Bannon's War Room - WarRoom battleground EP 2006： American Seafood： For Our Health and Economy

00:00:00.000 This is the primal scream of a dying regime.

00:00:14.420 Pray for our enemies, because we're going medieval on these people.

00:00:19.680 I got a free shot at all these networks lying about the people.

00:00:23.940 The people have had a belly full of it.

00:00:25.840 I know you don't like hearing that.

00:00:27.040 I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it.

00:00:29.900 it's going to happen. And where do people like that go to share the big line? Mega Media. I wish

00:00:36.620 in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience. Ask yourself, what is my task and

00:00:43.740 what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved. War Room.

00:00:52.020 Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.

00:00:58.160 It's Monday, 12 October, year of our Lord, 2026.

00:01:00.780 Okay.

00:01:03.520 Why do we spend so much time in the grassroots?

00:01:05.900 We're just practical.

00:01:07.920 Because with all the money that runs around and the half billion dollars going to be spent in Texas,

00:01:11.820 all this, that's all for air game.

00:01:13.820 And remember, a lot of that, some of it's mail, some of it's text,

00:01:17.820 wherever the consultants make the most money.

00:01:19.480 But points on the buy for the air game.

00:01:22.020 You need some of that.

00:01:23.040 After a while, people tune it out.

00:01:24.520 And particularly in midterm elections, it comes down to base elections with lower propensity

00:01:29.400 voters being the key.

00:01:31.240 President Trump, we've done the exact same thing since 2015, early 2016.

00:01:36.080 President Trump, the way that the MAGA movement wins is always the grassroots leaders engage.

00:01:43.240 We start canvassing call centers, all of it.

00:01:47.020 And guess what?

00:01:47.680 You turn out the MAGA base, and you turn out MAGA base plus Samaha plus low propensity, and voila, no tsunami, no blue wave.

00:01:58.100 In fact, maybe even hold serve.

00:01:59.860 Why?

00:02:00.620 It's not simply the polls or PSYOP, just the technical difficulty of the pollsters is that, hey, guess what?

00:02:07.200 MAGA doesn't cooperate.

00:02:08.900 They don't want to hear it.

00:02:09.680 They hear a pollster, boom, hang on.

00:02:11.740 You heard the statistic when George Gallup first started.

00:02:14.900 they had 40 percent response from people with landlines why was that it was totally new so

00:02:20.740 people responded told them that's not the case so a lot of these polls become psyops to suppress

00:02:26.980 the vote we're not allowing that but in the process of the grassroots standing their ground

00:02:32.140 and saying hey i'm holding the line uh that's not a free that's not a freebie because they're

00:02:38.120 coming after you if you stand up they're going to come after you and target you i hate to say it

00:02:42.320 That's just reality. So we will make sure people know what's going on. Ben Burquam, you've gone across the country.

00:02:48.100 You've seen it. What is your report to the MAGA base, sir?

00:02:53.760 Yeah, well, look, this is an ongoing fight that we've been in for since the country was founded.

00:02:58.780 But in particular, in modern modern time for the last 50 years, you've had the establishment Republicans that wanted to keep their control.

00:03:05.940 You had the consultant classes that wanted to keep their control.

00:03:08.840 And we always had this divide between the rich elitist establishment and the poor grassroots people that want to actually make changes.

00:03:17.240 And you never had that critical mass where you had the grassroots and the people on the ground and we the people,

00:03:25.160 the people that actually work for a living, be able to hit that threshold to be able to make major change.

00:03:31.400 Until President Trump came along, we saw some of that in the Tea Party.

00:03:33.780 But we're really seeing a major resurgence of that all across America, where grassroots organizations have realized the establishment is not the answer, it's the problem, and they're going around it.

00:03:44.080 And so that's why it's so critical, because of voices like ours, Real America's Voice News, War Room, reaching into these places and saying,

00:03:51.960 you're not going to be screaming into the wind like you have been in the past, we're going to actually give you some support.

00:03:58.060 And that's where we're coming in saying, these races are critical to win, Colorado is critical to win.

00:04:03.100 all of these states that have been flyover country for so long, they are the last stronghold to save

00:04:09.820 this nation. If we lose them, there is nothing else to stand up against the demonic forces

00:04:15.460 that want to destroy it. And all you had to do was look at Iowa, the satanic prayers last week

00:04:20.540 in Iowa to realize that's what this is. All of it's good versus evil. So that all of this that

00:04:25.700 we're doing right now is to stop that. But I have some really exciting news. It's not all bad.

00:04:29.880 Again, think about 2%. It's less than 2% of our populations that are Muslim. 1.00

00:04:34.560 It's less than 2% of our population that are turning these enclaves into jihadist strongholds. 0.69

00:04:40.140 If Christians got out and voted, if grassroots said they took their initiative back, we would win everything. 0.50

00:04:46.360 And we have some really powerful systems that are going to be coming out in the next months that are going to reshape the entire political landscape. 0.75

00:04:53.700 But it starts in places like California.

00:04:55.600 You have to get some of these strong wins and show the political class that we don't need you anymore. 0.88

00:05:01.900 By the way, President Trump's going to Youngstown, Ohio, which is near East Palestine. 0.55

00:05:06.940 He's going to Alaska tomorrow, Montana on Wednesday, Arizona, I think on Thursday.

00:05:11.540 Ben Burkham, you're going to be in Arizona. You're all over.

00:05:14.080 The book is about your books about fear. It's about courage.

00:05:18.700 People can learn a lot about today and about themselves by reading your book.

00:05:22.900 Give me a minute on it, sir.

00:05:25.600 Yeah, the picture you see right here was from Berkeley, 2017, when I started my journey after being set free from addiction and walked into Antifa at Berkeley and was attacked by the same violent demonic forces that we're seeing across our country today.

00:05:41.740 This is a battle of good versus evil.

00:05:44.000 The left wants to intimidate you into silence.

00:05:46.220 And the only way we win this is if we step into that fear and say no more.

00:05:50.220 We're going to stand up as a Christian nation.

00:05:52.100 We're going to stand up as husbands, as leaders of our family, as fathers and mothers that care about our kids and the next generation.

00:05:59.520 And we're not going to back down to the point where chapter 15 is about my relationship with Charlie Kirk and what this means going forward and why each one of these fights is so critical.

00:06:08.680 Every chapter is about a fear I've had to deal with.

00:06:11.620 It has the videos that you can watch along with it.

00:06:13.840 But really what it's about is inspiring the next generation of patriots to stand up in the face of fear to save not just this nation, but the nations of the world.

00:06:24.180 Brother, thank you. Look forward to talking to you. We'll track you down en route to Arizona.

