The Culture War - Tim Pool - The Culture War #17 - Joe Kent, Winning Back The Culture, Parenting In Non-Reality

00:00:00.000 Get ready for Las Vegas-style action at BetMGM, the king of online casinos.

00:00:05.880 Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas Strip excitement MGM is famous for

00:00:11.120 when you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat, and Roulette.

00:00:17.940 With our ever-growing library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table games,

00:00:22.920 and signature BetMGM service, there's no better way to bring the excitement and ambience of

00:00:28.140 Las Vegas home to you than with BetMGM Casino. Download the BetMGM Casino app today.

00:00:34.980 BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. BetMGM.com for T's and C's.

00:00:39.400 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

00:00:42.700 If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

00:00:45.820 please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.

00:00:53.860 BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

00:00:58.140 Hi, and welcome to a special edition of Culture War. I am not Tim Poole. My name is Hannah-Claire

00:01:08.100 Brimlaw. I'm filling in because Tim is sick. I think it's going to be a great conversation.

00:01:11.740 We're here tonight with Joe Kent.

00:01:13.520 Hey, how's it going? Thanks for having me.

00:01:14.840 Yeah, I'm glad you're back. You were here one of the last times I did IRL. Do you want to tell

00:01:18.480 people a little bit about yourself?

00:01:19.560 Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So retired Green Beret. I did a little over 20 years in the military,

00:01:23.240 11 combat deployments. I worked for the CIA for a little bit, and now I'm running for Congress

00:01:26.920 in Washington State's 3rd District.

00:01:28.940 Okay, cool. And we're also joined tonight by one and only Shane Cashman.

00:01:33.020 What's up? Yep, Shane Cashman, staff writer for TimCast.com. Happy to be here.

00:01:37.660 I'm happy to have you. Well, to start off, I was wondering if you could give us a rundown

00:01:41.100 of Washington's 3rd Congressional District. I feel like last time you were on, I'm pretty sure we

00:01:46.000 were like, oh, cool. Are you joining Idaho? And you had to be like, no, not us.

00:01:50.700 Yeah, we actually get that quite a bit now because that's taken up a lot of the news. But

00:01:53.580 Washington's 3rd District is Southwest Washington. So we're just kind of in the

00:01:57.600 shadow of Portland, Oregon on the northern side of the Columbia. We go all the way out

00:02:01.140 to the Pacific Ocean and then a little bit to the east in the Columbia River Valley and

00:02:05.480 then kind of up north almost to Olympia. So it's still a very rural district, timber country.

00:02:10.700 Our major city is Vancouver. Right now, Vancouver is on the cusp of becoming what Portland used

00:02:16.700 to be, which was like a great beacon for small businesses. A lot of the tech that's fleeing

00:02:20.800 the rot of California and Oregon. And we're just trying to fight that back and keep it on that

00:02:26.080 side of the river. But the rest of the district, really, it's timber country. The major, the Columbia

00:02:31.300 River with the fishing industry drives a lot of the economy as well. So yeah, it's definitely a red

00:02:37.820 district, but we're in a very, very, very blue state. And you've had a lot of population growth over

00:02:41.980 the last 10 years, right? We have. Yeah. Washington state, right now, the Democrats in Washington are

00:02:47.180 trying to take this away, but we used to have no income tax. Jay Inslee and the Democrats are

00:02:51.080 trying to erode that as much as they can. So we were a beacon for a lot of folks to come and start

00:02:55.180 businesses. A lot of retirees would flock up to Washington because we were kind of, as California

00:03:00.300 imploded, Oregon imploded, people were coming up to Washington as well. They're running away from the

00:03:04.240 debris. Running away, yeah. So what's the justification for taking away the income tax?

00:03:08.780 Oh, there's no justification. They simply just want more money. And that Democrat desire to

00:03:14.560 absolutely destroy your taxpayer base. But then the combination of destroying your taxpayer base

00:03:19.320 economically, but then also letting law and order erode to the point that people just say,

00:03:23.640 hey, I can't deal with the crime economically. There's no more reason for me to live here.

00:03:26.800 Jay Inslee will say things, the Democrats will say things like, oh, we need to get housing equity

00:03:31.160 for everyone. Just general kind of lofty pie in the sky talking points. But really, at the end of the

00:03:35.800 day, they're just putting more money in their own pockets. And are you having to deal with the

00:03:40.800 homelessness in Portland and Seattle? Does that affect your district? Oh, certainly.

00:03:43.940 Because you're sort of right between the two. We're right between the two. I mean, Portland is,

00:03:47.820 I mean, we sort of share a metropolitan area with Portland. A lot of folks that live over

00:03:51.720 on the southern part of the district, they used to pre-COVID, a lot of them used to commute into

00:03:56.000 Portland. But the homelessness issue and just really the anarchy that post-2020 came out of Portland,

00:04:02.440 came out of Seattle, it's definitely affected the district. And then also the wide open southern

00:04:07.400 border. I mean, Seattle, Portland, these are sanctuary cities. The state is a sanctuary state.

00:04:12.620 So the uptick of violent crime, fentanyl deaths that we've had, it's just been off the charts.

00:04:17.040 The homelessness has absolutely exploded. A big issue we're fighting is the reconstruction of

00:04:20.880 the bridge that connects Oregon and Washington. And the Democrats on both sides of the river are

00:04:25.120 destined to put light rail on it. And that would connect Portland right into our district. So

00:04:29.460 we're fighting that tooth and nail. The woman that I'm running against, Democrat Marie Perez,

00:04:33.340 she fully supports putting light rail from Portland into downtown Vancouver. I mean,

00:04:38.020 it's been on the ballot three different times in the district and we've rejected it because

00:04:40.820 obviously that puts, we call it the Antifa expressway, essentially Antifa and homelessness

00:04:44.580 just right into downtown Vancouver. So we're going to continue to fight that.

00:04:48.260 What was the police presence like now post-COVID? Did that change in the cities?

00:04:51.960 Yeah. I mean, like, so I think for one, police are having a hard time recruiting police officers

00:04:56.260 because there's a huge war on police officers, especially in Washington state. I mean,

00:05:00.520 Washington Democrats passed a handful of laws that basically tie the cops' hands behind their

00:05:05.420 backs. They can't pursue. We, for a while there had basically no limit on how much drugs you could

00:05:10.940 possess individually. So again, everything, this became a sanctuary for drug dealers, for the

00:05:15.840 fentanyl trafficking and all that. And so COVID as well with the mandatory vaccines that Jay

00:05:20.160 Ansley put on all of our first responders, that took away from police recruiting. And then also just a

00:05:24.060 lot of guys are saying like, why would I go risk my life when I actually can't go make a

00:05:28.360 difference? And if I do try to make a difference, I'm going to be, you know, villainized and

00:05:31.960 potentially have my livelihood take it away from me.

00:05:34.120 Yeah.

00:05:34.260 So do you think it's time to, I think you called for this the last time you ran for Congress,

00:05:38.120 but an immigration moratorium, is that how we address some of these issues?

00:05:41.440 Well, we have to fix the, uh, the Southern border. I mean, like right now we had, I think

00:05:45.120 5 million illegal immigrants that we know of enter into the country, enough fentanyl to kill every

00:05:49.340 American multiple times over. So yeah, I think securing the Southern border in, in the flow of

00:05:53.980 illegal immigrants is absolutely key. And then look, I, I, uh, I understand why some farmers

00:05:58.260 and folks in the agriculture industry say, Hey, we, we need to bring in immigrants. I think we need

00:06:02.160 to slowly roll that back. But then also like the fact that we're just giving out visas for people

00:06:06.600 to come into our country and take jobs that Americans should have. I think that's wrong.

00:06:10.140 Cause at the end of the day, like what's the purpose of our government? Is it to provide the

00:06:13.320 best economic opportunities and then, you know, the most secure environment for our own people,

00:06:17.480 or is it just us for us to have an open border and no rules whatsoever? And, you know,

00:06:22.280 really whatever's good for the economy, you know, air quotes there on the economy,

00:06:25.600 what's good for, for wall street and the people that own these corporations is that's what,

00:06:28.940 is that what is in the best interest of the American people? I think it's not. So I think

00:06:32.460 we really have to look at who we let into our country, which makes me some sort of a radical,

00:06:36.700 I suppose. Yeah. Well, didn't Donald Trump just call for the end of birthright citizenship? I mean,

00:06:40.420 that's one of the things that lures people across the border, which by the way is cruel and, uh,

00:06:45.120 inhumane. 100%. I think that's right. I think that's right on. I mean, because really between

00:06:48.640 the dreamers and then just the fact that like most of those people that came into our country

00:06:52.920 illegally, they're looking for economic opportunity. I don't fault them because we have

00:06:56.220 these crazy rules where you can break our laws. You can come here, you can get a job, you can work

00:07:00.260 under the table. And then, Hey, if you have a kid, the kid automatically becomes an American citizen.

00:07:04.100 And then now you have this whole DACA issue. So yeah, I think taking away that incentive is just

00:07:09.440 that would take care of a ton of the problems. It's also inhumane really to say that, Hey,

00:07:13.840 if these pregnant women that are coming across the border, like if they get here and they can have their

00:07:17.440 child, like they're going to automatically get American citizenship. We're just incentivizing

00:07:21.600 just absolutely the worst behaviors. And then also inviting this wave of illegal immigration,

00:07:27.420 human trafficking, drug trafficking, all that. Is illegal immigration a major point for the

00:07:32.400 voters in your district? Yes. How often do you hear about it? All the time. So, I mean,

00:07:35.980 the I-5 corridor goes right through the heart of our district. And so the crime, the illegal

00:07:40.620 immigration, and then just Washington state being one of the key places that illegal immigrants want to

00:07:45.440 go to, because they know that they're going to get pretty much all the benefits of being an American

00:07:49.220 citizen. They're not going to have their citizenship challenged. And they're going to be able to not

00:07:53.820 be deported in case, you know, if a Republican gets into office or whatever, I went down to the

00:07:58.240 Southern border with representative Paul Gosar about two years ago. And I got to see firsthand down at the

00:08:02.620 Yuma crossing, just how out of control things were. And I was talking to one of the border patrol

00:08:06.520 officers and she didn't know who I was or where I was from. And I said, Hey, once all these illegal

00:08:10.940 immigrants leave, because there was a ton of them in Yuma, they were filling up every single hotel. I was like,

00:08:14.460 once they leave this border area, where do they go? And she was like, without missing a beat,

00:08:18.820 she was like, the ones that are here and in California, they all go right up I-5 to West

00:08:23.100 Coast sanctuary cities because there's so many to choose from. And I'm like, yeah, that's our

00:08:26.840 district because we're right between Portland and Seattle. So whenever I talk to law enforcement

00:08:30.440 too, they just talk about the amount of fentanyl, the amount of illegal immigrants they're dealing

00:08:34.340 with and the fact that they're getting zero support right now from the federal government

00:08:37.480 whatsoever. Yeah, that's wild. Do you think that you could ever count on the federal

00:08:41.240 government? Or do you think you'd have to take action as a state to really get the fentanyl

00:08:45.520 crisis under control?

00:08:47.060 I think that it's tough for Washington because I think unless we drastically change the state,

00:08:52.000 we're going to have sort of a activist culture in Olympia and our state capital. So I do think

00:08:56.540 we need the federal government to come in and at least stop the bleeding, so to speak,

00:08:59.960 like stop the flow of illegal narcotics coming across the border, especially the fentanyl.

00:09:03.720 I mean, right now we hear from Biden and all these Democrats that like the number one threat

00:09:08.400 to American citizens is like Vladimir Putin or racism or something like that. When in fact,

00:09:13.680 like the number one killer of Americans is fentanyl coming across the border. So for our federal

00:09:17.380 government not to be taking proactive steps, I just think that's incredibly wrong. And regardless

00:09:22.120 of what side of the fence you're on, I don't see why everyone's not screaming at the top of their

00:09:25.380 lungs right now at their elected officials to say like, I'm paying all this money to taxes. We all

00:09:29.920 just paid our taxes back in April, right? So it's like, where's my money going if it's not going to at

00:09:34.160 least stop the murder that's being conducted on the southern border and then flowing into the

00:09:38.780 entire country?

00:09:39.740 Yeah. It feels like it should be the bipartisan issue of the year.

00:09:42.440 Do you think the people in the cities even care? Like, are they leaving the cities and going out

00:09:46.700 to the more rural areas?

00:09:47.460 Yes, they are.

00:09:48.040 They are. So that's good. That's the same thing you're seeing in New York where like they're leaving

00:09:51.100 the city.

00:09:51.660 Exactly.

00:09:52.060 But I feel like they're still voting the same way. Is that something you're worried about?

00:09:56.360 No, it's definitely something I'm worried about for sure. Yeah, 100%. I mean, especially a guy like me,

00:09:59.160 I lost my last election by less than a percentage point. So it's, it's, it's going to be a hard

00:10:03.560 knife fight. Um, and do these people who were fleeing some of these cities, do they remember

00:10:07.440 why they left? And then a big thing for us too, is can we mobilize folks that we know share values

00:10:12.760 with us? We had about 60,000 Republicans who voted Republican in 2020 that just sat out 2022,

00:10:18.440 which is kind of typical. People like don't tend to vote unless there's a top ticket, unless the

00:10:22.720 presidential race is going on. If we can change that culture, especially for these municipal races that

00:10:27.500 happened this year, the school boards, all the, the non-sexy things, but that affect people's

00:10:31.920 day-to-day lives. If we can start flipping some of those and getting our people to vote,

00:10:35.420 we literally could change the entire country.

00:10:37.540 That is one thing I was thinking about post COVID people should hopefully be learning that

00:10:42.180 the people, the politicians closest to you are the ones you really need to be paying attention to.

00:10:46.000 Obviously, you know, vote for everyone, but, uh, they're in control of your life.

00:10:49.920 Like you watch the way they shut down our schools and for, for kids, your jobs, you know,

00:10:54.600 that was terrifying. So we have to make the, yeah, somehow make that more appealing to people

00:10:58.820 and be like, you really got to vote in these elections because they matter more to you than

00:11:01.840 most.

00:11:02.380 Yeah. Well, when we do the IRL after shows, sometimes people call in saying, you know,

00:11:05.620 I'm discouraged, which I do. And the answer is you should keep voting because your sheriff

00:11:10.060 elections, your school board elections, those things really matter. And it's where your voice

00:11:14.000 is heard. Even if your state doesn't flip entirely.

00:11:16.240 Yeah. Go to your city council meetings, go to your school board meetings. Those are,

00:11:19.460 those are really important. I mean, especially in a state like Washington and this is coming

00:11:22.400 everywhere. We just passed SB 5599 in Washington state. And that basically means the state can

00:11:27.560 take your children away from you. If you're not giving that, if you're not affirming their gender.

00:11:31.420 So if the school indoctrinates them up to the point where they're confused about whether they're a boy

00:11:34.600 or a girl and they say, Hey, my mom and dad don't support this. The state can basically kidnap the

00:11:39.040 kids away. And so we've actually had, it's pretty inspirational. We've had a couple of different

00:11:42.660 school boards at the local level that have said, I will not do that. Like the parents are who I

00:11:46.800 communicate with first and foremost. And that's, that's been a response to parents actually

00:11:50.600 showing up at the school board meetings. But I think that's a warning to the rest of the country.

00:11:55.180 Like that's not just crazy Washington state. That is the mainstream of the Democrat party.

00:11:59.080 At what point does the state step in for that? When they like, well, does a school then reach out

00:12:04.600 to the state being like, this kid's not getting affirmed by his parents. And then the state

00:12:08.420 steps. Essentially it just got passed. So it's, it's, it's written in a very murky way,

00:12:11.900 but it cuts the parents out. Like if you, if you read the bill, I'd encourage most people to read it.

00:12:15.600 That's 5599. It cuts the parents completely out of it. And it's designed basically that we think

00:12:20.660 the parents don't know what's best. You know, like the language that Biden uses, especially

00:12:24.360 during pride month, when he's saying like, there are, there are kids like that basically got

00:12:28.280 codified into law in Washington state. I mean, right now we have a referendum process. If you're

00:12:32.160 in Washington state, find out where you can sign reject 5599, because if we can get 200,000 signatures,

00:12:37.540 then we will get it put on the ballot come this November to completely cut out the legislature and

00:12:42.480 repeal it. But it's scary stuff. It's really scary. I mean, I have young kids. We are out of

00:12:47.340 public schools. They're actually, we're never in public schools. Right. Uh, but they, it's scary

00:12:51.840 to think that you can send these kids to schools and a lot of parents just kind of trust the schools

00:12:55.400 because a lot of parents are not plugged in as much as we might be what's going on in schools.

00:12:58.760 And they might see stuff online and think it's a caricature and it doesn't really exist,

00:13:02.160 but it's in a lot of schools. I mean, I walked by bookstores, indie bookstores,

00:13:06.040 I'm looking at the books, they're selling two kids and they're get ready for a Las Vegas

00:13:11.800 style action at bet. MGM, the king of online casinos, enjoy casino games at your fingertips

00:13:17.820 with the same Vegas strip excitement. MGM is famous for when you play classics like MGM grand

00:13:23.300 millions or popular games like blackjack, baccarat and roulette with our ever-growing library of

00:13:29.580 digital slot games, a large selection of online table games and signature bet. MGM service.

00:13:35.360 There's no better way to bring the excitement and ambience of Las Vegas home to you than with

00:13:39.720 Bet MGM Casino. Download the Bet MGM Casino app today. Bet MGM and GameSense remind you to play

00:13:46.640 responsibly. BetMGM.com for T's and C's. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

00:13:52.340 If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

00:13:55.700 please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.

00:14:03.760 Bet MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

00:14:06.940 When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins

00:14:14.180 Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you.

00:14:21.860 Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part.

00:14:28.180 Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care.

00:14:32.980 We care. Did I mention that we care?

00:14:38.540 Depraved. Yeah.

00:14:39.660 Because it's sexual stuff for young kids about the queer ideology. And I'm just like, how,

00:14:45.520 if you're not paying attention, you're going to lose your kids to the ideology because you're

00:14:50.020 leaving them to the teachers to beat them over the head with that thought. And then in a place like

00:14:54.040 Washington and probably other states too, if that doesn't go the way the school likes and the state

00:14:58.220 steps in and yeah, it is really, really terrifying. Where do you think we went wrong? Why do you think

00:15:02.960 we're at the point where people are even entertaining this kind of legislation? I think

00:15:06.700 even 10 years ago, you wouldn't have seen a bill like this. Unfortunately, I think a lot of

00:15:11.920 conservative leaning people, like we sort of checked out, we trusted institutions. We said like,

00:15:16.220 I'm going to send my kids to school. I went to public schools. When I was going to public schools,

00:15:19.220 I was like, you know, what kind of a snooty person sends their kid to private schools? And what kind

00:15:22.800 of a weird, I mean, I homeschool my kids now. What kind of a weirdo homeschools their kids? That was

00:15:26.080 kind of the way I grew up thinking, you know, but that's because I had this just baseline of trust

00:15:30.600 in those institutions. And then just because of like kind of the way my life has gone,

00:15:34.740 I started to question institutions more now, but I think that's kind of been the conservative model

00:15:38.420 is we put our nose in the grindstone. We work, we go to church and, you know, we trust, we trust the

00:15:44.180 school system. Why wouldn't you trust the school system? That nice teacher, why would she,

00:15:47.060 why would she, you know, want to groom or indoctrinate my child? But then you see what the left did

00:15:52.580 in the, in the universities in particular, and they specifically targeted education,

00:15:56.940 they targeted the libraries. And so now they've had this total control and people don't, people

00:16:01.540 for years didn't show up or even know they could show up at their school board meetings or city

00:16:05.080 council meetings, lack of voter participation with the left. I think you have this whole ideology

00:16:09.360 that is very much the religion, like politics is kind of like all they have. And so they,

00:16:13.500 they go all in. And unfortunately, like we're the side that wants to be left alone. And the side

00:16:17.620 that wants to be left alone, I think we'll, we'll always get beaten by the side that is just,

00:16:21.180 you know, this is ideologically where they're at.

00:16:23.180 Do you think conservatives have an obligation to launch their own ground game? Should they be

00:16:27.400 the ones infiltrating? 100%.

00:16:29.120 I feel like the answer, you know, in both of you, our dads have to fully apologize.

00:16:33.560 Thank you.

00:16:34.640 Is that you pull your kids, you homeschool, you find your own thing. But on the other hand,

00:16:39.740 that leaves children whose parents aren't in the most vulnerable position. Conservatives have an

00:16:45.080 obligation to intercede in institutions that they feel they've lost.

