Gov. Ron DeSantis reacts to FOX debate fireworks

From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Killmead. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the latest moments of the Brian Kill Meet Show.

So glad you're here. And with me at the Old Pancake House, like the guy with the deep voice said, is the man who was center square last night on the field of eight in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Governor Ronda Santis of Florida. Governor, thanks so much for giving us some time because tonight you will be in Iowa at an event that's very important for you. Besides politics, your other passion is baseball. Where are you going to be?

So we're actually going to be at the Field of Dreams from the movie with Kevin Costner, and it's in northeastern Iowa outside of Dubuque.

So we're going to do basically a political event. We're going to have a lot of people from the community come out, but we are going to be able to bring my wife and I, our kids, six, five, and three.

So they've all seen snippets of the movie. My son is actually in some of the travels. We've been playing catch near some of the cornfields in Iowa. And at one point, he asked me, Daddy, is this heaven? And I said, no, it's Iowa, son.

I wish you got that on tape. You'd have another commercial. Governor, what changes after last night, and how do you feel after the two hours is now in the books?

Well, what we saw last night is that I'm the one guy that has proven that he can get all this done. We had the strongest solutions for economy, crime, and immigration, which are the most important issues. And we have the vision to focus on the issues that the American people care about and look forward, not look backwards.

So I think we accomplished what we wanted to accomplish. I mean, people are looking on the stage, and I think the question, it's like, yeah, I'm talking about taking on the drug cartels. Our voters like that because they know it needs to be done. But I think even before you get there, they look to see, okay, is this somebody that can be president? And I think we showed that we can be president.

We're governing the third largest state in the country, oversee the 13th largest economy in the world, and have had unprecedented success doing so.

So you have the fourth most time, I guess. Mike Pence, if you told me, if I had Mike Pence to get the most time, I would have said, absolutely not. He's kind of a mild mannered guy. He was aggressive at it and interrupting and getting involved and doing that, which is fine. And so I saw a little bit of the cross-chatter that was happening amongst some of the other candidates.

But you always want as much time as possible because that's exposure you're getting. But my view would be, okay, of the time you get, how much of it is really good time being used to deliver a message to the voters at home about what you're going to do as president. I would say the time I got, 100% of it was devoted to delivering our message that the country's in decline, we need to reverse it. Here's how we'll do it on economy, border, crime, all the important issues.

So one of the issues where I know you differ from Vivek Ramaswamy in the debate was on Ukraine. Here's what he said, doing something that President Trump does all the time. Uh mocking uh Zelensky, cut six. I think that this is disastrous that we are protected against an invasion across somebody else's border when we should use those same military resources to prevent across the invasion of our own southern border here in the United States of America. We are driving Russia further into China's hands.

The Russia-China alliance is the single greatest threat we face. And I find it offensive that we have professional politicians on the stage that will make a pilgrimage to Kyiv, to their Pope, Zelensky, without doing the same thing for people in Maui or the south side of Chicago.

So, your reaction to that, you didn't get a chance to follow up on that.

Well, yeah, I mean, look, I think as a Catholic, there's probably not a lot of Catholics that appreciated the conference. Yeah, I think that that was, I don't know why he did that, but I do agree with this part. As the president of the United States, your first obligation is to defend this country and our people. And right now, the ruling class in this country has failed to do that with our own border there. And so, that would be my priority as president before we even get into international relations.

You got to be strong at home if you want to be strong abroad, and that's been a major failing that we've seen. But the homeland security budget is not agree the idea that somehow giving a windfall to Russia is going to help us combat China. I think that that's wrong. I think China is somebody that has really significant global ambitions, and we're going to. Actually, be rolling out a good China speech very soon.

But it's a combination of having enough hard power in the Indo-Pacific to deter their military adventurism, not just with Taiwan, but with other areas. Two, to recognize the economic benefits this country over many decades has given to them. We've got a ridiculous relationship where they dump product here. We don't have the ability to sell stuff.

So you have to decouple our economies so that we're self-sufficient without having to worry about that. That will really hurt them. And then finally, understanding how they make influences in our region and in our own country.

So for example, in Florida, we banned the purchase of land by the Chinese Communist Party in our state because they were thinking about buying a farm in Levy County. And we said no, and then we passed the legislation to do it.

So I think there's a lot of things that need to be done to deal with China, but I don't think that just saying Russia can take what it wants is going to help us combat the China threat. China's economy is as bad as it's been over the last 25 years. They can't get people employed from 18 to 25. They're pressing their colleges to get these kids jobs. They don't have them.

Their growth is much slower than they thought. And they thought they'd just throw money at the situation, but there's nothing to build and no one's looking to buy. You have a window of opportunity. Exactly. I think this is the decisive decade.

I think if we do what we need to do, I think that the China threat will subside. I'm not saying they're ever going to be an ally, but if we don't play our cards right, they could surpass us in this decade. And then the world's going to look a lot different if China is the dominant superpower because they will use their power to be able to do things that will impact the average American's life. But economically, we have some levers we can pull. We've got to stop having policies that enrich them.

That will really, really put them on the mat. The Brick Alliance is getting bigger. They're going to look to get in Argentina, Saudi Arabia. India's there already, Russia having their own problems, and China, they want to rival the G8. They want to be better and more, they want to get rid of the dollar, be as strong as the G20.

Should Americans be concerned about that? Is Governor DeSantis concerned about that? I think we should be concerned. I think, though, if we play our cards right, that is not going to happen. I mean, you look at a country like India, at the end of the day, when push comes to shove, if we play, do what we need to do, India is going to be in our orbit when it comes to ECV China.

They just have too many disagreements.

So I think it's really, if America's strong, that is not going to happen.

Now, on the current course with Biden and where we're going, you know, in 10 years, could that happen? Yes, but I don't think it will if we have policies in place to prevent it. Last night, Nikki Haley says, I call out Republicans on spending, that Donald Trump spent three, ends up with $7 trillion more before the pandemic, $3 trillion spent into the deficit. Do you fall Republicans? You were in Congress for a while.

Republicans say that. 100%. This debt of 32 trillion is not just one party. As much as we rightfully criticize Biden for what he's done since he came into office, Republicans have spent and borrowed trillions and trillions of dollars. And I think just with the Trump administration, they did $7 to $8 trillion in new debt added on.

So that's just the reality. There's something about these rich men north of Richmond in the D.C. area. They borrow and spend, and that D.C. area does much better.

Five of the eight wealthiest counties in our country are suburbs of Washington, D.C.

So those policies that hurt the American people do benefit the politically connected clients. About two-thirds of our budget goes to automatic payments on entitlements. That's true. True. But how do you get elected and tell people I got to revamp Social Security and Medicare?

But that is, it's true in terms of the two-thirds. But if you look at the debt that's been added in the last year, Last six or seven years. Most of that was from Congress spending discretionary. They didn't have to spend the money and they chose to do it. Then what happens is you're locking in these high levels of spending that they justified with COVID, and that's kind of the new normal.

You can't sustain that.

So I do think you got to take the actual budget that we deal with every year, and you got to revert a lot of that money back to where we were four or five years ago. You won't miss a beat. These agencies have grown by 50% in terms of their budget, like the CDC and all this. Are you 50% better off than you were than the last four or five? Of course not.

So this is something that I think with the Congress, you absolutely can do. And part of the thing with like talking about Social Security, Congress has spent Social Security money for decades.

Social Security has run up big surpluses through the years. They're not doing it anymore. Congress would take that surplus and they'd spend it and they'd write an IOU.

So they really are. It's irresponsible. But you know that we're living we gotta rate Everybody knows you've got to raise the retirement age in order for this to be solid and probably take more money than just six months or raise a threshold of contributions. How do you do that and say that to seniors and expect their vote, especially in a state like yours? You're very cognizant of that.

So, we have not only seniors, I mean, I'm cognizant of it from a personal perspective. My grandmother lived till 91.

Social Security was her sole source of income.

So, when you're in a high-inflation environment on a fixed income as a senior citizen, yes, they give you a cost-of-living adjustment, but it's not anywhere close to being what you need to be able to afford groceries and gas.

So, but I'd say the first thing, what's hurt Social Security the most in the last two or three years is the inflation, because it does cause the cost of living to go in.

So, if you get inflation down to one or two percent, that is going to save Social Security a lot of money. You're never going to be able to make it work if you continue on the street. Understood, and right now, people who want to buy a house and move to Florida, they see seven to eight percent. It's changing everything. People are on selling their three hours.

They're locked into their house, yeah, because you had a era of low interest rates. People bought homes, now they, even if they want to move, you're changing a house for your interest, your mortgage payment may double for a lot of these people for a similar house. house compared to what they were locked into.

So yeah, they're locked in, they're not selling. And that's the thing. The Fed's raising these interest rates to try to deal with inflation, but the housing, because the market's not turning over and there's not enough new supply, the prices aren't going down. And so the interest rate increases are not actually effective at reducing that. They're actually causing it to stagnate higher.

So You are on an unbelievable roll after winning reelection by a substantial margin in what everyone thought is a battleground state, but you basically helped turn that thing red. Florida, you can't take it for granted. But almost since the day you won reelection, you have been hit by the New York Times and from Donald Trump specifically, $20 million. How has that taken a toll on you? Look, I think part of it is, you know, after the reelection, I was in the news a lot.

The party obviously did very poorly in the midterm. We did very well, so it was a good success story. Different things in the news have changed dramatically in that.

So I think that's kind of been the main issue that I've had to contend with. But yeah, corporate media. They're after me. I'm their number one target.

So I think what that should tell Republican voters is they view me as somebody that would beat Biden, but more importantly, that would actually get in there and do the things we need to do to reverse the country's decline. They don't want to see the border taken care of. They don't want to see Bidenomics reversed. They don't want to see energy dominance again. They don't want to see us clean up the bureaucracy and deal with the weaponization and end the weaponization.

They don't want any of that. And so I think they view me as the biggest threat to bring all that about.

So we get, I think someone did an analysis of the liberal networks since I got into the race, and I think it was like 80% of the coverage has been hit pieces on me. Have you looked at your donor? Have you looked at your coffers since you got off the stage? I haven't seen, but I heard it was really, really positive.

So I don't have the exact numbers, but people said we got a major pop. And do you look forward to the second debate with less people on the stage? How would that affect your performance?

Well, here's the thing.

So when you have eight people, you get a minute, and you really, it's not even really a debate. You just got to deliver the message.

So if it's on the border, I'm going to talk about we're going to leave the drug cartels bringing fentanyl in the country stone cold dead. I'm going to make sure people know that's my policy. Say we had five people, you probably would have a little bit easier. You have 10 minutes. You talk about it.

