. Don't move, Brian. Kill me, Choe. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Killmead. I think we have to recognize that the Chinese-Russian relationship is perhaps more strategic than many of us have thought, that it really is a relationship that is aimed at the heart of U.S.

power in the world. And that would say then these two are not divisible.

So if you want to say, let's just concentrate on the Indo-Pacific, that's not going to work. And oh, by the way, many of our allies, Australia, Japan, fundamentally understand that. We will see. Stephen Hadley joins us now, former National Security Advisor under President Bush, John W. Bush, author of Hands Off the Foreign Policy.

George W. Bush handed off to Barack Obama as he looks at the world today and sees how some of those philosophies hold up as Condoleezza Rice goes to bat for staying the course in Ukraine. Stephen, welcome back. It's nice to be here. Thanks for having me, Brian.

So clearly, Kano Lisa Rice says when you're focusing on U Russia and Ukraine, you're not forgetting about China because they're not forgetting about what's happening in Eastern Europe. They're staked in that too. That's right. before the Beijing Olympics, Putin and she met and talked about an unlimited partnership. And China has really backed Putin in his Intervention and making of war on Ukraine.

And in some sense, a setback for Putin, Ukraine is a setback. Set back for Xi in China. The two in some sense are linked at the hip.

So do you think it's necessary for America to be engaged there? Ukraine. I sure do. Look, the principle that you can go into your neighbor now for a second time, having gone first in 2014, now in 2022, can go into labor into your neighbor with an intention of basically liquidating your neighbor, destroying their sovereignty, and incorporating them into your country. violates the most fundamental principle of the international order that Emerged after World War II, and has been responsible for avoiding the kinds of w wars that we had in the 20th century.

So it's terribly important. That Putin's be denied his strategic objectives in Ukraine if the world is going to be peaceful and ordered going forward. I mean, we saw the fracture happen. Your boss, Bush 43, in the beginning, they got along and then by the end of it, they obviously didn't. They were at the Olympics, I think, when Georgia was invaded.

in two thousand eight, and they blamed it on Shashkirvili being so vociferous and challenging. But now he's in jail, by the way. But it wasn't. It was Russia saying, I want to get the I want to get the Soviet Union back. And now we're seeing it for certain.

Did Putin change or just reveal himself? It's hard to know. I think Putin evolved over time, but I think the thing that really two things that That are stand out. You're right. The Putin George W.

Bush dealt with is a different Putin than Putin today. But over the course of the Bush administration, Putin did become more authoritarian at home. He had flirted with more political democracy. He clearly turned his back on it. And what really had got him were these color revolutions in two thousand three, four and five in Georgia, Ukraine and Tajikistan.

We thought those revolutions were establishing prosperous democratic states that would be good neighbors for Russia. Putin didn't see it that way.

So listen to CIA operations that were establishing on his border countries that would be anti-Russian and maybe were even a dress rehearsal for destabilizing Russia itself. And that was what was behind his decision to go into Georgia in 2008. Look, the Belarusian Lushenko lost his election in Belarus. He just basically stayed there with Russia's backing, and now Russia basically owns that country.

So, Sergei Lavrov, the propagandist, who's a foreign minister, was at the G20 and had this statement in New Delhi, India, about what happened with this war. Listen to this: Cut 37. You know, the war which we are trying to stop and which was launched against us using the Ukraine. Ukrainian people Uh Of course it influenced influenced influenced uh the A policy of Russia. Is he out of his mind?

Does he really expect people to believe what he just said? They laughed at him. They laugh at him. Folks who were present may have laughed at him, but this is the line that Putin is using within Russia. To build support for the war.

He's trying to tell the Russian people that this is a rerun of World War II when Russia was. invaded by Nazi Germany. He's trying to argue that basically Ukraine was a threat to Russia. He calls it a neo-Nazi state, if you will. And that Ukraine was the instrument by which the United States and the West were going to destabilize and destroy Russia.

And that is the argument he's making today in order to try to mobilize the Russian people in support of this war. Steve Hadley, our guest. And Steve, I want to get to your philosophy too. But just to finish off the news over the weekend, we know that China, and it will be devastating to the war effort, totally rash it things up, might give lethal aid to Russia, who basically, according to our own Steve Harrigan, was doing some of the invading in Bakhmud in effort to take that city. They are so out of ammunition, they're using shovels.

To rush the Ukrainian forces. That's how bad they need arms. And evidently, China is really considering giving them to him and is very mad at Russia for leaking that out ahead of time.

So listen to what the President Olaf Schulz said, the German Chancellor, to this prospect. I think it would have consequences, but we are now in a stage where we are making clear that this should not happen. relatively um Optimistic that we will be successful with our request in this case. But we will have to look at it, and we have to be very, very cautious. Germany denied they're the number one trading partner of China, I think.

So that would be a big deal if they decide to do any type of decoupling, wouldn't it? If they were to supply if China were to supply lethal arms that would show up On the battlefield as Russia wages war at Ukraine, that's going to be a game changer. I think it's going to be even a game changer in Europe. But it's certainly going to be a game changer with the U.S. Congress.

