Israel/Hamas ceasefire in question as Phase 1 comes to an end

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Brian In Kill Mead. Hi, everyone.

So glad you're there. I'm glad to be here. I'm in Dallas, Texas, KLIF Studios. Great event last night. Thanks to the hundreds who came down and we took pictures after, talked about, and I got a chance to see what's on everybody's mind here in Texas.

Every city's got different demands, different hopes, what they want to see done. And we also started the day with something. Surreal, an hour-long cabinet meeting. Caught by the press, random questions thrown out. Lawrence Jones got one-on-ones afterwards.

But the President of the United States just about has everybody confirmed, at least Stephanie Nazi across the finish line yet. But you got everybody there. And they're all there interacting. And you see a problem with measles in Texas.

Somebody died.

Well, there's RFK, HHS secretary, to comment on it. It was just really good to see Elon Musk stand up and say, hey, this is what my approach is. And it has not been easy. This hour going to be joined by Mark Thiessen in a matter of moments. Excuse me, Josh Crash Hour at the bottom of the hour.

A separate hour, Mark Thiessen's gonna be joining me. And one thing I gotta ask him. What's going on with the Washington Post? Jeff Bezos has this unbelievable idea. He thinks there should be more diverse opinions with the opinion section.

And now everyone's talking about what happened to the Washington Post, they're afraid of Trump. Not really. They just w want readers that don't necessarily agree with far left policies. They want more than forty percent of the country, same as the LA Times. Just one of the many things I'll be talking about on Sunday on One Nation at 10 o'clock.

So let's get to the big three. Number three. On Gaza, I just wondered if there's any progress towards a second phase of the ceasefire. That's a decision, it has to be made by. Israel, we got a lot of hostages back.

But it's very sad what happened to those people. It is. And I have to tell you, this just came in. President Netanyahu has called back his delegation from talks in Egypt. There's not going to be a Phase II.

Formal bodies return to Israel, and Iran thought now to be capable of having enough uranium to make six nuclear bombs. How long is this going to percolate? How soon until Israel is forced to act? Number two. Every single time the president engages in diplomacy, you guys preemptively accuse him of conceding to Russia.

He hasn't conceded anything to anyone. He's doing the job of a diplomat, and he is, of course, the diplomat in chief as the president of the United States. And that's J.D. Vance yesterday at that surreal. cabinet meeting, first of first ever.

And he's talking about what's going on with the Russia-Ukraine situation. President Zelensky coming to town Friday. The UK prime minister is in town today. Could a Putin meeting be next as Trump tries to bring an end to the fighting and the cycle of Russian invasion after a few years? We talk about that approach, the plan and the chances.

Number. Wrong. And even though we may have to lay them off, we shouldn't be celebrating. That's not something that's just taken willy-nilly. We have to make sure that we understand these are people with mortgages and children and house payments, all kinds of things that they need to pay for.

And we just have to be compassionate. And Rich McCormick, the Marine, who's now a congressman from Georgia, was hit by a town hall. Hundreds of people showed up, and mostly Democrats, to yell at him about federal jobs that were excess. And he said, Look, I'm for it, but can we change the tone just a little bit? And I thoroughly get it.

The Doge is front and center. First cabinet meeting, that was the number one topic.

So yesterday, Donald Trump says there's going to be a large-scale firing by Doge by March 13th. He told all the divisions to go back the old-fashioned way and give suggestions on how to lean out the force: $36 trillion over debt, annually $2 trillion over. And President's aide, can't even say Doge Czar because that's not his official title. Elon Musk says, I can't do $2 trillion. Could do one.

The Environmental Protection Agency eyeing to cut 65% of its staff. Most of them are weaponized green maniacs who are putting together programs without a sense of dollars and cents because it's all ours. Does it say Texas, for example, founded a nonprofit with former President Biden's transition team members? They reap millions of dollars operating empty facilities. They're finding a lot of this going on.

USAID wasted millions on Ukrainian pet projects and fashion junkets. That's according to Senator Joni Ernst.

So it's not just Elon Musk. And you have Congresswoman Green trying desperately to be more mainstream. She is threatening criminal referrals as they start to investigate where all our money, it's not his money, it's not Biden's money, it's not Trump's money, where all our money is going. And I think they could do a better job in communications. But outside Washington, people aren't nearly as offended as people inside Washington are with the paring down of the federal force.

But keep in mind, Rich McCormick is the one who is seen leaning on the podium with Democrats and CNN is running every 20 minutes that shows there is a groundswell of people upset. No, I think a lot of this people are paid from the RNC. The chairman said we're going to send people out to Republican town halls. And I think a little bit of the messaging comes off callus. Cut nine, Rich McCormick.

When you talk about the real cuts, it's going to affect people's jobs. You're talking about laying off a lot of people in government. The government's way too large. We have to be careful about the messaging. And this is where the town hall really hit hard on some people.

Most of those people are Democrats, no doubt about it. But there are some people that are Republicans and people who are just good Americans who work for the government that have been taken by surprise. They didn't have time to adapt. And even though we may have to lay them off, we shouldn't be celebrating. That's not something that's just taken willy-nilly.

We have to make sure that we understand these are people with mortgages and children and house payments, all kinds of things that they need to pay for. And we just have to be compassionate. Originally, I think it's great compassion to tell people in your federal job, if you resign in a week, you'll got to get paid for six extra months. And then the next phase was finding out who people, who's just collecting a paycheck and not going to work. Then he said everybody's got to go to work.

So that pairs the workforce down even more. And people that don't return emails will be considered fired. That's the way it would be. Look, yesterday, I'll give you an example. Rachel Maddow found out that our staff would be cut in half.

Most of those people found out right then that they were being fired. They thought they were in a secure job. That happens almost every day. and Wall Street. You know, they have some bad years.

You caught, you didn't make your bonus. Not only don't you get your bonus, you're gone. There's not much notice. Is just getting a lot of attention because I think, for the most part, Democrats see an opportunity to say, look at Donald Trump. He's just firing people, he doesn't care about people.

So Lee Zeldon gets settled in at the EPA, and he wants to get back to responsibly drilling oil and gas, and get back to delivering some natural gas to our allies, like Japan and like through Europe. And he's seeing a lot of this green agenda. Listen to what he found, Cut 10. There were tens of billions of dollars spent in 2025. We want that number reduced by tens of billions of dollars.

I don't want Congress to be giving us the tens of billions of extra dollars. We saw all this money going out to left-wing advocacy groups. Not only are we not sending money out to left-wing advocacy groups, we don't want to send money out to right-wing advocacy groups. We don't need the money. We need to operate more efficiently.

That's with regards to grants. We've been working with Doge. Elon and his team have been fantastic to work with. I've canceled about 30 grants working with them with $120 million of savings. I canceled a $50 million grant for the Climate Justice Alliance.

They say the climate justice runs through Gaza, runs through a free Palestine. Yeah, you kidding me? This is a joke. And the green agenda is like a religion. People talk about DEI and that being in our rearview mirror and being blown up and that being a good thing.

The other thing is the crazy green agenda. And what people are doing, led by John Kerry and Al Gore, they make millions of dollars with it. And they have the Paris climate change. And if you pulled out of that, it's a disaster for the world. Trump said, screw that.

We're paying all the money. Russia and China, the main polluters, do nothing. We're out. And now we find out our own EPA has been weaponized or doing what they're supposed to do with Joe Biden, but weaponized against the American people. The other story that people can't wait to get a hold of, I'm interested too.

I'd love to find out if there was just Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK. We're about to find that out. But the other big story is the Epstein list. Who's on it? All types of rumors.

I'm not going to bring it up, especially after what Aaron Rodgers did to Jimmy Kimmel, just made that up and caused all consternation. But we no longer have to worry about making it up. Pam Bondi said this last night with Jesse Waters: cut 20. There are well over, this will make you sick, 200 victims. 200.

So we have, well over, over 250 actually.

So we have to make sure that their identity is protected and their personal information. But other than that, I think tomorrow, you know, the personal information of victims, other than that, I think tomorrow, Jesse, breaking news right now, you're going to see some Epstein information being released. All right.

So they're going to start releasing the Epstein list. That'll break down. And we know Bill Gates is all over it, obviously. Bill Clinton, I'm sure, is all over it. We know that.

Who else is on there? And should we all know about it? Why is this guy killed? What I think, what this matters to me, and why I think it matters to you, is we're just tired of these things hanging out there. They never get solved.

And is there going to be an administration that holds people accountable? Let's see. And lastly. For this segment, We all know about Joe Biden's decline. I couldn't believe he got the nomination in 2020.

Only because of the pandemic, when he didn't have to campaign, did he get it, and the weaponization against Donald Trump is a part of it. And then we watched this guy really not do the job, refuse to do interviews, even the Super Bowl interview. He didn't do anything. Then we find out he's like rumors come out, he's working two hours a day. Bob Woodward, he lost all his investigative instincts.

He does a book, doesn't really bring up the fact that Joe Biden's barely working.

So If you did bring some of that up. You knew you were going to get some blowback in the Washington Post. New York Times. Fox Anchor calls out, says Joe Biden cognitively has declined, cognitively is not all there, senility. If you talk to Britt Hume, he said the guy's senile, and he got a huge blowback on that.

Well, that's just the way it's gonna be. Then he blo then he implodes in June. And they no longer He's no longer the nominee. I don't have to go over that. But they're angry.

I'm watching some of his aides go into these shows on C-SPAN and whatever, not highly rated situations. It'd say Joe Biden really got it raw at the end of the deal. The party turned on him.

Well, he didn't get the roar into the deal. The guy couldn't do the job in the first four years, never should have gotten the job to begin with. If he had a decent vice president, there would have been massive pressure for him to turn over the reins instead. After a good midterm, he stays on board. And crickets outside Fox and other outlets on whether he could do the job anymore.

But he doesn't do interviews, couldn't do more than three press conferences. He blew Afghanistan, where it is that was all his idea. Didn't listen to a soul. Can't remember anything. People's names are how to leave a stage.

Now there's a book coming out, and Jake Tapper has the audacity to put his name on it. And he talks about. And this is what he put it. He writes it with this guy, Alex Thompson, from. Axios.

And he writes this. Tony Morrison One said, If there was a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. That's what inspired me to write this book. We wanted to know more about what we all just lived through. More than 200 interviews later, Alex and I have a much better idea, and soon you will too.

And they talk about the decline and how little Joe Biden did as president, who was actually running this country. My goodness. I do watch the other channels. Maybe you don't. A lot of people say I never do, but I don't know why you do that.

But Jake Tapper. Up until Three months before the election, almost said nothing. about Joe Biden's decline. He had a high profile show, not a highly rated show. On CNN, not a word.

