What troubles you about where we are currently?

Listen, you know, I have two boys, 18 and 15, and they get a lot of information from social media and online.

I can barely get them off their phones.

And if I'm not posting on Instagram or YouTube or Instagram.

I'm not sure I worked that day, but I do think that there's some bad influence in there that talks down the country.

And I feel like at this point, ahead of July 4th, we as a country should just take a moment and look back.

And this is not a sanitized version of history that doesn't leave room for self-reflection, but it's also not the critics that seem to focus only on the darkest chapters of our life as a country.

Is there still an appetite for that?

Do you agree with that assessment?

I agree with that assessment.

I also agree that, you know, you look at the pollsters who now today are saying, well, I'm not so sure about my poll.

You know, even the guy... are putting out these things saying, you know, I couldn't get a lot of Republican callbacks, and I'm not really sure I've touched all the stuff.

And, you know, and you have a Democratic candidate leading by outside the margin of error.

I think that a lot of these races are going to come down to who shows up today.

There was the most early vote total we've ever seen in a midterm.

Do you think that matters, GDP numbers?

it and there's a reason for that what was it like first off catching up to him in michigan what did it take to catch up to him and then when you did the fact that he tried to talk over you while you quoted him

yeah bizarre And said, you're just pulling that out of context.

And I said, no, I mean, these are your words.

It's crazy.

Listen, what happened was I've been trying, we had been trying for weeks with the campaign to get them to sit down because we were going to Michigan one way or another.

And they were saying maybe, and they were dodging us.

Finally, I got the embed who covers the campaign to be at an event and say, Brett Baer's on the phone and hand the phone to him.

How does that square with what you know? I think that's

You know, Barack Hussein Obama, a terrible president, a failed

president.

What kind of impact is this? Because immediately El-Said got something like one point two million dollars poured into his campaign.

Yeah, I think it's a big impact.

It's going to get a lot of coverage, a lot of focus in Jewish communities, in black communities.

I think it makes a difference.

It's amazing to watch online how many Democrats went after Haley Stevens, saying you're no longer a Democrat.

You are now a Republican.

Have you ever interviewed a Senate candidate in a tight race and gotten that kind of a reaction? No.

No, not like that.

You know, the back story is that I talked to El-Sayed on the phone and made my case for equal time.

We were going to give Rogers the same amount of time, and he said he would do it.

We got to Michigan, and the campaign kind of balked.

And I said, you know, you said you'd do it.

We kind of already promoted this.

I know you don't make predictions like that, but do you think it's a five-point El Sayed lead right now?

We're trying to.

Yeah, and I think he'll continue to do that, attack the question, how dare you, how low, etc, etc.

But not really getting to the heart of some of those substance answers.

I don't think he wants, obviously, to talk about all of that in the closing days.

We'll have a mix of questions for him today on substance and issues in the race, plus what Rogers is saying.

But I think it's fascinating.

I think in any other year...

I wonder what you're hearing.

Tell people about it because I think it sounded like a wonderful thing.

Yeah, PGA Hope is the charitable arm of the PGA of America, and I've been with them for a long time.

I got involved, obviously, because of golf, and then saw these organizations.

They have different arms of it.

PGA Reach deals with kids, especially urban areas.

But PGA Hope is about veterans, and they use golf as a therapy almost.

A lot of them have PTSD or something coming off of their service, and there are golf instructors from around the country.

Do you think that is a message designed for them at all?

What do you think is going to emerge from this? Because nothing really tangible emerged from the first one, except for more of a trust and more of a relationship between the two.

Yeah, I think that there are some things that were laid, the groundwork was laid, and they're hoping to finish up in this meeting.

And one of them is this Board of Trade, which essentially takes about 30 products on both sides and brings the tariff down to zero.

So they choose these products, and then it increases the trade on those fronts.

They make some deals on the edges, as you mentioned about farm goods and that sort of thing.

I think that the bigger thing is the help with Maybe there's a mediation thing with that.

The help putting pressure on Russia and to try to get resolution on the war in Ukraine.

Okay, she likes to repeat herself, and she also had a birthing person comment, which is, are we back to that? Makes one wonder, did we turn the page on DEI, or did we just put it on pause?

What's your take on this right now? Are we facing Y2K 2.0, or is it the nuclear age dawning?

Listen, I think trying to get to the bottom of that, I think – From my perspective, just looking at it, it's somewhere in between.

But there is real concern, you know, and there's real concern from the leaders of these companies and from others who have seen this technology.

