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Brian Kilmeade Show
"NO MORE HALF MEASURES": McCaul & Lankford Demand Full Force In Iran
02:02:48
The Brian Kilmeade Show 07-21-2026
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Ryan Reynolds
Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile.
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Brian Kilmeade
Are you looking for a beach read this summer?
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Ryan Reynolds
May I suggest your big wireless bill?
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Brian Kilmeade
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Tim Stewart
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Brian Kilmeade
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Ryan Reynolds
Fortunately, though, Mint's story is better.
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Brian Kilmeade
Every plan $15 a month, even unlimited.
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Ryan Reynolds
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Brian Kilmeade
Happy ending, zero tears.
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Tim Stewart
Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment
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Brian Kilmeade
of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for a 12 month plan required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. Me slow when network is busy.
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Mike Vaccaro
See Terms
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Brian Kilmeade
from the FOX News radio studios in midtown Manhattan. It's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade, are you ready for Tuesday's show? Thanks so much for listening everybody. It's going to be a big hour. Got Senator James Langford standing by. We also we're going to talk about oil and gas and I know on the surface doesn't sound important, but man is it. Tim Stewart, now that it looks like the Houthis might try to block the Saudis from using the Red Sea, that'll be significant. We'll discuss that. But that's what happens when you try to do the right thing and finish off the Iranians who have been our nemesis for 47 years. We'll discuss all that and more. Today is also going to be testimony starting shortly with the Secretary of War and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff talking about the way forward and the need for more funds in Iran for our, for our military. Let's get to the big three. Number three, when it comes to Benjamin Netanyahu, we're speaking about someone who's the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant. My point is that if someone is charged with a warrant for by the International Criminal Court, that's something I believe that should be honored. Mayor Mamdani was you're not going to believe it is trying to arrest Bibi Netanyahu, but like all of his promises, it won't happen. While fellow New Yorkers publicly, publicly go after AOC that continues to push her socialist candidates while entertaining a run for the White House where Kamala Harris is leading the pack. I'm not kidding. Number two, Stanton just fundamentally vulnerable because on a lot of really important issues, he's on the wrong side of the vast majority of Democrats, whether it's voting for the Lake and Riley act, when I'm fighting to abolish ICE or opposing
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John Johnson
Medicare for All and taking money from UnitedHealth Group.
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Brian Kilmeade
Yes, that is Kai Newkirk. He is the latest socialist looking to upend an incumbent on the Democratic side. Primary day in Arizona. We'll see if he's successful. The key to holding the House as more socialists try to grab another nomination on the left is going to be Arizona. Perhaps Republicans could take advantage. We'll talk about it.
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Michael McCaul
Number one, the target list goes way beyond the straits of a move in terms of leadership. IRGC Organization, national infrastructure, Carg Island. That is a much more comprehensive target
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Brian Kilmeade
list, and that's the one General Keane thinks that we should be looking at. Tenth night of strikes. Could we be building towards finally bombing the Capitol and the militarily opening up the strait? Yes, with force. All eyes on the Red Sea as the Houthis might be making a move there. We will see. But did they learn their lesson from last year? Let's bring in Senator James Lankford. Senator, where you stand on this operation? Are you glad that we are we've amped up these strikes? Yeah.
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Senator James Lankford
Good morning to you, Brian. No one's ever happy about a war, but I have to tell you, this is an issue that's been hovering over Americans for five decades. Iran's perpetual threats, their act of terrorism. They have attacked Americans over and over and over again in the Middle East. Everyone who works in that area, travels in that area, knows the threat. They've attacked our allies over and over again. We have billions of dollars in basing all in that area because of the threat of Iran. This is not new for America, just President Trump's the first one been willing to stand up and push.
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Brian Kilmeade
So we've had about 100 wounded in there because they're on our bases in Jordan, on our bases in Bahrain and Kuwait and perhaps even Oman took a hit. We don't know. UAE seems to be missing this wave. I'm not sure why, because they are the antithesis in the. In terms of governments with Iran. But do you think, is it the country's responsibility to protect these bases or is it ours?
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Senator James Lankford
Well, it's a mix of that. Obviously, it's their country. They've got to be able to defend it themselves. What's interesting is I think UAE has been left out of this strike because uae, the last time we were in fighting with Iran, a few months ago, uae, they launched aircraft and they went after Iran as well. And so now Iran is suddenly not attacking UAE because UAE is pushing back on them. So Iran is a bully and A thug in the area and they're going to fight and push everyone they can until they get pushed back on and pushed back.
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Brian Kilmeade
That's interest center. You think the fact that UAE hit back is the reason why the Iran has left them out?
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Senator James Lankford
I do, I do. But they're, they are clearly willing to be able to engage in the fight and to be able to push back
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Brian Kilmeade
and have so I want you to hear Jack, Jack Keane with Larry Kudlow. Cut one.
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Michael McCaul
Some of these targets were in that target list to be sure. But the target list goes way beyond the straits of a move in terms of leadership, IRGC organization, national infrastructure, beyond the bridges. We're talking about here, Carg island, distribution of oil itself and energy. So that that is a much more comprehensive target list.
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Brian Kilmeade
So amongst the conversation Republican Senator when I talk to Senator Tom Cotton and when I talk to, when I talk to Congressman Brian Mass, people that are read in understand the military, they're all in for this. But I don't hear much talking publicly. I only hear the White House doing it when necessary. Is that part of the strategy being that for the most part the American people are war weary?
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Senator James Lankford
I can tell you there is a mix of that. Obviously I had someone that yelled at me in the airport when I was flying, stop the war, stop the war on it. I get that. No one wants to be at war. No one wants their sons and daughters at risk. No one wants all the challenges in our economy. No one wants that. The challenge is what do you do about this? Do you just ignore Iran's perpetual attacking us over and over and over again, shutting down international shipping? You cannot allow the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world to have a nuclear weapon. The options are not great on this. So this is not an area where I think people talk about a lot because no one's excited about it. No one wants this. But we are literally pushed into a corner. We are not going to allow and just sit back and ignore a terrorist organization and entity regime getting a nuclear weapon. That cannot be allowed.
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Brian Kilmeade
But the political rhetoric on the other side pretends as if they didn't know Iran was a bad actor, that Joe Biden didn't try to do everything possible to get into some type of deal. Instead look the other way. When they traded their oil and Barack Obama didn't waste three years putting together a deal that allowed them after 10 years to get out of it, it would just sunset. Here is Congressman Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington. Cut 8.
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Tim Stewart
Trump honestly thought that he would drop bombs for three or four weeks, and
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Brian Kilmeade
the Iranian regime would collapse.
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Tim Stewart
And that was just completely idiotic.
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Brian Kilmeade
No one who would pay any attention
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Michael McCaul
to what's going on thought that was going to happen.
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Tim Stewart
So when that didn't happen, he just keeps doubling down on a bad strategy.
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Brian Kilmeade
Look, we need to end this war and get the best negotiated peace we
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Tim Stewart
can get, and that's not going to
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Brian Kilmeade
be great at this point because we've
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Tim Stewart
given Iran so much leverage by starting the war, showing them they can control
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Michael McCaul
the Strait of Hormuz. Now, as far as what Trump's going
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Brian Kilmeade
to do, I don't know.
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Michael McCaul
He just.
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Tim Stewart
He's talking about Cargill, talking about revenge. There's no strategy, there's no plan. There's no vision in there.
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Brian Kilmeade
Do you believe there is a plan and a vision?
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Senator James Lankford
Absolutely. Our Pentagon has a, as General Keane had mentioned before, has a long list of locations they can strike, but there's also a strategy of where to strike. The President's been very focused on diplomacy in every way that he can, but diplomacy has to be backed up with military might, or no one pays attention to you. If you don't actually have military force that is readily available and that is lethal enough to be able to get someone's attention, a terrorist entity like Iran and the regime, they're not going to pay attention to you. So this whole belief that, you know, we can just go sit down and negotiate with them, that was debunked under President Obama. The deal that President Obama made was so bad that when President Trump set it aside and President Biden comes into office, President Biden didn't pick up President Obama's deal and said, let's do that again. Because even Biden knew that's a bad deal to be able to go with. But Biden had no plan and no strategy for how to deal with this at all. Trump is the one who stepped in and said, they can't do this, can't have a nuclear weapon, cannot continue to advance their terrorist actions around the world, and can't block the Strait of Hormuz. They can't do that. The only way to be able to apply any pressure, to be able to change that is to actually apply real pressure on it.
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Brian Kilmeade
Senator, do you think, and I mentioned this to as many people as I can, I think you have to break up the negotiations. You got to put a team on Iran if they want to talk, and Ukraine if that's got to. If you could land that plane and a team on Gaza, isn't it hard for one group to do all three?
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Senator James Lankford
Yeah, they are perpetually around the world for Kushner and Wyckoff. They're everywhere right now trying to be able to negotiate. Now, they do have an extensive team that are working around them that are in each area to be able to develop all the different issues on it. But you're right, the president has a group of folks that he trusts. Quite frankly, this is not any different than any other president pulling together the State Department and saying, these are the folks I want to be the primary negotiators. He's just dealing with a lot of really complicated issues at the same time.
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Brian Kilmeade
I know in Oklahoma, this sounds very distant. Not when you're in Washington distant, but there's a huge socialist movement on the east coast and in these really blue cities like the one I'm in right now and leading the charge and thinks he's the king of all socialists is Zoram Amdani, who's about an inch thick, but he's very. An inch deep in terms of knowledge, policy, and experience. He's 34 years old, and he's basically just living off being anti Semitic, anti Israel, but he's also firmly socialist, and he's all about the working class. Yet most of the people who put him in office are over educated white people. That's who's voting for these socialists. Listen to Zo Ramdani, the mayor of New York City, talk about what working class is. Cut 15. I think if you have to work to pay your bills, I think that that is one definition of being a part of the working class. So that's everyone with a W2.
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John Johnson
Is that.
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Brian Kilmeade
Is that kind of 1099, too? I think it's.
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Michael McCaul
It's.
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Brian Kilmeade
I'm less interested.
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Tim Stewart
So someone making $250,000 a year is working class.
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Brian Kilmeade
I mean, I haven't sat at home and asked myself where it starts and stops. Why not? How the hell do you know who to tax and how much have you got? This firm belief, if you don't know what the number is.
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Michael McCaul
Yeah.
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Senator James Lankford
And I think the issue is he's trying to struggle with that because, as you know, in New York City, trying to make $200,000 and trying to be able to survive is very different.
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Brian Kilmeade
Yes.
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Senator James Lankford
Than making $200,000 in Oklahoma or in other places. So for these socialists that are pushing this agenda in New York City and in California, they've driven the cost living up over the years, and now they're having to redefine what working class is. It's just bizarre to be able to see. I Look at great socialist institutions like Cuba and to say, why would not Mondavi want to be able to just move to Cuba and say, this is so fabulous. You can drive your own 1956 Chevy because they can't afford to be able to get anything else ever since then. And absolute government control. Socialism works great if you're the leader. It doesn't work great if you're. You're the citizen. And that's just the fact of socialism all over the world.
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Brian Kilmeade
So why do you think it's. Why do you think it resonates with some people, a lot of people? And why do they now have 125,000 members?
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Senator James Lankford
It is the promise of I'm going to get something for nothing, that somebody else has something, and I'm going to use the force of government to take it away from them and give it to me. I want what they have, and I want somebody big enough to be able to take it from somebody I don't like and give it to me. It's been promise and the dream of every socialist entity out there, whether it's the Soviet Union or whether it's Cuba or whether it's China. This promise of equal outcomes for everybody just is not true. You've got to be able to create a system that's fair and open and has great opportunity so that every person has the opportunity to be able to rise. They've got to step up and take that opportunity and do the work socialism promises you. You don't have to do the work. We'll do the work for you.
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Brian Kilmeade
Where are you with data centers? How many are in Oklahoma?
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Senator James Lankford
There's several in Oklahoma already. My big focus on data centers is twofold. One is to make sure that when we get chips that are more efficient, we don't have big empty buildings. And the other one is to be able to make sure that individuals in those areas don't have their rates go up based on power and that the community has the opportunity to be able to speak into it. I would tell you communities that have it, they see the tax revenue coming in, it helps their schools, helps their communities, but folks have got to be able to make a decision about where that actually lands and to make sure that their own power and water rates don't go up to be able to cover a new business that's coming in town. That's not how we do things.
