
The Brian Kilmeade Show 08-10-2026
Loading summary
Ryan Reynolds
Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless bill? It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat emotional arc and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately, though, Mint's story is better. Every plan, $15 a month, even unlimited. That's it. Happy ending, zero tears. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment
Megan Romer
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.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
See terms
Brian Kilmeade
from the FOX News radio studios in midtown Manhattan. It's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade,
Ryan Reynolds
everyone.
Brian Kilmeade
So glad you there. It's the Brian Kilmeade show back in action today, bottom of the hour. Susan Page has got to be with us. Washington bureau chief of USA Today best selling author. We know all about it and she's going to be with us talking about her brand new book, the Queen and Her Presidents, the hidden hand that shaped history. And also be taking your calls. 1-866-408-7669. I'll be able to get to that in 20 minutes. Boys are keeping up to date on what's happening today. Final primary day, final day, full day of campaigning before a big primary day in Wisconsin. I know Glenn Youngkin is going to be helping out Tom Tiffany today on the Republican side where they're very optimistic a Republican is going to win back the gubernatorial mansion over in Wisconsin. So before we get to that, let's get to the big three.
Susan Page
Number three.
Stephanie White
Yeah, I mean, look, it was a hard foul. I don't think that Dijonay intentionally came out to get her across the neck like she did. But it did happen and I thought it was the right call.
Brian Kilmeade
What a terrible thing for the coach to say. You just watched your best player, one of your best players, Soby Cunningham get clotheslined and you say, well, the person didn't do it on purpose.
Caller/Guest (WNBA critic)
Really.
Brian Kilmeade
The worst run pro sports league in the world, the WNBA shows once again they are scared to actually crack down on their radical racist players as two former NBA men are planning on joining the WNBA draft in a gender bending policy.
Mike Pompeo
Number two, what I really think they're trying to do is play this thing out. I think they're trying to play this thing out not only through our election here in November, but for the last two years of President Trump's term and hope they catch a president who's not as resolved as President Trump is to preventing them from having nuclear weapons.
Brian Kilmeade
Yes, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talks off with the US And Iran as their crazies throw out fantastical demands on us. We're not going to meet any of them. Who has time on their side. Is it us or is it them? We'll take a look.
Francesca Wong
Number one, Thanksgiving is also a time that's incredibly painful for many people in our communities. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. Yes, I don't want to cancel it. I actually love it.
Brian Kilmeade
Francesca Wong is all wrong. She flip flops on Thanksgiving and so much more powerful primary season for DSA Dems as another wacky socialist prepares to grab the nomination in Wisconsin on the Democratic side. But a mammoth earthquake came in Michigan Senate race as El Sayed, the radical Muslim is about to square off with Mike Rogers for a vacant Senate seat and seems Dems are scared to cross him. In fact they're rushing to join him. I'm talking about President Obama is called and you have talking about Gavin Newsom. You talk about Kamala Harris all going out to help Abdul El Sayed who says he's not a socialist but appeared six times at six separate events with DSA events. He certainly seems like a socialist who wants Medicare for all and of course abandoned all military aid to Israel seems to be a real hater there. And now we'll pretend as if he's not extremely tight with the radical Hassan Piker. We know is true. So he's trying to modern moderate himself and try to get Haley Stevens voters. He wants to be a working class guy. But if you look at the breakdown on who voted for El Said over in Michigan, it was not worth the working class. It was the over educated 20 somethings that got him in there and very rich wealthy white people that put him in there, much like the Mondami constituency. So Abdul Said wants to mainstream himself and that's what he's while still trying to hold true to his school. Here is Abdul Said talking about on Meet the Press, confirming that people are reaching out to him.
Abdul El Sayed
Cut one I never saw myself ever able to run for public office. I literally told former President Bill Clinton that at my college graduation in which I was the senior speaker and he was the main speaker. I then watched the next year Barack Hussein Obama run for and win the presidency. I watched him serve with a level of class, a level of elegance that we could only pine for now. So I really enjoyed the I was grateful for his advice. It was very warm, very inviting. And I know that he knows the critical role that Michigan is going to play in holding Trump accountable, in winning back the Senate and in building forward the future that we need.
Brian Kilmeade
Is he going to campaign with you, Dr. El Sayed? Look, I really hope so.
Abdul El Sayed
And it was a really good conversation about what we need to do to be able to win. And obviously this is somebody who knows a lot about winning Michigan well, yet
Brian Kilmeade
the thing is, do you want to just shelve everything that you've done? I didn't really think that Barack Obama was a socialist. I had no idea that he was a socialist, that he was very comfortable. One of the first people to call on Dami after he won, beat Cuomo in the primary was Barack Obama. And I'm thinking to myself, why would you do that? Because this guy's taking your party in a whole different direction that I don't think it's gonna be have success on the main stage for this country, at least for years to come, and hurt, certainly not today. I thought he would take more of the stance of, you know, James Carville without the flamboyance. I thought he'd be more the one to say, hey, listen, I don't think you belong in our party. Most of the things that you say and you want to do has nothing to do with us. So I thought that's the stance that he would make. I thought that Barack Obama might sound like this. Cut 24.
Commentator/Critic
I think that these progressive left very tech people, I think they've come up with an AI random stupid idea generator. And I think this stupid idea generator can think of things that humans can't, like canceling Thanksgiving or being against interracial dating. So I'm just waiting to the next stupid idea AI generator that comes out spits out of that. It'll probably go through the humanities faculty at the University of Wisconsin for it actually gets put in a candidate thing
Brian Kilmeade
and which is some of these people are. And this is what they say. They say that they want to abolish the border. Everyone can get in. If you're here illegally, you should get citizenship right away, abolish prisons, abolish the police. It's just absolutely insane. And then when they talk about taxing how you're going to get this universal health care, they're going to tax the billionaires. They believe that millionaires and billionaires have scammed people. And then when asked, what do you do with the money? How does your math work out? I don't know. Maud dummy doesn't know. How much money do you need for your program? See, they don't know. Well, it's not important. You want excuse? Do you think I'm exaggerating? Listen to this. Megan Romer, who's. Who seems like the happiest person in the world, sit down with, do an interview with this, the. I think a very friendly interviewer and they just ask some basic questions. Here's Megan Romer. Cut 20.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
Do you believe there should be millionaires in this country?
Megan Romer
I'm less concerned about millionaires, more concerned about billionaires. I don't have like a hard line
Steph Kite
where it's where I guess what I'm
Interviewer (David Remnick)
asking is how much is too much?
Megan Romer
Yeah, I think, I think the question is less about how much is too much and more about what are you doing to keep and maintain and get that wealth in the first place. I think most billionaires got their wealth because they exploited the working class in some very significant way. Usually we do believe in taxing the hell out of millionaires. Yeah, absolutely.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
Well, what is taxing the hell out of them mean?
Megan Romer
Yeah, you know, again, I don't have like a solid, but I think.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
But shouldn't you, I mean, if you're the co. Chair. If you're the co chair of the dsa, shouldn't you be more specific than just taxing the hell out of something? What exactly do you mean?
Megan Romer
So again, it's democracy, right? And we have to look at what we need to spend and what we need. We don't want to depend on the existence of millionaires because that means people are still getting exploited. So. So yeah, we need to, we need to look at what we need to pay for in the interim. What, what sort of tax base. We need for that to happen and then. And build from there.
Brian Kilmeade
I mean, do I, do I need to say anything more? That was David Remnick, hardly a Republican, hardly a conservative, asking questions for the New Yorker. This Megan Romer has no idea that she doesn't know anything. And then she goes, it's a democracy.
Tom Carricko
What are you talking about?
Brian Kilmeade
You're changing the fundamentals of an economy, the principles that make it work. Where in America you have the opportunity to be successful and not be successful. That's opportunity. But now they're trying to. To every millionaire and billionaire exploited somebody. Do you think that Elon Musk is exploiting people? Or do you think he's starting multiple companies employing tens of thousands of people not only to put together his buildings, but actually put together SpaceX and Tesla and his tunnel company and everything that he's doing, not exploiting people. He happens to be a genius.
Caller/Guest (WNBA critic)
There's.
Brian Kilmeade
Instead of just keeping it to himself and becoming a multimillionaire, he's become a trillionaire. With while employing tens of thousands of people, revolutionizing our country and putting us back in the space race. We were paying the Russians tens of millions of dollars in order to get into space, to get to our space station. And thanks to him, SpaceX and now Amazon, look at we're able to do so he became, I'm sure if you look at Jeff Bezos, I'm sure he's close to a trillionaire. Did you come up with the idea for Amazon? Do you think he should not be rewarded for that? Is he exploiting people for that? Maybe because you don't like, you think that people should get paid more in the warehouse. It doesn't mean he hasn't done incredibly well for people and provided great opportunities for families and everybody else. Like Henry Ford back in the 20s and 30s. I would think that she got that, but she doesn't get that. That's the scary thing. There's about 45 people who have won Democratic primaries who think like her. And then when you say things like do you want to disband the Supreme Court, Disband the Senate, they say yes. People laugh it off. AOC laughs it off. Well, everyone has freedom to have their own ideas, but you'll still endorse them. You can't have it both ways. I didn't think you could, but maybe they're rewriting everything. We should just not pay attention to what people are saying they would do. It's just ideas. AOC yesterday, if anyone thinks that she's. She might be a. A presidential candidate, but if anyone thinks she's a legitimate, qualified presidential candidate, please look at her at the Munich Defense conference. And please watch her interview yesterday with Jonathan Karl on abc. He gave her the easiest ride possible. And she still couldn't answer a question. When asked about Hassan Piker, this guy who says Hamas is so much 100 times better than Israel, that Israelis, that Jews are inbred, that said white people are crackers, got suspended from Twitch on that because of that. Remember when in 2019 he said that America deserved 9, 11 because of our foreign policy. When asked about Hasan Piker actually campaigning with El Said, and for somebody that you would back, here's her answer. Cut nine.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
When we look at our elections that have happened, we have lost young people. Much hay was made about the fact that we lost young men in the last election. Many of the same consultants that are wringing their hands today were the same ones talking about how we need to go on Joe Rogan and we need to be not so willing to engage in cancel culture.
Brian Kilmeade
Okay. Joe Rogan asked questions, you know, you know you want to go on, you know, Rush Limbaugh show in his day where that's the quintessential conservative host. You can go do that. What is Rush Limbaugh saying? Controversial, Just conservative things. Hasan Piker described himself as a Marcus Marxist. Does that mean young people like him? He says there's a lot to learn from the Chinese government. He worships Mao, who killed between 16 and 20 million people. He uses inflammatory anti capitalistic rhetoric including let the streets soak in red capitalist blood. So do you think in order to win over young people, some consultant tells you go on with Hasan Piker and that's something you're okay with unless you're going to go on there and just argue with the guy. His own mother in an interview that they did yesterday were published yesterday in the Rolling Stone says I wish he wouldn't be so antagonistic. And also I don't understand why he loves China so much. That's his own mother. So this is a guy that to me is someone, if I'm looking to win elective office, I wouldn't want to be seen in a still photo, let alone go on a three hour podcast with him and equate it to Joe Rogan, who's not a conservative, not really a liberal, ask more questions about UFOs than he does. Who wants, who's the next president? United States guy. That makes total sense. John Fetterman. This guy wants to win in a battleground state. How's he going to do that? Well, he's known thing he's making a stand against El Sayed. Cut 10.
Christopher Rufo
The first reaction is the Republicans are
Brian Kilmeade
elated that he won.
Christopher Rufo
He has a special talent to put a seat in play for that.
Brian Kilmeade
And you've seen the polling against Rogers.
Christopher Rufo
He is pulling five, six or seven points behind him.
Caller/Guest
And he has also found out that
Christopher Rufo
less than 50% of Michigan Democrats picked him.
Michael Goodwin
Yeah.
