Trump too tough? GOP field frozen as DeSantis campaign struggles

From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Killmead. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the latest moments of the Brian Kill Me Show.

So glad you're here. We have a big hour coming your way. Kellyanne Conway is going to be with us in a matter of moments. Lieutenant Colonel Alan West from Texas will tell us the real story happening at the border and what about the improvement they're doing now in Rio Grande. They're actually putting.

Blow up barriers in the middle of the Rio Grande to stop the border crossers. This is what Texas has had to do.

So much of their money is being shelled out to protect the border, which is the federal government's problem. We'll talk to former Congressman Lieutenant Colonel Alan West about that.

So let's get to the big three.

Now with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. Sweden has been added to the alliance and that has 32 members. I think that shows the strength of the alliance. There you go.

That is KJP in Lithuania talking about the good news. Sweden becomes the 32nd nation to join NATO. And that's good.

Now it's a race to end the Ukraine war with a victory. Time to finally drop the caution flag if you want to be winners in the end. Why a weaken Russia is always in our interests. Number two. I had a very smart former elected official say to me a week ago, remember something, he's been at the front of Republican primary voter minds for eight years.

You're not going to get rid of that in eight weeks. And so there's a matter of patience here. Trump, too much. His name, his policies, his court cases combine to freeze the GOP standings with him way up. Is there a Republican plan that could catch him?

We'll discuss. Number This is a story that is sad and disturbing on so many levels. Yes, Republicans are using it and are going to take advantage of it in a way that is unfortunate and inappropriate. Really? That is CNN talking about the stunning news about President Biden just ignoring a grandchild.

Enemies and former friends are circling President Biden in a clear quest to get him out before his party goes down. From his behavior to his record as president to his dicey deals headed by Hunter, it seems like his armor has been removed. Is that how you see it? Let's ask Kelly Ann Conway. Kellyanne, you've seen these series of events taking place.

Is it just the way the news is, or is there a sense that people are just letting those arrows hit their target for the first time? I think it's the latter. Brian, thanks for having me this morning. And look, the media are still going to carry water for Joe Biden. They're going to protect whoever the Democratic nominee is.

Right now, it looks like it's him. They also protect Biden and Harris by not by undercovering, by giving us information under load about, yes, their poor performance or incompetence or lack of confidence, but also they don't really do much. I look at the Vice President's public schedule every day, the night before. Most weekends and some weekdays, it says the following. The Vice President has nothing on her public schedule this weekend.

How is this possible? How is everybody you know, how is everybody you know who's passed on to heaven busier than the Vice President of the United States?

So even there, the media just, it's nothing to see here. But I think the fissures are starting to show, the cracks are starting to show for this reason. It's because the Biden administration, the Biden White House, is not that generous to the mainstream media. They don't give them stories. They don't give them the truth from the podium.

You've got a press secretary, and you've got members of the cabinet. You've got the president himself, like an old angry cuss, yelling at members of the media when he's not sniffing people's hair, when he's not being offensive, when he's not ruining the nation's economy, when he's not covering up for his son and his family. He's not a nice guy. And that's what's starting to be surfaced in these stories.

Now, I think the media also see in their own polling, including the Fox News polling, Brian, that About a third of Democrats right now are committed elsewhere and are sniffing around or looking around beyond Joe Biden.

So the media are hedging their bets in that they feel maybe Biden won't make it, and they want to at least keep the proposition open that there would be somebody else. Last point. They are worried, of course, sick to death because they don't know how to stop them, that Donald Trump could actually be President again. And so there's a little pee, a little flipper of the media who's thinking, I don't want to be on the bad side of that. I was on the bad side of that for so long.

I've been on the bad side of that. I've been on the wrong side of that because I still can't figure out Trump. I still can't figure out the 75 million people who voted for Donald Trump.

So I they don't want to be on the bad side of that either in case he's president again.

So, do you believe that they're heading towards pushing for another nominee? I mean, in the past, Republicans have never been shy about running against an incumbent, let alone a favorite. I mean, Pat Buchanan running against George Bush and Bob Dolan and going against Bush as well. You know, you had John McCain and George W. Bush.

They didn't wait for a coronation. There was a fight every time. Why are Democrats being so polite about this? The irony is the Democrats have become the anti-competitive party, where things are a coronation or a consolation prize. And the Republicans have reversed course from what I think was a corrosive way of doing business for decades, where you've got McCain, he lost to Bush in 2000, so he gets to be the nominee in 2008.

Then Romney loses to McCain, he gets to be the nominee in 2012, and then boom, 2016, Jed Bush is the one in waiting, maybe Scott Walker, maybe a few of these others, and it ends up being Donald Trump.

So I feel like that the Democrats are going in the reverse course. They're a little afraid. Look, it's very simple. Inertia is the most powerful physical force in politics unless and until overtaken by friction. And so things at rest tend to say at rest, Biden's already there.

They believe their BS that he's the one that he's the one that can beat. Trump, Trump can't beat Biden, he lost last time, he'll lose again, so on and so forth. But what they don't, what they're not, What they're not taking into account, Brian, is that voters are going to just compare the two records of these presidents side by side a little bit more clinically than maybe emotionally. And they're going to cast aside many of the ways that they feel about Trump, whether it's his indictments or the way he speaks or this, that, the other about him. They're going to cast that aside and say, I need someone who's going to fix this economy.

I'm going to enter the independence, get it done with crime and Ukraine and the border and whatnot.

Now, having said that, I've been long on the record, even if it's Joe Biden, it's hard to dislodge a sitting president. Incumbents have tremendous advantages. I just don't see Joe Biden. Taking advantage of those advantages right now, leveraging them, meaning like, where's the fundraising? Where's the excitement?

Where are the big speeches? Where's the joy on the job? He's zero. You would think a guy that spent 50 years trying to be president would be happy about it. Evidently, the story with Axios, backed up by multiple sources, we've seen it in front of the camera that he's unhappy, he's a yeller.

People don't want to go into his office alone because he tends to unload on them.

So something's got this guy angry, and no one's mocking his age. I mean, look at Senator Grassley. I mean, Grassley's eight years older than him. The guy could run a marathon, it seems. And then you have even Henry Kissinger's 101 years old.

He's going to be the keynote speaker at this Al Smith dinner. I mean, no one's if everyone's listening to us now and you're close to 80, we're not putting you down. We're just saying the guy that's got this job doesn't seem to be able to do it. Let's switch to the GOP. Right now, it seems like everything is frozen with Donald Trump on top.

Right now, the latest poll, I guess, from Florida Atlantic University, about Florida. Trump is leading Ron DeSantis by 20 points in Florida. Undecided is at seven. Then Vivek Ramaswamy at four, and the rest in single digits. The national polls look exactly the same way.

Do you believe these poles are frozen? Yes, they are. They're frozen, but they're also becoming solidified because nobody has been able to say why they are a viable and better alternative to Donald Trump as a Republican nominee. They've all made one big mistake, particularly DeSantis, who was probably best positioned, Brian, to be able to make the following case and failed to. I am not the alternative to Donald Trump, DeSantis should have said.

I'm the alternative to Joe Biden. I mean, I'll turn it to him ideologically, generationally, accomplishments-wise, vision, alignment on the issues with most of the country. I don't know how you put that genie back in the bottle. His team is on the record saying, quote, the Republican nomination will not be decided through trade and taxes. It will be decided through the culture war issues.

I totally disagree. Of course, all of the above is important, but don't dismiss how Donald Trump got there in the first place, how he overcame 17 qualified men and women in 2016, and how he beat the Queen Bee herself months later that same year. How did he do it? He elevated issues that were mired in the single digits and polling, like trade, like immigration. He wasn't afraid, as so many candidates are.

It's not high in the polls. My pollster told me no. The focus group said no. He said, heck with that. He probably said, I've been on Fox and Friends every Monday for the last however many years talking about China eating our lunch, talking about imbalanced trade deals, talking about.

So I want to hear you. Tell me, Brian. Brian, sitting here right now, give me the plan and the program of any other Republican on everything we just talked about, on trade, on the economy, on the border, on the justices. They simply don't have it. Right.

Here's what Ron DeSantiswin asked about this yesterday, about how he plans to catch Trump, Cut 15. First, I think it's pretty clear that the media does not want me to be the candidate. I think that they've tried to create narratives that somehow the race is over. This is going to be a state-by-state contest. We got a lot of work, but we've had very, very favorable response, and we're going to keep building off that momentum.

At the end of the day, I think the fact that I'm the one that's targeted by the media, by the left, even by the President of Mexico, is because people know that I will beat Biden, and they know that I will actually deliver on all these issues and beat the Democrats.

So Kellyanne, how is that for an answer to why he's trailing? It's better than it's been, but it's a little late to be saying that because if you go back seven months, to the Eight months, excuse me, to the 2022 midterm. The idea that eight months later we'd be having a conversation about polls being frozen because Trump is in such a dominant position and DeSantis is a distant second. Struggling to get traction. And I think starting to show his frustration with not being the frontrunner, which he was promised he'd be by his donors, by his overly paid consultants, by the mainstream media.

I disagree with Governor DeSantis, who's been a great governor and a poor presidential candidate so far. That's the difference. I disagree with him saying that the media. don't want him. I think the media has been pushing him for a while because they they knew that we were going to come to this point where he was going to stumble, he was going to have difficulty beating Trump.

I can't imagine anybody in public life more targeted by everybody than Donald Trump. I mean, that's a ridiculous point. But listen, it is early unless you're DeSantis. I look, I think the DeSantis people And he's got a couple lawyers around him saying this openly, so let me say it here for the first time. They are banking on Trump cutting a deal, being indicted two more times, three or four indictments total, cutting a deal, no prosecution, but no presidential run either.

And then DeSantis swoops in as the next guy in line. You should not ever bank on you being, you winning because somebody else is losing. You need to have that statement. Stickiness, that compelling message, that connective tissue with the voters where they say, You're the guy, you're the gal, you're the one that's going to make my life better. I hear you.

They are waiting for something to drop with the indictments. But every time the indictments come up and they're announced and there's an arraignment and an appearance, nothing else matters. The whole world stops. And then every time a candidate goes to the stump, it's always a question about Trump, good or bad, about Trump.

So their whole campaign, their message gets swamped. But here's the one thing that I have not heard persuasively done. People have said, avoid attacking Trump, focus on Biden. But if Trump's number one, how do you pretend as if he's not standing in your way? I've also heard go directly at Trump where you thought he was weak over the last four years.

And they go at the border and the swamp is still in existence. Those seem to be non-starters. Everybody knows he did everything possible at the border. And the swamp, no one man was going to do it, but one man identified it. Just like, for example, going after DeSantis on pandemic.

The guy was awesome on the pandemic. I don't think you can touch him there. But if you go at Trump and just say, listen, Listen, I could do the same things. Only here's X, Y, and 3. Here's the seven tweets I wouldn't have put out.

Here's the Mattis I wouldn't have fired. This is the people I would have hired instead of the ones he hired. Can you go piece by piece of how you would have done the last four years differently and then go to how you would do it in the next four years? I think it's a great point. And President Trump should do that.