00:06:29.380 We'll see you out there at the rally. Thank you, sir. Ben Burkwam.

00:06:32.560 God bless you.

00:06:33.020 Step in the field. Thank you.

00:06:34.500 Go check it out now.

00:06:37.200 Cindy Castillo, I want to get you on. First, I'm going to play. I got a little cold open for you.

00:06:40.880 um equal form texas just we want an update just from you we're bringing certain grassroots

00:06:48.440 leaders from texas on just give us an update of where we stand we're gonna play a talarico thing

00:06:53.940 in a second but just tell us where we stand from your perspective of a grassroots leader that deals

00:07:01.100 with getting out to vote and making sure that we uh we get to low not just the mega base but low

00:07:06.240 propensity voters. How do you think we're doing? I think people are working really, really hard in

00:07:11.640 Texas. Our conservatives are standing up. So we've got people, I've got a couple I know out in

00:07:17.160 Abilene, they are knocking on doors three hours every single day, and they're talking to our

00:07:22.780 lower propensity voters. So they're working hard, they're listening to people, they're answering

00:07:29.020 their questions or their concerns, and that has been a fabulous effort. They're not the only ones

00:07:35.120 doing it. I've got friends who sit in a waiting room for a doctor, and they talk to the people

00:07:40.400 around them about what's important to them. This is happening everywhere in Texas. We know we need

00:07:46.600 to win. We know we have to push back on the left that's here, and they bring evil and terrible

00:07:52.200 ideas to our state and Islam, which is here, and also making our state at great risk. So we're 1.00

00:07:59.860 working really, really hard, and we don't answer polls. You said it earlier, we don't answer

00:08:04.700 polls. So the polls mean nothing to us. We are not discouraged. We are just working hard to make

00:08:10.720 sure that every single person we can get to the polls, we make sure they go there and vote.

00:08:15.820 Give me a minute on when you do talk to people, there is some frustration out there, obviously,

00:08:20.360 right? With the war, with that. First off, how prominent do you think that frustration is?

00:08:27.180 Do you think it impacts the vote? And what are you guys doing to turn that around specifically?

00:08:31.460 mega members or maybe some of these young people, the jurors said, hey, I didn't sign up for a war.

00:08:37.260 I didn't sign up for this war. You told me you weren't going to do it. I didn't want to do the

00:08:40.700 golf. I don't like the high prices. Is it having an impact? And how are you guys countering?

00:08:46.720 People have real concerns. So the things they ask are fair. You answer back by saying,

00:08:53.740 would you rather have us been bombed by Iran? Do we want to get hit by a nuke or do we want 0.65

00:08:59.600 to keep them from having one. That's plain and simple. That is easy. Gas prices, they're temporary.

00:09:05.900 They're still less than what they were under Biden. Sometimes we take a temporary hit for the

00:09:11.080 good. I mean, we were blessed to be placed in America by our God. And darn it, we are going

00:09:19.080 to protect America and we're going to steward this gift that he gave us. And so little setbacks, 0.95

00:09:26.060 little hardships. What did our founders go through? You know, they put everything on the line. So

00:09:32.400 we're not afraid to put things on the line and we're going to stand up. So that's what we're

00:09:36.900 doing. And you can talk to somebody, you know, you can talk them through some of this. Probably

00:09:42.720 the biggest concerns are about Tallarico, but they're generally, I mean, I'm sorry, really about

00:09:49.100 Tallarico winning, but people who are afraid or don't want to vote for our amazing Patriot

00:09:56.520 Lieutenant Governor, I mean, I'm sorry, A.G. Paxton, he has done a fabulous job as a legislator,

00:10:03.300 both in the House and the Senate, and as our A.G. He has never done a thing that has ever hurt our

00:10:09.900 state. He has done everything to help and further our ideals. And so if they're worried about him

00:10:18.000 having a struggle in his life, well, they need to pray for him, but they also need to vote for him.

00:10:22.860 If we get Tallarico up there in the Senate, his ideals are so a thousand percent different than

00:10:30.180 the things we believe in our ideals. And he will absolutely help take our country down.

00:10:35.800 We cannot send him. Go ahead. Yeah. What about this? What about this initiative that people

00:10:41.060 are talking about a mosque moratorium? How is that playing? That is something that we need to do.

00:10:47.100 People are very stressed over the rise of Islam in our state. 1.00

00:10:52.740 They are showing their hand.

00:10:55.320 Halal restaurants are opening everywhere.

00:10:58.560 Self-serving shopping centers and mosque permits are being asked for across the board.

00:11:06.760 We don't know what's in those mosques. 1.00

00:11:09.020 We do know from 1,400 years of history of Islam that their goal is to take over every nation in this world and be one Sharia run, terrible laws, evil to women, evil to animals, just horrible to females world. 1.00

00:11:29.900 That's what they want. 1.00

00:11:31.020 And that's how they get their end.

00:11:32.540 And if you read Revelations, you see it. 1.00

00:11:34.400 we have to look at these mosques and say, why are they here and what do they really want? 1.00

00:11:40.120 They are not here for our country. They do not believe in our laws and they don't support the 1.00

00:11:44.280 things we support. So we need to say, stop, let us stop. We need to look at them. We need to look at

00:11:50.340 them. Are you getting traction on that? When you talk to people about that, are you getting

00:11:55.060 traction? We need to talk to our legislators about it, but we need people to talk to the

00:12:00.540 governor about it. When our governor hears what the people want, he has responded. So that's how

00:12:09.300 we got kids protected from the transgender agenda, was making sure our governor knew it's what the 1.00

00:12:14.700 people of the state of Texas want. So we're starting this and we're trying. And an educated

00:12:20.860 population will usually speak up. And so we've got to keep educating people on what the risks of

00:12:26.980 mosque. This isn't a religious freedom issue in any way. It is a sovereignty of your state and 0.98

00:12:31.660 your nation issue. So it's a work in process. Last question. I get a bounce. Sharia law.

00:12:42.160 How is this having an impact? Are people awakening to the issues of Sharia law in Texas?

00:12:48.980 I think when they talk about affordability and you talk to them about their taxes and the fact 0.85

00:12:53.000 that they are supporting three welfare wives in some parts of our state. 0.82

00:12:58.340 I think that makes people mad when you talk about the number of children 1.00

00:13:01.680 that are being put in schools who are Islam followers and Islamic

00:13:05.980 and that they're asking for halal food. 0.97

00:13:08.740 And your child may be then served food that has been sacrificed to evil. 0.72

00:13:15.500 When that animal dies, it's sacrificed to Allah.