Brian Kilmeade
All right, when we come back, I'm going to take some calls about what you think about what's going to happen tomorrow with Tom Tiffany going against this other woman who hates Thanksgiving and wants to 86 Trump and says, well those are just bad takes. Those are quick takes and bad takes. Who also wants to abolish the border and the Senate. Know everything that these crazy socialists want to do. This guy driven people like Fetterman and Carville nuts but has not, has nothing but excited Barack Obama. This is why anyone who says Republicans are done in the midterm elections, has not paid attention to redistricting, has not paid attention to the money discrepancy the year the Republicans have a lot more money and have not looked at these primary winners. Anyone who just says history says Republicans going to get trashed. You're not paying attention. I'll show you more. I got so much more to play. You listen to Brian Kilmeade. Show your calls next politics, current events
and news that affects you. Brian's got a lot more to say. Stay with Brian Kilmeade.
Fox News Announcer
Did you know Fox News has a wine shop? Did you also know you can get a head start on your Christmas shopping? That's right. Check one more gift off your list with the FOX News Wine Shop Advent calendar featuring 12 festive wines inspired by the holiday magic of Fox Square. You can reserve yours for just a 1999 deposit. We'll deliver it free right to your doorstep in time for the holiday season. Quantities are limited, so visit foxnewswineshop.com today.
Brian Kilmeade
The more you listen, the more you'll know it's Brian Kilmeade.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
Darieliza Avila Chevalier recently won a primary election in New York City and it's almost sure to win the general election. She attended an October 8th pro Palestinian, pro Hamas rally, which many people saw as a justification of the October 7th attack. And some of her tweets have been extremely ugly on this score and on others. Do you, do you fully support her in all these activities and what she's had to say?
Megan Romer
I think Dariel Issa can speak for herself, certainly. And I think she's apologized for, for some pieces of that and has been
Interviewer (David Remnick)
not for, not for attending that rally,
Megan Romer
not unapologetic about other pieces of that.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
And do you support her yourself in that?
Megan Romer
Yeah, I do.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
Why? Because, in other words, you would have gone to that rally had you been able to?
Megan Romer
That's a good question. I probably would have, yeah.
Steph Kite
Yeah.
Megan Romer
I don't live in New York City, so I wouldn't have one day after
Interviewer (David Remnick)
the slaughter of 1200 people and taking over 200 hostages, you would have come and rallied behind Hamas.
Megan Romer
I think that October 7th was largely inevitable. If you put people in an open air concentration camp and you deprive them of rights, of dignity, of food, of the ability to live in safety, you have to expect that they are going not take that for that long. And that is not defending any harm of civilians or of non combatants.
Tom Carricko
Well, sure.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
That is.
Megan Romer
Do you think it is?
Interviewer (David Remnick)
You're saying you're supporting it?
Megan Romer
I'm saying. I'm saying that I think it was inevitable.
Brian Kilmeade
You are supporting it. David Remnick, great job. Follow up questions. He shows you how despicable this person is. Is nothing about Gaza was an open air prison. They put up reinforcements because people were coming through with body bombs and they're sending rockets over from Gaza randomly into Israel. That's what got them there. They got the whole area. They could have paved the place with gold and said they built tunnels to attack people and keeping them hostage. And that's Megan Romer describing why it's okay to protest October 8th. Like Dolly Riza Chevalier, who upset and established Hispanic leader, Democratic leader in New York City thanks to the endorsement of Mayor Mondame. That's how twisted everyone is. So you're going to say, well, a year later, I don't like the way the Israelis prosecuted the war against Hamas.
Caller/Guest (WNBA critic)
You're wrong.
Brian Kilmeade
You didn't do any effort to go in. You haven't talked to anyone in charge of that military operation. You're wrong. But one day after you're condemning the people that were victimized, some of which are Americans. That's how twisted these people are. And that's why you have. Hasan Piker is the leader, is the real leader and spiritual leader of this new crop of Democrats. And for those Democrats who established themselves, congratulations. You gave your whole party away. And it started with Bernie Sanders when you let him in and you let him run for president when he never declared himself a Democrat. It's crazy. And now you're paying the price because these are all his disciples that have won 45 separate primaries across the country.
Fox News Announcer
Did you know FOX News has a wine shop? Did you also know you can get a head start on your Christmas shopping?
Brian Kilmeade
That's right.
Fox News Announcer
Check one more gift off your list with the FOX News Wine Shop Advent calendar featuring 12 festive wines inspired by the holiday magic of Fox Square. You can reserve yours for just a 1999 deposit. We'll deliver it free right to your doorstep in time for the holiday season. Quantities are limited, so visit foxnewswineshop.com today.
Brian Kilmeade
If you're interested in it. Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmeade.
Hey, we are back. You know, I was talking about Abdul El Sayed and how many VIPs in the Democratic Party have called Him, Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Barack Obama. And now he's trying to backtrack because a lot of people he's associated with Hassan Piker have said terrible things like for example, 9 11. We deserve 911 because of our foreign policy. Said that in 2019. And we said Hamas is 100 times worse. Excuse me, Israel is 100 times worse than Hamas. That Senator Rick Scott should be killed. Should be killed. Someone should kill Rick Scott because he didn't like his healthcare policy. Here's Abdul El Sayed. Is he gonna distance himself from what Hassan Piker said? After all, he closed his campaign out for the Democratic nomination in Michigan with Hasan Piker on stage. Cut five.
Abdul El Sayed
Of course it was a dumb statement. And of course I think Hasan himself would say that was a dumb statement. He disavowed it. So yes, America didn't deserve 9 11, but you know, to sit here and play gotcha politics with dumb things. Somebody said out of context that they disavowed themselves to say, oh well, what does that mean about what you think I want to be held accountable for what I say and what I do rather than this idea that we've. We're so stuck in cancel culture that all of us agreed was a bad idea back in 2020, but we seem to want to bring back.
Brian Kilmeade
Well, a couple of things. It's not a matter of you being associated with someone says you actually chose him to campaign with him in the backstretch of a election that was gonna be dotted by go be decided by a few thousand votes. You obviously thought Piker could deliver something for you. He's compared liberal Zionists to liberal Nazis, praising the Hezbollah flag, defending armed groups, resistance and Hezbollah flag. He called his favorite flag. I mean how many things you got to make excuses for him while loving Mao and calling himself a Marcus. That's a Marxist. That's who you chose to campaign with, let alone go on his podcast. Susan Page joins us now. Award winning Washington bureau chief of staff for USA Today best selling author. Susan, welcome back. Your thoughts about what we're seeing this primary season.
Susan Page
Well, we're seeing quite an extraordinary primary season for the Democrats. First of all, these successes by this, the very progressive wing, including in the swing state of Michigan. I mean, less of a surprise to win in Denver or in New York City, but the victory in Michigan last week was notable. And now we see Abdul Al said trying to, as you just pointed out, explain and adjust some positions he's taken in the past because now he's running in a general election this isn't unheard of in politics. Perhaps you've seen it before on both sides, but that is what I think we see happening right now.
Brian Kilmeade
Well, I mean, we remember people go to the middle. Remember all of a sudden Kamala Harris goes, you know, fracking's not that bad. You know, things like that. You know, but I'm not, I'm not used to socialism is, is the way and, and some of these extreme measures that we've seen with some of the ones that run in New York City where abolish the border, abolish police, abolish prisons, and we have the DSA co chairperson saying all those things proudly and that billionaires basically became billionaires because they took advantage of working people. It's almost as if we forgot about the Cold War.
Susan Page
Well, this is going to be a huge challenge for the Democratic Party. You know, the DSA's national position has any policy positions have any number of things that are just unacceptable to the mainstream of American politics. Now, of course, El Sayed is not a member of the dsa, although he's supported by some key figures from the dsa. But he has taken position and as you've pointed out, campaigned with people who take positions that are, that seem extreme to a lot of Americans. So we'll see it. This has been, you know, this is not the primary season Democrats thought they were going to have six months ago. The rise of these and success of some of these Democratic socialists and other very progressive figures in primaries has taken establishment Democrats back and they're still trying to figure out how to respond. We'll have a good test tomorrow in Wisconsin in the gubernatorial primary there where there is a DSA candidate running, Francesca Hong, who has been leading in the polls. And that would be quite a success for these, for the DSA if they were able to win the Democratic nomination for governor of Wisconsin, another one of those critical swinging states.
Brian Kilmeade
So I want you to hear Francisco Wong famously wants to ban Thanksgiving, but then she realized that's not popular. I had no idea that wouldn't be popular. On the surface, it seems like such a great thing to say. Here she is, cut 14.
Francesca Wong
Thanksgiving is also a time that's incredibly painful for many people in our communities. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving
Commentator/Critic
because,
Susan Page
yep,
Francesca Wong
I don't want to cancel it. I actually love it.
Brian Kilmeade
She also was talking about how unfortunate it is that her son is or her child is white. Cut 15.
Francesca Wong
I wasn't always aware of the struggles of other communities of color because for me, assimilation always kind of took over. And so I did marry and proximity to whiteness continues. Right. My son is biracial, he's half white and half Korean. And I think navigating what his identity is and how people perceive him is always at the back of my mind as well.
Brian Kilmeade
It's the most interesting conversation I never thought I'd be listening to.
Susan Page
Susan, you know, I would say if you find yourself the couple days before a critical primary and you're defending that you actually do like Thanksgiving, that this is a campaign that has gone a little, a little off the rails. You know, one thing about social media in the modern age is that comments and postings and recordings never die. So something you said a long time ago is going to resurface and you'll find yourself having to defend it. And that's, that's what she's having to do extraordinarily with Thanksgiving. And Brian, I would just like to say that I'm in the pro Thanksgiving caucus myself.
Brian Kilmeade
Okay.
Susan Page
And I hope, and I hope you are there with me.
Steph Kite
Right.
Brian Kilmeade
I'm Thanksgiving adjacent. I'm not willing to make that commitment right now. But people I'm close to are pro Thanksgiving, so I'm gonna stick with that. I didn't think I'd be running on the Thanksgiving car against the Thanksgiving caucus, but I found myself on the other side. Susan, we vehemently disagree there. So if you look at history and you look at what's going on with the Iran war, you would say, and a lame duck president, you would say, this is gonna be a very good time building on your point for Democrats. But then if you look at redistricting, you look at the money advantage for Republicans and then you look at the rise of these candidates. There's a reason that Republicans could feel hope. And I saw a Washington Post story, I think it was on Friday or Saturday was saying that this is how the Republicans could keep the House. And many people just thought the House going to flip and the Senate's in play. Where do you stand, Susan?
Susan Page
Well, I think the odds are still that Democrats take the House, but I agree that this is a less friendly territory, a less friendly landscape. The Democrats thought they were going to have. You know, traditionally, if a president was in the low 30s in his approval rating, that would be catastrophic for his party in this midterm election. But Republicans have managed to do the things you mentioned. They picked up a, they have probably secured a couple seats or at least made it more likely they'll win them through, through this unprecedented mid district, mid decade redistricting. They've Got a ton of dough, including from Elon Musk. We'll see if Donald Trump unleashes some of that $400 million he has in his, in his own pack. But it's not like Republicans so much want to talk about the President's leadership on the economy, which is approval ratings gone down or the war in Iran, also unpopular. But there are some things that are giving Democrats trouble they didn't expect to have.
Brian Kilmeade
What else I find interesting is, and you do this all the time, you look at people who wins, that's the story. But the next day you have to know who, where the votes came from. So you have these socialist candidates who aren't winning over the minority vote. They're not. So Mondame did not get the black vote in New York City. Cuomo did and is not in the working class. Did not vote for. El Said, they voted for Stevens. So you're saying, I'm going to bat for working class people, but they're not. They don't see it that way. That's adding another layer to this to keep in mind. If you're a Republican, that working class vote is still in play.