The last six months after the debate, he was very aggressive, and that's what he thinks he wants us to remember. But we remember how vicious he went at people that would bring up the cognitive decline of Joe Biden. And you know what he would do? He would say, Yeah, but you should see Donald Trump. Donald Trump is not the same guy.

Now we all know how foolish that statement is. But if you want to see that Jake Tapper is now trying to cash in on the fact that he didn't do his job and point out that Joe Biden not having press conferences, not doing one-on-one interviews, not talking about his policies was not part of being president and was an insult not only to the press but to the people, and now you want to cash in on it and pretend we didn't know, you look the other way? Case in point, Jake Tapper has Larry Logan running the RNC before the election. Here's the exchange and I think this tells the story cut 27 I think what we see on stage with Joe Biden Jake is very clearly a cognitive decline That's what I'm referring to it makes me uncomfortable Yeah, I think you were mocking his stutter and I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody's cognitive decline and it's very concerning to a lot of people that this could be the leader of the free world okay that is all I'm saying I genuinely feel sorry And he cut her off. And it was my fault.

I said, Lara Logan. Maybe I have mental decline. You could accuse me of that and write a book on it. Good luck, Jake. You'd have as much.

The credibility right now is ever. That guy is now writing a book that he wants you to buy. That talks about the Qaeda decline and the cover-up of Joe Biden. My goodness, are you kidding me? Is Anderson Cooper going to write the next one?

Are you kidding? This is the biggest insult to all of you and the rest of the media that took a lot of blowback. About the citing the cognitive decline of Joe Biden, the way the all of his corruption with his family. All the problems with this story, the bank records, the records that were kept in his garage, the fact that Robert Hurd does an investigation and said he's too old with a friend, too forgetful to prosecute. And you thought Robert Hur was the bad guy.

Now you're writing a book on the cover-up of Joe Biden's cognitive decline. I beg of you, ladies and gentlemen, do not buy this book. 1-866-408-7669. I cannot believe that CNN he the whole big first half of the book should talk about how Jake Tapper had the opportunity to be responsible uses great contacts with the Democratic Party to report that Joe Biden is not all mentally there.

So I I'm just stunned by this. I'll talk about it on One Nation on Sunday, too. All right, we come back. An exchange that Eric Adams has that shows that he's melting down in real time, the New York City mayor. and how Kurt Benefee of Local Fox here in New York Call them out.

That story and more, and we come back to the Brian Kill Me Show.

So glad you're here. The Commander-in-Chief has his back. Hey, Brian. Yes. I have no loyalty to your radio show.

I only have loyalty to you.

So if you're doing radio, that's good. If you're doing television, that's good too. And if you're writing something, that'll be fine too. It's Brian Gilmead. I'm Dana Perino.

This week on Perino on Politics, I'm joined by former GOP strategist and host of the Rich Zioli Show, Rich Zioli. Available now on FoxNewsPodcast.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Must listen to podcasts from Fox News Audio. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead.

Mayor Eric Adams seems to be melting down, cooperating with Trump, not cooperating with Trump, going to the inauguration, having the governor say we're going to put guardrails on you. And yesterday, the other day, he made a speech on Black History Month, where he's saying that essentially black people that are against him are Negroes.

So Kurt Menafe, who happens to be African American, on Channel 5, interviews Eric Adams, says, what are you talking about? I want you to hear this exchange. You spoke about Black History Month, and in it, you said, quote, all these Negroes who are asking me to step down, God forgive them. Are you implying that if you're black, you have to support you? No, not at all.

I'm asking for all New Yorkers to support me.

So, who are you specifically talking to when you say Negroes?

Well, who has stepped down? Who has asked me to step down? If you look at that whole speech, the speech talked about the continuation of lighting your flame and continue to light and shine. And that's what we've done in this administration with our team.

So those who have called for me to allow my flame to prematurely be extinguished, that's who I'm talking about.

So you're saying all New Yorkers are Negroes? I thought I was very clear in my definition of what I said.

So, anybody who's black who calls for you to step down. They need help from God. I'm focusing on this because your use of the word Negro has come up repeatedly over the last couple of weeks, and I think some people actually have an issue with that term.

So explain who you're talking to when you use that term specifically. I didn't say they need help from God. I said pray for them. It is wasn't that what I said? What is wrong with him?

And I don't blame Kurd for being upset by that. I mean, who who would use that term? I mean, my goodness, if you imagine if a white guy said that, but you have a black guy just saying, What are you doing? Why are you bringing that word into this I still don't know why he uses the word. And neither does Kurt.

But it looks like Garrick Adams is just having a meltdown in front of the public eye. I don't even think he should bother to run for another four years. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Killmead. Trump made those statements, what he did was fueled even more.

The far, far right in Israel, the Bengirs, the Smotriches, who were just celebrating because their idea all along. has been to move 2 million Palestinians out of Gaza. They also want to move Palestinians out of the West Bank into places like Jordan and Egypt.

So in addition to being a reprehensible idea for moral and legal reasons, it would also totally destabilize the region. Right. And it's so stable right now in the current situation, Senator Chris Van Hollen. It is so great. And Trump just wants to turn it on its head.

He wants to take a smooth-running Middle East and just create havoc. Exactly what he inherited. Unbelievable. Chris Van Hollen's hair has been on fire since Trump took over. He's not happy at all what's going on.

He was unhappy with Joe Biden for giving weapons to the Israelis and not holding them back and fine them for their actions in Gaza. He's going to hate Trump shortly because I believe the IDF is going back in hard.

Well, where it is when I started this show, Benjamin Netanyahu, who's calling back his delegations on negotiating for phase two. And I think, Steve, Uh when um Um Steve Winnick. What I'm sure I told you Blanken's last name. Um Witkoff. Heading over there now, I think he's going to find that the peace process is broken down.

They want to expand phase one. Joining us now. Is Josh Krashauer? Josh joins us. He's Fox News Radio political analyst, editor-in-chief of the Jewish Insider.

Josh I know that President Trump clearing out Gaza making in resorts probably is not going to fly. But what's Chris Van Hollen want?

Well, Brian, first of all, thanks for having me on. And like Chris Van Holland is one of the most virulently anti-Israel senators in all of Congress. And he has Know, been on the far left on the issue of the Middle East for quite some time. It's not surprising that he's. Speaking still now with outrage.

Look, I think going to the main point, which is that Trump often will float out these ideas, and then what actually happens as a result is not the idea itself, but it's as what we're seeing. This week, there's been a meeting of Arab leaders in the region talking about what the future of Gaza is going to look like. Does a third party like the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia perhaps take over or have some role in the rebuilding of Gaza as a result of Trump sort of changing the dynamic with that statement about creating a resort on Gaza? That's not going to happen. But I think it's forced a lot of the Arab stakeholders, Jordan and Egypt especially, but also some of the Gulf states to think about: hey, a two-state solution is not realistic when you have a terror state on Israel's border.

That's not the notion that the Palestinians, of all people, are deserving of a state after October 7th makes no sense to most people in the region or in the United States for that matter. And so Trump has changed the conversation. Arab leaders have gotten the message. And you're right, Van Holland is sort of losing his mind. He's been one of Israel's most vocal critics.

He's been on the on the far left of foreign policy issues like that for a little bit of time since since being elected. And he and if you combine that with Um, you know, look what's going on in his backyard with representing the federal government workforce, and he's probably one of the biggest political losers right now in in Washington. In many ways. Josh, why do you think it is? You know, we saw the thing with Barnard College yesterday.

Where they stormed in and they took over a building because of the two anti-Israeli students that got suspended. But besides that, there has not been these wild protests. There were more protests for Joe Biden, who was more critical of Israel while giving them some weapons.

So he went halfway as usual between giving them weapons and holding back certain weapons and being critical of them and tell them where not to go in. But they were more critical of Joe Biden than they are of Donald Trump Do you know what's going on there? Why is that? There are a lot of reasons. I mean, first of all, peace through strength also applies to handling, you know, radical protesters in the United States.

And when you give in to their demands, when you appease ridiculousness, you're going to get more ridiculousness. And Trump, by contrast, for from the first days of his administration, has cracked down on the universities and and Brenda Diport. Uh non-citizens who are here. shouting terrorist slogans on college campuses. And a lot of colleges have have responded.

Columbia, you know, even Barnard, where the latest episode of Craziness Happened, did the reason it happened is that they expelled two students who literally threatened a professor in an Israeli studies class a few weeks ago. And they said there are going to be consequences for that.

Now, I don't know why they're not doing the same right now as these protesters took over a building and assaulted a security guard, sent them to the hospital, and they caused all kinds of chaos yesterday. But there is an understanding, I think, with the new administration that these colleges can't continue with the status quo where you let students run ramp, radical students run roughshod on campus.

So it's been a big difference. Look, I think that the rubber is going to hit the road at some point. That universities are realizing that if they don't start to crack down on the most radical elements of their campuses, whether it's faculty or students, they're going to lose funds, lose grants, and that they're not going to have the same political environment that they faced for so much time earlier.

So, yesterday, four bodies got returned to Israel. And President Trump is sickened like all of us are by this. Cut 17. On Gaza, I just wondered if there's any um progress towards a second phase of the ceasefire.

Well, I'm very disappointed when I see four bodies came in today. These are young people. Young people don't die.

Okay? Young people don't die.

These are young people. Four bodies came in today. Uh They think they're doing us a favor by sending us bodies.

So Uh Look, that's a a decision that has to be made by Israel By baby. But Israel has to make that decision. We got a lot of hostages back. But it's very sad what happened to those people. I mean, you had a young lady with her hand practically blown off.

You know why it blew up? Because she put up her hand to try and stop a bullet that was coming our way. and it hit her hand and blew off her fingers, big part of her hand. This this is a vicious group of people.

So, what do you think is capping, Josh? They pulled their delegation out of Egypt. They've been giving up prisoners for hostages. I think they're going in, World War Two style.

Well, uh look, uh they they they have a real challenge, Israel does. Um in that Phase two, all but what is.

solidify Ga uh Hamas's hold on Gaza if we go through with the the the other two phases as outlined. It doesn't seem likely to happen at this point. Um that said, I mean Israel is not eager to To start, I mean, they already had a pretty effective war in taking out a lot of Kamas leadership and its battalions, and yet they've popped up. And the degree of people who buy into the Kamas ideology is very widespread in Gaza.

So, I mean, I think there are military accomplishments that can be achieved still to come, but it also could risk the lives of the remaining hostages in the territory. And that's sort of this Hobson's choice that Netanyahu and the negotiators are having to deal with. Do we try to figure out a way to get everyone back home, even if it means making some painful concessions? Or do we go in militarily but risk losing the lives of the remaining hostages? It's a very difficult decision.