00:16:48.020 Yes, I think so. I mean, a lot of the folks that consistently go to school board meetings in my

00:16:52.820 district, they've pulled their kids out, but they still go to the school board meetings. A lot of

00:16:56.720 it too, is just like your taxes, our taxes still go to fund those schools. So it's like, hey, go be a

00:17:01.400 good steward of your own taxpayer dollars and hold these people accountable. But yeah, I think you're

00:17:05.500 right. We, we, we, you need to protect your kids, obviously, first and foremost, but then also

00:17:09.720 realize that, look, if we just completely let these guys go, a lot of parents who probably share values

00:17:15.020 with us, but just like economically, they can't afford it. Both parents are working. They're busy.

00:17:18.240 Like they put their kids in those schools. We can't leave those kids behind. So I think we got

00:17:21.420 to continue to fight on that battlefield.

00:17:23.780 That was the one pleasant way COVID backfired on the authorities and the elites, right? It's like

00:17:29.740 a lot of people woke up to the idea of, whoa, we can't trust any institution, you know, which is,

00:17:33.980 that's a beautiful thing. It's unfortunate that people, it took that to happen, but it was,

00:17:38.520 I saw a lot of people who were also in New York unplugged from politics, you know, when they were

00:17:42.820 young parents and, but they were left leaning and they saw the way the schools are messing with the

00:17:48.040 kids or just shutting down. And they're like, well, we can't survive like this. So they turned

00:17:52.640 away from the institutions. But the right has seeded culture for so long, whether it was a

00:17:56.820 universities, public schools, obviously the government, like all these things. So you got

00:18:02.320 to find a way to get in there and change it. I think the universities are lost. I was a professor

00:18:08.100 for a long time. Oh yeah. So in New York too. And I mean, I saw a lot of crazy stuff that they were

00:18:13.140 teaching. I just taught writing classes, but like you see a lot of history being taught in a certain

00:18:17.700 way, you know, you're skewed a certain way. Right. And are talking about the cultural evolution a

00:18:22.540 certain way and like a positive way instead of a negative way. So you're, they're producing like

00:18:27.380 this, this is a factory of these ideologues. And I don't know how you're going to change that.

00:18:31.980 Yeah. Because I remember being in university and taking a communication, gender and culture

00:18:37.440 class. And you know, you get these questions and you know, there's an answer they want you

00:18:41.140 to give, but you question it. And if you want to get a good grade, you write the answer down.

00:18:45.900 Right, right.

00:18:46.580 You want to be true to who you are. You take the failure, which when you're spending a lot of money

00:18:50.460 in university, that's a very hard position to be in. Yeah. Uh, and I think that's, uh,

00:18:56.000 really the problem you, you wear kids down from having, or young adults even from having

00:19:00.880 their own critical thought and being able to fight back because instead of rewarding

00:19:05.540 those push against the system, compliance, which is, I think anti-American. I don't feel

00:19:11.180 like that. Oh yeah. I think if we can erode away at the, uh, the institutional, uh, I guess

00:19:16.420 requirement for basically every job to have a bachelor's of some sort, regardless

00:19:20.400 of what the bachelor's is. I mean, that's the, that's all I got. I'm 43. That's all

00:19:23.320 I got told in high school was like, if you don't go to college, like you are going to

00:19:26.780 be homeless on the streets. You won't be able to get a job. Um, but they never said

00:19:29.800 like what to get a degree. And it was always like, just go get a degree, pick something

00:19:32.880 that you like and just go there at any cost. Mass amounts of debt. Yeah. Yeah. I unpopular

00:19:38.680 conservative opinion. I don't fault a lot of the people that are in a bind right now

00:19:42.620 of college loan debts. It's because like they did exactly what they were told, you know?

00:19:46.180 And now we're going to come back later and be like, sorry, sucker, we were wrong.

00:19:48.860 Like pay up, you know, like it's just, it seems incredibly unfair, but then also like

00:19:53.280 if we can change that, that part of, I guess, like the, the regulatory system, as far as

00:19:57.720 corporate America goes, or even in the government, like when I get to, when I get to Congress,

00:20:00.740 I don't want to have a degree to work in my office. Like if you, if you have experience

00:20:04.860 and you have drive, like that's it, it doesn't matter where you went to college, especially

00:20:08.240 to do something like work on work on the Hill. It's not exactly like rocket science. Um, but

00:20:12.660 if we can get rid of that, we'll take away a lot of those institutions power to start

00:20:16.820 that indoctrination process. We'll just kind of kill it, kill it root and branch.

00:20:20.240 It's, uh, it's only true. There's a increase in community college enrollment too, which

00:20:24.640 I find interesting. I feel like the students I know who go to community college tend to

00:20:28.100 be more passionate. And even if they only get an associate's degree, it's because they

00:20:31.520 have plans. They think they want to do.

00:20:33.720 That's so true. Cause I taught at a private college and I taught at a community college.

00:20:37.720 And when I was at the community college, I felt like I was actually giving to the community.

00:20:41.000 It was all ages from all over the country and South America, a lot of like Mexican kids

00:20:45.940 sent from Central America. And, uh, that I felt like I was actually, these kids are going

00:20:50.240 to go back out or adults go back out into the world and do something at the private school

00:20:54.300 is just like, we're just here. Cause we've been told and we're not taking anything that

00:20:57.440 seriously. And, uh, my parents can afford it, you know, whatever. Yeah. And it felt like

00:21:02.320 it just went nowhere. I mean, I'm sure there's some students that, you know, did something

00:21:05.000 with it, but that was a thing though. Like I, I, I feel bad having left it as horrible

00:21:09.480 as it was, as I was trying to give them like an alternate view on history or writing or

00:21:13.340 freedom of expression. But then once the mandates came in, I couldn't be a part of the college.

00:21:18.720 Right. They effectively got rid of anyone who disagreed, you know, any, any type of dissent

00:21:22.760 was gone. So I can't even imagine what those colleges look like today.

00:21:25.680 But if you required students today to think that the only place you can explore writing

00:21:30.240 or any of your interests is in school and that's just not true, I mean, the, the factory

00:21:36.920 mandate of you have to go to college or anything is pretty recent. It is not, uh, what built

00:21:43.100 this country. And I think that's interesting as we see more people pursue trades. We have

00:21:48.240 a snobbish culture that says you go to trade school, you go to college. Yeah. Oh, you couldn't

00:21:52.800 make it anywhere else. But really I think more often than not, it's the people who are in

00:21:56.380 college who couldn't make it working. Right. Right. Right. Exactly. And the trades are absolutely

00:22:02.060 essential too. I mean, like, I think we need to have a much more trades programs in high

00:22:05.160 school because when I was in high school, it was like, go to college where there's nothing

00:22:08.060 else. I knew I wanted to join the army. And so that was like how I rebelled, but like,

00:22:11.280 there was no one saying that, Hey, Hey, you can make a lot of money if you know how to

00:22:14.340 be an electrician, you know, to be a plumber and mechanic. And that's true. Most of my friends

00:22:17.740 I live around now, like these guys work in the trades, they make really good money. Most of

00:22:21.680 them are their own bosses by the time they're in their like mid twenties to thirties, they just

00:22:25.620 kind of go independent. So it's a huge, I think bridgeway to actually having some, some real

00:22:29.940 freedom, but I think there's a huge tie in there too, with what we're talking about with

00:22:33.600 immigration. I mean, we have this issue that our ruling class left and right, they always

00:22:37.900 want to import workers that take away jobs from American citizens. So I, you always hear

00:22:41.620 like Bernie Sanders and some folks like on the, I guess the more populous left that say

00:22:45.040 we need the minimum wage. We need to, we need to fight for workers, but they'll never touch

00:22:48.600 immigration because they know they're always going to undercut the actual American worker

00:22:53.080 and import cheap labor, whether it's illegal immigration or whether it's like H1B visas to

00:22:57.480 work in the tech sector. That's been another big issue in our district is the tech sector

00:23:00.440 that's been overran by us, corporate America, importing massive amounts of foreigners to take

00:23:05.400 away jobs from the kid who like, I thought I did the right thing. I went to college. I learned,

00:23:08.880 I literally learned to code, you know, like I did what you told me to, and now I don't have a job.

00:23:13.020 So I think without, without fixing the immigration component, I think it's going to be very challenging

00:23:17.320 for us to, for all these different trades programs to actually have the effect they're supposed to

00:23:21.220 have. And you think that the left would argue the same thing from their own perspective, right?

00:23:25.480 Yeah. If you really want other countries to thrive and do well, you wouldn't rob them of

00:23:30.660 their best and brightest by immediately importing them to work in our tech sector. If you're a foreign

00:23:35.440 student and you come get a degree in America, the best thing you can do for your community is to

00:23:39.680 return home. Right. And instead we're like, no, never leave. Take jobs away from office.

00:23:44.060 Here's a visa. Yeah. You have to leave your own country. There is such an easy way for

00:23:48.180 Democrats to argue in favor of immigration in my opinion. And they just choose not to

00:23:52.000 because they ultimately know they're doing it for the shift in voter balance.

00:23:55.920 Exactly. And that they like those corporate checks too, coming from, from all the major

00:23:58.960 corporations. I mean, Bernie Sanders, a long time ago said that like, uh, open borders was

00:24:03.380 a Coke, a Coke brother scheme. He didn't say that anymore. Like the Democrats are all in

00:24:07.760 on open borders. Like there's no dissent whatsoever to like just flooding the zone of as much cheap

00:24:11.840 labor as possible. I think what you're saying about the working class is really

00:24:14.900 interesting. And, uh, I was thinking today about how over the weekend Biden had his first,

00:24:19.320 uh, formal campaign event in Philadelphia and he's got all, he's, it wasn't the biggest

00:24:25.680 coalition of unions who endorsed him. Yeah. AFL-CIO. Yeah. As the head of the working

00:24:31.640 media. And meanwhile, look at what he's put the working people through in the last two years.

00:24:36.120 Yeah. If you go talk to anybody, I mean, just like right now, inflation, I think inflation

00:24:40.040 is the number one issue in my district, but probably throughout the entire country. I mean,

00:24:43.260 the Americans are losing like well over one month of wages. I think it's between like

00:24:47.140 seven and $8,000 just due to inflation cost of fuel. And then Biden has the audacity to

00:24:52.060 look at us in the eye and say like, I'm the most pro union pro worker president ever. When

00:24:56.320 it's like, this is the guy that killed off our natural, uh, our natural resources industry,

00:24:59.820 but especially made us less energy independent. And now the cost of the price of the pump goes

00:25:04.140 up, the price of all goods go up. And that affects folks that are in the working class

00:25:07.780 first and foremost. Bring back. Yeah, exactly. No, no. Was that the thing with Fetterman?

00:25:19.540 Did you see that? Yes. Fetterman was there. Fetterman called him like a broken bridge or

00:25:23.260 whatever. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I don't know if you have a chance in politics as you actually

00:25:26.380 can make a sentence. That's rough. Yeah. I know. Right. Yeah. That was one of the funny things.

00:25:33.340 I was watching some, uh, I think local broadcasts from Washington with you and it was interesting

00:25:38.060 the qualifiers they use for your, I guess your previous opponent. Oh yeah. They call

00:25:41.660 her working class. It was always working class and it was with you. They might've said you

00:25:45.620 were a green beret, but it was always with Trump supporter. It was with a certain connotation.

00:25:49.060 Right. Yeah. I always think that's the way they do that with the language is insane. They

00:25:52.460 do with Biden. Like they all do that. But meanwhile, it's the exact opposite of how they perform

00:25:57.080 in politics. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's insane. How is your campaign different from the last

00:26:03.640 time around? Do you feel like you've made major changes or do you feel like this is like

00:26:07.600 round two, bigger and better kind of thing? Probably a combination of both. I mean, last

00:26:12.100 time, uh, I primaried a 12 year incumbent Republican and which is always nasty when you're going against

00:26:17.120 your own party. Um, we have a very late primary too. And we actually have a jungle primary

00:26:21.000 system. Our primaries in August. So jungle primary too. So like we multiple Republicans

00:26:26.060 were on the ballot and only one Democrat was on the ballot. Get ready for a Las Vegas

00:26:29.920 style action of bet. MGM, the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips

00:26:35.760 with the same Vegas strip excitement. MGM is famous for when you play classics like MGM

00:26:41.020 grand millions or popular games like blackjack, baccarat and roulette with our ever growing

00:26:46.940 library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table games and signature bet. MGM

00:26:52.480 service. There's no better way to bring the excitement and ambience of Las Vegas home to

00:26:57.120 you than with bet. MGM casino. Download the bet. MGM casino app today. Bet. MGM and game sense

00:27:04.020 remind you to play responsibly bet. MGM.com for T's and C's 19 plus to wager Ontario. Only

00:27:09.300 please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close

00:27:13.340 to you, please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of

00:27:21.140 charge. Bet. MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

00:27:26.580 When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins

00:27:32.300 insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you.

00:27:38.100 We care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird. I don't

00:27:44.440 remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big

00:27:50.380 on care. Did I mention that we care? So there was just an absolute knife fight for a year and a half

00:27:59.000 and on the Republican side, I raised about three and a half million dollars. They spent about 14 million

00:28:03.700 against me in the primary. So it was, yeah, it was, it was pretty ugly. And so we kind of limped

00:28:08.340 out of that as the Republican nominee. And so we were fresh out of cash. And so the Democrats are

00:28:12.100 smart. I mean, I give it to the Democrats. They have horrible ideas, but their organization and

00:28:15.960 their discipline is very impressive. They rallied around one candidate and then they, they saved all

00:28:20.500 their fire until that, that short general period. I just didn't have enough time to really unify the

00:28:24.620 Republican party. So right now a big push for me is unifying the Republican party. I've gotten

00:28:28.980 four endorsements from County level GOPs should have another one here pretty soon. We only have

00:28:34.380 five County or seven, sorry, seven counties in the district. So unifying the party is big. I'm

00:28:38.780 already doing outreach of a lot of the more moderates. I mean, 12 year incumbent, she had

00:28:42.520 some supporters. There were some people that were very loyal to her. We're very not happy with me

00:28:46.220 for, for taking her down. But right now, really what I'm doing is highlighting my opponent's radical

00:28:50.620 record because she'll say I'm working class. I'm a moderate, all these types of things. She could say

00:28:54.900 that last time because she didn't have a record this time she's been voting for the last six

00:28:58.340 months. And there's not a lot of daylight between her and like Pelosi and Hakeem Jeffries and these

00:29:02.560 guys. I mean, the big, what we're really trying to do is highlight her record. I mean, she voted to

00:29:06.220 let biological men into women's spaces and sports. I mean, she's just bad vote after bad vote. So

00:29:12.520 we're going to really just continue to highlight that, how radical she is.

00:29:15.320 Do you think she is representing people in district or do you think she's playing to like

00:29:19.460 Seattle and maybe the more blue areas in your state?

00:29:22.240 She's got a tough balancing act because in order for her to get funded, she has to take votes. Like if you

00:29:27.380 look at her record, like I said, it's very much an activist type of record, especially when it comes

00:29:31.720 to like the gender ideology, everything regarding the economy, crime, border security. Like she does

00:29:37.080 not, I mean, she just voted to make 29 million Americans felons with the pistol brace ban. While

00:29:41.280 at the same time, she says like, I'm a pro 2A Democrat. It's like, well, you just said these

00:29:46.600 guys deserve to have the ATF kicking their door, you know? Like, so yeah, it's, I think it's

00:29:51.200 challenging for her and she has chosen not to be moderate whatsoever. I think she's relying

00:29:56.040 heavily on her getting a lot of money and then having a lot of friendly left-leaning media.

00:30:00.180 That's just going to throw out, they're going to call her, they're going to say moderate and

00:30:02.700 they're going to say, you know, working class enough that it sticks just, you know, it's

00:30:06.980 the game they play with me too. Like he's a right-wing extremist or whatever. But I mean,

00:30:10.520 again, she has to defend her record and we're really going to be able to present her record

00:30:14.620 and make her defend it.

00:30:15.780 Yeah. I mean, that's great. How are the, there are 10 congressional districts in Washington

00:30:19.760 and there are two elected Republicans right now. How are they responding to your campaign?

00:30:23.600 They're responding positively. Yeah. This is the number one seat to flip. If you talk

00:30:27.460 to Kevin McCarthy, he'll say this is the number one seat. Lost but less than a percentage point.

00:30:31.540 It's still technically is like an R plus three or four leaning district. So we have a lot

00:30:36.560 of good Republican unity as sometimes I think things in Republican internet world seem like

00:30:40.960 very, very divided, but I've got Matt Gaetz and the more MAGA wing, but I've also got Kevin

00:30:45.420 McCarthy and just the, I'd say the more rank and file of the Republican party supporting

00:30:49.300 my, my, my ticket. Is the Democratic party in lockstep with the, with the unions out

00:30:54.520 there? Like they are in other places like New York city. I think at the top levels they

00:30:58.840 are, but I went out and I, I participated in the Weyerhaeuser strike. I went out and hung

00:31:03.800 out on the strike line last year with a lot of those guys. One of our big timber processing

00:31:07.280 centers. Union people are our people. I mean, like they're very conservative. Most of them,

00:31:12.300 you know, we're wearing their, you know, whatever FJB t-shirts and they're, you know,

00:31:16.540 and there's a pro Trump t-shirts and stuff like that. Um, I think that a lot of them are starting

00:31:21.080 to get it a lot more. That's why I think you see Biden and the Democrats relying heavily on things

00:31:26.040 like the pro act where they want to force union membership because right now, like a lot of these

00:31:30.200 unions at the, at the more senior levels, AFL, CIO, they're endorsing the party that is 100%

00:31:35.660 in lockstep with wall street, but shipping away jobs overseas and every, everything that we talk about

00:31:39.660 that affects blue collar people. So I think, um, the blue collar, uh, working class union folks are

00:31:46.240 very much our people, as long as we can continue to mobilize them and just sort of show them that,

00:31:50.240 Hey, what, what you're hearing from your union boss, it's kind of like what you hear from,

00:31:53.320 you know, CNN or the mainstream media. Like they, they don't have your best interest at heart.

00:31:57.420 Of course. Yeah.

00:32:01.240 Right now, I think the two big things is the economy, obviously what, what inflation's done,

00:32:06.440 the very basic question of like, are you better off now than you were two, two, three years ago? I mean,

00:32:10.500 I think that one kind of answers itself, but then also, I mean, a lot of Republicans are saying that we

00:32:14.820 should shy away from the cultural issues, but literally the Democrats right now want to send

00:32:19.240 biological men into your women's locker room. I mean, they want to have state sanctioned

00:32:22.840 kidnapping. And again, what I like to point out all the time is that this is not the fringe of

00:32:26.780 the Democrat party. If you look at, especially in Congress, who voted to let men into women's

00:32:31.760 sports, every Democrat did. There wasn't one who was like, guys, I can't do this. Maybe he said

00:32:36.000 that behind closed doors and they were like, no, you're going to get your butt out there and you're

00:32:39.020 going to hit no, you know, like to, to prevent the Republicans from blocking that. So I think that

00:32:43.900 that's going to bring out a lot of folks over to our side.

00:32:46.700 I think so too. Look at what happened in Virginia with that last governor election.

00:32:49.940 Moms really showed up because they realized how terrible.

00:32:52.960 It surprises me that Republicans wouldn't embrace cultural issues. Look at what happened to Bud Light

00:32:57.380 and fuck it. Obviously this is motivating.

00:33:00.660 Do you think it's like a lot of people just don't want to confront it? Because it's, when you look at

00:33:03.760 what this is going on, it's like, how could it be that depraved? You know, just a person who's

00:33:07.240 working regular job. It's hard to stomach some of this stuff. Like we're saying state sanctioned

00:33:12.120 kidnapping. That's what it is. I mean, New York was trying to pass a law to take you out of your

00:33:15.660 home. If you were a threat to your community through health, right? Like, uh, and put you

00:33:19.480 in a camp, uh, that didn't pass, but they've been trying to pass that same bill for 10, like 10 years

00:33:23.340 or something. And when you tell people that you sound like a lunatic, I'm like, this is the document

00:33:27.420 from the website, the government website. It literally says that. I think a lot of people just

00:33:31.940 don't like to even acknowledge that that's a reality. So somehow you got to like tap dance around it,

00:33:36.660 but also be like very bold about it. You know, it's like, it depends who you're talking to,

00:33:39.480 but I've noticed that a lot with people like, I just don't want to hear anymore.

