GOP Primary race heats up 4 days before Iowa Caucus; Haley +8?!

From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead. All right, this is Brian Kilmead. Absolutely, and we've got breaking news too, and two great guests this hour: Ned Ryan, American Majority CEO, as well as Ian Bremer, president of the Eurasia Group and author of the New York Times bestseller, The Power of Crisis. He's going to talk about the hot spots coming up 2024.

And man, there's a lot of them, but his contacts and his insight is just without Pierre. Just a quick note: I know this transcends sports. Bill Belichick out, mutual agreement with Bob Kraft, New England Patriots, after 24 years and six Super Bowl titles, multiple division titles. Just a dominant player, has not won much without Brady. He is going to be moving on more than likely.

Nick Sabin yesterday. I'm out as an Alabama coach. That's huge news, by the way. They're really good friends, about the same age. We'll see where he's landing and what it means.

So that's going to be interesting to find out and the behind-the-scenes story on that.

So let's get to the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know. No, it's Brian's big three. Number three.

So if you're within six feet of someone, Who is infected? Even though they're without symptoms, there is a possibility that that person can transmit it to you or you to another person. Are you kidding me? Did he actually say, Wow, great call. The Fauci fallacies.

Dr. Fauci confessed to lawmakers on Tuesday that guidelines to keep people six feet apart, which shut down schools, kind of made up, not based in fact, to limit the spread of COVID, sort of just disappeared without scientific input. Really? Unbelievable. The conspiracy theory about a lab leak that was called, maybe not a conspiracy theory.

And also, the mandates might have given us all vaccine hesitancy. The things that Fauci actually said behind closed doors in 14 hours of testimony will bring it your way. Number two. You don't get, as a witness, particularly as the son of the President of the United States, the right to tell a congressional committee how to conduct an investigation and how you're going to comply with a subpoena. If a congressional committee says we want to do a deposition before a public hearing, that's what you do.

That is Julian Epstein, who was kind enough to join us in Washington, D.C. yesterday, Democratic attorney, talking about the Hunter headache. The wayward, corrupt kid of the president, swaggers into House hearing, holding him in contempt for defying a subpoena, insisting he would testify publicly, and he's not avoiding telling his story. That's just not the way it works, as you just heard. The witness cannot call the shots.

Even the president's sons can't call the shots. Number Well, Christie getting out makes it really about who was on that debate stage last night. Can DeSantis overperform in Iowa? If he does that, that could keep DeSantis in the race until Super Tuesday in early March. And for Haley, it's about doing well enough in New Hampshire, maybe even scoring an upset so she can go into her home state of South Carolina after that and have a big win.

Robert Casa at CBS weighing in 2024 felt like Election Day yesterday with Trump in our town hall. DeSantis and Haley in their one-on-one first time ever. Chris Christie says, see you later. Huge day for the 2024 election, and we'll talk about it. Foreign policy did come up yesterday, and I felt good that Nikki Haley agrees with me that we have to back Ukraine.

It is in our interest. Tracking arms and tracking the money is great, and we got to do it. But we have to also supply them because Russia has bigger visions. Ian Bremer knows all about it, president of the Eurasia Group, and joins us today talking about the crisis he's liking to face us this year. Ian, welcome back.

Brian, happy new year, always good to be with you. Yeah, I mean, do you agree with Nikki Haley or more the J.D. Vances of the world who says, not our problem, focus on our border? I understand why they're making that argument, J.D. Vance and company, because it is increasingly popular among Americans saying why are we spending?

If you're not taking care of us, why are we taking care of people around the world? That's not the America that you and I grew up in. But unless you resolve the challenges that people are experiencing and in their communities, unless you meet voters where they are, you are not going to move them. And that is increasingly what we are experiencing in the United States. Yeah, so we're looking at this election now, and that is your risk number one when you outline the top ten risks of this year, because it's the United States against itself.

All the positives that we have don't matter if we can't get our act together.

So many positives. Our economy is doing so much better post COVID than either China's or any of the other wealthy democracies. We have the only global military capability in the world. But we also have a really dysfunctional political system. And we're the only rich democracy today that cannot have a free and fair election that's seen as legitimate.

By its population. And that's kind of fundamental to a democracy.

So yeah, the anger, the fundamental disagreement on what the facts even are that we're fighting over, that is more aligned with the kind of fighting we're presently seeing between Russia and Ukraine or Israel and Gaza than we see in an election and a democracy. Right. And it didn't just start with Trump. I remember in 2000, people were said George Bush was illegitimate, even though they ended up counting Florida and going to him. And then I remember in 2016, the people standing up and screaming at then Vice President Biden as he tried to gavel in the Electoral College and make Donald Trump the winner.

They had all the objections. And then it just hit warp speed on January 6th, and after the last election, and the pandemic had a lot to do with that, that brought legitimate questions into Ferrari even though Joe Biden legitimately won the election.

So the next one, the Middle East, on the brink. It's no longer in theory. This is daily. How worried are you? I think it is very hard to imagine that we will be able to contain the war largely to the territory of Gaza.

There are lots of ways that it can escalate. Certainly, in terms of Hezbollah and the Israelis trying to degrade that capability and move them back from the border in accordance with Security Council resolutions that have never been enacted. Also, the Houthis that the Americans have tried to deter, but they're continuing to expand their attacks in the Red Sea. Looks much more likely the U.S. and allies will hit them in their bases in Yemen.

That will expand the war significantly. The Iranian proxies that they are providing weapons to and supporting in their attacks against the United States, the Shia radicals in Iraq and Syria, more likely that we hit them in a bigger way as well. That could bring Iran into the war. And then finally, which we shouldn't forget about, millions and millions of Muslims around the world, not just in the region, but in Europe and the U.S., that will get more radicalized, some of whom will become violent. On the back of all of this fighting.

You look at all of that, Brian, and you have to be both lucky and really smart. To keep the war contained. Over the next couple couple months, I think it's much, much more likely that we'll be fine if this war expands. Yeah, both sides have to want to contain it for getting contained. How much longer can we ignore the Houthi rebels and put $2 million rock missile defense system rockets blocking their rockets or drones as they try to blow up commercial and military vessels?

I think that military plans to hit them hard are being drawn up right now. I hope so. We don't have a choice. Uh partition Ukraine. You think this war comes to an end this year?

No, but I do think that Ukraine gets functionally partitioned this year. And I want to be clear that I'm not saying I want that to happen. I say I think it's going to happen. And that is completely unacceptable to the Ukrainian people and their government. It's completely unacceptable to many frontline Europeans.

Um and to many in the United States. But if the Ukrainians don't have the military capacity to get their land back, and they increasingly don't have the manpower to fight. I mean, back in two years ago in twenty twenty two when the elex when the war started, when the Russians invaded, the average age of a new Ukrainian recruit was twenty six. Today it's in the mid forties.

So they're having a hard time just continuing to fight. And as you know, it is becoming much more politicized in the United States. This is how you asked me about Haley versus J.D. Vance. When Trump gets the nominee, the nomination, and I'm sure you and I both think he's going to, Um his opposition to further support for Ukraine will become uh much more uh the Republican party because everyone's gonna line up behind him.

It's gonna be much harder in that environment, and there are European problems too, um, to get the Ukrainians what they need to keep this fight going. Yeah, uh you know what? There was a If you just give them some semblance of an Air Force, they could have a heck of a spring.

So hopefully these F-16 fighters start changing that around because they fought gallantly. How many people is it roughly have the Russians lost? It looks to be a total of about 500,000 casualties. Do you believe this? 500,000.

I know it's crazy. That's not killed, and a lot of those people have been able to come back and fight.

So the headline number is insane. But also the Ukrainians are facing similar levels of casualties, and they only have forty four million people. The Russians have several times that number.

So I mean, the look, Putin has always felt that his Trump card in this war is the willingness of the Russian people to take pain. And to outlast. the West. that doesn't care as much. about this crisis, this fight.

About the Ukrainians as the Russians do. And in 2022, it looked like he was wrong. In 2023, you weren't so sure. In 2024, it increasingly looks like he's right. Ian Bremer with us.

We're going over the crisis points this coming year and the big risks. Ungoverned AI, how does that play out?

Well, at first To tell you that it's not just a risk, I'm very optimistic that the technological breakthroughs of AI will unlock massive human capital, productivity and efficiency in almost every sector of the global economy. It will feel like a new wave of globalization, a lot of growth coming off of AI. That's great. But these technologies are moving a lot faster than the ability to govern them. And given that, and given all of the countries and institutions and people that will have access to these tools.

A lot of people will use them for disinformation. That will undermine the US election. A lot of people will use them. for malware and coding for cyber attacks. And those weapons are dangerous.

And in twenty twenty four will be the first time I think we really see these things deployed at scale. That's the risk. Then you talk about you talk about the axis of rogues. You say it looks like there's an axis of evil. You could say rogues.

Russia, Iran, North Korea. As well as I I would put China in that, you don't. I don't. And there's a difference. China is an adversary of the United States, but China's not providing military support to Russia.

China wants the war between Russia and Ukraine to be a ceasefire. They want the Israel-Palestinian war to end because they need stability on the global stage for their economy to keep functioning. They still do business and trade with everyone around the world. Russia, North Korea, and Iran, they're rogues. They've been cut off.

Their assets are frozen. They've been sanctioned. They're not invited diplomatically to engage with other countries, the United States and the West.

So they're crisis actors. They're chaos actors. They want to destroy us. I mean, the Chinese don't like us, but they know they need us to be strong or their own economy is at risk. That's not the case for Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

And they're working together. The Russians don't fight this war well unless they get all of those drones from Iran, unless they get all of that artillery and ammunition from North Korea, and in return, The Russians are providing these countries with advanced technologies that they wouldn't otherwise have. Where are they going to use those technologies? Against us.

So this is becoming a bigger danger, and these three countries are They're not tiny and they're not weak. They have the ability to cause a lot of trouble globally. And you don't think China is going to recover? I've been reading all about this. It's so underreported.

Their economy is struggling. Their people are unmotivated. Young people aren't looking for a job. There's no women in that country. They're paying the price for the single child policy.

You see this too. I was just in China a few weeks ago. There are women in China. I can report that to you, Brian. But aside from that, all of that is correct.

The Chinese economy really had 40, 50 years of unprecedented growth with inexpensive labor that everybody needed. They were the factory of the world. That's not the way the economy works anymore. Their labor is much more expensive. We don't need as much of it.

We're focusing on friendshoring and inshoring with less labor requirements. And China has a huge internal debt problem: corporate unperforming debt, real estate bubble. After COVID, the consumer sentiment is still really, really low. People are saving a lot. They don't feel comfortable spending.

And that means much lower growth for the foreseeable future than you would otherwise expect. This is a challenge. Remember, 2008 financial crisis, we got out of it in part because the Chinese threw an enormous amount of money at shovel-ready products. That helped the global economy rebound. That's not what's happening in 2024.

