00:02:51.760I can spot him in his work a mile away.
00:02:55.880So I want to start here, and I don't mean this to be an uncomfortable question, but I think a lot of people, especially on the right, maybe some on the left, have no idea how to relate to you.
00:03:10.220Because I don't know if you're a lefty who has come to Jesus, so to speak, or if you're a lefty that, you know, just doesn't hate America.
00:03:24.020Or if we're all misreading you, are you somebody who has turned a corner, or are you just somebody like, honestly, and I've bet on one of these,
00:03:39.740are you somebody that we don't see anymore, which is somebody willing to talk to anyone and willing to call out any side when they disagree?
00:03:57.240I love our country, and I have dedicated my life in service.
00:04:04.880You know, I realized from a very young age that I was happiest when I was doing my best to be pleasing to God, to serve God.
00:04:14.320And what better way to do that than to serve God's children and work for the positive, you know, impact and well-being of all of God's children and our planet.
00:04:26.200And so, as I have approached politics, specifically, as you're talking about, that is my motivation.
00:04:34.860And perhaps because I'm not motivated by partisan politics or power or all of the other things that we see, unfortunately, pervasive within our government,
00:04:47.480people are a little confused about how I approach different issues because I'm not looking at them through a partisan lens.
00:04:54.720I'm not looking at them through, you know, what are the political ramifications going to be and then making a calculated decision based on that.
00:05:03.060So, you know, I have and continue to look at issues based on the issue themselves, examine the pros and cons,
00:05:10.780and try to do what's best for the American people, as I've served in different elected positions, both in our state legislature here in Hawaii,
00:05:17.960our Honolulu City Council, and then in Congress for the last eight years.
00:05:22.200And then, of course, in the presidential campaign.
00:05:25.640And sometimes those positions may seem a little bit more left.
00:05:30.880They may seem a little bit more right, a little conservative.
00:05:33.680It's hard. People have had a hard time placing the label on me, as you've alluded to, which I don't have a problem with because I don't really like labels.
00:05:40.780Right. And I don't either. I mean, I think people slapped a label on me when I was at CNN.
00:05:47.200I was fine. As soon as I went to Fox, I was the Antichrist.
00:05:50.980I said exactly the same things at both places.
00:06:15.100The problem with that is, is there's a lot of people who are just lying bastards when it comes to just, you know, saying whatever they have to to to to to gain, you know, a foothold here or there.
00:06:31.840I don't think that's you because you have paid a very heavy price with the Democrats by saying what you have said.
00:06:41.240But I'm I remember my father and my grandfather.
00:06:47.940They were on different sides of the aisle and my grandfather was a Roosevelt Democrat.
00:06:56.380I mean, all the way, you know, it was still Roosevelt in the office, no matter what year it was to him.
00:07:04.400But I remember them having great conversations.
00:07:20.940And and as you know, the example you're giving is is within within families.
00:07:24.680You know, we've seen families being torn apart, you know, families being broken up because of of political differences or one member of the family voted for Hillary Clinton.
00:07:43.260And it is it is so sad to see because it takes us away from kind of the fundamental identity of who we are as Americans in this country that was built on the foundation of freedom and freedom of expression.
00:07:58.900Freedom of speech, having a robust and diverse marketplace of ideas that we can have discussions on issues and maybe find some some new perspectives that we didn't consider previously.
00:08:10.460Or maybe we walk away saying, hey, you know what, I agree to disagree, but I respect you because I know the same place of care and love for our country that I am.
00:08:20.840And we'll find a way to work together.
00:08:22.680OK, that's that's what's missing in Washington.
00:08:24.420That's what's missing in the leaders of our country today.
00:08:27.040So I agree with you here is here's here's where the rubber meets the road.
00:08:36.420You and I have both have a love for the country.
00:08:41.300We will defend the freedom that it represents.
00:08:45.140What I'm trying to get my arms around is there are those people who are uber left or how do I say it?
00:09:00.960Very, very liberal, not classic liberal, but very, very liberal who believe in gigantic government programs, et cetera, et cetera, that I don't.
00:09:09.780But they still believe in the Constitution.
00:09:14.320They still believe in the fundamental framework of America.
00:09:54.540I took an oath both as a soldier and as a member of Congress to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
00:10:05.940And I am firmly rooted within within that Constitution and our Bill of Rights that that speaks to these inalienable rights that have been granted to every single one of us by our creator.