Yeah, you'd probably have a little bit better time with back and forth on some of it.

So we'll see how it all shakes out. But I know I will be there. I don't know how many people are going to be on the stage, but I will be there, and it's an important part of the process. Can you win the nomination and close the gap if Donald Trump is not at one point on that stage with you? Yes, I think he's making a big mistake by not debating.

Our voters believe you have to earn it. And Republicans, you know, even like when they'll cite polls, oh, he's, you know, at 40% here in this state. You know, that's 60%. 40-19 in Iowa. That's 60%.

That are saying they want another choice. And he was somebody who, you know, 90 plus percent of Republicans voted for in 2020.

So you've got to earn it. And I think that if he doesn't debate, that will absolutely hurt him.

So I think he should because I think it's better for the process. But honestly, in terms of mine, if he keeps this position, I think it's totally not going to work for him. Field of Dreams tonight. Don't be late. No, it's going to be fun.

Great to see you. I'm so glad your family had a chance to join you on the trail. You were in the perfect age because it's preschool. You can pull them out. When they get to fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, Governor Ron DeSantis might be campaigning alone.

But right now, the troops are with you. Yeah, we're having fun with it. And I think they are. They've seen the movie. I think they're going to be fired up to see the corn and everything.

And we're going to have a bunch of little league teams out there, so it's going to be fun. Go get them. Governor Ron DeSantis. I'll see you in California at the very least. Hopefully before that.

Governor Ron DeSantis here at the original Pancake House in beautiful Brookfield, Wisconsin. A battleground state in every sense of the word. Brian Kilmicho on the roads.

So glad you're here. 1-866-408-7669. I'm going to try to squeeze in your calls when we come back. Newsmakers and newsbreakers. Hear it first on the Brian Kill Meat Show from the Fox News Podcasts Network.

I'm Ben Dominich, Fox News contributor and editor of the Transom.com daily newsletter, and I'm inviting you to join a conversation every week. It's the Ben Dominich Podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to FoxNewsPodcasts.com. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead.

A win for Russia is a win for China. We have to know that. Ukraine is the first line of defense for us. And the problem that Vivek doesn't understand is he wants to hand Ukraine to Russia. He wants to let China eat Taiwan.

He wants to go and stop funding Israel. You don't do that to friends. What you do instead is you have the backs of your friends. Ukraine is a front line of defense. Putin has said if Russia once Russia takes Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics are next.

That's a world war. We're trying to prevent war. This guy is a murderer, and you are choosing a murderer over a pro-American country. I wish you well in your future career on the boards of Lockheed and Raytheon. I'm not on the stage.

Boeing came off of it, but you've been pushing this lie. You've been pushing this lie all week now. To go and defund Israel, you want to give it away. Let me address that. I'm glad you brought that up.

I'm going to address that. You're watching North America lesson. You have no foreign policy experience. And then show you. And you know what?

Wow, and that is as heated as you'll get it on substance. And sometimes you get personal attacks like, you didn't do this, you didn't do that. This was on substance. Welcome back, everybody. I'm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, right after the show, the Brian Killmeat Show.

I'm going to be leaving, coming back to New York Thursday, Friday, because the first debate is now in the books. And it was very impactful. Nobody really lost. I think Asa Hutchinson had a few comments, but for the most part, he's going to have a hard time, I think, staying in it. Doug Bergam was good when he was called on, tore his Achilles, made news.

People didn't know if he was going to be on stage. He had a great line to begin with. He comes off very likable. He had joined us on Fox and Friends earlier. I think he'll get a slight bump.

Ramaswamy, everybody talks about him. Everybody knows him now. From Bill Maher to Charlemagne the God to now Nikki Yaley. They're going to go at it probably. In September in California at the Reagan Library for the next debate.

But I think that Nikki Haley reminded everybody: I got in first, I have not stopped working. I've been focusing local, Iowa, New Hampshire, but I'm ready for the national stage. The question is, can Devek Ramaswamy's policies hold up to national scrutiny. Or is just populism? We'll see.

No Donald Trump yet, but Michael Waltz coming up next. Listen to Brian Kill Me Joe. Don't move. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead.

You don't need Donald Trump. It'll be a debate to have a. Shell there, right?

So, I mean, it was a complete train wreck. I thought that there was so much theatrics on the stage, and some of that is intentional. I'm not sure what any of them are running for. Bergham, I think his name is, seemed like a bored, rich guy who said, you know what, I got nothing better to do. A Ramaswamy certainly, I think, was the dominant figure in the debate.

But he took up the most airtime. It sort of felt like he was the snappy podcast host, and everybody got his podcast, and everybody else was his guest.

So, believe it or not, MSNBC and CNN didn't think there were quality on the stage last night. I am stunned, but I did want to share it with my next guest, Congressman Michael Waltz. He's a politician, he's a warfighter, military expert, Armed Services Committee, correct, sir? That's right. And he now joins us in studio, which is The original pancake house.

Do you feel right here? Oh, right here. This is where it all came from.

Well, I mean, the original, the first franchise was in Portland in 1953. You know this, but for the audience. And now this place opened in 2001. It looks like somebody's house, am I correct? Yeah, it's nice.

This is classic Wisconsin. It's homie. Are you ever curious? Do you ever flip around and see what other people are saying? What is your reaction to their reaction?

You know, look, at the end of the day, they're going to find a reason. Uh uh to I don't know. Just beat up on Republicans. But what I thought from last night was: what a bench. The Republican Party has of leaders, of governors, of businesses.

Well, they don't. They mock. They don't. They mock whatever. It comes across as inauthentic.

It is inauthentic. There were a lot of strong personalities, a lot of strong views. At the end of the day, though, I don't see anybody there that's going to make up for a 20 to 30 point deficit. with President Trump. Yeah.

In history. In history. And I I think the big winner was President Trump. I didn't see anybody who said Trump was wrong on this and made that case. Or the America First Agenda didn't put the country in a better place and therefore go my direction.

So I don't see anyone who made the case of why they should pass Trump as the frontrunner.

Well, I thought it was a very interesting line that Nikki Haley had. Um and kind of just slam Donald Trump on this cut 11. And while they're all saying this, you have Ron DeSantis, you've got Tim Scott, you've got Mike Pence. They all voted to raise the debt, and Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt. And our kids are never going to forgive us for this.

And so, at the end of the day, you look at the 2024 budget. Republicans asked for $7.4 billion in earmarks. Democrats asked for $2.8 billion.

So you tell me who are the big spenders. I think it's time for an accountant in the White House. Your reaction to Nikki Haley.

Well, Look, Nikki Haley had a strong night. She really did. I think she was one of the stars last night. But she knows, and Tim Scott came back and so did Vice President Pence, that that was COVID spending. That was emergency spending.

Now I'm in the Congress and many of us are pulling that money back. The unspent money, we need to pull back, apply it back to our debt. But she knows under Trump that that was emergency COVID spending that she was talking about. But you also know under Trump, when people call out President Trump, I remember talking to Speaker Ryan, and he says we're only getting $1.2 billion. for the wall.

And he needs 10. And he promised to build the wall. And he goes, well, the Democrats don't want to give. The president, the wall, and it's either the Pentagon or the wall. Right.

And I have to fund the Pentagon.

So that's the choice people are given. Yeah. Well, fair enough. And then I was also there when he's arm wrestling with Nancy Pelosi, who was perfectly willing to let the government shut down over wall funding. But here nor there, we know President Trump did everything he could to build the wall, and now you've got the Biden administration with unused sections of wall that's sitting in storage, and all they have to do is put it up.

And rather than put it up and stop this crisis, he's selling it. Literally selling it for pennies on the dollar of taxpayer money. What happened in the Senate? The Senate passed a measure to put the wall up in the defense bill right now that if we pass this defense bill, pass out of the House and the Senate. to put that wall up.

Right, and stop this humanitarian crisis, which by the way, now is up to 160 countries. Almost every country in the world has an illegal immigrant coming across our southern border. I want you to hear, first off, Vivek Ramaswamy, your reaction. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought we were listening to something.

Look. Vivek had a strong, he had a strong showing. You can tell that he was up there saying, Look, I've got nothing to lose. I'm going to lay it all out. But I'm glad that Nikki Haley, I think, schooled him a bit when it comes to some foreign policy matters.

At the end of the day, this notion that America can't lead and also take care of itself, I think, is a false choice. America has to lead because if we don't, China, Russia, Iran, and others will step into the void. All right. I want you to hear Vivek and Nikki Haley fight it out. They were basically talking about.

And first off, his comments: how many times have you been to Ukraine? I've been once before the invasion and since the invasion. All right, so listen to Vivek Ramaswamy and how he characterizes Ukraine's cut six. I think that this is disastrous that we are protecting against an invasion across somebody else's border when we should use those same military resources to prevent across the invasion of our own southern border here in the United States of America. We are driving Russia further into China's hands.

The Russia-China alliance is the single greatest threat we face. And I find it offensive that we have professional politicians on the stage that will make a pilgrimage to Kiev, to their Pope, Zelensky, without doing the same thing for people in Maui or the south side of Chicago or Kensington.

So is it is it a false comparison? People, the crowd liked it. Yeah, look, uh we helped Defend others' freedoms and invasions across borders in World War II, in Korea, in the First Gulf War. You know, America is the leader of the free world. And one of the things as a veteran, as a Green Beret, that makes America so unique is we are willing to fight and die for other people's freedoms, for liberty around the world.

It is a false choice. I mean, he's also right in that we should be taking care of our own border. Biden should be securing our border and isn't, but that doesn't mean we do nothing else. And look, the others on the stage pointed out that if we do nothing in Ukraine, Putin has stated that he wants to reconstitute the old Soviet Union. He will hit NATO countries.

That will drag us into the war. The best way to stay out of war with Russia is to give Ukraine the beads and bullets.

However, I am at the point now where I am so sick and tired of Europe, particularly France and Germany, not stepping up. President Trump got them to step up to live up to their defense commitments of 2 percent. That's what we need to be hearing from Biden. And we need to hear an articulation from Biden of what does success look like? How long is this going to go?

It can't just be blank check and a goofy grin. You know who doesn't want. him to say anymore will take say here as long as it takes Ukraine. Because they're losing people. They don't want to be shelled on a daily basis.

They don't want drones into their ships. They don't want to be prevented from selling grain. They need this to end.

So, whatever you're going to do, do it in a way that benefits them militarily and focus on it. Because guys like you have to tell the American people what's going on with the war because Jake Sullivan, Anthony Blinken, terrible communication skills, and they don't even tell the American people what we're up to. Do you want Kamala Harris telling you? Do you want the president? At least they're not even trying to explain their policy.

