Govt. shutdown looms tonight as Trump, Musk kill spending bill

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Now streaming on Apple TV Plus. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kelmead. Welcome to the latest moments of the Brian Killmead Show. Man, this was supposed to be one of those things where you follow the stories of the transition of this new administration and the outgoing.

And then call it a day, call it Christmas in Anuka. Not in 2024, going into 2025. Ben Dominic, this hour, Josh Crash Hour, who goes inside politics in just a moment, Fox News contributor, and of course, Fox News Radio Political Analyst. But before we do that and I tell you the latest, let's just get to the big three.

Now with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. The observers inside of Russia recognize that Russia is going to have a major problem in 25 in terms of personnel forcing him to a mobilization, which he doesn't want to do. This may be sincere on his part, and hopefully it is. Vladimir Putin rants, but he's ready to talk.

How that happened in Syria could force him to the table as North Korean bodies pile up in Ukraine. Number 10. It's now clear from both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times piece that there was real deterioration and significant decline in Joe Biden, and that it was being managed by the people around him. They were insulating him. I mean, are you kidding me, Chris Kalizza, a former CNN pundit and podcaster?

Worse than we thought, but not surprised. We essentially have not had a president for the last four years, and it's evidence pours in that Joe is never in charge, and his cabinet never functioned. Anyone complicit should be essentially banned from politics, from Obama to Schumer to KGP and Kamala. Apologies to Robert Hur, and you knew it all along. Number one.

The Muss Johnson proposal. is not serious. It's laughable.

So if we're going to pass something, there's going to have to obviously have Democrat support. Nothing can happen in this Congress without Democrat support. That is so true, James Comer. Shut down looms as a second swipe at the continuing resolution fails epically. Dems deflect and close to 40 de facton, close to 40 Republicans say no.

Will someone explain to Republicans they don't have the White House and they don't have the Senate yet and barely a majority?

So now we're getting word, and it just emerged. Speaker Johnson has just come out of his chambers from his huge office where he had a meeting, and amongst the people in that meeting was Chip Roy, big critic. And there could be some temporary fix to get us through this week and make sure people are paid. Josh Crash Hour, the chaos continues on Capitol Hill. Your thoughts about where we're at right now.

Yeah, I mean, this is self-inflicted chaos before Donald Trump even becomes president. And it's I don't. I don't think it's a good start for his presidency to have a shutdown, to have Republicans divided in chaos. It doesn't give the public the mentality that they're able to govern, and this is just basic blocking and tackling.

Now, I think it also raises the question about Elon Musk's role. And this was all set to pass. Everyone would be going home for the holidays. The government would be funded. A lot of important spending would be taking place for a lot of important priorities, including hurricane relief in North Carolina and in Georgia.

But Musk went on a tweet storm, and there was a lot of grassroots resentment. We know the usual suspects, Brian. There are a lot of very fiscally conservative Republicans like Chip Roy in the House. Usually, that's not enough to make the difference. And you've had these weird amalgamations of Republicans and Democrats passing through these spending packages, continuing resolutions.

But because of Musk's Tweets and advocacy, all of a sudden, every Republican basically couldn't have, you know, just had to, you know, and Trump kind of gave Musk his backing, but it all fell apart earlier in the week.

So we're back to square one. I don't think there's any long-term or you know, sustainable solution. There may be some very, very short-term funding options that Speaker Johnson is currently going over, but we're not really making progress, and it's a real mess right before the holidays. I know, you know, it's all unprecedented. We've never had an outsider have this type of push who's about to get a significant job that he's not going to get paid for.

And that's essentially the reform. And put the government on a budget and lean it out. And he got in early. And by the way, we don't have a President Biden taking command.

So we have a guy sitting in Mar-a-Lago. All of a sudden, he's like, how did I get this job? I don't get it until January 20th.

So just one minute ago, Josh, just popped up. It says, from Elon Musk. Has anyone read it? Radical suggestion, first read bill, then vote.

So here we go. We'll find out what Elon Musk wants to do. I don't mind his objective, but the thing is, the blocking and tackling, as you just mentioned. You could be the brightest person in the world, and Elon Musk might be the brightest person in the world, but it doesn't mean you know the how to work Capitol Hill, how to pass a budget or continuing resolution, what it means. And you could say, I want to be fiscally responsible, but you don't have the power.

You don't have the Senate, you don't have the Presidency. You got three vote advantage, and there's a lot of people who will never vote for a continuing resolution. And I'm not sure that Elon Musk knew that. Yeah, no, look, there's a legitimate criticism that one of these end-of-year, you know, stocking stuffers is not the best way to fund legislative priorities. That's something we've been talking about for like decades.

This is not new. Musk seems to have kind of recognized that and really made a big deal about it in the last week. But this is something that always comes up whenever we have these end-of-year packages. But there's also been a lot of just basic misinformation. One thing, as a sports fan, as a commanders fan, I've been sort of floored by is that there's been a lot of delicate negotiations and efforts to move, essentially transfer land from Maryland to, or sorry, from D.C.

from the federal government to D.C.

so the commanders can actually build their own new stadium on RFK Stadium's grounds. And Elon Musk. Said that there was money being paid for by taxpayers to fund this project, which was not the case. It was a simple land transfer. And that was actually one of the things that one more time.

So they're playing in Maryland right now, and they want to go back to RFK Stadium and build a new stadium there. This is the Washington Redskins, Commanders, whatever you call them.

So, what exactly is happening? Yeah, there's been this delicate dance between Maryland and DC over really over a long period of time in which Commanders play at FedEx Field or Northwest Stadium in Maryland. They've been trying to see if they can have a pathway to move to D.C. at some point and build a new stadium in D.C. The problem has been that the federal government owns the RFK land.

And for order to any progress to be made to get a new stadium built, the land has to be transferred from the federal government to the D.C. government. And there was a deal that was, and Maryland didn't want to cooperate, and you had all these local bureaucrats getting in the way. And finally, there was essentially a deal struck where the Land would be transferred from the federal government to DC to build that new stadium, and there would be also money for the Key Bridge in Maryland and Baltimore to get rebuilt. That was part of a very delicate dance between the Maryland and DC elected officials.

It was part of this continuing resolution. And Elon Musk went on a tweet storm tweeting inaccurate information that there was actually taxpayer money going. It was a simple land transfer. The way Musk framed it was that there was actual taxpayer money being spent on a new Redskins, new commander stadium. Not true, but actually, it's kind of ironic that the one consequence, the one casualty of all this wrangling could be a new stadium for the commanders at some point in DC.

And that was dead, by the way. A side note: I went to the Army-Navy game. It's a terrible stadium. It's awful, yes. Terrible.

Yeah.

So, Josh, now that people are talking about something President Trump wants, he wants to get rid of the debt ceiling for two or three years. What what are the chances of that happening and why would Democrats fight that?

Well It it it's kind of it's interesting that a lot of the fiscal conservatives have been The ones that are most vocal against raising the debt ceiling because they you know, that that that allows for more spending. Trump the the the the interesting di political dynamic here, Brian, is that Trump is essentially someone who's a different type of Republican, who isn't quite as you know, focused on balanced budgets, cutting spending the way a lot of uh a lot of fiscal conservatives in Congress are. Uh Elon Musk is actually more on the side of the Freedom Caucus. He he actually um you know, and there may be other interests he has unrelated to to the spending levels, but he is certainly more of kind of the classic Freedom Caucus, uh, Chip Roy type of conservative. And and look, I uh I understand the principles behind what what he's arguing for, but usually it's it's pretty good politics to spend money on hurricane recovery.

It's good politics to fund worthwhile projects in in in in lawmakers' states and districts. That's why lawmakers do it. They wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't politically good.

So like I understand the the fiscal principles and there's a really important debate to be had on the level of spending and how how much we're spending as a federal government. But these these are issues that we've been debating for many, many years and it's really been a tough political position at times for Republicans to argue for cutting spending and to take away pet projects that have have have benefits to people in their home states and districts.

Okay. Congressman Rich McCormick, uh military guy, doctor, cut twelve. This is a leadership challenge that Mike Johnson has to define himself with. Are you going to get the right input from the right people to get this bill passed? Because, quite frankly, you can't do it in a vacuum.

And it doesn't matter because, because quite frankly, last time I checked, Elon Musk doesn't have a vote in Congress. And he has influence, and he'll put pressure on us to do whatever he thinks the right thing is for him. But I have 760,000 people that voted for me to do the right thing for them, and that's what matters to me.

So this is an interesting dynamic we haven't seen before. And Trump says he really has no problem with him weighing in like he did, and then Trump coming in later to blow up the first rendition of this.

So how they interact is going to be important. And one thing I imagine would bother Trump if Musk is perceived to be just as powerful at kind of doing his own thing. Trump's never experienced that before. Yeah, look, if I'm Donald Trump, I value Elon Musk's advice. I think he's been a very important advisor both during the campaign and during this transition period.

But when he's trying to show that he has more power than Trump by using Twitter and X and trying to leverage his advocacy against really the president's political interests, I mean, look, there's a debate that when Trump, like you said, Brian, when Trump's in office, when he has the Republican Senate, he has a narrow House majority, like you have a little more leverage to deal with these issues, and you can deal with it if you wait a little bit of time. The way Elon Musk really forced Trump's hand doesn't help Trump politically at all. It makes him look like a weak leader and is draining his political capital before he even becomes president.

So, you know, I don't know how much patience Trump is going to have, and there are a lot of different advisors he listens to, but this is not good for Trump politically. And I don't think it really changes the bottom line when it comes to spending. I think in all likelihood at some point, we're going to have the same spending levels. It's going to pass, and it's going to be all for naught at the cost of a lot of. Valuable capital for Donald Trump.

Yeah, great analysis. I want to go to the Wall Street Journal story that we've been writing little by little and talking about on this show. For a while, but 50 people talked to the Wall Street Journal as they did a story on how engaged or disengaged President Biden was over the last four years, and it's as bad as everyone could have imagined. He has not engaged with any of his cabinet. They've met nine times in four years.

Nobody really felt as though they can get him on the phone. Adam Smith talked about wanting to warn the president about everything that could go wrong with his pull out of Afghanistan, and he's chairman of armed services and he couldn't get him on the phone. It looks like he had good days and bad days, some days in which he could not interact at all with anyone. And I'm looking at some of these quotes. If the President was having an off day, according to one report, meetings could be scrapped altogether.

On one such day, a national security official explained to another aide why a meeting needed to be rescheduled. He has good days and bad days, and today is a bad day, so we'll address it tomorrow. President Biden also always have gatekeepers. In Biden's case, the walls around him were much higher and controls greater. There were limits of who.

Who Biden could speak to? And they said to him there are limits on the amount of time he would speak. This is no way to run a uh to run a small dry cleaning business, let alone a country. Josh, this is going to be one of the biggest stories of this generation: how a president didn't do anything for four years. This is a massive scandal, and everyone should read the whole Wall Street Journal piece because it goes.