All right. And just to finish up your top 10, because the fight for critical minerals, especially with this, the batteries, no room for error. You said global inflation shock. The El Nino is back. That's climate.

And risky business companies caught in the crossfire of U.S. culture wars and see the decision-making autonomy limited and their cost of doing business rise. But I want to bring you to news of the day. There's a huge debate, and I don't know if there's an answer in Bremer, on what happens when the military operation ends in Gaza. The word in Israel, they're towards throwing all the Palestinians out.

Could that be possible? I mean, would they just do that even though the U.S. and the rest of the Arab world doesn't want the Palestinians? Nga Nyahu yesterday denied it for the first time since the war started, but many ministers in his government have been actively promoting it, and he needs those ministers If he wants to stay in power, and if he loses power, he's going to jail in all likelihood.

So, I mean, you know, we've heard this story before. I think that look, there are two point three million people that live in Gaza, if you can call it living, and they want out because the infrastructure's been destroyed and they can't continue to live in this environment. But there's no way for them to leave. The Egyptians won't accept them in particular, because they know if they move to the Sinai, the Israelis will be very happy to take that territory, and they'll probably never come back.

So yeah, there is a push among many Israelis in power to engage in what we would consider to be ethnic cleansing. Um and there are there are reasons for Palestinians to escape. And I don't think that pressure is going away in the coming months as this war continues. A Mahmoud Abbas is not the answer. The Palestinian Authority has no popularity and they're corrupt.

So, the meeting with Blinken and a boss doesn't make anybody feel better. We have to take another hour and talk about the possibilities of what's next in just a terrible situation. Ian Bremer, thanks so much. Always great. I'm sure I'll be talking soon.

Take it easy, Brian. You got it. 1-866-408-7669. Ned Ryan at the bottom of the hour. We're going to go over the debates last night, the one-on-one, Chris Christie's decision, the off-mic moment, as well as Donald Trump's town hall.

You're listening to the Brian Kilmead Show. Diving deep into today's top stories, it's Brian Kilmead. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Killmead. They use that narrative because they have nothing else.

Now, the new narrative they have, as you notice, I'm going to be a dictator. That's going to be the new narrative because. A guy like Biden, there's nothing he can run on. Everything he's turned out, it's turned out badly. I'm not going to have time for retribution.

We're going to make this country so successful again. I'm not going to have time for retribution. And And remember this. Our ultimate retribution is success. Yeah, welcome back, everyone.

Donald Trump was just brilliant. It's so simple, but he never really does a simple thing. What are the two criticisms that people have on him? He says he's going to be a dictator. He had a sarcastic answer to Sean Hennerty's question.

To anyone, Clear thinking, they know he was kidding, said I'll be a dictator on day one with oil and border. And then was like, he told you he was going to be a dictator.

So he just says, I was kidding, said it. And then he said, about retribution. It's a good question from the audience. And he said, no time for retribution moving forward.

So, anybody who says he's going to have a four-year term of revenge, he just puts it to bed. You could speculate. But now you can't use his words.

So he was relaxed, he was insightful, he feels like he's winning already. And with Chris Christie dropping out and not endorsing Nikki Haley. Feels better. I'm going to play that when we come back. I'm going to play the off-mike moment that caught Chris Chrissy on Mike that really prevents him from endorsing Nikki Haley.

I'll let you know why. The more you listen, the more you'll know it's Brian Killmead. We know we're right. but they don't want to hear it. And there's, you know, we couldn't have been any clearer.

Right. We couldn't have been any more direct or worked any harder.

So, yeah, I mean, look, she spent 68 million so far just on TV. Spent 16 million so far. 59 million by DeSantis and we spent 12. I mean, who's punching above their weight and who's getting a return on their investment, you know? And she's going to get smoked.

And you and I both know it. She's not up to this. And I talked to, DeSantis called me.

Okay. Petrified that I would and right there, they killed his mic. And evidently, so he was mic'd up. He got a phone call just before his presser, his town hall, when he was admitting, I'm bowing out, I'm done. At which time you just heard him.

He was talking about Nikki Haley not being up for this. She's going to get smoked. Even though one of the polls showed her close, the other one shows her 20 points off.

Now, If Chris Christie, who defended her on the stage a couple of debates ago, I thought was going to just debate her, I was going to bow out and support her, especially because they're both friends with Sununu. Sununu supported her. But there's no way he could possibly sincerely support her now. When she says she's not up for this, spend too much money. and is going to get killed.

So, I guess he just bows out now. But it's amazing to me these off-mic moments from experienced people. And by the way, who leaked that out? There's another story, too. Ned Ryan joined us now, American Majority CEO and founder and former presidential writer for President George W.

Bush, an all-around smart guy and dare I say, very athletic. Ned, is it is there if I called Ned Ryan athletic? I would say I had some claims to it in the past. And of course, my father has a much greater claim on being a great athlete.

So I try, but those days are past. One of America's finest track athletes and What was his best time in the mile? You know, his birth time was three hundred fifty one. And he also had the mile world record. He had the 1500 world record, which I think was actually a superior time, Brian, 333-1.

And then he also held the half-mile world record and obviously a three-time Olympian. Also a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. which I thought was a very nice touch by President Trump, who First time I ever met with President Trump, we spent the first half of the meeting talking about my dad because he turned out to be a huge fan of my dad's running career.

So it was really nice of him to actually give him that medal. Because Wild World of Sports used to cover it: Dave Waddell, your dad. Oh, right. We used to know these guys. We used to know.

I'm trying to stone, what was his first name? Uh used to go over that Oh, Dwight. Dwight Stones. Dwight Stones. Yep.

He used to be the high jumper.

So we used to know these guys. The Why World of Sports used to wait. There was no ESPN. I remember being really young, no ESPN. And you used to watch that.

That's how we got to know your dad. And who was the runner who put who always wore the hat and w would put a safety pin it? Who? Oh, so Dave Waddell wore the hat. Dave Waddell was the one.

He won the gold medal in 1972, 800 meters. He was known for his beat-up old white hat, which He wore in the Munich Olympics, won the gold medal. Uh but yeah, that was that was Dave Waddell, who was obviously one of our great half milers. And I actually ended up it's kind of funny, in the nineteen seventy two Olympic trials, first event was the eight hundred. My dad went a little too early, too soon.

Dave Waddell ended up winning My dad did not make the team, and then my dad had his revenge on Dave in the one five hundred meter final, beat him, won the one thousand five hundred, obviously made his third Olympic team that year.

So interesting.

So, Ned, to something less important, like that off-mic moment by Chris Christie, where he says that Nikki Haley is not ready for it. What's your thoughts on this?

Well, first of all Again, you made this point. These guys have been in politics for years. How do you not know not to be talking about these things on a hot mic? Right? This is happening again and again these days.

Well, no, it is pretty interesting, right? I think a lot of people assume if and when, and I thought it was more likely when Chris Christie dropped out, that he would turn around and endorse Nikki Haley. That is obviously not the case. He's not going to do that. Because I think he's being realistic.

This might be one of the only times I have agreed with Chris Christie in recent times. That Nikki's going to get smoked. She's going to get smoked in Iowa. uh as is i think ron desantis they're going to go into new hampshire I have to tell you, I don't believe that it's actually that close in New Hampshire. I know there's that one poll that you mentioned that shows it within eight or nine points, whatever it is.

I tend to think she's still down twenty, and Donald Trump's going to come out of Iowa with a head of steam and momentum. And I don't see her beating him in New Hampshire. And I think she goes to South Carolina, her home state, and I think he also trounces her there.

So, a couple of reasons why I think it could be closer, and we know that New Hampshire, you could be a Democrat, and you go, you know what, I'm going to create some havoc. I'm going to go vote for Nikki Haley. I'm going to go extend this. And or, you know, I got nobody to vote for.

Some people legitimately say, you know, I got no one to vote for. There's no Democratic primary.

So I'm just going to be I'm going to the moderate people could go for somebody who's looked at as more moderate than Donald Trump. My comeback would be a little bit, I think Ron DeSantis drops out after Iowa. I do. I don't think it's going to go well for him next week. I think he'll drop out.

He's got some following in New Hampshire. I think those voters go to Donald Trump.

So I think there'll be obviously some offset to whatever dynamics take place with Chris Christie dropping out, obviously Open Prime, all that thing, all those dynamics. I just have a hard time believing it's going to be a single-digit win for Trump. I think it'll be double-digits, but if it's close, I still think he wins. And I I I have to tell you, Brian, I I've never thought this was that terribly competitive a primary. I thought this was over six, seven months ago.

But I'm more and more convinced this will absolutely one hundred percent be over on march fifth, right? Super Tuesday. There'll be such a number of delegates up for grabs. Trump's going to win the majority of them. He will make it.

Basically, mathematically impossible to be beaten after Super Tuesday.

So I would say whatever happens between now and March 5th, I think it's over definitively on March 5th. Ned, excuse me for not knowing this. Are you a lawyer? I am not a lawyer.

Okay, so for the President of the United States, I think his strategy, his legal strategy, is his political strategy. Make it a knockout early.

So if he has to sit in court in March, he is the presumed nominee. It's not a guy competing. Number one, it keeps him from go compa campaigning. Number two, he wants everyone to know I am the opponent of the president and he's attacking me. One hundred percent.

And I think this whole thing, this whole situation in Georgia with with Fannie Willis and her boyfriend and fraudulent use of taxpayer dollars. Oh, by the way, this boyfriend going to the White House twice, having his trips reimbursed, discussing january sixth prosecutions before any indictments tells me It's pretty obvious that the Biden White House was very much involved in getting a local Democratic prosecutor to help take out their chief political opponent. I think you're going to see more of this dynamic taking place, Brian, as we progress through this year. But I think some of these other cases, which I have considered purely political, Are going to start to fall apart as more and more people look at what's taking place. Obviously, things like this with Fannie Willis breaking out.

And I think, yeah, Donald Trump's going to have locked up the nomination. I think there's going to be a lot of other dynamics in these political, this political lawfare. is taking place, that's only going to benefit him even more. And I think he's going to gain momentum through the summer. And then it becomes a question of are you going to actually do the necessary things like absentee balaches to secure the victory in November?

Yeah, it's going to be fascinating because the thing is, you could be the most astute political observer ever. You could tell me you've been covering everybody since Kennedy Nixon. I got it. It doesn't matter. Throw all that out because we've never seen anything like this.

We've never seen a man this old failing this precipitously. Don't tell me Barack Obama was doing more controversial policies. Barack Obama could campaign. Bill Clinton could get impeached and campaign. They both have charisma and presence and talent.

The talent, any talent Joe Biden had has left. Everything that he has talent or intelligence. Yeah, well, it's gone. He's lost like five steps, and that's being generous. No, I think this is the thing too.

