Triggered - Donald Trump Jr - Rep Eli Crane Stands up to the Swamp, Plus Why He Says it's Time to Impeach Biden | TRIGGERED Ep. 47

00:00:00.000 you you

00:00:16.000 you good evening guys and welcome to another big episode of

00:00:39.000 triggered Thank you for tuning in. Tonight we're going to be joined by Arizona Congressman Eli Crane.

00:00:45.000 Congressman Crane is a Navy SEAL veteran.

00:00:48.000 He enlisted in the Navy one week after the 9-11 attacks, and we're honored to be joined by a true patriot.

00:00:56.000 We'll talk about what it's like to train like a SEAL, to do all the things, how Biden is weakening our military,

00:01:03.000 why he decided to run for office in the first place, and much, much more.

00:01:08.000 He's also someone that came from a pretty significant business background,

00:01:11.000 which is always nice to have people that maybe actually know what they're talking about

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00:04:01.000 But joining us now...

00:04:04.000 Arizona Congressman Eli Crane.

00:04:06.000 And Eli, thanks for joining us, man.

00:04:08.000 I really appreciate it. I know you were going to be on last Thursday.

00:04:11.000 Some family stuff came up really quickly, but I appreciate you coming on now.

00:04:16.000 What's happening, man? What's going on in Congress?

00:04:20.000 Hey Don, thanks for having me.

00:04:22.000 You know, it's an honor to be on your show.

00:04:24.000 It's an honor to represent an amazing district in Arizona.

00:04:28.000 And it's definitely been a wild, you know, first six months.

00:04:32.000 I think one of the, you know, I'll be honest, I'll level set with you.

00:04:37.000 There's still, I think, millions of things that I don't know about, you know, how the process works and all of that stuff.

00:04:44.000 But one thing that I've learned in my short six months is the only way you make changes in that town Is through force.

00:04:51.000 That's it. You're not going to come there with a better argument.

00:04:54.000 You're not going to talk sense into people.

00:04:56.000 The only language, it's kind of like some of the baddest actors around the planet. 1.00

00:05:01.000 Some of these dictators, terrorists, etc.

00:05:03.000 The only language they understand is force.

00:05:06.000 Clearly that force looks a little bit differently, but you have to be willing to stand in the pocket, take the slings and arrows, say, no, we're not doing that.

00:05:15.000 I don't care about force.

00:05:16.000 You know, this parliamentary procedure.

00:05:18.000 I don't care about all your little, you know, regulatory rules.

00:05:23.000 If we have a tool, we are going to use it.

00:05:26.000 The American people are tired of what's going on up there, brother, and they want to see people who will use every tool necessary to get the job done.

00:05:34.000 And, you know, that's the biggest thing I've learned so far.

00:05:38.000 Listen, I think you're 100% right.

00:05:40.000 And that's what so many...

00:05:41.000 It feels like so many of the Republicans don't understand. 0.99

00:05:44.000 I think the Democrats have been doing that and doing it effectively to push their bullshit for years, frankly. 0.99

00:05:51.000 But, you know, it's interesting. 0.99

00:05:53.000 You go to Congress and you see these weak Republicans...

00:05:56.000 Well, these aren't the...

00:05:57.000 You know, this is not... I was like, have the other side been playing by those rules?

00:06:01.000 Like, we hold ourselves to a standard while allowing them to walk all over us.

00:06:05.000 I love that there's guys like you.

00:06:07.000 We had... When you weren't able to make it last week, we had Anna Paulina Luna. 1.00

00:06:11.000 You know, same thing. She introduced, you know, articles of censure against Adam Schiff, who lied before the American people.

00:06:18.000 And people... Well, we shouldn't do that because they would do it to you in one second. 0.99

00:06:25.000 And until we start playing the same game, we're going to get our asses kicked. 0.96

00:06:31.000 I mean, you sort of alluded to that's how we fight wars. 0.97

00:06:34.000 I think that's why Trump was effective in some of his policies, whether it was towards ISIS. He said, hey, guys like you, Eli, you're a Navy SEAL. How do we kill the bad guys?

00:06:43.000 How do we... And we allowed them to do that.

00:07:05.000 And I imagine if you got in right after 9-11 and then you were there for a while, you saw that shift from war fighting to bureaucracy taking over.

00:07:16.000 Talk a little bit about that because it was astonishing to me how bad it got.

00:07:21.000 No, you're right, Don. When I look at the TTPs or the way that we're able to engage our enemies when I first got in in 2006 and did my first deployment, as opposed to what they were when I left my last deployment in 2010, my third deployment. I think?

00:07:58.000 One of the reasons I got out was because on my final deployment, I'd seen how the enemy barely even respected us anymore because it was almost as we'd become the foreign neighborhood police force. 0.81

00:08:15.000 It just got to be extremely dangerous.

00:08:19.000 So a shout out to all my brothers and sisters out there that wear blue here in the United States, that thin blue line that protect us every single day.

00:08:27.000 But that was one of the things that impressed me so much about your dad, Don, and not to blow smoke, brother, but he was an outsider.

00:08:34.000 And that, you know, I can't believe sometimes that I was able to slip through the cracks and get in there because the longer you're in this swampy cesspool of politics, the more likely you are to become corrupted.

00:08:50.000 And, you know, clearly I don't necessarily look like a politician or sound like one.

00:08:54.000 So I didn't know that they would even let me squeak through.

00:08:57.000 But we need more and more people.

00:09:00.000 The problem up in Washington, Don, as you know, it's not an intelligence problem.

00:09:04.000 These people have a ton of intelligence.

00:09:21.000 I'm grateful to be up here and I'm hoping the American people send more and more outsiders who have moral courage and don't look at the surface-y stuff like, do they have tattoos?

00:09:33.000 What kind of clothes do they wear?

00:09:35.000 Who cares? Send some fighters up there that really want to turn this country around who are willing to be courageous and don't really care if they get sent home.

00:09:45.000 Well, I think, and listen, I'm sure you've seen some of that.

00:09:48.000 I know we have.

00:09:50.000 I think a big part of the attack on Trump is that he showed, hey, you can be effective.

00:09:57.000 You can be an outsider.

00:09:58.000 You don't need the foreign policy experience.

00:10:01.000 I mean, if foreign policy experience and time in the field meant anything, we'd actually have results.

00:10:06.000 But those people who've been there, you know, permanent Washington...

00:10:10.000 They haven't actually done anything.

00:10:12.000 But I think a big part of the attack on Trump, the attack on the outsiders, is to discourage those kinds of people from actually ever running.

00:10:21.000 Because I think people understand, A, things would actually get done.

00:10:25.000 And if things actually get done, that's the biggest threat to sort of the power that they've been able to amass in Washington.

00:10:32.000 You know, the retirement plan at Raytheon.

00:10:34.000 Let's keep the endless wars going.

00:10:36.000 Not because they're doing anything, but because if we don't sell more missiles, we don't get that board seat.

00:10:41.000 That's the retirement package after being in Washington for a couple decades.

00:10:46.000 Yeah, it's frustrating to watch, Don.

00:10:49.000 It really is like you go into this massive grift where everybody's in on it, and you're just watching, learning, trying to figure out the system.

00:11:02.000 It's pretty disgusting and it's very swampy to be up there.

00:11:08.000 I think one of the statements and sayings that I took into Washington was, show me your friends and I'll show you your future.

00:11:17.000 I picked out...

00:11:18.000 The most conservative people up there, and I said, I'm going to roll with these guys, even though they're definitely a minority up there, because they were willing to shoot me straight.

00:11:28.000 Even now, looking at some of the issues forward-facing that we're looking at, they shoot me straight.

00:11:34.000 They tell me, You know, this is the chance.

00:11:36.000 These are the odds that we can pull this off.

00:11:38.000 This is what we just gave up in this debt ceiling fight, yada, yada, yada, on and on and on.

00:11:44.000 And I'm grateful, man.

00:11:45.000 And I'll tell you, Don, I'm not popular up in that town.

00:11:48.000 I know a lot of people don't like me.

00:11:49.000 They don't. They don't appreciate me up in that town.

00:11:52.000 They don't appreciate anybody who actually wants to change that town, not just say it on the campaign trail.

00:11:58.000 But I'll tell you what, man, you get to make a choice when you go up there.

00:12:03.000 You can either be popular when you go back home or you can be popular in Washington, D.C. And I'd much rather represent my constituents and fight against the Uniparty. 1.00

00:12:13.000 Yes, I said that, you know, Republicans and Democrats, because it is a big swampy grift.

00:12:20.000 And both sides are in on it.

00:12:22.000 Yeah, 100%. I mean, you recently sort of slammed, you know, the quote-unquote country club Republicans, and I think that's right, which is like, you know, at a small room back home, you sort of tell the people who elected you to office what they want to hear.

00:12:35.000 But then you go to Washington, D.C. You want to be invited to the cool person party.