No, they're not. And the point that we need to keep going back to, which you've made and Republicans are making, is deterrence failed. The lesson you've got to learn from Ukraine is arm your allies beforehand, especially when it comes to Taiwan. That's how you prevent war, that's how you prevent invasions. But instead, with the withdrawal from Afghanistan and then Biden saying things like, well, minor incursions might be a good thing.

Okay, and doing nothing on NordStream 2. He basically greenlighted Putin to come in and now wants to pretend like he's a hero for coming in after the fact, after tens of thousands of people have died, we're spending billions. You stop wars before they start. That's how deterrence works, and that's what failed. And just for the record.

Medvedev announced this week he's going to have he's going to look into annexing those two so-called breakaway provinces in Georgia. Remember the Georgia invasion? Yeah. And it was kind of Lisa Rice was there and said you better stop and told Um Uh told the leader at the time, you uh ratchet it down, the Russians go in. After their Olympics, I believe it was, and they stayed.

And now they're annexing.

So, for those people who think that they learned their lesson in Ukraine or their ambitions have changed. You have more evidence to sell your story. Indisputable fundamental To Putin's legacy, he wants to recreate the old Soviet Union. He wants to put the old Soviet Union back together again. There are NATO countries that are part of that.

Then we're treaty obligated to fight, and that's what we want to avoid. I want you to hear some sparring on something I never thought was going to happen, but abortion is in every political conversation. Nikki Haley and Mike Pence went at it. Tell me where you stand, Congressman Mike Waltz, cut 22. I am unapologetically pro-life, not because the Republican Party tells me to be, but because my husband was adopted, and I had trouble having both of my children, so I'm surrounded by blessings.

Having said that, we need to stop demonizing this issue. Be honest with the American people. We haven't had 45 pro-life senators in over 100 years.

So no Republican president can ban abortions any more than a Democrat president could ban all those state laws. Don't make women feel like they have to decide on this issue when you know we don't have 60 Senate votes in the House. 70% of the American people support legislation to ban abortion after a baby is capable of experiencing pain.

So he's at 15 weeks. Lindsey Graham brought that up.

Some people thought it was crazy, other people thought it was smart. to have federal legislation at 15 weeks where Europe is Where do you stand politically? You know what someone doesn't matter where you stand politically, personally? Yeah. What works?

That Kiki Haley was making, right? And I want to be clear, I'm 100% pro-life as well, and have those scores as well. She was making the political argument of what's feasible right now in the Congress, and she's right. We don't, you know, the Democrats control the Senate. I'm also a constitutionalist, and the thing that Roe versus Wade did was put it back to the states.

And at the end of the day, I think we've got to start talking about this very differently. And we have to point out the extreme positions of the Democrats. If a child can feel pain, if a child has a heartbeat, it is viable and sitting in the womb, you should not be able to murder it. With an abortion. And that child deserves to be protected, whether it's a minute.

Before birth, a month before birth. Really, this is an argument about when does life begin? And that's what we need to be asking the Democrats. When do they believe life begins? The second outside the womb, but not a second inside the womb?

But they don't want to engage in the world. And of course, the media doesn't help at all, but we need to put them on the defensive to explain that. Explain that to the American people. When's that magic moment when they believe life begins and needs to be protected? Because this is about protecting children, not as they spin it, about taking rights away from women.

This is about protecting children.

So, look, I mean, but I think what you saw on the stage last night is after 50 years of Roe versus Wade, Republicans have not come together. Really, to have a consensus position.

Some believe this is a moral position, as the Vice President said, should be handled nationally.

Some believe, as Bergham said and pulled out his Constitution, Tenth Amendment, this is a state's rights issue. And then, you know, there's a whole Variance in terms of six weeks for heartbeat, 15 weeks late term. We need to come together as a party and really push, I think, a better message about life. Are you under the belief that that issue is the reason why you did not have a wave election in 2022? Look, there was no coincidence that a Supreme Court that never has leaks.

Had a leak.

So that they could ignite that issue and make something of it. And I think in the midterms, initially, we saw that it really wasn't resonating. People were more worried about the economy, inflation, and crime. But by the end, by the fall, it had shifted, and we didn't shift with it. We've got to start talking about it differently and put the Democrats on defensive.

When does life begin? That's the fundamental question. But just sometimes I watch these rallies. and their their uh pro-choice rallies or uh Reproductive right rallies. They're actually cheering for abortions.

Yeah, it's a rally for abortions. Remember, it should be legal and rare. There are states where, actually, if they attempt an abortion and it fails and the child is still born, now outside of the womb, the doctor can still kill the child, or they would call it euthanize. But that's murder. I'm sorry.

And that's what we need to be pointing out. Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, they actually allow a minute before birth to terminate that child, to kill that child. Those are the stories that we should be highlighting and talking about and focusing on because that's extreme and I don't think the American people are on board with it. All right, Michael Waltz is here. The congressman, before he goes back.

Are you going to Florida, D.C.? Going down to Florida. Going to Florida.

Okay. I don't blame you. Although it's just as hot up. I thought I was going to get away from it up in Wisconsin. 100 degrees and humid, baby.

It was hot. I'll take it any day over winter, and I always keep that in mind. I made a choice. I only will complain about one season, and that's winter. Brian Kilmicho, more with the congressman in just a moment.

Want even more, Brian? Download the podcast at BrianKillMeadShow.com every episode. Exclusive interviews on demand. More of Kill Mead coming up. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin.

It's Brian Killmead. When you go for the king... You better kill the king. And that's what Preghosian, in the end, failed to do. And Putin knew he needed.

To demonstrate, and pretty quickly, as it turns out, who's really running the joint. And I think that even over the last couple of days, you see the bricks are together, Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa in South Africa having a conference.

So Putin is playing to that international audience, and he's also playing to his domestic audience. And he's talking about Admiral Strav Rita's good friend of the show, Michael Waltz, is talking about the shooting down of a plane holding the leader of. Wagner Group, one-time ally of Vladimir Putin, who almost took the country, Prashogin, should be dead. It looks like he is dead. The Wagner Group and the Soviet.

What's your reaction to him doing that? Is he stronger today?

Well, look, if you cross Putin, If you cross Putin, uh Don't fire your food taster. Don't stay in high-rise hotels or hospitals. How is he living this long, though? Right, but at the same time. Usually, there is some deniability on Putin's part.

Just mysterious things happen. Nikki Haley raised it last night when their UN ambassador just mysteriously died. Putin wanted the world to know this was him. And did it in a very, very explicit way with his fingerprints all over it. That was a message to the Russian military.

That was a message internally. And yeah, that was actually a message abroad. I want you to get out what you're working on in terms of stopping the cartels in Mexico. Yeah, so I've introduced a bill to authorize the use of military force on the cartels. Introduced it with Dan Crenshaw months ago, representative from Texas.

We've done it in Colombia. We took down the Medellin cartel. We took down other hotels. But initially, the Colombian government wasn't on board. And what we did back then was said: either you guys get on board, we're going to do it with or without you.

That's the message we need to be delivering to AMLO and Mexico. That's the message that Trump did, and they ended up putting their National Guard on their southern border. We've got to, if this were ISIS and Al-Qaeda, we wouldn't even be debating it. We would be taking them out. Governor DeSantis said he's all for it.

Trump talked about it initially, and you're pushing it forward. That's right. Yeah, good. Michael Harrim on board. Thank you.

Thanks so much. Thanks, Brian. All right, now go on Stuart Varney and try to impress him as much as you did me. Brian Kill Me Cho in Milwaukee. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division.

It's Brian Kelmead. Hi everyone, I'm Brian Kilmead. Welcome to the latest moments of the Brian Kilmead Show: The Background Noise Shows. The original Pancake House is extremely popular, so you're going to hear a murmur because it's virtually lunchtime. We were here, believe it or not, they had a crowd at five in the morning on Fox and Friends.

I usually come to you from 48th and 6th in midtown Manhattan, but went to Milwaukee because. I went to market because we had our first GOP debate. And I got some recaps in case you weren't able to see it. We're also trying to see who has got who the media was impressed with and who you're impressed with. In a different era, we had Ron DeSantis on and Michael Waltz.

Michael Waltz has endorsed Donald Trump. Mark Thiessen is standing by. Mark Penn at the bottom of the hour. Mark Penn is I can't wait to get his take on this too because he also writes the polls about who's going in. Mark, as a former speechwriter with George W.

Bush, communications expert yourself, Fox News contributor, Washington Post columnist. If you were to pick one candidate... That benefited from the debate more than anybody else, Mark, who would it be?

Well, first of all, I don't even know how you're still standing. After last night, getting up this morning, see, watching New York Fox's president, now you're doing a radio show. You're a machine.

So that the you've benefited the most from all this. You're my number one winner of the. That's a good point. But if I had to pick an actual candidate who's running for office, I think Nikki Haley really, really did a very good job. I think that she I think she absolutely eviscerated Vivek on foreign policy, though a lot of people seem to like him too.

I don't know it'll be interesting to see how they, you know, but I mean, he's just so dangerously unqualified when it comes to foreign policy. The idea that we would give give Ukraine to Russia, that we're pushing Russia together with China. They've been in together with China for a decade now. They've been in an alliance. We're not pushing them together, that he would cut off aid to Israel.

I mean, this is just this isol it's an isolationism that's even more extreme than the MAGA movement is.

So I just I think she did it. Terrific job. I think Tim Scott was strong. I don't think he followed the rules too much. I don't think he jumped in enough like Mike Pence did, who also had a good night.

And so he didn't get as much airtime. But I think honestly, the winner probably has to be DeSantis because if you look at the CBS poll going into the debate, The most people were open to him as a candidate, right?

So you know hey they asked them, are you considering DeSantis or do you want to learn more about him? And something like seven in ten Republicans said they're open to DeSantis.

So having a strong performance Probably benefited him the most because the most people were. Go going into the debate, listening, wanting to learn more about him and and how and see him do well.

So let me just give people at home an idea. They did the math on who spoke and for how long. Believe it or not, Mike Pence, I never would have predicted this. 12 minutes, 37 seconds. Ramaswamy, 1147.

Christie, just over 11. DeSantis, just over 10. Haley, 841. You think Haley would be way up there with her fireworks that she had. Bergerum with his torn Achilles, 8 minutes.

Asa Hutchinson, 733, and no Donald Trump in the middle.

Some of the headlines. New York Times, Vivek Ramaswamy comes in hot, stealing the spotlight. Washington Examiner, Republican debate, Nikki Haley wins, and not particularly close. USA Today, on a Trumpless debate stage, Ramaswamy, Haley make themselves heard.

