Ep 6 | Eric Bolling | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 5 minutes
Words per Minute
156.20801
Summary
On September 8th, 2017, Fox News anchor Eric Bolling learned that his son Eric had died from a fentanyl overdose. It was the worst day of his life, and one of the most devastating losses anyone can ever have.
Transcript
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I think everybody's had that day where just like everything bad that could possibly happen does.
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But you're about to hear about a day I think is every person's nightmare,
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the worst day in anyone's life I've ever heard of.
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In the end, if we're lucky, we come to realize as people that it's how we deal
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with what has happened to us, the way we face tragedy, and that, in the end, defines us.
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Moments in time that we could spend a lifetime wishing we could undo or redo.
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But at the end of the day, the only thing we can really control is our response
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and whether we allow it to destroy us or to build us.
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Today, I'm going to talk to Eric Bolling, who experienced the worst day I've ever heard.
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This is the first time he is coming out and speaking about this in public for the media.
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We talk about the loss of his job, and on the way home, he found out about the death of his son.
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He takes us through important warnings and asks important questions,
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whether you agree with or not the dangers of opioids, the pain of losing a child,
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and how his marriage has grown through all of this.
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We also talk about his personal relationship with Donald Trump,
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as well as Trump's unconventional but effective approach to business,
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Eric, I think you are a guy who could claim the title of
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I had the worst day anyone on the planet has ever had.
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You lose your job, and on the same day, you lose your only child.
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I had gone to church five days a week during the week and every Sunday.
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September 8th of 2017 was the last day I went to church.
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Early in the day, I had spent a long time going back and forth with Fox, with lawyers,
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trying to figure out where I was going to go forward, what was going to happen.
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And we came upon an idea that we were going to separate.
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And I looked at it on that day as a new beginning.
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You can go start and go find another job somewhere, and life's going to be great.
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I will tell you that whatever was written about me was false, patently false.
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It never happened, and no one has ever, ever come forward.
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Maybe long story short, my lawyer said it's probably time to just cut ties with Fox and
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And frankly, my family was going to be dragged through the mud for a long time.
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It was a Friday before a long weekend, before Labor Day.
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I took my wife out to dinner that night, and we were going to celebrate.
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The owner of the restaurant came over and said, hey, you know, congratulations.
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There was a young man on the other side of the phone saying, Mr. Bowling, call your son.
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I called over there, and a girl answered, and her name was Kayla.
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She was crying, and for some reason, I just went right to, is he alive?
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The next day, I went to Colorado, and the president called me.
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But at that day, I realized that he cared, and so for the next few months, I made it my
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And so, now we are a year and two days after that, and it's been a rough go.
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So, we can stop at any time if you don't want to talk about anything.
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So, I think it's just an important story to tell.
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Were there indications, or was it just a dad feeling?
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Who gets a call at 1030 at night and is told to call your son right away without explaining
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And I just had the hunch, and sure enough, the hunch turned out to be true.
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So, it turns out he bought a Xanax on campus that was laced with fentanyl.
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He didn't know, and he passed and was an accidental overdose.
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So, the question you asked me was, are they going to sue Fox?
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At that moment, I had no fight in me to do anything.
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So, we spent, my wife and I just got very close, and we spent the better part of the
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next year just talking to other parents, talking any opportunity we could to get the
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And parents need to know that their children are at risk, and it's a massive epidemic in
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Young kids need to know that one pill can kill you.
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And parents need to know that your child isn't too smart, too popular, too athletic to be exposed
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I have very high tolerance to drugs, and I went in for surgery, maybe 10, 15 years ago,
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and I have woken up on the operating table twice, scare the hell out of the anesthesiologist.
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But they couldn't keep me down, and I didn't realize until two days later that they were
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One of them was fentanyl, and I went home with a patch.
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And I woke up one night, and I kept waking myself up, and I would stop breathing.
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And I'd wake up, and I distinctly remember, if you don't, because each time I'd wake up,
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The last time I woke up, I heard, if you don't take that patch off, you will not wake again.
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So I got up out of bed, and I just ripped it off.
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That next morning, I asked my wife, I said, what is that?