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Brian Kilmeade
Well, what would be a good energy source would you be for these miniature nuclear devices?
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Mike Vaccaro
Yeah.
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Senator James Lankford
Yeah. Small modular nuclear is something that's been tested for a While I would tell you that's not a big shock if people look at it as new technology. You can go into a nuclear powered submarine or a nuclear ship. Ship. We've used that technology for decades and decades to be able to power a nuclear navy. So small modular nuclear is a great way to be able to do it, but we've got to be able to get the first couple of ones permitted, which there are four that are right now in process of getting permitted. Get them permitted so we can actually evaluate how to be able to do this better and less expensive in the days ahead. But I'm for whatever power that community actually identifies. Wind, solar, coal, natural gas, there's lots of great options for that. Hydro. So in Oklahoma we use it all and we're not offended by that.
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Brian Kilmeade
So I did not know that those modular nuclear devices are not green lighted yet.
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Senator James Lankford
Yeah, they're going through all the process on it right now. Now there are in some other countries they're using more small modular nuclear. We are going through the process of actually permitting some of the first ones in the United States. And as we know, going through the regulatory process takes forever and is very expensive. There's a lot of work right now to change the permitting process for all energy, construction, all of that. We get all of our stuff that we want to do as a country tied up into lawsuits that last decades. And so then we're just stuck not ever getting to an answer. We've got to be able to solve that. And that's one of the permitting fights that we're doing behind the scenes right now in the Senate to be able to figure out how we can actually solve this issue of permitting everything. We want to be safe. We want communities to be able to speak into it, want access to the courts. But you've gotta have a process that actually works, that doesn't take decades.
- [15:33]
Brian Kilmeade
So how closely, if any administration would cut red tape? It's this one.
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Senator James Lankford
Oh yeah.
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Brian Kilmeade
So I know that you're not on the energy committee, but can you tell me where that's at?
- [15:44]
Senator James Lankford
Yeah, that's actually a very, very real bipartisan conversation right now. This administration has been aggressive at dealing with the regulations they can deal with. Some of it has to be dealt with in law. And that's what Congress is actually arguing our way through right now and trying to be able to solve this. But yes, it's a very real conversation in the energy committees and it's on a bipartisan level to try to figure it out. So whether it is, how do you move electrons from a solar and wind facility that gets locked up in all the legislation or whether it's moving natural gas, all of those get locked up that we can't advance. I mean, you know, being in New York, any natural gas that wants to be able to move into New England gets blocked by New York. They won't allow the pipelines to be able to come through. And so New England has to buy natural gas from offshore when Pennsylvania has tons of natural gas in it. But you can't actually move it to New England because of New York's laws on this. It's ridiculous. It's hurting all the other states on it. But it becomes the big challenge for the entire country in doing any kind of permitting process.
- [16:44]
Brian Kilmeade
It's just crazy. It's just a lack of common sense. It must drive people in Oklahoma nuts when we see what's going on in New York. Just don't leave me. Don't color me responsible because I'm not. Senator Lankford, look forward to talking to you again. Thanks so much. Hopefully you get something done this week on reconciliation.
- [16:58]
Senator James Lankford
Yeah, we're working our way through that and ready to be able to get as much done as we can possibly get done. And we're on it on that. Keep praying for the nation. We're going to continue to work.
- [17:06]
Brian Kilmeade
95 billion. That's all. Back in a moment. Keeping you informed, engaged and always a step ahead. It's the Brian Kilmeade Show.
- [17:17]
Senator James Lankford
Cheers to America's 250th birthday.
- [17:20]
Brian Kilmeade
Get 20% off your first purchase at
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Senator James Lankford
foxnewswineshop.com with code FNRADIO 2020 discount, excludes wine club offers and cannot be combined
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Brian Kilmeade
with any other promotion.
- [17:28]
Senator James Lankford
Expires July 31, 2026. Must be 21 or older to order. Please drink responsibly.
- [17:38]
Brian Kilmeade
Radio that makes you think this is the Brian Kilmeade Show. Where were we back in 2006 when, of course, Democrats would go back on
- [17:48]
Tim Stewart
the win the House?
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Brian Kilmeade
They were up by 12 and an average of those two polls. How about 2018? They were up by an average of 10 in those two polls. Look at where that average is now. Well, less than half of either the level of 2018 and 26, way down there. Yes, they're ahead, but they're had. I have to shrink down on the screen. They're ahead by only four points, which is significantly less than what we saw
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John Johnson
in 2018 and 2006 when Democrats took back the House.
- [18:13]
Brian Kilmeade
So as I said, this is an.
- [18:14]
Tim Stewart
Oh, this is a warning sign.
- [18:16]
Brian Kilmeade
While yes, Democrats are head not by anywhere near the margin they were in prior wave years. So here we go. That is CNN's Howard Enten. What is it Harry Entin, Harry Enton saying that things aren't looking too keen. No. Why? Is because there's also gerrymandering. That's going to be a big thing. And now you got this rise of socialism. It is not my opinion. It is a fact. Even this, even what's happening in Maine right now, they got rid of Graham Platner. This guy's so problematic, a terrible person. And then they get another guy. This guy Troy Jackson is just as radical. The person running this guy Abdul El said this guy is doesn't call himself a member of dsa but everything he stands for is along with anti Semitic. You bring him in November, it gives Republicans more of a chance to be successful. Especially with a guy like Mike Rogers in Michigan and someone like Susan Collins in Maine.
- [19:09]
Senator James Lankford
Foreign.
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Brian Kilmeade
Hear it all on the Brian Kilmeade Show.
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Michael McCaul
I had meetings earlier this week with leaders from Saudi Arabia and uae. Both of those countries are looking at major infrastructure projects to try to look at land based pipeline and other solutions to be able to ship their products and get it onto the world market. But here at home, of course, under President Trump's energy dominance policy, the United States producing more oil than we have ever produced. Largest producer in the world of oil now the largest producer of natural gas in the world, largest exporter of LNG in the world.
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Brian Kilmeade
Obviously the secretary of interior is great, Doug Burgum, as good as you're going to get and really knows his business even prior to becoming governor of North Dakota. And now we're just trying to figure out a way out of the Strait of Hormuz as we militarily look to open it up. Now a person who knows about how it affected US Oil and gas is Tim Stewart and he joins us now. Tim, great to see you. Your thoughts about the fact that now I guess a barrel of oil is over $90 and where we're at.
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Tim Stewart
Yeah, here we go again. Right. And unfortunately I think the national average hit $4 yesterday for gas. It's 550 in California, a couple other places and Midwest and East coast are 450. We're up significantly and again a lot of due to this rolling unrest and the conflict in the US Iran and in the disruptions in the Persian Gulf yesterday, the strait when the Houthis started mouthing off again, that's had some impact as well. But Brian, we're looking at just a tightened global crude and product flow. And it's a tough situation to be in. It's not just crude, it's refined products. And US Oil and gas producers are doing everything we can. We are a net, as you just mentioned, maximum production. And our refineries are operating at 95% capacity right now. We're in an interesting situation right now.
- [21:10]
Brian Kilmeade
Yeah, we mean interesting. We mean challenging. And we do need to build more refineries. But every time I bring that up, you go, well, we haven't built one since the 70s, but there's really no call for it. We really need to build refineries, though, correct?
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Tim Stewart
Absolutely. And, you know, I think, you know, I've talked about this in the past, which is there are generational events that take place that sort of reorder the industry as a whole. And I honestly do think that what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz, as the secretary was just mentioning, it's going to completely reorder how crude is produced by whom and how it gets to the global market. And I also think what's going to happen finally on the US Side of things is the refinery industry itself, which is somewhat separate from my oil and gas producers. They're going to look at it and say we finally got to have the permit, certainty and the capital security to reinvest here. And for years and years, the challenge we've had was that Wall street was looking at them with a great deal of skepticism because of the regulatory and the climate
- [22:09]
Brian Kilmeade
crazies.
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Tim Stewart
Yeah. That put that capital at risk. I think things have reordered themselves permanently and we're going to be in a situation where the refiners are going to get some significant investment on the US Side.
- [22:19]
Ryan Reynolds
Right.
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Brian Kilmeade
Just more of them.
- [22:20]
Ryan Reynolds
Right.
- [22:21]
Brian Kilmeade
I mean, just, I mean, is Texas, would they anyone push back on it? Is there not enough profit in refining?
- [22:27]
Tim Stewart
No, there's plenty of profit in refining right now. I hear about that every time I go to the grocery store and go to church, people tell me how much profit, you know, the oil and gas industry is making. The refiners are doing really well right now. It's a couple things. It's investment, but it's also investment in the ability to refine the West Texas Intermediate, the lighter, sweeter crude that we have. Most of the refineries in the Gulf coast were built and calibrated to refine heavy imported crude coming out of Venezuela or Saudi Arabia. And that's been kind of the challenge, which is we've got plenty of Texas and New Mexico crude coming in, the refiners don't have the refining capacity to take that light crude. And I think the new investment that you'll see will bring refineries online which will be able to refine actual US Produced product at a much greater volume. And that's going to have a huge impact for energy security and again, will continue to insulate us from global events like the ones we're going through right now.
- [23:21]
Brian Kilmeade
Aren't we always going to be susceptible, Tim Stewart, as you have, president of U.S. oil and Gas, to global events because it's a global market.
- [23:30]
Tim Stewart
Absolutely, yeah. I mean, like I say, you'll never be fully isolated, but you can certainly insulate yourself a bit more to the president's credit, Brian, if you look at where we are now versus four years ago, we're moving towards sort of a fortress North America fortress America situation where between Canada, the Canadian producers, the US at record production, what we have with Venezuela, what's coming online with Argentina, the Western Hemisphere, if we can get the refining capacity in place, we're going to be largely insulated from any other shock that may take place anywhere across the rest of the world. No more choke points halfway across the world that won't impact us. It's going to take a few more years. But we are getting a much better spot than we would have been had President Trump not been in place.
- [24:14]
Brian Kilmeade
Can you explain this to me? Because since we have to, since we care about the global market, if we produce more in Mexico and Canada and in the US Is that just going to raise the overall level to the point where the price will go down? Because as long as there's Middle east turmoil, which as long as I've been alive, we seem to be susceptible to, to this. So what would change if the straits are always going to be a problem, the Red Sea or the Strait of Hormuz is going to be an issue?
- [24:45]
Tim Stewart
Yeah, that's a great question. And again, we have to remind everybody, and your point is well taken, that crude and refined products are global commodities. You know, they ship all over the world. And that's what you see with the US Right now. We're actually our exports are high because we've had to fill the we have to backfill the supply shortages coming out of the Gulf for our Asian markets and for the European markets. I think ultimately what will happen is there'll be when we get to this point where we're far more resilient in our refining infrastructure then the lag time between when we start to feel the impacts of a global situation versus where we are right now will be in the terms of months rather than weeks or days. And that's really important. I think right now when you have, say, for example, the Ukrainians were hitting the Russian refining facilities and taking, you're seeing that in the global market almost immediately because the Asian markets, which were. And when you see China has taken sort of a backseat on stepping up their refining capacity as well, you have the tendency to fill that in Des Moines, Iowa, even though it's happened clear across the world. I think ultimately where we're going on this fortress Western hemisphere scenario is that will insulate us and again give us much, much greater lag time between the time we feel the pinch versus when the rest of the world does.
- [26:09]
Brian Kilmeade
So we want to go around the strait. Regardless of how this ends up, we want to go around the strait. And now we think, and you could correct me, that 8 million barrels of oil is no longer going through the strait in Saudi Arabia. It's going through the Red Sea, and they're through pipelines. So they've adjusted pretty much. But now the Houthis are saying, we have a problem with Saudi Arabia. We think we're going to shut that off. I don't know what they've actually done, but we could find out as early as today. What would that do?
- [26:35]
Tim Stewart
Well, that's obviously put things in a much worse situation because it would again take 8 million barrels offline relatively quickly, and that was going to have a significant increase in global crude prices almost immediately. The question is, are the Houthis just sort of rattling the swords? Do they really have the capacity to do that? I don't think the Saudis are going to take that too lightly. But to your point also, this is interesting. I mentioned earlier how we're going to see the tremendous difference in how crude moves out of, out of the Gulf. You're seeing the pipelines that are in Saudi Arabia. The new pipeline proposals were announced through Iraq yesterday. It's going to move in much different directions. I think the Iranians themselves have probably ended up nailing their foot to the floor, so to speak. I don't think the control of the strait in two years is going to matter much to anybody. To be honest with you, the rest of the Gulf producers are going to make sure this never happens again.