Everybody thinks that somehow Trump's running in a vacuum. That somehow it's all about Trump and all these things are taking place. He's not running in a vacuum. Joe Biden had a lot of problems. right, the impeachment inquiry, I think there's going to be more stuff coming out on that.

Let's face it, Hunter Biden's not going away. This is a story that's going to be a drip, drip, drip throughout the year. I think there's a lot of different dynamics. Bidenomics is not working. And then you gotta look at the southern border.

What an absolute disaster and crisis. And the thing is, I call the people that don't really follow politics the normies. It's breaking through to the normies that there is a real crisis on the southern border. The Bidenomics is failing. All of these issues.

So Donald Trump's not running in a vacuum. All of these issues are going to be working in his favor as well, as I think the political law affair starts to fall apart again. And here's what's brilliant: because of Governor DeSantis and Governor Abbott, especially taking these illegal immigrants and saying, this is your problem, America, not Texas and Arizona. You go deal with it, and then you're a sanctuary city, a right-to-shelter state.

Okay, what is your argument? Oh, I have none. And now you're affecting average, everyday people. And of course, you stick them in minority areas who don't have the political power to push back, like the places in Brooklyn and James Madison University, high school. And now it's affecting everybody.

And all Trump does is, I wouldn't have done that. And I showed you what I would have done. I tried to get the border fixed. The only people blocking me. Was Democrats.

I tried to get rid of sanctuary cities. Democratic judges stopped it.

So you don't even have to get me a 30-second ad on it. No, and so I There are a couple of things I want people to be thinking about as they listen. One, We think that there will be, and I think this is a low number, Brian. 12 million illegal immigrants arrested at the border in Biden's first term, hopefully, his last, by the way. Of that, Mayorkis pretty much admitted to Brett Baer over the weekend that seventy percent of those have been released, meaning there's over ten million illegal immigrants that have been brought into this country in the last four years.

And the other thing that people need to be thinking about is why are they doing this? Why won't they fix this problem? I would argue it's raw politics. Democrats think they're importing new voters. And I think it's incumbent upon hopefully if Donald Trump wins, and I'm optimistic, that he immediately secures the southern border, I would argue puts at least a short term moratorium on immigration.

And we have to have a hard look at these ten million illegals that have been imported into this country to hopefully in Democrats thinking become new voters and say, sorry, we got to deport you. You got to go back, you got to go back to the back of the line, and we've got to start thinking about how we do this correctly. The other thing, though, and Republicans need to start doing this. They don't even have to get into those details. They need to start talking about.

We have a national security crisis on our southern border. We don't even know who's coming in, Brian. In this day and age, when there are a lot of people that hate us around the globe, whether it's radical Islamic terrorists. Whether it's Chinese nationals, we have no idea. national security and also it's a fentanyl crisis.

We have a crisis on our border that you can do in 30 seconds at, and Republicans had better start doing it and communicating to the American people national security and a drug crisis. And we need to stop it. We need to stop it immediately. And we are the only ones that will actually do it with Donald Trump in the White House. Yeah, we're going to see what's going to happen.

Lastly, Ned, you've seen a lot of times where the Secretary of State doesn't like Secretary of Defense, case in point, Cohen, Powell, and Rumsfeld. That doesn't bother me. You know, Schultz and Caspar Weinberg evidently didn't get along.

Okay, does not bother me. Fun. Yeah, it's okay. But I've never seen a Secretary of Defense disappear for two weeks in the middle of the Middle East in flames. Nobody knows.

No chief of staff was involved. No deputy was informed. The president didn't know. He's got cancer, still in the hospital. We got a hot conflict right in the Red Sea at this moment.

Can you make sense of the chain of command falling apart? Nobody's being fired. And what planet can a Secretary of Defense disappear for two weeks and the president not know it?

Well, I think it probably calls into well, first of all, it highlights again, I think, the massive incompetence of this administration. Like, how do you not know where your Secretary of Defense is? How do you not know he's in the hospital? Absolutely serious. How are you not talking to him every day?

How do you not talking to them at the same time? Boy, I gotta really ask the question again, who's actually in charge? Who's in charge of this administration? And did that person, and I'm insinuating it's not Biden, did that person actually know where Lloyd Austin was? I just think there's massive incompetence being displayed And I think hopefully the American people look into this going, we actually need the adults back in charge.

Do you notice what I just said had nothing to do with politics? Zero. This is the mechanics of an administration. This is your audition, your final year. You are famous.

Yes. And they're not. And they'd be they'd be rocking Trump. You can't run an administration. You don't know how to appoint people.

They don't feel as though they got to report to you. The whole place is running wild. Nobody's in charge. Can you imagine what other networks would be doing if this was Trump's Secretary of Defense just disappearing in the middle of Middle East turmoil? nonstop twenty four seven, glaring headlines, constantly hammering on him.

And on top of this incompetence, all your policies on every front are failing, whether it's economics, whether it's immigration, foreign policy, everything is a disaster. And oh, by the way, you're incompetent. Ned, I'll talk to you soon. He's the CEO of America Majority, founder and former presidential founder, I should say, and former presidential speechwriter for W. Ned, thanks.

Thanks, Brian. All right. Listen, we come back. I'm going to squeeze in some calls. Also, this huge football news that transcends whether you're a sports fan or not.

I'll go over it when we return. Politics, current events, and news that affects you. Brian's got a lot more to say. Stay with Brian Kilmead. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it.

You're with Brian Kilmead. His impact on New England, what he's done in New England, it'll never be matched. It'll never be matched across any other organization in terms of the Super Bowl appearances, the Super Bowl victories, all the winning that he's done. I was very lucky to be a small part of that and be a player under him and learn about truly what it takes to win football games. You know, Brady, I was with Coach Belichick when he was an assistant coach in 96 under Bill Parcel's staff, and he was only like the secondary coach and he would speak up in meetings rarely.

So it went from there to Pete Carroll to Bill coming back and going 5-11 our first year to turning it into what it is now and him maintaining that for so many years. That is Teddy Bruski, the outstanding linebacker who had a brain aneurysm, too. He was really hurt, but a fantastic player, ESPN broadcaster, commenting on the closing out of the Belichick era in New England. The second most winningest coach in NFL history, but he actually has lost more games than anyone else in history, too. But he's way over 500 for his career.

Now at 70, he's going to look to go elsewhere by all indications. We could be surprised by it. But it looks like he looks to go elsewhere.

Now, that means Brady, we know, is gone.

Now it looks like Belichick's gone. Robert Kraft will try to see if he can win. Without either one of these guys for the first time in 24 years, right? 24 years.

Now, he was coaching ahead, Bill Parcells. Bill Parcells got him to a Super Bowl, they didn't win it. They didn't win it. They did, in fact, lose to the Green Bay Packers. The only time Aaron Rodgers had, excuse me, Brett Favre had won that Super Bowl, got it.

Then Parcells leaves. And Belichick, uh they go to the Jets. The Jets have Bill Parcells in charge, and then he ascends to become general manager and he gives it over to Belichick. Belichick takes it for a day and just says, No, I don't want to do this. Then he goes to Robert Kraft.

Kraft goes, I'd love to hire you. And he does, and they have this success. But they weren't doing great when Drew Bledsoe was quarterback, even though he was the number one pick overall. It wasn't until Mo Lewis knocks Drew Bledsoe out of the game, and I think his spleen ripped, had to go to the hospital. And this unproven six-round draft pick named Tom Brady takes over.

They get on such a roll when Drew Bledsoe gets healthy. Belichick has this c press conference and says I gotta stay with Brady. Bledsoe does play in the playoffs. They get to the Super Bowl, and with U2 playing at halftime and 9-11, Brady wins his first Super Bowl. And it was it was a really balanced running game.

It was against the greatest show on earth, against the Rams. That's when the allegation of cheating came out. Then you had Deflate Gate years later.

So controversial, direct. gives the worst press conferences ever, says uh two or three words. Bud, he put together a heck of a system, but can he win without Brady? I think that is something that will push him to another team. But he's not going to go a rebuilding situation.

He's going to go to a team with a high draft pick or with an established quarterback and look to win within three years. That's my view. It's going to be a press conference in about two hours. We'll see what happens from there, and a lot of speculation. And there's also going to be an eight-part series on Apple based on a book called Dynasty that will really bring you inside the Patriot Dynasty.

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

Thanks so much for being here. Down the street, right here in New York City, Donald Trump will find out with closing arguments, if he can give closing arguments, will be able to persuade a judge who's clearly partisan and against him in his civil case. They're trying to bankrupt him. They won $340 million, this Attorney General, saying he overestimates his properties. This is part of the reason why he got political momentum like a tornado, because this is an overstatement.

I watched David Oxelrod on CNN. He's like, yeah, I don't know what they're doing in New York. He didn't know what they were doing with Alvin Bragg with the other charges in New York. They could be facing prison time. And now we have this corruption in Georgia, which shows a direct link to the Biden White House.

So, the Trump trials are continuing. We have a lot going on, including on an unrelated note: Bill Belichick is no longer the coach of the Patriots, is going to be a press hurt sometime today. And also, you have Nick Sabin, the most successful coach in modern times in college sports, let alone football. He says, I'm done, and he surprised everyone by saying it. Not me.

I heard over the weekend, last weekend, that he had had it with these new rules or lack thereof in football. These kids walking up to him and saying, Coach, I'm going into the portal unless I get more money. Really? More money? You mean more books?

No? More money. He says, that's not what I signed up for.

So he's out. Big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three.

So if you're within six feet of someone. Who is infected? Even though they're without symptoms, there is a possibility that that person can transmit it to you or you to another person. It's unbelievable, right? Anthony Fauci, behind closed doors for 14 hours, now backtracking on just about everything that he claimed.

The Fauci fallacies, I call them. He confessed to lawmakers on Tuesday, the guidelines to keep six feet apart, not based on anything. To limit the spread of COVID-19, not really.

Sort of just appeared, he said, without scientific input. Really? Every school was closed because of that. Unbelievable. He also told the panel he's not convinced kids suffered due to not being in school.

Where do you go with this guy? Number two. You don't get as a witness, particularly as the son of the President of the United States, the right to tell a congressional committee how to conduct an investigation and how you're going to comply with a subpoena. If a congressional committee says we want to do a deposition before a public hearing, that's what you do. Right.

That is Democratic Attorney Julian Epstein in studio with me yesterday responding to the antics by Hunter Biden, who walked into his contempt hearing and didn't say anything and then just left. The Hunter headache, the wayward corrupt kid of the president, swaggers into a House hearing, as I mentioned, defying a subpoena because he won't go behind closed doors, insisting he'll only go public. That's just not the way it works. Number Well, Christy getting out makes it really about who was on that debate stage last night. Can DeSantis overperform in Iowa?