Personnel is policy, I've been on the record of saying was one of his weak spots in certain places and spaces. And look, I was there. I'm very close to him. I was there from the beginning. Almost to the end, Brian and I will say this: that the president, President Trump believed.

that and probably still believes that if he was there At enormous financial sacrifice, privacy, I would say physical security, family time, the whole thing. If he was there, he thought everybody was there for the right reasons. You have people who were there and then left and just crap all over him all day. And I was there in the room. I was there in the Oval Office when these people couldn't get enough of Donald Trump.

And yes, some of them were high-ranking cabinet members. What changed?

Well, I don't want to hear they discovered this or they discovered that and it all changed. I think what's changed is he's no longer in power and it's kind of profitable to be against him. And some of them think they're cleaning their conscience, but they were there the whole time and for an extended period of time. We can talk about, we can name them some other time. I'm not here to shame them or blame them, but I think we should name them.

Look, so that has to change in the second term. And he could say, I'm going to give you, just as I gave you the list of 21 men and women who would serve on my Supreme Court as my nominee, I'm going to give you a list of the people who would be in my administration. But I'd like to hear that from all of them, frankly. the other thing you mentioned a couple important points I first of all, it's both of the above. If you want to take out Trump, you gotta you gotta go at Trump, of course, you gotta you gotta say I'm the alternative to Biden.

But you also have to do something that no one has done. No one in the Republican field, no one in the mainstream media has done the following. You have to understand the 74 million Trump Pence voters from 2020. And if you're just calling them a cult, if you're making fun of the way they look, the way they talk, the way who they are, what they do for a living, how many kids they have, if they go to church, if they own a gun, if you're making fun of people, you're not engaging people. You're enraging people.

And I'll be darned that not a single one of them, let alone the mainstream media, has bothered to take a minute. to understand what motivates these people. It's so much easier to criticize them and to castigate and denigrate them than understanding what motivates them. Because guess what? They'll be back.

In twenty sixteen, I coined the phrase undercover Hidden Trump voter. In 2020, I saw people from the president's campaign, of which I was not at all happy with this.

Well, I'm saying, like, they were saying, oh, there's an undercover hidden Trump voter. No, there wasn't in 2020. In 2020, they were in boat parades, Brian. They were out in their red MAGA hats in the snow watching him at rallies in Pennsylvania. Gotcha.

So that's not true. But I think they're back in 2024. All right. I think it's going to be more hot. More suburban women.

But look, it's a long way. Got you, Kellyanne. We're up against the break, but I know he wants you there, but you've got to stay here. Kellyanne Conway offering great insight as usual. Back in a moment.

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Keep it, Oscar. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmead. Everyone's looking for one silver bullet that will end his candidacy. And I don't think that exists.

But I do think that there becomes a weight that he has to carry around. The lead news that I saw this morning was his trial team asking for a trial to be delayed past the election.

Well, if there's another indictment, let's say in Georgia, and if there's another indictment by DOJ, all those things are going to be going on at the same time this guy's trying to campaign for president. And I think there's a weight on a burden that he will carry that other people look at and say, now, with four indictments, can he actually beat Joe Biden? And I think that that's going to take some time, though. I had a very smart former elected official say to me a week ago, remember something. He's been at the front of Republican primary voter minds for eight years.

You're not going to get rid of that in eight weeks. And so there's a matter of patience here. But if he was unpopular, it would be gone instantly. And that's the problem. If you're running against Donald Trump, he's popular.

And you know who's making him look better? Joe Biden. Almost everything Joe Biden did is the act inverse of Donald Trump. And it looks terrible. Overseas, you see what's going on in England, where the UK basically is not happy with Joe Biden.

They want to get a free trade deal. Trump was ready to do that. They're not going to do it. Then he doesn't even know where he's going as the king is walking him around. Evidently not supposed to touch the king.

This guy's got his hands all over him. And now he goes over to explain why we're using cluster bombs. He said, well, we're out of the other ammo.

So what does that say to our enemies? What does it say to Russia who says, why am I still fighting this? It gives them hope that we're running out of ammo to give Ukraine. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kill Me Show.

Ukraine, as President Biden said, is running very low on conventional and traditional artillery. They're in desperate need of artillery to try to make more gains in their current offensive. And we have millions of these munitions.

So I think we should provide it to them. I think we should have provided it to them earlier. I'm glad President Biden took the step he has now, though. And in the end, this is the best way to achieve peace: to have Ukraine get more battlefield victories and put pressure on Vladimir Putin to come to the negotiating table. Right, Senator Tom Cotton yesterday he said the same thing with us.

He also was on a special report. He is for these cluster bombs going over to Ukraine. They got a win. Yesterday, they were hit by about 27. Drones made in Iran.

They were headed for Kyiv and for Odessa. They were able, most of them were knocked out of the sky, which shows you they're trying to send a message of the Russians while NATO meets in Lithuania. Lieutenant Colonel Alan West joins us now, served over in Europe as many of his stints over 27 years. American Constitutional Rights Union Executive Director. Colonel, welcome back.

It's good to be with you, Brian. How are you today? Good. Colonel, are you in the Center Tom Cotton? I'm for Cluster Bomb Camp?

Uh I do not agree with cluster bombs because having been a ground founder, I know what can happen when you have these unexploded munitions. We used to have an artillery round called DPICM dual-purpose improved conventional munitions. And even if you have a 1% or 2% death rate for that, that can mean detriment for ground troopers who have to conduct offensive operations to try to cover that ground where these GBUs have been dropped.

So I think that when you look at providing munitions there to the Ukrainians, you know, we need to make sure first and foremost that we have the proper amount of ammunition to train and prepare our military to deploy, especially me being a former artillery officer. You don't want to go out and dry fire. You want to have live munitions that you can train with. And then we need to make sure that enough is set aside to provide some type of support to the Ukrainians. But I'm not a big fan of the cluster bomb munitions.

And I think that's one of the reasons why we said that we would not use them. But we didn't sign on anything that said we wouldn't. And they said that ours are better than the ones the Russians are using, and they're aiming at civilians. And is it also true that when you have these minefields, you drop the cluster bombs on the minefields to explode them? You can do that and you can also use conventional uh you know, artillery or Bombs to explode and create a scene through a minefield.

You know, we used to have this thing with the engineers called a mixt, a mine-clearing line explosive charge. Maybe you remember in saving Private Ryan, you saw how they would use those to bust through Constantina Wire and things of that nature. But Mikliks are also another good opportunity to break through minefields. But, you know, when you look at what is happening there in Ukraine, there are three things that I think that are so important for Ukrainians. First and foremost, they need to be able to control their airspace.

So aircraft is important, air defense is important, then long-range artillery is important. That's why I support the HIMARS system going over to them to give them that range standoff against the Russian artillery. What about the ATACOMs?

Well, the ATACMs is part of the MLRS, and so yes, that's another weapon that you can use, and it's all off the same platform.

So, high-mobility artillery rocket system, you talk about your basic 227-millimeter rocket, but then the Army Tactical Missile System, that's also very good. And we have point-detonating rockets and missiles now that they can use from surface to surface.

So, I think that those would be very lucrative to use against minefields. They're not using them. They won't give them the ATACMs. Today, the French said they're going to give them long-range rockets, and the Russians say we're going to take note and we're going to respond. But so far, what you're looking at with the Russia, a bit of chaos with their government, no one could quite figure out what's going on there.

But most of their troops are in Russia, excuse me, in Ukraine. They seem as a country wide open. I mean, is there a tactic that you would use if you're in Ukraine to? give them a reason to keep troops back in Moscow?

Well, I think the most important thing you should be looking to do is cutting off what we call the MSRs, the main supply routes. that would allow these troops, Russian troops in Ukraine to be sustained. And if you can cut off those main supply routes, then you basically are starting to starve off their resources, their food, fuel and ammunition that are used to sustain them in this combat operation.

So I would think that would be the thing that I would do and start looking at certain pincer operations where you can separate and cut these elements off and prevent them from being reinforced. That would be the most important thing that I would seek to do. A couple of things. Here's Eljeridge Colby on what he thinks is going on with the war. As you know, the Russians' offensive did not work through the winter.

They're about to lose Bakhmut, which they lost thousands of guys trying to capture. They captured for about a minute.

Now they're about to lose it again. And as the offensive takes shape, maybe not as quick as everyone thought, people are optimistic. He is not. He's a former Trump Deputy Assistant of Defense, Cut 29. The admission by the President on 155 millimeter rounds, which are actually very standard and relatively simple weapons that we're depleting them, is a huge admission.

And I'm not sure why they're taking any kind of victory lap because the war in Ukraine, unfortunately, looks like it's going to be protracted. We hope they do well, of course, but so far it seems to be pretty modest.

Now, there could be a breakthrough, but I don't think that's going to decisively end the war anytime soon, if at all. And at the same time, they're going to China, and they're sufficiently provocative to be offensive to the Chinese who believe they're trying to strangle them, but not doing a good enough job about it to actually hold the Chinese back. At the same time, Iran is moving to become something close to a threat. Threshold state.

So, why are they taking victory? I think a lot of it is just the optics of going to a NATO summit. It's basically the symbolism. But actually, we're on a really bad trajectory, as far as I can tell. Where do you stand?

I think once again, the most important thing we need to be doing is pushing oil and natural gas exports into these countries and undermine Russia because that's a main part of his resourcing. And when we have abdicated our energy independence, the ability to produce, to consume and export these resources, we gave a a tipping hand to to Russia and and as well to to Iran.

So I think it's important that we look at the periphery and start putting those uh economic sanctions back on. They're stronger against Iran, so they're not able to export their terrorism and their drones. We need to make sure that we are doing what is necessary to cut off the uh revenues of of oil that come into uh into uh and natural gas to come into Russia.

So it's it's a it's a total type of perspective you have to look at.

So diplomatically, we need to put the pressure on them. Militarily, we need to be able to do that, not commit our troops. But then economically, I think that's one of the most important things, especially with energy resources. All right. We're waiting on the confirmation of so many military officers' promotions because Tommy Tupperville is saying, I want proof that the Pentagon is not going to provide any government money for abortions or gender-affirming care or whatever they want to call it.

So they're holding all confirmations. But there is a hearing today, and it's for the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Charles Q. Brown, they're going to make him chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. You do not like this move. Why?

Well, this is the thing that I believe should happen today, and the hearing has started. We need to make sure that we don't have ideological generals. We need to make sure that we have generals that are focused on the core missions of the military, which is to recruit, to train, to deploy, to fight, to win, and take care of our families. And right now, what we see is a military that is kowtowing to an ideological agenda of the left with all of this concerns about gender dysphoria, DEI, CRT. I would ask the general, you know, based upon the recent decision of the Supreme Court, do we want to still have racial quotas and that as part of our service academies?

And why are we having DEI and CRT part of the curriculum at our service academies?

So, I want to make sure that we have a general that's not going to follow along the same lines as Gerald Milley. And I would also ask General Brown: what would you have done different in Afghanistan to prevent the debacle that we saw happen over there?

So, that's my concern: if we get back to generals that are going to abide by the Constitution and lead our military and restore our capability and capacity instead of having ideological generals that are just putting forth the agenda of the progressive socialist left. And you think he might. See?