And I think it means both Sanctions and export control restrictions and all kinds of things on China. And I think it'll push. China-US relations really below the basement, if you will. It'll really push it all the way down the ladder. uh of relationships I think for that reason, China will be loath to do it.

if it were necessary to keep Russia from actually, quote, losing this war, unquote, they might think about it and they might actually do it. But I think at this point, I hope They're making the cost trade-off that the The costs would outweigh the benefits. Stephen Halley, our guest. He's got a new book out, Hands Off the Foreign Policy. George W.

Bush passed to Barack Obama.

So tell me about the Bush philosophy, what he left, because we know he left a quiet Iraq, and President Obama took the troops out. We ended up with ISIS, and Iraq hasn't been stable since. Iran's got unmet influence in that area. In Afghanistan, you saw the embarrassing and humiliating way in which we left. Those were both two wars that were conducted during George W.

Bush's reign. Who dropped the ball? You know, what we tried to do in the transition and the book is really. got thirty of the forty transition memos we prepared For the Obama administration, including transition memos on the very topics you mentioned. What Bush wanted to do was leave these wars.

And leave these policies in a way that Obama could pick them up and continue them. Because he understood that if we were going to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan, make them prosperous, stable, secure, democratic states, it was going to require more than one administration. It was going to require a number of administrations pursuing that policy, as we did to bring. Stability and democracy to South Korea and as we did to rebuild Europe after World War two.

So he tried to put these policies in such a way that it would be easy for Barack Obama to continue them. And he didn't. He was only we were only partially successful in that regard.

So, how disappointing? I think the it's quite disappointing. Iraq was in a reasonable state. Al Qaeda in Iraq had been defeated. There was still a terrorist threat, but it didn't threaten the country.

And I think the decisions that were made in Syria when it began to Descend into chaos and civil war in 2011 were problematic and That situation festered and gave Al-Qaeda to reconstitute itself in the form of ISIS. which in twenty fourteen went into Iraq and took over forty percent of the country and really undid all the benefits that derive from the courageous surge decision that the President made in January two thousand seven.

So it was Quite disappointing.

So the crashing of the market, too, that happened too over edges seemed to come to fruition on policies that have been in place really since the 70s. If you look back and take politics out of it, but Stephen, I'm reading Governor DeSantis' book. And in it, he says, I don't like the idea of what George Bush did with giving these governments, giving freedom to these people who knew nothing about democracy, governments that they weren't ready to hold. What do you say to that criticism?

Well, you know, the issue was we went into Afghanistan and Iraq for real national security reasons. And then the question was, once you've overturned these governments, What should we do? Should we just substitute one dictator for another? And President Bush thought that we being the United States of America standing for democracy, freedom, human rights, rule and law. ought to give those countries the opportunity to build societies based on those principles.

And we did. And one of the reasons we did was we thought it was the only way. That those states made up of a variety of linguistic, ethnic, and religious groups. Would stay together. was if it was within a democratic framework.

And if they didn't stay together, they would continue to be breeding grounds for terrorism and that, that terrorism ultimately would come home here to the United States. No, I hear you. And then as you look throughout the you look throughout the region, what is happening now, I mean, basically, George Bush was on the phone with the leader of Uh Iraq multiple times a week, helped them through the toughest times, provided advice. When you stop communicating as this administration does and the Obama administration does, take your hands off the wheel. That vacuum is going to be filled, and it's been filled by Iran.

There's no doubt about it. One of the things Bush realized was: yes, it was going to take time, it was a challenge. to build democratic, secure, prosperous states. But you know these leaders Malachi and Iraq And Karzai in Afghanistan, as he said, President Bush said, these folks have never led a country before. I've got to help them.

I've got to help them, and I can help them. And it is in America's interest to help them because the only way the Middle East is not going to be a cauldron that produces terrorism is if we can produce some secure, stable, prosperous, responsible states who will meet the needs of their people, fight against terror, and help us to support the international system. And Stephen Hadley, since you guys left, he had Barack Obama decide, okay, I'm going to support the rebels against Gaddafi, but had no plan afterwards, and it's been chaos ever since. He took the missile defense system out of Eastern Europe as a homage, a big hello to Vladimir Putin to reset the relationship. That has been a disaster.

He looks at his weakness. And then we know what happened when he pulled out of Iraq. We got ISIS.

So that's pretty much a disastrous foreign policy that Bob Gates, who was your Secretary of Defense during your time and stayed over to Barack Obama, chronicled in his book. There were obviously mistakes were made. One of the things I think that is important is after Putin went into Georgia in two thousand eight, we said very clearly to ourselves. That if we don't impose a real strategic cost on Putin for going into Georgia, today it'll be Georgia, tomorrow it will be Ukraine, and the day after it'll be the Baltic states. And those, of course, Baltic states are in NATO, so an invasion of the Baltic states means a NATO-Russia war.

That's what we needed to try to prevent and deter. We tried to do that after Georgia. Maybe we didn't do enough, but we kind of threw all of the relationships we'd built with Russia over seven years. We threw them into the toilet because we had to. Send a message that this was not acceptable.

