How low can Joe go? Biden's job approval continues to plummet

From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead. Hi, everyone. Brian Kilmead here.

So glad you're here. Getting ready for the Christmas season. We're getting closer and closer, closing out the week before. Kind of weird this week, all right? To have Christmas the following week.

People probably gonna get off a week from now. That'll be right before Christmas Eve. It's actually perfect for preparation. Michael Allen is standing by. He's a former staff director of the House Intel and senior director of the NSC under President Bush, managing director of Beacon Global Strategies, is standing by.

And Peter Stayanovich is also going to be with us, a writer editor for the Free Press. We're going to talk about, believe it or not, John Fetterman, one of the big surprises over the last few months, and I'll tell you why. But first, big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives. not stop going after a moment, but be more careful. There you go.

President Biden, pressure on all sides. Israel gets word from Joe. Time to wind it all down in Gaza. As Kamala tells Joe to have a heart towards the Palestinians. Yeah?

Little schism there, right? As the attacks on our forces and a lack of U.S. response is positively maddening for me, let alone them. Plus, anti-Semitism in America continues to bubble up. Number two.

Then it moved. He's not in business with him. And now we're into he's not financially connected to the businesses.

So there's ample evidence that shows that President Biden was involved in Hunter Biden's businesses in some way, shape, or form. Hunter, that didn't help. Your wild card presser, the House Republicans getting the Heisman only increased pressure and focus on the impeachment impeachment process. We have the latest. Number one.

The Democrats have one more piece of currency they think left. They think that a conviction would succeed where indictments have not. The indictments of President Trump have actually bolstered his standing in the polls, particularly against Biden and head-to-heads. Right, but what about that's for the party, but what about for the country? Brutal.

That's what poll after poll is showing about what America thinks of Joe Biden's performance as president and his prospects for re-election, while the GOP gets set to anoint his opponent. But you know what? This is far from done. Let's discuss it with Michael Allen. Michael, welcome back.

Hey, thanks for having me. First off, if I told you Six months ago. That there'll be five or six straight polls where every Leading Republican beats Joe Biden, and in the case of Nikki Haley, by the one 17 points. What would you have told me? It's crazy.

It just shows you how unpopular President Biden is. And by the way, he's down in almost every category. He's underwater on immigration, the handling of the economy, on national security, on the fact that the war seems like it's blowing up.

So people have. been asked and they are telling Joe Biden that they do not want him to be the President again. That's what they're telling him. Or he could be saying, Well, that's because I'm making big decisions, and when it gets cut, we're going to tighten up down the line. I actually don't think that because time and time again we see his instincts are bad.

Right now, you're telling Israel to back off, knowing that at least half the Hamas fighters are alive and promise to attack again. He's trying to have it both ways. On the one hand, he says, Israel, I've got your back. We have a historic friendship between the United States and Israel. But then he goes out and makes sure it's leaked into places like the New York Times that he's privately castigating the Israeli government and saying you're doing too much, your bombing techniques are killing too many civilians.

So he's trying to have it both ways. What he ought to be doing. is respecting what the Israelis have to do considering that they have a deadly terrorist organization inside their country, which is giving them the time and the space that they need to uproot Hamas root and branch Destroy its leadership, destroy as much of its tunnel network as possible. And then maybe early next year, first quarter of next year, I think the Israelis will shift from major combat operations to more of an over-the-horizon force with drones and special operations. But we ought to be operating more on what the Israelis need to get done to protect themselves and not Joe Biden's political calendar.

And in terms of the way they're acting, people think it's ham-handed, but we're looking at all the stats coming from Hamas. They're the Hamas communications divisions telling us about the casualties. I know there's civilian casualties, and I'm sad about that. And that's never the intent. Hamas actually does the targeting on that.

So General Keen, who knows a few things about war, said this about Israel's operations, Cut 26. Everybody understands the suffering that's taking place with the Gaza citizens and what the Israelis are doing and with their grid system and telegraphing where they're going to go so the civilians can move out of there. I mean, that's unprecedented in warfare as as far as I'm concerned, and certainly puts their own soldiers at risk, likely one of the reasons w the Israeli casualties are going up.

So he knows what's going on. It may look like they're just bombing out, but they just caught seven Hamas fighters in hospital. They set up under boys' clubs, hospitals, and mosques, knowing, and I guess thinking that the IDF would pull back. But do you think, Michael, that they might have miscalculated here? In a way, Hamas knew they were going to fight.

They took the hostages to make sure they'd come in. But in is is are they so aggressive they Do you think this even catching Hamas by surprise? I do think that the Israelis are going at it much harder than Hamas imagined. I think they thought there would be some sort of ground incursions, but not the block by block Israeli efforts. And you know what?

Israel has told its country, told its populace, hey, listen, we're going to lose some soldiers in this, but we absolutely have to do it.

So I do think they've gone in a lot harder than even Hamas counted on. But this is what Hamas wants, by the way. Hamas wants to be able to say that Israel is so reckless that they're killing civilians. And therefore, we Hamas should rise in your estimation compared to what the Israelis are trying to do. And unfortunately, there are too many people around the globe who accept those.

Casualty numbers that you mentioned that come straight from Hamas. And they try to give Hamas, of all people, the benefit of the doubt on civilian casualties. It's crazy. We, the United States, wouldn't have stood for it after 9-11. And we ought to give the Israelis a little bit more time and space to get the job done.

So, by the way, I'm talking to Michael Allen, those thingatures who worked for Bush National Security Expert.

So, a couple of things. The IDF has lost about 100 guys, so to think that they're not paying the price is wrong. To think they're in there just blowing up people and being impervious. No, they're under attack. It's tough fighting, and they're still trying to figure out what to do with these tunnels.

But get this story in Politico, she's citing three separate sources. It says the Vice President, Kama Harris, has been telling colleagues at the administration that she wants the White House to show more concern for the humanitarian damage in Gaza, where Israel is locked in a bloody prolonged battle, she says. This, according to three separate people, Joe Biden is among the officials Harris has urged to show more sensitivity. What's your sense? Is this PR, or is she trying to show Some separation from this President?

And is this good for the administration? I think she's desperate and she's always flailing to develop an opinion and to be able to express it inside of the White House. And therefore, she, because she doesn't necessarily have a deep background on this. Goes for the progressive position. She thinks to herself, that's my highest, best use inside of this White House.

And so she adopts the progressive opinion and tries to not only. Probably just tell the president about it, but to ensure that it's leaked. And so to me, that's not what a loyal vice president does. A loyal vice president ought to be like George H.W. Bush, who's in there trying to give advice to Ronald Reagan.

And similarly, what Dick Cheney did for George W. Bush. Not out there leaking, not out there cowboying. And trying to make the president look bad, even if it's a Democratic president that I'm not supportive of, like President Biden. I understand.

You've got to air your differences great. To leak it to Politico is incredibly irresponsible, especially in a time when you've got multiple conflicts and you're trying to recalibrate for reelection.

So, a couple of things. I know you feel this personally. You know, our military, we have bulked up, costing us billions of dollars to go over there. But we're now just targets.

Now we find the Houthi rebels trying to rocket our ships, trying to harass commercial vessels. We now have to do some escorting, and it looks like we do not have permission to fight back. Listen to former Green Beret Congressman Michael Waltz, Cut 31. Oh, by the way, the Houthi spokesperson just effectively announced a blockade on Israel by attacking international shipping, and they're doing it. And what are we doing in response?

Well, we've allowed our military to defend themselves by shooting down the missiles, but they're not allowed to shoot the shooters, which are the Houthi missile launchers, much less do anything to Iran itself. And until we punch the bully in the nose, just continuing to offer it more and more lunch money is only going to make the bully more aggressive. Mike, they are so worried about expanding this conflict, they are making us targets. Our people did not sign up for this. We're the superpower.

We're not sitting there on our back foot hoping we don't get hurt. We usually inflict the pain when attacked. What's happening? I'm really embarrassed for President Biden. The by the way, the former generals who all led Central Command, which means in the Middle East, for the United States of America's military all signed a letter in the last twenty four, forty eight hours saying, please, President Biden, we need to be able to establish deterrence because very soon, one of these missiles is going to get through and land on the Navy ship or land in the mess hall at Al Assad Air Base in Iraq, and it's going to kill twenty, twenty five or more U.

S. service members, and then there will be hell to pay. in the United States may have to go out and hit Iran and its terrorist network in numerous places around the globe. It makes no sense that he wouldn't go out already and try and deter them from taking this type of action. Yes, they're provocative.

I think Biden doesn't want to take the bait. He says all the time, well, I don't want this to escalate into World War III. It's not going to escalate into World War III. And if you went ahead and tried to take some of these folks off the battlefield, Iran, which doesn't want to fight with us, would probably back down, or at least they would think twice before doing something unnecessarily provocative.

So I think Biden's wrong here. He's always talking about, oh, I want to prevent World War III. I think he's overdoing it, and he thinks too much of his own. His own station as president. I just hate his military instincts.

Everything, all his stuff. He wants to, he doesn't trust any of his advisors, never has, thinks he knows better, and he never does.

So it is all Iran. We have reports unrefuted by Wall Street Journal, New York Times. They were training, all these fighters on October before October 7th were training in Iran. We knew about multiple meetings in Beirut with Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. We know that they're behind the militias rocketing our guys in Iraq.

We know they fully support the Houthi rebels. Why are we going out of our way to protect this country who just wants to attack us? I think some of it has to do with their Ideological affinity for arms control and diplomatic agreements, even if the other side is cheating. We saw it in North Korea in the 1990s, but we saw it with President Obama and Iran. And the first thing That President Biden tried to do when he got back into office.

was to revive this deal. I don't think it's keeping Iran it wasn't keeping Iran's nuclear program in a box, and it did nothing to curb their regional terrorism exploits. But they want it so badly, I don't think they're willing to call a spade a spade. I don't think they're willing to stand up and say, hey, you know what, we tried to do the diplomatic path on nuclear. On Iran's nuclear program, but it's not working.

And so we're going to go to something more like President Trump did, which were sanctions. They can't do it because they're a prisoner of their own ideology and they want a deal so bad they won't hit them either.

Well, guess what? People are getting to look at the policies of Trump and the policies of Biden, and they're going to make their own decision. Because nobody, if you make a bad decision, I got it, you own it. We all do it every day. But the Iran decision was the single most devastating thing to happen to our Middle East policy.

It made the Saudis look elsewhere for an alliance. It stopped the Abraham Accords in its tracks. It allowed revenue to flow to the terror groups that they support, and it helped them suppress their own unrest in their country. It's the single stupidest thing that we've witnessed of late, and they refuse to acknowledge it. Michael Allowen, thanks so much.

Thanks for having me. You got it. We come back your turn. 1-866-408-7669. And tonight, I'm going to be in.

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Well, Mr. Wolf refused to answer most of our questions. Even. And we had a number of exhibits where She's sending the email, she's receiving the email, she's And she refused to answer just about every question seen we had. I found it interesting too when we ask And she refused to answer based on instructions she was given from the Justice Department.