- [27:32]
Brian Kilmeade
That's awesome. That would be fantastic news in the big picture because they think that's their new nuclear weapon. So we look at strategic oil reserve in case of emergency, break glass now we wanted to get that price down, and President Biden didn't want to drill anymore. So we made a deal with the devil with Maduro in Venezuela, and then he started draining our oil reserve. We're waiting for the drop. We were waiting, in theory, for the price of oil to go down. And then we were going to say, okay, now it makes sense to start. Start filling that. Congress stopped us from doing that in the first Trump term. I don't get it. I think it was just political ploy. So now we understand we're only a third full of the Strategic Oil Reserve. Does that concern you?
- [28:13]
Tim Stewart
Yeah, it is a concern right now. I guess if you wanted to look at the raw numbers, we're about 44% full. But you're exactly right. We drew down over 200 million barrels out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve during the Biden administration, during the Russian Ukraine conflict. And they were just slowly starting to make. Make effort to refill that. When Covid hit, if you recall, and when oil went negative $36 a barrel, there was no place to put it because the demand had collapsed across the globe. I was part of those conversations when we went to Congress and said, now is the time to completely top off the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And the Democrats in Congress put a stop to that crazy where. Where we are right now. It's interesting. It's. It is as much of an engineering challenge as it is an actual supply challenge in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Just for the listeners, it's not just. It's not tanks, it's underground salt caverns that have been that where that oil is stored. There's 64 different geologic formations we use to bring the oil out of the ground. You don't pump it. You actually put water in, and the water pushes the oil up to the top. But because they're salt caverns, the tendency is the more you do that and more frequently you do that, the salt has a tendency to be eroded by the water. And so it gets harder and harder to bring out of the ground. And so it's kind of like if you've got a dam where the outtake is the water falls below the outtake, it's more and more difficult to get out. It's like trying to suck the last part of that milkshake. It becomes very, very different, difficult. So we're in as much of an engineering challenge as we are a supply challenge. Now, the administration, what they're doing is they have actually negotiated some pretty good deals to where those withdrawals which go to, and go to Refineries are coming back at a, at a, you know, 20% increase. And if I borrow, if I borrow a million barrels out of the strategic performance, I'm expected to put 1.2 million barrels back in. So it will get filled up, but it is, it's going to be a challenge. And it's kind of like your emergency reserve, your savings account, when you've lost your job, so to speak, you draw from that. But even that's starting to come down now. So we're in a little bit of a. We're in an interesting scenario right now.
- [30:26]
Brian Kilmeade
So, Tim, what do you think about this Freedom Gas? They're talking about cutting out the middleman, the White House, and trying to get gas station prices down. Down. How do you feel about the concept?
- [30:35]
Tim Stewart
Anytime we can get gas prices down, to be honest with you, we're all for that. It's a little counterintuitive as the President of the U.S. oil and Gas association, but I have to tell people that, I tell my neighbors, I say, look, the last thing we want to do is to be producing a product that nobody can afford to buy. And there's a sweet spot for oil prices where the shale oil is profitable and people can afford to put gas in the car without thinking too much about it. It this concept is interesting because I think more than anything, what it does is it shows how the industry is structured, how the refining industry structures and where the profit margin lies versus the refining costs of transportation costs and things like that. I think the administration's probably doing the public a favor by being able to show exactly how the refining industry works. I don't know how long it will last, but it's an interesting concept.
- [31:30]
Brian Kilmeade
And lastly, Tim, can you tell me about the fracture? UAE says I'm out of OPEC and Iraq says I might be next. What does that mean in your business? I'm talking to Tim Stewart, president of U.S. oil and Gas.
- [31:41]
Tim Stewart
It's interesting. I don't think you and I had on our bingo card the fracture of OPEC about six months ago, did we?
- [31:46]
Brian Kilmeade
Nope.
- [31:46]
Tim Stewart
It's been interesting because UAE has an extra million and a half barrels of production capacity that they were constrained because of their OPEC limits. And so I think what you see is the, to my earlier point, you're going to see a difference of how crude is produced by how much, by who and how they price it. It's going to be an interesting, I think, again, this generational impact. You may see the fracturing of OPEC over the next two years, where it's not. It can only be a cartel if it acts like a cartel and none of the members are acting like they're in that.
- [32:18]
Brian Kilmeade
So that would be great, wouldn't it? Because how do you feel about that?
- [32:22]
Tim Stewart
I. Look, I think the US is certainly. We're the largest oil producer in the world. We don't need to be responding to OPEC prices. I think it's probably good for us all because it brings, it restores sort of the market forces versus responding to a cartel set that is cartel pricing.
- [32:40]
Brian Kilmeade
Because Saudi Arabia would literally say, I'm going to pick up production, I'm going to decrease production. And that would affect the price of oil and gas. And if you break up opec, what happens? Who decides or how is it decided how much a barrel of oil would be?
- [32:55]
Tim Stewart
You know, it's interesting, that was kind of the UAE's perspective is what they said, that we want to figure out what we're going to price our product at as well. And so it does create again, open. OPEC functions as a cartel. They set the price globally because they're the biggest producers. Aggregate production numbers. It will make the US producers have to become far more competitive because they'll be able to compete against a single country versus an organization. I think ultimately, if I take off my oil and gas hat and just put a consumer hat on, I say it'll probably be good for all of us. It'll bring the general cost of energy down. And if you bring the cost of energy down, you have a much, much greater economic growth global.
- [33:36]
Brian Kilmeade
Well, Tim Stewart, hopefully we'll. We'll talk about the straight being in our control and then that price will rocket down again and we'll get the price down to 330A gallon. I think that could be feasible. Tim, thanks so much. Always great to talk to you.
- [33:50]
Tim Stewart
Great, man. Thanks for your time.
- [33:52]
Brian Kilmeade
You got it. Back in a moment. Coming to you on a need to know basis because, man, do you need to know? It's Brian Kilmeade, The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmeade. The Spain Argentina final was like a reverse super bowl where the players spoke Spanish and the halftime show was in English. That was pretty good line. I saw that. I watched some of Jon Stewart's opening monologue. I have news for him. He said, why does that person behind Donald Trump look like replacement Donald Trump? You know why? That was father in law. That was Melania's dad. So there's a whole skit going on.
- [34:44]
Michael McCaul
So Melania married her dad.
- [34:47]
Brian Kilmeade
Well, about the same age. No, I think Trump's a little bit younger. Not much, but. So Jon Stewart just went off on the whole thing. But remember, Jon Stewart was a very good soccer player, was captain of William and Mary, very good Division 1 team out of Virginia. And a lot of people write me and think, why am I nice about Jon Stewart? I know, like, listen, he goes out of his way now he's back to hitting Trump like he did the first term. But I do know he does it with humor. I mean, I noticed Stephen Colbert just would hit him and everyone would cheer and clap. But I just noticed that they produce things at least as creative, even though it's tilted and slanted. And he hates Trump and he's back to doing that. But you do have to point out when things are funny. So when people do things are funny, even if you disagree. You got to say that would make Jon Stewart perfect is if he hit the other side. Because, man, is there a lot to hit on the other side. Like, for example, what Bill Maher is doing with the socialism thing. Now, he's having fun with it in his monologue, but he sat down on ABC to talk about what's happened to that party of his. And here he said, why aren't other people standing up, pointing out that they've allowed the Communists to come into the Democratic Party and they just seem to be willing to be taken over. Cut 22. Democrats are cowardly. Yeah, they're cowardly. Their party is being taken over now by, you know, every day I hear about a new very radical. I feel very good about, like 10 whenever years ago. Like, I did lose fans because, you know, I wasn't going to go along with some of this crazy stuff on the left, too. I didn't change really on what I thought about the right, but just I can't sit and just not notice stuff which people seem to want to do because it's all about my team or your team. But, yeah, there's some crazy stuff. Yeah, there's some crazy stuff, and it's going by the boards. The guy that's getting a lot of publicity is Van Jones, liberal Democrat. Work with Obama. Cut 25.
- [36:52]
Ryan Reynolds
If we lived in a world where
- [36:54]
Brian Kilmeade
people could literally get elected to office with the only qualification being that they went and celebrated a mass murder of Israelis. If all elected officials celebrated mass murders, is that a better world or a worse world?
- [37:09]
Ryan Reynolds
These are not progressive ideas.
- [37:11]
Brian Kilmeade
These are regressive ideas. And that's why he called out the socialist in his party. Just call him out. You let Bernie Sanders in. And this is the problem. Problem. Bernie Sanders, by the way, the people of Vermont, you're being robbed. He's never in Vermont, guys in Michigan, he's in Maine. He's never in the city because he's using the people of Vermont, too. From high atop FOX News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sewing division, it's Brian Kilmeade. Hi, everyone. So glad you're there. It's going to be a big hour, so buckle up. 1-866-408-7669 so I got Farley Weiss coming on, president of the Israeli Justice Organization. They are sitting out so far because Trump says, okay, do that. Also interesting thing is percolating with today in Lebanon because the president's visiting the White House today and I think they're putting together some type of training and militia working with Syria and others to control and take out Hezbollah. That's what's on the table. We'll discuss that. Michael Fakaro will be with us, author of Bothers of the Bronx, the endless drama, the Yankees under the House of Steinbrenner, even the next generation. We'll talk about, you know, the biggest name in sports, Aaron Judge still being hurt, one of the biggest names in sports and where we go from here. And we'll also talk about the Knicks getting back on track. They only have a few weeks off, then they got to try to repeat. And then we'll do a simulcast on Barney and Company. So it'll be a to discuss. So let's get to the big three and outline our big hour. Number three, when it comes to Benjamin Netanyahu, we're speaking about someone who's the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant. My point is that if someone is charged with a warrant for by the International Criminal Court, that's something I believe that should be honored. What a clown. Mayor Mamdani still trying to arrest Bibi Netanyahu as he comes to America. I have news for you. That's going to be another promise that he doesn't keep. He's trying to get publicity and it's working for him. Another publicity magnet, aoc, continues to push her socialist candidates while entertaining a run for the White House where Kamala Harris leads the pack. Really?
- [39:23]
John Johnson
Number two, Stanton just fundamentally vulnerable because
- [39:27]
Brian Kilmeade
on a lot of really important issues, he's on the wrong side of the vast majority of Democrats, whether it's voting for the Lake and Riley act, when
- [39:33]
John Johnson
I'm fighting to abolish ICE or opposing
- [39:36]
Brian Kilmeade
Medicare for All and taking money from UnitedHealth Group. That is the primary day in Arizona. And that man is a socialist and he wants to win the primary like all these socialists do. He can present himself well, but his ideas are terrible. And he's trying to unseat an incumbent. Tell me how that helps the Democratic Party. His name is Kai Newkirk. We'll discuss that as well. As we seem to have an unofficial representative to replace Graham Platner in Maine. We'll discuss that guy's radical views.
- [40:08]
Michael McCaul
Number one, the target list goes way beyond the Straits of a Move in terms of leadership. IRGC Organization, National Infrastructure, Carg Island. That is a much more comprehensive target list. Yup.
- [40:24]
Brian Kilmeade
That's the tenth night of strikes. Could we be building towards finally bombing the capital and the militarily opening up the strike straight? All eyes are on the Red Sea where the Houthis say they're going to shut out the Saudis, who basically ship most of their oil through the Red Sea. The Saudis are not going to sit by and let that happen. They have a military too. And look, with their ally, we should help. You know who else they have as ally?
- [40:46]
Ryan Reynolds
Pakistan.
- [40:47]
Brian Kilmeade
Are they going to do something here? If you have. Pakistan considers himself a peace broker. I wonder about that because they have great relations with Iran too. But if you're a peace broker, go ahead, have at it. Let's. Let's see what you got. Because this is not going to be good for the global market, even though it'll be temporary. The Houthis have to hit just one or two ships. And then all of a sudden some of these barges are not going to go by. We watched that for two years under the Biden administration. No one went by. They just went around it. And it was costly, big time. And that's the last thing anybody wants right now. So we'll discuss that also. The rise of socialism. It's amazing what's happening. I talk about it every day and I think, okay, that's gonna be at
- [41:30]
Ryan Reynolds
bay for a while.
