The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - The Anchormen Show EP 123 - PRIMETIME w⧸ David Pollack

00:00:00.000 now it's time for the anchorman podcast with matt gates and pearson sharp

00:00:11.200 welcome back to another episode of the anchorman podcast this is what i always dreamed of my

00:00:19.000 buddies at one american news hanging out bringing you guys into the conversations we're having about

00:00:23.720 everything going on in the headlines in culture and i'm joined as always by my co-host pearson

00:00:29.180 sharp the man who was never satisfied and david pollack the new star here at oan david pollack

00:00:34.060 primetime airs at seven o'clock eastern four o'clock pacific and david i am so excited about

00:00:40.340 your arrival here another florida man another lawyer uh and a guy who has worked on a lot of

00:00:46.820 campaigns at a lot of levels and you're going to be able to bring uh the insight from from activism

00:00:52.060 to the courtroom to the halls of congress uh the kickoff to our primetime lineup at seven o'clock

00:00:57.620 I'm already dialed in.

00:00:59.060 I was dialed in when you were guest hosting a number of shows here.

00:01:02.760 But I guess just a little bit for our podcast audience, you know, what got you involved in politics?

00:01:08.740 What, you know, you were telling me off camera about some even city council elections where you were throwing elbows and heading around.

00:01:16.580 And then I cannot wait for us to educate Pearson on what a grassroots Florida campaign actually looks like.

00:01:23.300 There are things you've never even heard of that are central to the background of this.

00:01:27.920 But first, David, kind of your entree into politics.

00:01:30.940 Well, you know, I didn't know I was going to get into politics.

00:01:35.780 I always got involved in my community no matter where I lived, whether it was like code enforcement boards or, you know, at my kids' schools, the education board, whatever I can do to stay involved.

00:01:44.560 Because I learned early on that if I didn't step up to do something, somebody else would.

00:01:48.560 Inevitably, I'd be annoyed because they wouldn't do as good of a job as I would have done.

00:01:53.300 So anyway

00:01:54.960 So you come with the humility of a politician

00:01:57.620 Of course, exactly

00:01:58.860 You were on the Code Enforcement Board?

00:02:00.960 Yeah

00:02:01.280 It's Safety Harbor, Florida

00:02:03.660 I just assumed you had to be like a 70-year-old librarian

00:02:08.000 It was me and a few 70-year-old librarians

00:02:10.360 I even joined

00:02:11.020 I bet they loved you

00:02:12.100 I even joined the Library Board once

00:02:14.020 How many decades did you bring down the average age

00:02:18.100 on the Library Board when you joined?

00:02:19.780 I didn't last long, it was too boring for me

00:02:21.720 I mean, I, you know, I didn't last too long on it, but this code enforcement board in Safety Harbor, it was, yeah, it was, you know, I met the mayor one night at a bar and I'm like, hey, I want to get involved in the city because this is how I am.

00:02:36.360 And this was a long, long time ago.

00:02:38.280 What city?

00:02:39.060 This was Safety Harbor, Florida, near Tampa and a beautiful city.

00:02:42.800 And I met the mayor and I'm like, hey, I want to get involved.

00:02:44.560 He's like, join our code enforcement board.

00:02:46.240 I go, cool.

00:02:47.100 And then, yeah, they hated me.

00:02:48.400 Wait a second. Your mayor sounds awesome in this story because he's picking up people to enforce code at a bar, which would only happen in a Florida community.

00:02:57.160 Yeah, no, it was great. We were at some great bar. Anyway, we hit it off. But they hated me on the code enforcement board because I'm a lawyer.

00:03:04.300 And all these boards, by the way, are set up so that you just go along with whatever the city says.

00:03:10.780 Well, I'm not going to do that. What value am I bringing then?

00:03:13.860 So, of course, every time the code inspector came and gave his presentation, I'd go through and say, well, did you do this?

00:03:20.300 Did you do this?

00:03:21.060 And he's like, no.

00:03:21.860 I'm like, well, I can't go along with it.

00:03:23.140 So they wanted a rubber stamper.

00:03:23.740 Yeah, and I made the case to the board as a lawyer on why we shouldn't give this guy a violation.

00:03:29.000 And you know what?

00:03:30.040 They tend to agree with me, so they hated me there.

00:03:31.940 Craziest violation you saw on the code enforcement board?

00:03:35.620 I mean, it's Florida.

00:03:36.620 There could be anything.

00:03:37.560 I'm trying to think.

00:03:38.500 What did Florida man do?

00:03:39.600 No, you know, I don't have a crazy story there.

00:03:41.340 I'm going to give you the HOA story, because when I moved to Orlando, I joined the HOA.

00:03:45.600 You were on HOA board?

00:03:46.500 I'm the president of the HOA.

00:03:47.880 Okay, on this program, we actually hold the position that ISIS started as an HOA. 0.98

00:03:53.140 I'm sure that's true. 0.98

00:03:54.500 I'm sure that's true, because, look, Safe to Harbor Code Enforcement was a long time ago.

00:03:58.260 I can't remember that far back.

00:03:59.420 But let me give you HOA, because, again, I moved to Orlando.

00:04:04.140 I moved to a place called Oviedo.

00:04:05.240 I moved into my neighborhood, and I have a young child at the time.

00:04:07.680 This was more than a decade ago.

00:04:09.380 And we go to the playground.

00:04:10.560 there's a screw sticking out of the slide

00:04:12.840 and I'm like holy crap I can't let my daughter 1.00

00:04:14.720 go down this she's going to cut her leg open 1.00

00:04:16.220 so I went to the HOA meeting my first

00:04:18.740 ever because I've never been in HOA until I moved there

00:04:20.700 and it was me

00:04:22.080 like some old lady who I think has been there for a

00:04:24.820 year she might be dead nobody knows but

00:04:26.540 somebody showed up so they're going to leave her there and then

00:04:28.720 there was like an old guy and then like a young guy

00:04:30.680 and that was the whole board and so I sit down

00:04:32.780 in there and I'm like you know watching this

00:04:34.520 this is going to be a party yeah I'm watching this meeting

00:04:36.700 and I'm like hey

00:04:38.160 David new resident

00:04:39.560 I took my daughter down your slide 1.00

00:04:42.260 You have a screw sticking out

00:04:43.520 It's very dangerous

00:04:44.680 And I would like you to fix it

00:04:46.700 Well, we don't have the budget for that, sir

00:04:49.340 I apologize

00:04:50.180 But that's not in the budget

00:04:52.200 I go, is it in your budget to pay a lawsuit?

00:04:55.520 Because now I've made you aware of a dangerous condition

00:04:57.880 And if you don't fix it

00:04:59.400 Well, now you're negligent

00:05:00.760 Do we have good insurance?

00:05:02.060 And they're like, if you think this is so easy

00:05:03.540 Why don't you join the board?

00:05:04.660 Okay

00:05:04.980 And I go, okay

00:05:06.300 Challenge accepted 1.00

00:05:09.060 By the way, at this point, I would have been off to hire some illegal immigrant to deal with that nail and slide situation myself. 1.00

00:05:16.200 You know, HOAs don't work that way. 0.99

00:05:17.520 It's very diplomatic, right?

00:05:19.280 So they go, okay, well, then join the board.

00:05:21.540 And I'm like, fine.

00:05:22.340 And they go, all in favor?

00:05:23.580 And it was the guy and the guy next to him.

00:05:25.380 I'm like, you're on the board.

00:05:26.600 And this is how – I wish I could stand up, and I can't because I'm hooked in.

00:05:29.180 But I stood up, and I walked around to the other side of the folding table that you get at, like, Walmart.

00:05:33.920 And I sat down, and they're like, all right, I'm on the board.

00:05:36.280 I go, okay, first item of business.

00:05:37.580 How do we get this playground fixed? 1.00

00:05:39.060 So anyway, you sound like Leslie Knope's worst nightmare.

00:05:43.600 Look, I just like to get stuff done.

00:05:46.300 Or Ron Swanson.

00:05:47.280 And it was good for the whole community.

00:05:49.040 So I found a way to find somebody who does commercial playgrounds that is a residential playground manufacturer.

00:05:55.620 And I got it for like $15,000 less than the commercial manufacturer.

00:05:58.920 So yeah, I got us a new playground, by the way, within budget.

00:06:01.240 But that's not the story.

00:06:02.160 You asked me about a weird story.