And you have to trust that they're in good faith saying what they're seeing.

But there's also a lot of skepticism about the motivation behind this kind of what seems like an orchestrated push to slow down.

And there is skepticism about why these company heads are not slowing down themselves or self-regulating.

And then there's the president who believes that we as a country cannot lose to China in this race.

But there aren't a lot of people to trust anymore.

Yeah.

I, I mean, it's...

The, i- it wasn't just that, Brian.

I mean, it was, it was about...

She wa- And credit to Brooke, she, she peppered him with, like, some of the past statements and, um, and asked about it.

I thought she did a nice job on the interview.

At the end, I really kinda wanted to come out of the tape after we played it and said, and say, "Just to be clear, it's this, and it's this, and it's this, and it's this, and it's this that he has done a 180 on." Um, but you know, I th- I think he also expressed himself on a number of different issues that I'm sure played well, you know, selling himself as a moderate.

So tell me about Jacob Coxon.

Yeah,

on 9-11, I was the hero.

report for Fox, covering the Southeast and South and Central America, bouncing around all the time.

And the first plane hit, and I was asked to back up in New York for Fox affiliates, thinking that they would want a shot about this anomaly that a plane hit the World Trade Center.

So we booked a plane from Atlanta to New York, a flight, And then the second plane hit, and they told us to get in the car and drive.

So a producer and myself got in the car from Atlanta, and we started driving.

Outside Atlanta, as we're driving north, the third plane hits, and we get rerouted to the Pentagon.

What do you think, Brett? You've interviewed them all.

I think he showed remarkable patience.

Yeah, I mean, it's.

You wonder whether the order was wrong here and whether economic epic fury really should have started first and then the military.

But, you know, there were reports that they were closer and closer to a nuclear weapon or they were going to move the nuclear material.

And I think that that was part of the impetus of of the strike.

Look, whatever's happening, the U.S. military is escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

The energy secretary says there's a lot going through.

I've never seen anything like it.

He says, John Scott, get to the studio now.

went into the office everyone was staring at the television watching john scott at the time steer us through what what was happening on screen

brett bear

and the tv's turned to every other channel uh and then watching live as that second plane hit

In a small room above the soldiers' barracks, Secretary Rumsfeld met with Hamid Karzai, the interim leader of Afghanistan, who takes control of the new government in less than a week.

the concerns about trying to find bin laden and asking uh repeatedly rumsfeld about was this it i mean had they tracked him down and Secretary Rumsfeld, you know, he held briefings almost every afternoon, and it became like daytime television because the ratings were through the roof.

I mean, people were just really engaged in what was happening in the war, number one.

But number two is that how he handled them, and he basically lambasted reporters in different ways.

But my question repeatedly was if...

They knew where Bin Laden was if that battle there was this decisive moment.

And he would say, you know, we haven't found the chicken until the chicken is out of the barnyard.

In short, the status quo is not sustainable.

When you start talking to people, how did we have a deal Friday afternoon, and it all explode Friday night?

Yeah, good morning.

I think, um, the Canadians, the politics of the moment got to them.

And, um, I think what, what happened was that, um, internal Canadian politics, uh, overrode what was a pretty good deal from the past negotiations that the US had with Canada.

Uh, we were giving a lot on steel.

We were giving, you know, specifics that hadn't been given before.

I think the president was in the mood to wrap it up.

What does Brett Baer hear?

How much fun was that?

It was cool.

I mean, it was really cool.

It was larger than life, too.

It was, you know, seeing these IndyCars do 160 miles in the straight on D.C. roads was pretty amazing.

And hairpin turns and watching it all was a little surreal, but it was great.

It was packed.

Okay, so how do you understand their position in this unfolding economic war? They might be even more vulnerable than the UAE because I don't think they've got a pipeline option.

Stay tuned.

Well, Hugh, good afternoon.

I think it's falling apart.

I mean, I really think that the president is frustrated.

I think, you know, Trey talked to him.

I've talked to him briefly.

There's different messages coming out that, you know, just the other day it was that there's back channel communications.

Why do you think that might be, that they're always tilted towards, they actually said 75% of the time, but more in the off years, and especially in August? Any idea off the top of your head why that might be?

But do you think the president really wants to be successful in the midterms, and he sees this rise of socialism a- and along with the redistricting as a legitimate opportunity? What do you think? Because you, you know him better than anybody.

Yeah.

Well, yes, 100%.

And we've all talked to him in, in, uh, recent weeks and I, I think he does say that, but, um, he cares.