We said, did you get any supplemental instructions, any additional instructions from the Justice Department in light of what happened yesterday with the vote on the House floor where a majority of the House Um officially adopted the resolution, okay, in an official impeachment inquiry, and she said that they had not.

So anyway, she just refused to answer most of the questions. It was, well, I'll just leave it at that. Leslie Wolfe was the one who told the whistleblowers and others, back off, don't touch the father. Anything to do with the father, you're not going to do it. When Hunter Biden was, I think it was on the WhatsApp was saying, I have my dad here, and we have the Bidens hold their word, and we're not going to forget this, threatening that Chinese official.

He says, my dad's next to me. They said, let's geolocate him. Let's find out. Was he act there? Was he there?

Was the former vice president sitting next to his son, or was he just lying and bragging? And they said, no, you're not going to do that. You're not going to follow anything to do with Joe and the father. And she wouldn't admit to that, but she wouldn't admit to anything. She didn't deny it.

She didn't confirm it. She just wants to stay out of it.

Well, you don't have that option. Here's what Joseph Ziegler said on America's Newsroom about Leslie Wolfe, cut 11. That email I think is super important because it's a one-off example in writing of the constant concern of following investigative leads that might lead to Joe Biden. And what I would like to say to that is the FBI agents who drafted that affidavit, they believed that they had sufficient evidence, probable cause, to support including political figure one in that affidavit. And you look at what that related to, burisma.

Access to Joe Biden and access to the administration.

So that is, he was all over it. But if it's about the father, they were told not to do anything. Gary Shapley, cut 12. It's just part of the shifting story from DOJ and the Biden family attorneys, where at the beginning it was, I've never talked to my son about business. That's been proven patently false by evidence and testimony we've provided.

Then it moved to he's not in business with him, and now we're into he's not financially connected to the businesses.

So you don't have to be financially connected to a business in order to be a part of that business. President Biden was basically doing through Hunter Biden was allowing Hunter Biden to get these deals where there's no discernible actual product being produced.

So it's really just a peddling of the influence. There's ample evidence that shows that President Biden was involved in Hunter Biden's businesses in some way, shape, or form. That's the point. But people say the investigation is not good and not effective, not revealing, of course it is. I it's just so crazy.

I don't want them impeached when they're not going to get the votes, but they need to be investigated so we know who we're voting for. Brian Kilmey Chill, moving on. When we come back, the man who sat down with John Fetterman. and was changed. We'll talk about it.

Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. Welcome back, everybody. You know, we've been talking a lot about. President Biden saying to Benjamin Nyah, let's got to pull back.

It's getting too much. We see the Vice President separating for the President when it comes to the Palestinians.

Now he says we got to show more of a heart towards the Palestinians than the strife that they're experiencing. We see Basically, in a crouch, our military force will be in a crouch because this president does not want to stand up for our people who are being rocketed by a bunch of gangsters over in Yemen, these Houthi rebels. We see indecisiveness when it comes to China, one step forward, one step back. Constantly. We don't hear a word from the Democrats when it comes to Senator Menendez.

But you know who's been very Blunt. Senator Fetterman. And you know, he suffered a stroke. I didn't know if he was going to be able to come back. Not many people thought he would.

But now, if you hear him speak, he seems to have made great strides. And when it comes to speaking out, Against uh Menendez? And again, Samas It is Senator Johns of Fetterman. The Democrat from Pennsylvania. Peter Savotnik is a writer and editor of the Free Press.

He had one opinion of Senator Fetterman, and he's changed it and wrote a story about it and wants to discuss it. Peter, welcome. Thank you. I just give uh Senator Fetterman credit. I mean, he was just mocking Menendez.

And just because, of course, Gold Bar's guy's a second major club. Why are we pretending that this is not as bad, if not worse, than George Santos? Nobody was protecting him. But when it came to Hamas and the condemnation and the support for Israel, what did you think he would do, and what did he do?

So I th I thought he was going to be a rank and file Democrat. I thought he was going to kind of fall into line with the kind of progressive blob. And And equivocate or try to both sides it. And that's not what happened. Instead, he provided a real moral clarity that has mostly, not entirely, but mostly.

um been y you know, something beyond sort of the grasp of the of of sort of the the sort of most progressives and and and kind of people, certainly, um, of sort of like the the new kind of democratic class. She's not Jewish. And you point out before Barack Obama made his ridiculous, embarrassing statement where both sides have a point of view in this. Before the President weighed in strongly, Senator Fetterman was weighing in strongly. Where'd that come from?

Yes, it's a great question. And I don't know exactly where his thinking on Israel comes from. One of the things we point out in the piece that I guess I was not as sensitive to or aware of when I was reporting initially was that Look, he's a guy who's made actually some pretty big, abrupt changes in his life in the past. And if you choose to view them through the prism of elections, you see this opportunistically or cynically, and you say, well, he did this, he became mayor of this little town outside of Pittsburgh because he was building towards some career and some national career in politics. another way of looking at that is to say or he was just doing something that he really believed in and he cared deeply about.

And I think the same thinking applies to the the Israel question. And I don't know where that comes from, but I do know that you know, he has fully embraced this and again, there's this it's not it's not simplicity, it's clarity. It's seeing clearly that there are certain things that are simply uh evil and and and and the inability to call them out and to see them as such is is a is a grotesque failing on the part of of uh many Democrats. Right. I want you to hear Fennerman come out.

This is what he said about fellow Democrat Menendez. If you expel somebody like George Santos, how can you allow somebody like Senator Menendez remain in the Senate as well too? Because I promise you that one of the major differences between former Representative Santos and Senator Menendez is $300 million of munitions with Egypt as well too. And Santos is never accused of being a foreign agent.

So, I mean, you didn't have to do that. Santos on his way out. The Democrats didn't need that equivocal. They didn't need to have that pointed out. I appreciate it.

As an analyst, you won't appreciate it, but it caught you by surprise, too. It did. And I just, I think it's so surprising these days that somebody in a position of authority does something that doesn't feel scripted or utterly predictable. We saw that with the college presidents, university prisons, you know, when they were testifying before Congress last week, right? What was so dispiriting about that was that it was exactly what we expected from the head of Harvard MIT Penn.

With Fetterman, it's just utterly refreshing. It's just not, I wouldn't have expected. I didn't see that coming. And I thought that was. That deserved notice.

Have you talked about it to him? We have not. You know, that when I first tried to get an interview with him way back when, they shut me down. And I'm in LA so, you know, I haven't had a chance to to, you know, r head over to his office. But uh but look, you know, uh If I if I get the chance, I will.

Selena Zito, who was a critic of his too, he gave an interview to, and she was so impressed with the person she talked to who knew that she was very critical of him. You also write about the embarrassing display by these elite university presidents and the ousting of Liz McGill. But of course, the Harvard president stays there. And according to the 1619 Project founder, that fictional account of our history, she says she's being attacked because she's black. Doesn't make sense.

Liz McGill is white and left, got fired or moved out. You point out that this is not going to fix the problem at the University of Pennsylvania. Yeah, I mean, I think I I think there are two different things that are going on between like Penn and and Harvard. I think in the case of of, you know, Penn, like, I I I I don't think she should have been forced to resign. I think sh I mean I think she was an abomination.

And and I'm I think i i in a sense it's a good thing that she's gone. I just I don't think that they should have, you know, could have cave to sort of like You know, outside forces. With regard to Harvard, I think it's just gotten embarrassing because she's. you know, sh she she doesn't have the intellectual half to to be president of the university. And so To say nothing of sort of like the kind of moral rectitude, right?

The the you know, not plagiarizing other people.

So I y you know, I think My question for Claudian Gay would be, you know, that the president of Harvard would be, you know, you know, like, how much you know, hutz buttons it take to sort of stay on as president. And to tarnish the brand of the university further and not to put the institution ahead of yourself. But that's, you know. That's not my problem. Right.

I mean, you don't become president if you're not representing the beliefs of the administration. I mean, it's not like, wow, she's going to go do her own thing. And she went off the reservation and she's doing things that we can't support.

Now, the whole board was online with her until she exposed her beliefs. And the fact that she was over-lawyered? What are you lawyering up for? Just express it. You were outraged by anti-Semitism, caught flat-footed by it.

But here's my plan to fix it. But they couldn't do it because I don't think they're prepared. I don't think they really think it's a problem. Yeah, I don't I don't I don't think they they I don't think they have that kind of moral clarity. I think they are really deeply confused.

I don't. I don't think it's actually something that's easily fixable. If it were just a matter of lying or choosing the right words, that could be improved or made better. I think here there's a deep, almost impenetrable confusion about sort of, Know why is it that there is a problem with anti-Semitism on campus? I don't think that they see it that way.

I think they are part of this. you know, kind of broader sort of intersectional kind of crisis in the American Academy. Peter Stavanik, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Look forward to your next story.

You're all over the stories that matter most. Appreciate it, Peter. Take care. 1-866-408-7669. We'll come back.

I'll take your calls. Weave in your emails. Just go to Briankilme.com, click on comments, and you can join me on locals, too, which I think is pretty cool. We have our own society where you go in, you register, and we'll do original content there. And don't forget, Teddy and Booker Tonight on stage, not only are we reinvigorating great moments in American history, we take on the war in history.

I'm able to talk about all my books. It'll be a patriotic night that this country needs tonight in Pittsburgh and tomorrow in beautiful Holland, Michigan. Back in a moment. Both sides, all opinions. It's Brian Killmead.

The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead. Right now, look at the game that the media is giving you. They are going to continue to show you national polls. You know Because you do this.

that the polls that matter, if you want to talk about them, are the ones in Iowa, the ones in New Hampshire, the ones in South Carolina. And all of you are now getting involved and getting focused and now handling that.

So nothing. is what the press tells you. Everything's what we want. You just got to be tough enough to keep pushing through regardless of what they say, and you got to be louder about it. And I'm ask my husband.

I have no problem being loud.

So, a couple of things. Her husband's actually in Africa, part of her great story and sacrifice. He's got two older kids. But we'll talk about that. That's Governor Nikki Haley.

And she's campaigned really well. She was probably the first one in. Went right to New Hampshire, started working. Didn't hear much about her. Of course, I've always been a fan.

She's been a great guest of ours on the show. We DM back and forth. I don't give her advice. I just try to find out what's happened with her campaign. And she's got a lot of big donors, and she's just got a huge endorsement from a guest that we're going to have later in the show, Governor Chris Sununu, that you can catch online at BrianKilmead.com or on Twitter.

We'll put it up.

So She wants us to check the polls.

So let's do it. National poll. She's going to be angry at this. Trump's got 60% of the vote. DeSantis 12.6, her 12.1.

Okay? Iowa. Trump fifty DeSantis 19.3. Haley 16, that's a mile. Trump in New Hampshire, 44.

Haley, 18, Christie, 13. There's been no poll. There's been no poll. Christie 13 and DeSantis 4th. I just realized that now.

Wow. Since his fourth in New Hampshire. He's all in. He moved his whole campaign there basically into Iowa.