00:13:20.060 And we don't want our kids to have that.

00:13:22.300 when you talk about those issues, people start to listen and start to understand.

00:13:26.260 Wow. Cindy, where do people go to track you and to find out what you guys are working on

00:13:31.260 over at the Eagle Forum Texas, ma'am? You go to texaseagleforum.com. On X, we are Texas EF,

00:13:41.460 and we're on Facebook. We also have a Montgomery County chapter, Steve, that has a tool.

00:13:47.460 it's called texaschoice.mceagleforum.org and they help you put up two candidates so you can put up

00:13:59.140 Paxton and Tallarico you can upload to a friend or a family member in Texas what the difference is

00:14:05.620 between these candidates in their own words on video and you can get a lot of help and a lot of

00:14:12.280 movement with this tool so i hope your your posse will check this out god we'll send them

00:14:17.980 right over there right now ma'am thank you so much great work thank you love the eagle forum

00:14:22.320 you guys are fantastic thank you bradley thay wrote a great piece of that you've wondered about

00:14:28.060 this you've warned us about this in your book and now it's come to fruition they're going to try to 0.99

00:14:34.660 use our own institutions to destroy us this marxist jihadist uh combination tell us about 0.54

00:14:41.280 Why is it so important that we combat this right now at the ballot box, sir? 0.99

00:14:47.220 Well, Steve, great to join you, of course, because it's existential.

00:14:52.580 Every election is important, there's no doubt about that, but this is existential because we have the communist left in the United States now thinking that it's going to win in 2026, setting the stage then for 2028 when they'll return to the presidency.

00:15:09.040 We cannot allow the Democrats to return to office in any capacity.

00:15:15.040 So it's incumbent if we want to save the United States as a constitutional republic.

00:15:19.760 And that's not an exaggeration.

00:15:21.820 If we want to save the U.S. as a constitutional republic, you cannot allow the Democrats back into office, whether that's the House of Representatives and or the Senate and the presidency.

00:15:32.940 So it's on the shoulders of Donald Trump supporters to vote and not just to vote, but to get your friends to vote.

00:15:41.020 I think DeGrasse's idea of a list of 10 folks, getting 10 of your friends, family members to get to the polls to vote is absolutely essential because you have to hold the House.

00:15:55.360 You have to hold the Senate. That's the springboard for 2028.

00:16:00.360 If the Democrats get back in, they're going to unleash their hell, of course, on the United States.

00:16:07.360 Certainly, it's going to be impeachments if they have the House of RFK Jr., of Pete Hegseth, and of course, Donald Trump himself.

00:16:16.220 The hearings, Steve, you know very well, there are going to be endless hearings of Donald Trump's family members, of folks in the administration, continuing resolutions.

00:16:28.160 It's not as though they're not going to be able to start enacting some of their disastrous policies because we'll still be using CRs, quite likely, for those fiscal years.

00:16:40.800 So the Democrats will get a pound of flesh for essentially getting a budget, since we don't do budgets anymore, but allowing the government to continue to spend.

00:16:53.760 So, Dr. Thayer, give me a minute on the book. The book's in the background. But if you want to read the struggle and fight we've had, this is why somebody said, hey, you guys working on Columbus Day? I say we're working seven days a week, not just 20-some days to Election Day, but even after that. We're in a war right now. Everybody's got to be at the ramparts. Tell me about the book and where do people go to get it?

00:17:14.860 Yeah. The basic argument of the book is that we're in a revolutionary time. The United States

00:17:20.860 has been brought to this position by the fact that the communists have penetrated the US

00:17:27.020 and have been working to replace American identity with the identity that the left wants,

00:17:34.140 the hard left wants. They're on the cusp of achieving their aims. If we don't turn out and

00:17:39.180 vote, they're going to realize that goal. So communists have been at this for 100 years,

00:17:46.380 right? We've been locked in this long war with them. We've had great successes in the past,

00:17:51.820 but sadly, we've dropped the ball in a lot of areas. The Chinese Communist Party is

00:17:58.140 working assiduously to undermine us in international politics, as well as

00:18:03.100 domestically. And they're working with communists, of course, within the United States,

00:18:07.740 And that connecting tissue, right, like George Soros and the Soros Foundation and their front

00:18:13.020 organizations and Neville Roy Singham and his many front organizations to undermine us, of course,

00:18:20.540 to interfere in our elections, absolutely, and to do everything they can do to help the Democrats

00:18:29.420 come back into office. So if you want to save the United States as a constitutional republic,

00:18:36.060 you're going to have to get out and vote. You're going to have to get out your low propensity

00:18:39.540 friends, family members, also to get out and vote, because this is existential.

00:18:46.660 Your article, American Mind, we're pushing that out everywhere. The book, where do people go for

00:18:52.420 the book? Where do they go for your social media? Where do they go for the article?

00:18:55.840 Folks can go to Amazon or to Barnes & Noble to get it, or of course, to Skyhorse,

00:19:02.080 which published it.

00:19:03.220 Steve, thanks so much for writing the foreword.

00:19:05.640 And folks can always find me at Brad Theron X

00:19:07.580 or Bradley Theron Getter and Truth.

00:19:09.520 But vote, get out and vote, get your friends.

00:19:13.180 You know, you've had a lot of great folks tonight.

00:19:16.040 Lori, Cindy, obviously, Ben,

00:19:19.640 we've all got to work together.

00:19:22.880 This is the time, Steve, as you well know,

00:19:25.640 this is the time to act and get involved as you can.

00:19:28.900 If you can get involved essentially to Canvas,

00:19:31.180 if you can donate donate if you can serve as a poll watcher serve as a poll watcher but

00:19:37.240 get involved this is the time to do it uh it's not going to be on when

00:19:42.400 the phone calls absolutely thank you so much appreciate you let's go to his let's read the

00:19:51.940 article let's pass it around let's get to um the book all the content okay we did um colorado

00:20:01.600 Texas.

00:20:03.420 Burkwam's in Arkansas.

00:20:04.720 He's heading out. 0.92

00:20:08.840 We've got a fight that's nationwide.

00:20:11.600 Now we're going to shift to Maine.

00:20:13.980 I want you to watch this.

00:20:15.160 Maybe something that's not that well known about Maine,

00:20:17.620 but this is why Maine is a MAGA state.

00:20:21.660 If we can hold Maine, and by the way,

00:20:23.760 very early in the evening on the 3rd,

00:20:27.520 I think we're going to know how this whole project's going to turn out.