Well, one of the concerns I have is that he has admitted that he believes that there should only be 46% of white male aviators in the Air Force. Why do would you put that number out there? We want to have the best qualified aviators flying our aircraft. We don't need to say we're just going to have X percentage of white males and then we're going to do what's necessary to manipulate the other numbers. That's not the mission of the military.

The mission of the military is to, as the Army used to say, be all you can be and go out and get the best. Um Right now, looking at what's happening at the border, they say the numbers have decreased. I think a lot of it has to do with this policy of people reporting for asylum in another country and us flying them in. How come we don't get those numbers?

Okay.

Well, you you have to ask Alejandro Mayorkas why we don't get those numbers. And furthermore, you have to ask yourself, where does it say constitutionally that the President of the United States of America can create an app to allow people who are illegal to apply for entry into the country outside of the country. And so we've gone way beyond the Remain in Mexico policy. And so we have extended the granting of people coming into this country legally beyond our own borders. And who are the people that are coordinating and working with these people who are illegals to enable them to come to a point of interest saying, see, I already have my permission to come in?

This is just a whole bunch of unconstitutional mess, but then it's also part of the agenda of the left, which is a national security risk, as you and I have discussed previously.

So, just real quick on the Republican side, we have about 12 candidates. They all have their strengths. And I think it's a strong field, but no one's touching Trump. In fact, he's expanding his lead. And head-to-head, he is now beating Biden by one.

And DeSantis, in the latest poll, it's just a poll, but it shows a trend, is trailing Biden by five. Which, if you told me that five months ago or right after the election, I would say that's impossible. Why do you think the polls look the way let's just assume that they're somewhat accurate? Why do you think they look the way they do?

Well, because there's a personal attack upon President Trump that's widely proliferated by the media. But then when you look at all the corruption of Joe Biden, you see this double standard. You see this And I'm thinking that you're starting to look at Democrats, Independents, and Republicans that find this abhorrent. You know, Hunter Biden and all the things that we know about him that y'all discussed even this morning, all Fox and Friends, I think that's helping to boost President Trump.

Now, there are some people that are thinking that these legal issues, if they become insurmountable for the president, you're looking at folks that believe that they can step into the gap. But it's it's still a two-person race. Uh it really is, and we'll see how it fares. But I think President Trump needs to show up at these debates. Uh don't think you can dial it in.

Don't think that you don't have to you know play the game. Uh you need to be out there. I'm telling you, he's not going.

Well, I'll tell you what, you know, that would be just like I remember when my University of Tennessee got upset by Georgia State University.

So it doesn't matter who you are on that playing field.

Someone else can creep up and upset you if you're not careful.

So I would advocate to him to be there on that stage to answer the questions and to also fend off any type of attacks from the other candidates that are there. Joe Sprint. All right. Uh s and you have not endorsed anybody yet, right? No, sir.

I'm you know, I ain't that important, Brian. I'm not like you. I mean, people want your endorsement. They don't care less about me. I think you got the exactly backwards.

Lieutenant Colonel Allen West, thanks so much. Great to talk to you. My buddy, you take care. God bless. Absolutely.

And see you soon. All right, when we come back, I'll open up the phones for the first time, 1-866-408-7669. You can write me, BrianKillmee.com, click on comments, and I'll get to them then. Brian Killmee Cho. Giving you everything you need to know.

You're with Brian Kilmead. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Killmead. It's with a really deep sense of peace and. Gratitude and excitement that I want to share with you guys. This is going to be my last season.

Uh my last World Cup in my last NWCL season. Um Obviously there'll be more to come. Further down. down the road after hopefully we Get done what we want to get done. That's Megan Rapino.

And we know the number one story in sports is, you know, in July, it's so smart for the Women's World Cup to take place. Usually it's when the men's World Cup is, unless you put it in the desert and they had to move it to the winter, like Qatar last time or Qatar.

So Megan Rapino, one of the most high-profile players at 38 years old, announces she's going to quit. By the way, she's also one of the few, along with Alex Morgan, who says it's okay if you're a transgender to play on a women's team, which is insane. But it goes to show you it's good for Megan Rapino to leave at 38 years old and say it's okay for guys to dress up as girls and play against them. Because she doesn't have to deal with it. It's now in a rearview mirror.

So I think that she has been a menace as a personality. She's a real good player, obviously. But as a personality, she's been very me-centric. She was one of the first ones to kneel and have problems with U.S.

soccer in our country and be a bit of a rebel and use profanity when a bunch of kids showed up after they win the Women's World Cup and they have a parade in New York City. She's cursing up a storm, saying inappropriate things.

So she'll probably end up on.

Somebody's news desk, sports desk, but it's just the opposite of the people there: the Julie Fades of the world, the Mia Hams. They were. Ideal athletes on and off the field, and they paved the way for her who seem remarkably ungrateful. And there's no way they should have been paid the same as the men. The men's.

The men's tournament earned $6 billion. The women, I think, own $130 million.

So, to me, you can't pay those people who are in a tournament that's $130 million as opposed to $6 billion. And she spent a lot of her time doing that.

So, those are some of the issues that are going on. Maybe you're not interested in soccer, but you know, when the Women's World Cup starts, it'll be one of the number one things, and the ratings will be through the roof. And you remember, the first time they burst on the scene was 1999, and when people were buying magazines, and they're on the cover of every single magazine, winning the World Cup and penalty kicks famously, Brandi Chastain took her shirt off. That ends up on the cover everywhere. And I believe that Sports Bra is now in the soccer hall of fame.

Meanwhile, the President of the United States is over in NATO, and he's talking about life and death and also bolstering the membership. It is now at 32 because, for some reason, I'm not sure what was done behind the scenes, Turkey has given way, you have to have unanimous, and allowed Sweden to join.

So, Finland and Sweden have now joined. The Russians have said, we've noticed this. We've changed our force structure and protection, first for Finland, now of Sweden. And they say we're going to try to win over, we're disappointed in Turkey's decision. We're going to try to win over Turkey to make them an ally.

Good luck with that.

Meanwhile, you could sit there and talk tough and tell everyone how to be intimidated. But everyone watches the way the Russian army fights, how they don't want to be there, how so many defected rather than sign up, that they've lost at least 50,000 soldiers, and over 200,000 have been forced from the battlefield due to casualties, whether it's mental breakdown or physical breakdown. And they've watched as their number one unit, the Wagner unit, goes and decides. We're going to go attack Moscow and stop at the last minute, or else we would have had a civil war. I've never in my life, that includes Iraq and Vietnam and Afghanistan, Russian style, and everything, I've never seen a more miscalculated military action than the Russians going into the Ukraine.

They have alienated themselves from most of the West. They have an ally in China, but they always had that ally in China of late. And they basically exposed themselves as a third-rate military power with a big-time nuclear arsenal. That's all they have. They certainly aren't unified, and Vladimir Putin's not coming off as a tough guy.

When things got tough, this guy left Moscow and went to St. Petersburg. No joke. You listened to the Brian Kilmey Show.

So glad you're here. And by the way, go to BrianKilmey.com for any of your comments and questions. Don't move. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian In Kill Mead.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the latest moments of the Brian Killmee Show. He comes to you from 48th and 6 in Midtown Manhattan. We're heard around the country, heard around the world. You can also get us on a podcast, BrianKilmeShow.com.

Thanks so much for listening. This hour, we're going to be joined.

Well, I'll do a similar with Stuart Varney. We're also going to talk to John Lovell. He is the founder and CEO of the Warrior Poet Society and author of a brand new book, The Warrior Poet Way, a Guide to Living Free and Dying Well.

So, why not do that? We do have some breaking news to get to, and we'll get to it shortly.

So, let's get to the big three.

Now with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. Sweden has been added to the alliance.

Now that's 32 members. I think that shows the strength of the alliance. There you go. NATO, Lithuania is the stage for the NATO meeting. They have added an impressive member.

It is called Sweden. They are ready to go.

Now it's a race to end the Ukraine war with a victory. More on that and Russia's reaction in a moment. Number two. I had a very smart former elected official say to me a week ago, remember something. He's been at the front of Republican primary voter minds for eight years.

You're not going to get rid of that in eight weeks. And so there's a matter of patience here. That is Chris Christie talking about Trump. He is too tough. Is that true?

His name, his policies, his court cases combine to freeze the GOP standings with him up by 20 points. Is there a Republican plan or a player that could catch him? We'll discuss it. Number This is A story that is sad and disturbing on so many levels. Yes, Republicans are using it.

and are going to take advantage of it in a way that is unfortunate and inappropriate. Dana Bash on CNN. Enemies and former friends are circling President Biden in a clear quest to get him out, it seems, before his party goes down with him from his behavior to his record as president, to his dicey deals headed by Hunter. It seems like his armor has been removed. That's how it seems, how he's now overseas trying to get some international credit.

Joining us now is Kurt Volcker, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, former United States Special Representative for Ukraine negotiations, distinguished fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis. Ambassador, for the longest time, Sweden and Finland said, we'll help you guys out. We'll be an associate member. We'll do military exercise with you, but I don't want to be members.

Something about the Ukraine war changed for both countries. What was it? Yeah, it was Putin's willingness to use force in Europe in the most brutal fashion, particularly the war crimes that Russia committed around Bucha. If you remember that back last year, executing civilians, hands tied behind their back, going after the capital city of Kyiv, indiscriminate bombings. And Sweden and Finland are saying, you know what?

We've always had this porcupine strategy. We're just going to be too tough for anyone to swallow. And then they look at what happened to Ukraine and say, you know what? Not safe to be a porcupine anymore. No question.

This adds quality to the membership. They are ready to go, correct? Absolutely. They have two of the best militaries in Europe. They are fully developed democracies.

They spend enough on defense, and they're going to increase as they get into NATO. They've got air forces, Timelinflies, F-18s. Sweden produced its own Gripen fighter aircraft for a long time.

So they are quite capable. And if you think about the map, you look at the geography here.

Now you have all of Northern Europe, everything from the Finnish border all the way to Iceland, Norway, all of the Baltic Sea. All of this is now enclosed in NATO territory. This is going to give great coherence to NATO planners when they think about controlling the airspace, controlling the sea lanes.

So, you know, it's interesting to paraphrase what the Russians said, they're disappointed in Turkey's decision to no longer stand in Sweden's way, number one. Number two, they also said, just like we adjusted our defense posture when Finland went in, now we're going to do the same thing for Sweden as if it's no big deal. They don't have the forces to not only fight the Ukraine war, defend their own capital, let alone try to avoid being, you know, Sweden and Finland are never going to attack, but try to defend against Sweden and Finland. Right. Well, th this is just bluster coming from Russia.

They can't say nothing, so they have to say something.

So they oh, we're going to adjust our force posture. But as you said, Russia's losing a war against the Ukrainian military in Ukraine. They don't have the forces to spare to open any other front as they wanted to. certainly don't have the quality as we've seen in Ukraine, where the Ukrainians have just picked them apart and they're dragging out World War two equipment to replace what the Ukrainians have destroyed.