00:12:40.000 You don't want the obligatory Washington Post hit piece.

00:12:43.000 You know, you don't want the slings and arrows that you mentioned when you started talking about this.

00:12:47.000 So you sort of bastardize your beliefs, Or all of the things that elected you to office.

00:12:54.000 Talk a little bit more about that sort of country club Republican mentality and how different it is than, say, your constituency at home in Arizona that put you into office to do a very specific task that's quite adverse to the mindset and the ideological goals of the country club Republican.

00:13:15.000 Yeah, absolutely, Don.

00:13:17.000 There's a couple different, I think, you know, worldviews when going into office.

00:13:22.000 And one of the things that I can tell you is the pressure starts coming immediately.

00:13:26.000 Like, hey, Eli, we need you on the team.

00:13:28.000 We need you to be on the team.

00:13:29.000 We need everybody rowing in the same direction, you know, especially when we have this really thin majority.

00:13:34.000 And so there's that pressure not to get, you know, out of sync with the people running in that direction.

00:13:39.000 So there's that.

00:13:41.000 And then there's also the individuals who come there.

00:13:44.000 And there's a little bit of strategic, you know, intelligence in their perspective.

00:13:48.000 But they say, well, I can't make a difference in Washington, D.C. unless I get on this certain committee, because this committee has oversight of this issue that my constituents and me personally, you know, find very interesting.

00:14:03.000 And so they're like, and I'll tell you, Don, that's another carrot they dangle over your head.

00:14:08.000 If you don't play ball, if you don't say the right things, if you don't have the right policy positions, they won't let you on certain committees or they fight you from getting on certain committees.

00:14:17.000 And so people play this game where it's like, well, I'll play just a little ball so that I can get on this committee.

00:14:22.000 But if I really want to make a difference, I'll become the committee chairman.

00:14:26.000 And then I have to play ball for, you know, eight to ten years.

00:14:31.000 And before you know it, they don't even recognize themselves anymore.

00:14:34.000 They haven't done anything for their constituents.

00:14:36.000 And once they get that gavel or that committee chairmanship that they've been, you know,

00:14:41.000 has been their goal for so long, they're comfortable and they don't want to be uncomfortable.

00:14:46.000 None of us like to be uncomfortable.

00:14:48.000 So yeah, what are the other rabble rousers like, you know, Matt Gates is a buddy of mine.

00:14:52.000 I've done a lot with him for over the years, and I asked him this question a couple years ago, and that was sort of the answer.

00:14:57.000 I was like, hey, man, like, why is that guy doing it?

00:15:00.000 It's so contrary to everything he ran on and so contrary to what his constituency wants.

00:15:07.000 He goes, well, you know, that guy, he was a...

00:15:08.000 You know, city councilman for seven years, and, you know, it's sort of like, you know, the Distinguished Gentleman movie, right?

00:15:14.000 It was the name you know.

00:15:15.000 The guy that was in Congress had a similar name, so he got elected to Congress, and now he's in the big leagues, and he just wants to stay there, man. 0.99

00:15:22.000 He wants someone who will kiss his ass, and he just becomes a shell of his former self, because I... It seems so obvious. 0.99

00:15:31.000 Like, man, you could do so much if you actually fight.

00:15:34.000 And, like, who really cares what, like, someone in Washington thinks?

00:15:37.000 I mean, I think the American public certainly doesn't.

00:15:40.000 And yet it's such an influencing force on these people that they become the exact thing that they loathed when they first got in.

00:15:50.000 No, you're right, Don. And it's been one of the hardest things for me to watch, you know, because...

00:15:55.000 And I'm going to say this right now.

00:15:57.000 A lot of them are good people.

00:15:59.000 A lot of them, you know, have families, you know, they've owned or they own businesses.

00:16:05.000 Many of them have served in the...

00:16:06.000 And the armed forces, they've been willing to fight and die for this country.

00:16:13.000 That being said, it's just so hard to watch, man, because, Don, we cannot continue to go on the trajectory that we're on.

00:16:20.000 We just cannot. We are going to destroy ourselves.

00:16:24.000 We're going to default, you know...

00:16:27.000 Added up, you know, we're being attacked so many different areas.

00:16:30.000 We have to force change.

00:16:34.000 And I keep using that one word with my colleagues, force.

00:16:39.000 Force. You have to use force up there.

00:16:41.000 You're not going to get anything done because the establishment, the machine is so well entrenched.

00:16:46.000 And it's got so many support circles from the media, special interests, the lobbying groups, that it's so hard to break through and you have to be willing to force it.

00:16:59.000 You have to be willing to have the uniparty run a primary candidate against you or dump millions of dollars of attack ads against you.

00:17:08.000 And that's another thing that none of these guys want.

00:17:11.000 And they know that If they aren't willing to be co-opted by the machine, the machine only knows two moves.

00:17:18.000 We're either going to co-opt this guy or we're going to attack him.

00:17:22.000 It's one or the other.

00:17:23.000 You choose, you pick. And most people don't want to go up against the machine.

00:17:26.000 And I totally understand that.

00:17:29.000 But we're losing the country, brother.

00:17:32.000 And so my point is this.

00:17:35.000 Be willing to go home.

00:17:37.000 Send people up here to help us out that are willing to go home.

00:17:40.000 Because if they're not willing to go home, if they think that being called a congressman is such a big deal, we don't want them up here because they're not going to help us out.

00:17:52.000 And that's the bottom line.

00:17:55.000 Yeah, I mean, so much of that really honestly depends on us, right?

00:17:58.000 People are like, well, how does that guy get it?

00:18:00.000 Well, you know, Mitch McConnell finds a squish that will do whatever Mitch McConnell wants and then has the full weight and force of all of the money they've raised in the Senate to support a primary candidate against like an America First candidate. 0.75

00:18:13.000 That's not easy to overcome.

00:18:15.000 I mean, I think we have to be involved in that process to helping them out financially, helping sure they get the recognition, the press, the PR, whatever it may be, against those other guys.

00:18:28.000 Because whether we're in a primary or whether it's us versus the Democrats, we're not fighting a fair fight.

00:18:35.000 I mean, they have the full weight and force of mainstream media.

00:18:37.000 They have the full weight and force of big tech, 90% of big social, you know,

00:18:44.000 and then you have sort of, again, the uni party, you have the Rhino Republicans taking Republican funds

00:18:50.000 raised by like America first type people to fight against the American first candidate

00:18:56.000 for their, you know, uni party squish.

00:18:58.000 And so, you know, we are up against so much, we gotta be playing this game smarter, harder,

00:19:04.000 and better than everyone else, or we don't have a chance.

00:19:08.000 Yeah, you know, one good example right now to look at is my colleague and one of my brothers up on the Hill

00:19:13.000 named Matt Rosendale, who's running for Senate in Montana.

00:19:17.000 This guy is hardcore, man.

00:19:19.000 I can tell you I've been in some fights already with him.

00:19:22.000 He doesn't blink. He doesn't back down.

00:19:24.000 He's showing, you know, he hasn't even announced...

00:19:28.000 That he's running in the Senate, but everybody knows that he's eyeing the seat.

00:19:33.000 The polling shows him up by like five points against Tester and the Uniparty, the Republican establishment, does not want to support Matt Rosendale.

00:19:44.000 Why? Because they know Matt Rosendale is not looking to play ball with them.

00:19:48.000 Matt Rosendale is looking to make change.

00:19:50.000 And it's one more example.

00:19:52.000 If they get just the hint, the idea that you're not going to come up there, fall in line, and play ball, you're an enemy.

00:20:00.000 You are an enemy.

00:20:02.000 Don, I'm going to tell you something, man.

00:20:05.000 I used to get frustrated with politicians like everybody that listens to your show.

00:20:09.000 For good reason.

00:20:11.000 Because often they're puppets.

00:20:13.000 They don't really mean what they say.

00:20:15.000 They just come up here and then they kind of just go with the flow, whatever way the political winds are blowing.

00:20:25.000 What I've learned, brother, is that I'm getting more and more frustrated with the American people.

00:20:30.000 And why do I say that?

00:20:31.000 Because you send us up here, especially for congressmen and women. 0.99

00:20:35.000 You can fire me every two years.

00:20:38.000 We have to get the American people, brother, to wake up and quit being complacent.

00:20:44.000 Quit watching CNN. Quit watching MSNBC. And by all means, there's establishment networks on the right, too, that don't do us a lot of help.

00:20:58.000 Start getting a variety of different news, educating yourself, and sending real fighters up here who don't want to be career politicians.

00:21:08.000 So how do you make that happen?

00:21:10.000 Again, I say this all the time.

00:21:11.000 I mean, it's a key tenet of this show, you know, about that.

00:21:14.000 And I get it. You know, man, dude, it's especially in the Biden economy.

00:21:18.000 It's not easy to support your family.

00:21:20.000 It's not easy to pay for groceries.

00:21:22.000 It's not easy to pay for gas.