That if Putin was going to have this behavior, he would have no relationship with the West. And that's the message we need to send now with respect to Ukraine. And lastly, we know what happened when they go did go into Ukraine and took Crimea and parts of the Donbas region with their separatists. They said we'll give Ukraine blankets and MREs. That was the weak response that led to what we're at today.

And I also Think Putin changed. I think Putin during this period of COVID. He was isolated. He was buried down in the Soviet and Russian archives. And I think this notion of restoring the Russian Empire, not the Soviet Empire, the Russian Empire.

uh within the former Soviet spake. with Putin seeing himself as sort of Peter the Great, I think that idea really took hold and is really his ide ide fixe, if you will. And that is the notion that we have to defeat. Right. And it's been a disaster financially.

It's been a disaster militarily. They've performed terribly, but they could outlast the Ukrainians. We have to make sure that doesn't happen. Stephen Hadley, congratulations on writing hands off the foreign policy George W. Bush passed to Barack Obama.

I appreciate it. Thanks for having me today, Brian. You got it. When we come back, it's your turn. Your turn to be on National Radio, 1-866-408-7669.

Politics, current events, and news that affects you. Brian's got a lot more to say. Stay with Brian Kilmead. A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kill Me Show.

Y'all know what happened to me, getting smacked by Sug Smith. Everybody knows. Everybody knows. Yes. It happened.

I got smacked like a year ago. Fucking last week, I've got Smack in the Ask us about this. And people like didn't hurt. It still hurts. I That's summertime ringing in my ears.

Drums, please But I'm not a victim baby, you will never see me on Oprah, a gale. Crying. You'll never see it. Never gonna happen. And that was Chris Rock finally speaking about something that happened almost a year ago, getting slapped by Will Smith, having some fun, going live on Netflix.

I watched some of it. It looked real good. I mean, he's one of the top comics. What I like most about it is saying, I'm not going to be a victim. I'm not going to complain.

In all seriousness, Sebastian said some of the same things, pointing out some of the idiocy, Sebastian Manascalco, in our school, Dave Chappelle, will not be canceled. And what it takes, it's crazy, but the more I think about it, it's true. It's going to take courageous comedians on stage with a microphone to refuse to leave, and for you to go and continue to watch them because you like them, you don't need a referee to decide if they're good or not. You're making your own decision. And with social media, they can sell their own shows.

And for the most part these streaming services are gonna air 'em. And their pushback with their powers helping comedians, but I think it's helping everybody. along with Joe Rogan and others. I think it's really important. And I do think he handled it well.

He doesn't want to sit down and give somebody else the ratings. Let everyone tune into Netflix and watch him. Brian Killmeet show. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Killmead.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the latest moments of the Brian Kill Meet Show. Hope you had a great weekend. Want to hear all about it, be able to take your questions in a little while. 1-8-6-6-408-7669.

President of the United States is going to be addressing firefighters today. That's a constituency he certainly wants to win over. As we wait to find out what he's going to be doing in 2024, man, it really seems like the Republicans took the gloves off this weekend on each other, and for the most part, plotting and planning. Because almost all of them, even those that work with him and call Donald Trump their friend, want to figure out a way how to beat the former president, who at the very least people know he still got his endurance. Spoke for almost two hours over the weekend.

So, without any further, I'll have Charlie Hurd on the bottom of the hour to analyze all that. But it's my privilege to bring on one of our nation's, if not the premier historian in our country, put together documentaries like nobody else. But this is a little bit different. This is a book. It's a picture book like no other.

It utilizes maybe the best archives outside the Smithsonian and in the country. Our America is the name of it. And Ken Burns joins us now. Ken, congratulations on this. Thank you, Brian.

It's great to hear your voice, and thank you so much. Yeah, this has been a labor of love for maybe 10 or 15 years. You know, I was. taught and raised, grown up by my dad was an amateur still photographer. And then at college, folks were still photographers, not filmmakers.

And so they reminded me that the still photograph is the DNA of everything I do. And so I've been thinking about how to do a history of us I've made films about the U. S. for almost fifty years, but I've also made films about us, that is the two letter lowercase plural pronoun. And what I've learned over those fifty years, Brian, is that there's only us, there's no them.

And so I was trying to figure out a way, and I realized it doesn't have to be with a film. It can be with a book that starts with the first selfie, the first self-portrait ever taken in 1839, the year that photography was invented, and take us up more or less to the present. I'm in the history business, so the recent present doesn't interest me as much. But to sort of look in single image on a page, minimal captions, the back of the book has much fuller details on all the photographs, and just sort of walk through the beauty of this continent, the variety of the people, the political struggles, the wars, all the things that are us, and to try to put them under, kind of put one arm around them and say, you know, this is who we are. And it's just been.

it came out in November, and it's just been going like gangbusters. It's really been exciting because we did work on it at night and o on weekends as we were trying to finish all the various films we're working on.

So a couple of things. You realize you would have sold a lot more on Christmas. I mean, there's no better book ever on Christmas, but maybe we'll make it a perfect Mother's Day gift coming up where Easter gift is just fantastic. It not only chronicles America's past, but your past on stuff and things you did. We got baseball in here, we got the Civil War in here, got the President in here.

War is all over this through time.

So was it, did you work backwards? Did you work around your documentaries?

