Press Secretary Leavitt warns media in fiery first briefing: No lies, no misinformation

From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead. Hi, everyone.

So glad you're here. Hope everything in your life is okay and getting better. Rich Lowry is going to be with us at the bottom of the hour, National Review editor. Brett Baer is standing by, chief political anchor at Fox News, and we have all the play-by-play on everything going on in Capitol Hill today in the executive order that's already rolling out. The president says it's going to have an executive order that pushes for school choice nationwide.

I'm not sure he has jurisdiction in all 50 states, but we understand the mission and the message. It's that kids, especially in working-class communities that might not have the best schools, should have a choice to take the money allocated to them to take with them to perhaps a better school. Maybe that's in your state. The president wants it in the country.

So let's get to the big three.

Now with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. Bobby is addicted to attention and power. Even before he fills this job, his constant denigration of our health care system and the conspiratorial half-truths he's told about vaccines have cost lives.

Well, that's not going to help. Caroline Kennedy, RFK Jr., evidently don't get along. Safe to say, Caroline, sweet Caroline, not so nice to RFK. Nominations, confirmations. Trump's most controversial selections front and center as RFK, Tulsi, and Cash go to bat for their positions over the next two days.

Number two. Dojin OMB also found that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza. That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money. Yep, that is Caroline Levitt. What a roaring start for her as press secretary.

Trump's first 100 days, flooding the zone, a Tuesday of chaos as a spending freeze resulted in a judge freeze and a tense day for Press Secretary Levitt on day one. Number one. Similarities to what happened in Germany and what's happening now in America are. Just undeniable. Gestapo raids in America.

In and of itself, I think, xenophobic and racist.

Okay, or not. That is media ridiculous coverage of the president's push to get illegal criminals out of our country. Massive impact. Tom Holman's crackdown of illegals has taken criminals off the streets and slowed the border crosses to a trickle. He says the deport pace will pick up, and his critics and supporters pick up their intensity, as you just heard.

Brett Baer joins us now. Brett, a wild day yesterday. It was. Good morning. Because we had the freeze on spending outside Social Security and Medicare that had to be rewritten a couple of times before people understood if you're getting direct aid, you're not going to be affected.

So Meals on Wheels and the Head Start program was going to be okay. Yeah, so The executive order, as written, said this pause does not include anything that is a direct assistance to Americans.

Now they didn't explain it well, and it took I saw Virginia Governor Younkin put out a very detailed post on X. in which he said he talked to the White House and specifically went Down each thing: school lunches, direct aid, you know, Medicaid, Medicare, all of these things that he listed in his ex-post, which I actually read on the air. And it was much clearer. And so, because of the ambiguity in the EO, I think it did cause chaos. You know, there's some people in Trump world that say you need to shake things up, it needs to get attention, but there's a lot of people, Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, that said, you know, it was unnecessary and that he could have done this pause in a very methodical way.

You know the inner workings as well as anyone. There's no OMB director. This came from the Offices of Management and Budget. I don't think Trump necessarily said write this, sign this, and implement this, but I'm sure he okayed the framework of it.

So the reaction in the Senate is, now we're not going to okay Russ Volt. We're going to delay it because of this. Isn't that counterintuitive, counterproductive? Yeah, of course. That's a guy that would oversee it.

Um Listen, there's a lot of angst, and I think that the left feels like they finally have something to hold on to. And if you watched MSNBC last night, it was like this is the moment. Take it to town halls, take it to places all around the country. This is it. The resistance is back.

And I think it'll be explained today. And obviously, that federal judge stepped in and gave a temporary pause until Monday. But if push comes to shove and you realize that there is a lot of money that was going out the door that's um wasteful or it it doesn't make sense. And they have examples of that. I think that that's something that the American people would accept.

So the president has an executive order out about school choice. He also has one out today. If you are teaching critical race theory, and you're not going to get any federal money.

So obviously that's going to rock people's world because I think the American public are done with that. The Pride 1619 project, I think we're done with that. But it might still be kicking around.

So that'll be debatable too. But if people want to know what the overall objective is, it's not to rock anybody's world. It's to rein in spending. And I thought John Hart last night with Laura Ingram nailed it. He's with the CEO of Open the Books.

This is what he wants to do, cut 20.

So our organization opened the books. We're taking a deep dive look at all 441 agencies listed in the Federal Register. The first thing we found was 75 of those are actually obsolete.

So the Trump administration can today claim that they can go in and cut the number of agencies by almost 20 percent.

So that's what they want to do.

Some people say, let me analyze it and recommend it. Other people say let's freeze it before we spend anything until we know it's going in the right direction. Different approach, but the rub is Congress allocated the money, Brett.

So that's the answer. Can the executive branch stop money that Congress allocated? Yes.

So what Stephen Miller and others have said publicly is that this pause is not on the specific money that was allocated with a purpose by Congress. It is on the discretionary spending of agencies. Uh and it deals with that nuance. where agencies decide, oh, we're going to send fifty million for gender studies in Afghanistan, or I'm just giving you something off the top. But like that, the discretionary, it's not the specific Congress Authorized, and that's the nuance they're making.

I think they could have made a clear pitch before they did all of this. This is interesting.

So, the nominations confirmations continue. Howard Luttnick will probably sail through. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Kelly Loffler. Kelly Loffler is SBA administrator.

She says, Donate my salary. There'll be no problem. With RFK Jr., he is the most controversial, might be the most popular, but he's not popular with his family. Caroline Kennedy could not have done a better job of blowing him up in every way. Listen to a little of it.

Cut 24. Bobby is addicted to attention and power. even before he fills his job. His constant denigration of our health care system and the conspiratorial half-truths he's told. About vaccines, including in connection with Samoa's deadly 2019 outbreak of measles.

have cost lives. They deserve a stable, moral, and ethical person at the helm of this crucial agency. With all the controversies, the death, the murders, the Chappaquittic. The one thing about the Kennedys, they seem to stick together, but not when it comes to RFK. Man, that was a he she eviscerated her cousin.

Yeah, it's brutal. Uh he explains it that you know, when he left the Democratic Party, um it left him and uh in that breakage went some of his family relationships. Um And You know, it's obviously it's a family that America knows. But they also know Bobby Kennedy from the campaign trail and from his. you know, uh talks about health And I will say that in the campaign, I do think that some independence and some.

uh suburban moms Really did buy into some of the things that he was talking about: about children's health in particular and all the stuff that's in food. Um and I I think that's You know, there is a fine line here that we're going to see play out in this hearing today.

So with Tulsi and RFK, it's going to be interesting because nu normally it's okay, Republicans are going to be nice, Democrats are going to be nasty. All right.

Now it's going to be a little blended. I have Senator Cassidy, a former doctor, will be aggressive on substance. And I imagine if Democrats see an opportunity to blow him up, they're going to bring up, Hey, were you doing drugs? And what about you putting chickens in a blender and feeding them to your predator birds? And so there'll be In a way, both sides are going to look to possibly draw blood over those next three hours.

Yeah. The question is: Would there be a Democrat who votes for Bobby Kennedy? Would Senator Fetterman vote for Bobby Kennedy? Will there be? You know, and there's others who are, you know, friends of his.

and they have long relationships with.

So I don't know. I don't know how this is going to play out. But, you know, you need to, if you lose Republicans. You can only lose three.

So I know you do your common ground, and I know you relish the moment when these people can actually work together. I had Senator Gallego on this morning. He is co-sponsoring the Lake and Riley bill, and I'm looking at a lot of his quotes and preparing. He's very pro-immigra, pro-border enforcement and immigration. But so far, there's been some pretty impressive scenes as the ATF works with Homeland and works with ICE in order to pull back these criminals.

They're getting some real bad guys out of this country from there to the flights. We're seeing it all. Yeah, and I think it's that the seeing it has made a statement in and of itself. Remember that Democrats. didn't have any problem largely with the Obama years where deportations were very high.

He was called the deporter-in-chief by some critics of that move, but largely the party. was fine with it.

Now, that same action, although it's much more public and in your face, and we see it. Is getting again Holocaust, you know. Fascism kicking indoors You know, the same kind of analogies that we've heard before the election.

So they're not going to want to hear this. Cut five. We got to do more. We got to open that aperture up, which we're going to do. It was a great start.

The first week was unprecedented. I mean the illegal crossings on the border one day was like five hundred and forty. I've never seen that. And I started in Borbital 1984. And we went from 10,000 a day.

To under 600.

So it's great. It's good. But we're not finished and we need more deportations, a lot more deportations, and that's what we're working on.

So that I mean, Joy Reid's head might explode.

So we're not sure. Tom Holman was credited by President Obama back then. Uh which is such a crazy dichotomy about where we are uh about this issue. But uh I think that they are going to step it up. I think that the criminal part of it is really Making a mark, and some of those communities, even the migrants in those communities, say this needs to happen because it's a dangerous place with those.

Trend to Argua and all those gangs as well. Brett, lastly, unrelated. What is going on with the PGA Live merger? I know Fox Sports signed the Live Tour. I thought by now we'd have a merger.

Where are we at with this? I know there's no one who cares more about golf than you. Yeah, at least I've been following it and I've talked to some of the guys. It's just not a done deal yet. I think it will come very soon and before the new season begins.

But we're coming up on that. And I think they've made some inroads. They did an event with Uh PGA versus live kind of event didn't really fly that well, but I think that there is going to be some effort to merge the The schedules and at least give some team aspect in the fall. But haven't heard a timeline yet, but I hope it works. I mean, I've always said it's better to have all the best players on the same field, which is why the majors are so successful.

So, when we look at what's going on now with Rory McElroy and Tiger Woods, got this new virtual league, they're playing for Towns. One plays for Jupiter, I guess, off the Floridatown City.

So, what are your thoughts? Have you seen that? I have, yeah, I watched it. I watched uh the first one last week. And you know, it's pretty cool.

It's different. It's obviously playing to a young crowd. And it looks like a video game, but it's in front of a crowd. It has, you know, music. It kind of is fun.

They're ripping on each other. It's cool. I think it's actually going to take off. And, you know, they had one this week where there was a tie and they went to sudden death. And I don't know.

It caught my attention. And I watched it the whole time.

So I think it's when you hit a ball in a virtual site. I thought you saw it was with practice. But is it the belief that When you hit that ball, it's very much like who to be outdoors. I mean, what's the theory on that? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They tread that some of the technology is amazing. And so when the ball goes through, it tracks exactly like You hit it. Speed, velocity, spin, the whole thing.

So if you play a really good simulator, it can track your shots just like you would hit them.

So and then they chip and putt and then they have sand shots, and it's cool. I think it's cool. I think it might actually take off. And lastly, Washington had an unbelievable year. I hope the Giants can turn it around like that.