So if he does well in Iowa, look for those numbers to close. But I have not done a poll, seen a poll since Governor Kristen Nunu said, Haley's going to be my pick. I've not seen a poll since Ken Langogan says I'm here to write a big check. Former, he's the founder of Home Depot. I've not seen that either as the co-founder of LinkedIn also wrote a big check.

I know JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon seems to be a supporter, but the polls are leaning all about Trump. All about Trump. And the saying about Trump, and I think they pull back a little bit, is electability.

Now, if you see these polls, Trump beats Biden. On the real clear average, Trump beats Biden. On the Pew poll, Biden's got 33% approval rating. On Sienna, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters. Trump is winning.

You can't say any longer he can't win. He might not be your choice. The question is: if he gets convicted, does that change for independence? Not you. If you're a big Trump person, you're going to look at all these things as shams.

Mistakes he made just his overreach. But if your independent is undecided, that might flip for you. That's what some of the polls say.

So Kelly and Conway talked about that. Cut three. The so-called electability issue that was always supposed to be what sinks Donald Trump in 2016 and 22 after the midterms and especially going into 2024, that's done and over with. Trump is leading everybody in the Republican primary, Laura, by significant double digits. And now he's leading Joe Biden himself, an incumbent president in every swing state.

In Georgia, where you've got these state RICO charges, he's leading Biden 49-43. These are numbers.

Now, I know they're not final numbers, and they could change. And we got a whole summer, we got two conventions. But Joe Biden's not going to stay to the ship. He's got to make major decisions and do negotiations, done nothing since he lost the House.

So then you've got to find out how's Israel going to turn out? What is going to be with the situation if they realize Joe Biden's going to lose and they try to take Taiwan? Or that's what China thinks So I want you to hear the bigger question. If Trump gets convicted on any of these any of these cases. Will that matter, being that The trials and the charges have done nothing but fuel him.

Cut three. The so-called electability issue that was always supposed to be what sings Donald Trump. The Democrats have one more piece of currency they think left. They think that a conviction would succeed where indictments have not. The indictments of President Trump have actually bolstered his standing in the polls, particularly against Biden and head-to-heads.

And I'm tired of hearing it's his base, it's his base, it's its base. It's two things. It's his base plus. This is not just the base. It's base plus.

There are more voters of color, more non-college educated voters, more young people now leaving Joe Biden, more independents for Donald Trump. But What Laura had done earlier in the segment was point out that he loses a lot. I mean, he'll lose percentage points if he's convicted. I don't care what you think of the cases. That's not the point.

That's another conversation. But he will lose points. And then people like Mark Thiessen, who were on me yesterday, said, Listen, I thought he was a really good president, great president. We talk all the time. I'm not anti-Trump.

But when these convictions start coming down, Republicans will lose and this country will be destroyed. I'm telling you right now, he will never address. In a second term, this border is just going to bust. In a second term, China is going to take Taiwan. In a second term, Russia is going to move on Moldova, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia.

All those Baltic nations are going to be jeopardized. Not necessarily invasion, but infiltration, and then maybe an invasion to finish it off. That's what's going to happen.

So I thought it was interesting too, when Chris Christie's going to be a guest. I thought it was interesting that Chris Christie is calling out Haley. and DeSantis for not calling out Trump. Chris Christie is the one aggressively going after Trump. They just don't agree with Chris Christie that attacking Trump will get them the nomination.

So listen to his 30-second spot, cut five. Nikki Haley, down by 26 in her home state to Trump, attacks DeSantis. Too lame to lead, too weak to win. DeSantis, down 32 to Trump in Iowa, attacks Nikki Haley. You can't trust Tricky Ricky.

There's only one candidate trying to stop Trump. Chris Christie is the only one who can beat Trump because he's the only one trying to beat Trump. I'm in this race because the truth needs to be spoken. He is unfit. I'm Chris Christie.

Can I approve this message? There he goes. He does. I don't know if you picked up that Chris Christie does think he's unfit. You know who else does too?

David Axelrod. Listen to him, cut six. The Wall Street Journal poll was You know, very, very dark in terms from a Biden standpoint, you know, job approval down. Ratings generally down. Most of the comparatives with Trump not good.

What I worry about, you guys, from a Biden standpoint is These are the kind of things you get when people are starting to rationalize their votes. Yeah. And when I saw the pew poll last night, And I mentioned this on the live Instagram that we did: 33% approval rating on the pew poll that the leans left. I mean, what do you say? David Pluff is on the air saying, well, it's going to close when they realize it's Donald Trump.

No, everybody realizes it's Donald Trump, and he's still losing.

Well, remember January 6th, and no, no, everyone knows. Will this Cheney's book is number one? It doesn't matter. I mean, Liz Cheney is on the Tonight Show. She's on the Stephen Colbert show.

Is it because you think she's popular? Because they agree with her? No. If you look at Liz Cheney's career, and she's extremely bright, She agrees with what Trump did, probably 85 to 90% of it. The people that she's talking to that are buying the book disagree with her, 90% of what she agrees with.

So, just so you know, they're buying the book because they hate Trump. If that's okay with you, be happy. I guess you can cash in. This is the Brian Kilmey Chow, BrianKilme.com. Find out how to get see me tonight in Pittsburgh.

From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Killmead. All right, from 48th and 6th of Midtown Manhattan, heard around the country, around the world, decided two famous Christmas trees. Ours, right here, the All-American Christmas Tree at Fox, and then diagonally across is Rockfall Plaza. They both become tourist attractions.

It's kind of good, even though the windows aren't the same and shopping isn't the same because so many have been shuttered, because retail isn't the same, it's still a real sense of Christmas in Manhattan, which is kind of cool. in Manhattan. Where I think in a little while we'll find out if the George Santos seat is going to stay. The New York is going to continue. They flipped that seat.

Tom Swazi, even though it was redistricted, Tom Swazi had it, ran for governor, failed, and now wants to get it back. And now George Santos corruption has him ousted, and we'll see how that will go.

So New York's going to get a little bit more attention shortly. And the mayor now is under fire here. He is underwater too with his approval rating.

So we'll find out what that's about. A lot of the stuff he's done is bad for his party, but it's good for our country. And it's getting rid of sanctuary cities and speaking up about illegal immigration. Let's get to the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three: I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives. not stop going after a mouse, but be more careful. Yeah, there you go, President Biden. Pressure on all sides.

Israel gets a word from Joe. Time to wind it all down. Really? Anti-Semitism is a problem in America, up 300%, still bubbling up. And Kamala tells Joe: show some heart for the Palestinians.

Nice VP. Number two. Then it moved. He's not in business with him. And now we're into he's not financially connected to the businesses.

So there's ample evidence that shows that President Biden was involved in Hunter Biden's businesses in some way, shape, or form. That is an IRS whistleblower, Gary Shapley. Hunter, that didn't help. His wildcat pressure to House Republicans has only increased pressure and focused on the impeachment process, but he didn't show up.

Meanwhile, Joe evidently is extremely angry and upset about the whole impeachment of his son.

Now he is? Number The Democrats have one more piece of currency they think left. They think that a conviction would succeed where indictments have not. The indictments of President Trump have actually bolstered his standing in the polls, particularly against Biden and head-to-heads. And that is Kellyanne Conway, brutal.

That's what poll after poll is showing about what America thinks of Joe Biden's performance at 33%. And his prospects for reelection, while their GOP gets set to anoint an opponent sometime before November, we hope. It could happen as early as January with a decisive Trump win, perhaps. Joining us now, a man who wants a decisive win in Iowa, but more is focused on New Hampshire, Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey. Governor, welcome back.

Good morning, Brian. Christmas to you and your family. Same to you. I'm going to play it, but I just love your approach. Your approach is obviously: if you're going to beat up Trump, I'm going to tell you why.

Every day you'll attack him. For Governor Haley and Governor DeSantis, they are not doing that. They're pointing out that they're better, but not that Donald Trump is bad.

So let's listen to this ad and tell me your approach. Nikki Haley, down by 26 in her home state to Trump, attacks DeSantis. Too lame to lead, too weak to win. DeSantis, down 32 to Trump in Iowa, attacks Nikki Haley. You can't trust Tricky Icky.

There's only one candidate trying to stop Trump. Chris Christie is the only one who can beat Trump because he's the only one trying to beat Trump. I'm in this race because the truth needs to be spoken. He is unfit. I'm Chris Christie, and I approve this message.

So, Governor, what made you cut that ad worth 15 seconds spent to talk about other people? Because, you know, it it it's amazing to me and I you know, saw this on the stage in Tuscaloosa. For some reason, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis think that the race is between the two of them. despite the fact that Nikki Haley is losing in South Carolina by twenty six, to Donald Trump. And Ron DeSantis is losing by 32.

to Donald Trump in Iowa. You know, it's time for them to start talking about Why Donald Trump. shouldn't be the nominee. um and why they should be. Instead they're talking about each other and Know, we need to get this race focused on what it should be focused on to stop pretending that.

that me, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Favaik are the only four people in the race.

So, a couple of things. There's no doubt about it. If you told me, and I think you would agree with this, if you told me after 2022, after the president anointed Mastriana when he was a disaster, Herschel Walker, who I like, his family turned on him, that was a disaster. Dr. Oz was unable to get that seat.

Those are just some of those people that he got behind, Carrie Lake. I thought to myself, okay. Uh it's not going to be Trump. You know, he seems to have lost the push in the base. And now here we are in 2023, is it coming to an end?

And he's up by everything you just said, and now beats Joe Biden in the last five polls. What happened? Look, I think it's more about Joe Biden than it is about Donald Trump. you know, Joe Biden has done an awful job and I think people are like, well, you know, Uh Biden did an awful job, so let's take another look at Trump. I do think that when Republicans voters start to focus and vote In January, that you could see a bit of a different result, Brian.

And I don't think most people focus right now. You know, I remember back eight years ago, all the polls after New Hampshire. said that they hadn't made their decision on who to vote for 50 percent said they made their decision in the last three days.

So we focus on this all the time because it's our job. Most Americans just don't.

So Governor, you your last debate your debate all your debates are great because you just know this stuff. I don't even think you have to cram or do opposition research, you just know it. But the one thing you made pretty clear is You wanted to focus on Vivek. Why did you, what was it about him that just had you go, okay, I'm going directly at him?

Well, because he's obnoxious. And he's insulting. And he He's not qualified to be president. And so You look. I didn't have a plan to come in to do that, Brian, but I was reacting to what happened on stage.

Well, you know, Nikki Haley and I have significant differences. The fact is, when he stands up there and tries to compare negatively. her intellect to his three-year-old son. I'm sorry, I'm not going to stand by and let him do that. She's been a friend of mine.

And she's a smart and competent woman, and she deserves to be treated with respect. as does everybody on that stage, and he doesn't treat anybody on that stage with respect. Do you think of this new CNN debate? What are the qualifications and do you think you'll get there? You know, it's really unclear where there's even going to be one, right?

