
The Brian Kilmeade Show 06-17-2026
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Brian Kilmeade
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Rick Jackson
everyone.
Brian Kilmeade
So glad you're there. It's the Brian Kilman show, an important show coming your way on this Wednesday. Dennis Ross is might be joining us. He's in transit right now.
Phil Flynn
Bottom of the yow.
Brian Kilmeade
Rich Lowry, editor of National Review is going to be with us too. We have more primary results to go over and the president states has already spoken a couple of times. At the G7 he met a one on one with a bilateral with the Egyptian President El Sisi and that was productive. He's got some personal things. I thought El Sisi pointed out something interesting through an interpreter this morning. We covered it on Fox and Friends. He said I went up, I tried to get your attention at the dinner last night but you didn't enjoy any of your meal because you were constantly being approached by different world leaders. For those people who think that Trump is isol looked down on you just I know it's America and we got the huge portfolio but it's just not the case. I think people have really gotten to like him or respect him or both. Big three number three, we gotta face facts here man. We have a real problem in this country right now. This stuff now is at home. We have essentially a homegrown like Hezbollah from the far left and they're being radicalized online. That is Paul Morrow talking about the UFC plot that was thwarted thankfully at the White House we have the evil plan and what we know about the would be attackers as the DOJ indicts antifa for their role in Minneapolis. That chaos that we saw this winter. America is being attacked from within. We will discuss number two. Like I said then, I'm the only
Rick Jackson
candidate who doesn't owe a thing to the political establishment. I don't care what special interests want, how much they beg, how much they give me. I can't be Bought and I won't back down.
Brian Kilmeade
That is Rick Jackson, very successful in the primary. The economy beginning to boom and mid, mid, mid term fortunes beginning to sway GOP's way. We have the primary results last night.
Rebecca Heinrichs
Number one, the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which has been supportive of this administration's efforts against Iran, said the world
Molly Hemingway
is more likely to see this as a strategic retreat.
Brian Kilmeade
Have you won the war with Iran?
J.D. Vance
Yes, we have. And I think that's a mistake from the Wall street board because what does this deal fundamentally do? It ensures that Iran won't get a nuclear weapon and it ensures the straits of Hormuzer open.
Brian Kilmeade
Really? I'm not sure. We have not seen the text yet. That is J.D. vance. He owns this. Details emerging about the Iran U.S. deal and I see little reason to be pleased. The question did the VP actually tell Trump what was in it before Trump was talking about the contents of it? Because some things just don't seem to be adding up.
Rick Jackson
Now.
Brian Kilmeade
The other thing is the overall objective the President did approach, he said, look, the strategic gold reserves were running low in our country and around the world. There was pressure on oil and gas to not crater a bunch of economies. Since we already achieved a lot of our goals. This would actually give them a shot at reviving the economy to the point where the Republicans could do very well in the midterms. And around the world he was getting pressure. What about the reality of that pressure? Let's bring in Dennis Ross. As you know, he knows as much about the Middle east directly than anybody, probably in America. William Davidson, distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near east policy. Mr. Ambassador, welcome back. I know you're in Tel Aviv right now. What are they telling you about this deal that's probably two days away from being officially released?
Rick Jackson
Well, generally they're unhappy about it for a variety of reasons. If you. There is a text that has, that has been published that has basically emerged from a couple of different sources and the text is the same. The language on the, on the nuclear infrastructure nuclear program is reduced to simply in this next phase, in the 60 days, they will address the fate of the enriched uranium. That's all it says, the fate of the enriched uranium. So there's no understandings on what's actually going to happen with the enriched uranium. The only thing I will say that is positive the language was the enriched uranium. Not only the highly enriched uranium, both are bad. The highly enriched uranium is worse because it's near weapons grade. But if they have, say, 11 to 12 bombs worth of highly enriched uranium. They probably have four bombs worth of low enriched uranium. So at least they're talking about the fate of all the enriched uranium. But that means there's no real understanding. There is language that the Iranians say they won't acquire, procure or develop a nuclear weapon, but that's the same language that was in the jcpoa. So there's nothing new there. So on the nuclear issue, it's hard to see that anything has been achieved, number one. Number two, I'll now tell you what I think is what concerns me the most. What concerns me the most is that we have gone along with the Iranian interest in linking the opening of the Strait of Hormuz to Lebanon and what that means. The reason Iran is insisting on that is not to save the Lebanese government, but to save Hezbollah. And I think one of the things that the president will need to do as this goes forward is to delink these. The Iran wants to link the issues not only because it wants to save Hezbollah, but because it wants to show the rest of the Middle east and all the Arab states. You see, we're not walking away from any of our proxies. We're still going to use the proxies and we've got the, in a sense, we've got the Americans to accept that this is legitimate for us to tie these issues together. So for me, that's a really important issue to delink. Lastly, I think, you know, the Strait of Hormuz was open before February 28th. So the fact reopening it is getting us back to the. I would like to say February 27, but if you again, you read the language here, it doesn't do that. Iran is committing in the MoU to allow the volume of ship traffic to go back to what it was on February 27. But it says nothing about Iran not managing the Strait of Hormuz along with Oman, which is what they're saying they're going to be doing. Yeah. There's no reference to tolls. But there's also Iran in this docum, concede anything other than okay, the US Is going to lift its blockade, which was hurting them, and they will allow ships to go back to what they were doing, the same volume ships that was going on, which look, I understand that this was. The Iranians discovered during this war that they were able to have huge leverage over the global economy and over oil prices. The one thing, Brian, to bear in mind, from 1987, 1988 until this war, the Iranians never sought to control the straits because Ali Khamenei understood that would mean a war, and that could threaten the survivability of the regime. In a sense, my preference would have been for us not to focus on regime change, but to focus on weakening all their military capability and their ability to build anything new. If we had, say, two weeks just focused on that, by the way, which the President says now, he wasn't. He didn't. He wasn't focused on regime change. Regime change made them understand or decapitation made them understand they had nothing to lose. So that's when they went to control the straits when they'd never done it before. We could have weakened their capacity to threaten others without having the straits closed. I would have preferred that to have been the approach, but we are where we are.
Brian Kilmeade
We are where we are. They say there'll be waivers immediately. Allow Iran to sell oil. Is that how you understand it?
Rick Jackson
Well, Brian, not only do I understand it, there's already two big tankers that have carried Iranian oil out.
President Donald Trump
Yep.
Rick Jackson
Because we have lifted the blockade. So, yeah, so, yes, they. We are.
Phil Flynn
We.
Rick Jackson
The language says we would immediately begin the process of lifting the blockade, and we've allowed two big oil tankers to carry Iranian oil out.
Brian Kilmeade
So then we understand after 60 days, we don't know what's going to happen with the Strait. But there might. There's talk that there might be a. That Oman and Iran might be charging fees instead of tolls. Same thing. So that would not actually work. Now the President's come out and said this language is not final. I don't think he read it, Ambassador DENNIS. I don't. I think that he trusted these guys. Whether you like it or not, he's got a lot on his plate. The Vice President, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to achieve his goals and said, okay, good. It's done in the timeframe. I needed it now. I could go to the G7 and we could talk about getting everything flowing again. The markets will rise again and oil will drop again. But I think he's realizing now how bad this deal is.
Rick Jackson
Well, you know, I have no idea. You may be right. He didn't read it. It's not. It's about a page and a half. It is 14 points. And he did do an electronic signature. The formal signing hasn't taken place yet. Hard to believe that he will try to renegotiate at this point. We'll have to see. For me, I guess what I would. I would like us to focus on three things as we. And make. And make Our objectives very clear. Number one, be very clear on what we have to have in terms of the Iranian approach to their nuclear infrastructure. And one has to be, you know, bear in mind on all three of these issues, there is a level of international support that we can use to also make it not just unilateral, but pressure, but collective pressure. The Secretary General, director of the IAEA says there is no justifiable civilian purpose to have 60% enriched uranium. No justifiable civilian purpose. Let's focus on that should be destroyed. Let's build an international consensus between that being destroyed. Let's focus on them not rebuilding these underground nuclear facilities because that again, the fact that they do it indicates a kind of intent. On the second thing, on the issue of the Strait of Hobs, it is an international waterway. We cannot allow the precedent to be set that neighboring countries can have control politically and economically over international waterways. If you allow the Iranians and Oman to be, quote, managing the straits, that means they now determine what happens in the straits. It's no longer a national waterway. That is again, something that you can mobilize the rest of the world because it threatens everybody else's interest. If every choke point now becomes the province of the bordering country to determine what they'll do with it, we are all dramatically worse off. So that's the second thing. And then the third has to be delinking, as I said of Lebanon from this deal. If we come out with that, we can come out better off, even if we're not dealing with directly with the ballistic missiles and the proxies, at least directly.
Phil Flynn
Yeah.
Brian Kilmeade
I mean, and also you have to delink around Israel, they were not worn in on this. And it's ridiculous to think Israel, Israel doesn't bomb people that aren't attacking them. Has Egypt been bombed? Has Jordan been bombed? Has uae, Kuwait, Qatar? They're not. And there's reason to believe that Qatar and Pakistan are double dealing too. So I understand you got to have lines of communication open, but we can't trust they set up a $300 billion fund. What is the criteria for Iran to get that money and what are they going to use it for? And that. And they're going to unfreeze 2 or 24 billion of the Iranian frozen funds for what criteria do they have to establish or is there established that would allow them to get that money?
Rick Jackson
The language, by the way, on that, Brian, is during the 60 days we, we, the US commits to working with the Gulf partners and others to come with a $300 billion reconstruction and habilitation fund. That's the language. Now, there's nothing there that says here's exactly what is required of the Iranians if they do it again. One of the concerns I have about having done, as you know, a lot of mediation in this part of the world, I would always bring the parties together and I would go through each point and I would have them in front of me acknowledge that they had the exact same interpretation of what the words meant. I'm not sure anything like that has been done.
Brian Kilmeade
I know, because I think you have three inexperienced people and one in the Vice President that really doesn't believe in the conflict at all. So. And he was saying things that just can't possibly hold up if this, if everything that we're reading is true. Cuz he was on about six shows yesterday and this is what he actually said. Here's an example. Cut four.
J.D. Vance
The agreement's actually very simple. It says, one, Iran can't have a nuclear weapon, two, the Straits of Hormuz are open, and number three, there are all of these benefits contemplated that the Iranians can get if they behave. If they stop developing terrorism, if they stop funding terrorism, if they stop supporting the rebuilding of the nuclear arms program, they actually can get some real benefits. If they don't do any of that stuff, they don't get anything. And I think that's where a lot of the misunderstandings come from, is you've got Iranian propagandists out there saying, well, we get all these things and they leave out the fact that they only get those things if they fundamentally transform themselves as a country. So the United States wins either way. As the President said, either they get nothing, we destroyed their nuclear program and the Straits of Hormuz are open, or they fundamentally transform themselves. And that's a big win too. It's really up to them.
Brian Kilmeade
So what do you think about that which fundamentally transform themselves? There's nobody who believes they fundamentally got to transform themselves would.
Rick Jackson
Well, I'd say a couple things. We already discussed the fact that they're already allowed to sell their oil, so they've already gained something. Yeah, we, they're allowed to sell their oil. We, we have lifted the blockade, but they're gaining something already, number one. Number two, there is no language in this MoU that suggests any of that. Maybe it's what we intend to do, but the fact is, on the issue of terrorism, where's anything said? We've. By linking Lebanon to it, you're protecting Hezbollah. How is that consistent with giving up terrorism? I Mean, Hezbollah is not just what they do against Israel, it's worldwide. So I think, I think there's, I mean, I hate to say this, I mean, genuinely, I hate to say this. It seems like there's a lot of wishful thinking there. Now. Maybe, maybe it'll be born out. Maybe when we negotiate this, we'll say, okay, you're not. We, we will not provide anything more. But the problem is, on, take the issue of the Strait of Hormuz. What if they begin to, what if they begin to disrupt it again? Will we go to war over it? You know, I can see people saying, oh, so there's a couple of ships. They say, well, we think they're carrying environment, environmentally hazardous material. So we don't want to let them go through. Are we going to go to war over that? I mean, let's get back to your question. What's the criteria? We, at least, at a minimum, we have to have a very clear set of criteria in our mind in these negotiations, number one. Number two, it is very important, I think, for the President to have some understandings with Prime Minister Netanyahu over what Israel can do and what they can't do. This should not be left vague. It should be very clear.