00:06:03.600 So when I was on the board, when I was the president, this is the craziest thing.

00:06:06.680 You actually know.

00:06:08.140 You know the person.

00:06:09.340 Oh, God.

00:06:09.860 This is funny.

00:06:11.260 So I can probably say it.

00:06:13.120 Yeah, I'll say it.

00:06:14.020 One of our commissioners that you know really well, his name rhymes with a lorry in Seminole County.

00:06:21.580 His dad lived in our neighborhood.

00:06:23.300 So commissioner, starts with a D, ends with a lorry, came in, and he said, hey, I want you to talk to my dad about his case.

00:06:32.860 So his dad lived in our neighborhood.

00:06:33.920 But his dad got a fine because his garage door was open for too long.

00:06:39.540 From the HOA?

00:06:40.580 Yes.

00:06:41.480 Was he growing weed in the garage?

00:06:42.980 No, he just wanted to air it out.

00:06:45.060 And he wanted to, because the way the homes were, there was no front windows.

00:06:48.740 If you wanted a cross breeze, you had to open your garage.

00:06:50.380 Well, the HOA doesn't like you to have your garage open.

00:06:52.320 You have to go in your garage, shut it, and never talk politics.

00:06:54.920 My position would be, if you don't want my garage door open, you should buy it.

00:06:58.800 Or not give me a garage.

00:07:00.000 Like, what do you expect me to do in Florida?

00:07:01.500 Give me a garage.

00:07:02.020 I'm going to open it.

00:07:02.700 Where are you going to sit?

00:07:03.360 and listen to 80s rock music while working out on rusted weights

00:07:06.580 if you can't leave your garage door open?

00:07:08.140 Where are you going to start a band?

00:07:09.480 So he comes in, and he wants to get a screen door approved for the garage.

00:07:14.840 Well, the HOA would not approve the screen door for the garage,

00:07:17.840 and he says, why?

00:07:18.840 And he goes, because it violates our code

00:07:20.540 that you're not allowed to have your garage door open for more than 15 minutes,

00:07:23.320 and why else would you get a screen if but for

00:07:26.020 to keep your garage open for more than 15 minutes?

00:07:28.280 And so me, being who I am, and the commissioner that I mentioned

00:07:32.360 was really happy with me because I said,

00:07:34.680 excuse me, HOA people, even though it's my board,

00:07:36.700 I'm supposed to just rubber stamp.

00:07:37.980 Excuse me, HOA people. 0.99

00:07:40.200 Why can't he have the screen? 0.99

00:07:41.520 Well, because he's going to violate our code.

00:07:43.020 So I said, you're preemptively denying something

00:07:44.700 based on the assumption that he's going to break a rule?

00:07:47.160 You can't do that.

00:07:47.940 I said, if he breaks a rule, fine,

00:07:49.080 and then we'll come back and have a conversation.

00:07:50.680 I said, but you can't not approve something

00:07:52.300 that's on the inside of his house

00:07:53.720 because you're worried it would cause him to break a rule.

00:07:55.820 So guess what?

00:07:56.360 He got a screen door in his garage.

00:07:57.740 I am learning that at 7 p.m.

00:07:59.660 there is going to be no detail too small

00:08:01.720 To be just regressively dissected to its utter bones, and I am so here for it.

00:08:09.260 Do you want to come talk to my HOA?

00:08:11.000 Yeah, I've got a couple things.

00:08:11.880 I'm for hire.

00:08:12.460 By the way, I can only imagine what Pearson's HOA is complaining about Pearson.

00:08:16.620 He's probably got like an American flag outside and all kind of things.

00:08:20.640 Bald.

00:08:21.100 They don't like bald heads.

00:08:22.860 Pearson, the backbone of campaigning at the local and state level in Florida,

00:08:29.420 where david and i are from are something called hobnobs have you heard of a hobnob not in this

00:08:36.160 context extortion okay extortion uh well ostensibly what you would see at a hobnob

00:08:42.260 you know a little senior center a local community maybe a restaurant would would have the local

00:08:48.420 officials all come in and they they bring in some retirees and if you want a little table there if

00:08:54.600 If you want a little position, you pay for the organizers.

00:08:58.800 You pay them.

00:08:59.760 And then at the end, there's a little straw poll.

00:09:01.740 And everybody who's there, you know, based on who had the best drinks, who had the most engaging volunteers,

00:09:08.060 would win or lose these straw polls, which then get publicized in every media outlet in the entire area.

00:09:16.060 As if you want something.

00:09:17.440 They become this signifier of actual momentum.

00:09:21.260 So what's the outcome?

00:09:22.220 I'm like, what?

00:09:23.200 Whoever, no, no, here's the best part.

00:09:25.000 What happens afterwards?

00:09:25.400 You're missing, you missed the key part.

00:09:26.800 Okay.

00:09:27.480 It's not one person, one vote.

00:09:30.120 At a hop-dop.

00:09:31.560 It's, you buy the tickets from the organizers to vote.

00:09:34.700 So the more money you feel like spending on tickets,

00:09:37.300 the more votes your particular candidate gets

00:09:40.260 to win the straw poll.

00:09:41.560 The heart of democracy.

00:09:42.620 Yeah, so essentially, it's sanctioned rigging.

00:09:47.500 Well, just think about it like we think about Skid Row

00:09:50.100 and any ballot initiative in California.

00:09:52.220 Yeah, same basic concept.

00:09:54.360 That might be where they got the idea.

00:09:55.860 So at the end of the day, a candidate, and you know who's the best at Hobnobs, by the way?

00:09:59.440 The best by far had anybody ever met, Anthony Sabatini, who just announced his run in—

00:10:04.240 He's on our show this week.

00:10:05.040 Yes, just announced his run in Daniel Webster's seat.

00:10:07.460 He's outgoing.

00:10:08.720 I think he's going to be very strong in that seat.

00:10:11.000 Nobody did better than Anthony Sabatini at Hobnobs because he would bring his whole crew.

00:10:15.600 He would have every volunteer, every person, all in Sabatini shirts.

00:10:18.940 They would make the biggest scene—grassroots, right?

00:10:21.680 It's guerrilla marketing.

00:10:22.940 And he would make the biggest stink in the whole world.

00:10:25.280 Anybody who showed up to this hobnob assumed he was a frontrunner by a mile just on the presentation alone. 0.97

00:10:30.280 And then you know what happens with these hobnobs when you buy all these tickets?

00:10:33.100 You go, who do I vote for? 1.00

00:10:34.140 I don't know.

00:10:34.460 Anthony Sabatini had 300 people in Anthony Sabatini shirts.

00:10:36.960 And he won every single straw poll except one.

00:10:39.960 But we're not going to get into that today.

00:10:41.800 But basically.

00:10:42.900 So it's big publicity.

00:10:44.180 It's big publicity.

00:10:44.880 But it's narrative building.

00:10:46.100 See, that's what you have to understand.

00:10:47.360 That's what it is.

00:10:47.760 It's the illusion of momentum, of gravitas, of breadth of support.

00:10:55.180 And this all plays out in little senior centers and in little cafes and cafecitos across little communities in Florida.

00:11:03.420 And, you know, in some ways it sounds silly when you listen to us describe it, but it actually takes work to get a group of volunteers to show up at a place in matching T-shirts.

00:11:14.580 And you do need to get supporters that, you know, all the little tickets go to support a local Republican club.

00:11:20.580 So if your campaign is contributing to that infrastructure, that could mean more door knockers, more people chasing ballots.

00:11:27.160 And so in a weird way, it has developed the ecosystem that has given us Republican control over a state since 1996.

00:11:35.060 Yeah. And it's, you know, if you just happen to be a random resident of the community at the pizza hut that night and there's a hobnob, 0.59

00:11:43.360 eh, you poke your head in, 0.97

00:11:44.740 you meet who's running for school board,

00:11:46.360 you get on a list,

00:11:47.800 maybe you learn there's something you care about

00:11:49.660 coming to a neighborhood event near you.

00:11:51.700 But you know what the important part 1.00

00:11:52.660 about these hobnobs are? 1.00

00:11:53.580 And we joke about them and they are extortion. 1.00

00:11:55.280 Because if you don't participate,

00:11:57.100 that also creates a story.

00:11:58.600 So winning the hobnob is something you brag about.

00:12:00.660 Oh, I won another hobnob.