Well, I sort of did. You know, there's a little bit of winking. I think nearly every film I've worked on is there in some way, shape, or form. But what I wanted to do more than anything is have it not be about me, but about the 50 states.

So every one of the 50 states is there. There's a photograph of at least one from the 50 states, and obviously some others have, you know, a few more. But it was a way to sort of say I've spent my entire professional life asking one deceptively simple question. Who are we? Who are these strange and complicated people who like to call themselves Americans?

And what does an investigation of the past tell us about not only where we were, but where we are and also where we may be going? And so this was a way to do it. I was drawn to photographs that I've used in films. And quite often when I was working with my collaborators, particularly Susanna, who was my big archival gal for Three decades, she would find a photograph that we hadn't seen while we were making the film on, let's just say, Jackie Robinson, or we, a film on jazz or something. And so we'd put.

Something else in. And it was interesting because if you have one photograph. Uh to a page. Then the first, which has no accompanying one, and the last has no picture. All the others are in conversation not only with you, the viewer, because With a minimal caption, you're forced to sort of just drink in the photograph, just feel it for the first time.

But they're also talking to one another on the opposite page. And so there's some interesting kind of rhymes going, internal rhymes, in the book. And what was nice is that because I didn't have time, my day job is really, you know, I'm always working on four or five films at once. And some of those are super long. This gave this a chance to marinate, to incubate over literally years and years, so that I could finally, when I delivered the book to Kanaf, I could just, I realized that it was.

Hugely about my own process as a human being, as well as a filmmaker, understanding the complexity and the undertow, the beauty, and the majesty of us, the story of us. And so it's all there. That's why it's, you know, let's be honest, it's my America, but it's our because it was made in the spirit of sharing it with everybody, the great natural beauty, as I was saying, and also complicated moments in between, and try to figure out a visual language. That we could just Talk to each other, all of us, and say, Yep, that's it. Tug a rope in Putney, Vermont.

There's kids playing guns out in Diamond, Oklahoma, in the midst of the Dust Bowl. There's still time to have fun. There's former slaves going to reunion. There's, how should we say it, a lady of the evening from Storyville in New Orleans? And right across from her are the formidable pillars of the Pennsylvania station.

So you've got, there's. Of winks, and there are puns, and there's love, and you know, that's basically what I wanted to do, is just speak. Speak to all the things that we are. You know, it's so interesting. I mean, it goes through our time.

It's really about people, but you also have major moments. The construction, we watch Mount Rushmore being carved out. I mean, you see that moment. How many people even know that even exists? I had a chance to go back there and I saw some of those pictures, but I actually never saw that one.

But you just talk about race in America, the separation. You talked about slavery. You talk about segregation. You talk about the people, what they go through. And a lot of kids in this book, too.

Kids then, obviously, probably passed on by now. I mean, is it possible to look through this? And and not be reflective on how far our country's come. Oh, I think that that's exactly it. How far we've come, how far we've got to go.

You know, it's interesting, this idea of American exceptionalism. You know, what that requires, if you're going to be the best, say you're the Tom Brady of countries, right? Or you're the whatever it is of a country, you're constantly working on yourself and you're constantly looking and examining and taking stock and always trying to be better. You never rest on your laurels, you never stop looking how to improve. It's sort of, there are a lot of sports metaphors besides me citing Tom Brady because it's in sports that very early on as kids we're reminded of how we don't live up to what the expectation is and we have to get better.

And so there is a kind of generous and yet very disciplined, let's be better.

So to me, looking at this is not, this is not a criticism, this is a celebration of all that we have been. All of the struggles that we've been through and all of the great promises that we have in so many different ways. Heroic moments, just as you say, tiny little poignant moments with kids.

Sometimes it's just the natural beauty. There's one shot, one whole page. It's just dew forming on a pussy willow branch. You know, and you just kind of go. Oh my god, that's Stunning, and that's gorgeous.

And you can find out. You know, I was remembered when I was in school, people would say, God is in the details. And so I always have been mindful, or tried to be mindful, Brian, in the work that I've done, that that was true, that you could see. As the poet William Blake said, the universe in a grain of sand, the world in a grain of sand. And you understand and appreciate that the architecture of the atom.

shares a profound similarity with the design of the solar system. And so you begin to understand in our religious teachings, it's as above, so below. I have tried to use that in putting the book together as much as saying, oh, I now need to chronologically walk through the United States. We never leave the United States.

So the foreign wars are represented, obviously, by a soldier kissing his girlfriend or by something that shows you, you know, a big parade on Fifth Avenue when they're heading off to World War I. But you, you, and there is the shot of Pearl Harbor under attack.

So there's that thing, but you also understand there's a great deal. That's off stage, of course. You know, I probably looked at 30,000 images to put the 250 or so that are here. And a lot of them I'd seen before, as I said, the front cover is by my mentor, a still photographer named Jerome Liebling, now been dead more than a dozen years, and we miss him terribly. But it's just a kid, you know, on the streets in New York City with this bulbous, you know, wheelhousing behind him.

And he's got threadbare shoes, and he's in shorts, and he's got a coat in his arm. He's got this rakish hat, he's got a hockey shirt on. It's just. And he's got as much presence. I remember I was out promoting, I was on some TV show, and somebody said, what's the most important photograph here?