Year by year, month by month, all the sorted details about how Biden wasn't fully engaged with some of his own administration's top priorities. I mean, you mentioned Brian at the top, the most I think significant information in the story, which is that even in the first year of Biden's presidency, he was disengaged and not on top of things in Afghanistan. When things went, that was when his presidency went south, when all the chaos ensued and just the incompetence of the withdrawal was taking place. That even in the first year, right after he got elected, Biden was not available, was not as engaged as popularly thought. And that that was the beginning of a downward slide that we've seen increasingly as we get closer to the end of his presidency.

Look, this is a press scandal as much as I mean, I can't tell you how many times we've talked about this on the show and just been stunned that this is not being covered. And it wasn't until the debate in June of 2024 that it really got the kind of mainstream media attention that it deserved. But this was something that anyone, I mean, you Was the worst kept secret in Washington. Anyone, whether it was lawmakers or lobbyists or anyone who had met with the president, had made these same comments, and yet it wasn't getting reported in the way you would expect in the tradition, you know, in the Post and the New York Times and so on.

So, I mean, that is the scandal of how Biden was basically being run by a lot of top staffers that have been. Staffers, not even cabinet members, not even cabinet members. It was staff, you know, people like Jake Sullivan, people that were very close to him during his Capitol Hill years that moved in his time circle. Yeah, sure. I mean, the whole the whole thing, Josh, let's think about this, and there's so much to talk about, but just real quick.

Number one, they wanted to run for reelection. They were going to let him run, and he was running. They pushed out anybody that wanted the champs except for Congressman Phillips and RFK, and both had to basically leave the party in order to run.

So even primary. Number two is the people that sat with him and knew about it. Schumer, you're going to tell me he didn't know, of course he knew. Obama, of course, he knew. A Pelosi, of course, she knew.

KJP, of course, she knew. The lying that went on with people that met with him, of course they all knew. And they didn't care. They cared about holding on to power with a guy running our country that is not all there. And we're still letting him run the country.

He's going to Italy. I mean, what are we doing? Kamala Harris, she is now effectively illegitimate as a legit as it has no political future. Anyone running against her says, you lied about us for four years. What else are you lying about?

Final thought? Yeah, I mean, look, I think it's well, Kamala Harris lost the campaign for many reasons, but one of them was just the fact that she didn't say anything herself and she was saddled with all that baggage. But let yeah, I mean, it's a scandal. We're going to learn more about it probably after Biden leaves office. There's going to be more details, more revelations to come.

And the question is, why didn't we know about it at the time? That it was the worst kept secret in Washington. Yet for the Democrats' own political self-preservation, they literally swept it under the rug until everything blew up at that big debate. Josh, it's an exciting time. Hopefully, we'll get a resolution and fund the government.

Thanks so much, Josh. Thanks, Brian. Ben Dominic, bottom of the hour. Your call's next. 1866-408-7669.

Don't move. It's Brian Killmead. You told the police that you'd never met my son, but you had. Yes.

Now streaming on Apple TV Plus from Academy Award winner Alfonso Quiron. Disclaimer.

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I went a little long, but it's just maddening. I just think when you have people covering for Joe Biden and we all knew the answer, listen to this. Let's look back. Cut 16. These are people telling you Joe Biden's fine.

Right after the debate, you insisted that President Biden is extraordinarily strong. Given where we are now, do you have any regrets about what you told the American people? No, not at all. Not at all. I talk to President Biden, you know, regularly, usually several times in a week.

His mental acuity is great. It's fine. It's as good as it's been over the years. Do you think the president should undergo some sort of cognitive test? To the extent that we're having this conversation, I don't see any need to do that.

But if you're not going to be able to do that, so that's Gavin Newsom, you know, Schumer, and they're telling you Kamala Harris says there's nothing wrong.

Now they know there's something wrong, and they look you in the eye and they're lying. And the only thing I think about: what else are you lying about? You allowed this country to be run by a guy that was impaired, that wouldn't even meet with his cabinet. His wife had basically more campaign appearances than him in 2020. They used the pandemic to say they, at the president's age, he doesn't want to be.

Susceptible or out there exposed to too many people who are not going to have any press conferences. You allowed him to give one-word answers instead of press conferences for the course of four years. You didn't complain as Washington correspondents. Instead, you have covered up for him because you don't like Donald Trump and you don't like Republicans. But do you like the country?

Do you like the country? I'll ask Ben Dominic that too. I also want to bring you up to date on what's happening with Russia. The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Killmead.

What's the play tomorrow? State teachers.

Well, we keep hearing that. You gonna run another bill tomorrow, though? We'll see.

So that is Speaker Johnson after getting a second vote, a new CR rejected with 30 plus votes. Republicans Deciding not to vote for it over 170. Democrats being whipped against it.

So right now they are meeting behind closed doors. trying to get some type of temporary CR, just continuing to clean CR, just so just keep paying their bills up until they come back after the new year, and then they'll try to work out some type of spending budget with this old Congress, but they'll come back with the new Congress, and that will get more complicated And maybe in a bad way. Because Trump's like, how did I get involved in this? But he asserted himself fairly for it happened when Elon Musk tweeted. He followed up, and they both decided the 1500-page bill was not in the country's best interest.

Ben Dominich joins us now, Fox News contributor, editor-at-large for The Spectator World, hosted the Ben Dominich podcast. Ben, first off, on the latest news, Asha Isa Hazny, our reporter, says it doesn't look like there'll be a vote. right away about any type of short term Clean CR Your thoughts about where this is heading.

Well, first of all, I want to just draw attention to what you just said there with Trump saying, why am I involved in this? You know who's not involved in this? The president of the United States of America. He's where is he? He's the guy who's actually, you know, has the job right now.

Donald Trump is at this point, technically, he's just a citizen. He's outside of all of this. You know, he's not the he's not currently the president of the United States. And yet, there is a president who doesn't seem at all interested in actually keeping the government running or in participating in any of this process. And what does that say about the state of our country, Brian?

I mean, that's just insane. The actual commander-in-chief is not part of these negotiations. And everybody seems to be acting like this is fine and normal and expected. It's not. I mean, Barack Obama was all over these negotiations when they happened under his watch.

And so, anyway, look. When I look at this situation, this is entirely a situation that could have been avoided. Everyone knew this was coming. Speaker Johnson is an accidental speaker, and I've referred to him as being a deacon elevated to the pastor. You know, he's the guy who was supposed to be in charge of the coffee and bringing the donuts, and now he's actually supposed to be in the, in the you know, giving the actual sermon every Sunday.

And that's not something that I think he's necessarily equipped to do. He seems like a nice guy, but I just don't think that it's the kind of thing that we have seen him navigate before. Negotiation, not his strong suit.

Now we have a situation where Donald Trump is on the outside basically saying this negotiation is going badly. We need to do different things. JD Vance is obviously advocating for it himself on Capitol Hill. And they're completely right. The fact is that this is not a situation where we should have a CR that was LARDI with all these other things that were outside and didn't need to be included, that lobbyists and other special interests wanted to be included.

Instead, I think that the logical thing to do is to have a skinny CR, something that takes you through to the next year and basically says we're going to start with as clean of a slate as possible and then we're going to get some momentum going forward as opposed to sticking a bunch of stuff into it that people want to get in there right before they exit, which is what we always see when these Congresses head out of town. It's terrible. It's because they don't want to do their job. But it's business as usual in Washington, D.C.

So Donald Trump one hour ago said this, if there's going to be a shutdown truth, if there's going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now under the Biden administration, not after January 20th under Trump. This is a Biden problem to solve. But if Republicans can solve it, they will. He also, earlier than that, Congress must get rid of or extend out. Perhaps 2029, the ridiculous debt ceiling.

Without this, we should never make a deal. Remember, the pressure is on whoever is president.

So, a couple of things. Why weren't they? And Ben, you know the mechanics of this better than I do. Why weren't they talking about doing things through regular order, through their committee process, through their 12 committees, and coming out with the suggested budget for their suggested area? Why didn't they do that?

Were they just saying, screw it, wait to see who wins the election? What were they thinking? What they were thinking was, and this is actually a logical thing to think, is that Chuck Schumer isn't going to take any of this up.

So, what's the point? And that's the, I think, that the, you know, it's a bit of a convenience in terms of the Washington frame of things. But the truth is that Chuck Schumer was never going to take up any spending bill that the Republican Congress was passing through. That was just not going to happen because he was waiting to see what happened in the election and they didn't want to have anything cemented. And this is the kind of situation that you end up with when you have.

when you have a branch of government that doesn't actually do its constitutional job. And that, by the way, is something that is predates all of this. It's not like it's a new problem. It's something that's infuriating people like me and people like you who actually think that I'm the guy who does his job. You must be the other guy.

That kind of thing. But it's one of the things that I think is unfortunate about the way that Washington works: that if you end up being the people who are holding the bag at a moment like this, then the media, the legacy media, tends to come in and say, oh, well, you're to blame for all of this.

Well, Chuck Schumer didn't take up a single spending bill that the House was passing at any point. And so it was not a situation where there was actually going to be a true budgetary process in the way that it needs to work.

Well, it better for now on, then. Don't you believe? I mean, they got to start doing things through committees.

Well, but this is the thing that I think is so important going forward. We have to do things through committee. We have to have things through regular order. We have to have things that actually pass in a way that are clear-cut. And this is actually what I think.

You know, people talk about the negative influence of of Elon Musk in the legacy media a lot. Here's the thing that I think he's doing that I find really valuable. He's great. at creating shiny objects. And I don't just mean the rockets that he sends up into the sky.

What I mean is, he is great at drawing attention to things that people may not otherwise know. And in fact, sometimes it's because he just learned it. It's because he doesn't know it himself. He didn't have to interact with the congressional budget process before. And I think he's learning new things about it.

And that's something that I think is actually helpful for the country because it's going to highlight how ridiculous all of this is. Instead of having a bunch of mid-level congressional workers with green eyeshades trying to get you to pay attention to pork, you're going to have Elon Musk saying, look at this thing. It's ridiculous for spending money on it. And that's something that's good.

So I appreciate that aspect of this moment. We're going to get through this. We always get through this. This CR should have been skinny from day one. Like I said, I think Mike Johnson tried to make too many people happy.

And that's the only reason that we ended up in this actual problem. And frankly, Trump, who is not yet President, I want to remind people, his critique is completely correct in terms of saying we should not give away all of these other things to Democrats simply because we're trying to get out of town to go back home and celebrate Christmas with our families.

So a couple of things. Ben Dominic, your guest, obviously. That what I don't understand is Is you can't just sit there and say, this is the way I want things, this is the way it should be done. I represent 786,000 people, and excuse me. You're part of a body of over 400.

You're a majority of four. Start with reality. Don't waste my time. And James Carlson. You can't.

You're not going to achieve great things with that kind of a majority. And look, I. I have known my friend Chip Roy, and I say my friend because he is my friend. Like, there are few politicians who I say that about, like, you know, who would actually, if I asked Chip to come and help me move a couch, he would help me move the couch. You know, that kind of thing.

I hear you. He seems like a great guy. I've known him since before he had cancer, et cetera, et cetera. I understand why he makes the argument, and he makes it from a legitimate perspective that he wants to advance the cause of fiscal conservatism in these moments. You are working with the majority that is so small and with people who are so fickle That you are not going to be able to achieve anything of significance in this moment.