I mean, Nikki Hadley says she doesn't want a debate in Iowa. She's just accepted. Did she this morning? I think it was. Yeah, it says Nikki Haley accepts a CNN debate invitation.

Well, then, you know, we're going to see what they come down with the final qualifications for. In Iowa, we'll clearly qualify for the debates in New Hampshire. And whether we qualify in Iowa or not, I'm not sure yet, Brian. But those determinations probably won't be made until well after the first of the year.

So I talked to Kevin McCarthy a couple of days ago, and he made it clear. He said if a Republican wins a White House, he wants to be a part of the administration. If you don't win, do you is that the next place you want to be? If a Republican wins? If you don't get the nomination, a Republican wins?

Obviously, Trump's not going to hire you, but the other two probably would. Is that a place you'd like to be? You know, look, I I've always been interested in serving the public. But after this, I don't know, Brian, like whether that's something I'd really want to do or not. I think it would depend on who the president was and what the job offer was.

As you know, I turned down five different job offers. with Donald Trump back in between 2017 and 2021.

So, it's not like I'll take any job that I get offered in Washington, D.C. And I can't imagine that my attitude would change. There's certain things that you might enjoy doing, and a lot of other things that you wouldn't enjoy doing. And I don't think at this stage of my life and career, I should do anything other than the things that I think I could do very well for the people of the country. Understood.

Do you think the House is making a mistake going doing the impeachment inquiry? For the record, I don't. I think it's an investigation that needs to be done. But do you? Look, I think that the Biden administration has left the house with no alternative.

you know, if they had been transparent and cooperative with the House, performing their oversight function, this wouldn't be necessary. But because they're stonewalling everything, they're leaving the Congress and the House of Representatives in particular with no choice.

So I have no objection to it because I think it needs to be looked into. We need to have transparency and openness in the White House. We don't have it with Joe Biden, and so he's left them with no alternative but to do what they're doing.

So I have no objection to it at all. I want you to be with Gary Shapley, IRS agent. I have no idea if he's a Democrat or Republican. He's a whistleblower. Listen to what he says, but you're the legal guy.

Listen to what he says he knows so far. Cut 12. It's just part of the shifting story from DOJ and the Biden family attorneys, where at the beginning it was, I've never talked to my son about business. That's been proven patently false by evidence and testimony we provided. Then it moved to he's not in business with him.

And now we're into he's not financially connected to the businesses.

So you don't have to be financially connected to a business in order to be a part of that business. And what. President Biden was basically doing through Hunter Biden was allowing Hunter Biden to get these deals where there's no discernible actual product being produced.

So it's really just a peddling of the influence. There's ample evidence that shows that President Biden was involved in Hunter Biden's businesses in some way, shape, or form. Is there? As you see it as a prosecutor, is. I don't think there's enough evidence yet, Brian, to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, which is the way I look at things as a criminal prosecutor.

It doesn't mean, though. that President Biden being untruthful about all this is not completely relevant to his political standing. And so let's continue with this investigation and see what evidence we can come up with that might prove some things beyond a reasonable doubt. But right now, I think it's affecting him politically, and it should, because he hasn't been telling the American people the truth. Right.

So far, he's got 33% approval when it comes to this Pew Poll. For you personally, where's your Waterloo? Iowa, you never, even though I did watch you do a great town hall last cycle in Iowa, actually it was 2016, I know you have popularity in Iowa, but you're putting your stakes in New Hampshire. And Governor Sununu did not back you even though you got to good friends. Is that your Waterloo where I got to win there or I got to be very close second?

Look, I think I have to do very well in New Hampshire, Brian. And so there's no doubt we put our stakes down there. We pushed our chips to the center of the table in New Hampshire, and we expect we're going to do well and then continue on from there to South Carolina and Michigan.

So, but absolutely, you know, we haven't competed in Iowa. We made that decision as a strategic decision at the beginning of the campaign that we wanted to focus on New Hampshire. That's what we've done. And so if you do that, you've got to do well there, and that's what we have to do. When you look at what Trump accomplished in those three, you say what portion of what Trump accomplished over his four years do you think to yourself, that's good?

Wait, how much did you agree on? The tax cuts, I think, were outstanding. I think the Abraham Accords were very, very good. I think what he did on regulatory reform. Was very good.

So let's start with those three things. Those are all three things that I think were accomplishments that he should be proud of. Do you think that if four more years of him it would be the same? Uh do you think that he'd accomplish more or do you just feel it's it's going to be a revenge tour? Yeah.

going to take him at his word and and what he said is it's going to be a revenge tour. I am your retribution. And that's my problem. And I don't think, quite frankly, Brian, that he'll be able to get many, if any, competent people to work for him, given the way he treats people. You see the way he's treated General Kelly, the way he's treated General Mattis, the way he's treated Mark Esper, the way he's treated Rice Priebus.

You know, you can go through the entire list. Of really competent people that he's had who he now degrades and belittles, including Nikki Haley, who served him at the UN.

So, you know, I don't think he'll be able to get competent people, and I think that's going to be a very big problem, too. All right, lastly, are you still on the Mets board? Yes, sir.

So the cover back page in the New York Post today is Yamamoto. It looks like the Yankees and believe it or not, the Dodgers are co-favorites, but the Mets are not out of it. Can you let our listeners know what's happening with this 25-year-old, they say Phenom, who when Cashman went to scout him, threw a no-hitter? Yeah, no, look, he is an outstanding young pitcher, and I will tell this to Met fans: the Mets are in it, and the Mets are working very hard to make sure they sign him. Ultimately, the player gets to make the call, but you can count on the fact that the Mets are going to be very competitive in this and are doing everything they can to win, including having our owner, Steve Cohen, and our president of baseball ops, David Stearns, a couple of weeks ago.

Flying to Japan. to sit with the pitcher and his family. We're the only team that's done that.

So we're working hard to try to get them.

Now, if you were not running for President, would you have volunteered to go? Oh, you bet I would have. No doubt about it. You would you would probably learn Japanese on the flight. I think we just lost the governor.

All right. Christy, are you there? I am here, Brian. We have other priorities. Instead of being in Tokyo, we're in New Hampshire.

I understand. So, Governor, best of luck. What's your message to Chris Nunu? He's coming on later in the show. Oh, Chris is a friend, and he just made the wrong choice, but we'll forgive him.

Forgive it already. He understands politics. Chris Christie, thanks so much, Governor. Appreciate it. Best of luck on the trail.

Thank you. Brian, Merry Christmas. Thanks for having me on. You got it. And we'll always love having him on.

Governor Chris Sununu coming up, but for next is going to be you, 1-866-408-7669. The governor's still going to be in the studio, right, Eric? All right. Is that true, Ray? Is someone going to get him or is he going to find his way here?

Because he knows how to get here by now. I was just chatting with him about his dad and and his dad. Oh, so he's here already. Is he here already? He's here.

Okay, back in a moment. Newsmakers and newsbreakers. Here at first on the Brian Kill Me Show. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Killmead.

So, Governor Sununu came in a little bit early. He begged to come in, and I said, Okay, fine, I'll do this. I'm a politician. I beg for a lot of things. You did not.

It's all my idea. But, Governor, I just want to get you now. I just hung up with Chris Christie, and I said, How do you feel about how do you feel about the fact that Governor Sununu went with Governor Haley? Here it is.

So, Governor, best of luck. What's your message to Chris Sununu? He's coming on later in the show. Oh, Chris is a friend and he just made the wrong choice. But we'll forgive him.

He forgives you. Look, Chris is a friend. And it was hard. Ron's a friend. Chris, Nick, they're all friends.

I think we're all friends in a lot of ways. And so, no, I know it was probably very disappointing to Chris. He's run a very strong race. He's got the right mentality. He's called him first.

No, but the reason I didn't call Chris first is 'cause then the press would ask him. On the speculation, then he'd have to answer for it and all that.

So we traded messages and stuff afterwards. What do you think it'll mean? There's been no poll since. Yeah, so I think they'll have a poll next week. There hasn't been a poll in New Hampshire in quite a while.

So look, I don't expect the polls to start skyrocketing or anything like that. It takes time. It's really about putting a ground game for Nikki in New Hampshire. AFP is completely. Yeah, AFP is going to come in kind of combined with Americans for Prosperity.

Yeah. So that's just, I mean, they're just huge. It's the Coke organization that says, we'll help you put some of that shoe leather on the ground, knocking on doors, calling folks, getting out the vote. If everyone that qualifies to vote in the New Hampshire primary votes, Nikki doesn't just win. She wins in a landslide.

So getting out the vote is key. What is that number? Like, well, the realistic number is you'll see, I think you're going to have a record number of people, 350,000 or so vote in the Republican primary. About 40 to 45 percent, maybe more, will be undeclared.

Now, undeclared voters aren't just purely independent, mind you. There are strong hardcore Trump supporters. They're strong socialist Democrats. They just qualify as undeclared. Can you, if you're a Democrat, vote in the Republican primary?

Democrats cannot vote. Nobody can. Independent. An independent and undeclared can vote, yeah. And I think a lot of them are going to come in and pull ballots, and that's why we're going to hit a record number.

And when we come back, I have really good news for Governor Sununu, for him personally. Oh, I'd like to hear it. Is he a contract here? What are we doing? No, I'm not going to do that.

Maybe it is. If I can afford you, it's not like that ski resort you had. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kill Me Show.

Go back to August, before any of the Republican debates happened, Donald Trump was in the low 50s. Four debates later, after having not attended any of those debates, he's in the high fifties. The other candidates all stuck there in either the low double digits or mired in the single digits without a lot of motion for any of them, despite the fact that a bunch of candidates dropped out. This field winnowed a lot faster than most people thought it would.

So that's Rick Klein of ABC. Thought we'd bring that in to kind of lay the groundwork for Chris Sununu, the 82nd governor of New Hampshire, who has just endorsed Nikki Haley. We're going to get into that, and he knows the band is the circus is coming to your town. Right after your town, and I got a front row seat. You should all come up and see the show.

And now, first off, your response to what Rick Klein said. You can't really criticize Trump for sitting at the debates. It's been a good strategy for him, there's no doubt. He doesn't want to engage in the conversation, and apparently he doesn't have to yet until it becomes one-on-one. And I think the Republican Party can get there.

Let's make it a one-on-one race. Let's give people that, get rid of that psychological mess of choice, right? When it becomes one-on-one, folks really will engage at a much higher level. All right, now I'll tell you the good news. I'm going to go to New Hampshire to cover the primary.

So, you have something to look forward to. Bring your skis, brother. We got snow, we got fun, we got snowmobiling. The only time I'm in skis, I had to do two shoots, and they wanted me to do a stand-up, and I stood there in skis. I'm not really a big skier.

Yeah. I want a snowmobile. We'll get you on a snowmobile. That's just fun. Because, you know, you bring your beer with you.

That would be great. Not how do we encourage that, but you don't discount. It might be out there. Right? You might discount.

But you actually had a ski resort. Yeah, so I put a group together. We ran Waterville Valley Resort very successfully. My family is still involved. As governor, I have to keep complete arms.