00:20:30.720 because Maine 2, this congressional district that we're fighting for all the time,

00:20:35.580 they have a former governor who's maybe not 100% a Trump acolyte,

00:20:44.980 but has definitely got MAGA tendencies, about as much as he probably can have and win in Maine 2.

00:20:51.040 Governor LePage, he's running for Congress.

00:20:53.520 We're going to know very early on whether there's a tsunami or not, if he puts up a good fight,

00:20:58.660 If he wins or if he comes very close, we're going to find out.

00:21:01.520 Plus, Collins, Susan Collins in Maine.

00:21:04.220 There's a lot to fight for there.

00:21:05.880 That's going to be quite early in the evening.

00:21:08.120 Cortez, as you know, did this great thing up in Lewiston, Maine,

00:21:11.800 about the takeover, this foreign takeover of towns like Lewiston.

00:21:15.340 Now he kind of shifts and pivots and talks about the fishermen up in Maine.

00:21:21.480 And if you remember Patrick O'Donnell's book was about down in Massachusetts,

00:21:25.640 but it's that kind of New Englander grit, determination, kind of toughness.

00:21:32.760 What Cortez has done here is pretty extraordinary.

00:21:34.960 I want everybody to watch it.

00:21:36.460 We're going to be back.

00:21:37.120 We're going to take this all the way out to the end of the show.

00:21:39.960 I'm going to be back at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning.

00:21:42.960 Actually, there's going to be a press conference at 9.30 for the new press secretary,

00:21:47.400 and we're going to pick it up as we go.

00:21:49.380 We don't know how far into the show it's going to go,

00:21:51.360 but we're going to take it to its conclusion, and then we're going to start.

00:21:54.040 So it may be a few minutes later than 10 a.m., although we'll be on duty.

00:21:58.140 We already have a packed show and tons of grassroots leaders who are going to be here.

00:22:03.040 So let's go ahead and see Cortez. We'll see you tomorrow morning at 10.

00:22:07.200 We're a couple of months out, but the midterms are fast approaching.

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00:26:23.900 America is an ocean superpower

00:26:33.320 Blust with unmatched sea resources

00:26:36.940 And yet we import the vast majority of the seafood we eat

00:26:41.460 About 80% in total

00:26:43.460 In fact, the amount of imported seafood has doubled over the last 20 years

00:26:49.360 While the amount of domestically produced and processed seafood

00:26:53.200 has actually gone down, even with a growing population.

00:26:57.480 How is this disparity possible?

00:26:59.940 Why are we not making full use of this incredible gift

00:27:03.820 of bountiful oceans all around us?

00:27:07.520 We should be eating quality American seafood

00:27:10.400 at far, far higher rates,

00:27:12.460 both for our health and for our economic vitality.

00:27:17.620 It's not like we lack access to oceans.

00:27:19.960 In fact, America has the second largest exclusive economic zone or EEZ fishing rights on planet Earth.

00:27:29.560 Right now, the seafood industry supports over a half million total jobs.

00:27:34.460 It's a really critical business in America.

00:27:37.280 But it should be bigger and it should be even better if government would just stop regulating fishermen out of business

00:27:44.920 and stop sending our seafood business overseas.

00:27:48.760 where quality standards are lax at best

00:27:52.300 and environmental stewardship is non-existent.

00:27:56.520 To learn about seafood

00:27:57.700 and some of the most iconic fishermen in America,

00:28:01.560 Chef Andrew Grewal and I went to Maine.

00:28:04.760 He went to college there and worked on a lobster boat,

00:28:07.460 the beginning of a professional journey

00:28:09.460 that led to his success

00:28:11.220 as a chef and seafood restaurant entrepreneur,

00:28:15.040 currently the owner of Calico Fish House

00:28:17.600 in Huntington Beach, California, where this former Maine lobsterman brings a taste of New England

00:28:24.300 to Southern California diners. So, Andrew, we are here in Maine on the coast. This place means a

00:28:32.380 lot to you. Tell us about your past with Maine. Well, so I went to college here in Maine, and then

00:28:36.820 I got into the restaurant industry in Maine, started working at a local lobster seafood shack

00:28:42.020 and learning about the lobster industry, the seafood industry, and I got the bite, dropped out

00:28:47.020 college and ended up in the restaurant industry immediately thereafter and did you have plans on

00:28:51.500 getting into the seafood business oh absolutely not no no no no plans at all i mean i needed a

00:28:55.980 summer job and uh was living on a property with a buddy of mine in a seafood shack no electricity

00:29:01.580 and there was a seafood restaurant right across the water and it's like well that'll be a fun

00:29:05.100 place to work i was just boiling lobsters shucking clams frying seafood and watching all the lobster

00:29:09.820 boats come in and absolutely fascinating i mean a lot of guys i was hanging out with were lobster

00:29:14.620 fisherman and you know kind of grew up in the lobster world so immediately my sense of curiosity

00:29:19.820 was peaked because i wanted to understand about the supply chain why it cost so much money why

00:29:24.840 lobster was a dollar on the dock at the time but we were selling lobster rolls even then for you

00:29:30.520 know 15 dollars which was the late 90s now the irony is is that i then went on to open a business

00:29:36.360 that was built on lobster rolls but in california okay so let's fast forward to that so you now

00:29:41.780 operate calico fish house where i've been it's amazing uh i mean love the setting love the food

00:29:47.460 all of it you and your wife own and operate that now that you're on the consuming side right you're

00:29:51.300 the buyer essentially of a lot of seafood what's that vantage point like for you when i opened up

00:29:55.860 slapfish which was my first concept i started as a food truck in 2011 and we grew it to like 40 plus

00:30:00.820 locations franchised it and our number one seller was the lobster roll right we were the lobster

00:30:06.420 roll the lobster burger you name it it was lobster everything i knew i needed a high ticket item and

00:30:10.820 lobster was something that i was already familiar with and i wanted to merge kind of maine with

00:30:15.300 california so we created the california version of the lobster roll i dove right into buying lobster

00:30:21.060 at million like i mean we probably over the years purchased well over north of a million pounds of

00:30:26.340 lobster what i noticed was the way in which the price of lobster fluctuates so much not just at

00:30:31.940 the dock but through the supply chain and especially between 2005 and current day so 20 years how much

00:30:38.980 of the lobster that's caught here in maine is then shipped and processed in canada shipped back to

00:30:45.220 the us and then purchased by the consumer at a premium that is has doubled if not tripled over

00:30:51.380 the years the lobstermen aren't making that money right so if lobster price has gone up 4x over 10

00:30:56.820 or 15 years the lobster men are actually making less at the end of the day and that's where you

00:31:03.140 look at this supply chain and you say okay everybody's making a cut through the supply