Now, I understand the frustration with saying, you know, you've got to kick the can on something, but look, this isn't the moment when you're going to get a big win. And I do think that that's something that has to be factoring in the minds of not just Chip, but people who I'm not friends with, people like Thomas Massey and others who are dedicated fiscal conservatives. And true, by the way, they're people who posture. He's not a posture. He's someone who's actually coming from a legitimate opinion of what he thinks the government ought to be spending and ought to be doing in terms of not taking all of our children's wealth from the future and spending it now.

But you're not going to be able to get the kind of things that you want in this moment. The government's going to have to be funded. We're going to have to move on through this. It's just a question of how much you give up along the way. And the more that there are conservatives who object, the more that the leadership is going to have to turn to Democrats to get the support that they need in order to pass that.

Yeah, all right.

So we'll see what we get done. The guys will interrupt me because it should be within 15, 20 minutes, they will get news about something.

So if something happens, they'll interrupt us.

So I want to go to the other big story, the Wall Street Journal interviewing 50 people about what it was like behind the scenes with Joe Biden, and he was not there. I mean, they talk about Biden's case, the walls around him were higher and the controls were greater. There were limits over who Biden could speak with and have the duration of which he would be speaking. He only met with the cabinet members nine times in four years. The Secretary of Defense, who almost was never on his things-to-do list or person to listen to list.

And get this, Ben, because you have such a sense of international politics and war. When it came to the poll out of Afghanistan. Adam Smith, a democratic person. This was the most disturbing part of that story. I'm glad that you brought this up.

Said that he could not get to Biden. He wanted to warn him about how bad this could go, and he could not get to him.

So, General Milley, that's what the president wants to do. We have all the other guys, all the other generals, McKenzie, they decide, well, that's what the president wants. Really? Is that what the president wants? Because he could barely put two sentences together, and he was unreachable behind the scenes, but no one thought it was.

The right thing to do is to put your stars on the ground and go, this guy's out of his mind. 20 years of war can't end like this. People will die because of it. Lives will be ended. Taliban will be back in control.

Maybe we should rethink this. Instead, the feeble-minded, dementia-ridden President calls the shots and authors the biggest disaster in American military history. Brian, I'm glad that you highlighted this because to me, this was the most disturbing aspect of this Wall Street Journal story. People can say, oh, we knew this, and there's revisionist history here. Because people are saying, oh, well, you know, oh, this is always, you know, no, and that kind of thing.

No, well, you were denying it all the way up until he dropped out. That's one. But two is. You you have a situation here where you have not just your average member. But The chairman of the Armed Services Committee, someone who ought to be able to have a direct line to the President of the United States.

And he can't get him on the phone. And the only phone call that he had in the last four years with the president, according to this story. is the phone call that he had when the President called him to apologize for not talking to him. That is unbelievable, Brian. That's that's, I mean, Forget Banana Republic.

This is, that's chaotic. That's out of control. It's insane. I mean, I believe there is a direct line between the fact that he could not get the President on the phone. to the deaths that we saw in Afghanistan.

And I don't think I'm exaggerating to say that. What about the guys who we had to get out? The guys you left behind? The guys who were left behind. Everyone who there are so many things that came out of that domino effect wise.

I mean it's Yeah. Unacceptable, but here's the other thing, Brian. That's 2021. That's not late in his term. That's early.

They have quotes in there from 2021 about him having good days and bad days. They weren't just hiding this from us for the past year. They were hiding it from us from day one. And that to me is just. I mean, there's so many people who should be looking in the mirror now and praying for forgiveness.

This is something that resulted in not just, you know, The deaths of multiple people, I believe, in Afghanistan, but just the diminishment of America. And its stature abroad. I got something else, Ben. You're meeting with the President, and your name is Vladimir Putin. You look across and you realize This guy is a cognitive mess.

This guy cannot make a decision, and that's that America is run by a man for the next four years that can't do the job. I think I'm going to go to Ukraine. When you meet with She and say, I want the permission from you and the backing from you to be able to go into Ukraine, you think that doesn't come up? Of course it comes up. You know, the the point is, we can't operate We consider ourselves the leader of the free world with this kind of circumstance.

It's unacceptable.

So, Ben, every history class you sit in, they talk about Woodrow Wilson famously and his wife ran things that got out of stroke. And they talked about how they were able to get away with it because it was a time in which there was very little media, penetrating media, and the wheelchair that FDR has. That one picture, have you seen it of him in the wheelchair? It's like they only completely shut everything out and they were able to get away with it because they didn't have modern media. But yes, it continues.

And now, this is the story of our generation. With mass media, big and small, emerging from every aspect, social media. They were able to push aside all inquiries into his mental health to get confirmation that he can't do the job. But our enemies didn't. And that affected history.

Thousands have died because of it in Ukraine. I believe that Putin knew this is my time. Absolutely. I think you're completely correct. But one more thing, Brian.

This is an indictment, an indictment of so many people who are in the jobs that we have.

Okay, because the American people expect us to To be able to look at what's going on in Washington, the White House on Capitol Hill, in New York, et cetera. And to be able to report and be honest and forthright with them. They trust us to be able to tell them the story of what's going on. And what I think this Event showed Definitively. is that it's not just bias.

It is It is an unacceptable degree of compromise. You are compromised by your interest is in getting access. And in getting opportunity, and you are worried that that will be cut off for you if you say the honest truth. Or you put a Republican in power. Or you put a Republican in power.

Or you'll put it. Yeah, that's even more dangerous. Ben Dominic, we have so much going on. Have a great Christmas. Have a very good best, Brian.

Give my best to your family. Love you, man, and have a great time with the family and look forward to talking to you the next year. Absolutely. Back at you. Back in a moment.

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.

I think Elon Musk believes he's president. I do.

Well, you can call him. I do vice president. I've called him vice president. I've called him president. Because I don't know what JD is doing.

I hardly ever say, I don't remember the last time we even talked about J.D. You're right. He's planning the presidency when he's going to get rid of Trump.

So you think it's Musk uh Musk Vance? Mm. Hey, you know who? Stay away from the stairways. Brian, you're listening to Clarion, Pennsylvania.

That's, of course, Squipy Goldberg. Hey, Brian. Hey, Merry Christmas. Thank you for taking my call. Your last guess, wow, this revelation about the incompetency of the President.

Are we supposed to believe that he's in charge of all these pardons that are being given? What's been revealed is high treason, high treason has been committed. By people closest to the president. And the American people should rise up and demand that they get charged and tried as such. Hey, Brian, you know who's also culpable?

Obama? Jill? Kamala Harris, all these people that know the truth and covered up. And now they're making up this pardon list, too.

So it's incredible. Good point. Very good point over in Pennsylvania, as usual. Very engaged. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show.

Brian Kilmead. Brian Kilmeader here. Thanks so much for listening. We got a big hour coming your way and a lot of breaking news that could be coming out of Washington to do the thing where aborting a government shutdown. As you look around the country, around the world.

So many democracies are a mess. Canada is about to collapse their government. It looks like the Prime Minister Trudeau could be leaving. We know Germany's got a placeholder government right now. Olaf Schultz is a disaster.

And France, we saw the collapse of her government about a month ago. And the UK can't get on track. Especially with this labor government trying to spend their way out of problems. I just hate to think that people who look at us and our economy is beginning to turn around and see another government not being funded. And I hope they work something out.

We should find out shortly if there's going to be a temporary patch of maybe 10 days of funding. Let's get to the big three.

Now with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. The observers inside of Russia recognize that Russia is going to have a major problem in 25 in terms of personnel forcing him to a mobilization, which he doesn't want to do. This may be sincere on his part, and hopefully it is. General King, Vladimir Putin rants, but is he ready to talk?

What went down in Syria and why that might force him to the table as North Koreans' bodies pile up and they burn off their faces so they look like Russians? Number 10. It's now clear from both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times piece that there was real deterioration and significant decline in Joe Biden and that it was being managed by the people around him. They were insulating him. Really?

Knocked me over with a feather, Chris Kalizza. Worse than we thought, but not surprised. We essentially have not had a president for the last four years who doesn't meet with his cabinet, doesn't take advice, not available to his own party, and everyone lied about it. Apologies needed.

So the Wall Street Journal since August. To Robert Herr, the special prosecutor, who said he was diminished, and to everyone at Fox News who's been trying to get somebody else to pay attention. Number one. The Muss Johnson proposal. is not serious.

It's laughable.

So if we're going to pass something, there's going to have to obviously have Democrat support. Nothing can happen in this Congress without Democrat support. Why do they realize that? Shutdown Looms is the second swipe at a continuing resolution fails. What's going to happen next?

Let's bring in Senator Tom Cotton. Senator, they're not taking up any of your time because it's not gotten to the Senate yet. How much longer does your chamber sit on the sideline before you think Chuck Schumer says, I'm going to put something out there?

Well good. Good morning, Brian. to be back on with you. I hope that we don't sit on the sidelines much longer, Brian, because a secondary effect of the delay. In funding the government is that Chuck Schumer has more time to put more radical judges on the bench.

And regrettably, that's what we'll be doing today. We had hoped to. passed the government funding bill yesterday and uh adjourned for the Congress. Hi, Bo, I'm Chuck Schumerst. four disastrous years as majority leader, but instead We're going to be voting on two left-wing judges today.

So I hope it doesn't go much beyond that. And I certainly hope it doesn't go beyond midnight tonight because I don't think a shutdown is. for the American people or anyone's interests. Here's James Comer cut four.

So, if we're going to pass something, there's going to have to obviously have Democrat support.

So, we'll see what happens. But nothing can happen in this Congress without Democrat support. Why don't people realize that? I mean, I know what you stand for. I know you're very conservative.

I know that AOC is very liberal. But we know in Congress, by your job description, sometimes you've got to compromise only so much you can do. How do we get to this spot where people still are ranting about spending or not spending, about a program or not a program, when we only have a few hours left? Yeah, well Unfortunately, uh For more than a year now, on any consequential piece of legislation, it has taken Democratic votes. I've been Part of the reason for that is the Republican House members are Still deeply divided, and it's probably not going to get much better in the new Congress.

They lose a seat or two. One thing I've stressed when it comes to the House. Which is different from the Senate, as you know, Brian. It's a majoritarian institution. When you have the majority, your power is only as strong as your ability to hang together in the majority.

If you can put 218 votes on the board, then you can accomplish a lot. If not, then you're going to accomplish much less. Because every time the Senate Speaker of the House, whoever that speaker is, whether it's Mike Johnson or Kevin McCarthy or those before him, has to go to the Democrats. The Democrats start demanding ransom. And then you have a downward spiral where you're getting more and more Democratic wishes and losing more and more Republican votes.

So it's really important, not just now, Brian, not just now for a short-term funding bill, but as we look ahead to the new Congress, if we want to secure our border, rebuild our military, reduce gas and electricity prices for our people, and Cut taxes for everyone, we're going to have to hang together. We're going to have to produce majority votes in the House and the Senate if we want to advance President Trump's agenda.