If he does that, that could keep DeSantis in the race until Super Tuesday in early March. And for Haley, it's about doing well enough in New Hampshire, maybe even scoring an upset so she can go into her home state of South Carolina after that and have a big win. There you go, Robert Costa on CBS 2024. It felt like it was Election Day with Trump in a town hall. On Fox, DeSantis and Haley.

I had a one-on-one debate for the first time, and Chris Christie says, I'm calling it quits. Huge day for 2024. Let's bring in Mark Thiessen on that. Mark, I think it was three straight town halls. You really got a chance to know the candidates on Fox.

You had Monday with Nikki Haley, Tuesday with DeSantis, yesterday with Donald Trump. Do you believe? That things have changed this week in the final days before Iowa and just about a week before New Hampshire. Yeah. I think Christy getting out is a big boost for Nikki Haley because he had about close to 10% in New Hampshire.

His supporters aren't going to go to DeSantis or to Trump.

So they probably will consolidate around Haley.

So that puts her, and she's within a few points of Trump in New Hampshire right now.

So she's gaining ground in New Hampshire. I was going to be fascinating. I was just looking at the weather like that because I'm going out there on Sunday. Sunday is a high of minus five and a low of minus 15. I don't know what that does to turn out and who which candidates that benefit, but there are, you know, these people are going to be pretty have to be pretty hardy to go up and go out there and show up to the caucus.

Right, so here's what Chris Christie got caught on a hot mic. I think this prevents him from sincerely actually supporting. Governor Haley, cut to. We know we're right. But they don't want to hear it.

And there's, you know, we couldn't have been any clearer. We couldn't have been any more director, worked any harder.

So, yeah, I mean, look, she spent 68 million so far just on TV. Spent $16 million so far. 59 million by DeSantis, and we spent 12. I mean, who's punching above their weight and who's getting a return on their investment? And she's going to get smoked.

And you and I both know it. She's not up to this. I talked to DeSantis called me. Petrified that I would. And I think it was petrified that he was going to endorse Haley.

We don't know, but my goodness, how we were responsible and then who leaked this out. But that's how he feels. With that out, can you possibly sincerely endorse Nikki Haley? I don't know, but I don't know that Chris Christie endorsing Haley matters. I think if he's not an option, his voters are probably going to go to her because they're not going to go to DeSantis and Trump.

You know, Chris Christie, I like him. I agree with a lot of him on a lot of things, but his campaign never had a chance and he stayed in much longer than he should have. And also, his advice to the candidates was really bad because he was saying you guys don't have the courage to attack Donald Trump. It's like, I'm sorry, but whoever is going to win the Republican nomination has to win over Trump voters eventually, right? The way you win the nomination and beat Trump is to say, look, Trump was a great president, but he's not going to win the election.

It's to say, if you want to beat Joe Biden, in Haley's cases, I'm 17 points up over Biden in the Wall Street Journal poll. I'm 12 points up in the Marquette poll. I've win Wisconsin by 13 points in the New York Times poll. I can win and I can get that. I have lots of respect for President Trump and his presidency.

He was the right man for the right time, but this isn't his time. That's persuasive to some Trump supporters, who people who, you know, who to go out and attack him is like a kamikaze mission, it's suicidal. And like most kamikaze pilots, Chris Crispy is lying in the wreckage on the bottom of the seafloor right now. Yeah, I'll touch back on Trump in a second. I want to give you a little sense of the sparring that took place last night between Haley and Ron DeSantis.

What significance the first time we had a one-on-one cut 16? If leadership's about getting things done, how did you blow through $150 million in your campaign and you were down in the poll?

So here's the thing. You are not a manager. No, now I'm going to go ahead and do that. I think it's very instructive about what he sees the world. I think I have the floor.

I have Governor DeSantis. That's as important as the story. Governor Haley has the floor. What is more important here? She's saying somehow.

It's Governor Haley's time. Go ahead. I think I hit a nerve.

So they did spend a lot of money.

So they went back and forth on that. But it was very contentious. Yeah, because they are the two people left standing. And look, there are two primaries taking place: there's the primary to take on Trump and the primary against Trump. And the primary to take on Trump is narrowed down to two candidates.

And so Iowa is going to be the first place for some sifting of that primary. You know, I think in Iowa, the question is: can Donald Trump overperform, right?

So one of the things that we've seen is that up until now, in none of these primary states, has he got a majority of the Republican support. He's always been in sort of the mid-to-low 40s, right? And so it means the majority supported somebody else, but now he's over 50% in some of the polls in Iowa. He needs to perform over 50% to be able to say, I got a majority of the voters, which would probably be one of the best performances by anyone in an Iowa caucus ever, if he was able to do that. And then we gotta see where, you know, the the what's w what we're watching for is second place.

And does somebody pull ahead? Is it a horse race? Are they separated by a few points? Or can Governor DeSantis really get close to Trump? Can he get into the thirties?

Can he pull up a decisive second place? If he can, then he's got some life. If he basically just ties Nikki Haley or even worse, loses to Nikki Haley in New Hampshire, he's done. And then it becomes a two-person race going into New Hampshire, really.

So he's been all of his marbles on Iowa, so he's got to deliver a strong performance. You know, I know both of us are in the same situation. I'm not looking at dual screens. We're both traveling, and I need to watch the town hall and the debate at the same time and then watch the repeat in the morning.

So I'm lucky enough to get up at 2:30.

So I'm seeing these stuff plays. I didn't join you in that, Brian. Right. I texted you, you didn't answer, so I watched by myself.

So Donald Trump did a few things I think were important. Here's one of them: cut three. I'm not going to have time for retribution. We're going to make this country so successful again. I'm not going to have time for retribution.

And remember this, our ultimate retribution is success.

So that's the big thing they said. It's going to be a term of retribution. He's not going to be out there for us. Then he answered this question about dictator, cut four. They use that narrative because they have nothing else.

Now the new narrative they have, as you know, is I'm going to be a dictator. That's going to be the new narrative because a guy like Biden, there's nothing he can run on. Everything he's turned out, it's turned out badly. And we went on to say I was kidding with Sean Hannity. I was having some fun and then people want to take that statement and he clarified.

I am going to come down and crack on the border and drill right away. That he says he'll do.

So he's going to make it a little harder to wail away on him on the other channels. Except, so here's the thing. Donald Trump, number one, he's incredibly charming. And if you've spent any time with him, as I have and you have, you know that, that he can turn on the charm. He's a very compelling individual.

His rallies, he's charming. That's why his supporters love him so much. And two, it seems like he was pretty disciplined yes last night. He was. The question is, can he be disciplined over a season as opposed to one game?

Right? You know, in sports, there's that player who goes out and plays amazing one game and then disappears or is a net liability on the other games. It's like he's got to do that for an entire campaign season. I don't know that he has the discipline to do that.

So that's what I worry about. Look, I think that Donald Trump was one of the best presidents we've ever had in the history of this country. But the reality is, this election is not going to get decided by Republican voters. It's not going to get decided by the people who are rallying around him because of the indictments. It's going to get decided by a few thousand independent voters in a handful of swing states, and they can't stand him.

So we're faced with a choice. if this comes down to a Haley Trump choice, which I think that's where it's headed once we get to South Carolina, if the question is, do you want a candidate who these independent swing voters have to choke down their bile to vote for because they hate Joe Biden? Or do you want someone they're going to r enthusiastically rally around and who can deliver a landslide? Because that's where we are. I mean, Joe Biden is the most unpopular president in the history of polling.

And in the real fair politics average today, Trump is beating him by 1.2%, which is a statistical tie. He should be crushing Joe Biden. Should be absolutely crushing Joe Biden. Who's crushing Joe Biden in the polls? Nikki Haley.

She's the only candidate who beats him by double digits consistently in the polls. Why doesn't DeSantis crush Biden then? I don't know. You know, that clip you just played where he was sort of, he was, one, he's just not very warm and fuzzy. And I think that stuff matters in politics.

I mean, one of Trump's, you know, Trump's qualities that people like about it is he's incredibly charming and funny, right? DeSantis isn't charming and funny. And then, two, he says, the way he was just sort of barreling through her, it's unappealing. And I think he also made a tactical mistake, which is he went after the hardcore MAGA vote and positioned himself in that way instead of trying to win over soft MAGA voters and non-Trump voters. And that's where that's those are the available votes in the Republican primary.

And so the hard MAGA voters aren't going to DeSantis. They may like DeSantis. They may think, oh, maybe in four years, he'd be a great person to run for president. They're not going to vote for him. You had to win over soft MAGA voters who like Trump, but are sort of open to other alternatives.

And you have to go after the non-Trump voters. And he's sort of, they're not interested in him. Yeah, I know, but if anyone could be Biden. 'Kay. Then DeSantis, one of the most talented and with the best report card ever, should be trouncing Biden too.

Because even though Haley and he are different, I'll give you that. But he's not. And I don't know, you know, I don't know. Like, that's the whole thing. People are like, well, Trump's so polarizing.

I know, but DeSantis is not really polarizing. I admit you, there's two things you need: you need to be able to get the job, and then you need to be able to do the job. DeSantis, I think, can do the job.

So the question is: can he get the job? And what's a mystery about it, Brian, is he just ran one of the best gubernatorial campaigns anybody's ever run in the history of American politics. And how does he turn around and a few months later run one of the worst presidential campaigns anybody's ever run? It's mystifying. This is a guy who won independence by double digits, won the state by 20 points, won women, won Hispanics, one, you know, just broke every record you could in Florida politics.

And then he turns around and just alienates all those same constituencies on a president on a national level. It's just mind-boggling. I don't understand it. But, you know, people in history, people run offensive, most of the time, people who get elected president, they don't get it on their first time. Trump's an anomaly that way.

And Barack Obama was kind of an anomaly that way. But throughout history, most people go for it once or twice before they finally win. And maybe he's got a few, maybe he'll do it in the future. Yeah, Marks Connolly has right now says, you have a chance this year, Republicans. Do you want to toss up or a landslide?

And you just heard a little bit about what his premise is. Last Joe Manchino, I saw two weeks ago. I think he's going to Iowa. He's going to go start touring around a listening tour. I think he is in on no labels.

Now, if you don't think he can win, okay, I got it. But do you remember how. You remember how everything changed when we had a third candidate, a legitimate third candidate in there? And now, could everything change again with Joe Manchin in there, maybe running with a Mitt Romney or a Governor Huntsman or somebody like that? We know that Jill Stein changed the nature of some of the election.

With Joe Manchin's in, And he qualifies for the debates. My goodness. Yeah, so one, it could be Joe Mansion, but also no labels polling has shown, because they have not committed to necessarily having a Democrat at the top of the ticket. No labels polling has shown that they actually do better with a Republican at the top of their ticket.

So it could be Johnson, it could be Kristen Noonan. Um that would be quite a quite an interesting uh quite an interesting thing. And look, I think that no labels the third party has never won an American politics. It's like you know, it's it's the uh ultimate, you know, you know, Of missing calls that never seem to work out. I think this year is different because you look at.

