The Anchormen Show Episode 67 - MAGA Culture w⧸ Brick Suit
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode of the Anchor Podcast with Matt Gates and Dan Ball, I sit down with one of the great icons of the anti-Trump movement, Alexandrian "Alexandri" Jones. We talk about the origin story of "The Donald" Jones, how he became a media sensation, and what got him to where he is today.
Transcript
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now it's time for the anchorman podcast with matt gates and dan ball
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welcome back to another episode of anchorman i'm matt gates i host the matt gates show here on one
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american news every night nine o'clock eastern six pacific on weekdays and this is our special
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project where we get to get friends together and have more extended discussions about things going
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on in life the news politics and i i have with us for this a program one of the great icons of the
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maga movement someone i've known for a few years he does not miss the major events that drive the
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energy and enthusiasm for our cause uh we've been through a lot together and so i'm really looking
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allfamilypharmacy.com forward slash matt code matt 10 let's get to it brick suit thank you for
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joining me here in set uh in studio and first like just to set the stage for the kind of the the
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rarefied air you occupy among the activists and influencers and the heartbeat give me the origin
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story how how how how did you come to adopt this persona that has become like recognizable at all
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things maga well before before i give the story congratulations to you and ginger oh thank you
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thank you we're wonderful news i mean i i know i see those posts i see them on ginger's account as
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well and it's just it's just i'm very happy for for all three of you oh thank you we we are blessed
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so um the origin story is way back let's go back to donald trump's first election um 2016 i'm not a
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registered voter i'm a conservative in california not involved in politics voted for reagan in 84
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never voted again in any election okay 2016 rolls around i want president trump to win
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i was not convinced he would be a good president but i hated hillary hated hillary okay why oh well
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how long was the show i don't know yeah but like give me like give me like the number one thing like
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crooked still it's still a trump word but she really is she's the worst yes she's just a vile
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person and i did not want her to be okay so that motivates you so you get in the game so well i still
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wasn't in the game i'm just on the sidelines still i want trump to win i'm on the donald on reddit
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the best subreddit ever on that site and if reddit does nothing else of consequence giving birth to
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the donald is is enough for me so i'm following how many people are in that community there were a lot
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because i've heard about it as a social phenomenon there were a lot and you know and it took that
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website by surprise because we were pulling memes from everywhere we were making memes we were pulling
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from 4chan they were all getting up there and they had no idea how to keep this influence off of their
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site and they were not let's just say they weren't conservative friendly so
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you find your way to the donald find my way to donald i start doing memes after uh that famous
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president trump meme of him wrestling the cnn logo comes out yes and then cnn threatens to dox the person
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who made that okay so that's what got me off the sideline i started doing memes and then as we know
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in like 2018 after the midterms social media companies started catching up to how do we
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quash down these conservatives and you started seeing accounts canceled on facebook on youtube
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on on twitter at the time you know alex jones stefan molyneux uh you know all sorts of people
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their accounts were just going away and i started thinking well if you can't have first amendment
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on the web i'm just going to do it in real life and i got my first maga hat um and i started wearing
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it out in san diego but the the online censorship drove you drove me to do it in real life wow that's
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what drove me to do it in real life this is the online because a lot of people get demoralized by it
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correct and this was you know and the stories were coming out that time it was like you know the kid
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a whataburger in texas who got assaulted because he had a hat you remember all the stories about
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people getting you know physically accosted because they were wearing a mega hat right there
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were a lot of them and so i didn't really know what to expect so the first time that i'm wearing
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my mega hat in public i'm just going to like the most liberal shopping mall i can think of fashion
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valley here in san diego amazing and i'm just walking around fashion valley just camping out in the
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apple store you know setting all the home pages to the donald doing my thing just having some fun
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and then when i was done i went to of all places i think it was cheesecake factory just to get some
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some dinner and i ordered steak which is i don't know go figure that but when i came to pay
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my bill was taken care of my bill was taken care of so somebody saw me wearing the hat
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and paid it for me did you see anyone else in the cheesecake factory wearing a hat no oh no no
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maybe no nobody was wearing hats well right maybe it was someone that didn't have the own courage
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it's exactly what it was it's exactly what it was you know um it's just people then i realized
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there is this wellspring of support for the president people aren't willing to support
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to demonstrate in public and let's be honest there are some people who probably can't do it
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they might be lawyers they might work in the entertainment industry they might be married
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it's true so for whatever reason they can't let their their trump flag fly right so to speak