So Elon Musk just said when they said DC swamp creatures, I thought there was just a metaphor, and he's a little disenchanted. Do you think, as bright as Elon Musk is, that he actually can understand the mechanisms of what's possible in the house? As Speaker Johnson's deal got blown up, or are you kind of glad it did get blown up? Uh no. I think obviously Elon Musk is extremely bright and Mm-hmm.

Even though he's relatively new to politics, he certainly played a critical role in helping elect President Trump, electing Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania to give us an extra seat in the Senate. And Dave's going to be a great senator. And uh I think what happened on Wednesday is just a you know, the American people, especially Republican voters, We're surprised and disappointed in some cases of about the proposed bill Uh included. and Elon Musk, who simply helped highlight some events. Long cuts.

Again, no pride, it's the same dynamic I just tried to use. When a speaker, any speaker, has to go to the minority party to get votes, the minority party takes demands their turn, and then that loses more of the majority. Votes, and then you get more demands from the minority party, and you end up with bills that have more Democratic votes than Republican votes. That's not a dynamic that we want to play out. And frankly, that's not a dynamic that we can afford to play out when it comes to passing major budget bills next year, not short term spending bills, but major bills they're going to deliver from President's agenda.

That is almost certainly going to be Republican majorities that carry those bills.

So we really have to work together as a team with President Trump if we want to accomplish everything So, Senator, talking to Senator Tom Cotton, you recognize his voice. Senator, the Wall Street Journal story did not surprise me, did not surprise you. We got detail about how the president really has not been president for four years. And I was just thinking about all the ramifications, think about Afghanistan. They say he made the decision by himself.

No one could get to him like Adam Smith, the Democrat, to warn him about what could go wrong. He didn't listen to General Milley, didn't listen to McKenzie, they didn't put their stars on the ground.

So many people left behind, so many people died, so many people are still dying. Taliban in control. And then you have Vladimir Putin meeting with Joe Biden. Don't you think Putin realized that Biden's a shell of a human being and this was their opportunity to strike, and they did in Ukraine? Do you think about it?

Have you thought about the ripple effects of an invisible president? Yeah, um Brian, it it's not surprising at all. The Wall Street Journal story just confirmed what we all could see with our own eyes, going back as far as the campaign, much less His early days in office, and you still see those ripple of fucks playing out right now, Brian. Let's remember that although Donald Trump is dominating the political scene, Joe Biden was still the president. Joe Biden may be forgotten, but he's not gone.

Where has he been for the last week trying to negotiate a spending bill to keep his own administration funded. his final month. Yeah.

And as you highlight, there's one most critical moment, and that was in the run up to the debacle in Afghanistan that led to the death of thirteen brave Americans and the humiliation of America that tempted Vladimir Putin to go for the jugular in Ukraine and had other cascading effects. And the members of Congress Couldn't get a hold of Joe Biden. They couldn't express a different perspective. He couldn't remember that his senior military leaders, to include, I've been told, Brian, all of his. Key cabinet officials as well told him that this was ill-advised, that it was going to end poorly, that things were rapidly deteriorating.

Um I I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. Brian, of what we're going to see now that there's no consequences. Remember, anyone who tried to ring this alarm bell was shouted down by Democrats and their liberal media allies during The four years of the Biden presidency, and even after he in July because it was in their interest Maintain their vow of silence, a level of Omerta that I'm not sure even the mafia. Could uphold. But now that they're leaving office and they're worried about their own reputations and they're worried about their own livelihoods in the future, I think you're going to see a lot more of these stories basically of people like Jake Sullivan and Anthony Blinken and Janet yelling and saying, Yeah, we tried to explain it to the boss, but you know, he was just too gone.

Chris Caliza of formerly of CNN, now doing his own thing. He's apologizing, cut 19. People around Biden worked to make you feel bad when you asked whether he was up to the job of running, of being president, running for president again, and serving as president for another four years. How could you? And they did a very good job, at least until they couldn't hide it anymore, of hiding it.

So he said, I should have pressed harder, please. New York Times, Washington Post, every network until he fell apart in June, they knew this and they were still going to put him up to run for another four years. Senator Cotton, this is unbelievable. Anybody who was complicit in this should be eliminated from consideration from any office. Obama knew about it.

Schumer knew about it. Kamala Harris knew about it, was lying up until yesterday about it. And they really want credibility from here on in. They cared more about themselves and their party than the country. Yeah, um it is true.

What was just said in that clip that the people around Biden, the Biden High Command, uh in the White House kept him under lock and key and would browbeat anyone democratic legislators reporters, pundits. for questioning his fitness for office. That didn't mean that those people had to just accept the Brown meeting. They should have said what their own eyes told them. Take Chuck Schumer, for instance.

Biden is forgotten, but not gone.

Soon he'll be gone and forgotten. But Chuck Schumer is still going to be the Democratic leader in the Senate. In February, not even four months. From his debate against Joe Biden in June, Chuck Schumer was saying: Joe Biden's mental acuity is great. His mental acuity hasn't declined Bill Biden had not lost a step in the 40 years that Chuck Schumer known him, not lost a step, and that it was Republican propaganda.

to think otherwise. And then you saw what happened in the debate, and now we hear these stories starting to leak out. How can you trust anything Chuck Schumer says? But for that matter, how could anyone other than a spool or a small child have ever trusted anything Chuck Schumer says?

So lastly, I want to go to the Pentagon. How is it that we were told there were 900 troops in Syria, and it turns out there were 2,000? This is part of the chaos. I don't think Joe Biden even knows that we had sent troops there. Our Secretary of Defense was a four-star general, used to be deployed in that region.

How is that possible, Senator? Yeah.

It shouldn't be possible. I can tell you, Brian, from experience that every commander knows down to a man. where his people are on every single day you The robot. I personally saw it in Afghanistan. It's not Well, at the battalion level, there is a daily battle update that tells you to a name.

Raiding both base and combat outpost and leave and pass. and sit call where every one of your people are and and just at the Pentagon saying publicly that we had nine Troops there, when in reality we had 2,000 troops there, is something that they need to explain because they knew how many troops they had there. They knew it was being publicly reported. They didn't correct the record. Senator, there's a story in the Wall Street Journal that Vladimir Putin, excuse me, that President Trump, elect Trump, and Benjamin Netanyahu are talking about.

Hitting Iran pretty quickly because they are on a rapid, they are on a breakneck pace to get a nuclear weapon, and they've never been more vulnerable. How do you feel about that report, if true?

Well, Iran is for the first time in decades exposed on its flanks, Ryan. In particular, Hezbollah has been devastated. And Hezbollah was always the strategic deterrent That Iran had against Israel. If Israel threatened Iran directly, Hezbollah had more than 100,000 rockets and missiles and mortars and other weapons aimed at Israel. But thanks to the remarkable leadership of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the incredible skill and bravery of the Israeli Defense Forces, Hezbollah has been largely neutered.

It's certainly leaderless. And Iran And what I think is now seen as a very foolhardy decision, decided to strike directly at Israel. Israel struck back, destroying virtually all of Iran's air and missile defenses.

So Iran's jugular is completely exposed in the way it hasn't been really in over thirty years. And I don't think Israel can live the nuclear Iran or even a nuclear threshold Iran, Brian. And as I've said from the beginning of Israel's latest war of survival, our policy is very simple. We should back Israel to the hills. Absolutely.

You don't want to be the president who allows Iran, the most evil empire out there with Russia, China and North Korea, to get a nuclear weapon.

So, especially in a region that, believe it or not, is closer to peace today than any time over the last few 20, 30 years, because Hezbollah and Hamas are not what they were, and Syria is no longer allowed to, Syria is no longer a pathway for Hezbollah to get rearmed.

So, Israel is in a pretty good spot right now. Senator, we have so much to discuss, but sadly, I'm up against a break. I look forward to your role now. You're among leadership at the GOP Conference Chair, Armed Services, Judiciary, and Intelligence Committee, while still raising your family. That's why you're not one of the nominees in President Trump's cabinet.

Senator, thanks so much. Have a great Christmas. Thank you, Brian. Merry Christmas to you, the Kilmead family, and all of your wonderful listeners. And we got a lot of them.

Thanks so much, Center. Back in a moment. Expanding your knowledge base. It's the Brian Kill Meet Show. Radio that makes you think.

This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Let's clarify one thing. There does appear to be one president. It's Elon Musk. who has his own very self-interested view of everything, including the fact that he wanted to remove restrictions on investing U.S.

companies investing in China. I wonder why. But he spent nearly three hundred million dollars to get Donald Trump elected. There are rumors that he is going to use X to buy or merge with True Social, which would give Donald Trump a tremendous windfall. Elon Musk has Donald Trump in a vice, and it is very clear that Elon Musk is now calling the shots.

Well, Dan Goldman doing the best they can to try to get leverage over a president that just won with tremendous coattails as well as the House and Senate in a couple of weeks. But Dan Goldman weighing in on what the delay is. Elon Musk did weigh in. And he did not like all the spending in this program. I did not hear that thing about China.

And to a truth, social X might be logical, but that's not something that. I actually don't think it'll be logical because Trump's spun off Trump media, and Trump media has got a life of its own. Having said that, House Republican leadership has set to propose a third funding plan in the hopes of averting a strike. Speaker Johnson's been meeting all morning. We're trying to see if there will be a third funding plan.

One plan floated overnight called for extending the current fiscal levels, just keep going, and a farm bill for one year at $110 billion for natural disasters, including details initially agreed to by Democrats.

So do not leave North Carolina and Florida out in the dust, please. These people are suffering. FEMA's out of money. Don't know how that happened. Like to examine that.

But we got to agree on that. Just a mess. But I think it's kind of cool. Stay right here. As this whole thing develops, we're going to keep you up to date.

Brian Killmee Chill. Exciting time in America, right? Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. We have been briefing you regularly that there are approximately 900 U.S.

troops deployed to Syria. In light of the situation in Syria and the significant interest, we recently learned that those numbers uh were higher. And so uh asked to look into it. I learned today uh that in fact there are approximately 2,000 US troops in Syria. What?

You haven't told the that y that is general. Major General Pat Ryder, Pentagon spokesperson, learned yesterday that there are not 900 troops. In Syria, there's 2,000. Are you kidding me? How does that happen?

Who knew and who didn't tell him? Who's upgrading the troop levels and didn't tell the guy who's a major general at the Pentagon? It gets worse. Jennifer Griffin decides to Get uh try to get some answers. Cut 30.

What's a while? Yeah.

I don't have a number to provide, but again, double the number of troops that we've been told for quite some time.

So are we talking about this has been going on for months, for years? Is it something that just happened this summer?

Well, we need a time frame, I think, is fair. Yeah, I think it would probably be fair to say at a minimum months. I'll go back and look. Um it's the yeah, it's been going on for a while. Really?

Going on for a while. Go back and look yep. Whatever you do, don't get up to date for the re Pentagon reporter to answer the question.

Someone upgraded the troop levels without telling you. And I sense that General Austin's not even calling the shot. Do you ever see that guy? Do you ever feel as though he has got any energy at all? Does he have any organs even working?