00:10:22.260And that cannot be taken away by any man or woman or person within our government and fundamental to that understanding of our Constitution is that recognition that every one of us, that we are all God's children and that we have been granted these rights by our creator and not by anyone else.
00:10:43.100So when you're coming from that place, then we're able to have real discussions on that common ground and understanding and recognition.
00:10:54.760What I think so that that's where I'm coming from.
00:10:57.200What I see troubling, extremely troubling and dangerous, increasingly so within our government, is whether it is a lack of care or a lack of understanding or a complete dismissal of our Constitution by a lot of people in power who believe that it is within their right.
00:11:17.360As elected leaders to decide which of our rights we're allowed to have, which they will choose to take away, what speech is allowed to be shared and whose voices or ideas or views should be censored.
00:11:33.140And this is this is what we're seeing now increasingly coming from within our government, but also from from big tech monopolies and others, people in positions of power.
00:11:44.040And this is taking us so far away from our fundamental identity and this foundation upon which our our country was built.
00:11:52.120So I want to I want to, if I can, frame frame our conversation around the Bill of Rights, because I think the Bill of Rights being violated in 100 different ways, at least, is the core problem that we're having right now.
00:12:09.060The fundamental misunderstanding, the fundamental misunderstanding, the misinterpretation and the dismissal in many cases of the Bill of Rights.
00:12:17.140So I'd like to talk to you about that.
00:12:19.320But I I want to first ask you this question.
00:12:25.920I don't understand what's happening with our military right now and this administration.
00:12:32.300I find it extraordinarily offensive that we are on a stand down position to weed out radical right wing terrorists or right wing extremists.
00:12:57.560Do we have a problem with extremists, domestic extremists in our military like that?
00:13:05.960Oh, I think we first have to start with with something that you pointed out, which is a question that I have asked is what is the definition of extremism?
00:13:18.740And I'm again from a military perspective and I'm still serving.
00:13:21.740I'm I'm almost 18 years now in the Army Reserves, still serving as a civil affairs officer.
00:13:27.140And so when I look at things from that military mindset and you're saying, OK, well, we've got a problem that we've got to root out.
00:13:35.280You first have to actually define what that problem is.
00:13:39.220Or if you're talking about an enemy like Al Qaeda, for example, you first have to understand and identify that enemy, what their ideology is,
00:13:47.420what they're seeking to accomplish in order to go in and defeat that enemy.
00:13:51.660I see what is happening here to be so dangerous because these terms, extremism, domestic extremism,
00:14:00.880these sorts of things are being thrown out without any real definition at all.
00:14:06.400And so, you know, an extremist from a well, we're seeing this work for an extremist from somebody who's coming from the ultra left in politics could be somebody who has an American flag in front of their house who says, I love my country.
00:14:23.480And it could be someone in New Hampshire who has a live free or die flag, you know, could be someone who is an evangelical Christian or a practicing Hindu who's a very devout practitioner of their spiritual practice.
00:15:33.840That is a very specific category that believe that government needs to be run by mullahs exactly the way all of the way they interpret the Koran.
00:18:28.900I mean, at some point, if that's your view in marriage, you are going to get a divorce or you're going to chop your husband into little pieces.
00:19:42.080Spoke very strongly to this message of reaching out specifically to all Americans, including those who did not vote for him.
00:19:50.900There's a heavy weight of responsibility on his shoulders and on the shoulders of those in power currently.
00:19:58.980Democrats in the House and the Senate need to turn that rhetoric into action.
00:20:04.680But unfortunately, and this is what's so disheartening, is that we're not seeing that.
00:20:09.140In fact, we're seeing the exact opposite.
00:20:11.740To hear, again, my last day in Congress was January 2nd.
00:20:16.300And within just a few days to hear Nancy Pelosi and the other Democrats in Congress talk about the Republicans, the quote unquote enemy within, was so deeply troubling and dangerous.
00:20:33.380Because of where, because of what it is, but also where that leads.
00:20:37.020How can you expect to heal the wounds of this country when you're castigating those in the other political party as the enemy within, which then if you carry that through, says that if any Democrat is caught talking to making or, God forbid, working with a Republican on legislation to solve problems, then you're working with the enemy.
00:21:03.040And this just, I mean, it flies in the face of, again, everything that our country is founded on.
00:21:10.100And, you know, the kind of decorum that I think the American people would expect from leaders in Congress, if not respecting their colleagues, at least respecting the voters who sent them there.