So, by the way, here's a statement from Peskov, similar. Said Sweden's expected ascension to NATO would have negative implications for Russia's security and that Moscow would have to respond. Also, they came out against the French sending long-range missiles and said we have to see the exact distances, but we'll have to respond to that too. If you think about it, they have to sit around at night and say, what did we do? I mean, we have done the impossible.

We've united and we've made NATO stronger. Yes. They had an incredible knack for achieving the exact opposite of what they're trying to do. They're trying to reestablish Russia's position as a premier country in Europe. They want to reestablish the Russian Empire, dominate Ukraine and keep with the West divided.

exactly the opposite. The West is more united, countries are joining NATO, Ukraine is stronger, Ukrainian military is stronger, and they, through their own efforts, have devastated the Russian military capability. Also, I think it's important to point out, not everybody is happy, including Ukraine. They Zelensky is on his way, but he's not going to get status as a member, and I don't think that's a bit of a surprise at all. Here's Jake Sullivan on that, Cut twenty.

Tomorrow will be the very first meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council. Allies will agree on a new package of increased support for Ukraine. Look at Ukraine's long-term needs and expand plans for Ukraine's interoperability with NATO. Allies will also discuss Ukraine's path to future membership in NATO.

So then it's not there yet. It doesn't surprise you, Ambassador. We're not going to put him in now. No, of course not. No one is saying that they need to be a member of NATO at Vilnius.

First off, that would put that would change the war. That would mean it's no longer helping Ukraine defend itself. That would mean that it's NATO going to war with Russia.

So we're not going to not going to go there tomorrow. That being said, we have to send these very clear signals That Ukraine will remember when this is all said and done, there's going to be a firm border, and any attack on Ukraine is going to be treated like an attack on anybody else. That's the way that this war ends more quickly, and the way we create stable borders in Europe again in the future. But do they have the economy and the democratic institutions in order to be eligible to be a member of NATO traditionally? I cannot do the definitive look breakdown of the.

Ukrainian political structure, but they seem to be quite fractured and they have a reputation of corruption. Has anything changed?

Well, it's two things. Yes, on the Ukraine side, let's start with that.

Some things have changed. And um The way I can describe it, having visited Ukraine a couple of times in the last six months, is the younger generation now that is fighting this war, they're on the front lines, their friends are on the front lines. Others are trying to run the country and the economy behind the lines. They have an attitude now of no more screwing around. They know what leaders in Ukraine did in the past, and they are determined never to let that happen again.

Now, it's a tough order. They're going to have to struggle for that. But the attitude in Ukraine right now is very, very strong about fixing their country because they know the problems they've had. They do have a democracy. Zelensky was elected with enormous popular support.

He he dipped in support dramatically. He's back popular again. They do have martial law because they're being attacked by Russia, but they will get their democracy back on track as the Russians are defeated. The second side of this, though, is what are the standards that we talk about with NATO? Yes, we have always said we want to bring in democracies, market economy, rule of law, et cetera.

And that was our mantra in the nineteen nineties when we brought in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and so forth. But NATO's history is a little more complicated than that. Portugal was a dictatorship when it joined the alliance. We brought in Turkey in the 1950s when the military was dominating Turkey. We still have President, who people criticize as being not fully democratic in the way he governs the country.

I think that NATO's first job. It is security for all of the members. And as long as we keep our eyes on that, we can bring in countries and we can keep working to perfect democracy. Yeah, I mean, they got to win, and they got to get air cover, and they're going to need a way to actually get the counteroffensive going without air cover. And it seems as though the Russians have solidified their position.

Just last question on the Ukrainian political situation. Have you seen concrete efforts by Zelensky, and how has he done it to kind of purify his political system? No, I haven't seen that. And I think that's an exaggeration to say purify the system. What I'd say that he has done, he has strengthened a few anticorruption institutions, so that they have begun to do a few prosecutions.

They put in place a law that is called the de-oligorgization law, trying to get oligarchs out of politics. And it's not quite the right effort. It's a little bit too personalized and not systemic enough, but it's an effort in that direction. And then what has happened at the same time, and this is where some of the critics come from, is because of the war, it had to centralize a lot of decision making under the authority of the President. And that has caused some people concern that it's too centralized.

And I think, as you would say, as I would say, win the war first. Just win the war. And then you have to go back and you have to reinforce all of your democratic institutions. Yeah, I mean, to say, okay, let's have peace talks, that's a good aspiration. But in reality, it'll be reinforcing an invasion, which will only produce more invasions.

They've gotten 20% of the country. They've got to be pushed back. There's just no question about it in the big picture. But, you know, Ambassador Volcker, you should not have to explain this on a regular basis like you do. I shouldn't.

Tom Cotton shouldn't. Lindsey Graham shouldn't. The president has to consistently sell his story by telling the truth about what it means for American security. That is not told, which is allowing a lot of people to say we shouldn't be in this mess. Yeah, you're absolutely right.

We have become experts in saying what we won't do in order to avoid upsetting Russia. rather than saying what we stand for. And that's what we've got to do. I want you to hear Niall Gardner, used to be a key aide to Margaret Thatcher, talk about the friction now between the UK and US about who's going to head up NATO. Cut 30.

Biden has treated Britain with sneering condescension over the course of the last couple of years. That's why he's very unpopular over here. But also, he recently torpedoed the candidacy for NATO Secretary General from Ben Wallace, the British Defence Secretary. That's gone down very badly here in London. And Biden is backing the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to be the next NATO Secretary General, which is absolutely disastrous.

It's absolutely insane, I think, his approach. And so there's a lot of strong criticism of Biden on the ground here in London. Your thoughts? Can you bring us inside that process? Sure.

Well, it's a more complicated process than everything that Niall just explained. You have the French, for instance, insisting that the chair the Secretary General of NATO has to come from an EU country. The UK is no longer in the EU. You have many countries that say it has to be a former prime minister or a former head of state. Ben Wallace coming out of this as Defense Secretary.

They don't view him as at the right level. Several countries have said, you know, we've never had a woman. We should have a woman. And you have countries like Poland and the Baltic states that say we've never had anybody from the front lines. We ought to have somebody who's actually involved in the fighting here closer to the fighting to be Secretary General.

So it's a very complicated picture. The way you cut through that is U.S. leadership from the beginning. To give the whole alliance a direction of saying, this is where we think we need to go. These are the attributes that we think are important.

Here are some people that we like, to try to help coalesce people around the candidate. We didn't do that. We let it get a long time. A number of people were talked about who never really got there. There was the Danish prime minister, there's the former president of Croatia, there's former president of Estonia, all of them women.

None of them really got to the top of anybody's list. And by the time the UK comes around with Ben Wallace, people are all over the map, and it was too late to actually come together on anything. I want you to hear Vivek Ramaswamy. I like a lot of his ideas. I don't like this one, but I'll share it with you because a lot of people do.

Cut 32. Here's my vision of how we should end this war, Pierce is. I would negotiate a peace treaty, which would freeze the current lines of control exactly where they are, a Korean war style armistice agreement. I would further commit that NATO would not admit Ukraine to NATO, but I would demand something of even greater value from Putin. Russia has to exit its military partnership with China.

The China-Russia military partnership is the single greatest military threat that the United States faces.

So I would end this war on terms that require dissolving the Russia-China partnership. And that, by the way, is how we deter Xi Jinping. Your thoughts? Well, it's hard to know where to start. Let's start with the Russia China partnership.

Russia's the weak partner in this one. China's the strong one. And China doesn't respect Russia all that much, and China's not helping Russia all that much.

So we shouldn't be worried too much about that. When you look at what he's calling a stable ceasefire line, well, you know, from 2014 to 2022, that's kind of what we had. And Russia used that time to build up its forces and attack. We should have learned from that experience, not try to repeat it. And then finally, as you said earlier, Russia's determination is not based on any kind of threat that it perceives.

They just use that as language to explain. What they are doing is trying to overtake all of Ukraine, remove Ukraine as a country and as a people, bring it back into a bigger Russian empire to build strength again for the future. That's the threat. And so what we ought to do is help the Ukrainian get all their territory back. Don't reward aggression by giving them what they've already taken and legitimizing it.

Take it back and then build a stable border. And that's where we are at the moment. It's what we have to finish the job on. Yeah, under 30 seconds. Peskov of Russia said Prashogin and his lieutenants met with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin days after the would-be invasion of Moscow.

Your thoughts? Is that true? I think it is true. We've seen it in several sources now, and it's truly remarkable. I think it shows you the degree to which Putin realized he was weak.

and that he needs the Wagner Group to do fighting for him, and that if he actually goes against the Wagner Group, he could lose.

So he had to try to rebuild this partnership. And Brovozhin wanted to do that because it enhances his stature dramatically. And it probably cements his rising role in Russian politics. Yeah, and he wanted those generals out, and we'll see what happens. Fascinating conversation, Ambassador Volcker.

Exciting time, an impactful time. Kurt Volcker, thank you. Brian, great to be with you. Your calls are next. Brian Kilmeecho.

So glad you're here. A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Hey, welcome back everybody. It's going to be a big week.

Tomorrow, Chris Ray. Will be on Capitol Hill to try to defend himself and some of the FBI policies. Also, how do you defend the fact that the FBI is all upset that a court ruling just came down last week that said they can no longer? Or respond or getting involved with any social media companies. A long time coming, the Twitter files reveal that.

And now we find out what the FBI might have been doing behind the scenes in 2019. When I believe he was there, 2019, they had the laptop, they knew it was real. And they didn't tell anybody, including the sitting president of the United States. How could that not get to William Barr's desk, who said he didn't know about any laptop that the FBI had?

Now, by the time the president gets there, by the new president gets there, or it gets it becomes knowledge with the Trump camp, and they try to say, listen, this is out there, and the New York Post is writing about it. They decide to freeze the whole thing. And if you try to retweet it, even as press secretary, you had your confidence, you had your account suspended, like Kaylee McEnany did. And the New York Post did. I mean, that's, I don't know how Christopher Wray does not answer that question.

Either he says, I'm with the King of England, I really have no powers, or I ignored it because I thought it would be a good idea not to tell the Attorney General, as opposed to what the Attorney General finds out now from Christopher Wray. When we come back, John Lovell joins us, founder and CEO of the Warrior Poet Society, and author of a brand new book, The Warrior Poet. Oh, The Warrior Poet Way. Don't move. This episode is brought to you by Vonage.

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A radio show like no other. It's Brian Killmead. Hey, welcome back everybody. It gives me great pleasure bringing in John Lovell. He's the founder and CEO of the Warrior Poet Project, author of a brand new book, The Warrior Poet Way, A Guide to Living Free and Dying Well.

John, welcome. Thanks for having me on Don.

So John, give me an give the country an idea of your background. Serve in the military, Second Ranger Battalion, special operator as a soldier. What did that do for your life and who you are today? Sure.

Men should be not lovers or fighters or lions or lambs. We should be both. And so what my background in special operations gave me is it really cultivated the warrior attributes that I so desperately needed of grit. long suffering, boldness, fearlessness, leadership stuff and to be really a dangerous protector of those that I love. But Being a warrior is not enough.

You had to round yourself out. You had to have what?