So, Jennifer's not going to let him off on this. Cut 31. Pat, it's clear that you were surprised by the number of U.S. troops that were in Syria, but was Secretary Austin also surprised? You know, I'm confident that the Secretary is tracking U.S.

forces deployed around the world. Again, as I highlighted, you know, there oftentimes are going to be diplomatic or operational security considerations as it relates to the deployment of forces. Just on that, did the Secretary directly? people not to make that public.

Okay. He could not commit. To saying that the Secretary of Defense knew that the numbers of troops in Syria, one of the hottest spots, most dangerous places in the world, even before the revolution, let alone after the revolution, the utter definition of instability. And he's not even cannot even tell you for sure that the Secretary of Defense knew about it. Who's making these decisions?

Who? I mean, really? Who? I don't have an answer. Do you have an answer?

We'll just close it out like this: Cut 32. Just a follow-up. Was the president aware that there were 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria? I won't speak for the White House.

Sickening. I mean, these people are terrible. These people are awful. How we got through this four years is beyond me. And I just can't believe if a John McCain if there was somebody like a John McCain in Congress, in the Senate, And that was a Republican administration.

He would have blown them up in two seconds. He would have actually had a head count and known ahead of time. He would have told Jennifer to go question Ryder about this. But there's nobody out there who's that clued into defense, who care that much about international affairs, who understand truly the balance of what's going on in the Middle East and how much credit Israel has for the success we could actually have and benefit with the Russians paying the price. But it's all about Netanyahu that got him to this place.

And this is the clu these are the clueless idiots. I mean idiots. And I think General Austin's the most overrated four star general in the history of this country. And anybody that says he did a great job is just sitting there because they just want to cover each other's back because they're in the general's club. 'Cause he's awful.

He doesn't speak with any authority. He doesn't command any authority. Walking around outdoors with his mask on, telling a horrible message to the troops. Sitting there with two or three masks on, what a joke, with his shield on. Remember that?

With a time in which we needed stability in this world?

Meanwhile, j just so you know. The Russians Um Are trying to get negotiations in order to stay in Syria. Why are we letting that happen? I don't know. Because we should be in there and we have State Department officials in there.

Why is it important? Because if the Russians are out of Syria, they have no way to transport in and out weapons, essentially, except through Iran, to the Houthi rebels, to Iran, getting the drones from Iran over the land. The fly amounts.

So now the Russians, according to our satellite photos, are moving over to Libya. and they're starting to bolster up their bases in Libya. Why do they have bases in Libya? Because Barack Obama went ahead and set the table to oust Gaddafi. They do, and has no plan for the next day.

So now it is a Divided country Full of terrorists. essentially uh live uh learn to live next to each other The void filled by You guessed it, Russia.

So now they can go from Syria. To Russia Because of Barack Obama. and the genius of Joe Biden. That's the mess the world is in. I know people, you know, they do these studies all the time.

They say the American people, unless we're at war, don't really care about international affairs. But believe me, you should, because it affects all of us at home and affects the money we're going to spend in the area. And when things start blowing up here and you look up in the sky and you say to yourself, I wonder if that drone is friendly or not. And your government won't answer you. And you know how many enemies we have.

Then you're going to be surprised when it turns out that Russia, Iran, North Korea and China have combined to form a new axis of evil with who look at us as the only people standing in their way.

So Vladimir Putin looks like he wants to talk. After four and a half hours, literally four and a half hours yesterday, but now we have attackums hitting in Kursk and beyond, going into Russia proper, generals being assassinated in the streets of Moscow. We have a ruble that's been devalued beyond comprehension. We have their inflation rising as oil sells on pennies on the dollar, and China's more than happy to buy it from them because the sanctions have isolated them. General Jack Keen.

On how close we are to Donald Trump getting both sides to the table, CUT 25. The reason is, and people are not aware of the significant setbacks he is suffering. He has been on an offensive operation for a year. He has moved a total of 25 miles forward in that timeframe. He has taken 30,000 casualties a month, 57,000 in October, losing 100 to 150 tanks, only able to replace about 30 of them a month.

So in 2025, even the observers inside of Russia recognize that Russia is going to have a major problem in 2025 in terms of personnel forcing him to a mobilization, which he doesn't want to do because the people will resist it, and two major equipment problems. Recognizing that, this may be sincere on his part, and hopefully it is. Because you don't want to see the killing. And all I could tell you is: anyone who tells you that Zelensky's out there for personal gain or not having elections because he wants to stay in power, you're not paying attention. You can't have an election in Ukraine if you're at war.

Number one, number two is look at the approval ratings. He's over 50% still while at war. It's amazing what he's done. You'll never convince me differently. And the Russians have been thoroughly exposed, but the Ukrainians have paid a horrible price.

The good news is they got natural resources, there's a free market system there. They will rebuild and the money will flood in. But I agree, the President of the United States, when he was running, I thought to myself, you know, this is not the time to talk. I do think all sides. Are ready to talk.

You could bring the killing to an end. We got to bring your wake up call too. And you know what that wake up call is? Our industrial base is way too small. We cannot build rapidly.

The amount of weaponry we needed to sell, to use ourselves, and to arm our people. You get Pete Hayseth in there. We're going to increase recruiting just by his presence and thinking soldier, airman. Marine Navyman first. And we start putting them first, letting everybody know that he cares about the war fighters.

And then you get an organized Pentagon who's utilizing R and D. And moving us into the 21st, 22nd century, I'm fine. Things are going to be better. But if we can't make the weaponry quick enough, It's not going to work. But if we can get this conflict to an end, start bolstering up our coffers again, and then we sell it to our allies to get away from the whole Soviet era.

Warfighting machine that we can't supply, we can't fix, we can't resupply. Things will turn around. This is a good opportunity, but President Trump man, as Thomas Friedman wrote in the New York Times, he's inheriting in a much different world through no fault of his own. And the story that's going to be written. And I remember you know, I I'm one of those people that paid attention to social studies and history.

I was just glued to it. Can I remember all my teachers and all my classes? I've always had an interest, hence the history books that I have out there, including Teddy and Booker T. The last one. They always talk about 1919.

They always talk about Woodrow Wilson. They always talk about the fact that he had a stroke and wasn't running the country and that his wife actually took over and lied about what Woodrow Wilson was able to do. I don't think he ever fully recovered, but he was running the country coming out of a war, and his wife was running the country. They kept it secret. There was no Facebook.

There was no social media. There was no podcast. There were just newspapers kept at bay, many of which were complicit with the White House. But now it happened again over the course of four years, right here in front of our noses in the 21st century with Joe Biden essentially a corpse in the White House. I know it sounds cruel, but I have no patience.

I care about the country first. And all these people just sat on their hands and they pretended like he was fine. And they were going to let him run for re-election if he didn't fall apart in front of the world. They were hiding polls from him that showed him losing. They would hide bad news from him in this news clips so he'd have no idea how much people hated him.

He wouldn't be with his Treasury Secretary. No wonder he was wondering, he thought Bidenomics was working and inflation was transitory. And then to see these, some of these people apologize, I'm not buying it. Here's Victor Davis Hanson. You talk about a historian, he's the best.

Cut 24. This was the denuement of a long type of deception. They appointed Joe Biden as a façade, the Obamas and the hierarchy of the Democratic Party to play the role of old Joe Biden from Scranton, where they pushed through the most destructive left-wing agenda in modern history. And then, when they found out he couldn't even play that role of a waxen effigy, they deposed him in the same abrupt coup manner that they appointed him. and they put in Camela Harris.

And now they can't decide whether she did worse or it would have been better to have him continue. Such was the poor choice among the two. Victor Davis Hanson, Julie in Florida. Hey Julie. Yeah.

Hey, Brian, good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Um just wanted to I totally agree with everything that you are saying right now and I'm so happy to finally be hearing them talking about him and his mental capacity because for four years I have been saying, and I think I called your show, to actually say that I believe he also has Parkinson's. because of his shuffling gait, which you often do. Yes, you often see that associated with dementia, with that cognitive decline.

And the fact that they have been lying to the American people for four years about this is just absolutely disgusting. I mean, they think that we're stupid. And I think the American people should speak out for this.

So listen to this. What do you think of this, Julie? I just got this email from Hank. Hank writes: I'm listening to your radio show after reading the news. After everything that has come out this week, shouldn't there be a freeze on any executive action that Biden proposes?

He's waiving more student debt, selling the wall, the pardons, the list goes on. Are there legal actions they could actually do? This is treasonous. It is. It shows he's not running the country, not capable.

Make him prove that he can. 1,500 commutations. Are you telling me? 33 pardons, including his own son. Are you telling me he's making those decisions?

No way. And now he's gonna go over to Italy and represent us? You're gonna tell me Maloney wants to see this clown, and they're gonna go see the Pope? When he basically this guy's a Catholic and he just threw basically doing everything possible to make abortion universal. And the Pope wants to see him.

So it is crazy what we're allowing to happen. And he's not even president. We got the president-elect in Mar-a-Lago having an impact on a spending bill that he does not even he's not even a part of. Thanks so much for the call. I'm going to come back and save some time on the other end.

There's much more to discuss, including some numbers on illegal immigration and what we're experiencing here in this country and how many criminals we have and the You know, the tough job Tom Holman's going to have, but I believe he's up for it. You are listening to the Brian Kilmead Show. What do you mean? Expanding your knowledge base. It's the Brian Kill Meet Show.

The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead. Tom Home has said, This and there's no need for family separations because if there's a person in the family, who is in the United States illegally. The the Trump administration will deport them. And it's the family that gets to choose.

The family gets to choose: are they going to remain together? And all go back together? Or is the family going to make the decision that the family will have a separation of the family? That's a family choice.

So that is Governor Rabbit, obviously. They put him, they're starting to do everything possible. I got to. Give them so much credit. They're putting up huge billboards in Mexico saying, Don't come.

It's the worst decision you'll ever make. Don't do it for your family. It's not going to be safe. It's a terrible decision.

Now, on paper, when you come here illegally, if you try to get in, you're gone. You can't get in, period.

So it's going to be a risk. That's one way to stop it. U.S. deportations at highest level since 2014. Look at these numbers from ICE.

In 2024, deportations, 271,000 plus, removals 88,000, or thirty two percent had criminal histories. 32% of the people that we got criminal histories. ICE data on criminal deportations, sexual assaults and sex offenses, 16,552. ICE says 2,699 homicides, kidnappings, 2,423, known or suspected terrorists. Two hundred and thirty seven fiscal year twenty twenty four.

Think about that.

So the sign that they have on billboards in in now in Mexico. That says, You'll regret it forever. Don't come.

Now think about it. Texas has put buoys in the middle of the Rio Grande. They have billboards over in Mexico. They're doing their best to use their own taxpayer dollars to buy federal fence that we already bought that they put up for auction. Governor Abbott and Dan Patrick are scrambling to buy it and put it up or save it for when Trump takes over.

This is just to upend the mummy, which is who is Joe Biden. Remember, Joe Biden did not even know there was a freeze on new leases on oil and gas. In a time in which Japan, our allies in Western Europe, were dying for natural gas because we told them not to use Russia's. They freeze it. And they don't tell him.