It's always been sort of that. There's always been this thing. It's always been the decision. It's always been it's been the same decision for three two years, right? That broadly speaking has been the dilemma that Israel has faced.

Do you fight the war and take out Hamas? Or do you make painful concessions and get more hostages home? We now are done with Phase I. There are still dozens of hostages remaining. It's it's it's a very difficult decision and that that's that's why it's been we haven't had any clarity, frankly, that that the that the negotiations are not really going anywhere, but Netanyahu is not eager to quickly make a decision that could have such profound consequences.

Yeah, it just uh if there's no talks and there's just waiting, it's just hard to believe he's going to wait it out. Uh meanwhile, Iran is accelerating the near weapons grade plutonium production. They have enough, they say, to make six nuclear bombs. What, I mean, you know that Israel cares about that as much as the hostage situation. They're not going to let it happen.

We're not going to hold them back. We're not. There's a window here. I just think that, Josh, we're going to be doing this segment next week and things are going to be radically changed. Yeah, I think you're right, Brian.

And and and Israel is is Laser focused on ensuring that Iran's nuclear program is set back. And if it needs if it takes a military operation, even if it's just Israel and they do it on their own, and I think the United States under Trump has certainly given them more weapons and more military means to get that done. And Trump has been saying that he would love to have some kind of diplomacy on that front, but if if Iran isn't going to play ball, if they continue to pave the path towards a a nuclear weapon, then Israel's going to have to act and maybe the US will will have to sit. Act as well.

So, you know, there's a lot of uncertainty, but Israel used Iran their program is a little bit exposed after Israel took out some of their defenses in the last year. This is probably the most vulnerable Iran has ever been. This is the time to strike in the eyes of many Israeli military officials.

So it is very likely the next year there will be action and it could be a big test for the Trump administration on how to handle it.

So today the UK Prime Minister comes in, Monday Macron was in, and tomorrow Zelensky comes in. The President's saying, and J.D. Vance is just cautioning, stop talking about the day-to-day and look at the long term. Look what he's trying to do. What do you think about the game plan?

It is to get the sides to the table, to get to reality about what this war is costing and understand it can't continue. How do you feel and what's the word in the street in DC about the path that Trump clearly is blazing? Yeah, well, that's the Trump playbook in a lot of areas that he'll take the position that's kind of outlandish. And we talked about, you know, is the Gaza Strip and they turn it into a resort. That's not going to happen, but it changed the conversation.

We saw that with the tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Like, who knows what's going to happen? But, you know, he made the threat and ended up getting some concessions and pulled it away. I think what we're seeing vis-a-vis Russia and Ukraine is like he said some, I think, pretty outrageous things. I know you interviewed the president, and there was a lot of lack of clarity on where he stands, frankly, on supporting Ukraine.

But in the end, it looks like the draft of this agreement, this mineral agreement that they're striking with Ukraine, which the President Zelensky is coming to the White House to sign, it sounds like on Friday, it sounds like it's gotten a lot more favorable for Ukraine. And in the end, the diplomacy is. less outlandish than than it once seemed. Look, I I still think that when you kind of spend a lot of time, spend a lot of bandwidth insulting your allies and doing things just to get back to square one, I'm not sure how productive that is in the end and and and you know, voting with Russia and a lot of other dictatorships at the UN, I don't think, was a good look for the United States. But in the end, it looks like we averted some of the things that a lot of folks were nervous about.

So we'll see. I think the visit from Zelensky on Friday is going to be a big moment, and it will really set the stage for future Russia-Ukraine diplomacy. I'm with you on that, and so would most people. I like the way you couch it. I know exactly how you feel, but you're trying to be fair and balanced.

I appreciate that. But it's unorthodox, to say the least. There's going to be a Vladimir Putin meeting coming up in a couple of weeks, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, the President just posted this. Drugs are still pouring into our country from Mexico and Canada. A very large percentage of these drugs, much of it fentanyl, killing people, more than 100,000 people dead, families and victims, he goes on. He says the tariff starting March 4th will go on in Canada and Mexico, will indeed go into effect. China will likewise be charged an additional 10% of that date.

The April 2nd reciprocal tariff date will remain in full force in effect.

So because fentanyl is still coming in, those tariffs go on. I'm going to see how it will be interesting to see if that happens and if the market's going to react today. Yes, I was watching the Cabinet meeting, as I think a lot of Americans were yesterday. It was really made for T V type theater. But my read of it, it seems like they're still giving Canada and Mexico reasons to avert that or to postpone or move back that deadline.

I have a feeling we're always going to be seeing some deadline for Canada and Mexico to crack down on fentanyl or do something else. And then we'll find a way to put that was my read of the comments made by both Trump and Luttnick at the Cabinet meeting. But we'll see. There's an April deadline. And we'll my guess is that that deadline may end up pushing Further back as a result of actions that came in that Mexico.

Because the President can point to success. Look at the border. It's unbelievable right now. He could say that, look, listen, this has slowed down marketly in the south. And in the north, there's plenty of video available to show that Canada gets it.

So I think this is a perfect out for the president. I'd be really surprised if he doesn't take it and then just work on the reciprocal tariff situation where you tariff us, I tariff you. Yes, I mean, you need I mean, one thing that I think this administration needs to learn is how to take a win. I mean, they they've been cutting DEI programs, cutting wasteful government, but then they want to kind of cut even further where they may actually hurt people that voted for Trump and hurt people in their own coalition. Same with Canada and Mexico.

I think Canada and Mexico got the message. They've actually been responsive to a lot of Trump's demands. Same with Europe. I think we learned today that Kier Starmer is going to be spending more on defense and convincing his European allies to do the same. These are wins.

to like take Kill in, build up that political capital. There's a tendency, especially among people around Trump, to go even further and to to take it past where the public is comfortable with. And then that leads to occasionally backlashes. There are a lot of successes that Trump has achieved in these first. four weeks and uh you know I think it would be healthy for him to claim victory and and then and move forward.

Yeah. Thanks so much, Josh. Josh Crash Hour, I appreciate it. Very interesting times. Never boring.

Can't take any weekends off. You can't turn away. It is nonstop. Thanks so much, Josh. Thanks, Brad.

1866-408-7669. A few minutes to squeeze in some calls in the second half hour. What did you think of the Cabinet meeting yesterday? Gene Hackman passes away. And what about what they're saying at the Washington Post?

Just because they want a fair and balanced editorial page, people are quitting. They're saying it's going to be a disaster. What am I missing? Don't move. Taking America back.

Canada's been very abusive of the United States for many years. One ally at a time. It is an act of economic warfare. The trade imbalance on our trade deficit has gone up 200 plus percent. With Brian Killmead.

Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Are we going to see who was on the flights? Are we gonna see any evidence? from what he recorded because he had all of his homes wired with recording devices.

What you're gonna see Hopefully tomorrow is a lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information. But it's pretty sick what that man did.

Okay.

Well, we're going to do that. Along with his co-defendant. Absolutely. And he had help. That's for sure.

So we're going to be beginning to see the f uh the Epstein list. I don't know how much of the Epstein list it seems we're going to be seeing, but. Hmm. I think there's, I thought I was the headline was much more promising than the actual soundbite.

So I'm not sure what she's going to release, but now there's pressure on Pam Body to do it because she said the whole thing was on her desk.

So people want to see that. They want to see the JFK. They want to see all these conspiracies come out. And it's not just entertaining and interesting. I think people need to believe in the government again.

And this is what I got a lot last night. I did an appearance here in Dallas on KLIF, and then there was a group of people. You just go to the microphone and ask any questions. We didn't broadcast it. But I got this a lot.

Will anyone be held accountable? For what went on over the last few years. For example, the story about the whistleblower and James Comey and Honeypot women being sent into the Trump campaign, which turns into the Trump presidency, to try to lure him and others into some type of compromising position, pun intended, where they could use extortion to get what they think is the truth. Is anyone going to be held? Because we watch Andy McCabe and Peter Strzok get TV contracts after what they did.

So I think I get that a lot. And even though you don't want to look back, You do have to say after a while. Uh at some point. You cannot keep doing this and get away with it. You listen to the Brian Kilmey Show.

Staying on the road. Go to BrianKilme.com, find out when I'm going to be in St. Louis, March 22nd, and then in Dayton, Ohio, in June. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead.

Yes, Brian Kilmey comes to you from Dallas, Texas today on the road. Don't want to miss a minute of the radio show. Keep you informed and want to be loyal to the audience. We're here at KLIF Studios, beautiful studios. Great event last night.

I tried to get to meet as many listeners as possible and was really successful for the hundreds that came out. I truly appreciate it. Love hearing what's on your mind too at the end of the night. After doing an appearance, just be able to have people line up on my microphone and say what they think and then ask questions, it really gives me an idea. It's always great to open up the phones.

I'm not saying it's never bad, but just to get an idea of what people look like when they're talking and see what their concerns are. I hear a lot of people want accountability. For all those people that really weaponized the government on the seventh floor of the FBI building, on down. People are tired in the first term of Trump being asked to do things, and the State Department didn't want to do it, Defense Secretary didn't want to do it, and they want to know why.

Well, the secretaries were on board, but their staffs weren't. This hour, I'm going to be joined by Gary Sinise. He is going to be telling us about a fantastic project that all patriotic people should be a part of. Also, he will reflect on the death. Of Gene Hackman at the age of 95.

Mysterious circumstances, but him and his wife and his cattle died.

So I'm not sure what's going on there. But the investigation I don't think is as important as the career that he's had.

So let's bring in Mark Thiessen, former chief speechwriter, George W. Bush, Fox News contributor, Washington Post columnist, fellow at AEI, and the most important thing is he's on with us every week. Mark, welcome back. It's great to be with you. I'm on the road too.

I'm in Phoenix. Phoenix.

So you get the pulse of the people as well. Right, exactly.

Well, I'll tell you, I'm very curious when you walk around if people feel the border being under control and what that's like, especially in Arizona. 'Cause I'm feeling in Texas, people are talking about it.

So so last Saturday, at the high the first under the Biden administration, we were getting up to 11,000 people a day. Last Saturday, 200 across the entire border. It's a 98% drop. This is the, you know, and remember when during the campaign, when Biden and then Harris said, well, you know, we'd love to secure the border, but Trump killed that bipartisan border bill that gave us all the authorities we needed to do it.

Well, guess what? Congress didn't pass the bill. And Donald Trump did it in a month. A single month he shut down the border. We now have in the so you know, normally DHS puts out.

figures for for monthly figures, right?

So January figures, February figures.