Of course he cares about the midterms.

Because, um, you know, he may be saying that about his decisions on Iran, um, that, you know, these, uh, worrying about gas prices, he has some advisors inside the White House and inside his orbit, uh, that have pushed for these negotiations, but they haven't been fruitful at all.

And I, I agree with you and I agree with Jack Keane.

Yeah.

What do you think they follow her with?

Hugh, good afternoon.

I think, you know, it's a little bit of a loss for President Trump because I thought she was a a pretty good advocate on his behalf, really good, articulating where his head was, which is tough to do in a fast-moving president who tells everything he thinks on truth social.

But she did very well at the podium there, fending off a lot of questions in that press room.

Who they go to, some of the people that have stepped up before, I'm sure, will fill in, but maybe they'll go to another permanent person.

I had Tony Snow in the Bush administration.

I had Dana for a little bit.

Is it broken to the point that you are reticent about using polling?

So what does it, what does it lead everyone to believe that, uh, Anthony Fauci wasn't gonna be treated fairly, had no choice? Is that how the, how many in the media are gonna portray this?

I'm sure.

I mean, if they cover it at all.

And, um, and that is really egregious, and it's, it's also, uh, disappointing because, you know, all these folks, media who cover media say, you know, "Why is it that the media has lost such trust with the American people?" And you look at the examples you just listed off, and this is another one.

I mean, this is ...

This was our life.

This was the biggest health policy decision ever that the country had made, and it was horrific.

[laughs]

So what does it, what does it lead everyone to believe that, uh, Anthony Fauci wasn't gonna be treated fairly, had no choice? Is that how the, how many in the media are gonna portray this?

I'm sure.

I mean, if they cover it at all.

And, um, and that is really egregious, and it's, it's also, uh, disappointing because, you know, all these folks, media who cover media say, "You know, why is it that the media has lost such trust with the American people?" And you look at the examples you just listed off, and this is another one.

I mean, this is, this was our life.

This was the biggest health policy decision ever that the country had made, and it was horrific.

Now, there, there's a lot of people saying it was evolving, a lot of stuff we didn't know.

[laughs]

He, he does not know where the, where the, the ceiling is, the bottom line is?

Yeah, I mean, there are some answers where he's a, he's...

Listen, he's an accomplished politician.

He is somebody that can speak the talk.

He can, he can, a lot of times, say what people wanna hear.

But every once in a while, you get in a Q&A where you say, "Wait a second, what about this policy idea?" Or, "How does this end up?" And there aren't a lot of answers.

And I think that's what Democrats inside the Democratic Party are worried about.

But what is he seeing as he tries to keep power in the House and Senate?

But do you expect the Senate to change much?

Yeah, I do, I think.

You know, some of the bigwigs, and obviously Lindsey Graham was at the top of them and thought he would be there for a long time.

Yeah.

I think there is a change, and it's going to require a new kind of herding the cats when it comes to Republicans.

They traditionally have not been good about doing that, at least not as organized as the Democrats seem to be singing from the same sheet of music.

As evidence today that the NDAA, the...

And so – You can't deal with people like that.

What are, what are they saying? Are they disappointed that we're unable to protect them during this battle? Are they disappointed they have to write a $100 billion check and leave it somewhere?

You know, it's mixed, I'm, I'm told, in these GCC, uh, countries.

Uh, UAE is like, you know, ready to go.

They, they think that, uh, we stopped short, that, um, we should have kept going.

And, uh, they're concerned that Iran with money is gonna come back to be the threat that it has always been.

And of course, they are a country that it took more than 2,500 incoming, uh, over the past few months.

Uh, I think Saudi is more happy, uh, or happier rather, uh, in the fact that they're at the table and they're- they believe they can get a good deal.

Yeah, uh, Brett, so the, uh, the case for American, argument on behalf of our nation, now as we get closer to the Fourth of July, do you find there's a thirst to find out more about the journey to 250? Is that what you found when you were talking to people about your book?

What motivated you to go to something like this? Because I think it's a little bit of a bold break from your norm and really important book.

Well, it is a bold break from my norm because, you know, I'm a news guy and I don't usually come with opinion pieces or verdicts on anything.

I kind of lay it out.

I report, you decide.

And what I thought was that ahead of the 250th The country has been in part on trial.

And you can see that online.

You can see that in social media, some of the things that are said about the country.

And can you tell me how many bipartisan bills are being passed under the shadow of these really nasty, aggressive partisan fights?