This can be the story. who was running the country. I didn't let Jake Sullivan. I have no respect for Jake Sullivan. I'd elect Ron Klein.

You got to be kidding me. He's a bad pundit, let alone insider. Second tier. Immigration has driven up our population to the highest rate in 23 years. Look.

I'm watching Russia and Japan, you know, our countries, China. They are cratering in terms of population. People want to come here because it's the best country in the world, even though. Many Democrats don't feel that way. You do.

I like that we're attractive. This is not the way I want to do it. I want to screen everybody, and I want to make sure our first-round draft picks that go to Stanford, that go to our institutions, and people that want to be here and part of it, maybe they get the visas. First visas, because they help our country. We need engineers.

Steve Jobs wrote about it, Elon Musk writes about it. We need more engineers to get manufacturing here, let's stay. You see when people want to come in from the working class perspective, how many people are needed in farming community as well as in landscaping, hardworking people, blue collar people looking to establish themselves here, bring them. Work visas. That's good.

have people that are waiting online ten, fifteen years, what you have to go through if you're an American and you marry someone or if you're a foreigner and you marry an American, what you have to go here and the tests you got to go through in order to make sure that you're not doing a marriage to become an American citizen. They're egregious, it's too tough, it's too expensive. There are things we can fix, and I think this president's going to do it. Because the good news is he's not running again. I think in the big picture, we kind of like that.

Think about it. Governor Junkin, not worried about re-election. By the way, I want to see you in person February 15th, BrianKillne.com, Florida Theater, Jacksonville. From Hia Top Fox News Headquarters in New York City. City.

Always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead. Hi, everyone. Brian Kilmead here. Thanks so much for listening.

Tommy Lehrer at the bottom of the hour. And she's going to be special, almost as special as Shannon Bream, anchor of Fox News Sunday, Fox's chief legal correspondent. She has two separate direct deposits: one for your legal correspondent and one for your hosting a show. And today, a lot of direct deposits because she's hosting every show. Best-selling author, and Janice Dean is here.

I am just her friend. And no, you're representing Canada. We have some Canada questions. You only need me because of Canada. You're not blaming Canada?

Not blaming Canada. Can I bring any maple syrup?

So, first off, the maple syrup is very good. It's been five minutes. Have we found anything about this shutdown? No, we're still waiting. I think that what they're going to do is: listen, I'm a jaded Washington journalist.

They're going to give us like a 14-day CR clean with nothing else attached to it just to get them home for the holidays. But see, Democrats might not want that because when they come back, they lose the Senate. They have the House same distance and the White House. Would Democrats sign off on that?

Well, if you get every Republican to vote with you, you don't need them. From the House. And then it goes to the Senate. The Senate doesn't have to be a Senate. Yeah, but do you want to be the one then you're shutting down the government, the Democrats and the Senate?

Because that's how it will get portrayed. The big difference now. Remember who still has a vote over there, too? That was Mansion and Cinema. Right.

You know, and so they may say, like, listen, for the good of the government, like, let's get it together here. Right. And by the way, Joe Manchin, this is one thing that Tom Connor brought up. The longer this goes on, Schumer can put more judges out there. Yeah, so they thought the government would be shut down, they'd be done, and they'd be heading home right now so you could bring more of them out.

So that might be an issue. Might be. Are you even interested? I'm super interested. My whole show.

Eric, are you seeing this? My whole show is in. That's all she talks about. Can't we talk about food? Right.

Yeah, that's what we like to talk about. Or lip gloss. Yeah.

Or celebrities. I can update you on all the celebrity news you need to know. You know what I found out yesterday? You guys will love this. Kevin Costner, I saw a picture of him in Aspen walking his beautiful dog.

I'm mad at that for a little bit. What kind of dog? What kind of dog? Okay, a white English lab, English cream, they call him. Oh, just like Biskey.

Just like Biskey, right?

So I Google, he got his dog the same breeders that we got Biskey from. No way. So like Biscuit's dog, I'm basically related to Kevin Costner now. That's what I discovered. Did you go up and talk to him?

No, but I feel like now we have a connection. Brian, can you have him call in? Yeah, I want to talk to him about dogs. I'm going to look him up online. On People's Search.

On People's Search. I think whitepages.com. Yeah.

You can just find people through that. Does anybody watch Yellowstone here? It's just been. My hubs is obsessed. But it's terrible without him.

No, it's over now, though, right? But they deserve it. Because they took him for granted. Yeah, I agree. And they made a show.

And he didn't consult him on how he died. Evidently, they put in his contract how they would kill his character. Wait, what? He died? He's not one of them.

This is from a few episodes. He's just a show killer. But you know that, right? No, I know. I know that.

You can't. In the show, how do they handle it? Do they pass out on the floor? Oh, no, no, no. No, you want me to tell you what happened?

Yes, he did.

So he knew that if he was. Ditched out of the show, it was gonna end that way. You're gonna kill him. It was, it was, you know, it was not good. Uh, but I do like Landman.

I've heard that's good. That's also Terry Sheridan, right? I like Landman, but here's the thing. Billy Bob Thornton is amazing. I'm watching Land Man.

I'm through like four of them. Who else is in this? My problem is Demi Moore. He's a mess. And the guy for Bad Man.

Smoking like crazy. I don't like the smoking. And we're supposed to believe that he's a sex symbol that's going to get this young lawyer, really, in the middle of nowhere. Brian demands a recast. There is something about Billy Bob Thornton.

I'm not sure what it is. Remember when I think Angelina Jolie used to wear his blood around her neck? Yes, and an ambulance around her neck. They traded her. When she's hot, she's still beautiful.

She's scorched. What? What do you think of Demi Moore in Land Man? Silence. Can I say, can I?

How like you're in general hospital? Back a day. Way back. We're going to Blackboard. I like the raspy.

John Stamos. John Stamos. I like the raspy voice. Like, she kind of had a cool, boyish charm. She's got a lot of work to do.

I strenuously object. Right. From a few good men. Oh. But yeah, uh, but then, you know, she's I don't know, she's trying to come back.

That's fine. Uh but we'll see. Yeah.

But I watch LeMang. You know what I like about it?

Okay. It's giving a lot of attention to the oil business. It's crazy. Extremely tough business, yeah. I mean, I never knew any of this went on.

Oh, I did. I I didn't. Did you work on the oil rigs out in the gold for what your muscles are? Can I finish? Blood skulls.

Which you refused to show on Fox and Friends this morning. We had a perfect opportunity. I did a feature. I didn't hear about that. I did a feature on oil and gas, and it was fantastic.

I went with the. If you don't say so yourself, I was great. Were you out there with the pumps? Did that really happen? They could blow up.

And they were just telling me, they would tell me the whole business, how much is involved, even to dig how much investment is needed in order to drill. And that's why when they start making leases harder to get and finance and going after the banks that are doing the financing, the ripple effect, when you come out, I go, well, I'm not banning anything, but you're pressuring banks not to drill. You're pressuring a whole generation not to get involved because you're hurting the environment.

So you go and do, you know, sell solar panels or whatever people do they can't get in the oil and gas industry, which is extremely lucrative, they can't staff. Hopefully that all bounces back. Although, if you listen to Thomas Friedman, he believes the future is in clean energy and that China runs everything. You think they'll get into that on Landman? Oh, yeah, they already had one of those conversations.

Did you see it? Oh. They walk up to so the. Enlightened lawyer shows up and they go to a field and they they sit look at the windmill. And how much needs to go into that windmill.

Instead of having the rant the other way, they had the rant pro oil, and I loved it. Oh, yeah. Were people upset that you did not wear the ugly Christmas sweater? I'm still upset about it. As a viewer this morning, I felt robbed of the full experience.

Backstory, they asked me if I could wear one of the ugly Christmas sweaters for Ugly Christmas Sweater Day, and they gave me a choice of a medium or an extra large. And you know me, Shannon. I like it. It's all the comfort. Yes.

I want to pretend I'm in my jammies and I'm going to have some bon bons. But that was Killmeads, and I was supposed to get the medium, so he didn't wear a sweater. He put his medium on.

So I hear in my ears. I hear my ear them saying, you know, Brian, aren't you going to put it on? I'm like, it's not fitting. Like, oh, thanks. Like, thanks.

And everyone else has got one that fits them.

Okay, but just think about how much fun it would be for you to put that thing on like tight. I mean, it would have been a whole viral moment. Moment. It really will. It can still happen on this show.

Right. Because we stream on Fox Station. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. And I know.

I put it on social media. All right. On the socials. But can I just bring this full circle? Yep.

I'm related to Kevin Costner now. That's where this conversation started. Yes, and I just want to bring that home. All right. So he knows.

How about this bringing home? The biggest scandal in our lifetime. Are you curious what it is? Which one? I feel like we have so many.

I work in Washington. Do you think I know? Do you need to think it is? I think one of is it.

Well, in most recent scandals, The Biden presidency that was Shannon, you live in Washington. I know. Come on, what is going on here? Yeah, yeah. I mean, the fact that he wasn't even meeting with members of his cabinet did not have access to nine times in two years.

I mean, what I would hear from Democrat lawmakers that I would press, like, well, have you talked about this with the president? Have you seen him about whatever the issue was? And they'd be like, no, I can't even get any access to him. These are senior Democrats who are like, I can't get into the White House. I can't get a meeting.

Do you think we're going to get more on that story? Probably. I think the floodgates are open. Chris Kalizzo, who everyone who seems to, he was a CNN for a while. Who is he right for now?

I don't know. All right, but he's got his podcast, CUT17. As a reporter I have a confession to make. I should have pushed harder. Earlier, for more information about Joe Biden's mental and physical well-being.

And any signs of decline. The White House and the people around Joe Biden were absolutely adamant that suggesting anything. Asking the question. about whether he was in some Physical, mental, or both decline. was offensive.

How could you? It's age shaming. And I think That impacted me. at some level because while I did ask the question from time to time I didn't really push on it, uh, if I'm being honest. Uh even you I mean, you got to be buying this.

You're afraid of being yelled at by the administration, but does they shame you? Do they have any shame c going after Trump every single day, twenty-five times in a f in a fifteen minute presser? Yeah.

To the point where he told his press secretary, don't have any more press conferences. Where's this going, Channy? I mean, I do think you'll hear more and more from people because there were people who would talk to us off the record about this and say, I can't tell you how he is because I can't get to him. I can't have a conversation with him. But this thing, talking to nearly 50 sources, talking about how his closest advisors and cabinet secretaries couldn't even get to him, top lawmakers couldn't get to him, didn't have meetings with them, conversations for them for months and months and months.

While you're making decisions, you hear Secretary Austin running defense, Secretary Yellen running the Treasury. They're not having regular meetings and access with this president that people were told, you got to keep it short. You got to keep it focused. He was given questions that he was to do with his cabinet secretaries. I mean, that's so odd, but I think the most.

Damning thing about this whole thing is that a lot of people in that circle went ahead and let him run. For four more years, knowing he was barely able to do the job now, in their estimation and by their reporting. The Afghanistan thing made the most mad. Right. That he couldn't think of a regret.

