WarRoom Battleground EP 811： Mask Mandate Trial Verdict Stuns Legal Expert
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
166.0825
Summary
In this episode of War Room, host Steve fills in for J.J. Zirkle filling in for host J.P. as they discuss a recent incident involving a man wearing a mask observing an election in Washington County, Washington.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hello sir, what's your name? Tim Hazelow. Good to meet you. Good to meet you. We've
00:00:09.120
met before. Tell me what's going on here. I'm just observing my civil rights as the
00:00:14.820
observer. But as I know they made a policy that you wear a mask. Which the RCW doesn't give them
00:00:20.880
the authority to do so. That's still a policy that's been set. And they've made that very
00:00:26.700
clear to you. Are you guys going to cite me for being here? I'm going to sit here and
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watch the balloting like they're saying. I'm going to sit here and watch the balloting.
00:00:37.360
No, no. Okay. You need to leave. Are you going to write me a citation? If I need to, then let's go.
00:00:48.740
I'm going to come back in if I don't get some type of written thing saying that I have to leave.
00:00:54.900
Let's go. Are you going to give me something in writing? Let's go. That's the question.
00:01:00.580
Let's go. Are you going to give me something in writing? Sir. I'll tell you what I'm going to do.
00:01:07.200
Okay. I'm going to escort you out of here right now. Okay. Okay. And then what? And then we'll decide.
00:01:14.700
We can talk in the hallway before we go outside. And then I'll decide if I'm going to actually leave
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the building or not. Okay. Let's go. Excuse me. Come on. Come on. I know who you are. Come on.
00:01:34.600
Yeah, I know who you are. Good. Go on this one. To the right.
00:01:40.960
No, we'll talk about it because if I need to go back in, I want to go back in.
00:01:43.900
To the right, sir. You really want to enforce this rule that you know they have the authority
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not to do? I don't know that. I know that you're being disorderly right now.
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I'm exercising my rights. Is it not my right to observe this election?
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If you go and do that, if you follow the policies that are set by the auditor, yes, you can do that.
00:02:05.880
That is not true. I've already talked to multiple lawyers and they've all told me the same thing.
00:02:10.640
Go in and exercise your right to observe the election. Okay. I'm the chairman of the party.
00:02:16.180
Not only am I authorized because of the First Amendment and because I'm supposed to be here
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to exercise my rights, I'm also obligated to observe based on my position.
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So I'm obligated to do this. You've been given the opportunity to observe
00:02:29.440
and you're not following the policies set by the auditor.
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It seems pretty interesting to me that they can arbitrarily set a rule that has zero...
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I don't have anything to do with setting the rules.
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I have to do with doing what they've asked me to do.
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Right. And they're saying I'm trespassing because I'm not following the rules.
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Okay. Well, then let's go out and we'll get that citation for you.
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You should have seen me on the north end today.
00:03:14.940
I almost got hit by a Harris Waltz sign driving down the highway.
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You're just not going to free shot at all these networks lying about the people.
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I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that,
00:03:40.200
but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen.
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And where do people like that go to share the big lie?
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I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
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Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?
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If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
00:04:13.460
My name is Jane Zirkle, filling in for Steve Bannon.
00:04:16.200
And what you just saw there was body camera footage from a mask mandate dispute up in Island County, Washington, involving the GOP chairman there, Tim Hazelow.
00:04:29.960
Now, Tim, last time we spoke, you were headed into trial.
00:04:35.100
But give us a refresher of what took place that day in Island County, Washington, when you were observing the votes there.
00:04:43.760
Well, first of all, let me add to this caveat that the body cam adds 30 pounds.
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And I had orange hair because I had dressed as Donald Trump at a Halloween party the day before.
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But basically, you know, I went in there with the intention of quietly observing the elections, which is what we're supposed to be doing.
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And I feel like I'm more obligated than some because of my position.
00:05:13.280
There had been a mask mandate on and off since August earlier in the year.
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The week before, we complained about this fictitious mask mandate that we don't believe they have the authority to put in place.
00:05:32.480
I'm sure Angus could talk about that a little more, but we've complained about it.
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And we never even heard a word back from the auditor.
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Even after we legally served them with a cease and desist letter, we never heard a word back.
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And I just sat down and I signed in, mind you, signed the rules that said nothing about mask mandates on the written rules.
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And we talked about that before I signed in, went in, sat down, and then shortly thereafter, they told me I had to wear a mask.
00:06:06.700
And then the sheriff came and you saw the rest of it.
00:06:10.720
What you didn't see, though, is that there's another body cam video afterwards where the sheriff and I were talking and we shook hands.