So they have a little bit different take on yours, Mark. Not that you would ever look at others to find out how Mark Thiessen feels, but Vivek Ramaswamy. This is somebody that really is hard to ignore. He's a very talented guy. Right?

Um he's articulate, uh, but but you know, he's uh but but he's articulate.

Well, his foreign policy is terrible. Yeah, but I mean that's he he's running for commander in chief. You know, and and you know, he said what he said that, you know, the U.S. Constitution was central to the American Revolution.

Well, no, actually it wasn't. It was a decade later and there was a huge fight about it. I mean, did he say that? Yeah. He said he ju he just says stuff that's like, you know, that you know that that uh you know, that that is just makes no sense at all.

And and and uh I I don't know. I tha I thought Nikki Haley, you know, she didn't have as mu uh as mu you actually you know, you're right, and that shows that she had a good performance because you because you assume she had more time on the s in speaking than she actually did, that means she used her time really well and was effective and and stood out despite not speaking as much as other candidates did. Um Here is uh Nikki Haley. Going at it with Ramaswamy, cut seven. A win for Russia is a win for China.

We have to know that. Ukraine is the first line of defense for us. And the problem that Vivek doesn't understand is he wants to hand Ukraine to Russia. He wants to let China eat Taiwan. He wants to go and stop funding Israel.

You don't do that to friends. What you do instead is you have the backs of your friends. Ukraine is a front line of defense. Putin has said if Russia, once Russia takes Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics are next. That's a world war.

We're trying to prevent war. This guy is a murderer, and you are choosing a murderer over a pro-American country. I wish you well in your future career on the boards of Lockheed and Raytheon. I'm not on the boards. The fact of the matter, but you've been pushing this live stage.

You've been pushing this live all week. You want to go and defund Israel. You want to give it away. Let me address that. I'm glad you brought that up.

I want to go and give you that you're watching. Make America lesson. You have no foreign policy experience. And it shows you. And you know what?

Yeah. So you're a communications guy, Mark. That was pretty effective, I thought. TKO, 100%. And also, the crowd was cheering so loudly for her that, like, uh they they drowned out the deck when he was trying when he was trying to respond to this.

Look, this is a guy who just said his plan for Taiwan Is that we would guarantee their security until 2028 when we become semiconductor independent, and then they're on their own. I mean, number one, we're not going to be semiconductor independent by 2028 under any circumstances, so it's ridiculous. And second, and third of all, then they're on their own. What the heck does that mean? He says that China is like the number one threat, but he wants to allow them to run roughshod over Taiwan and that we have no interest in protecting the only Chinese democracy in Asia that's a U.S.

I mean, it's just it's so he's so dangerously in uh dangerously incompetent on foreign policy. It's quite stunning.

So Byron Donald showed up, and you know, even though he's in Florida and helped Governor DeSantis with debate prep of the past, he has picked Donald Trump. Here's what his assessment was as a fellow Republican of what he saw on the stage last night, Cut 35. I thought that Governor DeSantis was fine, but fine was not good enough in this moment. He had to be dynamic. He had to take presence of the entire debate, all the bickering back and forth.

And frankly, a lot of the candidates, some of them had really good points. The governor was good, but he wasn't dynamic. And he has to be dynamic because the elephant, the true elephant in the room, is Donald Trump. He's massively ahead. And all the policy, Sean, that everybody's talking about, Donald Trump did it.

He did it once, he could do it again. That is still the leader in this entire race.

Okay, take on Donalds. You know, the stats say this kind of lead that Trump has has never been lost by anybody in modern American politics in the primaries. I'm not saying he's going to be president.

So your thoughts on Byron Donalds? Uh so n number one uh 64% of Americans told the CBS poll that they will not vote for Donald Trump. in November. I mean, so he he absolutely has a hold on a segment of the Republican electorate. He has inalterably alienated swing voters.

And you don't get elected by the by the base. You get elected by the base plus. And he he has spent the last couple of years doing everything in his power to alienate the swing voters he needs to win over to win back the presidency. If he had spent the last several years talking about his amazing record in office, which I have defended up and down in my column in the Washington Post on Fox News and everywhere else, and said, compare my record to Joe Biden's instead of talking about the 2020 election over and over again, he'd be cruising to a double-digit victory in November. But he's alienated the people who have to elect the president.

And it's true that Donald Trump has a big lead, but it's a mile wide and an inch thin. He's at 42%, 43% in Iowa. That means 56%, 57% of Republicans want somebody else.

So the question becomes, can this field winnow? And it's, by the way, it's the same in New Hampshire. It's the same in South Carolina. He's in the low 40s in each state.

So that means about six in ten Republicans want somebody else to be the nominee.

So the question is, can we winnow this field down to one or two people who could be the alternative to him? I think that the next Fox debate ought to be, you know, the floor here was, you know, what was it? It had to be at least 1% in the poll. It should be 5% in the poll. And then the 10, it should be three.

Okay, it should be going up with, there should be more debates and it should go up with each debate so that stage gets smaller. And next it should be six people, and then it should be four people, and then it should be two people. And then we have two Republican primaries. We have the primary to take on Trump and then the primary with Trump. And somebody's got to win that primary to take on Trump, and one person has to emerge from that.

And then you have and then you'll have a real contest for the Republican nomination. But if it's him against a divided field and nobody gets out of the race and everybody stays on that debate stage, he's going to win with a plurality like he did in twenty sixteen. All right, I want to bring you to another area of your expertise, and that's what's going on with the Ukraine-Russia war. And we see that General Keene wrote me yesterday, and I'll talk to him about it on television on Friday, there was a major breakthrough, not very publicized yet for Ukraine on the front lines. We're going to get more details on that.

But Joe Biden has not got them demining equipment, has not delivered on one single tank, has not started training one, let alone giving them F-16s, hasn't even trained a pilot. They're putting together the syllabus, and that's what Republicans are having trouble dealing with now. They are hostage to Joe Biden's war planning, which is to It's folly. It's a circus of ineptitude. But I want you to comment on that, and then I want to ask you about Peshogun and being shot out of the sky.

Yes. Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were going to play silly. Yeah, no, is he you're 100% right. This is look, Joe Biden has dragged his feet on weapons for Ukraine a long t I mean, they should have had all this stuff in place at the start of the spring offensive. And then you got the Pentagon leaking out, well, we don't think the spring offensive is going to be that successful.

You know, well, yeah. You know, when is the last time would would a Western power carry out a combined arms campaign offensive without air power? Would we ever and or long range and you know, okay, now he's giving them uh F-16s sometime next year, and we're not giving them attackums, we're not giving them the long-range rockets. Thank goodness that the French and the British came in with it with it with their long-range artillery, so they've got some of it. But how do you expect them to take back ground if they don't have this equipment?

It's like we're forcing them to fight with one hand tied behind their back, and then and then Biden says to the American people, we'll be with them as long as it takes. And Americans say it's taking too long. Give them you know, there's no strategy for victory, so of course support, you know, gets qualified. If we had a strategy this thing shouldn't, we shouldn't even be asking the Republican candidates about Ukraine because it should be over by the time the next president takes the oath of office. But it's not going to be because Joe Biden is so incompetent.

Prashogan, shout out of the sky, the creator and founder of the Wagner Group, who's up to no good up over in Africa. Here's Admiral Stravidis on what he thinks happened, Cut 30, or the questions he still has, CUT 39. The only mystery here, I think, Willie, is why did it take so long? When I predicted with our colleague Chuck Todd on Meet the Press that, hey, it's going to be 30, 60, 90 days, I actually thought it would be sooner than that, but I was giving myself a little bit of time. In the end, it reads like a John LeCourt novel.

So he's dead, it looks like, and they also took a general who is very effective but critical, like Pashogin, of their war effort, and they demoted him.

So I think Russia loses tactically and militarily, but do they win the PR of does he get his manhood back? Yes, so when I look at Putin versus Pragozhin, I'm reminded of what Henry Kissinger said when he was asked who are you rooting for in the Iran-Iraq war? And he said casualties. You know, these guys are both evil. You know, Progozian.

Started to march on Moscow. Once you do that, you don't stop. If you're going to try and take out the king, you take out the king, or else you're going to die. And so this was inevitable that he was going to get off. It was just a matter of when.

The interesting thing, I saw somebody speculating on Twitter this morning is did Progozian have like a bunch of compromat on Putin that he had prepared to be released in case something happened to him as sort of an insurance policy? Because there's a lot of dirt that Progozian has on Vladimir Putin. It would be interesting to see whether anything comes out. And why was he so comfortable at St. Petersburg leaving from Moscow?

Yet he almost took over the country, but not really. There's so many questions that need to be answered, and it matters most because that is a very aggressive nation looking to upend America in every way they can. Thankfully, they're inept. They're about as sophisticated as that probe, lunar probe, that crashed into the moon. They were supposed to land gracefully.

Yeah, exactly. I think you could start the rest of your day now. You could get dressed and go on television or write a column. Are you prepared for that? I I am prepared for that.

I've I am in the process of doing all those things. Yeah. Yeah. Go get him, Mark. Thank you.

Mark Thieson. All right, when we come back, we open up the phones, even though I'm not there in New York to pick it up personally or to use my rotary phone and dial you back. Should you leave a message? I am in Milwaukee. I am safe and willing to take your comments and questions.

1-866-408-7669. Expanding your knowledge base. It's the Brian Kill Meet Show. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kill Me Show.

Hey, we're back from the original Pancake House over in beautiful outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Let's go out to Nicholas, who's not there. He's on WABC, listening in New Jersey. Hey, Nicholas. Yes, hi, Brian.

A few points about Vivec, which I said a long time ago and which I agree with. Um If they give up a small part of the Donbass, in exchange for a peace agreement. If the war drags on, they could lose everything. And if we say the West won't let that happen, now you're talking about NATO involved in a war. NATO couldn't even win in Afghanistan.

And Biden is not giving them the tools to win. And you're talking about you just nailed it. That's what you need. The tools to win. I'm not talking about nuclear.

I'm just talking about, for example, the mining equipment. Chains that go over fields that we've had since the 1960s. We're not using them. We have to get them that stuff. But but giving up parts of the Donbass region, they're not going to do that because there's no political pressure on Russia.

They just kill people or jail them if they protest. Yeah, I think he's got a dangerous, naive foreign policy. Linda, KFTK in St. Louis. Linda.

Yeah. Hi, Brian. Thanks for taking my call. Watched the whole debate last night, hands down. Ron DeSantis is the only candidate that is going to be able to beat Biden.

