Fauci Exposed: "He Recommended Shutting Everything Down!"

Summary

Brian Kilmeade Show – “Fauci Exposed: ‘He Recommended Shutting Everything Down!’”

Date: July 28, 2026
Host: Brian Kilmeade (FOX News)
Notable Guests: Lt. Col. Allen West, Congressman John James, Michael Alfonso, Mike Watley, Jeff Lax, Mike Summers

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the newly released pandemic diaries of Dr. Anthony Fauci, which, according to Brian Kilmeade, reveal Fauci’s true role in pandemic-era lockdowns, alleged personal egotism, and attempts to cover up U.S. involvement in gain-of-function research. The show expands to cover major domestic political contests—with a focus on Wisconsin and Michigan—American foreign policy in the Middle East and Ukraine, and controversy over the Democratic Party’s shift toward socialism. The episode also marks the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham, with live reactions and tributes throughout the show.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Anthony Fauci’s Pandemic Diaries and Lockdown Policies

• Main Claims:

  • Fauci’s diaries, recently made public, allegedly show he pushed for widespread lockdowns in cities and schools, contradicting his public denials.
  • Kilmeade characterizes Fauci as “self-obsessed” and accuses him of lying (00:30, 34:28).
  • Kilmeade implies Fauci’s diary also reveals suspicions about COVID-19’s lab origin, and suggests Fauci misled the public on this point (34:53, 89:24).
  • Quote:
    • “He recommended locking everything down. He was bragging in his diaries that he convinced Gavin Newsom, Ann Leary, and Bill de Blasio to lock down their respective cities and states.” — Brian Kilmeade (34:53)

• Memorable Critique:

  • “Who kind of idiot would write 1100 pages in a diary, have it subpoenaed, at which time he not only reveals he's an egomaniac…along with policy decisions showing that he thought it came from the lab, telling us it came from the wet marketplace, knowing that it came from…China…” — Kilmeade (35:17)

• Political Angle:

  • The release is framed as a watershed moment for holding Fauci and broader pandemic policy makers accountable.

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2. Tributes and Reflections on Senator Lindsey Graham

• Background:

  • The episode broadcasts during a national mourning period for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (71, recently deceased), with his casket lying in state in the Capitol rotunda.

• Personal Stories and Character:

  • Graham is praised for foreign policy activism, reaching across the aisle, and military service.
  • Quote:
    • “When most of us talked about, you know, going home for Christmas or celebrating Christmas…he said, think I'll go to Ukraine. I think I'll go to Afghanistan, I'll go to Iraq.” — Kilmeade (02:51)
  • Guests recall Graham’s humor and personal warmth.
    • “Growing up in a pool hall in a bar left him with a terrific sense of humor…a vast arsenal of up country South Carolina phrases.” — Lt. Col. Allen West (08:53)
  • Discussion of his influence on military and foreign policy, and GOP concern over who can fill his role (20:05–20:59).

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3. American Foreign Policy: Iran, Ukraine, Israel

• Iran Crisis:

  • President Trump’s approach characterized as aggressive and uncompromising—destroying Iranian assets, pushing for a hard line (03:10–06:57, 67:21–68:25).
  • Quote:
    • “We have destroyed their navy, we've destroyed their air force, we've destroyed their leadership…And right now they're talking to us about making a deal. But if we didn't do it, tough, there would be no talk.” — Trump, as played by Kilmeade (03:10)
  • Discussion of alleged bluffs in Iranian public statements versus what the administration claims is happening behind closed doors.

• Ukraine War:

  • Focus on Ukraine’s military successes (taking out Russian refineries, drone warfare).
  • Quote:
    • “The Ukrainian army has really stymied Vladimir Putin and probably surprised him in more way, shapes, forms and fashions.” — Lt. Col. Allen West (24:43)
  • Speculation about the eventual internal collapse of Putin’s regime (24:43–25:51).

• US Military Readiness:

  • A back-and-forth on whether the US has enough missile interceptors to handle a wider conflict (22:16–22:42, 67:21–68:25).

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4. Domestic Politics & 2026 Midterms – The “Socialist Surge”

• Democratic Party Divisions:

  • Recurrent theme: The Democratic Party is “divided” between establishment moderates and ascendant DSA/progressive far-left.
  • Noted DSA proposals: abolishing the Senate, ICE, Pentagon, prisons; open borders; Medicare for All (01:55, 29:06, 30:14, 75:21).
  • Quote:
    • “They want to abolish the Pentagon. That means…to provide for the common defense, they want open borders. They don't care about our national sovereignty…” — Lt. Col. Allen West (27:42)
  • Left-wing Democrats in competitive primaries are discussed as a liability in general elections (10:50, 75:26).

• Republican Strategic Messaging:

  • Heavy emphasis on branding the far-left as “Marxists” or “communists.”
  • Messaging around “freedom, family, faith,” “affordability,” “restoring American values,” especially to counter youth attracted to progressive politics.

• Michigan and Wisconsin Spotlight:

  • Haley Stevens vs. Abdul El Sayed in Michigan Senate race as a proxy for party direction (02:01, 10:50, 75:26).
  • Wisconsin’s 7th District: Michael Alfonso emphasizes countering “youth communist movement” (12:37–18:24).

• Notable Interview:

  • Michael Alfonso, 22-year-old Republican running in Wisconsin, on the importance of youth Republicans fighting “communism” (12:37–18:24)
    • “I'm here to stop that youth movement because we need youth voices to stop the youth communist movement.” — Michael Alfonso (12:37)
    • Alfonso and Kilmeade discuss the challenge of engaging disaffected youth vis-à-vis AI, economic opportunity, and generational divides (16:02–17:45).

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5. Senate/Gubernatorial Races and Policy Debates

• North Carolina Senate Race:
  • Interview with Mike Watley, former RNC chair, running for Senate. He accuses opponent (Roy Cooper) of far-left radicalism for releasing prisoners, supporting “radical trans policies,” and anti-police legislation (40:56–49:05).
  • Watley outlines strong support for voter ID, election integrity, and “working family tax cuts” (46:16–48:56).

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6. Energy Security and Global Oil Markets

• Guest segment with Mike Summers (American Petroleum Institute):
  • Analysis of the impact of Middle Eastern conflicts (Strait of Hormuz, Houthis in the Red Sea) on global oil prices and logistics, and how the US and allies are working to bypass choke points with pipelines (56:03–61:49).
  • America’s new energy independence and shift in oil/gas production paradigm highlighted.
  • Additional discussion on Venezuela’s re-entry into US oil markets (63:36–65:31), the importance of domestic refining, and challenges facing farmers due to high diesel and fertilizer costs.

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7. New York City Progressive Politics & Socialism in Practice

• Rise of DSA/“Socialist” Leaders:
  • Focus on New York mayor Mandami (Uganda-born), pushing for city-run grocery stores, property taxes on “the rich,” endorsing DSA radicalism (92:30–101:01).
  • Jeff Lax (CUNY Law) critiques Mandami for activism over governance, highlighting anti-Israel rhetoric and new socialist policies: “He does not want New York City to succeed. He wants New York City to fall.” (101:01)
  • Memorable exchange about “abolishing the Senate”:
    • “[DSA wants to] abolish the Senate. Do people understand that that means no state representation? One of the most brilliant things that our amazing founding fathers did for our country would be gone.” — Jeff Lax (102:32)

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8. Listener Calls and Coda

• Affordability, Oil Subsidies, and the Prospect of US Action
  • Listeners ask why, if the US is the world’s #1 oil producer, Americans do not receive discounted gasoline like Middle Eastern or Venezuelan citizens (90:17–91:29).
  • Kilmeade opposes government price intervention but is sympathetic to the challenge under wartime conditions.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Brian Kilmeade on Fauci:
  • “He recommended shutting everything down and you wrote it in your journal, you egomaniac.” (01:27)
• On Democratic Socialist Agenda:
  • “Abolish the Senate. Absolutely. Abolish ice. That is Megan Romer. …Can it work in a purple state of Michigan?” (01:55–02:01)
• Lt. Col. Allen West on Graham’s Character:
  • “You always knew where you stood with him, and you always knew where he stood on an issue.” (20:05)
• Lt. Col. West on the Democratic Left:
  • “When you continue to hear this word ‘progressives’, this is what European communists rebranded themselves as at the turn of the century...” (30:14)
• Michael Alfonso, on fighting the left:
  • “If we're gonna win this country, if we're gonna save it…we need to win young people.” (15:28)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Opening and The Big Three (Fauci, DSA/Progressives, Lindsey Graham): 00:00–03:00
• Fauci Criticisms: 01:27, 34:28, 34:53, 89:24
• Discussion on Lindsey Graham’s Legacy: 02:39–09:19, 18:54–20:59
• Foreign Policy (Iran, Ukraine): 03:10–08:55, 21:08–26:00, 67:21–68:25
• Domestic Politics/DSA Critique: 10:50–11:42, 27:14–32:03, 75:21–76:07
• Michael Alfonso Interview: 12:37–18:24
• Mike Watley on NC Race: 38:53–50:39
• Mike Summers (API) on Energy: 56:03–66:07
• Jeff Lax/Jewish Rights/NYC’s Socialist Shift: 92:30–103:57
• Listener Calls and Closing Thoughts: 90:17–91:29, 104:55–107:56

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Summary Tone & Language

• Tone: Combative, urgent, at times personal, blending right-leaning political advocacy with news discussion.
• Language: Punctuated with jabs at political opponents (“egomaniac,” “radical,” “Marxist”), frequent appeals to “common sense,” “freedom,” and the “American way.”
• Flow: Segments move briskly between policy critique, campaign strategy, memorial tributes, and analysis of local, national, and global issues.

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Takeaways for Non-Listeners

• This episode is less about settling legislative debates than about drawing ideological lines for the 2026 midterms, with Fauci’s diaries positioned as a touchstone for broader critiques of government overreach and lack of accountability.
• The GOP is presented as the defender against “radical youth socialism” and “DSA Marxism,” especially in swing states, and as a champion of energy independence and American military primacy.
• The passing of Lindsey Graham is used to reflect on GOP foreign policy leadership and the continuity of hawkish, interventionist stances.
• Guests and callers reinforce themes of rising American socialism, dangers to free enterprise, and the enduring struggle for “common sense” governance.
• Fauci is depicted as emblematic of pandemic-era failures which, together with the leftward shift of the Democratic Party, motivate the GOP’s charge toward the 2026 elections.

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This summary highlights each major topic, captures representative quotes, gives timestamps, and mirrors the passionate, sometimes polemical style of the episode.

Transcript

[Brian Kilmeade]

From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division, it's Brian Kilmeade. Hey, we are back. Hi, everybody. Brian Kilmeade here. Thanks so much for listening. We got a big hour coming your way. We've got Michael Alfonso with us now. He's running in Wisconsin, the seventh district. He is one of the people that wants to take that purple state and get another red seat in there. Lieutenant Colonel Allen West. the bottom of the hour, we'll talk about that big Senate race, but President, it's going to be a big day. President, United States just joined us on Fox and Friends. We're going to bring back some of those highlights. He discussed the war in Iran. He discussed Lindsey Graham's memory. Um, and he also discussed what's happening in Ukraine as well as this Anthony Fauci stuff. I just gotta tell you, everyone's talking about the YouTube channel, so go to it. If you ever missed the show. You just want more highlights. YouTube.com Hebron Kilmeadeshow but for this show, let's get to the big three stories. Number three, I wonder if you would recommend locking down schools if you had to do it all over again. Well, you know, again, it's. First of all, I didn't recommend locking anything down.

[Mike Watley]

You're asking me questions.

[Brian Kilmeade]

You're talking about the CDC is the public health agency. You recommended shutting everything down and you wrote it in your journal, you egomaniac. Anthony Fauci's Pandemic diaries released over 1000 pages. They reveal an insecure, self obsessed little man who did more damage to this country while lying to all of us and possibly covering up his own culpability. When it comes to gain of function research, could accountability start today?

[Mike Watley]

Number two, abolish the Senate.

[Brian Kilmeade]

True.

[Mike Watley]

Okay.

[Congressman John James]

Replace the presidency and Supreme Court as

[Mike Watley]

we now know them.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Yep. Abolish ice. Absolutely. Well, that is Megan Romer. She runs the DSA GOP hopes of flipping the Senate. Voices and rules like that, and they are front and center as President Trump contrasts the free market message of the Dems and their push for socialism policies. In a purple state, it wins in deep blue. But can it win in a purple state? The primary next Tuesday says a lot. Haley Stevens, a liberal Democrat, squares off against a radical. Abdul El Said the winner there will actually show us the direction the Democratic Party.

[Congressman John James]

Number one. As a young man, I lost. My parents struggled financially and emotionally, and I would not have made it through those times without you.