How old were you then? Uh six years before I became governor, so thirty-six? Thirty-six to forty-two, and then I became governor. And then you so it was successful and yeah, well, as long as God gives you snow, you can be very successful. If if God says we're going to give you rain on Christmas, uh that's when the ulcer comes.

Have you thought about a snow machine? Uh, what do you mean, like a snowmobile? No, a snow machine. Oh, have I groomed the trail? No, yeah, I mean, can't you do that?

So just make it. No, I'm oh oh yeah, but you need you need to g have the temperatures. If it's thirty six degrees, you can't make snow. Oh. You know, thirty six degrees.

You can't even make fake snow. No, it's not plastic. We're all naturally new. See, I did not know that. You need about 27.5 degrees dry bulb temperature to make snow.

This is why you didn't have me as a partner. Because that would have been absolutely no good. Just go make the snow. I know it's 42. I know it's sheet on.

I know it's July. Don't make excuses. Get it done.

So, why are you. I'm going to talk about you. I cannot believe you're not running for re-election.

Now, number one, you're not running for president and not running for re-election. Why both those things?

Well, a couple things. I fundamentally believe in term limits. We don't have them in New Hampshire, but I've done four terms. I've done eight years. You've got to leave big shoes.

Because every two years you've got to run. It's every two years I have to run, which is hard in itself and be the 24-7 governor. But the job is to leave big shoes to fill and find someone to fill it. We have a great candidate, Kelly Ayot, is running to replace me, the former senator. She's going to do a great job.

So that's it. And I want to re-enter the private sector and do fun stuff and send Fox Nation a resume and see if they'll. No, I don't know what I'll do next. I have another year here to figure it all out. But you love the commentating party.

You like the horse race, you like the strategy. Do you like this? Look, I'm the governor of New Hampshire, and with all due respect to everyone else, we are in the political mix every single day, right? Because we have local control, right? Local politics, local debate, what's happening, first in the nation primary, you know, the value of grassroots support, what that means, how to build advocacy and coalition groups.

So I love that. And I think there's a smart way to do it. I think there's kind of a nationalistic bad playbook that people follow a little too much of the time.

So I'm always happy to add my two cents. And I'm a Sununa, which means I'm really arrogant and I'm probably correct. Right, and smart, right? How smart was your dad? Wicked.

We say he's wicked smack. What kind of degrees did he get? He got his PhD in a year out of MIT.

So, yeah.

So, your dad is going to be angry at you. Was he angry at you? Doesn't he love the political process? And now that you're stepping back, he likes the Brian Kilmick show. I'll tell you that.

He loves it. Oh, thank you. He does. He's texting me every day with ideas. Hey, you should say this.

And have you talked to them about that? What about this? And then when I, as governor, because I'm still managing the state 24-7, you know, we'll talk about budgets and balancing budgets. You know, how to drive jobs and all that. He always gives advice.

My dad will give it advice, and I'm like, wow, that is a great piece of advice if it was 1987. I have to kind of turn it into the 2023 version, clean up the language a little bit, modernize it a little bit. But he's still, you were the one who kept him in the game.

Well, and vice versa. I tell you what, you know what he says to me all the time? He goes, man, he goes, it's going to be great when you stop being governor because I can finally open my mouth again publicly. He says, and rightly so, he goes, look, I don't want to put my foot in your mouth, Chris, right? But he's brilliant at this stuff.

He knows, not that he's just smart, but he knows people. Because, as a governor in a small state like New Hampshire, you got to connect with people. You've got to have a customer service approach to this stuff. I understand. So let's hear from Nikki Haley.

This is what she's talking about, feeling like she's on a bit of a roll. She has just, by the way, said yes to the CNN debate. Cut one. Right now, look at the game that the media is giving you. They are going to continue to show you national polls.

You know because you do this. That the polls that matter, if you want to talk about them, are the ones in Iowa, the ones in New Hampshire, the ones in South Carolina. And all of you are now getting involved and getting focused and now handling that.

So nothing. is what the press tells you. Everything's what we want. You just got to be tough enough to keep pushing through regardless of what they say. And you got to be louder about it.

And I'm, ask my husband. I have no problem being loud.

Right. So let's just look at those polls, Chris. In Iowa, the average, real clear average is 50 to 19.3 for DeSantis. Haley's got 16.7. In your state, Trump 44.3 to Haley, 18.7 on average.

Christie, 13. That's why he thinks he's got a shot in New Hampshire. But that's a huge gap. Oh, no, there's no doubt it's a huge gap. But when you talk to the voters, they'll move.

About a third of Trump voters said they'd consider someone else. The number one reason why folks are sticking with Trump is they think, well, he's going to get elected. It's inevitable.

So if we can show that it's not inevitable, that we do have a one-to-one choice, and I think that happens in New Hampshire. We can hit a big reset button as everything consolidates around Nikki in New Hampshire. Her numbers were moving before I got involved, right? She was moving them. Why?

Just as she said, where the conversation is happening, people are going, oh, wow, this is real. This background that she brings to the table. The connectivity. And again, it's not here's my answer. We're going to do a one-size-fits-all out of Washington, and everyone shall obey big government solutions, because even Republicans have a problem with that sometimes.

She really, from a governor's perspective, says, let's send it back to the states. Let's send it back to the voters. Let's get people more empowered. And that's, for New Hampshire, and the live-free-or-die thing, boy, to have a live-free-die state, almost like a live-free-your-die president, right? She talks about that.

That idea is very exciting to people.

So here's the thing that we noticed so far. is that She's able to get people that are not never Trumpers that are Republicans, no question. On with DeSantis, right?

So if DeSantis goes away, you can improve it. I don't know many people that have, who are firmly Trump that say, I'm going to go with Haley. Just because he's better. goes she's better.

So how do you and that's why she's not attacking that's why she's not going going after Trump hard. And she doesn't have to, right? I mean, everybody knows if you're if you're really anti-Trump, you're already there. What she's doing is she understands there's a 35% floor, right? That's about as low as Trump is going to go.

But that means there's 12 or 13 points of Trump's current voters that can move over to her. They're going to move over to whoever's in the lead, whoever inspires them and excites them. You know, Chris, God bless Chris Christie. I mean, he's a great friend, and he's got like that nuclear version against Trump. And that's his style.

They're kind of why you're going to stay. On average. He does well. He does. I think you're going to see a lot of those voters come.

I think you're going to see a lot of the DeSantis voters come. Her numbers are moving. They're going to consolidate.

So 18 today, you're not going to see anything move in the next couple of weeks, but I think by early January, we're going to see her up potentially in the low 30s.

Now it's a game. Are you going to ask Chris to step out? No, I don't need to do that. No. Look, if I were Chris, I'd watch the polls and see what happens, and he'll make his own decisions.

He's a smart guy.

So. Independents can vote, undecided can vote, but now the and Republicans obviously can vote in the primary. Got it. Just a few days after Iowa, too, which makes you you have to do your groundwork prior. And then we're going to look at those numbers in Iowa and find out.

But you know what's not happening? Democrat, the Democrats are not letting you guys do for the first time ever in modern politics that you guys are not the first primary, or are you still holding it? Of course, we're the first in the nation primary. Oh, yeah. But Joe Biden says, keep me off?

Yeah, and no one cares. I mean, no, Joe Biden is just choosing not to participate, but we are the first in the nation primary for Republicans and Democrats, 100%. He tried to make such a stink about it, to put himself on the ballot right now would be embarrassing to him because he lost that fight, right?

So he wanted to go to South Carolina. They're not going to do their vote count because they do it all by mail till like weeks after ours.

So, no, we are the first in the nation primary because there's really no race on the Democrat side. All the undeclareds are going to participate on the Republican side as well as you'll have record turnouts. Interesting.

So, what does that mean?

Well, that means all those voters. What it could mean is the vast majority of those folks are not Trump voters. They're usually not or massively undercounted in polls, and they're going to come out in droves when they see that Nikki Haley has a shot to do this. It's not just winning for the Republican Party in New Hampshire. Like I said, it's Hitting that reset button for the whole country where everyone goes, oh, wait, it's not just Trump Biden because nobody wants that ticket.

You know, 70% of America doesn't want the Trump Biden ticket. The party that moves off from their presumptive candidate first, right? If Republicans move off from Trump first, Or Democrats move off from Biden first, they win. Whoever does it first wins, because that's where America goes, thank you for not giving us yesterday's news. Thank you for not giving us a couple 80-year-old millionaires that are really just out of touch.

Trump has done a good job connecting with kind of that gut anger. I mean, let's face it, you know, you have all these folks that built this country, folks on the manufacturing line, military families who protected this country, law enforcement. They're pissed off, and they have every right to be pissed off because you've got a bunch of elitists out of Washington, D.C., standing on the shoulders of their families that built this country, telling them how to live their lives. And from the live-free or die, lowercase L libertarian in us, we get angry. You know, it's going to get worse.

It's going to get worse. In New York, they're talking about your ovens, and they're talking about your refrigerators. They're telling you in California you can't get a gas fixed.

So you want it fixed, right? You want inflation fixed? You want those issues fixed? You can't elect the guy in Trump that brings chaos, massively distracted, and will never be able to get Congress to do it. But, Governor, how much I feel disrespectful.

I apologize for that. I'm Chris. But, Governor, how much of that is just people coming after him? You know some of these attacks on Trump are unbelievably ridiculous. They're ridiculous, they're politically driven, but they're real.

Right. They they're still there. You he's you think any democrat If we had a massive supermajority in the House and the Senate and he could actually build the wall, but he didn't build the wall, he never even tried to drain the swamps. I get frustrated. I'm all about efficiency, so I get really frustrated when I hear.

You don't think he fired a bunch of people? You know, he got rid of Is the government smaller today than it was? Did he shrink the size of government? Zero. Like literally zero.

I think that's a good point, but also did he give you a right to fire? Sure. You know how you get rid of positions? You balance a budget. See, when I balance a budget in New Hampshire, I have to do it every single year.

That's where I say, hey, your department has 120 positions. We're going to cut that back to 110. And we're going to fill these positions here.

So you think you could have done a better job shrinking it. He didn't know how to do it through a budget process. But instead, he spent $7 trillion of our money more than we had. He's the most important thing. Would you know the pandemic?

The pandemic, they shut down the you thought $7 trillion?

Well, put it this way. Would you say it doubled during the pandemic? what the debt the spending. They told the whole country to stop working and basically gave us money not to work. Yeah, you but again we spend what, five or six trillion a year in this country?

Like he put seven in four years. Like that that's really bad. That's really, really bad. I would like to see the pandemic. It was sick.

Did you like the tax reform? Oh, sure. Of course I did. Because the tax reform was supposed to, you cut the taxes, then you build the revenue. It wasn't immediately.

Reagan did the same thing. That's right.

So you cut it, and beginning you have a little bit of red, and it's supposed to come back. And next thing you know, the pandemic hit. I think that's a solid economic argument I just made. It is, but if you can't work with Congress, what's the point? He says, well, Congress, people say, well, Congress stymied him from building the wall.