I love Trump, but I think it's like watching the Christians being beat up by the gladiators, that poor man. And I just think Ron DeSantis is so strong in his record and his credentials. I think there's no way that going into this election, if Trump would stand up against Biden, I know Democrats that said they don't like Biden. They think he's incompetent, but they will not vote for Trump if he's the representative for the Republican Party, but they would vote for any other candidate. And I think Ron DeSantis has it, hands down, would be the candidate to beat Biden.

And he showed you enough last night? Absolutely. And not just last night, his his record, his past record, and he's out there. And I can't find anything to even criticize that man about. He's like watching I don't know, just to me, he's a super leader and Yeah, he does not like talking about himself.

That's his one thing, he says, but I'm finding that people want me to tell them more, so I am beginning to learn that. And I watched him. He was charming to everybody here in this diner. And there was 200 people here. Brian Kilmicho.

Back with your calls and more in just a moment. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Killmade. But I thought overall was the person with the best night was Joe Biden. Because you looked at those eight people, you could imagine none of them being president. You can imagine none of them making a credible case against Joe Biden.

Yes. Joe Biden. How do you poke holes in Joe Biden? He seems so spry and the way he's handled the Hawaii situation, uh you can't he's beyond reproach. That is Ron Klanis, former chief of staff, now working with his reelection, one of the four people hired.

That was his assessment last night. It is not mine. But let's find out what Mark Penn thinks, president of the Stagwell Group, past advisor to President Clinton and Hillary Clinton. Mark, welcome back. Thank you.

So, Mark, do you agree with Ron Klain that Joe Biden was the beneficiary from last night? Oh yeah. Look, I don't think Joe Biden took on any warder last night. I frankly thought the half attacks on him were really were really not that effective. I I think look, the two people who want their Donald Trump and Joe Biden did just fine last night.

I think this was really this debate was really an audition for who could go up against Donald Trump. That's what it was. I don't really think it did damage to Democrats or Trump actually for that matter. Did anybody establish themselves as maybe on the path to closing the gap with Trump in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina?

Well, I think there was no definitive winner. I think that there are four candidates. Look, I think DeSantis did well enough. right, to he can go back to his camp. He's not a champion debater, but he did stick to his record.

I thought Nikki Haley showed real foreign policy experience. Uh I saw Tim Scott. you know, did really well in terms of, you know, his his kind of belief in the American in the American dream. And Ramaswani, controversial, but I have to give him like keep him in the top four, though I thought Nikki Haley really came after him quite effectively on foreign policy. And then the rest, frankly, I I think aren't going anywhere.

I want you to hear, Nikki Haley did take on Trump. I talked to her in the spin room about what she said on stage, which is essentially. was In some way, shape, or form, Donald Trump can't win. Listen. When you talk about saying that line, when you said the most unpopular politician in America is Donald Trump, a guy that you said is your friend, what went into that statement?

It's true. It's true. You can look at any of the polls. He is my friend. It was an honor to serve with him.

I agree with most of his policies. But he's going to spend more time in a courtroom next year than he is campaigning. We have to be realistic about that. Do I want to clean up weaponization in the Department of Justice and the intelligence agencies? You bet.

Is he going to be the reason we're going to do it? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, we have to beat President Kamala Harris. It is too dangerous to think about what happens if she wins, and we can't have a former president sitting in a courtroom campaigning from there. It's not going to work.

How about that as a addressing Trump? What do you think about the way she did it? I I think that was reasonably true. She says, look, as a practical matter, no matter what you think. You know, Trump just can't be an effective nominee for the party, whether you like him or not.

It wasn't an ineffective, you know. Look, I. I thought, if nothing else, she definitely won Secretary of State last night. She she showed foreign policy, you know, experience and knowledge far above anybody else. To me, I think the biggest hole was nobody showed any real economic expertise.

Nobody had a real economic plan of any merit acceptance. When everybody knows the economy is the number one issue. Right, foreign policy way at the bottom. They did talk a lot about that. Uh here's what You talked about going after Joe Biden.

Tell me if you think Rick Tim Scott did it effectively here, Cut 13. Over the last several years, I've had an opportunity to vote against spending package after spending package after spending package. What we also need to understand is that Joe Biden's bidenomics has led to the loss of $10,000 of spending power for the average family. When you see 16% inflation, your gas is up 40%. Your food is up twenty percent, your electricity is up twenty percent.

We can stop that by turning the spig it off at Washington, sending the money back to the states and allowing the decisions to be made at their own houses.

So that's not a plan, but it is going at binomics with numbers. Yeah, no, look it look it's The truth is that do I think Joe Biden's numbers will go down as a result of this debate? No. Will they go up as a result of the debate? No.

I think people were not really looking at this debate to find out some information about Joe Biden. They really wanted to find out, hey, which of these candidates is qualified to be president and which one has experience and ideas that are different from what's going on now? And look, I think actually, when you look at Tim Scott, while he went off on that, he went off on that against Biden, he really wasn't set up, I think, for his more positive view that less spending, more belief in the American dream and the ability to succeed is really what his campaign is about. That he actually runs a very positive campaign out there. He just needs to get more traction.

Mark Penn, my guest. Mark We know that Donald Trump's going to be arraigned today. It'll be the fourth time and probably the final time. And then it's he just by the way, the report came out, he just rotated lawyers out.

Somebody who focuses on white-collar crime in Georgia seems seemingly a good move.

So with the indictments done and I Obviously people will look at that news cycle. Are you surprised? that with each indictment, he has gained popularity with the Republican Party. And is there any indication from the numbers that you've seen that he's beginning to win some of the people back that left him in 2020, like white suburban moms and others? No, I don't see any evidence That he's he's doing anything more than strengthening a a base But, you know, I look at his numbers in Iowa and he's at forty-two.

Right. And Iowa's a really, really conservative Republican electorate. And that says there's 58% in Iowa that are not with him at the moment. That's, you know, I actually think he's in a bit more of a vulnerable position if, in fact, you know, of the four I mentioned, you know, one of them comes out of the pack and it consolidates, you know, in the next, you know, 60 days or so to one or at most two. You know, otherwise, you know, he's in a good position for the primary.

He's head-to-head with Biden. He's head-to-head with Biden. It might fall even ahead of Biden. But there's a large undecided because a lot of people don't want either of these candidates to be.

So look, when you look at political situations, an unhappy electorate, there's a lot of voter volatility out there. And there's a lot of voter volatility even within the Republican primary.

So last night we got the first glimpse of the potential opponents of. Donald Trump. Today, as you say, the news story is going to be the arraignment of Donald Trump, and that will take a lot of the oxygen out of it. And tomorrow, I think we're still at the beginning of a process in which the next 60 to 90 days is going to be. Absolutely critical.

Critical and unprecedented in many ways. Do you think? that Donald Trump made the right decision by not showing up. I I think in the end, yes. I I was I thought that I thought that perhaps he should have shown up, but he would have drawn so much so much fire and controversy, and he didn't need to dominate that debate.

His best outcome is sort of what he got, which is there's no clear frontrunner. There's a lot of people who seem really dug in and determined, and it's a very split up Republican, non Trump vote. And as long as that remains the case, he's in good shape. The minute that vote really consolidates around somebody, then it's a whole different race. Do you hear of any of this?

You know so many people, especially on the Democratic side. Do you hear anyone putting together a shadow team in case Joe Biden Uh Can't do it. Physically, mentally, with the Hunter situation leading to him, if people have been following it, even though I suppose it's picking it up, is Pritzker, is Gavin Newsom? Is Whitmer anybody starting to move behind the scenes to put together a staff? I don't see anybody doing that now.

And I think that if anything, the Democrats, and you see it in the polls, have consolidated around Biden for now. Whereas Trump is in the 50s and 1942 in Iowa, Biden is in the 60s among the Democratic vote. I think Newsom went out there, did a little interview, did a little exploratory. I think as it has been the story for a while in this country, you've got a pretty united Democratic Party, a pretty fragmented Republican Party, and we'll see whether or not it stays that way or not. All right.

Mark Penn, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, uh Mark Penn's joining us, uh the Star Stagwell Group. 1866-408-7669.

Let's go out to Gary listening in Chicago. Hey, Gary. Yes. Hey, Brian. I narrowed it down to three of the candidates, Ramaswamy, DeSantis and Haley.

I think the most important issue is how the candidate's going to respond to Ukraine. Both Ramaswamy and Descentis said they should put the effort That they're putting into Ukraine into the southern border. But Nikki Haley said. to do both. And I would like to see her get some traction and actually become the nominee.

I think she's really solid. And I'd if she can't make the nom uh nomination, I'd like to see her on the ticket and get her ready for twenty twenty eight. What do you think? Uh listen. I heard Mark Pennett, the Republican win, she'd be your perfect Secretary of State.

And that is you're basically running your own show there. And she would she's so much tougher than she appears. And I thought you saw that last night. I knew it. But I thought America saw that last night.

And the best thing to happen to her, Vivek Ramaswamy's unorthodox foreign policy and the fact that he was so bold in presenting it. Right next to Nikki Haley, who said, Okay, I'll take this underhand, this underhand pitch, and I'll knock it right out of the park. And she did it three different ways. Thanks for the call. 1-866-408-7669.

Got more important guests coming to you. Actually, when we come back, I'll be able to take some more of your calls and go through your emails. If you go to BrianKillmee.com, click on comments. And then you can go buy one of my books, by the way, and click on comments. I'll be able to get to them.

Don't move. Learning something new every day on the Brian Killmead Show. A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Here's the bottom line.

Someone's got. to stop normalizing this conduct.

Okay. Now And now whether or not whether or not You believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong? The car conduct. Is beneath the office of President of the United States. And you know, this is the great thing about this country.

Booing is allowed. But it doesn't change the truth. It doesn't change the church.

So Chris Christie got booed when he was introduced. And when he said things like that, because it was 5,000 people. I understand that it's a new record for a Republican debate, maybe even Democrat debate too, of people who showed up in the primaries.

So can picture this. All these people gathered up, and most of them were voting for Trump or like Trump. There was no Liz Cheney signs there.

So, Chris Christie takes so much guts to come out there and say, This guy is not acceptable. His behavior does not work. Even though he's overcharged, he should not be the nominee because he can't win. And people don't want to hear it, but I give Chris Christie credit. He has not changed his tune.

He believes it. Tommy, listening on K-R-M-G. Hey, Tommy.

Well, Yeah. Either he dropped his drum or we dropped the call. I apologize. Ron, KSLM in Salem, Oregon. Hey, Ron.

I am embarrassed by my Republican Party because here's what I'd say. My foster father was Tuskegee Airman. Seventy-seven years ago, he had a seed. Mingler's mess in Berlin and Vienna, where he was stationed at. He adopted a daughter.

He did not go through three wars.