00:21:22.100And that's what it is, when you start dehumanizing and vilifying others in the way that is happening now, you are dismissing and throwing up the middle finger at the millions of voters who sent them there.
00:21:42.120You are, you know, they keep saying that right wing extremists are the source of problems while not defining them.
00:21:53.280And yet using brushstrokes so broad that everyone who didn't vote for Biden feels like they might be included in that.
00:21:59.460And it is almost like you're just getting poked in the eye with a stick every day and they want you to react.
00:22:08.760I mean, I couldn't design a plan better to get people to rise up against you, which leads me to this question.
00:22:19.300I am. I was totally fine with Biden having a very safe inauguration.
00:22:28.600I thought the troops there was a little overkill, but OK, I don't want anything ever to happen to the president or anybody in office.
00:22:37.100We have to safeguard that. But why are they still there?
00:22:41.640Have you ever done a mission that was undefined, was an undefined enemy, undefined goal, undefined period of time?
00:22:53.240I don't I didn't think the Pentagon ever allowed that to happen until now.
00:23:02.000In my experience, it is unique, especially here at home.
00:23:08.060You and I have talked before we could have another conversation about interventionist regime change wars that have ill-defined objectives overseas with with, you know, unending deployments.
00:23:21.420But when we're talking about a mission here at home and I have been deployed in these domestic response missions before we had an active volcano.
00:23:31.860Obviously, there are flooding and hurricanes.
00:23:34.380There are very specific missions that our National Guard soldiers have been deployed to go and serve a purpose and then get back home to their lives and their families.
00:23:45.180I was really disturbed to see on many levels the what I think it was around 20,000 at one point.
00:23:54.760National Guard soldiers deployed there to our nation's capital.
00:23:57.500Again, like you, we want inauguration, the president, we want people to be safe.
00:24:04.220But it seemed like a very disproportionate response that sent a dangerous message to the American people and, frankly, to the world of I mean, is our nation under attack from the American people?
00:24:18.220Is that really what's happening here is is is this really put in place to kind of foment fear amongst our own people that our government is somehow farther and farther separated from us?
00:24:31.380And, you know, some of my friends are sending me pictures still of the, you know, the fences and the concertina wire, barbed wire and the patrolling of troops out in our nation and not really knowing if or when when this is going to end.
00:24:47.840And with some saying, like in the post 9-11 era, the security measures that were put in place were never reduced.
00:24:54.980And now that this may just be the new norm.
00:24:57.020Now our capital will only be open to people who who work there and everyone else will be treated as a, quote unquote, threat.
00:25:04.260But but I also want to talk real quick, Glenn, because I missed I missed answering your earlier question that that really does hit home to me.
00:25:11.440You asked if in the military I had I had experienced being surrounded by white supremacists or, quote unquote, extremists, whatever that means.
00:25:19.000And the answer to that question is no, never.
00:25:21.620I've served now for almost 18 years and from basic training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, back in 2003,
00:25:30.480I've served it in a number of military bases across the country in Oklahoma and Texas and Pennsylvania and South Carolina and many different bases.
00:25:39.480I've been deployed twice to the Middle East, worked with troops from across our military.
00:25:45.480And in my experience, it has been a representation of Americans from all different backgrounds.
00:25:55.340Different political ideologies, different views on things.
00:25:59.420But but as you said in your opening, when it came right down to it, when it was time to execute that mission, it's it's team America.
00:26:08.320We are putting service and country in the American people above any other, you know, superficial differences or.
00:26:14.460Yeah, of course, we have debates talk all the time about different things and we come at issues from a different perspective.
00:26:18.860But we wear that same uniform that has the American flag on our arm with great pride and great privilege and honor to have to to to to be given that opportunity to serve.
00:26:31.360So that's what I thought you would say.
00:27:39.140But this is not that we're not looking for a few people.
00:27:42.580I mean, the, the, the, the new attorney general, when he was testifying, said this is a more dangerous time than the Oklahoma City bombing for homegrown terrorists and white supremacists and right wing extremists.
00:28:23.060I mean, you look at those who, which really is that definition.
00:28:26.820It is those who believe that being white is a superior race and that those who are white should be the dominant race.
00:28:36.500And, and, and you see that ideology adherence in, you know, the KKK and, and, and Nazis and those who, who follow that, that ideology that, that you and I and virtually everyone would recognize needs to be denounced and defeated.
00:28:53.720And you can defeat that ideology with, with a superior one that points to the fact that we are all God's children.