00:06:17.880
And he escorted me back to the front of the building to sign back out again because I had signed in.
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And so he escorted me up front, and he testified to that fact in the trial as well.
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So that's kind of the 411, the short version of that day.
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So you were given a citation for disorderly conduct, and then the prosecutor, Greg Banks, gets involved, saying that if you don't agree to a plea deal on that,
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he is going to upgrade the charges to felony unauthorized access to a voting center and misdemeanor trespassing.
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Angus, if you could jump in here and explain, in your professional opinion, is this typically how something of this nature would go,
00:07:03.100
that Tim would be given an ultimatum like this, where he's then facing a few days in jail for this disorderly conduct citation that he wasn't even arrested for?
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The prosecutor to take baseless misdemeanor charges and elevate them to even more baseless felony charges.
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And it creates some real concern in my mind because when you watch the video,
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the original charge of disorderly conduct clearly was without any basis in fact or law.
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But to elevate it to a felony when Washington state law is explicit that the voting stations are observable by county party representatives.
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In fact, the auditor is required to allow someone like him to make those observations.
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It's part of our voter integrity process here in Washington.
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So it's very shocking that the prosecutor would take a non-appropriate misdemeanor charge
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and then, because he didn't get what he wanted, to add a felony that has no basis in fact or law either.
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Why do you think Greg Banks made this such a lawfare campaign against your client?
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Well, unfortunately, he has become very politically motivated and biased against conservatives and Trump supporters.
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Anyone who's spent any time looking at his Facebook feed can see that he has an extreme and pronounced animus
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towards anyone in the Republican Party or supports President Trump.
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So, you know, I can't peer into his mind, but what I can do is peer into his Facebook page,
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which evidences a large amount of animus towards people like my client.
00:09:06.700
You brought it all the way to a jury trial, which took place last week.
00:09:10.200
Give us the rundown of the trial, particularly when it comes to the timeline,
00:09:13.800
because what shocked me was how quickly this was decided.
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Day three was closing statements and jury deliberation or jury rules and then deliberation.
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To me, by the first few hours of day two, any hope that I had of getting an innocent verdict out of these people had faded
00:09:49.020
because the rules of the court, Mr. Banks had put in some motions to prevent us from discussing certain items.
00:09:58.460
And those items where we couldn't discuss Mr. Banks's political bias, which is the reason why we're here anyway, in my opinion.
00:10:07.000
We couldn't discuss whether other people were wearing masks or not wearing masks, which there's lucky for luckily for us.
00:10:14.160
One of the local news teams went up there and did a video shoot a few days before I went in the room without a mask on.
00:10:23.500
And they just happened to catch one of the poll workers in their working, counting ballots, not wearing a mask, amongst other people not wearing masks.
00:10:34.040
We weren't allowed to talk about the legality of the mask mandate itself.
00:10:39.620
And so pretty much everything that we wanted to argue as a defense was kind of swept out from under our feet.
00:10:47.580
And the judge, and I don't know Judge Wilson from any other judge.
00:10:51.720
I mean, this is the first time I've ever dealt with anything like this, right?
00:10:54.540
He approved all of Banks's motions to, I don't know what the legal term is, repress or not allow that evidence to be put forward.
00:11:05.000
Out of all the evidence that we tried to submit, I think we had one piece of evidence accepted.
00:11:11.600
And that was the actual written rule form that I had to sign to get in the building, which, mind you, said nothing about wearing a mask on it.
00:11:18.060
Yeah, talk to me a little bit more about that, because I know there was some dispute about the auditor's authority here.
00:11:28.420
Yeah, I think Angus is probably better suited to talk about that than I am.
00:11:35.480
So today we are filing a motion to dismiss the case, set aside the verdict, and or for a new trial.
00:11:41.900
And if the judge doesn't grant those, we will be appealing the conviction.
00:11:48.340
One of the big problems in this case is the auditor simply does not have authority to impose a mask mandate in 2024.
00:11:58.640
One thing for people to keep in mind is that this case is about the 2024 election.
00:12:04.680
When you hear about a mask mandate order, you might think it was 2022 or 2021.
00:12:10.000
No, in 2024, with no authority from any health official, no health advisories, no outbreaks, the auditor unilaterally and without lawful authority imposed this order,
00:12:25.460
didn't follow any mandatory procedures under state law, and really violated the Constitution.
00:12:31.960
And one of the problems in this case, and the reason there was a conviction, is because not only was the jury not advised what the law was,
00:12:47.840
The court actually entered a jury instruction that the auditor had authority to issue this order.
