00:34:06.260And I like the fact that you can't hide.
00:34:09.300Yes, you might start off by saying something very laudatory, but at the end of the day, you have to get to, what did I do to deliver for the American people?
00:34:15.980And that goes into what I believe is different.
00:34:18.800There's three things, the people, the process, and the policies.
00:34:21.760And, look, when we got brought into Trump 1, and, again, he's not a politician.
00:34:26.520The guy was picking people, some of them he knew, some of them he didn't, and people would recommend him.
00:34:32.180I think the best person to be the ambassador to, you know, France is so-and-so.
00:34:36.540I think that so-and-so would be great for the Department of the Interior.
00:34:45.980I was in the room plenty of times where those conversations occurred.
00:34:48.720I don't think every single person, in fact, a lot of them, did not come in for the right reasons, meaning they weren't coming in to advance his agenda.
00:34:55.600In some cases, they were coming in to advance their own or to actually stand in the way of it and to oppose it.
00:35:02.740This time, what the media gets wrong about the people in the room, in his cabinet in particular, in the subcabinet, and this is where, again, they just say, oh, they're all loyal.
00:35:36.000And then the policies, they know, four years out of office, I always tell people, it's like when you, if you grew up playing a team sport and you play the same team later in the season, your coach will likely say, remember, they came up strong on the right and we didn't block them well.
00:35:53.840Four years out of office has allowed these guys to think through how to get things done properly, what the opposition force is going to look like.
00:36:02.320And I keep contrasting the sort of the firing of Lisa Cook at the Fed this week with how we handled Comey.
00:36:10.780When we fired Comey, the president called me into the Oval and said, Sean, put out a statement.
00:37:34.680Now, whether she gets convicted or not, an employer, I've had to fire people before.
00:37:39.380None of them were convicted of anything.
00:37:42.540In fact, a lot of times it's like, hey, we're going to let you go so that, you know.
00:37:46.380And, Sean, just on ā no, and I appreciate that.
00:37:48.940And it certainly is ā the frame is for cause.
00:37:52.220But you don't find anything curious about that coincidental that Adam Schiff and Tish James have the same accusations, and they're just sort of coincidental.
00:38:02.760And Paxton, who's got accusations against him in Texas, there's been no consideration and criteria for a similar investigation.
00:38:12.500This is just professionalism at the highest levels of the Trump administration, weeding out corruption, and they just happen to fall on these three people coincidentally?
00:38:23.340Well, again, first of all, like it's not ā like Adam Schiff, Tish James ā I mean, you're his governor.
00:38:28.760I think that's not just a mortgage fraud issue, but it's an electoral problem.
00:38:32.760The guy by the Constitution is required to live in your state.
00:38:36.000He has signed a document saying that Maryland is his primary residence.
00:38:39.480You should probably be entitled to a senator that represents California and lives there.
00:38:43.920So I would argue that this is probably more of your problem.
00:38:46.880By the way, Sean, I'm trying to go to an event where Schiff has not already left because he was there before I was there.
00:38:52.860I did look at that this morning, and I thought this is going to be interesting.
00:38:57.960But honestly, I mean, you can't in good conscience say that's just ā I mean, this is just a professionally well-ordered machine doing everything right.
00:39:05.700And these three people just coincidentally.
00:39:12.920One ā I honest to God, and I say this like in all honesty because I don't ā I'm not ā I know that there's some issues that have brought up with the attorney general.
00:39:21.700I didn't know about the mortgage fraud, to be honest with you.
00:39:23.640Maybe that ā so if that's true, I'd be willing to look at it.
00:39:29.580One, the first question was, was the process different than the first term?
00:39:33.100And as I said with Comey, they did ā we just fired him, announced it like you're gone, and then built the plane in midair to explain why later.
00:39:41.860With Cook, they made the predicate very clear.
00:39:49.780So I ā as a consumer of the news and as a citizen, I go, okay, I know what you're accused of.
00:39:55.640If that's cause, and which I believe a judge would argue is cause, because again, it doesn't mean you have to be guilty of it, which I actually ā from what I can see, I'm no judge.
00:40:04.820But I would say that if you sign two pieces of paper claiming two different states are your primary residence to get a lower interest rate, neither one that you've actually lived in and used for rental purposes.
00:40:16.520I didn't get a ā I had to get the higher interest rate and a bigger down payment because it ā I wasn't going to lie on a form.
00:40:23.140But it's ā and electorally, it's also a lie.
00:40:26.500Like, as I said, I mean, Tish James had a property here in my state of Virginia saying ā and she's the New York Attorney General claiming that Virginia is her primary residence.
00:40:36.460And so ā and let me just say this, Governor.
00:40:38.620The one last thing is I would say ā and this is why after watching the four years of what they did to Trump, especially, especially in New York, claiming that misdemeanors, bookkeeping misdemeanors that passed the statute of limitations somehow all roll up into a fake felony and then telling the jury, you don't even need to come up with a crime.
00:41:02.800I mean, you know, one could argue that with selective prosecution, I think any objective observer would have to maintain these three cases seem to be rather selective and curious.