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I mean, they're only supposed to give it to people who they know are going to die,
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because you're going to get hooked on it, because it's so potent, and it's so dangerous.
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Cancer patients who are on their last stage, you're right.
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Three or four grains of salt, that's how much fentanyl can kill a 200-pound man.
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My wife came in, and she was wearing plastic, rubber gloves.
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If you touch the patch, and it's not prescribed for you, you could die.
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Law enforcement officers have overdosed just by, on a bust, just taking the package of fentanyl.
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It's wildly, wildly potent, painkiller, and opioid.
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I smoked pot every day from the time I was, I don't know, 14, 15 years old until I was 32.
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I was, I remember doing cocaine and everything else, and I was lucky enough to not die from it.
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Or my mom, I'm sorry, almost died from a drug overdose.
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Was your son, did he have a problem with drugs?
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Or was this a first time, or is this just a part that you know?
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He was a great student at the University of Colorado.
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There was no indication of any sort of use like this.
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And the coroner deemed it an accidental overdose.
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Was this a girlfriend that he was close to, or is it just a...
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I mean, the girl, there was a girl with him, but I don't know.
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I had a, I don't even know what you'd call it, a Twitter war,
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It was the guy who went to Judge Kavanaugh and put his hand out.
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you were there when they took Judge Kavanaugh's children away.
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Did you have no sympathy for a father in that situation?
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We're not living in a country where you can have a conversation with anyone.
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I get an amazing outpouring of support and love,
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frankly, from both sides of the political aisle, for the most part.
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I'll get an occasional Twitter person who says something so horrendous
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But for the most part, both sides, even in the media,
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there were a couple people at CNN, Don Lemon, Dan Jones,
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that they could put that aside and stay in touch and stay close,
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frankly, better than most of the people I worked with.
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So what did you learn as a parent through this?
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I've spent some time speaking to groups, big groups.
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and I kind of alluded to it a little while ago,
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that as a parent, you tend to think that your kid is just amazing
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or your son or daughter is not too smart, too athletic,
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too popular, too white, too black, too Hispanic,
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too Muslim, too Christian, to be touched by this.
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And they likely will cross paths with an opportunity to try an opioid,
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and you just never know if it's going to kill them.
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I can't imagine what it feels like to lose your child.
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It's just not the way life is supposed to work.
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If I had ignored something or had not spent time with them,
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I was at University of Colorado a couple weeks before for Father's Day.
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I've spent literally a year trying to get a grip of my life again.
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I'm saying there's no advice I can give a parent
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other than have the conversation with your children.
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how do you avoid that other than trying to implore your children,
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Most marriages don't make it through something like this.
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What is it that you two have that's allowing you to make it?
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I can't imagine what kind of pain I would have if Adrian left
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or what kind of pain I would put on her if I left.
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I would say, to develop a drug so strong, so potent.
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I thank God that we don't have to live in pain.
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That's just the way the system's going to work.
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but if you're going to spend some money on things,
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to make sure that they're not prescribed enough
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I don't think that there is a number of opioids
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there's an option of not having access to it too.
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Tell me about your relationship with Donald Trump.
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he's called me a couple of days in a row sometimes when there's something that's really on his mind.
00:25:27.720
a psychophant that tells him he's right all the time.
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I remember when the infrastructure plan came out,
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And I had a meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office that afternoon.
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there were two provisions that I thought were missing.
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the raw materials used in this trillion dollar plan being produced in the United States.
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why don't you let everyone know that Donald Trump in this infrastructure plan is building a wing of a hospital or bringing,
00:26:28.860
But why don't you allow the people in those communities first crack at the construction dibs on,
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but you at least open the door for a local construction company to do the job for their own neighborhood.
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you know how much goodwill you will have from the people in that neighborhood,
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And I'm not suggesting that the American people should overpay because if they can't compete,
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then you go to the bigger construction company,
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the fed federally approved construction company,
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give them a level that they need to beat and let,
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a certain percentage of the plan devoted to rural America.
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I'm not sure that's a little bit too defined for me.
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I'm not sure a lot of people around him would say that to him,
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we'll have a lot of conversations and I see him,
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So I have the opportunity to be at the white house for Trump or Bill shines,
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a great friend of mine or any of the senior advisors.