Well, really, I needed to have more poetic aspects as well. This will keep me from not just. Defending freedom and defending my family. Too many soldiers. defend freedom and they love their families, and they're just really difficult to live with.

And this isn't just people who are wearing multicam in the deserts. This is just any dude who has this warrior ethos Who also needs to balance with more poetic characteristics? We should be, as men, romantic. That's a major part of masculinity. We should be wise.

We should be Sensitive, emotionally available for our kids, truth seekers. We should be passionate and able to hold relationships together. And so, really, we should be fully lover and fighter. Anything less is a deficiency in masculinity.

So, what gave you the sense and who helped you round yourself out? A lot of my faith came in. Also, I got married and I thought I knew something until I got really into the nitty-gritty and I'm like, ah, I'm probably very hard to be married to. And so there was a good bit of learning that I needed to do. But because I really loved my family and I loved other folks, I realized a little bit more of the rough edges that I had were not conducive to fostering and flourishing the most important relationships around me.

I had to grow as a poet.

So there were certain times to be tough and certain times to be compassionate. If you've learned that balance, are you concerned that other people in this country is getting away from that? I'm absolutely sure of it. I think we have a lack of warrior ethos that men desperately need. We're seeding all of our institutions.

Of power to, I think, tyranny. And so I think it takes strong. Strong, bold, courageous people to be able to speak the truth.

So take warrior as a metaphor, if you would like, but we need strong, bold men that are able to do that, but they're also capable of being lived with. They can flourish relationships, they're loving people. Understood. There's a new trend now in this and that's in your book and basically how to live your life and some guidelines to doing it and balancing it out. To get that toughness, to get that edge, do you find that people have that with certain families and certain backgrounds?

Yeah, I think so. Our backgrounds will certainly toughen us up. We have a problem in the United States in that we're, I mean, right now I'm sitting in an air-conditioned room, and if I want a drink of water, it's right there, purified and cold. And if I get a toothache, I can get some anesthetic, and I can get there in my air-conditioned control car. We can literally, to a large extent, delay all kinds of suffering and put it off, sidestep it.

And in doing, we don't really develop a lot of character. We don't develop a lot of strength. Drinks because we're just not really suffering much in today's very artificial. Climate. And so that is really, really problematic.

And so I think we are too weak as men. We need to grow in that capacity. But I also don't think that we vacillate too. Poetic, I think a lot of the attributes of poet are bad as well.

So it's not that we're not warrior enough and too poetic. I'd say we're not very good warriors or poets, and we need to grow in both areas. We're in a good place. I mean, no one's trying to bomb us like they are in the Ukraine. You know, we're not in the middle of scounging for water like being in the middle of a civil war in Sudan.

And I remember reading right after 17, on the cusp of the War of 1812, there was a big sense in this country. Where's that spirit of 76? After the Civil War, people were concerned in the 1880s. America's getting too soft. They were not nearly as tough as us.

And after World War II, I imagine the same thing.

So we had situations where we had to get tough. Women had to go into the workforce. Men all had to fight at 18, whether you're a Yogi Bearer or the guy down the street.

So you get a forced toughness to it.

So if you don't, if we're in a fortunate place where we're not in a situation where we're scranging for water, food, or war, how do you manufacture that? I think it's such a good point, Brian. I think we are naive living in the breadbasket of the world and enjoying.

So much excess, and you're right, people aren't trying to bomb us presently. But what it's fostered is a spirit of entitlement as we're quite literally entertaining ourselves to death, spending so much time in front of screens. I think we need to get out, live in the real world, work out, take some martial arts, do some.

some protector stuff. D get your hands dirty and calloused. because the result of that long suffering is to produce character and make us better warriors and stronger men. And so I really dive into this in the book of some real practical ways of, hey, this is how we toughen up, gents. We need to toughen up now because hard times are upon us and they're going to get worse.

Yeah, especially if we don't prepare for those times.

So there's a new trend, and I noticed a lot of people are trying to get, you know, we've had fun with Zuckerberg and And Moss said they're going to get into the octagon. There seems to be a new trend towards fitness and towards weightlifting. And you see RFK Jr. and he's talking about how fit he is. And you see the mayor of Miami talking about the marathons he's running.

And you see what's going on in our country. Are you encouraged by some of this? Because the people that are starting to get involved with civilian MMA and things now are being labeled right-wing extremists. Yeah, that is absolutely crazy. I'm a little encouraged because I think there's some certain benefits from, hey, getting in shape and getting in some martial arts and being better protectors.

But really, I want to encourage men to be strong in all the areas. If you imagine yourself as a castle, there's one kind of opening right there, and that could be physicality. But then there's other doors into that castle. If there's your moral strength, your emotional strength, spiritual, physical is just one of those. And so when I really think about the strength of a man, the thing that matters the most to me is really your spiritual strength.

It's your moral strength. It's saying, I refuse to see. a battlefield to the enemy and I will engage in the war of ideas. That I will be able to carve out a place where freedom can exist and depravity is put down. I'm not going to self-censor, I'm going to speak the truth boldly and call evil what it is.

And so, moral strength, emotional strength. strength, physical strength, mental strength. I think the whole man needs to develop that way. What I'm not saying in my book is, hey guys, we need to be better warriors to start lifting weights and doing karate in the garage. But you do think a physical aspect has to be part of it, right, John?

I think it is one of multiple aspects that are really important to increase the strength of a man. Yeah, I think we should be working out and becoming better protectors. If you really love people and you recognize the world is a dangerous place, hey, become a better protector. All that stuff is awesome.

So we're seeing this new trend with gender affirming care and everyone's coming out. Hey, I think I'll switch genders today. You know what? It's a good idea. Don't declare what your gender is until later.

And the big debate in certain states is, should you be allowed to declare your gender without telling your parents? It's just an insane debate in my view. And now I see this study. Nearly 40% of students at Brown University identify as LGBTQ plus, doubling the share from 2010. I mean, is that part of this weird trend we're in?

I think that, hey, we just mentioned Mental strength. I think lovers of wisdom recognize right now that we're in a postmodern deconstructionist era, and that means we've given up on the idea that there are any truths at all. Good poets should hold the line, not holding back, not self-censoring, but speaking the truth in love and saying, hey, there are certain things that are absolutely true. A man cannot possibly become a woman any more than you can become a dinosaur. Just can't do it.

It's not a hateful thing to do. I have great sympathy for those who are suffering any type of mental illness. I hate that for them. And so my heart certainly goes out. But we do them no favors.

We do a hateful thing when we become enablers to that. As if someone was struggling with anorexia and I join in and say, yeah, you shouldn't eat. That would not be a good thing. And so I'm not playing this game. Men can't become women.

And 10 years ago, everyone seemed to know it. And lastly, John, because I had a run, if people want to just take the first step in becoming a warrior, and you talk about the guide to living free and dying well, what is the first step they could do today? If I don't have a lot of time, I would say buy my book so that you can get the whole overview. If that's not a shameless plug, Brian, I don't know what is, but buy my book and I'll walk you all through it. Right.

Join a class. Hop into a combat sport class today and pick up the book and find out how. John Lavelle, Lovell. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Thank you. All right, founder and CEO of the Warrior Poets Society and author of the book The Warrior Poet Way. We come back, a solo cast with Stuart Varney. You'll finally get to see what I look like. Go move.

Now, the Brian Kilmead Show joins Fox Business's Varney and Company with Stuart Varney live on your radio and on Fox Business. Here's Brian Kilmead. Hey, welcome back, everyone. We're about to go on with Stuart Varney, and we're going to be talking about a few things. Number one, did you notice that the walls seem to be closing on the Biden impunity when it comes to controversial situations, whether it's the overseas business dealings, what he's like behind the scenes, the fact that he's doddering out in public and seems to be unsure of himself, refused to give interviews.

We'll start off there and talk about is this just a series of coincidences or are people realizing that? The Democratic Party is about to go down in flames if he's going to be heading it up. And the only way to do that is if he won't go out voluntarily to put everything front and center. And that's what Stuart and I are going to be talking about.

So let's listen. Time for Brian Kilneat, who miraculously appears with us right now. Sinence Jake Taffer, reversing course, he says it is important to cover Hunter Biden scandals. Watch this, Brian. We cover it.

We have been covering it, and we need to cover it. Andrew Biden is who he is. It's pretty clear who he is. In addition to being an addict, he's a guy who ethically has. There have been questions raised about his behavior, and I think it's worth covering.

It's also worth covering in context, the context of everything that's being said in terms of how fact-based any of it is or how evidence-based any of it is. But I'm not going to shy away from covering Hunter Biden. He is the president's son and has made a lot of money being the president's son. CNN didn't mention the laptop in the 2020 election.

So why are they talking about Hunter now? They denigrated the fact that even brought up it was too crazy to even say. And it's not going to glorify it by bringing it front and center. Didn't say a word when the New York Post or the President of the United States or people were sidelined because they brought it up. They didn't look up the veracity of any of the emails.

They didn't make a call to see if Joe Biden actually did send that email back or if that was his voicemail on the laptop. And what's so unbelievable and disingenuous is, again, they put a wall between Hunter and Joe. Tony Bobolinski sat down with one of our anchors, Tucker Carlson, and he said, hey, Jake. Tapper, call me, I'll come on and tell the same story to you, how Joe is involved, how they met at the Beverly Hilton, and he said, take care of my family. This is the interaction that Bobolinski had.

All these material and emails to prove it, backed up by Rob Walker, backed up by Devin Archer, who's going to be testifying soon. If Jay Tapper wanted to tap into his journalistic skills, it was all out there for him. And if he was serious, not on somebody else's podcast, promoting a bad lineup on CNN, if he was not on somebody else's podcast, he would call Bobolinski the day after because that was covered. CNN. Come interview me.

I will tell you how Joe is involved.

So they just want to make it seem like Republicans are jumping on an addict like Billy Carter rolling out a beer. It's nothing to do with that. And nobody cares judging someone on addiction. You can do that in your own living room. It's how that relates to international business deals.

Exactly. And the revelations that came out of who Hunter Biden was interacting with. Jeff Zeitz, who's the chief of staff. Right now, with the President of the United States, how comfortable he was with Anthony Blinken. They're going out to dinner together.

So, in one minute, he's a degenerate crack addict who loved hookers. And driving 200 miles an hour through the desert, driving on who knows what, doing crack, heading to Las Vegas to meet six women in a hot tub, which is true. On the next minute, he's doing international business deals that have got very complicated, have shell companies in various banks that you talk about all the time, Stuart, that are hard to set up. Is it crack making him smarter? I don't understand how all these people can see this addict.

At the same time, do their most intimate dealings with.

So there's a lot we need to know. And why is he more curious about it? But you brought out a lot right there that I personally did not know before. The trip into the desert was new to me. Change the subject.

Ron DeSantis, on my show yesterday, I asked him about MSNBC calling his wife, Casey, America's Karen. Here's DeSantis' response. Roll it. My wife is an incredibly strong First Lady of Florida, a fantastic mother and a great wife, and that threatens the left.

Well, I think that they're very worried about her effectiveness, and so all that's doing is confirming that she's over the target. We wear criticism from MSNBC as a badge of honor.