But do you think without the turnovers, that goes down to the wire? Man, I tell you what, it was a sloppy game. You know, if you turn a couple of those things around, I think they are right there, you know, because you can't count out Jaden Daniels.

So It was an awesome season. Nobody thought they were going to be at the NFC Championship Game, but it was true. Truly, truly painful to have to wear Jesse Waters Hurts jersey. That was my bet. That was cool.

But the Oculus glasses, Jalen Daniels used them so he could see the whole defense before he played them. Is that true? Yeah, it is true. And he's a hard worker, I'm told. I know those guys, part of the ownership team, and They say they couldn't be happier.

And, you know, it's a young team, and they've got some moves to make yet.

So I wouldn't be surprised if they're back next year. They're not going to go undefeated because they play the Giants twice. And how do you stop the Giants? Brett, thanks so much. Great job.

We'll see you. 1-866-408-7669. We'll kind of come back with your calls. Also, write me if it's better for you. BrianKillMe.com.

Just click on comments and tell me what's on your mind. Don't move. It's Brian Kill Me. Fox News Audio presents the Fox Nation Investigates Podcast. The Menendez Brothers.

Victims or Villains. Lyle and Eric Menendez were motivated by greed. Others have called the brothers arrogant and spoiled. The reason behind this was financial gain. Or so it seemed.

These two brothers should be out of prison by now. I don't see how fears of sexual, physical, and mental abuse amount to life without parole. Listen and follow at foxtruecrime.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Killmead. Hey, welcome back, everybody.

Just a quick note: if you're going to be in the Jacksonville area on the February 15th, just join us at the Florida Theater. VIP tickets is still a handful available. It's going to be History, Liberty, and Laughs, and we're going to bring you through history, be motivational, inspirational, patriotic, and then bring the whole Tum Cumback to life.

So, same thing in St. Louis, March 22nd. That is at the factory.

So, here it's a fantastic, it's going to be our biggest venue. I think it is 1,700 tickets. They're selling great, but we have room to sell. And I look forward to seeing you all in person. We have a fantastic affiliate out there, and I'll be on the station a little bit later on today.

Coming up next will be Rich Lowry. We'll get a perspective on the president's nominees. Also, Democrats are totally bewildered by the blizzard of executive orders and actions of this president, his statements, his press conferences, his proclamations, his changes. They are trying to find a way to go out. Is there a strategy that you heard, or should you do what Fetterman's doing?

And Senator Gallego's doing. and actually see where you can work with them. I mean, that's it. There's nothing President Trump is doing that should be that much of a surprise to anybody.

Meanwhile, the one thing in action has to be the big success story so far is getting the criminals out of the country. Everyone that's scooped up makes all of us safer. You listen to the Brian Kill Me Chill. Don't move. A talk show that's real.

This is the Brian Kill Me Show. We know for a fact there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about this president, about his family, and we will not accept that. We will call you out when we feel that your reporting is wrong or there is misinformation about this White House.

So that is Caroline Levitt yesterday.

So I think that her press briefings are going to be about stories that they didn't like or disagree with or say inaccurate from the day I wish she wouldn't say that, are inaccurate. From the day before or from weeks before.

So that's going to be interesting. Also, one of the side seats where they usually keep staff, she's going to leave open for alternative media for Breitbart yesterday. She says Axios is different days.

So things are going to be different. Plus, she's somebody who doesn't need notes because she's with Trump all the time. She's been with him for years. She worked with Kayleigh McEnany, so she doesn't really need to Think about Policy. She knows it.

She also knows the thought process that went into it, who the advocates are that are pushing for it. She's going to not tell us everything, of course. But That enables you not to have a binder. Rich Lowry joins us now, editor of National Review. Rich, what about that start yesterday for the 27-year-old?

Okay. Very strong. And it's impressive when you know what's going on. And you don't have to pause literally almost every question to flip through your. Binder, and it's got a new look in terms of the people, the outlets that are being.

Credentials to be in there.

So it's all to the good. Right.

So far, the critics are trying to get a hold of something to go after Trump. And he signed over 350 executive orders, let alone the things he's done, going to Los Angeles, going to North Carolina, making statements, interacting with people, opening up to the press constantly.

So people are having trouble deciding where to stake the ground and take him on. Yesterday, with the freeze on all spending outside Social Security and Medicare and other programs that you're expecting a direct payment, it created quite an uproar. What was your stake about what went wrong there?

Well, I've almost forgotten that happened because now we're on to the buyout of federal employees.

So, this flood the zone approach is, you know, that DEI order last week, anti-DEI order, was seismic, and it's almost been forgotten.

So, this is how Flood the Zone works.

Now, the downside of Flood the Zone: you might be doing so much stuff so quickly, you're not dotting all the I's and T's or a lot of the stuff that's going to be contested, and that's where the freeze on Federal spending comes in. They can certainly pause. Federal spending, but whether they can impound it, just not spend it, which is one of the theories. That's not a crazy idea that's happened throughout American history at the margins. But this will be something like a lot of these things that are going to end up at the Supreme Court.

Birthright citizenship is another one of those, and probably pretty quickly. And with the referring to the fact that an opening, an offer was made to every civil service employee, government employee, says you can quit. You can walk away. You're going to get some severance pay another six months of the end of September. But you can leave.

And just please email us back. Email us back until you resign. You know, when you need to confirm a doctor's appointment, they send you the text saying yes or no. This is just like that. Are you going to resign or not?

Just write back in the email. It's unbelievable. And of course, there are legal arguments about this, too. Tim Kaine was outraged on the Senate floor saying there's no spending authorized for this purpose. But I think that'll be another legal issue because you're not spending additional money.

I assume you're just paying them their salary that's already been authorized through September.

So this seems to be the kind of thing where the DNA of this idea goes back to Elon Musk, right? This is how he ran Twitter, slimmed down the workforce. Everyone said the Platform would collapse, and it didn't.

So he's clearly, I think, pushing ideas like this.

So I just want you to hear.

So the thing is, with all this stuff coming out, and the Office of Management budget put out that statement yesterday that needs to be clarified twice. I like the idea of re-examining any money that goes out the door, even if it's something where it makes total sense, meals on wheels.

Okay, we're going to hold it for a day, but they're not going to hold those because it's a direct remittance. But they found out that maybe 20% of the programs of the 450 federal programs that they have out there, that something like 75 are dead, dormant.

So right there, you're saving money, but they'd rather stop the payments and reevaluate than make the payments and evaluate on the fly. But if you had an OMB director with experience like Russ Vogt, arguably that wouldn't have happened. But because of that, they're delaying his confirmation after he already had his hearing. Listen to Senator Mike Lee on the reasoning. Cut 28.

The whole reason why they don't want Russ vote in there, it's similar to the reason why they don't want Cash Patel in his job. They know that reform is coming. They don't want to face the music on that reform. Reform is painful, especially if you believe that government spending is an unmitigated good. And the more you ratchet it up, the better off everyone is.

That's what we're dealing with. The true outrage here should not be over that memo, should not be over that pause and the review that's taking place in its wake. Right.

You should confirm these people. You got a Secretary of State.

Now you have a Treasury Secretary.

Now you have a Secretary of Defense. And now you're going to have a Transportation Secretary. But now you oh, another week for Pam Bondi.

So it's like now they're voting whether to have a vote.

So what the I mean, this is just agonizing. Yeah, it's the uh almost all of these nominees, uh it's it's when, not if.

So a a a week more for Pam Bondi is highly annoying now, but f a year from now we won't even remember it.

So I think the the ones that there's a question mark around are obviously Tulsi and RFK Jr., but we hear from them tomorrow.

Well, RFK is going to be today. It's going to be in about an hour. Oh, sorry. Your thoughts about where the Republicans end up on this.

Now, Cassidy's going to I get the sense that he's feeling no. We have a Corey Booker on the Democratic side that evidently loves RFK, so he might be a yes. Fetterman tends to be a yes, if there is any doubt.

So that might be a possibility. Where do the conservatives stand with RFK? I think RFK there there easily could be four Republican votes against, which would sink any other nominee, but he's going will get probably a c could could get some cats and dogs on on the Democratic side to bail them out.

So I kind of think the the biggest threat is Tulsi Gabbard. She's not getting any Democratic votes. I think her high watermark is probably a tie because if McConnell is voting against Pete, he's probably going to vote against her. And I would think Collins and Murkowski also knows.

Now Collins, she's a decisive vote in the intelligence committee, so she could have a negative Committee vote, and then you can still get to the floor, but that's a little bit of weight around you.

So she, I'd say it's over a 50% chance that she gets confirmed, but I think she's in the most jeopardy. What's the problem? Yeah. For me, I think that she I think she's basically ideologically opposed to this being in this position, to oppose seven hundred two, which authorized the surveillance of non-Americans overseas, their electronic communications and want to be the director of national intelligence. That is just a huge mismatch.

For me, that she thinks Edward Snowden is a hero, a huge mismatch. Look, these are legitimate opinions. People have them, but you should not have them as the director of national intelligence. And so for me, there's obviously not the personal stuff, but she's a Matt Gates-style nominee where I think it's a mistake, and Trump can do much better. There's no reason he can't do a John Ratcliffe type in this position.

Nothing wrong with John Ratcliffe. He's hugely impressive, got a bipartisan vote rather than going with her. But, you know, that's not the way Trump's going to view it. Here's Megan McCain yesterday, who, like me, is very impressed with her personally. Cut 25.

My frustration right now is President Trump was handily elected with a mandate from the American public. And that mandate is loud and clear about change and extreme change. They did not elect Mitch McConnell. They did not elect Lisa Murkowski. And I don't understand how his mandate could possibly stop by a few people that have very different ideas than the American public.

As you talked about earlier, I weirdly went viral for saying I support so many of Trump's policies. A lot of this is not about personal issues with Trump. It's about what's good for the American public and the American people, and there is no one that is better suited for this moment in time than Tulsi in the DNI position. And I've just been, like I said, I've been really, really upset at just the dastardly commentary coming from a lot of people. But Republicans in general, shame on you for saying those type of things about an active duty woman in the military.

Well, do you think her dad would vote for Tulsi? No, no, he wouldn't. But that's part of the point for Tulsi supporters, not for Megan, obviously, is that she is different. You know, we don't want the John Brennans. We need to turn a page on that.

I think you can just do it with someone who's better suited. For that job. And the thing is, if she goes down, as long as the pick reverts to Chuck Schumer and he gets to make it, Trump will make it. And they're not defeating two of these nominees, even if they defeat her, and I'm not sure they will. Trump gets a pick, and I believe he would make a better pick.

You know what's interesting? Have you met her? Mm-hmm. I haven't. You you'd be so impressed.