So we can go through and basically Claim that we're the Republican Party. I am a strong Republican, Constitutional is more so. And to say we're not going to have all the candidates. like we did in twenty sixteen, is no different than having a Tammy Hall situation with the Democrat Party where they pick and choose on whoever they want. The body of the people, if we're going to walk and say we follow from the bottom up, It's an insult to me as a veteran who watched 34 years ago in China.

how they ran things under Deng Xiaoping and the Tiananmen Square massacres. And I appreciate it. I got to back you up. Ron, I'm only getting half the story. Maybe.

Uh First off, what are you saying? that someone's picking the candidate, the American people, where the Republican Party isn't? I want to say this like now they did in my state. If we're going to see all the candidates, I want to see all the candidates, including Larry Eldrin. To me, it's an insult to not have him on stage or others.

That may bring a better point. And to me But the thing is we're running But the But you did let's say bill uh everybody that declares they're gonna run for president Can get on stage, it would be impossible. Eight is already too many. We did last time, Fox would have two debates: like an A debate and a B debate. And people complained about that.

But I know if you like Larry Elder and he didn't make the cut, I don't know how he continues. He's a great guy. Mayor Suarez is a great guy. I just don't know how you continue to try to get donations if you couldn't get up there in front of ten million people last night. Alex in California.

Alex. Hi, thank you for taking my call. I wanted to say that Presidents choose the general direction of the country, but the details of the policy and implementation are worked out by advisers from places like Stanford, Harvard and the Brookings Institution.

So if a candidate is boring and maybe forgets a fact or two during the debate, it shouldn't really change the voters' minds. Primarily, debates are for entertainment. Yeah. I don't know. I don't think it was entertaining.

I think it's real. It's why do you have a scrimmage in sports before a game? You want to see how your team acts in practice. And I think it is very valuable to see if someone's memorizing their talking points and can they talk about a myriad of issues without any notice at any time. I I I don't think it's performance.

I think if people are performing That's on them. And if you keep on going back to your biography, when you're asked about the border, that's on them. You're showing me something as a voter that I personally don't like. And if you don't answer the question over and over again, You may think you're getting away with it, but if a voter is really on the fence, they know you're avoiding the question, it means you don't want to answer it.

So, I think this is all part of the process. Do I think a bad debater should be eliminated? No. But it's all part of it. Because I think they When you're president, you gotta stand up with other world leaders and take questions from other countries' press and do you know your stuff?

Or you're just depending on your staff, are you putting in the study time? Or are you just taking shortcuts and going on vacation four out of uh every five days like Joe Biden. Denise, listening in Mount Dora, Florida. Real quick, Denise. Hey uh Hi there, how you doing, Brian?

Um so let me tell you. You're upset at Waltz. Yes, yes, I am because he is my congressman. But before him, Ron DeSantis was my congressman, and I've been voting for him since twenty twelve as my congressman, as my governor. He is awesome.

He has my vote. I've been to his town halls. Mike Waltz never has had a town hall that I could go to anywhere near me.

So it just kicks me that he is a surrogate for Trump. I am. Let me. Clarify, I am a Trump supporter. It's interesting.

So you're a Trump supporter, but you want him to stay fair and balanced.

Okay. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian Killmead. Yes, the original pancake house. The first one opened up in 1953 in Portland, Oregon.

2002, this one opened up over in Greendale. Wisconsin? And now we are and now we are rolling along at the Pancake House after three hours of TV. And now we're in our third hour of radio and loving every second. These people are great.

If you're in the Milwaukee area, make sure to come by.

So I gotta tell you, everybody's talking about the debate, and of course Donald Trump's gonna turn himself in and be arrested. They're gonna put his fingerprints on, they're gonna be rolling video. He should probably talk to the press. I don't know if he will, and they'll put out the mug shot, and we'll see if Donald Trump can make money off that. He is also rotating out attorneys.

Last night on the stage, I never would have predicted this. Mike Pence, 12 minutes, 37 seconds. Vivek, 1147. Christie, 1122. And Ron DeSantis, the man in the middle, 1022.

Nikki Haley, who made a lot of noise, did excellent, 8.41. Senator Tim Scott, 8.15. Governor Bergham with the torn Achilles tendon, 8 minutes. And Asa Hutchinson 733. The question is, who's going to be left?

In one month in September, And who will it benefit if that's a smaller stage? I talked to Governor DeSantis this morning, and he said he would love a smaller stage. He said it was kind of shocking. how much some of the other candidates seem to really dislike Vivek. And that's where a lot of the ire went to.

Headlines in the New York Times, Vivek comes in hot, steals the spotlight. Washington Examiner, Republican debate, Nikki Haley wins and it's not particularly close. USA Today on Trumpless Debate, Ramaswamy Haley made themselves heard. Also getting good reviews is Ron DeSantis. And with us right now, a woman that was kind enough to come down and preview this whole thing on Fox and Friends yesterday and now joins us on the radio today, Aaron Perini, Communications Director of Never Back Down, Superback, supporting Ron DeSantis.

And Aaron, I'm so jealous because tonight you're going to be in the field of dreams and you're going to be doing a fundraiser with the governor of Florida. Why was I not invited? That's my fault, Brian. I'm really sorry about that.

Next time, we will make sure that we're going to be able to do it. I know, I know. It's my biggest regret of the morning. But, yeah, we are so excited to have Governor Ron DeSantis coming as a special guest at the Field of Dreams. You know, a lot of people, and you heard a little bit of this in his closing last night, they know the name, but they don't know the man.

They don't know that he played college baseball and that he was the captain of his baseball team at Yale and that he worked through college to be able to afford college and law school and then go serve in the Navy as a JAG attorney.

So, we're really excited to have the governor tonight. The Field of Dreams is absolutely iconic. And as we've been crisscrossing Iowa with him as a special guest, he always talks about how him and Mason will be playing baseball and throwing the ball around. And Mason always asks, Is this heaven? And the governor says, No, it's Iowa.

And we are so excited for tonight. Right, so Iowa, he said he's been through about half the counties, maybe a little bit more he wants to go through. He had mentioned to me, too, that. Uh President Trump's only been there twice and is kind of at war with the governor. Uh why is there such a gap?

If there seems to be two different approaches to a state that matters so much, Donald Trump, I think, has about a 20-point lead, I think 41 to 19.

Well, I think that this speaks to the old adage that you don't shop for Christmas trees in August. Right now, it's about name idea and who's driving the earned media conversation. Who are people seeing the most in their newspapers and on their T V? And because of four indictments, right now that's Donald Trump. But when people start to dial in around Christmas time, especially in Iowa, and you're looking at those early voting states, if you look at the recent Des Moines Register poll, 61% of likely caucus goers are considering Governor Ron DeSantis.

And he has the highest favorability rating of any candidate in Iowa.

So he's putting in the work. He's going to do the full Grassley, the full 99 counties. He's going to shake hands because you can't expect this nomination to be given to you. It has to be earned. You saw that fight in the man last night.

You saw it with the governor on the debate stage. And you're going to see it as he barnstorms through Iowa to make sure on caucus night that people know if they want America to get back on the right track with someone who has a strong economic plan, military plan, a plan for our children and their education, it's Governor Ron DeSantis.

So here's what the governor said last night about his feud, alleged feud with Donald Trump. He said this to Sean Hannity, cut 30. I supported him. I mean, I supported him in 2016, obviously. And then in 2020, they really relied on me to do a lot in Florida.

I raised more money than him, than any elected official in the country. I mean, I raised $10, $15 million. And we worked really hard to make sure the Florida election ran really well. We have the best election integrity in the country.

So and they went back and forth on that.

So what is the right tactic? How do you think the governor's handling His rivalry with the president. I think the governor is handling this absolutely correctly because when he talks about. What is happening in this country and how we move it forward, especially as the Republican Party? It's not only a movement, but this is about the future of the party in the country as well.

The only person who can do that, we're not going to be able to do it in four years. You're going to need someone who can do eight years. That's the governor. He has seen that if you stand up and you take the hard fights and you look forward instead of looking backwards, this isn't about January 6th. This isn't about retribution.

This isn't about the past. This isn't about anything else other than today. And that is what the governor looks at. He says, right now, Joe Biden is destroying this country. We see a weaponization of the government against conservatives in this country, and it will end under Governor Ron DeSantis on day one when he becomes president.

That is his main focus. And listen, the former president's going to throw all the mud and all the arrows he can because he's trying to distract from the fact. that he is politically weakened. That every time he has an indictment, he's not bringing in more money. He's not out there campaigning right now.

And every time something like another indictment happens, People want to look for another opportunity. More than half of Republicans in polling show they want someone else. And what they saw on this debate stage last night was a focused, determined governor who's had results and has a plan to move forward with the country. And so you will see more people begin to look at. and want to engage with Governor Ron DeSantis.

So afterwards, I was in the spin room last night, Aaron, and I talked to Governor Nikki Haley. One of the points was: she does not think essentially Donald Trump is electable. Here's a little of that conversation. When you talk about saying that lie, when you said the most unpopular politician in America is Donald Trump, a guy that you said is your friend, what went into that statement? It's true.

It's true. You can look at any of the polls. He is my friend. It was an honor to serve with him. I agree with most of his policies.

But he's going to spend more time in a courtroom next year than he is campaigning. We have to be realistic about that. Do I want to clean up weaponization in the Department of Justice and the intelligence agencies? You bet. Is he going to be the reason we're going to do it?

Absolutely. But at the end of the day, we have to beat President Kamala Harris. It is too dangerous to think about what happens if she wins. And we can't have a former president sitting in a courtroom campaigning from there. It's not going to work.

Is she saying something you agree with? That he is the most unpopular politician in the country, and essentially, I read from that, she does not think he can win.

Well, it's true. I mean, he can't win. And what I will say is that one thing I will disagree with Nikki Haley on in that statement was that she said Donald Trump will be the reason that we want to end the political targeting and weaponization of the government against conservatives. This has been happening for years. And that comment means that she wasn't watching when Lois Lerner was targeting people from the IRS and targeting conservatives.

Or that we saw the Department of Justice attacking parents for standing up at school board meetings and calling them terrorists. This is much larger than Donald Trump. And that's where the Republican Party has gone off base. Is that there are so many that believe that it's just about Donald Trump? It's not.

There is a weaponization of the government against conservatives. And Donald Trump, yes, he is a big name and they have certainly come after him, but that's not where the water ends. That's not the end of this. There's so much more to it. And he is wildly unpopular across the country.

We need somebody who can win a primary and then go on to win a general and serve for eight years. You don't get that with Donald Trump. I would say this. I don't I don't think his I think he beats or ties Joe Biden in almost every head to head poll when he's winning the field. And I think these in some odd way, I believe the indictments have helped him.