- [41:31]
Brian Kilmeade
But it's not. Today we're watching Arizona have their primary. What's significant about that is one of these incumbents is being challenged by this guy, Kai Newkirk. He believes in Medicare for All. Not possible. Abolishing ice. Protecting immigrant communities. Yeah. Illegal immigrant communities in Arizona.
- [41:48]
Senator James Lankford
Real.
- [41:49]
Brian Kilmeade
Really affordable housing and lowering costs. Yeah, in theory. In what way? Ending US Support for genocide and criminal wars. That means anti Semitism, anti Israel. That's who gets people traction. And some Democrats are afraid they're for it. Is Congressman Greg Stanton afraid we'll see if this guy gets primary to lose. He's a longtime incumbent in Arizona. Why am I bringing up just one event? Because the House is going to be decided by. By, they say, 16 to 18 seats. And you, if you look at Arizona, I think it's 6 to 2 in terms of Representatives, Republican. But that's a purple state. You know how things flip. They got a Democratic governor, they got a Democratic senator. So we'll see. You know, there's going to be a tough Senate race there. Republican and former NFL player Jay Feely, great guy, aims to capitalize on Trump's backing to replace David Swigert, a retiring GOP congressman in Arizona. And he's going against Sheriff Mark Lamb, who's had a bit of a sexting issue that he's not denying. But he comes on all the time, a great guy. We'll see if that's going to take him down. So people ask, what is the socialist movement? Where does it come from? Well, you think on instinct, it comes from people who feel disenfranchised. No. Do you know, if you just look at the race with Mandami and Kwame Cuomo, Cuomo got the black vote, 51 34. Mondame got the white, so called privileged vote, 42 to 30. The overall white vote, 39 to 34. If you went to college, he won 45 to 28. So they're taking these people that come from money and saying, I feel bad. I feel bad that I'm successful and have a good life. So I think socialism would be a great way. That's the only thing I could think about of or just flat out laziness. That's what got Milo Quiros a victory in Colorado. That's what got Claire Valdez, a woman that wants to disband prisons. And Chevalier got 49 to 45 over a Hispanic leader over in New York City's 13th district. And one of the things they believe is you got to get rid of the Senate, you got to fatten the House, destroy the Supreme Court, get rid. Defund the military. Defund the military. This is crazy. These used to be 0.5 percenters. There would just be some fringe candidate to get to make sure people have something to vote for. And now they are challenging the Democratic Party and it's crazy. The people that are calling out, I never thought on my cut sheet I would be seeing Governor Cuomo and think that's kind of interesting, let's put him on cut 18.
- [44:33]
Michael McCaul
The Democratic Party is in the Middle
- [44:35]
Brian Kilmeade
of a civil war, right?
- [44:37]
Michael McCaul
And you have moderate mainstream Democrats such as myself, which have been challenged by
- [44:44]
Brian Kilmeade
the far left extremists.
- [44:48]
Michael McCaul
Now, the Democratic Party always had a
- [44:51]
Brian Kilmeade
far left, like the Republican Party always had a far right. But this far left under the Democratic Party basically has been energized by the
- [44:59]
Michael McCaul
opposition to President Trump.
- [45:01]
Brian Kilmeade
You have a lot of young people who are now engaged in the political
- [45:06]
John Johnson
process,
- [45:09]
Brian Kilmeade
and it's driving Democrats nuts. If I, if it was my party and if I was a member of the rnc, I go, what the hell are you doing? I'm number one. Biggest mistake they ever made. Underreported Bernie Sanders, letting him in, you would say, well, I was an independent, I'm a Democrat. If he said, I'm an independent, but I'm a Democrat now, I want to run the Democratic Party. Do you know he's never committed to the Democratic Party, but now he's thoroughly infiltrated. I mean, he's got these congressmen now. Congresswoman now in New York. He's got the mayor of New York. He's trying to get Said. Abdul said in New York. Yeah, Abdul said the Democratic nominee to be the next center in Michigan. And he's gonna be looking to do this all around. He's got this guy over in Arizona going, he's got Rab over in Pennsylvania going. And they don't even belong there. It's crazy. I mean, if it's a sports team, it's like just having four players walk into your locker room and start stalking, starting wearing jerseys of another team. Nancy Pelosi. I can't believe I'm playing. All these cuts from people who just live to rip. Trump cut 21.
- [46:12]
Tim Stewart
I wasn't happy about people saying, let's spend a whole lot of money challenging Democrats. You want to do that, do that. But don't think that that's something that is good for this year. Do it a year when we have
- [46:24]
Brian Kilmeade
the luxury of having the majority, but
- [46:26]
Tim Stewart
not when we're trying to. But you can't, you can't gain. You can't gain by losing.
- [46:34]
Brian Kilmeade
Well, because losing is going to be in the midterms. So if you factor in the rise of socialists and you factor in the gerrymandering which benefited the Republicans, there could be the difference in the House and Senate. I'm going to get Kevin McCarthy on here, who knows it better than anybody else outside the current speaker to break it down. So when we come back, I'm going to find out about this new move to get Lebanese elite forces trained to turn and take out Hezbollah in their country. Will that work? We'll see. We got Farley Weiss coming on, then Mike Vaccaro. We'll talk a little sports, talk about the World cup and its legacy. I found out something I missed and I was at the game about Argentina. I'm going to share that, too, at the bottom of the hour. When we come back, politics, current events and news that affects you. Brian's got a lot more to say.
- [47:24]
John Johnson
Stay with Brian Kennedy. Kilmeade,
- [47:37]
Brian Kilmeade
The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmeade. I think we're always open to diplomacy.
- [47:44]
John Johnson
It has to be real.
- [47:44]
Brian Kilmeade
It has to be a deal that they're willing to live by. Look, Iran a week ago was supposed
- [47:48]
Tim Stewart
to put out a statement saying that
- [47:50]
Brian Kilmeade
the Straits of Hormuz would be open, that they would no longer attack shipping. And instead of doing that, they attacked three ships. I think that was last Friday or Saturday. So, I mean, their behavior has to
- [48:00]
Mike Vaccaro
change in order for ours to change.
- [48:02]
Brian Kilmeade
Yeah, no kidding. Secretary of State Marco Rubio puts it simply, their behavior has got to change. And so far they have not hit the UAE in this cycle and they have not hit Israel. Farley Weiss joins us out, president of the Israeli Justice Organization. Farley, why don't you think they've hit Israel? What is your, what is like all your theories on that?
- [48:22]
Ryan Reynolds
Well, I think they fear Israel. As we know, Israel was about to attack with pretty much all their planes, Iran, when President Trump stopped them last time. And Israel has made clear that if they get attacked, they will attack them massively. And they're afraid of that attack. They know they will be hurt very badly by it. While they know if they attack the Arab countries around them, they're not going to get a serious response from the Arab countries. And so they can attack them. And when they attack the Arab countries, those Arab countries then put pressure on the United States to go to a ceasefire, cease fire and stop. While Israel is not going to put pressure on the United States to go to a cease fire. Israel wants to see the Iranian regime changed and see the whole situation change for the better.
- [48:59]
Brian Kilmeade
So do you think this is a, I heard this morning when I was talking to Ambassador Volker, he believes the reason UAE is not getting hit is because they put their planes in the air and hit back.
- [49:10]
Ryan Reynolds
They, they, they clearly don't want someone who's going to hit back. I mean, they, they clearly are hitting the countries that aren't gonna, aren't gonna hit back to them and then and not just not back but actually try to pressure the United States to acquiesce to Iran's demands. And so it's those countries are taking a beating. Qatar has taken a beating and yet Qatar keeps pressuring the United States to agree to cease fires even though Qatar has lost I think $20 billion. They lose, they're going to lose a year in energy from the, from the attacks by Iran. And yet instead of being able to do anything about it is very weak country. And so all they're doing is trying to press the United States to agree to a cease fire because they try
- [49:46]
Brian Kilmeade
to be everybody's friend or everybody's enem who knows. But they try to play it in between, don't they?
- [49:53]
Ryan Reynolds
Well, they're a country of there's only 350,000 Qatars in the country. Everyone else is foreigners visiting living in the country. And so they're a very small country. They have a very weak military. They don't let the US use their military base. The whole major point of the military basically use it in wars like this and they aren't letting them use them. Is that true?
- [50:14]
Brian Kilmeade
I didn't know know that.
- [50:15]
Michael McCaul
Yes.
- [50:16]
Ryan Reynolds
When has happened they have to evacuate the military base in Qatar. They aren't, they aren't using their, the military bases they're mainly using is, is really using Israel as a military base for this fight right now. That's why the United States didn't even use the, why they had to stop the whole blockade initially on I mean pushing the ships through the Strait of harmless. Saudi Arabia wouldn't even you let the US Use their airspace. So these countries are not letting them use their military bases that the United States has there for the whole purpose of, of this type of situation.
- [50:45]
Brian Kilmeade
What about Kuwait where you we're focused. We're functioning out of there, aren't we?
- [50:51]
Ryan Reynolds
I'm not 100% sure how it's working with Kuwait but a lot of these countries, I mean you look at you see it the even the European countries are not letting the United States use their military facilities. It's been a disaster. How these countries are all afraid of Iran and they're all afraid to step up and take action against Iran outside of the UAE and Israel.
- [51:07]
Brian Kilmeade
Do you like the message we're sending now?
- [51:09]
Ryan Reynolds
Now it's a much better message than before. Clearly they thought that this Memorandum of understanding which was obvious that Iran would not keep to it on the Strait of Hormuz, that the message is is that you, you got to pay a Price, you can't. The only way to negotiate with Iran is with military force. And that's the only way to get a successful negotiation. And you have to pressure them. And I think that the force has to be increased, if anything, in order to get a resolution. They try to play negotiation without military force and failed.
- [51:41]
Brian Kilmeade
So going to a cease fire now as they were asking for a level like everybody to calm down for 10 days would be a disaster. They'll be back to sending the wrong message. Give them a chance to regroup.
- [51:52]
Ryan Reynolds
Well, look, as you played in the tape with Secretary of State Rubio, they keep making commitments. They're going to do something and they keep breaking them. So why, why would you just go to any kind of an agreement with. Without the US Continuing the military pressure? You have to negotiate with military pressure pressure in order to get any kind of an agreement. I quite frankly don't think Iran's going to comply with anything. The only way they'll comply is if you make it clear that there are only two choices is the regime's collapse in order for them to comply with something. And even then I'm not sure they'll comply with anything.
- [52:23]
Brian Kilmeade
So right now they loot. They're not allowed to sell oil again. So we blockaded them in. So they're not getting the 300 billion. That's not going to happen. The funds are not unfrozen. That's not taking place. Place. It was important for them to I guess, blitz a few merchant ships in order to blow a deal of a lifetime. Probably that was the best deal they'll ever get.
- [52:43]
Ryan Reynolds
It was. They. But they think they could try to that President Trump wouldn't attack. They think that they could pressure the United States to withdraw from the Hormuz and that they would be able to make $50 billion a year charging ships to go through the Strait of Hormuz and that they could. Their economy would rebound that way. But by and if with the attacks, they would think that by attacking the Arab countries they will pressure the United States to stop their actions against Iran. And that's why that's been their strategy.
- [53:12]
Brian Kilmeade
So do you think we should start hitting the Capitol?
- [53:16]
Ryan Reynolds
I think that we need to create the elements for the regime to be overthrown. I think we should arm the Kurds. We should try to do whatever we can to hit whatever areas of the irgc, the leadership and everybody to try to destroy not just the nuclear and ballistic missile facilities, but their internal security situation so that the people are able to overthrow the government. You're dealing with people that are 80% opposed to the government. The people literally are in favor of the US Military striking their own country in order to try to end this regime. And we need to support the people who oppose this. They don't seem to care about the over 40,000 Iranian civilians massacred or the around 200,000 that have been been terribly wounded. They don't care about the Iranian people and they don't seem to care that they ran or realize or think that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapon or that Iran is sponsoring terrorism around the world. They don't seem to care about that. They think that Iran's a threat. It's unbelievable.