I mean employees herself. I don't doubt that she's an impressive person and she's a she's a a political talent, there's no doubt about it. I just wouldn't put her in this job. Yeah, and the way her instinct said, I'm leaving this, I'm pulling away, even though they had her in a leadership position. She saw what's happened with Hillary Clinton, saw the way Bernie Sanders being iced out, saw that the DNC sold their soul to the Clintons, and kind of just moved away and was exiled, essentially, kicked off almost all viable committees.

And I just appreciate the fact she's still serving in the National Guard. I think that, you know, she's still answering the Trump. I think that she would understand the realities of the position, but I just trust her integrity in every way.

So, I don't know. Reasonable people can disagree. She'll be a star regardless. I mean, she is a real talent. And even if this doesn't work out, and again, I think it's better than the 50% chance she gets in, there's something else in her future.

All right, I want to talk a little bit about a special guest that Sean Hannery had on last night, and it was Vladimir Zelensky. He talked about what Trump's going to do to possibly bring this war to an end, Cut 30. President Trump has the will to force Putin to come to peace, he can do it. And if the US considers pressure on Putin involving other countries, global south and China, I am sure that an agreement can be made.

So they make that pressure as well, pressure on Putin, I am sure. And I know that President Trump is not very happy about NATO. We talked with him about it, but we need broader guarantees of security. He brought up the fact that, remember, the Budapest Agreement, not worth the paper it's printed on, we give up nukes, you watch my back, they didn't. And then the Minsk Agreement, stop moving forward through the Donbass region and Crimea, and they did.

So you're worried about any agreement the Russians are involved in, but Zelensky's betting on Trump to go after Putin and get him to the table. And Trump did for the first time directly, not his actions. Actions have always been tough. Really tell Putin, you're losing. This is not good for you.

Let's get to the table.

So. Oh, where do you think this is heading? You know, I'm fairly bullish on what might happen here. I think there's a good chance that Trump forges some sort of agreement, you know, not peace for all time, but at least a truce that lasts for a while. It won't be what I ideally would have wanted.

Russia is going to get control of a lot of Ukrainian territory it doesn't deserve. But I think Zielinski in that clip sounds like that's the posture he needs, right? He needs to sound like the reasonable guy who respects Trump, wants to get along with him, is willing to negotiate. Portray Putin as the unreasonable guy. And that's the risk to Putin is that that's what Trump concludes about him as well.

And in which case, I think Trump, who's never said he favors cutting off Ukraine, is going to back Ukraine to the hilt. Although foreign aid seems to be on pause, all except Israel, who are getting their 2,000-pound bombs and more. And it looks like. Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, who will be coming to Washington next week. Rich, exciting times, right?

It's great to be in our position. Yeah, you can do it. That's your review. Always keeps up with it. Rich Lowry, thank you.

Listen, when we come back, we're going to take your calls. I see you out there in Dallas. I see you in Virginia. We'll get to both when we come back in the Brain Kill Meet Show. We're gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning.

Taking back America, the first 100 days. You'll say, please, please, it's too much winning. Stay with Brian Kilmead. A radio show like no other. It's Brian.

I don't know if you've met Donald Trump. He pushes President Trump deploying executive action to end birthright citizenship. This unconstitutional, un-American attack. Shredding our Constitution. Who is to be a strongman authoritarian?

Birthright citizenship was very specifically tailored to send a message to people that America was a place, an idea. It wasn't for one race, it wasn't for one gender. Citizenship in America was based on where you were, not who you were. And to just stroke of a pen, finally, I agree. That is authoritarian.

We do begin tonight with the federal judge blocking President Trump's executive order that would end birthright citizenship. And we're back. See how easy it is. that was? It was a dictatorship and then then Study went.

It's like when you have an electric fence. You never check it, and you're not really sure if it works. Because you have a good voice. Yeah, the very good boy. But then one day zap Anyway, birthright citizenship is back!

No, obviously we'll appeal it. Damn you! constitutionally enshrined you judicial review of executive action and its relief through the appellate process?

So that is pretty funny. I think Jon Stewart gets it. He's obviously not a Trump fan, but he's having fun. Birthright citizenship is a legitimate legal debate that happens in law schools every day, just from an outsider pedestrian. It was never meant.

No one thought you come here as an illegal alien, you have a kid, and that kid becomes a citizen and eventually drags you along because no one kicks out the parents. That's what they're doing with the anchor baby thing. That's what China's doing. They're not economically deprived or oppressed. And that's what's happening.

That's not what was meant. It was a way to enshrine that slaves, obviously born here, transition after the Civil War to becoming full-fledged citizens, which I should have been without a constitutional amendment. Butch, you're listening on K-L-I-F in Dallas. Say, Butch. Hey, Brian.

First time listener, long-time caller. Hey, man, I met you at Kubi's over the summertime. You remember we had Storm and Norman?

Now we got to give him hell home, and he's doing an awesome job. My question is: the guy they caught last night in New York, the TDA dude that came from Colorado, how do you get from Colorado to New York? Was that on one of our taxpayer-funded flights? And how do I get one of those? Wow, that's so funny.

Yeah, the military is paying for it out of their budget, sadly, to get them out. If it's a private fight, that's all part of the immigration budget. We are coming to Dallas, by the way, on Fox's budget or on KLIF's budget. I'm not sure. Maybe Allison will personally pay for it just because she wants to get the miles.

But we'll be coming to Dallas to look for that. And, butch, you said it, I think, backwards. You said longtime caller, first-time listener. I think it was backwards. J.J.

in Virginia. Hey, J.J. Hey, Brian. Hey, Brian, it's a pleasure to speak with you. I just want to let you know I think you and the ladies and the gentlemen at Fox News are heroes, patriotic heroes.

Thank you. I had the quick opportunity to hear you when you came to Hopewell, Virginia Politics and Pints, of course, with Jeff Katz and John Reed. John Reed, of whom I know you probably have heard, is getting ready to go in, run with Winsom Sears. But just wanted to ask your question real quickly.

Something kind of disturbed me, not upset me with President Trump, but concerned me. I found out earlier this month, late in December, that Professor Columbia Professor Jeffrey Sachs Put something or President Trump allowed him to place on his site, Truth Social, about calling. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, a dark SOB. And that was I heard, that was the primary reason that Prime Minister Netanyahu did not come. I think he was invited to come to President Trump's inauguration and was invited, but he turned it down because President Trump did not Decline that I'll find out, JJ.

I'll find out about it, but just know he's coming next week. He's going to be here Tuesday, Bibi Netanyahu. And Trump said some really nice things. I can't wait to see him in person.

So they'll have a lot. And also, he got weapons are going, 2,000-pound bombs are going, as well as some other system. Excuse me, yeah, more Patriot missiles are now going to Israel.

So things are on a good note. Anything with Columbia, it's all anti-Semitic. They might have brought down the temperature, but hasn't brought down the feelings. And JJ, we're coming to another politics in pints in Richmond.

So look for that announcement shortly. Listen, that's it for this hour, but just only this hour. Go to BrianKillmee.com, get any of my books. I'll sign them and send them. Whether it's George Washington Secret 6 or Teddy and Booker T.

Keep it here. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian In Kill Mead. Kind of interesting that RFK is doing his confirmation hearing, and no one's really going to bat for him. Usually, you got Michael Walsh for Pete Hagseth or.

You have Senator Burr is going to be introducing Tulsi Gabbard. Everyone has an advocate to start with, but RFK has none, and he certainly doesn't have any family. Hi, everyone.

Brian Kilmey coming to you from New York City, where I think you have more ICE agents here right now active than any time since I've been going to the city for the last almost two decades plus, because they're out scooping up illegal aliens and the bet criminals and whoever happens to be hanging out with them. If you don't have, if you don't, you don't belong here, even if you haven't committed a crime, if they find yourself with one of them, the DEA, the ICE, or just NYPD, you're going to be scooped up. We'll give you the latest. Teresa Patton is going to be joining us later today. She is doing cybersecurity as well as the latest with AI.

And we saw what happened on Monday with China coming up with their AI app that was supposedly so devastating and so cheap, it rocked the world, although the markets seem to have bounced back.

So let's get to the big three.

Now with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. Bobby is addicted to attention and power. even before he fills his job. His constant denigration of our health care system and the conspiratorial half-truths he's told about vaccines have cost lives.

Thanks, Cuz. Caroline Kennedy weighs in to try to cut the legs out of RFK's nomination as HHS secretary. Nominations confirmation. Trump's most controversial selections, front and center. RFK today.

And Howard Luttnick, he's not controversial, but he'll go in there. There'll be some fireworks. But tomorrow, Tosi and Cash go to bat for their positions. Number two. Dojin OMB also found that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza.

That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money. Really, Caroline Levitt, you are right. Trump's first 100 days flooding the zone, a Tuesday of chaos as a spending freeze resulted in a judge freeze and a taste tense day one for Secretary Caroline Levitt, but so effective. Number one. Similarities to what happened in Germany and what's happening now in America are just undeniable.

Gestapo raids in America. In and of itself, I think, xenophobic and racist.

Nice. Media comparing ICE raids to Nazi Germany. What else is new? Massive impact. Tom Homan's crackdown of illegals has taken criminals off the streets and slowed the border crosses to a trickle.

He says the deport pace will pick up and his critics and supporters should pick up their intensity. But he's essentially said, you don't like it, change the laws. I'm hired to enforce the law for the first time in four years. Tom Homan is driving people crazy because he's picking up criminals. He's bringing the cameras.

He's inviting everyone from Dr. Phil to Bill Melusian to go with them on these raids. And they're seeing the records of these Venezuelan gangsters. They're watching them get on and change to military planes. They're seeing them land in Guatemala, Colombia, and El Salvador.

And the American people feel better about it. I think immigration was Donald Trump's number one issue. Here's Tom Homan to say: not only are they not finished, they're going to pick up the pace. Cut five. We got to do more.

We got to open that aperture up, which we're going to do. Here's a great start. The first week was unprecedented. I mean, the illegal crossings on the border one day was like five hundred and forty. I've never seen that.

And I started in Borbital in 1984. And we went from 10,000 a day. To under 600.

So it's great. It's good. But we're not finished and we need more deportations, a lot more deportations, and that's what we're working on.

So they say the ICE quota is going to be $1,200 to $1,500 per day. Each field office is going to make 75 arrests. The Trump administration gives the ICE quota. They want about 1,800 at some point. Listen to what's happening at the border.

There's a decrease of 63%.

So you had 20,000 encounters for seven days in the final days of the Biden administration, which was lower than usual.

Now they're down to 2,869. Worth repeating. From 20,000, which is low from their high, this is on the lower end, down to 2,869. And you know, if you're getting in, you're going out.