The polling, and the one thing that Americans agree on is they don't want a Trump-Biden rematch. The super majority, 70% of the Americans don't want to win a Trump Biden rematch, and they're probably going to maybe get one if they do get one. They have no state haven to go to if you're if you don't want you're one of them. Democrats aren't going to vote for Trump, Republicans aren't going to vote for Biden. But if you have a third-party ticket that's serious, the serious people want it, there's a lot of people who look at that and say that's a safe place for me to go.

I may vote for that. Yeah, they may get me off the couch. Mark Thiessen, thanks so much. Fascinating time. It's going to be a big weekend.

We finally get some results in Iowa. Mark Thiessen, thank you. Take care, Brian. You got it. Listen, Dan Bilak, we go over to Ukraine at the bottom of the hour, but next it's about you, 1-866-408-7669.

It's Brian Killmead. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. The call would tell me that my daughter Isabella had brain cancer. And, you know, we'd all been sitting here at the desk.

A few days before, I was saying that, you know, she commented that she was having headaches. But she's a freshman in college. She's enjoying college life. And I didn't think much of it when I mentioned that to you here at the desk. I remember, having, because you were talking about your daughters at college.

You were saying the same thing about, oh, Isabella's having these headaches, but you had no idea how extreme. No idea, Robin. And we're thinking it was one thing when, you know, you start to Google things and look at things. And we think it was, we thought it was one thing, but then she kept getting worse and worse. And then that's when we decided she needs to get to the right doctor to see exactly what it is.

And then he found out what, Allison? That was Michael Stray Inner Good Morning America today. And then it goes on, Robin Roberts interviewed him and his daughter Isabella that she had brain cancer.

So she found out on like October 1st they brought cancer, not even a tumor. No, two well, two, I'm sorry, a tumor in her brain. Um, she started having like the headaches on, I think, October first, and they Anyway, she got the surgery, it's removed, she's undergone radiation, she's going to start chemotherapy. Were they both on? Yeah, Michael and his daughter.

They did a package on it. And she's going to start doing stuff with Duke. Yeah, there was a big mystery over the summer. Is he losing interest in doing the morning show? He just disappeared.

No one knows. He's with his daughter in California going through this. Right. It's amazing. He wouldn't detect anything was wrong on the air, and certainly not when he's doing his football coverage.

Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. Hey, we are back. We have a lot going on. We're talking about the domestic election, but one thing that came up last night.

was what about Ukraine? And one person who has the Ukrainian policy, which says we got to give them what it needs to be successful, is Nikki Haley, and the one who says, We're going to have to wait and see. We don't want to pay for people's pensions. I don't want to pay for people's salaries. It's got to be more accountability, was Ron DeSantis.

So very much front and center. A lot of Republicans are bailing out on supporting. Supporting the war effort in Ukraine. Hopefully, they're going to get this thing done at the border, and a big check will be written to Ukraine for weapons because they already proven they're great fighters. Here's what they were saying about Ukraine last night.

Here's Nikki Haley, cut 17. Russia said they were going to invade Ukraine. We watched it. China says Taiwan is next. We better believe them.

Russia said once they take Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics are next. Those are NATO countries, and that puts America at war. This is about preventing war. It's always been about preventing war. If we support Ukraine, that's only 3.5% of our defense budget.

Biden and no one else is telling the American people the truth about that. Here's what Governor Ron DeSantis said about Haley's policy, Cut 18. I supported Trump's policy vis-a-vis Russia, Ukraine, and it was successful. The Biden policy has not been, but Nikki Haley is basically a carbon copy of what Biden is. It's an open-ended commitment.

They want another $108 billion. They will not tell you when they have achieved their goal.

So back and forth. It was somewhat nuanced compared to somebody like J.D. Vance who says, oh, we just don't want to do it. Daniel Billak is there in the fight, member of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine, former Chief Investment Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine and head of Ukraine Invest. Daniel, welcome back.

Well thanks for having me.

So what concerns you most about America's political process as it relates to Ukraine?

Well You know, uh Brian, w We've been hit by five hundred missiles and drones in the last uh few weeks. in three major waves since the twenty ninth of December. We've had hundreds of people have died and seriously wounded, including dozens of children. I mean, it's we we have these terrorist attacks on us on us regularly. And frankly, we're we're sitting here like hostages on death row waiting for somebody to see if our allies are gonna Let us live or let us die.

I mean, I know it sounds really dramatic, but that's the way it is. mean, we're we're now at about ten percent of what we got Over the past year, we're running low on shells, ammunition. We the Russians shoot twenty thousand shells at us a day and we can only fire five thousand back, and we're rationing those. And I frankly just don't understand why this isn't so obvious To some people in the United States who think that this is somehow open-ended or whatever. This is actually quite simple.

I mean, you know, the United States is never going to be able to fight an enemy who wants to see their destruction with using other people's. Armed forces. Yeah. I think he doesn't know what's the key to. Thank you.

But Hey, Dan, try to get to a little bit of a better spot. Danius calling us from a war zone right in Ukraine. I'm not sure what city in Ukraine, but he joins us now to give us an update on the war politics, the money. Most of all, Ukraine has shown that they can now fight the Russians who have suffered, get this, up to 500,000 casualties.

So, I'm not sure you can hear us, Dan, but I'm pretty sure you can. Here's what Ian Bremer told us from the Eurasia Group with great contacts and knowledge internationally about what can happen this year. Uh partition Ukraine. You think this war comes to an end this year? No, but I I do think that Ukraine gets functionally partitioned this year.

And I want to be clear that I'm not saying I want that to happen. I say I think it's going to happen. And that is completely unacceptable. to the Ukrainian people and their government. It's completely unacceptable to many frontline Europeans.

Um and to many in the United States. So and by the way, I just did see a study that showed That Zelensky has 67% approval rating, and there's no clamor to have an election. For people who think he's becoming a dictator, that's your answer. Dan, you still there? No, too bad.

Yeah, he'll probably call back. We'll probably get him on.

So. That was a little disturbing just about where we're going with that, because one person who is very strong at defense usually is Governor DeSantis. And the point that Nikki Haley was making is she didn't make it effectively. We got $900 billion for a defense budget. He said 3 percent is going to Ukraine.

But it's not for just Ukraine. We're not donating it to the Fresh Air Fund. We're donating it to a guy that's looking to take our chief enemy and looking to cut them down after they invaded one of our allies. And we signed the Budapest Agreement saying that if they're attacked, we'd come to their defense. It would be great to live up to that for a change, wouldn't it?

And if you think Afghanistan was bad, Kabul falling. There's no doubt about it. Joe Biden's responsible for that.

Well, if Kyiv falls, Republicans, it's on you. And whether you think it's right or not doesn't matter. We have a million people on record. We're not going to fund that war. It's crazy.

Because they'll just absorb the Baltics. You'll go. Those countries are too small. Moldova, I can't even find it on a map. Poland, well, they could fight their own war.

I could just see it happening. Nobody wants war. Daniel, you're back, right? Yeah, I c I can hear you, Brian. I could.

So I just played you know, they're they're worried uh Ian Bremer is worried there'll be a partition of Ukraine because it's going to be almost impossible to get them out because of their mining and how slow we've been in training your and getting you planes and train and training your pilots. Look, you know what? What happens essentially on the battlefield is really up to you folks. up to our allies. We can win this, and we know we could win this.

The the Russians have some serious problems on on the battlefield. And I was just texting with friends of mine who were on the front line in Kherson, which is on the left bank, and that's where we're actually pressing the Russians forward. And they said, look, we are building our drone capability. We're taking out their tanks, their artillery systems, their missile systems with our drones. And if we had still F sixteen, we need sixteen X-16s in order to start pushing them back along the front line in Zaporizhia and in the Donbass, because we can then see their airplanes and their missiles from 200 kilometers away, and we can launch long-range missiles at them if we get the long-range missiles.

We know what to do. Uh but Braiding cats, said the bird. Easier than a cop. Yeah, I'm losing you again, Dan. I know about it.

If you give these guys the armaments they need, they win. If you don't, they don't. And there's no reason why we can't follow the whole chain of the purchase. You put a bunch of inspectors on the ground, you make sure that Zelensky's getting the most of our money, getting the most of the impact of our weapons. And then you get it to them.

My hope is you get something on the border that'll be effective. And in turn, you get $65 billion over to Ukraine and let them fight for the next six months, hold on, and then push the Russians back. This is the Brian Kill Me Chow. We're going to come back and take some more of your calls. Also, I'm going to go over some of the things that have emerged from the behind-the-closed door sessions with Anthony Fauci.

It will drive you insane. And once and for all, this guy has to be exposed. Don't move. Coming to you on a need-to-know basis, because man, do you need to know? It's Brian Kilmead.

The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead. A Hunter Biden on Capitol Hill today. How big of a headache is that for you? Hunter Biden is a private citizen.

He is not a member of the White House, as you know. And I just don't have anything else to share. The last time he was on the Hill, he said the president was certainly familiar with what his son was going to say. I did say that. And here's what I said.

And what I'm saying today that President Biden does not help him with his business deals, but he does help him skirt congressional subpoenas. That is not even true. That is a jump that is. That is incredibly disingenuous in that question. What I will say to you: I'm helping you out.

I don't have anything else to share.

Well, you know what? She got herself in trouble by saying the president knew because she winged that, but that has legal implications. And now him going in there and being on every screen, as I told you yesterday, has got a negative effect on the current president of the United States. Here's the lawyer, Abby Lowell, trying to explain what he was trying to do. Say, I'm available, but it's all show.

And hopefully a judge knows that. And the way congressional hearings work, everybody knows you go behind closed doors. Imagine if Don Jr. just showed up in court and then refused to go behind closed doors. And they say, well, Don Jr.

is using his dad as a shield. Instead, Don Jr., I think, showed up five times behind closed doors, cut 22. Cut 22. Andrew Biden was and is a private citizen. Despite this, Republicans have sought to use him as a surrogate to attack his father.

And despite their improper partisan motives, on six different occasions since February of 2023, we have offered to work with the House committees. To see what and how relevant information to any legitimate inquiry could be provided. Our first five offers were ignored, and then in November they issued a subpoena for a behind-closed doors deposition, a tactic that the Republicans have repeatedly misused.

So he's out there trying to earn his money. You know, who's right next to him? This guy, Kevin Morris, a producer. They're doing a documentary that makes Hunter Biden seem likable, not. And Joe Biden can't be happy.

Don't tell me, you know, Abby Lolis just seems oblivious to the fact that he's got a client, but he also has a father who's in the middle of all this. And on some level, I don't think Hunter cares. I don't think Hunter cares how much it looks on his father. I think he's he basically had it. Here's James Comer, who's chairman of that committee that got blown up yesterday, Cut 28.

