Will Red Texas Turn Blue? Karl Rove & Sen. John Cornyn on the Paxton Runoff

Summary

Brian Kilmeade Show – May 26, 2026

Episode Theme:
Will Red Texas Turn Blue? Karl Rove & Sen. John Cornyn on the Paxton Runoff
Host: Griff Jenkins (filling in for Brian Kilmeade)
Featured Guests: Felix Rosenquist, Allen West, Jim Jordan, Karl Rove, John Cornyn, Judge Glock, John Stanford, Elizabeth Pipko

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the high-stakes Texas GOP Senate runoff between Senator John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, examining whether Texas could shift politically in the upcoming midterms. With notable guests including political strategist Karl Rove and Senator Cornyn himself, the show also covers issues related to border security, the economy, populism in politics, and health care reform. The episode opens with a lighter segment celebrating Indy 500 winner Felix Rosenquist and closes with a heartfelt tribute to the late NASCAR legend Kyle Busch.

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Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. Felix Rosenquist: Indy 500 Champion and New Father

Timestamps: 00:16–10:14

• Rosenquist recounts his dramatic last-lap victory in the Indy 500, winning by 0.02 seconds.

  “It was incredible to have a last lap shootout like that where basically five different drivers could win side-by-side racing… It took a lot of everything. A lot of patience, bravery. Yeah, I just wanted that win so bad.”
  — Felix Rosenquist (01:35)

• The emotional aftermath of the win:

  “I was just in tears in the car. I never actually cried on a racetrack in my whole life and I was just screaming and crying and every possible human emotion…”
  — Felix Rosenquist (02:35)

• Becoming a father just before his Indianapolis triumph:

  “That is actually the best day of my life… My emotional spectrum widened by about a million times. I’ve cried more this month… It changed me as a person immediately to the better… I feel like I was born to be a dad.”
  — Felix Rosenquist (06:47)

Memorable Moment:
Rosenquist is set to be the first face with a beard on the Borg-Warner Trophy as Indy 500 champion (10:03).

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2. Iran Peace Deal Skepticism: Allen West on National Security

Timestamps: 11:25–18:30

• Allen West voices skepticism over potential Iran peace deals:

  “You cannot make a deal with evil. The only thing you can do is you have to defeat it.”
  — Allen West (12:37)

• Critique of transactional diplomacy:

  “Deals are transactional… this is not a transaction with the number one sponsor of Islamic terrorism worldwide…”
  — Allen West (13:14)

• Regime change through economic levers, not direct military confrontation:

  “The easiest way to come about this regime change is to force them out by their own hand… take away their economic lever...”
  — Allen West (15:07)

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3. Border Security and ICE: Jim Jordan on Democratic Policy Moves

Timestamps: 19:03–32:54

• Jim Jordan outlines a ‘multi-step plan’ by Democrats supposedly undermining immigration enforcement:

  “Step four… you have these prosecutors in these sanctuary jurisdictions who actually give more favorable treatment to illegal migrants who commit crimes than they do American citizens…”
  — Jim Jordan (20:26)

• On Democratic political strategy:

  “We're the party of common sense. And so I think that's what we gotta point out here as we head into what now five months away at the election.”
  — Jim Jordan (25:53)

• The impact of border issues on Texas politics:
  Griff Jenkins: “You saw… all along the southern border in Texas, these long traditional blue towns turned red… that was an affirmation that the communities that were most in the… crosshairs said, we've had enough…” (27:46)

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4. Will Red Texas Turn Blue? The Paxton–Cornyn Primary, Trump Endorsement, and Democratic Challenge

Timestamps: 37:17–67:58

A. Setting the Scene: The GOP Runoff & Trump’s Influence

• Griff Jenkins highlights the primary showdown, the unpredictability from Trump’s endorsement, and Paxton’s legal baggage as key factors (37:17–40:15).

• Cornyn on Trump's endorsement:

  “I’ve worked with the President a long time… I want him to be successful. I’m proud of my voting record supporting him 99.3% of the time... But obviously the President is entitled to make his pick.”
  — John Cornyn (39:46)

B. Paxton’s Defense and Talarico’s Controversy

• Paxton rebuts claims he is a liability in the general election:

  “There’s no data that suggests [Cornyn] is right. As a matter of fact, most of the polling suggests I’ll do as well or better than John Cornyn…”
  — Ken Paxton (41:34)

• Paxton and hosts highlight perceived radical statements from likely Democratic challenger James Talarico, including claims about gender and religion (41:34, 44:36).

C. Karl Rove’s Political Analysis

• Karl Rove credits Trump’s endorsement as decisive:

  “He was on his way to defeat until the President came in and endorsed him. And you got to give the President credit. Uh, he’s got a powerful endorsement to give in the primaries.”
  — Karl Rove (43:23)

• Potential Democratic threat:

  “The Democrats are going to come hard for Texas. And money that could be spent in Maine or North Carolina or Michigan or Alaska… instead is going to have to be spent in Texas. And we got a guy who is not a good fundraiser and is also not a good candidate.”
  — Karl Rove (45:15)

D. Cornyn Makes His Case Directly

• Cornyn warns of Paxton’s baggage:

  “Paxton’s arrogance knows no bounds… He’s underestimating what the Democrats will do in November… and all of this… will be new fodder for the Talarico campaign. I think there’s a real risk that Paxton could lose, elect the first Democrat in statewide politics in Texas since 1994 and take the rest of the ticket down with him.”
  — John Cornyn (57:55)

• On his own record and the GOP’s future:

  “I want to win. I’ve spent most of my adult life trying to build the Republican Party in Texas… if you don’t win elections, you can’t govern and you have to play defense..."
  — John Cornyn (62:28)

Notable Quote:

“In Texas, character still matters. And I think that’s going to be the biggest problem that a Paxton candidacy will have in a general election.”
— John Cornyn (61:11)

E. Concerns over Democrat James Talarico’s Positions

• Talarico’s progressive stances and background as a liberal divinity student are highlighted (44:36, 45:15, 63:58).

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5. National Democratic Politics and Populism

Timestamps: 33:02–55:32

• DNC ‘autopsy’ after major electoral defeats:
  Griff Jenkins: “My favorite line was that one Democrat said that the DNC autopsy now needs a malpractice attorney, which sort of says it all.” (33:24)

• Rift between ‘coastal elites’ and ‘heartland’ Democrats emphasized. (33:24–37:05)

• Rise of left populism—AOC’s ambitions:

  “They assume that my ambition is a title or a seat. My ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country…”
  — AOC (54:35)

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6. The Economy, Populism, and Healthcare Reform

Timestamps: 74:06–92:03

Judge Glock Analyzes Current Economic Landscape

• Wages, inflation, & economic populism:

  “It's clearly much better than it was just a few years ago… But… inflation... means your average dollar… still losing value at a pretty rapid clip. Americans are really hopeful that, that inflation gets down…”
  — Judge Glock (76:56)

• Populism and industrial policy—Biden vs. Trump:

  “Populists don’t like the government giving special deals to businesses, tax credits and government loans and handouts... politicians have somehow been very capable at dressing up this industrial policy in populist language.”
  — Judge Glock (81:56)

Healthcare Reform: Trump Rx and Middlemen

• Trump Rx as an aggregator for prescription prices; Mark Cuban’s support noted.

  “Trump RX is a new form of way patients are going to access medicine because frankly, our health insurance system's completely broken.”
  — John Stanford (87:00)

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7. Iran Negotiations: John Bolton & Elizabeth Pipko Weigh In

Timestamps: 92:29–103:19

• John Bolton lambasts negotiations:

  "I hope the negotiations break down because every day that goes by is a gift to Iran… I think the cease fire was a mistake… we’re on the verge of something that history will decide was a catastrophic loss for the United States.”
  — John Bolton (92:29)

• Elizabeth Pipko on skepticism and patience:

  “For John Bolton, his opinion unfortunately is irrelevant for all sorts of reasons. Mostly the fact that he's not in the room.”
  — Elizabeth Pipko (94:33)

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8. National Democratic Trends & The “Fringe” Progressive Element

Timestamps: 104:15–107:16

• Progressive victories and the Sanders/AOC wing rising:

  “If you get an old guy from the Northeast chanting about… the oligarchy, the oligarchy, billionaires. Then you're gonna turn out more people.”
  — Griff Jenkins (106:54)

• Elizabeth Pipko on what Democrats vet for in modern campaigns:

  "They are vetting, but they're vetting for very different things… if he was more common sense… for them, this [controversy] does not bother them..."
  — Elizabeth Pipko (104:15)

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9. Tribute: Remembering Kyle Busch, NASCAR Legend

Timestamps: 107:46–End

• Emotional tributes from NASCAR CEO and Daniel Suarez highlight Kyle Busch’s impact on racing and fellow drivers.

  "He didn’t have to help this Mexican kid who could barely speak English... and he took the time every single week to help me. That… spoke very, very highly of not who he is as a driver, but who he is as a person."
  — Daniel Suarez about Kyle Busch (109:06)

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Notable Quotes by Timestamp

| Speaker | Quote | Timestamp | |---------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------| | Felix Rosenquist | “I was just in tears in the car. I never actually cried on a racetrack in my whole life…” | 02:35 | | Allen West | “You cannot make a deal with evil. The only thing you can do is you have to defeat it.” | 12:37 | | Jim Jordan | "We're the party of common sense... highlight all the crazy polic[ies]." | 25:53 | | Karl Rove | “He was on his way to defeat until the President came in and endorsed him.” | 43:23 | | John Cornyn | “Paxton’s arrogance knows no bounds... There’s a real risk that Paxton could lose…” | 57:55 | | Judge Glock | “Populists don’t like the government giving special deals to businesses...“ | 81:56 | | John Bolton | “I think the cease fire was a mistake… catastrophic loss for the United States.” | 92:29 | | Elizabeth Pipko | “I think for John Bolton, his opinion unfortunately is irrelevant for all sorts of reasons.”| 94:33 | | Daniel Suarez | “He didn't have to help this Mexican kid... he took the time every single week to help me…” | 109:06 |

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Conclusion & Takeaways

• Texas could be a true battleground: With Ken Paxton’s legal vulnerabilities, national Democrats sense opportunity, especially given James Talarico’s fundraising ability, though his far-left positions are viewed as liabilities by Republicans.
• Trump’s endorsements continue to shake up local and national races, with his support for Paxton likely decisive in the runoff.
• Border security, crime, and economic anxiety—along with culture war issues—remain central themes energizing Republican voters.
• Progressive activism and populism are defining Democratic politics, sometimes to the party’s detriment in swing states.
• The show closes by highlighting the unifying power of sports and legacy, in tribute to Kyle Busch.

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For listeners wanting deep dives on the Texas runoff, border policy, shifts in party dynamics, and the latest on health care and energy, this episode packs a comprehensive, spirited discussion—driven by direct voices from the front lines.

Transcript

[Brian Kilmeade]

From the Fox News radio studios in midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade.

[Griff Jenkins]

He is the greatest radio host in America, but he is off on the great Brian Kilmeade show. This is your humble correspondent from dc, Griff Jenkins, trying to fill Brian's giant shoes. And I don't know whether I am more intimidated having to live up to Brian Kilme's big shoes or the fact that I am going to interview the Indy 500 winner right now, Felix Rosenquist joining us. We had him on Fox and Friends. He is such an incredible athlete and obviously champion on the track, but also one of the most outstanding guys off camera because I said, could you do a radio hit right now? He's like, oh, man, I've been doing like 20 straight hours of media, but why not? Let's do it. Felix joins us. Thanks for being here.

[Felix Rosenquist]

Thank you very much. Pleasure to be here.

[Griff Jenkins]

You know, Felix, I've been a fan of Indy 500 for years and obviously everybody was talking about, you know, would Alex Palou repeat wood pedo Ward finish, but yet you stole the show and won by 200ths of a second. Walk us through that finish and how you accomplished it.

[Felix Rosenquist]

Yeah, thank you. That finish was, you know, it's easy for me to say now, but as a race fan, I loved how that went down. As you said, it was kind of.

[Griff Jenkins]

So did 350,000 other people, by the way, including myself.

[Felix Rosenquist]

I feel I could hear that. It was incredible to have a last lap shootout like that where basically five different drivers could win side by side racing. And yeah, dude, it took a lot of, it took a lot of everything. A lot of patience, bravery. Yeah, I just wanted that win so bad. And I feel like every year when I come back to India, I just get a little bit better. And as you said, I probably wasn't the guy everyone predicted going into the race was gonna, you know, win it. But yeah, I felt more than any other 500 that this one was special. We had a rocket ship of a car. My team built me. Absolute incredible car. It handles so well. And I just had a feeling that day that this car deserves some milk on it. In the end of the day, you're

[Griff Jenkins]

like connected with the car. Walk us through what it was like to come across that finish line and realize you've in front of all those fans.

[Felix Rosenquist]

It's honestly, I still haven't taken it in. It was. I was just in tears in the car. I never actually cried on a racetrack in my whole Life and I was just screaming and crying and every possible human emotion you can feel at that time. And it's just an unreal experience. And stepping out of the car, you know, after finishing that in lap and jumping up at the top of my car and facing the fans and just hearing that roar. Cause yeah, I could tell they loved the show, they loved that finish and that I got to be the lucky man to stand in victory circle. It was the best moment in my whole career for sure.

[Griff Jenkins]

Did you feel. And I got the privilege of getting to go in a two seater and it was a blow away experience for me. Adrenaline like never before. I'd love to do it a thousand times again but when you're racing, obviously you are hyper focused, you're connected. Did you feel at some point you were really in sync, flowing with that specific car?

[Felix Rosenquist]

Absolutely. I think that was pretty much the story of the, of the end of the race for me. I was just driving on adrenaline and it's, it's kind of hard to explain to someone but obviously be driving at the Indy 500 is a lot of risk and, and you have to be very precise with your, your driving inputs and it's very easy to crash. And every time you do crash, it's a massive crash there because you're going at 230 miles per hour. But those last two laps I just, it was just like a muscle memory driving. I wasn't really thinking too much. I was, I wasn't afraid that something was going to happen. Just willing to risk it all. And that's why it was such a cool last lap that I just basically said if I end in the wall, I'll end in the wall. And I know my team, my Shank Racing will be proud that, you know, we tried instead of settling for, for second or third. And I think that's what Indy 500 is all about.

[Griff Jenkins]

Were you talking to your MSR pit crew saying we're going?

[Felix Rosenquist]

Yeah, that's what we said. They said on the radio, go get him, it's yours. And we did something that no one's ever done before to, to go side by side for a whole lap around there on a, on a, on a finishing lap and also the closest finish ever in the history of the race. Yeah, I just feel so lucky to, to be that guy that got to do that awesome last lap.

[Griff Jenkins]

I want to get into. Literally you not only won the Indy 500, you won the month of May because you became a father, your gorgeous daughter Estella. But before I do that, still Talking about racing at one point, Felix, in your life or in your career, did you say, you know what, I'm going to race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway someday and I'm going to win?

[Ken Paxton]

Was.

[Felix Rosenquist]

I mean, it's probably not very early in my life. You know, I watched Kenny Brack win it in 99. My fellow Swede. And though it was such a. I never really thought that was going to be reality for me to even participate, to be honest. And I was. I just been kind of through a lot of different ups and downs in my career and it was a kind of wholesome moment this weekend when kind of look back at the journey that I've had and, you know, I'm 35 years old. I've done this for 25 years. And I, I don't think truly you. You don't really dare to dream about being in that situation. And yeah, it's just. Yeah, it's a lot to take in. I don't think I've fully taken it in yet. And this race, you know, it's one thing to finish it and win it and drink the milk, but then the whole other thing that comes afterwards, the, you know, the traditions, the, the celebrations, the, you know, there's just so much more to winning the 500. But you'll ever, every day, rest of your life, you'll wake up as a winner and no one can take that away from you. And that's, that's pretty awesome.

[Griff Jenkins]

And you know what you wake up every day and also be so proud of is being a father. So you literally just became a father before this race. Talk to me about that.

[Carl Rove]

Yeah.

[Felix Rosenquist]

Fourth of May was the day when our daughter came into the world and it's still. That is actually the best day of my life. It's kind of hard to compare the two. I think, as I said before, the range of emotions that this month has taken me through, I'm Scandinavian, Swedish, and I don't really, I wouldn't say I'm the most emotional guy. I think that comes naturally for us. But, yeah, I've widened my emotional spectrum by about a million times. I've cried more this month than I've done in my whole life. And, yeah, what a joy to be meet right now. I'm probably the happiest man in the world and I can probably sit here and talk for 10 hours about being a dad. It's just such an incredible thing. And it changed me as a person immediately to the better. I just felt like I stepped up as a human being and I Have responsibility and I have to become good at something else to going in circles. And I just love it. Man, I feel like I was born to be a dad. And my, my beautiful wife Emil, she, she was born natural born mom as well. And I, I'm just so proud to. For our little family we have now.

[Griff Jenkins]

Let me preview for you an amazing day that is coming in your life. I'm the father of two daughters. They're both in their 20s, but at some point your beautiful daughter, young Stella will, will grow old enough and realize like, hey, wow, dad, you won the Indy 500 and you're going to get to tell her the whole story about how it happened. That's going to be something.

[Felix Rosenquist]

I can't wait to just see that transition from telling her the first time when she can talk. Obviously she won't understand what it means and it's probably gonna take maybe a decade or two before she realize what, you know, when she entered the world, what went down and the magnitude of it and the lucky charm that she brought to us and that race boy,

[Griff Jenkins]

she may be the lucky charm indeed. Now let's talk about, you know, this is obviously you were so kind and gracious to come and do a quick interview with us on radio, tv, you got a bunch of publicity you got to do, but yet you got a race this weekend at the Detroit Grand Prix. It's a lot.

[Felix Rosenquist]

It is a lot. I'm probably the most sleep deprived Indy 500 winner in the 110 runnings we've done. It was a lot of partying obviously on Sunday night. And then it's just been a whirlwind of interviews and media, which is great, great problems to have. Right. And yeah, coming to Detroit on Thursday evening, I think and there will be practice on, on Friday. And I think historically the Indy 500 winner hasn't done that well in Detroit for.

[Griff Jenkins]

Because they're fighting to stay awake in the car probably.

[Felix Rosenquist]

But you know, it doesn't matter. Honestly, I don't really think much about Detroit right now. I told myself I'll let this, just enjoy every moment of this. And there will be a moment when you jump in the car and you will start focusing on being in Detroit and not in the 500. But we'll just enjoy every day till that comes.

[Griff Jenkins]

Well, soak it all in. You deserve it. Felix Rosenquist, congratulations. And by the way, I think we discovered that you are going to be the first face on that Borg Warner trophy with a beard. That's pretty cool too.

[Felix Rosenquist]

I think that's an unbelievable stat. I can't believe that no one else has a beard.

[Griff Jenkins]

I know, but you're the first. Congratulations. Thank you for taking time. I know we gotta turn you loose. You got a busy day still ahead. Felix, thank you.

[Felix Rosenquist]

Thank you very much.

[Griff Jenkins]

This is Griff Jenkins filling in for Brian Kilmeade on the great Brian Kilmeade

[Brian Kilmeade]

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[Elizabeth Pipko]

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[Griff Jenkins]

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[Felix Rosenquist]

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[Elizabeth Pipko]

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[Griff Jenkins]

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[Brian Kilmeade]

A radio show like no other. It's Brian Kilmeade.

[Marco Rubio]

I think our position is well stated. The president had a very important, I think historic call just a couple days ago with a number of leaders from the region. I think there's strong alignment and agreement on what a preliminary draft should look like. I think like anything with something like this, it's going to take a couple days to settle on, even down to the disagreements over a word sentence. So we'll have to work through that. There's going to be a deal. We're going to have to work through that. But this is, you know, it's either going to be a good deal or there isn't going to be one either

[Griff Jenkins]

a good deal or no deal at all. Secretary Rubio echoing President Trump's position on potential Iran peace deal negotiations. This is Griff Jenkins filling in for Brian Kilmeade on the Brian Kilmeade Show. And we are very fortunate now to have former Congressman and Lt. Col. Allen west joining us on this program, a great friend of this program. Colonel, it's great to have you.

[Allen West]

Always a pleasure to be with the Griff. God bless.

[Griff Jenkins]

God bless. You know, we live in dangerous times and over Memorial Day as we talked about fallen heroes and I know you have as I have walked amongst the heroic tombstones in Arlington National Cemetery many years in section 60 particularly, which is the global war on terror, service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice, many that died because of irrational Iranian bombs that were put into Iraq over the years. And it really brings home the gravity of what's at stake here. You know, it's there in that sound by, by Secretary Rubio. He's quite clear eyed about these negotiations. Are you optimistic that this is going to produce results?

[Allen West]

No, I'm not optimistic whatsoever. And you know, I was there in Iraq. And, you know, those Explosive Force Penetrator IEDs were very damning to our men and women. And also they were utilized in Afghanistan as well. I spent two and a half years there. But I came on active duty seven days after the Beirut barracks bombing back in October 1983. So Iran has always been present in my mind, in my service, in uniform. And deals are transactional, and I don't understand why we use that terminology, because this is not a transaction with the number one sponsor of Islamic terrorism worldwide, a country that a regime that executes their own people. This is evil. And you cannot make a deal with evil. The only thing you can do is you have to defeat it. And I know that we're talking about, you know, trying to, you know, leverage something with some of the other countries in the region so that we can have a peace accord signed with Israel. But I think the other countries in the region would like to see this menace going away. And the most important thing is that they're not holding the rest of the country, especially the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, hostage there in that region, and especially holding the rest of the world hostage by having control over the Straits of Hormuz. So I think that we have to, without a doubt. And I'm not a warmonger, I'm not a neocon, all these other insidious labels that people throw. But as Sun Tzu would say, you have to impose your will on your enemy. And that's the goal of a combat operation. That's the goal of a war.

[Griff Jenkins]

And you're not alone, Colonel west, in that viewpoint. The Wall Street Journal had an interesting op ed that everyone's talking about. The headline is, will Trump Bail out the Iran Regime? And it talks about the fact that we not only greatly militarily degraded Iran to their weakest point in recent times, if not ever over the past 47 years, but we've also brought their economy to the brink of collapse. And the Journal is essentially arguing that if we bail them out, if the President actually gives, you know, these economic sanctions relief and opens up the oil routes again for them, they will re. They will recover. And they now know that they have a trump card, no pun intended, to play in terms of meddling in the Strait of Hormuz to get back to a negotiation table. That's essentially sort of where you're coming from.

[Allen West]

Yeah, absolutely. So, and, you know, I had a piece on townhall.com yesterday that said, the art of war, not the deal. And that's what I'm trying to articulate. And so when you look at the Strait of Hormuz, Iran should not be in control of that strait. As a matter of fact, we just saw us attack a couple of Iranian vessels that were landing minds in the Straits of Hormuz. So that's them saying, no, we really and truthfully don't want to have any negotiated peace. We really don't want to have any type of deal unless we maintain control of the straits. And also we maintain our position of tyrannical and totalitarian control over this country. So, you know, we talk about regime change. I think the most, the easiest way to come about this regime change is to force them out by their own hand is to take away their economic lever, which means that they will not have a power leverage over the people. And if there's a means by which we can create a separation between the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the regular army of Iran, I think that's the way that we can help the people to overpower the regime and the irgc.

[Griff Jenkins]

Boy, you hit the nail on the head. I have harped a lot about this, and you well understand that Middle east politics are different from American politics in the sense that they span a very long distance. And when you talk about separating the IRGC from the Iranian military, it's worth noting that the individual today, right now, that's running the IRGC is a guy named Ahmad Vahidi. Ahmad Fahidi was the guy that Mojtaba Khamenei, the current supreme leader, who is the son of Ali Khamenei, who we have since killed. Ali Khamenei, the previous supreme leader, put Vahidi in charge of standing up the Quds force in the 90s with the sole purpose of exporting terrorism to places like Lebanon, Hezbollah and elsewhere. And then he turned Fahiti, turned the Quds Force over to Qassem Soleimani, who President Trump obviously has since killed. But the fact that we're at this negotiating table, knowing back in Iran running the irgc, who is certainly not a good faith negotiator and certainly a historical hardliner, is in charge of the IR and we haven't taken him out, it really makes you wonder exactly who we would be talking to.

[Allen West]

Yeah, that's the whole point. Who are we negotiating with? I would tell you right now, we're just negotiating with ourselves because as you just articulated, this is just another hardliner. And really, and truthfully, he's the one that's in charge, not any, you know, head of the parliament or speaker of their house or even the supreme leader, the person that's in charge is the head of the irgc. And you just broke down the fact that he is a conduit for the exportation of Islamic terrorism. And if we want to defeat, you know, Hamas and Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and all this, we have to defeat the irgc, we have to defeat their chain of command. And I think that should be our goal and objective.

[Griff Jenkins]

So well said. Colonel Allen Wilson, Colonel Allen west, sorry. Great to have you on the program. We'll see where it goes. I'm just drinking it out of the fire hose of news and I'm messing up left and right, but it's always great to have my friend Allen west on this program. Have a great day, sir.

[Allen West]

You too.

[Jim Jordan]

God bless.

[Allen West]

Take care now.

[Griff Jenkins]

God bless. This is Griff on the Brian Kilmean Show. We'll be back.

[Brian Kilmeade]

The more you listen, the more you'll know it's Brian Kilmeade.

[Elizabeth Pipko]

Because this type of facility shows exactly why we should not have private mass detention facilities.

[Jim Jordan]

They were raising not just concerns about the condition, but about how they are

[Griff Jenkins]

intentionally not being given access to the courts, that this is a farce of a system. That was New Jersey Governor Mikey Sherrill and New Jersey Senator Andy Kim protesting outside of the Delaney Detention hall in Newark, New Jersey, the ICE facility where we saw last year a handful of lawmakers getting arrested, including Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, literally roughing up ice guards and charged, facing federal charges right now. This is Griff Jenkins filling in on the Brian Kilmeade Show. We are so lucky to have. Joining us now, Congressman Jim Jordan on the Newsmaker line. Congressman, thanks for joining me. And you know, we were watching on Fox, you know, all morning long. We'll see where it goes. There's more protesters turning out. The protesters, by the way, are trying to set up a, quote, autonomous zone to block ICE from doing their job. And of course, there's been this claim by the governor and Democrats that somehow the illegal criminal aliens that have been apprehended under federal law that are being held in this facility are in some way being deprived of food, they're on a hunger strike and a whole litany of other abuses. The DHS Secretary Markway Mullen saying that's absolutely nonsense. But what do you make of this? Here we go again with another one of these spectacles.

[Jim Jordan]

No, it's just a continuation of a multi, multi step plan the Democrats have enacted. Step one, of course, was during the Biden administration. For four years they let in 10 million illegal migrants. Step two, create sanctuary jurisdictions all over the country which make it difficult to remove those illegal migrants when they commit another crime. Step three, don't fund the guys who do the removing. The Democrats have done that. We're still trying to get ICE funded in this reconciliation package. Step four, we had a hearing two weeks ago where you have these prosecutors in these sanctuary jurisdictions who actually give more favorable treatment to illegal migrants who commit crimes than they do American citizens. They will lessen the. The charge. They will reduce the. They will have a better plea deal so that those people don't get. Don't get deported. We saw this with Descano, with Krasner and Philadelphia Descano there and Fairfax County, Virginia. And now the final step is go protest at the facilities where you're actually holding people. So, like, it's like, I don't know, what was that? Like five steps that they have. But it's all part of a coordinated effort to just abandon the rule of law and never forget what sanctuary jurisdictions do. They tell the politicians, tell local law enforcement, don't work with federal law enforcement when it comes to enforcing federal law. So this is just a continuation of that. And as you pointed out was about a year ago, I think, when a member of Congress was actually arrested for going after and charged for assaulting a nice personnel there at that same facility.

[Griff Jenkins]

That's exactly right. Lamonica McIver, she's still facing federal charges. And Congressman, it's just for the life of me, I can't understand why Democrats, as we head into midterms, the Democrat party seems to be not only abandoning perhaps the greatest issue that cost them the election in last go around, which was not paying attention to Americans who said, hey, we want our border secure. We want our communities to be safe from illegal criminal aliens who should be arrested that are rapists, murders and the like. And yet they've been released, particularly in blue cities, in these sanctuary cities, why are Democrats choosing to double down?

[Jim Jordan]

I do not get it. Because if it's one, it's more than we can count. Where in these jurisdictions, someone has been given a special deal and they go out and harm someone in case like Ms. Gorman in Chicago area was killed. She was the Loyola student there. But it shouldn't surprise us that it's happening because remember, sanctuary jurisdictions now are about a third of the population of the country now lives in one of these jurisdictions because they're, I think it's 18 cities, 11 towns, states, three big counties, and the District of Columbia are all sanctuary jurisdictions, but they're big Blue cities, big blue states. So it's again, it's like 31 and a half percent of the population lives in a jurisdiction where politicians tell local law enforcement, don't work with federal law enforcement when you enforce federal law. And it's just, it's just dumb. But that's, that's today's left. I always, always say just about every single position today's left adopts is crazy. And you can go down the list, defund the police, defund I set down the government, sanct jurisdictions, men against women in sport. I mean, it just on and on it goes. So it's kind of sad that the one scrape, I think they were just playing the speech by JFK during the break before we got on. And it's like the ones great party of FDR and JFK is now controlled by the radical left. And it's actually sad and not good for the country.

[Griff Jenkins]

I think you're spot on because while we used to say the Republican Party was a party of Ronald Reagan, it's maybe appropriate today to say that the Democrat Party is the party of Bernie Sanders. And when you talk about, you know, all the different crazy positions they take, okay, let's talk about the taking down the billionaires. The billionaires, as Bernie Sanders likes to talk about, that's one thing, and that's a policy, economic policy debate with very wide ranging solutions to any sort of income, income gap. But when you talk about keeping communities safe, that's where it's so perplexing. And you mentioned Sheridan Gorman. You know, Sheridan Gorman's parents have spoken out quite vociferously saying why can't the politicians be for all Americans and why can't they understand that we just want to make sure that there isn't another Sheridan Gorman?

[Jim Jordan]

Yeah, I don't get it. I don't get why you would just abandon the common sense kind of just adherence to the rule of law. I don't know why you would do it. Part of me thinks it's this, you know, this attitude on the left. We got to get Trump no matter what. And his issue, of course, the issue for the Republicans, the last election for President Trump was securing the border and stopping this. I think it's partly that. I think it's just that the radical element in their party is where all the energy is. That's where they raise the money and it drives the agenda for the Democrats. So I don't know what it is, but it makes no sense. And again, I think it's important that we highlight this in the midterms. We're going to win, which I think we can. We need to highlight. I don't know, a couple of weeks ago, I said, I think this, this election is really two sentences. They're crazy. We're not. And highlight all the crazy polic. And then highlight we're the party of common sense. And so I think that's what we got to point out here as we head into what now five months away at the election.

[John Cornyn]

Yeah.

[Griff Jenkins]

You know, Congressman, you mentioned, by the way, the funding for ICE that's still unresolved and it's driven because of the politics on this ICE issue and the vilification, if you will, of federal law enforcement, who, by the way, are literally only carrying out the patriotic duty of the laws that exist on the book. They're not trying to change the laws, which would be understandable if that's what they chose to do. And God forbid they get into power again and decide to do. But we're talking about simply funding faithful federal law enforcement officers. Where do we stand with that?

[Jim Jordan]

No, no, exactly. And just. Just to highlight and underscore it a little bit, it wasn't enough to harass these ICE agents when they're out doing their job, to dox them, to track them, to spit on them, to swear at them, and in some cases assault them. That wasn't enough. The Democrats says, no, we don't want to pay them. That's literally where we're at. No, we don't want to pay these guys for enforcing federal law. And in sanctuary jurisdictions, we're going to work against them. I mean, that is how ridiculous it's gotten. And I'm like, I just, I'm like you, Griff. I just failed to say where is the common sense of that? And then, of course, the consequences are as real as it gets. You can talk to all kinds of families in Fairfax county, where Descano gave these guys a great deal and they went and harmed someone. You can talk to Ms. Gorman's family, of course, in Chicago, where it happened there. But every major sanctuary jurisdiction, there's a story like that many places, multiple stories, where American or some case, in some cases, it was another illegal migrant was harmed because they did not enforce the law on an illegal migrant who committed some other crime. And that is, again, I think that's something we're going to have to highlight as well going into this election. But more importantly, it'd be great if they just stopped this ridiculous behavior that we see in these jurisdictions.

[Griff Jenkins]

Boy, Congressman Jordan, I hope you do highlight Some of that that you just said, because as the guy that's covered immigration, the border crisis, I've traveled across continents with multiple caravans, gone all the way down to Colombia and the unbelievable jungle, the pipeline that was opened up under Biden. But you hit something that is often missed and that is, is the reason why Hispanics turned out in record numbers for Donald Trump last go around is because those migrant communities are often the hardest hit. Because where do the illegal criminal aliens live? They live in Hispanic migrant communities. And there was enough of the individuals living in those communities. And you saw this, by the way, it's not some prognostication by Griff Jenkins here. You saw, I saw it on the border. Border. All along the southern border in Texas, these long traditional blue towns turned red. And that was an affirmation that the communities that were most in the, you know, crosshairs said, we've had enough and if this guy's going to get us out of it, go for it. And largely that's President Trump hasn't backed off of that mandate that he gave those voters.

[Jim Jordan]

Yeah, it turns out your heritage and your skin color don't matter when it comes to safety. Everyone wants safety in their community. And it's like that. That's what we saw in that last election. And again, we keep using the term, but it's just good common sense for goodness sake. I do not get what the left is doing. And I've been down to McAllen, Texas. I've been down to the border several times as well and talked with folks down there. And all Americans, regardless of what your heritage is, want safe communities.

[Griff Jenkins]

There is obviously this Senate primary playing out today in Texas between two Republicans, Senator John Cornyn. We'll see whether or not it looks like Attorney General Paxton's got got this. We'll see what the results are. But ultimately, whoever wins will face in November James Talarico, a very left Democrat, a young Democrat, but he's made a number of statements. And one of those statements was he said that the border, border ought to be open in a place where they have a welcome mat laid out. And that's a pretty charged thing to say considering people were pretty fed up with the four years of the Biden border crisis. What's your take?

[Jim Jordan]

Yeah, and that's not the only ridiculous thing that this guy said. You know, I know people are saying it looks like Mr. Paxton is going to win that race today and that make it tough to win in November. I think whether it's Paxton or Cornyn, I think we're going keep that Senate seat. I think the Republicans are going to win because you can point out all the ridiculous things that Mr. Talarico has said, the positions he has taken and remember Texas for goodness sake. So I think we're going to be just fine there. But I do think it's important to highlight where Talarico, he said all kinds of things that just make no sense. But I feel good about that race as well.

[Griff Jenkins]

Yeah. Aside from the border issue, which by the way, just putting out a welcome mat and opening the border back up is not gonna fly with most of the border people that I've spoken to over the past several years. But he's also said that God was non binary. He said there aren't two sexes, there's six sexes. And that, that, you know, this was in that DNC autopsy report, by the way. They just failed to address any of the obvious problems. But one thing they did touch on, but they didn't extrapolate on was the fact that the Democrat Party stop stopped listening to and stopped caring about heartland Democrats. They only cared about the coastal Democrats. And ultimately the fact that you've got Democrats that are gonna go to the ballot box in November and they've gotta deal with like a guy like James Talarico, I don't think it's gonna work. And they're gonna have the same problem, which is one of the only things they pointed out in their own botched release of a DNC autopsy.

[Jim Jordan]

Yeah. It's funny because what you said I think is so true. And the great example of our state, Ohio, used to bellwether state, you know, it's 50, 50 state. You had to win Ohio to be president. Well, since President Trump's come along, he won Ohio by 8 and a half and 16. 8 and a half and 20 and 11 and a half in 2024. And he has changed our state because of what you just described. Where the working class, middle class families like the one I came from or where my dad was a union worker at General Motors in Dayton, Ohio, those, those type of people, type of families, we've all now we're like Trump Republicans. And that kind of change because it's looking out for, for middle America families is so true. And it's had a huge impact on our state.

[Griff Jenkins]

It has indeed. Congressman Jim Jordan, it is great to talk to you as always and we'll see where things go. It's gonna be an interesting day down in Texas. Thanks for joining us.

[Jim Jordan]

You bet, Griff. Take care. Thanks.

[Griff Jenkins]

All right, you too. This is Griff Jenkins filling in for Brian Kilmeade on the Great Brian Kilmeade Show.

[Brian Kilmeade]

The headlines, the stories behind them and the people who make them. Only on the Brian Kilmeade show,

[Daniel Suarez]

If

[Brian Kilmeade]

you're interested in it. Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmeade.

[Griff Jenkins]

This is the Great Brian Kilmeade Show. Griff Jenkins pinch hitting today for Brian. He has the day off. And you know, I've said on this program before, I start started my career in the 90s in talk radio and there's no place I'd rather be. I got the honor to work with Colonel Oliver north and his radio show and then the great Tony Snow. And the medium is what makes the magic, because unlike in television, where you've just got two seconds to talk about things and you gotta move so quick on radio, you can actually expand on things. And that's why when we just heard Congressman Jim Jordan talking about a number of things when we were talking about that DNC autopsy, that DNC report that wasn't going to be released but then was, and they botched the release, it's worth taking a moment and talking more about it, only because this is a party. Ken Martin, the DNC chair, literally botched releasing a report about why Democrats lost so bad. Donald Trump won every battleground state, not just Ohio, the Congressman Jim Jordan is talking about, but all of them. And it is time that if you were the dnc, you would say it's time that we really are honest with ourselves, look in the mirror and say, all right, here's what we did wrong. They literally left out all of the obvious ones. One was that Kamala Harris was the wrong candidate. Two, if they should have had a fairer process. Three, the fact that they didn't even acknowledge the president, then Joe Biden's mental decline. But I thought it was interesting. And by the way, my favorite line was that one Democrat said that the DNC autopsy now needs a malpractice attorney, which sort of says it all. But President Donald Trump weighed in on maybe what he could have done for the dnc. Listen, did you see they did an autopsy on why they lost the election and they said you lost the election because of Trump primarily. But other than Trump, you lost the election because you had crappy candidates and you had bad policy and they didn't know how to speak properly and they weren't smart people. And various other reasons. I could have given them the autopsy without any charge at all in, in the autopsy what really at least got mentioned, but not really held up enough is that there was a, either intentional or they perhaps made the mistake of just not listening to their own members. And that's why you have what I call a, a, a literally competing group of Democrats. Now in the Democrat Party, there are the coastal elites, the coastal Democrats, and then there are heartland Democrats, people all across the country in Ohio, in Wisconsin, down in Texas. And they were saying throughout the process that they wanted an input on the policies. They're not with aoc. They're not with Zoran Mamdani. They don't care about making sure that biological men can play in women's sports. They have literally kitchen table issues that they wanted addressed and they were ignored. And there's no indication that they've even learned that lesson. This is Griff Jenkins filling in on the Brian Kilmeade show.

[Brian Kilmeade]

From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmeade.

[Griff Jenkins]

This is the Great Brian Kilmeade show. And Griff Jenkins here filling in, pinch hitting for the great Brian Kilmeade. And what an honor. It's never lost on me to sit behind a microphone, particularly on the fastest growing, best radio show in the country for a kid that started his career in radio. And I'll tell you, it's fun, too, because talk radio has one bread and butter, and that is certainly politics. And down in the Lone Star State today we have a Texas primary Republican runoff race that has garnered the attention of the country. That is Senator John Cornyn, the incumbent senator there who has been in office for some 30 years, I believe, now facing off against the attorney general, Ken Paxton, who has had no shortage of personal shortcomings and a lot of baggage coming with it didn't look like he was really going to mount a really formidable campaign against Cornyn in the early days, but then he began to rise and then he got the Trump endorsement. And you can look at so many other primaries where the president's endorsement has been a key factor that has really changed the trajectory of this race. We don't know where this is going to go. Texans are taking to the ballot boxes literally as we speak today. But many believe that Paxton is probably going to pull out a win, and that would be fascinating. He will face off against a Democrat that many have compared to Beto o' Rourke because of the crazy things that James Talarico has been saying out there. From everything from saying that there are six sexes, six sexes instead of two and that God is non binary. We're gonna dive deeper into the Democrat candidate there. But it's worth laying out the fact that this Trump endorsement has no doubt put Cornyn in a difficult position. And President Trump leaned in even on social media today, saying that Senator Cornyn, he chose Paxton over Cornyn because of Paxton of Cornyn's refusal to support some of his agenda, including the Save America Act. The President wants the Senate to PA pass so much, and Senator Cornyn has been addressing that here he was talking about the Trump endorsement. Senator Cornyn cut 13.

[John Cornyn]

Listen, obviously, you know, I've worked with the President a long time and I want him to be successful. I'm proud of my voting record supporting him 99.3% of the time and appreciate him, his comments about me and the early stages of this runoff where he called me a good man and a friend. So nothing has really changed. But obviously the President is entitled to make his pick.

[Griff Jenkins]

So that's Senator Cornyn doing the best he can to avoid an elephant in the room that the Trump endorsement is going to be very, very difficult for him to pull out. And Cornyn also chose to go after Ken Paxton and attack some of, quote, baggage that he brings. Here is cornyn Again, cut 14.

[John Cornyn]

Because I think Ken Paxton's flaws and the baggage he brings to the general election is going to be exploited to the fullest by James Talarico and by Democrats. But then it's not only the, the that Senate seat he puts at risk, it's also all the down ballot races, state legislative races, local races, like the J judges and the like. The Senate race is at top of the ticket in the midterm election. So President Trump's not running, so the Senate race will be at the top. And I believe that I would be in a better position to help provide a significant margin of a winning margin, not only in my case, but also to help everybody down ballot.

[Griff Jenkins]

But Ken Paxton is pushing back aggressively and he's saying that that claim by Senator Cornyn that Paxton will hurt Republicans is not at all case cut 15. Here's the attorney General.

[Ken Paxton]

This argument is made by John Cornyn because he's having trouble in his own primary. There's no data that suggests that he's right. As a matter of fact, most of the polling suggests I'll do as well or better than John Cornyn. Secondly, I've already won three statewide races in a row, some of them by large margins. So that's ridiculous. But you're right, this focusing back on the real problem James Talarico, this guy, we just heard some of his views and there are more views that are very strange and very strange things that he said. I think, think he was asked what he thinks about in his spare times, and he said, I think about transgender children. That's a very strange response. And as you just heard, this idea that God is non binary, that there are six genders, is. I don't think it'll fly with Texans.

[Griff Jenkins]

We're going to get into James Talarico in a moment, but first let me please welcome a man that knows more about Texas politics than any human on the planet, and that is our friend Carl Rof. Hey, Carl, thanks for joining us.

[Carl Rove]

Thanks for having me, Griff. And is this going to be permanent? Have you forced Kilmeade into exile abroad?

[Griff Jenkins]

That's right.

[Carl Rove]

Congratulations.

[Griff Jenkins]

I stole his TV scene. Now he is off on some sort of important crazy Brian Kilmeade mission. And I'm honored that they let me sit in. As you know, I was saying at the very beginning, you know, I was just a kid producing radio back in the 90s with Ollie north and then Tony Snow and to be behind a microphone, it's such an honor. And also an honor, I honestly, with all seriousness, an honor to talk to you right now about this Texas primary underway right now. As you and I are talking, voters are going to the ballot box. But this I think you would know. Correct me if I'm wrong, this is one of the most expensive Senate primaries maybe ever. And it looks like Ken Paxton may be headed towards victory today. And you can't discount that Trump endorsement carrying a lot of weight.

[Carl Rove]

Well, you have to give it all credit to that polling the day before, before Trump endorsed the president, endorsed Paxton, polling showed that if among the people who had read, seen or heard about Ken Paxton, 37% said they'd be more likely to vote for him in the primary, and 47% said what they'd heard about him would be less likely. So he was on his way to defeat until the President came in and endorsed him. And you got to give the President credit. Uh, he, he, he's got a powerful endorsement to give in the primaries.

[Griff Jenkins]

He sure does. And what's fascinating is while we are at the Republican primary today, we sit today 161 days from the midterms. And whether it's Paxton or Cornyn, he's facing off against James Talarico, who, as you heard Paxton there talking about all the crazy things he's been saying, it's, it's almost Carl Like James Talarico turned to Beto o' Rourke and said, hold my beer. Let me show you the crazy stuff. I and we pulled the latest one from him. Tellarico on a podcast, had this to say. Cut. 18, guys.

[James Talarico]

I think about someone like Pope Francis. I think about someone like Pope Leo. These are spiritual heroes of mine. Both of them are firmly opposed to abortion rights. So we disagree on that issue. I I trust Texas women to make decisions about their own bodies, to shape their own destinies in consultation with their family members, their doctors, their faith leaders. I don't believe that's a place for government. I don't believe it's a place for politicians. I don't believe it's a place for the state.

[Griff Jenkins]

Where's he going with that, Carl?

[Carl Rove]

Well, remember the the context here. He is a divinity student, attended a Presbyterian divinity school here in recent years, and Austin, Texas, very liberal divinity school. And so he is a Christian, albeit of a liberal bent. And so this is how he was squaring his views with the views of the Catholic Church. Having said that, Paxton's right that he's going to go after the crazy things that Talarico is saying. But on the other hand, the Democrats are going to go hard at Paxton over the scandals that surrounded him. Remember in 2023, it was Republican state House of Representatives that impeached him. You know, we know that he's got, he's had multiple girlfriends. One, a corrupt business guy who was found guilty of bank fraud, gave one of his girlfriends a job so she could move close to Austin to be near Paxton. The corrupt businessman set up a fake Uber account in the name of David P. So we now have, because of the records of the impeachment. We now have because of the impeachment, the Texans know exactly when he left his house house using the Uber account to go to his mistress's apartment. And when he returned from the apartment in the middle of the night, or maybe didn't appear to return at all because she drove him home in the morning. And here's a guy who admitted to violating the Texas Whistleblower act and then put past the $6.7 million bill onto the taxpayer. So, you know, in the general election, this will be Paxton talking about Talarico saying God is non binary, and the Democrat backed by an enormous amount of money, saying he's a crook. So it's going to be one of the ugliest contests. And one of the things is Paxton is not a good fundraiser. He has raised $7 million through the end of May, at the end of March, Talarico had raised $41 million. So the Democrats are going to come hard for Texas. And money that could be spent in Maine or North Carolina or Michigan or Alaska, Alaska or Florida or, you know, some of these other contests, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, instead is going to have to be spent in Texas. And we got a guy who is not a good fundraiser and is also not a good candidate. He, in the last, his last election, he trailed the other six wide statewide Republican candidates by 154,000 votes. And the election before that, he trailed them by 177,000 votes. So, wow, you know, problems.

[Griff Jenkins]

Yeah, I mean, listen, I'm listening to you and this is why it's so great to have you, because nobody knows this stuff better than you. And it was really a sober realization because we've heard for years that politicians gonna turn red, Texas blue, red, Texas blue. And it's not. It doesn't happen. But you're sort of laying out that this is a real concern here. I mean, this could be a very significant challenge, possibly uphill climate for Paxton. Yeah.

[Carl Rove]

And look, even if Paxton wins, it could be like, remember in 2018, Ted Cruz barely held off Robert Francis O', Rourke, you know, 50.9 to 48.3. It was a close race. Republicans lost two congressional seats and a dozen seats in the state House because the Democrat turnout was grew and the Republican turnout was not as energized as it could have been in 2018. It was the. It was President Trump's first midterm. Well, now it's where second midterm. And even if Paxton wins, which is, I think, very much up for grabs, I mean, when he last ran, we didn't know all of this stuff. We didn't know about misuse of government funds or securities fraud. We're learning stuff today. A guy in for a lawyer in Waco, These attorney general has some special authorities in sex trafficking cases. And the Attorney General's office was involved in this case. And Waco, a lawyer had sexually abused the friend of his child, of his child for years. And he was found guilty. And the Attorney General's office said, well, let's give him time served, meaning, you know, like a couple of days in the pokey rather than 20 years. Even the judge said, I cannot believe that the state is recommending essentially no punishment for this man who committed this horrendous act of, well, guess what? Turned out his lawyer was the same lawyer of the corrupt business guy who gave him the fake Uber account. And paid for his girlfriend, his mistress to have a job in Austin and for whom the attorney general did favors. The attorney general literally appointed a, quote, special prosecutor whose only job it was to go after the creditors of the corrupt business guys. So anyway, the Democrats are going to, if Paxton is the nominee. And look, I, I say this, I'm a friend of John Cornyn's. I want to be clear about that. I've known him forever. We were young guys together in the Republican Party in Texas when they, when the state wasn't that Republican. But let's not kid ourselves. Paxton will be able to go around and say, this guy's a vegan and this guy says God is non binary and there are six genders. But the Democrats are going to say, you're a crook. And let's talk about the specifics. It's not going to be a pleasant year for Republicans in Texas if he's the nominee.

[Griff Jenkins]

And what you're describing there is what we call bringing the receipts. It's not just accusation you're making to sort of taint the candidate as being possibly poor character judgment. This is actual receipts. This is hard stuff that Texans are going to look at because Texans, I'll give you this, you guys are independent minded. You're going to do you love Donald Trump. Trump's very popular in Texas, but you are independent minded voters. And they're going to see this stuff.

[Carl Rove]

Yeah. And look, you know, here's a guy who admits committed to violating the whistleblower act, but he did so after delaying it and delaying it and delaying it so that he would not be put under oath and forced to testify in it. And finally, you know, when all of those legal opportunities ran out, he said, okay, I admitted I violated the whistleblower act and this and the penalty was $6.7 million. And he said, well, you know what? I'm not going to pay it. I'm going to leave it up to the legislature to pay it on my behalf.

[Jim Jordan]

Wow.

[Griff Jenkins]

We'll see where this goes. Karl Rove, my friend, thank you for joining us as always. Great insight. Thank you. And we may be talking about that center race as the midterms come up, more so than any other in the country, if this is really how it plays out.

[Allen West]

Yeah.

[Griff Jenkins]

All right.

[Carl Rove]

Well, thanks again for having me and congratulations for filling in.

[Griff Jenkins]

Thank you, Carl. Have a great day. And this is Griff Jenkins on the Brian Kilmean Show. Don't touch that dial.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Diving deep into today's top stories, it's Brian Killer Mead. Radio. That makes you think this is the Brian Kilmeade show?

[Griff Jenkins]

This is a Brian Kilmeade show. Griff Jenkins filling in for the great Brian Kilmeade today. And this radio show does make you think. And what we just heard from Karl Rove there certainly makes you think, wait a minute, could we actually see Red Texas turn blue in the Senate there? And we're going to talk in just moments from now with Senator John Cornyn and I'm going to ask him about all sorts of things and certainly what Carl just talked about. But you know that if for some reason the Republicans lost this Senate seat and James Tall Rico won, it would be a part of what Democrats are projecting is going to be this giant blue wave. And Karl Rove recently wrote a piece and we were talking about the primary because that's the news today down there. But he wrote a piece a while back talking about maybe the Republicans only shot at stopping a blue wave is the fact that people on the far left, particularly people like aoc, is going to do the job of saving the Republicans from defeat in the midterms. And that's because AOC in her very far left left politics is eyeing that 2028 presidential nomination. And she says she's not running whatever, she's got bigger ambitions. In fact, I'm about to play that for you. But before I do, I want you to realize that we are seeing her making a half a dozen or more presidential style stops all across the country in Alabama and Atlanta and elsewhere, rallying the troops to get behind the very issues that cost lost the Democrats election in every battleground state in the last election because of particularly at the top of the list were the open borders. She has been giving all these speeches saying that opposition to open borders, meaning wanting to have a secure border, makes you in some way a racist. She said things like billionaires can't make a billion dollars. It's not possible. They're not allowed to. But when she gets asked about is she running for president, this is what she's been saying, cut 30.

[Elizabeth Pipko]

They assume that my ambition is a title or a seat. My ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country. Presidents come and go, but single payer healthcare is forever, a living wage is forever, workers rights are forever, women's rights, all of that.

[Griff Jenkins]

You have to listen to politicians. They want will do what they say they want to do. And the key phrase there was she wants to change the country. And here in New York City we have Democratic socialist Zora Mamdani, AOC is a democratic socialist and what she wants to do. And we'll see what happens in Texas. You need to be paying attention. And that's why the Brian Kilmeade show makes you think.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kilmeade Show.

[Carl Rove]

All right.

[Griff Jenkins]

You want breaking news, you've come to the right place. The Brian Kilmeade Show. Griff Jenkins filling in for Brian today. And I say that we can break some news because we have a newsmaker on the line and that is the longtime serving Senator John Cornyn from the state of Texas in a primary battle of his life. Senators, it's great to have you here. Thanks us for joining, joining the program.

[John Cornyn]

You bet, Griff.

[Griff Jenkins]

You know, Senator, you probably couldn't hear it, but we were talking in a previous segment earlier in this hour with Karl Rove who said, listen, in full disclosure, I'm friends with Senator Cornyn for a long time, but he said, Griff, the concern is that there's so much baggage with Ken Paxton if he were actually going to win, it changes the dynamic of the race against a progressive left candidate who seems to have topped Bit o' Rourke in terms of saying some of the most outrageous things that voters aren't gonna vote for in Texas. But yet the baggage of his legal problems would be the focus of the Democrat attack on the Republican and the general, whereas you would be able to just simply go after the character of James Talarico. Now, Attorney General Ken Paxton spoke out on Fox and Friends about this claim that Paxton would be weaker in the general. And here's what he had to say. I want you to listen to it. I know you've heard it, but I played for you so our listeners can hear your response.

[Ken Paxton]

This is this argument is made by John Cornyn because he's having trouble in his own primary. There's no data that suggests that he's right. As a matter of fact, most of the polling suggests I'll do as well or better than John Cornyn. Secondly, I've already won three statewide races in a row, some of them by large margins. So that's ridiculous. But you're right. This focusing back on the real problem, James Talarico, this guy, we just heard some of his views and there are more views that are very strange and very strange things that he said. I think he was asked what he thinks about in his spare times and he said, I think about transgender children. That's a very strange response. And as you just heard, this idea that God is non binary, that there Are six genders is, I don't think, going to fly with Texans.

[Griff Jenkins]

We're going to get into telo. But first, Senator, your response. Would you be the stronger candidate in the general?

[John Cornyn]

Yeah, of course. Griff. Paxton's arrogance knows no bounds. And he's gotten more and more reckless over time because. Because he has gotten elected and he hasn't really been held accountable until now. But he's underestimating what the Democrats will do in November with somebody like James Talarico, who raised $27 million in the first quarter of this year alone. And there will be a tsunami of money coming into the state. And all of this that most general election voters have not really been paying attention to, particularly independents and some Democrats. This will be new fodder for the Talarico campaign. And I think there's a real risk that Paxton could lose, elect the first Democrat in statewide politics in Texas since 1994 and take the rest of the ticket down with him. I think that's a real risk.

[Griff Jenkins]

President Trump obviously gave his endorsement to Baxton, and as we've seen in several races before yours, the Trump endorsement is carrying a lot of weight. Have you had a chance to communicate with, speak with President Trump or what's your message to him?

[John Cornyn]

Well, President Trump has called me a friend and a good man, and I appreciate that. And I've been an ally of the president much of what he's accomplished in his first and second term. I've certainly helped him with particularly the confirmation of three new Supreme Court justices, some really important stuff. Stuff. And so I think the president is. My situation is a little different than Massey's or Cassidy's. He is frustrated, I think, with the Senate as a whole and the inability to get some things across the finish line. And I can tell you that the Senate being the Senate is a frustration to almost every president because things operate very slowly. But I'm in this, in this to help the president because I want him to be successful. I to want, want Republicans to win up and down the ballot. And I don't want to see him having to go through a third impeachment and another trial in the Senate, which he will if, if we lose the House.

[Griff Jenkins]

It's remarkable to me to consider that we heard for so many cycles previously that Red Texas was going to turn blue and it didn't happen. And now you're talking about Tel Rico's got this fundraising prowess and Paxton, if he were to win, Ton would carry a lot of legal baggage that Texans would look at. They're not going to not pay attention. And Karl Rove made a good point, noting that prior to this endorsement there was some polling asking Texans, Texas voters if they would be more likely or less likely to vote on to vote for Kemp extent if they, you know, now knowing what we know about the legal number of legal issues that he has and I believe Carl cited 47% said less likely likely. The Trump endorsement really changed the dynamic. But how concerned are you that should Paxton win that that that you're going to that seat's going to turn blue?

[John Cornyn]

Well, I know Texans and I know Texas and Tex in Texas, character still matters. And I think that's going to be, you know, the biggest problem that a Paxton candidacy will have in a general election. But here's, here's this. The strange thing about these kind of runoffs, there's only be maybe 8% of registered voters who will vote in this runoff. And we've been encouraging as many people as possible, including the 3/4 of registered voters in Texas that didn't vote in the primary. You can vote in the runoff. So 829,000 so far have voted in early voting and that's probably somewhere around 60% of registered voters. But I don't know why anybody would delegate to a small percentage of the registered voters their right to have a voice in who their, their senator will be in. And I think the better the turnout, the more, the better we will do. And I believe that it will demonstrate that once again that character does matter.

[Griff Jenkins]

You may have some of those Texas voters going to the ballot box right now in their car listening. And in these final moments, what's your final closing argument? What do you, what do you say? What's your message to them?

[John Cornyn]

Well, the real question is do, do Republicans want to win? And I want to win. I've spent most of my adult life trying to build the Republican Party in Texas and around the country through electing Republican senators. And I know that if you don't win elections, you can't govern and you have to play defense. We cannot turn this country back over to, to the tower Puerto Ricos who will govern like Barack Obama and, and Joe Biden. Democrats have gotten so radical and so far left. It's not like any Democrats we've known in the past. So this is, we're playing both defense and offense here. But I want to win. I want to help President Trump, I want to help America. And I think I'm the best qualified candidate in this run off to do that.

[Griff Jenkins]

It's remarkable to consider that James Talarico has made so many interesting statements that the Texas voters are like, what is he talking about? From God is non binary to their six sexes. And I think from the Texans I know that love eating red meat and ribs. His whole thing about saying he's vegan, then he shows up at a barbecue eating barbecue is among them. One of the most recent, though sort of puzzling things he had say is, is this one. I want to play this for you center and get your reaction. Cut 17. Oh, I'm sorry. Cut 18.

[James Talarico]

I think about someone like Pope Francis. I think about someone like Pope Leo. These are spiritual heroes of mine. Both of them are firmly opposed to abortion rights. So we disagree on that issue. I trust Texas women to make decisions about the their own bodies, to shape their own destinies in consultation with their family members, their doctors, their faith leaders. I don't believe that's a place for government. I don't believe it's a place for politicians. I don't believe it's a place for the state.

[Griff Jenkins]

I'm not sure Telo's spiritual BFF would agree on that position regarding abortion, but you hear stuff like that, Senator, and you wonder how, how is that going to be the, the candidate of, of one of the two parties in Texas?

[John Cornyn]

Yeah, I think Talarico presents a target rich environment and we'll need to be on offense the whole time. The problem with the Paxton candidacy is he'll be playing defense most of the time, trying to defend his, his irresponsible behavior, his lying to taxpayers, his senior staff, his, his own family. And if, if he does that, how, how in the world can we trust him and what he has to say? So I think Paxton will. This is what I think is being undervalued in terms of its impact on the general election. Is Paxton going to be playing defense almost on a daily basis? I, on the other hand, believe that I can go on offense because I won't have to defend all the baggage that Paxton has and I think have a chance of being more successful, successful in the general election and helping Republicans up and down the ticket, which I, which I am determined to do.

[Griff Jenkins]

Should you win, Senator, and go back to Washington and win in the general. You know, one of the criticisms, I believe it was in a social media post today with President Trump leaning into this endorsement, saying that among the other things he's frustrated with was the Save America Act. And that obviously is something the President Trump keeps indicating matters greatly to him. Would you see a path to passing the Save America act if you return if you win and to return after the midterms.

[John Cornyn]

Well, thanks for bringing that up, Griff, because I'm a co sponsor of the Save America act, work with Mike Lee in the Senate and support the talking filibuster and efforts to get this done. What I can't do is I can't, I can't force other senators to vote the way I vote, but I certainly support it. And in a normal world, in a world where Trump derangement syndrome isn't the dominant force in the Democratic Party, this would not be controversial. I mean, voting, requiring American citizenship or requiring a photo ID at the polls, I mean, that's. That enjoys broad bipartisan support in every poll I've ever seen. So I support the effort to get this done, and I'm committed to doing that. I said I'd even be open to revisiting the filibuster and how it actually operates under these circumstances. But there's a lot of misinformation out there and people, a lot of grifters who are trying to get famous and raise money claiming that I'm opposed to the president's agenda. And I think that's caused some confusion with the President himself, but I'm, I've been supportive.

[Griff Jenkins]

Well, we'll see where this race goes. It's certainly one that the entire country is watching. Central, thank you for taking time with us, and good luck. We'll see how it goes. And, and you have said, by the way, I think it's worth giving you credit for it, you have said that, hey, this may be shifting and we'll see what the results are, but you will ultimately support that Republican ticket.

[John Cornyn]

That's right. Thanks, Griff.

[Griff Jenkins]

All right, Senator, thank you very much. We'll see what happens. And this is Griff Jenkins filling in on the Brian Kilmeade Show. Don't touch that dial.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Newsmakers and news breakers, hear it first on the Brian Kilmeade show, The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmeade.

[Griff Jenkins]

We are not gonna get any of this with speeches alone or with any politician alone. No one is coming to save us. We need one thing, something the man speaking after me has been fighting for, for 60 years. We need a political revolution. All over this country, working people, including

[John Cornyn]

Republicans, understand that the economy is rigged, that the campaign, campaign finance system is

[Jim Jordan]

corrupt, that in fact, we need a political revolution.

[Griff Jenkins]

That was Senator Bernie Sanders and Democrat Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, the Nazi tattooed oysterman that keeps stepping in controversy after controversy. This is Griff Jenkins filling in for Brian Kilmeade on the great Brian Kilmeade Show. And what's amazing to me is that Senator Bernie Sanders, who I have argued has become the face of the Democratic because of his ability to continue to get socialist far left progressive candidates into primaries, to win primaries and to ultimately win elections, like we saw here in New York City, where I sit with Zoran Mamdani. What's remarkable to me is that, well, there's two things. First, that it appears that Democrats are not vetting their candidates anymore because a lot of the controversies that Graham Platner are dealing with right now are controversial that a vetting campaign person would have certainly have found. The other surprising part is that Bernie Sanders continues to stand behind Graham Platner despite the damning evidence and receipts being brought, as they say, about these candidates. One of the main issues that should be a disqualifying issue for a senatorial candidate were the Reddit post that people dug up that Graham Platner said about Private First Class Ted Daniels. Private First Class Ted Daniels is a Afghanistan army veteran that had on his social media helmet cam video of a moment when he was shot where his unit came under heavy fire. They were being attacked and pinned down. And Daniels felt that the best move he could move do was to move into the open in the line of the fire to draw away the threat against his unit. He was given a Purple Heart for his valor and he was shot. Unfortunately, left on a Reddit post, you had Graham Platner, who goes out there and says that he was a dumb mfer and that he didn't deserve to live. And so Fox News Digital went up to Maine and approached Graham Platner and said, hey, would you like to take that back? Here's how that went. Listen, I did four tours the infantry.

[Carl Rove]

Any attempt to say that I didn't

[Griff Jenkins]

disrespect veterans is slanderous and offensive.

[Felix Rosenquist]

Do you think you owe him an apology?

[Carl Rove]

Do you know how many of my friends had Purple Hearts?

[Griff Jenkins]

Do you know how many of my friends got wounded? So that's a hard no. By the way, to credit Private First Class Ted Daniels. He talked to the New York Post and said, you know what? At this point, I don't want the apology. It wouldn't hold any water. No need for him to apologize. What he wants is he wants Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and AOC and every far left progressive that's supporting Graham Platner to say to Daniel's children's faces that they are supporting a candidate who doesn't want their dad to live. Now, I will also give credit to Democrat Congressman Jake Auchincloss, who, by the way, is a veteran, a Marine himself, who fought in Afghanistan where Private First Class Ted Daniels did. He's saying, hold on, this is unacceptable. Along with the Nazi tattoo. Listen here. No weighing in on Graham Platner. I've been clear about Graham Platner. I find that tattoo and his commentary about it to be personally disqualifying. I hope Maine voters agree with me. I think that it would be a mistake for the Democratic Party to think that Graham Platner's brand of the Democratic Party is what wins us durable majority throughout this country. Wow. So we'll see where where that goes. But here is up in Maine this candidate who gets into a whole number of controversies and that's by far the only thing that is disqualifying for Graham Plattner. Susan Collins is going to have her hands full though, because you're seeing the energy in the Democrat Party is in this far progressive socialists left and the the oysterman with the Nazi tattoo seems to be only turning up the heat. We'll be back on the Brian Kilmeade show.

[Brian Kilmeade]

From the FOX News radio studios in midtown Manhattan. It's the fastest growing radio talk show, Brian, Kill me.

[Griff Jenkins]

This is the Great Brian Kilmeade Show. Griff Jenkins here pinch hitting for the great Brian Kilmeade. And what a day of news we have. I seem to say that every day. And one of the issues that election after election continues to be made clear is that the Congress economy is at the heart of all politics. James Carville, of course, coined with that phrase, it's the economy, stupid. James Carville said a lot of pretty crazy things now lately, but that one still rings true, to be fair to him. And whether you're on the east coast, the west coast or in the heartland, the decisions you make as the head of a household or a spouse for your children are based on economic decisions. And President Trump has taken a lot of different routes to restoring the economy after being decimated under the Biden administration. And we are fortunate to have joining us on the Brian Kilmeade Show a guy that actually can not speak in political one line but drill into the actual issues on the economy and the policy. That's Judge Glock, the director of research and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Judge, it's so great to have you and, you know, someone of your expertise. I have to really think about the questions I'm going to Ask to make sure I'm setting you up to explain to people because Americans are confused maybe by this economy. Right now. We see obviously President Trump making all sorts of deals with countries. Just got back from China and we've seen and heard so much about the tariffs, which have been so politicized. And you wrote a great piece saying that industrial policy is not populist. And you sort of start with the Biden Infrastructure act, which just sent a boatload of billions of dollars out to companies versus the industrial policy of the Trump administration. And I want to say set you up to sound off because it's so educational for the great listeners to the Brian Kilmeade show. But before we get there, because you understand the economy, I think a lot of Americans are wondering, hey, so gas prices are killing me. But at the same time, we're also seeing that GDP is growing, it's up a little bit. And I'm hearing inflation is slowing ever so much. And so an average American right from is the economy good right now and is it good for me? What do you say to them?

[Judge Glock]

So it's clearly much better than it was just a few years ago, which I think we can all be very thankful for. So, as you mentioned, inflation, the cost of living is probably the number one issue in American politics right now, and for good reason. Nothing impacts your average American as much as rising prices. And the reason President Trump is sitting in the White House right now is because of the inflation explosion we saw during the Biden administration, which hit the highest level it had hit in basically 40 years, almost 9% a year. That can be really devastating for people's daily lives, for their pocketbooks, for their, for their household budgeting because wages did not keep up as fast. And so you actually saw very sharp decline in real income for families during those Biden years. So inflation, as you mentioned, has come down and people are grateful for that. But it's not down to the level that most Americans want it to be, or that it was, say, in the 2010s, which was a much more manageable level of inflation. Right now, that 3% or so a year inflation means your average dollar, you're taking home, your fixed income bonds that you have, those are all still losing value at a pretty rapid clip. And Americans are really hopeful that, that inflation get down maybe to the 2% percent target, or if I, if I had my way, of course, we get down to 0% and have none of your dollars lose value over the long term. But we got a long way to go to get there. And I think Americans are holding their breath until that happens.

[Griff Jenkins]

A long way to go to get there. You take me back to the old Smokey and the Bandit theme song. I don't know if you remember Smokey and the Bandit, the movie. There's the eastbound and down, loaded up and drugging. We got long way to go. But you think about the reality of these gas prices right now affecting Americans, and we don't have a long Runway. Even if President Trump gets a deal with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz has opened up, it would take time for that to fall, right?

[Judge Glock]

It will, and it'll take a little bit. And, but the, the oil markets right now are showing some optimism that the deal will be put in place, that the oil prices will begin falling low later this year, and that we can expect to see some relief at the pump before too, too long. Now, the old line in economics is a lot of these prices rise like a rocket and fall like a feather. And that might be the case here is that you saw this incredible run up right immediately after the Iran war, and it's going to take a long, slow period of decline before they get back to those previous levels again. And, you know, gas prices are, they're a big part of people's paycheck check, obviously. But I think the main reason they hit home so, so hard is we have those giant numbers that we pass by on the highway and on the, the big roads every day when we're driving by. And so on one level, it's just a symbol. We all know those numbers probably more better than we know any other price in the entire economy. But another level, it's just a big chunk of cash that we all have to fork out, and it's going to be at least a little bit before they come down, even though I'm pretty optimistic they're going to hit their, their previous level before too, too long, if

[Griff Jenkins]

it's interesting, because the oil markets, in terms of a deal with Iran and what's unfolding in the Middle east, and I want to get your read on it, which will be more informed than mine, but it does appear that the oil markets seem to be showing some confidence that it's going to end up for the better.

[Judge Glock]

Exactly. They do not think the Straits of Hormuz will be closed, closed indefinitely. They think there will be a deal. They think the, the ships and the tankers will start flowing out of the straits again, which is obviously much to be hoped for. And, you know, the, I, I tend to be a believer in markets and markets are, are probably right in this case, it's you and I can pontificate and we have good opinions and bad opinions maybe, but those people got their money on the line. When you got your money in the line, you have a good reason to make sure you're right about things. And right now I think they're right that a deal is going to come and the prices are going to come back down. But again, they're predicting it'll take just a little bit.

[Griff Jenkins]

I think they call that skin in the game. Judge, I want to go into though, because I thought your piece the Industrial Policy is Not Populist was so fascinating because when I look at, and I think what was it, 115,000 jobs added in April or something, and, and you look at the increase in jobs under the previous administration in this one, and a glaring reality is that many of the jobs added under the Biden administration were government jobs and many of the Trump new administration jobs that are being added are private sector. But you in your piece lay out really the difference in industrial policy between the two administrations. What? Walk us through that.

[Judge Glock]

So, yeah, I mean, part of the piece was trying to show that, you know, there's this general argument in the press that we live in a populous age, which I think is tough to argue with. And the populists are suspicious of both business and government, which again I think is tough to argue with. But then you also hear the argument in the press we live in an age of industrial policy where the government is going to help out particular businesses in particular ways. And to my mind, that's obviously anti hypothetical to populism. Populists don't like the government giving special deals to businesses, tax credits and government loans and handouts and bailouts and all the rest of it. This is obviously one of the things that motivated the Tea party in the 2010s, the bailouts of the big banks. And to my mind, with very good reason, the people are right to be suspicious about handouts to corporations and tax credits and so forth. And as I was trying to show, politicians have somehow been very capable at dressing up this industrial policy in populist language. And as you mentioned, I mentioned Biden administration, which in the infrastructure bill, in the so called inflation Reduction act, which is obviously one of the great efforts in rebranding in American political history to take a big spending bill that was going to jack up prices and call it the inflation Reduction act and things like the CHIPS act, all of those things the Biden administration said, said clearly, this is for about good workers and getting good jobs in the American economy. Then you look at the act and you didn't have to look that hard. And what did you see? The government giving hundreds of billions of dollars of tax credits to favored green corporations. The government giving tens of billions of dollars to semiconductor firms that had no need for it. They were in one of the greatest booms in American economic history that were just fleeting, flooded with cash. And in the, the infrastructure bill, giving these billions to clean hydrogen hubs and electric vehicle companies. And all of this, it was patently insane. Nobody on the campaign trail was saying, please, please, voters, vote for me, so I will give hundreds of billions of dollars to green corporations and tax credits. They didn't frame it like that, but that's what these acts were actually doing. So I was just trying to point out this incredible. One could call it disconnect or one could call it hypocrisy, that we were all using this language of populism to talk about good manufacturing jobs or what the government was doing most especially under Biden. But I think to some extent we can talk about that. Under Trump, the government was trying to form industrial policy as a populist effort when it was obviously the most completely opposite to that.

[Griff Jenkins]

Yeah. And, you know, perhaps part of that new populist Democrat message is that you can't earn a billion dollars. But we'll have to leave that Judge Glock for another day. Thank you for joining us on the Brian Kilmeade Show. It's great having you.

[Judge Glock]

Thank you so much for having me.

[Griff Jenkins]

All right. And this is Griff Jenkins filling in on the Great Brian Kilmeade Show. We'll be back after this.

[Brian Kilmeade]

It's Brian Kilme, The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmeade.

[Griff Jenkins]

Well, unfortunately, you're not with Brian Kilmeade today. You are with the Great Brian Kilmeade Show. However, it's Griff Jenkins filling in for the great Brian Kilmeade. And we are talking about political issues that traditionally are often talked about but seem to have fallen to the wayside for social engineering issues. If it's the Democrats that are driving it, like talking about transgenders in sports. But we are talking about issues that matter to Americans, regardless of whether you're Republican, Democrat or independent. We just spent time talking there with Judge Glock about the economy, whether it's actually going well. And another thing that the Trump administration has done that matters to voters is the issue of health care and a little bit of fraud. We'll get into that in a second. But we have the honor now to bring on the program a guy that knows a lot about Trump rx and I know you've heard about it. I don't know if you know exactly just how beneficial this could be specifically to you listening to that. John Stanford is the founder and executive director of incubate, the national organization of venture capital firms united to support early stage life science innovation. And John, it's great to have you on the show. I think that if I'm correct, if I'm wrong, but you have met with Dr. Oz, you've met with White House staff as they were rolling out the Trump rx. And ultimately this is Trump Rx is, I'm paraphrasing for the layman, you can go deeper as a bit of a sort of digital aggregator, a website or coupon saver to help Americans to compare prices and find out where discounts are available. Walk us through the significance. How is Trump RX going and will it work?

[John Stanford]

Well, Griff, first, you did a terrific job. So there's not too much deeper to go. So thanks for having me on. Trump RX is a new form of way patients are going to access medicine because frankly, our health insurance system's completely broken. And so a lot of credit to President Trump. And it was great to see him join with Mark Cuban, who's been on this. And I was with Mark a couple weeks ago ago talking about health insurance has gotten so out of hand that it makes more sense for people to just pay cash for their medicines. And what President Trump has built through Trump rx, like you said, is this aggregator site. And so for anyone with any prescription, you should be checking it out because America's all about choice. We're all about competition. And the reality is we've gotten to a place with medicines where you want to be able to see, should I just be buying this thing to direct instead of through middlemen. And you know, in D.C. we've been talking about middlemen for the better part of a decade. President Trump got the middlemen out of this site. And so now you as a patient, if your drug's on there, you can go on and buy it. And I think that's just a sign of how much work we have to do to reform our broken healthcare system.

[Griff Jenkins]

And you're so right, John, to point out the fact that a guy like Mark Cuban, who has not been complimentary towards President Trump on a number of issues, says, wait a minute, this One, I'll cross the lines. This is actually Americans, particularly seniors, that are paying so much for drugs. And, you know, I'm struck by when they rolled out Trump Rx and in this way that, you know, you guys, and then the White House has come up with to find cheaper medicine. I thought, wait a wait, hold on. I remember covering Obamacare and Obamacare passed. I thought we were getting that. Wasn't Obamacare, the ACA going to delay deliver that? But it didn't.

[John Stanford]

It really didn't. And the reason why is we continue to leave this bureaucracy in between the patient and their doctor. You get sick, your doctor prescribes you a medicine, you should be able to take it. I mean, the insurers paint this position that we're gonna all be wanting to take these drugs that we don't need. But who's out there wanting to take keytruda for cancer when they're not prescribed by their drug? And so we got to this place where we're totally out of whack, where it doesn't make any sense. If your doctor prescribes a drug and you have insurance, you should be able to access that drug not two weeks later after you've spent six days on the phone getting prior authorization. And so we do great things in this country. We invent the best medicines in the world, but we are standing between the patient being able to access them. And so I think we're going to see more of this, these cash markets in the years to come until we really find a way, you know, these out of pocket deductibles. We're not talking about $20 here, $50 there. We're talking about asking Americans to pay the first five or ten grand of their health care costs when they've been paying premiums for decades. And so this is something that needs a lot of attention. I know the president's gonna jump on this. I know he wants to see a lot more done to rein in these abusive reforms. You know, all the talk of PBMs, there's more to do. And I think that's where the president's gonna put a lot of affordability emphasis.

[Griff Jenkins]

I hope he does. And like I said, we've taken the last half hour to hit the economy with Judge Glock in the previous one. We hit a little bit of health care here. And you're so right. And it matters. These are the kitchen table issues that matter to Americans. It's interesting because we were talking a little bit about Obamacare, by the way you talk about healthcare there. We are now seeing the uncovering of massive fraud nationwide. And on FO and Friends this morning I interviewed Montana's Attorney General Knudsen and he was talking about some $37 million in Medicare or Obamacare fraud that the state of Montana clawed back. And you look at some of the other cases, are you seeing that really one of the possible solutions to getting where you talk about better health care is, is to also fold in some of that fraud. Address that as well.

[John Stanford]

I think it's certainly a place to look for where are the dollars going? You know, we spend so much, we spend a sixth of our economy on healthcare. And you know, sometimes politicians on both sides, but especially in the Democratic Party, a lot of people want to point to the drug development ecosystem. My peers who are trying to bring new medicine medicines to patients. But imagine if we targeted that energy somewhere else. Why is an Advil in a hospital costing a thousand bucks instead of a nickel? You know, these are the kinds of conversations we want to have. So something I'm excited about, the current environment, the uncovering of this fraud, Trump Rx, things like that. We need to be celebrating that this is where biotech and new medicine should thrive.

[Griff Jenkins]

Yep.

[John Stanford]

We shouldn't be trying to squeeze that part of the ecosystem, the part we do really well, which China is nipping at our heels.

[Griff Jenkins]

Oh, that's for sure. John. We got to leave it there. Great insight as always. Thanks for joining us. This is Griff Jenkins from the Brian Kilme Show.

[Brian Kilmeade]

He's so busy he you'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmeade.

[John Bolton]

Well, I hope the negotiations break down because every day that goes by is a gift to Iran. It gives them 24 more hours to recover from the pummeling they took during the six weeks of US Israeli attack. It gives them time to try and reconstitute their government which increasingly looks dysfunctional and decision making capability. And it postpones the day of reckoning ultimately when the threat that they pose to the to control over the Strait of Hormuz is resolved in a way that they never come back and do it again. I think the cease fire was a mistake. I think these negotiations are a mistake. I think we're on the verge of something that ultimately history will decide was a catastrophic loss for the United States.

[Griff Jenkins]

That was former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton just throwing all kinds of cold water on the Iran negotiations. This is Griff Jenkins filling in for the Brian Kilmeade Show. And we are lucky right now to have former GOP National Spokeswoman Elizabeth Pipko joining us. Elizabeth, thank you. So I'm playing that because there's so much to unpack. And like John Bolton, I get it. So the love is lost between Bolton and President Trump. But at the same time, the guy that was the national security advisor, the guy literally that should have been the individual worrying about the Iran threat, now witnessing the only US President of our life that was willing, really, any in history that was willing to take on an Iranian Islamic regime that 47 years has been killing Americans, for which there are countless American Heroes in Section 60 in Arlington National Cemetery that are dead because of this IRGC regime. And he is rooting for negotiations to fall through, lest he even forgets about the fact that the president is also looking to fundamentally change the Middle east. If you can get countries like Saudi Arabia in the UAE and others to normalize relations with Israel. What do you make of this?

[Elizabeth Pipko]

Well, it's. It's a complicated topic because I think when it comes to John Bolton, everybody kind of looks at him in one specific way now. Everything that he did prior to serving President Trump is kind of out the window. And now everybody sees him as, you know, the guy who parted ways with the president and, you know, not the friendliest terms. And so when you listen to him, it's hard to not, you know, think that it's personal. I think most people either dislike him for his views already or people on the right dislike him for the way that he kind of jumped ship and parted ways, let's say, with Donald Trump. So I think it's hard to listen to him and actually take his word at the same time. Even if you were to give him full confidence, it's hard to take anybody's word who's not in the physical room having these conversations. Right. It's very easy to sit on Twitter, for example, and argue about what should be done when it comes to Iran. It's easy to criticize folks for not yet having a deal or for consideration considering a deal to begin with, when most people having those conversations or feeling confident to share their opinions online don't actually have any clue what is being discussed. Right. They're not at the table. They have no idea. Just like it's easy to say, I wouldn't have wanted this conflict to start to begin with if I were President Trump. I wouldn't have done this to begin with. Unless you have seen the threats that Iran poses, unless you have the actual national security information that protects our country, it is impossible to say what you would or would not have done so. I think for John Bolton, his opinion unfortunately is irrelevant for all sorts of reasons. Mostly the fact that he's not in the room. That's me being very kind to him. But when it comes to the conflict in general, I think Donald Trump said it best. I believe it was yesterday he said we're having a good deal signed or having no deal signed. So I think for all those that are, you know, being critical again before the information has been brought out to the public by this president, I think we should feel pretty safe in the fact that he wants America's national security interests to be protected and in a way like they never have before. You mentioned previous presidents failing every time to address this threat, kind of kicking the ball down, making sure the next administration has to deal with it. I'm constantly explaining to folks that that Obama Iran deal was a horrible deal. It really just delayed the IRGC's ability to have a nuclear weapon. It did not actually stop them in any way. And that's why President Trump is actually dealing with this right now and trying to make sure no future president has to make the same decisions.

[Griff Jenkins]

And I'm glad you raised at. It's exactly the position of President Trump that look, he is trying to choose, he is trying to show patience, I would argue for diplomacy, but at the same time saying that there's either going to be a good deal or no deal at all, which is where John Bolton wants to take it, which is back to war fighting and the whole no dust, no dollars is a pretty simple way to communicate to the Iranian regime. It's unclear, by the way, we should point out exactly who we're negotiating with. And I would say the IRGC commander Ahmad Vahidi does, but Marco Rubio does have a seat at that table. He is a player, he's overseas and he's, he's, I think, Elizabeth, really clear eyed about explaining the situation which the Iranians are clearly listening to. I want to play a little bit of this. It's a little hard to hear, but it's really important. This is cut three.

[Marco Rubio]

Listen, the streets have to be open. They're going to be open one way or the other. So they need to be open. What's happening with there is unlawful, it's illegal, it's unsustainable for the world. It's unacceptable. I don't know of any country in

[John Cornyn]

the world that does it.

[Marco Rubio]

The Russians are not in favor of a tolling system. The Chinese are not in favor of a tolling system. I mean, there's no country in the world that's in favor of a tolling system except the regime in Iran. So that's not acceptable. That cannot happen. The straits need to be open unimpeded without tolls. And obviously that needs to happen to me as soon as anything.

[Griff Jenkins]

So obviously he's traveling. And that's a pool audio, but I wanted to play it because you've got the threat of the uranium and President Trump is saying that there won't be a deal unless you hand that over. But the other part is the Strait of Hormuz, which is obviously causing political headaches domestically because of high gas prices. But ultimately Rubio there is very clear eyed about the global impact of opening up that strait. And it sort of underscores the question of exactly how many cards is Iran holding about holding the straight hostage versus them being forced to the negotiating table because their economy is on the brink of collapse.

[Elizabeth Pipko]

It is. And I don't think enough people want to talk about that because they don't want to give the president credit for what he's been able to do in these last few months. And I think the reality is unfortunately that President Trump, Senator, excuse me, Secretary Rubio, most people, I think, that are involved in this situation are the American side have a lot more invested interest really in keeping innocent Iranians alive than the IRGC does. And I think you mentioned it before you played that clip, the president, Secretary Rubio, these are folks that are practicing immense patience, very, very heavily committed to the diplomatic process, who want to make sure we don't have to use military capabilities which our country very much has to destroy Iran. That's what we want to avoid. And I think it cannot. Economic pressure is the best pressure. That's what any leadership, whoever remains, is worried about. They're actually not worried about the livelihood of those protesters that they were slaughtering themselves before this started. And Griff, you mentioned it before you played that cliff as well. Senator, excuse me. Wow. I'm living in the past.

[Griff Jenkins]

Secretary Rubio, it's an easy mistake to make. I make it all the time.

[Elizabeth Pipko]

He's not speaking to Americans here. Right. He's speaking to the Iranian leadership that is listening. That's what you said. And I think the secretary knows this is the best way to do so because he can sit very safely over here and let them know exactly what we're thinking, exactly what we will not put up with. Right. And it's also Russia, it's also China. Our adversaries all around the world are listening to the secretary, wondering what he's thinking, what we're going to put up with and what we will allow to continue while we, like you said, wait it out for those diplomatic resolutions really to work out because if they don't, they know very much so what we're capable of and what will happen to whatever remains really of the irgc.

[Griff Jenkins]

Yeah, we'll see where it goes. And you know, for John Bolton, it's like gone are the days when politics stopped at the water's edge, rooting against a good deal, which would be historic, unprecedented. I want to shift gears though, with you because I know you'll have something to say about this. We'll go from Tehran to Texas. Texans are at the polls as we speak, choosing between Ken Paxton and John Cornyn. We had John Cornyn on the program earlier and we talked to him. He made his case and his case is, is, is a, is a valid case. He's saying that he is the better candidate to face James Talarico, who seems to be a newer version of Beto o' Rourke if you consider the number of crazy things he keeps saying about God being non binary. Six sexes, not two in a long list of things which include, by the way, I'm a vegan and then he's in photos eating barbecue. But, but Cornyn's arguing that the legal baggage that Ken Paxton brings into this changes the dynamic of the race. Because if Paxton wins, and it does look like he probably will because of the weight of a Donald Trump endorsement, which he got that, that the, the Republican candidate, Paxton will be totally on the defense, whereas John Cornyn can just be on the offense all the time, simply going after Talarico. Weird positions and things he said. How do you assess it?

[Elizabeth Pipko]

Well, he's obviously right that I think Texans that are heading to the polls are thinking about this. Right. They might even prefer to vote for Paxton. But then of course, worry about what comes next. I mean, Tellarico is, you know, they're, they're a nightmare of a candidate, I think, for most Texans. So I completely agree with Cordynan's analysis that that is maybe a great way to try and, you know, win over whatever he can, whatever, you know, is left when it comes to, to undecided voters who have to vote today. However, I think when you have already served the people of Texas, when you're really advocating for yourself to get that privilege continuing on, you should have more of an argument than I'm going to be a better guy to win against a Democrat. Right. You should have a better argument about what you've been able to bring to the table. I think it's very important to be able and sit there and own your record and say, I have been able to deliver A, B, C and D, and this is what I will do next. And he's unable to do that, unfortunately. There's a reason this is happening. It's because when President Trump said we need to pass the Save America act, several senators across the country did not want to stand with him. That's what the people of Texas are thinking about today. And I think for Paxton, that's a good thing, because they're not voting really based on who's going to have a better chance against Telo, though it's in the back of their minds. They're voting based on who's going to deliver for them. And I think it's actually very unfortunate if you've had that privilege to serve good American people for this long and you can't point to your own record as the main reason you should continue in that seat. That's a problem.

[Griff Jenkins]

Oh, you hit the nail on the head, Elizabeth. And President Trump was on social media this morning leaning into his endorsement of Pakistan, and he cited specifically that Save America Act, a bill, by the way, that Cornyn was a co sponsor of. But yet it does sort of, as you're. You insightfully point out, it sort of lays bare the president's frustration with the inaction of the Senate. And leaving corn in there doesn't do anything to move the needle on that. I wonder, though, you know, when I look at James Talarico and even more so up in Maine, the Nazi tattooed oysterman who is disparaging veterans like Graham Platner up in Maine, you wonder if Democrats stopped vetting their candidates.

[Elizabeth Pipko]

People ask me this all the time, and I think it's, you know, a combination of things. I think, number one, they are vetting, but they're vetting for very different things, right? They're vetting for if this man has maybe ever posted something positive about President Trump. They're vetting for things that are going to upset that far left fringe fraction of their base. They're not vetting for basic things anymore. I feel like basic political discourse, basic, you know, values that we used to hold, basic Republicans, requirements that we wanted for our politicians, those kind of went out the window when President Trump won in 2016 and everyone decided that the race was really for those who like him versus those who hate him. That's all that they want in these different races around the country. It's very disappointing. But I think for them, they would have actually not wanted to support him if he was more of a moderate, if he was more common sense, if he had said something positive about folks on the right. For them, this tattoo does not bother them. I was very happy to see. I think a Democrat from Massachusetts, a congressman yesterday said that that tattoo is disqualifying in his eyes, but it is much more than that tattoo. I think standing on a stage with Bernie Sanders and pledging socialism should be disqualifying. Unfortunately, that's a benefit for many on the left right now.

[Griff Jenkins]

And it does seem, by the way, that that's such a good point about the one box basically they vet for is do you hate Donald Trump? Yes. Have you said anything nice about him ever? No. Perfect will run you despite the Nazi tattoo on your chest or any of the but it's interesting when you look at sort of the nationwide impact and you can look no further than the election in New Jersey of Ena Lilla Mejia, very far left progressive, you see that the Bernie Sanders far left progressive socialist energy is the driving energy right now in the Democrat party. You agree?

[Elizabeth Pipko]

100%. And for those that say that it's not, I would ask them to try and hold a rally and see how many people you can fill. Right. See who fills that arena. Is it a moderate candidate or is it a far left candidate? Is it someone who gets, for example, an endorsement of Nancy Pelosi or someone who gets the endorsement of Bernie Sanders? Everybody knows where the energy is and they can try to shy away from that, but we all know that's what the DNC is actually most worried about going into these midterms and going into 2028. They have to kind of keep a certain message publicly while internally making sure that they're letting their own folks know that they are as far left and as progressive as they want them to be. Because that is the only way to rally folks, to get them angry and enough to vote in midterms, for example, and to make sure that they know that they're working for them. This is what the fringe wants. And I keep calling it the fringe because I think deep down I'm hopeful. But I think if you asked majority blue voters under the age of 30, they would say socialism is the future. And that is a major problem with the Democrat Party allowed to happen.

[Griff Jenkins]

It's a frightening prospect for the country and the country that the younger Gen Z Gen zers will live in. But you're right about one thing. If you get an old guy from the Northeast chanting about farting. The oligarchy, the oligarchy, billionaires. Then you're gonna turn out more people. Elizabeth Pipko, thank you so much. Great insight as always.

[Elizabeth Pipko]

Thank you for having me.

[Griff Jenkins]

All right, this is Griff Jenkins on the great Brian Kilmeade Show. We'll be back.

[Brian Kilmeade]

Don't go anywhere. Brian Kilmeade will be right. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kilmeade show, sponsored by Prevagen. Prevagen made for your brain.

[Carl Rove]

Every racetrack was Kyle Busch's home. He competed like he had something to prove every single race, when in reality, he'd already proven everything.

[Griff Jenkins]

That's Steve o', Donnell, the NASCAR CEO, weighing in and saluting the legend, NASCAR driver Kyle Busch. This is Griff Jenkins filling in on the Brian Kilmeade Show. And you know, as a race fan and fans of motor sports, from the Indy 500 to NASCAR, our Worlds have been rocked by the tragic death of Kyle Busch, 41 years old. But to Steve O' Donnell's point, he sure had proven everything. Literally 230 NAS, 234 NASCAR victories against the three Cup Series. And, you know, there was a moment at the Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend on Sunday when these tributes were happening and you had Kyle's family and his and his young son Brexton, who was going to grow up and be a racer just like his dad. You had Daniel Suarez, who won the Coca Cola 600 that day, talking about just how much Kyle Busch meant to him. And it was one of the more touching tributes I can recognize. Remember, listen here.

[Daniel Suarez]

My relationship with Cal back in 2015. Cal and I, we used to be on the phone every single week because he was helping me trying to understand what I needed to look for, trying to understand the racetrack. Back then, we didn't have smt. We didn't have data. So everything was by feel. If you had experience, you had an advantage. He didn't have to help me, you know, he didn't have to help this Mexican kid that can barely speak English. He was already a legend of the sport. And he took the time every single week to help me. And that, for me, spoke very, very highly of not who he is as a driver, but who he is as a person.

[Griff Jenkins]

In that tribute by Daniel Suarez is so very important because those of you who watch NASCAR well know, and even if you just watched from a distance, everybody knew Kyle Busch was the guy that fans love to hate. He was the villain because of his antics. Particularly after races when he would lose. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Giving tribute because those two had a feud. They hated each other, and many of The Dale Earnhardt Jr. Fans hated Kyle Busch with a passion because of the rivalry. But yet Dale Earnhardt Jr. Also speaking to the character that Kyle Busch really was as a human, and it just simply talks and shows and demonstrates what a fierce competitor he was. Cal Bush, number eight, a legend. This has been Griff Jenkins with the A great honor filling in with Brian Kilme for Brian Kilmeade on the Brian Kilmeade Show. Hope everybody has a good day. And don't remember, don't forget to remember. Cal Bush.