00:29:03.300We are all equal, no matter the color of your skin, your religion.
00:29:05.680I mean, we, we get back to Dr. King saying, let's judge each other on the content of our character.
00:29:10.400So that's a very specific thing, but what's dangerous.
00:29:13.840And, and I've seen, I've seen throughout my time in the military, you know, you get, you get asked questions.
00:29:18.180You have to literally fill out petitions and, and, and, and you know, are you an adherent to, I forget the exact language, but basically trying to say, okay, let's, let's find those who, who may be those few dangerous people.
00:29:31.800Who follow this ideology and may try to carry it out in a violent manner.
00:29:36.160And that, that's really, I think that's really where there, there may be an area of concern, but what's dangerous now is, is the term white supremacy is, is really being thrown out and attached to everybody, anybody who voted for Trump.
00:29:51.940People who are white, you know, apparently now all white people are racist.
00:29:56.180Uh, it's, it's being thrown out in a way that, um, that, that allows and enables those in positions of power to abuse that power and target, target Americans, uh, whether it's with surveillance or, or, you know, all, all of the different tools at their disposal, including those that Adam Schiff is proposing in his new domestic terrorism legislation, which is incredibly, incredibly dangerous.
00:30:22.800And, and, and, and, and very much unconstitutional when you look at it from a civil liberties perspective.
00:30:28.520So that brings us back to the constitution.
00:30:31.700Let's, let's just go through a few things.
00:30:46.020There's Congress members wrote a letter this week and sent it to Comcast, AT&T, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and said, if you're still doing business with Fox news and those like Fox news, we want to know why.
00:31:05.020Uh, I've, I, I mean, this is outrageous.
00:31:08.960Can you, can you define the first amendment's freedom of press and freedom of speech?
00:31:18.400Because I think we have a misunderstanding in America.
00:31:24.320Uh, I think you and I clearly understand what that means, but it is scary that members of Congress, uh, who were in charge of powerful committees that regulate these media entities.
00:31:36.800Uh, seem to not have that understanding at all.
00:31:41.860Congress does not have the constitutional authority to tell any media agency, uh, what they can have on their airwaves.
00:31:59.860Uh, that somehow Congress may try to levy or exercise some kind of authority to bully, uh, whether it's, you know, AT&T or Time Warner or the people that they say it's Hulu that they sent these letters to, uh, to fall in line.
00:32:15.260And the thing that there's a, there's a, there's a few things that jumped out to me in that letter, but they're pointing to, uh, information and what these, uh, media entities were or are doing to stop that.
00:32:31.200And again, pointing to conservative news outlets as disinformation.
00:32:35.660Uh, and pointing to, to only conservative media outlets as the propagators of this disinformation.
00:33:09.240They did not have a problem with former secretary Clinton propagating that lie, baseless, evidenceless accusation that I'm somehow working for Russia or a Russian government.
00:33:21.940Not only did it not have a problem carrying that, they continued to repeat it and reinforce that, uh, and not just over a week's worth of news stories.
00:33:34.480This went on for virtually the entire time I was campaigning for president.
00:33:38.960Another example, they had no problem, uh, NBC, ABC, all of these news networks.
00:33:45.480They had no problem propagating the lie that James Clapper told to the United States Senate that the government was not conducting mass surveillance on Americans by collecting our, our phone metadata and looking into our emails.
00:34:24.960So if this is the approach they're going to take and that they are taking, uh, we, the American people need to expose the double standard, the hypocrisy, and the very transparent attempt to silence those who hold views that they, those in power do not deem as acceptable.
00:34:48.380And what's so clear to me in all of this is if there was confidence in their argument, their policies, their, their, uh, proposals or philosophy, that they, their ideas are superior to those who they disagree with on the conservative spectrum.
00:35:09.060Why not just present them and have confidence that your argument will defeat the other.
00:35:15.020So it exposes this insecurity and lack of confidence and fear that, Oh my gosh, if they hear these other ideas or these other voices, they might believe it.
00:35:32.340But you know, that there are people on both sides of the aisles, progressives, if you will, on both sides of the aisles.
00:35:37.480And I mean, progressives is the original early 20th century progressive that believes in, you know, uh, a, an authoritarian sort of dictatorship without, without the connotations of what we've learned dictatorships were.
00:35:54.200Um, I mean, in, you know, 1900 dictatorship where somebody is an administrator and those administrators are just much smarter than the American people and they're educated and they're surrounded by experts.