So the January figures reflect half of Biden, half of Trump, right? I got them to actually give me the Tru uh the figures for the first thirty days of Trump. And We now have more. We have now, I think he had 15,000 border encounters the entire month. I mean, Biden had 11,000 in a day, 15,000 for the entire month, 15,500.

I mean, that is 90-something percent less than the height of the Biden administration, less than the average of the four years of the Biden administration, and it's 80% lower than the average of the last quarter century. He did it in a month without any additional resources, without any additional authorities. It was just a matter of presidential will and a new border czar. We replaced Kamala Harris with Tom Homan, and that's why it's working.

So, you know, what a huge success. It just shows it was all a crisis of choice from the very beginning. And the first thing Marco Rubio did, and I talked to him two days ago, is he went to Guatemala. He went to Panama. You know, he got in contact with Honduras, went to El Salvador, because the message was the same.

You got to stop your border. You've got to control your border. And this is what you need to do. And you've got to take your people back. And then Rick Rinnell goes to Venezuela and says, you've got to control your border and take your people back.

And he walked out with hostages. There were five American hostages that were there.

Now, since that time, Marco Rubio has put out a statement to the State Department that condemning Mindoro and stopping all oil and gas leases with that renegade country because the people are great, but the leader is illegitimate and a thug.

So that's interesting, but I don't want to digress too much. Bring you to yesterday's cabinet meeting where Elon Musk showed up as expected. And here's what he said when asked why he's doing what he's doing, cutting. And taking a lot of plaque and getting a lot of death threats, by the way. I mean, I'd like to stack them up, you know.

But if we don't do this, America will go bankrupt. That's why it has to be done. And I'm confident at this point, knock on wood, you know, knock on my wooden head. The That we can actually find a trillion dollars in savings. We do need to move quickly if we're to achieve a trillion dollar deficit reduction in financial year 2026.

It requires saving $4 billion per day every day. from now through the end of September. But we can do it and we will do it. Your thoughts about Elon Musk being the target of so much derision on the left.

Well, first of all, you know, people were freaking out that he's speaking at a Cabinet meeting. It's like, I don't you know, I I I he why why was he there? Because he's he's a senior staffer in the White House. I w I've been to cabinet meetings. I you know, that with the way it works is there's a cabinet table and the cabinet secretaries sit around the table with the president, and then there's chairs around the wall where the staffers sit, and he sat in the staffers' chairs and he got up to to address the cabinet.

I mean, I don't remember people freaking out, and Democrats getting upset when Joe Biden addressed the cabinet. Nobody elected her.

So so that's number one. Number two, the Doge, you know who's the founder of Doge? Barack Obama Morocco started out as the US digital service, which Trump renamed the U.S. Doge service. And it was it was a effort by Obama to bring in all sorts of tech bros from from Silicon Valley uh uh w in cooperation with Eric Schmidt, who is the head of Google, uh, to to uh make the government more efficient.

Now they wanted to make it more efficient to spend money more efficiently. Musk is making it more efficient to find all the waste and fraud and abuse. But the the mechanism that's being used Is one that nobody complained about when Obama was doing it. They just don't like what Musk is doing. That's what this is all about.

And um Rich McCormick was somebody that went to a town hall. He said mostly Democrats, but he said that I wish uh there might be a little bit nicer tone to it. That would go a long way. I'll play a little of this sound by cut nine. When you talk about the real cuts, it's going to affect people's jobs.

You're talking about laying off a lot of people in government. The government's way too large. We had to be careful about the messaging, and this is where the town hall really hit hard on some people. Most of those people are Democrats, no doubt about it. But there are some people that are Republicans and people who are just good Americans who work for the government that have been taken by surprise.

They didn't have time to adapt. And even though we may have to lay them off, we shouldn't be celebrating. That's not something that's just taken willy-nilly. So you understand what he's saying there. He says, that's what a lot of people are saying.

If you got to cut the job, you don't have to high-five about it. Yeah, you know, I do get that to some extent, but also it's a little bit, you know, so I worked for President Bush. And after the eighth year of his presidency, he left the White House, and I lost my government job. My wife worked for twenty seven years in the Senate, and several senators of hers either lost election or left Senate, and she lost her job, and she had to find it. People in the private sector all the time lose their jobs.

It's like, why is the federal government the one place where in the come America where you get a job for life? And what the people that Musk is trying to get rid of are not the people who are coming in and doing important work and trying, you know, there's obviously going to be some mistakes made along the way. He's like, when he sends out that email, he's literally asking for proof of life. He wants all he wanted was somebody to answer. Even if you answered and said, Well, I can't tell you what I did because it's classified or you know, I well, you know, I don't agree with this like that.

He was just wanting to know if there was anybody there. Because everybody on those emails is getting a government paycheck. And if you can't answer the five things you did this week when you're collecting money from the taxpayers, I mean, people just forget this. This is the every dollar that goes to Washington. was earned by the sweat of a waitress.

A sanitation worker, somebody who put in overtime to feed their families and sent a portion of their hard-earned money to Washington, even if it's not a trillion dollars, even if it's $10 that we save. The GAO report came out last year. $236 billion in improper payments the previous fiscal year. $236 billion. That's triple the Department of Homeland Security budget.

And $175 billion of that was money paid to dead people and people who didn't d no longer qualify for benedicts, and $46 billion of it they just lost. They didn't know where it went. Forty six billion dollars of your tax dollars they lost, and that's just the tip of the iceberg that Musk is trying to get to the bottom of.

So let's move over to Ukraine. That's what your columns found in the Washington Post. You and Joy and Jack Keene, General Jack Keene, said, Look, they got natural, they have rare earth materials. We need it. We're losing China's rare earth.

They're trying to pull it back. China's trying to lock up all the African rare earth, like the Congo.

So what do we do? We got some rare earth in our country, but like idiots, we refuse to mine it.

So now we have rare earth in Ukraine.

So how do you feel about the deal as we know it and what's going to happen on Friday? Here's President Trump yesterday, cut 14. Is loosening of sanctions on Russia a potential option as part of an overall deal? No, no, we have sanctions on Russia. No, I want to see if we make a deal first, but I think we will.

I've had very good conversations with President Putin. I've had very good conversations with President Zelensky. And until Four weeks ago, nobody had conversations with anybody. It wasn't even a consideration. Nobody thought you could make peace.

I think you can.

So he's coming in, and they're going to talk about the rare earth deal. What do you, because you know Zelensky well, personally, you do, Mark, and now you know President Trump well. Tell me what's going to happen.

Well, first of all, this deal is a devastating development for Russia. In fact, it's almost more important than the peace deal that Donald Trump's going to negotiate because Putin wanted to conquer Ukraine. Donald Trump just went into business with Ukraine to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. We are invested, literally, not figuratively, invested in a free, sovereign and independent Ukraine. If if Ukraine falls Putin is not going to pay us hundreds of billions of dollars in minerals in exchange for the weapons we gave Putin Zelensky to kill his soldiers.

And if Ukraine falls, none of that, those minerals, and it's not, and by the way, it's not just rare earths that Trump likes to talk about the rare earths. It's all sorts of minerals. It's titanium, which is made for aircraft. It's aluminum. It's copper.

He just signed an executive order on reducing our dependence on Chinese copper. The free Ukraine controlled 100% of its copper mines. They have tons of copper. It's about hydrocarbons, offshore drilling for oil and natural gas. There's so many minerals and hydrocarbons in that country.

It's a mineral superpower. And we are going to get 50% of it. In the United States. That's the deal. That is good for the American people because we get paid back for the aid that we gave the Ukrainians to defend their country.

It's good for Ukraine because they can't, all that $26 trillion or however much it ends up being is worthless if it's underground. They need America to come in and dig it up and process it and ship it.

So we're going into an economic partnership, an investment partnership with a free Ukraine. Putin lost the war yesterday. Because his goal is to take over Ukraine. And people, the other argument people are making against this are sort of you friends of Ukraine saying, well, if Putin will now just turn around and give us his minerals and do the same thing and trying to go to business, Trump had outbid the Ukrainians. Trump is trying to get us.

Not dependent on the access of China and Russia for minerals. The problem we have right now is we're dependent on China for all these rare earths and minerals. We want to be in business with free countries and friendly countries who won't cut off our access in a time of crisis.

So why would we go into business with Putin for the minerals when we can get them from Ukraine, which is a free and friendly country? And what the President's doing is from day one, he said, Euros been ripping us off, but he says NATO, they got to start chipping in. You notice that who's ever running NATO, the general secretaries, have nothing but compliment Trump. People say, well, they're kowtowing to him. No, he's not, because they're singing his song.

George Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Joe Biden, excuse me, he took credit for it. All said you have to start chipping in more money, Bush 41 and Reagan, to your own defense. But it's Trump that's got it done. And the German leader, the presumed next president of Germany, he said basically we can't count on America again. We've got to put more money into defense.

The UK Prime Minister, same thing. And Macrone said we're at 2.5 percent and I have legislation to increase it more.

So Trump is increasing his, he's actually reaching his objective, isn't he? Yes, 100%. Look, he's going to. Do I have some worries about where this is going? Absolutely.

But I trust Trump. Based on my conversations with him, I know that what drives him crazy is he, you know, people don't understand this about him. He has a soft heart for people. He sees the killing there every day, and it drives him crazy that people are dying. You see how he reacts when he sees the emaciated hostages coming out, how angry he gets?

Like he's angry that people are dying. This is why he bombed Syria twice, because he saw the videos of the Syrian regime using chemical weapons on his people, and it made his blood boil. He and and he bombed the Syrian regime to stop it from using chemical weapons on its people.

So he wants to end the war. And I get it and I understand it. And I think Ukraine wants to end the war. The only person who doesn't want to end the war is Putin. Putin's strategy here is to buy time because he wants to out he realizes he can't do this while Trump is president, so he wants to outlast Trump.

So he's going to try and negotiate a deal that allows him to pause the war and then resume it as soon as Trump's out of office.

So we've got to negotiate a deal that will stop him from doing that.

Well, that's true. We also know the North Koreans are putting more thousands in there. They're terrible fighters. Almost all of them are dying.

So Kim Jong-un is putting them in there. They're a body, so does that concern you? No. If they want to go and die in Ukraine, then that that's Kim Jong un's problem. And those are the most loyal, brainwashed people in the in the world to him.

I mean, all of it bothers me. I don't want anybody dying. But Putin d you know, the but here's the worry that Once there's a peace deal. Putin is going to withdraw his troops, regroup, reconstitute. China and North Korea are going to rearm him, rebuild his defense industrial base, and he's going to wait to reinvade in four years' time.