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and but their little their little act of protest was to buy your steak at the cheesecake factory right
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or just i love it just appreciative you know so then i would wear i would wear the hat so you're
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getting positive reinforcement positive reinforcement some negative reinforcement probably oh yeah yeah
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but but not not a lot because you know even back then when anti-trump hysteria was at probably
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its peak you still wouldn't get that much because people would not you know they just behave
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differently online there are paper tigers when you meet them in person you know usually you're also
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a tall guy well you know you know i wish i was 10 feet taller like all walls do but uh you know
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a little inside trump joke there but um you know it just it just really it was for the most part
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positive okay so what brings you to the rallies so yeah so so my dad and i had a trip where he was
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already back east and i was flying to meet him in dulles airport and we were going to go up to
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pennsylvania and i had the last two days of that trip free in dc and so i'd already been to two rallies
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by then and i was thinking well you know what if i'm going to be in dc i need something else to really
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trigger the leftists more than just the hat that i wear and i found this online there you go i just
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looked up for some reason it came to my head wall suit and i typed in wall suit and this came up
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and certainly the best 80 i've ever spent in terms of you know earned media or wherever but you know
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just just totally crazy so i'm i'm just like i buy this to wear like on the mall i'm thinking i'm
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gonna go buy the white house maybe to the capitol that's gonna be my my dc trip and the day before
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i'm scheduled to leave san diego president trump announces a rally in montoursville pennsylvania
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small small little town airport rally and i look at the calendar and and the map and it's only
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it's only like 120 miles away from where my vacation already was and it was in the last two days that i had
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free so i'm like well i gotta go to that rally so i go to that rally and the first place i ever wear
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the trump suit at a rally the wall suit at a rally i'm changing in the ada porta potty because it has
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the most room so you know i'm sleeping out there overnight um i was second in line behind a couple
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from nebraska who had driven out there getting eaten live by mosquitoes i don't have an umbrella
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it's raining i'm using i'm using the garment bag you know i'm sitting in a chair but then rally energy
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kicks in the next day i put on the suit and i get to the front row and then president trump saw me in
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the front row and he's like look at that guy look at get him up here get him up here so you know i went
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up on stage and i i don't remember much about it matt honestly everything i remember from a certain point
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it's really just what i watched on youtube later i remember people telling me you know get up there
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he's calling you and i'm thinking as i'm climbing over the barrier those metal bike racks it's got
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the flag secret service going nuts the whole time exactly like a normal person like where's the secret
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service where do i get in no i just start climbing over the barrier and the things that i can remember
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thinking to myself are don't trip and don't step on the flag two excellent pieces of self-advice don't fall
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don't step on the flag but you get up there i get up there i shake his hand uh say a few words tell
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him i'm from san diego um i don't really remember what he said to me or everything i said to him because
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i just it was like an out-of-body automatic everybody was cheering because of the suit everyone
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saw this energy and incarnation of support for what was the driving policy of that campaign correct
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and and uh you were this bundle of energy bounding around on stage i remember watching it i remember
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being so thrilled and so so you do that and this number i'm sure is going to shock my audience
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how many trump rallies have you been to i don't count them okay i don't um so like almost i had to get
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no it's not as many as people think because you know there are times during a campaign where he'll do
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three in a day and obviously i can only be at one sure so um if i had to guess actual rallies is
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maybe somewhere around 60 ish but then there's other events too like you know the where he'd be
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talking at like you know i don't i so so so there are a lot of people who've never been to a trump
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rally you know if they live in an area that's not a swing state you just don't get them all the time
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right how would you describe as a man who's been to like 60 trump rallies and we always see each other
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take some photos it's it's this warm experience how would you describe to someone who's never been
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but just uh sees the portrayal on mainstream media
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for the for the most part the portrayal on mainstream media is really doesn't capture it at all
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and to the extent that they cover pre-rally meetings it's usually negative and in some cases
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it's used as a foil i mean you know like there are people who go out there to shoot content at trump
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rallies and they really go out there to make fun of the people who are there to support the president
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which is cruel it's picking on people it's bullying it is picking on people especially when you consider
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that those are media professionals with an entire team behind them the power of editing
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and they have gone through their script versus a person who is there just to support president trump
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and may not be sophisticated in what to say to the media and how to how to how to you know how to