00:12:58.160
And one of the things that happened during jury deliberation was the jury made specific requests to the judge to show them portions of Washington state law, which the judge declined to do.
00:13:10.900
So you had a jury who was deliberating this case and saying,
00:13:14.000
hey, judge, we'd like to see the specific law at issue here.
00:13:20.060
Had the judge actually shown the law to them or advised them on the law correctly, there would not have been a conviction and certainly cannot be a conviction when the auditor did not have any constitutional authority to effectively create felony law at a whim in this case.
00:13:39.060
So talk to me a little bit about the verdict here.
00:13:42.520
What was the basis for the jury's decision ultimately?
00:13:51.060
I think the basis for the jury's ultimate decision was lack of proper instruction and lack of a defense.
00:14:03.080
I mean, basically, we were not allowed to present a defense at all.
00:14:07.300
I was on the stand and my attorney asked me, had I ever even heard of unauthorized access to a polling place, which I hadn't at that point in time.
00:14:16.580
And before I could even reply to that simple question, Mr. Banks had objected to the question and the judge had upheld the objection.
00:14:26.360
So the simplest of defenses that we were trying to put forward were just being shut down left and right.
00:14:34.060
And, yeah, I just kind of knew at that point in time, I could feel it sinking in my chest that I was going to be found guilty of this thing.
00:14:41.900
And honestly, if you look at the law itself, it doesn't even apply in the situation we're in, let alone the fact that the instructions were given in our opinion incorrectly.
00:14:56.580
I mean, a jury has a difficult job in any case.
00:15:02.000
That job becomes even more difficult when they are given improper instructions on the law.
00:15:08.140
For those out there at home who have never been on a jury, one of the things that happens in a jury trial is the jury comes in, they get selected, they sit there and they listen to all the evidence.
00:15:20.200
And they try and determine what evidence is relevant at the end of the case when the judge tells them, now that you've sat through all the evidence, here is what I'm telling you the law is.
00:15:32.020
Now, if the judge advises the jury incorrectly on the law, then you will have an incorrect verdict.
00:15:40.420
And what happened here is the jury sat through a trial where they were not given all the information.
00:15:46.180
They did not get all the evidence that exists in real life because of some of the rulings that were made.
00:15:52.740
And then the jury was given improper instructions on the law.
00:15:56.220
And any time you play a game with the wrong rules, you're going to get the wrong result.
00:16:03.460
It's part of the reason we're filing for a motion to dismiss today.
00:16:08.160
In your view, Tim, have you been the victim of a witch hunt?
00:16:15.380
You know, let me be real careful about how I answer that.
00:16:19.060
Let's think about it, though, and let the viewers make their own choice on this.
00:16:22.220
I've been cited for disorderly conduct initially.
00:16:27.200
For some reason, the highest level prosecutor, the elected official in Island County, decided to take it upon himself to prosecute that charge, the lowest level criminal charge a person can be charged with.
00:16:40.860
For some reason, he came down to prosecute that charge.
00:16:43.260
When I pled innocent to that charge, first of all, the judge in the district court, he was going to release it because he didn't believe there was any misconduct.
00:16:53.220
And then the prosecuting attorney's office inflated some things.
00:16:57.600
And he said, OK, well, we've got to move it forward.
00:17:00.380
And then I got that letter stating that if I don't plead guilty, that he was going to add another charge, the trespassing, criminal trespassing.
00:17:08.560
And if I didn't plead guilty and take his punishment, that all further negotiations were off the table, period.
00:17:22.460
And so you can imagine what my response to him was.
00:17:28.400
And then just a couple of days later, we got the subpoenas or the summons to show.
00:17:33.500
And I actually had to go get booked into jail, get my picture taken in my fingerprints.
00:17:37.280
I'm thinking this is this is freaking ludicrous.
00:17:40.280
And so then I saw these Facebook posts and people started sending me the things that banks did because I never really paid attention to this guy in the past.
00:17:49.120
Got a top secret clearance for 35, 38 years of my life.
00:17:57.060
And I started seeing these Facebook posts about conservatives should die of COVID or I'm not.
00:18:13.020
Where can people go follow you and support you as you take this case to the next level?
00:18:17.700
Yeah, if you go to YouTube, it's a TNTT, Truth Not Trash with Tim.
00:18:27.800
So if you go to GoFundMe, let me get you the code for that real quick.
00:18:43.040
If you look at those two things, you'll pretty much get most of everything.
00:18:46.600
I try to put a video up every couple of days about what's going on.
00:18:49.700
And I'm going to post your video up there as soon as you guys get it out there.
00:18:56.960
And if this can happen to a small guy like me that's just trying to observe elections,
00:19:23.120
Marlee, what is your reaction to what we just heard there?