Leadership gets it done no matter what hand you're dealt, man. We could have Democrats in Congress. We could have Republicans in Congress. Who knows? You better get leadership that knows how to get something done regardless of what they're dealt.

He always complained that he couldn't work with his own Republicans.

So what's going to happen when he's given Democrats? Nothing. It's going to stall. You put Nikki Haley in there.

Well, now you got something.

Now you got something. I think that Kev McCarthy for anybody would be know how to wear Congress. But I talked about the weird thing is, I talked to Speaker Ryan in his very first budget with Trump, and he called up. He says, We only got $1.4 billion for the wall, but look who we got for defense. They don't want to give a dollar for the wall, but I'm just giving you an idea of he's going to go on blast, but let you know.

So then finally, after two years, Trump goes, We're repurposing defense spending. That's a resourcefulness. A little bit. But look, let me give you an example. In New Hampshire, I have the largest legislature in the country, 400 people.

201 Republicans, 199 Democrats, right? A slight majority with Republicans in the Senate. I passed a budget. Balanced budget. Unanimous.

Unanimous. I got virtually every Republican and every Democrat to say, yes, we're on board. There's always a way to do it. Never let Congress tell you that we're too close, it's too tough to get stuff done. And a president can drive that, can use those powers of leverage.

He just didn't know how to do it. Why would we go backwards? That's all I'm saying. But you do know that Nancy Pelosi, if you talk to George W. Bush, even though he's nicer about it, she was an impenetrable wall to him.

Don't you think? To him? Exactly right. And the next one will be too.

So why would we hire a guy who gets outsmarted and outdone by a Nancy Pelosi? Let's get somebody in there that can actually drive it forward. I would say, well, she does control that. She was an impenetrable wall, so she was a stronger wall than Trump could overcome. Then Trump wasn't doing the job.

I'm not trying to back. Look, I'm not anti-Trump. No, I'm just saying. I'm just trying to bring that reason to the best. You don't like JFK either because JFK got, like, basically, where did he get the UNICEF passed?

Or what did he get?

Well, this was a little before my time, brother. Right, I know.

Well, it's before me, too. But I'm just saying that there are certain criticisms on Trump. Obviously, you're ballot. I just don't think that the wall with DeSantis brings up all the time and Chris Christie, I was there in the play-by-play of it. They were sacrificing one thing for the other.

But I want to get you on the other side. Also, you got the good news already that I'm coming to New Hampshire, so you have a reason to. And now you're also going to be on One Nation this weekend. It's a lot of Brian. It's a lot of Brian.

Never enough, though. It's a lot of Brian at the same time. Back in a moment. The fastest growing talk show in America. You're with Brian Kilmead.

From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmeid. Couple more minutes for Governor Sununu, but Governor, give me a One Nation Saturday night at 9 o'clock. I can't wait to talk to you there. We're both going to wear, I'm going to wear a different outfit. Yeah, well, can we go cash?

I'm wearing a tie right now. You don't have to. I don't wear a tie.

Okay, good. All right, well, I like your tie today. Right. Unlike yesterday. Big disappointment.

And a couple other things. If you want to see me live on stage tonight, I'm going to be outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, talking about all my books. I should have brought your dad. Yeah, he'd love that. I'm going to do New Hampshire.

And then on Saturday, I'm going to be in Holland, Michigan. Basically, America great from the start. Just talking about our history. Are you amazed? And you probably don't get much in New Hampshire.

How much we have to fight for our history these days? Unbelievable. I've just passed a lot of students who have to teach civics in our school. And we're like rebuilding our entire textbooks around the New Hampshire and the U.S. Constitution.

It's everything. It's the foundation of everything. And that is fundamentally, people say, why is this happening in our universities and our young people? Because, frankly, my generation, I think it's our fault, right? We didn't instill that in our kids.

We didn't insist on it in our schools. And so I blame the kids, obviously, but let's also take it on a little bit as parents that we didn't drive this stuff early enough. We're only kind of talking about instilling civics and the value of that today where we should have been doing it 15 years ago. But just knowing our past, you bring up Jefferson Ed slaves. Absolutely.

Washington had slaves. That's part of our story. You got to tell it. And then you get to the Civil War. And then what happened after?

So whatever happened to that. That situation where you got Ronda Santis getting labeled for banning books. It's not banning books, saying appropriate books for the age. That's right.

And then again, I think the tip of the iceberg right now is the anti-Semitism in the universities, which I'm astounded by. You always know it's there a little bit, but the level at which it is coming out is unbelievable. What about in New Hampshire? No, we really have kept it under control. We have a new president over at Dartmouth, considering it's an Ivy League.

She's done a great job of letting people have a voice, but saying we're not going to tolerate hate and violence and all of this sort of thing and intimidation. Did you see at Syracuse, Jerry Seinfeld performing? They decide to protest because he is pro-Israel. He's Jewish anyway. He should be pro-Israel.

Jerry Seinfeld. It's insane. I mean, people, you know, I love it when they go back and they're like, friends and Seinfeld and all these shows where, you know, racist and all this kind of stuff. It's like, give me a break. It's just, they're searching for anything they can.

But again, I think we have to take it on as parents. I think we have to constantly instill it in our kids. I don't care whether your kid is 6, 16, or 26. Have the conversation this Christmas. Civics matters.

America matters. All right. And if your dad says you talk too fast, I think he's wrong. I thought he was the perfect. He's 85.

He just can't keep up. You know he's smarter than you. My phone literally just buzzed on that one.

So, Governor, I'll see you tonight, Saturday night. It's going to be great. All right. Thank you. Brian, Kill Me Chill.

Keep it here. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead. Hi everyone, Brian Kilmey here. Thanks so much for listening.

We have a big hour coming your way, but I have an interview with Jack Keene I wanted to bring back. Just a quick reminder: Teddy and Booker T is out. Thanks so much for buying it. It's our two American Icons Plays of Head to Social Equality. Tonight I'm going to be in Pennsylvania.

I want you to be there. Go to BrianKilmey.com. It's right outside Pittsburgh, an arena, an arena that Booker T. Washington spoke at, and actually walk through. It's so appropriate, Carnegie Endowment.

So check it out. And then on Saturday, I'm going to be in Michigan, in beautiful Holland, Michigan. I hear this theater is fantastic and the town is idyllic. I hope everyone can get there. There's a few tickets remaining.

VIP, this way I can talk to you before the show.

So I had a chance to talk to General Jack Keene. You know, he's with the Institute Study of War. He founded it. He's president of it. And I have a lot of areas to go.

One was Vladimir Putin in his four-hour press conference yesterday with hand-picked questions. But I decided to go when I saw that the President of the United States is now leaning on Benjamin Netanyahu to level. Level off, ease up, and start winding down the campaign in Gaza. I just had to bring that up. Also, how aggravated we both are as Americans, forget about military or not, that we're allowing our people to be targeted in the Mediterranean Sea and everywhere else by the Houthi rebels and others who think they can rocket us, harass commercial shipment, and try to shut off and blockade Israeli goods.

And we let it stand. It's amazing.

So, I wanted to talk about that: the dangers overseas, as well as the terror that could happen here at home. Here's my interview from Fox and Friends with General Jack Keene: four stars on his shoulders. Let's listen. As Israel fights Hamas in Gaza, the terror threat appears to be going global. Listen to this.

German and Dutch police say they've captured four Hamas members suspected of plotting attacks on Jewish institutions across Europe. Joining us right now, Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst, Retired Four Star General Jack Keene. General, we heard about the increased terror threat. We're worried about it here. They obviously have a reason to worry there.

Well, well certainly, and we have every reason to worry about it. I mean, our FBI director has told us very much the same thing, that the threat has increased significantly. We got an open border for sure. That certainly is a way to accelerate that threat. You know, Hamas is not as much of a foreign threat as Hezbollah is, but nonetheless, it's obvious they do have that capability.

We're seeing it now in Europe. But the focus certainly is taking place on the Gaza Strip with the IDF, and that is where it should be. And we're in a real tough fight there. We are. And General, what about the fact the Houthi rebels are trying to shut down the sea lanes and rocketing us?

And the only thing that our Secretary of Defense has given our Navy permission to do is knock down the rockets. When are we going to get on the offensive there and start taking out the Houthis? Yeah, I am absolutely stunned that we're still sitting there. in a defensive mode. I mean, obviously, we have the capability to defend ourselves.

There's no disputing that. But to shut these people down, you have to take away their capability to do it.

So you go after the You go after their rockets, you go after their missiles, you go after their storage sites, you go after their entire command and control system. I mean, we have very good intelligence on the on the Houthis, uh to be to be sure. And I also believe you go after the Iranians on this because they're really calling the shots here, make no mistake about it. Why we're still in this defensive role makes no sense to me whatsoever. I know there's a multitask force coming that will escort the ships, but even that, in a sense, is a defensive role.

I mean, obviously, it's the right thing to do. I'm not disputing that. But take away the capability that they have. And punish them for what they're doing. Otherwise, they're going to keep doing it.

Ron's going to keep telling them: shoot, shoot, and shoot. And that's just going to continue.

So the IDF has been told, I guess, through political lanes, guys, wrap it up. You've got a couple more weeks, wrap it up. The intensity has got to ratchet down. That's the message from this administration delivered by Jake Sullivan yesterday. What do you think the Israelis will do with this urging?

Well, I really think that those kind of declarations. are really more political considerations than anything else. I don't think it relates to what is actually happening on the ground. It must be the pressure that the administration feels dealing with this issue. And certainly everybody understands the suffering that's taken place with the Gaza citizens and what the Israelis are doing with their grid system and telegraphing where they're going to go so the civilians can move out of there.

I mean, that's unprecedented in warfare as far as I'm concerned, and certainly puts their own soldiers at risk. Likely one of the reasons the Israeli casualties are going up. But, Brian, this is a military campaign. It has military objectives, certainly, to eventually achieve a political objective, the removal of Hamas as a political entity. But the campaign itself, designed by the leaders in the IDF, they should be permitted to execute this campaign and finish the job.

They know full well that more than half of Hamas fighters are still alive. They cannot bring this campaign to an end on a timeline set by somebody else. It has to be based on conditions on the ground. and destroying the effectiveness of Hamas's military organization, which obviously also has terrorist capabilities. That is going to take time, and the time factor should be conditioned by the success that they're achieving on the ground.

Not by any artificial timetable, and certainly not by political pressure coming from the United States. Unfortunately, this President has a history of not listening to his military experts. We see that played out on a daily basis.

Someone's got to stand up and speak out. General, thanks so much for doing it. You tell the story better than anybody else. You got the facts. Appreciate it.

Have a great weekend. Yeah, you guys too. Have a wonderful weekend. Thank you. All right, that is General Jack Keene.

Always love hearing from him. I always feel as though I need another 10 minutes. But coming up next, David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrams put together this book. They're the Rising Director of Airplane the Movies.