And I said, I don't know. He says, what about Lincoln? I said, yeah, that last beautiful photograph, you know it well, Brian, of that was taken of Lincoln just. The last photograph portrait of him where he's holding his glasses and all the cares of the world, and you can see that he's seen the whole history of us, and he sees where we are and he sees where we're going. I said, you know, the great promise of America is that this kid on the cover is as important as Lincoln and vice versa, right?

There's something. Lincoln's just a man, right? He's been through some stuff. He's lost a kid. He's, you know, had a difficult marriage.

He's had ups and downs, lost his mom, you know, all the sorts of things that happen to ordinary people.

So when we deify him, we make him something less than who he was. And I thought that we were trying to return full value. You know, the cliche is that a picture is worth a thousand words. There's so many billions of them today that I think that their value has declined. And I was just trying to say, let's go back and say, this is, let's return full value to a photograph.

So the name of the book is called Our America. Ken Burns selected these photographers along with the rest of his staff, these photographs, and he's got a library like nobody else. When we come back, a few more minutes, including a little about Ken. You read about yourself personally in the beginning of this book.

So I think people would love to know where you got the passion for history and why it means so much and what your dad has to do with it.

So I'd love to hear that. And I do love everything in the book from you see Edison and Henry Ford shaking hands to little kids playing.

So, how many books can actually say they're equally as important? I would argue they are. That's our story. And we used to study it.

Now we judge it. I like to go back to the way we used to do it. Ken Burns, don't move. Back in a moment. Educating, entertaining, enlightening.

You're with Brian Kilmead. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Killmead. Hey, welcome back everybody. 25 minutes after the hour.

A few more minutes with Ken Burns. He's got a brand new book out. And I know if you have a passion for American history, you're not going to, your life will be better if you get it. And you're not going to be able to put it down. Nor will any of your guests if they come to the house.

Our America is the name of it. So Ken, we know very little about you personally, your history. Your mom passes away early. And your dad also had a passion for photography. And you also mentioned how it all relates to you seeing him showing emotion for the first time, crying for the first time.

You talk about that? Yeah, sure.

So the first memory I have is of my dad building a dark room in the basement of our development we lived in in Newark, Delaware. He was the only anthropologist in the state of Delaware. And I remember the beautiful alchemy of a photograph coming to life.

So that stuck with me. My mom got cancer almost around that same time and heroically survived for almost 10 years and passed away in 1965. And my dad had. Had had a pretty strict curfew for my younger brother and me, but he forgave it if there was a movie on TV or out at the Cinema Guild or in a regular first-run place. And we'd go on a school night.

We'd stay up till one o'clock in the midst of all the Ginzu Knife commercials. And one night we were watching a movie called Odd Man Out about the Irish Trouble starring James Mason, the Irish Troubles from the teens and 20s of the 20th century. And very tragic film by a great British director, Sir Carol Reed. And um my dad just started crying. And I'd never seen him cry when my mom was sick or when she died or had her incredibly sad funeral.

And I realized right then and there that that That film had given him an emotional Safe haven, a place that nothing else in his life permitted him to express something. And I was 12 by that time. My mom died when I was 11 a few months before. And I just vowed to myself right then and there, that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to become.

um a filmmaker. And at that point that meant Alfred Hitchcock or John Ford or somebody like that. But when I went to Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, which was an experimental school, still is, Um in its second year in the fall of 71, I ran into all these people. who reminded me that what is and what was Is as dramatic as anything the imagination, as dramatic as fiction. And sometimes, as we know, and you know, it's more dramatic.

You can't make it up. And so I kind of had my Everything, my molecules rearranged by the experiment at Hampshire. And then I found that I'd had this untrained and untutored love for American history. And so all of a sudden, by the time I'm 12, I know what I want to be. By the time I'm 18, I know what kind of that filmmaker person I am.

And by 22, I know it's going to be in history. And I've spent, you know, the last several decades. doing that and having just an amazing, amazing experience. And I had that moment Where I realized that my mom's death, she died on April 28th, was always, as a kid, approaching and then receding. I could never be present.

And my late father-in-law was an eminent psychologist, and I told him, You know, I seem to be keeping my mom alive. He said, Well, I bet you you blew out your candles on your cake when you were a kid, wishing she'd come back. And he said, Yeah, how did you know? And then he named three or four, said three or four other things that I also did too. And he looked at me and he said, Well, look what you do for a living.

And I said, Excuse me? He said, You wake the dead. You make Abraham Lincoln and Jackie Robinson come alive. Who do you think you're really trying to wake up? And I realized the great gift Of, you know, in a way, my mother's passing had forced me to this intimate business of resurrection, of trying to bring people that people call it, oh, the dusty war, you know, past, who cares about that?

How is it relevant? And show them how human they were as far back as you can. You know, we just did last year, Benjamin Franklin. We're working on a big history right now, the entire American Revolution, and without photographs, trying to bring that story alive, but also to see the way that they speak to us now, how much history is the greatest teacher.