00:36:08.480So there are these, there's this, there's this feeling with, I think a lot of people in Washington, it seems that they really almost kind of despise the American people or they, they, they just need to say what they have to say to the American people because we know what we have to do.
00:36:28.220And so that gives you all kinds of room to do really anything because it's just a bunch of cattle.
00:36:40.280What, what we're seeing here is this, um, blatant arrogance that really says we know better for the American people than, than they do for themselves.
00:36:51.360They're too stupid to know any better.
00:36:54.380They're too stupid to make decisions for themselves.
00:36:56.520They're incapable of, of gathering information, forming opinions and views that will allow them to make decisions at the ballot box.
00:37:05.860And so people in power will, will make that decision for us.
00:37:10.800And worse yet, their motivation is not the best interest of the American people.
00:37:18.880Their motivation is how do I keep power?
00:37:21.560How do I get more power or how do I get power back?
00:37:24.160And that's what I, that's what I saw very clearly throughout my, my, uh, eight years in Congress where I was both in the, the minority when Republicans were in charge.
00:37:32.740And then in the majority, when Democrats took over the house, uh, the decisions were driven very clearly on a daily basis on that calculus.
00:37:40.580If you're in power, how do you keep it?
00:37:42.860And if you're not, how do you get it back?
00:37:47.540No, are you following the great reset at all from the world economic forum and what's happening?
00:37:52.500I haven't urge you to go to the world economic forum.org and begin to look.
00:37:59.080Um, there is there, we are forming an oligarchy, um, and it, it's all out in the open.
00:38:06.840Um, and it revolves around, um, the, the idea of ESGs, uh, or is it, yeah, environmental, social justice and governmental standards.
00:38:18.760Well, that's great unless you're starting to put those into companies and those companies now say, we are only doing business with people who believe this and we'll do this.
00:38:32.500Coca-Cola has on their own site, uh, about a hundred pages.
00:38:36.260This is their bottler in, um, uh, Europe that is ahead of them here, but they're quickly catching up.
00:38:42.500And the, the, the, the several times they say, in order to justify our business license, we will do these things in the community.
00:38:56.420If that's what you want to do as a company, but we are now seeing, for instance, with Facebook and Google,
00:39:04.340they're doing the bidding in many ways of the government where they are going around the constitution.
00:39:14.720Government can't violate that, but this is a private company.
00:39:17.940So they are silencing people, but it seems to be awfully convenient, uh, the handshake between them and the government and they're in business with each other.
00:39:28.680And you see others, other companies that are also coming in and they are doing business with the governments of the world and they're going to get payback.
00:39:42.560Um, it's, it's this ingenious system called, uh, stakeholder capitalism where we're all stakeholders, not shareholders, stakeholders.
00:39:54.100And so if it's not good for all of the stakeholders, you can't do it.
00:40:00.180That's a fundamental perversion of what America and freedom really is.
00:40:06.260That's Chinese capitalism or basically what we've been, uh, except with guns on the other end of it.
00:40:14.460It's corrupt capitalism, crony capitalism at best.
00:40:19.320Uh, when you have all of these interests that are coming together and the government knows, it doesn't have the trust of the American people.
00:40:31.080The media knows it doesn't have the trust of the American people.
00:40:34.620The media also doesn't have the money to do it.
00:40:37.180Uh, when you have people that need each other, Facebook, Google,
00:40:43.540they need the governments of the world to not come after them like a bag of bricks and the government needs Google and Facebook to help us out a little bit, help us corral the American people a little bit.
00:41:07.020And this, this comes down to, um, remembering and, and harnessing the power that, that we have within our hands, especially in America, uh, through two primary means, uh, how we vote, who we vote for, and how we choose to spend our dollar.
00:41:26.760Um, because both of these are a means of communication where, um, we, we, we get to take, we get to take a stand, uh, on the government side.
00:41:38.160Yeah, but when you, hang on just a second, when you take a stand, I took a stand at Fox.
00:41:43.180I didn't like the direction that I felt that they were going.
00:41:47.100I didn't like the direction I thought CNN was going as well.
00:41:50.240And I, I took a huge risk in 2011 and built my own company.
00:42:44.200And that's exactly the calculus I was thinking through as, as I'm, you know, getting ready to launch my podcast and YouTube show is that is what guests will I have?
00:42:55.700Or what topic is one that, that will cause them at any time to just say, yeah, you know what, we're going to pull the plug and, uh, and, and make it so that your point, your voice is not being heard.