So we've got to negotiate a deal. You know what the best idea that Trump could do for Ukraine in the peace deal? Build a wall. Once you get the DMZ, you know, have you seen the Polish border barriers that they're building along the important frontier with Russia and Belarus? It's the most amazing border wall.

We should use it here in America. It's a giant border wall with a moat, tank traps, minefields, razor wire. There's no way the Russian troops can cross that thing. They're building it across the entire frontier with Russia, the entire frontier with Belarus. Take that model and put it in the DMZ in Ukraine.

I sense it. I sense that's the next Washington Post column from Mark Teess. And I love it. Washington Post column coming. You heard it here first on the Brian Kilmead show.

All right.

I could be, I could, yeah, if you just want to. Always up with solutions, never division. This is more of a think tank than a show. It's Mark Teesson to try out a few axioms. I'm going to come here and talk to you.

Yeah, exactly. We've got a little think tank going. It's awesome. As long as you're right, as mentioned and heard on the Brian Kilmead show, I'm loving it. Thanks, Mark.

Great job. A lot of the principles you put in your column presence putting into this deal. It's really making an impact. Back in a moment. Yeah.

We will accept nothing less than full victory. Total victory incoming. We cannot be defeated by force of arms. It's Brian Killmead. We will bring freedom to others and all who defend her.

From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmead. You get woken up at 2 o'clock in the morning this morning, and it is, we have reason to believe that China is taking Taiwan right now. What does America do?

Well, America has existing commitments that it has made. To prevent that from happening and to react to it, and that would be executed on. And those are the standing, and the Chinese are aware of this as well. But again, Let's hope that doesn't happen. And the best way to prevent that from happening is to have the capability, a strong leader in the White House, which we have, President Trump, and the capability, military capability to respond.

If the Chinese know we have the ability to respond, then they may do that. If they know we don't have the capability to respond or we have a weak leader, then they may test it. And we just don't want to get to that point. That would be a terrible thing for the world. And it would be a bad thing for China, too, by the way.

We think they don't really realize that and they think maybe if they wait us out we'll begin to quiver I don't know it's all gonna depend on how this whole war comes to an end and if there's gonna be coordination between Russian reinvasion of a place like Ukraine at the same time China tries to take Taiwan and for some reason they're determined to take it as if Taiwan is a threat to them the only way they're a threat to them is because they're an example of the type of life people can have if they had a degree of freedom unlike Red China where people are surveilled 24-7 this is the Brian Kill Me Joe so glad you're here and we come back Gary Sinise and so much more don't move The more you listen, the more you'll know it's Brian Killmead. One of the hardest parts of being a warrior Is coming home. We are here. We are family and we don't have to fight this fight alone. I'm going to make the most of that next chapter because friends of mine didn't get that chance.

You spend so much time out here with them. You almost become brothers. That is a clip from Brothers After War. It's a trailer on a movie that is out on Friday. It debuts on Friday in selected theaters.

Gary Sinise is the executive producer on it, and his fingerprints are all over it. It's a brand new documentary, and Gary Sinise's foundation helped finance it. It gives such a message that coincides with Gary's been trying to do. When he's not on screen, when he's on television, he tries to give back to those who served in the past and active in wars. Thankfully, two of the wars that were active for 20-plus years have wound down, and he does it with his band, and he does it with his star power.

Gary Sinise joins us again. Gary, welcome back. Play with the Wonderful to be with you, Brian. Thanks for having me, bud. I mean, I had you on Fox and Friends yesterday or the day before.

These are kind of blending all together, and I see your passion for this project.

So, this is a chance for the people who fight this generation's wars to talk about getting back into society. We know so much more, and also the taxing natures of the war, never knowing where the battle lines were, never multiple deployments, coming back to an America that was not at war, and those adjustments. Is that all part of Brothers After War, this documentary?

Well, it sure it sure is. It gives you a good look at military life. This is actually a follow up film to a film that we did years ago called Brothers at War. Brian, that my buddy Jake Rademacher, he was a filmmaker. Actually, he was an actor, but he had some uh two brothers serving in Iraq.

And he just wanted to know exactly what they were doing, and he wanted to be with them. He embedded over there with them. way back when, like in two thousand six, two thousand seven, that period of time, and he brought cameras with him, and he made a film. He embedded with other units over there. He made this film that really looked at military life and what it was like for active duty folks to be serving over in Iraq.

and then come home to their families and then get deployed again and the stress on them and their families and what they were doing. And it was a beautiful look at active duty military life. After that, he went out and started doing workshops Because we had a lot of people that were doing multiple deployments, you'll recall. Folks in the service were deployed, and then they come home, and then they're deployed again, and then they come home and deploy again. It was a really stressful time on the active military family.

So Mm-hmm. uh Jake started doing these workshops on military bases, and he would show the film and then he would uh provide this uh workbook and people would fill these things out. And a lot of people were containing and just holding on to so much stuff. And this movie kind of brought things out.

Well, And got them talking, and it was very, very helpful. And he's done hundreds of workshops all around. My foundation sponsors these.

Now we have Brothers Afterwar. which really looks at the transition out of the military. We decided to follow up That first film and find out what are all the people that are in the first film that were serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, what are they doing now? And many of them are out of the service. They transitioned out.

We take a hard look at what those transitions out of the military were like for all the people that we meet in the first movie. and how they're doing. And I think it's really a helpful, helpful movie For a lot of people, you know, they go through a lot. You know, we all know the suicide problems that we've had. within the services and all of that.

This movie takes a look at all of that. And I think like the first movie, It's going to be very, very helpful and healing for veterans. And that's why my Foundation decided to sponsor this. continued to do workshops for this movie as well. It opens tomorrow, Friday, and we hope a lot of people go see it.

Here's a clip from some of the the veterans talking about what the documentary means to them. I invested so much of myself into the military that it was hard to let go. I am doing this documentary right now because I want to see how the guys that I embedded with years ago are doing. How are they really doing? It's a breath of fresh air to know that people still care.

My favorite moment would be now.

So, and it does show people do care.

So, Gary, you know, the World War II was four and a half years. You know, you go in, you go out. They never, a lot of you're 18 years old, you're in the military. This is a war, this is a military that's a volunteer military.

So people went in for different reasons to maybe they want to make this a career, they want to change the path of their life, and then they go to war. We seem to see the negative side, but the positive side of how many lives have been turned around because of the people's sense of value and what they learn about themselves when pressured. in this war context. Do we see enough of the positive side, do you think? Because you've been touring with the Lieutenant Danban and you with the USO since two thousand three.

So you don't need to do a study. I just want to know what Gary Sinise observes. Yeah, y you're you're right. I mean uh Once I started doing tours for the military way back when, you're right, it's over twenty years now. I started to see the impact that could be made when you show up and you just try to pat somebody on the back and listen to them, listen to what they're going through.

And they were going through a lot. You'll recall the difficult days during the Iraq war when. The media, you know, it was a tough time. The media was. Not supportive, and a lot of people were overseas and they were serving and they were doing.

good things to try to help people over there. They were fighting a tough fight. But you know, they were really, you know, achieving something. I remember going to schools, Iraqi schools. that our military had Refurbished and rebuilt, and the children like hugging the soldiers and all of that.

I was seeing a lot of positive impact that was being made by our service members over there that wasn't being reported at that time. And yes, this movie, Brothers After War, takes a hard look at the transition coming out of the service. What it's like, sometimes difficult. But also, you've got all these veterans in the movie who are open and sharing their experiences. That's the important thing here: is that.

talking about what you've been through. Analyzing it, expressing yourself, letting it out, that's all a very good thing. That's all a very healing thing. We want all veterans to be able to share and to know that there's a grateful nation out there that's willing to listen.

So, by the way, Gary Sinesa is with us. His movie, the documentary, is out tomorrow, Brothers After War. And, Gary, where do we see it? What's the best way to get it, or what are our options? Yes.

Well, it's in select theaters around the country. It's a documentary. It's in about one hundred fifty theaters around the country. You can go to brothers afterwar dot com. And you can see where it's playing.

You can kind of put in your town and it'll tell you if it's at a Regal theater. Regal has been very, very supportive of the movie. You can go to Gary Sinesfoundation dot org as well. But just look at Regal Theaters in your area and see if it's playing there. Veterans can also go to VetTICS.

Dot com. and get free tickets. We've provided $150,000 to VetTicks.

so that veterans can see the movie for free. All right.

And that's important. Before I want to get your comments on Gene Hackman, his passing just broke, and I want to get that. And we're in a movie together, I think. But before we do that, do you see the numbers for the first time? People are signing up for the military again.

The Army had a 12-year high in December, and in January, a 15-year high. I think Pete Hagseth has a lot to do with that, in my humble view. He's a war fighter that wants to let people be proud of being in the military again. We're not seeing transgender ads to get people to sign up. We're seeing be-all-you-can-be-style ads from someone so intertwined in the military.

How do you feel about that? Yes, well, that's very, very encouraging. Look, military service is an honorable thing. And we where would we be if nobody signed up? We'd have to have a draft, right?

And then you would have to have And then you would have a bunch of people that really shouldn't be there being drafted into the service.

So we want. We want to know that people are in our military who want to be there. And so we want them to we want these volunteers to sign up. It's an important thing. It's a noble thing to serve your country.

I've met some of the greatest people I know. In the world. have served or are currently serving in the military. And I think it's nice to see that if Pete's certainly a great guy, he's just an amazing service member, served our country I think just there's a spirit around Service again that is very, very important and very encouraging. Because I thought about you too in Afghanistan, because we did so many great things in Afghanistan.

You gave people 20 years to get a sense of independence and Western culture. And for 20 years, women were able to literally get the hoods off their heads and go walk around and have jobs and get the sense of what your life could be. And then, with the way we ended it, it made a lot of service members question: what did I do this for? And that makes the recovery so much harder. We you're absolutely right, Brian.

We've had a lot of people who have served in Afghanistan just questioning a lot. And that that has been very you know, I mean, we've had to really Provide a lot of services to the Gary Sinise Foundation to help with mental wellness, to help. people understand that hey, just because That ended in the way it ended does not mean that your service didn't matter. a lot of look at all the girls that went to school and they had they had for a time, there was a generation there that grew up in freedom. And now it's very sad because they're back to slavery and very, very hard.

But I knew service members over there. who got so Uh so compassion had such compassion for the the people there. That When they got out of the service, they went back to Afghanistan and started trying to build schools there and all these things. During the withdrawal and everything, they had a lot of hard times trying to get their people out of there. It was very, very difficult.

So, we provide a lot of mental wellness services at the Gary Sinise Foundation. Any veteran out there who might be feeling like they. might be in need of something like that, go to Gary Sinisfoundation.org. and see what we're doing.