00:12:01.720 It's like a poll, an informal poll.

00:12:03.480 But if you don't show up to the hobnob,

00:12:05.040 that creates a narrative of,

00:12:06.600 David didn't go to the hobnob.

00:12:07.620 He must be really struggling.

00:12:08.900 Like, he's not even on the ballot.

00:12:10.760 And so you have to be at the hobnob.

00:12:11.980 You can't miss it.

00:12:12.980 You can't miss it, and it costs money, $800.

00:12:15.260 And if you're a small campaign, $800 for a table at a hobnob.

00:12:17.920 This could be the only thing that could stop Pearson Sharp from one day being in Congress

00:12:21.340 is the notion that he'd have to go from Waffle House to Taco Bell.

00:12:26.120 Yeah, I couldn't ask people for donations.

00:12:28.520 I hate selling myself.

00:12:29.380 Oh, you got to.

00:12:30.080 I hate selling myself.

00:12:30.380 You got to. 0.99

00:12:30.860 If they don't give it to you, they're going to give it to some other schmuck. 1.00

00:12:32.900 Yeah, I understand that. 1.00

00:12:34.240 No, no, no.

00:12:34.660 Give the pitch, though.

00:12:35.900 This is important.

00:12:36.840 We have a lot of campaign people who listen to this.

00:12:38.440 But here's the point of the hobnob, and here's why they work,

00:12:40.640 and why they work in Florida 0.73

00:12:42.100 is because if you go to an HOA,

00:12:44.700 a GOP meeting,

00:12:45.700 which is an HOA meeting,

00:12:46.680 same thing.

00:12:47.240 By the way,

00:12:47.520 I went from the HOA to the GOP.

00:12:49.280 That's how I got into politics.

00:12:50.560 Remember you asked me full circle,

00:12:51.880 how'd you get involved?

00:12:52.580 That's another story for later.

00:12:54.020 But I went from the HOA to the GOP

00:12:56.360 and they're the same thing.

00:12:57.880 Oh, God.

00:12:58.280 So anyway, so...

00:12:59.860 What an indictment.

00:13:01.120 Sorry.

00:13:02.020 It's the same type of people.

00:13:04.380 But you go to the GOPs

00:13:05.760 and they're not exciting for young people.

00:13:06.920 Well, they never get anything done.

00:13:08.000 Well, because...

00:13:09.080 HOA, GOP, same thing.

00:13:09.440 Because they're not exciting.

00:13:10.640 So your grassroots people are outside of the GOP. 0.99

00:13:13.240 It's the Women's Federated.

00:13:14.620 It's all the grassroots groups. 0.95

00:13:15.820 Those are the people who work.

00:13:17.000 The GOP just sits around and complains.

00:13:18.820 So when you go to a GOP meeting and you want to get something done, you quickly lose motivation to do stuff. 1.00

00:13:24.000 But those hobnobs, all the young people are there, all the people who are in the community that want to get involved in politics. 1.00

00:13:29.160 Campaign staff. 1.00

00:13:30.360 Aspiring campaign staff.

00:13:31.460 They're all there in one place going table to table, and you're shaking hands and you're meeting them.

00:13:34.700 The energy there translates to actual grassroots wind at the national level.

00:13:39.380 So, yes, you have all these local campaigns fighting for attention, but the community that you build there, regardless of what campaign you're in, translates to national results and even statewide results.

00:13:49.820 And so they're actually a really good, like you said, ecosystem for building grassroots enthusiasm, regardless of the, you know.

00:13:55.880 Well, we got some enthusiasm this week from the Supreme Court that informs, you know, going now from the precinct community level to a big national picture on the Voting Rights Act, the Louisiana map that has the phony race created districts not given great favor by the court.

00:14:14.680 And there's going to be a lot of discussion about strategy, tactics, how we attack the battle space.

00:14:20.780 But for me, it is comforting that our jurisprudence is just moving in a way that recognizes race as a defining characteristic in our society. 0.92

00:14:29.740 I don't think it is. I don't think it should be. 0.89

00:14:31.680 I think a lot of things matter a lot more than race that dictate your success, your associations, your politics, your hobbies.

00:14:38.820 and uh the further we get away from race being such a defining factor i think the happier and

00:14:45.480 better we'll be and uh i i think that we ought to marshal that enthusiasm in every single state

00:14:53.120 yeah where there has not been a primary or ballots gone out you if you're a state legislator

00:14:59.340 do not walk do not drive the speed limit break every traffic law if necessary getting to your

00:15:07.680 state capitol and let's let's squeeze another seat out of South Carolina there's no reason that

00:15:12.960 old Jim Clyburn seat should exist that's fake anyway and I've been talking to people all week

00:15:18.520 I've been talking to my sources other than Florida where Governor DeSantis has been terrific

00:15:22.860 I do not see the enthusiasm that we need to see how do you see a Pearson Sharp I completely agree

00:15:29.580 and as far as the race goes that's been the Republican narrative the entire time like we're

00:15:33.800 moving away from that we fixed racism in the 90s and the democrats brought it back so they'd have

00:15:38.420 something to argue about mississippi could go the same way as louisiana did alabama south carolina

00:15:45.020 georgia we could get maybe eight seats out of this decision by the midterms that never should

00:15:52.240 have belonged to the democrats anyway in the first place no absolutely not so this is phenomenal this

00:15:57.560 is i'm never satisfied i am satisfied today like this is a tremendous outcome i don't know

00:16:03.480 How are you going to feel if you get this grand opportunity from the court to right a wrong,

00:16:10.540 and you heard the governor of Alabama say this week, it's just impossible, can't do it?

00:16:15.860 Yeah, that's the Republicans, that's the GOP.

00:16:17.980 Louisiana, they've got a terrific governor in Louisiana, Jeff Landry,

00:16:22.240 but we're talking about a few days here away, and we need action.

00:16:26.380 So how are you going to feel if the response to this is, we'll get them in 2028?

00:16:32.200 Yeah. I mean, that's the Republican rallying cry. We'll get them next time. That's all that they ever do. But from what I've seen, we have a legitimate opportunity to get these seats, and it's possible to do that. I don't know about the deadlines and everything in Alabama, but in these other states, in Mississippi, it's possible that we could get a couple more seats.

00:16:52.080 It takes courage. We didn't see it in Indiana.

00:16:54.680 Do you think we are actually going to realize that opportunity that Pearson is so satisfied by?

00:17:01.400 It's hard for a former radio guy turned television host to keep this succinct because this is not a simple answer, but I'm going to.

00:17:08.560 We're a podcast.

00:17:09.120 Make it succinct because there's so much to unpack.

00:17:13.040 And I'll put aside the Supreme Court ruling because it's fascinating from an equal protection standpoint.

00:17:17.520 Alito, speaking for the majority, said that equal protection doesn't seek to cure past wrongs but to prevent future ones.

00:17:25.200 Big interpretation of equal protection.

00:17:26.740 We'll talk about that tomorrow on the show.

00:17:29.120 But the interesting part, and you actually brought this up and you had me thinking about it ever since we were talking outside my office when you said,

00:17:34.340 yeah, but these seats that are R plus 15, they move to R plus 10 on a week here.

00:17:37.980 That could actually be bad for us.

00:17:39.200 We could lose some seats.

00:17:40.520 This is actually a much bigger risk.

00:17:43.140 because like you just mentioned so we have all these seats now right florida gains four five

00:17:48.780 right texas gains a handful virginia looks like it's not actually going to pass so we'll hold that

00:17:53.040 but if you go and take 25 seats around the country how many times have we had elections

00:17:58.140 where it's supposed to be a red wave a bloodbath we're going to win by a million we're going to

00:18:02.940 not only take the house we're going to take freaking everything and we get like one extra

00:18:08.020 vote and we barely so here's the risk we run we have this massive opportunity like you just

00:18:12.740 mentioned but you also mentioned enthusiasm now todd blanche by the way i think and i said this

00:18:17.700 when pan bondi moved on to the private sector i said who trump picks for attorney general is going

00:18:22.440 to determine the outcome of the midterms because so many people who've been sitting on their hands

00:18:26.720 disappointed that they didn't get the red meat they've been asking for that they thought they

00:18:30.840 would get todd blanche has delivered this week and last week between the southern poverty law center

00:18:35.240 between the indictment today of comey but we'll put that aside again but to your point

00:18:39.320 we have all this opportunity but man in a year where we're not supposed to win and we have all

00:18:46.100 these extra seats if we don't maintain control of the house with this the narrative will shift

00:18:51.780 badly towards MAGA and America first because the Republicans are sitting there waiting for the

00:18:57.160 opportunity to get rid of the influence of MAGA and if we get all these seats and Trump still

00:19:01.820 loses the house you know what's going to happen the Nikki Haley's of the world that the uh the

00:19:06.480 Chris Christie's of the world. They're going to come out and say, hey, 2028, you guys might want

00:19:10.320 to think about a different direction because, look, he had this huge opportunity and he couldn't

00:19:14.580 take it. And that is the risk we run. If we don't keep the House with all this

00:19:18.360 opportunity, I believe it'll be an indictment against MAGA. I don't think they deserve

00:19:22.580 it, but I think they'll use it. There's labels, though. MAGA,

00:19:26.560 you know, the voters don't necessarily call themselves MAGA. They know what they believe in.