00:43:06.560I mean, this is a very real threat that we're facing in our society and in our governance.
00:43:11.020I mean, this is where we have to do a better job.
00:43:15.460We, the American people have to do a better job in deciding who we are sending to Washington to make these decisions.
00:43:21.080Is it going to be more of the same where we see politicians who go and collect the checks from Facebook and Google and, uh, big tech and, and all of these different entities where it's, Hey, you scratch my back.
00:43:39.520Uh, just send a few more dollars my way.
00:43:41.680Uh, are we going to keep sending people to Washington who are so easily cowed to tow the party line, uh, based on threats that, and I've seen this based on threats.
00:43:54.340Hey, if you don't, if you don't fall in line, we're going to yank your committees.
00:43:57.220If you don't fall in line, you know, we're not going to be there for you when you need help in your next reelection.
00:44:02.320Or are we going to send people who are firmly rooted in that desire to, to always put the interest of the American people first?
00:44:11.680You mentioned this, this stakeholder capitalism and clearly in this stakeholder capitalism, we, the people are, are not being considered stakeholders.
00:44:22.460Oh, no, no, wait, wait, no, this is, this is the best part of it.
00:44:40.040And the government is so, the government, and this, okay, so this gets to the heart of the problem where, and I, I saw over the last several years, people coming, you know, people coming and meeting with me in office in Washington, D.C.
00:44:55.040And just this constant rhetoric about the concern of the rise of populism in the United States and in the world and what a dangerous thing that is.
00:45:05.580And I, I, I, like, every time I kept scratching my head, you see the rise of people's frustrations and anger and pain and stepping up and saying, hey, no, we're not going to allow the very few, the wealthiest, the most powerful to control all of these decisions that impact our lives in, in most often a negative way.
00:45:28.800And we're going to stand up and do something about it through who we vote for, through exercising our voice and our freedom of speech and seeing people within our government and within our corporate society openly and publicly talking about that as being a threat.
00:45:42.800And I think there's a silver lining to that because it shows that even though we may feel powerless at different times, there is power in our voices, there is power in our vote.
00:45:56.920And this is the institutions that our founders set up for us to be able to exercise that power of having a government of, by and for the people, which frankly is under threat right now.
00:46:05.080Do we believe that, especially if HR one passes, I mean, that's the federal, I mean, that's unconstitutional HR one.
00:46:13.480I'm sure you're familiar with this is the bill that is trying to be passed by the house to, to federalize in many ways, the U S elections.
00:46:22.120That is unconstitutional, but if they get half of those things through, you're not going to be able to trust an election.
00:46:30.380And that's what you've said this a couple of times, you got to be careful on who you vote for and you really have to, yada, yada.
00:46:36.160And for the first time in my life, I have, I have thought to myself each time, well, yeah, but does that really, I mean, is that going to matter?
00:47:05.900I got it, but I'm not sure that we're entering territories where you can trust that the people, uh, that that's actually their will.
00:47:17.660Is that too conspiratorial or have to, no, it's not, it's not, I understand where you're coming from.
00:47:24.780And, and the concern is very, very real, um, for a variety of reasons, uh, election integrity has something for years has been something for years that I, as a member of not only spoke about and warned against, but actually introduced legislation to, to address recognizing that if we as voters don't have faith that our votes will be counted.
00:47:47.780Counted as we cast them, then what is our democracy, right?
00:47:55.420And so, you know, I introduced legislation, the securing America's elections act.
00:47:58.960I think you and I talked actually, when I first introduced this bill, um, that very simply, it, it continued to support the state's authority and administering elections.
00:48:08.700And merely said, if you're using an electronic system, there needs to be a voter verified paper backup or a paper ballot record to ensure that we protect ourselves from hackers or manipulation of those votes.
00:48:23.080You have an auditable paper trail and provided resources to the states to be able to do that.
00:48:52.960The other major issue here is with the media, the media bias.
00:48:56.360I experienced this in a very real way, uh, especially in my presidential, uh, campaign of how the power of the mainstream media to decide what narrative they're going to choose to tell about you.
00:49:09.060The fact that there's little to no interest in talking about real issues, substantive issues that are critical to the American people.
00:49:18.140It's entertainment, it's ratings, it's political theater.
00:49:22.400And ultimately if they decide, you know what, we don't want people to hear from you anymore.
00:49:27.740I experienced a blackout, a media blackout that made it.
00:49:31.600So the only way I could communicate with voters was, Hey, we're holding multiple town halls every day.
00:49:36.960We're trying to reach as many people as possible, but it becomes, you know, like, like I'm sitting here with a squirt gun up against a flotilla of aircraft carriers.
00:49:48.700And it is, it's a very helpless feeling, but, but so understanding these, these threats to our democracy is critical so that we, we can, we can work to address them.
00:50:02.580We can work to address them through new media.
00:50:03.800We can work to address them through how we cast our votes, through exercising our speech, through pushing back against these threats to our bill of rights and our constitution and our fundamental freedoms.
00:50:14.320You have, you have, you have witnessed it firsthand and it, and it continues.
00:50:21.800Let me just stay, I don't think we're going to get past the first amendment, but let me just stay with the first amendment on something that I know you have had blowback on.
00:50:28.520But there's news this week that, um, a, a scientific based book endorsed by, um, you know, doctors at the university of Boston and, uh, uh, psychiatrists, you know, with Princeton, et cetera, et cetera.
00:50:47.480There are some, some, some, some big names, um, the book has been banned, even though it has been out for three years, for three years.
00:50:57.380Um, Amazon decided it was hate speech.
00:51:00.300And if you've read the book, I have not, but I have been told by many who have, it is compassionately based.
00:51:09.300It is really for parents to get another point of view when a doctor says, oh, give your kids transgender drugs, go ahead, let them change, have them have the surgery.
00:51:56.040We have to keep fighting back using our voices and using our dollars.
00:52:01.300I think there was another example, maybe similar to this, uh, the book that was written by, I think Alison Schreier was her name that went, uh, to, I think it was up at target.
00:52:13.040And then what, I think they got one or two complaints.
00:52:27.560And even though we may feel as individuals, it's, it's tough to make an impact being able to stand up as people who love and appreciate free speech, whether or not we agree with what's in these books or not.
00:52:40.620I mean, there, there could be a book that that's written that I may wholeheartedly disagree with.
00:52:45.800I will still stand up for the right for people to have access to information.
00:52:51.020And again, this, this is something that we started this off with the oath that I've taken as, as a soldier and a member of Congress.
00:52:56.720And, and what that oath really means, it's not just words on a page.
00:53:00.040It's not just words we recite when we raise our right hand.
00:53:02.600It means actually that I may disagree with your speech, but I'm willing to lay my life down for your right to speak.
00:53:13.880And, and this is where each of us, we, we can't just, we can't just sit back and say, you know what, it's a lost cause because there's so much at stake and we have to stand up.
00:53:27.600We have to stand up for each other, for our freedoms and for our country.
00:53:31.880So let's, um, let's, let's stay on this topic a little bit with transgenderism, but also include, uh, COVID there is this, this my way or the highway and our children are really at risk.
00:54:51.740Well, I'll start with, with the legislation that I introduced, uh, before I left Congress with a colleague and friend of mine, a Republican from Oklahoma named, uh, Congressman Mark Wayne Mullen.
00:55:00.740Our, our legislation, which was called the Protect Women's Sports Act, did just that.
00:55:06.460It looked at Title IX and recognized the need to strengthen, uh, clarify and uphold the intent of Title IX, which I think was enacted in 1972 in order to, um, provide a level playing field for girls and women in sports.
00:55:22.880Uh, and I'll, I'll, I'll use my mom as an example.
00:55:25.220She grew up in East Grand Rapids in Michigan.
00:55:27.760Uh, she was the second of three girls and very athletic, very active, but the most opportunity that she had was water ballet and cheerleading.
00:55:38.360And she did not have the opportunity to go and compete in the kinds of sports that she wished she could.
00:55:44.380So Title IX was a game changer for the generation that came next.
00:55:48.560Uh, and we see these incredible female athletes who've gone on, on to the highest levels because of those opportunities provided by Title IX.
00:55:57.540Now, Mark Wayne and I, he's got, he's got three little girls himself.
00:56:03.460And I think they're 10 twins or 10, and then he's got a 12 year old and they're really good.
00:56:09.380They're extremely competitive, but for him and his wife, their concern is not only the unfairness of now saying, well, hey, you might have to go and compete against a biological male, but the safety risk that is inherent with that.
00:56:26.620So, so, so it is a very practical, science-based, common sense organization that and girls in sports, period.
00:56:41.580Uh, and we see now with, with girls who are competing in track and field in high school, there are a number of different examples in the country, um, where the physiology, the physiological differences between a biological male and a biological female competing against each other, take away that level playing field, take away scholarships that they were hoping to get to go to college, take away that, that opportunity that they were seeking to have as, as female athletes in sports.
00:57:09.700Um, let's, let's, let's, let's go to COVID and common sense.
00:57:16.380Let's go, let's go to COVID and the lockdowns and the, now we have to wear double masks and we may not be able to come out of lockdown until 2022.
00:57:27.020What is going on and what should be done?
00:57:32.040Common sense and science, you know, in the midst of a, of a pandemic, these, these, these,
00:57:39.700should be the driving factors of the decisions that are being made.
00:57:42.640And you look at, you look at how we could have alleviated so much of the negative impact that we've seen going back to the very beginning in the hypocrisy and in incompetence, um, of, of our leaders.
00:57:57.500And, and, and I'll, I'll, you mentioned the double masks are saying triple masks.
00:58:00.980It's, it's, it's a ridiculous and, and, um, not non-practical approach to people who want to protect themselves.
00:58:11.060This could have been addressed in the very beginning by, uh, Dr. Fauci and the CDC, instead of lying to the American people saying, don't wear a mask.
00:58:18.540It's not going to do anything for you specifically because they were trying to protect the N95 medical grade masks for healthcare workers, which is important.
00:58:31.760Why not just tell the American people the truth and say, Hey, look, we have a limited amount of these masks.
00:58:37.160We want to save them for those who are treating COVID patients every day, but we're going to do everything we possibly can to make it so that these masks will be available to everyone so that you too can have this same protection.
00:59:47.260How do we deal with this massive shortage in supply?
00:59:50.380And still today, it is virtually impossible for, uh, any, any individual who's not working in a medical field, uh, to get access to these masks that, that could have saved thousands of people's lives because they actually work.
01:00:08.840And then we wouldn't be having this conversation about people wearing triple masks, which really make it almost impossible for people to breathe.
01:00:17.980If we had instituted this and leaders at that time recognize the importance of it, again, science and common sense, mass production of these masks, stop exporting them to other countries.
01:00:28.200Then we could have, you know, you don't have the kinds of, uh, you know, mass lockdowns, uh, that we've seen.
01:00:40.080And, and, and at its core, from the get-go, having those who are public health experts lying to the American people has created this suspicion and lack of trust in those who are supposed to be looking at our best interests.
01:01:02.900And I also don't believe that what you're saying is true.
01:01:28.000Um, it wasn't anti-Obama as much as it was, where is my party?
01:01:34.940Where is, where are the people who are standing up for the constitution?
01:01:39.100Where are the people that say, no, wait, you can't do that because this is the system we have.
01:01:45.480Um, and it was turned into all kinds of things, but, and then eventually discouraged and scattered.
01:01:52.280The, the, the idea of it though, was our party has gone over the edge.
01:02:01.740You are one of the more important voices in America because you are saying your party has gone over the edge.
01:02:13.980And I keep saying to my audience, look, the Democrats in Washington and the people like Antifa and the leadership that know the goals of black lives matter are not the people who are in your community that are not paying attention.
01:02:32.660And that says, yeah, black lives matter.
01:02:36.960And your average Democrat who's not paying attention is not your enemy.
01:02:43.300The enemy is on any side where they're trying to stop freedom and shut people off and become authoritarian.
01:02:53.640But I'm losing hope that there are Democrats that there are out there to wake up and to rally.
01:03:00.300When do the Democrats do to their party, what the tea party was trying to do to theirs?
01:03:10.520I think there are a lot of people who are afraid in the midst of this cancel culture, conflict culture society that, that we are living in, which is why I think it's so important to continue to encourage and promote people.
01:03:30.300People who are standing up and speaking the truth and being able to call out wrong when you see it, whether it happens to be people who may be in your political party or not, and to call out what's right, whether they are in your political party or not.
01:03:48.680And I think that by doing so, we can begin this kind of deeper spiritual revival in our country that speaks to, I'll circle back.
01:04:05.080I mean, this is what we call aloha here in Hawaii.
01:04:07.140It speaks to this recognition that you and I, that every single one of us are God's children.
01:04:12.360And when we recognize that, that inspires the respect and the care and compassion and love that we have for one another in understanding that.
01:04:24.140And this is what allows us to heal these wounds.
01:04:26.920This allows us to find that strength to speak the truth, to stand up, to protect our freedoms, to protect our rights.
01:04:34.840This is not about everybody falling in lockstep.