00:19:30.580
If you watch the trial of Tina Peters, you can see that election officials and when it
00:19:35.540
comes to elections anywhere across the country and prosecutors have the upper hand here, you
00:19:40.940
know, they just want the American people to accept the reality that our election systems
00:19:51.260
And they'll go, you know, on the war path against anybody who dissents, even someone who's
00:19:56.540
actually following the law and a whistleblower like Tina Peters.
00:20:00.960
Meanwhile, the American people, I think we're not stupid.
00:20:05.860
And that's where Unite for Freedom really comes in, because our evidence, our already gathered
00:20:13.000
evidence across 30 states in the United States of America shows that these election systems
00:20:22.280
And we have to get this under control before 2026.
00:20:26.040
We have to keep the America First agenda going.
00:20:32.800
Next week, United Sovereign Americans has a big event coming up.
00:20:40.460
We're going to be at the National Press Club on Tuesday, Tuesday afternoon at one o'clock
00:20:45.020
We're going to be announcing a number of new lawsuits, and one of them is actually in the
00:20:52.140
The same officials, the Secretary of State Jenna Griswold and the Attorney General who prosecuted
00:20:58.080
Tina Peters and put this gold star mom in prison for doing her job and serving the American
00:21:03.400
people, they are going to be filed against again in Colorado by USA with a lawsuit showing
00:21:09.700
that they have totally failed to validate and verify the identity of their voters before
00:21:18.640
So this is really a very basic approach to making arguments that they're breaking the
00:21:26.300
They're counting tens of thousands of votes from unverified registrants that we have studied
00:21:34.940
We've worked on this with attorneys, private investigators.
00:21:37.380
This is a big research project, and that's what they're going to be faced with on Monday.
00:21:43.080
So basically, the people who are totally failing to protect the civil rights of Colorado voters
00:21:51.580
and went on the warpath against Tina Peters, they're going to finally be facing a reckoning
00:21:58.760
Marlee, where can people go and follow you and get the latest from the event?
00:22:02.240
Please go to unite4freedom.com, unite4freedom.com to support our forensic reports.
00:22:12.340
We're the only organization that's actually measuring non-citizen voting on a forensic
00:22:17.560
basis using qualified professionals to produce these reports.
00:22:28.020
Give us a, send us a message and send us some support.
00:22:45.580
Callie is the communications director over at the Republican Study Committee.
00:22:49.560
Callie, you unleashed MAGA at the U.S. House of Representatives for this new media event
00:22:59.240
Tell me about it, and tell me why you first were motivated to hold this in the first place.
00:23:07.920
It was really just such an honor to host 33 creators, influencers, and conservative media
00:23:13.440
personalities on Capitol Hill to really highlight all of the victories that Republicans have
00:23:21.380
We're really delivering on the mandate for the American people.
00:23:24.440
And I think this was an opportunity for lawmakers to really break it down on what we're working
00:23:28.380
on here in more of a, you know, informal, conversational way and being able to kind of
00:23:35.620
explain, like, what is the one big, beautiful bill?
00:23:37.800
What are all of the provisions that went into it?
00:23:40.220
The rescissions bill last night, we kind of previewed that with you all as well.
00:23:43.800
But the reason that we hosted it was so that we could give people not only creators and
00:23:49.140
influencers, but outlets as well who aren't credentialed necessarily by Capitol Hill to
00:23:52.760
be able to have unfettered access to lawmakers and be able to highlight all that we do here
00:23:59.940
Yeah, I actually want to ask you specifically about the rescissions bill.
00:24:03.360
Do you think that this event played a role in putting some pressure on that front?
00:24:11.840
I think we did a lot of those conversations preemptively because we really wanted to highlight,
00:24:16.940
you know, keeping the House's bill intact as it was being deliberated in the Senate.
00:24:21.920
And obviously, with the passage overnight, we are very pleased with what came back and what
00:24:26.600
is going to President Trump's desk at 2.30 today.
00:24:29.480
But yeah, I do think it played a role definitely.
00:24:31.760
And I think it was also a really great opportunity for our members to be able to kind of highlight
00:24:37.280
what is a rescissions package, you know, it is codifying those doge cuts that we promised
00:24:42.040
the American people and slashing waste, fraud and abuse and government spending and being
00:24:47.120
able to also finally cut funding from woke propaganda outlets like NPR and PBS.
00:24:58.820
I mean, these pieces of legislation, they're so massive and complex that it's great to just
00:25:04.920
And it was super nice, too, because I only actually had one interview set in stone scheduled
00:25:09.720
and the rest were just reps coming up and saying, hey, I want to talk to the War Room
00:25:14.620
So we are actually going to air those interviews after the break.
