00:18:28.760He said, well, that sounds like a good deal.
00:18:30.580I don't have anything to lose on that, do I?
00:18:32.200So he hired him, even though he didn't have a college degree.
00:18:34.880He came in and was a monster salesman.
00:18:38.960Ended up making so much money that within two years,
00:18:42.600he bought the company that had hired him wow and he ends up building this company
00:18:49.980into a massive multi-billion dollar health care company in georgia he's one of the biggest
00:18:58.160employers in the state of georgia incredibly successful businessman self-built from nothing
00:19:05.580yeah he now has been an incredibly generous philanthropist he's decided look i don't want
00:19:11.860to take he's worth several billion dollars he's very successful and he said i don't want to take
00:19:16.440this money with me so i'm going to give it away and make a difference to the world around me
00:19:20.680so for example on foster care he has given millions to help foster kids in georgia so so
00:19:28.740kids that are in foster care he'll come in and say you know what i'm going to pay for you to
00:19:32.800college i'm going to pay for your expenses i'm going to help you get started because he's been
00:19:37.240there, look, so many foster kids, they've been subject to horrible conditions. They've often
00:19:43.440been subject to abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse. They're the kids that it seems sometimes
00:19:50.300society gives up on. And he understands firsthand, look, you can be in that circumstance and you can
00:19:57.060make something of your life and make a real difference. And so he's invested in these kids
00:20:02.020that have every disadvantage. I'm going to help them achieve their dreams. He's also funded
00:20:09.100Christian ministries all over the world. For example, he's funded a Christian orphanage in
00:20:15.620China that my understanding is it's the lone orphanage that's able to teach Christianity
00:20:21.260in China. So he's putting, look, you and I are both Christians. It's one thing to have empty
00:20:28.200words. It's one thing to say you have faith. It's another thing to put your faith to action,
00:20:34.420to put, to invest and make a difference. And Rick decided, okay, I'm going to run for governor
00:20:40.120because I think I can make a difference. And I looked at his record and I said,
00:20:45.820this guy has an incredible, I mean, an inspirational life story, and I think he can win.
00:20:51.820And so I endorsed him. I went down, we did a big rally in Georgia, and I'm going to give you some
00:20:57.220fun uh behind the scenes story so as we're coming in i fly down there on monday we're going to the
00:21:03.320rally and trump had endorsed his opponent this guy named burt jones i i don't know burt jones
00:21:09.600i'm sure he's a perfectly decent and fine man he's the lieutenant he endorsed early right like
00:21:14.260so people understand yes he endorsed early before rick was in the race and so i understand look
00:21:20.880that's a key point yeah he went for who he thought at the time the other guy wasn't in yet
00:21:25.100Yeah, Jones was lieutenant governor. He was running. And so Trump endorsed early. Rick wasn't in the race. So so Rick was actually at the White House, a big fundraiser this weekend. And, you know, Trump was saying, hey, this guy's great. He's awesome. He's incredibly successful. I didn't know him, but he was like praising him vocally at this fundraiser this weekend.
00:21:45.180As I'm flying in, I'm headed to the event and we get the news that Donald Trump Jr. is going to endorse Rick Jackson.
00:21:57.060Now, that's a big deal because the main argument against him, what everyone was pounding him is that Trump, Trump the dad, had endorsed his opponent.
00:22:06.060You know, tons of campaign ads saying Trump picked the other guy.
00:22:09.400Then we get the news that Don Jr. was going to endorse Rick.
00:22:12.420And it was actually fun. As I'm headed to the event, the campaign said, hey, do you want to announce Don Jr.'s endorsement?
00:22:20.680And listen, Don Jr.'s a buddy of mine. I know him very well.
00:22:24.760And I was like, yeah, sure. And I said, look, I just want to help your campaign.
00:22:28.620So if it's helpful for me to announce it, I'm happy to. If it's not like it's your call, but I'm more than happy to.
00:22:34.160and uh they ended up deciding that don jr the actual endorsement statement was not going to
00:22:42.240use the word endorse but was going to praise him as like he's a great patriot i know him well and
00:22:47.500he's fantastic and he's america first and the timing ended up working out i said sure i'm happy
00:22:54.220to announce it but then they didn't end up approving the statement for another two hours
00:22:58.980and it just look it takes some time when you're right before an election and you're trying to
00:23:02.480decide going through a political operation it takes some time to approve it so i said i'm happy
00:23:06.880to announce it it wasn't finalized so i did not in fact announce it from the stage but right after i
00:23:13.920left uh don jr tweeted out the support and and tonight uh rick ended up winning uh the margin
00:23:23.000as of tonight 99 is in is 52.6 to 47.4 it's a great victory and and i think so one of the cases
00:23:35.120i made to the voters we had a big big rally in georgia and i said listen that rick's life story
00:23:40.920is incredible he's campaigning on a promise number one to immediately freeze property taxes in
00:23:48.700georgia that's big number two on income taxes to cut the georgia income tax in half and ultimately
00:23:57.940to work to abolish it all together and what rick has said is he said if he doesn't succeed in
00:24:04.060freezing the property taxes and cutting the income tax in half he will not run for re-election he
00:24:09.360will serve one term if he fails in that he's not running for re-election and i made a point to
00:24:14.020everyone i said listen i've got a crazy secret here rick is rich like everyone laughs i'm like
00:24:22.260yeah look this is an incredibly successful dude he could play golf every day he could sit on the
00:24:28.400beach and drink daiquiris and live a life of leisure and i said listen to run for office0.97
00:24:34.040you got to be nuts you got to be certified crazy yeah you get attacked constantly there's so much0.86
00:24:41.220And Rick is doing this. The case I made, I said Rick is doing this because he believes in Georgia.0.98
00:24:47.000He believes in the country. He believes he could make a difference.