And was not part of the decision making, really. Janice, they said it was solely his decision. And when Adam Smith, who's a Democrat from Washington and chairman of Armed Services, wanted to meet with him to tell him about what could go wrong, he couldn't get to him. It's um and now we have 13 U.S.

soldiers, their families devastated forever. They're gone. Not to mention, there are tons of people with really serious, life-altering damage, emotional and physical, from that day, too.

So when he's asked on this latest, you know, interview he's doing, you can't think of any regrets. I cannot imagine how that lands with those Gold Star families. I really cannot. And then the Robert Herr report. I mean, he was an apology when he said that.

Yes, he does. He dedicated for that, saying he was hazy and he was whatever. He was telling the truth. Yeah, and he said, I can't present him to a jury because I just don't think there's the mental faculty to have the understanding of the violation of the law. A well-meaning elderly man.

Right. It was divorced from facts. All right. I have no respect for Austin either. And I think the other story is that the Pentagon's been run by nobody.

Members going to go going to the hospital, didn't tell anyone. For days. Did you see this Jennifer Griffin exchange?

So that Jennifer Griffin finds out, like we all do, that there's not 900 people in Afghanistan in Syria, there's 2,000.

So listen to this. We'll we'll go cut thirty. What's a while? I don't have a number to provide, but again, this has been going on for months, for years? Is it something that just happened this summer?

We need a time frame, I think, is fair. Yeah, I think it would probably be fair to say at a minimum months. I'll go back and look. It's the yeah, it's been going on for a while. Major General Pat Ryder, not told the troops were double, more than double.

So then listen to this, Cut 31. Pat, it's clear that you were surprised by the number of U. S. troops that were in Syria, but was Secretary Austin also surprised? I'm confident that the Secretary is tracking U.

S. forces deployed around the world. Again, as I highlighted, there oftentimes are going to be diplomatic or operational security considerations as it relates to the deployment of forces. Just on that, did the Secretary direct people not to make that public. Secretary Austin is not doing anything.

I'm telling you, he's the most overrated four-star general ever. He was the one who came up with that statement telling Obama that the JV team, ISIS at the JV team, he could pull the troops out of Iraq.

Now, think about that. You pull the troops out of Iraq, you get ISIS. You pull the troops out of Iraq, you now have to put your other troops into Syria. He also didn't back up the red line that allowed Assad to use further chemical warfare. And how about this?

Now the Russians have to get out, we think, of Syria. Guess where they goin'? Libya. Mm. Guess who created the void in Libya?

Barack Obama. He took out Gaddafi and left. He had no plan.

So now it is a terrorist haven, and in come the Russians to fill the void. Think about the ripple effect of allowing Crimea, you're not going to stay in Crimea, he stays in Crimea. When the Ukrainians asked for help, he gave him food. Food and blankets, MREs and blankets. I think one of the most underappreciated thing is how bad a foreign policy president Barack Obama was.

Well, and you also had, you know, the attempted green revolution. At one point, in Iran, and people that desperately needed some signal of help or hope from the Americans. And listen, we can't go into Iran. You've got to be really careful about what you're doing. But that felt like a missed opportunity to a lot of people.

Shannon, do you know why he didn't? Because he wanted to get a nuclear deal with him. And he did. He got one. And he did.

And he couldn't pass it through the Senate. Chuck Schumer, Ben Cardin, Democrats wanted no part of that nuclear deal. He got like 42 votes. Needed 60. And that's why Trump came in and goes, You kidding me?

I'm not doing this. And ripped it up.

Well, I think that there will be a lot of history books written on what happened with President Biden, but you really think so? I do.

Well, I do because remember, you had Robert Gates, you know, former secretary, who said at one point Biden's never made the right national security or foreign policy decision.

So I think he's got plenty of critics out there. I think once Afghanistan happened, too, we saw in the polling just this falloff of people who lost confidence in his ability to make decisions as commander-in-chief.

So who was making decisions during the Biden period? I mean, Ron Klein originally, now Jeff Zeitz is the new chief of staff. There's no Ram Emmanuel, like strong personality. People think that, but I have no indication of that, except for they said he was basically the AI czar, you know, kind of being the liaison. And the vice president said she has been there for all the major decisions and that she was there for Afghanistan and that she's been there for all these other things.

She was able to see exactly how he was or wasn't doing. This extensive report said he had good days and bad days. He's done. You don't want that for a commander-in-chief. I'm never going to hear from her again.

Not if she has anything to say. Say about it. It's surprising to me to see her in the speeches and things that she's doing now. It's admirable that she seems. not defeated at all by her recent defeat.

She's out there giving speeches and she's smiling and she's laughing and looking very forward. And the last kind of poll that was asking people where they're going in twenty twenty eight, She her name was at the top of the list. Oh, man. And listen, you know, Republicans in Washington love that idea. They are cheering for that.

I think those things will change over time as you have other who's on Fox News Sunday. We've got Ben Cardin that you mentioned. Ben Cardin's going to be with us, Senator, also Senator Mark Wayne Mullen. And we're talking with this speaker. We hope he'll land with us on Sunday, too.

Speaker Johnson, I'm sure he will. Yeah, my hope. Hopefully, he's got something to say. And are you going to watch Fox News Sunday? I always do.

She's been on the panel. Once again, we're going to see you. Uh, in two weeks.

Okay, she's taking a vacation. I'm taking two weeks. You gotta show Saturday night. Saturday night, one night. It's my show prep for Sunday, which is going to be you it.

I'll follow by Killian Conway. And I'm trying to think who's in my B block. Will you please wear a Kevin Costner sweater? Kevin Costner and Biscuit. Back in a moment.

Educating, entertaining, enlightening. You're with Brian Kilmead. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead. Yeah, we're back.

Let me just tell you what's going on here in New York City. You have Mayor Adams coming out and obviously making some positive statements, I think positive too. Luigi Mangioni saying this guy's a killer, there's no room for that in this country, and you should not be celebrating his death. But you also have one of his other key aides. I've never seen such corruption around anybody.

One of his other key aides is now indicted for essentially getting money from various locations, investing it in other things like a Chick-fil-A franchise. And of all people, Alvin Bragg said. This is Cold Quid Pro Quo.

So, Mayor Adams is playing interesting. Going on with Martha McCallum, doing a pretty good job with Fox, got saying positive things with Tom Holman. He's got an opportunity. But in New York and New York City, keep your eye on what's happening here because Mayor Adams, in trying to save for many reasons, save his own hide. Is trying to do positive things with this administration.

But you know what that's going to do? It's going to put pressure on Mayors in Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco to do the same thing. Maybe pave the way. Even though he's probably doing it for the wrong reasons, I like the answer, especially if he's going to give Tom Holman. Access to one of those.

Infamous prisons, Rikers Island, to let them get the evil gang member, criminals, and deport them right out of this country. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Killmead. All right, Tommy Laren's here. If you're smart enough to be watching Fox Nation, host of Outkicks, Fearless.

Tommy Laren is Fearless. And also, she's going to be doing outnumbered shortly, but we've got some quality time now. Tommy, what a, I mean, What a day for you to come in. I mean, what's going on? Up until we thought we had a third shot.

At possibly funding the government for at least two weeks, but it looks like something went wrong behind closed doors.

So. Who do you think more pressure is at? Democrats or Republicans?

Well, the Democrats aren't accepting any responsibility. Where is Joe Biden? Where is Kamala? I mean, they are currently leading this country. You'd think they'd have maybe something to say about this.

Chuck Schumer this morning basically saying this is a Republican problem. You guys handle it.

Now I understand. Like, Trump is basically the president now. It's a lot on him to handle it. But boy, it would be nice to have some leadership by the people that were elected for the last four years to maybe do something. You see, this would be an opportunity, and we keep saying this for the vice president.

Show, you came back. You're going to be the leader.

So she's sticking around in case you have to be a tie-breaking vote. Evidently, she wants to be on vacation.

So when it. Why not be out there? Why not send everyone to show up around me? Listen, I've been talking to Chuck Schumer, and Chuck and I are going to. There's no interest in ever leaving.

Couple things. One, she doesn't want to run in 2028, and she's signaling that. Like, listen, guys, I'm not going to do anything because I don't want this. I don't enjoy it, and I don't want to do it anymore. You thought that you think I feel that because if you have any ambition, you still want to be in the fight.

We've heard from her twice. I mean, two kinds of speeches that were not good. Many people would say very, very bad. And then she goes on vacation. She's going to stick around.

So I think she either doesn't want it and she's like, hey, take me out of the race. I don't want to do this, guys. Or she thinks to herself, like, maybe I'll step back because my name is poison right now. And if I advocate for something, it's not going to go well for my party. Like, maybe they're asking her to please be quiet.

So yesterday, they revamped the bill and knocked it down from 1,500 pages to what, 100. And Elon Musk says, okay. Let's do this. And the answer is no, because they whipped against it for the Democratic side and they lost 38 Republican votes. Here's Hakeem Jeffries cut three.

For decades. The Republican Party has lectured America. about fiscal responsibility. about the debt And the deficit. It's always been phony.

This bill proves it. That's why. Republicans are suspending The debt ceiling. For two years, the so-called party of fiscal responsibility. And that's on President Trump's behest.

He said, just knock it out. I don't want it to be a point that Chuck Schumer hangs over my head. Your thoughts about this. Are they susceptible? to being no longer the party of fiscal responsibility.

I don't think Trump necessarily ever ran on I'm going to cut spending. I think that was much more of a Doge thing. Like, I'm going to put them in charge. They're going to cut waste, fraud, and abuse. And I think everyone was for that.

I think Donald Trump is for that. But his last administration wasn't necessarily the cutting administration either. I think he wants tax cuts for the American people. I think he wants to cut waste, fraud, and abuse. But he never really ran on, like, I'm going to chip away at the deficit.

That really wasn't what he wanted to do. It's let's secure the border. Let's give us tax cuts. Yes, it's that.

So I think for him, Elon Musk and the Vegue are putting the pressure on because a lot of people want to see the government spend less.

So I think it's going to be them finding their sweet spot there. But as far as this goes, the American people are looking at this like, you guys knew this was coming up. You waited until when? Like, you guys shocked? You guys didn't know what your jobs were?

And you want to wait until then and put everybody now down to a countdown clock? Every time we do this, and people don't understand why. Right. But they say, well, this is not an omnibus. This is a continuing resolution to put Trump in power.

And Trump said, Really? I don't really like this spending. There's some of these things that are in there.

Now, nobody I know going over 1500 pages. They had 72 hours to do it. But one thing was clear. The people who always stand up and speak out, the Rand Pauls of the world, the Tom Masseys of the world, Chip Roy, cut eight. You can do a lot of damage in 116 pages.

And this 116 pages still continues to spend $110 billion unpaid for. It adds that much more to the debt. But importantly, it increases the debt ceiling something on the order of, for two years, something on the order of $5 trillion with no structural reforms to reduce spending. Our simple ask, and we told the president this: we need to have structural reforms if we're going to increase the debt ceiling. I agree with the president.

We need to get the debt ceiling off the face. But he's not voting for it, and he is sickened by all the spending.