Susan Page
You know, I was really struck by looking at the vote in Michigan last week because you saw different, a different sort of coalition for the two Democratic candidates. So for the establishment candidate, Haley Stevens, she did really well in Detroit. A lot of black voters there, as you say, Elsie said, did not do well among black voters. She did well in working class communities and in rural communities, mostly white, more conservative rural communities. That was her coalition that didn't quite make the grade. El said he did really well in Arab American communities like Dearborn. He did great in college towns like Ann Arbor and East Lansing. Did really well among college educated whites. That used to be a group we thought of as Republican. So they're looking at different ways to put their coalition together. That said, it is hard to imagine Democrats nationally or Democrats across the country doing well if a candidate is not doing well among African American voters, which is the party's most loyal base.
Brian Kilmeade
If you look at 28, because obviously Governor Gavin Newsom thinking that way, and AOC was out there yesterday, and Kamala Harris has never stopped thinking about 28. I want you to hear AOC, who seems to be winning in some New Hampshire polls yesterday, when asked by Jonathan Kroll, which he's going to be doing, cut 28 first, are you, are you
Abdul El Sayed
going to run for president?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
I mean, I'm focused on winning the midterms. I'm running for Congress
Abdul El Sayed
But I mean,
Brian Kilmeade
do you see this as something. I know you said you're open to it. Is this a realistic possibility?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Yeah, I haven't. Well, I haven't ruled out the possibility, and I'm very humbled to the tremendous amount of support out there. I think that we have a responsibility to remain focused on the midterms and not on our individual.
Brian Kilmeade
Susan Page. Susan Page. Would you be surprised if she wasn't running?
Susan Page
I think that was. I think that was a yes.
Fox News Announcer
Yeah.
Susan Page
I think there are a million ways not to respond to that question. Which politicians know to say, I haven't ruled it out. I'm thinking about it.
Michael Goodwin
That
Susan Page
I don't know.
I think there's a alarm going off somewhere.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
Hold on.
Megan Romer
Okay.
Brian Kilmeade
Yeah. Susan Page has gone up. She's coming out of either her office or she's coming out and she has alarmed. Got to make sure if that. If there is a smoke alarm or during type of alarm, you got to make sure it happens. But I want you to hear a little bit more about Congresswoman Aoc because she also might run for Senate against Chuck Schumer. Listen to how she handles this. Cut 29 and running for Senate against Chuck Schumer, Is that also something that's possible?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
I mean, I think that. That anything is possible at this juncture.
Caller/Guest
Hmm.
Brian Kilmeade
That's a little bit different. I think there's no doubt about it. I think if she goes to run, I don't think that Schumer runs because I don't think that's the way he wants to end by losing a primary, even though that's how he beat d' Amato all those years ago. I just think that if you look at her interview with Jonathan Karl, as soon as the questions got interesting, where you might get his depth or Aster challenge. How could you be supporting these candidates who believe such astronomical crazy things? Her answers are just so bad and so shallow. You wonder if she could honestly, honestly run for president without doing so much more study and so much more work. You saw with Kamala Harris gave a great opening speech when she first started running when she was going against Joe Biden. And then when she got into questions, she just had no answers because she didn't study. So we'll take a time out and come back. Maybe with Susan, maybe not. You'll send the Brian Kilmate show back in a moment.
From breaking news to big name guests, Brian brings you insight you won't hear anywhere else. You're listening to the Brian Kill Meat Show.
Fox News Announcer
Did you know Fox News has a wine shop. Did you also know you can get a head start on your Christmas shopping?
Brian Kilmeade
That's right.
Fox News Announcer
Check one more gift off your list with the FOX News Wine Shop Advent calendar featuring 12 festive wines inspired by the holiday magic of Fox Square. You can reserve yours for just a 19.99 deposit. We'll deliver it free right to your doorstep in time for the holiday season. Quantities are limited, so visit foxnewswineshop.com today.
Brian Kilmeade
Radio that makes you think this is the Brian Kilmeade Show.
So, Susan Page just back with us for the USA Today. To the alarm, I guess. Susan, is everything okay?
Susan Page
It was very exciting and I apologize. I couldn't find smoke, only the alarm. So I'm back with you.
Brian Kilmeade
All right, good. So it might be just a battery situation. So Susan, I just want to ask you about aoc. It sounds like she's running like you said. But if you look at the Munich conference and if you watch the whole Jonathan Karl interview, when it comes to explaining things that are controversial, she doesn't seem like she's put the work in or she's natural at it. And we saw that with Kamala Harris. She didn't seem to study. She can do a speech, but when it came to issues backing up her beliefs, that's where she seemed to fall short. Your thoughts about how ready the 34 year old is?
Susan Page
Well, the Munich conference certainly she didn't look good there. She didn't like she knew what she was talking about. But I disagree with you saying she doesn't seem like a natural. I think she is a really gifted natural politician. Just asked Joe Crawley, who she unexpectedly defeated to get into the House. You know, I don't know that she's 34, you know, relatively new to politics. She's got a lot of time to wait to run for president. I would be more concerned if I were Chuck Schumer and looking at my Senate reelection next year in two years about whether AOC might find that a pretty attractive perch.
Brian Kilmeade
So if she decides to run there, I bet you he decides not to do it. I think that if she does not run and runs for president, I think Mayor Mamdame runs for Senate seat. What do you think of that?
Susan Page
Well, that's so interesting. Now why do you think he'll do that instead of staying in city hall?
Brian Kilmeade
Couple of things with this guy. To me, when you're a mayor, it's less about politics and more about execution. And I think that he's more about politics than execution. I mean he getting Booed in Staten Island. You know, coming out with this, some of the things you just gotta show up and you gotta actually get things done. Like Mike Bloomberg. I forgot what Mike Bloomberg was. He started as a Democrat, was an independent, so I started as a Republican rather. He was just getting stuff done. And that's what I think good mayors do. And I think that he's more of a. Somebody who wants to think big picture. And we know that he's not born here, so he can never be president.
Michael Goodwin
And.
Brian Kilmeade
And I don't think that he necessarily is built for the mayor's job, you
Susan Page
know, but of course, Mom, Donna, you may be right. And you know New York City better than I do, for sure. But Mamdani will say face the same challenge AOC does in winning statewide. You know, one thing to win in New York City, another thing to win that whole great big state.
Brian Kilmeade
I think that's a good point. Fight out. Fight out a couple of things. Mike Rogers reminds me a little of what Dave McCormick did. Barely lost to Oz in the primary. Oz barely loses to Fetterman. Rogers loses by 19,000 votes into Lisa Slotkin, who many people think submoderate. And now he's basically the same guy with the military background, the intelligence background, the FBI background, running again. If he runs just as himself, do you put him as the favorite against El Said?
Susan Page
I'm not sure I put him as the favorite, but he's surely a very credible candidate for the job. I think his problem is he came so close last time in a year that was great to be a Republican on the ballot. And this year he's going to be running for the same job in a year when it's not so great to be a Republican on the ballot in terms of the President's approval rating, the war in Iran, worries about the economy, but for sure, you couldn't count them out, that Republicans could not have a stronger candidate. And when they nominated, by the way, without any opposition, that was smart too.
Brian Kilmeade
Tom. Tiffany now as looks in prime position as a solid Republican in a purple state like Wisconsin against a candidate that looks like he's going to be. Got some challenges in her background to overcome.
Susan Page
When you think, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think Democrats are so nervous about her as, as the nominee for a job they've been holding, you know, with Tony Evers, the governor of Wisconsin. So lots of concern in the Democratic Party that if it's a, you know, with both those candidates, you don't want it to be a referendum on them. You want it to be a referendum on the national climate or on the other guy. So, yeah, lots of, I think lots of Democratic concern now. Maybe we'll see. One thing you can't totally rule out is an upset in the in the Wisconsin primary tomorrow night. We'll all have to watch, see.
Brian Kilmeade
Yeah, we'll have to watch and see. A lot of people see, look at the Senate races. They see an upset possibly with Talarico and Ken Paxton over in Texas. So that's some of the things that not many people would have predicted. Susan Pace, thanks so much. Appreciate your resilience.
Susan Page
Yeah.
Steph Kite
Thank you, Brian.
Brian Kilmeade
All right, Brian Kilmeicho, keep it here, everybody.
Fox News Announcer
Did you know FOX News has a wine shop? Did you also know you can get a head start on your Christmas shopping?
Brian Kilmeade
That's right.
Fox News Announcer
Check one more gift off your list with the FOX News Wine Shop Advent calendar featuring 12 festive wines inspired by the holiday magic of Fox Square. You can reserve yours for just a 1999 deposit. We'll deliver it free right to your doorstep in time for the holiday season. Quantities are limited, so visit foxnewswineshop.com today
Brian Kilmeade
from high atop FOX News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division, it's Brian.
So glad you there's a Brian. Kill me, Joe. I come to you from midtown Manhattan here, around the country, around the world, this I'm going to be joined by Steph Kite. She is a political reporter at Axios. We're going to talk about what's going on with the Senate, all these very intriguing races. And of course, primary day is tomorrow for Wisconsin and for South Carolina, a lot going on there. Michael Goodwin is standing by, too, with the New York Post. Talk about some of the craziness here as our mayor, the more he gets into this job seems to be falling flat on his face. And I'll explain. Just a quick note, if you're looking for YouTube and I know you're on YouTube, YouTube.com@the Brian Kilmeade show, it's a place to get some of the big clips from the day before and other clips. It's all my channel and that's all everybody's talking about. So let's get to the big three.
Tom Carricko
Number three.
Stephanie White
Yeah, I mean, look, it was a hard foul. I don't think that dijonay intentionally came out to to get her across the neck like she did. But it did happen. And I thought it was the right call, really.
Brian Kilmeade
Didn't they on purpose? Were you watching that? Is the coach of the other team not calling out a player if they took out Sophie Cunningham. The worst run sports league in the world, the wnba. Once again they show how scared they are of their radical racist players as two former NBA male players challenge their gender bending policy. I'll explain.
Mike Pompeo
Number two, what I really think they're trying to do is play this thing out. I think they're trying to play this thing out not only through our election here in November, but for the last two years of President Trump's term and hope they catch a president who's not as resolved as President Trump is to preventing them from having nuclear weapons.
Michael Goodwin
Yep.
Brian Kilmeade
That is former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Talks are off and the US And Iran are no longer in in cease fire negotiations, but they're not actually firing at each other. Why? Iran has a crazy set of fantastical demands, none of which we would adhere to. So the president says we'll just keep up the economic pain. Is that a good strategy?
Francesca Wong
Number one, Thanksgiving is also a time that's incredibly painful for many people in our communities. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.
Caller/Guest (WNBA critic)
Yes.
Francesca Wong
I don't want to cancel it. I actually love it.
Brian Kilmeade
Francesca Wong, Flip flop Extravaganza the powerful primary season for DSA. They've won the DSA. Dems have won about 45 separate primaries and the big one could be next. That's Francesca Wong running for governor of Wisconsin with some, in her words, wild, wacky takes that she'd like to have back because most of her thoughts are wild and wacky. I don't think it's possible to take them all back. I did not think that people would be running against Thanksgiving and would be successful. But that's what she's doing while lamenting the fact that she's so adjacent to whiteness, which no wonder we're not friends, because if you're next to me, turns out I'm white and if she sat next to me, she'd be adjacent to it. Michael Goodwin, New York Post columnist, joins us now. Michael, is this one crazy primary season or what?
Michael Goodwin
Yeah, Brad, those remarks are pretty stunning. Also, Fox News has online aoc they sort of the first queen of the nutty. And she's talking about things that what did she say woke one was crazy. And she also seemed to be walking back saying it went too far. Defunding the police is because everybody wants low crime. So look, let's see how far this goes. But I do think it's somewhat healthy that they are looking back and realizing how crazy this stuff looks in hindsight. I mean, that's a good sign. How far it goes remains to be seen because there's still a lot of crazy ideas on the far left. But that was a big one.
Caller/Guest (WNBA critic)
Yeah.