00:21:23.000 You're bombarded.

00:21:25.000 You know, people are so busy just trying to live their lives and get by.

00:21:29.000 Understanding that's not easy, that they're not...

00:21:32.000 Paying attention to what's really going on.

00:21:34.000 They're believing that narrative. They listen to five minutes of news a day, and it's CNN telling you that Russia, Russia, Russia is still a thing.

00:21:43.000 That's why I tell people, like, share, subscribe to this kind of programming.

00:21:48.000 So hopefully people, whether it's watching it or listening to it in your car or whatever it is, hopefully they see what's really going on.

00:21:54.000 Because I imagine there's a big portion of the population that doesn't.

00:21:57.000 There was revelations that...

00:22:00.000 17% of Americans, I think it was, or Democrat voters during the election, had they known about the Hunter Biden laptop, would not have voted for Joe Biden.

00:22:09.000 Like, we wouldn't have been on the brink of World War III. We wouldn't have had the economic collapse.

00:22:14.000 Banks wouldn't be failing because Joe Biden is an abject failure pushing those Democrat policies.

00:22:19.000 And yet... They didn't even know about it.

00:22:21.000 And I mean, even just the cover up of it, even that big social was covering it and big tech and mainstream media was lying.

00:22:27.000 Like, if you paid a little bit of attention, you'd be like, wait a minute, is there something here?

00:22:31.000 There's got to be something here.

00:22:33.000 It could have woken up a portion of those people and made a difference.

00:22:35.000 And yet, I don't know how much worse it has to get to finally get those people, you know, sort of that sleeping giant to wake up.

00:22:45.000 Yeah, I don't know either.

00:22:47.000 But what I do know, Don, is that people don't typically, humans don't like confrontation, right?

00:22:53.000 We just don't. We try and avoid it.

00:22:55.000 And I understand that.

00:22:57.000 I'm built the same way that a lot of folks out there who don't typically like confrontation.

00:23:03.000 I don't know about that, Eli.

00:23:04.000 You were a SEAL. I have a feeling you weren't exactly built the same way.

00:23:08.000 Okay, all right. You're being a little overly humble there, buddy.

00:23:14.000 If I can go through my day and not get into a political argument with somebody, I would rather my day go that way.

00:23:22.000 My point, Don, is this, man.

00:23:24.000 We're losing this country.

00:23:26.000 And a lot of people have checked out because the news and the headlines, it's all doom and gloom.

00:23:33.000 It's not good. It makes them feel uncomfortable.

00:23:36.000 It doesn't make them feel warm and fuzzy.

00:23:38.000 We're so lazy.

00:23:42.000 We're such an instant gratitude culture that anything that doesn't make us feel warm and fuzzy, we turn it out, we cut it out of our lives.

00:23:51.000 My point is this, and I know that the listeners to Don Jr.'s show, you guys are wired a different way, probably similar to me and Don.

00:23:59.000 But what I'm saying is we've got to be willing to have these conversations with our neighbors, people at the store, whatever, because We're losing this country.

00:24:08.000 And the bottom line is, like Don just said, you know, a lot of people, I think if they knew better, if they actually got some of these stories or got some of this news, it might affect how they behave, how they vote, where they spend their money, etc.

00:24:22.000 And so we have to quit being complacent.

00:24:26.000 We have to be willing to engage and often engage in conversations that might not be pleasant with those that we love, care about, and even sometimes strangers.

00:24:36.000 Well, listen, you're a SEAL, you're a businessman, you're now in Congress, so you've gotten comfortable being in uncomfortable situations.

00:24:45.000 I think we all have to do that.

00:24:47.000 I know for me, God knows I've been blessed, but I've learned so much more in life From the bad stuff that actually happens to me.

00:24:56.000 I think our children could learn from that, but we protect them from everything that could possibly have been imaginable, even the truth, because we're so worried.

00:25:04.000 To your point, the Instant Gratification Society, anything that doesn't give you that, we got to cut it out.

00:25:09.000 Through your career, whether it was in the military or otherwise, how were you able to get comfortable in those uncomfortable positions?

00:25:18.000 Because for me, it was just either just...

00:25:21.000 Having it be so extreme, you know, being, you know, tried for treason by, you know, Adam Schiff and the clowns and the Intelligence Committee, you know, a crime punishable by death.

00:25:29.000 It just sort of changes that mentality.

00:25:32.000 If you sort of back off into a corner, they're not going to go any lighter on you.

00:25:36.000 But... Man, if you're not fighting, you have no chance whatsoever.

00:25:40.000 What are the things that you've learned, the lessons in life to help people get to that place?

00:25:45.000 Because you're right, it doesn't have to be physical confrontation, but to be able to be comfortable having an intelligent, fact-based conversation with your neighbors who maybe aren't Who maybe are just blinded by, you know, the CNN headlines.

00:26:00.000 I mean, Adam Schiff was there talking about Russia, Russia, Russia in Congress last week as though it was real.

00:26:06.000 He was criticizing me, and yet he forgets to mention that he literally was duped by Ukrainian shock jocks to get information on Trump, like the head of an intelligence committee in America.

00:26:16.000 But, you know, that doesn't matter.

00:26:18.000 That's never going to make the news.

00:26:19.000 No one will actually talk about it.

00:26:21.000 It's, you know, how can we make orange man bad?

00:26:23.000 How do you get comfortable in that mindset?

00:26:26.000 Well, I think a couple things.

00:26:28.000 One, I think we've all been blessed with skills, talents, and abilities.

00:26:32.000 And for myself, my message to your viewers would be this.

00:26:36.000 Take what God gave you, your skills, talents, and abilities, and use them to get in the fight.

00:26:42.000 A mission that's bigger than yourself.

00:26:44.000 Right now, I don't care what you're into, but if we lose this country, a lot of people are going to get really uncomfortable really, really quick.

00:26:53.000 My mom was really tough on me and my brothers, Don.

00:26:58.000 That's kind of where it started.

00:27:00.000 She was all about tough love.

00:27:02.000 She was an amazing mom. But I went from that to working for Chris Kyle and the SEAL teams, and he loved to beat the snot out of us new guys.

00:27:09.000 And then I went into entrepreneurship, where it was full of adversity.

00:27:13.000 And now I'm in Congress, which is also full of adversity.

00:27:17.000 And one of my favorite scriptures, and I think it's James 1-2, Don, It says, Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds, for it's the testing of your faith that breeds perseverance.

00:27:29.000 Let perseverance continue so that you may be mature, complete, and lacking in nothing.

00:27:35.000 We all want that little line at the end.

00:27:37.000 We all want to be mature, complete, and lacking in nothing.

00:27:39.000 But none of us want the trials of many kinds.

00:27:42.000 And I don't care what movie you watch, whether it's Rambo, Rocky, pick your favorite epic thriller of all time.

00:27:49.000 Every single hero has to go through that adversity, that training period.

00:27:54.000 And we need more and more men and women looking to be forged through adversity so that they can help us in this fight to save our country.

00:28:04.000 Yeah, I've noticed it for myself.

00:28:06.000 As uncomfortable as some of those things are, the more you do it, you know, just get yourself out of that comfort zone a little bit.

00:28:12.000 It just becomes that much easier to do it.

00:28:14.000 Then take it a little bit further and a little bit further.

00:28:16.000 No different than, you know, lifting or working out whatever it may be.

00:28:20.000 The more you find yourself in that position, the more you try, even if it's just, you know, incrementally.

00:28:26.000 The easier it becomes, and everyone's just got to take that initial step, and once you realize that, it makes a huge difference in everything that you do in life.

00:28:37.000 No, I couldn't agree more.

00:28:39.000 We need more of it from the American people.

00:28:42.000 We need more of it from our leaders and representatives.

00:28:45.000 And another thing that I think that we need to do, Don, I believe that a lot of what we see has spiritual foundations to it.

00:28:52.000 We need to continue to pray for this country, brother.

00:28:55.000 We really do.

00:28:56.000 Yeah, there's a reason there's such an attack on that, right?

00:29:00.000 The left, they sort of create their new religions every couple of years.

00:29:06.000 It was the religion of climate change as led by Greta Thunberg, high lordess of the movement.

00:29:12.000 Then there was the religion of COVID as led by Lord Fauci.

00:29:16.000 Now it's Ukraine as led by Zelensky.

00:29:18.000 They always change while simply attacking the basis of our faith and religion.

00:29:24.000 And man, I think we'd be in a lot better place if a lot more people had that faith.

00:29:27.000 Thank you.

00:29:29.000 I couldn't agree more, Don.

00:29:31.000 And that's why, you know, I think it's in 2 Chronicles.

00:29:34.000 There's a scripture that talks about, you know, if my people would repent and turn back to me, I would restore their land.

00:29:40.000 And I think a lot of, when I look at American culture right now, I don't see repentance at all.