00:19:30.160 They have their values. They have their ideals. MAGA or not, give it a name. It doesn't matter.

00:19:35.000 I think what we've been hungry for and what we're sick of is not getting anything done. 0.92

00:19:39.640 These lousy Republicans not doing anything.

00:19:41.860 But why?

00:19:42.320 And this week, we got something done.

00:19:45.180 Last week, we got something done.

00:19:46.420 We're starting to get some wins.

00:19:47.500 So can we take a moment and agree with David's assessment of my man Todd Blanche?

00:19:54.520 And a lot of people don't know this, but when I was the attorney general nominee,

00:19:58.300 I could have asked for any person in the world to be the deputy attorney general.

00:20:02.720 And I think President Trump would have listened to my viewpoint.

00:20:05.800 And Todd Blanch was the only name that we considered for that position because he is an exquisite legal mind.

00:20:12.900 He is tough. He is brilliant. He can deliver the president's agenda.

00:20:16.860 I was thrilled to think that I might have the chance to work with Todd Blanch.

00:20:21.300 Now that Todd Blanch has the reins, look at what you're seeing.

00:20:24.460 Comey being held to task. Cases getting moved against the deep state.

00:20:28.900 Well, as Pearson mentioned, Southern Poverty Law Center getting their due that they long should get.

00:20:34.280 And there are other groups like the Anti-Defamation League who deserve the same fate.

00:20:38.060 But what, you know, are you do you look at this guy's tenure right now and say, I like the momentum on board?

00:20:44.320 Absolutely. 100 percent. I mean, we've had Bondi the last year and some.

00:20:47.780 And what have we got done? Absolutely nothing. She couldn't put anybody in jail.

00:20:51.020 And now we've got Todd Blanchett looking one week what he's done. It's just incredible.

00:20:54.220 Now, May, I'm going to I'm going to be the party pooper here for a second because I agree with you.

00:20:58.320 And I think it's great that Todd Blanche is doing what everybody asked for.

00:21:00.920 And this is my point.

00:21:01.800 That pick makes all the difference in the world leading to the midterms.

00:21:04.900 However, Save America Act still stalled in the Senate.

00:21:08.740 Yeah, well, demoralizing.

00:21:11.500 That is, talk about poison pills.

00:21:13.440 Trump went all in.

00:21:14.520 All in.

00:21:14.840 You cannot ask for more out of President Trump.

00:21:16.900 Correct.

00:21:17.580 FISA, I think it just passed committee today.

00:21:21.420 Reauthorization for FISA.

00:21:22.600 They'll call over broken glass to get FISA passed.

00:21:24.320 Right.

00:21:24.880 So you talk about enthusiasm.

00:21:27.260 You talk about people showing up.

00:21:28.580 You talk about the wins we're starting to get.

00:21:30.620 Well, we have to get convictions, not just indictments.

00:21:32.780 Oh, yeah, I agree.

00:21:33.180 And if we don't get a seditious conspiracy indictment against James Comey, this one today—

00:21:38.840 It's going to hurt.

00:21:39.440 Catherine Heritage had an interesting point on that.

00:21:41.460 She viewed this most recent indictment as a potential holding indictment for that larger sequence of charges, which would be clever.

00:21:50.520 Well, it would, yeah, because they do a superseding indictment.

00:21:52.400 They would add the seditious conspiracy.

00:21:53.460 And it's a better forum than we had before.

00:21:56.000 I think the forum could be in our old stomping grounds in Florida.

00:21:58.820 That's what I heard.

00:21:59.380 I think that if you look at the raid of Trump's home as a predicate criminal act as part of the cover-up, that fits within a big RICO charge.

00:22:06.540 I'm seeing a new podcast, Two Lawyers.

00:22:09.580 That's why you're here to keep us straight, dude.

00:22:11.640 That's why you're here to make sure that it doesn't go too far off the rails.

00:22:15.520 But this is a huge issue, though, because here's the deal.

00:22:17.900 If we don't get a superseding indictment of seditious conspiracy, and the reason why that's important is because of the statute of limitations.

00:22:23.580 I did this on my show.

00:22:24.760 Everybody wants blood from Comey, and I get it. 1.00

00:22:26.640 The guy's a loser. 0.99

00:22:27.800 However, a lot of the things he did, he did outside of the statute of limitations. 0.97

00:22:31.600 Seditious conspiracy doesn't have one, so that's why that one works.

00:22:35.360 The issue is, though, if we don't get that seditious conspiracy indictment, this one with the 86-47, that's a tough case to prove.

00:22:42.960 I'm just going to be honest.

00:22:44.100 And we already tried to get him before lying to Congress, and look what happened there.

00:22:47.580 And by the way, I think that appointment was valid.

00:22:49.360 I think we had a bad decision in that, but that's near here nor there.

00:22:51.320 I don't even care, David.

00:22:52.200 You know why?

00:22:52.700 Because I saw my friends who were in the administration have to endure, like, you know, four rounds of congressional testimony, sell their house so that they could afford, you know, $100,000, $200,000 lawyers.

00:23:05.960 I saw people fearing criminal subpoenas that they were getting from grand juries.

00:23:11.300 I mean, there was one time I'm on Trump's plane with Susie Wiles, and she's like, you know what?

00:23:14.800 It would just be nice to be able to focus on the campaign, talking to voters, and not have to worry about, did some former staffer get a subpoena today, and how are we going to get them a lawyer so that they're not out?

00:23:28.160 And all that pain they put on our movement, there are still lives today affected by it.

00:23:34.000 And so, yeah, you know what?

00:23:35.480 Maybe in the Eastern District of North Carolina, we don't ultimately get a conviction on James Coder for this, but I am here for the squeeze.

00:23:42.840 Look, and I agree with that, right?

00:23:44.940 And at the end of the day, and I talked to Roger Stone about this on the show, he said, look, they raided his house in the middle.

00:23:51.680 They called tipped off CNN.

00:23:53.980 This isn't anything that he's there for the ride as well because James Comey is not a good dude.

00:23:59.220 But here's my issue with this, and I don't have an issue with it.

00:24:02.140 I think it's great.

00:24:03.200 How do we deter it for the future?

00:24:05.220 Because if we lose in 26 or 28, they've already warned they're coming for us.

00:24:10.280 And I'm not saying we play nice with them because they'll never play nice with us.

00:24:12.800 Pearson says it's an unreasonable expectation.

00:24:15.440 It's not even a question, according to Pearson Sharp, because it's an absolutely unrealistic expectation to deter them from what they're going to do.

00:24:23.180 Oh, I agree with that.

00:24:24.080 The same fact is the only way that we can deter them.

00:24:25.660 I agree with you completely.

00:24:26.640 That's the only way we can deter them.

00:24:27.660 But that's my point.

00:24:28.760 This is why I'm worried about this indictment.

00:24:30.120 If this indictment in North Carolina, if this gets dismissed or thrown out or adjudicated before the midterms, people are going to be out for blood yet again.

00:24:41.840 And right now, we have the momentum.

00:24:43.700 We're doing good.

00:24:44.660 We've got to get SAVAC passed.

00:24:46.200 We have to get this indictment to stick.

00:24:47.440 There's no plan to do that right now.

00:24:48.380 No, they're not going to do it.

00:24:49.320 He came out and said he's not doing it.

00:24:50.960 I think it's on purpose.

00:24:51.880 I think it's on purpose.

00:24:52.820 Why?