So, if you're going to sell your house and say, I'm going to come to America, you probably made a bad move because you're not going to get into America unless you now beat the odds. Instead of the odds are this is your one chance.

So, the migrant community is shaken. Feel bad about that for people that have been here 20 plus years. But I say this. Pick up the criminals. I would not do a quota.

I would just look at your area. If Chicago's filled with them, Philadelphia and New York is filled with them. Other areas like Aurora might just have 20 bad guys, right?

So I wouldn't do quota because then you end up picking up other people. I would just do hear. Here is where they are located. Have a master list, and then see what office is the most effective. And then I would do this.

If you do this for two years and you get that border down where sixty border crossings a day, and border patrol is bulked up, marines are pulled out, the wall is finished. I think a year and a half from now. We're talking about an easier-to-obtain work visa program that replenishes the construction industry, the farming industry, the hospitality industry. But you have registered people here on a work visa. And the way I understand it, if you want to become a citizen, establishing yourself with a work visa is one of the best ways to do it.

That's where I would be heading. But these people are just lost their minds and it was predictable. Here's MSNBC's Joy Reid, and of course, The View cut one. When you start having Gestapo raids in America, and we start becoming a country where, as in East Germany, a knock on the door is the thing people are thinking about instead of the brilliant idea they want to go create. Similarities to what happened in Germany and what's happening now in America are just undeniable.

History may not repeat verbatim, but it sure does rhyme. An undocumented immigrant is not a criminal because he or she is undocumented. That is a civil offense.

So, to call people illegal is in and of itself, I think, xenophobic and racist.

So, just think practically, she's a lawyer. Let's just think it's an American citizen. It's okay just to walk in. It's okay. North, south, whatever.

Mona Cruz, hanging out in New York City, Pagona with Souvenir Shop. I'm going to stay. Gotta stay. What kind of country is that? Who allows that?

Carol Ann Levitt got that question at her first press conference yesterday, cut six. They illegally broke our nation's laws and therefore they are criminals as far as this administration goes. I know the last administration didn't see it that way, so it's a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal, but that's exactly what they are.

So when they're going through New York City yesterday, they were treated as heroes. They were cheering ICE.

Now remember how bad it was for ICE where you wear that windbreaker, they wouldn't wear it to work, and then people would deride them and protest outside their offices and they had to take it. This is how much has changed now. New York City residents, Hispanic and black communities that supported Trump by an increase, but not majority, increase of about 35%. We're cheering in the Bronx as they pulled out some of these gangsters from Venezuela, Dominican Republic murderers. This is Evelyn Brown, 80 years old, and the Bronx got this quote from the New York Post: Get them the hell out of here.

Get them the hell off our streets so people don't have to walk in fear. Take the damn bad ones off the streets. And they are some bad lists of people. You might want to point to other people. They say we're not criminals.

So CNN was in Guatemala and they said, I talked to some people and they said they weren't criminals. They'd never been arrested.

Well, number one, that's their word. And CNN obviously is going to take it. And number two, every single one of those people from Guatemala, they're from there. No one's saying I don't belong here.

So here we go. If you want to diminish and lower the temperature in America, can we focus on what's wrong among Americans? And then you have a reforming of the immigration system can happen only when we agree that there's border security and there's some control over the illegals in our midst, many of which there's up to 8 million came just during the four years of Joe Biden.

So we're watching RFK right now taking the taking the Senator Crapo is making his opening remarks in support of RFK, and we had Senator Widen come out against RFK. And he does not have anyone advocating for him. He's just staring straight ahead, which is interesting. I'm going to be he's used to intellectual conversations. I wonder if it just gets in the dirt, like they did with Pete and Kavanaugh, how he's going to respond.

All right, instead of me going to break and bring this on the other way out, so Stephen Miller. One on CNN, man. I give these guys credit. They're available. And he goes on with Jake Tapper, who evidently they were told to be fairer to the Trump administration.

They probably won't last. Doesn't mean be nice, just be fair. That would be a nice change.

So he went on, and he said And then we're just talking about what's going on with illegal immigrations and these arrests. Cut 10. Is the initial goal, as we had been told by Trump allies after the election, to go after those first, as a priority, to go after those who have committed violent crimes and are part of violent gangs? Or is it we're just going to go after anybody who is in this country illegally? We're not going to prioritize?

Well, yes, we are going to prioritize.

So first of all, the numbers you cited are a floor, not a ceiling, very importantly. There are four. The goal is to arrest at least that many, but hopefully many more. And the Department of Justice is going to be closely involved in providing the manpower. to help achieve those objectives as laid out in the President's executive order.

Yes, ICE is absolutely prioritizing terrorists, public safety threats, and national security threats.

So he goes on, cut 11.

So, you are going to prioritize the violent criminals, though? That's the thing I'm going to say. Yes, but we're not going to, yes, but we're not going to immunize everybody that Joe Biden let in. I mean, let me just ask you a hypothetical, and you can treat it as a retrocraft question, not answer it if you don't want to, Jake. I appreciate it.

Let's say that an illegal alien. arrived. In the last three months of the Biden administration, from say Peru. He was released. He failed to appear in immigration court.

He was issued a final removal order.

So showed up, got released. Didn't appear, or deported. Been here for six months. Is it your position, Jake? that that guy should get to stay till the end of his life?

I mean, uh, what kind of country can run that way? He decided to make it rhetorical. That's the point. I don't think it behooves anybody to say, well, going into restaurants and grabbing illegals who we have no complaint with. But if they go in there and the assistant cook is a murderer from the Dominican Republic and the people next to him have no papers and don't belong here, they're going to be brought in too.

That's his point. But to go out and say, if you're here for 20 years, don't worry about it. If you're a farmer with a family and you're helping out for 20 years and you're no problem in Central California, the word is you don't have to worry about it. But it doesn't behoove anybody to say. I'm not going to go after you because then that sets a criteria for if you can stay or not.

So they're keeping their powder dry, focusing on the criminals. In about a year and a half, when they're the bulk of criminals are rounded up and sent out and the border's secure, there's going to be a better conversation to have right before the midterms. And Trump, as a guy that's going to be done in four years, is in the perfect position. Perfect position to do something substantial on it because I am not anti-immigrant. I just want people to do it legally.

And if there are people here that we can't deport and the numbers are like eighteen, twenty million, and you've gotten out of the criminals, you set up a criteria for people that are in central somewhere in flyover country, somewhere in Texas, central farming communities in California, Maybe there's work fees, extended work fees as you can get. Or make it easier to get our construction workers here, where America's economy is going to be rebuilding, and some condos and complexes are going to need some workers. Teresa Payton at the bottom of the hour. Your calls next. We'll come back with the opening statements now being read by RFK.

Howard Luttnick also is on the griddle today. We'll see what happens. But this is the one I've been really looking forward to. You're listening to the Brian Kilmead Show. Don't move.

Diving deep into today's top stories. It's Brian Kilmead. The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmead. I'm not naming everything that's included, but just to give you a few examples, Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, food stamps, welfare benefits, assistance that is going directly to individuals will not be impacted by this pause.

This administration, if you are receiving individual assistance from the federal government, you will still continue to receive that.

However, it is the responsibility of this president and this administration to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. And that is part of the reason why they put out an executive order that says freeze everything except for people that need direct pay or Social Security as well as Medicare. And of course, Medicaid gets paid to the states from the Federal Government. Teresa Payton joins us now, serves as the first few She will be joining us in 10 minutes. She serves as the first female chief information officer for the White House under Bush.

I want to talk to her about how this thing works, and what about the organization and the way things go. Right now, they got a skeleton crew in there, and I think that's with some miscommunication. But I do think that if we have found a way to gut a lot of these programs, we could save the money to make tax reform possible before they actually write it.

So by March, you have to lift the debt ceiling. Got it. But now you have to go and say, I want to do tax reform. All right, re-up it. Then you could debate the tax reform of 2018.

But Trump wants to change it. No tax on tips, no tax on Social Security. And when it comes to salt, I think the blue states pay too high a price because they couldn't write off their high tax in their state. That aggravates South Carolina, and it's a necessary one for Mike Lawler in New York, who wants to be governor.

So, how do you make up the revenue if you're not going to collect those taxes on tips and state taxes?

Well, you turn around and said, I saved. 20 I cut 20%. Of the federal programs, number one. And number two, you say you turn around and you say, I cut. A huge number of civil service workers, federal workers, when I off made them an offer, resigned by September.

And you can walk away because all of them have to come back to the office, and many of them even have moved out of Washington, D.C. Pete, you're listening in Tacoma, Washington. Hey, Pete. Hey, Brian. Listen, last hour you went through a list of cities that you were coming to, but.

No West Coast visits. I mean, we're out here, People of the Republic of Washington State. Tyrus has been here. Cat Timp's been here. What do you think?

You think I could do good in Tacoma? You think I could do good in Tacoma? Absolutely. There's a there's a venue that Tyrus came to and Cat came to. It was uh it was rocking.

It was fantastic. What was the name of it, do you remember? Do you remember do you remember what what's the name of it? Theater? Yeah, Federal Weight Event Center, Performance Event Center.

Fantastic. Holds about 3,000 people. And it was packed. People in the parking lot. Fantastic venue.

All right, I'll consider I've never been to Washington, Pete. Ever. Come on out here, man. You got a big following and we'll pack the place. All right.

Thanks so much. Very nice of you. By the way, we're going to be streaming on February fifteenth.

So if you have an idea of how the show is going to go, it's going to be on Fox Nation. And it's going to be streaming on the 15th. And I think it's pretty much like no other show. Everyone's so talented here, great on stage, but we put together something totally different that I think you're going to want to see. I'll be in March 22nd, be at the factory right outside St.

Louis, and I'll be at the Florida Theater in Jacksonville. David in Florida. Hey, David. Yes, good morning, Brian. Hey, you've been talking about Robert Kennedy Junior.

He's been a confirmation today. There is a round table that everybody in America, especially the mom and dads, They need to watch. It was Senator Ron Johnson back in October of 2024. And he had all sorts of people there. And they will get you totally educated on what he has, he's going to fight.

I think this is going to be one of the hardest fights. and all the confirmations because he's going against the FDA. He is going to be tough. And you know, they say, in theory, that the big farmers supply so much money and support for these politicians, Democrats and Republicans, and RFK is going to hold them accountable.

So, and you know, with the big pharma, he's going to talk about that 1985 rule that Reagan passed. It said these pharmaceutical companies can't get sued when you offer a vaccine that does some damage to you. That's all going to be on the table.

So, I want to see in the debate. I think the fireworks are already flying early.

So, we'll bring some of that back. Teresa Payton next, inside the AI craze of what crashed the markets this week. They'll also talk about cybersecurity. Did you see what just happened? If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it.