So I am a product of tragedy, but what I've tried to do is. is um make some lemonade out of the lemon. Unbelievable, and we're all the beneficiary for it. Do you do it? We only have 15 seconds.

Doing all this history, are we an exceptional nation? I believe so, and we just have to keep working at it and working at it and working at it and never be self-satisfied. Got it. Ken, congratulations on Our America.

Now, this is a must-read. And everything you do is a must-watch. Thanks, Ken. Thank you. Thank you, my friend.

You got it. Follow him at Ken Burns. Seriously, the book is fantastic. The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmead.

There's a tennis player, Novak Djokovic. He's like the best player ever. He's absolutely good at tennis. He's dedicated his life to it. What's your point, sir?

He cannot get into America. No. He'd like to be playing at the, I think it's coming up, the Miami Open or something. He is unvaccinated, but he's had COVID twice. He had this, again, natural immunity.

Something we always used to understand was better than the actual vaccine.

Somehow that got to be reversed. But head of the Miami tournament, I read a quote for him yesterday. He's trying to get Djokovic in, and he said, There doesn't seem to be any imminent danger. Imminent danger of a man playing tennis, of a man who's had it twice standing alone, a sport where you're alone in the middle of a stadium. Outside in a country where everyone's already had it, no imminent danger.

This country is stuck on stupid, it just is. And no, it's President Biden stuck on stupid and stupid administration because Trump never would have done that. I don't think there's many Democrats who would have done that. I think Barack Obama, who knows? It's just maddening.

Djokovic is not vaccinated, comes from another country. He's got about two years left as one of the greatest tennis players, if not the greatest ever. All he wants to do is play in front of Indian Wells in a tournament that doesn't get as much heat out in California.

Now you take the number one player in the world out. People don't come like they would normally. They don't go out and go to see him. He wants to play not for the money because he just wants to compete. And in America, we don't let him in because he's not vaccinated.

I'm just, it just drives me nuts. Charlie Hurts here. Charlie, which title do you want to go for? Fox News Channel. Wait until you want Fox News Channel.

Do you want? Wait until Ken Burns. We're going to need Ken Burns to come back and do a history of this period of time. And people are going, and it needs to be noted, all of it. It needs to be remembered because people are going to look back.

At this period, and think we were nuts. And we are nuts. We've lost our minds. But I do think that also manipulated by people that had looking to cover their butts, it seems, when it comes to the Anthony Fauci. A little bit was, excuse me, the guy that I thought we were supposed to trust was telling people to write memos that say, whatever you say, say it doesn't come from a lab leak.

So you can't blame the average American for that. Yeah, I don't understand the whole concept of that. If you are in charge of public health in this country, why would you have any other objective than to find out what actually happened? Why would you be trying to shade it or jaundice it except unless you're culpable? Yeah, unless you had something to hide.

But even short of that, it's just appalling to me. It's just appalling to me that anybody would have taken those precious months. Early in the pandemic and not devoted all of their efforts to finding out what the origin of this. Who knows what we could have found out if we had managed to get information early in real time about where this came from? Imagine the number of, and when you, you know, I'm uncomfortable.

Nothing gets me angrier to talk about this. I hate blame. I'm not going to sit here and do what a lot of people do, like blaming Anthony Fauci for killing millions of people. I'm not going there. But if you were an honest observer and you cared about your country, the only thing you would have cared about is getting to the bottom of where it came from.

To stop the next one, but also to unravel whatever the thing it was. And who knows what we would have found out if we had that information out of that lab in real time and could have maybe found a way to stem the science.

Well, how about this? When people come out and say this guy came from the Wuhan lab, and those scientists end up getting $7 million grants. Grants, and they changed their opinion, and now it came from an actual source. And meanwhile, we still don't have the answer to how we stop it. Do you think this is because it starts on Tuesday?

These hearings start on Tuesday. Do you think that we might out of all of this take a second glance at all of the monster grants that we give universities and hospitals? And allowing China to give them too? Yeah. If you like a free...

How dare he write a $7 million check of our money? I mean, how dare he? Who puts him that power? Especially on this exactly. Especially on this.

That's no, it really is disturbing. And I hope that. You know, I hope we learned the lessons. I just want to state the fact: I don't need anybody's rant. I don't want anybody venting because the minute you do that, it allows the state, it allows the story.

Well, then why do you have me on here if you don't want to hear a rant? It's Allison's idea. I am against booking you, but you keep showing up. I'm stalking you. Because you really want to stop.

Do you know how exhausting it is to stalk you? I mean, you're everywhere all the time. And all I know is I look around for the book bag. according to Guttfeld. Just look for the book that's a bit more.

It's a knapsack. Backpack? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I used to do a shoulder bag and it really was affecting my posture.

So now I go double barrel, but a backpack and he can't get over it.

Well, that is kinda weird. I mean, that's kinda like do you wear puffy tennis shoes and like you with your pants sagging to like vi and your and your baseball cap sideways? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no, I'm not I'm not I'm not knocking it, I'm just knocking it. Until you If I give you both.

You'd be backpacking it too. Because I'm walking from 48th and 6th to 34th. You know what a real man does? A real man just has a grip and walks with it in his and uh enough u upper body strength to carry it. That's what a that's what a real man does.