So, Gene Hackman passed away at the age of 95. I'm just telling you, as a moviegoer, I just thought he was as good as it gets. He never did, I never saw a movie where I thought he mailed it in. If he was, his name was in the title, I think it was worth seeing. You're the actor, Gary.

What was he like? I know you worked with him. We found out in one movie, Quick and the Dead. Yeah, yeah. I just read this about an hour ago, and I'm so saddened to hear and Gene was ninety five, Um you know, it's it's It looks kind of strange to me.

I don't know why they found him and his wife and his dog. Uh I'm not sure what happened, but just on On the side of Gene as an actor and a person and everything, I did this movie, The Quick and the Dead, with him for two days. I only had a little part, two days. And I did it because he was in it. They offered me this tiny little part, and I said, to spend two days with Gene Hackman, I'm going to do it.

And then I ended up doing a photo shoot with Gene Hackman for Esquire. They asked.

Some actors Who were your role models as actors? And we all got to pick one. And I picked Gene because he was the ultimate for me. I loved uh so much of Everything he did, The Conversation, Scarecrow was one of my favorite movies of all time. That's a little-seen movie that he did with Al Pacino.

That was really, really good. He's just he's just was a great professional. He served in the Marine Corps. I mean, Gene was was an amazing human being and an amazing actor. I'm very saddened by what's happened.

you know, we weren't close or anything, but We did the photo shoot together, and he came to see me. One flew over to cuckoo's nest when I did that back in June. 2000. and just uh getting to know him a little bit. and spending that time with them was a real honor and privilege.

Pete has found the cut of you and the quick and the dead. This scene, Gary, you have a hangman's noose, and Hackman forces Sineese's daughter to shoot at him. Let's listen. I'll give you three shots to save your daddy's life.

Son of a bitch, shoot the rope. And if it breaks... Your daddy can live. Mm-hmm. Got my word.

Ha ha ha ha. Yeah. You can do it, Darling. I can't. You can do it, darling.

You just hold the gun in both hands. Pull the hammer back. I can't. You can't. Yeah.

You can do it. No, I I can't. Don't you blame yourself now? Just Remember? That your daddy loves you.

I'll always love you.

Now, just remember that.

Now, come on.

Well that's close enough. She missed? No, she didn't miss. What that was, yeah, I'm the sheriff in the town, and it's a flashback scene actually. Gene, I was the sheriff at this one point.

And Gene could takes over the town and he's running everything. And uh this little girl Is the little is Sharon Stone as a little girl, and Sharon Stone. comes back to get revenge because of what he did to her father. Wow. Gary, thanks so much.

Great thing. Go see Brothers After War. It debuts on Friday, opens up, and it's another great documentary, and it helps the Gary Sineese Foundation. If you guys can help out that foundation, he puts it to great use. Gary, great.

Thanks so much for your reflections on Gene Hackman and for telling us about this great project. It's always great to be with you, Brian. Thanks so much. You got it. Brian, kill me, Chill.

Learning something new every day on the Brian Kilmead Show. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead. When you talk about the real cuts, it's going to affect people's jobs. You're talking about laying off a lot of people in government.

The government's way too large. We have to be careful about the messaging. And this is where the town hall really hit hard on some people. Most of those people are Democrats, no doubt about it. But there are some people that are Republicans and people who are just good Americans who work for the government that have been taken by surprise.

They didn't have time to adapt. And even though we may have to lay them off, we shouldn't be celebrating. That's not something that's just taken willy-nilly. We have to make sure that we understand these are people with mortgages and children and house payments, all kinds of things that they need to pay for. And we just have to be compassionate.

So Rich McCormick, the Congressman Maureen from Georgia, had a town hall and people showed up by the hundreds. It was packed. He said, I knew something was going on. And sure enough, people showed up out of his district, no doubt about it, screaming. And he said, most of them were Democrats.

They would never vote for me. He said, I won my district by 20, and Trump won it by 15 or something similar. And the Congressman said, listen, at the very least, I think what Doge is doing is important, but don't act callous and cavalier about people losing their jobs. Yes, there's some people out there that are lazy. Got it.

But not everybody. And a lot of them are counting on next week's paycheck. And if you've got to let them go, you don't have to high five about it. By the way, coming up on March 22nd, just a few weeks, I'll be in St. Louis at the factory, History of Liberty, and Labs.

And then in Dayton, Ohio, June 21st. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian. In Kill Mead. Hi, everyone.

Welcome to the latest hour of the Brian Kill Me Chow.

So glad you're here in this Thursday and in the Trump era. You can't miss a minute because you do really miss a lot. I'm sure that's somebody's slogan, but it actually is true. And I don't think if he voted for Trump or not, you would argue with me. And then yesterday he had his first cabinet meeting.

There were so many reflections. There was so many chance to see his team all together. You know, I know Elise Stefana got through committee. She hasn't got a total vote, but everyone's getting through. And it's just so encouraging.

And I was with Marco Rubio two days ago and the Sensa team. And I asked him fight out. I go, How do you feel about these envoys? Steve Witkoff is doing in your area, Venezuela, Rick Grinnell. And then you have Mike Waltz dealing with people.

And Brian, I absolutely love it. We all get along. We are friends. And let's see how long that lasts because a lot of friends start with administrations, but they end up rivals. And it doesn't mean it's a bad administration.

I mean, George W. Bush had to deal with Colin Powell and had to deal with Rumfeldt hating each other's guts. Casper Weinberger didn't get along with George Schultz. That was famous. Evidently, Jake Sullivan and Anthony Blinken weren't speaking ever since Afghanistan.

So, whoever thought the dysfunction would go that deep in the Biden administration? But let's bring in one of the great, great friends of the show, one of the most interesting people in Washington, and when he was a great governor, too, of West Virginia, Senator Joe Manchin. Senator, welcome back. Hey, great to be great always great to be with you, Brian. How are you doing?

Before we dig in on things, and I know you're passionate about it. We spoke yesterday. How are you doing? I mean, what does it feel like not to have to be to two places? What does it feel like to be a grandfather and running back and forth and having free time?

Yeah. Well, uh, it it feels great to be uh uncethered, if you will. I've been in the political process for over forty years, and it seems like I never did have control of my schedule.

Now I have a little better control, but to be honest, Micky, we've been very busy. We're out speaking. We're finishing up my book. We'll have a book being finished here pretty shortly. And working on that, and I've been doing some consulting and trying to help evaluate the processor and calming people down a little bit.

I said, Liz, come on, calm down. We're going to be all right. We got a lot of checks and balances, we got a lot of good people. And you should want your President to succeed. Let's try to help him succeed and be able to speak respectfully, truth to power when we think it might be harmful to our country or to our President.

So Doge. It's the most controversial thing in Washington. But outside Washington, people are embracing it. They want to see efficiency. They walked into the post office.

They know there's a lack of motivation. They want to know where their money is going. They see the revenue pouring in and they see the deficit outstripping all our revenue, even though we're hitting record highs. In the first cabinet meeting yesterday, Elon Musk, immistakable in his choice of wardrobe and also with his personality, was asked about Doge. And he says, These are the stakes, cut nine.

And taking a lot of plaque and getting a lot of death threats, by the way. I mean I'd like to stack them up, you know. But if we don't do this, America will go bankrupt. That's why it has to be done. And I'm confident at this point, knock on wood, you know, knock on my wooden head.

The guy's a lot of wood up there. that we can actually We do need to move quickly if we're to achieve a trillion dollar deficit reduction in financial year 2026. It requires saving $4 billion per day every day from now through the end of September. But we can do it and we will do it. Okay, Senator, your thoughts?

Yeah, no, I mean, everyone knows. Let me give you the figures you need to deal with here. First of all, I use two thousand one as our baseline, and I'll tell you I use that as a baseline because it's last year we had a balanced budget. Where we took in as much as we spent, like most people have to do, and most businesses have to do. That's the last time, Brian.

For twenty plus years, we haven't done it at all.

Now, all of a sudden, here we are.

So, let's look at the employment. The employment in 2001 was about 2 million of federal workers, direct federal workers.

Now it's over 3 million.

So that's a million more. Do we need that many? Did we grow too far, too fat? Who's at blame? Everyone's at blame.

Let's right-size this ship. I'm okay with all of that. But you have to look at the bigger picture. Just total. Payroll employment: people that are getting a paycheck from a government entity, whether it be a municipality, a county, a state.

or some federal their direct spending of some sort. Back in 2001, it was a 17 million. We're at twenty three million now all in.

So there's been one main increase in federal But there's still another 5 million increased in all across this great country of ours.

So everyone needs to do this. Everyone has to get their house. Financial house, in order like all of us have to do. With that being said, I think it'd be a lot better. Uh you you can't say we have to find a trillion dollars.

We have gone from When I got into the Senate in twenty ten, it was right at fourteen trillion of debt. In two thousand one, it was five point six trillion. And it just shot up exponentially, okay? And now we're at 36. trillion One trillion is a great start, but you have to have a continuous effort for the next 10 to 15 years.

sticking with a plan that's going to get our financial ship back in order. The big problem is Our debt to GDP today, our debt to our gross domestic product with our value of our economy. is one hundred and twenty four percent. We've never gone that high. Since twenty twenty with pandemic has taken us high, we stayed high.

At the end of World War two. to save the world. Yeah. And the freedom-loving people around the world and our allies, we were only at 114% GDP, the highest. we ever have gone in spending.

And we're trying to survive as a human race, as free people. This has all been basically self-inflicted.

So there's an awful lot, but what he's not talking about, Brian, is we're taking every penny of savings we have and directing it to debt. When I heard one time they were thinking about sending everybody a check, That's the problem we've got. We've been sending too many checks. And you can't you know, so let's get a financial plan That really works, that basically gives us a trajectory that we're going to get our financial house in order because we are not doing that. But, Senator, how do you feel that?

What about the way Elon's doing it? His team's going in there. How do you feel about the way it's being done? Not the way that you report it, because you know the people doing this stuff. How do you feel about the approach?

Well, first of all, you have to evaluate what the purpose of the job was. Why do we start these agencies? These agencies didn't start to turning in seventeen eighty nine. You follow me? This country has grown and demanded more because of the growth and the complexity of our economy and the country we have.

And after World War two, our responsibilities to the world.

So all this has grown over time. Is it still necessary? What we needed in nineteen seventy five, do we still need it today? There could have been a systematic way, but it didn't have the quick results that they were looking for. I understand the shock system that they're going right now.

By God, we're getting everybody. Tell me what you did the last five days. I want to know what you did the last five years. I want to know when you came into being. Did this happen in 1979?

Okay.

And under Jimmy Carter, we needed something at that time. Do we still need it today? That's where we have to be looking at some of the things that we're doing.