00:31:07.220 chain except the lobstermen lobstermen are shutting down the total catch every year is going

00:31:12.100 down and this is the most iconic fishery of any other fishery in the united states if you ask me

00:31:16.980 and the most memorable of any species of fish in the world you can only catch the species

00:31:22.660 of new england lobster here in maine a little bit of southern canada maybe down into new hampshire

00:31:28.260 and that's pretty much it you don't get lobsters with claws anywhere else in the world lobstermen

00:31:32.740 are being crushed on regulations. The price of lobster is skyrocketing. We're shipping this to

00:31:37.800 Canada in order for it to be processed. And then you've got the restaurateur that's got to charge

00:31:41.780 in California $50 for a lobster roll to even make a dollar on that. And heck, even right here in

00:31:48.640 Portland, I had dinner last night and a lobster roll was $35. And they're dropping them right

00:31:54.640 over here. Yeah. And that high price for lobster and for other seafood, is it largely driven by

00:32:01.860 onerous and unnecessary regulation. 100%. So let's take the labor piece. Why are we shipping

00:32:07.240 65% of our lobster to Canada in order to be packaged and processed? Because they've invested

00:32:12.620 in cheap labor. In the United States, the labor cost has gone up so much. There's so many lawsuits,

00:32:19.140 frivolous lawsuits, labor wage lawsuits, et cetera, that we're seeing all the processing

00:32:23.560 facilities, not just for lobster, but for all seafood shut down along the coast, right? All

00:32:28.220 the way from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine, and everything in between that horseshoe.

00:32:32.400 They've all been shut down. Over 80% of the seafood in the United States that is caught here

00:32:37.640 is exported overseas. It's processed in China, and it can be labeled as U.S. wild, U.S. caught.

00:32:42.800 It's processed in China. It's processed in Indonesia. It's processed in Vietnam. We don't

00:32:46.560 know what chemicals they're using on that. They're using slave labor. I mean, you've got traces of 1.00

00:32:50.980 chlorine, mal-clite green, all these antibiotics, cocaine residue, you name it. We've seen the

00:32:55.600 stories, we've seen the headlines. But the U.S. fishermen who are catching the most sustainable,

00:33:02.560 clean, pristine product are getting put out of business by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.,

00:33:08.380 who in many cases have never even been out to one of these docks. They're just clicking numbers

00:33:12.360 and sells on a spreadsheet. Yeah. Let's talk about that. So, I mean, this is an iconic scene,

00:33:17.060 right? It's very picturesque here. But life is tough for fishermen, right? I mean, this is not

00:33:23.300 an easy living no right no no it's a pennies business right these guys are getting up at five

00:33:27.200 o'clock in the morning four o'clock in the morning they're going out they're dropping traps you know

00:33:30.920 they got to pay now extra for these special type of lines that they use because they don't want to

00:33:35.480 hypothetically get a right whale entanglement they got to have specific traps now that are

00:33:40.860 set forth by you know the National Marine Fisheries Service and probably some state agency as well to

00:33:45.580 be even get the lobster sold they got to market it they got to sell it because lobster man it's

00:33:49.700 generational, right? Your grandfather did it. His grandfather did it. Now you do it. Now these guys

00:33:54.600 were at the end of the rope, pun intended. They're shutting down because they can't make money

00:33:58.680 anymore. Yeah. Let me ask you about this issue of the whales and specifically the right whales,

00:34:02.100 because I hear a lot of complaints from people in Maine that this is a scam, essentially, that

00:34:07.380 the lobstermen are not harming these whales. And yet we've put this ridiculous crushing regulation

00:34:12.940 on the lobster industry. You're right. And what's happened is, is that the lobstermen have become

00:34:17.440 the scapegoats for the decline in population of the right whale. Their population has been going

00:34:24.740 down and we're seeing right whales wash up on shore, right? Nobody knows exactly what it is.

00:34:29.320 There's speculation that it could be the wind farms. There's speculation that it could be the

00:34:32.340 water temperatures. They could be getting hit by various commercial boats or even a lot of the

00:34:37.400 cruise lines. But guess who's getting blamed for it? The lobster fishermen. They're saying that

00:34:41.540 the right whales, which swim kind of towards the surface of the water, are getting entangled in the

00:34:46.160 lobster lines, right? So you drop the lobster lines, you have a buoy at the top, and then you

00:34:49.620 got your trap at the bottom. The lobstermen go out in the morning, they pull up their traps,

00:34:53.180 and they see whether they got any lobster in there. And they're saying the right whales are

00:34:56.220 getting entangled in these lobster lines. Well, guess what? There's not a single documented case

00:35:00.740 of a right whale entanglement in a lobster line. But the lobstermen are now the ones who are being

00:35:06.340 blamed for this, and they're having to change all of their lines. They're having to use specialty

00:35:09.720 ropes specialty traps etc and pay for the decrease in the population of the right whale

00:35:16.840 both literally and figuratively when they're not the culprit

00:35:24.920 now thankfully the fishing industry does have important allies in washington

00:35:29.880 people like senator susan collins of maine thanks to susan collins uh she was able to 0.98

00:35:37.080 to, you know, put a stay on a lot of these whale regulations. 1.00

00:35:41.020 And without Susan Collins, we would we would be in a total mass right now.

00:35:48.100 As Senator Collins observes here, the Biden administration came after the main lobster business with such radicalism, vitriol and unworkable rules that they nearly shut down one of the most iconic businesses in America.

00:36:03.480 In 2022, the Biden administration proposed regulations that posed a threat to the very existence of the lobster fishery.

00:36:17.740 If implemented, it would have shut down the lobster industry.

00:36:23.400 But fishermen in Maine and all over America, they need a lot more allies.