[Brian Kilmeade]

And the example my parents set for me, Senator Lindsey Graham, on how his parents inspired him. A final goodbye to Graham appropriately brings together our two wartime leaders, our allies, Zelensky and Netanyahu, as they first huddle with President Trump for the game plan going forward in their wars, while saluting the man that always had their back. It's gonna be a big day, and I think the President, United States has a eulogy. He's gonna be talking. Sean Hannity is gonna be speaking about Lindsey Graham. And then they have world leaders in the audience. I talked to the supreme ally, excuse me, the General Secretary of NATO. He talked about Lindsey Graham. You have world leaders. You know why? Because this guy was a consequential senator. He wanted to make an impact. When most of us talked about, you know, going home for Christmas or celebrating Christmas, taking a few days off, he said, think I'll go to Ukraine. I think I'll go to Afghanistan, I'll go to Iraq. And when he wasn't serving as a senator or congressman, guy served in the military, he was in the reserves. So he and was a lawyer. And all he wanted to do is make an impact. The President just said, you know, jokingly, he loved war. Not really. I think that he liked peace. And he thought an opportunity to bring peace was confronting our enemies. And what he loved about the President is that he confronted our enemies directly and demanded our allies do their fair share and pull their own weight. And that's what I think Lindsey Graham really enjoyed because he was so unorthodox in the beginning. Couldn't figure the President out, but they gained, they became fast friends. President said he was like family. I mean, that he doesn't say that much about anybody. So. And I hear, according to reports, that his mortality is something that's really come up in his mind because, as you know, he's 80 and he thought Lindsey Graham was going 100 miles an hour like he does all the time. He said, this guy, yeah, I knew he wasn't a picture of health, but I also knew that the senator was robust. Endless energy. When he wasn't golfing with him, he was out and about in Ukraine. So the President actually knows that Ukraine could be coming to a head at the same time Iran is in a three day pause. If they want to lengthen that pause, they got to show great progress when it comes to the nuclear program. Now I'm reading today, coming public, the Iranian saying publicly, we're not even talking to President Trump. President Trump just said, that's ridiculous. Of course we're talking to him. I have no idea why they keep saying things like this. Cut one. We have destroyed their navy, we've destroyed their air force, we've destroyed their leadership, we've destroyed their anti aircraft weaponry. Their drones are being made at a rate of about 7%. We destroyed most of their drone manufacturing capability, their missile manufacturing capability. And right now they're talking to us about making a deal. But if we didn't do it, tough, there would be no talk. Yeah, but they do have missiles, they do have rockets and they were able to hit our bases. And a lot of the precision comes from, I believe Russia and China. A lot of the rebuild comes from China, a lot of the precision and in the satellite technology that allows them to be effectively, in some cases hit our bases in Kuwait and now their new focus is Jordan. That's what's allowed to happen. But so far there's been none of that. And there's actually not been any confrontations in the Strait either. I'm not sure what goes on. I don't see like you don't see a lot of video. Here's General Wesley Clark on the IRGC who he feels that they are the ones in charge. Cut 7. The IRGC feels that they're winning. We have not opened the Strait of Hormuz. And so from their perspective, they're on top. We're the dimandur. So I think we have to really pose this in the starkest terms to the American people. It's a get in or get out time. It's really not about the munitions.

[Mike Watley]

It really isn't.

[Brian Kilmeade]

It really isn't. We have enough. And that's why that New York Times story was so disturbing because it tells our enemies radam munitions interceptors. That's why we're not amping up with this massive hit. It really isn't. We'd like to have more. We always, we made that clear. We'd like to have more. You know, the President said like three or four emergency meetings with our weapons manufacturers and now we're having Japan help with our patriots. They have our license. And now we're going to have the Thaad missile system and the Patriot missile system allowed to be, is going to be allowed to be built by the Ukrainians and they got to sell some of it back to us or give some of it back to us. So this is the deal. The President's going to give them a few days. If they start hitting ships again, merchant ships again. I think he's going to have to have no choice but to amp it up or just go out and Utterly obliterate all their nuclear sites and physically open up the strait, if not blow up their infrastructure. So we'll see where that stands right now. And Zelensky coming into town proving that Russia is helping. And then Prime Minister Netanyahu says, I have schemes and information about pickaxe that the president doesn't have. But then the president just made this clear on Fox and Friends that he goes, if he wanted to tell me that, he could have told me that in private. Why did he tell the press that? So this is interesting. They have an interesting dynamic. All right, so about Lindsey Graham. We'll talk about that. Karl Rove weighed in on Lindsey Graham. Now, keep in mind, Lindsey was in Congress when he was an impeachment manager against Clinton, but still helped Bill Clinton when he survived the impeachment pass a lot of his legislation called member. He was a vital member of the three amigos going overseas during the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. And he played a vital role. Meanwhile, he was friends with John McCain who often was at loggerheads with Bush and always with Obama. Call Rove. Remember that. Cut 17. President was absolutely right.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

Lindsey could be hilarious.

[Mike Watley]

I mean, growing up in a pool

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

hall in a bar left him with a terrific sense of humor and a vast arsenal of up country South Carolina phrases to deploy at his will.

[Mike Watley]

Is a very funny guy.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Right. And here is Darlene Graham, who is now serving his Senate seat and I think is going to be running and a favor to win six years in the Senate seat. Talked about Lindsay. Cut 12.

[Congressman John James]

I remember that day Lindsay came running

[Brian Kilmeade]

in and just grabbed me up and hugged me. And he was like, I am so sorry. He said, but it's going to be okay. I'm going to take care of you. And he did. He's always been there for me no matter what. And it's the same with the people of South Carolina. Yeah. So I think that she evidently is really clued in on policy, domestic policy. And I think that she's got the whole Lindsey Graham team around her. I think she's gonna be successful. So I wanna talk a little bit about the Senate race. It's the race for the Senate Democratic nomination in Michigan. It's Abdul El Sayed against Haley Stevens. Stevens is liberal. Don't let anyone say she's moderate. She's not moderate. She's a liberal. She's with Obama and the administration that was not a liberal, that was not a moderate administration. As you know, she's got a bizarre way of communicating somewhat sincere. But Abdul El Sayed has Got an agenda. And his agenda is being fueled by Bernie Sanders, aoc, Elizabeth Warren, all backing and endorsing against more traditional the Senator Peters who's evacuating that seat, Governor Whitmer, the Governor of Michigan, very powerful Senator Chuck Schumer. Bottom power, not a lot of popularity. But still this is going to go down to the wire. Money is pouring in for Stevens because they fear El sayed be unelectable against Mike Roger. But he wanted to make it clear he's a capitalist. Really. Cut 21.

[Michael Alfonso]

Working with a diverse community of people,

[Brian Kilmeade]

you come to realize that not every solution fits the same way.

[Michael Alfonso]

You've got to be thinking about a

[Brian Kilmeade]

solution in the right way when it comes to the question of socialism. I'm not a socialist. I'm just a capitalist who understands how capitalism works. The biggest threat to capitalism was never the idea of government regulation.

[Michael Alfonso]

It was always monopoly.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Yep. That makes no sense. There's much more to it. Free market as opposed to socialistic market terms of Medicare for all. That's what you believe. That's what you believe. Abolish ice. I mean how soon till he says if he gets the job? Abolish prisons. It seems to be right around the corner. All right, when we come back, I want to talk about a candidate in Wisconsin looking to take that purple state and take the 7th district and make it red. Michael Alfonso joins us. The sole Trump endorsed candidate. He's going to be on with us live. Don't move. It's Brian Kilmeade.

[Mike Summers]

Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% off your first purchase at Fox News WineShop.com with code FNY Radio 2020. Discount excludes wine club offers and cannot be combined with any other promotion. Expires July 31, 2026.

[Jeff Lax]

Must be 21.

[Mike Summers]

Order to order. Please drink responsibly.

[Brian Kilmeade]

The more you listen, the more you'll know It's Brian Kilmeade. Well, there's always people. People are always saying inequality people in politics and young people would be the best. And that Michael Alfonso seems to hit on both fronts. He's running for the Wisconsin 7th district. Was actually was occupied for a while for Sean Duffy, his father in law, he is now the Secretary of Transportation. And Michael Alfonso joins us now. Michael, great to see you. Why do you want, why do you want to be Congressman? Why, why do you want to take this on at your young age at 22?

[Michael Alfonso]

Well, thank you so much for having me on, Brian. You know, honestly, I was never someone that was interested in running for office. And it's. It's what I've seen happen to the country even in just lifetime. You know, I had worked producing podcasts, I've worked in construction. And, you know, through all that, I actually met Charlie Kirk. And when he got shot, I realized there's a rot in this country that didn't exist five, ten years ago. And it's communism, it's socialism. This movement, it's violent. It's happening all over the country. You see these New York candidates winning their primaries. And here in Wisconsin, the number one candidate for governor is an avowed democratic socialist. I'm here to stop that youth movement because we need youth voices to stop the youth communist movement.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So you have Tom Tiffany is occupying that seat. He wants to be the governor. Right. What advice has he given you or has he.

[Michael Alfonso]

Well, you know, I get to talk to him a lot. He's a great guy. He's very busy on the campaign trail for governor. But, you know, he's told me, be yourself. Go out there, be yourself and live by your Wisconsin values. Everyone from northern Wisconsin, we believe in faith, family, and freedom. And let the voters know that's what you stand for.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So you got President Trump's endorsement. What does that mean?

[Michael Alfonso]

I mean, it means the world. I remember sitting in, in a line out in Wausau, Wisconsin, for about four hours and not getting into a Trump rally in 2016. And now, you know, I get to sit down with him. He interviewed me for the endorsement. Now he believes that I'm the person that, you know, deliver for Northern Wisconsin. It's quite a humbling thing.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So what kind of advice did the Duffy family give you? And what about Sean Duffy in particular?

[Michael Alfonso]

You know, the Duffy's are amazing. I'm so blessed to have, you know, married their daughter. And, you know, I always like to think of myself as part of the family, but the best advice they gave is just be yourself again. You know, a lot of politicians, they try to be something they're not or try to, you know, make promises that they can't deliver on. Be yourself and always stand true to your values.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So what was. What does Wisconsin need? What do you plan on delivering? What do you see that that's lacking?

[Michael Alfonso]

Well, Wisconsin needs the Trump agenda. So right now we have a Congress that is fighting President Trump's executive orders, his legislation, every step of the way. But when we look at the working families tax cuts and all the other great pieces of legislation that Trump passed, Wisconsin families on average are getting $3,000 more on their tax returns and $10,000 a year more in take home pay. We need congressmen who are gonna fight with President Trump. And that's what I'm gonna do.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So what do you do different than the other Republican primary nominee, Kevin Hermaning?

[Michael Alfonso]

You know, I would say that when we look at this country, the biggest problem we have is that radical rise of communism. And it's coming from people that look a lot like me. If we're gonna win this country, if we're gonna save it, not just this year, but 20 years in the future, we need to win young people. And that's been a crux of my campaign, making sure that these young people understand the promises of free stuff only lead to equitable suffering for everyone. My grandparents came here from Cuba. I know quite a bit about the rise of communism and we're seeing it right now in Wisconsin.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So when they were booing at the commencement addresses this spring, did it catch you by surprise? Because they were bo not the commencement speaker, when a commencement speaker would bring up AI. So what is it about your generation that doesn't seem to be embrace not everybody, but doesn't seem to be embracing the next, the next and what many people are saying the next industrial revolution.

[Michael Alfonso]

Yeah, I think this is a really interesting question because you do see a generational divide with AI. You have these young people that, you know, do all the supposed right things, they go to college, they end up with a whole lot of debt and they're coming out and they're hearing that these jobs might be taken away by AI. Now this is why it's so important to talk to young people, to get them involved in jobs that actually have value in the future. Not gender studies and basket weaving 101. You know, I do think this rise of AI is something that you need young voices involved in the decision making because we have a stake in this future. We, we're going to be dealing with whatever problems or good things come from it.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So our entry levels harder to get when you talk to your friends?

[Michael Alfonso]

Oh, absolutely. So when I came out of school in 2022, now mind you, it was the middle of the Biden era, I had a real degree, a math degree, and I was working construction to put myself through college. I ended up making more money going back into construction after college with a math degree than actually using it for the way I thought I would. And you know, when you talk about disaffected youth, I can understand it. You work very hard for this degree. You're, you're going to succeed. But Then you come out and you

[Brian Kilmeade]

find out I would have been better

[Michael Alfonso]

off not going to college.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So what is it like on this campaign stuff? What is the most frequent question asked of you?

[Michael Alfonso]

What are you going to do for me? You know, the number one concern I hear from voters is affordability, affordability, affordability. And, you know, I think sometimes the voters can look and they can see, you know, gas prices rising or some very specific thing and say, hey, we, we're not doing great. But really, I think President Trump has done amazing, especially here in Wisconsin. You, the numbers don't lie. Jobs numbers are up. Employment, unemployment is down. And I think really just talking to them about how important it is to have congressmen who are going to fight with President Trump.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Gotcha. Hey, best of luck, Michael. Really impressive young guy. You're running for the seventh district in Wisconsin. The primary is going to be August 11th. Michael, best of luck. Thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

[Jeff Lax]

Thanks.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Back in a moment, If you're interested in it. Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmeade. Well, he was a great guy. He was a great politician, actually.