Do you do you think that's reflected in the polls? I think what's reflected in the polls about the indictment are how much more coverage he's getting, how often his name is out there. But Donald Trump's not bringing in independents. He's not bringing in more women voters. He's not bringing in swing voters.

He has a hardcore base. And right now, people see his name a lot. but that doesn't equate to coming into a general election. Democrats and a lot in the mainstream media would love to see Donald Trump because they see him as politically weak, not only fundraising-wise, but in the ability to turn out voters and bring in new voters to the party to try and win in states like Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania. If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, we will lose the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.

And that will mean that Democrats pass the Supreme Court, that they add two more states to the Senate, and that we will see further weaponization of the government against Republicans and conservatives. If we want to win and turn this country around, it means you need a fighter like Ron DeSantis in the White House. From what you know, with all your political experience working under the Trump administration. and now working with here in communications with Ron DeSantis' super PAC. Do you believe you're gonna the the winner of the Republican nomination will be running against Joe Biden from what you've seen over the last month or so?

I think that's really hard to say, but it should worry the American people what they do see from the President. And this isn't a slight against. Him being elderly, it's a slight against the fact that he very clearly gets lost and confused. That's not anything new, that's been happening for years. And the person, the number two behind him, is Kamala Harris, who when she ran in 20 didn't even make it to the first set of voting because nobody supported her.

She's a radical and completely married to the radical left ideology in this country that would mean higher taxes, more government mandates, more government control over your life. And that's not the direction people want. Either way, if it's Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, it's the wrong direction for the country. What about Ron DeSantis' decision to debate Gavin Newsom? I love it.

I guess it was Sean Hannity's idea. Uh what do you think how do you think this helps you guys? Potentially. You're going to look at a governor who has increased. Uh, people moving to his state, economic opportunity, uh, parental rights, who has put Florida on the right track versus Gavin Newsome, who people are fleeing his state for the state of Florida.

When we look at what the future of the country is, you see two different directions between California and Florida. You see California continuing to mandate, and you see the decline of the cities in California as well, with drug use rampant on the streets and crime and unsafe neighborhoods all over the place. And you can contrast that with Florida. It's a strong contrast message that people will be able to see, and that even more, they'll be able to see more of the success that Ron DeSantis has been able to deliver for Florida. And you can't rule out that that could be a presidential matchup because everything about what's been happening over the last few years is unprecedented and unorthodox.

But Erin Perini will be ready with the message. She's communications director from Never Back Down, Super PAC, supporting Ron DeSantis, and she'll be in Iowa tonight. Erin, nice talking to you. I'll talk to you again soon. Thanks, Brian.

You got it. All right, 19 minutes now after the hour. When we come back, I'll get some own phone calls. 1-866-408-7669. We'll bring you more debate highlights, and we'll bring you the latest on the Hunter Biden investigation.

Do you remember when we were talking about Hunter going to China with the President when he was Vice President? Right. What if I told you not only did he go to China on a foreign visit, but now unearthed 15 separate visits, many of which he ended up doing major business deals with? Are you still thinking Joe's not involved in his son's overseas business dealings? This is going to get worse for the president.

You'll listen to the Brian Killmeat Show. Both sides, all opinions. It's Brian Killmead. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Killmead.

There were eight people on stage and one worldview. And the singular world view was divisive. The single worldview was there's a specific playbook that they were all playing to, but there's no plan. And I think about it where we watched eight people on the stage talk about things like national abortion bans. We watched a people on stage talk about how much they would want to cut Medicaid and Social Security.

We watched A people obviously say that law and order doesn't matter. Because convictions to them wouldn't matter. Uh that is Westmore. uh Westmore of uh Maryland. Wesmoore is somebody that the Democrats think is an up-and-coming star on the right, but he is way to the left, even though he comes off with a wonderful presentation, he could do a lot of harm.

Uh Westmore is the governor of Maryland. You'll hear a little bit more from him, but he was on MSNBC last night analyzing the eight people on the stage. Nicoli Ambrose joins us now, Maryland's National Committeewoman, Chairman of the Young Republican National Federations. One of the sponsors last night, right? Yeah, he was actually very involved.

Young Republicans are. All across the country, been around since the days of Abraham Lincoln. Yes, I used to do that, and now I represent Maryland, so the Republican National Committee.

So, your thought about what Wes Moore said, he really saw one worldview. The reason why they were arguing on the stage is because they saw a very different worldview. Right, exactly.

So, I am actually so incredibly proud of that debate last night because any one of those candidates could beat Joe Biden in 2024, first of all. And think of the contrast of what we saw last night to what we saw in the 2020 Democrat presidential debate, where there was a little kerfuffle between Kamala and Joe Biden on busing. But aside from that, where were the ideas? There was no substance. It was just people towing the woke party line.

Whereas in that Republican debate tonight, last night you had... Substantive debate on the topics. It was great. You had people hash out how to do immigration, hash out critical issues, like the life topic. That's great that we can have a discussion in the party, and you don't have to be ostracized for having a different view on that topic.

Their climate, whatever the hot topic was, international affairs, the border, we covered it, our candidates debated it in a meaningful way that voters can sit there and say, wow, okay, this is what is in the Republican Party, and I have all these great choices. Right, so you have eight people on the stage, you did not have nine. Because Donald Trump didn't go. If you ask people like Ari Fleischer, he says, no doubt about it, he shouldn't have gone. I looked at David Oxelrod.

He said, if I'm Trump, I wouldn't do it. It's too much of a risk. Here's what Ari Fleischer said last night with the winners. They want to get yours, Cut 31. My job here is to tell you what I see and just call it as I see it.

And I thought Ron DeSantis had the strongest night of any of the candidates on stage. He did it with his answer on lockdowns, reminding people that Florida opened early when it was controversial to do so. He did it with his answer about use of force involving Mexico and drugs. And he did it about focusing on the future instead of the past.

So I thought DeSantis was real good. Second place to me was Vivek Ramaswamy. I mean that guy is a he's a blunt force instrument. And he's articulate, he's fast on his feet, and he's not a politician. And that's one of the reasons he's resonating right now.

He just says what he thinks, and he says it in a forceful, blunt way. Gotcha. And Nicola, where do you stand? Who are the people that you think stood out?

So I think DeSantis did the best, then Pence, then Vivek. What did you like about DeSantis? All right. I thought from the start he did a great job. He took command.

I thought when they were maybe thrown a question or two that the audience didn't like, he was decisive and show leadership, said, we're not raising our hands like children. I actually loved that moment. I like that he kept talking. I really agree with Ari Fleischer here. I love that he kept talking about the future.

I love that he focused on immigration. I just think he showed leadership. Right, a lot of people are all in on DeSantis. They said he did enough. One thing he came off strong, and he's got some momentum for the second debate.

Nicola, can you stick around? Absolutely. All right, listen to the Brian Kilmey Show on the road at the original Pancake House. The more you listen, the more you'll know it's Brian Gilmead. I'm the only person on the stage who isn't bought and paid for, so I can say this.

The climate change agenda is a hoax. The climate change agenda is a hoax. And we have to display our independence for it. And the reality is, the anti-carbon agenda is the wet blanket on our economy. And so the reality is, more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change.

Listen, listen, no, wait, hold on, hold on. I've had enough. I've had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT standing up here. And the last person in one of these debates, Brett, who stood in the middle of the stage and said, What's a skinny guy with an odd last name doing up here was Barack Obama, and I'm afraid we're dealing with the same type of amateur Sam Hit saves tonight. Give me a hand!

Give me a hat just like you did at the bar. You'll help elect me just like you did.

Well, I'll be back at the end said, Give me a hug, just like you did Obama. But that was a good line by Chris Christie. Who evidently wasn't happy with the debate? That's why he didn't go to the spin room with me right now to tell us about this from the Maryland perspective. I hope it one day will be a Battleground State, but it seems to be pretty left, even though you've had the Republican governors.

Nicoli Ambrose, Maryland's National Committee Woman, chairman, Young Republican National Federation. Nicoli, your thoughts about that exchange.

So, and let's just not forget it was followed up by the UFO question. Not too much longer.

So, Chris Christie had a reason to be upset, you think? Oh, absolutely. I think Chris Christie actually did a great job. I thought he fought. I think what people like about him is that he's a fighter.

And as he said, you know, the president's job is to tell it like it is. And I thought actually he should have been proud of his debate performance because he was feisty in an approachable way. Because you can be feisty, and people can say, ooh, you're mean, you're a jur, you're not a great person. But Vivek, in a smile on his face, said, everyone on this stage is bought and paid for.

So, right, and a lot. Love. The vacant person is great, and I have to give him points because he gets out there. Like, you ask him to come to your state, he'll show up, he gets out there, he does the outreach, he's willing to go everywhere. Chris Christie, similar situation.

He will get out there. Not everyone will show up in states where they can't get primary votes, but both of those two will. You know, I think. If there's a lot of Republican skepticism on Vivek Toward Vivek for some of the funding some of his companies have received. And I think as this race goes, you're gonna see people really attack him on that.

But at the same time, you have to love that he's. Very smart man, very personable. He actually genuinely listens and he works incredibly hard.

So let's debate it on the merits. But I would have disagreed with his statement that everyone was quote-unquote bought in papers. Right. I don't know if he anticipated that type of outrage, but even the crowd of 5,000 people, wait a second, remember, these are Republicans and you're supposed to be there. We were booing big time.

But I have to tell you, one of the most fascinating things about the crowd is just as people were furious with, say, a Nikki Haley at the beginning, then at the end, like she said some great things, and just as mad as people were at the beginning, they were just as happy with her at the end. And I don't know if that totally translated, but it was exciting in the end. How concerned are you that if it is Trump and it is Biden, that the no labels ticket will put out to what they say is. Uh okay. Alternative.

Alternative politicians, a Republican and Democrat, a Joe Manchin or Larry Hogan from Maryland. Yep, sure my. What would that do to the race? That would. Be really bad for the most part, right?

Well, generally, if you look at something, the people who are saying, no, I'd consider no labels like a Larry Hogan, he's been a registered Republican his whole life.

So seemingly, where we be pulled from, the swing voter is in the middle. And we have this. Fascinating dynamic that supposedly 70% of Americans are saying they don't want a rematch between Trump and Biden. And then, on the other hand, you have. Really dissatisfied suburban voters, which both party needs to win the White House.

So I'm very concerned that suburban voters would be very susceptible and that it would favor the Democrats. All right, I want you to hear more from your own governor, Wes Moore. He talked about, he also talked about nobody spoke to people of his state. The thing that was really, I think, really alarming for me is: you know, I'm going around the state of Maryland all the time. And I don't care what part of the state of Maryland I'm going to, in Democratic areas or traditionally historically voting Republican areas, what they were saying was not speaking to them.