00:25:18.340
And so just know that the reps that I was speaking to, they wanted to get feedback from
00:25:24.680
But I want to ask you, what has been the feedback so far that you have gotten from the online
00:25:29.520
community, whether it be specifically from the reps that attended in their districts or just
00:25:34.400
people in general who have said, oh, like, I didn't know.
00:25:36.860
I didn't know this was in the one big, beautiful bill.
00:25:39.820
Yeah, we've received thousands and thousands of comments, DMs, emails, et cetera, just positively
00:25:45.780
speaking about the new media row that we hosted.
00:25:48.600
And it was really just such a cool opportunity for us to be able to be at the forefront of kind
00:25:53.560
of a communications revolution here on Capitol Hill.
00:25:55.940
But the positive and overwhelming feedback is that, wow, this is a really great opportunity
00:26:00.820
for members to kind of sit down and highlight all of their own individual legislative pushes
00:26:05.160
that they've done, but also at a bigger picture, all the RSC has done, especially as it relates
00:26:09.940
to the one big, beautiful bill, to push those conservative provisions, to push those conservative
00:26:14.520
policies within it and be able to really deliver on that mandate, like I said, for the American
00:26:19.600
I mean, on November 5th, overwhelmingly, Americans wanted to challenge the status quo and reelected
00:26:30.260
They can follow us at Republican Study on X, Rumble, Instagram, and Facebook.
00:26:37.660
And those interviews right after the break, be sure to check them out.
00:26:42.780
We have Nels and Warren and congressmen from all over this great country who are looking
00:26:51.180
You can follow me at Jane Zirkle on Instagram, Getter, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook to take
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Oh, this is a huge win for working-class Americans, right?
00:31:19.820
So you're making the Trump tax cuts permit, which benefits middle-class firms.
00:31:26.080
You're adding on to that no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and some benefits for seniors
00:31:31.760
who have been suffering through inflation, right?
00:31:38.340
This is absolutely a huge win for the middle class.
00:31:41.520
No tax on tips was a huge campaign promise that really energized the base.
00:31:45.880
How does this rollout work with the big, beautiful bill?
00:31:49.880
Yeah, I think that the fact that Trump immediately signed it, which I thought was great on July 4th,
00:31:57.760
we will, I think that the good news is we passed this bill early enough that the American people will start seeing the benefits
00:32:05.800
on their taxes either immediately or when they start their taxes immediately.
00:32:12.520
Now, there is a big focus on the bill regarding defense and military.
00:32:16.660
How does this specifically benefit veterans, though?
00:32:19.340
Yeah, so I think I'd have to look at the language.
00:32:26.780
There was some language that benefited veterans, particularly with the VA.
00:32:31.820
But at the end of the day, a strong military is good for security and for Western values.
00:32:38.600
I would like to see us actually, I think that I'm one of the people that would support reductions
00:32:47.020
and finance savings and sending Doge into the Department of Defense
00:32:52.320
because we all know there's a lot of money that we could find in savings.
00:32:59.280
and I think that it's important that we have the best military in the planet.
00:33:03.180
I just also think there's probably some ways that we can identify.
00:33:08.940
Looking towards American innovation, particularly when it comes to infrastructure and manufacturing,
00:33:15.080
how does the big news bill work to increase being made in America, president Trump, agenda model?
00:33:21.420
Yeah, there's a lot of provisions, some of it related to giving the research and development deductions
00:33:29.280
and just letting manufacturers who want to start a new manufacturing facility
00:33:34.960
or come back, re-shore back to the United States,
00:33:38.520
know that they can offset or light off the cost of construction immediately.
00:33:45.320
And a lot of it, a lot of some of those benefits came out of conversations
00:33:48.800
from some manufacturers from my district that I was able to pull a meeting
00:33:53.240
that it was Congressman Jason Smith, the Noise and Means Committee,
00:33:56.900
to kind of pitch, to hear firsthand what manufacturers want as they look to when we shoot them.
00:34:03.660
And does that have a lot to do with peeling back regulations?
00:34:06.960
Because that is obviously a big way of business with Trump administration.
00:34:11.020
A lot of the energy costs, whether it's electricity costs or fuel costs,
00:34:22.440
And it's the fact that, you know, this bill is going to unleash a bunch of opportunities
00:34:32.180
I think it's good because at the end of the day,
00:34:34.660
the cost of energy is an underlying cost of everything.