Well, they got a brand new book out. They talk about the making of those incredible movies in just a moment. You'll listen to the Brian Kilmead Show. It's Brian Kilmead. Hours and Radio, you're with Brian Kilmead.

Hey, welcome back, everybody. Brian Kilmead here.

Thanks so much for joining me. I told you to enjoy that interview with General Jack Keene. You know, David and Jerry Zucker, you know the name Jim Abrams, you know the partnership. They created some of the funniest new movies of my generation that still hold up today. And, you know, sometimes they don't.

Sometimes you have a comedy and they don't really hold up. You look back and go, ah, it's not really my sense of humor anymore. With the airplane movies, with the naked gun movies, it is my sense of humor. And what made it so special is they weren't necessarily hiring comedians. They were hiring serious actors who knew how to be funny.

The Leslie Nielsens come to mind. The Stacks of the World come to mind. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Okay. Maybe not the funniest, but man, was he great in doing that?

So they put together a book, did all those writers, co-authors of the movies and this new book called Surely You Can't Be Serious, The True Story of Airplane.

So, I thought it would be kind of cool to get the guys on to talk about how they did it, how they sold it, and how they dealt with success, because almost immediately they had to come back and do a sequel.

So, here is the interview that you can't wait to hear from the new book, Surely You Can't Be Serious. Here's my interview with the Zuckers and Jim Abrams. Can you fly this plane and land it? Surely you can't be serious. I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

And just like that, a book was forever characterized as airplane. It is now a book. It was a great movie, and it was long in coming. Dave Zucker, Jim Abrams, and Jerry Zucker now join us to talk about their brand new book, Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane and what it took to get done and what it took to cast it. And they finally put it all together in a book.

Hey, guys, thanks so much for joining me, and congratulations on this book. Thank you. All right, whose idea was it to recount well the building of the book, what it took to produce it, and the aftermath? Was it David, Jim or Jerry? Who's the five heads?

Really? Robert hasn't said yet. No, but we you know, we we saw we there was an article in the Onion A V Club, which was the oral history of airplane. I think we kind of got the idea to do it from that. And so we called up Will Harris, who was the author of the article, and he started doing interviews for us, and he interviewed us.

And then we did a mock up of the book, which Saint Martin's loved.

So uh it got to be they wanted to publish it and they we even added more when you guys were sitting around Jim, maybe you could start. When you guys were sitting around going over airplane and like, let's put this thing together, were you surprised at how much you remembered? Or were you more surprised at how much you needed each other to remember? Absolutely. It's good there were three of us because I think each of us remembered about a third of what went on.

And Sometimes it overlapped, but frequently it didn't.

So it helped. And that lots of times we'd be going through, and you'd say, Oh, that's what happened. Oh, I remember that. Oh, of course. That's you know, stuff like that.

So it very much helped. If we had, if it had been another 10 years. We would have needed a fourth partner or an undertaker. Airplane premiered July 2nd, 1980, with a budget of $3.5 million. It was a long time ago and it would make nearly $200 million in sales and influence comedians, and they're all over this book for generations.

But first off, could you tell us before we get into the book and I got a whole bunch of clips here to relive um David, will you tell me how this all came to be and how you laid your how you got your comedy legs underneath you?

Well, we started out, we were able to borrow some videotape equipment back in Milwaukee in 1971, and we started a theater. And then we had a fourth partner, Dick Chudnow, who wanted to do a live show.

So we combined it and we had videotape and live. And so we had a little theater in the back of a bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin. And then that was very successful. And then we moved the show out to Los Angeles. You know, we did that for five years, and during that time, we Saw a movie called Zero Hour, which was a 1957 black and white movie.

And it was that had the exact same plot as Airplane. And we thought this would be a great movie to form the structure for Airplane, and we added the jokes. But, Jerry, that was a serious movie, wasn't it? It was a serious movie. It was a 1957.

Black and white flying movie. And that's what we loved about it. It was that really hard-hitting drama where everyone took everything so seriously. But we also kind of loved it. I mean, it was actually a great plot, which we ended up buying the rights to, and written by Arthur Haley.

John Champion and others, and it was the perfect comedy. Because there was actually a line in Zero Hour where the doctor says, Stewardess, we have to find someone back there who not only can fly this plane, but who didn't have fish for dinner. And we just put that right in intact. You're not gonna believe it. We actually clip that clip.

Let's listen. I think you ought to know what our chances are. The life of everybody aboard depends on just one thing: finding someone back there who not only can fly this plane, but who didn't have fish for dinner. I think you ought to know what our chances are. The life of everyone on board depends upon just one thing.

Finding someone back there who can not only fly this plane. But who didn't have fish for dinner? Great. There's also, there's also a. Signature line because Zero Hour also provided the love story.

um that we tell in in airplane And there's a line, I don't know if you. Copy this or not, or but there's a line at the beginning where Elaine says to. T tens The girl says to the boy. Um I can't live with a man I don't respect.

So he has to get her respect back. And there was actually, for many years, people thought that David Zooker had written that line by himself based on a number of personal relationships that he had. He did. Yeah, a lot of the movie is autobiographical. Right, especially this line, cut three.

You ever been in a cockpit before? No, sir, I've never been up in a plane before. Have you ever seen a grown man naked?

Okay. So, Peter Graves delivered that line, and he was a little wary of that line, right, guys? Oh, yeah. When he read the script for the first time, he threw the script across the room and said, This is the worst piece of trash I've ever read. And who had to talk her back into it?

His agent to say, hey, guys, this is funny. Trust me on this?

Well, a big part of it was the producer Howard W. Koch. And he wouldn't when Paramount actually put him on. We had a producer, John Davison, but they put him on too because he was at the time this older guy. He's like 10 years younger than any of us are now.

But he knew all these people. And he used to be president of Paramount, president of the Academy, all that stuff.

So he brought Peter Graves. Called them and started, just meet the guys, just meet the guys. And I think Peter Graze was probably Surprised that we weren't the drugged-out crazies that he expected. And we seemed reasonable. And I think his family really liked it.

So he finally just said, You know, okay, what the heck? And we're certainly glad about that. We're talking to the authors and the movie producers, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrams on their brand new book. It's called Shirley You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane. I love the little button on it.

It says, Finally, a book you can judge by its cover, which I think is hysterical too. Through it, a couple of things about your background. This Kentucky Fried Theater that you put together, wasn't that all didn't you guys also, and whoever wants to answer this, Ken, wasn't that the precursor to SNL? Didn't you pitch SNL to NBC? We did not, but Lorne Michaels, the producer of SNL, came to see the show and he pitched the idea to NBC, and the idea was.

Based on Kentucky Fried Theater.

So, and we had gone, actually, we went to our agent saying we could do a national TV show based on our show. And the agent said, no, that's not a good idea.

So, and it was our fault for listening to an agent. That's unbelievable. But Lauren Michaels admits that, that you gave him the idea. Right. No, he was, you know, he was, and he never made any secret about it.

It's in the book about Saturday Night Live. And, but, you know, I mean, our opinion, he did a great job of it, probably, you know, better than we ever could. But we really wanted to write movies, and that's what we were focused on. Right. And you would go on to do that.

But talking about this one right here, what role did it play? David, that you had serious actors doing funny roles. Peter Graves was known as serious. Lloyd Bridge is known as serious. All these guys, Robert Stack, kind of serious.

Was that important for you? It was very important. I mean, if you think of. You know, like, I mean, it could be just a dumb pun saying, I am serious and don't call me Shirley, said by a comedian. It wouldn't have been funny, but said by Leslie Nielsen, it was funny.

And I think the first day's dailies kind of revealed that to all the studio executives who had it in our deal that we could be fired after the first two weeks. They didn't know if this concept would work. We made it, that's what made it so hard to pitch to studios that we were doing a comedy without comedians. And then jokes. The captain of the plane coming on to a little kid.

Would not have worked with a comedian, but with Peter Graves, somehow it was funny, and people did get the joke.

So, how great was that to hear these guys talk about the business of being funny and getting people to buy into sarcasm? and subtlety and getting these great actors to be funny and trust the copy.

Now to me, I didn't know how they got on the set and then were not trusting the copy. Why did they say do say it was okay like Lloyd Bridges to do it anyway? But by the way, how fascinating is it that his son's Pushed him to do the movie and show the funny side of him. And Leslie Nielsen, we all know how funny he would end up being in the Naked Gun movies. But meanwhile, when we come back right after the break, how close did David Letterman go to being a part of this cast as a pilot?

If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead. So glad you're here in the special edition of the Brian Kilmead Show. It's my privilege to bring on our continuing look at one of the funniest movies ever. Surely you can't be serious, the making of the airplane movies and who could have gotten cast.

We saw some great people cast. David Letterman was emerging, kind of an outstanding stand-up comic, and a fill-in for the tonight show for Johnny Carson. We all know that Letterman, to me, was the most influential guy on TV, by far the best. Carson was the all-time great, but Letterman was so niche and different, I would love to put it on in my family, and I would be the only one who thought he was unbelievably funny. I did not know that he, I know he was on a few series, I did not know how close he came to getting into movies.

movies into this movie.

So this is the story of Letterman. How he was almost cast in this movie, and how their relationship continued with the authors, the writers, and the directors. Listen.

So, you wanted originally David Letterman, and Letterman told you he couldn't act, and after his audition, You said you were right. Could you bring us through that? Wh where was Letterman at in his career at the time?

Well, he had He was a stand-up comic who was, and we had seen him. At the comedy store in Los Angeles. And he had also been on the Tonight Show a bunch of times, might have even hosted it, I'm not sure. But so he was very much up and coming. And um We, you know, we were really, but this was before we found Bob Hayes, and we were, we had seen so many.

Actors for Stryker, and none of them really seemed right to us. And Letterman, like, I mean, he's really, you know, he's a handsome guy, he's a brilliant comic. And so we thought, let's give him a shot. But I think. I think acting is not something he feels comfortable.

I mean, it's just too phony for him or something. You know, he's a great guy, Letterman. And, you know, I mean, I think most people in his position would have said, oh boy, I'm a feature film. This will be great. But he kind of knew that it wasn't for him.

And he was just uncomfortable even when he did it. He just wanted to get out of there. When Jerry called him up to tell him he didn't get the part, he was completely relieved.

So he was, you guys came on, Letterman. And here's his audition when you were there. They played it back, so that explains some of the laughter in the background. Cut nine. Yeah.

I got a telegram this morning from headquarters. Headquarters. Headquarters. What is it? It's a big building where the officers meet.

But that's not important right now. You're taking all the blame for what happened on that raid was a pretty courageous thing to do. Was it? Because of my mistake, six men didn't come back from that raid. Seven.

Lieutenant Zip died this morning. Chair Present be out in a week. Isn't that wonderful? I wish I could say the same thing for George Zip.

So it sounded good. You you can tell it didn't work, though. Why didn't we cast him? Yeah, he's great. Yeah.

Who's the wrong colour? He actually was, you know, he couldn't bad. Yeah. He probably could have done it, but he just wouldn't have. Uh he I mean He wasn't an actor and he knew it.