00:24:49.940And listen, Georgia used to be bright red. The unfortunate reality is it's purple now.
00:24:57.720And the Democrats right now, the Democrats are leading in the polling for the governor's race.
00:25:02.880I think Rick will win. I think Rick will keep Georgia red.
00:25:06.420And I also made the case, I said, listen, by y'all coming out and voting for Rick, we're going to help John Ossoff get a job in the private sector.
00:25:16.260John Ossoff is the very liberal Democrat who represents Georgia.
00:25:20.360He may be the senator who is most out of step with the values of his state because he's a very liberal Democrat.
00:25:29.480But he's got a ton of money, and he's right now leading in the polls a lot.
00:25:33.640And I said, listen, if you want to win the Senate seat here in Georgia, the best way to do it is have a gubernatorial candidate who's running an incredible campaign, who's mobilizing voters across the state, who, by the way, I mean, Rick has put massive millions and millions of dollars in the campaign.
00:25:52.340So he's going to he's funding it himself. And if you end up with a gubernatorial candidate at the top of the race, who's turning out a ton of voters, that's how you have a chance to win the Senate race also.
00:26:06.140And I got to say, I'm gratified that the voters of Georgia agreed and we had a big, big win in Georgia tonight.
00:26:13.420As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.
00:28:59.900We'll also travel back to 1926 to witness Richard Byrd's historic flight over the North Pole.
00:29:07.340These are more than just stories of combat.
00:29:10.160They are testaments to leadership, community, and the human spirit.
00:29:14.660Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:29:21.880I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.
00:29:26.260All right, so Senator, let's move into this is something you've been really working on.
00:29:30.320This is the most like jock bro I've ever seen you since I've known you,
00:29:33.780and it's really been fun for me because usually you're geeking out over like Supreme Court stuff.
00:29:38.440I feel like our friendship has moved to another level because now we've got to talk sports and NIL so much.
00:29:44.580And the college sports bill, it is now reality.
00:29:48.040Let's walk us through how this was done and what it means for sports fans and saving many sports that were getting canceled around the country that were non-money-making sports.
00:29:57.040So this week was a very, very big week for college sports because the Senate Commerce Committee, which I chair, passed my legislation to protect college sports.
00:30:08.220Senate, and it passed with a big bipartisan vote. The vote was 19 to 9. So we got a bunch of
00:30:14.360Republicans, a bunch of Democrats. We got more than two-thirds of the committee voted for it.
00:30:18.240That's really important. It has momentum now going to the Senate floor. I think it's going to pass
00:30:23.080on the Senate with a big bipartisan vote, and it's going to go to the House, and President Trump
00:30:27.360is eager to sign it. Now, what's going on in college sports? Listen, college sports
00:30:32.800is in crisis right now uh every week you see another story about a program being canceled
00:30:39.480women's sports being canceled track and field being canceled olympic sports being canceled
00:30:43.660non-revenue sports tennis being canceled yeah and what is happening is is you've got total chaos
00:30:50.880with the transfer portal you've got athletes transferring two three four five times you have
00:30:56.340essentially no rules on eligibility uh they're all being decided by lawsuits it got so ludicrous
00:31:02.780You had the Brendan Sorsby case where even though he was gambling on his own games, you had a hometown judge say, no, he can still play anyway.
00:31:12.600Now, thankfully, Texas Tech backed away from that decision.
00:31:16.240I'm glad Tech made that decision to back away.
00:31:23.180You have people that are 26, 27 years old still playing college sports and 28-year-olds playing against 18-year-olds, which is not fair, not right.
00:31:32.780Um, and athletic programs, they're almost all losing millions of dollars.
00:31:41.520Many of them are losing tens of millions of dollars because the cost keeps spiraling out of control.
00:31:47.300And, and then if Congress doesn't act, I think five years from now, there will be 30 to 50 competitive college football programs, basically a mini NFL.