- [54:16]
Brian Kilmeade
President of Lebanon is going to visit the president today. Our president today. At which time I guess there's some talk that Israel will or the US Will train Lebanese fighters to take on Hezbollah with serious help. Do you think that's a scenario that would might work work?
- [54:34]
Ryan Reynolds
I don't think that the Lebanese armed forces, they've already tried once. They haven't shown they're capable of removing Hezbollah. Only Israel can remove Hezbollah from, from Lebanon. Only Israel can remove Hamas from Gaza. And so the, the main hope is that the Lebanese armed forces and they're trying to purge out some of the, the Shiite elements that are favor Hezbollah. But a majority of people in Lebanon Lebanon support the getting rid of Hezbollah now for the first time. And so the government of Lebanon wants to would love to see Hezbollah gone. Hezbollah has been stronger than the Lebanon Lebanese armed forces and so now they're getting weaker. And the hope is is that Lebanon could have their own armed forces take over the country. But they, but they're not strong enough to my, in my view to knock out Hezbollah at this time. So they're going to try in a few of the areas to have Israel withdraw and have the Lebanon Lebanon armed forces take over. But those are usually areas that Hezbollah has already gone from, not from areas that they have to take out Hezbollah.
- [55:33]
Brian Kilmeade
Yeah. Well, at least we talk. This is something I didn't foresee. So this is a good, you know, a good revelation. So hopefully we're moving in the right direction there. Farley Weiss, thanks so much. The president of the Israeli Justice Organization when we come back, Mike Ficaro joins us. We talk about the legacy of the, the World cup, something I found out about Argentina I don't like and so much more. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmeade. It was cute. I mean everyone speaks about the NFL Art, the Super bowl halftime show all the time, right? There's one artist normal. We had Shakira, we had Madonna, we had bts, we had Justin Bieber, we had Coldplay, we had dude, we had the world not just watching, but the world performing. This is the power of our game. This is the magic power game. And if you want to capture a new audience in those who love soccer
- [56:38]
Michael McCaul
and it's already that I'm the last
- [56:40]
Ryan Reynolds
boy in the world.
- [56:41]
Brian Kilmeade
Those who love, love it.
- [56:42]
Michael McCaul
They will remain you right? That they are.
- [56:44]
Ryan Reynolds
They love.
- [56:45]
Brian Kilmeade
We need to bring new. Need to bring new hard city to bring up to do that. Need to innovate the laws on the game var. But also the whole entertainment aspect. It is something we learn honestly here in North America. Yeah, they got to look at the var. We know that because we know about the red car. But other times, you have an offside that's literally by. By an eighth of an inch. And is that the way the game is supposed to be played now? And there's a great precision with football. If your foot's a little bit out, your toe is out, you're out. You know, both feet got to be in. We understand that. But with soccer, do you want to do that? So the referee is going to make the call. It's very close. Even is on. And if it's just slightly ahead, is that really off? Is that the way the game is supposed to be played? These are questions a competition committee's got to examine. Examine. Also. You're going to examine one penalty and then you find out another penalty, and then you go to the other penalty. Oh, wait, I was looking at this penalty. Well, there was something that happened before. When I rolled it back, we noticed it in football. They would never do that. They would never say, wait a second, we're looking to see if his feet's imbalance. But in the back. But in the back, I see a punch thrown or I see a hold. They wouldn't say it's a hold. Don't worry about his feet. It's not going to count.
- [58:01]
Mike Vaccaro
So.
- [58:01]
Brian Kilmeade
Mike Vaccaro is author of the Bosses of the Bronx, the Endless Drama of the Yankees under the House of Steinbrenner. And, Mike, I know you're not the biggest soccer guy, but it's impossible to have missed the story of the soccer summer. 39 days, 76 games here, 104 overall. What were your thoughts about this sport and about what we just witnessed?
- [58:21]
Mike Vaccaro
Well, I think I could write another book just trying to figure out the offsides penalty. Like you just said, I know everyone's
- [58:27]
Brian Kilmeade
confused about offsides because. Go ahead.
- [58:29]
Mike Vaccaro
You know, one of the great things about this, I thought Brian, was just how, you know, you have an event like this and you have the best players in the world, and all the best players in the world played great. You know, they had, they all had their moment. And so even, even, you know, passive soccer fans like myself, you only know a handful of names. I mean, all those names played great. And to me, that's what you really, you know, that's what you really look for, whether it's a soccer tournament, an international basketball tournament. And you know, to me, that, that was the fun part. I mean, you know, Messi, of course, his team was pretty quiet the finals, but you know, that run they had where he, he was a part of every important goal, you know, it kind of made you, kind of made you realize that talent is talent no matter what the sport is. And a lot of times it rises when it has to.
- [59:12]
Brian Kilmeade
I mean, the Yankees own part of Manchester City and they, they're building a brand new soccer stadium right next to Citi Field right over there, which I think the Yankees try to get it built in the Bronx, but de Blasio was just not hearing it. So they've, they're finally getting it built here. I wonder in the big picture if this is ever going to be a bigger sport than it is right now. Do you think it's going to be at the Olympics where we only care about skating and skiing and track and field when it's the Olympics?
- [59:42]
Mike Vaccaro
Look, I think that the fact of the matter is that there's two things that work now. I mean, the participation in soccer among kids is an all time high and it's higher than just about any other sport. So excessive for basketball, I believe basketball's one, soccer is too. And that's always kind of been the case for a lot of years. But now you have the opportunity if you're a young soccer fan, you know, thanks to the wonders of tv, you know, you can, you can follow Manchester City or Manchester United or any, any club you want to all around the world where you can find the, you know, the best players. So it's available to you now in a way it wasn't certainly when we were kids, but even, you know, for young soccer players 10, 15 years ago, wasn't that accessible and now it is. So I certainly know a lot more soccer fans in their 20s and their 30s who have really latched on to, you know, their premiership team of choice only because they can follow them now just as easily as they follow a football team, an American football team or you know, their favorite basketball team.
- [60:38]
Brian Kilmeade
So let's talk about the sport that's left. Right now there's no football. The basketball is in hibernation. NHL is in hibernation. Football camps haven't started yet and soccer in for many people is finally done. I was sad to see it stop. But Mike, for you, the Yankees are a game and a half out of first, I think, but the hottest team in baseball and I think they're setting our Boston Red Sox record is the Boston Red Sox. They want to again last night. Could you explain to people what's happening in the American League East?
- [61:05]
Mike Vaccaro
If I could, I'd probably do something more lucrative than what I do for a living, Brian, because I'd figure out how to fix baseball teams inexplicably, you know, because the Red Sox were drift. You know, everything that we. Manager. Yeah, everything we're saying about the Mets right now we were saying about the Red Sox six weeks ago. And, and it was that sudden look kind of started and I know they had a four game sweep of the Yankees and that was kind of the, we thought it was going to be their feel good moment of the baseball season. You of retreat to being the, you know, the, the, the mediocre best team they had been for the first three months of the season and they've instead just, just played that forward and, and it's remarkable because you know, yesterday they, they, they, they, they had a big against the Orioles. They blew it. They came back, they had a harrowing ninth inning and they won the game because the guy hit a ball right at the shortstop. I mean that's the kind of thing that happens when you get on winning streaks like this. And look, I mean for Yankees fans it's got to, you know, be a, a pit in the stomach feeling because you know, you thought the Red Sox were dead and buried. And you know, look, I work now between those two teams and not all of them positive for the Yankees, although they won last year in the playoffs. But you know what I mean, if you're a Red Sox fan, it's, it's kind of a reminder. It is a very long season. You know, we saw with the Mets two years ago when they were dead and buried in June and then they were in the National League Championship Series. It can happen in the baseball season more than any other season. Because you know what? There is always the possibility. You hear it in the movies. I mean they said it in Bull Durham years ago, you know, you won a game today, you win a game tomorrow, suddenly you're on a winning streak and guess what's possible. And the Red Sox are showing exactly what's possible.
- [62:35]
Brian Kilmeade
So when you look at the Dodgers and the Yankees play, the Yankees are able to get a game and really catch up because the Rays are playing the Red Sox and he got crushed. But Ohtani is not going to be pitching for a while. Do you know what what happened is he shoulder.
- [62:49]
Mike Vaccaro
Yeah. Well, not just knee. And look, I mean the Dodgers, the Dodgers all they have all but by in October, but they have a big lead in their division. They still have the best record in baseball. They're going to be in October. October. You know, in a lot of ways the Dodgers and even the Yankees for that matter, they have the same mission now the Knicks did. Right? The Knicks had this kind of, I don't want to call it a middling season because 53 wins is a good season. It, you know, projects to a 106 wins in baseball. But their number one goal the entirety of the season was to be whole by the time the playoffs started. And they were. And you saw what happened when they were whole. They were pretty good team. And it's the same thing for the Dodgers. I mean it really doesn't matter to them, you know, if Ohtani can, can win 18, 19 games in the regular season. They want him to be ready for being one of the playoffs and he will be, you would think. I mean it's not a devastating knee injury. He just needs to get better and he needs to not have to have the stress on his landing knee that he has if he's going to keep starting. So they're going to rest him on that. He's still going to hit. But they want to be whole and they haven't been whole all year, which is the amazing thing. They're, you know, they're on 105 win pace and they're missing five key players and a few others aren't having great years. So same thing with the Yankees. Look, I mean, you know, I don't really care if Judge doesn't come back until September 20th. I mean, you want to get him some reps before the end of the season season. But as long as he's 100% by October 1st, that's what you really want. And, and Max Freed and the other guys who are missing. So you know, the Yankees will be fine because the American League is so bad. So no one's really going to challenge One of their playoff spots, they'll get in and then it's a matter of just being whole.
- [64:18]
Brian Kilmeade
Once you get in, Judge is going to come back. I mean, what do you hear? It's his rib, right?
- [64:23]
Mike Vaccaro
Yeah. And look, he had a little bit of a setback that he can't start baseball activities yet. But again, it's only July. You know, if he misses all July, all of August and he comes back in September, who knows if that's going to be the case. I mean, look at me. It may well be that he's asleep will feel with that rib and maybe he never comes back and the whole narrative is different. But as long as there's a chance for him to come back and as long as there's a chance for the Yankees to be full in October, that's what you have to focus on right now. You know, he's not going to have an MVP season. You know, he's not going to have one of his all time seasons up, wait for next year for another one of those. But as long as he's back in the lineup and, and kind of ready to go by the middle of September, that's really all the Yankees have to worry about.
- [65:00]
Brian Kilmeade
So they're coming up on a trade trading deadline. How would George Steinbrenner handle this trading deadline knowing his team is in know smelling first place as opposed to way his son's handling it?
- [65:10]
Mike Vaccaro
Well, it depends on what version of George you're talking about, Brian. If you're talking about the George in the mid-80s which was just in a constant state of impetuousness and impatience, he might make a couple of deals that he lived to regret. If it's the George later on who trusted his people, who trusted G. Michael and trusted Brian Cashman, I think you're going to have what you're going to get with the Yankees, which is a measured approach, trying to get the exact right, right, right additions and look, that's all, you know, people hate this word, but that's as much of a crapshoot as October is. You know, I mean you can, you can make what look like great deals in August and suddenly don't look so great in October. And the other way around, you can have low impact deals in, in, in August. Look, when the Yankees got Graham Lloyd 30 years ago in 1996, he was not only a low impact acquisition, but he was terrible in the regular season. And yet the Yankees absolutely don't win the World Series that year without him. That's a great example of just how you never really know how the trade deadline is going to play out until it actually plays things out right.
- [66:05]
Brian Kilmeade
And all the drama of the 80s and 90s and all the way through today in their winning years is in Mike Picardo's book, author of the Boss, the Bosses of the Bronx, the Endless Drama of the Yankees under the House of Steinbrenner. I do ask real quick, Mike, are they going to be making trades on, on this trade deadline? Do you think they're going to be willing and dealing?
- [66:26]
Mike Vaccaro
Oh, yeah, absolutely, because they have needs. They have needs. I mean, they'd love to get it other bat behind the plate. They'd love to strengthen that bullpen. And you know, they just love to get one other bat in general, I think, because right now they're in the bat short, especially if they have to make do for a while without judge.