So I think the American people got to see two things. Number one, he was not there to answer questions. And number two, this is the second time that Hunter Biden has displayed in real time the arrogance and entitlement that he's had his entire life. Why he thinks he can get millions and millions of dollars from our enemies around the world and then not pay taxes on it and then lie about it. Look, this is an investigation of Joe Biden.

It's about What did his family do to receive the millions of dollars from our enemies around the world? And we just have simple questions that we need to ask Hunter Biden. Right, and guess what? Hunter Biden also lied about not knowing the people that bought his. His paintings.

You know, I don't I don't can't judge art. It doesn't look too good to me. I would never want it on my wall. I don't care who ri wrote it. But this guy, Georges Burgess, who's a leading art dealer, said that it uh that not only was Hunter Biden familiar with the people that bought his paintings.

He says he wasn't.

So was his dad. The art dealer testified behind closed doors, said he knew who bought seventy per cent of the art, including Elizabeth Naftali, who's that? She obtained the works by the sun right before getting a prestigious presidential appointment. I mean, this is unbelievable. Can you imagine doing crack and hookers, all the problems you're having with taxes, the international business deals without uh registering as a foreign agent, and then when you decide I'm going to take it easy and just be an artist, you're still corrupt.

Lying about it. And why would the President of the United States risk this? Really? You bought my son's paintings and I put you in an appointment. I can't do that.

At the very least, it looks terrible, but it is terrible. And today, he's standing to be formally charged for deducting taxes to the tune of $1.5 million. I think it's more than that. If everyone uh if everyone got a chance to see.

So here's uh so James Comery came out and said, Look, we're going ahead and uh we're going to find him in contempt and we'll see what a judge has to say. Uh so they get twenty-five votes, it gets out of committee, we'll see if they get a full On full vote. But Hunter knows you're not going to jail on contempt. Hunter knows he's in trouble on other things. You just can't make millions of dollars and not pay taxes.

And I know everyone just got fresh off doing their taxes at the end of the year if you're in your own business. And then you got to get ready for the normal date for everybody else. You know what it's like. You have your attorneys all over you to make sure the IRS is not all over you. But he doesn't care.

But it's Donald Trump that's in trouble. Donald Trump getting sued civilly, 91 charges. Uh criminally And we'll see where all these court cases go. A couple of days ago, he had a chance to have his law team say that he should be immune from these charges on january sixth because he was President, and now it goes up to a higher court. You know why Trump wins?

At the very least, Because even if it gets rejected, you appeal it, it could delay it. And then once they say, okay, you're done, your appeal didn't work, and it got rejected by two courts, then you got to get ready for the date. You turn around and go, I can't get ready for this date. I was preparing for the charges to get him to dismiss. And then they, instead of sitting the day after Super Tuesday, you kick it down the line.

The documents case is going to be kicked down the line. They say there's so much to go through. They need so much time. The judge needs more time.

So we're going to see where that goes. Here's David Schoen. He talks about he's a former Trump impeachment lawyer, and there's a lot of him. And he talked about Trump wanting to deliver on his civil trial with Letitia James there to deliver the closing statements on why his company is so great, unlike Letitia James. James is so bad and so political.

Here's David Schoen on the judge's ruling to not let him do it. Cut 30. He's just continuing the circus. He's effectively extending his gag order to the courtroom, which is really unprecedented. And most absurd of all is this isn't a jury trial.

It's one thing to limit closing argument with certain restrictions. But he's saying that President Trump can't speak on his own behalf about this case with the same terms as as he put in the gag order. In other words, it's always fair game to challenge the integrity of the process or the investigation or the plaintiff or the prosecutor. In this case, you have a judge who's made it into a circus, constantly tries to mock President Trump.

So that's what by the way, not getting paid for Trump. He's not exactly an apologist, looking at it legally. We'll find out. It's going to be appealed immediately anyway, but just more action in New York City.

So yesterday, Anthony Fauci for two days this week went behind closed doors, about fourteen hours and took some questioning. from lawmakers, at which time he said no idea where the six feet came from, not based on science. It closed every single school in America for a while. Why? Because you can't have a classroom with class with desks six feet apart, and then you walk through the hall, you're one foot apart.

So shut down schools. He admitted that. A lab leak, he told us conspiracy theory. They would suspend your account if you tweeted out that I think this virus came from a lab. He admits it's not a conspiracy theory.

He wants us to believe kids were not affected by school shutdowns. Listen to Brad Wenstrup. He was frustrated about other things he didn't say. Cut 38. I will say the one thing that's been most interesting is a new definition that we've heard.

And Dr. Fauci refers this as his operational definition of gain of function. And I don't know that every scientist that deals with this type of viral research. understands his definition of operational this operational definition of gain of function. I think other people have other definitions.

I know I had. It included more than one method, to be honest with you.

So he's a doctor, Dr. Brad Wenstra posts now with a Republican from Ohio. But he was frustrated because how many times did Anthony Fatch said, I don't recall. I hope this guy is off his pedestal and nobody should ever treat him like a hero because he is not. I have such negative feelings for him and the contradictions that he's giving to himself, contradicting what he has said.

I think it is noteworthy. Quick note: the January 21st. I hope you will join me at the Rialto Square Theater at 102 North Chicago Street, Joliet, Illinois.

Some people drove as far as four hours. To be on stage talking about winning the war on history, especially Teddy and Booker T back on the New York Times best soul list because of you guys. We'll have an inspirational, motivational, patriotic night. We have promos up. You'll love it.

See you there live. BrianKilme.com. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Killmead. All right, we're Brian Kilmead here last hour of this day on the Brian Kilmead show.

Andy McCarthy is standing by. Jamie Metzel, too. And man, do we need their expertise? We also have the big news.

Well, so Ian O'Connor will be joining us, author of Belichick, the news that Nick Sabin dropped out of Coaching Alabama, just wants to retire. I think it's all because of the new rules. In fact, I know for sure it is. He does not want to do this whole portal thing, and it's basically professional football now. for seventeen to twenty three year olds or twenty five year olds.

And then you have Bill Belichick basically agreeing to part ways with the New England Patriots.

So I know this is not a sports station, but this is really two huge stories.

So let's get to the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three.

So if you're within six feet of someone, Who is infected? Even though they're without symptoms, there is a possibility that that person can transmit it to you or you to another person. Well, that's interesting, isn't it? That is the old Anthony Fauci. The new Anthony Fauci says six feet means absolutely nothing.

He just confessed to it behind closed doors. Oh, that whole conspiracy thing about a lab leak, it was a conspiracy.

Now it's a real possibility. Oh, really? How many Twitter accounts were suspended by putting that out there? Oh, and how many kids suffered learning loss because of the six feet apart? Which, by the way, Anthony Fauci says he is not convinced kids suffered.

What planet is this guy on? Number two. You don't get as a witness, particularly as the son of the President of the United States, the right to tell a congressional committee how to conduct an investigation and how you're going to comply with a subpoena. If a congressional committee says we want to do a deposition before a public hearing, that's what you do. That, of course, is Julian Epstein from yesterday, a Democratic attorney, talking about the Hunter headache.

The wayward, corrupt kid of the president, swaggers into a House hearing about him, trying to hold him in contempt, and they did. They're going to see what if the judge backs him up. He insisted, I will testify publicly. Hey, Mr. President's son, Mr.

Privilege, it's not your choice to decide how you will testify. Number one.

Well, Christy getting out makes it really about who was on that debate stage last night. Can DeSantis overperform in Iowa? If he does that, that could keep DeSantis in the race until Super Tuesday in early March. And for Haley, it's about doing well enough in New Hampshire, maybe even scoring an upset, so she can go into her home state of South Carolina after that and have a big win. There you go.

That is speculation from CBS. 2024 felt like Election Day with Trump at a town hall, DeSantis and Haley in a one-on-one debate. Chris Christie dramatically bows out. A huge day for 2024. And of course, the hunter antics in the afternoon.

Andy McCarthy joins us now, best-selling author, Fox News contributor, former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Andy, welcome back. Brian, it's great to be here. It's my first day in 24 years that Bill Belichick is not hovering over me, so it's a good day.

You're a Jet fan? Oh yeah. Yeah. He the guy won the guy was in nine Super Bowls, won six of them, but the greatest joy he had in his career was beating the Jets' brains in twice a year. Not in his last game, though.

No, not in the last game. That's probably why he had to get out.

So so you know he's not done, right? There's no way he's done. No, I think he'll end up in um life Oakland or not not Oakland, uh Las Vegas or Los Angeles. I wonder if Saban is looking to get a pro job. I wonder if that's why he got out.

Well, I'll tell you what, I I know somebody really close to him who said he is so fed up with this portal that kids are walking up to him saying, Hey, coach, if I don't get more money, I'm leaving. You're like, really? That sophomore used to want more book money or a chance to get out of practice or maybe a good recommendation for a chiropractor is now asking for more money with a marketing agent.

So he just doesn't want any part of it.

Well, you might if you're going to deal with that, you might as well go pro where it's part of the territory, but you don't have to do these recruiting trips. But just keep in mind, he failed in Miami. Yeah, well, you know, Belichick failed in Cleveland before he got to New England, so. And got Tom Brady.

So, and that's going to be the bigger question.

So, Andy, first off, Hunter's antics yesterday. In retrospect, I told you I was on the air. I was in D.C. We have five monitors there. They went from zero Hunter coverage, including Fox, to all solid Hunter coverage.

I watched Prime Time last night. Even though they were doing post-debate, they were talking about Hunter. Do you think he accomplished something for him? While I believe he hurt his dad. I believe he hurts the story.

Did he help himself? legally yesterday.

Well Yeah. I don't think he can really help himself legally here, Brian. Yeah, any day that you increase The possibility that you're going to face additional prosecution is not a good day for you legally. But he may think that that's small potatoes given the other legal problems he has.

So, this was really all about politics. And I think you can't. Judge whether it's a positive or negative forum unless you play it out.

So playing it out. If here's what the committee wants to accomplish. They know because of the indictments against him and the other information out there, Hunter is not going to testify. This whole escapade is all about how do you spend the fact that he won't testify. He doesn't want the story to be he's not testifying in the sense that if they ask him questions, he will assert his Fifth Amendment privilege because the answers would incriminate him.

That's not what he wants. And if you remember, in the January sixth committee hearings, What that committee frequently did was bring in witnesses who they knew were not going to answer the questions and were going to take the fifth. They got them on video taking the fifth, and then they played the video again and again and said. Why would an innocent person Not answer questions out of fear of being incriminated.

So that's the game. He doesn't Hunter doesn't want the committee to be able to do that to him.

So, what he's trying to spin is a narrative that the Republicans can't be trusted. To take a deposition because they selectively leak it. Basically, they do what he's accusing them of doing what Adam Ship does, right? And he doesn't want what he wants people to think is that he was willing to answer questions as long as it was in public, where they couldn't bring him down to the basement, ask him unfair questions and then selectively leak. But the truth of the matter is, everybody knows If he were to come in to testify, he would take the fifth.