Rich Goldberg
So.
Rick Jackson
And by the way, the Iranians need to know it. You know, I'm a very big believer. One thing you don't do in negotiations, I have a lot of experience.
Brian Kilmeade
I know you do.
Rick Jackson
There's no such thing as constructive ambiguity in private. Maybe in public, each side has to say things a certain way, but in private, everything has to be understood exactly the same way. There can be no ambiguity. Ambiguity leads to misunderstanding, the sense of betrayal, and basically, it's the source of a lot of trouble. So I would love to see there be very clear understandings with the Israelis that the Iranians need to know about, because one of the things I really would, I will tell you, I am convinced Iran, in the end, if they thought that what they stand to gain from us was being put at risk by linking things to Hezbollah, they would give up Hezbollah. But what they've succeeded in doing is they have succeeded at this point in saying, look, this whole deal depends upon Israel not attacking Hezbollah. It's exactly the reverse.
Brian Kilmeade
And the President's putting way too much pressure on Israel. It's not there. Israel would not be touching Lebanon if Hezbollah wasn't there. Thanks so much, Ambassador. There's so much going on, and you're right in the middle of it, right over in Israel. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. Back in a moment.
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Brian Kilmeade
Hey, we are back and just got to remind you coming up, I'm going to be in Pensacola History Liberty Laughs the last of its show until we converted to United the six United States six crucial moments that forged the American miracle that's going to be coming up in the fall. I've got going to be in Clearwater, Florida. I'm going to be in Red Banks, New Jersey. Going to be in Westbury, Long island and of course St. Louis, Missouri. So go to Brian kilme.com for tickets if you want to be be a part of a great inspirational, motivational and patriotic night as we celebrate year 251 thing the President's got to get up on when he comes back. We got to fix the reflecting pool. It's green again. It's got algae everywhere. I'm not an algae expert, but the place is clean. The pipes have been fixed. Why is the algae back if you are an allergy expert? Call the President. When we come back, the latest on the primaries with Mr. National Review, Rich Lowry. This episode is brought to you by Fox 1. Watch all 104 matches of the FIFA World cup live in 4K for just $19.99 a month with 3 days free. Build your own multi view. Choose up to three streams and follow Player Spotlight. Stay on top of every moment with live stats, highlights and instant replays. The FIFA World cup streaming live on Fox One, offers a subject to change. See fox.com for complete terms and conditions.
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Radio that makes you think this is the Brian Kilmeade Show.
Brian Kilmeade
We are back. I want you to hear what Hillary Clinton had to say about Joe Biden dropping out when he did cut 34. When you look back on his decision to run, did he make a terrible mistake? He made a terrible mistake.
Rich Lowry
He made a terrible mistake for himself, his legacy and for the country. He had said that he would not run again and you know, counterfactual narratives
Brian Kilmeade
are always a bit tricky. But I believe if he had kept
Rich Lowry
to that plan and said in, say,
Brian Kilmeade
the late summer of 23 that he
Rich Lowry
wasn't going to run, that he was going to pass, you know, the torch to the next generation. We would have had a real contest.
Brian Kilmeade
So that is Hillary Clinton at the 92nd Street Y being interviewed by New Yorker magazine now acting so tough. He Joe Biden was being selfish by running. Now let me bring it back to June 27, 2024, after his horrible debate performance. Hillary Clinton urge instead of publicly, instead of urging for him to drop out, she defended him, saying he should stay in the race. I'll be voting for Joe Biden, she said. So that was 2024. Now in 2026, oh, he should have dropped out. He was selfish. Joining us now, somebody not surprised by this double dealing, the lack of guts among Hillary Clinton is Rich Lowry, National Review. Hey, Rich, are you amazed at the Biden blowback now how many people are turning on him? And don't think we were recording things earlier.
Rich Lowry
Yeah. Like two years later, all of a sudden they have courage and foresight on this issue. They all knew this. Privately, I don't hang out with a lot of Democrats, but you'd be in the green room with them and they'd say, what are we doing here? This is going to be a debacle. And then the red light would go on in the camera and they say, wow, he's sharper than ever. So she's right in what she's saying now, but she was wrong before.
Brian Kilmeade
Yeah, she was. And that just to bring up where we're at, I want you to bring in somebody else and that's James Carville talking about this president. She actually went on to say that anybody would have beat Donald Trump if Kamala Harris, if they had a normal primary process, if she emerged, she would have beat him if they went through the norm process. But Rich, she went out of her way to make sure the process wasn't normal after she lost to Obama, didn't she? She made sure there was a glide path to the nomination by paying off the DNC debts and making sure making sure that they work for her, not Bernie Sanders. And I don't know her role, but the party's role in making sure that Sanders didn't win, that Joe Biden got anointed. So she's the problem.
Rick Jackson
Yeah.
Rich Lowry
The Democrats basically rigged the process for three candidates in a row. And all of them have been comprehensively terrible. Now, not so much rigged For Biden in 2020, he was left for dead and had to, had to come back. I Think that was the one impressive thing maybe that he did in his entire career, but he was just a placeholder and was a debacle as a president. But it was rigged for Hillary and it was rigged for Kamala, and both were terrible candidates who lost to Donald Trump.
Brian Kilmeade
So before we talk about Trump, his approval range around 42, 40% going into the primaries. But things are beginning to go a little bit towards the Republican way. Certainly this peace deal lands. The price of oil is going to drop and that means gas will drop in diesel. But listen to what James Carville is predicting. Cut 35.
James Carville
Trump has no earthly idea of what's coming. They're not telling him. The vote against him in November is going to be, like, breathtaking. I'm telling you, this guy, by Easter of 2027, is just going to walk away from this job. Just going to walk away because he doesn't have any idea of what it's going to be like when he comes to grips with the massive. I mean, it's going to be massive rejection of him. Anybody has anything to do with him, anything that he has anything to do with.
Brian Kilmeade
I mean, he says some crazy stuff like Kamala Harris will win in a landslide. But is this the craziest thing yet?
Rich Lowry
Well, they fantasize about this in the first term, that somehow he just, he'd quit or he wouldn't run again because he didn't really like the job. He likes the job. He really likes the job. He's devoted the last 12 years of his life to doing the job, winning the position so he could do the job. So, no, he's not walking away after a bad midterm. Now, look, he might be right. I mean, he's outlined the catastrophic scenario for Republicans. I think that's possible. I wouldn't bet on it. I think the spectrum is somewhere between a narrow loss of the House and it's something that's much, much worse than he's talking about. So I think it'll be a bad midterm.
Rick Jackson
But.
Rich Lowry
But the idea that Trump's going to curl up and go away because of that lunatic.
Brian Kilmeade
So let's take a look at this Iranian deal as we know it. The President saying that they're going to get the enriched uranium. Now he says, we know where it is. We're not in no rush to get it. And then we find out their immediate sanctions relief. Today, as it was pointed out, this reporting that we let Iranian oil tanker get by because we're going to begin to release the blockade by Friday. So when you hear this memorandum, Memorandum of Understanding. What concerns you most?
Rich Lowry
Well, I think it's disappointing, but as we had talked about in recent weeks, I didn't have high expectations. I don't think we, if we weren't reopening the straight by force, we're going to have to basically deal for just the straight. And I think that's, that's what happened. I would have preferred just a trade of the blockade for the straight kind of straight up. Instead, we're giving them oil sales as well. I don't like that. But, you know, I wasn't around the table. Maybe that was necessary. The rest of it, you know, you read what seems to be the Memorandum of Understanding or version of it, and it's pretty horrifying. But then you look at it with a lawyer's eye. Nothing's really agreed to. You know, everything that we say we're going to do, it's based on progress or on a final agreement without those terms being defined. So maybe there's some side agreement here we don't, we don't know about and makes it work look a little better or a little worse. But I would say it's basically a deal for the straight and everything else is to be determined and might not actually happen.
Brian Kilmeade
I'm worried about the $300 billion Arab fund. $300 billion is probably not much for Qatar. They know they're going to be able to generate more. But the $300 billion, if they get that, that's going to allow the Iranian regime to start building more ballistic missiles, get off their back and start leaving some of the economic pressure. I want to know the exact contingencies for them to get it. Does it go into an escrow account? Where, where does that go? I hear then we're going to unfreeze 24 billion. Where does that go?
Rich Lowry
Yeah, I think it's, we don't know. You know, it's not clear whether they know, the parties know. It's not clear whether it's actually been written down or agreed to. So I kind of think the best case is we've done what we've done to reopen the strait. Price of gas is going to go around, go down. Economic stress around the globe related to this will alleviate. And then, then we just sort of stick with what we have. You know, we've eliminated a lot of their stuff. It can be hard for them to rebuild and don't shower them with money, but hopefully if we negotiate in the proper way, we're only showering them money. If we really get concrete further progress on the nuclear program. But I'm just a little. I'm a little skeptical about phase two here. I'm not sure it's going to happen.
Brian Kilmeade
I'm not. I'm not sure. I think the president put a lot of power to the Vice President Wycoff and Kushner, and I think it's another deal that falls short.
Rich Lowry
Yeah, I mean, it definitely falls short, but again, I don't think we won the war. And I think you don't win the war, you're not going to have a great peace. And I think a big problem here, Brian, at the outset was the options were limited because the politics were so bad, because Trump never made the case for it publicly. He didn't go to Congress, so he felt constrained in what he could do. We could have reopened the Strait as a theoretical matter. It just would have been protracted and risky. And I just. I don't think he thought the American public would stand for it. So that. So we get this instead.
Brian Kilmeade
Yeah, I guess. So basically, we're finding out, too, if Israel is going to be told to get out of Lebanon and they shouldn't.
Rich Lowry
Yeah. This is a diplomatic victory for Iran to have this included in any form. Again, I'm sort of skeptical. Are we really going to end the Hezbollah Israeli war based on one clause and this memorandum of understanding that's really about something else. I kind of doub it. So I haven't liked the way he's been shooting at Netanyahu. Trump, I don't like this being included, but I'm not sure how meaningful will be at the end of the day.
Brian Kilmeade
Right.
James Carville
So.
Brian Kilmeade
But 60 days will bring us to August, and that would be even more challenging for the election coming up.
Rick Jackson
Right.
Rich Lowry
Yeah. There'll be an extension. If I had to bet, there'll be an extension. Now, the potential downside here, right, is Trump knows the timing. He's kind of vested in this deal, and maybe he gives more than he should just to keep it going. And, you know, the Iranians can always. The Strait now, a major point of leverage, more than it had been before. Four, if negotiations aren't going their way, they could say, oh, wow, it's this mystery projectile just hit a ship, a tanker in the Strait last night. That's terrible. You know, wow, how did that happen? You know, so they're definitely. It's not a great deal. The definitely downsides here, but I'm not as catastrophic about it as some of my hawkish friends are.
Molly Hemingway
Right.
Brian Kilmeade
Because the big story today that the people are in support of the war, said we ended too soon and the deal is too good for Iran and we're going to see what's happened over the next 60 days. But I love, and I'm being sarcastic when people say as long as they behave, what is behaving mean? And when has Iran ever behaved, ever?
Rich Lowry
If they get any of these funds, they'll be devoted to rebuilding missile capacity and supporting terror groups. It's like dealing with Hamas. It's just baked in the cake. It's what they're committed to religiously and ideologically. So they're not changing. And I just think, I think, you know, it's Trump's nature to be overly optimistic about everything. And JD Sort of has to be the same way. But to say it's really cool how they regret, you know, the 47 years war with the United States. Come on, please.
Brian Kilmeade
Right, here's Reince Priebus, cut 11. The question will be, are the Democrats going to condemn a peace deal or are they going to condemn peace, an open strait and an actual nuclear agreement that has consequences.