- [66:40]
Brian Kilmeade
Mike Vacaro, thanks so much. Back in a moment. We do a simulcast with Stuart Varney. Don't move. Now the Brian Kilmeade show joins Fox businesses, Varney Co. With Stuart Varney live on your radio and on FOX Business. Here's Brian Kilmeade. Yeah, so I'm going to talk a little World cup with Stuart. You know, he's a big soccer guy. We'll talk about that. And what I saw yesterday I didn't get a chance to bring up, but I saw the video and I missed it because I was staring at the podium. It looks like all of Argentina turned their back on Spain. Not only did they start fights after they lost lost, but they turned their back, all except one player on Spain. Can you imagine that losing and being that disrespectful? I mean, if that was what a disaster and how that makes that country look just absolutely terrible and the fighting afterwards, I mean, it's embarrassing. You just lost, so now you want to like throw a tantrum. So what's this? Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaking out against social media. He says the agenda will only end up benefiting Republicans.
- [67:53]
Ryan Reynolds
Watch this.
- [67:55]
Brian Kilmeade
Socialism has not worked anywhere on the globe.
- [67:59]
Michael McCaul
Maria. Promises of free lunch, free buses, free rent, free everything.
- [68:06]
Brian Kilmeade
There is no such thing as free. Someone always pays. This is a dream. This is nirvana.
- [68:14]
Michael McCaul
This is utopia.
- [68:16]
Brian Kilmeade
And they're selling to young people who are buying it. But it's not going to work. And the socialist movement is the best thing the Republicans have going for them. Brian, I'm not sure how much influence Andrew Cuomo has, but my question is why is socialism gaining in popularity if it's going to hurt the Democrat party. Well then you got to ask yourself if you want to know who's voting for these people. And evidently they're overeducated 20 somethings and rich white people. I mean only 4% of the people, the black vote I think want to mandami in New York City. This isn't one of those things where minorities forced to go the extreme way because they can't get anywhere in America. No, this is not a minority movement. And a lot of people, they're primary like this Hispanic leader over in New York City are losing their jobs to other people who have extremely views. I mean but the views are, the views are almost comical. Get rid of the Senate, get rid of the Supreme Court, defund the Pentagon, are you kidding me? And there are some of these people are actually winning. So I'm watching Governor Cuomo. I don't think he has any influence. I don't think anybody likes him, but I think that he does. He is noted to say it's not a Democrat, he's a liberal, he's not even a moderate. Don't, don't let anyone say he's a moderate. And then you have ban Joe Jones, Jamie Metzl, other people coming out, just saying, you know, James Carville, what's going on? Have some pride. It's for example, I'll give you the sports analogy. Can you imagine if four people walked into the locker room said I'm going to be on your team, I'm going to wear my own jersey. That's what Bernie Sanders did 20 years ago. He said, I'm not going to be a Democrat, but I'll run for president as a Democrat. And they said, okay, what could go wrong? Well, the guy almost won one and now he's putting mayors and AGs and congresspeople into office. That's what he's done.
- [70:09]
Michael McCaul
Yeah.
- [70:10]
Brian Kilmeade
In resurfaced comments that just surfaced again far left streamer, Hassan Piker praised Mao Zedong, China's communist revolutionary leader. He stated, I'm quoting now directly. Mao Zedong is one of the great leaders of this world, okay? A man who changed the entire world, universe, the entire planet. The People's Republic of China would not exist without Mao Zedong. Brian, why are youngsters listening to this? I don't know. Do you see how he dressed? He was invited to speak at a college conference and he dressed like Mao. So good job. So living up to your hype, you're idolizing butchers that killed I think 40 to 50 million people. I'm sure he loves Stalin. You Know, some of those guys in the extreme right love Stalin. This guy, you know, Fuentes, Nick Fuentes, comes out and says, I love Stalin. I celebrate his birthday. He's one of the most despicable characters in, in world history. So these are who you're following. And Hasan Piker, who is a socialist, lives in a $2.7 million mansion. And this guy goes to Cuba to try to help out. So he's trying to save socialism. So all these people that go get their PhDs or multiple graduate degrees, degrees, they're coming out and they think that is the way to save America. America doesn't live up to what they want. So people got to sober up quickly and find out sooner or later. This is coming from the schools and it's coming from ungrateful first generation immigrants who want to change the country, like to the one they left. So Hasan Piker is a despicable guy. Anyone like Ro Khanna who goes on his podcast deserves the same reputation. And the stench that is on this guy after 56 years here. I'm very happy, Brian, and I'm staying. Thank you, Brian Kilmeade, everyone. We'll see him again real soon.
- [71:55]
Mike Vaccaro
Thanks, Brian.
- [71:56]
Ryan Reynolds
Still.
- [71:56]
Brian Kilmeade
Hey, that is Stuart Varney and we're talking about it. So here, here's some of the. I want to use some time to go through some of the emails from people who are writing from heard the show yesterday. Here is some of the things they're saying about Democratic socialists. I get this email from Matt. He says, I've been wondering when someone in the DSA wins an election, election, how can they be sworn into office and swear to uphold the Constitution when they profess to be against it? Absolutely. I'm sure they'll get around it because they stand for nothing. How about this? Randy is a retired cop. He says, I deeply concerned about our country's infrastructure with regards to homeland security. A person such as yourself has the ability to contact heads of government because they have concerns about what happened yesterday. And they were able to get that close to an ICE facility and sparks things up on the sideline sidewalk, have a manifesto, be heavily armed with knives and guns, pellet guns was one of them. And get that close. He's an army, left the army in 2007. So he's concerned about that. You know, other people, other people talking about what's happening in New York. And one of the things that's happened in New York that's not getting a lot of publicity. But I brought it up on Sunday and I brought it up last night hosting for Jesse's show. It is that in New York the governor has put a moratorium on new data centers. So you know what that means? That means plumbers, pipe fitters, these are all union jobs for many cases, pipe fitters and electricians, all these, all the blue collar jobs are not coming to New York because she's trying to win reelection and she thinks most Democrats are against data centers. But an interesting study was just done and maybe Kathy Hochul should get a new pollster. When it comes to AI AI 56% have a favorable view of AI. 71% say it's the start of a new industrial revolution. 53% says it'll save, save America. This will save America and we should move quickly on it. 53% and 61% says it'll find a way to solve and cure diseases. So that comes from data centers. There's a responsible way to do it. I understand understand the way we did it early in the 80s wasn't this one is the new ones are demand accountability and certain specifics but let them build it. Also green light these miniature nuclear reactors in order to fuel it so your, your utility bills don't go up. Brian Kilman from the FOX News radio studios in midtown Manhattan. It's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade all right. From 48 to 6 in Midtown Manhattan, we are ready to roll. We got chairman Michael McCall standing by. He is used to be the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He is now on Homeland Security as well. John Johnson is going to be with us to CEP of Patmos Tech. We're going to talk about AI infrastructure. Why is it so controversial to build a data center? Why is it a big deal? Even in blue states like Texas, it's not a layup anymore. 40% of the new data centers are being protested and politicians are worried if they support it, suddenly they're going to have trouble getting winning their primary. So but meanwhile we're following the latest revelations as it relates to, as it relates to Iran and we're seeing the fact that we are bombing now for 10 straight days and it seems like we might be setting, setting the groundwork for possibly hitting the Capitol. Meanwhile, the Houthi rebels have said we're in the process of shutting down the Red Sea to Saudi oil, which would be devastating to the oil market globally. Chairman Michael McCaul joins us now. Congressman, welcome back.
- [75:36]
Michael McCaul
Hey, thanks for having me, Brian. Good to be back.
- [75:38]
Brian Kilmeade
Hey dude, the mou I think you and I both Agree was was a prescription for disaster. And it seems the Iranians didn't know how good they had it and they were abusing it and they shot at merchant ships. And now finally I think it's history. How would you characterize where we're at right now in this conflict?
- [75:57]
Michael McCaul
Well, I think we're going back to plan A. I mean we were. The military was very successful at achieving the objective. They were put on hold, you know, pending this negotiation, this mou. Look, I understand the President wanting to negotiate this. I think a certain point important to recognize who are you negotiating with? And it's the regime. And quite frankly Brian, you and I don't have a lot of trust in them. Reagan talk about trust verify. I was never really sanguine they were going to come to an agreement on this mou and if they did, they would violate it. So now we're going back to where we were prior to the ceasefire. Is my sincere hope that the President unleashes the full strength of our military to achieve its objective and that is to wipe out all launch pads from which they can launch shahed drones missiles and then open up the straits, take out the IRGC as much as possible, both by strikes and internally inside of Iran. Israel has asked assets in Iran. I think with this regime you're always going to have a problem negotiating any sort of deal. So I hope the President's back on track. Look, if you're going to do this, do it right. I'm with the Cold Powell doctrine. You either go all in or you don't go in at all.
- [77:24]
Brian Kilmeade
Here's what Alex Gray said, the former NSC Chief of Staff Cut seven Look, the Iranian people, this is ultimately their fight. And the Iranian people for years have been under the thumb of this murderous regime.
- [77:36]
Senator James Lankford
And the only way, ultimately the final,
- [77:40]
Brian Kilmeade
you know, the solution to this 47 year conflict is for the Iranian people
- [77:44]
John Johnson
to rise up and to reclaim their country.
- [77:47]
Brian Kilmeade
And to the extent that the United
- [77:48]
Michael McCaul
States can help facilitate that, that's the
- [77:51]
Brian Kilmeade
ultimate way that this is going to
- [77:53]
Senator James Lankford
be resolved once and for all is
- [77:54]
Brian Kilmeade
to give the Iranian people the freedom that they deserve. If there's a way for the US to help make that a reality, that's certainly in our long term interest to do so. I know you can't give intelligence, but we just got to know if the, if the Iranian people can get armed. We know they're brave.
- [78:10]
Michael McCaul
You know that your guess is absolutely correct. This does not end until the Iranian people rise up and take out this theocracy as Cynthia, Ayatollah came into power in 1979. And, you know, I've had briefings in that space and I've asked them, you know, what plans do we have? I knew the plan, plans to take out the nuclear capabilities, where I always thought we were a little bit of a deficit was on the issue of empowering the people to take their government back to free Iran from the theocracy of the Ayatollah. And, you know, we never really had a good plan, Brian. We didn't have a. There was never a leader ready to go like the Ayatollah was with the ship shot. We didn't have a source of weapons to go in to arm them against the irgc, and we didn't have a lot of good communications. Now we can still recover. You know, I think getting Starlink in full in Iran, I think, you know, there was a plan by the CIA to get weapons in that was held back for some reason. And, you know, Israel is very good at this. I think if we just assisted them through our intelligence community inside of Iran to, number one, take out the irgc. Without the irgc, the Ayatollah has no power at all. And. But I haven't seen that happening to date.
- [79:40]
Brian Kilmeade
And we bombed their barracks. We bombed the IRGC barracks. I don't know how many were sleeping there at the time. Hopefully all of them. But we took that and they came back and hit our barracks in jewelry, Jordan. Now I'm wondering, Chairman, from what you know, do you believe that for them to be this precise, someone like China or Russia has to be giving them coordinates?
- [79:59]
Michael McCaul
Oh, I know they are. Russia is giving them targets, targeting sites to kill Americans. In fact, they have, and it's worked. China is giving them technology. China's giving them Russia all the technology for their weapons. I saw that in Ukraine. Ukraine, they're also giving that to the Russians and Iranians. Russia is all in this fight with Iran. So that's why I think, again, going back to the Lindsey Graham's sanction bill that I worked on, and we're still trying to get it to a good place to get it done this week is so important because, you know, if you're hurting, if you're hitting Russia, you're also hitting Iran. I think a lot of people don't realize, realize that, you know, Russia and China are aligned and they're also aligned with Iran. All three of them are in this together.
- [80:50]
Brian Kilmeade
And North Korea.
- [80:52]
Michael McCaul
And North Korea is in there as well.
- [80:55]
Brian Kilmeade
So what you're saying is leave the bill as it is, because the president said, I want to add Iran to that sanctions bill. Anyone's got anyone yet doing any commerce, any business with Iran, we're going to sanction them. So.
- [81:08]
Michael McCaul
So.
- [81:09]
Brian Kilmeade
And then I saw Senator Blumenthal said, I think we kind of like it the way it is. So where do you stand, Chairman?