00:34:39.840
And if we want to bring costs of things down, if we want to bring inflation down,
00:34:44.920
Right, in the shipping industry, like you mentioned, the freight rail, for example,
00:34:49.720
how are those specific industries going to be empowered with this legislation?
00:34:55.340
Yeah, with the freight rail, I would have to go back and look at the language.
00:35:04.020
But in general, every business is going to see that they have fewer regulations,
00:35:11.620
any kind of review, NIFA, if they're going to add new rail lines,
00:35:19.620
all of that permitting from the EPA and from other agencies is going to be streamlined.
00:35:26.800
So what do you think the biggest win for Republicans is here,
00:35:29.640
and what do you think the biggest concession was with this legislation?
00:35:34.020
I think the biggest wins are that we finally are kind of getting control
00:35:44.720
We want to make sure that we have a system of base that protects the vulnerable.
00:35:48.800
But unfortunately, Joe Biden really allowed that system to be abused
00:35:52.260
and really encouraged a lot of young people to not work.
00:35:56.960
We need young people who are able to give a body to reenter the workforce.
00:36:01.840
And I think that this bill not only encourages them through reforms on the welfare system,
00:36:10.100
but also encourages them by reducing the taxes, reducing their tax burden should they decide to go.
00:36:20.560
And I think that that's probably the biggest win in the bill.
00:36:24.940
The concession I wish we had not done was raise the threshold from SALT for the state and local taxes.
00:36:33.540
That really is only going to benefit New Yorkers, Californians, people in high-tax states.
00:36:39.360
And so I don't – I'm not exactly – I mean, I'm not for these.
00:36:43.140
Well, thank you so much, Congressman, for your time.
00:36:49.400
And I just want to start off by asking you, President Trump's base is working-class America.
00:36:56.860
The big, beautiful bill does more to the health and protect and cut the taxes for the middle-class working family
00:37:03.920
So doubling and permanently extending the standard deduction of $24,000 per couple,
00:37:09.860
doubling and permanently extending the child tax credit for $22,500 per child,
00:37:14.220
the elimination of tax and tips, elimination of tax and overtime is going to mean a $10,000 difference
00:37:23.320
A big focus on President Trump's first term was modernization, modernization of the health care industry,
00:37:30.920
How does a big, beautiful bill work to support his agenda?
00:37:34.880
Well, what we did in SNAP reform and Medicaid reform, very, very common sense work requirements
00:37:43.040
for able-bodied men who are 18 to 64, requiring them to work 20 hours a week, volunteer 20 hours a week
00:37:49.920
to go back to school to receive those welfare benefits, is the biggest, most historic adjustment
00:37:56.860
we've made to the welfare programs if you're going to have a country's successful.
00:37:59.500
When you look at the big, beautiful bill in terms of innovation, what are you most excited for?
00:38:07.820
Well, I mean, the innovation that's going to come from primarily extending the $179,
00:38:16.020
accelerated depreciation, the R&D tax credits, making those provisions permanent
00:38:21.320
are going to directly lead to innovation and investment by American companies across this
00:38:25.980
community, and the biggest things we could have done to drive it there.
00:38:29.780
There's a big focus in the bill on defense and military, but how does this bill specifically
00:38:35.260
Well, I'm not on that committee, so I don't know the specific programs in the bill.
00:38:46.000
Defense, thanks for being on armed services, we're investing $150 million in additional defense
00:39:03.760
I was looking at the mates, and I think that's when I met you.
00:39:07.780
Some of them launched nuclear cruise missiles, reinvestment in redeveloping nuclear tripping
00:39:14.820
program, just anything that's in the cutting-edge autonomous vehicle, technology, all of those
00:39:33.040
Now, set the record straight when it comes to health care, because a lot of Americans
00:39:39.220
Tell us about what the big, beautiful bill does there.
00:39:43.340
And really, if you go back to 2017, the reform that they did to Obamacare, the same people
00:39:50.940
who are saying it's going to lead to a loss in coverage, they projected that 20 million
00:39:55.400
Americans would lose their coverage when we got Obamacare.
00:39:58.400
I'm just trying to say a few years later, they dropped to 8 million.
00:40:01.580
Two years later, they said no impact, actually.
00:40:06.000
When we passed the one, the beautiful bill, and we get job growth, and we get people,
00:40:15.060
With those new jobs, it's going to come insurance with those jobs.
00:40:20.160
It's requiring work to maintain their, their, their, their, their, their welfare.
00:40:32.380
And if you get that full of new medical coverage, add it to the same.
00:40:35.940
If you said we're going to lose 20 million insure policies then, to say that the Medicaid
00:40:40.420
referring was going to lose 5 million people losing their coverage means they're assuming
00:40:44.620
25 million people will choose not to work, and it's just not reality.