That's awesome.

So guys, before we go, I want to play some more cuss, but I do want to get to know a little bit about you. Growing up, David, Jim and Jerry, would you just tell me some of the movies where you said to yourself, I got a sense of humor and watching this movie proves to me that I want to be in this business. Do you guys have an individual movie that really stood out for you or a stand-up comic that said, This is what I want to do for a living? David, you want to start?

Well, it wasn't so much a movie, but we would read Mad Magazine. you know, we kind of that we're clued into the fact that you didn't have to take movies, you know, a hundred percent seriously. And Mad Magazine would have this feature called Scenes We'd Like to See. And so they would set up a situation and then just Completely reverse the outcome in a funny way. And I think we liked that.

And we would watch movies and put in our own voices and make fun of them to the extent that some of our friends swore they'd never watch a movie with us again. Yeah. Jim? Yeah, I think one of the early clues was movies like. The king and I Or the sound of music, where people would, drama would be going along, and then suddenly people would break into song.

And that just seemed so weird and i guess we don't do that in airplane but that was like What's this about? And do we really have to take this seriously? I feel the same way to this day, by the way. Jerry? Yeah, you know, I remember um When David and I saw Bananas, Woody Allen's film, and that to me was, I mean, we had a lot of, like David said, Mad Magazine, the Marx Brothers, all, you know, there's a lot of different stand-ups that we liked.

But that was at the point where we were in college and we actually. Came out of the movie and said, hey, we can do something like that. You know, that it just somehow it seemed. You know, accessible. If we'd seen Annie Hall, we would have never gone to Hollywood.

So, what I think you're going to really like next is how they got the serious actors like Leslie Nielsen, the serious actors like Lloyd Bridges and others to go ahead and do this movie and why they needed them to, because it would capture and really catch everybody by surprise. If you put comics in those roles, they knew what to expect. If you put people known to be great actors in those roles, Well, that will be part of the magic of the airplane movies. That story and the genius behind it next. News, unique opinions.

Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. So I asked my son and some of his friends to watch the airplane movies and say, is this a comedy that holds up? And he said, absolutely, Airplane's still funny today. And part of the reason it was funny is how it was cast with these serious actors and what went into it, how they had to convince him to get on board with it.

So here's more of my interview with the creators of Airplane. The Naked Gun movies are some of the funniest movies. You guys did that. The scary movie films. David, Jerry doing the police squad series was fantastic.

Ruthless People, Ghost. Jim Abrams, you co-wrote and directed Hot Chot, Ruthless People, Top Secret.

So you guys built off. That movie, this movie. Can you describe what your career was like after the movie was a hit? Uh Well, we got very arrogant and full of ourselves. That sounds exactly like people from Wisconsin.

Yeah. Well, I remember to this day. When I've probably been to a thousand parties or meetings or stuff since airplane, and people always, I can see when I'm meeting people for the first time, they say, oh boy, oh boy, here's one of the guys who did airplane. I know he's going to be really witty and funny and delightful. And then I start talking to them, and you can kind of see.

the shine go out of their eyes. as they realize I'm Not only particularly funny, but I'm sort of boring. And then finally, you know, they'll find someone like across the room and say, Hey, Ted, can we talk about something? Because it's sort of a disappointment. But airplane still is funny.

And that's why, you know, Jerry and I have a lot of parties, and we usually don't invite Jim for, you know, for that reason. Or embarrass, yeah. Right. And is he finding that out for the first time just now?

Well, Jim has no memory, so he's yes finding for the first time. Everything he's like finding Nemo has. As my children say, I'm aging badly. Nice kids you raised. That's very nice.

I just want to show everyone just a few examples. If someone's a comedian, you are Robin Williams, or you are Billy Crystal, they understand comedy as good, if not better, than you. But when you have somebody that trusts you not to ruin their career while making them funny, I think that just says a lot about you guys, especially without a big track record. I want people to hear, for example, I read that some of their kid, Bo Bridges' account, that they wanted their dad to do this movie to show that he had a sense of humor and that they loved to see him in this movie.

So here is an idea of Lloyd Bridges. And being Lloyd Bridges in your movie, Cut Six. It's like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking. It's like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking. It's like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines.

It's like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing blue. Mm.

So funny. And is it the fact that he's such a classically trained, serious guy was and and by the way, the top of his game at that point, did that make it even funnier? What The key for us was: we just never told the actors to play it straight, we said. Pretend that you don't know you're in a comedy. I mean, you have to really play it like.

Like it's just any real drama, like this is not, you're not going for laughs and. And we the three of us I mean that was The overriding vision, that was why we insisted on directing it because there was something we were going for there that we didn't trust anybody else. To do to that degree. And once everybody was on board, in terms of Being that absolutely serious and not. trying to be funny, and which which they all eventually did.

But we you know, the the movie was working and and uh it it was fun to shoot. Unfortunately, Lloyd was a trained actor.

So he actually was looking for a character and motivation and all sorts of stuff that real actors look for in a movie. And all we wanted him to do is just. Say the line seriously and play Lloyd Bridges. That's awesome.

So, I want to play two real quick. The most unique casting ever is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He was awesome in it. He was at the, I think, at the prime of his career in 1980, I guess. He wanted to be an actor, but he was known to be really serious and dour.

Cut for. Wait a minute. Yeah. You're Kareem Abdul Jabbar. You play basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers.

I'm sorry, son, but you must have me confused with someone else. My name is Roger Murdoch. I'm the co-pilot. You are? Kareem.

I've never seen you play. My dad's got seasoned tickets. I think you're the greatest, but my dad says you don't work hard enough on defense. And he says that lots of times you don't even run down court, and that you don't really try, except during the playoffs. The hell I don't.

Listen to you. I've been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I'm out there busting my buns every night. Tell your old man to drag Walton and Delnier up and down the court for 48 minutes. How great was that?

Could you bring any background to that one? Our first idea was Pete Rose. But it was baseball season and he was occupied.

So Kareem became a very, very fortunate second choice. And uh And and he was He just, of course, was not known as an actor. That wasn't his first skill. And so he was perfect because we could write more dialogue for him because there was that somewhat of a controversy. And when he when he became a pro.

He actually started Milwaukee. And they used to write. That kind of criticism all the time in the Milwaukee Journal, in the Milwaukee Sentinel. He doesn't work hard enough on defense. He only tries during the playoffs and stuff.

we kind of gave him a voice to Kind of tongue-in-cheek addresses critics. And in the book, we show a letter that Jim wrote to the Milwaukee Sentinel at the time. Uh defending Kareem. That is, did he? Was he fun with it?

Did he have a good time with it? Was he fun on the set or? He did. He was quiet and serious, but he had fun with it. And and He has since said how it really changed his image because he just had this image as this humorless guy, and then everybody suddenly sees that he can laugh at himself.

And uh lastly I think this is the most one of the most famous cuts of the movie. This is Jive Talk with Barbara Billingsley. Let's listen. Cut five. Can I get you something?

Shimofo butter land into the bone. Jack me up. Take me. I'm sorry, I don't understand. Cuddy say can't hang.

Oh, Stewardis, I speak Jive. Oh, good. He said that he's in great pain and he wants to know if you can help him. All right. Would you tell him to just relax and I'll be back as soon as I can with some medicine?

Just hang loose, blood. She's gonna catch up on a beat out of medside. What it is, big mama. My mama raised no dummies. I duck her rap.

Cut me some slack, Jeff. He says, Cuddy can't say slack. Chomp don't wanna help? Chomp? Don't get that.

Say, can't hang, say stepping up. Jive, ass dude, don't got no brains anyhow. Yeah. Yeah, it was the, you know, out of the mouth of someone who you at least expect to understand, you know, that dialogue. Uh and and so we we were lucky to get uh Barbara Billing.

who was uh Mrs. Cleaver. And did she have trouble learning Drive? The guys taught it to her, Al White, and watching on the set, Al White running jive lines with Barbara Billingsley. But those two guys, Norm Gibbs and Al White, wrote all their lines.

I mean, we didn't, we just wrote Mosho Mufa in the script. We didn't, you know, but just so people would sort of get what the joke was, but they came in and did it themselves. Fantastic. David Zucker, Jim Abrams, Jerry Zucker, the name of the book, Surely You Can't Be Serious, The True Story of Airplane. If you want to get anybody a present they weren't expecting that they will thoroughly love, pick up this book.

Thanks, guys, for doing it. Thanks for doing the movies, and thanks so much for your time. Sure. Thank you. I just love those guys.

Hysterical. I feel like they got to keep writing. I hope everybody goes out there and buys the book, especially if you grew up in the 80s and 90s when you saw that. All that background information on how they put it together and how they had to sell people in their brand of humor was just awesome.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd share this with you. You look at the job market, people say it's not hard to get a job these days. Not for Gen Zers. I just saw this montage, collage, of some Gen Zers complaining. On TikTok.

About jobs. I have my literal business market. Marketing degree, and I make more. Serving sushi rolls. 'Cause I was a I've been applying to working jobs.

for weeks now and the the pay cut is insane.

So they're upset about the payment. They're upset about how much I guess people are complaining about their jobs because when you're marketing, does anyone understand working your way up? This is what people are saying. The kids are coming out. They're smarter.

Before, maybe a little bit more worldly because of the connections they get through social media and maybe travel is more affordable than it was maybe in the 80s and 90s. But what they're not understanding is you cannot walk out of college, even if you have loans and there's a reason for it, and get a great job. What you do is you want a path for a career. Yeah, there's once in a while, I guess if you're a finance wizard with a PhD from Harvard, you're gonna walk out and get a great job, and everyone's gonna be buying for you. But for the most part, if you're a marketing person, you're gonna wake.

Very bad money. And sometimes you have to get a job along with that. In order for it to work?

So, I mean, I was doing a local show working a sports phone and waiting tables. I never thought anything of it. Never any free time. I didn't really care. When at it when I was done waiting tables at two in the morning, I would go out.

Had a local show, sold sponsorship, put all the money back into the show. And then one did Sportsphone. I probably made $15,000 a year. I thought it started at $12,500. To me, I didn't care.

I felt like I was on a path. I think you ought to explain to these kids and use their human resources. You're going on a path. You go down a path to learn a business, see if you like it. Most likely you do.

And then you work your way up. And then all of a sudden, they go, I gotta keep this guy. This woman's unbelievable. You know, we've got to make sure she doesn't get recruited by somebody else. I'm going to give her some more money.

Let her feel appreciated.

So you are making more money as a waiter. In a lot of these entry-level jobs.

So what? Hey, go to BrianKillMe.com. If you want a personalized copy of Booker T, Teddy and Booker T, order it today. This way I can make sure to personalize and get it out for you by Christmas. And hope to see everybody tonight in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

And don't forget, on Saturday, I'll be in Holland, Michigan, talking about the war on history, how to win it, and having some fun with your questions and your comments. And we reenact some great moments in history. better than Hamilton. Listen to the show ad-free on Fox News Podcast Plus, on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music with your Prime membership, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Hmm.