You're with Brian Kilmead. The release of. Deep seek. AI from A Chinese company should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win, because we have the greatest scientists in the world, even Chinese leadership told me that. They said, You have the most brilliant scientists in the world and Seattle and various places.

But Silicon Valley, they said There's nobody like those people.

So, President Trump acknowledging that DeepSeek rocked the world, rocked the AI. We know what happened in NVIDIA. We know what happened in the stock market on Monday because they came out with a deep seek ends up being, if the AI experts agree, they said they did more things. Was more comprehensive and done cheaper than anyone thought was imaginable. And it rocked everyone's calculus.

And therefore, open ChatBGT, Open AI, Google's Gemini. All just plummeted, and now it's game on to compete. But the question is: did the Chinese actually do it for this cheaply? You know, did they actually pay this little for chips? And what were the chips that made up DeepSeek?

And did they steal? Did they go beyond what they were allowed to do because this was open technology? Did they go beyond the scope? And stealing what Chat GPT was doing. Teresa Payton joins us now, served as the first female CIO for the White House.

During Bush's years. Authority and identity, theft expert, and is currently CEO and founder of Fortelease Solutions and author of Manipulated Inside the Cyber War to hijack electronic elections and distort the truth. Teresa, welcome back. Oh, Brian, it's always great to be with you. Yeah, Deep Seek.

Were you impressed?

Well, I was impressed to hear that it was better, faster, and cheaper, but also dismayed to hear its origin story as it's headquartered in China. And I've dug into it a bit, and I do have some serious privacy and security concerns for individuals, companies, and yes, national security. I mean, number one, they just said that out cheaply. They did it with cheaper chips, and they did it relatively on a budget. They could do more.

People are saying, wait a second, where'd they get all this information? Where did they get this data? Did they actually steal it?

Well, it's interesting. It's an accusation that has to be looked into, investigated, proven. But OpenAI, Sam Altman, has said, hey, they did some illegal copying, basically training their models training them on our models and they did it in such a way that violates Sort of the principles of how you use training models on other models. They didn't give us credit. etc.

etc. But let's not forget. how did Open AI train their model? They used web data on the Internet for training. There were ethical concerns raised on are there any copyright violations here?

And I don't believe any of those were properly addressed in the last presidential administration.

So, the thing to also keep in mind, AI is no oracle of genius and not 100% right. You see the agenda of China. Tiananmen Square does not come up. Nothing on President Xi comes up.

So, if I Google that, I get answers. What is Tiananmen Square? If I put that into Chapi GPT, I get answers. How come I don't get those answers on this device? And what do you think it does for its credibility of DeepSeek?

Yeah, I You're exactly right here. I mean, obviously they're headquartered in China. And so even though it's a private company, they don't want to run afoul of any of the regulations or kind of government influence on companies in China. And it's a well-known fact that you cannot say negative things about the government of China. And so obviously, they're doing some self-censoring to make sure that when the government fact checkers of China look at their technology, look at their platform, that those negative things are not present and presented to Chinese citizens.

So that makes you wonder about the device. Why do you think the market fell like this? What do you think the market was. Understanding. What do they conclude?

Why was their world rocked like that? And why did someone, and why do you think it's bounced back to a degree?

Well, I I so first of all, the fact that in the first week of President Trump's administration that he boldly rescinded an executive order from the last administration, put a new one in place and made the big announcement around AI Tells you he and Elon and others knew something like this was coming. And this, he needed to make a bold move because in the long race, we can catch up and win. But if you kind of look at heats within a race, we lost this one. And the reason why the market reacted the way they did is in America right now, our tech companies are saying, I need these huge data centers. I need a lot of energy and I need more chips, more, more, more.

And what China said is, at least for DeepSeek, and now Alibaba mentioned last night, this morning, I'm better, faster, cheaper than DeepSeek and OpenAI. And so, what, and they're also headquartered in China. What they've said is, I can do all this better, faster, cheaper. I don't need as many data centers. I don't need as much energy.

I don't need as many chips. And oh, by the way, I'm going to open source my code so people can look at it. And oh, by the way, it's free. Whereas many of the generative AI platforms, if you really want the latest features, you have to pay for a subscription. Good point.

There's some concern. The CEO of Professional Capital Management on the advancement that they see is Anthony Pappillano said this, Cut 48. At the end of the day this is a global race for AI supremacy. It's the United States pitted against China. We've got plenty of capital.

We've got really smart people here, tons of skills and experience. And we need to take this seriously. It needs to be a national priority. And if we want to be the winner, America has different values than China has. And if we want our values to be the dominant value system in this AI world, then we must go out and win this competition.

Right.

Uh he went on, cut forty-nine.

Well in the actual user agreement they definitely are taking data and they are putting it in servers in the Republic of China and so I tell people all the time that if you really care about privacy if you really care about the security of your data then I'd be very careful about the software you put on your phone. If you have concerns about TikTok I'd have concerns about DeepSeek and so any time that you are looking at where is my data going if you don't know you should probably go figure that out pretty quickly. All right.

People should be aware of what's going on. But I think that Trump was not panicked. I think that he likes the additional focus. I think, on some degree, the AI community. thinks that they might have some backing now to do more and get the guardrails off.

Yeah, I Future success here requires bold, decisive action right now.

So we fell behind. We were not focused on sort of the right things, the right architecture. We had regulation holding the tech industry back. The previous administration, the Biden administration, they had export controls on NVIDIA chips. And I think it was sort of like we thought, oh, well, we've now slowed China down.

We're in a race. And what we're going to do is instead of focusing on how do we run better, faster, and unencumbered, we're just going to tie their legs together. And China was like, well, we'll just work around that.

So I think you're right. Trump sees competition as good. And so now we turn back to America and say, what do you need so that you can run this race? But But also, Brian, the country that dominates AI not only will have global economic dominance, but we will be the ones, the country that wins, and it better be America, and I do believe it'll be America. We will set the ethical privacy and security standards for generations to come.

And this is why America can and must win this AI race.

So China, during the last administration, they've embedded in our infrastructure, our water systems. They went into our Treasury Secretary's personal phone. They're in our trade, our banking systems. They're trying to embed in our infrastructure. They've been successful.

What could you tell us about this? Yes, this is very concerning, and I'm looking forward to the transparency that has been ushered in with the Trump administration on this. We did learn kind of over the course of last year that the Biden administration said the telecommunication systems of the United States used by all of us that they had been infiltrated and they weren't sure if the nation state operatives had actually been removed. We know that they have tried to pre-position themselves, nation state operatives, mainly Russia and China, but Iran and North Korea never like to be left out. But they've been pre-positioning themselves in our energy grid, our telcos and other places.

So the question will be when will they use it and why will they use it? Will they use it as leverage against us? With sanctions and tariffs, with military moves around the globe. One can only guess, and it's conjectured, but we know that we have a problem in our critical infrastructure.

So, the question is: from a design perspective, how can we use AI and very talented people to root out where they are and figure out what we can do to sort of do almost if you picture a Home Alone movie, right?

So, how do we create traps and trapdoors? You're never going to 100% prevent these bad actors from getting into our infrastructure.

So how do you create these trapdoors, these decoys and things like that, so you actually trap them so that you can protect the infrastructure, the rest of it, from being taken down or impacted by nation states and cyber criminals? Is there a way that you know offhand that they could focus on to get the Chinese out before they use it for ransom? Or do we go into their infrastructure and say mutual assured destruction? Yeah, you could go sort of that mutually assured, deadly embrace destruction. That is one potential thing.

I think we have to have very strong conversations with them. One is on a diplomatic level. The second one is on the technology level. What offensive maneuvers do we want to make? What defensive maneuvers do we want to make?

And those are things that I would expect the National Security Advisor, the Joint Task Force to sit down and say, we have a really serious problem here that we've inherited. What do we want to do on offense and defense to have countermeasures while we are trying to remove them from our infrastructure?

So we can't just say, well, we hope and pray that we can get them out of our infrastructure. That's not a good strategy. It needs to be in all of the above strategies.

So the D, so we have a CHIPS Act in order to start building chips at home for security reasons. But most of the chips that we get are from Taiwan. I was shocked to see that Trump is going to tariff Taiwan. Listen to this. In the very near future, we're going to be placing.

Tariffs on foreign production of computer chips, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals to return production of these essential goods to the United States of America. They left us and they went to Taiwan, which is about ninety-eight percent of the chip business, by the way. And we want them to come back, and we don't want to give them billions of dollars like this ridiculous program that Biden has. Give everybody billions of dollars. Uh he's talking about the Chips Act, I guess.

Your thoughts? I think it'll be interesting to see Taiwan's response. And I wonder if they'll say, you know what, why don't we make the chips for America? We'll build a factory in America and we'll make them there. It'll be very interesting to see from a negotiation standpoint how Trump helps us maneuver into this age where the demand for chips is definitely there and necessary.

Even if, let's just say, we get past the national security concerns for Alibaba and DeepSeek and some of these other AI players that say, I can do it better, faster, cheaper, less chips. We're still going to need the chips. we're going to need it for other things. AI demand is only going to go up, not down. And so we'll see.

Maybe you'll hear an announcement about Taiwan opening up a chip manufacturing plant right here in the USA. Teresa, part of the Chips Act has all these DEI requirements.

So, if I'm a company and I want to come back and bring my chip business to America, I have to have a certain amount of blacks, a certain amount of whites, a certain amount of Indians, transsexuals, binaries, all that stuff. I mean, that is really hamstrung. My workforce has to be available a certain way in order for me to get the government dollars to bring my chip business back. How much inside the cyber community is that a problem? Yeah, we're in a war for talent, all talent.

Everybody. We don't have enough people that can do this work. We don't have enough people that have been trained to do this work. And so if we start putting regulatory requirements, including you have to have so many of different types of people to meet different types of quotas, if you will, that is going to make the problem worse. What we should say is these are the minimum qualifications.

We're going to put in place training programs. We need to remove some of those other qualifications because we need everybody, not just small quantities of numbers of some people and bigger quantities of numbers of other people. We need everybody. The other thing we're going to need to do is training, training, training. Other countries like India, China, Taiwan have invested in that training.

We have not invested nearly enough in training in the United States. We need to train, retrain, skill, and upskill Americans so that we can do this work here in the United States. I know, Teresa, there is a problem in Arizona with getting talent to do just that. Teresa Payton, engineers. Teresa Payton, thank you so much.

Brian, it's always great to be with you. Have me back soon. You got it. And when we come back, Senator Kennedy is deep in it now for a half hour in to his testimony. Not having an easy time.

Brian Kill Me Chow. Learning something new every day on the Brian Kill Me Chow. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. We have the sickest children in the world right now.