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convey their message in that moment sure but the the the energy that i was so drawn to at these trump
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rallies was very much a family reunion type energy right like if you think about your family reunion
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there are probably some people who've done pretty well in your family there might be some people who
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are just getting by uh you're gonna see a warmth an embrace and then what emerged were there were these
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personas these characters people like the uh the front row joes correct became this iconic group of
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people and the trumpets and then the ladies from north carolina that would come with the cow the cowgirl hats
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and when you can't it it it almost had a production um ensemble cast element to it and and i just i i wonder
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how you reflect on what you would even compare it to when describing it to someone who maybe hadn't felt
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it i don't know i i gotta think that maybe there's an some sort of analogous type of experience with
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people who dedicated fans who follow a band on tour right okay that might be the the the thing that's
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closest to what i can compare it to because when i accidentally became brick suit you know like
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when the president of the united states calls you on stage and you are wearing this you become brick
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suit you don't really have an option there's no turning back so i you know i leaned into it and then
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wanting to get up near the front i would get there earlier than most people would and that's when i
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discovered what exactly you're talking about meeting the people became as enjoyable for me if not more
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so in some cases than the actual rally itself and so once you turned it into that it's like not only is
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the rally fun but uh the process of meeting people and being able to freely speak your mind
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politically which for me wasn't that difficult but i could tell that for other people who would be
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there it was very much they were now in a safe space and you know they may not have been and suddenly
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they're surrounded by like-minded people and it's just a very enjoyable time the label that the media
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tries to put on this movement is hate and that this is this is a movement of grievance and hate and
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and scapegoating others and it is just so far from the experience i have where completely opposite
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right it love is the organizing principle love of country and and that's a really powerful thing
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and complete inclusion for everyone who loves america so it's not just love of country it's just like
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if you love america you're with us it has nothing else matters nothing else matters
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uh the uh what what what do you think is your favorite rally you want to
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all right let's if we're gonna we're talking about rallies we gotta throw out madison square garden
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okay because that's not that wasn't really a rally that was more like a one-day
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convention extravaganza it was fantastic okay and then
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both the butler rallies have to be taken out yeah the second one was fantastic it was perfect
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um um but i you know again i don't think it really it's not really fair to compare that to
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the other rallies so honestly the one in montourisville i really liked not just because
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it was the one that i was called up on the first time but it was just the type of setting i really
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liked you were at an airport it was outdoors the sky was dramatic it wasn't too hot it wasn't too cold
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you know so people were in good spirits um and you know because sometimes if it's a hot rally like
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i went to one in yuma where it was 114 degrees and you wore the polyester suit yeah in 114 degree
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weather yeah exactly so you know it can sap you and like that'll sap the energy from the crowd too
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so you know the optimum rally weather is is you know i would say 70 degrees so montourisville
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anyone put on by turning point yeah a turning point rally so there was a little more magic to that
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yeah absolutely number two is the one where in glendale where where uh rfk jr oh yeah joined up
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you know this is after after butler where rfk jr comes out on stage that was fantastic a great moment
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of unity and trump understands like that a good show has to have a little surprise it has to have
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a great warm-up acts it there has to be a constant theme and i i went to so many of these rallies and
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would look around and i would even ask myself is this politics it didn't really yellow was pretty
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awesome right yeah coachella was hot yeah coachella was hot but but at all these it felt
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part cultural part spiritual part nationalist in in all the right positive ways but but it didn't
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feel like anything i had ever encountered in politics before as someone who's run for office
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you know uh at the state and in federal level and i wonder why you know i i wonder what it is about
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president trump that turned politics into a cultural phenomenon uh and and created this kind
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of platform for uh for you know personas and and and people like you to really emerge and captivate
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people's interest well i think i think at the root of that is he's the first politician in my
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experience who just made it so that you have the permission to be patriotic that you have the
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permission to advocate for your country before others i'm so excited when we get our merriweather
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farm shipments in you get a beautiful piece of ribeye look look at that marbling now i take it out of
00:18:36.460
the package let it get down to room temperature all i've got on here is a little salt a little pepper
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and then a little avocado oil and then i've had my pan preheating with a little oil
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head to merriweatherfarms.com and enter promo code matt g for 15 off your first order you didn't
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feel that way about the bushes i did not no i did not they they had the whole texas machismo thing