James Carville
Consequences.
Brian Kilmeade
So that's what he's wondering, how the other side's playing it.
Rich Lowry
Well, they're going to say, look, it was a mistake to tear up the JCPOA because you have a version of the JLCPO JCPOA here. And what was the war about? And that's not a crazy point. I think it is like the jcpoa, except we'd have destroyed a lot of stuff and Obama didn't do that. I think even if the Iranians had a free hand to restart right now their nuclear program, they wouldn't be able to do it for years. And I think that's the core achievement at the, at the bottom of what Trump's done here.
Brian Kilmeade
Except for the pickaxe facility, I don't think we did anything except cave the entrance.
Rich Lowry
Yeah, I never, I've never understood why we didn't do more there. I just don't, I don't know what our intelligence says or what that would be a major oversight if it's a major facility that we could have hit. So I don't know.
Brian Kilmeade
So let's look at what we know from the primary season. Republicans does are going against an unpopular party which is in the minority. The generic ballot has Democrats up 5, but that could close quickly. Rich, where do you think this race is at first for the House?
Rich Lowry
I think, you know, the margin in the House is so narrow, they can lose three seats now. Maybe they can Lose nine, because they're probably about plus six. Net net on the gerrymandering. That's still a real narrow margin when your president's at 40 or 42. So I'd expect them to lose. Lose the House. I don't know how big the margin is, but I expect Hakeem Jeffries to be speaker come next January.
Brian Kilmeade
Now we move over to the Senate and we look at individual races. Mike Rogers, the best chance to flip. I guess the hardest hold might be Texas, and it's going to be very hard holding North Carolina with Mike Whatley going against a popular Democratic governor.
Rich Lowry
Yeah, I assume Republicans will lose North Carolina. And let's say Susan Collins lost, which, you know, I think you have to favor her in that race. And there are no, no Republican pickups. You know, Republicans don't win Michigan. So then Democrats, to win the Senate would have to win two out of four of Texas, Iowa, Ohio and Alaska. Now, some of those states, they're competitive or they're pulling ahead, but those are red states. That's very tough. Now, Susan Collins wins in Maine. Then you got to win three out of those four. That can happen in a really good night, but I think it's an uphill climb. So my guess is Republicans lose the House.
Rick Jackson
House.
Rich Lowry
And lose the Senate seat for two, but maintain control of the Senate, which is absolutely essential.
Brian Kilmeade
Right. I think the craziest thing in this cycle is what's going on with these socialist victories. And they're getting a lot of them. They're about to get a socialist mayor in D.C. they got a socialist mayor right here in New York. More Communists. They're getting a socialist candidate. Congressman Raab over in Philadelphia, they might be getting a socialist slash radical El Said over in Michigan as a nominee. So when I look at the Democratic Party, if I'm. If I'm pulling left and I want them to be successful, I'm worried. As for the country, if they are successful. But what do you think the chances are that these people who want to vilify billionaires and pay for everything through government could win?
Rich Lowry
They're generally weaker candidates than a more mainstream Democrat would be. Certainly in Maine, Graham Platner has, you know, huge vulnerabilities. There's still more to learn about Saeeb up in Michigan, but I think he'd be a relatively weak candidate. But the problem is, if it's a real kind of wave year, it doesn't matter. You know, you bring in the moderate candidates, you bring in the radical candidates, and that's what I worry about is some of these characters are going to win. And this is really clearly the direction of the Democratic Party. So it could be very bad in terms of who they nominate in 2028, in terms of terms of this president. If they actually nominate someone of this ilk and elect this person, it would be the most left wing president ever in America's history. But the upside for Republicans could be it's also an easy foil, relatively easy foil to run against. So I think Democrats need a Bill Clinton style kind of 1992 candidate, moderates on some cultural stuff, kind of has an appeal to voters that they've turned their backs on for a long time. But that doesn't seem to be the mood. At least the Democrats.
Brian Kilmeade
Fox News did a poll, they said the US Is moving away from capitalism and more towards socialism. Would be 35, 38% a good thing, 61% said a bad thing. That's just lack of education and the vilifying millionaires and billionaires, they have to pay their fair share. Suddenly Bernie Sanders, a fringe candidate most of his life, a fringe voice, is now mainstream for the Democratic Party.
Rich Lowry
Yeah, no doubt about it. I still think there's a downside even in that poll. You'd rather see the numbers more strongly against socialism, but where it is still fairly toxic. And even if you're a socialist, calling yourself a socialist explicitly I think is a very, a very bad idea, certainly in a, in a presidential election, a national election in 2028.
Brian Kilmeade
So I want to look at Georgia in the Senate race there. Congratulations went out from President Trump to Mike Collins. So happy. Highly respected Congressman Mike Collins will win the Senate race. John Ossoff said Donald Trump's handpicked candidate, Mike Collins is a bigot, anti Semite and extremist currently under federal investigation for illegal misuse of taxpayer dollars. So Ossoff is ready to go.
Rich Lowry
Yeah. You know, I just hate to say it. I think those guys down in Georgia, Warnock and Ossoff are pretty hard to beat. You know, both in their own ways are pretty good politicians. So I think that's a, it's going to be an uphill climb there for Republicans.
Brian Kilmeade
All right, thanks so much. Appreciate it, Larry. A National Review 1-866-4087669 so much going on, you forget even there's a primary going on. While the President's at the G7 making a lot of news, he's going to stick to the end. We're for a special dinner at the Versailles with Macron. Don't move.
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Brian Kilmeade
Yeah, it's kind of disturbing to see how so many people from the 20 something to 30 something generation seem to not be patriotic and be going against capitalism. Guys, ladies, go compete. Get into it. Ari Fleischer was asked this question. America reports cut 31.
Phil Flynn
The young people thing is a fascinating thing. Why are they giving up on capitalism? How many are there? But remember, Donald Trump did very well with assault with young people in the 2024 election. So nothing's locked in stone with that group. What is seems to be a locked in trend is socialists are increasingly winning inside Democratic cities.
Rick Jackson
They are.
Brian Kilmeade
The question is they're winning in Democratic cities. If you get through the primary, are they going to win the Senate race? That's what AOC is looking to do. She would, if she decides to take on Schumer and not take on the presidency, she'd be the first real socialist outside Bernie Sanders in the Senate. And she is actually, to me, seems to be running for president because she's really picking on people that don't have a radical past that she has to defend. Like, if you ever hear her talk about Platner, I haven't really been following it much. It's, you know, that's not really. It's up to the people of Maine. No. Instead of Bernie Sanders saying he's my guy or Elizabeth Warren, he's my guy. So she's picking out people who are socialists but don't have problematic personal lives. That's somebody that's being very careful. The guy that's in trouble is Gavin Newsom. Why check out that investigation on him? They think it's Trump just making stuff up. He's got real problems, him and his wife. The money that they got using campaign funds. Take a look at that case. We're going to discuss that more. He's this isn't Trump. This is coming from a state investigation
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from high Atop Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sewing division, it's Brian Kilmeade.
Rick Jackson
All right.
Brian Kilmeade
From 48th and 6th in Midtown Manhattan, where in 24 hours we'll see a raging parade in New York City, hopefully without violence. 53 years it's been. Most of this town is crazy for the Knicks. And Pete, what did you tell me about the ratings for game five? For people to get mad at me for talking about a New York story since game five, when Jordan won his
Rick Jackson
final sixth and final championship.
Brian Kilmeade
And so you talking about the 90s?
Rich Goldberg
Yes.
Brian Kilmeade
Okay, when. Now we. Plus now there's so many networks, so many options, so many streaming services that even says more about how big it is. But I'm getting yelled at, as you know, Molly Hemingway, because a lot of people do not like New York. Anytime New York does. Well, some somebody's angry, like in 49 states.
Molly Hemingway
I mean, there's an aspect of that when it comes to the Yankees because they're winning every year. But as you just said, the Knicks haven't won in forever. Right.
Brian Kilmeade
It's exciting to be a little bit happy. Thank you. So, Molly, how dare you interrupt I haven't even introduced yet. That's Molly Hemingway. Big three, number three. We gotta face facts here, man. We have a real problem in this country right now. This stuff now is at home. We have essentially a homegrown like Hezbollah from the far left and they're being radicalized online as crazy. That's Paul Morrow. The UFC plot thwarted. We have the evil plan and what we know about the would be attackers. As the DOJ indicts antifa for their role in the Minneapolis chaos this winter. America's being attacked from within. Is that worry you? It does me. Number two, like I said then, I'm
Rick Jackson
the only candidate who doesn't owe a
Brian Kilmeade
thing to the political establishment. I don't care what special interests want,
Rick Jackson
how much they beg, how much they give me. I can't be bought and I won't back down.
Brian Kilmeade
So Rick Jackson, weighing in after his primary victory in Georgia, the economy beginning to boom and midterm fortunes beginning to sway GOP's way ever so slightly. We have that and some primary results. Number one, the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which has been supportive of this
Rebecca Heinrichs
administration's efforts against Iran, said the world
Molly Hemingway
is more likely to see this as a strategic retreat.
Rebecca Heinrichs
Have you won the war with Iran?
J.D. Vance
On, yes, we have. And I think that's a mistake from the Wall Street Journal editorial board because what does this deal fundamentally do? It ensures that Iran won't get a nuclear weapon and it ensures the straits of Hormuzer open.
Phil Flynn
Not really.
Brian Kilmeade
JD Vance weighing in with nor o' Donnell last night as he did with Gutfeld and the View and Fox and Friends. Details emerging with the Iran US Deal and I see a little reason for us to be pleased. Question did the VP actually tell Trump what was in it before he started to praise the raising it? Because President Trump now, according to reports, is saying the deal that has been written is not final, even though I think he electronically signed it. Little bit chaotic. Molly Hemingway joined us Editor in chief of the Federalist and author of Alito the Justice who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution. The president United States quite popular at the G7. When I was doing Fox and Friends, he did a one on one a bilat with the Egyptian president. Now he's with Modi of India. So we'll see what happens. He praised him as a great leader and says they have a great relationship and it was going to foul originally. Molly, welcome back.
Molly Hemingway
Great to be here with you.
Brian Kilmeade
All right, first off, I guess the number one story permeating through, percolating throughout the G7 is this deal. It's kind of weird to announce it on a Tuesday and say we'll give you details on a Friday. It's going to only invite innuendo and speculation.
Molly Hemingway
Well, or maybe it's that we just haven't been signing a lot of deals recently when we're in conflict because it seems that this is really more a framework for ongoing disputes. And getting both sides to agree to that framework is not insignificant. It doesn't mean that everything's resolved. You're beginning to get things resolved. You're beginning to see how the strait will be reopened. Iran always claims that it will not build a nuclear weapon. So I'm not sure how big the concession that they won't do it here is, but it provides the framework for ensuring that there is inspection of that to make sure that they're gonna follow through with what they said and they
Brian Kilmeade
get immediate sanctions relief. We saw ships come through reportedly today, according to the Washington Post. And we just had Dennis Ross on from Israel just said, you know, they are coming through because they could beginning to release both blockades. And the problem is after 60 days there's talk of the Iranians and Omanis charging a toll. But they're not gonna call it a toll. They're gonna call it a fee. That's international waters. A toll that would
Molly Hemingway
that Iran agreed to Said it would be toll free. But how that is, you know, the specifics, of course, matter a lot. You just pointed out that Trump said that not everything is final in there, but that's actually true. It's not final. There will be a lot of moving around of things as the two sides argue here. The threat of force that the United States has is a powerful threat. What was accomplished already with the, you know, complete takeout of the regime, of the destruction of so much of their infrastructure, that's not nothing. And knowing that the United States can come back and do more is not nothing. And so the United States does have a strong hand here. Unless you want this to go on in perpetuity, you have to have some kind of framework like this. The devil will be in the enforcement and the details which are forthcoming, which will be in the days to come.
Rich Lowry
Right.
Brian Kilmeade
Do you believe that JD Told the president everything?