00:24:53.760 I mean, we all theorized that the leader, Thune, never really had Trump's best interest.

00:24:59.540 Really?

00:24:59.780 And you have these people who are not going to have seats, Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, and folks who are like, I don't care.

00:25:07.540 I'm not accountable.

00:25:09.060 It seems like they have this weird alliance.

00:25:10.900 We saw them vote with Democrats on this Cuba thing.

00:25:13.640 I'm very familiar with the McConnell-Collins alliance.

00:25:16.020 You know it.

00:25:16.580 Very familiar.

00:25:17.280 Right.

00:25:17.880 So they actually voted tangent.

00:25:20.280 But they voted, the Senate voted last night to protect Cuba from Trump, by the way, with Collins and actually it was Paul and Collins voting with the Democrats.

00:25:29.060 That's Fetterman on us to let Trump do something about Cuba.

00:25:31.740 But that's another story.

00:25:33.300 But the thing is with the SAVE Act, I think they don't want it to pass.

00:25:37.100 And again, this goes to my theory that they don't want Trump to win the midterms.

00:25:40.580 Of course not.

00:25:41.060 I think they want Trump to lose.

00:25:43.060 They've been trying to get rid of Trump since 2016.

00:25:45.320 He came down the escalator.

00:25:46.340 They laughed at him.

00:25:47.240 Chris Christie stood on stage.

00:25:48.740 I think it's that they don't have the votes.

00:25:50.680 I think John Thune would pass the SAVE Act if he had the votes.

00:25:52.840 But it's his job to get the votes.

00:25:54.080 So if he doesn't have the votes, we need a new leader.

00:25:55.560 Yeah, but if you're John Thune, let's just put ourselves in that position.

00:26:01.600 And Mitch McConnell and Susan Collins say, we know we're done.

00:26:05.420 We're gone after this.

00:26:06.260 Make deals with Democrats.

00:26:07.760 Find somebody who's wishy-washy on their side and let's flip some votes.

00:26:11.540 But you don't control that outcome.

00:26:12.240 Do the filibuster.

00:26:13.560 Well, the walking filibuster.

00:26:14.420 But you have to have enough votes to do that.

00:26:15.600 What I've heard in the Senate is if he makes any move on the filibuster, he loses six, seven more Republicans.

00:26:23.140 Now, I, as someone who has had to face these tough choices with a congressional pin on, I have at times said, then we have to force those votes.

00:26:32.700 Then we have to flush them out.

00:26:34.020 We have to see who that is because maybe we can't stop Mitch McConnell, but we could stop the next Mitch McConnell.

00:26:41.040 How would it change our perspective of the John Cornyn, Ken Paxton runoff if you saw a bunch of these people who never had to face the voters again wander off on the SAVE Act, right?

00:26:51.560 And so I think it's an illustrative and important exercise to go through it.

00:26:55.820 But all of the rules in the Senate exist to allow you to not have to go through it if you don't want to.

00:27:02.600 I'm so excited when we get our Merriweather Farm shipments in.

00:27:05.580 You get a beautiful piece of ribeye.

00:27:07.500 Look at that marbling.

00:27:09.000 Now, I take it out of the package, let it get down to room temperature.

00:27:12.580 All I've got on here is a little salt, a little pepper, and then a little avocado oil.

00:27:16.840 And then I've had my pan preheating with a little oil.

00:27:21.560 Head to merriweatherfarms.com and enter promo code Matt G for 15% off your first order.

00:27:32.640 Well, look, but that's the thing where Thune, I think, and maybe even J.D. Vance, he's the

00:27:37.400 president of the Senate.

00:27:38.520 Maybe he goes down there and convenes it every day and says, hey, I'm not leaving until

00:27:42.220 we get the Save Act.

00:27:43.240 Does it do J.D. any favors if he goes and does that and gets just constantly enrolled

00:27:48.020 It won't help him.

00:27:48.680 By Mitch McConnell and, like, you know, the Idaho guys or something like that.

00:27:54.200 No, but at the same time, we need to figure out a way as Republicans because if Chuck Schumer was the leader of the Senate, he'd get it done.

00:28:00.540 They would end the filibuster.

00:28:01.800 Yeah.

00:28:02.180 If it wasn't for Fetterman and Sinema, we wouldn't have a filibuster.

00:28:04.980 They would lock Fetterman up in, like, some facility if they had to.

00:28:07.980 They would find a way to get rid of him.

00:28:09.480 They'd find some, you know, and this is what we're up against.

00:28:11.920 And so for the Republicans out there, it is really important, the ones that are on the fence and saying, well, I really don't want to break with tradition.

00:28:18.400 And what if they use it against us?

00:28:20.720 They're going to.

00:28:21.840 They're going to.

00:28:22.500 They will never lose again after this.

00:28:24.620 And we have taken a maximalist view on this show that if we're going down, let's go down with mass deportations.

00:28:31.980 Let's do all the doughnuts.

00:28:33.580 Let's take a vote on every one of Trump's executive orders, whether they pass or fail.

00:28:38.520 Agreed.

00:28:38.740 If it's going to be a bloodletting, let's at least make it a cleansing bloodletting.

00:28:43.320 One of the things I'm proud of that is happening, J.D. Vance's task force executing search warrants in Minneapolis.

00:28:50.720 There were moments when conservative commentators were saying, oh, it's gotten a little dicey in Minneapolis.

00:28:57.260 The immigration enforcement has been a little tough. Let's kind of pull back.

00:29:00.940 Let's get rid of this person or that person.

00:29:03.760 Now a full frontal from the vice president's team with the execution of these search warrants.

00:29:11.500 David, what's your reaction?

00:29:12.680 I mean, my immediate reaction was Tim Wall's not sure whether he was going along with these or not.

00:29:18.800 That was the funniest thing, by the way.

00:29:20.800 He's like, we had nothing to do with this, but the reason why it's happening is because of all the great work and oversight.

00:29:25.940 If you commit fraud in Minnesota, you watch out.

00:29:28.180 We're coming for you.

00:29:29.180 That was my immediate reaction.

00:29:30.420 We want some of it.

00:29:31.380 It was like, are you for this or against it?

00:29:34.200 You know, it was World War XI out there, and it needed to happen because if we're going to have oversight, it's fine. 1.00

00:29:41.480 It's good to have this accountability, especially it's weird that it's in the Somali community. 1.00

00:29:44.340 That's a topic for another day. 1.00

00:29:45.960 But my impression is this is exactly what needs to happen.

00:29:49.080 But you know where it needs to happen even worse?

00:29:51.260 California.

00:29:52.000 California.

00:29:52.520 We're talking about almost, what, probably half a trillion dollars of fraud that's floating around out here in this state.

00:29:58.240 And it's right there for the taking.

00:30:00.220 But you can't expose fraud in California anymore.

00:30:03.040 Well, they're trying not to.

00:30:04.320 Imagine that.

00:30:05.000 Make it illegal for you to be a journalist. 0.95

00:30:06.660 Insane.

00:30:07.060 Nick Shirley Act.

00:30:08.280 They've named it after him.

00:30:09.560 I know.

00:30:09.880 It's incredible.

00:30:11.420 And no kings, right?

00:30:12.740 How do you assess this move?

00:30:15.760 Does it look sincere and thorough to you?

00:30:18.720 It seems sincere.

00:30:19.640 Yeah.

00:30:19.980 I'm all on board.

00:30:20.980 This is great.

00:30:21.500 It's a great first step.

00:30:22.660 But like you said, we've got a lot more to do.

00:30:24.320 Got to start somewhere.

00:30:25.720 And the layering center is the best place to do it, honestly.

00:30:28.920 They called it Leering Day.

00:30:31.100 Yeah.

00:30:31.900 You know, my approach, kick down the door,

00:30:34.820 is just start going through and find all these people.

00:30:38.860 I saw it and I was like, great.

00:30:40.600 Pearson's going to come on the podcast this week

00:30:42.140 and be like, search warrants?

00:30:43.460 Why weren't the Navy SEALs deployed to Minneapolis?

00:30:46.520 Let's check out Ilhan Omar at the same time.

00:30:49.660 Speaking of a lot of application of force,

00:30:52.420 I mean, this was a crazy week.