Brian Kilmeade
I mean the thing is, you wonder just because it's not popular, are they looking back and changing their mind or they're. Because they grew out of it. She's got, she said she got weathered. This guy Hasan Piker is getting worse. He's adjacent to all these people. If you look at some of what he said in the past, described himself as a Marcus. He's saying there's a lot we can learn from Chinese Communist Party.
Fox News Announcer
She's.
Brian Kilmeade
He's using inflammatory anti capitalist rhetoric all the time. And he also says that Israel is 100 times worse than Hamas and Hezbollah's got the best flag in the world. I mean that's. There's so much to walk back there. Where do you start? But that's what they were all meeting with this guy Ro Khanna, sitting down talking to him for hours, El Said, campaigning with him in the final days of his campaign for that Senate seat. So how do you know what's will walk backwards? It's not popular. And what they really believe they'll. They'll do when they get in.
Michael Goodwin
That's right. It's not a monolithic movement, but it has a fair share of out of the woods lefties. And Rokuhana, of course, is becoming one of them. And Piker is really the Pied Piper of nuttiness and antisemitism. So I think that remains a big test for the far left. Can they get realistic about matters like crime, antisemitism? I mean, can they move toward the middle, not just in disavowing the past, but in actually proposing centrist ideas that most Americans, even if they don't support it would at least find it less objectionable.
Brian Kilmeade
So El Said is have the whole media working for him now talking about how Obama called him, Newsom called him, Kamala Harris called him even though he's radical out there, you know, including attending six different DSA function backed by the dsa but says he's a capitalist. Just no proof of it. Here he is, the media doing what they do best, covering for this guy. Cut 7 Trump branding Al said a communist. The candidate is backed by some of the country's leading socialists, but he insists he's a capitalist himself. And tonight he's making it clear he's
Ryan Reynolds
ready for the attacks to be very clear. El Said never said that, but he has appeared with popular twitch streamer Hassan Piker who did, but then walked it back. And to be clear, El Sayed has justified his relationship with Piker as one in which Piker has followed, following the millions. And just because he appears with him doesn't mean he agrees with everything he says.
Brian Kilmeade
So they're immediately trying to make good of it. How about this? Cut six. This is also from the New York Times Today about Dr. El Sayed.
Susan Page
Quote, he embraced people in positions that
Brian Kilmeade
strategists say carry political peril in a moderate state like Michigan.
Susan Page
Dr. El Sayed has campaigned with Hasan Piker, the Marxist streamer who critics say
Brian Kilmeade
has stoked anti Semitic sentiment, a charge he denies.
Ryan Reynolds
How effective is the red scare in 2026?
Brian Kilmeade
I have to say, it strikes me as kind of outdated. More than a little outdated. I mean, I think Donald Trump gets a lot of his ideas, his policies from decades ago, from the 80s. I just don't see this resonating a lot. There was not like a huge buildup of, you know, panicking over communism. So they're trying to, they're trying to put him into the mainstream.
Michael Goodwin
Absolutely, yes. It's a kind of covering. They're not covering him, they're covering up for him. And they, you know, the old critics say. Right. No, no attempt to really paint it in stark terms. When it's a leftist, we have to. We'll let the Republicans and conservatives, they'll be the critics, will be the painters. We'll try to cover it up the best we can. That's the media's approach to left wing radicalism.
Brian Kilmeade
And now, Michael, you have the Senate race in Michigan, but you also have AOC who feels like she endorsed El Said and feels like she's sharing in his victory and then was asked about how do you make heads or tails of his association with Hasan Piker. So listen to her explanation. Cuts cut 9.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
When we look at our elections that have happened, we have lost young people. Much hay was made about the fact that we lost young men in the last election, many of the same consultants that are wringing their hands today. We're the same ones talking about how we need to go on Joe Rogan and we need to be not so willing to engage in cancel culture.
Brian Kilmeade
I mean, one avowed Marxist who loves Mao, who killed 20 million people is like going on Joe Rogan. Is he crazy?
Michael Goodwin
Yes, I think there is a real mix up. They know they're too far left for the center of the country and therefore they cannot win a national election or even a statewide election in many states. And so they're trying to find some way to smooth all this over, but I think it doesn't work because what you say on the social media, it kind of lasts forever. And so you've got to really be clear in disavowing some of that stuff or it's going to tag you.
Brian Kilmeade
Yeah, no doubt about it. So we'll see what's going to happen. If you were to put your money down Ron Rogers or El Said, do you think Rogers walks away with this one?
Michael Goodwin
Look, I don't think it's a walk away. I think the Muslim vote, which I wrote about over the weekend, that the imams throughout Michigan saying you have a moral duty to vote for him because he is a Muslim. These are people, some of them who cheered celebrated the death of Lindsey Graham. They hope that an assassin's bullet will get Graham's friend, which of course, is Donald Trump. So that radicalism is still there. And I think to an extent that Michigan voters, if they want to stamp that out, they've got to vote for Mike Rogers. That's the only way to send that message that this stuff won't fly in Michigan.
Brian Kilmeade
All right. Thanks so much. Michael Goodman, the New York Post. Appreciate it.
Michael Goodwin
Thank you.
Brian Kilmeade
Brian, you got a 1-866-408-7669. Bottom of the hour, Steph Kite. When we come back, I want to talk a little bit about Mayor Mondami is getting a wake up call. What's he finding about automatic free YouTube 2k? What is he finding out about free buses? What's he finding out about those government run grocery stores? The answer when we come back, Brian
Kilmeade, Joe, both sides, all opinions, it's Brian Kilmeade.
Fox News Announcer
Did you know FOX News has a wine shop? Did you also know you can get a head start on your Christmas shopping?
Brian Kilmeade
That's right.
Fox News Announcer
Check one more gift off your list with the FOX NEWS Wine Shop Advent calendar featuring 12 festive wines inspired by by the holiday magic of Fox Square. You can reserve yours for just a 1999 deposit. We'll deliver it free right to your doorstep in time for the holiday season. Quantities are limited, so visit foxnewswineshop.com today,
Brian Kilmeade
Breaking news, unique opinions here and it all on the Brian Kilmeade show.
Stephanie White
Yeah, I mean, look, it was a hard foul. I don't think that dijonay intentionally came out to get her across the neck like she did. But it did happen and I thought it was the right call. But you know, one of the things about nay is that she's gonna play her butt off, man. She's gonna compete. Nobody's gonna go walking in for a layup. And so I'm not. I don't oppose the hard foul, but I also don't think that she intentionally went for the net.
Ryan Reynolds
Gotta ask about her response. She went in and she got on social and said white privilege. After her getting who.
Megan Romer
Who did this.
Ryan Reynolds
Any response to that?
Stephanie White
No, I don't know anything about that. But no, no response.
Brian Kilmeade
She's absolutely gutless. As Stephanie White, the coach of the Fever?
Commentator/Critic
Yes.
Brian Kilmeade
Same with Catherine. Catherine Clark. Catherine Clark, Caitlin Clark, as well as Sophie Cunningham. Coach, I. I don't know what her problem is. She always comes up short. And I don't know with. With Caitlin Clark not sticking up for Sophie Cunningham, I don't get it. She wants to avoid additional scrutiny. Maybe, but there's a way of saying, wow, I appreciate you watching my back and being the enforcer and finding a way to step up and deferring, but at the same time taking some press away. Instead, she just wants to stay out of it. And I don't get it. To me, there should be some type of relationship among teammates. I guess it doesn't happen with women. And then you have a coach who's not sticking up for her own players. It's absolutely insane. I think. Why The WNBA is the most twisted league you could possibly imagine. There's nobody stepping in from the commissioner's office. There's no one talking about the ridiculous statement saying this is white privilege because you actually clotheslined a power forward who's going in for an easy layup. And you say, as coach, you don't think she did it on purpose? Are you insane? Of course she did it on purpose. Here's barstools. Dave Portnoy, Stephanie White.
Caller/Guest (WNBA critic)
I've been a defender, the coach of the Fever.
Brian Kilmeade
Get her out of there. Get her out of there.
Caller/Guest (WNBA critic)
Fire her ass today. I don't want her back on that bench. Stop defending the other players. Oh, she plays hard, dj. That's just a her being her. You see Caitlyn in the press conference, almost cover her ears and her eyes. Defend your players. First of all, you're wrong. It was a dirty play. She's gone. But when do you ever see in, like the NBA a coach? Not defend their own players? She hasn't done it with Caitlin. When Caitlin got punched in the throat, she didn't do it. I don't care if you agree with that or not. You're wrong. But it starts to make me think you care. More about the overlying social issues and not off other people in the league. And saying men can play because she's one of those players. Coaches, when asked, always is taking the far, like left side of it. This isn't politics. Your player got assaulted. Defend your player in the press conference. Be like, yeah, that was a dirty play. She should have hit the showers. She acts like she's the coach of the other team. I don't care if she's the best ex's when she's not. Get her the hell out of there. Either defend your players or get lost.
Brian Kilmeade
I've just said it's absolutely sickening. But the whole. But the whole league is turned upside down. It makes no sense. This whole league, you would think that women would stand up for women and the transgender Sophie Cunningham would be somewhat of a hero. Hey, listen, I think women should be playing against women. I don't think men should be playing in this league. But instead people think that she's being intolerant. So therefore Royce White and Enos Cantor decide to call the WNBA out. There's nothing in their bylaws that says the man can't play in the wnba. Nothing. You declare you're a woman, you can play. So Royce White and Enos Cantor, Ennis Cantor, have declared for the WNBA draft. Listen to white. Cut 47.
Royce White
I'm just having a blast in my feminine era. I never thought that I was a woman. You know, I've always trusted the science and I thought I was a man my entire life. But, you know, after further review, you know, look strong, look at my, my personal preferences, it would appear that, that I am indeed sometimes identifying as a transgender woman. And I think it's only fair I get a chance to play with some of my queens here in the twilight of my career. My athletic prime.
Brian Kilmeade
And his. Cantor has made a similar statement. They starting to train already and if he doesn't get drafted, they said they're going to sue. So what are you going to do? The WNBA transfer policy, transgender policy. According to the commissioner, they sent a memo to teams and asked the league's executive will discuss the WNBA gender eligibility policy during a previously scheduled meeting. This week, a task force of team presidents and GMs will review the current policy. A task force, very simple. Do the same thing with the Olympics do. That's it. It will be done. Stop being politically correct. It's just crazy that Sophie Cunningham is the, is the one who's looked at as the problem or anybody else that stands up looked at as the problem. That you should have women play against women or young girls play against young girls. I never thought this was going to be this big a deal at every level, but now we're going to be seeing it and you can't avoid it. And it looks like Democrats and these woke leagues are digging in on this transgender policy. Cut 46 is the head coach of Minnesota Links, Cheryl Reeve. Cut 46.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
The narrative that I think that is
Brian Kilmeade
problematic is to suggest that, number one, that transgender athletes are the biggest problem in women's sports.
Ryan Reynolds
And I think this is what's bothersome,
Brian Kilmeade
is that there's a faction of people
Ryan Reynolds
in our country that are making this a massive issue.
Brian Kilmeade
We have some issues. Number one, we need to protect trans against kids. Every kid. To me, it's a human's rights issue. Yes. But when it comes to sports, no one's saying, don't protect. Shouldn't you just be able to play against your own gender? And Megan Rapinoe is now retired, is another leading athlete that says, you know, let them play. All right, good luck with that. It's not going to work. Same thing with Title 9 in college sports.
Michael Goodwin
Not going to work.
Brian Kilmeade
The Olympics are finally stepping up. They're going to make some rules so they don't have the other, you know, train wreck that they had last time with some guy declaring he's a woman and then knocking out women in the boxing competition where the women complained they were looked at as intolerant. Those days, thankfully, are over. We come back, Steph Kite. We talk about President Trump, we talk about what's happened with the Iran war, and we also talk about. We also talk about what's going on with primary day tomorrow.
Royce White
I'm just having a blast in my feminine era.
Brian Kilmeade
The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmeade.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
You believe there should be millionaires in this country?