And he's trying to spin a better story than taking the SIFT. That's what all this is about. Right. He wants to be a sympathetic figure, and he wanted to testify publicly. He probably wanted to do it.

He'd have five minutes with Josh, Jared Moskowitz, making him seem like a hero, then five minutes with Comer ripping him apart. And in the end, he'll say, I withstood it, and these Republicans are brutes and don't know what addiction is like. That's what he was hoping for. But Abby Lowe coming in, him coming in and coming out, it does make the story last a little bit longer. And we got a lot more video, don't we?

Yes, that's right. And I think that the thing he may not have been bargaining for, I Nancy Mace is not my favorite member of Congress. But in these moments, she's very theatrical and very effective. And I don't think he bargained. I think he thought that he was going to have everybody kind of back on their heels because he surprised them.

And she instead lit into him for about three or four minutes. And that video is going to live on. That's a very low moment for him. And then he just looked. I mean, if you're going to do something like this.

Don't run out of the room because Marjorie Taylor Greene is going to start making statements. You look so small doing that.

So I think if you could. Try a set like this. You you sort of need to be better prepared for it and um, you know, understand what the downsides might be. As a political thing, I don't think he accomplished very much.

Well, he helped his movie. Here's Nancy Mace, Cup 24. First of all, my first question is who bribed Hunter Biden to be here today? That's my first question. Second question, you are the epitome of white privilege.

Coming into the Oversight Committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a congressional subpoena to be deposed. What are you afraid of? You have no balls to come up here. She went on, cut 25. I think that Hunter Biden should be arrested right here, right now, and go straight to jail.

Our nation is founded on the rule of law on the premise that the law applies equally to everyone, no matter what your lack of. Point of order, Mr. Chairman. Point of order. It doesn't matter who you are.

So that's what you were talking about. She was in the moment. Yeah, she's very effective in that stuff. I don't, you know, I don't go for a lot of the hijinks, but I think in that moment, since he was grandstanding, When you want a grandstand, you need to make sure that you don't run into a better grandstander, and I think he did.

So, I want you to hear this: Hunter Biden being questioned by our reporter Hillary Vaughan as he, number one, they were screaming out about his crack use. But here's a little of that exchange. Let's listen. Mr. Biden, why did you put your dad on speakerphone with your business partners if he had no involvement in your business?

You have a dad. Did she call you? Yes. Yes. But why did you need to talk to him during business meetings if he had nothing to do with your business?

Pretty straight, right? Yeah. I I think I was on with uh our friend um Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino yesterday when this was all going on, and I I told them that um if it weren't for witnesses like Hunter, I'd have had a very short career. Um you you have to believe that Abby Lowell Must have told him, you know, eight ways to Sunday, Hunter, just keep your mouth shut. Don't speak, don't talk, don't say anything.

But he can't help himself. No wonder the Republicans. You know, want to get him into the deposition room because I think he's going to do nothing but take the fifth, but he's a loose cannon. You never know. Maybe you can provoke him into saying stupid stuff.

Yeah, possibly. I guess we see we go from here on the legal case. What about the art? What about the art? At the very least, the perception that these Democratic donors were buying his art?

The President said he had no contact with him. And it turns out this guy, the artist, George Gurgis, said, Oh, I talked to the President about it. And the woman that bought the art gets a prestigious position weeks after buying Hunter Biden's paintings. Yeah, the whole thing is, you know, it's corrupt to high heaven, but I think. People are so um we've been so bowled over.

And this is because I think the committee has done a very good job. And we shouldn't forget that before. Commerce committee, there were Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson did a lot of scut work on this. But we're we're so bowled over by the corruption evidence I don't think anybody's surprised. To learn that every single thing these guys get into seems to be sleazy.

In fact, one of the things I wish they had done yesterday, as long as as long as they decided to have this theater. Um If I were Comer, I'd have been ready to give a subpoena to Kevin Morris. Who showed up, you know, the sugar bro who showed up with Hunter because. Hunter Had a ten percent stake. In that Chinese investment thing that he that he got into in twenty thirteen when he takes the trip over to China with Biden on Air Force two and meets his Chinese business partners.

And that's a very lucrative business concern. It was a source of embarrassment to the Biden administration because Biden promised on the campaign trail that none of his family would be involved in foreign business, but Hunter held on to the stake of a partnership with these Chinese investors. And he seems to have transferred that ten percent stake to Kevin Morris. Which may explain why Morris has been you know, it may go in p in part to explain why Morris has been so generous in paying off Hunter's taxes and the like. That's amazing.

Using is basically Hunter's money.

Well, it's a you know, look, it's an investment. Firm that, as I understand it, you know, controls over two billion dollars in investments. And there are some reports that a 10% slice of something like that could be worth millions of dollars. Nobody knows how much it's worth because everything they've done with respect to it is behind the shades.

So I haven't been able to find out as much as I'd be interested in finding out. But the person to ask about it, I would think, would be Morris.

So another story that is a passion of yours that you flagged years ago was the investment of foreign entities into our universities. And I had Eli Lake on last week who wrote about Texas A ⁇ M. I did not know Texas AM was a leading innovator when it comes to nuclear energy and technology and possibly weapons, obviously. And it turns out Qatar does. And they put a huge investment into Texas A ⁇ M in Qatar and here.

What's your reaction to this? And do you think it's time for any candidate to understand that this is a security risk? Oh, I absolutely agree with that. I also think that Cutter. Is allowed to play this game.

I'm glad Eli, who's the best, is all over this. By the mirror. I I I think that um Cutter gets to play this game that they're an ally of the United States. I think Biden gave them major non-NATO ally status. And to me, They're just the lifeline to Hamas.

And I think in a lot of ways they've um They've kind of replaced The Saudis as the as the main patron of the Muslim Brotherhood. Uh and back in You know. probably from uh you know 2010 or so going backwards Uh the Saudis had a lot of investments going in American universities. And they still do, but I think Cutter has picked up a lot of that as well.

So, this New York City public school has got this story, this elementary school, has been accused of Jewish erasure after a map from one of its classroom surfaces showing all the countries of the Middle East except Israel. It's labeled Palestine.

So this was exposed in the free press by this Francesco Block. I'm shocked by that, that no kid would go home and m maybe not bring that up or bring home a test or a map that they have to color in and not hear about that. Your reaction?

Well, I I think Brian, the one silver lining of COVID Was that it started to give us a kind of an inkling of what was actually going on in the schools when the kids had to attend school by video from home and the parents got to see what went on.

So I think we're paying it a lot more attention now. But I'm just going to say what I always say when something like this comes up, which is, We have ceded control. Um The s not just the universities, but, you know, K through twelve. To the left gradually beginning in the 1960s. And if you hand over the institutions of learning and opinion.

To progressives for three generations, you get the demonstrations of where you're going to wake up one day and we're going to have exactly what we have. Yeah, it's called the Arab Cultures Program, and it was funded by Qatar, the Qatar Foundation International, a nice nonprofit. I appreciate it. We'll stay on top of this, Andy. Thanks so much.

Thanks, Brian. Yeah, it was a poster in the PS261 over in Brooklyn. We come back. I'll take your calls: 1-866-408-7669. You're with Brian Kilmead.

The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead. Hey, by the way, the Wall Street Journal has a play-by-play on what went wrong, and everything went wrong with the Secretary of Defense going into the hospital, not telling his chief of staff about the flu, not telling his deputy at all. In fact, the deputy found out while she was in Puerto Rico on vacation and she couldn't scramble to get back. She was literally running to the Pentagon on the beach.

Number two is we droned. A militia leader in Iraq. And we hit back on the Houthi rebels and blew them out of the water at that same time. Is that because Austin was disabled and unable to get a no from the president?

Now, the Washington Post has reported the Defense Department Inspector General is doing an investigation, an internal investigation, to find out what went wrong. His name is Robert Storch. He disclosed the review in a memo to Austin and to Kathleen Hicks.

So these guys got to all get fired. But it really starts with Austin. You can't make Austin or any individual say I'm incapacitated. I'm in pain. I'm going to the hospital.

The guy was in an ambulance. Do you know they picked him up in an ambulance and brought him to Walter Reed? And then he stayed in intensive care. And he couldn't possibly have somebody say to an assistant, you know how many valets he probably has? Who are ranked officers?

You couldn't say anyone yet. Tell Kathleen here she's in charge. You know? If you're going to get a teeth pulled to get NSTs, you got to turn over power. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin.

It's Brian Killmead. When people merely speak, You can see very small micro droplets go out.

So if you are within six feet of someone, Who is infected? even though they're without symptoms. There is a possibility that that person can transmit it to you. Or you to another person.

Well, we heard Anthony Fauci say that over and over again.

So just remember that. Because now he says there's no science behind six feet apart. I know where that came from. Really? It only shut down every school in the country because you can't have a classroom, fill it up with a class with kids six feet apart from desk to desk and then walk through the hallways.

Remember that? Jamie Metzlduz, member of the WHO Advisory Committee, senior fellow with the Atlantic Council and former national security official in the Clinton administration. Jamie, welcome back. Does Anthony Fauci not think we were recording all his million of interviews?

Now he's trying to walk back on the policies he's jammed down our throat, including that one? Yeah, Brian and If we go back to those early days of the pandemic, we knew something terrible was happening, we didn't have all of the information, and everybody, all of us, were trying to make heads or tails. And absolutely, the right thing at that time would have been to say, excuse me, we don't know everything. We're figuring this out in real time. Here's the best of what we know, and it's subject to change.

The problem is at those kinds of crisis times, people are looking for some kinds of guidelines. And over the last hundred years of public health, We haven't had asterisks on everything that people have said. People have said in the 1950s, get the polio vaccine, even though it's a tiny percentage of people who got the polio vaccine actually got polio from the vaccine. And so I think our information world has changed. On one hand, we need our government to say.

Hey, here's what people should be doing, but now there's a greater need because everyone can do their own research. for government officials to be clear on what they know and what they don't know. And I think that One of the critiques, not just of Fauci, but of our government, is it didn't do a great job of saying, Here's what we know, here's what we think, and here's what we don't know. And that's why there are all kinds of disparities like you just mentioned, Aquarius. Uh there was just arrogance.

Get six feet apart. Closing schools is too much of a risk. It's not fair to teachers. You can't walk in the hall. Kid, you better put on a mask.

You better put on two masks. I told you I did an interview with Burks, and she said, consider wearing goggles because it could actually go through your eyes. I'm not kidding.

So, Dr. Fauci said behind closed doors, and they're about to release the transcript: the whole six feet apart thing, it just sort of appeared. What do you mean it just appeared? When you're doing all these interviews, playing jazz with the pandemic, making up things, the ramifications of Fauciism were cataclysmic. And then he says there's no proof that the kids suffered by not being in the classroom.