00:30:54.160 We had this wild event at the White House Correspondents Center

00:30:58.120 everybody is still reacting to gotta say i'm so proud of the oan team i mean we had a tremendous

00:31:04.640 presence there and just like the journalism instinct our man john hines goes live right

00:31:10.020 there from the event uh alexander ingersol talking to everybody getting reaction charles herring our

00:31:15.320 network president taking video uh and memorializing history in that moment it just shows we work with

00:31:22.240 some incredible journalists. But some content caught your eye on the internet regarding the

00:31:28.900 left's call for violence, some stuff Scott Jennings posted. Do you want to set it up,

00:31:34.060 or do you want to play it? No, I mean, he pointed out rightly, which a lot of people

00:31:39.440 are discussing, just how this kind of thing happened. And we all understand that. We all

00:31:43.720 know how it happened. It's because the left has been calling for this for years, almost 10 years.

00:31:48.520 I mean, going back to Kathy Griffin with the decapitated head of President Trump, and that was supposed to be a joke.

00:31:53.720 Like, this is all they want. 0.96

00:31:54.740 They want to kill Trump, and they're shocked when someone goes out and tries to kill Trump. 0.98

00:31:58.800 They caused this, 100%. 0.93

00:32:01.140 And you were talking about what happened to your colleagues and the depositions and the hours they sat through and everything else and having to sell their homes.

00:32:07.540 You think that was bad?

00:32:09.300 Wait until the midterms and they take over.

00:32:11.320 It's going to be a bloodbath, absolute bloodbath.

00:32:14.360 Every single committee will be a January 6th committee.

00:32:17.940 everything you know what they you know what they looked at i'm one of the few members that went

00:32:21.040 through those files of the j6 committee scott perry and i went and dan bishop and i went

00:32:26.160 they looked at how everyone communicated they got all of your cell phone records were you calling

00:32:31.760 your wife were you calling pizza hud for delivery you know every phone record of every target

00:32:37.340 how you spent money everybody's bank records and how you moved did you use uber lyft every everything

00:32:45.100 I mean, the file on Charlie Kirk, the file on, like, you know, any number of people who were just Alex Jones, Roger Stone, Mark Meadows, you name it.

00:32:57.780 They had files on everybody, me, and that was their intent, was to try to just find anything to ruin someone's life.

00:33:05.420 That was one committee.

00:33:06.820 They will do this with all of them, and that's why these midterms are so critically important.

00:33:11.980 Uh, I, I think one of, I think one of the things we've got to do to win the midterms

00:33:16.220 is wind down this war.

00:33:17.420 The ceasefire right now is popular.

00:33:18.960 Three fourths of voters support the ceasefire.

00:33:21.700 I don't think voters want to, uh, see it break down.

00:33:25.240 And I know that requires a lot of moving parts all over the world.

00:33:29.340 Uh, I do think there's time to fix it.

00:33:31.720 I think if we are able to reach some set of stasis, there's nothing about what Trump did

00:33:37.280 to rescue this economy that can't immediately snap back into place.

00:33:41.520 because the underlying premise is supply-side shock on energy, right?

00:33:46.320 We did so much supply-side shock on energy that then OPEC is dissolving.

00:33:51.880 UAE is leaving OPEC, right?

00:33:53.640 And that's because they're realizing holding back production

00:33:56.580 is no longer a strategy with the move Trump has made.

00:34:00.420 And so now you're going to have cheap energy,

00:34:02.460 which is the number one thing that has improved the human condition

00:34:04.820 throughout all of time.

00:34:06.040 And I think we can go back to that.

00:34:09.140 I think the war's got to end.

00:34:10.540 Do you agree?

00:34:11.520 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we've talked about that. The war has to end and it has to end quickly. And I think Trump's only got, what, a couple more weeks?

00:34:18.500 A day.

00:34:19.540 Oh, okay. A day. Yeah. Yeah. Iran's strategy is to drag this out as long as possible. I think they're very comfortable with the idea that they don't have to win. They just have to outlast Trump. And I think they think they can do that. They could turn this into a forever war if they wanted to.

00:34:39.060 So, David, you agree then that Mark Levin is totally wrong, that 10,000 troops to go and snatch up a bunch of uranium in the mountains of Iran is foolish, deploying boots on the ground to Karg Island would be insane, that all of these things are just the fever dreams of neocons.

00:34:59.820 I mean, I don't know if Mark Levin is right or not.

00:35:01.500 I just know that this operation, and I don't know if we can call it a war technically, and if it's not a war, he has more than one day, by the way.

00:35:07.760 Wait a second, wait a second. You don't think this is a war?

00:35:09.880 Well, it's not tech. Nobody's declared it, so it's kind of a military operation.

00:35:12.940 I don't know. I sort of think when you kill the other side's leader, you've definitely crossed the Rubicon war, despite what you put in the press release.

00:35:19.780 But if that's the standard we're putting towards declaring it a war, well, then Iran had declared war against the United States probably for the last five decades. 0.59

00:35:28.420 Which one of our presidents did they kill?

00:35:30.360 Well, they tried to kill Trump, arguably, but they were unsuccessful. 0.80

00:35:33.820 I think more California teachers have tried to kill Trump than Iranians. 0.86

00:35:37.480 But regardless, if you go to when the Islamic regime just took power in Iran, I mean, their hostility towards the United States happened immediately. 0.91

00:35:45.720 They've been the largest funder of terror in the region. 0.88

00:35:49.660 I mean, so regardless.

00:35:51.060 So do you think they have more negativity toward the United States than Kim Jong-un, who puts up American cities and points to them and says, I'm going to blow this up with a nuclear weapon? 0.77

00:36:00.240 Do you think the Iranians have more hostility?

00:36:02.240 It's more complex than that.

00:36:03.960 The short answer is this.

00:36:06.060 Because when you look at Trump, when he said he was going to, and Marco Rubio as well, when they said we were going to look at our hemisphere a little bit differently, you know, they said America's first.

00:36:15.440 When you realign our hemisphere, if you look at what makes America influential in our hemisphere and you look at our border and what the problem is with the border, it all relates to this sort of geopolitical alignment with Iran, Venezuela, Russia, China, and even OPEC for a period of time if you look at BRICS.

00:36:30.360 so this is really part of a much larger

00:36:32.500 geopolitical reorganization

00:36:34.460 and so Venezuela was the first piece

00:36:36.580 of that obviously when you get rid of Maduro you get

00:36:38.540 control of the supply of oil well

00:36:40.500 now you're controlling the oil that goes to Cuba 0.98

00:36:42.220 and then you go and engage Iran 0.58

00:36:44.660 and we have the embargo in the Strait

00:36:46.540 of Hormuz well now oil's not getting to Cuba

00:36:48.440 either oil's also not getting to China

00:36:50.020 and you mentioned this when you talked about

00:36:52.160 Russian oil's getting to China because it can't go anywhere else

00:36:54.680 right but they need

00:36:56.500 more than just Russian oil and so

00:36:58.420 So they were one of the largest purchasers of Iranian oil, which they're not getting anymore.

00:37:01.620 They're buying a lot more American oil now.

00:37:03.000 That is exactly the point because you talked about the supply side.

00:37:06.040 Trump made it so we actually have the supply.

00:37:08.360 Now I think we're the largest exporter of liquid national gas and where our oil production is ramped up.

00:37:13.200 So here's what's happened. 0.98

00:37:14.500 We've taken Iran, a bad guy, out of the equation. 0.90

00:37:17.380 We've taken Venezuela, a bad guy, out of the equation. 0.77

00:37:19.500 What do you mean out of the equation?

00:37:20.200 Because the United States is now supplying energy to people instead of relying on our enemies.

00:37:24.000 They're friends with us.

00:37:25.180 And so if we're going to buy all this stuff from China, and China has maximum leverage over us because we buy their goods from them, well, now we have energy.

00:37:31.960 And like you mentioned, nothing more that affects the human condition than energy.

00:37:36.020 If we're in control of that, that makes America safer.

00:37:38.280 So my argument is that makes it right now.

00:37:41.980 I think that is a fascinating lecture that I would love to receive at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service.

00:37:47.940 But at the end of the day, Pearson has to drive two hours home from work, and he has to put fuel in his car.

00:37:52.760 When I fill up my 57-gallon tank, that's because you live in California, and they tax it so much here that it's twice the price anywhere else.

00:37:59.600 It's more expensive everywhere.

00:38:00.280 At the end of that great story, what you have is more pressure on the U.S. fuel market because more of our fuel is going to China, because China isn't getting their fuel out of Iran.