Megan Romer
I'm less concerned about millionaires, more concerned about billionaires. We do believe in taxing the hell out of millionaires.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
If you're the co chair of the dsa, shouldn't you be more specific than just taxing the hell out of something? What exactly do you mean?
Megan Romer
So, again, it's democracy, right? And we have to look at what we need to spend and what we need.
Christopher Rufo
Right?
Brian Kilmeade
Democracy. That's exactly what democracy means. What do you mean to spend and
Abdul El Sayed
what do you need?
Brian Kilmeade
And just tax billionaires who clearly are stealing from working people. That's what she goes on to say. And that is Megan Romer, the DSA co chair, who is so happy to be clueless. It really staggers my mind. And if I'm a DSA member, I don't know why you keep sending her out unless she's proud to say some of the stuff she says because she's ill prepared to answer it. Steph Kite joins us now, political reporter at Axios. Steph Sky, A crazy time in this primary season. I didn't see this coming, did you?
Steph Kite
You know, I think we're all watching after the New York, New York results to see whether this momentum behind progressives, behind this, the Democratic Socialist Party was going to keep building. And, you know, we certainly have seen that be the case. You're looking at places not just like New York City, but also Michigan, statewide, where you have these progressive voices continuing to win in the Democratic Party. And I think we're at this point now where we're waiting to see whether this is just a temporary reaction to President Trump. And, you know, obviously the Democratic Party and voters are not happy with the way things are going or whether this really is the future of the Democratic Party. Is this becoming, you know, a similar phenomenon to what MAGA was in the beginning for the Republican Party, where it was discounted by the establishment, but then soon enough took over and became the primary force in the party.
Brian Kilmeade
But, you know, you talk about still free markets. You were talking about built, you know, you have building a wall all those days you talked about, you know, building up defense. These are relatively traditional things that go back and forth. One, you have a total revamp of the focus on the economy where billionaires aren't allowed. And some of the focus is, is just on raising taxes. And you see in Mondami's case, bragging about the fact that I'm raising taxes on people with second homes in the city. And evidently consultants were telling them, you know, you don't usually brag about stuff like that. And you say, no, I'd like to. So it's a totally different approach.
Steph Kite
It is a totally different approach. And, you know, I think we're going to have to wait and see whether these policies that maybe sound good to people actually end up keeping them on board as we see the impacts, as we see them go into effect. But I do think the fact that, that we've seen so many voters start looking at Democratic socialists start embracing some of these policies really just goes to show how unhappy people feel about their own economic states.
Megan Romer
States.
Steph Kite
I think it shows that people view the disparity between the haves and the have nots as, you know, untenable. And we're seeing that energy moving into the Democratic Socialist Party. But it is a question of whether these solutions actually end up working in the long haul or whether we see kind of a return to the more conservative answer, you know, lowering taxes and moving back towards that direction. But I do think the fact that there are so many people who are now embracing these ideas that were once viewed as so radical shows just how discontented so many average Americans are.
Brian Kilmeade
But if you look at the numbers and who's voting for who in the primary, forget the general, we're not there yet. If working class are not going for, are not going for these DSA candidates, it looks like these are college educated young people and rich white people. You're not the minorities that you're thinking that, that we've been told over and over again are disenfranchised in America. They're going with the more traditional Democrats. So far you've seen that, right?
Steph Kite
Yeah, no, that is true. And that is a fascinating part of this whole movement that we're seeing, especially in these primary races, to see some of the more, you know, the wealthier, more educated white voters vote for candidates. I think there is also a question of who actually turns out in primaries versus who turns out in a general election is another element to be watching. But, you know, you point out one danger for the Democratic Party if they are leaning in this direction and then they lose some of the important voting blocs that have always brought them success in the past, including black voters, Hispanic voters, etc. Do, do these more progressive candidates end up bringing more people into the tent, bringing more people along with them, or do they end up pushing away the very voters Democrats need in order to have any success?
Brian Kilmeade
The one thing about it, like you, you know, you have people who want to raise taxes and you say, well, I want free buses, I want free 2k, I want free preschool. All right, well, how much, what is the tax rate? How much do you need? What's it going to cost? I'm amazed how few answers they have. I mean, here's Mayor Momdani last week, cut 22.
Tom Carricko
I, I think if you have to
Brian Kilmeade
work to pay your bills, I think that that is one definition of being
Abdul El Sayed
a part of the working class.
Megan Romer
So that's everyone with a W2.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Is that, is that kind of 1099 too?
Christopher Rufo
I think it's, it's, I'm less interested.
Susan Page
So someone making $250,000 a year is working class.
Brian Kilmeade
I mean, I haven't sat at home and asked myself where it starts and Stops. Listen to Megan Romer, the DSA co chair. She wants to raise taxes too. Cut 21.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
Do you believe there should be millionaires in this country?
Megan Romer
I'm less concerned about millionaires, more concerned about billionaires. We do believe in taxing the hell out of millionaires.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
If you're the co chair of the dsa, shouldn't you be more specific than just taxing the hell out of something? What exactly do you mean?
Megan Romer
So, again, it's democracy, right? And we have to look at what we need to spend and what we
Brian Kilmeade
need and doesn't believe. She goes, my big focus is going to be on billionaires and Medicare for all. It would be cost $8.7 trillion, which we'd have to bankrupt. Every billionaire would only last 13 months. So it's amazing. They just have principles, but they don't have any math.
Steph Kite
Yeah, I mean, that's where, you know, the rubber hits the road here. You know, these ideas sound great. They're appealing on the campaign trail. These are populist ideas. Of course people want health care. Of course they want affordable childcare. Of course they want these things. They want free bus rides. But now, you know, you do have to move on now that these Democratic socialists are getting elected, at least at the primary level, we'll see in the general. But also, you know, Mayor Mamdani, for example, they are having to actually work through what do these policies look like in practice. And I do think that is going to raise questions. And, you know, as tax. Taxes do increase in some of these areas, is there a pushback? Does that kind of kill the movement down the line? But I think we're, you know, we're not quite there right now. We're in campaign mode and people are able to, you know, say, you know, talk about these policies in a way that's appealing. But to your point, the money has to come from somewhere.
Brian Kilmeade
So let's talk about what the Senate. You wrote this in Axios about what the Senate did before they left. What were Thune's wins? And where did he leave you wanting. Where we got to wait to September.
Steph Kite
Right. So he did, you know, get in a few wins at the end there. Of course, the biggest one was passing the, the stopgap funding measure, which would avoid a government shutdown. And it's kind of interesting to note, right? It's, it's just early August. The deadline for funding the government is not until October 1st. But Republicans were very nervous about Democrats forcing another shutdown close to the election. And so they were, you know, very Eager to get ahead of that fight, especially given the past two or three shutdowns that we've had in the past year or so. So they were managed to to remove that as a possibility by passing this short term funding measure. It included a vote on, on a hemp amendment. That was ca lot of issues that was ultimately killed. The White House wanted to make sure that amendment died. So they did manage to remove that as, as a difficulty for Republicans. He also confirmed, of course, Trump's Attorney General, Todd Blanche after a roller coaster of a nomination fight. And then he also, you know, passed a bunch of other nomination nominations. In one big block. They had a vote on a voter ID bill to at least show President Trump that Republicans could be mostly united on when it comes to vot in particular. Then of course Russia sanctions pass as well. But you know, of course the budget resolution, the start of reconciliation 3.0 did not end up getting a vote, which is something the White House has been pushing for quite aggressively. They wanted to see the Senate kick off this reconciliation process again. That package would have had, you know, funding for the military, for the Iran war. It would have had money for farmers in addition to some elements of the SAVE act, some of these election security measures. Ultimately there were not the votes to pass that bill, even with 50 vote threshold. And Senator Ron Johnson, who is now in charge of the Budget Committee, ultimately talked to Trump and explained to him they really don't have the votes. And they, so they did not end up voting on that package as was initially expected.
Brian Kilmeade
So what's interesting is there's a lot of Republicans who aren't on board with the 65 billion needed for the, for the Pentagon. Senator Roger Wicker, for example. What are they going to need to be convinced? What's their.
Steph Kite
Well, they think they, yeah, they think there should be more, they think they need more funding for the military in order to, to really ensure that we have the resources we need, both when it comes to the Iran war, but also these longer term concerns when it comes to competitiveness with China, when it comes to investment in AI and other issues that the defense needs to be moving toward. And there was actually a, a meeting last week, early last week with top defense officials and senators where they were laying out the argument for why they need significant funding. They're talking, you know, the over 1.5 trillion is kind of the number that's been thrown out there as total needs for the Defense Department. And what the White House was arguing and defense and you know, Hexith was arguing that they needed this smaller bill first, then they could move to a broader package that included even more military funding. But some of these, you know, hawks like, like Senator Wicker are nervous about breaking it up. They want to be able to provide the Defense Department with everything they need. They don't want to risk not having a chance to pass a fourth reconciliation bill during the lame duck. So that's kind of where the argument comes.
Brian Kilmeade
And on the sports, reforming college sports, Ted Cruz. There was a flurry of activity on Friday, and Ted Cruz was unable to convince people that this is something they can get behind, even though he's the conservatives conservative. And when it comes to transgender, they said there was some gap in language there that they feel as though they hadn't really handled transgenders in college sports. So president tweeted out at the end but was unable to pass. Are they going to pick that up again?
Steph Kite
They are likely to try in September, but really you're talking about, there's just not a lot of time. And that was a bill that was so close. Like at the start of the week, it felt like there was no way they were going to get it done. By the middle of the week, there was a lot of momentum. People were coming on board, but it was a big package and it directly impacts states. So clearly, clearly, you know, people are talking to, you know, schools, presidents, they're talking to these conferences. It has a lot of impact on people in their state. And senators were just a little bit uncomfortable with such a big package, feeling like they didn't have enough time to really dig into the details. And to your point, the trans issue really ended up being an issue with conservatives. There wasn't enough, you know, convincing that this bill would not, you know, over overstep these state laws when it comes to transgender women in sports.
Brian Kilmeade
So we have the same, you know, Cassidy's angry, Senator Cornyn's angry, Senator Tillis is angry at Trump, and we all know why. And Murkowski always. They were been sprawling since they both got into politics and Collins has got a very tough tightrope to walk. But when it comes to, when it comes to the president, United States, is there anything, do you think there's a danger that Murkowski is going to flip parties?
Steph Kite
I mean, that question is asked a lot. She, she has talked about it over the years. You know, she does not necessarily view herself as, you know, fully Republican. She's certainly not in the Trump era of Republican Party. She has so far said that she does not plan to, to change parties. I think there's always that risk. There's always that possibility. She's a unique voice in the Senate, but, you know, similar to Fetterman on the other side. While she tends she can vote for the other party, vote with the other party. She has so far said that she still in Republican principles, but it is, it is a voice to watch.
Brian Kilmeade
Absolutely. Steph Kite, so much going on and now I guess we reset until September, but there's a lot of action the primary season to report on. Thanks so much, Steph. Appreciate it.
Steph Kite
Thank you.
Brian Kilmeade
And Axios, he always has the best information. 1-866-408-7669. We'll get to your calls. Next, listen to the Brian Kilme chair.
From breaking news to big name guests, Brian brings you insight you won't hear anywhere else. You're listening to the Brian Kill Meat show, The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmeade.
Caller/Guest
I've been diagnosed with vascular dementia that my doctors believe may be related at least in part to the concussions I experienced during my career. The changes were gradual at first. They were easy to dismiss as normal aging. Over time, my family noticed it, too, and ultimately led us to seek answers from my doctor.
Brian Kilmeade
So that is Roger Craig who went to the hall of Fame over the weekend talking about, I mean, he was fantastic player if you don't remember him, with those great 49er teams, they were able to keep such talent together without a salary cap. And he was one of those guys who just was. I'm surprised it took this long for him to get in. Here's more. Cut 55 Two things can be true.