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I'm probably there once a week at the white house.
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So let me go back to this because you're a financial guy,
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And you and I both have been crazy about the spending in Washington for a very
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long time when Obama was spending money like crazy.
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And then Obama came in and he did the stimulus.
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And it was the first time that I had ever seen a number in spending at $700
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the first time I saw the spending proposal from Donald Trump,
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So how do you square that with what you've believed,
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when you were gracious enough to let me host your Glenn Beck show at Fox,
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I just remembered that when you brought up the $700 billion American reinvestment act was the day I bought,
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brought 700 pennies in and threw them on your table on air.
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each one of these pennies is a billion dollars.
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and it kind of understood how much money that was.
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The difference between Obama spending $700 billion and Trump spending it,
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when Obama's growth rate was probably close to zero,
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And when Trump's growth GDP number is pushing three and a half percent quarterly,
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We would have made our way out of that the same way we would have with or without that spending.
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Cause none of that spending really went to infrastructure.
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when you say that money's going to come back to us,
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you're going to get paid back when you go deficit spend into growth,
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that was the defense of the American reinvestment act.
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you're spending money into an economy that's growing and you're continuing to grow.
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And that money is going to come back in the form of higher tax,
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I think last few weeks took credit for this administration,
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which I guess is consistent because he blamed Bush Trump or Bush for like,
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Is there any truth at all that this is the Obama?
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the economy was improving in the last couple of years of the Obama presidency,
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he was at one and a half percent growth annualized and said that that would be
00:32:13.540
And Trump has proven that that's not the new norm.
00:32:25.160
So do tax revenues go up and that helps pay off some of the,
00:32:33.540
I think that with the real reason why the economy is growing,
00:32:39.700
I can't remember a time where unemployment was lower than GDP.
00:32:47.100
but I think that has to do with lower taxes and,
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basically everything Trump said he was going to do,
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he started rolling back regulation and that for a business,
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the rollback of regulations under this president been amazing,
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People don't realize when a company is debating to come to the United States or debating whether to expand,
00:33:13.640
if their economic prediction for the next one to five years is solid,
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they're way more likely to hire more people and to spend more money on capital and improvements to their,
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to their company than they were if they thought the market was declining.
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I remember eight years before there was no income tax.
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The government's not going to regulate you to death.
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Why is there not a conservative voice around Trump that is really saying cut spending?
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and maybe even I am being hypocritical because when Obama was increasing spending,
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we were basically saying it's a ticking time bomb.
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And now Trump is spending probably at the same rate that Obama was and,
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I can't take it because you're being consistent.
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the regulatory burdens of companies in America,
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there are sometimes you'd have to fill out 700 pages just to grow a tomato.
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and by probably being hypocritical that that added growth is going to at least turn the
00:36:06.680
is the one thing that he hasn't done that he's,
00:36:28.580
is sign that document when they say we got whatever,
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$20 billion to start building your wall and he gets it done and he'd start,
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I don't think that's going to be earth shattering to the economy.
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do you think we would be at a place where people would be screaming,
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If we had a country that consistently enforced the laws that we had that didn't necessarily go after the immigrant,
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If the government was going after these companies that were hiring them and just made their eyes bleed with fines and we were arresting people at the border,
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we were doing what we're supposed to do anyway.
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Do you think we would have this cry for a wall or is it?
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I don't trust that you're going to do anything in Congress.
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You'll maybe change the law and enforce the law,
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I think the wall is all about the American people saying I've had enough.
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Cause I don't trust you guys will do anything ever.
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And I'm sure that the wall is the way to stop illegal immigration.
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the verify system with massive penalties is the way to do it.
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I have an alternate theory that I get pretty beat up.
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and I've been saying the better part of six years now on Fox.
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I challenge you to tell me what's wrong with this plan.
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how many illegal immigrants in the country right now?
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legally legal immigration into the United States.
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build your border security along the wall for the 20 million that are here.
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you can go in there and you're not going to get deported.
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We're going to know who you are and where you are.