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you know i will give the i will give um i will give him credit for throwing a great first pitch
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yeah after 9-11 totally best moment of his presidency you nailed it absolutely we'll have
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to put that in in post yeah no you're right i will give him credit for that yeah you know that
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was kind of the high point right but um but not across the board were you able to be patriotic
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i president trump breaks all the molds and the conventions that people expected from politicians
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really newly able to bring that type of image to the populace via the web so it wasn't just
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it wasn't just the broadcast networks it wasn't just conventional mainstream media it was the
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underground that really conveyed that and people wanted to be part of that because they could feel
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that energy well right and your story is so interesting because you emerge just as a guy out
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of a reddit forum who was tired of being censored online and so you're like well i guess you'll have
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to deal with me in real life now so when people meet you at these rallies like what do they say do
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they ask you questions about the suit oh yeah they ask me questions about the suit like where'd you get
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it and uh do you sell them they ask you those things there are other people who if you know
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sold knockoffs you know it's but i don't i don't really try and monetize it um i think it's i you know
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it's it's really it's really interesting because from the very beginning when i just because i had no
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social media presence at all so i was able to decide like do i really want to do this you know am i
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gonna am i gonna go to these rallies and do this more so what am i gonna call myself so i just i
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didn't want to use my name because it's not about me it's about president trump's connection with the
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voters and so i decided to go as brick suit because people would remember that moment and that moment
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is unlike anything else you would see in american politics or foreign politics for sure
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because can you see macron calling up anybody from the audience you know angela merkel she's
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going to call anybody it's not going to happen anywhere else except in america and even in america
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it only happens with president trump and so it's it's really you know it shows his populism yes it shows
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that any one person matters to him you know that the people aren't just kind of the sum of their parts
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we aren't just producers and consumers we aren't just orbs or blocks of votes we're like human
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beings and he takes the care with people you know come up have a moment you know he uh he doesn't
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always have to score the basket you know he could have an assist in that moment have you there celebrate
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you and those are some of the best moments and they're the unscripted moments and that's what most
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politicians hate right the people i used to work with they want everything down to the minute by
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minute that's when this person says this to this that trump wants it to be kind of a big raucous
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uh energetic experience and as you became prominent at a lot of these things i can i can only imagine it
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was quite a moment when people get to meet you i did people ask often for selfies and those types of
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interactions did you ever have like a selfie you wouldn't give because there's a few because people
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wearing something i don't want to be associated with okay so you're looking at t-shirts to make
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sure it doesn't say something that you don't really want to be you know like that's not something i want
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to support um i think the favorite moment i have is in that 2020 campaign um you know i had the
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opportunity to be a correspondent to some rallies and so i was actually up on the media riser
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and my favorite moment of that was having jim acosta right in front of me oh wow and and you
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know just jim having to treat me cordially which he did to his credit but he's like he's like but i
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know i i would imagine that inside he is seething and uh sure and and i'm i'm up on the riser in the
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suit yeah in the suit doing it so um yeah and now where's like jim acosta like canned from cnn is
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we're celebrating our triumphant president leading our country back to success uh when when we were
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on that campaign trail in 2020 man we we had to face a lot um and i really thought about you
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when president trump was shot because i knew i i assumed you'd be there i and i i know how much you uh
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care for the people who attend and uh it was literally one of my first thoughts uh you know
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it it it did it did it at any point in time discourage you from wanting to go back to these
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things did it shatter that spirit of love and togetherness we've been talking about or
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because i mean just for myself i was i was grief stricken that that type of violence would be brought
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upon a moment of such celebration i never i never had qualms about going back never uh in fact i i
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wanted to um it actually made me redouble my efforts and made me commit to going to even more
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rallies than i could now i was back at butler because uh some people don't know this but i was
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actually an rnc delegate from california oh so i was already planning to go to milwaukee and they added
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butler two days prior i'm like well maybe they're gonna announce the vp maybe i can get change my plane
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ticket so i was able to change my ticket to be able to go to the butler rally um and you know i went
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straight from there to the rnc so i don't think you know it wasn't like i went home and really had
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time to reflect on it i thought about it a lot at the convention and a lot of people were asking me
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about it because you know i did some interviews and they could see me in the footage i was in the
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front row right there um but it never made me think that i wouldn't want to go back to a rally
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um because that would be you know what was it like seeing him there on the ground this triumphant
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president president this person we love well i couldn't since i was in the front he was behind
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the lectern and they've got that kind of like a yeah the glass bunting but they didn't have glass
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there i mean like this is before any of that so i see they've got the bunting they've got the lectern and
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then they've got basically about like three feet high and it looks like a little parapet wall
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but it's it's steel so you know like if you hit the floor it it it would stop you know rounds from
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coming at you from my vantage point i could not see him on the ground i could only hear and so i heard
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you know the secret service saying things like let's get ready to move him and not knowing if he was
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you know incapacitated or not because i didn't have a direct line of sight to him now the people
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in the back in the stands they'd be able to see that because they're you know that have a direct
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line of sight to the president i did not and so what were people around you doing every possible
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reaction you know i i had reached down to get my camera because i wasn't filming at the time the shots
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came and i figured well i in my you know i'm looking i can't see anything i better i should
00:26:37.480
film this and so i got and i just filmed him getting up other people were just staying on the
00:26:42.160
ground people were crying um it was all going very quickly and then we saw him stand up
00:26:49.180
and you know i was close enough that i could see his expression i could see the fire in his eyes
00:26:57.200
um and then he said fight fight fight made that gesture and even if you were in the very back row
00:27:04.860
and not 10 yards away like i was you knew what was happening in that moment and i think that people
00:27:12.000
don't and president trump took a lot of criticism for for making that gesture for taking the time to do
00:27:19.040
that i think that people who criticize that don't realize how crucial that was to reassure everyone
00:27:26.820
that he was okay and if he had just been whisked off the stage right away and taken to the hospital
00:27:36.460
bad things could have happened oh so you think part of of of that moment part of the miracle of that
00:27:45.620
moment because truly a miracle that it was that he wasn't killed is that you know despite
00:27:51.220
cory coppator's death which is just deeply sad and tragic and awful we could have even had more
00:27:57.320
casualty of of injury or or or some other chaos ensuing and and chaos does seem to be kind of the
00:28:05.140
goal of these these political assassinations and assassination attempts and uh you know for all we are
00:28:11.620
criticized for of being insurrectionists or being anti-democratic we're the ones trying to keep people
00:28:17.760
alive keep people calm keep people secure in in the version of events you're sharing um you know the
00:28:23.740
the campaign goes on from from there we we also we get this switch from biden to harris and i remember
00:28:32.400
just you know being on the inside of the campaign the the tumult that caused it's like it'd be like if
00:28:38.400
you were preparing to play football against the new york jets and you show up and it's like oh well
00:28:42.880
you're playing against the giants instead and you um meanwhile not just different teams it's like
00:28:48.740
yeah going against the passing team now to a running team it's like totally different styles yeah it's
00:28:53.800
not even like it like nothing you're preparing for works because you're running against it you know
00:28:59.520
infirmity you're running against it you know abject failure and now uh and you're running against his age
00:29:06.340
and now you're running against kamala and it's a whole different thing that they're putting out here
00:29:10.300
totally and the media made her to be this this grand star darling in in in a completely uncritical
00:29:17.120
way and i almost think that was her downfall i almost think her downfall was she never faced the
00:29:23.820
the tough interviews with grit she never uh was willing to be pressed on a viewpoint she had or positions
00:29:31.600
she had taken it was a candidacy that was uh just so uh i would say plastic in a lot of ways
00:29:39.900
whereas trump you may not like the words he uses you may not like his tone of voice at times but
00:29:45.960
there's something real and authentic about it that america had been craving after joe biden what what
00:29:51.320
did you think in that time when harris steps up to become the candidate well you know i had seen her
00:29:58.240
here in california and i think she was ill served to be in that moment because she really has never
00:30:07.300
faced a contentious campaign she's a machine candidate correct you know that's how she got
00:30:13.440
advanced and other ways and so people in california knew that people in california knew she was a machine
00:30:19.700
candidate had never really been challenged never really tested gets made a star of the senate primary
00:30:24.560
when she drops out before she even gets to her home state where she's polling under like two percent
00:30:29.700
do you think she's going to come back and run for governor oh no way no i don't think so you would
00:30:35.120
california democrats don't want her you don't think i'm i'm actually i'm really hoping for the katie
00:30:42.440
porter experience here why is that because she's just she's so off the rails i want to make memes about
00:30:49.440
potatoes and i want to i want all of her tapes of like is she the most memeable oh absolutely
00:30:55.020
candidate of the dems candidates for for governor right now i would say so yeah yeah she is i don't
00:31:00.120
i don't think i don't think kamala's going to come back and run for governor um could she
00:31:09.040
hard for me to get inside of her head and imagine what she's thinking because that's a really big open
00:31:17.500
vocuous you know empty space that i could really run around in for for days um but i think that she
00:31:25.220
would see that as a step down and above all i think that she is concerned with face and she can now
00:31:32.400
retire as having run complain it was just 107 days when in fact it said nobody wanted her
00:31:39.580
complete rejection of her personality yeah it wasn't it wasn't like with another 107 days we were going to
00:31:45.060
like kamala harris more we would have had an even greater probably we would have won the popular
00:31:49.840
vote by even more and we probably would have picked up two or three more senators yeah and we would have
00:31:54.720
maybe won even some additional states run in 2028 kamala we're here for it um i do want to get
00:32:01.000
your assessment of just kind of how things are going having been a part of this activist base because
00:32:06.420
what we've covered is trump is so unique and how he was able to draw from people based on the sense of
00:32:12.280
patriotism a deep commitment and you embodied that commitment and just what you meant to people
00:32:18.760
looking to have that rally experience you became a part of that experience and in other functions
00:32:24.640
but as you look at the administration now we're in a shutdown uh he's carving he's trying to make
00:32:31.300
peace in the middle east a place that's been blood soaked for forever and he is giving giving peace a chance
00:32:37.560
there uh he we see the economic growth at 3.8 percent now uh annualized what what's what's your
00:32:46.480
assessment of where we are in this moment well there's a couple things happening here uh one is