00:29:46.000 I see just a complete wayward culture that if God says, I created you male and female, this culture says, nope, there's 3,000 genders now. 0.96

00:29:56.000 And I think that, you know, that's a big part of where we're at.

00:30:00.000 And so, you know, I'm just calling on Americans to continue to pray, ask God for protection for this country, and, you know, pray for that this country would repent as a whole, and that we would turn back to Him.

00:30:14.000 I think that's one of the number one things that we can do outside of putting God-fearing Men and women in office and as representatives to represent us in our national, local, and state politics. 0.97

00:30:27.000 Listen, man, I'm with you 100% on that.

00:30:29.000 I mean, you're involved in this. 0.97

00:30:32.000 You've been one of the people very vocal about having Congress do its damn job and everything like that.

00:30:38.000 But given the recent sort of revelations on the Biden bribery scandal, misconduct within the Hunter Biden investigation, sort of the plea deal that it seems like no one other than someone with the last name Biden would get, Where do you think the Biden presidency stands today?

00:30:56.000 What's the agenda of the House GOP? And is impeachment of Joe Biden on the table for you and for the others?

00:31:05.000 Where do you think you are with all that?

00:31:08.000 It's 100% on the table for me, Don.

00:31:11.000 I mean, one of the things I said to you right when I got on your program, that keyword, force.

00:31:17.000 We have to move in lockstep.

00:31:22.000 We have to be willing to be forceful.

00:31:25.000 We have to start punching back.

00:31:27.000 That's one of the only reasons I feel like I'm up in Washington, D.C. It's one of the only reasons I feel like God opened this door so I could be up here is to just bring a little bit more courage and strength to some of my colleagues.

00:31:41.000 Because courage is contagious.

00:31:43.000 And oftentimes, you know, it's like putting weights on a scale.

00:31:47.000 You put enough weights on the scale and sooner or later it just tips.

00:31:50.000 But I am absolutely in favor of impeaching Secretary Mayorkas, impeaching Secretary, or I'm sorry, President Biden.

00:31:59.000 Matter of fact, when Lauren Boebert was putting her articles of impeachment on, Or to, you know, to be referred back to the Homeland Security Committee.

00:32:08.000 You know, I spoke right after her to, you know, support that motion just because, I mean, it's unbelievable.

00:32:16.000 The American people are looking at us like, what are you guys doing?

00:32:19.000 What's it going to take to impeach Secretary Mayorkas?

00:32:22.000 What's it going to take to impeach Joe Biden?

00:32:25.000 I mean, when you look at these issues, right?

00:32:28.000 If this was Trump, it would have been over and we'd all be in Gitmo by now, you know?

00:32:33.000 No, you know, 100%.

00:32:35.000 I got a chance to, you know, question a high-ranking official with the FBI about a month ago.

00:32:40.000 And one of the things, I brought you and your brother up.

00:32:42.000 I said, if this were Eric and Don Jr., we wouldn't even be having this committee here.

00:32:47.000 And these guys would be in jail.

00:32:48.000 They'd be locked up already.

00:32:49.000 Everybody knows it. Everybody knows there's two, it's a two-tier justice system up there. 0.91

00:32:54.000 And it's sad, Don, because, you know, the fact of the matter is, As an American citizen, your innocence or guilt often isn't about whether you did the crime or not.

00:33:03.000 It's about what jurisdiction you're being tried in.

00:33:06.000 Is it a blue?

00:33:08.000 Is it a radical leftist district that you're being tried in?

00:33:13.000 Or is it still a freedom-loving, patriotic, justice-is-blind state, county district?

00:33:19.000 And that's just the fact of the matter.

00:33:22.000 A hundred percent.

00:33:23.000 I mean, you started off your political career the first couple days with the speakership race.

00:33:29.000 You're one of the 20 holdouts on that.

00:33:30.000 I think you guys got some amazing stuff.

00:33:33.000 Obviously, you started off in that adversarial position, but...

00:33:38.000 How do you judge what's happening in the GOP today versus what would have been maybe a GOP two years ago, before you had guys like you or Anna Paulina Luna or other people being vocal to that strong sort of America first position?

00:33:55.000 How do you guys judge how that worked out, what it's getting you, and are you good with where we are or do you want more from the leadership in charge right now?

00:34:06.000 Well, just to answer your last question first, I'm not even close to happy with where things are at because we're losing the country.

00:34:13.000 This isn't about Republicans, Democrats, the Freedom Caucus versus the squad.

00:34:19.000 It's so much bigger than any of these little people, any of these caucuses.

00:34:24.000 We are losing this country, Don, and that's not hyperbole.

00:34:27.000 We cannot continue on this trajectory.

00:34:30.000 We are destroying the country and who knows how much longer it has.

00:34:34.000 And so I am not even close to happy with where things are at.

00:34:37.000 I want to be a part of helping us turn this fiscal Titanic around.

00:34:43.000 I want to be a part of securing our southern border.

00:34:47.000 I want to be a part of...

00:34:49.000 Kicking out individuals who have gone woke out of our law enforcement, our DOJ, our military, the administrative state, etc.

00:34:57.000 Have we done some good things in this 118th Congress?

00:35:02.000 Absolutely. But we have so much work to do.

00:35:06.000 And when I look at...

00:35:08.000 The Uniparty goes back to what it knows every single time.

00:35:13.000 I've been critical of Kevin McCarthy, not because I think he's a bad guy.

00:35:19.000 People think I hate Kevin McCarthy.

00:35:21.000 I don't hate Kevin McCarthy at all.

00:35:23.000 He's actually a nice, funny, intelligent, extremely hardworking guy.

00:35:28.000 Do I agree with him on worldview and politics?

00:35:31.000 Absolutely not.

00:35:33.000 And I will fight him tooth and nail if I feel like he is not driving this ship in a way that's going to help us save this country.

00:35:39.000 Why? Because I have kids, Don.

00:35:43.000 I have kids who have to grow up here.

00:35:45.000 Okay? That's why I didn't vote for Kevin McCarthy.

00:35:48.000 That's why I will continue to fight the Uniparty, Republicans included, because this ain't about me.

00:35:54.000 I've got to live an amazing life, Don.

00:35:56.000 I'm 43 years old.

00:35:57.000 I don't know how old you are.

00:35:58.000 You've got to live an amazing life.

00:36:00.000 If my kids don't get to live an amazing life, guess who's...

00:36:03.000 That's on me and you because we dropped the ball because we didn't fight hard enough.

00:36:07.000 I refuse to let it happen.

00:36:09.000 I refuse to sit by idly regardless of whether I like you individually or personally.

00:36:14.000 It's not about personalities.

00:36:17.000 This is about we're losing this country and there's a lot of people that have blood on their hands And they're people that we like, and that's not okay with me.

00:36:26.000 Yeah, listen, I get it. I'm two years older than you.

00:36:28.000 I'm 45. I also have five young kids, and I want them to grow up in a country that we recognize.

00:36:35.000 And I think, you know, I see that slipping away. 0.99

00:36:39.000 I see how, you know, even functioning at a high business level prior to politics and all these things, the things that I assumed, you know, the FBI, they're just trying to do the right thing, but that's bullshit. 0.98

00:36:50.000 Right? Leadership is so corrupted and so broken there, the CIA, the DOJ. You know, it's taking all of this to see it. 0.96

00:36:56.000 But I can assure you, it was a shitload easier to be a real estate developer from New York City, even as a Republican, even as a conservative, than it is to take on D.C., to take on the Uniparty. 0.66

00:37:09.000 And I've seen what they've tried to do to me.

00:37:11.000 But that's exactly why we need a fight, because we have no choice, because we are going to lose our country.

00:37:16.000 We're at that point where...

00:37:18.000 Man, if these lunatics win a couple more of these cycles, I mean, it's over. 0.94

00:37:23.000 I mean, they're not even pretending anymore. 0.94

00:37:25.000 They say the quiet parts out loud.

00:37:27.000 They're indoctrinating our children.

00:37:29.000 They want to take away children from parents who are just like, I don't want my child going through gender reassignment surgery at three years old because their teacher... 0.94

00:37:38.000 How dare you? I mean, it's fucking crazy, man. 1.00

00:37:41.000 Like, we're at a point... Five years ago, if you would have talked about the things that are actually happening on a daily basis in America, the things that are, you know, fundamental, you know, parts of the Democrat Party platform, you'd think that you were being punked. 0.99

00:37:56.000 You'd be waiting for, like, Ashton Kutcher to jump out of a fucking birthday cake or something and be like, I'm just messing with you.

00:38:01.000 But it's happening every day, and that's why you're right. 0.99

00:38:04.000 You do have to be engaged.

00:38:05.000 You do have to be forceful.

00:38:07.000 You do have to make sure that you have actual fighters.

00:38:10.000 If you're not doing it yourself, Or involved in some way, shape or form that you're putting people in there who are comfortable being uncomfortable, who are willing to be out there and to fight because otherwise it's over.