00:38:10.920 And I'm just wondering why that's good for Americans or good for the Republican Party.

00:38:13.420 Because we have the supply.

00:38:14.760 We just have to increase supply, and we are doing that.

00:38:17.580 We just have to get rid of all these nonsense permanent restrictions.

00:38:20.060 We have the oil here.

00:38:21.300 We have more oil than the Middle East.

00:38:22.760 We should drill baby drill, and I thought that was the premise, is that once we produce the oil, we don't need anybody else.

00:38:27.940 We'll supply ourselves.

00:38:28.920 All the Arab countries, by the way, who produce oil, they don't pay a lot for their oil, and they export it to everybody.

00:38:34.220 So how much oil do we have to produce each year to have all of the wars Mark Levin wants?

00:38:39.060 I don't know.

00:38:39.840 I just want to know how we get to that number where Mark Levin can get his wars and Pearson doesn't have to pay $30 to drive home.

00:38:48.120 This isn't a war for oil.

00:38:49.200 What this is a war for is reliance on the producers of oil

00:38:53.780 It's a big difference

00:38:54.600 We don't need the oil

00:38:56.120 But what we need is not to have oil supplied to our enemies

00:38:59.680 And us have no control over

00:39:00.780 Because it's been a losing

00:39:01.780 That's a losing equation for the United States 1.00

00:39:03.740 You know what I'm counting on to bring down BRICS? 1.00

00:39:05.540 The corruption of its own members

00:39:06.940 I don't fear BRICS the way a lot of other people do

00:39:10.460 Because 1.00

00:39:11.080 They are fundamentally unsound systems 1.00

00:39:14.480 You're counting on the South African system 1.00

00:39:17.120 To not cheat in BRICS

00:39:18.460 You know, you're counting on China to not manipulate their currency like during a brick system.

00:39:24.100 So, you know what? Go have your bricks.

00:39:25.860 I don't want to fight any war to stand in the way of bricks at all.

00:39:28.720 I don't care. And look at Brazil.

00:39:30.320 And you know what? Iran is in Venezuela. 0.75

00:39:32.440 Venezuela is a jungle country that is in our backyard. 1.00

00:39:39.180 We are playing a home game. 0.99

00:39:40.680 And I am so here for the focus on the Americas.

00:39:43.660 I think it does affect the condition of our countrymen way more than which guy in the IRGC is calling the shots in the country of Iran, which I actually don't care about.

00:39:55.680 I don't go to bed and think about that at night.

00:39:57.720 I think about like how much my groceries were and how much it cost every single day. 0.85

00:40:01.980 You also worry about, David, the opportunity costs on, we know, going back to those hobnobs and the campaign experiences, the type of people who have to be motivated for this Trump coalition to sing. 0.53

00:40:14.080 And he has shown a unique ability to motivate it. 0.94

00:40:16.520 And it is a masculine coalition in a lot of ways.

00:40:19.560 uh and if people continue to see um gas prices where they are and fuel prices where they are

00:40:27.500 i don't i i don't know that even if trump does achieves every military objective even if our

00:40:33.480 troops win every battle even if there's never another casualty right even if the iranian iran

00:40:38.700 is thrown into it's turned into yemen yeah for all sakes like i just worry about that guy sitting

00:40:43.660 there watching tv and saying you know we're focusing on a lot of stuff other than like the

00:40:49.380 you know the price of the eggs i get do you worry about that as a messaging pure messaging you you've

00:40:54.700 touched on the key issue there in this messaging it just depends on how it is laid out and

00:41:00.360 unfortunately other than oan telling the truth a lot of media outlets don't and they want to tell

00:41:06.000 the story that benefits their constituents the democratic party and so when a lot of people are

00:41:11.420 hearing that, you know, gas prices go up. That's what we need to worry about. A lot of people are

00:41:15.320 hearing the negative of all of this. They're not hearing the story about how this realignment

00:41:19.320 actually makes America safer. And I believe it does. Yeah, but you don't need to hear the stories.

00:41:23.080 You could not watch any news at all and you would still come away with the feeling like

00:41:27.240 who's doing anything for me right now? Well, no, that's a fair point. But you know who is?

00:41:31.680 Trump. We just had the largest tax cuts

00:41:35.040 for the middle class in modern history. You want to talk about affordability?

00:41:39.200 Go do your tax return

00:41:41.220 But you know what I worry about

00:41:42.600 People have got this great gift

00:41:45.140 From Trump and the Republicans

00:41:46.680 And the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

00:41:47.940 They filled out their tax return

00:41:49.000 And they got that awesome dopamine hit

00:41:51.240 And then they filled up their gas can

00:41:53.280 And then they filled up their gas can again

00:41:55.560 And again and again

00:41:57.200 And people get further away from that tax return

00:42:00.440 The closer they get to these midterms

00:42:01.920 And that is not fair politically

00:42:03.660 That is not a macroeconomic analysis

00:42:06.420 It is just a raw political analysis

00:42:08.260 But I don't think gas is as big of a deal as we're making it out to be because that's where everybody's focusing.

00:42:13.420 Everybody, the narrative is—

00:42:15.000 It's a pretty big deal, dude.

00:42:16.040 I'll explain this. Let me explain it.

00:42:17.560 So everybody's focusing on the price of gas.

00:42:19.600 You hear, well, you know, the Strait of Hormuz opened, oil's back up.

00:42:22.440 Oh, the Strait of Hormuz is open, oil's back down.

00:42:24.600 Gas, gas, oil, oil, futures, futures.

00:42:26.440 And everybody's focused on it because it's the easiest thing to understand, right?

00:42:29.720 Oh, yeah, oil. Let's just—how much did it—it cost me three cents more per gallon to fill up this week.

00:42:34.280 How horrible.

00:42:35.280 What we should be focusing on is the fact that nobody can afford a home.

00:42:38.420 And why can't people afford a home?

00:42:40.060 Because Jerome Powell hasn't touched the interest rate, which is the last thing keeping this economy from really catching on fire.

00:42:45.700 Big break today, by the way.

00:42:46.840 We have a new Fed chair coming in on May 15th.

00:42:49.660 And watch our interest rates go down.

00:42:50.940 Watch affordability increase because our ability to borrow cheap money and start engaging in economic activity will invigorate this economy.

00:42:59.160 So a lot of the things that people are feeling aren't Republicans' fault.

00:43:02.220 We just can't articulate it because Jerome Powell was serving Joe Biden.

00:43:05.580 Interest rates are high because of Joe Biden.

00:43:07.360 Groceries are high because the shipping was completely shut down during COVID thanks to Joe Biden.

00:43:12.960 All of the affordability issues, the microchips that we couldn't get from the Koreas,

00:43:16.420 all of these things are because of Joe Biden's auto pen failed presidency.

00:43:20.380 And it's going to take more than a year and a half of President Trump,

00:43:23.260 which, by the way, he hasn't had any favors from Republicans to fix these problems.

00:43:27.080 And he's doing it faster than any president in history.

00:43:29.640 So the story we tell going into November is stop focusing on gas and focus on everything else because as mortgages get cheaper, let me tell you this.

00:43:37.780 If your interest rate goes down a half of a point to a point, you'll be able to pay for gas for the next 10 years and you'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

00:43:44.380 That's if you own a home.

00:43:45.580 You can't even afford to own a home now, though.

00:43:46.840 If you don't own a home and you want to own a home, I worry that even lower interest rates allows BlackRock to borrow money at a cheaper rate and deploy more capital and keep homes away from regular Americans.

00:43:59.080 We should look into that.

00:43:59.940 I think what you said is dead on, but only complete if institutional buyers of homes don't create conglomerates that stand in the way of the American dream.

00:44:12.800 From what I've heard, it's only like, it was a surprising number, it's only like 8% or less of homes are actually bought by corporations like BlackRock.

00:44:20.400 Dude, year over year, 8% is enormous.

00:44:22.740 Yeah.

00:44:23.340 That is an enormous number.

00:44:24.980 It's not the majority, though. 0.95

00:44:26.660 No, I agree.

00:44:27.220 It needs to be shut down.

00:44:28.120 And I think Congress was looking at passing something about that, or Trump was talking about it.

00:44:32.940 Yeah, but here's my concern.

00:44:34.440 Now, look, I lived in Miami during the housing crash in 07.

