Brian in DC before Trump's address to a joint session of Congress

From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead. Hi everyone, welcome to the latest moment of the Brian Killmee Show. I come to you from Washington, D.C., because so much action is taking place right now. I was able to go on with Brett Baer last night on special report.

And then tomorrow we'll have the aftermath of the president's address, and we'll talk about how it resonates and where we go from here. There's so much breaking news to handle. Also, there's just news going on. I mean, there's a lot of things happening. Separate from even the presidency.

I mean, you have the Center Foreign Relations Committee is going to have a hearing to examine Matt Whitaker because I want him to be, the president wants him to be the secretary to NATO. The House and Energy Committee is moving the goalpost on how the NIL is reshaping college athletics. I'd love to sit down on that, but I'm busy with you guys. And then the Transportation Committee, America Builds Air Traffic Control. We know that that's something.

I saw over the weekend, Elon Musk said: if you retired as an air traffic controller, Please come back. And Marco Rubio is going to be meeting with the Hungarian Foreign Minister today. Hungary, a big favorite. Of the President of the United States.

So, a lot going on today.

So, let's get to the big three. Number three. It's a big night for President Trump, and we know he's going to give a fantastic speech. The theme is the renewal of the American Dream. And the renewal of the American Dream is underway already.

Look at all that President Trump has accomplished in his first term, first month as president. He's going to highlight some of those accomplishments. Yep, uh Caroline Levitt moments ago on Fox and Friends with Oh, yeah, that was me. What do I have to say about that? President Trump, to address a joint session of Congress, we review the themes, the Dem's projected responses, the boycotts, and the special guests.

Number 10. China's business model is export, export, export, and that's unacceptable. They're in the middle of a financial crisis right now that they're trying to export their way out of it. With the China tariffs, I am highly confident that the Chinese manufacturers will eat the tariffs, prices won't go up. With Canada and Mexico, though, I think we're in the middle of a transition.

Wow, Scott Besson, the Treasury Secretary, aren't with me two hours ago. Tariff slapped on China, Mexico, and Canada. Yep, the market hates it, and all three countries have a swift response. We will look at the impact. Number one.

Well, I just think you should be more appreciative because this country has stuck with them. through thick and thin. We've given them much more than Europe, and Europe should have given more than us. Perhaps President of the United States aid stopped. The U.S.

has stopped moving weapons to Ukraine until or when Donald Trump gets an apology. It's a win for Russia. Let's hope they end the rift today and the President can make that announcement.

So we know the President, we know all about what happened on Friday. They're supposed to do a minerals deal where we would work with them to mine rare earth in Ukraine and be essentially a block from another war. Once this one stops, And then they would put 30,000 troops in. That's what's been talked about with our NATO allies. But it all fell apart because of what happened in the Oval Office.

And because the President of Ukraine put out a tweet or a tweet that essentially says this war is not close to over, that really discouraged the President. And he's now, I guess, he's pausing aid, which could be pretty devastating because we are the primary giver of aid, and our military equipment is without peer. No one gets close. But I love what's happening is that Europe is stepping up, taking responsibility. That's not an insult to us at all.

I mean, number one, he was supposed to Zelensky come to us, sign the deal, and then go to the UK, and then Macron right after. This was all scheduled. The fact is, the deal blew up. He went to the UK. He got reassurance.

That is not an in-your-face to us. I don't think President Trump takes it that way. Here's President Trump cut seven. What do you need to see from President Zelensky to restart these negotiations?

Well, I just think you should be more appreciative because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin. We've given them much more than Europe, and Europe should have given more than us, because as you know, that's right there, that's the border. This This country really was like the fence on the border. It was very important to Europe.

So next thing you know, the pause is announced on Truth Social.

So that's where we stand right now. A lot of people are saying, well, they don't like that he doesn't wear a suit to the Oval Office. What is the big deal? Why does that even matter? Guy's at war, that's what he's doing.

It's basically living in a bunker. When he comes out, he feels as though if he comes out and wears a suit and acts like there's nothing going on while his country's at war, he thinks it's disrespectful to the Ukrainian people. I don't know the culture. You don't know the culture. Unless you're Ukrainian.

Nobody's complaining in Ukraine. They don't complain in the UK.

So the mineral deal not dead. Zelensky said he should they said he should be more appreciative. I think they can reignite it. I hope they do, in fact, reignite it. It would be kind of dramatic to say that because and by the way, that would probably get Democrats to stand on their feet.

How did this whole thing derail? Here is Vice President J.D. Vance talking with Sean last night, Cut 10. For the first 25, 30 or so minutes, he tried to sort of bend over backwards to be gracious and kind to Zelensky. Even when Zelensky was kind of needling him, even when Zelensky was saying things that I thought were untrue, the president just tried to be diplomatic, right?

I think that's his natural instinct in that situation. And then when it really went off the rails, of course, is when I asked, or you had a Polish journalist who asked a question, the president answered it, and then I answered it. And then something about my answer just really set Zelensky off.

So then he came at me. And then I went back at him. And what I tried to do originally was actually try to diffuse the situation a little bit. Because I'm like, we're having this meeting. Obviously, there are a hundred television cameras here.

Let's try to have this conversation in private.

Well, but the thing is, Zonsky does his homework and he knows how anti Ukraine J.D. Vance is, and he engages him. He'd say, J.D., what kind of diplomacy can you have with Vladimir Putin? He broke twenty-five agreements. We signed letters of agreement to cease fire, and he never stopped fighting.

And then in 2014, he said the fighting was over, but he never even stopped from 2014 to 2022. And that's just it. It's not about the U.S. and Ukraine. It's about Russia.

And he fundamentally cannot believe that we would take Russia's word for it. And we would have to do it the same way we went out an alliance with Stalin. We would have to set in blocks to make sure there's a tripwire there. Should he try to do it again, it would ignite all of NATO. And that's without making them a member of NATO, which would be a give in negotiations.

So we'll see what happens. I don't want to spend this whole time talking about Ukraine. It would be great to see it a positive part of the speech. Instead, right now, it is not. But I will say that David Sachs also says that too many people are getting rich off this war.

I never heard that angle before. This is what I hear people saying, that Zelensky wants to continue because he's making money. CUD 15. We've been sending hundreds of billions of dollars over to Ukraine, and these Ukrainian elites there, these oligarchs, have been feasting on that money. And Zelensky is at the top of that pyramid.

And that whole That whole grift ends if the war ends. And I just think that that gives him a powerful incentive to want to keep this whole thing going. Why would he end it when he and his cronies are profiting so much from this war? I I just couldn't disagree with David Sachs more. Nobody's profiting.

Did you see the what these cities look like? They the other day they sent drones into a hospital. Do you think that Zelensky goes good at look at how much money I have? I mean, that's there are people like that in this world. I just wouldn't think that that would be an ally of ours.

I mean, they're they're Donald Trump and I don't think they're Ayatollah or anybody to do with Hamas? Or Hezbollah have curved could care less about the people that are fighting for him. But I assume Zelensky cares if a children's hospital is bombed. He doesn't say, well, I need to get rich.

So I don't understand that mindset. But what does bother me is that the European allies are buying oil and gas from Russia. We should insist they stop and that we become their number one supplier. Simple as that.

So yesterday the President made it official. 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico are now put in place with added tariffs on China.

So it's twenty five, twenty five, ten.

Now, at word of that being a lock, Dow tumbled 650 points. We hope it bounces back today. But then the Canadian Premier says he will cut off electricity exports to the U.S. with a smile on his face. And we're talking about Ontario.

And we're talking about a guy named Doug Ford, who's the Ontario Premier, like the governor there within that country of 25 million. And Doug Ford, I know, he watches our show all the time, listens to the show, I imagine, too. And he says, I'll do it. He said, they rely on our energy, and they need to feel the pain. My sense is if we are getting electricity from Canada, I wouldn't know that.

We should make it uh start generating ourselves and not from windmills.

So Trump said the tariffs on external agricultural products will begin April 2nd.

So it's coming down the post. He says to the great farmers of the United States, get ready to start making a lot of agricultural products to be sold inside the United States. Tariffs will go to an external product. product.

So we'll see where that stands. Tariffs are now out. Big debate, great economic minds on all sides of this debate. We'll see the overall effect. Here is a look at Scott Besson, what he told us today about tariffs, cut twenty.

I respect my friends at the Peterson Institute. I think they're a bit alarmist. I think a lot of their supporters are anti-tariff, so they take an anti-tariff position. And look, we have the experience of. President Trump's first term where the tariffs did not affect prices.

And it's a holistic approach that there will be tariffs, there will be cuts in regulation, there will be cheaper energy.

So I would expect that very quickly we will be down to the Fed's 2 percent target.

So I'm expecting inflation to continue dropping over the year.

So one thing I asked the secretary is, and who's a great friend of our show, and if you listen to my show regularly, you know that we had him on for a year and a half early, before he was named Treasury Secretary. And he said, I'm not going to forget the people that booked me early.

So we might even go visit Scott today now that I'm in DC, Scott Besson. But I asked him, I said, isn't, you know, if you see what Mexico is doing, They arrested 900 cartel members. They have uh we have the the border is basically down to almost no illegal border crossers. We never saw it like that. Tom Holman says I've never seen it like that before.

So I think that they're making progress, and you have Canada naming a fentanyl czar. And then they say to me that there's physical assets at the northern border. In the Buffalo area anyway.

So, I'm thinking that they're making enough progress, they might be able to avoid this. Maybe there's going to be a quick withdrawal from it. But for China, I could not care less. They have not really done much. To counter, to complain, anything, except for make filing, they say, with the WTO, World Trade Organization, about these, what they say are illegal tariffs on their products.

1-866-408-7669. I'm going to take a break to be able to squeeze in calls. 9:34, we'll have Alan West on. He'll tell us what's really happening at the border and in Texas. You'll listen to the Brian Kilmead Show.

Don't move. Diving deep into today's top stories. It's Brian Kilmead. I'm Ben Dominich, Fox News contributor, editor-at-large of The Spectator, and editor of The Transom.com Daily Newsletter. I'm inviting you to join in-depth conversations every week on the Ben Dominich Podcast.

Listen and follow now at FoxNewsPodcast.com. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmead. The president is going to talk about his economic agenda. And truly, this administration is working around the clock to bring down the cost of living for the American people, to deregulate the regulations that Joe Biden put on every industry across the board. And you know, tax cuts are a huge priority for this president, and he'll be talking directly to Congress about that tomorrow night.

By the way. I have a slight delay in my ear if we could fix that.

So, Caroline Levitt, who was just on Fox and Friends, and she was able to come in and give us a preview of the speech. And it looks like Melania Trump is going to have people whose families who are victims of illegal alien crime, and she's going to have those police officers. Like Stephanie Diller, who's the spouse of a police officer, Jonathan Diller, who was slain doing his job because of the lack of crime. There's a lot of crime, but no punishment in this country over the last four years, because that's what B Joe Biden wanted. He wanted DAs that couldn't care less about the country, and George Soros made sure of that.

And he wanted to make sure that people who enforce crime would be looked on badly. And of course, the whole to fund the police.

So that is part of the theme that's going to be surrounding the Imania Trump. And she did say that there's going to be a big surprise guest that's going to get everybody by surprise. When he gives his speech today, who's going to be seated probably up in the gallery, so that should be fun.

So the other thing that's happening is the Democrats are planning to do some type of demonstration. Like the black caucus is going to dress in all in black shirts. In the past, women have dressed in white because, I don't know, they weren't allowed to vote until 1919, and I guess it's Donald Trump's fault. And then there's going to be people, I'm sure, who will scream out. They're desperate to do something to derail Trump's momentum since the election is beyond reproach.

So I've been noticing that some Democrats are acting like idiots. I think Senator Schumer has never been more irresponsible. He's teaming with Maxine Waters to scream and just looks like a guy that has no clue. And then I listen to Bill Moore. and Bill Maher Rahm Emmanuel.

Farid Sakaria They're Democrats who want to revamp their party, but I think it's better for the country. Listen to a little of this, CUP 31. According to a new Gallup poll, 45% of Democrats want the party to move to the center, which is up 11 points from four years ago. Whenever a political party finds a real star president, the other side always says, well, we have to find our Bill Clinton, our Reagan, our Obama.

Well, the Democrats need to find their Trump. Not the authoritarian part, but the part where a politician bonds with everyday Americans because he talks like them. The good news for Democrats is they have that guy, and his name is John Fetterman. And He goes on, cut 32. After the election, instead of curling up in a ball, Fetterman went to Mar-a-Lago.

And afterwards, Trump said, he's not liberal or conservative. He's just a common sense person, which is beautiful. Trump and Fetterman actually have a lot in common. They're both plain-spoken, anti-elitists who come from money. married exotic immigrant ladies.

went to Ivy League schools and aren't afraid to take on their own party. And you know, he made uh jokes about the President that that John Fetterman got brain damaged and he has to use a language interpreter when he comes to doing interviews and that Donald Trump, he says some negative things about him. But Here's this, cut 34. Fetterman says the four words that strike fear in the heart of every Republican who wants to hang on to power. I am not woke.

That's why Trump won. Not because Americans were clamoring for tariffs on margarita mix. Going where the American people are on crime and immigration, gosh, it's so crazy it just might work. See, that's how you get these things called votes. And once you do, you can take office.

I know it's more fun to make memes of Trump sucking Elon's toes, but. But John Fetterman doesn't play that game. Hmm. That would be dangerous for Republicans, great for the country. where they just start liking the country again.

Talking about cops again, talking about patriotism again, and then where they separate is maybe on healthcare, where they separate is on defense spending. Those were the days where you thought, well, you know, this is my emphasis, and this is what I think, and my guy or my woman has more charisma. But right now, Republicans are going to point out the people making the most noise. And they're smart to do it. And that's the AOCs of the world.

Tim Waltz comes out yesterday and says, I think I have to run. I think I'd consider running again. The worst vice presidential candidate in my lifetime.

So, coming up next is Alan West. We'll talk about what's happening at the border, too. And I'm going to play a little bit later, Rahm Emanuel. This guy's a chief of staff for Obama. He actually told him not to do Obamacare, it would be too divisive.

He can get other stuff done. But he also does not, he can't stand the left. 1-866-408-7669. So glad you're here, Brian Killmee Joe. A talk show that's real.

This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Madness of the government. It's just because they have like magic money computers that the checks never bounce for the Federal Government.

So you don't have the normal corrective mechanism that you'd have for a company or for an individual. The checks just always clear. The net result is inflation, which is effectively a tax on everyone. But uh You know, like the Defense Department hasn't passed an audit in I don't know how many years. Seven years.

Yeah, I mean, exactly. If you bring it back to the idea that it's a business.

Well, yeah. This would never be tolerated in any kind of functional business. Exactly.

So. You know will like Like their accounting error, like th the stuff that that they lose in the couch cushions is like twenty, thirty bol billion dollars a year. They don't know don't know where I went. It's gone. Where'd it go?

And it's gone. Yeah, and that's some of the things that Elon Musk is talking about. And He sat down with Joe Rogan and just talked about some of the blowback he's getting. And by the way, Tesla's paying a price in Europe. I think sales are down 45 percent.

There were protests in front of Tesla showrooms, which is nuts, because they should be the symbol of Democratics' talking points when it comes to green energy and gasless cars. Joining us now is Lieutenant Colonel Alan West on that. Colonel, are you shocked at the blowback that Musk is getting? No, I'm not because that's the petulant nature of the progressive socialist left. Elon Musk was once heralded as their electric vehicle godsend.

And now because he is much the same as Saul being converted to Paul and on the road to Damascus, he's had that moment in his life and the scales have fallen off his eyes, and now he's being persecuted and prosecuted.

So it's very interesting to see how the left will turn on their own when they decide to walk away from them. Think about Tulsa Gabbard, who now is the head of the Department of Director of National Intelligence. she was once a senior member of the DNC, was on the stage to be a presidential nominee for the Democrat Party. But again, she had that moment of, I guess, sanity, and she came across the aisle and they despise her for that.

So, guess who might run again? Listen to this. It is Governor Tim Waltz, cut 28. Look, I never had an ambition to be President or Vice President. I was honored to be asked if I feel like I can serve, I will.

And if nationally, that's what it looks like. If I think I could offer something or if there's a piece there that would do it, I would certainly consider that. If it would be that my up to skill set, I'll do it. Can we just say, on behalf of every Republican listening, please run, Tim, and we can tell you for sure you don't have the skill set to do it. You made that abundantly clear.

You took the words out of my mouth. When he said skill set, I'm thinking, what skill set did you have? And this shows you the lack of any depth that the Democrats have for anyone to step up and run for president. Look at across the board at all the governors, Gavin Newsome, Phil Murphy, Pritzker, the governor up in Massachusetts, Tim Wallace. They don't have anyone.

And so they're searching for some semblance of leadership, but they don't have it because they continue to embrace failed ideological policies and an agenda that the American people just are not going to accept. Yeah, I think you're 100% right.

So let's go to the border. The President's going after the cartels, but the Mexican government is too. 900 arrests, the Sinaloa cartel. Sunday's New York Times talked about how they're basically holed up, afraid to go out. How much pressure are they under?

Is this the first time you remember them ever being under pressure? Yeah, I think that this is an important part of the strategy of Donald Trump, the economic strategy to put pressure on him. But I also remember being in Afghanistan, and this is where I take a little bit of caution, because every now and then, you know, we get the tip about some Taliban leaders or whoever we can go in to hit. But those were people that had felt fallen out of favor with the greater Taliban leadership, and they were willing to give them up.

So we'll see what is actually happening and going on. But what is very disconcerting for me is that Mexico is bringing a lawsuit against gun manufacturers here in the United States of America to the tune of tens of billions of dollars because they're saying our gun manufacturers are supplying the cartels. Our gun manufacturers aren't the problem of the cartels. The cartels are the problem in and of themselves.

So I would be happy to see Mexico drop that lawsuit, which is supposed to be heard in front of the Supreme Court today.

Well, yeah, I mean, that's pretty bizarre. But I will say that the one thing I liked, I wouldn't don't love the idea of American gun shops selling to Mexican Cartel members.

So if there should be some making sure we know who we're selling to, if that is indeed.

Well, we do. We do. And that's the thing of a 4473 background check form. They're not selling to Mexican cartel members. If anything, there are people that are violating the law.

You may have straw buyers that are going in there, and that's a felony offense.

So I would say that ATF, instead of going after legal law-abiding gun owners in America, they should be tracking down these straw buyers that are somehow making sure that weapons are supplied. Just the same as how does Trendiragua, those members, the gang members that we saw in Aurora, Colorado, how did they get weapons?

So there are some people out there that are breaking our laws, and that's who we should be hunting down. We should not be going after our own gun manufacturers. That's the way that you undermine the Second Amendment. Yeah, I would think so.

So let's talk about what do you want to hear in the speech tonight? I just want to hear the fact that this is where we were. This is where we are now. This is where we're heading. And about restoring and reviving and bringing back the American dream, because we want to have that.

We want to have better economic security, better energy security, better national security, better border security. We want to have safer streets.

So I think that's what you're going to hear. And the petulant nature of the Democrats, I hear that they're going to be bringing in empty egg cartons. Where were they when Joe Biden was the one driving up the prices of eggs? And of course, if you go out and kill two to three million chickens, you're going to see an increase in the price of eggs. And that's what happened under the Biden administration, not the Trump administration.

So it's called the bird flu. Yes, called a bird floor. And I think that Donald Trump just needs to say that I'm restoring constitutional governance. And furthermore, he should challenge the members there of Congress saying, why didn't you find out about all of this wasteful spending? You're supposed to have be committees of oversight.

You're supposed to be doing checks and balances. And so I would love to see him make a constitutional argument tonight before the legislators branch. Yeah, that'll be interesting.

So let's talk about Ukraine. Are you for the pause in aid? Yes, I am. There have to be consequences to the abhorrent behavior that we saw from Vladimir Zelensky. And I think that the people in Ukraine need to say that maybe we don't want this guy to be our leader.

We don't want him to be the face of our nation anymore. The United States of America does support Ukraine. I think Donald Trump supports Ukraine. No sovereign nation should be invaded. But we cannot have the belligerent actions of this person to come into our White House, to come into our Oval Office and sit there and basically thumb his nose at the American people.

That's really what happened. Do you think so? Yeah, I do. I mean, I don't understand how anyone can come over here. And first of all, Elon Musk talked about an audit.

How many billions of dollars are unaccounted for in Ukraine? I don't think money going to Ukraine should go to their small businesses. We have small businesses here that need help. And so I think that, yes, Europe and Ukraine needs to understand that we're no longer just going to be a Patsy. We're just not any longer going to be that security blank.

It's time for other people to step up. And we're happy to help you, but don't come here and, again, thumb your nose in our faces.

So what would you like to see happen? You think these two sides will talk?

Okay. I think that people will eventually come to the table. I think that Zelensky is realizing, as President Trump said, you cannot continue on prosecuting this without us. This mineral deal was an economic security blanket that would be there for him. And really, it was an overall security agreement.

Because when you have American businesses that are coming in to support you, it's a good thing for the people of Ukraine. It's a good thing for the American people. And it puts Vladimir Putin on his heels.

So I think that Zelensky has realized I kind of screwed this one up, and let me see how I can show more contrition of heart. Yeah, so hopefully he'll make the call today so they can include it in the speech because I really do believe Ukraine falls gradually. The Baltics, we already saw what happened with Belarus when that guy legitimately lost an election. He just made sure that he became a sycophant of Russia and he stayed. We know that he's infiltrating Moldova already.

He's never left Georgia.

So even though he's been humiliated in this war, his people can't fight and his military had been hollowed out. Maybe they wised up. I do think that their goal of just spreading through to the formerly Russian-held territories remains their goal. Take it back. Yeah, Vladimir Putin said one of his greatest disappointments back in the twentieth century was the collapse of the Soviet Union.

So he is a dictator. He is not a good person. I don't know what George Bush was talking about when he said he looked into his eyes. There's nothing but evil and darkness in those eyes. And we need to, again, be in a position of strength.

And Vladimir Zelensky had that opportunity with Scott Bessant in Ukraine, with J.D. Vance at the Munich Security Conference, and then here at the White House. And he three strikes. And I think the people in Ukraine, I know that they're talking about articles of impeachment against him. Maybe he is not the person to be leading them at this point in time.

But I think that we will get that mineral deal solidified, and we will have better security for Ukraine.

So get this, Vladimir Putin has agreed to help Trump broker nuclear talks with Iran. We really want Putin in the middle of nuclear talks with Iran? No, I think that we know the recipe for Iran, and that's what we saw in the first Trump administration. Just bankrupt the suckers, put those sanctions on them so that they cannot export their energy resources, which will undermine Russia and also China especially. Look, the minerals and raw materials and things of that nature and energy are two very important resources that you can leverage against nations to undermine their ability to exploit and exploit other countries and to like the one belt, one road strategy of China and what we see the encouragers that you just talked about of Vladimir Putin.

So, yes, let's look at how we can leverage economic and energy aspects and policies against these countries. Lieutenant Colonel Alan West, thanks so much. Always a pleasure. God bless. All right.

When we come back, what else do the Democrats have got to plan to do to move to the center? That'll be key. And we'll also talk about what you expect. What do you want to hear tonight? From President Trump.

408-76689. Brian Kilmee Chow. Giving you everything you need to know. You're with Brian Kilmead. A radio show like no other.

It's Brian Killmead. That is shocking. I cannot believe that the Democrats will not go along. With common sense on this and the protection of women and girls. I suppose we'll have to go through the process again.

We are going, the Republican Party is going to protect. girls and women in athletics.

So they want to pass a bill to ban trans athletes from playing against women. And 75%, in every study, but the last one I just saw, 75% of the American people are for that ban. Right? But yesterday, after it passed the House, it went to the Senate, and they only got 51 votes. They need 60 for it to pass.

What are you guys thinking?

So don't you ha have any daughters? Don't you understand that they need privacy in their locker rooms and they need a chance for success on their fields and on their courts? What is wrong with you? I mean, dad that's just like, well, if Donald Trump put it forward, I can't go for it.

So, I mean, when you go to you're basically just waiting him out.

So, no sense even trying to get anything by Bartisan. This was. This to me was the biggest layup. And the biggest shock? Uh personally.

So that's what took place yesterday. 51 votes. By the way, what was the other vote? I imagine.

Someone voted present, or someone wasn't able to be present. But earlier, I was just talking about the Democratic Party and where they're going to go from here. And there's a huge push to push out the far left and to start acting in a way that will get you wins in office. Not woke, not DEI, not politically correct. Just start trying to get back to the working class, if it's at all possible.

Are they going to be able to do it? Bill Maher says DeJon Fetterman's the perfect answer. Fetterman is I don't think he's 100% physically. I don't know if he wants to do it. I don't even know if he wants to do another Senate seat.

But Fetterman would be. Uh Fetterman would be The type of person that I think would have a shot, but would they ever ever be able to get the nomination? Rob Emmanuel, who helped Barack Obama get elected and was his chief of staff. Cut 37. There is a general rule.

I had this when I was mayor. Safe streets, strong schools, stable finances. Focus on those three things and your city's going to be fine. We've gone through five years where people became way too permissive to the culture. They were all, which is why everything's locked up at Walgreens and CVS, and that is a disaster.

And I'll say this about our schools. I don't want to hear another word about the locker room. I don't want to hear another word about the bathroom. You better start focusing on the classroom. But yet, you just had a chance to kick that to the curb and say, I voted to keep men out of women's sports.

But they just decided to walk away. Why? Because there's no Rahm Emmanu trying to tell them what it's going to take to be successful. And most of all, I think. It makes the country better.

When I'm running against somebody that's not crazy, I think to myself: don't panic if my person loses. Hugh Farid Zakaria, same thing, cut thirty-nine. To be fair, this is actually no, no, this is a huge Democratic Party problem. If you look at Democratic cities, they are terribly run. They have incredibly high taxes.

It is impossible to build, so the cost of housing. Let me finish. Let me finish. I'll give you a chance. The cost of housing is crazy in places like New York and Chicago.

If you look at Democratic states, you know, look, you go look at New York versus Florida, okay, roughly the same population. The budget of New York State is twice that. of Florida. What do they have? With streets paved with gold?

I live in New York. I pay the highest taxes in New York. You get nothing for it. And I think that is the image people have of the Democratic Party. Lots of taxes, lots of regulation, but nothing gets done.

Right. That's exactly what we're trying to say. You have a mayor of Chicago. They said, I couldn't believe this number: 6% approval rating. You can't get worse than that.

Then you got the mayor of New York who's bathed in scandal. if half of it's true, it's terrible, who now in the city council just agreed to give people identifications to make it easier for illegal immigrants to be able to get free services. How does that help anybody? Then you have the mayor of Boston. Hearts not not not not thoughts and prayers.

Thoughts. Go out to the Stabber Who was shot by an off-duty cop. This guy was running crazy in the streets, and he ran into a Chipotle. And with the guy, he was stabbing everybody he saw, and then an off-dirty cop took him out. And her heart.

went out to him and his family. while she pledges to push back on everything that Tom Holman wants to do. That's what your Democratic Party is.

So, and that's what they're associated with. And that's why Republicans, when they get to their meetings, don't just talk about how to hold on to taxes. You got to talk about how to make gains in these cities because you'll make everybody better. Even if you lose the election, you will force Democrats to start looking. wisely at issues.

Not issues that idealistically they'd like to see work. I mean homeless, housing. Think about everything. Drug use, give them drugs so they don't use illegal drugs, give them drug paraphernalia so they don't use dirty needles. That's their answer to drug addiction.

It's nuts. It doesn't work. It's an easy out. Brian Kill Me Chill. Go to BrianKillme.com.

Find out when I'm going to be in St. Louis and Dayton, Ohio. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead. Thanks so much for being here, everybody.

It's the Brian Kilmeet Show. Where am I? I'm in Washington, D.C. at the Tony Snow Studios, which is appropriate because I was lucky enough to replace him when he went to the White House to work for George W. Bush.

And we just had, about 90 minutes ago, Caroline Levitt, the press secretary for Donald Trump, in here previewing a big, I guess, address to the joint session of Congress. And it's a State of the Union address, but just a few months after the inaugural, it'll be a review of the last seven weeks. How's he done so far?

Well, we'll take a look. President thinks he's doing great. Democrats are so upset they're not showing up, not with great numbers, and we could expect some type of protest. They're desperate to try to take the spotlight from Trump. I don't think it's possible.

John Roberts would know. He's got more experience. He's got better genes. He knows the building. I got lost in this building already.

Can't believe the way you built this thing up. This used to be a small bureau. How do you get lost in this building? It's a single floor.

Well, no one ever wants to be around. I should have headquarters in New York. I can't figure out where anything is.

Well, that's true. We don't even know. And in terms of better jeans, that's J-E-A-N-S. That's what I'm saying. Not G-E-N-S.

Yeah, we have no idea about your DNA. I will say, but you do wear your days. You have jeans in my jeans. Yes, I wear jeans every day. I'm not seen from the waist down, so I could wear shorts.

And you said that if you were, you would still wear them. Yeah, you know, I mean, nothing says you're a person of the common people except wearing jeans with a suit jacket.

So, this is the John Roberts that came up to me and said, Yeah, on Saturday night, you don't wear a tie. That's not professional. You told me that. And yet you'll wear jeans. Because I've asked if I could go tie less, and they say no.

So you take it out on me. Wearing jeans is my small rebellion.

So, what do you expect tonight? I expect that the president's going to be in the best mood that he's ever been in giving one of these speeches. I think he's going to be far more successful in a non-consecutive second term than he would have been had he won the presidency again in 2020, because he still would have been under siege from everything left over from the first term. And I think he's just going to go out there and he's going to lay out his agenda, which, according to a poll that Mark Penn did in February, that the Harvard-Harris CAPS poll is incredibly popular among the American people. 58% of respondents in that poll said Trump is doing a better job than Biden, compared to 36% who said Biden's doing a better job than Trump.

So he's got the wind in his sails. He's cruising along. He's flooding the zone in such a way that Democrats don't know which pitch to swing at.

So they're swinging at everything, and they're pretty much swung out or punched out, whatever metaphor you want to use at this point. Nothing that they are doing to counter Trump is gaining traction. And there's nothing I think they can do. Before tonight or even after tonight, to counter what he's going to say.

So, one thing Democrats are doing is they're going to bring somebody that lost their job that worked for the federal government, see how that's going to resonate. And Donald Trump is going to bring the family of Corey Comperator, who lost his life at that Butler rally. Right. And he's got other surprises. He does.

Yeah, you couldn't get it out of Caroline, though. Corey is going to be with the. With the First Lady. I know Jonathan Diller's wife, Stephanie Diller, will be there also. Different people, Lake and Riley's family, will be there.

So I think there's going to be a big theme. People that lost their lives at the hand of illegal immigrants, disrespect and death around law enforcement, which is a lack of law and order in our country. Although New York came out and said we have something like a 20-year low in terms of shootings in New York City, and some elements are going down in terms of crime. But if you look at the police force, they can't get anyone into the academies right now, and they're totally dispirited. Here is Caroline Levitt offering this preview for us on Fox and Friends a little while ago.

Cut one. The president is going to talk about his economic agenda. And truly, this administration is working around the clock to bring down the cost of living for the American people, to deregulate the regulations that Joe Biden put on every industry across the board. And, you know, tax cuts are a huge priority for this president, and he'll be talking directly to Congress about that tomorrow night.

So, yeah, he'll be doing that, talking about tax cuts. He'll be talking about Doge. He'll probably get boozed when he brings that up, which is crazy because you're booing government efficiency.

So what are the Democrats going to do tonight? A large number of Democrats I think the women will be dressed in pink. I don't think many of the males will be dressed in pink. Uh the black caucus is going to dress in black. They're going to try to be sending these visual cues that they don't agree with what Trump's doing.

But look at the polling. In that Harvard-Harris caps poll, 51% of people approve of what Donald Trump has been doing so far.

Some of his policies, like immigration, deporting criminals, it's got 79%, I think, approval. By and large, the American public likes what the president is doing. The Democrats think that they've gotten some traction over USAID. Most voters, I don't think, know what USAID does. They're going to get some sympathy from people who have lost their jobs, who couldn't afford to lose their jobs.

But as Doug Bergum pointed out on our program yesterday, there's 10 million jobs out there in this country that are going unfilled.

So there's likely some chance for employment for those folks who have gotten laid off or fired from their federal job. It still makes it difficult. I mean, there's no question about that. But I don't think the Democrats have got much to counter. What President Trump is going to lay off?

I mean, eventually, what he's going to do, they probably, if Doge could be more effective in explaining what they're doing and just saying, hey, this is what I found, this is go to the president.

Well, they've made some mistakes that I think did not play in their favor, like firing people from the or laying off people from the National Nuclear Security Administration, then saying, oops, they shouldn't have gone, bring them back. And it happened with another agency as well. You have got to make sure that if you are going to lay people off, that those are people who are expendable and you're not cutting not just You know, fat or bone, but you're cutting into the marrow of government agencies. And now that, John, don't you think now that the secretaries are in place, you can do that? Say, hey, I'm the Doge guy.

This is what I found. This is what you might want to do. Find some managers that you think are dependable that actually come to work, and then they go do it.

So you got 10 days to come up with an answer because I got to cut this much out of the budget. When there was no one in place, I could see it. As the Treasury Secretary told me, I don't know if it was on camera or not, but they went through and found out that these checks are going out without any names on them. They were just going to people. But now at least they changed that.

So it's easier to track. That whole thing where there was no way to trace where federal dollars have been going, that's insane. Right. Can you imagine if you and your wife just kind of spent money on things, paid checks, and you had no idea where the money was going to? I actually had something like that.

Our kids are in lacrosse and basketball and everything. And I got a notification from Team Snap. You probably use that. That payment for $900 has been taken. I'm like, which kid is that for?

What sport is that for? Right, right. But they're taking it, and you just assume it's same with Venmo, kind of scares me. Notable lawmakers who are skipping it: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich. Don, Congressman Don Beyer of Virginia, Illinois Congressman Mike Quigley.

And maybe Senator Murphy. Senator Brian Schatz if the best they can do is boycott and Rod Wyden's going to hold a competing town hall in Oregon, I mean, if that's the best they can do, I I think they need to up their game. We we had Matt Bennett on yesterday, who was a big uh He was a fob, a friend of Bill Clinton back in the day. He helped co-found Third Way. They held a retreat in Loudoun County, Virginia a couple of weeks ago, in which they basically said that the Democratic Party is lost and adrift.

It has no messaging. The message that it was trying to push is not in sync with what the American voters are looking for. And he laid out an agenda that a lot of people might think looks like Republican light, including the Democratic Party needs to focus on patriotism and needs to get away from this elitist, academic-oriented, woke agenda that it's been following and really get back to what working people are thinking about, because he believes that that message has been completely lost.

So if the Democrats are going to counter the president by boycotting, This joint address is opposed to saying, no, here's how we get back in sync with the American people. Then they're just giving him free reign to do whatever he wants. I hear what you're saying, but what an opportunity yesterday that was lost because you had that bill to keep men out of women's sports. And you could have said, well, yeah, that's what some fringe thought it was okay. We don't.

But instead, only 51 senators voted for it. They got to basically start again. It makes no sense to me. I talked to you. 74% of the people in America are for doing that.

We had Senator Tuberville on yesterday ahead of the vote, and I said, Can you find seven Democrats who want to protect? Women in women's sports? He said it's a big lift. I don't think we can. And he didn't find any.

And when you look at the public opinion of that New York Times Ipsos poll. 79% of respondents in total, including 67% of Democrats, said biological men should not be playing in women's sports. The many people is just an absolute common sense issue, yet the Democrats seem to want to die on this hill. And there are so many people in this country who can't figure out why. We come back.

What Bill Maher said Democrats should be doing, what Fareed Zakaria said Democrats should be doing. We continue on the Brian Kill Meet Joe. John Roberts, have we booked you for two segments? Because I know you had that invoice. You were going to invoice us for two.

Have we agreed to pay your fee? I'm not sure, but there's nothing like leverage in a negotiation. And you've already promoed me for the next one. You have nowhere to go. Let's be honest.

Talk in a moment. Coming to you on a need-to-know basis because Mandy, you need to know. It's Brian Kilmead. The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmead.

All right, we are back. A few more minutes with John Roberts. He wanted to go. I would not let him. Negotiation ended well.

Right, so John, who's on your show? Unlike the Ukraine. Right. But first, though, who's on your show? We got Sean Duffy coming up.

That's going to be good. Transportation Secretary. Jason Miares. who is the Attorney General of the State of Virginia, which is where I live. Multiple incidents of this guy who was on the registered sex offenders list, who claimed to be transgender and was getting access to girls' locker rooms at high school.

Aquatic facilities that are open to the public after school hours. I mean, that's just an insane, insane story. The transgender policies of the Arlington Public School District allowed somebody who was on the registered sex offender list for multiple offenses to say, I'm transgender, I'm going to use the girls' locker room, and then be standing in the locker room naked as these young girls came in from their swimming lessons. Can you imagine? No, I can't.

So you'll be talking about that. Miaris is up in arms about that. We'll be talking to him about that. And we'll preview the state of the union and we'll talk about the state of air traffic control and everything in the United States with Sean Duffy. It'd be great to catch up with him.

I haven't caught up with him since he was near Seattle. I mean, my goodness, transportation, a lot of times you'll go four years and not hearing much from them. What star did he have and been forced to endure, too? It was nice to see Carolyn this morning, too. I haven't actually seen her in person since she was a deputy in the press office of the first administration.

I asked her, too. I said, listen, I don't want to bother you with stuff. Who can I talk to? She goes, right now I'm it.

So I guess she needs to staff up. Here is Bill Maher talking about what Democrats need to do: Cut 31. According to a new Gallup poll, 45% of Democrats want the party to move to the center, which is up 11 points from four years ago. Whenever a political party finds a real star president, the other side always says, well, we have to find our Bill Clinton, our Reagan, our Obama.

Well, the Democrats need to find their Trump. Not the authoritarian part, but the part where a politician bonds with everyday Americans because he talks like them. The good news for Democrats is they have that guy, and his name is John Fetterman. This is John Fetterman. Here's what he said, and I'll let you hear this: Cut 32.

After the election, instead of curling up in a ball, Fetterman went to Mar-a-Lago. And afterwards, Trump said he's not liberal or conservative. He's just a common sense person, which is beautiful. Trump and Fetterman actually have a lot in common. They're both plain-spoken, anti-elitists who come from money.

married exotic immigrant ladies, went to Ivy League schools, and aren't afraid to take on their own party. He's right. But can a moderate with the exception of the hoodie and the shorts? I mean, he obviously he can't be Fetterman, but do you think that a a moderate could ever get get the nomination on the Democratic case? It would be really tough.

When you look at the AOCs and the Ilhana Omars of this world, if you try to put forward a moderate Democratic candidate or even somebody who's center-right, like You know, you look back in the Clinton administration, he was pretty much center-right, you know, compared to where we are today. At least, I think it'd be really, really tough. Fetterman's a really interesting guy, though. Here's a person he was he was written off as a joke. Written off as being incompetent, and now he's become the most interesting voice on Capitol Hill.

And he is An interesting voice of reason, many times in the Democratic Party, you know, where he looked at what Trump was doing and. The Democrats are losing their minds over it. And Fetterman said, I'm not losing my mind over it. In fact, Buying greenland probably makes sense because he can see the other side of things. But Democrats are so stuck in their ideology that they cannot see the other side of many issues.

You know, one guy that constantly disappoints me because I thought he'd be like that is Mark Kelly. I mean, he couldn't even admit that the border was shut down. Just admit that the president did good on the border. He goes, well, he's trying to intimidate people by landing them back in their home countries in military planes. He wants it done quick.

And yes, intimidation is part of it. If you come legally, you can't stay. That should be intimidating people. The border is, I think, one of the most interesting issues of of The last Eight years. Trump wasn't really paying a lot of attention to it in the early going of his first administration.

Then suddenly it blew up in 2019, and he decided I've got to take drastic steps here. Remain in Mexico policy, all of that. Border crossings went down. Biden comes along, rips that all up, border crossings go through the roof. While telling you the border is secure.

While telling us the border is secure and saying that there's nothing I can do about it, it's up to Congress. Then Trump comes in, and within one month, you have the lowest number of illegal crossings on record. Like going back. Decades and it went from two hundred thousand a month to eight thousand a month. A month.

Didn't take Congress to do it, didn't take an act of God, took a few strokes of the executive pen and the idea that we are not going to allow people to come into this country illegally and stay here. That's the message. The pull factor completely went away. The cartels don't know what to do because that huge revenue stream has dried up. And simply through executive order and without needing to go through Congress, Trump did what Biden said he could never do.

So I mean, it's not right in front of you, and you can't argue it.

So it's not like, well, that's your opinion. No, John Roberts, you're 100% right. You can't argue it. What is amazing to me is the cartels. And now, as I see an extra thousand troops going to our border, I'm wondering if it's going to be this, you know, the Mexico's arrest 900 cartel members, and the focus and pressure on them is intense to the point where they're not leaving their mansions or their compounds as of now, according to the New York Times on Sunday.

And I'm wondering, are we going to use some of those troops that are amassing at the border? To go into Mexico? Can you imagine that? Yeah, I can't imagine that there's going to be any large-scale kinetic operations involving U.S. forces against the Mexican cartels.

There might be some special ops cartels. They're incredibly well armed. They're well trained. They've got a tremendous amount of firepower, in many ways, better than the Mexican military. Declaring them to be foreign terrorist organizations opens up a whole new tool toolbox that the U.S.

didn't have before that. But I can't see any large scale military operations against the cartels from the American side. But who knows? Maybe just Putting this much pressure on them is keeping them off their game for a little while, keeping them off guard, on their back foot, whatever you want to say. And so they're rethinking how they're going to do things.

But the fact that that huge revenue stream of illegal migration has dried up for the cartels is going to put them in some pretty dire financial straits. El Salvador just locked up all their gang members. And I'm wondering if success leaves clues. And I don't know anything about China. But on some level, do you think she'd like to run her own country and not worry about the cartel's influence?

You would think that a Mexican president would want to run his or her own country, but up until now, they really haven't. When can we see you today, John? One o'clock this afternoon, one to three with Sanders Man. You're going to go for two hours. Yes, a whole two hours.

And then will you go to this beach? No, I'm not. I'm going to go home and watch it on my TV. Very good. You have cable?

It took me two hours to get home after last week.

Okay, so let's not do that again. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead. What do you need to see from President Zelensky to restart these negotiations?

Well, I just think you should be more appreciative because this country has stuck with them. through thick and thin we've given them Much more than Europe, and Europe should have given more than us, because, as you know, that's right there, that's the border. This country really was like the fence on the border. It was very important to Europe.

And that is President Trump yesterday, and later on, he would pause aid to Ukraine. But what the President is not bringing up, which he might not know. Is that Joe Biden really helped torture the Ukrainians because he slow-walked almost every weapon system. And it was instead of giving them what they needed, he gave them what he thought they needed. And he has no experience in the military.

In fact, he didn't even like the military. And then he didn't pressure our allies to quickly get them aid. And now President Trump said, look, I don't really want I don't want part of this. I understand the obligation here, but I'd rather just get them to peace. But you understand that Joe Biden was not flooding them with weapons, and he was curtailing weapons delivery purposely to Israel.

And a lot of the weapons, he had no follow-through.

So let's say they would issue here's a billion dollars worth of weapons. But he wasn't following up to have his people make sure it was actually delivered. And that was key. After that meltdown on Friday, Senator Lindsey Graham. was so upset that He said that Zelensky should resign.

And he's been over there a number of times, maybe 10 times, always an ally of his, always trying to get him more and more aid. Here's what Zielensky said, cut nine. Instagram is a very good guy, very nice. In speaking who must be the president and whether I shall resign, I can give him the citizenship of Ukraine. He will become the citizen of our country and then his voice will start to gain weight and I will hear him as a citizen of Ukraine on the topic of who must be the president.

But Linsi represents the party that uh fights for democratic values and anyway the president of Ukraine will have to be chosen not at home, at Linsi's gram home, but in Ukraine.

So that was pretty funny, being sarcastic. But Lindsey Graham could become a Ukrainian citizen, and perhaps he'd have more weight in trying to pick who the next leader of Ukraine is. But when you lose Lindsey Graham, you lose a lot because he's firmly in Ukraine's corner, as am I. But just to see their inability to execute a simple deal is pretty nuts. With me in the studio is a guy that used to be by Donald Trump's side.

Now he's working for the state of Georgia, Congressman Brian Jack of the 3rd District. Congressman, welcome.

Well, thank you very much for having me. It's a special day. The last time I was out of State of the Union was when President Trump was delivering his fourth joint session address, I should say, in 2020, and that was five years ago.

So a special day for me. Right. So then you were still in that reelection mode. Was it a pandemic? It was just before.

It was, I think, late January, early February. And here we are today. And were you at that point pretty convinced your President was going to win reelection? You know, the economy, as he often says and as he said on your show many times, was better than it ever had been. And it's in large part because of the tax cuts we passed in 2017, unleashed American economic growth thereafter, gave us a 3.1 percent GDP number and increase in our economic output.

So I think his perspective, as was mine, is that the economy was roaring and he was going to easily win reelection. And then, of course, everything changed actually five years ago this week. This is when it all happened with respect to economic. And how were you adjusting? To my new role?

Yeah. It's an incredible opportunity. I mean, last week I had an opportunity to pass my first piece of legislation, just my second month in office. It specifically repealed a Biden regulation that would have put water heaters, specific water heaters, out of business. And all of those water heaters that the Biden administration was trying to put out of business were manufactured in my congressional district.

So we had a chance last Thursday with 11 Democrats and not one Republican voting against the bill to pass legislation to help my hometown, my home area.

So very excited about that.

So it was Joe Biden's idea just to heat water with an open fire just to save the planet? I think the left is a never-ending war on hydrocarbons. And they go, and when he was in office, and by the way, this is something you're going to see Congress pass this week and next week. The Biden administration, after he lost, Issued tons of rules and regulations in the midnight hours of his presidency to try to hamper President Trump's executive branch and executive authority from carrying out an American First energy policy.

So we're going to repeal a lot of it. We're repealing stuff this week, but the first thing we did last week was repeal the water heater ban. I'm very proud of that. Right. Soon, we've got the water heaters, everything else, refrigerators they were going to ban in New York.

So let's talk about Ukraine. Here's the president who comes out and says we're going to be pausing aid. How do you feel about that, Brian Jack?

Well, I think what we saw last Friday, and I know you covered it, I listened to your show this morning, it was great. The president wants peace, and I think the administration wants peace. And I think they're very disappointed in what they saw unfold on Friday, which was extraordinary. I've never seen a foreign leader kind of rebuke, in this case, the vice president, in that colloquy between the two of them. And I think the president wants him to come back and say, I want peace.

And if he wants peace, the president's willing to move forward. I think the president has articulated that. But he recognizes you can't make a deal if you don't want peace. And I think we're going to be able to do that. We're all hoping that peace is achieved.

Have you met Putin? I've never, no, not when I worked for him, no, sir. Right. So you wonder, the thing is, do you think that he's capable of being trusted with any type of peace plan? That's what Zelensky's point is.

I think Putin fears Donald Trump. I think that that's one of the greatest things about President Trump's leadership: foreign leaders fear him and they respect him. And I think that because of that dynamic, my instinct is that Putin would respect President Trump and fear President Trump. And if President Trump were able to oversee a peace deal, I think it would be respected by all parties.

So Putin has offered to talk to Iran about their nuclear program. Where does Brian Jackson stand on that?

Well, I previously worked on ensuring that Iran would never have a nuclear weapons capability. That was my first four years in the political arena, so to speak, working with the pro-Israel movement to ensure that they never had a nuclear weapons capability. And I think anything we can do to achieve that is something that I'm supportive of. But as it relates to Iran, I think they especially fear Donald Trump, and that's one of the reasons why I'm so encouraged by his election. I think when Joe Biden was in office, they did not fear him.

They were willing to do whatever they wanted. And I think now they're going to be checked because President Trump's in office. Right. What's the difference now that you're an outsider from this administration and on the 45?

Well, first off, I've got to commend my very close friend, but Susie Wiles, the White House Chief of Staff, has done an extraordinary job leading this administration and enabling on the staff side its success under President Trump's leadership. I think President Trump made a really good pick when he picked Susie to be the chief. She was a great campaign manager. I served alongside her. It was a very interesting time.

I was alongside her and Chris La Cevita on day one of his campaign in 2022. And there was a lot of speculation about the direction of his political future. She was the best pick for White House Chief of Staff. I think the staff has been incredible. I think the cabinet secretaries have been incredible.

So we're all very excited. The transparency is such a change from the previous administration. You see everything every day. Yeah. And I think you actually noted it on Fox and Friends a few days ago.

There was like a chart of how many times President Trump has done, answer questions from the media, how many questions he's specifically asked. Answers from the media versus Biden and Obama at a similar time in office, and it was like a 10 to 1 degree in favor of the President. He's just openly transparent. And I think, by the way, 54 percent approval rating that came out yesterday from Daily Mail, the American people like it. There's manufactured outrage on the left, but the American people are buying what the President is selling.

The Hill writes that today the Democrats are going out to town halls like you or another congresspeople will have, and McCormick was the last one, and creating havoc. Have you found that? Have you had one yet? I think that the problem is that a lot of these town halls is there is some semblance of manufactured outrage, and I think the Democrats are trying to do everything they can to project a narrative onto the American people that what the President is doing is inconsistent with what he promised. That's not true.

The President is doing exactly what he promised. The American people overwhelmingly elected him because they knew he would be strong on the border. He would cut government spending. He would eliminate the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse. And I think Republicans just have to stand strong.

your reaction to the President's tariffs today. The market doesn't love it.

So I think what the President wants to do is encourage and incentivize people to build products here. I've already had a couple companies come to me that are trying to come into my district because they work or they have operations in Canada and Mexico. They want to adhere to the President's policies. They want to come in and manufacture within our district. I'm working with them and working with the administration to facilitate an opportunity for them to come in and invest in my communities that I represent.

But ultimately, I applaud the President's America First economic agenda, and I think the markets eventually will respond. And by the way, in 2017, when he passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, there was a lot of speculation that that wasn't going to do much for the markets. 3.1 percent GDP growth, which was the highest since 2005 and 2018, just after it. China got 10 percent on all imports, Mexico 25 percent on all imports, Canada 25 percent on most imports, lower rate for energy. The, I guess, governor of Ontario.

Well the Canadian Prime Minister Um And the Canadian Prime Minister, as well as Ford, Doug Ford, they say they're putting reciprocal tariffs on. And the Canadian Premier, I guess he's called, he says he wants America to feel the pain because he's going to cut off our electricity. I didn't know we got electricity from Ontario.

Well, I think that's a lot of saber-rattling, and I think you're not going to see that rhetoric come from the president. The president just wants businesses to manufacture in America. We, in our country, were greatest when we built things here at home, and that's one of the things that I think his economic agenda is striving to achieve.

So, very supportive of where he's putting our economy, and I think we're going to all hear about it tonight.

So, look forward to that. Ryan, Honda is moving their civic production plans to Indiana from Mexico to avoid Trump's tariffs. And we know about the deal that Apple mentioned, and we know the Taiwanese chip company for $500 billion. How important is that for the President? You know him so well.

I think it's an affirmation of his economic agenda, it's an affirmation of his policies. I speak at a micro level, but within my district, I represent Carroll County. There's a company that manufactures its cattle equipment in Canada that's thinking about moving into my congressional district. We hope that they do, but I think that's in large part due to what we've seen unfold over the last month and a half of President Trump.

So I'm excited about the opportunity to help them. And again, I want to be very district-first and represent the people and the needs of my district.

So I'm excited about helping them out. All right, we'll take a short time out and come back with Congressman Brian Jack. You have a busy day planned, and we know how your day is ending. This will be your first joint session of Congress speech. As a member of Congress, absolutely.

Will you go back and party with the President of the White House?

So if I get invited, I may, but I'm excited to see what he says tonight. Back in a moment. Newsmakers and news breakers. Hear it first on the Brian Kill Meat Show. Radio that makes you think.

This is the Brian Kill Me Show. So Congressman Brian Jack is with us here, just a rookie. First few months on the job after spending years with President Trump.

So, Congressman, you found out some good news on your way here. Yes, so I'm going to be deputy chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and I'll lead recruitment efforts for the House Republicans. And very excited about that. It's very consistent with my background. I was President Trump's White House political director, and then I was the political director of his 2024 campaign before I ran for Congress myself.

So excited about what we're going to be able to achieve. And we're going to have a lot of open seats this cycle. Oh, yeah. Byron Donald's running for governor. His seat will be open.

So it's not just these competitive swing seats. And by the way, there are a lot of them. There's many, many seats, about 10 seats that President Trump carried in his election that are now represented by Democrats.

So that will be our first set of targets. But in addition to that, we'll want to make sure that we work closely with these open seats for everybody running for different offices.

So, you know, tradition would have it, the party in power loses a chamber at least. How do you buck that?

So we've got two instances going back. In 1998, House Democrats. Largely as an outgrowth of the impeachment of the backlash to impeachment in 98, we were able to overperform expectations. And in 2002, of course, after the tragedy of 9-11, House Republicans and that election were successful.

So, two instances in the last 30 or 40 years in which the party in power has actually gained seats in the midterm.

So, you're 100 percent right. The history would be against a party in power. But I think the difference here is seeing how the president's been leading, seeing how his approval rating is higher today than it ever was during his two or four years in office during this first term gives me great courage that the American people are going to reward House Republicans for enacting the agenda upon which they campaigned.

So, this just came in. You were able to scan it. The president said, I'm pausing everything when it comes to aiding Ukraine. He didn't say I'm canceling it, I'm pausing it until they show they're ready for peace. And then we did have some reporting that said he wants an apology.

And from what you read of Zelensky's letter, He says, none of us want endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible. My team and I stand by, ready to work. We are ready to work fast to end the war. And the first stages could be the release of prisoners and truce in the sky.

Ban on missiles, long-range drones, bombs on energy, bombs on energy, and civilian infrastructure, and a truce in the sea immediately. If Russia will do the same, then we want to move very fast to the next stage. How do you feel about what he just said? Basically, it's everything Russia's been doing to them. Yeah.

First off, I think that he is compelled to do so because of how Friday went. And I think the President was eager to have an apology from him. I know we just briefly looked at that last graph within his statement that I think Zelensky said it was regrettable how the meeting unfolded. But regardless, I think that words are always welcome, but I think actions is what's most important.

So I think the president's going to have to sit down and think about this tweet or whatever statement he put out in whatever capacity. Enable his team to really learn whether or not the action is going to be behind those words. He says: We do really value how Americans have done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. And we remember the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with javelins. Our meeting in Washington at the White House on Friday did not go the way it was supposed to be.

It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive. Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it anytime in any convenient format. We see the agreement as a step.

Toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work out effectively.

So how do you think that just from your experience, how does this digest at the Oval Office?

Well, I think from my experience, especially as somebody who is very political, I think there is still a lot of disappointment with how Zelensky carried himself and conducted himself in the closing months of the 2024 election. To appear in a swing state with the Biden-Harris administration as Americans were voting, I think was inappropriate for any foreign leader to do so. And I think as a result from that, you are seeing some of the frustration play out. And then as it relates to this specifically, I think the President's not going to. From my experience, the president's not going to take words and act on them.

He wants to see action before he acts.

So I'm curious if this is enough of that action. I'm curious to see what he says tonight about it. But regardless, one thing I love about the president is he doesn't let somebody just persuade him with words. He wants to see actions. He also doesn't hold grudges.

Listen, once it's done, it's done. You wouldn't have a Ted Cruz as a key advisor, and you wouldn't have Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. Lastly, uh with the president uh with the president and what what he's got to get done Do you think that this four years Will be actually enjoyable for him without the Rush investigation looming impeachment. In a way in which wasn't possible.

Well, it'll be especially enjoyable for him if we House Republicans are able to win in the midterms. There's going to be a lot of Democrat outrage and manufactured campaigns against us. We've got to do our part to win the midterms. But him as a person, I think it's one of the greatest political comebacks, if not the greatest political comeback of all time. Where we were four years ago to where we are today, and to see him with Cushion, 50 over a majority of Americans support what he's doing is really, really incredible and inspiring.

Well, absolutely. Brian Jack, best of luck. Congratulations on the new job and the job that you won in November.

Well, honor to be with you. I'm glad we spell our name the same way. Yes, absolutely. And we'll make sure to stay in touch. All right, you listen to Brian Killmee Chill on the road in D.C.

with the speech nine hours away. Don't move. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead. Hi, everyone.

Welcome back to Brian Kill Meet Show on the Road in Washington, D.C. The president's got a big speech tonight. It's going to be exciting. It's going to be packed. I think there might be some Democratic empty seats.

I don't remember this many boycotts before. I mean, the first time, you remember those. Democrats said the president was an illegitimate president, that the Russians put him there, and we knew people stood out. But for the most part, I didn't think there would be a reason for Democrats to not go to the speech. But it looks like Senator Markey's not going.

It looks like Bernie Sanders is not going. It looks like Senator Murphy is not going. I mean, what do they have? What are they double-booked? They're trying to get a restaurant?

I mean, you got to show up. This is your job, I would think. But That's not happening right now. And hopefully, people understand that the whole world's watching. It would be great to have a unified look like we're all on the same page.

So, before we get to our first guest, Lindsey Graham, let's get to the big three. Number three. It's a big night for President Trump, and we know he's going to give a fantastic speech. The theme is the renewal of the American Dream. And the renewal of the American Dream is underway already.

Look at all that President Trump has accomplished in his first term, first month as president. He's going to highlight some of those accomplishments. Yep, and he has some special guests, many of which we do not know. It'll be a surprise. Trump to address a joint session of Congress.

We review the themes, the Dems response boycotts, and special guests. Number two. China's business model is export, export, export, and that's unacceptable. They're in the middle of a financial crisis right now that they're trying to export their way out of it. With the China tariffs, I am highly confident that the Chinese manufacturers will eat the tariffs, prices won't go up.

With Canada and Mexico, I think we're in the middle of a transition. Yup, and you know what? The Treasury Secretary points out a great thing about China. They're struggling with their economy. Just don't we don't talk a lot about it.

Tariffs slapped on China, Mexico and Canada. They've returned the favor.

Well, look at the impact. Number one.

Well, I just think you should be more appreciative because this country has stuck with them. Through thick and thin. We've given them much more than Europe, and Europe should have given more than us. That is for the President of the United States. Aid is stopped.

The U.S. has stopped moving weapons to Ukraine until or when Donald Trump gets an apology. It's a win for Russia. Let's hope they end this rift today. Let's bring in Senator Lindsey Graham.

Senator, how do you feel about the pause on weapons?

Well, I I care about how it ends. A couple of things. Remember Afghanistan? Sure. Do you remember it?

Don't you think it was a disaster the way that war ended? Sure. Okay, don't you think uh Biden ignored good advice. And withdrawal of our forces, and that led to the world being on fire. Do you agree with that?

I agree with it. Yeah, well don't do that again.

So here's my view. I told Zelensky. President Trump. is ready to do the minerals deal, do it. Don't talk about security guarantees.

That's a bridge too far. By doing business with Ukraine, we have an implicit security guarantee. We're not going to send a bunch of Americans over there and watch them get killed by the Russians. and not respond.

So Zelensky has been a wartime president. It's been very hard on his country and him. I think he deserves a lot of credit for keeping his country in the fight. They're fighting against superior numbers. They've used the weapons we've sent well.

But I'd like to get a just piece, a ceasefire. and a just peace.

So here's what I would say to President Zelensky. Uh The way you handled the meeting was unacceptable. Hopefully, we can get back on track, as do President Trump. You're absolutely right to insist that this war end, but it's got to be done honorably and justly. We don't want to end it in a way to create other wars.

We don't want to end it in a way that China thinks they can take Taiwan without consequence.

So to President Trump, how we end this war is going to matter long after you're out of office. And I have a lot of confidence that President Trump will end it the right way, and he will not do what Biden did in Afghanistan, end it in a terrible way. I hear you. I don't know if you've seen this letter that went out from Zelensky. He wrote a long letter, about five paragraphs, one of which he says: We do really value America, how much you've done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty.

We remember the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with javelins. Our meeting in Washington at the White House did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is regrettable that it's happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation regarding the agreement.

They want to do it. Is that enough to get President Trump to unpause?

Well, I put a thumbs up to that. I think that's a good statement, a step in the right direction. The main thing is, do the minerals agreement. Yeah. I've been working on this for two years.

I tried to get Biden to do it. He just couldn't do any deal.

So I showed President Trump the minerals map I don't know, months ago, maybe a year ago. He instinctively understood, this is A good opportunity for America. It didn't take him thirty seconds to say, wow. They're sitting on seven or eight trillion dollars of critical minerals that will determine the AI economy. It's like the new oil.

This deal is half a trillion dollars to the United States. It's a great deal for Ukraine. Once we have a business relationship with Ukraine, we have a different relationship that President can talk about to the country. It's a relationship worth with value. The next thing I hope we can do over time is maybe keep the weapons sales flowing.

If you don't want a third invasion by Russia, Keep building up the Ukrainian army so they can defend themselves from a new invasion. Give them the weapons they need to make sure the Russians never do this again. That's a form of deterrence. And when it gets time to do peace and ceasefires, the Europeans should be on the ground, not us, but we could back them up.

So I am hoping the statement of President Zelensky is a giant step toward getting us back on track. I know President Trump still wants to do the deal because it's a damn good deal for America. And I'm not out to humiliate Putin, but it cannot be a. peace deal that rewards him. Yeah.

Uh y you should go in and take things that don't belong to you.

So, one of the things that he put in this letter is says, in the first stages of a possible peace, he goes, could be fast. He goes, How about the release of prisoners and a truce in the sky, a ban on missiles, long-range drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure, and a truce in the sea? If Russia will do the same, then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the U.S. to agree on a strong final deal. Is that too much to ask?

I don't I'm going to leave it up to the Trump team. I think that's a good statement by President Zelensky. And I've got all the confidence in the world in President Trump. I had zero confidence in Biden. You know, Putin actually at the end of the day does fear Trump.

you know, that interaction with Zelensky was a masterclass in standing up for America. I talked to Zelensky that morning before the meeting, I said, do not talk about security guarantees. Trump may say something about Russia you don't like or Putin. Just keep your eye on the prize. JD pushed back against a Polish reporter.

who was being very rude to President Trump. JD wasn't talking to Zelensky. Zelensky jumped in and the rest is history. He screwed it up. I blame Zelensky.

Having said that, it does matter how this ends. I'd love to do this deal. It'd be great for the American economy. I think Ukraine can be a valuable ally, they're the most lethal. Army on the continent.

I think our relationship with Ukraine is very beneficial to the United States over time. For many reasons, I want to end the killing, but we got to get a just peace. I don't want China to think that Putin got rewarded for this. I trust President Trump. get this right.

So Zelensky has answered you. He said, maybe you're not the right person to lead the country. What exactly did you say? You said maybe he should step aside if he is going to have this attitude? Yeah, I said, you know, Churchill got beat before the end of the war.

Remember that? I've always wo wondered how a man that we revere so much rightfully so. Could lose an election in 1945.

Well, apparently, you know, the British public saw the end of the war coming, and Churchill had only one gear. I told Zelensky, nobody's gonna It's not in our interest to sell you out. Look at what happened in Afghanistan when we ended a war terribly. It's not in anyone's interest to sell out Ukraine. I'm not out to humiliate Putin, but at the end of the day, Zelensky is demonstrating an inability to envision an end of the war.

And that's what rattled me. You're talking about things. that are inconsistent with what we're trying to do in the Oval Office. And this statement today envisions how the war ends. Not a sellout of Ukraine, but a ceasefire that leads to a permanent peace.

preceded by a major league economic deal with the United States, which gives us an interest in the future of Ukraine. to the American people. What happens in Ukraine will matter to you. Defunding the police is a stupid idea when people rob stores and nobody goes to jail. People leave town.

The town dies. You don't want. Putin to take things that he agreed to leave alone in the nineties because he He chose to.

So this war needs to end Honorably? and it needs to end quickly. And I think the statement by President Zelensky today envisions a stepped process that leads to end of the war, very similar to what President Trump has envisioned.

So I wanted you to hear Zelensky's answer to you, cut nine. Instagram is a very good guy, very nice. In speaking who must be the president and whether I shall resign, I can give him the citizenship of Ukraine, he will become the citizen of our country and then his voice will start to gain weight and I will hear him as a citizen of Ukraine on the topic of who must be the president. But Lindsay represents the party that uh fights for democratic values and anyway the president of Ukraine will have to be chosen not at home at Lindsay's crum home but in Ukraine.

So, your answer, you're a nice guy, and if you want to become a Ukrainian citizen, you can pick the president. That's his answer. Yeah, did you see what I said? Back you seem not my reply. No?

Did you see it? No, I said unfortunately. I said, unfortunately, do you have elections? No one has a voice in Ukraine. That's gotten thirty-three million views.

You know, listen, I know Zelensky well. He's under a tremendous amount of pressure. I gave him what I thought was good advice. It's up to him to take it. I have no desire to be a Ukrainian citizen.

I do have a desire for Ukraine to maintain its freedom, sovereignty and dignity and be an ally of the United States. the statement for President Zielensky today, envisioning a ceasefire and the end of the war, an appreciation for the javelins and a real sense that Trump's the right guy, can reset everything, I hope. That's a giant step in the right direction. I've been doing this for a while. I've went to Ukraine seven or eight times since the war started.

I have an arrest warrant out for me in Russia. You know, the first thing I said when Putin invades, I hope somebody would take him out. It's not like I'm friendly to Putin at all, but Trump. Is right to want to end this thing sooner rather than later. And the world in which we live in, you got to talk to both sides and to all the Democrats.

or palling on Trump. Where the hell were you? before Russia invaded Ukraine. Why didn't you support me with preinvasion sanctions? Why didn't you support my bill to say Russia was a state sponsor of terrorism?

If you're looking to maintain freedom and to stand up for freedom, there's two groups that I don't have any confidence in, the Europeans and the Democrats. I hear you. By the way, how do you feel about Vladimir Putin agreeing to help Donald Trump broker a nuclear deal with Iran? Anything that gets us to a good outcome. there is zero chance there will be a nuclear deal With Iran, that leads to him abandoning his nuclear ambition, Diatola.

He's a religious Nazi to President Trump. Yeah. I encourage you. To Allow Israel. to use military force to destroy their nuclear program while we can.

Uh the Ayatollah is a religious Nazi. He will not take a deal and honor it. You know. Putin, excuse me, Hitler didn't want a better Germany, he wanted to kill all the Jews. He wanted to take over the world.

Ayatollah. Again, is a religious Nazi. He wants three things to dominate Islam, kill all the Jews and drive us out. I don't think he can negotiate with this guy. What do you say to Bibi Denya, who says I'm not going to a phase two, which means I have to abandon Gaza?

He's not comfortable leaving Gaza or ending the war with Hamas in power. What's the outcome? How's that going to happen? Here's how Phase two should be. Hamas can leave and have safe passage to countries that will take them.

Israel takes over and we replace Hamas with a better form of government sponsored by the Arabs. If they don't take that deal. There is no phase two. There is no way we can leave Hamas in charge and Israel ever be safe.

So what I think will happen here soon. Is it the extension of Phase I? buying more time to get more hostages has been rejected by Hamas. It's now time for Israel to go back into onto the ground and wipe them out like we did with the Germans and the Japanese, then over time, get the Arabs involved, rebuild Gaza. What do you do with the rest of the hostages?

Hope. Hope that the pressure that you put on a moss will lead to their release. But this is a horrible spot for a country to find itself in. You've got living hostages and you got You know, people have died and you want you're dead and you're living back. But Hamas cannot stay.

All the people that were slaughtered. On october seventh, twelve hundred. the future of Israel cannot allow Hamas to stay.

So if you got a pick. Here's your choice. Make sure Hamas can never do October 7th again. destroy them militarily and politically. That's the only way this war can end well for Israel.

Then come up with a plan, working with the Arabs, to do what we did in Germany and Japan, deradicalize the population over time. My heart breaks for the hostages and their families. I hope all of them come back. that Israel cannot afford to do a deal that allows Hamas to stay in power, period. How do you feel about recognizing Syria's government?

I mean, this seems to be a terrorist government, but better than Assad. How do you view it? Too early? put conditions on what they should do and see if they'll do it. See how they treat the Alawites, a religious minority, see how they treat women.

Um you know, because you go from you know, everybody's Talking about wearing suits, right?

Well, Zelensky didn't wear a suit. I don't care what he wears as long as we get a just piece. And putting Galani in a suit doesn't do it for me. It's what you do, it's not what you wear. And finally, what's the difference between this Trump and the 45th President of the United States?

A guy who has learned from His experiences, who is ready to go on day one. who has been watching the world fall apart. and has a plan to fix it?

So it's no accident he's off to a good start. He's been thinking about this for a long time. A word of warning here. I know the House wants to do one big, beautiful bill, count me in. The Homeland Security people run out of money.

uh in about three to four weeks. The continuing resolution, if it's extended to september thirtieth, that's Biden's appropriation bill. There's not a dime to build a wall. There's no money for additional detention beds. And ICE gets cut $2 billion.

we need to get money into the Tom Holman now. The one hundred seventy five billion would do everything we needed to do over a four year period to secure the border. If we don't watch it, we're going to run out of money and lose all the momentum we've gained on immigration. And that would be a tragedy. Hmm.

Hmm. All right. Hopefully, there's some give there and the Republicans pick up the pace in the House. Hey, Senator, it's always a masterclass in information for the audience. Thanks so much.

Thanks, Dale. Bye. Senator Lindsey Graham, back in a moment. Learning something new every day on the Brian Killmeat Show. Hey, we are back.

We just got a few more, a few seconds. I went a little long with Senator Lindsey Graham. But when we come back, I'm going to talk to Julian Epstein, Democratic perspective, and where they go from here, what they expect to hear tonight. And should there be any demonstrations at the president's speech? Wait and see.

Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. Interesting times. Julian Epstein's here. Julian, as you know, now is his own Podcast, but he serves as Chief Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee and staff director of the House Oversight Committee, Democrat 96-2001.

You can follow him at Julian Epstein, spell it out. Julian, great to see you. Brian, thanks for having me. And we're streaming now on Fox Nation 2. Vladimir Zelensky just came out and just said, Look, I want to sign the mineral deal.

We did get off track when we met. I do would like to work to peace. Hey, Russia, why don't you ban? How about a ban on long-range missiles? We'll do it too.

Bombs on energy, we'll stop it as well. Civilian infrastructure, a truce in the sea. You do that, we'll do the same. Is that a good first step or is that too presumptuous? He shouldn't take the lead on that.

Well, it's good that he's back at the table and The Trump paradigm is substituting a paradigm that we've seen for the last 20 years, or really 30 years, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, which is the West has been encircling Russia with more NATO countries and particularly closing off the Black Sea, which is Putin's biggest concern. His biggest concern in order to be a preeminent world power is to have access to the warm waters of the Black Sea. What the West has done is.

So you took it from Crimea. Yes. After Obama talked about putting Missile systems into the Black Sea.

So, this is a problem that. I mean, if you listen to John Mersheimer at the University of Chicago, this is a problem that's been brewing since 1993. Trump's vision is we're not going to go Article five NATO guarantee. What we're going to do is we're going to try and have economic integration with the U. S.

and Ukraine, and that should serve as a pretty good deterrent for Russia. You like that idea? I do. I think well, the others haven't worked.

So I think Trump is saying, I think Trump's got some rationale here where he says the other approaches where military security guarantees, Article 5 guarantees, have not worked. It's just provoked Russia to be more aggressive. We've seen that in Georgia, we've seen that in Chechnya, we've seen that all across the board since every president other than Trump for the last 25 years. I think Trump has a different paradigm that is worth trying. If the Europeans, if Macron and Starmer want to put in troops in a deep military system, they say they do.

I mean, I don't exactly think of those guys as George Patton, but if they're not exactly your alpha males when it comes to war games, but if they want to do that, then fine, if that's an additional guarantee. But I think the fact that Trump called Zelensky's bluff, Zelensky's back at the table now, and I think that's a good thing. Trump does not want a loss here. He wants a win. But if he gets a win, On this, this is going to add considerably to his political capital.

He's got a lot of political capital right now. You don't know it if you're a Democrat listening to MSNBC or CNN because that's just a crazy bubble that is detached from reality. But you look at the poll numbers, almost two-thirds of voters think that Trump is doing a much better job than Biden was. And on every single issue, whether it is the welfare state, whether it is open borders or closing the borders, whether it is DEI or whether it is. changing the managed decline on the global stage in the United States, which Trump is trying to do.

Trump is winning on all these issues, and Democrats don't seem to be getting that. They seem to think If Trump says something that's a target, we have to fire at it. And that is an amateur hour mistake in politics. You don't have to shoot at every target. You pick and choose your fights.

See, Julian, I don't understand why Republicans, Democrats did not vote for that bill yesterday to ban men in women's sports. Because if they want to get out of that woke label, that would be the perfect example. Just get to 60. We still have 51. Let me give you a theory as to why they didn't do it.

The Democratic Party today is no longer responding to their voters because, by a factor of 70-80%, voters do not want biological men playing in women's sports. The Democrats are responding to what I call the shadow government. Who is the shadow government of the Democratic Party? the activists, the online influencers, and the donors. Who are very, very far left.

They represent maybe 6% to 10% of voters, but they have all the muscle that Democratic politicians need. during election season to get reelected. That's the group of people who like all of these far left ideas. That's the group of people who have hijacked the Democratic Party. And that's who Democratic politicians are paying attention to.