[Mike Watley]

People don't understand.

[Brian Kilmeade]

He really was.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

He was able to bring people together.

[Brian Kilmeade]

If I needed a Democrat, he could usually produce that Democrat if I had

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

to have him in an emergency. He was a great politician and a great gentleman.

[Brian Kilmeade]

And I got along.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

You know, we started off a little bit on the rough side because he was campaigning in 2016 for the presidency, and we started a little bit rough, but then it got closer and closer.

[Brian Kilmeade]

It really ended up being a great

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

friendship, and it's very hard.

[Brian Kilmeade]

He's like, he really became like a

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

member of the family in a sense,

[Brian Kilmeade]

and he was just somebody that was very special. You don't have people like that.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

You don't see him often.

[Brian Kilmeade]

He said he loved to golf. That's when he did. It took a lot of their policy, had fun. And I asked him what kind of golfer he was. He goes, he tried hard. He wasn't, let's say, a natural golfer, but he tried hard. Lt. Col. Allen west joins us now. Colonel, one thing about Senator Lindsey Graham, he wasn't there just to get a paycheck. He was an impactful legislator. I mean, he, this guy cared about foreign policy. They went to the theater when everybody was celebrating Christmas and New Year's. He was always in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Ukraine. Did you appreciate that?

[Jeff Lax]

No.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

You absolutely have to. And it's good to be with you, Brian. And also a lot of people don't Remember, he was a member of the military. He was a JAG officer, Judge Advocate General officer. But the thing about Lindsey Graham, you always knew where you stood with him, and you always knew where he stood on an issue. And I think the void that you're going to see for the Senate GOP right now is who steps in and really is that hard charger and really understands foreign policy, national security policy, those things, because that was Lindsey Graham's, you know, portfolio. And also he was very well regarded and trusted by leaders of other countries. I mean, when he showed up, he got their attention and he was always able to come back and deliver that message. So that, to me, is going to be the big thing who can fill that void up there in the Senate that without a doubt has been left.

[Brian Kilmeade]

And, you know, because a lot of people knew that he could speak to the President. So if you're speaking to him, he wouldn't. The President wouldn't do everything he said, but he definitely would hear him out.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

No.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Yeah. So that, that was key. So when it comes to Ukraine, it seems to me that Zelensky has slowly but surely won the President over. It was explained to me that the President likes winners. And every day it looks more and more like Zelensky's coming, coming up winner.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

Yeah, without a doubt, you're seeing resolve, resiliency from Vladimir Zelensky and also from the Ukrainian people and Ukrainian military. And the fact is that, you know, they have really been inn on this battlefield and what they have been able to do and taking the fight to Russia. And now we see that they are taking the fight to Iran, going after one of their ships in the Caspian Sea because they understand this 21st century axis of evil, and they understand that many of the weaponized drones that Russia has been using have been coming from Iran. So I think that this meeting that President Trump's going to have with Zelensky, that can also benefit the front of this new battlefield that we have with Ukraine and seeing how they can assist with Iran and putting that pressure on Iran from a different avenue and from a different perspective.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So the story comes out in the New York Times about us not having enough interceptors. That's why the President held off. President said that's just not true. And he said it again today. It's just not true. So, yeah, we gotta pull some in from other theaters, but, you know, we'll have to do that, but we got plenty. It seems like we're ready to go. Would you like to just hit them harder? For 14 days, we really focused on taking out strategic places in the strait. This would be different.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

Well, without a doubt, we need to make sure. And that's something we probably should have thought about early on, because what's the main thing that the Iranians could do is lash out with ballistic missiles to our assets that are in the region. We should have repositioned some theater, high altitude air defense, thaad missile systems, you know, patriots and others. But I think right now we gotta find what we call in the military the sensitivity center of gravity at the strategic level we're talking about for the regime. You know, yeah, we decimated their navy, their air force. We hadn't done so much to their army. We're depleting, I would say, their drones and ballistic missile stocks. But now how do we really put the pressure on that regime from that strategic level of operations? And what are those key, you know, the Achilles heel for those folks. And that's what I think we should be focused on. That's where we should be pressuring. And I think the start and stop thing, we just got to, you know, stop doing that. I understand the concern about the gasoline prices, but these guys are going to continue to try to draw this out, saying, hey, can we stop? Can we talk a little bit? They have no intentions of following up and being honest with anything that is brokered, if you want to call it that, at some negotiating table. Because the people that have the power there is the Revolutionary Guard Corps leader. He's the one that has the power, without a doubt.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So in Ukraine right now, it seems like we've taken out, excuse me, the Ukrainians have taken out 29 of the 33 refineries they're starting. They're taking out their different weapons manufacturers. They've blown up countless numbers of ships with unmanned vehicles in the water, essentially drone ships. And now Vladimir Putin is evidently feeling the pressure inside Russia because they're running out of people to draft who basically will die as they get pushed into the front lines. But he does not want to quit. When one guy's in charge and can just protect himself, it makes you wonder, in what scenario do you see this ending?

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

I see it eventually ending much the same as it did for Benito Mussolini when the Italian people hunted him down, found him, and executed him. Vladimir Putin cannot, or, you know, he cannot continue to waste the resources of the Russian people, which are their sons. And it reminds me of that opening scene from the movie Enemy at the Gates when they were just throwing, you know, wave upon wave against the Germans. And if the young Russian Men tried to retreat and run back. I mean, then the Soviet army would shoot their own young men. So I think that that's where he finds himself. And I just don't think that it is viable. Economically, it's not viable. Militarily, it's not viable. And you know, the resilience again of the Ukrainian people. The Ukrainian army has really stymied Vladimir Putin and probably surpr him in more way, shapes, forms and fashions. But he's the type of arrogant, belligerent person that he's not going to give up. And I think at some point in time, China is going to have to look at him and say, hey, cut it off, because this is going in the wrong direction.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So we have this whole thing now with the midterm elections. People say, well, history will say that Donald Trump is a lame duck. Second term is not going to do well. It's only been two or three times when the party in power doesn't really pay the price by losing a chamber. And normally, okay, but then they had the redistricting, went heavily in favor of the Republicans. And then you have a situation where the Democratic Party National Committee, not as powerful as it used to be, is now $2 million in debt. They owe 16, 18 million and they've raised 16. So the money problem is a huge problem with the left left and the Republicans have a ton of it. You put back to that, and along with the rise of socialism, it might be game on. There's a panic among the left that Abdul El Sayed, the Michigan Senate candidate, might win because this is a guy. I'm not saying he's not smart, pretended to be a doctor. He is somebody who's very comfortable with Hasan Piker, who thinks we deserve 911 and says that Hamas is worse than Israel. And here is Abdul Syed saying something totally inappropriate about John Fetterman because he doesn't like the way John Fetterman voted. He says, when I get in there, I'll be able to put his head on a pike and basically send a message. I mean, pretty ridiculous. Listen to this. Cut 18. I was referring to a guy named John Fetterman who's a senator from Pennsylvania

[Michael Alfonso]

who has done terrible things, got elected

[Brian Kilmeade]

on a set of values and is now completely throwing those values in the mud. And I do think it's important for any senator in Michigan to have a

[Michael Alfonso]

relationship with folks who are in the U.S. senate.

[Brian Kilmeade]

And if those folks are not actually acting in accordance with what they got elected on, I think it's important for all of us to have an honest opinion about what we're going to do

[Michael Alfonso]

to make sure that our Senate looks

[Brian Kilmeade]

like the people it represents. So this guy is going to help the people in Michigan by going after a moderate senator from Pennsylvania?

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

Yeah, that's not going to work very well. Look, I think that there's something different in the atmosphere in this midterm election. You just brought it up. When you look at the struggles that the DNC is having to leverage their own headquarters building for loans to keep their ship afloat and this inner fighting that you see happening. The interview from the DSA co chair with Shannon Bream this past Sunday was horrific for them. And I think that the Democrats right now are scrambling because basically these Democrat socialists of America, they're talking about things that are unconstitutional. They're talking about destroying the fabric. Our rule of law, you know, Article one, Article two, Article three, they want to whitewash all of it. They don't want a Pentagon. That means that when you say in the preamble of the Constitution, we're supposed to provide for the common defense, they want open borders. They don't care about our national sovereignty and protecting it. No, I think that they are really in a bad shape in a bad way. And if they continue to believe that these candidates that they are putting forth in these primary elections are going to be successful nationally, I don't think so. So I really think that, you know, there's going to be moderate Democrats, independents, and of course Republicans. They're going to align themselves against this 30, 35%.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So here's Bernie Sanders talking about the left that he's, he's basically blowing up the Democratic Party. Cut 32. Yeah, that is what Rahm Emanuel is saying, who no doubt has the support

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

of millions of working class people.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Look, this is an argument. There's no, no debate. There is a strong division within the Democratic Party party. You have an establishment like Rahm Emanuel who are dependent on billionaire campaign contributors who want to maintain the status quo. Then you have a progressive movement, which by the way, what is getting these guys nervous is we are winning all over this country. The American people are tired of a rigged economy, a corrupt campaign finance system. They want real change. They don't want Rahm Emanuel and the establishment maintaining the status quo. So his people, I'm not, I haven't heard him say it yet. Want to abolish prisons. They want to abolish the border. Everybody here instantly becomes a citizen. They also want to abolish the Pentagon. So have no defense. They want to abolish the Senate and the Supreme Court and change the position of president. Besides that, I think they think they really love the country.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

Yeah, I mean, how are you going to take an oath to support and defend the Constitution and, you know, uphold the rule of law if you're saying that we don't even want that? And let's be very honest about something, when you continue to hear this word progressives, this is what European communists rebranded themselves as at the turn of the century, from the 19th to the 20th, for them to come in and be successful in America. That's who progressives are, they're communists. And when you really peel back the onion on the dsa, these aren't just socialists, these are Marxists. Socialism is an economic model. But as I think it was Vladimir Lenin once said, the end goal of socialism is communism. This is exactly where they're trying to take this country. As we educate more people on that, they will come to realize this is not a good thing. And look at how people are coming out against Mom Donnie. They don't even want him to be there at the 911 25th anniversary, remember?

[Brian Kilmeade]

But the thing is, Colonel, we know that's not communism. Communism, they love prisons. They put everybody in prison. They love borders. You're not allowed in, you're not allowed out. What's going on with what is this?

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

You and me are going to be in one of those prisons.

[Brian Kilmeade]

But that's not like her saying, no borders, no prisons.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

Yes.

[Brian Kilmeade]

I mean, that's not even communism. That's just idiocy.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

But it's not idiocy to them. And so again, I think that what you're seeing is the evidence of a mad, delusional, deranged 30 to 35%. And when Bernie Sanders said we're winning in these primaries, they're not winning by large margins. I mean, you have very low turnout in some of these primary races where they are successful. 17, 20,000 bucks. So I think that they're kind of drinking their own tub water and they're going to be poisoned by it because they're seeing themselves in a way that truthfully the rest of this country don't see them.

[Brian Kilmeade]

And lastly, just a flat footed tie right now between Tellarico and Paxson.

[Michael Alfonso]

Why?

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

Well, again, I think that, you know, there was the report on Fox Business talking about how great the economy is and people are moving here to Texas. People are moving into the major urban population centers. And if you look at the electoral map of Texas from 2024, President election broken down by county all the blue is in the major urban population centers and counties. That's what the problem is between Dallas county, where I am, Austin, Travis County, Houston, Harris County, San Antonio, Bexar County, El Paso. That's where you see the problems. And so I think that it's going to be tight because it's just a numbers game. But I believe that, you know, Paxton will prevail. But remember, ted Cruz in 2018 only beat Robert Francis O', Rourke, Beto O' Rourke by two point in 2018.

[Brian Kilmeade]

It's tough. You know, Texas, everyone says, oh, that's red. And they're, the economy's booming and that's where people go for free enterprise. But yet when it comes to the elections, it's such a diverse state, you can't, you can't count on anything. But I just hope, I know that a lot of people have bent out of shape in Washington, that it's not corny. I hope they understand that that's over.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

Yeah, yeah, they gotta get over. And Senator Cornyn needs to come out and endorse and support, you know, attorney general pac. And if he doesn't, then we may see a low turnout which that will, you know, help Talarico from, from our side.

[Brian Kilmeade]

I love Wesley Hunt to have won that. It's too bad. I hope.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

Yeah, me too.

[Brian Kilmeade]

I hope he does something else or at least the Trump team calls on him. Lt. Col. Allen west, thanks so much.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

Always a pleasure. You take care, Brian.

[Brian Kilmeade]

You got the casket of Senator Lindsey Graham has arrived at the rotunda in Capitol Hill where he spent so much of his time in his life. He passed away at the age of 71 two weeks ago, heart failure. We'll be talking about him and you know, he's been all over the show. He's been a fantastic guest on our show. He's been a fantastic fountain of information for me. And Insight have learned so much from our conversations and be able to talk more online than even on camera or on microphone. So we'll come back and talk about that. Brian Kilme Show. Diving deep into today's top story, it's Brian Kilmeade.