00:33:17.060So if you think about college sports, it is all the other sports,
00:33:21.600the majority of them are not revenue making sports football barely is on most campuses
00:33:26.320sometimes and depending on what school you're at if you're at a basketball school then that will be
00:33:30.880your revenue sport outside that almost all the others lose money yep if you don't fix this
00:33:36.280everything goes away and then many of those football programs that one percent of the student
00:33:41.420body or or basketball which is i mean most basketball teams they have i think scholarships
00:33:45.720i want to say it's nine in d1 maybe it's 11 scholarships i can't remember it always they're
00:33:50.040always moving it around but for men like that's not many people folks if you don't fix this you
00:33:55.500have a university that now has doesn't even have an identity in sports yeah look look my philosophy
00:34:00.520in addressing this was was number one i didn't worry too much about the the powerhouse programs
00:34:06.100the big big programs listen in texas university of texas and texas a&m i love them both i go to
00:34:12.440games every year i cheer them on they're incredible institutions to be honest ut and a&m they are
00:34:18.440going to survive and thrive regardless of what happens uh they would survive the mini nfl and
00:34:25.320they'd continue to win national championships uh but i worried about all of the other programs to
00:34:31.240be honest if we don't act i'm not convinced any other program in texas survives and and if you
00:34:36.420can imagine a texas without smu without tcu without baylor without texas tech without rice with without
00:34:43.480University of Houston, that would be a tragic outcome. And so my focus was on maintaining the
00:34:53.340entire ecosystem. But secondly, my focus was not on the superstar athletes. If you're Michael
00:34:58.960Jordan, if you're Arch Manning, you know what? You're going to get millions of dollars. You're
00:35:03.500going to be on the Wheaties box. You're going to do great. 99% of college athletes will never play
00:35:11.480in the NFL will never play in the NBA but yet athletics is their ticket to college look it was
00:35:18.760for you playing tennis is how you went to Ole Miss and I'll be honest with you I'm not sure I would
00:35:23.420have gone to college if it wasn't for having the scholarship which came through tennis to pay for
00:35:30.480college my family did not have a lot of means and my dad was the first to admit and it was like if
00:35:35.460you want to go to college if you want to go to good school you're gonna have to get there and
00:35:40.220earn it sports was my way in it wasn't going to be the academic road and that's another avenue you
00:35:45.040can go but but sports was and for many of my friends it was a savior to a better life afterwards
00:35:51.160a better member of society by the way we pay a lot more taxes when you're successful so it's a
00:35:56.660great reinvestment in the country from that standpoint as well you want your kids to go to
00:36:00.100college but for so many i had roommates they would have never gotten into college if it wasn't and
00:36:05.860gotten their family many i had two different roommates they were the first kid in their
00:36:09.660families to ever go to college it completely changed the trajectory of their family tree
00:36:13.840and it was because of athletics well and and some people have said well why is congress getting
00:36:19.740involved in college sports and and the reason is it's federal laws that congress has passed
00:36:25.060that created this chaos it's why all of the rules got thrown out because they're being sued under
00:36:30.440existing federal law and every rule keeps getting thrown out and so congress created the problem
00:36:36.380which means only congress can fix it because only congress can can can alter that federal law
00:36:41.720and and if we don't act we can see the crisis unfolding around us and and and for millions of
00:36:48.440young men and women many college athletes are coming from economically disadvantaged
00:36:53.600circumstances many of them are african-american or hispanic uh over years and decades we're talking
00:36:59.780about millions of young men and women who this may be their only path to go to a going to college
00:37:05.400and getting an education, but B, learning the disciplines that come from being in organized
00:37:10.860sports of teamwork and hard work and discipline and sportsmanship. And look, I didn't have the
00:37:17.220skills to play college sports. I would have loved to, but I played high school sports and it was,
00:37:20.660you know, being on, I played basketball and football and soccer and being on a team in high
00:37:24.220school. Those are really important skills. And it's amazing. I actually asked this at our Senate
00:37:29.380Republican lunch. I said, all right, how many people around this table played college sports?
00:37:34.220And I would say about 20 percent of the Republicans in the Senate raised their hand and they were college athletes.
00:37:40.520I mean, that's true. And that's true. You find that with CEOs.
00:37:43.260You find that the discipline and nobody in the Senate played professional sports, but the discipline of and the skills you learn set you up for success in life.
00:37:55.660Let me ask you one final question on this. Who was behind this that surprised you the most?
00:37:59.840Nick Saban was one that I was excited to see, that the African-American University of Memphis, my hometown football coach, he got behind this and had some great testimony there in front of you guys.
00:38:09.660I was proud of that as well. But who shocked you that was behind this?
00:38:13.040So the support we've seen has been overwhelming.
00:38:15.560Twenty four conferences have endorsed this bill.
00:38:19.220They represent those conferences, represent over 200 different colleges and universities are enthusiastically supporting the bill.
00:38:27.060The NFL endorsed the bill. The NBA endorsed the bill. Major League Baseball endorsed the bill. The NFL Players Association endorsed the bill. The NBA Players Association endorsed the bill. The College Football Association endorsed the bill. We've had Nick Saban has endorsed it. John Calipari led over 100 college coaches who endorsed the bill.
00:38:49.060The U.S. Olympic Committee endorsed the bill.