00:40:47.820
Most people, when given the opportunity to work, volunteer, or go back to school to maintain
00:40:56.600
Wonderful Congressman, remind me of your district one more time.
00:41:05.300
I'm sure your district has a lot of President Trump's base, working-class America.
00:41:11.680
Well, I'll tell you what, the One Big Beautiful Bill serves not just their families, but their
00:41:16.160
businesses, all of which are connected and helps with the faith institutions in East Texas.
00:41:21.500
We're so proud in East Texas that we're hardworking, we're tough-minded.
00:41:25.240
We've got some of the best people in the world in East Texas, in my opinion.
00:41:31.060
I mean, that's what I've been talking about, is we're storing liberty to their personal
00:41:34.940
lives and to their churches and to also the businesses that they work in every day.
00:41:42.520
Because when you give more people's money back to them, and it's their money that's
00:41:46.860
more liberty for them to decide who's the group.
00:41:49.740
No Tax on Tips was a very popular campaign promise of President Trump.
00:41:57.440
No Tax on Tips actually was one of the biggest things that folks talked to me about in the
00:42:03.080
Not just that, but we're talking about the taxes on overtime as well and reduction taxes
00:42:10.440
All of those helped great, hardworking people or people that have worked hard all their lives.
00:42:15.080
Because as you go through the year, you want to know, can I deduct some of this hard worth
00:42:20.420
off of my taxes, off the income, and return it back to my pocket?
00:42:26.980
That there is a portion of that that you're going to earn as either overtime or tips or now
00:42:32.720
with the additional $6,000 deduction for those that are of a certain age that are receiving
00:42:39.560
We know the effect of that is for trying more of that money back in their pockets.
00:42:46.960
They're going to do great things for their families.
00:42:49.760
Talk to me a little bit about investing in America.
00:42:52.200
How does the big, beautiful bill focus on American innovation, manufacturing?
00:42:57.440
Some of the big permanent provisions of the business section are important to restoring
00:43:03.200
American dominance from an economic standpoint.
00:43:06.080
When you talk about allowing for immediate expensing for R&D and immediate expensing for capital
00:43:11.900
equipment and being able to now have a manufacturing facility build itself here in America and be
00:43:19.380
able to expense 100% of that because now you're adding more production domestically, that's a
00:43:26.000
And they want to reinvest here in our home here in America as opposed to abroad.
00:43:30.780
What we did with Bede, Yoki, and Fiddy also helps with that to restore intangible property
00:43:42.320
Section 199A used by all these pass-through entities, more than 90% of those entities in
00:43:48.040
East Texas are pass-through entities, these businesses that are mom and car businesses, LLCs,
00:43:55.220
They get to now have that lower effective rate in the low 20s as opposed to seeing next
00:44:03.340
That would have been untenable for these families that are working hard to build these small
00:44:07.960
From a national security and economic perspective, how does this help compete with China?
00:44:13.080
The thing I want to start with on that is these FEOC restrictions, the foreign entity
00:44:18.680
Well, the Biden administration, I was just amazed through the IRA how much money we were
00:44:23.480
giving away to China-related companies without regard to what it was doing to undercut our
00:44:29.720
own domestic businesses and our national security interests.
00:44:34.260
We say, you know, we've got these FEOC restrictions now.
00:44:37.060
We're not going to send subsidies to companies that are tied in with China or that are Chinese-owned
00:44:41.660
companies or that are beholden to the Chinese Communist Party.
00:44:45.220
We're going to keep that money here in the United States for our own domestic companies
00:44:49.880
that are trying to invest in the United States.
00:44:52.720
Looking towards domestic industries like the Great Whale, for example, like the shipping
00:44:56.220
industry, how do you see those transforming over the next few years of rest of the income
00:45:04.020
It's critical that we continue to invest in that, particularly shipbuilding.
00:45:07.640
Last year alone, China built more ships than the United States has built since World War
00:45:12.960
That is an amazing statistic that should shock and concern each one of us here in the United
00:45:18.880
By putting all these business-friendly provisions in place where we're going to start any manufacturing
00:45:23.540
facilities and let these businesses expense it 100% in the year that they take it, and
00:45:29.960
to resource a lot of our supply from overseas to domestic, we're now saying to the shipbuilding
00:45:36.200
industry in particular, we want you to be a part here in the United States.
00:45:39.400
We're going to find your locations for you to be able to build the ships that we need, use
00:45:43.760
home manufacturing, and have the quality and the standard that we expect here in the United
00:45:48.320
States, and do it at the rate and the expediency that you see overseas.