[Jeff Lax]

Radio.

[Brian Kilmeade]

That makes you think this is the Brian Kilmeade Show. I wonder if you would recommend locking down schools if you had to do it all over again. Well, you know, again it's, first of

[Mike Watley]

all, I didn't recommend locking anything down. You're asking me questions.

[Brian Kilmeade]

You're talking about. The CDC is the public health agency

[Mike Watley]

that uses their epidemiologist and their science

[Brian Kilmeade]

based approach to make recommendations. He recommended locking everything down. He was bragging in his diaries that he convinced Gavin Newsom, Ann Leary, and Bill de Blasio to lock down their respective cities and states. He told him that he tried it with DeSantis, DeSantis did it, then just turned it around and said, this guy's full of.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

Of it.

[Brian Kilmeade]

And then he did his own science and he found a scientist that he trusted and opened up Florida. And we know he was the first one to get ridiculed for letting people walk outside on the beach. Now Anthony Fauci's been exposed. Who kind of idiot would write 1100 pages in a diary, have it subpoenaed, at which time he not only reveals he's an egomaniac who loved the media. Love being on. He says, I'm the most famous man in America. I did the Fauci 5, the 5 Sunday shows. I did all 5 of them. Julia Roberts asked me to be in her podcast. She loves me. Says she gets nervous being around me. I actually explained Barbra Streisand how I let her play on my Alexa when I do some of my work, and she didn't know what Alexa was. And here's what I showed Barbra Streisand. This guy is absolutely insane. And for people not to have picked that out and for him to write this stuff down along with policy decisions, showing that he thought it came from the lab, telling us it came from the wet marketplace place, knowing that it came from. That it should be the Chinese virus because it came from China, the Wuhan flu or whatever you wanted. That's what it should have been called. So this guy, I mean, I hated him from almost day one. Almost day one. In the beginning, I think I gave him a day. And I never forget, he kept on with me. And they said to me, brian, you know, there's a. There's a doll, an Anthony Fauci doll. Ask him what he thinks of it. I was kind of reluctant, but I brought it up. And he quickly goes, you know, Brian, this is not the time for my doll or anything like that. We're in the middle of a pandemic and I feel terrible. The next day they play. I watch cnn. They play a mock of him on snl. They played it for him and he has the biggest laugh. I can't believe it. They're making fun of me on snl. This is such an honor. From the Fox News radio studios in midtown Manhattan. It's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade, everyone. I'm Brian Kilmeade from 48 and 6 in Midtown Manhattan heard around the country, around the world. We have a big hour, an important hour coming your way. Mike Summers is going to be with us from the American Petroleum Institute. Normally that's. Well, Brian was kind of interesting.

[Michael Alfonso]

Energy.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Is there anything more important in this country and around the world than energy these days with the problem with the strait and the Red Sea and everything else as well as American production? Bottom of the hour. Excuse me. At 10:50 we'll be doing a simulcast on FBN with Stuart Vorne. And right now we're observing a somber situation. The body and the casket of Senator Lindsey Graham is now, is now on the rotunda on Capitol Hill and they're honoring his life and legacy. The actual ceremonies begin at 1 o' clock today. The President's going to be giving the eulogy. Sean Hannity is going to be speaking, thinking it's impossible to overstate the impact he has. A senator, he wanted to be a part of almost every major decision in a positive way. There was no ego involved, just a guy who wanted to make an impact as a congressman and a senator and he just loved his job. The senator from South Carolina who's going to be replaced temporarily with his sister, who's now going to run for his seat when it's all said and done with me right now is a man who knew Senator Lindsey Graham well. He's a former RNC chair, Mike Watley. He is now the North Carolina Senate candidate in the Republican side. He's looking to fill that seed held by Thom Tillis. And now a race that was in double digits where he was down, is now within three or four points. A lot of has to do with the quality of the person, the candidate and how hard he works. Mike Watley, welcome back.

[Mike Watley]

It's good to be back.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So this isn't just a generic senator who sadly lost his life at the age of 71 for you, this guy you knew.

[Mike Watley]

Yeah, no, it is. And you think about what he was able to do do while he was in the Senate, let alone, you know, the service that he had in the House, the service that he had serving in the air force for 33 years. I mean, that's a guy who has been there for this country for a long time and a very close ally of President Trump.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Really, every race was tough. He leaned on you guys too, right? Because they had Jamie Harrison coming at him for a while in South Carolina, he was so focused on foreign policy. A lot of people in South Carolina like, hey, Focus on here. So it made elections anything but a layup, even though this one was going to be easy for him.

[Mike Watley]

Yeah. You know, I think if you think about Lindsey Graham, the one thing that comes to mind is common sense. And when you look at the elections that we're looking around the country at right now, you know, common sense versus crazy, it really comes back to the fold. And, you know, he was kind of one of the preeminent common sense guys in the Senate.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Yeah. And you saw him with the President elect lot.

[Mike Watley]

Yes.

[Brian Kilmeade]

What was that relationship?

[Mike Watley]

Well, I think, you know, the President liked him, the President relied on him, the President listened to him. I mean, look, the President listens to a lot of people and he talks to a lot of people, both in the administration and out of the administration. But, you know, what Lindsey was doing was being an honest broker and telling him what he was hearing, what he was seeing. And I think that that was an important inflection point for the President.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So you have an extremely important race because the Democrats keep saying, we're going to be able to flip, flip Georgia, we're going to hold Georgia, and we're going to be able to flip North Carolina. The Republicans say we're going to be able to flip possibly New Hampshire and possibly Michigan with Mike Rogers. But you're defying everyone's expectations. When you have a relatively popular governor, Roy Cooper, running. People thought Mike Wiley, you have your hands full and perhaps you do, but it was a double digit deficit when you got in. But in the PPP poll that just came out out, it's down to 4 points. In other polls, it is down to 3 points. What have you done?

[Mike Watley]

Well, what we've done is we've gone out and had a conversation. We've been to all 100 counties. You know, I have had meetings, I have had roundtables, I have had forums. We have been on the press. We have been out there talking and talking about Roy Cooper's record. This guy was the worst governor in the history of North Carolina. You know, this is a guy who released 4,200 criminals, hardened criminals, you know, felons out of North Carolina prisons because he didn't want them to get Covid. You know, this is a guy who released hundreds of people who committed assault, aggravated assault, assault with a deadly weapon, sexual assault, rape. You know, he released 80 people who had committed murder, 51 who were serving life sentences. What do you think happened? As soon as he put these people back on the streets, they went right back to their life of crime. You know, and we have seen 600 plus of the people that he released have been rearrest, arrested for those violent felonies. You know, and we've seen 25 who have committed murder after Roy Cooper released them. That's 25 empty seats at dinner tables around the state on Thanksgiving, on Christmas, on Easter, you know, for a long time to come because he put those criminals back on the streets. But this guy, radical transgender policies across the state. This is a guy who raised taxes as a legislator, vetoed six different tax cuts as a governor. And then he went out when he opened his campaign and said, I'm going to raise your taxes. Taxes. I would have voted against the one big beautiful bill, the working families tax cuts. You know, North Carolinians paid $5,700 less on tax day April 15 this year because of that bill. It's very popular. And Roy Cooper's out there saying, this is terrible. We can't have it.

[Brian Kilmeade]

And also, when you talk about building up the military, that resonates with a military state like North Carolina. Right?

[Mike Watley]

Yeah. 10% of the armed services. Right. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard are based in North Carolina. We have 720,000 veterans. So when, when Roy Cooper gets asked about our troops serving in the Middle east, he calls it absurd. That does not sit well. That does not sit well at all with our folks. You know, my, my positioning is pretty simple. I'm going to make sure that they have whatever they need in terms of supplies and support to carry out their mission around the world. It's an absolute shame that Roy Cooper is not going to be there for him.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So he decided he was governor. He's no longer governor now. He's running for the Senate seat. The Thom Tillis left. Has Thom Tillis been a help to you?

[Mike Watley]

You know, we, we. I talk to Tom on a regular basis and I think Tom will definitely be helpful. You know that right now though, this is about drawing a contrast with Roy Cooper. And we've never seen a Senate race with a bigger difference between the two candidates. You know, I'm going to fight every day to make sure that people make more and keep more. We need more jobs, better jobs, better take home pay. We need low inflation, we need low interest rates, and we need to make sure that we're getting the cost down for housing, for groceries, for gas, and we also got to keep taxes low. Roy Cooper is 180 degrees for me on every one of those. I've got the endorsements from the Police Benevolent association, the Highway Troopers association and Sheriffs all across the state, because I'm going to make sure we have safe kids and safe communities. Cooper lets all these criminals out, empties them out.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So there's a situation in the north, and that's where you are right now in New York, and I'm on Long Island. So many people that I know personally have moved to North Carolina, but I know in South Carolina, this was the case, they moved from the North. Could be great people, but it's a different culture. And there was a fear in South Carolina that you're losing a lot of that southern culture. And do you worry about that? Let alone people coming from the left who want to go to a state that's thriving like North Carolina?

[Mike Watley]

Yeah. You know, look, politically we're purple, right? We're 30% Republican, we're 30% Democrat, we're 40% unaffiliated, which is our version of independence. And we have always been that close. And so when we talk about how do you win an election, you know, what I need to do is the same thing I've told candidates for decades down in North Carolina. Listen to the voters, understand the issues they care about, put solutions on the table. You know, you can't go to the voters and tell them you're wrong. You can't go to the voters and tell them, hey, I know better. And that's what Roy Cooper is doing right now. That guy is running from the basement. He's been out to 10, 15 counties, maybe across the state. State. We've hit all 100 counties across that state. So, you know, every time somebody moves to North Carolina as a new mover, I view it as an opportunity to go and have a conversation with them and talk about what makes North Carolina better and how do we make it better for them.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So when do you guys have a debate schedule yet?

[Mike Watley]

No, we don't. You know, and. And I'm. I'm ready to go. I think we. We want to debate this guy. You know, I want to have a conversation with him and ask him straight up, why did you release 4200 cross? You know, why did you veto legislation to keep boys out of girls, sports and men out of women's locker rooms? You know, why, why, why? You know, there's a lot that he has to answer for to the voters of North Carolina for the state, for the positions that he's taken.

[Brian Kilmeade]

What about voter id? How does North Carolina handle it?

[Mike Watley]

We've got voter id, you know, and I had to fight all the years that I was the state party chair to get it implemented. Roy Cooper vetoed voter ID multiple times. He filed lawsuits as governor against it multiple times. He opposes the Save America Act. He does not believe in voter id. I do. I fought very, very hard to get it implemented in North Carolina. I built the first ever national election integrity program around the country for President Trump in 24 as the RNC chair. And I take election integrity very, very seriously.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So how do you, how do you feel about mail in voting?

[Mike Watley]

You know, North Carolina, we got a pretty small subset of absentee voters. Most of them tend to be troops overseas, which is exactly why you want to have mail in battle balloting. But our program in North Carolina, you have to request the ballot, you have to get the ballot, you have to cast the vote, you have to have a notary sign off on it with a witness, you have to mail it back in. And we have proper safeguards in North Carolina, again, because I fought as the state party chair to put those rules in place.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So, Harry Anton of cnn, you know, we know about tradition. We know that always, except for two or three times in the last 200 year, 100 years, that the party in power takes a hit on the midterms, especially with the president in his second term. And it looks like, you know, that's what we're looking at now because the Senate majority so low and. Excuse me. Yeah, the Senate majority maybe isn't as in jeopardy as the House, but has only about a three or four seat depending on the day and the injury and the illness on a daily basis. But with redistricting, that's changed things. Harry Enton weighs in. Cut 30. The biggest red flag.

[Mike Summers]

Look at this.

[Brian Kilmeade]

It's apathy. Not believing that Democrats can change anything because the impacts of Democrats Democratic policies on your cost of living. Only 41% say help, hurt or wouldn't change it. The clear majority, nearly 3 in 5, 59%. So when on perceptions of the economy, 59% think the Democrats would be worse, only 41% thinks they'll be better. But yet, when it comes to the economy, somehow Democrats grade higher than President Trump. Trump, how do you explain that?

[Mike Watley]

Well, I think that people need to see it, people need to feel it, people need to believe it, we need to have a conversation on it. You know, I've done a series of roundtables around the state talking about the provisions of the working family tax cut. We did a no tax on overtime roundtable. We did a no tax on tips roundtable. We did a no tax on Social Security roundtable where we're talking to the voters and generating important coverage across the state to talk about that bill because Roy cooperates. Cooper, you know, absolutely opposes it and he wants North Carolinians to pay higher taxes. That's been his agenda since the guy got elected 40 years ago.

[Brian Kilmeade]

How do you feel since Roy Cooper, you can't say is a, like a Bernie Sanders socialist. Where does he.