00:33:42.480 I think it's getting forced. I think that the left really overplayed their hand. I think it's

00:33:45.840 getting forced down people's throats so much. And when we were just talking before we started

00:33:48.600 recording about how like pride month is over now, like it's, it was like pride two weeks

00:33:52.240 because people are like, we're sick of this crap. But like, I think, you know, through the law

00:33:55.720 fair, what they're doing, like to actually codify these things in the law and then Biden releasing,

00:34:00.040 I mean, if you just look at his social media, it's been nonstop. He had the, the, the folks

00:34:03.940 going topless at the white house. I mean, like your average American is going to see that and be

00:34:08.140 like, what is this freak show on the, on the white house? It seems crazy to me that a radical

00:34:15.440 statement would be, you should only fly the American flag at the white house. Right. By adding

00:34:20.600 this, this flag, people are already upset. And then we get this video of this transgender activist

00:34:25.420 topless. I mean, I thought for sure it was fake. But remember when they were like, yeah, it seemed

00:34:30.280 crazy. Also that no one there would be like, please stop. Like stop. Uh, but this, this is the same

00:34:35.480 crowd of people that would, their, one of their biggest arguments against Trump was that he was

00:34:39.080 not presidential enough. He didn't have decorum. He was not classy enough. It's also the same crowd

00:34:42.820 of people who were donating money to arsonists during the riot summer. Like Kamala was literally

00:34:47.120 her, her staff was giving money to the arsonists, right. To get out of jail. So it's really not that

00:34:51.640 surprising, I guess. But did Biden get pushed back for, uh, the, did he, he, he said, I didn't like

00:34:57.500 having a topless lady. They like walked it back. They were like, did they push back on him? Like,

00:35:01.960 how dare you? I think there was a little bit. I mean, we saw this again with like the Bud Light

00:35:06.240 thing. Yeah. Uh, but like I'm boycotted by conservatives who were upset. And I think

00:35:10.980 rightly so. And then also gay bars stopped selling Bud Light because they said, how dare you not

00:35:15.940 completely back Dylan Mulvaney. And so I don't feel bad for Anheuser-Busch, but they really did shoot

00:35:24.060 themselves in the foot. And that was May, right. That was April that was going into pride month.

00:35:28.660 And now we have all of these corporations that are like, I really just can't take a stance on this.

00:35:32.240 Yeah. Yeah. Um, so again, it's, it's interesting to hear you say that the, the Republican party is

00:35:36.840 saying, let's shy away from this one. This seems to be like the silver bullet issue. Yeah. Uh, if you

00:35:40.960 can get behind the culture war stuff, it is in some ways a bipartisan issue because we're starting to

00:35:45.580 see, especially with women's sports, uh, just protecting our kids. I mean, look at the end of the day,

00:35:50.080 like if you look at the polling on gay marriage and all these different issues, like most,

00:35:54.060 most of us, I think we're just like, Hey, you do you, you know, like whatever makes you happy.

00:35:57.480 That's fine. We don't care. Every time consenting adults, consenting adults. That was always,

00:36:00.800 that was always the caveat. But then now they're coming after the kids. And so I think you've got

00:36:04.560 a lot more folks. I mean, I, the gays against rumors groups, pretty active in Washington state.

00:36:08.380 They come out to a lot of our different events too. And they're basically like, Whoa, don't,

00:36:12.020 don't do this in our name. Like we're not, we're not part of this at all. Like we have kids as well

00:36:15.620 that we care about. Like this is absolutely wrong. So that's where I really think that they've,

00:36:19.700 they've overstepped. Was the 12 year incumbent into the culture war stuff at all? Is that something

00:36:23.780 like she was not, no, she was very much a, um, like the centrist, moderate leaning, uh, kind of,

00:36:29.380 I mean, her politics, I think kind of harken back to like maybe the nineties when like Republicans

00:36:34.540 and Democrats could just sort of like disagree on, you know, what the tax rate is and maybe some

00:36:39.180 sort of foreign policy stuff. But, but really at the end of the day, we all wanted the best things

00:36:42.900 for our community. Um, just kind of generally not, not knowing what time it is and not knowing just

00:36:47.160 how aggressive the left is. Yeah. Do you feel like since you ran last time or maybe since your

00:36:52.720 incumbent was less having to have a serious challenger, American values have shifted so

00:36:56.500 that there are conservative values and there are left values, but there are not common values.

00:37:00.940 That's a good question. Yeah. I mean, I, I think unfortunately we are losing that common

00:37:04.760 like monoculture, you know, where people on different, different, you know, right. Republican,

00:37:10.160 Democrat, whatever could come together. I do think we are losing some of that. I think it's incumbent

00:37:14.220 that we, we get that back. I don't think that's going to be done in any like one election. I think

00:37:17.920 it's going to take a lot of effort from, from all of us, but yeah, things are incredibly

00:37:22.320 polarized right now. There definitely is much more of a right wing culture, which is good now

00:37:26.400 because I think for a long time, the Republicans, whatever conservatives, however you want to label

00:37:29.720 us, we didn't have much of a culture. And I think that led to us not having much of a fight or much

00:37:34.520 of a game plan. Whereas the Democrats, I mean, they had a culture and they had a game plan. Like I

00:37:38.560 said, I disagree with their ideas, but I respect their discipline. Um, but there is no more middle

00:37:43.460 ground. And I think we're getting a lot more middle ground people like that, that meme pushed

00:37:47.660 over to our side where it's like, Hey, you don't have to agree with us on everything. You know,

00:37:51.440 like I've become friends with Tulsi Gabbard. She came out and campaigned with me and she's

00:37:55.960 fantastic. I mean, but if you listen to the big problems that she has with the Democrat party,

00:38:00.420 with corporate America, military industrial complex, I mean, she's very much aligned with

00:38:04.160 us and always get people to be like, but what about this one vote vote that Tulsi took in the,

00:38:07.700 in the mid two thousands about guns or whatever. And it's like, okay, look, we, we can have a

00:38:12.880 conversation about these different things, but we agree on the big picture items, you know? And I think

00:38:16.900 we're gonna have another opportunity here, uh, with RFK Jr. Cause I think he's saying a lot of

00:38:20.940 things that, uh, a lot of us agree with, but I think the Democrats are going to trash him in a

00:38:25.580 very bad way. And so I think we're gonna have an opportunity to bring a lot of those folks over

00:38:29.100 to our side to say, Hey, we, we want to hear your ideas. You know, we, we appreciate you guys as

00:38:33.320 well. We won't, uh, we won't treat you like crap like the Democrats. Do you feel like we have a

00:38:37.200 disappearing moderate class? Cause you were saying before the show, you know, there are no

00:38:40.340 moderates. I just don't think there are. I think most Americans right now, especially like people of my

00:38:45.240 parents' generation, they would say, well, I'm a moderate. Well, I'm an independent, you know?

00:38:49.140 And what they mean is that I don't like politics. Um, but if you really sit down and you talk with

00:38:53.200 them, most of them I think are conservative, like they don't want, you know, biological men,

00:38:57.400 you know, going into their daughter's bathroom. Like they, they want us to have a Southern border.

00:39:01.140 Like they don't want us being involved in a new war every five minutes. Like, I think these are basic

00:39:05.100 kind of common sense, conservative issues, but I think we have a lot of education to do.

00:39:10.240 And I think showing how radical the left is and they're helping us like we talked about,

00:39:13.980 but I think we have to really stay on that and show just how radical these people are. Cause all

00:39:17.960 these folks that want to say like, ah, I'm a moderate, like, okay, well then tell me what you

00:39:21.100 like about the Democrats. And usually when they talk though, they're talking about like the,

00:39:25.320 the JFK era, you know, or they're talking about Martin Luther King jr. Or something like that.

00:39:29.000 Like tell me what you like about the modern, the modern Democrat party and show me what's

00:39:33.140 moderate about that. They're sort of nostalgic for days gone by the Democratic party, which is sad.

00:39:37.400 It means this is a, an old chorus, but the Democratic party moved so far left. They left

00:39:42.220 people behind. I think there are, like you're saying, a lot of people who identify as moderate

00:39:45.760 or independent because they're just not that into it. They've got other stuff going on. There

00:39:49.940 maybe is one or two issues that they feel strongly about, but we don't leave space for them anymore.

00:39:55.160 I would actually be happy to have a huge independent moderate class if we had common values, but as it

00:40:00.180 is, you have to pick your sides. And that's right. I would rather be on the sides that doesn't make

00:40:04.220 biological males compete against women. And that's radical apparently.

00:40:07.320 Yeah. And apparently that's radical. Right.

00:40:08.880 Seeking harm on your kids. Yeah.

00:40:10.520 I mean, I can't believe I have to navigate that minefield.

00:40:13.100 It's insane.

00:40:13.540 Even deciding who my kids would get to see. Because like, there's such a mind virus with

00:40:18.040 some of these ideas that I don't want to rip out the reality from underneath my kid's feet.

00:40:22.460 Like obviously he's going to have to contend with that and I'm going to give him a good

00:40:25.380 foundation, you know, as he grows up to, to like kind of make a defense against those things.

00:40:29.360 But it's so like prevalent everywhere we go.

00:40:31.960 It's everywhere.

00:40:32.460 Like, yeah, like in Martinsburg, we had a drag show recently. And this state is fairly red.

00:40:38.220 It was a public, all age drag show.

00:40:41.260 It's crazy.

00:40:42.080 Yeah.

00:40:42.600 And like, you know, there are churches with pride flags, you know?

00:40:46.460 So it's interesting that, you know, they've infected every level of your life, which unfortunately

00:40:52.360 has made it so you have to talk about politics, which is like, I know like people don't want

00:40:56.560 to talk about it, but I'm constantly doing it. What I'm finding is maybe the best thing

00:41:00.540 sometimes is I'm trying to strip away like the labels, you know, like Republican, Democrat,

00:41:04.640 like what you were saying, if you just talk about like the actual ideas, probably going

00:41:08.080 to agree on a lot of stuff. But it's like, people are so brainwashed into, they hear

00:41:12.140 one word, left or right, and they're like, oh, I'm drawing a line here. I hate that.

00:41:16.080 I hate this. So people, I hope, can get past certain like labels. And hopefully that

00:41:21.140 doing that will bring us hopefully closer together.

00:41:23.620 Yeah.

00:41:23.820 Yeah.

00:41:24.280 Hopefully.

00:41:24.820 You guys have kids who are similar ages. I'm going to ask you both. When you guys became

00:41:28.200 dad, did you think this was the culture you would be raising your kids in? Did you see

00:41:32.840 it coming or did it kind of hit you like a ton of bricks?

00:41:36.200 It hit me like a ton of bricks. I had my, I didn't get married till I was 35, didn't

00:41:40.140 have kids until I was 30, didn't have kids till I was 35. So I was very much in the military,

00:41:44.360 deployed a lot. Like I was in a bubble, you know, I kind of was in this.

00:41:47.940 Get ready for a Las Vegas style action at BetMGM, the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at

00:41:55.520 your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for when you play classics like

00:42:00.880 MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat, and Roulette. With our ever-growing

00:42:07.280 library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table games, and signature BetMGM service,

00:42:13.360 there's no better way to bring the excitement and ambience of Las Vegas home to you than with

00:42:18.200 BetMGM Casino. Download the BetMGM Casino app today. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play

00:42:25.100 responsibly. BetMGM.com for T's and C's. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

00:42:31.060 If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

00:42:34.160 please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.

00:42:41.860 BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

00:42:46.860 When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins

00:42:52.640 Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you.

00:43:00.680 Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part.

00:43:06.260 Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care.

00:43:12.520 Did I mention that we care?

00:43:15.820 I think more of a traditional America, you know? And that was my focus. And I just figured,

00:43:20.880 hey, I grew up in Portland, Oregon, for God's sakes. I figured, hey, I'll just, you know,

00:43:25.380 wherever we end up moving, we'll raise our kids there in the public schools. Like they'll go to

00:43:29.260 schools with people I work with. Like everything's, some things on TV seem bad, but overall things are

00:43:34.680 probably okay. So yeah, it was a rude awakening.

00:43:36.980 Was there like a moment that you felt like you noticed you had to intervene?

00:43:41.320 Ah, COVID, just the COVID era, you know, especially, um, I was living, I was living in Portland

00:43:47.140 because like, long story, my late wife was in the military. She was killed as well. Uh, she was

00:43:50.940 killed in the military. And so I moved back to Portland briefly, uh, right as COVID happened and

00:43:55.780 right as the riots happened. And just talking to the people that I lived around who were nice people,

00:44:00.160 good people, good neighbors, but they were like, hey, like there needs to be right. We need to give

00:44:05.040 them space to have riots every night. And I'm pretty experienced from my background. Like I

00:44:08.880 understand what anarchy and violence is pretty well. Like, I'm like, this is not the direction

00:44:12.980 this is heading. This to me seems like, it's a no from me. Yeah. I mean, after it went on for a

00:44:18.460 couple of days, I'm like, this very much has the hallmarks of like a violent revolution,

00:44:22.400 a color revolution, however you want to categorize it. Like it reminded me of the post Saddam era in

00:44:26.800 Iraq early on. And the fact that like, I couldn't get that through to my neighbors. Cause if I brought up

00:44:31.300 any of these things, they'd be like, you don't think black lives matter. You know, it's like, I don't

00:44:34.700 think that's what I said. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the fact that

00:44:37.240 we don't want our city to burn. And so that's when I was like, I'm getting the heck out of here.

00:44:40.100 I'm going to a more rural environment. And then just everything that happened with COVID,

00:44:43.880 when I started looking at, cause my kids were getting, my oldest was getting ready to go into

00:44:47.280 kindergarten. So I really started looking at the public schools and I was like, oh my God, this crap is

00:44:51.940 everywhere. And I just, and I didn't realize how much it had just penetrated even in

00:44:56.020 the rural school districts, but they still are controlled by the state to a certain extent.

00:45:00.040 They're obligated to meet state standards.

00:45:01.960 Yeah. That's the thing about being a parent. I mean, you really can't, as a, as a parent,

00:45:05.100 you can't just sort of like tune things out. You kind of have to start paying attention.

00:45:07.940 Oh yeah. It's funny. Cause we closed on our first house that we bought on the day that New York

00:45:12.200 locked down. So it was like, we inherited this mad world with this new house. And now it's outside

00:45:17.800 more than ever, like going to get stuff to work on the house. And that's, so you're seeing these

00:45:21.600 lines of people spaced out and it was like dystopian. And we moved to this area because the schools

00:45:26.460 were good, like the school grade. So we still were buying into public schools, but there's

00:45:30.020 good, they're well-rated, right? We'll be fine. And then when COVID happened, you know, I was just

00:45:34.000 one of those people like, Oh wow, you can't, I can't trust even that. I can't trust anything.

00:45:38.200 And, uh, and also my wife was pregnant with our daughter during that first COVID summer.

00:45:43.000 So then you're seeing the hospitals turn into these tyrannical places. We're like,

00:45:45.960 I might not even be allowed. When I, when I met Shane, he had told me, well, I brought handcuffs

00:45:49.940 in case they wanted me to leave the hospital. I could just handcuff myself to my wife's hospital bed.

00:45:54.320 I was going to change my, it was crazy. And they, they happened to lift it right before

00:45:58.020 our daughter was born. So all those things made me realize that, well, we have to first

00:46:01.940 get out of New York because I have no control over my family here. You know, like not even

00:46:06.860 like the state level, the local level, it was all pretty bad because we were still fairly

00:46:10.720 close to New York city at just an hour outside. So yeah, that, that definitely changed the way

00:46:15.180 I saw most things, most institutions that I thought I could trust. And I was a professor,

00:46:18.760 like I said, so I, I quit that because COVID destroyed that. And then I wasn't going to go

00:46:22.620 through with the, the mandate to get the vaccine. So yeah. And then watching how people reacted,

00:46:28.580 like play dates changed, you know, people all of a sudden didn't want to hang out.

00:46:32.040 Oh yeah. We lost lots of friends because I didn't denounce or, you know, I didn't denounce Trump or

00:46:36.500 I didn't, I didn't put a black box on my Instagram, you know, or, or I didn't get the vaccine. And now

00:46:41.520 my kids were a danger to them. So we're very happy with there's flaws everywhere, but we're very happy

00:46:46.780 here compared to where we were for sure. If you, if you took a stand, you actually spoke out a little bit.

00:46:51.140 You found out who your friends were pretty quick. I mean, you guys deal with this all the time.

00:46:53.760 Cause you get your opinions out the same thing. When I started running for office, I was like,

00:46:56.700 oh, those people were actually my friends. I think my friends who don't agree with me just

00:47:00.340 like willfully turn a blind eye. They like me as a person. They're just like, well, we'll let you go

00:47:04.160 on your podcast and do whatever you need to do. So when you, it's interesting to hear you both say

00:47:10.680 basically COVID was this moment again, you're young parents. So that makes sense. You're having to

00:47:14.540 confront these issues, but why is it then if we have people like you who are waking up to

00:47:19.440 the dangers of these institutions, everything's gone wrong, what happened during midterms?

00:47:23.940 Why did we not see this, this red wave that we were promised?

00:47:27.740 I think unfortunately there's still a lot of folks that are hoping that somebody else will take care

00:47:31.780 of it. You know, that like, and also I do think, I mean, there's some, some nuts and bolts stuff.

00:47:36.260 Like we had a low turnout, you know, they spent a bunch of money against me, all that type of stuff.

00:47:39.900 I do think there was a lot.

00:47:41.000 But it wasn't just you. I mean, there were lots of races that we felt like we'll probably see that one

00:47:45.440 flip and it didn't. And it was not terrible, but you know, we only have like a thin majority in

00:47:50.700 the house and then we didn't even take the Senate. So I do think there also was a lot of happy talk

00:47:55.400 about like, there's going to be a red wave. There's going to be a red wave. And so, I mean,

00:47:59.440 I run into people in the district all the time who were like, Hey, did the election happen yet?

00:48:03.640 Like, I thought you were in there. Like, didn't you win? And I'm like, you know, did you, did you

00:48:07.580 like, Oh, I'll vote for your next time. I didn't vote this last time. I mean, I hear that all the time.

00:48:10.860 And so it's like, I do think there was a, like a false sense of security. Um, I think

00:48:15.980 that that's apathy too. Like people, I feel like even in myself, I don't, I want to believe

00:48:21.520 the system. I don't trust it. That's another institution that's just out the window. So

00:48:26.540 I wonder if that's a thing. Oh, definitely. I mean, post post 2020, you know, and we've

00:48:30.960 been doing massive unsolicited mail out ballots and machines and all that stuff in Washington

00:48:35.040 state for a very long time. And so I hear this from conservatives all the time. Like, I'm not

00:48:38.560 going to vote because it's all pointless. And I'm like, well, if you do that, you're

00:48:40.840 making it so they don't even have to like pull any kind of shenanigans. Like you still,

00:48:44.700 you still got to vote if nothing else, vote out of pure spite because they, they're trying

00:48:47.560 to demoralize you right now. Don't let, don't let them have that win.

00:48:50.140 This is the best campaign slogan of all time. Vote out of pure spite.

00:48:53.060 Vote out of pure spite. I'm just saying like, don't, don't give them that easy win.

00:48:56.180 You know, I agree. I mean, I was at a Carrie Lake's election trial, the first one.

00:49:00.520 Yeah. And you're watching them machines. It was ridiculous. And to me, I feel like I was

00:49:05.140 in a different reality because I'm there with other writers from different papers and they're

00:49:08.520 looking at it like, well, they did nothing wrong. And the machines are all perfect. Carrie's

00:49:12.760 crazy. Yeah. I'm like, are you watching the same thing as me? Like we are in an alternate

00:49:17.100 dimension and I'm, you know, I'm watching and I'll go outside and we're walking and see

00:49:20.440 this, this older man who had peeked into the election and left. And I asked him, I was like,

00:49:24.500 what'd you think? He was like, it's a, it's everything I thought it would be. And I couldn't

00:49:27.420 tell what side he was on. And he just was like, Carrie's just an insane person. You know,

00:49:31.320 that she, she's lying about this and that. Like, I don't think people are really listening to what

00:49:36.200 they're saying about this stuff. So when it comes to me and voting, I have a hard time

00:49:39.800 trusting, you know, how they're, how they're dealing with the voting these days.

00:49:43.680 And that demoralizes a lot of it. It's really rough, but I agree. You have to go out and show

00:49:47.160 force like by voting and be like, show up, you know, do your vote. And then we can complain about

00:49:52.240 it later and hopefully change these things. But not trusting other people to do it is why we're in

00:49:57.800 this situation. And ballot harvesting is another real big one too. I mean, as a, as a Republican

00:50:02.320 candidate last cycle, I very, I did like 300 in-person town halls. I very much had the attitude

00:50:07.200 of like, Hey, if somebody wants to hear what I have to say, I'll tell you what I have to say.