And I'm not hearing that. I'm not hearing the conversations about national abortion bans. I'm not hearing conversations about is climate change a hoax when 70% of my state is waterlined or waterlocked areas. And we see the impacts of this every single day.

So they just weren't speaking. to the people of my state or frankly I'm just not sure who they were actually speaking to.

So, what are your thoughts about that breaking through?

So, let me tell you how wrong Governor Westmore is. Westmore is a radical progressive. He never held office until he was elected. His goal is to be the next Barack Obama. Westmore has led legislation that we just had in our General Assembly this year to make it Legal to intentionally transmit HIV.

to another person. that passed our House of Delegates. He has Passed and was very proud to sign legislation to mutilate children. Under a trans bill and not inform their parents and use taxpayer dollars for this.

So, this man is a radical. This is the antithesis of what they're doing in New York. Exactly. So, when he says he's speaking for me, who is a Maryland resident, that is offensive. And I, once again, let's go back to that original statement of the Democrat 2020 debate versus our Republican first presidential debate of this cycle.

Night and day difference. One party that is the party of intolerance, the Democrat party, where they are afraid to even talk about ideas, versus our party where people robustly debated and it was applauded and appreciated.

So, I think those are good points, but when you talk about your state in particular looking for a unifying factor and Vivek Ramaswamy saying, I want to win the 49 states Reagan won, that would be Maryland. Yes. Do you think, how many, what percentage of the voters in Maryland are persuadable to vote for the other side?

So, you know, let's go back to Larry Hogan's. Second win. He got nearly 33% of the vote in Baltimore City, a majority black city.

So many people came up and said, you know, I voted Republican for the first time, or Larry's my man. And it was on fiscal policies. I mean, that's essentially how our first Republican elected this century, Bob Ehrlich in 02, Larry Hogan, and Past two terms before this, one, it was just focusing on pocketbook issues, and I really think. That combination of just general household issues, Tim Scott made the point of Americans are paying $10,000 more right now under the Biden administration. That's unaffordable for Americans.

So if we talk about that, and then you add in issues like school choice and making sure your children can actually learn how to read, write, and do arithmetic instead of, you know, being taught woke ideology all day in school, these are issues that matter to everyday Americans.

So focus on the future, focus on these things that just determine how we live and operate every single day in our lives.

So when you heard that song from Oliver Anthony, were you surprised it was used as the first question to set the tone for the economic I actually loved it. I mean, God bless Fox because what other network would do that aside from Fox? I thought that was fantastic. He just talked about trying to make ends meet. He works overtime.

He looks at his paycheck. Is this worth it when you're taking so much taxes out? Exactly. Is it worth the social programs when a guy's 5'1 and 300 pounds and you order him junk food?

Well, and where do you see it? How do you see those tax sellers working? How do I look at all this money I'm giving to the government and say, wow, that saved this person's life? I don't see the rest of the world.

Now it's going to homeless and illegal immigrants. Right. Well. Preferably illegal immigrants who are being trafficked across our southern border, than our own people, like truly suffering in our inner cities. And then we can't do the one thing we should be able to do, right?

Which is at least teach children how to have a leg up in life by giving them a good education. Wow, it's disgusting. Yeah, it's going to be interesting. It's going to be, hopefully, you'll be back here in a year. Little less than a year for the RNC.

Nicolae Ambrose, Maryland's National Committee woman and the chairperson of the Young American National Federation. Nicolai, thanks so much. Awesome to be here, Brian. Thank you. All right, 1866-408-7669.

I'll see what you have to say as we get set to wrap up our debate coverage. The first, next time will be.

Next month in California, you will see in the Brian Kill Meet Show. Both sides, all opinions. It's Brian Killmead. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead.

Governor Christie, do you believe that the recent spike in UFO encounters. I get the UFO question. Come on, man. And especially coming from a woman from New Jersey. I I think it's horrible that just because I'm from New Jersey, you asked me about unidentified flying objects and Martians.

We're different, but we're not that different.

So uh I guess Governor Christie, someone said he was on another channel saying he wasn't happy with the debate. I think that, you know, he got his moments. He was fine. When I look at total time among candidates, I'm looking at Christie. Christie's third.

Mike Pence, 12 minutes, 37 seconds. Vivek, 1147. Christy, 1122.

So I don't know why he's upset. The UFO question, you can have some fun. And it is a hot topic now. I mean, they have these committee meetings. What do you think it is, and how do you think it's important?

Could it actually be China? I don't know. You could have fun with it. You could actually seriously answer it. I thought he was good.

Melody, maybe you feel differently, W-L-N-I, over in Virginia. Hey, Melody. Really? Can you hear me? Go ahead, we'll turn your mind.

First of all, I love your show. It's the best talk radio show that I listen to. And also, I just wanted to tell you, I went into the debate. thinking anybody but Trump And I came out just thrilled with Nikki Haley. I'm making a donation today.

I am behind her 100%. But my 35-year-old son. Loved the one person I didn't enjoy on that stage, and I can't say his last name. Ramaswamy? My 35-year-old was all about him, and I thought he was scary when it came to international affairs.

So that's where we're at. Yeah, he is a train wreck when it comes to that. I can't imagine a more disturbing foreign policy. Here's a little of them sparring Nikki Haley, who you donated to, sparring with the guy your son likes, cut seven. A win for Russia is a win for China.

We have to know that. Ukraine is the first line of defense for us. And the problem that Vivek doesn't understand is he wants to hand Ukraine to Russia. He wants to let China eat Taiwan. He wants to go and stop funding Israel.

You don't do that to friends. What you do instead is you have the backs of your friends. Ukraine is a front line of defense. Putin has said: if Russia, once Russia takes Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics are next. That's a world war.

We're trying to prevent war. This guy is a murderer, and you are choosing a murderer over a pro-American country. I wish you well in your future career on the boards of Lockheed and Raytheon. I'm not on the boards. The fact of the matter and Raytheon, and you know you're not.

Boeing came off of it, but you've been pushing this live stage. You've been pushing this live all week. You want to go and defund Israel. You want to give it away. Let me address that.

I'm glad you brought this up. I'm going to go and give you a reason. I'm going to address that. I know that you're watching America lesson. You have no foreign policy experience.

I'm showing you. I got it.

Now I'm good. I'm uh all right. She's all pumped up and she's 100% right. That listen. In terms of foreign policy, if you present them both, I think Vivek His foreign policy is absolutely terrible, but he did some type of study that shows that he thinks most Republicans do not want you involved in other wars or in other conflicts or in other countries.

When people say, wow, our border is a mess, why are we giving so much money to Ukraine? One thing has nothing to do with the other. We have a budget for Homeland Security. They're not using it. They're not implementing the policies.

It's terrible. It doesn't have anything to do with Ukraine. Jeff listening in Virginia too. Hey Jeff. Yeah, it's uh hey, Brian.

Hey, I'll tell you right off the bat, I didn't watch the entire debate last night. I watched bits and pieces. I recorded it, I'm re-watching it. I would actually have to disagree with the last caller about Nikki Haley. The unfortunate side with Nikki Haley is she does have a history.

And while she was UN Ambassador, there's an untold story there. If you watch the news in the rest of the world, other people No.

some of the things that are going on in Crimea and some of those other places, So, hence what's going on. You watch other press about the way she handled her job. What what is roughly what are you talking about? Had their world news about things that were going on.

So she was there when. when Trump was in office and there was that whole Ukraine thing. And controversies about other global things going on, correct? Yeah, I don't know what you mean. Uh so Trump was impeached by Ukraine, but you gonna you're saying Nikki Haley played a role in that?

Her response while she was part of the UN ambassadorship was weak. What actually went forward? There was actually a UN, there was a UN. Complaint of Filed by Russia. Back in that time.

You can go look it up.

Okay. Oh, wow. If Russia's upset, that can't be good. Jeff, thanks so much. Jerry, listen to WSKY in Gainesville.

Hey, Jerry. Hey, good morning, Brian. Excellent show, as always. I really feel that while DeSantis underperformed, being from Florida, I know a lot about him as the governor. I think he brings the unique executive and legislative experience.

I think he needs to, draw contrast with Trump, not criticize necessarily because he agrees with a lot of his policies. I think he needs to say, I agree with Trump's policies, but I'm 93 indictments light. And I think that he should pair up with Nikki Haley, Vice President, because he has. Strong policy defense, strong policy, foreign policy chops, and as well as executive experience. And he would do great on the debates with.

With Vice President Harris, because they can't use those charges that she's misogynistic, racist, because she's a woman of color and she's a first-generation American. I think that it's a very strong team if they pair up together, they complement each other nicely, and I think that that's the next generation that's going to take the Republican Party and the country forward. Are you looking forward to the DeSantis Gavin Newsom debate? I am. I think that he can really draw a strong contrast because a lot of people have moved to our state.

We just were rated as the best economy. I think it was by Forbes magazine in the country. And there's a good story to tell. And the one thing about DeSantis that I think he needs to use the great gift of his wife, who has a lot of media experience, to be a little less Programmed because that's the one thing that disappointed me about him on the debate. He's a little too programmed.

He's got to look like he enjoys the job. He has passion for the job. And I know he does because what he's done here in Florida, he talks about mission. And that really appeals to me: he puts mission over person and he focuses on that. And I think he can do a strong.

sharp contrast between Gavin Newsome, that was a lockdown state that's that's bleeding citizens that are tax paying. That that state, California, is going to be in big trouble. I have an aunt that lives out there and she is not happy with what's going on in California. She shouldn't be. The only thing that's growing is the homeless.

And the thing is, Tell me something. Do you know anybody out there who believes that Ron DeSantis would ever shut down a state and then go out to dinner with his family? That's exactly what Gavin Newsom is. And he said, hey, I got caught. I'll own it.

No, you didn't. You said I was wrong. I own it. No, no, you got caught, or you never would have owned it. If you turned yourself in and said, I feel terrible, I got convinced to go to this restaurant in the middle of this lockdown, that's called owning it.

But you got caught. What else is he not doing? And the immigration thing, he's embracing the Sanctuary City status. He says the homeless situation. He's providing the drugs for them.

He's shutting the parents out. He's doing the antithesis of what I think logical parents and people want. But he looks the part, which makes it exciting. Thanks so much for listening and taking in all our coverage here in Milwaukee. Back in New York tomorrow, keep it here on the Brian Killmeat show.

And don't forget One Nation, Saturday at 8 o'clock, just two days away. Listen to the show ad-free on Fox News Podcast Plus, on Apple Podcast, Amazon Music with your Prime membership, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Mm.