00:36:28.440 they also need more capital and more reasonable regulations and rules they also need protection

00:36:36.040 from predatory trade practices with companies importing junk seafood into american stores

00:36:42.440 and restaurants often mislabeling and misrepresenting the products being served

00:36:48.600 that regulatory burden right now it's so onerous upon american fishermen that massive amounts of

00:36:54.440 seafood that is wild caught in american waters it's sent all the way across the world for processing

00:37:01.800 often to china and vietnam only to be re-imported back into the united states that massive round

00:37:09.320 trip journey of american seafood it actually explains a lot of the u.s trade deficit look at

00:37:15.800 this chart of shrimp production domestic versus foreign imports the domestic take has been going

00:37:22.520 sideways for decades while imports have spiked often imports of junk shrimp that are raised on

00:37:30.200 garbage pellet food rather than healthy american shrimp from places like louisiana

00:37:37.960 this is the fascinating part of the main lobster fishery it is inherently sustainable and it has

00:37:43.000 been managed by the fishermen themselves all of the stock management the mechanisms by which they

00:37:48.840 maintain the stocks that have been set forth by the fishermen not by the government now the same

00:37:54.280 can't be said about a lot of industries right you have the government that's coming in and telling

00:37:57.480 you all these things you have to do and you go from being a fisherman to a compliance officer

00:38:00.840 or a chef to a compliance officer that rubric plays across in any industry but when it comes 0.99

00:38:05.960 to the main lobster fishery i'll give you a couple examples the females right that are the egg-bearing

00:38:11.400 females if you catch those and they have all the eggs on there then you're losing the next

00:38:14.760 population of fish right so the main lobster fishermen they would put like a v-notch in those 0.95

00:38:19.000 tails and they would throw it back and then other lobstermen who would pull up a tail if they saw

00:38:22.680 the v-notch in there they'd throw it back because another random fisherman said i shouldn't catch

00:38:26.680 this so they kind of had this unspoken code um in addition to the fact that the large

00:38:32.600 breeding males they would throw those back as well so they had these ways in which they would keep

00:38:37.560 the the stock fortified uh they didn't need the government to tell them to do that because they

00:38:43.000 They knew if they overfished their product, then their grandkids weren't going to have an industry upon which they could make a living.

00:38:49.340 Yeah. So the so the fishermen themselves were the best stewards, the best of the environment, the best stewards.

00:38:54.780 And I always say this, the fishermen, the ranchers, the farmers, the produce providers, we are the best stewards of our own environment.

00:39:01.760 Right. We're the guys who are out on the water every single day or me as a chef.

00:39:05.060 Right. I'm the one who's touching the product and understanding the produce every single day.

00:39:08.280 I know what's coming in and what's the right product.

00:39:10.500 And when I go out and talk to the farmer, he knows what his land looks like.

00:39:13.560 He knows what types of, you know, harmful externalities are associated with the surrounding ecosystem or the marine ecosystem.

00:39:22.360 Right. Who knows better when they go out every single morning to assess the ocean, the lobster fishermen or the finn fishermen in general.

00:39:30.280 You know, you don't have the guy in Washington, D.C. in the heart of the bureaucracy coming out here to, you know, see what's floating up to the surface in Maine.

00:39:37.300 Yeah. So we're always the best stewards of the environment.

00:39:39.880 Yeah. Let me ask you, Andrew, about this gift that America has of the oceans, right? I mean,

00:39:44.800 you know, we're not landlocked, right? We're not Austria. We have massive coasts. We have

00:39:49.640 massive ocean resources. And I think it'll shock a lot of people. It shocked me when I first learned

00:39:54.480 this, that we import the majority of our seafood. Yeah. Yeah. Almost 75 or 80% of the seafood that

00:40:00.280 we consume in the United States is imported. We export the majority of our seafood. And of that

00:40:05.180 75 to 80 percent of the seafood we import over 60 percent of that is farmed we are the only

00:40:10.860 developed country without an open ocean aquaculture policy so what we're doing is we're saying well

00:40:16.700 we're not going to do any open ocean aquaculture right farming in our oceans because that's dirty

00:40:21.580 and not in my backyard and all the environmental groups are telling us not to do it so instead we

00:40:26.700 let other countries do it unregulated treat it with chemicals ruin their oceans and then we buy

00:40:31.580 it back right so ignorance is bliss i'm not suggesting that we should be farming all of our

00:40:36.780 seafood but we haven't even given it a shot right when we're buying in seafood that's unregulated so

00:40:42.060 that's number one number two we have the most sustainable fisheries of any other country in

00:40:47.020 the world by virtue legislatively of the magnus and stevens act i think it was like 1978 and what

00:40:52.300 that does is that mandates that we have to manage our fisheries to keep them at a maximum sustainable

00:40:57.420 yield msy if you ever read an article and see that so what they do every year is is that you

00:41:02.060 have these statisticians that determine what's the biomass we need of this stock for it to continue

00:41:06.940 reproducing right and to maintain that maximum sustainable yield and then whatever is kind of

00:41:13.100 above that is what the allowable catch is it's called the total allowable catch we manage that

00:41:18.140 across all of our oceans right and um our oceans are included is included in the exclusive economic

00:41:25.660 zone, the EEZ. So from the coastline out 200 miles, every country owns their ocean. So if you

00:41:32.380 actually look at a map and you kind of take that 200 miles all the way around America, we actually

00:41:37.260 own the majority of the ocean or the fishable ocean, if you will. And not only do we own it,

00:41:42.200 but it's the most diverse set of species of all different types of fish and crustaceans

00:41:46.360 of any other ocean in the world. But we don't eat any of that in the United States. Not only do we

00:41:52.220 not eat any of that. But the per capita consumption of seafood in the United States is one of the

00:41:58.560 lowest of any developed country in the world. So it's about 16, 17, might be up to 18 pounds

00:42:03.960 per person now. Take Japan or Korea or any of these countries that actually have, they live

00:42:09.420 longer, and they're consuming upwards of 100 pounds per capita per person a year of seafood.

00:42:14.880 So if you draw the correlation of the Western diet, high hypertension, diabetes, all of these

00:42:20.140 autoimmune disorders that are killing us, chronic disease. We've heard about it over the past couple

00:42:23.820 of years extensively. You've talked about it. This is the genesis of Maha. That is a result of

00:42:31.040 eating way too many omega-6 fatty acids. Well, what's great about seafood is it's all omega-3

00:42:36.980 fatty acids, DHAs, the healthy fats, right? So we have a deficiency of those omega-3s in our diet,

00:42:42.660 okay? And we have a surplus of those omega-6s. That's essentially the definition of the Western

00:42:49.140 diet. Yeah. Right. Now, when you look at those countries where they live longer and they eat

00:42:54.120 more seafood and even a lot of these blue zones, it's all about once again, the seafood that they

00:42:58.560 consume. So we have a bounty of the best seafood in the world, the most sustainable fisheries in

00:43:03.600 the world, and we don't eat any of it. And that which we do eat is treated with chemicals and

00:43:09.320 it's imported from questionable countries with questionable practices. And that's what we eat

00:43:14.100 here. So when you're sitting over there at a restaurant on the water and you're looking out

00:43:18.180 you're saying oh this seafood tastes delicious it was probably caught right over there no it was

00:43:22.020 actually farmed in china and shipped in and what was caught right over there is shipped over to

00:43:26.740 canada to get processed it's backwards let me ask you here locally in maine do these fishermen have

00:43:36.980 an ally in susan collins and the senator from maine they do have an ally in susan collins because just

00:43:41.620 generally speaking she's shown that she's willing to look at deregulating and letting the industry

00:43:47.700 themselves do the work right she has a voting history which proves that and it is not just

00:43:52.900 important to keep susan collins there but could you imagine if we had a big government you know

00:43:58.420 quasi-communist in there representing these fishermen they are the enemy to the communist 0.89

00:44:03.780 they are the enemy to the big government democrat and because they don't like entrepreneurs it's

00:44:08.740 like me in california as a single unit restaurateur or even as a multi-unit restaurateur

00:44:13.380 I am the enemy of the state, and they will do everything they can to stick their hand into my bank account

00:44:18.580 and take out as much money as possible, just to the point where I go bankrupt.