00:50:10.640 And my, uh, my ideas and my stances on the issues that will win them over and they will be inspired

00:50:15.200 to vote for me. And that works for some people. However, there's a lot of folks out there that

00:50:19.240 like, you do need to go and you need to get the ballot in front of them and you need to make sure

00:50:22.980 the ballot gets dropped off. And in Washington, we have no rules about ballot harvesting. The Democrats

00:50:26.600 have it down to a science, so it's completely legal. But that was just like the, the opposite of

00:50:31.160 conservative culture. Like all of us were saying like, we, we hate to mail out voting. So we're

00:50:34.480 all going to vote on election day, you know, but actually show up. You have to show up. You got

00:50:38.920 to show up. Nothing can happen. You can't have a scheduling conflict, sick kid. But we had three,

00:50:42.680 you know, three plus weeks, I think almost four weeks to, to collect the ballots. The Democrats

00:50:47.120 are out there every day hustling, collecting ballots and Republicans. I wonder why this isn't

00:50:50.920 something Republicans do with their young people. I mean, I, I regularly, uh, hear of young

00:50:56.380 conservatives, you know, 18, 16, whatever you could send a 17 year old who sees themselves as

00:51:02.420 the future Republican to go definitely collect ballots. I mean, the question for a lot from a

00:51:07.960 lot of young people is how do I get involved? And that's the first step. And I don't understand why

00:51:11.300 we don't see more conservative young people or organizations that champion conservative young

00:51:14.940 people may organizing these things. This is the key way that we fight back because that's what

00:51:19.340 Democrats did first. I mean, they always make the young people take care of their ground gain

00:51:23.420 because what's more convincing than a, you know, a bright eyed 19 year old being like, please let's

00:51:27.420 do whatever the Democrats think is good. Yeah, exactly. And that's how you win. I wonder, sorry, go

00:51:32.340 ahead. Oh, no, we're working on that right now. So we've actually had a good deal of leadership change

00:51:36.180 over in like the county level parties. And so ballot harvesting has become like the battle cry

00:51:40.120 at the state level and the county level. So we're, we're getting more folks involved, but you're the

00:51:44.320 young people. You're right to the Democrats do a great job. They mobilize young folks. And

00:51:48.300 unfortunately that's just a battlefield that we are not doing that great on. I think we need to get more

00:51:52.560 active. We're saying, don't go to college, do other things, including the act of your community.

00:51:58.100 I mean, this is, this seems like an easy fix to me, but of course I'm saying it, having not done

00:52:01.620 it myself when I was 18 and from, you know, from the internet. Are you into like a national holiday

00:52:08.180 type situation for voting to make it easier for people? Like, is that the reason people just have

00:52:11.520 to, I think that'd be good. I mean, I'd like to get back to all in-person voting. I agree.

00:52:15.100 Show an ID, you know, it's on, it's on a paper, you know, piece of paper.

00:52:18.060 Are you going to show an ID? Are you crazy? You radical?

00:52:21.100 That's why they call me a far right wing guy, you know?

00:52:23.460 How dare you?

00:52:24.100 How dare you, sir? Yeah. But I mean, we're a long ways away from being able to change those

00:52:27.600 laws in Washington state, but I think that'd be good. I mean, look, national holiday. I mean,

00:52:30.900 people are like, but what about shift workers? I'm like, fine. Like, let's compromise. How about

00:52:34.460 two days of national holiday? Like whatever it takes to get us back into voting in person and

00:52:38.620 just get rid of this nonsense mail out ballot stuff. And the machines too. I just, I don't understand

00:52:44.320 the argument behind the machines. You know, people are like, oh, you're a conspiracy theorist. I'm like,

00:52:47.480 well, that's cool. Then let us audit the machines. They're like, well, no one can audit the machines.

00:52:50.080 When people say that though, didn't Elizabeth Warren also put out a thing like years ago

00:52:53.920 saying she didn't trust those exact machines? Right. So it's okay for them to say that years

00:52:58.860 ago, but now we say it's a problem. Like, okay, there's something wrong with the machines.

00:53:02.660 Yeah. Well, didn't YouTube just change its terms of service on talking about election fraud?

00:53:06.400 Yes.

00:53:06.660 I mean, we know exactly where this thing goes. When you guys talk about it, it's not okay. But when

00:53:11.120 the other team does, it's because they're doing, they're saving the democracy, I think is the battle call.

00:53:15.860 Uh, do you think that people are more ready for, or like what a year and some change out from the

00:53:22.980 next election? Do you think that there's a different energy maybe in your district or just

00:53:26.540 generally, uh, going in there, there definitely is. I mean, because we had the hard fought

00:53:30.820 Republican civil war, but then the Democrats capitalized on that. There's a lot of Republicans

00:53:35.540 in my district that are like, okay, we, we understand what happened here. We didn't unify

00:53:39.140 and the unthinkable happened. Now we have a Democrat representative. So for that, that's probably,

00:53:43.200 um, the most prevalent, uh, I think sentiment I'm getting from like the activists, but then

00:53:47.620 for your average person who we need to turn out and vote, who probably didn't vote last

00:53:50.800 time, the state of the economy crime. And then I really think this trans ideology that's

00:53:55.820 targeting our children. I think that that's, that's going to get a lot of folks that probably

00:53:59.580 would have sat out of an election cause they don't care. And they don't, they don't want

00:54:01.980 to hear about Biden and Trump anymore. But now they're like, wait a sec, you guys just

00:54:05.380 did what? Like what you're telling my kids, what in school, like we're going to let guys go

00:54:08.700 into my daughter's dressing room. Like, I think that's going to bring folks out.

00:54:11.480 Yeah. I think that makes sense. The, the, the state, the state kidnapping rule. Is that

00:54:16.000 something that's in the news a lot? Like local news out there? Like are people talking about

00:54:19.240 it? They try and suppress it. Luckily it's so great. It's so crazy that like Fox and a

00:54:23.720 lot of the more, I'd say mainstream right leaning outlets have covered it. Okay. Um, but locally

00:54:28.420 you don't hear much about it because unfortunately our local media is by and large, like very left

00:54:33.020 leaning and they'll say, Oh, it's a conspiracy theorist, you know? Well, and I'm sure they

00:54:36.220 don't use the term kidnapping or supporting young people who are being oppressed by their

00:54:40.960 parents. Gender affirming care. Right. We have to affirm their care. Which is the most

00:54:44.300 leading, misleading term of all time. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. Our editorial team

00:54:48.480 doesn't use it, which I love. I think that's great. Yeah. Um, that was just the rule that

00:54:52.920 they put out. They're like, we're not going to use gender affirming care because it's inaccurate.

00:54:56.520 Right. And our job is to present evenly cited information. Even if there's stuff that you

00:55:02.700 don't personally agree with, you are supposed to represent the other side. But since they create

00:55:05.720 the rules, now you step outside of the rules, they look at you and the editorial team

00:55:08.920 is bad. Well, and I will say gender affirming care is easier to write than like, uh, gender

00:55:13.440 related medical intervention. That's a little bit lumpier. Uh, so when did you get into politics?

00:55:19.640 Like, were you going to school board meetings, you know, back when you were leaving the CIA?

00:55:22.800 Like, when did this become the thing? Get ready for Las Vegas style action

00:55:27.320 at BetMGM, the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same

00:55:33.360 Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for when you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular

00:55:39.400 games like Blackjack, Baccarat, and Roulette. With our ever-growing library of digital slot games,

00:55:45.620 a large selection of online table games, and signature BetMGM service, there's no better way to bring the

00:55:51.660 excitement and ambience of Las Vegas home to you than with BetMGM Casino. Download the BetMGM Casino

00:55:58.380 app today. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. BetMGM.com for T's and C's.

00:56:04.080 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns

00:56:08.540 about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600

00:56:16.000 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with

00:56:20.900 iGaming Ontario.

00:56:21.720 When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of

00:56:28.440 Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really

00:56:33.700 care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that

00:56:42.060 part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention

00:56:49.520 that we care?

00:56:52.260 I kind of got thrust into it when my, like I said, my late wife was killed in Syria. She was killed a

00:56:57.900 month after Trump tried to get our troops out. I was actually deployed at the same time too. And so I,

00:57:02.000 I wasn't in Syria. I was in Africa.

00:57:03.680 And you had young children at this point?

00:57:05.160 We did. Yeah. Yeah. They're with my parents, one in three. And so I was like, okay, I have to step

00:57:09.720 aside from like deploying and getting shot at for a living to take care of our kids and be a responsible

00:57:14.700 father. Um, but I had, I had a front row seat to basically the way the administrative state,

00:57:19.640 the deep state, whatever you want to call it was actively working against president Trump. So I,

00:57:23.600 I was in the military for the last two years of the, I was in the military for last two years of my

00:57:28.080 career were the first two years of Trump administration. And then I switched right over

00:57:30.820 to the CIA. And so I got to see like the DOD state department, CIA, a lot of these folks at the

00:57:35.900 mid to senior levels, basically just say, we don't care what the commander in chief has to say,

00:57:39.720 which to me was a shocker. Cause I'm, I'm here. I am a guy thinking that like,

00:57:43.200 I've been around for a while. I've been in for 20 plus years. I remember when Obama came in,

00:57:48.020 I didn't vote for Obama. I didn't like Obama, but there was no part of me that thought like,

00:57:51.800 well, we're just not going to do what the president says. Yeah. Cause you know, like,

00:57:54.440 yeah. Who did you enlist under? I enlisted under, uh, Clinton. So I can't, I went in in 98. Yeah.

00:57:59.440 So I served all through Republicans and Democrats. And it was the first time you had,

00:58:03.480 this was the first time. Yeah. A hundred percent. Absolutely. I mean, um, when, when Obama first came

00:58:08.540 into office, I had just switched over from being an enlisted guy to being an officer. And, you know,

00:58:13.000 we got read the riot act cause that was a green beret. And they were like, Hey,

00:58:15.600 we know a lot of you guys didn't vote for Obama, but like, remember he's the commander in chief.

00:58:18.940 And we, a lot of us were kind of insulted. We're like, of course, like we, we took another

00:58:21.960 support and defend the constitution. The American people might not have picked the guy that I like,

00:58:25.380 but of course I'm going to, you know, I'm going to salute and move out and do my job.

00:58:29.260 When eight fast forward, eight years later, Trump comes in and there was a brief,

00:58:33.220 I think honeymoon period with Trump, especially when, because ISIS was so out of control where Trump was like,

00:58:37.820 okay, we're going to kick these guys' asses. And so there, there was some, uh, there,

00:58:41.100 there was some desire to like, you know, support the president when he was saying like, we're going

00:58:44.600 to go and we're actually going to continue to fight. We're going to fight even harder. So Trump

00:58:48.060 took the gloves off. We beat ISIS. We took away all the ground that controlled, but then Trump did

00:58:52.280 the unthinkable when he was like, yeah. And we're getting our troops out because that's what I ran

00:58:55.900 on as a candidate. And that's when the entire system melted down. And so I got, I got a front row seat

00:59:00.400 to that. And so after my wife was killed and I decided to resign, I had an opportunity to meet Trump at,

00:59:05.740 at Dover. Um, and I just told him, I was like, you know, you don't know who I am,

00:59:09.300 but I've been fighting these wars for 20 plus years and you're getting it right. I became a

00:59:12.540 Trump supporter. Um, I recently got some more coverage back in the, uh, the primary when

00:59:17.220 Trump went after Jeb Bush on the debate stage. And he was like, you're, you know, your brother

00:59:20.440 lied. We got it wrong. I was like, man, I have no idea how the guy from the apprentice gets it.

00:59:25.640 Like, I don't know how the game show guy gets this better than all the so-called adults in the room,

00:59:29.420 but I'm hooked. I like that guy.

00:59:30.720 Sometimes I wonder, it's because he felt like he could say it. Whereas everyone else was like,

00:59:34.100 no, we've got to play nice and we can't talk about it.

00:59:37.180 Yeah. The beauty of an outsider who somebody who's not just emotionally invested, but then

00:59:40.480 also the financial interest, like Trump knew that like, he wasn't getting a fat check from Lockheed

00:59:44.180 or Raytheon anytime soon. So he was, he was free to go after it. So, you know, I, when I, when I

00:59:49.440 actually met Trump, I just told him like, yeah, you don't know who I am. I've been fighting these

00:59:52.100 wars for 20 plus years. You're, you're right. Like your, your gut instincts don't listen to what

00:59:55.940 you're being told by all the people in the beltway. Yeah. Um, and I, I thought nothing else was

01:00:00.200 going to come from that conversation, but he reached, his team reached back out to me a little

01:00:03.760 while later. And so I did some advisory stuff with Trump, uh, worked on the Trump 2020 campaign,

01:00:08.160 veterans for Trump. So when like the Atlantic magazine said Trump, like Trump hates all the

01:00:11.940 gold star families and stuff, I, I do the rebuttal. You were like, no, I was like, nope,

01:00:16.280 actually, you know, what is that? Like is like someone who worked closely with Trump to hear

01:00:20.100 that he's anti military or whatever else you just throw it out. Or do you feel like you have to

01:00:24.400 really undo some sort of terrible rumor? I like to defend it because I think, uh, especially if you

01:00:29.200 look at Trump's record of actually like respecting the American people and the American military enough

01:00:33.500 to not have us bleed out on every single foreign battlefield, like that to me, like, I don't care

01:00:38.020 what your record is. I don't care. Like if you were prior military or whatever, like if you think

01:00:41.920 that we should be continue to be involved in all these different wars, like you're not supporting

01:00:46.100 the troops. Like, whereas like Trump at the end of the day, he's the guy that said like, we don't

01:00:50.080 need to be in all these different places. We need to put our own country first. So I, I like to set

01:00:54.240 the record straight. And the guy's also very compassionate, very caring. Um, which I got

01:00:59.280 to see that side of him. Not a lot of people did. Um, so yeah, I think it's good, but I like to talk

01:01:04.160 like substance because there's a lot of people right now that are just like, Oh, you know, uh,

01:01:08.060 the world was crazy under Trump. And it's like, well, actually, no, it really, it was out to me.

01:01:12.760 Tell me how it was crazy. And especially, is it crazy for us to be out of these foreign entanglements?

01:01:17.340 If you look at the fact the guy started no new wars, the situation in Ukraine is a great example.

01:01:21.860 I mean, it was peace through strength. It was, it wasn't just Trump's bravado. Yeah. Like

01:01:25.780 some of that helps, I guess. But at the end of the day, Trump made us energy independent. He

01:01:29.740 blocked through diplomatic measures. He blocked Putin from being able to have a pipeline right

01:01:35.040 into Europe. And so Putin straight up didn't have the money in the bank, but Putin also knew

01:01:38.820 that Trump wasn't a globalist. Trump had zero desire to expand NATO every five minutes up onto

01:01:43.000 his border because Trump was worried about America. So those things I think are important to

01:01:47.260 really point out, especially as we're trying to, I think, develop a new, a new ideology.

01:01:51.860 Uh, on the right, that's not just the Bushes and the Chinese, especially with foreign

01:01:55.340 policy. I think it's really important to have those discussions and, and ask people what

01:01:59.380 they think and why they think it, especially the guys that are like, Hey, we need to be

01:02:02.500 involved in this war in Ukraine or, you know, pick a country, you know, Lindsey Graham wants

01:02:06.120 us to go to war there. Knowing what you know now about the military, having been in it so

01:02:09.360 long, has it like, do you want your kids to be in the military at some point? Like, has

01:02:14.040 it changed the way you saw that? It's a tough question. That's actually my least favorite

01:02:17.520 question. I'm sorry. It was just, I grew up at a military base and, uh, I looked up,

01:02:24.080 I was raised by cadets mostly, you know, my parents were coaches and someone asked me

01:02:27.040 this question the other day. And I was like, I go back and forth as it is now. I'm like

01:02:31.240 a no, right. Yeah. There's so many pros to having been in it. I'm sure. So for, I mean,

01:02:35.480 for me, it was all I ever wanted to do was like, I mean, so I highly recommend for people

01:02:39.880 that they have that dream. You gotta chase your dream. The military is still, there's still

01:02:43.780 good parts of it. You just gotta be very deliberate. However, right now with the Biden

01:02:47.140 administration, I have told people like right now, if my kids were 18, I would say, just

01:02:52.180 go do something else. It's not going to go anywhere. Let's get Biden out of office and

01:02:56.540 then go back in the way that when Biden came in and he basically said, we need to have an

01:02:59.800 extremist stand down because half these people that I've been sending off the war for my entire

01:03:03.180 career, I mean, Biden's voted for every single war as long as he's been in office. He just

01:03:07.340 comes in day one as commander in chief is like, and it turns out half of you guys are Nazis,

01:03:10.840 you know, and then the VAX mandate, you know, and then the nonsense in Afghanistan,

01:03:14.680 like, it's just such a disgrace. And then him putting in all the different, uh, whatever

01:03:19.100 diversity, equity and inclusion czars at every level.

01:03:22.000 Like I've seen the decay of even the military academy, you know, over the years and how my

01:03:26.460 parents have been coaches seeing, you know, what they're teaching crazy stuff at that

01:03:30.640 school, which is baffling to me. Right.

01:03:32.840 At West Point.

01:03:33.460 At West Point. But then I also look at it, you know, when someone asked me that question,

01:03:36.520 I was like, well, you learned discipline, right? I looked up to these kids to, you know,

01:03:40.480 growing up these young soldiers and they had a discipline and a work ethic that I didn't see.

01:03:44.920 Anywhere else, right? Outside of that place. So that's the pro I saw.

01:03:48.420 My brother enlisted when he was, he was, uh, the summer he turned 18, he'd still to finish

01:03:52.680 senior of high school. But what he said at the time was like, I am not going to make it in college.

01:03:57.000 I don't want to go. I'm going to fail out. I'm not interested in being there. And I want to be

01:04:01.820 somewhere where I feel like I'm learning skills and developing as a person. And he enlisted in the

01:04:05.820 ring core and it really did change his whole life. And I think for the, for the best, he did

01:04:09.440 ultimately feel like he was getting, uh, uh, passed by people who had gone to college and

01:04:14.160 didn't keep going. But, uh, it is, it is an interesting question because in today's day and

01:04:19.140 age, I remember at the time, uh, the conversation in our house was like, well, don't deploy. We

01:04:23.780 don't want you to deploy to Afghanistan, which he ultimately did. But if you were going to, you

01:04:27.380 know, uh, if we're going to invade Mexico and defend the Southern border, maybe that would be a

01:04:31.300 worthy cause, uh, which we weren't going to do. Uh, but I think this is an interesting question

01:04:36.060 because military recruitment is down. People don't want to be in the military. I've always

01:04:40.680 wondered if that is part of the progressive cultures, anti-military sentiment. And I see

01:04:46.040 it so often where, you know, especially young liberal women are like, I don't respect the

01:04:50.920 military and I get it. There's a lot of issues and it's complicated, but it seems bizarre to

01:04:55.540 have a blanket statement like that, especially when it comes from what to me is a classist,

01:05:00.220 uh, perspective. They're saying that basically they look down on you because they think they're

01:05:04.700 smarter than you are, which is sort of crazy. Yeah. And we're having a crisis now of recruiting

01:05:09.800 because like that same pool of like young patriotic Americans who want to go forth and fight for

01:05:15.100 their country. They right now are saying like, wait a sec, these are the same people that look

01:05:19.060 down on me, that talk down to me, that are doing everything they can to destroy our culture

01:05:23.360 and our life. Like, how about no, how about I'm not going to, I'm not going to enlist. And you're

01:05:26.800 getting generational military families that are telling their kids, like maybe

01:05:30.200 wait, maybe don't go in right now. And that's, and they wonder now they wonder why, like,

01:05:34.760 oh, why is recruiting down so much? And then another, a big issue too, that doesn't get covered

01:05:38.460 as much as recruiting is retention. I mean, the military runs on professionals are our

01:05:42.860 military now, cause we don't have a draft. It runs on professional soldiers. And the vast

01:05:46.820 majority of guys I knew who were going to stay into 20, 25 years, right. When Biden came

01:05:51.260 in after about a year, they were like, I'm done. So as soon as I can get my retirement or as

01:05:55.240 soon as I can see a window for me getting the heck out of here, I'm gone. And that's

01:05:58.300 experienced senior special operations guys. Same thing with my friends that are pilots.

01:06:02.220 I mean, the crazy thing is Biden inherited the most battle hardened military that we've

01:06:06.460 ever had because every other war we fought up to the global war on terror, we had to have

01:06:10.140 a draft and then we had to like demobilize it at the end of the war. We had the same P like

01:06:14.180 I did 11 combat deployments. I don't know very many people that did just like one or two.

01:06:17.840 We had a group that went over consistently and Biden inherited that. And he is in just three

01:06:22.380 years, not even three full years. He has gutted that.

01:06:24.960 Yeah. What I'd always read about military recruitment, I knew the thing about professional

01:06:29.120 soldiers because already it's a narrow path. People leave more often than ever. But in terms

01:06:35.000 of new recruits, very few young Americans are qualified to join the military. And so the like

01:06:40.560 10% of people who are, half of them are willing to do it. So we are never going to make any

01:06:46.120 recruitment goals. But I found it interesting that, you know, the Marine Corps does tend to make

01:06:51.200 its recruitment goals. Branches of the military with a strong identity and set of core values,

01:06:55.980 in my anecdotal observation, tend to be the ones that are successful. And I think that speaks to

01:07:01.760 this desire to have culture and community that I think really progressive culture doesn't have.

01:07:08.480 We're talking about this a little bit. I asked you earlier, are there two sets of values? And to me,

01:07:12.760 one of the core tenets of being conservative is building these blocks of community at the family

01:07:18.360 level. And then it's your local community. And then it goes up from there. Whereas a lot of

01:07:22.780 progressive energy is devoted to pursuing individual and basically selfish desire.

01:07:28.580 Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, the Marines are definitely the smallest branch. So I

01:07:32.320 think it's like numbers wise, it's a little bit easier for them to hit their numbers, but you're

01:07:34.880 right though. Okay. Sure. Special forces. But they do. But they do. The Marines have an amazing

01:07:38.540 culture. Like they do as a guy that was in the army. I was in Ranger Regiment and then I was in

01:07:41.760 Special Forces. So we have our own culture too, but it's, you go in and you still go in.

01:07:46.080 Enclave of a larger branch. Yeah. You go into general population too. And there's not as much

01:07:51.780 of a culture. The Marines have their, if you, I was deployed a lot with the Marines, like they have

01:07:55.600 their own very unique culture. And there's a lot of legacy families in the Marine Corps too. There's

01:07:59.700 a lot of people who like their dad was in the Marines, their uncle was in the Marines. Like they

01:08:02.760 have a familial tie to it. And so it's like, it is part of their identity very much. And so now you're

01:08:08.100 seeing, I think just because America is getting probably fatter and dumber too. Like that's an,

01:08:12.020 that's an issue because like the Marines don't play around. They actually have really high

01:08:14.860 standards. The army and the Navy, cause it's a bigger machine. They'll tend to kind of play

01:08:18.720 with the standards a little bit. I think the army is the only branch you can get into if you

01:08:22.760 have hand tattoos, all the other branches you can't get into. Yeah. I could be slightly off

01:08:26.860 on that one, but that's what I've heard. For a while there, the Marines wouldn't even let you

01:08:29.780 have like sleeves. Like you had to have. Says the man with full sleeves. Yeah. I was never going to

01:08:34.280 make it. I had to go with the army. Yeah. But yeah. So the Marines still have pretty high

01:08:39.280 standards. I mean, and. But do you think that's what people want? They want this call to like be higher

01:08:44.420 than yourself. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And they want that culture. Everything is.

01:08:48.280 Get ready for Las Vegas style action at BetMGM, the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at

01:08:55.540 your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for when you play classics like MGM

01:09:01.360 Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat, and Roulette. With our ever-growing

01:09:07.300 library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table games, and signature BetMGM

01:09:12.800 service. There's no better way to bring the excitement and ambience of Las Vegas home to

01:09:17.480 you than with BetMGM Casino. Download the BetMGM Casino app today. BetMGM and GameSense remind you

01:09:24.840 to play responsibly. BetMGM.com for T's and C's. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

01:09:30.820 If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact

01:09:34.860 Connex, Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant

01:09:43.460 to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

01:09:45.480 When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins

01:09:52.660 Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you.

01:09:58.460 We care about you. We care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird,

01:10:04.460 I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's

01:10:10.020 really big on care. Did I mention that we care? We're told nowadays it's like toxic. Like they

01:10:18.880 want that toxic masculine culture. And that's basically what the Marines are. I hope they

01:10:25.000 don't lose it with all this nonsense. I think they're fighting it silently as hard as they

01:10:28.760 possibly can. But that probably speaks to why they're actually hitting their recruiting numbers

01:10:33.560 because people are still like, okay, that's something I can put my fingers on. That's a real

01:10:37.060 thing. I want to be part of it. Yeah. Do you feel like you're both dads of

01:10:41.160 sons? Do you feel like the culture of toxic masculinity is something you have to prepare

01:10:45.220 them for? Like being told that you are the problem because you're a man? Just raise them like a good

01:10:49.280 man. Yeah. And if someone defines that as toxic masculinity, I think that's absurd, right?

01:10:54.740 Yeah. And just keep them away. I mean, I think you have to build your own culture. I mean,

01:10:57.860 I like to compare my childhood to the way my parents raised me. I think parents like my parents

01:11:04.680 are, they had to be less deliberate. They could just send their kids to a public school. Every

01:11:08.900 neighborhood had like Boy Scouts. There was football teams. It was just like, that's, you

01:11:13.900 know, it was, it was pretty easy to find. There was masculine role models everywhere. Whereas now,

01:11:18.160 I don't think it's that way at all. Like you've got to build your own community. Like we have a

01:11:21.820 jujitsu gym that we go to with our kids that, that specifically has a class for all the homeschool

01:11:25.720 kids so they can interact. But there's a lot of families there that we almost all share values

01:11:29.520 with and same thing with our church. So I think being deliberate is absolutely key and just

01:11:33.740 shielding them from that nonsense until they're old enough to like filter and understand that

01:11:38.140 like, Hey, this is propaganda coming from the people that want to make you weak.

01:11:41.020 That's an interesting line of dance when you're raising the kids. It's like, you don't want

01:11:44.100 to completely shield them because you don't want their brains to break when they enter this

01:11:47.940 like other dimension. You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what? So it's like, I'm not telling them

01:11:51.960 about it, but I'm also like, I'm preparing them. I think what's changed for me the most is I

01:11:55.820 didn't expect to, uh, become, uh, make religion so important in my life because I spent years

01:12:01.020 without it. And then I'd be like, this is the only anchor I have to give my kids in

01:12:05.420 this crazy reality. So hopefully that plus, you know, building that community and finding

01:12:09.980 people that share values is going to give them that like immune system to be in the crazy

01:12:14.420 world.

01:12:14.820 Yeah. You have to supply them with the blocks of community because otherwise they're just

01:12:18.420 adrift on their own.

01:12:19.500 Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's crazy. I didn't, that was one of the bigger changes that came through

01:12:23.260 me. Like my wife was a Christian and I was not until recently. Right. And I was like, I need,

01:12:28.300 I need this for me, but like my son who's seven has been a Christian longer than me.

01:12:32.140 Right. Which is funny. But like, I knew that needed to happen because it was getting so

01:12:36.900 dark in the world that I keep saying it's like a non-reality and having that like a God

01:12:43.960 centered life was the only thing I think I know that is going to give him and my daughter

01:12:48.400 a future to like, you know, ward off all this crazy stuff.

01:12:52.140 Yeah. I think that the churches are definitely key. I mean, I grew up going to church, but I

01:12:56.100 never considered myself to be like an overtly like super religious person. I mean, I always

01:13:01.180 believe in God, I always believe in Jesus, but, uh, but having kids, it's like, we've

01:13:04.960 got to find a good church. We've got to get them involved in the kids group, the jam group,

01:13:08.820 whatever it is, and just keep them in that community. Cause we at least know that we share

01:13:12.560 the most fundamental values with, with the people that they're going to be around.

01:13:16.060 Yep.

01:13:16.240 Do you think that there's a relationship then between a culture that says don't have kids

01:13:20.240 and the culture that is non-religious? I mean, they're kind of encouraging people to not

01:13:24.780 find a church. Cause I've heard this, you know, for a lot of people that when you have

01:13:28.700 children, you go from being like, Oh, I go to church on Christmas and Easter with my

01:13:32.680 parents to being like, we're going every Sunday. We were being involved in this. I feel like

01:13:36.120 it's interesting to hear it from, from both of you that you guys chose to have children.

01:13:40.140 And again, it had that renewal of faith effect. I mean, or complete creation of faith.

01:13:43.860 Yeah. No, I had to, um, it was just becoming too depraved everywhere else, you know, and we,

01:13:49.020 we kind of had to like, I don't want to say interview churches, but we get to scope out a lot

01:13:52.140 of different ones. Like there's pride flags on certain churches and I'm not going, I'm not

01:13:55.580 seven foot in those, but, um, you know, I'd have to make sure it was the right.

01:13:58.380 I'll be like, please give me your stances on these things.

01:14:00.240 Yeah. Yeah. Cause you're not going to have to. And like, I've done it once in person and I will

01:14:05.180 say, I get a little bit awkward about it because you feel bad. You want to be like, I want to keep

01:14:09.020 coming here with an open mind, but also I know that these are fundamental values that I will not break.

01:14:13.880 And you know, cause I grew up Episcopalian. So the Episcopalian church and the church of England,

01:14:17.680 uh, have shifted a lot, especially when it comes to transgender issues. They are now saying like,

01:14:23.300 well, it's maybe we should support kids to transition at any age and things like that.

01:14:26.700 And I just know that is against doctrine. That's against theology. And you're seeing the break

01:14:30.700 in these things. You'll see it, um, a little bit with the, the Methodist church or the, uh,

01:14:35.580 congressional church, uh, they're starting to, to split. And it began with the conversation around

01:14:40.040 gay marriage and I know culturally there are, you know, that's been the fastest changing issue in our

01:14:45.180 generation. Right. Like most people are like, have a great time, be married. You know, we can't force

01:14:50.360 churches to marry you, but if you want to be married in the eyes of state, you know, we don't

01:14:53.420 care about it. But if you have a fundamentalist view of marriage, then, you know, it begins these

01:14:59.100 conversations about like, well, what is marriage? What is gender? What is, what is, uh, sexuality and

01:15:04.140 things like that. And churches are really falling apart at the seams as they try to debate these things.

01:15:08.260 I think seeing, uh, a lot of people who cared the least about lockdowns were also ones that didn't

01:15:13.820 have kids. You know, like, so I saw a lot of people who were like, I just let the government

01:15:17.080 steamroll all of us. But meanwhile, we're like, you're almost hyper, you're, you are hypersensitive

01:15:22.420 to all this tyranny because your kids are literally losing their future. So like you're, you're fighting

01:15:27.780 that. And, uh, this would be interesting to see how, cause I think the, the map has changed. I mean,

01:15:32.680 you're talking about people moving from cities. I saw people leave New York city to come where we were.

01:15:36.260 We left that part of New York down here. And it's like every people you see people who leave in

01:15:40.640 California or going to Florida or whatever. So it's gonna be interesting to see how that all

01:15:43.820 changes in the next 10 years. I mean, I'm sure you felt it a little bit in the election, but

01:15:48.480 Did you have people leave Seattle or did people flock to Seattle during COVID?

01:15:52.780 Oh, they left. Yeah. They fled, they fled the cities, especially after 20, after, after riots too.

01:15:56.900 Yeah. Yeah. Big time. There was a big exodus out of Seattle, Portland. So, uh, and then also,

01:16:01.540 unfortunately we've had a big exodus of conservatives from the state that are just leaving,

01:16:05.260 going to Montana, Idaho. I mean, I probably talked to conservatives, folks that are in

01:16:08.820 my district that I know, or share my values. They're like, yeah, we were just out for the

01:16:11.940 weekend in Montana, looking at houses or, you know, I'm like, you don't go, where are you

01:16:15.680 going to go? I mean, we need your vote. I was like, just, just wait, you know, like,

01:16:19.800 but we were talking about Texas before. And it's like, I asked people like, where are you

01:16:23.380 going to go? I mean, cause look, a lot of these folks, a lot of the people that voted for

01:16:27.520 these bad policies, they're going to the same place as you are because they destroyed one

01:16:31.040 area. And now they're going to go to, I mean, I've heard people saying that, Hey, there's

01:16:34.720 a whole movement in some of the bigger cities in Montana to flip them blue as well. So it's

01:16:38.620 like, it's coming to your front door. So I think you should just make a stand. Obviously

01:16:42.240 like if you've got to get out of a big city, like New York, Portland, like the big ones,

01:16:45.840 I would get out of those, but you do need to find your community and make a stand.

01:16:49.600 Well, and especially if you have young children, like you were saying you're, you grew up not

01:16:52.960 that far from the district you now live in. So probably with you having young children,

01:16:56.380 you want them to be near family and people you know, it's very, it's, I think it's a

01:17:00.500 lot easier to be like, well, I'll just leave when you're single, basically when you're unmarried

01:17:04.120 or you're only married and you don't have any kids. I mean, I'm sure you've had to make

01:17:07.440 similar choices, Shane, about being like, we need our kids to be around the building

01:17:11.440 blocks of a community that we would want to be a part of. Exactly. You can't do that if

01:17:15.340 you're just picking up and moving all the time to flee the blue wave. Yeah. And you're

01:17:19.580 just at that point too, you're just hoping for like an election or for some other policymaker

01:17:23.360 to save you, which I don't know, I think you should just stay and get involved where

01:17:26.800 you're at and fight. Obviously there's some, some lost causes here and there, but for the

01:17:30.500 most part, I think people got to get a dig in your heels. You got to make a community.

01:17:33.320 And unfortunately it kind of, you know, it's, it's, it's a, it's a lot more work because

01:17:36.780 you have to be more deliberate, but it is, I feel much more connected like right now with

01:17:40.880 my community. And I feel like if we continue to be deliberate in the way that we are, like

01:17:44.500 our kids will grow up in a great environment. Yeah. Yeah. That was one of the other kind of

01:17:48.260 great things about COVID is like, I have to really set an example now for my kids. Yeah, exactly.

01:17:52.100 Like I, and I didn't talk politics publicly, really. I wrote other things for other magazines

01:17:56.960 and then the riots happened, the lockdowns happened. I was like, if I don't say anything

01:18:00.600 now, I'm setting a bad example for my kids. So I'm going to lose all my friends now. I'm

01:18:05.120 going to speak out and we're going to move and all that stuff, but I'm glad I did. I

01:18:09.440 wouldn't change anything. Yeah. A hundred percent. It was, it was just so bad. So this is a moment

01:18:14.140 in history. If we overcome it and we, you know, we keep pushing, we actually stabilize the

01:18:17.380 ship and bring back some sort of a common culture. People are going to say, Hey, what did you

01:18:21.160 do? Right. What, what were you doing in all those years where it seemed like we're going

01:18:24.700 to lose the Republic? And so people got a choice to make. So what is the common culture? Like

01:18:28.220 if we could define our ideal common culture, knowing that not everyone's going to see eye

01:18:32.360 to eye on everything, like what would be the core values in your opinion? I mean, I think

01:18:36.640 the core values of us taking care of our, our family and our country are huge and they're

01:18:42.400 very fun and you can completely disagree on like, you know, political issues or whatever.

01:18:46.780 But at the end of the day, if you want to take care of your kids and you want people

01:18:49.440 to actually get married and reproduce and have kids. I mean, I think it says something

01:18:53.260 about the society when there is an entire movement that says like, don't have kids,

01:18:57.320 you know, kill, kill your children. Don't have kids. Like that just means your society's

01:19:01.000 dying. Or wait. That's what, that's what I always, I mean.

01:19:02.360 Continue to wait. Yeah. Wait until it's, wait. Freeze your eggs and just push it off.

01:19:05.360 Freeze your eggs and wait until you have like what, a four or five year window. And then

01:19:08.660 like, I mean, that's just insane, you know, but I think having a culture where it's

01:19:11.900 like, Hey, we've got, we value the family and we value our country. Like family and country are very,

01:19:16.220 very real things that we, we fight for, we protect and we help each other out.

01:19:19.420 Yeah. It's funny. Cause as you're saying that I'm thinking of the Kennedy family,

01:19:22.380 because this was something that I've read was, was a big part of this. Now, as we know,

01:19:27.200 very Democrat family, right? They're, they're Catholic. So they had a lot of kids. They're

01:19:30.860 very family oriented. And then they were also very service oriented. They were, they were trained to be,

01:19:35.300 you know, in to think of their community and how they could serve it. Obviously,

01:19:39.580 I don't know that I would have picked the ways they chose to, but on the other hand,

01:19:43.640 I would like to have neighbors who also value family and community service. Yeah.

01:19:48.200 Yeah. It's, it's wild to see. I mean, I'm just, I'm, we're, we're seeing a lot of kids in our

01:19:54.440 neighborhood who have meaninglessness. Like they're not taught anything about, you know,

01:19:59.540 I'm not even just talking about God. I'm just talking about like, in terms of work ethic or,

01:20:03.300 you know, caring at school or everything's very nihilistic, which is one of those things that I'm,

01:20:08.780 I'm trying to shield my son from now. Cause it seems like a lot of his friends who aren't at his

01:20:12.360 school or in his church, they're very, you know, down and out and they're young. Right. And I don't

01:20:19.480 know if they're absorbing that from their parents or from being on the TV too long, but that, that is

01:20:23.760 one thing that's really bothering me. It's like, are those, are those kids going to be able to turn

01:20:27.380 around? So I'm trying to set an example for them as much as I can. Yeah. Right. But does those kids

01:20:32.100 just get worse growing up or is that nihilism? Do they flip it somehow? Which would be like,

01:20:36.180 is there a rebellion going to be to rebel against nihilism growing up? I don't know.

01:20:39.360 There is an increase in young people who are going to church. I mean, we are seeing a sort of

01:20:44.500 strange conservative echo chamber as people look for community in a way they never had it. I mean,

01:20:50.340 it is interesting to see these very small shifts. I think it was 2019. I started seeing the reports

01:20:56.420 of a Gen Z is the most conservative generation. When you look at it, it's like they are slightly

01:21:01.720 more conservative. They are majority. So left-leaning, but that's still in some ways

01:21:05.260 an interesting time. It's progress. Yeah. We always, I always hear the term,

01:21:08.160 the pendulum swings, right? Like, and now what does that mean when we start to see a church going

01:21:14.460 to a interested, like young people, you know, you're going to have these hippie parents who

01:21:19.340 are like, no, are you sure you don't want to change your gender? And their kids are going to

01:21:23.040 be like reading the Bible. Like, I want to save you. I mean, I joke around all the time that like

01:21:27.460 growing up in Portland, the most rebellious thing I could do was like enlist in the army

01:21:30.540 and go to the Ranger Regiment or whatever. But I think there's a fact, there's a degree of that.

01:21:35.020 But I think you're right though. If you, if you look at like what culture is feeding people,

01:21:38.980 it's hopeless. I mean, like what, what do you, I mean, you can't even convince people right now

01:21:42.560 to like do basic things like join the military, like have a family, like we're attacking,

01:21:45.940 like having a family, we're attacking serving your country. Okay. So then if we take those things off,

01:21:51.160 what's left? Like to become a TikTok, YouTube star, materialism, massive.

01:21:55.860 To constantly seek affirmation from the internet, the vague and faceless internet.

01:21:59.560 Yeah, exactly. Get likes on it. I mean, it's crazy. And then we wonder why we have a mental

01:22:02.860 health crisis, you know, when we just continue to feed people drugs.

01:22:06.000 Yeah, right. That's it. Yeah. Here, have some, have some drugs or whatever.

01:22:09.580 It'll make it better. Yeah. Here, have some drugs.

01:22:11.340 That'll make everything better. Yeah. You need some of these to balance you out a little bit.

01:22:14.480 But yeah, I think if we, if we can really just highlight how there's nothing else there,

01:22:18.540 like that's, that's all they have. And over here on this other side,

01:22:21.280 there is some hope. I think we could eventually get back some kind of a...

01:22:24.140 Get ready for Las Vegas style action at Bad MGM, the king of online casinos.

01:22:29.560 Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for

01:22:35.080 when you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack,

01:22:40.080 Baccarat, and Roulette. With our ever-growing library of digital slot games,

01:22:44.900 a large selection of online table games, and signature Bad MGM service,

01:22:49.420 there's no better way to bring the excitement and ambience of Las Vegas home to you

01:22:53.280 than with Bad MGM Casino. Download the Bad MGM Casino app today.

01:22:58.800 Bad MGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly.

01:23:01.440 Bad MGM.com for T's and C's.

01:23:03.360 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

01:23:06.660 If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

01:23:09.760 please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600

01:23:15.280 to speak to an advisor, free of charge.

01:23:17.800 Bad MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

01:23:22.560 When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops.

01:23:26.880 So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance,

01:23:29.000 I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you.

01:23:34.080 Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs.

01:23:39.500 Weird, I don't remember saying that part.

01:23:42.240 Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care.

01:23:48.260 Did I mention that we care?

01:23:51.580 Common culture.

01:23:52.520 Sometimes I think the best thing conservatives could do is just like have more fun.

01:23:56.400 Like there was that list that came out, do you remember this?

01:23:58.260 A couple months ago, and it was like reasons to have kids, reasons not to have kids,

01:24:03.260 and the reason not to have kids is by some like feminist.

01:24:05.760 It was like 250.

01:24:06.560 Chelsea Hammer.

01:24:07.420 Maybe, I can't even remember.

01:24:09.280 But it was like 250 things wrong.

01:24:11.140 And the reasons to have kids were like,

01:24:12.440 sometimes they'll mow your lawn for you or something.

01:24:14.120 It's like very self-serving.

01:24:15.640 And I find this to be like the opposite.

01:24:18.360 Like if you get lost in the Instagram algorithm of like young moms,

01:24:21.920 who will be like, yeah, it's hard.

01:24:23.500 These children cry and are difficult at times.

01:24:26.580 They always say it's worth it.

01:24:27.960 They always find value in this.

01:24:29.560 And I think that's what we don't stress enough to people.

01:24:31.980 Like the positivity and the optimism.

01:24:34.600 Even when, you know, you don't have the freedom you might have when you're young.

01:24:38.060 Enjoy it while you're young, but then don't feel like having children.

01:24:41.460 Or even a step back, getting married.

01:24:43.840 I think so many people look at marriage as this trap, you know,

01:24:48.180 that you are suddenly shackled to this person who is just always going to be a disappointment to you.

01:24:53.020 And that, I mean, I'm not married, but that can't be true, right?

01:24:56.540 No, it's sad.

01:24:57.540 Yeah, it's sad that people think that way.

01:24:59.260 And I think most of that's just propaganda too.

01:25:01.360 Because if you look at just like, none of us would be here if people didn't get married and reproduce and have kids.

01:25:06.960 Like the human species.

01:25:07.380 Oh, they're figuring out a way.

01:25:08.640 They're figuring out a way.

01:25:09.680 No, I'm against that.

01:25:11.740 Yeah, they got CRISPR or whatever now.

01:25:12.840 It's terrible.

01:25:13.560 No, my heart unfolded infinitely after getting married and then having kids.

01:25:17.800 Like hearing your kids like voice and laugh for the first time.

01:25:20.720 So I try to have hope despite all of the darkness because it's dark.

01:25:26.040 Yeah.

01:25:26.340 But nothing, having those kids and having a wife, it makes it all like you're fine, you know?

01:25:31.040 And I think of my grandparents who, they fled terrible stuff.

01:25:34.220 Like they fled like the pogroms, right?

01:25:35.960 Or then they came here and they were raising kids during all the assassinations of the 60s.

01:25:39.220 So I know like it's bad and it's bad now too.

01:25:42.340 Maybe worse in other depraved ways.

01:25:44.880 But you have to have that like anchor at home.

01:25:47.360 I think that's the big threat to this culture of like serve the self and look for affirmation online.

01:25:53.180 If you have core people who you love and whose opinion you value, your spouse, your children, your family,

01:25:59.080 the people you actually interact with every day in your community,

01:26:01.760 then you don't need the affirmation of, you know, hundreds, thousands of online followers who don't really know you.

01:26:07.860 And I think that structure of having this dopamine injection in your pocket every five seconds

01:26:13.920 is sort of one of the biggest challenges to family and moving forward.

01:26:18.380 Because if you could find value on the internet, which is not real value,

01:26:22.360 then you aren't wiring yourself to seek it in real life.

01:26:25.980 Yeah, no, it's very true.

01:26:27.620 I'm really lucky.

01:26:28.420 My parents, they just had their 45th wedding anniversary.

01:26:31.060 So they'd been married for a very long time, had lots of kids.

01:26:33.500 And it's funny, like the older you get, the more you realize,

01:26:35.480 man, my parents actually had it figured out.

01:26:36.900 Like when I was a teenager, I thought they didn't know anything.

01:26:38.720 But I bet they didn't.

01:26:39.620 Like that's the craziest thing.

01:26:40.500 I think so many people feel like they have to have life figured out to move forward.

01:26:44.140 There's an anxiety about it.

01:26:45.600 But really like you figure things out as you go along.

01:26:48.940 These things are, you're supposed to build community around you in a positive way, right?

01:26:53.220 Yeah.

01:26:53.520 And that's part of it, having someone who you figure out life with.

01:26:56.380 Exactly.

01:26:56.760 And my parents were always just like, well, you know, find someone that you love and then have kids.

01:27:00.120 And I was like, what kind of advice is that?

01:27:02.720 What do you mean?

01:27:03.380 Like, what about my career goals and all that other stuff?

01:27:05.240 But like now, now that I'm in my forties, I'm like, they were right.

01:27:08.940 Actually, that's like the most simple, basic advice.

01:27:11.060 Figure out all the other stuff, you know?

01:27:13.140 But then other than that, like that's, that's the really important thing is building a solid foundation of family.

01:27:17.320 It's the greatest risk I ever took was having like taking that leap of getting married and having kids.

01:27:21.840 And meanwhile, I'm surrounded by a lot of people who they're just, my friends from like college are just now having kids.

01:27:26.360 You know, I've, I've been a dad for, you know, seven years now, but now they're starting and they're starting late, but they have to like get all these other things in order first.

01:27:34.720 Yeah.

01:27:34.900 And I was like, when I, when we had a kid, we only had a few hundred dollars in the bank, right?

01:27:38.880 We left with very little.

01:27:40.360 Yeah.

01:27:40.680 And I was driving all over the New York to work at various jobs.

01:27:45.060 But we made it work.

01:27:46.060 Yeah.

01:27:46.220 Right.

01:27:46.440 And people keep telling me, oh, I don't have enough money.

01:27:48.520 I'm like, trust me, like you will make it work somehow.

01:27:51.000 Yeah.

01:27:51.300 You'll never be, you'll never be fully ready.

01:27:53.320 Nothing will always be something else.

01:27:54.500 Exactly.

01:27:55.280 Exactly.

01:27:55.620 Well, and that's what I hear a lot with all of the steps towards what's called adulthood, even though I actually don't like that word at all.

01:28:00.620 You know, I do feel we were talking about this earlier with student loans.

01:28:04.020 Like I feel sad for people who are like stuck with these massive student loans because they were told this is the way forward.

01:28:09.900 Right.

01:28:10.160 I mean, similar to the military, it's also true of like firefighters and everyone else, like people join unions.

01:28:15.320 There were steps that people were supposed to be able to take to join the middle class and to have these like moments of the American dream, buying a house, being able to start a family, being able to like.

01:28:24.500 Leave your kids a little better off than you were.

01:28:26.520 Right.

01:28:26.760 And now it is a depressing state of the world to be like, I don't know if I'm going to be able to buy a house.

01:28:33.080 And this one millionaire is saying I make avocado toast and that's why I can't.

01:28:36.400 You know what I'm saying?

01:28:36.920 Yeah, exactly.

01:28:37.400 It's just, it is a difficult thing to go into.

01:28:41.520 On the other hand, you shouldn't live in fear of them.

01:28:43.220 You can make things work.

01:28:44.360 You can make things better.

01:28:45.860 Yeah.

01:28:46.080 You can make it work, but we do need to hold accountable to people that sold that dream out.

01:28:50.660 I mean, because literally the environment that like our parents were raised in is completely different because at the time you could leave college, you could leave high school and get a decent paying job.

01:28:58.620 You could support a family on, but that all got shipped overseas for the most part, you know, and then all these other, all the other institutional rot that I think really just a lot of greedy elites have taken advantage of.

01:29:08.620 Now it's like we're at this point where it is very, very challenging.

01:29:11.860 People can make it work, but you're right.

01:29:13.240 It is very challenging.

01:29:13.960 If you played by the rules and you went and took a bunch of student loans, like now you kind of are screwed.

01:29:18.540 Like you're not going to be able to purchase a house or start a family at the same time that your parents did.

01:29:23.520 So kind of like all their old advice, it's like, I can't bootstrap my way out of this.

01:29:27.780 Maybe you can, but like good on you.

01:29:29.560 But for the most part, everybody can't.

01:29:31.440 And then like your traditional institutions of like, well, then you can just join the military and say, well, great.

01:29:34.960 Well, what am I getting myself into now?

01:29:36.500 You know, like, so I do see, I can see why it's dark out there for sure.

01:29:41.220 It's hard.

01:29:41.760 I think, I think it's so interesting to see, like we had this generation of learn to code, but now it's like learn to farm, learn to like be an electrician, learn to wire something.

01:29:50.380 Like then you would be able to buy a house right now because you'd be making actual money.

01:29:53.840 And that was a secret that we did not talk about because again, we were, we were sold this idea that like, well, college is really the thing.

01:30:00.380 After, after all of these steps towards trying to move into the middle class, it's, it is disheartening.

01:30:06.600 I think for some people.

01:30:07.360 Look how good the trades people did during lockdowns.

01:30:09.300 Oh yeah.

01:30:09.800 They're killing it.

01:30:10.160 Plumbers were killing it.

01:30:11.400 They were great.

01:30:12.200 And the people who went to college and got some BS degree were hurting.

01:30:16.060 Waiting for their stimulus check.

01:30:17.160 Exactly.

01:30:17.800 It's crazy.

01:30:18.160 The crazy thing is it's all, it wasn't a force of nature that did it.

01:30:21.900 It wasn't like, it didn't have to be this way.

01:30:23.580 And because it was done, it can be undone.

01:30:25.420 I think that's the thing for folks to, to concentrate on and vote and organize accordingly.

01:30:29.520 Like we can, we can make systemic fixes.

01:30:31.800 It's not going to happen overnight.

01:30:32.960 It's not going to happen in one election cycle.

01:30:34.360 But if we identify what the key problems are, I think, especially if we get the economics

01:30:38.140 right and we start bringing back a lot of the manufacturing, we have more protections,

01:30:41.160 trade policies, immigration, those types of things.

01:30:43.480 We, we can't create that, that economic environment, but then we have a lot of work to do in the

01:30:47.180 culture where we say, Hey, look, the opportunity is there.

01:30:49.720 Like let's get back to actually valuing, valuing family because you can have all these things.

01:30:55.060 And I think in some ways, like trusting young people to become good adults.

01:30:58.300 Like I think about, um, probably this is an issue that comes from Washington, uh, the

01:31:03.120 long haul trucking industry.

01:31:04.540 You can't get into it when you're 18.

01:31:06.500 You have to be 20 to start.

01:31:07.960 But that means if you leave high school, not wanting to go to college, you can't, you have

01:31:13.100 to do something else for two years.

01:31:14.560 And at that point, you've already started a career.

01:31:16.300 You're unlikely to then turn into this industry that is now dying off.

01:31:19.760 They desperately need people to join.

01:31:21.740 Uh, and I find this fascinating because the justification for not letting 18 year olds

01:31:26.900 drive semi trucks is they're not good drivers.

01:31:29.520 We don't trust them, which is sort of bizarre because let's just send men who have families

01:31:35.460 on the road for long periods of time and make their home lives unstable and then create

01:31:39.620 all kinds of problems.

01:31:40.340 Like, and if there's a war, they'll give them a tank to drive.

01:31:42.560 They'll give them a tank to drive.

01:31:44.060 You can buy it.

01:31:44.680 Then it's okay.

01:31:45.660 Yeah.

01:31:45.820 It doesn't make any sense.

01:31:46.920 I think this, this is the strange thing about our culture.

01:31:48.900 It's like, we, we say that we love the young people and same time, we don't hold them

01:31:52.900 to a standard of being able to be effective.

01:31:55.540 Uh, we were talking a little earlier about, you know, you were saying the kids at community

01:31:58.400 college had something they wanted and the four-year institutions and the private schools,

01:32:03.820 you know, they're, they're, they're kind of

01:32:05.360 being babysat.

01:32:05.920 That was my experience in college.

01:32:07.500 There were some people who are really passionate, were driven, had something to do.

01:32:10.280 And then you had other people.

01:32:11.380 I remember talking to this one girl and she was saying, well, I'm going to get my master's

01:32:14.560 because I don't, I don't really want to be an adult yet.

01:32:16.600 You want to be like, you're going to spend how much money getting a master's degree to

01:32:20.260 then what?

01:32:21.600 Procrastination through debt.

01:32:22.820 Yeah.

01:32:23.120 Yeah.

01:32:23.360 We did, we did in our legislation laws with the example of being long-haul drugging, tell

01:32:27.380 them, well, we don't really trust you to do the work.

01:32:29.480 We don't trust you to do the things.

01:32:30.440 So stay in school.

01:32:31.260 Yeah.

01:32:31.920 Which is crazy.

01:32:32.780 Yeah.

01:32:32.940 And there's so much of that is excessive government regulation.

01:32:35.500 I mean, even when I was a kid, which wasn't that long ago, you could get summer jobs.

01:32:39.300 I think from the time you were like 14 on, you can work fast food, you can go stock the

01:32:43.020 shelves at the grocery store, but now you kids can't do that.

01:32:45.960 And so like, they don't get to take these intermittent, intermittent steps into adulthood

01:32:50.200 or go and like, Hey, if, if a 16 year old wants to eventually be a long haul trucker,

01:32:54.120 like why isn't there a program where he, you know, learns how to inspect the vehicle?

01:32:57.720 He learned some basics of driving, like those types of things.

01:33:00.500 You know, we, we have a real issue right now that most of our, you know, electric grid

01:33:04.680 and everything we rely on is heavily digitized and the Chinese can hack into all that.

01:33:08.900 And so why don't we have backup analog systems?

01:33:10.620 Like, why aren't we teaching people these types of things that, that a long time ago

01:33:13.960 were offshore or offshore, why don't we just bring those back?

01:33:17.140 I mean, I think that's key, but also let young kids actually get out there and work.

01:33:20.360 Yeah.

01:33:20.560 Yeah.

01:33:20.940 Do you think there's a nimbyism to it?

01:33:22.520 Like with manufacturing jobs, no one wants the factory to be in their neighborhood.

01:33:26.280 Do you think that feeds into the resistance to bringing it back?

01:33:28.360 Or do you think American culture would be happy to see manufacturing jobs return?

01:33:31.260 I mean, I think American culture would be happy to see them back in the areas where

01:33:34.880 they were taken from in particular.

01:33:37.400 Because when those factories leave, we had a paper mill in one of our cities that basically

01:33:43.040 got, it got bought up by Coke industries, the Coke brothers.

01:33:45.280 We gutted it out.

01:33:46.160 It used to employ about a thousand people.

01:33:48.060 Now it only employs about a hundred.

01:33:49.780 But with that, it's like a vacuum when those leave.

01:33:51.960 It's because it's not just the factory jobs, it's everything that supported the factory.

01:33:54.960 And so you have people who, you know, they ran the restaurant across the way for it.

01:33:58.800 They provided the uniforms for the work.

01:34:00.600 Like all of that just gets sucked out in one sweeping blow, essentially.

01:34:04.800 So if there was a way to start bringing those jobs back, I think most of these communities

01:34:08.800 would be like, oh, absolutely.

01:34:09.740 This is jobs.

01:34:10.440 This is money for our people.

01:34:12.200 This is going to give my 18, 19-year-old a way that he can actually get a job and start

01:34:16.520 saving up for a family.

01:34:17.640 Yeah.

01:34:17.840 And again, I'm going to go back to, I don't understand why the left isn't screaming for

01:34:21.660 them to come back because as we know, China doesn't observe environmental or human rights

01:34:27.160 standards when it comes to work.

01:34:28.760 So why are we letting them do this?

01:34:31.100 Like, this is the thing that bothers me about, and I hate to get too partisan about it, but

01:34:34.820 if you're left-leaning and you're not screaming to get the manufacturing jobs back to make

01:34:39.800 purely on humanitarian reasons because we are harming children in other countries, then what

01:34:45.480 are you doing?

01:34:46.080 I don't understand, how can you say that you're this compassionate party when you don't hold

01:34:50.680 yourself accountable to a global standard?

01:34:52.440 If we're a globalist world, which I personally hate, then why don't you apply these standards

01:34:56.580 to children outside of the U.S.?

01:34:57.900 Because it's false compassion.

01:34:58.820 Oh, yeah.

01:34:59.280 Yeah.

01:34:59.620 If you don't already know.

01:35:00.640 And financial incentives, too.

01:35:01.960 I mean, this is why we got to flip the paradigm on the conservative side where conservatives are

01:35:05.960 like, we can't go after these big businesses because if we do that, we're socialists and

01:35:09.200 we're communists.

01:35:09.740 Like, well, these guys are destroying the country.

01:35:11.100 And the vast majority of them are hardcore, progressive, woke, globalist Democrats, and

01:35:17.480 they're not doing anything for the country.

01:35:19.240 They're benefiting from our system.

01:35:21.220 They're shipping our jobs overseas.

01:35:22.360 They're using hedge funds like BlackRock essentially to rob us of our pension funds, and then they're

01:35:27.460 investing it overseas.

01:35:28.340 Like, so what are they actually doing for the country?

01:35:29.740 So I think if we can actually flip that paradigm on the right, and then also, I mean, the left

01:35:33.800 is like the progressives, the squad, all these guys.

01:35:36.320 It's like, okay, so now you guys are pro-war.

01:35:38.440 You don't want to go after the major global corporations.

01:35:41.180 Like, you don't want to protect American jobs.

01:35:43.020 Like, what are you progressive about?

01:35:44.500 And then they'll just put up a rainbow flag.

01:35:46.460 Get ready for Las Vegas-style action at BetMGM, the king of online casinos.

01:35:52.060 Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous

01:35:56.960 for when you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack,

01:36:02.260 Baccarat, and Roulette.

01:36:04.080 With our ever-growing library of digital slot games, alert selection of online table games,

01:36:09.080 and signature BetMGM service, there's no better way to bring the excitement and ambience

01:36:14.120 of Las Vegas home to you than with BetMGM Casino.

01:36:18.060 Download the BetMGM Casino app today.

01:36:21.160 BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly.

01:36:23.640 BetMGM.com for T's and C's.

01:36:25.380 19 plus to wager, Ontario only.

01:36:27.580 Please play responsibly.

01:36:28.860 If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

01:36:31.960 please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge.

01:36:40.020 BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

01:36:44.680 When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops.

01:36:48.840 So, on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell

01:36:53.760 our clients that we really care about you.

01:36:56.380 We care about you.

01:36:57.520 We care about you.

01:36:58.460 Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs.

01:37:01.700 Weird, I don't remember saying that part.

01:37:04.420 Visit Desjardins.com slash care.

01:37:06.700 And get insurance that's really big on care.

01:37:09.420 Care, care.

01:37:10.420 Did I mention that we care?

01:37:11.500 A little trans thing on it.

01:37:14.940 Like, that's it.

01:37:15.320 You know, like, and my work care is done.

01:37:16.540 That's the one thing I got.

01:37:17.620 You know, I want to send men into your daughter's bathroom.

01:37:20.400 Like, that's okay.

01:37:21.560 I guess that's where the progressive left is at.

01:37:23.380 It's wild.

01:37:24.180 Yeah.

01:37:24.680 It's men to your bathroom.

01:37:25.480 But then also, we talked about migration issues earlier.

01:37:27.840 I've known people to pull kids from their school districts because the schools are then

01:37:31.560 opening classes for adult male migrants.

01:37:34.140 And you want to say, like, I don't want to take any risks with my child.

01:37:38.640 Like, it's not worth the gamble.

01:37:41.040 And I'm sorry that you, school district, have decided that it is.

01:37:43.940 I think we don't see these things because we're told to question them as to be bigoted

01:37:48.420 or racist or whatever.

01:37:50.240 There's so much fear of these labels that we restrict the conversations we have.

01:37:54.780 And we suspend logic to allow these things to happen.

01:37:58.280 And it's, I mean, it's like kind of an elite privilege, too, to not say anything about

01:38:02.500 that because the people that are affected first by all the illegal immigrants coming in,

01:38:05.900 it's the lowest part of the working class.

01:38:08.080 It's the folks that are struggling to get out of poverty already that have their job

01:38:11.260 undercut by the illegal immigrant.

01:38:12.520 They can't afford to homeschool.

01:38:13.860 They can't afford to send their kids to private school.

01:38:15.360 So their kids are now in school getting resources taken away from them because now there's illegal

01:38:19.700 immigrants in the school.

01:38:21.040 So, I mean, it's, I mean, the Democrats always take the moral high ground and say, like,

01:38:25.200 oh, we have to be more compassionate.

01:38:26.340 It's like, well, none of you guys are affected by it.

01:38:27.480 They're saying you have to be more compassionate.

01:38:28.660 Yeah, they're saying you guys have to deal with this.

01:38:30.120 It's just like with the riots and all that.

01:38:31.560 Most of them are living in gated communities.

01:38:32.920 And they're like, yeah, defund the police.

01:38:34.240 So, you know, it's like, well, this isn't your shop that's getting busted up.

01:38:37.560 It's not your daughter that's getting assaulted on the streets.

01:38:39.120 You're not paying the price for the choices they're making.

01:38:41.480 Yeah.

01:38:41.800 That's wild.

01:38:42.780 Yeah.

01:38:42.960 That's why the federal government needs to be reined in.

01:38:45.000 I was listening to an interview with you recently, or maybe it was a few months ago,

01:38:48.940 but the federal government trying to tell you people in your district that can't take

01:38:54.560 care of the sea lion problem.

01:38:55.680 Yeah.

01:38:55.960 Right.

01:38:56.100 So, like, they don't have any idea.

01:38:57.260 What's your sea lion problem?

01:38:58.060 Well, there's a sea lion problem.

01:38:59.340 Sea lions.

01:38:59.780 So, yeah.

01:39:00.080 So, the sea lions come in from the Pacific.

01:39:01.740 Okay.

01:39:02.180 And they swim up all of our main...

01:39:03.660 Would you call it a form of illegal immigration?

01:39:05.620 It is illegal immigration.

01:39:06.700 I mean, they're a predatory species.

01:39:08.080 So, because of the Endangered Species Act, the sea lions, like a long time ago, in the

01:39:12.020 late 70s, got put on the endangered species list.

01:39:15.040 And since then, they have drastically reproduced.

01:39:19.300 They're no longer endangered?

01:39:20.320 They are no longer endangered.

01:39:21.520 Now, they come and they eat up our salmon.

01:39:23.080 And so, they're an absolute menace to the fishing industry.

01:39:26.180 However, no one's allowed to kill them.

01:39:28.180 Some of the Native American tribes are allowed to kill a handful every year.

01:39:32.040 But when I was a kid, you wouldn't really see them too far east in the Columbia River.

01:39:36.800 But now, they swim up all the major tributaries.

01:39:39.260 And they're just out there.

01:39:39.740 I mean, because there's great food sources.

01:39:41.100 So, they're just out there chowing down on all the salmon that our fishermen rely on.

01:39:45.440 So, it's a big issue.

01:39:46.600 But we have bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., who, number one, want to control how many fish

01:39:50.200 we can actually pull out of the river, who have no idea about how the salmon runs actually

01:39:54.180 work.

01:39:54.620 But then, we also have bureaucrats that are like, hey, you guys can't go and take care

01:39:58.280 of this sea lion problem.

01:40:00.060 Bureaucrats who probably have no ties to your state.

01:40:01.800 No ties whatsoever.

01:40:02.540 No, it's all coming from the federal government.

01:40:04.020 There was a time I was covering pretty intensely Maine's lobstering industry because the federal

01:40:09.080 government said this huge portion of the Gulf of Maine, you can't fish in.

01:40:15.440 You can't do this during peak season.

01:40:17.180 And they're like, you're actually killing our industry.

01:40:20.080 And then, a couple months later, Biden had lobster from Maine served at their state dinner.

01:40:25.580 And you want to say, like, you obviously do not understand.

01:40:28.920 Like, you want our product, but you will not let us sustain.

01:40:32.740 I mean, a lot of people who work in these lobstering industries, it's a family business.

01:40:35.960 And I'm sure it's similar with the salmon industry.

01:40:38.320 You have, my favorite suggestion for this in Maine was there have been deaths of the right

01:40:44.840 whale that's the breed and we have to stop it.

01:40:48.520 Well, the deaths only occurred in Canada and the Canadian government did nothing about it.

01:40:53.140 And it also happened more than a decade ago.

01:40:56.020 So, literally nothing caused them to restrict the biggest industry in Maine.

01:41:02.060 And that seems crazy to me.

01:41:03.220 And it sounds similar.

01:41:04.340 Right, right.

01:41:04.780 With no thought.

01:41:05.460 I mean, I don't want the sea lions to die, but if they're not in danger anymore, it makes sense.

01:41:09.240 There has to be a relationship between nature and people who live there.

01:41:12.360 Exactly, exactly.

01:41:13.360 So, yeah.

01:41:14.020 I mean, that's a big issue.

01:41:15.160 And then also just the way that the salmon runs are regulated.

01:41:17.780 Like, every year, the federal government will put a cap on how many fish can be pulled out

01:41:21.560 of the river.

01:41:22.620 What's it based on?

01:41:23.760 It is based on an estimate that they make about a year out.

01:41:26.500 And so, if they're wrong.

01:41:27.440 But the thing is, with technology, we count the salmon that are coming through the different

01:41:31.860 dams, the different fish ladders.

01:41:33.100 So, we get, like, day to day.

01:41:34.460 And so, like, this last year, we had a historically huge run, but the federal government made their

01:41:39.060 projection, like, a year ahead of time.

01:41:40.840 And so, right before Labor Day, which is, like, people had plane tickets bought.

01:41:44.140 Like, it's a big fishing destination.

01:41:45.700 They said, no more fishing.

01:41:47.480 So, like, we lost, I think, millions of dollars going to the district.

01:41:51.040 Commercial fishermen, a lot of our river guides were just absolutely furious because people

01:41:54.800 who had invested in coming up and fishing during Labor Day, all that was taken away.

01:41:59.280 All the hotels, all the basic tourism economy that these people rely on for the rest of the

01:42:04.060 year cut off because Washington, D.C. couldn't bother to have their systems updated to what

01:42:09.180 the current head count of fish was.

01:42:10.620 And it's just like...

01:42:11.420 Well, and why should they get to set the standard?

01:42:13.320 Right, exactly.

01:42:13.820 Is this where the RAINS Act comes in?

01:42:15.320 Yeah, the RAINS Act.

01:42:16.300 Absolutely.

01:42:16.900 And that's, is that passed?

01:42:18.120 Or...

01:42:18.480 The Democrats, pretty much every Democrat voted against it.

01:42:21.180 Do you want to get a rundown of what that is for anyone else to say?

01:42:22.740 RAINS Act, I can't remember off the top of my head, but exactly what it stands.

01:42:25.440 It's like reining in excessive government regulation.

01:42:27.220 But basically, this would restore the power back to Congress because Congress, the legislative branch,

01:42:31.280 they're elected by the people and they're supposed to make the laws.

01:42:34.180 But what we've had in our country for far too long is unelected bureaucrats in our agencies

01:42:38.180 basically passing laws through regulation.

01:42:41.200 So the RAINS Act says, if you exceed a certain price tag, I think off the top of my head,

01:42:45.140 it's like a couple million, I think it's like three or $4 million.

01:42:47.240 If your regulation is going to cost three or $4 million, then it's not a regulation that

01:42:52.000 is...

01:42:52.880 The agencies don't have the power to make that regulation.

01:42:55.180 It has to go before Congress and actually be passed as a law.

01:42:58.680 So it would start to claw back a ton of government overreach.

01:43:01.820 It's very similar to the EPA versus West Virginia Supreme Court's case.

01:43:06.100 That's a Rand Paul.

01:43:07.020 I think he's back in that, right?

01:43:08.320 Yeah.

01:43:08.540 Yeah.

01:43:08.760 It'd be great.

01:43:09.560 Yeah.

01:43:09.840 It's insane how they can control something that has no effect on their lives or they know

01:43:13.540 nothing about.

01:43:14.540 Yeah.

01:43:14.680 It makes sense.

01:43:15.320 That's how the government is right.

01:43:16.460 Yeah.

01:43:17.040 For now.

01:43:17.560 The fourth branch of government.

01:43:18.680 Yeah.

01:43:18.900 Yeah.

01:43:19.980 It's true.

01:43:20.720 I feel like Washington, D.C. is the bureaucratic state of America.

01:43:23.320 There's just so much regulation coming out from people you'll never know or vote on.

01:43:27.540 Exactly.

01:43:27.840 And they know that too.

01:43:28.720 They know that they endure.

01:43:30.140 They know how the system works.

01:43:31.280 They know the sausage is made.

01:43:33.060 That's why the fiscal responsibility is another thing we got to bring back.

01:43:36.180 Not only are we running out of money, and that's the main issue, but also it's just

01:43:39.680 we keep funding all these agencies that basically, I mean, the Department of Defense, they haven't

01:43:44.200 passed an audit, I think, in the last two decades.

01:43:46.420 They can't tell us where our money's actually going.

01:43:48.500 But they would like more of it.

01:43:49.420 But they would like more of it right now.

01:43:50.740 And if you don't want to give them more money right now, then you probably love Vladimir Putin.

01:43:53.840 So it's just like-

01:43:55.220 It's crazy how they find out who loves Vladimir Putin by who won't give them money.

01:43:58.780 Yeah.

01:43:59.140 So I think fiscal responsibility where we actually make the government present to us, like, we

01:44:03.380 are going to take in this much money and we are going to spend this much money specifically

01:44:06.580 in these different areas.

01:44:07.940 I don't feel like that should be something that you need a special decoder ring to figure

01:44:11.840 out.

01:44:12.180 So if and when you go to Congress, is this what you see yourself pursuing?

01:44:16.700 Like, what do you see as being your biggest objective?

01:44:20.060 Or where do you see yourself?

01:44:21.700 Look, I think the fiscal issues are massive.

01:44:25.400 The debt crisis, I think, is very real.

01:44:27.500 And number one, I think that affects people's everyday lives.

01:44:30.000 Like, I mean, people are having a month of their wages stolen by inflation.

01:44:32.280 So we've got to figure that out.

01:44:33.980 We've got to get back to being energy independent.

01:44:36.080 We've got to be fiscally responsible.

01:44:37.480 We have to stop printing all that money just to make sure that people can actually have a decent

01:44:41.160 standard of living.

01:44:42.600 But also because I think that's one of our biggest national security threats right now.

01:44:45.900 If you look at everything that China is doing on the world stage to erode the power of the

01:44:49.680 dollar, what they're doing right now with OPEC, killing off the petrodollar, this is a major

01:44:53.520 threat.

01:44:53.920 If we lose our status or if our status as a prime reserve currency holder is even eroded,

01:44:59.120 that's basically all we export right now is dollars because of what we've done for our

01:45:02.640 manufacturing base.

01:45:03.480 So we've got to get serious, I think, about fiscal responsibility.

01:45:07.160 I think that's absolutely essential.

01:45:08.720 And then also, I think, securing the border, the crime, I think that's massive.

01:45:12.200 And then rolling back government regulation and protecting kids, I think it's huge.

01:45:16.360 Do you see anything that you could possibly have a bipartisan deal with with people on

01:45:20.420 the other, across the aisle?

01:45:21.460 Like, is there anything, any avenues you could see work with them?

01:45:24.320 You know, Matt Gaetz has made some pretty impressive, I think, headway with getting the

01:45:29.100 Democrats back to some of them being a little bit more anti-war.

01:45:33.140 The War Powers resolutions that he's put forward, I think, have been really, really important.

01:45:36.700 And my Democrat opponent, who never served a day in her life, she voted to keep our troops

01:45:41.020 in Syria.

01:45:41.680 And then, like, not a month later, we lost an American contract who did hostile fire.

01:45:45.220 We just had a helicopter crash there where we had to have 15 service members evacuated.

01:45:50.120 And so it's like, I think there's just this group think right now in the Democrat Party

01:45:53.440 where they've become the war machine very much.

01:45:55.900 And there's still enough Republicans that are a part of it, too.

01:45:57.780 For sure.

01:45:57.980 So I think that there's some good bipartisan cooperation we could have on, hey, like, let's

01:46:01.780 form a coalition.

01:46:03.460 And it might be, like, the far right and the far left, like, where we come together and

01:46:06.520 just say, hey, we're going to stop funding the war machine.

01:46:08.740 We're going to hold them accountable.

01:46:09.940 I think that's huge.

01:46:11.480 I think there's some potential if we could get them back to some of their populist roots

01:46:15.040 of, like, hey, let's do the right thing for the American workers, you know?

01:46:18.460 Like, it's going to be hard, though.

01:46:20.060 I don't think it's going to happen overnight.

01:46:21.560 I think things are very polarized right now.

01:46:23.440 Yeah, I agree.

01:46:24.340 Would you join the Freedom Caucus if you, yeah?

01:46:26.840 I would, yeah.

01:46:27.560 I was endorsed by the Freedom Caucus last time.

01:46:29.160 Okay.

01:46:29.420 Hopefully, I'll be endorsed by them again this time if they're watching.

01:46:32.360 But yeah, I would definitely.

01:46:33.580 Those are the types of guys I'm aligned with.

01:46:36.340 Is that helpful, like, going into Congress, kind of seeing where your allies are?

01:46:41.800 Yeah, I think so.

01:46:42.540 I mean, you want to know who's 100% ideologically aligned with you and then who the other guys

01:46:47.040 are.

01:46:47.240 You're going to have to compromise more and more bring them over to your side.

01:46:50.880 The cool thing, I think, about the Republican Caucus writ large is that we do have different

01:46:55.420 wings of it, and we do disagree, and you do see Republicans vote in different ways, whereas

01:47:00.120 the Democrats are like a military unit.

01:47:02.260 Some of them will use different rhetoric here and there, but when it comes time for them

01:47:05.440 to whip a vote, man, they whip a vote, which sort of impresses me.

01:47:09.500 But at the same time, is that exactly what you want to be a part of?

01:47:12.000 I want to be a part of the group that includes multiple different points of view, and we're

01:47:16.080 attempting to do the right thing for the American people.

01:47:17.820 Yeah.

01:47:18.280 Finding strength through compromise.

01:47:19.660 Yeah, strength through compromise.

01:47:20.060 I've wondered at times, I always hear in the media, oh, Republicans are falling apart,

01:47:23.880 and there's so much infighting.

01:47:24.880 And it does feel that way, especially if you live on conservative Twitter.

01:47:28.560 Yeah.

01:47:29.060 But I have wondered if we're more public with our disagreements because we're more open

01:47:34.780 about what we disagree about.

01:47:35.620 I think there is a lot of infighting with the Democrats.

01:47:37.740 They just hide it better.

01:47:38.840 They do.

01:47:39.280 And you have Republicans that have, I think, a lot stronger courage to their convictions,

01:47:43.900 where they'll be like, I will not vote that way.

01:47:45.600 And I will go out in front of the cameras, and I will say, I'm not going to vote that

01:47:48.200 way.

01:47:48.340 And I'll explain why.

01:47:49.080 And then the Democrats, they might have their disagreements behind closed doors, and maybe

01:47:52.320 there's some snarky tweets here and there.

01:47:54.020 But when it comes time to whip that vote, man, those guys are a military unit.

01:47:58.360 Which places their strengths on a lot of occasions.

01:48:00.120 No, it totally does.

01:48:01.500 With the politics of pure power, it 100% plays their strengths.

01:48:05.860 Because I think a lot of the Democrat machine is just like, we have power.

01:48:09.340 We will use it.

01:48:10.120 We will wield it.

01:48:10.760 We don't need to explain it.

01:48:11.880 We don't even need to have someone with any charisma go out there.

01:48:14.200 We can put Biden and Fetterman out there and just show you guys.

01:48:17.140 And that's just like a power flex of how organized we actually are.

01:48:20.580 We can put these two knuckleheads out here.

01:48:22.140 Yeah.

01:48:22.960 When Biden went to Northern Ireland, or I think it was just Ireland, and he said at the end

01:48:27.680 of his speech, I don't want to go home.

01:48:29.420 I was like, okay.

01:48:31.260 I don't want to say, God save the queen, man.

01:48:33.100 Yeah.

01:48:33.300 In Connecticut, he mixed up England and New England.

01:48:35.540 He's in Connecticut saying, God save the queen.

01:48:37.120 No, it is a power play.

01:48:38.620 Just truck him out.

01:48:39.900 Yeah.

01:48:40.100 We can do anything.

01:48:41.120 We can ballot harvest.

01:48:41.960 We got this, man.

01:48:42.680 We control who counts the votes.

01:48:44.540 Just keep propping Biden out.

01:48:46.220 It's totally wild.

01:48:47.420 Yeah.

01:48:47.900 So what do you see as being your biggest challenge the next about year out from your election?

01:48:55.720 So fundraising is always a challenge.

01:48:58.120 That's always an issue.

01:48:59.720 I mean, because we rely a lot on small dollar donors, and the economy right now is really

01:49:03.440 hurting a lot of our small dollar donors.

01:49:04.780 I just talk to people all the time that are like, hey, you know, I gave you 500 bucks

01:49:07.200 last time.

01:49:07.780 I can't do that this time.

01:49:09.000 So that's a challenge.

01:49:11.180 Get ready for a Las Vegas-style action at BetMGM, the king of online casinos.

01:49:16.500 Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous

01:49:21.400 for when you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack,

01:49:26.720 Baccarat, and Roulette.

01:49:28.520 With our ever-growing library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table games,

01:49:33.340 and signature BetMGM service.

01:49:36.080 There's no better way to bring the excitement and ambience of Las Vegas home to you than

01:49:40.240 with BetMGM Casino.

01:49:42.500 Download the BetMGM Casino app today.

01:49:45.560 BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly.

01:49:48.080 BetMGM.com for T's and C's.

01:49:49.980 19 plus to wager.

01:49:51.140 Ontario only.

01:49:52.020 Please play responsibly.

01:49:53.040 If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please

01:49:56.600 contact ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge.

01:50:04.460 BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

01:50:07.660 When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops.

01:50:13.600 So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell

01:50:18.200 our clients that we really care about you.

01:50:22.900 Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs.

01:50:26.140 Weird, I don't remember saying that part.

01:50:28.880 Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care.

01:50:33.680 Did I mention that we care?

01:50:38.740 Another challenge, the biggest fear that I have is Republican apathy, to be honest with

01:50:43.340 you.

01:50:43.580 I mean, after 2020 and 2022, a lot of our people either saying they're going to move

01:50:48.040 or just like, you know what?

01:50:49.320 I invested too much last time.

01:50:50.800 Like, I just don't care.

01:50:51.700 It's all rigged.

01:50:52.660 I think that that's a challenge.

01:50:53.960 So I pretty much work every day on trying to tell people that, hey, if we keep pushing

01:50:58.580 hard, we can actually turn the ship around.

01:51:00.820 Don't let them win by you not participating.

01:51:03.100 That's a big challenge.

01:51:04.400 And then the media is always a challenge.

01:51:06.400 That's why I appreciate you guys, because you guys help us punch through the nonsense

01:51:09.560 of the mainstream media.

01:51:10.660 And the more the mainstream media like be clowns themselves, which they do frequently,

01:51:13.860 the more powerful you guys get.

01:51:15.640 And so that actually gives us a voice.

01:51:17.380 But just punching through the media, because they will just, they'll barrage anybody who

01:51:21.080 speaks out against them with like, you know, far right wing extremists.

01:51:23.540 And then that like low information voter, they're like, I don't want to vote for an

01:51:26.640 extremist.

01:51:27.380 You know, you scare them, you know?

01:51:28.760 Yeah.

01:51:29.040 They use the labels to peel people away.

01:51:31.060 Especially when the labels don't, these, these words stop meaning things.

01:51:34.340 Exactly.

01:51:34.960 They don't mean anything.

01:51:36.000 They killed language.

01:51:37.300 They totally are.

01:51:37.920 We have experienced a death of language.

01:51:39.580 And that's why I was interesting to me when I was watching a local broadcast with you

01:51:43.060 out there, the way they qualify all of you.

01:51:44.940 Oh yeah.

01:51:45.160 Right.

01:51:45.560 Didn't you tell them that you would only do live interviews with some of those?

01:51:48.420 Yeah.

01:51:48.840 And that's why.

01:51:49.920 We've had, we've had to set some pretty harsh parameters with lessons learned.

01:51:53.180 Smart.

01:51:53.400 Yeah.

01:51:53.700 No, it's smart.

01:51:54.200 I have interviews or I know people who will only do interviews if they can also record

01:51:57.900 and post a copy of the transcript.

01:51:59.720 Yeah.

01:51:59.860 It's just like you get taken out of context.

01:52:01.280 I mean, it's, I hate to say this because I'd love to have a media that really did give

01:52:04.760 information.

01:52:05.240 It's just not the media that we have in today's day and age.

01:52:07.880 Yeah.

01:52:08.080 That was one of the first institutions to die with COVID.

01:52:10.840 Except for Timcast News, which you should all look at a media.

01:52:13.180 You guys have grown.

01:52:14.000 Yeah.

01:52:14.600 We have.

01:52:14.960 It's been a wild ride.

01:52:16.320 But okay.

01:52:17.000 So I have to ask, it is a major election year.

01:52:19.120 Who are you voting for in 2024?

01:52:21.120 President Trump.

01:52:21.780 Yeah.

01:52:21.980 I'm a Trump guy.

01:52:23.620 Happy to tell people why.

01:52:24.900 I mean, basically kind of outlined it, especially with the foreign policy.

01:52:28.060 I mean, he's tried and he's tried and true.

01:52:30.220 I mean, the guy's got his faults a hundred percent.

01:52:32.340 I think he's a unique, uniquely suited for this era that we're in right now.

01:52:36.460 This would be the last time that he could run and hold office.

01:52:38.740 So he doesn't have to worry about his next election.

01:52:40.860 He is independently wealthy.

01:52:42.940 And so he has been able to absorb a lot of the attacks in a way that I think someone

01:52:47.480 like Ron DeSantis or myself, we just couldn't.

01:52:50.620 Because, I mean, DeSantis is not independently wealthy.

01:52:52.940 He has young children.

01:52:54.460 The administrative state is going to try and rip apart the next person who is a threat

01:52:58.260 to them.

01:52:59.340 We've already seen what they're trying to do to Trump.

01:53:02.160 And he's still continuing to stand in the breach.

01:53:03.860 And so for me, that alone is why I'm voting for Trump.

01:53:08.040 That said, whoever the Republican nominee is, I'll gladly support.

01:53:11.320 Especially for my last race, we learned that if Republicans are divided, the Democrats

01:53:14.760 win.

01:53:15.080 And so I know there's a lot of back and forth of Trump, DeSantis, not really with the other

01:53:20.020 candidates.

01:53:20.340 You don't hear too much about them.

01:53:21.500 But there's some growing, the polarization that's growing between those two camps really

01:53:25.460 concerns me.

01:53:26.900 I got nothing bad to say about DeSantis.

01:53:28.700 If he ends up being the nominee, I will gladly vote for him, help him campaign or whatever.

01:53:34.880 Did your incumbent that you defeated, did she endorse you?

01:53:37.680 She didn't endorse you.

01:53:38.240 She did not endorse me.

01:53:39.080 Did she endorse anyone?

01:53:40.140 No, she just kind of faded off.

01:53:41.760 She's teaching a Harvard course now with Adam Kissinger.

01:53:45.100 Well, that says a lot.

01:53:45.960 Yeah.

01:53:46.360 That's what everyone who stops being in politics does, they go into academia.

01:53:49.480 Yeah.

01:53:49.860 I think Liz Cheney's doing the same thing at UVA.

01:53:53.400 Is there anything that you want to see happen in 2024?

01:53:57.640 Do you have any big predictions in Washington or outside of Washington?

01:54:01.420 Well, I want to see me win, obviously.

01:54:03.360 But I would like to see the red wave that we were supposed to have in 2022.

01:54:06.680 I hope that we can get folks out there more mobilized.

01:54:09.320 I hope we get our ballot harvesting game down.

01:54:11.760 I also want to see us, hopefully, and this is probably more of a national Republican thing,

01:54:15.940 I want to see us be more prepared for legal challenges.

01:54:19.480 The Democrats are really good at election fortification, as they call it.

01:54:23.360 And they've already started a lot of it, like in New York.

01:54:25.740 Right now in Washington State, they're trying to get rid of signature verification.

01:54:29.660 Because, you know, it's not bad enough that we send out ballots.

01:54:32.080 Now we want to get rid of signature verification.

01:54:33.980 So I think we need to be much more prepared to wage lawfare so that we don't have to just accept a loss that we know there might have been some shenanigans on the backside.

01:54:44.720 But I think the Republican unity and the mobilization is absolutely key in 2024.

01:54:49.820 Yeah. And are you feeling good about it?

01:54:51.680 What are the early signs from someone who's on the campaign trail?

01:54:54.160 I feel good about it.

01:54:54.860 I mean, I've already gotten four county level endorsements.

01:54:57.440 That wasn't happening at this time last cycle.

01:54:59.400 The counties were like really kind of divided on which Republican candidates support.

01:55:03.040 I think everybody realizes now that unity is a big thing.

01:55:05.420 And then everybody from like the local county levels all the way to the state levels and the national levels,

01:55:10.060 they're talking about ballot harvesting.

01:55:11.680 I've been to multiple events now where we actually have activists come in.

01:55:14.380 And I think Scott Pressler is going to come out to the district and help us out with some round game there as well.

01:55:19.180 So people are saying the right things.

01:55:20.920 I feel like that mentality has taken like a 180 in the last year of like, we hate mail out voting.

01:55:25.480 We're all going to vote on election day to like, we need to ballot harvest, which is a very good thing.

01:55:30.720 Yeah. There's a proactivity now that maybe wasn't there before.

01:55:33.080 Exactly. That's right. Yeah.

01:55:34.220 Yeah. That's interesting.

01:55:35.720 So is there anything you don't think will happen in the next year?

01:55:42.480 Like, are there any things that you are confident about that I don't think will happen?

01:55:49.440 Yeah. Like, do you think that we're going to see another Republican flop?

01:55:52.420 Do you think that we're going to see any I'm basically alluding to, do you think that we'll see another COVID or some kind of major play?

01:56:01.640 I think, look, if they can get away with it, I think they'll try it.

01:56:05.020 I mean, it's sort of like, you know, when people are splitting hairs about what Trump's been indicted with.

01:56:08.860 My attitude is they're going to keep indicting him for everything and anything until something sticks.

01:56:14.020 And if nothing sticks, then they'll just use that narrative that he's been indicted.

01:56:17.480 And so I think it's the same thing with any kind of national emergency.

01:56:20.480 If they can find another reason, I don't know if the American people right now would buy off on another pandemic.

01:56:27.020 But the Democrat Party showed how authoritarian they can be.

01:56:32.760 And it worked for them in 2020.

01:56:34.400 So why wouldn't they try it again?

01:56:36.560 I mean, I'm not making a prediction.

01:56:37.540 I don't know if they will.

01:56:39.280 You don't have to make a prediction.

01:56:40.260 Yeah, I don't know if they will.

01:56:41.200 But like, I'm sure there's a room like this somewhere right now.

01:56:44.000 If Democrat operatives are like, what can we cook up?

01:56:46.680 That's terrifying.

01:56:47.360 What do you think, Shane?

01:56:48.000 I feel like you're the best one to come.

01:56:49.320 In terms of, well, I just keep thinking of that apathy.

01:56:52.140 And I just don't think our country can actually survive in an election.

01:56:55.480 With our media being as weaponized as it is, like the corporate media.

01:56:58.380 And people being so unplugged.

01:57:00.020 Like, there's a lot of us who understand what's going on.

01:57:02.500 On both sides, you know, understand.

01:57:04.840 But I don't know if people can actually withstand.

01:57:07.280 I don't know if people have the bandwidth.

01:57:08.280 Like, I just did a, I went out to East Palestine a month after that train wreck happened, right?

01:57:12.460 And when I'm there, the shooting in Nashville happens, right?

01:57:16.160 And you're seeing a government completely falter.

01:57:18.160 Like, they're not taking care of anything.

01:57:20.180 They already forgot about the people in East Palestine, right?

01:57:22.280 Who they got $1,000 or something.

01:57:23.940 Right, right.

01:57:24.300 But they're now living in this chemical bubble.

01:57:26.300 So, yeah, it's like I see the country.

01:57:28.620 I see that, unfortunately, the country is like collapsing, if not already collapsed.

01:57:32.460 So, I'm scared to see how we're even going to get through an election.

01:57:35.600 Because you know how the media ramps everything up.

01:57:37.540 I remember growing up, it felt like we had election cycles.

01:57:40.580 It'd be inflated.

01:57:41.800 It'd be crazy.

01:57:42.440 Okay, someone elected.

01:57:43.580 And then you forget about it.

01:57:44.120 We chill for a little bit.

01:57:44.920 I feel like we've been in election cycles since 2014, 2015, right?

01:57:48.480 And it's made us insane.

01:57:50.100 So, I just worry about that.

01:57:51.880 I worry about people actually having the bandwidth to survive this election.

01:57:56.600 It does feel like a very serious pressure cooker.

01:57:58.700 I mean, you were talking about the economy before.

01:58:00.060 There's a lot of things that people are having to bear up against.

01:58:03.020 And at a certain point, it does seem like you can't withstand everything.

01:58:07.200 Yeah.

01:58:07.500 I just hope the country can withstand it.

01:58:11.460 I don't know if people have the fortitude.

01:58:14.220 We're talking about not wanting to look at the culture war stuff.

01:58:17.820 It's just going to get crazier in the next few months, year.

01:58:22.200 So, hopefully, they can find a way to look at it.

01:58:24.160 Do you think there are positives, though?

01:58:25.540 Like if we're saying culture war stuff, we're starting to see a Save Women's Sports Act proposed

01:58:29.720 in at least every state.

01:58:30.900 We'll see these boycotts that are actually proving to be effective.

01:58:33.340 Do you think there is – are you optimistic or are you pessimistic?

01:58:37.360 I'm thinking Shane is pessimistic.

01:58:38.620 I'm psychotically optimistic.

01:58:40.000 Really?

01:58:40.880 Always.

01:58:41.160 So, that's a pretty pessimistic statement.

01:58:42.340 I think as dark as it gets, it will test you as an individual, and it will test the country.

01:58:47.000 And at some point, it will bounce back.

01:58:48.560 I might not get to see it, but I'm doing my best so that my kids can, and hopefully their kids can.

01:58:52.620 So, you have to be.

01:58:54.120 I think if you buy into the pessimism, you're done.

01:58:56.720 Like there's no future in that.

01:58:57.960 If the situation was hopeless, the propaganda wouldn't be necessary.

01:59:01.080 Yeah, that's true.

01:59:01.420 I mean, they are definitely concerned.

01:59:03.340 I think they being like just the government apparatus in general, but especially the far left wing.

01:59:08.560 Like they're concerned that people are waking up.

01:59:10.320 I think they did overplay their hands with COVID.

01:59:13.120 I mean, they got lucky, I think, this last cycle because I think Republicans got cocky and kind of got lazy.

01:59:18.060 But I think, again, this transgender sexualization of our children, I think that that's – like you said, there's all kinds of different ripples that that's had right now that's waking folks up.

01:59:27.940 So, I think that's huge.

01:59:29.620 I mean, something else I'm worried about too is like the World War III factor.

01:59:33.000 I mean, we are driving towards a major crisis with Ukraine.

01:59:36.600 Like basically, Ukraine right now has one play, and that's to get the U.S. more involved in that conflict.

01:59:41.500 And so – and we just don't have sober, rational people right now in control of the national security state.

01:59:46.980 We just have the military industrial complex licking their chops.

01:59:49.480 And that could be the crisis that the Biden administration uses because wartime presidents tend to get reelected regardless of how horrible they are like Bush in 04.

01:59:57.840 But I think Ukraine is sort of a black pill for a lot of people, especially moderate people.

02:00:02.580 They want to be compassionate to people who are living through wartime.

02:00:05.980 On the other hand, they don't understand why during a period of high inflation we're sending so much money overseas.

02:00:11.220 I mean –

02:00:11.360 Exactly.

02:00:11.900 It's hard to then say I'm going to run on my record and my record is great.

02:00:16.660 Now pay a million dollars for eggs.

02:00:19.240 Yeah, exactly.

02:00:20.160 Meanwhile, our cities are littered with homeless people who need help.

02:00:22.980 We have vets who need help.

02:00:24.280 I don't know how the VAs are, but it seemed like they were not doing so well years ago and I don't know if they're any better now.

02:00:28.860 VAs are terrible.

02:00:29.540 Right.

02:00:29.840 So it's like all these things we need to fix.

02:00:31.280 Like our backyard is literally and figuratively on fire.

02:00:34.240 Yeah, yeah.

02:00:34.580 And meanwhile, we're just sending all the stuff, all the weapons and money we kind of overseas.

02:00:39.320 Yeah, that is terrifying.

02:00:40.760 Yeah.

02:00:41.080 And that's another thing that could ramp up.

02:00:43.580 Easily.

02:00:43.960 Closer to the election.

02:00:44.500 Easily, yeah.

02:00:44.940 And then you get the whole narrative of like, well, whose side are you on?

02:00:47.580 We all got to – you want to get to unify the country right now.

02:00:49.440 We're at war.

02:00:50.420 Yeah.

02:00:50.600 But I think the country wants to be unified through service to one another.

02:00:54.560 I think they would rather see $100 million go into fixing things that will support people at home than go abroad.

02:01:02.160 Yeah.

02:01:02.380 And it's not because they are not compassionate to people who live in challenging situations.

02:01:05.440 It's because we owe each other as our first community support and service.

02:01:11.380 Yeah, I say all the time, like I'm willing to like entertain and have a discussion about like the crazy left-wing stuff of like UBI and like healthcare for all.

02:01:20.820 Like if you want to have that discussion, let's have it.

02:01:22.520 I don't think the government is the best vector for that.

02:01:24.360 However, like if we can agree to stop spending money on all these overseas conflicts, like secure our own border, and we want to talk about like, hey, we take in this much money in taxes.

02:01:32.820 Let's figure out a way to best serve our people.

02:01:34.720 That's the discussion I want to have.

02:01:36.260 That's a productive discussion because there's somebody on the left who's like, I agree with you on that premise.

02:01:40.140 I want to spend it on UBI and, you know, healthcare for everybody.

02:01:43.260 Then we're actually having a real back and forth because at the end of the day, both of us are then trying to do the best thing for the American people.

02:01:48.460 Yeah.

02:01:48.880 Right now, I think that's completely off kilter.

02:01:50.980 You know, you've got one side who's like, you know, they haven't found a foreign war they don't want to spend billions of dollars to, whereas at the same time, the American people are a complete afterthought.

02:01:58.880 Right, right.

02:01:59.460 It's the kind of conversation I feel like a presidential debate would have.

02:02:04.720 You see this like reckoning of ideas.

02:02:06.480 But unfortunately, in today's day and age, there's so much divide.

02:02:09.460 They're sort of useless spectacles.

02:02:11.160 I mean, we got some great soundbites from Trump when he was on the debate stage.

02:02:14.800 But the only way now I think you could see these big public conversations is if you had a candidate like RFK Jr. on stage with, you know, any Republican.

02:02:24.280 Unfortunately, any institutional Democrat really isn't going to be there to find solutions or to really talk through things.

02:02:32.020 Yeah.

02:02:32.340 And the media would blackball it.

02:02:33.500 They'd be like, this is disinformation.

02:02:34.680 They'd make it hard to access.

02:02:36.880 Yeah, I mean, we didn't even get into it, but everything that's happening with Robert and on the Joe Rogan show.

02:02:43.300 Oh, yeah, it was great.

02:02:44.360 It was a proposed debate.

02:02:44.820 I forget who it was.

02:02:46.080 Some journalist, I think, overseas.

02:02:48.480 He said, I wrote a book on debate, but you can't debate these people.

02:02:52.460 You can't debate these ideas.

02:02:54.300 You're going to lower yourself to their standards.

02:02:55.740 It's insane.

02:02:56.800 You give the conspiracy theorist credibility when the answer is like, come to us with your facts and reasons and you should be able to feed it.

02:03:02.620 I find it so interesting that in a culture of free speech, you know, you're silencing people.

02:03:07.660 If you can't talk to me, right, right, right.

02:03:09.860 If you're so afraid of me, if you think I'm so obviously wrong, then why don't you just talk to me?

02:03:14.960 It should be easy.

02:03:15.540 It should be easy.

02:03:16.040 Your facts should be far superior than anything I can come up with.

02:03:18.660 They don't want us to have those conversations.

02:03:20.320 No, so much for the marketplace of ideas.

02:03:22.040 Yeah, yeah.

02:03:22.420 Oh, yeah.

02:03:22.800 No, can't have those.

02:03:24.100 Those are bad things.

02:03:25.340 No ideas.

02:03:25.920 No independent ideas at least.

02:03:27.260 Yeah, only our ideas.

02:03:28.540 Yeah, that's true.

02:03:29.880 Read from our party line and that's it.

02:03:31.560 That's it.

02:03:32.120 Yeah.

02:03:32.800 Well, it's been awesome having you here.

02:03:34.280 I'm so glad that you were back.

02:03:35.500 Thanks so much for having me.

02:03:36.260 Yeah.

02:03:36.740 Is there anything we should know, any event, anything you've got coming up?

02:03:40.360 If you want to support the campaign, we're approaching the end of quarter two.

02:03:43.760 So JoeKentForCongress.com.

02:03:45.240 Any kind of amount that people can give is greatly appreciated.

02:03:48.100 We're having a great event with Matt Gaetz out in the district.

02:03:50.400 He's coming out to support the campaign.

02:03:52.520 So that's on July 1st.

02:03:54.060 So you can get your tickets at JoeKentForCongress.com slash Gaetz.

02:03:56.960 Cool.

02:03:57.300 Those are the big ones.

02:03:57.800 And people can follow you on Twitter?

02:03:59.060 Yep.

02:03:59.260 Follow me on Twitter.

02:04:00.060 JoeKent.

02:04:01.120 What is it?

02:04:01.660 JoeKent, one six J-A-N on Twitter and get her and then all of them.

02:04:06.900 Yeah.

02:04:07.780 Cool.

02:04:07.980 Great.

02:04:08.680 I'm at Shane Cashman on Twitter, on Instagram.

02:04:11.580 And the latest book we did for TimCast Media is through the Invered World Series.

02:04:15.900 That's at GhostOfCivilWar.com.

02:04:18.060 That's me going down to Georgia looking for the Confederate gold and then talking to people

02:04:21.560 about a lot of ridiculous stories down there.

02:04:23.560 But yeah, it was awesome talking to you, man.

02:04:25.380 Yeah, you too, man.

02:04:25.940 Thank you so much for being here.

02:04:26.780 Yeah.

02:04:27.180 Nice time, I guess.

02:04:28.180 I'm Hannah Claire Brimlow.

02:04:29.200 I'm a writer for TimCast.com.

02:04:30.580 I'm so grateful I got to fill in for Tim tonight on this special episode of Culture War.

02:04:34.900 If you want to follow at TimCastNews on Twitter, on Instagram, it's the best.

02:04:38.920 It's my favorite place to have media, partially because they publish my work, publish Shane's

02:04:42.620 work, publish all of our other journalists too.

02:04:44.580 If you want to follow me personally, you can find me on Instagram at HannahClaire.b and on Twitter

02:04:48.240 at HC Brimlow.

02:04:49.680 Again, thanks to you guys so much.

02:04:51.120 Tim will be back as soon as he's feeling better and hopefully Joe will be back too as soon

02:04:54.980 as he can.

02:04:55.740 Yeah.

02:04:58.360 Sweet.

02:05:02.660 How much do you guys know about the things flying around in the sky under the ocean?

02:05:07.040 I didn't know anything about it.

02:05:08.140 I found a thing on National Geographic called UFOs Exploring the Unknown of Five Part Series

02:05:13.420 and I was hooked.

02:05:14.180 I started paying attention to the hearings.

02:05:15.740 The fact that the Senate majority leader is asking for a UFO disclosure and none of the

02:05:21.160 mainstream media is covering it.

02:05:22.720 Well, Monday through Friday on my show, I try to cover all the stuff going on in the world

02:05:26.760 of the UFO, UAP phenomenon.

02:05:28.920 Check it out.

02:05:29.500 Be educated.

02:05:30.160 I ain't asking you to believe in all of this other stuff about what people are theorizing.

02:05:34.120 I'm just telling you to ask questions.

02:05:35.540 So come on over.

02:05:36.620 Ask some questions.

02:05:37.480 Be part of Down to Earth with Christian Harloff.

The Culture War - Tim Pool - June 20, 2023

The Culture War #17 - Joe Kent, Winning Back The Culture, Parenting In Non-Reality

Episode Stats

Length

Words per Minute

Word Count

Sentence Count

Misogynist Sentences

Hate Speech Sentences

Summary

Transcript