00:38:24.000 No, it is, and it's funny, Don, because this is some little inside baseball for your listeners, but a couple weeks ago, I was up in Washington, and we decided right after the debt ceiling vote that more Democrats voted for than Republicans, 165 Democrats voted for, 149 Republicans voted for, which many of us believe is a completely disastrous bill.

00:38:50.000 And what did we do?

00:38:52.000 We came back the next week and we took down the House rule on gas stoves, which ended up just probably being a messaging bill because it's dead on arrival in the Senate after the Republican Party Basically sold the country out for another two years.

00:39:09.000 And I'm just going to be honest with you.

00:39:12.000 And here's the deal.

00:39:14.000 When we took down the rule, it shut down the House floor for about a week. 0.92

00:39:18.000 And people are saying, oh my God, you guys are terrorists. 0.91

00:39:21.000 We knew you guys were terrorists.

00:39:23.000 You know, this hasn't happened since 2002.

00:39:25.000 A reporter came up to me, you know, after we had a meeting with the Speaker, and he said, you know, Congressman Crane, don't you care about the procedure and the tradition of this House?

00:39:36.000 And I said, are you kidding me?

00:39:37.000 Are you kidding me right now?

00:39:39.000 First of all, my voters don't know what these, they don't know about these rules.

00:39:43.000 They don't care about these rules.

00:39:45.000 They expect me to use every tool in my arsenal to try and turn this ship around.

00:39:51.000 I said, you know, and furthermore, if you want to talk about tradition, the only tradition I really care about is the tradition of this town and the people in it to sell the American people out day after day after day. 0.66

00:40:02.000 And it's like, that's the type of questions you get up there, man.

00:40:06.000 It's like, the American people don't care about these parliamentary procedural rules.

00:40:11.000 They don't. They don't.

00:40:12.000 Beyond that, there's always the Democrat side of like, you know, Well, we're not really taking away your stoves.

00:40:17.000 I'm like, well, two weeks later, there's legislation.

00:40:19.000 Well, if we were, it's good, and here's why.

00:40:22.000 I mean, everything's based on a lie.

00:40:25.000 Everything, you know, the same thing with the, you know, well, we're not trying to groom our kids.

00:40:28.000 It's like, really? Like, then you see their accent. 0.98

00:40:30.000 Well, it's not that bad. They should be exposed to these kinds of things at three years old.

00:40:33.000 What difference does it make? You know, you see that day in and day out.

00:40:37.000 I mean, you've been very critical, and this is a big one for me because, you know, I see a lot of the rhino Republicans, you know, Ukraine is the number one issue for Republicans across America. 0.99

00:40:47.000 I'm like, I assure you that very few people have spent more time with Republicans across a broad swath of America than me.

00:40:53.000 And it's not a top 10 issue for anyone I've spoken to.

00:40:57.000 What's your reaction to the news that the Pentagon made a $6.2 billion accounting error in overpayment to Ukraine?

00:41:10.000 My initial reaction is how convenient.

00:41:12.000 It only goes one way, right?

00:41:15.000 Just like everything else. It only breaks towards Democrats.

00:41:17.000 It only breaks towards spending more money for Ukraine.

00:41:19.000 There's never like a break that actually helps conservatives or America First or the American people.

00:41:24.000 It's always the way of D.C. magically.

00:41:26.000 It's incredible. It's a statistical anomaly like we've never seen before.

00:41:31.000 Absolutely, Don. When I saw that, I kind of chuckled a little.

00:41:36.000 That's how cynical I've become.

00:41:38.000 Just another $6.2 billion of the American taxpayers' money, or I should say more likely money that we don't have that we have to print off.

00:41:48.000 It's going to go over to, you know, one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

00:41:52.000 Or two walls, as I like to call it, two southern border walls or completion thereof.

00:41:57.000 You know, we can't do that, but an accounting error can give Ukraine another 6.2 billion, but we don't have three To secure our border, to stop a scourge of sex trafficking, human trafficking, a fentanyl crisis that's made every border, you know, every country, every state a border state, you know, killing indiscriminately tens of thousands of Americans a year.

00:42:20.000 But 6.2 billion for Ukraine.

00:42:21.000 I mean, what difference does it make, right?

00:42:25.000 No, exactly, Don.

00:42:26.000 And this is one of the things, even for myself, you know, I air some of my own personal dirty laundry for a second.

00:42:33.000 This is one of the things I was so appreciative of what your old man did, you know, President Trump.

00:42:38.000 He actually made guys like me question, you know, some of our own policy, some of our own agenda.

00:42:45.000 Because I think, you know, for many years, I would have fallen into the typical, you know, more hawkish You know, Republican little groups.

00:42:54.000 And when your dad started, you know, with his Make America Great Again, America First, is this policy the best thing for Americans in America?

00:43:04.000 You know, I wanted to be the few, one of the few people, or one of the many people that was willing to even question my own politics and my own, you know, worldview and say, hey, Eli, are you...

00:43:16.000 Are the policies that you support, are they the best thing for Americans?

00:43:20.000 Are they the best things for America?

00:43:22.000 And when you say, Don, that you travel around the country and you talk to Americans, and the Ukrainian war and whether we spend money there doesn't rank in the top 10, I agree with you. 0.83

00:43:31.000 In my district, people are way more concerned about not having a southern border.

00:43:36.000 They're way more concerned about the fentanyl killing 70,000 Americans in this country.

00:43:40.000 The MS-13 gang members that come over there, they ask me, hey, Eli, how many...

00:43:44.000 How many more people are we going to encounter on the terrorist watch list before we do something about the border?

00:43:49.000 And meanwhile, we still have this contingent up in Washington, the Uniparty, both sides, they continue to escalate another monstrosity that could turn into World War III. For what?

00:44:07.000 Yeah, that's the crazy one.

00:44:09.000 It's like, you can see them.

00:44:11.000 They're not even, like, pretending anymore.

00:44:14.000 They're egging on a war.

00:44:16.000 You saw last weekend, it was like, oh, the Wagner Battalion, he's gonna go take it, you know, he's gonna take out Putin, and like, yeah, like...

00:44:23.000 How much more, again, I'm not saying Putin's a good guy.

00:44:27.000 I'm not saying anything like that, but how much more can we instigate, right?

00:44:32.000 We've been sending military aid and missiles out the wazoo.

00:44:36.000 I mean, we thought we were fighting a proxy war.

00:44:39.000 Turns out we actually had boots on the ground as evidenced by the leak that now magically just disappears because we can't talk about that because it's actually happening.

00:44:48.000 So we're in a ground war with Russia.

00:44:49.000 What could possibly go wrong?

00:44:51.000 I mean, they only have 6,000 and something nuclear missiles, you know, nuclear warheads.

00:44:56.000 I mean, it doesn't take much to say that the megalomaniac that they've been talking about is Putin would decide, you know what, I've had enough of this.

00:45:04.000 And escalate to a point where, let's just say, global warming, the problems that they talk about on a daily basis, will be nothing compared to what happens when a couple nukes go off simultaneously because a sicko has had enough.

00:45:21.000 No, you're right, Don.

00:45:22.000 You know, it just it boggles my mind, man.

00:45:26.000 You know, it just I just can't I can't understand why these guys would think that this is a this is a great idea.

00:45:33.000 I've heard the argument say if we can if we can defeat Russia without spilling a drop of U.S. blood, you know, that's that's in our national security interest.

00:45:42.000 OK, you know, I hear I hear their arguments.

00:45:45.000 But to your point, We are fighting this proxy war and pushing a possible nuclear war with Vladimir Putin.

00:45:54.000 It doesn't make sense to me.

00:45:57.000 Meanwhile, we have Americans who, like you said, are struggling with inflation.

00:46:02.000 We keep sending money we don't have over there.

00:46:06.000 And I think it's reckless. 0.98

00:46:09.000 And I think it's foolish.

00:46:10.000 And I think the American people want to get back to an agenda that your dad was pushing where we make sure that we're putting Americans first. 0.85

00:46:19.000 And Don, I know for a fact that you and I and people in our camp on this one don't want to see innocent Ukrainians get killed or anybody around the world getting killed.

00:46:29.000 But the fact of the matter is, you know, when when your situation change, Sometimes your tactics have to change as well.

00:46:36.000 This isn't the United States of 1980 or 1990.

00:46:39.000 We were not operating through the position of strength that we were, though, because I think a lot of it is honestly, you know, a facade.

00:46:48.000 I really do. When you look at where we're at economically, look at the group that just pulled us out of Afghanistan.

00:46:53.000 I mean, look at how disastrous, you know, that pullout was.

00:46:57.000 That was because of poor leadership.

00:46:59.000 You want this leadership to push and escalate a war where we could actually go into a real war with Russia, maybe Iran, China, because those guys are allied up.

00:47:11.000 They're allied up. Don't think for a second if they fix it.