[Mike Watley]

I would disagree with. That guy is out there. I think that that guy is far more radical. North Carolina. He has expanded and pushed and pushed and pushed for expanded Medicaid. He would be very happy with Medicaid for, for all this is a guy who vetoed legislation to keep boys out of girls sports and men out of women's locker room. He vetoed legislation to block transgender mutilation surgeries.

[Brian Kilmeade]

On what about ice?

[Mike Watley]

You know, this, this is a guy who vetoed legislation to tell sheriffs that they have to honor ICE detainers and get violent criminals the hell out of North Carolina.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So the policy right now does not allow cooperation between ICE and police.

[Mike Watley]

He vetoed that bill. Fortunately, the legislature, Republican led legislature overrun, wrote it. But he is absolutely all about sanctuary cities and sanctuary policies. This guy fought harder for criminals, he fought harder for illegal aliens, and he fought harder for men who want to go in girls bathrooms than he did the people of North Carolina.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So look into the big picture because you used to do that as chairman of the rnc. Mike Whiteley, our guest. When you look at some of the most impactful Senate races, John Sununu, I don't know much about him except for he used to serve. Chris Sununu probably would have won. But how do you feel about John Sununu in New Hampshire?

[Mike Watley]

You know, we feel bullish. Right. You know, you want to have that conversation? It's very tough to win his family. Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's tough to win a federal race in New Hampshire, but if anybody can do it, he can do it. And that guy's out there running, you know, a common sense conversation up there. You know, you think about every one of these races right up in Michigan, Mike Rogers, you know where he's going to be running against, you know, Abdullah El Sayed Head, who is now want, you know, Fetterman's head on a pike. You know, he said that he did. You know, you talk about Maine, you know, where we've gone from Grand Platner to Grand Platner minus a tattoo, you know, with Jackson up there, you know, the Democratic Party, right, the socialist party that is taking over it right now. You know, that is the new face of this party. The voters don't want this. The voters want common sense. They want a strong economy, they want safe communities and they want a national security apparatus that's going to protect our interests and allies around the world.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So I just want to talk about something else that seems to be bipartisan worry and that it's building of data centers where, how many do you know how many are in North Carolina and how you would feel about it if a company wanted to come in and build them because you know how necessary they are.

[Mike Watley]

Yeah, look, I think the importance of it is, is that you do need to beat China when it comes to AI. We need to beat China when it comes to data. It's a national security issue, it's an economic security issue. But when you're talking about building, building an operation like this, you have got to ensure that you have the infrastructure, that you have the water, that you have the electricity and you're not going to have a disparate impact on, on the people of North Carolina or any other state.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Have you ever seen anything this personally in your life? Where we have cutting edge technology which is, which is the Internet, satellite technology. Usually it's older people that say, well, well I don't know, I don't use the Internet, I don't want to use an atm, I want to go to the bank, bank, you know, the Internet, everything's on the Internet. Now I don't want to order on the Internet, I want to buy things in person. That's usually older people. This is the first time we have a technology, an advancement where the 22 year olds are upset and they're worried about it. Have you seen that when you do all your talking and talk to young people, they're worried about AI and I know families are worried about the data centers. They've been doing things. Every time I do something on a data center, I, I get emails from every side of it. So this is one of the more intriguing issues as opposed to the knee jerk issues of common sense.

[Mike Watley]

Well, it is, but you also gotta remember that this opposition to data centers is not organic. This is being ginned up the same way that we saw opposition to energy projects around the country. You know, they're trying to build a new nuclear plant. All of a sudden people come out of the woodwork and they hate nuclear. You try and build a new natural gas plant. You know my opponent, Roy Cooper, who killed a natural gas pipeline that would have a massive, massive, you know, supply of clean burning natural gas down to North Carolina, you know, drove up electricity rates by 30% with his solar only programs while he's taking millions of dollars for him and his family from a solar sweetheart deal. You know that these things, you know, are not organic in terms of the opposite.

[Brian Kilmeade]

You can't run from AI and to slow it down, it hurt national security.

[Jeff Lax]

Right.

[Mike Watley]

You know, but at the same time, you've got to make absolutely sure that there's not going to be a disparate impact on the community when it comes to water, when it comes to no subsidies.

[Brian Kilmeade]

When it comes to electricity, no subsidies, tax breaks, but no subsidies.

[Mike Watley]

I think that makes a lot of sense.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Mike Watley, congratulations, man. Okay, double digits down. You just outworked everyone. Now you're in striking distance with President Trump looming in the background to help you out when you're ready. Mike Watley, thanks so much. Best of luck.

[Mike Watley]

Great to be on with you. Brian.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Back in a moment. Newsmakers and news breakers here at first

[Congressman John James]

first on the Brian Kilmeade show, Breaking

[Brian Kilmeade]

news, unique opinions, hear it all on the Brian Kill Me show. Hey, we are back. And one of the things that I was talking with Mike Watley about, I did not know that Governor Cooper was so to the left and right, was just basically somebody that was running the same race Joe Biden was running, pretend to be moderate but was running way to the left. Get rid of natural gas and any fossil fuels and fight back against and push these cultural issues that are usually against the norms. And the 8020 issue is men and women's sports. But in terms of where the Democratic Party's going, they keep on saying big Ten. Once in a while you get a Jim Carville, who and Van Jones, Bill Maher. These commentators, you know, these guys are outside. They say, guys, don't make this a big Ten. Bill de Blasio on America's Newsroom yesterday, the failed mayor of New York City cut 34.

[Mike Watley]

Bernie Sanders points out he names one establishment Democrat to talk about Rahm Emanuel.

[Jeff Lax]

Why?

[Brian Kilmeade]

Well, Rahm has been a part of most recent Democratic administrations and leadership.

[Mike Watley]

Should he be a part of the Big Ten party? Of course. But he does.

[Brian Kilmeade]

I want to say Bernie's critique is fair, that Romney's to understand and many Democrats need to understand that economic progressive populism is the way of the future. The American people want this. Now, you just not, in my view say everything the DSA says represents what the Democratic Party is about. No, but this core notion that we should be the party that fights for working people, that we're the party of working, working people. Not the party of billionaires, but most of the people that you have now are rich. Everything is flipped over. But working people is not the dsa. You saw the people that make up these socialists. They're underachieving, highly rich people. The Fed Fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmeade. I terminated Biden's disasters. CAFE fuel standards. You know what that is? That was a short road to bankruptcy for every single car company in this country and a total disaster that would have killed the internal combustion engine. They wanted it dead within five years. As long as I'm president that will never happen. But it's really, it's going in the opposite direction.

[Mike Watley]

Remember, we have a thousand year supply of gasoline.

[Brian Kilmeade]

China doesn't. China doesn't.

[Mike Watley]

We have a thousand years.

[Brian Kilmeade]

We have more gasoline, we have more oil. Now when you add Venezuela to it, we really have more oil. So that is President Trump yesterday talking about the economy in Michigan. Mike Summers with us now from the. He's the CEO of the American Petroleum Institute. And Mike, if I told you 10 years ago that I'd be excited when the CEO of the American Petroleum Institute was in studio, they'd be like Brian, what's wrong with you? Now I am because nothing more interesting to me than energy. Cuz it matters so much so and I love if people have a point of view that's good. I know what you're hoping for, but I just need the reality. We talked to the President two hours ago or an hour and a half ago and he said the straits open, that we're in control of the strait. But we're not getting many ships through the strait, are we?

[Mike Summers]

We are not even in the peak period of the Memorandum of understanding we were only getting about 8.5 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. And we believe our numbers suggest that it will take about 11 million barrels to get to where we were prior to this conflict. Remember there was about 20 million barrels going through. We've been able to replace a number of those barrels through pipelines through uae, through Saudi Arabia.

[Brian Kilmeade]

How do you do that so quickly? Well, are the pipelines there and you just decide to use them or you

[Mike Summers]

made them so they weren't at full capacity? It was cheaper honestly to get it through the Strait of Hormuz. So they just have started to use the pipelines at a level that they were built to produce this. So the real issue here is how do we maintain the capacity through those pipelines? Of course. But also we have to get the Strait of Hormuz open as quickly as possible or we're not going to be able to see the prices that we saw prior to the concert.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So I understand the Saudis, who immediately redirected when this first happened, happened to the Red Sea, and they got up to 8 million. 8 million barrels of oil, which is. They normally produce that a day. Eight million a day.

[Mike Summers]

Yeah, that's about right.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So now they got 8 million through the Red Sea. So we're okay. But now the Houthis and Saudis are skirmishing.

[Mike Summers]

So unfortunately, the Houthis have essentially shut down that path through the Red Sea

[Brian Kilmeade]

just for the Saudis, for everyone, for

[Mike Summers]

the Strait of El Mandab. So it's primarily for the Saudis. But, you know, it's very difficult. I mean, that's, that's the most significant oil is coming through there. You're able to get some Chinese tankers through that have negotiated with the Houthis,

[Brian Kilmeade]

which means they're paying them.

[Mike Summers]

It's essentially you're only getting. You should be getting about 2.5 million barrels out of the Strait of El Mandab. And if you can't get that through, you're going to continue to see continued high prices. I'll tell you, there is another route, though. They could go north through the Red Sea to the Suez Canal. Here's the problem with that. You can't get the very large ships through the Suez Canal because the draft is so deep that you can't get it through the Suez. The consequence of that is you essentially have to offload, load the oil from at the beginning of the strait, pump it through a pipeline, and then reload it at the other end of the strait. So the logistics are starting to get very, very difficult. You got to get the strait open, you got to get the Strait of El Mandab open, which is on the south side of the Red Sea, so that we don't have to use that other straight.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Other people have told me Suez, yeah, everything's what Mike Summer is saying is true, but little by little, the word is never depend on the strait like this again. Isn't that.

[Mike Summers]

Agree?

[Brian Kilmeade]

Yeah. So I don't care how this ends.

[Mike Summers]

About two months ago, API actually put out a framework. We called it the American Energy Security Framework. The whole idea here is there are a lot of things that we can do here in the United States to ensure that we can continue to produce here. But at the same time, we need to be focused on allies that so that we don't have to depend on the Strait of Hormuz, for example. You're already starting to see this. We're already seeing new pipeline networks develop in the Middle east that a number of American companies are partnered to. So we're able to get, get oil to avoid the Strait of Hormuz so they're not held hostage by the hostile Iranian regime. The other thing we really need to do is start focusing on Western Hemisphere development. Of course we have it here in the United States, but we should focus on other countries that have significant resources like Venezuela.

[Brian Kilmeade]

And every time I say things like that, they'll go, but yet, do you understand it's still a global price. So even if you're producing more in the west and it's more dependable Mexico and Canada, we're still hostage to the

[Mike Summers]

Middle east, but we're not nearly as hostage as what we were 20 years ago. The United States now produces almost 14 million barrels of oil every single day. That is a completely different story than what we were dealing with in the 2010 era. It's the fracking revolution, the innovation that has occurred here in the United States that has allowed us to deal with these international crises in a way so that you haven't seen the elevated prices that we would have seen prior to that American energy revolution.

[Brian Kilmeade]

What does it do that the UAE broke out at OPEC and that Iraq's considering it?

[Mike Summers]

So it's a very big deal that they did this. So what this essentially means is, is that OPEC sets the quotas in that block that says how much oil they can produce.

[Brian Kilmeade]

And it frustrates some of the countries,

[Mike Summers]

it frustrates a lot of the countries. And this has primarily been a Saudi dominated cartel for the last 40 years. So it's in the Saudi's interest that you keep the price artificially high, high, because they are the biggest producer in the Middle East. So what UAE has said is that they want to be able to produce more than their current quota, which is about 2 million barrels a day. Some people believe they could get up to as many as 5 million barrels a day, which would be a very big deal. And if you could then build a pipeline from UAE to get it to the delivery points that it needs to get to without using the Strait of Hormuz, that would allow UAE one, to become more, more economically independent. But two would provide another buffer for world oil supplies.

[Brian Kilmeade]

What about natural gas? Does that fall into your oscillation?

[Mike Summers]

Here's the yes, it absolutely does. So most of the natural gas that's produced here in The United States is what they call associated gas. You get the gas from the same hole that you're drilling oil from. So what that means is that the gas is a byproduct for oil production. The biggest problem that we have is that we don't have enough pipelines to move the gas from where it needs to be. From where it is to where it needs to be. Absolutely. Natural gas is a success story here. You haven't seen a significant change in the price of natural gas throughout this conflict. The reason why is because we are so abundant in natural gas in this country. The price of natural gas hasn't moved at all while you've seen these wild swings in the price of oil.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So there's also so many other uses for oil and gas, which you guys always told me too. So how are farmers dealing with this?

[Mike Summers]

Well, that's the big challenge. So farmers really do depend on diesel fuel in particular, and you're seeing a very high price prices for diesel. So this is bad for truckers, it's bad for farmers. Farmers are also dealing with a lot of higher input costs as a consequence of this, particularly on the fertilizer side, because we're just not producing enough fertilizer here in the United States for farmers to use.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So what is Venezuela coming online mean? Here's the president talking about Venezuela cut 57. Venezuela has been great. They've been doing a great job.