Molly Hemingway
I think it's really. People always say, oh, Trump is controlled by Israel, or Trump is controlled by J.D. vance. I think that people who observe Trump knows he's not controlled by anybody. He has articulated repeatedly that he wants to see a deal. In fact, if anything, it's taken way too long to get this MoU done. He started talking about it in April, right. When he said it would happen in a couple weeks. So he cares a lot about this because he knows that bringing this portion of the war to a close is very important for his economy and very important for the midterms. And to have it keep on going on past Independence Day, I think would be politically very difficult. And on that note, Republicans who should be getting, if past is prologue, should be getting wiped out in the midterms. They're showing some surprising strength. And having the economy improve and having gas prices be lowered right now will be huge for those midterm elections, which are also a concern.
Brian Kilmeade
So is your belief get me to November 5th.
Molly Hemingway
Well, I think, like I said, we can always come back, Right? And if we need to come back, maybe after the midterms would be a good time to do it. But also, it gives Iran a chance. I mean, we did such a great job of taking out their entire leadership structure that it made things difficult for negotiations because they were afraid to meet in person, because every time they did, we would just take them out. And so we're getting different arguments from different sides, and they do have some radical elements. So giving them a chance to actually get control over their. Their leadership team and see how they operate, that might be in everybody's head.
Brian Kilmeade
Do you think Switching to the midterms now. Do you believe there's some stats show that? I mean there was a five, the NBC did a poll. I think there's a five point gap. The Democrats are more favorable by just five points than Republicans. Compared to 2018, the last midterm that Trump had, where I think it was almost double dig going into the election, what other signs do you see that Republicans are hanging in there?
Molly Hemingway
Well, they had some huge successes with the elimination of those affirmative action congressional districts that for decades of federal, federal judges had said you had to create districts, congressional districts to benefit the Democrat Party. And the Supreme Court finally weighed in and said that's obviously unconstitutional to create race based gerrymandered. So they've gotten many seats from there. And one of the things that always seems to help the political parties in the United States is the other political party. So even though Democrats should be doing well, their own extremism, their own embrace of a radical fringe is keeping normal voters away from them. They can't find a normal man to run for office in the Democratic Party to save their lives. And it just is very toxic for a huge swath of the American voting electorate. Now, having said that, they still have a huge upper hand in that they have a unifying message of hatred for
Brian Kilmeade
Donald Trump and rich, and the rich
Molly Hemingway
and well, yes, even as they are, even as they are the party of the ultra wealthy. But, and the Republicans haven't really given their own voters a reason to show up and vote. And that enthusiasm is huge for Republicans in a way that it is not for Democrats. The Democratic Party has done such a good job of moving to ballot operations like basically it doesn't matter if you want to vote or not. A ballot will get into the box. You know, they do a good job of harvesting ballots and the Republicans keep on having this antiquated notion that enthusiasm will drive the day. Well, if you're, if they're gonna be that way and if they're not gonna invest in ballot harvesting operations, they better give voters a reason to vote for them.
Brian Kilmeade
So I want you to hear, and after this soundbite, I think we can marginalize this guy. Here's James Carville on his predictions. Cut 35.
James Carville
Trump has no earthly idea of what's coming. They're not telling him the vote against him in November is gonna be, be like breathtaking. I'm telling you, this guy by Easter of 2027 is just going to walk away from this job, just going to walk away because he doesn't have any idea of what it's going to be like when he comes to grips with the massive, I mean, I mean, it's going to be massive rejection of him. Anybody has anything to do with him, anything that he has anything to do with.
Brian Kilmeade
So the President's going to walk away from a job that he, if anybody would say he absolutely loves.
Molly Hemingway
I think James Carville is correct that there will be that enthusiasm among the Democrats to vote against Trump will be huge. And that is something that should concern Trump and other Republicans. But Trump does best when he has opposition. One of the problems he's had is that his current opposition is in the Republican Party who could, you know, that controlled the Senate. And it's very difficult to difficult for him, I guess, to go to war against the Republicans in the Senate. Won't be any trouble for him to go to war against a Democrat controlled chamber. If it's the House, it won't be fun. And I do think people should be aware of turning the government over to Democrats would be like going back to those days of the first Trump administration when it was just constant conspiracy theories about Russia and shutting down the government with, you know, these fake stories causing problems for anybody who worked in the Trump administration. And I do believe we've seen, even in the last couple of years, there is a strong hatred and willingness to violate every norm to go after not just Trump, but anybody who supports him. You know, disbarring attorneys or running shoddy investigations against anyone who showed support for Trump. People should not forget what that's like and how awful that is.
Brian Kilmeade
Remember Michael Flynn, Monica Crowley, others who had their lives temporarily ruined. And Michael Flyn doesn't bounce back because of these ridiculous attacks on Trump. So tell me, bring me inside this story. Jay Clayton's been nominated to be the next DNI to take over for Bill Pulte, who was put forward and rejected by both sides of the aisle for his lack of experience. And they said, okay, we'll pull him back. And they say, okay, we'll fast pace. Jay Clayton, today the President said from the G7. Wait, forget Clayton. Don't even have a hearing for him unless you're gonna pass the Save America Act. So the Save America act, in case you don't know, is a voting act that says you gotta have voter id, you gotta have no more. Basically no mail in voting, no women, no men and women, sports. And that's gotta be taken up. Now, the problem is, for John Thune's perspective, they don't even have every Republican vote. They got 48 overall, cuz they lost Murkowski, they don't have Collins, they don't have Mitch McConnell who's in hospital right now. How do you feel about that, Lincoln?
Molly Hemingway
Well, it was part of the original deal. I mean this is how Trump figured out how to operate. You nominate someone who will not get through, which will or even float the name of someone who Republican senators maybe don't like just as much as Democrat Democratic senators don't like in order to get them to play ball on a different candidate who would still be to your preference. This deal was that they would do what they needed to do with FISA reauthorization in exchange for getting a more preferable candidate. But you have to, to hold the calendar in such a way that you make sure you're getting what you want before you give the other side what they want. And I don't know, you know exactly how this is, this is something that Mitch McConnell probably would not have mistaken how to handle. But they need to make sure they get what they, they need to get the concession from the Democrats before they give them the non multi nominee.
Brian Kilmeade
But how are you supposed to dislodge the Democrats? I watched last night as we were hearing this debate and I just don't see how you get to get those Republicans to switch, let alone get 60 votes from Democrats get to 60.
Molly Hemingway
It seems that, you know, when I was younger we talked about the Senate as the preeminent debating body in the world. And the last time they debated publicly, I mean, it just doesn't happen anymore. Sometimes you need to have some debates publicly, not handle everything in backroom deals and, and go ahead and just work more than two and a half days a week, which is currently what many of the senators are doing as they invest more of their time in running for reelection or raising money. But speaking of what we talked about with the midterm elections, you need to give Republican voters something, a reason to vote for you too. And sometimes that means showing your work, demanding things of Democrats, getting those concessions publicly. And you know, what does, what does John Thune control? He controls the calendar, so it shouldn't be that difficult.
President Donald Trump
Right?
Brian Kilmeade
But yeah, I mean, he just says it's a math problem. So what does, how do you get Murkowski to your side? How do you get Fetterman to your side? How do you get anyone? Because remember the infrastructure deal that Joe Biden put out did get Democrat, did get Republican support, the gun legislation reform did get Republican support, but we haven't seen that yet with Trump.
Molly Hemingway
So this is the area for the backroom dealing. Right. You look at someone like Nancy Pelosi who, you may not like her politics, but she was ruthlessly effective in getting majorities to do what she wanted to do. Sometimes that meant making some difficult calls, threatening people, reminding people that where their spouse works might be a privilege that she had granted them. You know, doing, playing true hardball. This is what people want in strong Republican leadership for the goals of the, of the voters who actually are responsible for reelecting them. So, so you can give Lisa Murkowski things. You can. And certainly the Democrats are offering her things constantly. And they might even offer her a chairmanship if that meant that she would switch sides. And she's not a Republican in any real sense except for voting for who the leader is while she knows she has power and she knows that that means that she should be able to get some goods out of it.
Brian Kilmeade
All right. So when you look at the whole thing, so maybe there might be something go on behind the scenes. Senator Thune and company. Go ahead.
Molly Hemingway
I just want to say one other thing. The current deputy director of DNI is fantastic. And so there's not like the world's biggest rush in getting anybody confirmed. He's someone that oddly enough, and this doesn't happen a lot in the intelligence community, everybody should like Aaron Lucas, career guy, but smart, thoughtful and well respected by many people.
Brian Kilmeade
Right. And it's pretty clear with that position now, the CIA seems to have a lot more confidence, control than the DNI without the DNI doesn't have a budget, kind of supervises all the agencies.
Molly Hemingway
DNI has always been about collating information, making sure that information is being shared properly. And also because of the problems with the intelligence community in recent years, having that transparency that allows people to have greater trust again in the intelligence community after the leadership of the IC behaved so poorly and caused people to distrust them.
Brian Kilmeade
Molly Hemingway, thanks so much. You went outnumbered today.
Rick Jackson
I am.
Brian Kilmeade
I thought so. Watch Molly at noon. This is the Brian Kill Me Chat.
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Brian Kilmeade
So we're waiting on the President. I say it's going to have a press conference end, let me see in
Rick Jackson
a couple of hours.
Brian Kilmeade
And then he's going to go have this private dinner with Macron and they're going to celebrate America to 50. And of course, historically there's nobody Better to celebrate with than France, who to help deliver us the revolutionary war win. So that is great. It's good to see them getting along. For those people who think President, United States has hopelessly isolated us in a place where we're never going to recover. Have you seen what's going on? All of them want to get one on one time with the President. All of them. Now, I know it has a lot to do with us, me and you and the economy and our military and everything like that, but whether it's a Middle Eastern nation that was invited there on the President's behest, or whether it's a Western European nation who wants to meet one on one, even Canada, who we've been at odds with, you saw a lot of that quality time that they're having. So those people say the president upset everybody forever with Greenland and with his. With his attempt to say we're going to take it by force if we have to, and the Iran war, it's just not the case. People disagree, but the nations are getting along. And also people realize America is pretty indispensable. And also, I think the president's charismatic. I think people want his attention.
Phil Flynn
They.
Brian Kilmeade
They want to sit down and find out what's going on, what he's thinking and how he can help. You heard Egypt, he's like, can you help me with Ethiopia? They put a dam up and it's hurting the Nile River. President goes, yeah, I guess I'll handle it, really. Out of everything he's got going on. The Egyptian leader goes, can you help me with the Nile River? All right, let's do it. So here we go again. So for those people who say we're isolated, I think the evidence proves you're wrong.
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Rick Jackson
I believe if they renege on this deal, action will be taken.
Brian Kilmeade
But I, I can't square some of the things that are coming out of the administration from reliable sources. That's what I find so disturbing. When I heard it from the Iranians, Sean, I dismissed. I said, that's the same nonsense we are always hearing. But when I hear from administration sources, some of the things that you have heard of what's in this deal, that makes no sense whatsoever. It's not defensible. I think what the President should do is just, let's release it and let people see what's out there so we stop debating about something none of us has seen. Yeah, I got it read to me. And it Is, you know, it's not great. And I just know this, the best ally we have is Iran because they, they, they'll go back on a bad deal for them and a good deal for them because they're not trustworthy. I mean, Vice president kept saying in various outlets yesterday in the four Fox shows he was on, if they don't behave, they don't get the money. When have they ever behaved ever, ever in any way? They never, they're not interested in doing that. And we just wiped out. I know people don't want to acknowledge it. We wiped out their leadership, killed the ayatollah, injured their new Supreme Leader to the point where he's been defaced and defiled and deformed. And you think they're going to try to fight, get themselves in line? No guy that knows this better than me is Vice Admiral Robert Horwood, who grew up in Iran, senior adviser with the Iran Policy Project and at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. Vice Admiral, welcome back. I mean, we're just speculating on this, on this, I think 16 point plan. It's about two pages. Bud, what's your take?