Caller/Guest
Football gave me opportunities beyond anything I could imagine. It helped shape the man I became. At the same time, we know more today about brain health than when I played. And I hope sharing my story encourages people to pay attention to their health and seek help when something doesn't feel right. I want people to know this diagnosis doesn't define me.
Brian Kilmeade
So that was he was one of the people that went in over the weekend. You saw a lot on the NFL Network how they found out that they were going into the hall of Fame. So many great players came in in support of him as they went for Drew Brees as well. There was there was a lot of good players that went in this time and some really good speeches and somewhat controversial speeches, too, that, that I think are borderline. I don't know. They're going to be definitely going to stand out. They took Adam Vitieri, took a shot at Bill Belichick said he couldn't be at the hall of Fame meeting because he was at his. His girlfriend's cheerleading competition, then said a lot of other things that were pretty funny. But it's always. It's always a good weekend when you hear a lot of these players reflect on their careers and the people that were important to them back then. And all those guys in the Gold jackets get a chance to hang out with other guys in Gold Jackets. So it's pretty cool that you had a chance to see that. But it also means the football season's upon us. We already saw one good hall of Fame game, and now we're going to see all the teams get back in action for abbreviated preseason. Then they'd be ready for the real season coming up in September. And now, after the World cup, there was a little bit of a lull. Remember, you had the NBA Finals, the World cup, and then there's baseball's All Star game that nobody cares about. And now we have a situation where the baseball will take center stage and then give way to football. Eventually, MLS will take over the fall, too, and compete for those eyeballs because they want to be on season with the rest of the world just the way they. Just the way they're doing it. So understood. That's. That's what goes on in Vaupo. Also, you have a situation where in football you have a big protocol. Now when it comes to head injuries. You see it. There used to be a big pushback. Suck it. You know, you get your bell rung, you sit out. If you sit out, you're weak. Those days are over. You're not actually allowed. They take it out of the coach's hands, they take it out of the team's hands, they put it into referee's hands. And if they see a big head injury, they're forced to sit out of play. Especially if it's a quarterback, it's somewhat controversial, but you don't see the pushback now. Especially when Roger Craig comes up and says. Says the things he says. Junior Seau comes out and says, I want to dedicate my brain to science. Takes his own life, shoots himself in the chest so they can preserve his brain. Things like these severe situations. Seems like those severe situations have gotten to the point where football really addressed it. I saw Warren Sapp over the weekend, too. Hall of Fame defensive end, number one pick of the Tampa Bay Bucks came out and said, for my kids, I would never have a kid play tackle football until maybe their senior year in high school. There's no reason for them to play it young. Also, the big option now is you could play flag football. And the reason is not that people are shy about contact, which has a lot to do with the game, the way you tackle and things to that nature. But it's just unnecessary hits that you take that are impossible for the brain to cushion. So when you have former players saying things like that, that's interesting because he keeps the game going. It's never been more popular, especially with girls. Now that the girls and women are playing play football now, it's going to be in the Olympics. But if there's a way to do without taking the big hits and saving it for when you go pro into college, do it.
From the FOX News radio studios in midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. BRIAN kilmeade.
Commentator/Critic
All right.
Brian Kilmeade
From midtown Manhattan, heard around the country, around the world is BRIAN KILMEADE SHOW. We're still waiting for our work, for our free buses. We are still waiting for free to K. That's going to be fantastic. It's only going to cost 9 billion instead of 6 billion. But let's, let's not quibble. And also we're supposed to get a grocery store in every borough at a cost of 30 million per. 30 million. Not bad. This is all part of Maimon Dami's new vision for, for New York City, a vision that I guess there are some people here that are looking forward to.
Fox News Announcer
I am not.
Brian Kilmeade
I was just amazed to see some people saying he's very successful. If you watched him get booed in Staten island on Friday, you realize that many people see right through this guy. Standing by this hour, Tom Carricko. He's a senior fellow with the International Security Program and the director of the missile defense project at the center for Strateg Strategic and International Studies. Why is he so important to about munitions interceptors? He knows it all. Tomahawks, Thaad missiles. He's got it down. We'll find out what we need and are we willing to spend to do it and how long gonna have to wait to get it as relates to the Iran war. So let's get to the big three, number three.
Stephanie White
Yeah, I mean look, it was a hard foul. I don't think that Dijonay intentionally came out to get her across the neck like she did. But it did happen and I thought it was the right call.
Brian Kilmeade
Yep, the worst run league in pro sports, the WNBA once again. Yet Sophie Cunningham like Caitlin Clark being targeted because I don't know because they're popular and going against maybe doing things logically and rationally, I'm not sure. But they have no leadership in that league to straighten things out. That is clear.
Mike Pompeo
Number two, what I really think they're trying to do is play this thing out. I think they're trying to play this thing out not only through our election here in November, but for the last two years of President Trump's term and hope they catch a president who's not as resolved as President Trump is to preventing them from having nuclear weapons.
Brian Kilmeade
Yep. That's former secretary of State. Talks are off with the US And Iran. These crazy radicals have some ridiculous demands. Trump's not going to meet any of them and shouldn't. We'll talk about who's got time on their side.
Francesca Wong
Number one, Thanksgiving is also a time that's incredibly painful for many people in our communities. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. I don't want to cancel it. I actually love it.
Brian Kilmeade
Really. Francisco Wong, what a ridiculous candidate she is for governor of Wisconsin. Is Tom Tiffany a real shot at taking that purple state and making it red again. Powerful primary season for DA Dems as they got 45 candidates through. What's it going to mean for their fortunes in November? We'll see. Christopher Rufo joins us now, a senior fellow and director of the Logan Initiative at the Manhattan Institute. He's also a contributing editor at City Journal. Chris, welcome back. Your thoughts first at where this whole rise of socialism and communism is coming from. Did you see this coming?
Christopher Rufo
Yeah. You know, the last couple of years it's really been bubbling up. And what I think has happened is that this is the second stage. The so called woke era, which was really 2016 through 2026, is now finished as a cultural movement. And so they've downgraded or downplayed some of those cultural ideas. You can see even Francesca Hong walking back some of her ridiculous George Floyd era statements. They still have them, but they're quiet about that. And they think that people are feeling economic pain, which is true. And so they're trying to shift from the cultural frame to an economic frame. And look, the bad news is that it's working. People are responding better to these messages than they ever have been. And so I think the conservatives who simply want to dismiss the DSA candidates as fringe or can't compete, I think are going to be seeing some very troubling news in the coming election cycle.
Brian Kilmeade
In what way do you think that they're going to give Mike Rogers a harder time in winning that Senate seat? Than Alyssa Slotkin would. Or, or do you think Susan Collins is gonna have a harder time with radicals like the one that's emerging over in Maine?
Christopher Rufo
Yeah, I mean, Maine, of course, was a messy race that got disrupted by this resurgence of me too against Graham Platner. But look, they're winning races. And it's always, you know, conservatives always said, well, oh, it's just, you know, the Seattle City Council, oh, it's just the Seattle mayor. Oh, it's just Los Angeles county. It's just New York City, it's just Colorado and Wisconsin and Michigan. The map for the DSA is expanding. And they have. The most important thing about the DSA is that they have a permanent infrastructure of activists who are willing to deploy anywhere. They're highly motivated. They work very hard to gather votes. They know how the voting systems work, especially in blue states. I think we're going to see an increase in the number of DSA affiliated members of Congress. The Senate is still a harder run. I think that El Sayed and Mike Rogers is going to be a fight, but I don't think, I don't think that El Said doesn't have a chance. And if anything, I think he's right. Now, as we speak, the slight favorite to win the Senate seat in Michigan
Brian Kilmeade
against, over, over Mike Rogers.
Christopher Rufo
Over Mike Rogers.
Brian Kilmeade
Even though he didn't get Chris, he didn't get any of the working. He didn't get minorities, he didn't really get working class. He got rich white people and he got students.
Christopher Rufo
That's true. But look, Mike Rogers is not going to win, is not going to win the black vote. I mean, the black vote is going to go Democrat because of the longstanding voting patterns that we've seen over the years. They're gonna work very hard to get out the vote. He's gonna promise everything as a matter of patronage. El Said will. He's, he's locked in on the Arab American vote. I mean, he blew it out in the Democratic primary. They're gonna get out their voters just like Tim Walls got out Somali voters in Minnesota. And it's gonna be a fight. And I think the El Said campaign sees two things. Elzeid is a charismatic candidate and charisma does matter in politics. So he has that. He's gon, we have very sharp messaging, very sharp video production, very sharp advertising. And I think he's also betting on the fact that there's going to be potentially a wave of kind of anti Trump, anti Republican sentiment. The generic ballot nationwide is already plus 10 favoring Democrats. If that holds, if that is a true measure of voter sentiment, it's gonna be very difficult for Mike Rogers to make up the. Make up that margin.
Brian Kilmeade
I just love the way Megan Romer continues to define what a socialist. And here she is. He's being questioned by David Remnick. Cut 20.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
Do you believe there should be millionaires in this country?
Megan Romer
I'm less concerned about millionaires, more concerned about billionaires. I don't have like a hard line where it's.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
Where I guess what I'm asking is how much is too much?
Megan Romer
Yeah, I think the question is less about how much is too much and more about what are you doing to keep and maintain and get that wealth in the first place. I think most billionaires got their wealth because they exploited the working class in some very significant way. Usually we do believe in taxing the hell out of millionaires. Yeah, absolutely.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
Well, what is taxing the hell out of them mean?
Megan Romer
Yeah, you know, again, I don't have like a solid, but I think.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
But shouldn't you,
Brian Kilmeade
I mean, if you're
Interviewer (David Remnick)
the co chair, if you're the co chair of the dsa, shouldn't you be more specific than just taxing the hell out of something? What exactly do you mean?
Megan Romer
So again, it's democracy, right? And we have to look at what we need to spend and what we need. We don't want to depend on the existence of millionaires because that means people are still getting exploited. So, so yeah, we need to, we need to look at what we need to pay for in the interim. What, what sort of tax base we need for that to happen and then, and build from there.
Commentator/Critic
Really?
Brian Kilmeade
Does that sound like a well thought out plan?
Christopher Rufo
She sounds like she could be a university professor or an HR administrator or a president of a foundation. I mean, look, these ideas are fundamentally empty. These are really emotions, resentments, hatreds that are then given a slim gloss of ideas. That doesn't mean they're not dangerous. And in fact, I think in some ways it means that they're more dangerous because these ideas can shapeshift. The justifications can shapeshift. And what they want to do is they want to hurt not just billionaires, they want to hurt middle class, self made people, entrepreneurs, businessmen, professionals. Somebody who runs a law office in Topeka is a class enemy of these people. And they want to make that person heard. And, and you can do a tremendous amount of damage. I mean, we've seen this playbook here in my home state of Washington state where they're racking up the taxes on business people and entrepreneurs. And at a certain point, they just leave or they just shut down their operations. They just let employees go. So, look, I mean, I'm grateful that of all people, David Remnick. Very surprising to be grateful to David Remnick, but he is exposing something that is quite real, the hollowness of these ideas.
Brian Kilmeade
Yeah, no doubt about it. So you wrote this column, something I knew nothing about. Typhus, Rats of Los Angeles. A medieval disease is rocking the county. What is going on?
Christopher Rufo
So typhus, of course, is a disease that we thought had long disappeared. We figured out how to manage rodents, manage pests, manage disease. And we thought we had entered the modern world and that typhus outbreaks, plague outbreaks, hantavirus outbreaks were a thing of the past. But in Los Angeles, there's been a 2,300% increase in typhus cases. We'd have recent typhus deaths because the state of California has outlawed all the most effective ways of actually managing the rat population. Homeless encampments are the perfect breeding ground for the rats that carry typhus. And we went down to the scene in Los Angeles, talked to experts. They say that there are now millions of rats breeding under the streets of Los Angeles. They're using the homeless as a method of transmission. And it's only a matter of time before we have a massive outbreak of medieval disease.
Brian Kilmeade
Are they ready for it?