And it's costing us $4.3 trillion a year. It costs zero. We paid zero for chronic disease when my uncle was president. Today it's the biggest expense, five times our military budget. It's easy to fix.

We have a thousand ingredients in our foods that are illegal in Italy and other countries in Europe. And the reason for that is corruption.

So that is a little of the RFK, the give and take. Republicans and Democrats are not giving them a break. There's really no one allowing them to coast like other nominees.

So you just watched. The senator from Colorado just eviscerated him, but not give him a chance to answer questions. But he did say some things on podcasts and in his books that he had trouble defending or understanding or remembering.

So that's not going to be good. Senator Cassidy, a doctor, questioning him right now.

Now, he has had drug and alcohol problems. He doesn't shy about that. And he was asked about addiction, I think, from Senator Cornyn. Let's listen. And I was a heroin addict for 14 years.

I've been 42 years in recovery. I go to 12-7 meetings every day, so I hear the stories every day, and I hear the many stories about. Denial of or the barriers to access to care. And we need to improve that.

So he talks about that too. And by the way, anybody who's had anybody in their family or yourself. If you don't have much money, you're not going to be staying in rehab for more than 10 days. Because your insurance quickly runs out. If you don't have good insurance, you're done.

If you don't if you have insurance, you're really not going to get in.

So I'm not sure what the government can do in terms of addiction and paying, but that is a huge thing. And this one way you can't touch somebody that goes to 12-step classes and had an addiction. I believe they become who want to get better, they become practical experts as well as the people they're with.

Now we'd be a health and human services expert, and you'd have those experts around them talking about the physical problem, judging by the addiction that you have, whether it's alcohol or some type of drug. But I will say, the problem with Senator Kennedy, excuse me, with RFK. Is he's done a million podcasts where a bunch of books has opinions and he'll speculate. And now he's been forced to back all this up, which shouldn't be a problem, except for a lot of times your opinions evolve. You d you do a book twelve years ago on anything to do with healthcare.

You might have a totally different opinion now. Also, you might evolve. They asked him about abortion. He wrote in his book that he's up to he's okay with abortion, a woman's decision solely up until the time of birth.

So that's I'm gonna fire with Republicans.

So, this is a very tough hearing. But by the way, on polls, he is the most popular nominee that Trump put out there. Interesting times, right? Not one boring day or one boring hour since Trump took over. Or actually, since he's been elected.

Don't forget, BrianKillmee.com. I'll see you on the 15th in February in Jacksonville or on the 22nd in St. Louis in March. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sowing division.

It's Brian Kilmead. Welcome back, everyone. Brian Killmeat Show. Pretty scintillating testimony going on with RFK. Lack of respect, no doubt about it.

If I was testifying, when you ask me a question, don't let me answer. Literally, you don't let them answer. At one point, you just got to say, okay, I know I want this job. But you can't treat me like that. You can't treat me like I'm some lower piece of garbage that has no business being here testifying.

I was nominated for a reason. You have a job to ask me for five to ten minutes questions. They're going to see if I'm worthy of that job in your eyes. How can you do that? How can you do that without letting me answer questions?

Jason Chavet's been through this a million times, used to do this for a living as a congressman from Utah, and he joins us now in studio. We're watching this together. We knew this was going to be fireworks, Jason, but I mean, there's just a lack of respect all around. Republicans and Democrats. I mean, the Republicans are more polite, but they actually have some doubts about him, right?

Oh, yeah. No, they really do. They have some serious concerns. It's really interesting in these hearings because um The members in how they approach it can be smart and savvy. They can be down outright rude.

And the task for the person who's testifying is to. tangle up that member of Congress, in this case his senator. With their own words, and you gotta ask 'em to you let 'em answer the question. I will say that the Democrats have more of their A players on this committee than some of the others. I thought Pete Hagseth gave a masterclass.

Just listen. And then as soon as the senator starts to interrupt, say Do you want me to answer this question? Yeah. Or. But you gotta keep an even keel.

The other thing is, and that's what I asked you: can you turn around and just say, stop treating me like that? Can you let me finish a question? But the one thing about Pete. When he wasn't talking, he looked Very comfortable. Yeah.

A lot of it is bylaws.

So you're, okay, you're doing this, you're saying this about my wife, and saying this about me at Fox, and. And you li if you're comfortable. Them not scoring. I think it had a lot to do with his composure under pressure. And they blew it with Pete.

If you want to find out what Pete's about and make a true judgment, say, okay, there was a problem with China. They cut off the South China Sea and they're coming with massive aircraft carriers right into the Taiwan Strait. What do you do? You know, something the Secretary of Defense, what would you recommend the president do? But instead, they're like, wait, you were married, and then this happened.

And then the accusation is, okay, I don't know what you're doing. Remember when they asked him a question about a general? You know, he made a point about there being 41 generals and we won World War II with seven generals and how should we do this? And then they asked him about generals and he said, well, I'm not a general. Right.

It's just like a short, sweet answer is yes, no is okay. Say on the stay on the room. Senator. And the other thing is, you can take the tone way down and say, Senator. I know you're not going to vote for me.

Make whatever point you want to make. We have a plan. We're going to execute it. And It will make America healthy again. End of story.

Just shut up. And just because they ask you a question doesn't mean you have to answer it.

So they just asked before about Medicaid, Medicare. And he says $900 million on Medicare. Does anybody think here that we're spending that money correctly?

Well, Medicare is saving so many lives, but is that the best you could do for $900 billion on Medicare? That's the question. Are you getting the best health care possible for the amount of money the American people are paying or that you've paid in the past out of your pocket? But what I think really hurt him, and we'll see how long, but Caroline Kennedy comes out and just basically says he's not only not worthy of this position, but he takes my father's name for his own personal benefit and uses his father's name for his personal benefit. Listen to the former ambassador to Australia, CUT24.

Bobby is addicted to attention and power. Even before he fills his job. And in Australia. His constant denigration of our healthcare system and the conspiratorial half-truths he's told about vaccines, including in connection with Samoa's deadly 2019 outbreak of measles. have cost lives.

They deserve a stable, moral, and ethical person at the helm of this crucial agency. And it got worse. I mean, she could not have been more disparaging. And this is the daughter of JFK. Damaging?

Yeah, it is because she has credibility. She's known in the public eye. She's attacking his personal credibility as a member of his family. It's unbelievable to me that you have, by the way, you have Democrats going up against Kennedys. I mean, since when did that ever happen?

You have Kennedys going against Kennedys. But now you have Kennedy's going against Kennedys. And look, RFK makes a really good point on a lot of things. The other thing I would pivot to as a Republican, if you were on that committee, you You got to go back and look at Xavier Becerra. He was the health and human services secretary for the last four years and has zero experience in healthcare.

And please tell me what he did good. He was in Congress. You can't name a single thing that Biden did over four years. This guy was the health and human services secretary for four years. And you can always just pivot back to that: say, he didn't have a medical degree.

He wasn't a doctor. He didn't have expertise in the insurance industry. He didn't have any of these things. And if you think that everything's working now and the status quo was good, like we saw Senator Warner questioning RFK Jr. about Medicaid, then you can just pivot back and say, well, Senator, if you believe it's, do you believe it's working to perfection that we're getting value for the $900 billion?

We're not here to take it away from people, but we have a duty and an obligation to this country to make it more effective, more efficient, and service the people of this country. That should always be the mantra of whoever is honored to be the health and human services sector. That's the answer. That's the answer. Yeah, that's the answer.

You don't get into the details like RFK Jr. started to say, well, you know, and he started to ask what employees he's going to fire. And he said, look. We're going to take this on a case-by-case basis. President Biden dismissed 3,000 people.

We're going to look at this. It's a huge, massive it's second to the Pentagon. It's the biggest federal agency we have.

So what about what he said? Senator Warner says it's unconstitutional. It's not in the President's power to offer every Federal worker basically a payout to leave. You can leave in six months? If you don't want to come back to work, just say resign.

Uh how do you feel about that? Um I think you would say this The chief executive officer, the president of the United States, can hire and fire people within the federal government. That is a long-held principle, particularly the political appointees. Of course, he can do that. You can't have government employees that have more power than the president of the United States.

Right.

So, I mean, of course, you could do that, you would think. He also changed people's status from at-will employees, 50,000, as opposed to the ones who were under civil service union. I'm not sure he could do that, but I'll tell you what, this is well thought out. I don't love the execution yesterday of the freezing of all programs and the communication. But I like the idea of freezing all programs, but not meals on wheels, which he didn't intend to do, not head start, which, of course, affects all these children.

But just say these are the programs. Anything with direct funding, okay. The other thing is all going to be on hold. Rubio did the same thing with foreign aid outside Israel. Look, I think the directive was.

The right direction to go. I thought the execution and communication from the OMB was errant and should have been much more clarified. The Democrats' solution to this was: well, let's take Russ's vote and let's delay his conference at the OMB. And the Republicans should say, no, we need him in there as quickly as possible to be able to. I mean, he is a tried hand, right?

He was with President Biden or Trump in the past. He does know what he's doing, and they need that. You need him at the helm in order to do this right. The directive that went out was not as crystal clear as it should have been, but the direction from the president, I think, was the right one. You should put a pause on all these monies going out to these NGOs, these non-government organizations, foreign aid, those types of things.

But these mandatory programmatic. Grants and whatnot, they were never going to slow those down.

So, I want you to hear what John Hart said last night. He's the CEO of Open the Books, Cut 20.

So, our organization opened the books. We're taking a deep dive look at all 441 agencies listed in the Federal Register. The first thing we found was 75 of those are actually obsolete.

So, the Trump administration can today claim that they can go in and cut the number of agencies by almost 20% just by watching the store and paying attention, like any business owner would do. But it goes way beyond that, Laura. We have this crazy user-to-loser role within federal agencies that force agencies to throw money out the door at the end of the year because they're afraid they're going to cut their budget.

So that is a great point.

So think about this. If you look at these agencies, you find out they're paying their bridge to nowhere, and you can cut 75 of the 441. That's a 20% cut. And if you're President Trump, he's trying to do tax reform, and he's got to justify the pay side. He's cutting no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, the salt.

So how do you do that?

Well, I've already cut government.

So he's trying to plow the fields for this bigger conversation. But what do you think about what he said? Did you have any holes in that argument? And I've heard that with the military. If they have money at the end of the year, they'll go dump the fuel in the middle of the ocean.

They'll take care, I mean, whatever they have to do in order to get that budget re-upped. How do you change that calculus?

Well, the other thing is they hide it in other accounts.

So they'll transfer it from one account to another account, count that as an expense, and then they bank literally hundreds of billions of dollars. That is the number that I believe is sitting in banks somewhere. That they can then utilize later down. And just, it's very fungible. They move it from one account to the other.