Vice Admiral Robert Harward
Well, let me give you the facts. As I understand it right now, the President controls everything. He has all the cards and his bargaining position has never been stronger. The Iranian regime has been, never been weaker because of the strikes. But more importantly, and why the President is so strong. He controls all the money. The blockade is just strangulated them economically, but he's hearing the rest of the world in the world economy. So he's willing to work as part of this deal to open up the Straits of Hormuz. But what he needs from the Iranians is a signed document and it's not clear who's speaking on behalf of Iran and if they have the authority, but an acknowledgement that the Straits of Hormuz are open for business. You disavow any claims it's international water, you're not going to charge surcharge. So if he gets that, then you get the world economy back on track, at least for short term. Which allows those thousands of ships that have been trapped inside the Arabian Gulf or the Persian Gulf, depending on which nomenclature you want to get out. So when they get out, he's achieved one of his most important objectives. Number two is the nuclear program. They need the nuclear material surrendered to us either by taking it on the ground or handing it over and avowing that they will never sign or pursue any nuclear program. So if he can accomplish those two things, then he's got times on his hand to deal with all the other objectives. It's not clear to me this document, if those are the caveats and that's what he's going to get from this arrangement. But that's what he needs and wants.
Brian Kilmeade
All right, so obviously you don't have all the cards because they go 60 days and they just say, okay, six days are up, we're going to start tolling because they say they're going to use it. They use the term fees and with Oman and, and then we find out that, you know, they're beginning to build ballistic missiles, which by the way, there's no provision not to. And they're allowed to get some money in and get everything going and they start feeding that money to Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah. And they know it's close to an election and the President doesn't want to bring the economy down three months before an election. So maybe they're going to feel emboldened because August is going to be here 60 days later and they feel as though the President doesn't want to risk the price of oil.
Vice Admiral Robert Harward
Right, of course that's the risk. But again, I think the President is more focused on the objectives and, and getting long term peace and stability in the region on behalf of the Arab nations, on behalf of us and the world economy. So I think he understands all that dynamics. And don't forget, at any day he chooses, if he thinks he's being played and this president moves very aggressively and quickly, he can shut it all down. And you talk about money. The only money they're going to get out the current arrangement is the ability to sell their oil again. And that's going to take some time to get back on the market and work that. So that timeline of them getting money from their own oil sale, freeing up their oil aligned to this timeline, puts us in a position to be able to shut it down very quickly and really make that initial money they will be able to gain somewhat irrelevant because it's not on the scale they need to get their country back on track. So again, that's a strategy you could assess from what we're seeing, that's their strategy, but it's not clear from, from the documents or what anyone's saying at the moment.
Brian Kilmeade
What about the $300 billion? Does, what does, what does that look like to you? Because I like to see some language that says it's an escrow account, that it has some control over it, that it can't be used for anything, that that doesn't involve infrastructure or something to that nature. Or do you just say, hey, we can't get everything we want. If they get $300 billion from Qatar, so be it.
Vice Admiral Robert Harward
No, you're exactly right. That's the bargaining power by controlling the money.
Rich Lowry
Money.
Vice Admiral Robert Harward
So they don't get any of that money until everything else is accomplished. That, I believe is the strategy. Until they have acknowledged that the straits are international waterway, they have no control. They can't tax anyone. They're not going to threaten it, not until they hand over the nuclear material. And Val, they will not have a nuclear program should they get any money. But once those two are accomplished, then you could talk about how the money will be applied. So you're right. That's not clear in the current situation, but I hope that's the strategy being applied here.
Brian Kilmeade
I guess so. What are the reports inside Israel? They seem very disturbed. They were not brought into this negotiation yet. They're told not to attack Hezbollah. And now the foreign minister came out a few hours ago and said basically the deal's off if Israel doesn't back out of Lebanon.
Vice Admiral Robert Harward
Well, that's why this is all so nebulous and tentative and Israel can't back out Lebanon. They've this problem for decades and I'm in and out of Israel a lot. And you could watch every time I visited how deeper the defensive, how deeper the offensive was on their border, on that territory, right onto their border. So they needed to take that ground just to ensure their security. So that's going to be a tough pill for them to swallow. And I don't think they're going to get that. But again, one of the very tenuous components of this deal that make it very difficult to bring to fruition at the end of the day.
Brian Kilmeade
Yeah, I just can't see it happening. And Netanyahu is not going to. He's never not hit back when Hezbollah has hit them. And that's just not his policy. When the president said, I'll have Syria take care of Hezbollah, are you kidding? Syria, they don't have an army. They don't have missile defense. Hezbollah's got the missiles. I'm sure everyone knows.
Vice Admiral Robert Harward
And Brian, you're exactly right, but you've hit the point time every time. Davis doesn't get passed every time, every day. The Iranians do not get relief from the blockade. They continue to be strangled. So if it's not going to get signed this week, we have to wait. That's more pain, more leverage we have against the Iranians. So the president's always said he's not going to sign a bad deal. And if we can't solve certain components of this, such as the Lebanon and the Hezbollah component, it doesn't get done. So again we're going to have to watch and see. And like it's been for the last 120 days, this is going to be high adventure.
Brian Kilmeade
Admiral, do you believe that Qatar and Pakistan are double dealing?
Vice Admiral Robert Harward
No, I believe they're looking after their own national security interests and both of them are are close and near to Iran and have significant strategic threats at hand. So I think they're being fair and honest brokers. But again, at the end of the day that's somewhat Iraq irrelevant. We've got to do what we need to do and that's the President's decision. So they could be accommodators, they could be commit servers, you know, give their two cents. But at the end of the day we need to do what's in our own best interest as they are.
Brian Kilmeade
Right. And again, that price of oil down the market's up significantly 50 over 52,000. It's up 160, 70 points. And we know, I think when I started this show oil was $74 a barrel. When it gets down to 65, that's the breakpoint where oil and gas producers don't want to go any lower than that. So then we're going to feel it at the pump. And I know you're in military speak, but the president will lose considerable power if he doesn't hold on to both chambers of Congress. So he has to look long term, Admiral.
Vice Admiral Robert Harward
Right, Without a doubt. If you solve this problem for decades to come and you bring that Iranian market back onto the game for everyone, not just China, you change the whole dynamic. So that's why we have to have the long term approach to this. A government in Iran who renounces nuclear weapons, who renounces any threats to the Straits of Vermouth, who renounces funding Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and others. That's the end state that is. And we have to be focused on the objectives that get us to that long term stability by meeting those objectives.
Brian Kilmeade
Yeah, I just think that we have to have also a program probably led by the CIA that begins to arm the people. And I think it would help because this current government is presenting a problem to the entire region.
Vice Admiral Robert Harward
Brian. I hope that's been going on for the last hundred and some days since we started this invasion, I think. And again, Iran has been fighting us asymmetrically they never attacked us directly. They were killing our people in Iraq, killing our people in Afghanistan, attacking us through their surrogates, going after our Internet, after our institutions on that with cyber activity. We've got played the same game against them them. We've got fun people, we've got communicate. We've got to do everything we can to undermine this regime unless they acknowledge and move to those objectives.
Brian Kilmeade
And we know you have contacts in Iran. I know the Internet's back up for the most part. What's that contact been like?
Vice Admiral Robert Harward
It's always good. He's very, very well. Several of them are very brave to communicate but they're very hopeful, they're concerned about this agreement and they know very well you've got 70 million people who are pulling for the end state we've just talked about. They want a government that's going to use their resources to take care of them and not murder them. And they're hopeful we will achieve that as the end state. And look, we are where we are now because of the President's aggressive manner. He took Venezuela, he went into Iran. We wouldn't be where we are today. And I don't think he's the type of president that's going to be satisfied with anything but ensuring his legacy that he brought long term peace and stability to the region that has been lacking for over five decades.
Brian Kilmeade
So military always tells me we don't go to war alone, we go to war. We go to war with the State Department because diplomacy matters in war. So having said that, do you believe we should get a different team to work on Ukraine and maybe Gaza and now this? We have the same two guys doing everything who are very talented, very successful, but not deeped in diplomatic relations. And I'm just. Or nuclear energy or nuclear weapons. Would you like to see more teams involved in this?
Vice Admiral Robert Harward
Capacity is always an issue and that's one of our strengths against other nations. We have such deep benches and such professionals who know how to do this. So yeah, if you look at what's happened with the National Security Council from the Trump's both administration, it's been shrunk considerably at a time when they probably could have the biggest impact where you have staffs coordinating with the whole agency, State Department, treasury, justice, the intel community, OSD and others to get the best policies and programs. So I think, think the shrinking of that organization and placing it all at either State Department or Department of War has been a shortfall. We could strengthen that organization half capacity at a time where it really matters to get your best strategy from the policies you have. So I think there is work to be done in that lane.
Brian Kilmeade
So, Admiral, it's been great talking to you through this and now we got 60 days to go over this and the president's going to, to be having a press conference very soon. We'll be carrying a lot of that. I can't thank you enough for all your insight. Appreciate it.
Vice Admiral Robert Harward
Always good to see you, Brian.
Brian Kilmeade
Same here. Back in a moment.
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J.D. Vance
I expected them to be absolutely vicious, and they were only a little bit vicious.
Brian Kilmeade
It wasn't, it wasn't as bad as
J.D. Vance
I thought it was going to be. Joy Behar even said during the break, not joking, she said, you know what, you're like, pretty good for a Republican. And I was like, whoa, that is a way better compliment than I expected from Joy Behar. I gotta say, I thought that Sunny, the woman to my left, was gonna call me a racist. In reality, it was Whoopi, the woman to my right, who called me racist. So expectations were defied.
Brian Kilmeade
So that was J.D. vance who was on Fox and Friends. He was on the Fox, he was on Gutfeld, he was on cbs and he was on the View. If this book is not a bestseller, it's never going to be a bestseller. And it talked about his conversion. I think the name of it is Communion. Is that it? Communion. Meanwhile, he's got the other headline news where he led the, he led the negotiation for this memorandum of understanding that's going to be released on Friday. So you got news, News, news, news. Oh, my book is out. My bio and are you running in 20? 20, 28. And the answer is clearly yes, he's running in 28. Clearly. He's unbelievably talented and likable, I believe. But in just the terms of his foreign policy, I just don't, I don't see eye to eye with it. Not that he has to live to impress me. It's just not where I'm at. And I think that the fact that he goes along and supports President Trump, even though he's not in support of it. For example, Joe Biden always said when he was on his game and all his instincts are bad, but he made it clear that when it came to Obama and Afghanistan, he never would have surged in Afghanistan. And we knew he goes, but I'm vice president, I'm there to support the president. He did say J.D. vancey had some regrets and here's the one regret cut 39 in the book. Mr. Vice President, you make a mea culpa of sorts for calling Democrats childish childless cat ladies.
Rick Jackson
Oh, man.
Brian Kilmeade
You say that in the book, that it was boneheaded, which it was.
Phil Flynn
Thank you.
Brian Kilmeade
What were you thinking when you said that?
J.D. Vance
So Joy said when we were all fair that I'm fine, which I think is about the best endorsement that I'm
Phil Flynn
going to get out of.
J.D. Vance
Joy Behar for Republican. Thank you. I appreciate that. Graded on a curve here at the View. But you know, I guess one of the things that I try to do and I'm always, you know, all of us are always learning, you know, I'm, you said you were a lapsed Catholic. I'm a bad Catholic. I think all them of us, that's why we need grace as Christians is because we recognize that there are certain things we got to work on. Right. But here's what I'd say about that. So did that comment actually shed light on something and start a discussion or did it just close people down? And when I make a comment that just closes people down instead of trying to appreciate the point that I make, that's a mistake. Right. And that's on me to do better.
Brian Kilmeade
So, you know, childless cat ladies weren't in the country, but he evidently said it multiple times. Okay. That's something different than Trump. He will not, you know, Trump, will somebody never admit a mistake. So that's, that's good. And also I love if I'm, if I'm working with J.D. vance. I love these other view. I love it because number one, he's not running. So he's got, they're not forced to kill him because they're big time Democrats and they'll be for any Democrat. But if you come off likable and understanding, what I would have said to him at the end of that is I like to come back and then you create a dialogue. So it's hard to hate somebody that keeps showing up.
President Donald Trump
Right.
Molly Hemingway
And he, but he's so charming and he's, he is, I think one of the best ones in adversarial Situations. I mean, look at his debate performances. I mean he's, he's just amazing at it. Actually, Rachel was on with Will yesterday and she said something like J.D. vance gave everyone, like every man in this country a lesson how to deal with their wives in an argument by being on the View, that it was a good line.
President Donald Trump
That is a pretty good line.
Brian Kilmeade
The other thing that he, he's going to have to think about doing is whether he wants to run with a fourth kid who's under three. He's going to be under two years old, right, because he hasn't even been born yet or shaped.
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Brian Kilmeade
around the country, around the world, where in 24 hours the canyon of Heroes will entertain the New York Knicks first championship in this city. I mean the Liberty one. But no one really follows college pro basketball for women right now. It's just not a big deal. Sorry. And you have one big star, Caitlin Clark, and you seem to despise her. So I'm really, I don't consider the Liberty a big deal. But the New York Knicks will experience the Canyon of Heroes. I think the whole country will watch. I had a chance to go to California, I had a chance to go to Florida. And I asked people, the Knicks a big deal? Everybody says it's a big story, so stop getting mad at me. People are writing me saying enough of the Knicks. I just say if they win next year, it's not gonna be a big deal. But 53 years is a big deal. So the big deal in this country right now is what's happening with us in Iran. Now for people that said it was a great move to go into Iran like me because I've seen them be a problem. I know what our military is capable of, of. I'm disappointed what I'm hearing about how the secession of violence is coming to fray. Why? Because Iran's the problem. We're not the problem. Nobody. The Gulf states aren't the problem. Israel, ladies and gentlemen, is not the problem. Iran is the problem. So the deal to land this plane to get to 60 days of intense negotiations I find a little disturbing. We don't know the details of it, which shows me, not a formality to me that shows me that there's a lot of things they don't want people to hear about this thing because they don't want the markets affected. The market's over 52,000 first time ever gas. The price of per barrel of oil is getting lower and closer to the 65 level that we were at. That nobody wants to see it go below because that's when oil and gas companies begin losing money. I don't want that to happen either. Either, do you. A lot of it's in your 401k portfolio. But when I look at what Iran has, they're the ones who couldn't bring water to their people. They're the ones who have heavily sanctions on their oil. They're the ones ones who could not do international banking. They're the ones who took any revenue and gave it to their proxy terror groups, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Hamas. Not us. It was them. We don't give money to terrorist groups. They do. People have to understand who the bad guys are. It is not us. Understood. So people might not even our allies who didn't want us to do the job. They recognized that Iran is the problem. That's why they had snapback sanctions in play. They're immediately the Iranians are going to get a waiver on exports and allow to export their Iranian crude oil, petrochemicals. That's a big give. I know you got to give something to get something. And we're going to get the straight open for 60 days. Yeah, but for how long? I think they're going to toll it after 60 days. They could toll it along with Oman.
J.D. Vance
Really?
Rich Goldberg
No.
Brian Kilmeade
We're going to call it fees in environmental clauses. Forget that. That can't happen. That's why Senator Lindsey Graham, big fan of the president. The president endorsed him right away. He got through his primary, which is great.
Rich Lowry
But.
Brian Kilmeade
But he's worried about the deal as we know it. Senator Thune wouldn't comment last night on the deal because we don't know the details of it. Here he is talking about it. Cut 6. We have seen the details. And so, yeah, there's a lot of online chatter out there and some versions of it. But I think until the White House actually furnishes us the specific, you know, memo that it's hard to react one
Rich Goldberg
way or the other.
Brian Kilmeade
I think a lot of our members are hearing things and obviously they're responding to that. But clearly like anybody else, we want to see the devil's in the details. So he's waiting. We're all waiting. And it's only going to be a page and a half. I don't have any problem with it being page and a half. This is the criteria needed to start 60 days of negotiation. So the foreign Minister gets on television yesterday of Iran and says, I want Israel out of Lebanon. Tough. What are you talking about? Israel wasn't in on the negotiations. Why should they be restricted in Lebanon? Why are they in Lebanon? They don't want the land. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Anti, Anti Israel people out there. I'm not going to say anti Semitic. Let's say you're anti Bibi, anti Israel, anti Semitism I can't help you with. But let's say you don't agree with their tactics. You're not paying attention. The only reason they're in Lebanon and the point they're at is because they have to allow people to safely go back to their homes in Northern Israel. So now the foreign minister says, no, no deal, deal, unless Israel backs out of Lebanon. Well, they're not going to do that. And the President's getting mad at Bibi Netanyahu. They're responding to attacks from Hezbollah. And for the President to come out and say, syria should take care of Hezbollah. Syria can't take care of Hezbollah. They have this thing called ballistic missiles. And Syria can barely, you know, get the buses to run on time. They have no missile defense. They can't touch Hezbollah. They are an enemy of Hezbollah. You're right, Mr. President, but they can't do anything about it. One of the things that I have a problem with in terms of the memory of understanding is calls for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened in the near term. Good. The MOU stipulates that, quote, iran will make arrangements, using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no change for six. No charges for 60 days. Whoa, whoa, whoa. No charges for 60 days? Forever. You can't charge for international water. You realize the precedent that'll set. You really want to charge for international waters? Anything close to the coast of your country, I'm going to charge for. These guys just got bombed 13,000 times. Why are they dictating any conditions? It's absolutely insane to me. So I just wonder if Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and the Vice President have fully been candid with the President, United States, when he says things like this. Cut 1 1. There's so much interest in the text of the document.
Phil Flynn
Why not.
Brian Kilmeade
Why not release the.
President Donald Trump
I will. Because I. I'd like to get a formal setting first before we do that, but I have no problem with that. It's good document. Here's what it says. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. That's where it says it won't have one to buy, to develop they will not have a nuclear weapon.
James Carville
Really?
Brian Kilmeade
Okay, okay. Well number one, we got to get the uranium out. And right now they said they're in a rush to get the uranium out. And now in some of the texts reportedly the Iranians say we'll hold it and we'll down blend it to no longer weapons grade. But they still have it. Uranium experts tell me it's easy to up, you know if this is a term to upgrade it to back to weapons grade. If they keep it, why would they keep it? Can't keep it. That's a non brainer. And what about the pickaxe facility? The pickaxe facilities inside of a granite mountain that we've been unable. We collapse the entrance, but they can clear out the entrance. What are they going to do there? And when it comes to inspections over the next 60 days, we have to have direct inspections. If you don't want Americans, it's got to be people that we trust, whether it's the Britain or France to go in there. And if you start doing the Saddam Hussein, don't look here, don't look here. Not allowed in. Then we go back to war and after 60 days it'll bring us to August. In August Iran will have leverage because the president's going to get oil and gas down low. The economy is going to be rolling and does he want to slow it down leading up to the midterm elections? He answers no.
President Donald Trump
Cut to actually I'll not only release it, I'll probably have a press conference and read it to you word by word so that the press covers it accurately because it's a very important document. And unlike Obama who could have destroyed the Middle east with a horrible JCPOA is the worst agreement that was a road to a nuclear weapon. Mine is a wall against a nuclear weapon. I mean I see these people say but we already had one that was the worst. He paid a fortune for it. We paid nothing.
Brian Kilmeade
Yeah. And president's always comparing the jcpoa. And so is Barack Obama who's doing a ton of interviews now to get publicity out for his monstrosity of a library that he has. And I'll discuss some of the library a little bit later because it's way over budget, it does not revitalize inner Chicago. And number three is it's very late and evidently there's a whole bunch of black construction workers who are saying they never got back paid. He left office in 2016. It is 10 years ago. 10 years ago. Meanwhile, Rebecca Heinrichs talked to me today. She's a foreign policy expert who just got off a trip to Ukraine, but really focused on the Middle east, extremely fair and knowledgeable. And as I talk to her, you're going to hear a clip from some some of the action that took place. And then you'll hear my interview from Fox and Friends because I wanted to bring it back. Was tough catching up to her after afterwards. So here's my interview with Rebecca Heinrichs, Hudson Institute senior fellow. Rebecca Heinrich joins us now. Rebecca, can we just start on the Israeli portion of it? Israel has to, I guess, stop fighting back against Hezbollah who's lobbing missiles at the northern part of their country. This makes absolutely no sense.
Rebecca Heinrichs
It makes no sense. And we also know, Brian, that there have been diplomatic attempts over and over, over, over again since the early 2000s to try to get Hezbollah to disarm. They will not disarm. It has never worked through negotiations and diplomacy at this point. If this is tied to this deal, the United States would essentially be is restraining Israel, our greatest ally in the region and the reason that we had such success in Epic Fury. So Israel must defend itself. It cannot be restrained. It has to be able to even go on the offensive, to preemptively take out these Hezbollah cells, even if they're in Beirut. I would expect Israel to continue to do that. They're not going to wait until they get hit before they can respond.
Brian Kilmeade
You can't blame Netanyahu for this. They're defending themselves. They just happen to be very good at defending themselves. It's not their fault that they're this strong and this devastating. And Syria is not equipped to take out Hezbollah even though they'd love to. They have no missile defense. Hezbollah's got rockets. Let's talk about the deal. What concerns you most about what we now know about this deal as we wait two days for the formal reading of the deal?
Rebecca Heinrichs
Well, first of all, Brian, I just want to say epic fury was so successful and economic fury is so successful and President Trump was right to initiate it. And we really have the Iranians in a vise, which is why I'm concerned that we would permit the Iranians access to their oil when as we relieve this blockade, they would essentially have billions of dollars back into the IRGC coffers. I know the vice president continues to say this will be conditioned, but as far as I can tell, this isn't even be put in escrow accounts to trap it to make sure the IRGC complies. We have no reason to believe that they will. So they will be Flooded with cash almost immediately. My second big concern is that the deal does recognize Iranian governance with other Gulf states over the Strait of Hormuz. Now, the Iranians will say they just want to collect environmental tolls. They're not going to call it tolls, they'll call it fees. That's tolls, Brian. That's worse than before. Epic fury. The United States cannot permit Iran to have coercive control over the Strait of Hormuz. And so to me, those are the two big ones tied with, I think the fact that once you relieve sanctions, you really lose your leverage to enforce what we want on removing and dismantling Iran's nuclear.
Brian Kilmeade
And we're going to do is they have frozen funds, so it'll be 300 billion. It looks like they get it up front. It looks like they're going to be selling oil right up front. And it looks like after 60 days, they charge toll polls with Oman. There's no way, because that's going to set a precedent for international waters in waterways around the world. So that every big and small power does not want this to be a new trend that'll blow everybody's budget. Correct?
Rebecca Heinrichs
Yeah, I'm very concerned about that. I mean, to me, geopolitically, I think President Trump again had an incredible opportunity to wrest control of the Strait of Hormuz away from the Islamic Islamic Republic of Iran. China backs Iran. So United States is in this cold war, this great competition against the Chinese. We do not want China and its proxies to have coercive control over major waterways. If we set this precedent, you would expect the Chinese to be looking to do it in its region of the world as well. So I'm concerned about that. One more point, Brian, on the $300 billion. It is true that we, it's not going to be American taxpayers that are going to go to this fund. But the language that I've seen of the MoU says that the United States would help essentially get investments in Iran. Remember, Iran has not changed. Iran is still conducting industrial scale executions. They execute miners, little girls, as little as nine. So this regime has not changed. It's devoted to the Islamic Republic. And we should not be giving any economic relief until this regime is gone or we should or demonstrates completely different behavior.
Brian Kilmeade
And the thing is, everything that you said, I think the President would say. I'm just wondering if the people that negotiated this have informed the President about what's in the page and a half he's going to read publicly on Friday.
Rebecca Heinrichs
Yeah, I mean, look President Trump initiated epic fury wing to wing with the Israelis. It was brilliant. 47 years of terrorism, only President Trump finally took the fight to the Iranians demonstrated demonstrating incredible military competence, military capability. I applaud him for that. And so he won the war. But the details of this agreement as we've seen them, it does not look like we are the victors. It looks at best as though it is a tie or in fact that the Iranians did pull some wins out and there's no reason for it. The United States has the economic, the military advantage. President Trump was right to put the squeeze on, on them. And he continues to say it's no deal or it's a good deal. And I would just say we were in a much better place before we saw the details of this mou. And unless President Trump can change this at the last minute and get good deals here, I would say that this memorandum of understanding is, is worse than
Brian Kilmeade
not having it right next 24 hours. He could go in and do that. I hope he does. Rebecca Heinrich, thanks so much. Appreciate it. When we come back, the price of oil, the price of gas, the price of diesel. I talked to energy expert Phil Flynn next. Next you'll listen to Brian Kilmeade Show.
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Brian Kilmeade
When you talk about the straight how it affects people at home, a lot of people just don't care about Iran. They just don't care about foreign policy. It's not this generation, it's every generation. They just, just don't care more about domestic issues. And I understand that people with paycheck to paycheck, if gas is $2.85 in the next month, it's $4.20. And you're driving for a living. And especially if you're in sales or things like that, you're on the road. It affects you and your bottom line. So we booked Phil Flynn this morning. I think he's one of this nation's premier experts on oil, gas and especially diesel. And I just wanted to know what he thinks the pattern is in terms of decreased oil sales. And we begin in with the president talking about what he hopes. And then Phil chimes in, here's my interview.
President Donald Trump
It is going to be opening. It's already partially opened. It's going to be opening up soon, in full, over the next day or two. And the market has gone wild and oil has come tumbling down and it's getting to very Close to where it was before the crisis. You know, the reason oil stayed low is because we were taking ships out every night, night that you didn't even know about. Our Navy did a great job. Nobody knew what was happening. That's why oil didn't go to $300 a barrel.
Brian Kilmeade
Investors like the news with the Dow hitting a record high of topping 52,000 for the first time in history. Fox Business contributor and oil trader Phil Flynn joins us now. Phil, when we see the price per barrel go down, we're wondering if it's going to be the same thing when we get to the gas station. What do you think?
Phil Flynn
Absolutely. You know, Brian, I was so excited today. We saw gasoline prices at 402 a gallon, which sounds high from where it was a year ago, but a lot lower than where, where it was just a few weeks ago and a lot lower than it was under President Biden when it was over $5 a gallon. And we're probably going to fall below $4 a gallon. That's going to be a big help for inflation pressures. Diesel prices are going to come down. That's a good price price and a good boom for businesses. So this is real positive. And if we reopen the straight, we get a flood of oil and that means more downside pressure.
Brian Kilmeade
What could you say about diesel? Because people like you have told me that if you want food prices to go down, trucks deliver those food, those food to the grocery stores and they run on diesel. How's that going?
Phil Flynn
It's doing a lot better.
J.D. Vance
Right.
Phil Flynn
And diesel is a soft spot in the petroleum complex, you know, partly because of the green energy movement. You know, we closed refineries. Nobody wants dirty diesel, you know, except the economy. Right. And, and that has really tightened supply. So when there's a disruption, they're the ones that get hurt the worst and the economy gets hurt the worst. But one of the untold stories that kept diesel prices down is the fact that we have, you know, increased production from Venezuela. They make heavy oil that makes diesel. And the other thing is the heroic actions by U.S. refiners who raised productions of things like jet fuel to all time highs. All of those came into play that kept these prices from getting way, way higher and not keeping them from hitting an all time high.
Brian Kilmeade
So Phil, educate me, why don't we? What would stop it from going the old price? Oil goes down. So the price of gas. Are there certain things built into the system that prevents gas from going down as quick as the price per barrel?
Phil Flynn
There is. I mean it's just the way the market works. A lot of times when you're looking at the retail side of the market, you know, they're always behind the curve a little bit. And when prices go up quickly, they general lose money. Right. And it takes a little bit of time. But I would say in this scenario we're starting to see prices start to accelerate on the downside for gasoline and the competitive pressures in America, demand for gasoline is pretty good even with prices at this high. So when prices come down, the competitive pressures will bring those prices.
Brian Kilmeade
I feel what we're going to tap it into a lot to see where this is all going because the politics is playing into the prices at the pump as usual.
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President Donald Trump
Actually, I'll not only release it, I'll probably have a press conference and read it to you word by word so that the press covers it accurately because it's a very important document. And unlike Obama who could have destroyed the Middle east with a horrible jcpoa, it is the worst agreement that was a road to a no nuclear weapon. Mine is a wall against a nuclear weapon. I mean, I see these people, but we already had one. He paid a fortune for it. We paid nothing.
Brian Kilmeade
So the president United States over in the G7 is going to have a press conference shortly. We'll be covering it. A lot of news coming out, everything going on. I mean the attempted assassination for the UFC event, that would have been a devastating, would have been a devastating attack on the most, maybe some of the most successful people in the country. Country that was about 20 people could have been involved. It was unwound by a mom that found out their son was involved. Thankfully called authorities. The FBI cracked down, the Secret Service acted. Five are under arrest and hopefully they're going to get all the 23. We're following that. The president United States also commenting, making news over there with just different meetings that he's having with G7 leaders, Arab leaders, Gulf state leaders, as well as a one on one with the Egyptian leader and he had a bilateral with the Indian leader, amod and now he's going to have a press conference about what would be his memorandum of understanding with Iran. Joining us now, a guy that helped me out on Fox and Friends a short time ago, former senior adviser, now currently a senior advisor at the foundation for Defense of Democracies. Work with Rich Goldberg. Work with the president the first term. Rich Goldberg. Rich, welcome back.
Rich Goldberg
Hey, thanks for having me, Brian.
Brian Kilmeade
Hey, Rich. We're just trying to find out what they're going to be giving us on Friday. And I think the one thing is pretty clear, the President wants to land the plane economically, but in turn wants a good deal in the short term to negotiate a better deal in 60 days. From what you know, did he do that?
Rich Goldberg
Well, I think that if you just took a snapshot of the deal itself, I understand why critics could harp on, well, how much money are you paying? Is it just Hormuz for Hormuz? Are you going back to the pre war status quo, basically, that Iran was already exporting X number of barrels per day to China and getting paid for it? The Hormuz was open. Only now you have that status quo plus all of the strategic gains of the actual military campaign. They can't enrich uranium from last year now, they can't produce a ballistic missile. Their defense industrial base lies in ruins and hundreds upon hundreds of billions of dollars of damage done to their economy. So if they are sort of bleeding out right now, and this is a short term band aid that helps us get the relief that we need in the energy market and the economy by getting Hormuz opened, then it's really just about how much do they benefit from it? Does it solve their problems prematurely? Do they have an incentive to continue making concessions? Or are we relieving them of that incentive upfront and therefore harder to get further concessions? And how long will this be stable for? If the Iranians at some point perceive they've gotten enough money and want to ask for more money, otherwise, you know, they'll threaten to close the strait again. But if you zoom out and you look at the full picture, the President is correct. It doesn't take this deal to enable him to say he has stopped them from getting a nuclear weapon. He already did that. The deal now is trying to capture those gains, get Hormuz open, open so that we don't walk ourselves into strategic losses in our economy by keeping Hormuz closed.
Brian Kilmeade
So Iran would be allowed to immediately resume oil and fuel exports. In fact, some ships have already gone out. The US would grant sanctions waivers covering oil sales. Oil sales, banking services, transportation, insurance needed to facilitate those sales. The US would lift its naval blockade, of course, in Iran of Iran ports and ease restrictions of maritime commerce. Commerce frozen. Iranian assets could become accessible under the framework, I think 24 billion at first. So what happens? They have a $300 billion fund. Not American taxpayers, but Qatar money, revenue for the most part. I imagine some other Arab countries might have contributed. But how they get it where that money's kept, what they use it for is going to be some of the questions people will have.
Rich Goldberg
Yeah, I mean, Brian, let's be very honest. You know, I think it does the president disservice to have messaging, talking points, messenger to go out to media and try to dress this up as something that it isn't until proven otherwise. The irgc, the Revolutionary Guard Corps, is a terrorist organization with a lot of American blood on its hands. And they continue to say they're going to take their money and pour it back into all the illicit activities and they want death to America. If that has changed. Show us that has changed before you try to give them more money to pour back into terrorism and missiles and trying to reconstitute. And so it does matter, you know, $5 billion, $10 billion, $50 Billion, billion, $300 billion if this is still a state sponsor of terrorism, if the IRG seal is still a terrorist group, if they're still going to try to reconstitute. You want to limit that revenue as much as possible. So how you provide this relief, how much relief does matter whether or not this is a good deal or not?
Brian Kilmeade
I mean, just look what they do with the money. I listen to Saudi Arabia say that when they got the money from the jcpoa, they put it right to their terror organizations. They were looking to make things better for the Iranian people. People. And we did say help was on the way about two months ago when the Iranians were stepping up, speaking out and getting killed by the thousands.
Rich Goldberg
It's true. I mean, the Iranian people are nowhere to be found in this conversation. Now, I will say they sort of come into the conversation in an interesting way. The demand continues to rise inside the country as the bombs have stopped. And that's factoring into the calculus of the regime. They're bleeding out financially because of the blockade, because of the war itself, because of operations and economic fury that the Treasury Department's been waging. And as more and more people come out to their normal lives and are driving more and more and saying, hey, why is gasoline being rationed here? You know, why aren't we getting paid? Why is the bank about to collapse? This creates a lot of angst and the potential for people to rise up again. And so what I hope is that even if we are providing a band aid on a mortal wound, we find all kinds of ways to keep that economic pressure on. If I was doing this, I would let them sell their oil, but make the payments, go into an escrow account, don't let the money go back into Iran until you see more behavioral change that still gives them some pressure on their production and their storage and lets them put oil out to market, but doesn't let them reap billions and billions of dollars of cash. Now maybe they won't go for that. And we still need Hormuz open. I mean, you've got to find other ways to keep squeezing them and then covertly provide support to the Iranian people people, because that creates pressure up and ultimately, if these guys choose to be terrorists forever, it's not going to change, you know, a long term the threat from Iran until we see the Iranian people take their country back.
Brian Kilmeade
I want you to hear what the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, said because, you know, he's at loggerheads with Trump and I think he's trying to get the USMCA renewed and updated. Cut 5. We're very pleased with the deal that's been struck. It sets the groundwork for to ensure Iran doesn't have have a nuclear weapon. It sets the groundwork for a reintegration over time of the economies in the region. It sets the groundwork for a solution in Lebanon, which we discussed today. So it's positive, of course. It has to be followed through. It has to be implemented.
Rick Jackson
And I think one of the things
Brian Kilmeade
is the President helped create that deal, led creating that deal. The rest of the G7 and the broadcast broader community need to help implement it. Yeah. Now, very interesting that he said that he wants this done too.
Rich Goldberg
Listen, it's so funny that, you know, when there's actual crisis, when there's actual brink of nuclear weapons, when the Iranians are on the brink of a missile breakout to shield a nuclear breakout, Carney is nowhere to be found. Starmer is nowhere to be found. Macron is nowhere to be found. When the Strait of Hormuz is under attack with their supply of oil and gas, they're nowhere to be found. Now that there's a deal, now that there might be sanctions relief, now that you might get back into a different picture, now they're showing up. Oh, this is wonderful. Sorry, Carney, guess what? The President already did a deal to take nuclear weapons off the game board. It's not the mou. It was called Operation Midnight Hammer and then Operation Epic Fury, you weren't a part of it. But what they could do right now, which I think will be helpful long term. But because I think we should be betting that this doesn't go to a comprehensive deal, that's the right analytical bet. Hope it does. I hope it does. But these folks are probably going to take the money and then ask for more and try to turn this into a protection racket at some point. And this will likely then come back to a confrontation. But it would be helpful to get the British Navy, the French Navy, other allied navies into the Gulf right now during a ceasefire. Have them take responsibility for securing their own supplies so that it's not all on us.
Vice Admiral Robert Harward
Us.