[Mike Watley]

We're working with them.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Take millions and millions of barrels of oil.

[Mike Watley]

Oil.

[Brian Kilmeade]

But they're doing well and we're doing well one day. You know, a lot of people are against that war.

[Mike Watley]

We don't want the vendors.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Why are you doing? What do you do?

[Mike Watley]

After we won in about 48 minutes

[Brian Kilmeade]

approximately, they said, oh, that was a good move. So what, what is Venezuela? We saw the rusting husk of what's a thriving oil industry. And some of the companies were reluctant to go in. What have they found? What are they doing?

[Mike Summers]

So here's the bottom line. We used to import about 100,000 barrels a day of Venezuel prior to the removal of Maduro. Today we're importing about 600,000 barrels. That has been a real difference maker for American consumers. Here's the other good part about that. The oil that's produced in Venezuela is a heavier quality of crude. The refineries in the United States were actually built to refine that heavy quality crude. We actually buy it at a discount. It's cheaper than what the advertised price is. We buy it at a discount and then we Refine it in American refineries that have American workers and then we sell it to American consumers, consumers at that same discount. So this is a very good thing for the United States and fits well into our plan so that we're producing more crude oil here in the Western Hemisphere with allies.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Have the companies let you know what the infrastructure is like there and have they begun fixing it because they were worried about fixing it and then some other dictator coming in and kicking them out again.

[Mike Summers]

So most of the oil that is being produced is being produced in areas that have been produced before this conflict. Lake Orange, Orinoco, and then offshore for natural gas. The real prize in Venezuela is in what's called the Orinoco Belt. The Orinoco Belt is that heavier viscosity oil. It's more expensive to produce. I think you will start to see significantly more investment now that they are getting their government back in shape. Chevron, Exxon, who, who's there while Chevron is the major player. They've been there for over 125 years. But you're seeing renewed interest from other companies as well.

[Brian Kilmeade]

All right, so we'll see if they get in there. But the feeling with security is that not a non issue.

[Mike Summers]

It's a huge, particularly post the Venezuelan earthquake. And we send our prayers to everybody that has been affected by that earthquake down there. The real issue is what's going on above ground. Are we going to have the stability of government that we're going to need that's going to provide the security that we need to continue to invest in this heavy project?

[Brian Kilmeade]

20 seconds. Russian refineries blowing up. Good for the war? Is it bad for your business?

[Mike Summers]

So what has essentially happened is you have about 10% of the world's refinement refiners offline right now. The good news is that the American refiners have really stepped up to the plate. We're operating at about 96% efficiency right now, which is record highs within the last decade. So we are helping to fill the gap. But the fact that so many refineries throughout the world, not just in Russia, but in other parts of the world, like in the Middle east, that's a, it's bad news for consumers.

[Brian Kilmeade]

He's the CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, Mike Summers. Thanks so much, Ruby. Really appreciate it.

[Mike Summers]

Great to be with you, Brian.

[Brian Kilmeade]

You have very important job. Keep it going. We do a simulcast with Stuart Varney in a moment. Don't move.

[Congressman John James]

Now. The Brian Kilmeade show joins Fox businesses. Varney Co. With Stuart Varney live on

[Brian Kilmeade]

your radio and on Fox Business Business, here's Brian Kilmeade. Hi everybody, welcome back. We're just watching some of the ceremonies that going on for the honoring the life of Senator Lindsey Graham as is casket lies in the State Department, excuse me, State Department lying in state and state in Congress. And you see everyone, Democrats and Republicans showing up not only as ceremonial but they, they liked him. He was an impactful guy, loved his job and people are saluting him. The vice president spoke for a while. Alexander Stubb is speaking now president of Finland. Why? Well, because the Alexander, Alexander Stubb love this country and love talking eastern. Here is Brian Kilby. Brian, you spoke to President Trump this morning on Fox and Friends. I just got to run a brief clip as to what he told you about the conflict in Iran. Roll the tape.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

I took out General Soleimani my first

[Brian Kilmeade]

term that set them back because I think they were would have fought in a different manner.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

I'll tell you what, if he were around, maybe he would have had the nuclear. We stopped the nuclear with the B2 and I stopped it also when I ended when I terminated that horrible deal made by Obama. They call it the Iran nuclear deal. It was the worst, dumbest deal. It was a road to a nuclear weapon.

[Brian Kilmeade]

And if they had a nuclear weapon,

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

you wouldn't have Israel around. Frankly, if I weren't president of the United States, Israel today would not have exist.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Brian, the president consistently says that everything's going well, that we've beaten the Iranians up militarily. The fact is they can still lob a missile onto into the Gulf and interrupt shipping. Is it going well? A couple of things. First off, we should outline the one thing he did outline and he brought us there. This has been a problem he inherited. So when you would win in life, especially you in business, when there's a problem you can keep avoiding and putting band aids over it, you can go and attack it. And he did. He attacked the Venezuela situation, is attacking the Cuba situation and he's going after the trying to fix the war in Ukraine. But the Ukrainians do an unbelievable job of fixing it themselves with our help. But then with the Iran situation, he's the only one, only one to take action against Solomon. He only want to hit him in 2025. Only one to take him on now. Now he said the question is don't believe what you're hearing. They suddenly are talking in a way in Oman that they feel as though they're making progress. My gut feeling is Stewart is going to be the same thing. Lead us for another two weeks. We'll have a pause and then they're going to start hitting ships again in the strait and we're going to have no, we're going to have no choice but to go in. Here's the deal. Admiral Cooper has about three or four plans, very comprehensive plans that would involve the IDF of truly taking down the irgc. And of course, there's risk in everything. This isn't a war of choice. It's his choice to confront a ongoing action enemy who revels in killing Americans and especially wiping out Israel. So I believe that Admiral Cooper should be in the final meeting when the President makes his decision. He shouldn't hand in those plans. He should be invited into those meetings. Right now the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff represents the military in those meetings. I think the commander who has to implement the plan should be in those meetings. At which time I love the fact that not everybody in his cabinet agrees that that means you have a well functioning team like any functioning board. But the, but the, but the group of people that seem to get the President's year in the final lap are the ones doing the negotiating that delivered the terrible mou that allowed enough gray area for them to say, I've signed off on a deal that lets me control the strait. So we have to learn from past missteps. And I would love for the IRGC to say, you're, you're right. Here's the nuclear weapons. We're going to stop building ballistics, stop financing Hezbollah, the Houthis and Hamas and call it a day. But does anybody think that's going to happen? It's not going to happen. So it's not going to happen. Therefore, you think the president, our president is talking today to Netanyahu about how to take out, take down the Revolutionary Guards with Israeli help. Is that what they're talking about? I think so. And I think military to military, they know what that deal is. Looks like President is so much more clued into detail than anyone understands. You know, he'll talk generally to the public and to us, but when he goes behind closed doors, I've heard this now for six years, he drills down. And it's not just on finance and the economy at this point where military, the guy is like a retired general. He knows the intricacies, he understands the functioning of our military, understands depletion of weapons. And with the reality, the reality is don't believe the New York Times story, believe the Wall Street Journal story, the Wall Street Journal says, yeah, we need interceptors, but we got enough interceptors, that's more obvious. And I believe we're finally getting a true ally in Ukraine. They're turning around saying, I can help you stop the shahed missiles, excuse me, drones, I can help you stop those rockets because we get them on a daily basis and now they're able to mass manufacture short shortly the Patriot. And if they could do that, they said, well, for every 100 Patriots, we'll give you 20, give you 20 back. Because for some reason in industry we are too slow in producing the fads and the Patriots and a lot of the missile protection that we're enjoying on our ships these days. Let's not make it into a forever war. Brian Kilmeade, thanks for joining us. Just got to win. Always appreciate it. Jerry, thanks for joining us. All right, and so we were doing simulcast on FBN just there. And I just think how it ends. So if, even if prices do go up in the short term, for the next few weeks, if we get a positive result, that's something you not only run instead of running from, you run with. And if you set up Iran for the people to rise up, it doesn't have to happen the day kinetic action stops. It could happen weeks and months afterwards. We've seen that a lot happen, happen where the people rise up. But right now the people with the arms are the government. So we'll see. Robert o', Brien, who was the national security adviser under Trump, said this yesterday about the whole situation in Iraq and the reality on the ground in terms of munitions. Cut six. His patience is going to run out and when it does, it's over. And this whole nonsense about the missile gap and we don't have enough missiles or exquisite platforms to take out the Iranians. We're at the point now where we can send B52s over without opposition. There's no Iranian navy, there's no Iranian air force, there's no air defense. And we can drop, we have thousands of 2000 pound gravity bombs that we can drop on Cargill island and Pickaxe Mountain and destroy it. So this idea that we can't take out Iran is just ridiculous. That's what the President says. But does he want to do that? Because he cares about the people and he doesn't want any casualties. Casualties. You know, the one thing is our bases do have some vulnerability. I think the Chinese and Russians have a lot to do with that. There's no doubt about it. All right, go to Brian Kilmeade, dot com. I love to talk to you about this in person. Also talk about America 250. I do with the United States tour. It's going to be in New York in Long Island, Westbury as well as Red Bank, New Jersey in October. From high atop FOX News headquarters in New York City on Always Seeking Solutions, Never Sowing Division, it's Brian Kilmeade.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

Everyone.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So glad you're there. It's the Brian Kilmeade show coming your way. And kind of a sad day there. Has Capitol Hill ceremony honoring the life of Senator Lindsey Graham. He's in the rotunda right now. His body is and then he's going to be eulogized by the president United States a little bit later this hour joined by Jeff Blacks. Jeff Blacks, the Clooney professor of law fighting, fighting for Jewish rights in this country against anti Semitism and against wokeness on campus. He's going to be joining us as Prime Minister Netanyahu comes to town to salute Lindsey Graham. And Congressman John James is standing by. He wants to be the next governor of Michigan. A lot of attention on Michigan yesterday. So let's get to the big three. Number three, I wonder if you would recommend locking down schools if you had to do it all over again. Well, you know, again it's first of all, I didn't recommend locking anything down. You're asking me questions. You're talking about the CDC is the public health agency not telling the truth as usual. Egomaniac exposed Anthony Fauci's pandemic diaries released a thousand plus pages reveal an insecure self obsessed little man who did more damage to this country while lying to this country and possibly covering up his own culpability. When it comes to the page pandemic, could accountability start tomorrow? Number two, abolish the Senate. True.

[Mike Watley]

Okay.

[Congressman John James]

Replace the presidency and Supreme Court as

[Mike Watley]

we now know them.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

Yep.

[Mike Watley]

Abolish ice. Absolutely.

[Brian Kilmeade]

That is Megan Romer. She is heading the dnc, the, the, the dsa. The GOP hopes of flipping the Senate front and center as the president contrasts free market with what you just just heard from Meg Romer. Socialists and slash communists. Can that work in a purple state of Michigan? Today, tomorrow, next. Excuse me, next Tuesday's primary will say a lot as Haley Stevens squares off with Abdul El Sayed.

[Congressman John James]

Number one, as a young man I lost my parents, struggled financially and emotionally and I would not have made it through those times without you and the

[Brian Kilmeade]

example my parents set for me. June 2015, Senator Lindsey Graham. A final goodbye to Graham appropriately brings together our two wartime Leaders Zelensky and Netanyahu as they first huddle with Trump for the game plan to bring both wars to a successful close. Let's bring in Congressman John James. Congressman, first off, your thoughts about Lindsey Graham and his passing and what's it like in Washington these days? Days?

[Congressman John James]

Well, Washington is a cesspool. It is something that President Trump's been working very hard to drain the swamp. And he's been one of the most, if not the most successful president at doing that in my lifetime. Lindsey Graham was a close ally of the president, somebody who was dedicated to serving this country and someone who's dedicated to making America strong. I, of course, with many others, mourn the loss of Lindsey Graham. Graham. And in his memory, we need to make sure that we are focusing on the things that will make America safe and strong again. And as a combat veteran, that is also a priority that I share. President Trump doing everything he can to do that and lead in that effect. And we're going to remember Lindsey Graham's legacy by continuing to support the president to keep America safe and strong.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Do you think we have enough assets in the region to actually amp this up and have epic fury?