00:44:22.140 They'll leave a little bit in there so I can continue surviving for a while,

00:44:26.160 and then eventually they'll pull it all away from me.

00:44:28.020 And then I'm stuck there, and what do I need to do?

00:44:30.500 Rely on the government, right?

00:44:31.940 Because the more these fishermen that they put out of business,

00:44:34.640 they see it as these guys are going to rely on us for the unemployment checks,

00:44:37.860 and then ultimately we'll give them a job making pittance in the government.

00:44:41.000 That's communism.

00:44:41.760 Andrew, let's talk solutions, right? We want this industry to be stronger. We want fishermen to

00:44:46.520 thrive. We want Americans to be healthier. What are the solutions? First and foremost,

00:44:50.480 we need to get rid of the gratuitous and onerous regulations that are keeping the fishermen off the

00:44:54.460 water and in front of a clip pad, right? We need to make sure that there's more capital that's

00:44:59.520 accessible to the fishermen in the fishing industry. And that can be private investment,

00:45:03.740 but they need to know that the industry is going to be sustainable and not shut down by the

00:45:07.420 government. We need to catch more fish. It's that simple. We've got so many areas in which we're

00:45:12.060 not allowed to catch fish. The ocean is the most resilient organism in the world, the most

00:45:17.380 resilient resource. We do rehabilitate over time and stocks do rebuild themselves. And I think that

00:45:25.580 we've over managed the stocks, number one. So we need to make more product available to the

00:45:30.780 fishermen to catch. That also goes along the lines of making more licenses available, making the

00:45:35.360 seasons longer, right? And we can work with states and local jurisdictions if we need to manage it

00:45:40.980 on a quick basis where we shut down a fishery because of X, Y, and Z. But the government,

00:45:45.980 the federal government needs to stop micromanaging what our producers are doing on a local level.

00:45:52.120 Now, no one cares for the oceans and for our wild sea resources more than American fishermen.

00:45:59.500 They are the true stewards of our waters, the most important environmentalists of all.

00:46:05.360 These fishermen should also be allowed to pursue

00:46:08.420 ocean farming or stock fortification, operations here,

00:46:12.680 which all of our competitor nations have,

00:46:14.860 but is nearly impossible in U.S. waters right now.

00:46:18.720 We should be harnessing the power of our oceans

00:46:21.460 to fortify stocks through responsible aquaculture,

00:46:25.140 in addition to catching wild stocks of fish.

00:46:29.260 But not only should we grow and strengthen

00:46:31.300 our seafood industry for economic reasons,

00:46:33.380 but also for our national health.

00:46:36.340 Seafood is, by definition, some of the best

00:46:38.940 and healthiest food we can possibly eat.

00:46:42.160 An amazing source of quality protein

00:46:44.840 that should form a staple of American diets.

00:46:48.500 America suffers from crisis levels of obesity,

00:46:51.840 diabetes, and inactivity.

00:46:54.840 But seafood, seafood is practically a superfood solution

00:46:58.940 to these issues.

00:47:00.620 So Andrew, your passion for food is really obvious,

00:47:03.760 it's contagious, it's wonderful.

00:47:05.280 You clearly, you love feeding people.

00:47:07.640 And part of that though,

00:47:08.880 is I think you want them to be healthy, right?

00:47:10.900 You want people to be properly nourished.

00:47:13.540 Talk to us about how does seafood fit into that view of yours?

00:47:17.160 When I have to give people one sound bite of information,

00:47:19.800 it's eat more seafood.

00:47:21.440 Eat more of the right types of fats.

00:47:23.700 And fats aren't the enemy.

00:47:25.120 And it's these types of healthy fats, right,

00:47:27.280 that we see in seafood and omega-3s

00:47:29.240 the good quality lean proteins that we need to eat more of and we have that bounty of product here

00:47:35.400 and once again we're not consuming it because we had a couple situations where fish was high

00:47:40.120 in mercury like swordfish and tuna we said don't eat seafood there's that's two species out of a

00:47:45.560 million right we should be eating more wild alaskan salmon we should be eating more mackerel fatty

00:47:50.680 oily fish and consuming less of the cheap omega-6 fatty acids right that we find in imposter proteins

00:47:58.920 I call it. They're in every single one of our highly processed foods that were served that are

00:48:03.180 in a box on the shelves. And they tell us, get your omega-6 fatty acids. It's good for you.

00:48:08.220 It's lower in saturated fats. You remember how many times we saw that food marketing machine

00:48:12.120 do its work? And now fast forward 20, 30, 40 years, and we've got chronic disease peppered

00:48:17.800 throughout our entire society. 20 plus percent of the entire federal budget is going towards

00:48:22.020 healthcare and it's only increasing. The USDA, the FDA, the HHS in general has only doubled in size.

00:48:27.860 So the government's gotten bigger, the government which was directed to make us healthier, we've gotten sicker, we're dying at a younger age, and we're spending the majority, well, at least 20 plus percent of our money, our federal taxpayer dollars, on trying to solve this medical crisis when we can be doing it right here by eating more seafood.

00:48:49.180 Right.

00:48:49.480 So if we eat the products of our own ocean, we're going to be happier, healthier, and ultimately as a country save money.

00:48:56.380 We're going to save money.