You notice one of the things that we found with Doge. Uh and and In USAID and all the stuff that Musk is uncovering, which is a lot of these NGOs, 35,000 of them, Depend primarily on the government largesse for their survival.

So why are they even non-government?

Well, nongovernment organizations. They're really government support organizations. These are mostly left wing organizations supported by the taxpayers, which are burgeoning now, and they're even bigger at the state level. I mean, most of the growth in state government has come through these contractors. A lot of them are getting Federal dollars.

And it's a patronage, it's a new type of patronage system that is fomenting really, really far left ideological stuff. I'm particularly I take umbrage to it as a historic Democrat because I see this as killing the party. The ideology of the Democratic Party in the last five, six, seven years, really since even before Biden, is something that voters just don't buy. People do not like the ever-growing welfare state. They do not like open borders.

They do not like race preferences. They do not like biological men playing in women's sports. They do not like parents being kept out of the loop in terms of whether their sons should be going through gender-altering surgeries at 13 years old. They don't like the managed decline on the global stage that they've seen in the last four years. The Ukraine policy of Biden was very unpopular, and the It And the withdrawal of the withdrawal was a disaster.

You saw the expansion of Soviet inf uh of Russian influence and Chinese influence in S South America, in Africa, all over the globe, and the constant undermining of Israel and when Israel was acting in self-defense to get rid of the most horrid neo Nazi racist group on the planet today, Hamas. And because of domestic politics, which were masquerading as foreign policy under the Biden administration, Biden constantly undermined Israel in Israel's attempt to Rid uh the Gaza Of Hamas. You know, all of these things have been unpopular, but all of these things play to. What I call the shadow government, the online influencers, the activists, and the donors who all have. Yes.

far left ideology and who all dine on who Basically, they depend on moral outrage and contempt as their political diet, as a way of sort of making themselves feeling better, achieving greater social credit scores amongst their own peers. And it's a vicious cycle inside the Democratic Party that's got to be broken. And not many people pointed out these things before the election. You and I spoke about this many times before the election. There's a few others, Roy Teixeira is one of them, Barry Weiss, a few of others that have pointed out that the Democrats were in a really, really bad place and controlled by ideological extremists.

And they found out during the election that that didn't work. And now that we're in the post-election phase, Trump is doing well. Democrats' approval rate is at something like 31 percent. They still don't seem to be listening. I don't think they have the ability to change because they are beholden to This group of people that I just described.

Yeah, so I want you to hear Lindsey Graham came on, and he is one of the biggest proponents of Ukraine standing strong and pushing back against Russian aggression. In fact, there's a warrant out for his arrest in Russia because he said Putin's got to go, essentially. And then Zelensky, when he got so angry at Zelensky after that Oval Office meltdown, he said maybe he's not the right guy to lead his country.

So Lens then firing back, Zelensky said, Lindsay's a nice guy, maybe he wants to become a Ukrainian citizen and run against me. Here's what Lindsey Graham said back. I said, unfortunately, until you have elections, no one has a voice in Ukraine. That's gotten thirty-three million views. You know, listen, I know Zelensky well.

He's under a tremendous amount of pressure. I gave him what I thought was good advice. It's up to him to take it. I have no desire to be a Ukrainian citizen. I do have a desire for Ukraine to maintain its freedom, sovereignty, and dignity and be an ally of the United States.

the statement for President Zelensky today, envisioning a ceasefire and an end of the war, an appreciation for the javelins and a real sense that Trump's the right guy, can reset everything, I hope. That's a giant step in the right direction. Yeah, the one thing about Trump, you can fight with him and he'll shake it off. It's not personal, even though he gets personal. Yeah.

But well, look, I like Lindsay. I worked with Lindsay in 98 during the stuff done, and I considered him a friend. But look, this is going to inure well for Trump because Zelensky, it looks like Trump got the better of the fight, and Zelensky's coming back to the table by the reporting that you just recited and the reporting I saw earlier this morning. It looks like Zelensky's coming back to the table and this new paradigm about how to get to a ceasefire, how to Bring in as much security for Ukraine as possible, which is valid. Zelensky has valid concerns about Russia violating previous ceasefires.

There is some validity to that. And figuring out a paradigm that is going to be less provocative to the Russians than we have seen in the last. 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, when again, as we've continually encircled them. With NATO. See, I never.

There could be individual instances. I don't remember. I remember Barack Obama coming into office, and in order to show everybody he wasn't George Bush, he took missile defense out of Eastern Europe, of Poland and I think the Czech Republic or another one of those Eastern European countries. And I thought he goes, I want to show him that I'm a new guy. Let's start fresh.

But then you put it back in 2014. He put missiles back. I don't remember that, but you know what? I'm glad he did. Because after that invasion.

When he took Crimea, and Obama's reaction was anemic. It was MREs and it was sleeping bags. Right, right. Just like the red line in Syria. Obama policies in many ways set the stage, got us ISIS, set the stage for what we're seeing right now in Ukraine, and certainly set the stage for what happened in 2023 on October 7th.

I don't want to talk too global because I know there's not a lot of interest in international affairs, but how do you feel about this? While we're trying to evaluate what we do with Syria. Eneran The most loyal people to us in that area. of the Kurds. And I was talking to Congressman Brian Mast, and he said, you know what?

I don't care what happens out of there. You know, it's got to be better than Assad. But can we finally carve out an area for the Kurds and the hell with what Turkey wants? Turkey has not been a good ally to us anyway. The Kurds have.

The Kurds have been the best friend of the United States. And Jordan doesn't mind it, evidently. And like the Armenians, they have been slaughtered and they have been abused for and And human rights atrocities for the last century, if not more. I mean, actually, going back to the 12th, 13th century.

So, if we can find a way, the question is: how much can we chew off at one time? I think the biggest objective right now is to clear hold and build in Gaza. The biggest objective for the United States in that region is to get Hamas out of Gaza and to figure out a rebuild strategy. I would love, and I would completely support carving out an area for Kurds, but you know, Turks. Yeah, that's next.

I mean, playing that game in Syria with the Turks trying to move in is going to be tricky, but you know, sign me up for that if we can figure out a way to do it. We're going to take a short time out, come back with Julian Epstein and your phone calls. Actually, no, no phone calls next.

So, don't get online. Save it for tomorrow. Of course, we got the big speech tonight. I want everyone to follow it. And I want everyone to meet me March 22nd in St.

Louis, History of Liberty, and Labs on stage. It's going to be a patriotic, inspirational, motivational night like never before. I want to see everyone in St. Louis and then in Dayton, Ohio, in June, go to BrianKillme.com. It's all done in conjunction with Fox Nation.

Don't move. Diving deep into today's top stories, it's Brian Kilmead. Sponsored by Previgen. Previgen made for your brain. I read like five pages of Wired and I went, Oh my god.

They framed Nixon. Like, all of a sudden, I went, oh my gosh, if this is what he writes about my friend that I've known for half my adult life. Yeah. Which is completely inaccurate, talking to like the people of the outer circle getting the story. What the hell could they have done to Nixon?

I just felt like If he did this to my friend like this, And I I acknowledge I only read five pages, but the five pages I read, you know, made me wanna like set fire to the whole thing.

So, Bill Murray is talking about the book on John Belushi after he died that Bob Woodward wrote. And Bob Woodward, he said, if Bob Woodward got this, if he's got John Belushi so wrong and he knows he's wrong, what do you think he did to Nixon? And I'll tell you, you know the whole Reagan thing, Reagan-Contra. I talked to William Casey's family. I got a chance to meet his daughter because he was obsessed with Washington spies.

I didn't know this. And. And the and William Casey's husband, his daughter's husband, was the The key assistant to William Casey's entire life.

So he was almost the same age. And William Casey, they say, gave him all the details about how Reagan knew about Iran-Contra. And they swear, they said this never happened. He didn't sneak into the hospital room. William Casey was incapable of talking and telling the story.

Remember that controversy? You were probably in Washington. Yeah. So I'm just saying, and then Bob Woodward missed the Joe Biden that is cognitively declining in his book about Washington that he just put out last year that had a little Trump come back and a little Biden in presidency. Yeah.

All of the news media did, including Bob Woodward, and I think Bob Woodward Woodward has a fair amount of egg on his face for that, as does Jake Tapper, who's now trying to clean it up. in the book. You know, I remember when I wrote And just a little closer than myself. Wall Street Journal Two years ago now, that Biden shouldn't run. The reaction that I got was just unbelievable from news media sources, people in the Democratic Party.

Which is Thank God you said that.

Somebody needs to say that Biden shouldn't run. It's clear to all of us. You can see it in his press conferences. You can see it when he calls on dead Congresspeople. You can see it when he mixes up names of foreign leaders.

It's so obvious that he does not have the mental capacity to even finish this term, never mind a second term. And then I would always say to them, including members of Congress, I would say, well, why don't you just say something publicly? And nobody would say anything publicly. And this is the problem. In not just the news media, but the Democratic Party.

Let's start with the Democratic Party first. As we were just talking about, they know these woke policies on border, on DEI, on the welfare state that Musk is trying to trim, on the managed decline of the United States globally. They know these things are wrong. They know these things are out of step with the common sense and out of step with voters, but they are too scared to stand up and say, We're going to be for competence. In the same way, they were too scared to stand up and say, Biden shouldn't run.

Don't you think there's a push now for the middle to take over the Democratic Party? Listen to Fareed Zakaria on Bill Maher last on Sunday, CUP 39. To be fair, this is being fair. No, no, this is a huge Democratic Party problem. If you look at Democratic cities, they are terribly run.

They have incredibly high taxes. It is impossible to build.

So the cost of housing. I'll give you a chance. The cost of housing is crazy in places like New York and Chicago. If you look at democratic states, you go look at New York versus Florida, roughly the same population. The budget of New York State is twice that.

of Florida. What do they have? Streets paved with gold? I live in New York. I pay the highest taxes in New York.

You get nothing for it. And I think that is the image people have of the Democratic Party. Lots of taxes, lots of regulation, but nothing gets done. Can you believe they're saying this? He would never have said this before the election.

Well, people, very few people had the guts to stand up and say the Democrats were. All wrong before the election. They were a party that. Can't govern. They're a party that can't build.

Look at what happened in Los Angeles with the fires. They're a party that is wed to far-left ideologies that are out of step with common sense. And very, very few people were willing to say that. The question now is to the conversation you're displaying: do the Democrats have the ability to change? They don't because the far left, the shadow government inside the Democratic Party, is too strong.

Julian Epstein, thanks so much. By the way, Mayor Bass lied. There were 12 emails telling her not to go because the fires were bad, and she went to Ghana anyway. She told the exact opposite story last week. She should be gone.

Frank Kill Meeto. 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.

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