00:47:14.000 Part of all of this is creating that, right?

00:47:16.000 I agree with you. My father said this very clearly.

00:47:19.000 Like, he would put a stop to this in moment number one because he's sick of bloodshed on both sides.

00:47:23.000 I mean, Ukraine's being decimated, and we feel terrible for those people.

00:47:27.000 But guess what? That's not stopping until the money stops.

00:47:32.000 If the money keeps going, you know, the future oligarchs of Ukraine, whether it's Zelensky or others, they're saying, hey, we'll make billions in this and the corrupt policies.

00:47:40.000 Our military is not tracking it.

00:47:42.000 They're not following their, like, congressionally mandated obligations to see where this money is going.

00:47:47.000 No one knows. Again, they misplaced, you know, six point something billion dollars just now in Ukraine.

00:47:53.000 The Pentagon lost another 220 billion in the last couple of months.

00:47:57.000 I have a feeling if you or I did that, the IRS would be all over us.

00:48:00.000 But I mean, They lost $220 billion recently, and I'm sure that's going there, but that bloodshed on either side is never stopping if there's no incentive for those decision makers to stop the war.

00:48:13.000 And as long as we're giving them billions, and as long as we continue to fund this, yeah, the day-to-day citizen, it's exactly the case and point of America, right?

00:48:21.000 There's Washington, D.C., and then there's Americans. 0.99

00:48:25.000 As long as Washington, D.C. is doing well, they'll shit all over the Americans. 0.99

00:48:28.000 They don't care about that. That's what's enabling it. 0.99

00:48:30.000 So we're never stopping the bloodshed, in my opinion.

00:48:33.000 And I think the opinion of my father, which is what he wanted to do, that's what he sort of owned CNN during the CNN town hall.

00:48:40.000 It's like, I don't want any bloodshed.

00:48:41.000 It's not about winning the war.

00:48:43.000 We've got to stop the bloodshed.

00:48:44.000 But that's never going to happen as long as we're creating the next billionaire oligarch class in Ukraine, giving them all the aid in the world.

00:48:52.000 Because why would they stop? No, you're right, Don.

00:48:55.000 And that's why many of us have been saying from the beginning, I think our focus needs to be ushering in peace talks, honestly.

00:49:03.000 That's what we should be sending over there, is envoys, diplomats to actually bring this thing to an end. 0.72

00:49:10.000 I think that'd be the most responsible thing.

00:49:12.000 I think it'd be the best thing for the Ukrainian people.

00:49:15.000 And I just think that's the wisest thing we can do.

00:49:19.000 Yeah, well, especially when you think about, you know, hey, I'm not saying Putin may not have done this anyway, but when we decided to talk about bringing Ukraine into NATO and having those serious talks, I mean, it was a pretty solid, let's call it 500, maybe longer, it's a big country, you know, mile buffer between NATO and Russia's border.

00:49:37.000 I mean, you know, you gave him every excuse you needed, and maybe he was going to do it anyway, but I sort of doubt it.

00:49:43.000 When you took that buffer, that no man's land, and said, hey, now we're moving, we're encroaching on the no man's land to your border, you know, this is a creation, you know, of our fault, in my opinion.

00:49:54.000 And again, I'm not saying, that's not being a Putin apologist.

00:49:56.000 It's saying that you couldn't leave A 60-year-old buffer zone B. You had to encroach on that, which gave him the precipice to actually do all of this.

00:50:06.000 So, again, we're not...

00:50:09.000 We're not absolved of any blame in any of this process, and then we're just perpetuating and making it worse.

00:50:14.000 Now, I like where you're going in terms of trying to get to peace, but I think if we send the traditional bureaucrats that couldn't deal with North Korea and couldn't do anything and haven't made any progress in decades to Ukraine, I don't think we're getting peace.

00:50:29.000 I think you actually need a guy like Donald Trump who has balls and resolve to actually make these things happen, or you're just going to have the stalemates that we've watched You know, really, for the last few decades.

00:50:40.000 All the people that said Trump couldn't do anything with North Korea or, you know, there's no way you can get peace deals done in the Middle East were sadly mistaken, but it's only because They couldn't do it.

00:50:51.000 They'd been doing it for 50 years. 0.99

00:50:52.000 They talk shit from the sidelines. 0.99

00:50:54.000 But meanwhile, you know, they they were the guys tasked to do something and got nothing done. 0.99

00:50:59.000 Trump comes in, changes to the game plan.

00:51:01.000 They laugh and, you know, their little social circles and talk about it.

00:51:05.000 But he actually got stuff done.

00:51:06.000 I don't think we can do it with the bureaucrats we have in place. 0.88

00:51:09.000 We saw Blinken. He got a 45 minute session with Xi last week in China.

00:51:13.000 It was like an insult.

00:51:15.000 It was a joke, and he's there, you know, begging for sense.

00:51:20.000 It's embarrassing.

00:51:22.000 Well, when I said, you know, diplomats, I wasn't talking about the traditional diplomats.

00:51:28.000 I think my plan is to send Dennis Rodman and Sean Penn over there.

00:51:32.000 I think those two...

00:51:34.000 They do better than our guys, there's no question.

00:51:36.000 I mean, who wouldn't do better than our...

00:51:41.000 Diplomatic establishment. Like, I don't know of any successes that they've had before you had guys like Trump, again, come in there and change the game.

00:51:48.000 I used to laugh, you know, when at first...

00:51:50.000 Trump's doing it all wrong in North Korea.

00:51:53.000 He's like, okay, I'm watching, and I'll watch, you know...

00:51:55.000 CNN or MSDNC to see what the other side is saying.

00:51:58.000 And I'm like, well, why is he doing it all wrong?

00:52:01.000 Well, because I've been in charge of the delegation for 27 years.

00:52:05.000 Like, well, what have you done in that 27 years? 0.99

00:52:07.000 Jack shit. 0.99

00:52:08.000 You got nothing done. 1.00

00:52:10.000 You didn't even have a meeting with the counterparties.

00:52:13.000 But you're going to sit there and throw stones when someone changes that leave well enough alone because it was never well enough.

00:52:19.000 It was always a disaster. But that's how DC works.

00:52:22.000 No one has the guts to actually change that system.

00:52:24.000 And there's no consequence to getting nothing done.

00:52:28.000 And so you keep perpetually failing because it doesn't matter.

00:52:34.000 No, you're right. And you see it across the board, Don.

00:52:37.000 I was in a Homeland Security Committee meeting, I think it was last week or the week before, and I was talking to a couple of our quote-unquote experts, panelists, and we were talking about everything.

00:52:50.000 That the Chinese, the Iranians, and the Russians are doing down in South America. 0.63

00:52:55.000 And one of the things, when you look at what they're really doing down there, it definitely raises some alarms and makes any of us with common sense recognize that, hey, we better start doing something about this southern border and our homeland security really quickly.

00:53:11.000 And I was asking some of the panelists, I was like, just basics.

00:53:15.000 What do you think about us finishing the wall on the southern border?

00:53:18.000 And, you know, two of the three panelists were like, well, that's not really in my area of expertise.

00:53:24.000 And I was like, well, do you have any common sense?

00:53:26.000 Because the American people are so sick of this, Don.

00:53:29.000 People act like these people, most of these people up here who are considered experts or have their own think tanks, they're actually more interested in protecting their own careers than the American people are. 1.00

00:53:40.000 If they say something that asinine and foolish and stupid that, you know, hey, that's not my area of expertise. 0.99

00:53:47.000 And I ask them, well, do you have a wall around your house? 1.00

00:53:49.000 Do you know why your kids have walls around their schools?

00:53:52.000 Do you understand why walls are around castles and prisons, etc.?

00:53:56.000 It's because they work, and they've worked since the beginning of time.

00:54:01.000 You guys can't even answer a simple question because you're so concerned about your own personal careers and whether or not that one remark that might possibly tie you to Donald Trump and Orange Man bad is going to go bad for you, and somebody's going to tie that to you not getting a promotion or getting a client.

00:54:20.000 And it's up there, it's across the board, Don, and it's just...

00:54:24.000 It's unbelievable, but I get to see every day why this country is in the spot that it is.

00:54:30.000 Yeah. So let's talk about that.

00:54:32.000 Before Congress, you served as a SEAL. Talk about what made you decide to join up and do that kind of, you know, not just join the military, but go that far.

00:54:41.000 What was that process like?

00:54:43.000 And what's the state of our military readiness now under Joe Biden?

00:54:49.000 So if I could sum it up into one word, what got me to run for Congress was concern.

00:54:56.000 I am so concerned about the trajectory of this country.

00:54:58.000 I've been watching for many years.

00:55:00.000 I think I told you a second ago, I don't think that what we lack up there is intelligence.

00:55:05.000 I'm not downplaying intelligence.

00:55:06.000 I think it's very important.

