00:09:02.400Look, I'm just glad that Trump didn't choose that moment to test his theory that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any support.
00:10:04.100So I tried to call and, you know, got home, because I get home on Thursdays in time to, like, skid in to, like, pick up the kids from practice or go to a game or, like, right there in time if we get out of here on time.
00:10:20.300So then I sent a text back and just said, tried to call you, and I'll send you, I'm headed, you know, out with the kids, but I'll try it tomorrow.
00:10:41.360I'm like, you rarely hear, and I'm like, oh, that's what this is.
00:10:45.160And so I called back, and he just said, you know, Speaker Johnson and I have been talking, and we get to select somebody to give the rebuttal to the State of the Union.
00:10:57.560And he said, and, you know, and we want it to be you.
00:11:03.100And, y'all, I really did not know what to say.
00:11:07.120First off, I kind of sort of thought I was being punked.
00:11:54.380And so I just told him how honored I was, how humbled I would be, you know, that, but ask him, you know, could I have some time to think about it?
00:12:01.760And he said, you know, absolutely, that that, that that was fine.
00:12:06.360And then I got a call from Speaker Johnson.
00:12:09.440And Speaker Johnson and I don't, have not had an opportunity to really get to know each other.
00:12:13.300But I had met him previously and met his wife.
00:12:18.900And the funny thing is, he's like, now don't worry about, you know, people are going to tell you horror stories about all of these things that happened and, and people's, people's career being blown up over it.
00:12:30.440And he's like, he's like, it'll be fine.
00:12:33.160And he was, he was so kind, and just, and really welcoming.
00:12:37.780And, you know, I think it was a great conversation.
00:12:40.420But the irony that he's like, don't you worry, like that, that, that's not.
00:12:44.280But, and so talk to both of them, and obviously, then finally accepted doing it, but still kind of thought, is this even for real?
00:12:54.480I mean, I haven't even given a floor speech yet, you know, right, right at the Senate yet, but was excited.
00:13:00.840And particularly, as, as you mentioned earlier, being, you know, the only Republican female with school age kids, and kind of bringing that like next generation voice.
00:13:10.840I mean, you and I were just talking about our, our, you know, kind of what it's like to be parents and doing this and all of that.
00:13:18.360And so, bringing that voice, and particularly, you know, that of, of conservative women to the table, it was an honor to be chosen, but seriously, an out-of-body experience.
00:13:30.520So, and a couple of things Katie referenced to give some background.
00:13:33.440Like, number one, there's a tradition in the Senate that, that freshman senators wait a reasonable period of time before giving their first speech.
00:13:41.120And the first speech on the floor is called the maiden speech, and you wait for it.
00:13:44.440And it's, so, like, and it's just sort of, you know, it's an old institution, and it's kind of how it operates.
00:13:50.380But, also, like, the response to the State of the Union, it's chosen by the Republican leader in the Senate and the Republican leader in the House.
00:13:57.860And the two of them, they often alternate on it, but they get to pick who it is.
00:14:02.940And, you know, Katie, you and I were just talking a few minutes ago.
00:14:06.240I mean, there are maybe 30 people on planet Earth.
00:14:15.780I don't know what that experience is like.
00:14:18.100And so, you have the ability to share with verdict listeners.
00:14:21.600All right, so you get a call from Mitch McConnell.
00:14:23.620They say, hey, will you do the response?
00:14:25.660You've got, you said, a couple of weeks to prepare.
00:14:27.660Like, how was preparing and kind of what did you go through to say, okay, what am I going to say, and what do I want the message to do?
00:14:32.620And so, yeah, and on your point about the maiden speech, like, the irony is, is like, I have, you know, I'm kind of just trying to keep my head down.
00:14:42.160And now that maiden speech is going to seem like nothing, right?
00:14:46.120But, yeah, so you've got a little bit, a little bit of time to prepare, but you also don't know what to prepare for.