00:45:52.700
And part of that also is the regulatory reforms that were involved in this package that we're going to see more of.
00:45:57.560
Most of what China does to us is to undercut our manufacturing by cheating and also by skipping
00:46:05.700
good quality and by not having that huge regulatory burden that we have seen here in America on
00:46:13.180
But thankfully, President Trump is releasing us from a lot of those burdens.
00:46:17.940
Well, thank you so much, Congressman, for your time.
00:46:21.200
What is the biggest win for MAGA here, and what is the biggest-
00:46:29.460
I would probably say the tax cuts are the most significant portion of the bill, and that
00:46:38.640
There were some things in the bill that I really didn't like, but I have to manage my
00:46:43.760
And that was, you got the tax cuts, you talk a little bit about Medicaid and not allowing
00:46:53.480
So I thought we did a really good job overall with the bill, but there were some things that
00:46:58.200
I had concerns over, but it wasn't going to be enough for me to tank the bill.
00:47:02.660
I voted yes for the one big, beautiful bill because it was the right thing to do, and I believe
00:47:07.820
it does put Donald Trump and his agenda with the American people first.
00:47:12.180
What do you think for the American worker does this bill do?
00:47:16.800
Well, it does a lot for the small business owners, you know, providing tax relief.
00:47:20.680
And quite honestly, if you look at the American worker, how about those in the industry as it
00:47:25.240
relates to food service and this and that, the no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, I think.
00:47:30.800
Those are big, big deals, and it does help those seniors, too, with social security.
00:47:35.440
Talk to me about American manufacturing and innovation.
00:47:42.160
It says we want to bring manufacturing and innovation back to the United States of America
00:47:49.720
And so what Donald Trump is trying to do, President Trump is doing a great job with his tariffs.
00:47:54.000
Now, some people are concerned about the tariffs.
00:48:00.340
So by bringing those tariffs in and bringing that innovation and technology back to the United
00:48:06.820
How does that work hand-in-hand with the deregulation aspect?
00:48:10.340
Well, you would know how that works with the deregulation.
00:48:13.500
I mean, we try to build anything in America today, whether it's, and I'm the chairman over
00:48:18.480
aviation, you try to get any type of certification done through aviation, it just takes years and
00:48:24.280
years and years of years of bureaucracy and red tape, right?
00:48:27.400
So I think there is, I think this administration is looking, you know what, it shouldn't take
00:48:32.060
us four years to have an environmental impact study and get NEPA involved and tell me we're
00:48:44.640
Let's not get in the way of those things and let's start building because it costs us a
00:48:49.080
lot more money with all these regulations and these delays in getting projects done because
00:48:55.340
of some type of an environmental nut job trying to get involved.
00:48:59.400
Now, there is a big focus on the military and defense in this bill.
00:49:04.400
I mean, we all knew that our instructions were, we want to increase defense spending.
00:49:11.780
We want to hire more agents, ICE agents, all the DA, all the border agents.
00:49:22.000
I think it's sad that what you're seeing now with these assaults on federal agents,
00:49:26.700
specifically ICE agents and others, because the left, they'll tell you they're the party
00:49:33.840
We got these agents that are going out there risking their lives each and every day to try
00:49:38.640
to put America first and protect the American people from these very, very bad hombres.
00:49:45.460
But the left seems to just want to fuel the flames and get people all spun up and get people
00:49:50.740
emotional and when people start getting emotional, especially a bad arm break, you're going to
00:49:55.220
have assaults continue to increase and eventually it's going to require loss of life.
00:50:00.060
And if I was a border patrol agent and an ICE agent and a guy's coming at me with a knife
00:50:04.960
or a gun or a stick, I'm going to shoot him dead.
00:50:08.180
As far as spending goes, we know this bill tackles some of it, but what are you looking
00:50:12.680
Well, this was our opportunity with reconciliation.
00:50:16.840
Obviously, you all know that the Senate, you only need a 50 seat, you know, you only need
00:50:22.040
So it's hard to do reconciliation when you don't have both chambers, right?
00:50:26.620
The House and Senate, we have a unified government.
00:50:31.700
But then again, some of the same people that voted for the one big, beautiful bill is splocking
00:50:36.000
a little bit about the $9.4 billion we have in rescissions.
00:50:45.440
The Senate's got till July, I think, 18 to get this done.
00:50:52.960
And when we get all these instructions to try to reduce deficit spending and this and that,
00:50:59.020
The Republican Party, specifically the Senate, they better get their act together.
00:51:03.880
Well, thank you so much, Congressman, for your time.
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