00:32:52.480
that the team this administration is just head and shoulders above the first administration not even
00:32:58.700
the same it's just it's phenomenal um you know marco rubio is doing great harmeet dylan my my
00:33:06.100
my favorite dark horse candidate for like most impactful player in the administration it's one
00:33:11.720
four years from now when we look back three and a half years from now i mean she's stacking up w after
00:33:16.660
w well because there was so much bad the civil rights division was doing i if i'd been attorney
00:33:21.720
general i was going to hire harmeet for that position or or an even higher one because she has got
00:33:26.680
the ability to just go in and and cut all this nonsense that they've been doing uh pushing dei
00:33:33.800
limiting the appropriate election integrity efforts going on around the country i think you're right i
00:33:40.920
think she's one of the total stars of this and then you've got robert kennedy who's just making great
00:33:44.820
inroads in the maha coalition which people thought was just going to be like oh that's just a gimmick for
00:33:49.740
the election and then they'll forget about it but no he's hhs secretary take that democrat yeah exactly
00:33:55.740
not only did we take your black and hispanic males we took your kennedy yeah your most handsome kennedy
00:34:01.620
we took and you know tulsi as dni is doing fantastic and just across the board it's better so all we're
00:34:09.000
we're just seeing progress now against that backdrop of progress oddly enough there's still i think
00:34:16.800
unfortunately a segment of trump supporters who are not happy with the progress because they want even
00:34:24.020
more faster and that's just so us isn't it wanting more wanting it faster yeah exactly but but if you
00:34:31.460
look at it that's okay president trump says we're allowed to want more right right and there will be
00:34:35.800
more winning but i think if you look at what president trump's second administration has accomplished so
00:34:41.900
far in into it it is light years ahead in terms of pace of anything we could have realistically expected
00:34:48.260
look it's already made your suit not trendy the border is secure i know it's like nobody's been
00:34:54.340
nobody's been nobody's been paroled into the border for four months you know it's like so and remember
00:34:59.560
remember the way they acted like we can't do anything without the laws being changed they acted like it
00:35:06.120
would be easier to go to mars yeah then secure the border then to build the wall you don't hear uh people
00:35:12.380
saying uh walls are racist anymore isn't that something no no they don't say that you know why because it's
00:35:17.700
working is there a single democrat in america who is suggesting that we take down the wall anywhere
00:35:24.580
because like if the walls were so racist and so evil how come aoc and bernie sanders and elizabeth
00:35:30.600
warren aren't filing bills to remove the wall if that's what you believe but they won't do that
00:35:35.620
because they see the american people are invigorated by their new security and people appreciate that and
00:35:41.420
we are a nation that deserves to know who is coming and going that is not unreasonable uh
00:35:46.600
but as you look at the deportation agenda is that is that is that really what uh you wanted to see
00:35:53.120
100 absolutely um it didn't really it's not really playing out the way that i envisioned it
00:36:00.660
but i think that it's um you know because really during the campaign i'm just like yeah
00:36:06.480
we have to deport everybody's here illegally but i really wasn't thinking about the mechanics
00:36:10.600
how's it going to work it's kind of like we'll cross that bridge when we get to it
00:36:13.720
but i think that the way the program's been structured loosely is it's very effective
00:36:18.460
you're removing all of the incentives for people to stay okay you're actually incentivizing them to
00:36:25.120
leave we will help you leave if you leave of your own accord you can make an orderly retreat
00:36:31.040
you can sell all your stuff here retain that money go back to your country and have the ability to
00:36:38.240
apply for readmission or you can stay here risk it all that you don't get pulled over for like a
00:36:45.040
tail light and then you're you know on a bus somewhere because there's already been an order
00:36:50.580
against you and you're going to be deported and you're going to lose everything you've got and
00:36:54.560
you're going to incur fines and you're never going to be able to come back so there's part of that and
00:36:58.640
that driving of self-deportation is what i didn't really see as happening i knew we'd be able to
00:37:06.600
capture people um you know and i knew we'd be able to track people down on court appearances
00:37:11.180
but i didn't foresee the shift to self-deportation and i think that when people look at what's
00:37:18.100
happening in deportation deportations right now they're they're focusing on chicago they're focusing
00:37:22.280
on portland they're focusing on the hot areas like that but it's like that's just underscoring
00:37:27.560
two people who are in our country illegally the need for them to go i mean and you know and that's not
00:37:34.860
cruel we're not we're not suggesting that there's some sort of retribution element to this but the
00:37:41.300
country cannot simply absorb the 20 million plus people that biden harris let in and then just have
00:37:47.780
kind of a de facto amnesty around that those people have to go and then i agree with you of course there
00:37:53.560
should be opportunities for people to make their case for immigration to our country as they've always
00:37:58.360
had the opportunity to and throughout our country's history we have accepted immigrants or had more
00:38:04.140
restrictionist immigration policies at different times depending on our own interests correct and
00:38:09.800
that's okay it's not xenophobic it is not hateful to the people on the other side of the wall it is
00:38:15.860
loving to the people on our side of the wall and i think that is something we should expect from our
00:38:21.060
politicians um the the the part of the base you referenced that wants to see more let's get into
00:38:28.980
that what what is what is the more they want to see
00:38:32.040
it varies by person um it there's there's people who want to see in sense of more they want to see
00:38:43.560
less foreign involvement so maybe that's a more okay see you know more reform to our foreign policy
00:38:49.440
correct so that's like they want you know where do you what do you think that we're involved where we
00:38:54.000
shouldn't be uh pretty much everywhere i love you pretty much everywhere i mean it's like
00:38:59.600
you know if you're buying munitions from us that's different than us loaning that's commerce i don't
00:39:06.620
have a problem with that so like if if the european union wants to buy arms from america and then give
00:39:12.400
them to ukraine i don't have a big issue with that me either that's we shouldn't be giving them to ukraine
00:39:18.060
no and then we do this phony lend lease thing which is just another way to put the burden on the
00:39:23.560
taxpayer uh it is very hopeful to see president trump forging some peace in the middle east
00:39:31.160
is that something that you think uh people voted for getting that that peace dynamic
00:39:36.940
and peace paradigm in place absolutely i mean he said he was you know he's he's trying to end the
00:39:42.320
other big war too and i think that eventually we'll be successful in that um uh but yes i definitely
00:39:51.840
voted for him to be someone who was ending conflicts rather than starting them and he had opportunity
00:39:58.220
in his first administration to start conflicts do you remember when we had our reconnaissance drone
00:40:04.080
shot down do i ever 300 million 350 million dollar reconnaissance drone and then people are like we need
00:40:10.520
to go to war we need to go to war i'm like dude that's why we have drones so we don't get pilots shot
00:40:17.800
down so we're not forced to go to war when the people were spying on shoot down our tools of observation
00:40:24.200
that's exactly why you have a drone you know and so but i in that time you had lindsey graham
00:40:33.020
you had mike pence you had the the the pompeo bolt yet all those guys is suggesting that
00:40:40.340
because an mq9 drone got down we had to go to war with iran so i remember it's so crazy so i remember
00:40:48.260
talking to the president during those moments uh and i was in a attack in an uber and i'm i'm sitting
00:40:55.300
there saying you know this or that and uh the uber driver looked over at me and i said before you say
00:41:01.760
anything no one will believe you if you repeat this and he said my english isn't so good i said where
00:41:09.560
are you from he said northern virginia but uh but yeah i i think that it's so interesting you
00:41:16.440
highlight that because it gets glossed over by history but it is so telling that president trump's
00:41:22.220
instincts are are uh lashed with reason and logic yeah and and not beholden to you know the the
00:41:32.200
globalist neocon uniparty that wants conflict for the sake of commerce you know yeah and so but that
00:41:40.420
is a key defining characteristic of maga that i think the people who try to co-opt maga don't really
00:41:46.720
understand and they won't be able to like the people who go to these rallies the people who
00:41:50.980
knocked on doors in pennsylvania they believe in trump because they trust him and they trust that he
00:41:57.620
will not you know sleepwalk us into some stupid conflict where our interests are not clear are
00:42:04.380
are you confident brick that this change in ideology that president trump brought to the issues we've
00:42:11.320
discussed like immigration enforcement like foreign policy are durable in the republican party beyond
00:42:17.660
president trump's tenure i absolutely think that they are i mean because at the core of it they're all
00:42:22.980
they're all evergreen issues they're not going to go away um will a politician emerge who can be as
00:42:30.040
successful in conveying them and articulating them to the public that's a really tall order um but i
00:42:37.300
think we have a deep bench and i'm i'm i'm hopeful that someone will take up the mantle successfully
00:42:43.020
and i think that part of that is going to be where we're at in two years from now two and a half years
00:42:52.700
from now where the 28 campaign has begun in earnest okay so do you expect a competitive republican
00:43:01.120
primary in 2028 or do you think there'll be a lot of appreciation for you know jd vance being an
00:43:07.460
exceptional vice president and a desire to give him a run at the presidency i think jd vance is an
00:43:12.660
exceptional candidate i'm extremely happy when he was chosen as vp same um you know if we compare him
00:43:20.360
to kamala just like no experience running kamala versus jd fresh off a very contentious senate campaign
00:43:27.400
where he performed very well and be built the guy built businesses the guy was a brilliant so you know
00:43:34.040
i think that the the american public is the well the republicans and in the non i boy do i hate do i
00:43:42.220
hate open primaries i hate open primaries open primaries are so dumb it's ridiculous to democrats
00:43:48.920
anywhere should have any say in who the republican nominee would be for president in 28 it's absolutely
00:43:53.820
hysterically ridiculous they should be gone we should have closed primaries and no rank choice voting
00:43:59.240
get rid of that baloney as well yeah like that would be like you at your church inviting people in
00:44:06.280
who don't share your religion to pick the pastor like it makes absolutely no sense so i think that
00:44:14.480
if we continue on our current track of success i believe that jd vance has really the inside track
00:44:23.060
and does that mean that no one should oppose him no i don't think so i think that if there's
00:44:29.080
people within a republican party who want to run they should be free to throw their hat in the ring
00:44:34.760
and see how well they do um i can tell you as someone who's been to many many rallies and i had the
00:44:42.360
the pleasure of going to a few that were just jd during the campaign and he does something that
00:44:47.880
more effectively than any other candidate i've ever seen is he would go through his remarks and then he
00:44:54.480
would open them up to the floor to the reporters in the back for unscripted impromptu questions that
00:45:00.800
he had no rehearsal for and he handles them excellently it shows confidence yes and it shows a breadth of
00:45:09.100
knowledge yeah it shows that he has mastery over what he's talking about and it's not let me get back
00:45:15.560
to you on that i mean there was never a kjp moment or you know or uh or uh uh a circle back moment for
00:45:24.200
him or anything like that it was like you know it may be a small super nuanced detail but for the most
00:45:29.020
part he was able to do that effectively and i think that um i think that the american public will
00:45:36.640
conservatives will reward him with the nomination if we have continued success and i just think that's
00:45:42.560
that's just the obvious way to go i think that that's well deserved but it's not by no means will
00:45:48.560
it be a coronation by no means will it be no one else has the right to run no that didn't help the
00:45:54.440
democrats that's not going to happen well no that that's not who we are i think even jd would say that
00:45:59.080
competition makes people better it sharpens our ideas i never minded when people ran against me for
00:46:04.500
congress i thought more choices was typically a good thing for the voters uh and then it's your job to
00:46:10.520
make make your case and and like you said if he continues this great work that we've seen on
00:46:15.680
display he's obviously got the political skills uh it could be a pretty exciting time for our movement
00:46:20.960
to maintain that continuity because what i don't want to see for all we've done as hard as we've
00:46:26.780
worked for this president if at the conclusion of his time in public office we'll go back to some
00:46:32.920
mitt romney paul ryan version of the republican party guys like you aren't going to be awakened
00:46:39.840
out of regular life to you know devote yourself to political messaging and political causes and
00:46:46.380
political organization people just won't do that and and and it's something we we have that's very
00:46:53.180
special and it's not our birthright we have to continue to nurture um the sincerity that we get
00:47:00.320
from trump and and the policy portfolio as well i i can't let you go without talking a little
00:47:06.380
california stuff okay because this proposition 50 thing that gavin newsom is doing is a direct
00:47:13.100
attack on democracy i 100 call me old-fashioned i actually think that the voters should pick the
00:47:20.020
representatives rather than the representatives picking their voters but it doesn't seem like
00:47:25.600
there's really much of a fight going on it seems as though if they put gavin newsom and barack
00:47:32.000
obama's picture on an ad in california there is a sufficient voter base to do whatever they want
00:47:38.520
even if it's really harmful to the voters themselves california politics are discouraging
00:47:45.460
at times and this is one of the reasons i didn't vote from 84 onward because you know with the democratic
00:47:52.940
majorities it was really difficult to have anything happen there were some bright spots i mean they
00:47:57.560
say schwarzenegger was governor you know we all thought that was great at the time which was better than
00:48:01.580
the alternative but sure um i think you're right i think that the democrats are able to call their
00:48:08.060
shots in in the state of california which other states should look at as being a cautionary tale
00:48:17.340
you don't want to become like california where it's just one party rule and and i'm not going to say
00:48:25.120
it's one party rule because that's not true republicans are active where they can win battles
00:48:30.800
at the local but they have no real power at this they're not going to it's going to be extremely
00:48:35.400
difficult to win the governorship it's going to be extremely difficult to win any statewide office
00:48:39.520
so you you've got it it's got to be a multi-year plan where you're you know you're defending the
00:48:47.700
areas where you have power and marginally increasing into the areas where it's kind of purplish
00:48:54.900
i think that steve hilton is running a spirited campaign based on practicality he's saying to
00:49:01.960
californians things like the fire hydrants should work and you should be able to walk down the street