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but everyone else who the vast majority of those people here aren't criminals can go
00:39:30.760
get in line on this 2 million per year instead of 1 million per year,
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get out of the shadows and start paying taxes and work your way into citizenship.
00:39:43.140
Now there's no fear of being deported or separated from families.
00:39:48.180
It's kind of both sides kind of have to be okay with that.
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and we don't have 20% of the restaurant workers in America being deported or the,
00:40:06.760
the agricultural workers in America being deported because they're illegal.
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I think the conservatives traditionally don't like this plan at all.
00:40:24.000
I'm not giving you anything until you give us a wall.
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but because I don't believe that will ever happen,
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I need to see something permanently there that shows,
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we're not going to be just taking in 2 million people that we don't even know who
00:40:48.640
we don't know who half a million people are that are just coming into our
00:41:03.700
any logical plan for the people who are already here.
00:41:18.860
that's how you work your way at least 20 million people into the system.
00:41:22.940
they're going to pay taxes on the Republic or on the democratic side.
00:41:28.540
I don't think that they actually want to solve this problem.
00:41:39.140
The Republicans are now talking that they're going to make the president's
00:41:55.300
When people say we need to have higher in higher wages,
00:41:59.900
we need to make sure that the minimum wage is raised a,
00:42:10.300
you could solve this once and for all by saying,
00:42:13.120
we're going to do it for cost of living and it will automatically adjust up or
00:42:19.040
But that makes the Republicans or Democrats or whoever,
00:42:25.680
they're not interested in actually fixing problems.
00:42:29.620
And I don't think they're interested in doing much.
00:42:31.560
I think anytime there's an opportunity to be on television,
00:42:36.500
there's a topic that's so important that we have to have a Senate hearing and,
00:42:41.260
senators can get up there and do their seven or eight minutes and go home and
00:42:56.580
There there's elected officials who they're almost primary and only concern is
00:43:21.440
I read something you said on your program that you believe Trump Republicanism is
00:43:35.240
then the Republicans probably won't see another president for a very,
00:43:40.580
I don't think the Republicans are long for this world.
00:43:47.340
is think of the guy who comes in and immediately shakes the world up in DC.
00:44:00.380
it's Lindsey Graham's because they're not really,
00:44:07.600
to the Trump view of what the country should be,
00:44:17.060
A free trade agreement is anything but free trade.
00:44:28.360
I'm not going to say conservatism because I'm not sure how conservative he is.
00:44:43.740
And that's why I would separate Trump Republican from Republican or GOP.
00:44:48.500
Problem is this small establishment group is shrinking and shrinking.
00:44:58.860
are swamp creatures who just want to stay in DC.
00:45:04.880
anybody who's ever seen any movie has always seen somebody who's going to go out and take point.
00:45:26.660
the Republicans have the greatest cover I've ever seen.
00:45:31.420
This guy has run out and everyone's gun is focused on him.
00:45:37.180
No one is paying attention at all to what is happening in Congress.
00:45:52.780
And they could actually get it through the house and the Senate because they control both.
00:45:58.220
And nobody in the media would notice because Trump would be providing cover.
00:46:03.860
he's providing the greatest cover and they've done nothing with it.
00:46:14.520
And the media goes crazy for a week on what's going on here.
00:46:21.940
the left and the media and mainstream media is primarily almost a hundred percent left,
00:46:26.780
they were concerned about the mental health of the president.
00:46:43.980
to the oval office to have a discussion about immigration.
00:46:48.300
he had Senate and Congress Republicans and Democrats.
00:46:51.440
It was the most brilliant hour of politics on television I've ever seen.
00:46:58.740
what's really going on in the immigration debate.
00:47:11.340
Everyone thinks he's going crazy or the left will tell you,
00:47:14.860
we have a president who's losing his facilities.
00:47:20.820
He's providing the shiny object over here and signing off regulation of reducing regulations over there.