Okay, Brian, but why do you think they're going after his wife? And why is that okay? Right? I mean, only a couple years from the Me Too movement where people are supposed to give her respect. And what did she do wrong?

All she does is be extremely poised in front of the camera, manage to do almost the impossible, be the first lady of a state, or raising, I think it's now three young kids, who also was a very successful anchor, an unbelievable golfer, a fantastic commentator, who worked. If you read Ron DeSantis' book, which I know you did, they used to walk and knock on doors because he wrote a book and just say, Hey, listen, I want you to meet my husband, you know, me locally. He wants to run for office. They work together.

Next thing you know, she gets the nominee. He gets the nomination. He goes to Congress, writes a book about Barack Obama, as he says, about the Obama years, which he thought was so ineffective. He said, Nobody bought the book, but I would go speak and talk about the book. And together, they formulated this stellar career, whether it gets a nomination or not.

This is a success story. Where was the last negative story you saw about Michelle Obama, where this unknown lawyer, this community activist who decides to become a senator and run for president, where people Upset that Michelle Obama was giving speeches for Barack Obama or that Dr. Jill Biden was giving up elementary school teaching in order to get the word out about her ancient husband? No. But they said that she's trying to look like Jackie O.

She was born that way. It's not her fault that she looks like a former First Lady. That's what she looked like as a local anchor. I believe it's an ABC Approach. Brian, hard break.

We're done. More Vani after this. Unbelievable. All right, 1866-408-7669. Uh okay, yeah, by the way.

In one minute, I'm going to do Instagram Live, and I want all of your comments.

So we're going to go on Instagram.

So get ready, get out your phones. I rarely say this, and you can follow us. And we're going to have a special guest appearance who is still all I'm going to say is she is still in college. And she'll be appearing on Instagram. If you can guess who it's going to be, I'm You got to be Nostradamus because we have not promoted it yet.

But go on Instagram live. Also, keep in mind, too. One Nation. I know it's five days away, but we're coming up on Saturday night. We have also a special guest who is ascending to the eight o'clock slot in Jesse Waters.

He'll be joining us, and we'll talk about Jesse. He'll be one of our many guests, including many other surprises.

So, Brian Kilmicho, keep it here. Don't move. A lot more to cover and a lot more to go, including what's happening with this PGA and the live merger.

Now, the PGA is defending the move. Why is it Congress's decision? From Hia Top Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead. Hi, everyone.

Welcome to the latest moments of the Brian Kilmey Show. In 10 minutes, Governor Chris Christie will be joining us. And then we're also going to be joined by a special guest, Kelsey. Sharon, she's got a great message and a great personal story as a woman fighting for our country, never stopped in telling her story now, what it was like in the battlefield, her feeling after the ridiculous evacuation of Afghanistan and everything that's happened since. We also have the latest from the NATO summit taking place in Lithuania that's having a lot of impact, especially on the cusp of a major war that's taking place on the doorstep.

So, Kelsey Sharon will be with us. She's the author of a brand new book called Brass and Unity: One Woman's Journey Through the Hell of Afghanistan and Back.

So, let's get to the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. Sweden has been added to the alliance now. That has 32 members. I think that shows the strength of the alliance.

Can't doubt that. KJP talking about NATO in Lithuania, and of course, NATO is adding a major nation, Sweden, who's spending over 2% of their budget, who is ready to go, has already been doing military drills with NATO members.

Now they're 32 strong. This is another proof, perfect, that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been a disaster for them. Number two. I had a very smart former elected official say to me a week ago, remember something, he's been at the front of Republican primary voter minds for eight years. You're not going to get rid of that in eight weeks.

And so there's a matter of patience here. Brock patience, but his lead only seems to be growing. I'll talk to Governor Chris Christie about Trump being too strong to touch.

So far, the whole. The whole, I guess, I almost want to say division, but the whole GOP side seems frozen. Nobody seems to be gaining. Vivek Ramaswamy, a couple of points. Ron DeSantis loses a couple of points, but still a solid second.

What will change it? We'll discuss it. Number Wrong. This is a story that is sad and disturbing on so many levels. Yes, Republicans are using it.

and are going to take advantage of it in a way that is unfortunate and inappropriate. Enemies and former friends are circling President Biden in a clear quest to get him out, it seems, before his party goes down in flames from his behavior to his record as president, to his dicey deals headed by Hunter. It seems like his armor is being slowly removed and he's being judged like everybody else, possibly for the first time.

So, what am I talking about?

Well, now it seems that Hunter Biden's links to major members of his cabinet have been established. I mean, he's got a long relationship with the now chief of staff, Jeff Zeitz, and the former one, Ron Clain, Anthony Blinken, emails that show these direct links to all of them. If this guy is some wayward son who the president is just trying to save, that's one thing. We all have seen that with first families in the past. But this is a guy in the intimate side of all the international business dealings of the president of the United States or his family, and certainly with his cabinet.

Why would he do that if he wasn't somehow providing some type of service? And what is some of that service? That's going to be key. Also, why is it that Joe Biden now not acknowledging Hunter Biden's kid out of wedlock and him just saying, I don't acknowledge her, they're not going to have the Biden name, and tell everybody I only have six grandchildren. That's not okay.

And it's not only okay, forget p politics. What about in life? What a terrible example. Britt Yoon brought that up last night, cut a Now you have these these questions being raised about whether he really is truly the loving granddaddy that he portrays himself as. You know, he likes to talk about his grandchildren and how how much he loves them and how much they love him and how he talks to them every day.

But there's one he doesn't even acknowledge, and that's and I think people look at that and they wonder. as they probably should. Yeah, well, they wonder. Not only that, it was brought up on the view. Alyssa Farrakh Griffin, who, by the way, used to work for Trump, now a huge critic of Trump, cut six.

I do so much. Yeah. Trump, we would talk about it as the thing. If Trump had a grandkid, he wasn't acknowledged. You'll talk about it.

He does. He didn't acknowledge Tiffany very well. Didn't know I'd dollars Tiffany. Did you see what they just had a blowout wedding for her? And in the beginning, she was 3,000 miles away.

That's what Marla Maples wanted. But Tiffany always felt a part of it. If you talk to any of the Trump kids, he go ahead and do it. They feel like she is a part of the family, and she feels that way. Cut five.

This is the view trying to pretend as if it's no big deal. It should be directed to Hunter Biden. It's five children, not four Hunter, because this is not Joe Biden's baby. The right wing and the MAGA world has decided to weaponize Hunter Biden against his dad. Marine doubts you find something else to write about.

Yeah, they write about something else. I find it. Unnecessary. This is not anybody's business. Nobody needed to know about this.

This is private.

So you should not acknowledge grandkids. I for example, they it was brought up in Maureen Dowd's column in the New York Times. That Arnold Schwarzenegger had a kid out of wedlock at the same time as another kid, and they're great friends and they're extremely tight. Number two, Tom Brady obviously is engaged to Giselle, had a previous relationship, and that son from their previous relationship with Bridget Moynihan, I think it is, is part of that family. I'm not judging, I'm noticing.

And that's a good example of what you would think the president of the United States, like it or not, is an example to a lot of people, positive and negative. In this way, it's negative. And when you build your candidacy on family, that's an issue, I would think.

So when we come back, I'm going to bring this up to Governor Chris Christie and see how much it matters. And also talk about how he could maybe be the first one to gain ground and why no one, including Ron DeSantis, has done so far. You listen to the Brian Killmead show. Don't move. It's Brian Killmead.

The more you listen, the more you'll know it's Brian Kilmeade. Hey, we are back and joining us right now. He's a presidential candidate for the GOP nomination and thinks he can win it all. The former two-term governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, joins us now. Governor, welcome back.

Ryan, thanks for having me on. Good to be here. Hey, bottom line is, I was surprised by your successor, Governor Murphy, came out over the weekend and said the President's greatest weapon to win reelection Was the economy listen? Do you believe that Donald Trump presents the best contrast for Joe Biden's reelection? Um or Are there other candidates that you think would be easier for Joe Biden to face?

I don't know that I think this, Chuck. I believe a strong economy. And a powerful foreign policy hand, and the President has exhibited both. I think that's a winning hand no matter who they're up against. I'm not suggesting it's a runaway election like it was in 1984, but if you've got those two engines on your side, that to me is a winning hand no matter who you're up against.

That's true, but the question to Governor Christie is: is Governor Murphy right? He's got those two engines on his side. He's absolutely wrong, and this is why Phil Murphy almost lost. Re-election two years ago in one of the bluest states in America because he's completely tone deaf on politics. Look, the American people understand that despite all the numbers Joe Biden throws at them, here's the number they know.

When they go to the gas station, they're paying more than they've paid before. Joe Biden was President. When they go to the supermarket, they're paying more than before Joe Biden was president. When they go to try to buy their children clothes, they're spending more than they ever before. When they have to pay the college tuition, they're spending more.

What they realize is that Joe Biden is costing them money every day. He is the Jimmy Carter of the 21st century. And the same way that inflation beat Jimmy Carter when Ronald Reagan ran against him as a conservative governor from a blue state, It's the same way I'm going to beat Joe Biden on that issue in November of 24 as a Republican governor from a blue state. What's going to be harder, winning the nomination or beating President Biden? winning the nomination.

will be harder because we have a lot of good Republicans in the race, as you know, Brian. I have great admiration for people like Nikki Haley and Mike Pence and Asa Hutchinson and Ron DeSantis. These are all good candidates. But the problem is that, you know, we have a party where you're running against an incumbent president, and that's always hard to do. But in the general election, if we nominate the right Republican, and I really believe, like Ronald Reagan, you know, a Republican governor from a blue state knows how to win independence, knows how to win right-thinking Democrats who are tired of a crazy woke party, you know, that's the right way to go.

And I think that'll be the harder part. Nominate the Republican Party nominates me. We're going to win 35, 40 states over Joe Biden.

Well, a couple of things. Head-to-head in the polls, and we know they're not exact, less exact maybe than ever before, but let's just say they had to say trends. Maybe you can buy into that. And maybe I can buy into that because the polls have been not totally wrong, but a little Sometimes it they uh they They bypass logic. But right now, DeSantis now was beating Joe Biden.

He's now trailing by five in the latest poll, and you have Trump up by one, or we're in a dead heat. What's changed? Look, I I think what's changed is that we're looking at an entirely different world, Brian. Think about all the things that are going on in the world right now, inside our own country, with educational scores going down for kids from K to 12, so that we're becoming less and less competitive in the world. We're seeing this horrible situation at the border.

We're seeing what's going on in Eastern Europe and Ukraine. We're seeing China continuing with their friends in Iran and North Korea to make mischief all around the world. You need someone who's reasoned and experienced, Brian, who's going to be able to make that case to the American people. And then we'll wind up winning the race against Joe Biden. And I think that any of the polling now, as you said, look, we've seen these polls be wrong in 2016 when they said Donald Trump had no chance of winning.

We saw the polls be wrong in the primary in 2015 and 16 when they said it was going to be Jeb Bush or Scott Walker. There's a long way to go here and a campaign to be run, and it's all going to start on Fox News on August 23rd on that debate stage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. How close are you to getting the thresholds necessary to be on stage? I think we're going to have a very positive announcement this week, Brian. This week, that means you have 40,000 donations and you have to have at least 1% of the polls?

Yep, from the polls, we've already gone past that, both in national polls and in polls in New Hampshire. And so we're fine on the polling side of things. And we're going to have a good announcement this week about being qualified for the debate stage, I believe. A couple of things you can relate to, and we'll definitely be in your lap. When they talk about informing parents that their kids want to change genders, New Jersey is now suing three school districts over informing parents.

The governor, your successor, said outing those students against their will will pose serious mental health risks and threaten physical harm to students, including risking increasing suicide, decreasing likelihood of students will seek support. What's your reaction to the suing of districts that want parents to know? It's that It's absolutely outrageous. Look, you know my position on this, Brian. The only people who belong in this discussion are parents.

These are very, very difficult emotional issues. And Phil Murphy and the woke Democrats are telling us that a school district some Principal or counselor or a teacher in a school district, as well-meaning as they might be, are better off. Than the parents being in the middle of this, the parents have to be informed, this is an outrageous move. by a crazy attorney general. Who is just trying to make a name for himself, along with a governor who is way far out to the left.

on all these issues, including issues of family. Here's my belief on this issue. This is an issue between children and their parents, between parents and their children. And those are the people who should be making these decisions and counseling the children. If we believe parents should be in charge of their children's educational choices, and I absolutely believe they should be, they sure as heck should be in charge of these kind of personal choices as well.

So did that's a fight that you back Ron DeSantis on, who's doing that along with his wife, who's getting attacked for doing so? Look, I absolutely do, except I will tell you this. I don't agree with Republicans who say that there should be laws in the state banning this stuff for miners because in the end, Brian, again, it should be a parental decision. I'm not a big government Republican. And sometimes what I fear about Governor DeSantis is that he's becoming a bit of a big government Republican.

I don't want the government in the middle of our lives in any way. I don't want any of these folks making decisions that families should be making around their kitchen table. I'm going to bring you just one last question about your race. I want to bring you to what's happening in NATO because a lot of stuff is going on. But the race seems frozen.

You know, I know you're going up a few, down a few in the polls, up in a few, but it pretty much single digits, except for Ron DeSantis, who dropped a few points. But for the most part, Donald Trump's now over 50. It seems frozen. How do you unfreeze this race? And I'll tell you, there's no strategist who can say this reminds me of, because not many people around where Grover Cleveland was here, and there's not many people that could say that a former president is running again when William Jennings Bryant was running.

So how do you figure this out? If Well look, I don't think. You figure it out, Brian. I don't think that anybody can prognosticate on this, and one thing you forgot was. You've never had somebody run for president before who's under two indictments for criminal conduct, as alleged in the indictment, and has two more investigations open and pending that might result in a corporation.

But, Governor, it seems your party thinks he's being railroaded, and he's getting strength from this.

Now look. Brian, what they're speaking out against is the unfairness that was displayed towards Hillary Clinton. And so they're going to say it's unfair to Donald Trump. I don't believe that ultimately is going to lead to him being able to use it as an advantage to win an election. Here's the way you change it, Brian.

You start campaigning. Here's what I want to remind you of. As of today, I've been in this race for five weeks. Donald Trump has been running for eight years.

So, okay, five weeks in, I'm in third place in New Hampshire, only four points behind Ron DeSantis. After being in the raids for five weeks, I'll take that. And yes, Donald Trump's numbers at the moment seem static in these polls. That's because, guess what, Brian? It's July in America.

Real people are not focused on this. Guys like me and you are focused on it, but the real people in America are not focused on it. They're going to start focusing this fall when these debates start and they see all of us on stage together. And Donald Trump better show up on that stage because if he doesn't, he's telling everybody that he's afraid to defend his record and he's afraid to face the men and women on that stage. And I don't want a coward being nominated against Joe Biden.

I think he feels like he has too much. He'll be attacked by 12 people, and he's up by 20 points. Oh, poor him, Brian. Poor Donald Trump will be attacked on his record.

Well then, if his record is as great as he says it is, it should be no problem at all. That's like somebody accusing you of something, Brian, when you know you haven't done it. You're not worried to stand up in court and defend yourself. And now he wants his trial. He wants his trial to happen after the election.

Well, of course he does. Because what he did with the classified documents is indefensible. He should have returned them.

So look, this those kind of truths need to be said directly to Donald Trump and right to his face. I'm going to do that on the debate stage, Brian. And if he doesn't show up, he's a coward. Lastly, how do you end the Ukraine war? NATO has just added Sweden.

They want to be a part of NATO. They're not there yet. How does Chris Christie end this war? The way you do it is you arm Ukraine as aggressively as you possibly can. During this now summer offensive, that they're going to do, begin to push the Russians back and make the Russians understand that their dreams of authoritarian aggression.

Are not anything that is ever going to happen. That's when you get a negotiation going because at the end, Brian, what we need is for Russia to understand that they cannot win this war. Once they understand they can't win the war, then you know what they're going to do. They're going to negotiate a resolution of it that makes sense. And I'll tell you who you shouldn't put in charge of trying to resolve that for the United States.

Somebody who said that Vladimir Putin is a great guy and a terrific person. Governor Chris Christie, thanks so much. Always with gas. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead.

Hey, welcome back, everyone. With me in studio is a new author, the author of a brand new book, Brass and Unity, One Women's Journey Through the Hell of Afghanistan and Back. Kelsey Sharon in studio, a combat vet, artillery gunner in the Canadian military who served in Afghanistan in 2009 and with Canada, America, British Armed Forces, and still considers them some of your best friends, right, Kelsey? Absolutely. Yeah, so first off, great to meet you.

Thank you. What made you hop into the service to begin with? I met a lady on a bus. Really? I'm not kidding.

In Canada. It's the weirdest story. I know. It doesn't make any damn sense.

So I met a lady on a bus.

So you guys down here call it Veterans Day, but we call it Remembrance Day. And Remembrance Day for Canadian and British are a solemn time.

So we don't say Happy Veterans Day. It's you wear a poppy, everyone's real quiet. We thank our service and we move on. I was going to college at 18, and I was on my way back from the ceremony, and I met this lady in an Air Force uniform. She must have been at least in her 80s.

And it's kinda like that moment that you look at like you look back at a movie and it's like, oh, Where is she going to go next? Right. I met her.

Something clicked. I got off the bus. I quit college the next day and I went to a recruiter's office. And your recruiter said, What to you? I walked in and I said, Hey, I want to join the Army and I want to be on the front lines.

And in 2007, when I joined, In Canada, women have always been allowed to do combat arms roles.

So we can do infantry, we can do artillery, we can do armored, we can do EOD, just always. And so for me, I wanted to be effective. I wanted to be at the front lines. And so I said that and I said, I'd love to do infantry. And they looked at the size of me and kind of laughed.

And I said, well, you don't know my background. But they're like, yeah, no.

So then they gave me armored. And I said, I don't want to be in a tin can when that blows. I know what that looks like. And they're like, what about artillery? I was like, all right.

So I went artillery. And you knew there were two hot wars going on. Yeah, fully, fully aware. When Canada became like heavily involved, I believe it was like 06, 07. Before that, we were kind of more of a United Nations, so we weren't doing.

Active combat door kicking. 2007 kicked off, and that's when things got real serious. And we started doing six-month rotations on regular. When did you realize that you liked it? I think the moment they started yelling at me.

Why?

I don't know. I was a fighter, real high-level combat, competitive fighter, most from age of four to 19. And so. What kind of fighting? Taekwondo.

Okay.

So I absolutely love hard challenges and I love the difficulty. And my coach was always really hard on me. I thrive with that, with pressure.

So that's great. I mean, but most people fault. Usually it's just the opposite.

So you had the toughness going in, so you kind of accelerated through. When was the first combat you felt or experienced?

So the first time, so it went really quick for me. I joined in December of 2007. I was in basic training in January. All through that year, I did my training. I was posted in September and I was deployed the following April.

And where? To Afghanistan. And what was it like? What town were you in? What city?

So we all land into Kandahar, in Takaf there. And then after that, because our artillery unit was split amongst multiple different fobs, my fob was actually an American FOB.

So I was, we were a Canadian triple seven unit, but we were being borrowed by the Americans. And this year was 2009? 2009.

So 2009. That's right when the surge in Afghanistan happened. Oh, we had a busy summer. Yeah, we were popping. And how would you describe things on the ground?

So I went out to FOB Ramrod, which is in the Maywan district, and it was fairly quiet for us for a moment. It started to pick up because we were providing cover fire for anybody within the 40-kilometer radius of that FOB because the Triple Sevens can shoot up to 40 kilometers with a 155 millimeter howitzer. With the 155 millimeter, there's that artillery range again.

So President Obama said, that's a good war. I don't like Iraq.

So President Obama wanted to fix and have a surge there. But by the time we got to the troop level necessary, we were pulling troops out. You had how many on the ground when you were there? Was it a time in which General Petraeus was technically in charge and it was about 80,000? That's above my pay grade.

I'm over my skis on that. Were there a lot? Was there a big presence? I mean, for me, what I saw, I was in the middle of absolute nowhere.

So I was working with like the 101st and those guys, and we had a very tiny FOB. The whole FOB was max, maybe four miles around. It was very. Very small. And then ultimately, I stayed with the Americans and the Canadians for half of my tour.

And then I got pulled by the British military to go with them on an on-foot operation to go door kick.

So I was with them as their female, what we call a cultural support team. My job was to kick the door in, take the women and children, search them, make sure nothing was with them. And ultimately, due to those decisions being made by the politicians, you know, the rich man wars where the young men die, we were put into situations where we weren't prepared. That surge was horrific. We lost.

The Brits lost. The Americans lost. The Canadians lost. Left, right, and center. People were coming home in body bags in 2009, 11, and 12, like.

It's unbelievable. Right. And they were trying to. This was something where after the invasion, everything calmed down. Focus was onto Iraq.

Then Afghanistan started getting out of control. Al-Qaeda started coming back. That's when you guys went in. But culturally, to have a female there, that's respecting their culture because there's certain things men and women did, I guess. Yeah, there's a respect factor with it for sure.

Don't get me wrong. But let's not pretend that the Americans and the British knew what it was like to work with a woman at the time because they didn't. Because you guys did not put women on the front lines into those combat roles until 2015.

So at the time, I walked into a role where they've never served, unless it was a medic, they had never served with a woman.

So it was a very different dynamic. You had to keep selling yourself to your own team.

Well, to the Canadians, still a little bit. My sergeant was real solid, real dialed. But once I got to the British, Really, where the line started was when they gave you shit, as long as you gave it back, the respect was there. If you could pick up the bodies, you could do the job, you could shoot and move, they respected you. And so you show up in the way that you work.

And how many years were you serving over there? I only did six months over there. I got injured on my first deployment in Afghanistan. And what happened? We were with the British on an on-foot operation that really went sideways, to be completely honest, and to not get into the nitty-gritty.

But what happened was, due to some of the things that happened and some of the things I'd seen and participated in, I ended up getting diagnosed in country with post-traumatic stress disorder and put on a laundry list of 11 different pharmaceuticals. Wow. And by the way, we're talking to Kelsey Sharon. Her book is now out. You should grab it.

It's called Brass and Unity: One Women's Journey Through the Hell of Afghanistan and Back.

So, what kind of pharmaceuticals? They said, Well, she's having some PTSD.

So, let's give her what? Oh, my God. Everything from antidepressants to antipsychotics to sleep meds, ups and downs. But here's the kicker and what most people don't get: they were giving that to me while I was in the country. Running a machine gun.

So they didn't bet you out. I'll tell you one better. They didn't tell my staff I was on them.

So had they noticed the mood changes? When I came back from the British operation, I was so drastically different. I wasn't sleeping, I wasn't eating, I wasn't talking, I was just numb. Numb to the extent that I didn't I didn't feel my own body. I was just there.

So without the pharmaceuticals, how would you describe PTSD? PTSD is one of the for me. I knew something was wrong the second the first explosion went off, and I witnessed what I witnessed. And then we were doing body collection. It was, I call it my light switch moment.

A lot of listeners will understand that when you have a traumatic incident, part of your brain shuts down. A wall goes down to protect you, if you will, to make sure that you can keep surviving. You go into that fight or flight and you get stuck. And once you're stuck in that, you're now numb. You can't feel and you have no empathy.

And that's the kicker. When this stuff starts happening, and like you're Americans, because you guys do rotations like crazy. You guys send your people home for like a month and then kick them back for another year, year and a half, and wonder why they're coming home and committing suicide at the pace they are. And the divorce rate is over 94% for special operations. We don't look after our people, period.

The people at the top, the leadership is such garbage that they don't pay attention to what the damage is doing when you stack that on top of tour after tour. And you know, the special operators have explained it to me where we are more conditioned to be able to do that than the average. The average recruit because we get trained at a high level of mental and emotional training.

So that's why when I would ask him how many tours, I don't know, 16, 18. And I would say, how do you feel about it? I'm okay because we're trained that way. Is that wrong? No, it's listen.

I think a lot of special operators reviewed this book for me. I have SEAL Team 6 guys, I've got Rangers, I've got Delta, I've got SBS, I got them all. And these guys all say the same things to me because on my show, I have a show called the Brass and Unity Podcast. And I sit down and I talk to these people and I get them to tell me the hardest stories of their life. But the difference is at the end of the conversation, they go, damn, I never said that before.

I never talked about that before. Thanks for holding space. And in saying that, we have these guys and these girls that are doing these operations, rotating, rotating, rotating. And they can't go get help. Because if you get help, you're about to lose your entire family.

They're going to drop you and take you away from your unit.

Well, your unit is your family. The people to the left and right of you are the only people you care about. You don't care about the president, the politics. That doesn't matter to you. You want to leave.

With those guys, you want to come back with the same amount of guys. You want to hold them accountable. But what happens is you rotate so quickly when you're doing your decompression. I can guarantee nine out of ten, none of these special operators are going to go, Hey, how you doing? Yeah, I know, I'm struggling with sleep.

I'm really angry, I have no empathy, I can't eat. The second you say that, You're done. It's done. Good luck getting back with your unit.

So you would recommend Putting a therapist maybe with these units, like a military psychiatrist with these units where they could feel it go in and out of that tent without going in and out of the unit. Yeah, because here's you do need a resource. You absolutely need a resource. But here's the thing: the military, especially in Canada, United States, let's just say NATO in general, okay? The military does not allow different types of medical intervention.

Their solution to every problem, and like I said at the Senate Subcommittee in Canada and Parliament about psychedelics. Yeah CBT, which is a conventional talk therapy, and pharmaceutical intervention are an acknowledged failure across the board, left, right, and center. And you can say that because it's not 22 a day anymore. It's up to 44 a day. Suicides.

Absolutely. So you can't tell me that the traditional methods that we're providing, our soldiers and our service members, are working. They're not. If they were working, people wouldn't be taking their lives on a daily basis at the pace that they are. Can you explain why somebody who fights so hard for a cause and to stay alive, when that cause stops, would rationalize taking their own life?

You know, I wrote in this book: there's a thing, a person I call the watcher, and it's the voice that's in your head. And I can tell you right now, that will beat you down. And when you come home and you're on all of these pharmaceutical medications, you're not connected to anyone, the civilian population, number one, doesn't want to hear about it. They do not care. They have no idea what you're actually doing overseas.

And then they have the audacity to thank you for your service. If you thanked us for what, if you knew what we actually did, I'm not saying all of it, but if you knew some of it, yeah. Know I don't know that thank you for your service would be the response.

Well, I don't even enough. I don't know if it would be the response because the reality is the civilian population thinks they have a somewhat understanding of what goes on in these wars and they don't. They have a talking head at the White House that says, We got bin Laden.

Well, we could have got bin Laden. We knew where he was in 20 and 21. I mean, and in 2001. We knew where he was the whole time, but you can't take him out because then there's no justification to go in and fight a war, now is there?

So a lot of things happen. And like I said before, rich men wars are fought by young men, right? These guys up here are talking heads.

So you feel as though the American military, from what you know, could have got him in 2001? No, I don't know. We made a bad m move not putting the 80 second down there right away. But I don't think that was intentional, do you?

Well, I mean, I know enough people that know enough things that know enough stuff.

So I just go off of my references. And they'd think, yeah, because I think it was made us look terrible that he lasted as long as he did, don't you? Listen.

Some of these SEAL team Delta guys that I know are some of the most brilliant, brilliant. Absolutely terrifying men on the face of the earth, and including the JTF2, which hold the longest shot in the world. And those are Canadians. I'm telling you right now: if these men wanted to find them, they would have found them. If they wanted him found, Right?

But you can't fight a war if the person that caused the war is dead within the first year. What's the justification to going in? What's carpet bombing gonna do? You can't justify it if the guy that's responsible is dead. I don't think anybody wanted a prolonged war in Afghanistan.

You know, I don't think anybody wanted a prolonged war, but I know that the moneymaker sure did enjoy it. Who made money? Who made money? Military industrial complex. Come on, do we really need to look back at this and go, how are these wars still going?

How are we still fighting? We're not learning from a damn thing. The only people that are paying the price right now are the eighteen, nineteen and twenty-year-olds that started this and served righteously to protect their nation because that's what we were told. And we were told when we came home we would be looked after and that everything would be good. Really?

Because you know what Canada is doing right now and has been doing since 2019? Instead of giving people treatment, they've been offering them medical assisted in dying. They will pick up the phone and say, I need help for a traumatic brain injury. And on the other end of the line, they're going, how about MAID? How about we help you end your life?

That's insane. When we come back, what you are doing that is working, and I want to hear more. Kelsey Sharon's here, combat veteran, artillery gunner in the Canadian military who served in Afghanistan in 2009 with Canada, America, Britain, our team, basically. Pick up a book, Brass and Unity. Back with more with Kelsey in a moment.

Expanding your knowledge base. It's the Brian Kill Meat Show. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Hi, Kelsey Sharon's here.

She's a combat veteran, and her book is now out, Brass and Unity, One Woman's Journey through the Hell of Afghanistan and Back. Kelsey, so you had BTS Day. You're still dealing with it. You feel like you're 90 plus percent there, and you give a lot of credit to psychedelics. Absolutely.

Psychedelics are going to be the thing that's going to save this generation of veterans. And Aaron Rodgers always talks about it, and he says a lot of military people take it. Describe what they are for you.

So for me, I work with an organization called Heroic Hearts Project. It's run by a former Army Ranger named Jesse Gould, and it is a 5013C in America that takes veterans outside of the country to go experience a psychedelic-assisted therapy. It is a combination of everything from integration on the front end, meaning a type of counseling and intention setting and preparation. Then you go and sit in the actual ceremony. And then the following up is integration on the back end to make sure that we've got you.

We're helping you integrate the lessons you've learned. And really, what it does is give you a community, but it gives you a moment to breathe. But when you actually take the psychedelics, what does it do for you after that moment's over when you're no longer? Then it's no longer in your body.

So it very much depends on the psychedelic that you're sitting with, whatever the plant-based medicine is. My choice of psychedelic that works really well with me is ayahuasca, psilocybin, and cannabis. Psilocybin is mushrooms for some of you who don't know that. Ayahuasca is a form of DMT that comes from Peru. It is the chikruna leaf and the ayovine, and they're mixed together in a brew and they're given through a tribe setting.

It is something that is done with a considerable shaman or a maestro or a mistra, if you will. And you're in a setting with up to 15 people in a yurt or a maloka. And what you're doing is you're ingesting a medicine that. Allows The medicine goes through you and works through you. It shows you everything you need to see, not what you want to see.

It may put all of your traumas in front of you and show you how you're going to work through them, or it may show you things that you need to heal with that you didn't realize were a problem. It's very hard to describe a psychedelic experience like that because everyone is so different and so personal. And I don't like to tell the fantastical stories that happen because if you do, It's going to color people's expectations. And if you have an expectation, most of the time they're never going to be fully met.

So when you feel as though when you take them and when you come off them, you have revelations about yourself. It's it, yeah. You have these things called downloads, these moments of introspection that come through after the ceremonies that allow your brain to open up. The beautiful thing about psilocybin and ayahuasca is they lay new groundwork.

So psilocybin is like slapping snow down on top of your neurons, and it fills in those ruts, that cycle, that negative talk, that constant feedback loop that tells you you're not good enough, that you should kill yourself, that you're not worth living. It basically slaps things down on top of those neurons and helps you to create new pathways in the brain.

So it's not like you're just getting high and sitting there. You're physically helping your brain heal on a neurological level. And you've seen the results in your own life and you've seen it with your friends. It is. I've literally, okay, so from 2009 to 2019, I was on pharmaceutical medication with talk therapy, EMDR, you name it.

I did it. Grounding, journaling, art therapy, you name it. I did it all. The only things that worked in there were art therapy, some CBT, but it only got me to a point where I plateaued. At that point, fortunately enough, somebody saw that I was struggling.

And that was another Army Ranger, one of the owners of Combat Flip-Flops, Griff. Griff saw me on my podcast, kind of leaned in and said, hey, you doing okay? And I gave the traditional, I'm great. Thanks for asking. And then he goes, yeah, let's try this again.

And I broke. I absolutely broke because I said, look, I'm stuck. I don't know how to get further, but this is getting worse. What had happened was I had an undiagnosed traumatic brain injury at that point. And he said, look, I'm going to get you in touch with Heroic Heart Projects, and we're going to help you with this.

30 days later, I was on a plane to go sit with ayahuasca with a bunch of operators who were Purple Heart recipients, Blackwater, SEALs, Rangers, the top of the top. And I was this tiny woman that walked in. And what happened was I was welcomed in. Wow. You can find out more about Kelsey in her brand new book, Brass and Unity: One Woman's Journey Through the Hell of Afghanistan and back.

And boy, is she back. Kelsey, great to meet you. Thanks so much for coming in. Thanks, Kelsey. And let's stay in touch.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Keep it here. Brian Kilmeecho.

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