So, don't you think we're doing that? Doesn't it seem like Musk is doing that? I mean he's he's making people justify their position?

Well, there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with evaluation. I thought the first thing was we had people who didn't want to come back. When I was still in the center, I was calling and trying to help people, Brian. I tried to call different agencies.

I couldn't get a phone call. I as a senator couldn't get a phone call answered. Yeah, I knew there was a problem.

So all we had to do is say, first of all, This date here, if you don't go back, find the jobs eliminated. There's a lot of people, but I didn't know you had to buy everybody out. We just I mean, the President has the right to right-size this government to keep us in check. with uh checks and balances as far as our financial.

So he has to has that responsibility, and he has the authority to do an awful lot of that. But doing it without cause, okay, because there's an awful lot. I know the hardest thing to do. Is basically when you have to make a change in your office and lay somebody off or eliminate that position. But you have to be sympathetic enough to let don't leave them behind.

Help them transition. Give them a, there has to be some empathy and sympathy within the position because the only thing you have, the greatest thing you have, is the dignity of self-reliance. You're taking care of yourself and your family. When that's taken away and no thought, it creates an awful lot of people.

So you think within the system of cuts, you think there should be so as much, you think six-month severance, which they were offered originally, federal workers, you thought that was too much, but you think that just cutting them on the spot is too callous.

Well, it's too callous just to say cutting it. Give me a reason, okay? You don't need it. We had this job. This came in 1979.

This agency is not needed. Department of Education just came in under Jimmy Carter in 1978 or 79, okay, now talking about cutting it. What's the purpose of it? Here's the thing. How can anyone argue with President Trump right now when they're saying we've got to do something with education?

We're not anywhere in the top standings in the world, any education.

Okay, how about health care? We spend more than any nation on earth in health care. and we don't get the best results. Just look at the politics. There is not a country or not, if you can take all of Europe.

doesn't spend as much. had them all together as much on campaigning and spending money on politics as we do. Is it getting us the best results?

So there's so many things to look at. But always be concerned. I've said this: you wanna know why West Virginia changed? From being an absolute solid blue state, a Democrat state. to an absolute ruby red Republican state?

It's because When Obama came in, You know, and they had the war on coal. I was there. I was governor. It was real. They started putting benchmarks that we couldn't meet because the technology wasn't there to produce the outcomes they wanted.

So, you know one you can't produce? Here's what you got to do: we get rid of you. And guess what? They're saying, wait a minute, you don't care about my job? You don't care about my culture.

You don't care about my family. And you're going to leave me behind?

Well, heck with you. I'll leave you behind. I'm not going to be with you anymore. And they flipped completely and started flipping. And then, when the Democratic Party, Brian, started.

started taking more concern, more effort, more resources helping people That weren't working, that were able-bodied, capable of working, that wouldn't work, then those that would go out every day and make an effort to make a living. and showed more interest to those who weren't versus those who would. That was the absolute nail in the coffin. And that's where it stood. And if you became a moderate senator, now an independent, you're a moderate Democrat, and then you became an independent.

I want you, you talk about cutting Lee Zeldon and the EPA.

Now, I know you're probably more you understand there are challenges with global climate change, but you do not want to change everything about America and destroy our economy in the process. Here's President Trump on what Lee Zeldon's doing. Cut six. I spoke with Lee Zeldin and he thinks he's going to be cutting sixty five or so percent of the people from environmental. And we're going to speed up the process too at the same time.

You had a lot of people that weren't doing their job. They were just obstructionists and A lot of people that didn't exist, I guess we did. We found a lot of empty spots. The people weren't there, they didn't exist. That whole that whole uh deficit that whole reduction plan, remember that was really a new green deal uh that you ended up signing off on, but they had to make some changes, perhaps not enough.

Lee Zeldon says that money's still laying there. Hold on, my friend. I never signed off on a new Green Deal. I thought it was absolutely a catastrophe for the country. Basically, what I call the Inflation Reduction Act has put it they put a bad connotation to that because no one's paying attention.

The Biden administration touted that as a green bill, an environmental bill. That bill was only done for one purpose and one purpose only. energy security in this nation, and we're producing more energy today than ever in the history of the world. The United States of America has produced thirty eight trillion cubic feet of gas, four point seven billion barrels of oil last year, and we're on record breaking this year too.

So we're producing the energy that we needed, and I knew we weren't, and we should, and we had to make them do it. That's what the bill was done. Yeah. And I've told President Trump, and I would tell his associates there and all of these good people: look at how the bill was implemented, look at the rules. that they put in that just basically eviscerated what the purpose of the bill was, because they wanted to push out more E Vs.

We weren't ready to push out more E Vs because we had to rely on China. I told them all of that. And if people would just read the bill, I told the President, I said, Mr. President, you have a chance. You truly do.

And he will, I think. The Energy Security Act of 2025 should be common sense. Look at the things that are working, look at the things that aren't working and why they're not. And I'm happy to help in any way I can. But that piece of legislation has produced more energy than we've ever produced.

So it's done that job. But that was one of the concessions you got in it. But a lot of it is is new green agenda stuff that's never going to be implicated that's never going to come to fruition. And now it's they tried to quickly spend it before they got out the door.

Well, that's wrong. That was absolutely, absolutely irresponsible what was done and how it was done like that because they knew they were going down the tremorous path. I have a couple more topics. We only got a couple of minutes left. You have this great idea.

And you said instead of us building the wall on our southern border, I hope the President will get Mexico to build a wall on their southern border. Why is that more effective? The only thing I said, you know, and the President we talked about this before many years ago, he and I talked about that, and we all thought it was a fascinating idea. And I said, Mr. President, maybe maybe we should explore that.

It chokes down to one hundred and thirty seven miles. right close to the the down the southern border.

Now they do, you know, Belize Belize and Guatemala, they they uh border that. But if you go up a little bit further where it chokes in between the Gulf and between the Pacific Ocean, It's 137 miles. You could put a checkpoint there. And control, absolutely control 90% of the flow that's coming through. Our border is 1,954 miles.

This is what the resources it's going to take, not only to secure it, but to control it.

So both, but that was the quickest way, and I think that hopefully they go back and revisit that. 137 miles versus 1,954 miles.

Well, see, right now it's astounding what they've already done at the border. There's a book coming out, Senator Joe Manchin, that Jake Tapper co-wrote, which is comical because he gave him a pass, that talks about what they did in the Biden administration to get over his cognitive failings and how he really wasn't doing the job, essentially. It was written by another Axios reporter. I think his name is Alex Thompson. It's about to come out, and they're going to talk about this and expose Joe Manchin was not really there for most of those, excuse me, Joe Biden was not there for most of those four years.

Your thoughts about the Joe Biden that you were talking to, and did you realize that he couldn't do the job? I did not. And I've been very honest about everybody's asked me. I would tell you if I thought he just was out of it and could hear him. He was always.

Lucid and always coherent. I did think from day one that he lost that will to fight. Yeah. 'Cause I think basically if you look at how he came out of Iowa, dead man walking really as far as political. And then he went to New Hampshire, same thing happened and revitalized down in South Carolina and then everybody else, all the far left liberals, dropped out.

I'm assuming a deal had to be made there and And I I told him more than once, Mr. President, you have the most liberal staff I've ever seen in my life. It's not who you are. It's not who you were. And you always can make a deal.

I've known you for a long time.

So I don't know what happened, but any time I met with him, we had straightforward conversations. But nothing followed up. You followed me. It didn't get done what I thought. I didn't see it.

I did not see it. I got to be honest with you. I did not see that.

Okay? So, but you understand, I wasn't in control of the schedule. I wasn't controlling. And he didn't want to see you after a while. You made too much sense.

Senator Joe Manchin. You haven't talked to me for a long time. I know. But we want to and keep the dialogue open, Senator. It's always great to talk to you.

Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. I hope Senator Joe Manchin was helpful. I've always liked him as a person. I think he was a fantastic governor.

I remember there was a coal mine disaster. I first started at Fox. They went out to Governor Joe Manchin and to see him act under pressure like that, term limited out, became a senator, and he got in the way of a lot of things that would have really hurt this country. Number one, you know, the Democrats wanted to make Puerto Rico and D.C. the 51st and 52nd state.

The Republicans never would have taken back the Senate ever. They wanted to pack the Supreme Court. He stood in front of that. They wanted to get rid of the filibuster. He stood in front of that.

And everyone's so AOC and these people are so bad at them. You can't forget about that.

Now, as Republicans got upset with him signing on the Inflation Reduction Act, which got more energy, and he emailed me over some information, how much more energy production they got out of that as a concession to him. But he is a Democrat and he did do that. But think about all the great things he did. I hope the administration works with him. Because I know at 74, he wants to enjoy his life, but I still think he could be a huge asset to Donald Trump.

Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. Welcome back, everyone. About a few weeks ago, I went to Dallas, excuse me, to Austin, Texas, to the seventh floor of a building. Uh that used to be uh a pharmacy.

And I wanted to see about this new college that could revolutionize higher education called the University of Austin. It was co-founded by some very important people: two that headed up: Neil Ferguson of the Hoover Institute, big conservative, Barry Weiss, longtime writer for the New York Times, who launched the free press, Michael Schellenberger, another one of the founders. A lot of rich people got behind it, and they started with their first class. Their goal was to get back to the classics, get back to entrepreneurship, and get back to history, pro-American history, and giving people a well-rounded education.

So, how did it all start? Why is it growing? Why is the whole nation intrigued by this? And what is the first year like? Here's the origin story with the president of the University of Austin, Texas, Pano Knoles.

So Panas, how did this thing get started?

So um The origin story of the University of Austin begins early in 2021. At that time, personally, I was president of a historic liberal arts college called St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, founded in 1696. A very historic place, very traditional, great books-oriented liberal arts college, wonderful school. Um But I had spent decades in higher education concerned about the direction that.

Higher education was going in, and knowing very well that the direction that higher education goes in is the direction that the country and culture goes in.

So I had, you know, at part of circles of people who were discussing issues in higher education generally, the entry point to this. Institution for me was a conversation with Barry Weiss. A mutual friend of ours connected us. And we had a Zoom call. Barry was Eager to talk to a college president.

She had her own thoughts about higher ed. We were connected. Uh the Zoom call was meant to last thirty minutes or so, just Some basic information about what was going on in higher ed. And we ended up talking for hours, two, three hours. And by the end of it, Barry looked at me across the Zoom screen and said, You know, what we really need is a new university.

We need a new university that's going to model the way university should be. And I I said, that's a great idea, Barry. Let me know how that goes. Tell me, I'll be on your advisory board. You should know, I mean, we should start a university.