00:48:16.160
raising tariffs and fees on imports is a dangerous concept,
00:48:19.260
but as long as you're doing what you say you're doing,
00:48:22.200
we're only doing it until they lower theirs and we'll lower ours at the
00:48:46.700
his biggest trade fight right now is with China bar none,
00:48:50.140
Stakes are getting higher and higher and higher,
00:49:10.240
it was before the first debate with the member of the Meg and Kelly debate
00:49:23.920
I had him on my show before that and we're talking and he says something and
00:50:02.720
These names were these people's Achilles and he would go right at them and smack their
00:50:14.920
the U S right now is smacking their Achilles with the,
00:50:34.900
If he actually knows where the breaking point is and is watching the numbers,
00:50:44.540
And if he's renegotiating all these things and he's playing this,
00:50:52.660
when they were struggling for 10 years to build the world trade center,
00:51:05.200
The best Trump story I've ever heard was when he wanted to build Trump tower in New York.
00:51:25.580
but he didn't own anything over like five floors or something like that.
00:51:35.280
And you can imagine Donald Trump comes into Tiffany and well,
00:51:48.060
What he hadn't told anyone except his architect was I have two plans.
00:52:06.860
I want you to draw out the ugliest 10 story building you can possibly imagine.
00:52:32.240
we'll sell you the airspace because they thought he was crazy enough to do it.
00:53:19.840
That's pretty darn good for the first time for the last 20 years.
00:53:27.820
I want him to put his arm around our allies and say,
00:54:18.960
you're separating the finance from the security.
00:54:21.540
And my point is Trump is putting these all together.
00:54:28.380
I had no problem with him going to Germany and having breakfast and saying,
00:54:39.900
We should not be footing the bill for these places.
00:54:56.200
Who went to Montenegro on a code L and got a free month there?
00:55:41.920
but he has danced around the ideas of freedom of speech,
00:55:53.280
you and I are the first ones to go when it comes to Facebook,
00:55:59.140
we are on the front line where we practically have the blindfold and the
00:56:13.400
Does he understand when he says the press is the enemy?
00:56:27.580
the only people with as low of an approval rating as Congress are,
00:57:01.420
will you at least acknowledge that we have to make sure at the same time,
00:57:23.480
people aren't even reading the constitution or the bill of rights.
00:57:26.740
Somebody has to stand up for the bill of rights.
00:57:30.920
Is there any concern that he says things that people will go?
00:57:45.460
I'm speculating that if you can go ahead and say some of the things he said
00:57:58.060
especially the liberal press is going to go crazy,
00:58:15.300
Obama would say anything about Fox and we'd be like,
00:58:38.380
Because you're thinking that this media group is awful.
00:58:57.360
that the phrase he's living rent free in every single editorial department of every single media entity in the country.
00:59:12.500
If you are PT Barnum and you think any press is good press,
00:59:38.040
the kid who's constantly teasing the girl cause he's attracted to her.
01:00:23.620
I'm not saying that you're going to leave there.
01:00:29.660
So I've been doing a lot of that speaking on the,
01:00:36.340
A team with NASCAR is putting opioid messaging on their car and they're going around,
01:00:41.200
an oval every Sunday with opioid messaging on it.
01:00:45.040
I love that because they're great people doing the CRTV thing.
01:00:49.160
and eventually I'll get back on cable news when it's time.
01:01:27.280
It's about 1030 at night is after he was elected,
01:01:29.600
before he was sworn in random Tuesday or Wednesday night.
01:01:35.120
She's driving and the phone rings and it's a block.
01:02:01.140
And then since then I've had regular conversations with him.
01:02:12.400
I've certainly would like to give him more and more advice.
01:02:19.220
Last question because of undermining any doubt in your mind.
01:02:25.120
I know some of the adults in the room that disagree with some of his policies
01:02:41.800
but there are people who have experience and are advising him and people I
01:02:54.160
Where I draw the line is when somebody is there and they don't agree,
01:03:06.540
how is the president dealing with that internally?
01:03:30.800
but fortunately there's a gentleman you and I both know probably pretty well
01:03:40.420
He's the guy that goes directly to the president,
01:03:53.400
Also really find out where some of the bad stuff that's been going on.
01:04:05.660
I've given a ton of interviews on Bill Shine because my friendship with him.
01:04:12.960
he's the guy that's able to somehow tell you no,
01:04:42.360
I think I've heard that since the first day he was in,
01:04:56.120
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