00:55:09.000 Wisdom, discernment, all of those things are very important, but what I see is smart individuals using their intellect to choose their own career, to choose their own exit from Congress, to pad their retirement, Instead of actually using their intelligence to figure out what is the best thing I can do for the American people, what is the best thing I can do to fight back against this uniparty, this corruption that continues to promote itself, defend itself,

00:55:40.000 as opposed to defending the American people.

00:55:43.000 That is why I ran.

00:55:45.000 Like I said, I'm grateful to be up there.

00:55:48.000 There's many people like me up there.

00:55:51.000 You know, I hope I can be a part of turning this aircraft carrier around.

00:55:55.000 And I want to, you know, level set and expectation management is important to me, Don.

00:56:00.000 You know, when you're turning something this big, man, you turn it a couple degrees at a time.

00:56:05.000 You don't get 180 degree turn right off the bat.

00:56:07.000 And so for all of you out there watching, you know, expectation management, you know, and I'm not going to tell you to be patient.

00:56:16.000 Don't be patient. You know, try and force change at your local, state, federal level.

00:56:22.000 Get out there. Get active.

00:56:24.000 But we're not going to turn this thing around overnight.

00:56:26.000 It's just not feasible.

00:56:28.000 Yeah, so, you know, what did you learn about your constituency?

00:56:31.000 You know, you ran, you came in from the outside.

00:56:34.000 You know, what did you learn about your district that sort of surprised you?

00:56:37.000 Were there any sort of, like, just incredible standout stories, you know, that make it all worthwhile?

00:56:43.000 I know, you know, for me, generally, when people are like, ah, you know, and I say, listen, it was a lot easier being a real estate developer, being like, being, you could do, you could do a lot, and But, you know, I hear some of the stories from people that come up to me like, hey, thanks for what you're doing.

00:56:57.000 You're giving them. It makes all the grueling bullshit and the never ending indictments and the lies and it makes that all worth it. 0.67

00:57:06.000 What did you learn about sort of maybe the American people or certainly the people of your district that sort of surprised you when you went through the process of running for Congress? 0.84

00:57:16.000 I think the thing that I learned about them is they're a lot smarter and more intuitive than a lot of people give them credit for.

00:57:22.000 They might not be able to tell you who the minority whip is or certain things about what's going on in Washington, but they have an instinct about what's going on.

00:57:33.000 They have an instinct about what needs to happen and that we actually need people who are willing to punch back.

00:57:40.000 One of the things that surprised me the most, Don, is that they're actually very reasonable people as well.

00:57:47.000 I'll give you one example that really surprised me.

00:57:50.000 We voted for a debt We took a debt ceiling vote as Republicans a little while ago, the Limit Save Grow Act.

00:58:02.000 I was a no on it.

00:58:04.000 And the reason I was a no on it was because I was like, we can't keep spending money we don't have.

00:58:09.000 And so all that week, I was getting whipped by leadership.

00:58:13.000 Hey, Eli, are you on the team?

00:58:15.000 Are you not? And I was...

00:58:18.000 Pretty sure I was going to be a no vote.

00:58:20.000 And then I did a town hall the night, the night before the vote.

00:58:24.000 And the majority, it was a very small number of people on that.

00:58:27.000 It was just an impromptu town hall because I wanted to find out where these guys were, where my voters were on this issue.

00:58:33.000 I tried to put them in the room and I said, Hey, this is, this is my perspective on, on this limit, save, grow bill.

00:58:42.000 You know, it, it, It does raise the debt ceiling, $1.5 trillion, which is an astronomical amount of money.

00:58:48.000 But these are the things we're getting in it.

00:58:50.000 I think 80% of the bill was a Freedom Caucus design.

00:58:54.000 So it was one of the most conservative debt ceiling bills we'd ever had.

00:58:58.000 Even that being said, I felt like we could do better.

00:59:02.000 But on that town hall, Don, I found out that the majority of people on that call wanted me to take the deal.

00:59:07.000 I was like, That's weird.

00:59:09.000 I didn't think that my voters would...

00:59:11.000 I thought they'd want me to take the hardest line possible.

00:59:14.000 And so I was like, man, I need to cast a wider net.

00:59:17.000 I sent out an email to everybody.

00:59:20.000 I started making phone calls to all the county chairmen.

00:59:23.000 Hey, guys, I need numbers.

00:59:25.000 I need polling. I need to figure out if the rest of the district feels the same way that little town hall went last night.

00:59:31.000 And sure enough, the day that we're voting on it, Hours before I got back, the polling from my district, I think it was the people that responded, 79.6% of them wanted me to vote for the deal.

00:59:44.000 And so I was in a bind because my gut and my instinct was telling me, don't vote for it.

00:59:50.000 But my voters, 80% of them were telling me, we want you to vote for it, or at least the ones that responded.

00:59:55.000 And so I ended up going with my voters on that one.

00:59:57.000 And so not only have I learned that they're a lot smarter than we think or that a lot of people think they are, but they're also willing to be reasonable and they're also willing to, I think, turn the aircraft carrier a couple degrees at a time.

01:00:14.000 And so I try and stay, especially on the Close or tough votes on.

01:00:19.000 I try and, you know, reach back out and get their input because I want, I remember that my title up there, outside of just being a congressman, is being a representative.

01:00:29.000 And I cannot represent them well if I don't know what they want.

01:00:32.000 And so, you know, that means a lot to me.

01:00:34.000 And it definitely, that specific one surprised me.

01:00:38.000 Yeah, you know, it's an interesting one, because I had a couple people, some of your colleagues even call me, what do you think?

01:00:42.000 And I go, listen, I see both sides of it.

01:00:44.000 And I think the American people did.

01:00:45.000 Like, there is something nice about, like, the sort of giving them the finger and blowing it all up.

01:00:51.000 But there's also consequences to that.

01:00:54.000 And so, you know, the consequences, you know, sort of like, Hey, let's put sanctions on Russia.

01:00:59.000 That's great. Guess what? They go over, they avoid the sanctions by staying on their currency, effectively putting a nail in the coffin of the US petrodollar, which has allowed us to do all the things that we've done, which has allowed us to spend past our means.

01:01:15.000 They understood that the consequence of that one, yeah, you blow it up, but if you actually do default on some of these things, like that borrowing ability goes bye-bye.

01:01:24.000 The interest rate on the bonds that are out there and the $32 trillion that's outstanding goes through the roof.

01:01:32.000 A lot of things can go wrong really quickly that we don't necessarily control.

01:01:37.000 And so it's interesting to me when, you know, I love the idea in general of blowing it up, but then you get into the details of that and it's like, It's not that simple.

01:01:46.000 And they understood that better than most, certainly better than a lot of the pundits on TV who just wanted to say, the Republicans are being difficult.

01:01:54.000 No, no, no. The American populace, who those people despise, they think they're idiots. 1.00

01:01:59.000 They got it better than most, which was really interesting. 1.00

01:02:04.000 No, you're right. And that's why I choose, you know, you can listen to a lot of people up here, Don.

01:02:10.000 That's one thing that I'm sure that you saw when you were helping your dad out.

01:02:15.000 One thing I've seen running for Congress, there's no shortages of opinions and advice up here.

01:02:22.000 You better pick really wisely and smartly about who you're taking counsel from, who you're taking advice from.

01:02:29.000 And like I said earlier, show me your friends.

01:02:31.000 I'll show you your future.

01:02:33.000 I'm glad to be in the House Freedom Caucus.

01:02:35.000 I'm going to keep trying to put my shoulder to the wheel every single day and continue to be mentored and listen to men and women who have been there longer than me, are wiser than me, have more experience than me, and also humble myself and continually remind myself that I don't know There's a lot more that I don't know than I do know.

01:02:54.000 But like I said, I knew this wasn't an intelligence or experience thing necessarily.

01:03:02.000 This is a moral courage thing and men and women who are willing to go up there, stand in the gap, take the slings and the arrows, and go home if necessary for the American people.

01:03:13.000 I think that's huge.

01:03:16.000 I love that you're going back to your people also, not just going from a gut, not just being influenced by D.C., but what is the number one issue out there right now for your constituency?

01:03:26.000 What is the thing that you hear most from them?

01:03:29.000 Where's their biggest concern?

01:03:32.000 You know, and some of them are state issues, some of them are federal issues, but Arizonans are really concerned, as you know, about elections.

01:03:40.000 They're really concerned about elections.

01:03:42.000 They don't think that these are the freest, tightest, most secure elections that we've ever had.

01:03:48.000 I agree with them.

01:03:49.000 Because they're smart. Yeah, they also are very concerned, obviously, about the border.

01:03:55.000 And they're also, I think, as much concerned about the weaponization of our federal government, you know, the very government that's supposed to be protecting their God-given, unalienable rights actually being turned against them.

01:04:10.000 And they see it every day, whether you're talking about the EPA government, The ATF, FBI, etc.

01:04:18.000 They just know that it's not working the way it's supposed to work.

01:04:23.000 And so I think that's one of the only reasons they let a guy that looks like me and talks like me go up to the hill and represent him, Don.

01:04:31.000 I'm happy to do it.

01:04:32.000 But those are some of the big issues for my voters.

01:04:35.000 I think you also have the worldly experience for that.

01:04:38.000 I mean, you joined the military after 9-11.

01:04:41.000 You had some incredible people signing up to fight for the country.

01:04:45.000 I mean, when you see what's going on right now, are you concerned about the military recruiting?

01:04:52.000 And that a lot of the best candidates would no longer even consider or be interested in serving due to the direction.

01:05:00.000 I imagine a huge part of the patriotism that would be involved in going to serve your country and possibly die for your country is actually...

01:05:11.000 Believing in the things that are the issues, believing in the direction in which that country is going.

01:05:17.000 What do you see there right now?

01:05:19.000 I imagine when you were doing SEAL training, there wasn't a lot of drag queen story hour in the Navy. 0.90

01:05:26.000 And yet it's going on right now.

01:05:28.000 And it's amazing to me that the brightest minds in the military are not like, huh, maybe we should take it a different direction.

01:05:36.000 Instead, they're doubling down that we have drag influencers now doing recruitment It feels like they're perpetuating the problem, not solving it.

01:05:44.000 I completely agree.

01:05:45.000 I see it.

01:05:46.000 I'm definitely concerned about it.

01:05:49.000 I can tell you there was an incident probably about three months ago.

01:05:54.000 Several of us were in a briefing with some of the Navy's top leaders, and they were talking to us about China and how they're expanding and some of the things that they're doing with their Navy.

01:06:09.000 And how we need to, you know, counter and keep pace.

01:06:13.000 And there were three members of the Freedom Caucus in there.

01:06:17.000 All three of us, you know, two of us were actually former Navy individuals.

01:06:22.000 And three of us, you know, we all asked, Admiral, hey, we hear what you're saying, sir.

01:06:27.000 We understand that this is a real issue and could turn into a real problem in the future.

01:06:32.000 One of the things that we're concerned about, though, if we give you this money, if we appropriate this money that you're asking for, how do we know that it's not going to be used to continue some of these DEI programs, some of this You know, just wokeness that we see going on in the Department of Defense, in the military, in the Navy.

01:06:50.000 And he wouldn't even acknowledge it, Don.

01:06:53.000 He looked, you know, and when I took a run at him, he said, you know, his answer has come back to me was, I think, you know, diversity is a strength.

01:07:01.000 And so this guy, a very, very intelligent guy who wears the uniform, who has served his country for a long time.

01:07:08.000 And I can just tell these guys are wearing the rank that they are, many of them.

01:07:14.000 Because they're willing to drink the Kool-Aid.

01:07:16.000 They're willing to parrot the party line.

01:07:18.000 And it's sad to me.

01:07:20.000 And I don't blame young men and women for not wanting to go fight for these individuals who don't have the courage to stand up to this backwards narrative that is doing nothing and leadership that's doing nothing to increase the strength of our military and prepare us for the wars that are coming down the pipe.

01:07:41.000 You know, and it's just, it's terrifying, brother, because I've always been focused on, hey, the internal battles and struggles, because I know that a house divided cannot stand.

01:07:52.000 That's the number one threat, as far as I'm concerned, is, you know, what's going on within our own house.

01:07:58.000 But that being said... A hundred percent.

01:07:59.000 A hundred percent.

01:08:01.000 Like, I'm far more concerned that whatever's going to take down the republic is going to come from within.

01:08:07.000 It's not Vladimir Putin...

01:08:09.000 Or an Ayatollah in Iran. 0.99

01:08:12.000 It's these lunatics in charge that are willing to say that. 0.76

01:08:15.000 I'm sure for you, as a SEAL, when you're fighting battles, you didn't want your air cover. 0.95

01:08:21.000 The guys either flying the helicopters or planes or artillery decided on a diversity quota.

01:08:28.000 You wanted the best guy there so they don't drop a bomb on your head.

01:08:30.000 So they take out the bad guys, not allies.

01:08:33.000 And yet, that seems like it's a totally foreign concept right now.

01:08:38.000 No, it is. And you brought up these drag shows and whatnot. 0.99

01:08:42.000 And it's like, what? How does that make us a better force?

01:08:45.000 How is that going to help us fight against China?

01:08:49.000 It's not. And it's just, I mean, it's like this backwards world we live in. 0.99

01:08:54.000 But that's why I said, Don, early in the program, I do see A lot of this having spiritual foundations.

01:09:01.000 A lot of the headlines we see, in my opinion, are a byproduct of this good versus evil fight that has been here since the beginning of time.

01:09:12.000 It will continue to be here.

01:09:13.000 And that's why I call on Americans again to continue to pray for this country, pray for our representatives, our leaders, and pray that God will bless this country, even though I know that, you know, I think you could make an argument that, you know, we don't deserve it. Listen, seeing where we are, seeing the priorities of a good part of the country, certainly a vast majority of our leadership, yeah, it's hard to justify.

01:09:44.000 I mean, I imagine that's reflected in the recruitment numbers and stuff.

01:09:48.000 So maybe... As a last question to kind of finish up, what does America First mean to you?

01:09:55.000 And then how do you combine that to assess the state of the 2024 race so that we can finally maybe fix these things?

01:10:04.000 You know, American first is the plumb line, right? 0.87

01:10:07.000 Carpenters use them to make sure that they're going straight, make sure that they have a goal that they can actually not get sidetracked from.

01:10:15.000 I think that it has to be the plumb line that we have right now because like you and I just discussed, I don't think that if America works in cohesion and unity and utilizes The resources, the talents, the individuals that we have, I don't think anybody can stop us.

01:10:32.000 I think we can continue to be, you know, a beacon of hope, prosperity, and even resources for the rest of the world.

01:10:39.000 As far as the 2024, you know, election, you know, election, I endorsed your dad.

01:10:46.000 I think it was day one, maybe day two.

01:10:49.000 I can't even remember.

01:10:51.000 Early adapter? If it was day two, Eli, what took you that long?

01:10:56.000 Come on, man. What's going on?

01:10:57.000 I know. I know.

01:10:58.000 I know exactly. And the reason I did, Don, was – and it's not – I don't think Ron – I think Ron DeSantis, you know, I think he's a good guy.

01:11:06.000 I think he's done a lot of good things in Florida.

01:11:08.000 I'm not going to sit here and beat him up.

01:11:09.000 But the reason that I endorsed your old man was because I think we need the strongest

01:11:16.000 dude out there to come back and lead.

01:11:19.000 In times of chaos, you want ironclad, just tough leadership because that's what it's

01:11:25.000 going to take.

01:11:26.000 When you look at what any leader that steps into that office is going to be up against,

01:11:31.000 it's like nothing any human being has ever experienced before, from the adversity you're

01:11:36.000 going to face from the Democrat party, from the administrative state, the DOJ, and even

01:11:43.000 individuals within our own party who just want the status quo.

01:11:47.000 That's just one ring of it.

01:11:48.000 Then you look at the ring from the globalists on the outside, dictators all around the world

01:11:54.000 who don't want a Donald Trump in office.

01:11:56.000 They don't want a strong American leader.

01:11:57.000 Matter of fact, they don't even want us to have a constitution or a bill of rights.

01:12:02.000 Many of these people don't want borders.

01:12:04.000 They don't want American individuality at all.

01:12:07.000 And so the amount that that leader, whoever it ends up being, is going to face is tremendous.

01:12:13.000 You need somebody who has the strength to stand up to all of it, which your old man has already proved that he does, And has a track record of actually executing on the promises that he made, which is very rare up in that town.

01:12:30.000 Well, I appreciate it, Ben, and really appreciate what you're doing there.

01:12:35.000 You know, one of the freshmen really making a difference, not just towing the line, not just waiting for, you know, seven terms to be able to speak up.

01:12:44.000 And, you know, it's all about action.

01:12:46.000 Listen, words are cheap.

01:12:48.000 Talk is cheap. Action is very telling.

01:12:50.000 So I just appreciate everything that you're doing down there, guys.

01:12:53.000 Guys, make sure to go check out Eli on social.

01:12:55.000 Watch what he's doing. Support candidates like this.

01:12:59.000 Really appreciate it. Also, like, share, subscribe to this podcast so that others can see what they're clearly not going to get from big tech, what they're clearly not going to get from the mainstream media.

01:13:10.000 Also, guys, don't forget to check out our Brave sponsors.

01:13:14.000 Brave because it ain't easy to sponsor a show like this because they're going to face the same scrutiny and nonsense that we face on a daily basis.

01:13:22.000 So go out there. Check out GoldCo.

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Triggered - Donald Trump Jr - July 10, 2023

Rep Eli Crane Stands up to the Swamp, Plus Why He Says it's Time to Impeach Biden | TRIGGERED Ep. 47

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