Christopher Rufo
And this is the other thing. We actually pulled a thousand pages of documents from the county health department in Los Angeles and the private emails from top county executives to one another. And the memorandums and other paperwork indicates they're telling people quietly behind the scenes, we're not ready for this. We can't prevent this. We can't stop this. If there's a big outbreak. Outbreak, we don't have the tools that we need to stop it. So they're just like. It's like the whole machine is being held together by toothpaste and a shoestring. And they're just hoping that the next outbreak doesn't come.
Brian Kilmeade
Christopher Rufo, always great to talk to you. Senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. All over it. Thanks, Chris.
Christopher Rufo
All right, keep it up, Brian.
Brian Kilmeade
You got it. 1 866-40-87669. The bottom of the hour, we break into the latest with the Iranian situation with a man who knows more about munitions than maybe anyone else in the country, that we need what we have and what we still can use. And coming up next, we'll continue to move forward with this talk about what's happening not only with the wnba, but what is happening with this rise of socialism. As you see, people are getting used to it, but I don't know anybody that likes it, including a lot of
Caller/Guest (WNBA critic)
people on the left.
Brian Kilmeade
Julian Epstein, the latest Democrat to leave the party because of this. James Carville came out and said, if Hassan Piker becomes a leader in the Democratic Party, I am leaving the Democratic Party. Party. Don't move.
Diving deep into today's top stories, it's Brian Kilmeade. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmeade up ahead of the field.
Tom Carricko
Lays it in plus the foul. And then cut again. Gets into the face of Dijon Carrington
Ryan Reynolds
trying to prevent the layup.
Brian Kilmeade
But that is just. You can tell watching it live, it
Ryan Reynolds
was going to be a flavor, too.
Brian Kilmeade
And so Dejanet Carrington, who had been
Tom Carricko
off to an incredible start, is now ejected from the game following that hard
Brian Kilmeade
foul on Sophie Cunningham.
Ryan Reynolds
Happy that Sophie's okay because, man, she.
Brian Kilmeade
That's a hit. Yep, that is the Chicago sky guard Dijonay Carrington ejected after officials upgraded or fouled. Had to upgrade it, by the way, on Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham to a flagrant, kicking her out after the game. Carrington posted the white privilege on social media. That's why she was kicked out, because she was Sophie Cunningham's white. I mean, that's farcical. I think you guys realize that Cunningham rejected that characterization, saying the ejection had nothing to do with race. Sophie. And meanwhile, she holds on no personal animosity towards Carrington. Fever head coach Stephanie White, who previously coached Carrington, said the officials made the correct call by ejecting her, but added she did not believe the foul was malicious. Are you kidding me? Let's listen to her explain which, how she saw this foul in the W. And this is just the latest thing. I can't believe how much I'm even talking about this. This is Stephanie White, cut 45.
Stephanie White
Yeah, I mean, look, it was a hard foul. I don't think that Dijonay intentionally came out to get her across the neck like she did, but it did happen, and I thought it was the right. But, you know, one of the things about Nay is that she's going to play her butt off, man. She's going to compete. Nobody's going to go walking in for a layup. And so I'm not. I don't oppose the hard foul, but I also don't think that she intentionally went for the net.
Ryan Reynolds
Gotta ask about her Response. She went in and she got on social and said, white privilege. After her getting who did this. Any response to that?
Stephanie White
No, I don't know anything about that. Um, but no, no response.
Brian Kilmeade
That was gutless. Why don't you say it? I. Cheryl, we. If you don't know it, Stephanie White is white. So she just say, I don't see race have anything to do with this. I coach both players. I don't think race has anything to do with this. So there were protests outside the arena. Demonstrated gathered outside Chicago's United center over Cunningham's recent comments opposing transgender women competing in women's sports. Yes, opposing transgender activists protested there, and supporters of Cunningham held signs and wearing her number 8 jersey nearby. But they were quiet. The other ones were screaming because they want to see men play against women. I guess it's crazy. The transgender policy. The WNBA transgender policy is so vague.
Caller/Guest (WNBA critic)
It really.
Brian Kilmeade
If you declare yourself a woman, I'm pretty sure you can play in the league. It hasn't really been done yet, but it's about to, because this guy, Royce White, who's running for office, by the way, he's a Minnesota Senate candidate, said, I think I'll be a WNBA player. He was the number one draft pick and NBA player, briefly. Here he is, cut 48.
Royce White
You know, it's just astounding that the WNBA can't define the W in the name. And I think we're going through a very necessary conversation about who's actually eligible to play in some of these professional sports leagues, I guess, on both sides of the gender spectrum. My goal is to help elevate the wnba. I think the ticket prices and the attendance, you know, will soar. I think the audience, the live audience will increase. And I think ultimately it's good for the game. It's going to help evolve the game.
Brian Kilmeade
Okay, so that's a bit of a sideshow, but just to just call them out. I appreciate that. Caitlin Clark, the teammate of Sophie Cunningham, who made her name, because Sophie Cunningham is known as pretty much our bodyguard, would she go to Sophie's defense? The answer is no. Cut 52.
Susan Page
I think for us, like, you know, it's not really a discussion we really
Brian Kilmeade
have in our locker room.
Susan Page
I think it's for leagues and the governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions. But our focus is on basketball, and that's what we talk about and how we can get wins. And obviously, we didn't do that tonight, so need to find an area to improve in that way.
Brian Kilmeade
Do you have any, you know, Reaction
Susan Page
to the I just answered briefly.
Brian Kilmeade
No, I guess she just wants to play basketball. But I just do think this is a time in which would be nice for her to stick up for Sophie Cunningham. But she kind of wants it just to go away, which I understand to a degree going away. So I, I guess we're gonna see. And by the way, Sophie says, I am not voting for. I am not bringing up voting. You're never going to find out who I voted for. That's not part of this discussion. So Charlotte Wilder and Madeline Hill, the sports gossip show on Sophie Cunningham doing a blatant right wing grift. That's which they are calling it cut 53.
Megan Romer
Sophie Cunningham is, is doing a pretty blatant like right wing grift. Yeah, she's doing a hard pivot. Right. And I just think that she knows what she's doing and she knows that ultimately her basketball career is only gonna be so long.
Brian Kilmeade
She's not the best player.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
She's not.
Steph Kite
Now all these anti trans protesters are showing up at outside WNBA games and
Megan Romer
Sophie is still fanning the flames by
Brian Kilmeade
making a stand on something that is a 9010 issue in the country, but that 10% mostly plays or watches the NBA. WNBA. Excuse me. We come back, we go to the serious stuff. Now. Tom Carrick is going to be with us. I want to talk about the next forward in Iran. Does the president have more time or does Iran have more time? When you look at their economy cratering, you would think that they don't have as much time. The problem is they don't care about their people. When they get, when they show unrest, they just hang them. So those are the types of people that either take over the country or they pay the price for their lives. BRIAN Kilman, FOREIGN.
You want truth, you demand. This is the Brian Kilmeade show.
Commentator/Critic
We have literally massive amounts of ammunition. We always want more. We have to have more. We have other things maybe come up. You maybe come up and maybe don't come up. Hopefully nothing else does come up. When Biden gave him so much. Biden gave $300 billion worth of ammunition. You know, when I left this, it was full and he gave a lot of it away.
Brian Kilmeade
So Patriot missiles have fallen from 2200 before the war to fewer than 827 THAAD missiles, from 452 to fewer than 278. The US fired off more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles and more than a thousand Patriots and thaad interceptors. The US also used more than 1300 of the army's tactical ballistic missiles in the initial weeks of the fighting. But what's left? And the President says, yeah, listen, we don't have as much top notch. We have other stuff left. Tom Carrick knows all about it. He's one of this nation's premier missile defense experts and he is also the director of the Missile Defense Project, the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Tom, how would you characterize the state of our are. Let's first off on the interceptors.
Tom Carricko
Yeah, Brian, appreciate it. Look, I think it's important to really come at this very objective and factual approach. This topic has gotten rather polarized and kind of like if you're talking about this issue, you're not for the war, you're for Iran or something like that. The facts are the facts and the facts are that we have been expending an enormous number of long range strike and air and missile defense interceptors. An enormous number. You talked about the number of thaads and Patriots and standard missiles. It's kind of shocking in many respects. And it's of course a credit to our missile defense capabilities that we're able to shoot down hundreds and hundreds of ballistic missiles with these things that are not getting through. But nevertheless, in terms of the overall inventory numbers that you noted, it's pretty bleak. And the reason that matters is while we're achieving some degree of tactical success here, certain missile defense is very effective for the Iran thing. It really degrades our conventional deterrence, long range strike and air missile defense for other things, for Europe, for the Pacific. All the things that, you know, this administration has talked about. The need to focus on China as the pacing threat and as the major threat. And it's going to make it that much harder to do that. So it's, it's, it's a, it's a problem.
Brian Kilmeade
So right now the President feels as though, I guess the Gulf states feel as though they're not properly protected and are they right. And also the fact is a lot of them don't know how to use our stuff. Essentially Jordan was unable to use a lot of the interceptors we had given him. We kind of had to take them over from them on our bases. Have you found that to be correct?
Tom Carricko
Yeah, I'm not so sure about Jordan. Jordan doesn't have much on that front. But other folks, you've seen news stories about the Saudis and the Emiratis and other folks that do have their patriots and their fans, I think put it this way, there have been news reports about how their Shot doctrine is rather aggressive, which is to say shooting more interceptors at incoming threats. When you do that, you're going to run out more quickly. And so that sort of shot doctrine discipline, it's kind of understandable when you have a threat coming in and it's headed to the king's palace or something like that. But at the same time you have to be disciplined so that you have enough left for the next time Iran attacks. And so the reports are that some of our partners have even more depleted their Patriot stores than we have, for instance. And so that's an issue, I think that's informing, you might say, the what appears to be sort of bandwagoning and kind of the readiness with which Saudi and other folks are for some kind of a deal that, that just makes this problem go away. I always say that missile defense is not about winning a conflict. It won't win a conflict for you, but it just buys time to prosecute the conflict by other means. It does not guarantee that policy leaders, political leaders or military leaders will do a good job of it, but it buys time to do so.
Brian Kilmeade
So when you talk about giving licenses to countries like Ukraine, are you for that, that to build their own patriots?
Tom Carricko
There's two countries right now that have or the process of getting licensed production. Japan, which has for a number of years been producing the PAC3. That's the hit to kill Patriot. And Germany is getting into the PAC 2. That's a blast frag. It's actually a bigger missile. Germany's getting into major production of PAC2. The prospects for Ukraine doing. The president did remark that, make that remark. I say not announcement, but remark. When he was meeting with Zelenskyy. I think that came as a surprise to just about everybody. And he noticed that he kind of walked that back the other day. I think that it would be very productive to get the Ukrainian defense industrial base building some kind of missile defense interceptors. Maybe it's Patriot, maybe it's something else. Or it may also be frankly better for Patriot production to be perhaps going on in Europe and within NATO Europe. As soon as you try to stand up of production in Ukraine, you can bet that the, the Russians will, will target it. So I think there's a number of courses of action here that are being analyzed and pursued. And I think that the president's kind of walking back. That initial remark, I think that was about late, late last week is entirely to be expected. But in general, the overall need for more supply side, more producers of interceptors, generally that's that's certainly there.
Brian Kilmeade
So to build a light, if they do get the licenses, how long will it take to make their own?