Right. Are you saying that I'm not strong enough to carry my work? I don't know. Do you w I w you do you want to arm wrestle? I mean I want you to hear Jim Jordan was in your very seat on Friday.

Oh, wow. And you know, he's in charge of getting to the bottom of the bottom. Was he wearing a jacket? No, why would he? And he buttoned his top button for me.

Here's what he said about what to expect and what they've already discovered. COVID 26. First on the COVID issue, understand that on January 31st, 10.32 p.m. 2020.

So right at the get-go, Dr. Fauci gets an email from Dr. Christian Anderson, which says virus looks engineered. Virus not consistent with evolutionary theory. The next day he gets another email from Dr.

Gary.

Now these are doctors he's handed out our tax dollars to over the years. Dr. Gary's email says, I don't know how this happens in nature. It would be easy to do in a lab. That same day, February 1st, 2020.

So again, right at the start, that same day, Dr. Fauci organizes a conference call. Him and Dr. Collins get on there with Dr. Gary.

Dr. Anderson, all these other virologists, they get on there. And three days later, everybody changes their story. Is that okay with you? Um, and and changed and and in that memo, what was it did you see where the edit on the memo went from I can't remember what the f the previous word was, but they changed it to improbable.

That it was improbable that it came from as opposed to impossible that it came from a lab. They are covering for something 100%. One other thing about Jim Jordan, though, I I hats off to him. How smart is this guy? Yeah, and one of the things that and I get it, like a lot of people are impatient because they want everything to come out yesterday.

And I get that. But they are going at this very methodically. They are taking, and they're focusing on things that actually matter, that are not just partisan stuff. It's actual information that matters, that affects us. American citizens, American taxpayers, and they're doing it in a very and and I think that part of what makes them look so good in the way they're doing this is when you compare it.

To w the the the actual witch hunts and the partisan lying that we've that our these investigations have been for the can I also tell you the Democrats have no reason to fight this.

So they're it's not a con condemnation of a Joe Biden. Right. So what is your problem? Yeah, what is that? It's like w uh there's no uh faster way to uh assume guilt than to get upset about an investigation like this into something that Supposedly has nothing to do with you.

But it's like my friend from the Caribbean used to say: I chunked a rock in the pen and a pig squealed. And it's the same thing here. You chunk a rocket, you know you hit the pig because the pig starts squealing. I love the analogy. It totally works.

A couple of things.

So When you look back at what's happening, you're trying to find out the genesis of where it came from, and then you find out a guy that really wants to make sure you don't think it's coming from a lab for some reason generates a memo that says it didn't come from a lab for some reason. And then eight weeks later, Fauci stood at the White House press conference alongside President Trump and cited that paper as evidence. That the link that the lab leak theory was implausible while pretending it had nothing to do with him and he did not know the authors. That's the insidious thing of Anthony Fauci with that grandfatherly delivery. I'm just trying to tell you, I'm trying to disseminate for you because I'm so much smarter and more experienced.

And people go, I like having that guy around. He seemed very trustworthy. And he conned people into thinking that he was being an honest operator. I think these people did more damage to the concept. Yeah, it's a very good idea.

than anybody uh than than anybody in history. And then, of course, anybody who asked a question, you know, another thing, another tell. Um, about whether people are being honest or are real brokers or not, is um if they can handle questions. People who are being honest can handle mostly scientists, they love yes, that's the whole concept of science. Yeah, it's all a question, they love it.

Those are the guys with the really who think for a living, you know? Yeah, anyone who asked a question, like even an obvious or simple question, they branded a conspiracy and shut you down.

Well, and you didn't even know it a lot of times, but when you do to the Johns Hopkins professor and the Stanford professor, and then the guy who created the mRNA virus, how many people are going to be, we have to marginalize the Senator Ron Johnson-led committee when he was chairman, taken off YouTube? That's the problem. It wasn't that if Anthony Fauci showed emotion and said, I really believe it, and then a guy shows equal emotion, then we sit there and we have a better radio show, we have a better TV show, more insightful columns, and then we try to see what happens to and gets a better result. And then we go behind the guy or woman that has the best results. And for some reason, you want to do that.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who works for Pfizer on Face the Nation. By the way, we don't even want to talk about masks. A new study reveals that masks didn't work at all. Right.

Nuts. Cut 34. And I think based on that premise that there's a likelihood that this came out of a lab, we may never be able to prove it with certainty. We should start behaving like it did come out of a lab and start taking the steps to make sure that that couldn't happen again. We're still stuck on the debate about whether it was or wasn't a lab leak.

I don't think we're going to prove that. I think we should work on the assumption that there's a probability that it was a lab leak and start putting in place the kinds of protections that we need. And get mad at China. Why is Fauci never mad at China? He should be furious.

Yeah, it does it even it raises even more questions about what sort of relationship, existing relationship he had and how important that relationship was with scientists in China, with that lab in China, that he's so defensive about it. Right. We allow the WHO, we allow China to pick the head of the WHO, who ends up being a sycophant to China and was absolutely no help at the time. Who knew that it mattered who was the head of the WHO? But Bush was president back then.

Seemed to mean a lot to China.