You always wonder, like, a president will show up and he'll give away all this money. And you're like, who appropriated that? And all the appropriators are looking around at each other. Say, I don't know where he came up with that. You have to get a grip on it.

And it's incredibly hard. When I was there, I tried to get rid of mohair subsidies. Back in World War II, we gave mohair subsidies to sheep farmers, you know, goat harders and goat farmers. That program's never died. We still give out subsidies for goat.

We don't even use the mohair that they wanted for the military uniforms. We don't use it in the military uniforms. But the goat herders still get that subsidy. Wow. It's impossible.

You're saying it's tough to cut. Is there a formula that you heard of that, for example, if Jason Chaffetz has a program. And the program doesn't smax out their budget, and we're coming to the end of the fiscal year. Is there a formula that you wouldn't be punished for saving money And you would still have a chance to gain that same budget for next year. Have you heard of it?

Is this the same thing we deal with every day? This is the problem. They will obligate those funds, even though they aren't spending those funds.

So they'll sign some sort of contract that'll be years out in advance and say, hey, we already used that. We need our same $5 million that we get every year. We're going to need $5.1 million this year. That's, I mean, it's just cost plus inflation. But is that where an inspector general will look at your books on the fly and see what you're spending on and then see that huge check at the end and say, you're doing this to come into compliance to try to get the 5.1 million?

I mean, could that is that where the inspector generals come in? If you want to look at a shocking number, go to oversight.gov and you'll find that last time I looked, they had about 14,000 open recommendations on that website on how to trim costs and expenses. I mean the 14,000. That's what those should be looking at. There are billions upon billions.

It's crazy. All right.

So, Jason, stick around because Martha McCallum's going to come in either at the bottom of the hour or here. You get along with her, right? You have no history of turbulence with her? I have to make sure the restraining order allows it, but yeah, I can't ever take it expired. Absolutely.

No, we are one big happy family here. Jason Chavitt, sticking around. Martha McCallum coming in. You listen to the Brian Kill Meat Show. Don't move.

Newsmakers and newsbreakers. Here at first on the Brian Killmeat Show. Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. Americans don't, by and large, do not like the Affordable Care Act.

People are on it. They don't like Medicaid. They like Medicare. And they like private insurance. We need to listen to what people would prefer to be on private insurance.

We need to figure out ways to improve care. particularly for elderly, for veterans, for the poor in this country. And Medicaid, the current model, is not doing that. I would ask any of the Democrats who were chuckling just now. Do you think all that money, the nine hundred billion dollars that we're sending to Medicaid every year, has made Americans healthy?

Do we think it's working for anybody? Are the premiums low enough? The place is packed for the RFK hearings. And we were bringing up Martha McCallum's here in the studio. Martha and Jason Chavits is stuck around.

Martha, Jason's going to be on with Martha a little bit later. But one thing you missed is you putting your headsets on. He says, Americans don't like the Affordable Care Act. That is not going to win over Democrats, but that is true. He goes, the American people like private insurance.

Martha, that's not really incorrect. No, it is not. You should take it personal. Why are you mad if you're a Democrat? Exactly.

Yeah, we all remember if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. And now everyone's forced into a situation where they have to look at a certain list, and your doctor's not on that list, and you got to pick someone who's on the list.

So it's problematic. Look, he is. He's done a lot of talking over the past many years, and they are pulling up some examples of things that he has had a tough time responding to in terms of how unequivocal he was in certain podcasts and discussions about vaccines. But I'll tell you one thing. This is a shake-'em-up reformist group of people.

Bobby Kennedy is absolutely in that category.

So, what we've had over the past 25 years is a health care system that, as Bobby Kennedy would say, and Callie Means would say, and a sister, Dr. Casey Means, is a sick care system, not a health care system. I think most Americans are appalled with the obesity rate in this country, with the hundreds of chemicals that are allowed to be in our food, that are not allowed to be in foods in Europe. There's a reason why when you get to go on a special trip to Europe, everything tastes different. It's because there's not a lot of junk in it.

And so, you know, these senators are going to go through their process and have to decide if they want someone who is willing to, you know, really like push their press their fists against the posts on all of this and shake this up. It's an enormous, enormous agency. I mean, it took 20% of the budget of the country comes under HHS.

So it's a huge job. He would need a lot of very, very strong deputies to manage the sub-agencies that exist in this. But this is part of the reformist movement that is going on right now. And he's getting roughed up. He's also making good points.

But this is the process. Congressman, how many hearings have you seen, you've been a part of? You're probably too many to count. The fireworks back and forth, the disrespect from Senator Warner and Senator Whitehouse. It's over the top stuff.

Senator Wyden, too. This is anger you're saying. Yeah, it is. And there's a way to deal with that and diffuse it, to use the Socratic method and throw question back to the senator. But Kennedy has a different approach, and he's going to have to live and die on that.

He wasn't going to get those votes anyway. I mean, the audience is really Bill Cassidy, the Republican from Louisiana, and a couple of other Republicans. Remember, you get all the Republicans, you win. You're going to be the HHS secretary.

So. You can kind of dismiss some of that and almost laugh it off. I thought Pete Hegseth did the best job. You know, he was just short, sweet, and he just had this calm demeanor and just kept smiling. And And whatever they threw at him, you know, and they threw that question about generals and he said, well, I'm not a general.

Yeah. No, he did very well. And I think that he did set the bar for being a fighter in this environment and keeping your cool. And as you say, I mean, you can just really cross off these Democrat senators. And I say that because they're clearly not going to vote for him.

White House is never going to be. They're already gone. And Cassidy is a doctor, has raised questions about Kennedy's vaccine stance and a few other things.

So the Cassidy questioning, I think, is going to be very, very interesting to watch here. But, you know, then the full Senate will be an issue for him. Even if he were to lose in this environment, he can still go to the full Senate, right? Right.

He's got to get out of committee. Even with a non-favorable vote, he can still vote for him on the House or on the Senate for.

So we'll see you guys at 3 o'clock, right? And then Martha's going to stick around. She's contractually out. I'm not leaving. It's not that she likes me.

Jason Chavis, thanks so much. I'll see you soon. Ryan, kill me, Joe. Don't move. Good to see you, Jason.

The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead. I do have news directly from the President of the United States that was just shared with me in the Oval Office. From President Trump directly, an update on the New Jersey drones. After research and study, The drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons.

Many of these drones were also hobbyists. recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying jones. In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy.

So there is Carol Ann Levitt weighing in and solving the drone crisis of New Jersey. Martha McCallum, the same Martha who hosts the 3 o'clock show called The Story, right here on Fox News. Martha, it's solved. Everyone in New Jersey can exhale. You feel good?

No. Why? First of all, I thought she handled the the explanation in a much more cogent and effective way than John Kirby did when I was grilling him on what's going on. He's like, we don't know. He kept saying, sorry, you know what?

He's like, gosh, Martha, I wish I could tell you. But we just don't know what's up there. And literally, like, I'm driving back and forth from work. I'm like, oh, there's one. There's one.

And no, they weren't planes. They were very low-flying. They had a long line of green lights on one side, a long line of red lights on the other. And you could see early in the evening, you could see the equipment. Like, you could see that it was not.

And they were large, large.

So I feel like I'm like one of those people who go, I swear I saw an alien. But So now the only thing that has been cleared up is that the FAA knows about them.

So that continues to leave open the theories that were out there about whether or not they were sort of scanning for nuclear material or other things that are troublesome to the country.

So all we know is that the FAA was aware of the things that were flying up there. We don't know what they were doing. Right.

So we'll see. They say that they say it's clear. We'll see if it continues. But the one thing I appreciate is the fact that she actually got back to people when asked about it. Yeah.

I think the new system. I think President Trump was concerned about it because they were flying over his club for a while, over his home. Yeah. And there's an empty seat now in the press room that's going to be for alternate media. I didn't know Breifa was alternate, or Axios was alternate.

I thought they were pretty once conservative. Absolutely. But we'll see. And I like the fact that everyone got called on, and there's a lot going on. I mean, I've just, just to take notes in the morning to get ready for the morning show, I mean, it.

Well, that's important. That's probably going to come up. I can't forget about that. I mean, you don't know what's going to be big. It's like a scramble.

You're just like, your eyes are going all over these different stories and things that are coming across social media and phone calls that you're making and getting ready for the day. And then it's like, you know what? That's been talked about a lot. I think we got to move on to the next five things that just happened five minutes ago.

So Jamie Raskin said to Democrats, we have to fight the feeling of being disoriented. I love that line.

So because there's so much. Are you upset about the civil servants being laid off or given an option to quit? Are you worried about the freeze of programs? Are you, what about Netanyahu's coming next week? Do you have something to say about that?

So what about it? We're banning transgender care for kids. What about what is the other thing that we do? Oh, school. This is school choice day.

School choice. Absolutely. This is school choice day. Something that I've been writing about and talking about for so many years, and people have been working so hard to get a tax law written around the Ability for people to donate to these schools and to use their tax dollars to go to the school that they want to go to. I heard Lawrence Jones talking about the fact that he was able to take advantage of that in Texas when he was younger.

So, yeah, there's a heck of a lot going on. One of the things that really lit me up this morning was this letter. If you want to quit your job at the federal government, this is your window. You're going to get paid until September, fully paid until September, which I think is a very generous, six months, very generous offer. And, you know, if you're the 6% who show up at the office, you probably want to keep your job and keep doing what you're doing.

If you're in the 94% who don't show up to work, so now you can, you don't even have to pretend that you're working. You can just say, like, I'll be out of here in September.

So, and some of those agencies might be moving to other places in the country.

So, maybe they're going to go closer to where you live or like to live, and maybe you can reapply for your job. But, you know, and it really made me think, Brian, about the fact that when we talked about this prior, it was. Like, oh, that's just a fraction of the budget. It's nothing. And it's not a huge number.

It's like $100 billion in savings, something in that area. It might be $200 billion. I got to look at that number again. But. The fact is that it's happening, and that is what is important.

It is making the government leaner and hopefully more responsive to people's needs and getting rid of waste. How about the fact is they're freezing hiring? That saves money on top of that. Absolutely. And then making people more accountable.

I know I've said this before, but Teddy Roosevelt took one of the worst jobs from the president that he worked for in order to help get elected, and one was to reform some bureaucracy. And they said it's impossible. And he went in there and he provided incentives for people, fired people with bad attitudes, made them accountable, and they enjoyed their jobs more. Absolutely. And the fact is, the next president comes in and he said, I'm leaving him, even though he's a Republican.

Working is actually not more fun than avoiding work. Yeah. Working is more interesting than avoiding work, which is exhausting and drains your spirit. That's a great point.

So let's talk about what's happening in New York City. In New York City, especially, the focus is on these ICE raids to get out the worst of the worst.