- [81:15]
Michael McCaul
Well, that's where we are right now. We are good to go. I think the President. I understand. I fully, fully support further sanctions against Iran. Now, Lindsey's bill had secondary sanctions that would cover Iran's acquisition of defense articles from Russia. Russia. But it would also include any energy coming from Russia that was already in the bill. The president wants to add tougher sanctions on Iran in that. Personally, I'm all in favor of that, Brian. I think it's a delicate balance with the Democrats. I think Lindsey always wanted this to be, you know, bipartisan, bicameral. That's why he brought me in. And he wanted the White House behind it. And he worked to. He worked his magic, you know, getting this done. Of course, you know, the Iran thing is what's changed. And we're in current negotiations with the White House right now on that very.
- [82:15]
Brian Kilmeade
But you worry that if you have to do a rewrite, you're not going to get a vote this week.
- [82:19]
Michael McCaul
Well, we have to. If we're going to change it at all, we have to either reintroduce it or add an amendment onto it in the Senate. And. And that decision has not been made yet.
- [82:31]
Brian Kilmeade
So I'm watching now the President, United States, with the president of Lebanon, at which time I think this is on the table that Lebanon's gonna get some training and work with Syria and I guess with. And Israel pulls out and then Syrian troops, highly trained, will move in and in theory push out Hezbollah. But a lot of people look at this and say, man, there's. They're gonna be more loyal to Hezbollah than they're gonna be even to the Lebanese country government. Where are you going to find troops that are going to be loyal to. Loyal enough or brave enough to push back this Iranian finance terror group? How do you feel about this plan?
- [83:07]
Michael McCaul
Well, we've always support in Congress the Lebanese military against Hezbollah. You know, that fight. I know Israel is very much involved in that. You know, Syria's in a very delicate position right now with their new president after El Shore was taken out. And so. And then you got the rise of ISIS in there. It's very, very complicated, Brian. I mean, Turkey has more of a presence in Russia. I mean, yeah, the proxies of Iran are part of the bigger equation here. You can't talk about Iran in an isolated vacuum and not talk about hazard Hezbollah, not talk about Hamas, not talk about the Houthi rebels because they are the tentacles of Iran and they're extensions of Iran in Lebanon, in, you know, in the Gaza Strip and also in Yemen. And now the Houthi rebels are talking about shutting out the Red Sea, you know, against Saudi Arabia. So this, it's complicated and, but I'm always of mindset that like it's a very serious decision to go in but once you do it, you got to do it right and you have to go all in otherwise to do this back and forth and stop and start type thing, negotiate, stop, hit them, stop, negotiate. I'm with General Jack Keane on this one. Like just go in. Our military can finish this and then let's work on getting a new regime in power because that is the head of the snake, Brian. If you can take the head of the snake, which is the Ayatollah and the regime out, you will kill the tentacles and that is Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthi rebels.
- [84:58]
Brian Kilmeade
Yeah, I mean I think you're, I think you're 100% right. The Houthi rebels take over the Red Sea. That's going to complicate things that we'd have to get involved even though that their main problem is with Saudi Arabia. They had a pre existing rivalry there but the result going to be Saudis can't get their oil through and it's a global market so it's going to affect all of this. Have you seen a military plan, Congressman Call that shows how we open up the strait regardless of Iran's permission or not.
- [85:25]
Michael McCaul
It's been described to me and we had a Pentagon visit scheduled this morning, but we had our conference, it's getting rescheduled. But you know, I was with Senator Roger Wicker yesterday, the Senate Armed Services Chairman and you know, we talked about this, that look there's a plan to do this. I think Cooper, the, you know, CENTCOM commander has a plan to do this. And you know, part of the problem is that they have taken their launchers and their missiles and they put them back into these, you know, these underground storage facilities where they have the nuclear material. So getting to that is going to be the tricky but achievable goal that I think has to be done to then finally get the straits open. And I personally believe there should have been and there should be some sort of clandestine operation. I think Israel can obviously Take the lead on this, on getting this regime out of power. I don't. It will continue to be a problem as long as this regime's in power.
- [86:31]
Brian Kilmeade
So I was talking to someone involved. Yeah, I would talk about Ukraine. You got this honor in Ukraine because you've been steadfast in supporting this cause. It is the cause of the West. And the way they're fighting five years later has just been phenomenal. How would you characterize what you saw on the ground two weeks ago when you were in Ukraine?
- [86:50]
Michael McCaul
Well, I went farther than any US official has gone on the front lines and astounding. All I can say is remarkable. I was watching an underground, undiscovered, closed locations, these live feeds of drone operations taking place, recapturing Russian occupied territory. The average lifespan they told me of a Russian soldier is days to hours. And I actually saw that taking place also they had their command and control center operations outside of Kyiv that I went to. That's a massive facility. They, I went to one, one drone manufacturer, Skyfall, making 7,000 drones per day on a massive scale. Think about one $1,000 drone can take out a shahed drone. Whereas before Brian, we were using $1,000,000 interceptor to take out a $25,000 shahed. This is where we can learn something from Ukraine. I think we should be co producing drones with the Ukraine Iranians and what they need desperately is what President Trump has given them and that is these, these licensing agreements to manufacture Patriot interceptors because right now they're pounding Kiev with these ballistic missiles.
- [88:09]
Brian Kilmeade
So are you going number one of the contracts been is that a done deal and it's just the licensing or
- [88:15]
Michael McCaul
is it just Lockheed, Lockheed Martin. I just got information yesterday, yesterday are moving forward with these agreements. I think the question now, Brian, is going to be where are they going to co produce these interceptors?
- [88:29]
Brian Kilmeade
Where? Yeah, out of the country so they can do it and not get bombed. So there was a deal on the table where the Ukrainians publicly offered, probably privately, more specific, hey, we know how to stop the shahed drones. We'll provide that to you. And Ukraine is helping the Gulf states. Have we given them an answer? Because it seems like we would benefit that too, especially present, protect our bases.
- [88:54]
Michael McCaul
I mean, absolutely. I did meet with the military and other officials. They're working on golden Dome, you know, operations. And I asked them are you, are you, are you using some of these Ukrainian counter drone, you know, drone missiles that they have? And they said yeah, they are starting to deploy some of those in the streets of Hormuz because it's really the same militarily. The strategy is similar, Brian. And Ukraine has taken out launch pads in interior Russia that deliver the shaheds and the ballistic missiles. And the same thing happens with the Straits of Hormuz to take out the shahed drones themselves, but also the launchers in orbit Iran and the launchers for the missile capability. So in a way, the two conflicts are similar and certainly the offensive military defense articles being used by Russia are being used by Iran, and that is the shahed drone.
- [89:59]
Brian Kilmeade
So much, so much on the table. It's going to be a critical time. I think the President's going to decide whether expand the war or, I don't know what the option would be or continue to hit these targets. But I think it's sending a good message to Iran in case you think we're just going to quit or that it's over or we're going to cut a bad deal. No, we're not. So they gave it a shot just because I think it's the right thing to do. But now I think it's back to kinetic Action. Congressman Michael McCaul, thanks so much. It was great to talk to you, sir.
- [90:27]
Michael McCaul
And thanks for Brian, thanks for having me.
- [90:29]
Brian Kilmeade
You got it. We're going to be back in a moment. The headlines, the stories behind them and the people who make them, only on the Brian Kilmeade Show. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kilmeade Show. I, I think if you have to work to pay your bills, I think that that is one definition of being a part of the working class. So that's everyone with a W2. Is that, is that kind of 1099 still? I think it's, it's, I'm less interested.
- [91:14]
Tim Stewart
Someone making $250,000 a year is working class.
- [91:17]
Brian Kilmeade
I mean, I haven't sat at home and asked myself where it starts and stops. What a clown. If you don't know who working class is or what for, what bracket is, what bracket, how are you so convinced that taxes have to get raised? What level do you raise taxes? What does a million dollars mean? How much are you taking home? If you have a million dollars, you're probably taking home $450,000. If you live in New York City. Well, it's a lot of money unless you have an apartment with three bedrooms and then you have a job and you have a couple of kids and they got to pay for school and if it's private school and then you got to pay for parking, all Of a sudden, next thing you know you're living paycheck to paycheck. Well, who is that? What is this for? You know what do you believe the socialism Got to pay for everything. You got to pay for your preschool, got to pay for the pre K. They pay for two year olds, they're paying for two year old daycare.
- [92:06]
Mike Vaccaro
Right.
- [92:07]
Brian Kilmeade
And now you got to pay for the preschool. Okay, you got to pay for that. De Blasio is doing that. And now you, you don't want to pay for buses. Of course you can't pay for buses. That's fine. So where are you getting the money from? Well, those people that you wanted tax, they're leaving. More people have left, more multimillionaires and billionaires have left New York than any other state in the union. And now they're going to leave now because they people make their money by not giving it away to, to knuckleheads like this guy. But when asked what is working class? He has no answer. Should be the first thing you come up with after doing the math and then finding out how people live. Brian kill.
- [92:52]
Tim Stewart
Foreign.
- [92:57]
Brian Kilmeade
From his mouth to your ears. It's Brian Kilmeade. I think we've done a terrible job
- [93:04]
John Johnson
in the tech world on the pr, on this, on explaining these people are
- [93:07]
Brian Kilmeade
anxious for good reason.
- [93:08]
John Johnson
People don't trust big tech for good reason, especially from the right. But you know, I don't think we're explaining that.
- [93:14]
Brian Kilmeade
We're actually creating massive numbers of jobs.
- [93:16]
John Johnson
We're going to bring down the cost of health care.
- [93:17]
Brian Kilmeade
We're starting to cure diseases like all these good new innovations, the things that have always driven America forward, they're coming
- [93:24]
John Johnson
from AI and from data centers. So you can't just turn off our innovation world. That would crush the country and our
- [93:29]
Brian Kilmeade
enemies would love it if we did that well. He's one of the founders of Palantir, Joe Lonsdale all over AI and wants to win and will do anything to make sure this country's safe. And he can't believe the blowback the data centers are having and the reluctance some are having, especially on the left to get involved in a AI. John Johnson joins us now. He's all over this. He's cep, CE P of Patmos, hosting a US based AI infrastructure company. John, your thoughts about what Joe Lonsdale just said? I mean he can't believe the pushback we're getting and he thinks this, this effort against AI and against data centers is organized.
- [94:06]
John Johnson
Brian, great to be with you. I think I'm CEO, not cep, but that's okay.
- [94:11]
Brian Kilmeade
Sorry about that.
- [94:11]
John Johnson
Yes CEO, no problem at all. There is a lot of pushback against data centers and communities. And there's I think a really good reason for that. I mean it is true that multi megawatt and even approaching gigawatt data centers create a lot of friction in communities. They create a war for resources and power. They can be built in ways that are really bad for the environment. And per square foot they come create a tremendously low amount of jobs after the initial construction projects are done. So there is real tension to work out there. And honestly it remains to be seen how profitable a gigawatt campus can be. And I think there's so much smoke in the air, there's so many fake press releases about these massive projects that just never get built and leave communities high and dry. So our thesis is really that the real sweet spot is that Goldilocks zone for a data center. And data centers can be built in a way that's really sustainable. Patmos built it, the first actually assessed clean energy data center in history. But that happens in the 10 to 50 megawatt zone. That's also where the economics make the most sense and we think that's where the market's really going. And I think there is rightful friction and hesitation against big tech promises. And so we'll see where that happens. But it might surprise you to know that I'm not entirely opposed to data center moratoriums of 100 megawatts or more.
- [95:37]
Brian Kilmeade
But do I understand correctly John, if you don't build the data centers, you could expect your storage on your phone and the rates to go up on your phone because the memory is going to be, the memory is going to be finite and people are going to be for sure more for the same. So there is going to be, if you don't build it, the utility price is definitely going to go up and that see that EO that the president put out that said if you got to build a data center, you got to provide the power for that data center. That would, that would solve one thing. The other thing is the water. So they got to make sure the water has been reused. Correct. Reset.
- [96:11]
John Johnson
That's right. Recycled water or Glycol systems. A data center correctly built and really built sustainably can use less water than a nine hole golf course on a daily basis. Right. So water's not the issue. The problem is when you get up into this multi, multi megawatt gigawatt zone, nothing really good happens after that. Point. And it can be really destructive to communities. But you're totally right. We do need data centers everywhere to make this virtual meeting happen, to make our phones work, to power AI. And it is really important for national security and economic reasons that we do win this race.
- [96:47]
Brian Kilmeade
Is there regulation? So for example, if your company wanted to build a data center, there's parameters right now. Do you not think those parameters are adequate?