00:49:07.440
without worrying that some methed out homeless guy is going to try to like rob you for twenty dollars
00:49:14.260
you should know that when you leave your car in san francisco somebody isn't going to break into
00:49:18.780
it and try to steal all of your contents and these things aren't uh right coded or right wing
00:49:25.400
they're just offering people better than what they've had well i just think that there's people
00:49:30.160
outside of california and even some in california you just don't realize how many more registered
00:49:33.920
democrats there are yeah it's like four and a half million more registered democrats really want to
00:49:39.060
see the houses burned and the fire hydrants not work and the homeless take over the streets
00:49:42.940
the thing they're registered but they're not necessarily logical or rational that's so sad
00:49:49.660
they're just vote blue no matter who you know and so they get and that's how you get kamala harris
00:49:56.160
and that's how you get you know gavin newsom it's not really it's like whoever gets anointed to run
00:50:03.740
for the campaign they're going to win and so they don't face they don't face uh real adversarial
00:50:10.860
campaigns in the general election and so they don't develop that that skill which is fine with
00:50:17.220
me because if gavin newsom thinks that his track record in california is going to transfer to the
00:50:22.540
rest of the country it's just not he's the look just not democrats who want to be president who i know
00:50:29.520
have told me that they believe gavin newsom will be the democrat nominee for president and it very well
00:50:34.280
may be but i just don't think he can be successful well it's the fact that democrats would even nominate him
00:50:39.960
that they don't have a better case study to present the country than what we've seen in california
00:50:45.600
that that that's their lead-off hitter well you know if it i could find that the astronaut from
00:50:51.940
arizona give him a shot or if you know that there's the jewish obama in pennsylvania i was going to say
00:50:57.460
if it weren't for a questionable suicide verdict in pennsylvania there might be you know a more viable
00:51:02.260
candidate there jeez you know like that uh um basically what many people believe was a murder
00:51:10.400
was ruled to be a suicide when underneath his office jeez so well well that's coming back to
00:51:16.180
bite him i i guess i guess that but they don't but you're right their bench is not as deep as ours
00:51:21.460
but they're gonna what are they gonna go to like the proven record of people who haven't been
00:51:25.560
successful mayor pete right gonna come out bernie's too old he's got a beard now so maybe bernie's too old
00:51:31.220
not that kind of beard and you know like honestly nobody got jobbed in 2016 more than bernie
00:51:38.560
supporters got jobbed by the democratic party oh yeah nobody well dean phillips didn't even get to
00:51:44.280
debate yeah dean phillips ran against if dean phillips had been given an opportunity to debate joe biden
00:51:49.420
he would have been the democratic nominee because joe biden biden wasn't able to stand on two feet
00:51:53.540
and complete a paragraph yeah so i don't know so that they have they've gone through several election
00:51:59.320
cycles where they really haven't had a really robust campaign and even and even 2020 you just
00:52:05.960
know that whole thing everybody's dropping out before super tuesday except except you know pocahontas
00:52:11.240
is going to stay in just to keep enough liberals out so right so that you know bernie can't really gain
00:52:15.960
ground they just basically ceded the the field to biden and and picked their horse behind the doors and
00:52:22.580
the the the voters were were left with a fait accompli so it's so crazy how the the power moves
00:52:31.800
behind the scenes uh swamp even the opportunity of voters to be able to choose their own adventure
00:52:39.160
uh before we go i do want to know what's next for you you know you you went to all these rallies you
00:52:45.160
were you've been this iconic figure folks follow you you online how they how can they continue to
00:52:50.360
follow what you're doing and what are your plans well the the main social media outlet i have is
00:52:55.040
is on x and it's brick underscore suit pretty easy to remember i'm gonna brick suit with a little
00:53:00.700
underscore um and you know right now there aren't a lot of political events happening that's going to
00:53:08.180
pick up in 26 i think i'm going to go to uh as many as makes sense and it's not just trump rallies it's
00:53:14.680
going to be america first rallies or candidates so i consider to be america first like andy biggs in
00:53:19.580
arizona yeah yeah i'm gonna do a lot with turning point great i was just out with them in arizona
00:53:24.320
doing some ballot chasing wonderful for uh doreen taylor who's trying to unseat basically a rhino city
00:53:31.780
council member who got elected and then headed up arizona republicans for trump so you know so we're
00:53:37.800
doing i mean republicans for harris excuse me yeah not republicans for trump that that would be the
00:53:42.400
natural thing she headed up republicans for harris so we're doing a ballot chasing for a recall
00:53:46.560
initiative there brick suit will chase you down if you're on a city commission are there any
00:53:49.980
homeowners association races you're getting involved no and then we're not going down that
00:53:53.340
low but but you know i'm going to be doing some stuff and i'm going to be traveling more because
00:53:58.180
i'm you know uh up until 2024 i was still working full-time and now i'm really more kind of retired
00:54:05.160
semi-retired so people could see you popping up around the country in battleground races yep
00:54:10.960
supporting candidates you care about and and helping to emblazon that maga brand on people
00:54:18.220
who can help us who can help us succeed in the government and have the president's back that
00:54:22.280
sounds like a wonderful thing to do do you think we're going to win the midterms
00:54:24.740
there's a couple x factors out there um one is continued success of the the administration which
00:54:31.800
i believe uh portends well for us yeah uh right now today the supreme court was looking at that uh
00:54:38.480
changing things about the voting rights act which may allow for certain states to redistrict in ways
00:54:43.680
that could create more more cartography correct um eliminate eliminate basically the things that
00:54:50.860
were done um in the past that favored one group i got you know and so just bring it back to
00:54:58.400
a more rational less gerrymandered way of creating congressional districts i think that would favor us
00:55:05.020
so but do i think that can i say for sure that we're going to win in the midterms no i will retain
00:55:11.580
the senate i believe i don't think that that's at issue um the house is is open question much tougher
00:55:18.340
as you look at it historically party in power always loses house seats i don't know always i get it
00:55:23.920
i'm still bullish on republicans maintaining the house and you know why the democrats don't have a lot
00:55:28.960
to run on a shutdown over nothing no they're kind of leaderless their their movement is basically a
00:55:35.880
bunch of people who are out like throwing paintballs at ice agents and i don't think that's going to be
00:55:41.180
appealing to the country but you certainly are you're appealing to our movement i'm so grateful
00:55:45.420
that you gave so much of yourself to um you know rally people together to organize and to earn
00:55:53.180
this victory and i tell you when i think about those 100 plus degree days in coachella or in yuma
00:56:00.140
when i think about those cold cold days in iowa and new hampshire i was minus 40 with the windchill
00:56:06.700
in indianola that was i tell you what i don't regret it i don't regret a day of it and and and i would
00:56:11.440
do it all over again seeing the success of the country and uh and if i could i would do it all over
00:56:17.620
again with you my friend thanks for stopping by thanks for joining us on anchorman been my pleasure
00:56:21.200
thank you want to see more great videos like this click on the link below to subscribe to oan live
00:56:26.500
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