This Past Weekend with Theo Von - E540 Sen. JD Vance

00:00:00.000 We hope you're enjoying your Air Canada flight.

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00:00:30.140 We have some upcoming tour dates there in Colorado Springs in Colorado.

00:00:35.420 Casper, Wyoming.

00:00:37.520 Billings, Montana, and Missoula, Montana.

00:00:40.780 Bloomington, Indiana.

00:00:43.160 Columbus, Ohio.

00:00:44.640 Champaign, Illinois over there in the Fighting Illini area.

00:00:49.200 Grand Rapids, Michigan.

00:00:50.940 Lafayette, Louisiana, and Beaumont, Texas.

00:00:54.840 You can get all your tickets at TheoVaughn.com slash T-O-U-R. 0.77

00:01:00.020 And thank you so much for the support.

00:01:03.060 I want to start by saying that we have reached out to Governor Walz and Vice President Harris.

00:01:09.200 And we would love to have them in studio as well.

00:01:14.620 Today's guest is a senator from the state of Ohio.

00:01:19.540 He's currently on the Republican ticket for vice president.

00:01:23.820 He's a Yale graduate.

00:01:26.260 He's a Marine.

00:01:28.120 He's an author.

00:01:29.400 He wrote the book Hillbilly Elegy.

00:01:32.100 I've read about half of it.

00:01:34.140 And I'm really grateful to spend time with him today to discuss some issues and get to know him.

00:01:40.140 Today's guest is Mr. J.D. Vance.

00:02:00.380 But then it starts to become more interesting.

00:02:02.540 Like the last woman we had on trains cats around the country. 1.00

00:02:06.220 Really?

00:02:06.720 With a traveling cat circus.

00:02:07.900 That's pretty amazing.

00:02:08.500 So that's who you're following up, you know?

00:02:10.520 That's right.

00:02:12.240 That's way more interesting than a politician, man.

00:02:15.160 Just so you know where you are, you know?

00:02:17.960 Mr. Vance.

00:02:19.560 Call me J.D., please.

00:02:21.720 Just so you know where you are, J.D., in the existence of things.

00:02:26.400 J.D. Vance, thanks for coming in today, man.

00:02:28.240 Yeah, man.

00:02:28.680 It's good to be here.

00:02:29.300 I really appreciate it.

00:02:30.320 I just went to Lambeau Field the other day.

00:02:33.820 You ever been there?

00:02:35.120 I don't think I ever have been to Lambeau Field,

00:02:36.880 but I think I'm going to Lambeau Field tomorrow.

00:02:38.920 Nuh-uh.

00:02:39.380 Yeah.

00:02:40.020 Yeah.

00:02:41.140 I'm pretty sure.

00:02:41.940 I mean, running for vice president, you never know where you are day to day,

00:02:44.520 but I'm pretty sure we're going to the Packers game tomorrow.

00:02:47.540 Wow.

00:02:47.900 Yeah.

00:02:48.740 Dude, it was so cool.

00:02:49.860 Did you have fun?

00:02:50.680 It's amazing.

00:02:51.480 Yeah.

00:02:51.540 We just went.

00:02:53.000 I had a show there the night on a Saturday night, last Saturday,

00:02:56.040 so we just got to go do a tour.

00:02:57.720 Okay.

00:02:58.520 But, yeah, it's just so wild.

00:03:00.700 You drive into this, you know, it's a small city.

00:03:03.780 Yeah.

00:03:04.060 And you're like, wait, there's an NFL team here?

00:03:07.040 It doesn't make sense, really.

00:03:08.980 Yeah.

00:03:09.300 Like the NFL team in some ways, right?

00:03:11.360 I mean, the Packers are so popular, but no, I'm looking forward to going.

00:03:14.960 I mean, it's kind of like a political rite of passage because, like,

00:03:19.520 I have a guy serving the Senate, Ron Johnson, really good dude.

00:03:22.880 He's a senator?

00:03:23.620 He's a senator.

00:03:24.240 From Wisconsin?

00:03:24.840 From Wisconsin.

00:03:25.940 And he's just talking about, like, you know, you go to a,

00:03:28.580 you do the tailgate thing at Lambeau Field if you're running for office in

00:03:32.320 Wisconsin, and Wisconsin's like a big battleground state.

00:03:34.740 Yeah.

00:03:35.000 So I'm going to go and check it out.

00:03:36.460 We're bringing our kids with us, actually,

00:03:38.180 which I don't know what we're going to do with our kids because they're 7'4 and 2.

00:03:41.240 I don't think they're going to be that into a tailgate.

00:03:42.960 Filling with cheese, dude.

00:03:44.960 You know what I'm saying?

00:03:46.380 So maybe my wife will take them somewhere, 0.97

00:03:48.080 and I'll go, like, have fun at the tailgate,

00:03:49.420 but I'm looking forward to it because I'm a pretty big football fan.

00:03:52.860 Lambeau Field is like, you know.

00:03:54.580 Oh, yeah.

00:03:55.160 When we saw it.

00:03:56.060 It's a big deal.

00:03:56.400 Oh, I didn't know what to do when we saw it.

00:03:58.840 I didn't know.

00:03:59.640 Yeah, like, and there was some kids were crying and stuff,

00:04:02.100 and the parents were, like, kind of wiping their cheeks with cheese or whatever.

00:04:06.020 But it was like, yeah, it was really interesting.

00:04:10.300 Wait, they were crying because they were so excited to be at Lambeau Field?

00:04:13.280 Yeah, they were crying.

00:04:14.160 Man, I, so, are you a big football guy?

00:04:17.280 Yeah.

00:04:17.540 Okay, so.

00:04:18.420 I'm a big college football guy.

00:04:19.720 Yeah, I'm more of a college football guy, but I like both.

00:04:23.400 So I'm an Ohio State guy.

00:04:24.740 Oh, yeah.

00:04:25.180 I went to Ohio State, you know, born and raised in Ohio.

00:04:26.600 But, you know, there's, like, the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry is one of the big, big rivalries.

00:04:32.640 And this happens, of course, after, after the election.

00:04:36.000 So I'm hoping to go to the game.

00:04:37.940 But you talk about, like, a kid crying at a football field.

00:04:40.500 This is, this reminds me of a story.

00:04:42.520 It's like one of my dear friends.

00:04:44.240 And he's, like, otherwise a nice guy.

00:04:46.240 But Ohio State-Michigan just turns into a, he turns into a total animal.

00:04:50.760 So this is 2006.

00:04:52.380 Who is he?

00:04:52.660 The senator you're talking about?

00:04:53.620 No, no, no.

00:04:54.000 It's a totally different guy.

00:04:54.920 This is a buddy I've known since I was, like, five years old.

00:04:56.740 Okay.

00:04:57.100 Just a guy back home.

00:04:58.160 We go to the Ohio State-Michigan game.

00:05:00.720 We're number one.

00:05:01.740 They're number two.

00:05:02.860 I think we win that game, like, 42-39.

00:05:05.600 It's a very, very tight game.

00:05:06.580 I don't remember the exact score.

00:05:08.280 And we're leaving.

00:05:09.220 And there's this family.

00:05:10.880 And this kid is, like, you know, it's a family of Michigan fans.

00:05:14.880 And this kid is crying.

00:05:17.160 And, you know, my buddy goes up to him.

00:05:19.060 And he, you know, I'm like, oh, you know, Bill's going to be, like, sweet to this family.

00:05:21.920 Like, welcome to Ohio.

00:05:22.980 Glad you guys come to the game.

00:05:24.040 Sorry it didn't work out.

00:05:24.860 And my buddy goes, are you sad that Michigan lost?

00:05:29.320 And the little boy goes, yeah.

00:05:30.160 And he says, well, maybe next time you won't root for a team that sucks and walks off.

00:05:34.920 And I was like, oh, shit, Bill.

00:05:37.320 We should try to be nicer to the new cars.

00:05:40.820 But then, like, you realize that's actually.

00:05:43.400 Bill is not a concierge.

00:05:44.660 No, no.

00:05:45.660 But that's why Ohio State and Michigan hate each other, right?

00:05:48.500 Because that kid was probably nine years old.

00:05:50.680 So this is 2006.

00:05:51.780 I mean, he's, I don't know, close to 25 now.

00:05:55.280 He probably still remembers that asshole from Ohio State when he was crying after a game.

00:06:01.880 And, like, that's what makes the rivalry the rivalry.

00:06:03.380 And now that kid is Tom Brady.

00:06:05.240 That's right.

00:06:06.160 Exactly.

00:06:07.240 That's how it gets done.

00:06:08.340 Oh, dude, I remember the craziest thing I ever saw was there was a Mexican father and son bawling, crying when The Rock came back one night at WWE. 0.99

00:06:18.460 Yeah.

00:06:19.900 Standing there together, same height, bawling, crying, dude.

00:06:24.720 I can believe that.

00:06:25.320 And they both had belts on.

00:06:27.260 And it was like, yeah.

00:06:29.140 Yeah.

00:06:29.480 I mean, those are.

00:06:30.860 It's like the little rituals that actually make life worth it, man.

00:06:34.280 Oh, yeah.

00:06:34.740 But definitely.

00:06:36.160 I mean, like my son, he's seven now, but I took him to the Ohio State-Michigan game.

00:06:40.160 I think the last, well, no, I took him to the game last year, but then, you know, we watch it, even when he's, like, four years old.

00:06:48.540 And Michigan has beat Ohio State the last three years.

00:06:51.800 And so it's just like, you know, the first time I ever saw my kid cry over a sports event was last year at the Ohio State-Michigan game.

00:06:58.700 When they beat them?

00:06:59.420 When Michigan beat Ohio State.

00:07:01.120 Yeah.

00:07:01.720 Oh, when you cry when your team wins, that means something is probably, you have parenting issues in your home, I feel like, you know?

00:07:08.920 That's right.

00:07:10.040 That's definitely right.

00:07:11.260 That's definitely right.

00:07:11.900 But, I mean, it's like, I mean, Ohio State just lost to Oregon a couple, you know, like a week ago, I guess.

00:07:17.480 And you sort of realize, like, I get so much joy out of watching sports and, like, taking my son to the Ohio State-Michigan games, like, one of the coolest moments of my life as a father.

00:07:26.260 But then it almost always ends in heartbreak.

00:07:29.240 Yeah.

00:07:29.580 Right?

00:07:29.700 Because only one team actually wins the championship.

00:07:32.300 And I sometimes wonder, like, why do we put ourselves through this?

00:07:36.060 It's so true. 0.84

00:07:36.780 That sucks.

00:07:37.320 That is.

00:07:38.140 Yeah, at a certain point, you're, the odds are you're going to face not feeling great.

00:07:43.340 Yeah, absolutely.

00:07:43.880 That it's going to end.

00:07:44.660 Right.

00:07:45.100 Yeah.

00:07:45.280 I mean, like, I guess the one team in my lifetime, like, the Bulls in the 90s, Chicago Bulls in the 90s, and the Patriots when they had the Brady-Belichick run, like, most of the time you're actually happy if you're a fan of that team.

00:07:58.840 But, I mean, like, I'm a Bengals fan in pro sports.

00:08:03.180 And, like, they made the Super Bowl a few years ago, and it was so cool.

00:08:07.400 Yeah, I remember that.

00:08:07.920 It was the 49ers.

00:08:09.720 Was it against the 49ers?

00:08:11.740 It's funny.

00:08:12.280 I don't even remember who they were playing against.

00:08:13.440 But I remember they lost at the very end.

00:08:15.140 It was a very close game.

00:08:16.300 We almost put it off.

00:08:17.520 But then it's, like, all the joy turned into complete sadness.

00:08:21.840 Like, I'm a grown man on the verge of tears because a fucking sports team that I root for lost a game.

00:08:29.360 Like, wake up, man.

00:08:31.060 I think, I wonder what it is.

00:08:32.520 Maybe it's just, like.

00:08:33.500 Sorry, I have to not say the F word.

00:08:35.160 No, it's okay, dude.

00:08:36.200 Make sure people still vote for me.

00:08:37.580 If it's too many F-bombs, I'm going to lose too many votes. 0.99

00:08:39.700 So I'll try to tone it down.

00:08:41.080 Okay.

00:08:42.180 Yeah, if you say more than seven or eight, I'll tap you on the shoulder.

00:08:45.800 Thank you.

00:08:46.480 I appreciate it.

00:08:48.020 Dude, oh, actually, my ribs, dude.

00:08:49.640 I've been on, like, almost, like, just on bed rest the past, like, eight days because I was at the Vanderbilt game when they beat Alabama two weeks ago.

00:09:01.840 That was a big one.

00:09:02.500 And some guy, I don't even know him.

00:09:05.660 I got a little bit of a look at him, and he squeezed me so hard he kept squeezing me.

00:09:11.980 And I was like, don't squeeze me anymore.

00:09:13.620 And then he squeezed me even more.

00:09:16.980 Was it a happy squeeze?

00:09:19.000 You could hear my ribs.

00:09:20.540 Like, dude, they really.

00:09:21.840 Like the oxygen leaving your lungs.

00:09:23.920 Yeah.

00:09:24.460 Please don't go.

00:09:25.620 That's on bed.

00:09:26.680 I love you.

00:09:27.800 Ribs that had never been away from me. 0.81

00:09:29.280 Like, they were leaving home for the first time.

00:09:31.200 Wait, but was he squeezing you because he was happy?

00:09:32.700 He was happy.

00:09:33.240 Okay.

00:09:33.540 So this wasn't like a.

00:09:34.660 So I was smiling, dude.

00:09:35.960 My smile hit.

00:09:37.200 I mean, the more he squeezed my, the edges of my smile, you could hear him ding against

00:09:41.920 my earlobes.

00:09:42.640 Yeah.

00:09:43.140 I mean.

00:09:43.580 He squeezed me as much as somebody could be squeezed.

00:09:46.480 His wife is not doing well if that guy has a wife. 1.00

00:09:48.860 I'll tell you that.

00:09:50.280 Because that.

00:09:51.200 Anyway, my ribs, I've been having to ice them, dude.

00:09:53.340 It's been.

00:09:53.740 Oh, really?

00:09:54.300 It's been miserable.

00:09:54.780 So you may have like actually cracked a rib.

00:09:55.860 I mean, it's so.

00:09:57.000 It sucks.

00:09:57.520 But it was awesome.

00:09:58.360 But it's like, yeah, the pain you go through to be associated with it.

00:10:02.800 I mean, look, my, my, so, um, like I've only been to the game in Ann Arbor once and, uh,

00:10:10.380 you know, Ohio state fans again.

00:10:12.200 Oh, is it weird going up in that territory?

00:10:13.980 People throwing beer bottles at us, sometimes full beer cans at us.

00:10:17.540 I had some kid run up.

00:10:19.280 He was like a 19 year old kid run up from behind me and it had been raining a lot that

00:10:24.260 day.

00:10:24.480 And he had like, like he'd taken a chunk of mud out of the ground and shoved it in my

00:10:29.260 mouth.

00:10:29.840 I mean, this, again, this is like what these sports rivalries are.

00:10:32.800 Built around is, is moments like this, but, uh, we, we, we, we had, I guess, won four

00:10:37.840 years in a row.

00:10:39.040 Reforestation, isn't it?

00:10:40.260 That's right.

00:10:40.940 Uh, but man, we, we, we'd won four years in a row.

00:10:44.640 And, uh, this, this girl, she's like, you know, 22 years old, she gets in my buddy's

00:10:50.020 face and she said, this is my senior year.

00:10:52.640 You ruined my college career because you guys beat us four years in a row.

00:10:57.240 And then she takes a swing at him and a cop tackles this 22 year old girl down the bleachers. 1.00

00:11:03.560 And I'm just, you know, like, man, again, yeah, people get injured.

00:11:07.580 People get injured at sporting events.

00:11:08.900 It's crazy.

00:11:09.800 Oh yeah.

00:11:10.160 I thought for a second, I thought you were describing a wedding in Appalachia.

00:11:13.720 That's what I thought for a second.

00:11:14.860 So we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had some of those too.

00:11:19.420 I'm just joking.

00:11:20.440 I'm just joking.

00:11:21.700 Um, we had Billy strings and he's a guy who does a lot of, uh, picking.

00:11:25.940 He does like a lot of guitar picking and stuff.

00:11:27.740 Okay.

00:11:28.080 He talked a lot about, um, his environment where he grew up.

00:11:30.860 He grew up in like his area, had a lot of addiction in it and stuff like that.

00:11:34.860 What part of West Virginia is he from?

00:11:36.740 Um, Oh, he's from Lansing, Michigan, but he grew up, he grew up in Kentucky.

00:11:42.900 I'm ruining it.

00:11:43.320 Well, but a lot of people, this is like the story of my life, but a lot of people from

00:11:47.000 Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, their families are all from West Virginia, East Kentucky to

00:11:52.380 East Tennessee.

00:11:53.260 And then they moved up for the factory jobs.

00:11:55.500 Oh yeah.

00:11:56.060 Like there's a really cool song by Dwight Yochum called a reading, writing route 23.

00:12:00.640 And it's like, in some ways it's like the story of my family because he came from like

00:12:06.180 two counties over.

00:12:07.340 He moved to central Ohio instead of Southern Ohio.

00:12:09.500 But, um, I mean, it's like millions of people.

00:12:12.120 It was a massive, massive thing.

00:12:13.620 So I wouldn't be surprised even that guy's from Michigan.

00:12:15.480 If he's got like West Virginia family, I don't know that guy though.

00:12:18.420 Yeah.

00:12:18.720 Billy strings.

00:12:19.080 He's great.

00:12:19.760 He's a new guy too.

00:12:21.260 And he'll take you fishing if you want to go.

00:12:22.800 But he, um, he, uh, just has a fascinating story of just like growing up and what his

00:12:28.200 life was like, um, and playing music through it all and learning music and, um, how that

00:12:33.180 kind of kept him going and kept him, um, gave him something to do really.

00:12:37.020 Um, yeah.

00:12:37.680 Why was that migration?

00:12:38.860 Why did people migrate from there to, um, yeah, it was, it was, I mean, at least the,

00:12:44.860 the biggest thing is you think about it.

00:12:46.480 So World War II ends, right?

00:12:48.400 America's the biggest industrial power in the world.

00:12:50.480 And a lot of these factories are coming online close to where they had, you know, access to

00:12:56.460 waterways because you've got to ship iron ore and coal and all that stuff.

00:12:59.860 So a lot of stuff around the Great Lakes, that's Michigan, Ohio, um, you know, a lot

00:13:04.760 of coal in Pennsylvania.

00:13:05.840 And so you had all these steel mills and, you know, textile factories and, you know, like

00:13:12.780 automobile plants, of course, in Michigan and all this stuff is getting built.

00:13:16.100 And then it's actually, what's interesting about it is you had a lot of black people come

00:13:21.180 from the deep South and then a lot of primarily white people come from Appalachia and they

00:13:26.240 sort of migrated together to all these factories.

00:13:29.560 And like, you know, there are books written in Detroit about, you know, the, you've, you've

00:13:34.640 got like basically the hillbillies from Appalachia, the black people from the deep South, and they're

00:13:40.300 just kind of like tossed in to Detroit.

00:13:42.120 And like a lot of what we think of as sort of modern Detroit culture is like the fusion

00:13:48.040 of those two groups of people who just dropped in, in massive, massive numbers.

00:13:52.340 And, uh, you know, it's like one of the stories of like, why is Chicago such a big blues town?

00:13:56.520 Cause all the black folks from the deep South were moving in and they were, you know, bringing 1.00

00:14:00.100 their music with them.

00:14:01.280 That's why Chicago became such a capital for blues is it's not really like, it's because

00:14:05.560 all those folks who came from the Delta.

00:14:06.880 Um, so it's, it's, it's, but basically jobs, man.

00:14:10.280 I mean, there wasn't my, my, my mamaw talked about this.

00:14:12.520 That's what I called my grandmother.

00:14:14.260 She talked a lot about how, you know, if you were growing up in Eastern Kentucky in the

00:14:18.120 thirties and forties, it was like, basically you go work in the mines or get out.

00:14:22.960 Like that was all there was at that time.

00:14:25.420 Wow.

00:14:25.720 And so my grandfather went and worked at the steel mill, you know, built a, built a pretty

00:14:29.720 good life, was a union welder for 40 years.

00:14:32.720 And then, uh, Oh yeah.

00:14:33.700 We just had a union president on. 0.96

00:14:35.540 Oh yeah.

00:14:36.100 I listened to that one.

00:14:37.040 I like that guy.

00:14:38.140 Yeah.

00:14:38.900 He's wild.

00:14:39.760 He is wild.

00:14:40.720 He's, I mean, it's funny, man.

00:14:41.680 You can tell he's from Boston.

00:14:42.780 He's got that thick Boston accent, but he's a, he's a, he's a cool dude.

00:14:48.520 Um, I actually, I've talked to Sean a couple of times and, you know, it's like normally

00:14:52.780 and, you know, it's like normally Democrats are considered sort of the pro union.

00:14:56.800 And then, you know, 30 years ago, Republicans were the anti union.

00:14:59.780 And, you know, one of the things I've been, I've been talking a lot about people like

00:15:03.320 Sean is, you know, a lot of union members are coming over to the Republican side.

00:15:08.160 And I think the Republican party, we got to do, you know, frankly, a better job at kind

00:15:11.640 of welcoming people.

00:15:13.060 But, um, I think Trump is doing a really good job of making union voters feel at home in

00:15:18.040 our coalition, which is like an interesting part of what, you know, what we're all about.

00:15:21.400 I mean, I think, you know, so Sean's the head of the Teamsters, I think.

00:15:24.460 Yeah.

00:15:25.180 And there was some poll they did just of Teamsters members where it's like 65% of Teamsters in

00:15:30.520 Pennsylvania are going to vote for Trump.

00:15:32.520 That's a crazy turnaround from even 15 years ago.

00:15:35.280 Yeah.

00:15:35.400 They couldn't endorse usually they, or there's only been two times where they haven't endorsed

00:15:39.080 a candidate in the past 30 years, I think, or maybe past 50 years.

00:15:42.900 Yeah.

00:15:43.380 But, um, but this would be one of those times they said, I think, cause it's just, it's

00:15:47.380 two split.

00:15:48.680 Yeah.

00:15:48.840 Um, so do you have to ask Trump places you can go to promote or to, um, campaign?

00:15:56.220 What does that relation, how does that work?

00:15:58.400 Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's actually mostly driven at like the staff level.

00:16:02.640 Right.

00:16:03.340 And so a strategy kind of, yeah, it's like strategy.

00:16:06.200 So, so, okay.

00:16:07.180 There are seven big battleground States.

00:16:09.600 It's, uh, the three in the Midwest are Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and then Georgia,

00:16:14.260 Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina.

00:16:16.060 And so it's like, you look at a little bit, it's driven by polling, a little bit, it's

00:16:20.980 driven on just like, where do you think this guy's going to do the best?

00:16:24.580 And I've spent a ton of my time.

00:16:26.760 Like, I think I did like six or five or six events just in Pennsylvania the past week and

00:16:31.340 a half.

00:16:31.720 Wow.

00:16:32.260 Cause I've spent a lot of time, Pennsylvania, a lot of time, Michigan, a lot of time in,

00:16:35.320 uh, in Wisconsin.

00:16:35.940 I'm actually trying to get kid rock to go with me to Michigan in a couple of days.

00:16:38.900 Cause he's a Michigan guy.

00:16:40.120 Oh, he'll go.

00:16:40.740 Yeah.

00:16:40.980 I, he probably will.

00:16:41.900 Yeah.

00:16:42.540 He'll go dude.

00:16:43.400 He's he, yeah.

00:16:44.680 Yeah.

00:16:45.000 He, he, he texted me last night.

00:16:46.440 I mean, you know, you can't see, but my, my cousin, for those of you who are watching

00:16:50.060 my cousins here, she's more like my big sister.

00:16:52.920 Um, but like we're, we're hanging out.

00:16:54.760 I went to a wedding last night.

00:16:55.900 Oh, nice.

00:16:56.480 My, my, my, my little cousin got married and, um, kid rock sends me a text message.

00:17:01.140 He's like, Hey, if you're in Nashville, cause I think he, I guess he knew I was doing this

00:17:04.060 podcast.

00:17:04.360 Some people were going over there, what do you mind?

00:17:06.780 I was texting.

00:17:07.260 He's like, Hey, we're going over to Bob's.

00:17:08.580 And I was like, I got to prepare for this podcast tomorrow.

00:17:12.340 Vance is coming on.

00:17:13.720 Yeah.

00:17:14.500 Maybe that's how he knew.

00:17:15.460 Cause he texted me and I was like, Oh man, I want to fly to Nashville right now just so

00:17:19.500 I can party with kid rock.

00:17:20.660 Right.

00:17:20.860 I mean like that's a, that's a, that's an experience of a lifetime.

00:17:24.060 Um, so, so now I'm trying to get him to go to Michigan with me, but.

00:17:27.100 Oh, I'm sure he probably would, man.

00:17:28.340 Yeah.

00:17:28.540 Oh yeah, dude.

00:17:29.520 He's, if, uh, he's one of a kind, man.

00:17:32.220 Yeah.

00:17:32.660 But anyway, to answer your question, it's basically you go where the campaign needs you to go.

00:17:36.520 Right.

00:17:37.000 And, and like, yeah, I could say no, but I'm like running for vice president.

00:17:40.580 So I try to do as much as I can just to be helpful.

00:17:42.840 And do y'all have, do you go with Donald Trump?

00:17:45.860 Do you guys go separately a lot of times?

00:17:47.880 Do you guys have like strategy talks in the mornings and stuff?

00:17:50.820 Like, is it, what is it like?

00:17:52.120 Yeah.

00:17:52.300 It's, it's more informal.

00:17:53.100 Is it like doubles tennis kind of?

00:17:54.400 Yeah.

00:17:55.920 It's more divide and conquer.

00:17:57.740 Right.

00:17:57.980 So it's like, you got two people and you can be in two places.

00:18:02.040 So you might as well do it.

00:18:03.000 But if we got like a really big event, like, you know, the president got shot in, in Bucks

00:18:07.100 County or sorry.

00:18:08.180 Which time are you talking about?

00:18:09.840 The first time.

00:18:10.620 Okay.

00:18:11.080 First time.

00:18:11.860 Cause they really, um, he got shot in, um, in, in Pennsylvania.

00:18:17.080 And so we went out to Pennsylvania together to do a big rally.

00:18:21.380 And then Elon, Elon Musk was there in Butler, PA.

00:18:24.240 Yes.

00:18:24.520 In Butler, Pennsylvania.

00:18:25.460 Um, and then, you know, like I was in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, like a week earlier,

00:18:30.560 but that was just me.

00:18:31.480 Right.

00:18:31.760 Right.

00:18:31.960 So you, you sort of go, you know, some places you go together, but most of the time we're

00:18:35.120 sort of dividing and conquering.

00:18:36.280 How, um, with the attempts that they've had on Trump's, on Trump's life and safety, how

00:18:43.360 much of a concern has that been for you?

00:18:46.440 Like, it's like, cause if I'm standing next to a guy and they're shooting at him, I'm next

00:18:51.720 to him.

00:18:52.260 Yeah.

00:18:52.460 You know?

00:18:52.880 Yeah.

00:18:53.240 I know what you mean.

00:18:53.880 I mean, I try not to think about it, man.

00:18:55.880 Cause really?

00:18:57.180 Yeah.

00:18:57.460 It's, it's just, it's one of these things you can't control.

00:19:00.280 And if you're going to do this job, like you're going to go out and talk to a lot of

00:19:03.540 people when you got to go try to win.

00:19:05.120 Right.

00:19:05.320 I mean, like I fundamentally believe that we're trying to win to help the country.

00:19:09.300 So either you, you know, you either do it or you don't do it.

00:19:13.180 And if you do it, you just kind of, kind of accept it.

00:19:15.880 I mean, I don't think there's, I don't know, maybe I'm just, this is just me rationalizing

00:19:19.280 it.

00:19:19.480 I don't feel like there's that big of a target on my back, but who the hell knows?

00:19:22.800 Well, you're tall.

00:19:23.320 Are you, are you a little taller than him or not?

00:19:24.940 Yep.

00:19:25.180 I think we're about the same height.

00:19:26.480 Okay.

00:19:26.780 Yeah.

00:19:27.000 Which is funny, man, the weird shit people say about you on the internet, like the thing,

00:19:31.080 there was a long time, maybe even still today.

00:19:32.820 If you Google how tall is JD Vance, it would say five foot seven.

00:19:38.140 And I, oh, it says six feet.

00:19:39.840 Somebody updated it.

00:19:41.000 Somebody updated it.

00:19:42.140 Yeah.

00:19:43.120 Okay.

00:19:43.520 The first headline is JD Vance is tall, but Americans are getting shorter.

00:19:46.800 What the hell is the internet?

00:19:48.020 It's a weird.

00:19:48.460 It also says Joe Biden is six foot sleep.

00:19:51.660 I don't know if that's a height.

00:19:53.620 We'll see.

00:19:53.960 This is a thing though.

00:19:54.760 How tall is JD Vance?

00:19:55.660 There was like a conspiracy on the internet that I was a really short guy, but no, I'm

00:19:59.900 about six feet.

00:20:00.940 I think, yeah.

00:20:01.400 Once you get better, people help and you get, you get, you get, you get, you're pretty

00:20:05.060 tall.

00:20:05.400 You get a little different height.

00:20:06.320 I'm six feet tall.

00:20:07.260 Yeah.

00:20:07.820 I'm six feet tall.

00:20:08.560 If this rib gets back in place, I'm six foot and a half inch, brother.

00:20:12.540 I'll tell you that.

00:20:14.740 So there's, did you have to ask your wife about that?

00:20:17.440 Like say, Hey, like, did she have to weigh in?

00:20:20.320 Cause that's a little, cause I'm trying to think of other jobs where you get shot at

00:20:23.900 really military, um, domestic violence, I guess.

00:20:29.260 And then politician, politician.

00:20:31.720 I mean, normally politicians don't get shot at that much, but apparently it's coming back.

00:20:35.640 Apparently it's coming back, man.

00:20:36.800 That's not, that's not like a good thing to come back to.

00:20:38.840 You know what I mean?

00:20:39.280 But I also, I mean, it's, it's, I definitely grew up, um, like, and I grew up in Ohio,

00:20:43.720 but I spent a lot of time in Eastern Kentucky.

00:20:45.560 Yeah.

00:20:45.780 And if you go to like, there's a courthouse in Breathitt County, Kentucky, I mean, beautiful

00:20:48.840 part of the country, like kind of in the mountains.

00:20:50.840 And there's like a plaque, like a historical plaque.

00:20:53.140 That's basically like, you know, on this site, multiple people were killed in the Breathitt

00:20:57.880 County blood feud.

00:20:58.940 So the early, you know, the early 20th century.

00:21:02.080 So I don't know, you just kind of, kind of accept it, um, as, as, as bad as it is.

00:21:06.560 I mean, I want us to get away from it right as a country.

00:21:09.280 But as an individual candidate, I think you just have to kind of accept it.

00:21:12.360 I mean, I'll tell you, um, but I guess if you're going into battle, you're going into

00:21:15.620 battle.

00:21:16.240 That's right.

00:21:16.760 Yeah.

00:21:16.940 That's right.

00:21:17.240 You just got to do what you got to do.

00:21:18.440 Yeah.

00:21:18.940 Um, but again, I'm, you know, I'm like, I, I'm a, I'm a person of faith.

00:21:22.900 I don't talk about it that, that much.

00:21:24.640 I don't wear it on my sleeve.

00:21:25.640 I always sort of mistrust people who wear it too much on their sleeve, but if you're like,

00:21:29.240 you know, if God wants me to view, be vice president, I'll be vice president.

00:21:33.400 If, if not, then I won't, you know, you just got to work your ass off and let the chips

00:21:37.800 fall where they may.

00:21:39.220 Yeah.

00:21:39.300 I saw, I saw where you had, your mom was out and you congratulated her on, she almost

00:21:44.560 has 10 years of sobriety.

00:21:45.680 You said that's right.

00:21:46.720 Yeah.

00:21:46.980 She's, uh, in January, January of 2025, she will be 10 years clean and sober.

00:21:51.160 And that's really funny.

00:21:52.180 Cause you know, she's standing next to you there. 1.00

00:21:54.060 Uh, that's Mike Johnson, the speaker of the house.

00:21:56.760 Oh yeah.

00:21:57.440 And like, and like my family's not very political.

00:22:00.060 So they bring her up to this booth and like two chairs over as Donald Trump. 1.00

00:22:03.920 Of course she knows who that is, but she shakes Mike Johnson's hand and, uh, he's like, you

00:22:08.820 know, lovely to meet you.

00:22:10.040 And she says, lovely to meet you too.

00:22:11.500 Who are you?

00:22:12.180 Do you work in politics?

00:22:13.180 He's like, mom, that's the speaker of the house.

00:22:17.880 Okay.

00:22:19.140 She's like, well, I'll take a, uh, I'll take a McDouble. 0.89

00:22:22.400 Um, uh, what, um, diet Coke with, with extra ice.

00:22:32.200 What was, uh, yeah, I know your mom's, your mom's struggled with alcoholism, right?

00:22:37.320 Um, addiction mostly.

00:22:39.220 Yeah.

00:22:39.600 Mostly non-alcohol drugs.

00:22:40.960 I never saw her, you know, drink that much, but I mean, you know, pills, opioids, heroin.

00:22:47.300 Um, what's it been like to watch her get sober?

00:22:49.560 What's that been like?

00:22:50.460 It's amazing, man.

00:22:51.520 It's, it's amazing.

00:22:52.260 I know you're, you're, what, what are you, you're, you're recovery.

00:22:55.360 Yeah.

00:22:55.600 I'm in recovery.

00:22:56.020 Yeah.

00:22:56.260 A lot of my family's in it too.

00:22:57.440 So I think, yeah, I can, I can relate a lot to your story to be honest with you.

00:23:00.540 Yeah.

00:23:00.760 But I mean, I mean, look, look, I mean, there was a time like I always, you know, always

00:23:05.340 wanted to grow up and have a family.

00:23:06.720 And I remember when I was a teenager thinking to myself, there's no way mom's going to be around

00:23:11.480 to meet.

00:23:11.940 Like if I have kids, there's no way my mom's ever going to meet them.

00:23:14.860 And, um, you know, she's now like, she's now a great grandmother to, to the three grandkids.

00:23:20.560 But I don't know, man, it's, it's just, if, if you've known anybody in this circumstance,

00:23:25.080 it sounds like, you know, very well, what it's like is there's like this, there's two

00:23:29.060 feelings that you have, or at least always two feelings I had when mom was going through

00:23:33.580 it is like, on the one hand, yeah, she's so smart.

00:23:36.340 She's so funny.

00:23:37.200 And you're just like kind of rooting for her because you just wanted to get better.

00:23:41.020 Then on the other hand, you're just pissed off.

00:23:42.960 It's like, you know, cause you don't quite understand it.

00:23:44.700 I think if you're not in recovery yourself, it's hard to fully understand.

00:23:48.500 And, um, you know, so that you'd be frustrated with her one moment and then just desperate

00:23:52.380 for her to get better the next moment.

00:23:53.760 You're constantly bouncing back and forth, but man, it's, it's amazing.

00:23:57.400 It really is.

00:23:57.980 I mean, she, you know, she was at the wedding we were at last night and, uh, just having a

00:24:01.740 good time and being her like funny, quirky self.

00:24:04.220 She has a good sense of humor.

00:24:05.220 She's a very good sense of humor.

00:24:06.860 Um, I mean, you know, like the bride and groom, this really cool tradition where they had like

00:24:12.760 at each table, wine bottle with a number on it.

00:24:15.300 And then like at the table one, they'd open the bottle of wine, their first anniversary

00:24:19.780 and table two, the second anniversary.

00:24:21.340 And so forth.

00:24:21.940 And they had people write stuff in Sharpies on the wine bottle.

00:24:25.560 I'd never seen that.

00:24:26.220 I thought it was pretty cool.

00:24:27.060 A little thing.

00:24:28.620 Um, and my mom, I forget what table she was in, but you know, like 10 years.

00:24:32.120 Down the road.

00:24:32.920 And she just, she writes something on, on her bottle.

00:24:36.220 Like, like, Hey, I love you.

00:24:37.840 Hopefully I'm still alive when you're drinking.

00:24:41.640 She's just got like, it again, it's like a kind of a morbid, quirky sense of humor.

00:24:45.940 Um, but yeah, man, it's, it's, it's really amazing.

00:24:48.380 Cause I, again, I, I just never, I never thought she'd be alive when I was 40 years old.

00:24:53.000 Yeah.

00:24:53.360 And she is, and she's got a good relationship with her family and her grandparents or her

00:24:58.060 grandkids.

00:24:58.720 And that's just a very cool thing.

00:25:00.260 Yeah.

00:25:00.780 Yeah.

00:25:01.160 It's a blessing, man.

00:25:01.920 That's awesome.

00:25:02.300 It is a blessing.

00:25:03.020 It was really cool to see that.

00:25:04.340 Um, did you ever go to meetings with her?

00:25:06.640 Did she go to, you have been before?

00:25:09.140 Yeah.

00:25:09.380 I've been to a lot of NA meetings.

00:25:11.060 Um, when you were growing up, did you ever go or no?

00:25:13.180 Yeah.

00:25:13.340 I went when I was a kid.

00:25:14.560 Um, I went, I went when I was a teenager.

00:25:16.280 I mean, I've, I've been to a lot actually just in the past few years.

00:25:18.860 Cause she, she, you know, she's like, you know, she feels like she's really on the other

00:25:22.460 side of it.

00:25:23.040 Yeah.

00:25:23.260 She does a lot with her local NA.

00:25:25.040 I think she's the treasurer, the secretary of her local NA chapter.

00:25:28.620 And, um, I don't, do you ever go to meetings or anything?

00:25:30.560 Oh yeah.

00:25:30.780 I went to one.

00:25:31.480 Okay.

00:25:31.800 I went to one.

00:25:32.520 I was at one last night at eight.

00:25:33.640 Okay.

00:25:34.300 I mean, there, there's a, there's actually a really special community around it, which

00:25:38.620 I really like.

00:25:39.420 And it almost kind of reminds me of church, right?

00:25:41.900 A hundred percent.

00:25:42.400 Where you, you know, you say, you say these prayers and you talk about what's going on

00:25:46.900 and there's like this sense of fellowship and community that I think is, is really,

00:25:50.380 is really awesome.

00:25:52.120 And, you know, it's, it's, it's like one of these things where you see just human nature

00:25:58.380 and all of its good sides and its bad sides.

00:26:01.420 Right.

00:26:01.660 Cause sometimes you have people who come in and they're getting their 24 hour medallion.

00:26:06.040 Yeah.

00:26:06.500 Right.

00:26:06.760 Which is like, this is the first real period of sobriety I've had in a very long time.

00:26:11.020 And then sometimes you have people who are, you know, celebrating 15, 20, 25 years.

00:26:15.520 And, uh, it's, it's just amazing to see, but I don't know if you noticed this, but something

00:26:20.040 I noticed and it's, you know, it's not to get too political here, but you know, like five,

00:26:26.640 six, seven years ago, you know, you.

00:26:31.660 You started noticing this and then it really started picking up a few years ago where you

00:26:36.900 have somebody who's been say six months or nine months sober and then they don't come

00:26:41.460 to a couple of meetings and then they're just dead.

00:26:44.260 And you realize like when people relapsed, when mom was in the worst of it, yeah, there

00:26:50.940 was some dangerous shit out there, but it wasn't nearly as deadly as the stuff that's

00:26:54.740 out there today.

00:26:55.540 Oh yeah.

00:26:56.020 And I, I really worry about that.

00:26:57.700 Right.

00:26:57.860 Cause you know, think about the second chance I got with my mom and I really worry that the,

00:27:02.380 the poison that we've got in the streets now is so dangerous that a lot of people would

00:27:08.100 have that second chance, but you know, you fall off the wagon once 15 years ago, it's

00:27:12.760 like, Oh, that sucks.

00:27:14.420 I'm going to climb back on today.

00:27:16.200 You fall off that wagon.

00:27:17.420 It might, it might kill you.

00:27:18.540 Yeah.

00:27:18.860 And I really worry about that.

00:27:19.940 Cause I think a lot of, a lot of good people, you know, like mom, it didn't happen like once,

00:27:24.220 right?

00:27:24.440 It's not like she got clean and sober and that was it.

00:27:26.280 Right.

00:27:26.480 It's a process.

00:27:27.100 A few times.

00:27:27.860 Yeah.

00:27:28.220 Yeah.

00:27:28.460 It's a process, man.

00:27:30.640 Yeah.

00:27:30.780 I've had relapses over the years and had to get back on and it's, it's tough.

00:27:33.960 And one of the tougher things to do is to get back on, but it's funny because I think

00:27:38.180 if I, if, I don't know if I'd be sober, if the stuff weren't killing people, to be honest

00:27:45.620 with you, I know that's sad to say, but that keeps me out of the risk of it.

00:27:49.820 You know, it just makes it too, makes it a little scarier.

00:27:52.300 Yeah.

00:27:52.500 That's the thing.

00:27:53.060 It makes it scarier, but it's also sad that somebody, I mean, this is ridiculous to say

00:27:58.280 probably that somebody can't, you know, you can't even do cocaine in this country anymore.

00:28:03.500 You know, and that seems like a crazy thing to say.

00:28:08.300 Don't say it.

00:28:09.180 Don't say that.

00:28:10.160 But I said it, but, but yeah, but don't say that anymore.

00:28:13.100 I'm going to steal that line.

00:28:15.020 After the election though, man, I, we had to win first.

00:28:18.900 It's unfortunate.

00:28:20.940 To be clear to those watching, I've never done cocaine before.

00:28:23.500 Yeah.

00:28:23.800 And nobody's made many mistakes, but not that one.

00:28:25.800 Nobody's saying, yeah, but it's just, it's unfortunate.

00:28:29.000 That's that it's, I don't even know where to go.

00:28:32.460 I know what you mean, but it's, it's unfortunate that like, look, like every, everybody makes

00:28:37.180 mistakes, right?

00:28:38.040 Everybody makes mistakes.

00:28:39.060 Right.

00:28:39.520 And like, I'm not, I know as a buddy of mine told me about this, um, this is hell, this

00:28:45.400 has got to have been three years ago.

00:28:48.660 Um, it's been a while, but basically what happened is his daughter was like a bridesmaid in a

00:28:55.840 wedding and they were going to this wedding and like the wedding got canceled because a

00:29:02.660 couple of the groomsmen like had terrible overdoses the night before at the bachelor

00:29:07.260 party because they took some, I mean, like, you know, you can judge and say, oh, they shouldn't

00:29:11.280 have been taking something, but everybody takes something at some point in their lives.

00:29:15.020 Like we don't want it to kill people.

00:29:16.560 We don't want stupid mistakes to kill people.

00:29:18.300 That's, that's sort of like live and learn, live and learn from stupid mistakes.

00:29:22.120 Right.

00:29:22.200 You used to be able to live and learn.

00:29:23.360 Yes.

00:29:23.840 Now it becomes a death sentence.

00:29:25.280 And that's, what's really, I think changed about from now to when my, uh, my mom was struggling

00:29:30.760 with addiction.

00:29:31.360 Why, why is it so bad?

00:29:33.160 Like, what do you know a lot about the fentanyl crisis?

00:29:36.360 I mean, I know a fair amount about it.

00:29:38.020 You know, I've, I've, I've worried about it, uh, for a long time.

00:29:40.860 I've, I've, you know, worked on bills related to it.

00:29:43.680 I mean, there, there are two basic issues, right?

00:29:45.880 And it's, it's like, you know, any business, there's a manufacturer, there's a wholesaler,

00:29:50.640 and then there's the retail.

00:29:52.000 Right.

00:29:53.240 And, you know, with, with fentanyl, it's, it's not, you can't like make fentanyl in a

00:29:58.500 trailer in somebody's basement, right?

00:30:00.840 That's like, it's not like meth.

00:30:01.920 It takes a really complicated, pretty sophisticated pharmaceutical process.

00:30:05.480 So we know that a lot of it, maybe even most of it, the Chinese are making, meaning Chinese 0.98

00:30:09.700 companies, not like necessarily the Chinese government, but they sure as hell know about

00:30:13.240 it.

00:30:13.820 And then they bring it in primarily through the Southern border.

00:30:18.540 And the Mexican drug cartels are like the wholesalers, right?

00:30:22.380 If the Chinese pharma's, pharma's the manufacturer, the drug cartels are bringing in wholesale style 0.99

00:30:28.560 and then it makes it in the street level.

00:30:30.380 Wow.

00:30:30.980 And, um, I mean, it's really crazy, man.

00:30:32.920 Like I was talking to a DEA agent about this a couple of years ago, and I think this was

00:30:36.800 in, this was in 2022.

00:30:38.920 He was, he was like, look, a few years ago, the cartels were making less than a billion

00:30:44.200 dollars a year.

00:30:45.260 And he's like in 22, 23, we think they'll make $14 billion a year.

00:30:49.720 So like an explosion of drug trafficking in this country.

00:30:54.140 And yet you, you hear about stories and I don't think it happens that much, thank God, but

00:30:58.200 somebody smokes a joint, it's laced with fentanyl, they go into a coma.

00:31:01.600 I mean, I have seven friends that have, that, um, I have seven friends and not even just

00:31:07.260 like estranged people, you know, like, but not all best friends, but I have seven friends

00:31:13.040 that, um, that overdosed and died from, uh, fentanyl.

00:31:16.340 Yeah.

00:31:16.900 Yeah.

00:31:17.220 That's me.

00:31:18.000 Right.

00:31:18.580 And it, yeah.

00:31:19.320 And it had, with harder stuff, it happens a lot.

00:31:21.240 Like I think, you know, you hear about it being laced in marijuana, but like not that

00:31:26.040 much.

00:31:26.320 Yeah.

00:31:26.720 But I mean, you, your point about cocaine, pills, like you have to be careful.

00:31:31.980 Like seriously, it's a huge thing.

00:31:34.100 It's an unbelievable crisis.

00:31:35.160 And it's like, yeah, you'd think that we, I don't know how you fight something like that.

00:31:40.040 Maybe we need to have like a, like a head of like the DEA or something on, maybe he would

00:31:45.300 be able to help or, or she would be able to help us figure that out a little bit.

00:31:48.360 I think it'd be, that'd be a very interesting conversation, but I think, I think you've

00:31:51.560 got to, I think you got to go to it at the heart and something, you know, Trump did towards

00:31:56.240 the end of his administration, doesn't get a whole lot of headlines.

00:31:58.960 Obviously I'm biased.

00:31:59.920 I think it should get headlines is he was using economic leverage to try to convince the

00:32:05.000 Chinese to crack down on fentanyl manufacturing.

00:32:07.640 Cause if you get it at the source, right, that's, I think really the way to, to address

00:32:11.920 it.

00:32:12.300 Oh, there's fentanyl in half the bookshelves they make over there, dude.

00:32:14.820 You put a couple, you put a fucking half a set of dictionaries and that bitch will 1.00

00:32:18.620 give, that bitch will give way. 1.00

00:32:21.580 I mean, I, I absolutely believe that.

00:32:25.880 Oh man.

00:32:26.500 That's what's in the furniture here.

00:32:29.500 We okay.

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00:36:23.420 But you, I mean, you do that.

00:36:27.200 You go after the drug cartels.

00:36:28.940 The other thing that people don't realize about the cartels, man, is one, we're talking

00:36:32.360 about some very dark and dangerous people.

00:36:34.940 Like this is not some guy who's like dealing, you know, selling joints on a college campus.

00:36:40.020 These are like, they're doing sex trafficking.

00:36:43.040 They're getting 11, 10-year-old girls involved in the sex trade. 1.00

00:36:47.300 Yeah, they're like very evil people.

00:36:49.200 Dictator type of like.

00:36:50.280 Oh, just absolutely vile.

00:36:52.220 And it's like, why are we making it easier for these, this like massive criminal organizations

00:36:58.980 to get richer and richer and richer?

00:37:01.680 Like we should be trying to make them poor and I mean, you know, help people actually need it.

00:37:06.900 Well, it's also, it's obviously one of the biggest enemies that's right.

00:37:10.520 It's like, if there were an enemy that were killing, if somebody, if there were somebody

00:37:16.380 shooting in your country every day and killing people, at a certain point you'd go over there 1.00

00:37:21.880 or you'd send your military there or do something to say, hey, you're not going to be, we're

00:37:27.040 not going to let you do this anymore.

00:37:28.500 That's basically what's happening.

00:37:29.880 That's right.

00:37:30.340 I mean, can you, can you imagine if, if, if Mexico sent gunmen across the border and

00:37:36.420 killed 70,000 Americans a year, because that's about what dies from fentanyl.

00:37:39.640 Well, we would be in a major war, right?

00:37:42.700 Well, you know, we, we just absolutely would be the case.

00:37:45.120 So the other thing that's crazy about this is, so these cartels, and you see this graphic

00:37:49.460 that's pretty, pretty interesting there, but the cartels are going to start to destabilize

00:37:54.260 the country of Mexico.

00:37:56.040 Like, do you know, do you know the name Pablo Escobar?

00:37:59.840 Yeah, I do.

00:38:00.560 Okay.

00:38:00.740 So like the, the, the Colombian cartels in the seventies were as powerful as like the

00:38:06.080 Colombian government, right?

00:38:07.260 It was, it was a narco state. 0.97

00:38:08.480 You don't want that to happen at like right at the American Southern border where the

00:38:12.340 drug cartels have more power than the Mexican government.

00:38:15.040 That's just going to be chaotic.

00:38:16.160 It's going to be basically a warlike atmosphere on our Southern border.

00:38:20.300 That's bad news.

00:38:21.500 Well, it's bad news, but it'd be great to figure out a way that to, to shut it down.

00:38:25.240 I mean, it just feels like, yeah, if that many people are dying each year, if people, if

00:38:28.240 it were actual people shooting at these people, we would send people there in a heartbeat.

00:38:32.820 Right.

00:38:32.920 I mean, and I, and I think that's what we have to, I think not that we have to send

00:38:36.260 people to, to Mexico, but I think that we actually have to have a military response at

00:38:41.220 the Southern border because these are such vicious people.

00:38:45.380 And I think local law enforcement, they're telling us they're overwhelmed by some of

00:38:48.780 these guys and we've got to be willing to send our, our best people, our best fighters

00:38:53.300 to get control of the Southern border.

00:38:54.820 I think that's the most important issue confronting the country because look, I mean, how do you

00:38:59.240 even measure the human cost of 70,000 people, many of them in the prime of their life and

00:39:06.240 the ripple effect of it too, in their families, the orphans, the parents that are heartbroken.

00:39:11.440 I mean, how many kids are like, this is my story, right?

00:39:14.120 That's why my grandmother raised me is because my mom struggled with addiction. 0.82

00:39:17.420 Luckily my mom got clean. 0.87

00:39:18.780 You've got hundreds of thousands of children who are being raised by their grandparents or

00:39:22.600 their aunts and uncles, like that is an unspeakable human tragedy, man.

00:39:27.020 Especially when we can do better.

00:39:28.700 We could do so much better and we're failing right now.

00:39:31.380 And that's, you know, the one, the, one of the reasons why I'm here.

00:39:33.760 One of the reasons why I'm running.

00:39:34.740 Yeah.

00:39:36.520 What, what, what, what was it like growing up like with an alcoholic mother, like, and

00:39:40.360 no judgment against your mother.

00:39:41.260 This is just to look at it, right?

00:39:42.980 Yeah, sure.

00:39:43.700 I appreciate that.

00:39:44.520 Yeah.

00:39:44.880 What, what is that like?

00:39:46.880 Like, is it hard to make a connection with your mom?

00:39:49.180 Like, what are some of the side effects of that, uh, on a child?

00:39:53.340 Yeah.

00:39:53.600 I mean, I, I definitely think there's a, um, you get very careful about who you allow yourself

00:39:59.400 to get close to, right?

00:40:00.600 That's what, that's one big part of it.

00:40:02.000 You're never quite sure whether you can trust the particular situation that you're in.

00:40:06.780 Right.

00:40:07.100 So am I still going to be living in this house three months from now?

00:40:09.860 If I have somebody, if I give somebody my address, cause this is back in the nineties,

00:40:13.020 right?

00:40:13.140 People still wrote letters, postcards, things like that, at least a lot more than they do today.

00:40:17.280 If I give somebody my address, are they going to send me a letter?

00:40:20.460 And I'm not even going to live in this place anymore because we, you know, we moved around

00:40:23.520 a fair amount.

00:40:24.980 But I, I think, I, I think that, you know, the, the thing that it, I took away from it

00:40:31.220 is I very, even as a young kid, I sort of very neatly divided the world into like three

00:40:37.660 categories of people, right?

00:40:38.900 There were the helpless people, the victims, the people who needed to be helped.

00:40:42.600 There were the bad guys who were preying on the victims.

00:40:45.500 And then there were the strong people who sort of stood up, uh, for, for everybody else

00:40:50.240 and stood up to the bad guys.

00:40:51.760 That's like, you know, that's overly simplistic.

00:40:55.500 Um, but definitely, you know, I, I, I saw my mom growing up very much as this person who

00:41:02.080 was, who was kind of a victim and was being preyed on by, by bad people.

00:41:07.240 Right.

00:41:07.840 And then the person who was sort of looking up for us and standing up for me, especially

00:41:11.580 was my grandmother.

00:41:13.160 And, uh, I think that, that, that attitude of, you know, some people are just not as

00:41:19.020 strong as we wish them to be and bad people are going to prey on them, but it's kind of

00:41:24.400 up to, you know, try to make yourself the person who can look out for people who can protect

00:41:29.860 people.

00:41:30.180 And that's always what I wanted to be.

00:41:32.560 That's one thing I think I took from it.

00:41:34.640 Um, were you able to be that for your mom?

00:41:35.880 Did you feel like, you know, not always, certainly.

00:41:38.400 I mean, when I was a lot of responsibility for a kid, when I was a teenager, man, I was

00:41:42.360 definitely very, very selfish.

00:41:44.240 I think I got pretty resentful just at the situation.

00:41:46.220 It's like, Oh, other people have more money than I do.

00:41:47.940 Other people have more stability than I do.

00:41:50.160 You know, other people, you know, they've got nice cars.

00:41:52.940 We don't have that.

00:41:54.080 So there's, there's definitely like, there's definitely like a resentment that comes from it.

00:41:57.380 I think, but, um, you know, I, I left high school and enlisted in the Marine Corps, uh,

00:42:03.440 spent four years in the Marine Corps.

00:42:04.580 And I think that what, you know, that really did for me was just like, gave me a cool perspective.

00:42:11.140 And I probably went into the Marine Corps.

00:42:13.360 I was pretty whiny, pretty resentful kid, was pissed off at my mom, was pissed off at all

00:42:17.520 these other people.

00:42:18.160 Cause I didn't have the things that I thought I should have.

00:42:20.280 And then eventually, yeah, there's me when I was much, much skinnier, much better looking.

00:42:24.240 Oh yeah.

00:42:25.080 The Marines, dude, that was the original Ozempic. 0.53

00:42:27.380 Yeah, that's right.

00:42:28.100 That's right.

00:42:30.620 That's bro Ozempic, dude.

00:42:32.020 That is good.

00:42:32.700 That is good.

00:42:33.600 Marines, the original Ozempic.

00:42:34.840 I'm going to steal that one.

00:42:36.340 Um, but, but man, yeah, I know I say this all the time, dude.

00:42:40.560 If I went back to bootcamp for two months, bootcamp's three months.

00:42:43.280 If I went back to bootcamp for two months, I'd come out with a six pack.

00:42:45.760 Yeah.

00:42:46.420 Um, but, but you know, I've, I've anyway, so.

00:42:50.600 Semper fat, dude.

00:42:51.940 That's right.

00:42:53.780 Sorry, that was stupid.

00:42:54.800 And I don't even know if I, if you can even joke about Semper Fi and I'm no offense to

00:42:58.800 any Marines.

00:42:59.440 Not at all.

00:42:59.820 No, I'm sure no Marines took offense to that.

00:43:02.460 Yeah.

00:43:02.720 I've been, we've done a lot of shows on military bases and stuff.

00:43:05.800 And yeah.

00:43:06.100 Yeah.

00:43:06.520 Yeah.

00:43:06.820 It's usually the army's just waiting for the Marines to get there to tell them what to

00:43:09.780 do.

00:43:10.160 Yeah.

00:43:10.400 That's right.

00:43:11.060 That's right.

00:43:11.680 I know the chain of command, but yeah, anyway, so we, we, uh, we, we had a, we, yeah, I think

00:43:17.940 that the way that I noticed it, I mean, not to get too personal, but like when I, so I met

00:43:24.500 my wife in law school and it was like, you know, I dated girls in the past, but for her, 0.87

00:43:31.000 it was like, Oh my God, this is, I'm in love with this girl.

00:43:34.220 Right?

00:43:34.760 Like I'd known her for a week and I was like, I want to marry this girl.

00:43:38.000 Yeah.

00:43:38.720 And, um, there was definitely just an element of like, it took a long time for me to get

00:43:44.580 to a place where I was like, Oh, I can actually trust this person.

00:43:47.800 I actually rely on this person because that's not really the experience that I had growing

00:43:51.380 up is the people you trusted on trusted the people you relied on.

00:43:54.400 They would just kind of disappear.

00:43:55.820 Yeah.

00:43:56.080 Sometimes through no fault of their own, but sometimes they would just disappear.

00:43:59.360 And so, you know, I don't know if you've said attachment issues and that's, that's

00:44:05.120 something that definitely I think comes from growing up in a pretty tough, pretty chaotic

00:44:08.900 environment.

00:44:10.080 But, you know, the other thing, the flip side of it is, and again, this is, this is why

00:44:13.940 I talk about the Marine Corps is you have for four years in the Marine Corps, you know,

00:44:17.640 like, like one of the best Marines, maybe the best Marine that I served with is this kid

00:44:21.800 who grew up, he was a Puerto Rican guy from the Bronx, was a drug dealer, was

00:44:26.060 Do you wear jewelry or not?

00:44:27.020 Do you wear jewelry?

00:44:28.720 I mean, not with uniform, right?

00:44:30.340 Cause that's, yeah, maybe he did.

00:44:32.280 But by the time he, you know, by the time I met him as a Marine, he did, but, but he

00:44:37.100 was like, he had had a much harder life than I had and there was no bullshit.

00:44:41.720 There was no complaining, no whining.

00:44:43.600 He was just doing his job and he was a good dude.

00:44:46.500 And you meet a lot of people like that and you start to realize like in some ways, you

00:44:51.260 know, not having everything handed to you is actually a blessing.

00:44:53.760 Right.

00:44:54.080 And, and, and growing up in a tough circumstance and being able to understand that not everybody's

00:44:58.440 always had it easy.

00:44:59.680 I used to be annoyed by that kind of complaining about it.

00:45:04.140 Now I sort of see it as like a good thing.

00:45:06.500 Yeah.

00:45:06.780 Right.

00:45:06.980 Cause I think I have a different perspective than, than a lot of people I spend my life

00:45:10.700 around where, you know, they, they, they, they were born to a rich family.

00:45:14.040 They went to a private school.

00:45:15.300 Then they, you know, everything was kind of laid out for him.

00:45:17.540 Oh yeah.

00:45:17.820 It's kind of good to not have everything laid out for you.

00:45:19.860 Cause you have to work for it a little bit more.

00:45:21.140 Yeah.

00:45:21.560 That was going to be my next, my, my follow-up question that was just like, yeah, what are

00:45:25.040 the, what are the positives?

00:45:26.500 Like, and also, so we don't get stuck in like, you know, um, just in like a Debbie downer

00:45:33.120 spiral kind of, you know, cause it's okay to talk about stuff, but sometimes, you know,

00:45:36.640 it's like things can get kind of like where you're just looking at the negative things,

00:45:40.340 but there's usually something positive and everything.

00:45:42.680 Exactly.

00:45:42.700 Right.

00:45:42.920 And, um, yeah, that's what I was thinking.

00:45:44.820 What were some of the positives of, um, of having a childhood like that and of being,

00:45:50.000 um, yeah.

00:45:50.900 And I guess it would be some self-reliance.

00:45:52.740 I think, I think it's definitely some self-reliance, um, awareness probably, which is probably a curse

00:45:57.840 when you're young.

00:45:58.380 Cause it's feels like you have to be kind of scared of stuff, but, uh, or, but when you

00:46:02.480 get older, being, having awareness can be pretty helpful sometimes.

00:46:05.620 Yeah.

00:46:05.980 I've got my head on a swivel, right?

00:46:07.320 I'm always looking around corners.

00:46:08.700 I'm always kind of worried that things that aren't exactly what they seem, but I think

00:46:13.340 that's made me a little less comfortable, which is a good thing, especially in the, in

00:46:17.120 the political life these days, it's good to have your head on a swivel.

00:46:20.960 Hey, now everybody's an alcoholic.

00:46:24.880 Yeah.

00:46:25.280 Everybody has, everybody in politics has a vice that's much worse than alcoholism is the way

00:46:29.160 that I put it.

00:46:30.400 Um, but we, we, um, release the list.

00:46:35.940 Seriously, we need to release the Epstein list.

00:46:37.960 That, that is an important thing.

00:46:40.020 Um, we go down that, that rabbit hole.

00:46:42.040 But anyway, I, I, I guess the other thing that I gained from it is, you know, I, I think

00:46:50.560 that I'm just much, I see people as people and one thing I've picked up on, like I went

00:46:57.500 to law school at Yale and a lot of them, a lot of my classmates are good people, but

00:47:01.660 you're a lawyer also.

00:47:02.860 Yeah.

00:47:03.220 But I, I sort of, as soon as I went from law school, I went into the business world.

00:47:06.240 So I never really practiced law.

00:47:07.420 I was mostly a business guy.

00:47:09.140 Um, but like a lot of my friends, they, they look at people as like, where did you go to

00:47:14.120 school?

00:47:15.060 What do your parents do?

00:47:16.520 Yeah.

00:47:16.860 You know, what job do you have?

00:47:18.180 What credential do you have?

00:47:19.460 I've never had that.

00:47:21.520 Right.

00:47:21.820 And so when people like talk about politics or policy, they'll be like, Oh, well, this

00:47:25.940 person has a PhD.

00:47:27.020 I don't give a shit.

00:47:28.080 Yeah.

00:47:28.320 I mean, they may be smart, but I don't care about he's only three, doesn't even spell

00:47:32.780 anything.

00:47:33.120 Yeah, exactly.

00:47:33.900 I don't even, I don't care about the letters.

00:47:37.620 Um, but I, but like I meet somebody and, Oh, they don't have a fancy degree or they don't

00:47:42.840 have a fancy job.

00:47:43.740 I still just naturally care about what they think because the way that I grew up, I just

00:47:47.360 sort of see people as people.

00:47:48.860 Yeah.

00:47:49.000 And I think that's a, that's just a very, it's a perspective that I'm glad that I have.

00:47:52.840 I think it's very much a product of how I grew up.

00:47:55.920 Yeah.

00:47:56.280 I like people that have their own thing.

00:47:58.240 I have like, I don't like, I don't, I don't dislike somebody if they inherited everything,

00:48:05.080 but I, I gravitate more towards people that, that haven't had that experience.

00:48:13.100 I think because, um, yeah, I don't know.

00:48:17.620 There's just something a little bit more admirable about it.

00:48:19.660 I didn't like it when things were handed to people.

00:48:21.800 I guess maybe real, the truth is I got upset when other people had stuff that was handed

00:48:27.420 to them, which probably was just normal stuff to be handed to a kid or to a, to, you know,

00:48:32.580 but that made me like, oh, screw that.

00:48:35.580 You know, I'll figure this shit out.

00:48:36.860 You know what I'm saying?

00:48:37.360 Fuck them or whatever.

00:48:39.140 You know what I'm saying?

00:48:40.180 And I'll, you know, I had that exact attitude when I was like 13, 14.

00:48:43.800 Yeah.

00:48:44.320 Yeah.

00:48:44.660 And some of that is, it's just that rebellion at that age.

00:48:47.180 Um, what would you say?

00:48:48.840 And cause we have a lot of, uh, audience members that, uh, have struggled with addiction or,

00:48:53.800 or, or, and these days, everybody's, you can't even like, who doesn't have somebody that's

00:49:00.400 in their family or something that struggled with addiction.

00:49:02.000 But what, what suggestion or like just advice or thoughts would you give to, um, a young

00:49:10.100 person who has a parent who's, uh, who has alcoholism as to how to navigate that?

00:49:16.540 Cause I even get messages a lot from people, um, that are like, Hey, my dad is struggling

00:49:20.800 or this, what do I do?

00:49:22.620 I don't know what to do here.

00:49:23.840 You know, um, do you have any thoughts on that?

00:49:26.480 And it's not like you're a specialist.

00:49:28.020 Yeah, I'm not, I'm not a specialist.

00:49:30.400 Um, I mean, here, here's, here's what I tried to do.

00:49:33.540 I mean, take this for, you know, for what it's worth, but number one is you gotta, if

00:49:40.960 you're a kid in your environment where there's a lot of addiction, you gotta make sure that

00:49:46.240 you're taken care of, right?

00:49:48.360 Like don't, don't get yourself in such a situation where it's not just your parent that is struggling,

00:49:53.060 but it becomes you that's struggling too, right?

00:49:55.280 Cause you can't help them out.

00:49:56.420 You can't help them out unless you're able to take care of yourself first, right?

00:50:00.840 Right.

00:50:01.020 That's, that's number one.

00:50:02.060 I think number two is as hard as it is, man, and shit, I know this very well.

00:50:07.180 Cause there were times when I had some very angry moments with my mom, don't get resentful

00:50:13.360 and try to keep your heart as open as possible, right?

00:50:16.680 You got to compartmentalize a little bit, right?

00:50:18.480 There's, yeah, there's the addict version, but then there's the version that, you know,

00:50:22.720 that read you a book when you were a kid, or there's the version that took you to,

00:50:25.780 you know, your favorite movie or try to hold onto the memories that are completely divorced

00:50:31.620 from the addiction.

00:50:32.700 Because I think if you allow yourself to become totally resentful, then it doesn't just affect

00:50:37.680 them.

00:50:38.000 It starts to affect you too, right?

00:50:40.440 Don't, don't allow your parents' addiction to become something that destroys your life

00:50:44.280 too.

00:50:44.580 In other words, as you've got to kind of, you got to kind of keep your soul intact here.

00:50:48.720 Um, I mean, I just, just practically go to those NA meetings.

00:50:55.060 And I learned more about mom and her addiction going to those NA meetings.

00:50:58.680 And I didn't always, you know, it's not like it was like some eureka moment.

00:51:02.020 Oh, there's, you know, I'm not pissed off at you anymore, right?

00:51:04.400 But you at least understand it a little bit more and you gain some appreciation for what's

00:51:08.580 going on in their life because that's a, that's a big part of it.

00:51:11.200 Yeah.

00:51:11.640 And you also think about NA meetings is, is just, again, it is human nature and all

00:51:17.740 of its splendor, its virtue and its vice, man.

00:51:21.220 Oh yeah.

00:51:21.520 Some dude was selling a boat.

00:51:22.640 The last one I went to, some dude's selling a fucking boat at one of them.

00:51:25.120 It's exactly.

00:51:26.220 And we're like, you can't do, we're trying to get off of drugs, dude.

00:51:30.800 And yeah.

00:51:31.280 And some guys started bidding on the boat.

00:51:32.820 I'm like, and they had made them take it outside.

00:51:34.440 Yeah.

00:51:34.700 Because it's outside issues or whatever.

00:51:36.440 But it was like, what is even happening here?

00:51:38.880 Dude, I was in an NA meeting.

00:51:40.140 Some guy had a fish hook stuck in his fricking cheek, dude.

00:51:42.960 Really?

00:51:43.380 Yeah.

00:51:44.020 Wow.

00:51:44.540 Yeah.

00:51:45.160 Wow.

00:51:46.120 Man.

00:51:47.420 But he had two weeks clean.

00:51:49.040 Yeah.

00:51:49.500 He'd either had a really bad night or a really good night.

00:51:51.840 Yeah.

00:51:51.860 Definitely.

00:51:53.000 Maybe both.

00:51:54.460 Jesus.

00:51:55.740 Yeah.

00:51:56.100 Who knows what happened.

00:51:58.140 God dang.

00:51:58.920 It's just like, all right, dude.

00:52:00.800 Catch and release, brother.

00:52:02.820 Catch and release.

00:52:03.780 He probably had tried to come across the border.

00:52:05.780 Oh, we'll do that.

00:52:06.900 And I only say that because we've had a couple of Border Patrol agents on here.

00:52:11.720 And so we've learned a good bit about it over the years.

00:52:13.780 No, I had a Border Patrol agent who's clearly.

00:52:17.380 Before you go.

00:52:17.900 He's already here.

00:52:18.360 Yeah.

00:52:18.760 Sorry.

00:52:19.020 But I just, that statement about trying not to be resentful against your parent, because

00:52:24.580 yeah, that resentment is the seed that can lead you down some of this or activate some

00:52:30.640 of the same behaviors in you.

00:52:32.220 That's right.

00:52:32.860 And I'm not preaching that, but it can activate a lot of, resentment is just, it's an evil seed.

00:52:40.080 No, that's right.

00:52:40.700 And so many bad things can happen there because it's just, that's an important message.

00:52:44.140 I'd never thought of that or heard it before.

00:52:45.840 Well, and what you said earlier about not getting into a negative spiral, I think is

00:52:49.100 really important.

00:52:50.020 Just, just psychologically.

00:52:51.700 I mean, look, man, I know you had a tough life in a lot of ways.

00:52:55.500 There are certainly some moments in my life that were pretty tough, but I've never, again,

00:53:01.240 I'm not an expert.

00:53:02.400 I've, you know, I've read some books on this stuff.

00:53:04.600 This is not JD Vance's expert opinion.

00:53:06.800 This is just a guy talking is I really worry that a lot of the mental health stuff in 2024

00:53:13.280 is about like focusing so much on what's bad in your life that you end up wallowing in

00:53:21.580 it and it becomes a sort of self-reinforcing spiral.

00:53:24.940 Like there's only so much you can, I mean, if bad shit has happened to you, there's only

00:53:29.600 so much you can do to think about it and process it.

00:53:32.800 And, you know, sometimes bad shit happens because it just happens, right?

00:53:36.940 There's no like rationalizing.

00:53:38.280 There's no like thinking through it and, and, and, you know, what I, what I've always

00:53:41.960 found like is, is most helpful is getting outside and going for a walk.

00:53:46.920 Like that made me feel way better than trying to understand why did mom do this thing when 0.99

00:53:52.120 she was 13 or when I was 13 years old and she was, you know, I guess 39, uh, 30, 36

00:53:58.880 would have been when I was 13, but like, why, why?

00:54:02.980 Right.

00:54:03.320 Still harping on it.

00:54:04.280 Yeah.

00:54:04.560 You just gotta go for some walks then.

00:54:05.980 I mean, I go for them, but still sometimes you got some ghosts, man, but I feel you.

00:54:11.260 Yeah.

00:54:11.880 But the longer you sit there and look for ghosts, all you, it's still goes, it's still a ghost.

00:54:16.480 And it's almost like you find more ghosts and you keep on finding them.

00:54:19.920 And then it's like, all right, man, I just, I can feel like hang out with my buddies, go

00:54:23.400 for a walk and have a drink.

00:54:24.500 Well, you know, not if you're, uh, dealing with addiction, but, um, like have a drink

00:54:29.200 of coffee, just like, go, you know, go hang out because I really worry that like the constant

00:54:36.100 wallowing is bad for us.

00:54:37.580 Yeah.

00:54:37.660 We've gotten into this.

00:54:38.360 It definitely, you know, a constant, into a heavy self-help type of vibe, you know, like

00:54:43.000 every book is a self-help book because self-help is great, but also you're saying the other

00:54:48.520 side of that is that you're saying that something's wrong with me.

00:54:50.760 Right.

00:54:51.780 Um, and so if you're always looking for ways to improve yourself, which it can be positive

00:54:56.120 to do that, I've noticed in my own life, it's also a way where you're also kind of saying

00:55:02.020 there's always something wrong with you.

00:55:03.420 That's interesting.

00:55:04.020 So I'm in the same way that I'm, oh, I'm always trying to get better.

00:55:07.960 It's like, I'm, I've obviously created then I'm, I'm, I'm, there's something unachievable

00:55:13.780 because I'm always trying to get better.

00:55:15.800 It's, I've set this impossible course.

00:55:17.480 So really I'm part of me is telling me, oh, there's something wrong with you.

00:55:20.580 So it becomes a little bit more about finding ways to accept myself, you know, you got to

00:55:24.460 balance it, right?

00:55:25.080 You got to balance, like, obviously there's all things we can work on, but you know, it

00:55:29.100 can become a self-defeating cycle of people.

00:55:31.280 And I try to, I try to just balance it.

00:55:33.080 I mean, you know, like I, I, um, like about, about two years ago, uh, at the end of my Senate

00:55:40.700 campaign, I was just like, I had gotten very overweight and it's like, I mean, the campaign

00:55:47.160 is hard on the body.

00:55:48.220 You eat, you know, Chick-fil-A for breakfast, you eat Wendy's for lunch, you eat, you know,

00:55:51.640 Waffle House for dinner, right?

00:55:53.080 After a while that starts to catch up with you.

00:55:55.880 And, um, you know, like I, I think the self-

00:55:58.340 What'd you get at Waffle House?

00:55:58.980 Just so we know it.

00:55:59.780 Oh man, I'm an All America special sub, uh, grits for home fries or hash browns.

00:56:03.980 Yeah, that's, God, I didn't even know they had home fries.

00:56:08.140 Well, they have, they have hash browns.

00:56:09.280 Sorry, they have hash browns, not home fries.

00:56:10.820 Wow, they have homeless fries over there, dude.

00:56:16.080 Dude, bro.

00:56:17.380 That, that, okay.

00:56:17.860 That photo, the second photo from the top, that is the All America special.

00:56:20.940 But again, I'm not a grits guy.

00:56:22.980 So if you swap out the grits for hash browns, they don't charge you anything.

00:56:26.600 Oh, look, dude.

00:56:27.360 Dude, that is it.

00:56:28.120 That is a meal of champions right there.

00:56:29.780 Well, your arteries are paying a high tariff, brother.

00:56:31.920 I'll tell you that.

00:56:32.580 Okay.

00:56:33.060 Yes, they are.

00:56:34.260 Yes, they are.

00:56:35.040 But anyway, the point-

00:56:36.140 Do you get raisin toast or stick with that regular toast?

00:56:38.540 I get regular toast.

00:56:39.640 Yeah, I just put a lot of jam on it.

00:56:40.820 Wow.

00:56:41.000 I'm not a big raisin guy.

00:56:42.400 Yeah.

00:56:42.700 Do you like raisins?

00:56:43.760 I like, I mean, because I like grapes that have been through something.

00:56:46.740 You know, it's just who I am, you know?

00:56:49.120 But, uh, so yeah, I guess I do like it, you know?

00:56:52.440 I guess I like my, I like my grapes, you know, nice and, nice and, and clean and un-affected.

00:56:57.240 Oh, I like grapes of rat, you know, which are basically raisins.

00:57:00.680 Those are basically raisins.

00:57:04.440 But anyway, I bring that up because it's like, you can get into a spiral where it's like,

00:57:09.000 oh, I'm, I'm unhealthy and you beat up on yourself about it.

00:57:12.580 But like, there's a good balance where you recognize you got to, you know, go for a run

00:57:17.180 every now and then and, and take care of yourself.

00:57:19.420 And that's what I've tried to do is, you know, just balance the good and the bad.

00:57:22.640 Yeah.

00:57:23.440 Yeah.

00:57:23.900 Life's balanced, man.

00:57:25.360 It's a good point.

00:57:26.500 Yeah.

00:57:27.120 Things aren't going to be exactly.

00:57:28.480 Yeah.

00:57:28.760 Things aren't going to be perfect.

00:57:29.900 You know?

00:57:30.540 Yeah.

00:57:30.780 I always was like, I always, yeah.

00:57:33.480 I created when I was a kid, like I have to be perfect and to be like accepted or whatever,

00:57:37.540 you know?

00:57:37.900 Yeah.

00:57:38.180 That was like a, that was like a way that I created in my life.

00:57:41.900 I think.

00:57:42.180 Yeah.

00:57:42.560 Like I.

00:57:43.220 Well, what did that look?

00:57:44.020 So give me like, what would you try to be perfect at?

00:57:47.240 Like school or work or, or just like, you know, get in shape or like what, like what,

00:57:52.980 what, like what's your, if you're trying to get perfect, what are you trying to get perfect

00:57:56.140 at?

00:57:56.280 Well, that's the crazy part is it was almost this blind thing.

00:57:59.440 I never even asked the question, Hey, what am I trying to be perfect at?

00:58:02.300 It was just this, like you, like the only way you're going to be seen, you have to do

00:58:09.940 everything perfect, you know?

00:58:11.320 Yeah.

00:58:11.580 And then you'll get the, you'll, I don't know.

00:58:15.520 It was just this missing thing inside of myself.

00:58:17.140 I know what you mean.

00:58:18.060 I wanted to be seen.

00:58:19.060 So it was like, you have to do it perfect.

00:58:20.800 Yeah.

00:58:21.060 Right.

00:58:21.260 If you, cause if you do it perfect, then there would be no way it wouldn't mathematically

00:58:26.000 make sense that you wouldn't be seen then because that would have to be seen.

00:58:32.840 Yeah.

00:58:33.080 Right.

00:58:33.380 Nobody would not see something that was done perfectly, but, but perfection was, is impossible.

00:58:39.140 And so it was always, I'd always set myself up for this.

00:58:43.280 Like you'd always come up short, no matter what it was.

00:58:46.680 And it could be in anything, something I was presenting at school, the way I was, the

00:58:50.300 way I looked while you were talking to me, it just, everything had to be like this.

00:58:53.860 I mean, so it was this constant, like, I just never let my breath go, you know?

00:58:59.520 And, and, and then I was always falling short.

00:59:03.720 And so then that can be a tough way to live.

00:59:05.960 Yeah.

00:59:06.180 Oh, it was horrible.

00:59:06.800 And it fulfilled this prophecy in my head.

00:59:08.480 Oh, we fell short.

00:59:09.400 You're not enough, which, which is what you thought in the beginning anyway.

00:59:12.740 Right.

00:59:13.220 And I'm not saying that now, like now I have different thoughts and feelings, but those

00:59:16.900 were things that I, now I'm able to look back and see, oh, that that's how I was operating.

00:59:21.040 Yeah.

00:59:21.400 And just how, even when I talk about it, it sounds fucking impossibly stressful.

00:59:26.200 Yeah.

00:59:26.360 You know?

00:59:26.740 Yeah, it does.

00:59:27.640 I mean, that's, yeah.

00:59:28.660 Did you ever go to ACA meetings or anything like that?

00:59:31.820 ACA meetings.

00:59:32.600 Like adult children of alcoholics.

00:59:33.700 Did you ever go to?

00:59:34.460 No, no.

00:59:35.200 I guess it's interesting.

00:59:36.260 No, I never did.

00:59:37.920 Yeah.

00:59:38.100 Some people don't need it.

00:59:38.980 Yeah.

00:59:39.740 I mean, I think frankly, it probably would have helped me, would have been useful to go

00:59:43.220 to.

00:59:43.980 We did sometimes like there, there was one very long-term treatment facility that mom went 0.99

00:59:48.840 to, and I guess it was kind of like that because part of that was that we would go to

00:59:53.500 meetings every couple of weeks with all the kids of the people who were in.

00:59:57.080 Oh, that's pretty cool.

00:59:57.660 So that may have been an ACA meeting.

00:59:59.000 I just didn't know the name of it, but that was definitely interesting.

01:00:02.180 And again, it's like you go to the meetings with some of these kids and you think your

01:00:06.720 life is tough and you realize, man, there's always somebody who's got it much worse than

01:00:10.740 you do.

01:00:11.140 Yeah.

01:00:11.400 And that's, again, I think that's a good attitude to have because then you feel grateful

01:00:15.640 for what you have.

01:00:16.360 That's another thing, man.

01:00:17.600 Like the feeling of gratitude is so empowering.

01:00:21.980 Like if you're just grateful for what you have, you know, like, yeah, you know, you and

01:00:26.520 your wife have an argument, but if you're just grateful for her, for her existence, that's

01:00:30.880 such a better attitude.

01:00:31.740 Your kid does something that's annoying to you, but I'm just so grateful that I have this

01:00:35.020 beautiful little baby that I get to take care of.

01:00:37.240 I don't know.

01:00:37.880 The feeling of gratitude, I think is a very powerful thing.

01:00:40.380 Hmm.

01:00:41.100 Yeah.

01:00:41.500 And people say that a lot.

01:00:43.240 Um, did, was being a parent scary for you?

01:00:46.100 Were you scared?

01:00:46.860 Like, absolutely.

01:00:48.140 Yeah.

01:00:48.940 Terrifying to me.

01:00:49.940 Yeah, man.

01:00:50.600 I, um, yeah, I was just, I was taught by my childhood that most people really screw

01:00:55.900 up parenting and, you know, it's, it's not just like you make a mistake, you get a bad

01:01:01.200 grade or, you know, your boss is pissed off at you.

01:01:03.520 It's like, you make a mistake and you're like screwing up.

01:01:05.940 You get a bad grade that has to go stay, that stays alive.

01:01:08.440 That stays alive.

01:01:09.060 Right.

01:01:09.340 Damn, this C plus is having a tough week.

01:01:11.120 Yeah, this C plus is having a really tough week.

01:01:13.620 And, um, you know, like, do you have kids?

01:01:16.200 I mean, so, so, I mean, you just, you just love your kids so much.

01:01:20.960 Right.

01:01:21.120 I mean, you really think the sun shines out their ass, you know, that's, that's kind

01:01:24.200 of how you see children.

01:01:25.140 Oh, you're like care bears or whatever.

01:01:27.720 That's right.

01:01:28.880 I'm like a care bear, but a living, breathing care bear.

01:01:32.080 Yeah.

01:01:32.600 That you have to take care of.

01:01:33.980 And so I was just really terrified because that, you know, this has certainly gotten a

01:01:38.220 lot better, but you know, when I was 27, 28, I had like a pretty bad temper.

01:01:43.440 You know, like if somebody cut me off, I'd be really pissed off.

01:01:47.040 Now I don't drive anymore because I have a secret service detail, which is probably a

01:01:49.600 good thing.

01:01:50.060 But, um, but I, but I, you know, like I, I just think to myself, oh my God, is my kid

01:01:54.480 going to do something bad and I'm going to fly off the handle?

01:01:57.160 Like, you know, oh yeah, I worry about that.

01:01:59.380 Right.

01:02:00.120 And yeah, I mean, look, certainly kids can be frustrating from time to time, but for

01:02:04.580 whatever reason, I think it's partially because my wife's so patient.

01:02:08.060 It's in part just because I'm older and a little wiser is, uh, you know, it's, it's,

01:02:12.660 it's really worked out and I've, you know, I've, I've screwed up and I've made mistakes

01:02:15.900 as a parent.

01:02:16.480 And certainly there are days where you're like, oh man, I can't believe that I did this

01:02:19.940 or that.

01:02:20.300 But, um, you know, one, kids are much more resilient than people give them credit for.

01:02:25.000 And, uh, two, it's just, it's a, it's a learning process, man.

01:02:29.400 Yeah.

01:02:29.660 And it's, it's amazing.

01:02:30.880 I mean, kids are so, so crazy.

01:02:33.860 Like the, the difference between our two year old and our seven year old just in personality

01:02:40.960 and what they say.

01:02:42.840 And, you know, kids have no filter.

01:02:44.960 Yeah.

01:02:45.440 Right.

01:02:45.640 So like one of the things that we call on our, our side of the aisle is that we'll like,

01:02:49.280 you know, we'll call the news journalists, the corporate media, I call them fake news.

01:02:53.080 Right.

01:02:53.440 And he got to be careful about that shit because my kids getting on the plane with me, my four

01:02:58.080 year old to come to an event.

01:02:59.840 And, um, and somebody gets on the, they're on the loudspeaker, they're saying where to

01:03:02.560 sit or whatever.

01:03:03.160 And he's like, oh no, we see, he sees all these people taking photos of us and videos

01:03:08.240 because I get photographed and video, you know, I'm constantly being photographed wherever

01:03:12.480 I go.

01:03:12.920 And he sees these people with cameras, he goes, daddy, is that the fake news?

01:03:15.840 And you, you know, you, you realize you got to be a little bit more careful about what

01:03:21.980 you say.

01:03:22.480 You're like, no, that's grandma.

01:03:23.360 Now smile.

01:03:24.080 Okay.

01:03:24.320 That's just, grandma's getting a picture of us.

01:03:28.340 But yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's the most rewarding thing that I've ever done.

01:03:32.360 Uh, it's, it's definitely changed my perspective.

01:03:34.260 So it surprised you as to, as to, it surprised you against your fears kind of?

01:03:38.040 It did.

01:03:38.780 It did.

01:03:39.240 I mean, one, it's just not as, it's not as hard, I guess, as I thought it would be.

01:03:42.640 Yeah.

01:03:42.820 Cause I were, that's what I just, yeah, I guess.

01:03:44.600 Yeah.

01:03:44.920 I don't know if I think about it being hard.

01:03:46.080 I don't know.

01:03:46.540 It just feels like it would be so scary.

01:03:48.460 That's the word that comes into my head.

01:03:49.960 Man, it is, it is scary, but it's like one of those things where you just, you know,

01:03:53.780 you just deal with it.

01:03:54.780 Right.

01:03:55.240 And it's kind of good to confront that fear.

01:03:56.980 And then you realize it's not as bad.

01:03:58.400 I mean, you know, most people will tell you like the first kid gets completely babied.

01:04:03.180 Right.

01:04:03.660 Yeah.

01:04:04.140 And you know, you, oh, you've got to put a hand sanitizer on before you touch, touch the baby when

01:04:07.980 they come home from the hospital.

01:04:09.020 And by the third kid, you're like, I don't, you know, you just played in the mud.

01:04:13.200 Fine.

01:04:13.580 Come up, come over here.

01:04:14.420 And, and you realize that kids are, again, they're, they're much more resilient than people

01:04:20.320 give them credit for.

01:04:21.680 But you also, you just learn a lot about yourself and like the coolest thing, right?

01:04:25.980 Think about my mom.

01:04:26.840 I didn't think my mom would be alive when I was 40 years old.

01:04:28.880 And now I see her play Pokemon with my little seven year old and build a relationship with

01:04:33.800 these little kids.

01:04:34.520 And it's just a really, it's a really, really rewarding thing.

01:04:37.900 I mean, does it feel like a gift that you were able to give your mom almost like not

01:04:41.180 you were able to give it to her, but that like, you know, God gave you this series of

01:04:45.160 events in your life where you get to see your mom play with this kid.

01:04:47.460 And you're like, man, that almost could have been me, but it, it does get to be me like

01:04:51.420 in a weird way.

01:04:52.080 Like, yeah, that's, that's, it's exactly right.

01:04:54.140 I feel like it's a gift that God gave to us where we get to have this second chance with

01:04:58.580 mom.

01:04:59.020 Yeah.

01:04:59.820 And, you know, we get to, wouldn't necessarily relied on mom when I was 12 or 13, cause she

01:05:04.460 was still, you know, still caught up in addiction, but now like, we'll leave our kids with mom.

01:05:09.800 Wow.

01:05:10.400 Like being able to rely on her is just a very, it's a very cool thing.

01:05:13.960 You know, my, my, my wife, I remember when our kids were first born or for all this was

01:05:19.220 born in 2017 and at that point, mom had been clean and sober for about a year and a half,

01:05:24.000 I guess.

01:05:25.140 And like, I remember talking with my wife and she's saying like, I love your mom.

01:05:28.740 I hope that she stays clean and sober, but like, we're never letting her babysit.

01:05:32.740 Yeah.

01:05:32.900 It's a little early, right?

01:05:33.580 A little early, but now like we trust her with all three of them.

01:05:36.500 Wow.

01:05:37.060 And it's an amazing thing, man.

01:05:38.140 Oh yeah.

01:05:38.820 And now with three kids, you'll give me anybody to watch.

01:05:41.300 You know what I'm saying?

01:05:41.960 If you got three kids, bro.

01:05:43.980 That's true.

01:05:45.000 Anybody can watch them.

01:05:46.400 Yeah, that's right.

01:05:47.200 No, we, we.

01:05:48.100 But no, that's, I think that's really cool.

01:05:50.100 I could have just imagined, I could imagine like you getting to see like your kids be

01:05:53.560 with your mom and this, it just like completing the eight or whatever.

01:05:58.400 You know what I'm saying?

01:05:58.880 Like that symbol or whatever, you know, infinity symbol or whatever.

01:06:01.960 Yeah.

01:06:02.060 Yeah.

01:06:02.120 You know, I can really see that.

01:06:03.840 It's pretty powerful.

01:06:04.760 Yeah.

01:06:05.180 It's important.

01:06:06.020 That's the power of like things you see through recovery and stuff too.

01:06:09.060 You know, it's like that people get to just have a different life, you know, it's like

01:06:14.980 you witness it all the time in the, in the meetings and stuff.

01:06:17.700 I do anyway.

01:06:18.580 Yeah.

01:06:18.740 There's something, there's something very redemptive about it, man.

01:06:21.020 And if you want to hear a miracle or something, you want to see a miracle, go to a meeting.

01:06:24.580 Yeah.

01:06:24.880 You know what I'm saying?

01:06:25.700 You get to see, I mean, um, and it very much is like church.

01:06:28.980 It's like, sometimes people are like, you don't go to church sometimes.

01:06:31.580 I'm like, dude, I go to four, I go to church four times a week at least.

01:06:36.280 Yeah.

01:06:36.640 Right.

01:06:37.000 I go, I go, it's like, that's those meetings.

01:06:40.100 It really is.

01:06:40.860 It's like, you get everything you could get out of, um, I mean, you witness God's work

01:06:46.200 just through other people, you know, I mean, much less outside of, uh, possibly in your

01:06:51.500 own life.

01:06:51.900 Yeah.

01:06:52.240 And they're the testimonials you hear at meetings and the courage it takes somebody who's

01:06:57.340 been clean for two days to walk in and bid on a boat, strangers and bid on a, or to

01:07:03.740 sell a boat.

01:07:04.360 Yeah.

01:07:04.560 Like, Hey, Hey, I've got, no, I'm joking.

01:07:08.580 I mean, I didn't mean to interrupt you.

01:07:10.320 I got, I got, I got rid of my cocaine and now I've got a boat.

01:07:12.720 You want to buy it?

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01:09:42.400 To every elected official and politician in America, the people stand united, desperate

01:09:50.420 for you to listen.

01:09:52.020 If you're not advocating for prices and transparency in healthcare, you are compromising every single

01:09:58.480 American across this country.

01:10:00.160 Because when we can't see prices, hospitals, insurance, and their middleman charge us whatever

01:10:08.000 they want.

01:10:09.600 Our very own healthcare system is robbing all of us.

01:10:13.240 We just need the prices.

01:10:16.660 That's how our economy works.

01:10:20.220 If you want to do right by workers, employers, and unions, then you've got to do right by the

01:10:27.400 people they represent and the families who depend upon them.

01:10:31.580 And we've got to hear it.

01:10:33.260 Prices now.

01:10:34.760 Power to the patients.

01:10:36.200 Oh, dude.

01:10:44.420 Did you ever listen to Jelly Roll?

01:10:47.860 It's funny.

01:10:49.520 I met Jelly Roll at the United States Senate.

01:10:52.860 Really?

01:10:53.220 Because I'm on the banking committee.

01:10:54.200 He came and gave.

01:10:55.100 And what was he trying to get pardoned for something?

01:10:56.760 No.

01:10:57.620 No.

01:10:58.420 I don't think so, at least.

01:10:59.540 But he was a witness at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee.

01:11:06.100 Oh, I think I saw that on C-SPAN or something.

01:11:09.220 And that was a joke, Jelly.

01:11:10.440 He knows it was.

01:11:11.320 He was really good.

01:11:13.640 I talked to him briefly.

01:11:14.400 I'm sure he doesn't remember.

01:11:16.040 He does remember.

01:11:16.740 But I thought he gave some very interesting testimony.

01:11:22.480 He talked about the fentanyl issue a little bit.

01:11:24.140 I want to say he maybe talked about homelessness a little bit.

01:11:26.440 But I remember him talking about fentanyl.

01:11:29.740 And he's got an amazing life.

01:11:31.800 I mean, talk about a guy who had a much tougher life than I did.

01:11:34.420 That's Jelly Roll.

01:11:35.380 Yeah.

01:11:35.860 That's a great point.

01:11:36.620 Yeah.

01:11:36.880 Yeah.

01:11:37.200 He's a magic, man.

01:11:38.500 And when you talk to him, it's just like watching pure.

01:11:42.960 It's just genuine.

01:11:44.440 Yeah.

01:11:45.020 That's what it is.

01:11:45.820 It's like clean water.

01:11:48.800 It's like what we used to have in a lot of our rivers.

01:11:51.160 It's like that's what he is.

01:11:53.480 Yeah.

01:11:53.880 He's just genuine.

01:11:54.760 He's just a genuine human being.

01:11:56.260 He'll tear up at anything.

01:11:57.480 It's just because it's just what's in him is just real.

01:11:59.940 Yeah.

01:12:00.360 You know, he's a genuine guy.

01:12:02.560 Yeah.

01:12:02.840 That actually leads me pretty good into this next part I want to talk about.

01:12:06.600 Some stuff I wrote down.

01:12:07.960 Okay.

01:12:08.380 Because I wanted to be clear.

01:12:10.260 And this is important.

01:12:11.340 Yeah.

01:12:11.600 Go ahead, man.

01:12:12.040 So you're from a region that was firsthand devastated by the Money Lizard Sackler family, right? 0.99

01:12:21.260 Which like, you know, which Purdue Pharma and everything that happened with OxyContin, like over 500,000 people died at the hands of them.

01:12:30.560 Yeah.

01:12:31.100 And big, big problem.

01:12:32.940 Yeah.

01:12:33.440 Unbelievable.

01:12:33.980 Right.

01:12:34.220 And it compromised like, you know, they use loopholes, all types of stuff to be able to keep that company going.

01:12:41.400 Right.

01:12:41.620 And really to keep killing people.

01:12:43.120 I mean, it seemed undeniable at a certain point that they were murderers.

01:12:48.160 It was legalized drug dealing is what it was on an industrial scale.

01:12:52.020 I mean, made billions and billions of dollars.

01:12:54.520 They just got like a slap on the, like they got a financial slap on the wrist, right?

01:12:57.980 Very tiny.

01:12:58.780 But why, why can't we, shouldn't they be kicked out of our country?

01:13:02.960 It feels like, like if we can let in 20 million people in our country, right, that shouldn't be here or that are not like vetted properly to be here.

01:13:12.600 Don't have a legal right to be here.

01:13:13.640 Right.

01:13:13.880 I agree.

01:13:14.580 I would say they shouldn't be here.

01:13:15.900 Why can't we put those motherfuckers on a boat and send them back to wherever the fuck they came from? 1.00

01:13:22.420 That's a good question, man.

01:13:24.320 Look, I think that frankly.

01:13:26.080 And I don't mean that angrily at you, but it's like.

01:13:28.160 No, man, I'm pissed off about it too.

01:13:30.480 Like at what point do people lose the opportunity to be here?

01:13:33.640 It seemed like if you killed 500,000 people, you wouldn't be able to hang out anymore.

01:13:40.220 Or maybe at least you should have a criminal investigation.

01:13:42.620 Yeah.

01:13:42.780 Right.

01:13:43.380 Because that's the thing that's always, I've always, I mean, like the Sackler family clearly got rich off of an extraordinary amount of human misery and death.

01:13:53.520 Yeah.

01:13:53.800 Okay.

01:13:54.120 Where are they from?

01:13:54.720 Bring it up real quick.

01:13:56.080 I want to say they're from New York maybe, or they're from the Northeast.

01:13:58.900 I'm pretty sure.

01:14:00.800 The Sackler family originated from Galassia in Poland and their ancestors were Jewish immigrants.

01:14:05.980 Isaac Sackler.

01:14:07.120 Brooklyn, New York.

01:14:07.740 Oh, and then they lived in Brooklyn, New York.

01:14:09.300 That's what I thought.

01:14:09.700 I thought they were from New York or Connecticut.

01:14:12.180 I mean, look, the thing that I've never understood about them is that they did get fined, but the fine was such a tiny amount.

01:14:18.240 It was a couple of billion bucks or something, right?

01:14:19.600 But they made tens and tens of billions of dollars.

01:14:21.940 I mean, these guys were absolutely rolling in the dough.

01:14:25.020 But they, like, why isn't there a criminal investigation into this, right?

01:14:31.320 Like, if I sold drugs on the street and some person has an overdose and died, like, you can get felony prosecuted for that.

01:14:39.960 Yeah.

01:14:40.140 Or at least investigated for it.

01:14:41.660 And there was never a criminal, at least as I understand it, never a criminal investigation into what was known.

01:14:47.500 Yeah, I think they had to breach a plea deal of some sort.

01:14:50.320 Okay.

01:14:50.680 As the nation continues to grapple with that, the Sackler family had agreed to pay $6 billion to families and states as part of an agreement to wind down Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontinent exchange.

01:15:01.600 The Sackler family would be immunized from future civil liability claims.

01:15:05.000 Unreal.

01:15:05.500 Because here's my understanding about it.

01:15:07.240 And by the way, I think that, like, you always got to be worried about this stuff when you're the child of addiction is like, are there, whether it's drugs, alcohol, whatever, you got to be, you kind of.

01:15:16.880 You're worried about making sure you do yourself, don't get hooked on anything, right?

01:15:20.580 Like, I had a minor surgery once and like a very minor surgery and I was prescribed Oxycontin.

01:15:26.600 And I took it for like, you know, 12 hours.

01:15:29.280 Got any left?

01:15:29.940 Sorry.

01:15:31.140 No, because of my wife, because of what I'm about to tell you.

01:15:33.740 Okay.

01:15:34.220 And my wife, who was like giving me my meds, she was like, hey, are you ready for your next dose? 0.98

01:15:39.160 And I was like, yeah, you know, the pain's not really that bad anymore.

01:15:41.300 I don't really want to take one.

01:15:42.840 But yeah, just give me one because I feel really good when I take it.

01:15:45.340 And then she and I both had this like moment of realization, like, oh shit, right?

01:15:49.560 That is where this whole thing starts.

01:15:51.580 So she, you know, took it to wherever some disposal site and we got rid of it and that was it.

01:15:55.620 But the problem with Oxycontin, as I understand it at least, is that it's supposed to be delayed release oxycodone.

01:16:04.780 But, you know, the problem is people figured out if you just crush it up.

01:16:10.040 Yeah.

01:16:10.380 Then you could just get it all at once.

01:16:12.140 All released right now.

01:16:13.120 All released right now.

01:16:14.200 And then the Sackler family, as I understand it, knew about it, right?

01:16:18.180 Purdue Pharma knew this was going on and they should have been like, oh, no, no.

01:16:21.820 Okay.

01:16:21.940 We're going to stop this because people are getting killed by overdosing all this stuff because they're taking too high of a dose and they didn't do anything.

01:16:29.140 Yeah.

01:16:29.440 Like that is my understanding fundamentally of what happened is they didn't want to stop it because they were getting rich from it.

01:16:33.940 Oh, yeah.

01:16:34.720 It's man, it's really gross.

01:16:36.240 I just couldn't imagine that.

01:16:37.580 Imagine people dying and you're making money, but they're people are dying.

01:16:40.780 The ripple effect of that in this country is still haunting people.

01:16:46.260 Absolutely.

01:16:46.880 And that's where the heroin epidemic, which is now a fentanyl epidemic, came from.

01:16:50.040 It started as a pill epidemic.

01:16:52.320 And it actually was like I always used to think it was okay, kind of like me, like, oh, you have surgery and you get too many drugs and then eventually you get hooked.

01:16:59.580 Like what it actually was is they were over prescribing it so much that it was just everywhere.

01:17:05.240 Yeah.

01:17:05.420 Right.

01:17:05.640 And so like, oh, you know, your nephew comes over and he's 17 and he takes some to his buddies and now they're all hooked on oxy.

01:17:12.300 And that's like that.

01:17:13.780 That's what actually happened.

01:17:15.160 And there was just so much of this drug everywhere that it started the epidemic we have now.

01:17:20.240 Yeah.

01:17:20.680 And the outside, it was like candy coat.

01:17:22.580 It was like you just had to slurp off the outside a little bit and then you could party.

01:17:27.380 Oh, I didn't realize that.

01:17:28.740 Yeah, I think you just had to slurp.

01:17:30.120 I heard about people crushing.

01:17:31.500 I didn't know if you just had to slurp off the outside.

01:17:33.680 Yeah, I think you did.

01:17:35.580 And yeah.

01:17:39.020 Yeah.

01:17:39.480 And one of the worst things about it was that like medicine used to be a term that was like it was for help.

01:17:44.560 Right.

01:17:45.100 Yes.

01:17:45.400 It was like it was in our brains, I think, as as humans and citizens in our society, our culture.

01:17:52.380 Medicine was help.

01:17:53.420 Right.

01:17:53.780 Yes.

01:17:54.020 And that that whole thing with them kind of tripped that word where it made it it made people question the value of medicine.

01:18:02.860 Absolutely.

01:18:03.240 It made people just question then who's prescribing the medicine.

01:18:09.100 It made health.

01:18:10.480 It made like your doctors seem untrustworthy.

01:18:14.820 Yeah.

01:18:15.100 It just it ruined so much trust.

01:18:18.600 That's absolutely right.

01:18:19.540 Ruined a lot of social trust.

01:18:20.880 And I agree.

01:18:21.920 I think they deserve a ton of blame for that.

01:18:25.120 And it's it's interesting, though, that was maybe the first point.

01:18:30.220 The Oxy epidemic was sort of the first point where I started to question like the mainstream big pharma narrative a little bit.

01:18:38.580 And I always ask myself, and I think this is something, you know, like I'm Republican, I'm conservative.

01:18:42.880 But one of the things that I think the old left was pretty smart about is like recognizing that, you know, when when money gets involved, when the profit motive gets involved in health, that can lead to good things.

01:18:56.860 Right.

01:18:57.020 It can lead to people trying to cure cancer because they know they're going to make a lot of money if they cure cancer.

01:19:01.600 I'm fine with that.

01:19:02.220 Right.

01:19:02.540 But people making money if they cure cancer, that's a great thing.

01:19:04.600 But then also sometimes it can lead to manipulation of the health system that doesn't actually benefit people's health, but does get people hooked on a lot of drugs that they wouldn't otherwise need.

01:19:16.300 And this was something, again, the old left understood this, that like, well, you got to be careful.

01:19:20.700 Like, are we prescribing this medication because it's good for people because that's good?

01:19:25.060 Or are we prescribing it because some big pharmaceutical company is getting rich if we do, and they're putting pressure on the government or somebody else to encourage us to prescribe this medication?

01:19:35.480 And I think there are a whole host of ways in which, you know, frankly, the old left was right about that.

01:19:41.400 And, you know, I've tried to persuade, you know, modern conservatives that we should be more concerned about that issue.

01:19:47.800 It's like, you know, Bobby Kennedy makes this point all the time.

01:19:50.040 Right. Like, good. Some pharmaceuticals are good for us, but some actually it's not totally clear whether we're taking them just because it makes people money.

01:19:57.400 And this is like, let me give you a concrete example.

01:20:00.060 Right. So, you know, this there's obviously this big like debate about transgender issues and you don't have to wade into that.

01:20:07.940 But what really worries me is when you've got pharmaceutical companies that are making billions of dollars on hormonal therapies for kids.

01:20:17.940 And are we really like are we really being smart about whether this is good for the kids, about whether it causes long term consequences?

01:20:24.940 And why is nobody saying, well, wait a second, the people who are lobbying us to give these drugs to kids are also getting rich off of it.

01:20:31.920 Right. Right. And I just I worry about that.

01:20:34.540 I mean, you have to follow the money motive. Yeah, man.

01:20:36.900 It definitely of course they would want that because it's just another way.

01:20:39.800 It's like, well, how do we split the atom here again to make even more money off of somebody?

01:20:44.600 Well, why not your gender? You know what I'm saying? You're not using it. 1.00

01:20:47.440 Yeah. You know, you're like, what do you mean? I'm not using my gender like I'm trying.

01:20:50.900 I'm trying to. I'm still developing it. Yeah.

01:20:54.320 You know what I'm saying? And you're going to like. But I agree.

01:20:57.000 It's like a couple of my buddies secretly low key date trans people. Right. 0.92

01:21:01.340 And I don't care if somebody's trans or Neapolitan or whatever. I don't I don't care. 1.00

01:21:06.300 You know what I'm saying? Hell, if I had a vagina, I would probably wouldn't go looking for women, you know. 1.00

01:21:10.360 So there's probably some up some up to it.

01:21:13.680 But what I'm talking about is, oh, shit, I don't know what I'm talking about.

01:21:18.220 Look, man, if you're an adult. But look where the money like.

01:21:22.720 Look, follow the money. When we're talking about kids, follow the money.

01:21:25.900 Think about what's going on. Like, are the people pushing this?

01:21:29.000 What is their real or do they have some other motive?

01:21:32.920 You have to think about that, you know?

01:21:34.720 Well, that's why I mean, like you mentioned Ozempic earlier, which, you know, I've known a couple of friends who've taken it.

01:21:40.700 I've never taken an Ozempic or, you know, any weight loss kind of drug.

01:21:44.040 Oh, it got it. It ended up having a black market.

01:21:45.760 There was somebody selling it outside of a vineyard vines illegally or something over there outside of Charlottesville.

01:21:50.160 Outside of vineyard vines. That's the most that's the perfect encapsulation.

01:21:55.120 It breaks my heart. Yeah.

01:21:56.620 Vineyard vines.

01:21:57.460 And she was a Kappa Delta. Somebody said she was a Kappa Delta.

01:21:59.900 Oh, my God.

01:22:01.040 But it's just that kind of stuff.

01:22:04.520 Shakes me to my core, JD.

01:22:06.640 Oh, that's really that's dark shit, man.

01:22:08.480 That's dark. That's that's darker than a lot of what goes on in politics.

01:22:12.400 A Kappa Delta selling Ozempic black market off out of side of vineyard vines. 0.94

01:22:17.420 I'm going to have nightmares.

01:22:18.960 They call it Fozempic.

01:22:20.180 But I, you know, I like worry.

01:22:21.880 OK, so America has a terrible obesity problem.

01:22:24.620 OK, and I'm not look, I'm not a doctor.

01:22:26.440 I'm not telling if your doctor tells you to take Ozempic, follow your doctor's advice.

01:22:30.160 Not, you know, what you're hearing from me on a podcast.

01:22:32.760 I don't mind it a little.

01:22:33.600 But I know what I worry about is, OK, you know, you create a problem and then you medicate

01:22:42.000 to solve the problem instead of like maybe solving the underlying problem.

01:22:46.120 Right.

01:22:46.700 Like, why don't we try to understand why it is that we have a terrible obesity epidemic

01:22:50.660 rather than just giving people another pill to pop?

01:22:53.600 Well, it's also we get used to that then after a while and then it's hard to put the

01:22:56.920 toothpaste back in the tube.

01:22:57.920 That's exactly right.

01:22:58.640 That's one of the tough, that's one.

01:22:59.880 That's exactly right.

01:23:00.140 And that's more of like a kind of a bigger look at that.

01:23:02.380 Like, yeah, it's like how much personal responsibility?

01:23:07.200 It's like that's something I struggle with sometimes.

01:23:10.080 My brother and I talk about this sometimes.

01:23:11.880 Like, you know, people have problems and specifically even like thinking about the Oxycontin thing.

01:23:17.840 Like they created a medicine that was so strong that even your ability, your God-given ability

01:23:25.440 to be able to battle against it.

01:23:28.400 Like you'd be in AA rooms and you'd see people that came in from opioid and it was something

01:23:33.020 different than alcoholism.

01:23:34.220 Exactly right.

01:23:34.860 It wasn't alcohol.

01:23:35.840 It wasn't.

01:23:36.280 It was addiction, but it was something different.

01:23:38.320 It was like these people that zombied these people.

01:23:41.560 It's like, it's like they created this, this skip card in Uno or something.

01:23:47.380 It was like, so at that point, like, shit, what were we talking about?

01:23:51.640 I had a good idea.

01:23:53.340 Talking about opioids, the effect it has on people's brains, pharmaceutical companies making

01:23:58.700 money from, we're talking about Ozempic putting the toothpaste back in the tube.

01:24:03.780 Right, right.

01:24:04.100 Oh, personal responsibility.

01:24:05.120 Yeah.

01:24:05.460 Yes.

01:24:05.880 Okay.

01:24:06.120 You were almost there.

01:24:06.780 Sorry.

01:24:07.160 You helped me.

01:24:08.160 You laid all the breadcrumbs, dude.

01:24:09.640 That's good, man.

01:24:10.080 Um, so, uh, but yeah, I'm here to help, man.

01:24:14.300 As your next vice president, I'll live to serve however I can.

01:24:17.940 You just helped me right there.

01:24:19.720 But yeah, it's like, um, but then they created something that was so powerful.

01:24:24.140 It kind of exceeded our ability, our natural ability to be able to fight against it.

01:24:27.960 Right.

01:24:28.180 So at that point, um, personal responsibility kind of isn't, it's, it's still there, but

01:24:35.860 it's not exactly fair because you're allowing a company to create something that you can't

01:24:42.240 naturally compete against.

01:24:44.280 It turns you into a zombie, man.

01:24:45.980 Yeah.

01:24:46.160 I mean, it really took so long.

01:24:48.500 My brain, no, man, no, it's, it's, I know exactly what you mean.

01:24:51.760 And it's, it's, it's, it's like one thing to sort of take a pill.

01:24:55.300 So your pain goes away or you take a pill.

01:24:56.920 Cause you know, you've got a lung infection, lung infection goes away or like whatever.

01:25:01.020 When something can so fundamentally transform your personality and your sense of, you know,

01:25:07.380 ambition and reward, like what are you, what are you going after?

01:25:09.960 It's not a medicine.

01:25:12.080 It's very, it's very, very weird.

01:25:14.420 Um, like that's the thing.

01:25:15.320 It's not a medicine.

01:25:16.040 That is a drug.

01:25:17.080 Yeah.

01:25:17.480 And I, I mean, my, my mom, like to her great credit, man, I don't know how she does this

01:25:21.680 because like, look, there are some things where you really do need a strong pain medication.

01:25:25.720 Right.

01:25:26.560 And I forget something that happened a couple of years ago where they were like, you know,

01:25:29.960 maybe she had some infection, but they really wanted to give her oxy.

01:25:34.840 And she was just like, no, I refuse to take it.

01:25:37.060 So she, for a couple of days, I mean, she was in agonizing pain, but she just took Advil,

01:25:41.560 took Tylenol and she was fine.

01:25:43.800 Yeah.

01:25:44.080 And she, and she, and she persevered through it, but man, you're right.

01:25:47.680 The stuff it, it, it just, yeah.

01:25:49.800 It's like, it changes not just your personality, but it changes whether you can take care of

01:25:55.840 yourself and other people.

01:25:57.100 Right.

01:25:57.520 Like for most normal people, there's this thing where it's like, oh, oh crap, I'm not taking

01:26:01.980 care of my kids.

01:26:02.960 My kids need me.

01:26:04.180 I got to change something.

01:26:05.500 Right.

01:26:05.680 But if you're on opioids, it's like, it flips a switch off where, yeah, I'm not taking care

01:26:11.420 of my kids, but maybe I don't give a shit because the drugs have so affected my brain.

01:26:16.500 Yeah.

01:26:16.960 I think that's it, man.

01:26:19.580 And with that, so staying in the health and like medical and healthcare thoughts.

01:26:24.180 Yeah.

01:26:24.360 One of the major, and I wrote this down so I could say it clearly and to just save everybody

01:26:29.580 time who's listening.

01:26:31.400 One of the major bipartisan issues that's plaguing Americans is the healthcare system,

01:26:35.480 which has become outrageously expensive, right?

01:26:38.700 Sure.

01:26:38.840 It's unaffordable, it's inaccessible by millions of Americans.

01:26:43.500 We're overpaying hospitals and insurance companies that hide their prices.

01:26:47.580 Yes.

01:26:48.240 And they charge us whatever they want.

01:26:49.920 Yeah.

01:26:50.340 Patients overpay, workers overpay, companies overpay, the taxpayers overpay.

01:26:55.640 On this podcast, Bernie Sanders came on and he stressed the need for a healthcare price

01:27:00.300 transparency.

01:27:01.720 Donald Trump did the same thing.

01:27:03.440 He had an executive order.

01:27:05.140 Yeah.

01:27:05.520 I think it's still in place that demands price transparency.

01:27:10.160 Mark Cuban stressed the need for healthcare price transparency.

01:27:14.240 How do we not have real prices and transparency in healthcare knowing that it's exactly what America

01:27:19.180 needs so that our healthcare system will be honest and affordable and accessible?

01:27:25.680 Well, you're right that we should have it.

01:27:27.120 And the reason that we don't is unfortunately because there are a lot of powerful people

01:27:31.120 who get rich off of keeping these things secret.

01:27:34.180 And so they don't want transparency.

01:27:35.820 They don't want sunshine.

01:27:36.960 You can say Chuck Schumer if you want.

01:27:39.540 I won't say that.

01:27:40.480 Well, I mean, look, you're right though.

01:27:41.840 Like obviously Bernie and I are on the same team politically, but there are some healthcare

01:27:45.520 things like price transparency where actually I think he and President Trump are both right

01:27:49.080 that there's nothing that you, I mean, you go to Starbucks, right?

01:27:52.420 You buy coffee.

01:27:53.100 You know how much you're getting.

01:27:54.360 You know how much it's costing you.

01:27:56.900 You know, I remember when my wife, I think it was her second baby where, you know, you

01:28:03.200 get like pain medications because when you're delivering a baby, at least most people do

01:28:06.520 because it's like a very painful experience.

01:28:08.240 Yeah.

01:28:08.400 And there was some weird thing where the doctor that she chose was out of network and she

01:28:15.560 didn't realize, I mean, you know, you're not checking whether the doctor's in network at

01:28:18.300 the time, right?

01:28:18.940 You just sort of choosing a doctor.

01:28:20.360 And then we come home and we have like a $15,000 unexpected bill because she chose the

01:28:25.280 wrong doctor an hour before she delivers a baby. 0.97

01:28:29.160 And it's like, this is totally crazy.

01:28:31.560 And I'm, you know, we're in a situation where that was not a big deal for us.

01:28:34.620 We were able to afford it, but think about like a normal middle-class family goes and

01:28:39.220 has a baby and comes home to a medical bill.

01:28:42.060 That's like a fifth of their entire take-home pay that year, right?

01:28:46.100 That's crazy.

01:28:46.720 No, the number one cause of bankruptcy in America is medical debt.

01:28:51.520 Yeah.

01:28:51.940 It's, it's, it's a huge, huge problem.

01:28:53.940 And I think the price transparency is a big part of it, but you asked like, why hasn't

01:28:57.360 it happened?

01:28:57.940 It's because every time that we try to force price transparency, the service, the service

01:29:03.520 providers, the insurance companies, or the pharmaceutical companies don't actually want

01:29:07.860 that transparency.

01:29:09.160 Here's one of the reasons why the pharmaceutical companies don't want transparency.

01:29:12.140 It's because if Americans, if we realized how much more we were paying for pharmaceuticals

01:29:17.800 over the Europeans, there would be a revolution in this country. 0.53

01:29:21.380 We pay a lot more than them.

01:29:22.380 We pay way more than them.

01:29:23.820 And again, like I, my attitude is I am fine with people, you know, if you invent a life

01:29:30.680 saving cancer drug, I'm fine with people earning a great profit for doing something amazing

01:29:36.620 like that.

01:29:37.220 You want to, you want to motivate people to do it in the first place.

01:29:39.520 Right.

01:29:40.140 And, and a lot of people were obviously motivated by that profit motive.

01:29:43.980 But if, if you take certain drugs that are, you know, they cost a hundred dollars in the

01:29:49.040 United States of America and they're way, way cheaper in Europe or some of these really

01:29:53.700 expensive multi-thousand dollar cancer, bring something up for me.

01:29:56.720 Yeah.

01:29:57.860 It's really expensive, like next generation cancer therapeutics.

01:30:01.580 They cost way less in Europe.

01:30:03.760 Okay.

01:30:04.080 And just says in 2022, U.S. prices across all drugs, brands and generics were nearly

01:30:09.680 2.78 times as high as prices in, in the comparison countries.

01:30:14.560 U.S. prices for brand drugs were at least 3.22 times as high as prices in the comparison

01:30:20.260 countries, even after adjustments for estimated U.S. rebates.

01:30:24.780 Wow.

01:30:24.940 Does it show those countries?

01:30:25.960 Is there a chart with that or no?

01:30:27.940 I love it.

01:30:28.360 It's, it's, it's, it's OECD countries, which is mainly Europe.

01:30:31.840 Those are like the advanced economies, basically the, the rich countries, basically.

01:30:36.800 OECD.

01:30:37.540 Yeah.

01:30:37.740 And, and what?

01:30:38.700 So first world countries probably?

01:30:40.240 Basically.

01:30:40.780 Okay.

01:30:40.960 Yeah.

01:30:41.320 So Canada, probably Israel's in there. 0.96

01:30:44.420 A lot of the, a lot of the European countries, I think are all in OCD.

01:30:47.440 Okay.

01:30:47.660 United States, Germany, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Switzerland.

01:30:52.840 I can't see that.

01:30:55.520 Switzerland.

01:30:55.840 I haven't even heard of that.

01:30:57.540 Yeah.

01:30:57.700 Comparable county average.

01:31:05.100 You're screwing with me.

01:31:06.340 Austria.

01:31:09.340 Well, I think they misspelled it, dude.

01:31:11.900 There's not that many zits in it.

01:31:15.300 Australia, United Kingdom of Sweden.

01:31:16.940 Wow.

01:31:17.220 So we pay per capita spending on prescription drugs in 2019, 900.

01:31:22.060 And what does per capita mean?

01:31:23.440 Just per person.

01:31:24.080 Okay.

01:31:24.480 Per person.

01:31:25.780 $963 per person.

01:31:26.820 Whereas in Sweden, $270.

01:31:29.220 United Kingdom, $273, dude.

01:31:32.560 Yeah.

01:31:33.000 That's crazy, right?

01:31:33.820 Yeah.

01:31:34.080 That's not fair, dude.

01:31:35.260 That's not fair.

01:31:35.660 They're going to colonize everybody and they're paying cheaper for dope. 0.99

01:31:39.000 That's exactly right.

01:31:41.480 But again, the reason we don't really know what we're paying here is because, you know.

01:31:46.980 Because they hide it.

01:31:47.720 They hide it.

01:31:48.500 They hide it.

01:31:48.980 And they don't want to let people know because if you let people know, then they would demand

01:31:54.120 to pay less.

01:31:55.340 But something President Trump proposed, for example, I think is a very good idea, is that

01:32:00.320 he proposed re-importing drugs from Europe.

01:32:03.780 Basically, if they're selling it in Sweden or wherever for $270 per person and we're paying

01:32:09.900 $963 per person, then we'll just buy it in Sweden and bring it in the United States.

01:32:14.960 I love that.

01:32:15.420 Right?

01:32:15.960 That was a big, big thing.

01:32:17.280 Of course, the pharmaceutical companies don't like that.

01:32:19.180 And that's why they tried to assassinate him twice, probably.

01:32:21.500 Well, that's probably one of the things that could have happened.

01:32:23.720 I, of course, have no idea, no inside knowledge into what drove the motives of the assassins.

01:32:31.880 Oh, yeah.

01:32:32.060 I'm just joking.

01:32:32.900 But I wouldn't be shocked.

01:32:33.900 It's a lot of money.

01:32:34.860 Man, I wouldn't be shocked if there's some really dark stuff out there.

01:32:37.760 Because look, two separate people have tried to take a swing at this guy in about three

01:32:42.780 months.

01:32:43.340 Yeah.

01:32:44.140 Like, well, you know they didn't like Donald Trump, right?

01:32:46.140 Because they wouldn't try to shoot him if they liked him.

01:32:49.140 But I wouldn't be.

01:32:50.260 I mean, the first guy who went after Trump, I hate to put on the tinfoil out here, but

01:32:54.060 we've not been able to get, unable to get into his phone.

01:32:57.440 We know that he had all these, like, foreign encrypted apps on his cell phone.

01:33:02.020 It is crazy to me that we don't know the guy's motive.

01:33:05.340 Yeah.

01:33:06.140 It's nuts.

01:33:07.580 He almost killed the president.

01:33:09.320 Yeah.

01:33:09.860 And we don't know why he did it.

01:33:11.000 We don't know anything about the guy.

01:33:12.640 Yeah.

01:33:13.100 Yeah.

01:33:13.400 They're like, he had a lunchbox or something.

01:33:15.020 It's like the vaguest information they keep putting out about the guy, you know?

01:33:18.300 You know, he'd been using a library card.

01:33:20.380 We're like, who gives a shit?

01:33:22.060 Exactly.

01:33:22.740 Yeah.

01:33:23.000 His mom's name was Sharon.

01:33:24.440 It's like, great.

01:33:25.000 Thank you.

01:33:26.780 Yeah, dude.

01:33:27.780 Yeah.

01:33:28.140 They're like, oh, he, yeah.

01:33:29.860 They're like, oh, he was a Colts fan.

01:33:32.020 You're like, who gives a fuck?

01:33:34.100 Who gives a shit?

01:33:35.020 Yeah.

01:33:35.260 Yeah, that's exactly right.

01:33:35.960 Give us the information on the guy.

01:33:37.520 Yeah, you know.

01:33:38.240 So how do we stop that?

01:33:39.420 Do you get, do you get approached by lobbyists and stuff like that?

01:33:42.140 Like.

01:33:42.280 All the time.

01:33:42.980 Do you really?

01:33:43.720 And what does that look like?

01:33:44.640 Who are they?

01:33:45.220 What are they wearing?

01:33:46.060 So lobbyists, here's how you spot them, okay?

01:33:53.180 They're always wearing poorly fitted suits with extremely ugly ties.

01:33:59.200 So if you go out and you see a guy with a poorly fitting suit and extremely ugly tie, he's definitely a lobbyist.

01:34:04.220 Okay.

01:34:04.680 Okay.

01:34:05.200 It's like, it's like in Happy Gilmore.

01:34:07.220 He's a lobbyist for big fabric, huh?

01:34:08.760 It sounds like.

01:34:10.580 It's like in Happy Gilmore where the guy's like, you know, the coach is trying to get Happy Gilmore to play golf.

01:34:18.380 And Happy's like, you know, you know what you need to play golf is goofy pants and a fat ass. 0.99

01:34:25.380 That's what you need to be a lobbyist is goofy pants and that.

01:34:29.240 But why can't we, if everybody knows.

01:34:30.920 By the way, I like golf.

01:34:31.820 I want to be clear.

01:34:32.580 I like golf.

01:34:33.440 Do you like golf?

01:34:35.140 I'm not that good at it.

01:34:36.360 Okay.

01:34:36.580 I'll play it when I get a little bit older.

01:34:38.080 I don't want to slow people down.

01:34:39.340 Okay.

01:34:39.800 Right now.

01:34:40.340 Fair point.

01:34:40.820 You know?

01:34:41.240 But anyway, yeah.

01:34:41.900 So, okay.

01:34:42.600 I like Brooks Koepka.

01:34:44.220 Yeah, I do too.

01:34:46.040 He's cool.

01:34:46.740 Yeah, he's a really cool dude.

01:34:48.120 And I like that girl that smokes that plays, dude. 0.94

01:34:52.540 Puffer McGavin or whatever her name is. 1.00

01:34:54.380 I have eyes only for one woman, Theo.

01:34:56.400 I've got, only my wife. 0.89

01:34:58.360 Yeah, no, I like her. 0.92

01:34:59.780 You don't have to know who I'm talking about.

01:35:01.580 No comment.

01:35:02.340 No comment from Senator Vance.

01:35:04.260 She's like the hot John Daly.

01:35:05.320 I know who you're talking about.

01:35:06.420 Yeah, she's like the hot John Daly.

01:35:08.400 Yeah.

01:35:09.760 So, John Daly doesn't really do it for you?

01:35:11.840 No.

01:35:13.420 He's a good dude, though.

01:35:15.480 Oh, no.

01:35:15.740 I like John, man.

01:35:16.680 I definitely.

01:35:17.300 Oh, if you need to ride in an ambulance, hang out with John.

01:35:21.240 You'll get one in a heartbeat.

01:35:22.620 And I'm just joking.

01:35:24.240 I think it was Tiger Woods.

01:35:25.240 But also, it's true.

01:35:26.020 I've been at two places where John's been taken.

01:35:27.840 One time, they came in looking for him.

01:35:30.360 He went out there and was sitting in the shotgun.

01:35:32.780 That is awesome.

01:35:35.620 And they're like, where is he?

01:35:36.600 In the ambulance.

01:35:37.480 Oh, my God.

01:35:38.640 He tried to help you guys out.

01:35:40.060 Oh, that is so funny.

01:35:41.580 He's a legend.

01:35:42.180 He's got to come on here soon.

01:35:43.500 He is a legend.

01:35:43.780 But how do we stop that?

01:35:44.680 If all the senators and congresspeople know it, like Bernie Sanders said, there's three

01:35:48.300 times as many lobbyists in D.C. as there are congressmen and senators, then why don't we

01:35:56.080 get that shit out of like, why doesn't it stop? 0.93

01:36:00.520 Like, if all you guys know it and everybody's supposed to be working for the people, then

01:36:03.320 why doesn't it stop?

01:36:04.800 So I actually think that we're getting a little bit better compared to maybe 10 years ago.

01:36:09.240 People have no idea how much Washington was just completely run by lobbyists.

01:36:12.800 And, you know, you think about like guy on the left, like Bernie Sanders, but most importantly,

01:36:17.480 a guy on the right, like Donald Trump, completely blows the existing system up.

01:36:21.360 And this is, by the way, like what I realized, because I wasn't a Trump guy back in 2016.

01:36:24.900 And obviously, I'm his running mate now.

01:36:26.820 So I really like him.

01:36:28.820 What people don't realize is back in 2016, how much lobbyist money and influence there

01:36:33.840 was that wanted to destroy Donald Trump.

01:36:36.820 They hated the guy because he didn't owe anything to them.

01:36:39.860 He didn't come from the existing political process.

01:36:42.200 And if you look at some of the younger guys who have come in, you know, we're much more

01:36:47.020 just open about the fact that lobbyist influence is out there, right?

01:36:50.600 You can't be in D.C. without running into these people.

01:36:53.400 But you got to be honest with people like, I'm not going to let this person write a piece

01:36:58.000 of legislation for me.

01:36:59.340 I'm not going to let this person dictate how I vote.

01:37:01.560 And yeah, I've gotten some definitely some criticisms from the lobbyist groups in D.C.

01:37:06.080 Some of them will say, well, you know, we don't know if we can trust this guy.

01:37:08.740 And that's fine with me.

01:37:09.780 I'm OK.

01:37:10.760 I'm OK with that.

01:37:11.420 If you guys can't trust you, it's fucking good.

01:37:12.920 Exactly.

01:37:13.120 You're doing your job.

01:37:13.760 That's exactly right.

01:37:14.660 That's my exact attitude towards it.

01:37:16.520 They don't know if we can trust you.

01:37:17.680 Who gives a fuck?

01:37:18.720 Exactly.

01:37:19.580 That's exactly right.

01:37:22.340 But that is how the town works, is that if you come in and you don't always take their

01:37:27.040 meetings, you don't always do what they want you to, then they'll start whispering

01:37:30.000 about you.

01:37:30.600 And then they can get articles written about you.

01:37:32.660 They can have people say bad shit about you.

01:37:34.400 This is why people call it the corporate media, is if you pick up a story in the Washington Post

01:37:38.700 and you read it and, you know, here's this anonymous source of this, this anonymous source

01:37:42.960 said that there is a 98 percent chance that the person who's attacking Donald Trump is

01:37:48.400 on the take somehow.

01:37:49.480 For sure.

01:37:49.820 Whether it's a lobbyist or whether it's a political consultant, it's all dishonest money

01:37:54.440 laundering bullshit.

01:37:55.840 That's all D.C.

01:37:56.780 ultimately is, is people who get paid to offer an opinion instead of having a real opinion.

01:38:01.580 Here's the thing that I think we need to fix structurally about this.

01:38:04.080 So let me give you an example.

01:38:05.700 You know, my Senate staff has probably 40 or so people and, you know, all extremely good

01:38:11.760 people.

01:38:12.640 My staff tends to be a little bit younger because I'm one of the youngest.

01:38:14.980 I'm the second youngest U.S.

01:38:16.200 Senator right now.

01:38:17.480 And, you know, like if I wanted to pay my chief of staff $30,000 more a year than what I pay

01:38:24.200 him right now, I'm not allowed by law.

01:38:26.560 So even though I'm a Senator and I was elected to represent the people of Ohio, I'm not allowed

01:38:31.160 to control who I pay and how I pay them.

01:38:34.920 It's all sort of set by law.

01:38:36.840 And here's the bigger issue is that if you think about it, you know, a lot of this, a

01:38:42.520 lot of these big important laws are very complicated, right?

01:38:45.000 They've got 800 pages, 900 pages.

01:38:47.080 And I think the law should be simpler.

01:38:48.400 But if you've got a 900 page law and you've got a bunch of junior staffers who don't know

01:38:55.580 the town very well and they don't make a whole lot of money, then the people who are writing

01:39:01.120 the laws are not going to be your junior staffers.

01:39:03.460 It's going to be the lobbyists, right?

01:39:05.080 And we've seen this multiple times with legislation that I've drafted where the lobbyists will

01:39:09.100 actually ask to get into like the draft of the law and make changes for you and say,

01:39:14.780 well, yeah, we'll justify it.

01:39:16.100 No, no, no, no, no.

01:39:16.780 I want my staff that works for me to write the laws that I'm drafting.

01:39:21.780 But we, I actually think that we need to empower senators and congressmen to hire who they want

01:39:28.140 to make a bigger staff if they want.

01:39:30.480 Because if you think about it, the amount of staff a congressman has, a congresswoman has

01:39:34.240 is a fraction of the federal budget.

01:39:36.120 I mean, we're talking about like a percent of a percent of a penny on the federal budget.

01:39:40.440 And so we could actually give people the staff that they need to, to be able to actually write

01:39:48.400 the laws and to make sure the lobbyists don't have much influence.

01:39:50.500 And, and you ask like, who are the lobbyists?

01:39:53.000 Okay.

01:39:54.120 The lobbyists are the people who are really good staffers.

01:39:58.460 And then the staffers want to buy a nicer house and they want to, you know, start a family and

01:40:02.800 they can't, you know, DC is a very expensive town.

01:40:05.120 I mean, you know, a one bedroom apartment in DC will easily run you $4,000 a month, right?

01:40:11.380 Yeah.

01:40:11.520 Right.

01:40:11.700 It's just a very expensive town.

01:40:13.120 So then those people go and become lobbyists.

01:40:15.680 They trade in their public service for a fat check.

01:40:18.960 And I think that we got to fix something about that pipeline.

01:40:21.480 It's the same thing that happened with, um, with Oxycontin and they got the people that

01:40:25.400 were working with the FDA to come and work for them.

01:40:27.740 That's exactly right.

01:40:28.580 That is exactly right.

01:40:29.660 So it happens at our Congress.

01:40:31.120 It happens with our big bureaucratic agencies.

01:40:33.600 And I think we have to fix something about that.

01:40:35.620 Like we want the people in our government to be public spirited and focus on doing the

01:40:39.980 public good.

01:40:40.800 I don't think that this system that we have works very well where, you know, you do public

01:40:45.240 service for a little bit and then you jump and go make a million dollars a year as a

01:40:48.320 lobbyist.

01:40:49.020 Right.

01:40:49.220 No, no, no, no, no, no.

01:40:50.500 You got to, I think you got to separate those functions much better than you have right now.

01:40:54.220 Yeah.

01:40:54.620 Because then, then you're, then like being a public servant is just a junior college for being,

01:40:59.880 becoming a lobbyist.

01:41:00.720 It seems like.

01:41:01.420 That is a big, a big worry that I have, especially with my staff.

01:41:05.780 I mean, these are really smart, really good guys.

01:41:07.940 And a big part of what I think about as a Senator, a big part of what I think about is

01:41:12.280 how am I going to keep these guys as they get more senior, as they become better at their

01:41:16.980 job, as they become better at figuring out what a lobbyist is trying to sell them a bill

01:41:20.860 of goods, right?

01:41:21.600 That's a skill, right?

01:41:22.980 And you acquire that skill over time.

01:41:24.600 And they can just spend whatever they want when they're the Yankees.

01:41:26.540 That's exactly right.

01:41:29.460 Yeah.

01:41:29.680 Damn.

01:41:32.780 Shit, dude.

01:41:33.380 We're all going to be addicted.

01:41:35.800 No, we're not, man.

01:41:36.840 I'm telling you, we're going to, I'm telling you, we're actually going in the right direction.

01:41:40.500 This is what people don't, and I recognize you probably have of your millions of listeners.

01:41:44.520 Some people love Trump and some people hate him.

01:41:46.180 But, but the thing that Trump really changed about DC is that he was not beholden to the

01:41:53.120 moneyed interests.

01:41:54.100 Oh, well, that's one thing that I also like about Bobby Kennedy that, I mean, I've known

01:41:57.420 Bobby for years.

01:41:58.140 Bobby's been a friend of mine for, for years.

01:42:00.120 I knew him before I thought he was going to be do politics or anything.

01:42:03.000 He's a good dude, man.

01:42:03.920 I like Bobby.

01:42:04.560 He used to hold meetings at his house on Tuesdays and we would go to him in his backyard, dude.

01:42:09.160 And one of his dogs always was slobbering stuff on me.

01:42:11.960 It was a huge dog.

01:42:12.840 It might not even have been a dog because he has a lot of animals.

01:42:15.520 What would it have been then?

01:42:16.480 I don't know, dude, but he's had a lot of animals over the years and he can afford probably

01:42:21.200 a big animal.

01:42:21.420 What was this baby dog that was slobbering all over Theo?

01:42:24.280 But he doesn't need anything else.

01:42:25.860 He's got a great name.

01:42:27.120 He's got a cool wife.

01:42:28.600 He's got, he doesn't, he's always cared about just making people healthy.

01:42:32.920 Is he wrong sometimes on things?

01:42:34.420 Sure.

01:42:34.740 He probably is just like anybody else.

01:42:36.380 Everybody's going to be wrong.

01:42:36.880 But I'd fucking, I'd rather have somebody just raise their hand and ask questions.

01:42:40.860 Absolutely.

01:42:41.740 That's one thing that I just love about him that he's not beholding to any of these people.

01:42:44.900 You know, the thing that I hate about politics and just media culture in this country right

01:42:49.940 now, man, is people are so afraid of saying anything that's unconventional.

01:42:56.360 They're, they're, they're afraid of thinking thoughts that you're not allowed to think

01:42:59.560 like the biggest ideas come from people who just follow the truth.

01:43:05.260 Right.

01:43:06.300 And yeah, sometimes they're going to be wrong.

01:43:07.940 Sometimes they're not going to get everything right, but we've got to stop punishing people

01:43:11.620 like Bobby Kennedy for saying, well, maybe this doesn't work.

01:43:15.980 Yeah.

01:43:16.140 Wait, what about that?

01:43:16.760 Exactly.

01:43:17.340 Like that?

01:43:17.760 Hey, what about that?

01:43:18.720 Is something that we have to preserve.

01:43:20.540 And I do feel like we're trying to do, we're kind of destroying it.

01:43:23.500 This, this is, so I'm going to sound like an old man, but this is what I think is really

01:43:27.620 jacked up about social media is okay.

01:43:30.480 We're all social animals, right?

01:43:31.900 We're all influenced by people around us.

01:43:33.980 But look, 30 years ago, an opinion, it would take it many, many days before an opinion

01:43:42.140 became the accepted conventional wisdom.

01:43:44.960 You know, you'd have to be repeated in one newspaper, then repeated in another newspaper

01:43:48.540 and people would talk about it.

01:43:50.160 Now you can have something happen on social media.

01:43:52.900 It's viral.

01:43:54.460 And 10 minutes later, you've got like the social media feeding frenzy that says, well,

01:43:59.260 here's this thing that I came up with 10 minutes ago.

01:44:01.600 And if you don't agree with that thing I came up with 10 minutes ago, then there's going

01:44:05.400 to be a feeding frenzy attacking you, attacking your family, finding out where you worked and

01:44:10.620 attack it, trying to attack your employer for keeping you in a job.

01:44:13.820 Like that is a really jacked up thing to take the, the normal human social impulse to want

01:44:19.660 to be liked and to, you know, want to make friends and to put it all on the internet where

01:44:24.500 it operates at like the speed of light.

01:44:26.500 I think there's something very deranged about that.

01:44:29.900 Yeah.

01:44:30.620 Yeah.

01:44:31.020 Well, and it's also, it's like, we, do you, are you a repeater?

01:44:34.260 Are you a thinker?

01:44:35.100 Like, yes, that's the thing.

01:44:36.220 It's like, we get so preoccupied now and so occupied so quickly that we don't even put

01:44:42.840 it through our own filter.

01:44:44.000 That's exactly right.

01:44:44.860 And it's like, and then our filter starts to not even be a filter anymore because it's

01:44:49.480 like, well, nobody's using me.

01:44:50.720 I'll just, I'm just a pathway now.

01:44:53.020 Yeah.

01:44:53.240 And that's what starts to happen.

01:44:54.480 That's how we all start to become desensitized to everything.

01:44:58.300 And we just become repeaters, right?

01:44:59.560 That's exactly what social media does is it just turns us all into repeaters.

01:45:03.000 I like that Bobby Kennedy is sort of willing to say, no, no, no, no, I'm actually going

01:45:06.960 to think for myself on this topic.

01:45:08.820 I mean, it is crazy.

01:45:09.980 Why, why do we have such a terrible obesity problem?

01:45:12.980 Why do we have all these, like, you know, certain types of diabetes are on the rise among

01:45:18.220 children today.

01:45:19.000 It's like, okay, we're the richest country in the history of the world.

01:45:21.320 And, you know, children are getting diseases that they didn't get 30, 40 years ago.

01:45:26.620 Like somebody should be saying what the hell is going on or like, yeah, somebody should.

01:45:31.300 And it should be our leaders, but it feels like there's so much compromisation in there.

01:45:35.340 I mean, dude, dude, do you know?

01:45:36.960 Okay.

01:45:37.760 This is a paper by a Nobel.

01:45:40.200 Yeah.

01:45:40.420 We're, we'll take a few more minutes.

01:45:42.100 Yeah.

01:45:42.240 Um, now we're just having fun.

01:45:45.640 Um, but there's a paper by a Nobel prize winning economist, um, that talks about the

01:45:51.880 return to education in years of life.

01:45:56.240 And do you know how much, take a person who's got a four-year degree versus a person who never

01:46:01.480 went to college.

01:46:02.320 Do you know how much longer the person with a four-year degree lives in the United States

01:46:05.900 of America right now?

01:46:07.440 Seven years.

01:46:09.020 Seven years longer.

01:46:09.720 Yeah.

01:46:09.880 So going to college, you get rewarded with seven years of additional life.

01:46:15.480 If that doesn't tell you something is seriously fucked up in our country, then nothing will,

01:46:19.800 right?

01:46:19.900 That is not okay.

01:46:21.560 And it's part of it.

01:46:23.020 It's, it's health.

01:46:24.420 Part of it's that, you know, people, um, are working more dangerous jobs if they don't have

01:46:29.620 a college degree.

01:46:30.580 But part of it's just that we have, have, I think made it so hard to get by in our country.

01:46:36.040 If you don't have a four-year degree that people are, you know, they're not making enough money

01:46:41.200 to support their families and they get stressed out and they turn to addiction.

01:46:44.280 Of course, addiction happens to everybody, but it's much more common among those without

01:46:48.360 a college degree.

01:46:49.220 So I just, this to me is like, what, what is this campaign about?

01:46:53.480 Like, what is Trump being president about is fixing the big problems, not like the bullshit

01:46:59.160 fake problems that the media gets us to focus on, not the slogans, but why are people dying

01:47:05.840 seven years earlier?

01:47:06.920 If they don't have a college degree, why do we have this historic obesity epidemic in

01:47:12.060 the richest country in the world?

01:47:13.300 Why do we have like wars breaking out like crazy all over the world?

01:47:17.420 Why do pharmaceutical companies get rich by forcing therapeutics that aren't even always

01:47:23.920 good for us, right?

01:47:24.900 Like these are like big, big, big issues that frankly, I think absent Trump, we wouldn't

01:47:30.420 even be talking about this stuff.

01:47:31.860 Well, I mean, I definitely think that one of the things that certainly excited me about

01:47:38.120 Trump when he first was running was, wow, this guy is fucking rogue.

01:47:44.680 And you know what?

01:47:46.180 And this whole thing is so messed up now that that's what you, I would, I hated politics

01:47:52.040 so much.

01:47:52.520 I just, I hated that.

01:47:54.020 I was like, I would hire a, I would hire a Muppet to go in there with a hammer.

01:48:00.140 That's right.

01:48:00.800 I would hire a Muppet with a hammer.

01:48:02.220 If I could vote for a Muppet with a hammer.

01:48:04.120 And that's how most people feel.

01:48:05.660 It's like, it doesn't even feel like it's working for us anymore.

01:48:08.540 So what does it even matter?

01:48:10.220 Yeah.

01:48:10.860 Yeah.

01:48:11.460 Yeah.

01:48:11.640 But so that's why I think Bobby, that's one thing that I did.

01:48:14.480 That's one thing that I thought was pretty amazing about bringing Bobby Kennedy into

01:48:18.280 you guys' campaign is that he's a sheriff for that kind of shit.

01:48:23.380 He really is.

01:48:24.080 You know, for caring, I think for just for genuinely caring about people.

01:48:27.380 I agree.

01:48:27.700 Because I know, I know he cares about people.

01:48:29.340 It's like, I have friends that don't care about me.

01:48:31.360 They're still my friends, some of them, but he's a friend that is a caring guy.

01:48:34.840 Yeah.

01:48:35.460 Yeah.

01:48:35.740 That's absolutely right.

01:48:36.580 So that is, I think, why I've vouched for him a lot.

01:48:39.380 Yeah.

01:48:40.200 I had one more thing.

01:48:41.780 Let me see.

01:48:43.840 Oh, the polls and stuff.

01:48:45.480 Okay.

01:48:45.820 Yeah.

01:48:46.140 Yeah.

01:48:46.360 I've been looking at the polls recently.

01:48:48.520 Yeah.

01:48:49.060 And especially at Calci is a place where I look at them.

01:48:51.760 Okay.

01:48:52.180 This is the betting market stuff.

01:48:53.920 Yeah.

01:48:54.080 They're a website and an app where people can bet money on regular happenings like in

01:48:57.840 society.

01:48:58.560 Yeah.

01:48:58.720 Like not just political stuff, anything from like politics to entertainment.

01:49:03.020 And I think it's a good tracker in a capitalistic society because it's people putting their money

01:49:07.420 down.

01:49:07.780 Right.

01:49:07.900 It's like, so it's people saying, this is what I think, right.

01:49:11.020 With my money, as opposed to just other polls.

01:49:15.800 What's the latest on there?

01:49:16.800 What does it say?

01:49:18.620 Oh, it's like Trump is 57.

01:49:20.060 Kamala is 43.

01:49:21.380 Trump, 57%.

01:49:22.820 That's pretty good.

01:49:25.620 Yeah.

01:49:26.000 That's pretty good.

01:49:26.540 Does it say the total amount of money that people have bet or not yet?

01:49:29.800 Oh, it says $32,917,000 has been put out there on this.

01:49:36.120 It's just, yeah.

01:49:37.160 So that's why I like to follow their stuff just because it's actually people putting their

01:49:40.820 money down.

01:49:41.620 Sure.

01:49:42.060 Are there, what do you think of polls that are out there these days?

01:49:44.740 Do you guys follow these polls?

01:49:46.280 Is that real stuff to you?

01:49:47.380 I know that they had the Clinton-Trump poll years ago and they had Clinton who was neck

01:49:52.700 and neck or something and then it wasn't when it came out.

01:49:55.580 Yeah.

01:49:55.860 Do you guys follow any of that or is that really part of the daily routine?

01:49:59.600 Not really, man.

01:50:00.360 I mean, I can get you in the weeds a little bit, but I'll try to, I'll try to, I live

01:50:04.940 and breathe this stuff.

01:50:05.800 So I try not to make it too intense here.

01:50:08.200 I just don't trust a lot of media.

01:50:09.340 So it's like.

01:50:09.900 Yeah.

01:50:10.200 Here's basically the way.

01:50:11.300 You shouldn't trust polls, whether they're good for us or bad for us.

01:50:14.640 And here's the reason you shouldn't trust polls is about 10 years ago, every 10th person

01:50:21.340 you called to do a poll would answer.

01:50:24.040 Now it's about one in 30 people.

01:50:26.020 Okay.

01:50:27.340 And another important thing is that if you're a Democrat, especially if you're a higher

01:50:31.960 education level Democrat, you're much more willing to answer pollster questions where

01:50:38.040 if you're, excuse me, if you're like my family, if somebody called them a stranger and said,

01:50:42.300 who are you going to vote for, they would say F you and hang up the phone.

01:50:46.200 Oh yeah.

01:50:46.520 Right.

01:50:47.060 So what, the reason the polls has gotten so bad is because Trump voters are less likely

01:50:53.040 to answer pollster questions and Kamala Harris voters are much more likely to answer pollster

01:50:58.100 questions.

01:50:58.380 So it's very hard to get an accurate sample to give you any, any sense of what's going

01:51:02.800 on.

01:51:03.160 But you just believe that or you're just saying that I actually believe that.

01:51:06.240 Yeah, no, I, I believe that.

01:51:07.520 And I've seen it in my own race, for example, you know, I ran for Senate.

01:51:11.240 That there were all these public polls that say, you know, the race was tied or maybe

01:51:14.740 we'd even lose by a few points.

01:51:16.920 And the pollster that I had who just polls for my campaign, he's actually Trump's pollster

01:51:22.100 too.

01:51:22.680 And he's a very smart guy.

01:51:23.920 And he said, look, the reason these polls are wrong is because they're not reaching

01:51:28.820 voters who don't like to answer polls.

01:51:31.780 And those voters are going heavily for you.

01:51:33.660 So I said, okay, well, how much are we going to win by?

01:51:35.240 And he said, you're going to win by six points.

01:51:36.420 And we won by seven points, right?

01:51:38.160 So he was much more accurate than the public pollsters.

01:51:40.780 Now you ask, why is he more accurate?

01:51:43.040 Because most of the public polls, they cost 10, $20,000.

01:51:47.440 Like if you see a poll published in a newspaper article, 10 to $20,000 to get an accurate sample.

01:51:53.520 These guys needed to really, it's, it's 60, $70,000 because they've got to call thousands

01:51:59.740 and thousands of people to get a representative sample of the American people.

01:52:04.880 So honest, like sitting here, honestly, I think that chart's about right.

01:52:11.060 I think that we've probably got about a 60% chance of winning.

01:52:13.940 I think the polls would have to be wrong, but they'd have to be wrong in a pro-Kamala direction 0.94

01:52:18.440 where normally they're wrong in a pro-Trump direction.

01:52:21.600 And, you know, we've got 18 days, 17 days, man.

01:52:24.820 And we're just going to like do everything that we can to win this race, but you shouldn't

01:52:29.500 believe the polls basically.

01:52:31.460 And I, and I, and I say this right now, cause the polls are all saying we'd win.

01:52:34.720 That's why, that's why it's 5743.

01:52:37.640 Don't buy the polls because here's the thing.

01:52:39.840 Okay.

01:52:40.640 It could keep people from voting also.

01:52:42.520 It could keep people from voting, but let's say, for example, that something happened.

01:52:45.920 I don't know what happened, but let's say something happened.

01:52:48.100 There's a fire.

01:52:48.620 Yeah.

01:52:49.120 Where the people who don't want to answer pollster questions are now Kamala voters.

01:52:55.120 Right.

01:52:55.580 So you just, you can't trust this stuff.

01:52:57.600 You got to assume that you just got to work your ass off.

01:53:00.760 That's what we're trying to do.

01:53:02.040 You know, president Trump and I do in multiple events a day at this point.

01:53:05.560 And, um, if you, if you want, in my view, if you want to secure the border, have common

01:53:11.240 sense, economic policy, then Donald Trump is, is your man.

01:53:14.460 And I, I gotta say, man, something about Kamala Harris.

01:53:17.220 And I, I, like, I know a little bit about you and I've read about some of your political

01:53:20.860 views and we've invited Mr.

01:53:22.460 Walls to come on.

01:53:23.180 And we would love it if they would.

01:53:24.300 Yeah.

01:53:24.460 I'm sure, I'm sure you would.

01:53:25.560 Um, but, but like, you know, they will, but like Sean O'Brien, who's, you know, the head

01:53:30.800 of the Teamsters, like one of the things that president Trump has sort of been known for

01:53:34.440 is bringing more working class people into the Republican coalition.

01:53:37.660 Right.

01:53:38.000 And it's, I think one of the reasons why he's been very successful politically.

01:53:42.220 Um, if you look at like where Kamala is on the big pharma stuff, or you look at where

01:53:47.160 she is on the foreign conflict stuff, she's, she's like very pro war.

01:53:50.620 Or if you look at where she is on things like, how do we, how do we put tariffs on goods that

01:53:58.020 are imported from China so that you don't have the Chinese undercutting the wages of American

01:54:03.520 workers, right?

01:54:04.700 Or like the illegal immigration thing.

01:54:06.040 Like, yeah, it's about fentanyl and drug trafficking.

01:54:07.940 But when you bring in millions upon millions of illegal immigrants who are willing to work 0.96

01:54:12.520 under the table, that undercuts the wages of American workers, right?

01:54:16.160 So our own people get poorer and I don't have anything against the illegal immigrants themselves.

01:54:20.040 I have something against Kamala Harris who lets these people come in, but I want our 0.99

01:54:23.700 people to be able, you know, black, white, Brown, whatever.

01:54:26.440 I just want our people to be able to work for a solid wage.

01:54:29.440 That doesn't work when you have people coming in like this.

01:54:32.660 Well, some of it is we have to have personal responsibility too, as, as, um, people,

01:54:37.940 running companies to not hire those people as well.

01:54:41.720 And so you have to enforce that side of it as well.

01:54:44.100 I agree.

01:54:44.440 You got to do both sides of it.

01:54:45.340 I think we ought to make it harder to hire illegal labor. 0.96

01:54:47.620 We also ought to make it harder for illegal labor to come into the country in the first 1.00

01:54:50.800 place.

01:54:51.120 I agree.

01:54:51.680 Both sides of it have got to matter, but I think that's actually why we're doing so

01:54:56.060 much better among working people is because they recognize like open borders are not good

01:55:01.100 for me, right?

01:55:02.260 Oh, that shit's scary, dude.

01:55:03.500 It's not good for me.

01:55:04.100 Like this, this, this stuff with pharma is not good for me.

01:55:06.640 And so they have become more open to Donald Trump.

01:55:10.360 Um, and I think that's a very good thing.

01:55:11.820 Cause I think, look, man, between Bobby Kennedy, me, obviously the president at the top of

01:55:17.800 the ticket, I think we're going to have such a cool administration.

01:55:21.760 That's going to try to tackle the big things and not just govern along these bullshit slogans 0.83

01:55:26.680 anymore.

01:55:26.980 So look, I hope that ends up being true.

01:55:30.140 Cause I think we'll do a lot of good if we win.

01:55:32.300 If you, um, no matter what happens in this election, would, do you think you would run

01:55:36.480 again in the future?

01:55:37.720 I don't know, man.

01:55:38.920 Um, it's so hard to even imagine running for anything after this because I'm so obsessed

01:55:45.920 with winning right now.

01:55:46.820 And, you know, like I probably, you certainly probably would do another term in the Senate,

01:55:51.780 but that doesn't come up for four more years.

01:55:53.700 Cause Senate terms are six years.

01:55:55.500 It's like whatever run nationally again.

01:55:57.400 I don't know, man, that's a big, that's a big thing.

01:56:00.080 It's a big, big thing to put your family through.

01:56:02.000 Yeah.

01:56:02.220 I can imagine.

01:56:02.540 And I've only, I've, I've seen it for two months, three months now that I've been the

01:56:05.760 VP nominee to, to run for that for two years, my attitude is let's get Donald Trump elected

01:56:12.060 and let's fix as much as we can, because then, then, then I think the country will be

01:56:18.640 in a much better spot.

01:56:19.440 Like, I don't, I don't mean to sound like a doomer and you know, I actually really haven't

01:56:24.860 thought about what I, I haven't really thought about what I would do in 2028, no matter what,

01:56:29.440 but man, if Kamala Harris is the president for the next four years, we have four more years 0.96

01:56:34.300 of open borders, four more years of not putting tariffs on Chinese imports, four more years

01:56:40.200 of the, the crazy foreign policy that's pro war all over the world.

01:56:45.340 I really do worry that the country's in a very, very bad spot.

01:56:49.760 So I don't think too much about future politics.

01:56:52.020 I just want to win this race.

01:56:53.940 How many times do politicians say stuff that's just on the trail?

01:56:56.700 And then when it comes time to actually get in office and do stuff, it seems like that

01:57:01.180 person disappears.

01:57:04.300 Um, me, hopefully not at all.

01:57:07.640 Some politicians definitely say one thing and then, and then don't govern that way. 0.97

01:57:11.820 And, and, and the private, in the privacy of, of their actual office.

01:57:15.560 I mean, some of it's negotiation, right?

01:57:17.600 Like some of it is, okay, so let's say you have a tax plan where you want 10 things to

01:57:21.980 happen, but then to get the Democrats to vote for it, you have to take out two of those

01:57:26.080 10 things.

01:57:26.600 Like that's just the give and take of governance, but I don't think that's what you're talking

01:57:30.100 about.

01:57:30.360 I mean, what you do see sometimes is people who say something on the campaign trail, even

01:57:35.660 though they affirmatively do not believe that thing at all.

01:57:38.440 And that's just, that's not just dishonesty.

01:57:41.120 It's certainly not me.

01:57:42.000 It's certainly not Donald Trump.

01:57:43.380 They'd say what you will about Donald Trump, but he just says what he thinks.

01:57:45.980 And I think that's actually one of the reasons why people like him.

01:57:48.980 A lot of people are going to vote for him.

01:57:50.200 I think also, cause it's just the funny who he's the funniest dude they've ever had

01:57:54.020 in there.

01:57:55.160 He is incredibly funny.

01:57:56.520 The shit is says is absolutely wild.

01:57:58.540 He's got, he's got a great sense of humor.

01:58:00.040 Can I tell you one story?

01:58:01.140 Yeah.

01:58:01.600 And then you have to go.

01:58:02.700 I know, I know I have to go soon.

01:58:04.260 I've got, you know, my, my person over here.

01:58:06.500 I understand.

01:58:06.900 I want you to get home to your family.

01:58:08.060 No, I, I, no, I'm going to have dinner with my kids tonight.

01:58:10.180 So it's a big deal.

01:58:10.960 Skyline chili and, and not in Cincinnati.

01:58:13.420 We're doing skyline chili in Middletown.

01:58:15.460 Even if you have other chili and you just say that, dude, I won't tell anybody.

01:58:18.480 That's one thing I don't care if you lie about, dude.

01:58:20.380 No, man.

01:58:21.000 Skyline is good.

01:58:21.580 Have you ever had skyline?

01:58:22.840 Skyline goes straight to the basement.

01:58:24.140 I know that, brother.

01:58:25.680 I'll tell you that, dude.

01:58:27.720 I have had it.

01:58:28.880 I respect it.

01:58:30.160 Okay.

01:58:30.860 I've had it at a wedding.

01:58:32.080 I've had it.

01:58:32.660 I've had it at a wedding in Covington, Kentucky.

01:58:34.820 I've had skyline chili.

01:58:36.080 Yeah.

01:58:36.580 That's, that's a, that's a good wedding, man.

01:58:38.660 Those must've been good friends.

01:58:41.960 Anyway.

01:58:42.640 Yeah.

01:58:42.900 So, so the, the first time,

01:58:44.880 not that he had met or ever met my wife,

01:58:47.020 but the first time president Trump spent any like real time with my wife.

01:58:51.080 Did he flirt with her or not?

01:58:52.560 He didn't flirt with her.

01:58:53.240 He was very sweet to her, you know, gave her a big hug,

01:58:55.020 told her she was beautiful.

01:58:56.000 I mean, he's, you know, he's a very engaging guy.

01:58:57.780 Yeah.

01:58:58.280 Some of the media doesn't tell people about him,

01:59:00.540 but he's, he's a very engaging guy.

01:59:01.840 Very easy to talk to.

01:59:03.220 But it's so funny.

01:59:04.460 Like my wife is super diplomatic. 1.00

01:59:06.540 And so he asks her, he's like, Usha, you know,

01:59:08.880 what do you think about your, your husband being involved in politics?

01:59:11.480 And she's, oh, you know, it's nice.

01:59:13.100 I like, you know, supporting him.

01:59:14.500 He really cares about public service, loves the people of Ohio.

01:59:16.900 Just gives a very diplomatic answer.

01:59:18.940 And then he kind of chuckles and says, yeah, my wife hates it too.

01:59:24.840 And it just like broke the ice perfectly.

01:59:27.240 And then she could actually have a conversation with him

01:59:29.300 because she wasn't trying to like talk to the president.

01:59:31.600 Then she was just talking to a guy at that point.

01:59:33.660 Yeah.

01:59:34.160 And he's, he's just, he's, he's got a very,

01:59:36.560 a very good way about him.

01:59:38.080 And he breaks down those barriers.

01:59:39.320 He says some funny stuff, dude.

01:59:40.040 At that Al Smith dinner the other night,

01:59:41.540 that shit was good.

01:59:43.540 Yeah.

01:59:43.940 What if Tony Hinchcliffe helped him write that or not?

01:59:46.020 I don't know.

01:59:47.600 It's a good question, but he's,

01:59:49.540 I'm telling you a lot of the stuff he just comes up with himself.

01:59:52.040 I mean, the, the line where he was talking about,

01:59:54.440 you know, white dudes for Kamala.

01:59:57.260 Oh yeah.

01:59:57.980 And he was, and he, and he was like, he was like,

02:00:02.020 I forget exactly what he said, but something to the effect of,

02:00:05.140 well, it's okay.

02:00:05.640 And they're, they're, they're,

02:00:06.680 they're wives and their wives' boyfriends are all voting for Trump.

02:00:11.580 That shit was pretty crazy, dude.

02:00:14.880 And like all good jokes, there's like an element of truth to it.

02:00:18.360 My best wasn't even rubbed on lucky Chuck Schumer right there.

02:00:22.600 Squeeze a couple bucks out of the fucking insurance companies right there.

02:00:26.180 Do you think our voting poll, do you think that our voting is fair?

02:00:31.260 Do you think?

02:00:31.500 I do.

02:00:32.020 I do.

02:00:32.460 I mean, look, I think we had some problems in 2020.

02:00:35.100 I think the biggest problem in 2020 is that big tech interfered in the election.

02:00:38.540 Like I, I really think it's.

02:00:40.540 I can't believe that Facebook and Twitter, when it was owned then,

02:00:42.880 they, they, they admitted to like leaving certain things off and stuff and not,

02:00:47.320 and not faced in any charges.

02:00:48.880 They admitted to censoring American citizens weeks before an election.

02:00:52.640 Right.

02:00:53.460 We'll have to talk about that another time.

02:00:54.820 Yeah.

02:00:55.060 Yeah.

02:00:55.300 We got to get into that.

02:00:56.180 Um, I, I, yeah, if you'll have me back,

02:00:58.140 I'll come back after we win and have a good conversation,

02:01:00.660 but you're always welcome in Cincinnati, even despite your views on skyline.

02:01:04.460 Hey man, I respect that.

02:01:05.740 Uh, we'll be cheering your mom on, um, to get her 10 year chip. 0.98

02:01:08.780 It's in January.

02:01:09.620 It's in January.

02:01:10.460 Awesome, man.

02:01:11.440 Um, Mr. Vance, thank you so much for spending time with us today.

02:01:14.380 Thanks, man.

02:01:14.860 Good to see you.

02:01:15.200 Now I'm just floating on the breeze and I feel I'm falling like these leaves.

02:01:21.780 I must be cornerstone.

02:01:25.000 Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this peace of mind.

02:01:31.740 And I found I can feel it in my bones.

02:01:35.900 But it's gonna tell you.

This Past Weekend with Theo Von - October 21, 2024

E540 Sen. JD Vance

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