So they're going in and they're pulling people out. Whether it's a double murderer from the Dominican Republic or the head of this Venezuelan gang, they're going.

Some people are not happy about it. Listen to Joy Reid, Cut Two. New York City join the list of cities where these performative raids are taking place. We have a government right now that is reckless. Reckless had also, I mean, as I said, performative.

I mean, I want to show you an image of Christy Noam, who was just confirmed, the former governor who was confirmed as a Department of Homeland Security. I mean, it says she's cosplaying. It's almost a game where she seems to be cosplaying because I'm not sure what she thinks that she's portraying here. She might as well be a Comic-Con.

Well, I'll tell you what, it's kind of interesting. She got the job 48 hours ago, and she's out on the streets with ICE, with the DEA, and she's trying to see for herself what they're up against. Is that bad? No, this argument is pathetic. I used the word performative actually on inauguration night when President Trump was signing a stack of executive orders.

And I think performative is good. Performative is: I'm doing something. I want you to see that we're doing this. I want you to understand what we're doing. This is the kind of communication that the American people need and want to see.

The pushback that Democrats are saying right now about these ICE raids is, you know, oh, well, they're so confused about how to push back on this. We actually. Kicked out a similar number of people on days during the Biden administration. It's like, why were you so afraid to talk about it? Why didn't Alejandro Mayorkas show up and talk to, well, they wouldn't even look at ICE?

Why didn't he show up for these raids? Why didn't he say, you know, you're concerned about the border, but let me show you some of the people that were exiting out of the country. Why not?

So performative, when it is substantive, when it's actual, when it's action, is a very good thing. It helps the American people understand what's going on. They're busy. They're at work. They're taking care of their families.

You got to show people, here's what we're doing.

So I just love it. It's like going to an excavation site, the side of a new skyscraper, and you cut a ribbon.

Well, you didn't need to cut the ribbon.

Somebody else could have cut it. No, it's a symbolism. Exactly. We put something in the bathroom. Exactly.

It's exciting. It's productive. It's good. I like what Tom Holman said in reaction: cut three. She's dumber in a box of rocks.

Bottom line is: let's talk about Chicago for a minute. Chicago mayor says that we put fear in the elementary schools because ICE agents went to elementary school. Total false story. What ICE did in Chicago is save children. What we did in New York today is save children.

Just Chicago alone. We arrested nine sexual predators, most of them, child sex predators. We took them off the street. We took them off the street in New York today. We're protecting the community.

We're saving children. And that's the point. Everybody has it.

So I love that he goes everywhere. I saw him with Caitlin Collins the other night on CNN. What do you have? What's your problem? I saw him with.

Margaret Brennan. Was it Margaret Brennan or Martha Raddix? Martha Raddicks, excuse me, on Sunday shows.

So if you have any questions, just ask me. This is what I'm doing. You want to know I'm flying out? I got a camera there, too. Yep.

And now they're doing, well, how much, how expensive is the military plane as opposed to private flights? Why do you put cuffs on them? Really? You fly a plane with a bunch of killers on it, you idiot. Why would you not?

I think that's why the media strategy is clear. They're going everywhere and they're taking tough questions because they have people who can. Do a really good job doing that. Tom Holman, J.D. Vance, walking right into the Lion's Den, wherever it is, and answering questions.

And I think it's very persuasive for people. I really do.

Now, you're going to have, you know, obviously the country is still divided. I think it's less divided. I think the last election showed that we are less divided in terms of the number of people who are voting, you know, Hispanics, Latinos, young people, moving over towards the right based on a number of issues. But I think it's great. I think performative politics is great if it's substantive.

Right, good point. And I would bring up the last thing: Zelensky was on with Sean Hannity last night, and he knows that Sean and President are tight. It's smart to come on the number one network is great. He's doing everything possible to understand without us, his country dies. And he's doing exactly like you and I would do.

I don't care what it takes. I'll explain myself. And you're not going to get me involved in politics, but I'm going to appreciate that the president is what he's done in the past. Here is Zelensky talking. Talking about the effect that President Trump has already had, cut 30.

President Trump has the will to force Putin to come to peace, he can do it. And if the US considers pressure on Putin involving other countries, global south and China, I am sure that an agreement can be made.

So they make that pressure as well, pressure on Putin, I am sure. And I know that President Trump is not very happy about NATO. We talked with him about but we need broader guarantees of security. Because they point out that the Budapest Agreement is not where the paper was printed on because they gave up the nukes and they got invaded. Same thing with the Minx Agreement.

Stop here. You took Donbass. You took Crimea.

Well, stop here. They invaded two years ago.

So what do you do now? The next step has to be a tripwire of troops, or it has to be missiles right on whatever you think the border is, while never giving up the image of one day getting the land back. I think you're right. They've been dragged into these agreements in the past, and they haven't worked. Obama didn't adhere to them.

I think Zelensky is making his case. I think he knows that a negotiation is what has to happen at this point. But you're right. I mean, we have to prove that. Ukraine's borders, whatever this negotiated border looks like, need to be protected and need to be impenetrable.

You know, um. It's a very tough situation. Before you sit down with Kellogg, does K then Kellogg sit down, do you have to deal with the North Korea-China issue and say, first off, no more troops over there. Number two, China. You're buying you're buying cheap oil for me.

Absolutely. So, before you sit down with them, I think so. Yeah, I think so. And I don't think, you know, it's like you have to sort of test how much does China care in the end about this issue. They like us distracted.

Yeah, they like us distracted for sure. But I don't know if push comes to shove, if they are going to, you know, feel like this is worth it for them in the long run and the bigger issues. The only thing they like, they like the fact that we're giving a lot of weapons or selling a lot of weapons to Ukraine because that's less against them. But what we are doing is forcibly modernizing our arsenal. And then fully realizing that we have to expand our military industrial complex that everyone feared forever.

Well, it shrunk.

Now it's a detriment instead of being a worry.

So that's what I hope Pete gets right to. And it's going to take private industry. Absolutely, and I think we're seeing that. I think that's what you see in the technology marriage of this presidency and the understanding in AI, for example, that you need the greatest minds in the country to do this. I hope that the techno I really thought that what Pete said in his hearing about The gap that exists between some programs that have been advanced in defense that are basically, you know, they build models to show you what these weapons are going to look like.

By the time they're built, they become obsolete. And I think that we need to be much better at being technologically advanced. War is changing dramatically. I mean, we're looking at an era where you could see a group of dwarf drones swarming a US aircraft carrier. With no men involved at all, except on our carrier.

So we we need to be really smart and sharp. And I thought that Pete was very strong on that, and I hope that that's the focus. Right.

I hold I love the idea of an an iron dome for America. Let's see how practical it is. We're going to have to tell them where the holes are. It's hard to protect all our coastline, north and south. Maybe Zelensky should say, I'd like an iron dome for my country as well.

Can that be? No, I mean, Zelensky could argue that. You know, give me an Israeli-style iron dome system. Obviously, it's a much smaller country than the United States of America so that we can hold our borders and protect ourselves. Ten-year commitment of a military buildup.

That would probably be it. And they have enough natural resources to guarantee it. Mark Thiessen last week with General Keene wrote that editorial that really spelled out exactly how we'd get paid for. The American people say, how much money are we going to spend?

Well, we're going to get it back. We modernize our arsenal and at the same time support an ally, saying the right message. And Russia's lost 700,000 people. That is like three arms. For the rest of the world.

It shows also how inept they are. And now they're begging North Koreans to fight for them and prisoners. Martha McCallum, a few more minutes. She's got her show at 3 o'clock. She'll tell us what's happening at 3.

They'll do this hearing by then, don't you think? I think they'll be done. All right.

Back in a moment. Want even more, Brian? Download the podcast at BrianKillMeadShow.com every episode. Exclusive interviews on demand. More of Kill Mead coming up.

The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmeid. What Trump did violated the law. He can't just fire these people. Title V, Section 403 of the U.S.

Code federal law, an Inspector General may be removed by the President. What? What's the purge? What's the mouth? There is a specific law that requires notice, 30 days, and a statement of reasons.

substantive and detailed rationale. What? I'm sorry, what? Oh, apparently you can fire them, but you have to give them 30 days' notice. Oh, so that's what we're upset about?

Look! You can do it, but not in that Font! That's Hitler's font! But this is the cycle we find ourselves in. First law of tropodynamics.

Every action is met with a very not equal overreaction. Thus throwing off our ability to know when it is actually getting real.

So I think Jon Stewart is the closest to finding out a way to deal with this, knowing that he's anti Trump, but he's got to do a show that's entertaining and interesting. And the guy got cool. I thought Bill Maher nailed it. He goes, we have made the seventy eight year old cool. I don't know how we're going to be able to do it.

Absolutely. I mean, you know what? It is very reminiscent for those of us old enough to remember of the 80s and Reagan, right? You had young people, very energetic, very patriotic people. They're still around today.

Yeah, they're still around today.

So I think that's what we're seeing. And I think that is what these folks like Jon Stewart have to, you know, are trying to navigate. And Bill Maher at least is recognizing it and saying it. It is, you know, and I heard, I was listening to the All-In podcast, and they're like, you know, wow, like Republicans are fun. They had a great time at all of these events.

So I find that really interesting. But I have to go back. Jon Stewart to me. You know, one of the pivotal moments in the COVID understanding and opening up and reevaluation was when he went on with Stephen Colbert and said, Oh, you know, there's a Hershey factory and there's an outbreak of chocolatey goodness everywhere. What do you think happened right next to the Wuhan lab?

And that really, like, sometimes it takes someone. You know, we don't like to put too much focus on what celebrities say. He's a, you know, obviously he runs a thoughtful talk show, but, you know, wherever you stand on it. But. I think that was a really significant moment.

And so it's interesting to watch him in this. And also, I think he's warning his own team that you cannot overreact to every single thing. That's what we did last time. And it didn't work. It blew up in our faces.

So he's saying, pick your battles. Who's on your show today?

So, Tom Homan is on my show today. And I think in this moment, we really can't hear enough from him. There's an enormous amount happening on the number one issue in the election, and we're seeing tremendous movement. We're also going to talk to some of the moms who are very supportive of the Make America Healthy Again movement. All right.

Thanks so much, Martha McCallum. Fox News Audio presents the Fox Nation Investigates Podcast: a look into the Menendez Brothers with victims or villains. Then, Judge Jeanine Piro and a panel of experts break down their new fight for freedom with monsters or misunderstood and follow three incredible cases where world-renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Botten helps change the course of the investigation with the Botten files. Listen and follow at FoxtrueCrime.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

Listen to the show ad-free on Fox News Podcast Plus, on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music with your Prime membership, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Hmm.