There are people who really care about this. And so soon after that, long story short, she connected me with Joe Lonsdale and then Neil Ferguson and other people around the project, like Arthur Brooks. And we began a conversation about the possibility of starting a new university. This was spring 21. By fall 21, we had.

We had launched University of Austin. But you didn't have any students. You didn't have any professors. Yeah. You didn't have a place.

We'd just start.

So Like all good startups we've started in a coffee shop. The first step, of course, with anything, is to sort of get together the people who are going to build the institution and make a plan.

So I brought on five or so talented people who I trusted could help us build the infrastructure for the institution in that fall. We put together, like any startup, we put together like a slide deck. And pitch this plan to people who could support us financially and otherwise, and the support. Started pouring it, you know, we said, we're building a brand new university dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth. Committed to principles of open inquiry, freedom of conscience, civil discourse, and the response was electric.

People said, This is exactly what we need. And so we had a three-year plan. We promised the world, we said, okay, fall 21, we're announcing that we're building the University of Austin. By fall 24, we're going to have our first freshman class, so within three years. And we did it.

Our first freshman class began in fall 24. Special thanks to what was going on in the country, not only in education, but in society. Cancel culture, a fearfulness of speaking out, a wonderment: am I getting the bang from my buck when it comes to spending exorbitant fees for tuition?

So the state of the country helped launch the University of Austin. The state of the country was the catalyst, the I will say we were ahead of the curve in identifying the problems that were out there. Announced the launch of the university very publicly in fall of 21.

So there's a crisis in higher education, there's a crisis around speech, around Cancellations, around academic freedom, around the cost structure. Most people within higher education didn't believe us. The veil had not yet been lifted. How could they not believe you? They were accustomed to the status quo.

And even people generally, I mean, there were quite a number of people who were willing to hear what we had to say at that point. But as the project moved forward and as things intensified, the problems intensified in higher education, it became more and more evident to everybody why we were building this institution. A few things going on in the country. Is that people were embarrassed by our history, looking to take down statues, people looking to very judgmental about the other people, and I think there was a lack of pride. in the nation.

How does the University of Austin address that? Look, I Um It is vitally important. to recognize that we all have a place we call home. We all have a country, we all have a culture. Even if you've come here from elsewhere, my parents were immigrants, and I was raised a first-generation American.

Even if you come here elsewhere, this is where you are, this is where you live. Feeling An attachment and an affection for that place that you call home is the foundation of civilization itself. It doesn't have to be an uncritical attachment. History is complicated. You know, countries, nations, people, leaders don't always do the right thing.

But having a fundamental faith that the reason that my family and people from all around the world have all collected here, a faith that this place offers something of great promise, and that even if we haven't always kept our promises perfectly, it's our responsibility to continue to improve upon that. I mean, that's how we're going to grow and prosper as a country to culture. I mean, as you see, he is really pumped up to do this. He could have been doing anything, and he decides to launch this. I wouldn't doubt they're going to have a sprawling campus soon.

Also, When we come back, who are the students that go there, the application process, other opportunities they had, and why did they choose an unproven college who obviously doesn't have an alumni to push them forward? I'll let you know as we talk about reforming education and focusing on higher education, being dominated by one side, not at the University of Austin. Don't move, Brian Kilmead. It's Brian Kilmead. The Fastest Three Hours in Radio.

You're with Brian Kilmead. You intrigued yet? I mean, number one, it's free. That's why you might be interested in the University of Austin. Number two, you just know you send your kids to school, they're going to get to know one tight class and they're going to be history making.

It's not going anywhere because historically they'll know they'll forever be the first class. They're going to welcome in, they'll be sophomores obviously next year and welcome in their first freshmen. But who are these people? What was the application process like? And why has higher education only been dominated by the left?

Let's listen. So You launch. on the third floor of a former department store. and you're ready to go this year. Who were the students that applied?

Who are the ones you accepted? Yeah. Imagine being a student who's willing to join a brand new university with no track record whatsoever. And a university that's sort of going crosswise to all the other universities, that's promising something completely different than the conventional pathway to sort of certification and traditional success. A university that's focusing on building and creating and innovating, that says what the world needs right now are young people who can identify a North Star and do something about achieving that.

Those are the students we attracted, the ones who are the builders and the innovators and the creators. We're overwhelmed. with applications. I mean it was just I think in the end, I mean thousands to get ourselves down to uh the class of students that we accepted and matriculated was n we had ninety two freshmen come in. But we were very selective.

We wanted to make sure that a young person who was joining us Had Significant intellectual capacity. Because a university is about the life of the mind, that's very important. but also showed significant potential to be a leader and to be creative and to be a builder. And so you create your sort of version of an algorithm that tries to find these students. And the students who have come exemplify those characteristics, those traits.

I mean, they're all freshmen this year because we're going to add a class each year. as we grow. And we have freshmen who are already starting companies, already testifying before Congress, already inventing new things. And they have just a semester under their belt.

So that's what we're looking for, those young people who are going to provide the spark. I I heard the stat was They're in the upper 92% of the SAT scores. These are. Achievers in high school. But you need to see more than that.

So that means you might need more than a college essay. How do you screen them? Yeah. What we're looking for is um A sense of that distinctive quality, the kind of fire in the belly. That Is, let's say, the root of real ambition.

So, most young people today who are applying to college. are are taught that what they need to be are box checkers. There's you know, you want to get into a good college, you know, this you hire some sort of consultant and you do these ten things and you check the boxes and they all start looking exactly like each other. They're very homogeneous. And if you learn That to get into a top college, you have to be conformist.

When you get to that college, what do you do? You conform. Absolutely. You don't question authority.

So the sort of bright, shiny thing that's that's sort of dangled in front of these young people is predicated upon them being. Conformist, upon them not questioning authority, not asking difficult questions.

So what does your application look like?

So our application is we have we rely heavily on quantitative scores. We have we do have essays, but the essays are designed to ask them questions that bring out what makes them non-conformists, what makes them think differently, to show us that they're risk takers, to help us align them their spirit and their ambitions with the kind of institution that we're building. And then, you know, and then we interview students and talk to students. And what what we're really looking for, again, is there's like what's that spark? Like, what is that thing that that student has done, can do, will do that.

If if we don't help them accelerate their talent they may not get to do. very interesting uh because You want to get them in here, but what kind of courses do you offer to bring that out of them? Yeah, so one of the Um For me, it was a great pleasure of building a university from the ground up, because you get to build a curriculum from the ground up. You know, you have a blank slate. You get to decide what that education that you're building should look like.

And you start by thinking about what are our goals. And so, for our goals that we sort of identified as we were building curriculum, we identified several important things. One, So, as we said earlier, we are rooted in history, we're rooted in culture, rooted in the past. In order to understand who we are now, to understand the present, to understand ourselves, we have to look to the past. We have to study literature, philosophy, history, the history of science, the foundations of mathematics.

We have to have what we call an intellectual foundation.

So, the first part of our education is the intellectual foundations program. It's a kind of genealogy of who we are, where we've found. You want the classics. You want everyone to know. To start with.

That's the foundation. Right, so the roots go down, you build a foundation, but then where do you go from there? And so we have layered on top of that, so you begin with that.

Some very innovative Curricular things that we've designed. I think the most indicative of which is what we call our Polaris project.

So, Polaris is the North Star. Every single student who comes to the University of Austin has to spend four years developing a moonshot project.

Something that is going to, that's not only going to give them direction, but that's going to give their education direction.

So you want not just space, it could be cancer, it could be something. Our job, and we work early on in helping them to identify this, our job is to help them bring their greatest gifts to the world's greatest needs. You want innovation. You want innovation. But across all fields.

It's not just, you know, I mean, we think of innovators or entrepreneurs as being of low-tech or business. That's great. Yeah, that's great. But the arts, politics, education. We need young people to be creative thinkers in all of these areas.

So we help them figure out what their passion is, and then we help them find that thing to aim for, and then we teach them how to get there.

So imagine this: most universities are organized around this thing called a degree. The whole point is, you go in, you pay these bucket loads of tuition, and at the end you get a piece of paper. All right, we give a degree, give a bachelor's degree, that's not the point. The point for us is to teach young people how to achieve something great, how to strive for something great. That's what they're going to walk away from this institution with: that ability.

to to strive for something beyond what it is that most people think they can achieve. How much does it cost?

So the listed tuition is $32,000 a year. We're a private institution. We get no funding from any outside sources other than philanthropy. Um we set that tuition I'll admit a bit cheekily by looking at Harvard's tuition the year that we were setting tuition. We said, okay, what does Harvard charge?

They charge $64. We can build an institution that will cost at least half of that. And that's the goal we set. We've had no problem building that financial model. But for these first few classes, we have raised full tuition scholarships for all the students.

So all the students in this class, next incoming class, have full four-year tuition scholarships. Wow. So when you set up your first class, do you say, okay, how many blacks, how many Hispanics, how many whites, how many women, how many binaries, how many heterosexuals? Do you do any of that? No.

Why? Everybody else is? Um The every institution has a purpose. The purpose of universities is to bring together, to live the life of the, bring together people to live together the life of the mind. What we're interested in is the mind.

how people think, the the quality of their of their you know, rational capacity in that.

So for us it's That's what is primary. You're bringing together people to ask. The great human questions and find solutions to the great human problems.

So, does your application, Panos, have male, female, white, Hispanic, Caucasian? Is that even on there? No. In fact, our Constitution, which is our governing document, prohibits us from asking those questions.

So so it's not on there?

Some people think on the outside. They'll say, well, they just started, University of Austin, they just started a conservative campus. They think it's too liberal in the Ives, so they just started something conservative. Are they wrong? They're wrong.

Um Look that it is indisputable. that higher education Is dominated by one side of the political spectrum. Indisputable. I mean, it's the facts and data are there. And that is?

The left, and increasingly the left of the left. Uh that's highly problematic. Not necessarily because it's the left, but because institutions like universities should not be dominated by any particular ideology, by any particular political persuasion.

So great to start it off with Joe Manchin, a little unorthodox, and I'm sure going deep into higher education, if your kids aren't there or they're already graduated, might have been a little atypical, but I think I feel a lot of hope for the future of our country if you can straighten out education from the top up and the bottom down. Don't forget, History Liberty Labs will be in St. Louis, Missouri on March 22nd, BrianKilney.com, and Dayton, Ohio, June 21st, Victoria Theater. I want to meet you all in person, a stage show like you've never seen before. Keep it here, Brian Kilney Show.

I'm Dana Perino. This week on Perino on Politics, I'm joined by Executive Vice President at Targeted Victory, Matt Gorman. Available now on FoxNewsPodcast.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Must listen to podcasts from Fox News Audio. 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.

Mm.