How can I say that? Yeah, that that's for sure not the case. I mean, we've seen it all the reading scores, the math scores. There was a the kids really And again, in those early days, everyone was trying to make heads or tails of it. But my assessment of the school closings is that the teachers, and particularly the teachers' union, were fighting aggressively, not just to protect the teachers, but to protect the lifestyles of teachers.

And our young people, who actually we've seen from all the epidemiological data, young people were the least affected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

So, I do think that we were too aggressive in the school closures, and I think there were a lot of people who were involved in that. We look around the world at countries that did things differently with school closures. Closures, they weren't massively penalized by that. But more broadly, we know from the economist figures that we had twenty-seven million excess deaths. As a result of the pandemic.

So, the pandemic was serious. We needed our leaders across the board and our government to be guiding us. But I certainly agree with you that a dose of more humility would have been very helpful. Yeah, the lab leak, if you said that, Jamie Metzel, if you think it just came from a lab, you might have had your Twitter account suspended. You were called, you were ostracized in public.

How dare? I think you were one of the people that said it. There's an excellent chance this came from a lab.

Now he says it's not a conspiracy theory. Does he not know for a year and a half he was saying that? And was he behind the scenes putting pressure on people not to say that it was from a lab leak? He wants us to believe our kids were not affected. And he admits the mandates increased vaccine hesitancy and admits he told colleges to impose this mandate on their students.

Yeah, so there's a lot there, Brian. Certainly on pandemic origins, as you know, and you and I have talked about this many, many times over the past four years. I and Webb were speaking very vocally early on. You're a Republican, and so that was more the norm. I'm a centrist.

Democrat and so I was getting attacked By people in my own party saying, Hey, how dare you say this? You're supporting Trump. And what I said is I'm just trying to follow the truth. If whoever says it I don't care. And so it was just outrageous.

that those of us who were raising just basic Common sense questions about pandemic origins were so repeatedly attacked. And it's interesting with Dr. Fauci because in the early phone calls, private phone calls that he and colleagues had in early February of 2020, there was a big question about how the initial spillover happened. But then, somehow, without any additional evidence, that kind of morphed. Into a public expression of maybe not certainty, but strong confidence that it came from nature.

That Dr. Fauci and others repeated, that was published in major scientific journals. And that was just wrong. It was saying that it didn't come from a lab was just. Not supported by any available evidence.

So I'm in general, I'm a fan of Dr. Fauci for the work that he's done over the course of his career on HIV and other things, but certainly on COVID origins. I balance. My appreciation of his life's work with strong criticism of how that particular issue was handled. You're a diplomat.

I think he had an agenda that affected everybody's lives. He was ruling by the interview. Depending on the question he got, the nature of the interview he was given, it would change the rules for everyone. Just hear what Anthony Fauci just said: you got to do this, you got to do that. And then, no, I'm not doing that.

Yes, I am doing that. And then, where did he get that from?

Well, that's the science. You got to go with the data.

Well, if you go with the data, where is the data? We don't have anything on that. There was no humility in it. There was arrogance. And it was and I just I'm wondering what kind of reforms are made.

If we get hit by another Chinese pandemic, what's going to be different? Do you know, Jamie, what will be different?

Well, a few things on that. First, our government in the early days of the pandemic was in complete disarray. And I think that happened. It was across the board. Remember, the CDC test kits didn't work.

There was Donald Trump was saying things about drinking Clorox and making his statements. Fauci was making his statements.

So the entire system that has developed over a century designed to address just this kind of conflict broke down. And certainly Dr. Fauci gets a piece of that, but I absolutely think that we need to look more broadly. As we think about what needs to be done on certainly on a national level, we need to be better organized. The Biden administration, they have a pandemic preparedness task force.

I know that they're trying to work on that. Internationally, it's just outrageous that more Than four years after the initial spillover, there's no meaningful investigation. China is lying. It's destroyed samples, hidden records. Chinese citizen journalists are still in prison for the crime of asking questions about pandemic origins.

They have a gag order on Chinese scientists. They've blocked every effort to have a meaningful international investigation. And so now a new pandemic treaty is being negotiated, but there's no possible way it can be meaningful because if you're a Chinese official and you have this exact same fact pattern, you are actually committing treason against your country by doing the right thing and speaking up because China has been rewarded for this pandemic that the Chinese Communist Party sparked. Right. And the thing is, it's not going to change.

It's they're never going to be honest. And most likely it's going to come from China.

So we have to just accept that we're going to have to figure out ourselves. Yeah. Well, I mean, when certainly we can't give China a pass.

So I'm a commissioner of the Heritage Foundation Commission on China and COVID nineteen. And we're going to be releasing our report over the next A couple of months, and we're going to be saying here is the damage created as a result of this pandemic. Here are paths towards accountability.

So we need to do that. But also, the Chinese government is going to do everything possible to prevent itself from being held accountable for COVID-19, including possibly launching some kind of military action in the South China Sea or with regard to Taiwan. But we need to keep pushing this. You're absolutely right. the threat of pandemics Is growing.

And certainly, there is a proliferation of high-containment virology labs in countries around the world, some of whom are better regulated and governed, and some of whom are worse. And even though I believe this pandemic comes from a lab accident, other pandemics in the future could easily come from nature. And that's why issues of climate change, destruction of forests. rapid expansion of human farms into rainforests and other areas. I mean, we have a lot of threats, globalization, increased travel, increased human population.

So if we don't get our act together, We're going to be facing Another pandemic that could be far worse than COVID-19. COVID-19 could well have been just the warning shot, and there's more to come, and shame on us. If we don't get our act together now, I hear you, Jamie, and I also love your column with Victoria. Coates came on earlier, just talking about how all these people that protested the Biden White House, who are in the Biden White House, should be fired. For them to go in front of the White House and demonstrate and write a petition to change the Israeli policy.

If you don't like it, you can leave. A couple did leave, but all these people should be fired. You're there to make the White House function better and serve the country, not judge the President. Yep, I totally I mean I totally agree with you with me. Yeah, exactly.

But Victoria served in the Trump administration. I served in the Clinton administration. The reason why we came together to write that editorial is that we both agree that having a functional White House and a functional governmental system Is in everybody's interest. In the Trump administration, there were lots of people in the National Security Council who resigned, resigned. Excuse me.

Resigned after the january sixth attacks on the Capitol. They had that right. There are dissent lines inside the United States government where if somebody's unhappy with the policy, we have ample opportunities to do that internally. But if you are just Working in the White House, and you go out in front of the White House without resigning, without dissenting internally, and just. Protest against your boss.

How could we possibly trust you as an employee? How could we possibly trust you're not going to be leaking secret documents? That's why, even though I'm a Democrat, I have strongly called for these employees to be fired. Jamie, always great, always insightful. And you're a great American.

You're American first and party second. And that's what makes you so valuable as a guest on our show. Jamie, thank you. Thank you, Brian. Great to talk to you.

You got it. So, Bill Belichick is out. Presser in 11 minutes. Ian O'Connor, author of Belichick, next. Learning something new every day on the Brian Killmead Show.

Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Bill Belichick said it on Monday in his press conference. I'm under contract. My understanding is he had one more year on that deal, plus an option for future years.

He also said, I'm going to continue going about my job. We've got things that need to be fixed. A lot of people took that to mean that Bill Belichick was saying that he's going to stick around and fix those things. Ultimately, what it appears based upon the conversations that took place this week was that it was Bill Belichick going to Robert Kraft with things that he would have wanted, Kraft going to Belichick with things that he would have wanted. Those things did not sufficiently line up.

So anticipate a formal announcement as soon as today. Bill Belichick out as the Patriots coach. And now it's minutes away. And who better to talk to than Ian O'Connor joined us earlier this week, four-time New York Times bestseller, including the book Belichick, The Making. Of the greatest football coach of all time.

Ian, we What is your take on the news that it's all that's confirmed now? Belichick is out?

Well, Brian. Obviously, going 4 and 13 didn't help the situation. And I think after nearly a quarter century there as head coach of the Patriots and also controlling the roster that It was time. I I just think Robert Kraft wanted his franchise back. And it it was a grind.

It was a grind working with Bill all those years. Bill's intensity, treating every day, basically even in the offseason. I think we've talked about this before as if it's Game seven of the World Series. And sometimes Bill would walk by Robert Kraft in the hallway and not say hello. It was just the way he carried himself.

And so Kraft was obviously thrilled to win six Super Bowls and go to nine. with Bill Belichick, but it's been a real struggle after Tom Brady left. I don't think Kraft ever wanted Brady to leave the organization. I think Bill had different ideas on that. And it didn't work out.

And it's just time. It's time at 4-13. Their offense is a wreck. And I don't think too many people in and around New England are very surprised by the news. 29 and 38, Brady, Belichick was without Brady.

And remember, he had a bad first season. Brady takes over the second, and everything turned around from then. From there. Um and So him being out and struggling, it reminds me very similar to Shula and Landry.

However, nobody thinks he's going to retire. Does Ian O'Connor think he's going to retire? No, absolutely not. I think he'll definitely coach next year. The question is where?

I think Bill has to realize that he needs a quarterback in place.

Now, I'm surprised there's a report by the athletic that Washington is not interested in Belichick. Washington has the second pick, so Bill would be able, if he had that job, draft his quarterback and go from there. But wherever he goes. Let's say it's the Chargers.

Well, he knows he's got Justin Herbert, a very good young quarterback, in place. And without having that player in New England after Brady, he thought it might be Mac Jones, it didn't work out. Bill really struggled. And great coaches need great players and franchise players to be great. And he didn't have that in New England after Brady left.

And I think he needs to make sure that wherever he goes, that player is basically already in place. Here's what Adam Schefter said, cut fifty. The team that would make some sense, I think, in the eyes of many across the league would be the Atlanta Falcons. If we remember in the past, Arthur Blank once pursued. and didn't get Bill Parcells.

Bill Belichick learned at the feet of Bill Parcels. The Falcons could use a head coach. There's nobody. Your thought about that. Atlanta, there's a lot of smoke there.

It seems to be the leader in the clubhouse. They don't have the quarterback in place that I'm talking about. Maybe they move up in the draft to get that player, but it's an easier division to win.

So I think Atlanta is probably the leader for Bill Services right now. It would just concern me, given that that player that I think he needs is not already on the roster.

So he's got to find a way to get that player. Is it going to be friendly? Are they going to be friendly? Your prediction, friendly presser today? Yes, very friendly.

Yeah, I I think that's the way Bill goes. I think he's going to show some of his humanity that he's long showed to his friends behind the scenes. All right, that's your prediction, Ian. We'll see if we see more than one or two words. I'm out.

We'll see. Ian O'Connor, thanks so much. Pick up Belichick. Find out the true history of the coach who's still got another chapter. Listen to the show ad-free on Fox News Podcast Plus, on Apple Podcast, Amazon Music with your Prime membership, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Mm-hmm.