00:41:15.800And I guess the deeper problem that I have ā and I appreciate your framework around this being a better process than Comey, and I do appreciate your framework on that.
00:41:24.960But this idea that it's better because the DOJ is now being weaponized in a very overt way, perhaps ā I mean, Pam's standing right behind the president.
00:41:35.040These guys are just winding up on that retribution list.
00:41:38.560It just doesn't feel like he's raising the bar and elevating the confidence.
00:41:45.620Let's just say for a second I accept your premise.
00:43:12.500I hope that we have a system where senators live in the state that they represent.
00:43:18.940And I don't think anyone listening would disagree that people need to be held to account.
00:43:23.240And I just think this selective prosecution, you know, is a little dark and a little ominous.
00:43:29.520And without even, you know, getting back in the merits or demerits of your point about what you perceive happened at the state level in New York and Georgia,
00:43:38.820what they attempted to do to Trump when he was out of office.
00:43:41.700But just moving off, just if I may, just because I think, you know, it does beg the question of the Fed.
00:43:50.660I mean, are we better off with the president of the United States having the ability to change on whims members of the board
00:43:59.600and have those members get rid of the presidents of the regional bodies?
00:44:03.780Is that ā are we better off as a nation having a president put their thumb on that scale?
00:44:08.760I mean, it seems the last time we had a United States president do it was Richard Nixon.
00:44:12.320It didn't seem to end so well with inflationary pressures in the 70s.
00:44:15.700People have equated similar actions in places like Argentina and Turkey.
00:45:02.880So his vice or vote v. Biden and the Biden administration went to court up through the appeals process arguing that the president of the United States has the absolute authority to fire anyone without ever explaining it, by the way.
00:45:13.700That is the court ā that is the case law now.
00:45:20.740H.R. McMaster, by the way, a West Point grad that had taught at West Point, was scheduled to get the Distinguished Alumni Award that Thursday.
00:45:29.180So they fired everyone, Air Force, West Point, Naval Academy, for no cause.
00:45:33.840We went to court, obviously attempting to lose, where we made them argue in the affirmative that the president of the United States has the absolute authority to fire anyone.
00:46:10.900In fact, it was the Democratic congressional chairman of the board at the time, Dutch Rutherford, who called me and said, this is ridiculous.
00:46:17.080Like, I don't know ā I didn't get informed about this.
00:46:42.800Now, with respect to the Fed alone, I don't have a problem with the ā again, I am a believer that the president has the authority, as now affirmed by Spicer v. Biden, to decide who he wants to serve.
00:46:54.360Even the independent Fed, which is held to ā even the Supreme Court has adjudicated the unique standing of the independent Fed, first and second bank, in a recent decision.
00:47:03.580You think ā well, even if they ā regardless of the merits, you think it's healthy for a democracy that a president ā
00:47:09.440Well, again, there's a difference between ā in this case, I do believe ā I mean, as I've stated, this isn't like conjecture.
00:47:18.780The documents are out there for everyone to see.
00:47:22.480She signed two documents that state in the affirmative that two different states at the same time are her primary residence, neither of which she ever lived in.
00:48:48.220And so part of it is that these interest rates, I think, would be a great thing, not just for, you know, the debt of our country, frankly, but also for home ownership.
00:51:43.400I didn't even know you've been a pastor for over 10 years.
00:51:46.120I think culture is any space that you live in that develops you.
00:51:50.360On a recent episode of Culture Raises Us podcast, I sat down with Warren Campbell, Grammy-winning producer, pastor, and music executive,
00:51:56.880to talk about the beats, the business, and the legacy behind some of the biggest names in gospel, R&B, and hip-hop.
00:52:03.320This is like watching Michael Jackson talk about Thriller before it happened.
00:52:06.000Was there a particular moment where you realized just how instrumental music culture was to shaping all of our global ecosystem?
00:52:14.340I was eight years old, and the Motown 25 special came on, and all the great Motown artists, Marvin, Stevie Wonder, Temptations, Diana Ross.
00:52:24.480From Mary Mary to Jennifer Hudson, we get into the soul of the music and the purpose that drives it.
00:52:29.960Listen to Culture Raises Us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:56:35.980So I'm curious, Justin, I know I'm sensitive to our time.
00:56:39.980And, you know, as we sort of battle this notion of Fed independence and talk about the issue of just basic data collection and presidential authority,
00:56:50.360some would suggest overreach, and we can battle that back and forth.
00:56:53.660But your overall assessment just on what he's doing for the economy,
00:56:59.420are you pleased that we had a cabinet meeting this week and the commerce secretary said,
00:57:04.960hey, we may be taking over defense companies or at least investing in defense companies?
00:57:09.200Are you pleased that we now are getting involved in Silicon Valley and owning 10 percent of Intel?
00:57:14.540Are you happy that they're doing tithings or set-asides at AMD and NVIDIA 15 percent?
00:57:20.180Are you pleased that the president's deciding who should be a CEO, shouldn't be,
00:57:25.060said the Intel CEO should be fired before they decided to take 10 percent of the company
00:57:29.680or deciding on what logos people should have or not have, cracker barrel?