- [96:57]
John Johnson
It depends what municipality you're looking to build in. And there are certain. I'm a California native who very deliberately founded a tech company in Missouri. Missouri. Because there are certain states like California and New York where we just don't want to be. So Kathy Hochul comes along and says, you can't build a data center in New York. And I'm like, well great. I also in good conscience cannot accept the Nobel Peace Prize this year. It's like we don't want to be there anyway because power is 50% more expensive than the national average. There's not a great business environment to be there. But really the best place for these moratoriums to be considered so communities can actually figure out what's best for for them. What's going to create the most benefit is at the local level. And so we've had a lot of success engaging with city councils, mayors. It seems like we're on a new call with a new mayor from somewhere in the heartland every week lately of mayors who want to invite us to repeat what we did in Kansas City to build a really sustainable jobs, dense, mixed use technology campus.
- [97:54]
Brian Kilmeade
So for example, when you get the plumbers, the pipefitters, the electricians to build a data center, you're saying that once it's up and running, running, we don't need them anymore. Do they need tradition?
- [98:04]
John Johnson
Yeah, for us we don't build data centers in the traditional sense. We build economic engines that are powered by AI factories. But then these are powering mixed use campuses. So you get tech startups, all kinds of entrepreneurs, vendors living in that building permanently and creating net due jobs for cities and really think that's the recipe for success.
- [98:27]
Michael McCaul
Success.
- [98:28]
John Johnson
Because if you do this right and you have enough space, you can actually create this economic engine that there's a ton of money to be made in AI, Right? But you can actually power buildings that create tech economies and ecosystems for local communities. And we also do that by retrofitting existing buildings so we're not tearing down farmland and creating giant rural tombstones that suck up everybody's power and create like no jobs and return turn. We're Taking existing buildings that maybe had a previous industrial purpose, but happen to have electricity already there and effectively recycling them. And we've seen that as a great recipe for success that many municipalities across the country want to engage with. And it's kind of a really different program than Big Tech's proposition to basically give all the power, create no jobs, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of square feet. Feet for their pursuit to create God in a box. You don't need a gigawatt campus to power your cell phones and your Zoom meetings and your targeted AI models, which is where the real economic benefit is. And you notice the companies trying to build the gigawatt campuses, they don't really have privacy security in mind. And I think communities are right to be hesitant about that scale of development.
- [99:41]
Brian Kilmeade
But for example, I would engage if it is my community, if I've, you know, I would say say this is what I want to see in the data center rather than we don't want that because there's no stopping this AI generation. Do you agree? So I.
- [99:56]
John Johnson
100%.
- [99:57]
Brian Kilmeade
So let's engage.
- [99:59]
John Johnson
Yeah, that's right. And we're seeing the smartest municipalities across the country really take this question seriously. It's not a question of, you know, how do we prevent tech from being a part of our lives. That's. That ship has sailed.
- [100:13]
Mike Vaccaro
Right.
- [100:13]
John Johnson
The Amish option is not an option. No disrespect to your Amish viewers. It's a question of how we build a data center in a smart way that's actually beneficial, good and symbiotic for a local community. And there is a way to do that, if you're willing to.
- [100:27]
Brian Kilmeade
How you feel about the facility being built in Louisiana. Are you familiar with it? Is it going to be Christmas?
- [100:32]
John Johnson
Yeah, I mean, you know, Meta has effectively acquired the state of Louisiana. So again, it's a question of scale, you know, no, no hard feelings for anybody trying to build it that scale scale. But I'd like to see it when it's done. Every week it seems like we get a new press release about a gigawatt plus campus. And what people don't really understand is that there might be if you make an exception for X's Elon Musk Colossus in Tennessee. There is no gigawatt campus in production right now. So so much of it is kind of press release smoke where they're waiting 24 to 36 months for their set of turbines. And they have been waiting for the last 24 to 36 months. We build data centers in a 10 to 50 megawatt zone and get them up and running in six months or less so communities don't have to wait for the economic benefits. Furthermore, we're not even asking for municipal or state subsidies. We're there to contribute and spin the electric meter and create revenue for cities. And I think if more companies, companies really adopted that approach, they'd be getting a lot less friction from these towns. And we really invite competition in that.
- [101:41]
Brian Kilmeade
So, John. But you have to make money, right? So I mean, there's profit for you. So like you. So you're saying that the, that the municipalities will benefit, but you have to benefit, right? Absolutely.
- [101:52]
John Johnson
And Patmos is one of the only profitable companies doing what we're doing. You know, you notice these multi megawatt gigawatt scale projects, they haven't quite figured out a way to be profitable. Profitable. And that is creating a rightful concern in what many people are calling an AI bubble, because there's a tremendous capital expense involved in constructing at this scale and we can't really figure out how to make it profitable. That should scare everybody.
- [102:17]
Brian Kilmeade
John Johnson with the CEO of Patmos hosting, and he's here, we're talking about data centers and AI. I talked to Mike Rowe on Sunday on my show One Nation because he's in charge of getting blue collar jobs to build these things. So he's getting these scholarships, they're coming up. I think meta gave him $6 million to be able to pay people while they're training. So a lot of people can't quit their job, they don't have the training. So he's trying to do that so they could employ these people. And here's what he said about the pushback.
- [102:44]
Senator James Lankford
Listen, it feels like the latest thing we're supposed to be scared of, and
- [102:48]
Brian Kilmeade
I just don't get it.
- [102:50]
Senator James Lankford
There are 5,000 data centers in the country right now. Now, we've been living in a data center world for the last 30 years. Every email you've ever opened, every text you've ever sent, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, your fantasy football league, all of it relies on AI and not AI, but, but the data center itself.
- [103:15]
Brian Kilmeade
So he. He doesn't get it?
- [103:18]
John Johnson
No, he totally gets it. And data centers are a part of our economy for sure, and they do make all of these things possible. They are very good. However, none of those things are made possible by a gigawatt data center. So scale is really what matters here. And that's where we have to make a distinction.
- [103:35]
Brian Kilmeade
How about this? I'm uneducated about this. Most of the people listening are like me. So what's so big? What's so bad about big?
- [103:44]
John Johnson
Nothing's bad about big in itself until you have to start raising precious farmland, sucking away more power, like 10 times the power than the city used before you got there for all of its people and air conditioners and such. Right. And it can't really be done profitably, at least yet. So I think the promise of the gigawatt data center build is really being driven by like two or three tech companies who control the Internet and are in a pursuit of creating AGI or singularity or something that probably won't be that good for humanity. All the real application, all the profitable application of AI happens out of data centers in the 10 to 50 to 100 megawatt range. And I understand that, you know, AI is, is a big part of what needs to expand that scale, but gigawatt and above, very little good happens.
- [104:39]
Brian Kilmeade
So the, you know, which I think is necessary is data centers got to be built. They just got to be built in a way that's going to be sustainable, be profitable. Be profitable and not jack up anybody's utility rates. By the way, if you're a politician, you're jacking people's utility rates, you're not going to have a job. So that's not going to work for anybody. You're not going to get a Republican or Democrat to support it. So the President signed that executive order to power it. And one thing they're talking about is modular nuclear. These miniature nuclear power plants, they're in the process of being green lighted. How close is that? And is there a downside to this miniature nuclear plant?
- [105:15]
John Johnson
Nuclear takes time. It's also a little bit spooky, probably for some of the wrong reasons. I think it's a great alternative and I think that's the right play. We want to win the AI race against China, but we're not going to do that by hand wringing legislation over IP protection and patent laws. That's not going to work. If we want to beat China at the AI race, we need to build power plants really, really quickly. We need to domesticate our supply chain. And I think the President's intuition on that is pretty accurate. Now let's see it happen. Right. We need to see power plants springing up across the country. We need to see the grid revitalize because. Because ours is pretty old and pretty dilapidated.
- [105:52]
Brian Kilmeade
Yeah, we keep hearing that and no one ever fixes it. I guess it's just too much. I don't Understand why we don't ever make that a priority. And lastly, how many. You're saying you're the only one to build a sustainable data center right now using recyclable water that doesn't jack up people's utility rates?
- [106:10]
Ryan Reynolds
Right now?
- [106:11]
John Johnson
Yeah, we're the first data center in history. We took an abandoned printing press in the middle of downtown Kansas city. Kansas City, 400,000 square foot building. And we were the first in history to be awarded a green Energy Sea Pace $100 million facility for that accomplishment. So sustainability is kind of a bumper sticker in everybody's break room, but we actually did it and we invite competition in that because there is a way to do this in a way that actually benefits communities. As long as we're not thinking like the tech oligarchs in this country of basically creating some something that makes, you know, every tech company has the same exact product, Brian. Every. Every big tech company, that their product is me and it's you. Right? And so Patmos just takes a different approach. We believe that technology should actually be at the service of the human person. So we're completely bootstrapped. We haven't taken money from anybody and we're building it brick by brick in a way that's actually sustainable and good for communities.
- [107:08]
Brian Kilmeade
Power aside, how. How much are you concerned about AI or are you just excited about AI? Where does it concern? 1 to 10 of 10 being the highest, 1 being the lowest? And how much of you is just excited about what it can be?
- [107:23]
John Johnson
I think AI is a really amazing thing if it's understood as ancillary to human goods. The second we start to think of AI as this God that we have to worship and submit all of our power and resources to and take a chip in our hand so we can more conveniently check out at Whole Whole Foods, that's what really scares me and a lot of people. And we have to listen to these big tech oligarchs in Seattle and Silicon Valley. When they start talking like that, that's a disaster, a recipe for disaster for this culture and this nation. And so hopefully, if we can understand the rightly ordered purpose of technology, which is to support human goods and human flourishing, we're going to win. But we got to get that question right first. First we gotta understand the end game. That tech is actually meant to serve humans, not the other way around.
- [108:12]
Brian Kilmeade
How do we get China to agree to that?
- [108:14]
John Johnson
You don't. And you can't legislate. You know, China steals IP. That's been happening since the 70s and 80s. Right. So the rich irony here is that Sam Altman is now upset that China is stealing his IP and making it open source. Well, isn't that why he promised to found OpenAI in the first place, is to make an open source model? She went back on that promise. Yeah, sure, now China's distilling and taking. Taking his IP and making it open source. But that's not the real threat. I'm not so worried about the threat across the Pacific as the one on the Pacific coast of the United States of America, which is basically four companies who want to control the entire Internet and frankly, the human experience as well. That's the real threat that we should be aware of. And what we need is decentralized technological power in this country. So we need small tech, we need little tech, we need local tech to rise up and take control of their destiny with AI, data centers and everything in between.
- [109:12]
Brian Kilmeade
CEO of POTMOS hosting. John Johnson, thanks so much. Fantastic, John. We learned a lot.
- [109:17]
John Johnson
Thanks, Brian.
- [109:18]
Mike Vaccaro
Good work.
- [109:18]
Brian Kilmeade
Thank you. Back in a moment. Real talk, real guests, real insight where curiosity meets conversation. It's the Brain Brian Killmead Show. A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kilmeade show, sponsored by Prevagen. Previgen. Made for your.
- [109:54]
Mike Vaccaro
Brian.
- [109:55]
Ryan Reynolds
If we lived in a world where
- [109:57]
Brian Kilmeade
people could literally get elected to office, with the only qualification being that they went and celebrated a mass murder of Israelis, if all elected officials celebrated mass murders, is that a better world or a worse world?
- [110:12]
Ryan Reynolds
These are not progressive ideas.
- [110:14]
Brian Kilmeade
These are regressive ideas. Yes, van Jones, you're 100% right, but he's talking about something not on the Republican side. He's not outraged about the Donald Trump. He's outraged about what Bernie Sanders and AOC and the squad are doing. What we're seeing now in New York City, what we see in Colorado, in a seat in Philadelphia, is the rise of socialism. We see a leading Senate candidate, Democratic candidate, who's being boosted by AOC money and maybe out DIA and, and DSA money to take on, eventually take on Mike Rogers. And Mike Rogers is going to be tough to be with the most traditional candidate after almost beating Alyssa Slotkin in Michigan, that cost you the Senate. That crazy socialist Platner just imploded in Maine. They thought you were going to have an easy time flipping that seat and take it away from Susan Collins. Scary stuff. Scarier is if they are actually successful.