Tom Carricko
Well, I'm a little skeptical that they are going to get a license for Patriot. But whether it's Patriot, whether it's anything else it may take, it's going to take a while to stand up a production. But actually the real issue is not that it's the, it's the supply chain. And so, you know, you've got the United States, you've got others who are doing their darndest to go to max production on Patriots in the United States, for instance. Well, the supply chain for the pieces of that are not going to, you know, rise up out of the earth in Europe spontaneously. At that point, you're kind of competing with the production of Patriots elsewhere. Now the Deputy Secretary of State Feinberg put out a memo that was reported on this week calling for additional rapid production, calling on industries to try to figure out we have to go even faster than the munitions ramp that they've kind of put in place or at least designed over the past 18 months or so. It's unclear what that is. It's understandable that the Pentagon would be doing this because, you know, the munitions ramp, that was all before Epic Fury, post Epic Fury. Now we have to, I would say, actually get on a wartime footing. We've been talking about getting on a wartime footing. We're not, we're not on it on the production side. And the reason we're not, for one thing is we haven't appropriated, Congress hasn't appropriated for this stuff. So we're kind of saying we need to be on a wartime footing. But you'll know that we're there when Congress feels the urgency sufficient to pass appropriations as if there was a war on. And there is a war on.
Brian Kilmeade
So when we, when we see the, when we, when we look at the fact that Pete Hegseth has come out and says, I'm pushing hard for a reorientation, for striking a framework agreement with Innovators Anduril Coaspire and Zone 5 to quickly produce a new family of low cost air launched cruise missiles, how real is that? How much is that? A long term approach.
Tom Carricko
So I give the Pentagon credit here. That particular initiative, low cost containerized munitions, lccm, that I think is very positive. Now granted they're not going to have the legs or the range of a Tomahawk. But that contract, that initiative is for thousands of cruise missiles and we need that. It doesn't substitute for the longer range capabilities. But it is, it's very positive. It is easier to build cruise missiles on the strike side than it is to build the defensive stuff, which has to be much more exquisite to, you know, hit say a maneuvering target coming in at Mach 10 or whatever it is. So that I think is very positive and I'm hopeful on that front that some of these companies will be able to crank these out.
Brian Kilmeade
Tom Carricko is our guest, senior fellow at the International Security Program and director of the Missile Defense Project. So how has Ukraine and Russia revamped in real time how we look at missile defense as it relates to drones and as it relates to being logical about when we use the Patriots, when we use a drone, to knock down a drone drone or knock down a would be rocket.
Tom Carricko
You're right. I'm glad you said it that way because there's probably no more tired cliche than using a $4 million Patriot against a $40,000 drone. As a practical matter, we and the Ukrainians tend to reserve our Patriots for fads for the ballistic threats or higher end threats. The low flying shaheds are frankly likely to be flying under the minimum altitude engagement of a pat. And so what people don't seem to appreciate, I think the way you asked it suggests it that in fact we do have a lot of drones killing drones. We have the Coyotes, we have the Mirops and these other things. The problem is that drone defense, because they are low and slow and they're going to crest the horizon fairly late, that is very much a point defense problem. You have to have your defensive drone next to whatever it is that you want to defend, going to have limited range because of the terrain and horizon problem. That means that you, it's going to be very hard to have point defenses everywhere all the time. And so a lot of what is getting through, I suspect is because it's probably hitting things that don't even have defenses on site. And that really comes down to a capacity problem, manning problem. But it's difficult to be everywhere all the time.
Brian Kilmeade
How do you explain that Iran still has missile strength? How do you explain they still have an arsenal?
Tom Carricko
Well, look, the President said, what, six weeks ago or something like that that he estimated they may have had 20% left of their missile force. That's pretty remarkable. And remember Marco Rubio and others at the very outset of this said, hey, one of our objectives of this is to degrade their missile program heavily. And the answer to your question, Brian, is Scud hunting is hard left of launch. Finding these missiles Buried underground tunnels. That's hard. The element of deception and passive defense fighting these things. So it's not easy to use our precision guided munitions to get them. We can have all the satellites in space that we want with staring at, staring at every inch of Iran. But if it's underground, it's going to be hard to see, see them. And so Scud hunting is hard and left of launch is hard. And so the takeaway here is you want to try to do that, but it's also important to have expectation, control. And that's why, you know, there's sometimes hand waving. Well, we shouldn't do the missile defense stuff or as much of the missile defense stuff because we're just, we're just going to strike on the ground. Well, what we're seeing is that's, that's harder than you'd like it to be.
Brian Kilmeade
Know that about it. So when you talk to the President, he thinks that we can get everything back up and run like 12 to 14 months, get to a place he's comfortable with. Do you think that's too optimistic, too pessimistic
Tom Carricko
in the sense of everything in
Brian Kilmeade
terms of facilities, more patriots, more Thads?
Tom Carricko
Yeah, that's probably a little optimistic. It's probably going to take between two and three years to rebuild from. Whenever we hit Go, it'd probably take at least two or three years to replenish what we've used up over the past six months just to get back to January, January 2026 levels. So it's gonna, it's gonna take a while. And that's why, you know, it's, it's, it is going to. Our conventional deterrence capabilities are just as a practical matter going to, going to take a hit. But there's one other thing that the President said that, you know, thinking you quoted in the very beginning or maybe had a recording when he said we have lots of other munitions. Well, he's right about that. We have 140,000 JDMs, which are kind of glide bombs, for instance, but we have all these things, we have gravity bombs, but we're not using them. And why are we not using them? This is very interesting. We're using those thousand kilometer Tomahawks, real standoff capability versus the JDAMs, which are stand in capability. And the reason, I think has everything to do with risk tolerance. When you want to take out a country the size of Iran, if you will that goal, will that end? You have to also will the means to do so. And nobody wants to have American pilots flying over top Potential air defenses or manpads. Nobody wants to do that. But you may have to to achieve the goal. And that's the dilemma, which is that on the one hand they want these very aggressive goals, but it would appear that the prosecution of those goals is done with a high risk aversion in terms of flying over Iran, Israel last year during the 12 war, they achieved air superiority. And we're dropping, dropping gravity bombs with impunity all over the place. And so I think it really comes down to we could be doing more. It's hard to do everything from the air to be short, but it's really hard to do everything from standoff.
Caller/Guest (WNBA critic)
Wow.
Brian Kilmeade
A lot going on, Tom, but a lot of pressure on the missile defense production and people want answers. And you just gave it to us. Thanks so much.
Tom Carricko
Thanks, Brian.
Interviewer (David Remnick)
You got it.
Brian Kilmeade
All right, when we come back, we'll wrap up the hour. Brian Kill Me Show.
It's Brian Kilmade. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmade. Sponsored by Prevagen. Prevagen made for your brain.
Commentator/Critic
Who is the Democrat who's going to stand up and say, I'm a white guy, I'm not a racist, because I don't think white people are worse that we're all the same. Humans are not good people. No, they're just orange. We've all done horrible things of every race. Slavery, it wasn't invented in 1619. Everybody did it throughout history. They didn't even think it was wrong in the Bible. There's lots of rules about it. None of them are don't do it.
Brian Kilmeade
That is Bill Maher making a lot of sense again, practical sense. I know he had Mike Rowe on over the weekend. And Mike Rowe talks about how he's going to bat for blue collar workers. And some people are mad that he's on the Bill Maher show and other people, Mandy's on Fox shows and that's just the way it is. But people are coming around to what a lot of practical people are saying. I think we're getting more less and less partisan. I think the new thing is gonna be somewhere in the middle. You see these extremes that people just can't tolerate like James Carville and Bill Maher look at what's going on with their party and going crazy. And other people see what's going on. Republicans and they get upset about certain things. I think there's going to be a practical sense of hopefully reasonable people will become in vogue again. I'm not sure what's going to happen in these midterms, but we'll see shortly. Just keep it keep in mind too, I'm going to do the show One Nation last night. We do it live last night at 10 o' clock live. So a quick turnaround today. But don't forget United in the States. You can pre order now. It's the six crucial moments that forged the American miracle that's coming out October 14th. And we got some live shows in between where everybody who comes to the show gets a book and it's gonna be when it comes out. So you not only do you get a ticket and we have a fun show where everything comes to life. We bring history to life and give a accurate depiction of it in a fun, entertaining way. But coming up on October 16th, Red Bank, New Jersey uniting the states tour will stop at Count Basie Center. The next night, Westbury, New York, over on Long Island, Westbury Music Fair. And then we'll be doing different events. You'll see. But November 7th, we do another show in Clearwater, Florida. The next day, November 8th in Jacksonville, Florida. Briankilme.com For tickets, one is Ruth Eckerd Hall. The Jacksonville floor is gonna be at the Florida Theater. We were there two years ago, was fantastic. And then I'll be closing it out on the United States tour for the year in Chesterfield, Missouri. Think St. Louis. And we'll be at the Factory. We were there a year ago. It's a fantastic venue. It's hard to imagine one better. That'll be on the 21st. So just go to briankilme.com and of course, every show will be different. It's going to be streamed on FOX Nation. And for those people that love patriotic, motivational, inspirational nights, it always seems to work out well. That's our goal and that's our approach. So thanks so much for listening, everyone. Keep it right here. And briankilme.com for all those tickets and more. Don't move.
Fox News Announcer
Did you know FOX News has a wine shop? Did you also know you can get a head start on your Christmas shopping?
Brian Kilmeade
That's right.
Fox News Announcer
Check one more gift off off your list with the FOX News Wine Shop Advent calendar featuring 12 festive wines inspired by the holiday magic of Fox Square. You can reserve yours for just a 1999 deposit. We'll deliver it free right to your doorstep in time for the holiday season. Quantities are limited, so visit foxnewswineshop.com today.
This episode delivers a wide-ranging, high-energy analysis of the current U.S. political landscape, foreign policy challenges with Iran, the shake-up in the Democratic Party by Democratic Socialists, contentious Senate and gubernatorial primaries, and the WNBA’s ongoing controversies. Brian Kilmeade is joined by Susan Page (USA Today), Steph Kite (Axios), Christopher Rufo (Manhattan Institute), Tom Carricko (CSIS), and various audio clips from prominent progressives and activists. The show, true to Kilmeade’s direct and sometimes caustic style, is fast-paced and loaded with pointed critique, memorable soundbites, and sharp exchanges between guests and callers.
“Missile defense is not about winning a conflict ... it buys time to prosecute the conflict by other means.” (Tom Carricko, 99:13)
“They just have principles, but they don’t have any math.” (Brian Kilmeade, 64:17)
Coalitions:
“This guy Hasan Piker is the real spiritual leader of this new crop of Democrats ... and now you’re paying the price.” (Brian Kilmeade, 19:25)
“I haven’t ruled out the possibility ... we have a responsibility to remain focused on the midterms.” (30:56)
“You would think that women would stand up for women ... but they think Sophie Cunningham is the problem.” (54:38)
“Money has to come from somewhere.” (64:37, Steph Kite)
| Segment | Timestamp (Approx.) | |-----------------------------------------------|------------------------| | Mike Pompeo on Iran strategy | 02:07, 40:54, 78:29 | | Megan Romer on DSA policies & taxation | 07:35, 58:32, 84:05 | | Francesca Wong on Thanksgiving & identity | 25:01, 25:27 | | Abdul El Sayed on Piker & Cancel Culture | 20:56 | | AOC on presidential/Senate run | 30:56, 32:00 | | Susan Page on DSA, coalition challenges | 22:15, 23:31, 29:17 | | Tom Carricko on missile defense/munitions | 96:20–109:54 | | Christopher Rufo on DSA infrastructure | 79:50–86:08 | | Royce White, WNBA protest | 92:04 | | Steph Kite (Axios) on Senate, policy math | 59:26–65:28 | | Michael Goodwin on leftist "nutty" ideas | 42:39, 46:12 |
The episode is classic Brian Kilmeade: passionate, combative, and unapologetically skeptical about progressive politics and Democratic strategies, contrasted with in-depth policy wonkery from expert guests. The show alternates between news breakdown, guest analysis, and pointed audio clips from politicians, activists, and media figures. Discussions are rapid-fire, with little patience for ambiguity or “vague answers”—something Kilmeade relentlessly highlights.
For the Politically Engaged Listener:
This episode offers a pointed, critical lens on the left’s evolving dominance in key Democratic primaries, the perils and realities of modern missile defense logistics, and a healthy dose of insider snark—punctuated by audio evidence and expert testimony.
Listen for: