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Welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and thanks for joining us this week. We've got some fun things we're going to do. We're going to call into one of my favorites, Brian Kilmeade, one of the hardest working guys in television and radio. You know him from Fox and Friends. And for those of you more on the West Coast, maybe you don't see Brian as often, the guy starts at 6 a.m. East Coast time, works till 9, then from 9 to noon, he's a good guy.
He's recording and doing his Brian Kilmeade radio show, and he's also got books out. So we're going to talk to him. We're going to phone him and should have a good conversation because he's just he's got a fascinating background. How he ended up working at Fox and look forward to calling him.
We're going to give some thoughts on the news, and then, of course, we're going to highlight the stupid because, you know, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. So looking forward today to Colin, Brian, and Kilmeade. But first, I want to give a little riff on some of the news items that are out there. And look, this stuff changes every hour, so we'll see how it goes. But
This whole idea of a vaccine mandate, something that is going to be required of private companies. I'm glad to see that Senator Braun, Senator Mike Lee have really been pushing the envelope to get people to force a vote. There's a procedural way to actually make this vote happen in the United States Senate and on the floor of the House.
despite whatever the leaders want to do. And I think you're going to see that it's going to be a bipartisan effort of people on the record, should this or should this not be in place. And I just don't think it should. I don't think your ability to earn a livelihood should be based on whether or not the government has injected you with a vaccine. I also think there are lots of viable vaccine people out there that say, I just don't want to get it for whatever reason. Maybe they had COVID.
Maybe they're pregnant and going to have a baby and there hasn't been any testing done on what that might do to a baby. I've had the vaccine fully. My wife's had it, but I'm not here to say that it's for everyone all the time. And there's breakthroughs, right? So...
Sometimes people with vaccine get COVID. Sometimes they don't. It's a very dangerous precedent that we're walking down to suggest that the government can inject you with something that, quite frankly, you may or may not want.
As much as I'm convinced it might be good for you, it doesn't mean that you're convinced that it's good for you. So that's not what a suspicionless American who's done nothing else wrong should have to endure. So this is going to come up for a vote, and I'm glad to see, and I hope everybody's paying attention to how their representative and how their senators vote. Also concerned about Russia. Russia's knocking on again on the door of
of Ukraine. Now, remember, they went and took the Crimea region of Ukraine. They did this previously under the Biden administration when he was there with Barack Obama.
So Crimea has also fallen in the past. Now the prevailing thought is that Russia is going to go in and take more. That's because they don't feel a threat. They don't think that there's going to be any repercussions, serious repercussions from a Joe Biden. You also have China knocking on the door and pushing the envelope there in Taiwan. Prevailing thought there is that sometime after the Olympics, the Chinese might make a move.
And you'll have to have a lot of other rogue nations and rogue regimes and terrorist organizations making moves because they don't feel like there's going to be a consequence. You know, look at Joe Biden and what he's doing on our southern border.
Do you really think we're going to protect the borders of Taiwan if we don't even protect our own borders here in the United States? I mean, there's no consequence for criminals here. If Joe Biden and the Democrats had their way, they just they don't seem to want to think that there needs to be.
for petty theft, for instance. In California, they move up the threshold to $1,000. So guess what? They just never enforce it. Cops don't even show up anymore. Consequently, you have these brazen attacks on stores. I'm just saying it's the same type of mentality when you look at it on the world stage and big players. Is there going to be a consequence? Is there a policeman, if you will, on the block that's going to catch me, embarrass me,
And are there going to be consequences that are far greater than whatever the crime is that I may commit? That principle is true if you're a small business or small community or a petty theft, or if you're a big world player like Vladimir Putin and he's making a decision as to whether or not going in and taking more of Ukraine might be in the best interest of Russia. What are the repercussions? Yeah, I can live with it.
you know, it's kind of the thing. I mean, look, Russia went in and took about, I believe it was 25% of Georgia, the country of Georgia, uh, not nearly the type of pushback from Europe and the United States that there should have been, could have been, and probably even could be, uh,
if they were serious about making sure that Russia didn't continue to expand its borders. All right, I also want to talk about what's going on at CNN. CNN's having some problems, to say the least. Think of the far cry. When I was younger and CNN and we were at war and there were all kinds of things going on, Wolf Blitzer was out there and at the Iraq, you know, CNN was a network to be reckoned with. I mean, that's where you turn to get the international news.
think of where they've gravitated to over the time under the leadership of Jeff Zucker. You know, you can look at the Cuomo situation. You can look at the Jeffrey Toobin situation. You can look at a variety of different scandals that they have had and what has been the consequence of those scandals. What has been the leadership out of that? What had been the lessons learned? And you know what? Jeff Zucker still at the helm of CNN.
I don't understand how Jeffrey Toobin pulls down his pants in a company call on Zoom with lots of other people out there and starts doing his thing and then just gets suspended for a little bit. How do you keep your job as a legal analyst for a news network going?
When that's what you do in public, that makes absolutely no sense. Oh, I made a mistake. A mistake? Come on. And I tell you what, if more stuff hadn't been put out by the Attorney General there in the state of New York, I don't think CNN was going to make a move on Cuomo.
and dismiss him. Well, look, I worked for Fox News. And so you can say, oh, well, it's just a competitor and whatnot. CNN is going to have to live with that. If you want to keep coming in third, just keep coming in on third. As somebody who actually works at Fox, it's just disappointing to see because it just, it taints the whole industry. And it's just a shame the way it's gravitated. And I, I,
Jeff Zucker is the common denominator there. All right. And number four, I want to talk about Build Back Better. They got a problem over with Build Back Better. Joe Biden got all excited. Nancy Pelosi was so proud that she passed it. And remember how quickly they rushed. A lot of talk about it. Nobody could see the bill. Then as soon as they had the text of the bill, literally within hours, they were on the rules committee there in the House of Representatives and then voting on it before you could possibly imagine. So,
Certainly not the degree of scrutiny, openness, transparency, debate that you would expect a bill that is literally trillions of dollars. No, they rushed that through. Well, guess what? It's got what's called a bird problem. When we say bird problem, you know, we hear bird, birdbath, bird rule, birdbath.
It's referring to Senator Byrd, B-Y-R-D. He's since passed away. He's from West Virginia. Longest serving senator, I think, in the history of the United States Senate, 51 years in the United States Senate. And there's what's called the Byrd Rule. The Byrd Rule says that you can use budget reconciliation, which only requires 50 votes in the Senate.
to pass a number of things on it, but it needed some guardrails. You can't legislate on this type of bill. So for instance, if you put out a piece of legislation on say immigration, and it really didn't have anything to do with budgeting or taxes, either revenue or spending,
then that would be considered a violation of the Byrd Rule because it would be legislating, not dealing with the budget. The expedited manner in which they move through reconciliation is an effort to get through a budget which has to get through every year. It is not subject to filibustering or getting to that 60 vote threshold.
But there's the problem. So if you recall, Nancy Pelosi, a while ago, a long time ago, passed out the Build Back Better bill, but they never sent it to the United States Senate. It's never been sent over. Why hasn't it been sent over? Because it's got some bird problems. It's got to go through the birdbath, as they affectionately call it. And going through the birdbath, I think they're recognizing that
that their exuberance and rush, they started legislating rather than actually passing through things that were just about revenue and expenditures. The consequence is that...
that the Senate has nothing to vote on over there because, according to the Constitution, all spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives. So that's a long way of saying if the House does send it over and it has bird problems, then it doesn't qualify for reconciliation. If it doesn't qualify for reconciliation, it has to get 60 votes. If it has to get 60 votes, there's no way they can possibly pass it.
Interesting, isn't it? That's what's happening behind the scenes. And that's why you haven't seen anything on Build Back Better yet. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more right after this.
All right, let's transition to the stupid because, you know what, there's somebody always doing something stupid somewhere. You know, one of the ones that qualifies for this more often than not is AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
who claimed, I love this, she claimed that some of these break-ins, that some of these mobs that are out there ransacking in California and other places around the country, that that was just made up. She said, she highlighted that it was maybe just Walgreens, but it really turned out to be nothing.
Well, there's video after video after video. The attorney general, the Democrat for the state of California, has highlighted it as a problem. And all you need to do is turn on the videotapes and you will see situation after situation after situation. Even the National Association of Retailers, I think is the name of the organization, has come out and said this is a problem.
It's been pegged as tens of billions of dollars in program and AOC's out there saying, eh, not really a problem because I think it's kind of made up. I don't know what world she lives in, but how can you bury your head in the sand and not understand that when the state of California moved the threshold for felonies up to $1,000, that anything you steal less than that is just a petty theft? Guess what? The police are not going to respond.
The police are not going to go out and arrest people. And so when they made that simple move, they go to cashless bail. Then guess what? These things happen time and time and time again. And perpetrators look at this and just say, there's no consequence. So why not take the risk? If I do get caught, I'll be back out the same day. And if I do get caught, I'm probably not going to get prosecuted. So let's just go into these stores and they brazenly go and do this again.
And I don't see the Biden administration has put together a task force on what's going on with students and teachers and school board meetings for parents. Gosh, we've got to have a national dragnet of FBI agents to deal with that. But I don't see them helping and assisting on these steps. Here's what's going to happen. And this is why I think it's so, so stupid. It should not be a race to try to figure out who's going to be the next inner city official.
of Baltimore. You know, back in the day when Elijah Cummings was with the Oversight Committee, I actually went with Elijah to inner city Baltimore and I started learning about food deserts and other things and I thought, what in the world is this? Well, they had so much previous crime that they would not, they don't have retailers anymore
financial services, grocery stores, drug stores. They don't have these in certain parts of the city, places in the city where people don't have readily available transportation. And so the consequence is kids were just eating food that they could get at the local liquor store. They don't have fresh fruit. They don't have vegetables. They don't have salads. They don't have access to medicine other than a few over-the-counter things that
and certainly not open 24-7. So you want to get rid of a CVS or a Walgreens that used to be open 24 hours? Now they're going to limit their hours saying, oh, we're going to only be open during daylight hours, maybe until 5 p.m., because we can't afford to have the mobs come in and just steal all our stuff. Who's that going to hurt? It's going to hurt the inner city folks, the people with the lowest of incomes, the most vulnerable in our communities. And it makes me mad. It's not just stupid on the part of AOC.
And these Democrats who run these cities. But it is just such bad public policy. And who wants to walk around a city looking over your shoulder wondering if it's safe or not? Lexington and like 59th Street in New York City just had a brazen attack.
That is not normally associated with being a rough part of town. This happens time and time again. It happens when there's not cops on the beat that have the support of the community and the leaders. It happens when you have cops out there that are not supported by their public officials. And when they don't have public prosecutors who will actually prosecute for the crimes of the people that are brought in. I'm not saying 100% of them are guilty, but you know what?
Bring him in, put him before a jury, and then allow that decision to be made. If you're going to continue on and bury your head in the sand like AOC, that is stupid. That is my bringing on the stupid this week.
All right. Time to bring on Brian Kilmeade. I want to dial up Brian. Brian's a great guy. Like I said, he's one of the hardest working people at Fox. He's got a fascinating story. Fox and Friends for three hours. The Brian Kilmeade radio show. He does it all. He's written books. So let's give a call to Brian Kilmeade.
Hello? Brian. Hey, Jason Chaffetz. Sorry to wake you up. You never wake me up because I haven't slept ever. This is the very true. You're like the hardest working guy that you could possibly imagine. You do Fox and Friends at 6 o'clock in the morning, right? Yeah. What time do you actually wake up to say, all right, time to roll, time to get to the studio? 2.30. 2.30.
Yeah. Out of the house at three. And then you, you know, the busiest time I have is from three until five 58. And then along the way, you know, because I'm formatting the radio to sending sound bites and sell out, this would be a great idea. This would be great idea. And also trying to anticipate what they're going to try to do on Fox and friends. So it's not hard. It's just interesting, you know, because a lot of the stuff, you know, the news news did break overnight. So it's not a review. I have a bit, but,
Right.
I mean, it is amazing to do kind of six hours straight, but you've been doing it for a long time now. But you feel like for me you do a great job. It was pretty natural for you, right? Well, thanks. I love it. I really do enjoy it, but I'm doing three hours when I've done it on the radio. I've done Fox and Friends on the weekends and whatnot, but...
Man, to do that five days a week, the schedule and pace that you have, that's impressive. It really is. Well, thanks. I mean, the thing is, people always strive to get this job, so I don't want to take a day for granted. It took me 12 years to get a job at Fox just being the fill-in sports guy.
And when you can grab, you know, these additional opportunities, that's what I look at as opportunities. I don't really consider it work. I mean, I'm, I'm so, I think, you know, I'm so into these stories that,
that I would just be the annoying deli guy talking about these stories if I worked in a deli. Yeah, I could see that. Annoying people at a deli? That's nice. Yeah, I could see that. But you are passionate about it, and you know your stuff. And I think that's what radiates, right? You're fun, you got energy, and you care about the stories. Because it affects our country.
Well, it affects everybody's family. It affects the country. And I've also... I've actually started reading your books. I wish my history class going up in school because history... Yeah, I did all right. I...
I did all right. But I wish they, I love the way, like I'm right now going through the Alamo. And so, but you've got a new book that's also out. Yeah. The President and Freedom Fighter, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and their battle to save America's soul. I'm trying to move up the ladder. George Washington's Secret Six. I thought I found an angle in the Revolutionary War that really wasn't well plowed. And then with Thomas Jefferson, he's done so much.
But not many people focused on what he did to take on Islamic terror that Washington didn't have a Navy to take on that Adams wanted no part of. I thought, man, that could relate to the headlines too. And then when President Trump gets elected, just the luck of it,
people made parallels to Andrew Jackson. And I was working on the war of 1812 thought about the battle of Baltimore because star Spangled Banner was in the news. And then people say, no, no, do the battle of new Orleans. It was, uh, there's a lot we don't know. And Jackson emerged from that. So I, I went there and I really found it fascinating. And a lot of these people were able to keep this story alive for a lot of years, the battle that everyone thought didn't need to be fought and absolutely had to, uh,
And then with I thought the other thing with with Fox Nation and FD done work with them, I was able to do What Made America Great. They let me do this series. I'm up to 36 of them, one of which was the Alamo. And I didn't know much about Texas history, but everyone talks about the Alamo. I said, what happens next? So I did a feature on the Alamo. I got all these resources and all these people that helped me out with it on and off camera. And then afterwards, I said, well, what happens next? Well, it's about Stan Jacinto.
That's when Sam Houston emerges and wins in 17 minutes and beats this formidable army. And I go, well, what if I leave the Alamo and tell you what happens next? Because I don't think I could do the Alamo better than everybody else, which led me to the either the Mexican war or we go to the Civil War. And I thought that talking about Douglas and Lincoln would be something that's not necessarily plowed ground and how they related to each other. So that's how I came on to this topic.
No, they really, you know, it's very well written. Honestly, do you think your English teacher back from high school...
I'm in touch. I'm in touch with my social studies teacher, uh, regularly. And, um, and he was unbelievable. And I had one in a 12th grade that passed away. He was fantastic. But the one that really got me going was this, this eighth grade social studies teacher, because he wouldn't tell me the stories he would act it out. And I remember him spreading out the desk because I need everyone to spread out their rows of the desks. And I need one side to grab, uh,
Rip paper out of your loose sleeve and hold it. You have two each. OK, now, when I say so, this side attack. But you got to go up and down, up and down, up and down. So we go up and down and you go stop right before you about to. He goes, now picture that being a gun and picture you saying yourself, would you come out of from behind your desk now and know you could get shot? This is called World War One trench warfare.
And I always remembered, then you watch the video and the film and the guts it took to run out of those trenches and attack. And I go, wow, this guy kept demonstrating everything that just, while continuing to drill us on the presidents every day in a fun way. You go, okay, who wants to try the presidents today? And I'm like, okay, here we go. And everyone would get stuck on Buchanan and Garfield and the no-name presidents that no one really paid attention to. So-
And I remember just this class and I kept in touch with this guy and he ends up being the dean when my kids went to school in the same town. But the social studies teachers do make a difference if they treat it like a story, tell people a story and then also tell them at the end, by the way, this happened and it's true. Here's a test on it. And that's the way I was lucky enough to have teachers. It really whet my appetite. Now, this is Massapequa High School, right? Yeah. Big soccer town.
big soccer town and some famous people yeah i mean look you're pretty famous in your own right being on as much as you're on but uh i looked up massapequa high school there's some other famous people that graduated there who yeah you ready for this for one thing um born on the fourth of july ron kovic he's from massapequa he was portrayed by tom cruise in the movie then
Then you have Jerry Seinfeld. I worked for his dad. It was my first job. He had a sign shop. Alec Baldwin. Wait, wait, wait. Let's go back there for a second. You worked for Mr. Seinfeld? Yeah. We get working papers at 13, right? So I just said, now I got working papers. I got to go get money. And I started in my little town and I walked in every single, I would even walk into lawyers office. You need any help? I need, this is how much I get an hour. I think it was 335 an hour or whatever ridiculous minimum wage you legislatures made sure we don't earn money. Um, and then I got a job at a law firm.
So at the last store was Jerry Seinfeld's dad's store called Cal Signs. And he was a legendary guy. He made all the signs in the school and he would paint himself on the sign. He was like a little guy, a
And he would have a mustache. He would paint himself in a cartoon character on all his signs. So I came in and I said, can I get any help? He goes, can you draw? And I go, no, I'm a terrible artist. He goes, well, we need people to go out on sites and just lift stuff up and hold ladders and bring ladders out. I go, that sounds good. So I would come every Saturday, Friday after school and every Saturday, and
For probably three or four months. And then one day I remember him. It looked like a garbage bag sign. It was just, it was look like just brown paper. He said, uh, Jerry will be on the tonight show tonight. And I said, who's Jerry? And he says, it's my son. And he said, I know his son. He's a comedian. And I go, wow. And I'm thinking to myself, this guy's not funny.
And Seinfeld gets on Carson wave to a long story short. I'm allowed to stay up to watch it. So one night and he's on and Jerry kills and the estimate sit down. And the story he tells is about his parents.
that his parents, he said the hardest, he goes, what made you be a comedian? He goes, I just wanted to be it. I came in the city, I did it one time and I just got addicted to it. And he goes, well, what did your parents say when you went to college and you tell them you're going to be a comedian? He said, well, I sat my parents down and I said, I want to be a comedian. And they both got up and left and they came back and they said, well, I talked to your mother. The problem is, Jerry, we don't think you're very funny.
And that's the story he told. Well, they said it and I was true. And I'm saying to myself, no, no, I don't think you're funny at home. I'm like saying to myself, because, you know, he's not trying to entertain a 13-year-old kid. But I just thought it was amazing that I would watch that full circle in front of me in Massapequa.
But you got the Baldwins too. You have Mr. Baldwin was my summer creation. He'd be the supervisor there. So for three months, he'd go back to your grammar school and do all types of sports, softball and kickball and dodgeball. Mr. Baldwin would run it. He was a social studies teacher at the high school. And I never knew Alec, but I knew Danny, Billy and Steven and the daughters. I didn't really know too well, but Alec was already gone. I think he's 10 years older than me. And, um,
And his dad was the rifle team coach, which ironically I thought about that too. And Alec Baldwin had these problems with his guns. I know he had to know guns. His dad actually was the rifle team coach. Really? Yeah. So I'm just, you know, put that together. I'm saying to myself, there's no way he was a stranger to guns. Well, he certainly acted like one. Yeah. I mean, we don't know details, but that's ugly.
So you're growing up, you're a little kid, you're playing soccer from like right out of the chutes, right? You're four or five years old? Yeah, first grade. You know, in my town, you know this because your dad was with the Aztecs, right? Of the ASL? So, you know, the Cosmos...
The coach, Gordon Bradley, was a player coach when they played at Hofstra. He was in Massapequa. I actually was on the same team with his sons. So we had all these relocated Germans, first-generation Germans and Irish and Italians.
And, and they would just, they just started a soccer league. And one guy's from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He started the whole thing. He walked down and said, I just need some fields. Like I'm from this town. You should give us some fields. You should play soccer. Got 20 people, then 25 people, then enough for three teams. Next thing you know, our first and second team are playing in the state championships against each other.
And no one could stay close. And Gordon Bradley would come back and coach. So the best coach in America was in my town. Coaching, he would eventually coach Canalia and Pele. You don't really coach those guys. You put them out in the field. And you guys would have Johan Cruyff.
Right. At the Aztecs, George Best. So the best players in the world in the 1970s were in my backyard and we would go to Giant Stadium in the middle of the week. Fifty five thousand a giant stadium to watch soccer. So I'm amazed now as these teams, the MLS is out there and and the MLS is getting like millions of dollars for their franchises.
So, and everyone's dying to get into that league now in the USL, the AAA of soccer is also surging. It's got an ESPN contract. I watched their finals on ESPN and it must be surreal for you too, Jason, to see soccer so accepted by non-soccer players, by just people who like sports. I'm going, wow, guys, I just can't get over it. I think once people kind of get in and start to appreciate, I mean, they always get mocked for, oh yeah, one, nothing, you know, but the sport is so great. And I think it really helps that both,
The men's and the women's have accelerated, have excelled to the point where it really is fun. And yeah, I mean, that's how I really got into it because my dad became the managing general partner of the Los Angeles Aztecs and moved us down to Southern California. So, you know, I'm a little squirt. I'm kicking the ball around with guys like George Best and those people. And I'm like...
I had no idea how cool it was. Elton John actually had a little sliver ownership of the team. He would come out to practice. Oh, yeah. It was a little bit surreal that I appreciate now. I didn't really appreciate it back then, but I just thought, yeah, you just kick the ball around, have some fun. And now you're a daughter, right? Both of them. They were playing in college. Yeah, my son played through high school, and he wanted to go to Syracuse. He wasn't good enough to play there, so he's like, you know what? I just want to go here, and I'm going to –
a major and do it, do my own thing. I go, okay, uh,
A little disappointed because he also played since he was younger. I thought he was a really good player. But my daughters played against each other this year, and they're in the Liberty Conference in upstate New York. I don't want to give the names of the schools, but it's just fun to watch them compete and care so much. And then their friends are all – to have friends that play a college sport, you've got to be disciplined. I don't care what it is. It makes you compartmentalize your time and focus. It also –
It brings back a discipline that's going to help you to put that on your resume. I mean, I was an average player at best, but it's on my resume. I played through college on Division II, 500 team. But everybody asked me about that. When you see soccer or any sport on a college resume, I think people just go, okay, it took discipline. You could not just sit there for four years and party. You had to focus and you have spring practice and accountability. You know what it's like to be in a team.
to deal with the tribulations that go with that, coach challenges, player challenges, minutes challenge, actually winning games, that challenge. So I'm just a big believer in competing. I think it is a differentiator. I've hired a lot of people through my career doing various things, and the ones that really thrive are people that have played either sports
a solo sport, maybe like tennis, or they played a team sport because you learn. You're right. You learn to win. You learn to lose. But you also have to be disciplined. You have to shut up. When you want to
you know, belt something out that you shouldn't. And you just learn so much and you learn to work that you can't get away with being playing sport that long without actually exerting yourself. So there's lots and lots to be there. So it sounds like you really were in a shell younger in life. Like it really like this, you had to speak up and do things. When did you break out of that shell, Brian? Yeah.
Yeah, I've never – I've been very disciplined to a degree, but I was a hardworking B student at best. No, B plus student. And in college, I did better than that because I was able to get by without doing math. Because math – I struggle in math and science. But the other stuff, when it's just studying and grinding it out, I do well on.
but I, I do not have the aptitude for math and not much in science, but on the other side, I've always, I've always been into it from political science. I, you know, I could do the economic side, political science, English, uh,
All history type things. I always I've always done well because you could actually grind it out and study I look at math man, and I want to grind it out, and I just can't it's almost like when they give me directions To put something together. I'll sit there and do everything I lay out all the tools I I lay out everything in order and just nothing comes natural
in putting anything together it's so funny you say that because we just had a few weeks ago i had trey gowdy on and i know i know trey really well but i didn't know that he was actually going to be like a psychologist and then he realized he had to take some some math and science and he's like i can't get through the math so what am i going to do and uh he got some counseling and they said well you should probably go into law that's how he ended up being a
He ended up going along because he didn't want to go through the remedial math class that he was going to have to have. And so it kind of changed the trajectory in his life. Yeah. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Brian Kilmeade right after this. All right. So you're going along and then you go to college, right? Yep.
I went to LIU, played Division II soccer there, started for the first two years almost every game, and we changed coaches, and the guy was not into me. I started half the games division in the junior year, and the last year he basically had his own recruits in, and I helped pick the coach.
because I was looked at by the AD as like, listen, Brian, you're going to be part of the future of the program. We had to get rid of the coach. You want to be part of it from here on. You want to be part of the decision process. And I go, yeah, this is a guy I selected, and he was just not into me as a player. And that was tough because I just feel like I wasted all my years. I'm like from 5 to 22 played 300 days a year minimum.
And I end up finishing on the field, but basically not really impacting the team in my final year. And I said, what a waste that is. I mean, who finishes in a Division II 500 career basically not having an impact? How uneventful and anticlimactic that was. But it kind of got me ready to just like grind it out in this business. So you decide, okay, I got to do something. Then what did you do?
Oh, I mean, the whole time. I was on radio and TV. I mean, I was interning at NBC. I interned at a local station, really hands-on. I was— Why? Why television? Why— Oh, and radio and TV. I was doing it both at the same time. I've always wanted to do it. I always felt as though I was at my strength on my feet. I felt I could tell a story. I wanted to see if I could bring in my interviewing skills and my personality, but I knew I had no interest or ability to act.
So I thought TV news, and if I start establishing myself, segue into hosting. And that's why along the way I started doing stand-up, just to be quicker on my feet and be a better memorizer. So for 10 years, while you're waiting for the great radio job to come through or in between radio hits and TV jobs, to be able to go up at night and do stand-up when they can say no to you, there's always a place to go up in terrible places. But there's always a place to go up almost, almost every night.
So they couldn't stop you there. You didn't need a news director to say you're hired. So you were doing that in New York, and sometimes you're making like nothing money, right? Oh, yeah. $25? Yeah. You don't do it for the money. You do it to see what connections you make. If you go up and you do a solid 12 minutes and get you 25 minutes and get your ass back again, and then you meet other people along the way. Like I got UFC. I did the first four UFCs because the guy who was –
I think it was the New York Comedy Club or Comic Strip, I got friendly with. And he also had Semaphore Productions. He was an executive there. And he would be producing comics and shows. And he said, I just got this offer from...
from these Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guys. They want to do mixed martial arts and they want to design some type of octagon and they want to have a fight to the death. Are you interested in that? I go, really? I go, I'll check it out for you, but I can't do fight to the death. So he showed it to me. He's like, what do you want to do? And I ended up doing the first four through a comedy connection.
When you say doing that, you mean doing like the play-by-play or what were you doing? Yeah, I actually did the ring, the octagon reporting. So after they got out and then one guy froze on the second one, he just got too nervous. And they called me up in my headset. They go, can you do play-by-play? I go, why? When? Next one? He goes, now he froze. I go, oh my goodness. All right, give me the headset. So I just jumped over and I had an expert next to me and Jim Brown to the right of me who I had been hosting a show with and I brought him into it.
So we all, you know, we watched each other's back. I kind of knew the fighters inside and out by then.
And we were able to do it. So I did play by play. The second one, third one, I had time to think about it. I didn't do that well. The fourth one, I went back to ringside reporting. And then I just went on to other things. And I said, whatever you do, don't ever put that on your resume because it's going to be outlawed soon. Okay. So I kept up my resume. Now it's bigger than life. It's bigger than boxing. It's one of the top sports in the country. Dana White, I just interviewed him.
He's up to, what are they, up to 268, UFC 268. I did the first four. Wow. So how did you break into Fox? When did that happen? I mean, you had some steps along the way, right? You didn't go from UFC to Fox. No, I mean, I got out of college. I went right to Bennigan's, where I continued to waiter.
Were you good at that? Were you a good waiter? I thought I was good. Did you write down the order, or were you one of those guys who thought he could memorize it all? Never tried to memorize it, because I want to get it right. When that guy comes to my table, I'm like, they're not going to get it right. I feel like you're overqualified.
If you're memorizing like a table of fives, order appetizers and dessert, I'm like, you should be doing something else, right? Like you should be working on the space program. Yeah, just write it down because you know what? My wife never orders off the menu. She has to, I don't, we pull up to McDonald's, Brian, and I'll say, what do you want? And she'll say, I got to look at the menu. And I'm like,
look at the menu. It hasn't changed since you were born. What do you mean you gotta look at the menu? You go to McDonald's? You guys eat so clean. I can't believe you go to McDonald's. I do love a Big Mac. I really do love a Big Mac. Yeah, I haven't had meat since 1987.
Really? Yeah. I don't have beef and red meat. What's your beef with beef? I was eating too much of it. It's hard to metabolize. They did a profile. I had a nutritionist person I was interviewing before. And they say, Brian, I'll help you out. Just write down everything you eat for two weeks. So I did. And she goes, I just got to tell you, you're eating way too much meat. It's hard to metabolize. You get protein from other things. If you can cut it back, I go, I cut it out.
Because I have a slow metabolism. And so I go, if that would speed up my metabolism, done. Well, look, you're fit and you look good. You're not probably playing as much soccer as you used to. And if it works for you, great. But my point being is the person who comes to my table and says, oh, I'm going to memorize this. I just know they're not going to get it right after Julie makes 12 changes to the
Do they? They never get it right. No, because 12 changes later, they're just not going to get it right. I'm not blaming it at all on Julia. Just write it down.
Anyway. Well, no, I think you're right. It's my role, pet peeve, if you can tell. But the other thing is, is like when you do that, like if you order a steak, you have to be medium. So when you go to the computer, when I did it, so it'd be like the steak would be 521. You hit him 521. And then what do you want? And do you want a potato? Okay, potato. You want butter on that? That's a modifier. And then when they say, how do you want the steak cooked? A modifier is three would be medium.
Right. And then, so to me, I wouldn't even think about not writing it down because if you want to do three tables as on a sweep, then, and then I got to do it. Plus I have no faith in my memory. You're actually really a pro. So you're working bed against, and then I started my own show and I got three sponsors and we launched our own local origination show called health digest. And,
And I learned the basics. I didn't have a great TV college. I learned the basics on camera and lighting and everything like that. And got all my friends together, many of which played soccer. And I go, guys, just come up, work camera for me. Can you do this? Can you do that? Then I went to a furniture store and I convinced them for an on-screen credit on a cable channel to them to do it. I got... We had...
a hero deal, a catering deal. We had a limo deal and we would pick people up at Giant Stadium and do stuff. And Mike Francesco, who's a legendary guy here, Chris Russo was on. We had the tight end of the New York chat. We had a lot of pretty cool features. It was raw, but I was getting a ton of experience and doing everything, including the actual edits when you had to put the tapes in and
And then write down your edits before. And, you know, you have to do it on paper first. Now everyone does it differently. But it was a great experience. But I really took all the money and put it back into the show. So all my money was coming from waitering, sales at gym memberships in order to keep this TV radio thing going.
Wow. And so somebody was impressed with that or you just ran out of money? What happened? No, then I got a job. I got a channel one called, which was a national high school news program, really professionally done, went free into schools. And I had like Today Show producers. I literally would just show up and memorize their standups. I had nothing to do with the writing. Anderson Cooper had started there. Some really established people, Soledad O'Brien,
So I got, I was filling in. So I was doing some series there. So, uh, what else was I doing? I was doing those three things. And then I started at sports phone, nine, seven, six, one, three, one, three, doing sports updates every seven minutes, eight hours a day, 40 hours a week. Um, yeah, you jam in, but you do is you learn to work without a script. Bottom of the fourth Yankees up for three RBI single by Jeter drove in. It's all in hieroglyphics, your own code. And,
and then you're able to run through that, you literally erase it, and then you write down the updated scores. You go in seven minutes later,
And a lot of great people came through there. Al Troutwig, which is he's a big local guy. Howie Rose, he does the Mets play by play. Steve Torrey does Mad Dog Race. A lot of really good people came through there. And accuracy, speed, timing. Got to get out in 57 seconds in Chicago, 59 seconds in New York, 59 seconds in Detroit. And you got to lead with the appropriate teams depending on the city you're in.
So that was before all sports radio. So people really who were betting or just loved sports would not want to wait until 11 o'clock news to find out who was winning. Right. So that was kind of popular, but I made all of $12,000 a year to work there. That was before taxes. Were you married at this point? No. Were you married at this point? No. So I was making almost no money. That's why it took me...
So I was 33 to get this job. But for 12 years, I literally was doing four different jobs at the same time to get a tape together that would interest a place like Fox. Then I went to Los Angeles. I did all sports radio out there, worked for a local TV station and did stand up out there. And I was probably making, I was looking at my taxes the other day. I made $596 every two weeks to look at local news.
And then I would get $200 a show to work in all sports radio. I was doing Kings pre and post game on the radio. And then I would do a talk show on Sundays with Jim Brown.
The legendary running back activist so I always my life was dramatically under financed Yes, I think it probably was and why didn't you just keep going with sports? I mean you well I was I thought that was my quickest way through I didn't live for the games I live for the stories like I don't really you know, you know I want the Giants and Mets to win but I'm the times when I like lived and died with them stopped when I was about 12 and
But I was just interested in the stories who was going to emerge what trade was going to work out what free agent was going to bust with the manager was going to do so I was interested in that element of it the people but I wanted to be able to develop news at the same time I'm just want to keep pushing until something broke and I got hires the sports guy at Fox because I was working in all sports network that ended up failing and
with Cablevision and NBC launched a place called New Sport and that ends up failing but I was still there when it was alive.
And I sent my tape in to Fox and they came, they said, can you come in? I go, when? They go tomorrow. And I'm like, well, I'm working tomorrow. And they go, well, don't worry about it. Just take off. This will be a better opportunity for you. I'm like, okay, you're right. I don't know why you give me that advice, but they were right. So I went in, they toured me around. They go, would you go on the air the next day? I go, you want me on the air the next day? Good. Yeah. We'll see how it goes. Now. No one was watching Fox anywhere. No one even knew what Fox news was. So I was literally at another channel on Fox and nobody saw me.
I did the morning show and then I started filling in. What was it called back? It was called Fox Express. Yeah. Fox Express. What time was that show? Same time, six to nine. And it was a wheel every 15 minutes, the same news. So you got to rotate the sports in. So there wasn't much script. And I was used to that because of my background. I'm not used to having a script anyway. Felt very comfortable if things went wrong. I still do.
You know, I love that stuff when things go wrong and or when, you know, script, you know, script or the something doesn't go right or they ask you to do it extended, cut it off. I like that. I like the unpredictability of that show even then. And then I convinced him that I got to that. I knew news to gradually.
And then when the world starts going crazy, I remember we were doing a three-hour sports show on Sundays and Princess Diana died. And we're like, okay, the Mets beat the Yankees 4-3. Princess Diana's dead, so let's go to the video tape and see what we got. Just nothing but stills. So they're like, hey, we really can't do a sports show on Sundays, but we think you could do news.
And you don't have to work weekends. We think we're going to let you fill in full time. And I was making more in one day than I was making in my previous job. So I quit kind of bet that Fox was going to work out. And by 97, they offered me a contract filling in in 96. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. And it's been a whirlwind. And that's so...
Any particular highlights? Best worst moment at Fox so far? There's really not been a bad moment. I mean, you make mistakes on the air and they write it up and sometimes you got to acknowledge it. Sometimes it's just because people just don't like you and don't like what you said. Right. But I mean, to be on the air for breaking news, to be there when the tanks roll into Iraq, I think it's pretty significant to be on the air. When 9-11 happens, I think it's something you're never going to forget. Right.
I think, you know, waking up and, you know, watching the, you know, Donald Trump win the election and being on there and seeing,
Our whole veranda packed with people and to be able to do that morning show for four hours, five hours with Trump's shocking win, that's pretty substantial. When I was covering the election mess with Gore and Bush in Florida, I tossed out the reporters not knowing if they were going to say that Bush was president or Gore was president as they recounted all the votes. I think that's pretty significant. I mean, I can never... I covered 21 Super Bowls here.
And they've all been pretty cool, you know, and being able to do a lot of those opportunities. I, you know, Rodman on live having in the morning after an all night bender certainly made a lot of news. Paul McCartney interviewing him at halftime after 9-11.
I thought that was pretty cool. That would be cool. I think if I tried to make a list of like the 10 people I'd love to meet, shake hands, talk with, I think Paul McCartney would be on that list. Yeah. I'm watching his documentary right now, this one, and
They're amazing, what he did and how he did it. That he still can't read music, I'm just fascinated by. Yeah, that documentary is unbelievable. I started watching about 45 minutes of it, how the Beatles in their last session put together their last album. It's unbelievable. So you've been successful there. A lot of people want to be on, but you got on –
and not everybody stays as long as you stay. What do you credit that success to? I've always said the one thing, I would put it this way, I think people like my style. There's a lot of people that are sure that I'm not for them. Styles make fights. Styles make matches. There's a lot of places I would never have lasted in CNN. Reading the teleprompter, tossing back with a fake smile, I would never have been successful. But this place is built on you being you for better or for worse.
and it worked for Fox and not because conservative or liberal or moderate. I think it's because they, the, if you read Roger Ailes, his book, it was, you are the message. So better or for worse, you're the message, be yourself. And the fact that I could be myself and,
and have a chance to put my best step forward rather than, you know, being this cookie cutter, get in and out in three and a half minutes, you know, and plus they're very success oriented. If the show works, I stay. If the show wasn't working, I would have been pulled off the show, filling in for a little while. And then when my contract came up, they probably would have said,
I think it's best you try to find somewhere else so you can work full time. But the show worked and I didn't screw it up. So I try to not create waves. I try to do what I'm in control of the best I can. And the only thing is with sports as well as with this is I have endurance. I never had speed, but I have endurance. If I could work my way to stay in, I can do it. Like I said, if someone said, do this algebra product or this geometry quiz, I
I would have been unsuccessful. But if someone says, be you, and if you can prepare and deliver, you'll be successful, I think I have a shot. So I could actually blue collar it here. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And you've shown that throughout your career, right? I mean, you wouldn't have gotten those jobs with Mr. Seinfeld.
and the lawyer, and everyone else, if you weren't just willing to go out and work hard and just have the tenacity to keep after it. Because I can't imagine you in an eight-to-five job just clipping on the bow tie or doing whatever. I just can't see that. All right, last question I got to ask you, Brian. Yep.
What is the best advice you ever got? Best advice ever got. My best advice I ever got, I remember meeting with this guy named Jamie Kellner who went to the same school as I went to. So I was out in California looking for a big job and I got an offer to come back to New York and
and be a sports guy at a local station. And so I'm meeting with him. He said, yeah, before you go back to New York, I want to meet with you. So I met with him. So I said, yeah, after this job, I would love to do this. And I was wondering, well, how could I best get more of a, more into a news format or whatever I was telling him. And he just stopped me and he said, don't look past anything.
He goes, you have to focus on being great at this job before you look to do another job. So don't be so ambitious that you don't appreciate what you have. Focus on what you just got. And there's no way to show less gratitude than to look past the job that someone just gave you. Right.
I was like, wow, that was kind of jarring. And I do say it's kind of insulting if someone hires you and you say, yeah, I'm looking past that job. I can't wait to get the next job. And it's like, really? I chose you out of a huge stack of tapes and you're looking past me. So that's probably the advice that stands out. And Jamie Kellner was one of the founders of the Fox Network, ironically enough. And this wasn't about a Fox job.
Great advice. You've been in a lot of people's homes for a long time, and you've written some great books that are really fun, fun reads. I highly, highly encourage people to get them. Brian Kilmeade, thank you so much for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast. Thanks a lot. President and freedom fighter, BrianKilmeade.com. You get it personalized. If you click on that, it'd go right to my local bookstore, and I could sign it to you and get it out by Christmas because China doesn't make it, and it's not on a barge in Los Angeles. It's made in America. Yeah.
Brian, thank you so much. Go get him, Jason. I can't thank Brian enough for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast. He's a fascinating guy, what he's gone through to get to Fox. He's one of the main staples there. He's just a really good guy. You've got to love a guy who plays a lot of soccer as well.
Thanks for joining us on the Jason and the House podcast. You can find more about Fox News Podcasts at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hoping you can rate it and subscribe to our podcast today. We'd appreciate that. We'll be back with more next week. I'm Jason Chaffetz. This has been Jason and the House.
This is Jimmy Fallon inviting you to join me for Fox Across America, where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats' dumb ideas. Just kidding. It's only a three-hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast at foxacrossamerica.com.