[Congressman John James]

Well, Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. And I trust the president, I trust the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to be able to assess that appropriately, to maintain not just pressure on Iran, but also maintain pressure on their terrorist proxies, Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah, to make sure that not only can they not have a nuclear weapon, but they cannot continue to terrorize America and our allies through their proxies. Under President Obama, they got billions of dollars of green cash in the dark of night. And under President Biden, they had relaxing of sanctions that probably, or actually we know did cause October 7th, President Trump is bringing peace to the region by working closely with our Gulf area allies and holding Iran's feet to the fire for their comments of death to America and their disaster. Desire to have a nuclear program again, I applaud President Trump's leadership and I applaud not only peace through strength in the region, but also his desire to bring this war to a conclusive end that will ensure American safety at home and abroad.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So what's it like, do you think? You know, people talk to New York City, where I'm at right now, and they see this extreme candidates who just got elected, they just got the nomination, will be elected. No Republican opposition. Republicans, really, they want to abolish prisons, want to abolish ice, of course, get rid of our Defense Department. All These crazy situations. They want to wipe their, if they had to, they want to wipe their hands with the American flag. Just stuff that would have really, would have eliminated people. Instead, it helped propel them to election. Well, you guys are a purple state now. You have, you have, Abdul El Said, running for the Senate seat against Haley Stevens to get the Democratic nomination. I want you to hear a little bit of him as he tries to justify saying he wants to put Senator Fetterman's head on a spike. Cut 18 I was referring to a guy named John Fetterman who's a senator from Pennsylvania who has done terrible things, got elected on a set of values and is now completely throwing those values in the mud. And I do think it's important for any senator in Michigan to have a

[Michael Alfonso]

relationship with folks who are in the U.S. senate.

[Brian Kilmeade]

And if those folks are not actually acting in accordance with what they got elected on, I think it's important for all of us to have an honest opinion about what we're going to do

[Michael Alfonso]

to make sure that our Senate looks

[Brian Kilmeade]

like the people it represents. So it's putting his head on a pike, is being honest with the American people. He's going to focus as a Michigan senator on a senator from Pennsylvania, also in a purple state. How do you feel about that?

[Congressman John James]

CONGRESSMAN JOHN JAMES so Marxism, as we know, using socialism as a slow march, accelerating march toward communism. And we understand that communism has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of millions of just in the past hundred years. Marching toward this is frankly, is terrifying on its own, but it's even more terrifying when you realize that the enemy is not at the gate. The enemy is inside the house. This Marxist ideology, this swing towards socialism is a pure, clear and present danger and threat to Michigan and to the United States of America. We absolutely have to recognize what this threat means. And Republicans have always answered the call at first. At first we were founded to end slavery and hold this nation together. And now we're being called to end socialism and hold this nation together. But we have to answer the call. The threat is real. And when you look at states like Michigan where Bernie Sanders, AOC and Abdul El Sayed just marched through the state last week, when you look at a state like Michigan that already has Rashida Tlaib and Abdul El Sayed, you are looking right now that at the best of the best and the most slick politicians in our state will campaign as moderates and then govern as Marxists once they get elected. We must not be, we must not be complacent. We have to Recognize that we will fight for our nation by voting and getting out because the socialists will absolutely do so. And again, the trail of blood left behind Marxism is indelible and it is our future if we allow our freedom to be taken from us. If we don't stand up right now and vote in our elections.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So what's it going to. So before we move on, Mike Rogers lost by 19,000 votes last time. You know what it's like to lose a close election. You've done that in the the past. So do you think that Rogers have an easier time against either one of these as opposed to Alyssa Slotnick who he barely lost to?

[Congressman John James]

Yeah. So my race right now against Jocelyn Benson is my focus because the top of the ticket actually has a very strong impact on the rest of the ticket. You see elsewhere around the country where we had weak tops of tickets and it negatively affected down ballot house and Senate races. And so me running against a Jocelyn Benson who frankly allowed illegals to vote in our elections, allowed hundreds of them to be on jury duty rolls, participated in the SPLC where millions were funded to hate groups. And you also have at least five court cases that she's lost due to her malfeasance in previous elections. I just got off in an event with Director Cash Flow Patel and we're going to be working in the state of Michigan to have FBI presence to make sure that we push back on fraud. The DOJ is already starting with a presence in our state to make sure that we maintain election integrity because Jocelyn Benson is going to be running an election that she is running as governor in. And we must make sure that we are having and protecting election integrity because if we don't have election integrity, nothing else matters. We do have to make sure that we that we swamp the vote and that this election is too big to rig. And so we're going make sure that regardless of whom the Democrats send, they are all socialists and we must defeat them all at the ballot box.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Are you have voter ID in Michigan?

[Congressman John James]

We do have voter ID in Michigan, but whether or not it's actually checked, whether or not it's actually enforced is what the problem is. We need to make sure that we are enforcing the law because you have someone again in Jocelyn Benson who has failed to enforce enforce the law. She's not working with the feds, she is not working with local government. And we have evidence that she is trying to be a ruler unto herself. She cannot get the keys to the kingdom because that would mean that socialism is totally around the state. Of Michigan. And that's untenable for the 10 million people in the state that I love.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Are you worried about losing the House and Senate?

[Congressman John James]

You know what? That's up to the patriots in the state of Michigan. We can't be Patriots from our couch. We have to get all of our people out to the polls. We need to get everybody out there, because this is it. This is our Alamo. There is no second chance. There is no other place to go if Michigan falls. I learned in war that when your opponent tells you they're gonna do something, you better believe them. And right now the Democrat socialists are saying they're going to tear down our republic to the studs. They're saying they're gonna be abolishing the Senate, abolishing the presidency, and they're going to go with methods that have never worked in human history. They're going to subjugate your rights because they think they know how to run your life better than you do. You better believe them when they say that. That they're going to do, because that's exactly what they want. They promised that if you wanted your doctor, you could keep it. If you wanted your insurance, you can keep it. Now we have health care that's unaffordable for anyone and inaccessible for everyone. Right now. They're saying they're making all these promises and people have an affordability crisis that they caused. You heard what Dr. Fauci was saying. This is what they intend to do. They want to rule your lives with unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats that think they know how to live better. And then we have a situation in Michigan where at time we led the world in COVID deaths. We need to have a society that's completely transparent, open, respects the rights of individuals. And the socialist movement will absolutely do the opposite. The only people who can do anything about that are conservatives. Real true conservatives in the state of Michigan who will stand up and say, no more. We're going to take our state back and we're going to set the example for freedom and prosperity for the rest of the nation.

[Brian Kilmeade]

So what does it mean that General Motors announced plans to increase domestic investment and expand US Production reduction? And they say several manufacturers have announced new US factory investments with the White House attribute. White House is truly much of that. And those decisions to tariffs and tax incentives. Manufacturing organizations say the tax changes have encouraged capital spending. I'm getting some mixed results on manufacturing, but in Michigan. What's the report card?

[Congressman John James]

Yeah, I'd say it doesn't mean squat. For people in Michigan who've been suffering under Gretchen Whitmer for the past eight years, President Trump has been successful in delivering $19 trillion of investment back to the United States of America. But it's not making it to Michigan that should have an outsized role because of our manufacturing footprint and also because the great talent we have here. But because of the terrible business environment that's been created, we went from, what, 19th to 34th in just the past year. We need to make sure that we have an environment that's, that's more hospitable to business, it's more welcoming to business. We're losing our children. Our education system is 45th out of 50. Our electric grid is 51st out of 50 because we count D.C. and when you consider the economic situation where people used to move here for opportunity, now they're leaving. Absolutely the opposite of what we should be. So the biggest reason I'm running for governor is because I love the state of Michigan. We can do so much more. We can be so much more. We can have so much more. And by returning power to the people, we can absolutely have so much more. And so the President's doing his part to make America great again. And I'm looking forward to doing my part to make Michigan great again.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Do you want to see the USMCA updated or do you want to see it go away?

[Congressman John James]

I would like to see the USMC updated to make sure that our people, Michigan specifically, doesn't continue getting a raw deal, the status quo doesn't work in Michigan. And continuing watching our manufacturing jobs go away is absolutely wrong. Michigan in the Great Recession lost half, half of all the jobs in the entire nation from manufacturing standpoint. And since NAFTA, 300,000 automotive jobs since I was a kid. We need to have reciprocal, mutually beneficial trade with our friends and partners and allies, but it cannot come at Michigan's expense. We are open for business, but we are not for sale. And we also have an opportunity in, in addition to the economic benefits that we could have by bringing our jobs, re industrializing and working in close partnership, but we can also have defence partnerships, we can have environmental partnerships, especially when you look at the Canadian wildfire smoke, to make sure that we're cooperating and make sure Canada is paying its fair share into keeping Americans safe for issues that they're causing. So again, there's a great opportunity to work more closely, but it cannot be at the expense of Americans and Michiganders.

[Brian Kilmeade]

I understand. Congressman John James of Michigan, thanks so much. He wants to be the next governor there running as a Republican, obviously. Congressman, thanks so much.

[Congressman John James]

Thanks so much, Brian.

[Brian Kilmeade]

All right, listen, I see your numbers up there. I know you want to get online. 1-866-408-7669. Gino, Tony, Wally, you'll be up next. We'll squeeze in some calls. At the bottom of the hour. We'll talk to Jeff Lacks about Benjamin Netanyahu's visit here and the, and the adversarial relationship with the mayor of New York City, where big stories meet bigger conversations. Stay informed and energized with the Brian Kilmeade show, The talk show that getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmeade. You know, one of the biggest items that we found in there was that In January of 2020, he already was acknowledging that the virus didn't originate in the marketplace for years. He's been telling if you interviewed him last week, he's probably still telling you. The reason we think it came from

[Mike Watley]

nature is because they had these exotic

[Brian Kilmeade]

animals and that's where SARS came from previously. But he knew, he already knew. That is Rand Paul did a great job exposing Anthony Fauci, who we all knew was so full of it. He hurt this country more than you could imagine. And more people died per capita in our country during the pandemic than anyone else. A lot of it goes right on his shoulders. And now we find out he was infatuated with his own potential fame. Writing in his diary in 2020, for better or for worse, I'm becoming an international celebrity. Calls from all over the world, world, can you believe it? They're calling it the Fauci 5. Appearing on five major Sunday morning shows. He also described receiving significant public praise from the pandemic. This guy is out of his mind. And he had so much control under clueless Joe Biden. Gino, you're in St. Louis. Hey, Gino.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

Hey. Looking forward to see you, Brian, in St. Louis soon.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Yeah, Coming up in November. I hope to everyone go in person.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

I'll be there. Now, I have one question. It's been bothering me for a while in the Middle east and in Venezuela, the oil, oil is produced there. They're the biggest producers except for the United States. And they give their citizens a significant discount on the price of gas. And I'm wondering why the United States being the biggest producer, doesn't do the same thing for its citizens. They should, especially in a time of war where we need the, the discount in order to, to help us in our everyday lives.

[Brian Kilmeade]

And who's giving. Where do you get that discount, Gino? You' Venezuela.

[Lt. Col. Allen West]

If you look in Venezuela and you look in the Middle east like Saudi Arabia and the UAR and Kuwait, they give their citizens gasoline at a discounted rate and they give it for like half price. And that's because they can and they still make a huge profit selling all their oil. The United States does the same, has the same situation. They're the biggest oil producer. They should be giving their citizens a break in terms of the price of oil in the United States and be selling the rest of the oil at the rate of.

[Brian Kilmeade]

You know, that's an interesting point because you kind of back with the president saying. He's saying right now he believes that now the oil and gas company is going to report huge profits. But I want them to make. No one gives them a subsidy when they do lose money or when Joe Biden comes into office and DCD incentivize pumping out the oil and then makes people lay off and then they discourage workers from going there. But I'm not for government get involved in profitability margin. But if something was to pop up during these lean times with an important war, they did something collectively, I would not be against that. But I am not against the government coming in and deciding that they have to give a certain rate when it comes to oil and gas. But I understand the sentiment. He's so busy he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmeade.

[Mike Watley]

I think one of the bedrocks of our city is protest. It is something that has been a part of what makes our city so special that New Yorkers can express themselves whether they are in support or in opposition, no matter on whatever topic. We are talking about someone who has been charged with crimes against against humanity. Someone who has visited the city on many an occasion and who has been welcomed by previous mayors. And I want to make it very clear that that welcome ends with me.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Right? Big tough guy, 34 year old with absolutely no experience wants to be a tough guy and says the IC he's going to subscribe to the icc. So if the ICC says something, Mayor Mamdani considers him a threat so he's going to arrest them. If he tried that, he would have been arrested himself. Then he realizes one of my campaign promises is totally fallacious. It stands on nothing. So therefore he has to say I don't have the power called on the federal government to do it, but he makes himself a national figure. While people being stabbed in the park because they're Jewish while we have random. We have a 20, we have a 12 year old kid being shot because he went to buy a ball, was caught in the crossfire. And this Mondami doesn't realize that being a mayor really isn't being ideological. It is an X's and O's produce for a city. Fill the potholes, get things done. Not great grandstand. And one of the things he's doing now is he's taxing the so called horrible rich people that have second homes in New York. This guy publicly listed everybody that he's going to tax with their home addresses. Totally irresponsible, but that's all this guy does. I've never seen a politician, Republican or Democrat, independent, brag about taxing people. He's bragging about taxing people. When this whole foundation of everything that he wants to do is from the successful people being being taxed, he instead is chasing them off. Jeff Lax joins us now. He's a Cooney professor and he has seen this up close and personal. The not only the anti Semitism, the anti Americanism from the Uganda born, Uganda born, ungrateful mayor of New York City. So what is your take on Mamdani trying to put himself on the level of a world world leader like Netanyahu? Does this elevate him with his audience?