00:14:51.420And to be honest with you, I never thought in a million years he was going to come out there and give this type of, like, yelling and so just vindictive, particularly towards Trump.
00:15:04.720You know, it seemed like a full-fledged campaign speech.
00:15:09.580And I expected a little bit more of a statesman to be up there and to really kind of sort of methodically be going through.
00:15:16.020Now, I thought we would disagree of what his version of the State of the Union was, but I didn't think he would be, you know, I didn't anticipate the posture that he had.
00:15:26.220But so you're going through, you're kind of sort of saying, okay, I know I'm going to want to talk about the border.
00:15:29.880I know he's probably not going to talk about it.
00:15:32.300Irony there, like, it took him 40 minutes to get into the border.
00:15:37.260So you're kind of sort of getting those facts together and then seeing, like, how can you sensitize those in a way that the public can grab them?
00:15:45.800Because there's so much to say, right?
00:15:48.260Well, and you told a story about a woman being sex trafficked, and the media has gone crazy, quote, fact-checking you.
00:15:55.980The Washington Post gave you four Pinocchios.
00:15:58.740The interesting thing for me has been that none of the media has covered the fact that under Trump in 2018, that human trafficking was a $500 million business.
00:16:10.380It is now, under Joe Biden, a $13 billion business.
00:16:16.660Nobody, they want to silence a conservative woman for speaking out on this topic.
00:16:22.040They don't want to bring light and help the women who are actually being trafficked.
00:17:05.000They're interested in burying the truth about Joe Biden and his border crisis.
00:17:09.260But all they want to do is, they have an agenda.
00:17:14.080And if they really wanted to know those stories, they would have taken time to know the facts.
00:17:17.560And I think when all the facts come out, people will see the truth.
00:17:21.080But, you know, so here you are, like, preparing for this, you know, trying to figure out what is he going to say and how are you going to piece it together?
00:17:28.940And, you know, and how can you make things stick?
00:18:35.200So, you're trying to make those kind of in the last minute.
00:18:38.960And I do think, you know, there's also interesting things.
00:18:42.840Like, we were making edits, like, when he ended up saying, you know, Lakin Riley's name, but said Lincoln Riley.
00:18:50.540And, you know, you're kind of thinking, okay, well, let's not go there.
00:18:53.660But, like, let's make sure that we make him own that.
00:18:57.140Because particularly on that, you know, I wanted to get into parole issue because, you know, there's been a lot of talk.
00:19:03.600And I figured he was going to blame Republicans for, you know, failed this or failed that when it comes to the border.
00:19:09.840And I wanted to really bring light to the fact that he wouldn't give up the tools that he was using to abuse the entire, quote, you know, border policies that he had.
00:19:22.940Like, you know, the presidential parole that he's been using.
00:19:26.180So, you have Obama and Trump who paroled about 5,600 people on average a year using this presidential parole authority.
00:19:34.020He has these entire programs where he's paroling on average about a million people a year, y'all.
00:19:39.100And Lakin Riley's murderer was paroled into the nation under his presidential parole authority.
00:19:46.940I mean, it was a choice of his, which I also have found interesting because I actually, you know, really accented that word.
00:19:53.280Like, that he chose to let into the country, you know, to parole into the country.
00:19:58.640And they've taken no issue with that because they know that it's his policies that are causing these things.
00:20:03.620So, you're just trying to kind of sort of figure out how do we pack a punch in here in a short amount of time and respond to some of the things he said in a meaningful way.
00:20:12.680So, look, I will say historically, the media has had two attacks on Republicans.
00:20:18.380That a Republican is either stupid or evil.
00:20:22.260And by the way, history shows stupid is the much better attack.
00:20:26.200So, in the media's telling, Ronald Reagan was stupid.
00:26:50.860I mean, he went out with the kids to, like, watch it from another place.
00:26:53.260And then he came back in, which actually was one of his favorite things about Saturday Night Live is that Scarlett Johansson was like, my husband, Wesley.