So he goes, oh, what could go wrong? We're all on the same page. Stop the next disease, stop the next scurvy, stop the next malaria attack. Why couldn't, you know, what's political about that?

Now we know everything's political about that. And if you really are worried about conspiracy theories and falsehoods, you know, worming around the Internet or whatever, then the more open you are about it, the less of that you have to contend with. When we come back, I want to get Charlie Hurts' take on the beginning of what I think of the twenty twenty four Republican push for the nomination. We saw some of these shadow boxing that took place over the weekend. Who might have drew some blood?

Don't move, Brian Kill meet you. Coming to you on a need-to-know basis because Mandy, you need to know. It's Brian Gilmead. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead.

First Lady Joe Biden said in an interview that she maintains a good balance in the types of advice she offers President Biden, but it's mostly hold on to the railing. That was a moderately funny joke from SNL, but that's for them to go at Joe Biden is significant. Charlie Hurt is here. Charlie, pretty much it's a fait accompli. He's going to run.

There was a story in Politico that has a headline: what about Gore and Hillary Clinton together? But there's no substance to it. They just basically write it to give Biden something to write about. For the most part, the drama was on the right. At CPAC, it's Trump PAC.

He's got 62% of the straw vote, and some unheard of guy, and then Nikki Haley. He was not invited. To the Club for Growth, which they say is much amount moderate, and he's beginning to take some incoming. And reportedly, he wants as many people in as possible. It gives him a better chance.

Where do you stand?

Well, I think he's right about that. I think that the more people that do get in, you know, obviously it splinters the vote, the opposition. The only way you'll ever take him on is if there is only one non-Trump candidate. But even then, I'm sort of doubtful that actually, to finish that, I think it's doubtful that the non-Trump candidate beats Trump in the primary. But with one caveat, that's assuming he runs the campaign the way he should run the campaign, which is to focus on the future and to talk about all of the issues.

And I thought he did a very good job in the C-SPAC. It went over two hours, just about. Oh, my. It was exhausting. The guy's got energy still.

It's just mind-blowing to me. I don't know how anybody can do that. But anyway, and he was very, very, obviously it was a friendly crowd. It's one of his best crowds. And he was really energized by it.

But the theme is the old theme: it's America first. But he talked about these issues. And one of my favorite things that he talked about was, and he's so good at doing these word pictures. And he was talking about how crazy it is in this country that we have veterans, homeless veterans, who are lying on the sidewalk with their face against the concrete.

Meanwhile, American taxpayers are footing the bill to put illegal aliens up, flying them around the country, and then putting them up in hotel rooms, in fancy hotels. When he's talking about things like that, he is unbeatable. If he gets stuck talking about himself or his own grievances, it's not that he's wrong about it. It's that it's just not effective. You're not going to win anything.

You probably have 20 things that are bothering you right now, but you don't walk around telling your friends everything that's bothering you. You have to weather like Charlie is a black cloud. I got to stay away. But they don't feel just the opposite, by the way. You keep your problems to yourself, and I appreciate that.

Here's Mike Pompeii. If you only knew. Right, if I only knew. Cut 12. We are thirty one trillion dollars in the hole.

We've got to begin to grow the economy, build it back with lower taxes. And when we do that and grow our economy, we'll get it right back right. It's going to take a true conservative leader, Shannon. Are you saying that President Trump wasn't a true conservative leader? Six trillion dollars more in debt.

That's never the right direction for the country. So that's when Nikki Haley said something similar, too. We've got to get control of spending. And basically, President Trump hasn't done that. How do you feel about that?

Well, obviously, Pompeo is exactly right about that. I mean, spending is, at the end of the day, the most important thing, and we have to start now with Congress doing something about that. But, you know, Donald Trump never ran as a strict fiscal conservative. Right. And he was great at debt.

Yeah. He loved debt. His whole life was built around debt. And so while principally I don't agree with that, and I didn't agree with it in 2016, I give credit to the guy. He never claimed to be anything else.

Do you believe that DeSantis, he's going to wait for the federal legislation to get through? Do you think he's legitimate number two? Hold on. Trump is number one right now. Do you think DeSantis is number two?

Yeah, well, without a doubt. He's the only other person out there that could possibly take him on. But also, just to finish that other thing about the fiscal conservatives, we've been voting for fiscal conservatives for decades. We have $31 trillion in debt. We had $24 trillion when Trump came in in debt.

And that's all by fiscal conservatives voting for fiscal conservatives.

So I just won. But it's just interesting they take aim at each other. Let's see if they can keep it friendly. They're working on some nicknames when they say it this time. I think so.

This makes it fun. Charlie Hurt, thanks so much. Looks for the Brian Killmead Show. We're going to be on the road in Tampa on Wednesday. Find out where to see us on Fox and Friends at then Brian Killmead Radio Show.

New from the Fox News Podcast Network. I'm Emily Campano, and this is the Fox True Crime Podcast. And it had nothing to do with her disappearance. I sit down with the people who lived the nightmares. I was a shock.

I was just devastated. The investigators who tirelessly worked on the case. And I really hope that they can catch this guy. Bringing you closer to the story than you ever thought possible. Listen and follow now at FoxNewsPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

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