[Jeff Lax]

His audience maybe not with decent people like you or I or most Americans. But yeah, he's playing president. I don't, I don't know who he thinks he is but like you said, he certainly is not acting like an executive branch leader of the biggest city in the United States. And if you just take out that one part, Brian, of the clip you played of him, him when he was talking about Mandani coming to the UN I've never heard an executive speak in that way. Calling for protests in the streets. That's usually the kind of statement that a leader makes, a political leader, an executive branch leader, a president, a governor makes when there are already protests saying hey, you have the right to do that but we've got to control it and make sure there's no violence. He is calling for things that you've already pointed out with the stabbing and the shooting, just that lead to violence. And that's something that's totally unprecedented. He has no interest in being mayor. He wants to set a new policy for the United States as a whole.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Yeah, the job is getting in the way of his activism. So cops say are really aggravated because you're actually calling on protests. You know how much harder it is for the NYPD when the UN comes to town with the General assembly, from all walks life, hundreds of countries come in. They're all going to be making speeches. It's hard enough to guard him, and now he's calling for a protest. When Netanyahu's there, their job is going to be so much higher and they can honestly say, I'm doing what the mayor wants.

[Jeff Lax]

Yeah, it's unbelievable. And the odds of somebody getting hurt because they misunderstand the mayor, although I don't know if they're really misunderstanding him. I think there are some kind of undertones of what he said, saying, we've seen it too many times, Brian. How many times does the President's life have to be put in jeopardy because of the heightened rhetoric? But this is actually conceived in advance. This isn't like a politician, a senator or a congressman just saying something off the cuff. This is premeditated. This is planned. I don't think he would mind if. It's a crazy thing to say, and I'm sorry that I'm saying, saying this, but I really, truly believe it. I don't think he would mind seeing violence in the streets. I think he's a revolutionary. You know, one of the things, Brian, that really to me stands out so strongly is a guy by the name of Joseph Crony. Joseph Crony, sorry, Kony. Joseph Kony. He is actually a. He's been a 21 year hiding from the ICU. He's a Ugandan. He's caused mass grotesque war crimes in Uganda. He was there when Mamdani was growing up there as a kid. And the ICC has an arrest warrant out for him for 21 years. And you would think that Mamdani would care about that in the country, his native land, Uganda. He's never once called for Kony's arrest by the ICC or having him subject to a trial. That to me is very strange. And the things he has done, he.

[Mike Watley]

He's.

[Jeff Lax]

He's made children into soldiers. He's committed sexual slavery. The most grotesque act you could imagine. Mandani doesn't seem to care.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Right. So Mandami didn't stop there. Yesterday, while trying to defend himself on calling for the arrest of the prime minister, he also announced the unveiling of his supermarkets where are going to be Gross city run grocery stores. He needs people to manage them. No butcher's block, no hot food. But he's going to say that everything's going to be 30% less now what that does to the free market. Probably nothing positive here is here he is Trying to describe why he's doing this. Cut 53.

[Mike Watley]

Thus far we've announced La Marqueta in Manhattan and La Peninsula in the Bronx. And these two sites showcase the example of. When you are speaking about a dense neighborhood, there is more than enough market for both existing grocers as well as one city run grocery store. When we're talking about La Marqueta, we're talking about more than 65,000 New Yorkers who live within 10 minutes of that grocery store site. When we're talking about La Peninsula, we're talking about more than 150,000 New Yorkers who live in the Hunts Point area alone. What we've seen is that the city already operates subsidized markets. For example at Essex Street Market those are operating near multiple grocers, multiple bodegas and we have not seen harm to local stores or operators.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Right. They've been all failures. A 70 million plan to create city owned grocery stores, the bodega, the other supermarkets, people are going to come from all around. There's no restriction on if you can shop there. We'll see if they keep the shelves stacked and we'll see if it ends up being just a. Basically a shelter. In what planet is this something good?

[Jeff Lax]

I saw somewhere, I'm sorry, I forget the source who said this. It was brilliant that the $70 million cost to this. He could just buy a million Costco memberships for New Yorkers in need and hand them out and that would be cheaper and then you have competitive markets. This is not being done to effectuate anything positive. This is being done to satisfy his base. But more importantly, this is a first step in doing what he has said in the past on video that he will do which is taking control of the means of production. This is what that means on a tiny scale and it's only going to broaden from there. That's his whole ideology.

[Brian Kilmeade]

It was Joanne Arreola, a Republican from Queens said at this point it would be cheaper to just buy a million Costco memberships. We would have saved $5 million in taxpayer funds and the public can buy their items in bulk. Picture if you John Castamatides look, yeah, he is a multi businesses, he's basically a billionaire a few times over. But he started stocking shelf at Christidis and Dagostinos and they took tremendous risk in finding a way to buy those stores and grow, grow those stores so the city can come in and try to drive you out of business. Right now it's five stores. Their goal is to drive Landlords out of business, grocery stores out of business. Let the city run it. But where are they going to get the revenue? Oh, I got it from billionaires and millionaires who, by the way, are leaving because they want no part of this socialistic madness. Does he not get this?

[Jeff Lax]

He gets it. He doesn't care. I really think for the first time, and this is, is so stunning to some people, I think that's why they're not really believing it yet. He does not want New York City to succeed. He doesn't. He wants New York City to fall. I really, truly believe that. And this is just the beginning. The economic crisis has not even begun yet. The more stuff like this that he does, we're only going to see the effects in a year or two years. Just like with Johnson in Chicago, it took a little time there to see how horrific it was. But I really think he wants to take the entire free market system down. And, and doing that means that the system fails. New York goes. New York has been. Look at New York in the 70s. We've had crisis. This is going to be worse than that.

[Brian Kilmeade]

We've never had a socialistic crisis. We've never had a socialistic crisis. We had drugs. I got it. I understand. You know, we went bankrupt. Family with Ford there. Koch took over a mess, really did a long way to straightening it out. But this just seems like he wants to revolutionize the country and he is the leader of the Democratic Party. Jeff, you have an idea. Jeff Lax, our guest. Jeff, you have an idea of the inner workings of government. How much of an earthquake was it when he decides to primary people like Dan Goldman and Congressman Espalad, who was a leader in the Hispanic community. These are Democrats, by the way, and one's a radical impeachment lawyer. And Dan Goldman and Espalad endorsed Mondame and he turns on him. How much did that rock the Democrats?

[Jeff Lax]

Well, that's the lesson that the Democrat, I guess. I don't really believe there are establishment Democrats anymore. The DSA seems to believe there are. I don't. But them, people like Schumer and Goldman and Esplanade, all these people that endorse them or allow this to happen. I don't feel bad for them. I feel bad for our country. I feel bad for good, decent people and good, decent people in these districts, these states. But they allowed this to happen. It may already be too late. The tipping point may already be here. But if it's not, the Democrats have the obligation to stop this right now and to take A real stance against this. And this is the time right now. We're going to find out before the midterms and on election night in the midterms what the Democrats actually do here. When the co chair of the DSA said those crazy things the other day on, on video, basically saying, yeah, we want to abolish the Senate, by the way. Abolish the Senate. That, do people understand that that means no state representation? One of the most brilliant things that our amazing founding fathers did for our country would be gone. No state representation. The whole point is to get rid of two party system. They want a one party system. If the Democrats don't wake up now and really stand together and firm, we're done. We're in big trouble.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Well, certainly New York. Jeff. Jeff Lacks, thanks so much. Appreciate all the work you're doing. Finally, what would you like to see happen with the war in Iran? Because the Prime Minister Netanyahu comes here and tells the President really what the stakes are.

[Jeff Lax]

You got to finish him off. Iran's not going to make a deal. We've seen it time and time again. At this point you got to, you got to take out this regime. You got to finish them off.

[Brian Kilmeade]

I hear you, Jeff Lacks, thanks so much. Back in a moment. Real talk, real guests, real insight where curiosity meets conversation. It's the Brian Kilmeade Show. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kilmeade show sponsored by Prevagen. Prevagen made for your brain.

[Congressman John James]

The Democratic Party net favorability.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Back in 2018 when Democrats were able to take control of the House, they were actually on the plus side of the ledger. They were actually in positive territory at plus one point. Look, now in 2026, we're not just talking down there underneath the Potomac, we're talking down there with the Titanic. We're talking and 24 points underwater. And this is just the party overall. This isn't the congressional leadership. This is the party. The party. It's just a terrible, terrible, terrible rant. So that's how Harry Enton obviously is cnn going over to poll numbers. Look, Democrats definitely have history on their side. They definitely are dealing with a situation where the president, I think, you know where I stand. I think taking on Iran is absolutely necessary. But the polls say it's not popular. The president's chose not to really sell it just to do it. That's through his policy. You know, he sells certain things and he says certain things aren't gonna sell. It's just the right thing to do. You know, As I gotta go sell everyone. I'm gonna be doing an operation in Venezuela. This thing can't stand. He's not gonna say, hey, Central and South America are no longer the backyard for China and Russia. We're going to clean it up. So what does he do? He pressures Mexico to clean up their act. He starts pounding on the cartels, doing some great work in shutting down Fentanyl. Then from Bolivia happened. Having their. Their populous wind. Colombia flips governments. They're now friendly. Venezuela, because of an incredible military action. Guyana is now not only an oil producer, but an ally as we just pledged to watch their back. Cuba's about to fall. He straightens it out. But because he's doing that right now, certain economic things are not panning out. The growth is 2.7%, which is solid. The number, the job numbers are solid. Interest rates have not gone down, down because I believe oil and gas are still up. And right now personal debt is a little bit high. So I just think that there are certain things that can go into place if President Trump amps it up in order to ramp it down. But they will. Things will turn around. The best asset that Republicans have is some horrible candidates. The rise of the dsa and now there's a divide. The establishment like Chuck Schumer, Governor Whitmer, and people like Elizabeth Warren who should be embarrassed after, after, after endorsing and selling us on a real man named Graham Platner. Now that Troy Jackson's taken over, this crazy senator from Massachusetts says this cut 26. I'm feeling good about Troy Jackson. You'll get to talk to him in just a minute. You'll see why I'm feeling good. He's the right guy for Maine, but

[Mike Watley]

I'm also feeling good.

[Brian Kilmeade]

I'm feeling good about Michigan. I was just there, as you know. I was just there day before yesterday on the ground campaigning with Abdul Al Said.

[Mike Watley]

And the energy, the people who just can finish the sentences, you know, get

[Brian Kilmeade]

money out of politics, get more money into people's pockets and get health care for everyone. Yeah, how you doing that? You have a plan? Health care for everyone? Yes. Medicare for all doesn't work. She knows better. All she knows how to do is spend. I don't know. Can you imagine signing up for her class when she was a professor in college? Absolutely clueless. It feels good. You don't feel bad at all saying Troy Jackson's the right guy when you told us for three months that Graham Platner was the right guy and a real guy don't worry about the Nazi tattoo. He has ptsd. Remember all that craziness. But the bottom line is the reason why Republicans got a real shot is because Warren fighting with Schumer, if not directly threw their surrogates called candidates. So these guys tearing each other up. I mean, I was talking to Mike Roger Rogers team in Michigan and they say the one thing is pretty certain, there's so much bitterness between Stevens and said that whoever wins, they're not going to be helping the other one out. Whitmer and Peters get involved because they're so afraid that said's gonna win. And I think that's a better deal for Mike Rogers because he's so extreme. And it's pretty clear that the leader of that party now with the one with the most power is the mayor in New York City. The least experienced, the least accomplished, the most dangerous because he does these evil things with a big smile on his face. Today is going to be a lot about Lindsey Graham and tomorrow they're going to be in South Carolina memorializing him as well. Remember the met John McCain? I think memorial went for about a week. Lindsey Graham's going to get his two days and he deserves it. Real impact. And it all leads to, I hope, passing massive sanctions on Russia. That's what Lindsey Graham was pushing. He had 80 plus votes in the Senate for it, but they weren't going to pass it unless the president promised to sign it. I think as a tribute to the President. Excuse me, Mr. President. As a tribute to Lindsey Graham, I hope you indeed sign it. That would indeed be great. That probably would have been a good question for me to ask him. I'm kicking myself now. When we had him on Fox and Friends a little bit earlier so he was on with us at which time he made it clear that he's giving this cease fire a little bit more of a chance. And he says negotiations are moving quickly right now with Iran. I know I'm going to be back here in a week talking about, well, that blew up. They're shooting again at the Straits Red Sea as well. And we'll see how that happens. One thing the I was talking oil and gas expert lucky enough to be on the show and he told me we're running out of shock absorbers when it comes to oil and gas. You know, the whole strategic oil reserve, everyone's got them. There's different ways to go with oil and gas. We shut down the Red Sea and you shut down the Strait of Hormuz. There's different pipelines still lose news they say right now we're running out of options. So that's why, Mr. President, just ramp it up. Do the best you can to but to bang these guys up to the point where we get the nuclear stuff handled as well as forcefully open up the strait.