00:48:57.140 we're going to have a stronger local economy okay we're going to rely less on all of our imports

00:49:02.500 which we're meat which means we're going to be stronger from an international trade perspective

00:49:06.340 one of the largest trade deficits behind oil and automobile seafood i mean oil automobiles seafood

00:49:11.940 right it's right up there on the list that's a trade a major trade imbalance why are we going

00:49:17.060 to put all of our eggs in that basket when they're all there has to be is some international dispute

00:49:21.780 or something happens like a covid where we can't import all these products anymore because the

00:49:26.020 supply chain has been broken and we have no food to eat we fix it by deregulating the industries

00:49:31.620 that put food on our plates not to the degree we think regulation is safety regulation and safety

00:49:36.660 are not the same thing okay regulation is about making a few people rich in the government and

00:49:41.220 hurting the people who produce the product right number one number two we need to subsidize it to

00:49:46.340 some degree now we don't subsidize it with government dollars but we need to inject money

00:49:50.820 into the economy there's so much cash on the sidelines right now but young independent

00:49:55.380 entrepreneurs don't have access to that capital. I know it as a restaurateur. I've been in

00:49:59.340 restaurants for 15 plus years and I still can't get an SBA loan to the degree that I need to. I

00:50:03.720 talk to other qualified chefs across the industry. None of them have access to capital. We don't make

00:50:08.820 cash accessible because it's not either being backed by the government or people don't believe

00:50:14.560 that the industry is going to be strong enough in five or 10 years so it doesn't pro forma out.

00:50:18.840 But if the government came in and said, hey, you know what? We're going to market U.S. wild

00:50:23.320 seafood and we're going to back it right the same way we back sba loans and we're going to make sure

00:50:27.800 that the industry explodes and we make that part of our mission well guess what you're going to see

00:50:32.360 private capital come off the sidelines go into those industries and you're going to see hundreds

00:50:36.680 of young independent strong able-bodied entrepreneurs get into this industry yeah i think

00:50:42.440 a lot of americans thankfully are waking up part of it's the maha movement but a lot of americans

00:50:46.040 are waking up to you know we want to locally source things we want to support local growers

00:50:49.400 or in this case, local fishermen. And is it important for Americans to realize that we

00:50:55.400 should be supporting American-produced food? Yes, we should be supporting American-produced

00:51:01.020 food, not just because it's a national security issue, as we talked about, but you are single-handedly

00:51:06.280 with your fork or with your wallet. You're building that local economy, right? So let's

00:51:10.100 take Alaskan seafood as an example. You've got these limited fishing seasons where people go

00:51:14.700 and buy a license, and then they go up to Alaska, and then they'll catch as much as they can in a

00:51:18.500 certain period of time and that is going to then sustain them for the rest of the year that's their

00:51:23.740 salary if you will all that money is going back into that local economy it's going back into the

00:51:28.620 wallet of the fishermen that then they're spending it locally as opposed to buying all the seafood

00:51:33.520 from china buying salmon that's been caught in alaskan waters and shipped to china by the way

00:51:40.180 and then sent back to the united states china's eating our lunch quite literally so i'm always

00:51:46.000 to get that product that was caught by a fisherman in alaska processed in alaska and then packaged

00:51:50.880 and sold to a u.s consumer that's key the same goes for lobster here in maine so let's make it

00:51:58.080 cheaper higher quality abundant and domestic well nobody better to eat a lobster roll with

00:52:05.840 than chef andrew girl uh tell us about maine lobster about a lobster roll this is the state

00:52:12.640 dish as we know or as barstool says the state sandwich yeah but this is more than just the

00:52:17.360 state sandwich right here this is an entire economy in a bun this is what's made this state

00:52:23.040 economy in my opinion the cost is one thing that we should we should take note of this was 36

00:52:29.120 okay so you're buying lobster at the dock here for like four or five dollars a pound

00:52:34.720 whole and maybe you got two lobsters out of here and it's a pound and a half lobster so three

00:52:39.040 at eight, so $18. And then they're doubling on this to make the profit. That's not a good profit

00:52:44.180 margin, right? So 25% food cost is what you want. If I just double the raw cost of this, that's 30,

00:52:51.020 that's 50%. I'm losing money on this. So at $36 in Maine, they theoretically are still losing

00:52:57.240 money on this. Yeah. So even though that, and that's a very expensive sandwich, of course,

00:53:00.580 right? Most people simply can't afford that kind of sandwich often, right? That's too expensive

00:53:04.320 for most folks. But you're saying even at that price, because of the regulatory burden that we

00:53:08.760 put on this industry, this is way more expensive than it needs to be. It is. It is. And this should

00:53:12.980 be like $10 or $15. So what that comes down to is fuel costs, license costs, equipment costs,

00:53:19.360 the cost of getting it here, just obviously general inflation overall. And then from a

00:53:25.060 restaurant tourist perspective is the cost of doing business. Just like California, Maine

00:53:29.760 probably has an excess amount of regulations for wage and hour stuff and all of these different

00:53:35.420 elements that make the cost of doing business higher. And that's, you know, really at the end

00:53:41.800 of the day, what's coming down on the plate. Yeah. Now, let me ask you about the business here

00:53:46.180 because we have tried our best, you and I both, to get on a boat, to get on an actual lobster boat

00:53:51.280 and talk to a lobsterman about their challenges. And they all have the same complaints, right?

00:53:56.100 They all have the exact same legitimate complaints. They don't want to come on camera

00:53:59.840 because they're worried. There's a culture of intimidation. Can you speak to that?

00:54:03.300 There is because they are afraid that no matter what they say, there's going to be weaponization

00:54:08.180 either by the government or by any of the local organizations.

00:54:11.240 You got to understand too, here's one important thing to mention about lobster fishermen.

00:54:15.160 They're very territorial over their waters as well, right?

00:54:18.160 And they take their business very seriously, but they're also private people.

00:54:21.200 And so when I talk to them and I say, hey, you want to go on camera and tell me about

00:54:24.560 all the problems you're having?

00:54:25.420 They're like, I don't have time to deal with any of that.

00:54:27.480 I'll tell you the problems and then you go message that.

00:54:30.340 They don't want any of the state to come down on them.

00:54:32.820 They don't want any of the organizations to come down on them, the NGOs.

00:54:35.960 And I get that because as a restaurateur in California, it's the same thing.

00:54:40.280 Nobody wants to speak out.

00:54:41.740 When I started speaking out during the pandemic, all these other restaurateurs were reaching out to me.

00:54:45.680 Thank you so much for saying this.

00:54:47.300 I wish I could say it.

00:54:48.680 Yeah.

00:54:49.280 Well, thank you for having the guts.

00:54:51.580 You have the facts and the guts to be that spokesman. 1.00

00:54:54.240 Well, guts are stupidity, one or the other. 1.00

00:54:57.160 America is blessed with oceans. 1.00

00:54:59.600 Let's harness the full potential of that resource

00:55:03.380 And by doing so, get healthier and wealthier

00:55:07.880 Let's act like the sea power that we truly are

00:55:12.480 From sea to shining sea

00:55:29.600 Thank you.

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Bannon's War Room - October 12, 2026

WarRoom battleground EP 2006： American Seafood： For Our Health and Economy

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