Rich Goldberg
And then if we'd have to go back to a blockade, if we have to go back to a confrontation, we're not in this alone. We shouldn't have been in this alone.
Rick Jackson
Right.
Brian Kilmeade
They were upset that we took the strike without telling them, but we had an opportunity to get all of them at once and we did. And that has been totally underappreciated. How many people we've wiped out, how much damage was done with the 13,000 plus strikes. But the last before we go rich is what they're asking of the Israelis. They're telling the Israelis, don't hit back on Hezbollah. I mean, come on, it's impossible not to hit back on a terror organization which lives to eliminate you and to leave Lebanon.
Rich Goldberg
One thing we cannot do is in any ways subsidize the reestablishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran's hold on the Middle East. That means their proxy networks, they're terrorist groups. The OG flagship Hezbollah and Lebanon on for 20 years we've heard the Lebanese armed forces are going to step in and disarm Hezbollah. There's a UN Security Council resolution on it going back to 2006. Has never happened. Would love to see it happen. We've been paying a lot of money to Lebanese armed forces for it never to happen. So until I actually see a Lebanese army member fire a shot against Hezbollah, I'm not going to believe there's any force on earth who will do anything to defang a terrorist organization except the Israeli Israeli Defense Forces. And so we cannot handcuff that ally. I think it's great to try to calm tensions. If you can get peace between Lebanon and Israel and actually, you know, change the face of the Middle east, that'd be great. I don't know what happened to the whole idea of no deal until Saudi Arabia and Qatar joined the Abraham Accords. Nobody asks about that anymore. We'd love to see that too. But if that doesn't happen and Iran tries to take the resources and build back up their terrorist proxy, their terrorist organization which has killed hundreds of Americans by the the way we're not going to be in there on the ground, nor should we be. It's on Israel's border. They're willing to go do it and take out that threat. We can't handcuff them and stop them from doing that.
Brian Kilmeade
And Rich Goldberg, I think the problem is with the Abraham Accords. Saudis came back and said, not until we get the Palestinian situation resolved. So back to zero. However, one thing I think is pretty clear is that Jared Kushner and Steve Wyckoff did a really good job on Gaza getting those hostages out. President used his leverage, leverage and then trying to rebuild. But now they're going to focus on that and maybe there's going to be something where the Palestinians step up and try to take control from Hamas. We'll see. Because one thing about the Israelis, they keep taking out Hamas leaders. Anybody involved in October 7th with that attack, they've been doing a great job eliminating them one by one. And that is their leadership.
Rich Goldberg
Yeah, I think that's totally right. And a lot of credit to the negotiating team, by the way, a lot of credit to the energy team for getting us through this these past few months. American energy dominance policies of the press President Honestly, the president should give a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Secretary Burgum, Secretary Wright and the members of his Energy Dominance Council for keeping the market the way it is and keeping the world coming to America for our oil and gas. What an incredible thing. The president deserves to be on Mount Rushmore or something for what he has done to save the world from a nuclear weapon from Iran already. But remember your example on Gaza? It was a deal to get the hostages out and we've never seen Hamas disarm after that. And so if the hostage here is Hormuz, we might get the hostage out. But I don't have high expectations for what comes next.
Brian Kilmeade
Either do I, Rich. Well, we'll see. I know it's not easy negotiating with these guys, but that's why we decided to finally get fed up. And with the president is the only president to go ahead and take the fight to them. Rich Goldberg, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Rich Goldberg
You bet.
Brian Kilmeade
All right, we'll take a time out. We'll come back, talk a little bit about what's going on at the G7, see if the president starts his press conference in all. Also discuss what's happening with the primaries yesterday. You listen to Brian Kilme Show.
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Brian Kilmeade
What a ball that is. Messi on the turn options either side lit up Messi. There's your goal. Alexis Mallister the decks and on the save the rebound is Messi. Second goal. Nico Gonzalez. Leno Messi. Liono Messi.
Vice Admiral Robert Harward
First career World cup hat trick ties
Brian Kilmeade
the all time goal scoring record. And Argentina who sold the place out here In New York, New Jersey MetLife. He scores three goals. People say when he decided to join the MLS, his World cup, his World cup career was over because the competition is not good enough. He should be in a high ranking league, be in the Premier League, go over to England, stay over in Spain. But the question is now Banana answered. After spending I think two or three years in Miami FC where he's basically running things. He scores three goals for the first time in his career. In the Argentina's first game, they beat Algeria 3 nothing as they go to defend their world title. So pretty cool when great players play great in great times and it's great for opening game. Remember, you don't have to play great every game and get still win a World Cup. They lost to Saudi Arabia. They lost to Saudi Arabia in Qatar. Not many people thought Argentina was going to bounce all the way back and win the World Cup. And then the US has a fantastic win. But if you saw Australia play against Turkey, a Turkey, it's a new name, Turkey. You see how fast they are, how physical they are, how confident they are. That's going to be a tough game. And everyone thought it would be. The US Is easiest and we'll see what happens in Seattle on Friday. 16 million people, 16 million people watch the USA game in game one against Paraguay. That is flat out amazing. Put it this way. I love hockey players in NSL. I wish him the best. 4.5 million for the deciding game, the Stanley cup finals. So compare 16 million to 4.5 million. You could say what you want and I hope there's not that many naysayers left out there. Fox, I know I'm biased, but they've done a fantastic job in their coverage. Also I would bring up Brazil gets a huge number. I think Argentina might get a bigger number than the US but game two against Australia should be huge. I know Australia's wild watching they can't wait. They got some bullet boarding material. Not from the American players who have been deferential to Australia, but to America's broadcasters like Alexi Lalas and others say, hey, this is going to be a big win for the US and other people say the experts say they'll have no problem with Australia. Obviously they're world class players. When you look at the NBA finals at the New York Knicks and San Antonio spurs, The average was 24.5 million across ABC and ASPN with 33 million Holmes the massive audience shares highlight shares the highlights with the least popularity surge for the championship series. They were struggling year they were struggling in the regular season. But think back to 98 Michael Jordan's final championship with the Bulls they got about the same mark year over year growth viewership was up 15.7% compared to 2025 game 5. So this matched Jordan's peak of his career with that fantastic Bulls team team series they over the five game series they averaged 20.6, 20.8 million viewers making it one of the highest rated finals since 98. So that is pretty great news. So it's good. And I'll tell you what, I was just reading the story about sports radio and for the longest time sports radio would just mock a World Cup. Nobody cares about soccer except for once in a while you have a host that would care about it. I got news for you. Hockey's done. The NBA's done. Done. Football is off. Major League Baseball is. I don't know. You want to talk about baseball for three hours a day, eight hours a day, 12 hours a day. I don't even think baseball players want to talk about it. Your only choice is to watch the World cup and understand it. But I think you don't have, you don't have an obligation to, to be an expert. Just observe it. What I think is fantastic is, and you must be seeing some of this in social media, there's so many tourists here year who are taking the time in between games. Sometimes you get four or five games, your team's not playing. You don't want to spend 5,000 for tickets to games. You don't really care about the teams. So you travel. And people are loving the country. The stuff that we take for advance for granted, how diverse the north is from the south, from the west, from the east. The different, the different food, restaurants, popularity, how nice people are outside New York City city, that's what people are noticing and they're putting it up. It's kind of good. Just goes to show you what bad PR we get outside our borders.
Phil Flynn
Brian.
Brian Kilmeade
Kill me Joe.
Brian Kilmeade Show | FOX News Podcasts | June 17, 2026
This episode centers on President Trump’s newly brokered Iran deal, digging into its key provisions, strategic consequences, political fallout, and the international response. Brian Kilmeade and an array of guests—including diplomatic insider Dennis Ross, military analyst Vice Admiral Robert Harward, National Review editor Rich Lowry, foreign policy experts Rebecca Heinrichs and Rich Goldberg, and others—dissect the emerging details and debate whether the agreement is a strategic victory or a troubling retreat.
The conversation is lively and, at times, skeptical, questioning the logic and durability of a deal that swiftly eases sanctions on Iran, opens oil exports, and sets a 60-day window for further negotiation—while leaving several crucial aspects vague or unaddressed. The episode is also framed by the backdrop of U.S. electoral politics, energy prices, and mounting concerns about American power and credibility abroad.
“There’s no reference to tolls. But … Iran in this document doesn’t concede anything other than, ‘Okay, the U.S. is going to lift its blockade,’ which was hurting them, and they will allow ships to go back to what they were doing… If you allow the Iranians and Oman to be, quote, managing the straits, that means they now determine what happens in the straits. It’s no longer an international waterway. That threatens everybody else’s interest.”
— Dennis Ross (04:08, 09:30)
“The United States would essentially be restraining Israel, our greatest ally in the region … Israel must defend itself. It cannot be restrained. It has to even go on the offensive ... They’re not going to wait until they get hit before they can respond.”
— Rebecca Heinrichs (84:57)
“He cares a lot about this because he knows that bringing this portion of the war to a close is very important for his economy and very important for the midterms.”
— Molly Hemingway (44:22)
“One thing you don’t do in negotiations … There’s no such thing as constructive ambiguity in private… Ambiguity leads to misunderstanding.” — Dennis Ross (16:26)
“If they get any of these funds, they’ll be devoted to rebuilding missile capacity and supporting terror groups. It’s just baked in the cake. It’s what they’re committed to religiously and ideologically.”
— Rich Lowry (29:46)
“We saw gasoline prices at $4.02 a gallon … but a lot lower than under President Biden when it was over $5 a gallon. And we’re probably going to fall below $4.” — Phil Flynn (91:36)
On the ambiguity in the deal:
“It’s about a page and a half. It is 14 points. And he did do an electronic signature. The formal signing hasn’t taken place yet … Hard to believe that he will try to renegotiate at this point.”
— Dennis Ross (09:30)
On U.S. leverage (or lack thereof):
“Iran’s committing in the MoU to allow the volume of ship traffic to go back to what it was on February 27 … but it says nothing about Iran not managing the Strait of Hormuz along with Oman.”
— Dennis Ross (04:08)
On enforcement and wishful thinking:
“It seems like there’s a lot of wishful thinking there… Maybe when we negotiate this, we’ll say, ‘Okay, we will not provide anything more.’ But the problem is … Will we go to war over it?”
— Dennis Ross (14:32)
On the $300 billion fund:
“The language by the way on that, Brian, is during the 60 days we, the U.S., commits to working with the Gulf partners and others to come with a $300 billion reconstruction and habilitation fund. That’s the language. Now, there’s nothing there that says here’s exactly what is required of the Iranians.”
— Dennis Ross (12:27)
On trusting Iran:
“When have they ever behaved, ever, ever in any way? They never — they're not interested in doing that.”
— Brian Kilmeade (57:32)
On the real winners:
“One of the things I really would, I will tell you, I am convinced Iran, in the end, if they thought that what they stand to gain from us was being put at risk by linking things to Hezbollah, they would give up Hezbollah. But what they've succeeded in doing is … this whole deal depends upon Israel not attacking Hezbollah. It's exactly the reverse.”
— Dennis Ross (16:27)
Phil Flynn on energy markets:
“If we reopen the Strait, we get a flood of oil and that means more downside pressure.” (91:36)
Rich Goldberg’s summary of the deal:
“It’s really just about how much do they benefit from it? Does it solve their problems prematurely? … Are we relieving them of that incentive upfront and therefore harder to get further concessions?” (96:32)
The consensus among Kilmeade and his guests: While the Iran deal produces short-term economic relief and an immediate drop in oil prices, its substance is riddled with ambiguities, vague enforcement, and dangerous concessions—especially regarding Iran’s access to funds, proxy networks, and potential future leverage. Israel and regional stakeholders are uneasy, while Trump’s focus on quick results ahead of the midterms may have outpaced the intricate realities of Middle East power politics. The coming 60 days—and the final form of the deal—will be crucial for determining whether this moment goes down as a diplomatic coup or another chapter of strategic retreat.
Quotes are attributed with timestamps for context. All timestamps in MM:SS format reference the start of the podcast transcript section in which they appear.