So I just don't understand. I think guys like this, Tommy, have to get involved in leadership. And if they go into that room and negotiate and they're still saying the same things they're saying, then that's one thing. But just to sit on the sidelines and say, I can't believe how much we're spending, I'm kind of done with it. Yeah.

I think people are a little frustrated too because there are a lot on the Republican Party that I might agree with, by the way, but they want to get the social media points for having a virtuous stance on something, to be noble, to be a martyr. But then you're putting the speaker in a tough spot. He's like, listen, I would love to do all those things, but my hands are kind of tied. You got to work with me a little bit. But there are some that want to get the social media points that want to be the warrior.

They want to be the martyr. It's like, that's great, but we live in the real world.

So don't let perfect be the enemy of the good here. Like, we got to do something. Right. And it's just pretty amazing that people just accept the fact that Joe Biden is nowhere. And this in the wake of the story that, number one, he went back to Delaware in the middle of the week this week, and now he, I guess, is going to deliver food somewhere for the holidays.

And then he's going to go to Italy and visit the Pope and go see Maloney. He should not be president now. Yeah.

I mean, do you really think, judging by the Wall Street Journal story that talked about him being vacant for four years, that he's signing, he should be signing off on 1,500 pardons, 30 commutations, 33 pardons? Do you think that he's making these decisions? No, and this is actually elder abuse.

So when you do this to an elderly person, it's America abuse. It really is. But it also for him, I mean, I don't think he knows what he's signing. But in the real world, if you have an elderly person, you're like, hey, sign over your house to me. And they're diminished and they sign it over.

The court's going to throw that out. You're taking advantage of somebody. Yes, he's the president. It's also on him. He should have never been president the last four years.

He was diminishing in 2020. But the fact is, the people that are so angry of Elon Musk's clout, I understand it, but they're the same people who had no problem with Joe running the country for the last four years, not even meeting with his cabinet, and having scripted conversations. I mean, come on, save when you're out here. With the people that he hired, nominated, and confirmed. It's crazy what's going on.

And the thing is. Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, anybody, KJP, every day they lied to us. And they are done. I think their political careers are done. Obviously, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are not worried about it.

But in terms of Obama's having impact, not only did they fail epically against Trump, but now they have zero credibility. I mean, come on, you stabbed him in the back, but you propped him up there to begin with. You were willing to back him until he fell apart in June. And then you put all of it into Kamala. I mean, I think that the influence that the Obamas are going to have on the Democrat Party is going to be greatly diminished after that.

After the Michelle Obama and the Barack Obama speeches right there at the end, shaming people into voting for Kamala, and then she didn't win a single swing state. I think their influence is over. Maybe they'll do more of the dances, and people will talk about how cool Michelle is. She'll do a podcast. But I think, as much as them being able to control the Democrat Party day to day, I think that influence is fading.

And you just mentioned this before we started about the whole. Celebrity. Actually, with Shannon Breen, we were discussing this. I'm confusing great TV personalities. We were just talking about the influence of so-called celebrities.

And how it boomeranged. I look at Obama Marva as a celebrity, and now I don't think people go on any part of them. I think they're bitter because they put their face out there from the Chris Rox of the world to George Cooney. I think they hurt their own careers. And now, in the end, and would say as Taylor Swift to a degree, they put their own career, their own name, terrible candidate, terrible mission, terrible policies.

I think things are going to change. I mean, it's hard to know what's going to happen in 26. But by 28 comes around, if I'm a celebrity, I don't care if I lead left or right, I am out. Correct? Yeah.

It's not worth it. Unless they have some kind of a rock star candidate. And I think it's going to be Gavin Newsome.

So I don't think anyone wants to hitch their wagon to Gavin Newsome. But unless they have some standout candidate out there that people are so excited about, like they were Barack Obama in 2008, I think celebrities are going to be like, you know what? I'm either going to be pro-Trump because now it's cool, pro-Republican, pro-mega America first, or I'm just going to shut up and do my job. It's going to be okay. You're going to be doing your job on outnumbered.

How do we follow you on Outkick? On Outkick at Tommy Laron is Fearless. That's my show on Outkick, 1 p.m. Eastern.

So I'm going to do Outnumbered, and then my show is going to be on, and then I'm going back to Nashville. Then you're going to go over to Newark. Do you have clear NTSA? I do.

All right. I am fully confident you're going to make your flight. Have a great Christmas. And Brian also promised he's going to get me a beautiful corner office in this building, 1211. Lots of windows and blinds because I want you to have your privacy.

Yeah.

Maybe even your office, Brian. We'll see what happens. I'm sorry, I can't even hear you from here. It doesn't really make any sense. No, you should have a place to go when I'm here.

And I will do everything I can to make that happen. Back in. A moment. Keep in mind, One Nation coming up Saturday at 9 o'clock. When we come back, I'll tell you what's on it.

Want even more, Brian? Download the podcast at BrianKillMeadShow.com every episode. Exclusive interviews on demand. More of Kill Mead coming up. Information you want, truth you demand.

This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Journalists, and I put myself here, you've got to, we should have been pushier. Uh we should have I should have, I don't want to speak for everyone. I should have not let the shame. Campaign to make you feel bad for asking the question, get to me.

Because it's now clear from both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times piece that there was. real deterioration and significant decline. In Joe Biden, and that it was being managed by the people around him. They were insulating him, they were keeping.

sort of the world, the political world out and keeping him sort of bunkered in. Yeah, the story they were talking about has been replicated elsewhere and was first put up in August by Wall Street Journal. They were eviscerated for talking about the president failing. Jill knew it the whole time. In fact, in 2020, the story goes that Jill was out campaigning and doing more appearances than Joe.

So they were going to write that. And she said, no, don't ever say that. Don't say I'm doing more. Man, she was probably making all the decisions. That's going to be the next story.

Who was making the decisions? They were all complicit over the last four years. They would say, here are the polls, but they cut out all the bad polls.

So when Nancy Pelosi was saying how bad he was doing, he actually probably didn't even know how bad he was polling compared to Trump. They also said just months into the Presidency, they could see his decline. He almost never met with his Cabinet secretaries, almost never met with Austin and yelling, my goodness, defense and your The dollars and cents, lady, are you crazy? They would say they have good days and bad days. Here are some of the quotes, some of the polls.

Interactions between Byn and many of the Cabinet members were relatively infrequent and often tightly scripted. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine getting a script for a meeting with a friend? A friend. But we should know that because remember the cards that we saw that told them where to walk, who was who, in meetings?

And also, with things like hi, come in, say hello? At least one Cabinet member stopped requesting calls with the President because it was clear that such requests would not be welcome. More from this. If the President was having an off day, meetings could be scrapped altogether. One such occasion, a national security official explained in another aide why a meeting needed to be rescheduled.

Know what the aide said? President has good days and bad days, and today is one of his bad days.

So we're going to have to address this tomorrow. Really? National security? Bad day? Do you have a fever?

Do you have the flu? Do you have scurvy? What do you have? What is a bad day? Why are you having a bad day?

What did you give him to get him through the State of the Union? Don't be surprised here.

Some photosome of amphetamine. As he streamed his way through it. His gatekeepers. Prisons always have gatekeepers, but in Biden's case, they say, the walls around him were higher and the controls greater. There were limits over who Biden spoke with, and limits of what they said to him, and limits around the sources of information that he consumed.

And finally, Biden's team tapped campaign co-chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg. A Hollywood mogul to find a voice coach voice coach to improve the president's fading warble. Remember how we can really understand what he's saying? If you saw the two interviews he did with the nondescript podcast over the last two days, it sounds like he's barely awake. It sounds like there's three infants sleeping in the room next to him.

He doesn't want to wake them. Mean I mean, is his hearing that bad? Does he not know that we can't even make out what he's saying? It's nuts. But yet People defended him.

I played Joe Scarborough the other day. Listen to Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer and Gavin Newsom all over the last year, Cut 16. Right after the debate, you insisted that President Biden is extraordinarily strong. Given where we are now, do you have any regrets about what you told the American people? No, not at all.

Not at all. I talk to President Biden regularly, usually several times in a week. His mental acuity is great. It's fine. It's as good as it's been over the years.

Oh, I absolutely believe that. To the extent that we're having this conversation, I don't see any need to do that as it relates to Biden.

Okay. Couple of things. Gavin Newsome knows how bad he was. Gavin Newsom got the reports and he says I'm going to be his biggest fan. He is now eliminated.

From Annie run for any higher office. You've already lied to the American people. Chuck Schumer has no future. He's going to stay in his spot. Nancy Pelosi will get a few new hips and she's going to be impossible to get rid of, but she has no ambition for a higher office.

Kamala Harris, you freaking lied over and over again. And Gavin Newsom, you lied because you thought it would help your career. Instead of coming out and doing. What very few people were doing, and notice that he's not the same guy. That George Cooney had to be harassed into coming forward with a column saying this is not the same Joe Biden.

It's bad.

So here is and the last I'll do on this is Tom Cotton. Last night, and he had joined us earlier, but here's what Tom Cotton knows: Cut 22. It was just in February of this year that Chuck Schumer was saying Joe Biden's mental acuity is great. It hasn't diminished at all over the years.

So think about that. In February, four months before Joe Biden's calamitous debate performance, Chuck Schumer was lying to the American people, saying he hasn't lost a step in years. Nobody believes it. And lastly I just want to bring this up. Right now.

Punchball is reporting. That the movement to get the government funded so everyone can go on vacation. is at this place. Speaker Johnson is looking at a new plan to fund the government. The House will vote on three bills: a continuing resolution until March.

A disaster relief package is in there and an extension of the Farm Bill. This is according to sources familiar with the plan. The GOP leadership may wait until tomorrow to vote for the plan. That would anger everybody and everybody's playing tickets. The House Republican will hold a press hold a closed party meeting.

In thirty minutes. To discuss the strategy, government funding runs out at midnight. Will they wait till tomorrow to do it? That's their latest plan to fund the government. What a disaster.

I would not, I mean, if you, if it was November, especially after the election. And I would every day I'd be hammering out everything we need to do in order to not do this on Christmas. I'd be meeting with Chip Roy and all the normal naysayers. Idealists who aren't in leadership, but like to criticize leadership. And I like Chip Roy.

I just don't think he's living in a realistic Situation in the house So you can criticize Peter Johnson all you want, you can put Kevin McCarthy there all you want, you can put Jim Jordan there all you want, they're going to have the same situation. But in March, it's got to change because the House changes, the Senate changes, and the White House changes. But the thing is, it all comes out to this one the same way I started this segment. The president has been invisible for four years. They've been running the country without him.

And it is quiet quitting that we're witnessing right now. He has virtually disappeared since Election Day. He's disappeared to fund his last weeks in office. How apt as he goes back to Delaware with one last trip to the Pope. to maybe plead for Uh amnesty.

for a terrible, terrible career. From the Fox News Podcasts Network. I'm Ben Dominich, Fox News contributor and editor of the Transom.com daily newsletter, and I'm inviting you to join a conversation every week. It's the Ben Dominich Podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to FoxNewsPodcasts.com.

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.