00:44:37.460 I was actually in law school, and I clerked for a judge, and every day the entire docket was foreclosure stacks.

00:44:42.640 And I knew bad things were about to happen before the rest of the world did.

00:44:46.420 And I was young at the time.

00:44:49.420 I was looking to buy a home.

00:44:50.380 I couldn't afford to buy a home.

00:44:51.240 Investors would come in by entire neighborhoods before they were even built.

00:44:55.100 And so you couldn't afford it.

00:44:56.360 They drove up the prices.

00:44:57.100 Now, here's how you fix this. I don't think you do it with regulation because I have to be principled conservative here. You just have to create more attractive investments for BlackRock than housing. So maybe we can provide avenues that would actually benefit America other than giving them the opportunity to buy up a housing supply. Let's find other ways to maybe entice people to invest.

00:45:17.060 That doesn't get rid of the legislation, get rid of the regulations.

00:45:20.920 We've got too many right now.

00:45:22.680 Well, no, but the argument, to be clear, you mentioned a Trump executive order that sought to animate policy reforms that would not be celebrated at the John Burke Society or by Ayn Rand, right?

00:45:34.320 It is a paleoconservative populist view that it is in the national interest to preserve home ownership, that which is the American dream for American homeowners, not for corporate conglomerates.

00:45:48.580 And I ascribe to that theory, even though it is not a libertarian view.

00:45:53.200 It is not a like principled, less government view. But I don't want to lecture to somebody about what what limited government can do for them as they continue to write rent checks that don't allow them to build the generational wealth that we saw from from their families.

00:46:08.420 And maybe it's the limits on my intelligence, but I don't know how you draw people away from real estate, American real estate, by natural market forces because it is such a – I mean, think about our parents. 0.91

00:46:22.200 The way people built wealth was through real estate, and we don't know millennials and Zoomers who have those same options. 0.80

00:46:28.740 I mean, did we ever build wealth in real estate? 1.00

00:46:30.340 I think if you break it down, the mortgage has become kind of a Ponzi scheme.

00:46:34.880 When you look at how much you spend for your home versus what you sell it for, you're basically just – it's like a retirement account.

00:46:40.580 But I will say this.

00:46:41.600 There is a local solution to this problem that doesn't involve federal regulation, so it can satisfy both worlds.

00:46:47.740 And that's – you have to look at – and I know because I was on the local planning agency.

00:46:51.200 Of course you were.

00:46:53.160 What it boils down to is community planning and comprehensive plans.

00:47:03.820 And I'm going to be very brief on this, but it's complicated.

00:47:06.660 Every municipality does something called a 10-year plan that says this is how much we expect to grow, and we're going to zone our community to be consistent with this growth.

00:47:14.900 But then you have a lot of liberal organizations that want to keep single-family homes away and build density, urban density.

00:47:22.460 And a lot of real estate developers like those commercial properties.

00:47:25.900 Cities like those commercial properties for the revenue. 0.93

00:47:28.020 But it takes red towns and it makes them blue.

00:47:30.280 And this is part of a much bigger socialist strategy to urbanize our suburban communities.

00:47:34.860 We've seen this taking place across Florida especially.

00:47:37.360 The issue with that, especially in places like Seminole County, is you have all this land.

00:47:41.760 They call it the rural boundary in Seminole County.

00:47:43.200 You have all this land where you can build single-family homes that Republicans would want to live in, which investors are not going to buy all of them, right?

00:47:49.440 Investors like those apartment buildings.

00:47:51.480 So if you change the local regulatory environment and you don't zone every piece of R1 residential property as C2 commercial where you can build an eight-story apartment building that invites Democrats to go live there and makes your crime go up, instead you allow these more low-density residential areas to be built.

00:48:08.960 We have to look at our local communities the way we're zoning our communities.

00:48:11.920 They'll become more Republican, there'll be more opportunities for homeownership, and the federal government doesn't have to regulate that when there's options to buy.

00:48:17.780 Because guess what? It's a bad investment to buy a home in a community where they're just going to build more next door.

00:48:23.160 I love that rant, Pearson, because it's why you and I won't get the only libertarian hate.

00:48:28.300 That also was not a libertarian perspective.

00:48:31.340 And if this conversation has made you want to get drugs immediately, we've got the partner for you in times like these.

00:48:37.160 Being prepared isn't optional, it's essential.

00:48:39.060 One of the biggest threats Americans face right now is not just what's happening overseas, it's the growing uncertainty over the medical supply chain here at home.

00:48:47.160 We've already seen how quickly access to critical medications can be restricted, delayed, or even denied.

00:48:52.440 It's why it's important to take control of your health care and your future with our friends at All Family Pharmacy.

00:48:58.160 They offer over 400 essential medications from ivermectin and membenzadol to NAD+, methylene blue, and more, all available with fast, simple processes.

00:49:06.720 and that gets delivered right to your door

00:49:09.460 right when you need it.

00:49:10.640 It's not just about convenience.

00:49:11.700 It's about medical freedom,

00:49:12.840 the ability to make decisions for yourself

00:49:14.680 and your family without interference.

00:49:17.300 Right now, you can take 30% off your order

00:49:19.140 and build your own emergency medication kit

00:49:21.240 before you need it.

00:49:22.440 Go to allfamilypharmacy.com forward slash Matt.

00:49:24.920 Use code Matt30.

00:49:26.520 You get 30% off.

00:49:28.520 Don't wait for a crisis to realize

00:49:30.040 you should be prepared.

00:49:31.020 Stock up.

00:49:32.020 Stay ready.

00:49:32.680 Stay free.

00:49:33.180 Visit our friends allfamilypharmacy.com forward slash Matt.

00:49:36.700 David, the hour has flown by.

00:49:38.060 Thank you so much for hanging with us.

00:49:39.440 Thank you, everybody.

00:49:39.860 You know, Matt, I don't understand why people wouldn't go to All Family Pharmacy.

00:49:42.880 Why would you want to wait in line for an hour at a CVS or a Walgreens or something

00:49:46.460 and then them not have your prescription ready and then deal with all that nonsense?

00:49:48.940 We could just sit in the comfort of your home watching a Matt Gaetz show on OAN

00:49:52.780 and just get your prescriptions delivered.

00:49:54.340 The CVS is where homeless people go to go to the bathroom. 1.00

00:49:56.580 And so if you want to avoid that, go to All Family Pharmacy.

00:50:00.140 Pearson, thanks for putting together a great topic to chat about, buddy.

00:50:04.700 This was a really, really good time.

00:50:06.060 And thank you guys for allowing me to hang out with you.

00:50:08.380 We've got to do it again.

00:50:09.080 It's a lot of fun.

00:50:09.580 Tune in next week for two lawyers.

00:50:11.980 Listen.

00:50:12.600 And one everyman who is increasingly satisfied.

00:50:16.040 Pearson Sharp loves Todd Blanche.

00:50:18.500 He loves the search warrant.

00:50:19.720 More Todd Blanche.

00:50:20.840 Based Blanche.

00:50:21.720 Get it trending, Pearson. 1.00

00:50:22.600 Based Blanche is idiot. 1.00

00:50:23.500 You could do a whole Sharp report on Based Blanche. 1.00

00:50:25.160 I think you should.

00:50:26.480 Thank you, Sean.

00:50:27.360 Yeah, we didn't get to touch on it.

00:50:28.360 I did want to mention Trump's ability to use the National Emergency Act to pass.

00:50:34.180 Oh, God.

00:50:34.960 we'll have to talk about that next week punt to pass what to pass the save act or to pass an act

00:50:38.920 to protect our that was whenever there is executive power to be administered pearson sharp is ready

00:50:44.480 for it hey i i am ready to be the benevolent dictator that our country needs he's not going

00:50:48.700 to do that that was an op-ed suggesting he do that i think it's a terrible idea but we'll talk

00:50:52.780 about that next week maybe have me back what a cliffhanger david pollock make sure to watch

00:50:56.540 david pollock prime time please do have your youtube settings set you can dvr watch the same

00:51:01.540 day. He's got legal analysis, political analysis. This is a man who has been at every level of

00:51:07.060 campaigns. You must watch his show at seven and then stick around for the Matt Gaetz show at nine

00:51:12.400 o'clock Eastern every weekday. Thanks so much. We'll be back on Anchorman next week.

The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - May 20, 2026

The Anchormen Show EP 123 - PRIMETIME w⧸ David Pollack

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript